ROLL NUMBER to 56263
Alternatively, candidates can also log in to bseap.org, manabadi.com to check their results.
A total of 6,57,595 candidates appeared for the AP SSC examination held in the months of March and April this year. The exam was conducted at 3,8082 exam centres spread across 13 districts across the state.
Candidates who are awaiting their SSC Result should take the result as the first step in their lifelong quest for knowledge. While good marks in the exam will help them select the study stream of their choice, one should not feel disillusioned if the results are not to expectations.
There are many other avenues waiting for you, provided you are willing to toil to achieve your dreams in life.
Established in the year 1953, the Board of Secondary Education of Andhra Pradesh is an autonomous body which regulates and supervises the system of Secondary education across the state.
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination Result 2016 will be available shortly on the Board of Secondary Education of Andhra Pradesh (BSEAP) official website bseap.org and manabadi.com
AP SSC Results 2016 is eagerly awaited by the 6,57,595 candidates who sat for the examination this year. The Matric result is crucial for students as a good showing will ensure that they get select a study stream of choice in +12 level, leading to them getting to get into a college of their choice after two years.
The students had an anxious wait for their SSC Result as earlier there were reports that that the declaration of the result may get delayed by some time due to a technical glitch, however, the board later clarified that the results will be declared on May 10 at 11 am.
Step by step procedure to check AP SSC 10 Results 2016
Log on to the official website of Andhra Pradesh State Board Locate AP SSC Class 10th Result 2016 tab and click on it Enter details like roll number, Date of Birth and other info in respective fields Click on Submit button to get results Take a printout
How to Check AP SSC (Matric) Result via SMS
Last year's result
The AP SSC results were declared on May 20 last year. The results were quite encouraging as 91.15% boys and 91.75% girls had successfully cleared the examination. The overall pass percentage was 91.42%. Among the district, Kadapa came first with 98.54% pass percentage.
About Board of Secondary Education of Andhra Pradesh
Established in 1953, the BSEAP is an autonomous body under the Andhra Pradesh government's Department of Education.
The board has been entrusted with the task of regulating and supervising the system of Secondary Education in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The BSEAP used to conduct examination across undivided Andhra Pradesh but after bifurcation and creation of Telangana, it control is limited to the 13 districts remaining in the truncated state of Andhra Pradesh.
The BSEAP devises the course of study, finalises the syllabus, conduct exams besides carrying other statutory tasks like granting recognitions to schools in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Gaya: Rakesh Ranjan Yadav alias Rocky Yadav, son of Bihar's JD(U) MLC Manorma Devi, was arrested in the wee hours on Tuesday for allegedly shooting dead a 20-year-old youth for overtaking his vehicle.
As per a media report, Manorma Devi finally cracked and led them to her son in the wee hours after being pressured by the Gaya police.
According to The Times of India, Yadav was hiding out in Mastpura village at his father Bindi Yadav's dairy farm.
The report said that the Special Investigation Team members led by City SP Awakash Kumar raided the AP Colony residence of the MLC.
They reportedly recovered many bottles of foreign liquor, among other things.
The Daily said that the police had made it clear to Manorma Devi that they had been given a free hand by the government.
At the same time, the Daily quoted police sources as saying that the MLC initially feigned ignorance about the whereabouts of her son but the cops told her that if not Rocky then it would have to be her.
The also pointed out to her that there was enough evidence of her harbouring a criminal (her son) and concealing evidence.
The JD(U) MLC yielded and got into a black Santro a little after two am on Tuesday and the cops, who left her house earlier, met her midway, as per the report.
Manorma Devi lead them to Mastpura village from where Rocky was arrested.
Meanwhile, the Bihar police today said that Rocky will be subjected to a speedy trial.
"SSP Gaya has been directed to conduct a speedy trial in the case. The investigation is still on and it will be completed within three weeks and charge-sheet will be filed within a month," Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Sunil Kumar told reporters, as per PTI.
Aditya Sachdeva was shot dead allegedly by Rocky for overtaking his vehicle near the police lines in Gaya district on Saturday night.
(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: Security was beefed up at Delhi University on Tuesday afead of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders' visit to the campus to check the authenticity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degree.
Heavy deployment of police personnel was seen at the campus as AAP leaders Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Ashish Khetan and Dilip K Pandey arrived at the university office to meet the vice-chancellor and verify PM Modi's degree.
However, the vice-chancellor reportedly refused to meet the leaders and asked them to visit the campus tomorrow saying the meeting can happen on Wednesday.
Earlier today, AAP senior leader Ashutosh tweeted, "Last week we had gone to DU to find out truth about Modi's degree but were denied any excess or information. Today we will go again. We hope Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley will also be there at DU to verify documents of Modi's BA degree."
Last week, AAP leaders had made a similar effort to check Modis degrees at Delhi University, but were reportedly told by the administration to contact the PMO for the evidence on Modis educational qualification.
The Delhi University had on Monday clarified that the PM's records have been maintained in DU and he cleared his BA exams from the University in 1978. He was awarded the degree in 1979.
DU also said that two different roll numbers were allotted to Modi in 1977 and 1978 and his name 'Narendra Kumar Damodar Das Mody', which was seen on a marksheet flashed by AAP leader Ashutosh on TV, was a spelling mistake.
Yesterday, BJP president Amit Shah flashed PM Modi's BA and MA degrees at a press conference and demanded an apology from AAP for raking up a false issue, the AAP hit back, claiming that the degrees displayed by the BJP president were fake.
New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice Chancellor M. Jagdeesh Kumar on Tuesday adjourned an academic council meeting after a group of teachers and students pressed their demand to discuss the high-level enquiry committee report related to February 9 incident, which was not part of the agenda.
"The Academic Council meeting today (Tuesday) was not allowed to proceed by a group of teachers and their student supporters who from the very beginning pressed their demand to discuss an issue that was not part of the agenda," the varsity said in a statement.
According to the statement, "a group of teachers sought to force upon the chairperson to take a decision by announcing revocation of the proctorial orders and also refused to the suggestion of the students meeting the Administrative Committee, set up for this purpose, and put forward their concerns".
"Hence the VC adjourned the meeting," it added.
The varsity alleged that when the vice chancellor proceeded toward his office from the venue, some students attempted to surround him by forming a human chain and prevent him from moving forward.
"Some students literally pulled his shirt and tried to pin him down. However, the VC, with the help of security staff, managed to reach his office," it said.
Meanwhile, one the other hand, Jawaharlal University Students Union vice president Shehla Rashid, in a statement, said: "We are distressed by the fact that no deferrence was shown by the chair to the opinions of the AC members, and the Chair adjourned the meeting abruptly and unreasonably."
Several students of the varsity are on an indefinite hunger strike since April 28, which has been joined by teachers.
The teachers and students are protesting against the punishments meted out to the students by the high-level committee over an event on February 9 during which anti-India slogans were allegedly raised.
Chandigarh: Notwithstanding the opposition's criticism, BJP General Secretary Anil Jain on Tuesday praised the Manohar Lal Khattar government for the "big achievement" of bringing under control widespread violence during the Jat quota stir within three days.
Asked if the government was able to take timely steps to control the situation, Jain claimed, "The government performed its duty. It summoned Central forces on time and a conspiracy to create divisions in the state police force was blunted."
Jain, in-charge of the party's Haryana affairs, said, "The violence started on February 19 and by February 22, it was brought under control."
The Haryana government has set up a committee under retired IPS officer Prakash Singh to inquire into the acts of "omission and commission" on part of
civil and police officers during the Jat quota agitation.
Thirty lives were lost during the protests. Large scale damage to property, both government and private, was caused, especially in Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonipat which formed the epicentre of the stir.
When asked who is responsible for the lives lost during the stir, Jain, who held a meeting with Haryana ministers and BJP MLAs to assess the performance and seek feedback of the government's functioning, said, "Those who pushed the state into violence and hatched a conspiracy."
"It all started from one place, one region. Never before, this kind of a conspiracy was hatched. Everyone knows, whose stronghold Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonipat are and whose advisors have been caught. Things have been exposed before the people, how a peaceful state was put on the boil and you can yourself draw the conclusion who is responsible for the lives lost," Jain said, apparently referring to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Jain hit out at former Haryana Chief Minister Hooda, who
has accused the BJP-led government in the state of following a policy of 'badla' (revenge) and has also charged the main opposition, INLD, of being "hand in glove" with the Khattar government for registration of a case in connection with the re-allotment of a plot to a firm in Panchkula in 2005.
The BJP leader said that if the need is felt, the case would be handed over to the CBI.
To another question, he said, it is not just Hooda, "anyone who has done wrong, will be punished as per law."
He took a dig at Hooda, saying when he was the chief minister of Haryana for 10 years, what stopped him from initiating a probe into the allotment of land to Devi Lal Trust in Chandigarh.
"It is not the question of A or B. Our government will probe any wrongdoing. But, we want to ask Hooda, what stopped him from conducting a probe all these years when he was the CM," Jain said.
The Haryana State Vigilance Bureau has registered a case of cheating and corruption against the then Chairman of HUDA, a post held by Hooda, and four ex-HUDA officials for allegedly re-alloting a plot to the firm in Panchkula.
Hooda had alleged that the BJP government had registered the case against him after Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Assembly (Abhay Singh Chautala) wrote a letter in this regard.
Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Soon, dead brains may be brought back to life - if the Multi-Modality Approach or ReAnima Project becomes successful.
As per reports, a team of doctors from India and the US, led by Indian scientist Dr Himanshu Bansal, are working on an ambitious project to infuse life into those deemed brain dead.
As part of the project, the team has been granted ethical permission to recruit 20 patients declared clinically dead from traumaic brain injury.
The team will perform the first stage of the trial named First In Human Neuro-Regeneration and Neuro-Reanimation at Anupam Hospital in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand India.
In the experiment, scientists will include a range of procedures and therapies which include injecting the brain with stem cells and a cocktail of peptides in a effort to revive the brains and brought back to life.
Dr Bansal, who works with Biotech companies Revita Life Sciences and Bioquark Inc, claimed that he had already had some success with two patients in the Gulf and Europe.
We are now trying to create a definitive study in 20 subjects and prove that the brain death is reversible. This will open the door for future research and especially for people who loose there dear ones suddenly, Dr Bansal was quoted as saying to Telegraph.
The peptides will be administered into the spinal cord - of those being kept alive solely through life support on a daily basis via a pump, with the stem cells given bi-weekly, over the course of a 6 week period.
The groundbreaking project represents the first trial of its kind, which is also another step towards the eventual reversal of death in our lifetime.
Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: After 46 years of her marriage and about 20 years after her menopause, 72-year-old Daljinder Kaur successfully delivered a healthy baby boy, Arman Singh, on April 19, 2016.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Daljinder Kaur and her 79-year-old husband, Mohinder Singh Gill's urge to have a child was fulfilled through the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF-test tube) technique, wherein the eggs and sperms are fertilised outside the womb, in a test tube.
Since 2013, the couple had been travelling from Amritsar in Punjab to Hisar in Haryana to ensure the success of the treatment, as reported.
In July last year, Kaur Kaur finally conceived after two failed IVF cycles.
Dr Anurag Bishnoi, embryologist and owner of the National Fertility and Test Tube Baby Centre in Hisar said that Daljinder Kaur came to him alone first in 2013, after reading about them in a paper, as reported.
Doctor found Kaurs medical reports to be normal and fit to conceive.
Dr Anurag Bishnoi said that they started work within two months in 2013 but the first attempt failed, which is normal. After six months, another attempt was made and that also didnt succeed. Finally, the third attempt was successful.
Doctors say it was most likely due to tubal blocks, as for the cause of infertility
This is the second case at the centre where a 70-year-old woman has delivered successfully through IVF.
The first case was of 70-yearold Rajo Devi in 2006, who had given birth to a baby girl.
Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: It's not cancer or any other chronic ailment that caused most deaths among Indian adolescents, but suicide, according to a latest global study.
The study by London-based Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Well-being reveals that suicide is the leading cause of death among youngsters aged 10-24 in India.
There were 62,960 deaths by suicide in 2013 in the age group of 10-24, and out of which 35,618 were aged between 20 and 24, says the report.
The report also names road accidents (41,168 deaths) and tuberculosis (32,171) as the other big killers.
According to the report, more than 28 lakh Indians in the 10-24 age group have suffered a loss of health because of depressive disorders.
Adolescents today face new challenges, including rising levels of obesity, mental health disorders and high unemployment, Dr Vikram Patel, professor of International Mental Health at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and among the expert researchers of the Lancet report, told an English daily.
As per Census 2011, there are 364.66 million youngsters in the 10-24 age group, making up 30.11 per cent of the countrys total population.
The World Health Otganization (WHO) estimates that roughly 36% of Indians are depressed.
Delhi: The Akash missile has the "potential" to become the "mainstay" of India defence in its category and Israeli missiles were not chosen over it, parliament was told on Tuesday.
To whether the army has decided to go for Israeli quick-reaction surface-to-air missile (QR-SAM) after rejecting further induction of the Akash missile, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the Rajya Sabha, in a written reply, that the Akash missile system falls in the Short Range Surface to Air Missile (SRSAM) category, which is separate from the OR-SAM.
He lso said that procurement of QRSAM is a separate multi-vendor case under the 'Buy Global' category and vendors from Israel are among the competing firms, but did not give any further details.
Media reports had said that the Army decided to go for Israeli QR-SAM to take on enemy fighters, helicopters and drones after it found that the Akash missile was not fast enough.
The minister also said that the Akash system was not considered by the Indian Navy as it is not suitable for shipborne use yet.
"The Akash System was not considered for induction by Indian Navy as its current version is not a stabilised system suitable for shipborne usage," Parrikar said.
"As the Akash system evolves through the process of continuous development, its current short-comings are bound to be addressed and the missile has the potential to become India's mainstay in the category of Short Range Surface to Air Missiles," he said.
The minister also said that the production of the missile needs to be ramped up to meet the demands of the air force and army.
"It is relevant to mention here that as soon as the Akash missile was successfully tested, the air force had dropped its plan to co-develop the missile through import of technology from France," he said.
The army signed a contract for procurement of two regiments of Akash in March, 2011.
New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi cancelled his two-day visit to Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which was to commence on Tuesday, a day after an anonymous letter threatening his life was received by the party.
However, this is not the reason behind cancellation of Rahul Gandhi's Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala visit.
In a series of tweets, the Congress vice president claimed that he is suffering from high fever.
Unfortunately I have been down with high fever since Sunday and the Doctor has advised rest for the next two days(1/3) Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) May 9, 2016
My apologies to the ppl of Puducherry, Tamil Nadu & Kerala for missing this opportunity of being with them on 10th &11th May as planned,'' said another tweet.
Shall keep everyone updated about the rescheduled visits, Rahul said in one of his tweets.
Rahul was scheduled to address a rally of the Congress-DMK alliance on Tuesday at Karaikal in Puducherry.
On Monday, top Congress leaders had met Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking adequate security to the party vice president following an anonymous letter threatening to attack Rahul and former union minister V Narayanasamy at an election meeting in Puducherry.
AICC General Secretary Narayanasamy had said in Puducherry that he had received an unsigned letter threatening to attack him and Rahul.
The Special Protection Group and the Intelligence Bureau were on Monday ordered by the government to take maximum precautions for Rahul Gandhis security in the wake of the threat letter.
Acting swiftly, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi directed the SPG, responsible for the protection of the Congress vice president, and the IB to take all necessary precautionary measures in this regard.
New Delhi: In a major development with regard to National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), the Centre on Tuesday moved the Supreme court saying that NEET should be conducted in 7 vernacular languages.
The Supreme Court has said that it 'will consider this'.
The Solicitor General mentioned before the court that NEET should also be conducted in Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Urdu as well.
The Centre's move has come following the Supreme Court's order in which the apex court refused to modify its April 28 order making NEET mandatory for admission to undergraduate medical courses across the country for the academic year 2016-2017.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected pleas of state governments and minority institutions to allow them to hold separate entrance exams for MBBS and BDS courses for the academic year 2016-17 saying only NEET provides for conducting such test for admission to these courses.
"Those who have not applied for AIPMT will be given opportunity to appear in NEET-II on July 24 and the combined result would be declared on August 17 so that the admission process can be completed by September 30. Around 6.5 lakh students took up the NEET-I test held on May 1," the Supreme Court had said in its order on Monday.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the progress of Aadhar and Direct Benefit Transfer programmes at a high level meeting yesterday, where he was informed about the progress made in Aadhar number generation, and seeding of official databases with Aadhar numbers to streamline the process of identification of beneficiaries, and to ensure proper targeting of benefits to the people.
In the course of the two hour meeting, the Prime Minister was informed that in 2015-16, an amount of over Rs. 61,000 crore was distributed to over 30 crore beneficiaries, using Direct Benefit Transfer. This includes over Rs. 25,000 crore in MGNREGS, and over Rs. 21,000 crore in PAHAL (for LPG).DBT has resulted in significant savings across welfare schemes.
It has also resulted in weeding out of duplicate beneficiaries.For instance, over 1.6 crore bogus ration cards have been deleted, resulting in savings of about Rs. 10,000 crore.Similarly, 3.5 crore duplicate beneficiaries were weeded out in the PAHAL scheme, resulting in savings of over Rs. 14,000 crore in 2014-15 alone.
In MGNREGS too, a saving of Rs. 3000 crore (roughly 10 per cent) has been estimated in 2015-16. Several States and Union Territories too have achieved significant savings through DBT.
The Prime Minister emphasized the importance of creating a platform that is error-free, and would ensure that the targeted beneficiaries receive their benefits in time.He also asked all concerned departments to ensure that as the new mechanisms are put in place, they do not result in causing inconvenience to any beneficiary.
The Prime Minister asked the officials to test their systems carefully before implementing them on a large scale.The Prime Minister was also informed of steps taken towards a unique identifier for NGOs. Over 71,000 NGOs are now registered with the NGO Darpan portal maintained by NITI Aayog.
New Delhi: Swatting away Sonia Gandhi's emotional response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi where she declared her unflinching devotion for India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday questioned the Congress chief's passionate declaration asking who was trying to take her citizenship away and also called on her to refrain from making statements that did not befit her post.
Speaking to ANI, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that her statement was completely unaccounted for and that she should have used words befitting her senior title.
"She is a coward by nature, so such strong words do not befit her. Why is she making such statements now? Who is taking away her citizenship? Whether she stays in ten janpath or tihar jail I can't say. But the fact remains that no one is driving her away from this country," Swamy said.
Asserting that 'escapism' was Sonia's forte, he added that she had absolutely no credibility and also has a long history of running away from India when faced with problems.
"In 1971 she ran away during the Bangladesh war with her children, then in 1977 she hid in the Italian embassy, in 1991 she put all her jewellery and precious belonging into a trunk put it on a plane to Singapore and deposited there. She has a history of running away when facing a crisis," Swamy said.
Hitting back at Prime Minister Modi for "taunting to shame her for her birth in Italy", onia Gandhi in an emotional speech during an election rally in Kerala yesterday said she would breathe her last in India and it was in this country where her ashes would mingle with those of her loved ones.
"But it is here in my country, India, that the blood of my loved ones is mingled. It is here that I will breathe my last and it is here my ashes will mingle with those of my loved ones," Sonia said at the end of her speech.
Saying that Prime Minister Modi can sink to whichever depths he wishes to challenge her integrity, Gandhi added, "He cannot take the truth away from my commitment and my love for India, my country. I cannot expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, to understand these feelings, but I know and I am sure that you will."
Gandhi's remarks came days after the Prime Minister made a cutting remark about her Italian origins and a Milan court verdict which found bribes were paid in India for a helicopter deal when the Congress was in power.
"I have no family in Italy. I have never been there," the Prime Minister said on Friday, stressing the verdict in Italy could not have been influenced by his government.
"I will die in India and my ashes will be immersed in India as the blood of my loved ones are mixed in this soil. I also know PM Modi will never understand my integrity, and him and the RSS will always abuse me," Sonia added.
Srinagar: Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has expressed unhappiness over Supreme Court order on National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET).
The Hurriyat hardliner said the apex court cannot ignore the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Geelani was very critical of top court's view. He said J&K has it sown Constitution and the court order has neglected the special status and the sensitivity towards the state.
The Hurriyat hawk's reaction comes a day after, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected pleas of state governments and minority institutions to allow them to hold separate entrance exams for MBBS and BDS courses for the academic year 2016-17 saying only NEET provides for conducting such test for admission to these courses.
The apex court put to rest all confusion by refusing to modify its April 28 order by which it had allowed Centre and CBSE to conduct a single common entrance test for admission to MBBS and BDS courses through NEET.
The top court had approved the schedule put before it by the Centre, CBSE and Medical Medical Council of India (MCI) for treating All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) fixed for May 1 as NEET-1. Those who have not applied for AIPMT will be given opportunity to appear in NEET-II on July 24 and the combined result would be declared on August 17 so that the admission process can be completed by September 30.
Around 6.5 lakh students took up the NEET-I test held on May 1.
New Delhi: The Delhi girl Tina Dabi, who topped the 2015 civil services examination, on Tuesday said she wanted to be an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the Haryana cadre as it was very challenging.
Expressing happiness, 22-year-old Tina, who graduated from Lady Shri Ram College said she wanted to be a role model for girls aspiring to clear UPSC at first attempt.
Dabi who topped the Civil Services exam said, I am very happy and feel very ecstatic, can't express in words.
Meanwhile, Tina's jubilant father said, he was both surprised and proud of his 22-year old daughter, who cleared the country's most prestigious exams in first attempt.
The first position was secured by Tina Dabi (roll no 0256747), followed by Aamir Ul Shari Khan Akthar (0058239) and Jasmeet Singh Sandhu (00105512) in second and third positions respectively.
A total of 1,078 candidates, including 499 in General category, 314 belonging to Other Backward Class, 176 from Scheduled Caste and 89 from Scheduled Tribe, have been recommended for appointment to various central government services, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said.
There are 172 other candidates in the waiting list.
The civil services examination is conducted by the UPSC annually in three stages-- preliminary,mains and interview-- to select candidates for the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.
New Delhi: The United States has asked India to put on "pause" the plan to launch commercial American satellites till the federal government gives a go ahead on mandatory technology exports, ISRO has told a parliamentary panel.
"For the launch of US-licensed satellites meant for non- commerical purposes from India, the US had enabled granting of export licenses upon signing of Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) in July 2009. The agreement was again renewed in 2014.
"For commercial satellites, we have got into a scenario where the American side is saying to hold it on pause. They are not agreeing with providing the necessary export clearance for the commercial satellite. This particular discussion is on hold for the last three Indo-US cooperation meeting," the then
Department of Space Secretary K Radhakrishnan told a Committee on Government Assurances (2015-16) on December 3, 2014.
The Committee today tabled its report before Lok Sabha.
To facilitate the launch of US-licensed satellites meant for commercial purpose in India, discussions were initiated to conclude Commerical Space Launch Agreement (CSLA), it said.
"Even after several rounds of discussions, before the visit of the US President to India in November 2010, both sides could not converge on a mutually agreeable draft. The discussions were focused mainly on definitions and clauses on subsidies, improper business practices, transparency, inducements, etc.
"In January 2011, the US proposed a pause in further discussion on the subject," the report quoted the former ISRO Secretary as saying.
"The last meeting on CLSA with US officials was held in October 2010 at Bangalore and there may not be any further discussion on the topic in near future," Radhakrishnan had said.
The Committee said considering the fact that bilateral ties have improved a lot in the recent times, the department should renew its efforts and "strategise" for negotiations with the US authorities for arriving at an agreement for launching commercial American satellites by ISRO at the earliest.
Kolkata: The West Bengal of Secondary Education (WBBSE) is scheduled to declare the Madhyamik (Class 10) Results 2016 on Tuesday i.e on May 10 at 10 AM.
The candidates can log on to these websites to check the results - wbresults.nic.in or wbbse.org
The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) is the state government of West Bengal's statutory examining authority for the Class 10 examination.
This year the state government took special measures in order to ensure a glitch-free exams.
In the year 2015, around 4 lakh students had appeared in the examination with a pass percentage of 81.80%.
Dhanbad: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday launched the anti-liquor campaign in Jharkhand here and came down heavily on the state government for allegedly setting up liquor shops in Jharkhand-Bihar border.
Kumar, who was addressing an anti-liquor meeting organized by Nari Shangarsh Morcha, Dhanbad at Town Hall alleged that since liquor has been banned in Bihar, Jharkhand government has been setting up liquor shops in neighboring districts of Bihar.
"...And this was in violation of Excise Act 2000 which bans sale of wine within three km radius of a border," Kumar said, adding the Jharkhand government has enhanced the minimum quota of liquor shops by 40-50 per cent in adjacent districts to Bihar ever since the ban was imposed.
Asserting the "Anti-liquor campaign is voice of 50 per cent population of (women) and no one can crush it now," Kumar said the campaign, which began in Bihar, has taken momentum and would now spread to other parts of the country.
Kumar said the campaign would continue and whoever would call him from anywhere he would squeeze some time and go there to narrate success story of Bihar.
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (P) Babu Lal Marandi was present there and shared dais with Nitish Kumar.
Taking a dig at Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das over his comment that the state would adopt the Gujarat model not Bihar model, Nitish said that he (Raghubar Das) must follow Gujarat model which had banned liquor sale following creation of state.
"Ban on liquor is Gandhiji model and that is why he (Nitish ) now adopts it on the centenary year of Gandhiji's Champaran Satyagraha," he said.
Nitish Kumar also refuted the claim of some Jharkhand ministers that tribals are against ban of liquor.
"Tribal people too are in favour of complete on liquor as several families have been ruined from liquor. So now they are coming out against it in public," he said.
Kumar, who came here from Bokaro amid tight security, faced a slogan-shouting crowd which ranted 'Nitish kumar Murdabad', mostly women, when he did not initially meet them as announced earlier.
Later, he interacted with them.
Ramgarh (Jharkhand): All India Manji Pangana Mahal (AIMPM), a national Santhal tribe outfit, here today staged a sit-in protest demanding death penalty for the killer of a B.Ed student who was shot dead outside her college last week.
31-year-old Sonali Murmu, a married Santhal women, was shot dead outside her college and her hand severed in front of the institute's campus on May 4.
Addressing the protest gathering at Subhash Chowk here, District Convener of the tribal outfit AIMPM Babulal Hembrom said the killer of Murmu should be "arrested and hanged".
Hembrom said the government has been claiming that initiatives were taken for women empowerment but a poor tribal woman was killed in broad day light outside her college. The incident projects the true picture of women empowerment initiatives in the state, he added.
According to police, Murmu was allegedly being harassed by one Suken Mandal of Dumka for long who had even threatened her after marriage.
Prima facie, the killing appeared to be Mandal's handiwork as he was in love with her, Superintendent of Police, M Tamilvanan, had said.
A number of Santhal men and women joined the protest today in front of the statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and demanded immediate arrest of the culprit and capital punishment.
The protest was supported by various Left parties.
Thiruvananthapuram: Twenty-nine people belonging to six families from Kerala and three from Tamil Nadu will reach Kerala on May 12 after evacuation from Libya, a senior official said on Tuesday.
"These families includes infants. They will travel from Tripoli to Istanbul and will land in Kochi via Dubai at 8.30 a.m. on Thursday," the official posted in the Kerala Chief Minister's office told IANS.
Several of those evacuated were working in Zawiya Hospital in Libya's Sabratha city.
After the death of a Kerala nurse and her son in shelling at their house in Sabratha in March, relatives of Keralites working in Libya had been demanding their quick evacuation.
Meanwhile, the Kerala government appreciated the support from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's office for the evacuation.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala HSC (Plus Two) Result 2016 and Kerala HSE Result 2016 will be declared on the following websites keralaresults.nic.in, vhse.kerala.gov.in, kerala.gov.in, results.itschool.gov.in, dhsekerala.gov.in, examresults.kerala.gov.in,prd.kerala.gov.in, results.nic.in,educationkerala.gov.in at 3 pm on May 10 (Tuesday).
The DHSE Kerala Class 12 results will be published on the above-mentioned websites as soon as Chief Secretary SM Vijayanand will hand it over handing it over to Additional Chief Secretary of General Education department VS Senthil at the state secretariat.
Candidates who appeared for DHSE Kerala Plus Two Arts, Kerala Plus Two Science and Kerala Plus Two Commerce examinations will get to check their results simultaneously.
Here's how you can check your DHSE Plus Two result:
Log on to the above any of the mentioned websites
Click on HSC Results tab
Submit details like Name, Roll Number, Mobile Number, and email ID
Click on 'Submit' and get result
Download or take printout of the marksheet
Single-window entry
Importantly, the details of single-window entry into first year higher secondary will also be published, while the process for single-window entry VHSE will begin today, reports said.
Kerala HSC 2016 In Numbers
A total of 4,60,743 students - 2,14,012 boys and 2,18,748 girls appeared for the examination held from March 9, 2016 to March 29, 2016 across 2,100 centres in Kerala, Lakshadweep and the gulf countries.
As per the board, nearly 30,000 more students appeared for the exam as compared to last year.
HSC 2015 Result
Overall pass percentage 83.96%, the figure was an improvement on 79.39% pass percentage in 2014
Pass percentage of girls was 89.34%, only 77.78% of boys cleared the examination
Directorate of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE)
In line with the National Policy on Education, the Kerala government established the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education in the year 1990.
The Directorate has been mandated to promote and regulate Higher Secondary Education in the state of Kerala. The DHSE ensures all round development of HS education in the state by providing required guidance and monitoring of government and private schools in Kerala.
The DHSE gained full powers when the de-linking of pre-degree courses from the university education system was completed in a phased manner by 2000-2001.
Candidates who clear the examination can look forward to enrolling for undergraduate courses in different colleges in Kerala and elsewhere. While a good showing in HSC examination will be a big morale booster, the admission, especially in professional and technical courses, will be based on entrance examinations, hence, the students who wish to pursue such education should not lose focus and carry on with the preparations for entrance examinations.
Those who fail to clear the examination should not lose heart as they have another chance to clear it by appearing in the supplementary examination.
Here's wishing all the students 'Best of Luck'.
Mumbai: Asserting that the nation doesn't run on educational qualifications, the Shiv Sena on Tuesday said the row over Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s degree is uncalled for, adding one must instead shift their attention on grave issues, including drought and unemployment.
"A country doesn't run on degrees. Who has what degree, a country doesn't run on that. What is one's experience of administration, what are the sentiments on the basis of which one will administer is important," Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told ANI.
"This degree controversy is uncalled for. There are many more problems in the country such as drought, unemployment. Nobody is talking on such important issues. I will say if our PM does not have a degree and he is running the nation well then this degree row should end immediately," he added.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday released Prime Minister Modi's college degrees and demanded an apology from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his desperate attempts to turn a 'blatant lie into truth' by questioning his educational qualification.
However, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said the college degrees of the Prime Minister as shown by BJP president Amit Shah and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley were `fake and forged`.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Maharashtra government to grant licenses to eight dance bars within two days and asked them to give an undertaking that they would not engage employees with criminal antecedents near the dance area.
"It is directed that an undertaking shall be given by appellants who have filed application that they shall not engage employees in the bar and dance area whose names have been mentioned in the affidavit given by the state.
"The undertaking shall be issued by tomorrow and the licenses shall be issued by day after tomorrow," a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh said.
Maharashtra government had filed an affidavit in the court informing the bench that they had not granted licenses to eight dance bars as they found some of their employees with criminal antecedents.
Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing for Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said not a single license has been issued till date.
He submitted that as FIR has been lodged against some employees of the bars, licenses were not being issued to them on the ground that they have criminal antecedents.
"Unless a person is convicted under the offence, he cannot be termed as a criminal. The licenses are being delayed on one pretext on the other," he said.
On the issue of increasing the height of railing adjacent to the dance stage, Bhushan told the bench that such deficiencies have been addressed.
During the hearing, one of the counsel said that criminal antecedents of dancers should also be looked into and conditions be imposed on them.
The court took strong note of this and said "are you trying to convey to us that they are criminals? Nobody can earn livelihood if they are convicted. We want to save the dignity of women.
"You want to take away means of their livelihood. Dignity of women has to be maintained and no obscenity of any kind would be allowed," the bench said.
The court has fixed the matter for further hearing on May 13.
New Delhi: Is Google in a mood to change the search results from blue to black? Recently, the search engine giant tested black font color for its search results for small number of users, according to the reports of the Telegraph.
The test replaced traditionally blue link titles with black ones. The body text and link addresses remain unchanged, being black and green respectively.
However, the reason for such a major step is still unclear. But a whole bunch of people are disappointed by this radical change. With #bringbacktheblue, people started active discussion on Google forums on how people are reacting towards this switch.
This is not the first time Google is experimenting with its link color. A few years ago its A/B test of different shades of blue -nicknamed "50 shades of blue" - earned the company an extra $200 million (138 million).
Chandigarh: One of the two owners of a jewellery shop here, who claimed of being looted of Rs 14 crore, was today arrested for concocting the story allegedly to claim insurance money, police said.
"We have arrested Vinod Verma, one of the owners of the jewellery shop in Sector 17, while the other owner Rajnish is evading arrest," station house officer Uday Pal Singh said.
He said earlier both the owners were booked following a "confessional statement" of the store manager.
A case under various sections of IPC including 420 (cheating), 466 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), among others have been registered against the accused, he said.
Two days back, Chandigarh police had claimed that shop owners, Vinod Verma and Rajnish Verma, had concocted the robbery story to claim insurance amount of Rs 10 crore.
On the basis of fresh evidence which had come to fore in the case, the police had removed sections of robbery from the FIR and added fresh sections like cheating and forgery.
The shop owners had earlier told the police that they were at the shop along with an employee Ajay when the robbers arrived.
Jaipur: Rejecting allegations of removal of references to Jawahar Lal Nehru from a Class VII textbook in Rajasthan, state School Education Minister Vasudev Devnani today claimed the revised syllabus has the first prime minister's name at 15 places in different textbooks.
"The government has not omitted Nehru's name from textbooks. His name is there at 15 places in the revised books. The references to Nehru are available in textbooks of Class 7 (Hindi), Class 9 (Social science) and Class 11 (World History)," Devnani said in a statement.
He said Nehru's role in freedom movement, introducing Panchayti Raj system and non-aligned movement have been given space in the revised textbooks.
"The state government does not favour politics in education. Syllabus from class 1 to 8 is prepared by the State Institute of Education Research and Training (SIERT) and the Board of Secondary Education prepares the syllabus for classes 9 to 12.
He also said if two or three chapters on Nehru were not included in the syllabus, they would be added in the textbook in supplementary form.
Earlier in the Day, opposing the move to omit references to Nehru from the textbook, the state unit of Congress held a demonstration here with PCC chief Sachin Pilot saying that it reflected the "mental bankruptcy" of the Raje government.
Researchers from the University of Washington have shown how the early earth had a thicker atmosphere to compensate for weaker sunlight.
New research from the University of Washington uses bubbles trapped in 2.7 billion-year-old rocks to show that air at that time exerted at most half the pressure of today's atmosphere.
Lead researcher Sanjoy Som, who did the work as part of his UW doctorate in earth and space sciences, said the people have been thinking for long that the atmospheric pressure might have been higher back then because the sun was fainter.
"Our result is the opposite of what we were expecting," he added.
The idea of using bubbles trapped in cooling lava as a "paleobarometer" to determine the weight of air in our planet's youth occurred decades ago to co-author Roger Buick, a UW professor of earth and space sciences.
Others had used the technique to measure the elevation of lavas a few million years old. To flip the idea and measure air pressure farther back in time, researchers needed a site where truly ancient lava had undisputedly formed at sea level.
Research found that the earth was home only to single-celled microbes 2.7 billion years ago, sunlight was about one-fifth weaker and the atmosphere contained no oxygen. But this finding points to conditions being even more otherworldly than previously thought. A lighter atmosphere could affect wind strength and other climate patterns, and would even alter the boiling point of liquids.
The new study is an advance on the UW team's previous work on "fossilized raindrops" that first cast doubt on the idea of a far thicker ancient atmosphere. The result also reinforces Buick's 2015 finding that microbes were pulling nitrogen out of earth's atmosphere some three billion years ago.
Co-author David Catling, a UW professor of earth and space science, opined that the levels of nitrogen gas have varied through earth's history.
The study is published in the Journal of Nature Geoscience.
Dhaka: Fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was hanged tonight, becoming the senior most Islamist to be executed for war crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.
73-year-old leader of the Bangladesh's largest Islamist party had refused to seek presidential clemency.
Nizami was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail at 12 midnight, a police officer who witnessed the hanging told PTI.
"The execution has been completed," he said.
"Dhaka's civil surgeon then declared him dead," said additional police commissioner Sheikh Maruf Hassan, adding that an ambulance to be escorted by police car would carry Nizami's body to his village home in northwestern Sathia for burial.
Dhaka's district magistrate, the inspector general of prisons and senior police officials witnessed the hanging inside the high security prison compound.
Nizami's final appeal against his death sentence for war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan was rejected by the apex court on May 5.
Elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion joined police to step up security around the Dhaka Central Jail in old part of the capital. The jail guards have beefed up the security inside the facility. The street in front of the jail has also been barricaded and closed to traffic.
Nizami's family members, including his wife, two sons and their wives, went to the jail earlier this evening after prison officials asked them to meet him for the last time.
Witnesses said three cars carrying over 20 close relatives including his wife, two sons, their wives and a daughter reached the heavily guarded jail at 7.50 PM (local time) and came out at 8.40 PM (local time).
"We were asked by the jail officials to come to the prison as we earlier requested for the (last) meeting," one of the relatives told reporters outside the prison gate.
Meanwhile, several hundred people, joined by a number of 1971 veterans, staged a midnight vigil at Shahbagh Square in the central part of the capital and rejoiced the execution as soon as the news broke.
Earlier today, prison officials said that jail doctors checked the heath of the death row convict last night after the Supreme Court verdict was read out to him while senior jail officials saw him at his solitary confinement earlier today.
A former minister in ex-premier Khaleda Zia's BNP-led four-party coalition government, Nizami was in jail since 2010, when he was arrested to be tried 1971 war crimes.
He was given capital punishment in October 2014 by the tribunal after being convicted of "superior responsibility" as the chief of the infamous Al-Badr militia forces in 1971.
He was particularly found guilty of systematic killings of over 450 people alone in his own village.
With his execution, Nizami becomes the fifth top perpetrator to be hanged for the war crimes against humanity since the trial process began six years ago.
Nizami followed to the gallows, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdur Quader Molla all top leaders of his party.
Islamabad: The son of Pakistan's ex-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was on Tuesday rescued from the clutches of Taliban militants in a joint raid by the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, three years after he was abducted from his hometown in Pakistan's Punjab province.
Ali Haider Gilani "has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan," Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement.
Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar informed Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, about the news in a telephone call, it said.
"Ali Haider Gilani's transfer to Pakistan is being arranged following required medical check-up," it said.
Haider, believed to be in his 30s, was kidnapped by gunmen in Multan in 2013 just two days before the May 11 general elections in which he was contesting.
Gilani, who served as the premier from 2008 to 2012, broke the news to a cheering crowd at a political rally in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, adding: "This rally has proved fortunate for me."
"When I was about to board the helicopter (to come) I received the information that my son Ali Haider Gilani, who was kidnapped three years ago, has been recovered."
Haider's brother Abdul Qadir Gilani said: "My whole family and I are extremely happy to hear good news of safe recovery of Haider."
"I am very happy and I have no words to express my joy, he added as he praised Afghan authorities and Pakistan's army chief Gen Raheel Sharif for his brother's successful recovery.
He told reporters in Multan that his brother will arrive from Afghanistan to Islamabad soon.
The development comes two months after the kidnapped son of slain Punjabi governor Salman Taseer, Shahbaz Taseer, was rescued by Pakistani forces in an operation near Quetta.
"Welcome back @haidergilani," Shahbaz tweeted, adding an image of the Pakistani flag.
The news of the rescue of Haider was broken by Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Twitter.
"(Former) PM Gilani received a call from ambassador of Afghanistan. His son Ali Haider Gilani has been recovered in a successful operation," Bilawal said.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued a statement expressing pleasure over the rescue.
A media report quoted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's
spokesman Zafar Hashemi as saying that Gilani was being taken to the Pakistani embassy in Kabul and that the raid took place in the Gayan district of Paktika province, not in Ghazni province as the Pakistani Foreign Office earlier reported.
NATO in a statement from Kabul also said that the rescue operation was conducted in "Gayan District of Paktika Province Afghanistan by US Special Operations Forces and Afghan Commandos in a partnered raid".
The raid was carried out under Operation Freedom's Sentinel, the US mission focusing on counter-terrorism as well as training, advising and assisting Afghan troops, it said, adding: "Four enemy combatants were killed as a result of the operation."
The Afghan presidency said the raid had targeted an al Qaeda cell, and that Gilani had been sent to the Pakistani embassy in Kabul.
Haider, father's secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has led several major offensives against militants, was leaving a street corner meeting outside the house of a supporter in Farrukh Town in his hometown of Multan in southern Afghanistan when the gunmen killed his two associates and abducted him.
"Haider was in the custody of al Qaeda. He has been recovered during an operation of special forces," reports here quoted an Afghan ambassador as saying.
He said Haider is in good health and he will be sent home through a special plane.
Hundreds of people, including a large number of PPP workers, gathered outside the residence of Gilani in Multan to celebrate Haider's release, dancing and passing around sweets.
The former premier had last year said that the abductors had contacted him and demanded ransom for his release. In a video message last year, Haider said the kidnappers were initially demanding Rs 2 billion for his release but later they had reduced the ransom amount to Rs 500 million.
His father had said he was ready to pay the ransom amount.
Shahbaz Taseer, who was abducted in August, 2011 some seven months after his father was killed by his own police guard Mumtaz Qadri, was recovered from Balochistan's Kuchlak area after nearly five years. Qadri was hanged a couple of months ago at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi after President Mamnoon Hussain rejected his mercy plea.
Chennai: The Election Commission has organised mass pledge taking events for over 10 million voters Tuesday to promote ethical voting in Tamil Nadu.
All the polling booths, state and central government offices and quasi-government organisations, beneficiaries in the muster rolls of welfare schemes like MGNREGA, self-help groups, youth associations and similar other bodies will witness the event as they will swear that they will not receive money for voting.
This is the first time ever that such a massive people's movement against distribution of money for voting has been initiated in the country by the Election Commission.
Reports from different districts indicate that the move has got wider support from various cross sections of the public including political parties who will take the pledge at 10 am.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address a political rally at Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district tomorrow.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi who was set to address rallies in the state today has cancelled his events due to health reasons.
Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi:
Microsoft is shutting down its Chinese web portal, MSN China next month, according to the reports of the Wall Street Journal.
The technology giant made this announcement by posting a statement on MSN China portal saying that the portal which delivers Web search services as well as news and lifestyle information, will cease on June 7.
This means that after the decided date visitors to cn.msn.com will see a directory page of Chinese websites along with a Bing search bar.
The company justified this sudden termination by stating that it will shift its focus in China from providing online content to providing software and services for Windows 10.
A spokesperson of Microsoft said that the company will remain committed to China and will also invest in other businesses in near future.
(With WSJ reports)
Ghaziabad: A court here on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of BSP MP Narendra Kashyap who was arrested on charges of dowry death last month after his daughter-in-law was found dead.
Additional District Judge (I) Santosh Kumar Pandey rejected the bail request of the Rajya Sabha member, arrested on April 7, a day after his daughter-in-law Himanshi who was found dead with gunshot injuries. His wife and son were also arrested, while three other accused are absconding.
Appearing for the prosecution, senior lawyers R.S. Massey Verma and Hariom Kashyap pleaded for rejecting the bail application.
Verma argued the requisite conditions - dowry demand, cruelty and unnatural death of the bride within seven years of the marriage - for application of the Indian Penal Code's section 304b dealing with dowry deaths are met in this case. He noted Himanshi died of ante-mortem gunshot injuries so her death was unnatural, the death was within seven years of the wedding (solemnised in 2013) and cruelty was reported in the post-mortem report.
Since the investigation is under progress, Kashyap, being an influential person, may tamper with the evidence, he added.
Hariom Kashyap, who was also Himanshi's uncle, said some important points are being ignored by the investigation, such as that the gunshot injury was at a point which normally cannot be a suicide, while the post-mortem reports of various injuries on the face and hands prove cruelty.
Regarding the defence claim that no dowry demand was made since the MP possesses six vehicles, the prosecution countered that this does not rule out covetousness and there are cases where people were found guilty despite their affluence.
The prosecution lawyer also contended that the crime scene was cleaned, evidence was tampered with, the pistol removed, and police not informed, bedroom curtains and all this circumstantial evidence proves the guilt of MP and his family.
Earlier defence counsel Sudhir Tyagi, while requesting the court to grant the bail to the MP, submitted that no demand for dowry was made from his side as he already possesses six vehicles, and after the incident, he had rushed Himanshi to the city's top hospital which also informed police.
He claimed no signs of cruelty were discerned on the body while blackening around the eyes are inevitable after a gunshot to the head, so in absence for requisite conditions, the MP deserved bail to collect evidence to prove his innocence as he could not do this from behind bars.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge rejected the bail plea.
Kashyap and his wife Devendri Devi tried to dodge arrest by getting themselves admitted in the ICU after complaining of chest pain. But police arrested them from the ICU itself after discussing their condition, while their son was from their residence.
Lucknow: In a bid to check crime against children, the Uttar Pradesh government will set up 10 Special Juvenile Police units and six child-friendly police stations.
"UNICEF, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Law University and a NGO will help the government for the purpose," Principal Secretary Home, Debashish Panda said.
A presentation in this regard was given by UNICEF here before Home department officials. "The government will consider deployment of specially trained policemen in these units. Soon all 75 districts will have such units," he said.
UNICEF will impart training to prosecution officers and district government counsel in the next two months in child and women security related laws and RML Law University will be part of it, he said.
Dehradun: With the conclusion of the crucial floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that the Congress managed to grab the majority of votes in the confidence motion through the sheer power of money.
"Given the way the Congress used its sheer force to garner majority, the BJP did have a moral victory but failed in terms of numbers. But the nation saw how they used money to sway people over to their side to garner majority, that is why we fell short of numbers," BJP leader Ganesh Joshi told ANI.
Former Chief Minister Harish Rawat in a very optimistic note said that the `dark clouds` over Uttarakhand would finally drift away through the Supreme Court`s formal announcement tomorrow.
"I thank the Supreme Court and I am sure that after the decision tomorrow, normalcy will return to the state as it is a victory for Uttarakhand. I don`t want to comment on what happened inside during the floor test. The details will be revealed tomorrow. I thank the people of Uttarakhand for showing faith in us," Rawat said.
Congress leader Indira Hridayesh told ANI about the details of what happened during the floor test and asserted of a positive outcome for the party.
"We reached early and took out seats. We had been instructed earlier that those who vote in favour will sit on the right and those against on the left. After being seated the Speaker read the entire procedure and then began calling out names of the candidates who raised their hands indicating their motion. 33 of our candidates cast their votes in the motion," she said.
Adding that the result of the floor test was a clear message to the nation and political parties, she asserted that the BJP could not have been given a more smashing reply as they had openly indulged in murdering democracy and putting the development of Uttarakhand on a standstill.
The proceedings of the floor test were video-graphed and the results of the voting will be placed before the Supreme Court tomorrow in a sealed cover.
Dehradun: In a major boost to the Congress, ousted Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Tuesday won the floor test in the Uttarakhand assembly though the result will be officially known only on Wednesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quickly admitted defeat after 33 legislators reportedly voted for Rawat while the opposition mustered only 28 votes in a house whose strength had been reduced from 72 to 62.
The speaker did not vote and nine Congress rebels legislators were not allowed to vote. Apparently, the sole nominated member also did not vote.
The Supreme Court monitored the voting and said it will announce the result on Wednesday. But within minutes after the floor test, the Congress sounded triumphant.
Sarita Arya, the Congress legislator from Nainital, told a TV channel here: "The Congress has won."
A beaming Rawat didn't comment on the result but thanked the "Supreme Court, democratic forces, divine forces and the people of Uttarakhand" for supporting him.
Using words that made it very clear that he had won, he said: "Uttarakhand will be victorious tomorrow (Wednesday).
"I hope the clouds of uncertainty over the state will be over and things will be clearer (on Wednesday)." But out of deference to the apex court, he refused to say what happened inside the assembly.
Most Congress legislators declined to comment on the outcome. But some flashed victory signs and shouted slogans such as "Congress Zindabad!" and "Harish Rawat Ziadabad!". They clearly looked overjoyed.
Tuesday's vote was called to prove whether or not Rawat enjoyed majority support after the defection by nine Congress legislators reduced his state government to a minority in the 72-member house.
But the scales tiled in his favour when both the Uttarakhand High Court and the Supreme Court ruled that the rebel legislators cannot take part in the floor test.
BJP member Ganesh Joshi conceded that his party had lost the vote.
"The BJP couldn't defeat the Congress in the numbers game," he told reporters after the assembly proceedings were videographed on the order of the Supreme Court.
Joshi accused the Congress of using "muscle and money power" to win the support of its own legislators.
The Congress now has 27 and the BJP 28 members in the house. But six other legislators, including two from the Bahujan Samaj Party, appeared to have voted for Rawat although the break-up is not clear.
The central government dismissed Rawat's government on March 27 and cited misgovernance to impose President's Rule in the hill state.
In New Delhi, a jubilant Congress described its Uttarakhand win as a victory for democracy.
"Democracy wins in Uttarakhand. Defeat for conspirators. Truth always wins over muscle and money power," spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
He asked the BJP, which had teamed up with Congress rebels to topple Rawat, to "apologise to the nation".
Added Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad: "Democracy has won. It is because of Supreme Court that conducting floor test was made possible in Uttarakhand. BJP tried to kill democracy."
Despite the floor test, Rawat's problems are not over yet. He has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to New Delhi to answer charges that he tried to bribe Congress rebels to return to his camp.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was among the first to react.
"Uttarakhand floor test outcome is a huge setback to Modi government. Hope they will stop toppling governments now," he tweeted.
Earlier on Tuesday, BSP leader Mayawati declared her party's support to the Congress when she said: "We have always opposed communal forces. Our two MLAs ... will vote for the Congress."
Dhaka: Bangladesh executed the leader of the country`s largest Islamist party Tuesday for war crimes, just days after he lost a final appeal to overturn the death sentence, a government minister said.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was "hanged just before midnight" Tuesday local time (1800 GMT) at a prison in the capital Dhaka, Law and Justice minister Anisul Huq told AFP.
Islamabad: Pakistan's PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif , accusing him of "damaging" the country's foreign policy by giving his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi a "certificate of friendship" and over his handling of the Kashmir issue.
Addressing a rally in Bagh area of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) - where his Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) party heads the government - ahead of election in the region on June 26, Bilawal also accused Sharif of going "soft" on India on the issue of the disputed region.
"Mr prime minister (Nawaz) you attended Prime Minister Modi's oath-taking ceremony and forgot about the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat... The premier damaged the foreign policy of Pakistan by giving Modi his certificate of friendship," he said.
He further said that Sharif is "jeopardising the issue of Kashmir by building his associations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
In his speech, Bilawal several times chanted "Modi ke yaar ko ek dhakka aur do, corruption ke sardar ko ek dhakka aur do" (Give another push to Modi's friend Sharif, give another push to the mastermind of corruption, in the wake of the Panama Papers controversy).
Bilawal, who is the son of slain two-time premier Benazir Bhutto, also criticised the international community and the UN for failing to help the people of Kashmir.
"Sixty-seven years have passed but you (the UN) have also been unable to implement one resolution of plebiscite in Kashmir just like in south Sudan and East Timor," he said.
He asked people to reject Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the next election, as it was the best way to rupture relations between Sharif and Modi.
He told his supporters that none of Pakistan's previous leaders dared to stand with an Indian prime minister when India was involved in "worst atrocities in Occupied Kashmir".
He also criticised Sharif for remaining silent over the issue of arrested alleged Indian agent Kulbhushan Yadav.
"Even if a pigeon from Pakistan goes to India, it is considered as an agent. But if an Indian agent is arrested in Pakistan, our government is treating it like a pigeon," he said.
He also asked Sharif to step down over the issue of Panama Papers leaks.
"I demand the prime minister to step down in order to conduct a transparent inquiry into the Panama Papers revelations," he said.
Sofia: Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov lost his majority in parliament today after the resignation of his deputy, a member of the ABV party which withdrew its backing for the centre-right coalition.
Deputy prime minister Ivailo Kalfin, who also served as labour minister, stepped down after the centre-left ABV (Alternative for Bulgarian Revival) said it would no longer back the government.
Founded by former president Georgy Parvanov, the party has 11 deputies, which guaranteed Borisov a narrow majority of 125 within the 240-seat parliament.
A former bodyguard, firefighter and police chief, Borisov has governed on the basis of a fluctuating majority for the past three years following a first term in office between 2009 and February 2013 when he stepped down during mass nationwide protests about poverty and corruption.
His GERB party only won 83 seats in the 2014 elections, forcing him to form a minority government with the rightwing Reformist Bloc (23 lawmakers), 10 of whom have since joined the opposition.
The two parties had also secured support from the moderate nationalist Patriotic Front (18 seats) and the ABV.
ABV's decision to withdraw its support for the coalition gives greater weight to the Patriotic Front, which recently presented a bill which would ban Muslim women from wearing the full veil.
Although the ABV emerged out of a split within the Bulgarian Socialist party, the two may decided to field a joint candidate for the upcoming presidential election in October.
Berlin: A German man stabbed to death one person and slashed three more Tuesday in what authorities said may have been an Islamist attack, without ruling out that the assailant suffered mental problems.
Police said they had arrested a 27-year-old German national who knifed four people around 5:00 am at the commuter railway station of the small town of Grafing, east of Munich.
One of the victims, a 50-year-old man, later died of his wounds in hospital. The others injured were men aged 43, 55 and 58. One of the victims was seriously hurt, the other two more lightly wounded.
The "assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motive -- apparently an Islamist motive," said Ken Heidenreich, spokesman for the prosecutor`s office. "We are still determining what the exact remarks were."
Local media reported witnesses as saying the man had yelled "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) and "you unbelievers" during the attack.
If a jihadist motive is confirmed, it would be the country`s third Islamist-linked knife attack since September, but police were also investigating whether the assailant had previous psychological or drug problems.
Bavaria state`s interior minister Joachim Hermann said the attacker, named locally as Paul H., was a German national, as authorities said he hailed from central Hesse state and did not have a migrant background.
"As to what extent there were other background factors, or whether this is more about questions of mental instability or drug addiction, still needs to be investigated," Hermann said on BR24 television.In the dawn attack, the assailant stabbed one man aboard a train, another on the platform, then left the station and slashed two more men on bicycles outside, said Bavarian police spokesman Karl-Heinz Segerer on NTV news channel.
"In the meantime local police received an emergency call, and the officers quickly arrived at the scene and were able to detain the man," said Segerer.
Bloody footsteps and police forensic officers in white plastic suits could be seen at the cordoned-off railway station in video footage from Grafing, 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of the Bavarian capital.
"There is no longer any threat to the population," said another police spokeswoman, Michaela Gross.
Town mayor Angelika Obermayr expressed shock at the bloody crime in the sleepy town of 13,000 people.
"We are an absolutely peaceful Bavarian small town in the greater Munich region," she said on NTV. "Something like this is absolutely new and has deeply shocked the people here who only know things like that from television.
"That something like that happened here is absolutely unbelievable."Last August, two jihadists claiming to belong to the Islamic State group threatened Germany with attacks in an online execution video.
In the rare German-language video they urged their "brothers and sisters" in Germany and Austria to commit attacks against "unbelievers" at home.
Since then Germany had seen at least two bloody knife assaults blamed on Islamists, before Tuesday`s attack.
In February a 15-year-old girl identified as Safia S. stabbed a policeman in the neck with a kitchen knife in what prosecutors later said was an IS-inspired attack.
She attacked the officer during a routine check at Hanover train station in the country`s north before being overpowered by another police officer.
Federal prosecutors later said the teenager had "embraced the radical jihadist ideology of the foreign terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" and was in contact with an IS fighter in Syria.
Last September, a 41-year-old Iraqi man identified as Rafik Y. stabbed and seriously wounded a policewoman in Berlin before another officer shot him dead.
The man had previously spent time in jail for membership of a banned Islamist group and had been convicted in 2008 of planning an attack in Berlin against former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi.
According to the German domestic intelligence agency, some 740 people have left Germany to join jihadist groups in Syria or Iraq. About 120 of them have been killed, while about one third have returned to Germany.
London: London's first Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan on Tuesday hit out at Donald Trump for signalling that he would exempt him from his proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the US, saying his "ignorant" comments play "into the hands of extremists".
The US presidential hopeful had said in an interview to the 'The New York Times' that he was happy to see Khan take over his new post and that "there will always be exceptions" to his controversial Muslim ban comments.
"This isn't just about me. It's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world," Khan said in his rebuttal.
"Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists. Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam London has proved him wrong," the 44-year-old newly-elected mayor added.
Khan told the BBC he is supporting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in her bid for the White House: "I hope she trounces him (Trump)."
Last year, 69-year-old Trump had called for a temporary halt to all Muslims entering the US in the wake of the deadly terror attack in San Bernardino, California.
He said many Muslims nursed a "hatred" towards America and a ban should be in force "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".
Labour MP Khan, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, had likened to Trump's campaign with the Conservative party's tactics in the mayoral elections.
"They (Conservatives) used fear and innuendo to try to turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook," he wrote in an article after being sworn in to his post over the weekend.
Khan officially took charge of City Hall in London on Saturday following Thursday's election, which saw him defeat his Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith by 1,310,143 votes to 994,614 ? giving him one of the largest personal mandate for any UK politician.
London: British Prime Minister David Cameron was caught on camera describing Nigeria and Afghanistan as "fantastically corrupt" in a conversation with the Queen.
At a Buckingham Palace reception on Tuesday afternoon, a television microphone caught Cameron saying: "We've got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain... Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world," RT online reported.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby intervened, however, to defend the Nigerian premier.
"This particular president is not corrupt ... he's trying very hard," said Welby.
It was not known whether Cameron knew his comments were being recorded.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has embarked on a sweeping anti-corruption crusade since taking office last May. However, critics have slammed the campaign as a politically motivated witch-hunt, accusing Buhari of using corruption as a cover for weeding out political opponents.
Despite having the highest paid public officials in the world and Africa's biggest economy, oil-rich Nigeria is one of the largest beneficiaries of British aid, with Britain committing to spend 860 million on the country.
Afghanistan's President Ghani took office in 2014 amid rampant allegations of fraud, pledging to eradicate corruption, but graft is widely believed to have worsened across the country during his tenure.
Cameron has pledged to use Thursday's summit in London, organized before the Panama Papers leak, to clinch an agreement committing world leaders to tackling corruption and ensuring greater financial transparency.
It will bring together a bevy of political leaders, officials from the financial world and FIFA and UEFA representatives.
Washington: A bitter dispute over transgender rights between the Obama Administration and the North Carolina state government has taken an ugly turn with both sueing each other in a federal court after feuding over the so-called "bathroom" law.
US Attorney General Loretta E Lynch announced the lawsuit yesterday, which argues that North Carolina's so-called "bathroom law" violates parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other federal laws, and that the state is engaging in a "pattern or practice of sex discrimination."
The law passed on March 23 requires transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond to their sex at birth instead of the gender with which they identify.
The Obama Administration has described this as a state-sponsored discrimination.
"This action is about a great deal more than just bathrooms. This is about the dignity and respect we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we, as a people and as a country, have enacted to protect them indeed, to protect all of us," Lynch told reporters.
"And it's about the founding ideals that have led this country haltingly but inexorably in the direction of fairness, inclusion and equality for all Americans," she said as she was joined by Indian-American Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
The Bathroom Bill, translates into discrimination in the real world, alleged Gupta after the federal law suit was filed against North Carolina.
The bill is "inconsistent with the values of fairness and equality and justice that we hold dear in this country," the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
"I think it should be evident from the response from the business community that what the North Carolina government has done is inconsistent with the best interests of the people and the economy of North Carolina," he said.
Since the Supreme Court last year upheld the right of same-sex couples to marry, state legislatures have taken up various bills to address the extent of rights enjoyed lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) communities.
More than 200 businesses have urged the State Government to change the law. Earlier in the day, North Carolina filed a law suit against the federal government.
Republican Governor Pat McCrory alleged that the federal government is "being a bully ...Trying to define gender identity, and there is no clear identification or definition of gender identity."
This is not just a North Carolina issue, this is now a national issue, he said.
"We believe a court rather than a federal agency should tell our state, our nation and employers across the country what the law requires," he said.
It even found its way into the presidential race. The Republican presidential presumptive nominee Donald Trump has said he thinks the law is not necessary, but leaves it to the State Government to take a final call on it.
Washington: US President Barack Obama is considering whether to lift a three-decade-old arms embargo on Vietnam, US officials say, as he weighs calls to forge closer military ties with Hanoi against concerns over its poor human rights record.
The debate within the US administration is coming to a head amid preparations for Obama`s trip to Vietnam this month to bolster ties between Washington and Hanoi, former wartime enemies who are increasingly partners against China`s growing territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea.
The full removal of the embargo something Vietnam has long sought - would sweep away one of the last major vestiges of the Vietnam War era and advance the normalization of relations begun 21 years ago. It would also likely anger Beijing, which condemned Obama`s partial lifting of the arms ban in 2014 as an interference in the region`s balance of power.
On one side of the internal debate, some White House and State Department aides say it would be premature to completely end restrictions on lethal military assistance before Vietnam`s communist government has made more progress on human rights.
They are at odds with other officials, including many at the Pentagon, who argue bolstering Vietnam`s ability to counter a rising China should take priority, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
Boosting the security of allies and partners has been a major thrust of Obama`s strategic "pivot" toward the Asia-Pacific region, a centerpiece of his foreign policy.
Even as Vietnam seeks warmer relations with the United States, though, US officials are mindful that suspicions linger among Communist Party conservatives that Washington wants to undermine their country`s one-party system.
One major factor in Obama`s decision will be whether Vietnam will move forward on major US defense deals, a potential boon for American jobs that could soften congressional opposition to lifting the weapons ban, according to one source close to White House policymaking.
There have been questions about whether Vietnam, which has relied mostly on Russian weapons suppliers since the Cold War, is ready to start buying US-made systems. Diplomats have seen increasing signs that Hanoi is seeking ties with US defense contractors but Washington wants tangible commitments, according to the source.
Vietnam is big buyer of weapons from Russia, its Cold War-era patron, including Kilo-class submarines and corvettes. It could look to the United States for items such as P-3 surveillance planes and missiles to beef up its naval forces and coastal defenses.
At the Pentagon, the prevailing view appears to be more in line with Defense Secretary Ash Carter`s congressional testimony late last month that he would support lifting restrictions on the sale of US weapons to Vietnam.
That comment raised eyebrows at the White House, where officials said Obama had yet to rule on the issue.
Obama`s final decision could hinge on whatever recommendations come from ongoing visits to Vietnam by Tom Malinowski, the administration`s top human rights envoy, and Daniel Russel, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific.
Speaking in Hanoi on Tuesday, Russel said the embargo lifting was still "under periodic review" and would be looked at seriously, although he made it clear Vietnam`s commitment to human rights would be central to any decision.
"One of the important factors that would make a lift of the ban possible would be to continue forward momentum in meeting universal human rights standards and progress in important legal reform," Russel told reporters.
Malinowski is not scheduled to speak to media during his trip.
It was not clear whether Obama was leaning for or against ending the embargo ahead of his trip, which will make him the third consecutive US president to visit Vietnam.
Obama eased the ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam in October 2014, allowing shipments of defensive maritime equipment to help Hanoi build up its deterrent to China`s pursuit of its claims in the South China Sea, which conflict with those of its neighbors such as Vietnam and US ally the Philippines.
John Sifton, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said lifting the arms ban would be "undeserved at this time." The group, in an April 27 letter sent to Obama, described the Vietnamese government as "among the most repressive in the world."
While a number of US lawmakers favor closer military ties with Vietnam because of shared concerns about China, others have deep misgivings.
Democratic US Representative Loretta Sanchez, a member of the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam who also has a large Vietnamese-American voting bloc in her California district, said lifting the embargo would be "giving a free pass to a government that continually harasses, detains and imprisons its citizens."
Obama has the power to bypass Congress to lift the embargo. But his administration would hope for support from Republican US Senator John McCain, a decorated former prisoner of war in North Vietnam who backed the 2014 partial lifting.
Some US officials see signs that Vietnam is starting to pay attention to human rights criticism. But concerns remain over the government`s heavy-handedness toward political opponents and treatment of workers and there is worry that Washington will lose some leverage if it gives up the arms embargo without securing concessions for reforms.
One senior US official suggested that it might be best for now to "set the issue of the lethal weapons ban aside."
"These things do take time," the official said. But others said the door should remain open to lifting the embargo as preparations proceed for Obama`s visit.
If Obama opts against removing the ban for now, another option that might mollify the Vietnamese would be creating a "working group" to map out the path toward doing so, one US official said.
London: Londons iconic red buses and public transport in other British cities will carry banner adverts featuring the Arabic phrase Subhan Allah (Glory be to God) in a bid to encourage British Muslims to support Syrian war victims.
The posters will appear on hundreds of buses during Ramadan, which begins at sunrise on June 6 and lasts until July 7, the Daily Mail reported.
The start of the campaign will begin a month after London elected the first Muslim mayor of a major Western city, Labours Sadiq Khan - who, coincidentally, is the son of a bus driver.
Islamic Relief, a Muslim charity, is funding the campaign, which will be rolled out in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bradford.
Organizers hope it will present Islam in a positive way and encourage British Muslims to donate to humanitarian efforts for victims of the ongoing war in Syria.
In a sense this could be called a climate change campaign because we want to change the negative climate around international aid and around the Muslim community in this country," director Islamic Relief, Imran Madden said.
International aid has helped halve the number of people living in extreme poverty in the past 15 years, and British Muslims are an incredibly generous community who give over 100 million to international aid charities in Ramadan.
Islamabad: The son of Pakistan's ex-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was today rescued from the clutches of Taliban in a joint operation by the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, three years after he was abducted from his hometown in Pakistan's Punjab province.
Ali Haider Gilani "has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan," Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement.
Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar informed Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, about the news in a telephone call, it said.
"Ali Haider Geelani's transfer to Pakistan is being arranged following required medical check-up," it said.
Today's development comes two months after the kidnapped son of slain Punjabi governor Salman Taseer was rescued by Pakistani forces in an operation near Quetta.
The news of the rescue of Haider, believed to be in his 30s, was broken by Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Twitter.
"(former) PM Gilani received a call from ambassador of Afghanistan. His son Ali Haider Gilani has been recovered in a successful operation," Bilawal said.
Haider, whose father's secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has led several major offensives against militants, was kidnapped by gunmen in Multan in 2013 just two days before the May 11 general elections in which he was contesting.
He was leaving a street corner meeting outside the house of a supporter in Farrukh Town in his hometown of Multan in southern Afghanistan when the gunmen killed his two associates and abducted him.
"Haider was in the custody of Al-Qaeda. He has been recovered during an operation of special forces," reports here quoted an Afghan ambassador as saying.
He said Haider is in good health and he will be sent home through a special plane.
"Foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz has told me about the recovery of my brother," Abdul Qadir Gilani said.
"My whole family and I are extremely happy to hear good news of safe recovery of Haider," he said.
A large number of PPP workers gathered outside the residence of Gilani in Multan to celebrate Haider's release.
The former premier had last year said that the abductors had contacted him and demanded ransom for his release. In a video message last year, Haider said the kidnappers were initially demanding Rs 2 billion for his release but later they had reduced the ransom amount to Rs 500 million.
His father had said he was ready to pay the ransom amount.
Shahbaz Taseer, who was abducted in August, 2011 some seven months after his father was killed by his own police guard Mumtaz Qadri, was recovered from Balochistan's Kuchlak area after nearly five years. Qadri was hanged a couple of months ago at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi after President Mamnoom Hussain rejected his mercy plea.
Islamabad Capital Territory: US and Afghan forces have found the kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister alive in an operation in Afghanistan, the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, "has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan", the statement said, three years after he was kidnapped by suspected Taliban militants in Pakistan.
Yangon division: Washington`s new ambassador to Myanmar on Tuesday said remaining sanctions had taken an "unintended" toll on the nation`s delicate economic development, as the US re-evaluates its embargoes on the former pariah state.
Myanmar`s stunning transition from decades of repressive junta rule to a civilian-led government steered by Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy party was accompanied by the lifting of most Western embargoes.
The United States rolled back many of its sanctions to reward reforms since 2011, but kept a clutch of blacklists targeting junta-era cronies and their sprawling business interests.
"We recognise that even these limited, targeted sanctions occasionally have unintended effects on the broader economy," ambassador Scot Marciel said at a press conference in Yangon.
"Now in the aftermath of the transition to the new elected government we are again reviewing our sanctions," he said, adding that he could not yet say what the result of next week`s review would be.
In December the US temporarily eased restrictions on Myanmar`s ports to unclog trade into the fast-developing country.
The move freed businesses to import and export through the main Yangon port terminal, which is run by Asia World, one of the country`s largest blacklisted conglomerates.
Marciel said Washington would maintain focus on improving Myanmar`s human rights situation, but he anticipated a "different conversation" with Suu Kyi`s administration than with the previous quasi-civilian leadership.
He declined to be drawn on recent reports that Suu Kyi, in her role as foreign minister, had indicated that the US should refrain from using the term "Rohingya" to apply to the persecuted Muslim minority in western Myanmar.
Buddhist nationalists staged a protest outside the embassy last month against its use of the word.
Marciel said that communities around the world "get to choose what they want to be called".
"That`s a fundamental international practice and we respect that. That`s been our approach here and that will continue to be our approach here," Marciel said, without using the term Rohingya.
Suu Kyi has long faced criticism over her reticence to speak out more strongly in support of the Rohingya.
They face restrictions on access to health, employment and education in Rakhine state, where tens of thousands remain trapped in grim displacement camps following waves of deadly communal violence in 2012.
Rohingya are labelled "Bengali" by hardline Buddhists and many officials, who brand them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh even though many can trace their ancestry back generations.
The deputy director general of Myanmar`s foreign ministry, Kyaw Moe Tun, told AFP that while Suu Kyi had not given Marciel a formal instruction in a recent meeting, talks had touched on "how to handle the current situation wisely".
Beijing: A US warship sailed through the disputed South China Sea, the third American vessel in less than a year to pass through the waters near the artificial islands built by China to assert freedom of navigation, triggering an angry reaction from the Communist nation.
USS William P Lawrence , a guided missile destroyer, illegally entered China's waters near the islands today without the permission of the Chinese government, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.
Lu said the warship was monitored, tracked and issued with a warning.
US Department of Defence spokesman Bill Urban said in Washington that the freedom of navigation operation was in direct challenge to "excessive maritime claims of some claimants in the South China Sea."
China claims almost all of South China Sea which is disputed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
US has been dispatching its warships into the waters claimed by China to assert freedom of navigation.
"The action by the US threatens China's sovereignty and security, endangers the safety of people and facilities on the reef, and harms regional peace and stability," Lu said.
"China strongly opposes such action by the US and will continue to take measures to safeguard our sovereignty and security," he said, adding that China and other coastal states in the South China Sea have been working together to keep navigation and overflight free in the area for a long time.
In fact, the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea has never been a problem, Lu said.
He said the US introduced freedom of navigation operations in 1979 before the signing of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a treaty to which the United States is still not a party.
The purpose of these recurring "patrols" is to disrupt the order of the seas and oceans without adhering to the UN convention, he added.
The US sends military vessels and aircraft on surveillance missions against China as simple acts of provocation, Lu said, adding that the US actually considers itself above the UNCLOS and these activities are opposed by many countries.
Lu said that the flexing of US military muscle in the name of freedom of navigation is the biggest threat to peace and stability in the area.
Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his election as chairman of the ruling Workers' Party, becoming the first world leader to greet the reclusive dictator.
Xi also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) congratulated Kim on behalf of the CPC in his own behalf and hoped that the North Korean people will achieve new accomplishments in the cause of building socialism under the leadership of the WPK headed by Kim.
The China-Democratic People's Republic of Korea, (DPRK) friendship was personally forged and carefully fostered by the two countries' leaderships of the older generation, Xi said.
"The traditional friendship is a treasure of both sides," he said, highlighting the close links between the two countries notwithstanding Pyongyang's isolation resulting in US sanctions clamped over its aggressive policy to acquire nuclear weapons.
Xi also noted that the CPC and the Chinese government attach great importance to the ties between the DPRK and China, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
China stands ready to work with the DPRK to promote constant development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the two countries and to make positive contributions to safeguarding peace, stability and development in the region, Xi said.
While China implemented the UN sanctions against North Korea, Beijing regards Pyongyang as a close ally along with Pakistan.
Asked to comment on North Korea's claim as nuclear power at the Worker's Party meeting, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang said here yesterday that "China's position on the Korean nuclear issue is subject to no change".
"We also believe that all the resolutions related to the Korean nuclear issue passed by the UN Security Council shall be observed and executed by all relevant parties without reservations," Lu said.
Most read of the week
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Erik-Jan Zurcher, a professor of Turkish studies, Leiden University of Netherlands, published an article about Turkey expressing his dissatisfaction over the countrys regime. As Armenpress reports, in the article entitled Enough is enough the medal will be returned he states he gives back the gold medal received from the former President Abdullah Gul over a decade ago.
Professor says the reason he was deemed worthy of the medal was that in the preceding years he had actively tried to inform the Dutch politicians, and the public in general, about Turkey and to combat prejudices. The scientist says in the years 2002-2004 the attempts of Turkey to become a member of the European Union, which even then were forty years old, had picked up speed. He says his small contribution in those years was to argue that Turkey could indeed be a part of the EU.
These arguments are still valid today. What I got completely wrong was my expectation and prediction that the accession process would strengthen the democratic forces in Turkey. I ignored warnings from secularist Turkish friends that Erdogan was only using the EU and the accession process to destroy his internal enemies and gradually to increase the role of Islam in society, seeing them as short-sighted fear mongering. I was wrong, however, and they were right, the professor writes. Look where we are now after 14 years and more than ten election victories for Tayyip Erdogan and his party: -Because he thought it would win him the election, Erdogan consciously wrecked the peace process with Kurds and reignited the internal war against the PKK. - Because he wanted new elections when those of June 2015 did not yield the result he looked for, he sabotaged the formation of a coalition government, which could have counteracted polarisation. - Academics who distanced themselves from the renewed war against the PKK and demanded a resumption of the peace process, are being persecuted and sometimes have been fired by their universities. - The media have been emasculated . - Social media are tightly controlled and often shut down. - Journalists and editors who report on secret arms deliveries of the Turkish secret service to Syrian Jihadists are convicted to five years in prison for divulging state secrets. - The constitutional court of the republic is threatened by the president, who openly states he does not respect it. - Thousands of Turkish citizens are being prosecuted for defamation of the president. In the mean time the party uses its power monopoly to make Islamic norms and values ever more dominant in the public space in most places finding a prayer room is now a lot easier than a seller of alcoholic beverages, the professor highlights.
All of this has convinced me that the Turkey of Tayyip Erdogan cannot and should not become a member of the European Union ever. A country where politics, the legal system, the media, universities and individuals (even if they live in Europe) have become playthings for a de-facto dictator and his clique of sycophants; where the fundamental freedoms and the rule of law have ceased to function, cannot be a European country.
That is why the medal will now be carefully packed and sent back to the embassy. I have hesitated for a long time, not because I had illusions left about Erdogan and his ilk, but because such a demonstrative act might damage others besides myself, notably the dozens of MA and Ph.D. students that I have supervised over the years, many of whom have returned to Turkey. My signature is on their diplomas. I feel I have no choice, however. I have to do this precisely because, as a professor of Turkish studies, I am seen as an authority on Turkey. I have to do it as a sign of protest against the dictatorial misrule of Erdogan in Turkey but also in recognition of the fact that I was wrong twelve years ago: Turkey has not come closer to Europe. So far away that membership is no longer a realistic option. Our political leaders should say so loud and clear: enough is enough, the professor concluded.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. The US Embassy in Turkey responded to the letter by the head of the Armenian National Committee of America Aram Hamparian related to the safety of Armenian MP in the Turkish Parliament Garo Paylan, Press Service of ANCA informed Armenpress.
In the response letter it was informed by the Embassy that they are aware that Garo Paylan was one of a number of parliamentarians injured after fighting broke out during a recent debate in Turkish Parliament.
We share your concern about the need for all persons living in Turkey whatever their religious, ethnic, or national origin, to be able to voice their views freely without fear of threat and reprisal. Our annual Human Rights Report describes in great detail the United States governments ongoing concerns about the patterns of discrimination, hate speech, attacks, and other issues faced by all of Turkeys minorities.
The United States government has consistently raised these concerns with the government of Turkey in both public and private channels, and we will continue to engage the government of Turkey to underscore the need to provide equal protection to any citizen facing specific threats, regardless of their ethnic and religious identity, the response letter reads.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. The military exercises of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces began in the Russian military base in Armenia.
The 6th generation RKhM-6 Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicles with state-of-the-art detection systems are used in the exercises.
The exercises are held in mountainous areas.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. German MP, Chairman of German-Armenian Forum Albert Weiler initiated an inter-cultural exchange program of school children within the framework of which 5 German school children arrived in Armenia for ten days. They were hosted in the Armenian families and participate in seminars, lectures and discussions which are held in N 199 school, Yerevan.
German MP told Armenpress that the initiative is the continuation of the event about Armenia which was held in one of the schools of his constituency in Germany last year. Those school children who participated in the event on Armenia wanted to know more about Armenia. Taking into account this fact, German MP decided to initiate such kind of program. I have consulted with the director of that school. Firstly, school children presented a written request to explain why they want to visit Armenia, what they know about that country, then after a short interview we selected 5 school children in order to visit Armenia and participate in lessons in the Armenian school where German is a foreign language, MP said.
MP expressed hope that the exchange program will be continuous, and they will be able to invite Armenian school children to Germany. Organizing mutual visits, communication will be lasting an MP said.
He says the German media recently widely speaks about Armenia, especially the resolution of the Genocide and that issue. It helps tourists to have more information about the country and visit there. On April 17 an opening ceremony of the cross stone was was held in memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide in my constituency. Various developments took place, and I am very happy since this will attract tourists, who hearing about the country for many times, want to visit there. And those, who once see Armenia, want visit again. When I visited first time in Armenia, I also fell in love with this country, this is a stimulus for me to visit again and again, German MP said.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Herbert Salber on May 10, Press Service of the MFA of Armenia informed Armenpress.
Armenian Minister Nalbandian presented to Salber the damage to the negotiation process caused by Azerbaijans large-scale military aggression against Nagorno Karabakh and the efforts for overcoming its consequences.
The EU Special Representative stated that the conflict has no military solution, and the European Union supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs aimed at peaceful settlement of the conflict.
The interlocutors exchanged views over the possibilities of restarting the negotiation process. In this regard, Minister Nalbandian emphasized that at this moment the meetings can be held directed to the exclusion of repetition of Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno Karabakh on early of April, the unconditional implementation of trilateral term-less agreements on the establishment and maintenance of the 1994-1995 ceasefire and the installation of ceasefire violations monitoring mechanisms. Edward Nalbandian says these steps will create appropriate conditions to continue the negotiation process.
Armenian Foreign Minister and the EU Special Representative spoke about the EU-Armenia relations and the negotiations on the legal basis.
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YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. On 10 May NKR Republic President Bako Sahakyan met the representatives of ARF Hay Dat Central Council, regional committees and offices at the Tigranakert archeological museum, Press Service of NKR Presidential Administration informed Armenpress.
A wide range of issues related to Nagorno Karabakhs domestic and foreign policy, the Motherland-Diaspora ties, the large- scale military operations launched by Azerbaijan from 2 to 5 April and their consequences, as well as current regional developments were discussed during the meeting.
President Sahakyan appreciated the activity of ARF Hay Dat in objective presentation of the Armenian Genocide, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and solution of the issues of pan-Armenian significance.
Bako Sahakyan welcomed holding the conference of the ARF Hay Dat committees and offices in NKR underlining the unique importance of the event.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is not a threat for the region or the world, instead, Azerbaijan and Turkey are threats for the region, Vice President of the National Assembly of Armenia told the reporters, commenting on the statement of oppositionist MP Hrant Bagratyan, that allegedly Armenia already possesses nuclear weapons. This statement had caused much turbulence in Azerbaijan.
Armenia is a threat neither for the region, nor the world. Armenia is a peaceful country. What Mr. Bagratyan said, is his personal viewpoint, while the position of the Armenian authorities and the political elite is clear: we use the nuclear station for peaceful purposes for producing electricity, Armenpress reports Sharmazanov mentioning.
To the remark of a journalist that even international press has referred to Bagratyans statement, Sharmazanov answered, Armenia is a country preaching peace, and if international press is searching for a threat in the region, they should not waste much time: Turkey and Azerbaijan are the threats, as well as the Islamic State.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk on May 10.
As Armenpress was informed from the press service of NKR Presidents Office, the meeting addressed a number of issues related to the situation along the contact line between Nagorno Karabagh and Azerbaijan armed forces.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador of Armenia to Bulgaria Armen Sargsyan delivered credentials to President of Bulgaria Rosen Plevneliev on May 10.
As Armenpress was informed from the press service of MFA Armenia, after the solemn ceremony President Plevneliev and Ambassador Sargsyan engaged in a private conversation, during which the President of Bulgaria highlighted further development of historically friendly relations between the two states. At the same time, he mentioned that both countries have still great potentials in deepening partnership in trade and economy. President Plevneliev hoped that newly appointed Ambassador Sargsyan will contribute his abilities and experience to further developing and expanding the relations between the two states.
Expressing gratitude for the cordial reception Ambassador Sargsyan promised to make all possible efforts to give a new momentum to Armenian-Bulgarian relations.
Prospects of organizing high-level mutual visits in the near future were discussed at the meeting.
Ambassador of Armenia briefed on Armenias foreign policy priorities for the President of Bulgaria, touching upon the issues of Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement and the recent developments in Armenia-Turkey relations.
At the end of the meeting President Plevneliev wished the newly appointed Ambassador success and promised assistance by his administration and the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Bulgaria.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. President of Israel Reuven Rivlin visited Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem on May 9 to convey his greetings to the leaders of different Christian Churches located on the Holy Land. Prelates of the Dioceses of Armenia Apostolic, Greek-Orthodox and Latin Churches were present at the meeting with President Rivlin at the Armenian Patriarchate.
The Nazi regime succeeded in its plans against the Jewish people as the world kept silence and did not voice about the Armenian Genocide, Armenpress reports, citing Nouvelles d`Armenie, Nurhan Archbishop Manoogian said, hoping that Israel will recognize the Armenian Genocide during the presidency of Reuven Rivlin.
President of Israel Rivlin stated that Israel has a moral obligation to recognize the first genocide of the previous century, the Armenia Genocide, though he avoided using the term genocide, adding that it is impossible to ignore what happened.
We are obliged to speak out about facts, but not to deny them, Rivlin said. The President of Israel congratulated the Christians on May 9 and the past Easter holidays, adding that human rights defense is a priority issue for Israel.
Armenians were killed in 1915, and my relatives can recall thousands of Armenian refuges. No one denies in Israel that an entire nation was massacred. Today, together with all of you, I will pray for the souls of all the victims here, in Jerusalem, in the Armenian Patriarchate, Rilvin concluded.
The Federal Budget has been delivered and Australians are headed for the polls. In this series, Reform Revisited, we ask writers for innovative ways to tackle our reform agenda.
It might sound odd to us in Australia, but Norwegians have been able to see how much their fellow citizens earn, and how much tax they pay, for the past 200 years. Every October, Norwegian citizens have their income tax returns posted online, allowing their neighbours and colleagues to look into their financial data.
As a form of pro-transparency policy, the Norwegian example represents the very best in social accountability; but it does come with a few caveats.
First, if you look up someones data, they are sent an email notification letting them know that someone has perused the data. This is an important form of reciprocal oversight. The only exception is for Norwegian media outlets, which can access financial data for transparency purposes without an email being sent.
Second, only your aggregate figures are released: total income and total tax paid, without a specific breakdown. These aggregate numbers help to strike a balance between personal privacy and social accountability.
It might sound like a modern innovation, but this social policy dates back to a time before the digital era, and pocketbook records of publicly maintained citizen tax records have been diligently archived dating back to the 19th century.
This interesting policy is part of a broader strategy to promote social accountability that includes other factors such as: open e-Government, open disclosure of its sovereign wealth funds operations and holdings, and an open and efficient tax administration system.
So could it be time for Australia to publish aggregate citizen tax numbers like Norway does?
Under the mattress, or on the notice board?
There are several important reasons for us to consider this level of tax record transparency.
Although Australia is highly ranked in the world on Transparency Internationals Corruptions Perception Index, at 13/168, it is worrying to see that our ranking is falling. We should aim to return to the top 10. Doing this relies on incremental improvements through higher-order transparency initiatives like Norways. Norway is ranked in the top five in the world on Transparency Internationals index.
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In an era of personal data infringement and non-privacy online, where hackers, governments, and everyone in between can get a hold of your most personal details anyway, why not come clean with information? In a time of surveillance societies, holding on to the illusion that all of our financial data is private is not particularly realistic.
As the recent Panama Papers debacle has shown, financial transparency is absolutely critical to reforming global finance, and to bring greater balance to the evasive practices of the wealthy in a world mired in ever increasing inequality.
And lastly, efficient policy decisions require accurate data, and in Norway, policy makers can tailor their fiscal objectives far more accurately because Statistics Norway is able to provide them with an incredible amount of clarity on the fiscal position of citizens.
Introducing such pro-transparency policies would not be easy. Certain vested interests will always push back against a policy that hangs fiscal dirty laundry. Perhaps that is why we should start small: with the tax returns of politicians.
Read more in the series here.
The Conversation
Usman W. Chohan, Doctoral Candidate, Policy Reform and Economics, UNSW Australia
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Protesters demonstrate against British Prime Minister David Cameron in London following revelations in the Panama papers in April 2016
Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure to demand greater transparency from Britain's overseas tax havens, which critics say help promote and support corruption.
The leak of documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca shone a spotlight on British offshore financial centres, with more than half of the 214,000 companies exposed registered in the British Virgin Islands alone.
Seven of Britain's 14 overseas territories have been named by the Tax Justice Network as "secrecy jurisdictions" -- Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat as well as Turks and Caicos.
The advocacy group's 2015 Financial Secrecy Index ranked the Caymans as the fifth worst offender worldwide, while Britain is in 15th place.
But if Britain and its territories were considered as one entity, they would top the index.
The territories make their own domestic laws, allowing them to offer low or no taxes, but can reassure investors that Britain will step in if there is political or economic turmoil.
They were once described by a British minister as "sunny places for shady people" but most have bowed to international pressure to open up in recent years.
They have signed agreements to share financial information with other countries' tax authorities, and to give British police access to information on who benefits from anonymous investments.
But campaigners say this is not enough, and they are pushing for public registers of so-called beneficial ownership.
"Secret company ownership makes most cases of large-scale corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing possible," said the head of Britain's parliamentary group on anti-corruption, Nigel Mills.
Ronen Palan, professor of international politics at City University London, said much progress had been made on transparency in recent years but a major problem remained.
"They have no incentive to regulate this very well because their business is attracting offshore finance," he told AFP.
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The two British overseas territories ranked highest as offenders in the Financial Secrecy Index are the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.
Here are some key facts about the two archipelagoes:
- British Virgin Islands -
Mossack Fonseca incorporated 113,000 companies in the British Virgin Islands, a collection of more than 60 islands in the Caribbean which feature at number 21 on the Financial Secrecy Index.
Four decades ago it was a poor agricultural community, but it is now among the top five investors in Russia and China, according to a 2014 report by the OECD.
The Tax Justice Network says it is the world's leading centre for company incorporation, with 479,000 shell companies still active in early 2015 -- despite having a population of under 30,000.
According to the United Nations trade agency UNCTAD, it received $56.5 billion (50 billion euros) in foreign direct investment in 2014, while FDI outflows accounted for $54.3 billion.
Premier Orlando Smith this week defended the British Virgin Islands efforts to tackle corruption and noted it had signed tax transparency agreements with more than 100 developed countries.
But he added that "legitimate businesses have a right to basic privacy and confidentiality in their affairs".
- Cayman Islands -
Once the go-to place for international drug dealers to hide their money, the Caribbean territory is now the world's sixth biggest banking centre, according to the Tax Justice Network.
It had banking assets worth $1.4 trillion in 2014, hosting 200 banks and more than 95,000 registered companies, and is by far the world's leading domicile for hedge funds.
With an estimated population of 55,000, the Cayman Islands ranked fifth in the Financial Secrecy Index last year, down from third in 2013, reflecting its adoption of transparency initiatives.
A spokesman for Cayman Finance, the association representing the financial services industry, also defended its record on transparency, noting it has tax exchange agreements with 36 jurisdictions going back almost 20 years.
He said it has been sharing beneficial ownership data with British law enforcement for years but argues that a public register is unnecessary, as the current system is "very effective".
Steve McAlister | The Image Bank | Getty Images. The U.S. Department of Energy has announced as much as $90 million in funding for biofuels projects.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced as much as $90 million in funding for projects relating to the design, construction and operation of "integrated bio-refinery facilities."
In a statement at the end of last week, the DOE described the production of biofuels from "sustainable, non-food, domestic biomass resources" as an important part of the administration's aims to cut both carbon emissions and the U.S.'s reliance on foreign oil.
"The domestic bio-industry could play an important part in the growing clean energy economy and in reducing American dependence on imported oil," Lynn Orr, the DOE's under-secretary for science and energy, said in a news release.
"This funding opportunity will support companies that are working to advance current technologies and help them overcome existing challenges in bioenergy so the industry can meet its full potential," Orr added.
The DOE added that the U.S. is currently spending around $1 billion every three days on "imported oil."
According to the Energy Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it's estimated that the U.S. could produce over a billion tons of biomass that could be turned into biopower, biofuels and bioproducts.
The importance of biofuels is only set to increase. A 2011 report from the IEA projects that by 2050, biofuels could provide 27 percent of the world's transportation fuel.
As technology advances, new, innovative ways of generating biofuels are being developed. Scottish start-up Celtic Renewables has developed technology to turn the by-products of whisky into a next generation biofuel, while London's bio-bean is looking to turn waste coffee grounds into advanced biofuels.
More From CNBC
The massive wildfire that continues to burn in the Fort McMurray area of Alberta, Canada has been captured from space by NASA imaging satellites.
Thousands of people in the fire's path have been left homeless and displaced.
The unprecedented scope of the blaze is apparent in these photos released by the U.S. space agency today.
"Fire conditions remain extreme in the province due to low humidity, high temperatures and wind according to the emergency updates being released by the Government of Alberta."
The latest update on the wildfire from by the Government of Alberta was issued Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 4:15pm local time:
Currently there are more than 500 firefighters battling the blaze in and around Fort McMurray, along with 15 helicopters, 14 air tankers and 88 other pieces of equipment. Yesterday's plan (on May 07) to evacuate 25,000 residents who fled north of Fort McMurray was a success. As of 10:00am, no evacuees have been reported remaining in camps to the north. 300 people from Fort McKay were evacuated to the Edmonton area by air and ground. This was a precautionary evacuation due to heavy smoke in the area. 1,500 employees at the Syncrude facility were evacuated on May 7 and the facility was shut down. Groups of employees have also been evacuated from the Suncor, Husky, Shell and CNRL facilities. Many of these facilities are still operating. 250 ATCO employees are in Fort McMurray working to restore the power grid and assess the gas infrastructure. The wildfire is currently 161,000 hectares (397,800+ acres) and is anticipated to grow overnight. Fire conditions remain extreme, with four new starts across Alberta yesterday. A total of 34 wildfires are burning, with five out of control, 23 under control and six turned over to the responsible parties. More than 1,500 firefighters, approximately 150 helicopters, 222 pieces of heavy equipment and more than 28 air tankers are fighting the fires across the province. Temperature forecast for Sunday is 18C (64 degrees F) with winds gusting up to 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph). There is the potential for showers in the Fort McMurray area.
Below: Smoke billowing away from the fires heads out across the Atlantic Ocean, and Aqua satellite captured this image of its eastward trail.
Related reading: Fort McMurray And The Fires of Climate Change, in the New Yorker.
A man the U.S. says is a hacker aligned with the government of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad will appear in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday. An unnamed source with U.S. law enforcement told reporters today that the accused hacker, 36 year old Peter Romar, was extradited to the US and flown from Germany to Dulles International Airport on Monday.
Romar is reported to be a member of the hacking group Syrian Electronic Army. He is one of three Syrian nationals charged by the feds in March with being part of a criminal conspiracy to to extort money from victims, including online U.S. publishers whose websites and social media accounts SEA pwned.
The SEA's hack of a significant U.S. military domain caused great embarrassment, and prosecutors characterize the ridiculous message screengrbbed below as "attempting to cause mutiny of the U.S. armed forces."
That much it may be, but it's a pretty pathetic one, and I'd certainly hope nobody in America's armed forces is enough of an idiot to have fallen for it.
From Reuters:
Two other defendants in the case, Ahmad Umar Agha and Firas Dardar, were charged with being involved in a "hoax regarding a terrorist attack," and "attempting to cause mutiny of the U.S. armed forces." Dardar and Agha are still believed to be in Syria. Romar and Dardar were charged separately with extortion and wire fraud. Prosecutors alleged their activities included attempts to blackmail hacking victims and transfer their extortion payments to Syria, with Romar in Germany acting as a middleman, according to a court document. The alleged hackers used a relatively unsophisticated hacking tactic known as "spear-phishing," to target computers belonging to media networks, including CNN, National Public Radio, the Associated Press and Reuters, in addition to Microsoft Corp, Harvard University and Human Rights Watch, the U.S. Justice Department said at the time of the indictment.
Related reporting at the Washington Post recaps the federal complaint, which was released a couple of months ago:
Japanese manga artist, Megumi Igarashi, who makes whimsical sculptures from molds of her vulva, was fond guilty of obscenity in Tokyo District Court. She was fined 400,000 yen ($3,670) fine.
Megumi Igarashi, who works under the pseudonym Rokudenashiko or good-for-nothing girl was arrested in July 2014 after she distributed data that enabled recipients to make 3D prints of her vagina.
The 44-year-old was fined 400,000 yen (2,575), half the penalty demanded by prosecutors, at the Tokyo district court on Monday after she was convicted of distributing "obscene" images. She was cleared of another charge of displaying similar material.
Igarashi distributed the data to help raise funds to create a kayak inspired by her genitalia she called "pussy boat."
The judge, Mihoko Tanabe, said that the data, though "flat and inorganic", realistically portrayed the shape of a vagina and could "sexually arouse viewers", according to Kyodo News.
Reuters
With only days to go before unveiling a major strategic overhaul, Credit Suisse is racing to firm up sales of parts of its business that could reduce the amount of cash it might need from investors. The embattled Swiss lender is trying to recover from a string of scandals and lawsuits and could embark on a fundamental revamp to slim down volatile investment banking to focus on wealth management. Analysts estimate it could face a capital shortfall of up to 9 billion Swiss francs ($9.01 billion) -- depending on what it does to scale back its investment bank and how much it raises from asset sales -- to restructure, support growth and have a safety cushion.
Campaign signs concerning a municipal vote over fingerprint requirements for ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft are seen along a roadway in Austin, Texas, May 6, 2016. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz (Reuters)
By Jon Herskovitz
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - On-demand ride companies Uber and Lyft suffered an embarrassing defeat in a Saturday election in Austin as voters backed a measure requiring fingerprint background checks for drivers.
The two companies spent more than $8 million to repeal a city ordinance requiring the fingerprint-based criminal checks and launched what turned into the most expensive race in the Texas capital's history. Voters said by a margin of 56 to 44 percent they wanted the fingerprint checks to stay.
The companies outspent their opponents by 80-to-1 and when the votes were tallied their campaign contributions broke down to being more than $200 for each vote in favor of their position.
"Disappointment does not begin to describe how we feel about shutting down operations in Austin," Uber's Austin general manager Chris Nakutis said in a statement.
The stakes were high for the privately held Uber [UBER.UL] and Lyft, which say their background checks are already rigorous and ensure safety.
"Unfortunately, the rules passed by City Council don't allow true ridesharing to operate," Lyft said, adding it will suspend operations in Austin as of Monday.
The loss could prod other cities to require fingerprint criminal background checks, encouraged that they can survive a bruising electoral battle with the ride-hailing services, analysts said.
The costly municipal election in Austin came as other cities consider imposing fingerprint-based background checks on drivers. The Austin election marked the first time a major U.S. city put the regulations to a vote, which happened after a petition drive by Ridesharing Works for Austin, the political action group underwritten by Uber and Lyft.
Residents were asked to decide whether a transportation ordinance passed by the City Council in December should be repealed and replaced with one backed by the on-demand ride companies.
The city ordinance calls for all ride-hailing service drivers to have fingerprint-based criminal background checks, while the ride-hailing companies backed one that does not.
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The group supporting mandated fingerprinting said the heavy spending was a signal that the Uber and Lyft campaign was motivated more by corporate profits than passenger safety.
Other places battling over fingerprints include Atlanta and Houston, which along with New York is one of the two major U.S. cities where Uber operates even though its drivers are required to undergo the fingerprint background checks.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz)
There were cheers in the United Nations as Canada officially removed its objector status to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Tuesday, almost a decade after it was adopted by the General Assembly.
"We are now a full supporter of the declaration, without qualification," Bennett said, as she addressed the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations in New York City on Tuesday.
"We intend nothing less than to adopt and implement the declaration in accordance with the Canadian Constitution."
The declaration recognizes Indigenous Peoples' basic human rights, as well as rights to self-determination, language, equality and land, among others.
Bennett who received a standing ovation for her statement is at the United Nations with Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.
"It was a very emotional moment for me," said Chief Wilton Littlechild, a Cree lawyer and former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada who was at the UN on Tuesday. Littlechild has been involved with the UN for nearly 40 years and said he's rarely seen anyone receive a standing ovation.
Implementing the declaration
Littlechild said today's announcement marks a beginning to what could be a long process of "harmonizing" Canada's laws with the standards set in the declaration, and improving the country's relationship with Indigenous Peoples.
"The declaration is much like the treaties, it calls on us to work together," he said. "Today would not be too late to start the journey together."
Bennett told the UN that Canada is in a unique position to implement the declaration.
"Through Section 35 of its Constitution, Canada has a robust framework for the protection of Indigenous rights," she said. "By adopting and implementing the declaration, we are excited that we are breathing life into Section 35 and recognizing it as a full box of rights for Indigenous Peoples in Canada."
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Bennett also said implementing the UN declaration in Canada will require the full co-operation of Indigenous Peoples and the support of all provinces and territories. Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Zimmer also attended the UN meeting.
"It can't be done unilaterally," said B.C. Grand Chief Edward John, who was also present for Tuesday's announcement.
John said that by adopting the UN declaration, more than ever Canada must now consult with Indigenous Peoples on any laws or administrative measures that affect them.
"Indigenous governments are not some inferior form of authority," John said. "They are the original form of authority over their lands, resources and territories."
Historic day
Shortly after the 2015 federal election, Bennett pledged that the new Liberal government would implement the UN declaration as part of its effort to rebuild its working relationships with First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples.
Canada actually officially endorsed the declaration in 2010, but the Conservative government of the day called it an "aspirational document" and not legally binding.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde who will also be attending the Forum later this week tweeted that it was a "historic day" as Canada moves toward reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
Correction : A previous version of this story said a standing ovation greeted Bennett in the General Assembly. In fact, it actually occurred in a conference room at the UN. (May 10, 2016 6:26 PM)
Clarification : A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Assembly of First Nations would be part of a delegation to the UN led by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett. In fact, AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde will lead a separate delegation on Thursday.(May 10, 2016 4:02 PM)
Apple Pay is becoming much more useful in Canada, as the mobile payment system welcomes the partnership of all five major banks.
The mobile payment system allows customers to upload credit and debit card information to their smartphones and use it at stores and restaurants to make purchases of up to $100.
Royal Bank and CIBC customers, as well as holders of Canadian Tire Bank and ATB Financial MasterCards, were able to use Apple Pay as of Tuesday.
TD Bank says it will be making the service available for Interac and Visa cards in the coming weeks.
The Bank of Montreal and Scotiabank have indicated they will roll out Apple Pay in the coming months.
The system launched in the U.S. in 2014 and in Canada late last year, but hasn't had much pickup because the big banks had been reluctant to sign up. Apple Pay used to only work with non-bank American Express cards, which are rare in Canada.
The company took that tack specifically because Amex is both the card issuer and payment processor, and thus easier to co-ordinate. Visa and MasterCard typically offer cards tied to financial institutions.
Compatible with iPhone 6
Apple Pay is available with the various iPhone 6 iterations and iPhone SE in compatible apps and stores.
Apple Watch (paired with iPhone 5 or later) works in stores, and four different iPads (Pro, Air 2, mini 4, mini 3) work in apps only.
Processing payments firm Moneris said in a statement that twenty-five per cent of its transactions are through contactless cards or devices a number that has doubled year over year.
McDonald's, Tim Hortons ready
"With the support of two of the largest banks in Canada, BMO Financial Group and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), consumer adoption of Apple Pay is expected to increase significantly," the statement said. "Many of Moneris's largest customers, including McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited, are 100 per cent contactless enabled and ready to accept Apple Pay."
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London Drugs, Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, Petro-Canada, and Pizza Hut are among the stores ready for Apple Pay, according to Apple's website.
Among the places where Apple Pay is "coming soon" include Air Canada, Pizza Pizza and the Toronto Transit Commission.
Apps that accept Apple Pay include Delta, Groupon, Kickstarter, Ticketmaster and Starbucks.
Businesses that accept Apple Pay can also receive "added visibility" on Apple's map app.
Neil Bearse, director of marketing at Queen's University's Smith School of Business, said the roll-out has been "less magical and revolutionary" than Apple had once promised.
"The issue is that when you go to a gas station or a convenience store and it doesn't work or the person behind the cash register doesn't even know what Apple Pay is, that's when you run into hurdles," he said. "When you're trying to disrupt something that's as much of a habit as reaching for your actual physical wallet and paying with a plastic credit card, you need to be sure that your users are going to be confident enough that it's going to work."
That said, he thinks it has the potential to succeed, allowing many people to leave their wallets at home and using a phone that is harder to steal from than a typical debit or credit card.
"If it catches on, it is a leap forward in terms of making payment both easier and more secure."
The technology works in a way that should allow people to use Apple Pay and competitors Samsung Pay or Google Wallet anywhere where tap is available, Bearse said.
Canadians accustomed to tap
Avinash Chidambaram, vice-president of product and platform development at Interac, says he expects Canadians to embrace the technology quickly and readily.
When Apple Pay launched in the United States, contactless payments were a new phenomenon for shoppers, and it took some time for them to adjust their payment habits.
Canadians, on the other hand, are already used to paying with a tap because the technology was introduced into credit and debit cards some time ago, Chidambaram says.
"[In Canada] you can find contactless flash terminals at virtually any merchant that you want to shop at," says Chidambaram.
"Whereas in the U.S. they're just starting that process of converting their magnetic stripe [cards] to chip-and-pin and
contactless technology."
By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin DUBAI (Reuters) - Several Iranian soldiers were killed near Aleppo, the Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday, in what appeared to be one of Iran's biggest losses in Syria since it deployed forces to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Islamist insurgents on Friday seized the strategic village of Khan Touman, some 15 km (9 miles) southwest of Aleppo. Dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the battle. Fars news agency on Saturday quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 Iranian military advisors had been killed and 21 wounded in the fighting. The attack on Khan Touman was launched by an alliance of Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which has rejected diplomatic efforts to halt the five-year civil war. Earlier this week, the United States and Russia brokered a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo itself. But fighting in the countryside to the south of the city, one of the major fronts where Iranian-backed forces have been deployed, has escalated in recent days. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group that monitors the conflict, said that Syrian and Russian jet planes have intensified their bombing of insurgent posts. Jaish al-Fatah and affiliates have published on social media videos and photos of what appear to be the bodies of Iranians or other Shi'ite militias who were killed in Khan Touman. Some videos include footage of their wallets, personal documentation and Iranian currency. There are indications that some of the casualties might be Afghans who are trained in Iran and are deployed alongside Iranian soldiers in Syria. The Revolutionary Guards in a statement on Saturday urged people not to be affected by the Islamist rebels' "psychological war on the social media". A top advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader on Saturday reiterated Tehran's continued support of Syria's president in a meeting with Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. "Iran will use all its means to fight against terrorists who are committing crimes in the region," Ali Akbar Velayati, Ayatollah Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency. The war in Syria has killed more than 250,000 people though, with tens of thousands unaccounted for, some say the death toll may be as high as 400,000. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, additional reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman, editing by Digby Lidstone)
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un has been promoted from first secretary to chairman of the ruling Workers' party at its first congress in 36 years.
His new title was predicted by analysts who had expected the 33-year-old chief would use the rare gathering to consolidate his grip on power.
The congress also announced it was strengthening the country's defensive nuclear weapons capability, putting the North's position on a more formal footing, and in defiance of UN sanctions.
His predecessors keep their posthumous titles - his grandfather, North Korean founder Kim Il-Sung is still "eternal president" and his father Kim Jong-Il remains "eternal general secretary".
Mr Kim and other senior party members took their seats, filling several rows on a stage at the April 25 House of Culture, below portraits of his two relatives.
Kim Yong-Nam, the head of North Korea's parliament, stood to read a roster of top party positions - calling Mr Kim chairman for the first time.
By gathering the congress together - something his father never did - Mr Kim's leadership style may be more like that of his grandfather, who used the party machine to get things done.
His father preferred going through his own network of trusted individuals.
Mr Kim's promotion was announced as about 30 of 100 invited foreign journalists were allowed for the first time to view proceedings at the congress, which began on Friday.
A number of others were not allowed to attend the meeting, including a team from Sky News.
Officials have kept the foreign media busy with trips around the capital, showing them places the North wants them to see.
The sites included a textile factory named after Kim Jong-Suk, the wife of Kim Il-Sung and the current leader's grandmother.
They were also taken to a maternity hospital, electric cable factory and children's centre.
Meanwhile, three BBC journalists were expelled on Monday for allegedly "insulting the dignity" of the country.
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Pyongyang has said it was "a responsible nuclear weapons state" and vowed not to use them unless its sovereignty was threatened by a nuclear state.
Following nuclear tests earlier this year, the North was hit with tougher UN sanctions backed by its only major ally China.
Despite the penalties, the North has continued with its controversial project, and said it had developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on missiles.
Western experts believe Pyongyang has about 40kg of plutonium, enough to build eight to 12 nuclear weapons.
North and South Korea are still in a technical state of war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
The North regularly threatens its neighbour and major ally, the United States, which it accuses of planning a nuclear attack.
Manitoba Liberal Party Leader Rana Bokhari is stepping down, according to a news release issued by the party on Saturday.
"It is on that positive note, that I have informed the Manitoba Liberal Party Executive that I will not be leading the MLP into the next election," she is quoted as saying.
This comes less than three weeks after three Liberal candidates were elected as MLAs in the Manitoba provincial election, when Brian Pallister's Progressive Conservative Party won a record-breaking majority in the province.
Closely following the election, Bokhari announced she had no intention to step down. In fact, she said, she hadn't ever considered quitting.
"Now is not the time to disrupt anything, we've got to keep moving forward," Bokhari said on April 21.
But on Saturday, the statement said Bokhari plans to resume practicing law once a new party leader is elected.
Until then, she will stay on as the Manitoba Liberal Party's interim leader.
"Over the coming months as we transition into an even more exciting phase and elect a new leader, I will be working with the Liberal caucus and the Liberal Party Executive to ensure that the leadership transition is smooth and constructive," she is quoted as saying in the news release.
"As interim leader, I will work with the entire Liberal team, to continue to engage with our supporters, to fundraise and build our capacity for the new leader who will lead us to even greater success in 2020."
By Neil Jerome Morales DAVAO, Philippines (Reuters) - The presumptive winner of the Philippine election on Monday said that if he became president he would settle rows over the South China Sea with multilateral talks that would include allies the United States, Japan and Australia as well as claimant nations. Rodrigo Duterte, the tough-talking mayor of Davao City, said China should respect the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone granted to coastal states under international law and should team up with the Philippines to jointly exploit offshore oil and gas. "I would say to China, 'do not claim anything here and I will not insist also that it is ours'. But then I will just keep (turn) a blind eye," he told reporters, as results of an unofficial vote count came in showing him winning a hefty 40 percent of the votes. "If you want joint ventures, fine, we can get the gas and the oil," he said. "I believe in sharing." Tensions between the Philippines and China have risen as an international tribunal in the Hague prepares to deliver a ruling in the next few months in a case lodged by Manila in 2013 that could undermine Beijing's claims to 90 percent of the South China Sea. China has rejected the court's authority. Duterte, 71, has puzzled diplomats with what has so far been a contradictory position on how he would deal with China's assertiveness and a blockade by its coastguard of waters and islands claimed by the Philippines. During one presidential debate he said he would call for dialogue with Beijing, but moments later added he would ride a jet ski to disputed Spratly islands occupied by China and plant a Philippine flag there. But on Monday he said that talks were needed between claimant countries - the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and China - plus big powers like the United States, Australia and Japan. "They would want a multilateral roundtable discussion, probably this year," he said of Western countries. "I do not think anyone is interested in going to war. Although we are allies with America, we will agree to, say, multilateral participation." China's dominant presence in disputed waters has complicated protracted Philippine efforts to exploit oil and gas in coastal waters by local firms, which operate mostly with foreign partners. (Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
Distance Learning
Federal Office of Personnel Management Taps Excelsior College for Employee Ed
Excelsior College and the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have partnered in an effort designed to make higher education more accessible and affordable to more than 1 million federal employees and their spouses or domestic partners.
"A national nonprofit leader in higher education for more than 40 years," according to information on the college's site, "Excelsior is an accredited institution that offers innovative distance learning programs that are specifically designed for working adults."
Through Excelsior College, federal employees will be able to earn associate's or bachelor's degrees using credits earned from other institutions, earn a graduate degree, develop specialized skills or earn a professional certificate.
"Professional development has taken on greater importance in recent years as all levels of government look to address the skills gap," said John Ebersole, president of Excelsior College, in a prepared statement. "By this agreement with Excelsior, federal employees will have access to a quality, affordable education. It will also assist agencies in addressing their current and future workforce needs."
The partnership is designed to address multiple efforts from OPM, including attracting new talent, supporting employee career development and addressing government-wide and agency-specific skills gaps.
"OPM continually works with federal agencies to ensure their employees are able to handle the very important work they do on behalf of the American people," said OPM Acting Director Beth F. Cobert, in a prepared statement. "With this agreement, we are helping them do just that, while also closing vital skills gaps to strengthen our workforce."
More information is available at excelsior.edu. The college will also host a series of webinars for federal employees interested in learning more about the partnership.
HENDERSON, Nev., May 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rostock Ventures Corp. (ROSV) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that its senior management team will be attending Industrial Minerals Event's 8th annual Lithium Supply & Markets Conference May 24-26 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This years event follows last years successful conference in Shanghai, China and will host global players from the lithium industry. The Las Vegas location is nearby to not only the sole lithium brine producing mine in North America and the exciting exploration play developing around it, but also the Tesla battery gigafactory currently under construction.
Greg Rotelli, President of Rostock Ventures, remarked, ROSV Director, Eric Allison, and I look forward to the opportunity to hear the latest on the activity in the lithium space and interact with global players from the lithium value chain. In addition to attending the conference, we plan to also undertake additional due diligence on our recently acquired Elon claims as well as on further opportunities in and around Clayton Valley in Esmeralda County.
The ELON claim block consists of four 20-acre placer claims and is located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, and is contiguous to claims held by both PURE Energy and Lithium X in Clayton Valley. Clayton Valley is home to Albemarles Silver Peak Lithium Mine, the only mine producing lithium from brine in North America. The Clayton Valley area has been the focus of significant levels of exploration and acreage acquisition in recent months and is considered to be one of the best places for lithium exploration in North America. Both PURE Energy and Lithium X are actively exploring their respective claim blocks in Clayton Valley. Recent lithium exploration and claim activity has spread to additional prospective basins in the areas surrounding Clayton Valley such as the Fish Lake Valley less than 25 miles to the northwest of Silver Peak.
Forward-looking Statements:
Some of the statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including the risks and uncertainties related to the progress, timing, cost, and results of technology programs; competition from other companies; and the Company's ability to obtain additional funding required to conduct its activities. Please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a comprehensive list of risk factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.
WASHINGTON, May 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Israel Project congratulates the Iowa state government for passing legislation ensuring that no state agency supports a politically motivated boycott of Israel. Governor Terry Branstad (R) today held a ceremony to sign the legislation, which secures the relationship between Iowa and Israel.
The Israel Project commends the state legislature and the governor for emphatically reaffirming Iowas commitment to the shared democratic values and shared interests that form the basis of this important relationship.
This is an important day for the people of Iowa, said Josh Block, The Israel Project CEO. The U.S. relationship with Israel is unbreakable because it is based on the unshakable values we share - values such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, a free press and defense of human rights. Standing up against discrimination is an important part of that. This bill ensures that Iowa remains at the forefront of supporting our critical relationship with Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East.
The legislation, which rejects hatred and discrimination while protecting Iowa taxpayers from financially supporting deceptive anti-Israel efforts, was sponsored by Senator Jeff Danielson (D) and Rep. Quentin Stanerson (R), and recently passed overwhelmingly in a 38-9 vote in the Senate.
The Israel Project applauds Iowans and their elected representatives for taking a stand against efforts to single out Israel.
About The Israel Project
The Israel Project (TIP) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization that provides factual information about Israel and the Middle East to the press, policymakers and the public. Founded in 2003, TIP works in multiple languages to provide real-time background information, images, maps, audio, video, graphics and direct access to newsmakers. To learn more about TIP, visit http://www.theisraelproject.org.
English Latvian
In 2015 audited consolidated turnover of SIA VIA SMS Group and its subsidiaries was EUR 13.6 million, comparing to audited group report in 2014 it has increased for 18.2%, it has happened due to excellent sales in Poland, Latvia as well as in newly established subsidiary in Spain. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were EUR 2.9 million, comparing to audited group report of 2014 it has decreased for 6%, net profit as per 31 December 2015 is EUR 1.5 million - it has decreased for 4% comparing to audited group report of 2014.
EBITDA and net profit of SIA VIA SMS Group has decreased because VIACONTO MINICREDIT S.L. has started its operations in Spain in April, 2015 where initially its operations resulted in loss of EUR 0.7 million, loss of 2015 will be covered from next period profits in Spain. Excluding loss of VIACONTO MINICREDIT S.L., profit of SIA VIA SMS Group for the reporting year 2015 comparing to 2014 has increased for 40%.
Due to excellent sales results in Poland, Latvia as well as in Spain, total net loan portfolio as of 31 December 2015 has reached EUR 10.6 million, comparing to group report of 2014, total net loan portfolio has increased for 32%.
At the end of 2015 operations in Lithuania are stopped, as a result on December 28, 2015 remaining loan portfolio of VIA SMS LT UAB in amount of EUR 125 281 was sold. Decision regarding closing of operations in Lithuania market was made due to legislation changes in consumer lending in Lithuania which came into force in 2013, these changes led to sharp decrease in number of issued loans and its amount.
In March, 2016 SIA VIA SMS Group subsidiary ViaSpar Finans AB has received permission to attrack deposits in Sweeden in amount of SEK 50K from private and legal entities.
SIA VIA SMS Group
SIA VIA SMS group is the second largest online lender in Eastern Europe, providing loans without collateral to individuals since 2009. It operates under the brand names VIA SMS, VIA CREDIT and VIA CONTO, and offers loans for up to 12 months in Latvia, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweeden and Spain. VIA SMS Group has more than 750 000 registered clients and total amount of annually issued loans has reached EUR 55 million.
Danish English
Today, DONG Energy and the state owned entity, Energinet.dk, have signed an agreement under which Energinet.dk will acquire DONG Energys 100% ownership share in DONG Gas Distribution A/S and related operational activities. 97 employees will be transferred to Energinet.dk, when the transaction is closed 30. September 2016.
DONG Gas Distribution A/S will be divested for a total consideration of DKK 2.3 billion (enterprise value), and is expected to result in a gain from sale of enterprises (not part of EBITDA) of DKK 1.5 billion. The EBITDA contribution from DONG Gas Distribution A/S was DKK 360 million in 2015.
The transaction is among other things subject to approval by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate and competition authorities. DONG Energy and Energinet.dk will enter into a transitional services agreement under which services are provided for an agreed period post-closing.
DONG Gas Distribution A/S is a grid company, responsible for the transport of gas to about 122,000 customers in Southern Jutland as well as Western and Southern Zealand.
The divestment to Energinet.dk is part of the political agreement regarding DONG Energys Initial Public Offering.
The information provided in this announcement does not change DONG Energys previous financial guidance for the 2016 financial year.
For additional information, please contact:
Media Relations
Morten Kidal
+45 9955 9583
Investor Relations
Henrik Brunniche Lund
+ 9955 9722
This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for any shares or other securities of DONG Energy A/S or affiliates thereof. The announcement is not directed to any person resident in any jurisdiction in which the submission or distribution of this announcement would contravene the law of such jurisdiction. This announcement may not be distributed to persons resident in any such jurisdiction. Accordingly this announcement may not be distributed in any jurisdiction outside Denmark if such distribution would require any registration, qualification or other requirement. Any person acquiring possession of this announcement is expected and assumed to obtain on his or her own accord any necessary information on any applicable restrictions and to comply with such restrictions.
DONG Energy is one of the leading energy groups in Northern Europe, headquartered in Denmark. Around 6,700 ambitious employees are engaged in developing, constructing and operating offshore wind farms; generating power and heat from our power stations; providing energy to residential and business customers; and producing oil and gas. Group revenue was DKK 71bn (EUR 9.5bn) in 2015. For further information, see www.dongenergy.com
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This article was originally on GET.com at: 4 Signs That Point To An Economic Gloom In Singapore
Youve probably heard your fair share of how Singapore is going through dark times with its economy slowing down. Just to reiterate this serious matter, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in its latest analysis and assessment of macroeconomic workings that affect our economy, indicated that an outright recession is unlikely though we all should brace ourselves for a darker gloom cloaking our economy.
If you havent heard, here are 13 jobs in Singapore whose earnings have taken a hit. We sure hope youre not the ones affected, of course. Nonetheless, we at GET.com have compiled this list of 4 signs that suggest that Singapore is indeed facing an economic gloom.
4 Signs That Point To An Economic Gloom In Singapore
1. Dwindling Trade Numbers
Even if you arent trained in economics per se, youre probably well aware that trade makes up part of our GDP. So, you know its bad news for export-driven Singapore when our non-oil domestic exports (NODX) numbers in Singapore dipped to their lowest ever in 3 years - Marchs 15.6% decline was more dire than the expected 12.3% fall economists had forecasted.
2. Ailing Real Estate Market
You cant blame Singapores property market for being lacklustre when investors are becoming more cautious of where they park their money. This is especially true in a tepid business environment that is unfortunately exacerbated by cooling measures like the Additional Buyers Stamp Duty and Total Debt Servicing Ratio.
Back in February 2016, Mr Shanmugam mentioned that the ministers may relook these policies when the time is right, and when the risks are more manageable. Normal people like us, obviously wont know when exactly that will be.
For those who havent already heard, both rental and resale home prices have plunged for non-landed private homes in Singapore. And recent data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority signaled that prices of private residential properties dipped by 0.7% in Q1 2016. Thats not all - weve also reported that you can now rent a condominium for almost the same rental price of an HDB.
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Besides, the ailing property market doesnt just affect property agents, mortgage specialists, lawyers who specialize in conveyancing, investors, homeowners, those who depend on rental income for a living but also everyone in the industry including architects and engineers.
3. Proliferation Of Vacant Malls
Singaporeans love shopping. Need some evidence to convince you? Here are 13 shocking statistics that seal Singaporeans love for shopping. But when malls are becoming more and more vacant by the second, you know something isnt right.
Also, you wouldnt be surprised that more and more brands are leaving Singapores incredibly tough retail scene, right? The above mentioned piece of fresh news highlighted the fact that the number of empty shopfronts are creeping up steadily no matter whether theyre in our renowned Orchard Road shopping belt or the Marina Bay area.
4. The News Keeps Underscoring That Our Economy Is Gloomy
If something isnt news-worthy, it isnt. So when the news keeps putting our gloomy economy in the spotlight almost every single day right now, we know our economy isnt performing as well as all of us would have liked.
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The phone rings off the hook these days at some pharmacies in Florida and the calls are long-distance: from Venezuelans desperate for everything from diapers to cancer medication.
Venezuela, though sitting atop the world's largest proven oil reserves, is enduring an acute economic crisis due in part to the global drop in crude prices and just about everything is in short supply, including medicine.
So people are phoning in prescriptions to a handful of pharmacies in south Florida that are willing to help, although a shortage of dollars in Venezuela means most of the orders cannot be filled: Venezuelans cannot pay for the medicine with local currency, just greenbacks, which they do not have.
Still, the pharmacies are doing what they can.
The flood of calls is so great that one pharmacy set up a phone line just to take calls from Venezuela, said Walter Cohen, head of international sales for Locatel, a Venezuelan pharmacy chain that has two outlets in south Florida.
In the five years that these pharmacies have been accepting prescriptions from abroad and offering to send medicine to Venezuela "the increase has been exponential," Cohen said.
Every week the pharmacy receives about 1,000 orders for things such as medicine, vitamins and even medical equipment.
Besides Locatel, some other pharmacies, courier services and civil society organizations have stepped up to try to make it easier to send medicine to the hard-pressed people of Venezuela.
The opposition in Venezuela has gone so far as to say the country is suffering a full-blown humanitarian crisis.
But the leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro defends itself by blaming the crisis on what it says are conservative business interests maneuvering to topple him.
And as that fight grinds on, pharmacy telephones in Florida ring and ring and ring.
- Basic stuff -
"We receive countless calls at the pharmacy, each with a different story, people asking for such little things as anti-inflammatories, catheters, basic things that people simply cannot get a hold of," said Miguel Gonzalez, one of the owners of Pharm Aid, in the town of Pembroke Pines.
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The medicines most commonly requested are for chronic diseases such as high blood pressure or diabetes, or to battle cancer. But Venezuelans also call in for birth control pills and even diapers, pharmacy employees said.
This is happening because Florida law allows pharmacies to accept medical prescriptions from abroad. The actual paperwork is usually sent by fax.
If the medicine requested is not available in the United States, the Venezuela-friendly pharmacies are good at suggesting alternatives or medicines with the same active ingredient as in the ones being ordered.
But payment is indeed a problem. The pharmacies only accept dollars, and they are hard to come by in Venezuela because of strict currency controls.
"We pay our suppliers in dollars, we sell for dollars. We have no other way to do it," said Cohen, who is Venezuelan himself. His company works with private foundations to try to make medicine more affordable for people back home.
Because of the currency pitfall only about 10 percent of the orders received are actually filled, Cohen said. So this kind of business "is not really economically viable for us."
But the cases that do work out are a source of true satisfaction for the pharmacy. "People call us to say 'thank you, you saved us. Those calls are what make all of this worthwhile and possible," said Cohen.
Pharm Aid often waives shipping costs when the medicine is expensive, said Freddy Abreu, another owner of the pharmacy.
- Family support -
Venezuelans are also relying on relatives in south Florida, where Venezuelan emigrants tend to settle.
"Here is where I buy my mother's medicine for high blood pressure," Venezuelan Oralia Martinez said while shopping at Locatel. She arrived in Florida a year ago on a student visa, and sends medicine home to her 72-year-old mother and other relatives.
Courier companies that send things from Florida to Venezuela report that more and more they are sending packages with medicine.
Because of Venezuela's economic crisis -- in which goods in short supply include essentials such as toilet paper and soap, besides food -- one of the couriers, Terra Overseas, does not charge for shipping medicine.
"At first we sent a lot of appliances, a lot of clothing. But now with the crisis in Venezuela we mainly send medicine and basic necessities, such as food and soap," said Lady Guillen-Rivera, vice president of Terra Overseas.
It is based in Doral, near Miami and with a large Venezuelan community.
Since the company stopped charging for shipping medication, orders have skyrocketed and its employees are working overtime.
"We have family there and every day we hear about the hardships they are enduring. So it is no longer a matter of doing business. It is not about money, but rather we need to help," said Guillen-Rivera.
By John Davison and David Brunnstrom BEIRUT/PARIS (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and their allies fought insurgents near Aleppo on Monday and jets conducted raids around a nearby town seized by Islamist rebels, a monitoring group said, as Syria's military said a ceasefire in Aleppo would be extended by 48 hours starting on Tuesday. A recent surge in bloodshed in Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, wrecked the 10-week-old, partial truce sponsored by Washington and Moscow that had allowed U.N.-brokered peace talks to convene in Geneva. The United States and Russia, which support rival sides in the civil war, said they would work to revive the February "cessation of hostilities" agreement that reduced fighting in parts of the country for several weeks. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said all parties had to press the sides they back to turn "words on a piece of paper" into actions to reinstate the truce. Syria's military high command was quoted by state news agency SANA as saying the Aleppo ceasefire would be extended by 48 hours in the northern city beginning at 1 a.m. local time on Tuesday (2200 GMT on Monday). A number of short-term local truces have been in place since April 29, first around Damascus and northern Latakia and then in Aleppo, but there has still been fighting between rebels and government forces. The cessation of hostilities and local truces do not include Islamic State or al Qaeda's Syrian branch, the Nusra Front. Asaad al-Zoubi, the chief negotiator for the main Syrian opposition at the Geneva talks, criticised the extended Aleppo truce, telling Al Jazeera television that such measures served only to allow thousands of reinforcing troops to be sent from Iran, which is supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Warplanes struck the town of Khan Touman, southwest of Aleppo, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Rebels also fought government forces east of Damascus, and jets hit the rebel-held towns of Maarat al-Numan and Idlib. Russia and the United States said in a joint statement they would step up efforts to persuade the warring parties to abide by the ceasefire agreement. "We have decided to reconfirm our commitment to the (ceasefire) in Syria and to intensify efforts to ensure its nation-wide implementation," they said. "We demand that parties cease any indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including civilian infrastructure and medical facilities." Visiting Paris, Kerry said a reduction of violence in line with the U.S.-Russian joint statement depended on field commanders as well as interested parties including the United States. "These are words on a piece of paper. They are not actions," he said. "We have a responsibility to make certain that the opposition lives up to this, and Russia and Iran have a responsibility to make sure the Assad regime lives up to this." Basma Kodmani, a member of the opposition High Negotiations Committee, expressed hope of a return to the Geneva peace talks if the U.S.-Russian agreement is swiftly implemented. STRATEGIC PRIZE Russia's military intervention last September helped Assad reverse some rebel gains in the west of the country, including in Aleppo province. But insurgents captured the town of Khan Touman last week, inflicting a rare setback on government forces and allied Iranian troops who suffered heavy losses in the fighting. Several Iranian soldiers were captured in the clashes, a senior Iranian lawmaker said on Monday. The city of Aleppo is one of the biggest strategic prizes in a war now in its sixth year, and has been divided into government and rebel-held zones through much of the conflict. The Observatory said warplanes struck rebel-held areas of the city early on Monday, and rebels fired shells into government-held neighbourhoods. Al Manar, the television channel of Damascus's Lebanese ally Hezbollah, said on Monday troops had destroyed a tank belonging to insurgents and killed some of its occupants. On the eastern edge of Damascus, government forces and their allies shelled rebel areas and clashed with insurgents, the Observatory and the rebel force Jaish al-Islam said. Three people were killed and 13 wounded in air strikes on Idlib, it said. Jaish al-Islam agreed with a rival rebel group, Failaq al Rahman, that both would vacate a town they have been fighting over for almost two weeks, the Observatory said. The groups, two of the strongest operating in the area, agreed to make no more attempts to occupy the town of Misraba in the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus, and return it to civilian rule. After 13 days of heavy artillery exchanges, Jaish al Islam took control of the town over the weekend, capturing around 50 rival fighters. Saudi Arabia condemned air strikes on a camp for displaced Syrians west of Aleppo last week that killed at least 28 people, saying it was part of "the genocide committed by Bashar al-Assad's forces against civilians in Syria." A Saudi cabinet statement on Monday said the strikes on the camp, alongside the prevention of humanitarian aid deliveries to Syrians, constituted war crimes. Damascus has denied targeting the camp or obstructing aid deliveries. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, hosting a meeting in Paris of Assad's opponents, said Syrian government forces and their allies had bombarded hospitals and refugee camps. "It is not Daesh (Islamic State) that is being attacked in Aleppo, it is the moderate opposition," he said. The U.S.-Russian joint statement said Moscow would work with Syrian authorities "to minimize aviation operations over areas that are predominantly inhabited by civilians or parties to the cessation." (Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington in Beirut, Geert De Clercq in Paris, Sylvia Westall in Dubai and Tom Miles in Geneva; writing by Dominic Evans and Peter Cooney; editing by David Stamp and G Crosse)
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann quit Monday, bowing to intense pressure two weeks after the anti-immigration far-right triumphed in the first round of presidential elections. The centre-left Faymann, 56, chancellor for the past eight years, said in a surprise statement that he no longer had "strong backing" in his party, the Social Democrats (SPOe). "As a result of this insufficient support, I am accepting the consequences and resign my functions as party leader and chancellor, effective today," he said. It was unclear who would succeed him. Heinz-Christian Strache, head of the populist Freedom Party (FPOe), said it was "more than doubtful whether a party (the SPOe) acting as chaotically as this is capable of governing Austria at such a time of crisis." He said Faymann's resignation "does not solve the SPOe's basic problem, which is its utterly wrong policies (decided) over the heads of people and against Austria's interests." The SPOe and its coalition partner since 2008, the centre-right People's Party (OeVP), have dominated Austrian politics since World War II but their support has been sliding in recent years. At the last general election, in 2013, they only just scratched together a majority, and polls suggest they will struggle to do so again at the next scheduled vote in 2018. Mirroring similar trends across Europe, they have been bleeding support to fringe groups, in Austria's case in particular to the FPOe, the former party of the controversial, late Joerg Haider. The FPOe has tapped into unease about immigration after Austria last year saw a record 90,000 people claim asylum, and around 10 times that number pass through at the high point of Europe's migrant crisis. The low-key Faymann, who was little known when he became chancellor, at first echoed German Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance but in recent months took a harder line. This though failed to stop the rise of the far-right. His coalition has also presided over a rise in unemployment, with Austria losing its crown as the EU member with the lowest jobless rate. The coalition has squabbled over structural reforms too. - Friendly far-right - The FPOe is leading national opinion polls and on April 24, in the first round of elections to the largely -- but not entirely -- ceremonial post of president, the FPOe's Norbert Hofer came a clear first with 35 percent. Hofer, 45, who presents himself as the friendly and reasonable face of the FPOe, will now be up against Alexander van der Bellen, a former head of the Greens who came second, in a runoff on May 22. The two ruling parties' candidates were relegated into distant fourth and fifth places, failing to make it through to the runoff with just 11 percent of the vote each. This historic failure means that for the first time since 1945, there will not be a president from within these two parties in Vienna's Hofburg palace. This in turn could mean that the new president might make use of some of the considerable powers afforded to the head of state under Austria's constitution, powers which until now have been not been used. In theory the Austrian president can fire the government -- as Hofer has threatened to do if elected -- or dissolve parliament. Van der Bellen has said he would not appoint an FPOe-led government. - A new face - Deputy Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner, from the OeVP, will replace Faymann on an interim basis but it was unclear who would be his permanent successor. Christian Kern, head of the national railways company, and Gerhard Zeiler, former chief of national broadcaster ORF, have been touted as possible replacements. The party's central committee was due to meet later on Monday but the Austria Press Agency reported that a decision on Faymann's successor would be taken at an extraordinary party meeting on May 17. "It would be good to have a new face, someone from outside the party," said Karin Cvrtila from the OGM polling institute. "They need to agree a position on the main question: how to deal with the FPOe." This, Cvrtila said, could even be leaving open the possibility of forming a coalition with the far-right -- something which could however tear the SPOe apart.
Poe concedes; Marcos, Leni in cliffhanger
From the only son of two democracy icons, Filipinos have handed over the presidency to tough-talking Rodrigo Duterte.
In the vice presidential race, Sen. Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. was locked in a tight race with administration candidate Leni Robredo.
Unofficial results at 1:40 this morning from 87.07 percent of polling precincts showed the Davao City mayor enjoying an insurmountable lead of nearly 5.8 million over his closest rival, Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Mar Roxas, based on the partial and unofficial tally from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.
Placing third was Sen. Grace Poe, who called a press conference at midnight to announce that she had conceded to Duterte.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, the initial frontrunner, placed fourth, followed by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
Responding to a question from The STAR last night, Duterte said he wanted to be called President Rody the nickname given to him by his late mother.
His rise to the nations highest post has been phenomenal. A reluctant candidate, Duterte nearly missed the deadline for filing his certificate of candidacy last year.
Duterte had said he was running because he did not want an American to become president a reference to Poe, who still faces legal questions about her citizenship and residency requirements for high office. Later, Duterte said he would withdraw from the race if Poe would be disqualified.
He often got himself into trouble throughout his campaign, peppering speeches with expletives and vulgarity, cursing Pope Francis for causing traffic in Manila, talking lightly about rape, and making no apologies about his human rights record.
But Dutertes promise to kill thugs and rid the country of criminality within three to six months of assuming the presidency gave him a decisive win. Pre-election surveys showed him enjoying support across all social classes.
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Accusations of large-scale corruption hurled against him and his family in the final days of the campaign failed to make a dent in his popularity.
In the race for vice president, Roxas running mate Rep. Leni Robredo was running a close second to Marcos, followed by Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Antonio Trillanes IV and Gregorio Honasan.
As of 7 p.m., 40 percent of the election results had been transmitted to the National Canvassing Center. The official canvass starts at 11 a.m. today.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the 12 winners in the Senate race are expected to be proclaimed within 72 hours.
Duterte took a commanding lead from the first hour of the unofficial vote count, garnering three million more votes than Poe. Roxas, Binay and Santiago followed.
The late former ambassador Roy Seneres, whose name could no longer be deleted from the ballot, had 19,228 votes as of 11:07 last night.
As Dutertes lead widened by nearly five million, the mayor thanked those who voted for him but also thanked those who did not, stressing that what was important was to have their voices heard.
I am a great believer in destiny, Duterte told GMA 7 News when asked for a message to the nation. If I win, you have my guarantee that I will work for the people.
He added , What is important is that the votes are counted correctly.
The same point was raised by Marcos, even as he said, Its not over till its over.
Of course Im happy and its good to see that we are leading in the count, but its still too early to make judgments, Marcos said. Well keep waiting and watching. We will continue to monitor the votes.
The PPCRV is conducting the unofficial quick count together with the Kapisanan ng mg Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.
As of 7 p.m., the count covered 40.82 percent of the 92,509 clustered precincts nationwide.
We are almost halfway with the transmission and hopefully we would be able to outdo our performance in the 2013 elections, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said at 7 p.m. yesterday. I did not expect it to be this fast.
In 2013, the Comelec was able to proclaim six of the winning Senate candidates three days after election day.
Roxas camp admitted that the early results were a bit discouraging, but stressed that the fight was not yet over.
The boxing is not yet finished, Koalisyon ng Daang Matuwid spokesman and Akbayan Rep. Ibarra Gutierrez told a press briefing at the LP headquarters in Quezon City last night. Theres still time to make up for the ground that we have to cover. For the vice presidential race, obviously the number is much closer so well continue monitoring and we remain optimistic.
Binays camp initially preferred to wait for official results, with his campaign spokesman Rico Quicho telling a press conference, Lets wait. Were really optimistic that by tomorrow, things will be clearer and results will be believable.
But Binay issued a statement last night, saying he would respect the outcome of the elections and urging Filipinos to move towards healing and unity for our divided land.
I have repeatedly called for respecting institutions and the democratic process. Once the process is completed, we should always respect the outcome, Binay said. With Mayen Jaymalin, Alexis Romero, Jose Rodel Clapano, Helen Flores
By James Pearson PYONGYANG (Reuters) - Thousands of ecstatic North Koreans joined a mass rally and parade on Tuesday as leader Kim Jong Un capped off the consolidation of his power at a ruling party congress at which he formalised its claim to be a nuclear weapons power. Kim used the party congress, the first in 36 years, to highlight North Korea's aim to expand its nuclear arsenal, in defiance of U.N. sanctions, though he said the weapons would only be used if North Korea was threatened with similar weapons. Kim also set out a five-year plan to revive his isolated country's creaking economy, although it was short on targets, and the party enshrined Kim's "Byongjin" policy of simultaneous pursuit of nuclear weapons and economic development. "Under the authorisation of Workers' Party Chairman Kim Jong Un, the Central Committee sends the warmest greetings to the people and soldiers who concluded the 70-day battle with the greatest of victory and glorified the Congress as an auspicious event," Kim Yong Nam, the titular head of state, told the rally under overcast skies in the capital's Kim Il Sung Square. North Korea had been engaged in a 70-day campaign of accelerated productivity in the run-up to the Workers' Party congress, including sprucing-up the capital, a gruelling exercise that left many people exhausted, Western residents said. But there was no sign of that at Tuesday's rally, where thousands shouted "manse!", or "live forever!" while clasping their hands in the air or waving pink flowers as they passed before Kim and other top officials on a leaders' platform. Kim, 33, had traded the western-style suit he wore at the four-day congress for the more traditional uniform of North Korean leaders, a dark jacket buttoned to the collar. He smiled and waved at the crowd and chatted with military and party aides, state media footage showed. Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, who was formally elected by the congress to the party's Central Committee, stood next to him for some of the time. The young leader Kim, who assumed power in 2011 after his father's death, took on the new title of party chairman on Monday. The promotion - his previous party title was first secretary - had been predicted by analysts who had expected Kim would use the congress to further shore up his power. Among other changes at the congress, a former army Chief of General Staff who South Korean media had reported had been purged and executed, was elected alternate member of the party Politburo and a member of the powerful Central Military Commission. The first congress since 1980 was seen by North Korea-watchers as a move to restore the central role of the party while diluting the political role of the military. 'PREPOSTEROUS' Old rival South Korea denounced North Korea's nuclear ambitions, seeing little cause for optimism in a conciliatory gesture Kim made on the weekend when he said military talks were needed with the South to discuss ways to ease tension. South Korea President Park Geun-hye said the North showed no sign of willingness to change but only made "preposterous claims about being a nuclear weapons state". The two Koreas remain in a technical state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea regularly threatens the South and its major ally, the United States, which it accuses of planning a nuclear attack. Relations between the Koreas have been at a low since North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, which also brought tougher U.N. sanctions backed by lone major ally China, which disapproves of North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. Despite the sanctions, North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile development, and said it had succeeded in miniaturising a nuclear warhead and launching a submarine-based ballistic missile. Chinese President Xi Jinping sent congratulations to Kim for his promotion at the party congress. There was no direct mention of North Korea's nuclear programme in Xi's message. "We will make efforts together with the DPRK side to bring happiness to the two countries and their peoples and contribute to peace, stability and development in this region by steadily developing the Sino-DPRK friendship and cooperation," North Korea's state KCNA news agency quoted Xi as saying. DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name. An unusually large contingent of 128 foreign journalists were issued visas to visit during the congress, but their access to formal proceedings was limited to a brief visit by a small group to the congress venue on Monday. BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and two his colleagues who had been in North Korea to cover the visit of a group of Nobel laureates ahead of the congress were expelled from the country on Monday over his reporting. (Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Writing and additional reporting by Tony Munroe; Editing by Nick Macfie, Robert Birsel)
AFP News
Ukraine on Sunday denounced as dangerous lies suggestions from Russia that it was preparing to use a "dirty bomb". Its western allies also dismissed the allegations from Moscow, just hours after Russia went public with the claims. In conversations with his British, French and Turkish counterparts, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu conveyed "concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine with the use of a 'dirty bomb'", Moscow said. Russia did not mention the alleged "dirty bomb" allegation in its statement following Shoigu's call with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin. "If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on social media. "I believe that now the world should react as harshly as possible." Earlier Sunday, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denounced Moscow's claims as "absurd" and "dangerous". "Russians often accuse others of what they plan themselves," he added. A British defence ministry statement said Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had "refuted these claims and cautioned that such allegations should not be used as a pretext for greater escalation". And in Washington, National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson dismissed Moscow's "transparently false" claim. "The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation," she added. - 'Vile strikes' - Russia also announced Sunday that it had destroyed a depot in central Ukraine storing over 100,000 tonnes of aviation fuel. Kyiv's energy operator meanwhile said scheduled power cuts had been introduced in the Ukrainian capital due to Russia's repeated strikes on the nation's power network. The blackouts started from 11:13 am (0813 GMT) with consumers in Kyiv divided into three groups "disconnected for a certain period of time", energy company DTEK said. DTEK reiterated calls for residents to use electricity "sparingly" and for businesses to limit their use of external lighting. More than one million Ukrainian households have lost electricity following recent Russian strikes, according to the Ukrainian presidency, at least a third of the country's power stations having been destroyed ahead of winter. Zelensky condemned the "vile strikes" in comments late Saturday, after Russian attacks caused power cuts across the country. - 'Save your strength' - In the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rig, deputy mayor Sergiy Miliutin was dealing with emergencies and power outages from his underground bunker, used as a venue for a children's martial arts competition. "I've reached a point where I just survive on my drive. You have to stay level-headed and save your strength. No one knows how long this will all last," he told AFP. The intensification of Russian strikes on Ukraine, particularly energy facilities, came after the bridge linking the annexed Crimea peninsula to mainland Russia was partially destroyed by an explosion earlier this month. It was another major setback for Moscow's forces, battling to contain a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south and east of the country. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that it was for Ukrainians to decide when "peace is possible", in comments made in Rome at the start of a peace summit. Ukraine reported three deaths in an overnight Russian artillery strike in the Toretsk area, a governor of the eastern Donetsk region said. Inside Russia, two lines of defence have been built in the border region of Kursk to deal with any possible attack, a local governor said on Sunday. On Saturday Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor in the neighbouring Russian border region of Belgorod, said the construction of defence structures had begun. Gladkov said two civilians had been killed in strikes there Saturday, and that 15,000 people had been left without electricity. - Kherson evacuations - Meanwhile Ukraine's SBU intelligence service said it had detained two officials of Ukrainian aircraft engine maker Motor Sich on suspicion of working with Russia. The SBU said management at the company's plant in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region -- partly controlled by Russian forces -- had colluded with Russian state-owned defence conglomerate Rostec. The suspects had supplied Russia with Ukrainian aircraft engines that were used to make and repair attack helicopters, the SBU said. In the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, which Russia claims to have annexed, pro-Moscow officials on Saturday urged residents to leave "immediately" amid a "tense situation" at the front. Kherson, the region's main city, was the first to fall to Moscow's troops and retaking it would be a major prize in Ukraine's counter-offensive. A Moscow-installed official in Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, told Russian news agency Interfax on Saturday that around 25,000 people had left Kherson city to the left bank of the Dnipro River. Ukraine has denounced the removal of residents from Kherson, describing them as "deportations". bur-imm/raz/jj/lcm
Anti-establishment firebrand Rodrigo Duterte stormed to a huge win in the Philippine presidential elections, according to poll monitor data released Tuesday, after an incendiary campaign dominated by his profanity-laced vows to kill criminals. Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, hypnotised millions with his vows of brutal but quick solutions to the nation's twin plagues of crime and poverty, which many believed had worsened despite strong economic growth in recent years. And after a record turnout of voters in Monday's elections, Duterte scored a commanding victory, according to data released by the PPCRV, a Catholic Church-run poll monitor accredited by the government to tally the votes. With 89 percent of the vote counted early on Tuesday morning, Duterte had an insurmountable lead of 5.92 million votes over his nearest rival, administration candidate Mar Roxas, according to the data. "It's with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people," Duterte told AFP as the results came in, adding his law and order platform was the key to his success. "What I can promise you is that I will do my very best not just in my waking hours but even in my sleep." Duterte had 38.65 percent of the vote, with Roxas on 23.16 percent and Senator Grace Poe in third with 21.71 percent, according to PPCRV. In the Philippines, a winner is decided simply by whomever gets the most votes. Poe, the adopted daughter of movie stars, had already conceded just after midnight on Tuesday. "As a staunch supporter of electoral reform, I have a firm belief in the voice and sentiment of our people. I honour the result of our elections," Poe told reporters in Manila. "I congratulate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and pledge my support in working to heal our land and to unite our people toward the continued development of our country." - Threats to kill - Duterte, a pugnacious 71-year-old, surged from outsider to the top of surveys with cuss-filled vows to kill tens of thousands of criminals, threats to establish one-man rule if lawmakers disobeyed him and promises to embrace communist rebels. He also boasted repeatedly about his Viagra-fuelled affairs, while promising voters his mistresses would not cost a lot because he kept them in cheap boarding houses and took them to short-stay hotels for sex. Duterte caused further disgust in international diplomatic circles with a joke that he wanted to rape a "beautiful" Australian missionary who was killed in a 1989 Philippine prison riot, and by calling the pope a "son of a whore". Departing President Benigno Aquino, whose mother led the democracy movement that ousted Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago, had warned repeatedly the nation was at risk of succumbing to another dictatorship. "I need your help to stop the return of terror in our land. I cannot do it alone," Aquino said in an appeal to voters in a final rally on Saturday in Manila for Roxas, his preferred successor and fellow Liberal Party stalwart. In his final rally on Saturday, Duterte repeated to tens of thousands of cheering fans his plans to end crime within six months of starting his presidency. "Forget the laws on human rights," said Duterte, who has been accused of running vigilante death squads in Davao. "If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because as the mayor, I'd kill you." - Elite rule - Aquino, who is limited by the constitution to a single term of six years, had overseen average annual economic growth of six percent and won international plaudits for trying to tackle corruption. However, his critics said he had done little to change an economic model that favours an extraordinarily small number of families that control nearly all key industries, and has led to one of Asia's biggest rich-poor divides. This criticism hurt Roxas, a member of the wealthy classes widely seen by many as lacking empathy for the poor. Another key message of Duterte's campaign was his pledge to take on the elite, even though his vice presidential running mate was from one of the nation's richest and most powerful families. Poe had seen her popularity slide after critics pointed to her taking US citizenship then later giving it up. Vice President Jejomar Binay, the early favourite, was in a distant fourth place, according to the poll monitor, after crumbling under the weight of a barrage of corruption allegations. In an intriguing sub-plot, former dictator Marcos's son and namesake was in an extremely tight race for the vice presidency. After leading early, he fell just a few hundred votes behind with 10 percent of the vote to be counted on Tuesday morning, according to the poll monitor.
The human gut is a complex and amazing system, and the more we learn about it, the more amazed we are. It turns out
- Terror group al-Shabaab, launched a suicide car bomb attack on the police headquarters in Somalia, killing four people
- Two traffic police officers were also killed in the attack on Monday, May 9
An al-Shabaab suicide car bomb attack on the entrance of police headquarters in Somalia on Monday, May 9 has claimed four lives, including two traffic police officers.
Nine others were injured in the attack, authorities said two members of the terror group were also shot as they tried to enter the police headquarters.
READ ALSO: Why KDF soldier married the girl he rescued at Garissa University
Police chief Captain Mohamed Hassan confirmed the incident but added that the terrorist group also suffered casualties.
READ ALSO: Al-Shabaab kill 11 soldiers after attack in Somalia
Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack but denied only two policemen were killed.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, Shabaabs military operations spokesman, said they lost two of their members and the death toll on the government side was nine policemen.
Local residents said the front of the traffic headquarters was damaged extensively by the blast, which also destroyed nearby shops.
The attack involved two Shabaab members, one of them driving a car loaded with explosives, and another tried to storm the police headquarters but was shot dead. We have lost two policemen, said Abdifatah Omar Halane, spokesman for the Mogadishu city administration.
Al-Shabaab have recently increased their attacks against African Union, Kenyan and Somali forces in the Lower Shabelle region.
The region has seen a surge of attacks that have resulted in the loss of several strategic towns although the militants mainly held those towns briefly.
READ ALSO: Al-Shabaab release 48-minute propaganda video about El-Adde raid
Cover photo: AP
Source: TUKO.co.ke
OKLAHOMA CITY, UT--(Marketwired - May 09, 2016) - APMEX, an online Precious Metals retailer based in Oklahoma City, teamed up with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma in the annual "Fighting HungerFeeding Hope" food and fund drive. Last year, with two fundraisers, APMEX donated more than 500,000 meals in total to hungry families across Oklahoma.
According to the Food Bank, Oklahoma is one of the hungriest states in the nation. One in six Oklahomans, or about 656,000 people, struggle with hunger or have limited availability of nutritionally adequate food. The average Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit amounts to roughly $4 a day per person and more than 1 million people in the state currently utilize these benefits to avoid going hungry.
APMEX President Scott Thomas knows first-hand what it is like to struggle with food insecurity. Thomas worked at a pizza parlor as a teenager and would bring home leftover pizza for his family to eat since they had nothing else. He believes it is unacceptable that one in four children and one in eleven seniors struggle with hunger every day in Oklahoma.
"Helping to fight hunger and provide meals to those who need them the most is very important to not only my family and I, but is also a meaningful cause for many employees at APMEX," APMEX President Scott Thomas said.
In 2015, APMEX provided more than 132,000 meals with the Feeding Hope Food Drive, in addition to an end-of-year toy drive and $100,000 donation. This year, APMEX set a goal to provide 140,000 meals to Oklahomans who struggle with hunger.
Every dollar donated to the Food Bank provides five meals; this year's contribution of $31,294.82, plus 1,367 pounds of food, will provide 158,752.5 meals for Oklahomans. APMEX held many different contests during the week to raise money for "Feeding HungerFighting Hope," ranging from raffles to a silent art auction. All these opportunities helped contribute over a week's worth of meals to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.
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"If you are able to help in any shape or form, whether that is through donations or physically volunteering at the Food Bank, I invite everyone to join us in this fight," Thomas said.
About APMEX, Inc.
For more than 15 years, APMEX has been one of the nation's largest Precious Metals e-retailers. Boasting over $6.5 billion in transactions, APMEX was recently ranked the #1 Specialty E-Retailer and #42 out of 500 e-retailers by Internet Retailer Magazine. APMEX has the largest selection of bullion and numismatic items provided by a retailer, boasting more than 10,000 products. Product offerings include all U.S. Mint bullion such as Gold, Silver and Platinum American Eagle coins. APMEX also sells products from leading mints around the world including The Royal Mint, Perth Mint, Royal Canadian Mint and many others. APMEX is a member of the American Numismatic Association, the International Precious Metals Institute and the Industry Council for Tangible Assets. For additional information, visit www.APMEX.com or call (800) 375-9006.
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A Siemens flag waves after the Annual Press Conference in Berlin, Germany, November 12, 2015. REUTERS/Stefanie Loos/File Photo
LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia has hired German industrial group Siemens (SIEGn.DE) to carry out a $1.17 billion (812 million pounds) investment to expand the power generation capacity of three thermoelectric plants in the Andean nation, President Evo Morales said on Monday.
"This week we're expanding three thermoelectric plants with an investment of $1.168 billion and we're going to generate 1,440 megawatts", Morales said after inking an agreement with Siemens.
The deal was already in the works after Siemens signed a memorandum of understanding with Bolivia in November, to supply gas turbine combined cycle equipment to expand the three thermal power plants owned by state utility Ende Andina under the government's 2025 Patriotic Agenda.
The investment will be financed by Bolivia.
Morales said that excess energy produced by the plants that is not consumed domestically can be exported to neighbouring Argentina and Brazil.
(Reporting by Daniel Ramos; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Sandra Maler)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - International lenders and Greece are likely to reach within days a deal on reforms that would unlock new loans and deputy finance ministers will prepare options for Greek debt relief for May 24, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said.
Dombrovskis said euro zone finance ministers, the Eurogroup, welcomed on Monday the passing by the Greek parliament of a package of reforms aimed at achieving a primary surplus of 3.5 percent of GDP in 2018.
"Eurogroup welcomes the policy package. Staff level agreement to be finalised in coming days, including the contingency mechanism," Dombrovskis said on Twitter.
"Greek debt: short, medium and long term debt measures to be discussed. EWG to report back to 24 May," Dombrovskis said, referring to the Eurogroup Working Group of euro zone deputy finance ministers who prepare meetings of the ministers.
(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski)
London's financial district, known as the Square Mile, is dominated by sky scrapers on February 18, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by )
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Two men, including a former managing director at Deutsche Bank, were found guilty in the UK's biggest-ever insider trading case.
Martyn Dodgson, the former managing director, and Andrew Hind, an accountant, were convicted by a London jury on Monday after a trial that lasted 12 weeks.
Three other defendants Grant Harrison, a former managing director at Altium Capital, day trader Benjamin Anderson and former Aria Capital director Iraj Parvizi were found not guilty.
The convicted men face a maximum of seven years in prison and a sentencing verdict could come as soon as this week.
They were accused of generating more than 7 million in profit, trading on inside information on stocks such as Legal & General, Scottish & Newcastle, and Sky.
The result is a partial success for the Financial Conduct Authority, six years after a series of dawn raids shocked the City of London.
The case code named Tabernula, which is Latin for "little tavern" had five defendants accused of conspiring to trade securities with inside information between 2006 and 2010.
The case had a dramatic start. In March 2010, more than 100 police and regulators were deployed across 16 locations to arrest seven people. The raids, co-coordinated by the now-defunct Financial Services Authority, stunned the City, which was used to a regulator with a "light touch."
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Shares in FTSE 250 security company G4S rose more than 6.5% on Monday as it announced a great start to the year in a quarterly report.
Revenues rose 4.5% to 1.5 billion ($2.16 billion) in the three months to 31 March 2016.
The company had new contract sales with a total value of 2.4 billion ($3.45 billion) and contract retention rates of around 90%. Meanwhile, earnings were up 14.1% to 227 million ($327 million).
Here's the G4S share price as of 9:35 AM GMT:
G4S arrow
investing.comAshley Almanza, CEO of G4S, said the company has made "substantial progress" with the strategic and operational "transformations":
Against a background of economic uncertainty, demand for our services has remained resilient and revenues grew in all regions apart from the UK. In emerging markets our revenues grew by 8.6% and in North America our revenues rose by 5.8%. Our revenues in UK & Ireland were 3% lower and in Europe our businesses returned to growth with revenues up by 3% year-on-year.
The good news has been a long time coming for G4S. The company's share price has fallen 34.5% over the last 12 months, against just a 6.5% fall in the FTSE 250, according to the Financial Times.
Much of the troble stemmed from a scandal two years ago, in which the company had to repay 108.9 million plus tax for overcharging on contracts to tag offenders, hurting its reputation. G4S has also been dogged by accusations of poor conditions in its detention centres.
In January this year, the company came under further fire for allegedly painting asylum seekers' front doors red in a bid to identify them.
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G4S is haemorrhaging cash on rehousing asylum seekers in Britain
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece has extended to June 27 the deadline for bids to build and operate a new airport on the island of Crete, an infrastructure ministry official familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The government, which signed up to a third international bailout last year, had initially set a May 6 deadline for submission of binding bids for the build-operate transfer (BOT) project worth an estimated 850 million euros (670 million pounds).
Interested parties sought an extension, the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The Crete Kasteli airport project is expected to be the fourth biggest airport in Greece in terms of traffic and would replace the ageing Heraklion airport now struggling to handle nearly 2.6 million tourists a year.
Greece has made several fruitless attempts to build the facility since 2010, with its debt crisis scaring investors away.
France's Vinci was expected to make a joint bid with Greek contractor Ellaktor, as was Spain's ACS with GEK-Terna, officials from the Greek companies have told Reuters.
China State Construction Engineering and joint venture partner Zurich Airport were also interested in the project, according to a ministerial decision which extended a previous February deadline.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Mark Potter)
(Adds updates with Roche comment)
CAPE TOWN, May 10 (Reuters) - South Africa is in talks with Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche to reduce the price of its breast cancer drug Herceptin, which currently costs 500,000 rand ($33,000) a year to treat one person and is unaffordable to most women, the health minister said on Tuesday.
Africa's most industrialised country has a history of pushing to cut the prices of vital medicines, including winning concessions from big pharmaceutical firms to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) used to control the HIV virus.
Recently the government started free vaccinations of young girls against the sexually acquired human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes about 70 percent of cervical cancers. It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) had previously negotiated a lower fee with manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline (Other OTC: GLAXF - news) .
"I met the CEO in April and told him women won't be able to afford this. Let's talk, maybe something can come out of this," minister Aaron Motsoaledi told reporters on Tuesday.
Roche said it shared the concerns about access to innovative medicines and improving healthcare in South Africa.
"We are at an advanced stage of finalising discussions with the South African department of health to improve equitable access to Herceptin in the public sector," said spokeswoman, Ulrike Engels-Lange in a statement.
Earlier Motsoaledi told the South African parliament that prices for medicines to treat non-communicable diseases such as cancer and drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) were on the rise.
"Just as the price of ARVs were unaffordable then, cancer drugs are devilishly unaffordable today. If no drastic action is taken today, we are going to be counting body bags like we are at war," Motsoaledi said.
Illustrating the high costs, Motsoaledi said it cost 960,000 rand to treat metastatic melanoma and 832,000 rand for a year's course of extremely drug resistant TB medication. ($1 = 15.2695 rand) (Reporting by Wendell Roelf and John Miller in Zurich; Editing by James Macharia, Greg Mahlich)
By Igor Ilic ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatia will assess whether a deputy prime minister, leader of the main party in the ruling coalition, has a conflict of interests in relation to a dispute between the government and Hungary's energy group MOL, officials said on Tuesday. Weekly newspaper Nacional published an article on Tuesday that said Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko's wife had for two years had a business deal worth 60,000 euros ($68,000) with a company whose owner is a lobbyist for MOL. MOL is the biggest shareholder in Croatia's energy firm INA and has for years been in dispute with Croatia over management rights and investment policy at INA. The two sides are pursuing two separate and potentially costly international arbitrations. Dalija Oreskovic, who heads the State Commission for Conflicts of Interest, confirmed the case would be looked at. "It is a matter of strong public interest. I don't know how long it will take to review the case, but we will try to make it as quick as possible," she said. Oreskovic said that there was no suggestion any laws has been broken, but there was a possibility that there was "a certain involvement of interest" on Karamarko's behalf. Officials can be fined if found to have conflicts of interest. Karamarko, who heads the biggest party in the ruling coalition, the conservative HDZ, denied any wrongdoing. "During my entire career I have separated private from business issues, especially when it comes to sensitive matters of national interest, and I will continue doing so," he said in a statement. Local media recently reported that policy on INA has caused friction between the HDZ and its junior coalition partner, Most ("Bridge"). While the HDZ is reported to favour dropping the arbitration with MOL and immediately restarting talks with the company, the Most party believes the arbitration will go in Croatia's favour. The coalition partners have argued in recent months over political appointments, including that of the intelligence chief, and on plans to reform pensions and state bureaucracy. That has prompted analysts to question the longer-term stability of the government which took office in January vowing to tackle Croatia's key economic problems - low growth, a poor investment climate, high public debt and unemployment. (Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
By Alexandra Alper MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Spanish construction firm Ferrovial SA may cancel its plan to bid jointly with cash-strapped local builder ICA for a contract to build a $3.5 billion (2 billion pounds) terminal building for Mexico City's new airport, people familiar with the matter said. The Spanish builder is weighing an exit from a "memorandum of understanding" with Empresas ICA SAB de CV , two sources said, as the Mexican firm struggles under 67.617 billion pesos ($3.74 billion) in debt. The joint bid memorandum was signed by both companies in Madrid in July 2015. Two of the sources, who asked for anonymity because they had not been authorized to discuss the situation, said Ferrovial has reached out to other companies seeking possible partners to form a new consortium to bid on the terminal. Ferrovial declined to comment. A spokesman for ICA also declined to comment, saying by email that "joint participation agreements for projects establish confidentiality clauses that we should respect." Ferrovial, which won a 2010 contract to build a terminal at London's Heathrow Airport for around 800 million pounds, would be well-placed to win bidding for the Mexican project under ordinary circumstances. But the tie-up with ICA has cast a shadow over Ferrovial's chances of building the futuristic terminal, designed by British architect Norman Foster and billionaire Carlos Slim's son-in-law Fernando Romero. The terminal is part of a 169 billion peso ($9.34 billion) airport project aimed at turning Mexico City into a major regional hub. Securing a project like the airport terminal would be a massive boon for ICA. But it has defaulted on about $60 million in interest payments since December, raising doubts about whether it could shoulder its part of the financial burden for building the terminal, which is set to open in 2020. The call for bids for the project, which was published last week, requires bidders to have net working capital worth at least 8 percent of the cost of the work they expect to complete in the first year of construction. Interested parties must file their proposals by Nov. 21 and the winning bidder is expected to be announced on Dec. 9, according to the tender's ambitious timeline. It calls for work on the project to begin on Dec. 20. Two sources close to the project have estimated the cost of the terminal construction at around $3.5 billion. ICA recently replaced its chief executive and hired financial advisory firm Rothschild to come up with a debt restructuring plan by February. But it has yet to release the plan and Reuters reported that it is eyeing a pre-packaged bankruptcy filing for some of its subsidiaries. The airport project, unveiled in 2014, is the signature infrastructure project of President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration. The new terminal is expected to handle some 50 million passengers annually. Aimed at boosting capacity at Mexico's over-saturated Benito Juarez International Airport, it has survived successive government spending cuts as sinking oil prices have crimped public expenditure. ($1 = 18.0900 Mexican pesos) (Additional Reporting by Robert Hetz in Madrid and Gabriela Lopez in Monterrey; Editing by Simon Gardner and Tom Brown)
PARIS (Reuters) - A French lawmaker resigned as National Assembly vice-president on Monday after being accused of sexual harassment by fellow politicians, a rare development in a country where such disputes are usually kept under wraps. Denis Baupin, who did not surrender his seat as an elected member of the lower house of parliament, rejected the accusations in a statement published on his website. "Following the accusations in the media, Mr Denis Baupin wants to stress ... that these are defamatory and baseless lies," the statement said, adding he had resigned to protect the reputation of parliament and to defend himself. Baupin is the husband of Housing Minister Emmanuelle Cosse. He recently left the pro-environment Greens party over disagreements about strategy. He came under sudden pressure to resign after female party officials and lawmakers went on the record on Monday in French media to level accusations at him. Sandrine Rousseau, a Green party spokeswoman, told France Inter radio and Mediapart online media, which first revealed the case, that one day in October 2011, "he pressed me against the wall, holding my breasts and tried to kiss me." Lawmaker Isabelle Attard said: "It was an almost daily harassment with provocative, salacious text messages." In France, accusations of sexual harassment by politicians rarely come out in the open. In May last year, a group of female political reporters published an article in which they denounced inappropriate comments and harassment they had to deal with in their work. They gave examples but did not expose politicians by name. They said at the time that they had hoped things would have changed after the worldwide attention sparked by the arrest of Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sex offense charges in 2011. Strauss-Kahn, who was widely tipped to become France's next president, quit as head of the International Monetary Fund after his arrest on the basis of rape accusations by a New York hotel maid, with whom he reached a financial settlement after criminal charges were dropped. Strauss-Kahn's political career was destroyed by a saga that not only drew global attention for many months but also sparked fierce debate in France about tolerance of promiscuous politicians and abuses of power. (Reporting by Emile Picy and Yann Le Guernigou; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Andrew Callus and Tom Heneghan)
An 11-year-old girl has undergone surgery after her hair became caught in a carnival ride and part of her scalp was ripped off.
Elizabeth Gilreath was on the King's Crown rider at a Cinco de Mayo festival in Omaha, Nebraska, when her hair became tangled in the mechanism.
Her mother, Virginia Cooksey, told the Omaha World-Herald newspaper she did not suffer any fractures or brain trauma, but could have vision problems or need more surgery.
The little girl, who was on the ride with a friend, fell out of her seat when her hair got trapped, her mother told the newspaper.
She has since undergone a number of surgeries to repair her scalp and emergency surgery after suffering a blood clot.
She said: "She's an 11-year-old. No 11-year-old should have to go through this."
The carnival vendor, Thomas D Thomas Shows, said in a statement: "Thomas D Thomas Shows values the safety and health of our guests above all else, and we are saddened by this accident.
"The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Thomas D Thomas Shows are with the young girl and her family during this extremely difficult time."
An investigation is under way into the cause of the accident.
Omaha Police Lieutenant Steve Cerveny told KETV that officials were trying to determine whether there had been a malfunction.
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen killed four Nigerian policemen in the oil-producing southern Niger Delta on Monday, police said. The officers were ambushed in the Okobie community while traveling to Yenago, the capital of Bayelsa state, police spokesman Ahmad Mohammad said. He said it was unclear who was behind the attack. Attacks on oil pipelines and kidnappings have been rising in the Delta, which produces much of Nigeria's oil output, since authorities issued an arrest warrant in January for a former militant leader on corruption charges. Residents have been long demanding a greater share of oil revenues. Crude oil sales account for around 70 percent of national income in Nigeria but there has not been much development in the poor Delta swampland. President Muhammadu Buhari has extended a multi-million dollar amnesty signed with militants in 2009 to stop them attacking oil facilities but upset them by ending generous pipeline protection contracts. (Reporting by Emmanuel Masha and Anamesere Igboeroteonwu; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Alison Williams)
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian and her musician husband Kanye West were spotted leaving a restaurant in Havana on Thursday (May 5). They are on the island, together with other members of the reality show clan to shoot scenes for the reality show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." They are accompanied by Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian and her friend Malika Haqq, who stars in the spinoff series "Dash Dolls." Kim and Kanye's daughter, North, has been pictured riding with her mother in a pink convertible. Former Cold War foes the United States and Cuba formally agreed to restore diplomatic relations last July. (Reporting by Saskia ODonoghue.)
By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, contradicting his defense minister, scolded Israel's deputy military chief on Sunday for suggesting that Israeli society was showing signs of Nazi-like behavior. The rare public rebuke of a serving general was the latest example of Netanyahu taking action that appeared to put him at odds with top brass in a national debate on moral conduct in the conflict with the Palestinians. In a speech on Wednesday on the eve of Israel's Holocaust remembrance day, Major-General Yair Golan evoked a dark time in the history of the Jewish people in calling on Israelis to engage in soul-searching. "If there's something that frightens me about Holocaust remembrance it's the recognition of the nauseating processes that occurred in Europe in general, and particularly in Germany, back then 70, 80 and 90 years ago and finding signs of them here among us today in 2016," he said. Golan's comments were widely interpreted as comparing behavior of some in Israel with that of the Nazis, who killed six million Jews in the Holocaust of World War Two. In his speech the general made reference to a soldier who shot and killed a wounded Palestinian assailant, who was lying on the ground, in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, in March. Far-right members of Netanyahu's governing coalition demanded that Golan recant and accused him of dishonoring the dead. The prime minister, himself, made no public reference to the speech - until the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. "The comparison that arose from the deputy chief of staff's comments on the processes that characterized Nazi Germany 80 years ago is outrageous," Netanyahu said. "They wrong Israeli society and cheapen the Holocaust." Netanyahu has not commented on the general's future, but Miri Regev, a cabinet minister from his right-wing Likud party, called on Golan to resign. In rebuking Golan, Netanyahu echoed criticism by far-right coalition partners, while distancing himself from Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon of Likud, who issued a statement on Thursday expressing his "total confidence" in the officer and praising commanders who provide a moral compass. Political opponents have accused Netanyahu of not being supportive of the military over its court-martial of the soldier in the Hebron incident. After the shooting, Israel's military chief, Gadi Eisenkot, publicly cautioned troops to use only "measured and considered force" against a wave of Palestinian street attacks and said those who deviate from orders would face punishment. An opinion poll, however, showed 57 percent of Israelis believed the soldier should never have been arrested. And Netanyahu took the unusual step of telephoning the conscript's father to say "I understand your distress" and assure him of a fair investigation. (Editing by Andrew Bolton)
By Oludare Mayowa and Ulf Laessing LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's central bank and its financial crimes agency have launched an investigation into banking deals after allegations of illegal transactions and has interrogated three top banking executives, officials and bankers said on Tuesday The move signals an escalation of a crackdown on graft by President Muhammadu Buhari who got elected a year ago on a ticket to fix the economy of a country where most Nigerians live in poverty despite its enormous energy wealth. But analysts said the probe which saw three banking chief executives escorted from their offices is a hit to a sector already reeling from a slump in oil revenues and the country's worst economic crisis for decades. "It's a shock to confidence in the banking sector. They should have handled this investigation more discreetly rather than arresting CEOs in their offices," said Bismark Rewane, CEO of Lagos-based consultancy Financial Derivatives. "I fear for the ramifications." Banking sources say the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been investigating several banks for conducting possibly illegal transactions in the run-up to the March 2016 election to support then-president Goodluck Jonathan, who eventually lost to Buhari. Corruption spiked under Jonathan but his supporters reject Buhari's claims that his government had plundered the treasury and accuse Buhari, a former military ruler, of conducting a witch hunt. The central bank said it was part of the probe to determine "the extent and persons that may be involved in such activities". It gave no details but said the banking sector remained strong and described the deals in question as "isolated". But for banks in Africa's biggest economy the probe couldn't come at a worse time as several have recently reported falls in profit while bad loans have burgeoned due to exposure to the ailing oil industry. Some are in the middle of restructuring their business models. The banks have also been hit by Buhari's decision to freeze the naira rate, which has made investors reluctant to pour money into the West African nation as they expect him to devalue the currency anyway due to a loss of oil revenues. Part of the foreign exchange trade has moved to the parallel market as banks have run out of dollars. QUESTIONING The crackdown started when the EFCC said last week it had obtained a court order to arrest the managing director of Nigeria's Fidelity Bank, Nnamdi Okonkwo, and question him. A bank official said he had been released on Friday. Nigerian media outlets, including The Premium Times, citing unnamed sources, said Okonkwo had been arrested on suspicion that he received $115 million from Jonathan's oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke. It was not clear if the central bank was referring to these allegations in Tuesday's statement. Alison-Madueke's lawyer was not immediately available to comment. She is under investigation over allegations of bribery and money laundering and was questioned by London police in October. Alison-Madueke is still in Britain undergoing cancer treatment, her lawyer has said. Fidelity said last week it had appointed an acting CEO and was cooperating in the probe, saying all its transactions had been reported to regulators. The bank declined any further comment. Sterling Bank, another domestic lender, said on its website that EFCC agents had questioned its Chief Executive Yemi Adeola and other members of its senior management team. The bank said it did not hold an account of "the public officer from the previous administration" linked to the probe, without elaborating. A third bank, Access Bank, said agents had visited it on Friday to investigate a transaction involving a customer of the bank and had questioned its group managing director, Herbert Wigwe, in the EEFC offices. "He was released without charge on the same day," the bank said in a statement. An official at the EFCC, asking not to be named, said the investigation was ongoing and declined to give further details. In January Nigeria's former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki went on trial on fraud charges in the country's first high-profile corruption trial since Buhari took over. (Additional reporting by Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Editing by Louise Ireland and Gareth Jones)
By Syed Raza Hassan KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead a prominent Pakistani rights activist, known for his outspoken stance against the Taliban and other radical Islamist groups, in the southern port city of Karachi late on Saturday night, police said. The police said Khurram Zaki was killed at an outdoor cafe in central Karachi, while a companion was wounded. A faction of the Pakistani Taliban, the Hakeemullah group, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to Reuters, saying Zaki had been targeted for his stance against radical cleric Abdul Aziz. The police could not verify the Hakeemullah faction's claim, and said the group has previously taken responsibility for attacks it did not carry out in Karachi, a teeming metropolis of 20 million people that is known for its complex mix of ethnic, sectarian and political violence. "Zaki was sitting at a cafe where he was targeted by four armed men arriving on two motorcycles," Muqadas Haider, a senior police official said on Sunday. Zaki was known for his outspoken stance against the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim sectarian militant group, the Pakistani Taliban, and radical cleric Abdul Aziz. In December 2015, Zaki lead street protests against Aziz, demanding the cleric be arrested and charged with hate speech for allegedly justifying attacks, such as the Peshawar school massacre where 134 schoolchildren were killed in 2014. In 2007, Aziz and his followers were engaged in an armed standoff with government forces at his mosque in the capital Islamabad, culminating in a eight-day military operation that saw Pakistani commandoes raid the mosque. Aziz has since been exonerated of all criminal charges by Pakistani courts, but still calls for the overthrow of the government and for a strict version of Islamic sharia law to be imposed. Zaki had confided to friends that he was on several militant "hitlists", Jibran Nasir, a fellow activist who was also involved in protests against Aziz, told Reuters on Sunday. Nasir said that Zaki did not specify which groups specifically had threatened him. According to a statement released after Zaki's death by a website he helped run, the activist had been "a target of a systematic hate campaign" by an Islamist political leader and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Targeted killings are common in Karachi, although violence has declined significantly since the launch of a paramilitary operation in the city almost three years ago. Rights activists are increasingly among those targeted in Karachi. In April last year, prominent activist Sabeen Mahmud was shot and killed while travelling in her car. (Writing by Asad Hashim. Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in DERA ISMAIL KHAN and Asad Hashim in ISLAMABAD; Editing by Drazen Jorgic and Christian Schmollinger)
By Rania El Gamal and Dmitry Zhdannikov LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - - If Ali al-Naimi were to review his time as Saudi oil minister, he might feel events had turned full circle. Two years after the long-serving technocrat's 1995 promotion to become only the kingdom's fourth oil minister in 40 years, Naimi pushed through an ill-fated Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries deal in Indonesia to lift supply just as Asia went into economic tailspin. Designed to punish Venezuela for flouting its output quota, the decision has gone down in OPEC lore as the most poorly-judged in cartel history. Oil prices halved to $10 a barrel. Nearly two decades later, Naimi, 80, is facing another supply crisis, driving oil prices to the lowest in six years -- at below $40 per barrel, more than $100 below the 2008 pre-financial crisis peak. And as in Jakarta in 1997, today's crash has been orchestrated by Naimi himself with the same aim in mind: to defend Saudi market share against rivals -- primarily this time against booming U.S. shale oil supply. Throughout his career, Naimi has worked to avoid a repeat of the error of his legendary predecessor, Sheikh Zaki Yamani, who was dismissed in 1986 as he unsuccessfully tried to fight an oil price collapse by unilaterally reducing Saudi output. Instead, through three cyclical downturns in oil prices, Naimi has always chosen to use Saudi Arabia's vast oil supply scale - Riyadh produces more than a tenth of global crude - and its financial muscle to drive out higher cost rivals. That survival-of-the-fittest strategy means refusing to cut output unilaterally, waiting to outlast other producers before they beg Riyadh to collaborate in joint supply curbs to rescue prices. "In everything Naimi did, he never wanted to repeat the Yamani mistake," said Gary Ross, a veteran OPEC watcher and the founder of U.S.-based PIRA Energy. "He was prepared to manage the market and cut only when he had reasonable partners," said Ross, who participated in the first and only successful oil cooperation talks between OPEC and Russia in early 2000. "Today, from the Saudi prospective, they have no allies." RECRUITING RUSSIA Oil market watchers pore over Naimi's every word, and his past actions, to try to predict how the veteran tactician will act. He has always found a way to act jointly with other producers, rather than cut supply alone. After the 1997 oil slump, Naimi eventually steered OPEC out of trouble by engineering a series of cuts with arch-rival Iran supporting the strategy amid a thawing of political relations. Meanwhile, non-OPEC Mexico helped bring Venezuela on board. In 2001, Naimi found new allies as, after months of standoff, leading OPEC rival Russia pledged to join cuts, later reneging on its promises. In 2008, all OPEC members quickly supported supply curbs led by Saudi as oil plunged in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. As a result, oil prices bounced back quickly, providing the capital for new investment in the controversial hydraulic fracturing technology that saw U.S. shale oil supplies rocket. That new supply source and China's slowdown have caused the latest downturn. Saudi oil sources say this time around Naimi will stick to his policy of high output levels, even if crude prices fall further, until he finds partners to cooperate. "If the price falls, it falls, you cannot do anything about it. But ... others will be harmed greatly before we feel any pain," Naimi told the Middle Eastern Economic Survey last year in the most detailed explanation of his current thinking. Naimi did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article. But his track record of holding firm until other countries join Saudi Arabia for joint action speaks volumes. "You can't beat experience, and Naimi has loads of it. He earned his wings in the 70s and 80s at Aramco and has now gone through three iterations of a crude price cycle: early 1980s, late 1990s, and the current one," said Yasser Elguindi of Medley Global Advisors. ISOLATED The problem for Naimi is that he now appears more isolated than ever before. Described by admirers and critics alike as a great technician, he has won respect in the industry for driving OPEC policy along business lines and, where possible, avoiding politics. Yet in the Middle East, politics and oil cannot always be kept apart. And when politics come into play, even the most adept negotiator may be prone to miscalculation. OPEC has weathered internal strife and conflict many times before: wars between members -- Iran and Iraq in the 1980s, and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in the 1990s, both before Naimi took the helm of the Saudi oil ministry. But the Sunni-Shia conflicts now setting Saudi Arabia and Iran at each other's throats in places like Syria and Yemen are unprecedented during Naimi's tenure as minister. In addition, predominantly Shia Iraq has become a de facto ally of Iran within OPEC since a U.S. invasion ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, and both countries have enormous potential to increase supply. Outside OPEC, Russia is at odds with Riyadh in Middle Eastern conflicts, joining the war in Syria two months ago on the side of Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, many Saudis believe the U.S. shale oil boom has prompted Washington to reassess its military commitment in the Middle East that protects Riyadh in return for a sure supply of crude. OPEC tensions spilled into the cartel's meeting last week when the group failed to agree a production target for the first time in decades, with Iran saying it would steeply increase supply after Western sanctions are lifted next year and Iraq saying it would boost exports too. "Some member countries produce as much as they wish," Iranian oil minister Bijan Zangeneh told reporters after the meeting in a clear reference to Saudi Arabia. "Iran will need no one's permission to raise its output." One executive from a major oil company said that while Naimi's tactics against U.S. shale were working and the low oil price was beginning to depress rivals' output, the Iranian comeback has complicated the picture: "Sometimes it feels that the Saudis have miscalculated how quickly Iran could clinch the nuclear deal and return to the markets". CHANGES AT HOME At the age of 12, Naimi joined state oil giant Saudi Aramco, riding in the back of crowded trucks to get to work. Not many years into the job, he impressed Aramco managers by stating his ambition to run the company. Naimi became President of Aramco in 1983 and CEO in 1988, the first Saudi to hold those posts, previously held only by Americans in the historically Arab-American oil company. As one of the country's highest-ranking non-royals, Naimi grew from a cautious public face into an outspoken policymaker, given full and sole responsibility for Saudi oil policy, leaving oil markets hanging on his every word. Growing tired of multiple OPEC meetings a year, he blamed the press for failing to understand his utterances and called reporters "agents of disturbance". "He wants the best price and the best volumes for his country. As for the image with media -- I don't think he really cares," said PIRA's Ross. Naimi has taken care to avoid entanglement in Saudi royal politics. He took office the same year King Fahd suffered a stroke and Fahd's half-brother, Abdullah, a cautious reformer, became de facto regent. Abdullah ruled as king from 2005 until his death earlier this year. This year's political changes have been the most profound Naimi has seen - with new King Salman elevating a fresh generation of leadership in the form of his nephew Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and son Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Mohammed bin Salman, 30, became the ultimate oil decision maker in April. Last month he said the kingdom was working on reducing subsidies and introducing new taxes so the budget could withstand the pain of lower oil prices for longer. Some interpret that as a signal of support for Naimi's policies, but say the days when Naimi's voice alone spoke for Saudi oil policy may be over. One insider said an indication that changes may be brewing was that comments on oil policy had been coming not only from Naimi and the deputy crown prince, but also from Aramco's chairman Khalid al-Falih and from another son of Salman, Prince Abdulaziz, Naimi's long-serving deputy. "It is like having four oil ministers now in Saudi Arabia. Everyone talks about oil policy and is a spokesman for the oil industry. It should be only Naimi as he is the minister, but he is slowly losing influence," said the insider, who asked not to be identified. (Editing by Richard Mably and Peter Graff)
By Lisandra Paraguassu and Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff took her battle to survive impeachment to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, in a last-ditch attempt to stay in office a day before the Senate will likely vote to try her for breaking budget laws. Attorney General Eduardo Cardozo, the government's top lawyer, asked the Supreme Court to annul impeachment proceedings arguing they were politically motivated and had no legal basis. "I will not resign, that never crossed my mind," Rousseff said in a speech to a conference hall full of women supporters who cheered when she vowed to keep fighting her removal. But the leftist leader appeared resigned to leave the presidency after a Senate vote on Wednesday that is expected to suspend her, pending trial. In her office in the modernistic Planalto presidential palace, aides had packed her papers and cleared the shelves. The political crisis has hit at a time when Brazil had planned to be shining on the world stage, as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August. Earlier in the day, the acting speaker of the lower house of Congress, Waldir Maranhao, withdrew his controversial decision to annul last month's impeachment vote in the chamber. That meant Cardozo's appeal to the top court may be the president's best hope of stopping the process from moving forward. If a simple majority agrees to put her on trial, Rousseff will be suspended from office on Thursday, leaving Vice President Michel Temer in power for up to six months during her trial. If Rousseff were convicted and removed definitively, Temer would stay in the post until elections in 2018. With the prospect looming of an end to 13 years of rule by Rousseff's leftist Workers Party (PT), anti-impeachment protesters blocked roads with burning tires in Sao Paulo, the capital Brasilia and other cities, snarling morning traffic. The PT and labor unions have called for a national strike to resist what they call a "coup" against democracy. The legality of Rousseff's imminent removal from office was questioned by the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, who said he would seek the legal opinion of the Inter-American Human Rights Court. Maranhao's surprise decision on Monday threw Brazilian markets into disarray and threatened to drag out a painful political crisis with a constitutional standoff that could have ended up at the Supreme Court. Brazil's currency, the real, strengthened 1.6 percent and the benchmark Bovespa stock index <.BVSP> closed 3.8 percent higher, reflecting investor hopes that a more market-friendly government will soon take over the recession-hit country under Temer, who is forming a cabinet with pro-business figures. Temer aides said on Tuesday that he will stick to plans to cut the number of government ministries to 22 from 32 to show his commitment to plugging a widening fiscal deficit that cost Brazil's its prized investment-grade credit rating. POSSIBLE THURSDAY HANDOVER Senate President Renan Calheiros, a leader of Temer's PMDB party, disregarded Maranhao's decision on Monday and said the Senate would press ahead with Wednesday's vote. It is expected to take place at about 8 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) after an all-day session of speeches. Rousseff's opponents have more than the 41 votes needed to launch her trial in the upper chamber, and they are confident they can muster two-thirds of the 81 senators, or 54, to unseat the unpopular president at the end of a trial. If she loses Wednesday's vote, Rousseff will be served notice by the Senate on Thursday, at which point the suspended president must vacate the presidential palace. She can continue to live in the presidential residence during the trial. Temer would step in as interim president as soon as she is given notice. The impeachment process comes as Brazil is mired in its worst recession since the 1930s and shaken by the country's biggest-ever corruption scandal, which have paralyzed Rousseff's second term in office. The impeachment process is unfolding as investigators pursue a separate, long-running probe into a vast kickback scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras . "Operation Carwash", which was named for its beginnings as a money-laundering probe, has ensnared dozens of top politicians and jailed chief executives from Brazil's biggest construction firms for paying billions in bribes for bloated contracts. (Additional reporting by Leo Goy, Silvio Cascione and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Frances Kerry and Andrew Hay)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Up to half-a-dozen Iranian soldiers deployed in Syria have been captured by rebel forces, a senior Iranian lawmaker said on Monday, two days after the Iranian Revolutionary Guards confirmed losses in a battle near Aleppo. Iran, along with Russia, has been a principal ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country's five-year-old civil war, while Gulf Arab states and Western powers have supported various rebel factions. Rebels seized the village of Khan Touman on Friday, some 15 km (9 miles) southwest of Aleppo, and killed several Iranian soldiers, dealing one of Tehran's biggest losses in Syria. "According to the latest numbers, 13 defenders of the shrine were killed, 18 were wounded and five to six were captured," Esmail Kosari, chairman of the Iranian parliament's defence committee, was quoted as saying by the Mizan Online news agency. Shi'ite Muslim Iran alludes to its troops in Syria as "defenders of the shrine", a reference to the Sayeda Zeinab mosque near Damascus where a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammad is said to be buried. It was the first time Iran had confirmed that any of its combatants had been taken prisoner in Syria. In December, Islamist rebels in Khan Touman said they had seized two Iranians but that was never confirmed by Tehran. The latest assault on Khan Touman was launched by an alliance of Sunni Islamist rebels known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which has rejected diplomatic efforts to bring about a lasting ceasefire. Jaish al-Fatah and affiliates published videos and photographs on social media of what appeared to be the bodies of Iranians or other Shi'ite combatants killed in Khan Touman. Earlier this week, the United States and Russia brokered a ceasefire in Aleppo, Syria's largest city and scene of some of its heaviest fighting. Iran said the truce had been used as a cover for rebels to regroup and attack. In 2013, the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) freed about 50 detained Iranians in exchange for the release of more than 2,000 prisoners by government forces in a deal brokered by Turkey and Qatar. At the time, Iran denied any military involvement in Syria and said the Iranian prisoners were religious pilgrims. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Sam Wilkin and Mark Heinrich)
By Greg Torode and J.R. Wu HONG KONG/TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Taiwanese group has intervened in the Philippines' international court case against China's claims in the South China Sea, pressing Taipei's position that Taiwan is entitled to a swathe of the disputed waterway as an economic zone. The unusual submission has emerged just as judges at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague are poised to rule on the Philippines' landmark case, brought under the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The move could delay the judges' ruling, now expected within two months, and potentially complicates worsening territorial disputes roiling across the vital trade route. Last month, the judges allowed written evidence from the government-linked Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law, even though Taiwan is neither a member of the United Nations, nor a signatory to UNCLOS, legal and diplomatic sources told Reuters. As well as reviewing several hundred pages of evidence from Taiwan, the judges have also sought further information from the Philippines and China, legal sources close to the case say. Manila is challenging the legality of China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, in part by arguing that no reefs, atolls or islets in the Spratly archipelago can legally be considered an island, and therefore holds no rights to an 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusive economic zone. Taiwan's single holding of Itu Aba is the biggest feature in the Spratlys and the one some analysts believe has the strongest claim to island status and an economic zone. The Spratlys are also claimed by China, Vietnam and Malaysia while Brunei claims nearby waters. Taiwanese officials have bristled at Philippines' earlier evidence that Itu Aba is a "rock" that cannot support natural human habitation, so has no claims on either island-status, or an EEZ. Citing various government reports and statements as evidence, the society's submission to the court states "it is clear that Taiping Island (Itu Aba) is an island which can sustain human habitation and economic life of its own under....UNCLOS." Court officials have yet to respond to written questions from Reuters and the Philippines foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "PROTECT ANCESTRAL PROPERTY" The Taiwanese move comes amid rising tensions, with Beijing and Washington accusing each other militarizing the area as China builds facilities on its recent reef reclamations and the U.S. increases patrols, exercises and overflights. Reiterating Beijing's non-acceptance of the case, China's Foreign Ministry said the Philippines was using the case to negate China's territorial sovereignty. "Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait all have a responsibility to jointly protect the ancestral property of the Chinese people," the ministry said in a faxed reply to Reuters. While the society is technically operating as a private body, it has close ties to Taipei, including President Ma Ying-jeou, who once headed the institution and still remains on the board. Ma staged a high-profile visit to Itu Aba in late January - one of several events orchestrated by Taiwan to push its claimed status as an island. A spokesman for Ma told Reuters the submission was not made on behalf of the Taiwan government, but its findings were consistent with Taipei's official stance. While the society's arguments might aid China's position, Beijing is likely to be wary of any move by the judges to bolster Taiwan's standing in the international community, analysts said. Chinese officials have repeatedly challenged the court's jurisdiction and the rights of the Philippines to bring the case, refusing to participate. Beijing has ignored invitations from the court to provide its own submission, but the judges have taken into account Chinese public statements, according to court releases. Taiwan, regarded by Beijing as a breakaway province, was not invited to participate in any way. Vietnam has provided a submission in support of Philippines' arguments that the court has jurisdiction. Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, said it was significant the judges' had consented to review Taiwan's arguments. "It demonstrates that the judges are striving to be impartial, and that they have been at pains to take into account the views of all the concerned parties, even China, which has refused to participate, and Taiwan, which isn't a member of the UN," he said. While China won't like the court giving Taiwan "international space", on this issue "Beijing may decide to look the other way", he said. (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Manuel Mogato in Manila.; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand released eight activists on bail on Tuesday who had been detained for posting Facebook comments critical of the ruling junta and a military-backed draft constitution. The military seized power in May 2014, throwing out an old constitution and clamping down on dissent. It has promised an election by mid-2017. But a draft constitution drawn up under military supervision has drawn disapproval from both sides of the political divide, and the junta has responded by banning criticism of the charter in the run-up to an August referendum on it. The activists, detained in April, have been charged with sedition and violating Thailand's computer crimes law for their posts on social media website Facebook that criticised the draft constitution and junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha. Two of them also face charges of infringing Thailand's royal defamation law, known as Article 112. The court released them on bail of 200,000 baht ($5,675) each, Winyat Chatmontree, a lawyer for the group, told Reuters. Supporters greeted them with flowers outside the Bangkok prison where they had been held. "I have to thank the court that granted us bail and gave us freedom," said activist Noppakao Kongsuwan. "I also want to thank the brothers and sisters. Some sent us moral support on social media and others came to visit us in prison," he said. It is not yet known when their trial will begin. Article 112 of Thailand's criminal code says anyone who "defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir-apparent or the regent" will be punished with prison terms of up to 15 years for each offence. "I have already told you this government will not tolerate royal defamation," Prayuth told reporters at government house on Tuesday. Critics have said the military uses royal defamation laws as a political tool to silence its enemies. JITTERS On Sunday the mother of a vocal, anti-junta activist was released after being charged with defaming the monarchy two days earlier. Demonstrations have been rare since the generals overthrew the government of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, but a small wave of opposition to the junta and the military-backed charter has arisen in recent weeks. The junta has appeared increasingly jittery ahead of the Aug. 7 referendum on the constitution, which the country's two biggest political parties have both criticised as undemocratic. The military denies seeking indefinite power and says the proposed constitution would heal divisions and usher in stable, corruption-free politics. Opponents say it would enshrine military power and fail to end the political rivalry that has divided the country for more than a decade. At the heart of Thailand's decade of tumultuous politics has been rivalry between populist political forces that have won huge support in the countryside and the Bangkok-based military-dominated establishment. (Reporting by Aukkarapon Niyomyat and Juarawee Kittisilpa; Writing by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Gareth Jones)
By Antoni Slodkowski YANGON (Reuters) - The new ambassador of the United States to Myanmar said on Tuesday he will keep using the term Rohingya for the persecuted Muslim minority, even after the government controlled by Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi asked him to refrain from it. Members of the 1.1 million-strong group, most of whom live in apartheid-like conditions in a remote part of northwestern Myanmar, are seen by many Myanmar Buddhists as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The term is a divisive issue. Scot Marciel took over as the head of the U.S. mission at a critical time after Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in historic elections, following decades of pro-democracy struggle. "Our position globally and our international practice is to recognise that communities anywhere have the ability to choose what they should be called... and we respect that," said Marciel, in response to a question on whether he intended to continue using the term Rohingya. He added that this has been Washington's policy before and that the administration intended to stick to it. Feted by many in the West for her role as champion of Myanmar's democracy movement during long years of military rule, Suu Kyi has been criticized overseas, and by some in Myanmar, for saying little about the abuses faced by the Rohingya. Speaking out for the group would carry a political cost at home. The group is widely disliked in Myanmar, including by some in Suu Kyi's party and its supporters. She risks losing support by taking up the cause of the beleaguered minority. Some 125,000 Rohingya remain displaced and face severe travel restrictions in squalid camps since fighting erupted in Rakhine State between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012. Thousands have fled persecution and poverty. The previous military-linked government of former junta general Thein Sein referred to the group as Bengalis, implying they were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, though many have lived in Myanmar for generations. Last week, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is run by Suu Kyi, told several media they had requested Marciel to refrain from using the term they dubbed "controversial". They said the Rohingya were not among the officially recognised ethnic minorities and in their view using the term was not supportive of Myanmar's national reconciliation process. Zaw Htay, the spokesman of the state counsellor office, also run by Suu Kyi, has refused to comment on the issue, directing all questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Asked whether Suu Kyi asked him to stop using the term Rohingya, Marciel refused to comment on what he referred to as "private diplomatic conversations". (Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Kim Coghill)
By Michael Martina, Greg Torode and Ben Blanchard BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - China scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday as a U.S. navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, a patrol China denounced as an illegal threat to peace which only went to show its defence installations in the area were necessary. Guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence travelled within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said. The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to "challenge excessive maritime claims" by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea, Urban said. "These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise," Urban said in an emailed statement. China and the United States have traded accusations of militarising the South China Sea as China undertakes large-scale land reclamation and construction on disputed features while the United States has increased its patrols and exercises. Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway which the United States worries China will use to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals. China's Defence Ministry said two fighter jets were scrambled and three warships shadowed the U.S. ship, telling it to leave. The U.S. patrol "again proves that China's construction of defensive facilities on the relevant reefs in the Nansha Islands is completely reasonable and totally necessary", it said, using China's name for the Spratly Islands where much of its reclamation work is taking place. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the U.S. ship illegally entered Chinese waters. "This action by the U.S. side threatened China's sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability," he told a daily news briefing. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waved aside a question as to whether the U.S. aim was to send a message ahead of a visit to Asia by President Barack Obama this month. "This is not a pointed strategy calculated to do anything except keep a regular process of freedom of navigation operations underway," he told reporters in London. SENSITIVE AREA China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the Spratly Islands after China used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from Fiery Cross. "Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be the future hub of Chinese military operations in the South China Sea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including its large and deep port and 3,000-metre runway," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. "The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of U.S. determination ahead of President Obama's trip to Vietnam." Speaking in Vietnam, Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said freedom of navigation operations were important for smaller nations. "If the world's most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships of navy of smaller countries?" Russel told reporters before news of the operation was made public. China has reacted with anger to previous U.S. freedom of navigation operations, including the overflight of fighter planes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month, and when long-range U.S. bombers flew near Chinese facilities under construction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November. U.S. naval officials believe China has plans to start reclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal, which sits further north of the Spratlys within the Philippines-claimed 200-nautical-mile (370-km) exclusive economic zone. Tough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who looks set to become president of the Philippines after an election on Monday, has proposed multilateral talks on the South China Sea. A Chinese diplomat warned last week that criticism of China over the South China Sea would rebound like a coiled spring. (Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Paris and London, and My Pham in Hanoi; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel and James Dalgleish)
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia police said on Tuesday four suspects have been arrested in connection with a string of grisly ritual murders in the southern African nation's capital that triggered anti-foreign riots targeting mostly Rwandan migrants in April. The arrested suspects are two army soldiers, a civilian employee of the Zambian Air Force and a traditional doctor, police said. They were to appear in court Tuesday afternoon charged with seven counts of murder. "All the murders which the accused have been charged with were committed in a similar manner by crushing the left side of the head, removing body parts and later dumping the deceased near their homes," police said in a statement. Police said in April that the victims had ears, hearts and genitals removed, raising suspicion of ritual killings. Human body parts are sometimes used in traditional remedies and concoctions in southern Africa. The practice is linked to witchcraft beliefs. Zambia hosts thousands of refugees from neighbouring countries, especially Rwanda and Burundi, but relations between the communities are usually peaceful. (Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Ed Stoddard; Editing by James Macharia)
We can help you make sense of the agribusiness industry, extending from chemicals and fertilizers used as inputs into agriculture, to the commodities, food and by-products that are an output to farming, with policy and regulation applied at every step of the value chain.
Italian buyout firm Alto Partners has sold its entire 95% stake in BIA, a European producer and distributor of couscous, to B.F. S.p.A., which is the holding company of Bonifiche Ferraresi.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. In a new survey of American military personnel, Donald Trump emerged as active-duty service members' preference to become the next U.S. president, topping Hillary Clinton by more than a 2-to-1 margin. However, in the latest Military Times election survey, more than one in five troops said theyd rather not vote in November if they have to choose between just those two candidates, reports Military Times.
But given only those choices, 21 percent of the service members surveyed said they would abstain from voting. More than 54 percent of the 951 troops Military Times surveyed said they would vote for Trump, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, over Clinton, the Democratic front-runner. Only about 25 percent said they would vote for Clinton in that matchup.
The results, while not a scientific sampling of military voting patterns show strong support for Trump among troops despite critics' attacks that he lacks foreign policy or national security experience.
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders fared slightly better than Clinton in a similar head-to-head matchup with Trump, but still trailed the reality TV star and business mogul by a 51 percent to 38 percent margin. About one in 10 military members said they would not vote at all given those two candidates.
Military personnel also demonstrated strong support for Trump in a Military Times reader survey conducted in March. Trump was the most popular candidate among the six presidential candidates remaining then, and the clear choice among Republican service members.
Trump stands as the presumptive Republican nominee for president, following the exit of his two remaining top party rivals in the last week. But numerous high-profile party leaders including House Speaker Paul Ryan and the last three GOP presidential nominees have declined to endorse him, citing concerns about his temperament and policy plans.
Meanwhile, Sanders has vowed to fight the Democratic primary contest all the way to the party convention in late July. Clinton, who by the end of the primary season appears likely to reach the number of delegates required to get her party's nomination, has begun shifting her campaign focus to Trump, attacking his thin national security resume and lack of support among Republican Party leaders.
In the latest survey, nearly half of respondents identified as Republicans, and only 18 percent as Democrats. That partisan divide accounted for much of Trumps support.
Democrats overwhelmingly favored Clinton (72 percent to 8 percent) and Republicans overwhelmingly supported Trump (82 percent to 6 percent). Troops who identified as independents slightly favored Trump, by a 40 percent to 32 percent margin.
Female troops favored Clinton over Trump, by a 51 percent to 24 percent margin. Male troops backed Trump over Clinton 57 percent to 22 percent.
Officers were more likely to back Clinton, though still said theyd vote for Trump by a 46 percent to 32 percent tally. Enlisted respondents broke 58 percent to 21 percent for Trump.
The same held for Sanders, where he outpaced Trumps support by a 45 percent to 43 percent margin among Navy members. Among the services, Marines were the most likely to support Trump (60 percent said theyd vote for him) while sailors were the most likely to support Clinton (31 percent said they would vote for her).
The survey began the day of the Indiana primary, before Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dropped out of the presidential contest, and remained open until later that week. Military members surveyed backed Cruz over Clinton and Sanders, as well, though not by as large of a margin as Trump.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Alan Meale (United Kingdom, SOC) and Giuseppe Galati (Italy, EPP/CD), co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of obligations and commitments by Armenia, will make a fact-finding visit to the country on 11 and 12 May 2016, focusing on the follow-up to constitutional changes, electoral reform and the fight against corruption, the PACE official website stated.
In Yerevan, they are due to meet the President, the Prime Minister, the Justice Minister and the Prosecutor General, as well as the head of the Commission on Ethics for High-Ranking Officials and the Chief of Government Staff.
Talks are also scheduled with representatives of different factions in the parliament, members of the Armenian delegation to PACE and civil society representatives.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. The National Security Service of Armenia received information that a number of citizens from Moldova are involved in credit card fraud in the territory of Armenia.
Citizen of Moldova Vitaly Pavel Borta, who arrived to Armenia via the May 3 Cisinau-Kiev-Yerevan flight, was arrested. 232 cards were found in his luggage, with private bank data of 220 credit card holders of 12 different commercial banks of Armenia.
The perpetrator used card skimming as a way of identity theft.
He is under arrest. Investigation is underway.
The National Security Service urges all credit card holders to observe safety rules of using bank cards.
STEPANAKERT, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Defense Minister of NKR and Commander of the Defense Army Levon Mnatsakanyan received Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk on May 10.
As Armenpress was informed from the press service of NKR Defense Ministry, the situation on the contact line of Karabakh-Azerbaijan opposing forces as well as issues of conducting monitoring in the north-eastern direction scheduled on May 11 were discussed at the meeting.
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. A German court on Tuesday rejected a request by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for a preliminary injunction preventing the head of German publisher Axel Springer repeating a derogatory term.
Armenpress reports Erdogan's lawyer, Ralf Hoecker, told Reuters that Erdogan had sought the injunction after Chief Executive Mathias Doepfner's public support for a controversial poem read out by comedian Jan Boehmermann on German television in March.
But the court said in a statement it had rejected it on the basis of "the defendant's right to free expression of opinion".
Erdogan is known for his sensitivity to criticism and Turkish prosecutors have opened over 1,800 cases against people for insulting him since he became president in 2014. That sensitivity has also made itself felt on the international stage, raising tensions with Germany at a time when the two countries are grappling with a huge influx of Syrian refugees.
Erdogan's office was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters. The Turkish leader has repeatedly said his opponents are free to criticize him but that those who stray into insult will face legal action.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has drawn heavy criticism for allowing German prosecutors to pursue a case against Boehmermann at Erdogan's behest.
Under Germany's criminal code, insults against foreign leaders are not allowed but the government can decide whether to authorize prosecutors to go ahead.
In the poem, Boehmermann suggested Erdogan hits girls, watches child pornography and engages in bestiality.
Doepfner expressed solidarity with Boehmermann in an open letter published in German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in April, saying he had laughed out loud over the poem and "wholeheartedly" supported what the comedian had said.
If the court in Cologne had agreed to grant the injunction, Doepfner would have been banned from repeating a sexually crude term to describe Erdogan that was first used by Boehmermann and subsequently quoted by the Axel Springer chief.
The court said its decision did not address the legality of the Boehmermann poem, which is still under investigation.
A spokeswoman for Springer said Doepfner had simply "wanted to defend the freedom of art and satire in his open letter".
Hoecker had told Reuters earlier that he expected the Cologne district court to reject the injunction, and would recommend Erdogan appeal to a higher court. It was not immediately clear when a follow-on lawsuit could be filed.
Hoecker's law firm said on Monday it had won a preliminary injunction against German director and producer Uwe Boll, who in a video posted online, defended Boehmermann's poem and said Erdogan should be shot.
"Mr Erdogan is a human being and human dignity is inviolable," Hoecker said in that statement, adding that this was placed above the freedom of press, art and opinion in the German constitution.
STEPANAKERT, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Karen Mirzoyan met with EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, Herbert Salber during his working visit to Yerevan on May 10.
As Armenpress was informed from the press service of NKR MFA, during the meeting Karen Mirzoyan briefed Herbert Salber on the military aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against the NKR in early April, as well as on its consequences, stressing that it had become an unprecedented violation of the trilateral ceasefire agreement of 1994. Karen Mirzoyan noted that striving to undermine the negotiation process and by rejecting all the initiatives aimed at the stabilization of the situation, Azerbaijan had attempted to resolve the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict by military means.
The NKR Foreign Minister drew the attention of the Special Representative of the European Union to the fact that the Azerbaijani aggression against the NKR was accompanied by numerous war crimes, as well as a gross violation of the laws and customs of war and norms of international humanitarian law.
Karen Mirzoyan also recalled that the NKR authorities had repeatedly warned the international community that the lack of decisive and targeted condemnation created a false sense of permissiveness in Baku and paved the way for new military ventures.
The NKR Foreign Minister emphasized the importance of visits by diplomats and representatives of international organizations to the NKR for getting the objective picture of the current situation and obtaining comprehensive information about the causes and consequences of the Azerbaijani aggression.
The sides noted the importance of efforts aimed at the exclusion of further attempts to destabilize the situation and creation of necessary conditions for the resumption of the peaceful settlement process of Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict.
The interlocutors also exchanged views on a range of issues of mutual interest.
An explicit but involving drama from the director of 'Lovers of the Artic Circle', 'Sex and Lucia' follows the title character, a Madrid based waitress. One evening she returns home to the apartment she shares with her writer boyfriend, Lorenzo (Ulloa) and finds him missing. Believing him to be dead, she heads off to the island of Formentera, which he wrote at length about. From here, the narrative then shifts back some six years and focuses on how the relationship developed, as well as giving an insight into the nature of Lorenzo's character. Like his fellow countryman, Alejandro Amenebar, Julian Medem likes to play around with the accepted conventions of a movie's narrative. In 'Sex and Lucia', he routinely shifts the focus of the film from character to character and time to time, which ensures that the film's subject matter doesn't go stale. However, it also leads to some complications and 'Sex and Lucia' is occasionally a difficult movie to follow and one where plot holes are at a premium. That said, in terms of visuals and atmosphere, it's gorgeous stuff, as Medem uses a wide range of striking images with imaginative camera work to evoke a sense of time and place
This season of 'Love Is Blind' is shaping up to be absolute madness here's what people are saying about it
Figures released today in the Daft.ie Quarter One Rental Report show an increase in the average rent nationwide of 9.3% in the year to March 2016, with average nationwide rents topping the 1,000 mark.
Dublin locations are unsurprisingly asking the highest rents, with average rents in Dublin City South reaching 1,663, County Dublin South 1,455, Dublin City Centre 1,581 and North Dublin City asking 1,365.
Lowest average rents were found in County Roscommon 473, County Donegal 496, County Longford 519 and County Leitrim 537.
The reports outlines the supply shortage has seen the cost of renting a home rise almost 10% in the last year.
According to the report, "Irelands dysfunctional land market has its impact on affordability and therefore on the volume of new construction there is a fundamental problem in construction costs in Ireland being too high relative to our own incomes. Compared to a peak of nearly 24,000 in mid-2009 and over 7,200 two years ago, there were just 3,082 properties on the market nationwide at the start of May, the lowest on record."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
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Irelands largest youth summit, Zeminar, will be held at the RDS in Dublin from October 11th-13th, 2016.
Ireland rugby star, Jamie Heaslip and former Rose of Tralee, Maria Walsh were on hand today to launch the event. The conference will see Zeminar host a series of workshops, talks and activations inspired by the issues facing Generation Z.
Guest speakers will discuss a wide range of topics including sexuality, sport, technology, entrepreneurship, nutrition, wellness and bullying.
Confirmed guest speakers include Bressie, Lynn Ruane, David Gillick and Dr Rhona Mahony.
Among the exhibitors will be leading Irish youth group, Foroige, and the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, Headstrong.
Speaking at the launch, Zeminar CEO, Damien Clarke said, "Generation Z are growing up in a uniquely challenging and complex environment; unlike anything experienced by previous generations. It is our wish throughout our three-day event to introduce Generation Z to a network of support, tailor-made for them."
He added, "To date, the majority of youth-centric events have focused on one or two aspects of teenage life. Zeminar will address all of the issues facing young people in this new, technological age, making it the most all-encompassing youth event in Ireland."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
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Modified On May 10, 2016 09:45 PM By Arun
While auto giant Mercedes-Benz has been critical of the blanket Delhi diesel ban, their rivals, BMW, have found a way around it. BMW will be re-introducing the '20i' petrol variants for their popular 3-Series and 5-Series executive saloons. Unlike the diesel variants that are assembled in India, the German automaker has chosen to import fully built units of the petrol variants. The 320i that is priced at Rs 36.90 lakh for the base Prestige variant and Rs 42.70 lakh for the top-spec Luxury Line variant. Sadly, there isn't a fun-loving 330i on the cards just yet. In terms of features and looks, the petrol Bimmer is identical to its diesel counterpart. The top of the line variant comes loaded to the gills with features such as LED headlamps, an 8.8-inch screen for the 'iDrive' infotainment paired to a 205W sound system, a sunroof, heated wing mirrors, seventeen-inch alloy wheels and a whole lot more. The 320i is powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged motor that develops a healthy 184PS of power and 270Nm of torque. The motor is paired to an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission, that sends the power to the rear wheels. 0-100km/h is dealt with in just 7.3 seconds, just like the 320d diesel. The 3-Series goes up against rivals such as the Jaguar XE, Mercedes C-Class and the upcoming Audi A4. We think BMW have done a brilliant job with the pricing, undercutting its rivals substantially. Prices for the 520i haven't been announced yet, but we expect it to be priced at Rs 54 lakh, for the top-spec Luxury Line variant.
Modified On May 10, 2016 05:42 PM By Tushar
The Supreme Court of India held a hearing on May 9 to decide the fate of the diesel car ban that's been effective in the nations capital. We would have liked to bring some good news for manufacturers and car buyers alike, but it looks like the rule isnt going anywhere since the apex court has extended the freeze on registering new diesel cars with engines displacing 2,000cc and above.
Introduced in December 2015, the ban was enforced to keep the rising pollution levels in Delhi in check. The rule was supposed to lapse on March 31, 2016. However, it has seen multiple extensions, leaving would-be buyers of cars like the Innova Crysta, XUV500 and Safari Storme, among many others, groaning.
The ban on diesel taxis in Delhi came into effect on May 1 which led cab operators to protest by blocking roads in Delhis bordering areas of Gurgaon and Noida. The Supreme Court provided some respite by permitting diesel taxis with all-India tourist permits to ferry BPO employees, but has asked the Delhi government, environmental pollution control authority and taxi owners association to present a road map to have them replaced with CNG operated vehicles.
Manufacturers such as Toyota and Mahindra rely on models with diesel motors displacing 2,000cc and above and the ruling has had an impact on their sales in the capital. Premium car makers Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz have also voiced their discontent with the decision and understandably so since high-end car buyers love diesel models.
Do you think the registration ban is justified? Is there a better solution to the pollution issue that youd like to share? Tell us through the comments!
Modified On May 10, 2016 04:58 PM By Nabeel
Hyundai, the second largest carmaker within India has added another feather to its cap. Having won the India Car Of The Year (ICOTY) award thrice in a row, it has now completed twenty years in India. At the commencement of the 20th Foundation Day celebrations, Hyundai Motor India Limiteds managing director Mr. Young Key Koo announced that Hyundai aims at acquiring the market leadership position in the Indian automobile market becoming the most beloved and trusted auto brand in India. He further added that Hyundai is on a path of improvement and will now present itself as a modern premium brand with products and services beyond customer expectations.
Hyundai has also lined up some discounts and gifts in which twenty customers will get twenty per cent cashback and benefits up to INR one lakh on the entire Hyundai India range.
The foundation for the first factory of Hyundai was laid on 6th May, 1996,and began operations in September 1998. The largely successful Santro hatchback was the first Hyundai in India. Hyundai has said that the Santro was Indias first car with the MPFI (Multi Point Fuel Injection) technology when all its rivals were using carburetor based engines.
Mr. YK Koo also promised the launch of launching two new products every year, to expand Hyundais footprint across the country. More GDSI & digital showrooms, automated workshops, introduction of Experience Hyundai programmes for brand & product, sponsorships, etc. are in the offing. Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) manufacturing facility is being upgraded. Currently, the investments stand at 3.1 billion USD with vendor investment at 1.5 billion USD.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. YK Koo, MD and CEO, HMIL said This is a very important milestone for us. 20 years ago we only had a dream of transforming the Indian auto industry by introducing contemporary products and today that dream has come true. We were also the first proponents of Make in India and showcasing Indias manufacturing prowess to the world. That vision is validated with HMIL and India remaining at the heart of HMCs global operations and a key hub for exports. We have received tremendous support from the Indian customer and I am confident that this support and co-operation continues, going forward.
Hyundai is trusted by a lot of Indian car buyers. Achieving this milestone will reassure the faith of the customers within the brand.
Also Read: Hyundai India 20th Anniversary. 5 Moments That Defined Its Journey
Modified On May 10, 2016 05:47 PM By Tushar
Trust the Japanese to keep looking for technological breakthroughs. Honda is attempting to start a revolution in engine design and has reportedly patented a new engine that has cylinders of variable displacements.
The details of the technology would be best explained by the boffins from the land of the rising sun, but well try and keep things simple. Traditionally, the cylinders of a single engine are of the same displacement, as they use a uniform bore and stroke size. So if we take the example of a 2.0-litre/2,000cc, V4 engine, we get a volume of 500cc from each cylinder. Deactivate them individually, and you get a total of four displacements (2,000, 1,500, 1,000 or 500cc).
As per Hondas new technology, while each pot will have the same bore volume, the stroke length will differ, giving each chamber a different size. Plainly put, imagine a V4 engine with cylinders displacing 300, 425, 625, and 650cc respectively. Put those numbers together in different configurations and effectively, you could have one engine with fifteen displacement combinations, depending on how many cylinders are firing.
This technology can be used to increase an engines performance and efficiency as the motor would theoretically be more flexible and adaptable to the kind of driving condition. As per the patent, the design can be applied to inline and V-type engines of different sizes.
This may be Hondas answer to the rising need for engine downsizing and it could be applied to both cars and motorcycles. It will be a while before this engine enters large scale production and rest assured, dont expect to see it in India any time soon.
Source: Autoguide
Read more on: Honda
From a software programmer point of view; I think the merge will be a chaotic.
PokerStars has the best software on the market.
FullTilt is second best.
Merging the two into one will introduce many bugs.
It is like mixing Coke and Pepsi thinking it will taste better and cut the cost of production. It won't and some will quit buying it.
So they will probably eliminate FullTilt and some players will quit because they only played FullTilt.
Bad move by PokerStars. But we will soon see.
05/10/2016
Photo (c) jarun011 - Fotolia U.S. health officials are still ramping up their efforts to combat an expected Zika virus outbreak this summer, but maybe there's another potential threat that should be on their radar screens as well.
Two Georgetown University professors say the outbreak of yellow fever around the world, which so far has spread without much notice, is becoming the world's newest health emergency.
Daniel Lucey and Lawrence O. Gostin, of the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown, say the World Health Organization (WHO) needs to act quickly. In fact, the doctor and lawyer team argue that the WHO needs a standing committee to deal with emerging health emergencies.
Destructive history
You'll be forgiven if you aren't that familiar with yellow fever. But people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries certainly were. Like Zika, yellow fever is spread by infected mosquitoes.
Thought to have originated in Africa, yellow fever, an influenza-like desease, was common in tropical areas for years. In the U.S., the city of New Orleans was devastated by yellow fever epidemics in the 19th century. It famously killed many workers constructing the Panama Canal in the early 20th century.
After a vaccine was developed in the 1930s, yellow fever was mostly eliminated throughout the world. Now, however, it's back.
Angola hard hit
In a JAMA article published this week, Lucey and Gostin say the latest outbreak first surfaced in early January and is spreading quickly in Angola. They say as of April, Angola had documented over 2,000 cases that had caused 258 deaths.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) brought attention to the epidemic by issuing an alert in Latin America, which is still battling the Aedes aegypti mosquito vector, still busy transmitting Zika and dengue viruses.
The professors say vaccines remain in short supply, which could aggravate the crisis. Vaccine demands are escalating everywhere in Africa. In Kenya, there are plans to vaccinate two million people.
The complexities and apparent increased frequency of emerging infectious disease threats, and the catastrophic consequences of delays in the international response, make it no longer tenable to place sole responsibility and authority with the Director-General to convene currently ad hoc emergency committees, Lucey and Gostin write.
According to the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), yellow fever is a very rare cause of illness in U.S. travelers. The CDC notes there is no specific treatment for yellow fever. For those at risk, it urges the use of insect repellent, wearing protective clothing, and getting vaccinated.
NAFCUs Board of Directors and Supervisory Committee Conference began yesterday in San Francisco with two concurrent pre-conference workshops and resumes today with an industry update from association President and CEO Dan Berger.
One of Mondays pre-conference workshops, led by NAFCU Executive Vice President and COO Anthony Demangone, allowed both new and seasoned directors and supervisory committee members to better understand their role and how the credit union system works. It also offered participants the opportunity to earn credits for the NAFCU Certified Volunteer Expert program.
The other pre-conference workshop, led by c. myers corporations Executive Vice President Rob Johnson and Vice President Brian McHenry, offered board members an overview of different financial statements, including various financial literacy principles and credit union financials.
Today, Berger will kick off the weeks presentations with a welcome address and a Washington and credit union industry update on current legislative and regulatory news and its impact on credit unions.
The next time you go to work, walk in stupid and ask more questions. Your credit union will be better off for it.
Thats the advice Polly LaBarre, author and founding member of Fast Company magazine, gave attendees at CO-OP Financial Services THINK 16 conference Thursday in San Diego.
Her point: Shed your long-held assumptions and try to see your credit union with fresh eyes.
The future, she said, belongs to the mavericks: Those irregular people who think and act differently, and defy the conventions of traditional organizations.
Traditional organizations arent designed for adaptability, LaBarre said. They were invented to routine-ize the nonroutine and maximize standardization and control. They created the practices and systems we take for granted today. This is called bureaucracy.
Two former police officers who were members of the $37 million Wilkes-Barre City Employees Federal Credit Union were sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., for participating in a fake loan scheme.
Tino Ninotti, a retired police officer for the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., police department, was sentenced to one month in federal prison and two years of supervised release. Jason Anthony, a former Wilkes-Barre city police officer, was sentenced to time served and two years of supervised release with the first three months in home confinement.
When I was a young CEO, my biggest fear was disappointing those who believed in me. So, I compensated by working crazy hours and overseeing every single minute detail of my company. It didnt take long for me to see the red flags of my actions: I was burnt out, my team was unhappy, and employees were quitting at an alarming rate. I wasnt micromanaging because I had cruel intentions; I was simply afraid of failing.
Often for a business leader, what typically starts as a well-intentioned push for excellence can quickly turn into a management nightmare where insecurity and fear of failure take control.
In order to ensure their teams deliver the quality levels they demand, leaders will insist everything earns their stamp of approval before seeing the light of day. But as teams grow larger and larger, this amount of micromanaging will simply choke the life out of their budding businesses.
The founder of one of the largest ad agencies in the U.S., Jordan Zimmerman, recently told Entrepreneur that a company led by a micromanager will never become a large, thriving powerhouse. Leaders need to learn how to let go, and thats only possible once they build trust with their teams.
On Friday (6 May), European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Parliament President Martin Schulz and European Council President Donald Tusk attended the ceremony awarding the Charlemagne Prize to Pope Francis. The Society for the Conferring of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen decided to award the 2016 Prize to Pope Francis for his efforts to promote the European values of peace, tolerance, compassion and solidarity.
The International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen is the oldest and best-known prize awarded for work done in the service of European unification. The first Charlemagne Prize was awarded in 1950 to Richard Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, the founder of the Pan-European Movement. The prize is traditionally awarded on Ascension Day in a ceremony in the town hall of Aachen. The prize is named after Charlemagne, the Franconian king revered by his contemporaries as the Father of Europe.
On the sidelines of this years ceremony, President Jean-Claude Juncker announced his decision to appoint Mr Jan Figel (former European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth from 2004-2009) as the first special envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the European Union. Mr Figel assumed this new role on Friday for an initial mandate of one year.
In his speech, President Juncker stressed that Freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental right which is part of the foundation of the European Union. The persistent persecution of religious and ethnic minorities makes protecting and promoting this freedom inside and outside the EU all the more essential. I trust that Jan Figel, our Special Envoy, will help us in this endeavor, sharpening our focus and ensuring that this important issue gets the attention it deserves. In Mr Figel new role, he will be in charge of presenting a report in the context of the on-going dialogue between the Commission and churches and religious associations or communities, which is led by the first Vice-President Frans Timmermans.
Talking Points:
Eurogroup FinMins met in Brussels Monday to discuss the progress of the Greek bailout terms
No agreement reached but Eurogroup members positive progress will lead to an accord soon
The meeting comes after Greece MPs approve comprehensive fiscal measures Sunday
Having trouble trading in the FX markets? This may be why.
Euro group finance ministers met Monday in Brussels to discuss the first review of the macroeconomic adjustment program for Greece. While there was optimism at its closing, another date was set to carry forward crucial decisions. The meeting concluded with members welcoming a package of proposed policy reforms which will cover the pension system, income tax, privatization, public sector wage bill and the issue of non-performing loans. Euro-group President Dijsselbloem commented after the meeting saying that he would like to see longer grace periods for Greek debt, he also noted the progress made towards agreeing on automatic contingency measures that Greece must pass. These measures are meant to activate if additional effort is needed to meet the primary surplus targets of 3.5 percent. Greeces finance minister Tsakalotos was also present at the meeting and expressed a positive outlook on reaching an accord by May 24th. The Greek FinMin also stated that he believes the IMF will support the automatic fiscal contingency mechanisms.
Despite the progress made today between the Euro-group and the Greek representatives, there remain some key issues that still need to be resolved before an agreement is reached. One of the major points that still requires attention is the need to update and strengthen Greeces privatization program, which is an important part of the ESM. The further privatization of Greeces assets also comes after Sundays parliamentary vote passed fiscal reforms focusing on major aspects of the pension and tax system to help Greece reach the goals set out by the EU and IMF. Within the reforms there was a tax increase for medium to high income pensions, as well as mergers and reductions of Greeces highest pension payouts. Despite the uniqueness of this ordeal, Greece isnt the only country with its official European membership in question. The fear surrounding the Brexit vote on the UKs membership in the EU scheduled for June 23rd adds considerable concern about the unions in Europe. The Greek accord and UKs EU referendum may create significant headwinds as their respective time deadlines approach.
Berkeley Hillside Club2286 Cedar StBerkeley, CA 94709KPFA Radio 94.1FM presents:Rebecca Gordon: American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post 9/11 War CrimesHosted by David TalbotTo this day, the people of the United States have never had anything like a full accounting of all that has been done in our names as part of this seemingly endless "war on terror." Nor has there been any credible public reckoning for the officials at the highest levels of government who are responsible for all the deeply troubling actions undertaken by Washington since 9/11. The country has been manipulated into a stance well apart from the legal community of nations. There is a pressing need for the United States, now deeming itself "leader of the free world," to be held accountable for its actions. Instead, the country increasingly violates international laws of war and human rights with evident impunity.For the sake of all the victims of the "war on terror," for the sake of our national soul, and even more for the future of humanity itself, we need a full accounting of our American war criminals. We need an American Nuremberg.Rebecca Gordon teaches in the Philosophy department at the University of San Francisco and for the university's Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good. Her previous publications include Letters From Nicaragua, Cruel and Usual: How Welfare "Reform" Punishes Poor People , and Mainstreaming Torture.DAVID TALBOT, founder and former CEO of Salon.com, was senior editor at Mother Jones magazine, and features editor at the San Francisco Examiner.advance tickets: $12: T: 800-838-3006 or Books Inc, Pegasus (3 sites), Moe's, Walden Pond Bookstore, Diesel a Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloway's S.F. - Modern Times. $15 door, KPFA benefit http://www.kpfa.org/events $12 advance, $15 door.
Hundreds of San Francisco State students, faculty, staff and supporters of the College of Ethnic Studies and public education rallied at the center of the campus on May 9, 2016. Hunger strikers read a statement of their demands and also SF State graduate and actor Danny Glover spoke in solidarity.
Hundreds of San Francisco State students, faculty and supporters of the College of Ethnic Studies and public education. Speakers discussed the systemic racist attack on the Ethnic Studies College, a hostile work relationship and the effort to destroy the college by replacing faculty who have retired or left. They also discussed the gentrification of the university and the increasing decline of African American students at the University.The university administration has been starving the College of Ethnic Studies and demanding that they fund themselves like the School of Business and other money making operations on the campus. The corporatization of the University is aimed at full privatization and the elimination of poor and working class students who can no longer attend the university or must go into massive debt to continue their public education.There are also political attacks on the Palestinian students and other student activists by the administration including criminalizing their political protests. Clarence Thomas of ILWU Local 10 and a former strike leader talked about the ILWU Local 10 shutting down the Israeli Zim ship in solidarity with Palestinian people.Steve Zeltzer, a former striker and journalist at KPFA WorkWeek Radio also called for a struggle for free education and open admissions which were the demands of the strikers in 1968. He pointed out that there are over 30 billionaires in San Francisco and over 100 billionaires in California and yet the students and faculty are being told there is not enough money to keep the College of Ethnic Studies going.The California Faculty Association also said they are filing a grievance for a hostile workplace environment and that the attacks on the faculty is affecting the education of all the students.SFSU TWLF 2016 Hunger Striker's Demands At May 9, 2016 RallyAt a solidarity rally held at SFSU on May 9, 2016 the Third World Liberation Front hunger strikers spoke about their demands on the university administration. The administration has been cutting back and destroying the Ethnic Studies College and refusing to replace faculty. Also the percentage of African American students has continued to decline as the gentrification of the University continues.For more information:Production of Labor Video ProjectSolidarity Rally For SFSU Ethnic Studies Hunger Strikers On May 9, 2016A solidarity rally on May 9, 2016 was held for SFSU Ethnic Studies hunger strikers who are demanding full funding for the College of Ethnic Studies and an end to the attack on the programs and faculty. The hunger strike started on May 1. The hunger strikers are Hassani Bell, 18, Julia Retzlaff, 19, Sachiel Rose, 19, and Ahkeel Mestayer, 20 and their organization is called Third World Liberation Front 2016 in homage to the 1968 strike.For further information:Production of Labor Video ProjectDanny Glover Speaks Out In Support SF State Ethnic Studies Hunger StrikersDanny Glover, actor, activist and a member of the Black Student Union BSU during the 1968 strike at San Francisco State College spoke on Monday May 9, 2016 at a solidarity rally for the students of the Ethnic Studies College who are on a hunger strike protesting the cutbacks and attacks on the program. The students have been demanding full support for the school and faculty who have been attacked for years.Glover called on the students, faculty, staff and supporters of the Ethnic Studies College to prepare for a strike if their demands are not met.For more information contactProduction of Labor Video ProjectSFSU president says hunger strikers demands not unrealistic "Kenneth Monteiro, dean of the ethnic studies college, said cuts to his teaching budget mean San Francisco State must consider dropping about 70 classes from the 170 or so he planned to offer in the upcoming school year."San Francisco State University students and supporters raise their hands in solidarity during a news conference supporting the four hunger strike students and restate their demands for funding $8 million to the College of Ethnic Studies on Monday, May 9, 2016. (Yesica Prado/Special to the SF Examiner)By Michael Barba on May 9, 2016 6:12 pmSan Francisco State University officials were pressured Monday to compromise with the College of Ethnic Studies and its four students on a hunger strike who are calling for the university to pump $8 million into its college.The students have not eaten since May 1 and have pledged to continue fasting until administrators close the colleges annual budget deficit and award even more funding than that, among a series of other demands.In response to questions from reporters, SFSU President Leslie Wong said Monday he did not find the demands unrealistic. However, Wong said he did not know where the funding would come from as the entire university has been underfunded in recent years and the budget for 2016-17 is not yet finalized.I would want a serious discussion and I think thats what I hear them asking for and Im more than willing to set that up, Wong said. From my first day here I have made it clear that the College of Ethnic Studies will stand on its own.In February, Wong designated $200,000 in one-time funding to keep the college afloat next school year after initial protests and claims that Ethnic Studies had been struck by a round of budget cuts.While university officials said reserve funding used to cover the colleges annual deficit had dried up, Ethnic Studies faculty claim inadequate funding for more than a decade has reduced the colleges operations by 40 percent.Amid the hunger strike, the heads of the College of Ethnic Studies called on California State University Chancellor Timothy White to launch an investigation into alleged racial bias and discrimination in hiring practices at the university.The Ethnic Studies chairs claim SFSU has not allowed them to hire two black candidates for tenure-track positions in the Department of Africana Studies because of the colleges support for the recent protests.But Provost Sue Rosser, who approved the search process in fall 2015 for two candidates to replace a faculty member who died and another who retired, said there was no room in the colleges budget for the hires.That is just not true, Rosser said last Tuesday in response to the allegations of retaliation. If any other college did not have the funding, they also would not be hiring candidates.White, the CSU chancellor, responded to the allegations Friday in an email obtained by the San Francisco Examiner, where he said his office would review the claims and determine an outcome on the issues by May 23.Hunger strikeOn Monday, the hunger strikers reiterated their demands to several hundred supporters on the campus quad, including SFSU alumnus, actor and activist Danny Glover.Glover reminded students of the 1960s strike at SFSU that led to the creation of the nations first-ever College of Ethnic Studies and changed the narrative.Thats what the ethnic studies program is about. Thats what this strike is about, Glover said. Defending their right to an education.The students on the hunger strike Hassani Bell, 18, Julia Retzlaff, 19, Sachiel Rose, 19, and Ahkeel Mestayer, 20 are calling themselves the Third World Liberation Front 2016 in homage to the 1968 strike.UCSF Medical Center students and a professor treated the hunger strikers Saturday at the Clinica Martin-Baro in the Mission District.The longer the duration of the hunger strike, the more likely to see serious damage in the body and the more risks when it comes to refeeding, professor Gina Moreno-John said in a statement. We are concerned about the health of these students as they are showing initial symptoms of their calorie deprivation.The students also received the support of elected-officials including supervisors John Avalos, Jane Kim, Eric Mar and David Campos, as well as Public Defender Jeff Adachi.For a week, the hunger strike coincided with another group of protesters who went without food for 17 days, calling for the firing or resignation of San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr.The students threatened to escalate their tactics if their demands are not met by Wednesday at 11 a.m.SF State hunger strikers keep up fight for ethnic studiesBy Steve RubensteinUpdated 7:28 pm, Monday, May 9, 2016Photo: Steve Rubenstein / The Chronicle / /IMAGE 1 OF 2A rally was held Monday, May 9, 2016, supporting four students on a hunger strike to protest cuts made to the ethnic studies program at San Francisco State University.One group of San Francisco hunger strikers may have started eating again, but an equally determined group of hunger strikers at San Francisco State University went through its eighth day on Monday without solid food to protest budget cuts to a popular ethnic studies program.The San Francisco State protest, which had been overshadowed by the hunger strike by activists who want San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhrfired, was the subject of a noisy noon rally in the middle of campus that drew about 300 students, faculty and alumni including actor Danny Glover.Hunger striker Ahkeel Mestayer, 20, said the planned cuts to the College of Ethnic Studies threatened to gut the classes that mean the most to him.These classes teach us about the fight against racism, sexism, capitalism all the isms, said Mestayer, who has taken six ethnic studies classes.Subsisting on liquidsMestayer and three other students are subsisting on chicken broth and coconut water the same staples that the anti-Suhr strikers had been allowing themselves. Mestayer said the San Francisco State group, which is being monitored by medics, is in good health so far.Kenneth Monteiro, dean of the ethnic studies college, said cuts to his teaching budget mean San Francisco State must consider dropping about 70 classes from the 170 or so he planned to offer in the upcoming school year. The College of Ethnic Studies, said to be the only one of its kind in the nation, provides students with what the dean called the intellectual traditions of what are soon going to be a majority of Americans.Attending the rally and supporting the strike was Glover, who graduated from San Francisco State in 1971 and who called his time at the university the greatest days of my life.Im here to support the strikers any way I can, he said. Ethnic students are so important for all students.Deficit an issueIn a previous statement, San Francisco State President Les Wong said the university needed to change how we respond to colleges that run annual deficits, as has been the case for ethic studies in recent years. He said he has asked the college to adapt to new budgetary discipline.Meetings with college administrators are ongoing, said Monteiro, who declined to discuss specifics.University spokesman Jonathan Morales said Wong met with the strikers last week, was concerned for their health and would like to try to find a solution. Morales said that ethnic studies was the only college running large deficits each year and that the president has asked the college to live within its budget. Its annual deficit is about $250,000, he said.Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein [at] sfchronicle.com COMMUNITY SUPPORT STRONG AT HUNGER STRIKE PRESS CONFERENCE09 MAY 2016EMILY CHAVOUS AND JEREMY PORR 0 0 136 0Nearly 200 students and faculty gathered in the quad at 12:30 p.m. Monday for a press conference surrounding the four students who began a hunger strike last week in protest of what they consider a dismissal of their demands to defend and advance the College of Ethnic Studies.In attendance were actor and SF State alumnus Danny Glover, San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar and San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, in addition to several community activists and public officials who expressed solidarity with the strikers.It is a bit shameful that eight days into the strike we have not been able to come to a resolution on their just demands, Chair of Latina and Latino Studies Alejandro Murguia said to the crowd. So we are hoping that finally the president and the provost and his cabinet will listen and pay attention to these very astute demands and concerns.Vice President of the Black Student Union Hanna Wodaje also called out the administration.We believe this to be a violation of our civil rights, the CSU moratorium on Ethnic Studies, and furthermore a violation of the mission of the University, Wodaje said. We cannot comprehend the logic that has led to the decision by our administration but we can see the implications, a University that does not adequately represent its student body and its faculty.Mar said San Francisco Supervisors David Campos, John Avalos and Jane Kim support the courageous strikers and their just list of demands.I worry about the health of the strikers here and the strikers that are in front of City Hall, Mar said. But I also know that the College of Ethnic Studies has been starved. Its a systemic starvation.President Leslie E. Wong addressed a small room of press at 1:45 p.m. in the Administration Building during the open mic segment of the larger press conference held outside, which ran longer than its noted end-time of 1:30 p.m.I think a very deliberate and formal process where we come to the table is needed at this time, Wong said. I think that we can earnestly and seriously tackle some important issues, the least of which is funding. I think theres an issue of trust, I think there are issues of our relationship between the administration and the rest of the community. And personally, those are very important to me.The strikers continued their protest off-campus over the weekend, but returned to their campsite today.Theres a lot of love out there, but sometimes you need some time to yourself, 19-year-old striker Sachiel Rosen told Golden Gate Xpress. Its good to see a lot of people out here. This was the point we wanted to spread the word to connect the campus community.
The state of California's law granting what it calls a "density bonus" to developers does three things. It allows corporations to disregard zoning regulations in cities, thus suppressing local democratic decisions about neighborhoods. It fosters market rate housing while pretending to require the inclusion of affordable housing, which it does minimally on a class basis. And it discriminates against low income families.
We know the real source of the housing crisis now besetting Berkeley (and the bay area in general). It is not a supply and demand problem. According to census figures, Berkeley has (approx.) 49,000 housing units for around 112,000 people, whereas in 1970, it had 46,000 units for 117,000 people, and there was no crisis. [ http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/cities/Berkeley.htm ] The real source is a plan to change the class nature of the city by building housing for a new population of wealthier people. It is called Plan Bay Area. And the crisis it creates is not that nobody can find housing. The crisis is that low and moderate income people cannot find housing when they are forced out of their homes by landlords seeking to rent to wealthier people at higher rents. The crisis is the flood of dislocations resulting from fraudulent evictions, economic evictions, foreclosures, real estate speculation, ownership changes, etc. With the growing dislocations of low and moderate income families, those with higher income can find plenty of housing in Berkeley. Nevertheless, the plan allots the building of over 3900 new housing units in Berkeley. By the time there is a glut, and rents start to come down, most low and moderate income families will be long gone.That is why neighborhoods are organizing to demand affordable housing now, to protect their neighbors from becoming commuters or exiles. Only affordable housing will alleviate the housing crisis by absorbing families being forced out of their homes by rent increases. Building market rate housing irrationally assumes people will move into higher rent housing if it becomes available. Building affordable housing allows people to move into units at lower rent than they are paying. That has the added benefit of increasing their disposable income, which benefits small businesses.Corporate developers, however, insist on building market rate housing and banks insist on dealing with corporate entities (e.g. LLCs), rather than human investers. The developers do not insist on market rate units just because of profitability. They want all market rate units because of their financing. Developers fund their operations with debt, using the project itself as collateral. If land or property values decline, the resulting decline in collateral value puts the developer in trouble with the bank. When faced with an inability to repay the loans, what becomes important to the bank is the ability to put the project back on the real estate market that is, to recapitalize it to transfer the loan to another developer or to recuperate the loan through sale. The presence of affordable units, because the earnings from them are related to tenant income, hinders the ability to recapitalize the project. Thus, the corporate debt structure is a barrier to including affordable units in new development. This is a real conflict of interest between communities and corporations.The city government debates whether to require 10% or 15% affordable housing units in new housing projects, though the constituency that needs affordability is a much greater percentage of the population than that. At the same time, the city gives a discount on the mitigation fee by which developers can buy their way out of including affordable units. The citys concern about the problem appears to be a sham.And that is where the density bonus comes in. The density bonus promises a compromise, the inclusion of affordable housing units in new projects, in exchange for which the developers can make their projects bigger (at market rate).To understand the true nature of this "compromise," we need to understand what "affordable" means, and the nature of the conflict between corporate interests and neighborhood interests."Affordable" with respect to housing is a technical term used by HUD. It means that tenants pay no more than 30% of their income for housing. In other words, affordability means the cost of housing is calibrated by income rather than according to a rental market, which charges what people are willing to pay apples and oranges.HUD divides family income levels into five categories, using an Area Median Income (AMI) as a standard of calibration. The "median" is what is right in the middle between highest and lowest. Moderate income is from 80% to 120% of AMI (right in the middle); low income is from 50% to 80%, very low income is 20% to 50%, and extremely low income is less than 20%. These are all technical terms. Those earning above 120% of AMI are the high income families. For Alameda County, the AMI is $92,000 a year. For a family whose income is at the AMI, 30% of income rent will be $2300 a month. Already, rents for two bedroom apartments are upwards of $2800 a month.Most people in Berkeley who earn below the median income pay more than 30% for their income for housing expenses even those on rent control. Those who earn more than the median income generally pay less than 30% for housing. They pay more in actual money, but less as a percentage of their income. Almost a half of low income families pay more than 50% of their income for housing. [See http://www.towncharts.com/California/housing by zip code] Without rent control (prohibited by state law the Costa-Hawkins Act), housing becomes an impoverishment machine.There is a second factor protecting neighborhoods from this housing crisis, and that is its zoning regulations, which put limits on building height and size, and require set-backs, open space, on-site parking, and community benefits. Cities all over the state have passed such zoning ordinances to maintain their community and residential character, and to prevent overcrowding. In most residential areas of Berkeley, the height limit is three floors.But banks like bigness, and they measure it by whether their investment will gain them greater earnings than securities speculation (now a major source of financial profit across the corporate specturm). Rental income for four floors would be 33% greater than that from three, and higher still from five. Local zoning regulations form a barrier to this project profitability. It is against those regulations that the states "density bonus" operates. The density bonus law gives the developers the ability to disregard such zoning regulations, and build bigger buildings. The developer simply has to agree to include a certain number of affordable units, and that will authorize the building of more market rate units. It is designed to increase the attractiveness of a project for bank financing.In that sense, the term "bonus" refers to an imposition by state government, a violation of the democratic aspirations of city residents (expressed through the establishment of zoning regulations). It is thus of a piece with the Costa-Hawkings Act, which prohibits cities from defending their own neighborhoods against rent increases. Hobbled by these state anti-democratic measures, city governments find the housing crisis and its massive dislocations irresolvable. And in the name of resolving the housing crisis, the density bonus gives developers the ability to make the crisis worse.Let us examine this density bonus closely. The law sets forth a predetermined schedule of how many more market rate units can be included for each increase in the number of affordable units. It thus refers to the increase in the total number of units. But it is ambiguous. Density in physics refers to a ratio. The density of a gas is measured by the number of molecules per cubic centimeter, for instance. But for housing, it simply refers to size, which in social terms has a perjorative connotation. It suggests that when low income people are included, population density goes up, to compensate for which the developers should get a "bonus." In this ambiguity, the term density bonus already reveals a class bias.The fact that this change in density is given in percentages provides a second ambiguity. Does the percentage increase in overall units pertain to those added, or does it pertain to their percentage of the resulting whole? For example, when added to 8, 4 is a 50% increase; but as a part of the resulting 12, it is 33%. Yet it is the same "4."The notion of "density" then becomes a "meaning" rather than a measurement. It simply "names" the kind of "bonus" given. It is thus more properly understood as an adjective than a noun (a measurement). Generally, "dense" is the adjective, referring to the character of things like underbrush, fog, or prose styles, etc., while "density" indicates the degree of being dense. But here, "density bonus" refers to a transgression of democratically established social standards. And by expressing itself as percentages, it hides the fact that it primarily provides for bigness and the corporate profits dependent on that.Heres how it works [see Cal. Code 65915]. The developer declares that it will put in a certain number of affordable units, for which it can claim a "bonus" consisting of ignoring zoning limits (primarily height and size). And the developer gets a different bonus according to whether the affordable units are moderate income, low income, or very low income. Including very low income units allows much greater disregard of community standards than including moderate income units another class bias.Consider a large building with 60 units on 4 floors thats 15 units per floor, all market rate. (Though more than 3 floors, we use this example because the numbers are simpler.) If the developer includes 10% moderate income affordable units, the law allows adding 5% more market rate units. If the number of moderate income affordable units included is 40% of the total, then the increase in market rate units can be 35% (the maximum allowable). The developer gets one percent increase in market rate units for each one percent additional affordable unit included (above 10%).In our example, ten percent moderate rate affordable units would be 6 units (10% of 60), entitling the developer to three more market rate units to the building (5% of 60). An entire (fifth) floor of 15 units (a 25% addition) would require including 30% moderate income units, or 18 units.If the developer chose to include low income affordable units, there is a different result. A ten percent inclusion of low income affordable units would allow a 20% increase in market rate units. A 20% inclusion of low income units will allow a 35% increase in market rate units (the maximum). The developer gets one and a half percent increase in market rate units for each one percent additional affordable unit. That is, where one moderate income unit is worth one market rate unit (percentagewise), a low income unit is only worth two-thirds of a market rate unit. Adding an additional floor to the building (15 more units) or 25% of the original 60 would only require including 14 low income affordable units. If the developer inverts the calculation (which might be illegal), and considers the fifth floor to be 20% of the total (15 over 75 units), that additional 20% would only require 10% low income affordable units to authorize it only 6 units (10% of 60). The diminished income loss from 6 affordable units as opposed to 14 affordable units is what the ambiguity is all about.In the case of very low income affordable units (those most needed to stem the crisis), a developer would need to include only 5% affordable units to allow adding 20% market rate to the building, and 11% affordble to allow 35% additional units. The developer gets two and a half percent increase in market rate units for each one percent additional affordable unit. Very low income units are only worth two-fifths of a market rate unit. That might imply that for the people who made this law, the very low income families are only worth two-fifths of a middle class family. (Theres a Constitutional precedent for that Article 1, section 3.)Seven percent very low affordable will allow a 25% addition to the building (filling the fifth floor). Seven percent of 60 is 4.2 units, or 5 (rounding up). Five very low income affordable units thus allow the developer to add an entire floor to the building. For the very low income families, the ones facing the greatest pressures of dislocation, the density bonus cuts their benefit to less than a third of moderate income families, while the developer gets a whole new floor at market rate. With the probability of market rate rents increasing even more, 70 of 75 apartments will soon be bringing in even more money.The lower the income and standard of living of a tenant, the more s/he will be exploited in the interest of higher corporate earnings. This is the class nature of government policy toward its constituencies. It is this class difference that has resulted in the many struggles over the past decades between social justice movements and corporate institutions (including government).What the housing crisis (as an impoverishment machine) signifies is that the rich do not just get richer; they do so by rendering the poor poorer. In other words, poverty is something that is done to people by policies of impoverishment, and by economic structures and the agents of those structures. In the density bonus, the anti-democratic nature of those policies and the political credo of class bias reveal the housing development projects now unfolding to be a program of wealth, by wealth, and for wealth.
Vancouver, BC Compared to our friends south of the border, Canadians dont complain much. But when a Vancouver resident filed a lawsuit against the makers of Compared to our friends south of the border, Canadians dont complain much. But when a Vancouver resident filed a lawsuit against the makers of Cold-FX alleging fraud, many Canadians were up in arms. No one likes being duped.
We have to get this over-the-counter medication off the market.
On its label, Cold-FX promises to provide immediate relief from cold and flu symptoms. This reporter has a bottle (it expired last year but it is still half full because I didnt experience any relief) that also claims its an immune booster.The word is out about Cold-FX and many Canadians want to be part of this class action, says attorney John Green, a Vancouver lawyer and leading litigator in the Cold-FX lawsuit. We told the court about a study that Afexa Life Sciences sat on for years but only came to light when the drug company was sued by a Vancouver man.Don Harrison in 2012 filed a claim against Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the makers of Cold-FX, and Afexa Life Sciences for promoting a false product. Valeant is a giant Quebec drug company that bought Afexa and its Cold-FX product in 2011.Green is referring to a study that was conducted back in 2004 by Dr. Gerry Predy, a top Alberta public health official, who confirmed it was no more effective than a placebo. At that time, the supplements makers told consumers that Cold-FX would bring fast relief from colds, flu and viruses. But neither Predy nor the drugmakers disclosed the study results to the public.If this information was disclosed, it would have shut down Afexa Life Sciences, says Green. And where is Health Canada in this? Green says that, although the study results were filed with the government, it is barred from making such proprietary information public. He does know that 58 adverse events have been filed with Health Canada. Interestingly, the medication didnt get through the FDAs gate to sell in the United States.During the week of certification, the CBC aired a report on Cold-FX and I was contacted by about 50 people. Several people said they got sick and one person was sick for seven weeks after taking Cold-FX, says Green."After the report II was contacted by about 50 people, several of whom said they got sickGreen had health experts look at studies that Cold-FX claims they backed. There was no scientific evidence that the makers could support their claims. Further, professors in British Columbia and Alberta said the Predy study was poor.The defendants admitted they have a statement on their box that claims people can take Cold-FX for three days and their cold or flu symptoms will be improved, says Green. The point I made to the judge is that consumers relied on this statement. What if a drugmaker like Afexa makes a drug called Cancer-FX and promises to reduce chemotherapy effects? Many desperate patients would buy into this promise, to help their cancer and boost their immune system. Instead they could get sicker.Cold-FX has made about $500 million for the drug manufacturer. Green says that, even if the certification battle is lost, We will fight it on punitive damages. We want to take away all the revenue Afexa and Valeant made on these products, so we will seek punitive damages of $500 million because this company was - allegedly - built on a lie.In British Columbia, every person who purchased Cold-FX containing the statements the suit claims are false are in the class. Green says the application for certification was filed in April and he expects to hear in the next six months or up to a year whether the class action will go ahead.
The Shuwa-arabs could be found in Borno and Yobe states in Nigeria. They could also be found in other northern states in the country. They are a minority group in Nigeria. Some of them are found in neighboring countries like Cameroon and Chad.
It is pathetic that when people mention Shuwa-arabs, what come to their minds are the dirty, hunger-stricken children seen on some streets in the northern parts of Nigeria. There are the also the good looking and educated ones amidst this ethnic group in Nigeria.
It would be shocking to most people to realize that the girls from this ethnic group are extremely beautiful and could make the other girls from other tribes green with envy. The only thing is most people are not familiar with them; especially people from the southern part of Nigeria.
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The terrorism that has plagued the northern part of Nigeria has prevented most people from travelling and exploring the northern part of Nigeria.
The Shuwa-arabs are different from the Fulanis and the Kanuris. Below are some beautiful pictures of ladies that are Shuwa-arabs:
Source: Legit.ng
Artists of the song and dance troupe MusicFest of South Africa give a performance before the opening ceremony of the exhibition African Impression at the China National Museum of Women and Children on May 6, 2016. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]
Cultural events as part of African Cultures in Focus 2016 series kicked off with the exhibition of African Impression at the China National Museum of Women and Children on May 6, 2016. More than 300 guests and 14 African ambassadors to China attended the opening ceremony.
Xie Jinying, the director of the Bureau for External Cultural Relations of Chinas Ministry of Culture, delivered the opening speech. "African Cultures in Focus series will let Chinese audience have a deeper understanding and appreciation of Africa," he said. "It will enhance our strategic mutual trust and deepen our practical cooperation."
- President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to deal with the agitators for the creation of Biafra state
- Implores Nigerians to ignore such individuals or groups calling for the countrys break-up
- Urges community leaders across the country to introduce monthly or quarterly meeting with their community members where they will address issues relating to their welfare
President Muhammadu Buhari has declared his readiness to fight again if need be to secure the unity of Nigeria.
Buhari has blasted Nnamdi Kanu, the leader Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for calling for the separation of Nigeria
Buhari who made the resolve in Katsina on Monday, May 9, during his visit to the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmumuni Kabiru Usman, vowed to deal with the agitators for the creation of Biafra state, who he said wanted to disintegrate Nigeria, New Telegraph reports.
READ ALSO: Militants threaten to bomb Lagos, Abuja
The president called on all Nigerians to ignore such individuals or groups calling for the countrys break-up, narrating that over two million people died during the last civil war in Nigeria.
He said: That boy (Nnamdi Kanu of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB), who is calling for the separation of Nigeria, he was not born when we fought for the countrys unity during the civil war.
The president lamented that over two million people were killed during the civil war, all in an effort to maintain the unity of the country.
He said division is a situation we cannot allow to repeat itself.
I am ready to fight back to defend the country from those agitating for the creation of Biafra State, even if we will get drowned," he said.
Buhari who cited his disciplined upbringing from his parents and teachers while growing up as a teenager coupled with the good training he got as a military officer, vowed that he would never condone indiscipline from people who did not mean well for the country.
READ ALSO: I'm qualified for VP slot in 2019 - Fayose
While expressing concerns over the current economic hardship in the country, President Buhari urged traditional rulers to educate their subjects on why they have to be patient, he also implored community leaders across the country to introduce monthly or quarterly meeting with their community members where they will address issues relating to their welfare.
Meanwhile, the south east caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has begged militants under the aegis of the new group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) to allow peace reign in the interest of the nation.
In a statement issued on Monday, May 9, by the partys spokesman, Osita Okechukwu asked the NDA to give President Muhammadu Buhari time to address their demands, Vanguard reports.
Okechukwu asked the group to put into consideration the laudable projects the current administration led by Buhari had lined up for the Niger Delta and allow the president some time to execute them.
Source: Legit.ng
May 10, 2016 Anti-Semites, Hiding Behind Anti-Zionism, Raise Their Voices . . . and Get Scarier Dear Friend of FLAME: Here's a blinding flash of the obvious for you. For the last decade anti-Semites have been hiding behind the excuse that "criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic"which is true enough. But it's lately become clearespecially in the UK's Labour Party and the BDS movement on American college campusesthat criticism of Israel more often than not really means criticism of Israel's existenceor anti-Zionism. So let's ask: Is criticism of Israel's existence an attempt to persuade Israel to change its policies vis a vis the Palestiniansreduce the number of roadblocks in the West Bank, free political prisoners or sit down at the negotiating table? No, it never is. BDS, for example, does not support a two-state solution , but rather an endgame in which Arabs take over all of Israel and create a single Arab-majority state. In other words, anti-Zionism stands for denial of Jewish people's right to self-determinationit means no Jewish state. Of all the nations that have been created since 1940Algeria, Dominican Republic, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Laos, Pakistan and Syria, to name a fewonly Israel is subject to delegitimization efforts. This despite the Jews' continuous 3,000-year history as Palestine's original and only indigenous peoplewhich is clearly a double standard. It's also become clear that once certain elements feel free to denounce the statehood of Israel, those people and groups soon reveal their abject disdain for Jews in general. Soon delegitimization of Israeland only Israelturns into demonization of Israel (meaning Jews), by calling them Nazis and baby-killers and accusing them of apartheid. Indeed, Britain's Labour Party has just suspended or expelled some 50 of its members for outright, public anti-Semitic statements, and the Party is wracked with scandal about the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism in its ranks. So just for the record, what constitutes anti-Semitism? The U.S. State Department has adopted the "3 Ds" definition formulated by Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. These three tell-tale indicators of anti-Semitism are "demonization," 'double standard" and "deligitimization." As we have seen, though any one of these Ds qualifies as anti-Semitic, in fact anti-Zionism qualifies under all three criteriaa winner of the anti-Semite's trifecta. To help you understandand feelthe danger that anti-Semitism poses to Jews, especially to Jews in the United Kingdom, I urge you to read this week's featured FLAME Hotline article, which focuses on the political Left as a primary source of anti-Zionist anti-Semitism in the West today. This short, powerful piece by Stephen Pollard, editor of UK's The Jewish Chronicle, gives you both a cogent analysis of the Left's drift into anti-Semitism, but he also tells a personal story of "bone-chilling" fear reminiscent, perhaps, of the early days of Germany's Third Reich. I guarantee that after reading this article, the next time you meet someone who argues that criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, you'll be better prepared to set them straight.. In addition, I hope you'll also review the P.S. immediately below, which describes FLAME's current hasbarah campaign to articulate concerns I believe you may share about possible unbridled immigration of Middle East Muslims to the United States. Best regards, Jim Sinkinson
Executive Vice President, Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME) P.S. The world was again shattered as Muslims terrorists attacked Brussels. One of the attackers is believed to have sneaked into Belgium with other Middle East immigrants after having been trained and indoctrinated by ISIS in Syria. It's because significant numbers of Muslims have beliefs that contradict American values that FLAME is now publishing a new position paper in media nationwide-which reveals research into these values and their potential danger to our society.. I urge you to preview this outspoken hasbarah message today: "The Muslim Immigrant Question." This hard-hitting paid editorial appears in magazines and newspapers, including college newspapers, with a combined readership of some 10 million people. In addition, it has been sent to every member of the U.S. Congress and President Obama. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel's behalf is critical, I urge you to support us. Remember: FLAME's powerful ability to influence public opinion comes from individuals like you, one by one. I hope you'll consider giving a donation now, as you're ablewith $500, $250, $100, or even $18. (Remember, your donation to FLAME is tax deductible.) Now more than ever we need your support to ensure that the war on global Islamic terror gets the support it needsfrom the U.S. Congress, from President Obama, and from the American people. To donate online, just go to donate now. As of today, more than 15,000 Israel supporters receive the FLAME Hotline at no charge every week. If you're not yet a subscriber, won't you join us in receiving these timely updates, so you can more effectively tell the truth about Israel ? Just go to free subscription. The Left's hatred of Jews chills me to the bone Stephen Pollard , The Telegraph (UK), April 28, 2016 As a young boy, I used to think my grandma very strange. In her bedroom she kept a suitcase, packed and ready for use at a moment's notice. "Just in case," she'd tell me when I asked where it was that she was always waiting to go to. "You never know when they'll turn on the Jews." Her house in Northwood was epitome of suburban comfort, and I couldn't understand what on earth she meant. Until, that is, I learned some historyincluding the history of the Jews. Which is, in short, that pretty much everywhere, they have turned on the Jews . From my teens through my twenties and thirties, the fact that I am Jewish meant little to me beyond the Jonathan Miller sense of being Jew-ish. I adored bagels, matzoh balls, Seinfeld and Woody Allen more than your average gentile would think they deserved. And that was about it. If you'd asked me, I'd have told you that after the Holocaust, real, serious anti-Semitismthe sort where Jews were killed for being Jews, rather than the odd nasty commentwas a thing of the past, in civilised Europe, at least. Then something happened. 9/11, to be specific. I realised something was up that I didn't really understand. So I read and read and read. And then read some moreespecially the words of the terrorists and their fellow Islamists. They were explicit and open. Jews were the enemy . All their "issues" with the West pivoted, in the end, on their Jew hate. So I immersed myself even more in the issues around terrorism and Islamism. Because, you see, it mattered. It matters, of course, to all of us, becauseas we have seen both on 9/11 and ever since, Islamist terrorism is not specific in its targeting. But it matters to me more, I would say, than anything else I can think of. Because although these maniacs will happily kill anyone, they say, and their subsequent murders show, thatquite specificallythey want to kill me . A Jew. So on level I am not in the least bit shocked, or even surprised, by the reemergence of Jew hatred as a thing in recent years. By what arrogance would we think that our generation, alone in history, would be free of the oldest hatred? But on another, more visceral level, it chills me to the bone. And it's not the terrorists. They threaten me, of course, as they threaten us all. Yet to me, the real chill comes from their fellow travelersthe useful idiots of the terrorists and Jew-murderers who say they do not have a racist bone in their body, but when it comes to Jews, a blind spot emerges. The likes, to be blunt, of the now suspended Ken Livingstone, who claims never to have come across a single example of Anti-semitism in the Labour Party. He clearly has never looked in the mirror. Much has been written especially by the brilliant Nick Cohen on the "Red/Green Alliance"; the phenomenon by which a swathe of the Left has linked up with radical Islam, leading to the bizarre spectacle of Leftist feminists supporting Islamists who would cut off the hands of women who read books. With "anti-Western-imperialism" as part of the glue binding the alliance, everything else falls into place. So Hamas and Hezbollah might have as their defining goal the elimination of an entire people from the face of the earth, but that unfortunate consequence for Jews is by the by, because Hamas and Hezbollah are freedom fighters . And because Israel is part of the Western imperium, as well as a key target for Islamists, it is also enemy number one for progressives. So an obsessive preoccupation with the Jewish state becomes the default position of the Left. China, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabiapah! The focus must be on Israel and Israel alone. From that springs an entire worldview that encompasses "Zionist" control of the media, of business, of everything. And we can't be accused of targeting Jews because we don't use the word. We say Zionist, not Jew. So deep does this warping of what it means to be Left and progressive now run that it is almost prosaic to assert Zionist control. But now, to cap it, we have a Labour leader whose entire political career has been in this milieufeeding it, growing it and pushing it. For months now, week by week, examples have been emerging of cut and dried anti-Semitismmost dressed up, oh so cleverly, as anti-Zionism, but much not even bothering to hide it. And the Labour leader's response to the criticism that he is soft on anti-Semitism and that it's his political mindset that has fuelled its rise is not to get hard on anti-Semitism. It's to get irritated. This is not some academic exercise or interesting political theory. This is realitythe reality that the Labour Party is now run by a cadre for whom anti-Semitism really is ok, so long as it is dressed up as anti-Zionism. Because Zionism is the enemy of all good people. Should I admit that I am afraid? Because I am. I don't go about my life in fear. I wouldn't be writing this or doing my job if I did. But how, quite rationally, can I not be afraid when Jews are being murdered on the streets of Europe simply for being Jews; when anti-Semitic tropes and discourse is becoming part of the mainstream of political debate; and when one of our main political parties is led by a man who does not merely let this fester, but actually describes representatives of terrorist groups as "friends" ? If this is the level we have reached today, I fear not just for myself but far more for my children. History shows that when anti-Semitism takes hold it does not wither; it grows. Yes, Britain is a wonderful home to Jews, as it is to all minorities. Yes, we have the full backing of the law and the authorities. But yes, I do look over my shoulder. Wouldn't you? HOME SUBSCRIBE DONATE PR FOR ISRAEL HOTLINE ARCHIVE ABOUT CONTACT US THIS MONTH'S AD APPEARED IN PUBLICATIONS REACHING 10 MILLION READERS IF YOU SUPPORT PUBLISHING FLAME'S BOLD PR MESSAGES, PLEASE HELP US!! FLAME is the only organization that defends Israel with paid editorial hasbarah messages placed in media nationwide every month: The dire threats from Iran, Hamas and Hizbollah, the injustice of BDS, Palestinian anti-Semitism and more. If you support a bold voice that tells the truth about Israel in American media, please donate now. FLAME'S WEEKLY HOTLINE E-NEWSLETTER FLAME's Hotline e-newsletter keeps you up to date on the most important pro-Israel advocacy issues and features our choice of the week's most informative and thought-provoking article on Israel and the Middle East. If you only subscribe to one pro-Israel news service, make it the FLAME Hotline.
- Nigeria has been secretly exchanging its crude oil for refined petroleum products to the detriment of revenue accruing from sale of crude oil
- This development was reportedly induced by governments efforts at closing the gaps created by the inability of oil marketers to import fuel
Nigerians queuing to buy fuel
Nigeria has been secretly exchanging its crude oil for refined petroleum products to the detriment of revenue accruing from sale of crude oil, Signal.ng is reporting.
According to the report, rather than generate revenue through the sale of its crude oil, the Nigerian government is now importing and paying for imported fuel with Nigerias crude oil.
While the practice of crude oil swaps for refined petrol is not entirely new, the development, which was reportedly induced by governments efforts at closing the gaps created by the inability of oil marketers to import fuel, is said to have kept the federation account in an unprecedented deficit.
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We are in a big mess, a really big crisis. Nigeria has no money. The federal government is now officially broke. What is happening now is that our raw crude oil is now being swapped for refined petrol. So we are practically not selling our crude oil right now. We are exchanging our crude oil for refined petrol in a trade by barter arrangement. The implication is that the federation account is in deficit. Theres no money in the federation account because we are not selling our crude, one of the sources told signal.
Speaking to an oil marketer who blamed the oil market crisis on shortage of dollars.
Its not viable for us, business is not working. Most of us have stopped importing fuel because we cant get dollars to trade, and even if you want to buy dollars at black market rate, its not sustainable. Now the government wants to carry the responsibility on their shoulders, but what has been the result? Its not working. The fuel queues have refused to disappear. We told them to deregulate, but they wouldnt listen, the oil marketer said.
But a government official quoted in the report also revealed why the removal of subsidy has not been announced by the FG
That is why they will have no option but to deregulate. The problem now is that the Minister of State for Petroleum Ibe Kachikwu is reluctant to announce removal of subsidy, because of the fear that it can backfire with the Nigerian public considering the timing. The removal was supposed to have been announced last Friday but Kachikwu is now pushing it to the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo who is also reluctant to make the announcement.
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"President Buhari himself is off to London leaving both Kachikwu and Osinabjo to manage any untidy situation that may arise from the announcement of fuel subsidy removal, the source was quoted.
It will be recalled that in July 2015, President Buhari dismissed calls for his government to remove fuel subsidy. President Buhari also said that the lack of security, sabotage, vandalism, corruption and mismanagement, not necessarily subsidies, are the most serious problems of Nigerias oil sector.
Meanwhile, a group, the Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has called on the Nigerian government to remove subsidies from all petroleum products.
CESJET in a statement by its executive secretary, Ikpa Isaac on Monday, May 9, said it is obvious that all strategies used to sustain petroleum subsidy is not yielding the desired result.
Source: Legit.ng
After a series of significant preliminary real estate investment deals being signed in Poland early this year, the investment outlook for the rest of 2016 looks to be a record one, with the total volume expected to exceed 4.0 billion, according to Savills. Around 20 investment transactions with a
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Shopping center investor Cemagg has commissioned real-estate services provider Bilfinger Real Estate with the client representation, consultation and project development of the Dreilandergalerie in Weil am Rhein (Baden-Wurttemberg). The planned shopping and services center will be built in an inner-city area close to the Swiss border in accordance with plans
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On Friday, April 22, 2016, Epadesa and Generali Real Estate French Branch signed the sale agreement marking the start of construction on the Saint-Gobain Tower. This project will make a significant contribution to renewing the offering in the Iris neighborhood through new public spaces linking La Defense to Courbevoie, new
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According to a Bucharest City Report by JLL, the Romanian GDP grew by 3.7% 2015. The cut in VAT from 24% to 9% for food products since the 1st of June and to 20% for all products from the 1st of January 2016 encouraged private consumption, which was the main
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A new study provides insight into how the current El Nino, one of the strongest on record, formed in the Pacific Ocean. The new research finds easterly winds in the tropical Pacific Ocean stalled a potential El Nino in 2014 and left a swath of warm water in the central Pacific. The presence of that warm water stacked the deck for a monster El Nino to occur in 2015, according to the study's authors.
El Nino and La Nina are the warm and cool phases of a recurring climate pattern across the tropical Pacific Ocean called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO. The warm and cool phases shift back and forth every two to seven years, and each phase triggers predictable disruptions in temperature, wind, and rain across the globe. During El Nino events, water temperatures at the sea surface are higher than normal. Low-level surface winds, which normally blow east to west along the equator, or easterly winds, start blowing the other direction, west to east, or westerly.
In the spring of 2014, strong westerly winds near the equator in the western and central Pacific Ocean created a buzz among scientists -- they saw the winds as a sign of a large El Nino event to come in the winter of 2014, said Aaron Levine, a climate scientist at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Washington, and lead author of the new study accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
But as the summer progressed, El Nino didn't form the way scientists expected it to: sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific never warmed enough to truly be called an El Nino, and the buzz fizzled out.
But then, in the spring of 2015, episodes of very strong westerly wind bursts occurred and became more frequent throughout the summer. Following a pattern set by previous large El Ninos, 2015 to 2016 became one of the three strongest El Ninos on record, along with 1982 to 1983 and 1997 to 1998, Levine said.
Levine and others wondered whether the stalled El Nino from 2014 and the monster El Nino of 2015 were somehow related, he said.
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In the new study, Levine and co-author Michael McPhaden, fellow climate scientist at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, examined changes in sea surface and sub-surface temperatures, winds, and volumes of warm water in the Pacific Ocean from 2014 to 2016. They also used a mathematical model to analyze how these factors were related.
"As an El Nino develops and matures into its peak phase, [warm water] gets discharged out of the equatorial regions to the polar regions," Levine said. In 2014, easterly winds prevented that warm water from being transported poleward. The warm water stuck around through the winter and was available as a reservoir of heat that could be tapped into the following year. "Once we started to get some additional westerly winds -- unusually strong westerly winds that occurred in the spring and summer of 2015 -- an El Nino developed," he said.
Looking further back into the climate record, Levine and McPhaden found a similar event occurred in 1990. That year, easterly winds counteracted a budding El Nino, and leftover warm water fueled El Nino conditions in 1991 to 1992.
"It's nice to see that even in the 35-year record we have something similar that gives us confidence that this was the physical mechanism that was going on," Levine said.
Predicting future El Ninos
While Levine's research shows what conditions can help to explain past El Ninos, predicting future El Ninos is much more difficult. For example, warm sea surface temperatures make it more likely for an El Nino to occur, but cannot be used to predict El Ninos with absolute certainty, Levine said.
Sea surface temperatures and winds are closely coupled -- meaning that they strongly influence each other, said Michelle L'Heureux, a climate scientist at NOAA's Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Maryland, who was not involved in the new study. According to L'Heureux, certain winds are predictable to a certain degree, but there are still elements of surprise.
"The wildcard in all of this -- the reason this is very probabilistic and we can't say anything with certainty -- is that some part of the winds are essentially random," L'Heureux said. "We can predict them five to seven days out, but that's not going to give you much advance information on the growth of ENSO."
These random wind elements are a major limitation to predicting El Nino events, she said. "There's a chance that the winds could turn off in the summertime, and that's what happened in 2014."
In a pair of related studies, chemists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified and designed dozens of molecular "warheads" that not only can detect a key biomarker of cancer, but also could be developed into a potent new class of drug candidates for a range of diseases.
A number of these molecules are already "hidden" in drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), raising the possibility that these widely used pharmaceuticals could be made even more effective using more potent/selective covalent inhibitors or "warheads."
The studies, which were published recently in the journals Chemical Science and Chemical Communication, were led by TSRI Associate Professor Kate Carroll.
The molecules in question are known as "nucleophiles" (literally, nucleus lovers), which share their electrons with "electrophiles" (literally, electron lovers) and serve as their atomic dance partners. This sharing of electrons creates an interaction known as a covalent bond, which some consider the fundamental basis of chemical reactivity.
Electrophiles have been available to the scientific community for decades for use as tools to probe levels of cysteine sulfenic acid -- a marker for cancer and other diseases -- and to install as "warheads" or covalent modifiers in drugs that target high levels of sulfenic acid in cells.
The downside of electrophiles is that they compete with high concentrations of off-target nucleophiles in the cell, such as glutathione. In addition, this class of covalent inhibitors indiscriminately targets the protein in healthy and diseased cells. "To counteract this effect, our complementary approach would use nucleophile 'warheads' attached to a binding scaffold that would target sulfenic acid on therapeutically important proteins in unhealthy cells under oxidative stress," said Carroll.
To produce a library of "designer" nucleophiles with far greater reactivity, Carroll and her colleague, Senior Research Associate Vinayak Gupta, developed a unique screen. So far, some of the nucleophiles they identified possess more than 200 times the current standard for sulfenic acid probes.
"We now have about 150 of these 'warheads' in our library," Carroll said.
While the greater interest in the scientific community has been in electrophiles, the TSRI team also examined previously unidentified nucleophilic functional groups, such as those within the Pfizer rheumatoid arthritis drug tofacitinib (XELJANZ).
"The nucleophiles we identified in this study represent the first covalent strategy to target sulfenic acid that should be highly enabling for the drug discovery community," Gupta said. "Moreover, our findings that tofacitinib reacts robustly with sulfenic acid shows that 'warheads' or other functional groups in these drugs may indeed have new or alternative mechanisms of action."
Carroll added, "Tofacitinib may have multiple modes of action that include a nucleophile targeting cysteine sulfenic acid in the active site of JAK kinases. If the nucleophile contributes positively to therapeutic outcome, it might be possible to optimize that chemical property and make the drug more effective."
Carroll says she uncovers more instances of nucleophiles "hidden in plain sight" every day, suggesting that nucleophiles may, in fact, be unsung central players in these reactions.
Space technology is to be put to work on Earth -- in a device for testing soil quality, in research involving the University of Strathclyde.
The agricultural monitoring system, consisting of a mobile rover platform with a robotic arm which carries a soil sensing instrument, will be based on technology previously developed for use in exploration on Mars.
The Strathclyde researchers, working with partners in the UK and China, will demonstrate in trials the feasibility of the device's agricultural operation by using an integrated, force feedback-controlled robotic system on the ground during the project.
The project for the device, known as the AgriRover, is funded through the UK Space Agency's International Partnerships Space Programme (IPSP).
Professor Xiu Yan, of Strathclyde's Space Mechatronic Systems Technology Laboratory (SMeSTech), in the Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management, is the Principal Investigator in the research. He said: "Advanced machinery has been used in agriculture worldwide for centuries but a range of factors are making innovation in this area more important than ever, including environmental considerations, demographic changes, urbanisation, sustainable farming, increasing competition and the need to provide food for a rapidly growing global population.
"Robotic technology will be a key technological enabler for precision farming and this project is a combination of frontier research programmes in space robotic technologies. It focuses on a unique soil sensing technology, developed and built with UK capability; it's also based on space instrumentation and the deployment of a UK-developed, intuitive master robotic control system.
"By harnessing space technology for a new application in farming, and engaging in a valuable research collaboration with China, this project will deliver many benefits around the world."
Worldwide, about 35 million people are living with HIV. The World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS plan to use an approach called "treatment as prevention" to eliminate the global pandemic, which the WHO says will have occurred when only one person out of 1,000 becomes infected each year.
Now, a nearly two-decade analysis by researchers from UCLA and Denmark yields the first proof that the approach could work.
Reviewing Danish medical records, they found that the treatment-as-prevention strategy has brought Denmark's HIV epidemic to the brink of elimination. The study found that in 2013, the country had only 1.4 new HIV infections per 1,000 men who have sex with men, Denmark's major risk group.
"The Danes have done what nobody else in the world has been able to do," said Sally Blower, the study's senior author and the director of the Center for Biomedical Modeling at UCLA. "They have almost eliminated their HIV epidemic, and they have achieved this simply by providing treatment."
The paper notes, however, that the treatment programs in Denmark are exceptional. "Treatment makes people less infectious," said Justin Okano, the study's lead author and a statistician in Blower's research group. "In Denmark, 98 percent of patients take all of their HIV medications, which is why treatment as prevention has worked there. Unfortunately, adherence levels are nowhere near as high in other countries."
The findings, which appear online May 9 in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, are based on a sophisticated statistical analysis of data from the ongoing Danish HIV Cohort Study, which began in 1995. That project, which tracks all Danish men who have sex with men, and who have been diagnosed with HIV, was established and is run by Jan Gerstoft and Niels Obel, clinicians and epidemiologists in Denmark who also are co-authors of the new study.
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For the current study, the researchers used an approach called CD4-staged Bayesian back-calculation to determine the number of Danish men who have sex with men, and who had become infected with HIV each year between 1995 and 2013. They found that the number of infections has been decreasing since 1996, when effective HIV treatments were introduced in Denmark. They then measured the correlation between the decrease in the number of HIV infections each year and the increase in the number of people who began treatment, and they found that the two were highly correlated.
"What we found was very exciting," said Laurence Palk, a co-author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow in Blower's lab. "Our results show treatment as prevention has been slowly but steadily working to end the Danish epidemic."
The team calculated that by 2013, when the epidemic was close to elimination, there were only approximately 600 men in Denmark who have sex with men, and who were infected with HIV but had not been diagnosed.
"Now that the number is so low, it would be fairly easy to do a social media campaign and get these men to be tested," Palk said. "If they accepted treatment, it would essentially end this epidemic."
Blower, who also is a professor in residence at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, said, "Over 15 years ago, we made predictions based on mathematical models that treatment as prevention could work and be an effective elimination tool. It's wonderful to see that this has actually happened."
The researchers chalk up Denmark's success to many factors, including the country's universal health care system and the availability of free treatment for all people who have been infected with HIV. However, the largest number of people with HIV -- 25 million -- live in sub-Saharan Africa, where health care systems are overextended and there are far fewer resources.
Blower said that for the treatment-as-prevention approach to eliminate HIV epidemics throughout the world, all countries would need to emulate Denmark's treatment programs.
"Even in resource-rich countries, this would take a huge amount of money and effort," she said. "The goal of elimination through treatment is aspirational, but Denmark has shown that -- at least in resource-rich countries -- it's achievable."
Pediatric surgery is a special field. Caring for kids from birth to adulthood and providing the family the support, education and comfort they need is an honor and privilege. After coming to Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) 20 years ago, I've been able to offer families care in the complex environment of CHLA or support them in one of the surrounding hospitals when the child's condition and needs can be met there. I also see patients at CHLA's Arcadia Outpatient Center. As a pediatric surgeon, my focus has become oncology caring for the most complex types of childhood tumors from around the globe, but I remain dedicated to my roots of neonatal and pediatric general surgical care- hernias, chest wall deformities (pectus excavatum and carinatum), lung abnormalities and of course newborn surgery. Here are a couple common problems your kids may face.
Chest Wall Deformities
Pigeon chest, or sunken chest, is the common term to describe the two common types of chest wall deformities. The medical terms are pectus excavatum (sunken) and pectus carinatum (pigeon). The treatment has evolved over time and now pectus ecavatum is treated most commonly with a bar introduced through a small incision on the side of the chest and out the other side to elevate the breast bone to a more normal position. This condition generally becomes more obvious in teenage years with a growth spurt, but following surgery an increased exercise tolerance and elevated self-esteem are the result. Most commonly this procedure gets done at time when the teens can take off time to allow for adequate recovery.
Pectus carinatum or a protruding breast bone (sternum) is now almost always treated with bracing so what was once a significant surgery now is much less invasive as CHLA has partnered with our brace maker to allow correction with a simple brace worn under a tee-shirt for a period of months to achieve a normal appearing chest.
Hernias and hydroceles
The common occurrence in kids of swelling in the groin or along the testicle in a boy can be one of two things -- a hernia- in which the intestine or sometimes the ovary in a girl pushes out into the groin or even down in to the scrotum. A hydrocele (hydro= water) is instead a condition in which the opening is small or tiny and only fluid can fill the area and cause an enlarged scrotum (this does not occur in females). A hernia should be repaired in a timely fashion to avoid the intestine, testicle or ovary getting stuck or injured. A hydrocele does not have that same risk, so this can be observed if not causing other issues for resolution until the age of two or so as many will resolve. The good news is these are outpatient procedures with little or no discomfort unlike the adult counterpart.
A new study from Tel Aviv University, Cornell University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine reveals genetic proof of the Jewish roots of the Bene Israel community in the western part of India. They have always considered themselves Jewish.
"Almost nothing is known about the Bene Israel community before the 18th century, when Cochin Jews and later Christian missionaries first came into contact with it," says first author Yedael Waldman of both TAU's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Cornell's Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology. "Beyond vague oral history and speculations, there has been no independent support for Bene Israel claims of Jewish ancestry, claims that have remained shrouded in legend."
"Human genetics now has the potential to not only improve human health but also help us understand human history," says Prof. Eran Halperin of TAU's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology and TAU's Blavatnik School of Computer Sciences, who together with Prof. Alon Keinan of Cornell University's Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology advised Waldman. The research was published in PLOS ONE on March 24, 2016.
From folklore to science
According to their oral history, the Bene Israel people descended from 14 Jewish survivors of a shipwreck on India's Konkan shore. The exact timing of this event and the origin and identity of the Jewish visitors are unknown. Some date the event to around 2,000 years ago. Others estimate that it took place in 175 BCE. Still others believe their Jewish ancestors arrived as early as the 8th century BCE.
"In the last few decades, genetic information has become an important source for the study of human history," says Prof. Keinan, the study's senior author. "It has been applied several times to the study of Jewish populations across diasporas, providing evidence of a shared ancestry."
The research team, including members of Prof. Keinan's lab, Prof. Eitan Friedman of TAU's Sackler School of Medicine, and Prof. Gil Azmon and colleagues at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the University of Haifa, based their study on data from the Jewish HapMap project, an international effort led by Prof. Harry Ostrer of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, to determine the genetic history of worldwide Jewish diasporas. They used sophisticated genetic tools to conduct comprehensive genome-wide analyses on the genetic markers of 18 Bene Israel individuals.
"We found that while Bene Israel individuals genetically resemble local Indian populations, they constitute a clearly separated and unique population in India," Waldman says.
How the community grew
"The results point to Bene Israel being an 'admixed' population, with both Jewish and Indian ancestry. The genetic contribution of each of these ancestral populations is substantial," adds study co-lead author Arjun Biddanda of Cornell.
The results even indicate when the Jewish and Indian ancestors of Bene Israel "admixed": some 19-33 generations (approximately 650-1,050 years) ago.
"We believe that the first encounter involved Middle-Eastern Jews and was followed by a high rate of tribal intermarriage," says Waldman. "This study provides a new example of how genetic analysis can be a valuable and powerful tool to advance our knowledge of human history."
Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy are presenting collaborative research on the use of mathematical methods for understanding the transportation of chemical compounds in biological tissues, like the skin.
This could lead to better ways of testing cosmetic or consumer products without harming humans or animals.
The research, led by Gerald Kasting, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the college, will be presented at the 8th annual meeting of the International Society of Porous Media (Interpore) on May 11, at the Hilton Netherland Plaza hotel in downtown Cincinnati. The meeting is co-sponsored by academic institutions and industrial corporations including the Procter & Gamble Company.
Interpore is a non-profit scientific society established in 2008 to advance and disseminate knowledge for the understanding, description and modeling of natural and industrial porous media systems.
Kasting, who is collaborating with Arne Naegel and Gabriel Wittum from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, for this research, says mathematical modeling allows scientists to test chemical compounds virtually, in place of human or animal testing.
"A lot of people have models, but we have predictive models," Kasting says of developing mathematical equations to determine whether a chemical compound will penetrate skin or induce allergy based on the results of prior compounds. "Instead of doing testing on 30,000 compounds, we are able to test a subset of say 200 and make predictions about the other 29,800 based on the subset."
These predictions, he says, are essential to manufacturing in global chemical, cosmetic and personal care industries impacted by REACH, a European regulatory guideline that aims to improve the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the properties of chemical substances.
"In order to produce globally, companies need to meet and adhere to the most stringent guidelines. Potentially troublesome ingredients such as fragrances and preservatives are widely used in the cosmetic and personal care industry, so manufacturers are very interested in ways to improve testing," he says.
Not many people stick around a burning city after an evacuation order has been given. And still fewer return to a neighborhood that's actually on fire. But Marty Frost had some experience fighting fires in the past. And Fort McMurray, the Canadian city besieged by a massive wildfire, needed the help. So too, it turns out, did the animals.
Frost is credited with saving dozens of pets who were stranded after their owners were forced to evacuate the city. Among the hundreds left behind was a puppy named Max. Stephanie Greene and her family weren't allowed to return to their home in the Abasand neighborhood of Fort McMurray. That left Max locked inside their townhouse, amid encroaching flames. And a devastated daughter aching for her beloved puppy. Frost heard her plea for help the same way most heroes do these days. "I saw it on Facebook," he tells The Dodo. Greene had made an impassioned plea for someone - anyone - to rescue Max.
Dodo Shows Little But Fierce Pocket-Sized Kitten Grows Up To Be A Wild Woman
But when Frost got to the Abasand neighborhood, it was almost unrecognizable. Even the street signs had melted. "I had gone up there several times to get him but couldn't locate the property," he says. Nevertheless, Frost kept returning to Abasand. On his last foray, a block of townhouses were starting to catch fire. He found the right house - at the moment rescuers were breaking down the door.
Two of those rescuers, a volunteers Ricky Vassberg and Collin Renouf heard the sound of Max barking from inside the house. They had to smash through the bedroom door because Max's kennel wouldn't fit through it. "The whole experience was surreal almost apocalyptic I'm not sure it has quite sunk in," Vassberg tells The Dodo.
Frost ended up making the call to Greene, as she recounted to CBC News. "It's actually probably bittersweet for you, because your house was just starting to catch fire when we rescued him," Frost told her. "I don't care about the house," Greene said. "We got exactly what we wanted."
Max is among the lucky ones. He found his hero and not long after that, he was transported to Calgary to rejoin his family.
When Archie T. Pickles found himself at a city animal shelter in California, he probably didn't realize just how close he was to losing his life. But he was rescued by Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary, in Stockton, which searched for a permanent home for Archie T. Pickles. Finally, the right family seemed to come along. But a few years later, Archie T. Pickles was homeless again.
Archie T. Pickles has needed rescuing again and again. | Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary
"Archie was adopted out several years ago to what we thought was a great home. Sadly, Archie was returned to us recently in nothing more than a cardboard box from the home he lived in," Christine Morrissey, of Harvest Home, told The Dodo. Apparently, a member of the household had suddenly become allergic to Archie.
Archie T. Pickles, a depressed rabbit, needs a forever home. | Christine Morrissey/Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary
Archie T. Pickles found himself depressed after he was returned to the animal sanctuary. He just didn't have the spring in his step that he used to have.
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Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary
"When Archie was returned to us, he quickly slipped into a deep depression," Morrissey said. "Until Archie met Kim."
This browser does not support the video tag. Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary
Kim is a volunteer at the animal sanctuary. When she saw Archie T. Pickles, she could sense his sadness. She knew she had to help him.
Archie T. Pickles, formerly depressed, perks up in Kim's arms. | Christine Morrissey/Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary
And there was something about Kim that made Archie T. Pickles feel hopeful again. He seemed to perk up just being held in Kim's arms.
This browser does not support the video tag. Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary
Over the weekend, Kim reached out to the sanctuary and said she wanted to foster Archie T. Pickles until he could find a good forever home.
At his new foster home, Archie T. Pickles meets Kim's husband. | Christine Morrissey/Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary
"Archie's depression is quickly shifting to happiness because of Kim's compassion and concern," Morrissey said.
Kim and Archie T. Pickles hang out at home together. | Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary
Kim took Archie T. Pickles home and introduced him to the rest of her crew - her husband, and a few other rescued rabbits. Until Archie T. Pickles can find a forever home that really is forever, this is absolutely the next best thing.
Archie T. Pickles meets the other rabbits at his foster home. | Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary
About five years ago, a TV interviewer asked John Pasalis if real estate was going to be disrupted by the internet the way Expedia had upended the travel industry.
No, said the founder of Leslievilles Realosophy brokerage.
That answer hasnt changed in the wake of a recent Competition Tribunal decision that had some worried technology would do to traditional realtors what Uber has wrought on the taxi business.
The decision is expected to result in the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) lifting restrictions on how brokers can distribute data on previous property sales online. For years, TREB argued that information should remain private and be handed off directly to clients by agents.
The release of property sales history is a win for Virtual Office Websites (VOWs) such as Realosophy, which give consumers data that standard MLS listings dont provide.
But they dont believe it will eliminate traditional brokers.
Unlike buying a plane ticket online where the price is the price, real estate is the biggest investment most people make.
The risk is generally too great for someone to just do it in an automated fashion, said Pasalis.
Its not clear yet how much sales history the tribunal will recommend be published.
It is still working with the Competition Bureau, which sought to have the data open, and TREB to determine how the decision translates to practice.
But when it comes to real estate and technology, think evolution, not revolution, said Springrealty owner Ara Mamourian, whose business was among the first to adopt a VOW.
Having that information out there doesnt diminish our role as a realtor. Its just our roles have changed, he said.
Mamourian knows consumers want the data. The heading on his latest blog post says, Want Sold Data? Soon, baby, soon!
The tribunal decision has the potential to help thin Torontos herd of more than 40,000 TREB member agents, wrote Mamourian. But he figures those are the agents that are going down anyway.
The main role of a realtor used to be distributing sales and listing information. Now consumers want to do their research online. But there is no substitute for a human being in a property transaction.
The real estate industry, as crazy as it is right now, its not that easy to buy if you dont know what youre doing. When you have people who dont know what theyre doing, they either offer too little and dont get the house or offer way too much and overpay, he said.
TREBs privacy arguments probably arent the best business model for todays market, argues Sunil Johal, policy director at the Mowat Centre, School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto.
Access to price histories in the U.S. hasnt affected commissions or the number of people who use agents there, he said.
So I dont know if TREB is actually fighting the right battle here. They probably should be embracing this data revolution and trying to get more data in the hands of people, he said.
Johal also wonders how long it will be before theres a Canadian version of Zillow, the U.S. website that provides a deep data dive into about 100 million properties.
Will Mitchell, a professor of strategic management at U of Ts Rotman School of Management, used Zillow when he was selling his house in North Carolina two years ago before buying a home in Toronto.
The U.S. experience was just a more transparent negotiation, he said.
In Toronto, buyers know that if they bid too low, theyre going to lose a house. Mitchell thinks that biases the market in favour of over-bidding.
A site like Zillow will actually take some of the overbids out of the market even if the agents are there. So the agents wont make quite as much money.
A couple of years ago, Mitchell had a student in Toronto who tried to create a business model for an online brokerage system. The student found the system worked in favour of traditional brokers.
They just gave up because of the barriers to getting the historical information about prices, he said.
If this change actually happens, it will fundamentally change the nature of the real estate industry in Canada and in my view, in a good way, said Mitchell.
It should create more opportunity for new online agents who may just work at connecting buyers and sellers willing to do most of the work themselves.
On a vanilla-type sale, it will almost certainly take a big chunk of the margin out of the market. Thats money that will go into some combination of the buyer and sellers pockets.
The Zillow effect
Realtors who worry they wont be needed if consumers can access all property information online should look to the U.S. for reassurance, experts say.
Web giant Zillow offers property shoppers and sellers an accessible deep data dive into millions of properties with information on past sales, neighbourhoods, rents, foreclosures, schools, renovations and mortgages.
What doesnt Zillow do? Compete with brokers, chief marketing officer Jeremy Wacksman told the Toronto Star. Heres what else he had to say about the company.
What is Zillow?
Were a media company. We sell ads, not houses. We attract audience to our websites and mobile apps and then we connect that audience with advertisers, professionals who are building their business with exposure to buyers or sellers.
We really want to be the hub of all things real estate to help with the decision (consumers) are making sales, foreclosures, mortgage information, rentals.
When the site was founded 10 years ago, what did it set out to do?
Back then, the internet was far less sophisticated and penetrative. Our co-founders were simply trying to buy a house and they just couldnt get more data. They couldnt get a better picture to do their own math and analysis on the market. That data was widely available. It just wasnt packaged up and provided in a way that was easy to understand.
Will Zillow move into Canada?
Zillow is focused on growing in the U.S. and has no plans to expand north of the border.
Do you compete with realtors?
The answer is no. Early on, there was an oft-cited discussion that Zillows going to give rise and become a brokerage and try to replace a brokerage. Ten years and 2,500 employees later thats just not our model. And the reason thats not our model is theyre different parts of the industry. Recruiting and growing an agency base is a very different job than building technology for buyers and renters. They both need to exist.
What tools do you provide realtors?
Zillow has a platform that allows agents to go to past clients and solicit ratings and reviews of the deals they did. They could upload all of their past transactions so they can have a record of all the homes they bought or sold to show their local market expertise.
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ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.Roy Speer, the co-founder of Home Shopping Network, was a Florida billionaire once listed on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.
His investments were handled by Ami Forte of Morgan Stanley, and she made tens of millions buying and selling on his behalf. Because of her expertise in handling Speers assets and other top-flight accounts worth $2 billion (U.S.), she became a managing director and one of the few female members of Morgan Stanleys Chairmans Club, which was reserved for its top wealth-management advisers. She, too, was well known around her home near Tampa, serving on several boards and was once named Businesswoman of the Year by the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
But there was something else between Forte and Speer: a years-long love affair and after Speer died in 2012, things got messy, with his widow alleging that Forte and Morgan Stanley took advantage of him in his later years to earn millions in commissions. Forte was fired, and she is now fighting back by filing an arbitration case against Morgan Stanley challenging that decision.
I cared deeply for this person, Forte said, during an exclusive interview with The Associated Press on Monday. The type of relationship we had changed over the years. We were very, very dear friends. It changed to a very dear friendship, there was a time when it was more than that.
After Speers death, his widow gained control of her husbands brokerage account and alleged that Morgan Stanley, through Forte, put through approximately 12,000 unauthorized trades in Mr. Speers accounts, generating commissions of nearly $40 million. Lynnda Speer filed suit with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, saying Forte and Morgan Stanley took advantage of the elderly man, who died when he was 80.
A three-person arbitration panel ruled in March that Morgan Stanley, Forte and a Morgan Stanley branch manager were guilty of elder exploitation, breach of fiduciary duty, constructive fraud, unauthorized trading and churning Roy Speers accounts, along with negligence, negligent supervision and unjust enrichment. The panel awarded Lynnda Speer $32.8 million, plus costs and legal fees likely to be several million dollars more.
Forte and another broker who worked with her were fired days later. Shed worked at Morgan Stanley for 16 years and, she said, her dismissal prevented her from receiving millions in deferred compensation and other benefits.
Now Forte, who lives in Pinellas County, Florida, has struck back. She has filed a multimillion dollar securities arbitration case before FINRA against Morgan Stanley and its subsidiaries, saying the company unjustly fired and penalized her. She says the basis for the arbitrators decision was Morgan Stanleys conduct after she was no longer managing the Speer investment accounts.
Its just not right, Forte said. I have been a loyal employee, I loved that company. Ive done everything for them. When times were tough, I rallied the troops.
Forte, who was divorced when she met Speer, insists that her relationship with him wasnt manipulative. According to documents filed by Fortes attorney, Speer had been estranged from his wife for years. Forte and Speer began a relationship about eight months after meeting in 1999, she said.
There were many, many people in Morgan Stanley who very much knew about that relationship for years and years and years, Forte said.
Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
Forte questions whether she would have been fired had she been a male broker.
Speer visited the Morgan Stanley office several times a week, said Forte and her lawyer, Robert Pearl.
Mr. Speer had no problem disagreeing with those around him, including the people at Morgan Stanley who serviced his accounts, when he felt it appropriate, wrote a Morgan Stanley attorney in an arbitration document. He was not a person who was manipulated into doing anything he did not want to do.
Pearl adds that there was no industry rule or Morgan Stanley policy that prohibited a relationship between a broker and a customer.
He was my mentor, I looked up to him. He was an absolutely brilliant man. We were dear friends until the end, said Forte, who added that she put distance between herself and Speer in 2007, and assigned his accounts to others in her office.
Speer, who in 1982 co-founded the Home Shopping Club, which became the Home Shopping Network in 1985, was a remarkably sophisticated and controlling businessman who had an active and risky investment strategy seeking above-market returns. He was provided with detailed written summaries of his investments and maintained them in a notebook that he monitored daily, said court records, which also showed that Speer made a net gain of $24 million on his Morgan Stanley investments.
Consequently, this dispute is not an attempt to recover losses, but rather is Claimants attempts to recover commissions and other expenses that Mr. Speer paid in connection with the highly profitable investments he pursued, the records say.
Regulators held dozens of hearings when Mrs. Speer brought the suit, which originally sought $400 million. Shed sought damages from trading activity prior to 2009, but Roy Speers account records prior to then had been damaged while in storage or destroyed, according to court documents. That prevented the panel awarding any larger amount.
Records show Mrs. Speer didnt voice any concerns while her husband was alive.
My client was married to Mr. Speer for 52 years, said Guy Burns, the attorney for Lynnda Speer. During that time he kept his business affairs separate from hers and from her. She was not allowed to have any information about any of his business affairs. His office staff had been under strict instruction not to share information with his wife.
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Facebook scrambled this week to respond to a new and startling line of attack: accusations of political bias.
The outcry was set off by a report on Monday morning by the website Gizmodo, which said that Facebooks team in charge of the sites trending list had intentionally suppressed articles from conservative news sources. The social network uses the trending feature to indicate the most popular news articles of the day to users.
Facebook denied the allegations after a backlash from both conservative and liberal critics erupted. It is beyond disturbing to learn that this power is being used to silence viewpoints and stories that dont fit someone elses agenda, read a statement from the Republican National Committee. NOT LEANING IN. . . LEANING LEFT! blared the top story on The Drudge Report, a widely read website.
The journalist Glenn Greenwald, hardly a conservative ally, weighed in on Twitter: Aside from fueling right-wing persecution, this is a key reminder of dangers of Silicon Valley controlling content. And Alexander Marlow, the editor in chief of Breitbart News, a conservative-leaning publication, said the report confirmed what conservatives have long suspected.
Facebook, in response, says that it follows rigorous guidelines to ensure consistency and neutrality and that it works to be inclusive of all perspectives. We take allegations of bias very seriously, a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement. Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum.
The back-and-forth highlights the extent to which Facebook has muscled its way into the United States political conversation and the risks that the company faces as it becomes a central force in news consumption and production.
With more than 222 million monthly active users in the United States and Canada, the site has become a place that people flock to to find out what is going on. Last year, a study by the Pew Research Center, in collaboration with the Knight Foundation, found that 63 per cent of Facebooks users considered the service a news source.
In April, Facebook embraced this role openly, releasing a video to implore people to search Facebook to discover the other side of the story. Politicians have increasingly shared their messages through the social network.
Its not that Facebook has changed fundamentally over the past four, eight years, said Paul Brewer, director of the University of Delaware Center for Political Communication. Its the sheer volume of communication thats taking place, and its that politicians know that they need to be using Facebook now more than ever before to communicate.
As it has become more influential, Facebook has taken pains to say that it is not an echo chamber of similar opinions.
In a peer-reviewed study published last year, Facebooks data scientists analyzed how 10.1 million of the most partisan American users on the social network navigated the site over a six-month period. They found that peoples networks of friends and the articles they saw were skewed toward their ideological preferences but that the effect was more limited than the worst case some theorists had predicted, in which people would see almost no information from the other side.
Yet Gizmodos report raises questions about the effects that Facebooks staff members and their biases, even unconscious ones, have on the social network.
While Facebook has pledged to sponsor both the Democratic and Republican national conventions, its top executives have not been shy about expressing where their political sympathies lie.
At a Facebook conference in April, Mark Zuckerberg, the companys chief executive, warned of fearful voices building walls, in reference to Donald Trump, the probable Republican presidential candidate.
The allegations against Facebook also put the spotlight on how it chooses which news articles to show users under the trending function on desktop computers, trending displays on the right side of screens; on cellphones, it appears when users search.
Facebook has long described its trending feature as largely automatic. The topics you see are based on a number of factors including engagement, timeliness, pages youve liked and your location, according to a description on Facebooks site.
The trending feature is curated by a team of contract employees, according to two former Facebook employees who worked on it and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of nondisclosure agreements. They said they considered themselves members of a newsroom-like operation, where editorial discretion was not novel but was an integral part of the process.
Any suppression, the former employees said, was based on perceived credibility any articles judged by curators to be unreliable or poorly sourced, whether left-leaning or right-leaning, were avoided, though this was a personal judgment call.
The perception of Facebook as a more conventional news operation opens it to a more familiar line of criticism, which has been mounted against news organizations left and right, large and small, for decades.
According to a report last year by Pew, only 17 per cent surveyed said that technology companies had a negative influence on the country. For the news media, that number was 65 per cent and rising.
The agenda-setting power of a handful of companies like Facebook and Twitter should not be underestimated, said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of computer science and law at Harvard University. These services will be at their best when they are explicitly committed to serving the interests of their users rather than simply offering a service whose boundaries for influence are unknown and ever-changing.
By late Monday, users on the social network looking for more information about the Gizmodo report did not have to look far: It was among the top articles trending on Facebook.
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For about a year, nurses at the Svartedalens retirement home have worked six-hour days on an eight-hour salary. Theyre part of an experiment funded by the Swedish government to see if a shorter workday can increase productivity. The conclusion? It does.
As with any cultural shift in the workplace, the six-hour day has to prove itself to be more than just humane. For any employer, in Sweden or elsewhere (and perhaps especially in the U.S.), an abridged workweek cant damage productivity if its going to have a chance. A years worth of data from the project, which compares staff at Svartedalens with a control group at a similar facility, showed that 68 nurses who worked six hour days took half as much sick time as those in the control group. And they were 2.8 times less likely to take any time off in a two-week period, said Bengt Lorentzon, a researcher on the project.
If the nurses are at work more time and are more healthy, this means that the continuity at the residence has increased, Lorentzon said. That means higher quality [care]. Less surprising was that the nurses were 20 per cent happier and had more energy at work and in their spare time. This allowed them to do 64 per cent more activities with elderly residents, one of the metrics researchers used to measure productivity.
Svartedalens is part of a small but growing movement in Europe. Sweden has dabbled with shorter workdays before: From 1989 to 2005, home-care-services workers in one Swedish municipality had a six-hour work day, but it was abolished due to a lack of data proving its worth.
The Svartedalens experiment is designed to avoid that problem: This trial is very, very clean because its just one homogenous group of workers, said Lorentzon. In Swedens private sector, the practice is taking root in places such as the Toyota service centres in Gothenburg. In the United Kingdom, a marketing agency adopted a staggered schedule to allow for reduced work hours while ensuring coverage; a survey last month found that six out of 10 bosses in that country agreed that cutting hours would improve productivity.
The key result of the Swedish study that productivity can increase with fewer hours worked eliminates a major stumbling block to globalizing the shorter work day. The six-hour work day has not been well accepted in many countries because organizations are worried their productivity might fall, said Pramila Rao, an associate professor of human resource management at Marymount University.
But a Canadian labour scholar, Wayne Lewchuk, who is economics professor at McMaster University, thinks the idea might work in this country. A shorter workday could stimulate the mind better than a longer one, he told Canadian Business in 2015, also suggesting that keeping up the pace in a manufacturing environment is more doable for six hours straight than eight.
Accumulated data from Statistics Canada suggests the Canadian work week has been somewhat shorter than 40 hours for some time, clocking in at an average 36 1/2 hours in 2012, down from an estimated 38 1/2 in 1981.
Commenting on a different Swedish study to Global News in 2015, Rotman School of Managements Joe Martin worried that if Canada adopted a six-hour workday the economy would lose ground to the United States, where longer workdays and very limited vacation remain the workplace norm.
Americans work around 38.6 hours per week, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. They get, on average, fewer than eight paid vacation days a year; only about three-quarters of workers get any paid time off at all, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The Swedish model will not be easily accepted in the U.S. because we are a nation of workaholics, said Rao.
In many companies today, you still see that mentality that you have to be in the office, added Carol Sladek, work-life consulting lead at Aon Hewitt. Reducing the workday is very foreign to our overall values.
John Maynard Keynes didnt think so. He famously predicted that technological progress would lead us to shorter weeks and abundant leisure time; a 15 hour work week should be the norm by 2030, he prognosticated. The prophecy was echoed by Herman Kahn, who in the 1960s said Americans would one day have 13 weeks of vacation and a four-day work week.
Thats definitely not the reality in 2016 America. The Swedish study isnt the first that made a connection between happier, rested workers and better outcomes for employers. Any link between hours worked and productivity was shown to be weak in a 2014 paper from Stanford University. The research found a non-linear relationship between hours worked and output: Results start to slide around the 50-hour-per-week mark. In fact, too much work can damage productivity. People who feel overworked said they make more mistakes at work, according to a study by the Families and Work Institute.
While the Svartedalens experiment offers evidence that shorter hours improve productivity, nursing as an occupation may be more analogous to that of medical residents, rather than a desk job. The study equates productivity with quality of care, which doesnt necessarily translate to white-collar work.
Then theres the math problem. Cutting worker hours can cost employers money if increased productivity saves less than the cost of hiring additional workers. Svartedalens had to hire an additional 15 nurses, which cost 6,000,000 Swedish krona (about $735,000). About half of that expense was offset by the decrease in sick days and time off. That said, the experiment didnt measure how the improved care affected the overall bottom line.
In the U.S., companies have sought to show flexibility by adopting a four-day workweek, albeit with the same total amount of hours. In a sort of workplace sleight-of-hand, the prospect of perpetual long weekends keeps people motivated. It helps them stay more focused, said Rao.
About 30 per cent of 1,060 employers surveyed by Aon Hewitt offer a compressed workweek. Almost 60 per cent of organizations that were surveyed offer flextime, which allows people to decide what time they arrive and leave. Research has found that workers who have control over their schedules report lower levels of stress, burnout, and higher job satisfaction.
Employees would rather have more time off, but absent that, giving a little control is a good substitute, said Sladek. Were like toddlers: As long as we have control over our environment, we feel good.
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LOS ANGELESAt first glance, it has all the trappings of a comics convention.
Theres a cavernous convention centre devoid of daylight. Inside, its stuffed with thousands of fans lining up for everything from an autograph and a selfie to a slice of pizza and a soda. Upstairs, theyre camping out for Q-&-A sessions.
However, theres not a superhero in sight.
Instead, nearly 23,000 RuPauls DragCon attendees are here to see men glammed-up as women.
We have people from all over the world coming for DragCon because this is more than just a convention of drag queens, the gender-bending host of the TV reality show RuPauls Drag Race told the crowd Sunday at the second annual extravaganza at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
It is a movement.
The rows of 230 or so DragCon vendors hawking merchandise, from $20 T-shirts to $2,000 gowns, is the latest example of the proliferation of fan conventions, the once geeky get-togethers that have morphed into a big business. The organizer of San Diego Comic-Con makes about $15 million in revenue each year from its events.
I think cons are the new black, said DragCon co-creator Randy Barbato.
As our existence has become more digital, the ability to reach out and touch someone, especially a drag queen, is amazing.
I think social media is great, but theres nothing quite like the actual experience of meeting your favourite drag queen up close . . . well, not too close.
Besides female impersonators, there are now annual cons for such left-of-centre subjects as Lego toys, mermaids, Power Rangers and anthropomorphic characters, just to name a few. The History Channel and the organizers of Cosmic-Con announced plans last week to hold the first-ever Alien Con at the Santa Clara (California) Convention Center in October.
These conventions arent just for comic-lovers or Trekkies anymore.
Rob Salkowitz, who wrote Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, said the popularity of San Diego Comic-Con has blazed the trail for other events. He believes the growth of similar gatherings is as much about promoting new endeavours and making money as it is about fans desire to prove their appreciation and congregate with likeminded audiences.
I think people are craving community, said Salkowitz.
At every fan convention, there are self-selected groups that identify with their enthusiasm for a subject. Theyre diverse when it comes to demographics and ideologies, but all thats checked at the door and people just want a good time.
There are few places in American public life like that anymore.
For over a decade, Wizard World has found success with a roving pop-culture con model that this year includes stops in cities such as Columbus, Ohio, and Austin, Texas. And for the first time, the company will host a con on a cruise ship in December, featuring appearances by Thor star Chris Hemsworth and The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus.
It seems like a natural extension of what weve already been doing on land across the country, said Wizard World CEO John Maatta. Its already great just travelling to the Bahamas, but, for an audience thats affinity-based and has an interest in pop culture and celebrities like Chris Hemsworth and Norman Reedus, its going to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has done adman-turned-filmmaker Barry Avrich a huge favour.
When Avrichs new memoir, Moguls, Monsters and Madmen, came out this month, Weinstein (one of Hollywoods most powerful men as co-chair of the Weinstein Company and former head of Miramax Films), issued a statement decrying one of the anecdotes in the book.
Since Harvey made the statement, Ive done 30 interviews and the story has gone from London to Kabul because Harvey is big news. Its amazing, Avrich said in an interview.
(Weinstein specifically objected to a story about his instructions regarding a sex scene in the film, Factory Girl.)
Part of the book chronicles the various obstacles Weinstein threw in Avrichs path on the way to making a film about the movie mogul, including warning people not to talk.
The 2011 film is aptly titled Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project.
He (Weinstein) has shone a light on Unauthorized, which never got seen in the U.S., and hopefully created a demand for the film and hopefully, for the book, Avrich added.
While the film was seen intact and beautifully unedited when it was shown in Canada, the U.S. rights were bought by a company called IFC Films, which made major edits and ensured through a lacklustre distribution effort that it went largely unseen by audiences there. Avrich noted IFC Films and Weinstein had a long relationship.
I believe that Harvey was, at the end of the day, impressed that I got the film made, Avrich said, adding that Weinstein still returns his emails promptly and even gave him advance warning he planned to issue a statement.
Avrich has tackled other subjects for films who were also strongly opposed, including disgraced former theatrical and film producer Garth Drabinsky, and late Hollywood talent agent and studio executive Lew Wasserman.
Others like concert promoter Michael Cohl and late criminal attorney Eddie Greenspan were more amenable, though comedian-turned-director David Steinberg proved to be difficult.
I start off the exercise for a film that is about somebody that Ive always wanted to meet, thats number one. Number two, its (got) to have some commercial value because Im not interested in making a film about the gestation period of a beaver that five people are going to see, Avrich said.
Thirdly, I want my films to be provocative and sometimes its about somebody that is scandalous, somebody that has had that larger than life career and quite often, its about people that dont want the publicity, he said.
Avrichs next project is about Montreals Bronfman family, a dynasty founded on a fortune made bootlegging during Prohibition before grandson Edgar Bronfman Jr. made a costly and unsuccessful foray years later into Hollywood through companies like MCA and Universal Pictures.
I think thats a story that Canadians need to hear and if you love Hollywood, youre going to love it, too. Its three generations from bootlegging to Hollywood, its got it all, Avrich said.
Its three generations of the rise and fall of one of the greatest iconic family names (in Canada), he added.
The book also chronicles Avrichs encounters with various Hollywood legends, such as Frank Sinatra and Lauren Bacall.
Dealing with celebrities is surprisingly simple, Avrich said, just treat them as people.
If you go in like an autograph seeker, then theres not going to be any connection, Avrich said.
If you relate to (stars) in a way that they understand what youre looking for and youre a professional and youve done your research, I think theyre all fabulous people, (though) some are more difficult than others, he added.
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As the CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival, Piers Handling is paid to worry about the future. What, for example, will the 40-year-old festival look like in another decade when it hits the half-century mark?
This year could see the event hitting a record half-million attendance figure, for screenings, showcasing as many as 400 films.
Its quite a jump from when the former Festival of Festivals began in 1976, with 35,000 attendees and 127 films. Founders used the Windsor Arms boutique hotel as their headquarters.
The sleek, $129 million TIFF Bell Lightbox on King St. W. has served as its headquarters since 2010, showing just how far the festival has come. But a future is never guaranteed. In the age of digital disruption where home theatres abound, and movies are available on every platform, a festival of film is no sure thing.
Its certainly something we think about all the time just how do you remain relevant? says Handling.
You dont have to look far to see the remnants of festivals that faded into irrelevance. The Worlds Fairs, for example, were considered global events that allowed the exchange of culture and technology.
The Worlds Fair was a terrific event, but with modern communication technologies, the value they create is no longer helpful, says author Don Tapscott, who wrote a 2012 report on digital strategy commissioned by TIFF and is guest editor of this edition of the Star. This is a challenge of all big events, and those that havent innovated tend to disappear.
The challenge for TIFF over the next 10 years is to parlay its glorious 11 September days of premieres and celebrity spotting into a global hub for film culture.
The goal: to ensure TIFF is the destination for people around the world who want to learn about moving images, says Handling.
I would hope that they would look to us the way they would look to the Tate Modern or MoMA or the Louvre for art, or the Met for opera, says Handling. As one of the essential organizations for the thought and preservation of film, the Oxford and Cambridge of cinema.
Thats a big mission. But given TIFFs platform, its not a big leap.
Were still a young medium. Its only 100 years old, and that top tier of film institutions are still a relatively new phenomenon, Handling says.
Frances Cinematheque Francaise, which holds the largest archives of film documents and objects globally, The Australian Centre for the Moving Image and The British Film Institute are some of the great brands against which TIFF hopes to hold its own.
But few of the major archives have the big gun of an 11-day festival that attracts the best of Hollywood and is considered a bellwether for the Academy Awards.
They are really positioning themselves to be the leading cultural institution for film, says University of Toronto film professor Charlie Keil.
What may affect TIFFs evolution is what film will look like in the decades to come.
In 10 years time, what exactly is a film? asks Tapscott. To be sure we all love to be entertained, and we all love a good story and, with the digital media opportunities, go beyond being a passive recipient.
Which means Handling now has to be concerned about the festivals digital footprint as well as its physical presence extending the red carpet experience into the living room.
The digital visitor has to have the same care and priority as a physical visitor, says Handling. And thats a big step for us. To extend your reach internationally you have to be on a digital platform, but in a different way than youre communicating to your physical audience.
So TIFF is building a studio that will allow it to package original content that could be broadcast online or elsewhere, showcasing TIFF as a virtual museum and film reference library.
It means we will continue to have high-profile actors and artists beyond the festival and fostering a conversation year round, Handling says.
The health of TIFF, a registered charity, is vital to the health of Ontarios economy. Consultants hired by the festival estimate its economic impact to be about $189 million.
The city certainly thinks of TIFF as an important partner in helping to build a global brand when people think of Toronto, says actor Zaib Shaikh, Torontos film commissioner.
Most festivals you cant just walk up to the stars with your backpack, but you can here, says Shaikh. And even though we may have technological shifts, its really one of those live events that is important to a collective humanity, its a moment that brings the city together and I think they will continue to build on that.
The question remains: how?
Future technology means movies might be three dimensional and holographic, while viewers can choose their own endings or even participate within the structure of the movie. This also means the possibility that some festival films could be experienced at home in ones living room.
That leads to the question of whether bringing people together in theatres will remain relevant.
I think there is something to be said for the tangible, embodied presence of a star or a director in the flesh, says U of Ts Keil. Youre never going to get Brad Pitt in your living room.
Feedback shows that the festival and TIFF Bell Lightbox can be seen as elitist entities, so in the future, expect more welcoming public spaces.
The atrium space isnt as warm and welcoming as wed like it to be, but we have learned an enormous amount about how the building is being used since we opened, says Handling.
TIFF is looking at reconfiguring its public spaces in the Lightbox, to extend the reach of its gallery exhibitions past shows have included James Bond and Stanley Kubrick and to give the building a friendlier face.
We really werent in the exhibition business before the building opened, but we want to extend that visitor experience, says Handling. Its been a bit of a challenge making even local audiences aware that we have exhibition gallery shows and weve had mixed success. But weve improved on that.
TIFFs evolution starts with an app
Author and consultant Don Tapscott consulted with the Toronto International Film Festival to determine how the organization could innovate.
But before the festival starts to build on its global presence, it still has to walk before it can fly, warns Tapscott.
That includes starting with the basics: Building a better app that will allow truly seamless integration for festival-goers.
I have the same gripes that everyone does. The transactions are confusing. Its time-consuming and then there are lineups, when all you want to do is enjoy the film, says Tapscott.
Companies like Starbucks, for example, have apps that allow customers to order a coffee and have it waiting when they get to the shop. Why cant TIFF be that easy?
The app is your virtual co-pilot to TIFF, says Tapscott. It should be like a combination of having a great executive assistant and Martin Scorsese in your pocket to guide you through the festival.
Here are some other suggestions taken from Tapscotts internal report in a collaboration that started in 2012 with the film festival.
Partnering with online broadcasters
TIFF can expand its reach by partnering with companies such as Netflix, iTunes and Amazon. TIFFs library of red-carpet moments, panels and interviews can be used to supplement broadcast material such as the extras found on DVDs.
Creating Community
TIFF can engage communities of film lovers globally integrating existing online and face-to-face groups into the TIFF community that already exist through Meetup.com, Facebook and others. TIFF should be able to increase its public profile, attract fans and be community friendly.
Crowdsourcing Film Series
What kind of series would you like to see at TIFF? The organization could ask fans to rate their favourite films and stars, then build a series theme around that. Crowdsourcing merchandise and design is another option, with TIFF partnering with design schools, which will help raise public awareness and link with other artistic partners.
TIFFipedia
To become a global leader in the understanding of film, TIFF needs to play a role in documenting Canadian and global film history. TIFF can host a camp or challenge that taps into the arts communities to help complete entries for Wikipedia, which lacks content in Canadian film entries.
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Because of trade rules, Canadian border officials must know not only why the chicken crossed the road but what it was doing before it arrived and how it will be used on the other side.
But due to a loophole in the supply management system, chicken meat may arrive from the United States with a label indicating it will wind up in a processing plant, when its really headed for the dinner table.
Thats because lower-grade chicken known as spent fowl from birds raised to produce eggs or chicks is exempt from import tariff laws. Broiler hens, or meat destined for grocery store shelves, is heavily controlled in Canada.
The issue isnt whether youre more likely to each tough old chicken from a spent bird. All the birds that cross the border are likely to end up in grocery stores. Its about money. The Chicken Farmers of Canada allege the mislabelled meat skirts the quota system, costing the Canadian chicken industry $120 million dollars a year.
Because its nearly impossible to tell with a glance the origin of a hunk of pink, cellophane-wrapped meat, that organization turned to scientists at Trent University to develop a DNA test to foil the culprits.
We dont know who is doing it, said Yves Ruel, manager of trade and policy at the Chicken Farmers of Canada. Of course, nobody has claimed to be using the scheme.
Under international trade agreements, only so much broiler meat can be imported to Canada before a prohibitive 238 per cent tariff applies. But spent fowl is exempt from the federal Export and Imports Permit Act.
The Chicken Farmers suspect mid-level importers in Canada are working with U.S. middlemen to avoid tariffs.
I can assure you that neither U.S. (spent) fowl producers nor U.S. broiler producers are at all involved in this, said James Sumner, president of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council.
For several years his organization has been aware of these deceptive practices, which are not in the best interest of Canadian or American producers, Sumner said.
According to a Chicken Farmers of Canada analysis, the amount of supposedly spent fowl coming into Canada jumped from 47 million kilograms in 2005 to more than 100 million kilograms by 2012, close to the entire slaughter volume of spent fowl in the U.S. that year. Either every hen that spent its life laying eggs in America was shipped north to Canada, or something is amiss, Ruel said.
Last year, 100 million kilograms of spent hen was imported here, or about 10 per cent of Canadian production. That amounts to 5,500 refrigerated trailers per year, said Ruel, who believes at least 20 per cent of supposed spent hen imports are highly questionable.
This February, the Chicken Farmers of Canada appealed to the House of Commons Committee on International Trade.
In fact, we are importing more spent fowl breast meat than is produced in the U.S.A. That speaks to outright fraud. The government needs to implement mandatory certification of spent fowl and start using the DNA test developed by Trent University to distinguish chicken from spent fowl, the agency said in a written submission.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said in an emailed statement officials were conducting inspections at the border to review chicken imports declared as spent fowl but declined to say which ports of entry were involved. The CBSA conducted verifications of spent fowl importations in 2013 and 2014, but spokeswoman Line A. Guibert-Wolff said she could not release any results.
Rather than stake out border crossings, the Chicken Farmers teamed up with analytics company Sterisense and a forensics lab at Trent University to distinguish between the two kinds of meat.
Dr. Bradley White, who holds a Canada Research Chair in conservation genetics and biodiversity, specializes in non-human DNA testing. He found a distinctive genetic marker on the mitochondria cells of hens that have been bred extensively for egg production. For the mothers of broilers, it was more complicated because female broilers share a lot of genetic material with their mothers, making it hard to tell chicken meat from spent hen.
(But) we didnt want to do a paternity study on every chicken, said White, who recently determined the sex of the Toronto Zoos panda cubs using DNA. When it comes to spent hens, one of the first steps is also testing the sex: a large proportion of meat from male chickens in a shipment is a red flag.
All that is required is a hole-punch sample of chicken meat, which can be taken by Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) officials making other routine inspections and sent to the Trent lab where the DNA can be extracted.
If the chicken is found to be fraudulently labelled, a bill would be sent for the tariff. It would also act as a deterrent: in 2014, when there was buzz around a possible test, the import of spent hen declined, climbing back up last year when no test appeared.
Implementing the test, which was designed to be integrated with other inspection practices at the border, is still on hold. The CBSA said in a statement the agency is aware of the DNA test and is still in the process of considering the feasibility of its use.
Chicken imports to Canada in 2015
The vast majority of chicken in stores comes from Canadian farmers who produce more than a billion kilograms of chicken per year.
But due to trade agreements and supply management, 7.5 per cent of chicken is imported, mostly from the U.S.
Brazil and Thailand also export a significant amount of chicken to Canada, mostly in the form of wings or processed food. A smaller amount comes from Europe and Israel.
Country kilograms value
Brazil14,822,137$54,526,954
Chile182,482$1,058,833
Germany130,376$674,564
Hungary605,683$1,738,136
Israel73,411$266,719
Thailand8,343,907$30,975,473
U.S.54,085,332$155,673,232
Total78,243,328$244,913,911
Source: Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
Correction May 10, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated the figures for the estimated amount of spent fowl coming into Canada in dollars.
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One of the defining moments in Michael DeCortes life came in 2003 after visiting a sick friend in the hospital.
When I was at her beside, I thought to myself, Its a good thing Im here right now because I look like a good friend, said the Toronto yoga expert and blogger, noting he valued this woman because she was cool and beautiful. (Being there) secured the friendship.
The friend called bullshit. He was there to make himself feel better, not her, she said.
DeCorte identifies as a recovering addict of codependent friendships, a term describing relationships in which one person regularly performs acts intended to earn approval from others, validating their own self-worth and avoiding conflict. Experts say its a learned emotional and behavioural condition, more common among women, that can impede people from forming balanced relationships, but is not necessarily unhealthy.
Comedian and actress Whitney Cummings put a spotlight on the issue in a December article for Elle magazine and newsletter-slash-website Lenny Letterin which she self-identified as codependent.
Essentially, if I drive you to the airport because you cant afford a taxi and I expect nothing in return, thats benevolent, she writes. But if I drive you to the airport secretly hoping youll like me, owe me, wont abandon me down the line, or to control your perception of me (i.e., I want you to think Im nice), thats codependent.
In the article, Cummings details prioritizing buying expensive candles for friends over paying rent, helping mend friends broken hearts when she didnt have time to floss, and focusing so intently on helping sick family members, she once contracted pneumonia without noticing.
Theres nothing wrong with being kind, said Darlene Lancer, a California-based marriage and family therapist and author of Codependency for Dummies. But if you feel like youd rather not but you dont feel like you can say no . . . then maybe its a behaviour pattern, its not coming from a place of conscious choice.
Lancer said examples of codependent friendships might include one friend often buying the other gifts without the gift-giving being reciprocated, regularly giving advice and feeling angry when the advice isnt followed, or feeling too guilty to say no to requests for help from friends, to the detriment of their own wellbeing.
But its not necessarily harmful.
It doesnt always create unhappiness, said Lancer. In some older generation (couples) the wife always does what her husband wants. She doesnt have much of a separate personality but it doesnt bother her because this is all shes known, or its part of their religious or cultural ethos.
In fact, Lancer calls codependency rampant in modern society, but says codependent relationships have long been around. As women became more independent and society shirks patriarchal norms, codependent relationships were deemed problematic, she said.
Lancer points to childhood incidents or trauma to explain how the behaviour is learned; bullying at school, parental discord especially if one parent starts relying on the child for support or sibling abuse can all contribute to future codependent friendships, she said.
For Toronto naturopath, Natalie Bozinovski, 32, she guesses her mom also a people-pleaser influenced her codependent behaviour.
It wasnt until she was in university and began to practice mindfulness by taking walks to clear her mind, that she realized she was relying on external approval to determine her self-worth in romantic relationships, friendships and family relationships.
I still notice myself making decisions to make (others) happy, she said. Saying no to friends the more I practice, the better I get at it.
So how do experts say one can unlearn codependency in friendships?
Counselling, said Candace Plattor, an addiction therapist based in Vancouver, who considers codependency an addiction. People who suspect they have codependent tendencies need to reflect on what is causing their behaviour, she said.
As for Michael DeCorte, a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, he suspects when his addictions were rooted in insecurity and self-centeredness. Once he gave up drugs and alcohol 15 years ago, he latched on to the next best thing to feed his needs friendships.
And that sick friend who called him out?
She dumped his as a friend, disinvited him from her wedding and left him in shambles.
But once the dust settled, he regrouped. Through work with psychotherapists and mentors, he now realizes collecting popular friends wont give him the self-confidence or validation he craved.
Maybe Im not going to have 1,000 friends if I actually started being myself, DeCorte said. But the ones that stick by my side are going to be my real friends.
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HALIFAXJean Chretien says politicians have to adjust to changing times, as his own views on marijuana, capital punishment and other contentious issues evolved after he was first elected in the early 1960s.
Whether its pot smoking, abortion, gay marriage or the death penalty, the former prime minister says hes tried to reflect the spirit of the times even if his changing politics put him in conflict with his conservative upbringing in a large, Roman Catholic family in rural Quebec.
What were certain values 50 years ago, are not the same today. We have to live with that. Its not always easy, he said.
When asked Monday about Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus decision to legalize the sale of marijuana, Chretien said he is in favour of decriminalization.
What is completely unacceptable, in my judgment, is a young man smoking marijuana will have a criminal record for the rest of his life, (and) he cant cross the border come on, Chretien said after a ceremony marking the official opening of a public policy think-tank at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
It is the modern thing to do . . . You have to adjust to the new life.
When Chretien was prime minister, his government tried in 2003 to pass a law decriminalizing simple possession of small amounts of marijuana, but the bill died when Parliament was prorogued.
Earlier this year, Liberal MP Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief, said Criminal Code provisions on marijuana must be upheld until legalization is in place.
Blair, parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, is the Trudeau governments point man on the issue.
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair has said the government should decriminalize marijuana right away.
Im glad Mr. Chretien agrees with us, that would be my comment, NDP justice critic Murray Rankin said Monday.
Chretien, 82, said he has never smoked cigarettes and hes never tried pot.
I dont know what it is and I never tasted that, he said. I dont know what is the effect.
First elected to the House of Commons in 1963, Chretien said his constituents in Shawinagan, Que., gave him a hard time when he voted against capital punishment.
People thought I was wrong, he said, adding that he faced more opposition from locals after a landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling that decriminalized abortion in 1988.
Im a Roman Catholic from a large family. To vote in favour of letting ladies decide what to do with their own bodies it was not easy for me . . . (But) I did that.
And in 2003, Chretiens majority government announced that it would not appeal court rulings supporting same-sex marriage, setting the stage for legislation that would later recognize the validity of such unions.
We have to adjust to reality, Chretien said. Marijuana is in the same category.
Chretien was in Halifax to officially open the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance, a non-partisan think-tank named in honour of former Liberal cabinet minister and Cape Bretoner Allan MacEachen, who is now in his 90s.
Chretien recalled that he worked in the federal cabinet with MacEachen for more than 10 years.
He was a great parliamentarian . . . and a very influential member of the cabinet, Chretien said after he and former Liberal leader Bob Rae reminisced about MacEachens career at a ceremony that attracted about 500 people.
The son of a coal miner who was first elected to the House of Commons in 1953, MacEachen helped design many of Canadas key programs, including the national labour code, minimum wage legislation, old age pensions and medicare.
But for us, he was Mr. Cape Breton, Chretien told the crowd, adding that he visited the francophone communities in MacEachens riding many times, citing Isle Madame, Gros Nez Island and Arichat.
He was bilingual, Chretien said of MacEachen. He could speak English and Gaelic.
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Through the catastrophic wildfire ablaze in Fort McMurray, Tony Middleton and his family found human kindness and the true Canadian spirit emerging out of the rubble.
Living in Toronto, Middletons heart remained fixed in the disastrous conditions as both his parents, Anna and Tony, became a part of the 80,000 residents forced to leave their home and family, and their 14-year old family member, their dog Abby.
Residing and employed in Fort McMurray for the last six years, Middletons parents were working as bus drivers when the mandatory evacuation orders were given.
It was then they believed that they would have to make a devastating decision, Middleton said. They were asked to help move people from town to a camp approximately 30 kilometres north of Fort McMurray but in doing so, they had to leave our family dog behind it was sad to see them blame themselves.
During the three days Abby was left alone at the home, without water or food, was the hardest time the Middletons faced believing that they would never see their companion again. Deciding to fly out of Edmonton and to Toronto last Friday, they figured that their memories from the home were destroyed.
And then, something that Middleton calls the Canadian spirit and integrity shone down on the ruins.
While waiting for his parents to arrive in Toronto, Middleton learned of the Fort Mcmurray Evac Relocation Help Group, a Facebook support group of volunteers who help anyone seeking assistance to deal with the Fort McMurray fires.
Making his last shot to find and hopefully save Abby, Middleton posted her picture to the site: Our dogs name is Abby. Shes old and deaf but still kicking. The door is unlocked and her leash should be by the entrance. My parents are absolutely beside themselves as shes been alone for two days, the Facebook caption read.
An hour later, and after receiving hundreds of responses, Middleton saw a photo he never expected to receive a photo of Abby, alive and well-fed.
Complete strangers responded to my post about Abby . . . offering their support and assistance. Middleton said. It shows just how incredible Canadians are, coming together under dire circumstances to help not only one another, but our pets as well.
Middleton said these strangers, Tahnee Hovind and Eric Jalbert, put faith back in humanity for his parents who were reunited with Abby moments before boarding their flight to Toronto.
They hand-delivered Abby to my parents at the Edmonton Airport they went on their own accord he said. They are overwhelmed by love, by kindness and selflessness thats what it means to be Canadian.
Hovind and Jalbert, are part of a small but dedicated group of animal lovers determined to keep rescuing pets from a potential mass grave in the abandoned homes of Fort McMurray, despite having been kicked out by police last week.
By Sunday afternoon, members of the group said they had received thousands of emails from evacuees of thewildfire whose pets were left behind.
Sam Sansalone, whos from southern Alberta and is a member of the Facebook group Fort Mac Fire Pet Rescue, where many of the efforts are being co-ordinated, said group members rescued about 230 pets on Wednesday and Thursday.
But police kicked them out on Thursday and again on Friday, he said.
Sansalone said authorities told them the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo was taking over pet rescue duties, and there was a risk that people working independently might loot houses under the guise of attempting to rescue pets.
He said he understands that concern, but said that official resources are spread too thin, and civilians should be allowed to help.
This is a mass grave, in basements, in crates, he said.
He said that now, his group will try to work with local authorities. He said theyre hoping to speak with RCMP at the scene and get approval to join the official rescue efforts.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told a news conference that it was unsafe for people other than first responders to enter Fort McMurray, but emergency personnel were already helping rescue animals.
She said first responders were giving food and water to the pets left behind by evacuees, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was attempting to rescue what pets they could.
She said the SPCA was asking pet owners to register their pets online to give permission for the official rescue team to enter their homes.
With files from The Canadian Press
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OTTAWAA former high-ranking Pakistani politician with Canadian citizenship is being held in Karachi on trumped-up political charges, supporters say.
Dr. Asim Hussain, an orthopedic surgeon with family and property ties in London, Ont., was arrested in late August by paramilitary Pakistan Rangers for allegedly financing terrorism through his hospital.
While in custody of the Rangers, Dr. Asim, as he is known, was forced to stand up all night in a dark room while blindfolded with his hands tied, supporters say in a brief on his case. He went into kidney failure and had a heart attack.
New York-based Human Rights Watch recently highlighted Dr. Asims case in declaring that the Rangers a security force operating under the Pakistan army have been implicated in serious rights abuses, including torture and other ill-treatment of criminal suspects, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan expressed grave concern in late March over a report about the deterioration of Dr. Asims mental health. He is now in custody at a Karachi hospital.
Canadian officials are providing consular assistance to a Canadian citizen detained in Pakistan, said Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Tania Assaly. To protect the private and personal information of the individual concerned, further details on this case cannot be released.
Born in Pakistan, Dr. Asim, his wife and two children moved in the early 1990s to southwestern Ontario, settling in London. All four became Canadian citizens. Dr. Asim ran a travel agency and invested in some property, but did not have the Canadian credentials to work as a doctor.
He returned to Pakistan and established one of the countrys largest hospital groups.
Dr. Asims purported misdeeds range from the outrageous to the absurd, the brief says. He is being accused of everything from manipulating the stock market to financing terrorism to manipulating his hospital trust for personal gain.
He denies all accusations against him.
Supporters speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals say Asim, 62, is being targeted by the current government for political reasons because he was a cabinet member under former Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
In addition to arresting Dr. Asim, the Rangers raided his hospital, harassed staff and removed confidential medical records, the brief says. Several hospital employees close to Dr. Asim were also wrongly detained, tortured and threatened.
Citing the principle of medical neutrality, the supporters say it is a dangerous precedent to allow doctors to be targeted by governments, military or paramilitary personnel in an effort to arrest or detain alleged terrorists under their care.
Dr. Asim should be granted bail and he has the right to a fair, transparent and speedy trial that is not tainted by political pressure or biased media coverage, the supporters say.
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Its vital for the oilsands to restart production as soon as possible so people can return to work, says Alberta Premier Rachel Notley.
This is an important step in the recovery of our people, she said during a press joint-conference with energy industry leaders on Tuesday.
Notley stood with oilsands executives to say the province's mainstay industry would be back up on its feet after the Fort McMurray wildfire within weeks.
"We expect ultimately that many companies will begin to resume their production in the coming days and short weeks ahead," she said after a meeting with leaders from the oilsands, pipeline and power industries.
Most producers have had to shutdown because of the fire, which has led to a loss of about one million barrels of oil a day. Some, such as Shell Canada, have already reopened, while others located in the southern part of Fort McMurray are not likely to open for a couple weeks, she said.
We agree that operations will only restart when it is absolutely safe to do so, she said.
Steve Williams, president and CEO Suncor, said that industry has responded admirably to the circumstances; employees have not seen their wages cuts and he said no layoffs are planned as a result of the fire.
I think employees are in very good shape, he said during the press conference.
No layoffs of oilsands workers are planned, said Williams.
"From what I heard this morning from the companies, they've guaranteed pay in advance so that pay to workers will not be interrupted," he said
No pipelines were damaged in the fire and producers in the north were almost totally spared, Notley said, which means they can start up again within a matter of days.
But while vital employees will be working at camps set up by their company, it could be weeks before citizens could return to their homes, Notley cautioned.
Notley said the government isn't yet able to determine how much the shutdown is costing the province in terms of lost royalties.
"As things stand now, the majority of production has stopped. If that were to continue for a month or two you'd start to see measurable outcomes to our GDP, but that's premature at this point."
Notley said the meeting marked a significant step as Alberta begins to recover from the fire, which evacuated Fort McMurray, destroyed about 2,400 structures and burned over 2,300 square kilometres.
"This is an important step in the recovery of our people, our communities and our province and quite frankly, the national economy as well."
Trudeau to visit Fort McMurray
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will pay a visit to Fort McMurray, Alta. on Friday to offer the support of all Canadians to the fire-ravaged community.
Speaking in the House of Commons, the prime minister thanked those who battled the huge wildfire and saved much of the city.
"I too ... congratulate the brave firefighters and first responders who have been there to do extraordinary work through these terrible blazes in Fort McMurray," Trudeau said.
He also thanked Canadians for their donations in the face of a crisis which has driven more than 80,000 residents out of the city.
"I want to congratulate all Canadian who across the country came together to give incredibly generously to the people of Fort McMurray through the Canadian Red Cross and in other ways."
Previously, the prime minister had said he would wait until the fire had died down before visiting, so as to stay out of the way of rescue workers.
Canadian Forces is sending a military transport aircraft loaded with relief firefighters and supplies to Alberta.
Key facts about the fire
2,400 buildings were torched, but 25,000 were saved
Red Cross has collected $60 million in donations
Much of the downtown and the water treatment plant are also intact
All 80,000 residents ordered out last Tuesday will have to wait at least two weeks to hear when they might be allowed to return.
Emergency shelter use on the decline
A week after a wildfire forced them from their homes, the number of Fort McMurray residents relying on emergency reception centres is beginning to decline.
Its kind of to be predicted, Gerry Clarke, manager of the main centre in Edmonton, said on Tuesday.
Clarke said there were 407 evacuees sleeping on cots at the Northlands Centre on Monday night, down from just under 600 the previous evening.
Some 16,200 people have used the centre for food, clothing or lodging since they were driven from their northern Alberta community late last week by wildfires, which continue to burn out of control.
Many of the evacuees have found lodging with their friends, but eat their meals at the reception centre to lessen the cost to friends or family of housing them.
Health affected by fire
An outbreak of stomach flu is affecting people forced from their homes.
Alberta Health Services said there were more than 110 cases of what appears to be viral gastroenteritis at some evacuation centres.
This is not unexpected, Dr. Chris Sikora, the medical officer of health for Edmonton said Tuesday.
It will likely take about a week to resolve. We will monitor on a daily basis to see how many cases do show up.
Sikora said, as of Monday, there were 105 cases reported in Edmonton, four cases in Calgary and nine in the central zone.
People were suffering from fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Sikora said steps were being taken to prevent the virus from spreading, and said the centres remain safe.
Owners reunited with pets
Evacuees separated have begun to reunite with their furry friends. A Suncor Energy pilot whos been flying people from camps in Northern Alberta to Edmonton and Calgary has been letting owners bring their pets.
Abby the 14-year-old spaniel was finally reunited with her family, Anna and Tony Middleton. Abby was rescued by an animal-loving couple after her family posted online that they had to leave her alone for two days.
Alberta SPCA is trying to coordinate pet rescue, and posted a photo on its Facebook page of Bella, the first rescue to be reunited.
Fire rages on
Alberta officials said two wildfires in the Fort McMurray area have joined, and estimate the size of fire to be about 2,300 square kilometres.
The massive blaze was about 30 km. from the Saskatchewan boundary.
The Fort McMurray fire was being fought by 700 firefighters, 26 helicopters, 13 air tankers and 46 pieces of heavy equipment.
Student loan reprieve
Both Nova and New Brunswick are letting students who had moved out to Fort McMurray delay their loan repayments for up to six months.
Nova Scotia Advanced Education Minister Kelly Regan says loans will automatically be suspended for about 120 people who have Fort McMurray addresses.
Regan says those affected by the wildfires in the northern Alberta community shouldnt have the added burden of worrying about paying student loans while they cope with any potential job or property losses.
She says there may be more people eligible, such as those students in Alberta who still have Nova Scotia addresses.
Oil industry could tank
A financial analyst says natural gas producers in Alberta could face the prospect of selling the fuel for less than the cost of shipping it because sudden cutbacks in oilsands production prompted by the Fort McMurray wildfire have cut into demand.
The energy industry uses natural gas as part of the oilsands production process.
Many oilsands projects also have gas-fired power plants that have been shut down because staff have been evacuated.
FirstEnergy Capital analyst Martin King says demand for natural gas in Alberta has been reduced by 700 million to 900 million cubic feet per day since the fire forced the suspension of more than one million barrels of daily bitumen production.
King says that translates into about 25 per cent of total gas demand in the province and it has forced already weak natural gas prices to retreat from about a dollar to just 28 cents per thousand cubic feet.
He says if the trend continues, prices could dip below transport costs, meaning producers will lose money on their gas sales.
with files from Robin Levinson King, Peter Edwards and The Canadian Press
More on thestar.com:
Ocean of fire gives way to reveal a Fort McMurray still largely intact
Shell Canada reopens first oilsands mine shut down by Fort McMurray fires
Man flees Alberta wildfires to find Cape Breton home burned down
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OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau whose rookie government likes to boast Canada is back is scaling back Canadas support of a key UN goal to boost international aid spending, calling it too ambitious.
In an exclusive interview with the Star just hours after he pledged a new unbudgeted $785 million boost to Canadas contribution to the global fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, Trudeau acknowledged Ottawa has no intention of meeting the international goal to spend .70 per cent of gross domestic product on foreign aid anytime soon.
I think its too ambitious for this year and probably for next year as well, Trudeau said. But its the kind of thing that keeps us very, very mindful that engaging with the world isnt just pure altruism or generosity.
The target was set by the United Nations in 1970 as a way to ensure the world was on track to meet global development goals to end extreme poverty and improve public health in developing countries. Canada isnt even close, spending .28 per cent of the countrys GDP in 2015, up slightly from .24 per cent the previous year, but below the average spending of .30 per cent of GDP by 28 countries counted in the OECDs most recent ranking.
Last year, Britain became the first G7 country to meet the target and a handful of other nations Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark, Netherlands have met or exceeded it.
University of Ottawa political scientist Stephen Brown, in an analysis of Trudeaus foreign policy, in March wrote it will be very hard to achieve the budget plans goal of strengthening Canadas place in the world if we refuse to contribute even an average share of development assistance, let alone lead by example.
Canadas weak fiscal situation is a lousy excuse for such stinginess. Some countries are far more generous than Canada, despite much worse deficits, notably the United Kingdom. Money may be short, but political will is shorter still, wrote Brown.
However, in some of his clearest statements to date on the topic of foreign aid, Trudeau flagged the same concern his predecessor Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper often expressed: that what matters is results.
I think that what people are looking at now is what kind of leverage youre getting out of the money spent, what kind of impact are you having, are you making the best possible difference, Trudeau said in an interview, seated next to billionaire philanthropist Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
We look towards increasing the benefits and outcomes around the world, creating opportunities for everyone, said Trudeau. But we just know that throwing buckets of money indiscriminately at a problem isnt necessarily the best solution.
Gates said she understood, and that the UN target is just that.
The Gates foundation a big contributor to the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria looks to see whether governments are on a path towards the .7 per cent of GDP spending target and whether they are spending aid dollars wisely. Many countries are looking to ensure they meet the .7 per cent goal within a realistic budget and on a timeline that makes sense for their own country, and so that I think the way Canada is thinking about it is a very smart approach, she said.
Asked if Canada should spend more, Gates said: I would always like to see us do more, adding I want to make sure, though, that the aid is smart aid.
Dubbed by Forbes magazine as the worlds most powerful advocate for women and girls, Gates gave Trudeau high-profile backing just as she did with Stephen Harpers approach to spending on maternal and child health initiatives a key project of the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation. They shared the spotlight at the event, with Trudeau promising to fire up his governments social media engine to spread the Global Funds message.
Gates flew in from California to hear Trudeau announce his government will spend $785 million over the next three years on the Global Funds fight to end HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, three of the worlds deadliest infectious diseases, by 2030. She said it was a huge sign of commitment.
Its a 20-per-cent hike to Canadas previous three-year pledge of $650 million. International aid minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told the Star the increase is new money that will show up in next years federal budget for the following three years; it will not come from this years small $256-million two-year increase to the foreign aid budget.
Trudeau said he would retain spending on the Harper governments project to fund vital statistics registration under the umbrella of the maternal and child health initiative a signature policy of Harpers last years in government. Trudeau said he agreed with Harper that data collection is an important marker of success. He has, however, reversed Harpers policy on not funding for abortion services abroad, and restored Canadian funds for such services.
But the Gates Foundation will not go down that road because it is too divisive, said Gates, adding, We want to drive consensus and the best way I can do that is to be for contraceptives so women are not put in the situation of having an abortion.
The best way we can serve the most women is by going down the middle line, and thats why our foundation chooses to just do contraceptives, she said.
Trudeau casts humanitarian assistance and international aid in the Middle East region as a global security effort, saying it is creating security writ large for the world, while youre creating economic opportunity and social opportunity.
Asked whether Canada might have to be a more generous donor to secure a sought-after seat on the UN Security Council, Trudeau said it might but the important thing around the Security Council isnt just dollars offered . . . . Its demonstrating a capacity to work together . . . to convene partners, and have a positive impact . . . . Does it involve stepping up in money? Absolutely. It involves investing smartly and responsibly in global issues.
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Fundraising efforts are underway for a man who fled the wildfires in Alberta only to find that his Cape Breton home had burned down.
Norm MacDonald says his brother Bruce, who works as an oil field labourer in Fort McMurray, was making his way home and was in Toronto on Friday when he was told that his Cape North, N.S., house was destroyed by a fire.
He says his brothers 20-year-old son was home at the time of Thursdays blaze and made it out safely.
MacDonald says he and his wife Cindy started a GoFundMe page to help out and are overwhelmed with the response with more than $19,000 pledged since the weekend.
He says the money will be used to help with the familys necessities until their insurance kicks in.
MacDonald says his brother is back in Cape Breton and is staying with his family in temporary lodgings.
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MONTREALFor the first time in the half-century history of Quebecs sovereignty movement there is no larger-than-life figure, no high-profile figure vying to lead the province out of Canada.
The generation of sovereigntists that came of political age under Parti Quebecois founder Rene Levesque is out to pasture. Former premier Bernard Landry is about to turn 80. His predecessor, Lucien Bouchard, is 77. Pauline Marois who let power slip from the partys grasp after only 18 months in government is a spent force.
The Bloc Quebecois once served as a reservoir for the PQ. But these days the federal talent pool has dried up. The BQ has been leaderless since Gilles Duceppe failed to win back a seat last fall. If there is a tall poppy among the 10 Bloc MPs who have been toiling under the radar since the House opened, it has escaped the notice of Parliament Hill insiders.
There might be some eminent retirees out there pondering whether to climb out of the grave to lead one of the two orphaned sovereigntist parties but the magnitude of Duceppes second defeat is bound to give them pause. He did not even keep all the votes he had salvaged from the 2011 orange wave.
The brief but intense Pierre Karl Peladeau episode also offers a cautionary tale to would-be saviors. PKP certainly made life more interesting for Quebec watchers but he did not breathe new life in the cause of sovereignty.
Levesque, Pierre-Marc Johnson and Jacques Parizeau had all played senior political roles before they led the PQ. Bouchard had held two federal portfolios and led the official Opposition in the House of Commons.
Andre Boisclair, Landry, and Marois had spent years in cabinet. The last two were past finance ministers. Peladeau may have lacked political experience but he was a corporate baron who had led Quebecs biggest media conglomerate.
The PQ has spent the bulk of the past 15 years in opposition. The average ministerial experience of its leading caucus members is 18 months. The next generation of would-be PQ leaders is untested. Their party can only hope that some of them are late-bloomers.
On Monday, MNA Veronique Hivon became the first candidate to launch a bid for PKPs succession. She served as a junior minister in the last PQ government. Her claim to fame is to have played godmother to Quebecs groundbreaking medically assisted death law. Her economic record is a blank page.
Alexandre Cloutier is expected to be her main rival. He is similarly devoid of economic credentials. He briefly was intergovernmental affairs minister in a government for whom dealing with the rest of Canada was little more than an afterthought.
He ran second to PKP a year ago and the only leadership poll published to date pegs him as the frontrunner. But that has not resulted in a caucus stampede to his camp. At the time of his last leadership campaign his top caucus ally was Hivon.
The PQs shallow talent pool is a direct product of a long dry sovereigntist season. Under the partys past four leaders, its base has steadily shrunk. It has also aged. Over the past two decades, a circumstantial problem has become a structural issue.
In the House of Commons, the up-and-coming generation of Quebec politicians sits on the federalist benches of the NDP opposition and the Liberal government.
Last fall, many Quebecers transferred their affection for the late Jack Layton to Justin Trudeau and his party. There was not then and there certainly is not now a return of the pendulum towards the Bloc. According to a Leger Marketing poll published by Le Devoir this weekend, 51 per cent of Quebec voters would support the federal Liberals in an election this spring, up from 36 per cent on election night.
There is more to the rising Liberal fortunes in Quebec than the glamour of the current prime minister. Quebecers are overwhelmingly supportive of Trudeaus main policies. That is particularly but not exclusively true of younger voters.
Quebecs millennials were already more inclined to federalism than their elders before Trudeau took centre stage. The next PQ leader has a daunting lot of catching up to do.
Chantal Hebert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
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OTTAWACanadas largest medical regulatory authority is warning that most or all doctors in some Ontario communities could be disqualified from approving requests for a medically assisted death under the federal governments proposed new law.
The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons is issuing its warning even as the government of Ontario throws its support behind the restrictive approach to assisted death taken in the proposed law.
Provincial Health Minister Eric Hoskins and Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur have written their federal counterparts to express their support for the controversial bill.
They say the bill reflects a balanced approach that makes medical assistance in dying available, subject to appropriate safeguards.
However, the college says some of the safeguards the government wants to impose are so stringent they would disqualify doctors who belong to the same family practice group from approving a request for an assisted death.
In rural and urban centres across Ontario, the college says many or even all doctors are part of the same practice group yet the new law stipulates that the two doctors required to approve each request must not be connected or have a business relationship.
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If there is one institution due for innovation, its the university. Its time for a deep debate on how universities function in a networked society. The centuries-old model of learning still offered by many big universities doesnt work any more, especially for students who have grown up digital.
To start with, big universities are still offering what I call the broadcast model of learning, where the teacher is the broadcaster and the student is the supposedly willing recipient of the one-way message. It goes like this: Im a professor and I have knowledge. Get ready; here it comes. Your goal is to take this data into your short-term memory so you can recall it to me when I test you.
The definition of a lecture has become the process in which the notes of the teacher go to the notes of the student without going through the brains of either.
This is no longer appropriate for the digital age and for a new generation of students who represent the future of learning. Todays generation want to converse when they learn. They like to share. Immersed in digital technology, they are keen to try new things, often at high speed. To them, university should be fun and interesting, so they should enjoy the delight of discovering things for themselves.
Its true that universities are trying to update this broadcast model. And of course many professors are working hard to move beyond this model. However, it remains dominant overall.
If universities want to adapt the teaching techniques to their current audience, they should make significant changes, especially if they want to survive the arrival of free online courses, some from the worlds top professors.
The professors who remain relevant will have to abandon the traditional lecture, and start listening and conversing with the students. To begin, the mastery of knowledge (anything where there is a right or wrong answer) should be achieved by students working with interactive, self-paced computer learning programs. This can be done outside the classroom, freeing students and faculty alike to spend class time on the things that matter: discussion, debate and collaboration around projects.
This is now possible because of the wonders of modern technology. It is starting to happen at select campuses where professors have introduced a just in time approach to their teaching.
Warm-up questions, written by the students, are typically due a few hours before class, giving the teacher an opportunity to adjust the lesson to focus on the parts of the assignments that students struggled with. Harvard professor Eric Mazur, who uses this approach in his physics class, puts it this way: Education is so much more than the mere transfer of information. The information has to be assimilated. Students have to connect the information to what they already know, develop mental models, learn how to apply the new knowledge and how to adapt this knowledge to new and unfamiliar situations.
Hes right. What counts these days is your capacity to learn lifelong, to think, research, find information, analyze, synthesize, contextualize, critically evaluate it, to apply research to solving problems, to collaborate and communicate. This is, by the way, what you get out of a liberal arts undergraduate education, no matter what discipline you choose.
Another fixture of old-style learning is the assumption that students should learn on their own. Sharing notes in an exam hall or collaborating on some of the essays and homework assignments was often forbidden. Yet the individual learning model is foreign territory for most young people, who have grown up collaborating, sharing and creating together online. Progressive educators are recognizing this. Students start internalizing what theyve learned in class only once they start talking to each other.
Of course, universities play an important role in the sorting of individuals in society, through the admissions process and the awarding of degrees. They screen human capital for future employers and more broadly stratify society. Those who graduate have the credential to get the most desirable jobs or entrance to graduate programs. They have proven they have a degree of discipline and that theyre prepared to play by the rules.
But a credential and even the prestige of a university is rooted in its effectiveness as a learning institution. If campuses are seen as places where learning is inferior to other models, or worse, places where learning is restricted and stifled, the role of the campus experience will be undermined as well. The university is too costly to be simply an extended summer camp.
Campuses that embrace the new models become more effective learning environments and more desirable places. Computer-based learning for instance, can free up intellectual capital on the part of both professors and students to spend their on-campus time thinking and inquiring and challenging each other, rather than just absorbing information.
The current model of university education raises many other questions: Why should a university student be restricted to learning from the professors at the university he or she is attending? True, students can obviously learn from intellectuals around the world through books or the Internet. Yet in a digital world, why shouldnt a student be able to take a course from a professor at another university?
Why are universities judged by the number of students they exclude or by how much they spend? Why arent they judged by how well they teach and at what price?
The digital world is challenging the very notion of a walled-in institution that excludes large numbers of people. Yet the Industrial Age model of education is hard to change. Vested interests fight change. And leaders of old paradigms are often the last to embrace the new.
Back in 1997, I presented my views to a group of about 100 university presidents at a dinner hosted by Ameritech in Chicago. After the talk I sat down at my table and asked the smaller group what they thought about my remarks. They responded positively. So I asked them, why is this taking so long? One president commented that were still stuck in a Gutenberg approach to learning.
A very thoughtful man named Jeffery Bannister, then president of Butler College, was seated next to me. Weve got a bunch of professors reading from handwritten notes, writing on blackboards and the students are writing down what they say, he said. This is a not a Gutenberg model. Its a pre-Gutenberg approach the printing press is not even an important part of the learning paradigm. Wait till these students who are 14 and have grown up learning on the Net hit the (college) classrooms sparks are going to fly.
Bannister was right. A powerful force to change the university is the students. And sparks are flying today. There is a huge generational clash emerging in these institutions.
Changing the model of pedagogy for this generation is crucial for the survival of the university. If students turn away from a traditional university education, this will erode the value of the credentials universities award, their position as centres of learning and research and as campuses where young people get a chance to grow up.
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After initial confusion about his bail conditions, Const. James Forcillo was granted brief leave from house arrest to make his first appearance at a misconduct hearing at Toronto police headquarters early Tuesday morning.
The police officer convicted of attempted murder in the death of Sammy Yatim said little as he faced one charge of misconduct in connection to Yatims July 2013 death.
His hair slicked back, wearing a dark blue suit and a serious expression, Forcillo said I do when asked by the tribunal hearing officer if he understood the charge laid against him under the provinces Police Services Act.
A discreditable conduct charge is automatically laid against an Ontario police officer when he or she is convicted of a crime.
You were found guilty of attempted murder contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada, reads the notice of hearing filed with the tribunal Tuesday. In so doing you committed misconduct in that you are guilty of a criminal offence.
Forcillo, who is suspended with pay, has not yet entered a plea. He left Toronto police headquarters alone through the back exit immediately after his hearing, and declined to comment.
The penalty for being found guilty of police misconduct ranges from a reprimand to dismissal.
Forcillos brief hearing, called a first appearance, was scheduled to take place last week but was delayed moments before it was supposed to begin.
First appearances require the officer facing discipline to attend, but Forcillo is under strict bail conditions prohibiting him from leaving the house except under certain circumstances, including work, legal and medical appointments.
It was later determined he could attend the tribunal.
Forcillos next hearing on the misconduct charge was put off until July, after the officers upcoming sentencing hearing.
In January, Forcillo was found not guilty of second-degree murder for firing the first, fatal volley of three shots at Yatim, who was holding a knife on an empty Dundas streetcar.
But he was convicted of attempted murder for firing another six shots just seconds later, as Yatim lay on his back, dying on the floor of the streetcar. In all, Yatim was shot eight times, then Tasered.
After the conviction, Forcillos lawyers launched a constitutional challenge to allow Forcillo to serve time under house arrest instead of jail, arguing the mandatory minimum sentence of five years for attempted murder with a restricted handgun is grossly disproportionate.
The Crown responded in submissions filed in court last week, calling the attempted murder of Yatim one of the most egregious examples of unjustified violence by a police officer in Canada, meriting more than five years in jail.
The sentencing hearing begins Monday.
Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca
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Breaking nearly two years of secrecy by Peel Regional Police and Ontarios civilian police watchdog, a coroners inquest is about to make public the identity of the officer who killed Jermaine Carby.
The inquest into the high-profile shooting on a busy Brampton street began Monday. But the controversial move by one Peel cop to remove a serrated kitchen knife Carby was said to have been wielding when he died scene tampering sure to create doubt about the very existence of the knife, according to the Special Investigations Unit is not expected to be a central part of it.
The unnamed officer who removed the knife from the scene will be called as a witness next week, but right now, the SIU investigation is outside the current scope of the inquest, said Michael Blain, coroners counsel at the inquest.
The three-week inquest may be the sole way the public and Carbys family will ever learn key details about the fatal police shooting, including the identity of the officer who shot Carby.
Its important to me. I want to see who the person is, Lorna Robinson, Carbys mother, said outside court.
She shouldnt have to know this two years later, said La Tanya Grant, Carbys cousin. We find it ridiculous.
The SIU directors report into Carbys death has been kept secret by Ontarios Attorney General, though an upcoming provincial review of police oversight may result in the retroactive release of these reports.
The results of an internal investigation by Peel police into the shooting have also been kept secret. Last year, the Peel police board chose not to publicly release the findings of a mandatory review of officer conduct in Carbys shooting, though legally they can make such documents public.
Peel police later told the Star no misconduct charges or policy changes were made as a result of the shooting, despite Loparcos damning comments about scene tampering.
Faisal Mirza, the lead lawyer representing Carbys family, said he will be questioning the officer about the removal of the knife.
Its important for part of it to be explored, because it is part of the police approach to the actual scene, and the collection of the knife is important because that is being proffered as the reason that Mr. Carby was shot.
Mirza and his team, including lawyers from the African Canadian Legal Clinic, are also hoping to examine the role racial profiling may have played in Carbys death.
The inquest heard that the Peel officer who stopped the car Carby was in told the SIU he asked for Carbys name and his date of birth so as to put information into a database namely to street-check him, a practice found to be used disproportionately against young black men.
We definitely want to look at it, we want to scrutinize it, we want to make sure that the issue is given the attention that it duly deserves, Mirza said in an interview.
Well wait and see what the evidence shows. We want to be responsible about it as well. Were not using this as a platform, but we are trying to bring light to important issues where theres a proper evidentiary basis to do so.
Grant said she was already less optimistic about the outcome of the inquest because of the composition of the five-person jury. It was a black man who was killed, and theres not a black person on the jury, she said.
Carby, 33, was shot dead by Peel police in September 2014, after an officer pulled over the car Carby was riding in. According to both the SIU report and a summary of expected evidence Blain provided Monday, the officer pulled the car over initially because its headlights were not on and the back licence plate was askew.
Shortly after, the officer asked Carby for identification and ran his name through his in-car computer, learning that he had outstanding warrants in British Columbia.
The SIU investigation found thats when Carby got defensive and pulled a knife, prompting an officer to shoot seven times, hitting Carby three times. That officer, who was cleared by the SIU, is expected to take the stand later this week.
But in the press release announcing that no charges would be laid, Loparco called out another Peel officer for removing the knife from the scene and placing it in a paper bag, contradicting regulations that ban police from investigating in a case where the SIU should be the lead investigator.
While the overriding weight of the evidence including the eyewitness evidence of the civilians and police witnesses present at the time of the shooting establishes that Mr. Carby was armed with a knife as he approached the officers, the removal of the knife ensures that some members of the community will harbour concerns, legitimate concerns in my view, regarding the very existence of the knife, Loparco wrote.
However, Blain said Monday that Peel police told an SIU investigator that the knife had been picked up by police, and that this investigator asked the officer to hold onto it until later, when the SIU forensic investigator arrived.
Jason Gennaro, spokesperson for the SIU, did not respond to a request for more information Monday.
In an animated display for the jury, witness Nicolene Thompson acted out how Carby had walked towards officers with his arms stiff and at his side, at a roughly 45-degree angle, but said she did not see him holding a weapon.
Everybody was talking about a knife I didnt see any knife, she said, adding that she didnt believe it was necessary to fatally shoot Carby.
Another witness said Monday that she did see Carby holding the knife a direct contradiction of her statement to the SIU hours after the shooting.
Blain told jurors they are likely to hear about Carbys mental health challenges, including four stays in hospital in the final six months of his life for depression and suicidal thoughts. He had thought about or attempted suicide, Blain said, including by taking drugs mixed with gasoline and bleach and injecting air into his veins.
As first reported by the Star, weeks before his death Carby was apprehended under Ontarios Mental Health Act which allows police to detain someone who poses a danger to themselves or others for trying to disarm a Toronto officer.
For the first time Monday, the identity of the driver of the car in which Carby was riding was revealed. Acacio Barros was an old friend who had just reunited with Carby after a decade of infrequent contact. Describing Carby as feminine, he told the investigator he believed Carby moved out to British Columbia to come out as gay.
In an audio recording made four hours after the shooting, Barros tells an SIU investigator he and Carby had done meth at Carbys home prior to going out in the car. Carby did eight to 10 hits and I did take a couple tokes. Im not going to lie, Barros said, later adding there was meth in the car when police pulled him over.
Barros told the SIU that, after Carby got out of the car and began approaching the officer, he saw him pull out a knife. He says he yelled at him to drop it.
I knew that he was going to get shot. As soon as he took those three steps towards the cop, I closed my eyes, Barros said in the audio recording.
Grant, Carbys cousin, said she is concerned that Barros may have been high at the time of the SIU investigation.
How do you take a statement when hes high on drugs? she said.
The inquest continues Tuesday.
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Torontos chief planner says the city needs to bite the bullet and embrace revenue tools to pay for transit projects, and she believes councillors could do so in the next two years.
In a speech to the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Tuesday, Jennifer Keesmaat outlined a 15-year plan to develop the citys transit network. The plan, which Keesmaat presented to Mayor John Torys executive committee in March, calls for about a dozen new rapid transit lines and extensions to be built by 2031, including the downtown relief line, Scarborough subway and the SmartTrack rail project Tory campaigned on. Council endorsed the blueprint last month.
Keesmaat said the network is badly needed to keep up with Torontos growth, but it would be impossible to build in such a short time without continuous transit construction backed by a stable source of funding.
The new normal is going to be recognizing that were going to need to open up our pocketbooks in a variety of different ways in order to pay for that transit investment that is required to make a livable city, she said, adding that cities that have got this right have instituted sales taxes, road tolls, vehicle excise taxes, property tax increases or other levies to fund transit infrastructure.
Asked after her speech whether she believed Toronto councillors would endorse some form of revenue tools before this term ends in 2018, Keesmaat said yes, noting that council already voted in April to include the 15-year transit network in the citys long-term fiscal plan.
That is approved by council, that is being advanced by (the citys finance department), she said.
Although transit revenue tools have been hugely controversial in recent years, Keesmaat said Torontonians are ready to pay more if they see the results in a better network. In 2013, council approved a 1.6-per-cent property tax increase and hiked development charges to pay for the Scarborough subway.
In the analysis that we undertook around various revenue tools, it became very clear that residents in the city of Toronto were prepared to pay for transit as long as there was clarity (about) what the money was going to, she said.
While she wouldnt say which revenue tools she would prefer, she told the small audience of business professionals that the city would need a suite of funding mechanisms to meet its transit needs.
She said the best options would be those that not only provide revenue but are also linked to a desired policy outcome, like decreasing gridlock. She cited Londons congestion charge, which sees drivers pay for entering the city centre and has raised more than $2.25 billion for transportation projects since its implementation in 2003.
As the Star reported in March, the city is studying road tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway to help pay for transportation infrastructure.
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Its 7:20 a.m. on a Monday in the not-too-distant future. You wake up, and realize youve overslept. Its a two-hour commute to work, so you call your boss and tell her youll start working on the way.
A quick shower and what hardly qualifies as breakfast and youre out the door.
Theres no car in your driveway. You realize you forgot to order one.
A quick tap on your phone, and two minutes later an empty car drives up. You get in and pull out your laptop. For the next two hours, youre immersed in work as your car takes you to the office. Once you arrive, youll order another car to pick up your kids whove hopefully woken up by now and drive them to school. Another car will pick them up and drive them home in time to have dinner with you.
This is a day in a very possible future in Toronto. The technology that will get us there driverless cars is already starting to change how we live.
Very soon, cars will be smart enough to drive on their own, without drivers. Some in Ontario are already doing that.
It will be one of the single biggest technological shifts of the century and completely reshape how we think about cars and the cities we drive in, according to David Ticoll of the Innovation Policy Lab at the University of Torontos Munk School of Global Affairs.
I dont think driverless cars will be quite as big as the arrival of the actual motor vehicle in Toronto, but its going to come pretty close, he said.
Ticoll authored a 67-page report commissioned by the City of Toronto on what Toronto needs to do to prepare for what Ticoll considers the upcoming revolution in transportation.
He believes Toronto will save $6 billion a year once driverless cars become commonplace.
Its a big deal. It doesnt sound like a lot, but its a very significant contribution (to the economy), he said. It represents about four per cent of Torontos GDP, Ticoll said, which he estimated at $150 billion in his report. According to the city, Torontos GDP was $157 billion in 2013, about 10 per cent of Canadas total.
The largest part of the $6-billion savings will come from reduced congestion costs, which Ticoll estimates at $2.7 billion, while $1.6 billion more will be saved in insurance and $1.2 billion in reduced collisions. The last half-billion will be saved in parking fees.
Though there are hundreds of areas where driverless cars will have an impact, Ticoll says the biggest everyday effects will be felt in five areas: safety, ownership, infrastructure, transit and jobs.
Safety, he says, is obvious: self-driving cars, with their sensors and computers that analyze the road situation many times a second, will make safer decisions than humans ever could.
These cars will be smart, they will be road-aware, and they will be extremely careful, he said.
With drivers no longer a must, car ownership could change radically, Ticoll said.
On-demand service, with people ordering self-driving cars when needed, might become the norm. People could opt for low-cost convenience over vehicle ownership, Ticoll said. Of course, there's no guarantee people will give up their cars.
Theres no second amendment for vehicle ownership. But a lot of people probably think vehicle ownership as a basic human right, he said.
Another obvious impact will be transit. In essence, every car will let us do what public transit has for years sit back while someone else drives. There are a dozen possibilities as to how transit will look in the driverless future. Buses and subways might continue to exist, while people continue owning cars, only now all of those wont require drivers.
Driverless cars can be used much more efficiently because, theoretically, they dont need to be parked. And if cars dont need to be parked, parking lots become obsolete.
You can use them for bike lanes. You can turn some of them into green space, Ticoll said.
Jobs will change. Many of those who currently have jobs as drivers could see their occupations disappear overnight, but Ticoll said more than just driving jobs will be affected.
(For example) if you nearly eliminate traffic accidents, you dramatically reduce the cost of insurance. That has an impact on people who work in the insurance industry, he said.
Knowing the effects is one thing, but Ticoll stresses the changes are going to happen fast, and we need to prepare for them now.
The tech sector establishes a reality on the ground before governments and even ordinary citizens even have an opportunity to understand these issues, let alone figure out how they want to deal with them, he said.
Ticoll said the city cant afford to take the same pace when dealing with driverless cars that it has taken with other issues such as the Uber-taxi debate.
The president of Ford Canada and Ford Canada is not by any means the leader in this space predicts they will be selling autonomous vehicles in this country by 2020. And so does everybody else, he said.
Decision-makers at the City of Toronto are aware things are moving fast, and theyve tasked Stephen Buckley, general manager of transportation services, with figuring it out.
Buckley admits its a huge problem to tackle.
At this point, were trying to wrap our heads around the issue. To be fair, were not alone, he said.
The aim right now is to get the city to agree on positions, such as whether to push for less car ownership and encourage more car-sharing services, Buckley said.
Were not at a point where we can come forward with a position, but were having those conversations, he said.
Ticoll says that if governments tackle the issues now, theres a chance Canadians can harness these technologies to maximize the benefits and minimize the downside.
If governments today begin to adopt a holistic approach and really think about the big-picture questions then we still have time, Ticoll said.
But we dont have a lot.
When driverless cars become a common sight on Toronto roads, theyll change almost everything about our daily lives. Here are some of the bigger changes well see.
Robots dont exceed the speed limit
Humans are bad drivers. Thats a well-documented fact. In 2013, Canadians had more than 122,000 motor vehicle collisions, which killed almost 2,000 people and injured 165,000 more.
Driverless cars will do better than that. There are a few early statistics to back that up. Google publishes monthly reports on the state of its autonomous vehicles. As of March 31, 2016, Googles self-driving cars had driven a combined 1.5 million miles in autonomous mode, since 2009. The first incident in which a Google car was responsible came in February 2016.
The Google car had been hugging the right curb in preparation for a turn, when it noticed some sandbags near a storm drain. They were blocking its path, so it started angling toward the centre lane. A bus had been driving on the lane, and the car thought it would yield, but it didnt, so the two lightly hit each other. The car had been going about 3 km/h, the bus about 25 km/h. Nobody was injured.
There are unresolved questions on security in driverless cars, especially when an accident becomes unavoidable and the car itself has to make an ethical decision. Does it protect its occupant at all costs? Or does it weigh the life of the occupant against that of others at risk? But Steve Waslander, director of the University of Waterloos Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory (WAVElab) says thats not going to be as much of an issue as we think, because humans are already making the same decisions.
The current state is we rely on a humans hunch. What they think in the instant, what theyve perceived, and in fact, we know thats a flawed process. And we know for a million people theres going to be a million different answers, he said.
Who wants to own a car anyway?
We dont use our cars efficiently now.
Studies have estimated the average car spends anywhere between 80 and 95 per cent of its life parked.
But picture this scenario: your car drives you to work, then drives itself home. It drives your kids to school, picks them up after and drives them home, then comes and picks you up to drive you home.
What if you could share your car with other people? You have the car only when you need it and let other people use it when they need it. Suddenly, we need a lot fewer cars. Waslander thinks this will have a profound impact on vehicle ownership.
If the same car can serve 20 people, suddenly the market gets a lot smaller, he said.
Pave the parking lot, and put up paradise
When cars are always driving, the spaces they occupy will shift radically.
Spaces usually occupied by cars are suddenly not. And conversely, when cars are always on roads, it means roads will always be full of cars.
But with roads full of cars, Waslander said, he expects congestion will go up. It wont be as painful as traffic jams are now, because people wont have to focus on driving and will be able to do other things while stuck in traffic.
In a weird sort of devils circle, making congestion more bearable will probably mean more congestion, Waslander said.
When you relieve the pain of congestion by allowing people to work in their self-driving cars, suddenly congestion is going to escalate. People are going to live in the country. Theyll drive in for a meeting when they need to be there, and theyll just work the whole way there, he said.
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It was a stunning public protest that rocked Toronto. On May 10, 2009, around the supper hour, more than 2,000 Tamil protesters flooded onto the Gardiner Expressway, bringing traffic to a halt.
It was the climax of peaceful rallies as protesters angry, frustrated and horrified by news of escalating death and displacement of Tamils in Sri Lanka desperately pushed for public attention and government intervention. They occupied the Gardiner for almost seven hours, standing down after Michael Ignatieff, who was the federal Liberal leader, said he would raise the issue in Parliament.
Sumu Sathi, the 34-year-old founder of Mandraa TV, an online South Asian media platform, was in the midst of the surging crowd. Once president of the Tamil Students Association at the University of Toronto, she was handed a megaphone and acted as a translator/mediator between the police and entrenched protesters.
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Most of us recognize our own mortality, sooner or later, by writing a last will and testament.
Typically, its the arrival of newborns that prompts parents to safeguard the financial future of their children money, family, patrimony without the law or lawyers getting in the way.
Except in Ontario.
In this province, writing a will is no guarantee that your last wishes will be respected. Or, paradoxically, that your childrens interests will be protected.
Heres a little-known fact: A second marriage invalidates your will automatically disinheriting your children.
Why would the state get in the way of a will, when most people have no idea that their legal rights are being irrevocably voided? As the Stars Moira Welsh explained in her fascinating series on the perils of estate law last month, the original idea was to protect the financial status of a newly wedded spouse, lest they be squeezed out by a pre-existing will.
But the unintended effect of this little-known provision is to imperil the interests of any children from the first marriage. It also invalidates any bequests to charities or other beneficiaries designated in the original will, no matter how carefully it was drafted.
The Stars series focused on so-called predatory marriages, by which aging singles are lured and lulled into signing away their estates by tying the knot. With the stroke of a pen, the new marriage nullifies the old will.
In worst-case scenarios, that revocation allows a predator to swoop in and lay claim to most of the assets. But even in best-case scenarios well-intentioned romances with good faith partners the involuntary invalidation of a pre-existing will raises troubling questions.
As our demographics change, there is a larger societal issue that goes beyond trickery or flim-flammery. With divorce rates rising, and people living longer than ever, second marriages are increasingly commonplace, with complications for the adult children who may be affected.
Who knew that a second marriage undoes whatever was conceived during the first marriage? This little-known aspect of Ontarios outdated estate law is a sleeper issue for people who have no idea that an aging parent might unwittingly disinherit them.
If a parent dies without a valid will, the first $200,000 of the estate automatically goes to the new spouse before anything is shared. The obvious remedy is to write a new will, but what if no one knows that they need to rewrite it from scratch?
Does it really make sense to override anyones wishes without telling them that their duly notarized will has been undone? In many other Canadian provinces and U.S. states, legislators have concluded that such provisions cause unintended disruption.
A study by the Alberta Law Reform Institute prompted the provinces ministry of justice to change the law in 2012 to stop the automatic revocation of a will upon a second marriage. British Columbia followed in 2014, and Quebec does not revoke wills.
The Alberta report noted that few people were aware of revocation. Describing it as a blunt instrument, the study concluded that it may now cause more harm than good when applied to second marriages occurring later in life.
Ontarios current family law already has provisions to ensure the financial security of the surviving spouse, who can always sue the estate for support. Not many people know about this option either it can come as an unpleasant surprise that a perfectly valid will (whether written during a first or second marriage) can be diluted not by a legal challenge to its validity, but through a routine court action demanding ongoing survivors support for the widow (analogous, in some ways, to alimony or child support).
Estate litigation can be complicated and costly, not least because lawyers are often drawn to cases where there is a big pot of money to pay their legal bills at the end of the day. With rising home prices in Toronto, the estates of many elderly people can reach not insignificant sums, which has a way of encouraging lawyers and their clients to fight legal battles without keeping an eye on the meter.
(Heres something else many people may not be aware of, offered here as a public service. If you believe your legal bills are unfair and unjustifiable, you can challenge your lawyer through an assessment process that is described in detail online. Hint: Google it under Solicitor-and-Client Assessment.)
Rather than automatically and unilaterally revoking someones carefully considered will, Ontarios family law should itself be rewritten to protect the interests of everyone who might one day be affected by this arcane and unfamiliar process.
While its true that ignorance of estate law is no excuse, a law that ignores family realities is itself inexcusable.
Martin Regg Cohns Ontario politics column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. mcohn@thestar.ca , Twitter: @reggcohn
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Artificial intelligence is already powering your Google searches, your Netflix recommendations, and your smartphones virtual assistant. It is playing humans at complex, intuitive games like Go, and it is beating them.
Now, researchers say, they want AI to power your doctors diagnoses, your drug prescriptions, and your smartphones virtual psychologist. They want AI to perform tasks that radiologists do, and at least match them.
Machine learning has made tremendous strides in the last decade, becoming one of the fastest-growing, most-hyped areas of computer science. For the researchers who work at the intersection of health care and machine learning, the road ahead is steeper.
I can say for sure that winning a game of Go is actually quite easy compared to understanding human health, and extending life spans, and saving lives, says Brendan Frey, the co-founder and CEO of Deep Genomics and a professor of engineering and medicine at the University of Toronto.
But if the challenges are great, so is the promise. As an academic, Frey published papers in high-profile journals that used machine learning to interpret the text of the human genome. But he was frustrated that no one seemed to be applying that research to real-world medical problems. So in 2014, he co-founded Deep Genomics.
I realized that it was the way forward, and if I wanted to transform medicine across the board save hundreds of millions of lives, potentially if I really wanted to make a difference to people, I needed to get the technology out there.
Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that deals with pattern recognition. Humans learn by observing many examples and recognizing how they are similar or different. Researchers do the same with machine-learning algorithms.
You give the computers lots of training examples, so they can see whats right and whats wrong and learn by making mistakes, explains David Wishart, a professor at the University of Alberta who studies computational biology and machine learning. Eventually, the computers can learn to recognize patterns. And because they have many more processors and memory modules than most people have, they can handle much larger data sets, and they can patiently learn things for hours or days or weeks.
Researchers like Frey are tackling medical problems too data-rich for the human brain. Some genetic disorders are the result of a single, well-understood duplication or deletion. But many others, like autism, involve dozens of genes, and every patient carries a different combination of mutations. Deep Genomics trains algorithms to read the mess of letters that is the language of the genome.
In the case of a child with an immunological disorder doctors have never seen before, for example, Deep Genomics is first untangling what genetic mutations might be responsible, and then predicting what is going wrong inside the childs cells.
We need machine learning because theres no other way to do it, Frey says. Humans have never done this before, and they never will.
In others cases, researchers are applying these systems to tasks humans perform now but computers might do more efficiently. Ben Glocker, a lecturer in medical image computing at Imperial College London, is applying convolutional neural networks a mode of machine learning to traumatic brain injuries.
His team gave an algorithm reams of imaging data with the TBIs annotated, and the system learned, accurately outlining new examples of lesions. But to their surprise, the system acquired information its human handlers hadnt intended: they discovered it could differentiate white from grey matter, among other things, an ability that could help human researchers understand pathologies better.
Scientists are applying the same principles to tumour scans and other diagnostic imaging. Most researchers say the idea is not to replace human doctors, but to assist them, or fill in when experts are not available.
What we would probably get is something not necessarily better, but something in the range of what an expert could do, Glocker said. Because the problem is if you replace the expert with a junior doctor, you get much worse results. For a machine this doesnt happen. You can employ it at as many hospitals as you want.
Other research groups and startups are using artificial intelligence to read faces and register emotional disturbances, to ensure patients and clinical trial participants are taking medication properly, or to dig up useful studies from the vast archives of medical literature.
These efforts face challenges that dont exist in AI-powered consumer technology. When Facebook wants to create an algorithm that can recognize faces, it has access to millions of pictures of faces. Someone who needs millions of pictures of tumours, or millions of genomes, must contend with privacy laws and regulatory roadblocks. Doctors and regulators can be notoriously slow to approve and adopt new technologies, sometimes for good reason: the stakes are much higher when AI is making decisions that affect human lives than when it is recommending Netflix movies.
But experts also cite machine learning as a critical piece of the precision medicine promise. Instead of putting all patients with depression on drug A, for example, and if it fails moving to drug B weeks or months later, doctors in the near future might use a machine-learning algorithm to read your genome, your specific symptoms, and a variety of biomarkers, and suggest drug C for one patient and drug D for another and then monitor these patients bloodstreams for early warning signs of dangerous side effects.
Those who work in the field are used to hearing concerns about how all this data will be protected, an issue that will be a real challenge for regulators. But many see a day in the near future when machine learning is an accepted medical tool. University of Albertas Russell Greiner, the principal investigator of the Alberta Innovates Centre for Machine Learning, believes some of the reluctance is a generational artifact.
Younger people who grew up with cellphones and Google, when they get in power, they will say, What do you mean I have to figure this out myself, completely unaided what do you mean I cant have a computational tool assist me in this process? What do you mean I cant get advice based on millions or tens of millions of examples? Thats when things will really change.
The amount of data, and the number of opportunities, and the artificial intelligence capabilities are just increasing so rapidly that theres a feeling that theres going to be a democratization of health, and it cant be held back, says Frey.
Five questions for Brendan Frey
Were you always interested in science as a kid? What hooked you?
When I was 6, I frequently got into trouble because Im curious about nature. I nearly burned down the house while playing with fire. When I was 12, I became fascinated by magic: I read books on magic, I built magical apparatuses, I performed magic at school and community events. When I was 14, I lay in bed reading a book called Cosmos by Carl Sagan. It dawned on me that nature is mathematical magic. Discovering the mathematical magic of nature became my passion.
Why did you decide to specialize in machine learning and medicine? Thats such a specific field.
When the first human genome was sequenced in 2002, I was surprised at how little could be done with it. There was a huge disconnect between our ability to sequence a genome and our ability to do anything useful with the genetic information. That problem persists to this day. Many of your readers who have first-hand experience with genetic tests know what Im talking about.
So, to answer your question, I chose to work on genomic medicine because, back in 2002, I anticipated that machine learning would be necessary for medicine to succeed. I mean that literally: Without machine learning, the future of medicine that we all hope for simply will not happen.
Youve published a lot of really high-profile papers, you collaborate with other top researchers and you co-founded a company. How do you manage your days? What lifehacks are your tricks to success?
Im surrounded by an excellent team of inspired, very bright and hard-working group members and colleagues. I have an important role to play as a thought leader and as an adamant believer that we can achieve breakthroughs in medicine that werent possible before. But it would amount to very little without the excellent people around me.
If you could leave your career knowing you accomplished one thing, what would it be?
Ive never been the type to think of myself as being defined by a career. Currently, Im heading Deep Genomics and our goal is to change how genetic information is used in medicine. In this context, Id like to know that my team and I have made a life-changing difference to people facing difficult medical decisions. Really, thats it: Save lives, reduce hardship, and improve quality of life.
If you werent a scientist, what would you be?
A father, a lover, a friend. All of these things I already have. I feel very fortunate.
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The roller-coaster ride that is the impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff took another hairpin turn Tuesday after the acting speaker of the lower chamber of Congress reversed his own decision from just hours earlier that would have plunged the process into uncertainty.
The reversal by Waldir Maranhao put the impeachment process back on track, a day after he sparked chaos and sowed further discord among Brazils fractious political class by annulling an April 17 vote by the Chamber of Deputies for impeachment. The move had put in doubt a crucial vote on the matter that was scheduled in the Senate for Wednesday.
Debate broke out over the legality of the move, and the head of the Senate declared he intended to ignore Maranhaos annulment and move full steam ahead with the process.
But late Monday, just over 12 hours after the initial announcement, Marahnaos spokesman Marcos Alberto said the acting speaker had gone back on his decision, for unknown reasons.
Such reversals are a staple of Brazilian politics, and the impeachment drama has been filled with such dramatic turns over the last several months. News reports suggested that Marahnao received extreme pressure from members of his Progressive Party who want to see Rousseff impeached.
By Tuesday afternoon, leaders of several parties were discussing ways to remove Marahnao from his interim post, underscoring the cutthroat nature of Brazilian politics and high emotions over the potential ouster of Rousseff.
Maranhao took over the reins in the Chamber of Deputies after former Speaker Eduardo Cunha, who was the driving force behind the impeachment effort, was suspended over corruption and obstruction of justice allegations against him.
Marahnaos change of heart cleared the way to restore Wednesdays vote in the Senate on whether to accept the impeachment case against Rousseff and put her on trial for allegedly breaking fiscal rules in her management of the national budget. If a simple majority of the countrys 81 Senators decides in favour, Rousseff will be suspended and Vice-President Michel Temer will take over until a trial is conducted.
Maranhao had argued that the lower house vote last month was riddled with irregularities, including party leaders telling members how to vote. Maranhao had voted against impeachment.
Rousseff supporters displayed their frustration on Tuesday, with rallies held in cities in more than a dozen states. Protesters occupied roads and highways, blocked university entrances and burned tires.
In Vitoria, about 310 miles (500 kilometres) northeast of Rio de Janeiro, one protester kicked and swung punches at three local journalists, who were treated for minor injuries. The attacks were caught on camera by Globo news. Police broke up crowds with tear gas, and said the man had been identified and would be arrested.
In a last-ditch attempt to stop the process, the government appealed to the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the highest court, on the grounds that last months vote in the Chamber of Deputies was riddled with irregularities. While the possibility of court intervention is possible, by the full court or even an individual justice, so far the court has mostly steered clear of direct involvement in the impeachment process.
Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, visited Brazils Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski to express concerns with the process.
Lewandowski replied that the countrys top court has so far ruled on the formalities of the proceedings, not on its merits.
It would be premature (for the Supreme Court) to make any declarations at this moment, Lewandowski was quoted as saying on the courts website.
The political fight comes as Brazil is grappling with its worst recession in decades, a continuing corruption probe that already has ensnared top politicians and prominent businessmen, and an outbreak of the Zika virus. At the same time, the countrys showcase city, Rio de Janeiro, is gearing up to host the Olympics in August.
Rousseff is battling impeachment over allegations that her government violated fiscal rules, in what critics say was a bid to artificially bolster the countrys flagging economy. Rousseff has said that prior presidents used such fiscal manoeuvers and that the impeachment effort amounts to a coup aimed at removing her and her left-leaning Workers Party, which has governed the country for 13 years.
Rousseffs once-overwhelming public support has eroded with the onslaught of bad news, with her approval ratings dipping into the single digits in recent months. While polls have suggested broad public support for her impeachment, they have also pointed to widespread worry about who might replace her.
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WASHINGTONJust you wait, Donald Trump kept saying. Wait until I knock out the last of my Republican opponents, he declared, and youll see the more presidential side of me.
Nope.
Trump effectively clinched the party nomination one week ago. Since then, he has insulted his vanquished foes, picked new fights with influential people, defended his most incendiary policy proposals, and further offended women and Hispanics.
There is no pivot. The new Trump is the old Trump.
Its sort of like expecting a voracious tiger to turn into a lapdog overnight. Not only is it not going to happen overnight, it aint going to happen ever, Democratic strategist Craig Varoga said in an interview.
Theres nothing you can do. Hed have to have a brain transplant. This is who he is. He cant help himself, Mark Salter, a former top aide to Sen. John McCain, told Politico.
The businessmans unpredictability is one reason Democrats have been wary of running against him despite his dreadful poll numbers. But his inability or unwillingness to change his behaviour appears to bode poorly for his chances of mending his reputation with the voter groups he has so alienated.
It was his greatest strength in the primary, but its his greatest liability in the general election, Varoga said. When voters are actually making up their mind about electing a president, they dont want somebody with an anger control disorder in charge of the worlds largest nuclear arsenal.
Trump touted himself in late-primary speeches as a unifier. But he has declined to play the gracious victor to defeated rivals, instead revelling in their humiliation. When Lindsey Graham said he would not support him in the general election, Trump fired off a statement declaring the senator an embarrassment to the great people of South Carolina.
Trump told the Wall Street Journal in April that he would soon become more disciplined. To be sure, Trump has recently shown occasional flashes of restraint. He followed his victory in the New York primary, for example, with a soft-spoken performance at a press conference.
And then he went back to making fun of people.
He will find it difficult to do any kind of pivot, said Karen Beckwith, chair of the political science department at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. He lacks, as far as I can tell, any personal discipline. He doesnt know when to be quiet, he doesnt know when to be thoughtful. He doesnt know how to shape his language.
The beginning of his general election campaign has been marked by his trademark refusal to let any slight slide. In response to a critical New York Times article by evangelical leader Russell Moore, Trump took to Twitter to call Moore a nasty guy with no heart.
He has pounced on even tepid dissent. When Paul Ryan, speaker of the House of Representatives, declared on CNN that he was not prepared to back Trump at this time, he appeared to be inviting Trump to try to persuade him.
Trump, though, issued a mocking statement. Within days, one of his surrogates, Sarah Palin, was promising to try to end Ryans career.
Of course, it is this kind of pugnacity that has endeared Trump to millions. He has sometimes expressed ambivalence about softening his sharp edges, saying supporters have asked him not to change.
I believe that if he changes, he changes everything, said Roy Sousley, a 61-year-old in Missouri. Im a firm believer in the way he conducts himself now. This is the way he should continue to conduct himself and the way hes gained all this support: being real, true, tells it like it is.
But the way he has conducted himself has also produced frightful favourability ratings among Hispanics, millennials, suburbanites, and, most importantly, women, more than two-thirds of whom now dislike him.
Trumps sporadic declarations of love for female voters are unlikely to win them over. Shouting, he complained on Sunday that the women get it better than we do, folks. Over the past week, he has repeatedly accused Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton of playing the womens card and being an enabler of her husbands infidelity.
Thats not going to mobilize anyone to his side, Beckwith said. Thats not going even to diminish the Democratic base among women.
Trump has been no more flexible on policy than personality. Since Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out, Trump has reasserted his support for his ban on Muslims entering the country and his gigantic wall on the Mexican border.
In a Sunday appearance on ABC, he seemed to be abandoning his proposal for a massive tax cut for the rich, saying rates on high earners might go up after he finished negotiating with Congress. But he then said that the final rates would merely end up higher than the huge reduction he first suggestedand he bashed the media for a false narrative.
Trump did embark on one notable attempt at outreach. On Thursday, Cinco de Mayo, he tweeted a photo of himself eating a taco bowl.
I love Hispanics, he wrote.
Hispanics erupted in laughter.
Hes trying, Republican chairman Reince Priebus said in Washington. Honestly, hes trying.
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It has been 75 years since what residents of London, England call The Longest Night.
That night of May 10-11, 1941 was filled with howling air raid sirens and deaths from the air as bombs dropped from the darkened skies.
When the sun finally came up, it was finally over. After eight months of sustained air attacks, Hitler gave up on trying to break the spirit of Londoners with sustained night-time bombing attacks.
The bombing offensive was known as The Blitz, short for the German blitzkrieg, which translates as lightning war.
The deadly eight-month campaign killed more than 20,000 Londoners and left another 1.5 million homeless.
It also gave rise to the term Blitz spirit, for the Londoners defiance. That spirit was reflected in the title of a popular documentary film made in October 1940, entitled London Can Take It!
The composite photos that follow show how far the city has come since the Blitz.
1. A police officer and soldier inspect Portman St. after attack of Sept. 19, 1940. London was attacked 71 times during the Blitz.
2. A bus leans against a terrace in Harrington Square. The bus was empty at the time but 11 people were killed in the nearby houses. Theres currently a Blitz Bench in front of the site where residents were killed.
3. A digital composite showing the rail terminus of St. Pancras Station after an attack at the Victorian landmark between the British Library and Kings Cross Station.
4. Londoners danced at the Cafe de Paris in Leicester Square until it was destroyed by a bomb in March 1941. Photo offers a view of the nearby Vue Cinema.
5. A digital composite picture of Berkeley Square in the West End of London, blending an image from the Blitz of 1940 with a 2016 street scene.
6. The interior of Westminster Abbey after a 1940 bombing raid. Other London landmarks that were nicked by not wrecked were the Guildhall and the Chamber of the House of Commons.
7. A wrecked car on Pall Mall from October 1940. Pall Mall was the citys unofficial headquarters of tony social clubs and coffee houses. The nearby Carlton Club, which was almost a century old, suffered a direct hit from a bomb.
8. A blaze at Holborn Circus during the eight-month bombing offensive. It was once described by Charles Dickens as perhaps the finest piece of street architecture in the City.
9. Londoners finding shelter in the Bounds Green tube station in October 1940. There were makeshift beds, minimal privacy and poor sanitation for Londoners who took refuge there. Underground stations offered night-time refuge for to 177,000 people some nights
10. A crater outside Buckingham Palace, left by a bomb attack on the home of the Royals. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother reportedly had a defiant attitude after the palace suffered some bomb damage, saying she thought the bomb discomfort should be shared. Now we can look the East End in the eye, she reportedly said. A British pilot once rammed a bomber to protect the palace.
11. A view of the Thames River showing fires from the Surrey docks on Sept. 7, 1940, after the first raid. Despite the sustained shelling, no bridges over the Thames were hit.
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Over the last decade, in the absence of federal leadership, Canadian provinces have gone their own way on carbon pricing. Alberta chose a unique carbon pricing system, British Columbia implemented a carbon tax, and Quebec launched a cap-and-trade system which Ontario will soon join. Others are waiting in the wings, either weighing their options or vehemently opposed. As a result, Canadas environmental standing fell and full economic potential went untapped.
Now that the country has an engaged federal government that is determined to act on climate change, things are likely to take a new direction. Provinces that arent pursuing any form of carbon pricing will likely be asked to do so. The current musing is that the federal government will set a $15 carbon tax to act as a minimum carbon price. But is a national price floor enough, or should the federal government consider other options? The problem is that $15 is not enough to drive the deep emissions reductions needed. Without a hard cap, population and economic growth will drive growth in emissions. Furthermore, it is hard for governments to commit to continually increasing a tax; whereas it is not too difficult to continually tighten the cap in accordance with emissions targets.
Cap-and-trade is the best way for Canada to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and still maintain economic growth and competitiveness. Rather than having multiple provincial auctions, the administrative costs of the program would be minimized through co-ordinated joint auctions across provinces. The system would operate similarity to the Western Climate Initiatives system, where each province puts up a number of allowances for auction, and all provinces bid on the common pool of allowances. A countrywide carbon price would be determined.
The federal government would set its cap in line with Canadas commitment to reducing emissions to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050. Auction revenue would be distributed across the provinces, in line with their respective allocation of emissions (determined using 1990 levels). This way, each province contributes evenly to achieving Canadas goal. Doing so will ensure that Canada is able to fulfil its international commitment while ensuring fairness across provinces.
Rather than a patchwork of provincial policies, a Canada-wide system would send a stronger signal to businesses and investors that a low-carbon future is upon us. This will help businesses make better informed investment decisions.
If Canada as a whole puts a hard cap on emissions, the domestic demand for low-carbon (clean-tech) goods and services will increase. This will help the country develop its clean-tech market, providing space to grow and sell to a domestic market, eventually maturing, exporting and capturing global market share.
With a common carbon price across provinces, interprovincial competitiveness concerns related to asymmetric climate policy are alleviated firms cannot skirt the carbon price by shifting production across provincial borders. This reduces the carbon leakage that more environmentally progressive provinces would face under asymmetric climate policy.
Another major benefit to a common Canadian market is that, when engaged in allowance trading across provinces, each province benefits. In our most recent paper, we find that Ontarios economic outcomes are improved when firms are able to import cheaper allowances from low-cost regions, like California. Under a pan-Canadian system, through allowance trading, high-cost provinces would benefit from lower compliance costs, while firms in low-cost provinces would increase their profits by abating and selling excess allowances.
A Canada-wide cap-and-trade system would achieve the best outcomes for the environment and the economy, while respecting each provinces autonomy. Provinces would be allowed to use auction revenues as they see fit whether to invest in low-carbon technology, infrastructure, cut other taxes, issue household transfers, etc. Each region also has the autonomy to issue free allowances to at-risk industries in order to minimize the costs on businesses and address competitiveness concerns. This should tame the fears of industry and politicians in Canadas resource-dependent provinces, like Alberta and Saskatchewan.
To be frank, a $15 price floor does almost nothing to guarantee that the country lives up to its international commitments. A national cap, on the other hand, with obligations spread evenly across provinces, will allow the country to address climate change while providing best outcomes for the economy.
It feels as though Canada may be on the cusp of fulfilling its role in fighting climate change, while still ensuring the economic growth we need. There is a model wherein we can have both federal leadership and provincial control. The prime minister and the premiers can have a thoughtful conversation about carbon pricing and pipelines at the same time. Now is the time to do so together, rather than at odds with one another, and take our place on the global stage as both an economic and environmental leader.
Jamison Steeve is executive director of the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity. The Institute published a working paper this week: Toward a low-carbon economy: The costs and benefits of cap-and-trade.
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Although The Beast, to cite the nickname for the blaze used by firefighters in Fort McMurray, is still large and fierce it has probably at last passed its peak.
It has been the longest and most frightening natural disaster weve ever experienced.
This description can be challenged because only two deaths have been recorded so far and these were caused by an auto accident. (Other deaths may have been occurred because of people refusing to leave their houses or of being unable to.)
This wildfire, though, was unequalled in its size and its ferocity and its speed while the firefighters had to overcome the difficulties of the magnitude and density of the clouds of smoke it generated. Only a shift in the direction of the wind avoided The Beast doubling in size over this weekend.
Huge portions of a city of 80,000 no longer exist. Quite a few of the businesses in the city, most particularly the smaller ones, will not return after having escaped to safety and now having no building to return to. This will magnify the difficulties Fort McMurray already has to deal with as a result of the decline in the oil industry and of the near collapse of that commoditys financial condition.
Yet, while The Beast has been brutally destructive, it has at all times been treated as a challenge to be dealt with calmly, sensibly, and at times even sensitively, rather than as some kind of a holocaust.
It may be corny to say so, but the way this challenge has been dealt with by those in authority from the specialists, such as the firefighters and the policemen, and by the drivers of trucks and by those flying the planes that have made in possible for so many to survive represents this country and its people at their best.
Comparisons can be made to the challenge New Orleans faced in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina smashed into it.
This comparison is inexact, indeed is unfair. New Orleans was a city of 1 million. It had to cope with deep divisions between the poor and rich and between the races.
The hard truth, though, is that about one-in-five of New Orleans citizens ignored the orders to leave the city. More distressing was the widespread looting. Most distressing of all, one-in-three of its police officers left as soon as the hurricane arrived.
Here, when Alberta Premier Rachel Notley announced all should leave, they did. Once the extent of the damage was realized, individuals and organizations across the country sent money and clothes and food out to West. The national appeal by the Red Cross now tops $300 million, with the governments involved committed to matching it.
Unlike in New Orleans, politics has played no part in anyones choice of actions. Notley has stayed cool and clear and is now switching her attention from saving those at risk to repairing the city. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had the savvy to say he wouldnt go to Fort McMurray now because hed be getting in the way of the firefighters. (Perhaps the one miscalculation has been the failure to accept Russias offer of some of its Ilyushin Il-76 transport planes, which can carry vast quantities of fire retardant.)
What The Beast has been doing in northern Alberta has been one of the worst events of our times.
What has made it simultaneously among the very the best of our times has been that so many other people have given so much to those in need, including, now, taking them into their own houses so they can begin to remake their lives.
Restoring Fort McMurray to what it once was will be exceedingly difficult and prolonged. But the spirit to accomplish it has begun to take hold.
Richard Gwyns column appears every other Tuesday. gwynr@sympatico.ca
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The power of political symbols is rarely as stark as in the context of indigenous reconciliation. Consider, for instance, that for six years Canada was the only country to oppose the UN declaration protecting the rights of indigenous peoples. The message was clear: the government of the day was simply not interested in improving relations with First Nations, in working to undo the destructive legacy of residential schools and colonialism more generally.
The Trudeau governments decision, announced this week, to endorse the declaration fully is also an important symbol, sending a very different message: that Canada is finally joining the rest of the world in recognizing the equality of aboriginal peoples and their rights to self-government, justice, health and opportunity. Its about time.
But symbols, of course, only go so far. The recognition of these rights is merely a first step on a long path to their fulfillment. Yet the announcement was accompanied by few details on how the declaration, which is not legally binding, will be implemented, or on what timeline. Rather, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett talked about the need to proceed with a conversation with Canadians about how to harmonize the document with our laws.
This vague promise prompted some indigenous advocates to speculate on whether, despite the Liberal governments grand talk of a new relationship, we might instead get yet more platitudes. Inaction with a friendlier face.
Clearly, the document will not be implemented overnight. The declaration calls on the government to obtain prior and informed consent from indigenous groups before embarking on development or resource projects. To properly incorporate this important dictate into Canadian law will be a complex process. But we wont have to wait long to assess the authenticity of Ottawas commitment. The first, urgent test is already underway.
The Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario is in the midst of a mental health crisis. An epidemic of youth suicide attempts has spurred the poverty-stricken community to declare a state of emergency. Attawapiskat is both a symbol of our past failures and an ongoing human tragedy.
Charlie Angus, the New Democrat MP who represents the riding that encompasses Attawapiskat, has rightly pointed out that extensive consultation between members of the community and senior government officials has produced little action. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to meet with the communitys chief, but no date has been set. Meanwhile, requested resources are still lacking, including desperately needed permanent mental health workers.
On this issue, the UN declaration has something to say: Indigenous individuals have an equal right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. States shall take the necessary steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of this right.
The government says it sanctions this article. But what does Ottawas overdue endorsement really mean? Beyond the welcome symbolism, watch Attawapiskat and see.
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Re: On ransom, is Canada ready to end hypocrisy? May 7
On ransom, is Canada ready to end hypocrisy? May 7
Why I hope Justin Trudeau sticks to his word and does not pay ransoms. For that matter, for countries that do, they have no one to blame but themselves for bombings and kidnappings (including Canada, the U.S., France, Germany, etc.), because they have all paid ransoms.
Tony Burman, in one paragraph, sums up why ransoms should never be paid: For terrorist groups, one of the most lucrative channels for getting hard cash is ransom for hostages. The Philippine militant group that killed (John) Ridsdel has made tens of millions of dollars off hostages since its founding in the 1990s. For Al Qaeda, kidnapping Europeans has bankrolled its global operations.
Martin Campbell, Toronto
Has anyone noticed that there appear to be no Russians among the terrorist kidnap victims? Could this be because Russia takes no nonsense from terrorists?
Maybe the terrorists have viewed the videos of Russian warships dealing with Somali pirates who attacked Russian ships at sea. They blew up the pirate ships with the pirates aboard.
I cannot imagine expecting to extract ransom from anyone connected, even remotely, to Putin. Pirates and terrorists no longer mess with the Russians.
Edward A. Collis, Burlington
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While we at Tone Deaf deliver the unfortunate news of another Aussie live music venue closure seemingly every month, we seem to simultaneously be announcing the opening of another awesome-looking live music space just about every week.
Indeed, while the Australian live music venue landscape has never been more hostile, constantly struggling with draconian liquor licensing laws and noise regulations, there are still lots of great new venues regularly popping up.
In order to highlight some of the cool new additions to the Aussie live music scene and to give readers a cheat sheet on where to catch gigs in their local area, weve put together 13 of Australias best new live music venues which have surfaced in the past 12 months or so, go on pay em a visit.
Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi speaks at a news conference in Doha, Qatar, in February. Naimi, 80, was replaced by Khalid al-Falih, 55, long seen as his heir apparent. (Naseem Zeitoon/Reuters)
Saudi Arabias powerful Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been talking for months about the need to wean the kingdoms economy away from oil, and over the weekend his father, King Salman, made his own statement by installing a new cabinet to carry out the policies.
The cabinet reshuffle included new economic officials, most notably replacing the 80-year-old oil minister Ali al-Naimi, who has held the post since 1995, with 55-year-old Khalid al-Falih, long seen as Naimis heir apparent.
Falih, chairman of the state oil giant Saudi Aramco and for the past year minister of health, will oversee an enlarged ministry, dubbed energy, industry and mineral wealth. Among his first tasks: Oversee the sale of up to 5 percent of Saudi Aramco, a goliath sitting atop 266 billion barrels, or more than an eighth of the worlds proved reserves.
But the cabinet shake-up will not likely upend the production policy of the worlds largest oil exporter. Since late 2014, the kingdom has refused to reduce its own output in the face of weak demand, and it has flooded world markets, driving down prices and slowing investments by other countries in new energy projects.
Falihs appointment promises a continuation of Saudi determination to protect its market share despite protests from other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Over the weekend, Falih issued a statement saying Saudi Arabia would maintain its stable petroleum policies.
Falih seems in no rush to change course. Earlier this year, when oil prices were near their bottom, he told an audience at the Davos World Economic Forum that if oil prices continue to be low, we will be able to withstand them for a long, long time,according to Bloomberg News.
But if Falihs appointment promises continuity abroad, it suggests change at home. Prince Mohammed recently outlined a plan called Vision 2030 for broad reforms of the Saudi economy that would include an initial public offering for part of Saudi Aramco, increased investments in natural gas and an expansion of crude oil production capacity beyond the current level of roughly 12 million barrels a day.
The prince has a vision of changing a lot of things. So this is a continuation of that process, said Sadad al-Husseini, a consultant and former Aramco executive vice president. I expect there will be a lot more.
Edward Morse, Citigroups global head of commodities research, said the cabinet changes point to the now clear intention of the Saudi government to march ahead with its Vision 2030 economic reform plans. These are designed to enable the kingdom . . . if not to prosper in a post-oil environment, then at a minimum to diversify the economy so as to minimize future market adjustments to changes in oil prices.
Not that oil is disappearing. Prince Mohammed has floated the possibility of boosting Saudi oil production capacity to 15 million barrels a day, up from roughly 12 million barrels a day currently. The deputy crown prince also called the shots at the recent Doha meeting of oil exporters, overruling Naimi and refusing to consider even a freeze in current production unless Iran, which is recovering from recently lifted economic sanctions, did the same. Iran refused.
Falih, a graduate of Texas A&M University in mechanical engineering and of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in business administration, is also expected to continue a push he spearheaded to expand Saudi Aramcos oil and petrochemical refinery capacity, soon to exceed 3 million barrels a day, said Jean-Francois Seznec, a political scientist of the Atlantic Councils Global Energy Center. The state oil company has been able to lure joint venture partners including Sumitomo and Dow Chemical.
But as Saudi Arabia protects its hold on the natural resource, the prince wants the nation to become less dependent on oils revenues. The International Monetary Fund said in January that even after sharp drops in oil prices, the petroleum sector still comprised half of the Saudi economy. Last year, oil accounted for more than 70 percent of government revenue.
Many of Mohammeds diversification goals, such as making loans available to entrepreneurs and replacing foreign guest workers with Saudi citizens, make economic sense.
The decline in oil prices has increased the importance of reforms to switch the focus of growth from the public sector to the private sector, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said during a visit to Riyadh in November. It is important that the government accelerate reforms that increase the employment of nationals in the private sector and diversify the economy away from oil. Continued reforms to expand employment opportunities for women would also bring more well-educated and motivated workers into the workforce and strengthen growth prospects.
Some reforms are likely to be difficult for many Saudis to swallow. For example, the deputy crown prince is reducing subsidies in areas such as fuel, water and electricity. Saudi electricity usage has been growing 7.5 percent annually. With diesel and fuel oil providing more than half of that electricity use nearly 1 million barrels a day during the summer air conditioning peak that could drain critical amounts of petroleum away from global markets. But higher electricity prices could be a burden on poor and middle-class Saudis.
The oil bargain has always been since the 70s that were going to give you a lot of stuff jobs, electricity and medical care and in return youre going to be loyal citizens of our state, said F. Gregory Gause, professor of international affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. But if you privatize big chunks of health and education, does that mean the bargain is off the table?
The privatization of up to 5 percent of Saudi Aramco could also prove difficult. Prince Mohammed has said it could be the biggest initial public offering on Earth.
But an IPO would require that Saudi Aramco which Pavel Molchanov, oil analyst at investment firm Raymond James called a complete black box to divulge key statistics such as its cost of production, believed to be under $5 a barrel according to Molchanov. The transparency needed would also put a stop to any corrupt dealings abroad or with the royal family.
Selling off bits of Saudi Aramco would also erode government revenues. The oil company pays a 20 percent royalty and an 85 percent tax rate on its oil profits, according to Nat Kern, president of Foreign Reports, a D.C.-based consulting firm devoted to the Middle East and oil markets.
Prince Mohammed has said selling chunks of Saudi Aramco would provide money for investment by the countrys sovereign wealth fund, which would then collect dividends. But Kern said that if the Saudi wealth fund bought all of Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Berkshire Hathaway, currently worth $1.8 trillion, it would receive only about $21 billion a year of dividends, less than a 10th of the estimated revenues from Saudi Aramco.
As an entity, theyre more like the IRS than Exxon Mobil, Kern said.
RIDE-HAILING
Uber to start guild for New York City drivers
Uber Technologies has agreed to start a guild for 35,000 drivers in New York that will give members new protections and benefits but not create a full-fledged union.
All current and future Uber drivers will be represented by the Independent Drivers Guild, a new affiliate of the International Association of Machinists District 15, according to a statement from the union. Under terms of the five-year contract with Uber, drivers will have a higher standard of protections and support than other independent contractors.
According to the agreement, Ubers management will hold monthly meetings with drivers to discuss problems and solutions. The workers also will have access to benefits including life and disability insurance, roadside assistance and education courses. Drivers in the city who are banned by Uber, a procedure known as deactivation, will have the ability to appeal and can request guild representation.
Uber has faced pushback from parties including regulators and drivers and has dealt with lawsuits and challenges for workers to organize. Seattle in December became the first U.S. city to allow drivers for ride-hailing services to form unions.
Bloomberg News
FOOD INDUSTRY
Dean Foods buys Friendlys Ice Cream
Dean Foods, the largest U.S. dairy processor, agreed to buy the manufacturing and retail operations of Friendlys Ice Cream for $155 million to add another consumer brand and help build its business beyond commodity fresh milk.
The deal includes the Friendlys trademark and the firms intellectual property, Dallas-based Dean said late Monday in a statement. The company will retain the senior management team of Friendlys. The deal does not include the Friendlys chain of more than 260 restaurants; those will still be owned and operated by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, which will license the trademark from Dean.
Bloomberg News
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The Rolling Stones have been picked over more than the breakfast buffet at Shoneys.
There are books by Keith, Ronnie, Bill, ex-roadies, managers, engineers, esteemed journalists, musicians, hacks, the sax player, even a former assistant affectionately named Spanish Tony. His entry is proudly named I Was Keith Richards Drug Dealer.
This sheer mass of material actually makes Rich Cohens The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones more valuable. The author isnt shy about his reliance on previous books; he lists them all in the bibliography. But Cohen also has done his own reporting. Hes interviewed 71 people, including most of the band members.
And he understands where to make broad sweeps and where to pull back. We get the hits: Keith and Mick as kids discovering Chess vinyl, Brian Jones descending into a paranoid fog, Altamont, aging, stealing Gram Parsonss corpse. What we dont get is stuck in minutiae. No blow-by-blow accounts of the Steel Wheels sessions.
[The only six ways to collect vinyl]
"The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones" by Rich Cohen (Spiegel & Grau)
The title of the book comes from an exchange Cohen has with Keith Richards. The guitarist asks the author when he was born.
1968.
Whats it like to live in a world where the Stones were always there? Richards presses, almost incredulously. For you, theres always been the sun and the moon and the Rolling Stones.
This is an important, generational entry point. The Stones are not just famous. Theyre the key commodity of a market built on the idea that you can virtually stop recording and still become the centerpiece for the biggest oldies festival of all time.
Cohen approaches the Stones from two directions. He is the kid discovering the group from muffled, glorious sounds emerging from his older brothers room in the attic. Later, he gets on the inside as a young magazine writer, backstage as he works his way into the good graces of the aging rockers. Classy Charlie Watts loves him. Steve Winwood, angered by bad reviews in Rolling Stone, attacks him. Keith, Mick and Ronnie give him time. And his access doesnt end with the story. Cohen is enlisted to work with Jagger on the show that would eventually become the HBO series Vinyl.
You might expect an author in that position to become a bit of an apologist, and its true that Cohen does, at one point, declare the Stones better than the Beatles. (What about the Kinks?) But hes no company man. Cohens criticism of the band begins with the decision, 53 years ago, to boot keyboardist Ian Stewart out of the official lineup for perhaps not having the right look. This established the almost mercenary approach to all future dealings.
They had torn open their chests and shown each other their craven hearts, Cohen writes. No sacrifice would be too great, no member too important.
The writer Rich Cohen (Pascal Perich)
Elsewhere, Cohen concedes that the band hasnt put out a great record in decades, most likely since 1978s Some Girls. Hes tough on Jagger, whom he portrays as a sort of mystery man still fronting the band because he came up short as a solo act.
Never mind that Cohen, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and author of such books as Tough Jews, has spent 20-plus years covering an industry that often converts artistic inspiration into soybean futures. He still charmingly finds it heartbreaking to see that the modern Stones have become largely a business arrangement.
In the end, there is sentiment, then there is money. In other words, when you see Mick and Keith onstage, leaning together like Butch and Sundance, youre seeing actors.
To be clear, The Sun is not a downer. The book follows a narrative line, charting the birth and growth of the Stones. We travel with Cohen to many of the locations important to the bands history and visit with the tragic, former Mick-flame Marianne Faithfull. You will, as with the best music bios, want to follow along on vinyl or Spotify. Cohen also has a strong sense of how to softly frame the larger story within his personal history.
I love the joshing backstage, as the kid journalist tries to negotiate a hang with some of rocks most famous stars. Hes not as green as Cameron Crowes Almost Famous persona, but still a beat behind the banter. There is also a bite-size vignette of a 1978 car ride with his mom and his brother Steven, contrasting the 1969 Stones classic You Cant Always Get What You Want with Paul McCartneys peppy, slight hit of the moment.
With a little luck? What kind of loser depends on f---in luck, Steven yells.
Steven! shouts his mother.
There is a beauty to the Stones mythologies. Several times, Cohen offers variations of the same tale without settling on the truth because truth is beside the point when a story has been passed around for decades.
There is a greater context here and a different way to view our musical icons: that as famous and seemingly untouchable as they may be, theyre really just a group of guys who got lucky. At one point, Cohen witnesses a man pressing Jagger about his fjord-deep wrinkles.
Laugh lines, Jagger says.
Nothings ever been that funny, the man fires back.
But the guy was wrong, writes Cohen. There has been something that funny, mainly, the joke that this generation of rock stars played on fate, which had them marked for lives of quiet desperation in factories and insurance firms but instead set them up like medieval princes in frock coats and buckles a life that for centuries had been the sole entitlement of the debauched nobility.
In that context, the business arrangement, though lacking in romance, is almost palatable. You realize we should actually feel grateful that theres still room to feel a nostalgic twinge when you hear the cowbell opening of Honky Tonk Woman or the shouts at the end of Brown Sugar. This oldies act, as Cohen writes, can still offer a glimpse of what they had been.
Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reutersward in front of his iconic sculpture Non Violence" of a revolver with a knotted barrel displayed, as it was unveiled in Malmo, Sweden. (Tt News Agency/Reuters)
Carl Fredrik Reutersward, one of Swedens best-known modern artists and the creator of the iconic statue of a revolver barrel tied in a knot, died May 3 in Helsingborg, Sweden. He was 81.
Thomas Millroth, from the Carl Fredrik Reutersward Art Foundation, confirmed the death but did not provide a cause.
Mr. Reutersward, one of Swedens most influential artists, made important contacts in the international art community, befriending Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, among others. His work was included in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in the 1970s.
He created the twisted gun statue, which he called Non Violence, as a response to the 1980 fatal shooting of former Beatle John Lennon by Mark David Chapman. The Swedish artist had been acquainted with Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, for years.
I was filled with bitterness and anger and immediately began to create a symbol for John Lennon and everyone else who has been a victim of such assassins, Mr. Reutersward wrote in the aftermath of Lennons killing in New York.
Non Violence became an international symbol of peace the world over. One version of it sits outside the United Nations building in New York, with others in places around the world, including Los Angeles; Berlin; Stockholm; Caen, France; and in Luxembourg.
The artwork that he left behind, especially the knotted gun, has become a true symbol of disarmament, has become a true symbol of peaceful resolution of conflicts, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said of the sculpture that is seen by thousands of people every day and is a favorite for tourist photographs.
Mr. Reutersward was born in Stockholm on June 4, 1934. He studied in Paris in 1951 under Fernand Leger, the French painter and sculptor widely regarded as a forerunner to pop art.
He held his first exhibition the following year in Paris but returned to Sweden to continue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, where he held a professorship in painting in 1965-1969 until he moved to Switzerland.
After suffering a stroke in the 1980s, Mr. Reutersward was partially paralyzed, forcing the right-handed artist to draw with his left hand, which led him to discover a whole new character to his art, said Daniel Birnbaum, director of Stockholms Moderna Museet.
In 1984, Mr. Reutersward held an exhibition at the National Museum in Stockholm called On the other hand, exhibiting his left-handed art works.
Mr. Reuterswards survivors include his wife, Tonie Lewenhaupt, a fashion journalist and writer, and five children from previous marriages.
Associated Press
Nothing ventured, nothing gained: That maxim would likely strike a chord with Phaeton, an idealistic young man the son of Apollo, as it happens who dreams of bringing justice and scientific enlightenment to his war-plagued neighbors in ancient Greece. The maxim also speaks to the boldness of playwright Michael Milligan, who has written his myth-based drama Phaeton in iambic pentameter hardly a safe-bet format for a new play in our distracted, vernacular-oriented culture.
Now receiving its world premiere from Taffety Punk Theatre Company, Phaeton imagines the personal and political crises that might have led the eponymous hero to put his Olympian pedigree to a risky test. While Milligan hasnt entirely managed to imbue his verse with urgency and up-to-the-moment vigor, the play is nevertheless eventful, language-rich and filled with interesting ideas. Director Marcus Kyds production displays its own brand of boldness, with dancelike movement, choreographed by Kelly King (artistic director of Contradiction Dance), used to meaningful effect.
Performed on a nearly minimalist set, Phaeton begins with an evocation of wedding preparations: In a lull after multiple wars, a single mother named Clymene (Julia Brandeberry) is marrying King Thetis (Terence Aselford) in hopes that he will protect and further the career of her brilliant son Phaeton (James Flanagan). After the king forbids Phaeton to enter a prestigious chariot race a competition the young man had hoped to use as leverage in philanthropic schemes Clymene reveals her sons true parentage. The news prompts Phaeton to take a gamble of potentially cataclysmic proportions.
Milligans script plays with the idea of literal and figurative enlightenment (Apollo is, among other things, the sun god) while contemplating the murky border between vanity and selflessness, prudence and recklessness, instinct and reason. The dramatist often although not always gives his iambic pentameter an admirably relaxed, near-colloquial sound. My son/ Is gifted with divine insights, he sees/The secret architecture of the world . . . Clymene observes in one subtly ringing phrase.
In the title role, Flanagan succeeds in uniting the verse with plausible distinctive characterization: His Phaeton is a now-awkward, now-expansive young adult who manages to be both altruistic and self-involved. The shows other performers deliver the iambic pentameter competently while signaling a character trait or two. For instance, Karin Rosnizeck is duly bitter as a dyspeptic former nurse; Eva Wilhelm has moments of interesting flakiness as the nurse who once cared for Phaeton; and Kimberly Gilbert seems amorous and needy as Phila, Phaetons love interest. Dan Crane portrays Thrasymachus, the kings son, as a scheming villain worthy of melodrama, but, then, the role is written in that vein.
The characters would demand more credence were the actors not wearing costumes that evoke a high school toga party. The attire may have been designed with an eye to facilitating the dancing, which adds valuable mystery to scenes that deal with Apollo. Incorporating the entire ensemble, the simple choreography a multi-dancer lift; a lineup that halves the stage, etc. deftly suggests Phaetons disorientation and awe as he communicates with the divine.
Phaeton (which has been championed by no less a classical-theater eminence than Mark Rylance) wraps up with a coda that feels long. A trim would add additional grace to Milligans adroit and courageous makeover of a vintage myth in a vintage verse medium.
Phaeton, by Michael Milligan. Directed by Marcus Kyd; composer and sound designer, Josh Taylor; assistant director and lighting designer, Chris Curtis; costumes, Tessa Lew; scene design, Daniel Flint. With Audrey Bertaux, Joe Brack, Christopher Marino and Dawn Thomas. About 2 hours. Tickets: $15. Through May 28 at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh Street SE. Call 800-838-3006 or visit taffetypunk.com.
Phillipa Soo, left, as Eliza Schuyler and Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton. (Joan Marcus)
Its happening, Washington. The heavenly event youve been praying for.
No not the Rapture. Then again, for musical theater lovers and history buffs, thats what this may represent.
The blessed occasion? Hamilton is coming to the Kennedy Center.
But wait dont reach for the credit card quite yet. The national touring version of the juggernaut Broadway production, which just vacuumed up a record 16 Tony Award nominations, will be a part of the institutions 2017-2018 season, which begins a year from September, center officials said Tuesday.
And in an unusual strategy that could boost the Kennedy Centers finances for a couple years to come, if you want a guaranteed shot at securing tickets for Hamilton, youll have to buy an expensive season subscription for both the 2016-2017 and the 2017-2018 seasons at the sprawling performing arts complex on the Potomac, according to Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter.
[Hamilton racks up a record 16 Tony nominations]
Its a tactic that could juice enthusiasm for centers other theatrical offerings but could also spark a backlash among younger fans who have gravitated to the hip-hop journey through the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton but may not have the deep pockets for a full subscription, which will likely begin above $500 the year the musical comes to town.
Single tickets are expected to be made available, but the inventory will depend on the length of the musicals visit to the centers 2,362-seat Opera House and how many are left over after the hoped-for surge in full subscription purchases.
The specific dates for Hamiltons Washington stay have yet to be nailed down. Subscriptions for the 2016-2017 season go on sale May 18 and include priority access for the following season.
Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda and actors Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo and Christopher Jackson celebrate the musical's record-breaking 16 Tony nominations. ( / AP)
It remains unclear whether Lin-Manuel Miranda the multi-talented MacArthur genius grant recipient who wrote the book, music and lyrics and stars as the first Treasury secretary will join the Washington production. The casting may not be known for some time, but people close to the Broadway production say several members of the original cast are expected to leave the musical sometime this year.
Of the unprecedented lead time in announcing a touring Broadway musicals run at the Kennedy Center, Rutter said: We needed to make sure people know this is coming because its the only thing people ask me about. Hamilton makes history in every format, including when do you make an announcement about its arrival.
Some grumbling was heard in theater circles after the producers of Hamilton did not include Washington among the first cities outside New York to receive the show. This fall, a production will sit down in Chicago for an open-ended run, and a separate national tour begins next March in San Francisco.
Rutter says Washington can count on Hamilton in its midst for a considerable length of time between September 2017 and summer 2018. (Although it appears most likely to occur toward the back end of that time frame.) She met last year with the shows lead producer, Jeffrey Seller, and says that she told him, Look, its got to come here.
[Review: Hamilton makes ecstatic history]
The magnitude of demand for Hamilton tickets has been unlike anything else in Broadway history. Advance sales are inching toward $100 million, and seats are being booked at New Yorks Richard Rodgers Theatre into next year for prices that are, in some cases, patently unbelievable. On the Hamilton page of the shows official seller, Ticketmaster.com, the top resale price this past weekend for tickets in the center of Row C for the Nov. 15 performance, a Tuesday evening, was $3,198 each.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, center, and the company of Hamilton. (Joan Marcus)
You can expect the clamor for tickets to be no less intense at the Kennedy Center, which is why center officials are revealing details now.
The 2016-2017 season also includes a visit by a celebrated Broadway revival of Arthur Millers A View From the Bridge; the regional premiere of the Tony-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and an innovative revival of Into the Woods by New York-based Fiasco Theatre.
Fans can get in line for Hamilton by starting with a relatively bare-bones subscription for 2016-17 the Drama package of five plays, starting at around $120 per person. However, by the 2017-18, they would have to upgrade to the Broadway package, starting at around $500, to get in on Hamilton and seven other productions.
Then again, its a musical thats been showered with multiple awards, including the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for drama, and that one notable fan, Michelle Obama, recently said was the best piece of art in any form I have ever seen in my life.
It was in Washington in fact, at the White House in 2009 that Miranda gave the first public exposure to a portion of the then-embryonic musical, which six years later would officially open off-Broadway at the Public Theater, and soon after move to Broadway. At that White House poetry slam, Miranda surprised the Obamas with a rap rendition of what would become the shows popular opening number, Alexander Hamilton.
Broadway musical writer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda performs "The Hamilton Mixtape" at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word on May 12, 2009, accompanied by Alex Lacamoire. (The White House)
The Obamas have been Miranda boosters ever since: The president attended the musical during its preview period last summer on Broadway, and the first lady saw it both at the Public and at the Richard Rodgers. In March, she invited the entire cast to the White House for a day of performance and seminars with Washington-area high school students.
By the time Hamilton reaches Washington, the Obamas will be private citizens and, according to their own announced plans, residents of the capital. Given the continuing frenzy over the show, they, too, might want to mull their options for booking ahead.
For more information, call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.
Wild bison are seen at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge outside Denver, Colorado, in 2009. The animal, also called a buffalo, was named the national mammal of the United States. (Rick Wilking/U.S. Forest Service via Reuters)
You probably think of the bald eagle when you think of an animal that represents the United States. But as of this week, the eagle has a rather large competitor.
President Obama officially named the American bison the national mammal on Monday by signing the National Bison Legacy Act. (The bald eagle will keep its status as a national symbol.)
The new law may give celebrity status to the huge and shaggy animal, also known as the buffalo, that once roamed North America in the tens of millions. By the late 1800s, they were almost extinct because of hunting.
President Theodore Roosevelt helped found the American Bison Society in 1905 to save the species. The group bred the animals at the New York City Zoo and in 1905 sent 15 bison to live at the Wichita National Forest and Game Preserve in Oklahoma. About 10,000 wild bison now live in Yellowstone National Park and on other U.S. government-owned land.
Many consider this our nations first successful conservation story, said John Calvelli, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, one of the organizations supporting the bill.
Members of Congress who wrote the bill said the bison deserved the official status because it was part of U.S. history and culture, especially that of Native Americans.
I hope that in my lifetime, thanks to a broad coalition of ranchers, wildlife advocates and tribal nations, we will see bison return to the prominent place they once occupied in our nations shortgrass prairies, said Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.
Bison are the largest land mammal in North America, according to the National Park Service. Males can weigh up to 2,000 and stand six feet tall. Despite their size, bison can move. They can run 35 miles per hour and jump over five-foot obstacles.
The former president relies on this first gentleman uniform of a polo shirt, suit jacket and Hillary pin while campaigning for his wife, the Democratic front-runner. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Bill Clinton is sorting out what it means to wear the uniform of power but not possess it. He is settling into the role of backup performer that silent, onstage partner whose gaze must always be loving and engaged no matter how familiar those applause lines may be.
Who made your suit, Bill? Make sure you know, because the label will matter. Is it American-made or some fancy European import? Did it originate in a big corporation, or is it the work of an independent firm a much-vaunted small-business owner of the sort that the political establishment loves to woo?
Your clothes have always mattered, because the fashion industry matters. And over the years, you have worn suits by Brooklyns Martin Greenfield and Donna Karan (back when she made menswear). But if this presidential campaign works out for Madame Secretary, your clothes will gain greater significance, because the clothes will now speak for you. They will have to, because unless protocol is ignored and tradition upended you will not be delivering an address at the swearing-in or a toast at a state dinner.
The subtleties will matter, and your designer will matter, in the same way that your favorite sports team, musicians and even your golf game will be used to provide insight into your personality, into who you want us to believe you to be.
Bill Clinton looks best in a traditional suit and tie and, of course, his Hillary pin. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
In almost eight years, Michelle Obama has cycled through dozens of formal gowns, some offering up a bit of fashion diplomacy and others serving to alter the cultural perception of femininity, glamor, body image and race. Could a male occupant of the East Wing use fashion in a similar way?
A first gentleman could bring the fashion business deeper into the fold of American industries with a global reach. Maybe attend a menswear show and highlight the craft of tailoring. Discuss why shoes and fine knits are so rarely made in the United States anymore. Certainly, Bill Clinton could give a nod to the frock trade the same way that he has gushed about Shinola and its watches. Yes, Clinton is a Shinola man with all its connotations of bootstrapping, Detroit-based, blue-collar craftsmanship.
A mans attire resonates. President Obama appears to have relied on two tuxedos during his time in office, according to a non-exhaustive survey of photographs. There is the two-button peak lapel tux that he donned for his first inauguration in 2009 his first new tuxedo in 15 years, he said at the time, made by the American company Hart Schaffner Marx. But there is also a one-button peak lapel tuxedo that seems to be in regular rotation for state dinners. Or maybe he has a closet full of look-alike tuxedos? The White House offered no intel on the subject. And, yes, we asked.
[Melania Trump: From professional pretty person to potential first lady]
Perhaps a female president should adhere to such fashion monotony. A couple of black evening gowns to cover all formal events? A custom le smoking for state dinners? Leave fashion in the hands of the first gentleman.
Is Bill Clinton, in a buffalo plaid shirt and Hickey-Freeman jacket, planning to mow your lawn in exchange for a vote for his wife? (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
If the votes align just so, the East Wing could become a man cave, and instead of pretending as though it doesnt matter what the first spouse wears, perhaps the country will learn to discuss attire, the garment industry, its cultural significance and all the rest with a new focus and intent.
In the meantime, the hustings reveal a former president who, like so many male power brokers, is at his aesthetic best when he is in a suit with an elegant four-in-hand, and not when he opts for business casual.
[The casual-Friday look that GOP candidates cant get enough of]
But in his vigorous campaigning for Hillary Clinton, business casual is most often the uniform, because the job is not to exude power but empathy. The husband has worn everything from a buffalo plaid shirt under a Hickey Freeman blazer to checked shirts and polo shirts. He particularly likes to wear his polo shirts under a sports jacket. Among menswear observers, this is a controversial move, this blending of the formal and the informal. It sends a mixed message; it confuses the point. And if a man insists on this combination, the jacket should be identifiably informal, which his are not. It should not look like a suit jacket missing its pants, which his do.
Like a lot of politicians, Bill Clinton uses attire to declare his connection to the regular folks, and the more rural the setting the more he looks as though hes ready to come over and mow your lawn or at least have a beer and a chat on the front stoop about the problems down at the plant.
Bill Clinton masters the proud-spouse look while watching Hillary Clinton speak to supporters after winning the New York state primary in April. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
But if there is any single sign that the husband is not the candidate, it is the particular accessory attached to his lapel. In the contemporary history of presidential campaigns, the candidate is identified by the flag pin forever stuck to his lapel. Patriotism must be displayed in the form of a brooch. A man must campaign under a cloud of Americana. The candidate is God-bless-America writ large.
Not now. Bill has been tagged by Hillary. He wears a Hillary-for-president pin on the campaign trail. Sometimes it is a tasteful little H. Sometimes its a medallion the size of a saucer. This time, hes not selling America on itself. Hes selling the country on his wife.
Dear Heloise: I recently lost a credit card, and I closed the account. This card had several prearranged payments automatically deducted each month. I had to call each company and advise it of the new credit-card number, which is quite time-consuming.
To avoid this hassle in the future, I have designated a specific credit card to be used solely for automatic payments, and I leave it at home in a secure place.
Gloria W., via email
Gloria W.: It can be a real hassle to go through this. I have a card that I use only for online purchases. Your hint is a good one. Keep another card to use only for automatic payments, and dont carry it with you.
Dear Heloise: After fumbling around on my key fob for the store scan tag again (Heloise here: the little plastic, key-chain-size cards for customer rewards or loyalty programs), I unloaded the key ring and loaded all the tags facing the same direction and in alphabetical order. So much easier now to find the correct stores tag!
Allison C., via email
Dear Heloise: When I moved to Texas, I discovered that my local practice of community pans or pass it forward pans (pif-pans) was unknown here. The hint is to save on disposable dishware. When taking a dish where it is inconvenient to get the dish back, use a dish you dont want back. The recipient then uses it when he or she is taking food to someone.
We had several pif-pans circulating in our former neighborhood. I pick up generic baking dishes and pans at yard sales and thrift shops. They usually dont cost any more than a one-use aluminum-foil pan, and they can be passed along again and again. And its fun when a pif-pan you put into circulation finds its way back to you with a casserole in it!
Heidi I., Fort Worth
Heidi I.: I love it! I, too, have some dont need back pans and casserole dishes. However, I love the idea that your pif-pan came back home!
Dear Heloise: We get address labels from a variety of organizations. I cut off the images, as appropriate, to use as stickers for memory-verse charts for my Sunday school class. I have an envelope for each season and some holidays, which makes it fun for the kids to have a different set for each month. Teachers also can do this as recognition stickers for their kids.
Bev D., Council Bluffs, Iowa
Bev D.: Good for you! Those stickers can overwhelm a person.
Dear Heloise: I like to use rather expensive magnetized notepads on my refrigerator. To save paper and make a pad last longer, I make my shopping list from the bottom of the page up. I just tear off the portion used. I generally can get two to three lists per sheet of paper.
Karen K. in Florida
Heloises column appears six days a week at washingtonpost.com/advice. Send a hint to Heloise , P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Tex. 78279-5000, or email it to Heloise@Heloise.com.
THE DISTRICT
Man is charged
in fatal shooting
D.C. police have arrested a 21-year-old man in a fatal shooting last month in the Deanwood neighborhood of Northeast Washington, authorities said Tuesday.
Anthony Blackmone of Southeast Washington was charged with first-degree murder. Police said members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Blackmone on Monday.
He is accused of fatally shooting Nuru Frenche, 23, of Brandywine, Md., about 10:30 p.m. April 23 in the 4900 block of Just Street NE. Police said Frenche died at a hospital the next day.
Peter Hermann
23-year-old arrested on warrant in slaying
A District man was arrested Tuesday in a fatal stabbing that occurred April 23 in Northwest Washington, D.C. police said.
Francisco Daniel Ayala, 23, of Northwest Washington was arrested on a warrant in the death of Dimas Fuentes-Lazo, 23, also of Northwest Washington.
Fuentes-Lazo was stabbed in the 800 block of Kennedy Street NW, police said.
Martin Weil
Victim shot during
attempted robbery
A man was shot Monday morning in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Northwest Washington during an attempted robbery, and a suspect was arrested, D.C. police said.
During the incident, which occurred about 11:30 a.m. in the 100 block of V Street NW, the victim grabbed the robbers gun, police said.
The gun discharged and the victim was hit, police said. His condition was not available.
Police said that witnesses held the suspect and that an arrest was made on a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.
Martin Weil
VIRGINIA
Arlington has
a new fire chief
Arlington County promoted its acting assistant chief, James Bonzano, to fire chief last week after a national search. Bonzano, who joined the Arlington department in 1984, began his new job Sunday.
Bonzano has led and served in nearly every section of the fire agency, county officials said. The previous fire chief, James Schwartz, was named deputy county manager in September.
A native of Arlington, Bonzano received his bachelors degree from Old Dominion University and his masters degree in organizational leadership and innovation from Marymount University.
Patricia Sullivan
NoVa Creeper faces
child-porn charges
On Twitter, he went by the name NoVa Creeper, police say.
Most of his posts list inappropriate comments on up-close shots of womens buttocks in yoga pants while doing ordinary things such as shopping at a grocery store or walking at malls.
Authorities this week said they arrested the man known as the NoVa Creeper, charging Matthew P. Bishop, 37, of Chantilly with 10 counts of possession of child pornography. According to the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office, he faces possible additional charges in Loudoun and Fairfax counties.
Bishops arrest stems from an undercover operation begun last year by the sex crimes unit at the sheriffs office. Authorities said they came across Bishops account and found him sending direct messages showing child pornography on social-media accounts to another person.
Sheriffs officials said undercover detectives communicated with Bishop and that led them to obtain search warrants last month for his home, where a number of items were taken. Bishop was then charged with child pornography.
Dana Hedgpeth
Maryland
Man is charged in home-invasion case
A man has been arrested in a home-invasion robbery in February in which the victims were a 77-year-old man and his 86-year-old wife, Montgomery County police said.
Police said two armed and masked robbers forced their way into a house on Arlive Court in the Rockville area on Feb. 17 after knocking on the door.
The man was physically restrained, police said, and the robbers took jewelry and cash.
Police said witnesses provided general descriptions of the robbers and a vehicle. A neighbor told police that someone had knocked on his door before the robbery. Police said they also looked into two other home invasions in nearby jurisdictions.
Police said Tuesday that Demeris Macon Nickens, 22, of Lanham was arrested Friday and charged with home invasion, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
Martin Weil
In 1998, Kristina S. Alcorn sat next to Robert E. Simon Jr. at the Hunter Mill District Democratic Committee Lasagna Dinner, an annual event in the Virginia town Simon had conjured up from his imagination: Reston.
Kristina listened as Simon spun yarns about his most-interesting life, then in its 85th year. Are you writing this stuff down, she asked. When Simon said he wasnt, she offered to. She called him the next morning, eager to get started.
Youre serious, Simon said, surprised.
She was, but she wasnt sure what that meant. Kristina had lived in Reston since she was 6 but had never written a book.
Now she has. Its called In His Own Words (Great Owl Books), and its the result of conversations held over two years at Simons condo in the high-rise Heron House building on Lake Anne.
Kristina S. Alcorn interviewed Robert E. Simon Jr., the founder of Reston, over two years for the book In His Own Words. ( Kristina S. Alcorn)
[A film tells the history of Reston, the boundary-shattering planned Va. town]
I would go over there, and we would sit out on the balcony, Kristina said. He wasnt a details person. He would just talk in any order he wanted to. He would just go wherever he felt like talking. Hed often say, I dont know where youre going with this, but thank you for letting me relive it.
Kristina would transcribe the conversations and return a few weeks later to address specific incidents Simon had mentioned.
He hated that part, Kristina said. He hated going over the details. He just liked to talk and remember.
And there was a lot to remember. Simons father, Robert Sr., had started work in a New York City ribbon factory before he lost the job when his employer realized he was colorblind. He went into real estate, concentrating on purchasing street-corner properties destined to become subway stations.
The younger Simons life was one of wealth and privilege, but it didnt turn him into a money-obsessed one-percenter.
He was up for anything, Kristina said. It could be as humble as it goes. He was happy anywhere he was. He was genuinely interested in people and experiences. It didnt really matter what the setting was.
Although the book includes Simons experiences with Carnegie Hall the property whose sale enabled him to create Reston and the creation of Reston, my favorite parts are his quirky anecdotes.
Simon spent two high school summers at a ranch in Arizona. One highlight was a dance with girls from a nearby camp. Simon had spent the whole day on and off a horse, roping calves and rolling in cow patties. And thats how he went to the dance, without even bothering to change his clothes.
My girl, no other than the mother of Disney chairman Michael Eisner, didnt seem to mind, Simon told Kristina.
Familiar names pop up regularly.
Sometimes I would call him Zelig or Forrest Gump, Kristina said. He did interact or brush elbows with so many icons of the 20th century.
An elementary schoolmate was Seymour Durst, real estate scion and father of Robert Durst, murderous protagonist of The Jinx. While Simon was a student at the prestigious Horace Mann School in New York City, he somehow persuaded George Gershwin to speak. Simon didnt think to invite the entire school, so the great composer addressed the 15 members of the music club Simon belonged to.
He was a very good sport and played for our small group, Simon said. Im sure he was expecting a larger crowd.
Simon went to Harvard Anyone who was warm and knew how to read and write could get in, he said where the highlight for him was singing in the choir, including at morning church services. Even better was when an old Harvard professor would die and choir members would be paid to sing at the funeral.
It was a bloody fortune $20, he said.
One of the great disappointments in Simons life was his ejection from Reston, forced out by investors in 1967. He lived on Long Island and did occasional consulting work, including pondering a street grid system for Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
He would talk about it, but not with any joy or passion, Kristina said of that aimless time. He moved to Reston in 1993.
Kristinas last interview was the day before she went into labor with her now-16-year-old son. She put the project aside, then picked it up again last year.
He was really happy about it, Kristina said of Simons reaction. Not long at all before he died [in September 2015], he said, Youre going to finish this, right?
She did. Heres one of my favorite Bob Simon lines: A hermit gets his kicks out of solitude. I am anti-hermit. I get my kicks out of people.
Can you dig it?
Harrison G. Dyar Jr. got his kicks out of mosquitoes, adultery and digging elaborate tunnels under his houses.
Dyar is the Smithsonian entomologist I did a series of columns on in 2012. California writer and entomologist Marc E. Epstein has just published a biography of Dyar. Moths, Myths & Mosquitoes (Oxford University Press) is a detailed look at this most interesting character who possessed equal parts scientific prowess and creepy eccentricity.
[Meet Mr. Dyar: He hunted mosquitoes, dug subterranean chambers and cheated on his wife]
Marc will deliver a Smithsonian Associates lecture about Dyar on May 17 at the S. Dillon Ripley Center. For tickets $30 for nonmembers, $20 for members visit smithsonianassociates.org.
Twitter: @johnkelly
For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), center, at a bill signing ceremony this year. He is flanked by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), left, and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel). (Patrick Semansky/AP)
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) signed 196 bills into law Tuesday, including one that advocates say will provide the most comprehensive insurance coverage for contraception in the country.
Many states have enacted laws addressing some aspects of the bill that Maryland lawmakers approved, Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Heather Ford said. But no other state has a law that includes all the provisions in Marylands Contraceptive Equity Act, which prohibits insurers from charging co-payments for contraceptive drugs, procedures and devices approved by the federal government.
Among its provisions, the law which takes effect in January 2018 eliminates the co-payment for vasectomies. It makes Maryland the first state to require insurance coverage for over-the-counter contraceptive medications, such as the morning-after pill.
Family planning is essential for womens rights, and cost is a factor in family planning, said Del. Ariana B. Kelly (D-Montgomery), the lead sponsor of the bill in the House. This legislation is going to help eliminate barriers and reduce costs for women and for men.
[Teen birthrate hits all-time low in U.S.]
Del. Ariana B. Kelly (D-Montgomery) sponsored a bill to expabnd insurance coverage of contraceptive devices, medications and procedures. (ARIANA KELLY)
The law applies to insurance plans regulated by the state of Maryland covering about a third of state residents, advocates said and expands the coverage already provided through Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor.
It drew bipartisan support in the General Assembly, including from Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County), the minority whip in the House of Delegates and her partys nominee for Marylands open U.S. Senate seat. Szeligas Democratic opponent in that race, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, testified in favor of the bill during the 2016 legislative session and attended Tuesdays news conference.
Hogan called the legislation a bill worth signing.
He also signed into law a measure that will launch a state-run retirement-savings program for private businesses that dont offer such plans. The Maryland Small Business Retirement Savings Board will develop guidelines for how the program will work, including how much employees will be required to pay, how workers can opt out and how it will be administered.
Charly Carter, executive director of Maryland Working Families, called the retirement-savings bill a huge step in the right direction to provide economic stability to families. It was backed by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel).
[Maryland legislative panel to look at boosting retirement savings]
Proponents of the Maryland bill say about 1 million people in the state are older than 60, and many will not be prepared for retirement. By 2030, advocates say, seniors will make up a quarter of the states population. A handful of other states, including Illinois and California, are in varying stages of implementing state-run retirement plans for private-sector employees.
Maryland has seen repeated legislative attempts to design a payroll-deduction retirement-savings account.
Sen. Douglas J.J. Peters (D-Prince Georges), who sponsored this years bill, said the legislation failed to move in the past because it penalized businesses that did not participate in the savings program. The penalties were not included in this years version of the legislation.
Peters and Del. C. William Frick (D-Montgomery), the House sponsor, also added a provision that would eliminate the $300 corporate filing fee required of small businesses that participate in the program. Last year, Hogan pushed to eliminate the filing fee, but the bill never moved out of committee.
Frick said the program could be running by 2018.
Hogan also signed legislation to give Northrop Grumman a $37.5 million tax credit over five years and to reduce the fees charged for birth and death certificates.
[Heres why tax relief died in Annapolis this year]
The governor hailed the fee reductions as part of his mission to shrink the tax burden in Maryland. He took a jab at Miller and Busch over their inability to agree on a tax-relief plan during the recent legislative session.
I know President Miller wants to provide across-the-board income tax cuts and provide help for small businesses, and I know that Speaker Busch wants to give tax relief to struggling low-income families, Hogan said. And, well, I agree with both of them. So I say, Next year, guys, lets get them all done.
Also on Tuesday, Hogan announced that Robert R. Neall, a former Democratic lawmaker who advised the governor during his transition, will join his senior staff to head the newly formed Office of Transformation and Renewal.
Nealls role will be to revamp state government so it is more efficient and accountable.
Hogan likened the effort to the work done by then-Gov. Marvin Mandel more than 40 years ago to reorganize 250 state agencies into 12 Cabinet-level departments.
State government, as it stands today, is unwieldy and needs to be fixed, Hogan said, adding that he hopes the streamlining effort will lead to cost savings and ultimately tax cuts.
Three brothers accused of carrying out and recording an attack on a Prince Georges County police station that resulted in one officer mistakenly shooting another were indicted Tuesday on charges that included murder and attempted murder.
Authorities say Michael Ford, 22, planned and executed a March 13 attack on police in Landover, while Malik Ford, 21, and Elijah Ford, 18, recorded the shooting on their cellphones. Jacai Colson, 28, an undercover narcotics detective who was off-duty in street clothes when he responded to the shooting, was killed by a colleague who police said mistook him as a threat.
[Painful questions linger after the death of Officer Jacai Colson]
Michael Ford was charged with 55 counts, including second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, Prince Georges County States Attorney Angela Alsobrooks (D) said in a short news conference.
This caused tremendous hurt, Alsobrooks said, noting that Colsons mother had just spent her first Mothers Day without her son. We are going to continue to move forward with this case in an attempt to bring some peace to the family of Officer Colson as well as to this department and this community.
The Fords were also charged with the attempted murders of several of the officers present during the incident, Alsobrooks said, and all the brothers face multiple life sentences.
Malik Ford and Elijah Ford would be charged under the legal theory of accomplice liability, she said. They face charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
They aided Michael that day, she said. They were aware, and they participated.
Michael Ford also faces charges of attempted murder for allegedly firing at motorists and medical personnel, according to Alsobrooks.
In a statement, Police Chief Henry P. Stawinski III said he was grateful to the grand jury.
We thank the citizens of the grand jury who handed down the indictments today, he said. While this is a significant responsibility in and of itself, the product of their work supports the men and women of the Prince Georges County Police Department and affirms the sacrifices they make for our community, and for that Im deeply appreciative. This decision is another step in the process of ensuring justice is served on behalf of the Colson family, this police department and this community.
Last month, police identified Taylor Krauss, who has been with the police department for nearly six years, as the officer behind the friendly-fire shot that killed Colson. A police spokesman said he is still on routine administrative leave.
Police are asking for the publics help in locating a suspect in a shooting that left a man dying on the side of a D.C. highway in March.
D.C. police said Darnell Lee Richardson, 29, of Cheverly, Md., was shot about 8:45 p.m. in the 3400 block of Benning Road NE on March 16. Richardson was found about two blocks from where he was shot in a vehicle along the Anacostia Freeway and died the next day, police said.
Now, police are seeking 24-year-old Leon Stewart of Northeast in connection with the killing, they said in a statement. Stewart faces an arrest warrant charging him with first-degree murder while armed, police said. A police statement said Stewart is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds.
Anyone with information about this case can call the police at 202-727-9099. Anonymous information may be submitted to the departments Text Tip Line via text message to 50411.
Peter Hermann and Clarence Williams contributed to this report.
On Twitter, he went by the name NoVa Creeper, police say.
The bulk of his posts list inappropriate comments underneath up-close shots of womens butts in tight jeans or yoga pants doing ordinary things like shopping for vegetables at a grocery store, waiting in line at a checkout or walking at malls.
Authorities this week said they arrested the man known as the NoVa Creeper, charging Matthew P. Bishop, 37, of Chantilly with 10 counts of possession of child pornography. According to the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office, he also faces possible additional charges in Loudoun and Fairfax counties.
Bishops arrest stems from an undercover operation by the sex crimes unit at the sheriffs office that started last year. Authorities said they came across Bishops account and found him sending direct messages showing child pornography on social media accounts to another person. They did not reveal who he was sending the direct messages to.
Bishop also used the app Kik, a popular mobile messaging app, they said.
Matthew Bishop of Chantilly was charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography. Authorities say he also posted online as the NoVa Creeper. (Courtesy of Loudoun County Sheriff's Office)
Officials at the sheriffs office said undercover detectives communicated with Bishop and that led them to obtain search warrants for his home in Fairfax County in April where a number of items were taken. Bishop was then charged with child pornography.
Bishop, officials said, was released on a secured bond of $10,000.
Online, Bishop also used the Twitter handle volleyballperv, they said.
On one of his Twitter accounts he had comments under photos of womens butts. One reads older woman in the freezer section and shows a photo of a woman dressed in black, talking on her phone and shopping at a grocery store.
In some posts, he identifies where the photos were taken, listing an Old Navy, a Whole Foods, a deli counter, a Walmart, a Chick-fil-A restaurant and a Petco. Other posts say they were taken at a charity event, a playground and a community pool.
Not really Creeper but some [women] from my neighborhood, he wrote, using a derogatory term for an attractive mother, in a posting of three women at a pool, one of whom is in the water with a young boy.
While the photos showing women and making comments on their body parts may be inappropriate, officials said they are not criminal in nature.
Kraig Troxell, a spokesman for the Loudoun Sheriffs Office, said there is nothing unlawful about the photos of women out shopping but noted that they are disturbing.
A violent 2013 crash in Montgomery County tore this Nissan Sentra in half, and claimed the lives of three of its occupants. (Montgomery County Circuit Court records)
Two Montgomery County residents were sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday for their roles in a 2013 high-speed crash that killed three members of a family, including a 4-year-old girl.
The behavior and conduct of the two defendants on this evening has to be punished, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Nelson Rupp said in court, adding that evidence photos from the crash remain seared into my brain.
On the night of June 9, 2013, the drivers Shaka Wakefield, then 25, and Audias Sanchez, then 36 got into an impromptu speed contest down Georgia Avenue, prosecutors said at their trial, reaching speeds as high as 106 mph. Their cars struck a 2000 Nissan, with four occupants, as the Nissan crossed Georgia Avenue at Kayson Street.
Wakefield and Sanchez were convicted of three counts each of vehicular manslaughter. Mondays court hearing was for their sentencing.
[Two speeding cars, a horrific crash and in an instant a mom with no family]
Elva Pineda holds her daughter, Elizabeth, who was killed in a 2013 car crash in Montgomery County along with Elva's husband and brother. (Courtesy of Pineda Family)
Under Maryland rules, Wakefield and Sanchez will be eligible for parole consideration after serving five years or 25 percent of their sentences, because vehicular manslaughter is considered a nonviolent offense. Both Wakefield and Sanchez have said they were not racing, and they are expected to appeal their convictions.
In court Monday, Wakefield and Sanchez apologized and asked for forgiveness from Elva Pineda, 34, the lone survivor, who lost her husband, Salvador Ramos, daughter Elizabeth, and brother Felipe Pineda. Wakefield and Sanchez said they never intended to hurt anyone.
I want to ask for forgiveness to the family of the woman who lost her family, Sanchez said. It was not my intention to be involved in that accident. I was going through a difficult time. I ask again for forgiveness. I have prayed that she can continue her life.
My mind and body went into shock after learning about their deaths, Wakefield said in court, speaking to Pineda and her relatives.
After the hearing, Wakefields brother spoke to the Pineda relatives in Spanish, asking for forgiveness and hugging them.
Wakefield and Sanchez could have been sentenced to 30 years 10 years for each vehicular manslaughter conviction. Maryland sentencing guidelines, which are not binding, called for much lower sentences. Rupp, the judge, issued sentences higher than the guidelines, calling them inadequate and inappropriate for the crimes.
Earlier in court, Montgomery County prosecutor Mark Anderson advocated for a stiff sentence.
Audias Sanchez, left, and Shaka Wakefield were sentenced this week to 20 years for a crash that killed three people, including a 4-year-old girl. (Courtesy of Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office)
Ive never seen anything like this, Anderson said, showing the court a photo of an intact Nissan Sentra and the obliterated one. This was gross negligence.
It was their choice, Anderson said of the defendants actions. Elva Pineda has lost everything . . . for what? She will never get an answer why. This is about as pointless as you can get.
Anderson said that during her trial, Wakefield had fabricated fantasies about how fast she was traveling. Investigators were unable to determine her speed, but Sanchezs vehicle had a black box that clocked him at 106 mph.
Anderson said that Sanchez had a ridiculous driving record that included speeding tickets and crashes.
Defense attorneys said their clients actions were not intentional and did not merit the harsh penalties prosecutors recommended.
Sanchezs actions were not those of a callous criminal, said defense attorney Paolo Gnocchi. He said that the father of five is a church-going man who had overcome hardship as an immigrant and built a business.
At the time of the crash, Sanchez was dealing with the hospitalization of his mother, who, months earlier, had been struck by a car at the same spot on Georgia Avenue where the Pineda family was hit. Your own mother was hit there, Anderson, the prosecutor, said. Shouldnt you know better than that?
Sanchezs wife, Blanca Flores Sanchez, made a tearful plea on her husbands behalf but was barely audible between sobs: My husband is not a criminal, she said later.
Sanchezs family members burst into tears and embraced one another inside the courtroom after the sentence was read. His father, Mardoqueo Enriquez, said the punishment was not fair because Elvas husband, Salvador Ramos the driver of the Sentra had been drinking before the crash and may have been impaired.
Wakefields attorney, Sheryl Statland, said her client is in therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, and a prison term longer than 18 months would serve no rehabilitative purpose.
Wakefields family said theArmy reservist is an honorable woman who had worked hard and given her life in service to the country. Turning to the gallery, Wakefields brother implored everyone there to forgive and heal.
Baltimore police officer Edward M. Nero, center, with his attorneys Marc Zayon, left, and Jason Silverstein head to court in Baltimore on May 10. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun)
A judge, not a jury, will decide the fate of Edward M. Nero, the second of the six Baltimore police officers to face charges in the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, which set off days of rioting and unrest in the city.
Neros request for a bench trial was granted Tuesday in Baltimore, with the trial set to begin Thursday morning and the possibility of a verdict early next week.
The decision to have Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry G. Williams hear the case eliminates the possibility of a mistrial due to a hung jury, which was the outcome in December when the first officer was tried in the death of Gray, 25.
[Judge declares mistrial in Freddie Gray case]
Nero was one of the first officers to confront Gray on the morning of April 12, 2015.
Gray was arrested after he made eye contact with police in his West Baltimore neighborhood and ran. Nero was one of the officers who chased and detained Gray, handcuffing and holding him down. After finding a knife in Grays pants pocket, police put him in the back of a police van, where he suffered a serious neck injury. He died one week later.
Nero opted for the bench trial in the pretrial motions Tuesday morning.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys will argue over whether Nero illegally arrested Gray and whether Neros actions amounted to an assault. Under the Baltimore city code, the spring-assisted knife is not allowed, but it is not a violation of Maryland law to possess it.
The trial of Officer William G. Porter the first trial out of charges in the Gray case ended in December. He is awaiting retrial at a yet-to-be-determined date. Jurors in his trial deliberated more than 16 hours over three days but could not reach a verdict.
Porter had pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment He had responded to the scene after Gray had been arrested and was in the police van.
Officer Edward Nero, from left, Lt. Brian Rice and Sgt. Alicia White, three of six Baltimore city police officers charged in connection to the death of Freddie Gray, leave the Maryland Court of Appeals on March 3 in Annapolis. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
A little more than a year after the fatal injury of Freddie Gray in police custody and the riots that set Baltimore aflame, the second of six officers charged in the case is set to go to trial.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys will argue over whether Edward M. Nero one of the first police officers to encounter Gray that April day illegally arrested the 25-year-old in West Baltimore and whether Neros actions amounted to an assault.
The way prosecutors see it, Gray never should have been handcuffed and placed in the police van where he suffered a fatal injury. The officers had no probable cause to arrest him, prosecutors contend in court papers, and without the legal justification needed to detain a citizen, any amount of force is excessive.
Defense attorneys counter that officers making instant decisions on street patrol sometimes make arrests that are later questioned. In those cases, they say, the charges should be dropped or evidence suppressed. Common sense dictates that officers would simply not make arrests if they were subject to criminal prosecution if it was later determined that probable cause did not exist, the defense wrote in court papers.
The prosecution theory is highly unusual and could have sweeping implications for policing if officers become worried that good-faith actions on the job will subject them to criminal liability, according to legal experts.
If theyre going to go back and review my actions like that and then charge me even if I had the right, Im not going to make the arrest, Baltimore criminal defense attorney Warren Brown said of the possible concerns police would raise if Nero is convicted. If Im not going to make any arrests, public safety has been jeopardized.
Grays death sparked protests and then riots across the city and fueled national controversy over the deaths of young black men in police custody. The trial of the first officer charged in the case ended in December in a mistrial.
[Complete coverage of the Freddie Gray case.]
Gray was arrested April 12, 2015, after he made eye contact with police in his West Baltimore neighborhood and ran. Nero was one of the officers who chased and detained Gray, handcuffing and holding him down. After finding a knife in Grays pants pocket, police put him in the back of a police van, where he suffered a serious neck injury. He died one week later.
Court documents suggest prosecutors will argue that the knife taken from Gray was lawful and, therefore, there was no reason to arrest him. Under the Baltimore City code, the spring-assisted knife is not allowed, but it is not a violation of Maryland law to possess it.
The state has charged the Defendant with assaulting Mr. Gray by intentionally inflicting upon him the offensive physical contact of the force the Defendant used to arrest Mr. Gray without probable case, prosecutors wrote in court filings. The police officers privilege to use force in the exercise of his duties is just that a privilege, not a right.
But Neros attorneys said they could not find a single case in Maryland or elsewhere in the country where a police officer has been charged solely on the basis of an arrest that allegedly lacked probable case.
A pedestrian walks by a mural portraying Freddie Gray on April 21 in Baltimore. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Defense attorneys have subpoenaed several prosecutors in the charging division of the Baltimore City States Attorneys Office and are expected to ask them why they have never charged a police officer for an illegal arrest before.
A gag order prohibits prosecutors and Neros attorneys from speaking to the media.
Police officers often detain people who are later found not to have committed any crime, and charges are dropped. For example, sometimes people are arrested on drug charges, but lab testing reveals the substances they had werent illegal. But rarely does anyone charge an officer afterward for an illegal arrest, said Roya Hanna, a Baltimore defense attorney and former city prosecutor.
This just could come down to a legal issue about whether officers can be arrested for doing what they believe was their duty, Hanna said. But by that logic almost everyone who has made an arrest that a judge later finds no probable cause for would be arrested.
Detaining citizens, however, should not be taken lightly, said Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the Baltimore NAACP.
Freddie ran because that is what African American men and young boys do in that community, Hill-Aston said. You cant throw everybody down and then say, Lets see what they got. It doesnt happen in the white neighborhoods.
A motions hearing for Neros case is set for Tuesday, and the trial is set to start Wednesday. Prosecutors have requested the trial be pushed back to Thursday because the states attorneys office suffered electrical problems that delayed final preparation.
The trial of Officer William G. Porter ended in December. Neros trial could end with a decisive conviction or acquittal if the officer opts for a trial by judge instead of jury.
Baltimore defense attorney Jeremy Eldridge said it is to Neros advantage to have a judge render a verdict, since the trial will focus on nuanced legal matters in an emotionally charged, highly publicized case.
A judge is not going to be emotionally swayed by some of the public sentiment in the same way you may worry with a jury, Eldridge said.
While Nero, charged with second-degree assault, two counts of misconduct in office and reckless endangerment, doesnt face the gravest charges of the six officers charged, many members of the public see him and others who arrested Gray as most culpable.
Even through the prosecution of them is the least warranted, they are the faces of this whole thing, Brown said. For a large segment of the African American community, they see that this is where the damage is done.
[Timeline and charges in Freddie Gray Case.]
Medical experts and an autopsy report said Gray suffered his fatal injury after he was loaded in the police van. But the arresting officers who are white are the ones seen on viral video sitting on Gray, digging a knee into him and dragging him, limp-legged and screaming, to the van.
Many, including Hill-Aston, are still convinced that Gray was injured before he got into the van.
Most people who may not have been in the courtroom or read the newspaper, if youre sitting in your house looking at the video, youre going to say, Oh my God, that boy is injured, Hill-Aston said. Everyone has different opinions about what they think. The bottom line is he is deceased and it shouldnt have happened in the first place.
Fairfax County residents could decide in November whether to establish a 4 percent tax on restaurant meals that would generate nearly $100 million annually for schools, county services and property tax relief.
The Board of Supervisors, in a budget work session Tuesday, agreed to vote June 7 on whether to place a proposal on the general-election ballot to levy a tax on all prepared foods and drinks from meals served at sit-down restaurants to takeout grub at grocery stores, fast-food franchises and cafes.
Such purchases are already subject to the countys 6 percent sales tax.
The idea of a meals tax has been debated in Virginias largest jurisdiction for years as officials have struggled to generate new revenue amid a sluggish economy and an aging and increasingly less-wealthy population.
[This affluent suburb is starting to fray around the edges]
Fairfax schools are spending $1,000 less per student than in 2008, said Pat Hynes, head of the School Board, and have increased class sizes and frozen teachers pay to compensate.
With commercial tax revenue stagnant and a growing need to spend on schools, social services and infrastructure, the county must diversify its revenue sources, officials say. Last month, the Board of Supervisors raised the property-tax rate by 4 cents, which will cost the owner of an average home an extra $304 in the coming fiscal year.
We dont have any way to relieve the burden on our real-estate-owning taxpayers, said Supervisor Jeff C. McKay (D-Lee), the budget committee chairman. This is a long way from a done deal, and speaking for myself, I dont think its a mistake to ask voters if theyre willing to do this.
The ballot question would specify how the revenue would be divided, supervisors said. The proposed language requires a 70-30 split between schools and county services, although some supervisors said they would push for a 50-50 split when the board votes next month.
A meals tax would not apply to food and beverage sales within the towns of Clifton, Herndon and Vienna, which levy their own taxes on restaurant food.
Hynes said that school advocates are geared up this year, and theyre ready, willing and able to help get the word out to voters about the need for a meals tax.
Representatives of the business community and restaurant owners who attended the workshop were less enthusiastic. They said there are several unanswered questions about the proposal, including exactly how the new revenue would be spent. And they expressed concern that a new tax would make it harder to compete with restaurants and cafes in neighboring Prince William and Loudoun counties (Arlington and Alexandria have their own meal taxes).
It makes dining more expensive, said Claude Anderson of the Clydes Restaurant Group and the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.
Michael Forehand of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce asked, Will voters understand what they are voting for?
Supervisor Catherine M. Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill), who has advocated for a meals tax for 20 years, said the wording of the proposed ballot question could constrain the board because it specifies that the money allocated for nonschool uses must be spent on county services, capital improvements and property-tax relief.
She said she will nevertheless support putting the question on the ballot when the proposal comes to a vote next month.
The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center occupies a prominent spot on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md. (Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency)
The National Institutes of Health is overhauling the leadership of its flagship hospital after an independent review concluded that patient safety had become subservient to research demands on the agencys sprawling Bethesda campus.
The shake-up at the NIH Clinical Center, which was announced to staff Tuesday, represents the most significant restructuring at the nations premier biomedical research institution in more than half a century.
NIH Director Francis Collins said he will replace the hospitals longtime leadership with a new management team with experience in oversight and patient safety, similar to the top structure of most hospitals. He is recruiting for three new positions: a chief executive, a chief operating officer and a chief medical officer. Collins wants all three to be physicians, and he wants them in place by the end of the year.
[More deadly pathogens, toxins found improperly stored in NIH and FDA labs]
John Gallin, a clinician-
researcher who has headed the center since 1994, will stay on as director during the search.
Were going to cast a wide net and see who we can reel in as swiftly as we can, Collins said in an interview. Were looking outside for that CEO individual, whose focus is not on research but on managing all of the operations of the hospital to maintain the highest quality.
The Clinical Center, the largest hospital of its kind in the world, sees thousands of patients every year from across the United States and around the globe. Many are desperately ill with rare or intractable conditions, and the facility frequently represents their last and best hope. It provides free, state-of-the-art care as part of studies that have indeed saved lives and led to medical breakthroughs.
Theres no other hospital like it, NIH declares on its website.
Five years ago, the center grappled with a superbug outbreak that left seven patients dead. The situation could have occurred at any health-care facility, but part of the criticism leveled at NIH was its lack of public disclosure. Not until a year later did researchers detail in a scientific paper what had happened.
Serious as that outbreak was, the problems putting the center under scrutiny now are far more systemic.
Last month, a task force appointed by Collins found that research interests and needs had taken priority over measures to ensure patients were protected. The panels bluntly worded review also found that unlike at many hospitals, the Clinical Center had no adequate system for individuals to anonymously report near misses, meaning errors in care or problems in treatment that could have caused serious injury.
Moreover, it noted, supervisors failed to appropriately address situations that were identified.
[NIHs mental health chief on why hes leaving for Google]
The review, the first in decades, laid much of the blame on NIHs organizational structure and fragmented authority and on the Clinical Centers lack of authority. Although identifying no cases of direct patient harm, it raised troubling questions about the agencys internal clinical research, which makes up about 11 percent of the overall NIH budget.
We believe the time has come to recognize that the Clinical Center model needs to evolve and function the way other hospitals do, Collins said in an interview. While applauding its fabulous research and long list of accomplishments, he said management needs to be reorganized and centralized to more effectively focus on standards of patient safety, compliance and oversight, which have been very difficult to achieve.
Francis Collins has led NIH since 2009. (Jay Mallin/Bloomberg News)
The Clinical Center, which opened in 1953, is where much of NIHs own research takes place. It sees about 24,000 research volunteers of all ages each year. Only about 18 percent of participants are healthy individuals. About 25 percent have cancer.
During the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the hospital cared for Nina Pham, one of two nurses who became sickened with the virus in the United States after an infected man from Liberia traveled to Dallas.
[NIH suspends operations of drug unit after fungal contamination in vials]
The majority of physicians and researchers conducting studies at the 200-bed hospital are employees of NIHs 27 institutes and centers; they report to the heads of those other entities, not hospital leaders. Such diffuse authority makes central decision-making and accountability nearly impossible, the review said.
The Clinical Center itself has little authority, it added, and there is no systematic way to monitor clinical practice across all institutes.
Collins described the new leadership structure as an attempt to address those issues and not a negative comment about Gallin and his team. Its a vote of no-confidence in the structure that no longer fits the needs, he said.
The task force was initially appointed last year to look into contamination problems in the hospitals pharmacy unit, which manufactured drugs for clinical research. A whistle-blower complaint had triggered a probe by the Food and Drug Administration; after deficiencies were found, NIH suspended some operations.
[NIH ends era of U.S. medical research on chimpanzees]
The safety lapses prompted Collins to ask for a broader look at hospital operations and all clinical research that takes place on the campus. The task force included outside hospital executives and was chaired by Norman Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin.
Its report, presented three weeks ago, identified a culture that over decades had allowed patient safety to be overshadowed by a single-minded focus on clinical investigation.
Collins, who has served as NIH director since 2009, said the months-long process that culminated in the 18-page report was the darkest moments of my time here at the NIH. Problems at one hospital unit, he said, turned out not to be an isolated event but also a reflection of institutional failures about compliance and attention to patient safety.
He quickly outlined a series of actions in response. He appointed one of the outside experts, Laura Forese, chief operating officer at the New York-Presbyterian health system, to head a new board to oversee the Clinical Centers operations. NIH also created a new compliance office to monitor all of its clinical research and delivery of care.
The actions will cost tens of millions that Collins hopes NIH can absorb within its budget.
Patient safety experts say NIH has lagged on the safety improvements taking place at other hospitals.
I would say the oversight for quality and safety is much tighter outside of research, said Peter Pronovost, who directs the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine. In research, that culture still hasnt caught up, he said.
Dallas nurse Nina Pham, declared Ebola-free after being treated at NIH, appears with Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH Director Francis Collins and others at the Clinical Center on Oct. 24, 2014. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
When scientists conduct clinical trials to study a particular drugs effect on patients, they want to know if differences in outcomes are a result of the drug, Pronovost said. But if patients have bad outcomes because of the care they receive, that could really bias your research findings. His bottom line: You can still do cutting-edge research and have safe patient care.
As a federal facility, the NIH hospital is not subject to the oversight and regulations in place at typical research hospitals. But misunderstandings about which regulations do apply have led some NIH staff and leaders to operate as though the [Clinical Center] does not need to comply with the standards of a more conventional hospital, the report said. This is unacceptable.
The task force said the problems with the pharmacy development unit were long-standing. Even though staff regularly raised concerns, those concerns were never reported beyond the pharmacy department. There was no formal mechanism at the Clinical Center for staff to report issues outside their chain of authority.
Last June, NIH halted operations at part of the unit after the FDA conducted an inspection following fungal contamination in materials intended for injection. The inspection also found defects in the units air handling system and a lack of compliance with standard operating procedures.
The report concluded that the pharmacy unit was running beyond its physical and personnel capacity. Responsiveness to investigator requests gradually became de facto prioritized above patient safety, it said.
NIH also hired two outside companies that specialize in quality assurance for manufacturing to review facilities making research materials intended to be injected or infused into people. That review led NIH to temporarily stop work at two labs last month, one focused on cell therapy production at the National Cancer Institute and the other involved with agents for brain imaging studies at the National Institute of Mental Health.
Collins said he has kept members of Congress informed, providing them with copies of the task forces report before it became public. On Capitol Hill, there have been no calls for hearings.
Some outside biosafety experts point out that the latest findings became known only because of the FDA investigation. Richard Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University who conducts biosafety research, said NIH needs to be more transparent.
This is a black eye for the NIH, he said. The NIH is the crown jewel of science and technology. The NIH needs to have a safety record, a compliance record, transparency and leadership befitting a crown-jewel organization.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the toll from the Clinical Centers 2011 superbug outbreak. Seven patients deaths were directly attributable to the outbreak.
SYRIA
Diplomats to resume talks next week
The world powers working on a resolution to Syrias civil war plan to resume talks next week in Vienna, with indirect negotiations between Syrias government and the opposition expected to follow some days later, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Tuesday.
Speaking in London, Kerry said the 17-member International Syria Support Group will meet Tuesday.
Meanwhile, two airstrikes hit a northwestern Syrian town, killing at least 10 people, opposition activists said. The air raids on Binnish, in Idlib province, came hours after a fragile cease-fire in the nearby city of Aleppo and its surroundings was extended for 48 hours.
Associated Press
FRANCE
Labor bill to be forced through lower house
The French government said Tuesday that it will use special powers to push a hotly contested labor bill through the lower house of Parliament without a vote.
The decision came after the government failed to reach a compromise with legislators and convened an emergency cabinet meeting.
The conservative opposition responded by filing a censure motion, which will force Prime Minister Manuel Valls to face a no-confidence vote.
The proposed law would make it easier to lay off workers, weaken union powers and affect the countrys 35-hour workweek. It has sparked violent protests.
Associated Press
Dozens killed in Ethiopia landslides, flooding: A state-affiliated broadcaster in Ethiopia said that at least 50 people have been killed this week in flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rains. Fana Broadcasting Corporate cited local officials as saying that roads have been washed away, bridges have collapsed and tens of thousands have been affected.
Hungarian legislature approves vote on refugee plan: Hungarys parliament has endorsed a government-proposed referendum on the European Unions plan to resettle refugees within the bloc according to a quota system. The legislature also approved tougher conditions for asylum seekers, including cutting allowed stays at reception centers from 60 days to 30.
12 U.S. soldiers arrested after bar fight in Italy: Italian police said 12 U.S. soldiers stationed in the northern city of Vicenza were arrested after a fight outside a nightclub. Police said one soldier was slashed in the arm inside the club, provoking a fight with three Senegalese men outside. In all, four Americans and two Senegalese were injured. Three Senegalese also were arrested.
1 dead, 3 wounded in Germany knife attack: A knife-wielding man killed one person and injured three at a railway station in the German town of Grafing. Authorities said the suspect, a 27-year-old German, had yelled comments suggesting ties to Islamist factions, including, Infidel, you must die. Investigators, however, found no evidence that he had links to militant cells and said he would undergo psychological tests.
From news services
Like a taco bowl from Trump Tower Grill, the Republican Party is being devoured by a demagogue. Now that Donald Trump has wiped out the last of his primary opponents, Republicans find themselves in the awkward position of being expected to take a stance on a presumptive nominee whom many of them despise. Suddenly, the ambiguous distinction between support and endorse has become a point of contention. And while much of the party is rallying around Trump, some Republicans, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) , are withholding their support or disavowing him altogether.
Despite the obvious threat to the country posed by Trumps nomination, many Democrats cannot help reveling in their apparent good fortune. Trump has splintered his own party and, with his record of bigotry and misogyny, handed Democrats a powerful weapon to deploy against Republican candidates in competitive races nationwide. But Democrats should tread cautiously as they devise their game plan for the general election. Although Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) plans to stay in the race until the convention, Hillary Clinton is extremely likely to be the Democratic nominee. For Clinton and the rest of the party, though, Trumps nomination could present a dangerous trap.
Given Trumps historic unpopularity, some will argue that Clinton should tack to the center in an effort to win over disaffected Republicans and independents. Already, there have been reports that Clinton is looking for ways to woo Republicans turned off by the brash billionaire, and her backers have reached out to Republican donors seeking their support. Yet while the Democratic establishment may be tempted to wage a campaign of triangulation the centrist strategy that Bill Clinton made famous in the 90s moving to the center now would be a lousy idea.
There is no guarantee that pivoting to the middle would attract a significant number of Republicans, who generally loathe Clinton, but it would almost certainly dampen enthusiasm among progressives. Indeed, while Sanders might endorse Clinton at some point, she still has to earn the support of millions of people who voted for him if they are going to remain energized through the fall campaign. On key issues including trade, campaign finance, tuition-free higher education and the $15 minimum wage, Sanders supporters want to see their values reflected by the Democratic nominee. And these voters, including a rising generation of young activists, can both lift Clinton to the presidency and drive Democrats efforts to regain majorities in Congress.
At the presidential level, the strategic calculus should be straightforward. Democrats have demographics on their side due largely to their massive advantage with minorities and women, who make up a growing share of the electorate. But as progressive activist and pundit Van Jones has argued, Trump cant be beaten by assuming that demographics are going to save us. Instead, Clintons fate will depend on her ability to ensure that large numbers of Democratic voters vote. For that reason, her top priority should be maximizing turnout among the constituencies that are most likely to support her over Trump, which means embracing a more progressive agenda. Meanwhile, mobilizing the base will be even more critical in down-ballot races, especially in swing states and House districts where demographics are less of a factor.
The theory that Clinton would benefit by tacking to the center also misinterprets the lessons of the primaries and misreads what independent voters want. Sanders mounted a strong primary challenge by rejecting the bipartisan consensus on matters such as trade policy, an issue that Trump has effectively exploited as well. These deviations from the centrist orthodoxy do not merely appeal to voters on the left. They are part of why Sanders polls better than Clinton among independents and in hypothetical matchups against Trump. Accordingly, if Clinton seeks to boost her moderate appeal by further distancing herself from Sanderss agenda, she risks ceding important ground to Trump in the general election.
Clinton ultimately faces the same choice between persuasion and mobilization that both parties confront every four years. What makes this year unique, of course, is Trump and in an unconventional year, a conventional campaign driven by big donors and state parties will not be good enough. To prevent Trump from reaching the White House, Clinton will need to inspire a movement by putting forward a bold platform and prioritizing effective unconventional voter registration efforts and grass-roots outreach, including the kind of digital outreach that Sanders has done so well over the past year. This is also why it is important for Sanders to remain in the race until the convention.
Throughout the primaries, Clinton has described herself as a progressive who gets things done. To live up to that label, Clinton should resist the urge to run to the center especially when the Republicans most likely to switch sides are foreign policy hawks and Wall Street types who could impede the increasing momentum for progressive ideas. By running a progressive campaign and winning, Clinton can do something lasting and important. She can move the center to the left.
Read more from Katrina vanden Heuvels archive or follow her on Twitter.
My fellow Republicans, my fellow Americans:
I stand before you today with a heavy heart, to say that I cannot in good conscience support the man my party appears to have chosen to be its nominee for the presidency.
As a result, I will be asking Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to release me from the role of serving as convention chairman in Cleveland. I respect the views of the millions of voters in Republican primaries and caucuses who backed Donald Trump. I applaud his seeming ability to amass the requisite 1,237 delegates. I simply cannot preside over this choice and gavel this nomination into being.
This is an extraordinary statement, but this is an extraordinary moment. As you know, there were many candidates for the Republican nomination. I agreed with some more than others; I thought some would be stronger choices than others; but I could have supported any of them.
House Speaker Paul Ryan says he cannot support Donald Trump. Trump says he doesn't care. Can the two work out their differences? (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)
Except Donald Trump. I was not being coy when I said last week that I was not yet ready to support Mr. Trump. I was being hopeful that he would moderate his too-often intemperate tone and hopeful that he would offer reassurance about his too-often malleable political convictions.
Unfortunately, he has done neither. His actions and words in the interim in just these past few days have served only to deepen my reservations about what a Trump nomination would mean for our party and, more important , what a Trump presidency would mean for our nation.
Instead of moving to unify the party, instead of ascending to a higher plane of public discourse, instead of tapping voters frustration to channel that understandable fury into solutions, Mr. Trump has doubled down on unhealthy anger and unfounded accusations.
Instead of reassuring lifelong Republicans and, more important, lifelong conservatives that he believes in the fundamental convictions of this party, in limited government and free-market solutions he has raised serious concerns about his leadership.
Let me offer some specifics. Not from earlier in the campaign, when Mr. Trump described Mexican immigrants as rapists, proposed banning Muslims from entering the country and made remarks demeaning women and the disabled, but just from last week.
Mr. Trump again crossed the line when he cited scurrilous suggestions that Sen. Ted Cruzs father had somehow been involved with Lee Harvey Oswald. He made clear that he intends to run against Hillary Clinton not on the merits but on the argument that two decades ago she was a nasty, mean enabler of her husbands misconduct with women. Tactically, this is bad politics. More important, it falls woefully short of the serious discussion the times demand.
And speaking of ideas, this predilection for insult over reasoned argument would be troubling enough were it not paired with a disturbing combination of ideological inconsistency and policy ignorance. I have spent my life believing in, and fighting for, the ideals of the Republican Party: limited government, fiscal responsibility, free trade and free markets, the United States role as the worlds most important force for peace and liberty. It is not clear to me which, if any, of those convictions Mr. Trump shares.
On the fiscal front alone, Trump has pledged not to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. But a leading challenge for the next president will be to get entitlement spending under control. Nothing Mr. Trump has said indicates he understands that imperative, much less has a plan to deal with it.
Again, here, the past week has been instructive and worrying. Mr. Trump has proposed a tax cut a huge tax cut, as he might say. But he has been all over the lot on whether what he has laid out is all up for negotiation, and whether taxes on some will go up, not down. Similarly, after arguing against increasing the minimum wage, he now appears to be for it maybe. Voters deserve more clarity from their nominee about what principles are nonnegotiable.
Then there are his jarring comments on the national debt, seeming to suggest that it might not be backed up with the full faith and credit of the United States or that the Federal Reserve, departing from its customary independence, could inflate away the debt problem. Imagine how global markets would react if the president of the United States made such remarks.
I believe in the Republican Party. I love the Republican Party. I cannot participate in putting this man at its helm.
Read more from Ruth Marcuss archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryans (R-Wis.) reluctance to endorse Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump vividly illustrates the central issue that underlies Mr. Trumps appeal to voters, despite his often odious character traits. And the issue is not Mr. Trumps failure to adhere to conservative principles, as Mr. Ryan surmised. As both political parties have become increasingly rigid in their allegiance to what they perceive as their core principles of governance, the ideological gap between them has grown wider, and more of the electorate has become unaligned with either party. Meanwhile, the real-world issues that concern voters most jobs, public debt, entitlement reform, illegal immigration, terrorism remain unaddressed by the political class.
Voters frustrations have been misinterpreted as a desire for philosophical purity, when the source of their angst is that these meta-problems remain unaddressed.
Then along comes Mr. Trump, telling voters that they are right to demand answers and action on core issues. While other Republican candidates posture over who is the real conservative, Mr. Trump instead gives voice to populist frustrations that the government and governance are broken.
And now that Mr. Trumps message has been endorsed by millions of voters, Mr. Ryans response is that hes not sure Mr. Trump embodies true conservative values. Talk about someone who doesnt get the message. But why should one expect otherwise from the ineffectual political class that has brought the country to this crisis point?
Robert Glenn, Ashburn
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan got his job in part because he was considered a realist. He is now showing that this was a mistaken judgment.
When he announced that he was not ready to accept Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president, he displayed a weakness that cannot be overlooked [Ryan says hes not ready to back Trump, front page, May 6]. If Mr. Trump shifts to appeal to Mr. Ryan and declares that positions he took on the campaign trail no longer reflect his views, why should anyone believe he is being honest? If he softened his many hard-line positions, he would have to be lying rather than believed.
Some voters may accept a new version of Mr. Trump, but Mr. Ryan and other serious thinkers should not be fooled. Such changes may help avoid some down-ballot losses but they would in no way be true and honest.
Stanley J. Asrael, Silver Spring
The reasons House Speaker Paul D. Ryan gave for not endorsing Donald Trump perfectly reflect the dysfunctional nature of politics. Supposedly, Mr. Trump does not sufficiently demonstrate loyalty to the Republican Party. This is precisely the team-mentality, purely ideological approach to problems that the voters now reject. Every politician refuses to consider solutions that might not exactly reflect the interests of his or her party.
Mr. Ryan should have said hes not supporting Mr. Trump because Mr. Trump is an immature, angry, ego-driven candidate who has never shown any interest in a life of public service.
Laurie Cowles, Northfield, Minn.
AT THE heart of the Obama administrations diplomatic engagement with Iran is the notion that the regime is divided among hard-liners who foment its terrorism and regional aggression and more moderate forces who are open to cooperation with the West. The embodiment of the latter is said to be Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, an English-speaking favorite of many Western journalists and, even more so, Secretary of State John F. Kerry.
However, if there really is a gulf between Mr. Zarif and the supposed hard-liners, he often does a good job of disguising it. During the 18-month imprisonment of The Posts Jason Rezaian, for example, Mr. Zarif offered public support for the absurd and mendacious claim that Mr. Rezaian was guilty of espionage. The foreign minister suggested Mr. Rezaian had been taken advantage of by an overzealous low-level operative of the U.S. government.
More recently, Mr. Zarif was asked to explain why Iran is sponsoring a cartoon festival beginning this Saturday on the theme of the Holocaust. Its the second time the regime has staged such a event; the first, a poisonous orgy of anti-Semitism, was held in 2006 under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad one of the hard-liners, according to Obama administration theory.
Mr. Zarifs response to interviewer Robin Wright of the New Yorker was a form of denialism: He claimed the Rouhani administration had nothing to do with the exhibition. The sponsor is a nongovernmental organization that is not controlled by the Iranian government, he said. Moreover, he said, the organization had not needed government permission to stage the event. It was, he said, comparable to the activity in the United States of the Ku Klux Klan. Is the government of the United States responsible for the fact the there are racially hateful organizations in the United States? he demanded.
Naturally, it didnt take long for this dissembling to be challenged. What was interesting is that some of the pushback came from Mr. Zarifs own government. A spokesman for the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance confirmed that the ministry supports the exhibition, along with other programs that enlighten people about the Holocaust. A festival official also reported that it was cooperating with the ministry.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum reports that one of the organizations staging the festival, the Owj Media and Cultural Institute, is funded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps; another, the Sarcheshmeh Cultural Complex, is backed by the Islamic Development Organization, whose budget is approved by the Iranian parliament. As for whether a public exhibition can be held in Tehran without official approval, well believe that as soon as the first festival of liberal democracy takes place.
Mr. Zarif claimed that people who have preached racial hatred and violence would not be issued visas to attend the cartoon conference. Well soon see if thats the case. In the meantime, its worth considering the response Ms. Wright got when she asked the foreign minister about President Obamas recent reference to the more reasonable forces in Iran.
Thats what I do not believe that dividing Iran into reasonable and unreasonable forces is either correct, conducive, or anybodys business, said Mr. Zarif. When the United States exercised that practice in the past, it didnt produce results.
On that, well take Mr. Zarif at his word.
Ive read a fair number of books on foreign policy in recent years, yet the one that has made the greatest impression on me was assigned in the sixth grade. It was Esther Forbess novel Johnny Tremain, and the lesson I took from it was the very one Johnny himself had to learn the hard way: Pride goeth before a fall. Maybe too late, I recommend the book to President Obama and his foreign policy team. Their pride has already turned to smugness.
For evidence, I suggest reading a lengthy interview with Benjamin Rhodes, the presidents supremely cocky foreign-policy speechwriter and, by his own admission, master manipulator of the moronic media. The interview, published in the New York Times Magazine, makes for gripping reading. It is not usual, after all, for a senior White House official to crow about how he deceived the press (and the nation) about when negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program actually began. It was not when the more moderate current regime took power, but earlier, under the auspices of more recalcitrant hard-liners. In effect, the White House lied.
The lie exposes a truth. Obama wanted the deal (almost) no matter what. He had not been beckoned into the talks by more reasonable Iranians, but had initiated them with the previous regime. In other words, he wanted the talks more than the Iranians did a negotiating position of great weakness. It explains why nothing in the agreement thwarts Iranian efforts to support terrorism in the Middle East or continue to make mayhem in Iraq. It lowers the odds that Iran will continue to adhere to the agreement.
Rhodes, who had scant background in foreign affairs before typing his way into the heart of the president, is now so close to Obama that I dont know anymore where I begin and Obama ends. (One more interview like this and hes going to find out.) Many say Rhodes and the president have a mind meld, and so the reader authoritatively learns of the centrality of Iran to the presidents thinking. If Obama can reach some understanding with Iran, he can rid himself of the pesky Middle East and pivot a word that comes to mind elsewhere. Whatever the case, American boots will not hit the ground unless it is to protect vital American interests the sole standard for measuring success.
It could be that Obamas foreign policy is a brilliant reassessment. It could be that the Washington foreign-policy establishment he so reviles see Jeffrey Goldbergs piece in the Atlantic is stuck in the amber of lessons learned from World War II and the Cold War. I know that I am, but I do not know that these lessons are irrelevant to our day. Hitler was evil. Stalin was evil. The reluctance and, in some cases, sheer inability of key aspects of U.S. leadership to appreciate these facts doomed millions of people.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest addressed claims that one of President Obama's top security advisers, Ben Rhodes, promoted misleading information about the Iran deal. I havent seen anybody produce any evidence that thats the case, Earnest said. (White House)
Rhodes calls the foreign policy establishment the Blob and he, like the president, dismisses its fusty thinking and crows the cleverness of their own, especially and amazingly the success of their Syria policy. Their only standard is the number of Americans who have died there very few. That is commendable, but it is false to assert by implication that an alternative policy would have done otherwise. The intervention in Libya cost zero American lives; so too the ones in Kosovo and Bosnia. The United States could have implemented a no-fly zone in Syrian skies. It could have grounded the Assad regimes helicopters, which drop barrel bombs on civilians, eviscerating them with nails, pellets and scrap.
No one knows anymore how many have died in Syrias civil war maybe as many as 400,000. More than 4 million people have fled the country, swamping Europe and coming pretty close to destabilizing governments. The continent has turned sour, inhospitable to migrants yet hospitable to right-wing groups last seen in black-and-white newsreels. Russia now arguably has more influence in the Middle East than the United States does, and Iran and its proxies are everywhere. The United States hasnt pivoted. Its plotzed.
If this is success, what constitutes failure? When Obama and his mind-melded sidekick proclaim their own brilliance and the failure of almost everyone else, what are they talking about? Maybe the president could use some obnoxious aides who challenge him and dont come at him, puppy-like. First, though, they could use some humility. In the Times piece, Rhodes is likened to Holden Caulfield. Thats not who came to my mind. I thought of Johnny Tremain.
Read more from Richard Cohens archive.
President Obama drinks water after he finishes speaking at Flint Northwestern High School in Flint, Mich., on May 4. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)
Regarding the May 5 news article In Flint, Obamas small sip meets outpouring of emotion:
I am a lifelong Democrat and generally support President Obama, although his overdue visit to Flint, Mich., on May 4 was a disappointment. That he sipped Flint water, filtered or otherwise, imagined aloud that he must have eaten a lead paint chip as a 2-year-old and remarked of Flints children, They will be fine . . . as long as were looking after them, discounted the seriousness of a yet-developing emergency.
Reassurance is not prompt, accountable corrective action. In the last months of the presidents term, in addition to ongoing medical and educational interventions, we need an aggressive timetable for full replacement of all Flint water lines before the snow returns to Michigan.
Jim Linsell, Traverse City, Mich.
Regarding the May 6 front-page article FDA launches rules for hot e-cigarette industry:
Ah, yes! Quicker than a geologic second but slower than it takes to get millions of high schoolers addicted to nicotine, the Food and Drug Administration stepped forward to slow the speeding e-cigarette train by several miles per hour.
Just about a decade after its arrival from China and after numerous studies demonstrating e-cigarettes multifarious dangers, the government has moved to stem the conflagration of new drug aficionados that is, in about three years from now which will add a couple of million victims. Just 13 years from the inception of a danger to the children of the future to the mitigation of its threat. But what can be expected from a giant governmental sloth? Immediately, complaints and wailing by purveyors of e-cigarettes accost the air. They speak of jobs that will be lost a prolific political argument that seems to imply that jobs are worth just about any consequence, however detrimental neglecting in their reasoning the tiny fraction so affected next to the countless millions who will be prevented from a habit that brings only misery and death.
In the final analysis, this measure by the FDA is more than nothing, equal to some effect, and certainly inadequate as a solution to nicotine addiction and the many who transition to conventional tobacco.
Michael E. White, Oxford, Mass.
At a rally in Salem, Ore. May 10, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders touted his win in the West Virginia primary, reminding supporters that his rival, Hillary Clinton, won there in 2008. Clinton, meanwhile, looked to woo voters in Louisville ahead of Kentucky's May 17 election. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
At a rally in Salem, Ore. May 10, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders touted his win in the West Virginia primary, reminding supporters that his rival, Hillary Clinton, won there in 2008. Clinton, meanwhile, looked to woo voters in Louisville ahead of Kentucky's May 17 election. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont easily won the Democratic primary in West Virginia on Tuesday, the first of a string of potentially strong showings this month that may drag out, but not block, front-runner Hillary Clintons march toward the Democratic nomination.
Additionally, Donald Trump won Republican primaries in West Virginia and Nebraska virtually foregone conclusions given that he was the only Republican remaining in the race.
It is a great honor to have won both West Virginia and Nebraska, especially by such massive margins, Trump said in a statement Tuesday night. My time spent in both states was a wonderful and enlightening experience for me.
Heading into Tuesday, Clinton held a formidable lead in delegates, and because delegates will be awarded proportionally, Sanderss West Virginia victory was not expected to make much of a dent in that lead. However, his enduring popularity, large rallies and insistence on staying in the race until the Democratic convention in July have highlighted some of Clintons weaknesses and prevented her from fully turning her attention to a general-election contest against Trump.
West Virginia is a working-class state, and like many other states in this country, including Oregon, working people are hurting, Sanders said at a rally in Salem, Ore., Tuesday night. And what the people of West Virginia said tonight, and I believe the people of Oregon will say next week, is that we need an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent.
Sanderss advantage over Clinton in West Virginia was clear in preliminary exit polling. According to data published by CNN, roughly 1 in 3 Democratic voters identified as an independent, a group that Sanders won by nearly 40 points. Just over 1 in 4 wanted the next president to continue President Obamas policies, less than half the share who said this across previous primaries this year. Clinton has promised repeatedly to continue to build on many of Obamas policies and has consistently performed best among voters who support his agenda.
Sanders also benefited from support among Democratic primary voters who said they would favor Trump over Clinton or Sanders in a general election. Roughly 1 in 3 primary voters said they would back Trump in the general election over Clinton, and Sanders won two-thirds of their votes.
Clinton was weighed down by her own troubles. Three in 10 Democratic primary voters said they or a family member were employed in the coal industry, and Sanders won those voters by more than 20 percentage points. Ahead of the primary, Clinton was forced to reckon with comments she made earlier in the campaign about putting the coal industry out of business.
Sanders used the West Virginia victory as a rationale to stay in the race until the last vote is cast. Less than 15 minutes after the polls closed, Sanders sent out an email to supporters declaring victory and asking for money to help him in the next two contests in Kentucky and Oregon.
Recent polls show Sanders likely to perform well in a string of primaries this month in Oregon, Kentucky and Washington states with smaller minority populations where Clinton may face similar challenges as in the West Virginia electorate.
Nevertheless, Clinton may have found a purpose to these contests in addition to trying to improve her performance against Sanders: to connect with the working-class white voters who may be crucial in a general-election match-up against Trump.
In the run-up to West Virginias primary, Clinton toured the state, holding small, intimate meetings with voters including some detractors who challenged her on the comments she made about coal miners.
1 of 42 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Highlights from Bernie Sanderss campaign, in pictures View Photos The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clintons rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. Caption The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clintons rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. June 14, 2016 Bernie Sanders arrives at the Capital Hilton to meet with Hillary Clinton in D.C. Matt McClain/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.
Clinton proposed tax changes that would assist families with the cost of child care a contrast with Trumps lack of a specific policy agenda.
Among other details, Clinton said she would limit child-care costs to no more than 10 percent of a familys income.
It just doesnt make sense, Clinton said at a stop in Lexington, Ky., of the cost of high-quality care for young children and the struggles of working parents to pay for it. Its the most important job that any of us can do, and were making it really hard and really expensive.
Bill Clinton was expected to tour Kentucky on Thursday.
The Clinton camp also sought to hold Trump to a tax platform that they called risky, reckless and regressive, anticipating that Trump may attempt to walk back some of those policies, including tax cuts for the wealthy.
Donald Trump has put forward a tax plan that paces him squarely on the side of the super wealthy and corporations at the expense of the middle class and working families, said Jake Sullivan, a senior Clinton policy adviser, in a call with reporters Monday.
[Va.s rapidly changing Loudoun County is testing ground for Clinton]
Trump became the presumptive nominee after Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich dropped out following his victory in the Indiana primary last week. He has maintained a lighter schedule than usual since effectively securing the nomination. He visited West Virginia last week only to ask Republican primary voters not to bother voting for him Tuesday.
Save your vote for the general election, okay? Forget this one. The primary is gone, Trump told a massive crowd in Charleston last week. He later made a swing through Oregon and Washington continuing to target upcoming primary states while also, like Clinton, reaching out to white voters who are expected to play a big role in November.
[Trumps crude sex talk collides with White House bid.]
Trump has also stepped up his attacks on Clinton. He has given her the nickname Crooked Hillary and has sharpened his attacks on her judgment, for instance on foreign policy, international trade deals and her vote for the Iraq War. He has also characterized her as an enabler of her husbands indiscretions.
Once a Clinton stronghold, West Virginias political preference has shifted dramatically since she won by a landslide against Obama in the 2008 presidential primary.
Win or lose in the remaining contests, she is likely to maintain a significant lead over Sanders in both the votes and delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic nomination.
Sanders, in vowing to fight on, is eyeing the Democratic primary in California, where a huge delegate prize potentially awaits the winner on June 7. Sanders campaigned in Sacramento to a crowd of thousands on Monday. He rallied in Oregon Tuesday, and he was scheduled to campaign later in the week in South Dakota, which also votes in June.
The political establishment is getting nervous, Sanders said Monday. They should be getting very nervous because real change is coming.
Sanders made a pair of trips to West Virginia during the two weeks leading up the primary, where he emphasized jobs lost to trade deals and the persistent poverty in the state.
During his most recent trip, Sanders devoted a speech last week to the latter subject, staged at a food bank in McDowell County, where nearly half the children live in poverty. Sanders also touted a $41 billion plan to transition ailing coal workers into new industries.
In the lead-up to the West Virginia primary, Sanders also aired television ads in the state, something Clinton did not do.
Heading into Tuesdays contest, Clinton held a formidable lead of 290 pledged delegates over Sanders, according to a tally by the Associated Press. Once superdelegates are factored in, Clintons lead stands at 774 delegates.
Clinton won the Democratic primary in Nebraska on Tuesday, but it was an advisory primary that followed caucuses in March at which Sanders won the majority of the delegates.
The more delegates Sanders accumulates between now and the Democratic convention in July, the more leverage aides say he will have in shaping the partys platform. If he is not the nominee, Sanders has said, he would like to push Clinton to adopt his position on issues including universal health care and raising the minimum wage.
Sanders has continued to insist that he has a narrow path to the nomination that involves catching or at least coming close to Clinton in pledged delegates, which are allocated based on performances in primaries and caucuses. Sanders needs to win nearly two-thirds of the remaining pledged delegates to do that.
Gearan reported from Louisville and Lexington, Ky. Scott Clement, Jose A. DelReal and Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
One week after his campaign for president ended, Sen. Ted Cruz returned to the Senate unready to endorse Donald Trump and very ready to talk about his own political future.
This battle is about a lot more than one election cycle or one candidate, said Cruz (R-Tex.). It is about principles that are eternal.
Pressed on whether he could now back Trump, fulfilling a pledge every candidate had made to back the partys nominee, Cruz passed on several chances to say yes.
There will be plenty of time for voters to make the determination of what they will support, Cruz said. What I am going to be supporting are free-market principles and the constitutional liberties of Americans.
It was a swaggering and occasionally snarky performance, with several jokes about the warm embrace of Washington before a media scrum that filled the hallway outside Cruzs Senate office. Like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who quit the race in March, Cruz skipped the reporter-clogged Senate lunches to reintroduce himself on his own terms. Unlike Rubio, he was about to face colleagues whod resented his elbow-throwing approach and were full of advice about how to fit in.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) talks to the media outside his Senate office on May 10. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
[Rubio walks fine line on Trump, says hell support the Republican nominee]
Try to be more effective, advised Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who had warned that Cruz would lose a national election and briefly supported him as part of a stop-Trump effort.
I dont think he needs or wants advice from me, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) with a laugh. She had called Cruz patronizing during a hearing on gun safety legislation.
Some of Cruzs Republican colleagues were more diplomatic. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the majority leader, had been one of Cruzs favorite pincushions on the trail. On Tuesday, asked about Cruz, McConnell said he was happy to have him back.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who denied reports that he told Republicans hed vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont over Cruz, welcomed a post-campaign Cruz.
Some people get over [losing], and some people never get over it, Burr said. I think hes going to be the same effective leader that he tried to be before.
[Cruz built a brand on being the most hated man in Washington. Now what?]
Cruz largely disappeared in the days after he conceded the must-win Indiana primary. He was spotted by cameramen at Saturdays running of the Kentucky Derby, where his wife Heidi informed reporters that there would be no interviews.
He reemerged fully with a call-in Tuesday morning to Glenn Beck, a conservative TV and radio host who had endorsed him and campaigned with him through the end. Cruz seemed to surprise the host by indulging speculation on how he could restart his campaign.
The reason we suspended the race last week was, with the Indiana loss, I didnt see a path to victory, Cruz said. If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly.
Later, in a conference call with the campaigns National Prayer Team, Heidi Cruz suggested that her husbands movement could endure, and succeed, just as the British abolitionists succeeded in ending slavery.
Be full of faith and so full of joy that this team was chosen to fight a long battle, she said, as first reported by the Texas Tribune. It took 25 years to defeat slavery. That is a lot longer than four years.
In the Beck interview, Cruz argued that the mainstream media had skewed the primaries with coverage of Trump worth over $3 billion of in-kind donations.
This election will be studied for the role of the media, and in particular network executives, Cruz told Beck. They have chosen the candidate they wanted to win.
And in the hallway, the senator refashioned parts of his campaign stump speech to explain how he would continue his fights in the Senate.
The people who I am fighting for are single moms, and young people, and Hispanics, and African Americans, he said. Its the truck drivers, the welders and the coal miners.
Cruz, who has the power to hold up several pieces of key legislation, did not get questions about which he might focus on. But after some prodding, he acknowledged that he was humbled to lose the primary.
I am certainly disappointed with the outcome, that I disappointed so many millions of grass-roots activists, he said. My greatest disappointment is that I wasnt able to win for them, that I came up short, and disappointed their efforts, their time, their passion. That was incredible to see.
Cruz turned back to the topic of how that movement could grow and win, prompting reporters to ask whether he had been serious when he told Beck that a sudden event perhaps a win in one of the remaining primaries could get him back into the primary.
If circumstances change, we will always assess changed circumstances, Cruz said. I appreciate the eagerness and excitement of all the folks in the media to see me back in the ring. But you may have to wait a little bit longer.
Cruz turned and walked into his Senate office, where the cheers echoed from outside the door.
Doves fly over Peace Memorial Park, with Atomic Bomb Dome in the background, at a ceremony in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 2015. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)
President Obama will become the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, later this month, nearly 71 years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city during World War II, killing 140,000 people.
He will be there to remember, not to apologize, administration officials said.
The White House formally announced the visit Tuesday after weeks of speculation that Obama would stop in the city after attending the Group of 7 economic summit in Ise-Shima. Aides said the presidents arrival May 27 in Peace Memorial Park would serve as a symbolic gesture to promote his nuclear nonproliferation message and highlight the reconciliation between wartime enemies that have become close allies.
Presidential advisers categorically ruled out an apology from Obama for President Harry S. Trumans decision to authorize the use of the worlds first atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945. A second U.S. atomic weapon three days later killed 80,000 people in Nagasaki. Most of those who perished in both cities were civilians.
Some Republicans and conservative news outlets have criticized a potential presidential visit to either city as unnecessary atonement. Many Americans believe the bombs helped bring an end to a war that began when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
President Obama speaks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in March during their meeting at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Thats a relevant discussion for our country to have, and theres no reason that people should shy away from considering the impact of a decision like that, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said when asked if Obama was wary of reigniting a debate over the war. But when the president goes to Peace Park in Hiroshima, hes just going to offer some short, simple reflections on his visit, and that will include an observation on the way that the relationship between the United States and Japan has been transformed.
White House advisers had debated for weeks the merits of making a presidential visit during an election year, mindful that Obama could draw criticism from Republicans and U.S. veterans groups for appearing to capitulate to the Japanese. His visit also could draw negative reactions from South Korea and China, both of which have objected to portrayals of imperial Japan which brutally invaded much of Northeast Asia and attacked Pearl Harbor as a victim in World War II.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe publicly welcomed the announcement Tuesday and said he would join Obama in Hiroshima to help promote the presidents efforts to realize a nuclear-free world. Behind the scenes, however, some of Abes advisers have been reticent about a visit at a time when the Abe administration is pursuing a stronger national defense policy in the face of threats from a nuclear-armed North Korea and competition from a resurgent China.
Abe, who has sought to move beyond wartime grievances, forged a fragile agreement with South Korean President Park Geun-hye last year over the Japanese militarys use of Korean women as comfort women, or sex slaves, during the war.
But White House advisers were buoyed by the response in the United States and Japan to Secretary of State John F. Kerrys visit last month to Hiroshima, where he laid a wreath at the cenotaph in Peace Park and joined other foreign ministers from the G-7 nations on a tour of the Peace Memorial Museum.
That visit, which Kerry called gut-wrenching, was well-
received in Japan and drew minimal criticism in the United States. Afterward, several major mainstream news outlets, including The Washington Post and the New York Times, published editorials calling on Obama to make his own trip to the city.
The Japanese public as a whole welcomes his visit to Hiroshima, said Andrew Oros, an East Asian affairs specialist who serves as director of international studies at Washington College in Chestertown, Md. Many Japanese disagree on aspects of U.S. policy, but they will be happy about the symbolism of a U.S. president making some nod to the victimization of everyday Japanese people. And they expect he will renew a commitment to a nuclear-free world, which has been the cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy for the whole post-war period.
Obamas visit to Hiroshima will come after he spends two days in Vietnam, stopping in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and two more days at the G-7 Summit in Ise-Shima.
At the conclusion of the summit, Air Force One will ferry Obama to the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at Iwakuni, outside of Hiroshima. White House officials did not say whether the president would meet with any of the atomic bomb survivors, known in Japan as hibakusha, who are now in their 70s, 80s and 90s and whose numbers are dwindling rapidly.
The visit, which is sure to draw enormous media attention, also will provide Obama with a chance to counter suggestions by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that the United States allow Japan and South Korea to develop their own nuclear weapons arsenals to protect themselves.
White House aides have called that idea catastrophic and emphasized that each Republican and Democratic administration since World War II has had a policy of nonproliferation. Trumps campaign did not respond to requests for comment to the news of Obamas trip.
Most Republicans on Capitol Hill also did not react publicly, though Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said of Obama: I dont think hes going to go apologize. I dont mind the president going to the memorial. Graham noted that former president Ronald Reagan visited a military cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, in 1985, although that trip elicited fierce criticism in the United States and other countries.
Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) who in 2008, while serving as House speaker, became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Hiroshima hailed Obamas decision. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), a Japanese American, said a GOP lawmaker praised him after he publicly urged Obama to visit Hiroshima during a speech last month on the House floor.
Yet Takano, whose great-aunt survived the Hiroshima bombing, provoked many angry responses when he posted a video of his House speech on Facebook, which drew 271 comments.
There were people all over the country, who clearly hadnt even read or listened to my speech, who were automatically, reflexively calling it an apology, he said.
Even some of those who are supportive of a presidential trip, including anti-nuclear-weapons advocates, said the move could backfire if Obama fails to enunciate a path forward toward dramatically reducing the global stockpile.
The president will look insincere, said Kevin Martin, executive director of Peace Action, if his words espouse ridding the world of nuclear weapons while at the same time his administration continues its plan to spend a trillion dollars over 30 years to upgrade nuclear weapons.
A woman passes by the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City on May 9. (Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters)
On the same day that the Justice Department and the state of North Carolina filed dueling lawsuits over whether transgender Americans have the right to access the restroom facilities of their choice, administration officials took a step toward designating the first national monument commemorating the gay rights movement.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis joined New York officials Monday night in Manhattans Greenwich Village to get public feedback on whether to make the Stonewall Inn the bar frequented by gay men that was the site of a 1969 public uprising after police raided it and nearby areas into a national park. About 250 people attended, according to participants, all of whom endorsed the idea.
[In NYC, Obama is poised to create first national gay rights monument]
Do I hear unanimous support? Jarvis asked at the end of the meeting, according to several attendees. The crowd called out in response, Yes!
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who convened the meeting along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), said in a statement that he is confident that President Obama will declare nearby Christopher Park a monument under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Nadler and Gillibrand have sponsored legislation to make the area into a monument, but that bill is unlikely to become law this year.
As Director Jarvis noted in his closing remarks, there was unanimous support for designation at last nights meeting from all stakeholders, including neighbors, LGBT and park activists, historians and Stonewall participants, Nadler said. I believe such a universal call to create a national park to honor Stonewalls history bodes well for the secretary of the Interiors recommendation and gives the president the mandate he needs to act.
The proposal to incorporate Christopher Park and some of the surrounding streets, where rioting took place over six days, into the National Park Service has received significant support from members of the nations lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as well as from local and state officials in New York.
The move has sparked some criticism from religious conservatives, such as Franklin Graham, president and chief executive of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, who posted on Facebook last week, A monument to sin? Thats unbelievable.
[National Park Service adds two LGBT sites to National Register of Historic Places]
But in New York City on Tuesday, nearly 50 people spoke in favor of a designation during the 21/2-hour meeting, participants said, describing it as a long overdue recognition of the contributions that LGBT Americans have made to the United States. Stonewall is widely considered the launchpad of the modern fight for gay rights.
There was so much enthusiasm for this park, and the idea of this park, said Cortney Worrall, Northeast regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, adding that Jewell and Jarvis did not say definitively whether Obama would use his executive authority to designate the monument. People need to make their voices heard.
Some of those who argued for the designation referred to state bills that require transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate or that allow businesses to withhold services to same-sex customers. Formally recognizing a historic monument for LGBT Americans, supporters said, could foster greater social tolerance nationwide for people regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
That the town hall meeting took place on the same day federal and North Carolina officials started a legal battle over that states bathroom bill, Worrall said, says the civil rights struggle in this country is not over.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that scanning equipment in Pyongyang airport was made by Thales, a French company. The equipment appears to have been made by a different company. This version has been corrected.
Pyongyang is either a city bracing for the full force of international sanctions or a city blissfully immune to outside pressure. On the ground in the North Korean capital, its hard to tell which is true.
Ask a North Korean businessman, and hell brush off any suggestion that international restrictions imposed after North Koreas nuclear and missile tests are hurting even a pinch.
Sanctions dont work on our country, said Kim Sok Nam, the manager of the Pyongyang 326 Electric Cable factory, which makes wiring used for televisions and computers but also in the construction of the new high-rises that have sprouted all around the capital. Machines in the factory poured out molten aluminum and wound huge spools of copper wire behind him.
Past, present, future its the same situation for us, Kim said, shrugging.
Inside the factory there sat dozens of huge boxes labeled Axeleron, a compound used for insulating cables that is made by Dow Chemical in Calgary, Canada. The boxes bore a production date of August 2014, before the current rounds of sanctions went into effect, although earlier measures banned the trade of dual-use goods, or products that have both civilian and military uses.
The Washington Post's Anna Fifield has been to North Korea seven times. Here, she reports from Pyongyang on what's changed in the city and what hasn't, like the government's control over the population and visiting media. (Jason Aldag,Anna Fifield/The Washington Post)
The United Nations with the United States, Japan, South Korea and even China is hoping that the punishments meted out to North Korea will hurt so much that they will change the regimes calculus, that tough restrictions on financing, shipping and the export of minerals will make Kim Jong Un and his cronies think that the price of pursuing nuclear weapons is too high. Bilateral measures have been imposed since February, while U.N. sanctions went into effect in March.
[North Korea announces five-year economic plan, its first since the 1980s]
So far, there is no reason to think that Kim is doubting his priorities. Amid much fanfare, the 33-year-old leader called the first congress of the Workers Party North Koreas one and only party and over the weekend declared that he would continue his simultaneous pursuit of economic growth and nuclear weapons.
We will consistently take hold on the strategic line of simultaneously pushing forward the economic construction and the building of nuclear force and boost self-defensive nuclear force both in quality and quantity as long as the imperialists persist in their nuclear threat and arbitrary practices, the congress, led by Kim, said in a decision Sunday.
In some senses, life in Pyongyang continues as normal. In the Kwangbok supermarket in the capital, North Koreans peruse shelves of Japanese mayonnaise and Ukrainian candy.
In the capitals shiny, marble-filled airport, completed last year, there was certainly no evidence that North Korea was having difficulties in getting high-tech equipment. All visitors luggage was put through large, brand-new X-ray machines and scanning equipment made by a Slovenian company. The duty-free shops were well stocked with Chivas Regal and Mumm champagne, Marlboros and Lucky Strikes.
Food is not sanctioned, but the existence of foreign products on the shelves is evidence that North Korea has ways to bring cargo into the country, legal or illegal.
1 of 68 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Inside North Korea as it prepares for a rare congress View Photos Three journalists from The Washington Post document a once-in-a-generation event. Caption Take a peek inside the reclusive nation.. May 10, 2016 A large portrait of former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung is surrounded by thousands in a parade in Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang at the culmination of the Workers Party congress. Linda Davidson/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.
But in other senses, there is a palpable apprehension that the sanctions could really hurt.
The banking sanctions were having a noticeable impact, foreign residents in Pyongyang said. Although embassies can continue to receive money, aid agencies that do not enjoy diplomatic privileges are having a much harder time.
The correspondent banks financial intermediaries in China or Russia that transfer money from Western bank accounts to North Korean ones have taken fright since the latest rounds of sanctions and have been refusing to handle money destined for North Korea, no matter the reason.
[North Korea leader hails nuclear and missile advances as rare party congress opens]
While the number of international aid agencies working in North Korea has dropped sharply in recent years, there are still scores of foreigners living in Pyongyang who need to pay rent and bills locally, and agencies that need to pay local staff. While the U.N. agencies that operate here have the clout of big institutions, small aid groups that run on cash are finding the sanctions particularly debilitating.
Now were stuck, said one aid worker, describing a so-far-futile quest to find a bank willing to act as a correspondent.
U.S. companies that deal with North Korea, such as tourism agencies, ask clients paying bills not to make any mention of North Korea on their payment forms.
Shipping companies also have begged off.
Theres been no direct impact on shippers, but weve seen shippers anticipating problems and refusing to accept cargo, said one aid worker. Even with letters from the U.N. sanctions committee describing the exception for humanitarian aid, shippers dont want to touch it, the worker said.
The foreign residents in Pyongyang spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying that speaking publicly about such sensitive matters could jeopardize their operations in North Korea.
The humanitarian community is experiencing trouble getting things in from China, said another expatriate in Pyongyang. Because of the commercial risk, companies are practicing selfcensorship. They feel that there is a risk in doing any business with North Korea, even if its for agricultural goods or hospital equipment.
Tourism, a growing source of revenue for the regime, has also been hurt. The Yanggakdo hotel, which has a casino in the basement, is usually teeming with Chinese tourists. This month, there were only three or four Chinese people in the hotel, excluding Chinese journalists invited to cover the congress.
Because there has been such a sharp drop in Chinese tourists, many of the scheduled Air China flights to Pyongyang are being canceled. Flights on Air Koryo, the North Korean state-owned airline, are seldom packed, according to frequent fliers.
[Watch: The Posts Anna Fifield in North Korea]
But the North Koreans who were on a recent flight all had significant luggage. Many carried large boxes wrapped in red-and-blue-striped plastic, while one checked a sizable wooden crate marked fragile; another took a 65-inch Sony Bravia television to check in as oversize luggage.
With aviation fuel now coming under sanctions, Air Koryo has reportedly been having trouble keeping its planes in service. It has canceled flights to Bangkok, afraid of not being able to refuel there, according to people who monitor the flights.
And while trade in gasoline is not prohibited under the sanctions, the North Korean authorities seem to be anticipating a shortage. They have ordered cars off the road on alternate days to ration fuel, and a North Korean minder allocated to accompany foreign journalists visiting Pyongyang said that the vans they were using would not be available on Sunday because of fuel shortages.
The general consensus here seems to be that its too early to tell whether the sanctions will hurt and how severe the pain will be.
Theres no reason to think sanctions are not working, said one frequent visitor to Pyongyang, but theres also no reason to think they are.
North Koreans will insist its the latter.
Read more:
North Korea announces five-year economic plan, its first since the 1980s
North Koreas ruling party is readying for a rare congress
The Post arrives in North Korea
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, appearing at a meeting Tuesday with the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, faces what could be her final hours in power as the Senate prepares to vote on whether to suspend her from office for an impeachment trial. (Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images)
Less than 24 hours after attempting to annul an impeachment vote against President Dilma Rousseff, the interim speaker of Brazils lower house changed his mind, torquing the countrys political system with yet another surprise.
Waldir Maranhao, who was named interim speaker of Brazils Chamber of Deputies just last week, said in a terse letter addressed to Senate President Renan Calheiros late Monday night that he had withdrawn his attempt to cancel last months vote to put Rousseff on trial. Maranhao gave no explanation for his decision, but his party had reportedly threatened to kick him out earlier in the day.
I revoke my decision, he wrote.
The announcement was another setback for Rousseff, with senators scheduled to vote Wednesday evening and her impeachment looking all but certain. If a simple majority of Brazils 81 senators vote to put her on trial, she will be suspended from office.
Rousseff is facing impeachment because of accusations that she used unauthorized loans from government banks to cover budget shortfalls and pay for popular social programs. Senators must decide whether that amounts to what Brazilian law considers a crime of responsibility. The presidents opponents say she misled lawmakers and the Brazilian public to conceal her mismanagement of government finances.
Rousseff insists that she did nothing wrong and that her predecessors have used the same budgetary tactics.
She appeared to get a reprieve Monday when Maranhao abruptly announced that he had accepted a request by Attorney General Jose Cardozo, who is defending Rousseff, to negate the April 17 impeachment vote in the lower house because of alleged irregularities in the proceedings.
The annulment attempt sent lawmakers scrambling in Brazils National Congress, as Rousseffs opponents bitterly denounced Maranhao and legal experts questioned his authority to cancel a vote that had already taken place.
By the afternoon, his annulment attempt was already falling apart. Calheiros announced to an uproar that he would ignore Maranhaos annulment attempt and proceed with the impeachment vote.
To accept this game-playing with our democracy would make me personally responsible for a delay in the process, he said.
Maranhao then held a news conference saying that he would stand firm and that his annulment attempt was a move to save democracy.
We are not and will not be at any moment playing at democracy, he said.
Waldir Maranhao, the acting speaker of the lower house of Brazils Congress. (Eraldo Peres/Associated Press)
But by late Monday night he had changed course yet again, annulling his annulment and causing more political chaos.
Elected deputy speaker of the house, Maranhao took over last week when speaker Eduardo Cunha was suspended by Brazils Supreme Court. Cunha faces corruption charges at the court for his alleged role in the enormous graft scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras. Maranhao has also been named in the investigation.
Brazils Senate will begin debating Rousseffs impeachment Wednesday morning, with a vote scheduled for 6 p.m. that would decide whether to put her on trial. Senators would have 180 days to determine whether to make her removal permanent. Vice President Michel Temer would replace her if she is suspended.
Read more
How Brazil, the darling of the developing world, came undone
Theres not much love for Brazils president, but maybe less for impeachment
Impeachment in Brazil: A brief guide to a big political mess
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
In front of portraits of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, and the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a S-300 missile system is displayed last month just outside Tehran during a parade marking Army Day. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)
Irans defense minister on Tuesday announced the delivery of a powerful S-300 air-defense missile system from Russia as part of an arms deal that was revived after the Islamic republic reached a framework nuclear agreement with world powers last year.
Iranian Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan said at least one S-300 system, often compared to the U.S. Patriot surface-to-air missile system, has been delivered to the Khatam al-Anbiya base, Iranian state news agencies reported. Russian officials have said they plan to deliver at least four of the missile defense systems by the end of the year.
The delivery is part of an $800 million contract signed in 2007 under which Russia was to provide Iran with five modern S-300 systems, which have a range of about 120 miles and can engage aircraft or short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. Russia suspended the deliveries in 2010, amid protests from Israel and the United States.
[The key moments in the long history of U.S.-Iran tensions]
Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban last year shortly after the signing of the framework nuclear deal in Lausanne, Switzerland, which eventually led to a final agreement in July. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said publicly at the time that there was no longer any need for this kind of embargo, adding that the ban on the missile sales had been unilateral and voluntary.
Elizabeth Trudeau, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said that the United States objects to the sale of such sophisticated equipment as the S-300 but that it does not violate either the nuclear deal or U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Its a sophisticated piece of military apparatus, she said, adding: Weve made our concerns known for quite some time on this particular piece of equipment.
Since the July accord partially ended sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program, Russia has eyed new weapons contracts and commercial deals with Iran as the country emerges from international isolation. According to Russian media reports, those include sales of warplanes, tanks and ships not covered under weapons sanctions that were imposed by the United Nations and remain in effect.
Iran paraded components of the missile system during an Army Day celebration last month, although an expert at IHS Janes, a defense analysis company, noted that the engagement radar, missiles and launchers were not displayed. The missiles, which are typically launched from the back of a truck, can be deployed quickly and can hit multiple targets at once.
Read more:
Obama official says he pushed a narrative to media to sell the Iran nuclear deal
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
A knife-wielding man killed one person and injured three on Tuesday at a commuter railway station in southern Germany, but investigators found no evidence that the assailant had ties to known militant cells and said he would undergo psychological tests.
Authorities said the suspect, a 27-year-old German, had yelled comments suggesting ties to Islamist factions, including infidel, you must die, during the attacks in the Bavarian town of Grafing, about 25 miles southeast of Munich.
Lothar Kohler, a spokesman for the Bavarian Office of Criminal Investigation, told reporters that there was no evidence linking the attacker to Islamist militant networks or suggesting that he was radicalized or incited by videos or other sources.
The attacker has received psychiatric treatment in the past and told police he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the attack, investigators said. Kohler added, however, that the motive for the attack remains unclear.
[How Belgium became a hub of terror in Europe]
Forensic experts stand on a platform of the train station in Grafing, southern Germany, where a man killed one person and wounded three others in a knife attack. (Andreas Gebert/AFP/Getty Images)
Prosecutor Ken Heidenreich said that the suspect was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday and that a psychological examination would be carried out to establish whether he could be held criminally responsible. Authorities would then decide whether to issue an arrest warrant or temporarily hospitalize him.
The victims were between ages 43 and 58. A 56-year-old man died from his injuries shortly after arriving at a hospital.
Although the investigation appeared to veer away from terrorism, security agencies across Germany immediately took notice.
Police in Germany have stepped up raids against suspected Islamist militants after terrorist attacks in Paris in November and bombings in Brussels in March both linked to the Islamic State extremist group.
That it could happen here is absolutely stupefying, Grafing Mayor Angelika Obermayr told the Associated Press.
In February, a 15-year-old girl stabbed a police officer in the neck with a knife at a train station in the northern German city of Hanover. Germanys federal prosecutor said the girl had been in contact with a Syrian-based Islamist militant group.
In August, a suspected Islamist militant armed with a knife and gun was subdued by passengers, including three Americans, on a journey from Amsterdam to Paris.
Murphy reported from Washington.
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Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
The United Nations and Human Rights Watch accused Turkish security forces Tuesday of committing serious human rights violations against Turkish civilians and Syrian refugees in recent months.
The allegations come as Europe has pushed Turkey to help stem the flow of migrants to Europe while also calling on Turkish authorities to soften anti-terrorism laws to limit rights abuses.
Turkish security forces may have deliberately shot civilians, destroyed infrastructure, carried out arbitrary arrests and triggered a wave of displacement in an ongoing military campaign against ethnic Kurdish separatists in the countrys southeast, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein said Tuesday. He urged Turkish authorities to allow independent investigators to probe the alleged attacks, which he called extremely alarming.
A separate report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Turkish border guards of shooting at and beating Syrian asylum seekers along Turkeys frontier with the war-ravaged nation. At least five people have been killed in the past two months, the rights group said. Turkish officials have previously denied reports that border guards have fired at refugees or forced them back into Syria.
A senior Turkish official said Tuesday that the government is unable to verify the authenticity of a video, posted by Human Rights Watch, that purports to show the bodies of Syrian refugees killed by Turkish forces at the border.
Turkeys state-run news agency said at least three people were killed and 20 hurt in a car bombing May 10, 2016, that targeted a bus carrying police officers in Diyarbakir. Here, security and forensics officers work at the site of the explosion. (Mahmut Bozarslan/AP)
Turkey maintains an open-door policy toward refugees, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. But the open-door policy isnt the same as open borders, the official said. Turkey admits refugees at designated points of entry.
Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on Turkey to investigate the claims in its report, including that border guards had fired on Syrians fleeing artillery fire.
The reports are likely to bring further scrutiny to a controversial deal made by European and Turkish leaders to halt the flow of migrants to Europe. Turkey has agreed to accept the return of asylum seekers whose applications are rejected by the European Union in exchange for more than $6 billion in aid and visa-free travel for Turkish citizens. But Turkeys recent slide toward authoritarianism has alarmed critics, and the European Commission, the E.U.s executive body, called on Turkey earlier this month to modify its terrorism legislation.
The anti-terrorism laws have been used to target journalists and academics and to pursue the governments war against Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey.
The decades-old conflict between Turkeys government and the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) flared last year after peace talks broke down. Since then, PKK guerrillas have killed scores of members of the Turkish security forces, and other Kurdish militants are suspected in bomb attacks in the capital, Ankara.
A car bomb targeting a police convoy in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir killed three people Tuesday, Turkeys state-run news agency reported.
Also Tuesday, the United Nations said many majority-Kurdish towns and villages in the southeast had been sealed off for weeks by Turkish security forces and are still next to impossible to access.
Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said mortar and other artillery fire in these areas have caused highly disproportionate destruction of property. He also said he has received reports that ambulances and medical staff were prevented from reaching the wounded.
Most disturbing of all, Hussein said, are reports suggesting more than 100 people were burned to death as they sheltered in basements that had been surrounded by security forces in the southeastern town of Cizre.
The allegations are extremely serious and should be thoroughly investigated, Hussein said. The Turkish government has not responded positively to U.N. requests to visit the area, he said.
In response to Husseins allegations, the Turkish official said the U.N. statement does not accurately reflect the situation in southeastern Turkey.
Last year, the PKK, which both Turkey and the U.S. consider a terrorist organization, started engaging the security forces in residential areas as opposed to the countryside, where they traditionally operated, the official said. Throughout the counterterrorism campaign, the Turkish security forces went to great lengths to prevent civilian casualties and minimize the effects of clashes on local communities.
Turkey currently hosts more than 2 million Syrian refugees, according to official government statistics.
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Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Cheryl Mills, left, listens as former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton testifies before a House committee in 2015. (SAUL LOEB/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)
Near the beginning of a recent interview, an FBI investigator broached a topic with longtime Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills that her lawyer and the Justice Department had agreed would be off-limits, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Mills and her lawyer left the room though both returned a short time later and prosecutors were somewhat taken aback that their FBI colleague had ventured beyond what was anticipated, the people said.
Investigators consider Mills who served as chief of staff while Clinton was secretary of state to be a cooperative witness. But the episode demonstrates some of the tension surrounding the criminal probe into possible mishandling of classified information involving the leading Democratic presidential candidate. In the coming weeks, prosecutors and FBI agents hope to be able to interview Clinton herself as they work to bring the case to a close.
[Officials: Scant evidence that Clinton had malicious intent in handling of emails]
The incident was described to The Washington Post by several people, including U.S. law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing and those involved could face professional consequences for discussing it publicly.
There are at least three ongoing investigations into Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State. Here's an explanation of who is investigating, and why. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)
It is not completely unknown for FBI agents and prosecutors to diverge on interview tactics and approach, and the people familiar with the matter said Mills answered investigators questions. Mills and her lawyer, Beth Wilkinson, also asked for breaks more than once to confer, the people said.
The questions that were considered off-limits had to do with the procedure used to produce emails to the State Department so they could possibly be released publicly, the people said. Mills, an attorney herself, was not supposed to be asked questions about that and ultimately never was in the recent interview because it was considered confidential as an example of attorney-client privilege, the people said.
So far, investigators have found scant evidence tying Clinton to criminal wrongdoing, though they are still probing the case aggressively and charges have not been ruled out, U.S. officials have said. In recent weeks, they have been interviewing Mills and other aides. One former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Clintons private email server, Bryan Pagliano, was granted immunity so he would cooperate as part of the probe.
There is no indication a grand jury has been convened in the case.
In response to this story, Wilkinson said, Ms. Mills has cooperated with the government. The Clinton campaign also did not provide a response, but spokesman Brian Fallon has said repeatedly that Clinton is willing to answer investigators questions, and he added in a recent statement that we hope and expect that anyone else who is asked would do the same.
Clinton herself said on CBSs Face The Nation Sunday that she has made it clear Im more than ready to talk to anybody, anytime and that she looked forward to the inquiry being wrapped up.
[Cheryl Millss Q&A with The Washington Post]
1 of 9 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Takeaways from Hillary Clintons e-mails View Photos Clinton has come under fire for using a private e-mail address during her time as secretary of state. The emails are being screened and released in batches. Here are some things weve learned from them. Caption Clinton has come under fire for using a private email address during her time as secretary of state. The emails are being screened and released in batches. Here are some things weve learned from them. Top-secret information in e-mails Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has previously stated that classified information never traveled across her private server. However, the State Department has acknowledged that "top secret" information was in seven email chains sent or received by her. Richard Drew/AP Wait 1 second to continue.
In an interview with The Post last year, Mills agreed of Clintons email if you could do it again, youd just do it again differently, but Mills said she did not recall the topic being a major area of conversation or engagement.
I wish there had been a lot more thought and deliberation around it, but I cant tell you that I can offer you that insight that there was, she said. I think it was just a continuation of a process that she had been engaged in, in terms of using her own account, and it was consistent with what the Department had seen in the past.
Mills said in the interview that she did not recall having conversations about security vulnerabilities. She would not say then whether she had spoken to the FBI but offered the general assurance that weve obviously sought to be, to cooperate with the FBI and to provide them whatever information theyve needed to be able to conduct the inquiry that theyre doing.
Her attorney, Wilkinson, is a seasoned lawyer who handled many high-profile cases when she worked at the Justice Department as an assistant U.S. attorney. She received the departments highest award for the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombers.
Spokesmen for the FBI, the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia declined to comment.
[Clinton, on her private server, wrote 104 emails the government says are classified]
The issue of Clintons use of a private email server was referred to the FBI in July after the Office of the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community found that some of the emails that traversed her server contained classified material. A Post analysis of Clintons publicly released correspondence found Clinton wrote 104 emails that she sent using her private server while secretary of state that the government has since said contain classified information. The Post also found, though, emails with classified information written by about 300 other people inside and outside the government.
Critics of Clinton have said her use of a private server exposed sensitive information to a possible breach, and Clinton herself has said using it was a mistake.
Adam Goldman contributed to this report.
Read more:
Officials: Scant evidence that Clinton had malicious intent in handling of emails
What does a former staffers immunity deal mean for Hillary Clinton?
Hacker accused of exposing Clintons private email, Bush paintings appears in U.S. court
Rodrigo the Punisher Duterte looks poised to be the Philippines next president, news that could have a major impact on the standoff in the South China Sea.
With unofficial tallies giving him a commanding lead, the tough-talking mayor asserted a win. Its with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people, Duterte told Agence France-Presse, the French news agency, as the results came in.
But Dutertes rise has been anything but humble and quiet, with the longtime mayor making international headlines for threatening to kill suspected criminals, joking about the rape and murder of a missionary, and promising to ride a Jet Ski to plant a Philippine flag on disputed reefs.
[As Philippines picks new president, the Punisher looks poised to win]
For his legions of fans in the Philippines, Dutertes brash comments are as appealing as his promise to completely stamp out crime and corruption in just six months. They see him as a superman ready to challenge the status quo and willing to stand up for the little guy.
In the Philippines, presidential candidate and longtime Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte has stirred up contention with his brash, off-color statements on rape, extrajudicial killings and more. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
To his critics within and beyond the country, including in the United States, Dutertes win is worrisome. They wonder how the man Human Rights Watch dubbed the death squad mayor will handle domestic and international policy, and are concerned about the return to the country of strongman politics.
One of the biggest unknowns is his China policy. Foreign relations has been a major gap in Dutertes published platform to date, and he and his team have yet to publicly define their approach to the South China Sea, said Jay L. Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea as its inherent territory, based on maps that scoop into exclusive maritime economic zones claimed by the Philippines and others. In recent years, Beijing has built up islands across the area, adding civilian and military infrastructure to the outposts.
President Benigno Aquino III took a hard line with Beijing once comparing China to Nazi Germany and found himself frozen out.
With Chinese ships pressing farther south, Aquino moved to ramp up military cooperation with the United States. A defense pact upheld this year allows the U.S. military to build facilities at five Philippine bases, and more ships already are stopping by the former U.S. naval base at Subic Bay.
The deal, signed in the run-up to a ruling on the South China Sea by an international tribunal, will put more U.S. ships and troops in close proximity with Chinese forces, deepening the standoff. On Tuesday morning, the day after the election, a U.S. warship sailed close to the Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, Reuters reported.
It is unclear how Duterte plans to navigate the issue.
1 of 26 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad Who is Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte? View Photos He made headlines recently with comments about a rape victim. Caption He made headlines recently after saying he wanted U.S. troops out of his country. Dec. 14, 2016 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte arrives for a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Heng Sinith/AP Wait 1 second to continue.
In February, he shocked many by suggesting he might be willing to soften the Philippines stance significantly if Beijing is willing to pay.
The arrangement Duterte proposed would see the Chinese build railroads in his home region in return for his temporary silence on the South China Sea. Build us a railway just like the one you built in Africa, and lets set aside disagreements for a while, he said.
Duterte later expressed skepticism about the Philippines case at the tribunal, questioning the worth of a ruling that China has said it wont accept. I have a similar position as Chinas. I dont believe in solving the conflict through an international tribunal, he said.
He also expressed support for bilateral talks with Beijing and suggested the possibility of joint exploration of the areas natural resources. If negotiations will be in still waters in one or two years, I will talk to the Chinese, he said.
Beijing has been calling for bilateral talks with its South China Sea neighbors, one by one. Critics in the Philippines and elsewhere argue that such an approach would give Beijing an unfair advantage over the smaller countries.
And then there was the Jet Ski pledge. I will go there on my own with a Jet Ski, bringing along with me a flag and a pole, and once I disembark, I will plant the flag on the runway and tell the Chinese authorities, Kill me, he said.
Of course, China would prefer less talk of heroism and heated nationalism. Though Beijing has been characteristically quiet on how it plans to engage Duterte, it is no doubt pleased by his apparent willingness to strike a deal.
On Tuesday, the English-language edition of Global Times, an organ of the ruling Communist Party of China, accused Manila and the media of hyping the political dimensions of the conflict at the expense of economic concerns.
An editorial in the same paper struck a similar tone, noting that the Philippine public cares most about livelihoods, and nationalistic slogans cannot feed them.
The piece blasted Aquino but expressed optimism about Dutertes ability to change Manilas unscrupulous policy toward China.
If there is anything that can be changed by Duterte, it will be diplomacy, it stated.
His challenge will be engaging China without alienating the United States.
If Duterte pushes ahead with joint development agreements or bilateral talks, he will need to tread carefully, said Richard Javad Heydarian, an assistant professor of political science at Manilas De La Salle University.
Given strong domestic anti-China sentiment and institutionalized security ties with America, he said, Duterte will have to keep Washington a key strategic partner on [his] side.
Read more
The Trump of the East could be the next president of the Philippines
After shocking rape joke, Filipino politician could still become countrys next president
With China pressing south, U.S. ships return to the Philippines Subic Bay
Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
People at a shop in Karachi, Pakistan, follow the news about the release of Ali Haider Gilani on Tuesday. (Shakil Adil/AP)
U.S. and Afghan commandos rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan, three years after he was kidnapped and apparently held by militants linked to al-Qaeda.
The success of the mission to free Ali Haider Gilani, a former candidate for Parliament, prompted joy on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
For Pakistani leaders, Gilani was one of the most high-profile figures caught in the countrys struggle against Islamist extremists over the past decade. Gilanis father, Yousuf Raza Gilani, served as prime minister from 2008 to 2012.
[Pentagon looks at Afghan exit plans]
For Afghanistans military, the operation was further confirmation that the countrys special operations forces are becoming more adept at high-stakes counterterrorism missions, albeit still working in conjunction with the U.S. military.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani speaks May 10 in Bagh after his son, Ali Haider Gilani, was rescued in Afghanistan. (Amiruddin Mughal/European Pressphoto Agency)
In separate statements, the U.S.-led military coalition and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the raid that freed Gilani occurred early Tuesday in Paktika province.
The counterterror mission was planned and launched after evidence of terrorist activity was confirmed, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement. It said four suspected militants were killed during the operation.
Sartaj Aziz, Pakistans foreign affairs adviser, said Gilanis transfer to Pakistan is being arranged following a required medical checkup.
In a statement posted to Facebook, Afghanistans ambassador to Pakistan, Omar Zakhilwal, said Gilani had been held by an al Qaeda-affiliated group.
Gunmen snatched Gilani on May 9, 2013, as he was campaigning for a seat in Parliament in the eastern Pakistani city of Multan. Two other people were killed during the assault, which at the time served as a reminder of the growing potency of the Islamist militant threat in Pakistan.
He is the youngest son of Yousuf Raza Gilani, whose family is part of the leadership of the moderate Pakistan Peoples Party.
[Could U.S. forces remain in Afghanistan for decades?]
Six-year-old Jamal Uddin, photographed May 10 in Lahore, Pakistan, celebrates the release of his father, Ali Haider Gilani. (K.M. Chaudary/AP)
Pakistani officials had suspected that Ali Haider Gilani believed to be in his early 30s was being held in Afghanistan.
The detention, as well as allegations that some of Pakistans most-wanted terrorists also find refuge in Afghanistan, has complicated efforts by U.S. and Afghan officials to get Pakistan to do more to target Taliban leaders who seek haven on the Pakistani side of the border.
Tuesdays raid could now increase the pressure on Pakistans military to do more in targeting Afghanistans foes.
We are committed to fight terrorism and clearly showed to Pakistan our willingness, and we urge Pakistan to show its commitment, too, said Dawa Khan Menapal, a spokesman for the Afghan president.
The rescue is another sign that the U.S. military remains a major player in the 14-year Afghan conflict.
On Friday, the U.S.-led coalition issued a statement saying that American forces helped Afghan commandos raid a Taliban prison over the weekend in Helmand province, freeing more than 60 people.
In recent weeks, U.S. military officials have also become more frank in talking about how American forces are still deployed in Afghanistan.
Generally, the 9,800 U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan are constrained from unprovoked operations against the Taliban insurgency.
[Inside Obamas drone war]
But President Obama has authorized the U.S. military to continue both defensive and offensive operations against al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, including airstrikes and ground operations.
Since the start of the year, for example, the U.S.-led coalition has carried out more than 70 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Afghanistan.
In recent weeks, Afghan officials say the coalition has also become more engaged in launching allegedly defensive strikes against Taliban fighters seeking to tighten their grip on provinces that surround the Afghan capital.
On Tuesday, officials in the countrys northeastern Kunduz province reported that a U.S. drone killed 12 Taliban fighters, including one of the insurgent groups senior commanders.
Meanwhile, Taliban fighters claimed they shot down a U.S. drone this week over Afghanistans volatile region near the Pakistani border, a boast the insurgent group has falsely made before.
Officials with the U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan confirmed Tuesday that they lost contact with the drone that was flying over the countrys Nangahar province. Taliban forces in that area have made advances in recent months, and Islamic State militants are believed to have a small presence there.
But downing a drone would be difficult, given the crafts small size and high-altitude operation.
We can confirm that we have lost contact with a remotely piloted aircraft, officials with Resolute Support, the NATO operation in Afghanistan, said in a statement. At this time we cannot confirm the cause.
Craig reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. Mohammad Sharif and Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul contributed to this report.
Read more
Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
On Monday afternoon, Austrian government leader Werner Faymann announced his immediate resignation from all offices at a press conference in Vienna. As well as resigning as chancellor, he is also standing down as chairman of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPO).
Faymanns resignation is the result of a long rightward development of the SPO, which has led to a dramatic loss of votes. The highpoint of this development was the presidential election in late April. The SPO candidate Rudolf Hundstorfer, a longtime union bureaucrat, won just over 10 percent of the vote and failed to reach the second round.
Although the SPO has been almost completely ruined under Faymanns leadership, he said in his resignation statement that he was proud of his work for the country. In a display of smugness that is hard to beat, he said that despite structural deficits the social force of the country had been strengthened. He said that wherever he went in Europe he was asked, How did you manage that?
Faymann took over as SPO chairman in the crisis year of 2008, and was elected chancellor shortly after. In coalition with the conservative Austrian Peoples Party (OVP), he has pursued a strict austerity course at the cost of the working class. Under his government, the retirement age was raised, public jobs massively cut and wages curbed. Over the last five years, the number of unemployed rose from 300,000 to 475,000, meaning more than 10 percent are unemployed. At the same time, the wealth of those at the top of society has grown enormously.
Resistance to this policy has been expressed in one election defeat after another for the SPO. The Wiener Standard has shown that under Faymann, the SPO lost votes in 18 of 20 state, federal and European elections. A few days ago, Faymann was booed at the May Day rally outside Viennas City Hall. He only completed his speech with difficulty.
The right-wing policies that the SPO has pushed through with the OVP against all opposition have opened the way for the far-right FPO. This was particularly the case in immigration policy. After an initially liberal course, the Faymann government made an abrupt U-turn, sealed the borders to Hungary and Italy, imposed an upper limit for refugees, and eliminated the right to asylum, working closely with the right-wing government in Hungary and other Balkan states.
It was not only in terms of content that the Social Democrats have moved towards the right-wing extremists. In Burgenland, the SPO formed a coalition state government with the Freedom Party last year.
Under these circumstances, the FPO candidate Norbert Hofer won 35 percent of the vote in the first round of the recent presidential election, and has a good chance of winning the runoff on May 22. For the first time since the founding of the second Austrian republic 71 years ago, an extreme right-wing ideologue could enter the presidential palace at Hofburg who advocates Islamophobic and xenophobic views, sympathises with the far-right Pegida movement and rejects the EU.
Faymann and the Social Democrats have responded to the electoral success of the far-right with a further shift to the right. In the meantime, for all intents they have abolished the right to asylum. The government can now impose a state of emergency if public order and the protection of domestic security can no longer be guaranteed due to high numbers of refugees. In practice, this means this takes effect when the ceiling of 37,500 immigrants per year set by the government is reached.
Faymann explicitly defended the right-wing course of the party when he resigned. It was right, he said, to end the welcoming culture and enforce a restrictive refugee policy. It would have been irresponsible not to implement our own actions, he said.
With Faymanns resignation, the SPO is moving even closer to the FPO. The main topic at yesterdays meeting of the Federal Executive was the so-called realignment of the party. This outlines closer collaboration with the right-wing extremists.
At the end of April, Faymann had announced the creation of a strategy group regarding further dealings with the FPO. This is directed towards overturning a previously binding party decision from 2014 banning any coalition with the FPO. In practice, it has had no relevance for a long time. But ending the official ban on forming a coalition with the FPO would be a sign that the Social Democratic Party leadership is moving even further to the right.
Chancellery Minister Josef Ostermayer had already indicated the lifting of the ban at the weekend. It could go in the direction that the various levelsmunicipalities, federal statesdecide themselves whether cooperation makes sense, Ostermayer told the Osterreich newspaper.
The Burgenland Social Democrats, who already govern together with the Freedom Party, had spoken out before becoming aware of Faymanns resignation, saying it made sense to end the exclusion of the FPO at the federal level. Faction leader Robert Hergovich said on Monday in Eisenstadt: We do not believe in leaving a strategic advantage to the OVP, by saying that we will work with no one but the OVP. He said the time was now ripe to formulate these pragmatic positions.
Governor Hans Niessl (SPO), who has governed together with the FPO since last year, told the broadcaster O1 that it concerned the future of social democracy. Not everything was sorted out by changing one person, he said. It also concerned the future attitude of the SPO towards the FPO. Something had to change there, he said. The Social Democratic mayor of Steyr, Gerald Hackl, also stressed the points of intersection with the FPO, and called for cooperation.
Those calling most vehemently for a further sharp shift to the right are the trade unions. Erich Foglar, head of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (OGB), pleaded expressly for collaboration with the ultra-right. He told news magazine profil that a government coalition with the FPO could not be ruled out. According to Foglar, there was nothing objectionable in an alliance with a party that advocates an openly xenophobic and nationalist programme.
In a guest commentary for profil, Josef Muchitsch (chairman of the construction workers union) railed against left-wing dreamers in the SPO and demanded Faymanns resignation in order to facilitate moves towards the FPO. The policy of exclusion towards the FPO is a mistake, he wrote. Demarcation where it is understandable, but general exclusion, no. If there are reasonable people at the municipal and state level in the FPO who support us in implementing our policies, that should not be prevented.
The resignation of Faymann and the closer collaboration of the SPO and FPO heralds the final stage in the decline of the Austrian Social Democrats.
He is truly our Prince Charming, Michelle Obama said at the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games. (Photo: Getty Images)
Michelle Obama spoke for most American women on Sunday when, at the opening of the Invictus Games, she dubbed Prince Harry our Prince Charming. The famously eligible bachelor, 31, is in the good ole U.S.A. for the sporting event he founded for wounded veterans and hes easily winning over our citizens one at a time.
Prince Harry and Morgan Freeman share a handshake and a knowing look. (Photo: Getty Images)
Not only does he have FLOTUSs seal of approval, the redheaded royal got some support from God well, close in the earthly form of Morgan Freeman, who voiced the deity in Bruce Almighty. The Academy Award winner, who also starred in the film Invictus, is a games ambassador and looked pretty excited to have face time with Harry.
Yes, ladies, he loves kids. (Photo: Getty Images)
Even the noncelebrity photos from the event are delightful. When Prince Williams little brother isnt getting up close and personal with the participants, hes driving the ladies mad by posing in one adorable photo after another with grinning children. That can only be topped by the cute photos of Harry nearly getting kissed by a service dog.
Cmon could he be any cuter? They even have the same color hair. (Photo: Getty Images)
What can we say? The guy clearly knows how to work a crowd. Even this guy had Harry mania.
This photo, with a Team USA Invictus member, is everything. (Photo: Getty Images)
Having Harry on U.S. soil, however, brings us back to his most memorable visit to the states ever and, no, not when Princess Diana took him to Disney World in 1993. Were talking about his lost weekend in Las Vegas in August 2012.
Lets rewind a bit to when Captain Wales, as he was known in his army days, was doing a two-month military training in the western U.S. and made his way to Sin City for some headline-making debauchery. Good-time Harry, who was no stranger to controversy, was photographed partying in a hotel hot tub with no shortage of ladies, but that was only the start. TMZ ran photos of him in the buff playing a game of strip billiards in a VIP hotel suite.
Story continues
Harrys weekend in Vegas was a royal headline-grabber. (Photo: Splash News)
The details were almost unbelievable. Harry and his entourage met some ladies at a hotel bar and invited them to his $8,000-a-night suite at the Wynn and Encore hotel complex. A game of strip pool resulted in a naked Harry running around the room. In one photo, he was pressed up against a nude woman. The kicker was that his security guards, which you know were all fired, didnt confiscate the ladies cameras, so they snapped photos and later sold them. There were more crown jewels headlines than you could count.
While the ladies enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame, Buckingham Palace officials moved to get publication of the photos banned in Britain, arguing to the countrys Press Complaints Commission that they were a breach of the princes privacy. Their official statement? Harry was taking some private time in the U.S. Private was one word for it.
(Photo: CBS This Morning)
The tabloids made up tales about how the royals would be flying to the U.S. to set Harry straight we envisioned the queen smacking him around with one of her fascinators but the buzz surrounding the scandal quickly died down just weeks later when he returned to the front lines in Afghanistan. And in a 2014 interview with Man of the World, he was asked about the Vegas hijinks and he said rather perfectly, It was probably a classic case of me being too much Army and not enough prince.
While promoting the Invictus Games on Monday, he was interviewed on the Today show. After fielding questions about when hell have children (I have no idea, said George and Charlottes uncle. I dont even have a girlfriend at the moment), he was asked about his wilder days. Again, he charmed with his reply.
To me, its a part of growing up, he smiled. Youve got to find your own path. If you slip off, if people dont tell you youve slipped off, then you sure as hell work it out yourself.
Looks like he has sure as hell worked it out himself.
The end of The Force Awakens saw Rey approach Luke Skywalker on a rocky island. The real-world location of that meeting was the Irish island of Skellig Michael. Episode VIII returned there for more shooting, as we told you back in March. Now, as RTE reports, another part of Ireland, the mainlands northernmost point of Malin Head, is hosting the Star Wars film crew, and the Irish are really excited.
Hugh Farren, of Farrens Bar, told the Irish newscast why he decided to put a large portrait of a certain Jedi favorite on his establishment. We wanted to mark something here at Farrens Bar to say that were happy that Star Wars is here, and we picked Yoda as the best Jedi knight, he said.
The Irish Mirror reports that theres a heavy security presence around the Star Wars set, but that hasnt stopped hundreds of tourists arriving each day to check it out. Martina Quirke, who runs a small store, said shes happy to have the visitors. People that have never been here before are coming in to see Star Wars and obviously the area itself. And hopefully theyll come back again and visit us.
Because some roads will be closed from May 15 to 17, those are the rumored dates for filming. So youd better buy your tickets, like now, if you want to join in on the fun. For now, the locals are just thrilled to be near important set pieces for the next installment of Star Wars. To think for one second that we have the Millennium Falcon sitting out at Irelands most northerly point, like its next door to us its just immense, Farren said with a big smile.
Rian Johnson Celebrates Star Wars: Episode VIII Milestone With New Behind-the-Scenes Pictures:
Have you ever taken a special trip just to go check out a film that was shooting? Let us know! You can hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Khail Anonymous, on Twitter.
The second season of the popular Italian crime series Gomorrah will premiere Tuesday across Sky Europe. Sky on Monday debuted in Rome a special preview of the new series, which is based on the best-selling book about the Neapolitan mafia by Roberto Saviano.
At the presentation, held in the elegant Opera House of Rome, the author was present alongside the main cast and veteran directors Stefano Sollima, Claudio Cuppellini and Francesca Comencini and newcomer helmer Claudio Giovannesi.
"My obsession is the power," Saviano said after the screening. "It is the most difficult thing to do, but to describe the access to power, it means also to understand criminality, to understand politics, to understand also human feelings."
The new season was shot in 32 weeks between Italy, Germany and Costa Rica, involving 200 actors, 3,500 extras and about 600 crew personnel.
The new episodes were produced by Sky Atlantic, Italy's Cattleya and Fandango in cooperation with Germany's Beta Film. Gomorrah has already been sold in over 130 countries, including the U.S. (Sundance TV).
With an average of 700,000 viewers for each of its 12 episodes for the first season, Gomorrah has been the most successful series broadcast by Sky Italia. With an average of 950,000 spectators on Canal+ in France, Gomorrah also broke records as the best non-French European debut on the channel.
"Gomorrah represented a revolution in a market that is in constant expansion in Italy," said Sky Italia's director of original productions Nils Hartmann. "In the United States, this process already started a few years ago. With Gomorrah, it is the most ever viewed series and the most downloaded of Sky Italia, and we are following this trend. Indeed, we are already planning the third and fourth seasons."
With Netflix, Amazon and Vivendi knocking on the door, the ambitions of Sky Italia need to measure up to an increasingly aggressive global market.
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"There is a strategy of strong investments on original content," Sky Italia's executive vp programming Andrea Scrosati told The Hollywood Reporter. "Today we have a big advantage. We are in a position to work knowing that we can rely on a potential audience of 21 million families. We stand at a unique opportunity, and we have to make the most out of it."
Between the other current productions poised to leverage Sky Europe's vast market standing, upcoming Sky Italia original content includes The Young Pope, directed by Academy Awarded-winning director Paolo Sorrentino, from HBO and Canal+, and Zero Zero Zero, also from a Saviano book on cocaine trafficking, co-produced with Canal+. The network also is expected to launch a follow-up to its popular political series 1992.
The Pan-European pay TV giant Sky ended its fiscal third quarter, which ran through March, with 12.35 million customers in the U.K. and Ireland, 8.63 million in Italy and 7.91 million in Germany and Austria.
The second season of Gomorrah will air weekly beginning May 10 simultaneously in all five countries.
On Aug. 24, the first season also will be shown in the U.S. on Sundance TV, which purchased seasons one and two from The Weinstein Company.
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Good morning. Here's everything you need to know in the world of advertising today.
1. Facebook said its guidelines prevent employees from suppressing certain kinds of news. The company's statement comes in the wake of a report from Gizmodo where several former news "curators" said that the team routinely omitted right-wing news sources from Facebook's trending news section.
2. These are the 10 best-selling beer brands in the world. In recent years, the hierarchy of international brands has been massively shaken up by the increasing popularity of the alcoholic drink in China.
3. Comcast acquired French ad tech company StickyAds for more than $100 million. StickyAds is an SSP that specializes in helping publishers and TV broadcasters sell their video advertising inventory, both online and on TV.
4. Google is testing a change to one of its most iconic designs. The company is trying out changing its blue links in search results to black.
5. Tom Hanks is trying to save the world from a plague in the "Inferno" trailer. Seven years after playing Robert Langdon in "Angels & Demons," Tom Hanks returns for the character's latest adventure.
6. An interview with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Hastings and Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos spoke with VentureBeat over lunch in Marseille.
7. Spotify is diving headfirst into original video by making 12 TV-style shows. These shows will feature the likes of rap mogul Russell Simmons and Oscar-winner Tim Robbins, and will be available to all of Spotify's 75 million users.
8. One of Reddit's biggest communities wants to ban links from publishers that force you to turn off your ad blocker. The subreddit /r/technology has put the idea to the vote amongst subscribers and it appears they're overwhelmingly in favor.
9. A Muslim charity is putting "Allah is great" posters on buses. Hundreds of British buses will carry adverts praising Allah as part of a campaign launched by the countrys biggest Muslim charity to help victims of Syrias civil war.
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10. Adblock Plus, the popular ad blocking software, says it now has more than 100 million "active users." While the company counts "users" as an "active installation" (meaning someone who has used the Adblock Plus browser extension or app on multiple devices will be counted multiple of times if they use it at least once on any of those devices over a monthly period,) it suggests Adblock Plus has captured around half of the global ad blocking audience, according to the latest estimates from PageFair and Adobe.
NOW WATCH: Heres why your jeans have that tiny front pocket
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Maputo (AFP) - Mozambique police confirmed Tuesday that 13 bodies had been found in the restive centre of the country where security forces have clashed with rebels from the Renamo group in recent months.
The bodies were reported by local journalists last week while investigating allegations of a separate mass grave containing 120 corpses in the same area.
"The 13 bodies were buried on Saturday near the place where they were found," Armando Mude, police spokesman for Manica province, told AFP.
"Due to their advanced state of decomposition, it was not possible to determine whether the bodies had bullet marks or not."
The victims appeared to have been killed more than 45 days ago, he said.
Human Rights Watch last week called for a "credible and transparent" investigation into the reported mass grave of 120 bodies.
According to some farmers, villagers were killed by government troops who are battling the Renamo insurgents.
Renamo fought a 16-year war against the Frelimo-led government that ended in 1992 before it became the largest opposition party.
The Mozambican Human Rights League (LDH) on Tuesday called for a United Nations-led investigation into the alleged killings.
At least 83 summary executions have been reported since the start of the year, LDH president Alice Mabota told reporters in Maputo.
"It is time that the authorities officially acknowledge that the clashes between security forces and Renamo armed men are not isolated... but that we are facing a civil war," she said.
Renamo rejected the results of 2014 elections, which were won by Frelimo, the movement that led the country to independence from Portugal in 1975 and has ruled ever since.
So what did you do today? Fifteen-year-old William Gadoury of Saint-Jean-de-Matha, Quebec, discovered an abandoned Mayan city after analyzing constellations, no big deal. And because when you discover an ancient city, you get to name it. Gadoury is calling the city "K'aak Chi," which translates to "Fire Mouth."
Gadoury noticed the ancient Mayan people appeared to develop their cities based on the stars in the sky, and decided to test his theory. After covering a star chart depicting several constellations over a map of the Yucatan peninsula, located in southeastern Mexico, he discovered a correlation that no other scientist has thus far made known: The ancient Mayans built their cities based on the locations of the constellations.
"I did not understand why the Mayan built their cities away from rivers, on infertile lands and in the mountains," Gadoury told the Journal de Montreal. "[They] had to have another reason, and as they worshiped the stars, the idea came to me to verify my hypothesis. I was really surprised and excited when I realized that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched the largest Mayan cities."
Source: Rodrigo Abd/AP
After discovering that his hypothesis was correct, the teen found that 117 Mayan cities have a direct correlation to the stars in over 20 constellations. However, he soon realized that one city appeared to be missing and deduced that the uncovered city is in Belize, a country located on the eastern coast of Central America.
With the help of satellite imagery from the Canadian Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA, the teenager identified one of the "five largest Mayan cities" ever discovered, according to the Journal de Montreal.
No one has visited the newly discovered site yet because these expeditions can be costly, according to Armand LaRocque, a remote sensing expert based out of the University of New Brunswick. "It's always a question of money. An expedition is horribly expensive." he told the Journal. But the plan is to bring Gadoury with them on a trip to the location one day.
"That would be the culmination of my three years of work and my life's dream," the young explorer told the Journal. Gadoury plans on attending the 2017 International Science Fair to showcase his findings, according to BBC News.
2016 Kawasaki Versys 1000 LT
The Sport-Naked Goes Sport-Commuter
Sadly, the entire Versys line is new to this guy. I've been severely distracted by the advent of dirt bikes that can both carry luggage and push the ton at the same time...off the pavement. Its been out for some time, but Ive been lost in my own world, so direct comparisons are my weakness at the moment. However, this might also be the perfect time for me to find out about it.
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In 2008, the Versys 650 started Kawasaki's trend of upright standards with sportbike-inspired performance. Basically, fast bikes that are both comfortable and can carry more gear than a bottle of water and your registration paperwork under the saddle. The line gained a larger sibling in 2012, carrying the same 1043cc inline-four you see here todaybut only in Europe. It took a few years of whinging to get it to US shores in 2015, and here we stand today with the 2016 Versys 1000 LT. While the 650 comes in two trims, the 1000 only comes in the one light tour edition.
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Falling squarely between the Sport and Touring bikes offered on the maker's website, the Versys serves to fill a well-priced niche between less-than-comfortable sporting bikes like the Z1000 for touring and the Concours 14, a fifteen thousand dollar (and up) supersport tourer. This bike may be serving a small demographic, but perhaps one that needed to be addressed during these economic times. But can the 1000 deliver what a rider wants from the 1400 at nearly $3,000 less?
Hi There...
Its Friday night, and Im charging through the San Fernando Valley (more commonly knownand hatedas "The Valley" in Los Angeles), charging through rush hour traffic on a relatively big BMW R1200GS with freshly mounted and recently tested Michelin Anakee Wilds. Traction and traffic both weigh heavily on my mind. Home is my destination tonight, but a stop at RideApart HQ brings me a change of machinery and a whole different experience.
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For the next week, I would ride the Kawasaki Versys 1000 LT (virtually unchanged from the 2015 model) and so I stopped to swap bikes. The post-swap journey was rather humorous, if not exactly exciting.
Swinging a leg over the saddle (at 33.1-inches) and picking the bike off the side stand, I nearly toss the relatively light bike to the ground. Ive grown used to humping the GS upright in the last few weeks, pulling a top-heavy beast off its sidestand. Jim Downs and I laugh at the differences, then I spark the liquid-cooled inline four alive and make my way towards the freeway. I continued to laugh inside my helmet. Beyond the weight difference between these two bikes (the LT is roughly 550 pounds wet), there are a few operational differences between the Japanese bike and the Bavarian that made for few embarrassing moments (if I cared that much to consider the cagers Im whizzing pass).
READ MORE: 10 Motorcycle Tricks You Dont Know, Yet | RideApart
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Navigating my way through the city, left-right, left-right, the bike is making more sound than it should. And its not the chain drive. Thats purely my fault, however, as the 2012 BMW is of the generation with individual turn signals (a la Harley-Davidson). And while attempting to weave my way through the lanes and interactions, Im continually rousting the horn and the starter switches instead of the blinkers...oops. Beep-grind, beep-grind, I quickly realize I need to update my brain. Im riding in the future again!
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Minutes later, while keeping a keen eye on the full face helmet-capable saddlebags in the mirror, Im now buzzing along to my usual vibrations. This time that feeling comes with a heavy wind in my face, and nearly a performance award from the city police, as I realize Im ripping through rush hour traffic at over 90 miles per hour. Oops again. Good thing its late and time to rest. I need to come at this bike with a fresh mind and ride it right, tomorrow shall be that day!
Ride Out
Being a short loan, and already Saturday, I packed up some gear and set off immediately for a weekend get-away a light tour for the LT. But as only a motorcycle photographer does, even a single overnight ride includes two full saddlebags and a waterproof duffle strapped across the pillion pad, which is better for testing the suspension I suppose. Loaded and rolling north, I make my way from LA to Ojai, up and over the passes on Route 33 to 166 where I turn west. I circle back to LA again along some newly explored roads as well as some old favorites. Two days, 400 miles and a handful of notes in my head.
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While preparing to camp that night, I had intended to charge my personal electronic devices from the motorcycle. Unfortunately, come sunlight, I realize that the pair of port-sized contours built into the dash are NOT in fact 12V ports. Strike one for a "touring" mount, even one of light duty intent. Everybody needs to charge something these days cell phones or GPS units, at a minimum. Luckily, I have a solar panel in my bags, and no, Im not joking. Ive got a kitchen sink too!
READ MORE: One Motorcycle: The Best Bike Show You Missed - Interviews & Gallery | RideApart
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The first eighty miles were alive and raised my heart rate in the best of ways. The smooth and powerful liter-class engine pushed me along at any speed I wanted, and always had more to give. Short-shifting my way around the city, its a quick trip through the feather-light adjustable levers (both clutch and brake) to 6th gear. Thanks to the width of the torque band, I could tip-toe my way around slow traffic as well as rip along at top speed all in the same gear. Its quite easy to forget what gear you might be in, and without an indicator on the dash, you just have to guess.
On the highway, the LT enjoys cruising along at 80, with its own heart rate calmly hovering around 5,000 rpm on the analog needle nearly 1/3 its total range. The Versys redlines at 10,000-rpm and is reserved for the more exciting roads.
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Though the LTs power peak falls short of the Z1000 or the sportier-tuned Ninja 1000 siblings, it's that state of tune that affords such manageable, touring-friendly low-end torque down where a load bike wants it. If youre looking for top-speed touring, you might be better served by the Concours.
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Despite the Versys key intent as a comfortable and sporty commuter with the legs of a touring rig sometimes we just want to rip around the canyons with a drooling smile, like on any given weekend. And, incidentally, thats exactly what I did. Luckily, it was already late in the day on Saturday, and I found nothing but empty roads to shred on my way over the hill. The standard ABS kept me correct on a few occasions, but the 3-position KTRAC (traction control; plus off) took a little more effort to put to the test. The Bridgestone tires put in a valiant effort and made me work to break their grip of the pavement. Sans any rainfall, I had to whack open the throttle on the dirty shoulder of the road in order to see that light flicker on the dash.
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Regardless of the road grade, the 43mm Kayaba fork (5.9 inches travel) and rear shock (same travel as front) are adjustable for rebound damping and spring preload (plus a handy remote adjuster) and eat up just about everything thrown at it. Such comfort comes at a price, however. And until you fine tune the suspension to your own weight and carry loads, youll be taking some deep dives in the corner on your more spirited rides, or perfecting your trail-braking techniques.
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At those speeds, and in a late springs evening chill, one might be tempted to dip down from the upright riding position and hide behind the tool-free adjustable windscreen for the last few miles (or hours). But youll need to wait for the fuel stop or make your own pit stop to adjust it manually. Surely, theres an engineering benefit to the way the adjustments work being on the outside of the screen but it doesnt make sense for operator use. While it can be done at a full stop from the saddle, its better to have one of the pit crew undo the locking knobs and raise or lower the screen those few inches (sternum to chin height). Taller riders like Jim found that lowering the shield a "little bit relieved the buffeting he was finding on his first ride. I, however, found no problem with it in any position, but Im 5 to 6 inches shorten than that man.
READ MORE: Top 12 Reasons To Ride A Motorcycle | RideApart
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When the road takes a turn, or a black cat takes a dive into the road, youll be happy to have a pair of 4-piston calipers biting down on a pair of 310mm petal rotors up front. Just remember the facts: Your major stopping power comes from the front. As theres a huge difference between the single-pot single disc rear braking set up in the rear and the more-powerful front end set up, you might never even notice the rear brake at speed. The combination is more noticeable in slow speed, first gear kind of riding.
Making a Long Story Short
Having done my part to seek new roads, and new civilizations, in the back country between central Californias wine country and La-La Land, it was time to head home, which meant facing a slog. The sun had set on a glorious Sunday ride and I was still 150 miles out. As I zipped shut the last open vent at the highways edge, I was soon to find more disappointment than just the end of all the fun.
I clicked into top gear and pegged for the ladder (and latter) portion of the ride (the fun stuff being the chutes), and this is when I finally realized theres no cruise control on the LT. Hmmmm...and when the marine fog began to set in close to home, I longed for a heated grip switch (along with the grips, thank you) and a more comfortable saddle. Luckily, I had dual sport-style hard guards to block the wind. The tilted, race-bred saddle design wasnt a bother at all for the first 300 miles, but after sitting on it for two straight hours, I began to feel the edges of the narrowest part...slide back and throttle on! For the real road warriors out there, you have the Concours 14 in the catalog for a $2,500 premium.
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All told, the LT is consistent if nothing else, either hammering the throttle or feathering it, city miles or highway, the MPG remained nearly constant at 42 mpg, sipping from a 5.5 gallon tank for a range easily over 200 miles. I never ran it fully dry in the week I rode it...but came close.
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Back at home, and making that slog back and forth to the office over the next week, I found the LT's light and docile demeanor pleasing to both me and the traffic around me. Lane sharing was a breeze without the 28-liter (each) saddlebags mounted. Although theyre handy for carrying stuff and storing your helmet, and easily removable with the same key you use for the ignition. The bags cannot be run unlocked, by the way. An accessory 47-liter top case might serve the California workers a little more appropriately.
The Verdict
Compared to the rest of the middleweight sport-tourer market, the LT parallels the Yamaha FJ-09 in so many ways, yet they have their differences. As a smaller, 847cc incline-triple with less curb weight, a gear position indicator and the option for heated grips, the FJ also comes at a higher price and doesnt include the luggage. The Suzuki V-Strom 1000 makes for an even closer match in price, engine size (yet a v-twin) and nearly every other spec, but falls short on horsepower.
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Some want to compare the LT to the Aprilia Caponord (a 1200cc bike) or the Ducati Multistrada (another 1200), but if money is no object to you, the BMW S1000XR is closer by style, size and design. However, it costs far more than the LT and carries more technology in its dashboard than does the Kawasaki in the entire bike. Frankly, its a comparison between apples and steaks. If you have the means, by all means go for the European offerings, but many others buy what they can afford or close too it. The Versys is priced right for the market, and comes at the right time.
The LT is loaded with amenities (color-matched luggage, center stand, adjustable windscreen and ride modes) and has an MSRP of $12,999. Its available in the divisive, brand-aware candy lime green and the sleek and sexy metallic spark black.
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PureWow
It looks like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle thought their Archewell website needed a little bit of a facelift. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been keeping quite busy these days, what with a Netflix docuseries, podcasts, oh, and two young kids to take care of. However, we just noticed that the couple changed the photo on the homepage of their website, trading out the old pic for a brand-new portrait courtesy of Misan Harriman. Archewell Foundation/Misan Harriman The pic was snapped during t
From ELLE DECOR
With only a few weeks until the first day of summer, it's pretty impossible to stop daydreaming about spending time anywhere but the office.
If you're lucky enough to be heading across the pond this year, there's no shame in brushing up on your street smarts before getting your passport stamped.
London-based serviced apartment firm Citybase Apartments created an infographic to help, highlighting hotspots at several European destinations are laden with pickpockets. As Citybase points out, vacation insurance providers often give minimal reimbursement on claims for stolen valuables. That means you'll want to be particularly vigilant when visiting these locales, even if you're a seasoned traveler.
While some of these spots are pretty standard tourist destinations think Notre-Dame in Paris and the Ponte Vecchio in Florence it's interesting to note that other iconic destinations, like the Acropolis in Athens and Big Ben in London, are absent from the list.
Check out the infographic below to learn about which spots you should be extra careful with your belongings - or avoid altogether.
[h/t: Design Taxi]
Denver is one of the hottest residential real estate markets in the country. Low housing inventory and high demand have made the Mile High City undeniably a seller's market, where bidding wars are common and buyers need to bring more to the table than ever before.
As the spring selling season ramps up, homeowners should be ready to adopt certain practices to ensure a swift and simple sale of their property. Besides setting a competitive listing price, there are a variety of things homeowners can do to make the selling process as smooth and satisfying as possible.
We asked real estate agents in the Denver area who, according to Agent Ace, an agent referral company and a U.S. News partner, routinely outsell the competition for advice for selling a Denver home quickly. Here's what they had to say.
[See: The 20 Best Places to Live in the U.S.]
Spring clean for success. Many sellers are wary of spending money on a house they aren't planning to live in much longer, but certain small investments to make a home look and feel fresh will have a worthwhile impact on the listing. Deviree Vallejo, an agent with Kentwood City Properties in downtown Denver, suggests focusing improvements on items that affect the largest surface areas of the home, like putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls or re-surfacing hardwood floors. "Cosmetic items like adding paint or removing carpet will pay off 100 percent," she says. "Pay the money upfront to make the house look shiny and new."
Spring is also an ideal time to spruce up a home's curb appeal to make it eye-catching. Tasks like trimming trees, planting flowers and painting the front door can be completed in a weekend and have a huge impact, as potential homebuyers often spend several minutes upon arrival standing outside the front door while waiting for the agent to get the key out of the lockbox. "First impressions are important," Vallejo stresses.
Stage the ideal atmosphere. Sellers should understand the importance of creating an inviting atmosphere in their home to help potential buyer's envision the space as their own. Sometimes, that means replacing family photos or heirloom furniture pieces with more updated, generic items that evoke a sense of newness and optimism. Staging is also great way to help a space that may be somewhat cramped feel more spacious.
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Cherry Creek Properties agent Vivi Gloriod agrees and says she stages all of her homes. After taking over a listing in South Denver that sat on the market for almost six months with another agent, Gloriod sold the home in just two weeks for a higher price, a success she partly accredits to proper staging. "The very first thing I did was stage it," she says. "Then I did high-definition photos and videos for marketing materials."
When staging your home, keep in mind that one of the top reasons people want to live in Denver is to enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery. "It's wise to also stage your backyard and patio spaces," Vallejo advises. Even sprucing up a small balcony or rooftop patio is sure to enhance a buyer's vision of an outdoor lifestyle.
[See: The 20 Most Desirable Places to Live in the U.S.]
Choose the right real estate agent. All agents interviewed maintain that finding the right Denver real estate agent is crucial to a successful home selling process. Choosing a listing agent that has a high success rate selling similar homes and ample knowledge about the area is mandatory. "Be sure to ask them how many homes they've sold in the past six months, and also how many of those homes were located in your neighborhood," Gloriod advises.
Agents who are familiar with your neighborhood understand that the success of certain marketing methods can vary depending on a home's location. Gloriod mentioned that while some neighborhoods, like Washington Park, are great for public open houses because of their walkability, areas like Lakewood that are not as pedestrian-friendly may benefit more from broker open houses, or events that showcase a home to other real estate agents.
Amy Ryan, an agent with Re/Max Momentum in Commerce City explained that the process of homebuying and selling is like being in a relationship with your agent, due to the amount of time you spend together during that period of time and how emotional the process can be. "You need to like them and connect with them," Ryan says. "Be sure to talk to a variety of agents. Even if you think you've found one you want to use, go interview a few more anyway."
Flaunt the neighborhood. Millennials make up one of the largest groups of homebuyers in Denver, and one of the top items on their wish list is neighborhood accessibility. "The number one request right now for people in Denver is walkability," Vallejo says. Millennials want to live within easy reach of restaurants, bars, parks and public transportation. Denver has more than 200 neighborhoods, each with their own attributes and allure. Be sure to showcase all of the attractions that make your neighborhood great, whether it's new bike lanes or a hot new restaurant.
Since Denver is fairly spread out, proximity to the city's expanding light rail system is a huge plus. Vallejo affirms, "I am definitely seeing an influx of people towards transit-oriented development areas like Sunnyside and RiNO (River North)." Proximity to public transit also ensures a future increase in property values, which can be a strong selling point.
[See: 10 Ways Millennials Are Changing Homebuying.]
Drum up demand with "Coming Soon" marketing. You may want your house to go on the market immediately, but you must allow time for your real estate agent to assess the home properly, check past tax records, arrange for necessary staging, take good quality photos (and possibly even videos) and pique buyer interest before the property officially becomes available. Gloriod calls this tactic "Coming Soon Marketing" and believes it diminishes the amount of time a house sits on the market. By the time the house is available for showings there should already be a high demand for it. Aside from a lack of staging, she says lack of proper marketing is another reason the South Denver home sat on the market too long. "Coming soon marketing is huge," Gloriod says.
More From US News & World Report
A second-grader who spent two years growing out his hair so he could donate it to pediatric cancer patients is now facing his own cancer diagnosis.
When 7-year-old Vinny Desautels of Roseville, California, came home from school complaining about knee pain, his parents noticed a lump on his right hip. At the same time, his parents were monitoring Vinny's swollen eye, which they initially attributed to seasonal allergies.
But after discovering the lump on their young son's hip, they decided to go to the emergency room. An X-ray on April 28 revealed a large growth on Vinny's hip, and he was sent to a hospital in Sacramento for further testing.
Blood tests, MRIs, and a CT scan revealed tumors on his hip and in the bone around his eye, CNN reports.
Vinny was diagnosed with an unknown form of metastatic cancer. His parents are awaiting final confirmation from doctors that he has Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that forms in bone or soft tissues.
"Basically, what they found is that he has a significant growth on his hip and in the bone around the eye and behind the nose and on the cheek on the right side," Vinny's dad, Jason Desautels, told Fox40 in Sacremento.
"It is Stage 4 aggressive cancer," he added.
Vinny's diagnosis has touched the hearts of many after it was revealed that he had grown his hair for two years so he could donate it to the nonprofit, Wigs for Kids.
"Even though he was teased throughout the two years of growing his hair out, it didn't deter him from his mission...to help a child in need," Vinny's grandparents wrote on a GoFundMe page for their grandson.
Vinny told Fox40 he was "happy" to donate 13 inches of his hair to help kids who lost they hair due to cancer treatments.
"I want to help people so they don't have to go to the doctors to fight cancer," he said. "And then everyone got excited when mom cut the ponytails off."
Vinny's parents remain optimistic about their son's prognosis.
"As long as we are doing this as a family, we got this," Vinny's mother, Amanda Azevedo, told the outlet.
After the controversy over Union Human Resources Development Minister, Smriti Iranis educational qualifications, soon after she was inducted into the cabinet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the next in line to have his educational background. The Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party honcho, Arvind Kejriwal has been relentlessly going after the PM, calling his degrees fake, while the BJP has been backing Modi and presenting his credentials.
Politicians and their educational qualifications have constantly come under fire, and every time a new cabinet takes over, much debate happens over how qualified the members are. Here, we take a look at some of the most and least educated politicians in the country:
Dr. Manmohan Singh: Whatever be the criticism against him while he was the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh is undoubtedly one of the most educated politicians in India. Singh got his Bachelors and Masters degree in Economics from the Punjab University, in 1952 and 1954, securing a first position, and completed his Economics Tripos from St Johns College, University of Cambridge in 1957. Dr. Singh returned to India and started teaching at the Punjab University. He went to the University of Oxford in 1960 to pursue his doctoral degree (DPhil), where his doctoral thesis was Indias export performance, 19511960, export prospects and policy implications. This later became the basis of his book, titled, Indias Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth.
P. Chidambaram: A member of the Congress party, and former Union Minister of Finance, P. Chidambaram holds a B.Sc degree in Statistics from Presidency College, Chennai, Bachelors in Law from the Madras Law College (now Ambedkar Government Law College), a Masters degree from Loyola College, Chennai, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was part of the class of 1968.
Kapil Sibal: Lawyer, member of the Congress party, and former Minister of Law and Justice, Kapil Sibal completed his schooling from St Johns High School in Chandigarh, post which he joined St Stephens College, Delhi. He completed his LLB from the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, and an M.A in History. Though he had also qualified for the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) in 1973, Sibal did not take it up, and took up law practice, instead. He then enrolled for an LLM programme from the Harvard Law School, which he completed in 1977.
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Najma Heptullah: The only Muslim member of Modis cabinet, the Minister of Minority Affairs and former Vice President of the BJP, Najma Heptullah holds a M.Sc Degree in Zoology, and a PhD in Zoology(Cardiac Anatomy) from Vikram University, in Ujjain.
Jairam Ramesh: Member of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh, affiliated to the Congress party, the former Minister of Rural Development, Jairam Ramesh graduated from the Indian institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering, in 1975. He received an M.Sc degree in Public Policy and Public Management in 1977. Though he started a Doctoral program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was unable to complete it because of a family emergency.
Subramaniam Swamy: The member of the Rajya Sabha and an Economist, BJPs Subramaniam Swamy, who is known for his controversial statements, earned his Masters degree in Mathematics from the Hindu College, University of Delhi, before going on to pursue his Masters in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He received a PhD in Economics from the Harvard University in 1965. While pursuing his doctoral degree, Swamy also worked as an Assistant Economics Affairs Officer at the United Nations Secretariat, in New York.
Dr Harsh Vardhan: One of the most educated members of the current cabinet, Dr Harsh Vardhan, who is the incumbent Minister of Science and Technology, holds an MBBS degree from Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, Kanpur, from where he graduated in 1979. The RSS member went on to complete his Master of Surgery in Otorhinolaryngology (ENT) in 1983, from the same college.
Dr Murli Manohar Joshi: The veteran BJP leader, RSS pracharak and Member of Parliament from Kanpur, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi completed his BSc from Meerut College and M.Sc from Allahabad University. He went on to pursue his doctoral degree from Allahabad University and published his thesis on Spectroscopy. Joshi also published a research paper on Physics in the Hindi language, which became a first of its kind.
Shashi Tharoor: The former international civil servant, author and Member of Parliament from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency, affiliated to the Congress, Shashi Tharoor graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from St Stephens College, Delhi. He then moved to the United States in 1975, where he completed his graduate studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, where he received his MA and MALD. He was also the co-founder and first Editor of the Fletcher Forum of International Affairs, and was awarded the Robert B. Stewart Prize for the Best Student. He completed his PhD at the age of 22.
Salman Khurshid: The former Minister of External Affairs and lawyer from the Congress party, Salman Khurshid completed his graduation (BA, English and Jurisprudence) from St Stephens College, Delhi and his Masters from St Edmund Hall, Oxford University. He was also a lecturer of Law at the Trinity College, Oxford.
Ajit Singh: The founder and chief of Rasthriya Lok Dal, and son of former Prime Minister late Choudhary Charan Singh, Ajit Singh holds a B.Sc degree from Lucknow University, a B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur and M.S from Illinois Institute of Technology.
Rabri Devi: Better known as the wife of politician Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, who has also served three terms as a Chief Minister of Bihar, and is a member of the Bihar Legislative Council, has no formal education. She married Yadav at the age of 14, and was dragged into politics after he had to resign as the CM, following an arrest warrant that was issued against him on corruption charges. Her appointment as the Bihar CM came under huge controversy as Rabri neither had the qualification, nor the inclination for politics.
Vijaykanth: The Tamil actor turned politician, Vijaykanth, who is known as Captain, after his portrayal of the role of Captain Prabhakaran, won the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in 2011. He discontinued his education after the 12th standard since he had to join his fathers rice mill business.
J Jayalalitha: The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and head of AIADMK, former actress J Jayalalitha stopped her studies after matriculation, as she wanted a career in the films. This was despite the fact that she was a good student who had won a scholarship.
M. Karunanidhi: Like his political opponent, the DMK head and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, has also not completed his graduation. Karunanidhi quit after his 10th standard, to begin his career as a screenwriter in the Tamil film industry. However, the great orator, who is also called Kalaignar (artist) by his supporters, has published six volumes of his autobiography, titled Nenjukku Neethi (Justice to the Heart) in Tamil.
Golma Devi: The only reason why she even figures in the list as a politician is because Rajasthan MLA Golma Devi is the wife of the Meena community leader Kirori Lal Meena. Devi is illiterate and was not even able to read her oath during the swearing in ceremony.
Maneka Gandhi: The Union Minister of Women and Child Development in the Modi led BJP Government, Maneka Gandhi, who is known to be a staunch animal rights activist, has only completed her education till the 12th standard. Gandhi has, however, authored a number of books in Etymology, Law and Animal Welfare.
Uma Bharti: The least educated Minister in the current Modi government is Uma Bharti, the Minister of Water Resources and Ganga rejuvenation. She has only completed her formal education till class six.
Anant Geete: The Minister of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprise in the current government, and the leader of the Shiv Sena Parliamentary Party has just completed his Matriculation.
Jaffer Sharief: One of the senior most members of the Congress Party, and former Railway Minister, Jaffer Sharief is also one of the least educated politicians in the party. Sharief, who started off as a driver before venturing into politics, has only completed his matriculation.
What Will Drive AbbVie's Valuations in 2016?
(Continued from Prior Part)
Acquisition of Stemcentrx
On April 28, 2016, AbbVie (ABBV) announced its plans to acquire Stemcentrx, a privately held company with headquarters in San Francisco, California. The deal is expected to be completed at a consideration of about $5.8 billion.
The acquisition of Stemcentrx will add a strong oncology infrastructure, as well as Rova-T (rovalpituzumab tesirine) and four promising investigational drugs for treating solid tumors, to AbbVies portfolio.
Addition of Rova-T
With peak sales projected to be around $5 billion, Rova-T is expected to prove pivotal in positioning AbbVie as a leading oncology player. The drug is currently being tested for SCLC (small cell lung cancer), an aggressive cancer that is difficult to treat.
The annual incidence of SCLC is about 60,000 in major developed markets of the United States, Europe, and Japan. SCLC afflicts about 15% of total lung cancer patients. With limited therapies available in the market for the disease and a low five-year survival rate of about 6% witnessed by SCLC patients, theres significant unmet demand for an effective therapy.
If Rova-T is approved by the regulatory authorities, its expected to prove to be a major growth opportunity for AbbVie.
Early-stage clinical candidates
In addition to Rova-T, the Stemcentrx acquisition will add four early-stage clinical molecules to AbbVies portfolio. These drugs are being developed to treat solid tumors related to ovarian cancer, triple negative breast cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer (or NSCLC).
With multiple new promising compounds in its research pipeline, AbbVie is expected to pose strong competition to other oncology players such as Celgene (CELG), Amgen (AMGN), and Merck & Co. (MRK).
Oncology platform
Stemcentrx is also expected to add new oncology discovery capabilities to AbbVies portfolio. The technology platform, which was used to identify Rova-T, can also be used to identify more innovative investigational drugs for treating solid tumors.
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If the synergies of the AbbVieStemcentrx deal are realized, they may boost the share price of the combined company as well as the share price of the iShares Russell 1000 ETF (IWB). AbbVie makes up about 0.5% of IWBs total portfolio holdings.
In the next article, well explore Rova-Ts profile in greater detail.
Continue to Next Part
Browse this series on Market Realist:
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL May 10, 2016 Zacks Equity Research highlights Acuity Brands (AYI) as the Bull of the Day and Helmerich & Payne (HP) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Air Methods Corp (AIRM), AMN Healthcare Services (AHS) and Halyard Health (HYH).
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Bull of the Day :
Lighting is one of those areas in our lives that we often take for granted. We hardly think about how important having a well-lit place can be until we find ourselves in the dark, nor do investors think about these companies on a frequent basis either. However, this could be a mistake if you take a closer look of Acuity Brands (AYI), a leader in innovative lighting systems.
This Georgia-based company might not be a household name, but it has a variety of lighting solutions and particularly in the LED market. While this might not sound like the sexiest place for investors to go, the stock has actually been a star performer and it has gained over 41% in the past year, so clearly it is on the right track.
But with these kind of gains in a difficult market, investors need to be extra careful to make sure that the fundamentals also lineup as well. Fortunately for AYI, there is plenty of promise if we look to recent estimates and some of their stats on the momentum front too.
Recent Estimates
Over the past two months, we havent seen any analyst earnings estimates go lower for the current quarter or full year, helping to push the consensus earnings estimate sharply higher over the past two months. Current earnings expectations have actually surged by 5.35% in the past sixty days for the current quarter, while the full year estimate has moved higher by over 8.1% in the same time frame. Clearly, there is strong potential for AYI to continue growing its business in the near term.
Bear of the Day:
Oil and gas stocks have been surging so far in 2016 thanks to a rebound in prices and a bit more hope for the market and its longer term potential. But recent events suggest that this run might be coming to an end, as sluggish economic data and an oversupplied market are starting to wreck havoc on a number of stocks in the space.
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Take Helmerich & Payne (HP) for example as a great representation of this trend. This Oklahoma-based company is focused on the drilling market has seen its shares rise by nearly 9% since the start of 2016. However, May has been a rough stretch for the company and HP stock has fallen by almost double digits just since the beginning of the calendar month.
This is obviously a bearish trend, but investors have to be asking if this can continue for HP shares, or if a rebound is dead ahead. Well, if we consider some of the bearish economic data latelysuch as sluggish China growth prospects and increased worries over U.S. economic activityand we add that to the recent earnings estimates for this stock, it becomes clear that HP may be facing more pain in the near term.
Recent Estimates
Analysts have been racing to cut their earnings expectations for HP stock. In the past two months we havent seen a single estimate go higher, compared to eight lower in the current quarter and eight lower for the full year.
The magnitude of these earnings estimate cuts has also been troubling. We have seen expectations slashed by more than 50% for the current quarter and current year, while the most recent estimates have been especially bleak.
Additional content:
Will the EU Disintegrate This Summer?
Theres a big question all Europe watchers must take seriously. Will the European integration dream disintegrate across the summer?
It is not outlandish to speculate.
In the Global Week Ahead, there are two related acts due on stage, in this EU integration-disintegration drama:
Monday kicked off with an extraordinary meeting of EU Finance ministers to discuss the macroeconomic adjustment program for Greece. Could Greece finally get some debt relief? That would be a helpful step. The Sustainability of Greeces Public Debt was the topic slated for discussion.
Attention is likely to find its way to the U.K. this week, too. U.K. Treasury Minister Osborne speaks to the parliament on Wednesday. A regular U.K. Monetary Policy Committee meeting to set the base rate hits on Thursday. There will be a press conference.
The Brexit poll (the British referendum to leave the European Union) is set for June 23rd, 45 days away. The latest polls give a 41% and 42% chance to leaving or staying, respectively. 13% are undecided. 4% wont vote.
U.K. Prime Minister Cameron recently defended his decision to call the EU referendum, telling the BBC: "You shouldn't try to hold an independent sovereign nation in an organization against its will."Then, Cameron went on to backtrack and say leaving the EU meant "the clock being turned back to an age of competing nationalism in Europe."
Whether this Brexit vote is a vote for or against Camerons U.K. leadership remains to be seen. Running a democratic country by referendum speaks to a weakening hold on Prime Ministerial power. He will seek to consolidate party support after this vote. U.K. Conservatives look to be about as unified as U.S. Republicans these days. Thats me being polite.
With my economist hat on, I think EU Finance Ministers want to get the Greek fiscal debt situation to calm down. They wish to move forward productively. This is partly a tactic to help U.K. voters see the EU in a favorable light. A political blowup with Greece, scant weeks before the U.K. referendum, would be very bad indeed for the EU integration camp.
The U.S. once again looks to be the most stable house in which to play your stock market cards.
Over the weekend, 3 U.S. Health Care mid-cap stocks moved a Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy). Each is also the holder of a long-term Zacks VGM score of A. That tells you the U.S. Health Care sector -- a perennial Very Attractive sector -- is looking good for a stock pick right now.
One is Air Methods Corp (AIRM). This is air transport for medical emergencies with a $1.4 billion market cap. The stock also has a Zacks VGM (Value, Growth, Momentum) score of A.
The second is AMN Healthcare Services (AHS). This is a travel healthcare staffing company with a $1.8 billion market cap. It recruits and places nurses, physicians and other healthcare professionals in travel or permanent assignments. The stock has a Zacks VGM score of A too.
The third and final is Halyard Health (HYH). This is a med tech company with a $1.4 billion market cap. It is focused on advancing health and healthcare by preventing infection, eliminating pain and speeding recovery. They sell surgical and infection prevention products for the operating room. It has a Zacks VGM score of A, too.
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Paris (AFP) - Decades of neglect and underinvestment have damaged the health of 10-to-24-year olds worldwide and could hold back future generations, according to a major report published Tuesday.
Even as global efforts have significantly improved the wellbeing of children aged five and under, adolescents -- defined in the study as people aged between 10 and 24 -- have fared less well.
Mortality rates in this age group -- numbering 1.8 billion, one in four people on the planet -- have declined more slowly, and the leading causes of death, including traffic accidents, suicide, violence, tuberculosis and drowning, have remained stubbornly persistent.
Nor has there been much change in the top risk factors for death, including disease-ridden drinking water and inadequate sanitation.
The fastest-growing health risk from 1990 to 2013, the period covered by the study published in medical journal The Lancet, is unsafe sex.
Nine out of ten adolescents live in developing countries, where these dangers loom larger.
"Two-thirds of young people are growing up in countries where preventable and treatable health problems like HIV/AIDS, early pregnancy, depression, injury and violence remain a daily threat," concluded the report.
Alcohol tops the list of risk factors for 20-24 year olds -- accounting for an estimated seven percent of health costs worldwide for the age group -- followed by drug use.
- Untapped resource -
The report, led by a consortium of four major research centres, said the findings -- the first of their kind -- should be a wake-call to governments and policy-makers.
Led by George Patton of the University of Melbourne, the authors call for massive investment they say will yield triple benefits: for young people today, for their later years as adults, and for their children.
"This generation of young people can transform all our futures," Patton said in a statement. "There is no more pressing task in global health than ensuring they have the resources to do so."
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Investment should target not just health directly, but also education, Patton's commission concluded.
Adolescence is a critical time of growth, both biologically and socially.
"Puberty triggers a cascading process of brain development and emotional change that continues through the mid-20s," Patton explained.
"It profoundly shapes health and wellbeing across the life-course."
In a companion study, also in The Lancet, researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington provide detailed metrics on what afflicts and kills young people today.
HIV/AIDS, road accidents and drowning cause a quarter of all deaths in 10-14 year olds, they found, with intestinal diseases, respiratory infections and malaria accounting for another 21 percent.
Accidents are also the top killer among both 15-19 year-olds and 20-24 year-olds, followed by suicide and violence.
Tackling these problems "will bring huge social and economic benefits," said Ali Mokdad, lead author of the statistical study.
In a comment on the report, also in The Lancet, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described young people as "the world's greatest untapped resource".
Improving their health is crucial to fulfilling the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, long-term targets adopted the world's nations last year to end poverty, promote health and protect the environment, he said.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Air strikes on a town in Idlib province in Syria's northwest killed at least 10 people on Tuesday, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. Low-level fighting also appeared to continue inside the city of Aleppo, 50 km (30 miles) from Idlib city, and there were heavier clashes around Aleppo, the British-based group said. The Syrian army announced the extension of a ceasefire in Aleppo late on Monday. The airborne raids, by either Syrian or Russian warplanes, struck the town of Binnish, 6 km (4 miles) from the provincial capital Idlib. They wounded a number of others, the Observatory said. It said a local insurgent commander was among those killed. There were no immediate details about other casualties. Idlib province, which borders Turkey, is almost completely controlled by insurgent groups, including the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and powerful Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham. (Reporting by John Davison; editing by John Stonestreet)
Pets_on_airlines
Calgary-based airlines Canadian North and WestJet are breaking their own rules to help local pets escape the wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Generally, the airlines charge fees and have strict rules about allowing pets on board. However, many Fort McMurray residents were not able to grab crates from their homes or much of anything else before being evacuated.
SEE ALSO: Bride who lost dress in Fort McMurray wildfire gets dream wedding
So Canadian North and West Jet are letting their pets fly right alongside them.
"Due to the unusual circumstances we were able to bend the rules to accommodate these animals," a spokesperson from Canadian North told the Huffington Post.
Now, flight attendants and thankful passengers are tweeting photos of their traveling pets many of which look pretty excited about their very first flight.
Canadian North staff are even doing some cat-sitting of their own. Meow Meow, whose owner went into labor shortly after her evacuation, is serving as a temporary flight attendant.
More than 80,000 people had to evacuate because of the enormous wildfire that has burned an area larger than the entire city of Chicago. Airlines have scheduled hundreds of extra flights to accommodate evacuees.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's online shopping platform Taobao is tightening controls on the sales of luxury goods, requiring sellers to show proof of authenticity, as it fights sales of fake items on one of China's top online platforms.
From May 20, sellers of luxury products will be required to upload proof, such as an invoice or authorization letter from the luxury brands, for examination by Taobao, or the goods will be removed from the portal, while their funds can be frozen.
"To create a healthy shopping environment with a high level of integrity and to protect the legal interests of consumers and brand owners, Taobao is gearing up to regulate sales of luxury brands' products," it told sellers in a notice dated May 4.
It tells sellers to act promptly to examine and rectify counterfeit goods, under threat of possible shop closures and other penalties.
Last week, the official People's Daily newspaper said Chinese authorities would launch a campaign to clean up e-commerce, targeting trademark violations, counterfeit and poor quality products, in a move potentially affecting Alibaba, JD.com Inc and Baidu Inc.
The campaign by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce will run from May to November, and will hand out harsher punishments for violations of regulations.
Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and other brands held by Paris-based Kering SA filed a suit in New York in May last year accusing Alibaba of being a giant conduit for counterfeiters and alleging that the e-commerce leader had knowingly made it possible to sell fakes.
(Reporting by Donny Kwok and Twinnie Siu; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska in Alice Through the Looking Glass (Photo: Disney)
By Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
Mia Wasikowskas feisty Alice must time-travel to save Johnny Depps Mad Hatter in James Bobins sequel to the 2010 Tim Burton film.
Poor, poor little Alice! the critic G. K. Chesterton lamented of Lewis Carrolls most famous character. She has not only been caught and made to do lessons; she has been forced to inflict lessons on others. He was talking not about her Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, but about the meanings and ideas that had been assigned to her in the decades since the nonsense classics publication. And so the repurposing goes, with the latest big-screen iteration a clunky composite of visual extravagance and Hollywood commonplaces about a life well lived.
A sequel to Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland, the James Bobin-directed feature is just as overstuffed a phantasmagoria of CGI and makeup as the 2010 film. Its imagery can be striking or merely distracting, yet rarely transporting. Bypassing child-friendly charm for backstory psychology, its dreamscape is weighted with yadda-yadda-yadda about being true to yourself, honoring family and being loyal to friends. But theres no question that the Johnny Depp-starring spectacle, going out in an assortment of 3D formats, will, like its billion-dollar-grossing predecessor, attract fans worldwide.
More: Disney Rules Hollywoods Fairy-Tale War as Other Studios Bite the Poisoned Apple
As Alice Through the Looking Glass kicks off its message-laden adventure, the title character (Mia Wasikowska) is a brave and capable ships captain. Back in London but eager to return to the frothy fray, she learns shes facing foreclosure on her vessel thanks to a bit of desperate deal-making by her mother (Lindsay Duncan) with the spiteful upper-class twit (Leo Bill) whose marriage proposal Alice rejected.
Putting aside the matter of her colonialist exploits, Wasikowskas Alice Kingsleigh is a convention-defying, self-actualized Victorian female. But in case we havent appreciated the depths of her fortitude and accomplishment, Linda Woolvertons screenplay informs us that the word impossible is anathema to Alice. Colleen Atwoods splendid jewel-bright outfits reflect her travels through China and emphasize her worldliness against the conformity of London society. But though Alices beloved ship is rather pointedly named The Wonder, the movie offers only a paucity of the same.
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Woolverton, whose revisionist reading of a femme-centric fairy tale had a potent intensity in Maleficent, here puts her heroine on a time-traveling quest to rewrite history. At stake is the very survival of her friend the Mad Hatter (Depp), whos dying of depression and regret over his missing family, the specifics of their fate a tormenting mystery for him.
Depp is convincingly vulnerable and forlorn, all while maintaining the Hatters otherworldly eccentricity, and Wasikowska has the requisite grit. But Alices mission feels as manufactured as the storys whatsits and doodads, as Bobin struggles to infuse make-believe with emotion (something he managed winningly within the comic realm of The Muppets). The story, which has nothing to do with Carrolls episodic 1871 book beyond its title and a clutch of key characters, plays out as a blenderized mix of standard fantasy action and Burtonesque Gothic-alia. Its other key ingredients: a Wicked-reminiscent look at the roots of sibling rivalry and unpersuasive reminders that theres no place like home.
Leading Alice away from home and back to Underland is the films fleeting glimpse of ethereal playfulness, the former caterpillar Absolem, now a blue butterfly voiced with plummy richness by the late Alan Rickman (to whom the picture is dedicated). Other returning Brits deliver fine voice work as well: Matt Lucas, as the rhyming Tweedles, Stephen Fry (Cheshire Cat), Michael Sheen (White Rabbit), Timothy Spall (Bayard the bloodhound), Barbara Windsor (Dormouse) and Paul Whitehouse (March Hare).
But center stage, or a good part of it, belongs to the psychodrama between the warring queens, played again by Anne Hathaway, in frosty pallor, and Helena Bonham Carter, a magnificent amalgam of digitally enhanced malevolence and wounded inner child. Her irascible Iracebeth, better known as the Red Queen, has a new ally this time around: Time himself, played by Sacha Baron Cohen (who worked with Bobin on Da Ali G Show). A sort of grim reaper with an Austrian accent or is he channeling Christoph Waltz? Time has ice-blue eyes, a man bun and a skull filled with clock workings. Besides his Transformer-ish goons, his underlings include a collection of anthropomorphized metal contraptions led by the mustachioed Wilkins (Matt Vogel).
That these small clanking employees are Times seconds is a nice bit of wordplay, and, along with Times thesaural speech, its one of the movies few nods to Carrolls inventive infatuation with language. But these conceits, like so much of the films details, get lost in the exhausting race against, um, Time.
More: Disneys Alice Through the Looking Glass Gets China Release Date
At the center of Times gloomy castle is the Chronosphere, a thingamajig that will take Alice back to the Mad Hatters childhood, where she hopes to undo the disastrous events that aggrieve him. The Red Queen has her own reasons for wanting the gadget world control, naturally, but also a deep-seated need to right a primal wrong from her own childhood. The hopping across years reveals all-too-obvious parallels among the three narrative strands: the Red Queens grudge, the conflict between Alice and her security-minded mother, and the Mad Hatters despair over his father (Rhys Ifans), who didnt appreciate his singular sensibility.
Amid the frenetic back-and-forth, theres plenty to admire, if not be truly wowed by, in the whiz-bang effects work and the robust production design by Dan Hennah (The Hobbit). Stuart Dryburghs cinematography showcases the exuberance of the sets and costumes, with palettes that range from stygian to dazzling. If only the sensory overload were hallucinatory or simply less fettered and more fun.
One of the few affecting elements amid the would-be whimsy involves a childs handmade creation the kind of imperfect, idiosyncratic beauty that the movie argues for but doesnt achieve. Like the Chronosphere that powers much of its action, Through the Looking Glass is the stuff of revved-up mechanics, not magic.
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios
Production: Walt Disney Pictures, Roth Films, Team Todd, Tim Burton Prods.
Cast: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Matt Lucas, Rhys Ifans, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lindsay Duncan, Leo Bill, Geraldine James, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Barbara Windsor, Matt Vogel, Paul Whitehouse
Director: James Bobin
Screenwriter: Linda Woolverton
Based on characters created by Lewis Carroll
Producers: Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd, Jennifer Todd, Tim Burton
Executive producer: John G. Scotti
Director of photography: Stuart Dryburgh
Production designer: Dan Hennah
Costume designer: Colleen Atwood
Editor: Andrew Weisblum
Composer: Danny Elfman
Visual effects supervisors: Ken Ralston, Jay Redd
Makeup and hair designer: Peter Swords King
Animation technical director: Toby Rosen
Casting: Lucy Bevan, John Papsidera
Rated PG, 113 minutes
By Mike Davidson CANNES, France (Reuters) - The Cannes film festival is partly opening the door for streaming video giants this year, allowing Amazon to make its debut on the Croisette while leaving Netflix out of its 69th annual session. Festival director Thierry Fremaux says Amazon's presence is good news because its SVOD (streaming video on demand) service releases its films in cinemas before they are streamed online. The film industry prefers having these so-called "release windows" - usually three months - when they can show the film exclusively. Netflix releases its films at the same time in cinemas and online. "Amazon is different from Netflix. It is a real distributor, producer," he told Reuters before Wednesday's opening ceremony. "They have Woody Allen but also some foreign films, so it's good news because thanks to them these films will be distributed," he said. The festival will kick off with Woody Allen's 'Cafe Society', one of five Amazon films selected in Cannes. Three of them have been picked for the main competition. Nicolas Winding Refn's 'The Neon Demon', Jim Jarmusch's 'Paterson' and 'Gimme Danger' and Park Chan-wook's 'The Handmaiden' are also Amazon's. "The presence of Amazon is not significant (just) for the Cannes film festival, it's significant for the whole industry of cinema," Fremaux said. "I think it's good news, it's money, a new kind of money. Having Amazon buying four, five films is a very good sign showing cinema is alive." This year, Netflix and Amazon bought a combined total of 12 films at the Sundance film festival and the Venice film festival screened Netflix's 'Beasts of No Nation' last year. (Writing by Julien Pretot; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Prior to joining the American Red Cross in 2008, most of my career had been in the private sector - at AT&T and Fidelity Investments. Often when an executive comes from the corporate world to a nonprofit, it's expected that he or she will inject some business discipline. While my team and I applied business skills to bring financial stability to the Red Cross, working in a nonprofit has also taught me many valuable lessons that I believe are very useful for leaders in the private sector. However, like corporate America, the nonprofit world has its challenges, and there are plenty of lessons nonprofits can learn from the private sector. Here are the three big ones for each:
What Businesses Can Learn from Nonprofits
Focus on the people you serve. At the Red Cross, our bottom line is our mission. The people we help come first and we absolutely cannot let them down - it's often a matter of life and death. We have to see everything through the lens of our donors and the people we serve. Similar to a nonprofit, a successful business must also keep a laser-like focus on those they serve - namely their shareholders and customers. If companies can inspire the same passion and willingness to serve that's innate in nonprofit employees and volunteers, they'll be even more successful.
Motivate through the power of your ideas, not the power of your office. In the corporate world, I'd make a decision and employees would generally fall in line. At the Red Cross, we rely on the commitment of about 330,000 volunteers, and that takes a very different leadership approach. Obviously, you can't motivate volunteers through financial incentives or benefits; you must gain their buy-in and commitment by demonstrating that your actions will improve their ability to serve people in need. I believe that this approach is a successful way to encourage and inspire employees in the for-profit world as well.
Lead with your heart and your head. After nearly eight years working with our remarkable volunteers, employees, donors and partners, I believe that all people have a need to be a part of something bigger than themselves, and that every institution has a higher purpose. At AT&T, we weren't just providing long-distance telecommunications; we were connecting people to the information they needed and to the people they love. At Fidelity Investments, we weren't just managing money - we were helping people fulfill their financial dreams. When you instill a sense of purpose, you can lead with your heart, as well as your head, and that allows you to inspire and motivate your workforce.
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What Nonprofits Can Learn from Businesses
Instill a culture of fiscal accountability. Most nonprofits are so dedicated to helping others that the bottom line is often a secondary concern. But to truly fulfill their mission, nonprofits must make the tough financial choices necessary to reign in expenses. When I started at the Red Cross, it was facing a $209 million annual operating deficit and was more than $600 million in debt. Our chapters around the country were each operating as independent entities. One of my top priorities was to consolidate and centralize support services and back-office functions such as IT, payroll, HR, and marketing. These changes have allowed us to cut management and general overhead expenses by nearly 50% over the past eight years, which means more of our donor dollars go towards the services we provide.
Invest in your people. As with any successful organization, nonprofits must attract, retain and motivate the best people. Non-profit workers are attracted by the mission, but they have the same desire as employees in business to learn and grow and advance in their careers. We have introduced a talent development program borrowed from my time in the private sector. It is designed to give managers experience in all areas of the organization and it is developing the future leaders of the American Red Cross.
Embrace change. If you don't embrace change you won't survive in either the corporate or nonprofit world, because these days everything is changing. At the Red Cross, we have leveraged new forms of technology to enhance our mission delivery. We've been able to connect with more people around the world through our suite of free mobile preparedness apps, our pioneering use of Text REDCROSS to 90999 for fundraising and our tremendous presence on social media. Who would have thought that a 135-year old institution could have more than 2.65 million followers on Twitter?
Gail McGovern is President & CEO of American Red Cross.
LUANDA (Reuters) - Cash-strapped Angola, which is in talks for International Monetary Fund assistance as it grapples with low global prices for crude said on Monday it needed $29 billion for energy and water projects to meet development targets by 2025. "If we don't build this infrastructure, nothing will be developed," water and energy minister Joao Baptista Borges said at a media briefing. Angola is Africa's second-biggest crude producer and third-largest economy, but most of its population lives in poverty, with no access to basic amenities such as power and clean water. Power shortages also hobble efforts to diversify an economy so heavily dependent on oil output, which accounts for 40 percent of gross domestic product and more than 95 percent of foreign exchange revenue. Angola aims to add 5,000 megawatts of power to its grid over the next decade, much of it from natural gas and hydropower. Borges also said the government wanted to invite the private sector to invest in power and water. Angola is ranked by the World Bank as 181st out of 189 countries for "ease of doing business," and has been widely criticised for a lack of transparency regarding its oil revenues. (Reporting by Herculano Coroado; editing by Ed Stoddard and G Crosse)
Has Sonys publicity team hatched a new Cannes Film Festival marketing trend? Rather than wait for the event to begin, the folks behind The Angry Birds Movie are strategically aiming to get out in front of the media before heads turn towards the red carpet. The festival kicks off officially tomorrow evening with Woody Allens Cafe Society. Today, The Angry Birds Movie crew was in town, hosting a photo call and reception with key international talent. Over many years of Cannes, we cant recall a pre-fest reception for a major studio movie.
In attendance today were producer John Cohen; and stars Josh Gad (well-known to animation fans for his turn as Olaf in Frozen); The Intouchables Omar Sy, who voices Red in the French version; Maccio Capatonda, who is Red in Italy; Timur Rodriguez, Chucks voice in Russia; and Raya Abirached, whos Matilda in the Middle East.
The promotional aim is clear, but the manner in which Sony went about it is Cannes-ily opportunistic. The idea is to fill a content opportunity for the worlds media and consumers. Journalists and photographers are routinely on the ground a few days before the curtain rises here and the glamorous gowns start to flow. But a question becomes how to illustrate those pieces? The answer this year, Sony would hope, is with snaps of characters costumed as Red, Chuck and more; as well as the various voices behind them, in a Riviera beach setting.
Cannes stunts can be expensive and some believe they dont always bring the hoped for return; indeed theyve been scaled back over the years. Its not clear if this move comes more cheaply as its ahead of the official proceedings, but cost-savings wasnt the goal. Sony isnt stopping at the Majestic Pier the Birds also adorn the top of the Carlton Hotel.
Todays event, which featured talent and costumed characters on a floating barge off the Majestic Pier and under sunny skies to boot is also a stand-out for mobilizing a global team a day before international theatrical rollout of the film begins. There were about 30 photographers in attendance. Part of the push in Cannes to get those snaps out to the global press is to encourage potential moviegoers to catapult into theaters.
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Sonys President of Worldwide Marketing & Distribution, Josh Greenstein says, The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most celebrated events in the world and is proven to be an incredible launching pad for films of all kind, especially animated family films.
The Columbia Pictures/Rovio Animation/Sony Pictures Imageworks film is directed by Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis and releases in about 50 offshore territories this frame, beginning tomorrow in French speaking markets and adding the UK, Germany, Russia, Spain, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, the Middle East and others by the weekends end. Based on Rovios wildly popular mobile game franchise, the 3D animated comedy is set on an island populated entirely by happy, flightless birds or almost entirely. In this paradise, Red (Jason Sudeikis) a bird with a temper problem, speedy Chuck (Gad), and the volatile Bomb (Danny McBride) have always been outsiders. But when the island is visited by mysterious green piggies, its up to these unlikely outcasts to figure out what the pigs are up to.
Awareness is at a high given the popularity of the franchise which has seen over 3B downloads since 2009. Not just for kids, a non-Sony industry exec said to me this week, Hell, yeah, Im going to see it.
Craig Edwards contributed to this story
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Different bands are taking different routes to combat North Carolina's controversial anti-LGBT "bathroom bill." For psychedelic warriors Animal Collective the route is by releasing live albums to raise money for an organization that is combating the state's HB2 law.
"We felt that cancelling our show, like many others have done in protest of this law, would be a disappointment to our fans and decided to go on with the performance," the band wrote in a statement about the law, which mandates that transgender people use bathrooms based on the gender on their birth certificates. "That being said, we don't condone or agree with any type of bigotry or discrimination." So, on Monday -- a day after they performed at the Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina, N.C. -- they uploaded audio from a March 9 show at Los Angeles' Fonda Theatre and an April 13 show at The Ritz in Manchester, England.
Beyonce Praises Those 'Doing the Good Work' Fighting North Carolina's Anti-LGBT Law
A note posted with the downloads explained that the Orange Peel show featured a table for Progress NC, an organization "dedicated to being hte voice for forward-thinking North Carolinians who want to protect the balanced approach to government." Instead of canceling their Sunday night Painting With tour date, they decided to make two of their favorite gigs available for download in a "pay as you want" mode. Fans are encouraged to visit AC's bandcamp page to donate whatever they feel comfortable with to Progress NC; all proceeds will go to the organization.
North Carolina's Anti-LGBT 'Bathroom Bill' is Flushing the State's Music Business Down the Drain
Thanks for the good times Asheville! AC and @kaitlynaurelia in NC. Bless. See you next time.
A video posted by Animal Collective (@anmlcollective) on May 8, 2016 at 10:22pm PDT
Animal Collective on How Cave People, 'Golden Girls' & Defending Florida Influenced 'Painting With' Album
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Following public outrcy and boycotts from the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, Pearl Jam and Ringo Starr, the state's governor, Pat McCrory, responded to a warning from the Justice Department that HB2 violates the Civil Rights Act and Title XI by suing the government. The government hit back, filing a civil rights suit against N.C. on Monday, charging that the state is violating provisions in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against workers on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin and religion, according to CNN.
98 Degrees Cancels 2 North Carolina Shows Over Anti-LGBT Law
The federal action also says the state is violating Title IX, the Education Acts Amendment of 1972, which bans gender discrimination in education, as well as the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, which outlaws discrimination based on sex. "This action is about a great deal more than bathrooms," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on Monday. "This is about the dignity and the respect that we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we as a people and as a country have enacted to protect them."
The recent shareholders approval for the proposed divestiture of education company Apollo Education Group, Inc. APOL seems to have brought some respite for the company.
On May 6, 2016, More than 63% of the Class A shareholders voted in favor of the proposal at the Special Meeting of Shareholders,. Meanwhile, 100% of Class B shares were in support of the proposal. On completion of the merger, Apollo Education Group shareholders will receive $10.00 per share in cash.
The education company got a respite from its depleting enrollment when investors proposed to acquire the company in February for about $1.1 billion. These investors include Chicago-based investment company The Vistria Group, LLC, funds affiliated with leading global alternative investment manager Apollo Global Management, LLC (APO) and Arizona-based investment firm Najafi Companies. If the deal gets all the necessary approvals, the transaction is expected to close in Aug 2016.
On Apr 14, 2016, Apollo Education had received recommendation from a leading independent proxy firm Glass, Lewis & Co. to vote for the acquisition. As per the advisory firm, Apollo Education is confronted with challenging operating and regulatory environment, should consider the proposal of going private, and shareholders should consider the fact that it will provide them with the relative certainty of cash at a premium to prevailing market prices.
Upon completion of the buyout, Tony Miller, Chief Operating Officer and Partner at The Vistria Group, will assume the position of Chairman of Apollo Education Groups board of directors.
Management of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company expects this buyout to provide flexibility and opportunity for the completion of the transformation of the companys flagship segment, University of Phoenix (UOP). The company has been witnessing a decline in UOP enrollments since 2010. In fact, enrollments have plunged more than 60% since late 2010. UOP enrollments have been sluggish due to regulatory challenges and competition in the higher education industry. Moreover, the company does not expect enrollment levels to recover any time soon. However, with the transformation of UOP in progress, the company expects enrollments to stabilize over the long term.
Stocks to Consider
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Some better-ranked stocks in the education industry include DeVry Education Group Inc. DV, Lincoln Educational Services Corp. LINC and Capella Education Co. CPLA. all carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's President Mauricio Macri asked business and union leaders on Monday to avoid layoffs for 90 days, as the centre-right leader faces heat for thousands of jobs lost since he took office in December.
"We must protect Argentine jobs," said Macri, adding that quality, value-added jobs must be created.
Business-friendly Macri's efforts to trim government payrolls have eliminated thousands of public sector jobs. The opposition estimates that up to 150,000 people could lose their jobs this year.
At the same time, the opposition is trying to push a law through Congress that would guarantee generous redundancy payments and make layoffs more difficult. The bill, which Macri has threatened to veto, would double redundancy payments and put a halt to job cuts for six months.
(Reporting by Jorge Otaola; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
One of New York City and Los Angeles most important real estate moguls, Charles Cohen also applies his decades of experience and business acumen to the independent film distribution business, an enterprise known for sending even the most well-heeled and good-intentioned investors scrambling back to their estates and penthouses.
He established his Cohen Media Group in 2008 when he executive produced the indie drama Frozen River, a project Cohen says fit the bill for his aspirations because you need an entry point that distinguishes you. He also quickly notes that the film, which drew Oscar nominations for original screenplay and lead actress, didnt get its investment back.
Undaunted, Cohen focused his sights on building a company of substance and heft by purchasing the rights to more than 700 classic art films, including 500 features that make up the bulk of his Cohen Film Collection library.
One of the gems he purchased when he bought 30 key titles from Merchant-Ivory Prods. is the newly restored 1992 Oscar best picture nominee Howards End, which will have a higher-than-usual profile among the Cannes Classics titles unspooling, thanks to the presence of director James Ivory and co-star Vanessa Redgrave, who got a supporting Academy Award nom.
I only want to be involved in films that change the way people think. Charles Cohen
One person not in attendance is former Cohen Media president Daniel Battsek, who exited the firm only a few weeks ago to take over the reins of the U.K.s Film4.
Cohen seems unfazed by the challenges of navigating the Croisette sans president for a company that acquires, produces and distributes and has steadily built an important presence in the current specialty business landscape.
Howards End is a great example of what my film initiative is about, Cohen says. I bought the Merchant-Ivory brand and the plan is to bring back the brand.
Judging by both the range of CMGtheatrical releases, which includes Oscar foreign-language nominees Mustang and Timbuktu and cineaste documentaries like Kent Jones Hitchcock/Truffaut and Chuck Workmans Orson Welles study, Magician, as well as Cohens list of personal filmmaking heroes dotted with familiar names such as Fellini, Truffaut, Losey, Altman, Pialat and Godard, his goals for the Merchant-Ivory banner are very much driven by a laser-focus on the film market segment he describes as fans of intelligent filmmaking.
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With seemingly no interest in the Hollywood studio world of blockbuster films and gigantic global grosses, Cohen explains that his audience is undoubtedly older and more discerning, but he doesnt mean that as a knock on the studios, which do the best job at promoting their kind of films in the galaxy. But, he adds emphatically, thats not everything.
Given Cohens success with high-profile properties all over the Big Apple, L.A., Florida and Texas, its not surprising that hes also devoting considerable time and resources in the exhibition side of the specialty film business. Its also not surprising that his venues skew to what Cohen describes as the curated and respectable properties that characterize his non-showbiz holdings. Among his elegantly refurbished theaters due to open this year are the Quad Cinemas in New Yorks Greenwich Village and the Carefree Theater in Floridas tony West Palm Beach.
More than a place that moves Slurpees and popcorn, Cohen fancies each of his screens as an amenity of the community where theyre located. By focusing on a mixed-use plan that utilizes the proximity of affluent, sophisticated local audiences and adjacent restaurants, Cohen says his formula is simple: The theater creates the community.
While Cohen is in Cannes unveiling a venerated Merchant-Ivory classic on the Croisette, hell also be up to his dapper elbows in the down-and-dirty world that includes pre-buys, meetings and co-productions, but none in the service of anything that fails to attain his standards for involvement.
Theres no hint of fear or false modesty in the voice of the man who freely admits a long ago youthful plan to make the Great American Film, when he sets out his current goal: I only want to be involved in films that change the way people think. I want the audiences for my films to walk out educated and illuminated by what theyve seen.
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Washington, D.C. (May 10, 2016)Controversy erupted over freedom of speech on campus. No Child Left Behind was replaced by Every Student Succeeds as the debate continues over national regulations for testing, school funding, and more. The president proposed universal pre-K, while the presidential candidates debated the governments role in funding college and mitigating the debt left after that diploma is earned.
The past year saw critical issues in education drive the national agenda. With this in mind, The Atlantic will convene its second annual Education Summit, a two-day event illuminating these issues among the most pressing debates in the education world today. The event will take place on May 17 & 18 at the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre at The George Washington University.
The Summit will be divided into two areas of focus, with day one covering K-12 and the second day focusing on higher education. Participating in the event will be Erika Christakis, author of the Importance of Being Little, exploring her research into the pressure preschool is having on kids; Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards, who exposed the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and has now been tasked to help fix it; and Jen Holleran, executive director of Startup:Education to discuss the future of funding. Steven Knapp, president of The George Washington University, and Howard University president Wayne A.I. Frederick will both speak during Day Two.
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Interviews and town-hall style conversations will be led by The Atlantics Steve Clemons, Alex Wagner, Ross Andersen, Olga Khazan, Alia Wong, and Vann Newkirk. A full list of confirmed speakers can be found on the event website, with further updates to come. Among the topics to be covered at the Education Summit are:
Day One // K-12 Education:
Implementing ESSA and Whats Next in Funding Education
School to Prison Pipeline and Segregation in Schools
The Future of the Common Core
Teaching with Technology
Charters Grow Up
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Day Two // Higher Ed:
Sexual Assault; Diversity, Race, and Speech on Campus
College Affordability
The Rise of Adjunct Faculty
Closing the Completion Gap
Funding Science as a Public Good
To attend the Education Summit, media should RSVP directly to The Atlantics Sydney Simon (ssimon@theatlantic.com and 202-266-7338). The entire event will also be streamed live at TheAtlantic.com/Live.
The winner and semi-finalists of The Atlantic and the College Board Writing Prize will also be announced at the event. Now in its second year, the contest aims to recognize todays best high school essay writers and foster the analytical writing skills that are critical to college and career success. Students were challenged to insightfully analyze and interpret a meaningful work of art and understand the importance of revision. To underline the importance to the writing process, this years semi-finalists received a one-on-one editing session with members of The Atlantics editorial staff. The winning essayist will receive $5,000 and publication in the September issue of The Atlantic.
Walton Family Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are Founding Level underwriters of the Education Summit. American Federation of Teachers and College Board are Presenting Level underwriters and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Lumina Foundation are Supporting Level underwriters.
Read more from The Atlantic:
This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Vienna (AFP) - Austria's centre-left began Tuesday the tricky search for a new chancellor as speculation grew that it might take the high-stakes gamble of dropping opposition to a tie-up with the surging far right.
Werner Faymann, 56, who quit on Monday as chancellor and leader of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPOe), was strictly against any cooperation with the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe).
But with Faymann gone and the SPOe and their coalition partners since 2008, the centre-right People's Party (OeVP), trailing in the polls the taboo may be broken, experts said.
"It's not going to happen overnight, but the party has to agree a common position on the main issue facing it: how to deal with the FPOe," Karin Cvrtila from the OGM polling institute told AFP.
"It would be smart not to shut out the FPOe," Cvrtila said. "It needs to leave open the option of working with someone else because right now combining with the OeVP won't be enough."
Such a move has been backed by party grandee and former chancellor Franz Vranitzky, among others. The two parties are already in coalition in the eastern state of Burgenland and elsewhere at local level.
Political analyst Anton Pelinka from Innsbruck University said however that flirting with the FPOe could be "very dangerous", potentially tearing the party apart and driving voters towards the Greens.
History also serves as a warning. When in 2000, the OeVP formed a government with the FPOe under the late Joerg Haider, the result was Austria being ostracised in Europe.
- Presidential debacle -
The two centrist parties have dominated Austrian politics since World War II but the writing has long been on the wall, only just managing to scratch together a majority at the last elections in 2013.
Like elsewhere in Europe, they have been bleeding support to fringe groups, in particular to the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe) after almost a million migrants passed through Austria last year.
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Also hitting support has been rising unemployment -- Austria no longer has the lowest job rate in the European Union -- and the coalition's inability to agree reforms.
Ahead of the next general election due in 2018, the FPOe is leading opinion polls with more than 30 percent of the vote, with the SPOe and the OeVP scoring under 50 percent between them.
Two weeks ago, in a severe blow to Faymann, candidates from the two centrist parties were knocked out of the first round of elections for the largely ceremonial post of president.
Scoring a dismal 11 percent of the vote each, it meant that for the first time since 1945, Austria will not have a head of state from either of these two parties.
Instead the May 22 runoff is between the FPOe's Norbert Hofer, 45, who presents a friendly and moderate FPOe face, and Alexander van der Bellen, 72, a professorial former head of the Greens.
- Pro-business -
Much will depend much on who will succeed Faymann.
Ahead of a June 25 party congress, SPOe bosses are due to decide at a meeting on May 17 but the Austria Press Agency reported that a preliminary decision could come as soon as Friday.
Media reports said the frontrunner is Christian Kern, 50, head of the national railways company, followed by Gerhard Zeiler, 60, former chief of national broadcaster ORF.
Both men "stand more for pragmatic and pro-business course," the Der Standard daily said.
This would also go down well with the OeVP, which wants the coalition to show a renewed focus on economic reforms and no change to Austria's new hardline migrants policy.
But at the same time, this could rankle with the leftist wing of the SPOe, particularly if the new leader decides the party should embrace FPOe of Heinz-Christian Strache.
Robin Li
The boss of China's biggest search ad business Robin Li has urged his company to put "values before profit," in an effort to regain public trust.
The Baidu CEO made the comments in a letter sent to employees, after the search engine was ordered to reduce the number of ads it includes in search results by the government regulator.
The Cyberspace Administration of China said on Monday that Baidu gave "too much weight" to advertisements and its "commercial promotions were not clearly marked," according to the BBC. The regulator said that this "affected the impartiality and objectivity" of the search engine.
Much of the public outrage stemmed from the death of Wei Zexi a 21-year-old student who died after taking part in an unsuccessful "experimental cancer treatment" he said he found on Baidu. Before his death, Zexi had criticized Baidu for its ranking algorithm which is heavily weighted towards promoted posts.
The regulator said that Baidu's search results "had an impact" on Zexi's choice of treatment.
"If we lose the support of users, we lose hold of our values, and Baidu will truly go bankrupt in just 30 days!" Robin Li said in the letter, according to CNBC.
Li added: "The outrage is greater than in any crisis Baidu has experienced before."
The Cyberspace Administration of China demanded that Baidu only allows government-approved medical companies to advertise on the search engine. It also said that promoted results can only make up 30% of Baidu's search results.
Before CEO Li's letter, Baidu said it would "implement all the changes demanded by investigators, and deeply reflect on its shortcomings," The BBC reported.
Baidu was not immediately available for comment.
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Bangladesh on Tuesday executed the leader of the country's largest Islamist party for war crimes, officials said, a move set to exacerbate tensions in the volatile Muslim-majority nation.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at a prison in the capital Dhaka, just days after the nation's highest court dismissed his final appeal to overturn the death sentence for atrocities committed during the country's 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.
Law and Justice minister Anisul Huq told AFP the 73-year-old leader was hanged just before midnight (1800 GMT) after he refused to seek mercy from the country's president.
"He was executed between 11:50 pm and 12:00 am midnight," Huq said.
The execution has sparked fears it could trigger a fresh wave of violence in the majority Sunni Muslim country, which is reeling after a string of killings of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities by suspected Islamist militants.
In 2013 the convictions of Jamaat officials for war crimes triggered the country's deadliest violence in decades. Around 500 people were killed, mainly in clashes between Islamists and police, and thousands were arrested.
Nizami is the fifth and highest-ranked opposition leader -- and the fourth from Jamaat -- to have been executed since December 2013 for war crimes despite global criticism of their trials.
"We've been waiting for this day," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters, adding that people "will remember this day forever".
Hours before the hanging, family members of Nizami met him for the last time at the Dhaka Central Jail, as hundreds of police and elite security forces cordoned off the British colonial-era prison.
Security has been stepped up in the capital and in Nizami's home district of Pabna in the country's west, with magistrates being deployed to hand down instant prison terms to any law-breakers.
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"If anyone tries to commit sabotage, our security forces are ready to identify them and take proper measures," Khan told reporters.
- 'Deprived of justice' -
Since last month an atheist student, two gay rights activists, a liberal professor, a Hindu tailor who allegedly made derogatory comments against the Prophet Mohammed and a Sufi Muslim leader have been hacked to death in Bangladesh.
Jamaat called a nationwide strike for Thursday in protest against the execution, saying the charges against Nizami, a former government minister, were false and aimed at eliminating the leadership of the party.
"Nizami has been deprived of justice. He's a victim of political vengeance," the party's acting leader Maqbul Ahmad said in a statement posted on Jamaat's website.
But the execution was cheered by secular protesters, hundreds of whom gathered outside the jail and at a square in central Dhaka to celebrate what they called "a historic moment".
Nizami took over as party leader in 2000 and played a key role in the victory of an Islamist-allied government in the 2001 general election. He was made a key minister in the Islamist-allied cabinet of 2001-6.
The 1971 conflict, one of the bloodiest in world history, led to the creation of an independent Bangladesh from what was then East Pakistan.
Prosecutors said Nizami was responsible for setting up the pro-Pakistani Al-Badr militia, which killed top writers, doctors and journalists in the most gruesome chapter of the war.
Their bodies were found blindfolded with their hands tied and dumped in a marsh at the outskirts of the capital.
The trial heard Nizami ordered the killings, designed to "intellectually cripple" the fledgling nation.
He was convicted in October 2014 by the International Crimes Tribunal, which was established in 2010 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government and has sentenced more than a dozen opposition leaders for war crimes.
Rights groups say the trials fell short of global standards and lack international oversight, while the government says they are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict.
Amnesty International had called for an immediate halt to Nizami's execution, citing concerns over the fairness of the trials.
The government says up to three million people died in the 1971 war, while independent researchers put the figure at between 300,000 and 500,000.
By Ruma Paul DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh hanged Islamist party leader Motiur Rahman Nizami on Wednesday for genocide and other crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, the law minister said, risking an angry reaction from his supporters. Nizami, head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at Dhaka Central jail just after midnight, Law Minister Anisul Haq told Reuters, after the Supreme Court rejected his final plea against a death sentence imposed by a special tribunal for genocide, rape and orchestrating the massacre of top intellectuals during the war. Nizami, 73, a former legislator and minister during opposition leader Khaleda Zia's last term as prime minister, was sentenced to death in 2014. Hundreds of people flooded the streets of the capital, Dhaka, to cheer the execution. "We have waited for this day for a long 45 years," said war veteran Akram Hossain. "Justice has finally been served." But the war crimes tribunal set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010 has sparked violence and drawn criticism from opposition politicians, including leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, that it is victimizing Hasina's political opponents. Thousands of extra police and border guards were deployed in Dhaka and other major cities. Previous similar judgments and executions have triggered violence that killed around 200 people, mainly Jamaat activists and police. Five opposition politicians, including four Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, have been executed since late 2013 after being convicted by the tribunal. STRIKE CALL Jamaat-e-Islami, which has said the charges against Nizami were baseless, called for a nationwide strike on Wednesday in protest. Calling Nizami a 'martyr', it said he was deprived of justice and made a victim of a political vendetta. The U.S. State Department said that while it supported justice being carried out for the 1971 atrocities, it was vital that the trials of those accused are free, fair and transparent and conducted in accordance with international agreements. "While we have seen limited progress in some cases, we still believe that further improvements to the ... process could ensure these proceedings meet domestic and international obligations," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in a statement. "Until these obligations can be consistently met, we have concerns about proceeding with executions." About three million people were killed, the government says, and thousands of women were raped during the 1971 war in which some factions, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, opposed the break from what was then called West Pakistan. The party denies that its leaders committed any atrocities. International human rights groups say the tribunal's procedures fall short of international standards. The government denies the accusations. The execution comes as the Muslim-majority nation suffers a surge in militant violence in which atheist bloggers, academics, religious minorities and foreign aid workers have been killed. In April alone, five people, including a university teacher, two gay activists and a Hindu, were hacked to death by suspected Islamist militants. International human rights groups say a climate of intolerance in Bangladeshi politics has both motivated and provided cover for perpetrators of crimes of religious hatred. (Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and James Dalgleish)
Energy Commodities: How Do They Impact Energy Stocks?
Crude oil is bearish
US crude oil (USO) futures lost 2.7% on May 9, 2016compared to its previous closing price. It closed at $43.44. Since April 8, 2016, crude oil extended its gain for the last three weeks of April 2016. However, in the first week of May 2016, US crude oil futures fell after three consecutive weekly gains. This series will analyze the correlation of oil-weighted stocks with crude and the correlation of natural gasweighted stocks with natural gas. It could help investors to realign their portfolios based on the quantitative data.
Correlation of oil-weighted stocks
Among upstream companies that are part of the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP) and operate with a production mix of at least 60% of crude oil, Carrizo Oil & Gas (CRZO) had the highest positive correlation with WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil over the last month. It had a correlation of about 77.6% with US crude oil (USO) (UWTI) during this period.
Upstream stocks Clayton Williams Energy (CWEI), Bonanza Creek Energy (BCEI), and Oasis Petroleum (OAS) had correlations of 75.0%, 74.2%, and 71.5%, respectively, with US crude oil over the past monthas shown in the above table.
Diamondback Energy (FANG) and Continental Resources (CLR) had correlations of 38.5% and 37.5%, respectively, with WTI in the past month. Among XOP stocks that operate with production mixes of at least 60% crude oil, FANG and CLR had the lowest one-month correlations with WTI crude oil.
Read Analyzing the Correlation of Crude Oil and Industrial Metals and Gold and Crude Oil: How Does the Correlation Work? to find out more about the correlation of crude oil with other assets.
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The American Revolution is often painted as a courageous and unstoppable cause, advanced by noble men of pure intent, preordained for success. Benedict Arnold, meanwhile, is seen as such an archetypal traitor that his name has come to be synonymous with treachery.
But as Nathaniel Philbrick illuminates in his new book, thats only part of the story.
The fact of the matter is [the Revolution] went on for eight years, and instead of being this God-ordained rush to victory, it was bogged down, Philbrick told TIME ahead of the publication of Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, out Tuesday. It seemed as if the American people, who had come together in the Continental Congress and the Declaration of Independence, after five years of war had begun to lose interest. There was all this civil dissension, Americans were fighting Americans, and Congress could not raise money because they had no taxing power.
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In Philbricks view, Benedict Arnolds war story embodies much of what went wrong in the Revolution. Americas most notorious traitor actually began the war a hero, displaying bravery in the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga and the Battle of Quebec, and using his nautical cunning to lead his fleet to safety on Lake Champlain at the Battle of Valcour Island. He was our best battlefield general, Philbrick says. But he was also a controversial character and he wasnt treated well by the politicians. Arnold saw his peers promoted ahead of him for political reasons, and after badly injuring his leg at the Battle of Bemis Heightsit ended up two inches shorterhe felt he wasnt duly rewarded for his sacrifices.
Arnold had a friend in George Washington, but even Washington himself was often out of favor with members of the Continental Congress, whom he answered toso there wasnt much he could do to protect Arnold from the slings and arrows of American politics.
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Theres a tremendous tendency to look back on our Founding Fathers and say it was a simpler time when men motivated by the best of values made America, Philbrick says. Thats not the way it was at all. It was a lot more like it is today than many Americans would like to admit.
MORE: The Strange Saga of George Washingtons Bedpan
By the time the war was fully underway, the Continental Congress was not made up of the luminaries whod written the Declaration of Independence, leaving second- and third-tier politicians in charge. And, without the power to levy taxes, they had little power to effectively run he country and fund the war. We rant and rave about a dysfunctional Congress today, Philbrick says. Well, this was a dysfunctional Congress, too.
So its no wonder that Arnold was angry.
His marriage in 1779 to a woman with Loyalist sympathies helped turn anger into treachery. The following year, after going back and forth with contacts inside the British army, Arnold attempted to surrender West Point to the Britisha plot that was foiled through a series of blunders and mishaps, and one that made Arnold public enemy no. 1 for the American people.
The real irony and tragedy of Arnolds career, says Philbrick, is that his years of valor on the battlefield didnt do nearly as much for the Revolution as his treason, which served as a galvanizing shock. Suddenly the apathetic masses were rallying once again, united against a common enemy. Short of George Washington, Philbrick says, No one did more to promote the American cause than Arnold.
Bernie Sanders stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Monday night and helped the host retrieve a candy bar that was stuck in a vending machine. In the opening segment of the show, the senator from Vermont assured Colbert that there was no reason to give up on his delicious treat. Unfortunately, Colbert didnt share the same feelings about the candidates chances of becoming the Democratic nominee for president.
Sanders was hopeful about his ability to win the West Virginia primary on Tuesday, but Colbert pointed out it might not matter because of the delegate math being against him. That didnt seem to bother Sanders, who made the connection to Colberts candy conundrum, saying that he had to rock the system just like Colbert needed to rock the vending machine to get his candy bar loose.
In the end, Colbert finally got his 100 Grand bar and then the senator hilariously asked if they could share it.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on CBS.
Sanders tells Colbert why he deserves superdelegates:
Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Cynthia LuCiette, on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Trying to decide where to spend your golden years? New research finds that it might be best to avoid traditional retirement destinations like Florida and settle instead somewhere that offers high quality health care at low cost, as well as excellent quality of life.
The senior living website Caring.com ranked the best and worst states for aging, according to a number of financial, health care and quality of life variables. The study found that higher costs are not necessarily related to higher quality of care. In fact, sometimes the opposite is true.
Related: A Big Reason Workers Arent Saving More for Retirement
The main takeaway from this research is that the traditional retirement destinations dont always offer the best mix of quality and quantity, said Dayna Steele of Caring.com in the reports press release.
South Dakota snagged the top spot for aging, thanks to the states high-quality health care and senior care. South Dakota also boasts one of the highest well-being ratings. Iowa and Minnesota rank second and third, respectively.
Only two warm and sunny states, typically thought of as being ideal retirement destinations, cracked the top 10: Hawaii and South Carolina. California came in 17th, Arizona is 20th and Florida ranked 31st.
Related: How to Simplify Your Retirement Accounts and Make More Money
Long-term senior care in West Virginia is relatively affordable, but the state ranked dead last due to its low quality of life and lack of health care services. New Jersey, one of the most expensive states for senior care, came second to last, with New York rounding out the bottom three.
Here are the 10 best states to grow old in, according to Caring.com:
10. Wisconsin
9. Nebraska
8. South Carolina
7. Hawaii
6. Colorado
5. Oregon
4. Alaska
3. Minnesota
2. Iowa
1. South Dakota
And here are the 10 worst states to grow old in, according to Caring.com:
10. Alabama
8. Ohio (tied)
8. Pennsylvania (tied)
7. Mississippi
6. Rhode Island
5. Indiana
4. Kentucky
3. New York
2. New Jersey
1. West Virginia
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Toms River (United States) (AFP) - Rocker Jon Bon Jovi on Tuesday opened an anti-hunger center in his native New Jersey, hoping to tackle food insecurity rates that have remained stubbornly high since the Great Recession and Hurricane Sandy.
The complex in Toms River, one of the hardest-hit towns in the 2012 mega-storm, includes a food bank, restaurant and culinary school and offers free guidance on tax returns, health care and public benefits.
The frontman and namesake of Bon Jovi, who has sold some 130 million albums, and his wife Dorothea put up funding to start the B.E.A.T Center -- standing for "Bringing Everyone All Together" -- situated in a strip-mall.
He told a ribbon-cutting ceremony that it would provide "not only a healthy meal, but in fact a place that creates community."
Food banks have been distributing more than twice as much produce in Ocean County, whose seat is Toms River, since Hurricane Sandy, with families suddenly finding that they cannot always afford food staples.
"These are hard-working, blue-collar, middle-class people who go to work every day. But the need for people to make ends meet -- (being) food insecure -- was already there. This just exacerbated it," Bon Jovi told reporters.
Bon Jovi said that such volunteer efforts could help address hunger, adding that the problem as not just in New Jersey.
"When there are 15 percent of children going to bed hungry at night in a nation like the United States, these aren't issues that need a scientist to find a cure," he said.
The complex's restaurant, called the JBJ Soul Kitchen, is the second for Bon Jovi after one that opened in 2011 in Red Bank to the north.
Patrons at the restaurant pay either by volunteering in the kitchen or donating at least $10.
US Representative Tom MacArthur, whose district includes the area, applauded the approach, saying he did not know who was in need when he dined at the Red Bank location, which is about to serve its 50,000th meal.
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"That's what we have to do. We have to meet the need, we have to do it effectively. But we have to make sure that people have dignity when they're getting help," MacArthur said.
Goya Foods, a top producer aimed at US Hispanics and based in New Jersey, has agreed to donate 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms) of food each week, said Patricia Donaghue, head of the Peoples Pantry established after Sandy.
She hailed the donation as an "absolute game-changer" in ensuring the pantry's future.
Brasilia (AFP) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff made a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court to halt a vote in the Senate on opening an impeachment trial and suspending her from office.
Rousseff's solicitor general went to the court in the capital Brasilia barely 12 hours before the Senate was due to begin its session.
However, a spokesman for the court told AFP that it was not known when the justice assigned to the case would issue an initial ruling.
The Senate was due to start debating at approximately 9:00 am (1200 GMT) in the futuristic Congress building, with voting not expected to take place possibly until the early hours of Thursday.
Rousseff is accused of breaking budgetary laws. A majority of more than half of the 79 senators able to vote would trigger her automatic suspension for six months and the opening of a trial that could take several months.
Rousseff says she is the victim of a coup mounted by her vice president, Michel Temer, who will take power if she is suspended.
Temer, whose center-right PMDB party broke off its uneasy partnership with leftist Rousseff's Workers' Party, has already prepared a new government and says his priority will be to take action on the moribund Brazilian economy, now in its worst recession for decades.
Rousseff, a one-time Marxist guerrilla who was imprisoned and tortured under Brazil's military rulers in the 1970s, vows to resist.
"I am going to fight with all my strength, using all means available," she told a women's forum in Brasilia on Tuesday in what could have been one of her last official events as president.
Rousseff called her opponents "people (who) can't win the presidency through a popular vote" and claimed they had a "project to dismantle" social gains made by millions of poor during 13 years of Workers' Party rule.
However, Rousseff is deeply unpopular with most Brazilians, who blame her for presiding over the recession and a massive corruption scandal centered on state-oil company Petrobras.
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- Tensions -
In an already chaotic week in which the interim speaker of the lower house tried to order the upper house to halt impeachment proceedings -- only to back down hours later -- there was no patching over the sprawling South American country's deep divisions.
Lawmaker Jose Guimaraes, a Rousseff ally, said that despite almost certain defeat in the initial Senate vote, the impeachment trial itself would be an all-out fight.
"We will have 180 days in the Senate, talking with every one of them, to get them to change their minds," he told journalists, warning that "our main fight today will be in the streets."
Police responded to heightened tension by building a huge metal barricade outside Congress in Brasilia to separate rival groups of protesters during the Senate vote. A separation corridor 80 meters (yards) wide and more than a kilometer (half a mile) long will also be enforced.
A square where major government institutions are located will be declared a "national security zone" and made off-limits to the public, Brasilia security authorities announced.
Huge anti-government protests and smaller but still significant pro-Rousseff rallies have been a regular feature in Brazil over the last year, but so far have passed off mostly peacefully.
- Temer lies in wait -
As Rousseff prepared for her Senate showdown, the man poised to replace her continued to work on assembling a new government.
Temer is a veteran center-right politician but is also highly unpopular and would inherit the crumbling economy as well as a resentful left.
He has made no public pronouncements in the immediate runup to the Senate vote, but has been negotiating with allies on ministerial posts and measures that Congress would pass to try to breathe some life into the economy.
Stocks in Sao Paulo rose more than four percent as the overwhelmingly anti-Rousseff markets bet that Rousseff was on her way out.
The Senate impeachment trial could last months, running through the Olympics, which open in Rio de Janeiro on August 5 -- a first for South America.
Fears over the Zika virus, high crime in Rio, pollution in the sailing and some swimming venues, along with a budget crunch, are already hurting preparations for the Games, and there are worries that political instability could overshadow the event.
London (AFP) - Germany vetoed key parts of British Prime Minister David Cameron's attempted EU reforms before he called a referendum on Britain's membership, an ex-cabinet minister said in an interview published Tuesday.
Eurosceptic veteran Iain Duncan Smith, who quit as work and pensions secretary in March, told The Sun newspaper that a key demand for an emergency brake on mass immigration was ditched at the last minute at Berlin's behest.
The prime minister's Downing Street office insisted Cameron had decided against the demand himself.
Cameron sought reforms to the UK's relationship with the European Union before calling the June 23 in-or-out referendum on Britain's membership of the bloc.
Duncan Smith, a former Conservative Party leader, said the migration brake call was to have been in a speech by Cameron on November 27.
"I saw the draft. I know that right up until the midnight hour, there was a strong line in there about restricting the flow of migrants from the EU -- an emergency brake on overall migration," he said.
"It was dropped, literally the night before. And it was dropped because the Germans said, 'if that is in the speech, we will have to attack it'."
He said Berlin "had a de facto veto over everything".
The referendum campaign has kicked into full swing following Thursday's regional and local elections in Britain.
On Monday, Cameron, who wants Britain to stay in a reformed EU, said that a British exit from the 28-country bloc would threaten peace on the continent.
Conservative former London mayor Boris Johnson dismissed the claims and said Brexit was now the "great project of European liberalism".
Duncan Smith's intervention was likely only to worsen the Conservative rift over the EU. Only around half of the party's MPs have joined Cameron in the "Remain" camp.
The "Remain" and "Leave" campaigns are locked on 50 percent each, according to the What UK Thinks website's average of the last six opinion polls.
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Instead of being able to impose an emergency brake on immigration, Cameron won a concession to control access to in-work welfare for new EU immigrants for four years.
A Downing Street source told The Sun: "The prime minister made clear at the time that the government had looked at an emergency brake but he decided it was not the most effective way forward.
"That is why he decided to impose restrictions on benefits instead to end the something-for-nothing culture."
London (AFP) - British Prime Minister David Cameron called Nigeria and Afghanistan "possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world" in inadvertently public remarks Tuesday, but hailed their leaders' planned attendance at an anti-corruption summit in London.
He was caught on camera making the remarks to Queen Elizabeth II and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at an event at Buckingham Palace.
"We've got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain," Cameron said, referring to the anti-corruption summit he is hosting on Thursday.
"Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world," he said.
Welby, who worked as an oil executive in West Africa before joining the church and who has also undertaken conflict resolution work in Nigeria, noted that "this particular president is actually not corrupt".
"He's really trying," Cameron agreed, and the queen noted to Welby: "He is trying, isn't he?"
It was not clear to whom they were referring, but Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani are both due to attend the summit.
In a statement, the Buhari's spokesman Garba Shehu said the comments were "embarrassing".
"This is embarrassing to us, to say the least, given the good work that the President is doing. The eyes of the world are on what is happening here," Shehu said in remarks released on social media.
"The Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria. Things are changing with corruption and everything else."
Buhari has embarked on a widespread anti-corruption campaign since taking office one year ago, and is due to give a speech on the issue in London on Wednesday.
In Afghanistan, Ghani also made a promise to rein in runaway corruption when he was elected in 2014.
- Signal of change -
Cobus de Swardt, managing director of global advocacy group Transparency International, said: "There is no doubt that historically, Nigeria and Afghanistan have had very high levels of corruption, and that continues to this day.
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"But the leaders of those countries have sent strong signals that they want things to change, and the London Anti-Corruption Summit creates an opportunity for all the countries present to sign up to a new era."
Conversations between the prime minister and the queen are normally confidential, and Cameron had to apologise after revealing the monarch "purred" when she was told Scotland had voted against independence in 2014.
On Tuesday, a Downing Street spokeswoman said it would not comment on a private conversation, but noted that both Buhari and Ghani "have acknowledged the scale of the corruption challenge they face in their countries".
She revealed that in a collection of essays to be published at the summit, Ghani writes that Afghanistan is "one of the most corrupt countries on Earth".
Buhari, for his part, writes that corruption became a "way of life" under "supposedly accountable democratic governments", the spokeswoman said.
She concluded: "Both leaders have been invited to the summit because they are driving the fight against corruption in their countries. The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with them as they do so."
Theres been some shuffling of the schedule at Tony-nominated Broadway musical Shuffle Along, which has set new dates for the hiatus of star Audra McDonald and added a stage stint for Savion Glover, the esteemed tap dancer who is also the shows choreographer.
Producers also announced that Rhiannon Giddens, the musician who released solo album Tomorrow Is My Turn last year, will fill in for McDonald during her leave of absence, which will now begin July 24 and extend into the fall. Glover, wholl join the cast as a featured dancer, will appear in the show during the same timeframe.
McDonald had already been expected to take a hiatus from Shuffle Along, beginning in June and returning in September, in order to appear in the West End run of Lady Day at Emersons Bar & Grill. But that gameplans been nixed, thanks to McDonalds unexpected pregnancy. Instead, the performer will be leaving later in the summer, to return in the fall at a date to be determined. (The London run of Lady Day has also been postponed.)
Giddens, a founding member of the Grammy-winning folk band Carolina Chocolate Drops, makes her Broadway debut in Shuffle Along. She previously worked with Shuffle Along producer Scott Rudin on Another Day, Another Time, the 2013 concert event that celebrated the music of Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis, which Rudin produced.
Nominated for ten Tony Awards, Shuffle Along chronicles the creation of an influential 1921 jazz musical of the same name. McDonald, in a surprising twist, wasnt one of the performers nominated for a Tony, but the shows robust haul includes nods for new musical, for George C. Wolfes book and direction and for Glovers choreography. Shuffle Along also scored the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for musical.
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By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK (Reuters) - People arrested in the Bronx borough of New York City for low-level offenses such as shoplifting or marijuana possession can wait years for a trial, public defenders and other lawyers complained in a federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state's top judges.
The wait is so long, many people plead guilty just to avoid returning to court again and again, according to the complaint, which says the delays violate a defendant's right to a speedy trial under the U.S. Constitution.
Filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by public defenders and law firms Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady and Morison & Foerster, the lawsuit seeks class action status to represent anyone who will face misdemeanor or lesser charges in Bronx Criminal Court. It seeks non-monetary remedies.
According to the complaint, delays in the Bronx are far worse than in the rest of city, even though there are fewer misdemeanor filings there than in Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens. The lawsuit notes that the Bronx is the poorest county in the state and has the highest percentage of residents of color among the city's five boroughs.
"The system more closely resembles punishment than due process," the complaint states, noting reforms have been promised for more than a decade.
In a statement, Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, said "the issue of case backlogs and delays in the state's courts -- particularly the Bronx -- are an absolute top priority."
DiFiore is a defendant in the lawsuit along with Cuomo and Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks.
As of January, 2,378 misdemeanor cases had been pending in the Bronx for more than a year and 538 cases had not been resolved after two years, the lawsuit claims. The average wait for a jury trial is 827 days.
Last year, there were more than 45,000 misdemeanor arraignments in the Bronx but only 98 misdemeanor trials.
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According to the complaint, hundreds of people wait hours each day for cases to be called, only to face further adjournments. Prolonged prosecutions affect people's immigration status, schooling and jobs, the lawsuit says.
State law requires prosecutors to be ready for trial in 90 days of arraignment on a misdemeanor, or less, but court delays do not count toward the limit.
"We are reviewing the complaint," said Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for Cuomo.
The case is Christopher Towbridge, et al, v Andrew Cuomo, et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, ,No. 16-cv-3455.
(Reporting By Karen Freifeld; Editing by Anthony Lin and David Gregorio)
Budweiser, one of the most popular beers in the United States, will rename itself "America" in a baffling tribute to the 2016 presidential campaign. Yes, you read that right: the beer created by Belgian international corporation Anheuser-Busch InBev will honor the tumultuous civic journey to the presidency through a temporary rebranding that will last through the summer.
"We thought nothing was more iconic than Budweiser and nothing was more iconic than America," Tosh Hall, creative director at branding firm JKR, told Co.Design. While the cans look similar at first glance to Budweiser's traditional look, the entire packaging has been given a redesign.
Here's to America the beautiful. Hold her high this summer. #ThisBudsForYoupic.twitter.com/6uUd92MTJB
The slogan "King of Beers" has been changed to "E Pluribus Unum," "The World Renowned" changed to "Land of the Free" and "Anheuser-Busch, Inc." has been updated to read "Liberty & Justice For All." Even legalese like "Trademark" was changed to "Indivisible," and "Registered" changed to "Since 1776."
The cans will return to their original packaging after November, but anyone who's been following this headache of a primary season will probably agree that a drink is something we'll all be needing soon.
Budweiser will re-label bottles and cans with America this summer. (Photo via Budweiser)
Heres some bad news for anyone looking to kick back with a cold Budweiser and forget about the presidential election this summer. Starting May 23, the King of Beers will relabel its cans and bottles with the word America to remind beer drinkers nationwide that America is in Your Hands.
According to a press release from Budweisers St. Louis-based brewer, Anheuser-Busch (which has been owned by the Belgian company InBev since 2008), the patriotic packaging which also will include lines from America the Beautiful and the Pledge of Allegiance is aimed at inspiring drinkers to celebrate America and Budweisers shared values of freedom and authenticity.
Here's to America the beautiful. Hold her high this summer. #ThisBudsForYou pic.twitter.com/6uUd92MTJB Budweiser (@Budweiser) May 10, 2016
New billboards, television spots, digital advertisements and other marketing tools will feature the star-spangled bottles and cans. And while it will launch just in time for what Budweiser Vice President Ricardo Marques called the most patriotic summer that this generation has ever seen, the America is in Your Hands campaign will continue through the presidential election this November. From May 23 through mid-September, Budweiser will also sell cans and bottles with the Statue of Libertys torch emblazoned on the label.
Budweiser has always strived to embody America in a bottle, and were honored to salute this great nation where our beer has been passionately brewed for the past 140 years, Marques said.
Not everyone is taking the campaign quite so seriously, however. Budweisers announcement quickly made the rounds on social media Tuesday morning, prompting plenty of jokes about the beers new summer look.
I actually do think Budweiser is America. kelsey mckinney (@mckinneykelsey) May 10, 2016
Wake me up when they change the name of America to Budweiser. Luke O'Neil (@lukeoneil47) May 10, 2016
Like America the country, Budweiser the beer is only sometimes tolerable and will make you fat. https://t.co/kxAOCUNIm4 Erin Gloria Ryan (@morninggloria) May 10, 2016
Budweiser customer service woefully unprepared for questions about civilian casualties of extrajudicial drone strikes. Huge Mantis (@HugeMantis) May 10, 2016
Silly as the campaign may seem, New York Magazines Grub Street blog noted that it could also help Budweiser promote the fact that its beer is actually brewed in the United States.
SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's deputy prime minister resigned on Tuesday after his ABV party said it would withdraw its support from the government, a move that that raises concerns over the stability of the ruling center-right coalition. Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest country, is on its fifth government since 2013 and rampant corruption is hampering efforts to boost economic growth and improve living standards. Ivailo Kalfin, who was also labor minister in Prime Minister Boiko Borisov's government, stepped down shortly after ABV announced it would end its backing for the government due to disagreements over policy and changes in the election code. It will make its final decision at a party congress on Sunday. The center-left ABV, led by Bulgaria's former president Georgi Parvanov, is not formally part of the two-party ruling coalition but had declared its support for it and in return had won a ministerial post. Borisov's government, which took office in 2014 on pledges to spur economic growth, lacks an outright majority and relies on the support of ABV and the nationalist Patriotic Front to stay in power. ABV's move will force the government to seek parliamentary support on a case-by-case basis and further sap its ability to deliver on sorely-needed economic and other reforms. "It is obvious that the stability of the coalition is now vulnerable," said Daniel Smilov, a political analyst with the independent think-tank Center for Liberal Strategies. "It is clear now that it will be hard for GERB (Borisov's party) to achieve its goals because every decision will depend on small parties." Bulgaria holds a presidential election in October and some analysts say ABV wants to distance itself from the ruling coalition to increase its chances in that race. The incumbent, Rosen Plevneliev, a former GERB minister, has not said yet whether he will seek re-election to the ceremonial post. Analysts said an early parliamentary election next spring could not be ruled out, though GERB has said this would not be good for the country. GERB also shrugged off ABV's withdrawal of support, saying that in many cases it had not voted in line with the government. Last December a small right-wing party withdrew its support for Borisov's government after parliament watered down changes in the constitution aimed at overhauling the corruption-riddled judiciary. (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova and Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Gareth Jones)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, will oversee the presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee's search for a running mate, a campaign aide said on Tuesday. Lewandowski last week took over the vice presidential selection process and is drawing up a list of potential candidates and speaking with Republican Party figures, two top Republicans told the Washington Post, which first reported the move. The two Republicans said they expected lawyers or a law firm to help vet Trump's short list of candidates, the Post reported. The Trump campaign aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Lewandowski is leading the effort but would not elaborate. Trump has said he is considering some of his former rivals for the Republican nomination. But some already have ruled themselves out or declared they will not support the billionaire businessman. One of those was U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who on Monday sought to quash speculation he might emerge as the running mate, saying he still has deep reservations about Trump. Trump has bristled at Republicans who publicly have taken themselves out of the running. The day after Rubio's announcement, Trump wrote in a Twitter post, "It is only the people that were never asked to be VP that tell the press that they will not take the position." Trump has said he plans to select a Republican with political experience as his choice for vice president. Lewandowski has been part of Trump's inner circle since the beginning of his candidacy. Other Trump senior advisers, including Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley, will concentrate on the campaign's national field operation and planning for the Republican National Convention in July, the Post said. Lewandowski has generated controversy during Trump's campaign for president. He was hit in March with a misdemeanor battery charge relating to an incident involving a female reporter, but prosecutors in Florida's Palm Beach County last month decided not to prosecute Lewandowski. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Will Dunham)
Canadian distrib Elevation Pictures has inked a multi-year slate co-financing deal with Sebastien Raynauds Europe-based investment outfit Anton Corp.
Under the deal, Anton will partner on Elevations acquisition slate of around 20-25 pics per year ranging from elevated commercial films to prestige driven titles, including those from its output deals with Black Bear Pictures, Bleeker Street and Bold Films.
The strategic partnership will give Elevation, which is backed by Teddy Schwartzmans Black Bear Pictures, the muscle to target opportunities to built its slate, which has so far included titles such as The Imitation Game and Room. Anton is on board to back releases from the indie disturb such as Garry Marshalls Mothers Day, Garry Ross Free State of Jones, John Lee Hancocks The Founder, starring Michael Keaton and Oliver Stones Snowden.
This collaboration with the excellent team at Elevation Pictures and Teddy Schwartzmans Black Bear Pictures marks a new strategic chapter in our expansion plans, said Raybaud. We are very proud to be in business with them and look forward to seeing them become an even stronger player in Canada.
Elevation Pictures co-presidents Laurie May and Noah Segal said: This collaboration, including some films to be brought by Anton, as well as Canadian co-productions, will elevate our slate to the next level.
Anton has played a key part in bolstering the strength of international indie distribs in an increasingly turbulent landscape. In 2011, the outfit debuted its pioneering co-financing model in Europe by partnering with Studiocanal for a whopping 150 million ($170.5 million) three-year deal, which helped finance pics such as Paddington, Non-Stop, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Shaun the Sheep.
To date, Anton has co-financed more than 160 pics. In January 2016, former Studiocanal sales topper Harold Van Lier joined Anton as partner.
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Lac La Biche (Canada) (AFP) - Chipewyan native Elmer McDonald putters around his trailer in a Lac La Biche parking lot and plays his fiddle since being evacuated as the Fort McMurray wildfires closed in on his tribal home late Sunday.
Several indigenous communities had taken in residents of the neighboring Canadian oil city forced to flee raging fires that have consumed more than 161,000 hectares of boreal forests.
But the reservations near or behind the battle lines have now been ordered evacuated too, including the Fort McMurray First Nation and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, as the fires spread.
"Mother Earth is kind of upset, I guess," McDonald told AFP.
"They're fooling around with too much Mother Earth. Someone has to pay for it," he added, accusing the oil and forestry companies active in the region of polluting the land and waters, and stripping away at the ecosystem.
Seasonal fires are part of the boreal ecology, helping its conifers to reproduce.
As mature trees burn, the extreme heat causes their cones to open and release seeds, replenish regions devastated by the fires with new growth.
Burnt swaths also create natural barriers to new fires since they typically won't burn again for decades.
But in northern Alberta there is significant human activity -- a city, oil sands mining and forestry -- which has interrupted this natural cycle, according to natives and wildfire experts.
"There's been wildfires in the past but right now it's too dry. It has never been that dry before, due to climate changes," Chipewyan elder Fred Black said.
"Our traditional ways was living off the land one time. But now, not only the fire, the oil companies, and the guys that are taking the trees make all that changing," he said.
This was the second time McDonald and members of his tribe have been forced by fire from their homes since the 1990s.
"This is nothing new to me, it's like war -- you finish one battle and start again," he said.
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- Praying for rain -
Fellow Chipewyan evacuee Sheila Janvier, now staying at a Lac La Biche motel with a group of elders and children in her care, described a mad dash to get out of the reservation 140 kilometers (85 miles) north, including by two teenage girls on horseback.
She said she stood waist-deep in the nearby lake to pray for rain since arriving in town.
Although her wish came true late Sunday, officials said the precipitation wasn't nearly enough to put out the fires.
"People lost a lot of things, but as long as people are safe, have somewhere to stay, have a roof over their head," she said.
"I think that's the most important thing of all. We might have lost material stuff, that's replaceable."
Officials reported Monday after Alberta Premier Rachel Notley toured Fort McMurray that 90 percent of the city was spared.
Sheila's sister Shauna, however, remains anxious.
"Fort McMurray was a place where we got our groceries, where we went shopping, I have a brother that lives out there as well," she told AFP.
"It touches home, it really touches home, and that's where we take care of everything. Now we are kinda stranded, and I want to go home. It'd be nice to go home."
Back at the trailer, McDonald was more concerned for the wildlife killed or displaced by the fire than infrastructure.
"The animals were probably caught in the fires, they couldn't escape fast enough," he said.
That won't stop Donald Janvier of Fort McMurray (no relation to Sheila and Shauna). AFP caught up with him at the Lac La Biche evacuation center, where he said he was still planning to go fishing and hunting this summer.
"It's quiet out there, you go hunting and fishing and trapping, all that good stuff, and you're connecting with the wilderness," he said. "It's so beautiful."
"Of course, now it will be a lot different," he added.
By Rod Nickel FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (Reuters) - The wildfire that swept through the Canadian city of Fort McMurray blazed a capricious trail. Swathes of homes were burned to the ground while nearby areas were unscathed and dotted with blooming lilacs, a tour showed on Monday. In Beacon Hill, one of the worst-hit neighborhoods of a city that booms and busts with the price of oil, houses on street after street were reduced to nothing more than blackened foundations and front steps. Metal barbecues stood outside some. Cars and trucks sat in some driveways on melted tires, streams of once-molten metal snaked from underneath. "This was a beast. It was an animal. It was a fire like I've never seen in my life," Fort McMurray Fire Chief Darby Allen told reporters, who were allowed to tour the oilsands city by bus on Monday afternoon. The uncontrollable wildfire forced the evacuation of the entire city six days ago. Some 88,000 residents fled on the one highway that leads into the remote community in northern Alberta. While Allen told reporters he believes 85 percent of the city's homes and businesses were still intact, much of the tour focused on the worst-hit neighborhoods where hundreds of homes were destroyed. In the devastated neighborhood of Abasand, one side of a street was intact, barely touched by fire, while town homes on the other side of the street were burned to the ground. Three bikes - an adult bike and two for children - leaned against a fence, burned to just their metal frames and wheel rims. Blackened ground and trees contrasted starkly with patches of green grass and flowers elsewhere. Sometimes they were just inches apart. "There's not much left ... It is pretty much destroyed," Allen said of Beacon Hill. But some structures survived. Two schools were largely untouched, their brightly colored slides and swings eerily deserted as residents remained barred from re-entering the city. The Canadian flag still flew over the school complex, unmarked by the flames. Much of the downtown and key infrastructure such as a hospital and bridges were also spared, as firefighters gave up on some neighborhoods to focus on saving others. Allen said firefighters at one point had to work to save their own firehall. Nearby, a trailer park was largely destroyed. "I do truly believe we couldn't do any more," he said. (Additional writing by Andrea Hopkins; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 10, 2016 / CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: CVV) (OTCQB: CVVUF) (FSE: DH7N.F) advises it has been selected to participate at the "by-invitation only" Metals Investor Forum May 14 - 15, 2016.
CanAlaska president, Peter Dasler, will provide a presentation on the company's exploration activities including an update on Cameco Corporation's (TSX: CCO) (NYSE: CCJ) drilling program at West McArthur. Also to be discussed are the new kimberlite targets in the Athabasca, and expected drilling programs on CanAlaska's NW Manitoba, Moon and Patterson West projects.
CanAlaska's presentation will be on Saturday, May 14 at 10:40 am at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver, BC. During the two day event, company management will be available to meet with investors, the media, and potential project partners.
The Metals Investor Forum allows investors to connect with the management teams of some of the top resource companies in the industry. Each company is selected to participate by one of the keynote speakers who are among the best newsletter writers in the junior resource sector. Further information on Forum is available at www.metalsinvestorforum.com.
About CanAlaska Uranium
CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: CVV) (OTCQB: CVVUF) (FSE: DH7N) holds interests in approximately 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres), one of the largest land positions in Canada's Athabasca Basin region - the "Saudi Arabia of Uranium". CanAlaska's strategic holdings has attracted major international mining companies Cameco, KORES and KEPCO as partners at its core projects. CanAlaska is a project generator and is positioned for discovery success in the world's richest uranium district. For further information visit www.canalaska.com .
On behalf of the Board of Directors
"Peter Dasler"
Peter Dasler, M.Sc., P.Geo.
President & CEO
CanAlaska Uranium Ltd.
Contacts:
Peter Dasler, President and CEO
Tel: +1.604.688.3211 x138
Email: info@canalaska.com
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John Gomez, Corporate Development
Tel. +1.604.484.7118
Email: info@canalaska.com
The TSX-V has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this
release: CUSIP# 13708P 10 2.
SOURCE: CanAlaska Uranium Ltd.
As the pollution levels soar in Indian metro cities, a Canadian company has found its greenest pasture yet to sell the canned mountain fresh air. Yes! Remember? India is one of the most polluted countries in the world and New Delhi is ranked number one in WHOs list of places containing foul air. China had earlier launched the product owing to the high smog levels in its major cities.
The Canadian company called Vitality Air is all set to sell bottled, freshly packaged air from a national park in Alberta. The product will be sold in three litre and eight litre cans at Rs 1,450 and Rs 2,800 respectively. Thats some price to pay for fresh air.
The same company had made headlines in 2015, when it rolled out the product to the highly polluted cities in China. The company has reportedly shipped 12,000 pieces to those cities and its customers included pregnant mothers, corporate executives and students preparing for examinations.
The product consists of compressed air, breathed in through a mask, and comes in two flavoursBanff and Lake Louise. Banff in Alberta is a national park and a popular resort, founder of Vitality Air Moses Lam was quoted by Hindustan Times.
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Must watch video: Bengaluru is being choked in the hands of pollution
Hollywood is getting ready to hit the French Riviera for Wednesdays opening of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. While some big-name productions are getting lavish, out-of-competition premieres at the Grand Theatre Lumiere including Woody Allens Cafe Society, Jodie Fosters Money Monster, Steven Spielbergs The BFG, and Shane Blacks The Nice Guys the real focus is on the competitive lineup, a proven early stomping ground for future Oscar contenders in the fall. (Just for reference, last years festival saw the premiere of eventual awards-season favorites Carol, Amy, and Son of Saul.) Yahoo Movies will be on the scene in Cannes this week to bring you all the latest. Heres a look at the titles were most excited to see:
American Honey
Director: Andrea Arnold
Cast: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough
A young teenager (Lane) falls in with a hard-partying crew which includes a ring leader played by LaBeouf who travel the Midwest selling magazine subscriptions in this drama from director Arnold, best known for her gritty 2009 drama Fish Tank and the 2011 adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
Elle
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Isabelle Huppert
Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers) has spent recent years working in Europe and is bringing his new thriller to Cannes: Its about the head of a video game company (Huppert) whos assaulted in her home, and who responds by relentlessly tracking down her attacker.
Its Only the End of the World
Director: Xavier Dolan
Cast: Lea Seydoux, Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel, Gaspard Ulliel
Puckish Canadian director Dolan (Mommy) was on the Cannes jury last year. This year, hes back in-competition with his new French-language drama about a terminally ill writer (Ulliel) who tries to reconnect with his long-estranged family.
Julieta
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Cast: Emma Suarez, Adriana Ugarte
The Oscar winning writer-director of All About My Mother and Talk to Her is bringing this, his 20th feature film, to Cannes. A drama adapted from three Alice Munro short stories from the collection Runaway, it follows a recent widow (Suarez) whos desperate to find the 18-year-old daughter who left her.
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The Last Face
Director: Sean Penn
Cast: Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem, Jean Reno
Penn directed this drama about the romance between two international aid doctors working in Liberia. Perhaps more interesting to casual celebrity fans though, will be who plays one-half of the onscreen couple: Penns ex, Theron (paired with Bardem). The Last Face was their final collaboration before she broke off their engagement last summer, though they later reunited for reshoots.
Loving
Director: Jeff Nichols
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga, Michael Shannon
Nichols has impressed critics with his string of genre-oriented indies like Take Shelter, Mud, and this years Midnight Special. With Loving, he takes on a heftier drama that seems especially made for awards attention: Its the real-life story of Richard and Mildred Loving (Edgerton and Negga), the interracial couple from Virginia who married in the late 1950s when their union was still illegal, and then spent 9 years fighting a fierce and ultimately seminal legal battle to simply live in their hometown.
The Neon Demon
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Elle Fanning, Abbey Lee, Christina Hendricks, Jena Malone
Refn, the director behind 2011s moody, stylish Drive starring Ryan Gosling delivers what sounds like another moody, stylish thriller at Cannes this year. Fanning stars as a young, aspiring model who moves to Los Angeles and almost gets eaten alive by the vampiric fashion world. Demon is being billed as a horror movie, so we suspect Refn will be more literal about eaten alive.
Paterson
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Method Man
In a movie that sounds light years away from his villainous turn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Driver plays a New Jersey bus driver whose modest, unchanging life is punctuated only by the scraps of poetry he jots down throughout his day. Indie stalwart Jarmusch (who last delivered the languid vampire drama Only Lovers Left Alive) wrote and directed this character study.
Personal Shopper
Director: Oliver Assayas
Cast: Kristen Stewart
Stewart will have a big presence at the festival this year: She costars with Jesse Eisenberg in Woody Allens Cafe Society and also stars in this in-competition title from French director Assayas. Its her second collaboration with him their first was her career-redefining role in 2014s Clouds of Sils Maria, which landed her a Cesar (the French equivalent of an Oscar) for playing the lowly assistant to Juliette Binoches aging movie star. Here, she plays another fame-factory worker, the personal shopper of a Paris media personality.
(Photos: Courtesy of the Cannes Film Festival)
Want to wrap yourself in the cosmos? Now you can: The newest collection of limited-edition silk scarves, printed with vivid NASA photos, from the New York City-based boutique Slow Factory has just been released.
Celine Semaan Vernon, founder and CEO of the boutique, has been creating the scarves for four years now, using images she takes from NASA's creative commons.
The result is a set of beautiful, delicate, soft scarves that space enthusiasts can appreciate. [Space Fashion Week: How Slow Factory Makes NASA Photos Into Clothes]
Although Vernon's earlier scarves added a little mystery to wearers' wardrobes, with the swirling colors of nebulae or an image of exposed Martian rock, Vernon's new line focuses on a more personal part of the cosmos the planet humanity calls home.
Vernon named the new line "We Are Home" and chose images that represent Earth and the history of space exploration. But not just any old image of Earth made the cut. In order to be included on the new scarves, the pictures had to be "awe-inspiring," Vernon told Space.com.
One scarf shows a sea of faces in an old black-and-white photo, all staring up in wonder at the Apollo 11 liftoff. "It is just heart-warming and spectacular to watch these people look up in amazement," Vernon said.
Other scarves depict the first-ever color photo taken of Earth from space, which Vernon calls "First Earth Selfie," and a group of spacecraft ready for liftoff. The line also features scarves printed with close-up images of Earth, including shots of clouds over the sea and rainbows.
By turning beautiful images of the Earth into scarves, Vernon said she hopes "to raise awareness about the fact that we are all in this together, floating in space on mother-ship Earth."
That idea that all people share the same home connects to Vernon's deeper project: to support refugees in Lebanon. Part of the proceeds from the We Are Home collection go to ANERA, a nonprofit that aids refugees in Palestine and Lebanon.
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The cause is close to Vernon's heart, as she is a Lebanese expat who had to flee Beirut in the midst of a war in the '80s, seeking refugee status in Canada, she said.
"Having to leave everything behind and start over again is something I have seen my father do over and over again, until we were safe and had a place to call home," she said. "We Are Home, our collection, is a symbolic collection made to honor those who had to leave."
In addition to the celestial scarves, the new collection includes a key necklace modeled after the key to Vernon's home in Beirut. "That key is made to honor the refugee tradition to wear their home key around their neck," she said. She will be donating 10 percent of the proceeds from those keys and the rest of the collection to ANERA to offer job-skill training to Syrian refugees, Vernon said.
The collection is in full stock on Slow Factory's website, http://slowfactory.com, after the line's official launch on April 22, which happens to be Earth Day the perfect release date for a collection that's all about the Earth.
Follow Kasandra Brabaw on Twitter @KassieBrabaw. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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LAGOS (Reuters) - The central bank and law enforcement authorities in Nigeria have launched an investigation into some financial transactions in some banks, the bank said on Tuesday. "The CBN is also carrying out its own special examinations and investigations to ascertain the veracity of some allegations, as well as the extent and persons that may be involved in such activities," the bank said without giving details. Last week, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it had detained the managing director of Nigeria's Fidelity Bank PLC as part of an investigation into some financial transactions. (Reporting by Mayowa Oludare and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Dominic Evans)
British broadcaster Channel 4 has reported record revenues of 979 million ($1.4 billion) in 2015, seeing an increased audience share for its main channel and its highest ever spend on production content.
The channels 2015 annual report, which was published on May 10, showed an improvement in revenue growth for the company, up 4.4% year-on-year compared to its 3% growth last year.
A record 629 million ($907.5 million) was spent on content for the year, with 455 million ($656 million) of that spent on originally commissioned TV, film and digital content, another record high for the company.
The news comes shortly after Brit newspaper The Telegraph reported that the U.K. government will not seek to fully privatize Channel 4, an idea that had been previously been speculated. However, according to the report, it may seek to sell off a minority stake to a strategic partner and open Channel 4s accounts to National Audit Office scrutiny.
As is publicly known, the government has stated it is reviewing options for the organizations future ownership and as I write we await further news from that process, said Channel 4 chair Charles Gurassa in a statement included in the report. In the meantime it is my responsibility as chair to ensure the board retains full focus on the fulfilment of Channel 4s statutory functions.
In 2015, Channel 4 saw a 30% year-on-year growth in total digital revenues, up to 82 million ($118.3 million), while targeted ad revenue accounted for 31% of the channels digital ad revenue in 2015.
Thanks to the success of new programs such as Humans, No Offence, Hunted, SAS: Who Dares Wins, the channels main viewing share was up marginally at 1% overall, but up 8% across peak time hours of 7pm-11pm and its share of 16-34 year-old viewers was up 2% overall and up 7% in peak times.
Revenue for 4Sales, the broadcasters commercial arm which includes third party sales for a number of broadcasters including BT Sport, grew by 9% to 1.17 billion ($1.7 billion), making it the fifth year in a row it has exceeded the 1 billion ($1.4 billion) figure.
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Channel 4 had a record impact on audiences and the U.K.s creative sector in 2015 with our investment in original content, our commercial revenues and, critically, the delivery of our public service remit, all at their highest ever levels, said chief exec David Abraham. We expect this impact and growth to continue in 2016 and, as a wide range of independent experts have concluded, our focus on both creative and commercial innovation has positioned us very strongly for the future.
Plans for the channels future will be reportedly finalised later this year after the governments plans for the BBC have been completed. A white paper on the BBC reforms is due to be released this week.
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Charges have been filed against three Delaware girls in connection with last month's high school bathroom fight that killed Amy Joyner-Francis.
In a statement to PEOPLE, the Delaware Department of Justice released the cause of the teen's death. "The autopsy did not detect any internal injuries or significant blunt force injuries," the statement reads. "The Medical Examiner determined that Amy died from a cardiac incident that she was vulnerable to because of a pre-existing heart condition, but the cardiac incident would not have occurred if she had not been assaulted."
The statement goes on to explain that only one girl is alleged to have actually struck the teen. She has been charged with criminally negligent homicide.
Because of the severity of her offense, the 16-year-old girl will tried as an adult in the Superior Court. If convicted, she faces up to eight years in prison.
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.
Two other girls were charged with criminal conspiracy. "Delaware law does not allow for a charge of conspiracy to commit negligent homicide," the Department of Justice said in the statement. "Therefore, [they] were charged with third degree criminal conspiracy, which is the highest level of criminal conspiracy allowed by law given the facts of this case.
The two girls will be charged as juveniles. If convicted, they face up to a year in prison.
It is unclear whether the girls have retained attorneys.
Multiple news outlets have reported the bathroom fight at Howard High School of Technology began over a boy. PEOPLE will not name the alleged assailants because they are minors.
Chinas April Trade Data: What It Means for Metal Investors
(Continued from Prior Part)
Chinas April copper imports
China isnt self-sufficient when it comes to raw material needs. Its the worlds largest copper consumer. China needs to import raw copper for its smelters and refining plants. While copper mining is concentrated in Latin America (ILF) (ECH), more than half of the worlds copper is consumed in Asia. China is the largest importer of copper ores, anodes, and refined copper. Miners such as Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) and BHP Billiton (BHP) depend on Chinese metal demand. To cater to Chinas copper demand, Rio Tinto (RIO) is expanding the Oyu Tolgoi mine (TRQ) in Mongolia.
Imports fell compared to March
In April, China imported 450,000 metric tons of unwrought copper and copper products. Although imports fell steeply compared to March, they have risen 5% YoY (year-over-year). Note that the monthly decline in imports was expected. Imports swelled to a record high of 570,000 metric tons in March. Imports increased 40% YoY.
Imports of copper ores and concentrates, which are processed in China, stood at 1.3 million metric tons in April. Imports have risen more than 21% YoY. However, they fell 6.6% compared to March.
No real reason to worry
The YoY growth in Chinas copper imports is a good sign for the global copper industry. Higher Chinese copper imports support copper prices as well. Its important to note that better-than-expected Chinese copper imports combined with production cuts by major copper producers could push copper markets into a deficit.
Meanwhile, after the turmoil in the last two years, copper producers are trying to repair their balance sheets. For instance, Freeport is looking to cut its net debt by $5 billion$10 billion. To learn more about this, read Understanding the Strategic Importance of Freeports Asset Sales.
Browse this series on Market Realist:
By James Pearson PYONGYANG (Reuters) - Thousands of ecstatic North Koreans joined a mass rally and parade on Tuesday as leader Kim Jong Un capped off the consolidation of his power at a ruling party congress at which he formalized its claim to be a nuclear weapons power. Kim used the party congress, the first in 36 years, to highlight North Korea's aim to expand its nuclear arsenal, in defiance of U.N. sanctions, though he said the weapons would only be used if North Korea was threatened with similar weapons. Kim also set out a five-year plan to revive his isolated country's creaking economy, although it was short on targets, and the party enshrined Kim's "Byongjin" policy of simultaneous pursuit of nuclear weapons and economic development. "Under the authorization of Workers' Party Chairman Kim Jong Un, the Central Committee sends the warmest greetings to the people and soldiers who concluded the 70-day battle with the greatest of victory and glorified the Congress as an auspicious event," Kim Yong Nam, the titular head of state, told the rally under overcast skies in the capital's Kim Il Sung Square. North Korea had been engaged in a 70-day campaign of accelerated productivity in the run-up to the Workers' Party congress, including sprucing-up the capital, a grueling exercise that left many people exhausted, Western residents said. But there was no sign of that at Tuesday's rally, where thousands shouted "manse!", or "live forever!" while clasping their hands in the air or waving pink flowers as they passed before Kim and other top officials on a leaders' platform. Kim, 33, had traded the western-style suit he wore at the four-day congress for the more traditional uniform of North Korean leaders, a dark jacket buttoned to the collar. He smiled and waved at the crowd and chatted with military and party aides, state media footage showed. Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, who was formally elected by the congress to the party's Central Committee, stood next to him for some of the time. The young leader Kim, who assumed power in 2011 after his father's death, took on the new title of party chairman on Monday. The promotion - his previous party title was first secretary - had been predicted by analysts who had expected Kim would use the congress to further shore up his power. Among other changes at the congress, a former army Chief of General Staff who South Korean media had reported had been purged and executed, was elected alternate member of the party Politburo and a member of the powerful Central Military Commission. The first congress since 1980 was seen by North Korea-watchers as a move to restore the central role of the party while diluting the political role of the military. 'PREPOSTEROUS' Old rival South Korea denounced North Korea's nuclear ambitions, seeing little cause for optimism in a conciliatory gesture Kim made on the weekend when he said military talks were needed with the South to discuss ways to ease tension. South Korea President Park Geun-hye said the North showed no sign of willingness to change but only made "preposterous claims about being a nuclear weapons state". The two Koreas remain in a technical state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea regularly threatens the South and its major ally, the United States, which it accuses of planning a nuclear attack. Relations between the Koreas have been at a low since North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, which also brought tougher U.N. sanctions backed by lone major ally China, which disapproves of North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. Despite the sanctions, North Korea has pressed ahead with its nuclear and missile development, and said it had succeeded in miniaturizing a nuclear warhead and launching a submarine-based ballistic missile. Chinese President Xi Jinping sent congratulations to Kim for his promotion at the party congress. There was no direct mention of North Korea's nuclear program in Xi's message. "We will make efforts together with the DPRK side to bring happiness to the two countries and their peoples and contribute to peace, stability and development in this region by steadily developing the Sino-DPRK friendship and cooperation," North Korea's state KCNA news agency quoted Xi as saying. DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name. An unusually large contingent of 128 foreign journalists were issued visas to visit during the congress, but their access to formal proceedings was limited to a brief visit by a small group to the congress venue on Monday. BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and two his colleagues who had been in North Korea to cover the visit of a group of Nobel laureates ahead of the congress were expelled from the country on Monday over his reporting. (Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Writing and additional reporting by Tony Munroe; Editing by Nick Macfie, Robert Birsel)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China, fighting to stamp out poverty, will this year move more than two million of its poorest citizens from remote, inland regions to more developed areas, an official of the cabinet, or State Council, said on Tuesday. The mass relocation of people is a strategy targeted at lifting 10 million citizens out of poverty by 2020, state news agency Xinhua has said. Some of the villagers will move to areas with better social services, such as schools and hospitals, while others in remote areas will move to places with better roads and water supply, the official, Liu Yongfu, told a briefing. The numbers would be stepped up gradually and may eventually hit 3 million, added Liu, who heads the cabinet's Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development. "We will talk it over with the localities and accumulate some experience, after that we will increase step-by-step," he said. Despite two decades of rapid economic growth, poverty remains a huge issue in China, mainly in rural areas, where a lack of jobs drives out adults, leaving behind children and the elderly, often with limited access to schools and healthcare. China's poor, who make up about 5 percent of a population of nearly 1.4 billion, live mostly in the countryside, and earn less than 2,300 yuan ($362) a year, government and state media say. In March Premier Li Keqiang promised a boost of 43 percent in funding for poverty relief programs. Last October, the cabinet said China aimed to lift all its 70 million poor above the poverty line by 2020. In December, Li urged local authorities to provide housing, healthcare, schooling and employment for relocated citizens. Since kicking off market reforms in 1978, China has lifted more than 800 million people out of poverty, but it remains a developing country and the reforms are incomplete, the World Bank says. (Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
BEIJING (Reuters) - Dai Xiang has slept his way to the top.
The 40-year-old Beijinger got his start as an engineer, pulling 72-hour shifts at a machinery company while catching naps on the floor.
After a switch to the tech industry and around 15 years of catching naps on desks and other flat surfaces, Dai co-founded his own cloud computing firm, BaishanCloud, last year.
One of his first orders of business - installing 12 bunk beds in a secluded corner of the office.
"For technology, it's more of a brain activity. Workers need time to find inspiration," Dai said. "Our rest area isn't just for sleeping at night, the midday is also OK."
Office workers sleeping on the job has long been a common sight in China, where inefficiency and a surplus of cheap labour can give workers plenty of downtown in many industries.
But China's technology sector is different. Business is booming faster than many start-up firms can hire new staff, forcing workers to burn the midnight oil to meet deadlines.
"The pace of Chinese internet company growth is extremely fast. I've been to the U.S. and the competitive environment there isn't as intense as in China," said Cui Meng, general manager and co-founder of start-up data company Goopal.
The company's programmers, in particular, work overtime every day, he said. To get them through, they are allowed to sleep around lunchtime and after 9 p.m., either facedown at their desk or by commandeering the sofa or a beanbag chair.
LIVING AT THE OFFICE
At its most extreme, some tech company employees even live at the office during the work week.
Liu Zhanyu at DouMiYouPin, a recruitment and human resources platform, bunks down in a converted conference room Monday-to-Friday to avoid the daily commute of more than an hour to his home in Beijing's far eastern suburbs.
The head of the "large clients" department usually retires to the room shared with one or two others between midnight and 3 a.m.
"We have to get up at 8:30 a.m. because all our co-workers come to work at 9:30 and we wash in the same bathroom everyone uses," said Liu.
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While workers across companies said the potential pay-off of working at a start-up was worth the long hours, they aren't without a social cost.
"My kid misses me, I get home and he lunges at me like a small wolf," Liu said, speaking about his three-year-old son who he only sees on weekends. "That makes me feel a bit guilty."
Programmer Xiang Shiyang, 28, works until 3 or 4 a.m. at least twice a week at Renren Credit Management, which uses big data to help firms manage financial risk, leaving little room to socialise outside of work.
"I don't have that many opportunities or much time to find a girlfriend," he said.
The company provides cots for workers like Xiang to sleep on during late nights.
"Actually working overtime is a very casual thing," he said. "Because I've invested the whole of my being into this company."
(Writing by Jake Spring; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message to North Korea's Kim Jong-Un, congratulating him on his election as ruling party chairman at a congress at which Beijing -- Pyongyang's closest ally -- was notably absent.
In his message, Xi described ties with North Korea as a "precious asset" that was personally "cultivated by the leaders of the elder generation" the North's official KCNA news agency said Tuesday.
North Korea wrapped up its first ruling party congress in 36 years on Monday, appointing Kim party chairman and formally endorsing his legacy "byungjin" doctrine of parallel economic and nuclear development.
The fact that there was no Chinese representation at the once-in-a-generation gathering was viewed as a sign of fraying ties between the two traditional allies.
A large Chinese delegation had attended the last Workers' Party congress in 1980, headed by Li Xiannian, later China's official head of state.
Beijing has been a key diplomatic protector of North Korea, providing an economic lifeline that has allowed it to ride out waves of international sanctions.
But the relationship between the two nations, once said to be as close as lips and teeth, has become increasingly strained as China's patience with the North's refusal to rein in its nuclear weapons ambitions has worn increasingly thin.
China approved the latest raft of UN sanctions -- the toughest to date -- that were imposed after the North's January nuclear test, and there are signs that it is implementing the measures.
But China is wary of pushing the North too far, fearing a regime collapse that could create a refugee crisis on its border and swing the regional balance of power towards the United States.
"The Chinese party and government attach great importance to the Sino-DPRK relations," Xi said in his message. "We will make efforts together with the DPRK side to bring happiness to the two countries and their peoples."
DPRK is the official abbreviation for North Korea.
[Former prime minister Jean Chretien, left, jokingly chokes former MP Bob Rae during an event launching the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance at Dalhousie University in Halifax on Monday, May 9, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese]
Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien couldnt resist the opportunity to use a notorious move he once sprung on a protester, while attending an event in Halifax this week.
Chretien administered the Shawinigan handshake on former Ontario premier Bob Rae on Monday at Dalhousie University, where the pair was on hand to launch the universitys MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance.
At one point during the news conference, Chretien jokingly put Rae in a chokehold and posed for photos. The move was referencing an incident from just over 20 years ago, when Bill Clennett got in the prime ministers face during a protest. Clennett was upset about cuts to unemployment insurance and showed up in Hull, Que., where Chretien was attending a ceremony declaring Flag Day. When the then 44-year-old researcher got up into the prime ministers face as he pushed through a crowd, the leader grabbed the back of his head, twisted it and pushed him down.
I just moved him, and I wish I had not to do that, said Chretien after the incident. Some people were in my way. I had to go. I had to keep walking.
The incident was reportedly the first time any Canadian leader had had to manhandle a protester.
The incident sparked headlines across the country, with one paper giving the move a name, after the town where Chretien was born.
The moment in Halifax had a different tone, as the two former leaders jokingly clowned around. The photo, which made its way into national newspapers, shows Chretien clasping his hand around Raes neck, as Rae laughs.
On Tuesday morning, Rae tweeted a photo of a reverse attack his hand around Chretiens neck as he is seated at a table, squeezing his other hand playfully.
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One good handshake deserves another, he wrote in the caption. It was a good day yesterday in Halifax for the MacEachen Institute.
People on Twitter couldnt help but weigh in.
Watched Jean Chretien give Bob Rae the Shawinigan handshake at Dalhousie today, exclaimed Laurie C. LaViolette. Such a sense of humor!!
Behold, a Reverse Shawinigan Handshake, wrote @Mikeggibbs. Unknown if its ever been attempted before (without major consequences).
Canadas 20th PM gives Ontarios 21st premier the Shawinigan Handshake, tweeted @spaikin.
In 2010, a microbrewery from Chretiens hometown launched a draft called the Shawinigan Handshake. The blonde wheat beer is said to taste slightly peachy, with hints of brioche and bananas.
Sedlec Ossuary isnt your average chapel that one might head to for confessionals. A Roman catholic church in the suburb of Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic, this fine altar to The Saviour might not impress upon its viewers a feeling of divinity, calm or redemption. Far from it, visitors are most likely to take back haunting images of deep set hollows staring at them from the bleached countenance of skulls - wherever they turn to. In what seems to be a grotesque testimony to art, the chapel is decorated with the bones of over 50,000 people who were interred here over the ages. There is a massive chandelier made entirely out of bones, skull candelabra, a coat of arms done up in bones, as well as strings of skulls and bones hanging from the ceiling. All in the name of art? Yes and no.
Feeling welcome yet?
There are a few urban myths - one suggests a monk having gone mad and started to fashion things out of bones, while another talks of partially blind caretaker monks piling up bones into geometric shapes. While these theories may be questionable, there is little doubt that there was no dearth of skulls and bones at the Sedlec chapel.
Theres plenty to go around
History states that an abbot from a monastery in Sedlec was sent to Jerusalem in the late 13th century. The good abbot, having made his visits, returned with some earth he had collected from a site right outside Jerusalems walls, where Jesus was supposed to have been crucified. He then proceeded to sprinkle it over the abbey cemetery, mighty pleased with himself at having bought back a handful of holiness from the holy land. The news soon spread, and the cemetery soon became a much sought after burial site throughout Central Europe. People from far bought family and relatives to be buried at the cemetery. The plague in the 14th century added to the growing woes of the cemetery, when large number of people afflicted with illness went to Sedlec to die, wanting to find their spot in the holy cemetery. The abbey cemetery soon had to be enlarged, to make room for the growing number of corpses. Around the turn of the 15th century, a Gothic church was built in the cemetery. The church had an upper level with vaulted ceilings and a lower level chapel that would serve as a ossuary - or a site that would house human skeletal remains. There was good reason to build an ossuary - the mass graves unearthed during the construction of the church had to be preserved, as did the older graves which had to be demolished to make way for new burials. The chapel soon began to find itself in possession of a large number of exhumed skeletons. The heaps continued to grow, and there was a need to bring some sense of order to the growing piles of remains that were accumulating.
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The decor too, goes with the theme
In 1870, a local woodcarver was commissioned to bring about some sense of order to the remains, and what came about as a result of that effort is today known as the Church of Bones. Over 50,000 human bodies were skillfully arranged by Frantisek Rindt, the carver, to transform the interiors of the interior of the church. From the outside, the chapel looks like any other - very regular. The interiors however can be quite startling to the average tourist, with skulls and bones decorating every nook and corner. There are gigantic chandeliers that are made out of every bone in the human body. The high arches of the ceilings are lined with skulls peering down with lifeless eyes. The entrance houses a coat-of-arms fashioned out of, well, more skulls and bones. The sight of skulls and bones adorning a place or worship, and the sheer quantity of bones that are stacked can be quite unnerving a sight. The chapel has served as inspiration for several movie shoots as well.
The chandelier - quite an electric sight
The coat-of-arms at the entrance.
This one-of-a-kind location today attracts many curious tourists. Those interested can also purchase memorabilia that include skull models (of plaster) and key rings to accompany the macabre memories they will take home. The dead, it is said, tell no tales. The chapel however, has a lot of stories to narrate.
(All images courtesy: sedlecossuary.com)
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The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina, has rejected a students request to wear the hijab, a traditional Muslim headscarf, with the schools standard uniform.
Retired Lt. Gen John Rosa, the colleges president, said in a statement published in the Washington Post that while the school recognizes the importance of a cadets spiritual and religious beliefs, after considerable review the uniform exception cannot be granted. Rosa hopes that the student, whose name and hometown have not be released, will still enroll this coming fall.
Uniformity is the cornerstone of this four-year leader development model. The standardization of cadets in apparel, overall appearance, actions and privileges is essential to the learning goals and objectives of the college, Rosa said in the statement.
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations who spoke to the family of the student, told the Post that she had burst into tears when the cadets commandment gave her the news on Tuesday. She told the commandant it wasnt fair that she has to choose between practicing her faith and going to The Citadel, Hooper told the Post. He said the student, who has been working hard to attend the school, has decided against enrolling. In terms of legal action, Hooper said, all options are on the table.
The schools spokesperson told AP that The Citadel has a number of Muslim students, but the request to wear a hijab was unique.
[Washington Post, AP]
AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State said on Tuesday it had downed a Syrian army helicopter in a desert area of central Syria where heavy fighting is going on, the militant group and a monitor said. Amaq, a news agency associated with Islamic State, said the helicopter was shot down near in the Palmyra desert between Homs and Palmyra city. The Syrian army has not commented on the report but had earlier said its war planes pounded Islamic State defenses in the area and hit their convoys in the vicinity of the Shaer gas field, north of Huweisis, which the militants took over last Thursday. The militants were also disrupting army supply lines and attacking the Mahr and Jazal gas fields, in an area which contains the country's largest gas reserves and facilities that once generated much of its electricity needs. The hardline militants, who were routed from Palmyra when the Syrian army backed by heavy Russian air power retook the ancient city in March, have staged a comeback in the area in the past two weeks. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the militants were gaining new ground. It said that on Tuesday they seized a deserted military barracks 10 km (7 miles) north of the Syrian military's T4 airport, near where the helicopter was reportedly downed. Amaq said earlier on Tuesday militants had taken over two checkpoints near the airport, killing at least 20 soldiers and seizing artillery and heavy armor. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
The Q1 earnings cycle is nearing its end. As of May 4, 2016, 81.3% of the market cap of the S&P 500 index have reported results. So far, overall first-quarter earnings have recorded a 7.5% year-over-year decline on a 1.9% slip in revenues. For more details, you may go through our Earnings Trend report.
As far as the clean energy space is concerned, environmental considerations have been driving demand for alternative energy sources. In fact, demand for solar and wind energy got a major boost from the recent environmental tax credit extensions.
Going ahead, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) anticipates total renewables used in the electric power sector to increase 10% in 2016. A more comprehensive study by the Department of Energys National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) shows that the country will be able to generate most of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050.
These favorable demand growth trends notwithstanding, abundant availability of fossil fuels and the resultant drop in oil prices have emerged as key competitive challenges for the clean energy industry. Nevertheless, its long-term fundamentals remain favorable.
Lets take a look at a couple of clean energy stocks that are scheduled to report first-quarter earnings on May 11.
Canadian Solar Inc. CSIQ, a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) stock with an Earnings ESP of 146.15%, is set to report results before the market opens. Last quarter, the company posted a positive earnings surprise of 40.00%. During its fourth-quarter earnings call, Canadian Solar provided an outlook for the first quarter of 2016. It expects shipments in the range of 1,085 megawatts (MW) to 1,135 MW. Total revenue is anticipated to be $645 million to $695 million, with gross margin of 1214%. Going forward, Canadian Solar has plans to increase the capacity of its products.
However, Canadian Solar is slowly losing ground in America despite promising prospects. The companys falling revenues in the region is a growing concern. The company is also exposed to foreign currency fluctuations and geopolitical risks.
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The above chart indicates that Canadian Solar was able to deliver positive surprises in all of the last four quarters. The average positive earnings surprise was 102.43%.
Stay tuned for our full earnings article to see how this stock finally fared this season.
Hydrogenics Corporation HYGS will release quarterly results before the market opens. Last quarter, the company posted a negative earnings surprise of 11.11%. It carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%.
During the fourth-quarter conference call, the company said that it expects to receive significant orders and witness growth in mobility applications, which will drive margin expansion in 2016. The company believes that it will continue to hold the position of the global leader in industrial electrolyzers for hydrogen fueling station infrastructure. This should open a steady stream of revenues for the company, going forward. Hydrogenics also expects to see additional development in China, Korea, Japan, North America and Europe, which will, in turn, drive growth at the company through 2016.
The above chart indicates that Hydrogenics missed earnings estimates in all of the last four quarters. The average negative earnings surprise was 67.38%.
Bottom Line
Given a number of S&P 500 earnings releases scheduled for this week, investors are expected to keep an eye on the earnings releases by these clean energy companies.
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Panama City (AFP) - Cubans eager to reach the United States will keep leaving the island despite a decision by several Central American countries to close their borders to them, some Cubans in Panama told AFP on Tuesday.
Panama this week became the latest country in the region to slam shut its door to Cubans without visas, following the same policy implemented first by Nicaragua in November then by Costa Rica in December.
The decisions have had a domino effect. As a backlog of Cubans formed in one country, unable to cross to the next, frantic efforts were made to fly them out, then shut the borders so no more came in.
Panama is currently overseeing daily flights to northern Mexico carrying nearly 4,000 Cubans who had become stranded on its territory over the past four months.
"I'm sure that they will keep coming," one Cuban, Guillermo Rolando, told AFP before boarding a plane to Mexico with 200 others.
- Leaving dire conditions -
Cubans are worried that the United States -- which in 2015 restored diplomatic ties with Cuba and plans to resume commercial flights to the Communist-run island -- could soon end its Cold War policy of automatically welcoming them at its land borders.
They also know that Central America's borders are porous frontiers of jungle and corruption.
And so the migrants say the exodus will continue.
After US President Barack Obama's landmark visit to Cuba in March, "the people have lost their fear" of leaving, Rolando said.
"The bad thing is they have to put their lives in the hands of 'coyotes'," or people smugglers.
The conditions many are leaving behind are dire: a monthly state salary of just $20, and few prospects to carve out better lives under a regime that has accepted detente with the US but little social change.
Kendry Portal, another Cuban taking the flight, criticized the border closures.
"This step will cause human lives to be lost because those who want to leave will do so, whether the borders are closed or not," he said.
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Costa Rica and Panama are calling for a regional solution to the flow of Cuban migrants, and have lashed out at the US policy of accepting them, saying it acts as a magnet.
US officials, however, say there are no plans to change the welcome for Cubans, even as the obstacles in Latin America against the Cubans accumulate.
- The 'American dream' -
Over the past decade, many flew to Ecuador to begin their overland trek through Colombia, then Panama and the rest of Central America, to Mexico and its border with the US.
But Ecuador in December suddenly dropped its visa-free entry policy for Cubans, who then switched their attention to Guyana, from where they crossed to Venezuela and then Colombia and Central America.
"The journey is not easy. But we are going to come no matter what, even if we have to hide," another Cuban, Maikel Basurto, said.
Each Cuban migrant spends around $10,000 for the odyssey, including the fees paid to human traffickers. These amounts have increased because of the need now to slog through remote jungle and marshes to avoid border guards.
"We left Cuba with one aim: to make the American dream happen," said Magda Lopez, a 33-year-old Cuban who worked as an economist and who wants to get to the midwestern US state of Nebraska.
"There are thousands of us who want to leave," she said. "All of Cuba is doing badly."
SANTIAGO, May 10 (Reuters) - Chilean copper mine Collahuasi, owned by Glencore Plc and Anglo American Plc, said on Tuesday it has agreed to a partnership with Canadian miner Teck Resources Ltd to share resources and infrastructure.
Collahuasi, located in northern Chile's copper belt, wants to boost production after years of technical issues and labor disputes. Teck operates the nearby, smaller Quebrada Blanca mine.
The agreement would "facilitate better operation and coordination between the companies," a spokeswoman for Collahuasi said, adding that a confidentiality agreement prohibited the company from discussing details.
Teck, meanwhile, said in a filing to the Chilean securities regulator that the agreement would aid its current operations and a potential expansion of its copper mine via the shared use of water, energy, roads and other resources.
Collahuasi produced 455,300 tonnes of copper in 2015, while Quebrada Blanca produced 39,100 tonnes.
(Reporting by Fabian Cambero; Writing by Gram Slattery; Editing by W Simon)
The post-Jon Stewart reality is shaking the corner suites at Comedy Central.
Network president Michele Ganeless is leaving her post as the network struggles with diminished ratings following the loss of top-rated hosts Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
Ganeless, who has run the network for 12 years, will be replaced by Kent Alterman, a longtime Comedy Central exec and current programming chief for the network.
Also Read: Comedy Central Bosses Double Down on Commitment to Trevor Noah
Ganeless boss, Viacoms Doug Herzog, paid tribute to his departing chief with a statement.
During Micheles long and successful tenure, Comedy Central has grown into a cultural and multiplatform powerhouse, Herzog wrote.
Alterman has worked closely on some of Comedy Centrals top shows, including Inside Amy Schumer and Key & Peele.
More to come .
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There's a change at the top of another Viacom cable network.
Following her 12-year run, Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless is stepping down, the cable network announced Monday. She will be replaced by her second-in-command, original programming president Kent Alterman. Ganeless will depart at the end of May and will remain on board in an advisory role through September. She will work throughout the transition with Alterman, who assumes the role immediately. Additionally, David Bernath - executive vp programming and multiplatform strategy - has been promoted to Comedy Central GM, reporting to Alterman.
Most recently, Ganeless oversaw Comedy Central's late-night transition after Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert exited their respective series and, in the months since, the network has seen its ratings decline considerably. Despite critical acclaim and pop cultural buzz for such series as Broad City, the younger-skewing net's primetime lineup has struggled to maintain a robust linear viewership as well.
Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Ganeless' contract was up this year and she was looking to move on to new opportunities, though her exit follows several others -- including top execs at MTV and VH1 -- across the challenged Viacom portfolio.
Read More: Comedy Central's Kent Alterman on Leno, Rape Jokes and a Jon Stewart-Free 'Daily Show' (Q&A)
Alterman is a longtime Comedy Central exec, rising from heading its New York development team (1996-2000) before exiting for Fox Film Studios and New Line. He returned to the company in 2010 and rose from exec vp to president of original programming. He had been reporting to Ganeless as he oversaw the creation of all original programming. His credits include The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore, Inside Amy Schumer, Broad City, Key & Peele, Drunk History and more.
Here's Herzog internal memo to staff:
Actor-musician, Common and Chinese actress Xu Qing have joined Ethan Hawke in the cast of thriller 24 Hours to Live. To be directed by Brian Smrz, the film starts production in South Africa next month.
The announcement was made by Chinas Fundamental Films, which is fully financing the movie and has distribution rights in China, and by Basil Iwanyks production company Thunder Road Pictures.
Common, who recently won an original song Academy Award with John Legend for Selma, has had film roles including Run All Night and Wanted. Xu (aka Summer Xu) started her film career in Chen Kaiges Life on a String and was recently seen in Looper and hit comedy drama Mr Six.
Scripted by Zachary Dean and based on an original story from Ron Mita and Jim McClain, 24 Hours to Live follows a career assassin who is given a chance at redemption after his employer brings him back to life temporarily, just after being killed on the job.
Fundamental Films chairman Mark Gao and international president Gregory Ouanhon are producing the film. Jon Kuyper, Kent Kubena, Jonathan Fuhrman, and Gary Glushon executive produce. International sales are handled by Sierra/Affinity which struck several deals on the title at Berlin in February.
The film was sold in France to SND, in Italy to Eagle Films, in Germany to Square One, in Spain to Key2Media, in Latin America to Gussi Films, in Canada to VVS Films, in Benelux to the Searchers, in South Korea to Woo Sung, in China to Fundamental Films and in Japan to Klockworx.
Fundamental is currently working on Chinese and international productions, including Luc Bessons big-budget, graphic-novel adaptation Valerian, on which Fundamental is the main financier, Matthias Hoenes Warriors Gate, and Harald Zwarts Rally Car, starring Keanu Reeves.
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By Keith Coffman
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - The man who proclaimed himself a "warrior for the babies" after a fatal shooting spree at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado last year returned to court on Tuesday for the second day of a hearing on his mental state.
Prosecutors sought to challenge the conclusion of state psychologists that Robert Lewis Dear, 58, suffers from a psychotic delusional disorder that renders him unfit to stand trial for the rampage that killed three people and wounded nine.
El Paso County Judge Gilbert Martinez said he would issue a decision on Dear's status on Wednesday. A ruling of mental incompetence would mean the suspension of criminal proceedings in a case stemming from the first fatal attack on a U.S. abortion provider since 2009.
Psychologist B. Thomas Gray insisted under prosecution questioning that while Dear is capable of understanding the proceedings against him, he is irrational and thus fails to meet the second test of legal competency: the ability to assist in his defense.
Gray is one of two court-appointed psychologists who evaluated Dear. On April 28, Gray testified during the first day of the competency hearing that Dear was delusional.
Separately, defense lawyer Dan King mentioned the existence of jailhouse video footage that shows his client smeared with his own feces and drinking his own urine from a toilet because he believed the jail was poisoning his drinking water.
As he has during past proceedings, Dear repeatedly interjected his own comments. The judge warned him during a testy exchange that Dear risked being removed if he continued.
Martinez ordered Dear's mental evaluation in December after the South Carolina native insisted on firing his attorney and representing himself.
Dear, who has insisted he is competent, declared himself guilty and a "warrior for the babies" in previous courtroom outbursts.
If Martinez rules Dear unfit, the defendant will be sent back to a state hospital where doctors will seek to restore him to competency.
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Dear has been held without bond since surrendering at the end of a bloody five-hour siege on Nov. 27 at the Planned Parenthood center, where police said he opened fire outside the building then stormed inside.
Among those killed were a U.S. Army veteran and a mother of two who happened to be in the waiting area, and a police officer.
Dear has not formally entered a plea. Prosecutors have yet to say whether they would seek the death penalty.
(Editing by Steve Gorman and David Gregorio)
(Adds quote, context)
KINSHASA, May 10 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo state miner Gecamines said on Tuesday it was not informed of Freeport-McMoRan Inc's sale of its majority stake in the Tenke copper project and "will assert its rights."
Freeport sold its 56 percent stake to China Molybdenum Co Ltd (CMOC) on Monday for $2.65 billion in cash. Gecamines holds a 20 percent stake in Tenke, one of the world's largest copper mines, while Lundin Mining holds the remaining 24 percent.
"Gecamines decides to have its advisers examine the announced terms of the transaction with regards to its rights under the agreements binding it directly or indirectly to Freeport-McMoRan," the company said in a statement.
Officials from the mines ministry and prime minister's office also told Reuters on Tuesday that they had not been informed in advance of the Freeport sale.
Congolese authorities have raised objections to similar deals in the past. Last June, the government demanded that Ivanhoe Mines' sale of a stake in a copper mine to Zijin Mining be suspended until Ivanhoe addressed its concerns.
The government dropped its objections in September, allowing the $412 million sale to go ahead as planned.
(Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Joe Bavier and Adrian Croft)
ATHENS (Reuters) - British police issued a renewed appeal in Greece on Tuesday for information on Ben Needham, the toddler who went missing from the Greek island of Kos 25 years ago, asking Greeks whether they might be him. The child was only 21 months old when he disappeared as he played outside a farmhouse that his family was renovating. Despite repeated appeals and hundreds of possible sightings, the boy has never been found and few firm clues have emerged. The hunt is one of Britain's longest-running missing-person inquiries. "The question I would like people to ask themselves is: could you be Ben?" said detective inspector Jon Cousins, the lead UK investigator. "As a child, did you have blonde hair and blue eyes? Do you have doubts over who your parents are, or perhaps you look physically different to your parents? ... If you have any of these doubts, please call us," he said. Officers from South Yorkshire Police traveled to Kos in a revived bid for information. They have asked locals to help with information about a call received by the British Missing People Charity in 1993 stating that Ben was living in Greece under the name Andreas, and was being cared for by a man called Nicos. Police said those names have since been repeated by others and officers were keen to speak to anyone with information about this. "We are committed to finding answers about what happened to Ben," Cousins said. "We are not here to blame anyone or get anyone into trouble. We simply want to know what happened to him." (Reporting by Karolina Tagaris Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
As the major stock averages leveled off following a rebound from mid-February lows, Jim Cramer worried that the rally could be running out of steam.
According to the charts, investors need to be cautious navigating the landscape of the new environmentespecially the broader S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) Index stocks.
"Something confirmed, in my eyes, by the change on a dime leadership that shows there is not enough money out there for the S&P to break out higher," the "Mad Money" host said.
To find out where the index could be headed from a technical standpoint, Cramer turned to Carolyn Boroden, a technician who runs FibonacciQueen.com and is a colleague of Cramer's at RealMoney.com.
Cramer last spoke with Boroden in late February, when she stated that the market bottom on February 11 was a significant landmark, and there could be a lot of upside going forward. Her call, proven correct by the subsequent rally, was based on the utilization of Fibonacci ratios.
These are ratios that were discovered by the medieval mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci. He found that certain ratios occur in nature, including pine cones, snail shells and flowers. They also occur in stock charts, too.
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Boroden uses the ratios to spot levels or period of time where a stock or index could be likely to change trajectory.
When reviewing the Feb. 11 bottom, Boroden found there were a series of hurdles that the S&P must cross in order to climb higher. Back in February, Boroden stated that investors must watch out for the 2,132 2,157 range as a ceiling of resistance. As the S&P approached those levels a few weeks ago, stocks fell.
Thus, that area is a crucial hurdle that the S&P must jump over, if it is going to regain its momentum.
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Boroden saw the next hurdle in the weekly chart of the S&P 500. Looking at the previous upswing of the S&P that occurred before this one, it lasted for 10 trading weeks. The 10 trading weeks also occurred in the week ending on April 22.
Boroden also noted various Fibonacci timing cycles that suggested the bull move had run out of steam for now.
"Put it all together and it is clear that the recent pull back in the S&P 500 was very much about the charts," Cramer said.
In order for Boroden to be more bullish, the S&P must clear its intra-day high made on April 20, at 2,111. However, the longer that fails to occur, the more vulnerable she thinks investors are to a potential downside.
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Update: Natasha Henderson, a former Flint, MI, city administrator, filed a lawsuit Monday. The suit claims Flint's mayor, Karen Weaver, redirected money intended to help the water crisis to her own account, rather than sending it to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint's official fund. Henderson alleges that she was fired after she asked the city attorney to investigate the claims in February. She claims the funds were redirected to the "Karenabout Flint" website, which isn't registered as a political action committee in state records, Michigan Live reports. Henderson seeks "unpaid wages, [and] compensatory and punitive damages" from the city, according to Michigan Live.
This story was originally published on April 20, 2016.
Charges have been filed against three officials involved in the Flint water crisis, which exposed many residents of Flint, MI, to lead-contaminated water.
The Detroit Free Press reported on Wednesday morning that criminal charges had been filed against two officials in the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Mike Prysby and Stephen Busch, as well as city official Mike Glasgow, Flint's laboratory and water quality supervisor.
The charges are related to the processes used to test homes for lead contamination, which prosecutors are alleging produced artificially low readings. Officials say that the city incorrectly documented tests from low-risk homes with low lead readings as belonging to higher-risk homes, and in fact did not test homes with lead pipes which were most at risk for contamination. The charges allege that Glasgow signed a document falsely claiming that the homes where the city tested tap water all had lead service lines.
Though the lead-contaminated water crisis began in 2014, it only came to national attention in December 2015, when Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency. A few weeks later, Gov. Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency in the county, activating the National Guard to help water distribution efforts. Official response to the situation came under criticism, with allegations indicating the crisis was initially ignored due to Flints majority Black population. Snyder has accused critics, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, of politicising the crisis for personal gain.
Story continues
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is expected to elaborate on the charges on Wednesday afternoon, according to The Detroit Free Press. More charges are likely to be filed as the investigation continues.
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A launched a crowdfunding campaign April 6 to raise 38,000 (or $54,745) to run a pharmaceutical trial effectively making pedophiles no longer sexually attracted to children.
The medicine they want to test, Degarelix, decreases the amount of testosterone produced in the body. It's prescribed to people with prostate cancer, since testosterone helps the cancer grow. One of the byproducts of lower testosterone is a lower sex drive.
The researchers from the Karolinska Institute believe reducing the testosterone of pedophiles will keep them from assaulting children but lowering testosterone does a lot more than reduce sexual desire.
Source: Walacea/YouTube
According to John Bradford, a University of Ottawa psychiatrist who studies paraphilias pedophilia belongs the disorder affects roughly 4% of the population. It's difficult to ballpark how many people have pedophilia, and, moreover, how many turn that desire into assault.
But killing sexual desire to treat pedophilia is like cutting off one's hands to prevent murder: It treats only a symptom of a larger problem, and not without major side effects.
The controversial practice is sometimes called chemical castration.
New York magazine spoke with an anonymous Institute for Sexual Wellness patient who receives hormone therapy for a self-identified sex addiction. "I completely lost the ability to get it up," he said. "I start to feel a tiny bit of urge, but it's all mental."
Some doctors who use medication to lower testosterone, like Dr. Fred Berlin from the National Institute for the Study, Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Trauma, don't see hormone treatment that way.
"
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Berlin believes pedophilia is a sexual orientation. Pedophiles "didn't program their minds this way," he said. "But children aren't miniature adults and so we need to protect them from being prematurely introduced to this type of sexuality."
Low testosterone and the body: Low testosterone in men leads to fragile bones, hot flashes, insomnia, depression and increased fatigue. As we age, bodies produce less testosterone, leading to all of those symptoms naturally.
"This has to be done in a medically responsible way," Berlin said. "Before we start medication, we do a complete metabolic study, check kidney function and do blood work. If people show bone problems, we give them medication for bones."
Source: Walacea/YouTube
Berlin said that if someone has non-exclusive pedophilia, meaning they're also attracted to adults, they'll also be given Viagra to be able to biologically perform in appropriate sexual circumstances.
What Berlin suggests is more like pedophilia palliative care: Medications that come as the result of the testosterone-lowering treatment are just to make someone able to cope with his new condition.
"Unfortunately we treat pedophilia as a criminal problem, not a ," Dr. A.J. Marsden, assistant professor of human services at Beacon College, said in a phone interview. "But we shouldn't use castration as the first go-to treatment for it."
This leaves us at an impasse: If pedophilia operates as an actual sexuality in people who have it, psychotherapy is an uphill battle. Making pedophiles unsexual beings has deep physiological and psychological side effects.
One thing is clear: For such a serious problem, the solutions are startlingly inadequate.
Beirut (AFP) - The Islamic State group on Tuesday cut a key supply route between Syria's Homs and the world heritage site of Palmyra just months after the army recaptured the ancient city, a monitor said.
IS "was able to cut the supply road between Homs and Palmyra near the Tayfur military airport after an attack launched from the east of Homs", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Both cities are controlled by the regime after troops recaptured Palmyra -- a UNESCO world heritage site -- from the jihadist group in late March, backed by Russian air strikes.
Cutting the road "came as part of IS's biggest assault since the army recaptured Palmyra with Russian support" on March 27, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
"Violent clashes between regime forces and Daesh are ongoing," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist group.
"Daesh surrounds Palmyra from all angles except in the southwest", Abdel Rahman said, adding the closest IS was to the city was 10 kilometres.
IS and the regime both control parts of the area between Homs and Palmyra.
The road IS cut is "the main road between Homs and Palmyra but not the only one as there are other side roads" between both cities, Abdel Rahman said.
Syria's civil war has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions since it started with anti-regime protests in 2011.
The Britain-based Observatory gathers its information from a wide network of sources inside Syria.
Here's more from OCBC:
The uncertain economic climate in China could also be weighing on sentiment, given how much Singapores economy depends on exports to the mainland.
Nevertheless, the STI managed to recover above the key 100-DMA support-turned-resistance; and as long as it can sustain above this level, the index could edge higher towards the key 2800 hurdle.
But note that while overall volume improved 19% to 1.5b units traded, average value/unit slipped 33% to S$0.64, suggesting the focus may be shifting back to the penny plays.
Below 2763, we peg the next key support at 2700.
The nomination of Donald Trump has led to a lot of American interest in moving to Canada, although it's unlikely that Canada is prepared to accept all the terrified refugees that will swarm across their border to flee a Trump presidency. That said, frightened Americans can take solace in the fact that there's a new dating website that aims to hook us up with Canadians in the event of a Trump-related national emergency.
RELATED: Jon Stewart returns to torch man-baby Donald Trump
As reported by CP24.com, a dating website called MapleMatch is pitching itself as the best way for Americans to flee their home country if Trump actually gets elected.
"Make dating great again!" the website exclaims. "Maple Match makes it easy for Americans to find the ideal Canadian partner to save them from the unfathomable horror of a Trump presidency."
MapleMatch CEO Joe Goldman tells CP24.com that 4,150 people have signed up for the site so far, and that 70% of those people are Canadians. In other words, if you're an American who signs up right now, you'll have a big group of people to choose from to help you make the trek up north. Goldman founded the website after witnessing the horrified reaction from many Americans after Trump's big Super Tuesday wins this past March.
All told, MapleMatch sounds like a more dignified alternative to the American mail-order bride services that will certainly pop up after Trump's inauguration. To learn more about it for yourself and to get a head start fleeing the country, check out this link.
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This article was originally published on BGR.com
As it presides this month over the U.N. Security Council, Egypt has invited tech giant Microsoft to advise world powers on helping governments confront violent extremism. But the rare opportunity also puts the worlds most iconic software company in somewhat of a pickle: how to avoid serving as a prop for a country that has mercilessly cracked down on social media and other agents of free speech, from artists to journalists to novelists.
The Security Council debate, set for Wednesday and titled Countering the Narratives and Ideologies of Terrorism, seeks to explore ways to confront the Islamic State and other extremist groups, according to a confidential concept paper drafted by Egypt and obtained by Foreign Policy. Egypt wants the Security Council to adopt a statement highlighting the need for governments to develop a comprehensive international strategy on countering the narratives and ideologies of the terrorist groups, with special emphasis on ISIL. The Islamic State is also known as ISIL or ISIS.
The meeting will feature speeches by Microsofts vice president, Steve Crown; Deputy U.N. Secretary-General Jan Eliasson; and Mohi el-Din Afifi, the secretary-general of Al Azhar Islamic Research Academy in Cairo, which has been closely associated with the Egyptian state. Diplomats say they cant recall the head of a digital company addressing the U.N. Security Council, though Microsoft founder Bill Gates delivered a speech before the U.N. General Assembly on his philanthropic activities in 2008.
Critics fret the Egyptian initiative is designed to rally international support for Cairos policies that suppress free speech in the name of reining in the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Brotherhood leader and then-President Mohamed Morsi in a military coup in July 2013. More recently, Egypt has stepped up its crackdown by jailing journalists, political opponents, artists, and novelists who have criticized the state.
Theres a genuine problem with ISIS and others use of digital tech, David Kaye, the U.N. special rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression, told FP in emailed remarks. Yet a lot of countries are using the extremism problem to censor or punish journalists and others sharing information, especially online, Kaye said.
Egypt, he said, is using the language of countering violent extremism to jail individuals who protest, including journalists covering protests.
The meeting comes as Egypt tries to convince the world to respond more strongly to what it sees as an existential terrorist threat. Cairo has picked a topic that has generated broad sympathy among the Security Councils big powers, including China, Russia, and the United States. All three have hosted Security Council meetings on countering violent extremism. And some U.N. diplomats said Egypt has legitimate concerns about the threat of terrorism at home and abroad, especially following a February 2015 video that appeared to show Islamic State militants executing 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya.
But the United States was concerned that the Egyptian-drafted statement didnt go far enough in recognizing the need to include civil society groups, as well as high-tech companies, to work together with governments to counter extremists efforts to radicalize and recruit potential followers. The final draft statement that will likely be approved includes a series of American amendments that address those concerns.
Still, Suzanne Nossel, executive director of the literary organization PEN American Center, suggested the Security Council meeting has placed Microsoft between a rock and a hard drive as it partners with a government that jails artists, filmmakers, and writers.
No social media company wants to be seen as an arena for the spread of violent extremism. Thats bad for the brand, Nossel told FP. But its a potentially risky partnership for the technology companies to assume the role of policing content.
The challenge for Microsoft is striking a balance between recognizing that terrorism is a serious global threat that warrants greater cooperation and actions, and ensuring that the war on extremism cannot be used as an excuse or fig leaf for domestic repression, Nossel said. They have to avoid having anything they say being characterized as a license to crack down on domestic political enemies or opponents.
This is not uncomplicated for Microsoft, added Michael Hanna, an expert on Egypt at the Century Foundation. If it publicly associates itself with the Egyptian government, that will raise eyebrows, he said.
Following the January 2015 terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical weekly magazine, governments have dramatically ramped up pressure on Internet technology companies to cooperate with government intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Digital rights advocates say that has included demands to remove offensive content or monitor potential extremist activities. But without an internationally recognized definition of terrorism or violent extremism, individual governments are left to decide what is deemed as unacceptable.
Egypt views the Muslim Brotherhood as the ideological predecessor of todays extremists, including the Islamic State. But the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which was banned under President Hosni Mubarak, was legalized after the Arab Spring revolution that drove Mubarak from power. The United States sought to work with Morsi, and President Barack Obama congratulated him on his election victory in a 2012 phone call. The movement is now considered a terrorist organization by Egypt and its closes allies, including Saudi Arabia and Russia. But few other countries share that view, and the Muslim Brotherhood has never been designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations. And it is not named in the final U.N. Security Council statement that is expected to be adopted Wednesday.
Egypts concept paper does not explicitly mention the Muslim Brotherhood. But it includes an oblique reference to the movement, blaming its mid-20th-century scholars for providing the religious underpinnings for modern extremists like the Islamic State, Boko Haram in Nigeria, Nusra Front in Syria, and al-Shabab in Somalia.
All those terrorist groups share the same ultimate goal of restoring, through violent means, the caliphate and establishing an Islamic State, the concept paper states.
In Egypt, journalists are routinely jailed for for allegedly having violated anti-terrorism laws because they are covering the Muslim Brotherhood or are being critical of the government, said Emma Llanso, the director of the Center for Democracy and Technologys Free Expression Project. This month, Egypt sentenced two Al Jazeera reporters to death in absentia on the grounds that they leaked state secrets and documents to Qatar, an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Al Jazeera maintains the charges are groundless. This is a dangerous over-reading of what constitutes a credible threat to national security, Llanso said.
The U.N. has been working behind the scenes to enlist support from social media companies to fight terrorism. The U.N. Counter-Terrorism Committee, a branch of the U.N. Security Council, hosted a meeting last December that included representatives of Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, WeChat, and Weibo. Microsofts press office declined to comment for this report about Wednesdays meeting except to confirm Microsofts attendance.
But Crown himself provided a possible preview during the December conference of what he might tell the Security Council this week.
We look forward to working with you to redeem the Internet, Crown told foreign diplomats from China, Russia, the United States, and scores of other countries.
Crown said Microsoft is already working closely with governments to combat a range of criminal activities, including terrorism. He said the company worked with French and U.S. authorities to supply online information it obtained within 45 minutes of the Charlie Hebdo strike. But he also said Microsofts cooperation will be guided by principles anchored in the rule of law, including international law.
We are, of course, outraged by terrorists use of our platform or our technologies, Crown said in December, assuring the U.N. Counter-Terrorism Committee that his company had never intended for their products or subsidiaries including the voice- and video-chat company Skype to be used by terrorists. But he said it is impossible to retreat from the reality that digital technologies can be used for ill or for good.
Egypts U.N. initiative will call for a comprehensive international strategy that brings together governments, intelligence agencies, religious leaders, and social media companies in the struggle against violent extremism. It will single out the Islamic State, which has already carried out terrorist attacks against Egyptians. A key goal is to find an ideal mechanism to coordinate follow-up and mobilize the necessary action and resources, according to the concept paper.
Moving forward, the paper suggests discussions on steps the international community can take in accordance with the rule of law and while ensuring freedom of speech to curb terrorists use of media, social media, and other online communications to disseminate narratives and ideology.
What measures should be taken to enhance the cooperation and coordination between security and intelligence authorities of different countries? the paper asked. What legal measures should be implemented to counter the narratives and ideologies of the terrorist groups?
Photo credit: EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ / Getty Images
college freshman
The US Department of Education at a Monday news conference urged colleges and universities to remove questions about criminal history from applications.
The recommendation, described in the new report "Beyond the Box: Increasing Access to Higher Education for Justice-Involved Individuals," says colleges should remove the barriers to higher education for the "estimated 70 million citizens with criminal records."
"We believe in second chances and we believe in fairness," Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. said on Monday, according to a press release from the White House. "The college admissions process shouldn't serve as a roadblock to opportunity but should serve as a gateway to unlocking untapped potential of students."
In unveiling the report, the Department of Education referred to a 2015 Center for Community Alternatives study that found that 66% of college applicants with felony convictions begin applications but do not finish them. That figure starkly decreases for total applicants, where 21% of applications go unfinished.
While 35% of colleges in a recent survey highlighted by The Atlantic's Juleyka Lantigua-Williams acknowledged they had denied applicants because of their criminal history, experts argue that the questions themselves could intimidate and deter applicants from even completing the process.
Vivian Nixon, executive director at College & Community Fellowship, spoke of the damaging impact questions asking about criminal history could have on applicants.
"There's a chilling effect for many students," Nixon told Lantigua-Williams. "They interpret the questions as, 'I'm not going to get in because I have a felony.'"
Though the US contains just 5% of the world's population, the country accounts for 20% of the global incarcerations the most in the world.
Prison incarceration also disproportionately affects men of color; one in three black men can expect to go to prison in his lifetime.
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NOW WATCH: A police officer who went undercover as a prisoner says the inmates shared this troubling trait
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The Sun Finally Sets on SunEdisons Business: Why Did It Happen?
(Continued from Prior Part)
Growing concern
SunEdisons (SUNEQ) Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is aimed at reorganization to facilitate its financial restructuring. The in-court restructuring process will allow the company to right-size its balance sheet and reduce its debt.
According to the debt structure of the company, the majority of its debt is non-recourse (secured debt backed by collateral) in nature. As of November 10, 2015, the company had about $11.6 billion in consolidated debt on its balance sheet.
SunEdison intends to reduce the debt through the sale of non-core assets by focusing its business in the United States, India, and Latin America.
SunEdisons Chapter 11 filing
Chapter 11 is usually filed by a debtor to keep its business alive and pay creditors over time. Creditors generally agree to the restructuring plan if they believe the sum value of the reorganized company is greater than its individual parts if sold separately.
According to SunEdisons news release on its Chapter 11 filing, the bankruptcy court approved all of the first-day motions related to its Chapter 11 restructuring on April 22, 2016. First-day motions seek approval to make immediate payments, post-petition financing agreements, payments to employees, and other procedural issues.
What about investors?
The approval of first-day motions generally helps the debtors (SUNEQ) transition to Chapter 11. With this approval, SunEdison can continue operating its business as usual. It has to implement the agreement reached with the majority of lenders under the first lien financing facility.
Low-risk investors or secured creditors will be paid first before paying unsecured creditors. Bondholders have greater chances of recovering their money than stockholders.
In general, bondholders dont receive any interest or principal payments. Stockholders dont receive any dividends during bankruptcy.
In the final part of this series, we will explore the impact of SunEdisons bankruptcy on other upstream solar (TAN) companies like First Solar (FSLR), SunPower Corporation (SPWR), and Canadian Solar (CSIQ).
Story continues
Continue to Next Part
Browse this series on Market Realist:
Analysts Expect a Strong 1Q16 Earnings Report for Ford
(Continued from Prior Part)
Valuation multiples
Valuation multiples are widely used in the auto industry to compare companies. We can only use valuation multiples to compare companies that are similar in nature in terms of business, size, or financials.
In this manner, Fords (F) valuation multiples can be compared with peers like General Motors (GM) and Fiat Chrysler (FACU). In this article, well find out where Fords valuation multiples are trading.
Fords valuation multiples
Enterprise value is the market value of equity and debt less cash and cash equivalents. The EV-to-EBITDA (enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) multiple values the worth of the entire company and not just the equity portion.
As of April 18, 2016, Fords forward EV-to-EBITDA multiple was 3.0x, which is much higher than its peers. In comparison, GMs and FCAUs forward EV-to-EBITDA multiples are 2.2x and 1.3x, respectively.
Fords forward PE (price-to-earnings) multiple is 6.5xalso lower than GMs and FCAUs forward PE multiples of 5.5x and 4.7x, respectively.
The valuation multiples of a company could be driven higher because of either its high growth forecast or lower risk profile. For example, the valuation multiples of Toyota (TM) are typically much higher than those of other major US automakers (VCR). This is partly because Toyota has a strong presence in the premium vehicle segment, which yields higher margins than the mass-marketed vehicle segments.
Factors affecting Fords valuation
For a mature company like Ford, factors that may impact the companys risk profile should be the key driver of its valuation multiples, rather than growth factors.
Currently, the concerns over the future of US auto sales remains intact amid some automakers like FCAU seeing 2015 and 2016 as industry peak years in North America. A downturn in US auto sales could be a big risk for automakers including GM, Ford, and FCAU as they make the majority of their revenues from the region.
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High dependence on a single geographical market also increases the risk profile of Ford and a visible downturn in US auto sales is likely to negatively affect the companys earnings estimates. This may drive Fords valuation multiples lower.
Finally, lets look at some key technical price levels for Ford that should be watched closely ahead of its 1Q16 earnings.
Continue to Next Part
Browse this series on Market Realist:
Donald Trump has won the West Virginia, according to the Associated Press. Trump was expecting an easy win in West Virginia while Hillary Clinton is unlikely to battle back from a comment that damaged her with the coal miners of the state.
Trump told West Virginia voters to stay home Tuesday night, but since hes the only Republican candidate left, that shouldnt keep him from coasting to victory in the state.
Get ready, because youre going to be working your asses off, Trump crowed of his future presidency to the states miners at a rally last week. (Nebraska is also holding its Republican primary Tuesday; the Democrats held a caucus there in March.)
Clinton may have a tougher road against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in West Virginia, after she said earlier this year that shed put coal out of business. The former Secretary of State has since apologized for the comment, saying it was out of context, but a RealClearPolitics poll average shows her six points behind Sanders in the state (the average is only based on two surveys). Its an especially dramatic slide for Clinton since she won the state by 41 points against then-Senator Barack Obama in 2008.
I know my chances are pretty difficult, to be honest, Clinton said Monday in Williamson, W.Va., the Hill reports.
Still, the primary season is all but over. Trump is the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, and Clinton is far ahead of Sanders in the race for the Democratic nomination.
donald trump
Donald Trump and his campaign are previewing a pull-no-punches strategy against Hillary Clinton in what looks to be a difficult road to victory in November's presidential election.
Trump started off his virtual general-election campaign by promising to take the "high road" if Clinton reciprocated.
A few days later, however, the presumptive Republican nominee was forcefully reiterating his claim that Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, was an "enabler" of her husband's decades-old marital infidelities.
"She's been the total enabler," Trump said at a weekend rally in Eugene, Oregon. "She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler."
Having savaged more than a dozen opponents in the Republican primary season with at-times brutal ad hominem attacks, Trump and his campaign have given mixed signals about their strategy to defeat Clinton.
In an interview with Business Insider on Friday, for instance, Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson lamented that a potential matchup between Clinton and Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who suspended his presidential campaign in February, would have been a rehash of tired political fights from the 1990s and early 2000s.
"It was just insane to think we were going to have another Bush-Clinton matchup," Pierson said. "The same old policies, the same old complaints, the same old arguments. Hillary Clinton is still arguing today about the same things she was arguing for 40 years ago. Her husband was president for two terms, she served as secretary of state, and she's still complaining about the same things after."
But when asked by Business Insider about whether that included relitigating President Bill Clinton's marital infidelities, Pierson reversed course.
"No, it is fair," Pierson said of Trump's focus on Clinton's affairs. "It depends on what argument is being made. So when Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump is a sexist, he wanted to remind her that she's living with one."
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Pierson, who claimed Clinton hadn't been "vetted," also suggested that the campaign would be discussing other women who have accused Hillary Clinton of trying to "silence" their claims about her husband.
"There are a lot of things that Hillary Clinton has done or participated in that I think a lot of people would be taken aback by," she said.
Trump frequently boasts of being a "counterpuncher," and his latest attacks on the campaign trail came as he told the audience of reports that a pro-Clinton super PAC had reserved more than $90 million in ad buys against Trump. But polls show that Trump's attempts to tie the former secretary of state to her husband's checkered past could be a risky political move.
Public polls found that Hillary Clinton's favorability numbers peaked just after her husband was impeached by the House of Representatives during the scandal involving Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern.
For her part, Clinton has refused to take Trump's bait.
"I'm going to let him run his campaign however he chooses," she told reporters during a campaign stop in West Virginia on Monday.
"I'm not running against him," she added. "He's doing a fine job of doing that himself."
And Trump's comments about Clinton are the most recent in a lengthy history of inflammatory statements the former reality-television star has made about prominent female celebrities. Those comments have most likely done little to help a crumbling image of Trump among female voters.
Despite his promises that he will win a large share of the female vote, the real-estate magnate maintains a disproportionately high unfavorable rating among likely female voters, including women who vote in Republican primaries.
Trump's campaign, however, insisted that it is going after Clinton's personal life only because the former secretary of state had criticized Trump's rhetoric.
"He doesn't want to go there," Pierson said. "If he wants to keep it on the high level, he'll keep it on the high level."
She added: "But when you start to tear down a man who is not a sexist, or a racist or a misogynist, he will defend himself."
NOW WATCH: TRUMP'S SPOKESPERSON: The one thing Paul Ryan and Donald Trump should agree on
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Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) - The Gambia's main opposition party said Tuesday dozens of its members had been arrested after attending the trial of fellow activists charged with holding rare protests in the west African nation.
The opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) has demanded that authorities release its leader Ousainou Darboe and about 40 followers kept in detention since rallies calling for political reform were held last month.
But in a sign of deepening tension, Alagie Darboe, deputy administrative secretary of the UDP, told AFP that a group who attended a Monday court hearing in support were later taken away by police and were being held in an unknown location.
"As of yesterday (Monday), we were able to confirm that over two dozen were arrested by personnel of the Police Intervention Unit," he said, using the name for the Gambia's riot police.
"We (still) do not have access to them. We do not know where they are being kept or where they were taken to by the police," he added.
The UDP supporters had gathered together about 70 metres (200 feet) from the High Court, and clashed with security forces in the hours before their arrest, according to witnesses.
Bystander Modou Jatta told AFP the protesters brandished banners and shouted slogans, including "We want an end to dictatorship" and "Stop the killings".
The Gambia is ruled with an iron fist by President Yahya Jammeh, who came to power in a coup in 1994 and was first elected head of state in 1996.
The 50-year-old is expected to seek a fifth term in a presidential poll in December.
Some of the activists currently on trial were detained on April 14, while others were arrested following a demonstration two days later against the death of UDP official Solo Sandeng, who is reported to have died suspiciously in custody, according to his party and human rights groups.
On Monday police fired tear gas at the protesters after tracing them to an area outside the capital, an eyewitness, Mustapha Njie, told AFP.
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Some activists retaliated, and many were beaten by the security forces, according to Njie.
"The police fired tear gas at the protesters and some of the protesters also pelted stones at them," he said.
Jammeh's regime is regularly accused by watchdog bodies and the US State Department of making opponents forcibly disappear and harassing the press and independent broadcasting media.
A joint mission of the United Nations and regional blocs called on the Gambia "to protect the rights of its citizens, in particular, the freedom of expression, assembly and political participation," on a visit last week, calling for an investigation into reported deaths in custody.
A handwritten journal has been found in the depths of a small Australian bookshop detailing what experts believe are battle plans from the Napoleonic wars.
The diary of British Lieutenant-Colonel John Squire, who served with the Duke of Wellington, was discovered among a pile of books in a cupboard at Cracked and Spineless New and Used Books in the Tasmanian capital Hobart.
Dated 1811, the leather volume appears to detail a period from May to June that year of a war that pitted the French against an array of European powers, focusing on The Siege of Badajoz in Spain.
Bookshop co-owner Richard Sprent said the previous owner, who is dead, toured Tasmania acquiring hundreds of thousands of books and it could have been among his dusty collection for years.
"We have spent the last couple of years slowly working through them all," he told AFP Tuesday, adding that the journal came to light this month with interest exploding after he posted it on Facebook.
"A quick Google was enough to work out that this guy was a pretty big deal and we had something quite important.
"From what I can gather, it details the Siege of Badajoz. Since Squire was also a Royal Engineer, he would have been important in this campaign -- and there are even original drawings contained in here."
Sprent has contacted the Imperial War Museum in London and in the meantime said one person has offered him Aus$10,000 (US$7,300) for the journal.
Gavin Daly, senior European history lecturer at the University of Tasmania, went to see the book as soon as he heard about it and said it was "certainly not a copy".
"It seems to be genuine. There is no reason why it wouldn't be," he said.
"It's highly technical, with detail about wind direction and the sieges of Badajoz, which he was part of."
Daly added that Squire was no ordinary engineer and was well known in London circles, having played a part in moving the Elgin Marbles, a collection of classical Greek sculptures, to Britain.
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He was also present in Egypt when the Rosetta Stone was passed to British forces, he added.
Squire died in 1812 from fever on the battlefield and it was not clear how his diary ended up in Tasmania.
But many British soldiers at the time moved to colonial Australia to take up land grants in what was then known as Van Diemen's Land, and one of them may have brought it with him.
"It's a great mystery and difficult to say how it ended up here," Daly said.
Davao (Philippines) (AFP) - Incendiary Philippine politician Rodrigo Duterte vowed Tuesday a relentless crackdown on crime after securing a landslide presidential victory built on foul-mouthed populist tirades that exposed deep voter anger at the establishment.
The 71-year-old firebrand's main rivals conceded defeat after an unofficial tally showed Duterte had an insurmountable lead in Monday's election of 6.1 million votes, a result that added to howls across the globe for strong, populist leaders.
Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, captivated Filipinos with vows of brutal but quick solutions to crime and poverty, while offering himself as a decisive strongman capable of resolving a host of other deeply entrenched problems in society.
"It's with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people," Duterte told AFP in Davao early on Tuesday morning as the results came in.
"I feel a sense of gratitude to the Filipino people."
In other comments to reporters who had converged on Davao, Duterte offered an olive branch to his rivals following a deeply divisive campaign that had seen President Benigno Aquino brand him a dictator in the making who would bring terror to the nation.
"I want to reach out my hand and let us begin the healing now," said Duterte, whose campaigning style and ability to upend conventional political wisdom have drawn comparisons with US Republican Donald Trump.
However Duterte vowed to push through on the central plank of his campaign platform -- ending crime across the nation within six months and eliminating corruption.
On the campaign trail he had enraged critics but hypnotised fans with profanity-laced promises to kill tens of thousands of criminals, forget human rights laws and pardon himself for mass murder.
- 'Kill threats' -
While avoiding such extreme inflammatory remarks, Duterte said a law-and-order crackdown that particularly targeted drugs would be one of his top priorities when he became president, and he was prepared to kill.
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"I will do it (fight drugs), even if they say I am an executioner," said Duterte, who rights groups accuse of running vigilante death squads in Davao that have killed more than 1,000 people.
"Look what I did to Davao. I will not let down the people."
One of his Davao rules, night-time curfews for minors, would be imposed nationwide while a ban on the serving of alcohol after midnight would also be considered, his spokesman Peter Lavina said Tuesday.
Duterte, who on the campaign trail boasted of being behind the death squads, also had a warning for corrupt police.
"If you are a policeman and stick to your racket, choose: either you kill me or I kill you," he said.
The election commission was not expected to officially proclaim Duterte as the winner of Monday's vote for more than a week.
However it had authorised the PPCRV, a Catholic Church-run poll monitor, to tally the votes, and they showed on Tuesday evening with about 94 percent of the total counted that Duterte could not lose.
- Gutter talk -
Duterte had 38.60 percent of the vote, with administration candidate Mar Roxas on 23.42 percent and Senator Grace Poe in third with 21.65 percent, according to PPCRV.
In the Philippines, a winner is decided simply by whoever gets the most votes. The next president will be sworn in on June 30.
Poe, the adopted daughter of movie stars, conceded just after midnight on Tuesday, and Roxas followed just after lunch.
"It is clear Mayor Duterte will be the next president," Roxas told supporters. "I wish you success."
Duterte had during the campaign dominated local media coverage and generated international headlines with relentless gutter talk, including branding the pope a "son of a whore".
He also boasted repeatedly about his Viagra-fuelled affairs.
Duterte caused further disgust in international diplomatic circles with a joke that he wanted to rape a "beautiful" Australian missionary who was killed in a 1989 Philippine prison riot.
Duterte was enraged by the reaction to the rape comments, which included criticism from the US and Australian ambassadors, insisting they were taken out of context.
He said Tuesday it would be up to them to repair relations with him, while also indicating he was prepared to hold direct talks with Beijing over a highly sensitive territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
Analysts said Duterte was expected to moderate his inflammatory comments and he was unlikely to orchestrate his promised massive killing spree against suspected criminals.
"Extrajudicial killings and forgetting human rights, he cannot do that because it will create more instability and chaos, which is what he wants to prevent," Earl Parreno, an analyst from the Manila-based Institute for Political and Economic Reform, told AFP.
"During the campaign he was stage acting, he was exaggerating to get across a message."
Five years since submitting its formal membership application to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the small Pacific country of East Timor is more determined than ever to join.
It should be simple. According to ASEANs 1967 Bangkok Declaration, the main condition for joining the economic and political alliance is that the applicant country must be geographically located in Southeast Asia. But the 2007 ASEAN Charter introduced new requirements above all, the need to obtain consensus among the blocs current member states. This is where East Timor is now running into problems.
Although East Timors neighbor (and former enemy) Indonesia and some other ASEAN members are supporting its membership, skepticism is mounting in Singapore and Laos, whose governments say they are concerned that East Timors low economic development will prevent it from fulfilling its membership obligations. But this excuse strains credulity. When Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and Vietnam joined ASEAN in the 1990s, their meager economic development also attracted criticism, but wasnt used as a reason to delay their admission. In addition, East Timors ranking on the Human Development Index, a broader measure of development than economic growth, is higher than that of Cambodia, Laos, and Burma. In terms of income per capita, East Timor bests four current ASEAN members: Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and Vietnam.
If East Timors economic performance is not really why its membership is being delayed, Singapore and Laos must have other reasons. And indeed they do: these countries dont want to include East Timor because the tiny nation is an outspoken advocate of democracy and human rights.
Fourteen years after gaining independence, East Timor is a multi-party democracy. It has held two presidential and legislative elections and an independence referendum, all regarded free and fair by international observation missions. In 2002, East Timor established an Ombudsman for Human Rights and Justice which has been highly esteemed by a U.N.-linked organization that accredits the worlds national human rights institutions. The country has developed an active civil society that promotes human rights both at home and abroad. Furthermore, East Timor is a conscientious member of numerous regional human rights bodies, such as the National Human Rights Institutions Forum and the Asia Pacific Forum.
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The Economist Intelligence Units 2015 Democracy Index ranks East Timor higher than all ASEAN members except Brunei (which is not ranked). Of the ASEAN members, three (Thailand, Cambodia, and Burma) are classified as hybrid regimes with both democratic and authoritarian features, whereas two (Vietnam and Laos) are rated as outright authoritarian.
Like most nations, East Timors democratic system is not perfect: It holds a partly free ranking in Freedom Houses latest Freedom in the World report. Yet its political achievements in just fourteen years of independence are striking. These alone deserve consideration, if not praise, from ASEAN and its member states.
Indeed, East Timors democratic performance should be an advantage for its candidacy. The ASEAN Charter and other key documents tout the blocs dedication to democracy and human rights. ASEAN even established its own human rights body, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, in 2009. In practice, however, East Timors democracy hinders its eligibility for ASEAN membership, its credentials making it an outsider.
ASEAN is an intergovernmental organization, and as such it is based on consensus and respect for its members sovereignty. Thats why its beautiful words about democracy and human rights remain stymied by the Asian principle of non-interference. It is no accident that scholars and human rights experts regard its new human rights body as a toothless institution, since any of its pronouncements can be vetoed by any single ASEAN country. This was precisely the intention: to create a showpiece for human rights that would be incapable of meaningfully interfering in any member states domestic affairs.
Thus far, East Timors politicians dont quite seem to realize this, often showcasing their countrys democratic credentials as an asset. They fail to grasp that many ASEAN member states outward acceptance of democracy and human rights is purely for show. On several occasions, Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timors former president, has been openly critical of human rights abuses in Burma. In 2015, together with other Nobel Laureates, he described what was happening to the Rohingya minority there as nothing less than genocide. During the 2014 Bali Democracy Forum, another former president, Xanana Gusmao, said that ASEAN countries must search for new ways of sustainable development without losing sight of universal values, because these values can ensure human dignity.
Meanwhile, the horrific treatment of Burmas Rohingya minority, the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in West Papua in Indonesia, the 2012 disappearance of Laotian activist Sombath Somphone, and the 2014 military coup in Thailand have produced a minimal response from ASEAN. Against this backdrop, it becomes clear why East Timors democratic credentials are problematic. Any serious promotion of democracy and human rights within ASEAN could undermine the comfortable status quo of its less democratic members.
But in no case should East Timor jeopardize its international reputation by haggling over democracy and human rights. Instead, it should continue to champion these values while pursuing ASEAN membership in a more pragmatic way: completing all the membership requirements, taking on the responsibility of attending the many ASEAN meetings, and continuing its economic development. If these targets are met, it will be all the more difficult for ASEAN member states to keep delaying East Timors membership, no matter how democratic it may be.
ASEAN, too, should reconsider its stance. What those opposing East Timors membership are failing to understand is that admitting it would be in their interest, particularly from the point of view of security. East Timors snubbing by ASEAN, along with its strained relationship with Australia, is increasingly turning the country towards China, which has its own interests in the region (including its dispute with ASEAN members in the South China Sea). Leaving East Timor alone increases its vulnerability to this Chinese influence and provides evidence that ASEAN is not prepared to effectively meet the regions challenges.
East Timors political credentials are an asset to ASEAN member states if they really intend to commit to the organizations stated principles. Its global reputation and its peaceful reconciliation with Indonesia (after 24 years of conflict) are further indications that the country will be an honest and valuable partner. East Timor is a prospective member ASEAN cannot afford to lose.
In the photo, schoolchildren wave miniature East Timorese flags to greet President Jose Ramos-Horta upon his return from Australia on April 17, 2008.
Photo credit: MARIO JONNY DOS SANTOS/AFP/Getty Images
By Marc Jones
LONDON (Reuters) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development expects its first deal to take over bad Greek loans in the coming weeks, one of its top officials said on Tuesday.
Sabina Dziurman, the EBRD's director for Greece and Cyprus, told Reuters the moves should set the bank's spending in Greece this year on course to top the 320 million euros ($363.97 million) laid out last year.
"We expect some transactions to be announced in the next few weeks," Dziurman told the Reuters Global Markets Forum. "I'd be disappointed if it (investment) was less this year."
Dziurman said the EBRD had been positively surprised by the interest in Greece from the private sector so far and was talking to potential non-performing loan (NPL) investors who could help manage bad loan packages going forward.
In Greece, laws prevent bad loan portfolios being sold or put in special off-balance sheet vehicles, but they can be packaged for specialist firms to manage, who then receive a contract fee.
The EBRD has already invested 250 million euros of equity stakes in Greece's four biggest banks -- Alpha Bank, Eurobank, National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank -- that are all at least part-owned by Greece's state-backed bank rescue fund.
A Greek official told Reuters last week that the EBRD was also set to buy a 15 percent stake in Piraeus Bank's insurance arm European Reliance.
(Corrects to clarify that EBRD would not directly buy bad loans but take over the management of them.)
(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
By Arno Schuetze
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has asked large euro zone banks to detail how they are preparing for a British exit from the EU, including how they would deal with the shock to markets and any changes they would have to make to their business models.
The ECB, which supervises the 129 euro zone banks it deems most systemically important, has sent letters to banks with a large exposure to Britain, according to several people familiar with the matter.
The watchdog is taking stock of what specific exposure banks have to Britain and what contingency plans they have drawn up to prepare for all possible scenarios.
"ECB Banking Supervision is engaging with the relevant banks to ensure they are adequately assessing the risks and are prepared for all possible outcomes," an ECB spokesman said.
Britain is the world's fifth-biggest economy, and the EU's second largest. Many euro zone banks have large operations in London, home to the world's biggest foreign exchange market and a major global investment banking hub.
A source at a large German bank said the ECB had asked about its exposure to sterling, as well as its wider exposure to Britain in its fixed income, equities and loans portfolios.
"They also questioned us about how a Brexit may affect our business model," the person said.
The source added that his bank saw only negligible Brexit-related impact and had so far taken no specific action beyond making sure trading desks would be able to handle the high volatility expected on June 24 - the day after Britain's referendum on EU membership.
HEDGING
The ECB is able to be more open in asking banks about preparations for a possible Brexit than it could be on the prospect of Greece leaving the euro zone, given Britain is not a member of that bloc.
During the Greek debt crisis the central bank played down having a contingency plan for a 'Grexit', mindful of the political implications this would have on the currency union.
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Ralph Hamers, chief executive of Dutch lender ING said on Tuesday that the ECB had been in touch with his bank over the Brexit issue.
He said a British exit would not necessarily lead to a review of its London-based financial markets and structured finance business - although if it caused other banks to move some trade out of Britain, ING might have to follow.
"But if the larger banks in the markets would move and with that the flow in the markets would move, we would move as well, clearly," he said during a results news conference.
People involved in Brexit preparations at some other German banks said issues like export-import financing and loans to British companies or German firms with a large UK business were also part of the discussions with the ECB.
Nils Beier, head of banking at consultant Accenture, who has had many discussions with banks about Brexit, said that most were vetting and hedging their positions to make sure they avoided trading losses.
(Additional reporting by Balazs Koranyi, Jonathan Gould and Toby Sterling; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Pravin Char)
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt plans to offer high-speed 4G telecoms licences to companies already operating in the country within two weeks, Telecom Minister Yasser al-Qadi said on local television channel CBC. The country had been planning to roll out the high-speed 4G services in the first quarter of this year. The move could allow Egypt's fixed-line monopoly Telecom Egypt to enter the mobile phone services market. "There was a meeting at the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority based on the cabinet's decision to allow for the issuance of 4G licences to the companies operating in the market," al-Qadi said. "Yesterday we decided we will be begin the offering. We will begin today by sending letters to all the companies so that we can know the importance of the 4G for them, and within 2 weeks the licensing process will be completed," he added. Egypt has not disclosed how much it will charge for licences and it is not clear when 4G services will be available. In addition to Telecom Egypt, the country's landline monopoly, Egypt has three mobile phone operators, Vodafone Egypt, Orange (formerly Mobinil) and Etisalat. A representative from Vodafone said on Tuesday morning that they had not yet received notification from the ministry. (Reporting by Eric Knecht; writing by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Keith Weir)
"Creativity often come at me in these bursts that I can't explain," Eliot Lipp explains to Billboard. So it's not surprising that the musician/sound designer sketched about half of his forthcoming 9th album, Come To Life, in just one weekend last summer. Those bursts of inspiration materialize quickly and casually for him: "Usually by looping a second or two of an old dusty track, I will immediately start hearing possibilities and start to create."
Moby Talks 'Porcelain' Memoir, Announces New Compilation Album: Exclusive
Come To Life exists comfortably between genres. Lipp establishes his style-hopping template right away with the opening track: "On 'Entrance,' the first song, I tried to incorporate a little slice of everything to come," he notes. "There's a jazzy sample, broken beats, analog synth sequences, and even some live pedal steel" courtesy of a pal who plays in a county band. While "Not Quite Awake" "came about after listening to Massive Attack while falling asleep," "You Think," a few songs later, exists on the opposite end of the drowsy spectrum, buoyed by what Lipp describes as an "epic breakdown."
Man vs. Machine: Richie Hawtin on the Return of Plastikman
But all the variation doesn't mean the project lacks unity. Come To Life is carefully sequenced with a vinyl experience in mind. The steady chug of "Till The End" is positioned sixth precisely because it "closes out the first half." The second portion starts up with "Tricker," which Lipp suggests "brings back the funk and analogy energy. Later, the album glides to a soft landing with "Come To Life."
Listen to Lipp's latest effort below.
(Adds details)
By Matt Smith
DUBAI, May 10 (Reuters) - Dubai's flagship carrier Emirates will buy more of the existing A380 model if Airbus decides not to press ahead with a version with new engines, Emirates President Tim Clark said on Tuesday.
Emirates is the A380's biggest buyer and most vocal supporter within the airline industry of the world's largest passenger jet. The airline has ordered 142 A380s, of which 77 are now in operation.
A potential upgraded version with more fuel efficient engines, dubbed the A380neo, has been shelved for the time-being, however, as Airbus concentrates on a bigger version of its long-haul A350 plane.
"If they decide not to bring the Neo into play, we will buy more of the current A380," Clark told reporters on the sidelines of an Emirates news conference at which the airline announced a 56 percent rise in annual profit.
"As the first batch comes up to retirement we will want to replace those with more 380s ... If you replace over time it's a continuum of orders."
The superjumbo, which typically seats 544 passengers, has helped Emirates ease runway constraints at its Dubai hub, but Airbus plans to cut production due to weak sales.
Clark said Emirates could increase its A380 fleet to 200 when the airline moves to Dubai's second airport, although that switch is unlikely before 2023.
"Whether that's enough to persuade Airbus to keep the line going is up to them, they have got to sell more and are trying very hard to do that," said Clark.
Emirates is also still considering an order of about 50-70 Airbus A350s, the European firm's newest long-haul model, or Boeing's 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
The Dubai carrier cancelled an order for 70 A350 aircraft in 2014, saying the new plane did not fit its original specifications, but later launched a new purchasing process.
The A350 has also suffered supply chain problems that have slowed deliveries this year, prompting criticism of Airbus from Gulf carrier Qatar Airways.
"By the time we make that decision and by the time they are in a position to deliver what we want, the timeline will be 2019-20," said Clark.
"So I would hope by then Airbus will have sorted out the ramp-up problem with regard to the A350. And equally the 787 will be a mature programme." (Writing by Sylvia Westall; editing by David Clarke)
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court on Tuesday rejected a request by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for a preliminary injunction preventing the head of German publisher Axel Springer repeating a derogatory term. Erdogan's lawyer, Ralf Hoecker, told Reuters Erdogan had sought the injunction after Chief Executive Mathias Doepfner's public support for a controversial poem read out by comedian Jan Boehmermann on German television in March. But the court said in a statement it had rejected it on the basis of "the defendant's right to free expression of opinion". Erdogan is known for his sensitivity to criticism and Turkish prosecutors have opened over 1,800 cases against people for insulting him since he became president in 2014. That sensitivity has also made itself felt on the international stage, raising tensions with Germany at a time when the two countries are grappling with a huge influx of Syrian refugees. Erdogan's office was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters. The Turkish leader has repeatedly said his opponents are free to criticize him but that those who stray into insult will face legal action. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has drawn heavy criticism for allowing German prosecutors to pursue a case against Boehmermann at Erdogan's behest. APPEAL IN OFFING Under Germany's criminal code, insults against foreign leaders are not allowed but the government can decide whether to authorize prosecutors to go ahead. In the poem, Boehmermann suggested Erdogan hits girls, watches child pornography and engages in bestiality. Doepfner expressed solidarity with Boehmermann in an open letter published in German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in April, saying he had laughed out loud over the poem and "wholeheartedly" supported what the comedian had said. If the court in Cologne had agreed to grant the injunction, Doepfner would have been banned from repeating a sexually crude term to describe Erdogan that was first used by Boehmermann and subsequently quoted by the Axel Springer chief. The court said its decision did not address the legality of the Boehmermann poem, which is still under investigation. A spokeswoman for Springer said Doepfner had simply "wanted to defend the freedom of art and satire in his open letter". Hoecker had told Reuters earlier that he expected the Cologne district court to reject the injunction, and would recommend Erdogan appeal to a higher court. It was not immediately clear when a follow-on lawsuit could be filed. Hoecker's law firm said on Monday it had won a preliminary injunction against German director and producer Uwe Boll, who in a video posted online, defended Boehmermann's poem and said Erdogan should be shot. "Mr Erdogan is a human being and human dignity is inviolable," Hoecker said in that statement, adding that this was placed above the freedom of press, art and opinion in the German constitution. (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Additional reporting by Harro Ten Wolde in Frankfurt; Klaus Lauer in Berlin, and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said he wanted the European Union to grant Turks visa-free travel to the passport-free Schengen area by October at the latest.
"The promise that was made was for the month of October this year," Erdogan said in a televised speech. "I hope they will keep the promise that they made and close this issue by October at the latest," he added.
Erdogan's outgoing Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had previously suggested June as the deadline.
An independent delegation of three Members of the European Parliament went to Turkey to assess operations under the terms of the new controversial European Union-Turkey Refugee Deal report published Tuesday.
The three MEPs, members of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, visited "removal centers" in the northern part of the country, near the Bulgarian and Greek borders.
"Everyone who is not Syrian or Iraqi is immediately sent back regardless of their situation, in clear violation of the principles laid down in the Geneva Conventions," Marina Albiol Guzman, Spanish MEP and one of the three delegates, wrote in their report.
@MarinaAlbiol @Josu_Juaristi & @ErnstCornelia went to Turkey last week:read the key findings http://bit.ly/1ZANN1M pic.twitter.com/Qt82tV9pWF https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiGQkezUYAArDuj.png:large
"Turkey has been hired as a deportation agency, putting into practice the migration policies designed in Brussels," Guzman added. "Their main goal is to return people back to the areas from which they have fled, even if they will face extreme peril in countries such as Afghanistan or Yemen."
"Turkey has been hired as a deportation agency."
The EU-Turkey deal, finalized March 18, has had human rights activists concerned from the start. On April 1, Amnesty International issued a damning press release, which warned the deal could be a violation of international law. The organization said Turkey was enforcing "large-scale forced returns of [Syrian] refugees" to their war-torn country of origin.
"Far from pressuring Turkey to improve the protection it offers Syrian refugees, the EU is in fact incentivizing the opposite," John Dalhuisen, director of Europe and Central Asia for Amnesty, said in the release.
A young, Afghan girl fills her water bottle in Idomeni, Greece, where thousands of migrants and refugees remain trapped and in limbo since the EU-Turkey deal was made.
The deal's weaknesses are not exclusively calculated some asylum requests didn't get processed simply because officials in Greece "forgot" to, according to Vincent Cochetel, Europe bureau director of the U.N. refugee agency. This revelation came just days after Amnesty's revelation regarding Turkey's forcible expulsion of Syrian refugees.
The MEPs report comes as part of a deluge of criticism and concern over the deal, leaving many wondering if international censure will pressure involved parties to amend the terms. However, neither the EU nor Turkey has given any indication they are open to overhauling the agreement.
Read more: Refugees Say They'd Rather Commit Suicide Than Face Deportation Under the EU-Turkey Deal
Why Were Global Markets Trading Higher on May 10?
(Continued from Prior Part)
European markets trade higher
Major European markets (DBEU) were mostly trading higher on May 10, 2016. The rise was primarily due to positive investor sentiments expecting the Greek bailout deal to go through.
Specifically, the SPDR Euro Stoxx 50 ETF (FEZ) was trading 0.73% higher at 8:30 AM EST. The German DAX and French CAC 40 were also trading with a positive bias. They rose by 0.89% and 1.6%, respectively.
Non-Eurozone markets were also trading on a positive bias. The United Kingdoms (FKU) FTSE 100 was trading 0.26% higher. Swedens (EWD) OMX Stockholm 30 rose by 0.25%. The Russian (RSX) index MICEX was among the major indexes trading lower. It fell by 1.2%.
Investor sentiments are positive
Eurozone finance ministers who were deliberating on the release of the bailout funds for Greece lauded the Greek parliaments decision to adopt more austerity measures. Lawmakers in Athens agreed to the pension cuts and tax increase. This is expected to help the Eurozone finance ministers to sway towards the release of the funds. The finance ministers will come to a decision on whether to release the funds on May 24. The Greek index ASE rose by 2.8% on Tuesday. It was among the top performers in the European markets.
Mixed trade balance and industrial production release
The German trade balance for March came out at a surplus of 26 billion euros. This was higher than the forecast of 21.2 billion. The current account was also above the forecast at 30.4 billion. Germanys industrial production for March fell by 1.3% on a month-over-month basis against the forecast of a 0.2% rise. Italys industrial production remained unchanged. Frances industrial production fell by 0.3% on a month-over-month basis.
Among major non-Eurozone data release, the United Kingdoms balance of trade for March came out at a deficit of 3.8 billion pounds against the forecast of a deficit of 4.7 billion pounds.
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Surprise! Eva Mendes welcomed her second child with Ryan Gosling last month. According to the birth certificate obtained by TMZ, Mendes gave birth to a baby girl named Amada Lee Gosling at Providence St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California at 8:03 a.m. on April 29.
PHOTOS: Cutest Celebrity Baby Announcements
Last month, Us Weekly exclusively confirmed that the super private Hitch star was pregnant with her second child.
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As previously reported by Us, Mendes was spotted in February by an insider hiding a baby bump at a photo shoot. The actress was also seen on April 15 covering her belly with an oversized bag while making her way into St. Johns for a doctors appointment.
PHOTOS: Ryan Gosling's Hotness Evolution
Mendes and Gosling met on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines in 2011 and welcomed their first child together, daughter Esmeralda, in September 2014. They have yet to share a photo of their little girl.
Categories Entertainment
Though news only just broke last month that Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling were expecting baby number two, the gorgeous couple has already welcomed their second daughter on April 29 in Santa Monica. Even more remarkable than their ability to keep such a huge secret in Hollywood, the couple gave their newborn an extremely similar name to their two-year-old, Esmeralda Amada, naming their littlest one Amada Lee. While coordinating names may seem odd, its actually a sentimental choice as it was Evas grandmothers name, meaning beloved in Spanish. So sweet! Major congrats to the duo and their expanding family.
(Reuters) - A former Minnesota philosophy professor was fined $500,000 on Monday for smuggling elephant ivory and illegally exporting rhinoceros horns from the United States to China, prosecutors said. Yiwei Zheng, 43, a former St. Cloud State University professor, was also sentenced to three years' probation and 150 hours of community service by U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim in Minneapolis, prosecutors said. The fine is to be paid to the Lacey Act Reward Fund, which is used by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reward those who provide information about wildlife crimes and to care for animals held as evidence in ongoing probes. Zheng's attorney, Timothy Webb, said the sentence, under which his client also will spend six weekends in jail, was fair. His employment with St. Cloud State University ended in March, said Adam Hammer, a spokesman for the school. Zheng A Chinese-American also known as Steve Zheng, pleaded guilty in January to smuggling ivory from the United States to China in April 2011 and exporting rhino horns in July 2010, in violation of the endangered species act. "This defendant helped to sustain this illegal market for years, engaging in more than 300 sales and earning more than $1 million," Assistant United States Attorney Laura Provinzino said in a statement. "His profit was earned at the expense of these threatened and endangered species." Zheng operated an online business called Crouching Dragon Antiques in which some of the objects sold were made with ivory and rhino horn, prosecutors said. The illegal items Zheng smuggled into and out of the United States were worth as much as $1.5 million, prosecutors said. Rhino horn sells at prices higher than gold in places such as Vietnam, where a belief with no basis in science has recently emerged 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. There is an arc of illegal animal slaughter on the continent from South Sudan, where conservationists say elephants are being slain by both government forces and rebels, to South Africa. Trade in rhino horn is banned globally under the terms of the CITES convention. Elsewhere in Africa, elephant poaching for ivory has been rampant, with Asia also the main market for the illicit commodity. (Reporting by Justin Madden in Chicago, editing by G Crosse)
London (AFP) - Britain leaving the EU would damage Western security and dangerously weaken Europe, five ex-NATO chiefs and a host of former US secretaries of state and defence warned on Tuesday.
The former NATO heads said a so-called Brexit would undermine the transatlantic military alliance and "give succour to the West's enemies", and would "undoubtably lead to a loss of British influence".
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, they said they were following the debate ahead of the June 23 referendum on Britain's EU membership "with growing concern".
"Given the scale and range of challenges to peace and stability we collectively face, the Euro-Atlantic community needs an active and engaged United Kingdom.
"Brexit would undoubtedly lead to a loss of British influence, undermine NATO and give succour to the West's enemies just when we need to stand shoulder to shoulder across the Euro-Atlantic community against common threats, including on our doorstep."
The signatories were Peter Carington, Javier Solana, George Robertson, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
In a letter to The Times newspaper, 13 former US secretaries of state and defence and national security advisors said Europe would be "dangerously weakened" if Britain pulled out of the EU.
"The world needs a strong and united Europe to work with the US," said the signatories, drawn from every White House administration over the last 40 years.
"We are concerned that should the UK choose to leave the European Union, the UK's place and influence in the world would be diminished and Europe would be dangerously weakened.
"The special relationship between our countries would not compensate for the loss of influence and clout that the UK would suffer if it was no longer part of the EU."
Signatories included former secretaries of state George Shultz and Madeleine Albright and former defence secretaries Frank Carlucci, William Perry, Bill Cohen, Bob Gates and Leon Panetta.
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On a visit to London last month, US President Barack Obama said Britain being in the EU magnified its global influence, and outside the bloc it would go to the "back of the queue" when it came to signing trade deals.
Former British defence minister Liam Fox, who is campaigning for Britain to leave the EU, said the warnings were out of date.
"A lot of those people are from a very different era to the one we are in now," he told BBC television.
LONDON (Reuters) - Former NATO secretary generals warned on Tuesday that a British exit from the European Union would help enemies of the West while ex-U.S. foreign and defence chiefs cautioned that Britain would have less clout outside the bloc. The double warning comes as the two campaigns for and against Brexit step up their rhetoric about the impact staying or leaving the EU would have on Britain's security. Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that Britain was safer in the EU while former London mayor Boris Johnson, a member of his Conservative Party, accused him of suggesting World War Three would break out should Britons vote to leave in a referendum on June 23. The five ex-NATO chiefs - Peter Carrington, Javier Solana, George Robertson, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Anders Fogh Rasmussen - said the imposition of EU sanctions against Russia and Iran, a move led by Britain, showed the importance of the bloc. "Brexit would undoubtedly lead to a loss of British influence, undermine NATO and give succour to the West's enemies just when we need to stand should-to-shoulder across the Euro-Atlantic community against common threats," they wrote in a letter to the Daily Telegraph newspaper. In a separate letter to the Times, 13 former U.S. secretaries of state and defence and national security advisers from every U.S. administration from Barack Obama's to Jimmy Carter's in the 1970s said Britain's global position would suffer if it left the EU. "We are concerned that should the UK choose to leave the European Union, the UK's place and influence in the world would be diminished and Europe would be dangerously weakened," said the letter signed by, among others, former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Madeleine Albright. Their warning echoes a similar message from Obama during the U.S. president's visit to Britain last month. Those campaigning for Brexit have repeatedly dismissed such warnings, saying membership of NATO, rather than the EU, was key to British security. In a sign of deepening divisions within Cameron's own party, Iain Duncan Smith, the former Work and Pensions Secretary, said Germany had sabotaged the prime minister's plans to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU, forcing him to drop his plans to demand an emergency brake on migration. "They have a de facto veto over everything," Duncan Smith told Tuesday's Sun newspaper which accompanied their story with a picture of German Chancellor Angela Merkel holding a puppet Cameron. (Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Ralph Boulton)
Russell Crowe has a new favorite book: Feminist Ryan Gosling.
The two actors put a hilarious spin on good cop-bad cop in the action-comedy The Nice Guys, out May 20, and Crowe told ET's Lauren Zima that he "highly recommends" his co-star's manifesto -- or should we say, meme-ifesto.
"I give it to everybody," he joked. "It should replace the Gideon Bible in most Motel 8s or Motel 6s, whatever they are now. Motel 14s if you put them together."
WATCH: Ryan Gosling Wears Uncomfortably Tight Suit, Lets a Female Fan Straddle Him
While the Academy Award winner is quite fond of Gosling's "Hey Girl" meme now, he admitted that he had no idea what it was before they started working together and made Gosling break it down for him.
"He makes me feel so old sometimes, because he's explaining it to me and I'm like, 'Dude, I just don't know what you're talking about,'" the 52-year-old actor revealed. "He explained it to me again and I'm like, 'Is this from a movie or something?' And he goes, 'That's the point!' It's like, what? One more time? It took him days."
Crowe shared more fun the two had while shooting the film, recalling how they would intentionally try to make the other crack up during a take.
"I swear, he must have sat at home and thought things up just to make me corpse on camera," Crowe said. "He did do a 15-minute routine on German spank films at one point, which was dynamic and was genius."
WATCH: Ryan Gosling Crashes Russell Crowe's Awards Show Presentation
Meanwhile, Angourie Rice, who plays Gosling's daughter in The Nice Guys, told us the two bonded by carving pumpkins together -- but admitted she was still nervous to work with the heartthrob.
"My friends freaked out a lot and so did I, actually," the 15-year-old actress revealed. "The day before shooting, I sort of had a fit. I was rolling on the floor and sort of just squealing and saying, 'Oh my god! I can't believe this is my life.' I was really nervous."
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In real life, Gosling and fiancee Eva Mendes welcomed their second daughter, Amada Lee, on April 29, mere weeks after news broke that they were expecting again. The newborn joins the couple's daughter, Esmeralda, who will turn two on Sept. 12.
Learn more about the newest member of the Gosling family in the video below.
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About two decades after Dee Fulcher left the Marine Corps, in which she served for nearly a dozen years, she came out as a transgender woman. From the age of probably six I knew that I was different, says the 54-year-old from Louisiana, who once worked on helicopter hydraulics systems. Part of the reason I joined the service was I wanted to be the macho man everybody wanted me to be.
But now Fulcher is on another path and believes that her healthcare provider, the Department of Veterans Affairs, is holding her back because of a blanket prohibition on providing surgical care to transgender veterans, which she cant afford out of pocket. Along with a Army veteran who identifies as a transgender man, she is one of two named individuals seeking to have that rule rewritten through a petition submitted to the Department on May 9.
When people are denied care or care is delayed, it can lead to significant psychological distress, depression and even suicide, says Sasha Buchert, staff attorney at the Transgender Law Center. That organization, along with Lambda Legal, filed the petition on behalf of those individuals and the Transgender American Veterans Association, an organization with approximately 2,268 members around the country.
Fulcher says this is about her mental well-being. Ive had good times here and there just like anybody else, but the majority of the time it was the unhappiness and uncertainty about who I am and not liking who I am, physically. You get sick from looking at yourself in the mirror, she says. Now Ive found my answers [but] I just feel like Im not fully being able to be a woman.
The V.A. has not yet responded to a request for comment.
In the petition, the legal team essentially makes four arguments. The first is that the V.A. already provides transition-related healthcare for transgender people, such as hormone replacement therapy and mental health services, so the ban is arbitrary, says Lambda Legals Dru Levasseur. (The V.A. issued a directive in 2011 indicating that staff must provide such care without discrimination.) The second is that the V.A. covers the same procedures that transgender people are seeking, such as mastectomies, for non-transgender and intersex veterans. The third, says Levasseur, is the V.A. created this exclusion without examining any relevant data, ignoring the medical consensus on the topic.
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On that point, the legal team has gathered materials to point to, such as a statement from the American Medical Association that an established body of medical research demonstrates the effectiveness and medical necessity of mental health care, hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery in treating people with gender dysphoria. Thats not to say that every transgender person needs or wants surgery, and having had more surgery does not make someone more transgender, cautions the Transgender Law Centers Buchert, but those procedures can be life-saving for those who do want them.
The fourth argument is the same one that the U.S. Attorney General is making to oppose a controversial law passed in North Carolina, one that seeks to ban transgender women from the womens room and transgender men from the mens: that discriminating against transgender people is a form of sex discrimination, which is prohibited by the Civil Rights Act. Though there is no federal law that explicitly prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, advocates have increasingly been relying on the sex discrimination ban to win cases in federal courts and through administrative bodies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Buchert says the legal team is confident that appealing to the V.A. to rewrite this rule will work but that theyre willing to file a lawsuit if it does not. Blanket bans on surgery for transgender people, which Medicare lifted in 2014, are based on outdated modes of thinking, she says, such as the belief that such surgery is experimental or cosmetic, rather that a medically effective treatment for people who feel a severe incongruence between their bodies and innate sense of self.
Im just not comfortable in my own skin, says Gio Silva, the Army veteran named in the petition. Since I was little kid I thought I dont belong in this body. Silva says he wants a mastectomy not just for transition-related reasons but also because he has large breasts that cause physical pain, a reason that non-transgender women seek such surgery. I hurt every single day, he says. I did my time in the military and I was told, Hey, if anything does happen, we got you. This is a brotherhood. And I dont feel that.
Silva is currently living on unemployment benefitstransgender people as a demographic experience much higher rates of poverty and unemployment than the general publicso the notion of paying for such surgery himself seems impossible. The surgeries in question could cost anywhere from several thousand dollars to $50,000, but while that kind of bill can be crippling for individuals, the legal team says, several studies have found that those costs are often negligible for big insurers. And, says Levasseur, the cost of surgery is often smaller than the bills taxpayers will foot when transgender people turn to more destructive means of coping, such as substance abuse or attempting suicide.
In 2013, the Department of Veterans Affairs treated more than 2,500 veterans for gender dysphoria, with the exception of providing surgical care. A study by UCLAs Williams Institute estimates that 150,000 transgender Americans have or are currently serving in the military. Though a ban on their open military service is under review, it remains in place.
Fulcher says that while she opposes the ban on surgery, the V.A. has been generally very supportive of her in an upending, stressful time. She attends a support group for transgender veterans organized by the V.A., goes there for counseling and gets hormone therapy from a V.A. healthcare site. Its sort of funny, she says, that theyll provide you all the hormones and everything else to go halfway but they wont finish the job.
Facebook widened its defense of its trending news practices late Monday, saying that workers on its influential Trending Topics section couldnt suppress particular news outlets or ideologies because of technical blockers.
Tom Stocky, vice president of search and the head of the Trending Topics team, said in a Facebook post that the company neither allows nor advises Trending reviewers to systematically discriminate against sources. Weve designed our tools to make that technically not feasible, he said.
Monday, former Facebook workers said that colleagues would prevent conservative topics and publications from appearing in the Trending Topics sidebar next to Facebooks news feed. Drudge Report, Breitbart, Washington Examiner and Newsmax are among the conservative news organizations that the former employees claimed were flagged as suspect by Facebook curators.
Also Read: Former Facebook Workers: Company Censored Conservative Stories From Trending News Feed
More broadly, the report raised questions about Facebooks influence over filtering how millions of people get the news. Facebook is one of the most popular sources for content on the Internet, used by more than 1.5 billion people every month. The companys decisions about what its algorithm prefers and what appears in prime real estate like the Trending Topics bar has an outsize effect on the news that its users see.
Part of Stockys post echoed the companys initial statement: that Trending Topics has rigorous guidelines that do not permit the suppression of political perspectives nor prioritization of one viewpoint or one news outlet over another. They also do not prohibit any news outlet from appearing in Trending Topics, the company has said.
Also Read: Facebook Q1 Beats Estimates on 87 Percent Surge in Adjusted Earnings
But he also gave more detail about how Facebook says its Trending Topics section operates.
Stocky said popular topics are surfaced by an algorithm, then are audited by reviewers to confirm that the topics are in fact trending news in the real world and not, for example, similar-sounding topics or misnomers. Those reviewers must accept topics that reflect real world events and are told to disregard junk or duplicate topics, hoaxes, or subjects with insufficient sources.
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Theyre also allowed to make topics more coherent, by combining related topics, giving the example of #starwars and #maythefourthbewithyou.
Also Read: Bernie Sanders Facebook Pages Shut Down After Porn Cyber Attack
He said Facebook doesnt allow or advise reviewers to systematically discriminate against sources of any ideological origin, and he said they instructed that they cant insert stories artificially into trending topics.
Facebook investigated claims that it also artificially lifted progressive-leaning topic #BlackLivesMatter as trending, Stocky said, and found the charge to be untrue.
Also Read: 6 Craziest Bets Facebook Is Making for the Next Decade (Photos)
Earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly scolded employees to stop defacing Black Lives Matter messages at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters.
See Stockys full post below.
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U.S. Stocks are set to rally at the open. Oil is also looking sharply higher. The moves to the upside started in Europe and Japan turned around after the government warned it could intervene against a sharp rise in the Yen. Facebook is under fire this morning for alleged bias. The website Gizmodo quoted anonymous former Facebook employees who said it's team in charge of 'trending topics' list had intentionally suppressed articles from conservative news sources. Facebook has strongly denied this. SolarCity shares are plunging. Shares of the solar provider are now down 60% from their 52 week high. The solar company says panel installations won't meet forecasts. It cites a pullback in a key solar support policy in Nevada. The small business optimism index for April was reported this morning and showed a rise after 3 straight months of lower sentiment. March Wholesale Inventories are released. The U.S. International Trade Commission issues its decision on a patent-infringement case involving Converse, Skechers and New Balance.
A Facebook executive said late Monday that his team has found no evidence of conservative media outlets being purposefully blocked from a section that collects popular news stories on the site. The response comes after a report by technology news site Gizmodo suggested that some of the contractors who run that section, called Trending Topics, let their political biases guide their selections.
Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum, wrote Tom Stocky, Facebooks vice president of search. There are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality. These guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspectives. Nor do they permit the prioritization of one viewpoint over another or one news outlet over another. These guidelines do not prohibit any news outlet from appearing in Trending Topics.
Facebooks Trending section shows a list of news stories that are being widely shared on the platform, with some degree of personalization for each user. Stories that appear there can be rewarded with bountiful attention thanks to Facebooks vast reach.
Many users believed the section to be largely powered by an algorithm that surfaced widely-shared stories, while human workers added a readable headline and description. However, Gizmodos reporting, based on anonymous sources, suggested that the workers on the Trending team have more of a central role in the story selection process.
Read more: Its time Facebook came clean about how it picks what you read
The revelations put Facebook in the hot seat as it continues to grow its influence in the media sphere. More than 1 billion people use Facebook daily and online publishers increasingly rely on it as a source of web traffic, which gives the social network potentially massive sway over the larger online conversation. Indeed, several top Republicans, like Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus, held up Gizmodos story as evidence of what they perceive to be the companys political leanings. (CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently took a thinly veiled shot at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, now the presumptive nominee. However, Zuckerberg also has close ties to New Jerseys Republican governor, Chris Christie, now a central figure in Trumps campaign.)
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For its part, Facebooks argument seems to be that it avoids web articles from sites it views as having a political bent one way or the other, preferring instead what might be characterized as mainstream outlets. That would mean Facebooks team skips articles from sites like Breitbart or RedState, but it would similarly pass up stories from left-leaning domains, like The Daily Kos.
Here is Stockys post in full:
Lyle Denniston, the National Constitution Centers constitutional literacy expert, looks at the statutory path in the debate over transgender equality, which seems headed on a long-term road to the Supreme Court.
Men and women toilet signs.
THE STATEMENTS AT ISSUE:
The Department of Justice has for some time now made clear that sex discrimination includes discrimination against transgender people that is, discrimination based on gender identity. That is consistent not only with the language of the statutes, but also with the legal interpretations adopted by federal courts including the appellate court with jurisdiction over the state of North Carolina. There is nothing radical or even particularly unusual about the notion that the word sex includes the concept of gender.
Excerpts from remarks on Monday by Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division, as she announced the filing of a federal government lawsuit against state officials and agencies in North Carolina, seeking to block enforcement of the states HB 2 law regulating access to toilet and changing rooms for public employees and students. The lawsuit was filed in Winston-Salem.
The Justice Departments position is a baseless and blatant overreach. This is an attempt to unilaterally rewrite long-established federal civil rights laws in a manner that is wholly inconsistent with the intent of Congress and disregards decades of statutory interpretation by the courts. The overwhelming weight of legal authority recognizes that transgender status is not a protected class under [federal job rights law].
Excerpt from the text of a lawsuit that the governor and the state public safety director of North Carolina filed on Monday against the federal government and Justice Department officials, seeking a federal court ruling to make it definite and clear that existing federal civil rights protection does not apply to transgender people. The lawsuit was filed in Elizabeth City, N.C.
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THE CURRENT STATE OF THE LAW ON THIS POINT IS.
The mandate that government should treat the sexes equally, especially in access to public benefits, can be traced to constitutional law and theory, and also to federal civil rights laws. But neither development has run its course yet, so it is an exaggeration to say that there is unanimity, in the courts or elsewhere, on when ones sex, or gender, can be used to discriminate.
The constitutional origins of sex-based equality certainly go back at least to the 19th Amendment, in 1920, extending voting rights to women. However, equality did not become a broader civil rights requirement until a pioneering though factually narrow Supreme Court decision in 1971, giving women the equal right to handle a relatives estate.
That decision, in the case of Reed v. Reed, was the first to apply the Constitutions guarantee of the equal protection of the laws to achieve equality of the sexes as a general proposition.
In reality, because the proposed Equal Rights Amendment never was ratified, there is still not a full constitutional promise of equality of the sexes, because discrimination based on sex does not have to satisfy the toughest constitutional test, the way that race bias must.
Equality of the sexes has grown more rapidly, and more widely, through passage of laws by Congress. It is out of those laws that has sprung but only in very recent years the idea that sex equality actually can also mean gender equality. And that development has produced the current controversy over protecting gender identity, for transgender people. It is much too early, though, to say that its dimensions in federal civil rights law are clear or well established.
To digress for a moment: what is the difference between sex equality (the kind specifically promised in federal civil rights laws) and gender equality (not specifically mentioned in those laws)? The former basically depends upon biological characteristics, distinctly separating male from female. The latter depends upon an individuals own internal sense, not gender at birth, of being male or female. Is the word sex in the federal anti-bias laws confined only to the former?
At this point, if transgender rights are to exist or to expand, they almost certainly will do so primarily through interpretations of federal civil rights laws, not through interpretations of equality guarantees in the Constitution. No court has yet ruled that transgender equality is in any way promised by the nations basic charter. And, with proponents of transgender rights having available at least an argument that the existing laws banning discrimination based on sex do, or should, protect transgender people, courts will largely steer themselves away from constitutional judgments.
There are three federal civil rights laws now figuring in the transgender rights movement. The federal government brought all three of those to bear on Monday when it sued state officials and agencies in North Carolina, to stop enforcement of a law that strictly limits the toilet and changing room facilities that transgender people may use in that state. The law, HB 2, mainly requires a transgender person to use a gender-designated facility for one born male or female, not based on an individuals actual gender identity.
The three laws are Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans workplace bias based upon sex, and two laws that ban sex bias in programs funded with federal tax dollars: Title IX of a federal educational benefits law passed in 1972, and a 2013 provision of the Violence Against Women Act. Individually, and taken together, those laws according to Justice Department officials definitely ban discrimination based on a transgender persons gender identity. (The law that has been applied most expansively in that way is Title VII, primarily because of the energetic use of that law for the past four years by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in job bias cases.)
Hours before the federal lawsuit relying upon those laws was filed in one city in North Carolina, the governor and another top state official sued the federal government in another city.
For months, federal Justice Department officials have been arguing that there is a strong trend now running in federal court decisions in favor of transgender rights under those statutes, and that court rulings against those rights are now quite dated.
The state officials lawsuit argued that the federal government is seeking a radical expansion of civil rights law, without any change in the law by Congress. That lawsuit is aimed at getting a clear-cut ruling that only Congress has the authority to confer legal rights on transgender people, at the federal level.
Those lawsuits will go forward independently, at least for the time being, as will another challenge to HB 2 that was filed in federal court in March. It may take some time, but the deep controversy over transgender equality no doubt will work its way up to the Supreme Court, from North Carolina or elsewhere. This is one of the hottest topics of the day on civil rights.
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Joint ventures, associates posted fair value losses.
Hit by fair value losses of joint ventures and associates in 2QFY16, Frasers Centrepoint Limiteds (FCL) attributable profit for the second quarter of FY16 sank 32.7% YoY to $123m.
According to the companys news release, revenue skyrocketed 103% YoY to $898m in Q2. This is thanks to maiden profit recognition from the completion of the Twin Fountains executive condominium project in Singapore.
Earnings from the completion and settlement of the Riverside Quarter Block 5C residential project as well as the new income stream from the Malmaison Hotel du Vin group in the UK also boosted revenue.
On the flip side, these gains were mitigated by weak contributions from FCLs development portfolio in China and Australia, as well as the absence of an exceptional profit from the sale of Crosspoint Mall in Beijing in 2QFY15.
Profit before interest and tax (PBIT) for FCLs development properties segment grew by $41m YoY to $119m during the quarter. Commercial segments PBIT, however, tumbled 7% to $70m. FCLs hospitality segment also posted a decline in PBIT, tumbling 19% to $22m on back of forex movements impacting Australia and China contributions.
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Washington (AFP) - An African American officer took the helm of the police department in Ferguson, Missouri, less than two years after police there killed unarmed black teen Michael Brown.
Brown's 2014 death sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests, and ignited a national debate about race relations and law enforcement in the United States.
Ferguson was required to reform its police department and courts after federal investigators found a widespread pattern of racial discrimination and multiple violations of citizens' constitutional rights in the St Louis, Missouri suburb.
Delrish Moss, a veteran of the Miami police seen as an expert in community policing, was brought in to try to restore the community's confidence in the authorities.
Moss, 51, pledged to bring more diversity to the department, which is majority white in a city where two thirds of residents are African American.
Prior to its reforms, a federal investigation found that police officers in the city of 21,000 "routinely" pulled over motorists without reasonable suspicion, carried out arrests without probable cause and used "unreasonable force."
Brown's killing was among a series that tragically highlighted problems with US police tactics and black men. These were among the lingering problems that helped spur on the Black Lives Matter activist movement against law enforcement violence seen as racist.
Jimmy Kimmel just cant get a break in Hollywood.
First hes stalked by Matt Damon, and now Ryan Gosling and Will Ferrell have interrupted his monologue for the second time to host their QVC show Knife Guys.
The actors burst onto Monday nights Jimmy Kimmel Live! as he was introducing Animal Planets Dave Salmoni and his latest furry friend. But just as the animal whisperer was describing the cuddly creatures climbing all over him, Ferrell popped up on screen in overalls and a work belt.
Also Read: Alzheimer's Association Blasts 'Offensive' Reagan Dementia Comedy
Youre screwing up my QVC knife show again, he accused Kimmel, as they argued over the TV spot. My show features state of the steel at rock bottom prices, he boasted.
The Old School star then welcomed his Beef (or did he mean beefy) Assistant, Gosling, carrying a tray of knives and armed with plenty of anger aimed at Jimmy.
Youve got a lot off nerve, Kimmel, these knives can kill people, and I am just the man to do it, he threatened.
Also Read: Will Ferrell Drops Out of Ronald Reagan Alzheimer's Comedy
But rather than spilling blood, Ferrell suggested getting him to splash out some cash on the Trump Knife. Wow, that knife is yuge, Gosling gushed.
And no, Mr. Trump doesnt know about this, because he is super busy making America great again, Ferrell added.
Also Read: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg to Star in 'Daddy's Home 2'
See their full sales pitch in the video above, which may or may not include cutting Goslings throat open.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs at 11:35 p.m. on ABC.
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(Jimmy Kimmel Live/ ABC)
Who knew knives werent living up to their potential? Will Ferrell and Ryan Gosling, thats who.
The actors, who dubbed themselves The Knife Guys, interrupted host Jimmy Kimmels monologue during Monday nights Jimmy Kimmel Live to sell Donald Trump-branded knives.
Everyone whos anyone knows that the best steaks in the world are, of course, Trump Steaks! Ferrell said, starting his pitch. But you cant cut something classy with something trashy.
He then pulled out the Trump knives, which, by the way, were gold, and both actors put on caps with the logo Make knives great again.
Thats a great knife, Gosling said. And I know, because I know all the great knives.
Yes it is, Ryan, and sharp, like the man himself, Ferrell responded.
Both actors were very on edge, seemingly able to lose it at a moments notice. So it got a little scary when Kimmel asked them whether Trump knew they were selling the knives.
No, Mr. Trump doesnt know about this, because hes super busy making America great again, Ferrell said, then turning to Gosling. My God, he doesnt understand, though.
Just shut up, Jimmy! Gosling responded in a high-pitched scream.
The two returned to their pitch and pulled out a golden Trump Steak. Ferrell struggled to cut a piece, then held it up to Gosling. The Notebook actor seemed reluctant to put the strangely golden piece of steak into his mouth, but he did it anyway. But something was not right.
Hes choking, Kimmel told Ferrell.
Duh, Jimmy, hes choking, Ferrell said. Thankfully, choking is a breeze with Trump knives. "OK, Ryan, Im going to cut a small but very deep hole in your trachea. Dont worry: I saw this on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
To Goslings relief, Kimmel grabbed the actor and performed the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge the piece of meat.
But Kimmel didnt get the response he wanted.
Thanks for ruining our whole thing, jerk, Gosling said.
Watch the hilarious sketch below:
NOW WATCH: Jon Stewart broke his silence to call out 'man-baby Trump and the medias 'corrupt investment in his rise
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Cannes (France) (AFP) - Cannes began rolling out the red carpet Tuesday as stars including Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively swept into town for the world's top film festival whose dazzle is being tested by stiff security measures.
On foot, horseback and motorbikes, police patrolled the Croisette, a strip of beach lined with ultra-luxury stores and headed by the Palais des Festivals, the main venue for the cinema extravaganza which gets under way on Wednesday night.
A small army of workers carefully unrolled strips of the 60-metre red carpet that will host stars such as Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Kirsten Dunst, Charlize Theron and George Clooney over the 12-day festival.
The first of the big Hollywood films, Foster's drama about a Wall Street tipster "Money Monster" starring Clooney and Roberts screens Thursday. And Steven Spielberg will roll out his blockbuster version of Roald Dahl's "The BFG" at the weekend, although neither are competing for the main Palme d'Or prize.
But already some of the main competition films are stirring controversy, with Juliette Binoche starring in a period horror "Slack Bay" about Victorian tourists eaten by the locals in northern France.
- Cannibalism -
Another, "The Neon Demon", also features cannibalism, this time among supermodels in Los Angeles according to the film's Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, who is notorious for depicting extreme violence.
The population of Cannes is set to nearly triple to some 200,000 people as film producers, industry workers and actors roll in to soak up the glamour, sell films, network and party.
The festival has also created a security headache worthy of a movie script for French authorities six months after a series of attacks left 130 people dead in Paris.
"We must keep in mind as we prepare to open this festival, that we are... faced with an enemy determined to strike us at any moment," Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on a visit to Cannes Monday.
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As a result an "extraordinary mobilisation" of security forces has been put in place, with 400 private security agents guarding the Palais des Festivals alone, where the main films are shown.
Cazeneuve said bomb experts would carry out daily sweeps of the venue.
Hundreds more police officers and specialist units will be on duty in the city, whose lure for the rich and famous makes it equally attractive to jewellery thieves -- with several multi-million dollar heists in recent years.
Cannes has 500 CCTV cameras, making it the most closely monitored town in France, said mayor David Lisnard.
- Balancing fun and security -
He dismissed concerns that the tight security will throw a wet blanket over the parties, glitter and glamour of the event.
"Do you think an attack brings merriment? We have succeeded in preserving the festival atmosphere. The public will be at the foot of the (red-carpeted) steps. All the parties will be authorised but security must be taken care of," he told AFP.
Last month elite police forces staged a simulated terror attack at the Palais des Festivals.
Air and sea exclusion zones have also been declared, as well as a ban on drones, and Lisnard has said random searches will be conducted in the streets of Cannes.
Hollywood stars Blake Lively and Kristen Stewart were snapped arriving in town, according to Vogue magazine's Twitter feed.
The pair star in Woody Allen's "Cafe Society" which will open the event on Wednesday on what is forecast to be a rain-drenched evening.
The movie, about a young couple who fall in love in 1930s Hollywood, is being screened out of competition.
Nearly 90 feature films will be shown in this year's official selection, 21 of which are in the running for the Palme d'Or.
But hundreds more are showing in the film market and in the Director's Fortnight and Critics' Week sections.
With the clock ticking down, hectic last-minute preparations were still going on, with cranes lining the Croisette.
In Cannes port, crew members scrubbed the sleek yachts where many of the festival's parties take place.
Several billionaires have parked their superyachts along the Riviera for the festival: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's "Octopus" was in Nice and Spielberg's "Seven Seas" in Antibes, according to Forbes.com.
FireEye Posts Fiscal 1Q16 Results: Why Did the Stock Fall 19%?
FireEye failed to meet analysts expectations
As scheduled, FireEye (FEYE) reported its fiscal 1Q16 earnings on May 5, 2016. It reported revenues of $168 million and non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) loss per share of $0.47. Like fiscal 4Q15, revenues failed to meet analysts expectations. Analysts expected FireEye to report revenues of $171.8 million in fiscal 1Q16. The companys loss per share beat analysts expectations by $0.03.
FireEyes revenues and billings continue to post double-digit growth
On a YoY (year-over-year) basis, FireEyes 1Q16 revenues increased ~34%, as you can see in the above graph. Billings increased only 23% to $186 million. When billings grow less than revenues, its viewed as an indication of slowing demand.
Comparing this to peers in the cybersecurity space, Fortinets (FTNT) billings increased 30% in fiscal 1Q16. Palo Alto Networks (PANW) reported billings growth of 62% on a YoY (year-over-year) basis in fiscal 2Q16. Palo Alto Networks growing prominence can be gauged from the threat it poses to Cisco (CSCO), which is considered a leader in the overall security appliance market, as reported by IDC (International Data Corporation).
Investors who want to gain exposure to FireEye can consider investing in the iShares US Technology ETF (IYW). IYW invests ~49% of its holdings in the application software space. It invests ~0.06% of its holdings in FireEye.
In the next part of our series, well take a look at FireEyes new CEO (chief executive officer), Kevin Mandia.
Continue to Next Part
Browse this series on Market Realist:
High Rise may only just have been released in the U.S., but the first glimpse of Ben Wheatley's next project, Free Fire, is already out and looking criminally good.
The first-look image from the muscular thriller - the director's first to be set in the U.S., and executive produced by Martin Scorsese - sees Cillian Murphy, Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, Michael Smiley, Sam Riley and Enzo Cilenti look exceedingly shady as they prepare for an arms trade in 1978 Chicago.
Jack Reynor and Sharlto Copley also star in the film, which follows the explosive fallout from the deal in a deserted warehouse.
The fast-rising Wheatley, who wrote the film alongside his partner Amy Jump, said that the idea came from his "love of hard-boiled crime movies, from The Asphalt Jungle, The Big Sleep, The Killing and The Big Combo through to The Driver, Le Samourai and The French Connection, to the modern cycle of Goodfellas, Casino, Hard Boiled and Reservoir Dogs."
A24 has U.S. rights to the film, which is backed by Film4. Protagonist is selling internationally.
Read more: First Look: Paddy Considine Channels Rocky Balboa in 'Journeyman'
(The following statement was released by the rating agency) HONG KONG/LONDON, May 10 (Fitch) 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) missed bond coupon payment in April highlights ongoing uncertainty around the finances and governance of the state-owned fund. The situation is unlikely to lead to an immediate crystallisation of the existing guarantee obligations of the Malaysian sovereign for 1MDB securities affected by cross-defaults, Fitch Ratings says. The risk to the sovereign credit profile lies more in the potential for the affair to weaken policy focus or contribute to political instability. However, there is little sign of these risks materialising as yet. On 25 April Malaysian state-owned investment company 1MDB missed a USD50m coupon payment on a 5.75% bond due in 2022 as part of its dispute with International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC), Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund. IPIC had guaranteed the bonds under a debt-for-asset swap agreement made in 2015. IPIC subsequently made the payment. The affected bonds are not explicitly guaranteed by the Malaysian sovereign. However, the default on the 2022 bond triggered a cross-default on a 1MDB MYR5bn (USD1.2bn) sukuk due in 2039 that benefits from an explicit sovereign guarantee. Payment under the guarantee would only be required if bondholders vote to require acceleration under the cross-default clause. We believe that there is unlikely to be a majority among bondholders for acceleration. The only other 1MDB debt benefiting from an explicit sovereign guarantee is a MYR800m loan from the country's social security organisation (SOCSO). The default on the 2022 bond does not trigger a cross-default on this loan. The lender could require acceleration under a "material adverse developments" clause, but we believe that this is unlikely. We have long viewed 1MDB as a close contingent liability of the sovereign, given its strong links with the state, including Prime Minister Najib Razak's role as chairman of its advisory board (which is being dissolved as the fund is wound down). At MYR5.8bn, 1MDB's sovereign guaranteed debt amounts to roughly 0.5% of forecast 2016 GDP. Total debt currently disclosed by 1MDB is close to MYR33bn, or nearly 2.7% of forecast 2016 GDP. Federal debt was 54.5% of GDP at end-2015, so the assumption of the guaranteed debt would risk breaching Malaysia's statutory 55% ceiling, a risk that would increase if additional, unguaranteed debt were assumed. A breach would probably not in itself trigger a negative sovereign rating action (as we said when we affirmed Malaysia at 'A-'/Stable in February), assuming the sums involved were around our estimates. The 'A' category median debt:GDP ratio is 52%. However, the ceiling has helped provide fiscal discipline. The potential rating impact would depend on whether breaching it led to a sustained deterioration in fiscal discipline and public finances and a sharper than anticipated rise in debt ratios, as noted in our rating sensitivities. Other points to monitor will be any effect on government policy-making and effectiveness, and on investor confidence. The 1MDB affair has not had a discernible impact on policy-making, as the government has maintained fiscal consolidation and budget reforms. However, if its ability to implement economic policy weakened, this could be negative for the sovereign rating. So too could a broader deterioration in political stability, or in governance (already a credit weakness for Malaysia) that damaged the credibility of policy-making institutions. The ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN), secured a majority in the Sarawak state assembly elections held recently, suggesting that the spillover from the 1MDB affair on politics remains contained so far. Market reaction has been relatively modest, but a large or sudden pullback by international investors could create risks to economic performance or financial market stability, given the large non-resident holdings of government securities. Contact: Sagarika Chandra Associate Director Sovereigns +852 2263 9921 Fitch (Hong Kong) Limited 19/F Man Yee Building 68 Des Voeux Road Central Hong Kong Andrew Colquhoun Senior Director Sovereigns +852 2263 9938 Mark Brown Senior Director Fitch Wire +44 20 3530 1588 Media Relations: Leslie Tan, Singapore, Tel: +65 67 96 7234, Email: leslie.tan@fitchratings.com; Wai-Lun Wan, Hong Kong, Tel: +852 2263 9935, Email: wailun.wan@fitchratings.com. The above article originally appeared as a post on the Fitch Wire credit market commentary page. The original article can be accessed at www.fitchratings.com. All opinions expressed are those of Fitch Ratings. Related Research Asia-Pacific Sovereign Overview 1Q16 https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=879878 Malaysia https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=877969 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 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.
Tough-talking Rodrigo Duterte owed his stunning victory in the Philippine presidential election to five key factors, according to analysts interviewed by AFP on Tuesday:
- Strongman -
Many Filipinos were clamouring for a strong ruler to start fixing a wide range of deep-rooted problems. With cuss-filled vows to kill criminals and challenge the elite's grip on the economy, Duterte shrewdly portrayed himself as their saviour.
- Populism -
In another counter to the elite that have long ruled the economy, Duterte offered himself as a man of the people who was equally enraged by the problems and injustices faced by the masses.
A charismatic politician, his boasts of womanising and constant swearing infuriated critics but added to his anti-establishment credentials. A natural storyteller, he captivated his audience with tales about their troubles while his jokes made them laugh.
- Law and order -
Successfully reading the mood of the electorate, Duterte made restoring law and order the central plank of his campaign platform. Duterte promised to end crime within the first six months of his presidency.
His vows to kill tens of thousands of criminals were embraced by voters who felt extreme measures were needed to tame rampant crime and corruption.
- The anti-Aquino -
President Benigno Aquino had overseen six years of high economic growth. But many voters felt they had not experienced the benefits and blamed Aquino's style of leadership that his critics perceived as weak and cumbersome. Duterte promised to be the opposite.
- Divided rivals -
In the Philippines, a presidential election is decided simply by whomever gets the most votes. Duterte was expected to finish with about 39 percent of the total. His two main rivals, administration pick Mar Roxas and independent candidate Grace Poe, were to secure a combined 45 percent. President Benigno Aquino tried to get Roxas and Poe to combine forces before the election as a president and vice-president tandem. Poe refused. If they had not split the vote, one of them may have won.
North Korea has wrapped up its first ruling party congress in nearly four decades.
Here are five things we learned from the four-day gathering of the isolated, nuclear-armed state's top decision-making body.
THE PARTY'S BACK
The congress sealed the political comeback of the Workers' Party of Korea which had been forced to cede decision-making influence to the military during the rule of late leader Kim Jong-Il from 1994-2011.
Kim's "songun," or military-first policy shifted the power the party had enjoyed during the rule of his father Kim Il-Sung to the generals. He never convened a single party congress during his 17 years in charge.
Since current leader Kim Jong-Un took over following his father's death in 2011, the party has regained lost ground, as he replaced scores of powerful military commanders and forged alliances with influential party officials.
The congress reasserted the party leadership as the top decision-making body, its supremacy supported by the election of Kim Jong-Un as party chairman.
NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAMME IN HIGH GEAR
Just in case anyone still had the slightest doubt, the congress underlined that North Korea intends to push full steam ahead with its nuclear weapons programme in defiance of UN sanctions and near universal condemnation.
Kim Jong-Un praised the "magnificent and exhilarating sound" of the North's last nuclear test in January, and delegates adopted Kim's report calling for an improved and expanded nuclear arsenal.
Kim's promises to pursue a policy of non-proliferation -- North Korea withdrew from the global Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2003 -- and to push for global denuclearisation were largely dismissed as token nods to his insistence that North Korea was a "responsible" nuclear weapons state.
While the congress was a comeback for the party, Kim went to great lengths to stress the prime role of the nuclear-armed military in guaranteeing the country's survival.
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TITLES MATTER
If being supreme leader of a one-party state wasn't enough, Kim Jong-Un was formally elected to the position of Workers' Party chairman by the congress delegates.
The post adds to Kim's already impressive list of high-ranking titles, including chairman of the central military commission, chairman of the national defence commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army.
But titles are important in North Korea and the party chairmanship carries a strong symbolic resonance as it was last held by Kim's grandfather, the country's revered founder leader Kim Il-Sung.
Kim Jong-Un has played up his physical likeness to his grandfather, and the post of chairman suggests he wants to rule like him as well.
MAN WITH A PLAN
Kim Jong-Un unveiled a five-year economic plan, the first such document for decades.
Few details of the plan were provided, beyond a general ambition to boost output and efficiency across every key economic sector.
But the fact that it was presented by Kim was seen as significant, with the young leader assuming personal responsibility for an economy that had been driven into the ground by his father.
In his very first public address, at a military parade in April 2012, Kim had said he was determined that North Koreans would "never have to tighten their belts again".
The need to raise living standards has been a constant refrain of his annual New Year addresses, although analysts note that, so far, they have been largely devoid of any specific policy initiatives.
FOREIGN MEDIA CONTROL
North Korea tightly controls reporting in the country and is second from last (after Eritrea) on the World Press Freedom Index.
Around 130 foreign reporters were invited to cover the congress, but were only given access to the actual event on the very last day -- for five minutes.
For the rest of the time they were carefully martialed by groups of minders, with all movement outside their island hotel subject to tight restrictions.
A BBC journalist whose reports were deemed disrespectful was detained and eventually expelled from the country after being questioned for eight hours and forced to sign a statement apologising for coverage that officials described as "speaking very ill of the system and the leadership of the country."
By Barbara Liston
ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - A man accidentally shot himself in the arm while cleaning his gun but did not notice until two days later, according to Florida police.
Michael Blevins, 37, of Deltona, said he did not feel pain from the bullet, which pierced skin and muscle before exiting his body, according to an incident report from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
He also told a deputy that he did not notice the bleeding until he replaced a black shirt he was wearing with a brown one, and the wound created a stain.
Blevins did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
A woman who answered a telephone believed to be at Blevins' residence, but would only identify herself as Lila, described him as a disabled worker and said she was his emergency contact.
The shooting happened on Thursday in Blevins' living room as he cleaned a revolver and loaded the cylinder while resting the gun on his chest so his dog would not jump on it, according to the police report.
Blevins told a deputy his back suddenly gave out due to an old injury and he fell, striking his forehead on a table and accidentally firing the gun, the report said.
According to the report, Blevins said the blow to his head, coupled with pain medication he takes for the back injury, likely distracted him from feeling the gunshot.
Blevins took himself to Florida Hospital Fish Memorial on Saturday where staff reported the incident to the sheriff. The case was closed without charges as an accidental shooting.
(Reporting by Barbara Liston; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Protesters assembled outside the French National Assembly on Tuesday evening, May 10, after the French cabinet gave the green light to imposing a controversial labor reform. Tuesdays decision allows Prime Minister Manuel Valls to bypass parliament and push through reform by decree despite widespread protests.
According to France 24, Valls invoked the rarely used clause in the French Constitution, Article 49-3, for the second time in two years that allows reform by decree.
The Nuit Debout movement that has been staging repeated protests against the bill called for nationwide demonstrations on Tuesday evening. Credit: Twitter/@christianpdg
By Justin Madden CHICAGO (Reuters) - Mel Reynolds, a former U.S. congressman from Illinois who has had numerous legal troubles, wants to plead guilty to federal income tax charges, he told a judge in a handwritten letter made public on Tuesday. "I request to come to court at the earliest time possible to enter my plea of guilty," he wrote on notebook paper to U.S. District Judge John Darrah. The letter was written last week and entered in the court's on-line filings on Tuesday. Reynolds, 64, is being held at a detention center in Kankakee, Illinois. He said he has no choice but to plead guilty because he has been unable to prepare for his case because he has been in solitary confinement due to death threats. Reynolds is representing himself after firing his lawyer in April. His next court date is a status hearing scheduled for May 19, and his trial is scheduled to begin June 20. Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, declined to comment on the court filing. Reynolds was arrested by U.S. marshals last month at an Atlanta airport for violating the conditions of his pretrial release after he arrived from South Africa. Reynolds pleaded not guilty in July to misdemeanor charges of failing to file income tax returns for 2009 through 2012. He was indicted in June and faces up to a year in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the four counts against him. A Rhodes scholar and one-time promising star of the Democratic Party, Reynolds was first elected to Congress in 1992. In August of 1994, he was indicted for having a relationship with a 16-year-old campaign worker but was re-elected in 1994 in his Chicago district without opposition. The case ended with a conviction on sexual assault and child pornography charges in 1995 and Reynolds resigned. Before his scheduled release from prison in 1997, Reynolds was convicted of bank fraud and misusing campaign funds for personal use and sentenced to serve additional time. He was released in 2001. Reynolds tried politics again but in 2013 lost a bid for the U.S. House of Representatives seat of Jesse Jackson Jr., who had resigned before pleading guilty to fraud charges. (Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Dan Grebler)
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump election 2016 illustration
Hillary Clinton is starting off the general election with a healthy lead over Donald Trump, according to a new poll released by the Harvard University Center for American Political Studies and the National Research Group.
The survey found that Clinton held a 6-point lead over Trump nationwide and a 4-point lead in swing states.
But Mark Penn, one of the pollsters involved in the survey who also served as Clinton's chief strategist during the 2008 presidential campaign, said the results showed she will have to overcome brutal attacks from the mogul with a message that brings together an anti-Trump coalition.
"She's got a significant lead, but the country is divided," Penn, a longtime aide to both Hillary and former President Bill Clinton, told Business Insider.
He added that Clinton should be reaching across the a "divided" Republican Party while batting aside Trump's onslaught of attacks.
Clinton has spent the first week since Trump assumed the position of the Republican Party's presumptive nominee deflecting attacks from Trump that have largely been aimed at her husband's past infidelities. Trump has repeatedly referred to Hillary Clinton as a "total enabler."
Clinton has also made a point of taking advantage of the Republican infighting over Trump as the party's presidential candidate.
Her campaign has pushed out emails to reporters almost every time a prominent Republican has distanced himself or herself from Trump. The campaign also cut a video quoting Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio Trump's former presidential rivals saying negative things about the business mogul.
Hillary Clinton
But the poll found that Trump and Clinton are viewed unfavorably by a similar number of voters. The bombastic real-estate magnate's unfavorability rating stood at 60%, while the former secretary of state lagged just behind at 52%.
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"I think on the one hand the poll suggests you have to worry about those attacks [on Clinton] catching traction," Penn said. "But on the other hand ... if she can begin to generate more enthusiasm to a broader group than the primary, it shows that she goes into this with a significant edge."
A part of that coalition-building will have to include supporters of Bernie Sanders, a Vermont senator who remains locked in an increasingly divisive primary battle with Clinton. The poll, which was conducted at the end of March, found that just 64% of Sanders supporters would vote for Clinton in the general election.
"Yeah, I mean, I would think that's a little low," Penn said. "It shows again the work she's got to do to bring everyone together. I think she'd want to see that more in the 85% range."
Whether Clinton will be able to hit that 85% mark will depend on a number of factors, Penn said including how Sanders handles the remainder of the race and if he "comes around and endorses her and urges his supporters."
"I think, given when Sanders concedes the race and pulls out, the Democratic Party will have find it much easier to consolidate," Penn said.
Donald Trump
A factor playing into Clinton's hand, the poll found, is that she's much more trusted than Trump on the top issue: The economy and jobs. Clinton held a 47% to 32% edge for voters who care most about the economy. And that was also before Trump made a series of mishaps while discussing the national debt and economic policy in recent interviews.
"She can champion that issue in the face of interviews by Trump that, by themselves would cause huge headaches and gyrations in the financial marketplace community," Penn said. "I think this is off to a good start that way, and I do think that that's absolutely critical for her."
Between his comments on the economy and the infighting within his own party, Trump has only helped Clinton since he became the presumptive nominee last week, Penn said.
"Usually, becoming the presumptive nominee would give people a lift," he said. "In this case, I'm not so sure he's had a single good day since he's become the presumptive nominee. I think he might have been better off while he was in the [primary] fight."
NOW WATCH: FORMER GREEK FINANCE MINISTER: Why Hillary Clinton is a 'dangerous person'
More From Business Insider
By Brian Love PARIS (Reuters) - Five years after the sex scandal that forced IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn to resign, hundreds of female French politicians on Tuesday denounced sexual harassment in the corridors of power and a Mafia-style code of silence that lets it go unpunished. Their petition published on the front page of left-wing newspaper Liberation came a day after the surfacing of another sex scandal, which triggered the resignation of the vice-president of France's lower house of parliament, Denis Baupin. The French have long been indulgent of their leaders' infidelities and the media has largely avoided raking over the private lives of politicians. While the Strauss-Kahn scandal in 2011 unleashed a soul-searching debate within France about sexual abuse that goes undeclared or undetected in the upper echelons of power, the petition in Liberation said too many women still remained silent for fear of damaging their career or political party. Signed by 500 politicians, mostly women but many men too, the petition condemned what it called an Omerta, or a Mafia-like code of silence on unwelcome sexual advances, from harassment to acts of outright aggression. "End the Omerta" was the slogan adopted by the group behind Tuesday's appeal, which stated: "It's time to speak out, to bring this impunity to an end, time for men to change their behavior rather than for women to adapt to it." The petition appeared hours before the public prosecutor's office said it was opening an inquiry after several women went public on Monday with accusations of harassment against Baupin. Baupin denies wrongdoing. On Monday he quit his post as vice-president of France's National Assembly and said he would pursue his accusers for defamation. His wife, Housing Minister Emmanuelle Cosse whom he married last year, said in a radio interview on Tuesday that she had known nothing about the matter until this week and it was now for the justice system to tackle. In 2011 Strauss-Kahn was the runaway favorite to become France's next president, but he was forced to resign from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund and abandon his political ambitions after his arrest on sex crime accusations. The sex assault charges based on the accusations of hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo were ultimately dropped but the Frenchman later reached a financial settlement in civil proceedings. (Editing by Richard Lough)
PARIS (Reuters) - French Energy Minister Segolene Royal said on Tuesday she is investigating legal means to ban the import of shale gas from the United States because France has banned shale gas exploration using hydraulic fracking for environmental reasons.
Royal, answering a question in parliament, said contracts signed by French gas utility Engie and power utility EDF with a U.S. producer have led to the import of LNG which contained about 40 percent shale gas.
"I have asked the two companies why they weren't vigilant and I have also asked for an examination of a legal means for us to ban the import of shale gas," Royal said in parliament.
(Reporting by Bate Felix, editing by Geert De Clercq)
It will hold its Australian assets.
Property developer Frasers Centrepoint is planning to list a new real estate investment trust (REIT) in Singapore, which will hold a portfolio of its Australian logistics and industrial assets.
The company said that it has already made relevant applications to the various regulatory authorities, including the SGX-ST and Monetary Authority of Singapore, for the proposed IPO.
The listing is subject to market conditions, the requisite regulatory and other approvals being obtained and the execution of definitive agreements by the relevant parties.
The Company wishes to reiterate that no decision has been made as to whether the transaction will take place and there is currently no certainty that the Company will proceed with the Offering, Frasers Centrepoint said.
More From Singapore Business Review
Madrid (AFP) - One of three Spanish journalists released after nearly a year held hostage in Syria by an Al Qaeda-linked group said Tuesday he feared being sold to the Islamic State group, which regularly kills captives.
"You don't know what they want to do or how long it will last. If they are going to kill you, release you or sell you to another terrorist group," Angel Sastre said in an interview with online newspaper El Espanol.
"The simple idea that they could sell me to Daesh terrified me," he added, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Sastre, 35, was kidnapped along with two other Spanish freelance journalists on July 13, 2015 in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo by the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate.
The three experienced conflict zone reporters were flown to Madrid on Sunday on a Spanish defence ministry jet sent to Turkey to bring them back.
Sastre, 35, said he was allowed to watch the news by his hostage takers after his fourth month in captivity.
"With CNN or the BBC, we learned how the war was going on around us, because Syria was in the headlines almost every day. It was like living inside a bubble inside the conflict," he said.
"I will not return to Syria, at least not for the moment. It is impossible to work there now. Kidnapping is no longer a weapon of war, it is a profitable business," he added.
"You can't trust anyone and anyone may sell you. The translator, the driver, the fruit salesman... it is not safe to work there."
The Spanish government has not disclosed any information about how it won the men's freedom
The Islamic State group, Al-Nusra's rival, has executed many of its hostages.
In August 2014 it murdered US journalist James Foley, who was taken hostage in northern Syria in 2012.
The following month, the group killed fellow US journalist Steven Sotloff.
In 2015, militants from the group beheaded Japanese war correspondent Kenji Goto.
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in 2015 ranked Syria as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists along with Iraq.
It says 139 journalists died in Syria, where various armed factions have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's regime and each other since 2011.
(Adds CEO comments, details, background)
May 10 (Reuters) - Freeport-McMoRan Inc is in talks to sell more assets as it looks to cut its debt by half over the next two years, Chief Executive Richard Adkerson said on Tuesday.
His comments came in a day after the company agreed to sell its majority stake in the Tenke copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo to China Molybdenum Co Ltd for $2.65 billion in cash.
Adkerson said Freeport, which had $19.64 billion in long-term debt as of March 31, would consider selling a minority interest in a package of its other mining assets, but did not give more details.
"We are having a series of discussions about potential other transactions," Adkerson said at a conference hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, adding that Freeport was open to discussions on all of its assets.
He said the company received significant interest from different Chinese companies for the Tenke business.
"This is my baby. I didn't want to do this," Adkerson said.
"It's an asset that we took on to develop in early 2008, when other global miners were reluctant to do business in the country."
Separately, rig contractor Noble Corp Plc said Freeport's oil and gas unit terminated contracts for two of its drillships and that Freeport will pay $540 million to Noble.
Freeport shares were up 0.5 percent at $10.57, while Noble shares were up about 2.8 percent $9.51.
(Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver and Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru; Editing by W Simon and Anil D'Silva)
Paris (AFP) - France's Socialist government is to face a no-confidence vote on Thursday after it bypassed parliament and rammed through a labour reform bill that has sparked two months of massive street protests.
The team of embattled President Francois Hollande resorted to the controversial manoeuvre on Tuesday in the face of fierce opposition from within his own party that doomed the bill in parliament.
The reform, which makes it easier for employers to hire and fire workers, is likely the last major piece of legislation for Hollande, the least popular leader in modern French history who faces a re-election bid next year.
The tactic to legislate by decree has been used only once before under Hollande -- to force through another controversial economic reform governing trading hours and the deregulation of some sectors.
- 'Spectacle of division' -
"Pursuing the debate in parliament would pose the risk of... abandoning the compromise that we have built," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament as he formally announced the move.
He said the government wanted to avoid "a disheartening spectacle of division and political posturing because of an obstructionist minority".
Outside parliament, hundreds of people had gathered to protest the move, chanting "True democracy is here" and calling for Hollande's resignation.
Pressure from the street -- as well as parliament's back benches -- caused the government to water down the proposals, which only angered bosses while failing to assuage critics.
Bosses were notably unhappy with the withdrawal of a cap on the amount companies must pay for unfair dismissal, as well as the scrapping of a measure that would have allowed small- and medium-sized companies to unilaterally introduce flexible working hours.
Two right-wing opposition parties filed a no-confidence motion to be debated in the 575-seat parliament on Thursday, and between them they have 226 of the 288 votes that would be needed to topple the government.
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They have asked left-wing critics of the labour reform to back them -- something the minister for parliamentary relations, Jean-Marie Le Guen, said was "inconceivable".
Valls said he was "not afraid" of losing the vote, telling TFI television: "If there are deputies on the left who wish to vote for the right's censure motion they can do so."
He added: "But what a contradiction!"
Meanwhile the leader of around 30 dissenters among the ruling Socialists, Christian Paul, said he hoped to join forces with green MPs to muster the 58 deputies needed to introduce a separate no-confidence motion "of the left".
The government says the new labour reform will help cut stubbornly high unemployment of around 10 percent -- a pledge on which Hollande has staked his presidency.
The reforms would remove some of the obstacles to laying off workers, but its detractors fear it will erode the cast-iron job security enjoyed by French workers who are on full-time contracts.
Student organisations believe it will fail to create secure jobs for young people. Joblessness is nearer to 25 percent among the young, with many stuck in an endless cycle of short-term contracts and internships.
Whatever happens Thursday, the government's use of the heavy-handed constitutional manoeuvre to ram through the labour law will likely further lower Hollande's standing among left-wing voters.
The 61-year-old Hollande is facing a re-election bid next April with the lowest poll numbers of any recent president. His approval rating currently stands at 13 percent.
- 'Return to the 19th century' -
A new round of protests is set for Thursday to coincide with the no-confidence debate.
Street protests against the labour reform kicked off on March 9, culminating in massive demonstrations on March 31 that brought 390,000 people onto the streets, according to an official count, while organisers put the number at 1.2 million.
The protests spawned a new youth-led movement called "Nuit Debout" (Up All Night), which has seen advocates of a broad spectrum of causes gather in city squares at night to demand change.
Up All Night organisers said in a statement that Tuesday's manoeuvre was "an insult to the people of this country" and the reform was an "unprecedented setback for workers' rights in France, a return to the 19th century."
The reaction of the French media was also roundly critical, with editorials on the right and left calling the bypassing of parliament "a terrible admission of failure" and a sign of "weakness".
Paris (AFP) - French Prime Minister Manuel Valls will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories this month in a bid to relaunch the peace process following the worst flare-up of violence in the Gaza Strip for two years, his office said Tuesday.
His visit, from May 21-24, comes as France seeks to engineer a peace deal based on a two-state solution.
It will happen ahead of a May 30 meeting which France is organising for ministers from 20 countries to try and relaunch the Israel-Palestinian peace process.
That proposed meeting has been welcomed by the Palestinians, who have suspended a planned UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements to focus on the bid.
But Israel has consistently argued that peace can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the two sides, rather than international forums.
French Foreign Minister Marc Ayrault has said the aim of the meeting is to prepare an international summit in the second half of 2016, which would include the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
The trip to Israel will also be a chance for Valls to smooth over a row over a recent UNESCO resolution, backed by France, which spoke of "Occupied Palestine".
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attacked the "absurd" resolution which also condemned "Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims' access to their Holy Site Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif", failing to mention the site's Jewish name of the Temple Mount.
Valls will meet Netanyahu on May 23.
He will arrive in Israel the previous day and also plans to meet President Reuven Rivlin, former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres and opposition leader Isaac Herzog.
On May 24 he is scheduled to travel to Ramallah where he will hold talks with Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah.
Paris (AFP) - Seita, the French subsidiary of Britain's Imperial Tobacco and the maker of the iconic Gauloises and Gitanes cigarettes, said Tuesday it would appeal to France's top court against regulations imposing plain packaging.
The appeal to the Council of State, France's top administrative court, won't suspend the regulation from entering force on January 1.
"Our rights to use our brands, several of which were created more than 100 years ago in France, should be respected," Seita's director for global corporate affiars Axel Gietz said in a statement.
France published in March a decree introducing plain packages, the culmination of efforts launched by the government in 2014 to require tobacco firms to sell cigarettes in packages that contain neither logos nor distinctive colouring.
Seita said the decree suppresses four out of five distinctive elements of a brand under French intellectual property laws, thus depriving businesses owners of their rights under the French constitution.
Japan Tobacco International (JTI) said it had filed an appeal immediately after the publication of the decree in March.
In 2012, Australia became the first country to mandate plain packaging for cigarettes in a bid to reduce smoking rates, and tobacco companies have so far failed to overturn it using intellectual property arguments.
Tobacco firms also failed to have the matter accepted for international arbitration.
Meanwhile, the EU's top court last week ruled that the bloc's new laws on plain tobacco packaging and a ban on menthol cigarettes were legal.
Britain is set to begin introducing plain packaging later this month, although the country's High Court is expected to soon hand down a ruling on the measure which would have packages covered with health warnings.
Germaine de Randamie was offered a fight against Cris Cyborg at UFC 198, but turned down the match-up to compete on the UFC Fight Night Rotterdam card in her home country with her mother in attendance on Mother's Day.
She earned a Performance of the Night bonus for her first-round stoppage of Anna Elmose on Sunday. On the heels of that victory, de Randamie still doesn't want to shift her focus to Cyborg, she instead wants to make a run at the 135-pound title.
When asked if she would be interested in facing Cyborg during the Rotterdam post-fight press conference, de Randamie said it was a difficult question.
RELATED > UFC 198 Embedded, Episode 1: Cris Cyborg Returns Home as a UFC Fighter
I would love to fight anybody, and Cyborg, of course. I respect her, and its an absolute challenge for me to fight her. But right now my focus is to bring the belt one day to Holland, said the 32-year-old Dutch striker.
The Iron Lady is on a two-fight winning streak. Her only UFC loss is to title contender Amanda Nunes. While challenging fights are appealing, de Randamie has her sights set on UFC gold.
I want to make a run for the title, she said. I feel ready. I have a great team behind me. Lets do this. Im ready.
Cyborg makes her UFC debut on Saturday at UFC 198 against Leslie Smith in a catchweight fight at 140-pounds.
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Berlin (AFP) - A German court on Tuesday threw out a bid by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for an injunction against the boss of German media giant Axel Springer in a widening row over free speech.
Erdogan had sought a court order to stop the media group's chief Mathias Doepfner from repeating support for a TV satirist who crudely insulted the Turkish leader.
The legal action came after Doepfner published an open letter in one of the group's newspapers, in which he backed Jan Boehmermann -- the satirist who in a poem accused Erdogan of bestiality and watching child pornography.
But the court dismissed Erdogan's application on the basis of the "constitutionally guaranteed right of the defendant to the freedom of expression".
"When a potential conflict arises between the fundamental right to the freedom of expression and the personal rights of the plaintiff, it is admissable for Doefpner to publicly express an opinion in this controversial debate," said Christina Harpering, spokeswoman for the Cologne court.
Boehmermann's recital of his so-called "Defamatory Poem" on national television in late March sparked a diplomatic firestorm and a row over free speech.
In a controversial move, Chancellor Angela Merkel authorised criminal proceedings against the comedian after Turkey requested he be prosecuted for his "smear poem".
During the broadcast Boehmermann gleefully admitted his poem flouted Germany's legal limits to free speech and was intended as a provocation.
In his letter, Doepfner took the comedian's side, declaring: "For me your poem worked. I laughed out loud."
Erdogan has come in for fierce Western criticism of late over his increasingly authoritarian rule.
US President Barack Obama has warned that Turkey's approach towards the media is taking it "down a path that would be very troubling" after two leading opposition journalists were put on trial.
In response Erdogan defiantly declared he would not take "lessons in democracy" from the West.
Frankfurt (AFP) - Booming exports pushed Germany's trade surplus up to an all-time high in March, but industrial output contracted, pointing to possible problems ahead for Europe's biggest economy, official data showed on Tuesday.
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.
It topped a new all-time monthly high in March on the back of buoyant exports, according to data published by the federal statistics office Destatis.
And analysts said the data suggested that the German economy notched up solid growth as a whole in the first quarter.
Nevertheless, industrial output contracted in March, falling by a steeper-than-expected 1.3 percent, possibly indicating some clouds on the horizon.
German exports grew by 1.9 percent to 101.3 billion euros ($115 billion) in seasonally-adjusted terms in March, Destatis said.
At the same time, imports -- a measure of domestic demand -- decreased by 2.3 percent to 77.6 billion euros.
That meant that the trade surplus -- the balance between exports and imports -- expanded sharply to 23.7 billion euros in March from 20 billion euros in February, the statisticians calculated.
Destatis is scheduled to publish a preliminary estimate for gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter on Friday.
Economists were confident that growth would be satisfactory.
"Economically speaking, the first quarter was positive for Germany in the first quarter," said BayernLB economist Stefan Kipar.
"Strong output at the start of the year made a substantial contribution to this, even if the monthly data suggest that it won't be able to sustain the strong momentum in the second quarter," the expert said.
Kipar said he is forecasting GDP growth of 0.5 percent for the first quarter.
Commerzbank economist Ralph Solveen said that the early timing of the Easter holidays likely contributed to the sharp drop in industrial output in March.
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"In combination with the positive external trade figures, the production data argues for strong economic growth in the first quarter," Solveen said. "But we already expect a much lower growth rate for the second quarter."
ING DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski said that "the strong increase in exports shows that the cooling of the global economy cannot have been as severe as some feared at the beginning of the year."
Nevertheless, the weakness of industrial output was a problem, he said.
"Even if parts of the drop might be due to the timing of the Eastern vacation, the overall trend is not very promising," Brzeski warned.
While Germany likely notched up "a decent growth performance in the first quarter ... under the surface of strong growth numbers a more worrying picture is emerging," the expert said.
The German government is forecasting growth of 1.7 percent for the whole of this year and 1.5 percent next year, driven largely by robust domestic and consumer demand.
By Michael Nienaber
BERLIN (Reuters) - German industrial output rose strongly in the first quarter and exports soared in March, data showed on Tuesday, propelling the trade surplus in Europe's largest economy to a record high.
Production was strong in the first three months of the year despite a bigger-than-expected drop in March and the overall robust readout is likely to heat up debate about how Germany's strong exports are fuelling global economic imbalances.
The United States has for years called for Germany and other countries with current account surpluses to do more to boost lacklustre domestic demand.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have also urged Germany to step up public and private investment in infrastructure to reduce its current account surplus.
Industrial output fell by 1.3 percent in March, the strongest monthly decline since August 2014, data from the Economy Ministry showed. The figure came in below the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll for a 0.2 percent fall.
In the first three months of the year, output rose by 1.8 percent on the quarter, driven mainly by a strong hike in construction activity and higher demand for capital goods.
"Despite March's sharp fall in German industrial production, the sector appears to have contributed strongly to GDP growth in Q1," Capital Economics analyst Jennifer McKeown said, adding the German economy may even have outpaced the 0.6 percent average growth for the euro zone as a whole in the first quarter.
The Federal Statistics Office will publish preliminary data for gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter on Friday.
Leading economic institutes have said the economy probably expanded by around 0.6 percent on the quarter in the January-March period - twice as much as in the fourth quarter.
"The industrial sector has overcome its foreign trade related weak phase of the second half of 2015," the Economy Ministry said. "The economic trend in the industrial sector is currently pointing upward."
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STRONG EXPORTS
Separate data from the Federal Statistics Office showed that seasonally adjusted exports rose by a bigger-than-expected 1.9 percent in March while imports fell by a bigger-than-expected 2.3 percent, widening the seasonally adjusted trade surplus to a new monthly record of 23.6 billion euros ($26.82 billion).
The wider current account surplus also hit a fresh monthly record of 30.4 billion euros on an unadjusted basis.
"The strong increase in exports shows that the cooling of the global economy cannot have been as severe as some feared at the beginning of the year," ING economist Carsten Brzeski said.
He pointed out that, at least in the first two months of the year, France has again taken the number one spot as Germany's most important export destination while the United States has dropped to number two.
In 2015, the German economy grew by 1.7 percent, the strongest rate in four years, driven mainly by strong private consumption and higher state spending on refugees and infrastructure.
It is expected to grow by around the same amount this year, despite concerns about weaker foreign demand for German goods due to an economic slowdown in China and other emerging markets.
The data came after factory orders rose more than expected in March due to buoyant foreign demand especially from countries outside the euro zone, suggesting that a strong start to the year for the German economy may extend into the second quarter.
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Paul Carrel and Alison Williams)
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany plans to add 7,000 military jobs and 4,400 civilians to its armed forces over the next seven years to help tackle demands such as cybersecurity and the fight against Islamic State, its defense minister said on Tuesday. Ursula von der Leyen said the move marked the first increase in the size of the German military since the end of the Cold War and was part of a broader campaign that has revamped the way the military buys equipment and prepares its budgets. "A quarter century of a shrinking military is over. It is time for the German armed forces to grow," she told reporters. Germany's armed forces totaled 800,000 military and civilian personnel at the time of German unification in 1990, but since have shrunk to a target of 185,000 troops and 56,000 civilians, according to German government officials. They said the goal now was to get away from the strict ceilings used in the past and move toward a more dynamic annual review of personnel needs. Officials said a recent comprehensive review had shown that the German military needed 14,300 additional troops to cope with new missions. These include the at-sea rescue of refugees, operations in support of a U.S.-led air strike campaign against Islamic State insurgents in Iraq and Syria, and backing operations against other Islamist militants in Mali. Of those, 5,000 would be filled through changes in existing personnel, with 7,000 to be added in new posts and the extension of existing contracts. Current plans would leave about 2,300 of the required military positions vacant, although that estimate could be adjusted next year, officials said. (Reporting by Berlin Newsroom; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Greece's 10-year bond yields fell below 8 percent for the first time in over six months on Tuesday after euro zone finance ministers offered debt relief to the cash-strapped country from 2018.
The offer appears to be a compromise between Germany, which does not believe Greece needs additional debt relief, and the International Monetary Fund, which insists it is necessary, and will be fleshed out by deputy finance ministers by May 24.
Ten-year yields fell 61 basis points to 7.89 percent , their lowest level since early December.
"At the very least it appears the gap between the IMF and the Germans appears to be narrowing and that has been very well received by investors," Nick Stamenkovic, bond strategist at RIA Capital Markets said.
(Reporting by John Geddie, editing by Nigel Stephenson)
* Ten-year yields below 8 percent, lowest in six months
* Greek shares rise 3 percent to 2016 high
* Eurogroup proposes debt relief from 2018 (Updates prices for close)
By John Geddie
LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Greece's long-term government borrowing costs fell below 8 percent for the first time in more than six months and stocks soared to the year's high on Tuesday after euro zone finance ministers offered debt relief to the country from 2018.
Ten-year yields dropped more than 60 basis points to as low as 7.83 percent, while a surge in bank stocks drove Athens' main bourse up 3 percent to the highest level seen in 2016.
In what appears to be a compromise between Germany, which does not believe Greece needs additional debt relief, and the International Monetary Fund, which insists it is necessary, the offer is conditional on Athens delivering on all reforms agreed under its latest bailout.
The details will be fleshed out by deputy finance ministers by May 24.
In a statement by the Eurogroup after a meeting on Monday, ministers said they also expect a deal within days on Greek contingency reforms - actions that would only kick in if Athens veered off its promised fiscal path - paving the way for the disbursement of new loans to Greece.
"At the very least it appears the gap between the IMF and the Germans appears to be narrowing and that has been very well received by investors," Nick Stamenkovic, bond strategist at RIA Capital Markets said.
The rally in Greek bonds initially pulled other peripheral euro zone bonds in its wake. But by the close, Portuguese , Spanish and Italian 10-year yields were 1-2 basis points higher.
Benchmark German yields dipped 1 bps to 0.12 percent and within sight of one-year lows hit last month at 0.075 percent.
Two-year Greek yields dropped 150 bps to a two-month low of 7.89 percent, while Greek stocks, driven by a near 8 percent surge in bank shares, outperformed all other euro zone equities.
A document prepared by the European Stability Mechanism, and seen by Reuters on Monday, shows there are serious concerns about the long-term sustainability of Greek debt.
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In the main scenario outlined by the document, the euro zone would need to extend maturities of Greek debt and cap annual interest payments. Other possible measures include the euro zone's bailout fund buying out Greece's expensive loans from the IMF, or returning profits generated by the European Central Bank on its Greek bond holdings to Athens.
Based on the ESM document, euro zone deputy finance ministers will work on various debt relief steps for Greece over the next two weeks and present their findings to their bosses on May 24.
However, some strategists are unconvinced a deal can be easily reached, and there remains a niggling concern that talks could push into June or July when Greece has a number of large debt repayments.
"There continues to be disagreement, in the creditors' camp in particular, about the way forward," DZ Bank strategist Hendrik Lodde said. "Because of the diverging opinions ... talks are presumably going to drag on even further." (Reporting by John Geddie; Editing by Alison Williams)
Athens (AFP) - Progress towards continued bailout financing means Greece is about to put "six years of darkness" behind it, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Tuesday.
A day after eurozone finance ministers gave themselves until May 24 to reach a deal on debt relief and unlocking bailout cash for Greece as they lauded Athens for passing tough reforms, Tsipras told a cabinet meeting that this would allow Greece "to turn the page".
The 19 ministers meeting in Brussels Monday failed to sign off on the long-delayed first review of last July's 86-billion-euro ($95 billion) EU-IMF bailout -- but said this could be done in the "coming days".
Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said that the Greek parliament's approval of fresh reforms in a tense vote late Sunday "paves the way for successful completion of the first review" of the bailout.
"For the first time we have had good news," Tsipras said.
Progress in Brussels "opens the door to the payment of a large tranche" of the bailout package which, he put at, at least 5.4 billion euros.
Athens will use the funds to acquit itself of arrears on operational government spending, he said.
Tsipras also welcomed signs that the EU and the International Monetary Fund appear to have made progress on the thorny question of debt relief.
"This will create the financial room not just to relaunch the economy but also widen social protection," he said.
"With the decision on May 24, Greece will turn a page and leave behind it six years of darkness," he said.
EU ministers are likely to expect further commitments by Greece on faster privatisation and a hike in indirect taxes before they approve a deal.
Athens will also need to find agreement with its creditors on what measures to implement if it fails to bring its primary budget surplus, which excludes debt payments, to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2018.
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Tsipras said there would be "contingency measures" to correct any imbalance, but added that "no correction will be necessary" as Greece had already exceeded its surplus target in 2015.
The finance ministers' meeting followed days of protests in Greece, where tens of thousands took to the streets again to slam the unpopular reforms adopted late Sunday which reduce the country's highest pensions and raise taxes.
The measures were passed thanks to the government's slim majority in the 300-seat parliament, with the coalition's far-left Syriza party voting in favour of the measures despite fears of dissensions.
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece does not need to adopt further austerity measures beyond what was agreed in its bailout to qualify for new loans, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told his cabinet on Tuesday, hailing the decision of a Eurogroup meeting. Greece and its euro zone lenders reached an agreement on Monday which will pave the way for unlocking more than 5 billion euros that the crisis-hit country needs to cover debt repayments maturing in June and July and to pay off state arrears. Tsipras said the agreement shows that Greece is no longer isolated, reflecting on a clash with lenders over austerity last year that nearly forced the country out of the euro zone. "Greece is not alone and isolated any more. It enjoys the support of political forces and governments which have finally realized that this country and its people have the right to turn a page," Tsipras told his ministers. Euro zone finance ministers also started talks on how to make Greece's debt servicing costs manageable, a move long desired by Greece. The left-led government needs the debt relief badly to lure back investors, appease markets and convince Greeks that their sacrifices are paying off after six years of austerity. "Greece is leaving behind six years of recession and darkness," Tsipras said. "I want to repeat, this is not the right time for celebrations." (Writing Renee Maltezou; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
A former aide to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was shot and killed in New Orleans early Saturday morning in what police believe started as a robbery attempt, PEOPLE confirms.
Thomas Rolfes, 25, was in the city with his fiancee over the weekend to plan their wedding when he was fatally shot once in the chest near the intersection of Claiborne Avenue and Amelia Street, police said at a news conference on Monday.
He was found unresponsive at about 4:30 a.m. on Saturday and pronounced dead at the scene, police said. There were injuries on Rolfe's hands, indicating that there may have been a struggle, police said. The suspect or suspects are still at large.
After Rolfes and his fiancee, Elizabeth Fried, both Tulane University graduates, arrived in New Orleans on separate flights Friday night, Fried stayed at a hotel while Rolfes went to a bar with friends, the Associated Press reports.
"I didn't even get to see him," Fried said, according to the AP.
The two had been engaged just one month and were looking for a place to hold their wedding and reception, Rolfes's family told WDSU.
Romney remembered Rolfes in a Facebook post on Monday, noting that Rolfes worked on his 2012 campaign.
"Heartbreaking to hear that Thomas Rolfes was killed this weekend while in New Orleans looking for a wedding venue with his sweetheart, a fellow Tulane graduate," Romney wrote, calling the death a "senseless and tragic loss."
"His warm smile and engaging personality lifted our spirits. His commitment and dedication to our effort made him an invaluable part of the campaign."
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Rolfes's mother, Julie, told WDSU through tears, "He was here to start the next chapter of his life," adding, "Our firstborn was marrying this beautiful girl."
Rolfes's parents are urging anyone with information about their son's death to come forward.
"If they saw anything that can help us find what happened to our son and give us peace [so] we know how the last hour of his was life was spent," Julie told WDSU.
Rolfes is originally from St. Louis, Missouri, but was living in Greenville, South Carolina, according to WDSU. Fried is from Rhode Island.
By Jonathan Stempel
REUTERS - The online marketplace Groupon Inc has sued IBM Corp, accusing it of infringing a patent related to technology that helps businesses solicit customers based on the customers' locations at a given moment.
Groupon filed its lawsuit on Monday with the federal court in its hometown of Chicago, two months after IBM accused Groupon of patent infringement in a separate lawsuit.
"IBM is trying to shed its status as a dial-up-era dinosaur" by infringing the rights of "current" technology companies such as Groupon, according to Groupon spokesman Bill Roberts.
Doug Shelton, an IBM spokesman, said: "This counter suit is totally without merit." IBM's full name is International Business Machines Corp.
The latest lawsuit concerns IBM's WebSphere Commerce platform, which Groupon said lets merchants send messages to customers with GPS-enabled devices based on their real-time locations, and their use of social media including Facebook.
Groupon said the platform infringes a December 2010 patent, and that it deserves royalties based on the "billions of dollars" of revenue that Armonk, New York-based IBM has received through its infringement.
"IBM, a relic of once-great 20th Century technology firms, has now resorted to usurping the intellectual property of companies born this millennium," Groupon said in its lawsuit.
On March 2, IBM accused Groupon in a federal lawsuit in Delaware of infringing four patents, including two related to Prodigy, a late-1980s forerunner to the Internet.
"Over the past three years, IBM has attempted to conclude a fair and reasonable patent license agreement with Groupon, and we are disappointed that Groupon is seeking to divert attention from its patent infringement by suing," Shelton said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Andrew Hay)
By Tife Owolabi YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen killed two policemen in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta as they slept in a security post on Monday evening and three soldiers were killed in a second attack, police and the army said. The raids took place a day after five police officers were shot dead in the same region. Recent violence has raised concern that militants might resume an insurgency that has been quiet for the past several years. A labour union on Tuesday called for the evacuation of oil workers from the region. The army said it would use "all available means and measures" to crush militants attacking oil facilities, saying: "They will stand to regret the consequences of their actions." The two policemen, who were asleep on guard duty, were killed in Delta's Rivers state, a police spokesman. The soldiers died in an attack in Bayelsa state, the army said. Last week, a group known as Niger Delta Avengers attacked a Chevron facility in the Delta after claiming a strike in February against a Shell pipeline, which shut down the 250,000 barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal. The violence has pushed Nigeria's crude output near to a 22-year low. "Best thing for any reasonable company to do is evacuate its workforce," said Cogent Ojobor, chairman of the Warri branch of the Nupeng oil labour union. Chika Onuegbu, chairman of the trade union in Rivers state, said Chevron had evacuated some staff from the Delta following a similar move by Shell. "There is high alert around various installation around the Niger Delta due to recent attacks," Onuegbu said. "Those evacuated are where their platforms have been attacked but others are working." Ikeja Electricity, Nigeria's biggest power firm, said it expected extended outages after the attack on Chevron hit gas supplies needed to generate electricity. Delta residents have long demanded a greater share of oil revenues. Crude oil sales account for about 70 percent of national income in Nigeria but there has been little development in the region. President Muhammadu Buhari has extended an amnesty agreement signed with militants in 2009 to end their campaign to blow up pipelines, but has upset them by ending generous pipeline protection contracts. The incidents are a further challenge for a government faced with an insurgency by the Islamist militant Boko Haram group in the northeast, and clashes between armed nomadic herdsmen and local people over land use in various parts of Nigeria. (Writing by Ulf Laessing, Editing by David Clarke and Angus MacSwan)
Jeffrey Immelt
General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt is selling his 4-acre estate in New Canaan, CT, for $5.5 million, beginning GEs march up Interstate 95 to Boston, where the companys relocating its headquarters this summer.
And it appears that Immelt and his wife, Andrea, have already found a new home. The Boston Business Journal reports that the couple is under contract to buy a 3,565-square-foot, triplex condo for $8 million.
In January, GE announced the company was leaving Fairfield, CT, for Boston, the center of an ecosystem that shares our aspirations, using verbiage that would moisten the eye of Jack Donaghy. However, grumbles beneath the surface say that Connecticuts rising taxes are chasing GE out. The National Review describes Connecticut as high-tax, high-regulation, anti-business.
Jeffrey Immelt's New Canaan home
GEs headquarters move will relocate 200 corporate execs, who are expected to flood the southern Connecticut real estate market for high-end homes, though none probably as grand as the Immelts. Their 10,458-square-foot, stone and clapboard house features six en suite bedrooms, chefs kitchen, solarium, and separate in-law suite over the garage.
The New Canaan property has witnessed drama of its own. In 2011, Occupy Wall Street protesters took a field trip to the Immelts front yard to complain about income and tax disparity. The invitation to the protest reportedly stated, In the land of the free they tax me but not G.E.!
The post Headed for Boston, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt Lists $5.5M New Canaan Home appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.
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Miami (AFP) - Being on the heavier side may not be as dangerous as it was in the 1970s, according to a study Tuesday that points to the protective effects of a few extra pounds.
The optimum ratio of weight and height -- known as body mass index or BMI -- is now on the upper side of the healthy range, according to the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
"Compared to the 1970s, today's overweight individuals have lower mortality than so-called normal weight individuals," said Borge Nordestgaard, clinical professor at the University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen University Hospital.
"The reason for this change is unknown."
The report was based on more than 100,000 people in Denmark. The study spanned three groups, or cohorts, whose risk of dying for any reason was examined in 1976-78, 1991-1994, and in 2003-2013.
Currently, doctors define the normal range for BMI -- calculated by weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared -- as between 18.5 and 24.9.
A BMI of 25-29.9 is considered overweight, while 30 or higher is obese.
In the 1970s, the optimal BMI for the lowest risk of death was 23.7.
This would be the equivalent of a six-foot (1.83 meter) tall man who weighs 170 pounds (77 kilograms), or a five-foot-five (1.65 meter) woman who weighs 143 pounds (65 kilograms).
By 1991-94, the optimal BMI had risen to 24.6.
And in 2003-2013, it reached 27.
Compared to four decades ago, that would mean adding 30 pounds (14 kg) to the frame of the a person who stands six-feet tall, or 19 pounds (nine kg) to the frame of someone five-foot-five.
Researchers also found that obese people in the 1970s were more likely to die than normal weight people, but this association disappeared in the 2000s.
"The increased risk of all-cause mortality associated with obesity compared to normal weight decreased from 30 percent 1976-78 to 0 percent in 2003-13," said principal investigator Shoaib Afzal, of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.
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Health authorities have long warned of the risks of being overweight, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Nordestgaard said the current findings suggest "a need to revise the categories presently used to define overweight, which are based on data from before the 1990s."
However, researchers cautioned that the biological mechanism behind their finding remains poorly understood, and their results should not be interpreted to mean that people can cease caring about what they eat.
"Maybe overweight people need not be quite as worried about their weight as before", said Nordestgaard.
Hedge funds outperformed global equity markets in April. According to Eurekahedge, the companys Hedge Fund Index returned 1.12 percent in April, while the MSCI World Index finished the month up only 0.67 percent.
Emerging market managers continued to perform well during the month supported by resilient oil and commodity prices which are helping to inject some investor optimism, the report read.
Related Link: Warren Buffett's Estate Will Be Invested In Only 2 Things After He Dies
So far this year, Latin American mandated hedge funds are up 9.87 percent, their strongest year-to-date performance in a decade.
Distressed debt hedge funds also generated a strong 1.83 percent return during the month as commodity prices showed some resilience.
Japan mandated funds continued their poor performance, falling 1.53 percent in April. They are now down 4.31 percent year-to-date.
Greater China hedge funds lost 0.34 during the month, while India-focused funds gained 1.89 percent. So far in 2016, 63 percent of Asian managers are in the red compared to just 16 percent at the same time last year.
The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index is up 0.62 percent so far in 2016. The MSCI World Index is down 1.20 percent, but the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) is up 1.62 percent. The ProShares Trust (NYSE: HDG) hedge fund replication ETF is down 1.03 percent year-to-date.
Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.
See more from Benzinga
2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Just when you thought former presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz would blessedly drop out of the news cycle for a while, he has one last little exasperating announcement left in his campaign operation.
In a conference call Tuesday with their National Prayer Team, Cruz's wife, Goldman Sachs investment manager Heidi Cruz, told his failed presidential bid was akin to the fight against slavery in the 19th century United States, the Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek reported.
@TedCruz and @HeidiSCruz just addressed their National Prayer Team, which was holding its last conference call. Some highlights:
OK, just one highlight, really...
@HeidiSCruz: "Ted has an enormous agenda in the Senate."
In the full quote, as reported by the Tribune, Heidi Cruz said "I don't want you to feel like any of this was in vain. I believe in the power of prayer. This doesn't always happen on the timing of man, and God does not work in four-year segments. Be full of faith and so full of joy that this team was chosen to fight a long battle. Think that slavery it took 25 years to defeat slavery. That is a lot longer than four years.
"We are full of energy. We're going to have a great vacation. We're going to keep moving forward."
Yeah.
protip: Don't compare your presidential campaign to the effort to end slaveryhttps://www.texastribune.org/2016/05/10/heidi-cruz-likens-husbands-efforts-slavery/ ...
So the Ted Cruz campaign was like slavery. But followed by a vacation.https://twitter.com/PatrickSvitek/status/730088559709802496 ... https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiHLrRGVAAANdb7.jpg:large
As several Twitter users noted, even taken at face value, Cruz's comparison was a little off, given the fact the abolition movement existed for far longer than 25 years and eventually only triumphed after a civil war that killed up to 750,000 people.
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Odd comparison: It #actually took longer than 25 years to defeat slavery, and just a few months to defeat Ted Cruz.https://twitter.com/PatrickSvitek/status/730076649656451072 ...
Or maybe she thinks slavery was invented in 1840?
As a presidential candidate, Cruz himself did not seem particularly concerned with the historical legacy of slavery.
Cruz repeatedly said outsiders should not inject their opinions into state-level debates over displays of Confederate symbols at public buildings. He later defended supporters of flying the rebel flag as remembering "not the racial oppression, but the historical traditions" of the South (that said traditions were pervasively defined by slavery and often had explicitly racist origins somehow escaped Cruz's notice).
h/t Texas Tribune
From Seventeen
Aniya Wolf, a senior at Bishop McDevitt High School in Pennsylvania, wanted to go to prom in a formal outfit that made her feel comfortable. For her, that was a dapper tuxedo, and not a formal gown-but her school had other ideas.
ABC 27 News reports that Aniya never liked wearing girly clothes, and always wore a shirt and pants to school. "I've just always been like this, ever since I was little," Wolf, who does not identify as transgender, told the network. "I was always more masculine. You wouldn't catch me playing with any Barbie dolls, I'll tell you that right now."
But at the last second, she says her Catholic school sent out an email thwarting her big plans for prom, saying that all girls had to wear dresses. At that point, Aniya and her mom, Carolyn, had already bought a new suit. After Carolyn emailed the school to complain, administrators told her that Aniya would not be allowed to attend the prom wearing a tuxedo.
Aniya showed up in the tuxedo anyway, but was kicked out. She was told that if she didn't leave the premises, the police would be called.
"I think my experience shouldn't be any different than anyone else's because of something I was born with," Aniya told the TV station, saying her school made her feel like she was a "mistake."
Her story has since gone viral, with an outpouring of support from her classmates and well-wishers online. A nearby high school even invited her and a date to their prom on May 21. Some supporters offered to wear suits or pants in solidarity with Aniya, but she insisted that they should only wear what makes them happy.
Aniya's high school has since responded to the controversy in a statement, saying they established the dress code and sent it to students months ago:
H llary Clinton believes BDS is BS and it won't solve anything.
The Democratic presidential frontrunner took off on the in a letter ahead of a major meeting of the United Methodist Church, to which she belongs.
"I believe that BDS seeks to punish Israel and dictate how the Israelis and Palestinians should resolve the core issues of their conflict. This is not the path to peace," Clinton wrote to the leaders of the Israel Action Network and the Jewish Federations of North America.
"I remain convinced that Israel's long-term security and future as a Jewish state depends on having two states for two peoples," the former secretary of state said. "But that can only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians; it cannot be imposed from the outside or by unilateral actions."
Source: Amr Nabil/AP
The BDS campaign urges nations and businesses not to work with Israel based on the argument that it is engaging in "ethnic cleansing, colonization, [and] racial discrimination" against Palestinians.
The United Methodist Church General Conference opens Tuesday in Portland, Oregon. On the agenda: Consideration of divestment from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola, three companies pro-Palestinian activists say have reaped profits from Israeli operations in the West Bank.
The Presbyterian Church and the United Church of Christ previously voted to divest from Israel.
Support for Israel as a democratic U.S. ally in the Middle East has long been a stump staple for American politicians.
Clinton has spoken against BDS before, including in a March address to The American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In that speech, she called the movement "alarming" and charged its proponents with having "demonized Israeli scientists and intellectuals, even students."
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Source: Pool/Getty Images
Clinton further wrote in her recent letter:
Israel is a vibrant democracy in a region dominated by autocracy, and it faces existential threats to its survival. Fighting for Israel isn't just about policy; it is a personal commitment to the friendship between our peoples and our vision for peace and security.
Particularly at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world, we need to repudiate forceful efforts to malign and undermine Israel and the Jewish people. Anti-Semitism has no place in any civilized society not in America, not in Europe, not anywhere.
Clinton and primary rival Bernie Sanders, who would be the first Jewish president of the United States if elected, have clashed on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Sanders has described himself as "100% pro-Israel," while saying the Palestinians should be treated with "respect and dignity."
A Pew Research Center study published May 5 noted that "far more Clinton supporters sympathize with Israel (47%) than the Palestinians (27%). Sanders backers are statistically divided, with 39% sympathizing more with the Palestinians and 33% more with Israel."
Hillary Clinton is really trying to connect with the working class voters who have proved so elusive to her campaign.
The former Secretary of State merely mentioned her work on childrens issues at the university during a meeting with working parents in Lexington on Tuesday, leaving out the Ivy League law degree she earned at Yale. She told a crowd in Louisville later in the day that she often found that when daughter Chelsea was sick, her sitter was as well, and it was a nightmare finding childcare. Never mind that Clinton, at the time, was working as the first female partner at the storied Rose Law Firm. And when discussing her pledge to defend Obamacare, she slipped into a good ol gal voice: If it aint broke, dont mess with it.
Such is the task for the former First Lady, former Senator and former Secretary of State: to not scare away potential voters with her resume that has few peers. As she is inching closer to officially becoming the Democratic nomineeeven loss on Tuesday night in West Virginia wouldnt be enough for rival Bernie Sanders to overtake her in the delegate raceClinton is trying to be more of-the-people. Shes trying to channel her husbands innate ability to convince these voters that she feels their pain and is here to help.
We cannot keep saying families need to buckle down and tighten their belts. Belts are about as tight as they can get for the vast majority of families, she said in announcing a childcare proposal that would cap costs at 10% of a familys income. Somethings gotta change.
Clinton, to be sure, has a long way to go before she convinces anyone shes a regular American. Her family has become wealthy after Bill Clintons eight years in the White House. The Clintons can set their price, and people will pay it. In the 16 months after she left the State Department, she earned $30 millionor the household income of 577 average American families.
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But Clinton has never been average by any measure. Thats almost impossible for someone who is poised to become the first woman ever nominated as a major partys candidate, never mind a figure who could become the first woman elected to the Presidency. What she lacks in campaign polish she makes up with a wonks understanding of policy and hard work. Presumptive nominee Donald Trump holds mega-rallies, while Clinton convenes small group discussions to dive into the weeds of policy. And her technically superior campaign is ready to run circles around presumptive Trump if he doesnt get his act together and stop feuding with fellow Republicans.
Clinton is also still working to surpass the devastating assessment then-rival Barack Obama leveled against her eight years ago: Youre likable enough. This time, Clinton is going to prove she is, in fact, likableand worthy of the vote.
But its an effort. Where Trump brags about his vast wealth, Clinton does her best to act like the next-door neighbor. She joked to a small group of working parents in Lexington that her daughter Chelsea had to re-teach her how to handle a newborn when granddaughter Charlotte was born. Im learning how to swaddle a baby. Thats an art form, Hillary Clinton laughed in Lexington.
A few hours later, she was making small talk with patients at a community health clinic in Louisville. I love this color, she gushed, trying to relate to these women. I have a couple of things in this color.
And then she sounded like a woman bored by her spouse. My husband was at Morehead State the other day and he cant stop talking about it, she said, an eye roll implied in her voice at a campaign rally at Louisville Slugger Field. She later decried the wage gap for women with a laugh-line about shopping. I can tell you as woman who has shopped for most of her life, I have never gotten a discount at the cashier, she said. Women are still paid less than men in this country, and Clinton turned to a well-landed jab to make the point.
And by the end of the day, she was back with little Charlotte. Those of you who have grandchildren know you are just obsessed with them. Its kind of weird, she said. You just sit there and stare at them. No one could doubt her sincerity.
Clintons allies are trying to cast the former Secretary of State as a competent and capable contender in the face of Trumps theatrics. I dont know that Ive ever seen a better resume for President of the United States than Hillary Clinton, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said. We need a serious candidate. Clinton is adding one quality: relatable.
Its a risk, for sure, in a year that has seen voters reject more traditional candidates with impressive resumes. Senators and Governors found themselves easily dispatched by Trump during the primaries, and that feeling might continue into the general election. Civility actually has cost candidates votes against the billionaire blowhard, and a head-to-head contest will test what Americans want, let alone tolerate. Clinton is betting that she can disqualify Trump, if not be more likable than he is.
Donald Trump actually stood on a debate stage and argued that Americans are paid too much, not too little, Clinton said. Its troubling to me because if youre going to grow the economy, its kind of obvious that you want people making money. In Clintons telling, she alone can protect those voters pocketbooks and like it in the process.
Womens issues promise to play an outsize role in this years presidential election now that the field has been narrowed to a feminist icon and a suspected misogynist. But the debate over womens health, equal pay and family leave will continue to obscure an underreported fact: as a gender, men are in relative decline.
A key indicator of American male decline is the gender ratio at U.S. colleges. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), women accounted for 43 percent of enrollees in degree-granting postsecondary institutions in 1972. The other 57 percent were men. Forty years later, the ratio had flipped. In 2012, the latest year for which actual data were reported, women made up 57 percent of the college population, with men representing the remaining 43 percent. Further, NCES projects that the gap will widen by 2022, when women are expected to reach 61 percent of the college population. If that projection holds, America will have roughly 14 million female college students and only 10 million male college students.
Related: Hillary Clinton Plays the Woman Card and Rakes in Millions
An additional NCES chart shows the percentage of 18 to 24-year-old men and women in degree-granting institutions. In the 1960s and 1970s, men were significantly more likely to be in college than women. Around 1990, the proportions reached parity. Since then, a higher percentage of women have been going to college than men, with the gap reaching 7 percent in 2012, when 44.5 percent of women and 37.6 percent of men were enrolled.
Female students are also more likely to finish college than their male counterparts. More than six in 10 women enrolling in college in 2006 graduated by 2012; the similar proportion for men was only 56.5 percent. This fact contributes to female superiority in post-graduate education, with women earning 60 percent of the masters degrees and 51 percent of doctorates in the 2011-2012 academic year.
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So, if men are now underrepresented in higher education, where might they be? One place is in prison. At the end of 2014, almost 93 percent of inmates in state and federal correctional facilities were male. There were over 1.4 million male prisoners compared to 113,000 female inmates.
If we add inmates in city and county jails as well as those on probation or parole, the gap widens. The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that 5.56 million men were in the correctional system at the end of 2014, versus 1.25 million women.
While men have always dominated the correctional population, they have suffered disproportionately in todays era of mass incarceration. The correctional population skyrocketed from 1.84 million in 1980 to 7.31 million in 2009 before declining somewhat in more recent years.
Related: Trump Plays the Woman Card Against Hillary. Will it Backfire?
Since greater education and less incarceration both correlate with higher income, we can expect womens share of the pie to grow in coming years. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, womens median weekly earnings as a percentage of mens median weekly earnings rose from 62.3 percent in 1979 to 82.5 percent in 2014. Among younger age cohorts, the ratio is around 90 percent and much of the remaining difference is explained by child rearing. A comparison of single, childless men and women between ages 22 and 30 living in metropolitan areas showed virtually no wage gap.
In an influential 2010 article in The Atlantic, Hanna Rosin documented and explained a phenomenon she called The End of Men. Her thesis was that technological and social changes are making men obsolete. Modern industrial machinery rendered male advantages in physical size and strength irrelevant, while 21st century jobs more often require attributes associated with women including social intelligence, open communication and the ability to concentrate. Rosin interviewed many female college students who expected to be the primary breadwinner after marriage, with one referring to guys as the new ball and chain.
Psychologist Warren Farrell attributes the relative decline in mens wellbeing to social policies and conditions for raising boys. For example, Farrell and his colleagues point out that one-third of boys grow up in households where the father is absent and are thus deprived of their most important male role model. Schools have curtailed boy-friendly programs such as recess (which encourages physical activity) and vocational education. Psychiatrists too frequently address boys normal restlessness by prescribing Ritalin and other drugs with dangerous side effects. Teenage boys and young men in their early 20s suffer from much greater levels of depression than their female counterparts, as evidenced by male suicide rates four times higher than female suicide rates.
Related: How Obamacare Could Backfire on Hillary Clinton
All this notwithstanding, it is clear that men continue to benefit from some unfair advantages. For example, they dominate the high-paying tech sector, often creating work environments that are hostile to women. Also, women are underrepresented at the highest echelons of our society accounting for only 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs and 19 percent of Congress.
But these are relatively small niches of society. Most young women finishing college and starting careers may not feel especially disadvantaged compared to their male counterparts. As a result, they may not regard womens issues as their highest priority. Maybe this explains why Bernie Sanders is more popular than Hillary Clinton with females aged 18 to 29.
This factor could also undermine Clintons support among young women in November. While most of them are unlikely to vote for Trump, they may not be sufficiently motivated to turn out on Election Day. Longer term, it is possible that womens issues will play a diminishing role in elections at all levels as millennials begin to dominate the electorate. Perhaps then it will become politically feasible for our leaders to address some of the issues contributing to the decline of men.
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
There was good reason for the White House to brace itself for criticism after announcing President Obamas scheduled visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Japan but it didnt come.
Obama is set to become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, the first of two cities the U.S. struck with atomic bombs in 1945, helping to end World War II.
Considering how much flak Obama has taken from conservative pundits and Republican politicians for what they characterize as his apologies for American foreign policy, the voices of derision were conspicuously silent throughout the day.
Perhaps such criticism was preempted by the White Houses strategic announcement that Obama will not apologize for then-President Harry Trumans decision to drop the bomb, and that the visit does not diminish the sacrifice and service of World War II veterans.
The muted response might also reflect the American publics changing opinions about this major 20th century cause celebre. A survey by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan U.S. think tank, found that only 56 percent of Americans consider the bombing justified, and 34 percent said it was not. A Gallup Poll taken immediately after the bombing in 1945 found that 85 percent of Americans approved of using the atomic bomb against Japanese cities.
On Tuesday morning, Democratic politicians heaped lavish praise on the commander in chief for planning to visit the site of the first nuclear weapon used in war. The visit will take place on May 27 after the G-7 Summit in Japan.
The national flag of Japan flutters at half-mast near Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in western Japan in 1998. (Photo: Kimimasa Mayama/Reuters)
For 70 years, scholars and laymen alike have debated the ethics surrounding the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki divided between those who argue the bombings were preferable to a land invasion and those who argue they were inherently immoral and tantamount to a war crime.
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who visited Hiroshima as speaker of the House in 2008, released a statement saying the visit is a testament to Obamas bold and principled leadership.
President Obama has been a tireless leader in the global effort to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and I commend him and the Administration for their strong focus on this vital challenge for global peace and security, it reads in part.
The Presidents visit also underscores the monumental progress of the friendship between the United States and Japan since the war. It also reflects the relationship between President Obama and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Together, our nations will continue to lead on non-proliferation.
Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., released a statement recalling his visit to Hiroshima in 1985 on the bombings 40th anniversary. He said our ultimate goal today, tomorrow and always should be a future without nuclear weapons.
I recognize the importance of President Obamas decision to be the first sitting President to finally visit Hiroshima, Markey wrote. His visit provides an historic opportunity to exercise American leadership around the globe by committing to cut our own spending on outdated and unnecessary nuclear weapons that we no longer need to keep us safe.
An allied correspondent stands amid the rubble in front of what once was a movie theater in Hiroshima, Japan, a month after the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare was dropped by the U.S. on Aug. 6, 1945. (Photo: Stanley Troutman/AP)
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., described the visit as historic on Twitter: We must recommit to choosing peace over war - starting with nuclear disarmament.
Similarly, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., tweeted, I applaud @POTUS decision to visit Hiroshima. Its a poignant reminder of our responsibility to lead the way to a nuclear-free world.
Commenting on a note to Truman that described the bombing as a success, Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, tweeted, Hiroshima was obviously no success for the civilians targeted. No civilian should be.
When Yahoo News posted an article on Facebook about the upcoming visit, several readers criticized Obama and expressed trepidation about the visit.
The apology tour continues! one wrote.
He better not apologize for the bomb, another said. There would have been no Hiroshima if there had not been a Pearl Harbor.
Last month, a group that commemorates former prisoners of war in Japan during World War II (the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society) wrote an open letter to President Obama urging him to postpone a visit to Hiroshima until he makes an equally poignant memorialization of the Americans who perished in Japan.
Obama, who was criticized for a so-called apology tour when he reached out to the Muslim world during his first year in office, wants the visit to convey his commitment to nonproliferation and remembrance of civilians killed in wartime not an apology on behalf of the nation, according to his staff.
Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday afternoon that it is all right for Americans to debate whether or not Truman made the right decision to drop the bomb but that it is hard to second-guess him.
President Obama speaks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in March. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
When asked if there was any concern that the visit would be interpreted as an apology, Earnest replied, If people do interpret it that way, theyd be interpreting it wrongly. So, I dont think theres much risk of that.
Anticipating this controversy, Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communication at the White House, explained in a post on Medium early Tuesday that Obama will not revisit the decision to drop the atom bomb, but focus instead on moving forward toward a future of peace.
He said the United States will be eternally proud of the civilian leaders and World War II veterans who served at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world.
Their cause was just, and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude, which the President will again commemorate shortly after the visit on Memorial Day, Rhodes wrote. This visit will offer an opportunity to honor the memory of all innocents who were lost during the war.
Some within Japan fear that an apology could galvanize antinuclear groups within Japan and possibly set off a string of apologies for World War II with unintended political consequences.
Last summer, the Japanese prime minster expressed grief for the suffering that Japan inflicted during World War II, but said future generations in Japan should not have to keep apologizing for the war crimes of their forebears.
The Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, instantly killed an estimated 80,000 people. In the ensuing years, tens of thousands died from the radioactive fallout. The U.S. Department of Energy says the five-year death toll may have reached or exceeded 200,000.
In May 1984, guided by then-Hiroshima Mayor Takeshi Araki, former President Jimmy Carter places a wreath at the memorial cenotaph, a monument that contains the names of those who died in the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima. (Photo: Katsumi Kasahara/AP)
In 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee highlighted Obamas promotion of a world without nuclear weapons as a reason for awarding him that years Nobel Peace Prize.
World War II was a conflict in which the total number of civilians who died exceeded the number of soldiers who perished, Obama said during his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway. In the wake of such destruction, and with the advent of the nuclear age, it became clear to victor and vanquished alike that the world needed institutions to prevent another world war.
Susan Rice, the presidents national security adviser, tweeted on Tuesday that the visit will be forward-looking, underscoring our nonproliferation agenda & stalwart alliance with Japan.
Recently, U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and Secretary of State John Kerry have visited Hiroshima. Former President Jimmy Carter visited the city in 1984, three years after leaving office.
Since the conclusion of World War II, the United States and Japan have enjoyed strong political and military alliances and economic partnerships. Today, Japan is one of the most pro-U.S. countries in the world; the majority of its people view the United States as a force for good in the world.
Updated on May 10 at 11:07 a.m. ET
Barack Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, the Japanese city whose targeting by the U.S. with an atomic bomb in 1945 precipitated Japans surrender in World War II.
Heres an excerpt from a White House statement issued Tuesday:
[T]he President will make an historic visit to Hiroshima with Prime Minister Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.
The visit is part of Obamas May 21-28 trip to Vietnam and Japan. The White House said Obama would not apologize for the use of nuclear weapons during his trip. Writing on Medium, Ben Rhodes, the presidents deputy national security adviser noted:
He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future. To be sure, the United States will be eternally proud of our civilian leaders and the men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II for their sacrifice at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world. Their cause was just, and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude, which the President will again commemorate shortly after the visit on Memorial Day. This visit will offer an opportunity to honor the memory of all innocents who were lost during the war.
Recommended: What the Times's Ben Rhodes Profile Got Wrong
Obama would be the first sitting U.S. president to visit the city. Richard Nixon visited in 1964, but that was before he entered the White House. Jimmy Carter did so in 1984, after hed left office.
Last month John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, became the highest-ranking American official to visit Hiroshima. As my colleague Matt Vasilogambros noted during that visit:
While Kerrys visit is a recognition of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima, he did not apologize for the act. He said in Hiroshima on Monday, the visit was not about the past, but looking ahead to a possibly nuclear-free worldeven though the U.S. has one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world.
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The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed Little Boy on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, it dropped another device, Fat Man, on Nagasaki. The attacks killed more than 120,000 people, and remain the only times nuclear weapons have been used in combat.
Read more from The Atlantic:
This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
If youre old enough to drink legally, you may be too old for prom. (Photo: Getty Images)
A senior at Manchester Central High School in New Hampshire may be flying solo to prom this year after his girlfriend was banned from attending the event. Sultan Akhtar is 18 and his girlfriend, Kaitlyn Ozerchowski, is 22, which, according to the folks at Manchester High, is much too old for prom.
According to Fox 25 News, the school has a rule banning people 21 and older from prom to curb underage drinking. Akhtars mother, Roxanne, doesnt see the big deal over her sons girlfriends age and tried to make a case to get the schools administration to change its mind. He worked really hard, you know, she told Fox 25 News. He had good grades. Why should he be penalized because of the person he cares for? [His girlfriend is] not fighting and pushing to go to this prom. Shes just supporting him because he wants to go to the prom.
Related: Lesbian Couple Named Prom King and Queen in Florida
The Manchester Central High School committee ultimately voted 9-3 in favor of barring Ozerchowski from the prom, so she wont be there for Akhtars big night. While the school should take precautions to ensure that their students arent drinking at prom, it seems silly to assume that banning people over 21 from the event is going to keep kids from alcohol.
On a personal note, I attended prom 10 years ago, and while no one there was 21 or older, we still managed to drink alcohol that night, thanks to a few well-placed fake IDs and older siblings who were willing to buy us booze. If kids want alcohol, theyre going to find a way.
What do you think? Was Manchester Central High right to keep Akhtars 22-year-old girlfriend from attending prom as his date?
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Former supermodel turned super mogul, Kathy Ireland says she is grateful to Warren Buffett. It was Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) subsidiary, Nebraska Furniture Mart, that gave Ireland her start in the home furnishings business in 1999.
We can all learn from [Buffett], Ireland told Yahoo Finance at the 51st annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting held recently in Omaha, Nebraska.
Buffett once told Ireland that fashion is constantly changing, but home products are much more consistent. She listened.
What began as a line of socks at Kmart in 1993, has grown into a brand and marketing empire. Today, Kathy Ireland Worldwide boasts $2 billion in annual sales and includes not only furniture and fashion but also beauty products, diamonds, pet care, educational games, kitchen accessories, and even an event planning business that provides exotic locations for destination weddings.
Ireland, whose net worth is estimated at more than $420 million, is a fixture at Berkshire Hathaways annual shareholder meeting. You can usually find her competing at the famed newspaper toss. Both she and Buffett had newspaper routes when they were young and like to compete against each other in this annual game.
This year, Ireland managed to beat Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates, but says Buffett is a formidable competitor and remains undefeated.
Calling Buffetts shareholder meeting an education for all, Ireland says she always leaves inspired. One of my favorite Warren Buffett quotes is, You find out whos swimming naked when the tide goes out. "
Hes genuine, she says of her mentor and business partner. Life is too short to work with people who you dont really respect, and for me, I want to work with people I also enjoy.
Click here to view a full replay of the 2016 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting, which Yahoo Finance live-streamed exclusively. At this page you can also find our extensive coverage of the event.
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What it's like to wear $10 million of Borsheims jewelry
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, one of several companies trying to build a futuristic transportation system that can hurtle people and cargo in pods at over 700 miles an hour, says it has licensed technology that is safer and cheaper than what conventional high-speed trains use.
The announcement comes a day ahead of a planned May 10 event in Nevada by rival and similarly named Hyperloop Technologies.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, or HTT, says the base technology of its proposed high-speed transportation system is passive magnetic levitation originally developed by Dr. Richard Post and his team at Lawrence Livermore National Labs. The startup has worked with the national lab over the past year to develop and build test systems using the technology, according to HTT.
Using a passive magnetic levitation system--and not an active magnetic levitation system--would eliminate the need for power stations along the hyperloop track, Bibop Gresta, the chief operating officer for Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, said in a statement. The magnetic levitation, or maglev as its known in the industry, enables the Shanghai high-speed Transrapid train to reach top speeds of about 270 mph.
Keep in mind, that Hyperloop is still theoretical in many respects, even if aspects of the underlying technology has been tested. Its impossible to validate the safer and cheaper claims until the Hyperloop is built and tested, if ever.
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As illustrated in the video below, a passive magnetic levitation system places an permanent magnets in the hyperloop train pod. A linear motor propels the pod initially, and then the magnets interact with packed coils of insulated wire on the track, which causes the pod to levitate and accelerate to the super-fast cruising speed of 760 mph.
From a safety aspect, the system has huge advantages, levitation occurs purely through movement, therefore if any type of power failure occurs, Hyperloop pods would continue to levitate and only after reaching minimal speeds touch the ground, Gresta said.
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The idea of a hyperloop was first floated by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2013. Instead of building the system, he challenged others to pursue and potentially develop the concept.
The idea has fascinated and inspired a group of startups to try to develop the idea--or at least invest in it. HTT and Hyperloop Technology premiered soon after, followed by a SpaceX-sponsored pod design competition in January. SpaceX is now building a track to test pods created by winners of its design competition. Even U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has expressed interest and indicated his agency could make research funding available.
The race between HTT and Hyperloop Tech, which is also using levitation technology, has heated up in recent months. HTT, which is a crowdsourced effort, is building a five-mile test track in California. In March, HTT said it reached an agreement with Slovakia for a possible Hyperloop system to be built in that country.
Meanwhile, Hyperloop Tech received approval to receive $9.2 million in tax incentives to create a testing facility in North Las Vegas, the same location where electric car startup Faraday Future is building its factory.
Hyperloop Tech is planning a demonstration Tuesday of its project along with some big announcements, the company tweeted.
It's ON! We're 1 day away from some big announcements. Live-tweeting starts tomorrow @ 5PM PDT https://t.co/tASsQqwMyy #hyperloop HyperloopTech (@HyperloopTech) May 9, 2016
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Kiev (AFP) - An International Monetary Fund team arrived in Kiev on Tuesday after the formation of a new Ukrainian government resolved a prolonged political crisis that had stalled the release of vital aid.
The mission's visit was long awaited in the cash-strapped former Soviet country as it grapples with the costs of a two-year conflict in the pro-Russian separatist east and attempts to dig out of a dramatic economic swoon.
The Fund approved a new $17.5-billion (15.4-billion-euro) loan programme in March 2015 that included an initial lump payment of $5 billion and provided for the subsequent release of $1.7 billion every three months.
But Ukraine has so far only received $6.7 billion and seen no new disbursements since the second half of last year.
The IMF has been frustrated by the slow adoption of painful belt-tightening measures that were being resisted by populist parties and damaged the approval ratings of leaders who rose to power in the wake of Ukraine's February 2014 pro-EU revolt.
Political mayhem spurred by allegations of state-level corruption and the influence of powerful tycoons over key decisions and appointments also put the breaks on the resumption of lending.
That conflict was settled when prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk submitted his resignation and was replaced by Volodymyr Groysman in April.
The protege of pro-Western President Petro Poroshenko has since vowed to keep strictly to the measures prescribed by the IMF.
Groysman last month crucially met one of the Fund's key demands by pushing through parliament legislation that nearly doubled average household gas tariffs -- an unpopular reversal of the Soviet-era practise of spending vast sums on state subsidies.
But the government overhaul also cost US-born finance minister Natalie Jaresko her job.
The former State Department worker and private banker was highly regarded in Western financial circles and seen as a key interlocutor in talks with the Fund.
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Her replacement Oleksandr Danylyuk, a relatively unknown figure outside Ukraine, previously served as the deputy head of Poroshenko's administration.
The Fund said in a statement issued before the team's arrival that the "mission will continue policy discussions with the Ukrainian authorities" but gave no hint about the possible release of further aid.
Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv said last month that he expected the Fund to approve a new tranche payment by June.
A resumption of IMF lending would also trigger the release of billions of dollars of other foreign aid.
The IMF last month lowered Ukraine's 2016 economic growth forecast to 1.5 percent from 2.0 percent.
Ukraine's economy shrank by 9.9 percent last year and 6.8 percent in 2014.
(Corrects 5th paragraph to remove reference on GMR helping develop Mumbai airport)
NEW DELHI, May 9 (Reuters) - Malaysian utility Tenaga Nasional, backed by sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, will buy a 30 percent stake in the energy unit of indebted Indian infrastructure group GMR for $300 million in cash, the companies said on Monday.
The deal comes as most Indian power companies are struggling with softer-than-expected demand and heavy debt brought on by years of aggressive expansion, inviting pressure from lenders to divest assets to repay loans.
But the entry of a deep-pocketed foreign player like Tenaga into an economy looking to provide power to its 1.3 billion people, widens the pool of potential buyers for other Indian power companies also looking to sell stakes while expanding operations.
"India has a large and supply-constrained power market with demand spurred by economic growth and (Tenaga) will be able to capture the long-term growth of the Indian electricity market," Tenaga said in a statement. (http://bit.ly/1OaG0a0)
GMR, known for the New Delhi airport it helped develop, said it will use the proceeds from the deal to cut debt. Its net debt was 410 billion rupees ($6.15 billion) as of last year. (http://reut.rs/1UMw3B0)
GMR Energy, whose investors include Singapore-based Temasek Holdings and a consortium led by India's IDFC Bank , has an operating capacity of around 2,300 megawatts (MW) and a pipeline of around 2,330 MW more projects, mainly coal and gas-fired but also hydro and solar energy.
Tenaga said the partnership with GMR will come with "significant opportunities to further develop renewable energy assets, in particular solar", and is in-line with its five-year plan to secure new generation capacity internationally. ($1 = 66.6202 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Krishna N. Das, editing by David Evans)
Photo: Getty Images
Indonesian maid Maryani binte Usman Utar, 30, was charged in court on Tuesday (10 May) for causing the death of one-year-old Richelle Teo Yan Jia.
Maryani was charged on one count of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which led to the death of the toddler.
On Sunday (8 May), between 2:00am and 7:36am, Maryani allegedly punched Richelles neck and gripped it tightly until the toddler stopped crying. The incident happened at her employers home at Blk 225 Simei Street 4, while the toddlers father was reportedly praying in his bedroom and the mother and brother were still out.
It was also heard in court that Maryani had the knowledge that such acts were likely to cause death, and was therefore charged under Section 304b of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.
She is currently being remanded for a week to assist in investigations. If found guilty, she is liable for a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a fine.
According to media reports, the toddlers father discovered that his daughter was unconscious on Sunday morning. He then took Richelle to Changi General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 10:08am.
Maryani was not home at the time as she was on her day off. Police arrested her at the Marina Bay area on the same day.
Maryani is believed to have worked with the family for one year, and that this is her first job in Singapore.
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Seven Indonesian teenagers were jailed Tuesday for the brutal murder and gang rape of a 14-year-old girl that sparked a national debate on sexual violence.
They were among a gang who set upon the schoolgirl while she was on her way home in a small village on the western island of Sumatra.
Her battered body was found three days later in woods, tied up and naked, and 12 people were arrested over the attack.
On Tuesday seven attackers, aged 16 and 17, were found guilty at a court in the Curup district of Sumatra and sentenced to 10 years in jail each.
"This is in line with our demands," said Eko Hening Wardhono, an official from the attorney-general's office, adding that police were still investigating the other five.
A further two suspects are still on the run.
The crime took place in early April but it only caught the attention of the nation a month later, as reports of the incident went viral on social media and tens of thousands signed online petitions.
The case led activists to call for harsher punishments for sex attackers and sparked protests in the capital Jakarta. It also prompted President Joko Widodo to call for better protection for women.
It has drawn comparisons with the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012, which sparked mass protests and led to an overhaul of India's rape laws.
Activist Rita Pranawati, from government-backed rights group the Indonesian Child Protection Commission, welcomed Tuesday's jail terms but said more needed to be done to tackle the root causes of sexual violence.
"Cases like this happen due to various reasons, from parenting problems, to bad education and drinking problems," she said.
Sexual violence against women is rampant in Indonesia, according to the National Commission on Violence Against Women.
ECB Stimulus, Brexit, and 12 Europe-Focused Mutual Funds
(Continued from Prior Part)
Performance evaluation of the Brown Advisory WMC Strategic European Equity Fund
The Brown Advisory WMC Strategic European Equity Fund Investor Shares (BIAHX) fell 1.1% in 1Q16. That made it third among the 12 funds in this review. In the past one year, the fund posted small gains of 0.2%, which again placed it third in its peer group. Meanwhile, from the end of December 2015 until April 25, 2016, the fund rose 0.8%. In the graph below, you can see its performance against two ETFs: the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK) and the iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF (EZU).
Lets look at what contributed to the funds superior performance in 1Q16.
Portfolio composition and contribution to returns
Financials, which forms a little more than a tenth of BIAHXs portfolio, was the biggest negative contributor to the funds returns in 1Q16. UBS Group (UBS) led the negative contributors, which included Prudential (PUK) and Julius Baer Group. There was no sizable positive contributor that could have helped reduce the drag in the sector.
Healthcare was second to financials in terms of negative contribution. UCB, a Belgian biopharmaceutical company, declined the most in the sector. Smith & Nephew (SNN), Bayer (BAYZF), and Hikma Pharmaceuticals were substantial negative contributors as well.
Industrials came to the rescue. BIAHXs largest invested sector was also the biggest positive contributor to the funds returns in 1Q16. KONE Oyj powered the sectors returns in the quarter with the help of Swiss company Geberit and Danish transportation company DSV. Swedish lock manufacturing company ASSA ABLOY Group dragged a little on the sectors returns.
Increased exposure to consumer staples helped BIAHX since the sector emerged as a positive contributor. It helped reduce the funds negative returns for 1Q16. British American Tobacco (BTI) was the primary reason the sector contributed positively in the period. It had help from Heineken (HEINY) and LOreal (LRLCY).
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Investor takeaways
BIAHXs unique composition was helpful to BIAHX in capping its decline in 1Q16. Industrials and consumer staples were able to reduce the drag from financials and healthcare. Although it wasnt enough to overcome all the negative contribution, it was enough to make the fund the third-best performerand the second-least declinerfor the period.
BIAHX outperformed passively managed VGK for the period. Its stock selection from the consumer staples, financials, and industrials sectors outperformed their peers in VGK.
Existing investors may decide to keep their investments in BIAHX. The funds portfolio turnover is on the higher side, but so far, the fund manager has been rewarding investors even after the churn. New investors may find the funds unique position appealing.
Lets move on now to the next fund under review: the Fidelity Advisor Europe Fund Class A (FHJUX).
Continue to Next Part
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How Did Sprouts Farmers Market Shape up in 1Q16?
Fiscal 1Q16 earnings overview
Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) reported results for the first quarter of fiscal 2016 on Thursday, May 5, 2016. The organic and natural food retailer came in ahead of Wall Street estimates, beating the consensus by $0.01 and reporting EPS (earnings per share) of $0.30. But in revenue, the company reported only $993.2 million, missing the consensus by $16.8 million.
Here are the highlights from Sprouts 1Q16 results:
net sales of $993.2 million, growing 16% YoY (year-over-year)
comparable store sales 4.8% higher YoY (two-year comparable store sales growth 9.5% higher)
adjusted net income of $46.2 milliona 20% YoY increase
adjusted diluted EPS of $0.30a 20% YoY increase
Market reaction
Sprouts stock price dropped to $25.5 per share from about $27.38 per share following the companys results release on May 5, 2016.
Established in 2002, Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) operates as a value-oriented healthy grocery store, and offers fresh, natural, and organic food. The company operates 230 stores in thirteen US states (as of April 2016). It follows a small-box format with an average store size of 28,00030,000 square feetabout half the size of Whole Foods Markets (WFM) stores and about one-third the size of Krogers (KR) combination stores.
Investors looking to invest in SFM through ETFs can look into the iShares Morningstar Small-Cap Growth ETF (JKK), which has ~0.81% in SFM.
In this series
Keep reading for more details on SFMs fiscal 1Q16 results. Well evaluate the key drivers behind the companys financial performance in 1Q16, analyze its stock market performance, and compare its valuations with supermarket peers like Whole Foods Market (WFM), Supervalu (SVU), and Kroger (KR).
Lets start with the details on SFMs revenues in 1Q16.
Continue to Next Part
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Moscow (AFP) - Russia's foreign ministry on Tuesday said global powers would gather in Vienna on May 17 to discuss the crisis in Syria, where a recent surge in fighting has threatened peace efforts.
Speaking to AFP, a spokeswoman said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "is planning" to take part in the next week's meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG).
Moscow -- a key backer of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad -- is currently spearheading a diplomatic push to resolve the conflict as co-chair of ISSG alongside the United States.
Washington and Moscow on Monday vowed to "redouble" efforts to end the five-year war in Syria, as regime forces and rebels in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo agreed to extend a truce for a second time.
Russia pledged to pressure Syria to "minimise" air operations over civilian areas while the US promised to support its "regional allies to help them prevent the flow of fighters, weapons, or financial support to terrorist organisations across their borders".
The statement also opened the door to greater joint cooperation in combatting the Islamic State group, saying both sides were "committed to undertaking efforts to develop a shared understanding of the threat posed, and territory controlled, by ISIL and the Nusra Front".
The two nations said they decided to issue a joint statement following violence that threatened to undermine peace efforts.
The ceasefire had come under strain in "several areas of the country" in recent days, it said.
Lavrov also discussed the next meeting of the ISSG with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, a foreign ministry statement said.
A surge in fighting in Aleppo has threatened to kill off a broader February 27 ceasefire deal brokered by Moscow and Washington which had raised hopes of a political solution to end violence that has killed more than 270,000 people.
A temporary truce between government forces and rebel groups introduced last week was extended to Wednesday at 2100 GMT, the Syrian army said Monday.
The ISSG -- made up of 17 countries and organisations including the United Nations, but excluding parties from inside Syria -- began gathering last year and has held a number of meetings as part of the most concerted international peace drive yet on Syria.
Tehran (AFP) - Iran's army is now equipped with a Russian air defence system after a long and controversial delivery process, Defence Minister General Hossein Dehghan was quoted as saying Tuesday.
"I inform our people that... we are in possession of the strategic S-300 system" and that it "serves our air force's counterattack command," Dehghan said, according to ISNA news agency.
Parts of the system, including missile tubes and radar equipment, were displayed on April 17 during a military parade in southern Tehran.
The United States and Israel have criticised Russia for the sale of the S-300 system to the Islamic republic.
Tehran says it is needed to strengthen its air defence against possible attacks, including on its nuclear facilities.
Iran and Russia originally signed a contract for its delivery in 2007, but in 2010 Moscow suspended the sale after the UN Security Council issued a resolution against Iran's nuclear programme.
In 2015, shortly before the conclusion of an international agreement on Tehran's nuclear programme, Moscow re-authorised the delivery.
The two countries are also in talks for delivery to Iran of Sukhoi SU-30 fighter jets, a deal also criticised by Washington.
Dehghan also announced that Iran will start manufacturing this year an air defence system, Bavar 373, "capable of destroying cruise missiles, drones, combat aircraft and ballistic missiles."
"This long-range system is able to destroy several targets at once," he added.
Tehran (AFP) - Iran is preparing international legal action to recover nearly $2 billion that the US Supreme Court has ordered be paid as compensation to American victims of terror attacks, President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday.
"We will soon take the case of the $2 billion to the international court," Rouhani said in a televised speech.
"We will not allow the United States to swallow this money so easily," the president said to a crowd of thousands in the southeastern city of Kerman.
The US Supreme Court ruled on April 20 that Iran must hand nearly $2 billion in frozen central bank assets to the survivors and relatives of those killed in attacks it has been accused of organising.
The attacks include the 1983 bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.
The Supreme Court ruling affects some 1,000 Americans.
It came despite hopes for better relations between Tehran and Washington, after a landmark nuclear deal last July between Iran and major powers led by the United States.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he is ready to help settle the dispute over the assets, but only if both governments make that request.
As the sun sets over the front line outside the Iraqi town of Makhmour, Sergeant Farsal Goran packs tobacco into a waterpipe. Behind him is the bare concrete building where he and his Kurdish comrades sleep in shifts. In front of him lie a wall of sandbags. Roughly a mile in the distance is a town held by ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria. Earlier in the day, his unit traded mortar fire with the ISIS fighters on the other side. Now the tension has eased. Its like a picnic, one of them jokes. Goran prepares the shisha over a plastic table, then sits on the ground to smoke.
Makhmour is one major front in the battle between ISIS and the forces arrayed against it in northern Iraq. The town is roughly sixty miles south of Mosul. Once Iraqs second largest city home to 2.5 million people, Mosul fell to ISIS during the groups dramatic sweep across the border from Syria in June 2014. Today, Makhmour is a focal point of a much anticipated, but long-delayed operation to reclaim Mosul.
The Makhmour front is also a microcosm of the political stalemate that currently leaves the battle against ISIS stalled. Adjacent to the Kurdish units of the Kurdish Regional Government, nicknamed Peshmerga, the Iraqi national army is stationed. Also located in Makhmour is a base used by the U.S. military, which has quietly increased its forces in Iraq to more than 4,000, higher than any time since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011. It was in Makhmour that a U.S. Marine staff sergeant, Louis Cardin, 27, was killed in an ISIS attack on March 19.
While the Iraqi army, Kurds, U.S. military, and other forces are nominally allied against ISIS, no agreement exists among the various sides for how to conduct an operation to retake Mosul, or how to restore order, rebuild and govern in the aftermath. The gridlock means that a major Iraqi city, with an estimated 600,000 people still living inside, is trapped for the foreseeable future under ISIS rule.
In Makhmour, the Kurds share the front with the Iraqi army. According to the commanders on the ground, the two forces coordinate daily, for example radioing each other when there are incoming mortars from the ISIS side. But the coordination does not go beyond this basic level.
I dont know whats going on exactly. They dont tell us, says Colonel Abdulrahman Zebari, a commander leading Kurdish troops along the Makhmour front, referring to his colleagues in the Iraqi military. According to the commanders, if they are going to venture outside of what they regard as Kurdish territory, they need an order from the semi-autonomous Kurdish government. That, in turn, will take an agreement between the Kurdish leadership and the government in Baghdad.
For now were not going to fight. Were going to help the Iraqi army. These villages are not Kurdish villages, Col. Zebari says. His forces will hold the line, he says, but they will not advance. In the future I dont know if were going to try to liberate them or not. Were waiting for the order.
The Iraqi military announced that it launched an operation to re-take Mosul on March 24, but for the moment the campaign has been limited to re-taking a handful of villages. In the meantime, ISIS fighters continue to launch attacks on Kurdish and Iraqi military forces, while the U.S.-led coalition continues its campaign of airstrikes on what it says are ISIS targets across Iraq and Syria. Iraqi and U.S. officials appear to be managing expectations. In an interview with CBS news in April, President Obama said, My expectation is that by the end of the year, we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall.
When ISIS seized Mosul in June 2014, the Iraqi army collapsed. Farsal Goran, the 29-year-old sergeant who is now deployed with the Kurds along the Makhmour front, had been a member of the Iraqi army when the fall came. He was deployed at Badoush Prison, near Mosul. As the jihadis approached, he and the rest of his unit abandoned the area. Even the commanders ran away. There was no reason to stay, he says. He fled to Kurdish lines at Mosul dam, he says, where Kurdish soldiers told him and other soldiers to remove their Iraqi army uniforms before proceeding to safety.
Gorans Iraqi army unit included both Kurds as will as both Sunni and Shiite Muslim Arabs. He says his unit splintered along communal lines. Some of the Shiites joined the powerful Shiite militias. He and other Kurds joined the Kurdish forces. Some of the Sunnis, he says, stayed in Mosul and joined ISIS. He claims that some of them are still in contact with him, taunting him over Facebook. They told me, Kurds are nothing without the Western forces. Were coming to Kurdistan one day, he says. His former comrades betrayal appear to have hardened him, and he now expresses ethnic bigotry. The Arab doesnt know how to think about the future, he says. He inhales the shisha, exhales, and passes it on.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza will be barred from entering Israel from early Wednesday as it mourns its fallen and celebrates its 68th anniversary, the army said.
Crossing points will be sealed from 1:00 am on Wednesday (2200 GMT Tuesday) until midnight (2100 GMT) on Thursday, it said in a statement.
The borders are often closed on security grounds on Israeli public holidays, for fear of militant attacks as large numbers of civilians congregate.
The Jewish state on Tuesday evening began observing its annual day of remembrance for fallen troops and slain civilians.
At sunset on Wednesday, solemn gatherings at military cemeteries and war memorials give way to public performances, street parties and general merrymaking until Thursday evening, marking 68 years since the declaration of the Israeli state in 1948.
The date is marked according to the Jewish calendar and falls on May 11-12 this year.
Palestinians mark the anniversary on May 15, when they commemorate the Nakba, or "catastrophe" of the creation of Israel, which sparked the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli authorities have refused to renew the travel documents of a leader of a campaign to boycott the Jewish state, officials said Tuesday.
Omar Barghouti is one of the most prominent campaigners in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which campaigns for a global boycott of Israel until, amongst other demands, the country withdraws from all occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel sees it as a strategic threat and accuses it of anti-Semitism -- a claim BDS denies.
Barghouti was informed last month that the interior ministry would not renew his travel documents, which are usually granted to permanent residents of Israel who do not have full citizenship.
An interior ministry spokeswoman told AFP that Barghouti could not yet receive his travel documents since Interior Minister Aryeh Deri was considering revoking his permanent residency.
"The minister wants to consider his status. He lives in Ramallah most of the time and part of what determines one's permanent residency is where the centre of life is," she said. "His (BDS) activities are also part of this."
Barghouti, whose family are Palestinian but who was born in the Gulf state of Qatar, married an Israeli citizen of Arab descent, entitling him to claim permanent residency.
Barghouti denied that he had ever been permanently based in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"I reside with my family in our home in Acre (in Israel)," he told AFP. "I've had Israeli permanent residency for almost 23 years, in accordance with the law and without any violations."
He said that he had been due to attend two major events in California in recent weeks but had been prevented from doing so, though he did speak to them via Skype.
"Effectively I cannot travel at all," he told AFP.
"Israel is imposing this travel ban on me, demonising me and threatening me to intimidate me into silence," he added, vowing to continue his work.
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At a conference earlier this year, Deri announced he had been asked to revoke Barghouti's residency altogether and was "inclined" to do so.
"He uses his citizenship, his permanent residency, to come in and out to the rest of the world and act against Israel in the most severe way," he told attendees at an anti-BDS conference.
Barghouti said he feared this was the ultimate goal of removing his right to travel.
"It is a first step towards implementing Deri's threat to revoke my permanent residency," he said.
Jerusalem (AFP) - An Israeli army officer was seriously injured by an improvised explosive device (IED) near a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank Tuesday night, officials said.
"A roadside IED exploded, injuring an Israel Defence Forces officer who was evacuated for emergency treatment," a statement on the army's official Twitter feed said.
A spokesperson for Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital said it was treating "a young man in serious condition with severe facial injuries from the explosion of a device and possible additional injuries."
The incident occurred near the Palestinian village of Hizmeh, north of Jerusalem.
There has been a wave of Palestinian attacks targeting Israeli civilians and security forces, primarily in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Since October last year, 204 Palestinians and 28 Israelis have been killed, according to an AFP count.
Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.
Standing beside a Humvee with a rifle slung over her shoulder, 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Rotem Manzur shields her eyes from the merciless desert sun, and peers out over the 165-mile-long, 16-foot-high border fence separating Israel from Egypt.
About 300 meters from where she stands is an Egyptian soldier standing at his lookout post on the Egyptian side, doing the same thing Manzur is doing: keeping an eye out for ISIS-affiliated militants who have taken over a small part of the northern Sinai Peninsula.
Look how close they are, says Manzur, pointing to the Egyptian border post and then to the Israeli road that runs along this side of the fence. It would be so easy for ISIS to fire on this road, she says, as she ponders what would happen if gunmen ambushed the Egyptian soldiers, something that has been happening almost daily elsewhere in northern Sinai.
The Egyptian soldier waves at Manzur, who gets back in her Humvee to continue her patrol. She is one of approximately 120 female combat soldiers from the Caracal battalionIsraels first co-ed combat unitwho stand as Israels first line of defense against Islamist militants in Sinai.
The Egyptian army were once Israels adversaries, but the rise and growth of ISIS has brought these Middle Eastern neighbors, whose peace treaty is often seen as a fragile one, much closer.
According to Israeli security officials, Egypt and Israel are now engaged in an unprecedented collaborative mission to prevent the Sinai Peninsula from becoming the next stronghold of ISIS.
This definitely represents the closest Israel and Egypt have ever cooperated on an intelligence level, says Avi Melamed, the Fellow of Intelligence and Middle East Affairs at the Eisenhower Institute in Washington D.C. Israeli intelligence services do not rush to share their information with other intelligence agencies, even if its considered a friendly one, and especially not when its not friendly.
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Egyptian military activity in the Sinai was until recently prohibited by the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty, which transferred control of the Sinai from Israel to Egypt. This prohibition allowed outlaws of all kinds to operate more easily in the northern Sinai. About three years ago, Israel began permitting Egypt to deploy additional armed forces and carry out air strikes against Islamist rebels, says Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official. Israel and Egypt are now sharing intelligence, to warn each other of militant activity near the Israeli and Gazan borders.
Prior to the bombing of the Russian jet that exploded over the Sinai desert in October 2015, killing all 224 people aboard, Western security officials paid little attention to the Sinai branch of ISIS. But Egypt and Israel have watched closely as a group of Salafist militants in the Sinai established themselves as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem) following the 2011 fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and proceeded to attack Egyptian and Israeli soldiers, civilians, and foreign tourists. In 2011, 13 Israelis and Egyptians were killed in a series of attacks that emanated from northern Sinai. In 2014, three South Korean tourists and an Egyptian driver were killed by a suicide bomber as they waited to cross the Taba border post between Egypt and Israel. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis claimed responsibility.
A few months later, in November 2014, the group gave its allegiance to ISIS, declaring itself the Sinai Province of the Islamic State. Since then, Israeli officials say it has became larger, more organized, better armed, and better trained.
According to an Israeli army intelligence official, ISIS in Sinai has anti-tank missiles, explosive belts, rocket-propelled grenades and IEDs, and its fighters live among the local population and travel through Sinai in armored trucks.
ISIS in Sinai are still in the early stages of development, and havent gained control of any major population centers, as they have in Syria, Iraq and Libya, but that could change. According to the intelligence official, there is evidence of ISIS trying to establish Sharia law in some areas. Estimates of their numbers range wildly, he said, from 500 fighters to 5,000.
Its tough to identify someone as a member of ISIS, says the official, because many Bedouin civilians in northern Sinai support the group, providing it with shelter, manpower, and safe passage through their territory. Most of the militants, he adds, are from local Bedouin communities, while some are from other parts of Egypt, and a smaller number may be from Gaza, Sudan and Libya.
While Bedouins are not typically religious, says Shlomo Brom, senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), they have long felt alienated by the Egyptian government, which they believe has treated them as second class citizens. That resentment was leveraged by extremists when the Mubarak regime and its prison system collapsed.
When the Islamic radicals that were imprisoned by Mubarak escaped, many of them escaped to Sinai and brought their ideology with them, says Brom.
Similar to ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the Sinai Province is focused first and foremost on destabilizing the domestic government, so the vast majority of its attacks are aimed at Egyptian forces.
Their agenda is fighting the Egyptian state and particularly this Egyptian regime, which is considered anti-Islamic because it replaced the Muslim Brotherhood, Brom says, referring to the military ouster of Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Northern Sinai has been in a state of emergency since October 2014, when militants ambushed and killed 33 Egyptian security personnel. An attack by ISIS on an Egyptian checkpoint in March killed 13 policemen, and in April, the group killed 15 soldiers and two Egyptian civilians in a single day. Last week, after an Egyptian soldier was killed by a bomb, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi extended the state of emergency.
In recent months, Israeli security experts say that ISIS has signaled that its planning a sophisticated attack on Israel from the Sinai. Threatening messages to that effect have come directly from ISIS headquarters. In a video message released on Dec. 26, 2015, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi addresses Israel, saying, We are getting closer to you day by day. Do not think that we have forgotten about you.
While Israeli security experts say the danger posed by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon remains far larger than the challenge from ISIS, the warning is taken very seriously.
This is a much larger threat than it was a year ago, says the intelligence official. We, of course, are not intimidated by ISIS or the Sinai Province, but we take those statements as clues to the timing of the next terror attack.
Israel and Egypt arent the only ones taking precautions. The U.S. is reportedly considering reducing the number of U.S. troops participating in the Multinational Force and Observers, which monitors compliance with the 1979 peace treaty. Defense officials are contemplating ways to automate aspects of the peacekeeping mission in order to decrease the number of soldiers deployed in an increasingly dangerous area.
Until now, it was just intelligence, but now ISIS is saying it themselves for the first time, said Captain Ksusha Levin, a 25-year-old company commander who has served in Caracal on the Sinai border for seven years. We know something will happen, she says. ISIS said they will hit Israel on the border. We dont know what will happen, but we are preparing for when it will.
AREZZO, Italy (Reuters) - The president of four Italian banks rescued from impending bankruptcy in November said on Tuesday that May 12 was the deadline for non-binding offers to buy them, and purchase procedures must be closed by September 30.
The government salvaged Banca Marche, Banca Etruria, CariChieti and CariFe at the end of November, using 3.6 billion euros (2.7 billion pounds) from a crisis fund that was financed by healthy Italian banks.
Roberto Nicastro told reporters in the central Italian town of Arezzo that he felt "positive" about the prospects for the banks and had received 26 expressions of interest to buy them.
(Reporting by Silvia Ognibene, writing by Gavin Jones)
Edith Cooper
"The best questions that candidates ask in an interview are the ones that they can't get an answer to in other places," Edith Cooper, executive vice president and global head of Human Capital Management at Goldman Sachs, tells Business Insider.
Cooper, who has interviewed thousands of job candidates during her tenure at Goldman Sachs, explains that questions relating to the structure of the business or the divisions of Goldman Sachs are fine to ask, but they're easy to answer yourself if you do your homework.
In fact, Goldman Sachs expects candidates to come into an interview having done extensive research on the company, and she points to Goldman Sachs' Careers homepage as a valuable resource of public information ranging from the various divisions of the firm to people profiles.
More interesting and valuable questions are ones that come from a sincere desire to learn if Goldman Sachs is a place where you want to work, Cooper says.
"An interview is really a two-way conversation," she explains. "We are interviewing to figure out whether you're the right candidate, but it also should also be an opportunity for someone to determine whether Goldman is the right place for them as well."
Examples could include, "How has this position evolved?" and "How would you describe the company culture?"
"Those questions really prompt not only answers, but real conversations," Cooper says.
Check out the full interview below:
More From Business Insider
By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - A federal judge in New Jersey on Tuesday ordered the release of a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the criminal case against two former allies of Republican Governor Chris Christie in a 2013 scandal involving lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.
U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark ruled in favor of several media organizations that sought the list, saying the public interest in seeing names linked to "Bridgegate" outweighed the privacy interests of those named.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman had opposed the release, citing the potential harm to reputations and privacy, and saying the co-conspirator designation "will become relevant, if at all" only at trial.
A spokesman for Fishman declined to comment.
Last May, Fishman's office unveiled criminal charges against Bridget Kelly, a former Christie deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, a former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The defendants were accused of wire fraud and civil rights deprivation for arranging the September 2013 shutdown of bridge access lanes in Fort Lee, New Jersey, allegedly to punish the Democratic mayor there for not endorsing Christie's successful reelection bid.
The closures snarled traffic for several days, causing big delays for drivers and hurting local businesses.
Kelly and Baroni have pleaded not guilty. David Wildstein, another former Port Authority official, pleaded guilty to two conspiracy charges.
Christie has not been charged, and has denied involvement in wrongdoing.
In her decision, Wigenton said the scandal has received such extensive media coverage that "very little" remained private.
She also called it likely that anyone on the list would be a public employee, or an elected or appointed official.
"Although privacy for third-parties is indeed important, this court is satisfied that the privacy interests of uncharged third parties are insufficiently compelling to outweigh the public's right of access," she wrote.
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Bruce Rosen, a lawyer for the media companies, on Tuesday asked the judge for the "immediate" release of the list.
Christie made an unsuccessful run for the White House this year. He was chosen on Monday to lead the White House transition team for Donald Trump, the only candidate left in the race to be the Republican candidate in the Nov. 8 presidential election.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr and Frances Kerry)
The American comic book could once again be the subject of a small screen adaptation, five years after Fox's unsuccessful attempt, reports Deadline. This time, it's the book's author, Joe Hill -- Stephen King's son -- who'll be in charge of screenwriting the adaptation, which could then head to a cable network or a digital platform (e.g., Netflix).
Take one haunted house full of mysterious rooms, throw in a load of hidden keys with supernatural powers -- also being sought by a spooky hate-filled creature -- then add one family trying to come to terms with a father's murder, and there are plenty of ingredients to make "Locke & Key" a truly gripping TV series.
However, in 2011, Fox turned down an initial TV adaptation based on the books, no doubt over concerns about high production costs. In spite of that, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci -- the pair behind the first TV project (via DreamWorks TV) -- firmly believed in the potential of the series, spurred by the positive feedback the pilot received after screening at Comic-Con in San Diego. The duo instead turned their attention to a big-screen adaptation, in the form of a trilogy, developed through Universal Pictures.
Back to square one
There has been no news on the "Locke & Key" movie project since summer 2014. All has been quiet since the arrival of screenwriter Albert Torres was announced. Now, it seems that the adaptation has gone back to square one, with a TV series back on the agenda.
With Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci now busy with other movie projects, Joe Hill himself has been signed up to write the small-screen adaptation of his graphic novel series. With six volumes published between 2008 and 2014, the series could take a six-season format.
"Locke & Key" follows Nina Locke, a widow and mother of three children trying to rebuild her life at the family home in Massachusetts following the horrific murder of her husband. The new residents find themselves in a spooky mansion, where mysterious keys with incredible powers give them access to various different universes. This, however, is a secret they share with a demonic being created called Dodge, who's determined to open the Black Door to give all of hell's demons an entrance to Earth.
The hit "Locke & Key" comic book series has been translated into dozens of languages and has sold over a million copies worldwide.
From Esquire
Thanks to science, we can eat four pounds of chocolate a week and drink two glasses of wine a day. Science is amazing! Every week we see headlines in our Facebook feeds touting questionable claims of coffee reversing liver damage or preventing colon cancer or causing colon cancer and also liver damage. It makes no logical sense, but if science is making these claims, it must be true. Science can't be wrong-it's science.
"Coffee today is like God in the Old Testament: It will either save you or kill you depending on how much you believe in its magic powers," John Oliver said last night. "After a certain point, all that ridiculous information can make you wonder: Is science bullshit?"
It turns out that a lot of science-most of which we get from legitimate news outlets-is complete bullshit. These studies have either appeared in non-accredited scientific journals, have not been peer reviewed, or are just otherwise riddled with flaws.
Most of the time, Oliver says, scientists are being pressured to get studies published, which encourages them to force an experiment to have big findings or to exaggerate study results in press releases. Members of the media, in turn, takes these studies as the truth, and report these findings with little fac- checking on sample sizes or who is funding the study.
Oliver pointed out one study in particular which found driving while dehydrated was as bad as driving drunk. This study, however, looked at only 12 men and was produced by the European Hydration Institute, which is funded by Coca-Cola.
"You might reasonably think, 'Well no one knows anything about what causes cancer,'" Oliver said. "And that is a problem. Because that's the sort of thing that enabled tobacco companies for years to insist 'The science isn't in yet.'"
Johnny Depp's expressionless apology may have raised eyebrows, but he couldn't help but smirk as he joked about the incident during a press conference in London on Sunday.
"I'm going to do this everywhere I go. I would really like to apologize for not smuggling my dogs into England because it would have been a bad thing to do," Depp quipped, while promoting his new film, Alice Through the Looking Glass.
WATCH: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's 'Atrocious' Apology Video Mocked by Australian Deputy Prime Minister
Depp and Heard found themselves in hot water last year after Heard brought their dogs Pistol and Boo into Australia without putting the Yorkshire Terriers through required quarantine procedures.
After Heard, 30, pleaded guilty to falsifying documents in order to sneak the dogs into the country, a Queensland court let her off on a good behavior bond.
Two further charges were dropped after the pair agreed to record footage in which they highlight the importance of Australia's strict biosecurity rules.
The resulting video became the butt of jokes around the globe due to the couple's emotionless tone and awkward demeanor, many comparing the recording to a hostage video.
EXCLUSIVE: Alice Meets the Mad Hatter in 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' Sneak Peek
Showing his sense of humor, Depp, 52, brought up the incident during a photo call and tea for press at London's Corinthia Hotel.
Tim Burton, producer for Alice Through the Looking Glass, also got in on the joke, piping in, "I forgot to tell you. They're dead. I just sat on them upstairs by accident." Depp responded: "I tried to kill them after Australia."
Watch the bizarre apology video here:
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Every time I come back, Im a bit less. Pieces of you get chipped away. Beric Dondarrion had to say this, after he was brought back from the world of dead by R'hllor, the Lord of Light.
The resurrected Jon Snow as well wakes up with a woebegone face, and is completely devoured by the existential dilemma, if not nihilism.
Jon Snow was dead. He had been there, seen that what it feels like to be on the other side, and that has changed him. When Melisandre asks him what did he see, the mirthless hero replies, Nothing. There was nothing at all.
Contrary to the popular narrative, this hero doesnt don the cloak of a vanquisher; his return is marked by despondency than triumph.
Even Melisandres revelation that he could be the promised prince offers little consolation to the reluctant liberator. He asks Ser Davos,
I did what I thought was right, and I got murdered for it. Now Im back. Why?
Fans are optimistic that Game of Thrones season 6 will reveal the true identity of Jon Snow, and the recent progression of events seem to corroborate the R+L = J theory, which proposes that Ned Starks bastard could actually be the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. If that be the case, there is no better person than him to sit on the Iron Throne, barring Daenerys Targaryen.
Antithetical to Khaleesi who emerged from the funeral pyre stronger and more determined the revived Jon Snow is marked by reluctance; a self-loathing noble soul plagued by his convictions.
Even the execution of his traitors doesnt offer him any gratification.
If you may recall, Khaleesi shows no sign of remorse while executing Mirri Maz Duur, the witch who betrayed her, whereas we can sense pain in Jon Snows eyes when he looks at Olly before the latter gets hanged.
The Nights Watch had betrayed him. Wounded in soul and body, he decides to abandon his responsibility as Lord Commander, a cause he no more believes in.
The man who could end up sitting on the Iron Throne is embarking on a new journey, with fear in his heart and uncertainty in his mind. By presenting a hero who is vulnerable than valiant, George R.R Martin is breaking the stereotype and letting the quintessential dauntless male hero take a backseat.
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When Jon Snow took charge as Lord Commander, Maester Aemon told him Kill the boy, and let the man be born.
From the vantage point of a cliched narrative, that could mean machismo taking over hesitancy. But not in this case.
The Jon Snow conundrum indeed makes us question our certitudes.
Jon Stewart has kept a low profile since leaving The Daily Show last summer. Now, the former late night host has emerged to discuss the presidential race and share his feelings about Donald Trump.
Read: Trump Says He Has 'Great Respect' For Megyn Kelly in Clip of Highly Anticipated Interview
In an interview at the University of Chicagos Institute of Politics, Stewart sat down with former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod for his podcast, The Axe Files, where the comic let loose on the White House race.
Stewart rhetorically asked Axelrod: I'm not a constitutional scholar, so I can't necessarily say, but are you eligible to run if you're a man-baby or a baby-man?
In the 76-minute taping, Stewart said Trump has the physical attributes of a man but the temperament and hands of a baby.
Stewart questioned if Trump could be president because he is thin-skinned.
The comedian also discussed Trumps likely opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. He called the former senator from New York a very bright woman without the courage of her convictions ... That's not to say that she is not preferable to Donald Trump, because at this point I would vote for Mr. T over Donald Trump, he said.
Read: The 7 Things You Didn't Know About 'Daily Show' Host Trevor Noah
Stewart also blamed the Democratic party for Trumps meteoric rise as the GOP frontrunner.
"The door is open to an a**hole like Donald Trump because the Democrats haven't done enough to show people that government, that can be effective for people, can be efficient for people. And if you can't do that, then you've lost the right to make that change and someone's going to come in and demagogue you, he said.
Watch: Trump's Ancestors Made Wine in This Tiny German Town for 100 Years
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Jon Stewart may not be hosting The Daily Show anymore, but we dont need to watch him on a political satire show every night to figure out how he feels about Donald Trump.
I would vote for Mr. T. over Donald Trump, Stewart said Monday during a taping of the University of Chicagos Institute of Politics The Axe Files, a podcast hosted by President Obamas former senior advisor David Axelrod.
Stewart then took another aim at the presumptive GOP nominee, saying: Im not a Constitutional scholar so I cant necessarily say, but are you eligible to run if you are a man-baby? Or a baby-man?
Also Read: Jon Stewart's Final 'Daily Show' Reels in 3.5 Million Viewers
Stewart, ever so polite, made sure not offend regular man-baby Americans.
Im not here to be politically incorrect, if theyre referred to as man-baby Americans but he is a man-baby, he joked. He has the physical countenance of a man and a babys temperament and hands.
When it comes to the Democratic race, Stewart said Clinton is going to be in big trouble if she doesnt convince voters of her authenticity.
If youre hoping this is a sign that Stewart is itching to do get back on TV, dont hold your breath.
Im not going to be on television anymore, he said, insisting he wasnt restless.
I feel like Im engaged now, Stewart said. When youre not on television, youre still alive and youre still engaged in the world. And I feel more engaged now in the real world than I ever did sitting on television interviewing politicians.
Also Read: Jon Stewart to Military: 'Trump's Going to Keep You Busy' (Video)
But his fans could be getting their Stewart fix sooner rather than later in the form of a short, viral-video political cartoons starting in September.
Were working on technology and animation to try and do interesting and little small bits, he explained, adding, right before downplaying expectations. The October surprise in this election is not going to be a two-minute cartoon that Im going to release.
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Stewart stepped down as host of The Daily Show after 17 years in August 2015.
In November 2015, it was announced that Stewart signed a four-year deal with HBO that will include exclusive digital content for HBO NOW, HBO Go and other platforms.
HBO chief Richard Plepler said last week that he is hopeful that Stewart will return to the air before the election, adding that he has free rein to do whatever he wants.
Related stories from TheWrap:
Why a Donald Trump Presidency Scares London's First Muslim Mayor
Trump Today: The Donald Demands Congrats From CNN, Disses MSNBC (Video)
'The View' Bashes Donald Trump's Latest Hillary Clinton Attacks: 'He's Nuts'
Amman (AFP) - Jordan has signed a contract to buy TOW anti-tank missiles from US firm Raytheon, the company said in a statement issued Tuesday at the SOFEX arms fair for special forces.
Raytheon said the contract was signed between the Jordanian army and the US defence department, without specifying the contract's amount or the number of missiles involved.
It said Raytheon would begin deliveries "this year".
The Arizona-based arms giant has already delivered "more than 690,000 TOW missiles to US and allied warfighters", the statement said.
The TOW -- tube-launched, optically tracked, wireless-guided -- missile has been used in Syria by mainstream rebel forces since 2014 and played a key role in battles against regime forces in the centre and northwest of the country.
Washington gives Jordan aid of more than a billion dollars a year, about half of which is military.
Jordan is home to 630,000 registered Syrian refugees, but Amman says the true number of Syrians in the country is closer to 1.4 million.
SOFEX -- the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference -- was founded by Jordan's King Abdullah II in 1996 and is held every two years.
More than 380 companies from 37 countries are taking part in the current SOFEX in Amman, the organisers say.
Washington's ambassador to Amman, Alice Wells, told AFP that 69 US companies were taking part, and hailed the "solid partnership" between the United States and Jordan.
She also underlined the importance of new advances in the armaments industry in the fight against "terrorism".
By Promit Mukherjee and Krishna N. Das
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's JSW Steel Ltd has bid for the British operations of Tata Steel Ltd, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed on Tuesday, prompting concerns about its debt levels and putting pressure on its shares.
JSW Steel said in a statement it was evaluating UK steel assets but did not name any specific target.
"As part of the company's growth strategy, the company evaluates several opportunities including the current opportunity of UK steel facilities," JSW said.
"It is premature to add anything further at this stage."
JSW Steel, controlled by acquisitive billionaire Sajjan Jindal, wants to become the world's third-largest steel company and the bid for the Tata assets is in line with that goal, said a source close to the company.
The Financial Times first reported JSW's bid.
India's Tata said on Monday that seven expressions of interest for its British assets had advanced to the next stage of a sale process it began last month.
Tata did not name the bidders, but metals group Liberty House and a buyout team called Excalibur confirmed submitting expressions of interest.
Tata announced plans in March to sell its entire UK steel operation, which had been hit by cheap Chinese imports, soaring costs and weak demand.
Keen to avoid the loss of 10,000 jobs, Britain's Conservative government has offered hundreds of millions of pounds in support to potential buyers and said it could take a 25 percent stake in the firm.
Mumbai-based JSW Steel unsuccessfully bid in 2014 to buy some assets from Italy's second-largest steelmaker, Lucchini, to enter the European market. In 2010, it bought out Indian company Ispat Steel, more than a decade after JSW emerged from near-bankruptcy.
JSW Group, with interests in steel, power, cement and ports, had a gross debt of around 400 billion rupees ($6 billion) as of April, making it one of India's most indebted conglomerates.
JSW Steel Joint Managing Director, Seshagiri Rao, told Reuters last month that although the group was hungry for growth, it would not let its financial stability suffer.
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Infrastructure bankers in Mumbai say, however, that they are uncomfortable with the JSW Group's debt, and they think the company is only testing the waters with the Tata bid.
One potential deal-breaker is the big pension liabilities of the Port Talbot steel mill in Wales that JSW Steel might have to shoulder, said the bankers who did not want to be named.
The bankers also said that a bargain deal might help JSW Steel turn around Tata's money-losing UK business given their record of making steel efficiently and profitably in India.
JSW Steel's shares, which have risen a quarter so far this year, fell more than 3 percent on Tuesday to their lowest in a month. ($1 = 66.6700 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Krishna N. Das; Editing by Tom Hogue and Keith Weir)
(Reuters) - A Kansas City police detective died on Monday after he was shot while trying to prevent a carjacking near the Kansas Speedway racetrack, authorities said.
The detective died from his injuries at about 3.30 pm (1630 EDT) after undergoing surgery at an area hospital, said Terry Zeigler, the police chief for the department in Kansas City, Kansas.
After the detective was shot on Monday, the suspect, identified as 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, drove off in the officer's vehicle before ditching it for a number of cars that he stole as he fled, the last of which he crashed into a highway bridge post, police said.
Afterward, Ayers shot a motorist whose car he tried to steal, but she was able to drive away, the Kansas City Star newspaper reported.
Ayers was then shot and captured by police following a pursuit, police said.
He was treated at an area hospital and expected to live, the Star reported.
The newspaper identified the detective as 39-year-old Brad Lancaster, a U.S. Air Force veteran, and said his death marked the first time a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer had died in the line of duty since 1998.
The police department declined to release the identity of the officer.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Andrew Hay)
May 10 (Reuters) - Kansas defended its new school funding fix on Tuesday before the state supreme court, which must determine if the law complies with a February order to equitably distribute state money and keep schools operating past June 30.
Stephen McAllister, the state's solicitor general, said the plan signed into law by Governor Sam Brownback in April represents the best the legislature could do to narrow funding disparities among poor and rich school districts in a tough budget year.
"No one has come up with a way to make each district exactly equal," he told the justices, adding that the law represents a one-year solution to keep schools open while the legislature continues to work on the issue.
Justice Dan Biles questioned how long Kansas would have to operate under "unconstitutional" school funding formulas that have been the target of litigation for years.
"At what point does this process have to stop?" he asked.
Alan Rupe, an attorney representing four public school districts that sued the state, said the new law does not remedy the inequity problem. He urged justices to force Kansas lawmakers meet the state constitution's requirement to make schools a top priority by restricting spending on other government services not constitutionally protected.
McAllister called such a move an "unprecedented remedy," noting Kansas has allocated $4.5 billion for public schools.
The supreme court in February tossed out a funding formula enacted by the state in 2015 and set a June 30 deadline for Kansas to replace it with a constitutional plan, warning that without one schools would cease to operate.
The new formula takes into account the assessed valuation of property within a district on a per pupil basis and adopts a previously court-approved capital outlay equalization formula.
Kansas last month dropped revenue estimates for the current and next fiscal years by nearly $229 million. The state budget is feeling the effects from action taken by Brownback and the Republican-controlled legislature in recent years to cut corporate and other income taxes to help the state compete with bordering Missouri and other states for business development and jobs.
The state's reliance on one-time revenue measures to plug budget holes led Moody's Investors Service to place a negative outlook on Kansas' Aa2 credit rating and Standard & Poor's to warn it could downgrade its AA rating.
(Reporting By Karen Pierog; Editing by Alistair Bell)
(KANSAS CITY, Kan.) A Kansas City, Kansas, police detective helping respond to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack was fatally shot Monday, and a parolee sought for questioning in that and an ensuing string of reported carjackings was wounded after a shootout with police in neighboring Missouri.
The detective was shot at least twice about 12:30 p.m. near the Kansas Speedway, underwent surgery at a hospital and later died, his department said in a statement. His name was not immediately released, though a police spokesman, Patrick McCallop, called him a seasoned officer.
Police said the gunman, after wounding the detective, fled in the officers unmarked car, then hijacked a vehicle with two children inside before abandoning it in nearby Basehor, Kansas, leaving those kids unharmed.
Police publicly appealed for help in trying to find Curtis Ayers, 28, for questioning in the shooting. That Tonganoxie, Kansas, man ultimately was taken into custody in Kansas City, Missouri, when he crashed the car he was driving while being pursued by officers, then was shot by police after trying to carjack a womans vehicle.
That woman was wounded and taken to a hospital, a Kansas City, Missouri, police spokeswoman said without specifying her medical condition. Ayers was hospitalized in stable condition, McCallop said.
This individual was very dangerous. We are so happy that this individual is in custody, Kansas City, Missouri, police spokeswoman Kari Thompson told reporters later. We are so glad this situation has come to an end.
Ayers has had longstanding trouble with the law, having served time in Kansas prison in recent years for convictions involving child abandonment, fleeing or trying to elude law enforcers, and interference with a law enforcement officer, according to Associated Press research.
Ayers previously had been charged in North Carolina with offenses ranging from misdemeanor theft to possession of stolen goods and burglarizing vehicles.
From Cosmopolitan
The latest episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians was truly a packed one as it centered on Lamar Odom's first public appearance since nearly dying from an overdose. As you may recall, he made his debut at Kanye West's Yeezy show in New York City back in February. The episode also included the moment Khloe Kardashian showed Lamar what he looked like while in intensive care last year. The photo, which features tubes coming out of his mouth and nose, aired briefly on the episode.
The decision to air the photo comes months after Kim responded to rumors that there were camera crews at Lamar's hospital. In November, she told Ryan Seacrest that "the one thing that people don't understand about our family is that we do share so much, but we do keep a lot of things private, and that is definitely a moment that is very serious."
Lamar, who was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel last fall, told Kourtney and Khloe on the episode that he had had "real dreams" about "people that had passed on" during his hospitalization. On a lighter note, viewers also got to see a silent clip of Kanye playing The Life of Pablo for Lamar during a hospital visit. (At the time, the album was still known as SWISH. Remember SWISH?)
Lamar had apparently told Kim that Kanye's music "helped me so much" in helping him think again. "There was a time when Lamar couldn't really express himself and he couldn't really talk, but he could hear what we were saying to him," Kim says in a confessional, adding that Kanye would go to the hospital and rap and sing for Lamar.
Follow Peggy on Twitter.
One million people have supported documentary films on Kickstarter.
Over the past seven years, supporters have backed more than 12,000 documentary film projects with more than 5,000 of those successfully funded. Documentaries are also popular Kickstarter projects, with donations made to nonfiction films 600 times a day, compared with 18 times a day in Kickstarter's first year.
The crowdfunding website has now received $120 million in pledged support for docs.
More than 460,000 of the million people who've supported documentary films on Kickstarter have backed projects in other creative categories.
The three most-funded docs on Kickstarter are Alex Winter's Who the F - is Frank Zappa?, which received $1.12 million from 8,688 fans; a Bill Nye doc that received $859,000 in funds from 16,850 backers; and Adam Nimoy's For the Love of Spock film about his dad, Leonard Nimoy, which received $662,000 from 9,439 backers.
Other docs that have received support on Kickstarter include the Oscar-nominated The Square, Oscar-winning doc short Inocente and reproductive rights films Trapped and After Tiller.
Read More: How Kickstarter Topped $100M in Documentary Financing (and 10 Unusual Films That Benefited)
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister has been rescued in Afghanistan in a joint operation by Afghan and U.S. forces, three years after gunmen abducted him in his Pakistani home town, officials said on Tuesday. Ali Haider Gilani, son of ex-premier Yusuf Raza Gilani, "has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and U.S. security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan", the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement. It added that he would be transferred to Pakistan after a medical check-up. In a separate statement, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office said Afghan security forces defeated an al Qaeda cell in a joint operation with international forces, and suggested that the discovery of Gilani may have been accidental. "During this anti-insurgency operation, Ali Haider Gilani ... was identified at the site of the operation, and was freed from terrorists," it said. According to Ghani's office, the raid occurred in neighboring Paktika province, which also borders Pakistan's restive tribal areas. U.S. forces in Afghanistan confirmed Gilani had been rescued in a joint raid with Afghan commandos in the Gayan district of Paktika, according to a statement released on Tuesday. Four enemy combatants were killed during the operation, which involved U.S. special forces and was carried out under the "Freedom's Sentinel" counter-terrorism mandate. "When we first heard the news, we didn't believe it and only believed it once the foreign office confirmed it," Ali Musa Gilani, Ali Haider's brother, told Pakistan's Geo TV. "Right now, we don't have any plans to celebrate. We are just waiting to see his face." Ali Haider was abducted outside an office of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in his home town of Multan, in southern Punjab province, two days before Pakistan's landmark May 11, 2013 general election. His father, a veteran PPP member, was prime minister from 2008 to 2012, when he was removed from office by the Supreme Court over contempt of court charges related to his refusal to reopen corruption cases against then-president Asif Ali Zardari. A smiling Yusuf Raza Gilani was seen hand-in-hand with PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at an election rally in Pakistan-administered Kashmir shortly after news of the release broke. He briefly thanked supporters for their prayers and good wishes during his speech to the crowd. Ali Haider's was not the only high-profile abduction in Pakistan in recent years. The son of a Pakistani governor, assassinated for criticizing the country's harsh blasphemy laws, was kidnapped in 2011. Shahbaz Taseer was recovered in the southwestern city of Quetta in March. (Additional Reporting by Asad Hashim in ISLAMABAD and Mirwais Harooni in KABUL; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
Inasmuch as anything can be called official in the unscientific business of Oscar-watching, the early-fall festival trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto marks the official start of awards season: Venice, in particular, is on a roll, having premiered the last two best picture winners (Spotlight and Birdman, not to mention 2013s close runner-up Gravity) in calmly European style before the noise built up on the other side of the pond.
Happily situated in the less frenzied days of spring, Cannes sits at a respectable distance from the mania of the U.S. awards derby. It is, after all, a festival principally devoted to the kind of high-art world cinema that rarely rules the Oscars: For every Palme dOr winner like The Pianist or Amour that breaks through to Academy voters, there are several others (Winter Sleep, Blue Is the Warmest Color, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) that arent remotely on their wavelength. Even for more Oscar-friendly fare, a Cannes premiere puts films on a far longer track to glory; momentum has to be sustained, and buzz nurtured, for several months longer than, say, a hit Telluride discovery that heads straight into the prime prestige-release season.
Yet Cannes like Sundance, way back in the wilds of January is nonetheless a place where industry pundits keep their eyes peeled for Oscar possibilities that can play the long game: Its where buzz can start with a murmur, rather than a roar.
Not many people declared The Artist a presumptive best picture favorite when it charmed the Croisette in May 2011, but it was clear the film could work a crowd. The Coens No Country for Old Men may not have been an equivalent underdog in 2007, but neither was it self-evident that the Academy would thrill to its terse darkness; the critical hosannas it earned at Cannes helped warm up perceptions of a cool auteur work. The Tree of Life was a clear Palme dOr favorite in 2011, but many thought it too esoteric for the best picture nomination it eventually just managed. Any awards talk at all, meanwhile, was deemed wishful thinking when Mad Max: Fury Road rocked last years festival; critics were wowed, but youd have been called delusional if youd predicted itd emerge as the biggest Oscar winner of 2015.
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All of which is to say that something from this years Cannes lineup will probably emerge as a major Oscar player in months to come, but its far from obvious particularly sight-unseen what that may be. This years Competition field, rich as it is in international names both established (Jim Jarmusch, Ken Loach) and less expected (Maren Ade, Kleber Mendonca Filho), is markedly light on filmmakers previously favored by the Academy.
Of the 21 directors in contention, only three have already been to the Oscar podium: Pedro Almodovar (whose latest, Julieta, has already premiered to mixed reviews), Asghar Farhadi (returning to the Iranian setting of A Separation with The Salesman) and Andrea Arnold making her first U.S.-set film with the large-scale youth study American Honey. A former short-subject winner whose feature-length work has been far too thistly for the Academys palate, Arnolds one of three female directors in Competition this year more than usual, sad to say.
Farhadi and Almodovar could feasibly return to the best foreign language film category, which has plucked a few of its winners (Amour, The Great Beauty, last years Son of Saul) from the Cannes competition in recent years. Could Romania finally get its due in this category? Despite the countrys critically vaunted New Wave this century, none of its films have received a nod not even Cristian Mungius aforementioned Palme winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the controversial omission of which prompted a revision of the categorys voting rules.
Mungius back in Competition this year with Baccalaureat, but its his compatriot Cristi Puiu whos currently hogging the Cannes buzz: his three-hour family-gathering drama Sieranevada has been the prohibitive Palme dOr favorite since the lineup was unveiled. Well know soon enough if it measures up to the hype: itll be the first Competition film to screen tomorrow, hours after Woody Allens non-competing latest, Cafe Society, officially kicks off proceedings. The last Allen film to open Cannes, just five years ago, was Midnight in Paris, which turned out to be a summer arthouse sleeper and won Allen his fourth Oscar to boot.
Its anyones guess whether the recently uneven veteran can repeat the trick with this all-star period piece though it serve as the warm-up act for Kristen Stewarts potential domination of the Croisette this year. An ensemble player in the Allen film, Stewart also takes leading-lady duty in Olivier Assayas eagerly awaited Competition entry Personal Shopper, and expectations are high for her work here: Stewarts first collaboration with Assayas, in 2014s Clouds of Sils Maria, was a personal best that netted her several top U.S. critics prizes as well as a French Cesar award. Oscar voters didnt follow suit, but she cant be that far from her first nomination.
If Stewart is to follow Julianne Moore and Rooney Mara (who carried her Cannes win for Carol to a dubiously categorized supporting Oscar nod) in the recent run of American best actress winners, shell have to get past Marion Cotillard. The Frenchwoman may have an Oscar to her name, but shes rapidly becoming the Susan Lucci of the Croisette: Despite a hot streak of stellar performances in Competition titles like Rust and Bone, The Immigrant, Two Days, One Night and Macbeth, she has yet to win at Cannes.
This year, she has two shots on goal, with roles in Xavier Dolans Its Only the End of the World the starriest project to date from the cocky Quebecois wunderkind, who take the Jury Prize two years ago for Mommy and Nicole Garcias Mal de Pierres. In what looks a pretty strong Competition for female roles, shell be vying against another French heavy-hitter: Two-time Cannes winner and former jury president Isabelle Huppert, who intriguingly headlines rape-revenge thriller Elle, a long-awaited return to genre territory for Basic Instinct director Paul Verhoeven.
Or perhaps we should be keeping an eye on buzzy British up-and-comer Ruth Negga, who stars alongside Joel Edgerton in Jeff Nichols Loving. In a Competition lineup thats relatively (refreshingly, some might say) light on U.S. fare, this interracial romantic drama is being earmarked as the likeliest-on-paper candidate for mainstream awards attention further down the line. If the critics bite, itll make 2016 a banner year for crossover indie auteur Nichols, whose sci-fi Midnight Special was warmly received at the Berlinale only three months ago.
Though Sean Penns political drama The Last Face has the most Hollywood A-list credentials of any title in Competition starring ex-lovers Penn and Charlize Theron, itll inevitably attract as much gossip as it does critical attention few are betting the house on what could be a vindication or a vanity project for its prickly creator. As for Nicolas Winding Refns sleek-looking The Last Face, I hear from those whove seen it, that it represents a creative rebound from the gorgeous, but empty sadism of Only God Forgives, but if the fluorescent violence of Drive couldnt connect with Academy voters, dont expect any more momentum this time.
The biggest Hollywood title, of course, bows out of competition: Steven Spielbergs eagerly awaited adaptation of Roald Dahls classic childrens novel The BFG, starring his new favorite actor (and freshly minted Oscar winner) Mark Rylance in the title role. Spielberg, never exactly a stranger to the Academy, has been on quite a roll with them: His last three directorial efforts all scored best picture nominations. While The BFG may seem a return for Spielberg to the kind of commercial fantasy that nets more awards attention below the line than above it, if the combination of his populist sentiment with Dahls off-kilter humor lands with critics and audiences, you cant dismiss its chances. Or, indeed, Rylances, in a CGI-enhanced role that is nonetheless ideally suited to his wry warmth.
Over in the more discovery-driven Un Certain Regard strand, its even harder to predict potential standouts: Recent success stories of the section, like Dogtooth, White God and Stranger by the Lake (whose director, Alain Guiraudie, got bumped up to Competition this year with his more clothed follow-up Rester Vertical), have tended to grab viewers from behind. Of note this year is the return, after two years hiatus, of the Sundance-to-UCR carry-over slot, which has previously helped sustain awards buzz for such Park City hits as Precious and Beasts of the Southern Wild. (Other selections, like Fruitvale Station and Martha Marcy May Marlene, werent so lucky.) Many expected that slot to go to this years clear Sundance juggernaut Birth of a Nation, though perhaps Fox Searchlight was cautious after 2013s Fruitvale fizzle: Instead, crowd-pleasing Viggo Mortensen starrer Captain Fantastic surprised many by getting the Cannes berth.
Keen animation-watchers, meanwhile, should note the presence in Un Certain Regard of The Red Turtle. Toons rarely make it into competitive sections at Cannes, and this first feature by veteran Dutch animator Michael Dudok de Wit who nabbed an Oscar in 2000 for his gorgeous short Father and Daughter is a collaboration with Studio Ghibli, no less. If it lives up to its pedigree, this could be ideal fodder for GKIDS, the arthouse animation outfit that has a nifty habit of elbowing studio heavyweights out of the Oscar race.
In a particularly robust Directors Fortnight strand no longer viewed as the weak sister of the Official Selection, it has its own programming style and smarts a number of name auteurs are jostling for attention. Among them are Pablo Larrain (whose Oscar-nominated No debuted with a splash in this section four years ago) with the biographical Neruda, Italian veteran Marco Bellocchio with Fai Bei Sogni, Alejandro Jodorowsky with Endless Poetry and Paul Schrader, closing out the section with his latest Nicolas Cage collaboration Dog Eat Dog. The title Oscar-watchers will be monitoring most keenly, however, falls on the documentary side. Laura Poitras swept all before her in 2014 with her Edward Snowden doc Citizenfour, so will her Julian Assange-focused follow-up Risk prove a similarly lauded companion piece?
These are the questions were asking heading into Cannes. The festival itself will mostly answer them with further questions rather than crystal-ball answers. But over the next 12 days, some titles will be promisingly hailed, others irreparably trampled and some of the best films we see here wont inspire a whisper of awards discussion, now or later. For a few more hours, at least, the possibilities are endless.
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Lindsey Creel and Brie Grimes. (Photo: Facebook)
Yesterday we wrote about a lesbian high school student in Pennsylvania who was kicked out of her prom for wearing a tuxedo instead of a dress. Well, today brings another bit of LGBTQ prom-related news but this time, its a heck of a lot sweeter.
Lindsey Creel and Brie Grimes, two seniors at Leon High School in Tallahassee, Fla., who have been dating for three years (or approximately 25 in high school years), were recently voted prom king and queen by their peers. This marks the first time in the schools 185-year history that a same-sex couple were awarded the titles.
It should also be noted that Creel was wearing a suit and tie at the time of her crowning.
While being named prom king and queen would typically serve as a simple and satisfactory ego boost for most teens, Grimes and Creel see their titles as a larger win for the LGBTQ community. I hope that people will look at this and more will begin to think that its OK to be supportive of the LBTQ community, Creel told the Tallahassee Democrat. Leon often talks about change. This is a good example for younger students there.
Brie Grimes and Lindsey Creel. (Photo: Facebook)
And, said Grimes, it feels good to know some of the things weve been a part of can help others going through tough experiences, in a positive way. I needed someone in my life to show me that it would work out, when I was first going through this years ago. But I didnt have that.
Now in full swing, the 2016 prom season has been riddled with stories about the treatment of LGBTQ youth, both positive and negative. At Foothill High School in Palo Cedro, Calif., a lesbian couple was taken off the prom court ballot because, as the schools principal put it, its not fair to the boy gender.
But there have also been several victories, especially for transgender students. A trans senior at Portage High School in Indiana was recently crowned the prom queen runner-up, and after filing a petition with his high school in Wisconsin, trans junior Ash Whitaker was permitted to run for prom king.
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Heres a thought: Perhaps its time Americas high schools began judging their potential prom kings and queens for their strength and justness as rulers and not for their gender identities and dating preferences. At least were getting there.
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From Cosmopolitan
After an eye-opening trip to Africa as a teen, Leila Janah made it her mission to find a way to provide work to the world's poorest people and lift them out of poverty. At 25, she started Samasource, which has helped more than 35,000 people develop new skills and find jobs that earn them a living wage. Sama - which means "equal" in Sanskrit - recruits and trains people to do digital work such as data management, content curation, and search engine optimization for clients like Google, Microsoft, eBay, and Walmart.
Janah grew Samasource into Sama Group, which also runs the online training academy Samaschool, and sister company, Laxmi, a for-profit skin care line that employs impoverished indigenous women and pays them three times the local living wage. Sama Group - which Fast Company named one of 2016's most innovative companies - also developed Samahope, the world's first health care crowd-funding platform, through which individual donors help fund medical treatments for people who otherwise can't afford them. In 2015, Samahope became a part of Johnson & Johnson's CaringCrowd platform.
Janah, 33, talks about the experiences that led to her success and how she hopes to provide the same opportunities to the rest of the world.
I grew up in San Pedro, a gritty but beautiful city in Southern California next to the ocean. My parents enrolled me in a charter high school called the California Academy of Math and Science. My guidance counselor encouraged me to apply to Harvard, which I thought was crazy. I had good grades - I only missed one question on the SAT - but I never thought I would go to such a fancy school.
I applied for tons of scholarships, which I would need to finance any college education. I decided to graduate high school early and use a $10,000 scholarship I won to travel. What would have been the second semester of my senior year, I went to a rural town in Ghana to teach English at a school for blind children.
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Before that trip, I thought I would study ocean science. I was scuba certified at 12, and I always considered myself an adventurette like my grandmother, who hitchhiked through Europe, Africa, and Asia. But when I got to Ghana, I was so shocked by the level of deprivation that was just normal. I stayed in this village where everyone was living on $2 a day or less. I heard about a little girl who died of malaria because her parents couldn't afford a medication that cost a few dollars.
My parents [immigrated to the U.S. and] are the American Dream story. My family benefited so much from all of the amazing opportunities in this country. But the young people I taught in Ghana - all of them so smart and hardworking - were trapped because of poverty.
I ended up receiving a really good financial aid package from Harvard, and I won a Coca-Cola Foundation scholarship, but it was still hard to make it work. I had to work three jobs as an undergrad. I was a barmaid and an usher at the local theater, I was a tutor, and I did janitorial work. I felt the class difference between myself and the other students, many of whom had gone to private schools.
My major was international economic development, which consisted of classes in economics, history, politics, anthropology, French, and Portuguese. I raised over $50,000 [in grants] that enabled me to work in Senegal in the summer of 2001 after my freshman year, writing for a travel guide series. I got a grant to do field research on transitional justice with a group of people in Rwanda. I also got to work at the World Bank while I was still an undergrad because of Harvard connections.
I took a job at a management-consulting firm in New York City when I graduated in 2005. The offer was the kind that would allow me to pay back my student loans really quickly. I did basic strategy consulting work, helping big companies go public, [but] I kept thinking about my time in Africa. I felt I had a moral obligation to do serious work.
My first project was working for a big Indian outsourcing company. I met a guy on the call center floor of this giant corporation in Mumbai who was commuting in from the slums. This light bulb went off: If this guy can do this work and he's from a place with open sewers and cholera outbreaks, what if we can use this [outsourcing and training] model to grant more people access to work and get them out of poverty? That was the genesis of what became Samasource.
I was working on the business plan nights and weekends while working at the firm. I researched what kind of work low-income people could do and what training they needed. Two years later, I quit my job. I had some connections at Stanford through a [former] professor. He was able to get me a gig as a visiting scholar at Stanford in the global justice program. The visiting scholar program was not paid, but I had an office and it gave me a little bit of cache. A lot of my Harvard friends - including my boyfriend at the time - all worked at Facebook, so I had a network [in the Bay Area].
I set up Samasource as a nonprofit because I wanted the social mission to always reign supreme: Hire marginalized people to do computer-based work. The goal is to move them out of poverty through employment.
The first year in business was so hard. I broke up with my boyfriend, but he let me sleep on his futon for four months because I couldn't afford rent. I was paying myself $400 a month [off my savings]. I had calculated that the cheapest form of sustenance was candy and Top Ramen, so that's what I ate.
No one wanted to give me venture capital to hire a bunch of poor people in a slum. Even grant makers didn't want to give me grants. Everyone thought it was insane. So I started really small. In 2008, I won $30,000 from two business plan competitions in the Bay Area, which helped Sama get off the ground.
My next round of funding came from begging. I had just returned from a refugee camp in Africa [to scout workers for Sama], where I saw so much opportunity to provide work. I gave my pitch at a cocktail party full of Silicon Valley investor-types, and two people wrote me checks for $50,000 each.
In late 2008, I won my first contract with a small firm in San Francisco to digitize books for blind readers. I set up a work center in an Internet cafe in Nairobi, which I had visited on a consulting trip a year earlier. I hired four people to work from an Internet cafe, and the owner became the project manager. [Future projects were set up the same way.] We hire impact workers, which means applicants who are earning below a living wage for whatever is standard in that region. We primarily look for people who have completed at least a high school education, and can read and write in English. The main source [of recruitment] is through word of mouth. For example, a current or former worker will refer their neighbor or family member to Samasource.
That first project served as a case study that I was able to then show to some of my contacts at big companies like Getty Images and Microsoft, and to people that I met at events and conferences. There was a lot of courting in the beginning, and even still today, but now we have a fair amount of business coming in through word of mouth from our customers, people who read about us in the press or have seen something on social media.
To see him so gleeful for the chance to work is just incredible.
Today, we employ 80 people in San Francisco and Nairobi, and our team is distributed around the world [running work sites] remotely. Since 2008, we've moved 35,000 people from less than $2 a day to more than $8 a day. In Southeast Asia and East Africa, that is literally the difference between life and death. It's living in a slum and getting exposed to cholera, versus living in safe housing, having access to health care, and being able to send your kids to school.
We track what happens to workers over the years, and more than 90 percent of them earn more in their next jobs after they leave Sama. Many of them go back to college and get a degree, which helps them contribute to their country's economy. We see our workers going from eating sugarcane as their primary source of calories to eating protein and fresh fruits and vegetables after working with us. We get letters from workers every day. A man in Nairobi recently wrote a poem that essentially said Sama saved his life. He was an abducted child soldier during the Ugandan Civil War. His life had been marked by so much suffering. To see him so gleeful for the chance to work is just incredible.
In 2009, I ran a Hulu ad showcasing Samasource's work. The next day I got a very nasty email from a guy in Ohio that said, "You are ruining America, taking jobs from us and giving them to these refugees!" I wrote back and said, "I hear you. The recession is really bad. What do you think we could do to make things better in the U.S.?" He totally changed his tune. He said, "I come from a state with all these factory closures, and we don't know how to provide for our families. Maybe your model would work in rural Ohio." Three years after that email exchange, we launched our U.S. program called Samaschool, which trains low-income workers for the digital economy. We're now [serving] Arkansas, New York, and the Bay Area. We've trained over 1,500 people and enrolled 7,000 in our online classes.
During a trip to Sierra Leone and Liberia looking for Samasource workers, I realized neither of those countries were good candidates because they had very little infrastructure and high levels of illiteracy. I kept my eyes open for other ways to help out, and I met this doctor who was doing fistula repair surgery [the tissue between the vagina and anus that can be frequently damaged during childbirth; this damage can cause incontinence, nerve damage, or even immobility]. He told me about the prevalence of women suffering from a [damaged] fistula in this region and that with a $1,000 surgery they could get their lives back. I thought, somebody has got to raise money for this guy. If I could tell the story of just one of these women, I was sure that 50 people would give $20 for her to get a surgery.
In 2012, we set up the first-ever crowdfunding site for medical treatments called Samahope. Over the years, we've funded 16,000 patient treatments ranging from fistula repairs in Africa to C-sections in Haiti, to providing critical dental care to low-income and homeless populations in the U.S. In 2015, we joined forces with Johnson & Johnson's CaringCrowd [an organization with similar goals and farther reach].
In all of these programs, I care about only one thing: lifting people out of poverty. We spend so much money on charity and on these stopgaps like providing poor people with free stuff. What people need most is an income. We are working on building a movement around this idea of giving work.
Get That Life is a weekly series that reveals how successful, talented, creative women got to where they are now. Check back each Monday for the latest interview.
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While self-driving technology continues to work its way into our automobiles, and is pushed as the solution to all the problems, there are those who are keen on the idea of skipping terrestrial transportation altogether. The engineers and doctoral students from the Technical University of Munich that founded Lilium Aviation in 2015 are among those people, and their idea is to bring personal air travel to the masses with the Lilium Jet.
This is not some pie-in-the-sky idea that fits in with some unattainable utopian vision of the future, this is a concept very much grounded in reality. The aircraft is to be a two seat electric engine VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) that is capable of speeds up to 250 mph. The 435-horsepower rechargeable-battery-powered ducted fan engines will make the jet significantly quieter than a helicopter, and allow for take off in spaces as small as 4949, although, flights will only be permitted from designated airfields when they first go to market.
With a range of 300 miles on a single charge, and cruising speed of 180 miles per hour, the Lilium Jet would be a game changer for those who wish to live further away from their work place, pop out to their country estate for lunch, or make escaping the impending zombie apocalypse a snap, so long as the sun is still up.
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Yes, there are limitations, of course there are limitations. The Lilium Jet is designed for recreational flight during daylight hours, and it should fall in the Light Sport Aircraft class in Europe, which means youll need a pilot license, which means a minimum 20 hours of training. That might not seem like a whole lot of time to become knowledgeable enough to operate such a machine, but with intelligent computer-control for automatic take-off and landing, the chance of pilot error is significantly reduced. On top of that, redundant battery, engine, and electrical systems will make this a much safer machine to operate than a helicopter.
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Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life, says Daniel Wiegand, CEO and one of the companys four founders. We are going for a plane that can take off and land vertically and does not need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport.
The Lilium Jet is being developed in conjunction with the European Space Agencys business incubation center and the group working on it has the ambitious, but not unattainable, goal of a experimental manned flight in a full sized prototype by 2017. Following that, the company expects to get flight certification by 2018 with a fully-airworthy concept, and then ramp up full scale production to bring the aircraft to market. No announcement has been made as far as pricing, but itll be far less than similar sized aircraft, and honestly, can you put a price on feeling like Tom Cruise in Oblivion?
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In confirmation that pillowy lips are the must-have beauty accessory of the moment, it has been revealed that a record number of lip augmentation procedures were carried out in the US in 2015.
Newly released data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) has confirmed that lip jobs are now the second-fastest growing facial procedure in the United States since 2000, beaten only by dermabrasion procedures.
Lip implant procedures increased in every region of the US over the course of the year, with a total of 27,449 procedures carried out -- an average of one every 19 minutes. Gaining popularity among both genders, lip implants have grown 48 percent since the year 2000. Lip injections, ranging from Botox and Dysport to soft tissue fillers, are also on the up throughout the country.
Implants are seen as a more permanent procedure, with new designs made from soft, flexible silicone, and inserted via two small incisions at the corners of the mouth. Although designed to be long lasting, they can often be removed if necessary. Lip injections are perceived as less intimidating, as any unwanted results will usually wear off within a few months.
However, it isn't just Americans heading to the beauty clinic -- figures released in January at the annual IMCAS (International Master Course on Ageing Science) conference in Paris found that cosmetic surgery is on the rise globally, with the industry growing by 8.2 per cent in 2015. The industry is growing particularly rapidly in Asia, which accounted for 22 per )cent of the market last year, and globally, body contouring procedures such as face lifts, tummy tucks, buttock augmentation saw the biggest increase in popularity in 2015, increasing by 13.5 per )cent.
A national survey of more than 1,000 women commissioned by ASPS recently revealed actress Jennifer Lawrence as the number one lip icon in the country. Scarlett Johansson came in second place, while Angelina Jolie and her famous plump smile were voted into third place.
If you are considering a lip procedure then Ohio plastic surgeon Robert Houser, DO, advises choosing your surgeon carefully to ensure the best possible results. "Going to the right doctor is crucial," added Houser. "Because they understand the entire asymmetry of the face and adhere to the highest level of safety standards, make sure you find a doctor board certified in plastic surgery and a member of ASPS."
From Esquire
We are all going to die. If we're lucky, it will be at home in our old age, surrounded by loved ones, in a completely boring and unremarkable fashion. But for some, death will be sudden, horrifying, and violent. Last week in upstate New York, a 23-year-old tree worker was killed after being pulled into a wood chipper. It was his first day on the job.
Today, roughly 13 people will die from fatal injuries sustained at work. Within eight hours, each of those deaths will be reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor, the agency charged with overseeing worker-related fatalities and injuries, and improving safety standards on jobs through legislation, like a recent initiative that tasked the coal industry with improving conditions for miners.
If 13 deaths a day sounds bad, it's actually a vast improvement on how things used to be. Since 1970, workplace fatality rates have dropped over 66 percent (during the same period, U.S. employment has nearly doubled). Just over 40 years ago, 14,000 workers were killed on the job each year, according to OSHA.
Safety standards have increased significantly since then. As a result, worker deaths trend downward almost every year-in 1992, for example, there were 6,217 deaths, compared to 4,821 in 2014. But the workplace can still be fraught with danger. That's particularly true in occupations like construction (899 deaths in 2014); transportation and warehousing (766); and agriculture, forestry, and fishing and hunting (584).
OSHA has steadily compiled a grim catalogue of death over the years. The most frequent causes of death are transportation incidents (car crashes, getting run over by a truck), followed by falls (through manholes, into trenches), exposure to harmful substances, and being struck by large objects. While those generic descriptions paint enough of a terrible picture, it's actually the specificity of the incidents on file that are truly disturbing. The anonymizing language-the repetition of "worker was killed"-becomes a sort of hypnotic mantra when you read enough of them in a row.
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We combed through hundreds of worker death reports in recent years (hat tip to Jon Hendren for the idea), which you can do yourself in a searchable chart here or in raw documents here, and the results create something like a brutal, absurdist poetry of catastrophe; a flash fiction of terror.
But of course, it's all real. These were real people with real families.
The list below is further evidence that we must be vigilant in ensuring that worker conditions across all industries is of paramount consideration, both for government agencies and the employers in question. It's also a reminder to all of us how tenuous life can be-and just how many bizarre and terrifying ways there are to die. Cherish every moment, even the moments at a job you might hate.
The following entries, reprinted verbatim from the OSHA files (bold emphasis is ours), consist of the date of the report (first), the date of the incident in question (second), the location, and what transpired.
FY 2011,10/09/10,10/01/10, "Nutri-Ject, Hudson, IA 50643", Worker with head and upper torso inside a tanker truck loaded with 6000 pounds of sludge, fell into the tanker.
FY 2010,04/10/10,04/09/10, "The Tiger and Elephant Encounter, Wilkes Barre, PA 18704", Worker was kicked by an elephant.
FY 2011,10/30/10,10/24/10," Ayalaz Agriculture Services FLC #12004, Kettleman City, CA 93239", Worker was crushed when tractor he was driving, pulling a bin dumper full of pomegranates, fell onto its side. Worker was possibly trying to make a U-turn while going too fast.
FY 2012,10/1/2011,9/20/2011, "Al and John, Inc., T/A Glen Rock Hams, Paterson, NJ 07503", Worker cleaning a meat mixer died when he fell into the machine.
FY 2012,11/26/2011,11/3/2011, "Lykes Bros., Inc., Okeechobee, FL 34974", Worker riding a horse while performing routine work at a ranch fell off and was killed when the horse stepped on his torso and face.
FY 2012,1/21/2012,12/12/2011, "Oilfield Service & Supply Company Inc., Laurel, MS 39443", Worker was removing a ladder stuck in mud and briars. The ladder flew up and hit the worker on the back, fatally injuring the worker.
FY 2012,2/18/2012,2/9/2012, "Omaha Refinishing, Council Bluffs, IA 51501", Worker who was overcome by vapors while refinishing a bathtub, died from asphyxiation.
FY 2012,2/25/2012,2/17/2012, "US Airways Group Inc., Phoenix, AZ 85034", Worker was crushed between two vertically moving conveyor belts.
FY 2012,3/17/2012,3/15/2012, "Kelley Bean Company Inc., Brush, CO 80723", Worker was engulfed after standing on a pile of beans at a bean plant.
FY 2012,3/24/2012,2/14/2012, "Richard Knight, White Swan, WA 98952", Worker was struck and killed by a large alfalfa bale.
FY 2012,3/31/2012,2/15/2012, "Mad River Glen Ski Area, Waitsfield, VT", A ski instructor at a ski resort died after becoming stuck in a wall opening.
FY 2012,4/21/2012,4/14/2012, "Knox Swan & Dog LLC, North Barrington, IL 60010", "Worker patrolling a residential community pond while inside a kayak was attacked by swans, causing him to fall in the water and drown.
FY 2012,5/19/2012,5/16/2012, "Missouri American Water, Joplin, MO 64804", Worker cutting pipe with a pipe saw died when the saw kicked back, striking the worker in the throat.
FY 2012,6/30/2012,6/22/2012, "Village of Central City - Public Works Department, Central City, IL 62801", Worker was killed when a burning tree limb fell on his head.
FY 2012,8/4/2012,7/30/2012, "Bimbo Bakery, Galt, CA 95632", Worker was crushed by a rack of baked goods.
FY 2012,8/25/2012,8/22/2012, "David Girard Vineyard, Placerville, CA 95667", Worker at a vineyard was crushed in a wine press.
FY 2010,10/30/09,10/26/09, "Val-O-Mo Farm, Inc., Elmwood, WI 54740", "Worker was operating a skid-steer cleaning out a dairy cattle barn near an outdoor manure slurry pit. The skid-steer and the worker fell off the end of the push-off platform into the manure slurry pit, trapping the worker in the vehicle. Worker died of suffocation due to inhalation of manure.
FY 2013,2/23/2013,1/14/2013, "Kaba Ilco Corporation, Forsyth, NC 27009", Worker crushed and killed when a cart carrying 2,000 pounds of zinc tipped over on top of him.
FY 2011,10/30/10,10/27/10, "Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, IN 46556", Worker was in a scissor lift filming a football practice when the lift tipped over. (High winds were reported.)
FY 2013,2/23/2013,2/13/2013, "Professional Service Industries Inc., Belle Glade, FL 33430", Employee died after being thrown from and run over by bulldozer.
FY 2011,11/13/10,11/10/10, "Lassen Forest Products, Red Bluff, CA 96080", Worker fell into a wood chipper.
FY 2011,12/18/10,12/01/10, "Bob Davis Paint & Drywall, Inc., Galveston, TX 77554", Worker was operating an aerial lift to perform painting on a 4-story condominium, when he was pinned between the building and the control station in the elevated working platform. His body pushed against the joystick that controlled the lift, causing it to push him even more against the building, which eventually caused his death.
FY 2011,11/20/10,11/15/10, "John Charles Traverso dba Traverso Tree Service, Concord, CA 94521", Worker died after being partially pulled into a wood chipper. Foot/ankle got caught in rope and pulled him in. Died from head injury when his head hit the gate on the chute. No contact with blades.
FY 2011,11/20/10,11/16/10, "Basic Energy Services,, Quitman, LA 71268", Worker was standing by at a well platform while circulation and cleaning was being performed in the well. A tube rushed up and out of the well. As everyone ran for cover, a portion of the tube struck the worker in the head and killed him.
FY 2011,11/27/10,11/20/10, "American Fireworks Mfg Co. Inc., Utica, NY 13502", Worker was struck by fireworks during a fireworks show.
FY 2011,11/27/10,11/22/10, "Wolf Creek Ski Lodge,, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147", Ski patrol employee was killed in an avalanche.
FY 2010,10/02/09,09/25/09, "Tyson Foods - River Valley Animal Foods, Scranton, AR 72863", Decedent was dumping a load of offal from a tractor trailer. He was in the process of dumping offal into a bin when the tailgate malfunctioned. Decedent was freeing the tailgate, it released, and the load swept the decedent into the offal bin. Decedent drowned in the bin.
FY 2010,10/02/09,09/28/09, "Jacoby Feed & Seed, Melvin, TX 76858", Employees were installing a tilt-wall into a trench. Decedent was inside the trench when the earth collapsed.
FY 2010,10/02/09,09/28/09, "Zachary Construction Corp., Mansfield, LA 71052", Decedent was walking across a tank and fell through a hatch into a tank of boiling water. He either drowned or died of thermal burns.
FY 2010,10/02/09,09/30/09, "Weight Farm, Bellfonte, PA 16823", Decedent was inside a silo loading the feeder from a ladder. He became wedged within the ladder cage in a fetal position and suffocated.
FY 2010,10/09/09,10/05/09, "Marine Fabrication and Repair, Houma, LA 70360", Worker was performing welding duties aboard a marine vessel. An electrode from his welding equipment contacted the sweat on his neck, causing an electric shock.
FY 2010,10/09/09,10/06/09, "Ace Flooring, Inc., Mesa, AZ 85205", The worker was crushed under a 12-foot long, 3-inch diameter carpet roll.
FY 2010,10/09/09,10/07/09, "Buckhorn, Inc., Springfield, MO 65803", Worker was cleaning the hardened plastic from the mold. He was standing in between the mold plates when the machine started and was crushed between the mold plates.
FY 2010,10/09/09,10/07/09, "Pages Creek Marine Services, Inc., Wilmington, NC 28411", The worker used a set of 2-ton underslung hoists to raise a boat on a trailer. The boat fell, crushing the worker between the boat and the left rear of the trailer.
FY 2010,10/09/09,10/07/09, "Werner Construction, Inc., Norfolk, NE 68701", Worker was washing flights on an auger of a concrete machine and was pulled into the flights of the auger.
FY 2010,10/16/09,10/12/09, "Reilly Construction Co. Inc., Ossian, IA", The worker was replacing a pivot pin on the equalizer bar under a bulldozer. The bulldozer was supported with jack stands. The worker was under the bulldozer when it fell off the jack stands and crushed him.
FY 2010,10/23/09,10/17/09, "Wong Potatoes Inc., Merrill, OR 97603", The worker was run over by a trailer while harvesting onions.
FY 2010,04/17/10,03/13/10, "Choyce Products, Honolulu, HI 96819", Worker was pulling frozen food boxes for customer orders while standing on a wooden pallet lifted up by a company forklift truck. The forklift operator lowered the forklift, with worker still on pallet, to approximately 10 feet above the concrete floor, and began backing up. Operator heard something fall and found the worker lying face down on the concrete floor.
FY 2011,01/22/11,01/10/11, "J & J Ag Products Inc., Clewiston, FL 33440", Worker was electrocuted while spraying a broccoli field when he raised the tractor's spray boom and hit an overhead power line.
FY 2011,01/01/11,12/28/10, "Bontrager Excavating, Massillon, OH 44646", While working in a 15 to 20 feet deep trench, the walls collapsed, burying two workers. One worker was rescued and hospitalized, but the other worker was buried completely and died.
FY 2010,06/19/10,06/16/10, "Stuart & Kim Sorenson Feed and Grain LLC., Zachow, WI 54182", Worker was in a grain bin breaking loose bridged grain that was not flowing and was buried in the corn.
FY 2010,07/31/10,07/28/10, "Haasbach LLC, Mt. Carroll, IL 61053", Worker was engulfed in corn.
FY 2010,10/23/09,10/20/09, "Sutherland Builders Inc., Penn Yan, NY 14527", Worker was struck/crushed by walls and roof of a building after a dump truck fell onto the building.
FY 2010,09/11/10,09/08/10, "Woodwork Manufacturing & Supply, Hutchinson, KS 67501-5373", Worker discovered a fire in a sawdust collection system and attempted to extinguish the fire by opening the dump doors on the bottom of the sawdust collector and a flash fire occurred, enveloping the worker in flames/burning sawdust.
FY 2010,09/11/10,09/07/10, "Unknown Contractor, Risingsun, OH 43467", Worker was pulled into a tree chipper machine.
FY 2010,08/28/10,08/16/10, "Platt Hill Nursery Inc., Bloomingdale, IL 60108", Worker was eating lunch and swallowed a bee.
PHOENIX, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / May 10, 2016 / Lithium Exploration Group Inc. (LEXG) announced today that it has identified an opportunity to invest in an oil and gas property. The company has been looking for opportunities to invest in distressed oil properties for the past few months. The project will give the company control of a small field where it will derive 100% of the revenue proceeds until the investment is paid back, and will then keep 75% of the revenue for the life of the wells. The company is in discussions with investors now about funding the investment via a subsidiary, giving the investors security over the assets until the debt is retired.
"These types of opportunities didn't exist 18 months ago. It is an amazing chance to buy into the oil and gas space at a low price and participate in assets that are profitable even at these historically low levels," commented CEO Alex Walsh. "The oil unit and water units are both getting prepared for testing at different locations outside of Houston. I will be providing a more detailed update later this week on both fronts, but things are really kicking into gear."
About Lithium Exploration Group
Lithium Exploration Group is a US-based exploration and development company focused on the acquisition and development potential of lithium brines and other precious metals that demonstrate high probability for near-term production. Currently the company is focused on its Western Canada lithium assets, testing its Ultrasonic Generator Technology and the acquisition of oil and gas related assets in Western Canada. Lithium Exploration Group is a fully reporting company traded on the OTC Markets under the symbol LEXG. Website: www.lithiumexplorationgroup.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains "forward-looking statements." Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future testing of the ultrasonic technology.
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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 lithium 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.
Contact Info
Shanon Chilson
480-641-4790
info@lithiumexplorationgroup.com
SOURCE: Lithium Exploration Group Inc.
Snake-hospital
As if hospitals weren't terrifying enough.
On April 30, a live white ball python fell from the ceiling of Tacoma General Hospital in Tacoma, Washington, after spending a month yes, an entire month slithering around the ceiling ventilation ducts.
SEE ALSO: WTF, nature: Cat interrupts huge toad just trying to eat a snake alive
According to KCPQ, "a visitor brought the python to the hospital in a cat carrier full of stuffed animals," but apparently the hospital workers didn't think anything of it because, "strange things happen all the time."
After the owner returned home, he realized his python had escaped and notified the hospital. Though the hospital staff members were aware of the loose python, so much time had passed since they were notified that they forgot...and as you can imagine, were very surprised when it fell from the ceiling a month later.
Marce Edwards with MultiCare Health System told KCPQ that the owner picked up the snake and took it home after the incident.
Luckily ball python snakes are not venomous, and aside from the frightening surprise hospital staff members and patients were in no serious danger.
In an interview with KCPQ, Tacoma resident Chris Cummings said, "It's kind of crazy, actually...the fact is that I'd be kind of awed as to why they'd bring it in."
"As a pet owner I have a snake of my own, but I wouldn't bring it to a hospital," Cummings said.
Well, there you have it folks. As tempting as it may be, think twice before you bring your pet python to the hospital for comfort and just stick with the stuffed animals.
To learn more about the incident watch the KCPQ's video below:
Newly elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan is dissing The Donald and the suggestion he could be an exception to the presumptive GOP nominees pledge to bar all Muslims from entering the United States.
This isnt just about me its about my friends, my family, and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world, Khan said Tuesday.
It was the latest in several days of back and forth between Khan, the British capitals first Muslim mayor, and Donald Trump, the New York real estate magnate who is expected to be the Republican standard-bearer in this years election for the White House, after his remaining GOP opponents dropped out of the race last week.
Khan took office Saturday after winning more than 1.3 million votes the largest groundswell of popular support in British history. The son of Pakistani immigrants, Khan had expressed concern he would not be able to visit the United States if Trump were elected president this November.
Trump first called for the ban in the wake of the Paris attacks last November that killed 130. At the time, he demanded a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our countrys representatives can figure out what is going on.
On Monday, Trump was asked how his ban would apply to Khan. There will always be exceptions, Trump told the New York Times, adding he was happy to see Khans vote victory.
I think its a very good thing, Trump said. Because I think if he does a great job, it will really you lead by example.
Khan was having none of it, however, and said Tuesday he hopes presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will prevail over Trump. I hope she trounces him, Khan said.
Trumps stance and rhetoric against Muslims, as well as other minority groups, is sharply undercut by Khans success at the British polls. Khan overcame Islamophobic rhetoric and even claims by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon that he was unfit to be mayor and accused political opponents of using fear-mongering tactics straight out of the Donald Trump playbook.
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Trump, however, has doubled down on his Muslim ban since becoming the last man standing in the Republican presidential nominating contest. His supposed prescription for how to protect the United States from wannabe terrorists has been excoriated by leaders around the world of varying religions, as well as U.S. intelligence officials who have said it wont make the homeland any safer.
Still, a poll last month by the conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports showed about 67 percent of likely Republican voters favor the ban, as well as 45 percent among likely voters overall.
Khan said Tuesday that its Trump who is threatening U.S. and U.K. security.
Donald Trumps ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists, Khan said. Donald Trump and those around him think that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam. London has proved him wrong.
Photo credit: Jack Taylor / Stringer
LONDON (Reuters) - New London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Tuesday he would be interested in finding a prominent site for a statue to commemorate the approaching centenary of Britain's suffragette movement which fought to give women the right to vote. He was responding to a petition, signed by several high-profile figures including Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and actress Emma Watson, calling for a statue of a woman to be erected in the square outside parliament - an area so far exclusively occupied by men. The online petition was started by feminist campaigner Caroline CriadoPerez, who led a successful campaign to get British author Jane Austen on the 10-pound banknote from 2017. "There are 11 statues in Parliament Square. Not a single one is of a woman," she said in her petition. "In two years' time it will be 100 years since those women won their fight and women were first granted the right to vote. They deserve to be remembered. Give them a statue in Parliament Square." Other signatories included James Bond actress Naomi Harris, several female members of parliament including the Green Party's Caroline Lucas and Labour's Stella Creasy and Abi Morgan, screenwriter for the 2015 British film "Suffragette." Khan described himself as a proud feminist during his campaign for the mayoralty which culminated in his election last week to succeed Boris Johnson. "There are practical issues to consider, such as planning permission and funding, but he would be interested in exploring a suitable high-profile site for a statue, whether this were to be Parliament Square, or another location in central London," his office said in a statement. The women's suffrage movement began in the late 19th century in Britain and finally achieved its full aim in 1928. Two of its best-known members were Emmeline Pankhurst, who helped found the activist movement that became known as suffragettes, and Emily Davison who was fatally injured at Epsom racecourse during the 1913 Derby under the hooves of King George V's horse. Any application to erect a statue would have to be submitted to the planning authority, Westminster Council. "We will consider any proposals which are made and would consult the public as we do with all planning applications," a spokesperson said, confirming that it has never received an application for a statue of a woman in Parliament Square. Statues of famous men in the square include those of Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. (Reporting by Nadim Shad, writing by Stephen Addison, editing by Estelle Shirbon)
Newly elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan criticized Donald Trump after the Republican presidential candidate suggested Khan could be an exception to his proposed ban on all Muslims traveling to the U.S.
This isnt just about meits about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world, Khan told the Guardian, warning that Trumps ignorant view of Islam could make Britain and America unsafe.
It risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists, Khan told the Guardian. Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream IslamLondon has proved him wrong.
Speaking to the New York Times on May 8, Trump said he was happy to see Khan elected and that there will always be exceptions to his proposed ban. The presumptive Republican nominee was responding to Khans interview with TIME, where he said: I want to go to America to meet with and engage with American mayors. If Donald Trump becomes the president Ill be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I cant engage with American mayors and swap ideas.
[Guardian, NYT]
Londons newly elected mayor is criticizing Donald Trump, saying his comments about Islam are ignorant and could make Britain and America less safe.
Read: Jon Stewart Calls Trump a 'Man-Baby'
Sadiq Khan, who is the first Islamic mayor of a Western city, slammed Trump on Tuesday over the GOP frontrunners proposed ban on Muslims entering America.
That means if you are somebody who wants to go on holiday, you want to go to Disneyland, you're a businessperson who wants to go and do business there - or if you're somebody who wants to be a student in America - because you are a Muslim, you could be stopped from going there," he told the BBC.
Khan, who replaces longtime incumbent Boris Johnson, said Trump's "ignorant view of Islam could make both of our countries less safe - it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of extremists," the Press Association reported.
The 45-year-old Khan will take office in a city where Muslims comprise 12 percent of the population.
I want our businesses to do business with American businesses, I want our universities to take students from America. We're open for business. And so you know, as the mayor of London, I'll speak to, within reason, anyone if it's in the best interest of our country, he said.
Read: Trump Defends Calling Hillary Clinton an 'Enabler' Of Her Husband's Affairs
Khan was born in London to Pakistani immigrants and grew up in public housing with his six brothers and sister. He entered politics in 2005 when he was elected to Parliament.
He supports Hillary Clinton over Trump in the U.S. presidential race .
I hope that she trounces him, he said.
Watch: Trump Renews Muslim Ban After Calling Brussels Attacks The Beginning
Related Articles:
The BRICs You Should Consider Now
Once considered the darlings of the emerging market world, the BRICs have faced economic and political challenges lately. However, certain BRICs still offer opportunities for investors. BlackRocks Terry Simpson explains.
Many BlackRock fund managers have raised their emerging market (EM) allocations lately, and weve warmed up in general to the asset class after a long underweight.
EM valuations overall, as measured by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, look cheap, and we see value for long-term investors. A Fed on hold and weaker dollar are good news for the asset class (see the chart below), and there are signs of progress on structural reforms in certain EM countries.
You may be wondering, however, what we think of the so-called BRIC countries in particularotherwise known as Brazil, Russia, India and Chinaespecially given the recent political-scandal and slowing-growth headlines surrounding some of these countries. Despite the economic and political challenges facing these one-time darlings of the EM world, we still see long-term opportunities within the BRIC universe.
Market Realist BRICs offer plenty of opportunity
Emerging markets (EEM) have provided higher returns than many developed markets (IEFA). Currently, though, the economic landscape for many emerging nations is changing constantly and affecting the broader equity markets. However, the situation appears to have improved recently. Many emerging economies are performing well despite challenges.
Emerging markets might benefit from their governments economic measures in reaction to a slowing economy. The Chinese (FXI) economy seems to have stabilized. Fears of yuan devaluation have also reduced. The Indian (INDY) economy is experiencing strong growth, buoyed by higher domestic demand. Brazil is looking forward to a political change and subsequent structural reforms to boost economic growth. Russia (ERUS) seems to be doing relatively well despite the oil price shock. So, regardless of the domestic and global headwinds, BRICs could offer long-term opportunities.
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Equities in BRIC nations are trading at a reasonable valuation compared to many developed markets. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 12.4x compared to 16x for the MSCI World Index and 15.9x for the MSCI ACWI.
Year-to-date, the MSCI Emerging Market index is up 6.3%, outpacing the MSCI developed market world index, up 1.7%. Despite these gains, markets still offer many attractive opportunities. In this series, well discuss the opportunities that existed in the BRICs nations.
Continue to Next Part
Browse this series on Market Realist:
wood smoke lumber
Shares of Lumber Liquidators tanked by as much as 15% in early trading Tuesday after the company reported a wider-than-expected first-quarter loss.
The laminate-flooring retailer's sales fell for the fourth straight quarter since a "60 Minutes" episode in March 2015 accused it of selling flooring with harmful levels of formaldehyde.
Lumber Liquidators' first-quarter sales fell 10% to $234 million, while its net loss was $1.20 a share, more than the consensus forecast for a loss of $0.22, according to Bloomberg.
Last month the company reached a settlement agreement with the State of California Air Resources Board over its inquiry and was billed a $2.5 million fine. A court also ruled that the nonprofit Global Community Monitor had the burden of proving that Lumber Liquidators did not provide clear and reasonable warnings to its California consumers.
But the company is clearly still reeling from the China-sourced-flooring scandal as sales continue to decline.
The company said Tuesday that it got a third subpoena from the New York Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission related to financial reporting and disclosure.
"Our sales results fell short of our expectations, but we continue to see improvement in our gross margin from the lows of 2015 driven by our strategic pricing initiatives," CEO John Presley said in the earnings statement.
In March, hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson, who was a key source for the "60 Minutes" episode, said he had reentered his short position after covering it in December.
Screen Shot 2016 05 10 at 9.32.18 AM
NOW WATCH: FORMER GREEK FINANCE MINISTER: The single largest threat to the global economy
More From Business Insider
* Sales fall for 4th straight qtr
* Net loss widens as costs jump
* Shares down 12 pct premarket (Adds details, background, shares)
By Yashaswini Swamynathan
May 10 (Reuters) - Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc's sales fell for the fourth straight quarter, underscoring the hardwood flooring retailer's struggle to revive demand amid lingering fears that some of its products could cause cancer.
The company also reported a much bigger quarterly loss as it spends heavily to resolve allegations that some of its China-sourced flooring contained excessive levels of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.
Shares of Lumber Liquidators, which suspended its stock buyback program on Tuesday, were down 12 percent in premarket trading.
Sales at stores open at least a year dropped 13.9 percent in the first quarter. Analysts on average had expected a 12.6 percent decline, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.
Lumber Liquidators has been facing heat not just from regulators but also from consumers and shareholders after CBS's "60 Minutes" alleged in March last year that the company had sold flooring with dangerously high levels of formaldehyde.
The retailer announced yet another potential settlement on Tuesday, this time to resolve a securities class action lawsuit by paying through insurers $26 million and 1 million shares to some shareholders.
The CBS report, which was followed by a series of investigations and lawsuits, has wiped out nearly three-quarters of Lumber Liquidators' market value since it aired on March 1, 2015.
"Getting your reputation back is not a sprint, it's going to be a marathon," Chief Executive John Presley said on a post-earnings conference call.
In a blow to Lumber Liquidators, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in February that people exposed to some of the company's products were three times more likely to get cancer than it had previously estimated.
Hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson, who holds a short position in the retailer's stock, has warned that there is a 50 percent chance Lumber Liquidators will file for bankruptcy.
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COSTS SURGE
Lumber Liquidators' selling, general and administrative costs jumped 20 percent to $117.2 million in the quarter ended March 31, including $13.5 million in legal fees.
Net sales slumped 10.2 percent to $233.5 million, missing the average analyst estimate of $237.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
This is the fourth straight quarter that the company has reported sales below analysts' expectations.
Its net loss widened to $32.4 million, or $1.20 per share, from $7.8 million, or 29 cents per share.
Excluding items, Lumber Liquidators lost 74 cents per share, much more than the 24 cents analysts had expected.
The company's shares were trading at $11.85 before the bell.
(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)
Luxembourg (AFP) - Luxembourg prosecutors on Tuesday called for two whistleblowers on trial over the "LuxLeaks" scandal to be given jail sentences of 18 months, and for a journalist to be fined.
Frenchmen Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet, both former employees of auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), are accused of leaking thousands of documents to journalist Edouard Perrin.
The documents revealed the huge tax breaks that tiny EU nation Luxembourg offers international firms including Apple, IKEA and Pepsi, saving the companies billions of dollars (euros) in taxes.
A verdict is not expected until mid-June.
"Deltour and Halet are not really whistleblowers, and Perrin has broken the law," deputy state prosecutor David Lentz told the court as he summed up the prosecution's case two weeks after the trial began.
He said that he had taken into consideration the revelations on "certain doubtful practices" exposed by the leaks but that they had nonetheless broken Luxembourg's laws.
"We are here to deliver justice. They must be judged on what they did, this trial has to take place. It's disagreeable, but my job is to protect society against all abuse of the law," he added.
- Snowden says 'good luck' -
The maximum penalty available was a jail sentence of 10 years for the charges against the two whistleblowers which include stealing documents, revealing business secrets and violation of professional secrets.
"For Deltour and Halet we ask for the same sentence: the confiscation of objects seized in France, a fine and 18 months in prison. For Perrin we ask for a fine," Lentz added.
The prosecutor said he would not object if some of the jail sentences were suspended, adding that it was up to the judge to decide.
Rights groups have said the three are being unfairly prosecuted.
Fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed the extent of surveillance programmes run by the US National Security Agency, had offered support, Deltour's lawyer said.
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"Antoine, Edward Snowden wishes you good luck," lawyer William Bourdon told the court.
The two former PwC employees have both defended their actions.
Deltour, who was the first person to leak documents to Perrin, told the court last week he was proud to have opened up the issue of tax breaks for multinationals.
"I feel a certain pride in having contributed to these important advances to taxation in Europe," he said.
The documents were originally used for a 2012 report on French public television, but only really exploded onto the world stage in 2014 with the huge "LuxLeaks" dump of all 30,000 pages into the public domain.
The files showed how Luxembourg granted "sweetheart" deals that saved firms including Apple, IKEA and Pepsi billions of dollars in taxes, at a time when Jean-Claude Juncker, now head of the European Commission, was prime minister.
Halet meanwhile said he had decided to do his duty as a citizen after he was "shocked" by the size of the tax breaks.
In the past two years the EU pushed through tougher rules on taxation in the wake of the LuxLeaks release.
LuxLeaks was the biggest expose of its kind until this month's publication of the Panama Papers, which revealed links between a number of international leaders and offshore shell companies that can be used to hide or launder wealth.
BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali will boost spending in its 2016 budget by 4 percent, partly to cover implementation of a peace agreement with armed groups in the country's north, the finance minister said on Tuesday. The budget approved in December set spending at 2.002 trillion CFA francs ($3.51 billion) with expected revenues of 1.828 trillion francs. Spending would rise by a further 81 billion francs to "take into account some of our engagements," Boubou Cisse said on state-owned radio. The extra money would also help meet the costs of local elections due to be held later this year, he said. The government signed the peace deal, agreed with an alliance of Tuareg-led rebels, in June. It was intended to draw a line under a 2012 uprising and allow authorities to focus on resolving a separate conflict with Islamist militants in the same thinly populated northern desert region. The deal calls for the government to establish an investment fund to spur durable development to address rebel grievance that the state has for decades neglected the impoverished region. The budget increase is expected to be approved by parliament without difficulty. ($1 = 570.9100 CFA francs) (Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Joe Bavier; editing by John Stonestreet)
By Joern Poltz and Jens Hack MUNICH (Reuters) - A German man suffering from psychiatric problems stabbed four people at a train station near Munich early on Tuesday, killing one man and wounding three more in an attack investigators said did not appear to be politically motivated. Witnesses said the alleged assailant, a 27-year-old unemployed carpenter, attacked his first victim shouting "Allahu Akbar" ('God is Greatest' in Arabic). Some witnesses said they also heard him shout "infidels must die". The man received psychiatric treatment just two days ago and has confessed to using drugs, investigators said. He was arrested at the scene and was being questioned. "From what we know so far, he was a lone criminal ... There is no indication that he was part of an Islamist network," Petra Sandles, vice president of Bavaria's office of criminal investigations, told reporters. Investigators said it was unclear why the man, who had spent the night at the railway station, had chosen Grafen, a quiet commuter town about 32 km (20 miles) southeast of the Bavarian capital Munich for the indiscriminate attack. "So far there are no findings that are relevant for state security," Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said. Police said the man was wielding a knife with a 10 cm (4 inch) long blade in the attack at about 5 a.m. (0300 GMT). One victim, a 50-year-old, died of stab wounds in hospital shortly afterwards. Police said one other man was seriously injured and two others who had been riding bicycles had less serious stab wounds. State prosecutor spokesman Ken Heidenreich told reporters the suspect, who comes from near the western city of Giessen, had given very confusing statements and he might be referred to a psychiatric institution. "After questioning, nothing really fits together," he said. Investigators said the suspect may have converted to Islam but there was no indication that he had been radicalized. Germany, which is playing a supporting role in the fight against Islamic State, has not suffered a major attack by Islamist militants on the scale of those that have hit neighboring France and Belgium. But with about 260 of the more than 800 home-grown radicals who have joined jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq having since returned to Germany, ministers have warned an attack is possible and security services are on alert. Some Germans fear militants may also have taken advantage of Europe's migrant crisis to enter the country. Over the past year Germany has taken in more than one million, mostly Muslim migrants and refugees fleeing wars in Syria and elsewhere. (Additional reporting by James Swaden; Writing by Paul Carrel and Madeline Chambers; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Grafing (Germany) (AFP) - A mentally disturbed German man carrying a survival knife Tuesday stabbed to death one person and slashed three others in a bloody dawn attack at a railway station.
The assault initially sparked fears of a jihadist attack because the 27-year-old had yelled "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) and threatened to kill "non-believers".
However, police said the man -- named locally as Paul H. -- appeared incoherent and may be sent to a psychiatric hospital, while stressing he had no known links to Islamist militant groups.
"He's a crazed psychopath," one police investigator told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The man, who had spent the night outside Munich railway station, launched his apparently random knifing spree around 5:00 am (0300 GMT) in the small town of Grafing, 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of the Bavarian state capital.
In the attack, he stabbed one man on the platform, another on a stopped train, then ran outside the station to slash two more men on bicycles.
One victim, a 56-year-old man, died of his injuries in hospital. A 58-year-old man was badly injured, while two other men aged 43 and 55 suffered non-life threatening injuries.
- Barefoot knifeman -
The assailant, an unmarried carpenter who had been on unemployment benefits for the past two years, acted alone, said Bavaria state police deputy chief Petra Sandles.
"We have no information to suggest he was part of an Islamist network," she told a press conference, adding that he was also not known to domestic security agencies.
The detainee "appeared to be in a rather confused mental state," added a police spokesman, saying the suspect had briefly been in psychiatric care the previous day after coming to the attention of police in central Hesse state.
Before the attack, the man, who apparently had a history of drug abuse, had taken off his shoes because he believed them to be infested with bugs which he blamed for the blisters on his feet.
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"The fact that he yelled 'Allahu akbar' was reported by a witness and by the assailant himself... and the phrase... 'you non-believers, you must die' was also heard by a witness," he said.
Prosecutors office spokesman Ken Heidenreich said it was not yet clear whether the suspect would be detained in a jail cell or a psychiatric hospital.
- Jihadist threats -
In Grafing, bloody footprints could be seen on the platform where police forensic officers in white plastic suits were gathering evidence at the cordoned-off railway station.
Town mayor Angelika Obermayr expressed shock at the crime in the sleepy town of 13,000 people.
"We are an absolutely peaceful Bavarian small town in the greater Munich region," she said on NTV. "Something like this is absolutely new and has deeply shocked the people here who only know things like that from television.
"That something like that happened here is absolutely unbelievable."
The violence came at a time of heightened public fears about jihadist attacks. Last August, the Islamic State group threatened Germany with attacks in an online execution video.
In the rare German-language video, two jihadists urged their "brothers and sisters" in Germany and Austria to commit attacks against "unbelievers" at home.
Since then Germany has seen two knife assaults blamed on Islamists.
In February a 15-year-old girl identified as Safia S. stabbed a policeman in the neck with a kitchen knife at Hanover train station in what prosecutors later said was an IS-inspired attack.
Last September, a 41-year-old Iraqi man identified as Rafik Y. who had previously been jailed for membership of a banned Islamist group stabbed and seriously wounded a policewoman in Berlin before another officer shot him dead.
Wall Street is looking to shake-off a two week slump. All three major averages (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC) are solidly higher across the board with energy and financial shares leading the advance.
Meanwhile, oil prices (CLM16.NYM) are shooting higher after some early morning volatility as investors weigh the impact of supply disruptions in Canada and after reports the chief executive of Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant Aramco said the company would likely increase its output to meet demand.
Gap sinks
Gap (GPS) shares fell to a 52-week low in early trading after the retailer posted weaker-than-expected same-store sales in April and the first quarter due to sales declines across all its brands. The company also warned that first-quarter earnings would miss estimates. Gap said it is identifying opportunities to streamline its operations to be more efficient and flexible.
SolarCity (SCTY) shares took a major hit this morning. The solar power company founded by Elon Musk lowered its outlook for the current quarter after it reported a wider-than-expected loss for the first three months of the year as rising expenses ate into profits. However, revenue came in way ahead of expectations with sales jumping nearly 82% from a year earlier.
Lumber Liquidators (LL) shares tanked in early trading. The troubled hardwood flooring retailer posted a much steeper-than-expected loss as sales fell for the fourth straight quarter, missing analysts' estimates.This comes as the company struggles to revive demand and improve margins following a "60 Minutes" report last year suggesting its flooring from China contained high levels of a cancer-causing substance.
Disney (DIS) is set to report quarterly results after the close of trading today. Analysts are expecting profit growth of 14% to $1.40 per share with revenue climbing 6% to $13.2 billion.
Facebook plays defense
Facebook (FB) denies omitting conservative political stories. A report that claims theyve been replacing trending stories for years.
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Smartphone security
Intelligence agencies want to know how secure your phone is. Companies were asked how they release security updates and other factors. But will government intervening actually help?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A grand jury indicted three Maryland brothers on 121 charges in a police detective's death in a gunfight allegedly started by one brother and videotaped by the others, a prosecutor said on Tuesday.
The brothers - Michael Ford, 22; Malik Ford, 21; and Elijah Ford, 18 - were indicted for the March attack on a police station in Landover, Maryland, a Washington suburb, Prince George's County prosecutor Angela Alsobrooks told a news conference.
An officer mistakenly shot off-duty plainclothes detective Jacai Colson, 28, during the gunfight.
Michael Ford faces 55 charges, including second-degree murder and attempted murder, Alsobrooks said. Elijah and Malik Ford each are accused of 33 counts that include attempted murder, first-degree assault and weapons violations.
Court documents allege that the brothers had discussed a plan by Michael Ford, who has a history of mental illness, to engage police in a shootout.
They drove to the police station and parked nearby. Malik and Elijah Ford filmed the scene with their phones when Michael Ford opened fire outside the building.
Alsobrooks said that the brothers each face multiple life sentences if convicted on all counts.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Sandra Maler)
From Town & Country
"Let me give it to you from my perspective," Matt Damon says. We're sitting on a couch in a Los Angeles studio, talking about lofty things: celebrities and their social causes, what he calls his own "journey to philanthropy," and how it led him in 2009 to co-found the global nonprofit Water.org.
"Look, you've been told your whole life, as my friends and I have been told, that it is incumbent on you to be a good citizen and to help where you can," says Damon, whose mother (an early childhood education professor) shared that imperative with him when he was in high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, taking him on service trips to Mexico and Guatemala. "It really was a gift. It gave me an understanding early on of a world that was bigger than mine.
"I have my family, I have my career, and I have this," Damon says of his commitment to Water.org.
"And then I became famous," he says. "It's surreal to suddenly wake up one day and have a larger sphere of influence than you ever anticipated. You genuinely want to do good in the world, but you're going to make a lot of missteps."
He did. "People started asking me to come to this gala or that. And then I would find my name associated with things that I didn't know anything about. I didn't want to be somebody at whom people rolled their eyes, thinking, What is he doing, getting into the middle of this kind of stuff? And that's why, once my life stabilized a little-my career was going pretty well, my wife was pregnant-I decided to get very serious about one thing."
The celebrity gods were watching. In 2006, after Good Will Hunting, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ocean's 11, and the first two Bourne movies-the films that turned him into the closest thing we have to an old-school movie star-Damon was invited by Bono's organization, DATA (which preceded ONE), on a trip through Africa to study issues of extreme poverty. It was a "wonderful thing they did," he says, "almost like a two-week college minicourse, with field trips, lectures, and so much information. My head was spinning."
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Finding His Cause
But one issue kept coming up, he says. "Water. It was massive. It seemed to undergird everything. Water and sanitation." He laughs. "Water was described to me by the people at DATA as the least sexy of all the philanthropic causes. And then you add in sanitation. Just in case water is not unsexy enough, let's bring shit into it!"
The policy wonk's shorthand for water, sanitation, and hygiene is WASH, and let's just say the subject of toilets and waste management can be a hard sell at a fundraising party. But it's a challenging sell at the individual, grassroots, level, too, simply because anyone raised in the developed world can't truly fathom how life-changing the lack of a toilet can be.
"We all have family members or friends we've lost to cancer or to AIDS," Damon says. "But sanitation is something we solved here 100 years ago. Maybe we have some vague recollection of a grandfather or great-grandfather who talked about going to the outhouse."
For the 2.5 billion people without sanitation facilities-one third of the earth's population-it can mean humiliation and, for women and girls especially, danger (men watching and rape). Many, as a result, avoid eating and drinking for long periods of time, which has spiraling health repercussions.
Lack of access to uncontaminated water is likewise tough to relate to if you live in a place where water is ubiquitous. "We don't know anyone who goes thirsty," Damon notes. "We have faucets everywhere. Our toilet water is cleaner than what 663 million people drink. The crisis in Flint, Michigan, ironically, is one of the first times, at least in my memory, that Americans have become aware of just how necessary clean water is, and the dire consequences of not having it."
"I wanted to do something that really leveraged my celebrity-projects that worked on the first day and 10 years later."
Women in impoverished areas around the world spend hours each day navigating difficult landscapes to find water or standing in long lines to buy expensive plastic bags of it from vendors (collectively, 125 million hours every day, it has been estimated). Children (especially girls, who always share that burden) miss school and so compromise their futures. There is rampant disease.
"One child dies every 90 seconds from water-borne illnesses," Damon tells me. "It's completely insane. But beyond just senseless death, this is robbing people of their humanity, of their hopes and dreams. And also of simple day-to-day things, like a kid having time to play."
Using His Celebrity
Perhaps Damon's own sex appeal makes up for his cause's lack of it, but in the seven years since he and water expert Gary White formed Water.org, the results have been impressive. By the end of 2015, Water.org-funded programs reached 4 million people with water and sanitation improvements. "And we're going to reach another million more this year," Damon says, clearly loving the rate at which the numbers are growing.
Institutional investors have certainly taken note of the organization's innovative approach to the crisis. The behemoth Ikea Foundation, as well as the charitable arms of Caterpillar, Cartier, Bank of America, Conrad Hilton, and Stella Artois, among others, are donors and strategic partners. "And we're working on individual high-net-worth investors and the grass roots," says Damon.
"And the five-year plan for people helped?" I ask White. "We're still working on the precise figures," he says, "but it's going to be in the tens of millions."
"Our solutions work," Damon says emphatically. "If we can just tell that story."
A few days after my meeting with Damon in L.A., I'm joining White in Indonesia, one of the 12 countries where Water.org currently has projects, to see its solutions in action. Traveling with us are several staffers and major donors, including Per Heggenes, the CEO of the Ikea Foundation (which just announced a $15 million grant to the nonprofit).
Damon normally takes at least one such field trip a year, but he is regretfully sitting this one out-he has two weeks left of shooting on the fifth Bourne film, Jason Bourne, in theaters July 29. ("I'm already not very popular with my family this year," says the father of four daughters.)
Our four-day itinerary includes visits to five villages on the island of Java, around Jakarta and the city of Semarang, and meetings with community organizations and local financial institutions with which Water.org has partnered. It's pretty here, in the hot and humid Javanese countryside at the tail end of monsoon season-lush vegetation, graceful traditional rooftops, small brightly painted mosques.
Indonesia is southeast Asia's largest economy and is considered a "lower middle income" nation; driving along you can't tell that 15 percent of the country's 250 million people lack access to safe water, and 40 percent don't have adequate sanitation.
White is an engineer, and he thinks like one. A sort of Steve Jobs of the water crisis, he sees the world's WASH problems as equations that need to be analyzed, taken apart, and solved in previously unimagined ways if the large-scale changes he and Damon envision are to happen. Which doesn't mean that the problems are any less heartbreaking when reduced to numbers. No matter how fast you dig wells, or pump or filter water, it is still just a drop of help in a vast ocean of need.
It has been estimated that $200 billion in charitable donations over five years would be required to solve the global WASH crisis; the aid community invests $8 billion annually. The math says it all. There will never be enough.
"Half of all water projects around the world fail in the first three years," Damon told me, "and that's a staggering statistic." What is called "direct impact solutions" to the crisis-wells, pumps, filters, water purification tablets, and such-don't last.
Wells silt over, fancy pumps and filters break down, and there aren't the spare parts or the local expertise to fix them. Furthermore, those most affected by lack of WASH-people at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP-acronyms rule in the nonprofit world)-might neglect, amid all the complications in their lives, to pop that water purification pill into the jerry can, or to walk the five miles to a distribution point for a fresh supply.
Both Damon and White were doing versions of direct impact before they met up, White with his first nonprofit, Water Partners International, and Damon with H 2 O Africa, which he founded after his trip with Bono's organization. "We raised a good amount of money, and we funneled it to NGOs doing good work with wells," Damon says of H 2 O Africa. "But then I started thinking, Well, okay, this is good. But I feel like I'm not maximizing the impact that I can have, not really leveraging my celebrity."
Changing the Game
At about the same time, White was having an epiphany: Not all the 2.5 billion WASH-disenfranchised poor are equally poor. A large portion of them can pay for improvements, if they can get loans. And loans are empowering: By taking them out, as opposed to accepting aid, these people are transformed from passive recipients to active participants in finding their own solution-be it a plumbing connection to an existing underground system, a connection to a reservoir, this kind of toilet or that kind, or a well, but this kind and not that kind, and situated here and not there. Therefore, White concluded, "We need to help the poor tap into their power as customers and citizens and meet us halfway," he says.
"Gary's amazing innovation, which he called WaterCredit," Damon says, "is that he dragged microfinance into the realm of water and sanitation. He said-and it was simple and really brilliant-'What if we fronted the poor the money they need to connect to the existing infrastructure where it exists?' That is many millions of people." Others, White hypothesized, could still be helped through charity and subsidies.
So in 2009, Damon and White joined forces ("I telephoned Ben Affleck, but he didn't return my calls," White quips), and on the foundation of WaterCredit, Water.org was born.
"Gary's simple premise is that the poor will repay water-related loans because they are already spending a lot on water, in money and in time. And that turned out to be incredibly insightful," Damon says.
"They are paying back at an astonishingly high rate-99 percent!" Almost all the borrowers are women. "They say that if you give the money to men, they will spend it on whiskey and women," Damon sighs. "As a man, I slightly take offense, but going through women seems to be what works."
Making a Difference
WaterCredit is not sexy, and it is definitely not photogenic, but everywhere we go in Java we see its power in action. In the village of Sukasirna, southeast of Jakarta, we visit with Siti Hasanah, a cheerful woman in her forties with two children, a 23-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter. She wears a bright turquoise hijab and is immensely proud of her new luxuries: a water faucet jutting up from the ground in front of her nicely tiled front porch, and a private toilet and stall out back, which even her husband now deigns to use. (I'm imagining a thought bubble above her head: "Men!")
She had both installed a year ago, paying for them with a $385, two-year loan, in her name, from KOMIDA, a local cooperative bank focused on low-income women. Many of her neighbors, Siti tells us, are following her lead, using borrowed money (globally the average loan size is $206) to improve their access to water and sanitation.
For 15 days each month, Siti tells us, she works from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. in the rice paddies behind her house. When not in the fields she supplements her income by selling rocks (which her husband, a truck driver, gathers) and homemade snacks.
She has one year of payments left on her loan. Before these home improvements, she would take a steep path behind her house down to the small river flowing below. She insists on showing us precisely where. Slipping and sliding after her, I'm trying to imagine doing this multiple times a day.
Water.org's role in scenarios of this kind is covering the startup costs of financial institutions that give loans to women like Siti-finding them and helping them do market research and come up with appropriate loan structures. The group also provides engineering guidance.
And for all this, Water.org uses the money it receives from donors. (In 2015 they spent nearly $10 million in the field.) Ikea's Per Heggenes is a fan: "I have a business background, and what Water.org does makes sense. It's very solid, very different, very sustainable. I believe in people helping themselves, not in grants or aid."
In Java, White and his team are everywhere, like a dog on a bone-observing, noting, and questioning villagers, community groups, local engineers, and bank representatives. "I want to make sure we're doing everything the right way," he later explains. This is the point of these field trips.
The loans are employed differently depending on location and people's circumstances. In the village of Singajaya, which has no centralized water system to connect to, women have used loan money to put in their own backyard wells and toilets. In the village of Manggar Wetan, where traditional, high-ceilinged wooden homes (rural Javanese architecture is lovely) stretch single-file along a rutted dirt road facing vast rice paddies, the model is different.
Rather than make multiple loans to individual households, a bank offered a larger loan of $8,850 to a community-based organization to build a concrete reservoir tower and put in pipe connections to households willing to pay the $2 to $5 monthly hookup fee, which is used to pay back the debt.
We talk to a strikingly pretty young woman named Dasila Turohmi, who has two children and a husband who is away for three months at a time for work. She points to the new faucet by her porch. Before, she rode a bicycle to and from a water source with a jerry can three times a day. "That's why I'm so slim," she says, smiling. What improvement would she like to see next? "For that road to be paved!"
"No civilization, no society, no economy has ever developed without having a reliable source of water," White tells me over a drink on our last night in Indonesia. "It's the foundation. Yet so many people are living without it."
He taps his iPhone. "Matt and I want to innovate as much around this issue as Apple innovates around the next generation of the iPhone. Think of all the brain power and energy that go into getting the next version of this to market. If we can attract that caliber of attention to WASH, we'll be in really good shape.
"There is always going to be a power structure," he adds. "The wealthy will always get access to that precious resource that is water. Our job is to make sure that the poor have a level playing field."
"The water crisis affects girls and women disproportionately. Water collection falls on them."
To that end Damon has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. He feels she's qualified for a lot of reasons, "but just on this issue of water and sanitation: She understands it from a number of different angles-as a national security issue, as a human rights issue, and, obviously, its impact on women and girls. This is not a partisan issue, which is one really good thing about it. We've talked in equal parts to Republican and Democratic senators and congressmen."
As a template, Damon cites George W. Bush's 2008 initiative, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which continues to be the cornerstone of U.S. global health efforts. "That's absolutely what we need. I've never spoken to Hillary about this, but from what she has done and what she has said, if she wins I'd like to believe that we at least would have an understanding ear. We're not selling snake oil, you know!"
One of the reasons Damon and White get along so well is that they are smart, cerebral men; for them solving the water crisis is a highly intellectual exercise. But I'm curious about the emotional impact. Has Damon ever felt joy in this work?
"That's a funny thing," he says. "There are fewer moments than if I was doing something much more specific at a local level. For me Water.org was always about maximizing impact. But I also have four daughters, and this is an issue for girls. And the people I talk to are girls, and sometimes the same age as my kids. So there is obviously going to be a connection there."
Damon tells me about a 13-year-old in Haiti. There was a new water connection in her village, and he asked her if this would give her time to do more homework. "She looked at me and said, 'No, I won't be doing more homework! I'm the smartest kid in my class!' She said it in this great way so you knew it was true-she was the girl I was intimidated by in eighth grade." He laughs. "And I said, 'Well, what are you going to do with all this time?' And she looked me straight in the eye and said, 'I'm going to play.' It buckled my knees."
Despite the enormous challenges, Damon is hopeful that he will live to see the day when everyone has access to a clean drink of water and a toilet: "Part of Water.org's mission statement is to put ourselves out of business." Before I left for Indonesia he had said, "Look, you're going to meet a bunch of people-women, their kids. You're going to talk to them and you will feel the impact of what we do. But then imagine it over 4 million different people, and soon tens of millions."
I'm starting to. It's exciting. Almost sexy.
Citizen skywatchers, amateur astronomers and scientists alike looked skyward today (May 9) to see Mercury pass across the face of the sun, an event that will not happen again until 2019.
The solar system's smallest planet made a slow passage across the bright solar disc an event that astronomers call a transit starting at about 7:16 a.m. EDT (1116 GMT), according to NASA. The planet started on the left side of the sun's disk and took a downward path to the right. Mercury finally exited the suns disk at about 2:38 p.m. EDT (1838 GMT). The event was visible from all of North and South America, Europe, Africa, and much of Asia.
From the perspective of Earth, Mercury completes a transit of the sun about 13 times per century. The last transit was in 2006, and the next one will occur in 2019. In addition to being a fascinating event for skywatchers, this somewhat rare celestial event offers a lot of information for scientists. [The Mercury Transit of 2016 in Amazing Photos]
Today's transit of Mercury proved to be an extremely popular event with the general public and scientists alike. Live views of the event as well as programming about the science of the transit were broadcast online by both NASA and the European Space Association (ESA). NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a slew of images of the tiny black spot moving across the massive, illuminated disk.
A live webcast from the Slooh Community Observatory featured views of the transit from observatories at multiple locations around the globe, including the Canary Islands; Prescott, Arizona; Hyeres, France; and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Space.com readers sent in photos of the transit taken from Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, Norway, India and Pakistan, among other places. You can see some of those reader photos in our 2016 Mercury transit image gallery.
It's all about perspective
"What happens during a transit is really all about perspective," said Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science, during a live webcast today, in which NASA scientists discussed the science of the eclipse.
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Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and orbits the star every 88 days, which means the planet technically passes "between" the Earth and the sun somewhat frequently. But a transit by Mercury happens only about 13 times every 100 years, because the orbits of the two planets are slightly misaligned. Mercury's orbit is titled by about 7 degrees relative to Earth's, Green said, which means the smaller planet "misses the sun, from our perspective, many, many times."
Images of the transit show Mercury as a very small, very circular black dot slowly moving at an angle across the brilliant surface of the sun. Looking directly at the sun can cause severe eye damage or blindness, so skywatchers must take safety precautions before viewing the star (look here to find out how to safely observe the sun).
One common method for observing the sun is with a pinhole camera, which projects an image of the sun onto a surface. Sunspots or transiting planets can usually be seen this way, but Mercury cannot.
The planet is too small to be seen transiting the sun without some kind of magnification. So it wasn't until the age of the telescope that humans first saw a transit of Mercury. A Mercury transit was recorded for the first time in 1631, by Pierre Gassendi, based on predictions made by Johannes Kepler.
Mercury leaves the sun's disk in half an hour! (2:39 pm EDT) Check it out on https://t.co/F2DCjn2jov pic.twitter.com/5H6m8frKKY NASASunEarth (@NASASunEarth) May 9, 2016
The science of a transit
Humans have been observing transits of Mercury for nearly four centuries, but scientists still find new things to learn from each such event.
For example, during a transit, modern instruments can study Mercury's very thin atmosphere, also known as an exosphere. The body of the planet blocks the light from the sun, but as that light passes through the exosphere, the gases will block or absorb certain wavelengths of light. Mercury is expelling gases, including potassium and sodium, into its exosphere from under its surface.
Planets that transit their parent stars are of great interest to scientists hunting for worlds outside Earth's solar system. With the so-called transit method for hunting exoplanets, scientists studying distant stars can look for a dip in brightness caused by a planet passing in front of its star. Studying the transit of Mercury provides information about how small a transiting planet can be before it becomes impossible to see the object's effect on its star's brightness, NASA scientists said.
The next transit of Mercury will be visible in North and South America, but the following two transits (in 2032 and 2039) will not be visible in much of the Western Hemisphere. A Mercury transit will be visible to this part of the world once again in 2049.
Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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Prince Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia once defined civilization as the collective effort of human genius built on cumulative contributions from many cultures. The two key words here are collective and cultures. The crucial truth in that definition of civilization is the understanding that no single culture has a monopoly on human experience and that civilizations are not competing products in a marketplace of global ideas. The way civilizations evolve is through a collection of many contrapuntal voices that drive ever forward for the sake of common human progress. This is the first step toward understanding that humanity is currently embroiled in a struggle for civilization rather than a clash between civilizations.
Building a renaissance is characterized by the breaking down of walls and the free interchange of ideas. The most important light toward this path is to discover the contents of these many cultures. Meeting people face to face, reading their poetry, listening to their songs, and experiencing one anothers stories are prime reasons why both artists and diplomats alike will never be replaced by computers. As long as human beings remain human, personal interactions will remain irreplaceable. And that is why cultural diplomacy is so important and why it is damaging when it is underappreciated.
The power of love has repeatedly shown itself to be more potent than the power of intimidation in terms of long-term civilization building. The capacity to inspire construction and creativity is the force needed in order to lead and inspire a positive change in the world. And when it comes to the perceived irreconcilable differences between the Western world and its Arab allies in the Gulf, this is especially true. As a composer who has worked extensively in the cultural establishments of the Gulf, Europe, and the United States, I have experienced that the potential for true liberality (which must be characterized by open, and open-minded, respectful dialogue) could not be greater.
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Which is precisely why the West needs to adopt a more two-sided and less chauvinistic dialogue with its Arab allies. This is not limited to the people-in-glass-houses irony of British and American commentators calling out the United Arab Emirates as a surveillance state or describing Emiratis as having quite high self-regard, as Nicholas McGeehan of Human Rights Watch was quoted as saying in a recent New York Times article. America and Britain both believe that they are exceptional nations and they are not exceptional in this regard. Most nations that have accomplished considerable successes will naturally and rightly be proud of these successes.
But this chauvinism, tinged with remnants of old imperialism in the language, is most disturbing when it gallivants as liberalism. Organizations like Human Rights Watch talk about social issues, including LGBT rights (the West often talks about sex as though it invented it) and the various roles held by women in several diverse societies, with a sweeping tone of counterproductive condescension. One of the saddest aspects of this is that these NGOs could serve a productive, important purpose if they took a page out of the cultural diplomacy book: open conversations with people on equal footing rather than talking at others.
Sexuality and gender identity, like everything else in society, evolve differently in different cultures. The idea that everybody from Japan to Turkey has to subscribe to a Western view of homosexual and heterosexual relationships smacks of colonial arrogance. And when the same organizations diminish the key roles that women play in top positions in Emirati society, they are not helping the advancement of women in the broader Middle East. Theyre demeaning the accomplishments of fiercely talented women such as Lubna Al Qasimi; Minister of Youth Shamma al-Mazrui; high-ranking diplomat and United Nations ambassador Lana Nusseibeh; Razan al-Mubarak, secretary-general of the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency; Amal al-Qubaisi, president of the Federal National Council; Hoda Kanoo, artistic director of the Abu Dhabi Festival; and Noura al-Kaabi, minister of state for Federal National Council affairs and key businesswoman, among others. These women have worked hard to earn their positions as leaders in a society where women are regularly outperforming men. To say otherwise is to deny them their accomplishments, and the UAE has every right to be proud of them.
Societies will evolve in such a way that is informed by their own histories and circumstances, and that doesnt necessarily mean adopting a Western idea of feminism or Western attitudes about what it means to identify as LGBT (Q, I, and additional letters presumably to be readily embraced by all the worlds societies as soon as they are adopted in the West). A much better way to measure cultural attitudes about social issues would be to listen to the songs composed by songwriters of that place, by reading stories from that nations authors, and by absorbing the poetry of that countrys poets. If so much of 21st-century statecraft is about collecting intelligence, then reading the ancient poems of Abu Nawwas or Al-Khansa as a way of throwing light on topics including sexuality and women in Arab societies would prove an indispensable diplomatic tool.
Some key examples currently at play in the region illuminate success stories that can have global ramifications. The Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman, is currently in its fifth season and has had cultural diplomacy as one of its explicitly stated goals since day one. Aside from bringing global productions that inspire global debates on creativity and culture to the Omani capital, its educational and outreach initiatives have tackled subjects including the music of Iraq, Italian opera, and, this year, a survey of 30 years of the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestras activities. In Saudi Arabia, too, the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies has built the first public, nongovernmental library in the kingdom starting with a bibliographic database of more than 1.2 million subject headings. This is in addition to the vital initiatives that the center sponsors from the discussion of topics including the music and poetry of the Muslim world and the restoration of more than a thousand rare Persian, Arab, and Ottoman manuscripts. The result of this cultural discourse is useful in counteracting the narrative of extremist ideologies by both educating people about the cultures at hand and counteracting the loud voices of terrorists as they exact their agenda of destruction.
The internationalism of the UAE (where people of more than 202 nationalities live) provides a veritable laboratory for exploring cultural interchange and learning. In such a diverse society, the task of intercultural connectivity is not just a fascinating question or a way to build understanding; it is also a catalyst for engendering community. At such cultural centers including the Abu Dhabi Festival, the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, and the neighboring Dubai Opera, artists representing more than 60 nationalities cumulatively have brought their voices to the UAE, while the Guggenheim has seen curators in both Abu Dhabi and New York City work together to develop a collection for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi that includes a significant representation (some 70 percent of the collection) of non-Euro/American artists and works. Meanwhile, also paying attention to indie operations like Cinema Akil and the galleries of Alserkal Avenue featuring independent artists from across the world with an emphasis on local and Arab works can help us gauge the pulse of societal priorities on a grassroots level.
The value of these microcosmic experiments might be eye-opening if we see their replication on a global scale as a way to diffuse tensions and turn down the volume in an increasingly interconnected world.
The thing about concert halls, museums, opera houses, theaters, and libraries is that they are designed as places of listening and meditation where people can discover more about one another. We need more of these houses of wisdom that illuminate the collective genius of humanity and engender conversation. Lecturing people on how they should run their lives doesnt work. Cultural dialogue and diplomacy do.
Some in the West seem to want the entire world to conform to a second-rate replica of Canada or some (nonexistent) Nordic standard. That seems more like fascism than liberalism. Rather, lets embrace what makes this planet so awesome its dizzying diversity and infinite variety.
Photo credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Millennials, generally considered to be 18- to 35-year-olds in 2015, have made major waves in the way business is conducted and in the companies view their customer.
"Because they are the largest generation, their spending power is substantial," says Derrick Feldmann, lead researcher for The Millennial Impact Project, a study on how the generation engages with different causes. "They are at a formative stage, going out and securing the things they care about."
And when the generation speaks, their influence ripples through the economy.
Marriott International developed two hotel chains -- Moxy Hotels and AC Hotels -- specifically designed to attract millennial customers.
[SEE: Where millennials want to live.]
Joan Kuhl, founder of the consulting firm Why Millennials Matter, also points to disruptions in the banking industry, as clients demand complete mobile access to their accounts and funds, and the auto industry, which has had to adapt to the sharing economies of Uber and Lyft.
When it comes to the global economy, the taste-making generation has its sights set on Thailand. Millennials consider the Southeast Asian nation to have the most economic potential, according to a characterization of 60 countries based on a survey of nearly 6,000 millennials from four regions.
Economic potential was measured by an equally weighted average of scores from four country attributes -- different, distinctive, dynamic and unique -- a metric derived from U.S. News partner and brand strategy firm BAV Consulting's BrandAsset Valuator Model of Brand Building.
[READ: More about how the Best Countries were ranked.]
India, which ranked No. 1 in economic potential by broader age brackets, drops one spot to No. 2 when assessed by millennials. Brazil is ranked No. 3 by millennials, rising three spots compared to broader perceptions.
[SEE: How the broader population ranks the Best Countries in terms of economic potential.]
The youngest generation surveyed seems hopeful for nations that have struggled financially. Compared to perceptions of all ages, Greece, which has received multiple bailouts in recent years and is at risk of defaulting on its debt, jumped 10 spots to No. 16 when assessed by millennials, and Spain rose four spots to No. 33.
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The generation is less forgiving of those nations that have faced more political conflicts. Israel, ranked No. 14 in terms of economic potential by the broader population, dropped 20 spots to No. 34 when assessed by millennials, and Morocco dropped eight spots to No. 20.
See the full list of millennials' picks for countries with the most economic potential here.
Deidre McPhillips is a data reporter at U.S. News. You can find her on Twitter or email her at dmcphillips@usnews.com.
Washington (AFP) - The US government has suspended millions of dollars in funding to several organisations providing aid for Syria after discovering they were systematically overpaying Turkish companies for basic goods with the collusion of some of their staff.
The US Agency for International Development's independent government auditor said it had "established grounds resulting in the suspension of 14 entities and individuals involved with aid programs from Turkey."
Among the revelations, it said in a statement Friday, was "a network of commercial vendors, NGO employees, and others who have colluded to engage in bid-rigging and multiple bribery and kickback schemes related to contracts to deliver humanitarian aid in Syria."
USAID did not identify any of the charities, but among those affected are the International Medical Corps (IMC), the Irish charity Goal and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), headed by former British foreign minister David Miliband, humanitarian sources told AFP.
All the allegations relate to buying goods in Turkey, with NGOs systematically overpaying.
A senior USAID official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said among the largest problems was product substitution -- with Turkish private companies selling goods to NGOs at inflated prices and then providing vastly cheaper quality goods and pocketing the difference.
Examples included blankets and other basic materials for Syrians, humanitarian sources said.
The NGOs are accused of failing to monitor their procurement, while some NGO staff are accused of direct involvement in the overcharging.
The IMC confirmed to AFP it had fired a number of staff after the allegations emerged.
"What became clear in the course of this investigation was this was a pretty sophisticated operation," the USAID official said.
In 2015, the US donated $397 million to aid groups working in Syria, according to the UN's Financial Tracking Service.
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USAID did not say how much the suspended aid was worth, but a source within one of the NGOs put the figure at tens of millions of dollars.
- Syrians hurt -
War-torn Syria is among the hardest places in the world for aid organisations to work, with a plethora of armed groups including the Islamic State organisation and its jihadist rival Al-Qaeda constant threats. The Syrian government has also been accused of bombing hospitals in rebel-held areas.
However the USAID allegations concern only the way goods were purchased inside Turkey, before being delivered to Syrian refugees or to those still inside Syria.
USAID's Office of the Inspector General confirmed 14 "entities and individuals" had been suspended.
"As a result of the suspensions, these parties are no longer able to receive US government awards."
International Medical Corps is among the largest providers of medical aid to Syrians, both inside the country and to refugees in neighbouring countries, with the NGO saying more than six million patients have been treated in the past five years in the 430 health facilities it supports.
IMC confirmed its USAID-funded procurements in Turkey had been temporarily suspended and that it had fired a number of staff over alleged malpractice.
"International Medical Corps has been actively cooperating with the USAID Inspector General, and we have also mounted our own internal investigation," IMC's Chief Compliance Officer Ambassador William Garvelink said in a statement.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy for fraud and corruption and have fired staff members who were suspected of involvement."
The suspension has left the organisation with a huge funding shortage, with around a third of its more than 2,000 personnel working on aid for Syria being made redundant.
A number of programs run by the International Rescue Committee have also been suspended.
The IRC did not respond to requests for comment.
The Irish charity Goal confirmed to the Irish newspaper The Journal last month parts of its program had been suspended.
The knock-on effect for some of the world's neediest people has been significant.
A major Syrian charity, which provides medical care to thousands of Syrians, received huge proportions of its funding from the IMC and the IRC, though there has been no allegation against the NGO.
Speaking on condition the charity not be identified, a spokesman said it had been unable to buy medicines and other vital goods with US funding since January.
The suspensions are temporary, and provided USAID is given assurances of new safeguards funding will resume.
The United Nations has asked for more than $7 billion to fund its Syria aid programs for 2016.
Image via Mobtown
Image via Mobtown
Billboard reports that Minnesota state legislature is looking to introduce a new bill, which came to be following the passing of Prince last month. The proposed bill, if signed into law, will aim to give more control deceased musicians estates, limiting use intellectual property and likeness following death. It will limit outside use of names and likeness in a commercial capacity, and will be named the Personal Rights in Names Can Endure Act, aka the PRINCE Act.
Aspects to be covered by the proposed law would protect the name, image, voice, and signature of deceased artists according to the Minnesota House of Representatives. The law will cover artists for 50 years following death, and will reportedly include those who died prior to its signing, too. Minnesota Public Radio reports that 17 other states have a similar law. If passed, the law will not only apply to celebrities, but to all Minnesotans, too.
The current state legislature in Minnesota only has two weeks to see the proposed law introduced, which means it will have to make a lot of traction in a small amount of time to be successful. The House Civil Law Committee will have its first hearing regarding the PRINCE Act tomorrow on May 11, with the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate the bill further.
The post Minnesota Plans to Introduce PRINCE Act to Protect Legacy of Deceased Artists appeared first on Pigeons & Planes.
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It took El Salvadors Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources five days to declare a three-month emergency after 900,000 gallons of molasses spilled into a local river last week. But people in San Lorenzo, a small village on the Guatemalan border, already knew things were bad and the mayors office has been relentlessly posting photos of dead fish and darkened river waters to sound the alarm.
The livelihoods of San Lorenzos 10,000 residents depend on fishing and ecotourism, both of which are likely to collapse until the spill can be cleaned up. The smell of dead fish is unbearable, according to the Facebook page Comunicaciones San Lorenzo Ahuachapan, which is managed by the mayors office. Locals have been instructed not to eat fish or swim in the river, since they dont know what other chemicals might be floating in the mess.
In 2015, a Salvadoran newspaper called San Lorenzo an oasis of peace. In a country with one of the highest murder rates in the world, the town had gone for close to two years without a homicide.
Commenters on the mayors Facebook page are calling for justice and consequences for the sugar producer Ingenio La Magdalena, which caused the spill. Very upset by this tragedy, wrote one commenter Tuesday. Id like to ask the inept ministry, where are the preventative inspections of companies?
In a press release, the office of Mayor Walter Fernando Ortiz Chinchilla said the river was the biggest source of wealth that the municipality counts on for local and national economic development. It promised to use all legal channels to ensure that those responsible for the molasses spill answer for the damage caused to the environment.
Below, see how the spill has affected the river:
three dead fish
molasses water
deadfish
The day after the spill, some San Lorenzo residents went to catch the dying fish:
fishing
man fish
hand fish
Photo credit: Comunicaciones San Lorenzo Ahuachapan/Facebook
Screen_shot_2016-05-10_at_2.26.29_pm
Mother Goose isn't the only mama bird with a story.
Cincinnati, Ohio, police officer James Givens was sitting in his patrol car when he heard what sounded like a little knock on his vehicle's door.
It turned out the knock was actually a peck and the visitor a goose.
SEE ALSO: Duck and baby form quacking cute friendship
"It kept pecking and pecking and normally they don't come near us," Givens told WKRC Cincinnati. "Then it walked away and then it stopped and looked back so I followed it and it led me right over to the baby that was tangled up in all that string.
Image: WKRC
The string was attached to a discarded Mother's Day balloon, giving an unfortunate and ironic spin to this mother goose's story.
Givens used his cell phone to take video of the incident along with specialist Cecilia Charron. The two called the local chapter of SPCA but they were unable to send someone out quickly enough, so Charron stepped up and saved the baby herself.
"[Charron] has a couple of kids of her own and I guess that motherly instinct must've kicked in because it was like they communicated," Givens told WRKC. "The mother goose didn't bother her, so Specialist Charron came and untangled it. It took her awhile because it was all wrapped up."
Moms helping moms make the world go 'round.
You can see the entire WKRC report below.
[h/t WKRC Cincinnati]
LONDON (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices fell on Tuesday morning as higher deliveries from Norway and Britain's liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals left the system oversupplied. Gas for immediate delivery fell by 1.35 pence to 29.30 pence per therm at 0800 GMT, while the day-ahead contract lost 0.95 pence to 29.65 pence/therm. Britain's gas system was oversupplied by 16 million cubic metres (mcm) with flows forecast to be around 216 mcm/day, according to National Grid data. Imports through the Langeled pipeline from Norway rose by 16 mcm to 39 mcm/day, despite an ongoing outage at Nyhamna gas processing plant which was expected to reduce capacity by 5 mcm on Tuesday. "The glut of gas intra-day (supply), together with an increase in temperature forecasts for next week, have seen prompt prices fall further, wiping out the gains seen on Monday," said Anrew Crabtree, an analyst at Wingas. Deliveries from LNG terminals remained strong, at over 40 mcm/day, and could rise further, analysts said. "We expect LNG sendout to remain strong at 45 mcm/d with a possibility of even higher than 50 mcm/d as a number of cargoes are possibly heading to the UK," said Dimitrios Saratzis, gas market analyst at Thomson Reuters. LNG tanker Al Mafyar is scheduled to arrive in Britain on May 17 and another four could potentially come this month, Reuters shipping data showed. [LNG/TKUK] In the Netherlands, the day-ahead gas price at the TTF hub fell by 0.18 euro to 12.77 euro/MWh. In the European carbon market, front-year allowances eased by 0.03 euro to 5.67 euros a tonne. British day-ahead power prices were up by 4.5 percent at 37.30 pence per megawatt-hour (MWh) after National Grid requested more supply on Monday evening to meet the required level of backup power. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Nina Chestney)
Leda Braga
Leda Braga is the first woman ever to have made the cut to Institutional Investor's annual list of richest hedge fund managers.
As the head of Geneva-based Systematica Investments, Braga earned about $60 million last year and snagged the 44th spot on the ranking published today.
That puts her on par with two New York-based managers, Scott Ferguson of Sachem Head Capital Management and Mark Kingdon of Kingdon Capital Management.
Systematica is a computer-driven firm spun out from BlueCrest Capital. Her BlueTrend Fund was up 6.4% this year through April 8, nearly doubling the 3.4% return that it had last year, according to Institutional Investor, which cited the HSBC hedge fund database.
Under Braga's helm, Systematica's assets have grown to $10.2 billion as of March 1. She manages more money than any other woman in the hedge fund industry.
If this kind of perfomance goes on, Braga may soon land herself a spot on the top 25 list.
The Brazilian-born portfolio manager, who holds a Ph.D. from Imperial College, worked on JPMorgan's derivatives research team before going in to the hedge fund industry.
Braga, sometimes known as the "queen of the quants," has said that systematic trading is the way to go amid higher regulatory pressures and investors' demand for lower fees.
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(Repeats story with no changes to text, adds pictures tag) LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - The pitstop procedures that allow Williams' Formula One mechanics to change a set of tyres in two seconds are now helping speed up the resuscitation of newborn babies. The team said in a statement on Tuesday that Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales had modified their routines to incorporate practices honed at the racetrack. Members of the neonatal unit visited the team factory to see for themselves how they carried out pitstops, while Williams employees have been to the hospital observing similar time-critical processes. Williams said the teams had subsequently implemented a number of changes. They included ensuring that equipment could be located without delay, mapping out floorspace, using more hand signals rather than verbal communication and video analysis in post-resuscitation 'debriefs'. "There is a growing amount of evidence to support a systematic approach to resuscitative care which is time-critical and dependent upon optimal team dynamics and clear communication," said the hospital's specialist registrar Rachel Hayward in the statement. "Analogous with the requirements of an effective pitstop we have worked with the Williams team to implement Formula One techniques and processes to augment neonatal resuscitative care." Former champions Williams have made the fastest stops of any Formula One team at each of the first four races of the 2016 season. At the Chinese Grand Prix in April, they changed all four tyres on Brazilian Felipe Massa's car in the space of 2.10 seconds. Williams, like other Formula One teams eager to develop new revenue streams, are keen to find uses outside of the sport for their technology and expertise. Last year, their Advanced Engineering company developed a device to save money and energy by using aerodynamic technology developed through racing to keep more cold air inside open-fronted refrigerators. Rivals McLaren have applied data management and race simulation expertise to help London's Heathrow airport improve movements on the ground and reduce the time spent by planes circling overhead. Hospitals are also using their wireless data system technology to monitor patients. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)
By Kristen Haunss
NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters LPC) - Citigroup has named Faraz Naseer head of US high-yield trading, and Fran Sutter and Michael Schechter co-heads of US loan trading, sources said.
The changes follow the departure earlier this year of James Nessel, previously head of US high-yield trading at the bank, sources said.
A Citigroup spokesperson declined to comment.
Citigroup has also hired Kelly Maier as a credit trader focused on high yield and credit default swaps, according to sources.
Maier, who previously worked at Citigroup, also worked at Goldman Sachs, according to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) records. He joined Trumid Financial, the electronic corporate bond trading platform, last year, according to FINRA records.
Maier, who declined to comment, reports to Naseer, sources said.
(Reporting by Kristen Haunss; Editing By Michelle Sierra and Jon Methven)
(Adds Citigroup, Mitsubishi and First Gulf Bank)
May 10 (Reuters) - The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Tuesday. To inform us of other job changes, email moves@thomsonreuters.com.
HSBC HOLDINGS PLC
The bank has appointed Franck Lacour as head of equities for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in addition to his current role as global head of trading.
CITIGROUP INC
Citigroup has named Faraz Naseer head of US high-yield trading, and Fran Sutter and Michael Schechter co-heads of US loan trading, sources said.
MITSUBISHI UFJ Financial Group Inc
Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc named Grant Moyer as head of leveraged capital markets for its securities business in the United States.
INSIGHT INVESTMENT
The European asset manager owned by Bank of New York Mellon Corp appointed Tom McKeon as head of portfolio oversight of its farmland investment team.
FIRST GULF BANK
First Gulf Bank's most senior investment banker and its head of global markets sales have both left their positions at Abu Dhabi's largest bank by market value, sources aware of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
SCHRODERS PLC
The asset manager appointed John Troiano as global head of distribution and Richard Mountford as global head of product, replacing Massimo Tosato, executive vice chairman and global head of distribution, who will be retiring at the end of this year.
FIRST GULF BANK
The treasury heads of two Abu Dhabi banks, First Gulf Bank (FGB) and Al Hilal Bank, are leaving, both lenders confirmed, after sources aware of the matter told Reuters they are departing for personal reasons.
BRYAN, GARNIER & CO LTD
The pan-European investment bank named Pierre Kiecolt-Wahl managing director of equity capital markets to lead its equity capital markets efforts throughout Europe.
BEDROCK
The investment and advisory firm named Alexander Classen as a managing partner, effective immediately.
(Compiled by Anet Josline Pinto and Rishika Sadam in Bengaluru)
Not much is known about the man who stabbed several commuters, one of them fatally, at a train station in a suburb of Munich on Tuesday morning. German police say he was 27 years old, a German citizen and expressed political motivations. Witnesses recalled him shouting the Arabic phrase Allahu Akbar God is great as he slashed at people on the platform with a knife.
With the suspect now in custody, it will soon become clear whether this was an act of homegrown Islamic extremism and whether Germanys streak of good fortune in countering such violence has finally come to an end.
Until now, no Germans have ever been killed by a homegrown jihadist. Among the larger nations of Western Europe, this record is or was unique, and it seemed especially remarkable considering that Germany has the largest Muslim population in the European Union. As TIME reported last month, the German strategy in fighting extremism has tended to focus on integration, mentorship and other programs that sought to make Muslims feel welcome in the broader community.
Over the past year, German officials have struggled to explain why this strategy has been so successful, in part because a lot of it comes down to a run of good luck that Germans are afraid to jinx. Everybody can see that these conflicts are coming, Hans-Peter Friedrich, a former Interior Minister in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, told TIME last fall, soon after a group of militants loyal to ISIS killed 130 people in Paris. Look to Paris, Friedrich said. [This is] what happens when you cannot integrate them. Look at Brussels.
In the Belgian capital which also serves as the capital of the E.U. terrorists loyal to ISIS staged a series of bombings in March, killing 32 people and wounding hundreds of others. The stabbings in the town of Grafing outside Munich were, of course, not in the same league. It appears to be a lone attacker with no access to weapons more lethal than a kitchen knife, and police said there is no evidence he has ties to ISIS or any other terrorist group.
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But the Munich train attack may still confirm German fears that the threat of terrorism will not pass them by for much longer. After a million asylum seekers arrived from the Middle East and Africa last year, 66% of Germans said they expected ISIS to strike in their country by the end of 2016. In the same nationwide survey, only 17% of respondents clung to the belief that this would not happen.
Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germanys domestic intelligence agency, said earlier this month that law enforcement needs more resources to combat a worsening security situation, in particular the threat posed by the hundreds German citizens who have joined ISIS in Syria and come home. Every day, Maassens agency receives several tips about jihadist attacks being planned in Germany, he told a security conference in Berlin.
To give you an impression, were watching 90 mosques out of the many mosques here in Germany, he said. Those are the mosques where we suspect there is an extremist, Islamist element in the community.
In Berlin, the mosque that police officials most often point to as a platform for extremist preachers is called Al-Nur, a modest white building in the diverse, mostly working-class neighborhood of Neukolln. During a sermon delivered at its pulpit last year, a visiting imam from Denmark told congregants that Jews should be killed to the very last one. He was subsequently convicted of hate speech and ordered to pay a fine.
The mosque came under a lot more scrutiny after that, and in the wake of the ISIS attacks in Paris and Brussels, some of its preachers worried that Germanys traditional tolerance toward Muslims could be waning. People are scared, Shaykh Abbas, an imam who was visiting Berlin from his home in London, told me after his sermon at Al-Nur last month. After the slaughter in Brussels, he said, people can say that all Muslims are not good, that there is a general defect in our community.
At demonstrations across the country, anti-Islamic groups have begun making such claims with increasing force. The right-wing party known as Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has even called for a ban on Muslim veils and minarets, titling one of the chapters in its recent manifesto Islam is not a part of Germany. During next years elections, AfD is widely expected to become the first far-right party to enter the German parliament since the end of World War II. It currently enjoys the support of around 14% of the electorate, according to the most recent polls.
For liberal lawmakers like Ali Bas, who oversees efforts to integrate Muslims in western Germany, last years influx of migrants has made it much harder to preach tolerance. It changed the tone of how people talk about minorities here, he told me last month in an interview. To make people understand that most Muslims want to live in peace, it got more difficult.
So far, it is too early to tell whether the stabbing in Munich could accelerate that trend, Bas said by phone on Tuesday. Well have to wait for the details, to see if this is confirmed. If the investigation does find that this attack was motivated by religious extremism, it could mark a turning point for Germany. Within their borders, the prospect of Islamist violence may long have seemed like a matter of time. But that will not make it any easier to accept.
A Muslim student was left saddened, disgusted, hurt and embarrassed after her California high school identified her in the yearbook not by her real name, Bayan Zehlif, but as Isis Phillips.
Apparently I am Isis in the yearbook, Zehlif wrote on Facebook. The school reached out to me and had the audacity to say that this was a typo. I beg to differ, lets be real.
The school districts superintendent said Zehlif had been incorrectly identified as a student who really is named Isis, and that an investigation is underway, the Los Angeles Times reports. If they find that a student acted irresponsibly and intentionally, administration will take appropriate actions, he said.
Still, many on social media saw the printing as an Islamophobic swipe linking the student with the terrorist group ISIS.
The Los Osos High School principal and the staff of its yearbook have apologized for the misprint, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for a thorough investigation of potential bias.
[LA Times]
Tens of thousands of North Koreans packed a Pyongyang square Tuesday night to take part in a mass dance and torchlight parade, the second mega-event within hours to mark the end of a rare ruling party congress.
After organising a separate parade in the morning, which filled Kim Il-Sung Square with a sea of pink, crowds flocked in again as night began to fall.
Men in white shirts and ties and women in traditional Korean hanbok dresses filled the vast space for a mass dance marking the conclusion of the Workers' Party congress, the first since 1980.
"Glory to our party!" was the title of one of the -- mostly ideological -- songs that kept the dancers in perpetual motion, turning the square into a huge undulating sea of colour as performers waved multicoloured handkerchieves.
The congress was seen as a chance for young leader Kim Jong-Un further to bolster his power, some four years after succeeding his late father.
His "byeongjin" policy envisages simultaneously pushing for both nuclear weapons development and economic growth, and one of Sunday's melodies was dedicated to the policy.
Others touched on military themes -- "Train for the Front Line" exhorted young people to prepare to defend their country.
To drive the point home, a dance sequence showed Korean guerrillas battling Japanese soldiers before and during World War II.
One of the least appealing-sounding numbers was entitled "Rich Fish Harvest".
Politics aside, it was a spectacular display from the country which has become a master of mass set-piece performances such as the Arirang Festival.
The torchlight parade after darkness fell was equally impressive. What looked like a river of golden fire spread over the square as performers carrying torches advanced across it.
Borne high were huge pictures of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il, the current Kim's grandfather and father respectively.
The family, which has ruled since North Korea came into existence in 1948, is the subject of a personality cult that permeates every aspect of life.
(Reuters) - Multiple power plant outages on Monday evening prompted British energy system operator National Grid to ask for 1,500 megawatts (MW) of extra power capacity to be brought online. The operator notified the market that the so-called system margin, a safety cushion between demand and available supply, was expected to fall below adequate levels from 1800 to 2030 GMT. British day-ahead power prices rose by 4.5 percent to 37.30 pence per megawatt-hour (MWh) on Tuesdy morning. "The notification of inadequate system margin (NISM) was a result of combination of multiple plant breakdowns," a National Grid spokeswoman said, declining to name the plants. "The market responded to the notice and the NISM was cancelled at 2015 GMT," she added. National Grid has said that notifications of inadequate system margin do not mean there is any immediate risk of supply disruption or blackouts but are aimed at ensuring a sufficient reserve buffer. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by David Goodman)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy has sent Lockheed Martin Corp three requests to correct problems, including propulsion-related issues, with the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program dating back to May of last year, a Navy spokesman said on Tuesday.
The ships were originally designed as a small, fast and affordable addition to the fleet, but production has been marked by cost increases and delays. Navy officials, however, say the costs have fallen sharply and the ships are performing well.
Lockheed and Australia's Austal are building two separate LCS models in what is one of the Pentagon's biggest acquisition projects. U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has said the Navy should pick one supplier for production of future ships.
Navy spokesman Dale Eng said in a statement that a "Corrective Action Request" had been sent to Lockheed in May 2015 regarding inadequate propulsion plant control. The request was closed last month after Lockheed executed a corrective action plan.
A separate request was sent last June to correct issues regarding the USS Detroit and USS Milwaukee's propulsion system cleanliness.
A third request followed in July because of Lockheed's failure to have enough oversight over subcontractors.
Lockheed has submitted plans for corrective action for the outstanding two requests, but an evaluation is currently being made on their sustainability, Eng said.
Bloomberg first reported the news of the Navy's requests to Lockheed.
Lockheed said the requests were part of a normal feedback process to improve the shipbuilding process and did not reflect the final product.
"We take each Corrective Action Request very seriously as each one identifies manufacturing and training improvements, which our industry team implements in close coordination with the Navy," Lockheed spokesman John Torrisi said in a statement.
The Pentagon has said it plans to buy just 40 littoral combat ships instead of the 52 originally planned, saying the savings would allow the Navy to buy more missiles and undersea technology.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Paul Simao)
At the time of their surrender on May 7, 1945, Nazi forces had all but disintegrated. Adolf Hitler had committed suicide and Soviet forces had already taken Berlin, which resulted in 70,000 Nazi soldiers putting down their arms.
The failure of Nazi troops to check this advance resulted in them having no choice but to sign a treaty of unconditional surrender. The declaration of surrender stipulated that Nazi Germany recognize the authority of the Soviet Union and Allied forces. Nazi forces also had to immediately cease hostilities and remain in their bases. The signed Act of Surrender went into effect on May 8, 1945.
german surrender wwii
Immediately after the surrender, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower sent out a top-secret cable announcing the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and the victory of the Allies.
John S.D. Eisenhower, son of the general, recounts the moment of Germany's total surrender in his book, "The Bitter Woods: The Battle of the Bulge":
General Eisenhower was sitting in his office awaiting the outcome of the surrender negotiations. Past the desk of his secretary and into the office came the Nazis, erect and cold. Eisenhower stood up. Rigid, and fixing a cold eye on his enemies, he demanded, "Do you understand all the provisions of the document you have just signed?"
"Ja!"
"You will, officially and personally, be held responsible if the terms of this surrender are violated, including its provision for German commanders to appear in Berlin at the moment set by the Russian High Command, to accomplish formal surrender to that government. That is all."
The Nazis saluted and left, and Eisenhower relaxed. A few minutes later he sent a message to the Combined Chiefs of Staff: "The mission of this Allied Force was fulfilled at 0241, local time, May 7th, 1945."
world war II surrender
Although these documents put an end to the war with Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan continued to fight for an additional four months before it finally surrendered on September 2, 1945.
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Only once Japan surrendered was World War II officially brought to a close.
NOW WATCH: Startling facts about World War II
More From Business Insider
What Do AMD's 1Q16 Earnings and Guidance Say about Its Future?
(Continued from Prior Part)
AMD struggles with cash crunch
So far, weve learned that Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) revenue fell in both the semi-customs and PC (personal computer) businesses in 1Q16. However, gaming, VR (virtual reality), and the data center market have raised new growth opportunities.
The company needs sufficient capital to tap these opportunities. It has been facing a cash crunch as falling revenues and losses have impacted its cash inflows.
Cash flow
In 1Q16, AMD reported -$42 million in cash from operating activities, a rise of 75.7% from -$173 million in 1Q15. This was far ahead of the industry average cash flow growth rate of -38.2%, according to TheStreet. AMDs free cash flow was -$68 million.
Impact on balance sheet
Negative cash flows in three of the past four quarters reduced the companys cash reserves by 21% YoY (year-over-year) to $716 million as of March 26, 2016. The companys long-term debt stood at $2.2 billion.
Such a vast difference in cash and debt balance indicates that the company is in dire need of cash to fund its capital expenditure and repay its debt.
This also hampers the companys ability to compete with rivals Intel (INTC) and NVIDIA (NVDA), which have huge cash reserves of $15 billion and $5 billion, respectively.
Cash injection from joint ventures
Like Qualcomm (QCOM), AMD is looking to generate cash through licensing. It has entered into two joint ventures with Chinese companies that will inject much-needed cash into the company.
The first joint venture is a licensing agreement that will generate revenue of $293 million. $52 million of this is expected to be realized in 2016. The second joint venture is with Nantong Fujitsu Microelectronics, under which AMD will receive $320 million in cash in 2Q16.
AMD aims to maintain its cash reserves within the range of $600 million$1 billion to the end of 2016. It further aims to generate positive free cash flow in 2016. Well look at the companys 2Q16 guidance in detail in the next part of the series.
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The iShares Russell 1000 ETF (IWB) has exposure to large-capitalization stocks across various sectors. It has 0.38% exposure to QCOM, 0.72% to INTC, and 0.10% to NVDA.
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Jerusalem (AFP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he threatened to send troops into Cairo in 2011 to evacuate staff trapped in Israel's embassy during a mob rampage though the building.
"Here, several years ago, in the situation room of the ministry of foreign affairs, we dealt with a siege that grew ever tighter around our people in the Israeli embassy in Cairo," he told an annual memorial ceremony for ministry staff killed on duty overseas.
"A wild mob came to slaughter our people and that night we worked with all the tools at our disposal, including threats to extract them using the Israel Defence Forces, which finally tipped the scale," his office quoted him as saying in statements issued in Hebrew and English.
It later issued what it called a "clarification" saying that the premier's remarks did not mean he was speaking of unilateral action.
"In the circumstances referred to, the intention was to act in coordination, with the Egyptians, not unilaterally," it said.
"We are happy that there was no need for this and we thank the Egyptian army which dealt with the crisis in a responsible manner and brought about a solution to the problem."
In the September 2011 siege, protesters attacked the Israeli embassy offices in central Cairo, forcing the evacuation of all staff.
Crowds smashed through an external security wall, tossed embassy papers from balconies and tore down the Israeli flag.
After several hours, Egyptian commandos rescued six Israeli security guards stuck inside the embassy building.
It was the worst such incident since Israel set up its mission in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state, in 1979.
Ambassador Yitzhak Levanon was among 80 embassy staff and their families flown home early the next morning. The six guards followed later.
By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday backtracked from remarks in which he said he had threatened to send commandos to Cairo in 2011 to rescue Israeli security staff besieged by demonstrators who had stormed Israel's embassy. Netanyahu clarified Israel had not intended to mount an operation on its own, but only in coordination with Egyptian authorities. "The intention was for a coordinated, not a one-sided action. We are pleased that there was no need for this and thank the Egyptian army, which handled the crisis in a responsible manner and brought about a solution to the problem," a statement from Netanyahu's office said. Demonstrators stormed the embassy, in the heart of Cairo, on Sept. 9, 2011, in protest at the killing of five Egyptian security guards by Israeli soldiers pursuing Islamist militants who had ambushed and killed eight Israelis along the border. According to Netanyahu's original account earlier on Tuesday at a ceremony in the Foreign Ministry to mark the country's annual memorial day, his threat galvanized the Egyptians to send in forces and rescue the six. "A wild mob ... came to slaughter our people, and that evening we used all the tools at our disposal, including a threat of an Israeli military rescue operation - something that ultimately was the deciding factor and brought the Egyptian forces (to the scene)," he said. Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said the ministry "had no knowledge of any internal Israeli discussion of such kind at the time". He added that Egypt's government "bears the responsibility of providing protection to any foreign diplomatic mission on Egyptian soil according to its international obligations ... and continues to do so". Netanyahu made no specific reference in his original comments about U.S. intervention in helping resolve the crisis and his telephone call at the time with President Barack Obama, and the involvement of other top U.S. officials. In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to recognise Israel. Bilateral relations have endured political upheavals that saw the rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood, followed by the current pro-Western administration of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. (Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Lin Noueihed in Cairo; Editing by Alison Williams)
By Tife Owolabi YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Oil companies operating in Nigeria should evacuate staff from the southern Niger Delta following several attacks on oil facilities, a senior oil workers' union official said on Tuesday. The attacks have pushed Nigeria's crude output near to a 22-year low, sparking worries that militants might resume a full-scale insurgency in the Delta, a region where many complain of poverty despite sitting on much of the country's energy wealth. Last week, a group known as Niger Delta Avengers attacked a Chevron facility in the Delta after claiming a strike in February against a Shell pipeline, which shut down the 250,000 barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal. "Best thing for any reasonable company to do is evacuate its workforce," Cogent Ojobor, chairman of the Warri branch of the Nupeng oil labour union, told Reuters. Chika Onuegbu, chairman of the Trade Union in Rivers state in the Delta, said Chevron had evacuated some staff from the Delta following a similar move by Shell. "There is high alert around various installation around the Niger Delta due to recent attacks," Onuegbu said. "Those evacuated are where their platforms have been attacked but others are working." Ikeja Electricity, Nigeria's biggest power firm, said it expected outages after the attack on Chevron hit gas supplies needed to generate electricity. "Consequently, with this recent attack, the supply line is likely to drop further, leading to extended periods of outages across our network and other parts of the country," the company said in a full-page newspaper statement. Residents in the impoverished Delta have long demanded a greater share of oil revenues. Crude oil sales account for about 70 percent of national income in Nigeria but there has been little development in the region. President Muhammadu Buhari has extended a multimillion-dollar amnesty signed with militants in 2009 to end their campaign to blow up pipelines, but upset them by ending generous pipeline protection contracts. The militancy is a further challenge for a government faced with an insurgency by the Islamist militant Boko Haram group in the northeast and violent clashes between armed nomadic herdsmen and locals over land use in various parts of the country. (Writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by David Clarke)
TOKYO, May 10 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei share average rose more than 2 percent to 1-1/2-week highs on Tuesday after Japan's finance minister said Tokyo will intervene if the yen's "one-sided" rise persists.
The Nikkei gained 2.2 percent to 16,565.19, the highest closing level since April 28.
Finance Minister Taro Aso on Tuesday reiterated his resolve to intervene in the currency market if the yen's gains last long enough to hurt Japan's fragile economic recovery.
The broader Topix gained 2.2 percent to 1,334.90 and the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 also added 2.2 percent to 12,069.89.
(Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
By Costas Pitas LONDON (Reuters) - Nissan is to launch a trial this year to allow electric car owners in Britain to sell electricity back to the National Grid and potentially make money in the process. Major car makers are investing heavily in electric cars and in Europe many countries have incentive schemes to get more people to buy them, including Norway, the Netherlands, France and Britain. Around 3 percent of cars sold in Britain last year were alternative fuel models - primarily plug-in hybrid and electric cars - but sales have risen 24 percent so far this year, with manufacturers seeking to attract buyers in an increasingly competitive market. Nissan said on Tuesday its trial with multinational power company Enel would be the first of its kind in Britain and involve 100 vehicle-to-grid units for private and business customers, which will allow them to sell back electricity to energy system operator National Grid. "The value to the consumer is they can draw energy off-peak, so during the night," chairman of Nissan Europe Paul Willcox told Reuters. He said people could use that energy to power the car or use it to sell it back to the grid during peak time when they can make some revenue. Nissan, which built almost a third of Britain's total car output last year, said private and fleet owners of its compact Leaf model and e-NV200 electric van would have the chance to take part in the trial later this year. Britain's National Grid could face an increase in demand if electric cars become more widespread, but it could also benefit from the Nissan program if it encourages more consumers to reduce their power use during peak times. National Grid has had to take steps to secure the country's energy supply following closures at coal-fired plants due to environmental regulations, which have shrunk Britain's generating capacity over the last few years. "Its our job to future proof the national transmission network," National Grid Non-Executive Director and former CEO Steve Holliday said. "The rapid uptake of electric vehicles is certainly positive yet could also be challenging if we dont plan ahead." (Reporting by Costas Pitas. Editing by Jane Merriman)
HELSINKI, May 10 (Reuters) - Nokia's net sales of telecoms equipment fell more than expected in the first quarter as the Finnish company warned on Tuesday that earnings in its mainstay business would decline this year due to slowing demand in China.
In its first unified earnings report since taking control of rival Alcatel-Lucent in January, Nokia also nudged up its cost-cutting target for the merger, saying it was now seeking savings of "above" 900 million euros in the course of 2018, compared to "approximately" 900 million euros previously.
Net sales at the combined networks business dropped 8 percent from a year ago to 5.18 billion euros ($5.89 billion), missing a market consensus of 5.51 billion.
Nokia said it expected networks sales in the full year to decline due to weak investing by the mobile operators as well as its focus on the integration of Alcatel-Lucent.
Nokia acquired Alcatel in a 15.6 billion euro all-stock offer to help the Finnish company more broadly compete with Sweden's Ericsson and China's Huawei in the market with limited growth and pressure on prices.
First-quarter non-IFRS earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) at the Networks division jumped 61 percent from a year earlier to 337 million euros, above the average analyst forecast of 270 million in a Reuters poll.
However, total group operating profit, which includes earnings from Nokia's patents, came in at 345 million euros, roughly in line with a mean forecast of 349 million euros in the poll. ($1 = 0.8793 euros) (Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell; editing by David Clarke and Eric Auchard)
From Esquire
Well, it appears that Pat McCrory, governor of the now consistently insane state of North Carolina, has decided that the Urinal Cooties Protection Act of 2016 is the hill on which he and his government are prepared to die. You remember that, at the end of last week, the Department of Justice informed the state that, yes, they did indeed have to conform to federal anti-discrimination statutes, and that if the UCPA were enforced, the state would face the loss of gazillions of big-government federal dollars, and that, yes, this question was pretty much decided at Appotmattox. On Monday, the state decided to sue the Feds. From ABC 11:
In a statement Monday, McCrory said: "The Obama administration is bypassing Congress by attempting to rewrite the law and set restroom policies for public and private employers across the country, not just North Carolina. This is now a national issue that applies to every state and it needs to be resolved at the federal level."
You may now be saying to yourself, "Wait. This has been 'resolved' at the federal level. It was 'resolved' by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act." Ah, but you are not fluent in weaselspeak. This is McCrory and the rest of the unreconstructed Calhounites in his legislature crying out for some federal judge who was salted into the federal judicial system years ago by a Republican president to get them off the hook and to help them stop looking foolish in the eyes of the nation. A governor of a state is actually complaining in public that the federal government is attempting "to set restroom polices" across the country.
Dude, the federal government has been doing that for more than 60 years.
I know. I know. "Protected class" and all that. But McCrory fully intends to waste the state's money litigating this nonsense all the way up through the system. Fiscal responsibility!
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By Daniel Trotta and Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) - The legal battle over transgender rights between the state of North Carolina and the U.S. government has moved the country closer to settling one of the last frontiers in civil rights law.
At issue is whether transgender people deserve the same federal protections that have been extended to groups such as blacks and religious minorities.
Backers of the North Carolina law, which requires people to use public bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity, say it will protect women and girls from predators. Transgender advocates say that claim is unfounded and ignores a modern understanding of people who identify with a gender other than the one assigned at birth.
The next step is likely to be a federal judge's decision on whether to impose an injunction, or temporary ruling, to void the North Carolina law pending a trial. Regardless of how a judge might rule on an injunction, the case stands to add to a growing body of legal decisions that have tended to side in favor of transgender rights but not enough to dissuade states like North Carolina.
A handful of U.S. states and cities have attempted to enact measures affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, but North Carolina is the first state to focus on transgender people's use of public bathrooms.
"This is absolutely a critical moment in terms of the focus and the answers that will come through these cases about the established scope of protections for transgender people," said Jennifer Levi, a lawyer with the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders.
The North Carolina law is the subject of four lawsuits in federal court, two on each side.
The U.S. Justice Department and an advocacy group, the American Civil Liberties Union, have each sought to strike it down, saying the law violates the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which jolted a divided nation into applying full rights to African-Americans a century after the abolition of slavery.
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North Carolina's governor and legislature both sued on Monday to protect their law, saying the Justice Department was trying to strike down a "common sense privacy policy" meant to protect the state's public employees. State officials also said if the Obama administration wants protections for transgender people, it should appeal to Congress to amend existing laws.
GENDER AND LAW
At least two provisions of federal law ban discrimination on the basis of sex -- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which covers and employment, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The issue before the courts is whether "sex" also applies to gender identity. The Obama administration has taken a firm stance that transgender people are protected, a point that Attorney General Loretta Lynch emphasized on Monday.
"The entire Obama administration wants you to know that we see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward," Lynch told transgender people in remarks at a news conference.
Lynch also threatened to withhold federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina while the legal case proceeds.
North Carolina stands to lose $4.8 billion in funds, mainly educational grants, if it does not back down from the law, according to an analysis by lawyers at the University of California, Los Angeles Law School.
Unless North Carolina backs down, any ruling by a trial judge would likely be challenged and end up in a Virginia-based federal appeals court that only weeks ago issued an important ruling in favor of transgender rights.
That court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, said a transgender teen from Virginia could sue his high school for being barred from using the boy's bathroom. The court noted that federal education officials have interpreted Title IX to apply to transgender people but did not directly rule on the issue.
So far, only one appeals court has explicitly ruled that the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination against transgender people, in a 2005 case brought by a police officer. At least five other appeals courts have suggested that they agreed, some in cases involving other federal discrimination laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court could help settle the matter, but experts said it was unlikely to take up any precedent-setting case any time soon.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner and Daniel Trotta; Additional reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Alistair Bell)
(Adds details, background and analyst comments, updates shares)
By Subrat Patnaik and Siddharth Cavale
May 10 (Reuters) - Gap Inc CEO Art Peck had called the spring selling season the company's "no excuses moment", urging investors to be patient as he worked to revive sales at the apparel retailer.
Now, the company has run out of excuses and investors have run out of patience.
Gap's shares tumbled 13 percent to a more than four-year low on Tuesday, a day after the company reported a steep drop in comparable-store sales, dragged by declines in its three big brands - Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic.
Under Peck, who took the helm last year, Gap has focused on turning around its Banana Republic and namesake brands by offering trendier clothes and discounting to match online prices.
But shoppers have ignored what they see as basic and boring styles and turned to in-vogue retailers H&M, Forever 21 and Inditex's Zara.
"The central issue is that (Gap) is creatively dull and does very little to change collections from season to season or year to year," said Neil Saunders, chief executive of research firm Conlumino.
Even Old Navy, a bright spot for the company in the past few years, has failed to resonate with shoppers lately.
"With Old Navy losing steam and no sign of improvement on the Gap brand (where turnaround efforts have focused), it is increasingly difficult to see what management can do to turn the ship around," Bernstein analyst Anne-Charlotte Windal said.
Overall sales at established stores fell 5 percent. Analysts had expected a decline of 2.6 percent, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.
San Francisco-based Gap also gave a grim estimate for first-quarter profit. It is expected to report results on May 19.
"(Gap) expected the spring collection to be a turning point, but we believe structural challenges continue to eclipse any product and design enhancement," Credit Suisse analyst Christian Buss said in a note.
EVALUATING STORES
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With Peck's efforts failing to make an impact so far, it looks likely that Gap will need to further restructure its business.
Gap said last June that it planned to close a quarter of the 675 specialty stores under the Gap label over the next few years.
The company said on Monday it was "evaluating" its Banana Republic and Old Navy stores, primarily outside North America and China.
But analysts said the company should focus more on its North American business.
The retailer had 1,030 Old Navy stores in North America and 65 in Asia, as of Jan. 30, 2016. It also has 612 Banana Republic stores in North America and 61 in Asia and Europe.
"With these stores making up less than 5 percent of GPS's owned fleet, we feel like more attention should be focused on rationalization in North America where the company owns 2,600-plus stores," Credit Suisse's Buss said.
Gap's shares were down 12.5 percent at $19.09 in afternoon trading. The stock is now trading at levels last seen in early 2012, after a largely successful turnaround under former CEO Glenn Murphy.
At least 17 analysts have cut their price targets, while Topeka Capital cut its rating to "hold" from "buy". Of the 35 analysts covering the stock, 22 have a "hold" or an equivalent rating and 10 rate it "sell" or lower.
The median price target on the stock is $21, down from $26 a month back.
(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
NVIDIA: GPU-Accelerated Computing Could Be a Game-Changer
NVIDIA grows amid slowdown
NVIDIA (NVDA) reported a 7% YoY (year-over-year) revenue growth in 2015, a time when the semiconductor industry revenues fell by 2.3% YoY, as reported by Gartner.
Big players like Intel (INTC) and Qualcomm (QCOM) reported declines in 2015 due to their high exposure to the slowing PC and smartphone markets. NVIDIAs arch-rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) also reported revenue declines.
At the annual Investor Conference held in April 2016, NVIDIAs top executives highlighted the companys growth opportunities in terms of geography and new technology.
NVIDIAs chief executive officer, Jen-Hsun Huang, explained that the companys growth is being driven by its two-part business model: platform and network as well as leverage and scale. Lets look at these two parts in detail.
NVIDIAs strategy of platform and network
NVIDIA has adopted a platform and network approach to reach out to a large audience. It started off by producing a GPU (graphics processing unit) computing platform for PCs and games and then generalized the platform, opening it up to the right markets.
A computing platform needs applications to succeed in a new market, and applications are developed by developers. A developer would use the computing platform if it adds value, is easy to use, and has a large reach, stated Jen-Hsun Huang.
NVIDIA achieved the first two requisites with its GameWorks SDK (software development kit). The kit allowed developers to enhance video games by giving them more access to the GPU features. (We will learn more about this in the latter part of the series.) The company fulfilled the last requisite of large reach by using its Partner Network that sold its GeForce GPUs to gamers.
GeForce GPUs were popular among gamers and the addition of GameWorks boosted its growth. Developers started using GameWorks to develop better games, and they all used GeForce GPU in their systems. Gamers also adopted GeForce GPU to play games developed on GameWorks to get the ultimate GFE (GeForce Experience).
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This created a two-sided business modelone for developers and one for the partner network.
Reaching out to a larger audience
After the success of its platform and network approach in the gaming arena, NVIDIA successfully replicated the model in different markets such as automotive, data center, and professional visualization. However, developing new technologies for specific markets entails a large cost. The company tackled this issue using the leverage and scale approach, which we will discuss in the next part of this series.
The iShares Russell 1000 Value ETF (IWD) has holdings in large-cap US stocks across various sectors, including technology. IWD has 0.19% exposure in NVDA, ~1.3% in INTC, and 0.65% in QCOM.
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Washington (AFP) - Barack Obama will this month become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, but the White House is scotching talk of an apology for the devastating 1945 nuclear bombing of the city.
Obama, accompanied by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will make the deeply symbolic visit on May 27, after attending a G7 summit in south-central Japan, his spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday.
The White House described the trip as an effort to highlight the US "commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."
On August 6, 1945, the US dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing around 140,000 people, including those who survived the explosion itself but died soon after from severe radiation exposure.
Three days later, the US military dropped a plutonium bomb on the port city of Nagasaki, killing some 74,000 people.
The announcement comes after months of speculation in the US and Japan that the president, a Nobel peace laureate, would pay a visit to the city.
The bombings remain controversial in the United States and around the world.
Opinion is sharply divided on whether president Harry Truman's decision ended the brutality of World War II and avoided a bloody US invasion of Japan, or whether dropping nuclear weapons on a civilian area constitutes a war crime.
A Pew poll last year showed 56 percent of Americans think the bombing was justified, while 14 percent of Japanese do. In both countries, approval of Truman's order has waned dramatically over the years.
The White House has expressed understanding at the dilemma Truman faced.
"I think what the president would say is that it's hard to put yourself in that position from the outside," Earnest said.
"I think what the president does appreciate is that President Truman made this decision for the right reasons. President Truman was focused on the national security interests of the United States... on bringing an end to a terrible war. And President Truman made this decision fully mindful of the likely human toll."
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"I think it's hard to look back and second-guess it too much."
- No apology -
In Hiroshima, Obama will visit the once ruined city's Peace Memorial Park "where he will share his reflections on the significance of the site and the events that occurred there," said senior Obama foreign policy advisor Ben Rhodes.
Last month, Secretary of State John Kerry became the highest-ranking US political figure to visit Hiroshima.
Kerry said he was "deeply moved" by the experience and called a museum at the site a "gut-wrenching display that tugs at all your sensibilities as a human being."
"Everyone should visit Hiroshima, and everyone means everyone," he added, fueling speculation that Obama would follow.
Abe welcomed the White House announcement, saying: "We want to make this visit an opportunity for both Japan and the US to mourn all the victims."
"It is significant for him to send a message of his determination for a nuclear-free world. For a US president, it was a big decision," he said.
Japan has long urged world leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to see the horrors of the atomic bombings and join efforts to eradicate nuclear arms.
A UN spokesman said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "very much welcomes" Obama's decision and expressed hope that the visit will highlight the need to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all.
But some have been concerned that Obama's visit would be seen as an apology for events of seven decades ago.
The move is likely to rile Obama's opponents and some in the military, whose predecessors carried out presidential orders to drop the bombs.
The visit will come at a particularly sensitive time. This December marks the 75th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, in Obama's home state of Hawaii.
But the White House was eager to stress that Obama's visit is not an apology.
"He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future," said Rhodes.
The visit is likely to have regional reverberations, at a time when North Korea, a short distance away, is aggressively pursuing its nuclear and ballistic missiles development program.
At a four-day Communist Party confab that ended on Monday, Pyongyang's enigmatic leaders vowed to continue building weapons systems that have already prompted deep international sanctions and isolation.
Japan's neighbors in China and South Korea will also be watching the visit closely, always eager to make sure that their once hyper-aggressive foe is not allowed to play the role of a World War II victim.
Before his visit to Japan, Obama will head to Vietnam for talks on advancing cooperation on trade, security and human rights, the White House said.
President Barack Obama will soon become the first sitting U.S. president to go to Hiroshima, the White House announced on Tuesday. Obama will go on May 27, just after the G-7 summit, to visit the historic city where the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later, the United States dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki. All told, more than 200,000 people perished, mostly civilians.
Secretary of State John Kerry visited Hiroshima on April 11, the first of his rank to do so, in part to test the waters for Obama. Everyone in the world should see and feel the power of this memorial, Kerry wrote in a guest book after touring the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.
The presidents visit is almost as controversial as the bombing itself. Ten presidents before Obama have avoided a trip that raises uncomfortable questions. Was the U.S. action justified? Were there alternatives? Should the United States apologize?
Yes, the president should go. Not to look back, but to look forward to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again. This isnt about questioning Americas responsibility for using nuclear weapons, Tomihisa Taue, the mayor of Nagasaki, recently said. Its important to think about how to rid nuclear weapons from the world. As Obamas tenure comes to a close, this may be one of his last opportunities to deliver a major policy speech on nuclear weapons one of his signature issues.
As Ben Rhodes, the White Houses deputy national security advisor, explained on Medium, the presidents trip will reaffirm Americas longstanding commitment and the Presidents personal commitment to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.
But this is no time to play it safe.
The president created high expectations with his 2009 speech in Prague, where he spoke not just of stepped-up nonproliferation efforts, but of a world free from nukes. The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War, Obama said, calling for the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. In part based on the high hopes embodied in this speech, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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To be sure, Obama has achieved a great deal on nuclear weapons. He negotiated the 2010 New START treaty with Moscow, modestly cutting U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. And his administration spearheaded the Nuclear Security Summits, which started a still unfinished effort to lock down nuclear materials so terrorists cant get them. Most importantly, Obama clinched the nuclear deal with Tehran, preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb without using military force.
But in other key areas, Team Obama has not delivered. The GOP-controlled Senate has still not approved the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty; Russia is blocking further bilateral arms reductions; Pakistan has thwarted international talks to ban the production of weaponized nuclear materials; and North Korea continues to grow its arsenal. Obama can point to Republicans, Russians, and other obstructionists for blocking these efforts, but in one major area he has only himself to blame the $1 trillion plan to maintain and rebuild the U.S. nuclear arsenal, which experts warn is already sparking a new arms race.
True, Obama did say in Prague that he would maintain a safe, secure, and effective arsenal as long as nuclear weapons exist, but his plans to build new nuclear-armed submarines, bombers, and missiles go way beyond that. [W]ere now in the process of building a whole new generation of nuclear weaponsthe public is unaware, former Secretary of Defense William Perry tweeted recently. Even Obama has admitted as much, worrying that the United States may be ramping up new and more deadly and more effective systems that end up leading to a whole new escalation of the arms race.
As the New York Times put it, The buildups threaten to revive a Cold War-era arms race and unsettle the balance of destructive force among nations that has kept the nuclear peace for more than a half-century.
This is Prague in reverse. Instead of leading the world away from nuclear weapons, Obama is running toward new, deadlier ones. With every new submarine, bomber, and missile the United States builds, it is giving Russia and China an excuse to do the same and creating new security threats. India, Pakistan, and North Korea will follow. And the more weapons there are, the more opportunities there will be for terrorists to seize nuclear materials.
If Obama wants to fulfill his promises to put an end to Cold War thinking and reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy, he must do more.
And he can, even as his time in office winds down. Obama is still the commander in chief of U.S. nuclear forces, weapons that can only be used under his authority. He can change operational procedures with the stroke of a pen. And he can take initial steps now toward longer-term goals for the next president to carry out.
Here are four practical ideas that should be part of Obamas Hiroshima speech:
Support the test-ban treaty. The U.S. Senate will not approve the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty this year, but Obama could call for a United Nations resolution calling on all states to support the global moratorium on nuclear testing. The administration could accelerate its ongoing efforts to educate the U.S. public and the Senate on the treaty, to lay the groundwork for approval under the next president. The United States has not conducted a nuclear test for almost 25 years and has no need to. If the United States does not act, it is only a matter of time until another state, such as Russia (which has long been a treaty signatory), resumes testing. Meanwhile, U.S. efforts to compel North Korea to stop its testing are weakened by Americas failure to ratify the test ban.
Reduce the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. After the New START treaty, which capped U.S. and Russian deployed strategic warheads at 1,550 each, Obama had planned another round of reductions with Moscow. In 2013, in Berlin, Obama said the United States could maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent and still reduce these weapons by up to one-third, to about 1,000. Obama, for political reasons, wanted to negotiate those cuts in tandem with Russia. President Vladimir Putin said nyet. But there is no security reason to wait. The United States could announce it will put about 500 warheads that are currently deployed into storage and challenge Russia to do the same.
Scale back the nuclear shopping spree. The United States does not need and cannot afford to rebuild the entire nuclear force as if the Cold War never ended. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the House Armed Services Committees ranking member, said on April 22 that I think the area where we need to save money is on the nuclear modernization. Do we really need the nuclear power to destroy the world six, seven times? Obama should announce that he will cancel the planned $30 billion nuclear cruise missile, which is redundant, expensive, and destabilizing. He should also cancel the $60 billion replacement for the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and take all ICBMs off alert. These steps could be achieved quickly, before Obama leaves office. If we have to wait for the next president to act, it may be too late to stop these programs.
Retire all ICBMs. If he is feeling really bold, Obama could also announce that, in the longer term, the United States will retire all of its 400 deployed ICBMs. As former Defense Secretary Perry said recently, ICBMs are not needed. Any reasonable definition of deterrence will not require that third leg, of the so-called nuclear triad. Even without the ICBMs, the United States would still retain nuclear-armed submarines and bombers. If the United States were to reduce its arsenal by around 500 warheads, most of those could come off the retired ICBMs.
To keep the United States and the world safe from nuclear weapons, additional steps would be needed. North Korea must be brought, through coercive diplomacy, into the nonproliferation fold. States must continue to control and reduce their stocks of weapons materials to keep them off the terrorist black market. And this administration and future ones must keep a close eye on Iran to make sure it is complying with the terms of the agreement.
But now is the time for real action, and theres no place better for a statement of intent. Obama should go to Hiroshima and boldly lead the world away from nuclear weapons. This may be his last chance to prevent a renewed race for nuclear arms and put the globe on the path to a nuclear-free future that he so eloquently launched in Prague. Mr. President, go to Hiroshima and stick the landing.
Image Credit: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images
By David Brunnstrom, Lesley Wroughton and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is considering whether to lift a three-decade-old arms embargo on Vietnam, U.S. officials say, as he weighs calls to forge closer military ties with Hanoi against concerns over its poor human rights record. The debate within the U.S. administration is coming to a head amid preparations for Obama's trip to Vietnam this month to bolster ties between Washington and Hanoi, former wartime enemies who are increasingly partners against China's growing territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea. The full removal of the embargo something Vietnam has long sought - would sweep away one of the last major vestiges of the Vietnam War era and advance the normalization of relations begun 21 years ago. It would also likely anger Beijing, which condemned Obama's partial lifting of the arms ban in 2014 as an interference in the region's balance of power. On one side of the internal debate, some White House and State Department aides say it would be premature to completely end restrictions on lethal military assistance before Vietnam's communist government has made more progress on human rights. They are at odds with other officials, including many at the Pentagon, who argue bolstering Vietnam's ability to counter a rising China should take priority, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Boosting the security of allies and partners has been a major thrust of Obama's strategic "pivot" toward the Asia-Pacific region, a centerpiece of his foreign policy. Even as Vietnam seeks warmer relations with the United States, though, U.S. officials are mindful that suspicions linger among Communist Party conservatives that Washington wants to undermine their country's one-party system. One major factor in Obama's decision will be whether Vietnam will move forward on major U.S. defense deals, a potential boon for American jobs that could soften congressional opposition to lifting the weapons ban, according to one source close to White House policymaking. There have been questions about whether Vietnam, which has relied mostly on Russian weapons suppliers since the Cold War, is ready to start buying U.S.-made systems. Diplomats have seen increasing signs that Hanoi is seeking ties with U.S. defense contractors but Washington wants tangible commitments, according to the source. Vietnam is big buyer of weapons from Russia, its Cold War-era patron, including Kilo-class submarines and corvettes. It could look to the United States for items such as P-3 surveillance planes and missiles to beef up its naval forces and coastal defenses. At the Pentagon, the prevailing view appears to be more in line with Defense Secretary Ash Carter's congressional testimony late last month that he would support lifting restrictions on the sale of U.S. weapons to Vietnam. That comment raised eyebrows at the White House, where officials said Obama had yet to rule on the issue. Obama's final decision could hinge on whatever recommendations come from ongoing visits to Vietnam by Tom Malinowski, the administration's top human rights envoy, and Daniel Russel, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific. Speaking in Hanoi on Tuesday, Russel said the embargo lifting was still "under periodic review" and would be looked at seriously, although he made it clear Vietnam's commitment to human rights would be central to any decision. "One of the important factors that would make a lift of the ban possible would be to continue forward momentum in meeting universal human rights standards and progress in important legal reform," Russel told reporters. Malinowski is not scheduled to speak to media during his trip. It was not clear whether Obama was leaning for or against ending the embargo ahead of his trip, which will make him the third consecutive U.S. president to visit Vietnam. Obama eased the ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam in October 2014, allowing shipments of defensive maritime equipment to help Hanoi build up its deterrent to China's pursuit of its claims in the South China Sea, which conflict with those of its neighbors such as Vietnam and U.S. ally the Philippines. "UNDESERVED AT THIS TIME" John Sifton, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said lifting the arms ban would be "undeserved at this time." The group, in an April 27 letter sent to Obama, described the Vietnamese government as "among the most repressive in the world." While a number of U.S. lawmakers favor closer military ties with Vietnam because of shared concerns about China, others have deep misgivings. Democratic U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez, a member of the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam who also has a large Vietnamese-American voting bloc in her California district, said lifting the embargo would be "giving a free pass to a government that continually harasses, detains and imprisons its citizens." Obama has the power to bypass Congress to lift the embargo. But his administration would hope for support from Republican U.S. Senator John McCain, a decorated former prisoner of war in North Vietnam who backed the 2014 partial lifting. Some U.S. officials see signs that Vietnam is starting to pay attention to human rights criticism. But concerns remain over the government's heavy-handedness toward political opponents and treatment of workers and there is worry that Washington will lose some leverage if it gives up the arms embargo without securing concessions for reforms. One senior U.S. official suggested that it might be best for now to "set the issue of the lethal weapons ban aside." "These things do take time," the official said. But others said the door should remain open to lifting the embargo as preparations proceed for Obama's visit. If Obama opts against removing the ban for now, another option that might mollify the Vietnamese would be creating a "working group" to map out the path toward doing so, one U.S. official said. (Additional reporting by My Pham in HANOI and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Nick Macfie)
LAGUNA HILLS, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 10, 2016 / Zerez Holding's (OTC:ZRZH) Announces new name and ticker now active, task completed ZRZH. Our new plan to get the Company on a fast track to the build Net Stock Holder Equity, is taking shape.
Our previous company Press Release disclosed the details of the responsibility to maintain its public disclosure on OTC Markets by remaining current in its reporting obligations. ZRZH amended its Articles of Incorporation and Corporate Bylaws to create various series of Anti-Dilutive Convertible Preferred Shares to protect its majority stakeholders. These securities will soon become available to the common shareholders.
We are moving forward reorganizing the debt on the balance sheet, so that the company is debt free. The next part of the plan is to enhance the Net Stock Holders Equity in the Company by acquiring profitable businesses and or assets, using the Convertible Preferred Stock as currency.
"Shares are available to the Transfer Agent as of now," says Murga. "In the 1-for-100 Reverse Stock split, every 100 shares of issued and outstanding common stock will be converted into one share of issued and outstanding common stock. If that number falls below 100, the share amount will be rounded up to 100."
Details of the Reverse Split:
DRMCD stockholders should have received instructions from its transfer agent, Action Stock Transfer Corp. as to procedures for exchanging existing stock certificates for new certificates or book-entry shares and for the receipt of cash proceeds in lieu of fractional shares.
1:100 reverse split completed
New CUSIP: 989470109
New Ticker: ZRZH
Current Shares Outstanding (as of May 9, 2016): 244,110,353
Transfer Agent responsible to process corporate action: Action Stock Transfer Corporation
Juan Carlos Murga, CEO of Zerez Holdings says, "This new direction is absolutely necessary in order to attract investment into ZRZH. We will restore investor confidence, by removing affiliate & non-affiliate debt, and build net stockholders equity on the balance sheet.
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Our team is ready to implement this strategy and our mandate, with credible accounting and legal representation to make good on this Agenda. ZRZH will seek to have more of a transparent dialogue with its investors. Implementing these objectives will require clarity as we implement these milestones. The investment community will be made more thoroughly aware through public disclosure and record. Our work to acquire new assets is in gear, our recent news informing ZRZH shareholders of Letter of Intent to Darryl Payne Films is moving forward as we outline the details of the business to business relationship, more LOI's are in the works, looking forward for the future."
About ZEREZ Holdings Corp: Zerez Holdings is an Oklahoma corporation with its headquarters office located in Laguna Hills, California. In 2016, the Company has embarked upon a change of business direction into a Holding company. Please visit http://www.zerezholdings.com/
Safe Harbor: Statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including the failure to complete successfully the development of new or enhanced products, the Company's future capital needs, the lack of market demand for any new or enhanced products the Company may develop, any actions by the Company's affiliates that may be adverse to the Company, the success of competitive products, other economic factors affecting the Company and its markets, seasonal changes, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The actual results may differ materially from those contained in this press release. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any statements in this press release.
Contact:
Zerez Holdings Corp.
Email: ir@zerezholdings.com
SOURCE: Zerez Holdings Corp.
* Eqstra cancels car rental agreements with Oakbay - source
* Barloworld-run Avis refuses to rent cars to Oakbay - source
* Oakbay scrambles to restore relations with banks
By Tiisetso Motsoeneng
JOHANNESBURG, May 10 (Reuters) - More South African companies, including a subsidiary of Old Mutual, have stopped doing business with Oakbay Investments, the company at the centre of a political influence scandal.
According to a company document, Mutual and Federal joins several other companies in cutting links with firms associated with members of the Gupta family, who are alleged to have used their friendship with President Jacob Zuma to win political favours.
Companies began cutting links with the Gupta-owned companies in December last year when Barclays Africa's retail banking business, Absa, quit as a banker for Oakbay Resources and Energy, a mining firm associated with the family.
Last month, Standard Bank, Nedbank, Sasfin and the local division of KPMG cut ties with company, prompting Atul Gupta and Varun Gupta to resign as respective chairman and chief executive of Oakbay Resources and Energy.
Oakbay has interests spanning mining, engineering, media and information technology.
Mutual and Federal, through its underwriting arm Credit Guarantee Insurance Corporation of Africa, has withdrawn its cover for Oakbay Investments, the document, which was corroborated by a source with direct knowledge of the matter, showed.
"An Oakbay insurance broker was called in by Mutual and Federal to be told it will no longer provide cover because they are concerned about their reputation," the source said.
Mutual and Federal did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In addition, South African fleet management company Eqstra has cancelled its car rental lease agreements with Oakbay with 14-days notice, the source said.
Eqstra declined to comment.
Oakbay approached local logistics company Barloworld , which operates the Avis car rental brand in southern Africa, for car rental services but the New York-listed company refused take its business, the source said.
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"There is no directive in place instructing such action to our Avis rental branches, management is investigating the matter further," Avis in South Africa said in an email response to Reuters questions.
The Gupta's relationship with Zuma has been a source of controversy for years, but in March senior figures went public to say the family had exerted undue sway, including offering cabinet positions.
The president and the Guptas reject the claims of undue influence that has become known as "state capture."
Oakbay Investments' Chief Executive Officer Nazeem Howa, who has been trying to restore banking ties, has said the company would not be able to pay its workers from June 7 if it cannot restore banking relations.
Oakbay Investments had failed to repair relations with at least two banks as of Tuesday with one of them having already refused to meet the company executives led by Howa, the source said.
Last month, the government appointed a ministerial team to find a solution to the stand-off. The team is due to report back on its progress at this week's cabinet meeting, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe told Reuters.
"Government meets private sector all the time," Radebe said. "Those who are talking about state capture need to explain that. As far as I am concerned our government is not being captured by anybody at this present moment in time." (Additional reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by James Macharia and Jane Merriman)
By Dan Levine
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Oracle Corp and Google faced off on Tuesday in a $9 billion (6.2 billion) copyright retrial, with Oracle accusing Google of stealing programming to become the world's leading smartphone player and Google saying it acted legally as a true innovator.
Oracle (ORCL.N) claims Google's Android smartphone operating system violated its copyright on parts of the Java programming language, while Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google says it should be able to use Java without paying a fee under the fair-use provision of copyright law.
The dispute previously went to trial in 2012, but a jury deadlocked. If the new jury in San Francisco federal court rules against Google on fair use, then it will consider Oracle's $9 billion damages request.
The case has been closely watched by software developers who fear an Oracle victory could spur more software copyright lawsuits. However, investors see little risk for Google because the company could afford to pay a one-off fine, and the possibility of an injunction that would force Google to pay ongoing royalties to Oracle appears remote.
In court on Tuesday, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt testified that he always believed Google could freely use Java because Schmidt personally unveiled the programming language in 1995 when he was a top executive at Sun Microsystems, which invented it. Oracle subsequently acquired Sun.
Oracle argues that Google improperly used Java to quickly deliver an Android smartphone to market. Under cross examination, Schmidt acknowledged that he had been on Apple's board and felt "strategic pressure" from the iPhone in 2007.
Under U.S. copyright law, "fair use" allows limited use of material without acquiring permission from the rights holder for purposes such as research.
Oracle attorney Peter Bicks said about 100,000 Android smartphones will have been activated by the time he finished his hour-long opening statement. That translated into $42 billion in revenue, he said, and all those phones contained Oracle's property.
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Google's defence cannot cover what they did with Java, Bicks said, calling it the "fair-use excuse."
Google attorney Robert Van Nest said fair use allows a company to use copyrighted material to make money, so long as the company adds something innovative. Google's talented engineers were responsible for developing Android, not a tiny portion of Java owned by Oracle, he said.
"They want all the credit for Android's success, and apparently billions of dollars in damages, but the evidence isn't going to support that," Van Nest said in opening statements.
Eric Schmidt
Oracle and Google are back in court this week to determine if Google owes Oracle billions of dollars (or any dollars) over how it built Android.
And the first star witness was Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google's Alphabet parent company.
He's a good one to start with. He was an exec at Sun Microsystems, the company that Oracle bought in 2010 that led to this trial.
Schmidt was at Sun when Sun developed the Java operating system and all the assorted programming paraphernalia that Oracle and Google are currently arguing over. So he's familiar with that part of things.
And, of course, he was famously CEO of Google when Google created Android. Schmidt had to give up his seat on Apple's board of directors because Android competed with the iPhone, and Steve Jobs was so angry about what he saw as Schmidt's betrayal that he threatened to go "thermonuclear" over Android, so the story goes.
In court on Tuesday, Oracle's attorney, Peter Bicks, was trying to get Schmidt to acknowledge that using a part of the Java programming language in Android without paying for it was wrong. The dispute centers around Java's application programming interfaces, or APIs, which allow two apps to talk to each other and share data.
Do you know Henrique?
The two companies have been embroiled in a legal battle over the issue for six years, with a previous trial in 2012 that led to a judge's ruling that Google did not infringe on Oracle's APIs. Oracle won an appeal, and the two sides are now back in court again. Google argues that its use of Java APIs should be free, covered under the "fair use" provision.
As for the testimony, according to several transcripts reported from the trial, it sounds like Schmidt bested Oracle's lawyer on multiple occassions.
For instance, there was a bit where Bicks asked Schmidt if he recognized the name Henrique de Castro, the well-known executive who ran Google's mobile business while Schmidt was CEO.
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Schmidt kept telling the lawyer that he did not recognize the name. And when Schmidt finally did say he recognized it, he told the lawyer that he had been pronouncing the it wrong. Touche.
The lawyer also asked questions to get Schmidt to admit that Google makes a lot of money on Android, which seemed to work. This will later serve to bolster Oracle's claim that Google owes Oracle billions of dollars.
And finally, Bicks asked Schmidt to talk about one more controversial public statements. "Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line but not cross it."
But that line of questioning was cut off by US District Judge William Alsup, who would not let the testimony continue past the 1 p.m. cutoff.
Alsup promised the jury that the day would end at 1 p.m. and that means, Schmidt is expected to be back in court tomorrow to finish answering Bick's questions.
NOW WATCH: Heres why your jeans have that tiny front pocket
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By Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will appear before parliament to answer questions on the Panama Papers leak that linked his family to offshore wealth, an official said on Tuesday, after lawmakers walked out of the assembly. Leaked documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama last month showed Sharif's sons, Hassan and Hussain, and his daughter, Maryam, owned at least three offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. Sharif and his family have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying that assets mentioned in the leaked papers were legally acquired through the family's network of businesses and industries in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Opposition lawmakers walked out of both the Senate and the National Assembly on Monday and Tuesday, demanding that the prime minister come to parliament to answer their questions. "The prime minister will attend parliament on Friday and answer all allegations," Information Minister Pervez Rashid told the legislature, adding that Sharif could not attend the session earlier due to an official visit to Tajikistan. The leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Khursheed Shah, welcomed the news that Sharif would appear on Friday but said the opposition would continue their boycott until then. "We don't want any confrontation, but the PM should clear his position and take parliament into confidence on his assets and tax details," Shah told reporters. Opposition politician Imran Khan has threatened to launch street protests against Sharif, seizing on the Panama Papers as a fresh opportunity to try to unseat him. (Writing by Mehreen Zahra-Malik; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Natalia Zinets KIEV (Reuters) - A deputy director of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's confectionery empire is a beneficiary of a company registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), according to new information from the leaked "Panama Papers". The link to Sergei Zaitsev is potentially embarrassing for Poroshenko because he said in April he wanted to pass a law requiring Ukrainians to disclose all their offshore holdings in an attempt to force them to pay tax in their home country. Serhiy Leshchenko, a prominent lawmaker in Poroshenko's faction, told Reuters on Tuesday that a special investigative commission should be set up to probe Poroshenko's business dealings as a result of the latest allegations. A spokeswoman for Roshen, Poroshenko's confectionery business, declined to comment. She also said Zaitsev was absent and could not comment. According to a database of documents from the Panama Papers made public on Monday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Zaitsev is a beneficiary of Intraco Management Ltd, registered in the British-ruled tax haven. Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Zaitsev as saying on Tuesday that he was associated with Intraco, and that its main activity was arranging and servicing charter flights. The address given for Zaitsev in the database is identical to the business address of at least three other companies owned by Poroshenko, according to the Ukrainian state registry. Poroshenko, one of Ukraine's richest businessmen, was propelled to power by a popular revolt in 2014, and needs to convince Kiev's Western backers that he is serious about improving governance and rooting out entrenched corruption to secure continued financial backing. Poroshenko's press service told Reuters via email on Tuesday that the president had no connection to Intraco. "We can state that Petro Poroshenko has no relation to the company mentioned by you, and therefore he didn't receive any financial benefits from it," it said. "The owner of the company Intraco is Sergei Zaitsev. It's his business - as he said in a public statement," the service said, referring to Zaitsev's comments in the Interfax-Ukraine report. BLIND TRUST The ICIJ alleged in April that Poroshenko had set up an offshore firm, Prime Asset Partners, to avoid tax in August 2014 during a peak in fighting between Kiev's forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Poroshenko denied wrongdoing. He said the offshore company had been set up to help him move his business assets to a blind trust. While campaigning for office, Poroshenko had promised to sell his business assets. In the database, Zaitsev is named as "Sergev Zuitstv". Dmytro Gnap, who is a journalist affiliated to the ICIJ and has seen the original company documents, told Reuters by phone on Tuesday that this was a transcription error by the database administrator, and that the original documents showed the beneficiary as "Sergei Zaitsev". The "Panama Papers" comprise four decades of documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that specialises in setting up offshore companies. Intraco has already featured in allegations about Poroshenko's circle. Last year, the former head of Ukraine's security service, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, accused Ihor Kononenko, a close ally of the Ukrainian president, of using the BVI-registered firm to launder money. Nalyvaichenko made the allegations in parliament last year in Kononenko's presence, and has repeated them several times since. According to statements of money transfers involving Intraco, copies of which have been seen by Reuters, the firm made rental payments on a property on behalf of Kononenko's daughter. Kononenko has denied wrongdoing or any association with Intraco, and cast doubt on the authenticity of the documents presented by Nalyvaichenko. In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Kononenko said he had met Zaitsev from time to time, but had no current business dealings with him. Kononenko said he had paid for his daughter's schooling and accommodation in Switzerland out of his own pocket and not via any company, including Intraco. "I have no connections to this company, and I do not know whether this company exists or not, or what it does if it exists," Kononenko said. (Removes reference to "second" firm in headline.) (Additional reporting by Margaryta Chornokondratenko and Sergei Karazy; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Can Papa Johns Maintain Its Impressive 1Q16 Momentum?
(Continued from Prior Part)
Papa Johns operations
By the end of 1Q16, Papa Johns (PZZA) operated 729 domestic company-owned restaurants, 45 international company-owned restaurants, 2,661 domestic franchised restaurants, and 1,468 international franchised restaurants.
Unit growth
In the last 12 months, Papa Johns has increased its overall units count by 4.3% from 4,699 to 4,903. Since 2Q15, the company has added 169 franchised restaurants, 158 of which were in international markets. During the same timeframe, the company has added 38 domestic company-owned restaurants, while reducing the international company-owned restaurants by three units. In 1Q16, the company added overall ten new restaurants and bought 20 franchised restaurants in North America.
Further, the company stated that it has signed a restaurant development agreement in Spain and the Netherlands. This would be the companys first step in its expansion strategy in Western Europe.
Papa Johns accounts for 2.9% of the holdings of the PowerShares DWA Momentum Portfolio ETF (PDP).
Peer comparisons
Over the last 12 months, Dominos Pizza (DPZ), YUM! Brands (YUM), and Starbucks (SBUX) have increased their unit counts by 8.1%, 1.9%, and 8.3%, respectively.
Outlook
Papa Johns has maintained its 2016 guidance for unit growth at 180 to 200 units. The companys management stated that the development of 1,300 restaurants are in the pipeline, for which it has signed several new agreements in Western Europe. On its expansion plans, the companys management stated that 2016 would see a record number of new countries entry by Papa Johns.
The companys management further added that it is in talks with potential parties to refranchise its 45 company-owned restaurants in China, which it expects to complete in 2016.
In the next article, we will discuss the EBITDA margins of Papa Johns.
Continue to Next Part
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London (AFP) - Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo on Tuesday became the first foreign dignitary to meet Sadiq Khan following his election as mayor of London, in a brief tete-a-tete at St Pancras Station.
"He has made history, he is the first Muslim mayor of a big European city," Hidalgo told reporters on the platform after Khan welcomed her off the cross-Channel Eurostar train from France.
Describing him as a "progressive" and a democrat, she said his election "is an example for us", before they left to discuss their shared challenges of pollution and affordable housing at a cafe nearby.
Khan, a member of Britain's opposition Labour party, was elected mayor on Thursday with 1.3 million votes, the largest personal mandate of any British politician.
He responded to Hidalgo's warm words by pointing out that she too had "made history, she was the first woman ever elected mayor of Paris" when she took office in 2014.
Khan said they both had similar values and history, while Hidalgo noted: "Our mothers were both dressmakers."
Khan, the son of Pakistani immigrants, made much during the campaign of his modest background, frequently citing the fact he grew up in social housing.
Hidalgo, a socialist, was born in Spain and grew up in a working-class suburb of the French city of Lyon.
(Adds comments from Bangladesh central bank official)
By Jonathan Spicer
May 10 (Reuters) - Parties at the center of one of the biggest-ever cyber heists pledged on Tuesday to cooperate to recover $81 million stolen from a Bangladesh central bank account at the New York Fed, following weeks of accusations over who is to blame.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley, Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir and representatives from global messaging network SWIFT met in Basel, Switzerland on Tuesday to discuss the early-February heist.
The meeting was the first face-to-face encounter since the cyber attack left the three blaming each other over the incident in which criminals, using SWIFT messages, stole the funds from the Bangladesh central bank's account held at the New York Fed.
"All parties stated their concern over this event and their continued commitment to work together to normalize operations," the New York Fed, Bangladesh Bank, and SWIFT said in a joint statement.
"The parties also agreed to pursue jointly certain common goals: to recover the entire proceeds of the fraud and bring the perpetrators to justice, and protect the global financial system from these types of attacks."
A senior official with Bangladesh's central bank who was in close contact with the delegation that had traveled from Dhaka to Basel said the bank's top priority was to secure close cooperation from all the parties involved.
"Bangladesh Bank believes if the New York Federal Reserve were to intervene, it will be possible to retrieve the money," said the official.
The joint statement said the three parties had discussed actions taken so far and exchanged information about "cyber and physical vulnerabilities" highlighted by the incident.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bangladesh police are among the groups investigating the breach.
In the latest twist, SWIFT on Monday rejected allegations by officials in Bangladesh that technicians related to SWIFT made the central bank more vulnerable to hacking.
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When asked by Reuters outside his hotel in Basel on Tuesday, Kabir declined to elaborate on the joint statement.
A spokeswoman for SWIFT, which stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, declined to elaborate on who attended the meeting. A New York Fed spokeswoman declined to discuss what steps were planned.
(Additional reporting by Michael Shields in Basel and Jim Finkle in Boston, Sanjeev Migliani in Dhaka; Editing by Alan Crosby)
By James Pearson and Tony Munroe PYONGYANG/SEOUL (Reuters) - In a tailored Western suit, 33-year-old North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a rare congress of the ruling Workers' Party that cemented his control over the isolated country but lacked the introduction of major reforms. Still, the first Workers' Party congress since 1980 signaled a restoration of the role of the party in a country where the military held primacy under his father, Kim Jong Il, said experts on the country's opaque leadership. The four-day event that ended on Monday included Kim addressing the 3,467 delegates for more than three hours at a stretch. The meeting underlined a stability of leadership that is likely to mean fewer of the purges and executions that marked Kim's early years of rule following the death of his father in 2011. While a greater role for the party might help improve strained relations with ally China, analysts said, rival South Korea and the United States are less likely to be impressed, as North Korea also called during the congress for expansion of its nuclear arsenal, for what it said are defensive purposes. Some party cadres had expected Kim to announce Chinese- or Vietnamese-style reforms at the congress, according to the Seoul-based Daily NK, a website run by North Korean defectors with sources inside the country, and were disappointed when Kim's speech, aired by state TV on Sunday, mainly returned to old themes with vaguely communicated policy. The congress did not, for example, formally recognize the growing role of a gray market in one of the world's most state-controlled economies. But Michael Madden, a U.S.-based expert on the North Korean leadership, said it was significant that Kim had put forward a five-year economic plan. "There's going to be a gripe that there's no policy meat, that he didn't sit there and give everybody a technocratic speech about policy, but a party congress is not the forum to do that," he said. The power of the military expanded during Kim Jong Il's 17-year tenure, which did not include a party congress. Madden said that the number of military people with key roles in power organizations had been reduced. "We are definitely seeing a drawing-down of the military's political influence in North Koreas political culture," he said. Military-themed slogans, a staple of state propaganda, were less visible during the party congress, held in the capital Pyongyang. Instead, propaganda signs were overwhelmingly focused on the Workers' Party. Changes in party posts announced at the congress were not as dramatic as some analysts had anticipated. Some North Korea-watchers had expected more prominence for younger party officials. "The scale of generational change was surprisingly not big, which shows how stable Kim Jong Un's regime is," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute near Seoul. OVERSEAS AUDIENCE? The party congress may also have created an opening for mending ties with neighbor China, which has grown frustrated with the North's pursuit of nuclear weapons and backed tough U.N. sanctions to punish Pyongyang. "China thought the military-first political system was not a normal one. It looks similar to martial law," said Lee Min-yong, a North Korea expert at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul. Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country holds its own Communist Party congress every five years, sent a letter of congratulations to Kim on his elevation to party chairman. "Holding the party congress means we are going back to the original socialist system. I think in Kim Jong Un's mind, he wanted to get along with China," Lee said. South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said the third-generation leader offered no new strategy at the event. "The Kim Jong Un regime is focused on solidifying his power structure and securing its nuclear status," he told parliament on Tuesday. South Korea had warned that the isolated North could conduct a fifth nuclear test in conjunction with the congress. Kim cut a modern figure during the congress in tortoise-shell glasses and a dark suit with gray necktie, a departure from the drab jacket buttoned to the neck favored by North Korean leaders, or the jumpsuits worn by his late father. Kim's grandfather, founding leader Kim Il Sung, also switched between Western suits and the North Korean-style "peoples' suit." The young leader, who spent part of his childhood in Switzerland, also showed his ease in front of an audience - a trait shared by his grandfather but not his father, who never gave a speech that was publicly broadcast. (Additional reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim in Seoul; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
One calls Mexicans rapists; the other jokes about gang rape. One vows to build a wall at the Mexican border; the other threatens to butcher criminals. Both have used stump speeches to brag about the size of their manhoods. And both have had rows with the Pope.
Much has been made of the similarly between Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte, the controversial mayor of Davao City in the southern Philippines, who was elected the Southeast Asian nations new President by a landslide on Monday.
Both have run populist campaigns that have provoked international concern. Trumps plan to halt Muslim immigration to the U.S. prompted half a million Brits to sign a petition that called for him to be banned from the U.K. Dutertes appalling remarks that he should have been first in the 1989 gang rape of an Australian missionary drew censure from the U.S. and Australian ambassadors. (Duterte responded by telling both to get out and threatening to sever diplomatic relations.)
Yet similarities between the combustive pair are overplayed. Duterte, 71, has spent three decades in public services, first as a lawyer and prosecutor, and later as mayor and Congressman. His election to his nations highest office is based on his zero-tolerance approach fighting crime in Davao, where Amnesty International alleges death squads under his control are responsible for 700 extrajudicial executions. (In response, Duterte put the figure at closer to 1,700.)
Under Duterte, Davao has been ruled by an iron fist (which, incidentally, is one of his nicknames, along with the Punisher and Duterte Harry.) There is a 10 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied minors, a ban on the public consumption of alcohol after 1 a.m., a complete ban on smoking in public places, and a 9 p.m. curfew on boisterous karaoke (not surprisingly, when you consider that singing My Way in a Philippine karaoke bar can get you killed).
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Such stringent measures are to make sure our children are in their homes, sleeping and preparing for their next day of school, Peter Lavina, Dutertes campaign manager, told a press conference Tuesday.
Whereas Trump equates criminals with immigrants, Duterte puts criminality down to drugs, even vowing to kill his own children if they dabbled in narcotics.
As for the similarity in their boorish campaigns, Lavina puts this down to local culture. You have to understand the Philippines-style of election, he says. Politicians need to communicate with their audience. Many sing and dance, some make jokes, some make funny faces, some dress outrageously. We dont expect the same attitude of our officials thereafter.
That may be a stretch. When last month TIME interviewed Philippine Senator Grace Poe, who at the time was leading Duterte in the presidential campaign, she was so coy that she wouldnt even confess her favorite television show. I rather not be judged by the series I watch right now, she blushed, its something I just do to relax my mind.
Duterte is certainly more pugnacious that your typical politician, but the devout Christian is surprisingly supportive of minorities, fiercely backing the marginalized Moro Muslims calls for greater autonomy, and even advocating for gay marriage in the devoutly Catholic nation.
The main difference between Trump and Duterte is that we have a rough idea what a society governed by Duterte looks like moreover, those who live in it are overwhelmingly supportive. Mondays presidential vote was the 11th election that the Duterte has fought, and the 11th that he has won. The adoration that greets him in Davao is palpable.
The Philippines knows what it is getting. With Trump, America is looking at the unknown.
Your personal brand is already out there, like it or not. It includes what people think about you and say behind your back or to your face. The Internet has also become a source of information about you and what you are saying. Rather than dismissing the concept of personal branding, attempt to understand it.
[See: 10 Things Your Mom Didn't Teach You About Job Searching.]
Personal branding hit mainstream vernacular when Tom Peters wrote an article in Fast Company called "The Brand Called You" in 1997. At this point in time, building a personal brand consisted primarily of your word-of-mouth reputation and paper resume. A lot has transpired since then. The job market tanked and social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram have grown rapidly. So is personal branding still relevant? Absolutely, and even more so. Employers can now proactively search for candidates online, not just sift through the resumes received in their database. And when employers search online, it is your social media presence that intrigues them.
Consider the fact that an average job posting receives hundreds of applicants, and they all look and sound similar. And because most job seekers know to use key terms and list skills employers desire, it makes it even more difficult to beat the odds and stick out. In a competitive job market, employers are looking for above-average applicants. When skills alone don't accentuate qualifications, employers look for other attributes, such as soft skills and personality traits to whittle down the pack. You need a way to differentiate yourself, and creating your brand can help.
Start identifying your brand. This isn't as easy as it sounds. Your personal brand is made up of many elements, from how you dress, to what you say and how you say it. To start identifying your brand, ask people who know you well how they would describe you. While it is most helpful to get feedback on your skills and qualifications, don't forget to ask about your quirks or flaws. Once you've got a list of qualities, skills and attributes, blend them together with your values, purpose and goals. It's important to note that when first defining your brand, you may not get it exactly right. Tweak your personal brand message until it feels right and fits.
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[See: 8 Ways Millennials Can Build Leadership Skills.]
As time goes by, you may find that you want to switch careers or industries. You will need to reposition your message to address your new goals. Big companies like McDonald's, Coke and even Google have successfully rebranded, so you can too. There's nothing wrong with rebranding. Everyone morphs over time.
Live your brand. Your brand isn't a facade. It is supposed to be a snapshot of who you are, what you believe, how you live your life, what's important to you and the types of problems you enjoy solving. These are the things you talk about with your co-workers, family and friends, online and off. Think carefully and be purposeful about your daily communication with co-workers and peers. These people have the power to influence your brand, and your conversations with them are just as important as your communication with your boss or a client. Your brand also serves as a mission to help guide you to the next phase of your career and helps you focus on playing to your strengths. Most importantly, your brand acts as a differentiator and sets you apart as a subject matter expert or thought leader, which are desirable and hirable qualities. When you live your personal brand, in other words, deliver the results you talk about; it gives you credibility and validates that you can be trusted.
What you share online sends a message. You undoubtedly share updates on social media. Are you sharing information that is "on brand?" This doesn't mean that your status updates have to be sterile or only focus on work-related issues. Your social media posts should reflect how you want people to see you living your life. Be sure to snap a photo while volunteering or while attending a networking event in order to capture that side of you as well. The key is to purposefully and mindfully choose what you share and where you share it. Post industry news and articles on LinkedIn and even consider writing blog posts. Posting about a party once in a blue moon on Facebook or Instagram isn't necessarily damaging. What can harm your personal brand are frequent or extreme instances of questionable content you share or are tagged in, like drinking, drugs, guns or politics. Prevent public humiliation and brand-damaging content from surfacing by monitoring who tags you in photos on Facebook and mentions you on Instagram or Snapchat.
[See: 10 Ways Social Media Can Help You Land a Job.]
Rebranding personal branding. Personal branding may not be a term you like to hear or use. However, the practice of managing your reputation or advocating for yourself is up to you. No matter what you call it, the important message here is to be aware of your reputation online and off. If you aren't monitoring what people are saying about you, it could be damaging your chances for success.
Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras PBR is expected to release first-quarter 2016 results on Thursday, May 12.
Petrobras earnings were a mixed bag in the trailing four quarters two beats and two misses with the average being a negative surprise of 153.32%. The company missed estimates in the last reported quarter owing to significant fall in realized oil and gas prices that hurt the companys upstream operation.
Lets see how things are shaping up for this announcement.
Factors Likely to Influence this Quarter
Petrobras generates most of its earnings from upstream operations. As such, its first-quarter financials are likely to remain challenged in the face of the persistent weakness in commodity prices.
However, being an integrated company, Petrobras is expected to take advantage of the current environment with its downstream operations. Last quarter, this unit attained profitability against a massive loss incurred in fourth-quarter 2014.
Petrobras reduced capital spending and divestment plans should lend further support to its financials. Also, the estimates for this quarter have been revised upward over the last 30 days, giving an indication of further bullishness ahead. So it will be interesting to see whether the Petrobras beats estimates.
Earnings Whispers
Our proven model does not conclusively show that Petrobras is likely to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1, 2 or 3 for this to happen. Unfortunately, this is not the case here as elaborated below.
Zacks ESP: Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate, is 0.00% for Petrobras. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and Zacks Consensus Estimate are pegged at a loss of 17 cents.
Zacks Rank: Petrobras has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). While a favorable Zacks Rank increases the predictive power of ESP, a 0.00% makes surprise prediction difficult.
We caution investors against Sell-rated stocks (Zacks Ranks #4 or 5) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.
Stocks to Consider
Here are some companies from the energy sector which, according to our model, have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter.
Eco-Stim Energy Solutions, Inc. ESES with an Earnings ESP of +9.09% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is expected to release earnings on May 12.
Trina Solar Limited TSL with an Earnings ESP of +43.48% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is expected to release earnings on May 19.
SeaDrill Limited SDRL with an Earnings ESP of +2.63% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is slated to release earnings on May 26.
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DAVAO, Philippines (Reuters) - Maverick Philippine mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who looks set to become the next president, is planning to overhaul the constitution and will propose a shift to a parliamentary system of government, his spokesman said on Tuesday. "That will require a wide national consensus beginning with asking congress to call for a constitutional convention," Peter Lavina told a media briefing. "There will be major rewriting of our constitution." A rolling ballot count by an election commission-accredited watchdog on Tuesday showed Duterte had almost 39 percent of votes cast. He was more than 5 million votes ahead of his nearest rival with 90 percent of votes counted. (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Writing by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Nick Macfie)
By Neil Jerome Morales DAVAO, Philippines (Reuters) - The Philippines' president-elect, rough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, announced plans on Tuesday for an overhaul of the country's system of government that would devolve power from "imperial Manila" to long-neglected provinces. Duterte's win in Monday's poll has not been confirmed, but an unofficial count of votes by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed he had a huge lead over his two closest rivals, both of whom conceded defeat. By Tuesday afternoon, the ballot count showed Duterte had almost 39 percent of votes cast. He was more than 6 million votes ahead of the second-placed candidate with 92 percent of votes counted from an electorate of 54 million. It is not clear when Duterte's victory will be officially declared but he is expected to take office on June 30. Votes were also cast on Monday for vice-president. One day on, counting showed the outgoing administration's candidate, Maria Leonor Robredo, ahead of the son and namesake of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Duterte's spokesman, Peter Lavina, told a news conference that the new president would seek a national consensus for a revision of the constitution which would switch from a unitary form of government to a parliamentary and federal model. The proposal to devolve power from Manila fits with Duterte's challenge as a political outsider to the country's establishment, which he has slammed as self-serving and corrupt. "The powerful elites in Manila who will be affected by this system will definitely oppose this proposal," said Earl Parreno, an analyst at the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms. Duterte's spokesman said he would also seek peace agreements with rebel groups in the south of the archipelago, where the outgoing government has been using force to quell militancy. The 71-year-old's truculent defiance of political tradition has drawn comparisons with U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, as have his references to his libido. That tapped into popular disgust with the ruling class over its failure to reduce poverty and inequality despite several years of robust economic growth. SOUTH CHINA SEA TALKS Duterte's vows to restore law and order also resonated with voters. But his incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the country's authoritarian past. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Daniel Russel told reporters in Vietnam that Washington respected the choice of the Philippine people and "will gladly work with the leader that they select". Duterte made a succession of winding, bellicose and at-times comical remarks late on Monday as the votes were being counted, venting over corruption and bad governance and telling anecdotes from his 22 years as mayor of Davao city. Wearing a casual checked shirt and slouched in a chair, he said corrupt officials should "retire or die" and reiterated his support for police to use deadly force against criminals. "I'll behave if I become president," he said, adding that he would not make state visits to countries with cold weather. In an early indication of his unorthodoxy, Duterte told reporters on Monday that if he became president he would seek multilateral talks to resolve disputes over the South China Sea. The outgoing administration of President Benigno Aquino has asked a court of arbitration in The Hague to recognize its right to exploit waters in the South China Sea, a case it hoped could bolster claims by other countries against China in the resource-rich waters. Duterte said negotiations should include Japan, Australia and the United States, which is traditionally the region's dominant security player and contests China's development of islands and rocky outcrops in the sea. The influential Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times, said that Beijing would not be naive enough to believe that a new president would bring a solution to the South China Sea disputes. "Only time will tell how far the new leader, be it Duterte or not, will go toward restoring the bilateral relationship." FIGHTING THE ESTABLISHMENT Duterte's entertaining and profanity-loaded speeches have shed little light on his policies beyond going after gangsters and drug pushers. He has been vague on what he would do to spur an economy that has averaged growth at around 6 percent under Aquino. Duterte said on Monday he had been criticized for not discussing policy but would "hire the best economic minds". One of his advisers told Reuters spending on education would be lifted to benefit "disadvantaged regions" and rural development will be prioritized to spread wealth more evenly across the country. "Everything seems to be in imperial Manila," said Ernesto Pernia, professor emeritus of economics at the University of the Philippines. "He wants to give more attention to the lagging, the backward regions." Pernia said the pursuit of tax evaders and corrupt officials should bolster government revenues to fund extra spending. (Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in MANILA and My Pham in HANOI; Writing by John Chalmers; editing by Robert Birsel)
Philippines markets and country-specific exchange traded fund (ETF) surged Tuesday as Rodrigo Dutertes tried to assuage investor uncertainty, following his victory in the nations presidential election.
The iShares MSCI Philippines ETF (EPHE) gained 4.9% Tuesday, breaking above its resistance at the 200-day simple moving average and testing its short-term, 50-day resistance. EPHE dipped 6.6% over the past month in response to the election concerns.
In the weeks before the election, investors dumped Philippine equities, expressing uncertainty over Dutertes economic plans and lack of policy-making experience, reports Lillian Karunungan for Bloomberg.
Related: The Rise of Themed ETFs: Video Games, Drones, Millennials
The Philippine presidential race weighed on investor sentiment as Duterte had been tight-lipped on what he would do to support the economy, fueling uncertainty over the economic outlook.
A Duterte win had been flagged for some time now, and the market has already largely priced it in, Julian Wee, a senior market strategist at National Australia Bank Ltd., told Bloomberg. Going forward, the market will be watching what Duterte does, and the initial signs are mildly positive in that he seems to be making some overtures to the other players in the political establishment.
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Providing more clarity on his administration, Duterte tapped Carlos Dominguez, former agriculture secretary, as finance or transport chief, and may appoint his running mate, Alan Cayetano, as foreign secretary.
Moreover, Maybank ATR Kim Eng analyst Luz Lorenzo said investors appeared less anxious as there were no allegations of foul play against Duterte during the ballot count, which suggested that the transition to the new government would go smoothly, reports Renju Rose for Reuters.
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The benefits of the automated elections as well as quick results boosted shares and the local currency. It showed a clear mandate to the winner, Davao Mayor Duterte. This helped ease the fears. Clarity in his appointments to key posts, priorities of his administration and the timeline to achieve them would be key to win both local and foreign investors, BDO chief market strategist Jonathan Ravelas told Manila Bulletin.
Related: Philippines ETF Remains an Emerging Markets Star
The relief rally also helped financials and industrials led the rally Tuesday. EPHE, which tracks the MSCI Philippines Investable Market Index, includes a hefty 45.5% tilt toward financials and 21.8% industrials, along with 8.7% telecom, 7.6% utilities, 6.8% consumer staples, 5.0% consumer discretionary and 2.8% tech.
For more information on the ETF Emerging Markets market, visit our Emerging Markets category .
iShares MSCI Philippines ETF
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines started the process to strengthen its anti-money laundering and bank secrecy laws on Tuesday, aiming to plug loopholes that allowed $81 million stolen in one of the world's biggest cyber heists to pass through Manila banks and casinos.
The Department of Finance said it was working with the country's anti-money laundering council and central bank to amend the list of entities covered by its anti-money laundering law to include casinos. A draft bill was submitted to Congress, it said.
Unidentified hackers infiltrated the computers at the Bangladesh central bank in early February and tried to transfer $951 million from its settlement account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Most transfers were blocked, but $81 million was sent to four accounts at a branch of the Philippines' Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. It was then moved through a remittance firm and later to casinos and gambling agents. Most of that money is missing.
"Weaknesses and loopholes in our legal frameworks breed risk; we intend to stamp these out as best we can," Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said in the statement.
The exclusion of casinos from the current scope of the anti-money laundering laws and a strict bank secrecy law have made it difficult for authorities to track the Bangladesh money trail and identify the perpetrators.
The Finance department also said it proposed to include tax evasion, among other crimes, as a predicate crime, or component, of money laundering, and expand the powers of the anti-money laundering council.
It is also seeking to lift restrictions on bank secrecy of both peso and foreign currency deposits for tax purposes, a proposal also supported by the central bank.
The Philippines held presidential and congressional elections on Monday and the new Senate and House of Representatives are only scheduled to convene in July.
It is unlikely that the bill will be presented before then.
(Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Martin Petty and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Manila (AFP) - Geraldine Roman on Tuesday celebrated overcoming "bigotry, hatred and discrimination" as results showed she had become the first transgender politician to win a congressional seat in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.
After her victory in Monday's election, Roman, 49, is being seen by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community as a source of hope in a country where Church influence means divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage are banned.
"The politics of bigotry, hatred and discrimination did not triumph. What triumphed was the politics of love, acceptance and respect," Roman told AFP after her victory for a seat in Congress representing the farming province of Bataan just northwest of Manila.
Roman, a Catholic, said she was looking forward to becoming a lawmaker so she could respond to critics who dismissed her as a one-issue politician not to be taken seriously.
"I'm elated, very, very happy. I'm also excited to work. I realise that the burden is bigger because the stereotype of people about the LGBT is we are frivolous, that we have nothing substantial to say, so I have to prove them wrong," she said.
Roman will be the highest-ranking openly LGBT politician in the Philippines, where other lawmakers have refused to come out for fear of losing support from the Catholic Church and other religious groups.
A political neophyte, Roman will succeed her mother as representative of Bataan, where her family has been a political force for three generations. Her mother had to stand down after serving the maximum number of three terms.
Roman's father was a former congressman whose death in 2014 prompted her to consider continuing the family legacy.
Political families dominate Philippine politics, from the local to the national level, and belonging to such a dynasty was widely regarded as being crucial to Roman's success.
- 'We all have rights' -
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Still the constituents of Bataan overwhelmingly endorsed Roman, with the vote count showing she had secured 62 percent support.
"She is also a human being. We all have rights. It's not an issue to me that she is transgender," farmer Bern Salenga, 49, told AFP during a campaign sortie in Roman's home town before the election.
Roman has been living as a woman for two decades, and proudly wore a pearl necklace and pink lipstick while campaigning.
She had a successful career as senior editor at the Spanish News Agency. She speaks Spanish, French and Italian and won a scholarship to study in Spain, where she met her partner of 18 years.
She underwent sex reassignment surgery, and legally changed her name and gender, in the 1990s -- a recognition she wants other transgender people to have.
In 2001, a law was passed making it impossible for transgender Filipinos to change their name and sex.
Roman has vowed to campaign to lift those restrictions, and to push for an anti-discrimination bill that ensures equal treatment in the workplace, schools, commercial establishments and government offices.
Despite the focus on her gender, Roman said her priority was the people of Bataan, and to help more poor students nationwide get scholarships.
"Equality (is) not only in terms of gender but also in terms of socio-economic status. To be rich or poor should not matter. Whether educated or not, people should have the same opportunities so I'm going beyond gender to include more issues," she said.
With her historic victory, Roman said she hoped more LGBT Filipinos would be inspired to join government.
"I want to inspire everybody. There are many factors for discrimination: on the basis of gender, age, educational attainment, creed. So to all people who experience discrimination, I want to inspire them."
* Philips, Osram under pressure from move to LEDs
* Philips must recover ground lost to Acuity
* Analysts sceptical over Osram LED chip investment
By Toby Sterling and Georgina Prodhan
AMSTERDAM/FRANKFURT, May 10 (Reuters) - Philips' decision to float its lighting business will offer investors a radical alternative to its closest independent competitor in the lucrative illumination market, Osram Licht, itself spun off by Siemens three years ago.
In terms of size, the two are comparable: Philips Lighting had core earnings (adjusted EBITA) in 2015 of 547 million euros ($624 million), on sales of 7.5 billion euros. In the same year, Osram reported core earnings of 567 million euros on sales of 5.6 billion euros.
Both seek to profit from steady growth in general lighting for streets, homes and offices - predicted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to be worth $105 billion by 2020, up from 87 billion in 2014 - as well as their respective niches in automotive or specialist light systems.
But with an eye on the challenges posed by the growing market share and steadily dropping prices of LEDs -- light-emitting semiconductors that are more energy-efficient and last longer than conventional lights -- the two companies are pursuing very different strategies.
Philips wants to maintain its global number one position in both conventional and LED lamps, while becoming more profitable at selling complex lighting systems to corporate customers.
Osram, meanwhile, is abandoning the general lamps market completely and plans to sell that business. Instead it is betting big on expanding its manufacturing of the LED chips that go into lamps and systems for general lighting, spending a billion euros to build a new plant in Malaysia for that purpose.
According to a BCG study in November, LEDs will make up more than 50 percent of the $130 billion global lighting market by 2020, and lighting companies will have to think creatively to make up for weaker margins from "precipitously" falling prices.
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PHILIPS
Philips makes 85 percent of its profits from conventional lamps and will keep pruning that capacity as sales shrink by double digits and LED lamp sales volumes grow.
"Overall, we think the combined profit from lamps and LEDs is likely to be stable at best," said Jefferies analyst Peter Reilly in a note after Philips announced its IPO plan.
The answer, Philips believes, lies in its other major lighting business, Professional Lighting, which sell lighting fixtures and systems to corporate customers.
In that it will have to compete with the likes of General Electric, including selling services around networked LED lights, which are programmable and will become an important part of the "Internet of Things".
The Philips unit also faces an unexpected threat from newcomer Acuity Brands, which had more professional systems sales than Philips did in the first three months of 2016 for the first time.
Acuity has outmanoeuvred competitors and seized U.S. market share with a superior sales and distribution strategy, and shares are up more than 300 percent over the past five years.
Philips Lighting CEO Eric Rondolat acknowledged in a press conference last week that his company "did lose a bit of traction in the past years" but said investments in its sales organisation are beginning to bear fruit.
Neuberger Berman, which retains Philips NV as one of the main holdings in its equity income portfolio, has said it will consider investing in Philips Lighting's IPO, expected by July.
"We're open to that idea, for sure," said research associate Shawn Trudeau. "We're not structural bears on the lighting business like I feel many investors are."
OSRAM
The strategy for Osram, whose shares have gained almost 90 percent since it separated from Siemens in 2013, has been to pursue niche markets -- notably in the automotive industry, a market with high barriers to entry.
Its Specialty Lighting and Opto Semiconductors divisions -- both mainly focused on automotive -- accounted for all the company's operating profits last year.
The company announced a big departure in November with its new Malaysian investment, however. The news precipitated a 30 percent fall in its shares and the company's CFO, who opposed the idea, quit.
"That's a completely misguided strategic direction," said analyst David Vos of Barclays.
"They will now have to go head to head with all the Chinese, Koreans, whoever else decides to compete in that market. That's just a game you can't really win."
Osram argues it is investing in a growth market and has scale and technology advantages that will help it succeed. The shares have since recovered and are currently trading at around 45.64 euros, 11 percent lower than before the announcement.
UBS analyst Sven Weier, who is neutral on Osram shares, said in a recent note it is conceivable the company's move will pay off: "While the investment could aggravate overcapacity and price pressure, the underlying market is growing strongly." ($1 = 0.8770 euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Charles de Gaulle asked back in 1962, How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese? But maybe the famed general who led Free France during World War II and founded the countrys Fifth Republic should have been pondering how fermenting fromage might help fire up his beloved France.
Fifty-four years later, de Gaulles baguette-waving, wine-swilling countrymen draw about 75 percent of their electricity from nuclear power a rate they aim to reduce to 50 percent by 2025, according to the World Nuclear Association. It wont be easy, but efforts like this might help get them there:
Cheesy waste is now being used to provide electricity to 1,500 homes in the southeastern French town of Albertville, home of the 1992 Winter Games.
All cheese manufacturing produces whey, which Albertvilles new and innovative Savoie Lactee plant turns into biogas to make energy that is then sold to Frances national power firm, EDF a dream for tree-hugging turophiles, aka cheese lovers. The Savoie regions Beaufort cheese farmers, together with French engineering firm Valbio, launched this 13-million-euro whey-protein factory last summer.
Gettyimages 148930250
Source: Glenn Van Der Knijff/Getty
Created in 1965, the Union of Beaufort Producers works with local farmers on quality assurance and to help maintain farming in mountain areas and meet technical challenges. It is with this strong commitment that [our] Albertville unit was thought, says Yvon Bochet, UPBs president, noting how they first thought of opening the whey processing plant back in 2009. The notion stemmed from concern over manufacturing waste, as well as the regional economy: Savoie Lactee has already created 10 local jobs.
The Valbio unit enables them to recycle the whey permeate and white wastewater. Et quest-ce que ca veut dire? First, milk is used to make the Beaufort cheese, which leaves behind whey and cream. The process gets the most elements from whey as possible, Valbio CEO Francois Decker says, explaining how they first make butter, ricotta cheese and protein powders before producing biogas with the rest. This entails taking the leftover skimmed whey from the cheese-making process, adding bacteria and waiting for natural fermentation to create methane thats then used to heat water and generate electricity. By doing this, the Albertville plant is churning out an estimated 3 million kilowatt-hours annually enough energy to power 1,500 average European homes and selling the electricity to EDF. The hot water and steam from the process is then returned to the factory to aid manufacturing.
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The Beaufort bunch arent the only ones getting in on the cheese-waste game, but its the biggest one of its type in France. Such a big project on a single site is unique in France and Europe, says the Beaufort Defense Unions Maxime Mathelin. And Valbio, which specializes in industrial food-waste treatment, is a leader in the field. Decker says his firm already has 25 plants like the one in Albertville in other parts of France and abroad, including countries like Canada and Bulgaria, and its recently opened a whey recovery plant near Turin, Italy.
And as though 246 varieties of cheese werent enough to play with, the firm is also working on a fruit and vegetable waste plant in southern France.
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On May 9, 2016, we have issued an updated research report on PPL Corporation PPL, a diversified utility holding company with a presence in both the U.S. and the UK. PPL Corp.s businesses are sensitive to commodity prices and weather fluctuations. Nevertheless, its disciplined capital investment program, stable financial position and customer-centric strategies are expected to offset these headwinds.
PPL Corporations first-quarter 2016 performance was softer than expected, with both earnings and revenues lagging the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. Sales were hurt by unseasonably warm weather in the companys service territories.
On the bright side, PPL Corporation continues to follow an organic growth strategy to expand and upgrade its utility systems in order to enhance service reliability as well as to attract new customers and retain existing ones. The company has plans to make capital investment of $16 billion during the 20162020 time frame, comprising nearly $3.2$3.3 billion annually. Such customer-centric strategies undertaken by the company will allow it to achieve annual earnings growth of 56% through 2018, off a 2014 base.
We remind investors that favorable rate case outcomes in Pennsylvania and Kentucky are also expected to accelerate bottom-line growth throughout the year and generate substantial revenues, going forward.
On the other hand, PPL Corp. generates a substantial portion of electricity from coal-fired facilities. Its dependence on coal facilities remains a major concern for the company as it has to invest substantially in low-emission facilities to meet regulatory mandates, which may put margins under pressure. In fact, to comply with the EPA's new Coal Combustion Residuals rule, the company expects to begin investing in environmental improvements in the second half of 2016, which will continue through 2023.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
PPL Corporation currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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A few other well placed stocks in the utility-electric power space include Avangrid, Inc. AGR Spark Energy, Inc. SPKE and Avista Corporation AVA. While both Avangrid and Spark Energy sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Avista Corporation carries the same rank as PPL Corp.
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President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima, the Japanese city that was devastated in 1945 by an atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. during World War II.
The President will make an historic visit to Hiroshima with [Japanese] Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.
Obama, who is traveling to Vietnam and Japan from May 21 to 28, will be the first serving president to visit the city. During his trip to Japan, Obama will participate in his final Group of 7 summit of industrialized nations.
Obama has previously spoken about wanting to visit Hiroshima, and Secretary of State John Kerry visited the city earlier this year, fueling speculation that Obama would visit.
Everyone should visit Hiroshima, and everyone means everyone, Kerry said at a news conference last month, when asked about a potential visit by the president.
The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
The Times
* Don't vote for Brexit, U.S. defence chiefs warn
Britain must not bank on its "special relationship" with the United States to compensate for losing global influence by leaving the EU, foreign and defence chiefs from every White House administration over the past 40 years have warned. (http://bit.ly/1OkTgDW)
* Panama left on the sidelines at anti-corruption summit
Panama, the country at the centre of the offshore finance scandal, has not been invited to David Cameron's global anti-corruption summit. As a database of the so-called Panama papers was made available online last night the Panamanian government told The Times that it would not be attending the summit because it had not received an invitation. (http://bit.ly/1T77ZJW)
The Guardian
* Pensions Regulator says it learned about BHS sale in the papers
The Pensions Regulator has admitted that it only found about the controversial sale of BHS by Philip Green after reading about it in the newspapers. The revelation raises further questions about the nature of the sale to Dominic Chappell, who has been bankrupt three times, and the powers of the regulator. (http://bit.ly/1T6X6rt)
* Eurozone ministers to examine how to ease Greece's debt burden
Eurozone finance ministers have promised to examine how to ease Greece's colossal debt burden, with writing off bad loans remaining off the table. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chair of eurozone finance ministers, said he was hopeful of getting an agreement on Greek debt management in talks on 24 May. (http://bit.ly/1T6XA0O)
The Telegraph
* Channel 4 escapes privatisation after Downing Street intervention
Channel 4 will escape full privatisation following an intervention from Downing Street. However, a series of other major reforms of the state-owned broadcaster remain under consideration. (http://bit.ly/1T6ZWNd)
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* Pizza Hut to create more than 3,000 jobs as it eyes UK expansion
Pizza Hut is planning to serve up at least 3,000 new jobs as it embarks on a 40 million pound ($57.64 million) expansion in the UK and Ireland over the next four years. (http://bit.ly/1T22qag)
Sky News
* Wetherspoon boss gives 200,000 pounds to back Brexit
The multimillionaire founder of JD Wetherspoon is donating 200,000 pounds to the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union. (http://bit.ly/1NoOqdK)
* Airbus to be named as Pro-EU campaign donor
The French aerospace giant Airbus will this week be named as a financial backer of the campaign to keep the UK in the European Union after it warned that Brexit would prompt it to rethink its British operations. (http://bit.ly/1TymC3f)
The Independent
* Post Office apologises after technical glitch shuts down counters around the UK
A technical glitch at the Post Office shut down branches around the country on Monday. The Post Office later apologised for inconvenience caused to customers on Twitter. (http://ind.pn/21NZns6) ($1 = 0.6939 pounds) (Compiled by Shivam Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
May 9 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
Headlines
* Indian group emerges as late bidder for Tata Steel (http://bit.ly/1TytzkU)
* 'Tens of thousands of jobs will go' in the City if UK leaves EU (http://bit.ly/1rN214t)
* EU Commission expected to block Three-O2 merger (http://bit.ly/1rN2cwP)
* Spotify teams with Tim Robbins and Def Jam for film series (http://bit.ly/1SZtNFy)
Overview
* JSW Steel, an Indian steel manufacturer, has come out as a last-minute bidder for Tata Steel's UK steel operations. JSW is one of the seven bidders taking part in the next stage of the sales process.
*Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne has warned of "tens of thousands" of potential job losses in the financial services industry if Britain exits the EU.
* European commissioners are expected to meet this week in Strasbourg to reject CK Hutchison's 10.5 billion pound ($15.13 billion) takeover of mobile operator Telefonica's O2 in the UK.
* The Swedish company Spotify is producing a dozen original video series in order to bolster the platform amid intensifying competition with rivals such as Apple Music and YouTube.
($1 = 0.6938 pounds) (Compiled by Bhanu Pratap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - A small group of economists who want Britain to leave the European Union say a historic, 19th-century economic reform showed that finance minister George Osborne is wrong to warn that a so-called Brexit would hurt Britain.
Just as the country's modern-day establishment want Britain to vote to stay in the EU in next month's referendum, its land-owning elite of nearly 200 years ago fought to keep the Corn Laws which imposed import tariffs on food, the group, Economists for Brexit, said.
When the laws were finally repealed in 1846, bread prices fell, boosting the spending power of the country's increasingly urban population and spurring the economy.
The Corn Laws also split the Conservative party in a way similar to today's Brexit debate.
Patrick Minford, an economics professor at Cardiff University and a member of the group, said there was an exact parallel with the referendum debate and that a post-Brexit Britain needed to be more open to free trade.
Minford, who was an outspoken supporter of former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher's economic policies, said Britain should simply lower its import tariffs to levels agreed at the World Trade Organization, a move which would bring down prices of goods such as food and cars.
Critics have pointed out that such a unilateral move by Britain would expose its booming automobile sector and its farms to potentially devastating competition.
The eight-strong Economists for Brexit is up against not only Osborne and his finance ministry but also the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and many private bank economists who say a Brexit would leave Britain worse off than if it stayed in the EU.
Last month, Osborne said analysis by his ministry showed a Brexit would mean British households would be 5,200 pounds worse off a year by 2030 if it fell back on WTO rules.
Economists for Brexit responded to the projections on Tuesday, saying the ministry used models that had "no foundation in economic theory" and failed to take into account the increase in consumer spending power and the shift towards more productive industries that would follow a Brexit.
(Writing by William Schomberg Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Luxembourg's prosecutor asked on Tuesday for penalties well below the maximum for two former accounting firm employees who leaked data about its tax deals with large corporations in the so-called "LuxLeaks" affair.
The prosecutor requested 18-month prison sentences and fines for Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet, both French citizens and former employees of accounting firm PwC.
That was far less than the five-year maximum for the charges that range from violating secrecy laws to theft and IT fraud.
"I would not oppose a suspended sentence," state prosecutor David Lentz told a court in Luxembourg's eponymous capital.
Deltour is accused of passing data on PwC clients to journalist Edouard Perrin for a French television broadcast made in 2012.
Prosecutors say this data and material supplied by Halet was used in the 'LuxLeaks' revelations of November 2014 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Perrin is also standing trial and the prosecutor asked for a fine for him, without specifying how high it should be.
At the start of the trial, a PwC expert said Deltour copied 45,000 pages of documents he was able to access because of a glitch in the company's servers, which had since been fixed.
Deltour's lawyer said his client did not set out to find the documents, but only came across them by chance.
(Reporting by Michele Sinner; Writing by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
New Delhi, May 10 (ANI): Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday cancelled his visits to Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, citing health reasons.
Gandhi apologised for cancelling the visits, saying that he had been running high fever since Sunday and has been advised rest by doctors for the next two days.
He was scheduled to tour Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where elections will be held on May 16.
Unfortunately I have been down with high fever since Sunday and the Doctor has advised rest for the next two days, he tweeted.
Shall keep everyone updated about the rescheduled visits, he added.
The campaigning ends in these states on May 14.
The government yesterday cleared additional security for Gandhi after his party met Home Minister Rajnath Singh about the assassination threats.
Singh issued extra caution for both the Intelligence Bureau and the elite force that guards politicians considered to be at high risk.
The Puducherry Police too had made special preparations for Gandhis speech.
The Home Minister had decided that Gandhi would get more commandos from the Special Protection Group (SPG), which handles the security of top leaders including the Prime Minister. (ANI)
ray dalio
Ray Dalio took home $1.4 billion last year through his hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, according to Institutional Investor's annual list of the top-earning hedge fund managers, released Tuesday.
Dalio ranked third in 2015, behind Citadel's Ken Griffin and Renaissance Technologies' Jim Simons, who both made $1.7 billion.
Bridgewater is the world's largest hedge fund, with $169 billion in assets under management, and is in the midst of a major leadership transition.
In 2011, Dalio initiated a 10-year transition plan in which he would gradually hand over people management power so he could solely focus on his role as co-CIO.
By 2022, Dalio plans to be monitoring Bridgewater's investments, but without running his firm's Westport, Connecticut headquarters.
In a recent interview with Business Insider, Dalio said that because the culture of radical transparency he's created is unique, it has not been an easy process but that doesn't mean it's been chaotic.
Most importantly, he said, it's been a learning experience, where he's discovered that in order for Bridgewater to outlive him yet retain his vision, he's needed to focus his executive team's responsibilities onto their strengths and to automate his management philosophy through standardized processes that don't require his presence in the office.
He mentioned that it's already improved the efficiency of his executive team: co-CIO Greg Jensen, co-CIO Bob Prince, co-CEO Eileen Murray, president David McCormick, management committee member Osman Nalbantoglu, and himself.
"We've learned a great amount about the key members of our team ... not only about our strengths and weaknesses, but about their devotion to the organization and its mission," Dalio said. "These people deeply understand our mission and share our values, and they have shown themselves to be more committed to making Bridgewater great than to any ego-driven attachments to particular roles and responsibilities."
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bi graphics ray dalio principles final
"The way we're constantly evolving and refining what we're doing can be very confusing to outsiders, especially when they read the typical business press, which attaches a lot of sensational drama to these kinds of things," he explained to Business Insider. "But to us, this is just the natural way a group of close partners figures out how to be most effective together."
In addition to hiring Steve Jobs acolyte Jon Rubinstein as co-CEO in place of Jensen (who remains with the team as co-CIO), Dalio also recruited Microsoft veteran Craig Mundie to serve alongside him as co-chairman. It's another decision that shows he is leaving management responsibilities to not only his most trusted investors but technology experts as well, because Bridgewater is reliant on automated investing.
As part of the 10-year transition, Dalio and his leadership team have also been determining ways to structure and automate the values in his "Principles" management guide, in the same way that he's automated his investing strategies. At Bridgewater, employees have proprietary apps on their iPads that allow them to rate each other's performance and make note of tensions, with the intention of resolving disagreements quickly, systematically, and transparently.
"Ten years might seem like a long time, but it actually seemed about right to us given that transitioning a founder-led, entrepreneurial company especially one with a strong culture is one of the hardest problems in business," Dalio said.
"While I believe strongly that our unique management philosophy is one of the major reasons behind our unique success, I also believe that everyone needs to think independently and make their own decisions on what makes the most sense. And so my goal for these years has been to clearly articulate my philosophy and create tools for helping people practice it with the knowledge that when I'm no longer involved, it will be up to others to determine how useful these things are in running the company."
NOW WATCH: Paul Krugman gave us his top 3 investment tips
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By Sinead Cruise and Andrew MacAskill LONDON (Reuters) - Investors in state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland want the British government to intervene in the bank's seven-year struggle to sell a small business lender to meet European Union demands, which they say clash with UK taxpayers' interests. Several top 30 RBS shareholders told Reuters the requirement to sell Williams & Glyn (W&G), an EU condition of a 2008 state bail-out, should be reviewed because RBS has slashed its balance sheet and no longer threatens fair competition in the way regulators first feared. Carving out W&G has already cost RBS, which is 73 percent owned by the UK state, more than 1.2 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) and investors worry the process is harming the bank's recovery and delaying a return to full private ownership. RBS has missed one deadline to sell W&G, which has a 5 percent share of the market for small business lending, and warned it risks falling short of a second at the end of 2017. The Edinburgh-based bank is spending 140 million pounds a quarter to create an independent computer system for W&G, which currently generates around 6 percent of its income. The project is all-consuming for 6,000 full-time employees, equivalent to 1 in 10 of RBS' UK staff, and was described by its chief executive Ross McEwan as the most complex restructuring in global banking. "It's not helping the bank, customers or the economy. It would be better if they decided we could just hang on to it (W&G)," Arthur Sales, a private shareholder who attended the bank's investor meeting last week, said. BREXIT CARD Four of the investors contacted by Reuters said Britain's looming vote on EU membership provides an ideal backdrop for talks on a new deadline or a restructuring of the terms to a sale which was contingent on the full privatisation of RBS. One legal expert, who declined to be named, said the government could scrap the obligation to sell W&G entirely if Britons vote to leave the EU on June 23, as the UK would no longer be bound by the EU's state aid regime. RBS and the UK Treasury declined to comment on the possibility of the W&G disposal terms being redrawn. The European Commission, which has tussled with Microsoft and Google as an antitrust enforcer, has shown no sign of wavering. "We understand that RBS and the UK authorities remain fully committed to this divestment," an EU spokesman said on April 28 when RBS conceded it could miss its deadline. European regulators originally ordered a sale of W&G by 2013 to prevent RBS, Britain's largest small business lender and responsible for 1 in 4 loans in the sector, from having an unfair advantage and posing a systemic threat to its economy. Lloyds Banking Group avoided similar problems when it had to sell TSB because it agreed to let the new bank use its computer systems in a IT hosting and servicing deal. But investors point out that RBS, which has not made a profit since its 45.5 billion pound taxpayer-funded rescue, has already complied with demands to shrink its investment bank, and sell a commodities business and insurer Direct Line. "The punishment does seem excessive," Derek Weaver, another investor at the AGM, said. PENALTIES LOOM The penalties for missing a second deadline to sell W&G by the end of 2017 are unclear, but shareholders are concerned about footing the bill. "If it doesn't happen on time the British government must fine RBS and if it doesn't, the European Commission can fine the British government. I don't think the taxpayer taking a fine for RBS would be politically acceptable," one investor said. Under the original terms, the EC could appoint a trustee to sell W&G "at no minimum price". Investors are concerned this would mean the carve-out bill could eclipse W&G's estimated 1.5 billion pound price tag. There is a precedent in Europe as National Bank of Greece was forced to sell its Turkish Finanzbank for a heavily discounted 2.7 billion euros in December. RBS has said it is exploring other ways to separate and divest W&G, with McEwan pointing to an "open dialogue" with the European regulator. But investors seem unconvinced. "They've been far too complacent. What is clear is they'll have to do whatever they do at the last possible minute," said Xavier VanHove, partner at top-25 investor THS, who said RBS should spin-out W&G to its shareholders rather than sell it. "But, here's the silver lining. This is actually forcing them to look at systems harder than they otherwise might. So this difficult, long and tedious exercise will eventually make RBS a much better and more efficient bank," VanHove said. (Additional reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Brussels; Editing by Alexander Smith)
As America gets ready to elect a new president, its worth remembering that there is a difference between making decisions and selling them to the public. Which is why it matters that a fight has broken out in Washington over the role of Barack Obamas top national security communications aide, Ben Rhodes.
A recent article offered the ambitious thesis that Rhodes has become the single most influential voice shaping American foreign policy aside from [Obama] himself. For those who have covered the Obama White House that assertion is ambiguous: Is Rhodes supposedly making important decisions or just shaping how they are sold?
There is no doubt that Rhodes is a key player when it comes to presenting Obamas foreign and national security policies to the public, especially the controversial 2015 nuclear deal with Iran: he is Obamas top speechwriter and communications strategist on all foreign and national security matters. The media-versus-White-House scuffle that has followed the articles publication is largely about whether Rhodes duped reporters and the public in selling that deal, and whether the news media were sufficiently skeptical of their sources as they wrote about it.
Thats not a small thing. The 2003 Iraq War was a disastrous policy decision that might have been stopped before it was implemented had it not been successfully sold to credulous reporters on false premises: Iraq war advocates like Vice President Dick Cheney, for example, pushed government funding for pro-war partisans like Ahmed Chalabi who in turn helped feed false stories of Saddam Husseins non-existent nuclear and biological programs to reporters. Rhodes spin on the Iran deal was fairly standard White House fare, by comparison. Iran deal critics, including Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, accuse Rhodes of overstating the moderate beliefs of some Iranian leaders and exaggerating the deals ability to keep Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon. On Monday Rhodes published a defense of his efforts on the website Medium.
But amid the scramble to protect reputations and credibility, the difference between spin-doctoring and decision making is being obscured. Obama made crucial decisions on Iran from the start of his presidency: whether to send a secret letter to the Iranian leaders; when and whether to expose Irans violation of U.N. Resolutions; how to counter threats of Israeli military action against Iran; whether to engage in secret negotiations with Iran starting in 2012; and, of course, whether to accept the terms of the deal once negotiators from the State Department hammered it out.
Senior figures in the Obama administration like Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Leon Panetta and Robert Gates took conflicting positions on some of these and other policies, and there were occasionally contentious debates about the right way to proceed. And that is how it should be. The National Security Council is a decision-making machine: in a properly functioning NSC, policy proposals move through a series of meetings in search of consensus, from experts through deputy agency heads, to cabinet officials. If those top advisers cant find a common position themselves, the President himself holds a meeting to air the debate. After that, the President may consult in small group with some of his closest advisers before making a decision.
How well that process works matters. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld famously manipulated George W. Bushs NSC, leaving the President poorly informed about the stakes of his decisions. Obama has dramatically expanded the size and power of the NSC, but he has also relied on an inner circle of advisers including his chiefs of staff, Biden, Clinton, Gates and others when coming to a final decision on important matters like drone strikes, detaining terrorists, fighting the war in Afghanistan and whether to use military force in Syria.
Where was Rhodes in that process? To be sure, he has been one of Obamas closest aides from the start, the primary author of his foreign policy speeches, a daily presence in foreign policy discussions and a lead author of consensus positions as they emerged from the inter-agency process. When key players, including Iran deal negotiators, cabinet secretaries and others, wanted to get information to or from Obama, Rhodes increasingly became the go-to person over the course of Obamas two terms in office. Early in the administration Rhodes was sometimes part of the small group that made final decisions on policies, and nowadays he often is, according to senior officials who have participated in the meetings.
But for all that, there is little evidence in the record that Rhodes has directly tipped the presidents decision making one way or the other on major policy debates. Indeed, despite declaring him the most influential voice shaping foreign policy in the administration after Obama, the recent profile only shows Rhodes swinging into action once it is time to sell the policy.
And even then it is unclear how much Rhodes affected the implementation of policy. On Iran, for example, key votes in Congress could have stopped the nuclear deal last summer. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee played a crucial role in the public debate over the deal, as did other Congressional and public figures. But it remains unclear who, exactly, was swayed by Rhodes efforts: not even those accusing him of tricking the country into approving the deal seem able to answer that question.
These are not frivolous matters. Hundreds of thousands of lives hang on decisions made at the top of government and holding officials accountable is important under any circumstance. With the media under fire and a contentious presidential campaign heating up, it is even more important right now. Obscuring the difference between decision-making and after-the-fact spin just opens the door further for demagoguery.
A choking of global oil supply has come to the fore of investors' minds, pushing prices up for both Brent (Intercontinental Exchange Europe: @LCO.1) and West Texas Intermediate (New York Mercantile Exchange: @CL.1).
The risk of losing an estimated 2.5 million barrels of daily production has, for now, eclipsed the fact that global inventories are sloshing around at peak levels.
The wildfire in Canada that skirts tar sand oil sites has knocked out around 1 million barrels of production per day, according to Barclays.
But one analyst at the bank said Tuesday that Canadian supply is in fact secondary to investor minds.
"We could potentially see the Canadian supply, the close to 1 million barrels per day that's offline, come back over the end of this month if not the next.
"But it's the Nigeria one that's really spooking markets given that's close to 400,000-500,000 barrels per day which is only expected [back] after July now," said oil analyst, Miswin Mahesh.
In Nigeria, a group known as the Nigerian Delta Avengers, has reportedly taken out a critical piece of underwater equipment at Chevron's offshore 'Okan' facility.
Chevron has acknowledged that the facility is now shut and the disruption has stopped extraction of roughly 90,000 barrels per day.
In a note, Barclays said the breach at the Okan facility marks the third major attack on Nigerian oil assets in 2016.
Earlier in the year, Forcados and Brass River operations were disrupted due to damaged infrastructure, taking more than 300 thousand barrels per day offline.
And according to various media reports, the series of attacks on the country's oil infrastructure has stymied crude production in Nigeria to a near 22-year low.
On their website, the Nigerian Delta Avengers calls on all Niger Deltans to 'take the war to all oil installations in their various communities, because this is your war'.
The group claims it is fighting to liberate its local people and says its major goal is to cripple the Nigerian economy.
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As for where global prices go now, Mahesh says he expects to see some selling.
"One would have thought with these sizable outages we could have seen the momentum keep growing.
"But because positioning in the market has been stretched going into this, there are a few investors looking at this moment to exit."
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Cannes began rolling out the red carpet Tuesday as stars including Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively swept into town for the world's top film festival whose dazzle is being tested by stiff security measures.
On foot, horseback and motorbikes, police patrolled the Croisette, a strip of beach lined with ultra-luxury stores and headed by the Palais des Festivals, the main venue for the cinema extravaganza which gets under way on Wednesday night.
A small army of workers carefully unrolled strips of the 60-metre red carpet that will host stars such as Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Kirsten Dunst, Charlize Theron and George Clooney over the 12-day festival.
The first of the big Hollywood films, Foster's drama about a Wall Street tipster "Money Monster" starring Clooney and Roberts screens Thursday. And Steven Spielberg will roll out his blockbuster version of Roald Dahl's "The BFG" at the weekend, although neither are competing for the main Palme d'Or prize.
But already some of the main competition films are stirring controversy, with Juliette Binoche starring in a period horror "Slack Bay" about Victorian tourists eaten by the locals in northern France.
- Cannibalism -
Another, "The Neon Demon", also features cannibalism, this time among supermodels in Los Angeles according to the film's Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, who is notorious for depicting extreme violence.
The population of Cannes is set to nearly triple to some 200,000 people as film producers, industry workers and actors roll in to soak up the glamour, sell films, network and party.
The festival has also created a security headache worthy of a movie script for French authorities six months after a series of attacks left 130 people dead in Paris.
"We must keep in mind as we prepare to open this festival, that we are... faced with an enemy determined to strike us at any moment," Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on a visit to Cannes Monday.
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As a result an "extraordinary mobilisation" of security forces has been put in place, with 400 private security agents guarding the Palais des Festivals alone, where the main films are shown.
Cazeneuve said bomb experts would carry out daily sweeps of the venue.
Hundreds more police officers and specialist units will be on duty in the city, whose lure for the rich and famous makes it equally attractive to jewellery thieves -- with several multi-million dollar heists in recent years.
Cannes has 500 CCTV cameras, making it the most closely monitored town in France, said mayor David Lisnard.
- Balancing fun and security -
He dismissed concerns that the tight security will throw a wet blanket over the parties, glitter and glamour of the event.
"Do you think an attack brings merriment? We have succeeded in preserving the festival atmosphere. The public will be at the foot of the (red-carpeted) steps. All the parties will be authorised but security must be taken care of," he told AFP.
Last month elite police forces staged a simulated terror attack at the Palais des Festivals.
Air and sea exclusion zones have also been declared, as well as a ban on drones, and Lisnard has said random searches will be conducted in the streets of Cannes.
Hollywood stars Blake Lively and Kristen Stewart were snapped arriving in town, according to Vogue magazine's Twitter feed.
The pair star in Woody Allen's "Cafe Society" which will open the event on Wednesday on what is forecast to be a rain-drenched evening.
The movie, about a young couple who fall in love in 1930s Hollywood, is being screened out of competition.
Nearly 90 feature films will be shown in this year's official selection, 21 of which are in the running for the Palme d'Or.
But hundreds more are showing in the film market and in the Director's Fortnight and Critics' Week sections.
With the clock ticking down, hectic last-minute preparations were still going on, with cranes lining the Croisette.
In Cannes port, crew members scrubbed the sleek yachts where many of the festival's parties take place.
Several billionaires have parked their superyachts along the Riviera for the festival: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's "Octopus" was in Nice and Spielberg's "Seven Seas" in Antibes, according to Forbes.com.
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MICROSOFT
Industrial goods manufacturer Regal Beloit Corporation RBC reported lackluster first-quarter 2016 results with a significant year-over-year decline in net sales and adjusted earnings owing to macroeconomic woes. Adjusted earnings for first-quarter 2016 were 95 cents per share compared with $1.21 in the year-ago quarter and well behind the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.09.
Regal-Beloit Corporation (RBC) Street EPS & Surprise Percent - Last 5 Quarters | FindTheCompany
On a GAAP basis, the company reported a net income of $41.6 million or 93 cents per share compared with $36.4 million or 81 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter. The year-over-year improvement in GAAP earnings, despite lower revenues, was largely driven by lower operating costs.
Net sales fell to $818.2 million from $911.7 million in the year-earlier quarter owing to adverse foreign currency translation, soft oil & gas markets and a depressed Chinese economy. The quarterly revenues missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $855 million.
Lower volumes dragged adjusted operating profit for the reported quarter to $70.7 million from $89.0 million in the prior-year period, leading to the respective operating margins of 8.6% and 9.8%.
Segment Analysis
Revenues from the Power Transmission segment continued to impress, increasing 15% year over year to $201 million, driven by inorganic growth. However, the sales were negatively impacted by headwinds in the oil & gas and agricultural markets, and negative foreign currency translation effect.
Net sales in the Commercial and Industrial System segment were $378 million, down 17% year over year. The decline in segment revenue was driven by sluggishness in the oil & gas sector, a slowdown in the industrial markets in China, and a negative foreign currency translation effect of 1.9%.
Net sales from the Climate Solutions segment was $240 million, down 14% year over year due to a downturn in the Middle East HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) market, lower demand in the residential North American HVAC and water heating markets, and a negative 1.0% foreign currency translation effect.
Balance Sheet and Cash Flow
At quarter end, Regal Beloits cash and cash equivalents were $249.1 million, while long-term debt was $1,699.3 million.
Net cash from operating activities during the quarter aggregated $58.2 million, up from $17.5 million in the year-ago period. Free cash flow was 104% of net income and the company paid off $17 million of debt during the reported quarter.
Guidance Revised
Regal Beloits first-quarter results were severely impacted by the fragilities in the oil & gas sector and the overall industrial end markets. The company expects its sales to be affected by the continued weakness in industrial markets. Consequently, the company revised its guidance for full-year 2016 and currently anticipates adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $4.40 to $4.80, significantly down from the earlier projection of $4.80 to $5.20. However, Regal Beloit continues to focus on its simplification initiatives to lower operating costs and improve its margins in the future.
Regal Beloit currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some stocks that look promising in the industry include Eaton Corporation plc ETN, ESCO Technologies Inc. ESE and Franklin Electric Co., Inc. FELE, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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Annie (Nicole Kidman) and Baxter (Jason Bateman) in The Family Fang. (Cathay-Keris Films)
Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter. Hes also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. He Tweets/Instagrams at Optimarcus and writes at marcusgohmarcusgoh.com. The views expressed are his own.
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 105 minutes (1.75 hours)
The Family Fang is a family dramedy based on the novel of the same title about a family of performance artists who reunite after a long time apart. But when the mother and father go missing, the son and daughter must figure out why and where theyve gone. It stars Nicole Kidman (Annie Fang), Jason Bateman (Baxter Fang), Christopher Walken (Caleb Fang), and Maryann Plunkett (Camille Fang). It is rated PG-13.
The Family Fang requires a lot of reading up before watching, since its about performance artists, which is not a common occupation by any stretch. While its interesting to see what the life of a performance artist is like, it also raises a lot of questions about its viability in America, let alone in Singapore. Its a different sort of family dramedy, since its unlikely that many people will have experienced a life similar to the Fangs, and it requires an acquired taste to appreciate.
Dear daughter Annie in The Family Fang. (Cathay-Keris Films)
Highlights
Talented cast
Nicole Kidman and Christopher Walken alone should be enough to raise the bar for performances in the film, but the addition of Jason Bateman and Maryann Plunkett shows that acting-wise, this film delivers. Theyve got eccentric characters to play, which could come off as outlandish if done badly, but the cast members manage to do impressively well given the craziness they have to portray.
Annie in The Family Fang. (Cathay-Keris Films)
Letdowns
Long rambling monologues
Long chunks of text might work well in a book, but its just a talking head on screen. Fortunately, most of these monologues are given to Christopher Walken, who always pulls them off with panache. Still, its insufferably boring to sit through yet another talking head in some pseudo-documentary style shot and hear a good few minutes of dialogue. Visually its not stimulating, and this is one aspect of the book that the film did not adapt well. Show, dont tell.
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Dreadfully pretentious
If the monologues were interesting, that might have been forgivable. Instead, they are rambling takes on the nature of art and performances, all of which seem to come from a holier-than-thou perspective. Its pretentiousness of the highest order, to dictate the standard of art. Its supposed to be a family dramedy, not some sort of philosophical documentary on what art is. Worst of all, it seems more interested in showing you how smart the dialogue is, instead of actually being smart through the filmmaking.
Unrelatable characters
The whole essence of their performance artist lifestyle is summed up as irritating the general public. Yet the characters are very adamant and sensitive about their art, throwing tantrums whenever people dont act as expected. Theres no point to the performances, and the only people who seem to care are the characters themselves. They seem so out of touch with reality that its hard to have an emotional connection with them.
No heart
The core problem with the film is its lack of a central vision. The Family Fang feels directionless, like its just mechanically going through the steps required for a film. It doesnt engage or intrigue you. The plot itself just happens, with no telegraphing and no real consequences to anyones actions. If there were some sort of theme about performance art, that might still have been its saving grace. But as it stands, theres just no genuine feeling in the movie.
Siblings in The Family Fang. (Cathay-Keris Films)
The Family Fang might have the appearance of a family dramedy, but it has none of the heart.
Should you watch this if its free? OK.
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? No.
Score: 2.0/5
The Family Fang opens in cinemas 12 May, 2016 (Thursday).
9f56cddc3ae04c0f8ca441bbe83bf47e
Landing a rocket back on Earth after flying to the edge of space is no easy feat, but a new video from Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company Blue Origin makes it look easy.
The newly released footage allows viewers to go on a ride-along with the New Shepard rocket as it starts coming back through Earth's atmosphere, eventually landing back on a pad at the company's test facility in Texas.
As the rocket comes back to the ground, you can actually see part of the booster become discolored by the intense heat of the planet's atmosphere.
SEE ALSO: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is doing cool things for spaceflight. So why all the secrecy?
The video even shows the stark shadow of the rocket with its landing legs deployed as it comes down to Earth.
Bezos originally premiered this footage in Colorado Springs during the Space Symposium about 10 days after the April test, but the company just uploaded the full clip to YouTube on Monday.
This flight marked the third time this particular booster flew an uncrewed New Shepard capsule miles above Earth's surface. For that test, the rocket flew 339,138 feet into the air before its landing.
These tests are more than just cool looking, they also could change the way spaceflight is done in the future.
Bezos is hoping that Blue Origin will be able to reuse these rockets in order to reduce the cost of launching to space.
Right now, only the most important applications can make their way to space because of the cost to get there, Bezos said during his talk at the Space Symposium.
Our mission is to try and put in place some of the heavy-lifting infrastructure, make access to space much lower cost so that thousands of entrepreneurs can do amazing and interesting things to take us into the next era.
We only need two things to be able to do it: reusability and practice.
New Shepard is designed to take paying customers to suborbital space, giving them a taste of weightlessness for a few minutes with views of the bright Earth against the blackness of space.
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The company is planning to start crewed test flights of the New Shepard capsule next year, with possible commercial flights of the suborbital vehicle starting as soon as 2018.
Bezos also has big plans to fly an orbital vehicle from Florida to launch people and payloads high into space.
SpaceX is also aiming for reusability.
The Elon Musk-founded company successfully landed its third booster back on Earth after sending a satellite to orbit on May 6.
By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Roche has no plans to sell its diabetes testing business, despite a pummeling in the past three years from U.S. price cuts, and the Swiss drugmaker expects the unit to return to sales growth in 2017. Roland Diggelmann, head of Roche diagnostics, said the fundamentals for blood glucose meters remained strong given the growing incidence of type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity, especially in emerging markets. "You shouldn't expect growth this year, but next year I think it will go back to growth. That's definitely our vision," he told Reuters during a visit to London. Roche, best known for its cancer drugs, is also the world's biggest diagnostics company and the market leader in diabetes testing. But its diabetes care sales have stumbled since deep U.S. price cuts in 2013, slipping to 2.13 billion Swiss francs ($2.19 billion) in 2015 from 2.39 billion in 2014. They tumbled a further 13 percent in Swiss franc terms in the first quarter of this year. The sickly performance has led to speculation that Roche might follow the lead of Bayer , which last year sold its diabetes testing business to KKR and Panasonic <6752.T> for $1.1 billion. Diggelmann, however, said Roche was committed to the unit. "It's still a good business. We don't disclose the margins but it is a cashflow-generating business and it's a business with a future," he said. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that 415 million adults already have diabetes and by 2040 this will rise to 642 million, increasing the worldwide demand for routine glucose monitoring. That places a burden on healthcare systems and in 2013 the U.S. Medicare and Medicaid systems slashed reimbursement for tests by a massive 72 percent, sending a shockwave through the market and triggering spillover price cuts in the private insurance sector. The impact is still being felt, as insurance contracts are renewed, and there will be a further smaller public sector price cut from July - but Diggelmann believes the U.S. pricing pressure is moderating. "I can't say where the bottom is but I think we are pretty close to it," he said. In the meantime, Roche is responding by reducing its cost base to maximize economies of scale. It has a market share of 23 percent in diabetes testing, ahead of its three big rivals Johnson & Johnson's LifeScan unit, Abbott Laboratories and KKR/Panasonic. It is also launching new products into a crowded field, including a continuous glucose monitor later this year. But it has so far eschewed big changes such as the "smart contact lens" to track blood sugar that its Swiss rival Novartis is working on with Google . While a non-invasive way to measure glucose levels is the "holy grail" of diabetes diagnostics, Diggelmann believes it will not be easy or quick to develop an accurate alternative to finger-prick tests. (Additional reporting by John Miller in Zurich; Editing by Keith Weir)
By Ted Siefer
(Reuters) - A former New Hampshire prep school student convicted of luring an underage classmate into a sexual encounter had a roommate from a prominent family who was alleged to have committed a similar act, but a judge blocked that disclosure from court, documents show.
The 2015 trial of Owen Labrie cast a harsh light on the culture of St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, particularly a tradition known as "senior salute," in which seniors are said to proposition younger students for romantic or sexual encounters.
Labrie, now 20, was cleared of felony rape but convicted of the felony crime of using a computer to arrange a sexual encounter with a minor and misdemeanor sexual assault because the girl was 15, below the age of consent, and he was 18.
Trial transcripts unsealed on Tuesday show that Labrie's attorney, J.W. Carney, had wanted Labrie's roommate - an important trial witness - to testify about a purported sexual encounter that he had with a 15-year-old fellow student, but was blocked from doing so by Judge Larry Smukler.
Carney claimed that the girl's mother wanted Concord Police to investigate a claim that Labrie's roommate Andrew Thomson had a sexual relationship with her daughter but instead a deal was reached in which Thomson agreed to stay off campus.
Thomson was never the subject of a criminal prosecution and his lawyer denied any wrongdoing. He also said any assertion of preferential treatment was unfounded.
"Andrew did not engage in any inappropriate sexual conduct during his time at SPS and there is no allegation that he did," attorney James Rosenberg said in a statement.
But Carney said Thomson's family ties may have played a role. Thomson is the son of Lucy Hodder, an attorney who is the former legal counsel to New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan.
Carney said Hodder's position, including her role as a former trustee of St. Pauls School, resulted in her son being treated differently than Labrie for the same conduct, "consensual sex with a first-year student."
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Carney no longer represents Labrie, who is being held in a New Hampshire jail after his bail was revoked in March for curfew violations. He is appealing his conviction.
Thomson, who was Labries roommate for three years, testified during the trial that Labrie told him that he had sex with the 15-year-old student, contrary to Labries insistence that he stopped short of having sex with her.
(Reporting by Ted Siefer in Lowell, Massachusetts; Editing by Bernard Orr and Alistair Bell)
Brasilia (AFP) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff faced what could be her final hours in power Tuesday on the eve of a Senate vote on whether to suspend her from office for an impeachment trial.
Rousseff, who is accused of illegally juggling government accounts, maintained the appearance of business as usual, her official agenda featuring routine meetings in Brasilia with officials and a women's group.
But Brazil's first female president looks increasingly likely to be forced to step aside when the Senate votes Wednesday on whether to open an impeachment trial, triggering her automatic six-month suspension. The result of what's expected to be a marathon voting session may not be final until Thursday.
If she is pushed out, her vice-president-turned-enemy Michel Temer will take over.
Adding to the instability shaking Latin America's most populous country and biggest economy, the leaders of the Senate and the lower house spent Monday in open conflict on whether the vote should go ahead at all.
Late Monday, the interim speaker of the lower house, Waldir Maranhao, backed down and reversed an earlier attempt to order the Senate to halt proceedings and return Rousseff's case to the lower chamber.
That eased what was looking like an institutional crisis, with possibly the Supreme Court being needed to come in as a referee.
However, there was no patching over the divisions left in Brazil by the trauma of what Rousseff is daily denouncing as a coup d'etat.
Lawmaker Jose Guimaraes, from Rousseff's leftist Workers' Party, said that despite almost certain defeat in the initial Senate vote, the impeachment trial itself would be an all-out fight.
"We will have 180 days in the Senate, talking with every one of them, to get them to change their minds," he told journalists, and warning that "our main fight today will be in the streets."
- Security and shadow cabinet -
Police are responding to heightened tensions by building a huge metal barricade outside Congress in the capital to separate rival groups of protesters during the Senate vote. A separation corridor 80 meters (yards) wide and more than a kilometer (half-mile) long will also be enforced.
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A square where major government institutions are located will be declared a "national security zone" and made off-limits to the public, Brasilia security authorities announced.
Huge anti-government protests and smaller but still significant pro-Rousseff rallies have been a regular feature in Brazil over the last year but so far have passed off peacefully.
While Rousseff prepares for her Senate showdown, the man who would replace her continued to work on assembling a new government.
Temer is a veteran center-right politician but has rock-bottom popularity and would inherit the crumbling economy which is now in the deepest recession Brazil has seen for years.
He would also face the wrath of the Workers' Party which has held the presidency since Rousseff's predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, came to power in 2003.
Temer has made no public pronouncements in the immediate run-up to the Senate vote, but Brazilian media reports suggest he is negotiating with allies on ministerial posts and on measures that Congress would pass to try to breathe some life into the economy.
- Corruption and 'coup' -
The Senate impeachment trial could last for months, running through the Olympics which will be hosted from August 5 in Rio de Janeiro -- the first ever held in South America.
Fears over the Zika virus, high crime in Rio, pollution in the sailing and some swimming areas, and a budget crunch are already hurting preparations for the Games, and there are worries that political instability could overshadow the event.
Rousseff is accused of using accounting tricks and unauthorized state loans to boost public spending during her 2014 re-election campaign, thereby increasing her chances in a tight race.
She argues that the same accounting techniques were used regularly by previous governments and fall far short of an impeachable offense.
Calling Temer a coup plotter and insisting that the impeachment is being used by the country's right as a way to topple the left without having to fight an election, Rousseff vows she will not go quietly.
Further complicating the outlook for Brazil is the still unfolding huge corruption scandal centered on state oil company Petrobras.
Dozens of high-ranking politicians and some of the country's richest businessmen have been probed or already convicted on bribery and embezzlement charges in the scheme, which flourished under Lula's presidency.
Rousseff is being probed for alleged obstruction of justice, Lula faces money laundering charges, and some of their fiercest opponents, including the runner-up in the 2014 elections, have also been probed.
A probe has not been opened against Temer but he has been named as an important participant in the Petrobras corruption by one of the government's star witnesses in the probe, Senator Delcidio do Amaral.
Royal Enfield Celebrates Record-Breaking Sales Year
India-based motorcycle manufacturer Royal Enfield has revealed that the previous financial year delivered a record-breaking number of sales, with some more than 508,000 bikes sold between April 2015 and March 2016.
Originally a British brand, Royal Enfield became an all-India affair in 1970, churning out famously unchanging models to the Indian market and a handful of enthusiasts worldwide. In the past five years or so, the company has adopted a more aggressive, forward-looking stance and has undergone rapid expansion. This past year alone, its sales increased by a staggering 50 percent.
READ MORE: 23 Things You Never Knew About Motorcycles | RideApart
Royal-Enfield-Himalayan-Test-Runs-3-1024x576
The bulk of those sales will have been in Royal Enfield's home turf of India, where the brand is incredibly beloved. Elsewhere in the world the brand retains a reputation for dubious quality, but recent efforts, like the Continental GT, have been warmly received amid the current retro trend. More recently, the company unveiled its new Himalayan adventure bike, which, for the time being, is only available in India.
In the last year the company has dramatically expanded its manufacturing capacity in India, and returned to Britain via a research facility in Leicestershire, England. That last move is a signal that Royal Enfield hopes to make a bigger dent in markets beyond its own. Company CEO Siddhartha Lal says its ambition for the coming financial year is to manufacture 675,000 motorcycles.
2014 Royal Enfield Continental GT
"Our immediate business outlook remains strong," he said. "And Royal Enfield continues to grow consistently, competitively and profitably, towards leading and expanding the mid-sized motorcycle segment globally."
The company is said to be planning a number of new models.
Learn more about Chris and the rest of RideApart's excellent staff here: The RideApart Team
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United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Britain, France, the United States and Ukraine on Tuesday blocked a Russian request to add two Syrian rebel groups to a UN terror blacklist and sideline them from the Syrian peace process, diplomats said.
Russia had requested that Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) and Ahrar al-Sham be added to the sanctions list for their ties to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Adding names to the UN sanctions list requires a consensus decision from the 15-member council and after objections were raised by the four countries, Russia's request was rejected.
"Russia publicly attempting to designate groups that are parties to the cessation of hostilities could have damaging consequences to the cessation just as we are trying to de-escalate the situation on the ground," said a spokesperson for the US mission to the United Nations.
"Now is not the time to shift course, but rather double-down on our efforts toward a reduction in violence."
Jaish al-Islam is a member of the Higher Negotiations Committee (HNC) that is taking part in negotiations in Geneva to end the five-year war in Syria.
The Saudi-backed rebel group is the most important in Damascus province.
Ahrar al-Sham is among the most powerful Islamist rebel groups in Syria.
Financed by Turkey and Gulf states, it has fought alongside the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, around Aleppo and in neighboring Idlib province.
The dispute over the sanctions list came amid word from Moscow Tuesday that the 17-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) would meet in Vienna on May 17 to try to get peace efforts back on track.
An attempt last year by the ISSG to come up with a single list of "terrorist" groups in Syria fell apart after scores of names were submitted from all sides.
A Security Council diplomat, who spoke on condition he not be named, said blacklisting the two groups would be "seriously counter-productive, damaging both efforts to maintain the cessation of hostilities and resume peace negotiations in Geneva."
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He argued that isolating them from the mainstream opposition would result in a more hardline stance and drive them away from the search for a political settlement.
"It would provide a pretext for yet more moderate areas to come under target," he said.
The Damascus regime has consistently branded all its opponents -- armed or not -- "terrorists" since the outbreak of war in 2011.
KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwanda signed an energy financing deal with the European Union on Tuesday worth 177 million euros ($200 million) that will help the government meet its target to ensure 70 percent of the population has access to power by 2018. In 2015, the government said just 23 percent of Rwanda's 11 million population could access the electricity grid or other off-grid sources. Broader access to power is seen as vital to boosting economic growth in Rwanda and across Africa. The five-year financing agreement, part of an overall package worth 460 million euros, aims to help improve the supply, transmission and distribution of electricity and managing the industry in Rwanda, the EU said in a statement. "Energy is one of the top priorities for the government of Rwanda," Rwanda's Finance Minister Claver Gatete said in the statement, adding that it was vital to reaching the nation's goal of achieving middle income status by 2020. The World Bank defines middle income as a nation with gross national income (GNI) per capita of more than $1,045. Rwanda's stood at $700 in 2014, according to the bank. (Reporting by Clement Uwiringiyimana; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Eva Mendes pregnant second child Ryan Gosling
Its another girl for Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes!
The actors welcomed their second daughter, Amada Lee Gosling, at 8:03 a.m. on Friday, April 29 in Santa Monica, California, TMZ reports. Amada joins big sister Esmeralda Amada, 20 months, at home. (Amada was my grandmothers name. It means beloved in Spanish, Mendes explained in 2014.)
Reps for the couple did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The private duo began dating in 2011 after meeting on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines, in which they played parents.
Gosling, 35, and Mendes, 42, managed to keep both of their pregnancies a secret for several months, with an insider explaining that Mendes just hasnt ever wanted anyone beyond her close friends and family knowing more than they had to. And Ryan is certainly private and always has been.
Want all the latest pregnancy and birth announcements, plus celebrity mom blogs? Click here to get those and more in the PEOPLE Babies newsletter.
While the actress had said in the past she wasnt planning to get married or have children, with Ryan things are different, a friend told PEOPLE. Shes very independent, but shes content with her partner. She finally found the person she really wants to be with.
Gosling recently opened up about his happy family life in an interview with Hello! magazine, saying, I know that Im with the person Im supposed to be with.
The stars have kept their elder daughter out of the spotlight since her birth, but a source previously told PEOPLE that Gosling is madly in love with Esmeralda, and Mendes is loving her life as a new mom.
Shes never been happier, the source said of Mendes. She and Ryan are just in awe of this beautiful person they created. Its a really special time for them.
Michael Miller and Sarah Michaud
Ryan Gosling had a wardrobe malfunction on Jimmy Kimmel but were not complaining
Ryan Gosling had a wardrobe malfunction on Jimmy Kimmel but were not complaining
Its no secret that we love Ryan Gosling whether hes playing a dangerous role, like the Driver in Drive, or just playing himself (like when he giggling through the majority of his Saturday Night Live hosting gig), this guy is crazy talented and seems to have a healthy outlook on life. And, uh hes attractive. I mean, we cant really deny that hes nice to look at.
Gosling recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to discuss a few things, namely his brand new baby with Eva Mendes, and his upcoming movie, The Nice Guys. Based on his busy schedule, he admitted that he didnt have any time to really double check his ensemble before hitting the stage. I didnt try this suit on before I came out and I realize that its so tight, he said. Its wildly inappropriate. I feel like Im going steady with these pants. Kimmel asked his cameraman to pan down to show off Goslings legs, for better ratings.
This is a classy joint, and I just took it into the gutter, Gosling joked after purposely showing off some leg. Gosling admits that he cant actually feel his calves, after Kimmel asks him if hes even able to cross his legs comfortably.
Gosling and Mendes new baby arrived on April 29th, and Gosling is still maintaining his proud, fatherly glow. The baby, named Amada Lee Gosling, was born in Santa Monica and joins 20-month-old sibling Esmeralda Amada. Amada, for the record, is the name of Mendes grandmother, and means loved in Spanish so, it makes sense why both daughters have the name in common.
Gosling was quoted by PEOPLE, saying that I never knew that life could be this fun and this great, in regards to fatherhood. Pretty cute. We wish the best to Mendes and Gosling, and hope that he eventually realizes that yes, he can pull off skintight pants.
The Nice Guys, which also stars Russell Crowe and Matt Bomer, will be hitting theaters on May 20th.
The post Ryan Gosling had a wardrobe malfunction on Jimmy Kimmel but were not complaining appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Pro tip: always try your clothes on before appearing on television. Ryan Gosling learned this lesson the hard way when he neglected to check the tailors handiwork before sitting down with Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night.
The actor, who just welcomed his second child with Eva Mendes, realized a little late that his pants were too tight although the studio audience definitely didnt mind. Its wildly inappropriate. I feel like Im going steady with these pants, he said. I cant feel my calves. I dont know if thats good. I asked for it because Im dressed this way.
Gosling, currently starring alongside Russell Crowe in The Nice Guys, asked the cameraman to crop in on his face, but Kimmel had a better idea: Do the opposite I think itll get us better ratings. Good call!
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Asked whether his temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States would apply to Londons newly elected mayor, Sadiq Khan, Donald Trump responded, There will always be exceptions. (Trump has justified the ban by arguing that the United States doesnt have a competent border-screening system. His screening system, evidently, is personal whim.)
With his statement, Trump invited Khan to betray his fellow Muslims. Like the anti-Semitic princes who offered special protections to Court Jews or the plantation owners who treated house slaves a bit less brutally, Trump offered Khan a dispensation. Had Khan taken it, Trump would have made him complicit in a system of bigotry and oppression.
But Khan refused. In so doing, he followed a classical model of heroism. From Moses, who grew up in Pharaohs palace but risked his life to save a Jewish slave, to Nelson Mandela, who repeatedly spurned the South African governments conditional offers of freedom, Khan placed moral solidarity above personal benefit. This isnt just about me, he explained. Its about my friends, my family, and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world.
Recommended: What's Hiding in the Republican Nominee's Tax Returns?
Notice what Khan didnt say. He didnt say he refused to be an exception because hes Muslim. He said he refused to be an exception out of solidarity with my friends, my family, and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine. Theres a crucial difference. You dont have to be Muslim to have Muslim friends and family. You dont have to be Muslim to come from a background similar to Muslims. All of which raises a question: If Khan wont make himself complicit in Trumps Muslim ban, why should any foreign leaders who arent Muslim make themselves complicit? If he wont come to an America that imposes a religious test for entry, why should they?
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Imagine if hundreds or thousands of non-Muslim mayors, heads of state, and celebrities from around the world publicly followed Khans lead and said that they too wont take advantage of their privileged status. Or imagine if they vowed to come to Trumps America and tell border security that they are Muslim. Such a movement might help Americans realize how repulsive non-Americans consider Trumps Muslim ban. It might help them realize how catastrophic any effort to implement it would be. According to a poll in March, 50 percent of Americans support the ban. A global movement of non-complicity might bring that number down.
If he wont come to an America that imposes a religious test for entry, why should they?
And even if it didnt, it would be an important symbol in this era of religious hatred. Last December, al-Shabab terrorists demanded to know the religion of the travelers on a Kenyan bus so they could slaughter the Christians. The Muslim passengers refused, and thus inspired people across the globe. King Christian X of Denmark remains famous for supposedly telling the Nazis that if they made his countrys Jews wear the Yellow Star, he would wear it, too. The story is almost certainly apocryphal. But its longevity testifies to the power of the idea that, in moments of crisis, people will risk their own safety to protect the vulnerable, even when the vulnerable dont look, dress, or pray like them.
Trumps impending nomination creates such a crisis. Khan offers a model for how to respond.
Read more from The Atlantic:
This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The mayor of Sao Paulo, South America's largest city, laid out regulations on Tuesday to allow the use of Uber and other ride-hailing apps in exchange for a mileage fee, triggering anger among taxi drivers who blocked major avenues.
Mayor Fernando Haddad plans to formalize the decision with a decree on Wednesday, overriding attempts by city council members to ban Uber and other apps they accuse of unfairly competing with licensed taxis.
Under the decree, Brazil's congested business hub will charge an average fee of 10 centavos (3 cents) per kilometer for drivers working with Uber Technologies Ltd [UBER.UL] and newly arrived Spanish rival Cabify, the mayor's office said.
The city expects to raise around 40 million reais ($11.5 million) a year with the measure, said Ciro Biderman, head of innovation for development agency SP Negocios, which designed the new regulations.
Irate cab drivers blocked a major artery during the evening rush hour and television footage showed a crowd pounding on the windows of a black car with tinted windows, fitting the profile of a standard Uber vehicle.
Uber embraced the mayor's decision, calling it "the first step toward guaranteeing that apps intermediating travel with technology have a place in the city."
Cabify declined to comment.
(Reporting by Natalia Scalzaretto; Writing by Brad Haynes; Editing by Peter Cooney)
On Monday night, Sarah Eldridge, the woman who assaulted Taiwanese transgender woman Pearl Love on the New York City subway on April 28, spoke out and said she feels like the victim.
"Don't judge me unless you know me," Eldridge said to PIX11 in an exclusive interview.
On May 2, Love uploaded video of the assault to Facebook. Since then, it has been viewed over 300,000 times. Eldridge said that beyond being recognized, she has received death threats on Facebook. She says she deactivated her account on the social media site and contacted police.
Source: Mic/Facebook
Eldridge claimed that when she stepped onto the No. 4 train, she was on edge because she had been robbed earlier that week. However, she still thinks Love's feminine gender presentation is inappropriate.
"I meant what I said," Eldridge said. "That person offended me in a way because she was to me, explicit. I couldn't stand it."
Eldridge did not comment on her horrific language in the video. Several times, Eldridge yelled "Suck my dick!" at Love, who did not respond.
Sarah Eldridge, Who Assaulted Transgender Woman on NYC Subway Asks You Not to Judge Her
When asked, Eldridge said she wouldn't apologize to Love if she met her face to face.
"I don't think it's that time yet," she said. "I need time."
According to PIX11, Eldridge only became mad when Love continued recording the incident after she asked her to stop. PIX11 also mentioned that Eldridge is currently in therapy working toward apologizing to Love.
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Demand for Saudi Aramco's oil is increasing and the company is meeting that demand, chief executive Amin Nasser said on Tuesday.
"We will meet the call on Saudi Aramco... The trend is increasing," he told reporters.
"We are seeing demand growth in different places. We are seeing increases in India, in the U.S., and we are meeting that call on us," he said, adding that he expected total oil demand to climb by 1.2 million barrels per day this year.
Domestic demand during the Saudi Arabian summer will cause a slight increase in burning of liquids for power generation, he said, adding that Aramco's average crude output in 2015 was 10.2 million barrels per day.
(Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Writing by Andrew Torchia)
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco's oil production is trending slightly upwards in 2016 because of growth in demand, chief executive Amin Nasser said on Tuesday.
The company will expand its capacity in future if that is needed, but for the time being its maximum sustainable output capacity is 12 million barrels per day and the nation's total capacity is 12.5 million bpd, he told reporters.
Nasser said the expansion of the company's Khurais oilfield would come on stream in 2018.
He also said there was a big drop in oil output among non-conventional and even other conventional producers.
Mohammed al-Qahtani, senior vice-president for upstream operations, said Aramco expected to operate between 211 and 214 oil and gas drilling rigs this year.
That would be roughly flat from last year, according to previous data from the company.
(Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Writing by Andrew Torchia)
DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia, May 10 (Reuters) - National oil giant Saudi Aramco expects soon to sign a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Basic Industries Corp for a joint oil-to-chemicals project, chief executive Amin Nasser said on Tuesday.
SABIC has previously said the proposed project could cost as much as $30 billion, processing petrochemicals directly from crude oil instead of first refining the oil into products such as naphtha.
"It makes absolute sense as Aramco is specialised in oil and refining, and SABIC in petrochemicals," said one industry source familiar with the project, adding that the scheme could create as many as 100,000 jobs directly and indirectly.
Aramco's participation could benefit SABIC by giving it better access to funding as well as assistance in marketing products, said Mazen al-Sudairi, head of research at Al-Istithmar Capital.
"The change in feedstock prices prompted SABIC to change strategy - they want to produce specialty products - and with Aramco possibly joining them as an investor, it will open a big door for them," he said.
(Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Additional reporting by Reem Shamseddine in Saudi Arabia; Writing by Andrew Torchia)
Madrid (AFP) - Saudi Arabia has given a Spanish consortium charged with building a high-speed railway linking Mecca and Medina an extra 14 months to complete the project, Spain's government said Tuesday.
Public Works Minister Ana Pastor announced the extension of the deadline to complete the railway, which has run into technical difficulties, during a visit to a public works project in eastern Spain, a spokesman for her ministry said.
She also said Saudi Arabia, which is facing a budget squeeze due to low oil prices, had agreed to settle its arrears in payments to the consortium "as soon as possible", the spokesman added.
Spanish firms that are part of the consortium had complained of delays of several months in getting payment.
The high-speed railway linking Mecca and Medina was due to be completed in January 2017.
The extension will push the opening of the railways to the first quarter of 2018, said a spokesman for Spanish state-run train operator Renfe, one of the leading firms in the consortium.
Renfe head Pablo Vasquez, who also heads the consortium, recently returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia in 2011 awarded the contract worth 6.7 billion euros ($7.6 billion) to the consortium of 12 Spanish companies and two Saudi firms for the project which aims to improve transport connections between Islam's holiest cities during the annual hajj pilgrimage.
The contract -- one of the biggest Spanish firms have ever undertaken abroad -- is for laying the 444 kilometres (275 miles) of track between Mecca and Medina as well as maintaining the line for 12 years.
But the project has run into challenges that have added to its costs, leading to disagreements among members of the consortium over who is responsible for resolving them.
The rail line crosses the Arabian Desert, where sandstorms are frequent and large dunes can suddenly form, which has added to the challenge of completing the project.
The leading firms in the consortium Renfe, train maker Talgo, and state track operator Adif have extensive experience with Spain's own high-speed network, the world's second largest after China's.
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f85786%2fdog_lemonade_stand
A second-grade class's lemonade stand is making serious bank for the best, cuddliest cause.
Jennifer Marion, a second-grade teacher in Raleigh, North Carolina, adopted rescue dog Pearl in 2015. A year later, Pearl, who had always struggled with poor health, was diagnosed with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, which means she lacks the digestive enzymes necessary to break down food.
SEE ALSO: Students surprise teacher with 2 kittens after her beloved cat dies
After her diagnosis, Pearl had a long stay in the ICU at North Carolina State Veterinary Hospital to regain her strength. That visit alone cost $10,000.
Marion took several days off work to watch over Pearl during her treatment. During Marion's absence, five students decided they wanted to help their teacher out.
So they opened a lemonade stand, and sold cold drinks and baked goods to raise money for Pearl's medical bills.
The stand was also decorated with sunflowers: a major key to success.
Image: YOUTUBE/CBS NORTH CAROLINA
The students raised a contribution of over $120 impressive haul for a lemonade stand. (We're guessing the average lemonade stand makes, like, $10? $12?)
"It feels really good to help dogs," one of the students told a local CBS affiliate.
Since she last left the ICU, Pearl has gained a remarkable 10 pounds, and is able to play outside in the sun.
She also loves to ride around in her cool stroller, because why wouldn't she?
Pearl still has around 20 pounds to go before she's up to a normal weight. But in the meantime with the help of her her second-grader friends she'll continue to #FightLikeAPearl.
(Updates to add additional comment from Facebook)
By Amy Tennery
May 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee launched an inquiry on Tuesday into how social media website Facebook selects its news stories after a report that company employees blocked news about conservative issues from its "trending" list.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation asked Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in a letter to answer questions about the company's news curation practices and its trending topics section.
The investigation comes after Gizmodo reported on Monday that a former Facebook employee claimed workers "routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers," while "artificially" adding other stories to the trending list.
U.S. Senator John Thune, the chairman of the committee, told reporters Tuesday his primary concern was that Facebook may be engaging in deceptive behavior if employees meddled with what trending news was displayed.
"If you have a stated policy, which your followers or your audience knows to be the case, that you use an objective algorithm for trending topics -- you better follow that policy," Thune said. "It's a matter of transparency and honesty and there shouldn't be any attempt to mislead the American public."
The letter to Facebook includes requests for information on the organizational structure for the "Trending Topics feature."
Adam Jentleson, deputy chief of staff to Democratic Senator Harry Reid, balked at the request in a statement provided to Reuters.
"The Republican Senate refuses to hold hearings on [Supreme Court nominee] Judge Garland, refuses to fund the president's request for Zika aid and takes the most days off of any Senate since 1956, but thinks Facebook hearings are a matter of urgent national interest," Jentleson said.
A Facebook spokesman said it had received Thune's request for more information about how "Trending Topics" works.
"As we investigate, we will also keep reviewing our operational practices around Trending Topics - and if we find they are inadequate, we will take immediate steps to fix them," the spokesperson said.
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Tom Stocky, the vice president of search at Facebook, responded to the allegations Monday night in a lengthy post published to the social media site saying there are "strict guidelines" for trending topic reviewers who "are required to accept topics that reflect real world events."
He added that those guidelines are under "constant review" and that his team would "continue to look for improvements."
Katie Drummond, the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo, called her publication's story "accurate" in a statement released to Reuters Tuesday.
Gizmodo's report alarmed several social media users, with some conservatives in particular criticizing Facebook for alleged bias.
"'If a Conservative Speaks - and Facebook Censors Him - Does He Make a Sound?'" Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) wrote on Twitter Tuesday, with a link to a National Review story that detailed the allegations against Facebook.
(Reporting By Amy Tennery; additional reporting by Dustin Volz in Washington; Editing by Alan Crosby)
The next time you read a news story about wasteful government spending, remember it could always be worse -- like getting stung by a bee on your private parts worse.
On Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) rolled out a new study examining $35 million the federal government spent on questionable scientific studies including a $1 million grant the National Science Foundation gave to a researcher at Cornell University to pinpoint where on the human body its hurts most to be stung by a bee.
Related: Watch the Army Waste Three Humvees in Less Than Two Minutes
Spoiler: the three least painful spots are the skull, middle toe and upper arm; the most painful are the nostril, upper lip and, you guessed it, the genitals.
According to the report-- Twenty Questions: Government Studies That Will Leave you Scratching Your Head Washington will provide $11 billion in tax incentives and spend $146 billion on research in 2016.
When federal agencies dont spend our limited research dollars wisely, theyre not just wasting money, theyre missing opportunities, and we cant afford either, said Flake, who also introduced legislation that would direct the Office of Management and Budget to establish a system to halt duplicative research and development projects.
Here are some of the more interesting cases cited in the 85-page report:
* The National Institutes of Health gave $5 million to the Oregon Health & Science University to study what happened to finches when they were fed white grape juice spiked with alcohol, to see if the birds slurred their songs.
The songs did end up being a bit less organized, the researcher found.
Related: From Drunk Birds to Trash Art: McCain Finds Billions in Government Waste
* NIH also gave $3.5 million to researchers in China for studying why some people see Jesus face on toast.
The phenomenon, a condition known as pareidolia , isnt due to a brain anomaly or imagination but is caused by the combined work of the frontal cortex which helps generate expectations and sends signals to the posterior visual cortex to enhance the interpretation stimuli from the outside world.
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One researcher involved in the study said the findings showed its common for people to see non-existent features because human brains are uniquely wired to recognize faces, so that even when theres only a slight suggestion of facial features the brain automatically interprets it as a face.
I think probably this is first time we are actually telling people: This is OK for you to see Jesus on toast, he added.
* NSF and NIH awarded $3.9 million to Bowdoin College in Maine for experiments on what makes goldfish feel sexy.
Male goldfish were injected with steroids and dropped into the middle of a fish tank that had been divided three ways, with one side holding a male fish and the other holding a female.
The result? The male goldfish pumped up on steroids spent more time swimming near the female fish.
Related: Solar-Powered Beer? 8 Ridiculous Ways the Government Wastes Your Money
* NSF also gave $1.1 million to the University of California to look into why cheerleaders appear more attractive as a group rather than individually.
Over 100 undergrads took part in the effort to unlock the meaning of the cheerleader effect.
For each experiment, we found 100 group photographs and cropped them to frame the faces of three people of the same gender. We then cropped each individual face to create three portrait images from each group photo, researchers explained.
In both experiments, subjects rated the 300 unique faces twice, once in the group photo and once in an isolated portrait. Ratings were made by moving a mouse to set a marker on a continuous scale from unattractive to attractive.
We found evidence of the cheerleader effect people seem more attractive in a group than in isolation, the researchers claimed.
* The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, sometimes referred to as the Pentagons brain, awarded $172,000 to the University of California at Santa Barbara to examine why coffee spills when someone walks.
In our busy lives, almost all of us have to walk with a cup of coffee. While often we spill the drink, this familiar phenomenon has never been explored systematically, researchers explained to the magazine Science.
The team found walking slower and focusing on the cup of piping hot liquid reduces the chance of spillage.
Now you cant say the government never gave you useful advice.
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Multimillionaire Robert Herjavec's story, that of an immigrant arriving in North America with just $20, is a perfect rags-to-riches tale.
His family fled communist Yugoslavia when he was a child in hopes of landing in America, the land of opportunity, only to be turned away. The family ultimately found refuge in Canada.
The 53-year-old serial entrepreneur told CNBC that he had trouble adjusting to his new country at age 8. Herjavec's father told him to never complain and that "'all you're owed in life is an opportunity.'"
Obstacles and rough patches are just par the course, Herjavec said.
"You're going to get knocked down. You just got to get up again and you got to keep going because at the end of the day, success is your responsibility, and so is failure," he said.
It's fine to struggle and stumble, but entrepreneurs should never give in, Herjavec said.
"Sometimes you got to go really low. Sometimes you got to hit bottom before you can bounce back up. Fundamentally, what other choice do you have? We weren't put here to wallow in our own misery," he said.
Certainly Herjavec's story proves that out. As a young man, Herjavec bounced around, dabbling in everything from field producing at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo to waiting tables before landing an unpaid internship at a computer company.
Fast forward to 2003, when he founded the Herjavec Group, now one of the largest information technology security providers in North America, where he would make his millions.
When CNBC asked what his greatest mistakes were, Herjavec joked he's made so many that the time allotted for the interview wasn't long enough to go through them all.
"I would say that on an average day, I do 100 things wrong. I try not to make mistakes that'll kill me or the business," he said. Mistakes are just part of the process, he continued, and growing from those experiences is what really matters.
"Learn from them and then most importantly, forget about them. It doesn't matter. Whatever you did wrong yesterday, nobody cares. Don't complain because nobody cares," he said.
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"Get over it. Move on. Do better. Take care of the ones you love," said Herjavec, who appeared in the 20th season of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," and took sixth place. He is now engaged to his dance partner, Kym Johnson. Herjavec is also a host of "Shark Tank."
Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank."
More From CNBC
* Oscar Spieler to replace Gary Smith as CEO
* In talks with pvt equity firm for power investment
* Shares rise as much as 3 pct (Adds background, details, shares)
By Amrutha Gayathri
May 10 (Reuters) - Golar LNG Ltd said former Chief Executive Oscar Spieler would return to the top job as the natural gas shipping company pushes deeper into the Brazilian power generation market to cope with weakness in freight rates.
Sluggish demand for LNG from key markets such as South Korea and Japan, coupled with growing supply of tankers, has hurt rates for transporting the fuel in the past couple of years.
Golar LNG said on Tuesday it was in talks with a private equity firm for investment in Golar Power, which holds an interest in a 1.5 gigawatt power station in Sergipe, Brazil.
Golar LNG shares rose as much as 3.2 percent in morning trading.
The news comes about two months after the company's joint venture with Brazilian company GenPower Participacoes said it had reached a preliminary deal with Exxon Mobil Corp for LNG supply to the gas-to-power project in Sergipe.
Spieler, who led the company between July 2009 and June 2011, will replace Gary Smith, who is stepping down. Spieler was responsible for Golar LNG's first floating liquefied natural gas project, the company said.
Golar LNG has also hired former BP Plc executive Krzysztof Zielicki to work with Schlumberger Ltd, its partner for developing stranded gas assets.
Golar LNG is developing a floating LNG project off Equatorial Guinea with Ophir Energy Plc, which was in talks with Schlumberger for sale of a 40 percent stake in the project. However, Ophir and Schlumberger could not reach an agreement.
Golar LNG shares were up 2.8 percent at $17.69.
(Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - French group Engie has signed a 20-year power purchase deal with South Africa's state-owned utility Eskom to connect 100 megawatts (MW) of solar power onto the national grid in 2018 from its Kathu Solar plant. Eskom, which provides virtually all of South Africa's power, is facing a funding crunch as it races to bring new power plants online. With year-round sunshine and thousands of miles of windswept coast in South Africa, investors are warming to the renewable energy potential, with 66 projects completed or underway since the government launched a first bid round four years ago. Construction of the Kathu Solar Park, situated in the Northern Cape Province, is expected to begin shortly, Engie said in a statement. Other investors include South Africa's Investec Bank, state pension fund Public Investment Corporation, SIOC Community Development Trust and Lereko Metier. The project is funded by a mix of debt and equity. The debt is funded from a club of South African banks, namely Rand Merchant Bank, Nedbank Capital, ABSA Capital, Investec and the Development Bank of South Africa. Engie owns and operates two thermal power peaking plants, the 670 MW Avon plant, which is under construction, and the 335 MW Dedisa plant that is already in operation. (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by James Macharia and Susan Thomas)
By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa aims to double its mobile broadband coverage to 80 percent of the population by 2019, the telecoms minister said on Tuesday, adding that the government wanted to reduce the high cost of communications. According to a World Bank report released in February, South Africans paid around $14.10 for one gigabyte of data, the fourth highest out of 17 African countries, compared to lowest-rated Cameroon, where the same bundle cost around $2.10. Siyabonga Cwele, the telecoms minister, said that a new telecoms policy to be finalised in the next few months would aim to boost competition and increase growth in the industry. "It will reduce barriers to entry by moving away from monopolistic infrastructure based competition, to open access broadband networks," Cwele told parliament. Major telecoms firms in South Africa include the continent's top mobile phone operator MTN, Vodacom and unlisted Cell C. The five main firms in the wireless broadband market account for more than 70 percent of the market. A new policy on spectrum would help consumers by increasing choice and reducing Internet costs, Cwele said. South Africa is rolling out free Wifi services across the country and it would could cost around 67 billion rand ($4.4 billion) to connect the entire country with broadband, he said. POST OFFICE NEEDS CASH Cwele is also responsible for the cash-strapped state-owned South African Post Office (Sapo) which he said urgently required 3.7 billion rand. "I am confident that the CEO will soon finalise a domestic syndicated loan facility towards the required funding," he said. Sapo is focused on financial services and trying to develop e-commerce. Sapo's CEO Mark Barnes told reporters the firm had 1.8 billion rand of indications of interest out of the 2.7 billion rand of new debt, but no deal had been signed yet. "I would expect we are weeks away (from signing a deal)," Barnes said. In April, Barnes told Reuters in an interview that he expected the company to return to profit in 2018. Workers at Sapo staged a two-day strike on Thursday and Friday over wages dating back to 2014. The workers have since suspended the industrial action and given the company more time to meet their demands. ($1 = 15.2116 rand) (Editing by James Macharia and Keith Weir)
Low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines Co. LUV announced strong traffic numbers for Apr 2016, with revenue passenger miles (RPMs: a measure of air traffic) improving 4.7% on a year-over-year basis to 10.4 billion. Available seat miles (ASMs: a measure of capacity), on the other hand, grew 4.3% to 12.4 billion.
Another important metric load factor (% of seats filled by passengers) improved 30 basis points (bps) to 83.6% during the month as traffic growth outpaced capacity expansion. Interestingly, this marks the highest ever load factor recorded by the Dallas-based airline company in the month of April.
In the first four months of 2016, Southwest Airlines generated RPMs of 38.8 billion (up 8.4% year over year) and ASMs of 47.7 billion (up 7.9%), leading to a total load factor of 81.3% (up 40 bps).
Southwest Airlines continues to expect operating revenue per ASM (RASM: a key measure of unit revenue) to increase modestly in the second quarter of 2016.
The company reported encouraging first-quarter 2016 results, wherein both the top and bottom line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Quarterly revenues were up 9.3% year over year to $4,826 million and above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4,818 million. On a year-over-year basis, Passenger and Other revenues increased 5.3% and 101%, respectively, while Freight revenues dropped 4.5%.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Southwest Airlines currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the airline space include International Consolidated Airlines Group, S.A. ICAGY, Ryanair Holdings plc RYAAY and Air France-KLM SA AFLYY. All the three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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Ethan Och is using technology to overcome a disease attempting to take away his passion to make music. After his spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that ultimately leads to loss of nerve cells in the spinal cord, progressed in high school, the 18-year-old Minnesota teen thought he'd never be able to play his instrument again, as the range of motion in his arms decreased along with their overall strength.
Och's range of motion and overall strength in his arms had declined due to the disease, and the college-bound student thought he'd soon have to retire from music after using the lighter aluminum drumsticks he switched over to slowly became just as difficult to use as the traditional wooden ones.
"Rhythms were getting too hard for me to play on a snare drum or a bass drum," Och told St. Cloud Times. "I wasn't able to keep up, so I thought I had to quit. But then we ended up finding an answer, kind of by accident."
But thanks to a world of technology, a plethora of apps and one teacher who refused to give up on her student's passion for music, Och is keeping up with his marching band by playing the drums on a tablet, equipped with a car battery and amplifier. "I don't believe in 'I can't,'" Gina Christopherson, his former band teacher, told USA Today.
The music teacher tested about 75 music making apps with Och to find which could help contribute to the sound of the band, matched it with just the right amp, equipped her student with a tablet provided by the school and has a fellow peer carry the tech in a stroller alongside Och's wheelchair. "He's part of the team, you don't leave somebody behind." Christopherson said.
As the valedictorian of his school, Och will be heading to the University of Minnesota to study computer science or engineering and hopefully bringing his digital drumsticks with him.
On Aug. 8, 2015, an individual posing as "Greg Baktor" and using the account vfx.accounts@gmail.com sent a curious email to several Hollywood executives. One of the recipients of this message was Neal Moritz, who had produced the Fast & Furious films and 21 Jump Street and was at the time readying the fantasy film Goosebumps.
"I hoped I might whistle-blow on Vitality Visual Effects and Hydraulx," stated the message. "I was surprised to see 'Goosebumps' on Vitalitys IMDB as Vitality is co-owned by Greg and Colin Strause of Hydraulx and I thought Sony did not have a good relationship with the Brothers after Skyline/Battle L.A."
The Brothers Strause, as they are known, are no ordinary individuals in the special-effects community. Since the mid-1990s, few FX gurus have as many credits to their names. Titanic, Terminator 3, X-Men, Avatar and The Avengers are just some of the blockbusters they've worked on, but project promiscuity hasn't come without problems. As referenced in the quoted e-mail, the Brothers Strause once worked on the alien invasion movie Battle: Los Angeles for Sony while at the same time directing Skyline, a similar alien invasion film for Universal. That raised Sony's ire. Meanwhile, there are other haters out there. As outspoken members of the VFX community, the Brothers Strause can be controversial. Here's a sample takedown from one VFX website: "I think it's unfair that while artists are working unpaid OT and potentially putting themselves in a situation where they may be audited, the Strause brothers are driving Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys, flying private jets, wearing $25,000 watches, and drinking shots of Dom Perignon at Las Vegas clubs with Paris Hilton."
It's the Aug. 8 email, though, that will get attention from a California appeals court on Wednesday in a dispute that could hold huge ramifications for anonymous speech. That "Greg Baktor" message also was sent to Sony executive vp Lori Furie, who forwarded it to Greg Baxter, a visual effects producer on Goosebumps as well as other films. But Baxter didn't send it.
When that message was sent, the Brothers Strause via Hydraulx were already in the midst of a lawsuit targeting an earlier anonymous message. On Nov. 7, 2014, someone e-mailed Hollywood executives that Hydraulx "is on the verge of financial collapse ... running on life support with a skeleton crew and has missed payroll several times since booking San Andreas."
After hearing about this, the Brothers Strause took action in the form of a defamation lawsuit against various John Does. They got a judge to sign off on a subpoena to Microsoft in hopes of unmasking the sender. After the second message came to Moritz and Furie, the attorney for the Brothers Strause noted a gmail address and served a subpoena to Google.
Then, something unexpected happened.
The anonymous sender of the Aug. 8 message stepped forward to object. After receiving notice from Google, but without revealing his or her identity, the man or woman listed as "John Doe 2" in the lawsuit moved to quash the subpoena by arguing it was procedurally defective. When Hydraulx amended their complaint in hopes of proceeding with discovery, John Doe 2 brought an anti-SLAPP motion.
California's SLAPP statute is meant to deter lawsuits that impinge upon First Amendment rights on matters of public interest. Here, John Doe 2 - who in a declaration revealed that he was someone in the VFX industry worried about retaliation - looked to have a judge strike "an improper and heavy-handed attempt by Hydraulx and the Brothers Strause to silence and intimidate their online critics, who appear to be legion."
What almost always happens when an anti-SLAPP motion is brought is that it stops discovery until a judge rules on a plaintiff's likelihood of success. See, for example, what happened in James Woods' lawsuit against the anonymous person who trolled him on Twitter by accusing him of being a cocaine addict. There, discovery was paused until Woods defeated the anti-SLAPP motion.
But in this Brothers Strause case, the trial judge worried it would be unfair to strip the plaintiff of due process rights to pursue a claim. John Doe 2 offered to reveal his identity to the judge - and only the judge - and take certain issues off the table at this juncture. The Brothers Strause insisted it still needed special discovery to oppose the anti-SLAPP motion. Ultimately, the trial court agreed that a stated wish to "whistleblow" was capable of rising to defamation as an implication of civil or criminal wrongdoing and authorized a subpoena to Google.
And that's how it got to a California appeals court.
Morgan Pietz, attorney for John Doe 2, is pointing to Krinsky v. Doe 6, a 2008 decision that strengthened protections for anonymous speech by requiring a plaintiff to make a "prima facie showing" that he or she has a valid legal claim before gaining disclosure of the speaker's identity. Pietz basically argues that unmasking an anonymous speaker should be "a last resort" and that the judge should have first addressed other potential lawsuit-dooming issues including whether the statement was "of and concerning" the plaintiff corporation, whether the statement that the Brothers Strause are behind Vitality is "substantially true" and other deficiencies such as a lack of evidence of harm.
Bonnie Eskenazi, attorney for Hydraulx, in turn argues that discovery is necessary to make a prima facie showing of falsity on the anonymous writer's statement in the email of having been "burned" by the Hydraulx's "bad business practices," and further that an unmasking was crucial in showing the requisite malice, or as she put it, " statements made by a competitor to gain an unfair and unlawful business advantage."
Lately, the dispute has touched on whether anonymous speech if commercial is meaningful.
"This case does not present 'a classic cyber-SLAPP' situation as John Doe 2 would have this Court believe," wrote Eskenazi in an appellate brief. "Classic anonymous free speech/criticism on the internet does not involve a competitor like John Doe 2 who falsified his identity to business associates of the plaintiff in order to deceive those business associates into believing that the defamatory statements in the email were from a source that the plaintiff's business associates would find to be reliable. This case involves a defamation action brought by Hydraulx against an admitted anonymous competitor engaging in unfair competition to drive business away from Hydraulx. The outcome here should be dictated by unfair competition rules, not by the First Amendment."
Pietz replies that there's no claim in the amended complaint for unfair competition and that's not how the First Amendment works.
"Hydraulx's whole 'commercial speech' argument is really a red herring," he writes. "Anonymous speech has a long history of constitutional protection; the founding fathers published under pseudonyms like Publius and Brutus. In recognition of this long tradition, the Krinsky court wisely adopted a prima facie evidence review standard as the test for when the anonymous speech privilege should be pierced."
On Wednesday, both sides will get a chance to deliver their arguments at an oral hearing, with a written ruling coming sometime in the weeks ahead.
The era of Cold War spies with clandestine missions, dead drops, and safe houses is fading into the distance, relegated to books and movies. For a quick primer, we recommend watching The Americans on FX, starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. If you yearn for your own piece of the cloak-and-dagger world, this house 35 miles north of Dallas should capture your attention.
Local lore has it that the home, now listed for $1.25 million, was built in the 1980s by an Israeli spy who wanted to be sure he and his family would be safe while he was doing whatever Israeli spies did in Texas in those days. Something to do with black gold, perhaps?
The house, which cant be seen from the road, has two secret rooms reached through closets and cabinets, a safe room with its own air-purifying system, hidden passages and exits, and lead-lined shooting perches behind walls that face its entrances, says listing agent Jorja Clark. The basement has a shooting range and a hand-to-hand training area.
spy house secluded
Of course, with 8,551 square feet, seven bedrooms, and five full bathrooms, the house also has all the amenities and updates todays buyers want, even if they dont practice espionage. The updated kitchen, for example, has a massive Viking refrigerator and companion freezer. The current owners enjoyed entertaining in the house, given that its very gracious, says Clark.
spy house living room
Its also a perfect locale for someone looking for a multigenerational living arrangement. The basement features a two-bedroom apartment, Clark explains, and theres another one-bedroom apartment accessible through the garage.
spy house kitchen
The original owner, he of spy legend, was also reportedly an Anglophile, which is why he built the home in the Tudor style and decorated it with touches of the British Isles, such as street lamps from London along the driveway and a pub sign from what was supposedly Winston Churchills favorite pub, Clark says.
The home sits on 4.68 acres, which back up to undeveloped U.S. government land that in turn reaches to Lake Texoma, on the Texas-Oklahoma border. The area is a popular recreational getaway for families from Dallas and Oklahoma City, notes Clark, who also speculates that the original owner may have seen the lake as a convenient escape route if enemy agents ever found him.
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For a buyer who wants a touch of ye olde England mixed with a little Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy-level intrigue, this might be the perfect hideaway.
The post Spy Games! This Classic Tudor Harks Back to the Cold War appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.
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By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's debt-ridden national airline will sell four new Airbus A350s, a government minister said on Tuesday, two weeks after cancelling an order for four of the aircraft.
The state-owned carrier had already sold one of the four planes for a "reasonably good price" to a leasing company and is in talks with airlines over the other three, Deputy State Enterprise Minister Eran Wickramaratne said.
Although SriLankan Airlines needs more aircraft to expand, it does not need long-range planes like the A350, he said.
The airline, which is struggling with debts of around $3.25 billion, ordered eight A350s from Airbus in 2014.
Sri Lanka is facing a balance of payments crisis. About $2 billion of foreign money has flowed out of government bonds since January last year, while the administration is struggling with a legacy of borrowing for infrastructure projects.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed a $1.5 billion bailout with the Sri Lankan government to help the island nation avert financial crisis. The government is also negotiating for more project-related loans.
SriLankan Airlines was a profitable 10-year joint venture with Dubai-based partner Emirates Airline until the pair split in 2008.
The airline has bought seven Airbus A330-300s since 2012.
Helped by lower oil prices, it posted a group net loss of 16.33 billion rupees ($113 million) for the financial year to March 31, after a 31.37 billion rupees loss a year earlier.
The carrier last made a profit in 2009, a year after Emirates sold its stake in the venture.
(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
By Diane Bartz
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - No. 1 office supply chain Staples (SPLS.O) and smaller rival Office Depot Inc (ODP.O) said on Tuesday they would terminate their planned merger after a U.S. federal judge ordered the deal temporarily halted because of antitrust concerns.
Shares of Office Depot plunged 26 percent and Staples shares fell 10 percent in extended trading following the ruling.
Judge Emmet Sullivan of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in a three-page order granting the Federal Trade Commission's request for a preliminary injunction, said the agency had shown there was a "reasonable probability" that the merger would "substantially impair competition" for the sale of office supplies to large business customers.
He said he would publish an opinion under seal on Wednesday.
Staples, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, said in a statement it would terminate the $6.3 billion deal and pay Office Depot a $250 million break-up fee.
"We are extremely disappointed that the FTCs request for preliminary injunction was granted despite the fact that it failed to define the relevant market correctly, and fell woefully short of proving its case," Staples' chief executive, Ron Sargent, said in a statement. "We believe that it is in the best interest of our shareholders, customers and associates to forego appealing this decision."
The FTC called the judge's decision "great news."
"This deal would eliminate head-to-head competition between Staples and Office Depot and likely lead to higher prices and lower quality service for large businesses that buy office supplies," Debbie Feinstein, head of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said in a statement.
The FTC, in a complaint filed in December, argued that the deal was illegal because the two companies were each other's biggest rival. It said the two sell 79 percent of the pens, paper, file folders and other "consumable office supplies" sold to Fortune 100 companies.
The FTC had stopped a merger attempt between the two companies in 1997. But in the intervening 19 years, Amazon (AMZN.O) and other online sellers have exploded onto the scene, while megastores such as Costco (COST.O) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N ) have further crowded the market.
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Staples was emboldened to offer to buy Office Depot, based in Boca Raton, Florida, after the smaller chain succeeded in buying No. 3 OfficeMax in November 2013 with no divestitures.
The case is the Federal Trade Commission et al v Staples et al. It is No 15-2115 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz and Noel Randewich; Editing by Diane Craft and Leslie Adler)
The residents of Malin Head in the north of Irelands County Donegal have been overcome by an influx of film crew and tourists as Lucasfilm prepare to film an important episode of Star Wars Episode VIII on the coastline, the most northerly point of Ireland.
Speaking to RTE News, Jim Mullin of Malin Head Community Association said he was amazed by the amount of traffic the area has seen. People coming here just to see how its made Mullin told RTE News. We can only imagine what it will be like when they start filming it.
Disneys Lucasfilm has yet to confirm that they are filming in the area but RTE News says some residents involved in the shoot have been made to sign confidentiality agreements. However, according to the Irish Mirror, Donegal County Council has confirmed that roads leading to Malin Head will be closed between May 15-17, leading some to speculate that filming will start over those dates.
To think for one second that the Millennium Falcon is sitting on Irelands most northerly point, its next door to us said local Hugh Farren to RTE News about a structure being built on Malin Head.
Disneys Lucasfilm confirmed in a press release in March that it would return to the west coast of Ireland, to film more scenes for Star Wars. Skellig Michael, an island off the coast of County Kerry, was featured in Star Wars VII A Force Awakens as the hideaway of Luke Skywalker.
By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's leading stock index rose on Tuesday, lifted by gains for shares in budget airline easyJet and support services group Capita.
Capita rose 5.3 percent, making it the top FTSE 100 gainer, after the company expressed increasing confidence over its 2016 prospects. The stock had hit its lowest levels in two years earlier in the week.
"After such a good start some are understandably asking whether the company is staying cautious at this early stage," said Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.
"Potential for expectations to be beaten and guidance raised as the year progresses may have presented an opportunity to buy in around the lows."
Shares in easyJet gained 2.7 percent. Even though the airline reported a half-year loss, traders and analysts were reassured by its assertion that it was on track to meet market expectations for full-year results, and were encouraged by its plans to boost its dividend payout ratio.
"The dividend payout ratio has been lifted from 40 percent of post-tax income to 50 percent, reflecting strong cash flows," Cantor Fitzgerald analysts wrote.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.7 percent at 6,156.65 points by the close.
The FTSE 100 has lost 1.4 percent this year and is 13.6 percent below a record high reached in April 2015, with concerns about a China-led global economic slowdown having hit world stock markets.
Traders expressed caution over the FTSE's prospects before a June 23 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, although many still expect "Yes" voters to prevail.
"I foresee the FTSE making a small recovery to 6,500 when the Brexit vote is finally put to bed and we stay with the EU," InterTrader chief market strategist Steve Ruffley said.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Catherine Evans)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, will submit a filled-out questionnaire and other information to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to spur a vote on his nomination, the White House said. "The questionnaire and associated materials present an exhaustive picture of Judge Garland's distinguished career and impeccable credentials as a nominee to the Supreme Court," White House spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine said in an emailed statement on Monday. Republican Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has refused to hold hearings on Garland's nomination. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to act on Obama's pick, saying whoever wins the Nov. 8 presidential election should choose a nominee to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February. The White House declined to release Garland's questionnaire on Monday. It repeated its call for the Senate to hold a hearing on his nomination once lawmakers had reviewed the new information. "Every nominee since 1875 who wasn't withdrawn from consideration has received a hearing and/or a vote," Hoffine said. "With more federal judicial experience than any other Supreme Court nominee in history and a long record of public service, we expect the Senate will give Chief Judge Garland the same fair consideration as prior nominees." (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Richard Chang)
Three weeks after the news of Eva Mendes' pregnancy broke, the actress and her longtime boyfriend Ryan Gosling have welcomed their second child.
According to a birth certificate obtained by ET, the couple welcomed Amada Lee Gosling on April 29 at 8:03 a.m. at Providence St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. TMZ was first to report the news.
WATCH: Eva Mendes Fashionably Hides Baby Bump While Out With Ryan Gosling
The newborn will join the couple's daughter Esmeralda, who will turn 2 on Sept. 12.
Mendes was spotted covering up her baby bump two weeks before giving birth. The 42-year-old actress was snapped while leaving a medical building in Los Angeles, wearing a floral maxi dress and toting a big purse.
FAMEFLYNET PICTURES
This news comes hours before Gosling's Monday night appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
Gosling was spotted outside of Kimmel's Hollywood studio earlier in the afternoon, wearing a button-down red shirt with black jeans, sunglasses and clutching a brown bag.
FAMEFLYNET PICTURES
Despite the couple's protectiveness over their privacy, Mendes opened to Wendy Williams about motherhood last September.
WATCH: Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes Celebrate Esmeralda's First Birthday With Family Bash
"I've never appreciated my family so much, they've been amazing," Mendes shared. "I don't technically have a nanny, but I do have help. I like to clarify. I'm certainly not anti-nanny, you do what you need to do as a parent, but I'm so grateful that I have help with my family and [Gosling's] family."
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This is one way to get someone's attention.
Commuters in Sweden were shocked to see a video billboard placed at a bus stop at Malmo Central Station had been hacked to show hardcore porn rather than its regular advertisements just before 4 p.m. on Sunday.
SEE ALSO: Order porn with emoji, because 2016
Maria Escalante, who sent a video of the incident to local Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, described the video as "really rough porn."
There were "a bunch of guys [at the bus stop] who stood and watched, and I asked if it lasted long. It had," said Escalante. The images lasted between five to 10 minutes according to Buzzfeed News. The hack had only affected one billboard.
"So far, we regard it as a joke, but if it is so that it has happened that I regret it. It should not be," sais Magnus Andersson at Skanetrafikens press office to Aftonbladet.
It was not just passers-by who were offended by the images. One man who saw the story online tweeted, "how can this happen in 2016?"
Another man joked, "good product placement, IMHO [in my honest opinion]."
Global Agencies, the company who owns the billboard filed a police report. Roger Stark, a representative at Global Agencies, told Aftonbladet, "the system must be safe and right now I can not answer how someone managed to hack it, that we agree on and investigating fully...it is very serious."
According to Aftonbladet, the clip on the billboard was from the website meatspin.com and was previously used in another hacker attack at the University of Florida in 2013.
By Jim Finkle and Sanjeev Miglani (Reuters) - SWIFT has rejected allegations by officials in Bangladesh that technicians with the global messaging system made the nation's central bank more vulnerable to hacking before an $81 million cyber heist in February. The comments were in response to a Reuters story that cited Bangladeshi police and a central bank official as saying that SWIFT technicians introduced security holes into the bank's network while connecting SWIFT to Bangladesh's first real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system. "SWIFT was not responsible for any of the issues cited by the officials, or party to the related decisions," the Brussels-based bank-owned cooperative said in a statement posted on its website on Monday. "As a SWIFT user like any other, Bangladesh Bank is responsible for the security of its own systems interfacing with the SWIFT network and their related environment starting with basic password protection practices in much the same way as they are responsible for their other internal security considerations," the statement said. But Bangladesh's main police investigator maintained there were loopholes in the way SWIFT carried out the integration of its network with the RTGS platform that left the central bank's computer systems vulnerable to hackers. Mohammad Shah Alam, the head of the criminal investigation department of the Bangladesh police, said the probe had identified specific deviations from set procedures that compromised Bangladesh Bank's security. "We stand by our investigation," he said in response to the comments by SWIFT. But he added he did not want to engage in a debate and urged greater international cooperation to identify the culprits behind one of the world's biggest cyber thefts. Reuters has not been able to independently verify the allegations by Bangladeshi officials about the SWIFT technicians. U.S. investigators suspect the involvement of employees of the Bangladesh Bank in helping the hackers breach the systems, the Wall Street Journal said, quoting people familiar with the matter. It said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had found evidence that at least one bank employee acted as an accomplice but there could be more who assisted the hackers in navigating around Bangladesh Bank's computer systems. NO SHARING OF EVIDENCE Bangladesh police said they have been looking for inside involvement in the heist from the beginning of the probe, but no evidence has turned up against anyone. Investigators say they think there was some level of local facilitation in the attack on the central bank's computers but haven't identified it as yet. "If the FBI has uncovered evidence, they should share with us," a police officer said. The revelations came ahead of a meeting on Tuesday in Basel, Switzerland, where Bangladesh Bank officials have said their governor and a lawyer appointed by the bank would discuss recovery of about $81 million stolen by hackers with the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a senior executive from SWIFT. The money was stolen from Bangladesh Bank's account at the New York Fed through fraudulent transfer orders sent on the SWIFT system. SWIFT's statement said it "looks forward to the meeting with Bangladesh Bank and New York Federal Reserve Bank officials in Basel on 10th May, when the banks security issues and these baseless allegations will be discussed." Bangladesh Bank officials have said they believed SWIFT, and the New York Fed, bear some responsibility for the February cyber heist. (Additional reporting by Serajul Quadir in DHAKA; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
By Dasha Afanasieva ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish border guards have beaten and shot Syrians trying to reach Turkey, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday, as fighting in the border province of Aleppo intensifies threatening to force more people to flee. HRW said in a report based on interviews with victims, witnesses and Syrian locals that in March and April 2016, five people, including a child were killed and 14 were seriously injured as a result of border guards' shootings and beatings. In response to the report, a senior Turkish presidency official said the authenticity of the video could not be verified. Reuters was not able to verify the report. A video released by HRW purporting to show the victims of the beatings and shootings depicted a bloodied body with bandages around his exposed torso. Another male corpse is shown with red and purple marks all over his back and arms. A recent surge in fighting in Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, wrecked a 10-week-old partial truce sponsored by Washington and Moscow that had allowed U.N.-brokered peace talks to convene in Geneva. Ankara says it keeps an "open door" policy for those fleeing the five-year conflict. For over a year, only those requiring emergency medical treatment not available on the Syrian side have been able to cross legally while others rely on expensive smugglers to guide them on the dangerous route. Tens of thousands are instead interned in camps on the Syrian side, a version of the "safe zone" policy long championed by Turkey, but one which is not internationally sanctioned or recognized. "Turkey admits refugees at designated points of entry if and when there is an imminent threat to civilian lives across the border," the official said. HEAVY PRICE HRW published excerpts of interviews with four victims, five witnesses, and six local Syrian residents who described seven occasions in March and April in which Turkish border guards shot or assaulted 17 Syrian asylum seekers and two smugglers. Footage of some of the victims and bodies was taken by a security guard of a local internally displaced people camp, HRW said. In its press release, the rights group recognizes Turkey's right to protect its border, which includes the border town of Kilis increasingly targeted by rocket fire from Islamic State areas in recent weeks, but says it must respect international norms on use of lethal force as well as the right to life. Earlier this year, Turkey and Europe agreed on a plan to send back migrants and asylum seekers to Turkey from the Greek Islands, with Brussels committing six billion euros to help support refugees in Turkey. The legality of the deal, aimed to stem the flow of migrants to European shores, hinges on Turkey being a safe country of asylum, which rights groups and NGOs have said was not the case. Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at HRW said: "EU officials should recognize that their red light for refugees to enter the EU gives Turkey a green light to close its border, exacting a heavy price on war-ravaged asylum seekers with nowhere else to go." (Editing by Ece Toksabay and Ralph Boulton)
A Taiwanese legal group has interjected in an international court case brought by the Philippines against Chinas claim to parts of the South China Sea.
The government-linked Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law submitted written evidence to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, according to Reuters, arguing Taiwans claims in the disputed waters.
In the court case, the Philippines has challenged Chinas territorial claim to nearly all of the rocks, shoals, and reefs in the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims to swaths of the waters, through which about $5 trillion of trade passes every year.
Taiwans intervention could delay judges rulings in the case, Reuters says, and complicate other disputes in the area.
Beijing and Washington have accused each other of militarizing the region. The U.S. has patrolled the South China Sea with Navy destroyers and China has stationed missiles on a contested island, while expanding its territory through reef reclamation.
[Reuters]
TOKYO (Reuters) - Takata Corp (7312.T) and Japanese automakers must inform the government of their plans to expand a recall of potentially defective air bags by May 20, Transport Minister Keichi Ishii said on Tuesday.
The Nikkei newspaper reported that the Japanese government had notified domestic automakers to recall an additional 7 million vehicles installed with Takata air bags, which can inflate violently and have been blamed for 11 deaths and more than 100 injuries, mainly in the United States.
U.S. transport authorities last week announced a recall of up to 40 million more of the company's air bags, on top of the more than 50 million that have already been recalled globally.
(Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Stephen Coates)
By Ayla Jean Yackley ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Long-running efforts to fully restore Israeli-Turkish relations have made good progress but need a few more rounds of negotiations, though a political shift in Turkey should not affect the process, Israel's top diplomat in the country said. The impetus behind fixing a relationship badly damaged by a clash over Gaza in 2010 is now security, especially with Islamic State and other jihadists holding swathes of Syria, which Israel and Turkey both border, said Israeli consul-general Shai Cohen. But restoring military cooperation will take time, he added, without elaborating. Ankara downgraded diplomatic ties and ejected Israel's ambassador in 2011, a year after Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, a ship in an aid flotilla trying to break Israel's blockade of the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip, and killed 10 Turks aboard. Israel is currently represented in Turkey by Cohen. The two sides have signaled for months they are on the cusp of a deal that is expected to include compensation for the Mavi Marmara victims and an easing of the Gaza blockade. Israeli officials said a deal was reached in December, and President Tayyip Erdogan said in March he expected positive results soon, raising hopes an agreement was imminent. "The reconciliation process between Israel and Turkey has reached an advanced momentum. We hope the reconciliation process won't be affected by the political shift in Turkey," Cohen said. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said last week that he would step down on May 22, following an increasingly public rift with Erdogan. Forming a new government could delay both domestic and foreign policy initiatives. The next meeting between Israeli and Turkish negotiators will have to await the composition of Turkey's next government on May 22, Cohen told reporters late on Monday. "I believe it will take another round or two in order to conclude the deal ... Most of the issues between Israel and Turkey are already, to a certain extent, clear." SYRIA AS IMPETUS NATO member Turkey and Israel cooperated militarily beginning in the 1990s, a relationship seen as vital to Middle East stability by the United States but viewed warily by Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party, in power since 2002. Apart from a joint interest in neutralizing Islamist militants in Syria, another impetus for Israel and Turkey to mend relations is natural gas. Energy-poor Turkey wants to pipe gas out of Israel's offshore Leviathan field, estimated to hold 500 billion cubic meters, for domestic use and export. "Everyone is looking forward to see how Israel can export to Turkey, and through Turkey to the West, natural gas," Cohen said. He ruled out Israel lifting its blockade on Gaza in place since 2007, when Palestinian Hamas militants seized control of the enclave, calling it a "non-issue," even though Erdogan has repeatedly made it a condition for restoring relations. Talks instead were focusing on how Turkey can bring goods overland to rebuild Gaza, whose infrastructure has been battered by the blockade and Israeli incursions. About half of building goods in Gaza are from Turkey, and this could be increased in line with Israel's capacity to monitor shipments, Cohen said. Israel wants to ensure that Turkish supplies for Gaza do not amount to cooperation with Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and European Union. Israel accuses Turkey of hosting a Hamas command center and wants Ankara to bar leaders of the Islamist group. Erdogan met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Istanbul as recently as December. (Editing by Daren Butler and Mark Heinrich)
There was already a Republican civil war before Donald Trump came along. Remember the Tea Party? Remember the government shutdown? For years now, conservative insurgents have been battling a GOP establishment they saw as weak-willed and corporatist, while the establishment lamented the insurgents refusal to be realistic and compromise.
As Republicans take sides on Trumps nomination, a new round of finger-pointing has begun, with each side of this old conflict seeking to blame the other for Trump.
To some, his rise is clearly the Tea Partys fault. The right-wingers, this argument goes, weakened and divided the party, stoking peoples rage against Washington and government. With racial undertones, their rallying cries preyed on fear and hatred. Figures like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh spent years telling the conservative base that Republican officeholders were selling them out at every turn, and that the only solution was to toss out anyone whod been in office for more than five minutesto elect new representatives whose answer to everything, even funding the normal operations of government, would be: Hell, no. They encouraged the bases paranoia and conspiracy theories; its distrust of institutions, including political parties and the media; and its irrational hatred of anything associated with Barack Obama.
Was it any wonder, then, that a candidate came along whose anger was even more consuming and less constructive, whose disregard for political norms was even more flamboyant, whose appeals to racial resentment were even more overt, whose disregard for fact and fondness for conspiracy was even more pronounced? As the conservative writer Matt Lewis put it last week, Ted Cruz helped create an environment where populist demagoguery would flourish on the right. But Cruz was hoist by his own petard, Lewis wrote, when Tea Party figures like Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter found Trumps brand of this tonic even more potent. Trump, in this view, was just Cruz on steroids.
But plenty of the Tea Partiers of yesteryear arent on board with Trump, including Beck; Erick Erickson, the former editor of RedState.com, whom I once called the most powerful conservative in America; and the Iowa-based radio host Steve Deace. And look whos coming out for Trump: a lot of establishment officeholders, lobbyists, and party loyalists. People like Jon Huntsman, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, Bob Dole, and John Boehner have all urged the party to get behind Trump. These are the sort of people who have spent years scolding the Tea Party for its extreme tactics and insisting that conservative principles must take a back seat to two more important goals: first, winning elections, and second, making the wheels of government turn. Doing the deal, whether that meant a big budget bargain with the president or raising the debt ceiling, was the most important thing, no matter what was in it, and messiness and conflict were to be avoided at all costs. Just be a team player, they said, even if you dont totally agree with the result.
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Trump has said he plans, if elected, to reach across the aisle and make deals with Democrats, to break the gridlock and make Washington work again. In this sense, he is not Cruz on steroids but the anti-Cruz. Cruz believed in the idea of destroying Obamacare so passionately he was willing to shut down the government for it, even if the fight was a political loser. Its not clear whether Trump believes in a fixed set of ideas at allhe just wants to win.
Erickson has argued that it was the party establishment, not the conservative movement, that created Trump, by never delivering on its promises to voters. The fact that Trumps platform departs completely from conservatives visionthe three-legged stool of muscular foreign policy, traditional family values, and free-market economicssuggests that maybe the promises themselves werent what Republican voters were looking for. And now the establishmentarians who oppose TrumpMitt Romney, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Lindsey Grahamfind themselves making a Cruz-like argument: that some principles matter enough that they must never be compromised, even if that means losing a presidential election.
In Indiana last Tuesday, at the same time Trump was winning the presidential primary, a candidate named Todd Young won a race for the Republican Senate nomination. Young, a three-term congressman from Bloomington, was the establishment candidate, backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. His opponent, fellow Representative Marlin Stutzman, was an archetypal Tea Partiera Freedom Caucus member who voted against Boehner for speaker. (During the shutdown, Stutzman memorably declared, We have to get something out of this. And I dont know what that even is. ) What did it mean that Trump and Young both won, and that other incumbent and establishment candidates have also won primaries this year? If Trump voters are mad as hell, why are they voting to preserve the Washington status quo?
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Another group working to elect Young was the Republican Main Street Partnership, a coalition of pragmatists that styles itself as the moderate counterweight to the Freedom Caucus. Its president, Sarah Chamberlain, was in Indiana working on Youngs behalf, and she told me it was not a coincidence that Trump and Young both prevailed. In the groups polling, the two candidates rose and fell in tandem, she said. If Trump came up, Todd Young came up with him, she said. When Cruz went down, Stutzman went down. I asked why she thought that was. The voters, she said, saw both Young, a former Marine, and Trump as men of action who would get things done. People like the idea that Trump can actually do somethingget the wall built, get the trade deals redonebecause theyre seeing not a lot get done by the current administration and D.C., she said.
For Republican leaders like Boehner and McConnell, who have been accused of having little agenda beyond obstructing Obama, it will have been a rich irony indeed if the rise of Trump actually represents an uprising of Republican pragmatism against the conservative wing of the party. At Trump rallies, I frequently meet voters who tell me they consider themselves moderates or independents. Indeed, Trump has long polled best with liberal and moderate Republicans, and on Sunday he told George Stephanopoulos, This is called the Republican Party. Its not called the Conservative Party.
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At the same time, plenty of members of the Republican establishment are horrified by Trump, just as plenty of Tea Partiers are. (Its possible, here, to get lost in Talmudic parsing of who and what constitutes establishment; There are ambiguities, but a good rule of thumb is that the Republican in question opposed the 2013 shutdown, or has the last name Bush.) That Trump has found allies and enemies in both wings illustrates the way his nomination constitutes a third way for the GOP. He redrew the old battle lines, combining the passionate anger of the grassroots and the win-at-all-costs pragmatism of the elites. And now hes managed a feat of unity few thought possible, bringing such usual antagonists as Glenn Beck and Lindsey Graham together against him.
This combination of Tea Party and establishment sensibilities explains why his rivals couldnt stop Trump. They were stuck in the old mindset. Jeb Bush planned to run against a Tea Party candidatesomeone like Cruz. Cruz thought hed be up against an establishment candidatesomeone like Bush. The two sides couldnt agree on why Trump was bad: Did he have to be stopped because unlike Cruz, he wasnt a true conservative, or because he would set back Bushs efforts to reform and broaden the party? Trump smashed the old categories and asked a new set of questions: Reaganism or nationalism? Ideas or attitudes? Philosophy first, or party loyalty?
With the rise of Trump, the old GOP civil war has ended. A whole new one has begun.
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This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
The actress met Yahoo Style UK for a spot of tea at Fortnums [Photo: DDA]
If theres one word that sums up Mia Wasikowska, its unassuming. When we met the Australian-based actress for tea in London (at the quintessential Fortnum and Mason, where else) to chat about reprising her role as Lewis Carrolls heroine in the upcoming Alice Through The Looking Glass film, we immediately noticed how sincere, polite and sophisticated she was.
Quietly slipping into the room with the films scriptwriter, Linda Woolverton, and producer, Suzanne Todd, in tow, the 26-year-old star gently fanned off compliments about her outfit - a sleeveless shirt dress from Tome that were obviously going to be snapping up - and made sure she said hello to everyone.
Mia as Alice in Alice Through The Looking Glass [Photo: Disney]
With no social media presence and no controversial opinions in the press about her, we werent sure what to expect about the actress, but we knew we would be impressed by a woman that snagged her role of Alice when she was just 17 and has quickly become a role model - and style icon - for young girls worldwide.
Theres a certain amount of pressure to be a good role model to fans, she told us. I feel like Ive consciously tried to stay out of all that. I think the only time I was really tested was at the beginning of Alice coming out and photographers and journalists checking out what I was like. Then they realised I was very boring I live in Australia so I get a certain amount of distance.
Mia with Linda (left) and Suzanne (right) [Photo: DDA]
Mias certainly not an actress whos interested in cultivating the famous side of life in the film business. For her, its all about the work and not about the stardom. She explained shes choosy about the roles she takes and relies heavily on trusting her instincts.
Ive been really lucky to play a number of strong female and complex characters and Alice is another one thats really great, she explained. I love her positivity and her spirit.
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Shes very self-assured. I admire that sense of her being who she is and not caring about how people perceive her.
Mia at the films London premiere [Photo: Rex]
Mia and Lindas Alice is different from Lewis Alice. Shes a modern heroine thats miles from the Disney princesses were used to seeing. The costume designer, Colleen Atwood, dresses the character in trousers (which Mia explains werent as comfortable as they looked) for the majority of the film and her sexuality is ambiguous. This, Linda explains, is a film all about friendship and family - not sex and relationships.
I just love that its a unique film, said Mia. In a superhero film, a girl is typically the girlfriend. But Alice is basically a superhero herself, which is rare for these kind of films that are more mainstream. She has that innate sense that shes more than just a housewife.
I like that searching for these strong female characters is starting to become something that we have to search less for.
Mia may lead a quiet life offscreen, but shes something of a superhero herself. Shes only in her mid-20s and has landed a campaign with Miu Miu, written and directed her own film and graced numerous best dressed lists thanks to her on point style. Her Met Gala 2016 look (Prada) won critics over and her Crimson Peak press tour ensembles caused her to be hailed as a modern Mia Farrow - high praise indeed.
Whatever Mias next plans are, we hazard a guess theyll be big. Definitely one to watch.
5 Minutes With Ariana Grande
Jessica Albas Million Dollar Business Wants To Make The World A Better Place
Say youre a Silicon Valley unicorn with a gazillion dollar valuation, more money in the bank than Warren Buffett, and venture capitalists eating out of your hand (or hoof, I guess) just to get in on the next mega-round of funding. What do you have to fear?
Wait, that was last year, when money was literally growing on the trees lining Sandhill Road in Menlo Park, Calif., aka VC central. Maybe cash wasnt literally growing on trees, but you know what I mean. In any case, that was before the fall.
Ever since global venture capital funding fell off a cliff late last year, tech startups have plenty to be afraid of, whether theyre $1 billion mythical beasts with horns growing out of their foreheads or not.
VCs regaining their sanity
Taking a quiet drive through downtown Mountain View last week, I could swear I heard a barely audible hissing sound, like air being gently let out of a balloon. Sure enough, it was the overinflated private equity bubble finally releasing some pressure, losing altitude and sailing back down to Earth.
One by one, its slowly beginning to dawn on VCs that their wild ride on the backs of the legendary white creatures is coming to an abrupt end and the specter of real repercussions for bad business decisions has indeed returned to the Valley.
On his Above the Crowd blog, Benchmarks Bill Gurley provided a masterful recap of all thats transpired, lo these many months since he first sounded the alarm that all is not well in the land. The well-respected VC shared his unique brand of sage advice with everyone in the entrepreneur venture capital ecosystem.
The reason we are all in this mess is because of the excessive amounts of capital that have poured into the VC-backed startup market, the oracle of Menlo Park wrote. The healthiest thing that could possibly happen is a dramatic increase in the real cost of capital and a return to an appreciation for sound business execution.
Investigative journalists
It was interesting to see Gurley refer to WSJ Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter John Carreyrous brilliant takedown of Theranos as the seminal bubble-popping event of 2015. That was indeed a wakeup call for the mainstream tech media, who were as mesmerized by founder Elizabeth Holmes Steve Jobs-like reality distortion field as investors who bought into the technology sight unseen.
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Then again, not everyone got the call. In an interview yesterday morning, I watched legendary VC Tim Draper stand firmly behind Holmes, despite news that federal regulators may ban her from the laboratory testing industry and revoke the license of Theranos California lab amid concerns over the efficacy of the companys proprietary finger-stick technology.
Draper was the first investor and a family friend of Holmes, but still; this is not an app or a gadget. It might be a good idea to step away from the Kool-Aid when lives are at stake.
In an era of over-the-top media hype for entrepreneurs and their startups, its comforting to know that a single investigative journalist had the courage to take on an iconic wunderkind, her $9 billion unicorn and a team of high-priced lawyers to save who knows how many patients from potentially inaccurate blood test readings.
Government regulators
Uber and Lyft (valued at $51 billion and $5.5 billion, respectively) shut down their ride-sharing services in Austin, Tex. over a city council ruling requiring fingerprint-based background checks for drivers, something taxi companies routinely do. This isnt the first time Uber has used such a tactic to bring local officials to the negotiating table over regulations it believes are onerous.
Not to draw an equivalence between transportation and healthcare, but the famously secretive Theranos long avoided biomedical peer-review and investor scrutiny of its claims under the pretext of needing to protect its proprietary technology. And it fought to pass legislation in Arizona so individuals could obtain blood tests without a doctors prescription.
Were seeing more and more of this as disruptive innovation clashes with age-old industries, especially regulated ones. Never mind that entrepreneurial zeal can all too easily override common sense.
The growth imperative
High-flying HR software startup Zenefits ousted founding CEO Parker Conrad when it was discovered that employees were skirting state licensing requirements and selling medical insurance policies to businesses.
Perhaps the greatest threat to unicorns is the common dogma that growth trumps everything. That they need to scale as rapidly as possible to justify lofty valuations, even when that means breaking the rules and burning cash at a torrid clip. But then, that was yesterdays wisdom, before the fall.
Today, entrepreneurs would be well advised to follow Gurleys sage advice, Buckle down and do whatever it takes to get cash-flow positive with your current cash balance, he writes. Achieving profitability is the most liberating action a startup can accomplish.
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Ted Cruz
In his first interview since suspending his presidential campaign, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said Tuesday that he wouldn't be endorsing Donald Trump yet. And he might even consider resuming his campaign if he sees a "path to victory," though he's not holding his breath.
Cruz, who suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination last week after a crushing loss in the must-win Indiana primary, said there was still plenty of time for him to make a decision on whom he would vote for and support.
"I would note this isn't a choice we have to make today," he told conservative radio host Glenn Beck, who was one of Cruz's most prominent campaign-trail supporters.
Cruz noted that there were still months before the July convention and the November general election.
"I think we need to watch and see what the candidates do," he said.
Cruz was pressed by Beck on whether he would consider rejoining the race if he saw a path to victory for example, if he were to win Tuesday's Republican primary in Nebraska.
"Well, I am not holding my breath," Cruz said. "My assumption is that will not happen. But listen, let's be very clear if there is a path to victory, we launched this campaign intending to win. The reason we suspended the race last week is with Indiana's loss, I didn't see a viable path to victory. If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly."
"I take that as a big yes," Beck said, urging voters to cast ballots for Cruz in Nebraska.
The Texas senator also downplayed the possibility of a third-party conservative candidate being able to win in November an idea that some prominent conservative leaders and activists have floated since Trump all but sealed the GOP nomination.
And Cruz blamed "network executives" for the rise of Trump on his way to the nomination. He didn't attribute Trump's success to any sentiment within the Republican base.
"Well, listen, there is no doubt the power of celebrity," Cruz said. "It was been a phenomenon heavily fueled by media executives. And that is one of a kind."
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Listen to Cruz's interview with Beck below:
NOW WATCH: Heres what Trumps spokesperson has to say about Paul Ryan
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Washington (AFP) - Defeated Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Tuesday ruled out a third-party run against presumptive nominee Donald Trump, acknowledging disappointment about his loss and refusing to say whether he could back the celebrity billionaire.
"I have no interest" in mounting a rival bid in the general election, the senator from Texas told a crush of reporters as he returned to the US Senate for the first time since his year-long White House run came to an end last week.
He said the frustration with the establishment in the 2016 election cycle "should be a wake-up call to Washington DC."
Cruz suspended his campaign one week ago when Trump won Indiana, pushing Ohio Governor John Kasich out of the race and leaving the New York real estate mogul the all-but-certain nominee.
Earlier in the day, Cruz teased that he might jump back into the race should he win Nebraska's primary Tuesday, but he essentially put that to rest later in Washington.
"Let's be clear, we're not going to win Nebraska," he said.
"We've withdrawn from the campaign and it's in the hands of the voters."
With Republican concern swirling about the abrasive presumptive nominee and the shifting substance of his candidacy, several party grandees have refused to endorse Trump.
Others have called for a more conservative candidate to go up against Trump and his likely Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton.
Cruz refused to say whether he would endorse Trump or encourage his supporters to do so.
"There will be plenty of time for voters to make the determination of who they're going to support," Cruz said.
"It will be incumbent on the candidates in this race to make the case to the people that they will fight for them."
Cruz said he was "privileged and humbled" to have mounted his campaign, and that as a senator he will continue to promote the conservative movement.
"The American people are fed up with the disasters of the Obama-Clinton economy, and this movement will continue," he said.
Lac La Biche (Canada) (AFP) - Frustration mounted among the Fort McMurray evacuees, crammed into shelters after a traumatic flight from the Canadian oil city, as some turned to criticizing the official handling of the wildfires ravaging the region.
At the closest evacuation center to the fires, in Lac La Biche, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of Fort McMurray, security was doubled overnight on Monday and entry has become more tightly controlled.
"People are tired, they're frustrated, they feel helpless, and sometimes they just lash out," said security guard Mustafa Abraham.
Abraham said half a dozen people had been briefly taken into custody by municipal peace officers and security guards, mostly for drunkenness or unruliness.
A special room was set up for rowdy evacuees.
Nearly 400 evacuees are staying semi-permanently at the center, one of 11 set up across Alberta province for the 100,000 residents of Fort McMurray, who were told they would not be allowed home for at least two more weeks.
Adding to the tensions, a number of evacuees with addictions are going through severe withdrawal, said shelter officials, who are enforcing a zero tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol.
In the gymnasium of the local high school, which has served as a cafeteria for evacuees since last Wednesday, a scuffle broke out.
Security guards rushed to separate the two women, who were cousins, and escort them away.
"Tensions are boiling over," said one evacuated resident, Donald Janvier.
The town of 3,000 swelled in population over the last week, providing food, accommodation and clothing to nearly 10,000 evacuees, although most have since moved on to Edmonton or other major cities.
- Evacuees praise volunteers -
In campgrounds and roadside motels, where evacuees spent days trading tales of the harrowing escape, the talk has since turned to questioning the fire response and the political leadership in the province of Alberta.
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Evacuee Elmer McDonald of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, which is under a state of emergency, said the response got off with a weak start.
"The fire was small at first. They didn't respond fast enough (to douse it) and now it's become huge," he said, sitting outside a motel in Lac La Biche.
"It wouldn't have become a Can$9 billion disaster if someone had just thrown a bucket of water on the fire back then."
The social media conversation has taken a similar turn.
The nation's flagship airline was denigrated over sky-high fares charged to evacuees last Wednesday.
Air Canada has since apologized, saying rates for last-minute bookings are automatically set higher. It's now offering customers refunds.
However critical of the government, evacuees were full of praise for the work done by volunteers.
At a camp for pipeline workers at nearby Wandering River that opened its doors to evacuees, a yoga class was offered Sunday night to help people de-stress after the trauma of the evacuation.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand has ordered the closure of its only active gold mine by the end of the year, the industry ministry said on Tuesday, in the wake of concerns it was responsible for contamination suffered by villagers. In January 2015 a military government investigation team said that more than 300 people tested positive for arsenic and manganese at Akara Resources' Chatree mine, located 280 km (174 miles) north of the capital Bangkok. Akara, a subsidiary of Australian company Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd, produced and exported 4 tonnes (4,000 kgs) of gold in 2015. "There will no longer be any gold mines by the end of this year," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters. The Chatree mine has been at the center of protests by farmers and villagers who claim that the mine has poisoned residents, crops and livestock. Akara can continue its operation until the end of the year, Industry Minister Atchaka Sibunruang said in a statement. An agreement has been reached between the company and state agencies to offer health care to affected villagers, she said. Akara said in a statement that the cabinet announcement came as a surprise and that the firm's mining lease was valid until 2028. "Time after time we have proven conclusively that we cause no harm to the health of our community or the environment," Akara said. "We contribute large amounts to the Thai economy." (Reporting by Kitiphong Thaicharoen and Pracha Hariraksapitak; Writing by Pairat Temphairojana; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Louise Heavens)
Note: This article appears on the ETFtrends.com Strategist Channel
By Tyler Denholm, CFA
Some Things Never Changeor Do They?
A popular debate in the asset management industry is passive vs. active investing. Index-based investment vehicles have gathered a significant amount of assets over the last decade, to the detriment of active investing, perpetuating this debate even further.
While there is a misconception among some in the investing public surrounding the attributes of index-based investing, there is nothing passive about managing an index-based portfolio. As such, we tend to dislike using the word passive and instead prefer index. Not only does tracking the index require skill and resources, but the creation of the index and constant monitoring require experience and astuteness
From the set-up of the portfolio allocation, selection of the underlying investments, to the ongoing monitoring and account maintenance, a lot of time, energy and resources are devoted to these so-called passive strategies.
Read the Label Before Digging In
We are constantly bombarded with labels and disclosures in our lives. From the food we eat to the shirt we wear, nearly everything has a label. This often numbs our senses when it comes to certain items. Likewise, we typically dont understand more than 50% of the ingredients in our breakfast cereal, let alone something more technical. Instead of differentiating through the information on the label, the annoyance and complexity of the label itself often drives us to view things as commodities.
We believe that many investors have this same attitude concerning index investments. With the complexity of the disclosures, investors tend to rely instead on the broad marketing names of the funds. This can be a dangerous strategy.
Remember to Monitor
One area of index-based investing which requires a lot of time is the ongoing monitoring of the underlying indexes. This is a task which many investors do not think much about, but can have a profound impact on their portfolio. Investors often buy a large cap fund that tracks the S&P 500 index fund, for example, and expect it to track the S&P 500 forever. However, what if that large cap index fund switches indexes to the Russell 1000? While not a large change in allocation, it could have impact on other, overlapping holdings in the portfolio.
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Examples are Common
Last summer, Vanguard announced a series of index changes to four of their international equity ETFs. Specifically, Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index (NYSEArca: VWO) moved from the FTSE Emerging Index to the FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap China A Inclusion Index. The goal for the change was twofold: broader diversification and exposures to new markets. While both of these objectives are great investment ideas, if an investor was not monitoring the indexes being tracked by their investments, their portfolio exposures could have unexpectedly shifted.
Taking a look at each goal separately, we can see how changing the underlying index has an impact on the positions exposure. First, the broader diversification was achieved by the inclusion of small cap equities. Before the inclusion, an investor may have been using a different fund to gain exposure to emerging markets small cap. If adjustments are not made, they may now have an overweight to this asset class without realizing it.
The second objective was providing exposure to new markets, mainly the China A share market. China A shares are equities which trade on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and were historically only available to domestic Chinese investors. It is a sizeable market with $6 trillion of market cap at the end of 2014 so their inclusion into the FTSE Index, and subsequent VWO Index change were significant events.
As can be seen above, the overall exposure to China within the ETF increased from 26% to almost 30% once the index transition is completed. Again, an investor who built their overall portfolio allocation utilizing exposure information from the old index may unknowingly be increasing their overall exposure to China. In this instance, an investor may look to complement VWO with an ETF like EGShares EM Core ex-China ETF (XCEM) in order to get the overall China exposure back to the initial level.
Index-based investing is not a set-it and forget-it operation. It is important for not only retail investors, but also financial professionals to continuously monitor their investment vehicles to ensure appropriate exposure for their portfolios. Index changes, while infrequent, do occur and can have a dramatic impact on the exposure of a portfolio, depending on the level investment concentration.
Tyler Denholm, CFA, is Vice President Investment Management and Research of TOPS/ValMark Advisers , a participant in the ETF Strategist Channel .
Important Disclosure : VWO and XCEM have been, may be and/or are currently held in several TOPS Portfolios.
ValMark Advisers, Inc. (ValMark) is a federally registered investment adviser located in Akron, Ohio. ValMark and its representatives are in compliance with the current registration and notice filing requirements imposed upon federally covered investment advisers by those states in which ValMark maintains clients. For registration or additional information about ValMark, including its services and fees, a copy of our Form ADV is available upon request by contacting ValMark at 1-800-765-5201. This article provides commentary on current economic and market conditions and is not directly relevant to any particular client account. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any security. There can be no assurance that the views and opinions expressed in this article will come to pass. Investing involves the risk of loss, including the loss of principal. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Information contained herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be directly invested in. TOPS is a registered trademark of ValMark Advisers, Inc. Diversification does not prevent or guarantee against loss.
CARROLLTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / May 10, 2016 / Thinspace Technology Inc. (THNS) ("Thinspace or the "Company"), a global provider of reliable, scalable and affordable application delivery, virtualization, and cloud computing technology to public and private sector companies and organizations of all sizes, today announced its plans to launch an all new release of SkyDesk, the company's next generation of the TSE Platform built on a completely new modern code base to take advantage of the latest Microsoft Windows Server and Hypervisors. With a new and improved Management Console (TSConsole), SkyDesk will provide a more scalable and easier to use web based tool for administrators, maximizing their ability to leverage the new features and benefits of RDSH and Hyper-V, by the end of the second quarter 2016. The Company plans to follow the SkyDesk release with updates to Thinspace Universal Clients (for iOS and Android), OneGate (Thinspace secure access gateway solution) and the integration of VDI technology within the new TSConsole, comprising the VSuite solution. This software suite will provide a "single pane of glass" solution for all Thinspace customers' virtualization needs.
In addition, the company will launch a new Web-site which will provide feature rich client and partner portals and enhancements to the Company's support center for improved communications, license management and support requests.
Chris Bautista, Chief Executive Officer of Thinspace Technology Inc., commented, "We have focused our resources on product development and building our product support team. Our legacy code base originally was developed back in early 2000 and sustaining the code in its current form was not a viable option moving forward. We remain fully committed to providing our customers and partners with the most cost effective and easy-to-use virtualization solutions in the market."
About Thinspace Technology Inc.
Thinspace Technology Inc. is a global provider of reliable, scalable and affordable application delivery, virtualization, and cloud client technology to public and private sector companies and organizations of all sizes. Operating on the belief that application delivery and cloud computing solutions should be flexible, dynamic and above all, simple to use, Thinspace understands and is passionate about solving customer problems affordably in the most efficient and effective manner possible. The Company's list of private and public sector customers includes Deutsche Bank, Toyota, as well as, NHS, local councils, universities, schools, and housing associations. With over 5,000 enterprise customers worldwide, Thinspace is recognized as a leading player in application delivery, virtualization, and cloud technology markets. The Company is headquartered in Carrollton, Texas. For more information on the Company, please visit www.thinspace.com.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release includes forward-looking statements concerning the future performance of our business, its operations and its financial performance and condition, and also includes selected operating results presented without the context of accompanying financial results. These forward-looking statements include, among others, statements with respect to our objectives and strategies to achieve those objectives, as well as statements with respect to our beliefs, plans, expectations, anticipations, estimates or intentions. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations. We caution that all forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and actual results may differ materially from the assumptions, estimates or expectations reflected or contained in the forward-looking information, and that actual future performance will be affected by a number of factors, including economic conditions, technological change, regulatory change and competitive factors, many of which are beyond our control. Therefore, future events and results may vary significantly from what we currently foresee. We are under no obligation (and we expressly disclaim any such obligation) to update or alter the forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
The Company is subject to the risks and uncertainties described in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014.
SOURCE: Thinspace Technology, Inc.
This groundbreaking material could make your wrinkles and dry skin disappear. (Photo: Alamy)
It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie: Scientists at MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital, Living Proof, and Olivo Labs banded together to develop a second skin that tightens skin and smoothes away wrinkles, according to a new study.
The researchers created a silicone-based coating that mimics the appearance, elasticity, and strength of younger-looking, healthy skin. The protective polymer can make up for the natural loss of elasticity as we age, which contributes to wrinkles and sagging skin. In fact, the polymer is stronger than human skin in lab tests, it snapped back to its original state after being stretched more than 250 percent, while natural skin can be stretched about 180 percent, according to a statement put out by MIT.
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Heres how it works: The polymer is applied to skin in the form of a cream or ointment, followed by a platinum catalyst that triggers the polymer to form a strong yet flexible film. The film lasts up to 24 hours and remains nearly invisible to the naked eye. To test the polymers safety and effectiveness, researchers applied the coating under the eyes where people tend to get bags. The polymer acted as a steady compressive force that tightened the skin, reducing under-eye bags for about 24 hours. In another test, the protective coating improved hydration on dry legs by preventing water loss.
The researchers note that there are many uses for this breakthrough technology. A number of them are in dermatology, such as treating eczema and dry skin, Robert S. Langer, PhD, a professor at MITs David H. Koch Institute and one of the study authors, tells Yahoo Beauty. The coating could directly deliver treatments for certain skin conditions that would stay put, improving effectiveness, such as cortisone for eczema. The second skin could also be adapted to shield the skin from harmful ultraviolet rays, like a high-tech sunblock.
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Related: The Best Sunscreen for Your Face
Its an invisible layer that can provide a barrier, provide cosmetic improvement, and potentially deliver a drug locally to the area thats being treated, Daniel Anderson, an associate professor in MITs department of chemical engineering, said in a statement. Those three things together could really make it ideal for use in humans.
Whats more, none of the study participants reported any reactions to the coating. We have not seen any from studies on nearly 200 people, says Langer. However, the polymer isnt designed to be worn constantly, so you would eventually have to take off the magic skin. But you cant blame us for being excited about the possibilities and some dermatologists feel the same way. I think it is brilliant, Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University, who was not involved in the research, told the New York Times. What they have done is design a clever biomaterial that recapitulates the properties of young and healthy skin. They can use it as sort of a Band-Aid over old and aging skin and get very significant results.
Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
New York (AFP) - Ten top US hedge fund honchos collectively made over $10 billion personally in 2015 after racking up huge profits in extremely volatile markets that left rivals in the red, according to a report Tuesday.
Tied for the top spot with $1.7 billion in income for just one year were Citadel's Kenneth Griffin and Renaissance Technologies' James Simons, according to the annual hedge fund "rich list" published by Alpha Magazine.
Three other hedge fund gurus also banked more than $1 billion apiece: Bridgewater Associates' Raymond Dalio and Appaloosa Management's David Tepper, each with $1.4 billion, and Millennium Management's Israel Englander, with $1.15 billion.
The article pointed out some prominent no-shows on this year's list, including John Paulson of Paulson & Co., Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors and Daniel Loeb of Third Point. Funds of all three finished 2015 in the red, Alpha said.
Others missing from the top 10 were Nelson Peltz and Bill Ackman.
The median take for the list of top 25 hedge fund earners was $275 million, the lowest level in five years.
About half of all hedge funds lost money in 2015, Alpha said. The S&P 500 finished 2015 with a loss, snapping a three-year winning streak.
harry reid
One of Harry Reid's top advisers mocked Senate Republicans on Tuesday for proposing hearings over a Facebook controversy involving the alleged suppression of conservative news on the social-media platform's trending section.
Adam Jentleson, the Senate minority leader's deputy chief of staff, highlighted the Republican-controlled Senate's inaction on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, among other issues.
The Republican Senate refuses to hold hearings on Judge Garland, refuses to fund the Presidents request for Zika aid and takes the most days off of any Senate since 1956, but thinks Facebook hearings are a matter of urgent national interest," Jentleson wrote in an email.
The taxpayers who pay Republican senators salaries probably want their money back," he continued.
Jentleson's remarks came in response to a Tuesday letter from John Thune, a South Dakota senator, who announced the Senate Commerce Committee's launch of an inquiry into how Facebook curates its "trending" section.
The inquiry followed a Gizmodo story published Monday that featured claims from a former Facebook news curator, who said he is politically conservative, that the site allegedly suppressed conservative news from appearing on the trending module.
In Thune's letter, the senator asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg if curators "manipulated the content" of the trending section.
Facebook must answer these serious allegations and hold those responsible to account if there has been political bias in the dissemination of trending news, Thune said in a statement. Any attempt by a neutral and inclusive social media platform to censor or manipulate political discussion is an abuse of trust and inconsistent with the values of an open Internet.
NOW WATCH: Here's the moment Wolf Blitzer had to stop Clinton and Sanders from 'screaming at each other'
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A reported tornado ripped through Mayfield, Kentucky, on Tuesday, May 10. Kentucky State Police reported destruction in parts of Graves County, according to local reports. The tornado moved north of the Mayfield courthouse, which was without power.
Michael McKinney, who uploaded this video, said the tornado came about the time school was to be dismissed, but students stayed at school during the storm. He also said the storm caused substantial destruction, but he had not heard of any serious injuries. Credit: Facebook/Michael McKinney
London (AFP) - Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure to demand greater transparency from Britain's overseas tax havens, which critics say help promote and support corruption.
The leak of documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca shone a spotlight on British offshore financial centres, with more than half of the 214,000 companies exposed registered in the British Virgin Islands alone.
Seven of Britain's 14 overseas territories have been named by the Tax Justice Network as "secrecy jurisdictions" -- Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat as well as Turks and Caicos.
The advocacy group's 2015 Financial Secrecy Index ranked the Caymans as the fifth worst offender worldwide, while Britain is in 15th place.
But if Britain and its territories were considered as one entity, they would top the index.
The territories make their own domestic laws, allowing them to offer low or no taxes, but can reassure investors that Britain will step in if there is political or economic turmoil.
They were once described by a British minister as "sunny places for shady people" but most have bowed to international pressure to open up in recent years.
They have signed agreements to share financial information with other countries' tax authorities, and to give British police access to information on who benefits from anonymous investments.
But campaigners say this is not enough, and they are pushing for public registers of so-called beneficial ownership.
"Secret company ownership makes most cases of large-scale corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing possible," said the head of Britain's parliamentary group on anti-corruption, Nigel Mills.
Ronen Palan, professor of international politics at City University London, said much progress had been made on transparency in recent years but a major problem remained.
"They have no incentive to regulate this very well because their business is attracting offshore finance," he told AFP.
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The two British overseas territories ranked highest as offenders in the Financial Secrecy Index are the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.
Here are some key facts about the two archipelagoes:
- British Virgin Islands -
Mossack Fonseca incorporated 113,000 companies in the British Virgin Islands, a collection of more than 60 islands in the Caribbean which feature at number 21 on the Financial Secrecy Index.
Four decades ago it was a poor agricultural community, but it is now among the top five investors in Russia and China, according to a 2014 report by the OECD.
The Tax Justice Network says it is the world's leading centre for company incorporation, with 479,000 shell companies still active in early 2015 -- despite having a population of under 30,000.
According to the United Nations trade agency UNCTAD, it received $56.5 billion (50 billion euros) in foreign direct investment in 2014, while FDI outflows accounted for $54.3 billion.
Premier Orlando Smith this week defended the British Virgin Islands efforts to tackle corruption and noted it had signed tax transparency agreements with more than 100 developed countries.
But he added that "legitimate businesses have a right to basic privacy and confidentiality in their affairs".
- Cayman Islands -
Once the go-to place for international drug dealers to hide their money, the Caribbean territory is now the world's sixth biggest banking centre, according to the Tax Justice Network.
It had banking assets worth $1.4 trillion in 2014, hosting 200 banks and more than 95,000 registered companies, and is by far the world's leading domicile for hedge funds.
With an estimated population of 55,000, the Cayman Islands ranked fifth in the Financial Secrecy Index last year, down from third in 2013, reflecting its adoption of transparency initiatives.
A spokesman for Cayman Finance, the association representing the financial services industry, also defended its record on transparency, noting it has tax exchange agreements with 36 jurisdictions going back almost 20 years.
He said it has been sharing beneficial ownership data with British law enforcement for years but argues that a public register is unnecessary, as the current system is "very effective".
WGN Americas new series Outsiders and Underground are ratings successes for Tribune Media and big contributors to its far lower than expected Q1 profits CEO Peter Liguori told analysts today in his quarterly conference call to discuss earnings.
The company decided to launch the dramas away from the noise of the summer Olympics and the election campaign, he said. That helped to boost programming expenses by $12 million and marketing expenses by $16 million vs last year when WGNA did not introduce original shows.
We planned for this front loading, Liguori says. Tribune sought to reassure investors by reaffirming its financial guidance for 2016, saying that programming expenses will be flat for the rest of this year with marketing costs down.
But the Q1 results still were lopsided: Net income fell 69.5% vs the period last year to $11.1 million on revenues of $520.5 million, were up 10.1%.
The top line far exceeded analyst expectations for about $501 million. But the bottom line figure, at 12 cents a share, fell way short of the 27 cents that the Street anticipated.
The new WGNA shows are hits by any standard and set the network up nicely for this years upfront ad sales market, Liguori says.
Hes also optimistic about political ad sales at Tribunes local TV stations. They were up 169% vs the first three months of 2012, the last year with a presidential contest, helping the company to beat revenue expectations. And Tribune expects to end the year with $200 million in political, the CEO says.
The presidential race will help; Tribune has stations in virtually all of the battleground states including Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Ohio.
But the vast majority of the sales will come from Senate and gubernatorial races, as well as spending by political action and cause-based groups. Tribune has stations in 21 of 34 states with contested races, six more than it had in 2012.
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Missouri will be especially important with competitive races for Senate and the Governors office. Liguori also expects multiple referenda in California, Florida, and Colorado.
Liguori had little to add about the companys strategic review announced in February. Were making good progress with our financial advisors, he says.
For now, the company is looking to sell a lot of its real estate. It has 18 properties on the block that are drawing a ton of interest. Last week Tribune made $24 million from the sale of its property in Deerfield Beach, FL, and signed agreements to sell the north block of its Los Angeles Times Square property and the Olympic Printing Plant facility in Los Angeles. A previous deal to sell the Los Angeles Times Square property, made in late December, was terminated in Q1, the company says.
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Democratic frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump are virtually tied in the three crucial battleground states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to the first comprehensive polling snapshot since Trump locked up the nomination a week ago.
A new Quinnipiac University Poll released on Tuesday shows Clinton holding narrow 43 to 42 percent leads over Trump in Florida and Pennsylvania, while Trump leads Clinton in Ohio, 43 to 39 percent. The leads are statistically insignificant, meaning that little more than six months out from the November general election, the two arch rivals are running neck in neck in critical swing states.
Related: Poll Finds Militaristic Trump Has Won Over the Troops
While Clinton is all but assured of her partys nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who continues to battle her in the primaries, performs better than Clinton against Trump in the new polling. Sanders leads Trump in these hypothetical matchups, 44 percent to 42 percent in Florida, 43 percent to 41 percent in Ohio and 47 percent to 41 percent in Pennsylvania. Sanders has done well against Trump in earlier surveys, and he claims he would be a stronger candidate than Clinton in the fall.
The new survey results are an eye opener for some Democrats who assumed that Trump would be relatively easy to beat in the general election because of his high negative ratings -- especially among women, blacks and Hispanics. And indeed, the new polling documents wide gender, age and racial gaps within the electorate, especially among women and white males.
Quinnipiac Polling - Trump vs Clinton | Graphiq
But while Clinton enjoys substantial support among women voters over Trump in all three battleground states, it is not by the wide margins she will need to overcome Trumps dominance among white men in the general election, according to the poll.
For example, in Florida, Clinton holds a 48 percent to 35 percent lead among women which gives her an overall score of 43 percent among Democratic and Republican voters. But Trump is leading Clinton among men, 49 percent to 36 percent, which leaves him with 42 percent of all voters or virtually tied with Clinton.
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Related: Hillary Clinton Plays the Woman Card and Rakes in Millions
White voters lean Republican in Florida, 52 percent to 33 percent, while minorities favor Democrats over Republicans, 63 percent to 20 percent. Clinton is attracting younger voters, 49 percent to 27 percent, while Trump is attracting the states substantial elderly population, 50 percent to 37 percent.
Neither Clinton nor Trump are particularly popular in Florida or nationally, for that matter. Both get negative ratings from 57 percent of Florida voters and favorable ratings from just 37 percent. In the end, the two rivals are essentially deadlocked in the state and things arent much different in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Six months from Election Day, the presidential races between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the three most crucial states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, are too close to call, Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll, said in a statement.
At this juncture, Trump is doing better in Pennsylvania than the GOP nominees in 2008 and 2012, he added. And the two candidates are about where their party predecessors were at this point in Ohio and Florida.
Related: How Obamacare Could Backfire on Hillary Clinton
The poll, of course, must be taken with a grain of salt. A lot will happen between now and November, and the 2016 campaign is shaping up to be one of the most volatile and dirty campaigns of the modern era. Clinton currently leads Trump by 6.4 percentage points in the average national polling, according to Real Clear Politics. And she begins far ahead of him in the all-important contest for electoral votes.
According to a new analysis by National Public Radio, Clinton, a former New York senator and first lady, would start out this fall with exactly enough electoral votes to win the presidency, 270-191. The analysis is based on states that are considered safe, likely, and lean toward either candidate.
However, Trump has rewritten the political playbook in roaring to the nomination in a crowded field of 17 GOP challengers, which he capped off last week with a major victory over Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). He has repeatedly demonstrated he has the political firepower to expand the GOP political map to include states previously deemed off limits to the Republicans.
Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio will play critical roles in the outcome of the election, and no presidential candidate has won since 1960 without carrying at least two of those three states. In 2012, President Obama carried all three against Republican nominee Mitt Romney, but those races were close. Obama won in Ohio, 50 percent to 47 percent, in Pennsylvania by 52 percent to 47 percent and in Florida, 50 percent to 49 percent.
Related: Cant Vote for Trump or Clinton? Here Are Some Third Party Options
Clinton is counting on repeating that performance, partly with the help of the president who is planning to actively campaign for her after the Democratic national convention in July. However, Trump has had solid success campaigning in rust belt states including Pennsylvania and Ohio, where his anti-trade, anti-immigration messages have resonated with unemployed, underemployed or just plain angry white men.
According to the new Quinnipiac survey, Pennsylvania voters say 51 percent to 42 percent that Trump would do a better job than Clinton handling the economy. They are divided on who best would handle terrorism, with 47 percent picking Trump and 46 percent choosing Clinton.
In Ohio, meanwhile, voters say by a 52 percent to 40 percent margin that Trump would do a better job than Clinton handling the economy. They also believe, 48 percent to 43 percent, that he would be better in dealing with global terrorism.
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Washington (AFP) - Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said he would make an exception for London's new Muslim mayor after he proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States, the New York Times reported.
The presumed Republican presidential candidate proposed a ban on Muslims entering the country in December, days after terrorists killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California.
Sadiq Khan, elected London mayor on Saturday, had expressed worries that he would not be able to visit the United States were Trump elected in November.
"There will always be exceptions," Trump told the Times in an interview published Monday.
The brash real estate billionaire -- who has alienated many Americans with insults against immigrants, Muslims and women -- welcomed Khan's election.
"I was happy to see that," he said. "I think it's a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because frankly that would be very, very good."
"If he does a good job, and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing," he added.
Khan, whose parents are Pakistani immigrants, is London's first Muslim mayor.
"I want to go to America to meet with and engage with American mayors," he told Time magazine.
"If Donald Trump becomes the president I'll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith," he said, adding he was confident "Donald Trump's approach to politics" would not win.
Khan doubled down on his criticism of Trump, even after learning that the presumed Republican presidential candidate would probably exempt him from it.
"This isn't just about me -- it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world," Khan said.
He added: "Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both of our countries less safe -- it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of extremists," said the mayor-elect.
"Donald Trump and those around him think that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam. London has proved him wrong."
* Tenders expected for Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and India
* Also targeting African and Gulf airports (Adds detail, quotes)
By Tom Arnold
DUBAI, May 10 (Reuters) - Turkish airport operator TAV is planning to bid for new tenders in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and India in the next 12-24 months, Chief Executive Sani Sener told Reuters on Tuesday, aiming to accelerate its push into new markets.
In an interview in Dubai, Sener said TAV Airports is also interested in airports across Africa, where passenger numbers exceed 1 million, and is eyeing potential airport privatisations in the Gulf.
"We are going to be very active in South East Asia and Africa and the Middle East, where we will continue to be active," he said. "We are a company from an emerging market and we always like the growth in emerging markets. The growth will be in emerging markets from now on."
The company is keen to add to its portfolio and increase revenue from its service businesses to offset the impact of the end of its contract to run Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.
Turkey's new airport in Istanbul is due to start operating in 2018 and Ataturk, the existing hub for flagship carrier Turkish Airlines, is slated for closure in 2021.
TAV lost the tender to operate the new airport to a consortium led by Turkish group Limak, so has to find alternative revenue to replace its main earnings generator.
About 20 percent of the company's revenue from airport operations originates from outside Turkey. TAV operates 14 airports in Turkey and other countries, including Georgia, Tunisia and Macedonia.
That percentage of income from foreign operations will rise in the coming years, Sener said without detailing a target.
The company is part of a consortium that has received preliminary qualification to bid for a group of five airports in the Philippines.
It is also hoping to bid for Indian deals, with about 50 airports being considered for potential privatisation. Other markets in TAV's sights are Africa and the Middle East, Sener added.
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It has already built a significant presence in the Middle East, where it helped to build airports in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
It also operates Saudi Arabia's Madinah Airport, the first airport privatisation project in the kingdom, and would be keen to bid for similar tenders in the Gulf.
The bulk of airports in the region are run by governments but more are expected to be privatised in an effort to reduce the burden on state coffers squeezed by lower oil prices.
(Editing by Nick Tattersall and David Goodman)
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court has decided there is insufficient evidence to prosecute a man suspected of killing a Russian air force pilot after his plane was shot down by a Turkish jet near the Syrian-Turkish border last November, the man's lawyer said on Tuesday. Russian defense officials said at the time that the pilot had managed to eject from his Su-24 plane only to be killed by ground fire from militants inside Syria. His navigator survived but a Russian marine was killed during the rescue mission. Alparslan Celik, who was fighting with a Turkish-backed Turkmen brigade opposing government forces in northern Syria at the time, was detained at the end of March in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir on unrelated charges. But his lawyer said Celik, who is still in custody, had also been questioned by a prosecutor about his alleged role in the Russian pilot's death. "Having looked at the evidence both in favor and against, the prosecutor decided there were no grounds for prosecution," Murat Ustundag, one of Celik's lawyers, told Reuters by phone. Celik is still being held as part of a separate investigation into unauthorized weapons possession, he said. A deputy prosecutor in the court in Izmir was not available to comment. There had been hopes that Celik's detention might help ease strained relations with Russia, which demanded his arrest after he publicly admitted being among a group of fighters who shot the Russian pilot after he ejected from his stricken plane. Speaking to reporters near the Syrian village of Yamadi on Nov. 24, the day the Russian jet was downed, Celik said he and other fighters opened fire as the pilot and his navigator parachuted to the ground. Turkey says it shot down the jet in its air space after it ignored repeated warnings. Russia says it was flying over Syria and the strike was unprovoked. (Reporting by Akin Aytekin; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Edciting by Richard Balmforth)
By Ercan Gurses ANKARA (Reuters) - Tayyip Erdogan's ambitions for a swift move to strong presidential rule could suffer if dissidents in Turkey's nationalist opposition succeed in a party leadership challenge that could bolster their party's electoral support. A bid by several hundred members of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to challenge Devlet Bahceli, leader for much of the last two decades, at a special congress set for May 15 was approved by an Ankara court last month. But rallying around its veteran leader, the MHP challenged that decision and an appeals court ruling is pending. Five candidates want to challenge Bahceli, including Meral Aksener, a 59-year-old woman who served as interior minister in the 1990s. "I think this congress will happen on May 15. I think the vast majority of our great congress delegates will be there on that day," Aksener said in a statement that appeared to pay no heed to appeals court deliberations. Uncertainty around Erdogan's role comes at a time of tension in NATO member Turkey as it faces Kurdish insurrection and spillover of violence from Syria. Western allies' concern for stability is tempered by reservations about what they see as his increasingly authoritarian attitude to media and opposition. Some opinion polls suggest MHP support could rise above 20 percent if the leadership is changed, stealing seats from the ruling AK Party that it needs to change the constitution; but it could fall below the 10 percent threshold needed to enter parliament if Bahceli, 68, remained. ELECTION THIS YEAR? AK Party officials have said Erdogan could seek an early parliamentary election this year to capitalize on the MHP crisis if Bahceli remains in office and polls indicate its support falling below the threshold. "If the appeals court decides the extraordinary congress should be held, we as the MHP leadership and delegates will be there out of our respect for the law," a senior MHP official close to Bahceli told Reuters, asking not to be named because of sensitivities within the party about challenging its leader. "The dissidents used threats to gather signatures for the congress decision ... Even if they hold a so-called congress a significant portion of the delegates will not go to the hall." Erdogan wants to replace Turkey's parliamentary democracy with a Turkish version of the U.S. or French system, where the elected head of state holds executive power. His opponents fear a stronger Erdogan presidency will increase authoritarianism and take Turkey further from Western democratic standards. Turkey currently languishes in a form of political twilight. Under the present constitution, the president should remain above party politics and everyday government; but Erdogan exerts strong influence through his popularity, and his prime minister, long in his shadow, has stepped down leaving the post for now unfilled and further weakening cabinet rule. The AK Party, which Erdogan founded, has 317 lawmakers in the 550-seat assembly and needs at least 367 votes to change the constitution directly, or 330 to take the issue to a referendum. Bahceli ruled out speculation he could back constitutional change. Speaking to his group in parliament, he also said creating an atmosphere for snap elections amounted to "treason". (Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Ralph Boulton)
Before he was a celebrated character actor, earning Oscar attention for roles in Capote, Charlie Wilson's War, and Doubt, Philip Seymour Hoffman -- who died prematurely in 2014 -- was a working actor, playing the sidekick to the likes of Meg Ryan, Steve Martin, and a tornado.
On May 10, 1996, Hoffman appeared alongside Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, and Alan Ruck in the hugely popular natural disaster film, Twister, which went on to earn $241.7 million in the U.S. alone. "Before he was Philip Seymour Hoffman," Ruck recalls to ET.
While Hunt and Paxton -- and well, the many tornadoes -- were the stars, Hoffman had a memorable turn as Dusty, a hyperactive storm chaser whose favorite word was "extreme." The role was small, but Ruck, who played a fellow storm chaser, says that Hoffman had "a big presence."
MORE: Why Philip Seymour Hoffman Likes to Watch His Films With Audiences
"Joey Slotnick was in that movie and Joey is a storyteller," Ruck says, recalling a moment from the set. "He can spin some yarns. I remember being at dinner one time and Philip said, 'I'll give you all my per diem if you can be quiet for an hour.' So, we all watch Joey and he didn't make it five minutes. He said, 'Why do you want to do that to me? Why do you want to mess with my nature?'"
"Phil was funny," Ruck adds. "He was a funny guy, sweet guy."
Of course, Hoffman would quickly go on to make a name for himself with a string of critically acclaimed films, including Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Almost Famous.
MORE: Amy Adams on Working With Master Actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix in 'The Master'
"Right after that movie, he just took off like a rocket," Ruck says. "He did a movie [Flawless] in New York with De Niro and then he was just off to the races. No stopping him."
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Hard Eight, a 1996 neo-noir crime thriller, would mark Hoffman's first collaboration with director Paul Thomas Anderson. The two would go on to work together in Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, and The Master.
In his first interview with ET in 1999 for Magnolia, the late actor (who was far more serious than his zealous Twister character) discussed his on-going relationship with the director. "I'm not hanging out with Paul because he's Paul," he said, adding: "Paul's not hanging out with me because he respects me as an actor."
But at that point, Hoffman was well on his way to becoming "Philip Seymour Hoffman."
While his legacy would include far more celebrated roles and an Oscar win for portraying Truman Capote, Twister still remains one of his most successful films, only topped by his final on-screen appearances in The Hunger Games franchise.
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(Reuters) - A couple of eastern Colorado teenagers posing for a traditional prom photo received a unique memento as the girl's mother snapped the shot with a tornado in the background. Heidi Marintzer of Wray, Colorado, said that when the twister first appeared Saturday on the horizon, she and her 15-year-old daughter, Ali, along with the girl's boyfriend, Charlie Bator, 18, had sought shelter indoors. Then, when the twister started to move away, Heidi Marintzer went outside with the teenage couple and they posed for photos in a neighbor's backyard, with the tornado in the background. "We were just like, we can't believe this, it's so beautiful and yet it's a tornado," Marintzer said in a telephone interview. Two photographs taken by Marintzer that feature the twister, with one showing the couple hugging and the other a close up of Ali with her tongue out, have gained widespread media attention and gone viral on social media. The twister was estimated to be more than 2 miles (3.2 km) away when the photo was taken, Marintzer said. Ali and Charlie subsequently attended their prom at Wray High School in the town of about 2,300 people. The event was delayed by about 45 minutes because of the twister, Marintzer said. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
Washington (AFP) - The US Marine Corps is assigning two women to frontline infantry roles, a first for the armed service under new Pentagon rules opening all combat jobs to women.
In a statement Tuesday, the Marine Corps said it had granted requests from two enlisted women to transfer into "ground combat arms specialties." One will become a machinegunner, the other a rifleman.
"Requests like these help the Marine Corps to continue the implementation of gender integration throughout all Military Occupational Specialties," the Marines said.
President Barack Obama's administration decided in 2013 that all combat positions should be open to women by 2016, including the infantry and special operations forces.
The Marines had requested some exemptions, but these were overruled by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.
It will take some time before the two Marines are placed in their new roles, as a female "leadership cadre" needs to be established in their units at least three months beforehand.
Although women warriors have frequently found themselves in combat situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, they had previously been barred from joining frontline combat roles.
Currently, women account only for about 15.6 percent of the 1.34 million active duty personnel in the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force.
YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Unknown gunmen killed two Nigerian policemen in the oil-producing Niger Delta, a police spokesman said on Tuesday, a day after five officers were shot dead in the restive region. "The policemen were asleep and killed by some callous assailants," said a spokesman for police in Rivers state in the Delta. A villager who gave her name as Sarah Ebikabowei said gunmen had killed three soldiers in Bayelsa state, which is also located in the Delta. A military spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Tife Owolabi; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Washington (AFP) - West Virginians and Nebraskans voted in presidential primaries Tuesday amid lingering Republican concerns about presumptive nominee Donald Trump, as a new poll showed the billionaire running neck-and-neck with Hillary Clinton in three key battleground states.
Clinton still has active competition for the Democratic nomination despite her virtually insurmountable lead in the delegate count, and rival Bernie Sanders was looking for a big win in West Virginia.
Trump is now alone in his quest for the Republican nomination, his last two rivals -- Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich -- having dropped out after the New York real estate tycoon's blowout victory in Indiana last week.
A Quinnipiac University poll out Tuesday showed Trump closing in on Clinton's lead in two major battleground states -- Florida and Pennsylvania -- and overtaking her in swing state Ohio.
No candidate has won the presidential election without taking at least two of those three states.
Six months out from election day, the races in those three crucial states "are too close to call," said Peter Brown, the poll's assistant director.
With Republican concern about their nominee sizzling, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seized on the polls as a sign that Trump, whom the Republican leader has endorsed, will mount a strong challenge against Clinton.
"It's a long time 'til November, but the early indications are that our nominee is likely to be very competitive," McConnell told reporters.
- Unyielding Sanders -
Quinnipiac's poll also found that Sanders, a democratic socialist who commands an enthusiastic following on the left, would do better against Trump than Clinton in all three states if he were the Democratic nominee.
The 74-year-old Vermont senator, who defeated Clinton in Indiana, has mounted an unyielding come-from-behind challenge that has exposed weaknesses in the former secretary of state's campaign.
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Although almost certain to win the Democratic nomination -- she is only about 160 delegates short of that goal -- Clinton's ability to excite young and white working-class Democrats going into the general election has been put in doubt by Sanders's primary successes.
In West Virginia, a coal-mining state in Appalachia, Clinton shot herself in the foot in March by telling voters in neighboring Ohio she would slash mining jobs and put coal companies "out of business."
She later apologized and suggested her remarks were misunderstood, but in a state where livelihoods have hinged on coal for generations, many are unconvinced.
Recent polls show Sanders with as much as a six-point lead over the 68-year-old former first lady among Democrats in the state, where 29 delegates are up for grabs.
Polls close in West Virginia at 7:30 pm (2330 GMT) and in Nebraska, which holds a Republican primary, at 8:00 pm (0100). The Democrats caucused there on March 5, and Sanders won.
- Trump challenges -
While Clinton still has Sanders to worry about, Trump faces a rebellion within the Republican leadership over the insulting tone and shifting substance of his candidacy.
House speaker Paul Ryan last week announced he was "not ready" to support Trump, a rare rebuke that put the power struggles within the Republican Party on very public display.
But Ryan and other Republican congressional leaders were due to huddle with Trump on Thursday in Washington, in a highly anticipated series of meetings that could help gauge GOP support for the real estate tycoon.
McConnell said he expected "a cordial meeting to discuss the way forward."
On Tuesday, Cruz said Republican voters need not make a choice yet about Trump -- and even suggested he could jumpstart his campaign if he somehow won Nebraska.
His White House quest could resume "if there is a path to victory," Cruz said on conservative radio host Glenn Beck's program.
The Republican establishment is still reeling from Trump's hostile takeover of the party, aghast at positions he's taken on trade, foreign policy and taxes that fly in the face of conservative dictums.
But Trump has shown no sign of backing down, and some Republicans have warned the "never Trump" movement to ease their opposition.
"I think a better place to be is to chill, and just let the campaign evolve a little bit and see where the candidate ends up," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker, who acknowledged he has discussed foreign policy positions with Trump staff.
"I think the party needs to come together," added Senator John McCain, the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee.
Trump has said he would need between $1-2 billion for the campaign ahead, and will seek to raise it from donors rather than to self-finance as he has up to now.
WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Tuesday brought a fresh challenge to China's anti-dumping duties on U.S. broiler chicken products at the World Trade Organization in an effort to bring the long-running trade dispute to a close.
The U.S. Trade Representative's office said it is making claims that China's anti-dumping and countervailing duties violate WTO rules, partly because China failed to properly calculate U.S. poultry production costs.
China also failed to conduct transparent investigations and breached WTO rules in its finding that U.S. poultry exports have injured Chinese producers, USTR said.
The complaint is the 12th challenge brought by the Obama administration against China at the WTO and marks its second objection following China's 2010 imposition of anti-dumping duties on U.S. broiler chicken products of up to 105.4 percent and anti-subsidy duties of up to 30.3 percent.
It comes at a time of increasing U.S.-China trade tensions as China's economic slowdown has flooded markets worldwide with exports of manufactured goods.
U.S. steel and aluminum producers have filed several major anti-dumping complaints against China in recent weeks with the U.S. Commerce Department and International Trade Commission.
"Today's action holds China accountable for unfair taxes that they are imposing on American exports of broiler chicken products," U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement.
China re-examined and lowered the duties on U.S. broiler chicken products in 2014 after the WTO accepted U.S. arguments that they violated WTO rules. Current anti-dumping duties are up to 73.3 percent and anti-subsidy taxes up to 4.2 percent.
However, USTR said it believed the China's revised duties, which affect producers such as Tyson Foods Inc and Pilgrim's Pride Corp, were still not in compliance with WTO rules.
U.S. senators from poultry-producing states cheered the new challenge.
"The United States has been the only country that has been willing to challenge China's compliance at the World Trade Organization," said U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia.
"Trade works when the rules are followed, and it is imperative that China, the world's second-largest economy, lives up to the rules it agreed to when it joined the WTO in 2001," Isakson added.
(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Richard Pullin)
(Adds details on complaint, chicken exports)
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Tuesday brought a fresh challenge to China's anti-dumping duties on U.S. broiler chicken products at the World Trade Organization in an effort to bring the long-running trade dispute to a close.
The U.S. Trade Representative's office said it is making claims that China's anti-dumping and countervailing duties violate WTO rules, partly because China failed to properly calculate U.S. poultry production costs.
China also failed to conduct transparent investigations and breached WTO rules in its finding that U.S. poultry exports have injured Chinese producers, USTR said. The complaint seeks consultations with Beijing on the matter.
The complaint is the second U.S. WTO objection to China's 2010 imposition of anti-dumping duties of up to 105.4 percent, and anti-subsidy duties of up to 30.3 percent, on U.S. broiler chicken products.
It comes as U.S.-China trade tensions are rising, with China's economic slowdown flooding markets worldwide with exports of manufactured goods.
U.S. steel and aluminum producers have filed several major anti-dumping complaints against China in recent weeks with the U.S. Commerce Department and International Trade Commission.
"Today's action holds China accountable for unfair taxes that they are imposing on American exports of broiler chicken products," U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement.
China re-examined and lowered the duties on U.S. broiler chickens in 2014 after the WTO accepted U.S. arguments that they violated WTO rules. China currently levies anti-dumping duties up to 73.3 percent and anti-subsidy taxes up to 4.2 percent.
But Froman said a USTR review of China's revised duties, which affect producers including Tyson Foods and Pilgrim's Pride, found they were still not in compliance with WTO rules.
U.S. Acting Deputy Agriculture Secretary Michael Scuse said that U.S. poultry producers have lost over $1 billion in sales since the duties were imposed in 2010, with annual U.S. chicken exports to China down over 90 percent.
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China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on its website did not immediately respond to the U.S. complaint. MOFCOM is also conducting an anti-dumping investigation into U.S. exports of distiller's dried grains, an ethanol by-product used in animal feed.
U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia, the largest chicken-producing state, hailed the new WTO complaint, the 12th such challenge against China by the Obama administration.
"Trade works when the rules are followed, and it is imperative that China, the world's second-largest economy, lives up to the rules it agreed to when it joined the WTO in 2001," Isakson added.
(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Richard Pullin and Alan Crosby)
The White House appears poised to end a ban on arms sales to Vietnam in time for a landmark visit by President Barack Obama later this month, despite misgivings from some lawmakers and human rights advocates.
The step would carry crucial symbolism in the growing contest for influence between China and the United States in the Western Pacific and also for Americas relationship with Hanoi that has come full circle since the dark days of the Vietnam War.
Anxious about Chinas aggressive moves to assert its territorial claims in the South China Sea, Vietnams government has pressed repeatedly for an end to the prohibition on U.S. arms exports, which would permit Hanoi to buy high-tech American military hardware such as sophisticated radar or surveillance aircraft. Two years ago, Washington partially lifted the ban to permit the sale of weapons related to maritime security.
But while the U.S. Defense Department views the potential step as a key strategic move to counter China, human rights groups and some U.S. senators worry the White House will give up vital leverage without getting sufficient concessions in return.
Senators from both parties, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), have voiced objections and reservations over lifting the ban and argue the administration should hold off on any dramatic gestures without more evidence of progress on civil liberties in a country that routinely arrests and beats dissidents.
Although Leahy has long supported broadening U.S. relations with Vietnam, he feels quite strongly about freedom of expression and wants the administration to explain what Vietnam is expected to do on human rights issues if the United States allows lethal arms sales, said his aide, Tim Rieser.
The United States needs to make clear, as we do when we give aid to other governments, that were not going to write a blank check to the Vietnamese military, Rieser told Foreign Policy.
During a single week in March, Vietnamese authorities convicted seven bloggers and activists and sentenced them to prison. The countrys Communist Party commands a sweeping monopoly on power, and Vietnam remains one of the most repressive regimes in the world, according to Human Rights Watch.
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Lifting the ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam would be premature and undeserved at this time, unless Hanoi takes critically needed steps to address its poor human rights record, said John Sifton, Asia Advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.
The White House has been debating the move in recent weeks, administration officials and congressional aides told FP on condition of anonymity. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has already come out in favor of the move, in remarks at a Senate hearing last month that took lawmakers by surprise.
The final decision will hinge in part on the outcome of talks on Monday and Tuesday in Vietnam led by two senior State Department diplomats: Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski, who oversees democracy, human rights, and labor issues, and Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, who runs the agencys East Asian and Pacific bureau.
The State Department said in a statement that Malinowski would be urging Hanoi to release political prisoners without condition and carry out other reforms in line with the countrys international human rights obligations.
Vietnam has released about two dozen political prisoners over the past year, reducing the number known to be behind bars from an estimated 125 to 100 though rights groups say it also has stepped up harassment of activists through beatings.
Analysts say the government in Hanoi may have released the dissidents to bolster its position during talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which could offer new markets for Vietnams growing economy. Under the trade deal, Hanoi agreed to a major change in its labor laws that would allow for independent trade unions for the first time.
It remains to be seen if Vietnam will follow through on its commitment on labor reforms. But when Malinowski helped make the case for the trade agreement last year in a commentary, he cited the ban on arms sales as a source of continued leverage that would stay in place even once the trade negotiations were over.
The administration has not offered up that argument recently amid preparations for the presidents visit to Hanoi later this month, which will mark the first by Obama to Vietnam. He is also due to visit Japan on the same trip, and there is growing speculation the president will be the first U.S. commander in chief to set foot in Hiroshima.
Its not the first time that the administrations diplomatic approach and negotiating tactics have been portrayed as too conciliatory to repressive regimes. Citing overtures to Cuba and Iran, some critics in Congress have accused the White House of delivering major concessions at the outset without demanding sufficient reforms or changes up front.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) favored the 2014 partial lifting of the arms sales ban but has reserved judgment on any wholesale end to the prohibition for Vietnam.
Any more expansive shift in policy will require further review and must align with U.S. interests, including the desire for progress on human rights, an aide to Corker said.
However, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the committees top Democrat, said he is open to rescinding the ban if human rights issues are taken into account.
While I agree it is critical that the United States build a strategic, multifaceted partnership with Vietnam, we must take care to ensure that any potential arms sales are appropriate to our bilateral relationship and would support regional stability, Cardin told FP.
The Maryland senator traveled to Vietnam in 2014 and raised his concerns about human rights with several senior officials, including the prime minister.
When asked about a possible change in policy on Vietnam, State Department spokeswoman Katina Adams said human rights remain an essential element of our policy with Vietnam.
She added: Ahead of the presidents trip, we continue to review our policies in parallel with the development of our bilateral relationship with Vietnam.
Supporters of ending the arms ban say that Vietnam has made progress over time on rights issues and that its record compares favorably to some other U.S. partners accused of horrendous abuses, such as Saudi Arabia or Egypt.
Human rights is not an absolute. We judge it based on a relative scale, said Gregory Poling, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. We reward those who are improving and punish those who are backsliding, and Hanoi has been on an upward trajectory, he said.
The Vietnamese recognize they must coexist with China, the looming neighbor on their northern border, Poling said. But they are desperate to get as much strategic room to maneuver as they can. The U.S. is key to that, he said.
The prime motivation behind Vietnams request to lift the arms restrictions is more political than military, said Carl Thayer, an expert on Southeast Asian security at the University of New South Wales and the Australian Defence Force Academy.
Vietnamese hard-liners who back the regime note that despite plenty of diplomatic overtures between Hanoi and Washington of late, many government officials still fear the United States seeks a quiet revolution through its push for human rights. Combined with lingering resentment over U.S. efforts to address wartime use of the toxic chemical mixture Agent Orange, maintaining a discriminatory policy on arms sales looks to Hanoi like punitive politics, Thayer said.
That said, in the context of rising tensions in the South China Sea, the United States has sought to improve the ability of its allies and partners to patrol their own waters, especially when confronted with a large and growing Chinese maritime force.
So far, Vietnam has not given Washington a big wish list regarding future arms sales, and an end to the ban would not open the floodgates for big defense deals, experts said.
To date, U.S. military assistance to Vietnam which is limited to the Coast Guard has consisted of a few old, small patrol boats. And Vietnams major military equipment whether advanced submarines frigates or multirole fighter jets is Russian-made and will almost certainly stay that way. Shifting to U.S.-manufactured weapons would be too expensive at this point.
One potential area of cooperation, as between the United States and India, could be access to more advanced defense technologies.
Carter, the latest Pentagon chief to make a point of traveling to Vietnam, said in a visit to the country last June that our countries are now committed for the first time to operate together, step up our defense trade, and to work toward co-production.
In a joint vision statement agreed upon during Carters stop in Hanoi, the two governments called for cooperation on defense technology. Vietnam, like other countries in the region, wants to upgrade older weapons systems and acquire radar, surveillance drones, or reconnaissance planes such as P-3 Orions or P-8 Poseidons to help them track Chinese ships and submarines, experts said.
Vietnam would like to see some technology transferred. This is an evolving issue and the one with the most promise, Thayer said.
U.S. officials have also privately spoken of the possibility of having American naval ships once again operate out of strategic Cam Ranh Bay, which served as a hub for U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. But Hanoi has yet to endorse the idea publicly.
I do not think that Chinas reactions to arms procurements by Vietnam are all that decisive in Vietnams calculations, Thayer said. Vietnam is more concerned about giving the U.S. a presence, say at Cam Ranh, and how China would react to that.
Apart from warning against ending the arms sales ban, human rights advocates have appealed to the White House to use the presidents visit to Vietnam to highlight the plight of political prisoners and bloggers in a manner similar to Obamas recent groundbreaking trip to Cuba.
In an April 27 letter to the president, Human Rights Watch urged Obama to make time during his visit to meet with former political prisoners and civic activists, hold a joint press conference with his Vietnamese counterpart, Gen. Tran Dai Quang, and deliver a speech that highlights the importance of fundamental rights to the future of the relationship between the two countries.
Many in Vietnam are looking to you and the United States to stand up for the ideals they are taking great risks to promote, the letter said.
Photo credit: KHAM/AFP/Getty Images
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in the case against Abu Khatallah, the man charged in the 2012 attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Khatallah was captured in 2014 and brought to the United States for trial in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said Attorney General Loretta Lynch made the decision.
"The department is committed to ensuring that the defendant is held accountable for his alleged role," Pierce said. "If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to life in prison."
(Reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States signaled on Tuesday it will work with the apparent victor of the Philippines presidential election, Rodrigo Duterte, despite allegations of human rights abuses in the city he has led for over two decades. Washington's stance reflects the reality that U.S. national security interests will outweigh human rights concerns given China's increasingly assertive stance in the region and the maritime disputes in the South China Sea, Asia analysts said. "Washington respects the choice of the Philippine people. We gladly work with the leaders they've selected," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said when asked about Monday's election. An official winner had not been declared but an unofficial count by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed Duterte had a huge lead over his two closest rivals, both of whom conceded defeat. When pressed whether Washington had concerns about positions advocated by the tough-talking Duterte, including extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs, Trudeau repeated her statement that Washington respected the choice of the voters. "We look forward to working with the leader that the Philippines has elected," she said. Duterte's vows to restore law and order resonated with Philippine voters, but his incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs alarmed many people, who saw it as harkening back to the country's authoritarian past. Duterte has been criticized for allowing a spree of vigilante killings in Davao city and critics fear he could let them happen on a larger scale as president. Although the United States closed its military bases in the Philippines in 1992, the two nations are bound by a 1951 mutual defense treaty and the former colony is a key element of the U.S. policy of "rebalancing" its foreign policy toward Asia. In April, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said U.S. troops and military equipment would be sent on regular rotations in the Philippines and that the countries had started joint patrols in the South China Sea as China asserts its territorial claims. China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas, its claims overlapping with those of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. The U.S. stance on Duterte could echo its approach toward Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At one point, Modi was unable to obtain a U.S. visa because of concerns about sectarian riots in the state of Gujarat when he was chief minister, but was later invited to the White House when he became prime minister. "His human rights record does give them pause, but he was elected by the Philippine people," said Murray Hiebert, an Asia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. "They have to deal with him." Asia-Pacific analyst Patrick Cronin cited three reasons for the Philippines strategic importance: its location in the "first island chain" of major archipelagos from the East Asian mainland, its status as the only U.S. ally among the South China Sea claimants and the regional focus on those maritime disputes. "The South China Sea has become a litmus test for American staying power and commitment to the Asia-Pacific region," said Cronin of the Center for a New American Security think tank. "If we falter over the defense of Philippine interests ... then we lose credibility and (our) commitment is questioned," he added. (Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton and David Alexander in Washington, Neil Jerome Morales in; Davao, Philippines and Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by Alan Crosby and James Dalgleish)
(PARIS) The United States tried Monday to move past localized, short-term cease-fires in Syria by announcing that an enduring, nationwide truce would be restored. Yet that new approach was immediately called into doubt as Syrias military extended only a local cease-fire, in the hard-hit area of Aleppo, by 48 hours.
The chaos surrounding the latest bout of diplomacy, with the U.S. and Syria offering what seemed like conflicting versions of events, underscored the profound difficulty in getting the warring parties to even agree on what theyve agreed on, much less lay down arms for good. The announcements came as world leaders meeting in Paris struggled to get faltering Syria peace talks back on track.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, announcing a new U.S.-Russia agreement, said it would reinstate a nationwide cessation of hostilities, diplomatic-speak for the collapsed cease-fire the U.S. and Russia brokered in February. He said Russia had also committed to limiting the Syrian governments ability to fly over civilian areas where President Bashar Assads military has been accused of violating the cease-fire.
But Kerry cautioned that the agreement itself meant little if it was not backed up by the parties on the ground.
These are words on a piece of paper. They are not actions, Kerry said after a meeting that included the head of the High Negotiations Committee, an umbrella group of Assads Western-backed opponents. It is going to be up to the commanders in the field and the interested parties which includes us.
In Damascus, Syrias military said a five-day cease-fire in Aleppo and its rural areas, set to expire for midnight, would instead be extended two more days, raising the prospect that additional, piecemeal cease-fires would continue to be announced. Brutal violence in Aleppo has killed nearly 300 civilians in recent days, and airstrikes hit several areas there Monday even as Kerry was discussing the cease-fire in Paris.
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The U.S. and Russia have been working to put the broader truce back together through a series of short-term cease-fires in cities where heavy violence has broken out, including Aleppo, Syrias largest city. The hope is that quelling the fighting, along with a renewed show of global support, will clear the way for the parties to resume the indirect, U.N.-led talks.
Yet enforcing any cease-fire has been made nearly impossible by an exception built into the original cease-fire: Attacks are still allowed against the Islamic State and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. Those groups are common enemies of the U.S., many of the opposition groups and Assad, but they are fighting in the same areas, making it difficult to distinguish which strikes violate the cease-fire and which ones dont. The confusion has fueled accusations that Syrian and Russian forces are using the Nusra Front as an excuse to ignore the cease-fire and bomb opposition-held areas.
In their statement, the U.S. and Russia committed to developing a shared understanding of where the Islamic State and the Nusra Front hold territory. Clarifying which areas are fair game and which are off limits is seen as a key step toward eventually reviving the peace talks.
Ahmed Saoud, a top commander of a U.S.-backed rebel faction from the Free Syrian Army, said his group supports restoring the nationwide cease-fire but cast doubt that Assad would respect it. He said his group and other FSA units were bombed Monday by Assads warplanes in the northern Idlib province, near Aleppo, where the Nusra Front is also strong.
We are hoping for the best, Saoud said by telephone. But we dont trust the regime.
The U.S. attempt to revive a nationwide truce came as nations worked to get Syrias government and opposition groups back to the table next week in Vienna, where negotiations to secure a political transition sputtered last month. The High Negotiations Committee essentially left the talks after accusing Assads forces of violating the truce and blocking aid to hard-hit areas.
The next round of talks should take place next week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said as he emerged from a meeting with Kerry, the head of the opposition coalition and leaders from other nations backing the opposition. Diplomats have floated May 17 as a possible start date.
Ayrault added that Iran, an Assad ally, should be involved. In a nod to past commitments made and broken, he said he hoped the new U.S.-Russia agreement was not just yet another declaration.
It must be respected, Ayrault said.
There are still no indications the parties are any closer to agreement about whether Assad can be part of the future government, long the chief sticking point in Syrias civil war.
While in Paris, Kerry also met with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, a U.S. ally eager to help Syrias opposition by bolstering their military capability. The State Department said Kerry and al-Jubeir stressed the importance of all sides fully respecting the cessation of hostilities and also consulted on the U.S.-led fight against IS.
___
Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
A U.S. Navy warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of a disputed island claimed by China in the South China Sea Tuesday, in a move that is sure to spark outrage from Beijing as tensions in the region escalate.
Department of Defense spokesperson Bill Urban told Reuters that the USS William P. Lawrences maneuver near Fiery Cross Reef was to challenge excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea. It is the latest freedom of navigation operation from the U.S. in the disputed region.
Fiery Cross is a showpiece of Chinas South China Sea presence. Last week, state-run TV broadcast images of a Peoples Liberation Army song troupe performing at the reef, which it has expanded to accommodate a 3,000 ft runway, several buildings, and roads.
China treats nearly every reef and shoal in the vital commercial waterway as its own, rebuffing overlapping territorial claims from the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. Although Washington has called for a diplomatic resolution to the disputes, it has recently challenged Beijings territorial ambitions with naval and air operations. Both nations have accused each other of militarizing the region.
[Reuters]
(Adds details on court filings)
By Dan Levine and Heather Somerville
SAN FRANCISCO, May 9 (Reuters) - Drivers who worked for ride-hailing service Uber in California and Massachusetts over the past seven years would have been entitled to an estimated $730 million in expense reimbursements had they been employees rather than contractors, according to court documents made public on Monday.
Uber and smaller rival Lyft are attempting to settle lawsuits by drivers who contend they should be classified as employees and therefore entitled to reimbursement for expenses, including gasoline and vehicle maintenance. Drivers currently pay those costs themselves.
According to attorneys for Uber drivers, the total potential damages in the case are $852 million, when including a claim to recover tips. The figure is based on rates for mileage reimbursement set by the U.S. government and on data provided by Uber Technologies Inc.
The company, meanwhile, calculates damages at $429 million, mainly due to a lower mileage rate.
The figures had been redacted in the original settlement deal proposed last month, but a San Francisco federal judge ordered them unsealed. The new data reveals how much of a risk employee classification is for on-demand tech companies like Uber. The proposed $100 million settlement keeps Uber drivers classified as contractors, though U.S. regulators are still reviewing the issue.
Uber drivers in California and Massachusetts were entitled to about $122 million in tips, the filings show. That means Uber made about $732 million in commissions in those two states since 2009, based on an assumed 20 percent tip rate - more than $100 million less than it would have cost to reimburse drivers for expenses and tips.
An Uber representative declined to comment.
The judge must decide whether the $100 million Uber settlement is fair, and the total potential damages at play will likely bear on his analysis. The deal represents about 12 percent of the potential $852 million in damages.
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Lyft had agreed to settle its class action for $12.25 million, but a separate federal judge rejected the deal because it represented only about 9 percent of the value of drivers' claims.
While the deal does not elevate drivers to employees, attorneys for drivers have defended it, saying they faced significant risks had the case gone to trial. They also say drivers who have worked several months could be entitled to thousands of dollars each under the settlement.
Beyond the money, Uber also agreed to new policies including an appeals process for drivers terminated by Uber.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
By Dan Levine and Heather Somerville
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Drivers who worked for ride-hailing service Uber [UBER.UL] in California and Massachusetts over the past seven years would have been entitled to an estimated $730 million in expense reimbursements had they been employees rather than contractors, according to court documents made public on Monday.
Uber and smaller rival Lyft are attempting to settle lawsuits by drivers who contend they should be classified as employees and therefore entitled to reimbursement for expenses, including gasoline and vehicle maintenance. Drivers currently pay those costs themselves.
According to attorneys for Uber drivers, the total potential damages in the case are $852 million, when including a claim to recover tips. The figure is based on rates for mileage reimbursement set by the U.S. government and on data provided by Uber Technologies Inc.
The company, meanwhile, calculates damages at $429 million, mainly due to a lower mileage rate.
The figures had been redacted in the original settlement deal proposed last month, but a San Francisco federal judge ordered them unsealed. The new data reveals how much of a risk employee classification is for on-demand tech companies like Uber. The proposed $100 million settlement keeps Uber drivers classified as contractors, though U.S. regulators are still reviewing the issue.
Uber drivers in California and Massachusetts were entitled to about $122 million in tips, the filings show. That means Uber made about $732 million in commissions in those two states since 2009, based on an assumed 20 percent tip rate - more than $100 million less than it would have cost to reimburse drivers for expenses and tips.
An Uber representative declined to comment.
The judge must decide whether the $100 million Uber settlement is fair, and the total potential damages at play will likely bear on his analysis. The deal represents about 12 percent of the potential $852 million in damages.
Story continues
Lyft had agreed to settle its class action for $12.25 million, but a separate federal judge rejected the deal because it represented only about 9 percent of the value of drivers' claims.
While the deal does not elevate drivers to employees, attorneys for drivers have defended it, saying they faced significant risks had the case gone to trial. They also say drivers who have worked several months could be entitled to thousands of dollars each under the settlement.
Beyond the money, Uber also agreed to new policies including an appeals process for drivers terminated by Uber.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Screen Shot 2016 05 10 at 3.01.18 PM
The UK ad regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA,) says it has received six complaints about a stunt from London-based luxury online fashion retailer Lyst, which began offering dogs "for sale" as earlier this week.
Lyst's "Canine Collection" currently offers a choice of 33 different dog breeds "to match your wardrobe," priced up to 615 for a Siberian Husky.
While lots of people were aware the Canine Collection was a PR stunt, many tweeted their outrage at Lyst for even suggesting dogs were simply accessories:
lyst tweets
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) told The Daily Mail "it sends out an extremely worrying message to people who are looking to get a new canine companion." Meanwhile, another animal charity, Dog Trust, said in a statement on its website that the stunt "draws attention to the concerning trend for impulse puppy purchases."
A spokesperson for the ASA told Business Insider: "The complaints mainly object to the suggested selling of animals via a postage/mailing system and the advertisement of these animals as fashion accessories, although complainants do acknowledge the fact this is a PR stunt and Lyst are not actually selling the animals."
The ASA is currently assessing the complaints to determine whether they fall within its remit and are likely to breach any apart of the UK's advertising codes. It has not yet launched a formal investigation but the ASA can investigate any ad after receiving just one complaint.
A spokesperson for Lyst told Business Insider the company had yet to hear from the ASA.
Regarding the negative reaction to the campaign on social media, Lyst provided this statement: "We were surprised to see the negative reactions on social media the very space where dogs are paraded as accessories the most. Who doesnt love a cute puppy in a handbag? We're just helping you buy both pieces of the Instagram shot at once!"
UPDATE: Lyst released a press release late on Tuesday afternoon after this article was first published "revealing" the Canine Collective was a "hoax, aimed at sparking debate around the worrying trend for 'handbag' dogs."
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Lyst's CMO is a fan of controversial marketing stunts
This isn't Lyst's first outlandish PR stunt. Last month, the ecommerce site claimed it had "kidnapped" a DHL delivery driver and was demanding a ransom of 1,000 DHL's t-shirts (because they bear a resemblance to a $300 version by luxury brand Vetements that hold sold out on its site.) The company sent press photos of the "driver" being tickled with feathers by women wearing Lyst t-shirts.
christian woolfenden
Lyst's chief marketing officer, Christian Woolfenden, is the former chief marketer at bookmaker Paddy Power a brand made famous by its controversial marketing stunts.
For example, in 2014 when Woolfenden was at Paddy Power the ASA said it received a record 5,525 complaints about a Paddy Power ad promoting a "money back if he walks" offer for punters betting on the outcome of Oscar Pistorius' murder trial.
The Malcontent's editor-in-chief Mic Wright did some digging into Lyst's puppy stunt and found the campaign was devised by social media agency The Social Chain, which is the owner of a number of Twitter accounts with large followings including UK Banter and British Logic.
However, some of the company's employees are not impressed, according to Wright, who says a source close to Lyst told him "Theres a lot of angry Lyst employees at the moment. Quite a few vocally objected to the campaign but were told they arent allowed to publicly voice their dissent."
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London (AFP) - British police apologised on Tuesday after officers shouted the Arabic phrase "Allahu akbar!" during a terror training exercise in a shopping centre in northern England.
In video footage of the exercise broadcast on British television, a masked man dressed in black could be seen running into the complex in Manchester shouting the words before setting off a bomb and falling to the floor.
"On reflection, we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam," said Garry Shewan, a senior officer at Greater Manchester Police.
In a statement, Shewan said the scenario had been based on "a suicide attack by an extremist Daesh-style organisation" -- Daesh being an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group -- but added: "We recognise and apologise for the offence that this has caused."
The phrase is Arabic for "God is greatest."
Tony Lloyd, mayor of Greater Manchester, said using the phrase was "ill-judged, unnecessary and unacceptable".
"It didn't add anything to the event, but has the potential to undermine the great community relations we have in Greater Manchester," he said.
The role play exercise on the outskirts of Manchester involved 800 people, including actors made up to resemble gunshot victims with horrific injuries.
Police said there was no specific threat in Manchester and that the exercise was devised in December a month after the Paris attacks which killed 130 people and were claimed by Islamic State jihadists.
Britain's terror threat level remains at severe, which means the security services consider an attack to be "highly likely".
By Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) - Ukraine's new-look government needs to prove itself quickly following the departure of a number of key Western-backed reformers last month, a top official from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Tuesday. The EBRD, along with the International Monetary Fund, is one of the only sources of funding for Ukraine at present. It has pumped about 1 billion euros annually into the ex-Soviet republic over the last two years. A big shake-up in Kiev last month saw President Petro Poroshenko bring in former parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Groysman as prime minister and Oleksandr Danylyuk as finance minister to replace investor-friendly Natalie Jaresko. "This government has the benefit of the doubt but not the luxury of time," Francis Malige, the EBRD's Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus told the Reuters Global Markets Forum, adding there was still a huge reform task ahead. Malige also said the EBRD could take a 15-25 percent stake in the privatization of Ukraine's largest chemical producer, the Odessa Port Chemical Plant (OPZ), in an auction that could come as early as next month. "A number of people interested have come to see us and we are talking to them," said Malige. The EBRD may also advise Kiev on the process of separating the pipeline business of state-run energy firm Naftogaz from the rest of the company. That would be another milestone for Ukraine, which is struggling to shake off the grip of vested interests and corruption in the country. "Naftogaz used to be one of the darkest corners of the Ukrainian economy. This is a revolution," Malige said. Another key issue for Malige is the drawn-out process of appointing a new prosecutor-general in Ukraine, a position that decides whether to prosecute politicians and other high-profile individuals. "What we need there is firm, resolute and quick action from authorities, starting from the top, to move quickly on appointing a prosecutor-general who is respected and who does the job," said Malige. The combination of such issues, as well as other difficulties such as organising fair tendering processes and governance, has meant that 2 billion euros of already-earmarked EBRD money for Ukraine remains unspent. Malige said he hoped gradual progress would be made in putting that money to work but acknowledged this year's spending may struggle to reach the 1 billion euro levels of recent years. "The second half of the year is stronger for us so it is still early days," he added. (Additional reporting by Kirsten Donovan; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Update: An Amber Alert has been issued for Carlie Trent in Missouri.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Carlie's alleged abductor, Gary Simpson, was possibly spotted driving a white van in Otterville, Missouri, on Tuesday.
The Tennessee man who allegedly kidnapped his 9-year-old niece six days ago bought girls clothing and cosmetic items as well as camping gear at a Walmart just hours before the alleged kidnapping, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced at a Tuesday press conference.
Gary Simpson, 57, who is Carlie Trent's uncle by marriage, bought girls underwear, a bikini, clothing, lipstick, nail polish, blankets and a child camping chair before picking up Carlie up from a Rogersville elementary school on May 4. The pair has not been seen since, and authorities say the items purchased by Simpson confirm their suspicion that he allegedly brought Carlie to a remote area or campground.
"[Simpson] intended to essentially go out of sight," Josh DeVine of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said at the press conference.
Simpson, 57, previously had custody of Carlie and her younger sister up until recently, when they were returned to their biological father, James Trent, DeVine tells PEOPLE.
Simpson allegedly told teachers at the school that Carlie's dad had been in a car accident and he was sent to get her. DeVine says this was a lie and Simpson had no authority to pick up Carlie that afternoon.
The motive for the alleged kidnapping is still unknown, DeVine tells PEOPLE.
"We believe this girl to be in imminent danger. As the days go, our concern for [Carlie's] well-being only grows," DeVine said at the press conference.
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After the alleged kidnapping, Simpson brought Carlie to a local grocery store and bought non-perishable food items and toiletries, officials said. In a newly released surveillance video from a Save-A-Lot, Carlie doesn't appear to be distressed, officials said.
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Devine tells PEOPLE: "At the end of the day she did have a relationship with her uncle she lived with him for sometime so there's reason to believe that she trusted him to some extent."
Father: 'I Want Her to Know She's Loved'
James Trent told Dateline that he has no choice but to stay positive.
"I have to be strong for my other daughter and for Carlie," Trent said. "But as the days keep passing, it's getting harder."
"There are so many places he could be," James added. "I don't know what story he's told her, because there is no doubt she wants to be home. This whole thing has puzzled our whole family because everything about that morning was normal."
He added, "I want her to know that she's loved. That she shouldn't believe whatever he's telling her. She should get out, run, scream, do whatever she has to do to get away, because there are so many people looking for her. We'll never give up."
Simpson was last seen driving a white 2002 Dodge Conversion Van with Tennessee registration number 173GPS.
DeVine said that the TBI has received more than 500 tips, however, there have not been any confirmed sightings of the van.
"Bring Carlie home," DeVine urged Simpson at the press conference. "Do the right thing. Bring this child home."
Authorities urge anyone living in the area or surrounding communities to form their own search parties and canvas their properties. It is unconfirmed whether Carlie and Simpson are still in Tennessee.
Carlie is described as 4'8" tall, weighing about 75 lbs. with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a black and gray tank top with blue jeans. Simpson was last seen wearing a brown cap with a dark colored shirt and blue jeans.
Anyone with information regarding Carlie's or Simpson's whereabouts is urged to contact the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND or the Rogersville Police Department at (423) 272-7555.
By David Brunnstrom LONDON (Reuters) - Companies should not use the United States as an excuse for not doing business with Iran, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday ahead of a meeting with European banks to discuss the Iranian issue. The United States and Europe lifted sanctions in January under a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear programme, but other U.S. sanctions remain, including a ban on Iran-linked transactions in dollars being processed through the U.S. financial system. This has meant that few European banks, and none of the big ones that have deep relationships with the U.S. banking system, have been willing to get involved in trade with Iran, much to Tehran's frustration. "Businesses should not use the United States as an excuse if they don't want to do business, or if they don't see a good business deal ... that's just not fair, that's not accurate," Kerry told reporters shortly after arriving in London. "We sometimes get used as an excuse in this process," he added. A U.S. official confirmed that Kerry would meet representatives of European banking institutions in London on Thursday to address their concerns about conducting business with Iran in the wake of the nuclear deal. "It's important to have clarity and the clarity is that European banks, as long as it's not a designated entity, are absolutely free to open accounts for Iran, trade, exchange money, facilitate a legitimate business agreement, bankroll it, lend money - all those things are absolutely open," Kerry said. British banks including Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered as well as some lenders from other European countries are expected to attend, according to sources familiar with the matter. Spokesmen for the three British banks declined to comment. The Iranian government has complained about not getting the full economic fruits of the nuclear deal. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the most powerful figure in Iran, has blamed the delays squarely on the United States. "The U.S. Treasury ... acts in such a way that big corporations, big institutions and big banks do not dare to come and deal with Iran," Khamenei said in March. The Iranian business community's hopes of rapidly emerging from years of economic isolation have been fading. Iranian business leaders believe the United States has failed to spell out exactly what is permitted and what is not, maintaining uncertainty and putting off international banks from processing Iran-linked transactions. Kerry is in Paris and London this week for meetings with European counterparts and an anti-corruption conference. He said last month that the United States was not opposed to foreign banks doing business with Iran in line with the terms of last year's nuclear deal, and that he wanted to clear up uncertainties in the business community. (Additional reporting by Lawrence White and Rachel Armstrong; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Richard Balmforth)
By David Brunnstrom LONDON (Reuters) - Companies should not use the United States as an excuse for not doing business with Iran, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday ahead of a meeting with European banks to discuss the Iranian issue. The United States and Europe lifted sanctions in January under a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program, but other U.S. sanctions remain, including a ban on Iran-linked transactions in dollars being processed through the U.S. financial system. This has meant that few European banks, and none of the big ones that have deep relationships with the U.S. banking system, have been willing to get involved in trade with Iran, much to Tehran's frustration. "Businesses should not use the United States as an excuse if they don't want to do business, or if they don't see a good business deal ... that's just not fair, that's not accurate," Kerry told reporters shortly after arriving in London. "We sometimes get used as an excuse in this process," he added. A U.S. official confirmed that Kerry would meet representatives of European banking institutions in London on Thursday to address their concerns about conducting business with Iran in the wake of the nuclear deal. "It's important to have clarity and the clarity is that European banks, as long as it's not a designated entity, are absolutely free to open accounts for Iran, trade, exchange money, facilitate a legitimate business agreement, bankroll it, lend money - all those things are absolutely open," Kerry said. British banks including Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered as well as some lenders from other European countries are expected to attend, according to sources familiar with the matter. Spokesmen for the three British banks declined to comment. The Iranian government has complained about not getting the full economic fruits of the nuclear deal. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the most powerful figure in Iran, has blamed the delays squarely on the United States. "The U.S. Treasury ... acts in such a way that big corporations, big institutions and big banks do not dare to come and deal with Iran," Khamenei said in March. The Iranian business community's hopes of rapidly emerging from years of economic isolation have been fading. Iranian business leaders believe the United States has failed to spell out exactly what is permitted and what is not, maintaining uncertainty and putting off international banks from processing Iran-linked transactions. Kerry is in Paris and London this week for meetings with European counterparts and an anti-corruption conference. He said last month that the United States was not opposed to foreign banks doing business with Iran in line with the terms of last year's nuclear deal, and that he wanted to clear up uncertainties in the business community. (Additional reporting by Lawrence White and Rachel Armstrong; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Richard Balmforth)
PITTSBURGH, PA / ACCESSWIRE / May 10, 2016 / Unique Pizza and Subs Corporation (UPZS) has announced its subsidiary PopsyCakes LLC has begun selling its five Unique flavored PopsyCakes, "The First Cupcake on a Pretzel", at the Dylan's Candy Bar's flagship store located in the heart of Manhattan. Dylan's Candy Bar was created by Dylan Lauren (daughter of fashion mogul Ralph Lauren) in 2001 and is a whimsical upscale Candy Wonderland for kids of all ages!
In 2001 Dylan Lauren opened her first Dylan's Candy Bar in the Upper East Side of NY which features 3 floors of decadent candy fun! Since the 2001 debut of the extremely successful Flagship Store, Dylan's has opened other stores in premier locations: NYC Union Square; Chicago; Los Angeles; Miami; Turnstyle at Columbus Circle (NY); East Hampton NY; Southwest FL Int. Airport (RSW); Telluride CO; Mohegan Sun Casino (CT); Grand Traverse (MI) Resort & Spa; Dallas Fort Worth Int. Airport (DFW); Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH); Hobby Int. Airport (HOU); JFK Int. Airport (JFK); Detroit Metro Airport (DTW).
PopsyCakes President Marc Falcone, said "We knew our gourmet PopsyCakes were a perfect fit for Dylan's because both company brands exude an industry leading quality. Going to any Dylan's Candy Bar is a wonderful experience for the whole family, but their flagship store in Manhattan is an experience like no other and it is an honor to now be a part of that experience. We look forward to the opportunity of bringing our gourmet PopsyCakes to all 16 of their nationwide locations soon."
History of PopsyCakes
The PopsyCakes Company was founded by Jessica Cervantes when she decided to create an innovative cupcake on an edible stick in 2006 at the age of 16. Ever since her grandmother taught her how to bake, Jessica has loved measuring and tasting different ingredients - and mixing them up to see how her culinary creations would turn out. But it wasn't until Jessica became a part of the International Business and Finance Academy at John A. Ferguson Senior High school, that baking and business came together in a brand new recipe for success.
The budding baker/entrepreneur, who emigrated to the U.S. from Cuba as a child, competed against 25,000 business students across the country and won first place in the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship National business plan competition which was held in 2008 in New York City, sponsored by Oppenheimer Funds.
Visit us on the web: http://www.PopsyCakes.com
About Unique Pizza and Subs:
Unique Pizza franchises pizza and sub restaurants throughout the United States. With a limited menu of pizzas, subs, calzones, salads, and beverages, the company is primarily focused on takeout and delivery services with limited full size restaurants. The company has three wholly owned subsidiaries Jose Madrid Salsa, Unique Pizza Brewhouse and PopsyCakes.
Visit us on the web: http://www.uniquepizza.com
Safe Harbor Act: This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward- looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions. There are no financials in this press release so this is not needed and undermines the release.
For Unique Pizza and Subs Corp. Investor Relations
Phone: (586) 228- 2290
Fax: (586) 228-6920
hank@capinc.net
http:/www.capinc.net
SOURCE: Unique Pizza and Subs Corp.
Negotiations on sharing logistics and military bases in the Pacific Ocean have exposed the sturm und drang plaguing recent U.S.-India relations. In mid-April, during U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carters trip to South Asia, he and Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar announced that the two countries had plans to sign an agreement known as a Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) within weeks. Though details on the agreement remain scant, Carter declared that the Indian and U.S. armed services are now operating together by air, land, and sea, collaborating on humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and maritime security. And by agreeing in principle to share and exchange logistics, the two countries would have the capacity to do even more in such missions.
This agreement would, presumably, grant each countrys navy access to the others naval bases and allow for expedited refueling and reprovisioning. But more than a few weeks have now elapsed since Carters trip and there have been few signs of movement toward consummating a deal between the two administrations. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modis government has come under fire from political opponents who object to any pact that might grant U.S. forces access to Indian soil. And thus it appears that New Delhi may have backpedaled on LEMOA in an effort to placate them.
From a practical standpoint, the deal makes good sense for both the United States and India. Both have interests spanning maritime Asia. Both find it sensible to work together to contend with an increasingly brawny and bellicose China. And over the past few years, the United States and India have been collaborating on aircraft-carrier design, debating manufacturing fighter aircraft on the subcontinent, and generally expanding the scope of their high-seas cooperation. Pooling logistical support thus extending both armed forces reach and staying power in distant seas is part of that new spirit of partnership. Good things are happening. Why not then sign LEMOA?
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But what makes strategic sense may flout political reality. Each action to tighten diplomatic or military ties between India and the United States summons an equal and opposite pushback from the Indian body politic. Call it Newtons Third Law of South Asian diplomacy. India is a standoffish great power, mindful of its dominant place in the Indian Ocean region and reluctant to appear to defer to any other power. It also has a turbulent past vis-a-vis the United States dating to the Cold War, when New Delhi professed nonalignment but inclined toward the Soviet bloc. It takes time to get over past animosities, no matter how pressing the reasons for doing so. It may also take a push from a domineering China a country that entertains grand ambitions in the Indian Ocean. Indeed, Beijings aggressive conduct in the South China Sea signals that a bellicose turn may be in the offing west of Malacca.
New Delhi and Washington must defy this law of diplomatic physics to allow bilateral ties to make the great leap forward strategic logic would dictate rather than inching along, as they have in the past. This will remain true unless China poses a clear and present danger in the Indian Ocean like it does now in disputed territory in the South China Sea overcoming resistance to closer working relations.
Whats the big deal about naval logistics?
Both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations have wanted to conclude a logistics pact with New Delhi. Such an agreement would represent an important token of closer partnership between the worlds two largest democracies and a platform for bigger undertakings to come.
For the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, known collectively as the sea services, the case for pooling logistics is self-evident. Warships need fuel and stores every few days to remain at sea. Yet the U.S. fleet of combat logistics ships oilers, ammunition ships, cargo ships of all varieties is woefully small: Just 30 of these workhorse vessels support U.S. naval operations throughout the seven seas.
And even that figure exaggerates. Factor in the rhythm of training, routine upkeep, and major overhauls, and U.S. Navy task forces can count on, at most, about 17 logistics ships. Indeed, so thin is the sea services logistical margin that, if I were a hostile maritime power, I would put sinking U.S. logistics ships first on my wartime to-do list. Why bother assailing well-defended aircraft carriers or destroyers? Do away with the logistics fleet, and the combat fleets striking power wilts.
Navies cruising far from home, even if they have robust combat logistics fleets, also need bases. Oilers, for instance, have to refill their tanks at a base after dispensing fuel to the fleet. Nearly a century ago, Rear Adm. Bradley Fiske likened bases purpose to supplying and replenishing the stored-up energy required for naval operations.
To stay with Fiskes physics simile, the fleet swiftly discharges its potential energy at sea. Smaller warships, such as cruisers and destroyers, defend aircraft carriers and other high-value units against air, surface, and undersea attacks. These vessels, with lesser storage capacity, quickly expend fuel, stores, spares, and ammunition. They must refuel every three to four days lest they exhaust their bunkers. A virtually inexhaustible fuel source drives nuclear-powered aircraft carriers through the water, but even flattops arent exempt from the law of logistics: Thirsty air wings demand jet fuel to stay aloft for aerial combat or routine patrols. By no means does nuclear power liberate carriers from their bases. The ship may be able to go anywhere, but it can accomplish little without regular resupply.
A fleets at-sea endurance, then, is far from infinite. Its exceedingly difficult for the fleet to sustain resources over intercontinental distances. Replenishment vessels must themselves be replenished, and often. And if no combat logistics ship is nearby, the fleet itself must put into port to refuel and reprovision. In other words, it has to leave the fight subtracting combat power and potentially placing the mission in jeopardy.
Theres also machinery upkeep. The capacity to refuel underway eases the fleets dependence on shore support, but major machinery repairs often outstrip its repair capability. Combatants feature modest welding, pipefitting, and machine shops, but only a shore depot can perform extensive repairs and maintenance. And indeed, every few years, U.S. vessels undergo protracted refits as part of their operating cycle.
Think of it this way: The relationship between the base, the logistics ship, and the fleet is like the relationship between the power outlet, your portable battery, and your portable electronic gizmos while on extended travel. You can recharge your devices for a while without searching for a power outlet, but the portable battery itself needs to be recharged once exhausted. At which point finding an outlet or USB port becomes your top priority. The combat fleet is the iPad or iPhone, the logistics ship the rechargeable battery, and a well-equipped harbor the power outlet. The more outlets and the more strategically located near important operating zones the better.
Without permanent bases, naval forces can improvise, however. During World War II, for example, the U.S. Navy built a massive fleet of logistics vessels, including not just replenishment ships, but also destroyer and submarine tenders: floating repair shops capable of conducting all but the farthest-reaching repairs to damaged hulls. Thus equipped, the Navy could create mobile fleet anchorages such as Ulithi, an atoll along U.S. naval forces route to the Philippines and the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. Planting new logistics hubs along the U.S. lines of advance helped the U.S. military surge across the Pacific Ocean toward the Japanese mainland. This approach is viable during total war. In peacetime, however, naval forces cannot simply seize territory and convert them to refueling bases. Washington must court friendly host nations like India to gain access.
The Indian Navy likewise needs access to shore installations to voyage beyond the subcontinents immediate environs. Look at a map of Eurasia. The U.S. sea services operate mainly from logistics hubs such as Yokosuka and Sasebo in Japan and Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. In other words, theyre positioned at the extreme east and west of the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean theater. India is a peninsula of colossal proportions jutting into the Indian Ocean, occupying a central position along the sea lanes connecting Japan with the Persian Gulf.
While Chinas naval buildup garners most of the headlines, the Indian Navy is a force on the move as well (albeit trailing its Chinese counterpart in numbers and quality of ships, aircraft, and armaments). Indian Navy spokesmen have projected a fleet of 200 vessels by 2027, compared to the 137 they have as of mid-2015. That fleet will include aircraft carriers (ships the Indian Navy has operated for decades); nuclear-powered attack and ballistic-missile submarines; and a growing contingent of high-tech surface combat ships to defend carriers from aerial, missile, and undersea attacks.
Yet the infrastructure to support naval operations far from Indian coasts remains minimal. If India wants to operate at the eastern or western reaches of maritime Eurasia, it needs logistical support. If the United States wants to operate between those extremes, its sea services can benefit immensely from port access in that South Asian midsection. Reciprocal benefits beckon.
In other words, LEMOA will complete an arc of logistics facilities sweeping all the way from Tokyo Bay to Bahrain helping the partners stage operations throughout the Indo-Pacific. (By similar logic, China has bankrolled seaport development at sites like Gwadar in western Pakistan and has commenced construction of a naval facility at Djibouti, in the Gulf of Aden.) The pact will give New Delhi the option to dispatch expeditionary forces beyond the Indian Ocean say, to uphold freedom of navigation in the contested South China Sea. And it will help the U.S. sea services execute the nautical component of the Obama administrations pivot to Asia, keeping naval forces on station where and when it matters.
And they do need to be on station more or less constantly. The sea services pivoted to East and South Asia under the 2007 U.S. Maritime Strategy, which enjoined them to stage credible combat power in these waters for the foreseeable future. Forward-deploying U.S. sea power helps protect the system of liberal trade and commerce from nonstate adversaries think Somali pirates, or gunrunners and also from predatory states that, say, claim ownership of parts of the maritime commons. Hence Washingtons quest for logistical support.
Why the Indian pushback?
Clearly, India and the United States both benefit from LEMOA. Yet Indians remain palpably skittish about the accord. The document has been in the works for more than a decade, yet New Delhi cant quite bring itself to close the deal. Indeed, during Carters mid-April trip, his Indian counterpart, Parrikar, announced only that Secretary Carter and I agreed in principle to conclude a Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement in the coming months. In principle is diplomatic shorthand for: This aint a done deal yet. Indian defense officials, furthermore, were quick to add that the covenant, if signed, would not grant automatic U.S. access to Indian bases. Still less does LEMOA amount to a military alliance.
New Delhi telegraphed that it would not sign away its freedom to say no to U.S.-led military enterprises that could ensnare India in regional conflict. And why would it? No one likes to issue blank checks, even to friends or allies. Political blowback follows failure as surely as night follows day: see War, Iraq, 2003. India would not be spared the blowback from a similar U.S.-led debacle. Nor could New Delhi escape the political splatter even if it merely acted as a silent partner, holding back any direct force contribution while supplying U.S. forces with fuel, stores, or spare machinery parts. It will take clear, painstaking diplomacy to explain U.S. purposes and strategy, overcoming likely Indian misgivings about martial ventures.
Indian leaders, in short, fear they could implicate their nation by joining the fray in any capacity. And Indian leaders also probably fret about pressure from China which would never let them forget it if some operation went awry, hurting Chinese interests in South Asia. An errant venture could hurt New Delhis good name, damaging its standing with fellow Indian Ocean states. Worse, it might even embroil India in conflict with its neighbors. Thats why even the appearance of abridging Indias nonaligned posture makes officialdom queasy.
This understandable wariness reinforces Newtons Third Law of U.S.-India relations. Just consider the partners past. India won independence from Great Britain in 1947, only to help found the Non-Aligned Movement in the 1950s. While ostensibly neutral, India tilted toward the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War often bridling at U.S. naval actions in the Indian Ocean. New Delhi still tries to remain on good terms with Moscow including by purchasing military hardware from Russian manufacturers. If tightening up ties with the United States makes strategic sense, Indian leaders desire to keep up relations with Russia helps generate an equal and opposite reaction slowing forward progress on initiatives such as LEMOA.
And theres a long history of mutual suspicion and occasional animosity between Washington and New Delhi. To this day, for example, Indians will regale you with tales about the USS Enterprises Bay of Bengal cruise during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. Indians interpreted the voyage as Washingtons ham-handed effort to intimidate New Delhi during a time of national crisis. Such memories linger, molding attitudes and reflexes toward bilateral martial endeavors.
For India, then, LEMOA is more than a workmanlike arrangement for two navies common benefit. Its a symbol. Now, as always since winning its independence from Great Britain, India remains leery of entangling alliances, much as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson counseled the early United States to shun them. Nonalignment remains strong especially among the opposition Indian National Congress, the party of Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the Gandhis. Modi cannot stampede such entrenched traditions with impunity.
India, moreover, is mindful of its stature as the Indian Oceans natural hegemon. The United States may be a friendly, English-speaking, democratic seafaring state. Its also a non-Asian great power whose navy dominates Indias backyard. That rankles, even as New Delhi welcomes its help in policing regional waters and fending off the rival great power that is China. Neither the partners common English language, nor common heritage as scions of the British Empire, nor common form of government, nor common purpose of keeping order at sea will beget a formal alliance soon if ever.
Only a truly overbearing China might overcome this rocky past. Indian leaders have voiced misgivings, for instance, about the presence of Chinese submarines in the Indian Ocean, a presence that is becoming more and more routine. They also worry that Beijing will transform its limited presence at places like Gwadar and Djibouti into a full-blown network of naval facilities a precursor to a standing naval presence that encircles the subcontinent from the sea. Until Chinas ambitions come into sharper focus, however, the push-and-pull dynamic between Washington and New Delhi will portend fitful progress and an uncertain outcome. This U.S. administration and the next must keep working toward an entente but it must work at Indias pace, framing the rationale for naval cooperation in terms of Indias interests as India construes them. Theres no substitute for patient diplomacy toward this reluctant friend.
Image Credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images
UW Trump Wall
University of Washington students erected an 8-foot wall on campus Monday to show support for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, The Seattle Times reported.
About 10 Donald Trump supporters, who appeared to be UW students, built the plywood structure in the campus' Red Square and painted it with a red-brick design and the words "Trump wall."
The crowd grew to about 100, most of them protesters. They held up signs that said "Stop Trump now and Immigrant lives matter, according to the Times.
A cardboard cutout of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also appeared at the protest.
Crystal Pino, a UW student who identified herself as being of Mexican heritage, climbed over the wall with the help of other students in a show of protest.
Im Mexican and to see this all going on is really upsetting, Pino told the Times.
After Pino scaled the wall, police asked the Trump supporters to take down the wall and the crowd dissipated.
The building of the wall followed Donald Trump's first campaign trip to Washington state.
UW president Ana Mari Cauce called the wall "offensive" but acknowledged that she supported the rights of students to express their opinions, according to The Times.
Chevy Swanson, the president of Students for Trump at UW, told The Times he knows about 20 Trump supporters but that being Trump supporter has social consequences on this campus.
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I dont think its unreasonable to say some people would not want to be public supporters when the opposition is so overwhelming, he said.
The gathering mirrors protests cropping up on college campuses across the country. At Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, chalk writings of "Trump 2016" appeared around campus in March. Vocal outcry followed, with many students on campus saying they felt intimidated by the words.
In turn, their protests set off mocking responses and arguments that safe spaces and trigger warnings on campus have gone too far.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg echoed this sentiment in an April commencement speech at the University of Michigan.
You can watch footage of the protest below.
NOW WATCH: The real story behind Trump's taco bowl tweet
More From Business Insider
US and Afghan forces freed the kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister during a counter-terrorism mission in eastern Afghanistan, NATO said Tuesday, three years after he was kidnapped in a hail of bullets.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, was rescued in the Giyan district of Paktika province "by US Special Operations Forces and Afghan commandos in a partnered raid," NATO said in the statement from Kabul.
The Afghan presidency said the raid targeted an Al-Qaeda cell, and that Gilani had been sent to the Pakistani embassy in Kabul.
The Afghan ambassador to Islamabad, Omar Zakhilwal, told AFP that Gilani was in good health.
"He is fine, he can walk, he can talk," Zakhilwal said, adding that he expected the former hostage to return to Pakistan late Tuesday or Wednesday.
Yousaf Raza Gilani broke the news to a cheering crowd at a political rally in Pakistan-held Kashmir Tuesday.
"This rally has proved fortunate for me," he said.
"When I was about to board the helicopter (to come), I received the information that my son Ali Haider Gilani, who was kidnapped three years ago, has been recovered."
Hundreds of people converged on the family's home in Multan in central Punjab province as the news broke, dancing to drumbeats and passing around sweets in celebration.
Some also hugged and presented flowers to Ali Haider's brother, Abdul Qadir Gilani, who told media he was "so happy today that I can't explain it in words".
"He is still in Afghanistan and soon he will be among us," he said of his brother.
"God has accepted somebody's prayer. The prayer of those who love us," a third brother, Ali Musa Gilani, told media.
NATO said the raid was carried out under Operation Freedom's Sentinel, the US mission focusing on counter-terrorism as well as training, advising and assisting Afghan troops.
"Four enemy combatants were killed as a result of the operation," it said.
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The Pentagon was tight-lipped about events leading up to the raid, but said it occurred after US and Afghan forces had "identified terrorist activity."
"There were terrorists where they struck and conducted this raid, and during that activity they were able to rescue Mr Gilani," US Central Command spokesman Colonel Pat Ryder said.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said Gilani would go home after receiving a medical evaluation, and he heralded the raid as evidence of progress by Afghanistan's struggling security services.
"This raid demonstrates the growing capabilities and effectiveness of the Afghan security forces and is an excellent example of the strong security and intelligence partnership between Afghan and US forces," Carter said.
- 'Welcome back' -
Gilani was kidnapped by militants in the outskirts of Multan on May 9, 2013, just two days before a bitterly contested national election in which he was campaigning.
Gunmen on a motorbike opened fire before abducting him in a black Honda car. His secretary and a bodyguard were killed, and four people wounded.
In May last year, he was able to phone his father to tell him he was well.
The ex-premier's family is one of the most powerful in Multan and a key clan in the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which lost the 2013 election.
Gilani's recovery comes two months after the kidnapped son of another Pakistani politician was also freed.
Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjabi governor Salman Taseer, spent five years in militant captivity before his abrupt release in March.
"Welcome back @haidergilani," Shahbaz Taseer tweeted Tuesday, adding an image of the Pakistani flag.
Gilani senior was prime minister from March 2008 until he was sacked and indicted by the Supreme Court in April 2012 for refusing to re-open corruption cases against the then-president.
He complained after the kidnapping that his family was not given security, despite being threatened.
Key Economic Indicators: Jobs, Crude Oil, and Manufacturing Data
(Continued from Prior Part)
US crude oil inventory
According to a report published by the EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) on Wednesday, April 20, 2016, the US (SPY) (VOO) (SPXL) crude oil inventory rose by 2.1 million barrels for the week ending April 15, 2016. This was slightly below Market expectations. Crude oil prices rose nearly 3.2% on the day due to a less-than-expected rise in the US crude oil inventory. The US crude oil (USO) (UCO) (UWTI) inventory had increased by 6.6 million barrels in the week ending April 8. The rise in inventory hampered crude oil price movement. Read US Crude Oil Stockpiles Rose: Will Crude Oil Lose More Ground? to learn more about last weeks crude oil inventory report.
Doha meeting fails, investors focus on another meeting of oil producers
According to Iraqs deputy oil minister, major oil producers will meet in Russia, most likely in May 2016, to discuss the crude oil output freeze. However, Russias (RSX) (ERUS) energy minister said that no meeting has been scheduled for oil producers in Russia.
As the Doha meeting failed to lead to an agreement to freeze crude oil production, investor sentiment led to panic regarding the future movement of crude oil prices. Saudi Arabia, one of the leading producers and exporters of crude oil, wanted Iran to agree to the production freeze. As Iran backed out of the production freeze talks at the last minute, the meeting failed to meet investors expectations. Crude oil price movement depends on the next steps taken by major crude oil producers.
In the next part of this series, well analyze the performance of the US manufacturing PMI in April.
Continue to Next Part
Browse this series on Market Realist:
Washington (AFP) - The United States said Tuesday it was keen to work with whoever wins the presidential election in the Philippines, after foul-mouthed populist Rodrigo Duterte claimed victory.
"We look forward to working with and congratulating the winner," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said, after the 71-year-old firebrand declared himself the winner of Monday's voting.
Trudeau stressed that official results had not yet been confirmed, but said the United States would work with whichever candidate emerges on top.
"Washington respects the choice of the Philippines' people. We will gladly work with the leader they've selected," she added, without being drawn on some of Duterte's more controversial statements.
Duterte, who has vowed a fierce crackdown on crime and corruption, has made no secret of his involvement in running vigilante death squads as mayor of Davao and waged an incendiary campaign.
Duterte dominated campaign media coverage and generated international headlines with his relentless gutter talk, branding the pope a "son of a whore" and boasting repeatedly about his Viagra-fuelled affairs.
He caused further disgust in diplomatic circles by joking that he would have wanted to rape an Australian missionary who was killed in a 1989 Philippine prison riot.
Duterte was enraged when the US and Australian ambassadors criticized his comments and even threatened to break ties with Washington, one of the Philippines' closest allies.
On Tuesday, he said it was up to US officials to repair relations with him and indicated that he was prepared to hold direct talks with Beijing over a sensitive territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
This, at least, did not cause offense.
"The United States has consistently expressed support for nations to exercise peaceful means to resolve territorial or maritime disputes without the use of force, intimidation or coercion," Trudeau said.
Yangon (AFP) - Washington's new ambassador to Myanmar on Tuesday said remaining sanctions had taken an "unintended" toll on the nation's delicate economic development, as the US re-evaluates its embargoes on the former pariah state.
Myanmar's stunning transition from decades of repressive junta rule to a civilian-led government steered by Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy party was accompanied by the lifting of most Western embargoes.
The United States rolled back many of its sanctions to reward reforms since 2011, but kept a clutch of blacklists targeting junta-era cronies and their sprawling business interests as it seeks to push further changes.
"We recognise that even these limited, targeted sanctions occasionally have unintended effects on the broader economy," ambassador Scot Marciel said at a press conference in Yangon.
"Now in the aftermath of the transition to the new elected government we are again reviewing our sanctions," he said, adding that he could not yet say what the result of next week's review would be.
Washington is likely to maintain the backbone of its sanction powers in a nation where the military continues to wield huge political and economic power, despite Suu Kyi's November election win.
Marciel said Washington would maintain focus on improving Myanmar's human rights situation, as well as amending the country's junta-drafted constitution, which ringfences the army's continued clout and bars Suu Kyi from becoming president.
But he anticipated a "different conversation" under the new administration, steered by Suu Kyi from her role as state counsellor.
In December the US temporarily eased restrictions on Myanmar's ports to unclog trade into the fast-developing country.
The move freed businesses to import and export through the main Yangon port terminal, which is run by Asia World, one of the country's largest blacklisted conglomerates.
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Marciel declined to be drawn on recent reports that Suu Kyi, in her role as foreign minister, had indicated that the US should refrain from using the term "Rohingya" to apply to the persecuted Muslim minority in western Myanmar.
Buddhist nationalists staged a protest outside the embassy last month against its use of the word.
Marciel said that communities around the world "get to choose what they want to be called".
"That's a fundamental international practice and we respect that," Marciel said, without using the term Rohingya.
Suu Kyi has long faced criticism over her reticence to speak out more strongly in support of the Rohingya.
They face restrictions on access to health, employment and education in Rakhine state, where tens of thousands remain trapped in grim displacement camps following waves of deadly communal violence in 2012.
Rohingya are labelled "Bengali" by hardline Buddhists and many officials, who brand them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh even though many can trace their ancestry back generations.
The deputy director general of Myanmar's foreign ministry, Kyaw Moe Tun, told AFP that while Suu Kyi had not given Marciel a formal instruction in a recent meeting, talks had touched on "how to handle the current situation wisely".
Washington (AFP) - US prosecutors said Tuesday they will not seek the death penalty against a Libyan charged over the Benghazi attacks that killed Washington's ambassador and three other Americans in 2012.
Ahmed Abu Khatallah, who was captured by US special forces two years ago and brought to the United States on a US Navy ship, is facing an 18-count indictment over the killings at an American diplomatic and intelligence compound.
His lawyers had unsuccessfully sought to have the case dismissed and have Khatallah returned to Libya. They had pressed hard for the death penalty to be removed as a possibility should Khatallah be convicted of a capital crime.
"The United States of America... hereby gives notice that the government will not seek imposition of the death penalty if the defendant is convicted of any capital crime charged in this case," US Attorney Channing Phillips wrote in a notice filed with the US District Court in Washington.
Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said US Attorney General Loretta Lynch reached the decision to drop the death penalty after consultation with prosecutors.
"The department is committed to ensuring that the defendant is held accountable," Pierce said in a statement.
With the death penalty now off the table, Khatallah faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.
"We believe this was the correct decision and are pleased that the attorney general made the decision on the merits without political considerations," the defendant's lawyer Eric Lewis told AFP.
"It is a very important development, but the case will be fought hard on the merits."
- Political ramifications -
The charges against Khatallah, who has pleaded not guilty, include murder of an international protected person -- late US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens -- providing material support to terrorists and destroying US property by causing death.
The suspect, believed to be 45 and also known as Ahmed Mukatallah or simply "sheikh," was identified by the US State Department as a senior leader of Ansar al-Sharia, a Libyan group responsible for a spate of attacks and assassinations.
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The assault saw gunmen storm the US mission in Benghazi and set it on fire.
A CIA annex was also targeted in the attacks that shocked Washington, quickly growing into a highly charged political issue that has embroiled White House contender Hillary Clinton due to her role as the top US diplomat at the time.
Republicans led congressional investigations into the prominent Democrat's handling of the attacks. During the course of the probe, it was revealed that Clinton used a private email server for both official and private correspondence.
The FBI launched a criminal investigation amid Republican charges that her use of a private email server endangered national security.
The Benghazi attack also raised questions about security at US diplomatic facilities worldwide and the accuracy of US intelligence on militant threats.
From Esquire
Being our semi-regular weekly survey of the state of Our National Dialogue which, as you know, is what The Clash would have come up with had they recorded, "Derp Or Glory."
We don't ordinarily touch on the Sunday Showz from the cable networks, but we have to say that Exasperated Jake Tapper on CNN has become one of our favorite new television programs. On Sunday, for reasons wholly related to Donald Trump, he hosted Princess Dumbass of the Northwoods. And the word salad bar was wide open!
"I want to help and not hurt, and I am such a realist that I realize there are a whole lot of people out there who say, 'Anybody but Palin.' I wouldn't want to be a burden on the ticket and I recognize that in many, many eyes, I would be that burden. So, you know, I just want the guy to win. I want America to win."
She'll settle for Secretary of State, I guess. And, sadly, the other half of the 2008 Republican ticket seems to have come loose from his moorings. Also on CNN, John McCain has surrendered to surreality because that's all he has left.
"You have to draw the conclusion that there is some distance, if not a disconnect, between party leaders and members of Congress and the many voters who have selected Donald Trump to be the nominee of the party," McCain said when asked about the comments by House Speaker Paul Ryan and his close friend Sen. Lindsey Graham, both of whom have so far refused to back Trump. "You have to listen to people that have chosen the nominee of our Republican Party," McCain said. "I think it would be foolish to ignore them."
So he says about a vulgar talking yam who began his campaign by ridiculing the torments of the damned that McCain endured in North Vietnam. (This is right up there with his sucking up eight years later to the forces who slandered his daughter in 2000. Why does it always seem that the way to gain John McCain's favor is to treat him as badly as possible?) He then went on to defend his choice of running mate and to propose one for He, Trump.
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"I don't often make a comment like this. But she was treated terribly by what we know as the mainstream media and that's the only thing I will ever resent about my presidential campaign is her treatment by the media. It was disgraceful."
All of them, Katie.
And McCain's suggested running mate this time around? None other than my new friend, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who is Sarah Palin, if you substitute pig testicles for moose jerky. From The Washington Examiner:
Asked about Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, whose name has been floated as someone the Trump campaign may be vetting, the Arizona senator heaped praise on her. "Joni Ernst would be tremendous. She is really remarkable," said McCain. "I think there's a number of members in the Senate."
Genius! I can't wait to see what the folks in the writer's room of Exasperated Jake Tapper have for a season finale.
On the networks, however, this week's House Cup goes to my man Chuck Todd, who always has been the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Todd had He, Trump over for a chat and, after a few minutes of stunning incoherence on the subject of election law, we were treated to this amazing moment of television.
TODD: Wait a minute. Let me stop you there. You just said, "Businesses might pay a little bit more." You just said, "Business might pay a little bit more, but we're going to get 'em a massive tax cut." You just said it within ten words.
TRUMP: No, no. I didn't say it. Excuse me. I said they might have to pay a little bit more than my proposal, Chuck. I said they might have-
TODD: Oh, your proposal. Okay. I just wanted to get that clear.
TRUMP: -yeah, than my proposal.
TODD: Fair enough.
TRUMP: I'm not talking about more than they're paying now.
TODD: Got you.
TRUMP: We're the highest taxed nation in the world. Our businesses pay more taxes than any businesses in the world. That's why companies are leaving. So they may have to pay a little bit more than my proposal, is what I mean. I assume you knew that. I assume you know that.
TODD: Got you. Okay. No, no, no, no. I just wanted to clear that up.
TRUMP: Okay, good. Good, I'm glad you cleared it up-
Forget that little pat on the head there at the end. My man Chuck Todd had He, Trump pinned. The way you know that is that He, Trump had to resort to a barefaced non-fact about how we are "the highest-taxed nation in the world." (This is not within an area code of the truth. Criminy, even PolitiFact noticed.) And what do we get for pushback? "Fair enough" and two "gotchas."
If hope is not a plan, then bluster and bombast are even less of one.
This is going to be a real crisis for elite political journalism from now until November, perhaps the deepest crisis elite political journalism has faced since the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, and that one didn't turn out well at all. The Republican Party is about to nominate an utterly truthless fellow who doesn't know how much he doesn't know and is prepared to lie his way past everything he doesn't know anyway. I'm afraid that elite political journalism is so wedded to "balance" that it is in no way prepared to cope with a post-reality candidate. (Professor Krugman shares this concern.) "Fair enough" and "gotcha" are not appropriate answers to the assertion by a candidate that he plans to heal the national economy by setting up a roulette wheel and two blackjack tables in the Department of the Treasury.
If hope is not a plan, then bluster and bombast are even less of one. Elite political journalism has a greater responsibility to the Republic than "balance" or "objectivity." This is going to be a long six months.
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By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - A major yellow fever outbreak in Angola and two smaller flare-ups in Uganda and Congo are largely under control but countries have been warned to be vigilant in case the disease pops up elsewhere, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. Yellow fever is hard to spot early on and spreads quickly in towns, transmitted by the same mosquito that carries the Zika virus, which bites in the daytime and has flourished during the abnormal El Nino weather of the past year caused by the warming of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America. "What we hope is that El Nino will not be faster than we are," said Sylvie Briand, head of WHO's department of pandemic and epidemic diseases. "We are concerned for other countries that have high densities of mosquitoes." Until the development of the highly effective vaccine, yellow fever changed history, Briand said, with outbreaks delaying construction of the Panama Canal and encouraging Napoleon to give up territorial ambitions in North America. In Angola's capital Luanda, the first cases were at a roadside restaurant six months ago, when a group of friends fell ill with suspected food poisoning and several died. Only when the restaurant owner died was the alarm raised. Angola has had 2,267 suspected cases and 293 deaths. Of the cases, 696 have been confirmed, including 445 from Luanda province. Democratic Republic of Congo has had 41 confirmed cases, almost all of them imported from Angola, but the outbreak was discovered early and should be stopped quickly, Briand said. Uganda, which has seven confirmed cases in rural areas, was also well set up to tackle such outbreaks, she said. Luanda's population is now almost completely vaccinated, but it used up the world's entire emergency stockpile of vaccines, and the slow vaccination campaign allowed the virus to spread to other provinces. "The vaccine supply, which is usually sufficient, may become stretched if we have more outbreaks in the coming months," Briand said. An early risk is Angola's population of foreign oil workers, who are in danger of taking the disease home with them. Portugal and China, which both have strong links to Angola, have both taken the right steps to protect themselves, Briand said. But many countries in Africa do not have vaccination coverage for children, and Nigeria, which suffered thousands of yellow fever deaths in a multi-year outbreak in the 1980s, was still "definitely a country at risk", Briand said. "We hope to be able to vaccinate everybody before there's a case." (Editing by Ed Osmond)
(Reuters) - Viacom Inc's (VIAB.O) board is considering whether to further cut the pay of its Chairman Emeritus Sumner Redstone, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Viacom and CBS Corp (CBS.N) board members are also planning to visit Redstone, the chairman of the two companies, to investigate his competence for themselves, the newspaper reported.
Viacom Inc had cut the total pay of its 92-year-old chairman Redstone by 85 percent to $2 million (1.4 million pounds) last year.
A judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit brought by a former girlfriend challenging her removal as Redstone's healthcare agent.
Viacom Inc and CBS Corp were not immediately available for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.
(Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
BEIJING (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG's (VOWG_p.DE) and joint venture partner China FAW Group Corp [SASACJ.UL] will begin construction in Tianjin next week for a plant with capacity to produce 300,000 cars annually, a spokesman for the German carmaker in Beijing said on Tuesday.
The plant is due to be completed by 2018, the spokesman said. He declined to put a value on the project, but state-owned newspaper China Daily cited an FAW-VW joint venture official saying the investment was worth 19.5 billion yuan (2.08 billion pounds).
VW had previously announced that it planned to build a factory in Tianjin, a northern port city, that would start production by 2018, but had not provided more details at the time.
The German automaker has broadly maintained its production and investment plans in the world's largest car market despite sluggish sales growth as China's economy expands at its slowest rate in 25 years.
The spokesman said the company is aiming for an annual production capacity of five million by 2020. VW said last year it would hit that mark by 2019.
"Generally, we stay on our investment plans, with some modifications of course which is normal and which will always be done," VW China chief Jochem Heizmann told reporters in Beijing last month.
"We will use these capacities and have some more flexibility to react."
Heizmann said ahead of last month's Beijing motor show that the company would invest 4 billion euros ($4.49 billion) with its joint venture partners in China this year.
In addition to FAW-VW, the company also makes passenger cars through a separate joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp Ltd .
Volkswagen sales grew 6.4 percent in the first quarter compared to a year prior, bouncing back from a 3.4 percent decline in sales for full-year 2015.
(Reporting by Jake Spring and Brenda Goh; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Walden Media will develop, finance and produce a film adaptation of David E. Hoffmans The Billion Dollar Spy with Akiva Goldsman producing, Variety has learned exclusively.
Ben August (Remember) is attached to write the script. Goldsmans producing credits through his Weed Road company include Lone Survivor, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and I Am Legend.
Walden Media President/CEO Frank Smith said: David Hoffmans magnificent and detailed story of cold war espionage couldnt be more timely. With the prolific producer Akiva Goldsman and rising star, writer Ben August, on board, this is a very exciting project. The Billion Dollar Spy is a great fit for Walden as we expand our slate, its a story of true patriotism, and the lengths people will go in order to be free from tyranny and oppression.
Hoffmans book centers on an ordinary man, Adolf G. Tokachev, who became the Pentagons most valuable spy during the last years of the Cold War. Tolkachev, a senior engineer in a top-secret Soviet aerospace laboratory, used his high-level access to hand over tens of thousands of pages of technical secrets, and secretly photographed thousands of pages of highly classified blueprints, diagrams and reports on the latest airborne radars, avionics, guidance systems and fighter designs.
The CIA soon became the crown jewel of their spying networks. Tolkachev and his handlers succeeded for years in eluding the feared KGB in its own backyard, until the day came when a shocking betrayal put them all at risk.
Augusts Remember was released this year through A24 after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, starring Christopher Plummer and directed by Atom Egoyan. He also wrote The Swimmer for Thunder Road, Protected for IM Global, and The Thief for Senator.
Naia Cucukov will oversee the project on behalf of Walden Media. Greg Lessans will oversee the project on behalf of Weed Road.
Hoffman is represented by ICM Partners. August is represented by ICM Partners, Kaplan/Perrone and Eclipse Law. Goldsman is represented by WME and attorney Barry Littman.
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Waldens upcoming projects include The BFG, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Roald Dahls novel, opening July 1; A Dogs Purpose, directed by Lasse Hallstrom and based on the book of the same name, on Jan. 27; and the inspirational true story Carry On with Nate Parker (Birth of a Nation) attached to write.
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Beginning Saturday at 3 p.m. EST, the finals of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest will air on both Viacoms Logo Network and LogoTV.com, marking the competitions first-ever live broadcast in the United States.
Now in its 61st year, the biggest, boldest, campiest music competition on Earth is being held in the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, where performers from 42 countries will come together to compete for the contests top spot and the right for their home country to host next years event. Pop star Justin Timberlake will sing during the finale in a non-competitive performance of his new song Cant Stop the Feeling.
Read More: Eurovision Song Contests Final to Be Broadcast in U.S. for First Time
And dont worry, for those without cable or those looking to watch Tuesday and Thursdays semifinal rounds the contests live shows are also being streamed worldwide on Eurovision.tv.
One week after upsetting Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the Indiana primary, Bernie Sanders may notch yet another victory on Tuesday, as voters head to the polls in the West Virginia primaries.
Eight years after she defeated then-Sen. Barack Obama by 41 percentage points in the Mountain State, polls show Clinton at risk of losing the state to Sanders, who's won over many of the white, working class voters who flocked to her 2008 candidacy.
Badly damaged by recent comments suggesting she'd shutter coal mines, Clinton's popularity has taken a hit in the state, which historically backed Democrats in national elections but has lurched sharply to the right as the politics of climate and energy have grown increasingly polarized.
Sanders is no more pro-coal than Clinton, but his populist economic message has resonated with Coal Country's working-class whites still belonging to the Democratic Party.
Source: Paul Sancya/AP
According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Sanders boasts a 46% to 40% lead over Clinton heading into Tuesday's balloting. A win won't rescue his fading campaign, however. A scant 29 pledged delegates will be proportionally allocated in West Virginia, and Sanders must win of the remaining delegates up for grabs to secure the 2,383 delegates needed for the nomination.
Still, a Sanders victory on Tuesday would be a good sign for his chances in another Coal Country state, Kentucky, where voters head to the polls on May 17. That same day, Oregon voters will have their say, and Sanders is likely to receive a boost from the state's progressive tilt and the support of Sen. Jeff Merkley.
Will West Virginia be part of a May win streak for Sanders? We'll find out after polls close at
Credit: Danny ClinchThe Grateful Dead spinoff group Dead & Company is scheduled to perform on tonight's episode of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! and, according to The Los Angeles Times, the band is hoping to raise awareness about more than just its music during the appearance. The newspaper reports that the band has invited at least 300 people who support legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California to attend the show in an effort to inspire voters to get behind the cause.
The legal pot issue will be on the ballot in California this November, although the use of medical marijuana already has been legalized in the state. Dead & Company are encouraging members of various organizations that support the legalization of recreational marijuana use to wear themed T-shirts, bring signs and dress up in costumes -- such as a giant joint -- to the taping to help get the message out during the national telecast.
"The folks it would be hitting on that broadcast would be outside our normal sphere of influence," founding Grateful Dead and Dead & Company member Bob Weir tells the L.A. Times. "We're about music, but we're about other stuff as well, and we always have been. We need to make our feelings on the subject as apparent as we can."
Dead & Company members initially asked if legal-pot advocacy groups could sponsor the Kimmel episode but the suggestion was shot down. They then came up with the plan to have a large group of supporters attend the show, with hopes that it will encourage a conversation about the issue.
"They're respectful advocates, and they're very thoughtful in their approach to this entire industry," Dead & Company manager Bernie Cahill says of the group. "I don't see that changing."
Dead & Company will be performing as part of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! summer concert series on an outdoor stage set up behind the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. The show airs at 11:35 p.m. ET/10:35 p.m. CT.
The band's lineup features three core Grateful Dead members -- Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart -- as well as pop-blues star John Mayer and ex-Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge. The group will launch a U.S. summer tour on June 10 in Charlotte, North Carolina, that's mapped out through a July 30 show in Mountain View, California. Check out the band's full itinerary at DeadandCompany.com.
Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Most, if not all, limousine liberals are Democrats. Limousine liberalism functions as a political lightning rod, as a metaphor bearing such emotional force it polarizes the political universe. It freezes the system, locking it in place, rendering it inert. It defines beyond any doubt what is Republican and what is Democrat. So it is noteworthy that the original limousine liberalthe person to first suffer from the wound of that epithetwas a Republican. The metaphorperhaps the most vivid one in the nations political lexicon over the past half centuryturns out to be nonpartisan.
Victorious in war and prosperous once again, postwar America seemed firmly committed to the New Deal political order that had rescued the country from the trauma of the Great Depression. That the government had an essential role to play in regulating the economy and assuring a modicum of social welfare was broadly accepted. Because it had given birth to that new way of organizing society, the Democratic Party enjoyed what seemed at the time to be an enduring legitimacy. Its life expectancy, however, turned out to be greatly exaggerated.
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When the New Deal Order first began to fall apart at the seams during the political and social upheavals of the 1960s, a New York City political apparatchik from the Bronx named Mario Procaccino won the Democratic Partys nomination for mayor in 1969 after a nasty primary campaign. His foe, running on the Liberal Party line, was the sitting mayor, John Lindsay, once upon a time a Republican congressman representing the silk-stocking district (the wealthiest district in the nation, whose name derived from Teddy Roosevelts day) on Manhattans Upper East Side. In 1965 Lindsay had become the citys first Republican mayor since Fiorello LaGuardia. Procaccino coined the term limousine liberal to characterize what he and his largely white ethnic following from the outer boroughs considered the repellent hypocrisy of elitists like Lindsay: well-heeled types who championed the cause of the poor, especially the black poor, but who had no intention of bearing the costs of doing anything about their plight. They were, according to Procaccino, who was then the citys comptroller, insulated from any real contact with poverty, crime, and the everyday struggle to get by, living in their exclusive neighborhoods, sending their children to private prep schools, sheltering their capital gains and dividends from the tax man, and getting around town in limousines, not subway cars. Not about to change the way they lived, they wanted everybody else to change, to have their kids bused to school far from home, to shoulder the tax burden of an expanding welfare system, to watch the racial and social makeup of their neighborhoods turned upside down. These self-righteous folk couldnt care less, Procaccino proclaimed, about the small shopkeeper, the homeowner. . . . They preach the politics of confrontation and condone violent upheaval.
What really earned him Mario Procaccinos memorable bon mot, however, was the architecture of Lindsays political ascension in New York and what he did with power once he had it. Lindsay constructed an odd coalition of those with too much and those with far too little. His Republicanism notwithstanding his appeal to the normally Democratic African American and Puerto Rican communities was substantial. He made plain his sympathies for civil rights activism and, once in office, deliberately circumvented the black political establishment, sometimes appointing street insurgents instead to positions in his administration. He championed, sometimes at great political risk, controversial reforms including a civilian police review board, low-income scatter-site housing, school decentralization, community control, and New Yorks version of the Philadelphia Plan to compel the construction unions to open their ranks to minority workers.
Caricatures of Procaccino and his paesani showed up everywhere during the 1969 race. The New York Post (then a decidedly liberal newspaper) mocked him as a stereotypical ward heeler, so much so that many who demand a degree of dignity in a public figure find it hard to take him seriously. Reporters seemed obsessed with his pencil thin mustache (the telltale mark of an Italian wannabe). Time magazine ran a cover story that included a cartoon of the candidate leading an assault on the Bastille, which made sure to note the mustache plus his electric blue suits and watermelon pink shirts. And the magazine informed its readers that the world where it was all right to dress and shave like that could be found in the dreary reaches of the boroughs. A profile in The New Yorker, practically the house organ of limousine liberalism, derided the comptrollers mustache, his speech, the vulgarity of his supporters, and the sweat that poured off him at campaign stops. And it got nastier than that. According to one paper, If you put Mario Procaccino in a white apron he could be hawking mackerel at the Fulton Fish Market. That market was widely thought of as Mafia controlled, which was the point, as was a comparison of the candidates apparel to George Raft suits.
MORE: Read TIMEs 1965 Cover Story About John Lindsay
Not so long before this these same white, lower class borough dwellersIrish and Italian and German and even Jewishmodest in dress and demeanor, had been regarded as cultural heroes standing up to the fat cats, applauded for their everyman insouciance. Now they had become culturally disreputable, reactionary outlaws, decidedly unstylish in what they wore and drank and in how they played; they were looked on as lesser beings. Limousine liberalism in one scholars view had hardened into an orthodoxy of the privileged classes.
John Lindsay enjoys the dubious distinction of being the first to bear the stigma that would facilitate the decline of liberalism for the rest of the twentieth century and that continues to shadow it today. His victory in 1969 was also a reveille for the massing of a right-wing populism that would transform American politics over the next half century and turn limousine liberals into an endangered species.
Adapted excerpt from Limousine Liberal: How an Incendiary Image United the Right and Fractured America by Steve Fraser. Copyright 2016. Available from Basic Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, a division of PBG Publishing, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
On Monday, a former FBI agent pleaded guilty to lying on the witness stand during notorious New England mobster James "Whitey" Bulger's federal racketeering trial, PEOPLE confirms.
Between 1981 and 1986, Robert Fitzpatrick served as the assistant special agent in charge for the FBI's offices in Boston. Authorities had accused the 76-year-old of lying to jurors and inflating his professional accomplishments during Bulger's 2013 criminal trial.
During Fitzpatrick's tenure, Bulger served as an FBI informant while committing several murders, a statement from the FBI says.
Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty in federal court to 12 criminal counts six for perjury and another six for obstruction of justice, the statement adds.
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Fitzpatrick was the first witness called by the defense during Bulger's trial. Prosecutors contend the disgraced FBI agent made false claims about recovering the rifle used to assassinate Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
Prosecutors also alleged Fitzpatrick embellished claims that he attempted to persuade supervisors to drop Bulger as an informant; prosecutors believe Fitzpatrick was saying this to sell copies of a book he wrote about Bulger.
In pleading guilty, Fitzpatrick admitted he lied when he testified at Bulger's trial and falsified documents while with the FBI.
"Mr. Fitzpatrick's plea of guilty on all counts makes clear that there are consequences to lying in federal court," U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said in a statement. "In this case, the fact that the defendant was a high-ranking former law enforcement official, who falsely held himself out as a whistleblower who tried to end the FBI's corrupt relationship with Bulger, made his conduct even more egregious."
Sentencing is scheduled for August 5. Fitzpatrick faces 24 months probation, a fine of $12,500 and a special assessment of $1,200.
Bulger is currently serving two life sentences for a series of crimes he committed during the 1970s and '80s.
Last month, a federal judge sentenced Bulger's longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, to 21 months in prison after she pleaded guilty to a contempt charge for refusing to testify before a grand jury about whether other people helped the couple hide while they spent 16 years on the run from law enforcement. The 21 month-sentence will be in addition to the eight-year sentence Greig is currently serving in a Minnesota prison after being convicted in 2012 of identity fraud and harboring a fugitive.
On June 24, the personal effects of Bulger and Greig auctioned off in Boston in an auction held by the U.S. Marshals Service. "Our goal is to maximize the proceeds of the auction to compensate the victims of Bulger's brutal crimes," U.S. Marshal John Gibbons said in a statement.
Chinas April Trade Data: What It Means for Metal Investors
(Continued from Prior Part)
Chinas April aluminum exports
One of the major challenges for the global aluminum industry has been the rise in Chinas aluminum exports. Aluminum producers such as Alcoa (AA), Century Aluminum (CENX), and Norsk Hydro (NHYDY) have been blaming Chinese aluminum exports for their woes. Chinas aluminum exports rose by 10% YoY (year-over-year) in 2015. Late last year, China announced that it would curtail its excess aluminum capacity.
April exports fall
China exported 400,000 metric tons of unwrought aluminum in April. This represents a YoY decline of 7.8%. Exports have fallen compared to March. The decline in Chinas April exports looks surprising. Aluminum prices in the LME (London Metals Exchange) rose sharply last month. In the last few quarters, higher LME aluminum prices encouraged Chinese aluminum smelters to sell more of the metals in overseas markets.
Higher SHFE prices
In April, SHFE (Shanghai Futures Exchange) prices have actually been higher than the prevailing LME prices. This creates a negative arbitrage for Chinese smelters. Now, they can sell aluminum at a higher price in domestic markets rather than selling it overseas. Apparently, higher SHFE aluminum prices also seem to create a floor for LME aluminum prices. LME aluminum prices are hovering around $1,600 per metricup ~6% on a year-to-date basis.
However, its important to note that the sustainability of aluminum prices would depend on cuts in Chinese aluminum production. If China isnt cutting production and its stockpiling the metal as a Reuters report suggested earlier this year, it could actually be creating a virtual time bomb.
To get diversified exposure to the materials sector, you could consider the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB). Together, Alcoa and Ball (BLL) form 4.7% of XLBs portfolio.
Just like in aluminum, Chinese steel exports spooked the global markets. In the next part of this series, well see how much steel China exported in April.
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Continue to Next Part
Browse this series on Market Realist:
What's Happening with Chinas Weakening PMI?
(Continued from Prior Part)
Chinas non-manufacturing PMI
Chinas official non-manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) is an economic indicator that provides a snapshot of an economys non-manufacturing sector performance. It tracks business activities of the service sector and construction industry. A reading above 50 indicates that the activity is expanding. Below 50 signals a contraction. PMI is released every month by the National Bureau of Statistics of China.
Chinas non-manufacturing PMI includes ten subindexes:
business activity index
new orders index
new export orders index
in hand orders index
stock index
input price index
sales price index
employment index
supplier delivery time index
business activities expectation index
The non-manufacturing PMI covers the retail, aviation, software, real estate, and construction sectors.
Official non-manufacturing PMI
Chinas official non-manufacturing PMI weakened in April to 53.5 after a sharp rise to 53.8 in March. This indicates that the service sector is affected by the slowdown in the Chinese economy. Non-manufacturing PMI of the service industry was 52.5, a decrease of 0.7% over the previous month. The growth rate of total business declined while the construction industry increased 59.4, a 1.4% rise over the previous month.
Subindexes of non-manufacturing PMI
The new orders index fell 2.1% from the previous month, to 48.7. This indicates that market demand of the non-manufacturing industry decreased. The input price index rose 0.7% over the previous month to 52.1, indicating that input prices during the process of production and operation of non-manufacturing enterprises continued to rise. The employment index was 49.2, an increase of 1.0% over the previous month, indicating that the pace of labor employment of non-manufacturing enterprises slowed down.
Impact on funds
Non-manufacturing PMI data indicate that the service sector is also feeling the heat of a general slowdown. However, the service sector has emerged as a major growth driver after Chinas manufacturing sector was crippled due to overcapacity and sluggish demand.
Story continues
Chinese funds such as the AllianzGI China Equity A (ALQAX), the Eaton Vance Greater China Growth Class A (EVCGX), the iShares MSCI China (MCHI), and the SPDR S&P China ETF (GXC) have sizable exposure to the service sector. They would benefit from growth in the non-manufacturing sector.
These funds are invested in service companies such as Sina (SINA), JD.com (JD), Lenovo Group (LNVGY), Baidu (BIDU), and NetEase (NTES).
In the next part of the series, well look at Caixin China General Services PMI data.
Continue to Next Part
Browse this series on Market Realist:
On Monday, millions of voters in the Philippines went to the polls to vote for their next President. The apparent winner, with nearly two-fifths of the vote: Rodrigo Duterte, the 71-year-old populist mayor who gained international attention with a string of gleeful gaffes. John Oliver described him as the Trump of the East, but Duterte makes Trump sound like a Sunday school teacher: in November, he called Pope Francis a son of a whore; last month, he expressed disappointment at the fact that he did not get to participate in the 1989 gang rape of a beautiful Australian missionary. Hes casually mentioned his penchant for Viagra.
But to millions of Filipinos, Dutertes appeal is simple: he is, they believe, the sort of bombastic firebrand who can clean up a crime-riddled nation and eradicate endemic corruption. For more than 22 years, Duterte has served as the maverick mayor of Davao City, a sprawling coastal metropolis where his unmerciful stance on crime earned him the nicknames the Punisher and Duterte Harry. Before he took office, Davao City was known for its war-zone-like lawlessness, but last year, a crowdsourced poll declared it fourth safest city in the world. Human-rights activists have decried the political tactics at play, claiming that Duterte hired mercenary death squads to execute violent criminals. The mayor turned President is unabashed and Davao is now a portent of optimism in a country blighted by rampant violence.
In 2013, the Philippines homicide rate was the highest in Asia and the 11th highest in the entire world, according to a World Bank survey. It is notoriously easy to get your hands on an illegal firearm there; there are more than half a million unlicensed guns in circulation across the country. The trade and abuse of methamphetamine is burgeoning. Tourism is vital to the Philippine economy, but more and more foreign governments are warning their citizens to avoid traveling there, noting (as Australia does) the significant threat [of] violent crime and the very high threat of kidnapping in the countrys southern regions.
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The country, in other words, needs a quick and dirty fix, and that is Dutertes mandate.
If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor, Duterte said at a campaign rally over the weekend. All of you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you. I have no patience, I have no middle ground, either you kill me or I will kill you idiots.
We obey him because we love him, said Julius Jumamoy, 53, an oil-and-lubricants salesman who brought his 3-year-old granddaughter, Maggie, to watch Duterte cast his vote in Davao. And we follow him because hes right. Hes not killing innocent people, hes just killing criminals. Hes a very good man. Thats why we chose him for our president. Hes going to do the same thing all over the Philippines.
Jumamoy dismissed concerns that Duterte would rule the Philippines as a dictator a concern publicly raised by outgoing President Benigno Aquino, who encouraged voters to remember how Hitler came to power.
Some experts ventured that disillusioned voters are exhausted enough to take the risk.
The Filipinos are gamblers. They wanted to take a wrecking ball to what they see as an establishment that has not given them a fair hand over the last five decades, Ernest Bower, a senior adviser specializing in Southeast Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told TIME on Tuesday afternoon. They wanted a guy who was tough and mean enough to change things. Its a big risk, but they were willing to take it.
People are quite frustrated with crime, corruption and inequality in the Philippines. The rich have become richer, and meanwhile it takes your average person two hours to get to work on a breaking down subway, Teresa S. Encarnacion Tadem, a professor of political science at the University of the Philippines, says. He comes at a time when promises are being made but not fulfilled, and people want somebody who can enforce policies that will actually do something.
She continues: And they like the personality of Duterte because hes the most authentic. With him, what you see is what you get.
With reporting from Charlie Campbell / Davao City
Investors are always looking for stocks that are poised to beat at earnings season and Asure Software, Inc. ASUR may be one such company. The firm has earnings coming up pretty soon, and events are shaping up quite nicely for their report.
That is because Asure Software is seeing favorable earnings estimate revision activity as of late, which is generally a precursor to an earnings beat. After all, analysts raising estimates right before earnings with the most up-to-date information possible is a pretty good indicator of some favorable trends underneath the surface for ASUR in this report.
In fact, the Most Accurate Estimate for the current quarter is currently at 3 cents per share for ASUR, compared to a broader Zacks Consensus Estimate of a penny per share. This suggests that analysts have very recently bumped up their estimates for ASUR, giving the stock a Zacks Earnings ESP of 200.00% heading into earnings season.
Why is this Important?
A positive reading for the Zacks Earnings ESP has proven to be very powerful in producing both positive surprises, and outperforming the market. Our recent 10 year backtest shows that stocks that have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better show a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and have returned over 28% on average in annual returns (see more Top Earnings ESP stocks here).
Given that ASUR has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and an ESP in positive territory, investors might want to consider this stock ahead of earnings. Clearly, recent earnings estimate revisions suggest that good things are ahead for Asure Software, and that a beat might be in the cards for the upcoming report.
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Zacks Investment Research
Despite recent employment growth and a low jobless rate, many American workers have experienced essentially flat wages for years now. Economists have long argued about the cause of the trend, and new research sheds light on one of the driving factors: high health care costs.
The health care analytics group Human Capital Management Services finds in a new report that growing health care costs are leaving less room in employers budgets for employee paychecks. HCMS studied health care, compensation and paid time off data for nearly four million Americans who receive benefits at more than 300 companies.
Related: Get Ready for Huge Obamacare Premium Hikes in 2017
Health care costs are siphoning money out of employees wages, says HCMS CEO Hank Gardner. And people on the lower end of the totem pole suffer the most.
The study found that for a majority of private employers, health care costs jumped more than 10 percent in 2014, while employee pay rose a mere 4.1 percent.
Low-income workers were hit the hardest. Wages inched up a mere 0.5 percent for employees making less than $30,000. Employees making more than $80,000 saw their wages rise by 4.2 percent.
Lower-wage workers suffer the most because employers are willing to pay more for higher levels of human capital, according to Gardner. Lower wage earners have their wages constrained even more because whatever resources the employer had are being given to high paid workers.
In addition, many employers view low wage employees as expendable. As a result, higher wage workers have more leverage in terms of generating higher compensation than lower wage workers, Gardner says.
Waste in the health care system plays a role, too. Wasteful health care spending identified includes overtreatment by medical providers and overconsumption by patients; excessive use of opioids is also a contributing factor, according to HCMS. Gardner calculates that wasteful spending accounts for 30 percent of national health care spending.
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While health care costs have been going up for the past two decades, theyve been accelerating with the implementation of Obamacare. Gardner blames the inefficiencies of government, such as the infamous website malfunction, for contributing to wasteful health care spending.
Related: Heres Why Your Health Insurance Premiums Are Going Up Again
Big insurance companies are also a problem, Gardner says, because when you try to talk to them about improving performance, its like trying to change the direction of the Titanic.
Whatever the cause, its important to workers and employers alike to get a handle on wasteful health care spending. You need to reduce health care waste and convert that waste reduction into wage increases, Gardner says.
Some sectors of the economy are feeling the pinch more than others. Currently non-profits are being hit the hardest because they usually lack the ability to increase revenue and their workers are already paid at relatively low levels, Gardner says. But these issues are spreading rapidly to many other sectors. The cost increase is threatening business in a major way, Gardner says. Its a huge crisis.
Ignoring the crisis will backfire, Gardner says. When you dont pay employees well, you end up with unhappy workers -- and unhappy workers use more benefits, further driving up costs and pinching potential wage increases. Theres no doubt about it. As health care costs go up, wages will be even more anemic.
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
For the Republican Party in the age of Donald Trump, resistance is now more symbolic than actual. Senator Ted Cruz, the man who came closest to challenging the billionaire New Yorker for the nomination before dropping out last week, reportedly spent time on Monday afternoon plotting with supporters about how to use the large number of delegates to the convention who support him to mount a defense of the party platform at the convention.
The platform, which few people -- Republicans included -- pay any attention to except in the 90 days or so prior to the convention, is a comprehensive statement of the principles by which the party plans to govern the nation. Every four years at the nominating convention, a platform committee crafts that statement of principles and all the delegates to the convention vote to ratify it.
Related: Trump His Untenable Debt Fix With a Different One
By packing the platform committee with Cruz supporters, the thinking is not that the conservative element of the party can somehow handcuff Trump, preventing him from transforming the party into a less conservative entity by making a strong statement about the principles it stands for. Trump, after all, has demonstrated that hes not exactly a man of principle.
Cruz is able to make a plausible run at influencing the contents of the partys platform because of his primary strategy. It was highly unlikely that he would be able to get a majority of the partys delegates and win nomination on the first ballot, so Cruz focused on getting delegates supporting him elected by state party conventions. Many will be required to support Trump on the first and possibly second ballot, but they can vote as they please on questions related to the platform and the rules of the convention.
In an email to Cruz supporters obtained by The New York Times, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a close advisor to Cruz, said it was still possible to advance a conservative agenda at the convention...To do that, it is imperative that we fill the Rules and Platform Committees with strong conservative voices like yours.
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However, it is far from likely that Donald Trump, who frequently changes his own position on the issues within the space of the same conversation, if not the same sentence, will be bound in any sense at all by the platform adopted at the convention.
Related: Trump Fallout Is Alienating More Conservatives from the GOP
The effort by Cruz and his supporters looks more like an effort to preserve the identity of the Republican Party in the face of what they most likely view as a temporary takeover by Trump -- one that will end with a loss in November to Hillary Clinton. The idea is to put down a marker: Trump may have control for the moment, but the partys fundamental beliefs havent changed.
The big question for Cruz and those who support his very conservative brand of Republicanism is just how completely Trumps success in the primary has disproved the assumption that Cruz conservatism is really the default position of the Republican electorate.
Trumps rise has shown that a large segment of the people the GOP has been relying on for votes in recent decades may not care quite as much about conservative orthodoxy as the party thought.
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
In the 1994 movie adaptation of the comic book Richie Rich, Macaulay Culkin plays a boy whose immense wealth keeps him having from a normal, friend-filled childhood. The movies happy endingRichie ditches his stuffy prep-school milieu and becomes rich in friendship with some middle-class kids from the sandlotpoints to a reassuring PG-movie morality.
However, according to a new study in Social Psychological and Personality Science, it may actually be high earnings that bestow Americans with the ability to spend more time with friends. Using the results of the General Social Survey and American Time Use Survey, Emory Universitys Emily Bianchi and the University of Minnesotas Kathleen Vohs found that while Americans with higher incomes tend to spend more time alone, when they do socialize, they do so more with their friends. Meanwhile, the social interactions of those from lower-income households tend to revolve around family members and neighbors.
Recommended: Budweiser Renames Its Beer 'America' for 2016
Americans at the higher end of the income spectrum spent an average of 6.5 more evenings socializing with friends each year, and 5.8 and 10.3 fewer nights socializing with family members and neighbors, respectively, than those at the lower end. (These results were amplified by the fact that the higher-earning households also spent 6.4 fewer evenings socializing in general.)
At least some of this has to do with convenience. Whereas higher-earning households are freer to outsource domestic tasks, Americans with less income tend to need the help provided by family members and those close by, be it in the form of money, childcare or care for the elderly, signing for UPS packages, or having two people to turn the ladder while they hold a new lightbulb in place.
For people with limited financial resources, these social ties are likely to be crucial for managing existing and impending challenges, Bianchi and Vohs wrote. Hence, people with limited resources might be particularly attuned to the relationships that are most strongly associated with giving and receiving instrumental support.
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Bianchi says she was surprised by the extent to which income can predict social habits. We know that generally income or at least access to money in an experimental context is associated with less time or less interest in others, says Bianchi. So, on the one hand, we thought that income would negatively predict time spent with friends. On the other hand, its a luxury. You can choose your friendsyou cant choose your family. Neighbors are somewhere in between. But certainly, friendships are our most voluntary type of social tie.
Recommended: Why So Many Smart People Arent Happy
A 2015 University of Michigan study found that Americans who live far from their mothers are more likely to have more money and a better education, but Bianchi and Vohs found their pattern to hold even when high earners lived near their moms. Theres no question that income does predict whether you live farther away from your parents, Bianchi says. But even if you do live close to your parents or your extended family, income still predicts how much time youll spend with them.
So what then are the potential implications of having a more insular upper class? While the study doesnt measure any such effects, this dynamic could lead to a decline in civic engagement. If the wealthy are orienting their social worlds towards friends and away from neighbors and relatives, it seems likely that they also would be less involved in their residential communities, Bianchi says. She adds, Wealthier people may be less civically engaged with their neighborhood communities and more civically engaged with self-selected communities such as private schools or political organizations.
At a time when Americans are becoming more economically stratified, its worrying that the highest earners might be less likely to have a sense of whats going on outside of their own peer groupsand that its easier to be Richie Rich as well as Home Alone.
Read more from The Atlantic:
This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Woody Allen makes his 12th trip to Cannes with the opening night comedy Cafe Society, which premieres on Wednesday. He spoke to Variety for this weeks cover story on Kristen Stewart, who stars in the film as a 1930s secretary torn between two men (played by Jesse Eisenberg and Steve Carell).
Do you like coming to Cannes?
Allen: Its fun for my wife. She enjoys the people and socializing going to lunch and dinner. I get off the plane and Im escorted instantly to interviews. I do wall-to-wall interviews until I leave. I never get a chance to do anything that isnt connected with promotional obligations to the movie. For me, its around-the-clock work. I can do maybe as many as 100 journalists a day. My wife, on the other hand, doesnt do that. Whenever theres an opportunity to go, she always says, Its good for the picture and I have a good time, so we go.
Are you concerned about heightened security after the Brussels attacks?
Oh, listen I worry about that when I go to the supermarket or when I get the newspaper. Im the world biggest worrywart. So you cant judge by me. Im hypochondriacal when it comes to terrorism.
Cafe Society stars Kristen Stewart as an Audrey Hepburn-like secretary. Did you know she had a lighter side?
I didnt know. I took a chance. I had her read a paragraph and she read it so well, that all our apprehensions which are not huge to begin with vanished instantly. None of us knew her except in the heaviest of things. We did want to see if she had a lighter side. We assumed she did. Shes a young girl, and shes certainly not going to be a grim.
She said you made fun of the way she walked.
I told her she walked like a relief pitcher coming in from the bullpen. I was expecting this beautiful creature to emerge and walk on. She suddenly looks like a guy coming out of a bullpen to walk out to the mound.
After Twilight, she became the first young female movie star to headline a franchise in the Internet age. Do you have a sense of how shes dealt with that?
No, thats something I have no idea of. I dont have a computer. Im not on the Internet. I dont know anything about any of that. Ive never seen her, except as in this Greg Mottola movie [Adventureland]. And in passing. I might be on the treadmill and surf through 60 seconds of the vampire movie, where shed look so beautiful. Those kinds of movies were never of interest to me particularly. I dont really know of her Internet life. If you told me she had 100 million followers or 2 million followers, it wouldnt mean too much to me.
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So you havent seen Twilight?
I didnt see her in the vampire movie.
Youre missing out.
Oh, Im sure. I get to see a limited amount of movies. Theres so many terrific movies Ive missed out on in the last 15 or 20 years. I cant believe how movie illiterate I am.
Do you have the actors in mind when youre writing a role?
In this case, the story was prevailing, and I knew there were a number of terrific young actresses around. I knew I would have no problem getting them. When the time came, we felt that the two best ones for the picture were Kristen and Blake [Lively]. Kristen was perfect for that little Midwestern Nebraska secretary and we wanted someone that is completely the opposite of Kirsten, that is tall and blonde and had a different quality completely.
What about Kristen that made her right for the role?
She just has a simple beauty. She looks fresh off the farm like shes from Nebraska and so naturally pretty. And when you doll her up later, she can carry that because she has enough looks to be able to wear long earrings and furs and look tremendous. But Im very Spartan with all my actresses with makeup. I try to keep that to the most minimum or nothing if I can get away with it.
Would you consider Kirsten Stewart a movie star?
Yes, I think she has the look. Shes very young, very beautiful and talented. And if she just keeps her hand on the wheel and makes good decisions, shes home free. She should have an incredible career. Shes not someone you cast just because shes beautiful. She can deliver. Shes got a sense of humor. She can give you the heavy stuff. Shes one of the crop of young actresses around now like Blake or Emma Stone, they are tremendous performers.
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By Julien Pretot CANNES, France (Reuters) - The 69th Cannes Film Festival has what it takes to be a vintage edition, with Woody Allen leading a pack of celebrated filmmakers presenting their movies to the French Riviera crowds. The May 11-22 cinema extravaganza opens on Wednesday with Allen's "Cafe Society", featuring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart in a story of a young man who arrives in Hollywood during the 1930s hoping to work in the film industry. "When we will be old we will tell our children you know I was living at a time when Woody Allen's films were coming out, and I think he's one of the greatest auteurs," festival director Thierry Fremaux told Reuters. Although he has never been in competition, Allen is a Cannes favorite. This year will be the third time he has opened the festival, and several other familiar faces will be presenting their films in the main competition. "This year the competition is mostly Cannes favorites, Cannes darlings," Variety critic Jay Weissberg told Reuters. "Fremaux is someone who likes to reward his friends, he's somebody who likes to have the people he knows come back year after year after year." The Dardenne brothers, who present "The Unknown Girl", have won the festival's highest distinction, the Palme d'Or, twice. Ken Loach, in Cannes with "I, Daniel Blake" has won it once, while Bruno Dumont; Jim Jarmusch, who is showing two films including a documentary on Iggy Pop; Park Chan-wook; and Pedro Almodovar have all previously scooped other honors. Jarmusch's films are two of five distributed by Amazon as the video streaming giant makes its first appearance in Cannes. While the competition films bring much of the prestige, some of the red carpet glitz will surround some of the out of competition screenings, such as Steven Spielberg's "The BFG", based on the novel by Roald Dahl. Oscar-winner Julia Roberts makes her Cannes debut in Jodie Foster's out-of competition film "Money Monster", alongside George Clooney. "Twilight" star Stewart has been labeled queen of the festival by organizers as she features in "Cafe Society" as well as Olivier Assayas's "Personal Shopper", which is vying for the Palme d'Or crown. Despite the glamor, security will be intense as France is still facing a high risk of attack. Private security officers will control the Palais des Festivals entry points while "hundreds" of police officers will be deployed as France is still under a state of emergency after last year's Paris attacks killed 130 people. (Editing by Alison Williams)
Good morning, WMPW readers! Irelands top female business leader says cancer changed her perspective, Martha Lane Fox is launching another startup, and three female entrepreneurs are taking Hong Kongs restaurant scene by storm. Need to pass on some news about an exceptional woman? Get in touch, at: laura.cohn@gmail.com or @laurascohn. Enjoy your Tuesday!
See original article on Fortune.com
More from Fortune.com
THE BIG STORY
[bs-title]A yank from cancer[/bs-title]
[bs-content]She says cancer gave her a "yank." Siobhan Talbot, who heads Irish food and nutrition company Glanbia, says recovering from breast cancer changed her perspective and propelled her to the top of a global business. Often referred to as Ireland's top female business leader, Talbot recalls that when she was offered the post of CEO, she didn't hesitate to take it. While two women have been president of Ireland--and the top positions in the country's justice and legal systems are occupied by women--females haven't fared as well in the business world. Even so, Talbot is grounded about her success. "I often say I'm a woman and I'm a chief executive, but I'm not overly conscious of being a female chief executive, I must say," she says. "I'm in my 24th year at Glanbia, and frankly it's never been an issue."[/bs-content]
[bs-link link="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e153cfbc-fa52-11e5-b3f6-11d5706b613b.html#axzz48APAGzst" source="Financial Times"]
[bs-share text="A yank from cancer via @FortuneMagazine's World's Most Powerful Women newsletter" link="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e153cfbc-fa52-11e5-b3f6-11d5706b613b.html#axzz48APAGzst"]
Story continues
EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA
[bs-title]Fox starts another startup[/bs-title]
[bs-content]The number of female leaders in British tech is tiny. British internet entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox is trying to change that with her new startup, "Doteveryone," which launches this week. Fox also founded Lastminute.com.[/bs-content][bs-link link="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/martha-lane-fox-on-making-technology-do-good-52057p7h9" source="Times of London"]
[bs-seperator]
[bs-title]Baftas do it better[/bs-title]
[bs-content]Bafta chair Anne Morrison is proud of the diverse group her organization has recognized. She likes to tout a recent "Times of London" headline that says: "Black and White Baftas put Oscars to shame." I can't say I blame her.[/bs-content]
[bs-link link="http://www.independent.ie/business/media/the-disco-diva-who-has-taken-the-business-of-drama-to-a-whole-new-leve-34693551.html" source="Independent"]
[bs-seperator]
[bs-title]Scared in South Africa[/bs-title]
[bs-content]The leading anti-corruption official in South Africa has been warned she may be the target of hit men. Thuli Madonsela, who was on the "Time" 100 list in 2014, is famous for urging President Jacob Zuma to pay back the state funds he used for private matters.[/bs-content]
[bs-link link="http://time.com/4322492/south-africa-thuli-madonsela-death-threat-corruption-zuma-time-100/?xid=homepage" source="Time"]
ASIA-PACIFIC
[bs-title]Female foodies[/bs-title]
[bs-content]Three young female entrepreneurs are taking Hong Kong's eating and drinking scene by storm. Elizabeth Chu Yuet-han, Vivien Shek, and Victoria Chow have all recently opened their own restaurants or cocktail bars in the traditionally male-dominated business.[/bs-content]
[bs-link link="http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/1941614/meet-20-something-women-who-are-shaking-hong-kongs-bar-and" source="South China Morning Post"]
[bs-seperator]
[bs-title]Oh, Ola[/bs-title]
[bs-content]Ola, India's Uber, can't seem to get it right. First, it faced criticism for a sexist ad. Now, the company is in hot water because one of its drivers, since fired, was detained for allegedly molesting a female passenger.[/bs-content]
[bs-link link="http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2016/05/09/ola-driver-detained-for-allegedly-molesting-belgian-woman/" source="Wall Street Journal"]
[bs-seperator]
[bs-title]Snack attack[/bs-title]
[bs-content]Pepsi, led by Indra Nooyi, one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women, is trying to get snackers in India to eat more of its savory treats. Vani Gupta, a Pepsi marketing director, says the company is chasing "local palate preferences" for the first time.[/bs-content]
[bs-link link="http://qz.com/676909/pepsi-is-launching-a-gastronomic-assault-to-capture-more-of-indias-traditional-snacks-market/" source="Quartz"]
THE AMERICAS
[bs-title]Did Dilma Rousseff dodge a bullet?[/bs-title]
[bs-content]Just call her teflon Dilma. The fate of embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff plunged into confusion after the speaker of the lower house announced he was throwing out a crucial vote. The Senate was expected to decide this week whether to hold a political trial that could have led to her impeachment. It may still go ahead.[/bs-content]
[bs-link link="http://fortune.com/2016/05/09/brazils-lower-house-annuls-rousseff-impeachment-vote/" source="Fortune"][bs-seperator]
[bs-title]#GetOnTop of your, ahem, health[/bs-title]
[bs-content]I thought National Women's Health Week was about eating right and exercise. But Meika Hollender, who founded Sustain, the condom brand marketed at women, is using it to launch a clever campaign, "#GetOnTop," with the hope of getting women to practice safe sex.[/bs-content]
[bs-link link="http://www.fastcompany.com/3059626/these-ten-powerhouse-women-want-you-to-talk-about-sex-embargo-monday-6am?utm_content=buffer197fb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" source="Fast Company"]
[bs-seperator]
[bs-title]Writing smaller[/bs-title]
[bs-content]Jane Smiley is working on a new genre. The famous novelist, who won the Pulitzer Prize for "A Thousand Acres," has released "Twenty Yawns," a picture book for children.[/bs-content]
[bs-link link="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/business/masters-of-prose-warm-up-to-childrens-picture-books.html" source="New York Times"]
IN BRIEF
[bs-title size="small"]This female investor backed Uber right away[/bs-title]
[bs-link link="http://fortune.com/2016/05/09/cyan-banister-investor-uber/" source="Fortune"]
[bs-title size="small"]Some powerful women were involved in the Panama Papers scandal[/bs-title]
[bs-link link="http://fortune.com/2016/05/09/panama-papers-women/" source="Fortune"]
[bs-title size="small"]In commencement speech, Obama says Beyonce "runs the world"[/bs-title]
[bs-link link="http://fortune.com/2016/05/09/obama-says-beyonce-runs-the-world/" source="Fortune"]
[bs-title size="small"]Why Shopify's Konval Matin created an internal wiki for her new hires[/bs-title]
[bs-link link="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/83977792-0bb5-11e6-b0f1-61f222853ff3.html#axzz48APAGzst" source="Financial Times"]
[bs-title size="small"]Do our superheroes have mommy issues?[/bs-title]
[bs-link link="http://time.com/4320335/captain-america-civil-war-batman-superman-mothers-day/?xid=homepage" source="Time"]
PARTING WORDS
[bs-quote link="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/may/08/bbc-peter-kosminsky-best-quotes-of-bafta-tv-awards-2016" author="--Michaela Coel, who just won a Bafta award for best female in a comedy program"] Anyone who looks a bit like me, or feels like they don't fit in: you are beautiful--embrace it. You are intelligent--embrace it. You are powerful--embrace it.[/bs-quote]
CAIRO (Reuters) - Yemen's Houthi fighters have denied reports that warring parties have reached a preliminary agreement on Tuesday to release all prisoners beginning within 20 days. The Iran-allied Houthis and Yemen's Saudi-backed exile government are trying to reach a peace agreement in talks in Kuwait aimed at ending a year-long war and easing a humanitarian crisis in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country. Government sources at U.N.-backed peace talks earlier on Tuesday said an agreement had been struck to release the prisoners. However, a Houthi delegate, representing the prisoners' committee at the talks, said the session had only considered a proposal, not agreed on it. Naser Baqizqoz said the suggestion was to release half the detainees on either side within 20 days, not all of them. Yemen's crisis began in September 2014 when the Houthis, who are allied to Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, seized the capital Sanaa. A Saudi-led Arab alliance intervened in March last year, launching a campaign of mostly air strikes against the Houthis and in support of the forces of current Saudi-backed president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. A tentative U.N-backed ceasefire has been in place since last month to give the peace talks in Kuwait a chance at progress. Both sides have regularly accused each other of violations. Last month, a Houthi delegation presented a plan to the United Nations for a transitional government to oversee a handing over of arms and freeing of political prisoners before elections. Yemen's government wanted the Houthis and forces loyal to Saleh to hand over weapons and withdraw from cities captured last year before starting any dialogue, a negotiating source told Reuters at the time. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Noah Browning and Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by Alison Williams)
Left: Photo of padlock from inside master bedroom (left). Right: Photo of padlock on the main gate of the accuseds flat (Photos courtesy of Fortis Law Corporation)
After being released from remand in January, the Singaporean man who allegedly threw a cat to its death from the 13th floor of a HDB flat in Yishun has not left his home.
On Tuesday (10 May), defence lawyer Josephus Tan said in court that Lee Wai Leongs parents decided to lock him up in the house, even forcing him to sleep on a separate mattress in their master bedroom. Tan was presenting mitigating circumstances for the judge to decide on Lees sentencing.
Lee, 41, pleaded guilty to one charge under the Animals and Birds Act for causing the death of one cat by throwing it off the 13th floor of Blk 115B Yishun Ring Road because it was noisy.
District Judge Mathew Joseph has agreed to the defences call for a probation suitability report, noting that this is Lees first offence, and that he did not act with perverse cruelty. A report by the Institute of Mental Health also indicated Lee has moderate intellectual disability.
Tan, who described Lee as simple-minded, also said that Lees parents had padlocked both the main gate of the house and the master bedroom door following his release from remand on 19 January because they did not want him to go out wandering in the night.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Zu Zhao also supported the call for a probation suitability report, saying that Lee did not appear to act with cruel intent. One of the options for probation mentioned by DPP Lee include an extended period of supervision.
The case will be mentioned in court again on 7 June.
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL May 10, 2016 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Vectrus, Inc. (VEC), PRGX Global, Inc. (PRGX), Nobilis Health Corp. (HLTH), HEALTHSOUTH Corp. (HLS) and Raymond James Financial, Inc. (RJF) .
Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.
Here are highlights from Mondays Analyst Blog:
5 Stocks to Buy on Service Sector Strength
A disappointing employment report in April showed that job growth had declined to its lowest pace in seven months. The number of jobs added came in far lower than expected while the employment rate remained flat at Marchs level. Following a series of mixed signals, this is the first significant indication that the economy may be slowing down.
However, the service sector shows no signs of slowing down as was borne out by last weeks ISM numbers. Nearly all the employment gains for April came in from three services sectors. Adding stocks from these areas to your portfolio makes good sense at this point.
Job Growth Flags
The U.S. economy created a total of 160,000 jobs in April, significantly lower than the consensus estimate of 203,000. The tally was also considerably lower than Marchs downwardly revised job number of 208,000. Moreover, the unemployment rate in April was in line with the consensus estimate and Marchs rate of 5%.
However, average hourly earnings gained 0.3% or 8 cents in April from the previous months figure to $25.53. This was the third highest monthly gain in a year. Average hourly earnings also witnessed a 2.5% rise from the year-ago figure.
Services Power Gains
The lions share of job additions came from three areas, professional and business services, healthcare and the financial sector. Coming in at first place was professional and business services with 65,000 job additions. Management and technical consulting services added 21,000 jobs.
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The number of jobs in the healthcare sector increased by 44,000. Ambulatory health care services and hospitals contributed 19,000 and 23,000 jobs, respectively. Financial activities provided 20,000 more jobs with credit intermediation and related services adding 8,000 positions.
ISM Gauge Hits Four-Month High
The ISM Services Index increased from 54.5% in March to 55.7% in April, indicating expansion in servicing activity for the 75th straight month. Additionally, the reading was more than the consensus estimate of 54.8%. This was the highest reading for the index in the last four months.
Currently, the services sectors have come to comprise nearly 90% of the U.S. economy. Weighed down by weak global economic conditions and a stronger dollar, manufacturing is traversing particularly troubled waters. On the other hand, sectors which are relatively insulated from global weaknesses, such as health care providers, have been faring much better.
Our Choices
Strong services sector growth is shoring up the economy at a time when it is beset by troubles from abroad. This is specifically true for those industries which are relatively insulated from the weaknesses of global demand and a rising dollar.
Investing in such sectors makes good sense, especially because such conditions are expected to prevail for some time now. However, picking winning stocks may be a difficult task.
This is where our VGM score comes in. Here V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum and the score is a weighted combination of these three scores. Such a score allows you to eliminate the negative aspects of stocks and select winners. However, it is important to keep in mind that each Style Score will carry a different weight while arriving at a VGM score.
We have narrowed down our search to the following stocks based on a good Zacks Rank and VGM score.
Vectrus, Inc. (VEC) engages in providing infrastructure asset management, logistics and supply chain management, and information technology and network communication services.
Vectrus has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and a VGM Score of A. The forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio for the current financial year (F1) is 9.69, lower than the industry average of 16.15.
PRGX Global, Inc. (PRGX) provides audit, analytics, and advisory services in order to improve client financial performance.
PRGX Global has a Zacks Rank #1 and a VGM Score of A. Its earnings estimate for the current year has improved by 79% over the last 30 days.
Nobilis Health Corp. (HLTH) is an owner and manager of ambulatory surgical centers and hospitals.
Nobilis Health has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and a VGM Score of B. The company has expected earnings growth of 97.1% for the current year. It has a P/E (F1) of 6.29, which is lower than the industry average of 14.25.
HEALTHSOUTH Corp. (HLS) provides post-acute healthcare services and home-based patient care.
Vail Resorts has a Zacks Rank #2 and a VGM Score of A. The company has expected earnings growth of 9.5% for the current year. It has a P/E (F1) of 16.71, which is lower than the industry average of 18.82. Its earnings estimate for the current year has improved by 2.4% over the last 30 days.
Raymond James Financial, Inc. (RJF) provides financial services mainly in the U.S. and Canada.
Raymond James Financial has a Zacks Rank #1 and a VGM Score of B. Its earnings estimate for the current year has improved by 5.2% over the last 30 days.
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VECTRUS INC (VEC): Free Stock Analysis Report
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For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL May 10, 2016 Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Industrial Machines, including Xylem Inc. (XYL), Pentair plc (PNR), Rockwell Automation Inc. (ROK), Parker-Hannifin Corporation (PH) and Ingersoll-Rand Plc (IR).
Industry: Industrial Machines
Link:https://www.zacks.com//commentary/80464/industrial-machinery-stock-outlook---may-2016
First quarter 2016 results seem to be hindered by the same headwinds that had adversely influenced the previous four-quarters. While economic uncertainties prevailed in some major developing and developed nations, soft commodity prices and adverse impacts of unfavorable foreign currency moves kept the growth momentum restricted for a few industries in the first quarter.
As a result of the weakening health of the global economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its world economic outlook to 3.2% for 2016 and 3.5% for 2017. Economic growth forecasts for advanced and emerging economies have been lowered by 20 basis points (bps) for 2016 and 10 bps for 2017.
The level of industrial activity is measured in terms of industrial production, which comprises the output of manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors. A brief discussion on the machinery industry in different nations is given below.
The United States
We believe industrial products stocks in the U.S. are negatively influenced by the prevailing macro headwinds. Industrial production in the country fell roughly 2.2% in first-quarter 2016 as compared with a 3.4% decline in the previous quarter. The job market showed relative weakness in the quarter, evident from an average jobs addition of 209,000 per month, down compared with 282,000 in the preceding quarter.
To add to the woes, unfavorable foreign currency movements and economic uncertainties worldwide led to weak export demand for U.S.-manufactured machinery. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, export demands for U.S. machinery declined 1.6% year over year for the first two months of 2016. A 12.1% decline was recorded for shipments of farm machinery; while construction and mining machinery saw a 24.4% and 44.9% fall. The exception was a 22.7% increase in shipments of industrial machinery.
New machinery orders were down 0.9%, while order backlog decreased 8.3%.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reduced its growth projections for the U.S. economy by 20 basis points (bps) to 2.4% for 2016 and by 10 bps to 2.5% for 2017.
Japan
The countrys economy is struggling with its internal issues as well as facing the adversities of weak economic conditions externally. Low investment levels, unfavorable exchange rates, aging population and a huge public debt are some headwinds affecting the countrys progress.
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According to the report from Japans Cabinet Office, core machinery orders fell nearly 9.2% in February as against the previous months growth of 15%. The fall in core machinery orders has triggered concerns over the future of capital investments by companies.
Orders from manufacturing clients declined 30.6% while the same from the government clients grew 25.9%. The agency predicts core machinery orders to grow 6.4% in the first-quarter 2016, while total machinery orders are expected to increase 2.2%.
The IMF predicts the economy to grow by 0.5% in 2016, inching down by 10 bps in 2017. These projections reflect a 50 bps and 40 bps downward revisions from previous forecasts for 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Emerging Nations
China: In first-quarter 2016, Chinas GDP grew 1.1% sequentially, below the 1.5% growth recorded for fourth-quarter 2015, while on a year-over-year basis increased 6.7% versus 6.8% in the year-ago period. Despite the fall, the countrys economy seems to be stabilizing.
In March, the countrys industrial production increased 6.8% year over year, an improvement from the 5.4% average growth for January and February. The increase was driven by an improvement in mining, manufacturing and utilities sectors. Also, the countrys exports increased 11.5%. Imports dropped 7.6%.
The IMF projects the Chinese economy to grow by 6.5% in 2016 and 6.2% in 2017, reflecting a 20 bps increase over the previous projections.
India: The countrys industrial production in Feb 2016 increased 2% year over year. Expectations of strong demand, improved policies and better monsoon conditions are factors that will influence the countrys growth going forward. The new government is making concerted efforts to turn the country into a prime manufacturing hub for all nations across the world.
Apart from boosting the foreign capital inflow in the country, these strategies will serve to improve the domestic job markets as well as demand for industrial products. According to the IMF, the country is projected to grow 7.5% in both 2016 and 2017.
Brazil: For 2016, the country projects a gloomy outlook as a result of low private investments and inadequate infrastructure. The countrys unemployment rate increased to 10.9% in first-quarter 2016, up from 9% recorded in the quarter-ending Dec 2015. Also available data reveals that the countrys industrial production fell 9.8% year over year in February.
The IMF predicts the countrys output to decline by 3.8% in 2016, remaining flat in 2017. The recovery is dependent on foreign direct investments and expansion of industries like tourism, steel and electricity.
Eurozone
Industrial production in the Eurozone fell 0.8% month over month in Feb 2016 while inched up 80 bps year over year. Though the unemployment rate was high at 10.2% in Mar 2016, it represented a 20 bps improvement over the rate of 10.4% in February.
The IMF revised down its growth projections for the Euro Area by 20 bps to 1.5% for 2016 and by 10 bps to 1.6% for 2017.
Zacks Industry Rank
According to the Zacks Industry classification, Machinery is broadly grouped under Industrial Products, one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors. The Zacks sectors comprise 265 industries that are ranked on the basis of the earnings outlook of constituent companies in each industry. To learn more visit: About Zacks Industry Rank
As a rule, the top 50% industries of all Zacks industries outperform the bottom half by a wide margin. Going by this rule, industries with Zacks Industry Rank of 132 and lower would fall in the top half, while those with Zacks Industry Rank of 133 and higher would be in the bottom half.
The machinery industry is sub-divided into 9 industries at the expanded level: machine tools and related products, construction and mining, electrical utilities, electrical, farm, general industries, material handling, print trading and thermal processing.
Earnings Trend of the Sector
As of May 9th, we have Q1 results from 95.2% of the companies in the S&P 500s Industrial Products sector. Total earnings for these Industrial Products companies are down -21.3% from the same period last year on -8.6% lower revenues, with 70% of the companies beating EPS estimates and equal proportion coming ahead of revenue expectations. For the quarter as a whole, total earnings for the sector are expected to be down -22.8% on -9.4% revenues.
The trend of earnings declines is expected to continue for the sector, with Industrial Products earnings in the June quarter expected to be down -7.2% on -5.4% lower revenues.
Key Players in the Machinery Industry
Stocks with high investment rankings might interest investors who seek exposure in the machinery industry. Below we have briefly discussed some stocks that hold strong long-term potential and a high investment ranking of Zacks Rank #2 (Buy):
In the S&P 500 group, machinery company Xylem Inc. (XYL), with a market capitalization of $7.5 billion, has strong earnings growth potential, roughly 10.6% over the next five years. Another machinery company, Pentair plc (PNR), with $10.5 billion market capitalization, offers 9.7% earnings growth. Industrial robotic company Rockwell Automation Inc. (ROK), with $14.9 billion market capitalization, offers 7.6% long-term earnings growth.
Other billion-dollar stocks in the S&P 500 group with Zacks Rank #2 and long-term earnings growth rate in excess of 7% include Parker-Hannifin Corporation (PH) and Ingersoll-Rand Plc (IR).
Going Forward
We believe global uncertainties will likely restrict the growth of machine and tool manufacturers, going forward. The much-needed improvement in the economy as well as industrial products sector can only be achieved on the back of effective governmental policies, huge infrastructural investments, creation of more jobs and emphasis on trade relations.
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XYLEM INC (XYL): Free Stock Analysis Report
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ROCKWELL AUTOMT (ROK): Free Stock Analysis Report
PARKER HANNIFIN (PH): Free Stock Analysis Report
INGERSOLL RAND (IR): Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zooey Deschanel visited Conan Monday to talk about the time Prince made a rare appearance on an episode of New Girl. The actress first explained how the Prince casting came together before revealing that the late rocker nixed a major cameo for the 2014 episode.
Prince: Remembering the Rock Star, Provocateur, Genius
The episode centered around a party scene with models Alessandra Ambrosio and Ana Beatriz Barros and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw among those shown during the sequence. Absent from the episode, however, was an unspecified number of Kardashian family members, even though a few including matriarch Kris Jenner and daughter Khloe filmed cameos. Deschanel explained their absence was due to a request that came down from Prince's camp.
Prince's demands for a Kardashian-free episode were so serious that the crew gathered all evidence that the Keeping Up stars had been on set, including scripts and call sheets, and burned it all in an on-set bonfire.
"I felt so bad because obviously everyone had gone out of their way to be there on that day, but Prince was running the show," Deschanel said.
Deschanel doesn't explain why exactly Prince didn't want the Kardashians invading his rare sitcom appearance, but it perhaps had something to do with the time he infamously kicked Kim Kardashian off his stage mid-song because she didn't dance to his liking.
Related
Captain America: Civil War is a hit, theres no doubt about it, and possibly one of the best movies in the Marvel universe. But Marvel isnt done churning out blockbusters starring our favorite Avengers, with Disney, 20th Century Fox and Sony working on plenty more flicks for the coming years. In what follows, well quickly recap the complete Marvel movie schedule through 2019, in chronological order.
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As many as 11 new Marvel movies are coming between now and the end of 2019, with a few of them arriving this year. Be warned, though, this might not be a final list. For example, the Deadpool 2 project isn't included below because it hasn't been finalized, but it still might be released before 2020.
X-Men: Apocalypse
X-Men: Apocalypse premieres in a few weeks, introducing the biggest challenge our favorite mutants have had to face. Well meet Apocalypse, the first mutant, who also happens to be immortal.
X-Men Apocalypse Reviews
Doctor Strange
Benedict Cumberbatch steps up to the plate to join the Avengers on November 4th. From brilliant but annoying surgeon to superhero, Doctor Strange will finally bring us one of the strongest members of the Marvel universe.
doctor-strange-trailer
Wolverine
Wolverine might be the most beloved X-Men member, but standalone Wolverine movies haven't been very good so far. A new installment launches on March 3rd, and the movie will be the first one to get an R-rating. Deadpool with its R-rating was the most entertaining superhero movie Ive seen in a long time, so we can only hope Wolverine will be at least as good.
Wolverine 3 Deadpool
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
The first Guardians of the Galaxy was a huge hit, so its no wonder a sequel is in the works. Chris Pratt and Co. will return to the big screen on May 5th, 2017.
guardians-galaxy-vol-2
Spider-Man: Homecoming
The Spider-Man we saw in Civil War was different from every other Spider-Man in recent years. Hes younger, slightly confused, and hilarious.
Story continues
Tom Holland will play Spidey in Spider-Man: Homecoming, which is set for a July 7th, 2017 release.
captain-america-civil-war-spider-man-trailer-ad
Thor: Ragnarok
Who knows what side Thor will pick in Civil War? But we know that he and Loki will be busy in Thor: Ragnarok, come November 3rd, 2017.
thor
Black Panther
Raise your hand if you just loved Black Panther in Civil War. A standalone movie also starring Chadwick Boseman as the panther will hit theaters on February 16th, 2018, with Creed director Ryan Coogler at the helm.
Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War Part 1
The titles for the two new Avengers movies arent set in stone, but we couldn't be more excited about them. The Infinity War stories are supposedly fascinating, and we cant help but wonder how our superheroes will settle the Civil War conflicts. Part 1 debuts on May 4th, 2018.
Captain America Civil War Teams
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Paul Rudd will reprise his Ant-Man role for a new episode, and Evangeline Lily will be at his side as the Wasp. Unsurprisingly, the sequel is titled Ant-Man and the Wasp and it comes out on July 6th, 2018.
paul-rudd-evangeline-lilly-ant-man-wasp
Untitled female lead Marvel project
According to Business Insider, the first female lead of a Marvel adaptation is set for a March 8th, 2019 launch, with producers still casting the lead. Could this be the Black Widow standalone project weve heard rumors about?
black-widow-1
Avengers: Infinity War Part 2
Part 2 of Infinity War should conclude the third phase of Marvels cinematic universe. The movie premiers on May 3rd, 2019, almost a year after the first episode.
Avengers
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Regardless of how long it will actually take to ship, the Tesla Model 3 is definitely the talk of the auto industry so far this year. After racking up over 400,000 reservations, the Model 3 has shown it has the potential to significantly disrupt the auto industry and pave the way for the future of electric cars.
Motor Trend recently took a trip to Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada and got some exclusive photos and video footage of the Model 3, while also getting some new commentary from Tesla representatives explaining the car's design.
DON'T MISS: 5 private details Facebook asks for that you shouldnt share
Among other things, Tesla testing director Kim Reynolds talks about the grill-free nose on the front of the Model 3 that has drawn some criticism from an aesthetics perspective.
"I like a couple of things about it -- it's aerodynamically correct and functional so the air is going to move around properly at the front of the car," he explains. "And also, it's honest. So what you see here is really a lack of a grill. There's no fake grill or openings or anything like that up there that don't do anything."
Reynolds also goes into detail about the car's glass roof that he says delivers a "remarkable" experience for backseat passengers who can now see the whole world around them while they're in the car. He also shows off the unique new door handle on the Model 3 that you have to push in first before pulling it out.
"What you have here with this car is really a distillation of what Tesla has learned from the Model S and the Model X," he says. "There's really elements of the best of both of those cars put together here and distilled into a smaller, lower-cost, more afforable -- but just as intriguing of -- a package."
Check out the whole video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIh2PjqfXkQ
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As our online footprints grow in size and scope, it is more important than ever for Internet companies to protect us against hackers and disclose how they use our personal data. The Federal Trade Commission was long the main privacy cop enforcing these essential consumer protections. But last year, the FTC's sister agency--the Federal Communications Commission--reclassified broadband ISPs as common carriers outside the FTC's jurisdiction. Unless the courts reverse that decision, there are now two privacy cops on the Internet beat. The FCC polices ISPs like Verizon , Charter, and Sprint , while the FTC continues policing everyone else, from Google and Facebook to Apple and Amazon .
The critical question is how the FCC will exercise its new privacy powers. In our view, the FCC should follow the same basic approach that the FTC has successfully developed and enforced since the dawn of the commercial Internet.
The FTC is mainly an enforcement agency rather than a regulator. It goes after companies when they break their privacy commitments to consumers or take actions that cause consumers real harm. This enforcement-oriented approach has a proven track record of success. It is flexible and promotes high-tech innovation, but it has held hundreds of companies, large and small, accountable when they crossed the line.
The FCC should hold ISPs to the same privacy standards to which the FTC successfully held them for many years--and to which the FTC still holds all other companies. We were disappointed, then, when the FCC recently proposed to subject ISPs to a detailed set of burdensome data-privacy rules with no precedent in the FTC's regime. These rules would severely restrict how ISPs may use consumer data. For example, they would prevent any ISP from offering its own branded home security system to its existing customers without their advance permission. The rules would further subject all ISPs--and ISPs alone--to unprecedented compliance costs and keep them from efficiently monetizing online data in the same way that Google and Facebook have long done, with astounding consumer benefits. Such restrictions would exert upward pressure on broadband prices and undercut the FCC's central mission of promoting broadband investment and adoption.
Ironically, the proposed rules would do very little to promote the cause of "privacy" in the first place. If they are adopted, all other participants in the Internet ecosystem will remain exempt, will continue collecting all of the same information that the ISPs would have collected, and may continue selling the same information as before to the same data brokers. The Big Data marketplace will carry on--except, ironically, the FCC will have insulated its largest players from ISP competition. Meanwhile, the rules would simply confuse all but the savviest consumers about what data is, and is not, subject to collection and use.
The FCC nonetheless suggests that ISPs should be treated differently from all other Internet companies because, it says, they "have direct access to potentially all customer information" transmitted over their broadband pipes, whereas non-ISP companies do not. But that is factually incorrect, as former Clinton administration Privacy Czar Peter Swire recently explained in his comprehensive report on ISP data collection. First, ISPs cannot read encrypted communications, and most Internet traffic is now encrypted. Indeed, almost all of the top websites now encrypt by default or on user log-in. When you type "nearby hospitals with oncology practices" into Google's search engine, Google knows you're asking about cancer treatment, but your ISP does not.
Also, any given ISP today handles only a portion of a typical consumer's Internet traffic. Suppose you use your Android smartphone on your home wi-fi network in the morning, switch to a wireless network during your commute, then switch to your work wi-fi network when you arrive at the office, and then switch again to a Starbucks wi-fi connection during your coffee break. On the same Android device, you might have used four separate ISPs, and any given ISP handled only a fraction of your communications. But you used your phone's Android operating system and Chrome browser throughout the day, giving Google potentially broad insights into your online profile.
The FCC additionally suggests that ISP-specific regulatory burdens are needed because consumers find it harder to make privacy choices by switching among ISPs than by switching among rival non-ISP providers. But that, too, is factually mistaken. T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint bombard us daily with inducements to switch providers. It would be far easier for you to take them up on those offers than switch to a different social networking site or abandon your Gmail account.
We remain hopeful that the FCC will adopt a less rigid, more FTC-like approach to the privacy practices of ISPs. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler recently acknowledged that one of the challenges in protecting privacy "is to make sure we are consistent with the FTC's thoughtful, rational approach." Let's hope that the FCC will take these words to heart and build on the proven success of its sister agency.
Jon Leibowitz is a former U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chairman and Jonathan Nuechterlein is a former FTC General Counsel and U.S. Federal Communications Commission Deputy General Counsel. The authors are now in private law practice and represent ISPs, among other clients. The views expressed here are their own.
See original article on Fortune.com
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By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission have asked mobile phone carriers and manufacturers to explain how they release security updates amid mounting concerns over security vulnerabilities, the U.S. agencies said on Monday. The agencies have written to Apple Inc, AT&T Inc and Alphabet Inc, among others, in order "to better understand, and ultimately to improve, the security of mobile devices," the FCC said. The FCC sent letters to six mobile phone carriers on security issues, while the FTC ordered eight mobile device manufacturers including BlackBerry Ltd, Microsoft Corp, LG Electronics USA Inc and Samsung Electronics America Inc to disclose "the factors that they consider in deciding whether to patch a vulnerability on a particular mobile device." The FTC also seeks "detailed data on the specific mobile devices they have offered for sale to consumers since August 2013" and "the vulnerabilities that have affected those devices; and whether and when the company patched such vulnerabilities." The agencies are opening the inquiry about how mobile carriers and manufacturers handle security updates for mobile devices because consumers and businesses are conducting a growing amount of daily activities on mobile devices and new questions have been raised about how the security of mobile communications. The "safety of their communications and other personal information is directly related to the security of the devices they use," the FCC said. "There have recently been a growing number of vulnerabilities associated with mobile operating systems that threaten the security and integrity of a users device." The FCC said it sent letters to mobile carriers including AT&T, Verizon Communications Inc, Sprint Corp, U.S. Cellular Corp, Tracfone Wireless, which is owned by America Movil SAB, and T-Mobile US, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom, "asking questions about their processes for reviewing and releasing security updates for mobile devices." The companies must respond to the FCC and FTC questions within 45 days. There were more than 355 million U.S. mobile wireless devices in use in 2014, the FCC said in a December report. The agency said that number had risen to 382 million by mid-2015, citing company disclosures. The FCC noted that a vulnerability called "Stagefright" in the Android operating system could affect almost 1 billion Android devices globally. Reuters reported in August that Google and Samsung planned to release monthly security fixes for Android phones. The change came after security researcher Joshua Drake found a vulnerability that could allow attackers to send a special multimedia message to an Android phone and access sensitive content even if the message is unopened. Google did not immediately comment on Monday. Apple declined to comment. Consumers may be left unprotected, potentially indefinitely, by any delays in patching vulnerabilities, the FCC said. John Marinho, vice president for cybersecurity at CTIA, a wireless trade group, said in a statement that "customers security remains a top priority for wireless companies, and there is a very strong partnership among carriers." (Editing by Bernadette Baum and Matthew Lewis)
Yesterday, a Gizmodo report alleged that Facebook's human curators had been manipulating the trending news section to kill conservative stories -- allegations that Facebook carefully didn't deny in a blandly worded response. Now, the US Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees communications and the internet, has asked for real answers.
DON'T MISS: 5 private details Facebook asks for that you shouldnt share
The Chairman of the committee, Senator John Thune (R) from South Dakota, signed the letter. In it, the Senator requests answers to a number of Gizmodo's allegations:
2) Have Facebook news curators in fact manipulated the content of the Trending Topics section, either by targeting news stories related to conservative views for exclusion or by injecting non-trending content? 3) What steps is Facebook taking to investigate claims of politically motivated manipulation of news stories in the Trending Topics section? If such claims are substantiated, what steps will Facebook take to hold the responsible individuals accountable?
The letter then goes on to call Facebook's bluff in a rather spectacular fashion. This morning, VP of Search Tom Stocky took to Facebook to address the allegations, saying that Facebook had strict guidelines in place to prevent this kind of thing -- and thereby implying that any wrongdoing was the fault of individual employees, and not Facebook policy. In his letter, Thune requests more details:
a. When did Facebook first introduce these guidelines? b. Please provide a copy of these guidelines, as well as any changes or amendments since January 2014. c. Does Facebook provide training for its employees related to these guidelines? If so, describe what the training consists of, as well as its frequency. d. How does Facebook determine compliance with these guidelines? Does it conduct audits? If so, how often? What steps are taken when a violation occurs?
It's notable that this is a GOP-controlled committee asking the questions. Gizmodo's original report claimed that curators were using their control of the trending news topics to suppress more conservative stories and outlets, which is an obvious concern for Republicans. It's also part of a larger narrative of Facebook favoring the left wing: last month, an internal poll of Facebook employees showed that some workers thought Facebook should be using its power to stop President Trump.
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Either way, Facebook has until May 24th to respond to the Committee's letter, and hopefully clear up this issue on the record.
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RTX2DKBZ
Here is what you need to know.
China's CPI was a bit light. Consumer prices in China rose 2.3% year-over-year in April, missing the 2.4% gain that was expected. Food prices jumped 7.4% versus a year ago, but that was a bit slower than the March reading of up 7.6%. Notable was the 33.5% year-over-year spike in pork prices. Nonfood prices were up just 1.1% compared with a year ago. Also out were producer prices, which fell 3.4% YoY. The Chinese yuan ended unchanged at 6.5161 per dollar.
Germany's trade surplus is the largest on record. The trade surplus of Europe's largest economy swelled to 20.6 billion in March, a record high, according to the Financial Times. The data showed that German exports within the European Union totaled 62.6 billion, while imports from the bloc reached 53.9 billion. Additionally, Germany's current account surplus reached a record high of 30.4 billion. The euro is little changed at 1.1379.
Greece has been offered debt relief. Reuters reports that Greece has been offered debt relief if it makes good on all of the reforms it has promised its creditors. The deal would reportedly extend the maturities on Greek debt and cap interest payments. But a haircut, which has been publicly supported by the International Monetary Fund, doesn't appear to be in the cards. More details on the deal will come from a meeting of deputy finance ministers on May 24, according to the report. Greece's 10-year yield is down 53 basis points at 7.54% at its lowest level in five months.
Impeachment proceedings will continue in Brazil. The impeachment proceedings against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will continue despite an earlier announcement they had been shelved. Bloomberg reports, "Lawmaker Waldir Maranhao released a statement in the dead of night revoking his own call to annul impeachment sessions in the lower house." A vote on whether to put Rousseff on trial is scheduled for Wednesday, and if it passes, she would be removed from office until the trial concludes.
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"The Punisher" is the Philippines' new president. Rodrigo Duterte has won the presidential election in the Philippines. According to CNN, Duterte's top rival, Grace Poe, conceded when exit polls showed she was trailing by 38.92% to 22.14%. Duterte has been compared to Donald Trump for his outspoken demeanor. The results won't be official until June.
Gap warned. The retailer announced that same-store sales cratered 7% in April. Gap was hit especially hard by an 11% slide in Banana Republic same-store sales. The company issued downside EPS guidance of $0.31 to $0.32, far worse than the $0.44 that was expected by the Thomson Reuters consensus. Gap shares were down about 10% in after-hours trading.
SolarCity is getting destroyed. The Elon Musk-led solar company lost a whopping $2.56 a share, missing the $2.31 loss that was expected. Revenue surged 81.6% versus last year to $122.6 million, however, topping the $110 million Bloomberg consensus. Second-quarter guidance came in at a loss of $2.70 to $2.80 a share, worse than the $2.13 loss that Wall Street was anticipating. SolarCity shares are down almost 19% ahead of the opening bell.
Stock markets everywhere are higher. Japan's Nikkei (+2.2%) led in Asia, and Spain's IBEX (+1.9%) paces the gains in Europe. S&P 500 futures are up 11.00 points at 2,065.25.
Earnings reports continue to flow. Allergan, Credit Suisse, Crocs, Nokia, and SodaStream are among the companies reporting ahead of the opening bell. Walt Disney is the lone notable reporting after markets close.
US economic data is light. JOLTs Job Openings and wholesale inventories will be reported at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is higher by 1 basis point at 1.76%.
NOW WATCH: FORMER GREEK FINANCE MINISTER: The single largest threat to the global economy
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For Californians, Alberta's gargantuan blaze is a reminder that the Golden State has faced its own super-fires over the years and officials warn that the risks are worsening.
El Nino-fueled storms have brought some relief to drought-parched California this year, but the central and southern portions of the state, as well as the Sierra Nevada foothills in the north remain at high risk, according to experts. The state's peak wildfire season comes in late July or August, with the hot, dry conditions, although the danger will last well into the fall months.
California last year "had two of the top-10 most devastating fires in the state's history very similar conditions to what's occurring in Canada right now," said Ken Pimlott, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention (CalFire). "There's drought-induced tree mortality and we have just critically parched, dry vegetation, all (resulting in) just explosive fire conditions."
State and federal officials estimate there are 29 million dead trees throughout the Sierra Nevada mountain range. "There are a lot of trees that have died because of long-term drought and maybe some bugs as well," said Heath Hockenberry, National Weather Service's national fire weather program manager.
Last fall, two mega-fires brought death and destruction to Northern California. Together, the so-called Butte and Valley fires caused an estimated $2 billion in damage, destroyed 1,830 homes, and left six people dead. Nearly 150,000 acres were burned in five counties of the state, and some wineries and vineyards were lost or damaged.
"The fire risk potential is quite high, particularly in Central and Southern California, where either the hope for El Nino rains didn't really come but there were enough rains to cause more brush to grow and chaparral to grow," said Mark Bove, a senior research meteorologist for Munich Reinsurance America. "What will happen as they go into the dry season is all that new growth and greenery will dry out and it will just end up being more fuel for potential fires later this summer and autumn."
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Stanton Florea, a Vallejo, California-based spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, said Southern California's "fire danger is starting off here in May. It is expected to be busier than normal down there."
There was a reminder Friday of the region's brush-fire risk when a small blaze scorched dry hillsides in San Dimas, a community located about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles The blaze was put out by the L.A.County Fire Department before reaching the nearby Angeles National Forest.
Overall, 2016 looks to be "closer to an average year for us than we've had in five or six years," said the U.S. Forest Service official. The roughly 20 million acres that the agency manages "will not begin to see bigger campaign fires for some time," since there's still snow on the ground in some higher elevation areas.
Other parts of the country are forecast to have elevated fire risk this season, too.
The Southwest and Southern states, as well as Alaska and Hawaii, will have "above-normal significant wildland fire potential," with the risk starting as early as this month in some places, according to a wildfire outlook issued May 1 by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho. "Normal significant wild land fire potential is expected for the Northern Rockies. Significant wild land fire potential is expected to transition from above normal back to normal over the Appalachians in May due to increasing moisture and green-up."
Preparations are already underway to test the readiness of fire crews and aerial firefighting equipment out west.
In Colorado, Global SuperTanker's "Spirit of John Muir," a Boeing 747 converted into the world's largest aerial fire-fighting plane, launched Thursday, and news media were given demonstrations at the Colorado Springs Airport. The 747 is capable of carrying up about 20,000 gallons of water or retardant.
"We're fully prepared for fire season," said Florea, the U.S. Forest Service spokesman. For the 2016 fire season, the agency has "helitack" crews and 21 air tankers available in the western United States. They could boost that number up to 29 with eight military C-130's.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County will have two Bombardier CL-415 Superscooper fire-fighting aircraft on loan from the government of Quebec starting in the fall for wildfire suppression, as well as the county's own fleet of helicopters. The county plans to stage extra strike teams in the field this season and place them in higher fire risk areas such as Malibu and Santa Clarita. In February, Malibu had a wildfire with some crews on the lines composed of state prisoners, including one female inmate firefighter who died as a result of injuries suffered while battling the blaze.
The Oakland firestorm in 1991 remains the nation's costliest wildfire in dollar terms, totaling a $3 billion loss when adjusted to today's dollars, according to insurance industry data. The fires, which took place during a drought year and in the hillsides above the East San Francisco Bay city, killed 25 people and destroyed 2,843 homes and more than 430 apartments.
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Amazon (AMZN) shot up 10% after its first quarter report on April 28th, as the company marked its fourth profitable quarter in a row. The e-commerce giant, which has historically only posted sporadic profitable quarters since its founding in 1995, hasn't reported four quarters of profitability in a row since 2012. With bearish calls that Amazon had been sacrificing profitability for growth in the rearview mirror, Sanford Bernsteins Carlos Kirjner slapped a street-high $1,000 price target on the stock Tuesday, saying this is only the beginning for the stock, which-- at $700 per share--is trading at all-time highs and up 17% in the last month.
The key driver, according to Kirjner, is gross margin growth.
Amazons businesses are now so large, fast-growing, and profitable that it is harder and harder for the company to find new areas of investment to keep up with the growth in gross profits, he wrote.
Five key reasons why margins will expand significantly from here:
1. The shift to revenues from the higher-margin Amazon Web Services (AWS) division. AWS, the companys fast-growing cloud computing segment posted revenue of $2.6 billion in the first quarter, marking a 64% year-over-year increase. There are no cost of goods sold for this division. Kirjner estimates AWS revenue of $17.6 billion in 2017, and the margin impact will be pronounced, as AWS adds $5-$6 billion in revenues with well over 50% variable (operating income) margin yet again, he wrote.
2. The shift toward more third-party Marketplace revenues, whose only costs of goods sold are shipping costs associated with the portion of Marketplace units fulfilled by Amazon. Kirjner estimates third party business to have gross margins of 75%.
3. Kirjner sees a positive mix shift in first-party business. as higher margin categories such as apparel and consumables are growing faster than lower-margin categories, according to recent commentary from Jeff Bezos and the management team. Management said apparel and consumables were the fastest growing category.
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4. Content expenses are expected to slow to slow. As Amazon's content library grows, its growth will decelerate significantly, according to Kirjner. We believe that along 2017 we will see streaming-content-related COGS decelerate and ultimately grow slower than retail gross profit, further contributing to gross margin expansion, he wrote.
5. Amazons new robot-filled fulfillment centers--known as 8th generation--are becoming a more significant portion of the installed base and will boost margins, according to Kirjner. In 2017, 8th generation fulfillment centers will likely exceed 40% of Amazon's fulfillment capacity. We believe the variable cost per unit fulfilled in these newer fulfillment centers is significantly lower and, as they become a larger portion of the installed base, we may see fulfillment expenses improve even faster than they did in 2015, he wrote.
Time is on the side of margin expansion, Kirjner wrote, which will only be aided by continued revenue growth, driven especially by the Prime membership program. Last quarter, Amazons core e-commerce business grew 32% in North America, aided by the Prime program, which offers unlimited express delivery on millions of products. Prime has at least 46 million members worldwide, according to estimates based on numbers that Amazon has disclosed.
Meanwhile, some of the companys new company initiatives--including Tuesday's announcement of a YouTube-like video service--provide additional avenues of growth with minimal investment.
Bernsteins estimates for the next 3 to 12 months are considerably ahead of consensus, especially as the firms 12-month price target reflects a 24-month view. Bernsteins 2017 EBITDA forecast of $22.5 billion is 14% ahead of consensus.
Amazon does not trade anywhere near what we think it is worth on a fundamental basis...There are changes in trajectory of fulfillment and content spend that are not reflected in consensus. As a result we are bullish in the short, medium and long-term and think we may see margins expand much faster than they have in the next two years than they have in the last two, Kirjner wrote.
Importantly, Kirjner reiterated target is not based on higher valuation but, rather, underestimated profits. He outlines that Amazon currently trades at 20x EV/EBITDA for the next twelve months; the $1,0000 target corresponds to 18x mid-2017 to mid-2018 EBITDA. Kirjners gross margin target is 39% for 2017 compared with consensus expectations for 36%.
If Democratic presidential primary Bernie Sanders is looking for a good reason to stay in the race given Hillary Clintons nearly insurmountable delegate lead, he just received a couple of big ones.
A Quinnipiac University poll found Sanders performs better than Clinton against presumptive GOP candidate Donald Trump in crucial swing states.
Related: As Hillary Plays the Woman Card, More Men Are Being Dealt Out
The new poll shows Clinton in a dead heat with Trump in Pennsylvania, leading him by just one point, 43 percent to 42 percent. Sanders, meanwhile, leads the billionaire 47 percent to 41 percent.
The result is even more surprising when you consider the former secretary of state beat Sanders by 12 points in the Pennsylvania primary two weeks ago.
The close margins continue in Florida, a state Democrats need to win to keep the White House.
Clinton again barely beats Trump there, 43 percent to 42 percent, and the same is true for the Vermont lawmaker, who leads 44 percent to 42 percent.
Related: Poll Finds Militaristic Trump Has Won Over the Troops
The picture is brighter for Sanders in the make-or-break state of Ohio. Clinton loses to Trump, 43 percent to 39 percent, while Sanders wins a hypothetical matchup, 43 percent to 41 percent.
The snapshot comes the same day a NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll found that while Clinton beats Trump in the general election, 49 percent to 44 percent, Sanders wipes the floor with him, winning 53 percent to 40 percent.
2016 Polls
And Sanders is still running strong in state primaries. A RealClearPolitics average of polls shows him with a six-point lead in Tuesdays West Virginia primary, where 29 delegates are at stake.
A win there, a week after his victory in Indiana, would provide Sanders with fresh motivation to keep running against Clinton. However, it will be very difficult to make significant progress against the former First Ladys delegate count.
Related: Why People Are Worried About Trump Learning State Secrets
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The Clinton camp is acutely aware that a string of Sanders victories in May could imply that her campaign is losing ground as she heads into the crucial primaries on June 7 in California, New Jersey, Montana and several other states.
To stanch a possible loss of support, Clinton has begun running ads in Kentucky, which holds its primary next week a step she didnt take in either Indiana or West Virginia.
The protracted battle has become a favorite of Trump, who has taunted Clinton in recent days by saying she "can't close the deal" and defeat Sanders. Fighting a campaign on two fronts threatens to distract Clinton, allowing Trump to spend all of his time firing acid-tongued sallies her way.
The New York real estate mogul should be careful about gloating, though. While Trump appears headed for a big win in West Virginias GOP primary, Republicans also go to the polls in Nebraska, where some of his vanquished primary rivals are still on the ballot.
Sen. Ted Cruz (TX), who suspended his campaign last week following Trumps double-digit victory in Indiana, is open to the possibility of restarting his presidential campaign if he wins Nebraskas GOP primary today, according to Politico.
The reason we suspended the race last week is with Indianas loss I didnt see a viable path to victory. If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly, Cruz said during an interview with conservative radio show host Glenn Beck.
Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
A woman walks next to a BlackRock sign pictured in the Manhattan borough of New York, October 11, 2015. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
By Trevor Hunnicutt
NEW YORK (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc is accelerating its push in Latin America, making plans for its first launch of a private equity infrastructure fund targeting that market, a company document showed.
The launch is anticipated this year, according to the document, an infrastructure investing plan seen by Reuters on Monday.
Such funds typically target large investors who can lock up their initial investments for a decade or more. The size of the fund was not disclosed, and BlackRock declined to comment.
Since its acquisition of Mexican investment company Infraestructura Institucional last year, BlackRock has said it has $1 billion committed by investors and plans to invest broadly across the energy, utility, transportation and communication infrastructure sectors in the region, especially in Mexico.
BlackRock started its infrastructure unit in 2011, and more recently has focused on growth in Latin America. The unit oversees physical property as well as relationships, from construction sub-contractors to government officials.
To date, the unit has been known for specializing in renewable-energy projects and being rooted in developed markets in Europe, the United States and Asia. The company has about $9 billion in infrastructure assets under management overall.
The firm has expanded, hiring foreign executives, including Manuel Sanchez, the former chief executive of Spanish renewable energy company Abengoa. BlackRock now has 26 people currently assigned in the Latin America infrastructure effort.
In its expansion south, BlackRock expects more government policy reforms of the sort that ended Mexico's decades-old state energy monopoly across the Americas. Mexico's economy grew more quickly than expected in the first quarter this year, preliminary data showed last month, after uneven U.S. demand and sinking oil prices shook the economy in 2015.
Company executives have said they expect large investors, including pension funds, to boost their stakes in investments such as railroads, pipelines and wind farms in the hope that they will return a stream of cash for pensioners and other investors.
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In addition to expanding its Mexico City-based team, BlackRock last year took a joint stake worth around $900 million in a Mexican natural-gas pipeline project with U.S. private equity company First Reserve that is expected to start operating this year.
It is also looking at expanding to other countries, such as Colombia, Peru and Chile, company officials have said. New York-based BlackRock managed $4.7 trillion overall as of March 31.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Dan Grebler)
TAIPEI, TAIWAN--(Marketwired - May 9, 2016) - The 2016 Taiwan International Fastener Show, which met with enthusiastic attendance from fastener companies and worldwide buyers, wrapped up successfully on April 13. The three-day show attracted 1,996 international buyers from 75 countries and a total of 28,586 visits.
Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) President Peter Huang stated that the Taiwan International Fastener Show has been held for the fourth time and companies and buyers have set new records -- a total of 402 companies attended the show, a 15-percent increase since last year, and used 1,002 booths, an increase of 18 percent.
This year's show was collectively hosted by the Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Kaohsiung City Government, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and the Taiwan Industrial Fasteners Institute (TIFI). The fourth Taiwan International Fastener Show is also the largest in Taiwan.
Taiwan's fasteners usually target industrial and automobile sectors overseas, though in the past decade, the industry has been actively developing its standing in high-value markets such as aerospace, medical care and railroads.
This year's show has seen a record performance again: Apart from the growth in the show's scale, the number of visiting international buyers has also risen by 13.7 percent. At least 90 percent of buyers were satisfied with this year's event. Among those who were satisfied with the overall quality of the entire show, Wurth Group Executive Vice President Marc Strandquist stated that the group aims to expand procurement in Taiwan in its business turnover by 2020, and hopes to see multiplied growth. His statements show the event has become an international fastener industry indicator and business procurement platform.
Participating companies in this year's show and international buyers have all expressed satisfaction with the show's quality and quantity, and profited from enthusiastic talks during the procurement sessions.
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This year's top 10 buyers were China, Japan, the U.S., India, Germany, Malaysia, Vietnam, Italy, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Taiwan's fasteners are mainly exported to markets in the U.S. and Europe, topping total export value at 80 percent.
Advantages such as Taiwan's competitive prices have also gained the favor of emerging markets, such as India and Turkey.
Taiwan's fastener companies stress their "customized" services. One of the four largest aerospace engine fastener producers and a major supplier for GE, the National Aerospace Fasteners Corporation, actively promoted its aerospace technology applications for the automobile and industrial sectors at the show. It has also commenced talks with a Japanese thermal power corporation to produce high-temperature resistant fasteners. Chun Zu's die spotting machine was also popular among buyers. Boltun Corporation stated that domestic companies have seen a competitive edge with more sophisticated fastener processing technology.
This year's show has stabilized existing markets and has opened up the possibility for new prospective clients, which will not only create more business ventures for Taiwan's fastener companies, but also increase the industry's development.
A 2016 fastener industry leader summit was held during the show's first day, featuring a strong team of speakers. World experts in the field were in attendance, including the European Fastener Distributor Association's (EFDA) Dr. Volker Lederer, the U.S.-based National Fastener Distributors Association's Mr. Marc Strandquist, Italy-based UDIB's Dr. Gian Marco Dal Pane and TIFI Chairman Chang Tu-huo. Industry leaders have shared their opinions on international fastener trends and their views on tackling future challenges. The summit also saw the attendance of over 300 representatives in the fastener industry, including from Taiwan, the U.S., Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia. The summit was also broadcast live, attracting at least 3,199 viewers.
During the show, the hosting organizations also invited heavyweight buyers from the U.S., Canada, Germany, Japan and Italy, as well as groups from Italy and India. Among them were 34 companies boasting over US$100 million in sales.
TAITRA also set up 53 heavyweight buyers, such as FLEX-N-GATE, KELLER & KALMBACH, YANFENG GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE INTERIORS, THEO FOERCH, FASTENAL CANADA, for 202 one-to-one procurement sessions.
After the three-day show, many of the buyers also visited Gangshan, a major fastener hub in Taiwan, and toured Taiwanese suppliers' factories as well. The show exhibited its most critical competitive aspect in its proximity to industrial clusters in Luchu and Gangshan -- just 30 minutes by car -- where over 700 fastener companies are based, making it a pivotal opportunity for potential sales.
The show has again gathered domestic and international fastener indicators, showing the world Taiwan's solid competitiveness in fastener production and creation. For more information, refer to the Taiwan International Fastener Show's website at www.FastenerTaiwan.com, or "like" its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/FastenerTaiwan.
About TAITRA
Founded in 1970 to promote foreign trade, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) is the foremost non-profit trade promotion organization in Taiwan.
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A logo of Takata Corp is seen with its display as people are reflected in a window at a showroom for vehicles in Tokyo, November 6, 2015. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
(Reuters) - The Japanese government on Monday notified automakers to recall an additional 7 million vehicles with faulty Takata air bags that have been sold in Japan, the Nikkei reported on Monday, citing sources.
If all companies comply with the notice, faulty air bag-related recalls in Japan are expected to reach nearly 20 million vehicles, with the global total touching 120 million vehicles, Nikkei said. (http://s.nikkei.com/1QWOe01)
Separately, the Nikkei also reported that Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T) and Nissan Motor Co Ltd plan to compensate customers for costs incurred from fuel efficiency-related issues, with Mitsubishi paying Nissan's portion of the expenses (http://s.nikkei.com/1SZJYCP)
(Reporting by Shashwat Awasthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
In secretive communist Laos, Bounhang Vorachith (C), pictured here in 2006, has taken office as the country's new president and party secretary general (AFP Photo/Hoang Dinh Nam)
Laos' new leaders took office Tuesday, according to state media, as the secretive communist nation prepares for a period of unusually frenetic diplomacy culminating in a landmark visit by a US President.
One of Asia's least developed nations, Laos has been tightly ruled by its communist leaders since the 1975 end of the Vietnam War, which saw it blanketed by bombs in secret missions led by the CIA.
Leadership reshuffles take place every five years in carefully choreographed gatherings by the country's politburo and rubber stamp National Assembly.
In late January, vice president Bounnhang Vorachith was elected to the presidency and party secretary general, replacing 79-year-old Choummaly Sayasone.
Thongloun Sisoulith, a Soviet Union-educated politburo member and former foreign minister, was elected Prime Minister.
Both apparatchiks were officially appointed to their positions on Tuesday at a ceremony in Vientiane, the state-run Lao News Agency reported.
The internal operations of the powerful party are largely kept secret under a regime that bars a free press, rarely grants access to international media and severely restricts freedom of expression.
But analysts predict the current politburo is unlikely to loosen the government's repressive grip or open its economy.
A foreign diplomat in Vientiane told AFP they expected "no major changes".
"The speeches from Bounnhang and Thongloun promised the same policies. Thongloun appears to be a good choice in terms of Laos balancing its foreign relations," the diplomat said, requesting anonymity.
Laos is currently chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional bloc, hosting a slew of diplomatic meetings that could open the hermetic nation up to greater scrutiny.
Barack Obama will also be the first US president to visit Laos when he attends an ASEAN summit in the capital this summer, an arrival tinged with historical significance given the CIA's secret carpet bombing of the landlocked nation.
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Leaders from China and Japan are also expected to attend.
Though for many years neighbouring Vietnam was the most powerful foreign player in Laos, China has poured money into the country recently, becoming its largest foreign investor in 2014.
But Washington is also increasingly courting the isolated state as part of President Barack Obama's so-called "pivot" to Asia.
Rights groups have urged ASEAN and the US to pressure Laos this year over its poor human rights record.
On Tuesday, Reporters Without Borders released its annual report, ranking Laos one of the worst countries in the world for press freedom at 173 out of 180.
* German national kills one, wounds three others in assault
* Minister plays down fears of a militant Islamist attack
* Assailant had received psychiatric treatment
* Witnesses heard man shout "Allahu Akbar" - police (Adds detail from investigators)
By Joern Poltz and Jens Hack
MUNICH, May 10 (Reuters) - A German man suffering from psychiatric problems stabbed four people at a train station near Munich early on Tuesday, killing one man and wounding three more in an attack investigators said did not appear to be politically motivated.
Witnesses said the alleged assailant, a 27-year-old unemployed carpenter, attacked his first victim shouting "Allahu Akbar" ('God is Greatest' in Arabic). Some witnesses said they also heard him shout "infidels must die".
The man received psychiatric treatment just two days ago and has confessed to using drugs, investigators said. He was arrested at the scene and was being questioned.
"From what we know so far, he was a lone criminal ... There is no indication that he was part of an Islamist network," Petra Sandles, vice president of Bavaria's office of criminal investigations, told reporters.
Investigators said it was unclear why the man, who had spent the night at the railway station, had chosen Grafen, a quiet commuter town about 32 km (20 miles) southeast of the Bavarian capital Munich for the indiscriminate attack.
"So far there are no findings that are relevant for state security," Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said.
Police said the man was wielding a knife with a 10 cm (4 inch) long blade in the attack at about 5 a.m. (0300 GMT).
One victim, a 50-year-old, died of stab wounds in hospital shortly afterwards. Police said one other man was seriously injured and two others who had been riding bicycles had less serious stab wounds.
State prosecutor spokesman Ken Heidenreich told reporters the suspect, who comes from near the western city of Giessen, had given very confusing statements and he might be referred to a psychiatric institution.
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"After questioning, nothing really fits together," he said.
Investigators said the suspect may have converted to Islam but there was no indication that he had been radicalised.
Germany, which is playing a supporting role in the fight against Islamic State, has not suffered a major attack by Islamist militants on the scale of those that have hit neighbouring France and Belgium.
But with about 260 of the more than 800 home-grown radicals who have joined jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq having since returned to Germany, ministers have warned an attack is possible and security services are on alert.
Some Germans fear militants may also have taken advantage of Europe's migrant crisis to enter the country. Over the past year Germany has taken in more than one million, mostly Muslim migrants and refugees fleeing wars in Syria and elsewhere.
(Additional reporting by James Swaden; Writing by Paul Carrel and Madeline Chambers; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By David Brunnstrom, Lesley Wroughton and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is considering whether to lift a three-decade-old arms embargo on Vietnam, U.S. officials say, as he weighs calls to forge closer military ties with Hanoi against concerns over its poor human rights record. The debate within the U.S. administration is coming to a head amid preparations for Obama's trip to Vietnam this month to bolster ties between Washington and Hanoi, former wartime enemies who are increasingly partners against China's growing territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea. The full removal of the embargo something Vietnam has long sought - would sweep away one of the last major vestiges of the Vietnam War era and advance the normalization of relations begun 21 years ago. It would also likely anger Beijing, which condemned Obama's partial lifting of the arms ban in 2014 as an interference in the region's balance of power. On one side of the internal debate, some White House and State Department aides say it would be premature to completely end restrictions on lethal military assistance before Vietnam's communist government has made more progress on human rights. They are at odds with other officials, including many at the Pentagon, who argue bolstering Vietnam's ability to counter a rising China should take priority, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Boosting the security of allies and partners has been a major thrust of Obama's strategic "pivot" toward the Asia-Pacific region, a centrepiece of his foreign policy. Even as Vietnam seeks warmer relations with the United States, though, U.S. officials are mindful that suspicions linger among Communist Party conservatives that Washington wants to undermine their country's one-party system. One major factor in Obama's decision will be whether Vietnam will move forward on major U.S. defence deals, a potential boon for American jobs that could soften congressional opposition to lifting the weapons ban, according to one source close to White House policymaking. There have been questions about whether Vietnam, which has relied mostly on Russian weapons suppliers since the Cold War, is ready to start buying U.S.-made systems. Diplomats have seen increasing signs that Hanoi is seeking ties with U.S. defence contractors but Washington wants tangible commitments, according to the source. Vietnam is big buyer of weapons from Russia, its Cold War-era patron, including Kilo-class submarines and corvettes. It could look to the United States for items such as P-3 surveillance planes and missiles to beef up its naval forces and coastal defences. At the Pentagon, the prevailing view appears to be more in line with Defense Secretary Ash Carter's congressional testimony late last month that he would support lifting restrictions on the sale of U.S. weapons to Vietnam. That comment raised eyebrows at the White House, where officials said Obama had yet to rule on the issue. Obama's final decision could hinge on whatever recommendations come from ongoing visits to Vietnam by Tom Malinowski, the administration's top human rights envoy, and Daniel Russel, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific. Speaking in Hanoi on Tuesday, Russel said the embargo lifting was still "under periodic review" and would be looked at seriously, although he made it clear Vietnam's commitment to human rights would be central to any decision. "One of the important factors that would make a lift of the ban possible would be to continue forward momentum in meeting universal human rights standards and progress in important legal reform," Russel told reporters. Malinowski is not scheduled to speak to media during his trip. It was not clear whether Obama was leaning for or against ending the embargo ahead of his trip, which will make him the third consecutive U.S. president to visit Vietnam. Obama eased the ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam in October 2014, allowing shipments of defensive maritime equipment to help Hanoi build up its deterrent to China's pursuit of its claims in the South China Sea, which conflict with those of its neighbours such as Vietnam and U.S. ally the Philippines. "UNDESERVED AT THIS TIME" John Sifton, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said lifting the arms ban would be "undeserved at this time." The group, in an April 27 letter sent to Obama, described the Vietnamese government as "among the most repressive in the world." While a number of U.S. lawmakers favour closer military ties with Vietnam because of shared concerns about China, others have deep misgivings. Democratic U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez, a member of the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam who also has a large Vietnamese-American voting bloc in her California district, said lifting the embargo would be "giving a free pass to a government that continually harasses, detains and imprisons its citizens." Obama has the power to bypass Congress to lift the embargo. But his administration would hope for support from Republican U.S. Senator John McCain, a decorated former prisoner of war in North Vietnam who backed the 2014 partial lifting. Some U.S. officials see signs that Vietnam is starting to pay attention to human rights criticism. But concerns remain over the government's heavy-handedness toward political opponents and treatment of workers and there is worry that Washington will lose some leverage if it gives up the arms embargo without securing concessions for reforms. One senior U.S. official suggested that it might be best for now to "set the issue of the lethal weapons ban aside." "These things do take time," the official said. But others said the door should remain open to lifting the embargo as preparations proceed for Obama's visit. If Obama opts against removing the ban for now, another option that might mollify the Vietnamese would be creating a "working group" to map out the path toward doing so, one U.S. official said. (Additional reporting by My Pham in HANOI and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Nick Macfie)
Pat Toomey
Pat Toomey isn't ready to jump aboard the Trump train just yet.
The Republican senator from Pennsylvania, locked in one of the most consequential Senate races of the 2016 election, told Philadelphia's WAEB radio on Monday that he's "got this set of doubts" regarding presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
My message to Donald Trump is: You need to unite the Republican Party if were gonna win this general election," Toomey said. "I hope to get to the point where I can enthusiastically support Donald Trump. Im not there right now, and I hope we dont get to a point where I decide I just cant support him.
Toomey echoed his sentiment from a Sunday op-ed he wrote for Philly.com.
"As a Republican elected official, I am inclined to support the nominee of my party," Toomey wrote. "That doesn't mean I must always agree with him. I didn't agree with Mitt Romney, John McCain, or George W. Bush on everything, but I supported them."
"That said, Trump is different from previous nominees," he continued.
Toomey first endorsed Marco Rubio, a Florida senator, for president. After Rubio dropped out of the race, Toomey voted for Ted Cruz, a Texas senator, in the Pennsylvania primary last month.
And though he called Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton "unacceptably flawed," he added that he's "not pleased with the two choices we have."
"There could come a point at which the differences are so great as to be irreconcilable," he wrote. "I hope that doesn't happen, but I have never been a rubber stamp for my party's positions or its candidates."
He added that Trump must seek to unite the party and listen to some of his critics to reassure voters "who have grave doubts about him."
"Winning the nomination is a great accomplishment, but it does not mean party members check their judgment at the door," he wrote.
Donald Trump
Toomey is facing a tough battleground-state reelection fight for his Senate seat against Katie McGinty, the Democratic candidate who has already attempted to tie Toomey to Trump.
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A Quinnipiac poll from early April showed Toomey with a 9-point edge over McGinty. But that came weeks before McGinty dispatched two Democratic primary challengers and became Democrats' nominee to take on Toomey.
Left-leaning groups like Emily's List, a political action committee that works to elect female candidates that favor abortion rights, have already signaled a strategy to make races like Pennsylvania's a referendum on Trump and the policies he supports.
"None of these Republican candidates have had the spine to stand up to Donald Trump so far," Marcy Stech, the communication's director for Emily's List, told Business Insider in an email.
"Trump's words and his policies are toxic for any Republican on the ballot, and no amount of rhetorical tap dancing will be able to get around that," she continued.
Toomey's op-ed wasn't his first expression of frustration with Trump as the party's presumptive nominee. When interviewed by Dom Giordano of Philadelphia's WPHT radio on Wednesday, Toomey seemed less than excited about the prospect of Trump at the top of the Republican ticket.
Clinton and Trump as the options was "not the choice I had hoped to be presented with, but I guess this is where we are," he said.
Many Republican leaders have expressed trepidation with supporting Trump as the Manhattan billionaire has risen to carry the mantle of the party. Four of the past five Republican presidential nominees, including the past two Republican presidents, have said they will not be attending the convention in Cleveland this summer.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is meeting with Trump later this week, told CNN last Thursday that he is "just not ready" to support the real-estate magnate.
Maxwell Tani contributed reporting.
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VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - Precipitate Gold Corporation (the "Company" or "Precipitate" or "PRG") (TSX VENTURE:PRG) is pleased to announce results of the early 2016 property wide regional exploration program on its Juan de Herrera project within the Tireo Gold Trend in the Western Dominican Republic.
The property wide regional-scale exploration program has identified five (5) new early-stage geochemically anomalous zones hosted within favourable Tireo volcanic lithologies (see map here). The new target areas extend, and are within two loosely recognized regional mineral prospect trends that bisect the contiguous Precipitate and GoldQuest Mining Corp. landholdings. These laterally extensive mineral prospect trends which extend over a distance exceeding 28 kilometres have a northwest-southeast orientation, following regional rock stratigraphy and major structures.
All new geochemical anomalies identified by Precipitate in this program are favourably positioned proximal to previously identified geophysical anomalies/trends and within the desirable volcanic host rocks. The Company plans to complete follow-up programs of more detailed geochemical surveying over these new targets in the coming weeks, with a specific initial focus applied to the 'South East' Zone, which measures 1.4 kilometres in length and possesses similar geochemical and geophysical characteristics to those identified at the Company's Ginger Ridge Zone.
Regional Program Highlights:
Five new multi-element soil geochemical anomalies, one measuring up to 1.4 kilometres long;
Total of 1,409 soil (ridge/spur and gridded), 121 rock, and 14 stream sediment samples analyzed;
Individual rock sample assaying up to 7.7 g/t gold;
Individual soil sample assaying up to 490 ppb gold;
All new anomalous areas underlain by Tireo volcanic rocks and generally coincident with discreet magnetic geophysical high or low signatures; and
Refined location of the major regional sediment and Tireo volcanic thrust contact.
Precipitate's President & CEO, Jeffrey Wilson stated, "Our exploration team, led by VP Exploration, Michael Moore, successfully achieved its objective in identifying multiple new anomalously mineralized zones with similar characteristics to those found at other known zones throughout the Tireo belt. Having applied the intelligence gained from the data collaboration with GoldQuest Mining Corp., PRG's field crew was able to expedite the exploration of new areas by targeting zones with known desirable characteristics (geophysical, geochemical, and geological). With this initial property-wide assessment now completed and new prospective targets identified, we're keen to focus on systematically advancing these new priority targets. As such, we will continue our field work in an effort to efficiently advance one or more of these new target areas to a drill stage, as an augment to future drilling at Ginger Ridge."
Preliminary Geochemical Anomalous Area Summary Features
South East
The South East Zone is located 6 kilometres southeast of Precipitate's Ginger Ridge Zone, within an apparent regional mineral prospect trend which also includes the new JT Zone and GoldQuest's Loma Viejo Pedro prospect (an estimated distance exceeding 18 kilometres). Initial observations at the South East Zone indicate many similarities to the Ginger Ridge Zone, such as intermediate volcanic host rocks, underlain by strong linear magnetic high geophysical signature, nearby rhyolitic rocks and a linear multi-element soil geochemical anomaly. The zone's gold-soil-anomaly measures an estimated 1,400 metres ('m') long by up to 200m wide, with a coincident and broader copper-in-soil anomaly measuring about 3,400m by up to 800m. The soil geochemical anomaly is open to the northwest. Observed mineralization and alteration includes local native copper and malachite, variably disseminated pyrite, quartz veining and silica flooding, with a rock sample highlight of 0.34 grams per tonne ('g/t') gold. A quartz + hematite breccia zone has been mapped over a lengthy northwest trend exceeding 1.5 kilometres in length.
Jengibre South
The Jengibre South Zone is located between the South East zone and GoldQuest's Jengibre prospect. Soil sampling shows a cluster of gold and other pathfinder element anomalies over an estimated 1,300m x 600m area. This geochemically anomalous area is underlain by volcanic host rocks and a discreet magnetic geophysical low signature. The Jengibre South Zone has yielded a highlight rock sample result of 5.2 g/t gold.
Melchor
Recent sampling at the Melchor Zone focused on an area located approximately 0.5 to 1.0km east and downslope of the earlier 2012-13 ridgetop exploration work. Current soil sampling has identified two separated but proximal gold-in-soil anomalies measuring approximately 100m by 500m and 250m by 500m. Both anomalies are open to the north and south, dominantly underlain by intermediate volcanic rocks and are separated by a large rhyolitic to dacitic (siliceous) rocks. Recent sampling at the Melchor Zone has yielded a highlight rock sample result of 7.7 g/t gold; earlier 2012 rock sampling on the Melchor ridge top reported a highlight rock sample result of 6.3 g/t gold (see the Company's news release dated January 21, 2013).
Peak
The Peak Zone is located 4.5 kilometres east of the South East Zone and appears to be within the mineral prospect trend that includes GoldQuest's Jengibre, Toribo and Mineros Ridge prospects (an approximate lateral distance of over 24 kilometres). Preliminary soil sample coverage for this area is relatively sparse, having demarked a loose gold-in-soil trend measuring an estimated 3,900m, that is underlain by mixed intermediate volcanic rock and a moderate magnetic geophysical low signature. Rhyolitic lithologies are reported about 300m off the Company property border to the north of the Peak Zone. Highlight sampling results include soil up to 490 ppb gold and rock up to 0.76 g/t gold.
JT
The JT Zone is located 11 kilometres northwest of the Company's Ginger Ridge Zone, where gridded soil sampling has identified a modest gold-in-soil anomaly measuring an estimated 200m x 350m that is open to south. The soil anomaly is underlain by rhyolite and siliceous dacite host rocks which have a local moderate high magnetic geophysical signature. Highlight sampling results include soil up to 417 ppb gold and rock up to 3.7 g/t gold.
The 2016 regional program soil geochemical anomalies are defined as exceeding the 70th percentile statistical threshold limit for each respective zone, while rock and stream sediment samples are defined as exceeding the 70th percentile statistical threshold limit of the entire Company project analytical result database.
Rock, soil and stream sediment samples were bagged, sealed and delivered directly to the Bureau Veritas preparation facility in Maimon Dominican Republic where they were dried, crushed (or sieved in the case of soils and stream sediments) and pulped. Sample pulps were then delivered to Bureau Veritas facilities in Vancouver BC Canada (an ISO 9001 accredited facility) for analyses. Rock samples were crushed to with 70% passing 2mm and split using a riffle splitter (prep code PRP70-250). An approximately 250 gram sub-sample split was pulverized to minus 200 mesh (74). A 15 gram sub-split from the resulting pulp was then subjected to aqua regia digestion and multi-element ICP-MS analysis (code AQ201). Select rocks, with elevated gold values were subjected fire assay (ICP-ES finish) for gold analysis (30 g pulp) (code FA430).
This news release has been reviewed and Michael Moore, Vice President, Exploration of Precipitate Gold Corporation, the Qualified Person for the technical information in this news release under NI 43-101 standards.
About Precipitate Gold:
Precipitate Gold Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on exploring and advancing its mineral property interests in the Tireo Gold Trend of the Dominican Republic. The Company also maintains assets in northern British Columbia and southeast Yukon Territory and is actively evaluating additional high-impact property acquisitions with the potential to expand the Company's portfolio and increase shareholder value.
Additional information can be viewed at the Company's website www.precipitategold.com.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Precipitate Gold Corp.,
Jeffrey Wilson, President & CEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This press release may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "proposed", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. This forward-looking information reflects Precipitate Gold Corp.'s ("Precipitate" or the "Company") current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Company and on assumptions it believes are reasonable. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Precipitate to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the exploration concessions may not be granted on terms acceptable to the Company, or at all; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the concessions acquired by the Company may not have attributes similar to those of surrounding properties; delay or failure to receive governmental or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation affecting mining; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. Although Precipitate has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Precipitate does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
nyc metrocard subway machine
The highest number of arrests made by the NYPD is for a $2.75 crime, according to statistics from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services obtained by the Police Reform Organizing Project.
In 2015, the NYPD made 29,198 arrests for "farebeating" or "theft of services" when someone hops a turnstile or tries to ride a train without paying the fare. And the number has continued to rise in recent years, according to data previously reported by the New York Daily News.
The NYPD declined to confirm the statistic, but did tell Business Insider that "the prohibition against MetroCard swipes is still being enforced vigorously," with a caveat that "the solicitation of a swipe (if not accompanied by prohibited conduct) is not a violation and not enforced."
MTA rules prohibit "the unauthorized sale of certain transportation services," like offering to swipe someone in using an unlimited MetroCard in exchange for payment.
PROP also alleges that 92% of these fare-beating arrests involve people of color.
"I am not surprised that 92% of the people arrested for 'farebeating' are Black or Latino," Steve Zeidman, a law professor at CUNY and longtime police-reform advocate, told Business Insider in an email. "That said, it is certainly not the case that 92% of the people who 'farebeat' are black and latino."
Instead, the arrests unfairly target low-income people who can't afford subway fare, let alone an expensive fine, according to PROP.
When someone is caught for fare-beating, "a court summons will generally be issued but persons will still be arrested if they have open warrants or fail after a reasonable time to produce proper ID," according to the NYPD.
People arrested for fare-beating may end up spending hours or even a few nights in jail, the Daily News reports.
"'Farebeating' is always in the NYPD's list of the top ten most commonly charged crimes, and farebeating arrests comprise the bulk of many a police officer's monthly work product," Zeidman said.
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Despite a 2010 statewide ban on quota-driven policing, many officers claim that the department still encourages them to meet numbers. As such, PROP alleges that fare-beating plays a large role.
NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton attends the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York March 17, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
"Subway arrests and summonses are among the most harsh and harmful practices that the NYPD carries out as part of its quota-driven 'broken windows' approach to law enforcement," Robert Gangi of PROP said. "Targeting black and Latino New Yorkers with these tactics reinforces economic and racial inequities."
While critics argue that broken-windows policing unfairly targets minorities and leads to unnecessary arrests, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton remains a supporter. The theory goes that minor disorder, like vandalism, perpetuates more serious, even violent crime. By first pursing these smaller offenses, referred to as "quality of life" crimes, police can cut back.
PROP, along with a number of partner organizations, is organizing a "#SwipeItForward" campaign taking place on Wednesday to encourage people to swipe in their fellow subway riders and publicize the issue.
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The government shakeup in Saudi Arabia will not result in any real change in the kingdom's oil production or its international strategy, a former Saudi oil executive said Monday.
Over the weekend, Ali al-Naimi ended his 20-year run as Saudi Arabia's oil minister. He has been replaced by Khalid al-Falih, chairman of the state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco.
The reshuffling is more about improving the domestic outlook for the kingdom, said Sadad al-Husseini, president of Husseini Energy and a former executive with Saudi Aramco.
"The policy is set at a national level. The minister of petroleum just executes policy," he said in an interview with CNBC's " Power Lunch ."
That policy has been one of high crude production despite low oil prices.
CNBC contributor Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, also doesn't think the change in leadership will lead to a policy shift, because, she said, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has been setting oil policy for some time.
"Right now Mohammad bin Salman seems to have little use for the OPEC cartel. He's seemingly fine with the current price environment because he's very focused on this big overhaul of the Saudi economy," Croft told CNBC's " Closing Bell " Monday.
She thinks the real question is whether al-Falih will have the authority to set the kingdom's policy.
"One of the reasons that people think Saudi policy has become erratic is it's being set by this 30-year-old deputy crown prince who is really in charge of almost everything of importance in Saudi Arabia, and the policy can swing quite wildly depending on what he wants in a given day," she said.
While the deputy crown prince is in charge, al-Husseini believes al-Falih will bring a lot of judgment and perspective to the OPEC meetings.
"He has been in the business for many decades. He is highly respected by both Prince Mohammad as well as his colleagues," he said.
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For Michael Cohen, head of energy commodities research at Barclays, the issue to watch isn't necessarily the change in oil leadership but what is involved in the kingdom's economic blueprint called "Saudi Vision 2030." The plan sets out policy and budgetary changes to be implemented over the next 15 years in the hope of making the kingdom less reliant on crude.
"This is part of a larger generational shift that has been going on in Saudi Arabia," he said in an interview with "Power Lunch."
Specifically, he's concerned about the meaning behind the renaming of the Petroleum Ministry to the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources.
"Putting petroleum and oil exports in the broader energy package means that what Saudi Arabia used to prioritize in terms of trying to put a dialogue together with other OPEC members is not going to be the highest priority in the years ahead," said Cohen.
CNBC's Huileng Tan contributed to this report.
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A new report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) raises an unsettling possibility about sharing economy firms like Airbnb and TaskRabbit: They may also excel at sharing your data with the government.
Since 2011, EFF, a civil liberties non-profit based in San Francisco, has issued an annual Who Has Your Back? assessment of what tech firms say theyll do if they get a request from a law-enforcement or national security agency for customer data such as the contents of an e-mail message or a persons location history.
Heres what EFF wants to see from the companies:
an insistence on a warrant before turning over that information
disclosure of those requests to customers affected
published guidelines documenting how it responds to law-enforcement inquiries
transparency reports tallying those inquiries
membership in the Digital Due Process Coalition, which advocates limits on government surveillance.
EFF often finds that companies are doing far less. And when you contemplate all the data scooped up about you by an e-mail service or a search enginemuch less a firm that must check your background before its other customers will trust you to provide an errand, a ride, or a roomthat should be alarming.
Six for six: Lyft and Uber
In this years report, EFF saved its warmest compliments for two companies that havent always been the most popular examples of app-driven peer-to-peer service: the ride-hailing firms Lyft and Uber.
Both have drawn criticism from regulators and would-be passengers (Uber more than Lyft) for things like not investigating the backgrounds of drivers closely enough. On Monday, the two shut down their Austin operations after voters there approved new regulations requiring them to fingerprint drivers as taxi operators already do.
But this study grades companies not on how much data they collect, but on how they respond when governments ask for it. On this score, EFF awarded all six possible gold stars to both companies, commending them for taking steps to facilitate transparency and user privacy and implementing exemplary policies.
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If your regular use of Lyft or Uber might give a rich portrait of your travels around town, you can take comfort from the EFFs approval. But dont take too much comfort: Your wireless carrier knows even more of your whereabouts. In last years Who Has Your Back? report, AT&T (T) earned only one of five stars, and Verizon (VZ) two of five. To my frustration, EFF didnt cover Sprint (S) or T-Mobile (TMUS).
Middle ground: Airbnb, FlipKey, Instacart
Two shared-housing services and a grocery-delivery service came also away with decent scores in this report.
FlipKey, a vacation-rental firm, qualified for second place, earning four of six stars. The two major shortfalls in EFFs view: not publishing a transparency report or law-enforcement guidelines.
The lodging-rental service Airbnb (which I often use for business travel) and the grocery delivery platform Instacart each got three of six stars. Both had the same three shortfalls: no posted requirement for a warrant before it provides ongoing location data about users, no notification to them about government data demands, and no transparency report.
Rainey Reitman, the EFFs activism director, pointed to Instacart in an e-mail as an example of a company learning from this inspection: Instacart showed some interest in adopting stronger policies.
Instacarts general counsel Nikhil Shanbhag didnt have specifics to offer in a phone call Friday and would only say, Were glad to work with organizations like EFF on improving policies.
Zeroes: Getaround, Postmates, TaskRabbit, Turo, VRBO
Half of the companies profiledincluding the car-sharing services Getaround and Turo, the delivery platform Postmates, the errands network TaskRabbit, and vacation-rental site VRBOearned zero stars. TaskRabbit, Turo, and VRBO did not respond to EFFs attempts to contact them through two or more mediums.
Postmates did not answer a query from Yahoo Finance either. Turo spokesman Steve Webb said the company will fully cooperate with law enforcement for any legitimate purposes.
A TaskRabbit spokesperson, however, said the company hadnt seen any of EFFs inquiries and had begun revising its policies months ago.
A VRBO spokesperson pointed to cases in Colorado and North Carolina in which its parent firm HomeAway (AWAY) refused to reveal customer data to state and local governments looking to collect lodging taxes.
Getaround head of community Meg Murray said, We are definitely looking at their recommendations as we continue to refine our policies.
(I should note that I had a chance to quiz Getaround founder Jessica Scorpio about things like transparency reports when she spoke on a sharing-economy panel I moderated at the Collision conference two weeks ago; I did not think to do so.)
So the situation may not be quite as bad as the EFFs grades suggest. But the real ground for optimism here may be the record of the telecom, e-mail, search and social-networking firms ranked by Who Has Your Back? for its first five years. By last year (with the extra motivation of Edward Snowdens disclosures of massive government surveillance), so many of them had notched four or five stars that EFF could turn its attention to another part of the tech economy.
Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro.
(Adds Bangladesh police stand by allegations, suspicions of insider involvement)
By Jim Finkle and Sanjeev Miglani
May 10 (Reuters) - SWIFT has rejected allegations by officials in Bangladesh that technicians with the global messaging system made the nation's central bank more vulnerable to hacking before an $81 million cyber heist in February.
The comments were in response to a Reuters story that cited Bangladeshi police and a central bank official as saying that SWIFT technicians introduced security holes into the bank's network while connecting SWIFT to Bangladesh's first real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system.
"SWIFT was not responsible for any of the issues cited by the officials, or party to the related decisions," the Brussels-based bank-owned cooperative said in a statement posted on its website on Monday.
"As a SWIFT user like any other, Bangladesh Bank is responsible for the security of its own systems interfacing with the SWIFT network and their related environment - starting with basic password protection practices - in much the same way as they are responsible for their other internal security considerations," the statement said.
But Bangladesh's main police investigator maintained there were loopholes in the way SWIFT carried out the integration of its network with the RTGS platform that left the central bank's computer systems vulnerable to hackers.
Mohammad Shah Alam, the head of the criminal investigation department of the Bangladesh police, said the probe had identified specific deviations from set procedures that compromised Bangladesh Bank's security.
"We stand by our investigation," he said in response to the comments by SWIFT. But he added he did not want to engage in a debate and urged greater international cooperation to identify the culprits behind one of the world's biggest cyber thefts.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify the allegations by Bangladeshi officials about the SWIFT technicians.
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U.S. investigators suspect the involvement of employees of the Bangladesh Bank in helping the hackers breach the systems, the Wall Street Journal said, quoting people familiar with the matter.
It said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had found evidence that at least one bank employee acted as an accomplice but there could be more who assisted the hackers in navigating around Bangladesh Bank's computer systems.
NO SHARING OF EVIDENCE
Bangladesh police said they have been looking for inside involvement in the heist from the beginning of the probe, but no evidence has turned up against anyone.
Investigators say they think there was some level of local facilitation in the attack on the central bank's computers but haven't identified it as yet.
"If the FBI has uncovered evidence, they should share with us," a police officer said.
The revelations came ahead of a meeting on Tuesday in Basel, Switzerland, where Bangladesh Bank officials have said their governor and a lawyer appointed by the bank would discuss recovery of about $81 million stolen by hackers with the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a senior executive from SWIFT.
The money was stolen from Bangladesh Bank's account at the New York Fed through fraudulent transfer orders sent on the SWIFT system.
SWIFT's statement said it "looks forward to the meeting with Bangladesh Bank and New York Federal Reserve Bank officials in Basel on 10th May, when the bank's security issues and these baseless allegations will be discussed."
Bangladesh Bank officials have said they believed SWIFT, and the New York Fed, bear some responsibility for the February cyber heist.
(Additional reporting by Serajul Quadir in DHAKA; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Parker Conrad
Things may be looking more ominous for the former CEO of once high-flying insurance startup Zenefits.
He's hired a very famous trial lawyer, John Keker, unnamed sources have told BuzzFeed's William Alden. Conrad's representative did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment, and Keker declined to comment to BuzzFeed.
Keker is known for defending tech dealmaker Frank Quattrone when he was accused of improperly dealing with IPOs in the early 2000s.
He's had other celebrity clients like Lance Armstrong, and he defended Lucasfilm when that company was accused of colluding with Google, Apple, Intel, and Pixar to not poach each other's employees.
Conrad, the Zenefits cofounder and now ex-CEO, resigned suddenly in February after the company was investigated by regulators over selling insurance without a license. Zenefits offers human resources to small businesses in exchange for being their insurance broker.
As the former CEO, Conrad is being blamed for all sorts of Zenefits' failings, from the out-of-control hiring that brought the company down to a frat-like culture of boozing and partying.
The company also revealed that employees who were studying for their California insurance license may have been skirting the law. They were using a browser extension called a "macro" that allowed them to pretend to be studying for the test to fulfill the legal number of study hours required, when they were not actually studying, the company said.
A Zenefits representative told Business Insider that it blames Conrad for the macro program, claiming that he was the one who wrote it. Conrad's rep declined comment on that. It is possible that he didn't know the extent to which the macro was being used until after the company conducted an internal investigation about it.
Zenefits has become one of the poster children for a run-amok Valley startup culture that has begun to implode in 2016. This crop of startups raised so much money from venture capitalists that their investors valued them at $1 billion or more.
Story continues
When Zenefits was 2 years old, it had raised $582 million in venture investment at a $4.5 billion valuation based on promises that it was on track to become the fastest-growing software-as-a-service startup to reach $100 million in revenue under contract.
It then went crazy hiring salespeople and other employees to try and meet that $100 million goal, but fell apart in the process, including missing that internal goal.
NOW WATCH: A Florida couple is being sued over their insane Christmas display
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Johnnny said: Could Russia, Mexico, or Taiwan even match our safety standards? Click to expand...
Will that really matter? Russia no doubt has lots of forests and would no doubt have some skills at fighting them. They say it is going to burn out of control for months. One has to assume that increasing the force against it will improve that outlook somewhat.I am not sure his reasoning for turning down the request unless it means he can't take all the credit when nature finally puts it out. Once again a decision based upon his own selfish needs.
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Tea, Earl Grey hot.
And then there was tea.
Those four words carry the reflective imaginings of humanitys culmination of technological advances. Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise in the late 24th century frequently murmured that statement in the popular science fiction television series, Star Trek, which aired from 1987 to 1994.
He spoke them to a machine known as replicator, a piece of technology that takes vertical integration to its ultimate, crowning completion. In a swirling manifestation of particles, the machine assembles the fundamental constituents of matter (i.e. atoms) in the span of seconds to produce the final consumer product, ready for consumption.
A single microwave-sized appliance becomes the producer, processor and distributor, pulling together all the components for the tea, the cup and the saucer and its advanced enough to eliminate waste.
Today, on a much larger and less fantastical scale, corporations with access to enormous amounts of capital can purchase the resources and technology capable of analogous product replication. They can purchase the resources and the technology that allows them to agglomerate the process of product creation. Although, they do produce waste.
The situation is similar to the proposed Costco poultry operation that, barring any environmental or economic resistance, may begin construction in the Fremont area as soon as late summer of 2016, as reported by Walt Schafer, project manager.
Because those companies muster together enormous amounts of material resources into one geographical location, concerns of environmental and health impacts within that area become important issues to monitor. Endless federal and state laws exist to address those topics.
The Nebraska Department of Environmental Equality Administrative Code clearly states:
For new large concentrated animal feeding operations, there shall be no discharge of manure, litter, or process wastewater pollutants into waters of the state from the production area. The production area shall be operated in accordance with these regulations and designed, constructed, operated and maintained to contain all manure, litter, and process wastewater including all runoff and direct precipitation.
However, the use of site specific innovative technologies may allow the owners and operators of a large facility to request alternative restrictions if the technology has been shown to achieve results similar to standard methods.
Technology however, has come a long way in reducing environmental impact from large industrial operations (including livestock facilities). According to Steve Goans, deputy director of water for the NEQ, large-line covered lagoon cells collect waste water into an anaerobic environment. The breakdown of that waste produces methane. The methane can then be used in generators for electricity, sold to a pipeline company or flared off.
We have several anaerobic digesters around the state they can handle a high-waste water load, said Goans.
Additionally, Goans stated that the lagoons are built to standards that can prevent overflow in the case of flooding rains.
Those lagoons are built one foot above the 100-year flood stage, Goans said, and to his knowledge there has never been a lagoon overflow at a large operating facility in Nebraska.
Often, Goans explained, after being pre-treated by the facility the waste water will then be treated again by the citys wastewater treatment facilities.
Willow Holoubek, executive director of the Alliance for the Future Agriculture in Nebraska works closely with Nebraska farmers contracted under vertically integrated companies. She has witnessed some of these technologies in use by large agricultural operations and at other types of facilities.
(Methane processing) is not a complicated process, Holoubek said citing the Butler County Landfill which uses an active methane gas collection system.
Brian McManus of the Nebraska DEQ also verified that capturing methane for energy use is a process that has been done before.
According to Schafer, any poultry operation established in the area would be state-of-the art One of the best in the world, he stated in a prior discussion.
Schafer told the Fremont Tribune that the Costco facility would also contain strict bio-security measures during transportation to and from the facilities. Also stringent blood sampling would be conducted to prevent avian flu.
One thing to keep in mind however, because of agglomeration concentrating a large amount of resources and animals in one area any disaster could potentially produce significant economic, environmental and health-related risks.
In the case of bird flu outbreaks, Dr. Kate Brooks of the department of agriculture economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln acknowledges, in such a facility the results could be potentially devastating to the birds, with subsequent fallout to the economy.
David Swenson, associate scientist at the department of economics at Iowa State University agreed.
Bird flu spreads like wild-fire. If it takes in a region, it takes. And sick birds are otherwise apparent in just 48 hours, Swenson wrote in an email to the Tribune.
The Iowa governor declared a state of emergency in 2015 when several poultry facilities experienced avian flu outbreak. Because of emergency response, technology and bio-containment practices, no humans were ever infected.
While no technology is perfect, it continues to improve and buffer the impacts of big, all-encompassing industries.
Fremont Municipal Airport traces its beginnings to aviation enthusiast John T. Siems.
Born in Platte Center, Siems went to a flying school in Norfolk, soon qualifying to fly, instruct or do aerobatics, airport information states.
He arrived in Columbus in 1928 and rented 80 acres of hay meadow for an airport site. He taught about 100 pilots to fly during his 11 years there.
A strong windstorm in 1939 destroyed a hangar and some of the airplanes.
The City of Fremont was looking for someone to start an airport and flight school.
In 1940, Siems accepted the position of manager of the fixed operation base in Fremont.
He and his father built a two-stall hangar on an 80-acre stubble field at the site of the current airport. Construction of a brick hangar began in 1941, using bricks from a schoolhouse that had been torn down.
With World War II on the horizon, the federal government authorized the Civilian Pilot Program. He was accepted into that program for primary flight training with Midland College, which administered the ground school portion. It began with 10 students.
That program evolved into the War Training Service, increasing to 30 students, four instructors and three airplanes. That program was discontinued in 1943.
The runway at Fremont was resurfaced at the end of the war.
Siems was a designee for issuing private and commercial pilot certificates and as an aircraft and engine mechanic. He was active in flying until 1968 when he retired.
At 83, he was named Outstanding Aviation Pioneer from the Nebraska Antique Airplane Association. After a four-month cancer battle, he died in June 1994.
Loradel Lori Holt Preston passed away Thursday, May 5, 2016, at Nebraska Masonic Home in Plattsmouth.
Lori was born to Arthur and Elma (Bredthauer) Holt on June 20, 1932, near Scotia on the family farm. She graduated from Scotia High School in 1949 and attended business school in Grand Island while also working at a doctors office. It was during this time that she met her future husband Bob at a Methodist Youth Fellowship Box Social. Loradel Holt married Robert L. Preston in Scotia on Valentines Day in 1954. After Bobs time in the service, they moved to Fremont where they raised three daughters.
Lori was a lifetime member of First United Methodist Church and was also a charter member and former president of the Prairie Piecemakers Quilt Club. She also enjoyed getting together with her bridge club regularly.
Lori was especially proud to be Russ Petersons first employee for the Nye Nursing facilities. She officially retired in 2006 after 20 years.
Lori enjoyed spending time with her family, being a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and neighbor. She was a beautiful seamstress and made clothes, formal dresses and Halloween costumes for her children and grandchildren. She loved to quilt and made each grandchild one at their birth to be treasured. Lori always made time to attend her grandchildrens events.
Although Lori resided at Nye Court in Fremont and then the memory care unit at the Nebraska Masonic Home for the past three years, Kim and Shari appreciate the loving care Michele gave to our mom. She shared her love of Christian music, manicures, and photos plus her time. The family would also like to thank the exceptional staff at the Nebraska Masonic Home for the love and care they gave to Lori.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Robert L. Preston, who passed away May 23, 2009.
She is survived by three daughters, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren: Kim and husband Dennis Woitaszewski of Wood River, and their two children Sam and Shelby; Michele and husband John Larsen of Fremont and their four children, Mallory and her husband Jacob Pole and their children, Hudson, Josephine, and Magnolia, Meredith and husband Davis Gibbs and their daughter, Penelope, J.P. Larsen, and Jack Larsen; Shari and husband Bruce DeMaro of Olathe, Kan., and their three daughters, Taylor, Hannah, and Ryley. She also is survived by: two brothers, Daryl (Betty) Holt of Scotia and Robert (Marlene) Holt of St. Paul; sister, Janet (Darrel) Cox of North Loup; sister-in-law, Nancy (Wayne) Hester of Lincoln; and many other nieces, nephews, and friends.
She was blessed with a beautiful life and we will miss her always.
The memorial service will be 11 a.m. Thursday at First United Methodist Church in Fremont. The Rev. Greg Hall will be officiating. Inurnment will be Memorial Cemetery in Fremont.
Memorials may be given to the Nebraska Masonic Home in Plattsmouth and the Alzheimers Association.
Please visit www.duganchapel.com to leave an online condolence.
Today
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, noon, Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont.
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Fresh Hope Support Group, 7 p.m., Trinity Lutheran School, 16th Street and Luther Road, Fremont. The support group offers faith-based help for those with mood disorders and for loved ones trying to understand. For more information, call David and Wray Lynn Trost at 402-480-1777.
Narcotics Anonymous Library Group, 7 p.m., Keene Memorial Library East Building, 1030 N. Broad St., Fremont.
Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Thursday
Alcoholics Anonymous big book study, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Storytime, 10-10:30 a.m., Keene Memorial Library auditorium, Fremont.
Leukemia, Lymphoma and Myeloma Patient and Family Luncheon, 11:30 a.m., Fremont Healths Health Park Plaza, third floor, Room 5. Lunch will be provided. To register, contact Carmen at 402-941-7363.
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, noon, Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Fremont Kiwanis Club, noon, Fremont Golf Club.
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Community Cafe, 5:30-7 p.m., Fremont Church of the Nazarene, Fremont. Cafes include a free meal. Call 402-727-8977 to register.
Narcotics Anonymous It Works Group, 6:30 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church East Building, west of the church, 1440 E. Military Ave., Fremont. Enter through the rear door.
Bingo, 7 p.m., Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8223, 742 N. Main St., North Bend. Everyone is welcome.
Civil Air Patrol, 7 p.m., 1201 W. 23rd St., in yellow hangar at Fremont Airport.
Fremont Area Compassionate Friends, 7-9 p.m., Health Park Plaza Conference Room 5, Fremont.
Marine Corps League, 7 p.m., Disabled American Veterans Club, 137 N. D St., Fremont.
Storytime, 7-7:30 p.m., Keene Memorial Library auditorium, Fremont.
Tally Ho Toastmasters, 7-8 p.m., Keene Memorial Library annex, Fremont. Everyone is welcome to learn skills in communication, self-confidence and leadership. For more information, call Jan at 402-720-5526.
Alcoholics Anonymous big book study, 8 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Narcotics Anonymous open meeting, 8 p.m., First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 201 N. Davis Ave., Oakland.
Many objections to chicken operation
As a homeowner and retired health professional, my objections to the proposed chicken processing operation are many.
Fremont is the home of Midland University, excellent public and parochial schools, a first-rate hospital and library and, most especially clean air and high quality water.
Historically, we have incrementally welcomed and accommodated two major meat packing companies and provided services, housing and schools for their employees and families. Hormel opened operations locally in 1947 with 50 workers, gradually increasing to the current 1,400 employees.
Fremont Beef has workforce of 110 full-time employees.
In contrast, the scope and impact of the proposed chicken plant will dwarf these enterprises. The impact of an influx of 1,400 workers and their families on our schools, housing and infrastructure would be catastrophic. Furthermore, we have an obligation to all future citizens to provide good jobs to provide for their families and in an healthy environment.
To quote a recent CDC report: Individuals involved in poultry farming face a number of health hazards such as chemicals and dust. Infections may occur due exposure to viruses such as avian flu, West Nile virus, and bacteria such as E.Coli, salmonella and histoplasmosis.
Poultry facilities are a source of odor and attract flies and rodents. Conditions for the animals is inhumane and can be readily viewed on YouTube and PBS Frontline.
There is no doubt that all entities involved feel justified, but an industry of good repute brings an issue before a community with town hall meetings and establishing a dialogue.
Many of us would welcome an enterprise and more citizens in more jobs which can be enhanced and sustained by our local infrastructure. A $1.3 billion chicken farm is hazardous to our health and that of potential employees. The presence of a plant which produces 1,200 tons of manure yearly above the Ogallalla Aquifer is unthinkable.
I urge all to research these issues available online from the CDC, the EPA, USDA and others with expertise.
Linda Williams Fremont
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Hold the mayo. This pea salad is fresh, light and just right for spring.
If youve never tasted fresh peas before you might think they were a completely different vegetable from the tiny green balls that come in plastic bags in the grocerys freezer section. They taste sweeter and somehow greener, and when cooked, they retain just a hint of crunch.
For 2 cups of shelled peas, youll need 1 to 2 pounds of pods. Pull up a comfy chair, or do what Southern grannies have done for generations sit in a rocker on the porch and shell and dream and chat. Youll be done in no time flat.FRESH GREEN PEA SALAD
2 cups shelled fresh green peas
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic or sherry vinegar
teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 slices bacon
2 slices crusty bread, cubed
2 cups fresh torn lettuce leaves (butter crunch or Romaine)
2 ounces shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1. Boil peas 6 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water.
2. Combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Whisk well.
3. Cook bacon until crispy. Remove from pan, drain and let cool. Toss bread cubes in drippings and cook until crispy.
4. Crumble bacon. Combine peas, lettuce, vinaigrette, croutons and bacon. Top with cheese. Serves 4.
Recipe by Teresa Blackburn
A roundup of state government and Capitol news items of interest for Monday, May 9, 2016:
NEW TRAFFIC SAFETY AWARD: The Iowa Department of Public Safetys Governors Traffic Safety Bureau has established a new award in honor of Des Moines Police Officers Susan Farrell and Carlos Puente-Morales who were killed in the line of duty by an impaired motorist who was driving the wrong direction on Interstate 80 west of Des Moines.
The Farrell/Puente-Morales Award will be presented at the bureaus annual conference to a law enforcement agency that has displayed a strong emphasis on addressing impaired driving throughout the year.
All agencies that have a GTSB contract will be reviewed by bureau staff and one agency will be selected as the award recipient by reviewing their enforcement, education or public awareness efforts in the fight against impaired driving, officials said Monday.
Puente-Morales worked full-time for the Franklin County Sheriffs Office from March 2008 to August 2011. He was based in Dows. He also was a member of the Iowa National Guards 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantrys Charlie Co.
IMPAIRED DRIVING COALTION: Officials in the Iowa Department of Public Safetys Governors Traffic Safety Bureau say they have formed a first-of-its-kind-in-Iowa Impaired Driving Coalition to combat problems associated with impaired driving.
The task force includes members of state public safety, corrections, transportation, public health and human rights agencies, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Criminalistics Laboratory, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Iowa Attorney Generals Office, as well as city, county and state law enforcement officers and private partners.
The coalition has been asked to review existing Iowa data, laws, regulations and programs, and to propose a coordinated statewide impaired driving plan for preventing and reducing impaired driving behavior.
The purpose of the statewide plan is to provide a comprehensive strategy for preventing and reducing impaired driving based on coordinated efforts designed to reduce deaths and increase public safety. That strategy eventually will be submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for approval.
GRANT APPLICATIONS SOUGHT: The Iowa Womens Foundation is accepting applications for its 2017 grants. This year the foundation awarded more than $89,000 the largest amount in the organizations history. The 2017 total is expected to approach $100,000, organizers say.
The foundation awards grants to fund Iowa non-profit programs that focus on empowering women and girls through training, resources and financial literacy. An RFP is available online at iawf.org.
In order to be considered for a grant, nonprofit organizations must complete an application. Eligibility requirements and the application are available at www.iawf.org. All applications are due by 5 p.m. May 31.
HOME OWNERS WANTED: Gov. Terry Branstad used his weekly news conference Monday to promote a 2,500 Bucks campaign that encourages Iowa home buyers to visit IowaHouseHunt.com in June to learn about all aspects of purchasing a home in Iowa, including a $2,500 down payment assistance grant and a chance to win $2,500.
To participate in the 2,500 Bucks campaign, Iowans should visit IowaHouseHunt.com from May 23-July 4 to enter the sweepstakes for two $2,500 prizes. They can receive another entry by submitting a photo of themselves and an item symbolizing their favorite term for money to use when describing $2,500.
The campaign is hosted by the Iowa Finance Authority, Iowa Association of Realtors and the Iowa Mortgage Association.
BOTTLED WATER ADVISORY: City officials in Anamosa are asking residents to use bottled water until they identify an unknown chemical that entered the water supply sometime over the weekend.
While mixing chemicals to treat drinking water on Friday afternoon, officials say a city employee noticed the mixture looked different than it usually does. He shut down the pump, preventing the mixture from entering the water supply. However, the automated system later opened the valve and mixed the suspect chemical into the citys water supply.
Officials with the city and the state Department of Natural Resources were working with the chemical supply company to determine what chemical they delivered to Anamosa. The city was flushing the water distribution system and has contacted hospitals, schools, restaurants and other public facilities advising them to use bottled water.
Officials say they will notify residents when water is safe to drink and the advisory is lifted.
By Globe Gazette Des Moines Bureau
CLEAR LAKE | A man jailed for suspicion of seriously assaulting a Clear Lake woman has also been charged with burglary.
Steve Sifuentes, 41, of Forest City, has now been charged with felony first-degree burglary.
Officials served the warrant on Sifuentes Saturday at the Cerro Gordo County Jail, where he has been held since last week on two counts of felony domestic abuse, one count of felony willful injury and one count of misdemeanor first-degree harassment.
Man accused of attacking Clear Lake woman CLEAR LAKE | A Forest City man police say gave a woman a brain injury during an attack last
He's accused of forcing his way into a home on the 700 block of 10th Avenue North on April 10 and assaulting someone inside, causing serious injuries, according to a criminal complaint.
The previous charges stemmed from two alleged assaults last month on the same woman, who court documents say sustained a brain injury in one of the incidents.
She has been released from the hospital.
Clear Lake Police Chief Pete Roth said investigators filed the additional charge after reviewing the case and consulting with local prosecutors.
The victim was hospitalized for her injuries.
Molly Montag.
MASON CITY | A Mason City man authorities say pushed a woman out of a moving vehicle has been arrested.
Troy Djuren, 49, charged with misdemeanor domestic abuse Tuesday afternoon.
Cerro Gordo County Sheriff Kevin Pals said Djuren pushed a 49-year-old woman from a moving vehicle during a domestic dispute on County Road B-20.
The woman was found in a ditch with minor injuries. She was evaluated by paramedics and then taken home by a sheriff's deputy, Pals said.
Djuren was released from jail Wednesday afternoon on a promise to appear at an upcoming court hearing.
-- Molly Montag
MASON CITY | Two people arrested on drug charges during a warrant sweep in early December following several independent investigations by the North Central Iowa Narcotics Task Force have received probation.
Janelle Rammelsberg, 32, Mason City, received a 10-year suspended prison sentence Monday in Cerro Gordo County District Court for delivery of hydrocodone, a Class C felony. She was put on probation for five years. A $1,000 fine was suspended.
Rammelsberg pleaded guilty in March. A second count of delivery of hydrocodone was dismissed.
Samuel Katz, 20, Iowa City, a former Mason City resident, was given a suspended 180-day jail sentence Monday for marijuana possession, a serious misdemeanor. He was put on probation for one year. A $315 fine was suspended.
Katz originally was charged with marijuana delivery, a Class D feony. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge this week.
Rammelsberg and Katz were among 14 people arrested on felony drug charges in the warrant sweep.
Mary Pieper
MASON CITY | First Congregational United Church of Christ will hold a public meeting 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 24, for a discussion on how to move forward as a community after the recent pork plant decision.
The Rev. Chuck Kelsey said he and his wife moved to Mason City a year ago.
"I have been so impressed with the passion on both sides of the proposed pork plant issue," he wrote in a letter to the editor to the Globe Gazette. "The passion comes from a love of this community and a desire to improve the lives of any who want to call Mason City their home."
Letter: Let's meet and move forward My name is Chuck Kelsey and I am the pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ
Kelsey said he is impressed with the many creative ideas he has heard from people who want the city to continue to flourish. He calls the upcoming meeting a "next step event" and a time for discussion, creative brainstorming and targeted action.
His full letter appears on Tuesday's Opinion Page.
MASON CITY In recent weeks, the Mason City School Board has held a number of separate, closed-session meetings dealing with both personnel evaluations and a possible lawsuit.
The board announced Tuesday afternoon it will hold a special session at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, with the action item consideration of and action regarding agreement with Dr. Micich.
A phone message seeking clarification on the action item was left for board President Janna Arndt Tuesday afternoon.
While no one has said Superintendent Anita Micichs contract is under consideration for termination, the deadline under Iowa law to notify Micich via certified letter with specific reasons given is May 15.
The board must first vote in open session to consider terminating an administrator contract, with at least four members of the seven-person board in favor, according to Iowa law.
On Monday evening, the board held a closed session allowed under Iowa law to discuss pending litigation, but Arndt declined to comment on the reason for the meeting, or provide a specific reason why Superintendent Anita Micich was absent.
Arndt told the Globe Gazette after the meeting Micich was not present because her presence was not required. As superintendent, Micich regularly attends and participates in School Board meetings.
The most recent closed session comes less than a week after another on May 4 to discuss pending litigation with the districts attorney, although it is unclear if the two meetings are related.
Several School Board members declined to speak publicly or in specific detail on the source of pending or potential litigation.
The board also held separate closed sessions on March 29 and April 14 allowed under Iowa law to evaluate the professional competency of an unnamed individual. It is unclear which employee was being evaluated.
Micichs contract requires the board to review her performance each year on or about April 1, or whenever it chooses to do so.
Her current two-year contract, which runs through June 30, 2017, states that if it is not renewed, she must notify the board of her pending resignation or retirement by Oct. 1, 2016.
Starting next school year, Micich will no longer split time between Mason City and Clear Lake. Her salary for 2016-17 is set at $187,820.
Arndt said after Mondays meeting that there was not a set time frame on the next steps in the boards process.
The Globe Gazette has made several attempts to contact Micich both directly and through administrative staff to set up an interview.
On Friday, an editor scheduled a meeting with Micich for Monday. That meeting was canceled by administrative staff members, and Micich was not available for comment Monday or Tuesday. A phone message left for her Monday evening was not returned.
In April, the Mason City School Board voted 6-1 to end further cooperation with International Education Development Corp., whose executive director Tom Pinkham had approached Micich about allowing Chinese students to enter and graduate from Mason City High School and other area schools.
Many board members expressed reservations including how key details of the proposal would work and the lack of a detailed business plan from the company.
Micich has seen other setbacks in the past several months.
In December, the Clear Lake school board voted to hire its own superintendent for next year, citing the need to have an administrator full-time at the district in part to help mentor new staff members, including its new Clear Creek principal, and oversee its teacher leadership program.
The collapse of the Prestage Farms deal last week also leaves the district without the $1.4 million for its general fund as part of the agreement to help fund services for an influx of students. The district would also have received additional state funding for each new pupil and a significant boost from property taxes.
MASON CITY National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) in Mason City and Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank will collect food donations Saturday.
The collection is part of the Stamp Out Hunger food drive, a national single-day food drive that has collected more than one billion pounds of food since 1993.
Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank volunteers will be driving two commercial vans and picking up food donations during the day to assist the letter carriers.
Food donations should be left at mailboxes. The groups ask for North Iowans to avoid glass products in their donations.
Canned chicken and tuna, peanut butter, canned vegetables and fruit, pasta sauce, soups, instant potatoes and stuffing, helper meals, pastas and more are needed at the food bank. Non-edible items such as toilet paper, bars of soap, tooth brushes and toothpaste are also welcome.
Last year, Mason City letter carriers collected more than 9,000 pounds of food.
My name is Chuck Kelsey and I am the pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ at 100 First St. N.E. in Mason City. My wife Sue and I moved here one year ago.
I have been so impressed with the passion on both sides of the proposed pork plant issue. The passion comes from a love of this community and a desire to improve the lives of any who want to call Mason City their home.
Some have criticized the reticence toward a pork plant as xenophobic. What I have experienced is a community concerned that jobs created in the area need to provide adequate support for all who choose to live here.
Most I have spoken with also desire more diversity. They just don't desire a pork plant.
Many of those who opposed the plant have shared well-reasoned, well-researched and insightful rationales that suggest there might be a better way to invite new people to Mason City.
In addition, I have followed on Facebook and participated in many discussions related to the creative ideas that are being generated and build on the positive assets of North Iowa. I have also heard a desire to gather, share ideas and act on those possibilities.
It is time to act. First Congregational UCC was the first church in Cerro Gordo County. We have deep roots in this community and want to continue to help Mason City flourish.
So as a way to carry on the positive momentum, you are invited to join with others on Tuesday, May 24, from 7 to 9 p.m. at First Church for a time of discussion, brainstorming and targeted action.
It is not meant to be the answer but a place and a means to move forward.
Are you willing to join in a next-step event?
Chuck Kelsey, Mason City; chuck.kelsey@gmail.com. Also on Facebook.
ANCHORAGE, AK, May 9, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Afognak Native Corporation announced today that it has recovered nearly all of the stolen funds that were fraudulently obtained by an international criminal ring during a sophisticated cyber crime attack against the corporation in May 2015.
Approximately one year ago, Afognak's wholly-owned subsidiary, Alutiiq, LLC, was the victim of a well-coordinated "spear phishing" and social engineering criminal attack, which resulted in an unauthorized wire transfer of $3.826M to a bank account in Hong Kong. In coordination with the FBI, KeyBank, Hong Kong police and legal counsel, Afognak diligently pursued fund recovery. Investigators confirmed that the attack was perpetrated by assailants residing in Asia and Eastern Europe. In December 2015, Afognak obtained a default judgement in Hong Kong against the perpetrators for the full $3.826M.
On March 31, 2016, HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corporation) returned $2.565M to Afognak. The corporation will recover an additional $1.1M in April, successfully negotiated as a settlement with its fiduciary liability/crime insurance carrier. Combined, Afognak has recovered $3.665M of $3.826M in stolen corporation funds. Afognak will continue to pursue collections against those who committed the crime for the additional $1.26M authorized by the courts.
The Afognak Native Corporation is an Alaska Native ANCSA village corporation, serving the Kodiak Alutiiq people of Afognak and Port Lions, Alaska. "We were pleased to report to our Shareholders that we successfully recovered nearly all of the funds that FBI officials told us we had a less than 10% chance to recover," stated Greg Hambright, Afognak's President/CEO. "As criminals become more creative in their schemes to steal from companies, we hope that through our transparency that our story will make other corporations and individuals more aware of their own vulnerabilities to these kinds of attacks."
In the wake of this theft, Afognak took immediate steps to strengthen its protocols governing the authorization of wire transfers, and implemented staff training on social engineering threats. The Information Technology (IT) systems of both Alutiiq and Afognak were not compromised during this event. Further, the company's computer networks had no breach of any kind, at any point, and all company and customer data remain secure.
The timing of the attack coincided with a shareholder meeting in Port Lions, AK, where Afognak's senior management team was offsite from company headquarters. Taking advantage of this timeframe, the criminals established a Europeanbased email address that "spoofed" (or mirrored) the same address as Afognak's CEO. Under this false pretext, the criminals sent an email to Alutiiq's Controller directing the representative to receive and implement instructions for a confidential transaction by a coconspirator, who contacted the Controller by phone minutes after the falsified email was sent. During that call, the coconspirator, impersonating himself as an attorney, requested the urgent transfer of $3.826M in company funds for purchase of a new subsidiary in a state that senior management had recently visited. The entity was later revealed to be a fictitious third party company based in Hong Kong. When Afognak discovered a crime had taken place, it took quick action to notify its corporate bank and report the incident to the FBI, which enabled the majority of the funds to be frozen and later recovered.
CONTACT:Alisha Drabek SVP of Community & Gov't Affairs alisha@afognak.com 907-481-2160
DGAP-News: CENIT AG / Key word(s): Quarter Results Sales and EBIT at CENIT in line with expectations - First quarter 2016 goes according to plan 10.05.2016 / 07:55 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sales and EBIT at CENIT in line with expectations - First quarter 2016 goes according to plan Stuttgart, May 10, 2016 - Compared to the same period last year sales and EBIT of CENIT AG are, as expected, somewhat lower in the first quarter. This is mainly due to the decline in sales in the EIM field while the PLM area could achieve a sales increase of 5.5%. During the first 3 months, CENIT Group generated sales revenues of EUR k 29,628 (prior year: EUR k 30,426/-2.6%). In the PLM segment, CENIT achieved Q1 earnings of EUR k 25,407 (prior year: EUR k 24,077/5.5%). The EIM segment attained a sales total of EUR k 4,221 against EUR k 6,349 during the same period of 2015 (-33.5%). Sales revenues in CENIT's Consulting and Services segment declined by -4.6% to EUR k 12,088 (prior year: EUR k 12,676). Sales of third-party software grew by 1.3% to EUR k 13,583 (prior year: EUR k 13,414). Sales proceeds from CENIT's proprietary software fell from EUR k 4,264 to EUR k 3,931 (-7.8%). The gross yield (operating output less cost of materials) amounted to EUR k 18,526 (prior year: EUR k 19,794), representing a decrease of -6.4%. CENIT achieved EBITDA of EUR k 2,745 (prior year: EUR k 2,901/-5.4%) and EBIT of EUR k 2,095 (prior year: EUR k 2,402/-12.8%). Results per share were EUR 0.19 (prior year: EUR 0.22). Orders Development During the first three months, the Group-wide order intake totaled EUR k 34,618 (prior year: EUR k 39,250). On 31st March 2016, orders in hand amounted to EUR k 35,097 (prior year: EUR k 35,884). Asset and Financial Situation The enterprise has no liabilities in relation to credit institutions, either of a short-term or long-term nature. On the balance-sheet date, equity capital totaled EUR k 42,291 (31st Dec. 2015: EUR k 39,843), accounting for an equity ratio of 57.0% (31st Dec. 2015: 59.6%). On 31st March 2016 bank deposits and liquid assets totaled EUR k 39,139 (31st Dec. 2015: EUR k 33,941). The operative cashflow was EUR k 5,918 (prior year: EUR k 8,239). Employees On 31 March 2016, CENIT Group employed 629 staff (prior year: 640). Group-wide personnel costs for the reporting period were EUR k 12,490 (prior year: EUR k 12,750). CENIT is currently training 40 young professionals in various vocations. The trainees include students from the Dual-Training University of Baden-Wurttemberg (DHBW) in the fields of informatics and economics, as well as trainees in the field of information technology. Outlook For the current year, the CENIT Group targets sales growth by 5%. On the whole, CENIT is anticipating a high single-digit rise in earnings (EBIT). Please visit CENIT's homepage for the full Q1 Report 2016: www.cenit.com/reports. About CENIT: CENIT is your partner for successful digital transformation. With a broad solutions and services portfolio, CENIT enables clients to optimize their horizontal and vertical business processes. Our solutions are based on innovative technologies in: product lifecycle management, the digital factory and enterprise information management. With interdisciplinary knowledge of the processes involved and their considerable expertise in the field, CENIT consultants provide customers with end-to-end advice to ensure that solutions are implemented with an understanding of the entire value chain. With a holistic approach and based on trusted partnerships, CENIT takes responsibility for solutions on behalf of our clients. From the initial consultation to the introduction of innovative IT solutions, right through to ensuring a cost-effective operation. The CENIT team adapts to each client, taking a practical approach, which enables measurable, operational optimizations. CENIT has been helping prestigious customers in key industries to gain competitive advantages for over 25 years! Cenit has over 700 employees worldwide who work with customers from: automotive, aerospace, industrial equipment, tool and mold manufacturing, financial services, and trade and consumer products industries. Please send queries to: CENIT AG Investor Relations Industriestrasse 52-54, D-70565 Stuttgart Tel.:+497117825-3320 Fax:+49711782544-4320 Email: aktie@cenit.de Additional Information: This press/ad hoc report may contain future-oriented statements regarding the business, financial and earnings situation of, as well as profit projections for, CENIT. Such future-oriented statements are characterized by terms or statements such as "the company may" or "the company will", "expects", "assumes", "is considering", "intends to", "plans", "believes", "will continue to" and/or "estimates", as well as similar terms and statements. Such statements contain no guarantee that the projections will in fact be achieved. Rather, such statements involve risks, imponderables and assumptions that are difficult to predict and, in addition, are based on assumptions as to future events which may prove to be incorrect. For this reason, actual events may diverge significantly from the assumptions contained in the respective statement. In a future-oriented statement by which CENIT expresses expectations or assumptions with regard to future events, these expectations or assumptions are made in good faith, and it shall be assumed that they are made upon an appropriate basis; however, it cannot be guaranteed that the said statements, expectations or assumptions shall indeed occur, or be attained or fulfilled. The actual operative result may diverge significantly from such future-oriented statements and is subject to certain risks. In this regard, please refer to the Business Report of CENIT AG. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10.05.2016 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: CENIT AG Industriestrae 52 - 54 70565 Stuttgart Germany Phone: +49 (0)711 78 25 - 30 Fax: +49 (0)711 78 25 - 4000 E-mail: aktie@cenit.de Internet: www.cenit.com ISIN: DE0005407100 WKN: 540710 Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart End of News DGAP News Service --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 461591 10.05.2016
Albany, NY, May 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MarketResearchReports.biz has announced the addition of a recent report, titled Global Hadoop Market 2015-2019, to its online repository. According to the report, the global Hadoop market is expected to expand at a CAGR of more than 53% during the period between 2015 and 2019 due to factors such as the increasing demand for cost-effective solutions to meet the needs of big data in enterprises.
The Hadoop system collects information from numerous sources such as customers, social media, and financial data and stores the collected data in a Hadoop data warehouse to manage map reduce procedures. In map reduce procedures, firstly, the input data is mapped into cluster nodes via various sources such as XML files, legacy systems, and packaged enterprise applications including SCM, ERP, CRM, SaaS-based application files, and industry-specific files. Digital content such as website content and e-mail content is also considered to undergo map reduce procedures. In the second stage, numerous smaller nodes of information are generated and distributed through computing servers. These nodes carry out parallel computing to generate applicable outputs for all queries. The results are gathered for the decision-making process. The analyzed information is then interpreted through various tools such as dashboards, enterprise applications, and business intelligence (BI).
View Press Release at http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/pressrelease/1410
Cloud-based platforms such as Hadoop are used to execute various big data solutions such as data management and analytics. The global Hadoop market is segmented on the basis of end use, deployment, and geography. By end use, the global Hadoop market is divided into BFSI, retail, and manufacturing. Currently, Hadoop technology is adopted by a limited number of companies. In the coming few years, the application of Hadoop technology is predicted to increase in many verticals. The early adoption of Hadoop technology by the manufacturing and BFSI sectors is predicted to propel the global Hadoop market in the years to come.
By deployment, the global Hadoop market is classified into Hadoop on-premise and Hadoop as a service. The Hadoop as a service segment is predicted to lead the global Hadoop market in the years to come. The entry of big data and its adoption by SMEs is the major factor expected to drive the Hadoop as a service segment. Based on geography, the global Hadoop market is divided into EMEA, APAC, and the Americas. The United States is the major contributor in the global Hadoop market.
For Sample Copy, click here: http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/499650
At present, the global Hadoop market is facing several difficulties. Many organizations are unaware of the technologies that are concerned with and the skills that are required to manage big data. The global Hadoop market is predicted to be hampered by the lack of skilled and trained technical experts. Going forward, the global Hadoop market is expected to witness a shift towards Software as a Service (SaaS) Hadoop solutions as it helps companies gain a better user experience and save costs.
Some of the leading companies operating in the global Hadoop marker are Amazon, Datameer, Cloudera, Cisco, HP, Google, and Altiscale.
Related Report
Global Hadoop Market Report: 2016 Edition: http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/633877
The report, 'Global Hadoop Market Report: 2016 Edition' provides detailed market and segment level data on the Global and Chinese consumption of Hadoop. The report provides historic, forecast and growth patterns by company, country and type/application from 2016 to 2021.
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Marketresearchreports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports, supporting clients' market intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market profits in its repository. We also offer consulting support for custom market research needs.
LISLE, Ill., May 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nathans Famous is continuing its mission to surprise unsuspecting fans and perform random acts of kindness across the nation throughout 2016 as the brand celebrates its 100th anniversary. This past Saturday afternoon at Kansas Speedway, Jeff Marvin, of Overland Park, Kan., was recognized as one of Nathans Famous Ultimate Fans.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/74e2c58a-79c7-4994-b80e-a3300bbbac57
Marvin recently shared his affinity for the brand on the Nathans Famous website, detailing memories about his childhood and enjoying the world-famous hot dogs while tailgating at sporting events.
Marvin did not know that the simple act of posting his story would lead the legendary hot dog company to show him just how much his loyalty is appreciated. Nathans Famous invited Marvin and five guests to attend Saturdays race at Kansas Speedway and meet Aric Almirola, driver of the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford Fusion.
Representatives from Richard Petty Motorsports greeted Marvin and escorted him and his guests to the garage area to meet the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race winner. Almirola took photos with and signed autographs for the group. The surprises began when Almirola presented Marvin with a $1,000 HyVee gift card, Nathans Famous apparel and finally, free Nathans Famous hot dogs for one year.
Jeff, like so many of our loyal fans, grew up eating Nathans Famous hot dogs but didnt realize that supermarkets across the nation carry our products, making it easy to enjoy our legendary flavor and bring back memories, said Wayne Norbitz, executive board member and 26-year president of Nathans Famous. Were so thankful that fans like Jeff exist and continue to support our brand. Now he knows that when he visits our friends at HyVee, hell be able to enjoy plenty of Nathans Famous for the next year!
Saturdays event was part of Nathans Famous national Ultimate Fan Nation campaign. Over the course of the year, Nathans Famous is reflecting on its history while engaging fans with new opportunities to enjoy the flavor they have come to love. Special offers will be available for fans via NathansFamous.com, and the companys Facebook and Twitter pages. Nathans Famous will also feature members of its Ultimate Fan Nation on its social media channels.
Highlights of the Nathans Famous 100th anniversary celebration include a special promotion over the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend, the annual Nathans Famous International Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, and a special-event based in New York City in early September. Fans can now have their Ticket to Fun punched as part of an online, summer-rewards program featuring games, prizes and exclusive branded merchandise, by visiting NathansTicketToFun.com.
Smithfield Foods is the licensee of Nathans Famous pre-packaged hot dogs.
To learn more about Nathans Famous and its products, please visit www.nathansfamous.com.
About Nathan's Famous
Nathan's currently distributes its products in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Cayman Islands and nine foreign countries through its restaurant system, foodservice sales programs and product licensing activities. Nathan's was ranked #55 on the Forbes list of the Best Small Companies in America and was listed as the Best Small Company in New York State in October 2013. Last year, over 500 million Nathan's Famous hot dogs were sold. For additional information about Nathan's please visit our website at www.nathansfamous.com.
About Smithfield Foods
Smithfield Foods is a $14 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan's Famous, Farmland, Armour, Cook's, John Morrell, Gwaltney, Kretschmar, Margherita, Curly's, Carando and Healthy Ones. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.
AKRON, Ohio, May 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Two pet health companies have joined forces to provide increased options and education to customers for the purpose of improving the health and wellbeing of America's pet population. ASPCA Pet Health Insurance program announced a strategic partnership with PetPace, creators of a revolutionary health monitoring smart collar, which will provide preventive care, education and discounts to customers.
ASPCA Pet Health Insurance (APHI) is offered by Hartville Pet Insurance Group, one of the oldest and largest providers of pet health insurance in the United States. Pet parents can choose from a variety of levels of coverage and add-on options to customize an insurance plan that fits the needs of their pets and their budget.
The PetPace patented innovative smart collar provides remote real-time monitoring and analysis of pet vital signs and activity. Owners can ensure the health and well-being of their pet via alerts sent to their smartphone through the PetPace app. It also delivers Veterinarians full access to their clients' data for more complete care. Various sizes are available for all cats and dogs.
"The care and well-being of pets across America is the anchor of our business, so finding a partner with the same vision and focus is exciting for us," said President and CEO of PetPace LTD, Avi Menkes. "Hartville through the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance program has an outstanding knowledge of and history in the pet care marketplace, and our aligned missions make for a mutually beneficial partnership."
Hartville is promoting the PetPace collar to itsASPCA Pet Health Insurance customers and veterinarian partners to help raise awareness of the product.
"We want our pet parents to have the best access to education on pet health as well as insight into technology and services on the market that will keep their pets safe," said Chief Marketing Officer for Hartville Pet Insurance Group, Liz Watson. "In addition to offering customizable plans that provide coverage options for illnesses and injuries, we also promote wellness plans for our pets and the PetPace collar is a perfect companion to help pet parents keep pets well and also be aware of any emergencies."
In addition to the consumer collar, PetPace offers a professional pet monitor collar for veterinary hospitals and animal care professionals that can be used in-house for intensive monitoring or on outpatients for detailed follow-up, tracking a pet's progress, while instantly identifying adverse reactions as soon as they develop. Hartville through the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance program has a long-standing relationship with many vet clinics nationwide and will help raise awareness of the collar for these partners as well.
"Pet care is a growing expense among Americans, who overwhelmingly feel that pets are a part of their family," said Watson. "Our model is to help pet parents keep their furry family members healthy, and preventative care and wellness checkups are a very important aspect of pet health as well as financial management. This partnership allows each company to help customers have access to pet health care options."
ASPCA Pet Health Insurance plans, coverage, blogs and information are available at www.aspcapetinsurance.com.
About Hartville
Hartville Pet Insurance Group is one of the oldest and largest providers of pet health insurance in the United States. In 2006, Hartville was named the only strategic partner for pet insurance of the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), The ASPCA does not offer insurance. Through a strategic licensing agreement, in exchange for the use of ASPCA trademarks, the ASPCA is paid a royalty fee of up to 10% of the purchase price, with a minimum of $335,000 per year.
The ASPCA Pet Health Insurance program is underwritten by United States Fire Insurance Company and administered by Fairmont Specialty Insurance Agency (FSIA Insurance Agency in Calif.), members of the Crum and Forster Enterprise.
Hartville Pet Insurance Group is a trademark of United States Fire Insurance Company. United States Fire Insurance Company and Fairmont Specialty Insurance Agency may be individually or collectively referred to as Hartville Pet Insurance Group or Hartville. Information is available at www.hartvillegroup.com. ;
C&F and Crum & Forster are registered trademarks of United States Fire Insurance Company.The Crum & Forster Enterprise, which is part of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, is comprised of leading and well-established property and casualty business units.
About PetPace
PetPace was founded in 2012 with the goal of improving the quality of life of our pets. PetPace specializes in remote monitoring of pets vital signs utilizing advanced analytical methods and alerting models. We have developed a low power, wireless collar fitted with an array of sensors that reports abnormal vital signs, physiological and behavioral parameters. Once an abnormal sign or behavior is detected, a sophisticated cloud- based analytical engine evaluates the signs and if needed, sends out an immediate alert regarding the suspected condition, allowing the owner or the vet to take pre-emptive action to protect their pet's health. Learn more at http://petpace.com.
MOSCOW, May 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mechel PAO (MICEX:MTLR) (NYSE:MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, announces that it intends to release its operational and financial results for the full year period ending December 31, 2015, on Friday, May 13, 2016. In conjunction with this release, Mechel will host a conference call, which will be simultaneously broadcast live over the Internet. Oleg Korzhov, Chief Executive Officer, will host the call.
The conference call will take place at the following time:
Friday, May 13, 2016
6:00 PM Moscow Time
4:00 PM London Time
11:00 AM New York Time
Please dial the number below approximately 10 minutes prior to the scheduled time of the call.
Conference Call Phone Numbers:
International: +44(0)20 3427 1900
US: +1 646 254 3366
Russia: +7 495 705 9451
Conference ID: 8498863
Listeners can access the conference call live over the Internet through a link on Mechel's web site at http://www.mechel.com/shareholders/report/
Please take 10 minutes prior to the call to visit the site and download presentation and any necessary audio software. Additionally, a record of the webcast will be available on our web site.
***
Mechel is an international mining and steel company which employs 67,000 people. Its products are marketed in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa. Mechel unites producers of coal, iron ore concentrate, steel, rolled products, ferroalloys, heat and electric power. All of its enterprises work in a single production chain, from raw materials to high value added products.
***
Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Mechel, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not intend to update these statements. We refer you to the documents Mechel files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned Risk Factors and Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements in our Form 20-F, that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, the achievement of anticipated levels of profitability, growth, cost and synergy of our recent acquisitions, the impact of competitive pricing, the ability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals and licenses, the impact of developments in the Russian economic, political and legal environment, volatility in stock markets or in the price of our shares or ADRs, financial risk management and the impact of general business and global economic conditions.
mhill5446 wrote:
I appreciate all of the responses.
Could you guys suggest the best way to study before I retake the exam using the materials that I already have? I was thinking about going through all of my veritas lessons, to refresh on all of the basics and strategy. Then spend the next 3 or so weeks doing questions every day and really focusing on why I got a question correct or incorrect.
Do you think this is the best approach?
mhill5446
Magoosh Test Prep
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats (1865 1939) Mike McGarryEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats (1865 1939) Signature Read More
DearI'm happy to respond.I'm simply going to post the question whether using just the materials you already have is an ideal plan. It could be argued that the same input leads to the same output. If the materials are going to be the same, then this would mean you would have to revise your own use of them in some radical fashion. The responsibility would be 100% on you to bring your game to the next level. Of course, that's certainly possible, but it can be very challenging to do that.The advantage of having another resource is as followed. Suppose a student learns about Concept X from Source A, and doesn't fully get it. Then, later, that same student uses Source B, and upon hearing Concept X from Source B, this concept makes perfect sense to the student. It's not that Source B is necessarily any better than Source A. In fact, I am sure my company, , has played both roles for different students, and I am sure almost every other company on the market has been sometimes Source A and sometimes Source B for different students. You see, sometimes the first presentation is enough to prime the mind for understanding, but it doesn't necessarily led to complete understanding for many students; but once the mind has been primed by that first exposure, a slightly different presentation in another way is what triggers a much deeper understanding. Learning is a funny non-linear process, and hearing different presentations of the same material has the advantage of leading to deeper understanding for more students.If you are committed to sticking to what you are already used, then you deprive yourself of this potential advantage. Again, it is certainly possible to revolutionize your own understanding by yourself, but you have to be exceptionally good at challenging yourself and pushing yourself. By making this choice, you are putting 100% of the responsibility for the revolution in learning on your shoulders alone. You have to bring the revolution entirely by yourself. If that's what you want, and you are ready for that challenging, then that's great. Most students need some help to get there, but perhaps you are different in your capacity to transcend yourself.Those are my thoughts. Let me know if you have any questions.Mike_________________
A cat who was the victim of a sudden attack in Brooklyn is looking for his furever home! And he's so sweet.
In March, the cat, who was called Nancy, was apparently kidnapped from the basement of Bedford-Stuyvesant bodega on Fulton Street by Salah Zaid, who then chased the cat into a Chinese restaurant, wrestling with the feline and then knocking it into the eatery's walls. The cat was thrown into a kitchen, and a restaurant employee told the Daily News, "He was crazy. He opened the door and the cat came inside. He beat the cat, he smashed the cat, he threw the cat against the wall."
Zaid was arrested and charged with animal cruelty, while the cat was taken to the ASPCA, where the staff discovered the cat was actually a year-and-seven month-old male cat and named him Fulton.
He spent time in the ASPCA Animal Hospital's intensive care unit and was later moved to the Animal Recovery Center for continuing care. Now Fulton is ready for adoption; the ASPCA says, "Hes a very sweet, outgoing boy who enjoys meeting new people. He has some interest in toys but mostly prefers to cozy up to a human companion and get a few of his favorite treats."
"From day one, Fulton was a sweet, trusting cat who allowed the ASPCA staff to provide him with all the medical care and enrichment he needed to recover, " Howard Lawrence, Vice President, ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement, said. "Despite what hes been through, Fulton remains open to meeting and playing with everyone he meets. Animal Recovery Center staff will certainly miss seeing him each day, but look forward to finding him the safe and loving home he deserves."
The ASPCA recommends interested potential adopters to meet with ASPCA Adoption Center staff at 424 92nd Street in Manhattan. For more information on Fulton, you can call 646-291-4500; for information about adopting, visit the ASPCA's website.
There are 15 NYC neighborhoods that are gentrifying, according to a new report from NYU's Furman Center.
The report, State of New York Citys Housing and Neighborhoods in 2015 (PDF), analyzes data from around the city and researched determined that "gentrifying" neighborhoods are the ones "that were relatively low-income in 1990 (among the bottom 40% in the city), but then experienced higher than median neighborhood rent growth in the following 20 years," a press release explained.
Besides the 15 gentrifying neighborhoods, there are seven non-gentrifying neighborhoods (rent increases are less steep than in gentrifying areas); 33 other neighborhoods are considered "higher-income."
From the press release:
The authors then examine indicators of neighborhood change over time and compare them to changes in lower-income neighborhoods that did not gentrify (termed non-gentrifying), and neighborhoods that were among the top 60 percent with respect to income in 1990 (termed higher-income). "The term gentrification is often used to describe a number of different aspects of neighborhood change. We wanted to create a definition that allowed us focus on dramatic rent growth, which is the change that is of greatest concern in lower-income neighborhoods." said Ingrid Gould Ellen, faculty director of the NYU Furman Center. The report also finds that many of the demographic shifts observed citywide through 2014 were more pronounced in the city's gentrifying neighborhoods. The city as a whole became more educated and comprised of more single-person households and households with unrelated adults; and, all of these changes happened to a greater extent in the city's 15 gentrifying neighborhoods than in non-gentrifying and higher-income neighborhoods.
Some other factoids:
- [G]entrifying neighborhoods saw an increase in white population, despite a citywide decrease. Gentrifying neighborhoods also saw a larger decrease in the black population through 2014 than the city as a whole.
- Between 1990 and 2014, average household income in gentrifying neighborhoods rose by 14 percent. By contrast, average household income in non-gentrifying neighborhoods declined by 8 percent while average income remained steady in higher-income neighborhoods.
- Housing stock growth between 2000 and 2010 was most rapid in gentrifying neighborhoods. In these 15 neighborhoods, the number of housing units grew by 7.2 percent, as compared to just 4.5 percent in higher-income neighborhoods and 5.5 percent in non-gentrifying neighborhoods.
Ellen said, "As demand grows and neighborhoods become more economically and racially integrated, long-time residents may benefit from new neighborhood amenities, reduced crime rates, and higher housing values. However, rising rents threaten the long-run diversity of these communities."
Crown Heights housing advocate Althea Watson told DNAinfo, "Landlords know their apartments are in demand. A landlord will split up apartments and pack [college kids] in like sardines. They can do it and get away with it because the kids are only there for a short time." Watson said she wished many newcomers to the neighborhood would join the block associations, "For most of them, its like as soon as they get married, they find some place up in Westchester or [Long] Island... I hate to say it, but you need white people to get things done. Ive noticed our block association is more powerful now than it was 10 years ago."
As Spike Lee said during his infamous gentrification rant, "Why does it take an influx of white New Yorkers in the South Bronx, in Harlem, in Bed Stuy, in Crown Heights for the facilities to get better? Why did it take this great influx of white people to get the schools better? The garbage wasnt picked up every motherfuckin day when I was living in 165 Washington Park... The police werent around... When you see white mothers pushing their babies in strollers, three oclock in the morning on 125th Street, that must tell you something."
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Updates below
The city Board of Elections has discounted about 90,000 of 121,000 affidavit ballots cast by voters who workers couldn't find on voter lists during the presidential primary last month, according to results certified by BOE commissioners on Friday. The commissioners signed off on the results after county election office administrators took turns proclaiming that, except for a sole instance of poll worker error in the Bronx, there were no "discrepancies" in the voting process.
But there were other discrepancies. The brisk questioning of administrators was broken up between two days because the Manhattan office administrators failed to show up on Thursday. That Thursday session ended with the announcement that commissioners had suspended a second clerk in charge of the Brooklyn office over registration irregularities that were apparently due to a purge of the rolls there.
BOE meetings last week and the week prior were also bookended by the objections of good-government groups and Bernie Sanders supporters, who are unswayed by assurances that ballots got a thorough accounting.
Primary Day was the stage for a variety of mishaps such as missing voter lists, missing ballots, broken ballot machines, improper instructions, and the poll worker who gave out ballots for the wrong election districtthe only error the BOE has directly acknowledged in the whole process.
But the primary was also plagued with reports of votersfirst-time registrants who had met relevant deadlines as well as regular voters with steady addresseswho found themselves listed under a different party, as an independent, or not listed at all when it came time to vote, and not just in Brooklyn, where the BOE has acknowledged that 126,000 voters were removed from active voter lists, some possibly in error.
Still, it sounds as if the board has not quite abandoned its blame-the-voter arguments, first tried out the day after the primary, when BOE director Michael Ryan said, "No one was disenfranchised."
Speaking to the Indypendent last week, Ryan said, "More often than not, youre finding invalid affidavits in primaries because people are trying to vote parties that theyre not registered."
(Getty)
The confusing part about this is that the problem faced by numerous voters (we're waiting to hear back from the board about 25 more and less documented instances of problems) is that they don't show up as registered in the proper party though they're certain they werecertain because they voted in a recent election and changed nothing subsequently, or because they registered recently and are sure they beat the new voter deadline in March.
"If that's your mistake, my vote should be counted," said one voter at last Tuesday's BOE commissioners meeting, explaining that BOE workers acknowledged a clerical error ahead of the primary, but told her it was too late to update the rolls, so she had to vote by affidavit.
There are definitely cases where an examination of a voter's record has revealed a forgotten party change or missing signature on a form that could explain certain registration problems. But if all the board has found is that people who say their registration was improperly changed aren't properly registered, it is easy to see why rejected affidavit voters are upset.
Another line of reasoning Ryan pursued with the Indypendent is that the main source of sustained discontent over the handling of the election is voters upset with New York's closed primary set-up.
"We were warned in advance that there were folks out there that dont like the New York primary system, and were going to advance a narrative," he said. "And they were well in the process of advancing that narrative and trying to make their pitch for why the process should be open primary like other states and not a closed primary."
Again, there is a kernel of truth to this, in that the afternoon before the primary, activists sued over the registration irregularities and encouraged those with registration problems to vote with an affidavit ballot in hopes that a judge would order a meticulous accounting, or even an open primary. Those activists even encouraged independents to vote, starting that evening before the primary. And at meetings the month before the primary, Ryan and commissioners anticipated an influx of voters unfamiliar with New York's closed primary system and voted to order extra affidavit ballots. That said, the majority of people we talked to about their registration problems are not disgruntled independents trying to make a point.
Angelica Thornhill, whose voting travails Gothamist chronicled on Primary Day, told commissioners last Tuesday, "The problem we have is, under the circumstances you're talking about...[when people] show up and they're not in the books, obviously you guys need to check and see they're registered in the city. But what happened this primary election is...[[registrations] were changed. My sister was listed as inactive and she's lived here five years. I was switched to no party and I called a month ahead of time and was told I was registered Democrat."
Thornhill obtained a court order on the day of the election to allow her to vote, but the board made a point of pulling her file and stating that she had checked "I do not wish to enroll in a party" on a DMV form, thus pulling her out of the Democratic Party.
How do we account for the 90,000 discarded ballots, then? The BOE has not responded to questions on this and other topics. But it appears that even more ballots have been set aside.
An initial post-primary count put the total number of ballots cast in the city at 1,032,796. The 30,000 remaining affidavits did not bump the official total up, though. In fact, the number of ballots counted has fallen in the certified results, to 1,023,714.
This seems to be in part because listed in the official results are 10,800 "unrecorded" votes, which Ryan explained refers to ballot choices left blank. For instance, he said, a Democratic presidential primary ballot with a bubble filled for a presidential candidate but no delegates selected where the instructions said to pick six would result in six unrecorded votes being tallied. Blank or damaged ballots would also add multiple unrecorded votes to the count in the example of the Democratic ballot.
As for the results themselves, the closer counting boosted New York City vote totals for both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, but benefited Clinton more, increasing her victory margin from 248,000 to 266,000. Donald Trump's win got some added distance also, with his lead over John Kasich going from 45,000 to 49,000. The state has not yet published certified results incorporating all of the counties' updated totals.
Now that the city's results are certified, Election Justice USA, the group that sued the BOE in the first place, is encouraging affidavit voters to contact the BOE to see if their votes were counted. The Elections Board is supposed to mail notices explaining when provisional ballots weren't counted, but because of the backlog of rejections and a 20-day time limit on challenging the outcome in court, the group's lawyers say it's best to check yourself at the Board of Elections.
"We are in a race against time and are fully engaged in getting the word out as promptly and widely as we can," said Shyla Nelson, a volunteer with Election Justice, in a statement.
Election Justice and good-government advocates who have spoken before the board emphasized that the pool of votes now being discussed is far smaller than the scale of disenfranchisement, as untold numbers of other voters were turned away at the polls without being offered an affidavit ballot, or being aware of it as an option.
"Their right to vote has been irreparably harmed," said Blaire Fellows, the attorney representing Election Justice. "New York City and state deprived hundreds of thousands of voters of their constitutional right."
Update 6:35 p.m.:
At a meeting of the city BOE's commissioners this afternoon, board director Michael Ryan confirmed that the counting of the affidavit ballots is complete. The rejected affidavit ballots will be set aside for two years as required by law, and could be examined if a judge issues a court order, but otherwise the board's inspectors are done considering them, he said.
For the provisional ballots that were counted, he said that board workers reviewed all available voter data when assessing each of them, and where they found voters to have had their party changed or registration deactivated in error, they are planning to update the listings in time for the June federal primary. First, though, workers need to assess whether those erroneously removed voters have tried to update their registration since the error, to ensure that an update doesn't further foul up the database entry. The process should be completed in the next week or so, Ryan said.
The city board is also in conversation with the state Attorney General's Office, which is investigating its data handling, and the state BOE, which is considering ways to prevent the problems from repeating, Ryan said. Because of this year's elections, no non-routine data maintenance will be done until at least next February, providing time to come up with solutions.
Of 176 voters with issues singled out by attorney general investigators, Ryan said that 71 were not registered with the proper party, 35 were rightly made inactive when mailed address confirmations bounced, 5 were rightly purged when they changed addresses with the postal service, and another 65 "will be the subject of further conversation," because they were listed as active Democrats or Republicans, and it's unclear at the moment what their problem was.
The review of all recent registration updates has been akin to "peeling back the onion," he said, and has revealed problems beyond Brooklyn's, including four people in the Bronx removed from the rolls due to inaccurate death data from the Social Security Death Index.
Asked how he feels having been bombarded with voter complaints, some profanity-laden, for the last three weeks, Ryan maintained that some of the loudest concerns were coming from "what appears to be a professionally orchestrated group" who knowingly casting false affidavit ballots in protest of the closed primary system. In condemning Sanders supporters who spoke at meetings, especially those with similar talking points about discrepancies between certain exit polls and the election results, he said that people with "real" problems were being ignored as a result.
What I'm concerned about is the people, the regular folks that aren't part of this larger cause that had their real grievances stepped on and drowned in the din of politically orchestrated conversation. I would hope that those folks don't get discouraged and that they continue to make us aware, not in a cross way, but in a constructive way...When the questions start to become repetitive, and when people are reading verbatim quotes, and those quotes happen to be the same quote over and over again, then what happens is the real folks, the real people that have a grievance, their grievance isn't heard. And that's a shame.
Asked what the source of his information about the supposed protest-vote campaign was, Ryan said the state BOE informed him of the issue sometime in February or March.
Update May 11th:
State Board of Elections spokesman Thomas Connolly said that the state board warned county leaders on a conference call in March that they were getting a lot of phone calls from voters unhappy about the closed primary and the October party-change deadline, but did not mention what Ryan characterized as an impending "avalanche of protesters."
Astoria residents packed into the Variety Boys & Girls Club on Monday night to voice their concerns about Mayor de Blasio's proposed $2.5 billion Brooklyn Queens Connector (BQX). Many argued that the streetcar, which the mayor has called a "noble experiment" in outer-borough transit, would burden low and middle-income taxpayers while serving real estate interests and high-rise residents along the Queens waterfront.
"If this is going to alleviate some of the subway crowding, that's good," said Mary McClary, 70. "If the fare is going to be compatible with subway, that's even betterprovided that the streetcar is not just for the people who live on the waterfront, who can afford to pay $3,000 in rent."
McClary, who has lived in NYCHA housing in Astoria since 1990 and is a member of the affordable housing coalition Justice For All, said she's seen an influx of development in recent years. "We used to have a skyline, you know?" she said, adding, "the housing that's coming is not affordable for myself."
Monday's "visioning session," hosted by the Department of Transportation with the NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC), was the first of several planned for neighborhoods along the proposed route in the coming months. The 16 mile track would eventually run from Astoria to Sunset Park along the waterfront, connecting tech and startup hubs like Industry City, Long Island City, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, in addition to new waterfront residential developments in DUMBO, Astoria, and Long Island City.
"This 16 mile corridor is becoming the spine of New York City's new economy," said EDC President Maria Torres-Springer in her opening remarks.
"There's potential for us to... bring [tech] industries here," said Astoria Council Member Costa Constantinides. "The next Twitter, the next Facebook, could be built here in Astoria."
Astoria residents pore over a map of their neighborhood, identifying streets that might be suitable for a streetcar (Emma Whitford / Gothamist).
The EDC has touted the BQX as a green transit alternative that would replace car traffic. One trip would cost $2.75the equivalent of a metro card swipeand connect Brooklyn and Queens residents without a transfer through Manhattan.
But some critics have countered that the 405,000 New Yorkers who live along the routeincluding 40,000 NYCHA residentswould be better served by expanded bus service, which would be cheaper and quicker to implement. The proposed streetcar route also runs through flood zones, and the MTA has yet to commit to a free BQX transfer.
"I think this is foolish," said one retired Astoria Heights resident who declined to provide his name. "I don't see why they can't just put buses in for a fraction of the cost."
"I was in construction for 40 years," added Pete Triilivas, 67. "If you're telling me $2.5 billion, it will be $10 billion. Everybody is going to lose their hair [before this is finished]."
And while Mayor de Blasio has argued that "a lot of people are just going to take [the BQX] from one point to another without transferring," the City's preliminary analysis suggests that current demand for the streetcar is lowabout 51 commuters would use the BQX to get from Astoria to DUMBO on a typical weekday, and none would take it in the opposite direction.
Astoria residents said Monday that transfer points to buses and subways would be crucial.
Vernon Boulevard, on the western edge of the neighborhood, runs along Astoria's rising strip of high rise development, where two bedrooms rent for north of $4,500 per month.
"Vernon wouldn't connect well to the F at 21st Street, or the E and M on 23rd," said Steve Scofield, an Astoria resident.
21st Street, which intersects with the F train at Queensbridge and passes by the NYCHA-run Ravenswood Houses, was a popular suggestion on Monday. Queensboro Plaza, four blocks East, would connect riders to the 7, Q, and N trains. But residents worried that the BQX would conflict with traffic calming efforts on the already-congested corridor. Last month, a hit-and-run driver killed a pedestrian on 21st Street.
"We'd like to see more traffic lights on 21st Street," said Scofield, who is also a member of the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. "What does that mean for a light rail, which is already going to have running issues operating in mixed traffic?"
A poster board of the proposed route set up at last night's meeting (Emma Whitford / Gothamist).
The City hopes to break ground on the BQX in 2019 and begin service in 2024. The EDC will present a preliminary route this fall.
The EDC said Monday that the streetcar will cost about $30 million per year to maintain, on top of construction costs. Officials predict that it will increase property values along its route, effectively paying for itself in increased tax revenue.
"This happens to be a place of particularly concentrated...economic growth, with a particular ability to get that revenue," Mayor de Blasio told reporters earlier this year.
A resident of the Columbia Waterfront District, another neighborhood on the BQX's planned route, attended the Astoria meeting to share his perspective as a broker.
"The landlords, whatever their increase is, theyre going to start to pass it on [to their tenants], said the resident, who asked not to be named because he works in the real estate industry. "It looks like this is going to displace people who are now rooted in their communities."
Theresa Ching, 44, a Vernon Boulevard resident and realtor with Douglas Elliman, said on Monday that she was "very excited" about the BQX. "Now that Brooklyn has been fully built in and developed," she said, "[developers] are coming over into Long Island City. Building a streetcar is feasible now."
"It will certainly make gentrification go faster, unfortunately," she conceded. "But hopefully with Mayor de Blasio being very conscious and mindful of these things, we won't chase them all away. There will be real affordable housing that gets built along with the luxury housing."
The New York Attorney General's office will be investigating last month's fatal police-involved shooting in Troy, effectively nullifying a grand jury's ruling that the officer's actions were justified. AG Eric Schneiderman sued Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove last month to compel him to cede jurisdiction, arguing that Abelove violated Governor Cuomo's executive order that gives the AG the authority to specially prosecute police-killing cases.
Sergeant Randall French fatally shot 37-year-old Edson Thevenin on April 17th, at about 3:15 a.m. Thevenin was driving when French attempted to pull him over, authorities said at the time; Thevenin allegedly fled, and police said that when they caught up with him he drove his car into French, who had at that point exited his vehicle. French was allegedly pinned between the police car and Thevenin's car, at which point he fired eight shots through the windshield, killing Thevenin.
But as the Times Union has reported, two civilian witnesses told investigators that French didn't appear to be in danger when he shot Thevenin, and that Thevenin's vehicle struck French after the officer fired his weapons. The incident wasn't recorded, but apparently a civilian witness took a cellphone video of part of the shootingsomething that Troy police chief John Tedesco allegedly failed to disclose initially.
Within five days of Thevenin's death, Abelove had already convened a grand jury, and on April 22nd, that jury declined to indict French, ruling that his "use of deadly physical force was justifiable under the law." In doing so, he overstepped his authority, Schneiderman said: immediately following Thevenin's death, the AG's office sent representatives to inform Abelove that they were looking into whether or not the shooting should fall under Schneiderman's jurisdiction.
Per Cuomo's 2015 executive order, Abelove acted too hastily in convening his grand jury, given that the AG had expressed interest in investigating the case further to see whether Thevenin was armed and dangerous when French shot and killed him. Abelove claimed he was told that Schneiderman wouldn't be investigating the incident, and then later said he was misquoteddespite the fact that his initial statement was recorded.
Schneiderman officially claimed the case on April 30th, marking the fifth time his office will investigate a police killing case since Cuomo appointed him special prosecutor. On May 1st, Cuomo amended his 2015 executive order to also allow Schneiderman to investigate possible "unlawful acts or omissions" as they pertain to Thevenin's death.
It's not clear whether Abelove gave French immunity in exchange for testifying in front of the grand jury, according to the Times Unionif he did so, it would mean that French couldn't be prosecuted.
Now, Abelove will step aside, the New York Times reports, and Schneiderman will in turn drop his suit against the DA's office.
"We are pleased that DA Ableove acquiesced to each and every one of our legal demands, mooting the lawsuit we filed against him two weeks ago," Schneiderman's office said in a statement. "As part of the agreement, DA Abelove relinquished any and all claims to jurisdiction in this case, and will turn over all files related to the Thevenin investigation to the Attorney General's office."
Thevenin is survived by his wife, Cinthia, and their two children, ages four and eight. In the weeks following his death, his family members said they wanted Schneiderman to investigate his death, as they didn't think the police had been consistent or truthful in their statements.
Following the announcement that the AG will indeed be investigating the shooting, Pastor Tre Staton, who's been a spokesperson for the family, said that "although the result the family wanted was ultimately the outside investigation, it is unsettling that the Rensselaer County District Attorney will be off the hook for wrongdoing that we believe did occur. He participated in corruption and now he's going to be serving the people again. That is a disservice to the people and unjust." But Abelove is not necessarily off the hook: Schneiderman's office said that yesterday's agreement "does not exonerate DA Abelove for any potential claims of misconduct," and that their investigation into the case is ongoing.
The two-and-a-half story, Italianate building at the corner of Brooklyn's 3rd and 3rd has gone by many names: historians may remember it as the former headquarters of the New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company; others know it as the Pippin building; and to a select few, it's just that pesky building that was in the way when Whole Foods first planted its flag in Brooklyn. For decades, the Coignet Building sat alone on that corner, falling into a state of disrepair as luxury condos and artisanal coffee shops sprang up in the surrounding neighborhoodbut over the past year and a half, the decaying historical building underwent a serious restoration, and now the landmark is restored to its nineteenth century splendor, boasting a historic facade and a $5 million price tag.
Today, after a much-prolonged restoration, the Coignet Building is back to looking as it did when it was first completed in 1873. It was built as the headquarters of the New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company, the first U.S. company to manufacture the concrete commonly known as "artificial stone." The office, built out of that stone, is the first known concrete building in New York City, and shortly after its completion, Coignet stone enjoyed a brief heyday here: the company was commissioned to produce the stone that formed the arches and clerestory windows in St. Patrick's Cathedral; the Cleft Ridge Span in Prospect Park; and some of the earliest portions of the American Museum of Natural History.
The appeal lay in the technique: the concrete, patented by Francois Coignet in France during the 1850s, used molds in place of chisels and cutting tools, and as such could be made at a fraction of the cost of natural stone. The Coignet Stone Company was originally located at Smith and Hamilton Streets, but it relocated to the lot at 3rd and 3rd in 1872, and built the eponymous building to showcase its product.
At the time, a writer for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called it "one of the most elegant business structures in the city... The whole structure is a beautiful evidence of the work that can be turned out by that Company who are determined to have a standing specimen of how it will endure all extremes of heat and cold, frost, snow and rain... The edifice in the most select neighborhood would be a very attractive one, but located where it is, having nothing but wooden sheds and fences to contrast with it, stands out proudly and challenges the attention of all wayfarers."
But the Coignet stone craze didn't last: despite getting big-name commissions, the company had to file for bankruptcy, and by 1876, it had auctioned off all of its patents. It held on for another few years as the New York Stone Contracting Company, but by 1882, that company, too, had folded, and the Coignet Building became the second office of the Brooklyn Improvement Company, the developers from whom the Coignet stone producers had leased their land. According to local lore, Edwin Clark Litchfield, who founded that company, connected the office to his home on Prospect Park West with an underground tunnel, but when we toured the abandoned building in 2014, there was no such tunnel to be found.
In 1957, the Brooklyn Improvement Company also dissolved, and the Coignet Building was sold off along with the rest of its properties. It was occupied by a number of other businesses over the following years, including the Pippin Radiator Company, and at some point in the 1960s, one tenant made the terrible decision of adding brick to the building's facade, covering up much of the historic Coignet stone.
For much of the second half of the twentieth century until quite recently, the building stood abandoned, decaying inside as its gorgeous exterior remained covered up with red brick. But then in 2005, an unexpected solution arrived: Whole Foods. The rapidly expanding supermarket wanted to open a location at the lot at 3rd and 3rd, but the city ruled it could only do so if it also agreed to fix up the Coignet Building on the corner. Whole Foods agreed, and the building was landmarked in 2006, preventing them from getting into any demolition funny business.
But then, the building sat unaltered for nearly a decade. Work on the Whole Foods stalled as the economy dipped, local residents expressed concerns about traffic and parking, and carcinogenic byproducts were found in the surrounding soil. Construction didn't get underway until 2012, at which point Whole Foods assured everyone that it would soon move forward on facade repairs to the Coignet Building. When the Whole Foods finally opened in late 2013, wrapping nearly entirely around the historic building, no repairs were underway.
In 2013. (Photo by Scott Lynch)
At this point, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission said enough was enough, and slapped Whole Foods with a $3,000 finepennies to the supermarket giant, but a nudge to make good on its promise to the community. Since Whole Foods had purchased its lot in 2005, the right bannister on the steps to the building had fallen off, and a large crack had appeared in the based, which neighbors said was due to construction on the supermarket. Whole Foods denied it.
By March of 2014, Whole Foods claimed it had started work on the facade, but preservationists weren't buying it: they argued that while supermarket-funded contractors had put up a scaffolding, no actually substantive work had been done. Whole Foods was fined once more, all the while staunchly denying that it was responsible for the further deterioration to the property. That seemed to be the final bit of pressure Whole Foods needed: by April, renovations were well underway, and by August, most of the bricks had been stripped from the facade, allowing the original Coignet stone to show through.
Today, swaddled on two sides by the Whole Foods that occupies the rest of the block, the Coignet Building is positively glowing, having been stripped of brick, paint, and stucco, and treated with limewash for a cool $1.3 million. In March, it won the New York Landmarks Conservancy's Lucy G. Preservation Moses Award, recognizing "excellence in restoration," and the building is now for sale for $5 million, where it's described as needing an interior gut renovation but one with a "great retail opportunity."
Inside the Coignet building. (Photo by gothamr / seemore photos from inside here)
The building was certainly a lot more striking when it wasn't squashed in Whole Foods's shadowbut it's nonetheless a beautiful piece of architecture, and a much-needed reminder that despite the endless development across the city, preservationists can sometimes keep old gems from being razed to make room for commercial interests (and even make those commercial interests foot the restoration bill).
A multi-vehicle collision yesterday left four people seriously injuredand police say that the crash was instigated by a driver who fled the scene.
The crash took place yesterday at about 4:40 p.m., and it initially seemed that the chain reaction may have been started by a taxi cab that jumped the curb at Broadway and West 62nd Street. But the NYPD's preliminary investigation has revealed that the driver of a black, four-door, 1999 Honda Accord was speeding up Broadway when he or she rear-ended the yellow cab. The cab in turn struck a halal cart, which crashed into a Con Edison van.
The FDNY said yesterday that they treated six people for injuries, though the NYPD now says that four pedestrians were injured and transported to hospitals. A 23-year-old male suffered a broken nose and lacerations to his right arm; a 50-year-old male suffered a broken arm; and a 42-year-old male received bruises to his right arm.
A 39-year-old woman received a severe laceration to her left arm, police saidthe Daily News reports that the halal cart fell on top of her, and nearly severed her arm. Witnesses at the scene reportedly helped lift the cart off of her.
"She looked really hurt," witness Laurie Adams told DNAinfo. "You could see her arm was broken. Her bones were sticking out."
The driver of the taxi, Michael Parvaz, told CBS New York that the hit-and-run driver hit him intentionallyand that in his eight years of driving a cab, he'd never before had an accident.
"He hit me like that! Bump! Bump! Bump, three times!" he said. "He hit one time then I put the brake, and he again hit me, then I lost control."
Police are looking for the driver of the Honda, and have identified the license plate as a Pennsylvania plate with the number KCN0713. The black vehicle was damaged to the front on the passenger side during the crash.
(NYPD)
Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting tips to 274637 (CRIMES) and entering TIP577.
News
Court increases jail terms for two women charged of kidnapping and assault
The Dubai Court of Appeal has increased the one-year sentence issued by the Court of First Instance against two women to three years in jail for kidnapping, detaining and assaulting another woman before photographing her in indecent clothes and sending the photos to someone else.
The first wolverine confirmed in North Dakota since fur trading days is the same animal researchers tracked beginning in 2009 when it became the first verified wolverine documented in Colorado in nearly a century.
The 30-pound adult male was harassing cows and calves last month when a rancher shot and killed it near Alexander, North Dakota, a town located about 33 miles east of Sidney, and about 100 miles north west of Dickinson, North Dakota. An investigation determined the shooting was justifiable under North Dakota law allowing lethal measures to protect livestock.
After finding an implanted tracking device, North Dakota Game and Fish said on Monday that the 8- to 9-year-old wolverine first became known to scientists in 2009 when captured south of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Researchers tracked the young male for more than 500 miles where it appeared to take up residence in Colorados Rocky Mountain National Park.
The wolverine was last detected in Colorado in 2012, when the tracking devices battery likely depleted, North Dakota Game and Fish said.
Alexander is more than 700 miles from Rocky Mountain National Park.
Stephanie Tucker, North Dakotas furbearer biologist, initially speculated the wolverine could have originated from the Northern Rockies of Montana, the closest known source population. A wolverine photographed in a stubble field near Havre two months earlier could be the same individual based on proximity to Alexander, she said.
The North Dakota wolverine is the first confirmed in the state since fur trading records circa 1870, Tucker said. The agency receives sporadic reports of wolverines but none that have been verifiable until the animal killed recently, she added.
Known for low population densities across large and remote landscapes, fewer than 300 wolverines are estimated to occupy the mountainous regions of the Northern Rockies and Cascades. Larger North American populations exist in Canada and Alaska.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined in 2014 to list wolverines under the Endangered Species Act, citing a lack of data on how predicted climate-driven loss of spring snowpack will impact wolverines. A federal judge recently ruled in favor of environmental groups who sued, ordering the agency to re-evaluate its decision.
MISSOULA -- Bernie Sanders will host rallies in Missoula and Billings on Wednesday.
The Democratic Party presidential candidate and U.S. senator from Vermont will discuss "a wide range of issues, including getting big money out of politics, his plan to make public colleges and universities tuition-free, combating climate change and ensuring universal health care," according to a campaign announcement.
The rallies, called "A Future to Believe In," are free and open to the public, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged and admission is first come, first served. Due to limited parking, carpooling is encouraged; the pavilion is also accessible by bike or on foot.
The Missoula rally is scheduled to open at 10 a.m. in the Caras Park Pavilion in downtown Missoula. The public entrance will be located on the north side of the pavilion.
"For security reasons, please do not bring bags and limit what you bring to small, personal items like keys and cell phones," the announcement noted. "Weapons, sharp objects, chairs, and signs or banners on sticks will not be allowed through security."
Doors will open for the rally in Billings later that same day, at 5 p.m. in the Montana Pavilion at MetraPark, at 308 6th Ave. N.
Little Davette, now 2 and still a bit small for her age, spent the the first two months of her life in a hospital with a rare set of birth defects that, among other things, caused her to be born without thumbs.
Since then, more than a dozen specialists have been contacted and she's undergone 10 surgeries, most recently the first of two hand reconstructive surgeries at a Utah children's hospital to reposition and reform her index fingers to function as thumbs.
"It's amazing," said Tosha Vavak, Davette's legal guardian. "It looks fantastic. Unless youre really looking at it, you wouldnt really know that she has four fingers and that one of them used to be a forefinger and not a thumb."
Now the adopted daughter of Tosha and Jon Vavak of Columbus, Davette was born in Wolf Point with VACTERL association, which stands for vertebral abnormalities, anal atresia, cardiac defects, tracheal-esophageal abnormalities, renal and radial abnormalities and limb abnormalities.
The exact cause of VACTERL isn't known, and an estimated 1 in 40,000 infants are born with it. The defects show up in a wide variety of ways and babies diagnosed with it usually show at least three of the abnormalities or anomalies.
In addition to being born without thumbs, Davette has a cleft palate, gastrointestinal problems, hip dysplasia, heart and lung problems and a number of other issues.
"She has a very complex medical condition that affects multiple organ systems or structures in her body," said Dr. Janis Langohr, Davette's pediatrician at St. Vincent Healthcare. "Despite this, she's a very bright and intelligent little girl."
Not long after she was born, Davette was taken to Benefis Health System in Great Falls for advanced care and then flown to a children's hospital in Seattle for surgery.
The Vavaks initially served as foster parents for Davette beginning when she was just a few months old before becoming her legal guardians a little later.
She's had about 10 surgeries to address different issues caused by VACTERL and the Vaveks have been working with a host of medical professionals since they brought her into their Columbus home.
"We had at one point 13 different specialists," Tosha Vavak said. That includes a gastroenterologist, a heart specialist, a physical and occupational therapist, a pediatrician, a rheumatologist and a plastic surgeon for the cleft palate.
Recently, the family began working to get Davette in with a specialist to perform a complex surgery to reconstruct her hands to allow for better usage.
Langohr has been helping St. Vincent in talks to form a formal relationship with Intermountain Primary Childrens Hospital and University of Utah Health Care, both in Salt Lake City, to provide pediatric subspecialty health care services.
While the groups will formally introduce the partnership Tuesday afternoon, Davette and the Vavaks benefited from that fledgling relationship and quickly had an appointment set up.
They'd been looking at other centers, but didn't feel they were the right fit. That changed upon meeting Dr. Douglas Hutchinson, a hand surgeon at Primary Children's, during a November 2015 consultation.
"Spending 20 minutes with Dr. Hutchinson, he had me laughing and so comfortable to the point where I set up her surgery date right then and there," Vavak said.
In January, Davette went in for surgery on her right hand. Despite a few complications what was supposed to be a three-hour procedure stretched out to more than nine Hutchinson and the staff kept the family updated every hour or so until they figured out the issue and finished the surgery.
"He wouldnt give up," Vavak said. "He wracked his brain. He knew we were stressing out. It was amazing. It made you feel like he really cared about your child."
Langohr said it was evident from the moment the family returned that they were happy with the results and, after another similar surgery for her left hand, the hope is that she won't need many more surgeries, thanks in part to the successful efforts at the Utah hospital.
"The family, they just love this child and want the very, very best for her," she said. "They made the trip and had just a wonderful experience. (Primary Children's) just wrapped their arms around this little girl in many, many ways."
Today, Davette is starting to get some feeling in her hand and maintains what her family says is a plucky, happy-go-luck attitude.
Doctors said that she'd be able to begin moving the the areas that were reconstructed after a few months, and she's been on schedule with that and no longer has to wear a cast.
"She doesn't seem to be in any pain and cosmetically it looks great," Vavak said. "You've never seen a cuter 2-year-old. Ever. She is full of energy and just has the best spirit about her. She's always happy."
The Vavaks have about a dozen children in their home two biological, Davette, four adopted and about a half-dozen foster children and Davette has made an impression on all of them, Tosha Vavak said.
"With all of her stuff, you would think she would be a super fussy little, but she's just not," she said. "She's pretty much defied all of the odds against her and she's got a smile that's just contagious. We have 12 kids in our home right now and she has got every one of her brothers and sisters wrapped around her little finger, and her mom and dad."
MAHOMET A manhunt for the accused gunman who wounded a Mahomet police officer continued Monday, and the Mahomet Police Chief expressed his regret over the death of a Decatur woman after an accident linked to the incident.
The search for suspect Dracy C. Pendleton has expanded as police believe he has left the immediate area. Police say Pendleton, 35, engaged in a gunbattle Saturday night after a traffic stop. He wounded Mahomet officer Jeremy Scharlow, 35, who is also believed to have wounded Pendleton.
I can't give a lot of details but, based on the information we have developed, he (Pendleton) is not in the area anymore, said Mahomet Police Chief Michael Metzler. The manhunt does continue ... we are progressing, I think, and hopefully we'll have a successful outcome here.
Metzler said he was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Kelley E. Wilson, 26, of Decatur who died Saturday night when her vehicle collided on Oakland Avenue with a State Police squad car rushing to lend assistance after the Mahomet shooting. The state trooper involved also was injured in the accident.
That is a very sad circumstance, said Metzler, who said he planned to express his condolences to the family of Wilson, a mother of two children. That trooper was on his way to assist us and this is such a tragedy.
Metzler said police wanted to hear from anyone who has seen Pendleton or has information about his whereabouts. He said the suspect must be considered armed and dangerous.
We have been fielding calls of possible sightings all across the area as well as from people out of state who have seen news stories and are calling saying, 'I saw him, maybe,' Metzler added. None of those calls have panned out so far.
He described Pendleton as someone known to police from previous encounters with law enforcement but wasn't sure where the suspect had been living.
The police chief said incidences of armed violence are something rare in his village. We like to pride ourselves on not having problems but nobody is immune to this kind of thing, he added.
Sightings or information about Pendleton can be called in to (217) 384-TIPS or go to www.373tips.com
DECATUR Demariel Cunningham, 35, who was charged with murder in a 2011 case in which the main witness was later shot to death, is standing trial for weapons possession by a felon. He was arrested last year when police found loaded semiautomatic pistols in a closet at his relative's house.
If convicted, Cunningham will be sentenced to between three and 14 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Cunningham was indicted by a grand jury on four counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in connection with this case, for sex with a girl under 15 years old who was found with Cunningham the morning he was arrested with the firearms. The sex abuse case is pending.
In her opening statement Monday, Assistant Macon County State's Attorney Kate Kurtz told the jurors, six men and six women, that police were called to a residence on North Church Street about 1 a.m. March 22, 2015.
During a search of the house, police found two loaded handguns plus an additional ammunition magazine in a closet.
A fingerprint analyst will testify that he lifted a fingerprint from the magazine for the Ruger, which matches Cunningham's, Kurtz said. With a prior felony conviction, Cunningham can not legally possess a firearm.
Assistant Public Defender David Ellison said that the evidence will show something a little different from the state's case.
He might have accidentally touched the magazine, Ellison said, adding there is not enough evidence to prove Cunningham is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Decatur patrol officer Aaron Carr testified that he was sent to the house to check the welfare. After knocking on the front porch door for a few minutes, the house's resident opened that door, which led to the outdoors.
He saw a man, later identified as Cunningham, looking out toward him and another officer from inside the house.
He retreated back into the house, Carr testified.
Carr entered the house, for officer safety. He then saw Cunningham enter the living room and sit down on a couch. There was a female juvenile on the couch.
Cunningham said the resident was a relative of his. Officers found in Cunningham's possession a large sum of cash, $1,147.
After the resident granted permission for officers to search his house, they found a .45-caliber Ruger handgun and a Jennings 9mm handgun in a closet, in addition to an ammunition magazine.
The Church Street resident testified that he lived by himself at the time of the incident, but Cunningham was a frequent visitor.
Kurtz asked him under direct examination if anyone was with him about 1 a.m. that morning. He said Cunningham was there, as well as a young lady.
He said he gave officers permission to search his house and they found guns.
Your guns? Kurtz asked.
It wasn't mine, it was his, the witness said, pointing to Cunningham, who sat in front of him at the defense table.
Under cross examination by Ellison, the witness said one officer stayed with the girl while the other searched the house. He said another male relative had been at the house before the police arrived.
During additional testimony, the witness said Cunningham had been playing with the guns, showing them to the other male at his home. He was cocking them and uncocking them, showing them off, as if to say, look what I got.
Cunningham, who is on parole from his 2011 convictions for manufacturing/delivery cocaine and obstructing justice, has been held without bond in the Macon County Jail since his arrest last year.
Cunningham was charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Marvin A. Dickerson, 19, which occurred Aug. 22, 2011, on North Union Street. When the state's only eyewitness, Marvin E. Perry, 22, was shot to death on North Union Street two years later, the murder charges were dismissed against Cunningham. Authorities said they did not believe Cunningham was involved in the murder of Perry.
Joshua A. Jones, who had recently been released from prison at the time of the Perry slaying, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for second-degree murder in that case.
Cunningham's trial will resume at 9 a.m. today in the courtroom of Circuit Judge R.C. Bollinger.
SPRINGFIELD Gov. Bruce Rauner is renewing his call for a clean bill to fund elementary and secondary education next school year.
The Republicans statement comes in conjunction with a visit Monday to Lyons Township High School in Chicago suburban La Grange and follows last weeks release of Illinois State Board of Education figures on what a Democratic proposal to overhaul the states school funding formula would mean for individual districts.
The governor has said he supports changing the way the state distributes money to school districts, but he wants to fully fund the current formula while lawmakers continue to work on those changes. If lawmakers approve his plan, it would mark the first time in seven years that districts would receive the whole amount state law says they should.
Our priority right now should be funding our schools for the upcoming school year, Rauner said. Since day one, I have been committed to building a world-class education system in Illinois that ensures every child goes to a high-quality school and can go on to a high-paying career. Fully funding our schools is a step closer to making that a reality.
Many Democrats argue that it doesnt make sense to put more money into a system that does a bad job of distributing it to poorer districts that need it the most.
I am encouraged that the governor and Republicans recognize the current systems failings, Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said in response to Rauners remarks. They said they want a system that recognizes the needs of rural and low-income communities. Lucky for them, that plan is pending in the Illinois Senate and they will soon get the chance to vote for it.
Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, has been working for years on legislation that would redirect state money to the neediest districts. In an effort to win support from both parties and all parts of the state, Manars latest version includes provisions intended to prevent any districts from losing money in the first year under the new formula.
Despite Republican statements to the contrary, figures the State Board of Education released last week show that Manars bill would do just that.
Had his formula been in place for the 2014-15 school year, the last for which the board has complete data, Lyons Townships funding wouldve been unchanged compared with the current formula.
Under Rauners plan, the district, which spends $2,700 more per student on instruction than the state average, would gain $104,000 next year compared with the current year.
Poorer districts, meanwhile, would see substantial gains under Manars plan.
For example, the Decatur School District, which spends $2,799 less per student on instruction than the state average, would have seen $5.3 million more in state funding in 2014-15, had the new plan been in place. Under the Rauner plan, Decaturs funding would go up by $625,000 next year.
Figures for how districts would fare under Manars plan with the level of overall funding Rauner has proposed for next year are not yet available.
With strong backing likely from Chicago and downstate Democrats, passage of Manars plan in the Senate may hinge on additional support from suburban Democrats, some of whom represent districts that would eventually see state funding dip under the proposal, and downstate Republicans, many of whom represent districts that stand to benefit.
GOP senators have been highly critical of the bill, labeling it a bailout for Chicago Public Schools.
The proposal would direct an additional $175 million to the states largest school district, and the state would begin picking up the tab for Chicago teachers pensions, something it already does for the rest of the state. Chicago would lose $74 million under Rauners plan.
Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, opposes Manars plan, despite the fact that 35 school districts he represents would have gained an average of nearly $130,000 in 2014-15 under the new formula, according to state board figures.
This debate has to be bigger than who were winners and who were losers under a certain proposal, Righter said.
Really the issue here is, What do we want the school aid formula to achieve? he said.
From his perspective, the formula should aid districts that are doing their part through local property taxes to fund schools but still struggling to provide adequate money due to low property values.
Given its relatively low property tax rate compared with surrounding suburbs, Chicago could do more locally to fund its schools, Righter said, adding that it should also be held accountable for poor financial and academic performance.
DECATUR -- Eisenhower High School junior Roniesha Green didn't hesitate, giggle or lower her voice as she answered the question: "What four bodily fluids can transmit sexually transmitted diseases?"
"Semen, vaginal secretion, amniotic fluid and blood," Green said in front of a crowd of her classmates in the school cafeteria.
Green and her partner Jasmine Haynes, an Eisenhower senior, rolled to an easy win against a group of male students during the Webster-Cantrell Teen Health Coalition's trivia contest as part of National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Week.
"I wasn't embarrassed," Green said. "Those are things everyone should know by now; we're all in high school. I pay attention in health, so none of this was new to me."
The Teen Health Coalition visited Eisenhower and MacArthur last week to raise awareness about the high rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among Macon County youth and to test their knowledge of the subject.
"I wanted to do something that would get the kids involved and interested in the subject," Teen Health Coalition Program Director Kindra Smith said.
"It goes along with what we do in the schools as far as going in the health classes and teaching the curriculum. That's what we pulled all the questions from, so it's a matter of seeing what they're retaining. We can't control their actions, but it's important we know they're listening."
Despite giggling and wisecracks from the audience, the contest managed to get the information out. Questions included: What are three types of birth control? What's the only way to 100 percent prevent STDs? What percentage of teen fathers marry the mother?
One question that stumped most of the students was: "What's the first step in putting on a condom?" Answers included making sure there wasn't a hole in it, taking it out of the package and unrolling it, but the correct answer was checking the expiration date.
According to the latest Johnson Foundation County Health Rankings, Macon County has the third-highest rate of STDs and eighth-highest teen birth rate among the 102 counties in Illinois.
"I think talking to kids, those numbers are alarming to them," Smith said. "I think a lot of them are surprised how easy it is to contract an STD; they don't think they don't need to use protection during oral sex. But STDs can be spread during oral sex. That's why we're doing this, to get the information out there."
But not all Macon County parents are comfortable with sex ed being taught to their children. Smith said the Decatur School District and the Teen Health Coalition accommodate any parent who doesn't want their child to participate.
"At the beginning of the year, the school district sends out letters explaining who we are and what we're going to do," Smith said. "Parents have the right to opt their children out of any or all lessons and programs we have.
"We're not trying to change anyone's morals or values. We're just here to say this what's going on. Our No. 1 goal is to promote abstinence, but if the child chooses to engage in sexual activity, we want them to be safe and understand what they're getting into."
RALEIGH, N.C. A potentially epic clash over transgender rights took shape Monday when the U.S. Justice Department sued North Carolina over the state's new bathroom law.
In unusually forceful language, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said North Carolina's law requiring transgender people to use the public restroom corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate amounts to "state-sponsored discrimination" and is aimed at "a problem that doesn't exist."
She said it serves only to "harm innocent Americans."
Billions of dollars in state aid for North Carolina and a potentially landmark decision regarding the reach of the nation's civil rights laws are at stake in the dispute, which in recent weeks has triggered boycotts and cancellations aimed at getting the state to repeal the measure that took effect in March.
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department said the law amounts to illegal sex discrimination against transgender people and gave Gov. Pat McCrory until Monday to say he would refuse to enforce it.
McCrory instead filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that the North Carolina law is a "common-sense privacy policy" and that the Justice Department's position is "baseless and blatant overreach."
"This is not a North Carolina issue. It is now a national issue," said McCrory, a Republican who is up for re-election in November, declared at a news conference.
The governor accused the Obama administration of unilaterally rewriting federal civil rights law to protect transgender people's access to bathrooms, locker rooms and showers across the country.
Later in the day, the Justice Department responded by suing North Carolina, seeking a court order declaring the law discriminatory and unenforceable.
Lynch spoke directly to residents of her native state, saying they have been falsely told by North Carolina proponents that the law protects vulnerable people from harm in bathrooms.
"Instead, what this law does, is inflict further indignity on a population that has already suffered far more than its fair share," she said. "This law provides no benefit to society, and all it does it is harm innocent Americans."
Defenders of the law have argued that it necessary to protect the safety and privacy of people in bathrooms. Opponents have argued that the danger of a transgender person molesting a child in a restroom is all but nonexistent.
Stars such as Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam have canceled shows in North Carolina over the new law. PayPal abandoned a planned 400-employee operation center in Charlotte, and Deutsche Bank froze expansion plans near Raleigh.
Nearly 200 corporate leaders from across the country, including Charlotte-based Bank of America, have urged the law's repeal, arguing it is bad for business because it makes recruiting talented employees more difficult.
Several other states have proposed similar laws in recent months limiting protections for gay, bisexual and transgender people. On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi sued that state over a law that will allow workers to cite their religious objections to gay marriage to deny services to people.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat running against McCrory for governor, has refused to defend the law, which was passed in reaction to a Charlotte ordinance allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity.
Lynch likened her agency's involvement in the North Carolina law to the shifting expansion of civil rights that scrapped legal racial segregation and prohibitions against gay marriage.
The new North Carolina law also excludes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from state anti-discrimination protection and bars local governments from adopting their own anti-bias measures.
The Justice Department noted a ruling last month by a federal appeals court that a transgender Virginia high school student has a right to use bathrooms that correspond with his new identity. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is binding on five states, including North Carolina. Virginia is seeking a rehearing by the entire appeals court.
The U.S. Education Department and other federal agencies could try to cut off money to North Carolina to force compliance.
The state university system risks losing more than $1.4 billion in federal funds. An additional $800 million in federally backed loans for students who attend the public universities also could be at risk.
While many Illinois school districts would welcome additional money from the state, theres a question whether its wise to continue to throw more money into a system that is seriously flawed.
That appears to be what Gov. Bruce Rauner and Republicans in the General Assembly want to do. Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, has been leading the charge for years to change the way public schools are funded in Illinois. The current system is grossly unfair, with rich districts spending up to $30,000 per student and poorer districts getting by on as little as $6,000 per student. The result is that students from low-income areas, which several studies have shown need more help in order to succeed, receive the least amount of help. The current system undoubtedly places more value on some students than others.
Rauner threw cold water on Manars latest bill last week, claiming that it was a bailout for the Chicago School District. Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, joined the well-orchestrated chorus. The Rauner administration exploited the politically charged issue by releasing a report on which districts would gain money and which would lose the day before a scheduled vote. The administration has had the bill since February, so the release was obviously politically motivated. If this analysis truly took the Illinois State Board of Education two months to complete, then they need to hire better analysts.
Manar has made several changes to his proposal over the years to make it more politically palatable. Its a difficult topic because some districts will lose state funding.
The latest version included a hold harmless provision that would have phased in the changes over the next four years. That would give school districts that were receiving less state funding a chance to adapt. Manar also included a provision for the state to pick up the cost of teacher pensions for the Chicago schools. The state picks up the costs of pensions for districts in the rest of the state, but Manar has since changed that provision.
Barickman criticized the bill because Manar did not have a plan to fund the additional cost. Rauner wants to spend an additional $55 million on schools in the next fiscal year, but has revealed no plans to fix the unfair funding scheme.
Rauner and Barickman are intentionally confusing the issue. The current funding system is unfair, no matter how much money is poured into the educational system. Putting additional money into the system may sound nice, but it doesnt solve the fundamental unfairness of the current system. While Rauner, Barickman and others criticize Manars plan, they have revealed no plans of their own to fix a system that nearly everyone involved in education knows is unfair and puts the states poorest students at a disadvantage.
Rauner has stated hes in favor of education reform, although most of his actions thus far have been to maintain the status quo.
In the best interests of the states students, Rauner and the Republican should quit playing political games with Manars proposal and work to reform a system that is fundamentally unfair to many.
BLOOMINGTON The profile of a typical heroin user shooting up in an alley or backstage at a rock concert no longer holds true, McLean County officials told U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis on Monday on his visit to discuss the drug crisis that has moved from big cities to rural communities.
McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage and Coroner Kathy Davis showed Davis a sampling of drugs confiscated by deputies and explained that heroin users come from all economic levels. During his examination of a bag on a table in the evidence room, Davis said that Monday was the first time he had seen heroin.
Also a first-time experience for the congressman was the significance of an ice scream scoop -- a tool used by drug users to cook heroin -- sealed in a plastic bag.
The destruction left in the wake of heroin use has prompted congressmen to support five pieces of legislation aimed at the national opioid epidemic, Davis said. Small towns across Illinois, including areas represented by the Taylorville Republican, have witnessed heroin use firsthand, said Davis.
"It's not just Axel Rose anymore," said Davis, referring to the Guns N' Roses band member who battled drugs during his career.
Sandage said his arrests by county offiers for drug possession increased 70 percent in 2015. The county's location on the Interstate 55 corridor puts it in a prime position for drug transports, he said. Davis also took a ride with a deputy Monday and a second K-9 unit recently added to help with drug investigations.
The signs of heroin use are obvious, said the coroner and sheriff.
"We have seen people with heroin needles still in their arm when they crash their vehicles. That's how profound it is," said Kathy Davis, noting that her office recorded five heroin-related deaths last year and two in 2016.
McLean County State's Attorney Jason Chambers said heroin use started to become a bigger issue six years ago.
"In about 2010, McLean County saw the numbers in heroin cases spike. Each year since then, we have had at least 40 cases a year and we had about 55 in 2015. When you look at the lethality of this drug, it is hard to ignore or treat it as a victimless crime," Chambers said.
Among the bills under consideration in Washington next week is legislation for $103 million in annual grants for training and resources for first responders and others in the criminal justice to reduce opioid abuse. A law that would allow police more ability to pursue chemicals that are being brought into the U.S. to be used to manufacture illegal drugs also has bipartisan support, he said.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)
Today
Showers and a possible thunderstorm during the evening will give way to mainly clear skies after midnight. Low 56F. SSW winds shifting to NW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Higher wind gusts possible..
Tonight
Showers and a possible thunderstorm during the evening will give way to mainly clear skies after midnight. Low 56F. SSW winds shifting to NW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Higher wind gusts possible.
On May 11, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission will conduct reinforced monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the north-western direction of the Talish village of the NKR Martakert region.
From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring will be conducted by Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and staff member of the Office Peter Svedberg (Sweden), as well as by Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Thomas Lenk (Germany).
The NKR authorities have expressed their readiness to assist in conducting the monitoring and to ensure the security of the OSCE Mission members.
Zaruhi Mejlumyan
I met 92 year-old Arousyak Israyelyan, a resident of Maghavouz village in northern Artsakh, in Hrazdan, a town in Armenia.
She had fled the recent fighting in Artsakh and is now living with her daughter Seda.
The woman has seen three wars in her lifetime WWII, the 1990s Artsakh War, and the most recent Four Day War. I have a hard head, she jokes.
When I ask her to speak about her life, Arousyak sighs and says, My life in untellable. I am very irritated about my fate. There are so many stories. I dont know which one to tell.
From the snippets Arousyak does relate, I was able to ascertain that she was an orphan and that at the age of sixteen, during WWII, she started working as the village shepherd to feed her younger brothers.
There was nothing else to do. All the men had gone off to war, explains Arousyak.
Later, she decides to pursue a college education in Yerevan and gets accepted at the economics institute. She only lasts a few months due to a lack of warm winter clothes.
So I returned to the village. The war had ended and some of the men came back. I married in 1946, relates Arousyak.
She had three sons and one daughter. All the boys fought in the Artsakh War in the early 1990s. One son, Slavik, was killed.
I have no idea what Gharabagh has become. The people want things to fall in place, but the Turks have their eye on Gharabagh, says Mrs. Israyelyan, who remembers staying in Maghavouz for three days in 1992, when Azerbaijani soldiers had entered the village, until her son Slavik arrived to whisk her away to safety. After Armenian forces had recaptured the village, Arousyak returned, only to find her house burnt to the ground. The government built her a new one since one of her sons had died in the war.
Seda Abrahamyan, Arousyaks daughter, says her children would always spend their summers in Maghavouz. The kids show us their photos, harkening back to more peaceful times.
Arousyak Israyelyan now counts the days before she can return to her village in Artsakh.
What can I do staying here? My kids are serving on the frontline posts. I count the days before returning to our village, she says.
Arousyak has 13 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. She says that Slaviks sons are now serving on the frontline.
Before I leave, Arousyak asks me what the United Nations is doing to stop the fighting.
In the last Gharabagh war, the UN quickly moved to stop the fighting. Is that the case today? There should be no more wars. Let the world be at peace and the people will create their means of support.
Photos: Narek Aleksanyan
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WASHINGTON, D.C. A soft mist blown by a breeze from the foamy fountains at the WWII Memorial on April 30 landed on more than 80 Wisconsin veterans who had just flown in on the Badger Honor Flight.
Among them was 83-year old Paul Anderson of DeForest, a former Army secret intelligence officer during the Korean War, seated in his wheelchair so close to the pool of fountains his guardian, Steve White stood closely by to keep the chair under control.
Doctors have told Anderson his diagnosis of myeloproliferative disorder, a group of cancers in which immature blood cells in the bone marrow do not mature or become healthy blood cells, is fatal.
Its what put Anderson at the top of the waiting list for the Badger Honor Flight, which flies veterans to Washington four times each year to visit the war memorials.
But Anderson was animated as he used his cane as an imaginary bugle that he tooted across the pool of water, and sang a song he wrote himself called Keep Smiling.
Other tourists gathered around the pool with their cell phones capturing images of that moment and laughing along with him.
Anderson played the role of comedian on the trip, making other veterans around him laugh at his jokes before, during and after the flight.
The other people on that flight, if they can just smile and I can stop and help them do that a little bit, thats what we need, Anderson said after the flight. We need to give of ourselves more and help other people because were also helping ourselves.
Journey begins
The laughter and camaraderie started at 5 a.m. with the send-off from the Dane County Airport in Madison, where the sound of a brass band filled the concourse, a color guard marched and veterans were seated for the kickoff speeches and introductions before boarding the flight.
The arrival at Washingtons Ronald Reagan National Airport sent them into the handshakes of strangers people they didnt know and will never see again cheerily thanking each one for their service and wishing them well on their tour of the city and its National Parks Service memorials as they left the plane and boarded the four touring buses.
The laughter and friendly conversation was silenced at the first stop at Arlington National Cemetery as the Honor Flight group of about 120 veterans, companions and crew members gathered quietly around the changing-of-the-guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The only sound during that ceremony with about another 500 people in attendance was the hum of a plane at it flew over the cemetery.
It was the beginning of a somber, quiet and emotional tour of the war memorials for those veterans, the majority of whom had never visited them, nor had their companions.
Iconic image
From Arlington, the group moved on to the Marine Corps Memorial, also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial based on the iconic 1945 photo of six servicemen raising the American Flag.
Among those servicemen was U.S. Navy man John Bradley of Antigo. Roman Statz of Baraboo was there in 1954 when he was a 21-year old combat engineer in the Army, the day after the colossal sculpture was dedicated.
Statz lived in Anitgo from 1969 to 1974 and knew Bradley.
Wearing his Ike Jacket, Statz stood with his son, Paul, and looked up high at the top of the sculpture.
Three of those survivors were here for that dedication, Statz said. John Bradley was from Antigo and we got to know him. We went to the same church where I can still see him there as an usher.
The 85 veterans grouped together for a photo of all of them in front of the Iwo Jima statue before going on to the WWII, Korean and Vietnam memorials in the park in front of the Lincoln Memorial building.
Ron Bruni of Baraboo worked on one of the very first computers used by the military for missile trajectory aboard the USS Mississippi while he was in the Navy during the Korean War.
Some of our military folks today are much worse off than I had it, Bruni said. They come back missing arms and legs. I was never in any fighting. I only got shot at once and that was when our ship came through a firing range with another ship. When you look at our vets today and our wounded warriors, its pretty sad. Theyve given a lot.
Vietnam-era veteran Stan Theis said he and his companion Jim Ballweg, both of Prairie du Sac, are volunteers of the Operation Eagles Wings fundraising campaign founded by Fritz Wyttenbach to raise $100,000 to fund an entire Badger Honor Flight in the future.
The two were invited on the flight so they could experience what veterans experience on the trip. The two men stood a few minutes at the Vietnam Wall.
Theis found the name of his old high school friend Alan Royston of Mazomanie, and touched it, feeling the grooves of Roystons name etched into the black granite.
Its a shame, Theis said. I always wondered what his life would have been like.
Theis said he did not see combat, and paused to contemplate the nearly 60,000 who lost their lives during Vietnam.
Vietnam veterans
Honor Flight President Brian Ziegler, who served in the Army National Guard for 16 years, said the Honor Flight is beginning to look for applications from more Vietnam veterans.
I believe in honoring a fellow vet, Ziegler said. I know it sounds hokey, but not everybody received a welcome home with ticker tapes. Its a small way of saying thank you to everybody that served. For some, its long overdue.
Amy Terbilcox is director of the Badger Honor Flight administration.
Many of the Korean and Vietnam vets are concerned they didnt serve in-country and feel theyre not deserving of this flight, Terbilcox said. These guys did not write their orders and they werent given a choice as to where they served. Theyre deserving of it just as much as the guys who fought overseas. Id like to see everybody go on the flight who has served our country during those conflicts. I wouldnt have the choices I have today if it werent for them.
Scott Anderson, a UW Health orthopedic surgeon who served in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2012, was working as an Honor Flight medical volunteer for the first time Saturday.
Ive always been a WWII, Korea and Vietnam buff and thats why I went into the service, Anderson said. Now that Im out of the service I dont want to be away from that group. I went to the first training and orientation and went home and told my wife I found my thing.
The homecoming
Unlike the solemn, quiet that surrounded the veterans visiting the memorials in Washington, the Honor Flight returned home to the Dane County Airport to a raucous, loud, cheering crowd of thousands that gathered 20 people deep stretching from the first gate to the baggage claim on the main concourse.
A large brass band played as the veterans come down the escalator or got off the elevator, and were met with handshakes, kisses and a never-ending roar of cheers and applause.
What impressed me the most is the reception of people when we got back, Statz said. It was amazing.
It was a moment when veteran Paul Anderson was no longer laughing, but had tears of joy and gratitude running down his cheeks.
It was the most memorable experience I ever had, Anderson said. If Id been able to talk, I would have said this was the most memorable trip Ive ever had. All these memorials are commemorating the men and women who have died for our county. I am so blessed to be an American.
Oak Creek or the Chicago burbs?
For those who enjoy assembling their own furniture after noshing on Swedish meatballs, the announcement last week that IKEA would build a store in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek created a buzz even here in Madison.
It will mark the first store in Wisconsin for the mega-retailer and eliminate traffic headaches, tolls and some drive time for those used to going to IKEA in Schaumburg, Illinois. And, one can only hope the new store wont be located in a maze of frontage roads that can send a GPS into freeze mode, like that of the Schaumburg store.
Located approximately 12 miles south of downtown Milwaukee, the 295,000-square-foot proposed store and its approximately 1,200 parking spaces would be built on 29 acres at the northwestern corner of Interstate 94 and Drexel Avenue. IKEA has more than 380 stores in 48 countries, including 41 in the U.S. Other Midwest stores for the company are in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and Bloomington, Minnesota.
We are excited at the possibility of growing our Midwestern U.S. presence with a Milwaukee-area store, said Lars Petersson, IKEA's U.S. president. A location in this retail corridor would provide our already 206,000 Milwaukee-area customers their own store and introduce the unique IKEA shopping experience to others throughout Wisconsin.
The time and mileage savings once the Oak Creek store opens in summer 2018 wont be insignificant, but its not as great as one might think.
According to Mapquest, from the state Capitol, the 123-mile trip to the IKEA in Schaumburg takes 2 hours and 14 minutes. The 84 miles to the Oak Creek store near Interstate 94 and West Drexel Avenue can be covered in 1 hour and 42 minutes. But shoppers from Janesville will save just one mile and one minute if they choose Oak Creek over Schaumburg.
An allegedly very intoxicated Baraboo man who was possibly suicidal led police on a wild chase Monday night, crashing his pickup truck four times, the last time into the Baraboo River.
James Seiler, 52, was arrested on multiple charges, including his alleged fifth drunken driving offense, reckless endangerment and eluding an officer, Baraboo police said.
The incident started at about 10:45 p.m. when a friend of Seiler called police, saying Seiler was possibly suicidal, intoxicated and could have a handgun.
"The caller said Seiler was upset over a prior arrest last weekend," said Capt. Rob Sinden. "He made statements he was going to crash his truck into a house."
An officer found Seiler parked at Walmart, but before the officer could talk to him, Seiler allegedly crashed into a shopping cart corral in the parking lot, then fled.
"The truck later entered the Honeyboy trailer park and crashed into a residential trailer," Sinden said. "The trailer had major damage but the two occupants were not injured."
Seiler drove out of the trailer park, allegedly coming close to hitting officers arriving on the scene.
"The vehicle then entered a used car lot on Highway 12, colliding with two vehicles," Sinden said. "The police pursuit was terminated, due to the danger the operator of the truck displayed to the public, and to officers, during the pursuit."
Police spotted the damaged pickup truck once again, this time on Moore Street.
"An officer tried to make contact, but he fled once again, driving down the river embankment behind a realty office in West Baraboo and into the river," Sinden said.
Seiler tried to run after crashing into the river but he was taken into custody.
There were no passengers in the truck and no reported injuries.
A man who allegedly threw a glass that injured a Madison woman a week ago has been arrested.
Ryan Franklin, 30, Madison, was arrested on a tentative charge of substantial battery, Madison police said.
Franklin was in an argument with his girlfriend at an apartment in the 700 block of Vernon Avenue on May 2, when a different woman stepped in to break it up.
She was hit by a glass allegedly thrown by Franklin, believed to be intended for the girlfriend. She suffered numerous facial cuts and a brain bleed, and Franklin had been at large since the incident.
Jeremy Hays, brother of Interstate fatal shooting suspect Zachary Hays, had his bail reduced from $10,000 to a signature bond Monday in Dane County Circuit Court, even as additional charges were filed against Zachary Hays for a killing in Milwaukee County.
Jeremy Hays, 30, was a passenger in his brothers SUV on May 1, when driver Zachary Hays, 20, allegedly fired at random on a passing vehicle on I-90-94 near Lake Delton, killing an Illinois woman, Tracy Czaczkowski, 44.
Jeremy Hays was arrested May 1 with Zachary Hays in connection with the Interstate shooting, after the SUV was stopped by road spikes and Zachary Hays was shot by two Columbia County deputies after he allegedly left the SUV with a gun in his hand and walked toward officers.
Police said they found a second gun in the SUV, and Jeremy Hays, who has a 2006 burglary conviction, was booked into the Dane County Jail on a tentative charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
But Court Commissioner Brian Asmus on Monday declined to continue to hold Jeremy Hays on the $10,000 cash bail set at his arrest.
Because the Dane County District Attorneys Office has not yet filed a complaint making the charge formal, a signature bond with bail monitoring conditions is more appropriate, Asmus said.
According to the May 4 criminal complaint filed by Sauk County prosecutors against Zachary Hays for the Interstate shooting, Jeremy Hays told investigators he was concerned for his own safety on May 1, claiming Zachary Hays had threatened to kill him if he tried to leave.
Jeremy Hays was expected to be released Tuesday morning on the signature bond. He is due back in court for a status conference on May 23, by which time prosecutors expect a complaint will have been filed against him.
Zachary Hays also is suspected of fatally shooting a neighbor in his West Allis apartment building earlier on May 1. He was charged Monday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with first-degree reckless homicide in the shooting death of Gabriel Claudio-Sanchez, 42.
Zachary Hays remained under guard Monday at UW Hospital recovering from being shot, Dane County Sheriffs Office spokeswoman Elise Schaffer said. Dane County charges in connection with the Interstate shooting may be filed against him sometime this week, Schaffer said.
Jeff Hays, 34, the cognitively disabled brother who also was a passenger in Zachary Hays vehicle on May 1, was released from custody on Friday to his Milwaukee-area group home, with no charges to be filed against him.
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A 30-year-old Edgerton man accused of hitting and seriously injuring two girls with his truck in a Middleton crosswalk April 21 was charged Monday in Dane County Circuit Court with nine felonies and three misdemeanors in connection with the incident and an ensuing law enforcement pursuit.
If convicted, Ross Cotter-Brown could face up to 66 years in prison, Assistant District Attorney Shaun OConnell said during a hearing for the defendant in initial appearance court at the Dane County Public Safety Building.
This is an extremely serious event, OConnell told Court Commissioner Jason Hanson, describing it as a miracle that the two girls, ages 12 and 13, were not killed as a result of being struck by Cotter-Browns pickup as they walked home from nearby Kromrey Middle School.
Cotter-Brown allegedly drove through a red light, speeding west on Century Avenue, when his truck hit the girls at Donna Drive and Frank Lloyd Wright Avenue.
One of the girls, the 13-year-old, was dragged under the white 2002 Ford F150 for several feet and run over, according to witnesses, before she rolled out and stopped with her left arm twisted up in the air, the complaint said. The 12-year-old, who was struck first, flew into the air upon impact and was reported by a witness to be awake and screaming as the truck sped off and help arrived.
Both girls suffered serious injuries. For the 12-year-old, that included a broken right leg, broken nose, two broken clavicles and a broken front tooth, according to the complaint. The 13-year-old had a broken right thigh bone, two broken clavicles, a large cut above her right eye and road rash, along with several other cuts, the complaint said.
Cotter-Brown, wearing a blue jail uniform on Monday, spoke little and mostly looked down as OConnell reviewed the events leading to his arrest at gunpoint about 4 p.m. April 21 on Century Avenue just east of Northbrook Drive, where a near head-on collision with an eastbound vehicle finally disabled the pickup truck, authorities said.
He spent that night under police guard at University Hospital, according to the complaint, and allegedly tried to escape from his room the next morning but was quickly tackled by a Dane County sheriffs deputy.
According to the complaint, Cotter-Brown told a Fitchburg detective a week after the incident that he had been driving around trying to find a good fishing spot before school let out for the day on April 21. He said he started drinking in the morning and claimed not to be able to remember any subsequent events of that day after taking two hits of synthetic marijuana around 2 p.m.
A Dane County sheriffs deputy began following Cotter-Browns pickup truck around 3:50 p.m., after Cotter-Brown was seen driving erratically in the area of Highway M and Highway 113. Cotter-Brown then headed west on Highway M, not stopping when the deputy turned on sirens at Highway K, according to the complaint.
As he drove, Cotter-Brown was reported to be weaving in and out of traffic, rapidly accelerating and abruptly braking to avoid hitting vehicles in front of him.
He ran several cars off the road, authorities said, rear-ended one vehicle and drove around others sometimes traveling in the opposing lane of traffic while reaching speeds of 80 mph.
The pursuit was called off because of safety concerns between Allen Boulevard and Branch Street, the complaint said. Cotter-Brown crashed head-on into one last vehicle shortly after, sending another person to the hospital with shoulder pain.
The 12 charges filed against Cotter-Brown on Monday included two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety, two counts of hit-and-run involving injury, fleeing/eluding an officer by a vehicle operator, fourth drunken driving offense in five years, injury by intoxicated use of a vehicle, causing injury while driving drunk, hit and run involving great bodily harm, escape, and possession of synthetic marijuana.
Also on Monday, Cotter-Browns bail was continued at $20,000, with bail monitoring conditions should he post it.
His attorney, William Ginsberg, who had sought $5,000 bail with monitoring conditions, waived the time limits for a preliminary hearing for Cotter-Brown, who will next appear in court for a status conference on May 23.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct the status of the injured girls. They were released from the hospital on April 24 and April 26. It also corrects one of the charges against Cotter-Brown.
A bicyclist on Madison's Southwest Commuter Path was stopped by two young men Monday, with one of the men showing a handgun to the woman before she pedaled away.
The incident happened at about 5:20 p.m. on the path in the 4800 block of Lovell Lane, Madison police said.
"One of the men asked her for the time, and then displayed a handgun," said police spokesman Joel DeSpain. "It was not pointed at her, and neither of the young men immediately indicated this was going to be a robbery."
The frightened 23-year-old Madison woman rode off, and when she found another bicyclist, they called 911.
"Responding officers told the victim there have not been other recent incidents similar to this in the area," DeSpain said.
Police searched the area but the two suspects were not found.
No description of the suspects was given.
A Fitchburg man already facing state and federal charges for the alleged sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old girl was charged Tuesday with sexual exploitation of another girl, this one 16 years old.
John L. Gilbert, 46, was also charged Tuesday with repeated sexual assault of the 15-year-old girl, for more incidents of sexual assault than were originally charged. The new charges involving each girl were detailed in separate criminal complaints filed Tuesday in Dane County Circuit Court.
Gilbert was initially arrested in March after the 15-year-old girl told police that Gilbert and another man, later identified as Brian V. Holmes, 37, of Madison, sexually assaulted her in a motel room.
That investigation led to the arrests and sexual assault charges of two other men.
A fifth man, apparently not associated with the other four, was charged in both state and federal court with sexual assault and sexual exploitation of the girl.
According to a criminal complaint involving the 16-year-old girl:
Police analyzing evidence related to the initial case against Gilbert looked through photos stored on equipment seized from Gilberts house. Many appeared to have the appearance of a semi-professional photo shoot. One of the girls in the photos appeared to be young, possibly under age.
A photo cropped to show only the girls face was circulated among officers who deal frequently with juveniles, and an officer recognized the girl. The girl admitted that it was her in Gilberts photo.
The photos, in which the girl was nude, appeared to have been taken in the master bedroom of Gilberts home, on his bed. A man who appeared to be Gilbert could be seen in a mirror in some of the shots.
Data from the images indicated that the photos were taken on Nov. 9.
According to the new complaint involving the 15-year-old girl:
The girl said she met Gilbert through social media, and the first time she saw him in person was when he came to pick her up from school. They went to another mans home, where the girl said she tried to leave but was kept from going. She said she was forced to perform sex acts on both men, while Gilbert took photos on his phone.
The second time they met, Gilbert also picked her up from school, but this time blindfolded her and took her to another home, where she again performed sex acts on Gilbert and another man, who she never saw. Gilbert took photos, she said, using umbrella lights that he had set up.
Gilbert also picked her up from school on their third occasion together, where he took her to a home and again she was made to perform sex acts on Gilbert and another man, while Gilbert took photos.
A 22-year-old Monroe County woman was killed early Tuesday when her pickup truck crashed and overturned on Interstate 90 near Onalaska.
The crash happened at about 1 a.m. in the westbound lanes median in La Crosse County, the State Patrol said.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Her identity has been withheld pending notification of family.
The State Patrol said she was driving west at milepost 7 when the pickup truck drifted off the highway on a curve.
The driver over corrected the truck, which went to the left into the median and rolled several times, ejecting the driver, who was not wearing a seat belt.
"The impact of the truck rolling caused the cab to become detached from the chassis," the State Patrol said.
The victim was the lone occupant of the truck.
A 34-year-old Madison man who went to jail on Sunday was taken to the hospital on Monday after an apparent drug overdose.
The incident happened at about 7:15 a.m. Monday in the Dane County Jail located in the Public Safety Building, the Sheriff's Office said.
James Grider was in his bunk when another inmate told a deputy that something appeared to be wrong.
"The deputy found Grider was struggling to breathe and was turning blue," said spokeswoman Elise Schaffer.
Other deputies and jail medical staff responded, with a nurse giving the antidote Narcan to Grider.
Grider was taken to St. Mary's Hospital where he was treated and released.
"He was booked into jail on Sunday on a probation violation," Schaffer said. An investigation into the apparent overdose is ongoing.
A Madison woman was charged Tuesday with selling heroin that police said was used a short time later by a man who died from a fatal overdose last week.
But Renee P. Oashgar, 60, was not charged with reckless homicide, despite a representation in court last week that she might be. Because of that, Dane County Court Commissioner Jason Hanson on Tuesday lowered her bail from $25,000 that was set on Friday to $5,000.
Oashgar was charged with delivery of heroin and with possession with intent to deliver narcotics. The charges are related to heroin that was sold to a man, and then given to James D. Doris, who was found unconscious in the bathroom of CVS Pharmacy, 2 S. Bedford St., by a store employee on May 4. Doris died on Friday at Meriter Hospital.
According to a criminal complaint:
On store surveillance video, police saw two people entering the bathroom with Doris, then leaving without him. Officers found the two people a short time later, and one of them said he had called Oashgar to buy heroin from her. She brought it to him on Bedford Street, then drove away, he told police.
The man said he and another person went into the bathroom at CVS with Doris, and when Doris injected the heroin into his arm, he immediately passed out.
With police officers present, the man called Oashgars number to order more heroin and made plans to meet to buy it at James Madison Park. A short time later, police stopped Oashgar in her car near the park. She told police she had four bindles of heroin in her pockets and a fifth in the car.
Oashgar told police that she had been dealing about two grams of heroin a day for the past six years, but wouldnt describe herself as a dealer. She admitted she sold heroin to the man on the afternoon of May 4 on Bedford Street, and was taking more heroin to him.
UW-Milwaukee became the fourth University of Wisconsin System campus to see professors declare they have no confidence in UWs leaders Tuesday, in a vote that prompted Gov. Scott Walker to weigh in with sharp criticism of the faculty.
The Milwaukee professors joined colleagues at UW campuses in Madison, La Crosse and River Falls by stating they dont have faith in UW System President Ray Cross or the Systems Board of Regents to uphold the universitys outreach mission in light of budget cuts and changes to tenure and shared governance.
UW-Eau Claire faculty and academic staff also discussed a no-confidence resolution Tuesday afternoon but did not hold a vote on it, according to a university spokeswoman.
Just before the UW-Milwaukee professors meeting Tuesday, Walkers office issued a scathing statement deriding the no-confidence votes and faculty tenure.
Some faculty bodies ... appear more interested in protecting outdated job for life tenure than about helping students get the best education possible, Walker said. The university should not be about protecting the interests of the faculty, but about delivering value and excellence to Wisconsin.
The governors rebuke of faculty illustrates an important limit to their symbolic resolutions: While Cross may be unpopular enough among many professors to prompt no-confidence votes, he still has the backing of the Board of Regents that controls his job, and both he and the Regents have support among Republican lawmakers.
Those legislators stripped tenure protections from state law in the 2015-17 budget, and new policies approved by the Board of Regents earlier this year give chancellors the power to close academic programs and lay off their professors a change that incensed faculty members.
Professors have also criticized Cross and the Regents for not lobbying more aggressively against a $250 million cut to the UW Systems funding in that same budget.
Faculty members have insisted they arent arguing that tenure should be a job for life. Instead, they say, it is a principle that protects professors academic freedom, and gives them the ability to do the kind of risky or potentially unpopular work that can benefit peoples lives.
Chad Goldberg, a professor of sociology who wrote the no-confidence resolution that UW-Madison faculty passed this month, said Monday that there are limited situations in which it would be appropriate to lay off tenured faculty members.
For example, if professors, through shared governance decision-making, decide to close a program and the university cant find a suitable other role for the affected faculty, Goldberg said, they could be fired.
Walker followed his statement with a series of tweets in which he chided faculty for speaking out after recent changes to tenure, but not taking as strong an action in response to student tuition increases or previous UW funding cuts.
The head of the University of Wisconsin System praised the decision to remove faculty tenure protections from state law in an email this spring that now threatens to further widen divisions between professors and top administrators.
UW System President Ray Cross made the comment in a March 7 message to Regent John Behling, who led a process to write new tenure policies that was criticized by professors, days before the Board of Regents approved the rules at a contentious meeting.
The new policy allows chancellors to discontinue programs for academic reasons and fire tenured professors a change that represents weaker job protections for faculty, who warn the rules could be used to lay off professors as cash-strapped UW campuses absorb state funding cuts.
In Cross email, which UW officials released Monday, the System president said tenure should not protect faculty who are no longer needed in a discipline.
Tenure is designed to protect freedom of speech and the right to pursue truth no matter how unpopular and then to publish that information without worrying about being dismissed for doing so, Cross said. It is not a guarantor of a job for life.
This program discontinuance debate has exposed the real value of removing tenure-related policies from statutory language.
The email was first reported Monday by The Capital Times.
It comes as many faculty members have expressed a deepening mistrust of the UW Systems leaders, particularly Cross.
Professors say Cross should have lobbied more aggressively last summer against a $250 million cut to higher education funding and the changes to tenure and shared governance policies in the 2015-17 state budget. Tensions worsened this spring with the approval of the new tenure policies, and in recent weeks faculty at five UW campuses have pushed to pass resolutions declaring they have no confidence in Cross and the Regents.
Three faculty groups at UWs Madison, La Crosse and River Falls campuses have approved the votes; professors in Milwaukee and Eau Claire will vote on their resolutions Tuesday.
News of the email could spur more campuses to take up no-confidence votes against Cross, said Chad Goldberg, a UW-Madison sociology professor who wrote the flagship campus resolution.
Goldberg said Cross email serves to confirm the very grave concerns and suspicions that faculty have already had, particularly that Cross supported the move to strip tenure from state law.
It also shows, according to Goldberg, that Cross is involved in what many faculty members view as a push led by Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the state Legislature to reorganize the UW System around short-term needs for job training, and shift public colleges and universities away from their broader traditional mission of research that improves the lives of state residents.
Removing tenure from state statute was the first step toward weakening tenure, Goldberg said. Weakening tenure is a means the end is to change the historical mission of the University of Wisconsin.
He also took issue with the way Cross described facultys opposition to the changes, saying professors were never calling for tenure to be a job for life.
He either doesnt understand our concerns or hes willfully misrepresenting our concerns, Goldberg said.
Cross declined an interview request on Monday. He instead released a statement in which he said removing tenure from state law gave UW officials a chance to fix differences, inconsistencies and gaps in policies for discontinuing programs.
State Rep. David Murphy, R-Greenville, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities, said he saw nothing wrong with what Cross wrote in the March email.
Murphy said professors still enjoy academic freedom and freedom of speech as evidenced by the no confidence votes they have cast this week and defended universities ability to lay them off.
If programs at the university go away, then if we are going to have a university that is strong and nimble going into the future, some of those positions are going to have to go away too, Murphy said.
Of professors affected by such a decision, Murphy said, These are people that shouldnt have any problem finding a job.
State regulators cant consider the cumulative effect that hundreds of high-capacity wells exert on lakes, streams and groundwater when deciding whether to approve new wells, under a formal opinion issued Tuesday by Attorney General Brad Schimel.
Issued at the request of Republican lawmakers who complained about delays in state permits for wells that pump 100,000 gallons per day typically large farms and food processors Schimels opinion says a series of court rulings over the years had gradually expanded state authority to protect public waters.
But, Schimel said, a 2011 state law rolled back that power by prohibiting state agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources from setting or enforcing any environmental standard that isnt explicitly spelled out in statutes.
Conservationists reacted swiftly, calling the opinion a partisan document that ignored constitutional protections for state waters and threatened far-reaching implications for lakes and streams that high-capacity wells have depleted.
But Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by billionaire conservative brothers Charles and David Koch, thanked Schimel, a Republican, for what it called a major victory for voters over bureaucrats.
Attorney General Schimels opinion makes it crystal clear that bureaucrats dont get to make law, said AFP Wisconsin director Eric Bott. That is the job of the Legislature as duly elected by the people.
A public interest law firm that has challenged the DNR on grounds it hasnt protected water quality said Schimels opinion may put many state environmental protections at risk by severely limiting DNR authority.
If the attorney generals legal opinion is followed by courts, it will represent a sea change in environmental law, said Sarah Geers, an attorney for Midwest Environmental Advocates, which has petitioned the federal government to force the state to enforce clean water laws.
A formal opinion of the attorney general does not create a binding legal precedent, but it can have a strong effect. It can be persuasive to courts and is presumed to be correct as long as the Legislature doesnt pass a law contradicting it.
Public trust doctrine
Republicans and business groups have said uncertainty about high-capacity well regulation was created by misinterpretation of a unanimous 2011 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in a case called Lake Beulah Management District vs. DNR.
Lakefront owners said the DNR shouldnt have issued a well permit without examining how it might harm the lake.
The court confirmed that the DNR was required to consider the impact of high-capacity wells under the public trust doctrine, the legal term for state governments constitutional duty to protect state waters for the benefit of the public.
Act 21 was enacted not long before the court ruled, but it wasnt taken into account in the case, which was about a permit issued years earlier.
But the law, which says state agencies have no powers beyond those explicitly spelled out in statutes or administrative rules, did roll back DNR authority to regulate wells going forward, Schimel said.
Carl Sinderbrand, an attorney who represented the DNR in the Supreme Court case, said Schimels opinion is badly flawed, because it doesnt discuss who would be responsible for enforcing the public doctrine if the Legislature was no longer delegating it to the DNR.
Some part of state government must be responsible to carry out that constitutional duty, he said.
If Schimel is correct that Act 21 removes DNR authority to protect public waters without reassigning it, then Act 21 is unconstitutional, Sinderbrand said.
The Attorney General is so results-oriented and so partisan that the opinion doesnt even consider those things, let alone answer them, said Sinderbrand, a former assistant attorney general who now represents developers and other property owners in environmental cases. It really sort of undermines the integrity of the office.
Asked for comment, Schimel spokesman Johnny Koremenos referred to case law naming the Legislature primary administrator of the public trust.
Under the opinion, the DNR could no longer require well monitoring, which means decisions would be made without basic scientific information, said an attorney for property owners in a part of the state where lakes have been diminished.
More streams, lakes, and wells will go dry at a time when these resources are already stressed, to the detriment of other property owners, recreational water users, and the environment, said Christa Westerberg, who represents the Friends of the Central Sands.
Citizens are already sick and tired of having to go to court and do the job the DNR should be doing to protect the states resources, Westerberg said. This opinion makes that worse, and sides instead with an anti-regulatory political philosophy and the interests of a few large water users.
Wells a battleground
High-capacity wells have become a battleground in Wisconsin because of their ability to dry up public waters and the desire of farmers, food processors and others to drill more of them.
Republicans who took over state government in the 2010 elections have made significant changes to natural resources protections, but they havent mustered support for a statute to speed up well permitting.
In 2013, state Senate Republicans introduced a bill to address some industry complaints about well permitting, but it failed to pass.
The bill was introduced at a time when small streams and lakes in central Wisconsin, including the Little Plover River and Long Lake, had been drying up.
In February, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said there was a serious backlog of high-capacity well permit applications at the DNR because of confusion over the law.
He asked a legislative committee to request a formal opinion from Schimel. The committee voted 5-3 along party lines to do so.
Conservationists and Democrats said the move was a way of cutting the public out by eliminating the public debate that would come with passage of a law on well permitting.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson had what he described as a very cordial meeting Tuesday with President Barack Obamas nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland.
But Johnson, R-Oshkosh, acknowledged it didnt alter his view that Senate Republicans shouldnt consider Garlands nomination to the nations high court.
My advice to President Obama and the rest of my Senate colleagues has not changed, Johnson said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
Johnson repeatedly has supported the position of his GOP Senate leaders: that the Senate should not hold confirmation hearings or votes on Obamas nominee for the Supreme Court. Instead, the next president should be allowed to make the choice after he or she takes office in January, Johnson and other Republican senators have argued.
Instead of a lame duck president and Senate nominating and confirming, a new president and Senate elected by the people only a few months from now should make that important decision, Johnson said in the statement.
Garland is Obamas pick to fill the vacancy left by the recent death of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia but that choice is subject to a confirmation vote by the Senate.
Democrats have argued the Republican-led Senate, at minimum, is obliged to initiate the process by holding hearings and an up-or-down vote on Garland.
The White House requested Tuesdays meeting. Garland, a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has met with a slew of other Republican senators in recent weeks.
U.S. Supreme Court nominations are always politically charged. But the Garland nomination is especially contentious because, if approved, it would tip the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court from a conservative to a liberal majority. Scalia was among the courts most outspoken conservatives.
Democratic campaign groups have targeted Johnson and other GOP senators seeking re-election this year, describing their position on Garland as obstructionist.
Johnson is running for a second term against former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, whom Johnson defeated in 2010.
Gov. Scott Walker announced Tuesday he will lead a trade mission to Mexico next month.
It will be Walkers first trade mission this year after participating in three trade missions last year to the United Kingdom, Europe and Canada while he was preparing to run for president. He previously led a trade mission to China in 2013.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and representatives from Wisconsin businesses, UW-River Falls and UW-Madison are also participating in parts of the June 12-17 trade mission, according to a statement from Walkers office.
Starting in Mexico City, state officials will meet with Mexican companies, including those already operating in Wisconsin, looking to expand in the United States. Walker also plans to participate in the 2016 CIGAL Dairy Trade Show in Guadalajara located in Jalisco, a Wisconsin sister state since 1990, and to meet Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval.
Wisconsin companies shipped nearly $3 billion in goods to Mexico last year, an increase of 4.6 percent, making it the states second largest exporting partner, according to Walkers office. About 10 percent of those exports were agricultural products.
VERONA The city of Verona will forge ahead with plans to close a special tax district that includes most of Epic Systems Corp.s sprawling headquarters ahead of schedule.
The City Council voted unanimously Monday night to close tax increment financing (TIF) District No. 7 at the end of the year. The district was originally slated to close in 2025, but an analysis completed last month by city financial consultant Ehlers Inc. recommended early closure because the companys growth has generated enough tax increment to pay off city debt ahead of schedule.
A full picture of Epics tax effect wont be available until after the district is audited at years end, but the closure is expected to provide an estimated $21.2 million in one-time cash to the districts taxing entities and return more than $393 million in equalized value to the tax rolls.
Council members and Verona Mayor Jon Hochkammer lauded the chance to end the district ahead of schedule and the possibilities the cash injections provides to the city and other taxing entities.
Hochkammer said the money will be available around March 2017 and should be used to help the city in the long term, a sentiment several council members shared.
Well continue to move forward and do the responsible thing. It certainly opens up a lot of doors for us, Hochkammer said.
The district was created in 2002 to facilitate Epics move from Madison to Verona.
Under tax incremental financing, a base value for all of the properties in the district is established at the time the TIF district is created. Taxing entities continue to collect their share of the base value while the additional tax revenue generated by construction in the district, called increment, is collected in a fund to pay eligible expenses such as infrastructure improvements, environmental remediation or direct contributions to developers.
Since construction on the campus began in 2003, the electronic medical records giant has completed 17 office buildings and the 11,400-seat Deep Space auditorium.
But Verona, which spent $31.4 million on infrastructure improvements and development incentives in the TIF district through the end of last year, has yet to see the full tax benefit of Epics campus because only a handful of the companys newest buildings are located outside the district.
Eleven office buildings and part of the Deep Space auditorium are inside the TIF district, where tax revenue generated by new construction is siphoned into a fund to pay for those expenses. Meanwhile the equalized value of property in the district has skyrocketed from $320,400 when it was created to $393.14 million in 2015.
The Ehlers analysis projects the districts fund will contain $21.2 million in surplus cash by the end of 2016. That includes an estimated $11.23 million for the Verona School District, $6.15 million for the city, $2.95 million for Dane County and $868,664 for Madison Area Technical College that would be paid in one-time lump sums.
This is just really good news for our area, not only for the city of Verona, but for the entire region, for the technical college, for the school district, for Dane County, Hochkammer said.
Reporter Jeff Glaze can be reached at 608-252-6138 or jglaze@madison.com. Reporter Logan Wroge can be reached at 608-252-6136 or lwroge@madison.com.
The new generation Trailblazer is based on the Premier Study concept previewed by the company at the Beijing Motor Show in March 2016.
The Trailblazer comes to the line in 2017 with visual, mechanical and technological advances that make it the most complete and sophisticated model of Chevrolet for sale in the country.
By India Today Web Desk: Chevrolet has officially revealed the production version of the new-generation Trailblazer ahead of its launch this year. Showcased at the Bangkok Motor Show in March 2016, Trailblazer will launch in Brazil next month. The new generation Trailblazer is based on the Premier Study concept previewed by the company before.
The Trailblazer comes to the line in 2017 with visual, mechanical and technological advances that make it the most complete and sophisticated model of Chevrolet for sale in the country. The Trailblazer facelift is expected to be launched in India sometime in 2017.
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ALSO READ: Comparison: Chevrolet Trailblazer vs Ford Endeavour
Colors:
The New Trailblazer still has two options unreleased colors for the body, the Red Edible Berries and Ouro Negro. Both metal, they join the existing Switchblade Silver, White Summit, Red Chili and gray Graphite.
Design:
The 2017 version of the Chevrolet SUV will adopt a new visual identity in line with the global brand DNA. Changes show the robustness and sophistication of the product.
ALSO READ: General Motors India rolls out first Beat for Argentina
The new focus on the front of the vehicle. The hood gained sportiness with the cavity carved on the back. The grid was extended to the headlights, which were also completely redesigned and bring daytime driving lights in LED (DRL), giving a unique light signature to the model.
The fender brings aerodynamic appendages at the ends framing the auxiliary lights, and a kind of steel chest in the centre, just below the plate frame, reinforce the muscular style of the car. On the side, there are the rim aluminum wheels 18 redesigned with exclusive finish.
In the cabin, the materials are more refined and pleasant to the touch (soft touch), while the instrument panels and doors have been completely refurbished to bring better ergonomics.
ALSO READ: Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 convertible debuts at New York Auto Show
Engine:
In addition to a 2.8 turbo-diesel option with 200 horsepower and 51 lb.-ft. of torque, the new Trailblazer is offered with the new generation of propellant 3.6 V6, which incorporates, among other technologies, direct injection SIDI gasoline (Spark Ignition Direct Injection).
They are now 279 horses, which puts this engine in the same level of imported SUVs higher price and consolidates the model of Chevrolet as a vehicle of local production of passenger most powerful in history.
Features:
ALSO READ: Chevrolet Cruze prices slashed by up to Rs 86K
Among the new items of convenience are automatic illumination of headlights through twilight sensor; Rain sensor; electro chromic rear-view mirror; reverse camera with graphics to aid in maneuvering and rear drive alert; front parking sensor; starting system of the engine by remote control; side windows with opening and closing mechanism through the key; System premium audio quality. Items like lanterns and fog lights, digital air-conditioning with eight-speed, electric folding exterior mirrors, driver's seat with electric adjustments are also available.
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Other highlights are the electronic controls of traction (TC) and stability (EPS) and starting assistants ramps (HSA) and descent (HDC). While the starting assistant ramps does not allow the vehicle to pull back on steep outputs; lowering the assistant controls the speed on steep inclines without the need for driver intervention, providing greater control of the vehicle.
Dimensions:
There is also plenty of room for luggage. The Chevrolet utility compartment ranges from 205 litters to 1830 litters, depending on the configuration of the banks.
ALSO READ: GM India launches new Chevrolet Cruze at Rs 14.68 lakh
The model is 4.88 meters long, 1.90 meters wide and 2.85 meters wheelbase - higher than the main rivals.
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TVS Motor Company will be manufacturing the new BMW G310R from their Hosur plant in Tamil Nadu,
The upcoming TVS Akula 310, now called TVS Apache RTR 300, is also based on the BMW G310R.
By India Today Web Desk: According to reports, the much awaited BMW G310R will be coming to India by the end of this year. Showcased at the EICMA 2015, the BMW G310R is jointly developed by TVS and BMW Motorrad.
With its debut at the Auto Expo 2016, both TVS and BMW Motorrad will be banking heavily on the success of the G310R. Moreover, the upcoming TVS Akula 310, now called TVS Apache RTR 300, is also based on the BMW G310R.
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ALSO READ: TVS Akula 310 to be renamed as TVS Apache RTR 300
Moreover, TVS Motor Company will be manufacturing the new BMW G310R from their Hosur plant in Tamil Nadu, report suggest. The move follows keeping in mind the competitive pricing of the BMW G310R for the Indian market. However, there is no confirmation from the company as of yet.
Engine:
The India-bound BMW G310R will come with a displacement of 313cc with Water-cooled, single-cylinder, 4-stroke engine churning maximum power output of 34 hp @9,500 rpm and maximum torque of 28 Nm @7,500 rpm, mated to six-speed constant-mesh transmission, with a top speed of 144kmph.
ALSO SEE: BMW Motorrad unveil the new G 310 R
Dimensions:
The upcoming BMW G310R will be 1988 mm in length, 896 mm in width and 1,227 mm in height with a fuel capacity of 11L and reserve tank of 1L.
Design:
The BMW G 310 R carries the BMW S 1000 R genes. The sporty headlight fairing with powerful headlight, dynamic fuel tank trim and typical roadster proportions transform it into an eye-catcher on the street. The G 310 R is light and strong. The sporty seat emphasizes the roadster dynamic and gives the bike an unmistakable motorsport look. The gold anodized fork and brake calipers emphasize the workmanship of the machine.
ALSO READ: Did you know these 10 things about Shreya Iyer
Colors:
The upcoming BMW G310R will come with 3 color options- Strato Blue Metallic, Cosmic Black and Pearl White Metallic.
Competition:
The BMW G310R will compete against the likes of Benelli TNT300 and KTM Duke 390 in the Indian market.
ALSO READ: TVS Motor launches updated Victor; priced at Rs 49,490
Price:
The India-bound BMW G310R will most likely come within a price bracket of Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh (ex showroom, New Delhi).
Watch this space for more information on the India-bound BMW G310R.
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Hyundai India has decided to bring the iconic car after positive customer interest in the car since Santro was phased out two years back.
Hyundai India sold a total of almost 2 million units of the Santro in its entire lifetime. (In Pic: Hyundai Santro Xing)
By India Today Web Desk: Yes! You read it right. Hyundai India is mulling over bringing the car that helped them to establish ground in India. If reports are true, then Hyundai India will be re-launching the new generation Santro by 2018, with the development process of the car undergoing in South Korea.
ALSO READ: Maruti Suzuki Dzire vs Honda Amaze vs Hyundai Xcent
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According to ET Auto, Hyundai India has decided to bring the iconic car after positive customer interest in the car since Santro was phased out two years back.
Hyundai entered the Indian market with the Santro in 1997, with the production at the company's factory in Chennai. At the time of the launch, the Santro was competing against the Maruti Suzuki Zen. As a matter of fact, the Santro still runs in our neighbouring country, Pakistan, since 2000 and without any facelifts.
ALSO READ: Spec Comparison: Honda BR-V vs Hyundai Creta
In its first year, Hyundai sold around 13.5 lakh units of the Santro with around 5.5 lakh units in exports. Moreover, at the time of its phasing out, the company was selling as many as 2,500 units per month. Moreover, the company sold a total of almost 2 million units of the Santro in its entire lifetime.
Globally known as the Atos Prime, the Santro was later succeeded by the Grand i10 in 2014 with the name continuing with the Santro Xing, which still runs in the market.
ALSO READ: Hyundai sales up 5.7 per cent at 54,420 units in April
Although, more details are awaited at this moment about the new Hyundai Santro, but the news itself has struck almost everyone's imagination with the question over its engine specs, design and features list.
Watch this space for more information on the upcoming Hyundai Santro
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With the new plant in Gujarat on its way, Maruti Suzuki is hoping that it will help to reduce the waiting period for Vitara Brezza and Baleno.
The Gujarat plant, to open from January 2017, will start off with the Baleno first with the company plans on adding the new generation Swift to the line-up. (In Pic: Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza)
By India Today Web Desk: According to a report in ET Auto, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) will be increasing the production capacity at their plants to meet the growing demand of the Vitara Brezza and the Baleno so as the reduce the waiting period for both the cars.
We had earlier reported that Maruti Suzuki has decided to increase the production of the Vitara Brezza from 80,000 units to over a lakh units every month. Now, the reports suggest that the output is to increase to 1.2 lakh units for this year. The Vitara Brezza is available at a starting price of Rs 6.99 lakh (ex-Delhi).
Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza output is to increase to 1.2 lakh units for this year.
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ALSO READ: Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza waiting period extends to six months
Moreover, the company is also looking to increase the production of the Baleno hatchback with the production to increase to about 1.65 lakh units this year. The Baleno is available at a starting price of Rs 5.15 lakh (ex showroom, New Delhi).
With the new plant in Gujarat on its way, Maruti Suzuki is hoping that the new manufacturing plant will help the company to reduce the waiting period for both these cars, as they are hot-sellers at the market right now.
ALSO READ: Maruti Suzuki Baleno crosses one lakh bookings since launch
Moreover, the company has also commenced the export of the Baleno from last month and the increasing demand for the car is only adding to the vows. The Gujarat plant, to open from January 2017, will start off with the Baleno first with the company plans on adding the new generation Swift to the line-up.
Maruti Suzuki is looking at increasing the production of the Baleno to about 1.65 lakh units this year.
Maruti Suzuki exports the Baleno to markets in Europe and Asia with plans to move the car to Australia later this year. While the Vitara Brezza is also sold in Nepal with plans on exporting to Indonesia in the coming months.
ALSO READ: Spec Comparison: Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza vs Maruti Suzuki Baleno
With the Baleno and the Vitara Brezza, Maruti Suzuki has hit jackpot, but the customers are not too happy with the waiting period for both the cars which extends to 6-9 months. With this move, the company is hoping for a quick delivery of its promise.
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The students of FDDI have been long protesting after their degrees got affected when the MoU signed between FDDI and Mewar University (MU) of Rajasthan was declared invalid.
By India Today Web Desk: The students of FDDI (Footwear Design and Development Institute) have been long protesting after their degrees got affected when the MoU signed between FDDI and Mewar University (MU) of Rajasthan was declared invalid.
About 300 students were detained by the Delhi police for almost four hours as they were holding protests on the Rajpath stretch near India Gate without permission on Monday, May 9, afternoon. According to newspaper reports, they were then taken to the Parliament Street police station by the Tilak Marg police.
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Why are students protesting?
Plans to make the institute a deemed university have been going on and the students have been opposing the same. A proposal for this has also formulated by the Ministry of Commerce and forwarded to the Human Resource Development Ministry. Although arrests have been made, no charges were drawn against the students. Many students alleged that they were dragged by the police and got hurt because of that.
Students' account:
As per TOI reports, a student of footwear technology said, "We gathered at India Gate around 2 pm and were peacefully protesting. But, soon about 100 policemen reached the spot and forcefully took us to Parliament Street police station."
View of the police:
The police said that they had to take action as the students did not have any permission to protest at Rajpath and had blocked the stretch near India Gate. The students were released at around 7 pm in the evening.
Online admission process put on hold:
Amidst all the ongoing chaos, the ongoing online admission process for the current batch has also been put on hold by the FDDI authorities.
Few days back, the students claimed they heard through some sources that talks were on for granting them degrees from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), which they do not want. The protesters also attacked windows in the building and windshields of vehicles.
Afterwards, FDDI students also tweeted regarding the same, tagging the PMO, the Prime Minister's official handle, and Union human resources development minister Smriti Irani.
More than 3,600 students of the institute in FDDI campuses have been affected because of the row over the degree and diploma.
Read: NEET verdict out: Government to organise coaching classes for students
Read: 9 Students flaunt their Sanskrit news reading skills on AIR
For information on more latest news and updates, click here.
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Indian origin Murali Pillai has won an election in Singapore to become a member of their parliament.
By India Today Web Desk:
Indian origin Murali Pillai has won an election in Singapore to become a member of their parliament.
Here are a few facts about the Indian origin man, who filed as a nominee just two months before the elections and won with a substantial margin:
Murali Pillai stood from the People's Action Party (PAP). He joined the PAP in 2001 and since then has been involved in the political arena
He won with an absolute majority claiming 61.21 percent of the total votes. His chief opposition, Chee Soon Juan from Singapore Democratic Party got 38.79 percent of the votes
Despite PAP being the ruling party in Singapore, Murali Pillai was the first candidate in the past 30 years to win a seat via elections
He only had two months to campaign for his seat. The nomination was left vacant after PAP MP David Ong resigned in March 2016
Murali Pillai was a police officer for the Singapore Police Force prior to enrolling for a lawyers degree. He also headed a commercial litigation firm called Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP
He also holds a Master's degree in Law from National University of Singapore and a double Master's degree in Business Administration from NUS and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
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To get more updates on Current Affairs, send in your query by mail to education.intoday@gmail.com.
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The result of Kerala HSE (Higher Secondary Education) Class 12, 2016, will be declared today on the official website at 3 pm by the department of higher education of Kerala.
By India Today Web Desk: The result of Kerala HSE (Higher Secondary Education) Class 12, 2016 was expected to be declared today on the official website at 3 pm by the department of higher education of Kerala. But so far, it has not been declared. The HSC exam was held from March 9, 2016 to March 29, 2016. The exam began with the Malayalam paper.
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All those candidates who have appeared for the same, may check it from websites, keralaresults.nic.in or results.kerala.nic.in .
Number of students appeared:
According to newspaper reports, a total of 4,60,743 students had appeared for the examination out of which 2,14,012 were boys and 2,18,748 were girls.The number of students have increased by around 30,000 as compared to the 2015 exams.
Use the below mentioned link to avail the results:
http://results.keralaeducation.net/DHSE-Class- 12.htm
Result through sms
For getting the results on SMS, students need to send the following SMS to 56263:
KERALA12 REGISTRATION NUMBER -Send it to 56263
Result through e-mail
Students can register on www.ExamResults.net to receive their results on E-Mail.
Steps to check the results:
Log on to the official website
Click on the tab, 'Results'
Thereafter, the candidates are required to click on to, 'HSE Examination Results - 2016'
Enter the required details and click on submit
Your result will be displayed on the screen
Download the same and take a print out for future reference
The exam was conducted at 2,100 centres across the state. Last year, the result was declared on May 21 by Kerala Educational Minister PK Abdu Rabb in Thiruvananthapuram, and the overall pass percentage of the result recorded was 83.96 percent.
About the board:
Kerala is the first state to achieve a 100 percent literacy rate. The schools and colleges are now largely run by the government, private trusts, or individuals. Each school is associated with either the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), or the Kerala State Education Board.
With inputs from Nishatha Abraham Bijeesh, Editor - Web Content & Social Media, QuinStreet India Marketing Media Private Ltd
Read: Andhra BSEAP SSC 2016 results declared! Check your scores at bseap.org
Read: WB class 10 examinations: Results declared
For information on more upcoming exams and results, click here.
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The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) announced the written examination results of class 10 today. Souvik Barman topped this year's Madhyamik examination with 683 marks, followed by Titas Dubey with 682 marks and Suvrajit Mondal with 681 marks.
By India Today Web Desk: The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) announced the written examination results of class 10 today. Souvik Barman, student of Cooch Bihar Mathabhanga High School topped this year's Madhyamik examination with 683 marks, followed by Titas Dubey with 682 marks and Suvrajit Mondal with 681 marks.
This year, three students hold the second position-- Debdadatta Pal, Titas Dubey and Rumik Dutta with 682 marks, and two students hold the third position-- Suvrajit Mondal and Anik Ghosh with 681 marks.
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According to the board official, 10,47,652 students appeared in the Madhyamik examination this year, out of which 8,66,920 students cleared the Madhyamik examination calculating a pass percentage of 82.74, higher than the previous year's which was 82.66 percent.
The board had successfully conducted the Madhyamik exam 2016 for both regular as well as external candidates between February 1 to February 10, 2016.
All the candidates who had appeared in the examination will be able to access their results on the official website of the board from 10 am onwards.
Steps for checking the results:
Log on to the official website, the link for which is http://Results.WestBengalEducation.net/WBBSE/
Click on the link 'West Bengal Madhyamik Results 2016'
Enter the required details in the space provided and submit
The result will appear on the screen
Take a print out for future reference.
Apart from accessing the results online on the official website of the board, the students can also get the results on SMS, by sending the following SMS on 56263 WB10 Roll Number (example WB10 1234567).
About the board:
The Board of Secondary Education was established in 1951 under the West Bengal Secondary Education Act of 1950. The board is authorised to conduct the school final examination and it helps in developing the secondary education of the state.
Read: Andhra BSEAP SSC 2016: Results to be declared on May 10.
Read: UPSC Engineering Services Examination 2016: Admit cards released.
For information on more upcoming exams and results, click here.
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Since coming to power in 2014, PM Modi has been visiting different military facilities to celebrate Diwali. On Monday, he reached Kargil to mark the occasion. He enjoyed the festival while dancing and singing along with the troops. He also addressed the jawans and said, "For me, all of you have been my family for years now... it's a privilege to celebrate Diwali amid all of you."
Germany, which is playing a supporting role in the fight against Islamic State, has not suffered a major attack by Islamist militants on the scale of those that have hit neighbouring France and Belgium.
By Reuters: A man knifed passengers at a train station in the Munich area early on Tuesday, killing one man and injuring three, media reported, and police said they were investigating whether there was an Islamist motive to the attack.
A spokeswoman said police were checking witness statements that the man shouted "Allahu Akbar" ('God is Greatest' in Arabic) during the attack, adding that the perpetrator had been arrested.
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Germany's ARD broadcaster reported that one man had died from his injuries. Police could not confirm this.
The attack took place in the S-Bahn commuter train station at Grafing, a town about 32 km (20 miles) southeast of the Bavarian capital in southern Germany.
Germany, which is playing a supporting role in the fight against Islamic State, has not suffered a major attack by Islamist militants on the scale of those that have hit neighbouring France and Belgium.
However, German security services are on alert and ministers have repeatedly warned of a possible attack.
Over 800 home-grown radicals have left Germany to join jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq and about 260 have returned.
Germany has also been a transit country for militants who carried out attacks in Belgium this year and Paris last year. There are concerns that some of the 1 million migrants who arrived in the country last year have slipped off officials' radar.
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According to sources, the spate of deaths began in February but administrators swung into action only after the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), a regulatory body for zoos under the government of India, asked for a report.
A central government body indicates that despite 16 deaths, zoo officials maintained a lax attitude and failed to take action. Photo: K Asif
By Shashank Shekhar: The deaths of 16 spotted deer at the Delhi zoo over the past three months have flummoxed authorities, prompting calls from activists for a sweeping review of animal care procedures.
Officials suspect the chital died of rabies triggered by mongoose bites but have found little evidence so far.
According to sources, the spate of deaths began in February but administrators swung into action only after the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), a regulatory body for zoos under the government of India, asked for a report.
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The CZA called the deaths an "epidemic" but zoo representatives say the situation is under control and preventive measures have been taken.
"We have been monitoring the situation as there has been some mortality. Rabies has been detected as the cause of death," the zoo's director, Amitabh Agnihotri, told Mail Today. "We are vaccinating the animals and all preventive actions have been taken. Death due to rabies is common phenomena among mammals."
The incidents have prompted concerns that something is wrong at the showcase zoo that houses over a thousand animals, reptiles and birds. It was in the news two years ago when a young man was mauled to death by a white tiger after he jumped into the large cat's enclosure.
Zoo's failure
"As per law, it is the zoo's responsibility to protect animals, but it has failed to do so. The loss of 16 deer is irreparable," said animal rights activist Naresh Kadyan.
The zoo has around 120 spotted deer. Following the deaths, 20 have been vaccinated and separated from the herd.
Officials say the outbreak surfaced on February 14 after drain water swamped the deer enclosure. When two of the animals died, officials assumed they drank contaminated water. But soon other deer started falling ill, with at least one of them frothing at the mouth.
"Samples were sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Izatnagar, Bareilly," said a zoo official.
Dr AK Sharma, principal scientist at the IVRI, confirmed to Mail Today that 13 of the 16 specimens tested positive for rabies.
"Even sambar deer were earlier detected with the virus," he said.
Zoo authorities have started vaccinating other animals, though the CZA indicates they failed to act promptly.
Hushing up
"No official communication was sent to the CZA as zoo officials tried to hush up the matter. But as the situation was alarming, the CZA instructed the Delhi zoo to take immediate action and submit a report. Loss of 16 deer in such a short span of time indicates negligence in handling epidemic," said a senior official associated with the matter.
The zoo is part of conservation breeding programmes of the Central Zoo Authority for the Royal Bengal Tiger, Indian rhinoceros, swamp deer, Asiatic lion, brow- antlered deer and red jungle fowl.
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According to a senior official, mongoose bites could be the reason behind the deaths.
"We have found some outlets and holes from where they could have entered the spotted deer enclosure. We have filled those gaps to check the entry of mongoose and a team has been formed to capture them," said the official, adding that no traces of any dogs were found inside the park.
However, authorities are unsure why only the spotted deer were infected as their enclosure is very close to those of other deer.
"We are ensuring no more casualties take place and animals are being vaccinated and kept in separate areas so that the complete herd is treated. So far, close to 20 deer have been vaccinated and the entire process will take a few months," said a member of the zoo's veterinary department.
Vaccination
Along with animals, zookeepers are also being vaccinated. "Although the disease is noncommunicable, there is a chance of an infected animal's saliva coming into contact with human blood," said an official, adding that all workers are wearing gloves and boots before entering the enclosure.
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Former Pakistan Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani has exposed Pakistan's role in the deadly terror attacks. Haqqani in his soon to be published book - India vs Pakistan: Why can't we just be friends? - has mentioned about the ISI's role in the 26/11 attacks.
By India Today Web Desk: US intelligence agencies had evidence about Pakistan spy agency ISI's involvement in the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 166 people were killed and over 300 injured, a Washington Post report revealed recently.
While Pakistan has always denied playing a role in the attacks, The Washington Post said that by 2009, US intelligence agencies had gathered enough proof about ISI's complicity in the devastating terror strikes.
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And now, former Pakistan Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani has exposed Pakistan's role in the deadly terror attacks. Haqqani in his soon to be published book - India vs Pakistan: Why can't we just be friends? - has mentioned about the ISI's role in the 26/11 attacks.
In an exclusive interview with India Today's Karan Thapar on his show To The Point, Haqqani pointed out that banned terror groups are once again surfacing in Pakistan. Haqqani said that retired Pakistan Army officers were behind the Mumbai attacks.
Here's what Haqqani said: I never write anything that I am not 100 per cent sure of. I check and recheck before stating anything. On ex-ISI chief Shuja Pasha's remark "log hamare they, operation hamara nahi tha", Haqqani said, "He did not mean people serving in the ISI. What he meant was people that the ISI has trained in the past and nurtured. I think he was referring to Lashkar-e-Taiba as hamare log. At that point, the US only said that there were people linked to the attack. US gave names like Lakhvi (Zakiur Rehman Lakvi, Lashkar's operations commander) to be arrested, and he was arrested. What does cast aspersions over Pakistan's action is the conduct after some arrests were made. Lakhvi has been detained but he has never been successfully prosecuted. We can't sustain the position by just giving technical answers. MQM members are being arrested in Karachi in the name of action against terror but Hafiz Mohammad Saeed continues to operate and hold massive rallies in Lahore. Former US Secretary of State James Baker had threatened Pakistan in 1992 that the country will be declared state sponsor of terror. Then the government in Pakistan changed. With Benazir Bhutto taking over as the PM, the US changed stance assuming a change in governance. The problem with America is that they think in a very linear fashion. They never sustain pressure, they go on from offering carrots to sticks. Groups like Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad are totally unaffected by Pakistan Army's counter-terror operations. The Haqqani network... they are totally untouched. The United States has been very very confused over how to handle Pakistan. President Bush actually believed General Pervez Musharraf that Pakistan was acting against terror groups. Terrorism has to completely end before any other measures are taken between India and Pakistan. Pakistan needs a strong military but that military should also allow other institutions to work. Both India and Pakistan have to change their approach fundamentally regarding bilateral relations.
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By PTI: From K J M Varma
Beijing, May 9 (PTI) Chinas new two child policy framed to tackle the deepening demographic crisis has evoked poor response with nearly 60 per cent of the working mothers in the worlds most populous nation saying they do not want to have a second child.
According to the report, released ahead of Mothers Day yesterday by Chinese job recruitment site Zhaopin.com, nearly 60 per cent of working mothers in China dont want to have a second child.
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The report also found that of the 29.39 per cent of women who had not given birth, 20.48 per cent said they dont want a child, state-run China Daily quoted the report.
A total of 14,290 career women were questioned by the site on their work and life choices.
Asked why they did not want to have a child, more than 56 per cent of interviewees cited upbringing cost as a concern.
The second concern was the amount of time, energy and attention involved. Other concerns included career risks, the pain of childbirth and little faith in their marriages.
More than 70 per cent said they would not consider leaving their jobs to become mothers, while only 18.53 per cent said they would take this into account.
Wang Yixin, a senior consultant at Zhaopin, said most career women think it is impossible to live solely on their husbands pay checks.
"Other reasons involve their own ambitions. They fear that if they stop working, they will become isolated from a dynamic society and lose their career prospects," Wang said.
The ageing population will swell from 16.1 to 25.2 per cent which could seriously test Chinas social and economic development, said a new data provided by the Population and Development Studies Centre at the Renmin University of China.
In a bid to shore up the numbers of the younger population,China, the worlds most populous country with a total population of 1.35 billion, this year ended its three-decades old one child policy and replaced it with two child as the demographic crisis deepened with sharp rise in the population of old people.
"My mother has urged me to have a child before Im 30. However, raising a child in Beijing is a huge financial burden," said Peng Xi, 29, a marketing employee who has been married for two years and is still undecided whether to have a child. PTI KJV MRJ AKJ MRJ
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Heavy police deployment was made at the Delhi University as AAP leaders Ashutosh and Sanjay Singh arrived at the university office to check Modi's BA degree.
By India Today Web Desk: A group of Aam Aadmi Party leaders headed by Ashutosh reached Delhi University today to verify Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BA degree. During a press conference yesterday, BJP president Amit Shah had flashed PM Modi's BA and MA degrees after the AAP accused the PM of presenting forged certificates.
However, the AAP contingent failed to get an appointment from the vice chancellor. The university administration has asked AAP leaders to come tomorrow.
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"They are telling us he is busy. We want to meet the VC so that the truth comes out," AAP leader Ashish Khetan said.
Here are the latest updates:
Heavy police deployment was made at the Delhi University as AAP leaders Ashutosh and Sanjay Singh arrived at the university office to check Modi's BA degree. The Delhi University had yesterday clarified that the PM's records have been maintained in DU and he cleared his BA exams from the University in 1978. He was awarded the degree in 1979. DU also said that two different roll numbers were allotted to Modi in 1977 and 1978 and his name 'Narendra Kumar Damodar Das Mody', which was seen on a marksheet flashed by AAP leader Ashutosh on TV, was a spelling mistake. Yesterday, BJP president Amit Shah flashed PM Modi's BA and MA degrees at a press conference and demanded an apology from AAP for raking up a false issue, the AAP hit back, claiming that the degrees displayed by the BJP president were fake. "PM Narendra Modi's degrees shown by Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley are fake and forged," AAP leader Ashutosh had said as he asked how the two degrees have two different names. BJP MLA from Delhi's Babarpur constituency Naresh Gaur also claimed that Modi had stayed with him in 1974 when he came to Delhi to appear for his BA first year exams at Delhi University. "Modi ji stayed with me at the ABVP office at 33, Bungalow Road when he came to appear for his first year BA exams. He was an ordinary party worker back then," Gaur, a three-time legislator from Babarpur constituency in north-east Delhi, said. However, Ashutosh had junked Gaur's claims. "Modi claimed that during emergency he was underground. Then how he appeared for BA exam?" Ashutosh had tweeted.
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The police had received a tip-off on several occasions about a call girl racket being run out of the hotel. The police have not been successful for all these years despite checking every nook and corner of the hotel.
By Mail Today: It is as good as any movie plot. The police raid a 3-star hotel in Bengaluru on the suspicion of a call girl racket, but find no evidence. They raid the hotel six times over the last two years in vain! But this time, a police inspector examined the hotel's wall for hours and to his shock, he found a secret floor (mezzanine level), which turned out to be the hub of the call girl racket.
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Incidentally, the Shiva Palace Deluxe Lodge in NT Pete in central Bengaluru is located at a striking distance from the headquarters of the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB). The police had received a tip-off on several occasions about a call girl racket being run out of the hotel. The police have not been successful for all these years despite checking every nook and corner of the hotel.
This time, the CCB officials raided the hotel with additional scanning equipment.
But when they did not find out anything suspicious, the police started scanning the walls. After hours of checking the walls, the police found a a secret door that led to a staircase, connecting to a mezzanine floor located between the first floor and second floor.
From the outside of the building, the mezzanine floor remained concealed and none of the neighbours knew about its existence.
"We were shocked to see the mezzanine floor, which was well-lit with several cots arranged in a neat manner.
The mezzanine floor offers a good view of the main road. The floor even had an emergency exit door.
"The owner of the hotel would alert his customers on the mezzanine floor (using a calling bell) whenever we raided this place. The customers would escape using the secret exit door, which led them to the road behind the hotel.
"It was a well organised racket because the owner of the hotel also ran a retail store on the ground floor," the police pointed out.
The police rescued girls from Bihar and West Bengal, as they were forced into the racket by the hotel owner, who lured them with attractive pay packages.
"We have arrested Manjunath, Mahesh H L, Raghu G, Dharmendra Kumar, Ashraf and Chand for operating the call girl racket. We have booked them under multiple cases in connection with the racket," said DCP (CCB) S Girish.
Also Read
Mumbai call girl robs UP MP's son of Rs 1.50 lakh
Estranged NRI hubby paints wife as call girl on Internet
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CBI officials say they are looking at these issues with a new perspective after the Milan Court of Appeals order which concluded that bribes were allegedly paid to clinch the deal.
By Abhishek Bhalla : Failing to get a breakthrough in the money trail that will establish kickbacks, former Air Force Chief S P Tyagi was again grilled in the AgustaWestland case on Monday by the CBI on the alleged foreign payments in 2009. This was two years after he retired and also coincides with his visits to Italy. Even though the CBI had this information, the agency has not established a quid pro quo.
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CBI officials say they are looking at these issues with a new perspective after the Milan Court of Appeals order which concluded that bribes were allegedly paid to clinch the deal.
Sources said he was asked about the source of these funds as the agency confronted him with account statements and sought an explanation but CBI refused to reveal the amount.
The CBI has also in the past questioned him about his meetings with officials of Finmeccanica, parent firm of AgustaWestland.
The Italian court verdict names Tyagi in mentioning the meetings and interactions with alleged European middlemen and officials of Finmeccanica. Tyagi has denied allegations of any corruption in the helicopter deal.
The agency also questioned Praveen Bakshi on Monday, CEO of Aeromatrix Infosolutions Pvt Limited and Pratap Aggarwal, managing director of IDS Infotech, who are under scanner for allegedly helping with the routing of the bribe amount from AgustaWestland to various suspected Indian beneficiaries.
They claimed they were questioned about services provided by their companies to AgustaWestland.
CBI had registered a case against S P Tyagi along with 13 others including his cousins, Bakshi, Aggarwal and European middlemen--Guido Haschke, Carlo Gerosa and Chritian Michel. The allegation against S P Tyagi is that he reduced the flying ceiling of the helicopter from 6,000m to 4,500m (15,000ft) which put AgustaWestland helicopters in the race for the deal without which its choppers were not even qualified for submission of bids. Tyagi has denied allegations against him and said the change of specifications, which brought AgustaWestland into contention, was a collective decision in which senior officers of Indian Air Force, SPG and other departments were involved.
Meanwhile, a team of ED officials may soon travel to a few countries, including Singapore, and seek expediting the process of replies to its judicial requests issued in the case. Officials said while the agency, along with CBI, has already issued a number of letters rogatory to a various countries, investigators are eager to obtain quick information on funds and transactions made by individuals and entities involved in the `3,600-crore deal for supplying a dozen AgustaWestland Aw-101 choppers to India for VVIP flying.
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Also Read
AgustaWestland scam: After CBI, Enforcement Directorate grills SP Tyagi
VVIP chopper deal: CBI grills ex-IAF chief SP Tyagi for second day, ED summons cousin Sanjeev
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Bindi was reportedly involved in the kidnapping of two businessmen Jai Kumar Jain and Babli Jain, who were released for ransoms of Rs 10 lakh and Rs 17 lakh respectively in 2001.
In July last year, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) inducted dreaded gangster Bindeshwari Yadav aka Bindi Yadav, whose name figures in over two dozen cases of murder, kidnapping and dacoity.
Questions were raised then about the decision as JD(U) reportedly wanted to make Bihar free of crime.
Now, Bindi is back in the limelight, this time after his son shot dead teenager Aditya Sachdeva, allegedly for refusing to give way to his Land Cruiser.
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A jab of Jungle Raj
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's claims that he won't allow "jungle raj" to return in Bihar seem to have taken a hit.
PHOTOS: Bihar road rage accused Rocky Yadav and his guns
Bindi Yadav's wife Manorama Devi is also a JD(U) member and fought council polls as a proxy for husband Bindi. She has represented the seat from 2003-2009 as well.
All about Bindi Yadav
Known for their notoriety in the Gaya-Jahanabad-Arwal are, Bindi in the 1990s, alongwith another gangster Bachchu Yadav, spread a reign of terror in the region. This led to largescale migration of businessmen from the Magadh region and plummeting of real estate prices. During that period the government had to invoke Crime Control Act to rein in Bindi and Bachchu Yadav. Later, Bindi and Bachchu parted ways. Bindi was reportedly involved in the case of kidnapping of two businessmen Jai Kumar Jain and Babli Jain, who were released for ransoms of Rs 10 lakh and Rs 17 lakh respectively in 2001. In 2011, Bindi Yadav was arrested after police recovered a huge cache of explosives, rifles and ammunition from his vehicle. This recovery was allegedly meant to be supplied to Maoists in 2010 elections to target security forces. He was slapped with sedition charge. Yadav is said to have been inducted in a bid to provide more muscle to the party ahead of the crucial assembly elections. He has unsuccessfully contested Assembly elections in 2005 and 2010, once as an Independent and once on RJD ticket. He is said to live in a house allegedly 'captured' during the 15-year rule of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi in 1990s." Bindi Yadav had also claimed that Rocky had fired from his pistol "by mistake".
Also read: Bihar lawmaker's son Rocky Yadav arrested in Gaya: What we know so far
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The Centre requested the Supreme Court to allow conduction of NEET in Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Urdu.
By India Today Web Desk: The Centre today moved Supreme Court saying National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) should be conducted in seven vernacular languages, on which the apex court said 'will consider this'.
Here's all you need to know:
The Solicitor General requested the Supreme Court to allow conduction of NEET in Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Urdu. Earlier on Monday, the apex court had ruled that all admissions in MBBS/BDS courses in government and private medical colleges or in deemed universities will be done this year only on the basis of NEET. The Supreme Court has also allowed students who appeared in Phase 1 to appear in Phase 2, subject to seeking an option from the said candidates to give up their candidature for NEET-I. The apex court in its order on Monday had noted that the stand of the private medical colleges (including minorities) that conducting of entrance test by the state violated right of autonomy of the said colleges, has been rejected.
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Exclude Jammu and Kashmir from NEET, says Farooq Abdullah
After legal hurdles, NEET takes off amidst tight security across 52 cities
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The executive order to carry on with the execution was passed after the Jamaat-e-Islami chief refused to beg the president to have mercy on him.
By Sahidul Hasan Khokon, Manogya Loiwal : Fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was today executed at Dhaka Central Jail for committing war crimes during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told India Today. With this, Nizami became the fifth war criminal to be put to death.
The executive order to carry on with the execution was passed after the Jamaat-e-Islami chief refused to beg the president to have mercy on him.
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To avoid any untoward incident, police cordoned off the area outside the prison gate at Old Dhaka's Nazimuddin Road. Security was tightened around the prison premises since Tuesday afternoon with additional police and RAB along with plainclothesmen roaming the area.
TV footages showed that police formed a 20-yard perimeter around the main gate of the prison pushing back the crowds of reporters and camera crews and asked enthusiastic onlookers to keep a safe distance.
Witnesses said three cars carrying over 20 close relatives including his wife, two sons, their wives and a daughter reached the heavily guarded jail at 7.50 pm and came out at 8.40 pm.
Nizami was given capital punishment by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in October 2014 after being convicted of "superior responsibility" as the chief of the infamous Al-Badr militia forces in 1971.
He was particularly found guilty of systematic killings of over 450 people in his own village. His final appeal against his death sentence was rejected by the apex court on May 5.
"Motiur Rahman Nizami not only co-operated with the Pakistani invading force in committing various crimes against humanity but also masterminded the formation of Al-Badr Bahini and was a leader of this Al-Badr Bahini," read his appeal verdict.
He was entitled to beg pardon from the president by admitting his guilt, but the home minister at 8:10pm on Tuesday said, "Nizami did not seek mercy. The executive order to carry out the death sentence has been sent to the prison authorities."
Abdul Quader Molla and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman were the first two executed Jamaat leaders. Former BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and top Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid were the third and fourth high-profile political leaders to be executed.
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Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize early in his presidency in 2009 in part for his commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, Obama on May 27 will visit the site of the world's first nuclear bomb attack with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
By Reuters: Barack Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima in Japan later this month, but he will not apologize for the United States' dropping of an atomic bomb on the city in World War 2, the White House said on Tuesday.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize early in his presidency in 2009 in part for his commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, Obama on May 27 will visit the site of the world's first nuclear bomb attack with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
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With the end of his last term in office approaching in January 2017, Obama will "highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," the White House said in a statement.
"He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future," US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes wrote in a separate blog.
The visit comes as part of a May 20-28 swing through Asia, which will include a Group of Seven summit in Japan and a visit to Vietnam. It will be the 10th trip to the region for Obama, who has tried to make a foreign policy "pivot" toward Asia.
On the final day of the summit in Japan, Obama and Abe will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park near the spot where a US warplane dropped an atomic bomb 71 years ago at the end of World War Two. There have been concerns that a US presidential visit would be controversial in the United States if it were seen as an apology.
The bomb dropped on Aug. 6, 1945 killed thousands of people instantly and about 140,000 by the end of that year. Another was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, and Japan surrendered six days later.
The majority of Americans view the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as justified to end the war and save U.S lives, while most Japanese see it as unjustified.
Abe, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, said he hoped "to turn this into an opportunity for the US and Japan to together pay tribute to the memories of the victims" of the nuclear bombing.
"President Obama visiting Hiroshima and expressing toward the world the reality of the impact of nuclear radiation will contribute greatly to establishing a world without nuclear arms," Abe added.
After US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Hiroshima last month, survivors of the bombing and other residents said that if Obama visits, they hope for progress in ridding the world of nuclear weapons, rather than an apology.
Kerry toured the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Museum, calling the museum's haunting displays "gut-wrenching." The displays include photographs of badly burned victims, the tattered and stained clothes they wore and statues depicting them with flesh melting from their limbs.
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US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy also recently traveled to the city, according to Rhodes, adding that it was "the appropriate moment" Obama to visit.
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The satirical Instagram account featuring Barbie clicking 'slumfies' with poor people in Africa, hilariously mocks self-absorbed volunteers who go to underdeveloped countries for namesake charity work.
By India Today Web Desk: After Hijarbie here's another unconventional avatar of the beloved plastic figurine and is called Barbie Saviour.
In the satirical Instagram account called Barbie Saviour, she travels to Africa to help the poor, while still looking prim and proper in her fancy clothes and accessories.
The account pokes fun at western volunteers, who click superficial selfies or rather 'slumfies' in the garb of helping poor people.
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The cliched tag line in Barbie Savior Instagram account says it all, "Adventures. Africa. Two worlds. One love. Babies. Beauty. Not qualified. Called. 20 years young. It's not about me...but it kind of is"
Barbie poses in front of a chalkboard in a shabby classroom in Africa with a the caption that reads,"It's so sad that they don't have enough trained teachers here. I'm not trained either, but I'm from the West."
In recent years, voluntourism has turned into a fad among the Westerners. Many pack their bags to underdeveloped countries to engage in aid work for a month or two.
However, at the end of it, all they are back with is an Instagram account filled with selfies with the malnourished babies and poor people. Savior Barbie underscores the fact that most of the voluntourism or 'naive volunteerism' is at best an outwardly display of charitable actions with little or no consequence.
In the words of US based Nigerian author Teju Cole this impulse is described as the White Savior Industrial Complex, which is a belief that "a nobody from America or Europe can go to Africa and become a godlike saviour, or at the very least, have his or her emotional needs satisfied".
Barbie Saviour hilariously mocks such individuals who have degraded an aid worker's job from being selfless to just plain narcissism.
This account on Instagram has only posted 62 images , but it has already racked up more than 90,000 followers. Take a look at the pictures below:
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By PTI: From Sajjad Hussain
Islamabad, May 10 (PTI) Pakistans PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari today hit out at Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, accusing him of "damaging" the countrys foreign policy by giving his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi a "certificate of friendship" and over his handling of the Kashmir issue.
Addressing a rally in Bagh area of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) - where his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) party heads the government - ahead of election in the region on June 26, Bilawal also accused Sharif of going "soft" on India on the issue of the disputed region.
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"Mr prime minister (Nawaz) you attended Prime Minister Modis oath-taking ceremony and forgot about the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat... The premier damaged the foreign policy of Pakistan by giving Modi his certificate of friendship," he said.
He further said that Sharif is "jeopardising the issue of Kashmir by building his associations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
In his speech, Bilawal several times chanted "Modi ke yaar ko ek dhakka aur do, corruption ke sardar ko ek dhakka aur do" (Give another push to Modis friend Sharif, give another push to the mastermind of corruption, in the wake of the Panama Papers controversy).
Bilawal, who is the son of slain two-time premier Benazir Bhutto, also criticised the international community and the UN for failing to help the people of Kashmir.
"Sixty-seven years have passed but you (the UN) have also been unable to implement one resolution of plebiscite in Kashmir just like in south Sudan and East Timor," he said.
He asked people to reject Sharifs Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the next election, as it was the best way to rupture relations between Sharif and Modi.
He told his supporters that none of Pakistans previous leaders dared to stand with an Indian prime minister when India was involved in "worst atrocities in Occupied Kashmir".
He also criticised Sharif for remaining silent over the issue of arrested alleged Indian agent Kulbhushan Yadav.
"Even if a pigeon from Pakistan goes to India, it is considered as an agent. But if an Indian agent is arrested in Pakistan, our government is treating it like a pigeon," he said.
He also asked Sharif to step down over the issue of Panama Papers leaks.
"I demand the prime minister to step down in order to conduct a transparent inquiry into the Panama Papers revelations," he said. PTI SH SAI AKJ VSC SAI
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To overcome the challenge, BJP found a convenient ally in Vellapally Natesan, self styled champion of Ezhava community, who was interested only in power game.
Strategic voting pattern always defeated BJP in Kasargod and Manjeswaram in the past where party has a strong cadre base.
By Jeemon Jacob: In numerology, 2016 is a 9 year. It creates what it intensely visualises and then it vanishes. In politics too, 2016 is crucial for BJP in Kerala.
For the first time in its history, BJP could forge alliance with "over ambitious" political partners in Kerala and form NDA to take on both CPI-M led Left Democratic Front and Congress-led United Democratic Front to alter the course of poll battle in the state.
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In the time Modi bang, both RSS and BJP central leadership wanted to open double digit account in Kerala Assembly. They felt Kerala's untouchability towards Hindutva politics blocking lotus bloom in the state. But with 6.3 per cent cadre vote bank, electoral prospects of the BJP remained limited in Kerala's bipolar political spectrum.
To overcome the challenge, BJP found a convenient ally in Vellapally Natesan, self styled champion of Ezhava community, who was interested only in power game. Vellapally who had taken over Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, an organization for the welfare of Ezhavas founded by Sree Narayana Guru, a great social reformer in Kerala in 1903, found BJP a convenient ally for his political avtar.
He claimed the backing of 23 per cent Ezhava vote bank in the state and have been working long to consolidate his political base and enjoyed playing the role of political power broker for long. He preached Ezhava pride and justice for Ezhavas and initiated micro credit for poor women. And, finally floated a political outfit Bharat Dharma Jana Sena and crowned his son Thushar Vellapally as its President.
BJP calculated that BJDS may help the party to infiltrate into Ezhava base that help them to win at least in three Assembly constituencies where party comes second in 2011 poll. PC Thomas led Kerala Congress and Janathipathya Rashtriya Sabha led by CK Janu, fire brand tribal leader in Kerala constituted a micro segment and publicity for the BJP as both Thomas and Janu represent two extreme polls in politics.
BJP was in advantageous position in the beginning as Congress was doomed in corruption and scandals and CPI-M was dipped in factional feuds. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mantra of development and make over India campaign fancied youth and neutral voters in Kerala.
"When the election campaign started, there was a feeling in Kerala, BJP would open account in more than three Assembly constituencies. But when poll campaign enters final leg, the halo around the BJP is fading fast," KP Jayadeep, political commentator observed. According to him, the halo and hype around Lotus faded due to the aggressive Hindutva agenda projected by BJP and RSS during the poll campaign. "It helped minorities especially Muslims to cast vote strategically to defeat BJP," he argued.
BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan. (Photo: Prabhakar Tiwari) BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan. (Photo: Prabhakar Tiwari)
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Strategic voting pattern always defeated BJP in Kasargod and Manjeswaram in the past where party has a strong cadre base. In 2001, CK Padmanabhan of BJP lost to Cherkalam Abdulla of IUML for 13186 votes in Manjeswaram and PK Krishnadas of BJP too lost to C T Ahmedali of IUML in Kasargod for a margin 19000 votes. In these constituencies, CPIM came to the third position. In 2006, again in Manjeswaram CPIM's C.H. Kunhambu defeated BJP's Narayana Bhatt for 4800 votes. In Kasargod too IUML candidate CT Ahmedali trounced his BJP rival over 9000 votes. 2011, IUML candidates won Manjeswaram and Kasargod defeating BJP.
"CPI-M and IUML opt for strategic voting in Manjeswaram and Kasargod to ensure BJP's defeat. Both CPIM and IUML are contesting election not to win but to defeat BJP in these constituencies," explained Jayadeep.
While, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan expresses his confidence over opening account in Kerala, he has no clear strategy to avoid strategic voting by minorities and CPI-M cadres.
"This time such practices won't alter our chances," Kummanam told India Today. But many political analysts feel that BJP fell on its trap of Hindutva tagline in Kerala.
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BJP central leadership rated Kasargod, Manjeswaram, Nemom and Vattiyoorkavu as their prime constituencies where party has high rate of winning chances and set its eyes on 25 other constituencies where party can decide the winner. Congress-led UDF was banking on BJP strategy to block LDF from coming to power.
"BJP failed to understand inner dynamics of Kerala politics. When BJP joined hands with Vellapally, Nairs shunted the party. They constitute 13 per cent of population. Traditionally Nairs and upper castes were backing BJP in Kerala. In many constituencies, Nairs may not vote for BJDS candidates and Ezhavas may not vote for BJP candidates. In fact BJP poll agenda helped CPI-M to consolidate its Ezhava base as party focused on the vote drain from the community. When you play with hard line Hindutva tool in election, other communities will use their power to defeat such aggressive posters. My guess from the mood of the voter, BJP's dream may crash once again in Kerala," C. Gouridasan Nair, journalist based in Thiruvananthapuram told India Today.
BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan expresses his confidence over opening account in Kerala. (Photo: Prabhakar Tiwari)
According to him, Kerala is not yet to ripe for Hindutva brand and BJP has to adopt more subtle strategy to win neutral votes. "But with 2016 Assembly poll, BJP will emerge as a political force in the state," he said.
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Sensing the public mood, AK Antony commented that "BJP can only open bank accounts in Kerala". Hindu parliament in Kerala has announced that it would support Left Front candidates in 37 constituencies where BJDS is contesting in the state.
If BJP could not convince Hindu Parliament to vote for BJDS, how the party could make an entry in the Kerala Assembly. They may have to wait in the Visitor's gallery of the Assembly for the time being.
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By PTI: New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) With the voting day in Tamil Nadu less than a week away, EC-appointed black money surveillance teams have seized Rs 88 crore cash from the state, the maximum among the five election-bound states from where a whopping Rs 147 crore has been seized till now.
A total seizure of Rs 88.22 crore has been made in Tamil Nadu, as per latest Election Commission data, which is four times more than what has been seized in the second ranking state on the tally -- Kerala at Rs 22.54 crore.
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Puducherry, the Union Territory that goes to polls on May 16 along with Tamil Nadu and Kerala, has reported a small seizure of Rs 3.50 crore.
The cash seizures in West Bengal and Assam, where polls have ended, stand at Rs 20.75 crore and 12.33 crore respectively.
"The total progressive figure for cash seizures in the poll-bound states is Rs 147.34 crore. In some cases, the cash is being released after ascertaining the bonafide and legitimate purpose of the cash," a senior Income Tax department official said.
The official said the tax department along with enforcement teams of other agencies have deployed a strict vigil in Tamil Nadu to keep a check on usage of illegal inducements and cash and every week over a dozen special search operations are being carried out in this regard.
The 234-seat Assembly of the state will go to polls in a single phase on May 16.
A total of 702 flying squads and 712 surveillance teams are operating in the state for curbing the use of black money at the hustings, according to the latest data.
Keeping in view the abuse of money power in Tamil Nadu, the EC last month had also issued some special instructions to be followed by observers and members of the surveillance teams deployed in the state.
The Commission had sought a "stepped up vigil" across Tamil Nadu to detect and intercept all such instances of illegal cash and other inducements being used to lure voters and ensure that a level playing field is maintained.
The counting of votes in all the five states is slated for May 19.
The Model Code of Conduct came into force on March 4 after the Commission had announced the schedule for the Assembly polls from here. PTI NES PMS DV PMS
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By PTI: New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) The revised Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) with Mauritius will increase the cost of foreign investments in India and also adversely impact inflow of funds from Singapore, says tax experts.
"While the amended tax treaty does provide certainty to foreign investors especially considering that GAAR will be in force next year, it will significantly increase the cost of investment in India for foreign funds.
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"This also means that Singapore becomes a less attractive destination for investment into India because the capital gains tax exemption under the Singapore treaty will also be automatically removed," Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP Partner Rajesh H Gandhi said. However, experts said that the decision to grandfather investments up to March 31, 2017, and giving a years time to graduate to the taxation system will lend tax certainty to investments. The amendments to DTAC signed today in Mauritius gives rights to India to impose capital gains taxes on shares of Indian company sold after April 1, 2017. Under the amended treaty with Mauritius, for two years beginning April 1, 2017, capital gains tax will be imposed at 50 per cent of the prevailing domestic rate. Full rate will apply from April 1, 2019. The amendment, according to BMR Legal Managing Partner Mukesh Butani, will lend "certainty to investors on the applicability of treaty as investors have been nervous on the future of the Mauritius treaty". Nangia & Co Managing Partner Rakesh Nangia said with a major part of FDI coming through Mauritius, many may argue that this is an unfortunate step in terms of the timing and the situation where a significant amount of reallocation is happening in terms of global investors from India to many other markets. "But the way the treaty changes have been proposed to be implemented is very well-balanced," Nangia said. While short-term capital gains are taxed at 15 per cent in India, they are exempt in Mauritius. Capital gains arising out of long term investments of 12 months is exempt from taxes in India. PTI JD CS MKJ
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News agency PTI said Rawat appears to have got the majority in the Uttarakhand Assembly.
The BJP has claimed only 28 MLAs voted for them in the 61-member House. The Congress has claimed 33 votes.
"I will not comment on what happened inside. The cloud of uncertainty hovering over Uttarakhand will disappear tomorrow," an elated Rawat told reporters after the voting.
"I thank the Supreme Court, the democratic forces, the people of Uttarakhand and the gods. Uttarakhand will be victorious tomorrow," Rawat added.
"33 members who were on our side cast their votes. I want to thank the PDF, the BSP and the UKD," senior Congress leader Indira Hridayesh said.
BJP's Ganesh Joshi alleged that the Congress used muscle and money power to win the trust vote. "The Congress used money and muscle power. That is why we lost the game of numbers," Joshi said.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati had announced her party's support for the Congress in the 61-member Uttarakhand Assembly, where the BSP has two MLAs.
The floor test was conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court, which had suspended the President's Rule for two hours for the vote of confidence.
The hill state has been under President's Rule since March 27 when the Congress government was dismissed by the central government citing misgovernance.
By PTI: Srinagar, May 9 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir government today started functioning from the summer capital here after shifting from Jammu as part of the pre-independence bi-annual Darbar Move practice.
Raj Bhavan, Civil Secretariat and other offices were closed in Jammu on April 29 and reopened here today as per the darbar move, a century-old practice under which government functions six months each from the two capitals of the state.
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Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, upon her arrival at the Civil Secretariat, inspected the ceremonial parade and received the Guard-of-Honour by a contingent of J-K Police, a spokesperson said.
She also inaugurated a re-modelled hall of the Labour and Employment Department and a newly-constructed Corridor on the first floor of the Secretariat, he said.
She interacted with the employees before resuming her duties, the spokesman said.
The government would function in the summer capital till late October and then move to Jammu, the winter capital of the state, in the first week of November.
Authorities have made all necessary arrangements, including beefing up security, to ensure smooth functioning of the offices in the Kashmir Valley.
After reopening of offices, the Civil Secretariat will function from 9.30 AM to 5 PM and other departments located outside from 10 AM to 4 PM. PTI SSB AYP SK AYP
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The Congress vice-president apologised for cancelling the visits, saying that he had been running a high fever since Sunday and has been advised rest by doctors for the next two days.
By India Today Web Desk: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today cancelled his visit to Puducherry a day after he received a death threat from there. Rahul cited ill health as the reason for cancelling the trip that was also scheduled to include campaigning rallies in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The Congress vice-president apologised for cancelling the visits, saying that he had been running a high fever since Sunday and has been advised rest by doctors for the next two days.
"Unfortunately I have been down with high fever since Sunday and the Doctor has advised rest for the next two days," he tweeted.
Shall keep everyone updated about the rescheduled visits(3/3)&; Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) May 9, 2016
My apologies to the ppl of Puducherry, Tamil Nadu & Kerala for missing this opportunity of being with them on 10th &11th May as planned(2/3)&; Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) May 9, 2016
Unfortunately I have been down with high fever since Sunday and the Doctor has advised rest for the next two days(1/3)&; Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) May 9, 2016
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"Shall keep everyone updated about the rescheduled visits," he added.
Rahul Gandhi gets death threat
The opposition Congress today said their vice-president Rahul Gandhi has received threats of assassination and has demanded that the government must ensure the 45-year-old leader's security. The threat to the 45-year-old leader has reportedly been given in an unsigned letter written in Tamil and posted in Puducherry on May 4.
The Gandhi family to which Rahul belongs to has suffered a couple of assassinations in the past.
Rajnath Singh promises enhanced security for Rahul Gandhi after death threat
Earlier, Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured security enhancement for Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who is believed to have received an assassination threat in a letter written in Tamil.
"The Home Minister has assured prompt action and security enhancement for Rahul Gandhi. He has also assured us that the agencies of the Centre and states as well as the Special Protection Group (SPG) will be alerted to the threat that has been received," senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said after his meeting with Rajnath.
href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rajnath-singh-promises-enhanced-security-for-rahul-gandhi-after-death-threat/1/663773.html"amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Rajnath Singh promises enhanced security for Rahul Gandhi after death threatamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/aamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a target="_blank" href="http://cmsamz.indiatoday.in/itcms/"amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Rahul Gandhi gets death threat, top Congress leaders to meet Rajnath Singhamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/aamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/pamp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
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Rajnath Singh promises enhanced security for Rahul Gandhi after death threat
Rahul Gandhi gets death threat, top Congress leaders to meet Rajnath Singh
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By PTI: New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for subsidies has resulted in significant savings across welfare schemes, including Rs 27,000 crore in PDS, LPG distribution and MNREGS, a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was told.
The meeting was also informed that in 2015-16, an amount of over Rs 61,000 crore was distributed to over 30 crore beneficiaries using DBT, which included over Rs 25,000 crore in MGNREGS and over Rs 21,000 crore in PAHAL scheme for LPG distribution.
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During the two-hour meeting to review the progress of Aadhaar and DBT programmes, the Prime Minister emphasised the importance of creating a platform that is error-free, and would ensure that the targeted beneficiaries receive their benefits in time, a PMO statement said.
The Prime Minister was informed about the progress made in Aadhaar number generation and seeding of official databases with Aadhaar numbers to streamline the process of identification of beneficiaries, and to ensure proper targeting of benefits to the people, it said.
"DBT has resulted in significant savings across welfare schemes. It has also resulted in weeding out of duplicate beneficiaries," the meeting was told last night, according to the PMO.
For instance, over 1.6 crore bogus ration cards have been deleted, resulting in savings of about Rs 10,000 crore. Similarly, 3.5 crore duplicate beneficiaries were weeded out in the PAHAL scheme, resulting in savings of over Rs 14,000 crore in 2014-15 alone, it said.
In MGNREGS too, a saving of Rs. 3000 crore (roughly 10 per cent) has been estimated in 2015-16, the statement added.
Several states and Union Territories too have achieved significant savings through DBT, it said.
The Prime Minister asked all departments concerned to ensure that as the new mechanisms are put in place, they do not result in causing inconvenience to any beneficiary.
Modi directed the officials to test their systems carefully before implementing them on a large scale.
The Prime Minister was also informed of steps taken towards a unique identifier for NGOs. Over 71,000 NGOs are now registered with the NGO Darpan portal maintained by NITI Aayog. PTI AKK SC
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RPI leader Avinash Mahatekar said that the ministry is keen on handing over the land as early as possible without making complications over the compensation issue.
By Kiran Tare: The deadlock over compensation for handing over the 12 acre India United (INDU) Mill land belonging to National Textile Corporation (NTC) to Maharashtra government for building a memorial to Dr BR Ambedkar is likely to be over soon.
A Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Avinash Mahatekar, who called on Union textile minister Santosh Gangwar last week in Delhi, said that the ministry is keen on handing over the land as early as possible without making complications over the compensation issue.
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"Gangwar told me that his ministry was ready to accept whatever compensation the Maharashtra government offers," Mahatekar said. "The ministry has suggested four options to the state government. One of them will be finalised soon," he said. He, however, declined to reveal what were those four options saying he was not aware about them.
Earlier, the NTC had taken an objection to the state government's offer of a compensation of Rs 1,314 crore. The NTC had pegged market price of the land at Rs 3,600 crore. It had arrived at the price pointing to a five star hotel sanctioned near the land.
According to an official, the ministry is expecting Transferrable Development Rights (TDR) of 2.5 times of the land size, 1.21 lakh square metre. However, the Maharashtra government has offered a TDR of 1.33 times as per the prevailing norms.
The Maharashtra government has signed a MoU with the NTC for transfer the prime land close to Chaityabhoomi at Dadar Chowpaty. Prime Minster Narendra Modi had laid a foundation stone of the memorial in October last year.
The development has gained significance on the backdrop of the state government's decision to postpone the foundation laying of another ambitious project, a memorial to Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Arabian Sea. The government has postponed the function, scheduled on May 22, citing a reason of drought in the state.
The government had chosen Wankhede Stadium as the venue for the ground breaking ceremony in presence of Modi. "It would not be proper in the drought situation to hold grand celebrations in name of Shivaji Maharaj. We have postponed the function to September," said Vinayak Mete, chairman of Shiv Smarak Samiti.
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By India Today Web Desk: Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are both creating waves overseas. While Deepika has got the temperature soaring with XXX The Return Of Xander Cage, Priyanka has raised the bar by winning the villain's part in Baywatch. And even as we in India celebrate the Desi Girls' achievements abroad, the two are giving us new reasons to cheer for them with every passing day or so it seems.
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PHOTO: Deepika Padukone trains with real guns for XXX The Return Of Xander Cage
ALSO READ: After Huma Qureshi, Deepika Padukone auditions for The Mummy reboot
PHOTOS: Hottest Bond babes over the years
If the latest reports from that part of the world are to be believed, Deepika and Priyanka are both supposedly being considered for the role of the next Bond girl. The last in the James Bond franchise, Spectre, hit the screens in 2015.
While the brains behind Bond are still trying to zero in on an apt replacement for Daniel Craig, seems like Deepika and Priyanka are both trying hard to land the dream role of the next Bond girl.
A source informed Deccan Chronicle, "Deepika is finishing the final leg of XXX - she had given them bulk dates for the film. And over the past 18 months, Priyanka Chopra has been shooting for Quantico, and only recently she started work on Baywatch too. Both the actors have very strong teams there who are deftly managing their work and have been pitching them to various Hollywood studios. And they have also made it clear to their respective agents that they are not interested in doing two-bit roles."
A few days ago, there were reports that Deepika had auditioned for a role in a reboot of Tom Cruise's The Mummy and had apparently been rejected by the makers. Huma Qureshi too had auditioned for the same role, reports pointed out.
The last 007 film, Spectre, had gifted viewers three Bond girls - Monica Bellucci, Lea Seydoux and Naomi Harris. Whether or not Priyanka and Deepika can make it to that envious league is yet to be seen. The two actors were last seen together on the silver screen in the Hindi film Bajirao Mastani.
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Narayan Bahadur lives in Delhi's Kalkaji area and worked with Christian Michel for several years, driving him in and out of some of the city's plush hotels during his visits.
A local driver hired by Christian Michel, the suspected British defense middleman wanted in connection with the AgustaWestland scandal, remained in touch with him as early as last week, India Today's Special Investigation Team (SIT) has found.
"We spoke just four-five days ago," Michel's Indian driver Narayan Bahadur told the SIT team.
EXCLUSIVE: AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel speaks to India Today
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Bahadur lives in Delhi's Kalkaji area and worked with Michel for several years, driving him in and out of some of the city's plush hotels during his visits.
For the alleged defence broker, India had virtually been a second home since 2007. He also had arranged an apartment at Safdarjung Enclave in Delhi. But the man then fled India in 2012.
Bahadur recalled the day his foreign employer left the country abruptly.
"It was the winter of 2011-12... He arrived in the morning and said he would stay here for two to three days. He came in the morning but left the same night," the driver recounted.
But Michel looked quite fine when he had landed at Delhi that day, Bahadur said. Suddenly, Michel changed his plans and decided to fly out.
This made Bahadur a little suspicious. "It's possible," the driver said when asked whether Michel had possibly got some tip about an imminent probe.
And two days later, Bahadur saw news reports about the alleged helicopter scam.
According to Bahadur, it was also possible some people might have tried to save Michel from the law of the land. More so, when a Delhi farm house purportedly owned by the British national was sold off in 2013-14. The property was intriguingly not seized by investigating agencies before its sale.
Michel was a frequent visitor to select Delhi hotels, Bahadur told the SIT. "Imperial hotel was the main one... sometimes he'd go to (The) Claridges. Sometimes, he would visit almost all five-star hotels," the driver said.
Michel would get his clothes stitched from a tailor at The Claridges, according to Bahadur.
Asked whether he knew what was Michel's job, Bahadur said he had seen photos and catalogues of helicopters on the man's meeting tables at least four or five times. He would hold those meetings at his Safdarjung Enclave flat, the driver added. Foreigners too were involved in many of those secret interactions, Bahadur said.
Many of Michel's visitors were also Italians, according to his driver. Most of them would stay at Hyatt and some of them at Imperial hotel.
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Bahadur disclosed that much of Michel's work was handled by a female foreigner, who he would meet at South Delhi's luxury DLF Emporio Mall.
In their quizzing, Enforcement-Directorate officials showed Bahadur a picture of that woman, who he said he identified.
He wouldn't know her by name though when asked whether she was Christine Spliid, a suspected key player in the VVIP chopper deal.
"I had seen that woman at the main porch of (the DLF Emporio mall) once. So I recollected her after seeing her photo (which the ED showed)," Bahadur said.
Also, Michel's driver said the Briton carried many mobile phones. While in India, Michel specifically used a Dubai number, Bahadur revealed.
"I did have a number... it was a Dubai number on which we remained in touch," he said. Bahadur wouldn't remember it though.
He had saved it in his handset, which he said was now with the ED.
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Khalid and Bhattacharya, along with JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, were charged with sedition and arrested in March for the Afzal Guru event. The three were arrested in February in a sedition case over the event and are out on bail now.
By India Today Web Desk: The Delhi High Court today issued a notice to the Jawaharlal Nehru University over pleas filed by its students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, challenging their rustication over a controversial event held in the memory of Afzal Guru on the campus earlier this year.
Denying interim relief to the two JNU students, the court refused to stay their rustication order. Justice Manmohan said he will "not stay the order" and asked the JNU to file its response along with all relevant documents, including the inquiry report.
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"I have to ask for records. I have to see whether fair procedure was followed. I have to look into the facts. The matter requires consideration and decision can't be taken overnight," said the judge, posting the matter for May 30.
Khalid and Bhattacharya had approached the court against the rustication order and Rs 20,000 fine imposed against Khalid. The university took the action on April 25 after a probe panel set up by the varsity administration found them guilty of "misconduct" and "indiscipline".
Khalid and Bhattacharya, along with JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, were charged with sedition and arrested in February. They are out on bail now. While Kanhaiya has been slapped with a penalty of Rs 10,000, Umar, Anirban and a Kashmiri student, Mujeeb Gatoo, have been rusticated for varying durations.
Khalid and Kumar recently broke their indefinite hunger strike against their punishment by the JNU administration after their health deteriorated. Umar was rushed to the AIIMS in wee hours on Monday when his sugar and sodium-potassium levels fell significantly.
A number of students, including student leader Rama Naga, are still continuing with the protest. The JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA), university alumni and mothers residing on the campus have also come out in solidarity with the fasting students by going on a one-day relay hunger strike on different days.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the JNU formed a four-member committee to look into demands of the students on the hunger strike despite calling it an "unlawful activity" and barring outsiders from entering the campus.
"The Vice-Chancellor has decided to form a team consisting of Rector-1, Rector-II, Dean of Students and Registrar to discuss issues related to students and teachers who have been on hunger strike," the university said in a statement.
"Solutions can be found only through peaceful dialogue and discussion and not through measures that can also have long term impact on health and adversely affect the academic life on campus. The administration yet again appeals the students to end their strike and come forward to hold discussion of their demands," it added.
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Also Read:
JNU rusticates Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya; Kanhaiya Kumar fined Rs 10,000
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By PTI: From Shirish B Pradhan
Kathmandu, May 10 (PTI) Nepali Congress chief and opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba today denounced Nepals government led by Prime Minister KP Oli for "vitiating" the "environment of consensus" by recalling its envoy to India.
Participating in a discussion on the governments policy document in the Parliament, Deuba hit out at the government for "vitiating the environment of consensus" after it recalled the ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyaya, who is also a senior Nepali Congress (NC) leader.
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The Oli government has sacked Upadhyaya for allegedly conspiring to topple the coalition government and for visiting western Nepal with Indian ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae.
Nepalese officials have accused Upadhyaya working "against national interest".
Upadhyaya continues to stay put in his post in New Delhi, and has reportedly denied he colluded with India to topple the Oli dispensation back home.
The former prime minister Deuba said the biggest challenge Nepal faces today was the implementation of the budget.
"It would be ambitious to say that one would do so without forging consensus, which was unbelievable," Deuba said adding that a "temporary" government bringing highly ambitious programmes was a mockery of the parliamentary system.
Deuba also denounced the government move to hold local body elections "in the present situation."
"How appropriate is it for the government to say that it would hold the local body elections when the government has itself constituted a commission for delineating the border and number of local bodies and when the commission has not yet submitted its report," Deuba wondered.
Conducting local body polls would not be possible without forging consensus among parties, he stressed. PTI SBP ABH AKJ ABH
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Come 2017 and fans will get to see Salman Khan and Ranveer Singh together on the silver screen. Buzz has it that Salman and Ranveer will play antagonist and protagonist respectively in Dhoom Reloaded.
By India Today Web Desk: The makers of Dhoom franchise have finally decided to show some mercy on fans. If reports are to be believed, the audience won't get to see Abhishek Bachchan or Uday Chopra in Dhoom Reloaded anymore. Buzz has it that the new film in the franchise is said to be "for the young", and what better choice than Ranveer Singh to play the protagonist.
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ALSO READ: Salman Khan and Vaani Kapoor to star together in Dhoom Reloaded?
And this isn't all. They are planning to rope in Salman Khan to play the baddie in Dhoom Reloaded. According to a report in DNA, talks are on with Salman and Ranveer to play the antagonist and protagonist, respectively, in Dhoom Reloaded.
A source was quoted as telling the daily, "Aditya Chopra wants Dhoom Reloaded to be a film for the youth. Who better to play the dashing hero than Ranveer Singh, YRF's current blue-eyed boy? Talks are on for Salman Khan to play the negative role so if both get finalised, it will be Salman and Ranveer for India's most successful franchise."
It things go as planned, Ranveer, who is currently shooting for Aditya Chopra's directorial venture Befikre in Paris, will be seen in another strong role in YRF's most-talked-about franchise.
In fact, Salman and Ranveer fans will have a reason to rejoice as they will get to see their favourite stars lock horns on the silver screen for the first time. After Aamir Khan played a baddie in Dhoom 3 and Shah Rukh Khan displayed some shades of grey in his last release Fan, it seems Salman is also keen to play a negative role on 70mm.
The source further informed that Dhoom Reloaded will go on floors in early 2017 and is expected to be shot across exotic foreign locales. At the same time, the source added that the makers haven't zeroed in on any female actor. "Vijay Krishna Acharya is expected to direct the fourth Dhoom sequel too (he had directed Dhoom:3). A teaser poster was released in December last year. Amitabh Bachchan is also said to be part of Dhoom Reloaded, but the female lead hasn't been decided as yet," he added.
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By PTI: Mumbai, May 10 (PTI) Maharashtra government today decided to revive the process of direct elections for municipal council presidentship with a view to make the civic bodys administration more effective and efficient.
The decision was taken at the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis here, an official said.
The state government had implemented this process during 2002-06 before discarding it and reverting to the election process which existed before 2002 where the municipal council president was elected by the councillors.
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Speaking to reporters here, Maharashtra Minister for Finance and Planning Sudhir Mungantiwar said the decision pertains to municipal councils, direct elections to presidents of municipal councils and multi-member civic wards.
"As per the decision henceforth voters will directly elect council presidents and that every ward shall have two councillors each," he said.
Ram Patkar, who was the first directly elected president of Kulgaon-Badlapur municipal council in 2002, welcomed the decision.
He said the council presidents should be given administrative and financial powers to implement welfare and infrastructure projects and the local councillor and the president works at the grassroots level and has understanding of the need of civic infrastructure in an area be it construction of roads, reservation on plots.
Patkar added that the system of directly elected president in municipal councils will enable popular candidates getting elected as presidents.
Sources said the decision was necessitated keeping in mind the ensuing elections to 195 municipal councils in the state that are due in November-December this year.
There are 223 municipal councils in Maharashtra, which are categorised as A, B and C depending upon the population. (MORE) PTI VT MM NRB KIS RDS
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By PTI: Hyderabad, May 10 (PTI) A court today convicted eight members of the notorious snake gang in connection with disrobing of a young woman in July 2014 and a range of other criminal offences, including dacoity.
Prime accused Faisal Dayani, a gym instructor, and six of the gangs members, who would threaten their victims with snakes, were convicted under IPC Section 452 (house-trespass), 395 (dacoity), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 354B (assault or use of criminal force to any woman with the intention of disrobing).
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The eight accused was convicted only under IPC Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property).
The ninth accused, booked only under IPC Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property), was acquitted, the prosecution said.
The quantum of punishment would be pronounced tomorrow by the Ranga Reddy district court, Public Prosecutor Ponnam Devaraju Goud said.
The seven convicts, who were also booked for gangrape, were acquitted of the charge, Goud said.
In August 2014, Pahadishareef Police arrested members of the gang, including Dayani, after the 18-year-old girl alleged she was sexually assaulted by them at a farmhouse in Shaheen Nagar here on July 31, 2014.
The gang members had entered the farmhouse to commit a robbery. They forced the victim to strip by threatening to set a snake on her and then allegedly raped her in front of her fiance, police had earlier said.
However, the charge of gangrape was not proved against the accused as the victim did not state this allegation before the court during the trial, Goud said.
"The sections under which the accused have been convicted attracts minimum of 10 years of imprisonment and maximum life imprisonment. We have sought maximum punishment," Devaraju added.
The gang members used snakes to scare women and sexually assault them. Some of them were also involved in land grabbing, acting as arbitrator between disputing parties, and other offences, police had said. PTI VVK RSY ZMN
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Bahadur, who lives in Delhi's Kalkaji area, worked with Michel for several years, driving him in and out of some of the city's plush hotels during his visits.
A local driver hired by Christian Michel, the suspected British defense middleman wanted in connection with the AgustaWestland scandal, remained in touch with him as early as last week, India Today's Special Investigation Team (SIT) has revealed.
"We spoke just 4-5 days ago," Michel's Indian driver Narayan Bahadur told the SIT team.
Bahadur, who lives in Delhi's Kalkaji area, worked with Michel for several years, driving him in and out of some of the city's plush hotels during his visits. India had virtually been a second home since 2007 for the alleged defence broker.
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Bahadur had also arranged an apartment at Safdarjung Enclave in Delhi. But Michel fled India in 2012.
Talking to India Today, Bahadur recalled the day his foreign employer left the country abruptly. Here are the key highlights of the conversation:
Last visit of Christian Michel in India (New Delhi) was in 2012 starting. He had come to stay for 3-4 days. However, he immediately packed his bags and left within 24 hours. Two days later I saw media reports of CBI raids in Agusta Chopper case. I now think he was tipped-off. Michel's Indian associate `Nanda Saheb' (R K Nanda) sold off a farmhouse at Ansal villa only a year back...more than two years after the CBI and ED registered a case to probe the chopper deal. According to Bahadur, Michel had purchased two properties in India...one was a flat at Safdarjung Enclave and the other a farmhouse at Ansal villa. The Safdarjung flat could not be sold off as ED had seized it. I saw several meetings at the Safdarjung flat in which foreigners and Indians would sit for long hours, have discussions in which helicopters' pictures and brochures were placed. One Raju, a journalist, used to come and meet Michel at the Safdarjung flat. He had also come for dinner. I had identified Christine Spliid from pictures that I was shown by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during last week's meeting. I saw her meeting with Michel at DLF Emporia mall. Michel used to frequently visit India, at least 3-4 times in a month. He used to stay at Imperial and Hyatt mostly. He also conducted meetings there regularly. In several meetings, lot of Italian people were also present. I had first met him in 2007 and remained in touch till now. I had last spoken to him only last week. I had requested him to send money as I needed it for my expenditures. He used to send me money through Western Union. Michel used two mobile phones. One was a Dubai number and the other an Indian number. He had also twice visited 2, Rajaji Marg, New Delhi twice. Nanda (R K Nanda) was Michel's main contact in India. He used to arrange Michel's air-tickets, booked hotels and also handle finances to purchase properties.
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By India Today Web Desk: Preity Zinta and Gene Goodenough, who tied the knot in February this year, are soon to throw a lavish reception for B-Town. While earlier it was reported that Preity would give the reception a miss, der ayad durust ayad (better late than never), as they say. Preity will soon be hosting a big fat reception for her B-Town friends on May 13.
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ALSO READ: All you wanted to know about Preity Zinta and Gene Goodenough's hush-hush wedding
PHOTOS: Preity Zinta spotted with husband Gene Goodenough in Mumbai
While many people would think twice about choosing Friday The 13th for an auspicious occasion, the Ishkq In Paris actor is hardly bothered by any of the superstitions.
A report in Mumbai Mirror has quoted Preity's friend and trainer Yasmin Karachiwala as saying that Preity will be flying down to Mumbai today or tomorrow to prep up for her big day.
Yasmin told the tabloid, "She started working out as soon as she returned to Mumbai. Like any bride, she wants to look her best at the reception. She loves pilates and has been working on toning her arms and legs. There is never a dull moment with her in the gym."
Once Preity is done with her Kings XI Punjab commitments, thanks to the IPL season, she will be seen on the sets of her upcoming film with Sunny Deol, Bhaiyyaji Superhit.
Director Neeraj Pathak informed Mirror, "Preity is enjoying a well-deserved vacation with her husband and in-laws. We are hoping to resume shoot in about 10-15 days."
Preity and Gene's extremely private wedding took place on February 28 this year, in Los Angeles. The guest list included Preity's close friends Sussanne Khan and Surily Goel.
Over the last few weeks, Preity has shared glimpses of her married life with her fans. From flaunting her chooda to posing for selfies on Holi with husband Gene, Mrs Goodenough has done it all. And now, her B-Town gang will finally get to formally be introduced to Mr Goodenough.
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Police spokeswoman Michaela Grob said a man was arrested and authorities are working to identify him. The incident happened in Grafing, east of Munich,
By AP: German police say several people have been stabbed at a station near Munich. They say four or five people were wounded, one of them seriously.
Police spokeswoman Michaela Grob said a man was arrested and authorities are working to identify him. The incident happened in Grafing, east of Munich, shortly before 5 am (0300 GMT)on Tuesday.
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By PTI: Kolkata, May 10 (PTI) West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi today congratulated the successful candidates in the Madhyamik examination.
The Governor described Madhyamik examination as a "very important step" in the career of a student.
In a message, Tripathi said,"I congratulate those who have succesfully cleared Madhyamik Examination, 2016, as also their teachers and guardians."
Around 11.4 lakh examinees appeared for this years Madhyamik examinations, out of which 54.59 per cent were females, which was around 9.18 per cent more than males. The overall success rate in the exams was 82.78 per cent.
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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a twitter message also congratulated the successful candidates wishing them a great future ahead. PTI SCH MD
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By PTI: New Delhi, May 9 (PTI) Delhi government has ordered a magisterial enquiry into the unnatural death of a Class IX girl student of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Wazirpur.
According to officials of its Education department, the girl complained of stomach ache on May 5, a day after she was given Iron Folic acid tablet.
School authorities had sent her home thinking "it was menstrual pain", the official said. The Delhi Police has initiated an inquest proceeding into the matter under Section 174 of CrPC.
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"Parents took her to a local doctor who administered glucose. But after swelling was reported, she was shifted to Hindu Rao hospital where she died yesterday. The government has ordered an enquiry by SDM Saraswati Vihar into the death," said the official.
A senior police official said no complaint has been received so far in connection with the incident but police, treating it as a case of unnatural death, have initiated inquest proceeding under Section 174 of CrPC.
The postmortem report of the deceased is awaited, police said. PTI SBR DEY GVS SK GVS
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By PTI: Hyderabad, May 10 (PTI) Half a million people die of cancer annually in the country due to lack of proper mechanism to identify the disease and necessary medical facilities to treat the terminal illness, V K Subburaj, Secretary Department of Pharmaceuticals, said today.
Delivering a lecture at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology here, Subburaj said there are only 20,000 beds available for treatment of "psychiatric problems" against the requirement of 10 million.
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"Every year one million cancer cases are identified. Half of them die even before the disease is identified or diagnosed. We should focus (on) developing science and technology that would help reduce cost for the patients," he said.
"Cancer cases and cardiovascular cases are killing our economy (in terms of treatment cost)," he said in his lecture titled "Drugs and Diseases: An Indian Overview".
Subburaj said as many as 25 lakh patients suffering from cardiovascular problems need surgical interventions every year whereas the current infrastructure provides facility for only 2.5 lakh patients.
He asked the scientist community to focus more on developing technologies for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.
According to him, 80 per cent of the district headquarters in the country do not have psychiatrists and there is shortage of two million MBBS doctors as on today. PTI GDK NRB KIS RDS
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While passive euthanasia entails withholding of common treatments in terminally ill patients, active euthanasia involves the use of lethal substances or forces, such as injections to kill.
A scene from the movie Guzaarish, where the character played by Hrithik Roshan appeals to a court for euthanasia. This was the first and only film based on the issue.
By Neetu Chandra Sharma: The debate over mercy killing may soon end as the Union Health Ministry has prepared a legislation on the contentious issue of euthanasia.
The Medical Treatment of Terminally Ill patients (protection of patients and medical practitioners) Bill is up for public debate.
"Based on the recommendations of the Law Commission, and after examination of the draft Bill in Health Ministry, we are contemplating to enact a law on passive euthanasia," said Dr Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services (DGHS).
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"For taking an informed decision in this matter, we have solicited public opinion and comments on the subject. After we get the comments and views from the public, we will implement it," Prasad said.
While passive euthanasia entails withholding of common treatments in terminally ill patients such as antibiotics, necessary for the continuance of life, active euthanasia involves the use of lethal substances or forces, such as injections to kill, and is the most controversial.
"Active euthanasia has not been recommended in The Medical Treatment of Terminally Ill patients (protection of patients and medical practitioners) Bill. Active Euthanasia is not being considered by Health Ministry as it is more likely to be misused by unscrupulous individuals to attain their ulterior motives," said Prasad.
The draft Bill, proposed in 241st report of Law Commission deals with passive euthanasia and living will, a document in which a person states his or her desire to have or not to have extraordinary life prolonging measures used when recovery is not possible from a terminal condition. If approved, the Medical Council of India (MCI) will have an active role in the law. The MCI would prepare and issue guidelines for medical practitioners in the matter of withholding or withdrawing of medical treatment to competent or incompetent patients suffering from terminal illness.
After several cases of euthanasia, such as Aruna Shanbaug a nurse who spent 42 years in a vegetative state as a result of sexual assault, the issue gained attention. Recently the Supreme Court heard a public interest litigation filed in 2005 by NGO Common Cause which said when a medical expert opines that the person afflicted with a terminal disease has reached a point of no return, then he should be given the right to refuse being put on life support as it would only prolong the agony. SC had, two years ago, issued notices to states and Union Territories on the issue. The Centre had also strongly opposed the petition earlier saying it is a form of suicide.
Interestingly, formulation of regulatory provision for euthanasia was earlier examined in Health Ministry in 2006 based on the 196th report of the Law Commission of India in consultation with experts. However, based on their opinions, Health Ministry at that time had opted not to make any law on it.
Also Read
Now rehabilitation instead of euthanasia for retired Army dogs
After being raped and in coma for 42 years, Aruna Shanbaug breathes her last
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Life's good, especially when your addiction with food can make you consume fewer calories.
By Indo-Asian News Service: Do you perceive yourself to be a foodie? If yes, chances are that you may end up influencing the amount of your intake as well as decrease the risk of becoming obese, often attributed to an addiction to food, finds new research.
According to researchers, when the participants of a study were told that they were great food addicts, the participants had a tendency to consume fewer calories than those who were told they had low or average scores. Further, they also reported greater concern about their eating behaviour, which in turn, reduced the amount of time they spent tasting the foods.
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"Our research found that participants who believed themselves to be 'food addicts' reduced the amount of time they were exposed to unhealthy foods and ate less as a result," according to Helen Ruddock, doctoral student at the University of Liverpool in Britain.
"This appears to be because the perception of being a food addict made them concerned about their eating behaviour," Ruddock added. The team examined the impact of changing participants' personal food addiction beliefs on eating behaviour, in two separate studies.
Also read: 5 drinks you must have post your workout for best benefits
Women completed a series of computer tasks about food. On completion, they were given bogus feedback on their performance which indicated that they had high low, or average levels of food addiction.
Their intake of unhealthy foods like chocolate and chips was then measured in a taste test.
"Our study is first to show that personal beliefs about food addiction can influence how much we eat. Further work with a larger sample group and over a longer time period is now needed," Ruddock said.
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The chief minister also urged security agencies to conduct their operations, keeping in view the safety of the people, to ensure an environment of peace and tranquillity.
By Shuja-ul-Haq : In her maiden meeting of Unified Headquarters (UHQ), Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday stressed on decreasing the presence of military and security forces in the civilian areas of the valley.
"Mehbooba Mufti stressed upon reducing the footprint of security forces at various tourist places and airports, so as to cause less inconvenience to visitors and to welcome them with a sense of normalcy", read a statement, issued soon after the UHQ meeting.
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The chief minister also urged security agencies to conduct their operations, keeping in view the safety of the people, to ensure an environment of peace and tranquillity, which will further enable the government to implement its agenda of good governance and development in the state.
This was the first meeting of the UHQ that Mufti chaired after becoming the chief minister of the state. Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Nirmal K. Singh was also present.
During the meeting, the CM was briefed by top officers of the Army, Police and Civil Administration on several issues, including the overall security scenario as well as the steps taken to maintain peace in the state.
In her opening remarks, Mehbooba Mufti focused on a humane approach while dealing with law-and-order situations on the ground. She insisted that SoPs should be maintained at all costs.
"Any incident of civilian killing reverses all the gains that have been achieved so far," she observed.
While asking security agencies to maintain restraint at all costs, so as to avoid any civilian casualties and collateral damage, the chief minister said it would be in the fitness of things to give an option of homecoming to the local youth who have picked up guns.
Mufti also underlined the importance of UHQ as an apex platform to synchronise the endeavours of the civil administration, security forces and J&K Police. She added that to further the sense of normalcy, visibility of the security forces and bunkers should be minimised in the civilian areas.
There has been a demand from many quarters including the separatist parties to demilitarise the valley.
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If you are in Chennai, a visit to India's first 3D trick art museum is a must. These fantastic pictures literally come alive as visitors go berserk taking selfies.
By India Today Web Desk: What is 3D trick art?
Trick art also known as 'Optical Art' or "3D Art" is said to have a long history of over 2,000 years. The interactive art has two-dimensional images that paint an illusion of a third dimension.
The technical name for this type of art is 'Tompe-l'oeil', which in French means 'deceive the eye'.
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The genius behind this quirky museum in Chennai is artist A P Shreethar.
"In this museum every piece of art is complete only when the viewer enters the frame. It is interactive art. The museum has 24 interactive art pieces.", Shreethar told The New Indian Express
"There are only 42 such places in 12 countries around the world that have such interactive art museums. Now, we have it here in India." he added.
The art museum in Chennai's East Coast Road has had several visitors since the inauguration that took place just last week.
If you plan to visit this place, here are a few things to do:
Photo:Facebook/ClickArtMuseum
Snap a happy family selfie with this monkey.
Photo:Facebook/ClickArtMuseum
Pretend to be a brave Matador in a bullfight.
Photo:Facebook/ClickArtMuseum
You get an opportunity to be 'Mankinds Angel' inspired by Taher Shah
Photo:Facebook/ClickArtMuseum
Take an apple from Adam.
Photo:Facebook/ClickArtMuseum
Douse water on a furious dragon spitting fire at you.
Photo:Facebook/ClickArtMuseum
Get kicked by Bruce Lee.
Photo:Facebook/ClickArtMuseum
And just get awestruck and baffled in the Trick art museum.
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By PTI: New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) With support of Asian Development Bank (ADB), India is developing various infrastructure projects worth USD 5 billion in South Asia to improve connectivity in the region.
"With ADB support, India is presently developing two priority road corridors. The first will connect India with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan through the chicken neck area of North Bengal," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said today.
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He was speaking at the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) 2025 workshop here.
The second road corridor will establish India-Myanmar connectivity in Manipur, he said, adding Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) at Agartala and Petrapole on India-Bangladesh border will be operationalised.
"Another ICP at Moreh on India-Myanmar border will be developed. We are also planning to establish ICPs and improved Land Customs Stations (LCS) at key border points with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan to ease the movement of goods and people within the subregion.
"India is planning to develop regional connectivity projects worth almost USD 5 billion in SASEC," he said.
India has also been assisting its neighbours in the sub-continent to improve their power situation. The India-Bangladesh transmission line is providing safe and reliable interconnection of the power grids to supply 500 MW of power to Bangladesh, he said.
The 1,320 MW Maitree Thermal Power Project, a joint venture of NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board, will be developed, he said.
The Power Grid Corporation of India is also engaged in developing three 230 kv transmission lines in Myanmar with the support of a credit line of USD 64 million between the Exim Bank of India and the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, he added.
Discussions are also on for a 1,680 km mega gas pipeline project linking Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan with India, he said, adding that at the request of the four participating countries, ADB has agreed to house the secretariat of this project.
Recently, India has launched a major port-led development initiative called Sagarmala, which will help modernise ports and coastlines to contribute more to growth.
About 90 per cent of Indias trade by volume and 70 per cent by value are moved through ports and the major ports thus play a key role in facilitating external trade.
The focus has been on improving the port infrastructure, modernisation of existing facilities and increasing the capacity and draught at ports, he said. MORE PTI DP ANU
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By PTI: New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) India will begin imposing capital gains tax on investments routed through Mauritius from April next under a revised tax treaty inked today to curb tax evasion and round-tripping of funds -- a move that may have a significant bearing on capital flows from the island nation.
Besides, a similar amendment is being negotiated to the tax treaty India has with Singapore. Mauritius and Singapore are among the top-most sources of foreign direct investments into India and together also account for a big chunk of total inflows into the countrys capital markets. The signing of the Protocol with Mauritius follows a decade long negotiations. Under the amended treaty with Mauritius, for two years beginning April 1, 2017, capital gains tax will be imposed at 50 per cent of the prevailing domestic rate. Full rate will apply from April 1, 2019, a finance ministry statement said. But this concessional rate would apply to a Mauritius resident company that can prove that it has a total expenditure of at least Rs 27 lakh in the African island nation and is not a shell company with just a post office address. The amendment to the 1983 Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) with Mauritius was signed at Port Louis, Mauritius today. Till now the DTAC did not provide for taxing capital gains in either of the two nations. Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said similar amendment to tax treaty with Singapore is being renegotiated. Stating that the Singapore pact will be amended on similar lines, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said it will provide "a level-playing field between domestic investors and investors who had unfair advantage when they came through the Mauritius route." Adhia said the amendment "brings about a certainty in taxation matters for foreign investors" and bring certainty for FIIs while also reinforcing Indias commitment to OECD-BEPS initiative. Tax experts said the amended treaty provides certainty to foreign investors, but the cost of foreign investment in India will go up. Of the total FDI inflows of USD 29.4 billion in April- December, 2015-16, Mauritius and Singapore accounted for USD 17 billion of foreign equity investment. At one point of time, the two countries also accounted for nearly two-thirds of overall foreign portfolio inflows into India but the inflows have been declining in the recent past. Now, Mauritius accounts for nearly 20 per cent (over Rs 4.3 lakh crore) while Singapore-based FPIs have over 11 per cent share (nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore). (MORE) PTI JD CS ANZ BJ MR
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By PTI: From Lalit K Jha
Washington, May 10 (PTI) A top ISIS leader, along with three other jihadists from the terror group, has been killed in a US-led military strike, the Pentagon has said.
Abu Wahib, the ISIS chief in Iraqs Anbar province, was killed in a May 6 airstrike, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters at a news conference.
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"On May 6th, a coalition air strike targeted Abu Wahib, ISILs military emir for Anbar Province and a former member of al-Qaeda in Iraq who has appeared in ISIL execution videos," he said.
"That strike near Rutbah was successful, killing Abu Wahib and three other ISIL jihadists. Abu Wahibs death is another blow to ISILs leadership that will further degrade its ability to operate, especially in Anbar Province," Cook said.
Responding to a question, Cook, while referring to ISIS as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), said it is fair to say that leadership of the group has been hit hard by coalition efforts and this is another example of that.
"It is dangerous to be an ISIL leader in Iraq and Syria these days, and for good reason we want to apply pressure ISIL on as many fronts as possible. And taking out leadership targets is one way to do that," he said.
"Weve been very successful and this is another example of that. Anbar Province is an area critically important to the fight against ISIL, and the fact that weve not taken out the military emir of Anbar Province is going to harm ISILs ability to conduct operations there," Cook said.
"Is taking out leadership alone sufficient in this fight? Absolutely not. But it is one part of a multi-pronged effort to apply pressure on as many fronts to ISIL and for ISIL leaders to be very worried about their next step," he added. PTI LKJ ASK ASK
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Vidya Balan and Sujoy Ghosh are back with "another mother of a story" - Kahaani 2. The film is set to hit the screens in November this year.
By India Today Web Desk: In 2012, Vidya Balan and Sujoy Ghosh gave film buffs one of the most gripping thrillers of that year. Balan's portrayal of a pregnant woman in search of her missing husband in Kolkata turned out to be one of her best performances so far. And after four years, Sujoy and Vidya have yet again collaborated for its sequel.
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ALSO READ: Vidya Balan, Arjun Rampal begin shooting for Kahaani 2
And if Vidya is to be believed, Kahaani 2 is "another mother of a story."
The 38-year-old actor took to Twitter to share the 20-second teaser of the upcoming film. Interestingly, the teaser gives away nothing, apart from the star cast and the film's release date.
Another mother of a story ..... pic.twitter.com/CNMmLhzeXL vidya balan (@vidya_balan) May 9, 2016
Post the gripping act in Kahaani, Vidya will be back on the silver screen with the second part of the film and the sequel is expected to release on November 25. Apart from Balan, the film also stars Arjun Rampal in a lead role. The two actors will be sharing screen space for the first time.
Co-written and directed by Sujoy Ghosh, Kahaani 2 went on floors in March this year. And the fans will have to wait till November for this thriller to hit the screens.
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Madirakshi aka Sita was shooting for an important sequence on the show when this happened.
By Indo-Asian News Service: Actress Madirakshi, who plays Sita in Siya Ke Ram, fainted on the sets of the popular mythological show while shooting. Madirakshi was shooting for an upcoming important sequence despite ill health.
The entire crew immediately ran to her help and a doctor was called to attend to her.
"The temperature in Hyderabad is currently unbearable. The heat has been taking a toll on the entire unit. Even though we've been shooting indoors, it is very hot to survive," Madirakshi said in a statement.
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Also read: Had to try on 300 tails before look for Hanuman in Siya Ke Ram was finalised, says actor Danish Akhtar
"I had already been very weak due to the hectic schedules and so when the doctor came to check on me, I wasn't surprised about him telling me to be only on bed rest and not exert much," the actress added.
"As of now, production has been accommodating and has been helping me take things lightly. But my work demands me, so I am eating a lot of citrus fruits and even doing yoga to keep myself calm," she said.
Also read: Siya Ke Ram: Look, who'll be playing Jatayu in the show
Siya Ke Ram, which airs on Star Plus is a unique presentation of Ramayana from Sita's perspective.
The show is currently heading towards the big war between Ram (Ashish Sharma) and Raavan (Karthik Jayaram) after the latter kidnaps Sita.
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Despite being a bright student, Bithi Akhtar has stopped going to school because of her condition. Along with the abnormal hair growth, the girl also faces abnormal breast growth.
By India Today Web Desk: A 12-year-old Bangladeshi girl is suffering from a rare genetic condition known as 'werewolf syndrome' due to which her entire body, including her face, is covered with hair.
Despite being a bright student, Bithi Akhtar has stopped going to school because of her condition. Along with the abnormal hair growth, the girl also faces abnormal breast growth. She cannot walk or even sit straight due to the pain she experiences because of the abnormal body growth.
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The little girl is forced to live a life of recluse due to her condition.
'We thought it was God's wish'
Bithi's father Abdur Razzaq ferries passengers on a rented motorbike. The family even took a bank loan for their daughter's treatment but nothing has worked so far.
"We thought that since she had this problem since childhood, it was god's wish. We never went for a treatment earlier. But when she started going to school, she complained of immense pain in her chest. We took loan from the bank and started her treatment. We have spent a lot of money on her treatment but nothing has worked," Razzaq told India Today.
"I hope my daughter gets well and starts going to school soon," said Razzaq, a resident of Bangladesh's Tangail district.
What is werewolf syndrome
Doctors say Bithi Akhtar was born with a rare syndrome known as 'hirsutism' or abnormal growth of hair on a woman's face and body.
"Actually, till date we didn't find any hormonal imbalance in her. There is suspicion that of genetic mutation which specifically causes enlargement of breast, hair follicle and upper jaw. We are diagnosing and root cause and hope to establish the connection," Dr Shahajada Shelim of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University told India Today.
The story of 'tree man'
Bithi's story has come to light months after a 26-year-old man from her country underwent surgery in Dhaka to remove tree bark-like warts all over his body.
Abul Bajandar, the 26-year-old rickshaw-puller, was dubbed 'tree man' due to the growths weighing at least five kilogrammes that have smothered his hands and feet.
The massive warts, which first started appearing when he was a teenager but began spreading rapidly four years ago, have been diagnosed as epidermodysplasia verruciformis, an extremely rare genetic skin disease that makes the person susceptible to skin growths.
Hundreds contributed for his Bajandar's surgery helping him lead a normal life now. Bithi still awaits help.
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Replying to the Delhi Police's request for more phone intercepts, the MHA raised questions regarding what had been the outcome of the permission granted for the interception of 291 phone numbers already given since January 1, 2016.
By Ankur Sharma: Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has red-flagged Delhi Police's attempts to intercept phones of suspected criminals and have asked for a detailed action report regarding nearly 300 phone numbers that were put on monitoring since January this year in narcotics and fake currency cases.
A letter sent by MHA to Delhi replying to cops' demand for more phone intercepts questions what has been the outcome of the permission granted for interception of the 291 phone numbers that have been given with effect from January 1, 2016. "What efforts have been made by the police for arresting fake currency an drug suppliers," MHA wrote.
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"Permission of phone interception is a very sensitive issue. Before giving permission, we require these details. Only after a reply from Delhi police, MHA will decide on its further course of action," a senior MHA officer said.
Delhi Police officials feel securing phone intercepts are crucial in most of these cases and can hamper investigations.
Last week, the government in a reply to Lok Sabha said that a Central Monitoring System (CMS) will be set up for phone interception, making it tougher for investigating agencies to misuse the facility. The monitoring centre at Delhi, and regional monitoring centre (RMC) at New Delhi and Mumbai have been operationalised.
"Government has decided to set up the CMS in a phased manner to automate the process of lawful interception and monitoring of mobile phones, landlines and the Internet in the country," Prasad said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
It is mandatory for central investigating agencies that Delhi Police seek a clearance from the home ministry after an order is issued by the union home secretary. In states, the secretary to the home department is required to give the go ahead.
Delhi cops recently found it difficult to access and analyse call data records of members of Parliament (MP) after parliamentary committee on privileges expressed concern over confidentiality of an MP's call records.
Also Read
From The Magazine: The Secret World of Phone Tapping
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By PTI: New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) A person working in a Gurgaon-based MNC was today held for allegedly carrying a local firearm at a Delhi Metro station.
Officials said the incident occurred around 8 AM at the Vaishali Metro station when the 35-year-old man, identified as Navnit C, was intercepted by CISF security personnel after they detected the firearm-like object in his bag.
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"A desi katta (local-made pistol) was recovered from his bag. The passenger could not give satisfactory reply for carrying the banned item," a senior Central Industrial Security Force official said.
The official added Navneet, a resident of Meerut, works in a multi-national company in nearby Gurgaon.
"As carrying firearms is banned in Metro, he was handed over to Uttar Pradesh Police," the official added. PTI NES IKA ZMN IKA
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The Congress today moved a privilege motion against Modi and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar over PM's remarks at an election rally on the AgustaWestland issue.
By India Today Web Desk: The government today hit back at the Congress saying the Prime Minister cannot be gagged against speaking on corruption. The Congress today moved aprivilege motion against Modi and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar over PM's remarks at an election rally on the AgustaWestland issue.
A look at the war of words "Prime Minister is entitled to speak on corruption" both inside and outside the House and he cannot be "gagged", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in the Rajya Sabha. Congress's Shantaram Naik said he has moved a breach of privilege notice against the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister because of "lies" told outside the House about UPA leaders taking money in the chopper deal. Jaitley said, "Since when has an election speech by one politician against another outside the House started to be construed as breach of privilege". Congress leader Anand Sharma said the statements made by the Prime Minister in the House or outside are as Prime Minister of the country and there cannot be any distinction between them. "The Prime Minister has contradicted his Defence Minister," he contended.
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The opposition party had staged protest in the Upper House over the issue yesterday, claiming that the PM had "contradicted" Parrikar by stating during an election rally that Italian court has indicted Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the chopper deal, leading to washout of proceedings.
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By PTI: Washington, May 9 (PTI) A new device which may shorten the time required to rapidly diagnose bacterial infections from days to hours has been developed by researchers.
The system would allow point-of-care diagnosis, as it does not require the facilities and expertise available only in hospital laboratories, researchers said.
"Rapid and efficient diagnosis of the pathogen is a critical first step in choosing the appropriate antibiotic regimen, and this system could provide that information in a physicians office in less than two hours," said Ralph Weissleder from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the US.
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While considered the gold standard for diagnosing bacterial infections, traditional culture-based diagnosis can take several days and requires specialised equipment, trained laboratory personnel and procedures that vary depending on the particular pathogen, researchers said.
Emerging genetic approaches that identify bacterial species by their nucleic acid sequences are powerful but still require complex equipment and workflows, restricting such testing to specialised hospital laboratories, they said.
The system dubbed PAD for Polarisation Anisotropy Diagnostics, allows for accurate genetic testing in a simple device. Bacterial RNA is extracted from a sample in a small, disposable plastic cartridge, researchers said.
Following polymerase chain reaction amplification of the RNA, the material is loaded into a two centimetre plastic cube containing optical components that detect target RNAs based on the response to a light signal of sequence-specific detection probes, they said.
These optical cubes are placed on an electronic base station that transmits data to a smartphone or computer where the results can be displayed.
For the study, researchers used a prototype PAD system containing four optical cubes to test clinical samples from nine patients and compared the results with those acquired by conventional microbiology cultures.
Testing for the presence of five important bacterial species - E coli, Klebsiella, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Staph aureus - and for factors indicating the virulence and antibiotic resistance of specific strains produced identical results with both procedures, researchers said.
But while PAD provided results in less than two hours, the bacterial culture process took three to five days, they said.
"We can see three immediate applications for a system that can provide such rapid and accurate results - quickly diagnosing a patients infection, determining whether antibiotic-resistant bacteria are present in a group of patients, and detecting bacterial contamination of medical devices or patient environments," said Hakho Lee from MGH.
The findings were published in the journal Science Advances. PTI SAN SAR SAR
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After a total of three ceremonies, a mehendi, the wedding and a reception, Karan Singh Grover and Bipasha Basu are off to Maldives for their honeymoon. Reportedly, they are now planning to extend their trip.
By India Today Web Desk: Karan Singh Grover and Bipasha Basu's wedding was an intimate affair, but their reception saw the presence of Bollywood's who's who. After a total of three ceremonies, a mehendi, the wedding and a reception, the couple is off to Maldives for their honeymoon.
And now according to Pinkvilla, they are planning to extend their honeymoon. Post their Maldives vacation, they will visit their friends in the US and travel around the country. They were to return to Mumbai on May 13 but it seems that the couple is no mood to end their honeymoon.
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A friend of the couple had earlier told Mumbai Mirror, "Following the wedding, Karan and Bipasha have been busy throwing dinner parties for family and friends. This is a much-needed break although a short one since they will be returning by May 13. Maldives is their favourite holiday destination, they rang in the New Year there too. Knowing their love for beaches, their choice of destination for the honeymoon was hardly a surprise even though the decision was an impromptu one."
Bipasha has also shared some pictures of their honeymoon trip on Instagram.
Sun Sea Clouds Love ??Thank you ?? A video posted by bipashabasu (@bipashabasu) on May 8, 2016 at 9:38pm PDT
The sweetest welcome cake?? Thank you #jumeiravittaveli A photo posted by bipashabasu (@bipashabasu) on May 9, 2016 at 1:50am PDT
Karan Singh Grover and Bipasha Basu have been dating each other since they started shooting for their 2015 film Alone.
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By PTI: New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) The National Green Tribunal today sought Art of Living (AOL) head Sri Sri Ravi Shankars reply on an application which alleged the spiritual guru had termed its earlier order as "politically motivated".
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued the notice and asked Sri Sri to file a reply within two weeks on the plea which alleged that he had shown disrespect to the tribunals order asking AOL to deposit Rs five crore as environmental compensation for a three-day cultural extravaganza held here from March 11.
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During the hearing, the counsel representing the applicant referred to media reports and said action should be taken against the spiritual guru for the statement allegedly "scandalising the tribunal and interfering with dispensation of justice by the tribunal".
"Let reply to this application be filed then we will proceed with the matter in accordance with law. List this matter on May 25, 2016," the bench said.
During the hearing, it asked whether such statement was given by Sri Sri or was it reported only in the media.
AOLs advocate told the bench that the application was based only on media report and no such statement was given by Sri Sri.
Meanwhile, the tribunal reserved its order on AOLs plea seeking its nod to accept the fine, slapped for allegedly damaging Yamunas biodiversity, as bank guarantee instead of "payment of balance amount" of Rs 4.75 crore out of the Rs 5 crore. PTI ABA RKS ZMN
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Duterte's win in Monday's poll has not been confirmed, but an unofficial count of votes by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed he had a huge lead over his two closest rivals.
By Reuters: The Philippines' president-elect, rough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, announced plans on Tuesday for an overhaul of the country's system of government that would devolve power from "imperial Manila" to long-neglected provinces.
Duterte's win in Monday's poll has not been confirmed, but an unofficial count of votes by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed he had a huge lead over his two closest rivals, both of whom conceded defeat.
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By Tuesday afternoon, the ballot count showed Duterte had almost 39 percent of votes cast. He was more than 6 million votes ahead of the second-placed candidate with 92 percent of votes counted from an electorate of 54 million.
It is not clear when Duterte's victory will be officially declared but he is expected to take office on June 30.
Votes were also cast on Monday for vice-president. One day on, counting showed the outgoing administration's candidate, Maria Leonor Robredo, ahead of the son and namesake of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Duterte's spokesman, Peter Lavina, told a news conference that the new president would seek a national consensus for a revision of the constitution which would switch from a unitary form of government to a parliamentary and federal model.
The proposal to devolve power from Manila fits with Duterte's challenge as a political outsider to the country's establishment, which he has slammed as self-serving and corrupt.
"The powerful elites in Manila who will be affected by this system will definitely oppose this proposal," said Earl Parreno, an analyst at the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms.
Duterte's spokesman said he would also seek peace agreements with rebel groups in the south of the archipelago, where the outgoing government has been using force to quell militancy.
The 71-year-old's truculent defiance of political tradition has drawn comparisons with US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, as have his references to his libido.
That tapped into popular disgust with the ruling class over its failure to reduce poverty and inequality despite several years of robust economic growth.
South China Sea Talks
Duterte's vows to restore law and order also resonated with voters. But his incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the country's authoritarian past.
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Daniel Russel told reporters in Vietnam that Washington respected the choice of the Philippine people and "will gladly work with the leader that they select".
Duterte made a succession of winding, bellicose and at-times comical remarks late on Monday as the votes were being counted, venting over corruption and bad governance and telling anecdotes from his 22 years as mayor of Davao city.
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Wearing a casual checked shirt and slouched in a chair, he said corrupt officials should "retire or die" and reiterated his support for police to use deadly force against criminals.
"I'll behave if I become president," he said, adding that he would not make state visits to countries with cold weather.
In an early indication of his unorthodoxy, Duterte told reporters on Monday that if he became president he would seek multilateral talks to resolve disputes over the South China Sea.
The outgoing administration of President Benigno Aquino has asked a court of arbitration in The Hague to recognise its right to exploit waters in the South China Sea, a case it hoped could bolster claims by other countries against China in the resource-rich waters.
Duterte said negotiations should include Japan, Australia and the United States, which is traditionally the region's dominant security player and contests China's development of islands and rocky outcrops in the sea.
The influential Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times, said that Beijing would not be naive enough to believe that a new president would bring a solution to the South China Sea disputes.
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"Only time will tell how far the new leader, be it Duterte or not, will go toward restoring the bilateral relationship."
Fighting The Establishment
Duterte's entertaining and profanity-loaded speeches have shed little light on his policies beyond going after gangsters and drug pushers.
He has been vague on what he would do to spur an economy that has averaged growth at around 6 percent under Aquino.
Duterte said on Monday he had been criticised for not discussing policy but would "hire the best economic minds".
One of his advisers told Reuters spending on education would be lifted to benefit "disadvantaged regions" and rural development will be prioritised to spread wealth more evenly across the country.
"Everything seems to be in imperial Manila," said Ernesto Pernia, professor emeritus of economics at the University of the Philippines. "He wants to give more attention to the lagging, the backward regions."
Pernia said the pursuit of tax evaders and corrupt officials should bolster government revenues to fund extra spending.
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The chances of conceiving quintuplets naturally is about one in 55 million but taking care of them along with their three other kids will be a herculean task for this couple.
By India Today Web Desk: In January, an Australian mother gave birth to quintuplets and has now released pictures from the photo shoot of her younger ones.
26-year-old Kim Tucci, gave birth to four daughters and a son in only two minutes. It is not every day that quintuplets are born, the chance of conceiving quintuplets naturally is about one in 55 million and Kim's young ones were conceived naturally.
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50 doctors and nurses assisted while Kim delivered five healthy newborns.
Photo: Facebook/Erin Elizabeth photography
Kim and Vaughn Tucci recorded details of the pregnancy on a Facebook page called Surprised by Five and renowned photographer Erin Elizabeth helped document Kim's pregnancy. She also organised the quintuplets' photo shoot later.
"50 fingers 50 toes, 6 hearts beating at once. My body fought the toughest of battles to get five babies here safely," Kim wrote when she posted the photos.
Photo: Facebook/Erin Elizabeth photography
However, she once mentioned in an interview that she felt like her body was "shutting down" during the pregnancy.
She was even given a choice by the doctors to save two of the babies and terminate the others because of serious health risks for her and the unborn children.
Kim and Vaughn already have three children aged 9, 4 and 2. The couple is trying to raise money for a van that can fit the family of ten.
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By PTI: Bhaderwah (J&K), May 10 (PTI) Police today seized 42 timber scants extracted illegally in Doda district here, police said.
Acting on a tip-off, police team conducted a raid in Budhli Champal area in Gandoh and recovered timber, measuring over 175 cubic feet, Station House Officer (SHO) Gandoh, Tariq Hussain Naik said.
The smugglers, however, managed to flee from the spot, he said, adding efforts are on to nab them.
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A case has been registered under relevant sections of Forest Act and further investigation is underway, he said. PTI CORR TSS AB FAR DV DIP
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By PTI: Mumbai, May 10 (PTI) Amid the row over medical entrance tests, Opposition parties today slammed Maharashtra government for "jeopardising" careers of students with its "wrong policy" even as Medical Education Minister Vinod Tawde said he is willing to resign if he has made any mistake on the issue.
Criticising the BJP-led government for its "inept" handling of the issue of medical entrance tests, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde of NCP alleged due to its "wrong policy", careers of over 4.5 lakh students have been jeopardised.
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"Minister for Medical Education Vinod Tawde is directly responsible for the damage caused to the careers of these students," Munde said.
The Supreme Court yesterday rejected pleas of state governments and minority institutions to allow them to hold separate entrance exams for MBBS and BDS courses for the academic year 2016-17.
The apex court had said only NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) provides for conducting such a test for admission to these courses.
Tawde today said Munde should have called him up if he was so much concerned over the issue.
"If I have made any mistake, then Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde need not demand my resignation, I myself shall resign. If Munde was really concerned, he should have called me up," Tawde told reporters.
Reacting to the Supreme Court verdict, Tawde said the Maharashtra government has filed a review petition before the Supreme Court on three important counts.
"The Supreme Court has been petitioned to leave out (from NEET ambit) those states (like Maharashtra) which have already held their own Common Entrance Test (CET) and allow students to write exams in their mother tongue," he said.
The BJP minister said none of the Education ministers from Congress-ruled states turned up at the court hearing.
Leader of Opposition in Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe- Patil of Congress said the BJP-led government has been found lacking in its support for students from the state.
"It has been once again proved that the state government carries little weight with the Centre. The Centre did not support the students from Maharashtra. Tawdes argument that students will be able to appear for the second stage of NEET is an admission of failure," he said. PTI MM GK RSY PMS
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By PTI: Washington, May 10 (PTI) Scientists, including one of Indian-origin, have engineered a strain of bacteria that enables a "one-pot" method for producing advanced biofuels from a slurry of pre-treated plant material.
The Escherichia coli (E coli) is able to tolerate the liquid salt used to break apart plant biomass into sugary polymers, researchers said.
Since the salt solvent, known as ionic liquids, interferes with later stages in biofuels production, it needs to be removed before proceeding, a process that takes time and money. Developing ionic-liquid-tolerant bacteria eliminates the need to wash away the residual ionic liquid.
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The achievement is a critical step in making biofuels a viable competitor to fossil fuels because it helps streamline the production process, researchers said.
"Being able to put everything together at one point, walk away, come back, and then get your fuel, is a necessary step in moving forward with a biofuel economy," said Aindrila Mukhopadhyay from the US Department of Energys Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
"The E coli we have developed gets us closer to that goal. It is like a chassis that we build other things onto, like the chassis of a car," said said Mukhopadhyay.
"It can be used to integrate multiple recent technologies to convert a renewable carbon source like switchgrass to an advanced jet fuel," she said.
The basic steps of biofuel production start with deconstructing the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin that are bound together in the complex plant structure.
Enzymes are then added to release the sugars from that gooey mixture of cellulose and hemicellulose, a step called saccharification.
Bacteria can then take that sugar and churn out the desired biofuel. The multiple steps are all done in separate pots.
Researchers pioneered the use of ionic liquids, salts that are liquid at room temperature, to tackle the deconstruction of plant material because of the efficiency with which the solvent works.
However, what makes ionic liquids great for deconstruction also makes it harmful for the downstream enzymes and bacteria used in biofuel production.
They established that an amino acid mutation in the gene rcdA, which helps regulate various genes, leads to an E coli strain that is highly tolerant to ionic liquids.
They used this strain as the foundation to build on earlier work - including the ionic-liquid-tolerant enzymes - and take the steps further to the one-pot biofuel finishing line.
The findings were published in the journal Green Chemistry. PTI SAN SAR SAR
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China is trying to clean up online content deemed too vulgar and the first target is the humble banana.
By India Today Web Desk: If you're in China, be careful how you eat your fruit, especially if you have a web cam around you.
Beijing, it seems, has decided to play Big Brother and keep an eye on any livestreams of bananas. Yes. The fruit.
Last year, President Xi Jinping had called for steps to promote "civilised behaviour" on China's state-controlled internet. This speech seems to have put the potassium-rich fruit in the line of Dragon fire.
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Apparently, while bananas are tasty, banana videos are tasteless.
Authorities have barred live-streaming platforms from airing videos in which bananas are "seductively" consumed by young female presenters, The Guardian quoted Beijing-controlled broadcaster CCTV as saying. It is not known if videos of bananas being consumed in a non-erotic way are allowed.
CCTV said online content deemed too vulgar, too violent or too sexual is being reined in and the banana rule was part of the crackdown.
Clearly, China has no plans to be a banana republic. Of course, China has already gone bananas with its bizarre live stream culture.
YY website users, for example, can tune into live streams in which presenters draw dogs, play drums, put on their makeup, sing, dance, cook, dine or take care of their skin. But sorry, no bananas allowed.
You can, however, consume the fruit in the safety of your house, provided there's no livestream.
Kele hum, kele tum.
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By PTI: From H S Rao
London, May 10 (PTI) A pioneering space mission to "weigh" the earths forests, whose 3D images can be used in future as a reference point by nations negotiating treaties to better manage forests, has moved a step closer to its launch following the signing of a contract to build the technology.
The BIOMASS mission, led by Professor Shaun Quegan from the University of Sheffields School of Mathematics and Statistics, will use a revolutionary radar system to create a 3D map of the worlds forests in order to improve our understanding of how carbon is cycled through the earth system.
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The missions data will strengthen research into climate change and may be used as a reference point by nations negotiating treaties to better manage forests across the planet.
Airbus UK will lead the construction of the satellite that will carry the radar system in space. This system will measure the amount of woody biomass ?- mainly contained in trunks and large branches ?- in the worlds forests, together with their height.
BIOMASS, which was proposed by Professor Quegan will be launched in 2021 as the seventh mission in the European Space Agencys (ESA) Earth Explorer programme.
The Earth Explorer programme aims to study the whole Earth system: the interactions between the Earths atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and the planets interior as well as the impact that human activity is having on the Earths natural processes.
"This mission will give us unprecedented insight into the structure of forests across the world and how changes in forests, both losses from deforestation and gains due to regrowth and reforestation, are affecting the amount of carbon dioxide going into our atmosphere," Professor Quegan said.
"The study will essentially weigh forests ? it will tell us their weight and height, and we will be able to see how they are changing over time. Understanding how the amount of living material ?- biomass ?- in our global forests changes over time is necessary for improving present and future assessments of the global carbon cycle, and therefore our climate," he said.
Currently, most estimates of biomass come from ground-based measurements. But because these measurements are scarce, particularly in the tropics, the models give radically different projections of the future carbon cycle and, therefore, how the climate might change.
The BIOMASS mission will help overcome this problem, by providing frequent, accurate and consistent biomass measurements, helping to validate and improve current earth system models.
As well as giving unparalleled and accurate insight into forest biomass, this mission will provide information on ice-sheet motion, the earths upper atmosphere and subsurface geology in arid regions. PTI HSR AJR AKJ AJR
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Last week, the Centre told the Supreme Court that sudden shortage of cabs due to the ban on those plying on petrol and diesel has raised certain safety and security concerns pertaining to women working at odd hours in places like the BPOs.
By India Today Web Desk: In a major relief to cab operators, the Supreme Court today allowed diesel taxis with All India Tourist permit to operate in Delhi and the national capital region till their permit expires. However, the top court has banned registration of new diesel cabs in NCR.
"These diesel taxis will have to comply with regulations of safety, security and fare," the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur said.
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"You must understand what we are trying to do here. There has to be a gradual phase-out. Using AITP (All India Tourist Permit) vehicles to ferry BPO staffers is abusing the law. These are not genuine AITP operators and are used only by BPOs," Chief Justice Thakur said.
Justice Thakur also directed authorities issuing AITP permits to insist on an undertaking from applicants that the vehicle will not be used for point-to-point to service within NCR.
'Safety of women working at BPOs a concern'
Last week, the Centre told the Supreme Court that sudden shortage of cabs due to the ban on those plying on petrol and diesel has raised certain safety and security concerns pertaining to women working at odd hours in places like the BPOs.
"The sudden implementation of the ban meant that the BPOs do not have sufficient cabs to pick and drop their staff, especially the female staff. If the problem persists, the BPOs may shift out of India," Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told the apex court.
Kumar said the Centre, like Delhi's Kejriwal government, will soon be filing an application seeking more time to get 30,000 taxis off roads which are running on diesel or petrol and not on CNG as mandated by the court. The Centre had hinted that it also preferred a gradual phase out instead of a ban at one go.
SC order triggered massive jams in Delhi
On April 30, the Supreme Court had refused to extend the deadline for such cabs to switch from diesel to CNG. Nearly 50,000 taxis gone off the roads after the order. Last week, diesel cab drivers and operators blocked traffic at major intersection across Delhi in protest against the court order triggering massive jams across the national capital.
Also Read:
Diesel cab ban affects women's safety: Modi govt tells SC
BPOs in Delhi, NCR will leave India: Centre's argument against ban on diesel cars
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Issuing notice to Uttarakhand Assembly speaker, the apex court bench also directed the next hearing of the matter on July 12, saying that it will consider the plea of the rebel MLAs for a stay of the judgment that was delivered earlier Monday by Uttarakhand High Court on that day.
The nine rebel MLAs will not be able to cast their vote in the floor test on Tuesday.
By Harish V Nair: It is advantage Congress and Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat as the Supreme Court on Monday evening dismissed the petition of the nine Congress MLAs challenging their disqualification from the Assembly.
This means they will not be able to vote in Tuesday's crucial floor test. Earlier in the day, the Uttarakhand High Court had also dismissed their plea against which they rushed to the Supreme Court.
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A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and SK Singh said the pleas for interim relief, including a stay of their disqualification, would be considered on July 1. Issuing notice to Uttarakhand Assembly speaker, the apex court bench also directed the next hearing of the matter on July 12, saying that it will consider the plea of the rebel MLAs for a stay of the judgment that was delivered earlier Monday by Uttarakhand High Court on that day.
Earlier the court noted that the atmosphere of animosity in the Uttarakhand Assembly has made the appointment of a neutral observer necessary for the floor test on May 10 and ordered the principal secretary, legal and parliamentary affairs of the state, to watch the floor test as court-appointed observer with a sense of "absolute objectivity and singularity of purpose of neutrality."
The 11th hour modification to the Supreme Court order of May 6 directing a floor test to be conducted came after the Union government filed an urgent application. The Centre said the April 6 order directed the principal secretary, legislative assembly to monitor the floor test. However, there is no such post. Instead there is either the secretary, Legislative Assembly or the principal secretary, legislative and parliamentary affairs, Uttarakhand, who is also a judicial officer of the rank of district judge.
The Centre said the secretary, Legislative Assembly, is a staffer of the Speaker, appointed by the latter and so there is an apprehension of how neutral the officer would be.
Appearing for the Uttarakhand chief minister, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi said principal secretary, legislative and parliamentary affairs is an outsider and cannot be invited inside the House.
Also Read
Rawat and BJP hinge their hopes on small players
Uttarakhand crisis: Had won yesterday, won today and will win tomorrow, says Harish Rawat
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With six days left for the state to go to polls, the amount seized is only likely to rise, top officials have indicated.
Tamil Nadu is a classic example of how much money is spent during an election by political parties to woo voters. In what is perhaps a biggest ever crackdown on cash-for-vote policy, the Election Commission has seized Rs 92 crore, the highest among southern states, ahead of the elections.
With six days left for the state to go to polls, the amount seized is only likely to rise, top officials have indicated.
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Speaking to India Today Television, Rajesh Lakhoni, Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu, said, "One of the biggest challenges has been to try and stop the bribing. We have automated the entire system. The moment we get a tip off, we reach the place and immediately seal the place. We have flying squads in almost every village."
So what do voters feel about this seizure?
"It is not that the politicians are buying our votes. It is more like the voters are selling their votes. If we restrict ourselves, then it can be stopped. Why blame the politician when we also contribute to it? Let us jabe the restraint and let us not sell the vote," Sundar, one of the voters, said.
Another voter, Sathya, said, "Till now, we were just taking what we were given. But now we feel we shouldn't take bribes. We need to eradicate this practice of taking money from politicians."
Two years ago during the Lok Sabha elections, EC had seized close to Rs 25 crore and in 2011, Rs 36 crore. This year, the amount has nearly zoomed up by three times and is still counting.
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The Rs 92 crore in cash seized by the Election Commission's flying squads so far is the highest till date in any election. In 2011 assembly polls, Rs 35 crore was seized and in 2014, Rs 25 crore.
The two officials of the Election Commission wanted to know his voting particulars. "I am working here but I am a native of Thanjavur so my vote is there. I am not sure if I will be able to go home for a day to vote," the person said sheepishly, aware of the EC's resolve to register 100 per cent polling in Tamil Nadu on May 16. The two officials went to all homes in four streets in that upmarket locality in central Chennai as part of their survey.
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The next morning at 5:30 am, he found a pamphlet outside the door, urging him to vote for a prominent political party in Tamil Nadu. His neighbour who opened the door to his home at the same time, also found the same pamphlet but with a thousand rupee note. Likewise, many residents in that locality that morning grew richer. The money distribution, it transpires, had taken place between 4:30 am and 5:30 am.
It was then that it dawned on them that the two 'officials' were actually party activists, acting their part so well. Their mission was to identify the genuine voters and weed out those who did not have a vote in the constituency. They had attempted to buy a vote at Rs 250 per vote. Welcome to out-of-the-box thinking by political parties.
The Rs 92 crore in cash seized by the Election Commission's flying squads so far is the highest till date in any election. In 2011 assembly polls, Rs 35 crore was seized and Rs 25 crores in 2014. The EC admits its biggest challenge is how to stop bribing by the political parties. Privately, many officials who have handled elections in Tamil Nadu, say the atmosphere is "nauseating".
To give credit to the EC, it has been breathing down the neck of the political parties this election season. With one flying squad for every two villages, it has used the Income Tax sleuths to get their hands on unaccounted for cash. On May 15 and 16, in a first of its kind move, even the border areas of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will be declared as dry areas to prevent last-minute bribing of voters with liquor.
But the EC has its hands full in the 94 constituencies, most of them where VIP candidates are contesting. Where the parties are using every trick in the book to bribe the voter. The aarthi thaali method is the most common where a ten rupee note put by the politician can be taken by the woman to the neighbourhood grocery store. The shopkeeper would identify the beneficiary by the number on the note, which would have been indicated by the political party. The woman would get grocery of a certain amount for free.
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Several vehicles in Tamil Nadu this month are running on political fuel. 700 tokens for free fuel were seized and two petrol bunks in Erode and Thanjavur sealed by the EC. Mobile top-ups and online transfer of money by taking the bank account number, shows the political parties are willing to pump in Vitamin-M, as it is known in these parts, to get the votes. In many cases, the money allotted to distribution in hard cash is more than the money the candidate spends in publicity.
Actor Kamal Haasan said taking cash for a vote will only bring a thief as the leader. True but in this political theatre, every politician is out to bribe the voter so should the voter sell his vote to the highest bidder or simply press NOTA to register his protest.
Unfortunately, the only protests one is hearing from several quarters is "I have not got the money yet".
Indian democracy fails the test in Tamil Nadu. What will take place on May 16 will be a farce.
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By PTI: New Delhi, May 9 (PTI) A three member committee has been formed by the Union Transport minister Nitin Gadkari to frame policy regarding diesel cabs, which will be placed before the Supreme Court which has banned taxis running on the fuel in the national capital, said BJP leader Vijender Gupta.
The Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly leading a delegation of taxi operators which met Gadkari at his residence today.
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"The Transport minister gave this information after meeting with the delegation of the taxi operators. The committee will be headed by Union Road Transport secretary, Sanjay Mitra. Joint secretary Road Transport, Abhey Dambley and Delhi Governments Transport commissioner Sanjay Kumar will be its members," Gupta said.
Gadkari also expressed his sympathy with taxi operators and their families which were hit by the ban on diesel taxis, he said.
The Transport minister had on an earlier occasion said that the government will request the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision on the ban on diesel taxis.
"The government has decided to request the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision on ban. The ban has created an unprecedented situation of thousands of taxis getting off road and people facing severe hardships," he had said.
The Supreme Court on April 30 refused to extend the deadline (April 30) fixed for conversion of diesel cabs into less-polluting CNG mode for plying on city roads, sending off-road thousands of diesel taxis. PTI VIT RG
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KS Pradeepkumar, head of emergency preparedness for Bhabha Atomic Research Center, busts some of the commonly held myths about dirty bombs and says India is well prepared to detect such devices thanks to a countrywide network.
By PTI: More than a Hiroshima or Nagasaki-type atom bomb today, security agencies worry about the use of a 'dirty bomb', especially by terrorists. So, how dangerous is a 'dirty bomb' or an explosive-laced with radioactive material?
On the eve of the anniversary of the Pokharan nuclear explosions, KS Pradeepkumar, head of emergency preparedness for India's main nuclear laboratory, the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Mumbai, busts some of the commonly held myths about dirty bombs and says India is well prepared to detect such devices thanks to a countrywide network.
Excerpts from an interview:
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Q: These days there is a lot of fear of something called a 'dirty-bomb'. What is a dirty bomb?
A: Dirty means it is dirty, that is it will not really harm you but it makes you uncomfortable. See it is like getting dirt on your dress that does not mean you are going to die or that your health is in trouble but definitely, you have to go and change your dress. Same way, a dirty bomb, which normally like any other explosive has some effect, but since it is integrated with radioactive material and after an explosion that radioactivity could spread out. Therefore, there is a chance of contamination on your body, even contamination on your dress, so definitely it calls for a decontamination of the people who are nearby. It also calls for a decontamination of the area.
Therefore, it is not in terms of a casualty or a serious injury we are worried about a dirty bomb, or what is called a radiological dispersal device. The concern is about the fear it may inject into the people because very large number of people will believe that they are all affected because they are all contaminated. It causes disruption.
Q: But what are the materials, which can be used to make a dirty bomb?
A: First of all a dirty bomb has never been used anywhere in the world. Nevertheless, it is mentioned that there were attempts made where people have tried to make one using radioactive Cesium-137 and explosives like RDX. It has never been used in India.
What is feared is that since the use of radioactive sources and radioisotopes is increasing in a very significant way world over. Moreover, in some places the security of sources is not fully ensured. Hence, there are cases of lost sources, misplaced sources etc. These orphan sources can get into the hands of the bad-boys. It is believed that they can integrate these with explosives, and they can use it. However, it has never been used.
Q: But is it not dangerous to handle radioactive sources?
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A: It is indeed so it is also a big challenge for those bad people who could try to assemble such devices, that is one of the reasons why assembling them has not been successful. Compared to the conventional explosives, whoever tries to integrate radioactive sources like Cesium-137 or Cobalt-60, they are all high-energy gamma emitters. Therefore, during the assembly itself, even if one spends more than few minutes, the bad boys will get very high radiation exposure and will fall sick.
Q: So you are saying that if a terrorist has to use it, then the likelihood of the terrorist himself being exposed to such serious doses of radiation is high. Is that what you are saying?
A: Yes, unless, until they manage it with many remote controlled mechanisms, and if it is not shielded, they themselves would be subjected to high radiation field. Not only will they get affected, the pain will be extremely severe, so keeping it a secret will be very difficult from the neighbours. Unlike conventional explosives transporting dirty bombs is very difficult. Escaping detection is almost impossible since transport of radioactive material is very difficult. Either it requires extremely large quantity of shielding like say by using hundreds of kilograms of lead.
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In that case, the person will be moving about in a suspicious way, since it is hard to carry so much weight, or it will be a group of people. If enough shielding is not there, even the vehicle he is using, co-passengers, driver, they will all start getting a radiation exposure syndrome or acute radiation syndrome. Therefore, world over it is considered very difficult to assemble it, as the terrorists are likely to be harmed more. However, much more challenges are on people like security agencies who would have to respond and take care of the public.
Q: In India, do we have the capability to detect hidden dirty bombs?
A: BARC has developed many systems. We have developed many systems like aerial gamma spectrometry systems, which can be used for searching such types of sources. It can be detected easily by BARC's equipment, even if it is shielded or kept hidden inside some building.
Q: There are some stories going around which say that if an explosive device like a dirty bomb is exploded let's say, in the heart of Delhi then all of Connaught Place will be obliterated and radiation will spread up to the Parliament Building, and all around several kilometers would get affected. In your assessment in the worst-case scenario what would be the situation?
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A: Let me explain, the word 'affected' has to be used very carefully. See, we have highly sensitive radiation monitors. With this, even extremely small quantity of radioactivity can be detected. See for example, let me take the Fukushima accident, people detected extremely small doses of radioactivity as far away as in Europe and USA, and people started predicting everybody will be affected and there will be cancer.
It was wrong, okay, so what I want to tell is the radioactivity in the environment was extremely small, nevertheless, the scientists could detect it. Same way, if there is an explosion of a dirty bomb, what you have called it; there can be presence of radioactivity slightly above the natural background, even in 3-4 kilometers because it can be transported by the wind.
Nevertheless, if you ask me the question, even that radiation level will not be even one thousandth of the radiation level of what you are having in the high background dose area of Kerala where people are living for many-many generations. So I will not like to use the word, people will be 'affected', but definitely nearby area may be around 30-50 meters from where a dirty bomb is exploded it can have high level of contamination, beyond that there can be a cigar shaped area where spread of contamination will take place. That also may be 80 meters or slightly more than that, but it all depends upon what is the source you are using. I can tell you, more than 1.5 kilometer one need not bother at all. Again, I am telling, it may be possible to detect even up to 3 kilometer etc but that is not a concern.
Q: So, in case of a dirty bomb, what I understand is that the possibility of people dying is because of the thermal part of the bomb, and not because of the radiation. Is that what you are suggesting?
A: Yes, I think I have to make it very specific, when you talk of a 'dirty bomb'; we are talking about an explosive mixed with a radioactive material. When we use the word radiological dispersal device, it is of two types. One is a dirty bomb, where there is an explosive involved.
Another is just a dispersal of the radioactive powder in the public domain. However, in any case, if we are talking about a dirty bomb, it will have the same effect like any other explosive, blast effect, thermal effect, etc and added to it there will be a radioactive fallout.
What I want to tell is, any death or serious injury to the people will be limited due to the blast and thermal effect because of the explosive power. Radioactive fallout and radiation exposure is not going to cause serious health effects.
Q: So the people dying of radiation exposure are unlikely.
A: It is unlikely. Today, there are many myths around a dirty bomb. Not only about dirty bomb, you talk about radiation, there are myths. 30-40 years back, even to take an X-ray people were scared, but today the awareness has come to the level that people are asking for an X-ray. Incidentally, in India no one has ever died due to a high radiation dose at any of the facilities run by the Department of Atomic Energy.
Q: Do you suspect that a dirty bomb would ever be used in India; people have an anxiety about it?
A: The threat does exist since radioactive sources do get lost and misplaced but assembling a pile with a gigantic radiation dose is very very difficult. Moreover, at the same time, I would like to underline the fact that making a dirty bomb and using it is a big challenge. Since first, it will harm those who try to assemble such a device.
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By PTI: New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) Congress President Sonia Gandhi hailed as "victory for democracy" the high-stakes trial of strength in the Uttarakhand Assembly which her party clinched today.
"It is a victory for democracy," she said after the floor test, outcome of which would be announced by the Supreme Court tomorrow.
It is being seen as a clear setback to the Modi government which had dismissed the state government and imposed Presidents Rule on March 28.
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At the AICC briefing, party spokesman and senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi remarked, "We may have reason to exult."
He, however, hastened to add that it is subject to the final result to be announced by the Supreme Court tomorrow.
Singhvi said that the Congress assessment is based on the verbal accounts of MLAs, the way they sat in the House and reports in the media and it should be taken with a "bucket full of salt".
"The political process has worked itself out. If we win, it will prove such political misadventures are akin to a Himalayan blunder," he said, taking a dig at the Modi dispensation.
He steered clear of a question whether after winning the trust vote, Harish Rawat should dissolve the House and order fresh election.
Several leaders in the party have been advocating such a course of action contending that it would help the party to go to the people on the theme of "murder of democracy". (More) PTI SPG SC
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Royal Challengers Bangalore kept alive their chances of reaching the knockout stages of the Indian Premier League after snatching a one-run win over Kings XI Punjab in Mohali.
By India Today Web Desk: Royal Challengers Bangalore lived to fight another day, thanks to their thrilling one-run win over Kings XI Punjab in Mohali last night. Following the dramatic game, RCB leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal said it was a crucial victory for the team and it would help them stay in the hunt for the knockouts. (Full IPL Coverage/Points Table)
RCB, studded with star batsmen, were languishing at seventh in the points tally and were in desperate need of a win to keep their hopes alive in the IPL. Thanks to a cracking knock by AB de Villiers and a great spell by Shane Watson (2/22), RCB were able to pull off a thriller.
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"Obviously we were seventh on the points table (moved to 6th after the win). This win was very crucial for us, we got two points, we are still in the fray (to make the playoffs)," said Chahal at the post match press conference after his team snatched a nerve-wracking win. (Virat Kohli's tactical brilliance leaves Shane Watson in awe)
Chasing a target of 176, KXIP were cruising along with skipper Murali Vijay smashing 89 off 57 balls but RCB stayed in the contest, thanks to a sensational penultimate over by Watson, where he gave away only seven runs.
Soon after, Chris Jordan managed to hold on to his nerves, giving away 15 runs in the final over, when the home team needed 17. (Shane Watson stars as Bangalore beat Punjab by 1 run)
Asked what was the thinking behind bringing Jordan to bowl the final over, Chahal revealed, "Chris Jordan is a death bowler, even when he bowls for England. (After discussion among team members before last over), he was told to bowl a slower one, a little bit shorter, because leg side boundary is very big and very difficult to hit. On this wicket, batsman always wants pace and Virat (Kohli) bhai told Chris to bowl slower ones on the leg but a little bit shorter."
The 25-year-old felt 175 was a good score to defend on the Mohali track. "On this wicket, 170-175 is a very good total. Even before the match, we planned 160-165 on this wicket," Chahal, who returned with figures of 4-0-30-1, said.
Meanwhile, Kings XI Pinjab's Marcus Stoinis rued a missed opportunity after the heartbreaking defeat.
Needing four off the last delivery, Stoinis (34, 22 balls) could only get two.
Asked if KXIP expected Jordan to bowl the last over as Varun Aaron also had one over left, Stoinis said, "In our calculations, we knew it was one of those two guys bowling that over. Doesn't really take you by surprise, you just go with what happens. But yeah, you have plans for each one and you have sort of an idea what they are going to try and bowl".
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Stoinis was gracious in defeat and heaped praise on Jordan, saying "he bowled well and did the job for his team".
(With PTI inputs)
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By PTI: Chandigarh, May 10 (PTI) Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit today asserted that the youth of both the countries are demanding a space for intervention in the process of normalization of Indo-Pak bilateral relationship.
"The youth of both countries are the hope of the region, their courage, curiosity and spontaneity will surely bring a change. Young people on both sides are aware how important peace between India and Pakistan is to realize our potential," he said.
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Basit said, "People and youth in particular, are demanding a space for intervention in the process of normalization of the relationship between India and Pakistan."
"I bring a message of peace and love," Basit told students and teachers of St Stephens School here during an interactive session, evoking a thunderous applause.
"People on both sides of border are determined to make the world a safer place for their children to grow in. For this, continuity in contacts is essential for better understanding and removal of misgivings. The differences should be understood and not fought," Basit said.
"People of the region shared thousands of years of history, heritage, traditions, but vested interests in both countries have focused on the events of the past six decades only. And misrepresentation of ground realities is a serious problem which demands to be addressed," Basit said. PTI VJ DKS DBS ZMN DBS
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By Javed Anwer: Yu co-founder Rahul Sharma on Monday said that the company's next phone would run on the "pure Android". He said that even if it has the tweaked interface, the differences between the software powering Yu's next phone -- likely to be a device with good looks and possibly a MediaTek processor -- and the software on the phone like Nexus will be few.
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This, in other words, also mean that the Yu's exclusive partnership with Cyanogen Inc for Cyanogen OS is over. Although Rahul stopped short of calling the partnership finished he said that going forward the company would focus on the software it is developing in-house using Android as the base.
"Earlier we had launched a few phones running pure Android along with CyanogenOS devices. The feedback from the people was that they liked pure android more. So going forward we will focus on it," he said.
Rahul also confirmed that Yu would bring successors of all the phones that it had launched last year, possibly before Diwali. This means in the run up to Diwali this year, consumers can expect to see phones like Yureka 2, Yutopia 2 and Yunique 2 in the market. The co-founder said that so far the company has sold over 2 million Yu devices.
Also Read: Yu says it will launch 'insanely beautiful' phone this month
To make sure that the Yu devices have the relevant software in the post-Cyanogen era, the company has initiated what it calls Project Highway. "We will take all the relevant code -- Android N, code from hardware makers etc -- as soon as it comes and then package it together quickly to provide updates to our consumer," said Rahul. "Going forward, providing updates will be a priority for us. Soon we will launch a new phone and we promise that this phone will be among the first ones in the market to get Android N update when Google releases the new version of Android."
However, the interesting bit about the Yu software is that even though the company calls it Pure Android, it will continue to have a lot of software related to Around Yu. If you are keeping the score, Around Yu is a service that Yu had launched along with the Yutopia. It offers consumers services like online shopping and e-cab booking without an app. Although it has some rough edges, Yu is hard at fixing them. The company is not only polishing the experience but is also adding more features to it.
Apart from working on software that is unique to the Yu phones, the company developers will also take inputs from users through the Yu forums. "We have seen that users submit many unique ROMs. So we thought, so why not create an ecosystem and curate it," said Rahul. Interesting features from these ROMs will be then merged into the official Yu software.
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The AC,
in its capacity as supervisory organ of the EPOrg -
having repeatedly expressed its deep concerns about the social unrest within the EPOffice;
having repeatedly urged the EPOffice President and the trade unions to reach a consensus on an MOU which would establish a framework for negotiation between social partners;
noting that disciplinary sanctions and proceedings against staff or trade union representatives have, among other reasons, made it more difficult to reach such a consensus;
noting that these disciplinary sanctions and proceedings are widely being questioned in the public opinion;
recalling the importance and the urgency of the structural reform of the BOA;
recognizing the important institutional role of the AC and its dependence on a well-resourced and independent secretariat;
Calls on both parties to the social dialogue to recognize their responsibilities and to work diligently and in good faith to find a way forward, and:
Requests the EPOffice President -
to ensure that disciplinary sanctions and proceedings are not only fair but also seen to be so, and to consider the possibility of involvement of an external reviewer or of arbitration or mediation
pending the outcome of this process and before further decisions in disciplinary cases are taken, to inform the AC in appropriate detail and make proposals that enhance confidence in fair and reasonable proceedings and sanctions;
to submit to the AC a draft revision of the Staff Regulations which incorporates investigation guidelines (including the investigation unit) and disciplinary procedures which have been reviewed and amended;
to achieve, within the framework of the tripartite negotiations, an MOU simultaneously with both trade unions, which would have no pre-conditions or exclude any topics from future discussions;
to submit proposals to the AC at its June 2016 meeting, after discussion in B28, for immediate implementation of the structural reform of the BOA, on the lines of the 5 points agreed by the AC at its December 2015 meeting and of the legal advice given by Prof. Sarooshi, and taking into account comments from the Presidium of the BOA;
to submit proposals to the AC at its June 2016 meeting, after discussion in B28, for reinforcement of the AC secretariat and a clarification of its position in terms of governance.
Requests the staff representation and the Trade Unions -
to acknowledge the importance of firm and fair disciplinary procedures; and to respond constructively to the initiatives set out above, in particular to work rapidly to an agreement on Union recognition without preconditions.
It has been quite a long while since Merpel visited the European Patent Office. She would like to apologise to those readers who have wanted more frequent updates, and thank those who have sent her news over the last couple of months. There have been quite a few developments, to which she will now turn her attention. Since many of these issues have now been ongoing for some time, she will briefly summarise the background of each one.There are two issues relating to the Boards of Appeal. First is the suspension of a member of the Board of Appeal by the Administrative Council, following the imposition on him of a "House Ban" by the President all the way back in December 2014. Many (including almost all internal members of the Enlarged Board of Appeal Appeal and many distinguished external members - see IPKat post here ) considered that the "House Ban" contravened the EPC, since only the Administrative Council can exercise disciplinary authority over a Board of Appeal member, but the position was somewhat regularised by the AC's later action. Later, the Service Regulations were amended by the Administrative Council last December, so that Board of Appeal members can be suspended pending disciplinary proceedings for up to two years, rather than four months as was previously the case (and is still the case for normal EPO employees).The removal from office of a Board of Appeal member requires a proposal from the Enlarged Board of Appeal. The EPO has now twice petitioned the EBA for such a proposal. The first was rejected as inadmissible (See IPKat here ). The second case (given the unusual number "Art 23 2/15", indicating that it is a proceeding pursuant to Article 23 EPC ) has terminated in a Decision of 11 February 2016 that is rather inconclusive. All of the admissible requests made to the Enlarged Board were withdrawn, while further requests will apparently be considered as a further reference - now the third related to the matter. The Decision states it is to be published, but Merpel has not yet seen an official publication of it by the EPO. Furthermore, Merpel wonders how many more opportunities the administration is going to have to put its case to the EBA while following the norms of natural justice.There is general agreement that the Boards of Appeal of the EPO need some organisational reform. Most see the main issue as being perception of independence from the rest of the EPO structure, given the quasi-judicial role of the Boards in reviewing EPO decisions and actions. However, the proposal from the President of the EPO to reform the Boards was widely criticised, both for some of the specific details (some of which were considered to be incompatible with the EPC), and for the overall approach, which conflated independence with efficiency and seemed fixated on moving the Boards to another physical location. Moreover, the Boards of Appeal were themselves not consulted during the drawing up of the proposals. At the Administrative Council meeting of 16 and 17 December 2015, these proposals were not adopted ; instead the AC mandated its own sub-group " Board 28 " to elaborate guidelines to take the reform project forwards. After a falling-out between the President and Board 28, at the March meeting of the Administrative Council, the President was asked to formulate proposals based on these guidelines (see the text of the AC Resolution below) for consideration at the June AC meeting. We await details of what these proposals are.The Boards of Appeal have put forward their own proposals for reform , and you can read the history of the reform from the point of view of the Boards on the website of their organisation AMBA . Merpel understands that the Boards have NOT been consulted even in the latest re-formulation of a proposal for reform.Merpel understands that the President is still fixated on the idea that the Boards need to be in a different building from the rest of the EPO, although now the idea is that it will be in another location in Munich, not another city altogether such as Vienna. The Munich suburb of Garching, halfway out to the airport, is the latest rumour. The motivation to move the Boards from their current location seems odd since the justification is that the members of the Boards should not be mingling with the first instance Examiners whose decisions they are reviewing. But the Boards largely work in the Isar building, whereas the Examiners work almost exclusively in the PschorrHofe buildings. The main other occupant of the Isar building is the President...The original proposals for reform of the Boards of Appeal presupposed that they have an issue with efficiency. These turned out to be based on misleading comparisons. While the Boards themselves agree that something has to be done about the growing backlog of appeal cases (estimated at about 8000 cases), and some increase in efficiency probably needs to be part of that, most of the respondents to the EPO's own consultation on reform of the Boards of Appeal emphasised that the reform and any efficiency increases need to be considered together. A more pressing issue in the ability of the Boards to deal with the caseload was that for some considerable period no new appointments had been made, and reappointments left to the very last minute (this raising concerns that the delay in reappointment could be used to make Board members more biddable in the meantime). Precise numbers are a little difficult to establish, but by March 2016, Merpel understands that no new appointments had been made for about 2 years, 7 Boards lacked a chairman and about 13 technical board member positions were vacant. Finally, a few new appointments (2 chairmen and 3 technical members) were made at the March 2016 meeting of the Administrative Council. Apparently the President denies that there has been any issue with the levels of staffing of the Boards, and considers that since he agreed to the creation of a new Board, the Boards have been "expanded"; it is to him apparently immaterial that this "expansion" is more than offset by the number of vacant positions and Merpel understands that this new Board was never in fact filled. Merpel very much hopes that the Boards will continue to be fully staffed.Also at the March 2016 meeting the AC expressed in the strongest terms so far its displeasure at the handling by the President of the social situation at the EPO, where there is much unrest amongst the employees about changes to career progression, working policies, sick policy, imposed essentially without consultation. The following resolution was adopted, so remarkable in its wording that Merpel wishes to reproduce it in full:Other calls to action have been received from a number of French MPs - recently Philip Cordery, Pierre-Yves Le Borgn', Richard Yung, Claudine Lepage, Jean-Yves Leconte and Helene Conway-Mouret wrote to the French Minister of Economic Affairs Emmanuel Macron to " demand once again that France take action towards a reform of the management of this international organization. "The "disciplinary sanctions and proceedings against staff or trade union representatives" in the above resolution refers to the fact that three of the 10 staff representatives have been singled out for disciplinary proceedings, resulting in the sacking of two and the downgrading of another in January 2016. Merpel understands that two others are also facing disciplinary proceedings. One of the staff representatives who was dismissed, Elizabeth Hardon who is the chair of SUEPO Munich, additionally had her pension docked; however this further sanction was removed following an internal appeal.Just before the March 2016 AC meeting, the EPO signed a Memorandum of Understanding with one of the EPO unions, FFPE-EPO. But, as reported by the IPKat here , that union is tiny and mostly exists only in the Hague. The AC resolution quoted above calls on both the President and the main EPO union SUEPO to work to "agreement on Union recognition without preconditions."Here, there has been not much progress. In fact, almost immediately after this there was an official strike on 7 April 2016 (having passed the rather high hurdle for a strike to be permitted at all under the Strike Regulations ). The vote in the strike ballot was overwhelming - 4062 voters (60% of the total EPO employees), of which 3701 in favor of the strike (91%). The strike participation was also high - 2078 full day and 579 half days: 2657 in total. The official strikes are rather rare, since they rely on the President approving a strike ballot. In between official strikes, demonstrations are quite frequent, and there is to be a further one on 11 May in Munich.SUEPO is not prepared to sign an MoU along the lines of that signed by FFPE-EPO; its counter-proposal has been disregarded. It is hard to see how the EPO administration can negotiate with SUEPO when the chair and vice-chair of SUEPO Munich have been dismissed and the chair currently banned from EPO premises. Another fundamental sticking point is that SUEPO wishes to revisit the controversial reforms from the last few years, while the administration wants to have those accepted and confine discussions to future reforms.One of the most controversial aspects of the current functioning of the EPO is the "Investigation Unit" which conducts internal investigations (sometimes also using external investigation companies such as Control Risks) into staff conduct under "Circular 342", which came into effect in January 2013. During such investigations, failure to cooperate is itself a disciplinary offence (so no right to silence), and no legal representation is permitted. Here at least there is some progress - the President has started a review of the functioning of the Investigation Unit, and SUEPO has provided its comments . Merpel will cast her last piece of hope that this review may lead to a disciplinary procedure that does not offend basic principles of due process.In the meantime, reports of the contracts recently signed by the EPO refer to 6 contracts with 6 individuals to provide "Close Protection" because of "increased security requirements", at a reported cost of 550,000 for 6 months. Merpel is astonished that senior EPO management are considered to be in need of such protection.
Javadi pointed out that the supposed 65,000 bpd order would approximately double the current quantities of oil that Iran delivers to Italy. He went on to claim that this figure might substantially increase again, as Iranian officials were supposedly in talks with Italian energy company Eni to conclude a deal that would add another 35,000 bpd in oil exports.
These claims underscore the perception that European companies and entrepreneurs are eager to gain access to the Iranian market now that it is widely viewed as being open for business. However, this perception is not without its detractors. In fact, such figures as Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have been among the most active voices reminding the world community that some US sanctions and banking restrictions remain in place on Iran, constituting a source of anxiety for Western businesses that may later find themselves open to fines and penalties.
This same limiting factor was highlighted by EconoTimes on Monday. Although that article acknowledged the eagerness that does indeed exist among many Western figures, it also emphasized that those individuals and firms would find it difficult to overtake Irans economic relationships with Russia and China. The political affinity among these countries is one factor keeping them economically close together, but those effects are strengthened by the roadblocks that continue to exist between Iran and the EU.
However, while Khamenei and his colleagues have insisted that these roadblocks are indicative of Western aggression and that they are evidence that the US is abiding by the July 14 nuclear agreement only on paper, EconoTimes notes that at least some of those measures are necessary consequences of Irans ongoing behavior and the structure of its economy. For instance, organizations like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which are still subject to legitimate Western sanctions on human rights violations and support for terrorism, control a great many of the companies that Europe could be expected to do business with upon reentry into Iran.
Last week, Iran News Update pointed out that the banking restrictions currently standing in the way of Irans re-integration into the system of global transactions are imposed upon all nations equally. Iran has reportedly taken few, if any, steps to meet the criteria specified by those restrictions. Consequently, even officials with the Central Bank of Iran have acknowledge that the Islamic Republic itself is at fault for some of the major obstacles to economic re-engagement with the West.
Nevertheless, reports continue to accumulate which substantiate the notion that Western companies are eager to overcome these obstacles. On Monday, Reuters reported that Germanys Robert Bosch had become the last automaker to announce that it would be doing business in Iran, in this case by opening a local office in Tehran and hiring a staff of about 50 by the end of the year. In doing so, Bosch presumably seeks to compete for the market share already tentatively claimed by Renault, Daimler, Peugeot-Citroen, and Suzuki, all of which have already announced plans to reenter the Iranian import market.
Of course, consumer imports and exports are less significant to Irans economic relations with the world than is its oil economy. And Rokneddin Javadis claims about expanded oil exports to Italy are only part of broader Iranian claims regarding the rapid post-sanctions recovery that the nation has enjoyed over the past four months.
A Bloomberg report on Monday once again reiterated that the Iranian Oil Ministry and the government as a whole believe themselves to be on track to recovering their pre-sanctions export figures within the next month or two. Speaking in Tehran on Sunday, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said that the country would soon be export 2 million barrels per day of crude oil, thereby doubling the output that was being sent to foreign markets before sanctions were lifted in January with the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
However, last week, Ship and Bunker noted that some market analysts doubt these officials Iranian figures. This is not to say that they specifically dispute the current export figures; rather, they believe that those figures may not be sustainable over the long term, because they may not reflect a corresponding increase in crude oil production. Iran was known to have about 25 million barrels in onshore storage and about 20 million floating in tankers that could not find foreign markets to receive them.
That being the case, it is possible that Iran is simply depleting this storage while using the result export figures to drum up interest among foreign investors, even though that investment may not turn out to be as secure as it appears at first glance.
The security of those investments may be further undermined by the efforts of Irans major political and economic rivals in the region. While Supreme Leader Khamenei and others have been keen to put that onus on the United States, it is perhaps more likely that Saudi Arabia and its nearby allies will take deliberately punitive action against Iran in order to prevent it from regaining full access to foreign oil export markets.
The mutual aggression between these oil exporting companies has played out in recent weeks in disputes over a now-scuttled agreement to freeze output among OPEC and several non-OPEC countries. Iran refused to participate in talks over the prospective freeze until such time as it had recovered its pre-sanctions levels. Now that Tehran claims to be on the verge of doing so, it may also be on the verge of opening itself up to cooperative policies that would help to bolster long-depressed global oil prices.
Bloomberg took up this line of thinking on Monday but also pointed out those prices have risen significantly in recent days: up 65 percent over the 12-year lows that were recorded in January. Thus, while Irans reclamation of market share may have increased its incentive to talk with OPEC, the relatively higher prices have simultaneously decreased Saudi Arabias incentive, as the head of OPEC, to bring Iran back into the fold.
Continued animosity between the two rivals could prevent Iran from keeping hold over major shares of the market, thereby further endangering the recovery that Iranian officials claim to have already overseen.
Despite the length of her detention, Zaghari-Ratcliff has apparently not been formally charged with any crime. According to IranWire, her parents have only been told that she is being held in connection with threats to national security. Such vague explanations are frequently invoked to explain arrests of dual-nationals. This was the case, for instance, with Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, who was convicted of espionage after being held without charge for approximately a year as authorities built a case against and elicited a forced confession.
The same tactics are reportedly already being employed against Zaghari-Ratcliff. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty indicates that she has been held mostly in solitary confinement, and IranWire indicates that she was coerced into signing a unspecified confession, despite the absence of formal charges.
Meanwhile, Zaghari-Ratcliffs 22 month-old daughter remains in the care of the womans parents, unable to return home to Zaghari-Ratcliffs British husband Richard Ratcliff, because authorities have confiscated the childs passport. Although there is not yet any indication of such tactics in the present case, Iranian authorities have frequently been accused of using threats against family members as a way of exerting psychological pressure on political prisoners and securing false confessions, which are then often broadcast in the media.
Zaghari-Ratcliff is by no means the only dual citizen currently in detention in the Islamic Republic. Now that it has been made public, her arrest has become another example of the surge of such arrests in the several months since the conclusion of nuclear negotiations, which some thought would lead to broader reconciliation between Iran and the West. It is generally understood that the Revolutionary Guards and other hardliners are pushing back against these expectations by portraying activists and persons with foreign contacts or sympathies as spies and infiltrators.
Consequently, the sweeping arrests of dual nationals have been accompanied by similar sweeping arrests of protesters, journalists, and artists deemed to be out of step with the regimes ideology. Not all of the targets of these arrests and prosecutions can even be identified as political or social activists. Earlier this year, two poets were forced to flee the country in lieu of serving long prison sentences, after they were convicted on charges of propaganda based upon poems they had published that had previously been cleared by Irans censorship authorities.
Other types of artists have been caught up in this same overzealous crackdown. For instance, Agence France-Presse on Monday recalled attention to the case of Keywan Karimi, a filmmaker who was charged with propaganda and insulting religious values after he created a documentary on graffiti in the city of Tehran.
All I was doing was filming what was being written on the walls of Tehran, the filmmaker was quoted as saying, insisting that he is not a political activist. His film has never been shown in his home country, and yet its purported offenses led to a six year prison sentence in 2015.
Karimi was released after international support helped to prompt the judiciary to suspend five years of his sentence. But hardline authorities are apparently eager to see additional punishment dispensed against him, and so they are calling for a concurrent sentence of 233 lashes to be carried out. He has also apparently been made the target of a range of other, unsubstantiated charges including adultery, alcohol consumption, and production of pornography.
Alongside foreigners and artists, certain minority groups also continue to be targeted by regime authorities in Iran, although the resulting punishments are not always carried out via arrest or prosecution. On Friday, an Iranian human rights group pointed out that in the case of the Bahai religious minority, many individuals simply have their land and property legally stolen by the government.
The article specifically highlights the case of Ziaollah Motearefi, who spoke out after all of his attempts to redress his case with government institutions were ignored. Motearefi explained that he had purchased more than 120 acres of agricultural land but was never given a deed to the land upon completing his final payments. Subsequently, in 2011, he received notice from Ministry of Agriculture Jihad saying that it was foreclosing on his property because he had failed to pay rent to the government for land that he owned.
Confiscation of land is only one of the tactics that the regime uses as part of an apparent effort to put Bahais under pressure to either convert to Islam or leave the country.
Many international activists note that young members of the Bahai faith are routinely barred from receiving any form of higher education in Iran. Their advocates have responded by forming unofficial schools for the education of these people, but those schools have at times been forcibly shuttered and their instructors subjected to political imprisonment for their activities.
Naturally, activist political prisoners face additional pressures inside of prison, many of them constituting unofficial and extrajudicial punishments. One of the most prominent of these is the denial of medical treatment for extremely ill inmates. The group called renewed attention to this on Friday when it pointed out that the imprisoned human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani was suffering chronic heart problems and had lost an alarming amount of weight, but was still being denied medical furlough despite urgent appeals from his wife and daughter.
Soltani was among a number of other individuals listed by the National Council of Resistance of Iran on Sunday in a statement calling upon United Nations organizations and other human rights advocates to take immediate and effective measures to compel Iranian authorities to end the practice of systematically denying medical treatment to sick prisoners, especially political prisoners.
Although government officials including Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan continue to hold to the original line on this incident, Deputy Army Chief of Staff Ali Abdollahi has acknowledged that the launch constituted a test of one of Irans most advanced ballistic missiles the sixth such test since nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 were concluded in July, and the fourth since the resulting deal was implemented in January.
Prior to that implementation, a UN Security Council resolution was in place which technically banned the Islamic Republic from conducting such launches or pursuing related work on ballistic missiles that are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. After implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that resolution was replaced by another, which maintained the same limitations but enforced them with softer language.
Those changes in phrasing have given Tehran and its foreign allies greater leverage in arguing that further ballistic missile tests are permitted under international laws and agreements. But most Western commentators and policymakers have apparently been in agreement that these tests have been intended as direct defiance of international will.
Accordingly, the United States initiated new economic sanctions on entities linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps missile program, in response to the first of the six tests. No major response has yet been initiated for tests that followed, although there has been considerable pressure inside of the US government in favor of a stronger response. This has especially been the case light of the revelation that two of the three missiles tested in March were launched with the message Israel must be wiped out written along their sides.
International news sources emphasized on Monday that Abdollahis commentary on the April test could be seen as further intimidation of the Jewish state. Brigadier General Abdollahi claimed that the most recently tested missile was capable of striking targets as far away as 2,000 kilometers, putting Tel Aviv within range of a missile fired from Tehran. He also claimed that the weapon was precision-guided and accurate to within a range of eight meters.
Iranian officials are well known for making elaborate claims about the strength of their military claims that are sometimes undermined by international military analysts. On April 17, the regime conducted exercises and demonstrations for its annual Army Day, during which officials explicitly claimed that outdated tanks and other equipment were as good as those current in use by such military superpowers as the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, Iran has been trying to gain access to those very weapons, but Russia has been unclear about its willingness to sell.
A nearly decade old deal for the sale of an S-300 missile defense system very recently began to be implemented with Russian deliveries of some components to the Islamic Republic. Janes 360 reports that those components were prominently displayed in Army Day parades, even though the weapons themselves could not be spotted.
The outmoded or undelivered status of some Iranian weapons does not prevent regime officials from making bold statements about what they would use their supposed military strength for. Just last week, the IRGC asserted that it would close off the Strait of Hormuz to the US and its allies in reply to theoretical Western threats. But the statements were not taken seriously by American military figures and defense experts, who recognize that Iran lacks the naval strength to enforce any such closure.
The Iranian resistance group the National Council of Resistance of Iran had a similar response to the acknowledgement of the latest ballistic missile test. Spokesperson Shahin Gobadi described it as a hollow show of force. Nevertheless, he also called for the return of US-led sanctions against the Islamic republic, in order to avoid encouraging the worlds number one state sponsor of terrorism to defy the will of the international community, violate its international obligations and produce lethal weapons with which to threaten the region and the world.
The NCRI statement also suggested that by straying from the previous, official narrative about the latest missile launch, Iranian officials were striving to distract attention from the weakness demonstrated by recent setbacks and losses in foreign conflicts, especially Syria. Indeed, Abdollahis claims came only about two days after 13 Iranian military advisers were killed in fighting near Aleppo.
The Jerusalem Post indicates that in addition to these 13 figures, who are part of an IRGC mission that Tehran insists does not involve direct combat, seven other Iranians were also killed. They were presumably fighting as volunteers within Shiite militias that fighting alongside whats left of the actual Syrian military.
Tehran has also bolstered the defense of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad by deploying troops from the Lebanese paramilitary Hezbollah, and by conducting ongoing recruitment for Shiite militias that are either multi-ethnic or are made up specifically of Afghans or Pakistanis drawn both from their home countries and from refugee communities inside Iran.
Fifteen of those Afghans were also among those killed on the pro-Assad side of the conflict over the weekend. Six Hezbollah operatives were also reported killed. Even discounting those merely affiliated with Tehran, the number of casualties of Iranian nationals in this latest clash has made it one of the largest single losses for the Islamic Republic since it began deploying troops to support Assad very early in the more than five year long war.
Nevertheless, Pop Herald reported on Monday that a key advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had met face-to-face with Bashar al-Assad on Monday to reaffirm Tehrans ongoing support for the Alawite regime in Damascus. Many members of the world community, including the United States, have been calling for Assads ouster in line with the demands of moderate rebel groups. But Iran, having been welcomed into international negotiations on the future of the crisis, has repeatedly rejected any notion of an alternative transitional government.
Irans patronage of the Assad regime may have grown more complicated in the midst of those negotiations, however. Although Russia reportedly intensified bombing of rebel-held areas in recent days, it has also supposedly drawn back some of its forces. Moscow has also actively defended a ceasefire inside of the city of Aleppo, announcing for instance that it had been extended at least through Monday.
A broader ceasefire last month was reportedly followed by IRGC forces and their affiliates massing near Aleppo, suggesting that Iran is keen to destroy rebel factions there in order to alleviate a major source of pressure on the Assad regime.
[May 09, 2016] Fitch Rates White Settlement ISD, TX Series 2016 ULT Rfdg Bonds 'AAA' TX PSF/'A+' Und.
Fitch Ratings has assigned an 'AAA' rating to the following White Settlement Independent School District, Texas (the district) unlimited tax (ULT) bonds: --$2.1 million ULT refunding bonds, series 2016. The 2016 bonds are scheduled to sell via negotiated sale as early as May 12th. Proceeds will be used to refund certain outstanding maturities for savings and to pay issuance costs. The 'AAA' rating on the bonds is based on a guaranty provided by the Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF), whose bond guaranty program is rated 'AAA' by Fitch. (For more information on the Texas Permanent School Fund, see 'Fitch Affirms Texas PSF Rating at 'AAA'; Outlook Stable', dated Aug. 5, 2015.) Fitch also assigns an 'A+' underlying rating to the series 2016 bonds. In addition, Fitch affirms the district's Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'A+' and the 'A+' rating on approximately $159.5 million outstanding ULT bonds. The affirmation of the IDR reflects application of Fitch's revised criteria for U.S., state, and local government credits, which was released on April 18, 2016. The Rating Outlook is Stable. SECURITY The bonds are payable from an unlimited property tax levied against all taxable property within the district. The bonds are also insured as to principal and interest repayment from a guaranty provided by the PSF. KEY RATING DRIVERS Weighing on the rating is the district's elevated long-term liability burden and debt service tax rate at the state-imposed $0.50 cap for new money issuance that is likely to drive further extension of debt. Otherwise underpinning the 'A+' rating are sound economic fundamentals, solid expenditure flexibility, and revenue growth that has allowed to district to maintain a strong and stable operating profile, characterized by a sound reserve cushion even in periods of economic stress. Fixed carrying costs are presently moderate, but Fitch expects them to rise to moderately high levels in the near term given a slowly rising debt service schedule. Economic Resource Base: This small district is a bedroom community in the Fort Worth MSA, incorporating a largely suburban residential area inclusive of the city of White Settlement. Residential construction has slowed in the district in recent years. District residents benefit from proximity to the broad Fort Worth labor market with easy access along major transportation corridors. Revenue Framework: 'a' factor assessment Revenues have historically grown comparable to the level of U.S. economic performance due in part to rapid enrollment growth. Fitch expects revenues will moderate going forward, comparable to relatively modest enrollment growth trends in recent years. State aid, underpinned by Texas' robust credit profile (GOs rated 'AAA'/Stable Outlook), provides the bulk of operating revenues. This funding framework ensures comparable, state-wide per pupil funding levels despite varying local property wealth. Expenditure Framework: 'aa' factor assessment Operational spending growth is likely to remain in line with revenue gains given the district's spending profile. The district can adjust its staffing and class sizes in order to control key expenditure items without affecting its educational goals. Now moderate fixed carrying costs are expected by Fitch to become moderately high in the near term given a slowly rising debt service schedule. Long-Term Liability Burden: 'a' factor assessment Previously rapid enrollment growth and the need for school facilities led to the current, elevated long-term liability that is largely comprised of a slowly amortized debt burden. This has left the district with limited flexibility for future capital needs, which Fitch expects to persist. In contrast, the district's pension liabilities are very manageable due to the state's role in providing most of the employer contribution. The overall liability burden is moderate at 18.4% of personal income. Operating Performance: 'aa' factor assessment Sound expenditure flexibility and conservative budgeting practices have preserved a strong and stable reserve cushion through the economic cycle while allowing for periodic pay-go capital investment. An unaddressed moderate economic decline shows an operating reserve cushion that Fitch judges to be consistent with an 'aaa' financial resilience assessment. This is balanced against the district's practice of deferring debt repayment in order to avoid tax rate increases, even in times of economic recovery. RATING SENSITIVITIES Maintenance of Financial Flexibility: The rating is sensitive to material changes in the district's solid expenditure flexibility and financial position, which Fitch expects it to maintain throughout the economic cycle. Continued, conservative budgeting of revenue and spending is an important offset to what Fitch considers a weak practice of deferring debt repayment to maintain near-term flexibility. CREDIT PROFILE The local area maintains an overall positive employment profile with growth in labor force and jobs generally in line with the state. Unemployment remained low at 3.9% in March 2016. Military-related spending historically accounts for a large portion of the Fort Worth MSA economy, but recent gains in other sectors, such as services, construction, and trade have helped diversify mployment. In addition, ranching, manufacturing, technology, education, and aerospace are significant economic sectors and add a measure of diversity to the region.
Revenue Framework State aid provides most of the district's operating revenue, followed by property taxes. Revenue growth is primarily a function of enrollment. Established per pupil funding levels ensure additional state revenue will offset weakness in local (property tax) revenue. The district's property taxes are derived from a relatively limited local resource base; the top 10 taxpayers provide a high 22% of taxable assessed valuation (TAV).
Historical revenue growth has been robust, comparable to that of U.S GDP. Fitch believes this trend may soften somewhat in the near- to intermediate-term, as the enrollment base (presently estimated at 6,741) is projected to grow at a modest 1%-2% as compared to the rapid pace of prior years. The district's tax rate for operations is at the legal limit of $1.04 per $100 TAV. The district has independent control over only a very small portion of its operating revenues. Per state statute, the district cannot increase its operating property tax levy further unless it receives voter approval. A Texas district judge ruled in August 2014 that the state's school finance system is unconstitutional. The ruling, which was in response to a consolidation of six lawsuits representing 75% of Texas schoolchildren and was the second such ruling in the past two years, found the system inefficient, inequitable and underfunded. The judge also ruled that local school property taxes are effectively a statewide property tax due to lack of local discretion and therefore are unconstitutional. The Texas attorney general has appealed the judge's latest ruling to the state supreme court. If the state school finance system is ultimately found unconstitutional, the legislature would likely follow with change intended to restore its constitutionality. Fitch would consider any changes that include additional funding for schools and more local discretion over tax rates to be a credit positive. Expenditure Framework Instruction is the district's largest spending responsibility at 62% of spending in fiscal 2015. Strong workforce flexibility and one-year contracts allow the district above-average expenditure flexibility in relation to this high labor-cost expenditure function. This is balanced against the mandated class size staffing ratios for certain grade levels by the state that can be exceeded in times of fiscal stress. Spending has expanded at a measured pace historically, punctuated periodically by pay-go capital spending. Fitch expects the district's natural spending pace will remain equal to or slightly exceed revenue gains based on its current expenditure trends and the enrollment-based state funding formula. Significant operating flexibility exists in the district's labor costs given the lack of group/collective bargaining or contractual agreements and short employment contracts. Now moderate fixed carrying costs (about 15% of fiscal 2015 governmental spending after factoring in state support for the district's debt) are expected by Fitch to become moderately high in the near term given a slowly rising debt service schedule. Recent capital needs have been manageable to date, supported by modest enrollment growth trends that are projected to be sustained in the near term. Capital funding has become largely a general fund spending responsibility given the district's periodic pay-go capital spending and use of maintenance tax notes necessitated by the lack of ULT debt capacity. The district's debt service tax levy is currently at the state-imposed $0.50 per $100 TAV cap for new money issuance. Long-Term Liability Burden The district's long-term liability burden is elevated due to debt rather than pension liabilities, and the former is slowly amortized. Fitch expects this profile will persist going forward. The liability burden is moderate when considering resident wealth levels at 18.4% of personal income, but debt is a high 13% of fiscal 2016 market value. The debt service tax rate has been at the state-imposed $0.50 cap for new money issuance since fiscal 2010. This has left the district with limited flexibility for future capital needs and has required previous debt refinancings to stay at or below this tax rate, absent strong TAV gains. Further restructuring is projected in the intermediate term. Nonetheless, this series 2016 ULT refunding issuance will have net present value savings without restructuring. Operating Performance Fitch judges financial resilience to be consistent with an 'aaa' assessment in a moderate economic decline scenario. Fitch believes the district would use its solid financial flexibility to maintain a satisfactory reserve safety margin. Expenditure savings as a result of conservative budgeting practices (flat enrollment is budgeted) and growth in state aid from increased enrollment allowed the district to maintain this trend in fiscal 2015. Roughly $2 million or 4% of spending was added to reserves, which brought the year's unrestricted operating reserves to $14 million or a strong 30.5% of fiscal 2015 spending. The $47.6 million fiscal 2016 operating budget was adopted as structurally balanced, inclusive of plans for modest use of $500,000 for pay-go capital projects. Additional, mid-year capital projects presently anticipate a slightly larger $2 million use of reserves by year-end. Fitch expects the district will maintain a strong and stable financial position given its historical financial trends. The district periodically uses a portion of its operating reserves for pay-go capital spending and maintains full funding of actuarially required pension contributions. This, however, is in contrast to prior debt management practices that deferred debt repayment with slow amortization and significant use of zero-coupon capital appreciation bonds so as to maintain near-term tax rate flexibility. Recent debt refinancings have also served to defer spending in a period of economic recovery in an effort to avoid raising the tax rate. Additional information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'. In addition to the sources of information identified in the applicable criteria specified below, this action was informed by information from Lumesis, CreditScope, and the Texas Municipal Advisory Council. Applicable Criteria U.S. Tax-Supported Rating Criteria (pub. 18 Apr 2016) https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=879478 Additional Disclosures Dodd-Frank Rating Information Disclosure Form https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/press_releases/content/ridf_frame.cfm?pr_id=1004211 Solicitation Status https://www.fitchratings.com/gws/en/disclosure/solicitation?pr_id=1004211 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/20160509006638/en/
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[May 10, 2016] New Irish Passport Card Wins International Design Award
DLRS Group, Ireland's leading security printer and HID Global, a worldwide leader in secure identity solutions, today announced that the new Irish Passport Card has won the Regional Best ID Document of the Year Award 2016 by Reconnaissance International at this year's High Security Printing Conference in Bucharest, Romania. The programme's prime contractor DLRS Group joined forces with HID Global, Absolute Graphics, and Purple Pod to design and produce Europe's first passport card, which has been in circulation since October, 2015. The award was presented to Ireland' Passport Service Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The credit-card sized card is the first and only passport card deployed in Europe for border crossing. It allows Irish citizens to travel across Europe without their traditional passports. The award recognizes the Passport Card for its innovative design, the combination of state-of-the-art technologies and a unique mobile application process. Citizens can obtain the card by applying online or through a smartphone app that allows the applicant to submit a compliant photo from a mobile device. Payments are made through a secure payment gateway. Cardholders benefit from the card's state-of-the-art technologies and innovative security features. The card is the first to combine optical security media and an ICAO-compliant chip, which together provide ultra-high levels of protection against attempts at fraud and counterfeiting. Other innovations optimizing the card's reliability, durability and security include a highly secure personalized embedded hologram photo; a unique anti-crack technology that protects the card from daily wear and tear; and direct bonding, which minimizes the space required for the RFID chip, allowing the unique combination of security features. Other security features on the passport card include the holder's signature, a Kinegram overlay featuring a 12 string harp, specific tactile features, optically variable and thermochromic inks plus a covert diffractive image. The new Irish passport card fits thematically with the new Irish ePassport, using some of the same imagery, representing the culture, history and people of Ireland. The Irish security printer DLRS was the lead company in the management and delivery of the card project, partnering with HID Global Ireland, Absolute Graphics and Purple Pod. It was also the producer of Ireland's new ePassport, which was introduced in 2013. HID Global designed and manufactures the card and also supplies the personalization software and Fargo Laser Engraving equipment - the high security personalization systems used to print and issue the cards. Austin Gormley Director of Passport Services, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ireland said, "We are delighted to receive this prestigious international award, which recognizes the quality and innovation of the card, and the benefit it delivers to our citizens. It is also a tribute to the technical capabilities within Ireland." The award was acceptedby Austin Gormley, Director of Passport Services, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ireland as well as David O'Connor of DLRS.
The Regional ID Document of the Year award aims to promote the best in security printing, system infrastructure and implementation of a government passport, identity or other security card scheme. The conference organizers, Reconnaissance International, recognized the pioneering use of many new high security printing technologies and techniques deployed in the Irish passport card. "DLRS and our team of partners take great pride in delivering the new Irish passport card, that is making the lives of Irish citizens easier," said David O'Connor, Sales Director, DLRS. "Our goal was to deliver the highest quality and most innovative card imaginable, within budget to the government of Ireland. This award recognizes our success in doing so."
"Congratulations to Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs on this exciting award," said Rob Haslam, Vice President Government ID Solutions, HID Global. "DLRS successfully spearheaded this award-winning project by bringing together the right team of experts, ideas and technologies. It is rewarding that HID Global's daily focus on innovation has helped to deliver this unique project. About DLRS Group DLRS Limited is Ireland's largest security printer. Established since 1976, the Company has a production facility in the Republic of Ireland, servicing the needs of major financial and government bodies supplying passport books and cards, biometric cards and network development including enrolments, production management and Personation solutions, fiscal stamps and security documents. For more information visit http://www.dlrsgroup.com. DLRS Limited is the security division of the Smurfit Kappa Group, world-leader in paper based packaging, operating in 22 countries in Europe. Smurfit Kappa Group is the European leader in containerboard, solid board, corrugated and solid board packaging and has a key position in several other paper packaging market segments. About HID Global HID Global is the trusted source for innovative products, services, solutions, and know-how related to the creation, management, and use of secure identities for millions of customers around the world. The company's served markets include physical and logical access control, including strong authentication and credential management; card printing and personalization; visitor management systems; highly secure government and citizen ID; and identification RFID technologies used in animal ID and industry and logistics applications. The company's primary brands include ActivID, EasyLobby, FARGO, IdenTrust, LaserCard, Lumidigm, Quantum (News - Alert) Secure, and HID. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, HID Global has over 2,700 employees worldwide and operates international offices that support more than 100 countries. HID Global is an ASSA ABLOY Group brand. For more information, visit http://www.hidglobal.com. For more information, For more HID Global news, visit our Media Center, read our Industry Blog, subscribe to our RSS Feed, watch our videos and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Visit http://www.hidglobal.com/government/citizen-id HID, and the HID logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of HID Global or its licensors in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, and product or service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510005627/en/
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[May 10, 2016] Confirmit Announces 2016 ACE Award Winners
NEW YORK and OSLO, Norway and LONDON, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Confirmit, the leading global customer experience solutions provider for Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Employee, and Market Research, today announced the winners of the 2016 Confirmit ACE (Achievement in Customer Excellence) Awards. Established in 2005, the ACE Awards recognize Confirmit clients who demonstrate excellence and innovation in Voice of the Customer programs. The winners of the 2016 ACE Awards represent organizations from a variety of industries, all dedicated to delivering the very best customer experience. Several of this year's winning companies have also been recognized with the prestigious Judges' Choice Award, honoring companies exhibiting exceptional results from their Voice of the Customer program, and proving they are amongst the best of the best when it comes to customer-centricity. Winning organizations include: Voice of the Customer Judges' Choice Award: Cognita, Grant Thornton LLP (National Client Experience US), Philadelphia Insurance, Virgin Money Winners: Actuate/Open Text, AIG Travel Guard, AIG's U.S. Life Division, Asurion, Authorize.Net, Best Buy, CyberSouce, Dell Software, Inc., Deltek, Inc., Digital Insight (Digital Insight University), Erie Insurance, Infor, Lloyds Banking Group, Moore Medical, Newmarket International, Inc. an Amadeus company, PODS Enterprises LLC, Screwfix, Siemens Building Technologies, Synoptek Sysmex America, Inc., The Toro Company, Tyco SimplexGrinnell, Waters Corporation
Contact Center Judges' Choice Award: Synoptek Winners: ANSYS, Philadelphia Insurance, Screwfix, Sysmex America, Inc., Telegraph Media Group
Overall Business Impact Judges' Choice Award: Best Buy, Screwfix Winners: ANSYS, Asurion, Digital Insight, Grant Thornton LLP (National Office Canada ), Homesite Home Insurance, McKesson Ireland , Reachlocal, The Hanover Insurance Group, Unruly Media
Innovation in a Voice of the Customer or Voice of the Employee Program Judges' Choice Award: ANSYS Winners: Reachlocal, Sony Mobile Communications, Synoptek
Insight through a Market Research Agency Judges' Choice Award: W5 with Gas Networks Ireland Winners: B2B International with Wolseley , Greenwich Associates
"Our 2016 ACE Award recipients represent outstanding organizations that are genuinely committed to listening to their customers and delivering an exceptional customer experience," shared Henning Hansen, President and CEO of Confirmit. "As a result, these winning organizations are best positioned to drive positive business and culture change in every industry. Their dedication is an inspiration to us all and we are thrilled to honor their achievements."
Confirmit will be recognizing ACE Award winners at key events throughout the year as part of the celebration of the company's 20th Anniversary. About the Confirmit ACE Awards
The ACE (Achievement in Customer Excellence) Awards program was established in 2005 to recognize outstanding achievement in customer excellence. Receiving a Confirmit ACE Award is a distinct honor that demonstrates both rigorous application of customer experience processes and outstanding performance as measured by those processes. All Confirmit customers are eligible for Confirmit ACE Awards for their company, business units, or segments of a business. To be eligible for a 2016 Confirmit ACE Award, organizations must have conducted one or more Voice of the Customer surveys between January 1 and December 31, 2015. About Confirmit
Confirmit is the world's leading SaaS vendor for multi-channel Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Employee, and Market Research solutions. The company has offices in Oslo (headquarters), Chengdu, Grimstad, London, Moscow, New York, San Francisco, Sydney, Vancouver, and Yaroslavl. Confirmit's software is also distributed through partner resellers in Madrid, Milan, Salvador, and Tokyo.
Confirmit powers Global 5000 companies and Market Research agencies worldwide with a wide range of software products for feedback / data collection, panel management, data processing, analysis, and reporting. Customers include Aurora, British Airways, British Standards Institution, Cross-Tab, Dow Chemical, GfK, GlaxoSmithKline, GMO Research, JTN Research, Keep Factor, Morehead Associates, Nielsen, Research Now, RONIN, RS Components, Sony Mobile Communications, Swisscom and The Wellcome Trust. Visit www.confirmit.com for more information. Media Contact: Emma Walter, Matter Communications, 978-518-4820, [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160127/326621LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/confirmit-announces-2016-ace-award-winners-300265267.html SOURCE Confirmit
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[May 10, 2016] Merkle Names Speakers for its 13th Annual Performance Marketing Summit
Merkle (www.merkleinc.com), a leading technology-enabled, data-driven performance marketing agency, announced speakers for its thirteenth annual Performance Marketing Executive Summit, being held June 7-9 at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. People-based marketing creates enormous potential to simultaneously increase conversion and ROI while improving the overall customer experience. Merkle's Performance Marketing Executive Summit will provide marketing leaders with the tools and knowledge to help their companies realize the potential of people-based marketing. Attendees will learn the technology, data infrastructure, and analytics approaches needed to make people-based marketing possible; how to use statistical insight to deliver personalized, optimized experience to each customer; and the high-level customer strategy that ties it together across the enterprise. Keynote speakers for the event include Antonio Sciuto, CMO eBusiness, Nestle WatersNorth America; Renee Horne, VP, social business for USAA; Sean Downey, VP, Americas platform solutions & innovations for Google; and Aseem Chandra, VP, experience manager & target, Adobe (News - Alert). In addition to the keynote addresses, the Summit will offer a number of joint presentations featuring Merkle thought leaders, together with industry insiders from world-class brands such as TIAA, Regions Bank, Liberty Mutual, Dell (News - Alert), and Samsung Electronics America.
"Merkle's Performance Marketing Summit is a great opportunity to hear from industry experts about the hottest trends in marketing," said George Gallate, EVP, chief marketing officer for Merkle. "The ability to marry first-party data with addressability at scale in digital media enables marketers to directly target ideal customers with tailored messaging. This has an enormous influence on short-term sales and long-term loyalty. Content presented at this year's event will guide Merkle's clients and key prospects through the process and give them a clear vision for how to approach people-based marketing." To find out more about the conference and get the latest information on the agenda, speakers and activities, visit the Summit event site.
About Merkle Merkle is a global data-driven, technology-enabled performance marketing agency and the largest independent agency in the US for CRM, digital, and search. For more than 25 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. The agency's heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights. When combined with its strength in performance media, Merkle creates customer experiences that drive improved marketing performance and shareholder value. With more than 3,400 employees, the privately held corporation is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland with 15 additional offices in the US and offices in Barcelona, Bristol, London, Shanghai, and Nanjing. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510005187/en/
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[May 10, 2016] Esri Unveils Advanced Analytics at GEOINT
Today, Esri, the world leader in geographic information system (GIS) solutions, announced that it will be exhibiting and providing a free training session at GEOINT, May 15 to 18, 2016, in Orlando, Florida. Esri will be showcasing transformational geospatial technologies, based on the ArcGIS platform, that provide advanced analytics and mission-focused enhancements for defense, intelligence, and national security workflows. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510005511/en/ At GEOINT, Esri will highlight advanced analytics and visualization tools including ArcGIS Earth and Insights for ArcGIS. (Graphic: Business Wire) Esri staff will be on-site to discuss the ways the ArcGIS platform is enabling customers to deliver the actionable intelligence on which decision makers rely. An integrated platform for defense, intelligence, and national security, ArcGIS provides high-performance 2D and 3D analysis. It is a complete and open technology (or platform) for managing, analyzing, and sharing data and products. ArcGIS leverages big data, web technologies, and integrated apps to make GIS easy to use, more accessible, and collaborative. The national security community can benefit from visual exploration of enterprise data, regardless of source," said John Day, director of national security, business development, at Esri. "At this event, we will demonstrate how spatiotemporal analyses provide quick, responsive, and interactive experiences that increase productivity to support decision making and operations."
Who Jeff Peters-Director, Global Business Development, National Government Sector, Esri Patty Mims-Deputy Director, Global Business Development, National Government Sector, Esri Brian Lehman-Director, Defense, Business Development, Esri Chris Albert-Director, Intelligence, Business Development, Esri John Day-Director, National Security, Business Development, Esri
What: GEOINT, booth #600
GEOINT, booth #600 Where: Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida When: May 15-18, 2016
May 15-18, 2016 Activities Booth Demonstrations Insights for ArcGIS- Advanced analytics Military Tools for ArcGIS- A collection of new mission-focused enhancements for defense and intelligence workflows in ArcGIS 2D and 3D Visualization- ArcGIS Earth and ArcGIS Pro Advanced Imagery and Full-Motion Video Capabilities- Drone2Map for ArcGIS Developer Tools and Apps- May 10, 2016, App Challenge Winner showcase Training- Technical Applications for Geospatial Intelligence Presenter: Carl Eichenberger, May 18, 2016, 7:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.
Learn to evaluate and prepare geospatial data for use in geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) fusion, analysis, and intelligence products. Perform different types of geospatial analyses (including terrain, raster-based, viewshed, and temporal) to evaluate potential threats and identify patterns, hot spots, and clusters. Evaluate suitability of multiple locations for tactical operations and understand how the creation of operational map products aids in improving outcomes. Learn more about Esri solutions for the defense and intelligence markets.
About Esri Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 350,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news. Copyright 2016 Esri. All rights reserved. Esri, the Esri globe logo, GIS by Esri, ArcGIS, @esri.com, and esri.com are trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products or services mentioned herein may be trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of their respective mark owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510005511/en/
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[May 10, 2016] CI+ LLP Awards CI+ 1.4 Test Automation Contract to Eurofins Digital Testing
The CI+ licensing authority, CI+ LLP, has awarded a contract to media and device testing specialists Eurofins Digital Testing to provide an automated test tool for the new CI+ 1.4 specification. The CI+ content security standard has been hugely successful, with over 450 million CI+ Plus devices deployed across Europe. The new CI+1.4 test tool automates TV and set-top-box testing, minimising the test time required and eliminating manual test errors.
Andy Hickman, CEO UK and Hong Kong said: Were really pleased to be leveraging our long experience of security testing to develop this test tool, adding combined with our Ligada iSuite automation technology, testing and certification times will be significantly reduced for manufacturers and operators in the broadcast industry. The CI+ 1.4 specification enhances the Conditional Access Module or CAM content security standard, introducing multi-steam PVR capability, TV IP interface for OTT and IPTV operators and enhanced user interactivity based on HbbTV. Eurofins Digital Testing has been certifying CI+ devices since 2009 and is preparing its labs for the CI+1.4 sunrise certification date in summer 2017. Leading manufacturers will be attending an initial CI+ 1.4 plug-fest in May, and a beta test tool will be shipped in Q3 this year.
A spokesperson from the CI+ LLP said: The CI+ 1.4 specification will significantly broaden the scope of this successful technology to address security and interactivity in new applications. Therefore ensuring A-grade test tools and reliable certification labs are available, is essential to its successful market deployment. Editors Notes: Eurofins Digital Testing is the worlds leading end-to-end Quality Assurance (QA) service provider for Digital TV Operators and device testing specialists, operating globally with test lab facilities in the UK, Belgium and Hong Kong. They provide specialised on-site test resources, testing tools and services to validate digital media delivery systems and device conformance for multiple standards and operators across the world. Eurofins Digital Testing was formed from the merger of Digital TV Labs and Testronic Labs and is part of the Eurofins Group. Eurofins has a network of more than 2205laboratories in 39 countries and has over 23,000 employees worldwide. Eurofins Digital Testing delivers complete testing solutions to manufacturers, broadcasters, operators and related media and device supply chains, covering terrestrial, satellite, cable, OTT and IPTV delivery. This includes conformance and certification testing for standards and operator regimes, as well as the provision of bespoke media delivery solutions.
For more information, please visit www.eurofins-digitaltesting.com.
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[May 10, 2016] Sovrn Releases SSL Advertising Solutions
Sovrn, advocate and partner to independent publishers, who represent more than 80,000 websites, has released SSL-compliant advertising functionality to give publishers greater security for their audiences and access to SSL-compliant demand sources. The new Sovrn ad tags are protocol-agnostic, meaning they work regardless of whether a request is sent from an HTTP or HTTPS domain. Sovrn publishers using existing sovrn HTTP ad tags will not be impacted by the update and will not need to change any of their existing tags. However, publishers can immediately opt in to implementing the new SSL-compliant tags inside of the Meridian platform interface. SSL publishers will benefit with additional sources of SSL-compliant demand sources, increasing competition and revenue. Only demand sources able to honor SSL ad requests with compliant ad creatives will be called for HTTPS domains. All creative code will be scanned to ensure SSL compliance, as well as passbacks. "SSL compliance gives publishers more options with which to provide their audiencs a safer experience on their sites," said Tony Casson, Senior Product Manager at Sovrn. "Increasingly brands are also requiring encryption in order to buy ads within secure environments."
The new SSL ad delivery from sovrn will not negatively impact page latency or ad delivery speed. Publishers and demand sources who want to know more about SSL advertising options with Sovrn can email [email protected] or contact their Account Manager.
About Sovrn Sovrn believes content creators and publishers are the soul of the Internet. Their content is what makes the Internet great. That's why we give content creators tools to make money; access to distribution and scale to grow their audience; and a massive data commons for extraordinary insights. At Sovrn we don't just plug into the online advertising ecosystem. We own & operate a proprietary ad technology stack with direct connections to every major buyer in the world. Sovrn is headquartered in Boulder, Colo. with offices in Denver, New York and London. For more information, please visit http://sovrn.com or follow on Twitter (News - Alert) @SovrnHoldings. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510005483/en/
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[May 10, 2016] Megaport joins Q9's Cloud Connect Program to offer Elastic Interconnect services to Canadian Data Centre Clients
TORONTO, May 10, 2016 /CNW/ - "Today, we are excited to announce that Megaport, a leader in elastic interconnect services has joined our Cloud Connect program, providing Q9 clients with virtual connections to a full ecosystem of private and public cloud providers through their mobile app and web portal user interface. This partnership further enhances Q9's position as the leading Data Centre service provider in Canada" said Karen Sheriff, Q9 Chief Executive Officer. "Direct connectivity to cloud service providers is fundamental to a scalable cloud strategy," said Megaport Chief Executive Officer, Denver Maddux. "Megaport takes it a step further by enabling elastic interconnection. We have aligned network economics and features with cloud services and offer our customers ultimate flexibility on the interconnections they need right now, and in the future. Plus, via our portal, mobile app, and API, we activate services in real-time. We're excited to enable Q9 data centres with these capabilities and bring the Megaport ecosystem of service providers to Q9 customers." Megapot, headquartered in Brisbane Australia and San Francisco, will initially provide connectivity to Toronto-based Q9 data centre clients. Megaport aligns networking economics to cloud computing models through the company's SDN-enabled Elastic Fabric which allows customers to increase and decrease capacity to service providers in real-time.
"Through our growing list of Cloud Connect program partners, we are able to offer our clients best in class options to connect to the cloud" said Strahan McCarten, SVP Product Management and Strategy. About Q9 Networks Inc.
Q9 Networks Inc. is Canada's largest provider of outsourced data centre infrastructure for organizations with mission-critical IT operations. Q9's data centres and network are backed by an industry leading SLA that guarantees 100 per cent network and power availability. Q9 services, including: co-location, private cloud, managed hosting and interconnect service offerings to a global ecosystem allow clients to optimize their IT infrastructure. Q9 is owned by an investor group comprising Canada's largest communication company, BCE Inc., and some of the largest and most experienced North American pension and private equity funds, including: Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Providence Equity Partners and Madison Dearborn Partners LLC. www.q9.com
About Megaport
Megaport is a leading, global, independent and neutral provider of Elastic Interconnection services. Using Software Defined Networking, the Company's global platform enables customers to rapidly connect their network to other services across the Megaport Fabric. Services can be directly controlled by customers via mobile devices, their computer or our open API. The Company's extensive footprint in Australia, Asia Pacific, and North America provides a neutral platform that spans many key data centre providers across various markets. SOURCE Q9 Networks Inc.
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El dia que me entere de que soy judio por Carlos M. Reymundo Roberts
BLOOMINGTON (JG-TC) -- Jeanne Hamilton, director of Charleston Carnegie Public Library in Charleston, has been hired as the director of Bloomington Public Library, according to a press release.
The Bloomington Public Library Board of Trustees hired Hamilton during a special board meeting Monday night. The board was unanimous in its support of Jeanne Hamilton as our next director, said Carol Koos, board president.
Hamilton has been director of the Charleston library for five years and served as director of the Helen Matthes Library in Effingham prior to her move to Charleston. She will begin her work in Bloomington on June 1. Terry Lindberg, retired McLean County Administrator, will continue to serve as interim director of the library until May 31.
During Hamiltons eight years working in library administration, she focused on improving library services through the implementation of fiscally sound new ideas and the development of strong staff teams, according to the media release. Under her leadership, the Charleston library expanded its open hours and witnessed a 63 percent increase in circulation to 94,000 items annually. The Charleston library serves a population of approximately 22,000.
Hamilton received both of her degrees -- master of library science and bachelor of science in actuarial science and finance -- from the University of Illinois. She also worked three semesters in an adjunct faculty role for the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science.
Of a possible building or expansion project at Bloomington Public Library in the future, Hamilton said, In my experience at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library and the Helen Matthes Library, I have had the opportunity to learn how to maintain buildings and manage building projects. Additionally, I have experience working with architects to develop building design plans.
Hamilton grew up in Springfield and looks forward to moving to the Twin Cities where her parents have resided since 2003, the press release stated. She will be relocating to the area with her husband and their infant son.
With strong staff, board, and community supporters, it is clear that the Bloomington Public Library has an exciting outlook and I am thrilled to be a part of that future. Hamilton said.
According to Board of Trustees President Carol Koos, Hamilton was one of four candidates the board seriously considered to fill the vacancy left when former library director Georgia Bouda retired in December. She brings a lot of good, relevant experience to the position, Koos added.
Hamilton is active in the Illinois Library Association where she served on the executive board and several committees. She also served on the Illinois Heartland Library System Nomination Committee, and she is currently President of the Rotary Club of Charleston.
MATTOON -- The Lake Land College Board of Trustees on Monday approved a contract to provide post-secondary education, vocational courses at two Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice's facilities.
Lake Land Vice President for Academic Services Jim Hull said the nearly $2.6-million, three-year educational services contract will cover Youth Centers at opposite ends of the state - Harrisburg in Southern Illinois and St. Charles in the Chicago area.
Hull said Lake Land will provide instructors for teaching custodial maintenance and horticulture courses at both Youth Centers, plus culinary arts at Harrisburg and construction occupations at St. Charles.
The Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice approached Lake Land about reviving the department's juvenile education program because of the college's experience with providing adult education programs at 17 Illinois Department of Corrections facilities, Hull said.
Trustee Doris Reynolds said Lake Land's juvenile justice education program will help prepare youthful offenders for finding work once they are released from custody, which will make it less likely that they will become adult offenders.
"We are giving them a chance to better their lives while they are young," said Lake Land President Josh Bullock.
Although the state's budget impasse has created funding uncertainty for adult education programs, Hull said funding is available for juvenile justice education programs. He said the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice gets much of its funding from federal sources and is required by law to provide education programs for its youths.
If the Department of Juvenile Justice opts to terminate the program, Hull said the contract requires that the department must pay for the education services that Lake Land provides until the termination is implemented.
Hull said after Lake Land hires faculty and pays for other expenses needed to start the juvenile justice education program, there will still be more than $460,000 available. He said this will cover new expenses for existing functions at Lake Land, such as bookkeeping and record keeping, that will help support the program.
Trustee Dave Storm and others on the board congratulated Hull and Lake Land's corrections program staff for reaching out to find new opportunities for Lake Land to provide education services.
In other matters, the board voted to authorize Lake Land to send annual honorable termination notices to 74 grant-funded staff members. This include staff members in TriO Student Support Services, Workforce Investment Act grand-funded positions, and other areas of campus.
Their employment will be terminated if the federal and state grant funding for their positions is not available, but their terminations will be rescinded if the funding is available.
Insurance companies were busy a day after a massive hailstorm left damage across Lincoln.
Hailstones that in some cases were as large as softballs busted out windows, tore chunks of siding off homes, dented cars and punched holes through roofs Monday night.
On Tuesday, insurers were in the early stages of assessing the damage.
Linda Wagener, a spokeswoman for American Family Insurance, said the company was expecting about 1,500 claims from customers in Lancaster, Saline and Cass counties.
"In addition to the hail damage that has impacted many of our customers, they have also been encountering heavy rainfall, creating the potential of sewer backup claims and water damage due to leaking roofs," Wagener said in an email.
She said American Family is sending additional claims staff to help local adjusters survey the damage.
State Farm and Allstate, two of the country's larger property insurers, said it's too early to tell the extent of the damage and the number of likely claims.
Hail claims are nothing new in Nebraska, at least for State Farm. According to spokeswoman Ann Avery, Nebraska ranked 13th among the states with 6,000 hail claims last year. That was down considerably from 2014, when the state had more than 21,000 and ranked fifth.
Insurers recommend that anyone with storm damage contact either their insurance agent or their insurer directly.
In addition, State Farm offers these tips for dealing with storm damage:
* If its safe to do so, inspect homes and vehicles for damage and make temporary repairs to prevent further damage. For example, board up holes with plywood and cover leaks with plastic sheeting.
* Document damage by taking pictures and, if possible, move your personal belongings to prevent further damage.
* Policyholders should save receipts related to home repairs, vehicle towing, temporary housing, meals and other living expenses. Expenses may be eligible for reimbursement after any required deductibles are met.
Meanwhile, the Nebraska Attorney General's Office offers advice on avoiding storm-chasing scam artists.
Watch out for people who show up and offer to assess and fix damage and ask for a large up-front fee, often in cash, before the work begins.
Stay alert and follow these recommendations.
* Check references and confirm the business or person is licensed through the Nebraska Department of Labor.
* Check the vehicle of anyone who comes knocking for signs or markings with the business name and phone number, then research the business.
* Never pay in cash and don't pay in full up front.
* Do not sign over insurance settlement checks.
* Ask for a written contract with cost and time estimates.
* Beware of companies that offer to cover a deductible.
* Get at least two quotes before hiring anyone.
* Don't be pressured or fall for one-day-only specials or discounts for hiring on the spot.
* Contact local law enforcement or the Nebraska Consumer Protection Division at protectthegoodlife.nebraska.gov or 800-727-6432 if you have any suspicions.
This website is intended for U.S. visitors only.
Former inmate Marco Jackson showed up at a Department of Correctional Services hearing on restrictive housing Monday morning to speak for those who couldn't.
Inmates in prison now, some of them in solitary confinement, couldn't offer their input, he said.
Jackson and six others told a hearing officer there are concerns the 19-page draft policy on segregation is overly broad, continues the use of long-term segregation and doesn't have a timeline or enough detail.
Jackson, who was paroled in February, spent about 10 years in the Nebraska prison system during two terms, much of the time in restrictive confinement, he said.
"I've been in segregation. I've been knocking on the door for hours trying to get medical, or just to get a request picked up, and you get a guy walking past the door and saying, 'I'll be back,'" he said.
The Corrections Department developed the rules and regulations after a state law (LB598) was passed in 2015. The law introduced by Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus requires a long-term plan for use and reduction of restrictive housing.
It also requires a segregation working group to provide input on the policy and advise on treatment and care of offenders in long-term segregation.
The law requires that inmates be segregated in the least restrictive manner for the least amount of time, taking into consideration the safety and security of staff, inmates and the prison.
Restrictive housing is supposed to be the alternative of last resort.
Along with Jackson, those testifying on Monday represented the ACLU of Nebraska and the state Ombudsman's office. John Else of Omaha and Shakur Abdullah, who recently was released from prison, also testified.
They said they were encouraged by some of the regulations, but discouraged by others.
Else said the rules have multiple and major flaws that are unlikely to result in positive outcomes. He also took the initiative to call for Corrections Director Scott Frakes to raise salaries to retain staff.
"It seems apparent that reformation of the prison structure and processes are not feasible unless quality staff are hired and retained," Else said.
The policy calls for a minimum of six hours of time each day outside of cells for general population inmates.
Abdullah and others criticized that, saying the American Correctional Association standards call for a minimum of 10 hours, especially when there are multiple occupants in cells designed for single occupants.
He and others also had concerns about the policy's lack of an appeals process, saying that without them restrictions would be one-sided, unfair and arbitrary.
The policy doesn't propose caps for long-term segregation, which, he said, is physically and psychologically damaging and inhumane.
Solitary confinement is especially bad for juveniles and older inmates and for people who are mentally ill or pregnant, he said.
The Nebraska Ombudsman office, represented by James Davis and Jerall Moreland, also said the policy needs work.
The most pressing concerns, which they presented in a memorandum, are that the policy has no firm limits on why a juvenile can be placed in segregation or how long he or she can be kept there.
And there should be strict criteria for decisions on placing inmates in segregation, the memo said. No inmate diagnosed with a serious mental illness should be placed in long-term segregation.
The need for the new policy spun off of hearings in 2014 of a special legislative committee that investigated long-term confinement of Nikko Jenkins, who went straight from segregation in prison to release and subsequently killed four people in Omaha.
It became clear at that time, Schumacher said, that solitary confinement was being highly overused by Nebraska prisons, and without a proper set of rules.
Enter Director Frakes in February 2015, who came to Nebraska from Washington state with a good set of credentials for minimizing the use of isolation of inmates, Schumacher said. The Legislature decided to give him the opportunity to write regulations for Nebraska prisons, in conjunction with the working group, to be implemented by July 1.
As it turned out, the working group didn't have an opportunity to provide input, he said.
As a result, Schumacher said, the policy has lots of steps, no appeal process and no real mandate to change what is going on now if the system does not want to change.
There are no hard limits, he said, about how long a person can be kept in solitary, no clear route of appeal and no mandatory steps for programming or rehabilitation to get them back to the general population or get them treatment.
"It's all highly discretionary, which is what it was before," Schumacher said.
The rules and regulations leave the director with enormous discretion, and the less that discretion is applied to some positive result -- a notable decrease in the number of people in solitary confinement -- "there probably is going to have to be legislative response," Schumacher said.
Memorial funeral service will be held at 2 p.m.. Thursday May 12, at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Deshler. Inurnment will be held in St. Peter Lutheran Cemetery in Deshler, with military honors by Deshler American Legion Halfman Post 352. Condolences may be left at www.krollfh.com. Book signing will be 1-7p.m. at Kroll Funeral Home in Deshler. Memorials in care of the family. Kroll Funeral Home of Deshler, is in charge of arrangements.
Pastor Gary Fuller planned a May 8 service on involving Christians in the political process and featuring a speech by Sen. Ted Cruz's father, Pastor Rafael Cruz.
But after a week in which Ted Cruz abruptly dropped out of the race, his father scrapped his appearance here and Donald Trump became the Republican Partys standard-bearer.
And a dismayed Fuller kept the political portion short.
Vote according to your convictions, he told congregants at Gentle Shepherd Baptist Church who will cast ballots in Nebraskas presidential primary Tuesday. What you believe is the right thing to vote for, according to the Scriptures.
The church cant and wont promote one candidate over another, he said, but Fuller has a hard time stomaching Trump as the Republican nominee and plans to vote for Cruz even though he has dropped out.
In a sense, we feel abandoned by our party, he said. Theres nobody left.
Fuller and other conservatives whose votes are guided by their Christian faith find themselves dismayed and adrift now that Trump has wrested control of the Republican Party.
The sentiment reaches from the small, aluminum-sided church Fuller and his wife built on the Nebraska plains to the highest levels of American religious life.
Even progressive Christians evangelicals and Catholics, among others who dont necessarily vote Republican are alarmed that Trump is attracting many voters who call themselves religious. A coalition of nearly 60 Christian leaders many progressive and some conservative published an open letter last week asking voters of faith to reject Trump and his vulgar racial and religious demagoguery, warning that the nation faces a moral threat from the candidate.
There is consternation about the hard line Trump takes on immigrants and about the morality of a thrice-married man who has long bragged about his sexual conquests. But another factor is at work as well: The traditional social and cultural positions that drive many religious conservative voters, including same-sex marriage and abortion, have been cast aside by a candidate who seems to have little interest in fighting the culture wars.
In the past, Trump has espoused social views to the left of his party, including a longtime acceptance of gay rights, although he has since moved right on many of them. He has praised Planned Parenthood for helping millions of women. He is running as an antiabortion candidate but had said in the past that he supported abortion rights and would not ban the procedure known as partial-birth abortion.
And while he says he is against same-sex marriage, he has attended a same-sex wedding and is opposed to a North Carolina law aimed at transgender people that requires people to use bathrooms that correspond with the gender on their birth certificates.
Cruz crusaded for social issues, making opposition to the transgender bathroom law one of his biggest fights at the end of his candidacy. The gambit failed when the senator from Texas lost badly to Trump in Indiana, a state that passed a controversial religious freedom law last year that led to a heated fight few want to relitigate.
Trying to use social issues as primary issues to define a campaign has not borne out as effective for those candidates who embraced it, said Gregory T. Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, which advocates for conservative gays and lesbians.
But there are voters like Fuller for whom its always about social issues.
He voted for John McCain and Mitt Romney despite not loving their platforms, but he felt they were men of character who would do right by the country. Many at a Baptist conference he attended last week were shaking their heads, he said, unsure about how to handle the upcoming election; supporting Hillary Clinton and her liberal positions seems contrary to everything many of them stand for.
I got the idea of Who would Jesus have voted for, Herod or Pilate?" Fuller said. "Probably neither one, and thats where I feel were at here.
Fuller said some voters of faith simply want to stop Clinton from becoming president. His sister is one; she plans to vote not so much for Trump but against Clinton.
Others in Nebraska are still holding out hope at the long-shot idea that Cruz, whose name is still on the ballot, will somehow win the state and get back in the race. Still others are intrigued by the idea of a third option, a notion one of this states Republican senators, Ben Sasse, has pushed for on social media.
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said many evangelicals are horrified to have to choose between Trump and Clinton. And more are concerned about moral and social issues. And some progressive conservatives are worried about the bigotry, xenophobia and misogyny they see from Trump.
Despite this, many self-described evangelicals have cast ballots for the brash New Yorker. Trump has captured about a third of the vote of white born-again or evangelical Christians and tends to do well among evangelicals who dont frequent church. He has also won the endorsement of leaders such as Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, where Trump spoke this year and where Cruz announced his candidacy on March 23, 2015.
Trump has made overtures to conservative Christians he often alleges that with him in the White House people will be able to say Merry Christmas again but has also frequently stumbled. He misstated the name of a book in the Bible, and on another occasion struggled when asked to cite a favorite Bible verse.
The splits over Trump reflect demographic and theological differences within the evangelical community, Moore said. The debate over whether evangelical Christians can support Trumps candidacy while keeping true to their beliefs may be shaping the very nature of evangelicalism, Mark Galli, editor of Christianity Today, wrote in March.
The fissure is playing out in households including that of Rich and Heather Dreesman in Plattsmouth.
Rich Dreesman doesnt like Trump, calling him not a godly man and kind of a lunatic.
But he will probably vote for him in November because he believes Democrats and Hillary Clinton are evil and ignorant. His antipathy toward Democrats is strong: He said he wanted to write into his will that none of his five children would receive their portion of his estate if they registered as Democrats; he fired his lawyer for saying no.
Heather Dreesman said she is diametrically opposed to Trump on a long list of issues, including transgender bathrooms and his tax and immigration policies, and believes he will not protect religious freedom. She finds Trump crass, vulgar and a misogynist.
As a conscientious believer, I just cant vote for someone who supports some of his philosophies, she said. I think he doesnt know what it means to be a Christian.
Thinking about the election in November makes her feel sick to her stomach, and she said she carries a sense of grief that the country is forsaking its values and feels anguish about what will happen. She would like to see a third-party candidate but doesnt think its a real possibility meaning she probably wont vote.
I hate to make this comparison, she said. I really do feel like in the future I would hate to look back and say, I voted for Hitler. I feel like that may be what is happening if I vote for Trump.
Pastor Fuller is finding opposition to his position in his own home in Lincoln: His 18-year-old son, Jeremiah, plans to cast his first-ever ballot for Trump Tuesday. The high schooler likes that Trump is anti-establishment, takes the real estate moguls word that he is a Christian and respects his ability to make deals.
Where did we go wrong? Gary Fuller said with a laugh and smile, looking across his kitchen table at his son.
No one in the courtroom Monday disputed that Patrick Combs wrote $121,391.05 in checks on the elderly Lincoln couple's account.
Or that Combs, a 50-year-old Gretna man who knew Harold and Beverly Mosher as far back as he can remember, used their credit card to charge another $2,235.90 and tried to transfer $1.75 million from their bank account into one in his name after Harold Mosher died.
"You have to decide if he stole it," Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Morgan Smith told the jury in closing arguments Monday.
The obvious answer is yes, he said.
But defense attorney Bob Creager said the only thing that is wrong is that it looks bad. Taken into context with the advice Combs was getting at the time from the Moshers' own banker and accountant, he said, it's clear Combs was simply trying to execute a plan to avoid the 18 percent tax on an inheritance the Moshers wanted him to have.
"There is no crime," Creager argued.
By about 3:15 p.m., the question had become one for the jury.
For the past week, jurors listened as the state made its case against Combs and the defense refuted it.
The state says the former Memorial Stadium public address announcer is guilty of four felonies: attempted theft, abuse of a vulnerable adult, theft by unlawful taking of more than $1,500 and unauthorized use of a credit card.
Smith said Combs took advantage of the Moshers in an effort to get their money.
In 2004, he was looking at getting 10 percent of their $2.2 million estate. By 2014, he was getting it all, minus about $250,000 Combs had already gifted to two others named in the 2013 will.
In the meantime, the couple's health was failing.
Combs said Harold Mosher told him about the 18 percent tax he would have to pay on the inheritance because they weren't related and encouraged him to spend it before they died.
But Smith suggested Combs, who was their power of attorney, was just waiting.
"Once Harold is out of the picture, Mr. Combs starts taking more and more of the money," he said.
While 88-year-old Beverly Mosher lived in an Alzheimer's unit, Combs spent her money on things like cars, snow plows and an account for his kids' education, Smith said.
Combs wasn't worried about inheritance tax, he said. He was just worried about getting the money, Smith said.
Creager said there wasn't one shred of evidence that Combs had spent the money with the intent to deprive Beverly Mosher of it or to wrongfully withheld it from her.
"Not just take it, wrongfully take it," he said.
Creager said there was no evidence this was anything more than an effort at an estate plan by people looking out for Beverly Mosher, who told Combs this was a good idea.
If it's a crime to avoid payment of tax, then they're all guilty, he said.
"The question here is can a vulnerable adult make a will that expresses their intention? And the answer is of course they can," Creager said.
He said the state's case crumbles under its own weight if the will and power of attorney are valid.
To which Smith countered: Combs may have been like a son to the Moshers, but one can still steal from family members.
"It happens every day and that's what happened here," he said.
The jury went home at 4:30 p.m. without a verdict and was expected to return in Tuesday morning.
Cindy Lange-Kubick Columnist Cindy Lange-Kubick has loved writing columns about life in her hometown since 1994. She had hoped to become a people person by now, nonetheless she would love to hear your tales of fascinating neighbors and interesting places. Follow Cindy Lange-Kubick Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today
When his monthly pension check showed up in his account on March 1, Chuck Zellers was in Arizona.
And he was still in Arizona three weeks later, when he checked his account again and the check had disappeared, something that had never before happened.
Puzzled, the 73-year-old Lincoln man called his bank thinking maybe thered been a computer glitch.
U.S. Bank told him to call Mellon Bank, who told him to call his pension administrator, who told him he was dead.
And I said, Oh? and I got a little concerned, the retiree said late last week.
Chuck and his wife, Alice, spend their winters in Ajo, Arizona, and after that phone call, they drove 130 miles to the federal building in Phoenix.
It was ringed with people the day before Tax Day, and they went from door to door trying to figure out who to talk to.
Eventually, they found the Social Security office, took a number and waited three hours until a friendly woman called his name.
I gave her my passport and my drivers license and she goes clickety-clickety-click and she says, Oh, by golly, you are dead, and she laughed about it.
The dead man laughed, too, but he still didnt have his money. Since then, hes learned that these things happen. (According to his online research about 14,000 times a year, out of 2.8 million deaths).
She told me it could be a funeral home declared you deceased; or that someone just put in a wrong keystroke or something like that.
They will probably never know, Chuck said Monday afternoon, standing at a kitchen counter covered with documents and copies of bank statements and notarized letters -- the fallout from someone, somewhere, declaring Charles Richard Zellers II of Lincoln, Nebraska, deceased.
The couple cut their Arizona trip short so Chuck could continue his quest with the folks at Lincolns Social Security office.
And, like the rest of the government employees hes encountered, theyve been helpful and friendly, he said.
They were readily able to find me in the system as dead, and they promised to get to work on it right away, so this impressed me.
Chuck retired from his computer job at Unisys in 2000. His pension check and his Social Security check are his two main sources of income.
So not getting either one of them was a pretty big deal, and now the ordeal has stretched to more than two months.
The good news is this: The Lincoln Social Security office, seeing him alive and armed with documentation, cut him a check for $999.99, and an additional sum for the lost March payment has been deposited online.
It looks like they are reversing things for me.
This makes him feel lucky -- considering the horror stories he's read online.
It took some people up to a year to get things straightened out.
But heres the rub: Despite the normally glacial pace of government, news apparently travels fast when Social Security declares you a goner.
The word was already out -- via a national dead person data base -- by the time Social Security brought him back from the grave.
The Veterans Administration stopped his disability payment, but then reinstated it, Chuck said.
He didnt have a credit rating at any of the three major credit rating agencies when he checked last month.
My accounts were suspended.
The rating has since returned.
One of the insurance companies was getting ready to pay me off, so I got that stopped.
He has yet to receive a pension check.
In the three weeks theyve been home, Chuck has spent several hours a day proving he is alive. Making phone calls, carting around a notarized letter from the Social Security Administration as proof of his status -- plus showing his actual face.
It's a task not everyone could handle, Alice says.
"What about an 80-year-old, or my mom? She couldn't have done that."
It was "a lot of driving and a lot of calling," Chuck says.
And he's not done yet.
On Monday, the organized man held a stack of paperwork, including two recent letters from the Social Security office, the agency that declared him dead in March.
One letter was addressed to him, the second to his wife. He couldnt quite figure out what his letter was trying to tell him, but Alices letter was clear: It said she owed $2,276.60.
Money the agency said they sent her after her husband died, money the couple say they never got.
The pair plan a return trip to the federal building this week; the dead husband will ask for an explanation.
BEATRICE -- The latest exhibit on display at the Homestead National Monument of America may require a closer look.
Some have been fooled into thinking the pieces on display are paintings or photographs. Upon closer inspection, tiny lines reveal the depictions are actually formed using nothing but duct tape.
I think everyone whos come in here have all said this wasnt what they expected, said Robin Matty, Homestead intern. I think people are going to be very surprised by how detailed they are. They look incredible from far away, then when you get up close they also have a beauty to it where you can see the tiny flecks of duct tape.
The duct-tape display, created by tape artist Chad Farnes, will be at the Homestead Education Center until May 29.
Farnes has exhibited at several locations around the country, such as the Utah County Art Gallery and in Brooklyn, New York at the Crest Hardware Art Show.
He was raised in California and moved to Utah to attend college, according to a press release from Homestead.
Farnes history with tape art dates back to when a roommate used painter's tape to decorate a wall. Farnes began creating his own wall decorations and eventually expanded into using other types of tape, such as masking tape and duct tape, and different surfaces, such as canvas.
The 21 displays at Homestead each represent a different National Park, which Homestead Park Superintendent Mark Engler said is a unique way to recognize what they have to offer.
This is a fun way to look at the experience of the National Parks, he said. The level of detail is amazing and cool to see the inspiration citizens get from the National Parks. This is a great example of that inspiration.
Farnes will host a presentation at the Homestead discussing the display Sunday, May 29 at 2 p.m. at the Homestead Education Center. The presentation will be free to the public.
Brittany Loffelholz voted Tuesday with newfound hope her pick for president might survive the primary election.
She and her husband, Justin, marked their ballots for Republican Ted Cruz at Schoo Middle School hours after the U.S. senator from Texas hinted he'd consider re-entering the GOP fray if he emerged victorious from Nebraska's primary, they said.
"I was still going to vote whether the person I wanted was on there or not," Brittany Loffelholz said. "I just hope my vote counts, I guess."
But when polls closed, Donald Trump, the New York billionaire and presumptive Republican nominee, had achieved a landslide win in Nebraska and stifled hope of a Cruz comeback.
Trump was effectively the last man standing after Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich stepped out of the Republican fray last week. Those moves diminished what could have been a rare barn burner for GOP voters in Nebraska's presidential primary.
"I think it really deflated the turnout," said John Paul Sabby, chairman of the Lancaster County GOP.
Unofficial final results showed about 30 percent of registered voters completed ballots in Lancaster County. Statewide turnout numbers weren't yet available.
Still, local politicos expected a more dramatic night.
"A few weeks ago, we thought it was going to look a lot different," said Neva Winkle, chairwoman of the Lancaster County Young Democrats.
About 9 p.m., she and about 75 local Democrats gathered to watch Election Night returns in the basement of Brewsky's in the Haymarket, 201 N. Eighth St.
And Sabby, the GOP chairman, joined a crowd of about two-dozen people at a wine tasting in the Talon Room, 230 N. 12th St. The party, hosted by the Lincoln Independent Business Association, was among a few Republican-heavy events in the county.
Earlier in the day, voting took place without reports of major glitches.
There was some confusion at polling places in the state about ballots for nonpartisan voters and the amount of information poll workers were allowed to provide, said Bri McLarty, director of voting rights for the nonprofit Nebraskans for Civics Reform.
"What's great is the poll workers are trying to reach out and get the right answer," McLarty said.
At Lincoln's First Presbyterian Church, 15 people had voted in the first 45 minutes Tuesday, which poll worker Agnes Masek called "about right." She's run things at the 17th and F streets polling place since the 1980s, and predicted about 150 of the precinct's 1,339 registered voters would show up by day's end.
By contrast, turnout was huge in November 2004, when Lincoln voters weighed in on a presidential general election and ballot initiatives on expanded gambling, banning smoking in all Lincoln workplaces and contributing more state lottery funds to the Nebraska State Fair.
"We had 'em sitting on the steps voting," Masek recalled.
You may not like President Obamas political philosophy or leadership style, but you have to admit that he is one cool president.
If youre unconvinced, consider his speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner on April 30. His poise and charm were on full display, and his comedic timing was impeccable.
Still, his best joke made me cringe a little: he said that his popularity rating had been rising. In fact, he said, The last time I was this high, I was trying to decide on my major.
Funny stuff. It would be even funnier if there werent so many Americans in prison for the crime that the last several presidents have all committed, smoking a little pot.
Of course, were a nation of laws, and we aspire to the principle that undergirds that condition: before the law everyone is treated equally.
But that noble aspiration is threatened by our inconsistent attitude toward marijuana and by the patchwork of drug laws that follow in its wake.
Thus, a 19-year-old kid in my state (Texas) was threatened with life in prison for trying to make brownies laced with hash-oil, while 900 miles to the north (Colorado) he could legally create a profitable business and be appreciated for his entrepreneurship and for the tax dollars that his business generates.
And thus celebrities (Bill Maher, Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson) have made marijuana a part of their brand, and the President of the United States can joke charmingly about smoking pot in college, while, according to a 2014 New York Times story, as many as 30,000 Americans are in prison solely for possessing or selling marijuana.
Sometimes prison terms for marijuana possession are staggering. The Times cites the case of Jeff Mizanskey, a Missourian who was arrested in 1993 for purchasing a five-pound brick of marijuana. Because of two previous nonviolent marijuana convictions, Mizanskey was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
A more typical case is probably Bernard Nobles, a 45-year-old father of seven, who was stopped in New Orleans in 2010 with the equivalent of two joints in his pocket. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Nobles case is more typical in another way, as well, one that amplifies the ironic contrast between his situation and the presidents wry joke: Like Obama, Noble is black.
Not only are our marijuana laws stunningly inconsistent, their application is informed by a striking racial disparity: although blacks and whites use marijuana at about the same rates, according to a study by the American Civil Liberties Union, blacks are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana offenses than whites.
Im not an enthusiastic proponent for the decriminalization of marijuana. I dont smoke it and dont plan to start. But if I did, as a middle class white guy, I suspect I could join the other 30 million Americans who smoked it during the past year without getting in trouble. Not everyone is so lucky, and this discrepancy should make us pause to consider the injustice of our current system.
In addition, we should thoughtfully situate marijuana among the array of intoxicants and addictive and harmful substances that surround us. We could start with alcohol, tobacco and heroin, of course, and, especially lately, prescription opioids.
In fact, a great deal of American life revolves around activities that are enormously time-consuming, compulsive and addictive. Food and drink. Sports. Videogames and electronic screen time of all sorts. Theres a reason we call it binge-watching.
Marijuana should be understood in this context, and we should pay more attention to the disparities associated with it. Some of us should not be able to use it with impunity and even joke about it, while others are going to prison.
Last month, unarmed Russian fighter jets buzzed within 30 feet of a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Baltic Sea and also barrel-rolled a U.S. reconnaissance plane flying over that sea.
In part, these provocative stunts were a message from Moscow of its continuing displeasure at the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which had the temerity to join the European Union and NATO. Equally outrageous from a Kremlin perspective Baltic leaders are demonstrating how Europe could break away from its dangerous energy dependence on Russia, which Moscow cleverly wields to manipulate European politicians.
The Baltic states are spoilsports, messing with Vladimir Putins mirage of re-establishing a Russian empire. So the Russian leader is probing for NATO weakness in the run-up to key alliance meetings, when U.S. and European leaders will discuss how to respond to Putins destabilizing games.
Lithuanias deputy ambassador, Mindaugas Zickus, laid out in an interview the strategic reasons why that response demands firmness. Putins entire strategy is about testing us, says Zickus. He is trying to explore how Russia can renew its greatness in imperial terms.
The Lithuanian diplomat doesnt buy the theory that Putin is only reacting to a fear of encirclement brought on by NATO expansion to the Baltics along with several countries in Central and Eastern Europe. If we werent NATO members, says Zickus, he would have been more aggressive, trying to increase leverage over us in any area.
I agree. Given the large Russian ethnic minorities in Latvia and Estonia, Putin might even have tried to imitate his successful tactic in Ukraine, sending in Russian soldiers in disguise to destabilize the country.
Now that NATO has expanded, Putins strategic goal is to break up NATO, says Zickus. He says NATO belongs to the past. (He is no doubt encouraged by Donald Trump, who says NATO is no longer necessary.)
The Russian leader has chalked up successes in his seizure of Crimea from non-NATO member Ukraine and his ability to destabilize eastern Ukraine, thus ensuring it will never join NATO. But Zickus believes Putin was surprised at the way the alliance held together in reauthorizing economic sanctions against Moscow six times for its invasion of Ukraine.
So what does he believe the alliance must do now to convince Putin that the Kremlins dangerous military maneuvers could provoke a military conflict, one that not even the Kremlin desires?
Zickus makes three essential points.
First, the response to Putin must be very clear, including on a preventative military level. We hope Putin understands war with the West makes no sense, the diplomat says. But he wants to test every possible weakness. He doesnt know how far hell go but he is testing.
The Baltic leaders would like to see more NATO military support.They are pleased that President Barack Obama is planning a substantial increase in the deployment of heavy weapons and equipment to Central and Eastern Europe, including an armored brigade of 4,200 troops. This month, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said NATO was also considering an additional force of 4,000 troops that would rotate between the Baltics and Poland.
Second, Zickus says NATO must figure out how to deal with Putins hybrid warfare, which seeks to undermine European democracies in ways other than military force. Moscow uses broadcast media which reaches Russian minorities in the Baltics to push anti-NATO propaganda.
Moreover, as Ive written, Russia funds populist political candidates in Europe who are anti-American and oppose NATO and membership in the European Union. In addition, Russian money has reportedly backed European green movements that oppose fracking, which could help wean Europe off dependence on Russian gas.
Western countries dont fully grasp the potency of such Russian tactics, nor have they come up with any counter-strategy that works.
Which leads to point three: Lithuania has demonstrated how Europe can and should wean itself off Russian energy supplies. Last year, Lithuania, which had been totally dependent on Russian gas, opened an LNG terminal at Klaipada. This year the country will receive more than half its gas from Norway. The Lithuanian example demonstrates the potential for European energy independence, helped by future LNG exports from the United States although Russia is trying to undermine the momentum.
We will have Russia as a normal partner when Russia realizes we can survive without them, that we have other options, says Zickus. A small Baltic nation is showing how this can be done.
Adherents to a broad spectrum of ideologies can find encouraging statistics in the latest round of reports on teen births and teen pregnancies.
The Centers for Disease Control reported last month that the national teen birth rate hit an all-time low in 2013-14. Teen pregnancies the sum of teen births, miscarriages and abortions are also at historic lows.
"It's really a one-two punch," says study co-author Shanna Cox, associate director for science for the CDC's Division of Reproductive Health. "Teens are having less sex, and among the teens who are having sex, they're using more effective methods of birth control."
The national teen birth rate peaked in 1991at 61.8 births per 1,000. As the Washington Post reported it was a time when posters of sad, pregnant girls were plastered on buses and subway stations and popular culture was filed with references to babies having babies.
The teen pregnancy rate, and recently the number of teen abortions, has also been dropping.
Despite the improvement, the teen birth rate in the United States is still among the highest among developed countries more than twice as high as in neighboring Canada.
Nebraska ranked 22nd in the birth rate among teens aged 15-19 in 2013-14 and, with a birth rate of 23.6, slightly below the national average of 24.2 The state ranks ninth in the country in the teen pregnancy rate.
However, Nebraska rated a sentence in the national report pointing out that the birth rate for white teens (16.2) in the state approximated the national rate, whereas rates for black and Hispanic teens (42.6 and 53.9, respectively) far exceeded the national rate for these groups.
AS CDC Director Tom Frieden said, the reality is too many American teens still are having babies. Nebraska officials and youth leaders need to do more, In particular, they need to study how other states have succeeded in reaching Hispanic and black teens.
The negative consequences of teen birth are just as true now as they were back in 1991.
Politicians often argue for or against a change of policy or practice based on whether it will create more jobs or cause a loss of jobs. One argument against wind and solar power generation has been that it costs jobs in the coal industry. An article in the Journal Star, GOP states benefit in shift from coal (May 6, 2016), addressed this issue. U.S. coal mines now employ about 56,700 people; in contrast, llekethe growing solar industry employs over 210,000 and wind energy employs about 77,000. If we want to promote the energy sector producing the most jobs, we will go with green energy. Coal has turned to mountain top removal (a very destructive act), use of huge machinery and fewer workers. Do we really care about jobs and workers?
We have often heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. That is certainly true of the May 4 Journal Star article, " World Bank: Water will be climate change pain " In the picture, a boy in India is herding goats over a cracked dry pond. Not a bit of vegetation is in sight. The World Bank reports that it finds 1.6 billion people are now living with water scarcity and that this is likely to double. This may be the most painful result of climate change.
Here in Nebraska we can surely relate to this as we are also vulnerable to a shortage of rainfall. We may have a great resource in the Ogallala Aquifer but it is fossil water, not fully renewed each year. There are areas where they have pumped their aquifer dry. We need to take our water resources seriously and plan for sustainability. We also need to do what we can to blunt the worst effects of climate change. A steadily rising carbon tax rebated to the families would go a long way to help reduce our carbon pollution. It is urgent that our government act quickly so we don't have pictures from Nebraska like this one from India!
Nebraska's state veterinarian lifted the quarantine for horses at Fonner Park in Grand Island on Tuesday nearly a month after three animals came down with equine herpes myeloencephalopathy. One of the horses had to be euthanized.
Horses were monitored closely during the 21-day quarantine and no more have tested positive for the virus.
"We continue to ask horse owners and facility managers to take precautions to prevent the spread of the disease by remaining vigilant and following strict biosecurity measures," state Veterinarian Dennis Hughes said in a news release Tuesday.
Horsemen's Park in Omaha plans to host five days of live racing this year May 20-22 and July 29-30. Columbus Exposition & Racing Inc. will have 16 live race days, Aug. 5 through Sept. 5.
The Lincoln Race Course plans a single live race on Sept. 8.
South Sioux City Racing and Event Center plans to run a single live horse race at a new track and simulcast wagering facility to be built at the site of the former Atokad Downs.
When the virus was found last month in Grand Island, up to 850 horses were at Fonner Park for 31 days of live racing that ran started Feb. 26 and ended Sunday.
The disease spreads through both direct and indirect contact with infected horses. The virus is a danger only to horses. While it cannot spread to humans or other animals, it can be transferred to other horses via clothes, boots, buckets, feed or tack, etc.
Biosecurity measures horse owners should take at their own operations include requiring individuals to wash their hands before and after contact with each horse, disinfecting boots and changing clothes that come into contact with horses other than their own.
Most of Nebraskas crops are not far enough along to have been badly damaged by Monday's hail, although flooding could have washed out some areas, which could require farmers to replant.
About 53 percent of corn had been planted as of Sunday and only 15 percent emerged, according to the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Soybean planting, generally done later than corn, was 13 percent done as of Sunday.
Sorghum planted was at 5 percent, and winter wheat headed (the stage where the plant head has emerged but not yet flowered) was at 10 percent.
Tornadoes rated
The National Weather Service dispatched a field crew Tuesday to assess damage and give Monday's tornadoes preliminary classifications.
Here's what it determined so far.
* Lincoln tornado No. 1: EF-1 (86-110 mph, weak)
* Lincoln tornado No. 2: EF-1
* Bennet tornado: EF-1
* Nehawka tornado: EF-2 (111-135 mph, weak), 100 yards wide
Not nearly as much water
At its peak Monday, Salt Creek at 27th Street was flowing fast at 7,000 cubic feet per second -- swollen with rain but nothing compared with a year ago, when it was carrying 34,000 cfs and threatening to spill over its banks.
The difference: Last year, the southern part of the county was inundated with rain, which drained into the creek and then through the city.
Monday, the storm was parked over town and didn't fill Salt Creek's tributaries.
"It blew up on Lincoln and kind of sat there and cranked," said Paul Zillig of the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District.
Hazard calls
Between 5:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. on Monday, Lincoln police responded to 15 hazard calls for flooding over roadways or drivers that were trapped, Officer Katie Flood said.
The Gridiron Club of Lincoln laid out its confusion at goings-on in Lincoln and Nebraska at its 86th annual satiric review for adults only April 29 at Howell Theater with attendance slightly exceeding last years.
Nebraskas new motor vehicle license plate set the design tone for the show with the theme Sow Bad, Its Good. Gridiron felt that replacing the Sowers head with Governor Pete Ricketts oh-so-recognizable one on the states license plate tags struck the right note for the 2016 show.
Gridiron always features song parodies; but this year, under Song Mistress Nancy Peterson, writers and performers seemed to excel just ask them especially when they let the Capitols Sower sing for himself to the tune of The Joker. Here are excerpts, as belted out by Mark Grell, who sang adorned with a red blinking light:
Some people call me the plains cowboy, yeah,
Some call me the cake topper of love
cause Im a shower,
And a grower,
Im a license plate sower.
Gridiron skit writers found laughs in what might happen if Republican National Committeeman J. L. Spray (Scott Stewart) summoned Senators Deb Fischer (Pat Knapp) and Ben Sasse (Mark Grell) for a little chat with Democratic State Chair Vince Powers (Nancy Peterson) to learn about primary caucusing in hopes of freshening up the GOP.
They imagined Senator Sasse promoting his own presidential aspirations. Would there be sniping among the politically ambitious? Here are excerpts:
Powers: (On caucusing) People speak for various candidates and then you vote by standing up.
Fischer: It sounds like basic participatory democracy kind of like the Legislature.
Sasse: Im surprised you remember!
Fischer: Im surprised you know NETs the only TV camera there.
Spray: Uh, thanks, Vince. This has been a big help. Now we can get the national attention we deserve.
Powers: You got that with Brad Ashford.
Nebraskas trouble with buying execution drugs never seems to die. So Gridiron convened a Peoples Court to try the case of Trust Me, the Drugs Are in the Mail with Governor Pete Ricketts (Brennen Miller) telling Nebraskas story and purported drug supplier Chris Harris (Corey Wasserburger) of Salt Lake City, India, telling his.
In the skit, Ricketts claimed he was advised by an email Prince and did not ask for the states $54,400 back because it was, to him, just carrying-around money. Harris admitted that the drug shipment failed, but advised the judge that the legal principle was that if he even tried to ship, you must acquit. The judge (Pat OBrien) gaveled agreement, and the audience laughed its approval.
Lincoln City Council member Leirion Gaylor Baird dropped in for a guest appearance on the Gridiron News with Doug (Koebernick) and Susan (Kirchmann). Baird adopted the persona of House of Cards first lady Claire Underwood to a chilling tee and delivered a weather forecast that included an announcement of a 50-foot No-whining Zone around Lincoln mayoral aide Rick Hoppe. Underwood added, If Hoppe violates that zone, the City Council will censure him, but I will make him suffer.
MOUNT PLEASANT Racine Toyota has a gleaming new, $6 million home in a location designed to draw more of the entire countys car buyers.
On Monday, Home Run Auto Group opened the new Racine Toyota on about 9 acres just off the Interstate 94 frontage road, and northwest of the Burger King at 13348 Washington Ave. (Highway 20).
That land had been rezoned from agricultural to commercial to help pave the way for the new, 32,000-square-foot Toyota dealership. It replaces the dealership that was located farther east on Highway 20 at 6801 Washington Ave.
Dealership General Manager Pat Carr said the new location easily visible from I-94 was selected partly to reach out to the countys west end.
The western county was not really aware of us; this is more central, Carr said. We want people to understand they dont have to go to Milwaukee to buy a car.
The new dealership was to have been called Racine Toyota Scion, but Toyota has announced it will stop making Scions under that name later this year. Three of the Scion models will continue, but under the Toyota name.
The new Racine Toyota contains many improvements over the old one, Carr said and on a much larger scale. As an example, this service department has 22 lifts and 30 bays, about double what the former facility had, Carr said.
Toyota required certain features, but Carr said most of the interior design is ours.
The sight lines are very clear, inside and out, he said, unlike the old dealership, which was built in stages. There are many glass walls and the floors have a mirror-like degree of shine.
Reflecting Racine
About two-thirds of the new building consists of the service department, which has new technology: Any vehicle that enters will drive over a device that will measure the tire tread depth and analyze the cars alignment. The alignment equipment itself is state of the art, Carr said, with a lift large enough to handle vehicles far larger than a passenger car or SUV.
The company is strongly imprinting the Racine areas personality on the decor, Carr pointed out. Iconic sites such as the harbor, old red lighthouse, Main Street Bridge, SC Johnson Research Tower and Great Room are shown in large murals by Wisconsin artist Kelly Meredith and lithographs. There are more murals to come, Carr said. One such mural, in the service department, is about 6 feet tall and 50 feet long.
The dealership contains a conference room that will be available to local organizations, Carr said: We want to make sure that people use this building and were a part of the community.
The company showed its environmental consciousness in the decision to avoid bottled water or K (Keurig) cups for coffee, Carr said.
There are about 320 vehicles on the lot, he said, including about 50 used vehicles.
Racine Toyota had 39 employees before, is up to about 50 to 55 now and heading toward about 75 eventually, Carr said.
No decision has been made on what the former Toyota dealership building will become, Carr said, but it will be used for something.
MOUNT PLEASANT A Mount Pleasant man faces five charges after he allegedly punched his girlfriend in a Taco Bell parking lot after she tried to break up with him.
Joseph Davis, 50, of the 1100 block of Oakes Road, was arrested early Saturday morning after he allegedly punched his girlfriend in the face in the parking lot of the Taco Bell, 5620 Washington Ave., Mount Pleasant.
Davis, who had reportedly been drinking at a bar in Downtown Racine before the incident, drove off in his girlfriends vehicle after she escaped, court records indicate.
Davis made his initial appearance in court Monday, according to court records. Records show his bond was set at $25,000 cash, with specific conditions that he not consume or possess alcohol or make contact with the victim.
According to the criminal complaint, Davis girlfriend had picked him up from the bar and attempted to break up with him while she drove him home. Police said they stopped to get food at Taco Bell, and witnesses observed Davis punch her repeatedly as they sat in the vehicle, which was in the restaurants parking lot.
When police arrived, Davis girlfriends left eye was completely swollen shut, according to the criminal complaint. Police said that Davis reportedly hopped into the drivers seat and drove away once his girlfriend had escaped the vehicle.
Roughly two hours after the alleged assault, police said they found Davis slumped over and passed out in the drivers side of the vehicle near his home. According to the criminal complaint, Davis appeared to have soiled himself and failed sobriety tests before being transported to Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints hospital.
Davis faces one felony charge for operating a motor vehicle without the owners consent. He also faces four misdemeanor charges, including battery, disorderly conduct, operating while revoked and third offense OWI.
RACINE A Caledonia woman will serve a year of probation in an animal neglect case after she pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge as part of a deal with prosecutors, Monday morning.
Susan M. Schmidtke, 68, had been accused of keeping dozens of animals in unfit conditions on her property, where Caledonia police also reported that a partially eaten swan carcass was found in October.
Under the deal approved by Racine County Circuit Judge Michael Piontek, nine criminal charges, including two felonies, were dismissed; Schmidtke will pay no fine and she retains the ability to have animals. However, Piontek ordered that Schmidtke must not mistreat any animals in her care and submit to any counseling or programs deemed fit by her probation agent, among other conditions.
During her sentencing hearing Monday, all parties agreed that Schmidtke has a deep affection for animals, but she had become overwhelmed by medical issues and could not bring herself to ask for the help she needed.
No one wants to keep Ms. Schmidtke from owning animals or caring for animals, said Racine County Assistant District Attorney Bridget Brave. We know that this venture she had undertaken was taken with the best possible of intentions; unfortunately it just got out of her control.
Initial complaint
The case arose when Caledonia police obtained a search warrant on Oct. 16 for one of Schmidtkes three properties located near 6 Mile Road and Highway 38, after an acquaintance contacted the Central Racine County Health Department on Oct. 13 to lodge a complaint.
That complainant said she thought Schmidtke had become overwhelmed by the number of animals at her property, according to Schmidtkes criminal complaint. The woman alleged Schmidtke had 14 horses, three donkeys, two emus, multiple turkeys, ducks, swans, guinea pigs, cats and birds. The complainant alleged she had spotted dead animals, too, including chickens, baby turkeys, a rabbit and ducklings.
Schmidtke had been charged with two felony counts of mistreatment of animals as well as eight misdemeanor counts of negligently providing improper outdoor animal shelter from inclement weather, mistreating animals, failing to provide proper food and drink to confined animals, and negligently providing improper animal shelter sanitation standards. She ended up pleading guilty to a single count of providing improper animal shelter sanitation standards.
Prosecutors had sought that the nine other charges be dismissed without prejudice, meaning that they could be brought up in court again if further violations were to arise in the future, but Brave changed course when Piontek expressed skepticism of whether he had the authority to sign off on that arrangement.
Terry Rose, Schmidtkes Kenosha-based defense attorney, explained during the hearing Monday that Schmidtke was dealing with several medical issues at the time, including two knee replacements, severe arthritis in her shoulder and a torn rotator cuff.
Rose said Schmidtke wanted to start a small petting zoo as a retirement business, but she has abandoned that notion since this case arose.
She has really a very deep, abiding love for all of these animals, Rose said. I think she got over her head and had inadequate assistance. Perhaps it was pride, sort of a self-reliance all of her life that prohibited her from seeing what I think others were seeing. She does have that assistance now.
More help
Rose then introduced Dawn Dahms, who explained that she and her family had begun aiding Schmidtke, taken ownership and responsibility of some animals, hope to buy one of her farms and plan to help till death do us part we are now her family.
Additionally, Ryan Reed, senior pastor of the First Church of God, 1650 Lathrop Ave., explained he has been counseling Schmidtke in addition to helping Dahms, and said he will be there as long has he is needed.
Addressing Piontek, Schmidtke apologized for the medical issues and acknowledged that the person she asked for help made mistakes, but said that she is healthy again and ready to resume care of the animals.
The animals mean everything to me, everything in the world, she said. I will see that they get the best of care throughout their life. Im committed to them right up to the end.
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19 Nepalis listed in database of shell companies released by ICIJ
Nineteen Nepalis names have appeared in the Panama Papers database that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published online on Monday night.
Barack Obama to visit Hiroshima on Asia trip
The Hiroshima bombing on 6 August 1945 killed 140,000 people. Along with a second bombing on Nagasaki - it is credited with ending World War Two.
Benedict Cumberbatch 'embarrassed' with fame
British actor Benedict Cumberbatch is among the most in-demand stars on the Hollywood scene, but has revealed that he can't understand why people are so interested in him.
Blood crunch hits patients in Bajura
Dirghadevi Chandar, a 30-year-old new mother of Aatichaur-8, is fighting for her life at Martadi District Hospital due to blood shortage.
Devil in the details
In the absence of details, govt policy and programme document is a mere wish list
Rana is a Kathmandu-based tech writer who has been covering all things tech for the past decade.
Prahlad Rijal is a business reporter at The Kathmandu Post, focusing on the energy sector. Before joining the Post, Rijal was an online reporter at The Himalayan Times.
French cabinet votes to force through labour reforms
The French cabinet has given the go-ahead for the president to force through highly controversial labour reforms, circumventing parliament.
Germany knife attacker kills man in Grafing
One man has been killed and three others wounded by a knife-wielding man near Munich, with police investigating a possible Islamist connection.
Heading 330
A brand new aircraft, however ideal and economical to run, can do little on its own
I did my best to bolster ties
Ministry of Foreign Affairs finally sent an official letter regarding the governments decision to recall Nepali Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay on Monday.
Karnali development impossible without autonomy: Bijukchhe
Chairperson of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party Narayan Man Bijukchhe has said Karnali development is not possible without autonomy and decentralisation.
Meetings with India on track despite dip in ties
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Morcha will not allow local body elections: Yadav
Upendra Yadav has said that the Madhesi Morcha will not allow the government to hold local body elections.
Narayanhiti Durbar Museum collects over Rs 174 m revenue
Since its gates were thrown open to general people and foreigners some seven years ago, the flow of visitors to the Narayanhiti Durbar Museum continues.
NC set to give govt tough time in budget session
As Parliament deliberates the governments policies and programmes from Tuesday, the Nepali Congress is prepared to attack the government in its areas of failure.
New tower leaves shopowners at Old Bus Park in limbo
With the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Office giving an ultimatum to empty all shutters that lie in the eastern and northern parts of the Old Bus Park to make way for the construction of a 12-storey view tower by Sunday, over five dozen small business owners in the area fear for their future.
North Korea's Kim holds colourful mass rally to close rare congress
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a mass rally and parade on Tuesday in the capital's main ceremonial square, a day after the ruling party wrapped up its first congress in 36 years by elevating him to party chairman.
One arrest on the charge of molesting underage girl
Police here have arrested a person on the charge of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.
Penner Deportation: SC summons both parties
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Pregnant women in Bajura face blood shortage
The health workers and locals donated blood to save the life of Dirgha Chadra, 30, of Atichaur VDC-8, Naina village who was reeling under a critical health condition due to excessive bleeding during delivery.
SUV rams motorbike killing one
A person died and two others were injured after a SUV rammed a motorbike near the Haripauri School in Tulsipur today.
Temporary govts budget is less likely to be implemented: Deuba
Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has remarked that the budget unveiled by a temporary government would be a temporary.
To thine oneself be true
Four-hundred years since Shakespeares death and 200 years after diplomatic relations between Britain and Nepal were established, two talented citizens from both nations are collaborating to produce a Nepali rendition of the classic Hamlet, both in Nepali and English.
Too scared to complain
The shadow of the perpetrators has fallen on the transitional justice commissions
Two arrested with pangolin scale
The Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) Teku arrested two traders in possession of two kilogram of pangolin skins from Bouddha-6 on Monday. Pangolin is locally known as Salak.
Two migrant workers rescued from TIA
Police have found serious anomalies in the foreign employment sector, with officials from the Department of Foreign Employment involved in irregularities.
UAE embassy begins operation in Nepal
Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates His Highness Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, arrived Kathmandu on Tuesday by special aircraft to inaugurate the embassy of UAE.
U.S. conducts freedom of navigation operation in South China Sea
A U.S. navy warship carried out a freedom of navigation operation near a disputed reef in the South China Seas on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Defense said.
Victims, rights groups protest against pact
Conflict victims and human rights defenders have warned that last weeks nine-point agreement between the major coalition partners could have serious consequences for the country.
Village that relies on witch doctors cure
Seventy-five-year-old Chheju Tamang of Gati VDC in Sindhupalchok has been suffering from persistent fever for the past several months. Besides fever, she also has cold and breathing difficulty
Woman sets herself on fire, dies
A woman committed suicide by setting herself on fire at Sikwakataiya in Mahottari today morning.
Writ petition against 9-pt agreement
A writ petition has been filed at the Supreme Court against the nine-point agreement reached between coalition partners CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) arguing the pact breaches the norms of transitional justice, human rights and judicial independence
Killeen, TX (76540)
Today
Showers and thundershowers during the evening will give way to mainly clear skies after midnight along with gusty winds. Low 52F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Higher wind gusts possible..
Tonight
Showers and thundershowers during the evening will give way to mainly clear skies after midnight along with gusty winds. Low 52F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Higher wind gusts possible.
Kendallville, IN (46755)
Today
Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Low near 55F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..
Tonight
Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Low near 55F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
The family of a Wisconsin veteran who died from a combination of medications prescribed by Veterans Administration doctors is optimistic after the House passed a bill Tuesday to reform the VAs use of painkillers.
Jason Simcakoski, a 35-year-old former Marine from Stevens Point, was being treated at the Tomah VA Medical Center in August 2014 when he died from the toxic combination of medicine, according to VA reports. His death was at the center of a 2015 report from the Center for Investigative Reporting highlighting excessive opioid painkiller prescription rates at the hospital, which some veterans called Candy Land.
Simcakoskis mother, widow and daughter were on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as guests of Rep. Ron Kind, co-sponsor of the Jason Simcakoski Promise Act, which directs the VA to update its opioid prescription practices.
Heather Simcakoski said she hopes the Senate will pass a larger VA reform bill, which contains similar language named for her husband and that the two chambers can reconcile them.
I think this is a huge honor for him, and I think hed be extremely proud, she said. Im just excited to see it brought through to the finish line.
Kind credited the Simcakoskis for their involvement with the bill and their support in rallying lawmakers.
The human element sometimes gets lost, Kind said. When you have a family showing up at the doorstep it humanizes everything we do here.
Jasons mother, Linda Simcakoski, said while she would like to see additional VA reforms, the opioid bill is a start.
We just feel that we want to make a change so no other family has to go through this situation, she said. When these men and women come out theres no reason they should have to fight for their lives (in the VA).
When these men and women come out theres no reason they should have to fight for their lives (in the VA). Linda Simcakoski, mother of vet who died from toxic combination of medicines
MADISON Gov. Scott Walker says he'll lead a trade mission to Mexico in June.
Walker announced the trip during an international trade conference in Milwaukee Tuesday. Walker and others from Wisconsin will meet with business and agriculture leaders in Mexico from June 12 to 17 to talk about opportunities in new markers and establishing operations in the Badger State.
Mexico is Wisconsin's second largest export destination. Companies here sent nearly $3 billion in goods to the country last year.
Walker's office says exports to Mexico increased by 4.6 percent in 2015.
Agriculture Secretary Ben Brancel will be among state administrators joining the governor, as well as representatives from Wisconsin businesses and the University of Wisconsin Madison and River Falls campuses.
Wisconsins longest-serving chief election official, who presided over the rise and fall of the states nonpartisan government oversight agency, has announced his retirement.
Kevin Kennedy, 64, will retire on June 29, according to a letter he gave to the Government Accountability Board on Sunday.
For the past 37 years and three months I have been privileged to work with a cadre of exceptionally dedicated and knowledgeable co-workers, Kennedy said. The quality of their endeavors is reflected in the high degree of public confidence in the programs administered by the agency as well as the national reputation the agency has earned as a leader and model in the areas of campaign finance, elections, ethics and lobbying. Simply put, I could not have done my job without their exemplary work.
Kennedy joined state service in April 1979 as staff counsel to the former State Elections Board. He became acting executive director of the State Elections Board in December 1982, a position that became permanent in August 1983.
On Nov. 5, 2007, the nonpartisan GAB chose Kennedy to continue as Wisconsins chief election official when GAB succeeded the State Elections Board.
The move combined the elections and ethics boards into one agency in the wake of the Legislative Caucus Scandal, in which legislative aides of both parties did political work on taxpayer-funded time out of the Capitol.
Scott Walker signs bills dismantling GAB, overhauling campaign finance law Walker's signature of the two bills, announced in a press release, was conducted in private Wednesday.
In December 2015 the governor and Legislature approved a plan to replace the independent GAB with bipartisan elections and ethics commissions under Legislative control effective June 30.
The move was driven largely by the GABs role in a now-halted John Doe investigation into Gov. Scott Walkers 2012 recall campaign. The GAB and its staff played a key support role in working on the case with Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and special prosecutor Francis Schmitz.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in July that the underlying legal theory was invalid, a decision Chisholm and two other district attorneys involved in the case have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kennedy faced calls for his resignation from some Republicans and conservative groups for his friendship with former IRS official Lois Lerner, who was a central figure in that agencys targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. The friendship was revealed in emails unearthed in a lawsuit brought by one of the conservative groups being investigated. Lerner advised Kennedy in 2013 that the kind of activity under investigation would likely be a criminal matter.
During a legislative hearing on the changes to the GAB last fall, Kennedy was asked about his friendship with Lerner, to which he responded, Have you no decency?
Kennedy told the Wisconsin State Journal in an interview last summer that the heightened scrutiny comes with the job of trying to referee politics.
Ive always operated knowing theres a sword hanging over my head to measure my performance, Kennedy said. It wouldnt be fair to the people who work for me to bolt at the first criticism.
Contact Bill Novak at 608-252-6483 or bnovak@madison.com. Contact Matthew DeFour at 608-252-6144 or mdefour@madison.com.
The State Council has launched a campaign to tackle school bullying, the Ministry of Education announced on Monday.
The Education Supervision and Guidance Committee under the State Council has sent a notice to local education bureaus, the ministry said on its website.
The campaign aims to curb school bullying in primary and middle schools, including physical and verbal bullying. Cyberspace bullying will also be targeted.
The campaign covers all primary and middle schools across the country, including middle vocational schools.
Campus bullying is a serious issue in Chinese schools. Last year, a boy was stabbed to death by three classmates in Guangdong province. Also last year, a video clip showing schoolgirls slapping, kicking and beating another schoolgirl in Jiangxi province went viral online, triggering a widespread discussion of campus bullying.
According to the notice, an inspector will be responsible for monitoring all schools in his or her school district. The inspector is required to report any bullying to the school and to the local education inspection department.
Schools are required to invite public security and justice departments to provide anti-bullying education.
Procedures to prevent and handle campus bullying should be established, and the responsibility of school staff members should be clarified, the notice said.
It also called for improving support programs to prevent bullying, including the use of counseling. Schools are also urged to start a hotline for students to report campus bullying.
Additionally, staff members should be appointed to discover and investigate any campus bullying. If a crime is involved, the staff should report it to the public security department and cooperate with officers in filing a case.
luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 05/10/2016 page3)
Members of a statewide organization of bed and breakfast operators are leading an effort to crack down on people who offer residences through online short-term rental websites without getting licensed and paying taxes.
Since late last summer, Public Health Madison and Dane County has received 32 complaints against properties listed on websites such as Airbnb and VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner). All of the complaints have been filed by people connected with the Wisconsin Bed & Breakfast Association, according to the health agency.
The development comes as city officials are examining ways to enforce a 2013 ordinance regulating rentals through those and similar websites.
Mayor Paul Soglin in March floated the idea of hiring a new city employee whose sole job would be to track down and collect thousands of dollars worth of unreported room tax revenues from people who post rooms, apartments or houses for short-term rentals. He suggested the employee could use clues in photographs included in Airbnb and VRBO listings to determine locations of rentals.
That practice is already in use by bed and breakfast owners across the state who have been using it to lodge complaints against operators of unlicensed short-term rentals.
Dusan Duke Mihajlovic, owner of the Oscar H. Hanson House Bed & Breakfast in Cambridge, said he regularly monitors listings on those sites in Cambridge, Fort Atkinson, Lake Mills and parts of Madison. He believes the current laws governing bed and breakfasts and tourist rooming houses should be enforced both for safety and for fairness to licensed businesses.
Im trying to level the playing field, he said. If youre going to have lodging, youre supposed to have a license from the department of health, so I let the department of health know whenever I find one because they do not have the staff or the time to hunt them down.
Some of these places are charging $50 a night. I cant get down that low and Im sure if they played by the regulations, they couldnt get down that low either.
Dusan estimates hes reported a couple dozen addresses to state authorities over the past year by examining photos and referencing them against Google Earth and Street View. He was part of a committee that urged the Bed & Breakfast Association to formally implement the method on a widespread basis, but difficulty coordinating the laborious process has limited its success.
A lot of people are just watching their area and then informing DHS, he said.
Teresa Coffman and her mother, Ardis, are among those who received a letter from Public Health Madison and Dane County notifying them of a complaint.
The two had never run a business, but had previously allowed visitors to stay at their 6001 Hammersley Road home through their Unitarian affiliation. They learned about Airbnb in early 2014, and being accustomed to welcoming strangers into their home, began listing a room for $65 a night to help offset property taxes and pay for home improvements. Last year, the room accounted for 255 nights of occupancy, Teresa Coffman said.
The November letter came as a surprise, but Coffman said it was helpful in outlining a path for them to operate legally as a bed and breakfast or tourist rooming house.
Public Health Madison and Dane County, which enforces the state health code locally, charges $491 for bed and breakfast and $595 for tourist rooming house licenses. Annual renewal fees on those licenses are $116 and $220, respectively, including $110 that goes to the state.
The Coffmans paid to register as a rooming house and were asked to pay back a years worth of sales taxes to the state, along with three months of room tax to the city. Together, those totaled a little more than $400.
We were glad that we didnt feel like it was punitive. It didnt feel like anyone was trying to make this unusually difficult or put us out of business. They just wanted to help us get right with the city and state, Teresa Coffman said. Were happy to pay the taxes, to be honest, because we dont have to feel were doing anything wrong.
Thats the mentality city officials hope more people will adopt.
Madisons ordinance classifies short-term online rentals as tourist rooming houses, subjecting them to health inspections and taxes. It also limits properties to 30 rental days per year if the owner does not occupy the home while its being rented.
But in practice, the ordinance has been sparsely used, relying largely on self-reporting. Prior to 2015, only four properties rented through Airbnb or VRBO were licensed in the city.
Ald. Ledell Zellers, whose Near East Side 2nd District includes a plethora of licensed bed and breakfasts and unlicensed short-term rentals, said finding a solution for compliance has become a recurring discussion among city leaders and staff.
I want something thats logical, thats easy to apply for, but I want it to be enforced, Zellers said.
The recent citizen-led sting has caused a bump in license requests. Six were approved last year and 10 have been approved or are pending this year. Almost half of those license applications were the result of complaints.
Compared to how many listings there are on Airbnb we dont really know how many listings there are in Madison and Dane County we have seen an increase. But thats just dealing with the places we were given information about, said Beth Cleary, environmental health services supervisor for the city and county.
I dont think thats representative, though, of the true number of unlicensed lodging accommodations on those websites, Cleary said.
City treasurer Dave Gawenda said his office has sought only the room taxes for the current quarter when new rooming house operators are identified.
We do reserve the right to go back, but were focused on getting new operators on the list, Gawenda said. As an administrator, Im satisfied with adding them to the list and making sure from here on out they pay their taxes.
Now that they are licensed, the Coffmans have raised rates by $4 to help cover taxes. Despite being exposed to authorities by someone affiliated with the Bed & Breakfast Association, Teresa Coffman said she has no hard feelings.
I think everyone deserves a level playing field and if that has to be sought out by the city or the Bed & Breakfast Association, whoever I think everybody should do the right thing, she said.
Man charged in methamphetamine case
A Melrose, Wis.-area man has been charged after authorities raided and cleaned up a suspected methamphetamine lab on his property.
James T. Schlifer, 52, faces 10 drug-related felonies after a search warrant uncovered evidence of meth manufacturing at his property.
A detective began monitoring GPS installed on Schlifers vehicle in April and used store video footage to observe him purchasing camp fuel, which is an ingredient in the shake-and-bake method of manufacturing meth, according to the criminal complaint.
Schlifer, who said he occasionally uses meth, initially denied involvement in manufacturing but eventually told authorities that he was not going to lie and stated that he makes dope. He also said he doesnt sell meth and stated he makes meth because he is an addict and cooks for himself, according to the complaint.
The search warrant at the residence revealed a burn pit with bottles containing white sludge, items for making meth in addition to a digital scale, syringes and pipes, according to the complaint.
Schlifer is charged with possession of materials for manufacturing meth, four counts of manufacturing meth, a first offense of disposal of waste from manufacturing meth, a second offense of possession of meth, two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a drug trafficking place. All consider him a repeat offender.
Alleged liquor thief charged
A Kendall, Wis., man has been charged after reportedly entering a womans home to steal a bottle of liquor.
Gary E. Wolfgram, 61, is charged with criminal trespassing and theft after the alleged April 20 incident at a residence in the village.
A 37-year-old woman reported at about 6 p.m. that Wolfgram entered the home without permission, punched her in the chest and took the bottle of liquor, according to the Monroe County Sheriffs Office.
She said she yelled at him to leave but he didnt leave until 10 minutes later.
Authorities went to speak to Wolfgram at his home, but he reportedly fled into the woods, where authorities later caught up to him. He said he did enter the home without permission but later said he lived there and moved out a month ago, according to the report.
Wolfgram said he didnt steal the liquor.
Wolfgram also is charged with battery, resisting and obstructing an officer and two counts of disorderly conduct. He was released on a $1,500 signature bond and has an initial court appearance set for May 23.
One injured in propane tanker rollover on Hwy. 61
A La Crosse man was injured when the LP propane tanker he was driving rolled over just before 10 a.m. Monday on Hwy. 61, near mile marker 17 and La Moille.
Gregory P. Oldenburg, 54, was temporarily trapped in his truck cab, but was able to get out and was transported to the hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.
According to the patrol, Oldenburg was northbound in the left lane, passing another vehicle. He moved to the right, then attempted to move back into the left lane, over-correcting and rolling the truck into the center ditch.
Both northbound and southbound traffic was diverted for about 90 minutes as crews from Pickwick, Dakota, and Winona Fire Departments responded, along with the Winona Police Department, Winona County Sheriffs Department, Winona Area Ambulance, and MnDOT hazardous materials responders.
On April 23, 2016, more than 160 people met at the Timber Coulee Rod and Gun Clubhouse, where the Westby Chamber Viking ship greeted them for the 100-year anniversary party of the Westby Sons of Norway Solvang Lodge No. 5-457. Westby Elementary School Folk Dancers, led by Sara Nestingen, performed during the social hour to start the festivities.
After SON President Sandra Iverson and Westby Mayor Danny Helgerson welcomed attendees, Blaine Hedberg, Solvang Lodge member and secretary of the Board of Governors of the SON Foundation, presented Sandra with a grant award from the foundation to help with event expenses. Elizabeth Erickson, Solvang member, led the singing of the national anthems of the United States, Canada and Norway (in Norwegian), followed by a table prayer led by fellow member the Rev. John Spidel-Stennes. A delicious feast was catered by Borgens Cafe, and dessert of cupcakes with red, white or blue icing displayed as Norwegian and American flags, and pieces of a traditional celebration kransaker cake served by the Syttende Mai royalty.
After the meal, Brian Rude, former Wisconsin State Senate president and a member of the Solvang Lodge for 35 years, served as master of ceremonies, as well as keynote speaker. He opened the program with remarks about the founding of the lodge in April 1916 by 22 women of the Daughters of Norway. Brian went on to explain that in 1926, the Dale Gudbrand Sons of Norway Lodge was founded. The two organizations merged in 1950 to become the present Solvang Lodge No. 457.
In the beginning, members were required to be of Norwegian heritage or be married to same but Brian shared how the lodge has evolved so that today, anyone interested in Norwegian culture is invited to join. Solvang currently has more than 100 members. Elaine Lund and Florence Holen, both present at the celebration, join Brian in being members for more than 35 years. A nod was also given to very active, long-term members Evelyn and Orin Larson, and Wilmer Homstad who could not attend.
Four past presidents of Solvang Lodge were present and introduced by Brian: Russell Hanson, Myron Buddy Rundhaugen, Gary Daines and Ron Iverson. Brian also recognized members of the anniversary committee for their tremendous efforts as well as all current officers of the lodge.
Many SON dignitaries were present. Jon Tehven, International President of the Sons of Norway, shared that his wife declared Dregnes as the best Scandinavian shop. International Directors Jon Grinde and Ray Knutson, with SON District 5 President Owen Christianson, shared Ole, Lena and even a few Sven jokes. All expressed heart-felt congratulations to Solvang on this extraordinary achievement.
A colorful bunad and folk costume parade followed the speakers, with President Sandy describing how each design represented a different region of Norway. The audience then joined in to sing Norwegian songs, printed in the program, as Buddy played his accordion. Final bids were entered for the silent auction items, coordinated by Diane Piper, which included beautiful rosemaling pieces, Norwegian tapestries, books, artwork and more for a very successful fundraiser.
Throughout the event, attendees could enjoy the Solvang display of a huge Norwegian map showing heritage farms of members and a table display of SON historic artifacts and pictures from the past 100 years.
Solvang Lodge would like to thank everyone already mentioned who made this such a memorable event. Special additional thank-yous are extended to Evelyn Larson for her cover artwork on the program and table decorations, Karen Hankee for her creation of the Viking ships table decorations and the beautiful Viking ship on the buffet table, Peter Leum for making lefse, Mark Jelenik for his sound system, the many donors of the silent auction, Kvarnstroms bakery for the delicious and beautiful kranskaker, Cedric Veum for computer work and design, Corky Olson for setting up the heritage table, Janet Johnson for coordinating the building of many little ships and to the anniversary committee, chaired by Margaret Veum, for all their hard work.
The event was captured in photos by David Torgerson and on video by Roger Hansen. Both will be shared on Vernon Communications Channel 14 and will also be kept in the Solvang Lodge library to be shared for the next 100 years.
The Westby Sons of Norway Solvang Lodge No. 457 celebrated its 100th Anniversary in April 2016.
Solvang Lodge 58, Daughters of Norway, was organized in Westby, on April 16,1916, by a group of 23 women of Norwegian descent. The group first met in the homes of charter members, but as the numbers grew the meetings were moved to a storage room above Mitby Hall.
Several years later the group moved its meeting to the old City Hall building and up until 1956 the Norwegian language was used to conduct meetings, until the English language was adopted.
At the History-making convention in Minneapolis, in June 1950, Westby residents, Thora Lunde and Myrtle Hovde were delegates at the meeting, when the Daughters of Norway organization voted to merge with Sons of Norway. On Dec. 31, 1950 a new charter was issued in which all members of Westby Solvang Lodge 58 Daughters of Norway were declared to be Charter Members of Solvang Lodge 457, making them one in the same. Men were not allowed to join the organization until October 1971.
Known today as the Westby Sons of Norway Solvang Lodge No. 457, the group has grown considerably since 1916, with 120 registered members, making it one of the largest lodges in District 5. Westby also a sister lodge with the Sons of Norway in Spring Grove, Minn.
Through the decades, Westby Sons of Norway Solvang Lodge No. 457 members have knit for the Red Cross war efforts; supported the Norwegian Relief efforts; contributed money to Camp McCoy; donated money to the construction of the Bekkum Memorial Library; provided a presence at various state and county celebrations; sponsor choirs, bands and other educational programs from Norway to come to this area; conduct bus trips, support Norskedalen; and have hosted exchange programs with other local lodges.
Today, the Westby Sons of Norway Solvang Lodge No. 457 continues to be an active and thriving organization that supports, preserves and educates people about Norwegian heritage. Current officers are Sandy Iverson (president); Dick Iverson (vice president), Margaret Veum (secretary), and Roger Hanson (treasurer).
The lodge annually hosts a Frkst breakfast during Westby Syttende Mai, a meal that brings people back year after year This years meal is Saturday, May 14, from 7-10 a.m., at United Methodist Church. Also during Syttende Mai they sponsor a princess candidate. This year they are the sponsors for the 2016 Westby Syttende Mai Princess Josie Ingles.
On Tuesday, May 17, lodge members will provide an special Norwegian Trunk heritage educational program for students at Westby Elementary School and they will hold additional educational programs for the public at its regular meeting at the Westby Community Center on the last Tuesday of each month, at 7 p.m. Due to all the activity in the month of may, the next monthly meeting will not be until June 28.
At the end of month on Thursday, May 26, the lodge is sponsoring a Greig Mens Chorus from Madison. The concert will be held 7 p.m. at the Westby Country Coon Prairie Lutheran Church.
In 2015, the Westby Sons of Norway Solvang Lodge No. 457 joined the Leif Erikson Day celebration in Westby and will have a strong presence again this year during the 2016 celebration this October.
Congratulations to the Westby Sons of Norway Solvang Lodge No. 457 on its milestone. For more information about Westby Sons of Norway Solvang Lodge No. 457 contact Sandy Iverson at 608 634-4165 or by email at iverron@mwt.net
In a surprise move, the acting speaker of Brazils lower chamber of Congress called for a new vote in the impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff.
Waldir Maranhao is the Acting Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. He said there were problems with the way the lower chamber voted to impeach Rousseff on April 17.
The announcement came just days before the Senate was expected to approve putting Rousseff on trial. If that happens, she would immediately be suspended from her job for up to six months.
This move means the process will go back to the lower chamber. It could delay the process by days or weeks.
Brazils business markets reacted to the news by dropping in value. The currency weakened as much as 5 percent, and stocks fell quickly.
Reuters News Agency reports the markets view the decision as decreasing the chances of a new business-friendly government.
Rousseff is fighting charges that her government broke fiscal, or financial, rules.
In last months lower house vote, Maranhao voted against the impeachment process. He took over as acting speaker when Speaker Eduardo Cunha was removed from office on corruption charges. Cunha had started the impeachment process against Rousseff.
In a news release, Maranhao said the impeachment process should be sent back from the Senate, so the House chamber can vote again. He said the vote should happen quickly within five sessions of the chamber after the case is returned.
It is unclear whether the Supreme Court, the Senate, or a majority in the House can overrule Maranhaos decision.
Speaking at an event in the presidential palace, Rousseff was surprised to learn the news of the temporary annulment.
Rousseff said the impeachment process has been suspended. But she warned cheering supporters:
"It is not official, and I don't know the consequences, so let's be cautious."
Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing. She has said she would fight it by all legal ways possible. What was not clear is whether she knew that Mondays announcement was in the works.
The impeachment comes as Brazil is dealing with a recession, a corruption investigation of top politicians and businessmen, and an outbreak of the Zika virus. The country is set to host the Olympics in August.
Im Anne Ball.
Anne Ball wrote this story with information from the Associated Press and Reuters News Agency. Hai Do was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and visit us on Facebook.
________________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
impeachment n. criminal charges against a public official when in office
annulment n. the act of saying officially that something is no longer valid
cautious adj. careful about avoiding risk or danger
in the works - phrase. something is being planned, being worked on
China sent fighter jets into the air on Tuesday after a U.S. Navy ship sailed close to a disputed area in the South China Sea.
The U.S. Defense Department said the USS William P. Lawrence, a guided missile destroyer, traveled within 22 kilometers of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef.
A Defense Department official said the Navy carried out the operation to challenge excessive maritime claims by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. He accused them of seeking to restrict the movement of shipping and aircraft in the area.
Chinas Defense Ministry said two fighter jets and three warships followed the U.S. ship, telling it to leave.
Chinese officials denounced the U.S. action as an illegal threat to peace. They said it showed Chinas defensive positions in the area were necessary.
China claims most of the South China Sea. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the waterway.
U.S. Considering Arms Sales to Vietnam
Tensions over the competing claims are expected to be discussed when U.S. President Barack Obama visits Vietnam later this month. His administration is currently re-examining the U.S. ban on arms shipments to the country.
The arms embargo has been in effect for over 30 years. In 2014, the U.S. partially eased the embargo to enable shipments of materials only relating to maritime security.
Now, the Obama administration is considering a total lifting of the arms ban as a sign of trust and developing ties between the two countries.
Vietnam has long sought a complete removal of the ban. Such a step would signal a historic move away from a remaining remnant of Vietnam War era hostility.
The United States reestablished full diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1995.
The current ban on non-maritime lethal weapons shipments to Vietnam can be modified to reflect changing circumstances, according to U.S. official David McKeeby. He is a spokesman for the State Departments Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
McKeeby told VOA that administration officials will closely consult with Congress on any proposed changes. He also said Vietnams human rights record will be an essential element when making any policy decision.
U.S. and Vietnamese officials are meeting this week to prepare for Obamas visit. The State Department said the U.S. officials are noting that Vietnam should make progress on human rights if it wants to improve ties.
The department cited progress made by the Vietnamese government in some of its human rights practices. But it also pointed out violations and abuses, including political restrictions and arbitrary arrests and detentions.
Murray Hiebert is a Vietnam expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). There is currently quite a bit of discussion happening between the two sides, he said.
Hiebert added that Vietnam is cooperating with the United States on issues such as maritime security in the context of Chinas increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea.
But even if the arms embargo is lifted, Hiebert said, this does not mean Vietnam will actually be permitted to buy specific items. The United States could still reject individual arms transfer requests if there are serious human rights violations, he said.
One Vietnamese official recently predicted there would be favorable conditions in the coming years that should allow the countries to increase defense cooperation.
The comments by the Deputy Director of Vietnams Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lai Thai Binh, were published in a report for the CSIS Pacific Forum. He added that Washington and Hanoi currently share strategic interests in handling the South China Sea.
Im Bryan Lynn.
Nike Chang reported this story for VOANews.com. Bryan Lynn adapted her report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, and post on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
embargo n. an official ban on trade with a particular country
maritime adj. relating to the sea, especially relating to commercial or military activity
remnant n. a small remaining amount of something when other parts are gone
modify v. to make small changes to something to improve it
consult v. to seek advice or have discussions with others
enact v. to approve a piece of legislation to become law
arbitrary adj. based on a random or personal choice, rather than reason
assertiveness n. the act of being confident and forceful
Londons new mayor a Muslim -- has rejected Donald Trumps offer to allow him to enter the United States.
Sadiq Khan was elected Londons first Muslim mayor last week and took office Saturday. Trump, who is running for U.S. president as a Republican, said he would ban Muslims from entering the U.S.
Khan told the BBC Tuesday he rejected Trumps offer because it is an exception to a campaign promise that hurts Muslims who want to enter the United States to study, visit Disney World, or do business. A campaign promise is something a candidate says they will do if they win office.
This isnt just about me, its about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world, Khan said to the Associated Press.
Trump said he would temporarily ban Muslims from traveling to the U.S., after last years terrorism attack in California. He said the United States needs to be protected against terror attacks.
Asked by the New York Times this week how his ban would affect Khan, Trump said: There will always be exceptions.
Trump also said he is happy Khan was elected mayor.
If he does a good job, and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing, Trump said.
Earlier, Khan joked he might have to visit the United States quickly in case Trump is elected and takes office next January. Khan told the BBC Tuesday he supports the Democratic Partys leading presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.
He said Trumps ignorant opinion of Islam could make both our countries less safe it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of extremists.
Khan is the son of Pakistani immigrants. His father was a bus driver. Khan earned a law degree, worked as a human rights lawyer and was elected to the Parliament as a Labor Party member.
He beat his conservative party opponent, Zac Goldsmith, to become Londons mayor. Goldsmith tried to connect him to Islamic extremists. Khan said the charges are false.
Khan told the Washington Post that being the son of immigrants from a poor background and a religious minority isnt held against you in London.
You are respected for who you are and what you put in, Khan said
Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or share your views on our Facebook Page.
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Words in This Story
background n. the experiences, knowledge, education, etc., in a person's past
frankly adv. in an honest and direct way
terrific adj. extremely good
alienate v. to make someone unfriendly
mainstream n. the thoughts, beliefs, and choices that are accepted by the largest number of people
President Barack Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, Japan.
The White House announced Tuesday the president will visit the city where an American warplane dropped an atomic bomb near the end of World War II. The visit is scheduled for May 27.
The president will not apologize for worlds first nuclear bombing, but will speak about the importance of limiting nuclear weapons, the White House said.
Obama wants to highlight the devastating effects of war, said Benjamin Rhodes, Obamas deputy national security adviser. Rhodes made his comment in a blog posted on Medium.com.
The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 killed about 140,000 people. The U.S. dropped a second nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki three days later, killing as many as 80,000 people.
U.S. President Harry Truman said he ordered the bombings to bring a quicker end to World War II. Japan announced its surrender to the United States and its allies on August 15, 1945.
Obamas visit to Hiroshima will come toward the end of his seven-day trip to Japan. He is attending meetings of the G7, the leaders of the worlds leading economies.
Secretary of State John Kerry visited Hiroshima last month.
"War must be the last resort, never the first choice," Kerry wrote in a memorial book at the Hiroshima World War II memorial.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to join Obama for his visit to Hiroshima. Rhodes said Obama and the prime minister will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, which remembers victims of the atomic bombing.
Keiko Ogura was eight years old when Hiroshima was hit with a nuclear bomb. She survived and is now 79.
Before I die, I want to see the president, the sitting presidents face, she told VOA. That is not asking for an apology. No, just as a human being. You are here and we are standing on the same land, the same level land and then pray for the dead.
Former President Jimmy Carter visited Hiroshima, but after he left office.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui praised Obama's plan to visit as an important decision, based on conscience. The mayor said he hopes the president will get to hear survivors stories.
Rhodes, the Obama adviser, wrote that the U.S. and its allies were fighting for a just cause in World War II against Japan and Germany.
The United States will be eternally proud of our civilian leaders and the men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II for their sacrifice at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world, Rhodes wrote.
I'm Bruce Alpert.
Ken Bredemeier and Brian Padden reported on this story for VOANews.com. Bruce Alpert adapted this story for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section or share your views on our Facebook Page
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Words in This Story
devastating adj. causing great damage or harm
conscience n. the part of the mind that makes you aware of your actions as being either morally right or wrong
eternally adv. lasting forever
maximum adj. the highest amount possible
peril n. danger
Cannes: The subcontinent is set to receive a fair share of attention in the 11-day 69th Cannes Film Festival that opens tomorrow evening with the gala screening of Woody Allen's Cafe Society.
India will expectedly hog much of the 'regional' limelight in Cannes with two entries one documentary and a short fiction film in the festival's official selection. That apart, Anurag Kashyap's Raman Raghav 2.0, about a 1960s Mumbai serial killer played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is set to premiere in Directors' Fortnight, a prestigious parallel section in which the Mumbai director's two-part Gangs of Wasseypur and Ugly bowed in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal, too, will be showcased in the latest edition of the world's premier film festival.
The festival on the French Riviera is known for attracting independent cinema heavy hitters as well as huge glamour wattage in the shape of Hollywood and European movie stars. Kalimpong boy Saurav Rai, a student of Kolkata's Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI), will register his presence amid the glitz and glamour with his 28-minute Nepali-language diploma film Gudh (Nest).
Rai's film is among 18 titles 14 fiction and four animation selected from 2,300 entries received from film academies across the world for the Cinefondation competition, now in its 19th year.
"The film seeks to capture the vivid memories that I have of my growing up years," says 29-year-old Rai. "The political turmoil in Darjeeling forms a minute backdrop."
"Gudh is 80 per cent reality and 20 per cent imagination," he says, adding that even what he has drawn from his imagination is "very close to reality". "That this cathartic personal journey of mine has made it to Cannes is a dream come true," says the young filmmaker.
The Cinefondation selection will be judged by a five-member jury presided over by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase. Three prizes are up for grabs in the section and the award-winners will be announced on May 20.
The other Indian film in the Cannes official selection Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya's The Cinema Travellers, a documentary on Maharashtra's travelling tent theatres
represents a journey of a completely different kind. The 96-minute film, made over a period of eight years with the support of the India Foundation for the Arts, the Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University and Goethe-Institut India, is part of the festival's Cannes Classics section, which includes nine documentaries on cinema history. The Cinema Travellers documents the changes and challenges that the once-thriving tent cinemas face in the digital age.
Among the restored prints to be screened as part of Cannes Classics this year is the 1959 Pakistani film Jago Hua Savera (The Day Shall Dawn), the country's first nomination for the best foreign language film Oscar.
Directed by Aaejay Kardar, Jago Hua Savera was the result of a rare collaboration among talents from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). Based on a story by Bengali writer Manik Bandopadhyay and scripted by Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the film focused on the
lives of impoverished fishermen of East Pakistan.
The female lead in Jago Hua Savera was played by Kolkata screen and stage actress Tripti Mitra.
In Cannes Critics' Week, the Singaporean-French production A Yellow Bird, directed by debutant K Rajagopal and featuring Seema Biswas in a key role, homes in on the state of Indians in contemporary Singapore.
As an Indian voice in Chinese-dominated Singapore, Rajagopal is seen as an authentic representative of minority aspirations.
A Yellow Bird tells the story of the struggles of an Indian man released from jail after an eight-year incarceration for contraband smuggling. "A Yellow Bird aims to examine the position of the 'Indian' in contemporary Singaporean society. The story stems from my own experiences as an Indian-Singaporean (in a society) where a sense of belonging to my birth nation is frequently questioned and tested," the director said.
In a significant breakthrough for Afghan cinema, Directors' Fortnight will host the premiere of debutante Shahrbanoo Sadat.
The 26-year-old Kabul-based director's first film Wolf and Sheep was developed in the Cannes Cinefondation Residence in 2010 and completed with Danish funding.
In the Cannes Atelier, a section that helps new projects get off the ground, the subcontinent will be represented by two proposed films Aditya Vikram Sengupta's Memories and My Mother (India) and Pooja Gurung and Bibhusan Basnet's The Whole-timers (Nepal).
New Delhi: Gurgaon-based Indifi Technologies, an enabler for SME funding in India, has partnered with OfBusiness, a B2B ecommerce marketplace, in a bid to help buyers on OfBusiness platform to scale up their businesses.
Through this association, Indifi will enable purchase financing to the small scale manufacturing companies to assist them in purchasing raw materials for their business. The financing facility provided is typically a 12-month line of credit wherein customers can draw demand loans for a 30 or 60-day period.
With this partnership, Indifi is now live in 6 different segments viz. travel, transportation, retail sector, hotels, e-commerce and manufacturing.
Commenting on the partnership, Alok Mittal, Co-founder and CEO, Indifi Technologies said, By availing purchase financing through Indifi platform, these manufacturing companies benefit by combining the low cost of marketplace sourcing with the credit availability of traditional suppliers.
Adding insights on the association, Ruchi Kalra, Co-founder, OfBusiness, said: "SME financing, particularly in manufacturing is the need of the hour. We at OfBusiness are committed to creating value through our commerce, logistics and credit solutions for SMEs. Indifi through its nimble and tech-driven approach has helped us gallop in scale."
Indifi Technologies partners with lenders - banks and NBFCs - to deliver credit facilities to small businesses. It aims to substantially improve the experience that borrowers get in terms of speed of approval and disbursement, convenience of the loan process, relevance of the loan product to their business needs, and finding the best rates in the market.
OfBusiness is a technology-driven business to business marketplace for commerce, logistics and credit. It is operational in 10 states across the country and is active across two verticals construction and manufacturing, with plans of entering healthcare soon.
New Delhi: Private sector lender Yes Bank will seek shareholders approval for raising about Rs 16,500 crore through issue of debt securities as well as equity capital in one or more tranches.
The annual general meeting of the bank will be held on June 7, Yes Bank said in a statement today.
The bank proposes to seek approval for borrowing or raising funds in Indian or foreign currency by issue of debt securities up to Rs 10,000 crore to eligible investors on private placement basis, it said.
The proposed fund would be raised in one or more tranches in domestic and or overseas market, as per the structure and within the limits permitted by the RBI and other regulatory authorities, it said.
These would form part of the overall borrowing limits approved by shareholders of Rs 50,000 crore, it further said. Besides, the bank proposes to raise additional capital aggregating up to USD 1 billion (about Rs 6,500 crore) or its Indian rupee equivalent by way of placement of shares through Qualified Institutions Placement (QIP) and/or private placement in international markets through ADRs/ GDRs, it said.
Parties at the centre of one of the biggest-ever cyber heists pledged on Tuesday to cooperate to recover $81 million stolen from a Bangladesh central bank account at the New York Fed, following weeks of accusations over who is to blame.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley, Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir and representatives from global messaging network SWIFT met in Basel, Switzerland on Tuesday to discuss the early-February heist.
The meeting was the first face-to-face encounter since the cyber attack left the three blaming each other over the incident in which criminals, using SWIFT messages, stole the funds from the Bangladesh central bank's account held at the New York Fed.
"All parties stated their concern over this event and their continued commitment to work together to normalise operations," the New York Fed, Bangladesh Bank, and SWIFT said in a joint statement.
"The parties also agreed to pursue jointly certain common goals: to recover the entire proceeds of the fraud and bring the perpetrators to justice, and protect the global financial system from these types of attacks."
A senior official with Bangladesh's central bank who was in close contact with the delegation that had traveled from Dhaka to Basel said the bank's top priority was to secure close cooperation from all the parties involved.
"Bangladesh Bank believes if the New York Federal Reserve were to intervene, it will be possible to retrieve the money," said the official.
The joint statement said the three parties had discussed actions taken so far and exchanged information about "cyber and physical vulnerabilities" highlighted by the incident.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bangladesh police are among the groups investigating the breach.
In the latest twist, SWIFT on Monday rejected allegations by officials in Bangladesh that technicians related to SWIFT made the central bank more vulnerable to hacking.
When asked by Reuters outside his hotel in Basel on Tuesday, Kabir declined to elaborate on the joint statement.
A spokeswoman for SWIFT, which stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, declined to elaborate on who attended the meeting. A New York Fed spokeswoman declined to discuss what steps were planned.
(Additional reporting by Michael Shields in Basel and Jim Finkle in Boston, Sanjeev Migliani in Dhaka; Editing by Alan Crosby)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Janata Dal-United legislator Manorama Devis son Rakesh Ranjan Yadav alias Rocky Yadav was arrested on Tuesday from a house in Bodh Gaya on the charge of murdering teenager Aditya Sachdev. He was later sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Gaya court, police said.
Chief judicial magistrate in-charge, Sanjay Kumar Jha sent Rocky to judicial custody when he was produced by the police and was later taken to Gaya central jail.
Gaya Senior Superintendent of Police Garima Mallik said that Rocky had confessed to the fatal shooting of businessman's son Aditya on Saturday night for overtaking his car on the Bodh Gaya-Gaya road.
Rocky was arrested with the pistol used in the crime, she said. The licence for the pistol was issued in Delhi.
However, Rocky told reporters that he was innocent of the crime, insisting he was in Delhi when the crime took place in Gaya.
"I was in Delhi...when my mother called me I came and presented myself before the SSP... I did not open fire," he said while being whisked away by the police following Malliks press conference. "I'll tell everything in the court," he said.
Rocky, who went missing since the incident on Saturday, was arrested from his father's mixer plant in Gaya district earlier in the day.
His father Bindi Yadav and Manorama Devi's bodyguard and police security personnel Rajesh Kumar, who were arrested on Sunday for allegedly helping Rocky to escape and was sent to 14 days judicial custody on Monday, are also lodged in the same jail.
Bihar JD-U president Vashisht Narain Singh told the media that the party had suspended its legislator Manorama Devi after some liquor bottles were seized from her house during a police raid on Monday night during a search for her son.
Mallik said a separate case will be filed on charge of violation of the liquor ban in Bihar.
With Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asserting that no guilty will be spared, police promised to file a chargesheet within a month.
Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Sunil Kumar said: "SSP Gaya has been directed to ensure a speedy trial in the case. The investigation is still on and it will be completed within three weeks and a chargesheet will be filed within a month."
When pointed out that Yadav denied opening fire, the ADGP said, "No accused confesses that he has committed crime. Let him say whatever he is saying. He will get opportunity during trial."
He added, "As far as the police are concerned, we have enough evidence to prove his guilt in the case. We have circumstantial evidence, scientific evidence, weapon and vehicle used in the crime, statements of witnesses under 164 of CrPC," he said.
Rocky's father Bindi Yadav is a criminal-turned-politician. According to The Times of India, he was a once-dreaded don who has been accused in about two dozen serious criminal cases including those involving murder, kidnapping, dacoity and house-grabbing.
An article in DailyO stated that Bindi had been slapped with sedition charge in 2011 for storing 6,000 rounds of assault rifle bullets and giving them to Maoists.
After the news about his son's alleged crime spread throughout the country, Bindi Yadav had also claimed that Rocky had fired from his pistol "by mistake". Eye-witnesses, though, contradicted this claim and explained how Rocky Yadav had threatened them just because their car had overtaken his.
Aditya's parents Keshav Chand Sachdeva and Chanda demanded a speedy trial to ensure justice. Adityas elder brother Lalji told The Indian Express, Everyone knows my brother was killed by Bindi Yadavs son. It is a pure case of road rage.
With inputs from agencies
Patna: The Bihar police on Tuesday said that Rakesh Ranjan Yadav alias Rocky Yadav, the son of the ruling JD(U) MLC Manorama Devi, who allegedly shot dead a 20-year-old youth for overtaking his vehicle, will be subjected to a speedy trial.
"SSP Gaya has been directed to ensure a speedy trial in the case. The investigation is still on and it will be completed within three weeks and a chargesheet will be filed within a month," the Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Sunil Kumar told reporters here.
The main accused Rocky Yadav was arrested in the wee hours of Tuesday with a pistol used in the crime, the ADGP said, adding that 19 cartridges had also been seized from the accused.
Aditya Sachdeva was allegedly shot dead by Rocky Yadav for overtaking his vehicle near the police lines in Gaya district on Saturday night.
When pointed out that Yadav denied opening fire, the ADGP said, "No accused confesses that he has committed crime. Let him say whatever he is saying. He will get opportunity during trial."
"So far as police are concerned, we have enough evidence to prove his guilt in the case. We have circumstantial evidence, scientific evidence, weapon and vehicle used in the crime, statements of witnesses under 164 of CrPC," he said, hours after the Gaya police nabbed the accused.
Stating that two accused persons Rocky's father Bindi Yadav and bodyguard Rajesh Kumar have already been arrested, Kumar said that efforts are on to nab another accomplice Tany Yadav, who was present in the SUV and is absconding.
A forensic science laboratory team has been sent to Gaya from Patna to collect scientific evidence such as fingerprints and ballistic evidence which would be helpful in proving the case, he said.
Udhampur (Jammu and Kashmir): To teach girls self defence tactics, Army has started training martial arts to girl students in remote areas, particularly border area in Jammu and Kashmir.
"The Army has initiated a four week martial arts course for girl students in remote areas," PRO Defence Northern Command, Col SD Goswami said on Tuesday.
A total of 40 girl students in different age group from six schools of Nowshera border tehsil are participating in the course which aims at developing self confidence apart from making them physically robust and psychologically empowered, Col Goswami said.
The course under Operation Sadbhavna is being conducted at Government High School, Seri will focus on physical training and mechanics of self defence for girls.
The training is being conducted by an Army soldier, a qualified Black belt in Judo, he said.
During the course, the students will master the art of hand-to-hand combat besides various techniques of martial arts, PRO said.
Col Goswami said advanced course of the martial arts training is planned by the Army for selected students who gain proficiency in it.
Rocky Yadav, the son of a ruling party legislator Manorama Devi, who is accused in killing of a teenager in Bihar's Gaya town, was arrested early on Tuesday, police said.
Gaya senior superintendent of police Garima Malik confirmed the arrest to the media. "He has been arrested, we will let you know more details soon."
The 30-year-old, who was absconding after the incident, was arrested from Bodh Gaya, about 15 km from Gaya.
Yadav is the son of legislative council member Manorama Devi of the ruling Janata Dal (United). Yadav allegedly shot dead Aditya Sachdeva, a teenager on Saturday night for overtaking his car on the Bodh Gaya-Gaya road.
The police had earlier on Monday raided the house of Devi and had questioned her to find the whereabouts of her son.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Gaya City Superintendent of Police Awkash Kumar had gone to Manorama Devi's house and after a three-hour long search, questioned her about the whereabouts of his son Rocky Yadav, absconding since the incident in Gaya.
Inspector General of Police (Patna Zone) NH Khan, had instructed the SIT to go with a detailed questionnaire to the MLC's house to seek relevant details.
Earlier, Devi had said that the police were conducting a probe and truth would come out. She had said if the court seeks presence of her son, he would go there.
Asked where her son was, Devi had said she does not know.
Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Magadh Range) Suarabh Kumar had said the Gaya Police were finding out from where Rocky got license of his pistol.
The police would also approach External Affairs Ministry to prevent Rocky from leaving the country, he had said.
Rocky's father, RJD leader Bindi Yadav, had been arrested and was sent to 14 days in judicial custody today by a Gaya court.
With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday once again witnessed chaos and could not take up the Finance and Appropriation bills for discussion as planned.
The Finance Bill and the Appropriation Bill have already been passed by the Lok Sabha and are to be discussed and passed in the Rajya Sabha before being returned to the Lok Sabha.
The Finance Bill could not be discussed on Monday as the upper house was disrupted by Congress members protesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alleged naming of party president Sonia Gandhi in the AgustaWestland chopper deal scandal.
As the House assembled after the lunch break on Tuesday, Congress members raised slogans against the central government over the Uttarakhand issue. They shouted slogans like "dictatorship of Modi government will not be tolerated".
Opposition leader in the house, Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government must apologise over the Uttarakhand issue.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi tried to pacify the agitating members but they did not listen to him.
On this, the minister said that the Congress must refrain from "murdering democracy".
The minister also urged the chair to take up discussion even while there was agitation, but KC Tyagi of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) said it would be difficult to discuss anything in the house as it was not in order.
Some of the members were also of the view that since the house was not in order, the bills could be taken up on Wednesday, but Deputy Chair asked where is the guarantee that they will allow the bills to be discussed the following day.
Kurien also said the Rajya Sabha will get the bills passed on Wednesday even if there is no discussion on them.
Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha on Monday moved the Finance Bill in the Rajya Sabha for discussion. Sinha also moved the Appropriation Bill.
Amidst chaos, Deputy Chairman Kurien adjourned the house for 15 minutes, and when it met again at 3.02 pm the same scenes were witnessed. He then adjourned the house till 4 pm When the house reassembled, Kurien adjourned the proceedings till Wednesday, saying the all important bills will be discussed the following day.
India has been showered with schemes of all sorts since Narendra Modi took over the Prime Minister's office. From Swachh Bharat to Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, the government remained consistently ambitious whilst taking each step. However, the government has paid a high price for the publicity of these schemes.
According to information the Information and Broadcasting Ministry revealed to the Lok Sabha on 6 May, the government spent Rs 350 crore on publicising its flagship schemes in the fiscal year 2015-16.
The expenditure for promoting Swachh Bharat widely across India was Rs 212,57 crore in 2014-15, but in 2015-16, the expenses rose to Rs 293.14 crore.
Skill India, which was introduced to increase employment, cost Rs 4.19 crore to publicise in 2015-16, a marked increase from the mere Rs 10.79 lakh it cost in 2014-15.
Make In India, which was projected as a grand strategy to increase India's financial status, cost Rs 4.71 crore in 2015-16 to publicise. The government had spent just Rs 10.7 lakh to publicise it in 2014-15 as it was introduced late in September in the said fiscal year.
Other initiatives' promotional activies on which the government spent large sums were the vaccination program Indradhanush, the small-scale funding scheme Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana and the crop insurance scheme Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
On the whole, the government spend a whopping Rs 350,46,77,647 to simply publicise the schemes in 2015-16. The expenditure on such schemes was Rs 256,59,33,085 for 2014-15.
However, despite massive publicity, the schemes have often been criticised for poor implementation.
On 13 May, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi said he felt Make In India will be a disaster because of country's weak child labour laws.
"The government is talking about a 'clean India', 'Skill India' and 'Digital India' missions, but on the other hand children are being employed in tea shops, slaughter houses, restaurants and hazardous industries," he said.
Swachh Bharat, which took the most from the government's exchequer in the last fiscal year, has also not escaped criticism.
After the dumping ground at Mumbai's Deonar caught fire in April, Rahul Gandhi slammed the Modi government for lack of strategy.
"I feel there is no strategy here. There is no vision how to clean it though they have definitely given a slogan of Swachh Bharat," Gandhi said.
An IndiaSpend report, published on 27 April, also found India to be lagging behind on the Swachh Bharat plan.
It found that only 24 percent (0.6 million) of the targetted 2.5 million household toilets in urban area had been constructed by March 2016.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to grant licences to eight dance bars within two days and asked them to give an undertaking that they would not engage employees with criminal antecedents near the dance area.
"It is directed that an undertaking shall be given by appellants who have filed application that they shall not engage employees in the bar and dance area whose names have been mentioned in the affidavit given by the state.
"The undertaking shall be issued by tomorrow (Wednesday) and the licences shall be issued by day after tomorrow," a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh said.
Maharashtra government had filed an affidavit in the court informing the bench that they had not granted licences to eight dance bars as they found some of their employees had criminal antecedents.
Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing for Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said not a single licence has been issued till date.
He submitted that as FIR has been lodged against some employees of the bars, licences were not being issued to them on the ground that they have criminal antecedents.
"Unless a person is convicted under the offence, he cannot be termed as a criminal. The licences are being delayed on one pretext on the other," he said.
On the issue of increasing the height of railing adjacent to the dance stage, Bhushan told the bench that such deficiencies have been addressed.
During the hearing, one of the counsel said that criminal antecedents of dancers should also be looked into and conditions be imposed on them.
The court took strong note of this and said "are you trying to convey to us that they are criminals? Nobody can earn livelihood if they are convicted. We want to save the dignity of women.
"You want to take away means of their livelihood. Dignity of women has to be maintained and no obscenity of any kind would be allowed," the bench said.
The court has fixed the matter for further hearing on 13 May.
Ahmedabad: A day after the Supreme Court rejected pleas of state governments to allow them to hold separate entrance tests for MBBS and BDS courses, the Gujarat government on Tuesday held the Gujarat Common Entrance Test (GUJCET) for medical and other courses, as per its schedule.
The state government has also approached the Supreme Court against Monday's verdict which said only National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) provides for conducting such test for admission to these courses.
"There are courses other than medical and dental which are covered under GUJCET. Let's see what happens as we have approached the Supreme Court with another application (against the verdict on NEET)," Gujarat government spokesman and Health minister Nitin Patel said.
However, he did not give more details on the matter.
GUJCET is a common admission test for admission to medical, dental, physiotherapy, and alternative medicine programmes offered by government, government-aided institutes and private institutes in the state.
Over 68,000 students today appeared for the examinations.
The Supreme Court had on Monday rejected pleas of state governments, including Gujarat, and minority institutions to allow them to conduct separate tests for admission to medical courses for the academic year 2016-17.
The top court had approved treating All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) held on 1 May as NEET-I. Another phase of the test, NEET-II, will be held on 24 July in which students who could not appear for NEET-I could apply. The combined result will be declared on 17 August so that the admission process can be completed by 30 September.
The apex court had rejected the contention of the petitioners including state governments, minority institutions and private medical colleges that they have legislative competence to hold separate entrance tests.
Meanwhile, the parents of medical aspirants who appeared for GUJCET, held protests outside several examination centres across the state and raised slogans against the NEET.
They expressed their opposition to the Centre's move to hold a single entrance test, stating that their children were not prepared for the same.
Guwahati: A three-and-half-year-old child, who was being treated for burn injuries at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), allegedly contracted HIV positive virus after transfusion of blood.
The boy of a daily wage earner from Kamrup district was admitted to GMC Hospital with 40 per cent burn injuries in April 2015.
"The boy was discharged from the hospital in October 2015. During his treatment, 10-12 operations took place and multiple blood transfusion was done from our internal blood bank," GMCH Superintendent Babul K Bezbaruah told PTI.
On 29 March, the child was again admitted for two further operations, he added.
"Before operation, when we tested his blood on 31 March, it appeared to be infected with HIV positive virus," Bezbaruah said, adding the hospital did not have any information of the child for last six months till he was
readmitted.
He declined to confirm if the virus was infected after taking blood from the GMCH's blood bank as both parents do not suffer from the disease.
"We have formed a five-member committee to look into the incident. Only after a thorough inquiry, we will be able to tell anything in this regard," Bezbaruah said.
GMCH Superintendent, however, claimed there is an open wound in his leg and the enquiry committee will look into the possibility of contracting the virus through it.
The doctors have already operated the child on 28 April for burn-related injury and one more operation is due, Bezbaruah said.
New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Tuesday saw high drama at an Academic Council meeting which was adjourned following ruckus caused by heated arguments between teachers, students and administration.
The Academic Council (AC) is the statutory decision making body of the university and this was the first meeting ever since the new Vice Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar took charge in January.
While the university administration alleged that some students "literally pulled his (vc's) shirt and tried to pin him down" while he was leaving the venue amid ruckus, the students claimed that the VC left following uproar over report of the High Level Enquiry Committee (HLEC) which investigated the controversial 9 February event.
Meanwhile, a group of 52 teachers who are also members of the AC, passed a resolution demanding that "all unreasonable punishments in connection with the February 9 event be revoked".
"The meeting was not allowed to proceed by a group of teachers and their student supporters who from the very beginning pressed their demand to discuss an issue that was not part of the agenda. The behaviour of these teachers was unruly as they collectively shouted at the chair and sought to force upon him to begin the meeting with their item as first agenda," a statement issued by the university said.
"As the situation turned into pandemonium, the VC agreed to discuss their agenda. However, a group of teachers sought to force upon the chairperson to take a decision then and there by announcing revocation of the proctorial orders. As a result, there was no alternative left for him but to adjourn the meeting," it added.
While JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid Shora alleged that she and JNUSU general secretary Rama Naga were initially not allowed entry to the meeting despite the invitation, the university officials denied it.
"I have seen several negotiations with the administration. I have seen previous JNUSU president talking very aggressively to the previous VC on the issue of hostels. But the previous VC handled it calmly by having a conversation with students," Shehla said in a JNUSU statement.
"It has now become clear that the VC is a puppet whose strings are pulled by the RSS. Even when the court has stayed the punishments, the VC cannot take a moral call on HLEC issue," she added.
ABVP member and JNUSU joint secretary, Saurabh Sharma claimed that the left-backed teachers and students didn't allow the agenda on OBC reservation to be discussed demanding that first the 9 February issue should be discussed.
The resolution passed by the teachers read, "the overwhelming sense in the AC meeting was that the whole range of punishments meted out to students is excessive and harsher punishments such as rustication, suspension, banishment from campus and exorbitant fines should be immediately revoked".
Meanwhile, the hunger strike by students against the punishment by the varsity in connection with the event during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, entered 13th day on Tuesday.
So far, 12 students, including JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid, have withdrawn from the fast.
The university had on Monday formed a four-member team to discuss the demands of the students.
The students union, however, is yet to take a decision whether to enter into negotiations with the administration or not.
New Delhi: A Parliementary panel has pulled up the Environment Ministry for its "poor performance" in controlling pollution and using its fund, and recommended it to take necessary measures to ensure targets are met in the future and funds optimally utilised.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forest in its 283rd report of Demands for Grants (2016-17) of Environment Ministry said the ministry also could not achieve the physical targets relating to Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations and new noise monitoring stations.
The committee chaired by Ashwani Kumar said that whether it was air, water or noise pollution, it has gone beyond permissible limits during the last few years and has serious consequences for health and well-being of the citizens.
"The committee finds that the performance of the Ministry and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in a scheme relating to providing assistance for abatement of pollution is not impressive at all.
"The ministry could not achieve the physical targets relating to Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations and new noise monitoring stations while other targets set have been stated to be under process," the committee said.
It said that the ministry could only utilise 35 percent of the allocation upto December 2015 which too reflects "very poorly" on the performance under the scheme.
"The committee therefore, recommends that the ministry should take a serious note of its performance under this scheme (assistance for abatement of pollution) and take all necessary measures to ensure that the targets under the scheme are achieved in future and funds allocated are optimally utilized," it said.
The committee said that growing urbanisation, rapid industrialisation and increasing population during the last few years have also tremendously impacted the environmental concerns of the country.
"In such a scenario, the measures taken by Environment Ministry for prevention and control of pollution and maintaining ecological balance have not been commensurate with the magnitude of the problem," the committee said.
The panel also noted that the budgetary allocation of the ministry is considerably "low" compared to the projections made by the ministry for the 12th Plan period.
"However the ministry is not even able to fully utilise the funds which are made available to it and also falls short of achieving the physical targets set or otherwise," it said.
It noted that the ministry needs to be adequately funded for taking all necessary steps in pursuit of the discharge of its mandate which includes ensuring better environment management and preservation of biodiversity including wildlife.
"The committee recommends that the ministry on its part must prepare a long-term plan, put forth futuristic projections and ensure that the allocated outlays are fully utilised and tragets achieved," it said.
New Delhi: Ten JNU professors emeritus, including noted historian Romila Thapar and academician Deepak Nayyar, have written to Varsity Vice Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar, alleging "clampdown" on free speech by imposing "severe" punishments on students in connection with the controversial 9 February event.
Noting that they are "disturbed" over the turn of events at JNU, the professors have also appealed to the VC to reconsider the administration's decision to punish students in connection with the event during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
"The current administration has clamped down on free discussion by imposing severe punishments of fines and rustication on those who organised a meeting on 9 February. This despite the fact that they were arrested and sent to jail," the letter
said.
"Now, an order has been issued prohibiting the entry of outsiders in the university premises. We request that the university administration reconsider both these decisions neither of which is required, and act according to the accepted norms of the JNU," it added.
Besides Thapar and Nayyar, the signatories to the letter are Namwar Singh, Amit Bhaduri, Sheila Bhalla, Anil Bhatti, Zoya Hassan, Utsa Patnaik, SD Muni and Prabhat Patnaik. There are 25 professors emeritus in JNU.
"The university has always been a space where we allowed free discussion on issues raised by students and faculty. In the course of such discussion whether in seminars or at other informal gatherings, speakers from both within the varsity and from outside were invited to participate," the letter said.
Meanwhile, the hunger strike by students against the punishment by the varsity in connection with the event entered 13th day on.
So far, ten students, including JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid, have withdrawn from the fast.
The university had yesterday formed a four-member team to discuss the demands of the students.
The students union, however, is yet to take a decision whether to enter into negotiations with the administration or not.
Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested in February in a sedition case over the event and are out on bail now.
While Kanhaiya has been slapped with a penalty of Rs 10,000, Umar, Anirban and a Kashmiri student, Mujeeb Gatoo have been rusticated for varying durations.
Financial penalty has been imposed on 14 students. Hostel facilities of two students have been withdrawn and the university has declared the campus out of bounds for two former students.
New Delhi: Tribal rights activist Gladson Dungdung was offloaded from a London-bound Air India flight on Monday morning even as the national carrier sought to distance itself from the incident saying he was offloaded by "government authority".
In a Facebook post, Dungdung said he was offloaded by Air India from Delhi-London flight AI 115.
"The reason told to me is that my passport had been impounded in 2013, therefore, they will send it back to RTO, Ranchi for verification. The fact is that my passport was impounded in 2013 and returned to me after proper verification in 2014," he said.
Thereafter, he said he had attended a couple of international conferences in Denmark and London in 2014 and 2015 subsequently but there was no issue at all.
In a statement, Air India said it dissociates itself from the issue as "Dungdung was offloaded by Immigration/Government Authority".
Last year too, a major controversy had erupted when Priya Pillai, a Greenpeace activist, was offloaded from a flight to the UK.
According to Dungdung's post, he was going to attend the Workshop on Environmental History and Politics of South Asia to be held in the University of Sussex, UK on 10 May.
"I am sure that this is a clear impact of my book 'Mission Saranda: A War for Natural Resources in India'.
Defaulters of millions of INR like Vijay Malaya can't be offloaded but activists like me are bound to be offloaded," Dungdung said in the post.
"My fight for the Adivasis' ownership rights over the natural resources, adivasi identity, human rights, ecology and against unjust development processes will continue till they take away my right to life forever," he wrote.
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) results were announced on Tuesday. Delhi girl Tina Dabi secured the first rank while railway officer Athar Aamir ul Shafi Khan and Indian Revenue Service officer Jasmeet Singh Sandhu came second and third respectively. For the fifth time in the last six years, girls have topped the exam.
Twenty two-year-old Dabi is a graduate of Delhi's prestigious Lady Shri Ram College. She passed the competitive exam in her very first attempt. "It is indeed a proud moment for me," she said.
Dabi wants to work for women's empowerment in Haryana as the state has a small number of working women.
"I have always wanted to work in a challenging state. That is why I chose Haryana. We all know the sex ratio of girl and boy child is quiet less and that is why I would like to contribute my efforts for the empowerment of women there," she said.
Athar Aamir ul Shafi Khan, who secured the second rank overall and the first among boys, is from Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir. Interestingly, he is the second person from the restive state to achieve such success, after Dr Shah Faesal, who topped the 2009 exams.
"I have opted for Jammu and Kashmir cadre also. I will be happy in case I get a chance to work there. I think there is a lot of scope to fulfil aspirations of people of my state," he said.
The results were uploaded on the official website of the commission, upsc.gov.in. The caste-wise breakdown of the results was also released, with general category candidates securing 499 positions, and 314 candidates from the OBC category clearing the exam. From the Scheduled Caste category, 176 students cleared the exam while the corresponding number for the Scheduled Tribes category was 89 candidates. In all, 1078 candidates have been recommended for appointment into various government services.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his congratulatory wishes to the achievers soon after the results were declared.
Congrats to all those who cleared the Civil Services Exam. My good wishes as they commence a new & exciting phase of their lives. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 10, 2016
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also congratulated Dabi.
Congrats to Delhi girl Tina Dabi, topper of UPSC exam. I wish her a bright career Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 10, 2016
The UPSC conducts all-India level exams for entry into Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), along with Central Services, group 'A' and 'B'.
With inputs from PTI
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir government has banned use of non-biodegradable consumables including stationery items made of plastic in its offices and official functions with immediate effect.
The government issued a circular to this effect last week, officials said on Tuesday.
"Besides being hazardous and non-biodegradable in nature, this substance (plastic) has the potential to adversely impact the environment.
It would therefore be necessary to discontinue the use of plastic material/ stationery items in government offices immediately," the circular reads.
To put an end to the indiscriminate use of plastic material in government offices and official functions, there is an urgent need for switching over to the non-plastic and eco-friendly material, the order said.
"Concerns have been raised regarding the improper and unscientific disposal of plastic waster in government offices which could have serious consequences in the long run," it added.
The administrative secretaries were asked to ensure the use of non-plastic material and stationery items like paper, hand-made paper, jute and other biodegradable substitutes in the departments and subordinate administrative units under their charge and also officials functions.
"They are requested to ensure strict and immediate compliance of these instructions," the circular added.
New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday opposed the petition filed by senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh questioning the decision to treat Aadhaar Bill as a money bill saying that the constitutional provision bars him from challenging it.
"Under the Constitution, it is a settled position that money bill certified by the Speaker is beyond challenge," Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur which had sought his assistance.
However, senior advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for Ramesh, submitted that when there was a violation of rule of law, "locus is not the ground on which the petition can be thrown out."
When the bench, also comprising Justices R Banumathi and UU Lalit, wanted to know "if it (treating Aadhaar Bill as Money Bill) is open to judicial review", the Attorney General said there was no violation of fundamental right of Ramesh so the petition filed by him under Article 32 of the Constitution cannot be entertained.
Chidambaram responded by saying that there was violation of rule of law which forms basic structure of the Constitution and as such the petition needed to be entertained.
He said Aadhaar Bill cannot be treated as Money Bill so the petition has been filed under Article 32.
The senior Congress leader informed the bench that the Bill had its passage in the Lok Sabha through voice vote but the Rajya Sabha chairman before whom the complaint was made said he has no power to act on the Bill certified by the Lok Sabha Speaker.
The bench, which noted his submission that it was a grave matter and needs proper hearing, posted for third week of July.
The apex court had on 25 April sought the assistance of the AG but did not issue notice on the plea of Ramesh.
Lok Sabha had on 16 March passed the Aadhaar bill that aims at better targeting of subsidies through the Aadhaar unique identity.
The House had earlier adopted the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016, by a voice vote after rejecting recommendations for five amendments made by the Upper House. Armed with the Speaker's decision that it was a money
bill, the government had pushed it in Rajya Sabha which cannot amend it but only make recommendations for amendment to Lok Sabha.
Once Lok Sabha passes a money bill with or without amendments recommended by Rajya Sabha, it is deemed to have been passed by both the Houses.
Showing urgency in getting the law through, the Centre, which enjoys a comfortable majority in Lok Sabha, had brought the measure to the Lower House within an hour of being returned by Rajya Sabha.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who had moved the bill and piloted it in both the Houses, had also turned down the opposition argument that Parliament cannot legislate since the matter is before the Supreme Court.
Jairam Ramesh, while proposing amendments in the bill in Rajya Sabha, had expressed "anguish" that the bill was brought as a money bill, an act he likened to "knocking a nail in the coffin of the Upper House".
Calling the passage of the bill in this manner "a very dangerous trend", Ramesh had said that the government tried to "bypass" Rajya Sabha by doing this.
Insisting that a series of conditions are specified in Article 110 of the Constitution and that the Article uses the word "only" if those conditions are prevalent can a bill be declared a money bill, he had said that the Aadhaar bill, which was passed as a money bill "ignored five recommendations made by the Rajya Sabha.
"It had many other provisions and most constitutional experts have given the view that the Aadhaar bill is not a money bill. While the prerogative of declaring a bill as a money bill or not is that of the Speaker and the Speaker's decision is final, the recommendation to the Speaker to consider making it a money bill is that of the government.
"It is the government that decides whether it is a money bill or not and the Speaker only certifies it as money bill," Ramesh had said.
Moving amendments in the Upper House during consideration of the bill, the former Union Minister had argued that every individual should have the freedom to opt out of Aadhaar and said the present bill does not give that space.
Stating that he himself does not have an Aadhaar card, Ramesh had said a situation may arise when it may be needed even to book a flight or get a phone number.
He had also opposed another provision in the bill which he termed as "broad" and "amorphous" and could become the ground for misuse of the law as it gives "sweeping powers" on the grounds of national security.
He had suggested that rather than national security, the terms "public emergency" or "public safety" could be used. He had said that an independent member like the CVC should be included in the panel that decides which information regarding a person can be shared.
Ramesh had said any suo motu powers, "even to collect information", should not be given to the Aadhaar authority, for instance it could even direct collection of DNA.
He had said there were concerns of privacy and the amendments moved by him were in line with the recommendation suggested by a Commission headed by Justice (retd) AP Shah, which had been set by the Planning Commission to examine the matter.
New Delhi: As Congress won the Uttarakhand confidence motion, its party members in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday resisted the move to present the state's budget Bill by the government which insisted that it was a Constitutional necessity.
The Congress members also vociferously pressed for a discussion on CAG report which has reportedly highlighted irregularities in Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation's KG basin gas project, leading to two adjournments.
As the Upper House met after lunch recess by when the outcome of Uttarakhand confidence motion was clear, Congress members were up on their feet shouting slogans against the central government. "Loktantra ke hatyaro, sharm karo (Feel ashamed, you murderers of democracy)," they chanted.
Amidst the din, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien tried to initiate discussion on Union Finance Bill but Congress leader Anand Sharma raised questions over the move to bring the Uttarakhand budget bill in the Supplementary list.
Contending that the state assembly had already passed its budget, he said passing the Uttrakhand budget is not the responsibility of this House" and termed it a "Constitutional impropriety."
Slamming the "mental and moral bankruptcy of the government", Sharma also asked why the Uttarakhand budget bill had been brought in the Supplemntary list.
Leader of House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley responded by saying that the passing of the state budget on 18 March was "highly contentious" as the arithematic was highly loaded against it.
He emphasised that the order of appropriation has to be sanctioned by Parliament as all expenditure from 1 April has to be validated.
The Finance Minister said if the state assembly revives, it can pass its budget but insisted that the bill has to be passed to provide sanction to all expenditure made since 1 April, when the President's Rule was in force.
This, he said, has nothing to do with what happened in the floor test in the state assembly on Tuesday.
However, Sharma and other Congress members appeared not convinced by the argument. Jaitley also mentioned that the state budget had not received the assent of the Governor which is a necessity.
Kurien said he too was in agreement that the House should pass the Bill to sanction the expenditure during President's Rule. He also told members that the Bill is a 'Money Bill' which would anyway come into force even if Rajya Sabha does not give its nod.
Chiding the protesting members, Kurien said there are people questioning the relevance of Rajya Sabha and by refusing to discuss Bills, they were making it irrelevant.
Congress member Pramod Tiwari, however, said that while the Finance Minister's assumption is that the Budget was not passed by the state assembly, his party believes it was passed.
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said the "political point" seemed that the government was keen to pass the state's budget when the matter was to come before the Supreme Court.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi urged the chair to pass the Bills by voice vote.
Even as no consensus over the Uttarakhand budget issue appeared imminent, Congress member Jairam Ramesh raised the issue related to CAG report on GSPC. He said he had given a notice for a short duration discussion on the issue 11 days back but had got no response.
Other Congress members too then rose on their feet and reached the Well of the House shouting slogans "20 hazar ka kya hua" (What happened to 20,000 crore) and "Modi teri tanashahi nahin chalegi" (Modi your dictatorship won't be accepted).
SP member Jaya Bachchan then rose and protested that she too had given a notice for discussion on women's issue three months back and had got no response. She claimed that there are some parties who block proceedings when their discussions are not allowed.
As the ruckus prevailed, Kurien adjourned the house for fifteen minutes till 3 pm.
China's top leader Xi Jinping recently reiterated the importance of media. Talking about how to promote the "Convergence of Traditional Media and New Media", Xi said media should pay attention to both convergence and management, and ensure media convergence advances in the right direction. Besides, Xi recently visited the offices of three mainstream media outlets, stressing the urgency and significance of embracing new media.
New media have expanded across China, with Jiemian and The Paper in Shanghai, Jiupai in Central China's Hubei province, and the Cover in Southwest China's Sichuan province. They have increased their share in the market, too. The first impact of new media on the traditional media is the loss of readers, resulting in falling circulation. Consequently, advertisers have turned to new media and it is becoming increasingly difficult for publishers to survive, let alone make profits.
Moreover, readers' habits have changed in this age of new media. The old way of storytelling no longer appeals to readers and viewers. The younger generation favors mobile devices and entertaining ways of storytelling, forcing the traditional media to focus on visualization and participative reporting. Information technology devices allow readers to access information without the limits of time and space, further reducing the attractiveness of the print media.
The relationship between journalists and readers, too, has changed. User-generated content has become a vital part of news production, and "citizen journalism" is today an accepted fact. Editors are not the only gatekeepers for media outlets. In the age of information explosion, it's the users that decide what and when to read.
The traditional media have no choice but to change in order to survive. And traditional publishers have to gradually shift to new media to avoid becoming history.
According to a China Internet Network Information Center report, issued in July 2015, the number of mobile phone users in the country is 620 million, which reflects the huge market for "mobile reading". Therefore, the traditional media should adopt creative mobile strategies to meet people's fast-changing appetite. One way of doing so is to customize the contents of mobile terminals.
As more and more traditional media outlets direct their attention to mobile apps, only uploading contents from the print editions on the internet will not be enough to draw readers and to shift to new media. Publishers should pay more attention to readers' experiences. For example, they have to find out what kinds of contents are suitable for mobile devices and what sort of presentation gives the best visual feeling. Publishers' "mobile-phone strategy" will, to a large extent, determine the success of their shift to new media.
Publishers should also use a combination of new methods to present news, because readers and viewers today demand more and varied information. They need to adopt methods like visualization and virtual reality to effectively present an event. And to shift to new media, publishers have to build a journalists' team that can make full use of new technologies and know how to combine them with objective journalism.
Therefore, journalists need to radically change the way they approach news, which essentially means the traditional media have to change the way they tell a story and train their journalists in new media skills.
More importantly, the traditional media ought to make more efforts to engage and interact with readers and viewers, who in turn can make greater contribution to the presentation of a story. And user-generated content is a source that editors should pay more attention to, because "citizen journalists" have been responsible for quite a few "breaking news". Interactions with readers and viewers are equally important as they can help editors focus more on what their target audiences want.
Tian Zhihui is professor of new media studies at the Communication University of China, Beijing. And Zhao Fan is MA student of Communication University of China.
"We are winning (in Punjab)," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told a group of journalists in February at his residence. "Delhi will be repeated in Punjab."
Kejriwal was referring to the Punjab Assembly election, which is due to be held in 2017 where his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be contesting.
Calling the next Assembly election a "revolution" which would uproot the "corrupt" and "non-performing" Akali-BJP regime, Kejriwal has jumped head first into the campaign and AAP is doing everything in its power to gain momentum and make it to the everyday headlines.
Kicking off the campaign, Kejriwal initially targeted the ruling parties and others contesting over the growing problem of drug abuse in the state and farmers' suicides.
Late in April, the party raked up the farmers' suicide issue and claimed people of the state are "yearning" for a change.
Kejriwal claimed that in Punjab Assembly polls next year, AAP's performance will be good and "Congress will go to zero while Akalis will be reduced below 10 seats".
AAP has also attacked states Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), alleging that both the parties have ruined every household there through corruption and drug menace, reports Hindustan Times.
On Monday, Kejriwal also released a Punjabi song Ek Nasha: Nashe ke Khilaf written and sung by fellow AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, aimed at weaning the people of the state away from drugs and narcotics.
Although the party is yet to announce the chief ministerial candidate for the state, the opposition is vary of the threat in light of the 2015 elections in Delhi, where AAP secured 67 of the 70 seats.
But for all the effort put in by the party in the run up to the elections, one cannot help but feel that the party is, at times, foraying into uncharted territory just to stay relevant in the run-up.
Launching a frontal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Delhi chief minister recently said the Centre was "scared" of taking action against Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the AgustaWestland chopper scam. "Why is the central government not arresting Sonia Gandhi when she is involved in the AgustaWestland scam - because Modi does not have the courage to arrest her," he said addressing a protest at Jantar Mantar over the AgustaWestland scam.
Then there is the entire degree row with Modi.
Alleging PM of having fake graduation and post graduation degrees and claiming there were serious discrepancies in the mark sheets, RTI queries were put in demanding the same.
Kejriwal even alleged that some media houses were asked "not to touch" the controversy over PM's degree in series of tweets.
Some media houses have told their reporters not to touch PM degree issue. Other than known Modi-channels, list includes ABP n NDTV(1/2) Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 6, 2016
Mr Aveek Sircar? Busy wid Mamta bashing? Dr Pranoy Roy? Sir, didn't expect this from u (2/2) Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 6, 2016
On Monday, when the degrees were finally produced in a press conference by none other than BJP president Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, AAP was quick to dismiss the documents claiming there are several discrepancies in Modis BA and MA degrees and the mark sheets have been forged.
Its not about whether the PM should be a graduate or post graduate we never raised this issue and its neither important that the PM must be a graduate or post graduate. Our contention is that a person in the post of prime minister shouldnt make false claims related to his educational qualifications by producing fake certificates. He shouldnt tell lies to the nation. Its a criminal breach of trust, AAP Delhi secretary, Dilip Pandey told Firstpost.
Members of AAP now plan to go to the Delhi University and meet the Central Public information Officer (CPIO) to inspect documents related to PM Modis BA degree.
AAP's desire to remain in the news cycle is understandable, any political party would desire the same. But at times, this desire seems so overpowering in Kejriwal's case that it risks the party's credibility and future standing among the aam aadmis of the nation.
With inputs from agencies
Malampuzha/Thiruvananthapuram: BJP chief Amit Shah on Tuesday took a dig at Congress President Sonia Gandhi's love for the country remark, saying everyone was aware of her "love for her son, National Herald and 2G".
"Soniaji, everyone in this country is aware of your 'desh prem' (patriotism) and 'putra prem' (your love for your son), your National Herald prem' (your love for National Herald).
"The nation is also aware of various other scams including 2G, 3G, Adarsh scam, CWG and AgustaWestland," Shah said at a rally in a bid to counter Gandhi's emotional speech in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, wherein she attacked BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking jibes at her Italian roots.
"Yesterday, Soniaji came to Kerala and said allegations were leveled against her. Humne to kisi par aarop nahi lagaya (we have not made any allegations against anybody). We said bribe takers in the chopper deal will be punished.
"Soniaji aap batiyae, aapko dar kyon lag raha hai. (Soniaji tell us why are you scared). Dal mein kuch kala nazar aa raha hai (There is something fishy)," he said.
"There is corruption everywhere. The 10-year UPA rule resulted in scams totaling 12 lakh crore rupees but Sonia Gandhi ji talks about her love for the nation in Kerala," he said.
At a press meet in Thiruvanathapuram, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "Neither the Prime Minister nor BJP has targeted and levelled corruption charges against Gandhi...I do not know what is the reason, when there are charges of corruption, they always use emotional politics. It is an old practice of Congress for many years."
He said when charges of corruption are leveled against Congress, the party sheds tears.
Gandhi while addressing an election meeting here last night had said India is her home and "it is here that my ashes will mingle with my loved ones".
The Congress President used an election rally here to hit back at Modi after the Prime Minister raked up the issue of her Italian roots twice in the last three days while making a veiled attack against her over the controversial AgustaWestland chopper deal.
New Delhi: Rajya Sabha members on Tuesday expressed concern over 'paid news' and decided to take up the issue for a structured debate.
The issue was raised in the zero hour by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Goel who said paid news has affected the media's credibility.
He was supported by members across party lines, including Congress leader Anand Sharma, Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav and KC Tyagi, and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) leader Sitaram Yechury.
Leader of House Arun Jaitley said a structured debate on the issue should be taken up. The finance minister said a time should be fixed for discussion on the issue in the current or the next parliament session.
Jaitley termed paid news as an "aberration", and added that all members are committed to freedom of media.
"Advertising is the right of everyone... But when the government starts excessive advertising, where is the dividing line between excessive advertisement and bribery," said Jaitley.
The Uttarakhand Assembly took a floor test of former chief minister Harish Rawats government on Tuesday, and according to reports on various news channels, Rawat has won the trust vote. The Supreme Court of India will declare the official result on Wednesday.
It was an unprecedented vote in that it is being directly supervised by the Supreme Court.
In Indias constitutional history, the courts have never had to step in on the functioning of a legislature and its for that reason alone that, irrespective of whether Rawat actually wins or loses, the message is already loud and clear. The message is for the NDA government at the Centre. And it is simple: Hands off Article 356.
The BJP should introspect on its acts that brought about this unprecedented denouement in Indian democracy where the apex court not only challenged the Centre's imposition of President's Rule in a state, but also accorded to itself the responsibilities of a Speaker. Never before in the parliamentary history of India, not even during the Emergency, had the legislature been subjected to such judicial accountability.
The BJP should have realised that Article 356 is a no-go area since the SR Bommai case when its use became justiciable. The verdict in the Bommai case was a strict warning against the Centre's adventurism and vile tactics to topple state governments led by its rivals. But, perhaps the BJP felt emboldened by its machinations in Arunachal Pradesh and made the mistake of implementing the same template in the hill state: Promote instability by luring rebels, impose President's rule, revoke it and allow the rival faction to manipulate the trust vote.
In Uttarakhand, the high court checkmated the Centre by first, warning it against revoking the President's Rule to pre-empt a trust vote and then, quashing it. That the Supreme Court almost upheld the spirit of the verdict by mandating voting on the floor of the House under its supervision is a rebuke the Centre should not forget. The other important lesson, and this is for every political party, is that the days of Aayaram and Gayaram are history.
By disqualifying rebel MLAs from voting in the Assembly, the judiciary has upheld the Anti-Defection Law in letter and spirit.
The fear of the law is now evident in Uttarakhand legislators. Before the Supreme Court-monitored voting, there were rumours that many horses were available for trading in the state's political market. Now, afraid that they would be disqualified, they have gone back to their party stables.
Over the past two months, the Narendra Modi government has faced a series of embarrassments, taken several U-turns and been forced to rollback decisions it announced with a lot of fanfare.
The way it has gone around destabilising governments in smaller states first Arunachal Pradesh and then Uttarakhand it is apparent the BJP is using the Lok Sabha mandate to accumulate power through undemocratic means. Instead of using the mandate to fulfil the promises made to voters, it is more eager to destroy the rivals and pursue politics of vendetta. Perhaps the only jumla the party has taken seriously is that of making India Congress-mukt.
Even if it manages to topple the Congress government in Uttarakhand, the blot of being made to fall on its knees by the judiciary after toying with Article 356 will be difficult to erase.
When Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph, who was part of the two-member bench that quashed President's Rule in the state, announced the verdict, he used some really harsh words for the Centre. He said the Court was "pained" by the Centre's actions in the case on imposition of President's Rule in Uttarakhand where the Centre was acting like a "private party" instead of being impartial. We are pained that the Central government can behave like this. How can you think of playing with the Court?" he asked.
Uttarakhand should be a timely reminder to the BJP against the perils of playing with the Court, Article 356, democracy and the 2014 mandate.
Dehradun: After winning the floor test in Uttarakhand Assembly, Harish Rawat on Tuesday refrained from commenting on its outcome but sought an end to the politics of confrontation by appealing to the "all powerful" Centre for help in development of the state.
68-year-old Rawat, who drove straight to the Congress office after the floor test, made a speech in which he thanked Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, MLAs by individually taking their names, and party workers to express his gratitude to them for their solid support in the troubled times.
Earlier, stepping out of the Assembly after the vote, the sacked chief minister remarked "the cloud of uncertainty hovering over Uttarakhand will disappear tomorrow".
"The fight for democracy cannot be won alone," he said in the short speech in which he merely said it was the prerogative of the Supreme Court to announce the result of the trial of strength. I have all along been saying I am a small chief minister of a small state who has to fight poverty and
backwardness," he said.
"Come let's end the politics of confrontation and build together an Uttarakhand set firmly on the path of development. I appeal to the all-powerful people in Delhi to lend their helping hand in this noble mission," Rawat said.
Maintaining that the fight for democracy can only be won with humility and not arrogance, he said the strength from all the sections of the people of Uttarakhand have sustained him through this fight for democracy, especially the silent majority which lives in the villages.
"There were several moments over the past one month or so when it seemed demons from the skies had swooped upon Uttarakhand inflicting painful wounds on its body one after another so much so that it could not even shout.
"But the strength of the people of the state, especially its silent majority which resides in the villages, the
minorities, the dalits and the youths and women, who sustained me through this fight for the restoration of democratic norms," he said to loud cheers from party workers.
Taking a jibe at the Centre over the CBI investigation into a sting operation against him, he said he was ready to go to jail.
"In fact I have already started preparing to go to jail. With old age my capacity to bear with excessive heat had come down but now I have switched off the fans at home to help myself adapt to the conditions in jail," he said.
Rawat said he has also expressed his readiness for a narco test but dared his political rivals to also subject some other "wrestlers" from the state to a narco test.
New Delhi: With Harish Rawat clinching the numbers game in Uttarakhand Assembly floor test on Tuesday, the BJP alleged that he has tried to "buy" majority and claimed that people will teach him a lesson in the elections.
BJP cited recent sting operations to accuse Rawat of "bribing" legislators and also referred to the switching over of one Congress MLA on Tuesday to the BJP camp to say that what happened in the state was caused by crisis within Congress.
"Congress wanted to run the government without having the support of a majority of MLAs. As many as 10 MLAs, including nine rebels, have left it. Rawat has used the loot of state resources to bribe MLAs. He will not get the people's trust. They will teach him a lesson in the Assembly election," BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said following the test.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce a decision on Wednesday after the floor test held in the Assembly following its order. Congress has already begun celebrating with Rawat thanking MLAs for their support.
Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul has appealed to people to ensure victory of PPA candidate for Kanubari Assembly by-poll.
Addressing an election rally on Monday at Kanubari for PPA candidate Gabriel Denwang Wangsu, who is locking horns with Jyae Wangsu of the Congress, Pul said his party always stood for development.
The Chief Minister, however, lashed out at the previous Congress government accusing it of failing to deliver
on all fronts from failing on timely release of salaries and wages, students' stipend and payment to marginal contractors.
Further slamming the previous government for "unscrupulously" disqualifying Gabriel Denwang Wangsu and Khonsa East MLA Wanglam Sawin, Pul said the only way people of Kanubari could pay back for the injustice was to vote Wangsu to victory again.
Appreciating the support of several political heavy weights in the constituency in joining hands with the PPA candidate, the Chief Minister assured that the party was always willing to accommodate the interests of all sections, of people from different political backgrounds for overall development of the constituency.
He thanked Wangrang Wangjen, an independent contestant who later withdrew his nomination for his faith in the ruling party.
The 16 May by-election to the constituency was necessitated after Gabriel resigned.
Patna: On Tuesday, the BJP rejected Nitish Kumar's claim of "rule of law" in Bihar, saying that in just six months of the alliance government, 12 legislators, an MP and influential leaders of its three constituents were involved in heinous crimes and none of them was punished so far.
"The chief minister should make public the concrete action taken against 12 legislators, an MP and influential leaders of the ruling coalition, committing heinous crimes like rape, murder and fleeing with girls," senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters.
"During the entire NDA rule of BJP and JD-U not more than 6-7 legislators were found on the wrong side of law," he asserted.
Modi, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, named the 12 Legislators as: Sarfaraz Alam (JD-U), Gopal Mandal (JD-U), Raj Ballabh Yadav (RJD), Siddarth Singh (Congress), Vinay Verma (Congress), Abdul Gafoor (RJD), Manorama Devi (JD-U), Kunti Devi (RJD), Bima Bharti (JD-U), Santosh Kushwaha (JD-U MP), Rana Gangeswar Singh (JD-U) and Bindi Yadav (RJD).
Alam was arrested for allegedly molesting a Delhi couple on the Rajdhani Express, Raj Ballabh Yadav surrendered after two months in a rape case, Siddarth Singh was accused of fleeing with a girl while his Congress colleague Vinay Verma was caught on camera claiming he has stocks of liquor notwithstanding prohibition.
Kunti Devi's son was arrested for beating a doctor while Bima Bharti and JD-U MP from Purnea, Santosh Kushwaha were accused of helping Bharti's husband and a history-sheeter flee from police custody, he said.
"In almost all of these cases only an 'eyewash' action is initiated like filing a case under weak sections," Modi, who was deputy to Nitish Kumar during NDA rule, said.
"Nitish should back his assertion of 'nobody can escape from the long arm of law' by showing speedy trial and rightful punishment against them," he said.
The BJP leader, however, did not back ally LJP's demand of imposition of President's rule in Bihar.
Modi also hit out at the Gaya incident, wherein Rakesh Ranjan Yadav alias Rocky Yadav, son of ruling JD(U) MLC Manorama Devi allegedly shot dead a 20-year-old youth for overtaking his vehicle.
The BJP leader left for Gaya to meet the murdered youth's family, and questioned the "leniency" shown towards ruling JD(U) MLC Manorama Devi.
"She apparently seems guilty of helping her son flee and did not assist the police in arresting him. Moreover, liquor bottles have been seized from a house registered in her name. Why has she not been arrested yet," the BJP leader questioned.
He also queried about the absconding third person present in the SUV along with Rocky Yadav and a police security guard, demanding to know whether he was the "son of some VIP".
12:43 (ist)
Manohar Parrikar explains AgustaWestland deal:
"AgustaWestland chopper was 100 cCore. We had to test the helicopters in Indian conditions. The other two vendors didn't agree to do so and conducted the test outside the country. this was against the clause in the country. Out of the 6 vendors who were given tenders, AgustaWestland Italy was also one of the vendors. But AgustaWestland UK took over the tender.
Only AgustaWestland got the concessions. They created a single vendor situation. In 2008, the price oh AW101 was 15 million Euros and oin 2010, it was listed as 27 million. Benchmark cost given by CNC(Contract negotiations committee) was 6 times higher than that of AoN (Acceptance of Necessity) There was no explanation for this.In 2012 February, then the government had written to the embassy through the MEA. The government even went to the investigating agency but nobody wrote to the company. This deal should have stopped in 2012. But yet, 3 helicopters were delivered in December 2012 and we accepted it.
In January 2013, Chief exec of Finmenccancia was arrested, Within hours our defence minister wrote to CBI immediately. If he wasn't arrested, they would not have taken this up.
After the CBI took it up, in Feb 2013, there was a notice issued to stop the deal.
Legal action forced the termination of the deal, it was not a proactive step, it was forced. Bank guarantee needed to be revoked and that was done.
When the Milan Court argued, they said that 166 Euros could be returned and the money for the 3 helicopters will not be returned.
I am not making allegations, but it is our Endeavour that we will take action. Defence Ministry initiating procedure to blacklist AgustaWestland. If that is our job, why is the Congress worried? "
Our political leaders revel in making personal attacks against their opponents. When small players in politics make such attacks the likes of Subramanian Swamy or Ashish Khetan it is quite understandable that they are making their presence felt to placate the top leadership for getting a higher reward. But it becomes acutely disconcerting when the top leaders of the parties indulge in snide personal remarks or even outright personal vilification campaign.
Take two recent cases. First is the AgustaWestland scam. BJP leaders raised the right question bribe-givers have been identified in Italy and punished; it was time bribe-takers are identified in India and taken to task. But then who are the bribe-takers? It is for the countrys top investigative agencies like CBI and ED to find out. But small-time BJP leaders started asking A K Antony, during whose tenure as defence minister the deal was executed, to answer the question.
Pray! How will you expect Antony to answer? Even if he has a personal hunch, why should he make it public and vitiate the legal proceedings? Some overzealous BJP ministers directed that question at Sonia Gandhi, making direct and indirect allusions to her being the culprit because of her Italian connection. If Sonia Gandhi is the culprit, will she admit as much? It is for the government agencies to establish this fact. But, then, these ministers are small-time players who have to make outlandish remarks against political opposition from time to time to justify their political relevance.
However, Indian democracy is shown in a bad light when the prime minister of the country, who symbolises the democratic traditions of a billion plus people, gets down to innuendos to make personal attack against a political rival.
Listen to what Prime Minister Modi said at a political rally in Hosur in Tamil Nadu while referring to the VIP chopper scam: Does any of you have relatives in Italy? I dont. Neither have I been to Italy nor do I know Italians. He went on to suggest snidely that there are some Indians who have relatives in Italy and who know Italians and who must have received the bribe. The reference was clearly to Sonia Gandhi. Does it reflect well on the prime minister to jump the gun and charge a political adversary with a crime on the basis of hearsay?
But then Narendra Modi is not alone in this sinister power politics. Take the case of Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi. He has been spearheading a campaign to expose Narendra Modi regarding his educational qualifications. Kejriwal says that his party volunteers have conclusive evidence that Modi did not have a degree from Delhi University, as he had claimed in his election affidavit. The chief minister said in a press conference: If he (Modi) didnt complete a BA from DU, then how could he pursue an MA (in a Gujarat University)? First, he lied in front of the country; then he lied in his affidavit and now, the degree is forged. This is a case of cheating. If there are charges of cheating against a person like the PM, it is a grave matter.
Well, Arvind Kejriwal is here acting as the accuser, prosecutor and judge all rolled into one. That points to the subversion of the judicial fair play. If Kejriwal wanted to put his prime political opponent on the mat, he could have taken to a legal course seeking authentication of Narendra Modis educational qualifications and then gone for the kill if the facts went against the prime minister. But clearly, Kejriwal has no respect for the legal process.
Here, Modi and his cohorts on one hand and Kejriwal and his minions on the other are on the same pitch. Both have used distinctly below the belt remarks to show political adversaries in bad light. Sonia Gandhi has not gone for the jugular as yet, may be, because of her linguistic limitations.
This is the summit scenario of Indian democracy. Let us take a peek into the goings-on in the USA where the presidential election is generating intense political heat. Let us keep aside Donald Trump because he has throughout his political campaign shown scant regard for democratic courtesies. (Trump, with his blunt personal attack on political opponents would be hardly distinguishable from a Modi or a Kejriwal.)
But take the case of Bernie Sanders, the one man who should have been the President of the USA because of the idealism that he exudes (we crave for leaders with such idealism but we do not ordinarily find them in our political firmament), but who would not become the President because the corporate power that Hillary Clinton represents is hell bent on decimating him (he would be an albatross round the corporate neck, if he is elected as the President).
Despite the intense political rivalry, in the run-up to the Democratic nomination for the presidential race, Sanders has steadfastly refused to launch a personal attack on Hillary even as several columnists of America have said in no uncertain terms that the former Secretary of State was unfit to be the President of the USA because of several personal scandals.
Two scandals cry out for attention. First is the scandal related to the private server Hillary Clinton maintained as the Secretary of State and the private email system she used (instead of a state.gov email id) through which hundreds of messages passed some of which were marked classified. As a commentator made a pointed attack on Hillary: You either have overt criminal activity or someone who is not smart enough to keep state secrets safe. Either way, you are not fit to be President.
Second, many columnists have raised the question of huge amount of money, especially foreign money, that has poured into the Clinton Foundation in the last few years; some have asked if any potential conflict of interest that may have arisen on this count while she was the Secretary of State.
The US Justice Department is probing the matter. Hillary Clinton is likely to be questioned by the federal investigators soon. But Sanders has refused to jump the gun (though Donald Trump and some other Republican leaders have done so) and indict Hillary before the judicial process is completed. When a TV anchor tried to pin Sanders down on Hillary, the Senator said: How often have I talked about Hillary Clintons emails? Not one word. How often I talked about Clinton Foundation fundraising? Not one word. A legal process is on. I do not want to politicise the issue.
Sanders went on to add: I am not going to make personal attack on Hillary Clinton. The American people will have to make that judgement.
Sanders knows Clintons political vulnerabilities, yet he is unwilling to cynically exploit them because he holds on to a certain moral high ground in the democratic discourse.
Will our Modis and Kejriwals take a cue from Bernie Sanders and eschew personal attack? Will they lift the political debate to an ideational level a la Sanders or will they continue to act as if Donald Trump is a role model for them?
BEIRUT/PARIS Syrian government forces and their allies fought insurgents near Aleppo on Monday and jets conducted raids around a nearby town seized by Islamist rebels, a monitoring group said, as Syria's military said a ceasefire in Aleppo would be extended by 48 hours starting on Tuesday.
A recent surge in bloodshed in Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, wrecked the 10-week-old, partial truce sponsored by Washington and Moscow that had allowed U.N.-brokered peace talks to convene in Geneva.
The United States and Russia, which support rival sides in the civil war, said they would work to revive the February "cessation of hostilities" agreement that reduced fighting in parts of the country for several weeks.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said all parties had to press the sides they back to turn "words on a piece of paper" into actions to reinstate the truce.
Syria's military high command was quoted by state news agency SANA as saying the Aleppo ceasefire would be extended by 48 hours in the northern city beginning at 1 a.m. local time on Tuesday (6 p.m. ET on Monday).
A number of short-term local truces have been in place since April 29, first around Damascus and northern Latakia and then in Aleppo, but there has still been fighting between rebels and government forces.
The cessation of hostilities and local truces do not include Islamic State or al Qaeda's Syrian branch, the Nusra Front.
Asaad al-Zoubi, the chief negotiator for the main Syrian opposition at the Geneva talks, criticized the extended Aleppo truce, telling Al Jazeera television that such measures served only to allow thousands of reinforcing troops to be sent from Iran, which is supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Warplanes struck the town of Khan Touman, southwest of Aleppo, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Rebels also fought government forces east of Damascus, and jets hit the rebel-held towns of Maarat al-Numan and Idlib.
Russia and the United States said in a joint statement they would step up efforts to persuade the warring parties to abide by the ceasefire agreement.
"We have decided to reconfirm our commitment to the (ceasefire) in Syria and to intensify efforts to ensure its nation-wide implementation," they said. "We demand that parties cease any indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including civilian infrastructure and medical facilities."
Visiting Paris, Kerry said a reduction of violence in line with the U.S.-Russian joint statement depended on field commanders as well as interested parties including the United States.
"These are words on a piece of paper. They are not actions," he said. "We have a responsibility to make certain that the opposition lives up to this, and Russia and Iran have a responsibility to make sure the Assad regime lives up to this."
Basma Kodmani, a member of the opposition High Negotiations Committee, expressed hope of a return to the Geneva peace talks if the U.S.-Russian agreement is swiftly implemented.
STRATEGIC PRIZE
Russia's military intervention last September helped Assad reverse some rebel gains in the west of the country, including in Aleppo province.
But insurgents captured the town of Khan Touman last week, inflicting a rare setback on government forces and allied Iranian troops who suffered heavy losses in the fighting. Several Iranian soldiers were captured in the clashes, a senior Iranian lawmaker said on Monday.
The city of Aleppo is one of the biggest strategic prizes in a war now in its sixth year, and has been divided into government and rebel-held zones through much of the conflict.
The Observatory said warplanes struck rebel-held areas of the city early on Monday, and rebels fired shells into government-held neighborhoods.
Al Manar, the television channel of Damascus's Lebanese ally Hezbollah, said on Monday troops had destroyed a tank belonging to insurgents and killed some of its occupants.
On the eastern edge of Damascus, government forces and their allies shelled rebel areas and clashed with insurgents, the Observatory and the rebel force Jaish al-Islam said. Three people were killed and 13 wounded in air strikes on Idlib, it said.
Jaish al-Islam agreed with a rival rebel group, Failaq al Rahman, that both would vacate a town they have been fighting over for almost two weeks, the Observatory said.
The groups, two of the strongest operating in the area, agreed to make no more attempts to occupy the town of Misraba in the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus, and return it to civilian rule. After 13 days of heavy artillery exchanges, Jaish al Islam took control of the town over the weekend, capturing around 50 rival fighters.
Saudi Arabia condemned air strikes on a camp for displaced Syrians west of Aleppo last week that killed at least 28 people, saying it was part of "the genocide committed by Bashar al-Assad's forces against civilians in Syria."
A Saudi cabinet statement on Monday said the strikes on the camp, alongside the prevention of humanitarian aid deliveries to Syrians, constituted war crimes. Damascus has denied targeting the camp or obstructing aid deliveries.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, hosting a meeting in Paris of Assad's opponents, said Syrian government forces and their allies had bombarded hospitals and refugee camps. "It is not Daesh (Islamic State) that is being attacked in Aleppo, it is the moderate opposition," he said.
The U.S.-Russian joint statement said Moscow would work with Syrian authorities "to minimize aviation operations over areas that are predominantly inhabited by civilians or parties to the cessation."
(Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington in Beirut, Geert De Clercq in Paris, Sylvia Westall in Dubai and Tom Miles in Geneva; writing by Dominic Evans and Peter Cooney; editing by David Stamp and G Crosse)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
DHAKA Bangladesh hanged Islamist party leader Motiur Rahman Nizami on Wednesday for genocide and other crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, the law minister said, a punishment that risked provoking an angry reaction from his supporters.
Nizami, head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at Dhaka Central jail after the Supreme Court rejected his final plea against a death sentence imposed by a special tribunal for genocide, rape and orchestrating the massacre of top intellectuals during the war.
Nizami, 73, a former legislator and minister, was hanged at 12.01 a.m. local time, Law Minister Anisul Haq told Reuters.
Hundreds of people flooded the streets of the capital, Dhaka, to cheer the executions. "We have waited for this day for a long 45 years, said war veteran Akram Hossain. Justice has finally been served.
But the war crimes tribunal set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010 has sparked violence and drawn criticism from opposition politicians, including leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, that it is victimising Hasina's political opponents.
Thousands of extra police and border guards were deployed in Dhaka and other major cities. Previous similar judgments and executions have triggered violence that killed around 200 people, mainly Jamaat activists and police.
Five opposition politicians, including four Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, have been executed since late 2013 after being convicted by the tribunal.
About 3 million people were killed, the government says, and thousands of women were raped during the 1971 war in which some factions, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, opposed the break from what was then called West Pakistan.
The party denies that its leaders committed any atrocities.
International human rights groups say the tribunal's procedures fall short of international standards. The government denies the accusations.
The execution comes as the Muslim-majority nation suffers a surge in militant violence in which atheist bloggers, academics, religious minorities and foreign aid workers have been killed.
In April alone, five people, including a university teacher, two gay activists and a Hindu, were hacked to death by suspected Islamist militants.
International human rights groups say a climate of intolerance in Bangladeshi politics has both motivated and provided cover for perpetrators of crimes of religious hatred.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
A car bomb attack targeting police on Tuesday rocked the majority-Kurdish Turkish city of Diyarbakir, wounding at least 15 members of the security forces, reports said.
The explosion went off in the district of Baglar in the centre of the city and was a "terrorist" attack, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.
Television channels CNN-Turk and NTV said that at least 15 police had been wounded in the explosion. The Dogan news agency said some civilians in the area were also wounded.
Diyarbakir and its region have in recent months been hit by repeated attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as the military presses a relentless offensive against the Kurdish militants.
Earlier, two police had been killed in a bomb attack blamed on the PKK in a district of the southeastern city of Van to the east which had so far been spared the worst of the fighting.
Seven Turkish police officers were killed and at least 27 people wounded in late March in a bomb attack on their vehicle in Diyarbakir.
The PKK first took up arms in 1984 demanding a homeland for Turkey's biggest minority, later paring back its demands to focus on cultural rights and a measure of autonomy.
Over 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency.
The new upsurge of violence between the security forces and Kurdish militants erupted in July 2015, shattering a two-and-a-half year truce.
EDMONTON/LAC LA BICHE, Alberta Oil sands companies around the Canadian energy centre of Fort McMurray began to restart their operations on Tuesday after an out-of-control wildfire forced a week-long shutdown, and the province's top official said she expected production to ramp up over the coming weeks.
The fire continued to grow on Tuesday, but it has moved far enough away from the oil sands' sites to allow companies to begin resuming production.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) became the first company to resume its operation in the centre of Canada's oil sands region. Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO) began inspecting its facilities and prepared to restart operations shuttered during the blaze.
"While thousands of lives will never be the same, we can take small steps to getting back the rhythm of northeast Alberta," Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told reporters after meeting with executives from companies including Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO), ConocoPhillips Canada (COP.N) and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
"For many in Fort McMurray, that means rolling up the sleeves, and returning to work doing what they love, which is working in the energy sector," she said in Edmonton.
The meeting came a day after Notley led an inspection tour of Fort McMurray, which found that the town was less damaged than initially feared with about 90 percent of its buildings surviving the blaze.
But its 88,000 residents, who were hurriedly evacuated last week as flames attacked the town, will not be able to return for weeks from temporary accommodation in the provincial capital Edmonton, 380 km (235 miles) south, and elsewhere.
"These are difficult circumstances," said Al Monaco, Enbridge CEO, in a statement. "We have a well-trained and experienced team that has developed a detailed logistical plan to enable the safe restart of our pipelines and terminals."
Energy industry officials grappled with transportation problems for staff because the specialists who run the oil production sites were also among the residents displaced by the blaze.
Shell said it will fly staff in and out of the region, while Imperial Oil Ltd (IMO.TO) said its Kearl oil sands mining project will remain shut until the company worked out the logistics of moving people and materials to and from the remote site.
Syncrude restarted power generation at its oil sands mine in Aurora, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Fort McMurray, as it began planning to resume operations, a spokeswoman said.
TOWN STILL SMOLDERING
The blaze grew moderately on Tuesday to 229,000 hectares (560,000 acres) and spread east through terrain with no communities. It merged with another fire burning near Campbell Lake, some 50 km (30 miles) east of Fort McMurray. The closest oil projects to Fort McMurray are about 20 km (12 miles) north of the town and not in the fire's current path.
The inspection of Fort McMurray revealed blocks of homes reduced to blackened foundations, front steps and metal barbecues. Notley said 2,400 structures had burnt within the city while almost 25,000 were saved.
Officials warned it was not safe for residents to return to the town, with parts still smoldering and large areas without power, water and gas. Notley said repair crews will need weeks to make the city safe.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons he would go to Fort McMurray on Friday. Canada's labour minister told reporters on Tuesday that the federal government would ensure that people put out of work by the blaze receive unemployment payments.
About half of Canada's crude output, or 1 million barrels per day, was taken offline by the blaze, according to a Reuters estimate.
Canadian crude prices slipped on Tuesday, trading below the U.S. crude benchmark, as signs of resuming production eased supply concerns.
Nearly all of Fort McMurray's residents escaped the fire safely, although two teenagers died in a car crash during the evacuation.
(Additional reporting by Ethan Lou and Allison Martell in Toronto and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Writing by Scott Malone and Jeffrey Hodgson; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Cynthia Osterman)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Istanbul: A car bomb on Tuesday struck a police vehicle that was carrying officers escorting seven recently detained Kurdish militants in the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, killing three people and wounding 45 others, officials said.
No group had claimed responsibility for the attack in Diyarbakir's Baglar neighborhood, but the state-run Anadolu Agency said it was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as the bus was passing by.
The police vehicle was transporting nine police officers taking the seven suspected PKK militants for medical checks. The three victims were seriously wounded in the attack and later died in hospital, the Diyarbakir governor's office said in a statement.
It wasn't immediately clear if the dead included any of the PKK suspects or police officers.
A total of 12 police officers and 33 civilians were wounded in the attack, including people who were passing by or sitting at a nearby open-air cafe, the statement said.
The seven PKK suspects inside the vehicle were detained for allegedly seizing a factory in Diyarbakir, the governor's office said, without providing details.
Kurdish rebels have been targeting police and military targets since July, when a fragile peace process collapsed.
Earlier Tuesday, two police officers were killed while attempting to defuse a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Van, Anadolu said.
The agency also blamed those deaths on the PKK. Ankara and its allies consider the group a terrorist organization, and Anadolu said air-backed operations were underway to hunt down Kurdish rebels in Van.
The PKK, which wants greater autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives.
PKK-linked rebels have staged multiple bomb attacks against Turkish police and troops, which in turn have carried out tank-backed security operations in flashpoint areas.
BEIJING/HONG KONG China scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday as a U.S. navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, a patrol China denounced as an illegal threat to peace which only went to show its defense installations in the area were necessary.
Guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence traveled within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said.
The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to "challenge excessive maritime claims" by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea, Urban said.
"These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise," Urban said in an emailed statement.
China and the United States have traded accusations of militarizing the South China Sea as China undertakes large-scale land reclamation and construction on disputed features while the United States has increased its patrols and exercises.
Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway which the United States worries China will use to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.
China's Defence Ministry said two fighter jets were scrambled and three warships shadowed the U.S. ship, telling it to leave.
The U.S. patrol "again proves that China's construction of defensive facilities on the relevant reefs in the Nansha Islands is completely reasonable and totally necessary", it said, using China's name for the Spratly Islands where much of its reclamation work is taking place.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the U.S. ship illegally entered Chinese waters.
"This action by the U.S. side threatened China's sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability," he told a daily news briefing.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waved aside a question as to whether the U.S. aim was to send a message ahead of a visit to Asia by President Barack Obama this month.
"This is not a pointed strategy calculated to do anything except keep a regular process of freedom of navigation operations underway," he told reporters in London.
SENSITIVE AREA
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the Spratly Islands after China used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from Fiery Cross.
"Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be the future hub of Chinese military operations in the South China Sea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including its large and deep port and 3,000-metre runway," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
"The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of U.S. determination ahead of President Obama's trip to Vietnam."
Speaking in Vietnam, Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said freedom of navigation operations were important for smaller nations.
"If the world's most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships of navy of smaller countries?" Russel told reporters before news of the operation was made public.
China has reacted with anger to previous U.S. freedom of navigation operations, including the overflight of fighter planes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month, and when long-range U.S. bombers flew near Chinese facilities under construction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November.
U.S. naval officials believe China has plans to start reclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal, which sits further north of the Spratlys within the Philippines-claimed 200-nautical-mile (370-km) exclusive economic zone.
Tough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who looks set to become president of the Philippines after an election on Monday, has proposed multilateral talks on the South China Sea.
A Chinese diplomat warned last week that criticism of China over the South China Sea would rebound like a coiled spring.
(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Paris and London, and My Pham in Hanoi; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel and James Dalgleish)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has said as US President he would make an exception for London's first Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan in his proposed temporary ban on the entry of Muslims to the US and hoped that the Labour leader would set an example.
"I was happy to see that. I think it's a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because frankly that would be very, very good," Trump told The New York Times when asked about the election of Khan as the new London mayor.
Khan, who has been critical of Trump's policies, had earlier said he would not be able to travel to the US if the 69-year-old tycoon was elected as the president of the US.
But Trump stated otherwise, when asked about it.
"There will always be exceptions," he said. "Because I think if he does a great job, it will really -- you lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing," Trump said.
On Sunday, Pakistani-origin Khan had accused British Prime Minister David Cameron's ruling Conservative party of using "fear and innuendo" in a bid to turn religious and ethnic groups against each other during the mayoral campaign and said the tactics were straight out of the "Donald Trump playbook".
"They used fear and innuendo to try to turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other -- something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook. Londoners deserved better and I hope it's something the Conservative party will never try to repeat," the Labour leader had said.
New Delhi: Regularisation of the 'odd-even' scheme will "reduce" its impact and it should only be used as an emergency measure, a green body said on Tuesday, underlining the need for implementing alternative measures like "congestion pricing" to lessen the number of vehicles on roads to tackle air pollution.
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) which released an impact assessment study on the two-phases of odd-even scheme observed that as private cars have limited contribution in the PM2.5 levels, the scheme yielded only "marginal" reductions (4-7 percent) during both the phases.
TERI observed that the impact of the scheme with respect to traffic counts, average speeds and air quality declined during the second phase in comparison to the first phase and the decline could be probably due to people opting for "second cars with alternative number plates, installations of CNG kits or enhanced use of taxis".
"The results of the two phases of odd-even scheme in Delhi suggest that it is useful only when high pollution episodes are expected. We do not see merit in regularising the scheme.
"A more sustainable approach for dealing with air pollution not only in Delhi but also in other metropolises would be congestion pricing, which is a far more effective option," Director General of TERI Ajay Mathur said.
Congestion pricing is based on a 'pay-as-you-use' principle with an aim to reduce the number of vehicles and in turn encourage modal shift by charging vehicles on entry in restricted zones and times. This can be complemented by providing exemptions to higher-occupancy vehicles.
TERI said that such a model has proved to be successful in cities such as Singapore, London, Sweden, Rome, Durham, Seoul, San Diego etc.
The congestion pricing scheme can be first tried out in different ways including, all across congestion pricing, identification of low-emission zones and road-wise congestion pricing, TERI said.
TERI also urged the government to ensure the earliest possible introduction of BS-VI vehicle and fuel quality norms, real-time monitoring and reporting of industrial emissions in NCR and the need for business models to convert agricultural wastes into energy using biomass gasification technologies.
Sumit Sharma, fellow at TERI, said that the measures, which were taken, were more to control particulate matter rather than Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx). "We need multi-sectoral measures for the whole NCR to effectively reduce air pollutant levels, which calls for regular air quality management plans based on scientific studies," he said.
While TERI acknowledged that the scheme was successful in raising public awareness on air pollution as well as in improving traffic speeds, it also cautioned against the regularization of this scheme, saying the rule should at best be used as an emergency measure.
The body said that during phase II of the scheme, the general variation of PM 2.5 concentration due to daily changes in local emissions, meteorology and background concentrations (influences from outside Delhi) was 42 percent.
The reduction achieved from the scheme during this phase seems too small (4 per cent) to be captured among the other more dominating factors.
TERI said that as in the case of other cities in the world that have tried out the scheme, people could look for alternatives by purchasing new or old cars which would, over a period of time, neutralise and negate the positive impacts.
"This is likely to happen as the public transportation system is not reliable and attractive enough to encourage the car users to shift to public transport.
"Hence, the odd-even scheme should be used only as an emergency measure when the pollution levels are expected to be very high like winters. Regularizing it or its frequent use may only reduce its impacts, unless public transportation is improved and sales of alternative vehicles are checked," it said.
TERI emphasised that air quality management plans should be based on scientific studies that are updated every three to five years and air-quality targets must be defined for each year and strategies must be enforced to achieve them in line with these plans.
TERI said that during phase-II of the scheme, the averaged PM2.5 concentrations at five locations were 1.4-4.3 times higher than prescribed 24-hourly standard, NO2 concentrations were 0.61.36 times the prescribed standard while PM10 levels were 1.84.0 times above the prescribed standard.
Grafing: A German man who officials said had drug and psychological problems stabbed to death one person and slashed three more in a bloody dawn attack at a railway station Tuesday.
Police arrested the 27-year-old after the apparently random assault around 5 am (0300 GMT) at the commuter railway station of the small town of Grafing, east of Munich.
One of the victims, a 56-year-old man, later died of his wounds in hospital. Authorities had earlier wrongly given his age as 50.
The others injured were men aged 43, 55 and 58. One of the victims was seriously hurt, the other two more lightly wounded.
Police and prosecutors initially said the attack appeared to be "politically motivated" and with an apparent Islamist motive after eye witnesses had reported hearing him scream "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest).
However, hours later, Bavaria state's interior ministry said that "so far we have no evidence for an Islamist motive, but the investigation continues".
"We have found the man had psychological and drug problems," ministry spokesman Oliver Platzer told AFP.
Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that "from Berlin I don't want to feed and evaluate speculation about the motive."
Bavaria's interior minister Joachim Herrmann said the attacker, named locally as Paul H., was a German national, as authorities said he hailed from central Hesse state and did not have a migrant background.
"As to what extent there were other background factors, or whether this is more about questions of mental instability or drug addiction, still needs to be investigated," Herrmann said on BR24 television.
Earlier Ken Heidenreich, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, had said that the "assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motive apparently an Islamist motive... We are still determining what the exact remarks were."
Bloody footsteps
In the dawn attack, the assailant stabbed one man aboard a train, another on the platform, then left the station and slashed two more men on bicycles outside, said Bavarian police spokesman Karl-Heinz Segerer.
"In the meantime local police received an emergency call, and the officers quickly arrived at the scene and were able to detain the man," said Segerer on NTV news channel.
Bloody footsteps and police forensic officers in white plastic suits could be seen at the cordoned-off railway station in video footage from Grafing, 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of the Bavarian capital.
Town mayor Angelika Obermayr expressed shock at the bloody crime in the sleepy town of 13,000 people.
"We are an absolutely peaceful Bavarian small town in the greater Munich region," she said on NTV. "Something like this is absolutely new and has deeply shocked the people here who only know things like that from television.
"That something like that happened here is absolutely unbelievable."
The violence came at a time of heightened public fears about jihadist attacks.
Last August, the Islamic State group threatened Germany with attacks in an online execution video.
In the rare German-language video, two jihadists urged their "brothers and sisters" in Germany and Austria to commit attacks against "unbelievers" at home.
Since then Germany had seen at least two bloody knife assaults blamed on Islamists.
In February a 15-year-old girl identified as Safia S. stabbed a policeman in the neck with a kitchen knife at Hanover train station in what prosecutors later said was an IS-inspired attack.
Last September, a 41-year-old Iraqi man identified as Rafik Y. stabbed and seriously wounded a policewoman in Berlin before another officer shot him dead.
The man had previously spent time in jail for membership of a banned Islamist group and had been convicted in 2008 of planning an attack in Berlin against former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi.
According to the German domestic intelligence agency, some 740 people have left Germany to join jihadist groups in Syria or Iraq. About 120 of them have been killed, while about one third have returned to Germany.
London: London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Tuesday slammed Donald Trump's "ignorant" view of Islam, after the Republican presidential contender suggested Khan could be exempted from a proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Last year Trump proposed "a total and complete" ban on foreign Muslims entering the US "until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."
Asked how that policy would affect London's first Muslim mayor, Trump told The New York Times that "there will always be exceptions."
But Khan said "this isn't just about me it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world."
"Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists," Khan said in a statement.
Khan, the London-born son of Pakistani immigrants, was elected last week by a wide margin after a campaign that saw his Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith accuse him of having shared platforms with Islamic extremists.
Khan, a former human rights lawyer and Labour Party lawmaker, accused Goldsmith of trying to frighten and divide voters in a multicultural city of 8.6 million people more than 1 million of them Muslims.
In his victory speech, Khan said the result marked of "hope over fear and unity over division."
The mayor said Tuesday that Trump and people who agree with him "think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong."
Trump said he was "happy to see" Khan's election and hoped "he does a good job."
United Nations: Describing the challenge posed by the growing terror threat as "daunting", India has called on the UN to do more to combat the scourge and emphasised that "genuine and effective" global cooperation is essential for achieving zero tolerance towards terrorism.
"The scale of challenge facing all our countries is daunting. No state is immune to this threat as continuing terrorist attacks across the world, many of them with links beyond the borders of the affected state, continue to demonstrate," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said on Monday.
Addressing a meeting of the Advisory Board of the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT), he said no single country, however rich or powerful, would be able to defeat the menace of terrorism acting alone.
Having been a victim of terrorism for the past several decades, India is not only cognizant of the nature of the menace but also of the critical need for a collective international effort to counter terrorism, he said.
"Genuine and effective international cooperation is absolutely essential to meeting this challenge and is in our collective interest," he said.
Akbaruddin said while the United Nations is providing a "useful avenue" for such international cooperation to fight terrorism, the world body "requires to do more".
"We look forward to the UNCCT playing a useful part in contributing to the collective quest of 'zero tolerance for terrorism'," he said, adding that India attaches high importance to working towards strengthening of international cooperation in countering terrorism.
He emphasised that growth of the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters poses increasing threats and challenges and needs to be effectively countered.
Akbaruddin said tackling financing of terrorism is crucial in the fight against terrorism.
With foreign terrorist fighters originating from more than 100 countries, Akbaruddin said UNCCT's work needs to take into account this "widespread malaise" and requires to be expanded to cover all affected regions.
He reiterated that strengthening the legal capacities of member states to counter terrorism is "very important" in the fight to ensure the rule of law.
"The UNCCT working in unison with other UN agencies can be of assistance in strengthening the capacity of national legal systems to effectively prosecute and punish acts of terrorism," Akbaruddin said.
India, a member of UNCCT's Advisory Board, supports its work in contributing to the implementation of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTF) of the United Nations through the Counter Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF), he said.
Seoul: A former North Korean military chief who Seoul had said was executed is actually alive and in possession of several new senior-level posts, the North's state media said Tuesday.
The news on Ri Yong Gil marks yet another blunder for South Korean intelligence officials, who have often gotten information wrong in tracking developments with their rival. It also points to the difficulties that even professional spies have in figuring out what's going on in one of the world's most closed governments.
Ri, who was considered one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's most trusted aides, missed two key national meetings in February. Seoul intelligence officials later said that Kim had him executed for corruption and other charges.
Kim has reportedly overseen a series of killings, purges and dismissals since he took power in late 2011, part of what foreign experts call an attempt to tighten his grip on power.
The South's report on Ri's execution seemed to be bolstered later in February when Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency confirmed Ri had lost his job by describing someone else as chief of the North Korean military's general staff.
He hadn't appeared anywhere in KCNA, the North's main media outlet for foreign audiences, until the report Tuesday that a person with the same name as Ri was among those awarded important positions during the just concluded Workers' Party congress in Pyongyang. The congress, the first in 36 years, ended Monday with announcements of personnel and organizational changes.
According to KCNA dispatches, Ri got three posts member of the party's Central Committee, alternate member of the committee's powerful Political Bureau, and member of the party's Central Military Commission.
Seoul's Unification Ministry said Tuesday that it confirmed Ri is back after analyzing North Korean state media photos and video of the party congress.
South Korean media said that Seoul intelligence authorities were responsible for the initial reports on Ri's execution. But the National Intelligence Service South Korea's main spy agency tried to distance itself from the misstep, saying it never disclosed any information on Ri.
Monitoring developments among the North's ruling elite is very hard for outsiders; the country keeps strict tabs on visitors and its own state-run press acts as a disseminator of government propaganda. South Korea, which runs several intelligence organizations mainly tasked with spying on the North, has a mixed record.
Earlier this year, South Korean intelligence and defense officials faced criticism for failing to see in advance that North Korea had been preparing for its fourth nuclear test.
The NIS also failed to learn of the 2011 death of Kim Jong Il, the dictator father of Kim Jong Un, before Pyongyang's state TV announced it. In 2013, it saved its face by releasing its finding that Kim's powerful uncle Jang Song Thaek was purged, days before North Korea announced his execution.
The rival Koreas have shared the world's most heavily fortified border since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and they bar ordinary citizens from exchanging phone calls, letters and emails without special permission.
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama will meet with his National Security Council on Tuesday morning to discuss U.S. efforts to fight Islamic State militants, the White House said.
"The session is the latest in a series of NSC meetings in recent months convened at the White House and at key departments and agencies, including the CIA, the Department of State and the Department of Defense, on our campaign against the terrorist group," it said in a statement.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Chris Reese)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
WASHINGTON/TOKYO Barack Obama will become the first U.S. president to visit Hiroshima in Japan later this month, but he will not apologize for the United States' dropping of an atomic bomb on the city at the end of World War Two, the White House said on Tuesday.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize early in his presidency in 2009 in part for his commitment to nuclear nonproliferation, Obama on May 27 will tour the site of the world's first nuclear bombing with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
With the end of his last term in office approaching in January 2017, Obama will "highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," the White House said in a statement.
"He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future," Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, wrote in a separate blog. He called it the "appropriate moment" for Obama to go there.
The visit comes as part of a May 21-28 swing through Asia, which will include a Group of Seven summit in Japan and his first trip to Vietnam. It will be the 10th trip to the region for Obama, who has made an economic and strategic "pivot" toward Asia a centerpiece of his foreign policy.
On the final day of the summit in Japan, Obama and Abe will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park near the spot where a U.S. warplane dropped an atomic bomb 71 years ago at the end of World War Two.
WHITE HOUSE DEBATE
The decision to go to Hiroshima was hotly debated within the White House. There were concerns that a U.S. presidential visit would be heavily criticized in the United States if it were seen as an apology.
The bomb dropped on Aug. 6, 1945 killed thousands of people instantly and about 140,000 by the end of that year. Another was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, and Japan surrendered six days later.
The majority of Americans view the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as justified to end the war and save U.S lives. Most Japanese see it as unjustified.
Abe, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, said he hoped "to turn this into an opportunity for the U.S. and Japan to together pay tribute to the memories of the victims" of the nuclear bombing.
"President Obama visiting Hiroshima and expressing toward the world the reality of the impact of nuclear radiation will contribute greatly to establishing a world without nuclear arms," Abe added.
Obama's visit will be a symbolic capstone for the nuclear disarmament agenda he laid out in a landmark speech in Prague in 2009. His aides tout last year's Iran nuclear deal as a major piece of his foreign policy legacy.
But Obama has made only modest progress toward the goal of securing the world's loose nuclear materials, and there is no guarantee his White House successor will keep the issue a high priority.
Lisbeth Gronlund, co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Global Security Program, said Obama must "do more than give another beautiful speech" and should instead announce concrete action on nuclear disarmament when he visits Hiroshima.
After U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Hiroshima last month, survivors of the bombing and other residents said that if Obama visits, they hope for progress in ridding the world of nuclear weapons, rather than an apology.
(Additional reporting by Megan Cassella and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Chizu Nomiyama and Clarence Fernandez)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
London: Londons iconic red buses and public transport in other British cities will carry banner adverts featuring the Arabic phrase Subhan Allah (Glory be to God) in a bid to encourage British Muslims to support Syrian war victims.
The posters will appear on hundreds of buses during Ramadan, which begins at sunrise on 6 June and lasts until 7 July, Daily Mail reported.
The start of the campaign will begin a month after London elected the first Muslim mayor of a major Western city, Labours Sadiq Khan who, coincidentally, is the son of a bus driver.
Islamic Relief, a Muslim charity, is funding the campaign, which will be rolled out in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bradford.
Organisers hope it will present Islam in a positive way and encourage British Muslims to donate to humanitarian efforts for victims of the ongoing war in Syria.
In a sense this could be called a climate change campaign because we want to change the negative climate around international aid and around the Muslim community in this country," director Islamic Relief, Imran Madden said.
International aid has helped halve the number of people living in extreme poverty in the past 15 years, and British Muslims are an incredibly generous community who give over 100 million (around $144 million) to international aid charities during Ramadan.
Cairo: Egyptian security officials say police have arrested three members of a satirical street group that mocked President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and his supporters in video clips posted online.
The officials say the three were arrested late on Monday in Cairo and are likely to face charges of inciting protests and insulting state institutions. A fourth member of the group, 19-year-old Ezzedeen Khaled, was detained on Saturday and faces the same charges.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak to reporters.
The six-member group Awlad el-Shawarea, or "Street Children," has a large social media following. It shoots selfie-style clips on the streets.
One video was entitled "el-Sissi, my president, made things worse" while another mocked el-Sissi's hallmark speech endings of "Long live Egypt!"
WASHINGTON The United States said on Tuesday it would work with the apparent victor of the Philippines presidential election but declined to say if it had any concerns about the controversial policies advocated by maverick Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
"Washington respects the choice of the Philippine people. We gladly work with the leaders they've selected," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said without identifying Duterte by name.
When pressed about whether the United States had any concerns about positions advocated by the tough-talking Duterte, including extrajudicial killings to stamp out crimes and drugs, Trudeau repeated her statement that Washington respected the choice of the voters.
"We look forward to working with the leader that the Philippines has elected," she said.
An official winner had not yet been declared in the Philippines vote, but an unofficial count by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed he had a huge lead over his two closest rivals, both of whom conceded defeat.
Trudeau said several of the presidential contenders had noted that a winner had been unofficially named and welcomed the fact that the vote had been conducted "smoothly and enjoyed historically high levels of participation."
Duterte's vows to restore law and order resonated with Philippine voters, but his incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs alarmed many people, who saw it as harkening back to the country's authoritarian past.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Lesley Wroughton and David Alexander; Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in; Davao, Philippines and by Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by Alan Crosby and James Dalgleish)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
WASHINGTON Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in the case against Abu Khatallah, the man charged in the 2012 attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Khatallah was captured in 2014 and brought to the United States for trial in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said Attorney General Loretta Lynch made the decision.
"The department is committed to ensuring that the defendant is held accountable for his alleged role," Pierce said. "If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to life in prison."
(Reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by James Dalgleish)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Islamabad: The son of Pakistan's ex-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was on Tuesday rescued from the clutches of Taliban in a joint operation by the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, three years after he was abducted from his hometown in Pakistan's Punjab province.
Ali Haider Gilani "has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan," Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement.
Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar informed Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, about the news in a telephone call, it said.
"Ali Haider Geelani's transfer to Pakistan is being arranged following required medical check-up," it said.
This development comes two months after the kidnapped son of slain Punjabi governor Salman Taseer was rescued by Pakistani forces in an operation near Quetta.
The news of the rescue of Haider, believed to be in his 30s, was broken by Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Twitter.
"(former) PM Gilani received a call from ambassador of Afghanistan. His son Ali Haider Gilani has been recovered in a successful operation," Bilawal said.
Haider, whose father's secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has led several major offensives against militants, was kidnapped by gunmen in Multan in 2013 just two days before the 11 May general elections in which he was contesting.
He was leaving a street corner meeting outside the house of a supporter in Farrukh Town in his hometown of Multan in southern Afghanistan when the gunmen killed his two associates and abducted him.
"Haider was in the custody of Al-Qaeda. He has been recovered during an operation of special forces," reports here quoted an Afghan ambassador as saying.
He said Haider is in good health and he will be sent home through a special plane.
"Foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz has told me about the recovery of my brother," Abdul Qadir Gilani said.
"My whole family and I are extremely happy to hear good news of safe recovery of Haider," he said.
A large number of PPP workers gathered outside the residence of Gilani in Multan to celebrate Haider's release.
The former premier had last year said that the abductors had contacted him and demanded ransom for his release. In a video message last year, Haider said the kidnappers were initially demanding Rs 2 billion for his release but later they had reduced the ransom amount to Rs 500 million.
His father had said he was ready to pay the ransom amount.
Shahbaz Taseer, who was abducted in August, 2011 some seven months after his father was killed by his own police guard Mumtaz Qadri, was recovered from Balochistan's Kuchlak area after nearly five years. Qadri was hanged a couple of months ago at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi after President Mamnoom Hussain rejected his mercy plea.
A team of "very experienced bribers" paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a senior public servant to secure lucrative tax-payer funded Sydney Harbour contracts.
A Fairfax Media investigation can reveal that Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority senior manager Kylie Vernon confessed in a NSW Supreme Court case to taking $300,000 in kickbacks, throwing into doubt multiple taxpayer funded SHFA contracts for services such as cleaning and pest control.
Minister for Finance, Service and Property Dominic Perrottet. Credit:James Alcock
Ms Vernon was stood down on Tuesday afternoon after Fairfax Media informed the Minister for Finance, Service and Property Dominic Perrottet of Ms Vernon's bribery confession.
"This afternoon I was made aware of allegations of corruption involving a current SHFA employee. These are serious allegations, and I have asked the department to investigate as a matter of urgency," Mr Perrottet said. "This government has zero tolerance for corruption."
A teaching student from Sydney who died after plunging down a waterfall in the Blue Mountains was peering over the edge of the top of the falls when she simply lost her footing, her boyfriend says.
Cheng Shi Min, who was known as "Angel", slipped and fell about 20 metres down Empress Falls, in the Blue Mountains National Park, while on a hike on Tuesday afternoon.
She was taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition, but died from her injuries early on Wednesday morning.
Ms Min, who police said was 29 and from Olympic Park, was hiking with her boyfriend, Henry Yendle, her father and a friend when the accident occurred about 1.30pm.
U.S. and Afghan commandos, in a joint raid on Tuesday, rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minster after three years of captivity from an al-Qaida affiliated group, officials said.
Unknown gunmen kidnapped Ali Haider Gilani, son of ex-prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, from a 2013 election rally in his native southern city of Multann and his whereabouts were unknown until now.
The joint counterterrorism mission retrieved Gilani from a compound in Giyan district of Paktika province, which borders Pakistan, said a statement from the U.S military in Kabul.
"Four al-Qaida operatives were killed as a result of the operation. No other injuries or damage was observed or reported, said Col. Pat Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which overseas operation in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Earlier, in statement released by the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad Afghan National Security Advisor Hanif Atmaar was quoted as telling his Pakistani counterparts the joint military action recovered Gilani in the Afghan province of Ghazni.
Gilanis transfer to Pakistan is being arranged following a required medical check-up, Atmaar added.
Meanwhile, Kabul's ambassador to Islamabad, Hazrat Omer Zakhilwal says he called the former Pakistani prime minister and informed him about the good news.
"He was ecstatically delighted as expected and grateful of President [Ashraf] Ghani's personal attention to his son's safe release, he said.
The recovery occurs at a time of increased bilateral tensions stemming from allegations that Pakistan has not ended its covert support to the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan.
The relationship deteriorated further last month after an April 19 suicide bombing in Kabul that Afghan authorities blamed on the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network allegedly operating from Pakistan.
Islamabad has denied the charges, saying it had nothing to do with the attack in which about 70 people were killed and hundreds more wounded.
Hope for improved relationship
Speaking to VOA Zakhilwal noted that steps like recovery of Gilani will encourage efforts to improve bilateral ties.
I hope that the cooperation between security forces continues [between the two countries] and elements that threaten individual or larger than individual safety and security of people on either side are treated as enemies of both sides, he said.
During the kidnapping in 2013, Gilani's personal secretary and a body guard were killed and several people were wounded before the kidnappers took him away according to Pakistani police.
Yusuf Raza Gilani was prime minister of Pakistan from March, 2008 to April, 2012. His kidnapped son made contact with the family about a year ago to tell them he was well.
Understanding that we were overloaded we responded extremely respectfully and passively. We were all aggressively told at gunpoint to get out of the vehicle, which we did. The officers in question seemed intoxicated and were shouting and gesturing wildly. They proceeded to fire two rounds of the AK-47 into the sand about three metres away from our feet.
One of the people involved, who wished to remain anonymous, said they had visited three bars and a restaurant. On their way home they were pulled over by men who were not in uniform but bearing arms, including an AK-47. One had a badge.
Mr Carlos Carvalho from Moz Info said that he had received a number of reports of police intimidation and possible corruption in the past week.
Reports of an overuse of force against tourists committing minor infringements in the Mozambique holiday town of Ponta do Ouro are giving rise to worries it may scare away visitors.
They were told to drive to the police station where they were interrogated in Portuguese. They searched them roughly, kicking our ankles to open our legs. No breathalyser tests were performed.
Their wallets were confiscated. An Italian-speaking member of the party attempted to find out what the charges were and was locked in a cell.
We were at gunpoint the entire time, to the extent that I was shielding my girlfriend with my body while a man holding an AK-47 stared at us.
The other four men were also locked in the cell. We were not given any water or so much as a piece of wood to sit on. We were told to share a two-litre Coke bottle between us and pour the contents out the window. The cell was absolutely disgusting (with) only a candle (for) light.
The two women were locked in the car where police stood guard over them throughout the night. They succeeded in contacting the owner of the home where they were staying and he sent an employee to the station.
He was allegedly beaten upon arrival. The following morning they were informed that they were being held for overloading and had to pay fines of R5 000 each.
We were now dealing with a man in uniform, another armed man and one wearing a vest and jeans who we were informed was the boss. We told them we didnt have that kind of money.
The police let two members of the party return to their accommodation to gather any money they could. We managed to scavenge roughly R4 500 but were told it was not enough and would now be taken to court.
Luckily a friend back home had managed to get hold of someone they knew in Ponta and they struck a deal with the police to release us if we paid another R5 500 to total R10 000.
We were then forced to admit that we had not been mistreated and that they acted lawfully, while they were staring us in the eye and intimidating us. We left vowing to never go back to Mozambique.
Earlier on the same day some of the five cars in the convoy in which Ms Mechelle Grobler Steyn was travelling parked next to one another in Ponta do Ouro. It was the beginning of a trip to celebrate her 40th birthday. Heavily armed and aggressive police officers carrying automatic weapons informed them they had double-parked.
Their passports were confiscated and they followed the police to the station where they were interrogated. Steyn said they were also forced to sign an acknowledgement of what they said we did wrong.
They were fined R1 000 and paid it, only to be told to pay an additional R1 500 to get their passports back. They were not issued with receipts.
The experience put a damper on the trip, but it is no use crying over spilt milk, she said. We know they are strict and we try to stick to the rules. However, it was my mothers first trip to the country, and surely her last.
The newspapers attempts to obtain comment from the police were fruitless. The area police chief could not be reached by phone, while the Ponta do Ouro commander claimed he could not speak English.
A lodge owner summarised the seriousness of the potential negative impact on tourism on which the towns economy relies. We have no gas deposits, coal, harbours, commerce, industry nor agriculture. I spend about R20 000 per month marketing Mozambique as a destination. I have invested millions of meticais in my resort and infrastructure.
The harsh reality is that it is a question of survival in an already depressed tourism market. With the weak economic situation in Mozambique and South Africa, the perception of the war up north and the fiasco with unabridged birth certificates, the last thing we need is for the people entrusted to protect the community to destroy the economic base of that community.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, South African guests were prevented from leaving after the domestic worker accused one of them of attempting to solicit sex from her for money. It was reported on social media that he was locked in a cell and intimidated and a large sum had to be paid to secure his release.
However, the complex management company said in a statement on its website that the man had in fact attempted to rape the woman and that the party had attempted to bribe the police. The guest was allegedly asked to apologise to the female and then requested by police to leave the country.
The man, who cannot be identified due to the nature of his alleged offence, told Lowvelder he was seeking legal advice on the reports and did not wish to comment.
In http://lowvelder.co.za/332062/fears-over-police-intimidation-and-bribery-in-mozambique-holiday-town/
NOTA: Assim se pretende desenvolver o turismo em Mocambique. Triste.
Fernando Gil
MACUA DE MOCAMBIQUE
The deadline to have pre-primary campaign finance reports in is the end of business Tuesday, and when I checked this morning, a few new ones had been posted.
Looking at the ones from the Magic Valley, here are four takeaways:
1. Bedke and Kauffman Gave Money to a Lot of Their Colleagues
House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, and Rep. Clark Kauffman, R-Filer, who are running for re-election unopposed, have been donating money to a number of their colleagues who are facing primary challenges from the right. Bedke donated a total of $14,000 to 21 of his colleagues during the filing period in increments of $500 or $1,000, including Reps. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, and Steve Hartgen, R-Twin Falls. And Kauffman donated $500 in late April to district-mate Bell and $300 each to 11 other of his colleagues who are facing right-wing challenges, including Reps. Rich Wills, R-Glenns Ferry, Merrill Beyeler, R-Leadore, Luke Malek, R-Coeur d'Alene, and Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint.
As I reported previously, Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, also running unopposed, has been doing much the same thing, giving money to Wills, Bell, and to the Republican incumbents on the House Health and Welfare Committee who are facing challengers. (Wood chairs the committee.)
2. Megan Blanksma Has A Lot of Support
Megan Blanksma, a Hammett resident and Elmore County GOP chairwoman who is challenging Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, in the Republican primary, is in the rather unusual position of being a challenger who has raised substantially more money than the incumbent.
Blanksma raised more than $28,000 between Jan. 1 and May 1, spent more than $23,000 on her campaign and closed the filing period wiht $4,870.30. Nielsen raised $2,920 during that period and closed with $3,100.15.
While Blanksma has plenty of contributions from within the district, she also got a good deal of money from political action committees that usually support incumbents in state legislative races $500 from CenturyLink, $1,000 from the Idaho Potato Industry PAC, $500 from Amalgamated Sugar, $1,000 from the Idaho Association of Realtors, $750 from Idaho Wheat and Barley, etc.
Nielsen's list of donors is much shorter; two that jumped out at me are $500 from the campaign committee for Majority Caucus Chairman Rep. John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, and $250 from Idaho Chooses Life PAC.
The district includes part of western Twin Falls County, plus Owyhee and Elmore.
3. Sally Toone Has More Money Than Alex Sutter
So far Sally Toone, the Democrat running for Rep. Donna Pence, D-Gooding's seat, has more money than the Republican candidate Alex Sutter.
Pence is not running for another term. Toone has raised almost $6,000 in contributions so far and had more than $4,000 on May 1. Sutter raised about $3,400 and closed with $2,157.40. District 26 is the only district in the area that has sent both Democrats and Republicans to Boise in recent years, and if history is any guide this race for an open seat in a swing district could be one of the closest legislative races in the area.
4. The Primaries Elsewhere are Hotter than Ours
There are two primaries in the Magic Valley Bell/Reggy Sternes and Hartgen vs. Mary Bello where more conservative Republicans are challenging establishment incumbents. Hartgen, Bell and Bello haven't filed their financial reports yet, so we'll have a clearer picture when those are in, but from what's available so far, these races does seem to have been drawing as much outside money as some of the other legislative primaries.
You'll find contributions to Bell fairly often, and to Hartgen occasionally, on some of the PAC campaign finance reports that have been filed. The Idaho Committee on Hospitality and Sports, for example, gave $500 to each of them, while the Idaho Beer and Wine Distributors Association PAC gave them $250 each. And their Magic Valley colleagues are helping to fund their campaigns along with those of other GOP incumbents facing primaries, as I mentioned above.
However, as I peruse the reports that are in so far, a few other incumbents facing challenges, such as Beyeler, Malek and Keough, seem to be getting more contributions. If I had to guess, it's because those incumbents are perceived as being under greater threat of losing than Bell or Hartgen a couple of the GOP county committees in Beyeler's district have backed his opponent, Dorothy Moon, and Malek and Keough are generally perceived as being the most moderate lawmakers from a region of the state that elects some of Idaho's most conservative legislators.
Keough's and Malek's reports weren't posted online as of Tuesday morning, so I'll need their full reports to confirm this hunch, but Beyeler's was, and he raised almost $31,000 during the filing period, spent almost $16,000 and closed with $21,601.03. He has also received donations of $1,000 each, $3,000 total, after May 1 from the Idaho Hospital Association PAC, the Idaho Association of Chiropractic Physicians and Simplot. (Candidates are required to report, within 48 hours, donations of $1,000 or more received between May 1 and the primary.)
Moon is pretty well funded herself, raising a little more than $20,000 this year and with $6,218.31 on hand on May 1. Compare her report and the variety of donors well known names in conservative Idaho politics like Doyle Beck and Russ Fulcher, the Farm Bureau AGRA PAC (the Farm Bureau endorsed her), and the pro-motorized access Idaho Land Fund to Sternes, almost all of whose funding came from a loan he gave his campaign.
The reports of spending by outside groups show a handful of races that have drawn outside spending repeatedly Beyeler/Moon, Malek/Arthur Macomber, Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg/Doug Ricks, Rep. Kelley Packer, R-McCammon/Jason West. Bell, Hartgen, Sternes and Bello haven't appeared once so far.
The only outside spending with any local ties appears to be $27,705.38 the left-leaning Idaho Opportunity Project spent on campaign materials that reference, among other lawmakers, Pence, Rep. Steve Miller, R-Fairfield, and Sen. Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum. The money was donated by the Idaho Education Association on May 2 and spent on mailers at a media firm in Brooklyn the same day, according to the disclosure. So let me know if you're in District 26 and you get anything interesting in the mail.
TWIN FALLS Nationally recognized author and community development strategist Peter Kageyama will be speaking at a Twin Falls luncheon for the Magic Valley business community June 9.
The event, hosted by Idaho Housing and Finance Association, is entitled Creating Quality Places Where People Want to Live, Work and Play, and will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Canyon Crest Event Center, 330 Canyon Crest Drive. Registration is open to the community.
Kageyama, author of best-selling books For the Love of Cities and Love Where You Live, will provide an in-depth exploration of attracting and retaining a dynamic workforce, focusing on a citys most authentic elements to promote its strengths, and promoting better collaboration between multiple generations. He will also share ideas on how cities can work together with their citizens, businesses and universities to spur economic development and make their cities better.
We are proud to sponsor a high quality speaker such as Mr. Kageyama, said Gerald Hunter, president of Idaho Housing. We are confident his expertise on retaining and recruiting a quality workforce and building a vibrant community where families want to live will be a helpful contribution.
Tickets are $15 and include lunch. Registration is required at http://bit.ly/twinfallskeynote-nr. For information, call 208-331-4743. The event is hosted by Idaho Housing and Finance Association and supported by Twin Falls Area Chamber of Commerce and Western Magic Valley Realtors.
May is National Moving Month. I think everyone has probably heard a horror story or two about moving; the whole event can be stressful. I had a friend making a cross-country move. She arrived with just her suitcase in tow, expecting the movers to be right behind her. Weeks later, her bed showed up, damaged. Some pieces didnt show up at all. What a disaster!
Your experience does not have to be that way, and there is a number of quality moving companies to work with. Better Business Bureau reminds you to be cautious when hiring a moving company, or you could end up with a business that cant deliver.
Movers doing business in Idaho are required to be registered with the Idaho Transportation Department. Consumers who hire an illegal company usually have little or no recourse if their belongings are damaged, lost or stolen.
There are, however, a number of state laws and rules designed to protect customers of in-state moving companies. Permitted companies are required to conduct background checks and drug testing of potential employees. Because a mover interacts so closely with customers in their homes, these measures are designed to protect the customers safety, as well as their possessions.
To ensure a smooth move, BBB offers the following tips to remember when hiring a mover:
Check reviews. Check out bbb.org/search to see the companys rating and determine if there are any complaints filed against them.
Get it in writing. Be sure to receive a free written estimate moving companies should provide one.
Shop around. Get estimates from at least three different companies, but avoid making a decision based on price alone. The lowest price isnt worth it if your items are damaged or the company doesnt make your time frame.
Confirm the deal. Do not sign any incomplete documents. Make sure all forms are as complete as possible, and ask for clarity, in writing, if any policies are unclear.
Between April 1, 2015, and April 1, 2016, consumers turned to BBB serving the Northwest more than 47,500 times to inquire about moving companies. In the same period, consumers filed 126 complaints against moving companies in the Better Business Bureau Northwest territory.
TWIN FALLS | The Idaho State University College of Business will host a luncheon for the Twin Falls business community, noon to 1 p.m. May 17 at the Stone House & Co. venue at 330 Fourth Ave. S. to introduce new ISU business courses that will be offered at the College of Southern Idaho.
The business community is invited to come learn more about new in-person, evening courses offered on the CSI campus as well as other College of Business courses. Free lunch will be provided along with a free T-shirt, gifts and the chance to win an iPad Air.
RSVP by today by contacting Kelsey West at westkels@isu.edu or calling 208-282-3108.
TWIN FALLS | The Idaho Department of Fish and Game's regional fisheries manager will talk about the agency's projects at a Magic Valley Fly Fishers meeting next week.
The club will meet 6-9 p.m. May 19 at Tomatos Italian Grill in Twin Falls.
Fish and Game's Doug Megargle will speak on the agency's long-term fisheries plan, access improvements at Billingsley Creek and elsewhere, and other local issues. The club encouraged anglers to bring their questions and ideas to discuss.
TWIN FALLS A year ago, more than 60 volunteers spent hours picking up broken pieces of concrete, tree trimmings, shotgun shells and other trash illegally dumped on public lands.
On Saturday, you can help them do it again.
The Bureau of Land Managements Twin Falls District staff will join the Southern Idaho Off-Road Association, Back Country Horsemen of Idaho, Magic Valley ATV Riders and Jerome County on Saturday, May 14, to clean up the north rim of the Snake River Canyon.
Volunteers may join the cleanup effort, scheduled to begin around 8 a.m. and wrap up around 2 p.m. Meet just north of the Perrine Bridge and east of U.S. 93. Bring rakes and square-point shovels; trash bags will be supplied.
Each spring for the past 17 years, these organizations and other volunteers have gathered to pick up trash that collects year after year.
This area is important to all of us who like to recreate out here, Greg Moore of the Southern Idaho Off-Road Association said in a BLM release. This trash makes an eyesore out of our beautiful desert.
He said sponsors including Cesco Equipment and Southern Idaho Solid Waste donated roll-off dumpsters and heavy equipment for hauling out the huge volumes of trash.
The cleanup effort has changed the appearance of the north rim.
If you remember back in the early 2000s, the whole north rim was a sea of water heaters, tires, refrigerators, syringes, garbage sacks, construction waste, dead animals and mountains of trigger trash, said David Freiberg, a BLM outdoor recreation planner. Thousands of acres have been cleaned up and have remained clean, helping to provide a well used and highly visible recreation resource for the Twin Falls and Jerome communities.
However, several areas within the Snake River Canyon Park continue to be littered with trash. Theyll be the focus of Saturdays efforts.
Volunteers should dress in layers, wear sturdy shoes and bring gloves and sunblock. The Southern Idaho Off-Road Association will provide pizza for the volunteers lunch.
Information: Moore, 208-539-2012.
TWIN FALLS Canyon Ridge High Schools student council is planning activities Wednesday to remember their classmate 15-year-old Vason Widaman, who was killed Saturday in a drive-by shooting.
The student council is encouraging all employees and students to wear tie-dye shirts to school.
During lunchtime, anyone is invited to leave flowers, candles and stuffed animals outside next to Canyon Ridges school rock.
The student council will also set out candles in memory of Widaman, who would have turned 16 on Thursday.
Security has been tightened at the school and at Robert Stuart Middle School, where three students were arrested Friday after bringing handguns to school. One of the weapons discharged in a classroom. No one was injured, and police are calling it an unrelated incident.
Meanwhile, police said Tuesday theyre continuing to search for potential suspects in Widamans slaying. No arrests have been made.
Weve looked into numerous leads, city spokesman Joshua Palmer said.
The department couldnt reveal what those leads were for fear of jeopardizing the investigation, Palmer said.
In a press conference Monday, police released grainy surveillance photos that show a dark car they believe may have been involved. They asked the public to report anything that could be helpful in the investigation, particularly anything suspicious that may have happened at Canyon Ridge High School on Saturday afternoon.
Thats where Widaman may have had an altercation with his assailants just before he was gunned down outside an upper middle class subdivision as he rode his bicycle toward his home. Dozens of flowers and candles have been placed in the landscaping under the subdivision sign, creating a spontaneous memorial thats been growing steadily since the weekend.
JEROME | A would-be robber fled empty-handed from a Jerome restaurant Monday night when an employee slammed the cash register shut and refused to hand over money.
Police are still searching for the suspect in the attempted robbery, reported at 7:29 p.m. at Carnitas and Birria Cheverria, 222 South Lincoln Ave., a SIRCOMM dispatcher said. The restaurant is less than a block from the Jerome Police Department.
The man walked in and was doing a really small purchase; originally he asked to purchase some gum, Jerome Police Chief Dan Hall said. When the clerk opened the cash register, he said This is a robbery.
But the employee didnt understand the would-be robber and asked him to repeat himself, Hall said. The man told the employee you have five seconds to give me the money.
She told him no, slammed the cash register shut and ran to the back yelling for help, Hall said.
The suspect was described as a skinny 6-foot-tall white man with a defined jawline and short, brown, spiky hair, the dispatcher said. He was wearing a black or brown sweater and sunglasses with a bandanna around his face.
Police normally advise people to comply with robbers to make sure the situation remains safe, Hall said.
People should not do anything that would put them in greater harm than theyre already in, the chief said.
But in this situation, she didnt observe a gun or immediate threat, Hall said. In this case, it worked.
Police are seeking the publics help to identity the suspect. Anyone with information can call the Jerome Police Department at 208-324-4328 or SIRCOMM at 208-324-1911.
SUN VALLEY Maryland congressman and Community School parent John Delaney will be the graduation speaker at the schools ceremony in Sun Valley.
Graduation is slated for 1 p.m. June 5 at the Sun Valley Pavilion. In total, 47 seniors will graduate, along with one exchange student who will receive a certificate of completion.
Prior to being elected to office in 2012, Delaney established himself as a business builder, job creator and nonprofit community leader, the school said in its Monday announcement. He founded and led two New York Stock Exchange-listed companies before the age of 40, creating thousands of jobs.
Delany is a past winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2010, his second company, CapitalSource, received the Bank Enterprise Award from the Treasury Department for lending to disadvantaged communities.
Delaney serves on the financial services and joint economic committees, and has made infrastructure investment one of his top legislative priorities. His district includes Washington, D.C.-area suburbs and western Maryland.
He and his wife, April McClain-Delaney, have four children and their third daughter attends the Community School.
TWIN FALLS Twin Falls middle schoolers will have an early start to their school day 7:30 a.m. next year, and elementary schoolers will start at 8:15.
Twin Falls School District trustees heard a presentation Monday night about a new bell schedule.
With two new elementary schools opening this fall, school officials want to create a more efficient schedule for busing without excessive costs.
It wasnt an easy process, director of operations Brady Dickinson told trustees. And tweaks may be made to start- and end-times in the fall.
A good compromise is usually one where no one gets everything they want, he said. And after going through this process, I feel like I could negotiate multi-million dollar deals.
A committee including school employees and parents considered several options. Their final recommendation is 8:15 a.m.-3:15 p.m. for elementary schools, 7:30 a.m.-2:45 p.m. for middle schools and 8 a.m.-3:20 p.m. for high schools.
Dickinson said his biggest concern is the early start time for middle schools.
Nearly 2,300 parents and 486 staff members completed a survey giving their input.
The most telling part was hundreds of comments not necessarily the answers to the survey questions, Dickinson said.
The district is just barely hovering under its cap for busing reimbursement, he said, so officials dont want to add too many new routes.
Western States Bus Services can accommodate anything we want, he said. For a price.
Elementary and middle school students also cant ride together, Dickinson said. Thats why theres a 45-minute difference in starting and ending times for elementary and middle schools.
It would allow bus drivers to run the routes, drop off students at school and go to pick up the next group of students, he said.
Trustees also:
Heard a preliminary budget presentation for the 2016-17 fiscal year, which starts in July. Trustees didnt take action.
State funding for operations is back to pre-recession levels, but fiscal affairs director Bob Seaman said there are many more students now and increased needs in Twin Falls.
If the district accepted all budget requests, Seaman said, it would spend significantly more money than it receives from the state. But were not standing here flapping our arms saying, The sky is falling.
The proposed budget for next year includes $1.4 million to adopt new math curriculum for kindergarten through eighth grades.
We are at the point where we absolutely have to have a math adoption to match Common Core, Seaman said.
Heard an update from an activities advisory committee. It was an information item, so trustees didnt take action.
The group has been working to plan for the opening of South Hills Middle School in 2017. A proposal calls for creating a new administrative position, a full-time activities director who would oversee all five middle and high schools. The activities director at each high school would become a full-time position instead of part-time, and each middle school activities director work part-time instead of just devoting one class period per day.
The proposal would be beneficial to students, trustee Mary Barron said. I dont think this is a want. This is a need.
Heard an update about the parent absence-notification system.
A committee including school employees and parents worked to come up with a plan to streamline practices across the district, such as when to send out notifications and for contacting parents when their child is absent from school.
It also gives flexibility to building administrators to make decisions about when to contact law enforcement if a child isnt at school.
Heard reports on building goals for I.B. Perrine Elementary School and Harrison Elementary School.
Recognized four employees of the month: administrative secretary Lesa Long and librarian Janie Johnson from Canyon Ridge High School, and instructional coach Sue Wade and head custodian Tracy Barnes from Twin Falls High School.
Heard an announcement that Perrine Elementary and the child nutrition department received a silver award from the HealthierUS School Challenge.
Approved a memorandum of understanding with the Idaho Digital Learning Academy for next school year.
TWIN FALLS Students and staff at two Twin Falls schools are on edge and security is tight after two gun-related crimes last week.
On Saturday, Vason Widaman a ninth-grader at Canyon Ridge High School was killed in a drive-by shooting. No one has been arrested. The death came less than 24 hours after a middle-schooler at Robert Stuart discharged a handgun in a classroom at Robert Stuart Middle School. Police called it an accidental discharge and arrested three students. No one was injured.
The Twin Falls School District sent an automated message from Superintendent Wiley Dobbs to parents Sunday night saying the two incidents likely werent related. But school officials boosted security measures, nevertheless.
We heard concerns from parents over the weekend, district spokeswoman Eva Craner said.
Robert Stuart and Canyon Ridge each have a regular school resource officer. In addition, there are several extra police officers at each of the two campuses, Dobbs said Monday. The Twin Falls Police Department is stepping up its patrol in areas surrounding the schools.
At Robert Stuart, students now arent allowed to bring backpacks for the rest of the school year, Craner said. Any student who brings a backpack is required to check it in at the school office and pick it up after school.
Theyve asked students to just bring their essentials, she said.
At Canyon Ridge High, all students are required to come into the school using the front entrance. Side entrances are locked, Dobbs said.
Theres no timeline for how long the increased security will continue, he said, adding it will depend on the police investigation. For the immediate future, its going to continue. Theres about two weeks left of school.
Despite posts on social media websites Monday about additional school threats, Dobbs said police told him none are credible. Police are aware of social media comments, he said, and are taking leads seriously.
On Monday, 155 students were absent at Robert Stuart Middle School about 15 percent of the student body. Thats about twice as many as usual and includes absences for all reasons, including illnesses and safety-related concerns.
We understand if parents want to keep their kids at home, Craner said, but they need to notify the school office.
At Canyon Ridge High, 136 students were absent about 11 percent of the student body. But by comparison, fewer students were absent Monday than Thursday, according to the school district.
Dobbs said hes been impressed by the response from employees at the schools. Staff could have called in, but they were there to help kids through this tough situation.
For students and employees, a counseling team is available at Robert Stuart and Canyon Ridge.
Theres talk of a memorial for Vason Widaman, but nothing has been finalized, Craner said. A celebration of life may be held Friday, Dobbs said. The time and details havent been arranged.
Lynn Widaman, the boys grandmother who adopted him as a baby, is a retired Twin Falls School District employee. Dobbs said he talked Monday morning with her. Shes a member of our school district family, really.
The family is asking donations be made in Vasons name to the Twin Falls Animal Shelter and Magic Valley YMCA, two places that were important to him, Dobbs said.
Vason has been a student in the Twin Falls School District since kindergarten, Dobbs said. He talked with some of Vasons teachers Monday, who were complimentary of their former student. Theyre devastated to lose him.
Its especially difficult for Canyon Ridge because thats where Vasons grandmother worked until her retirement a couple of years ago, Dobbs said. Theres really two levels of grief.
Dobbs said he received a phone call Saturday afternoon from Twin Falls police about the drive-by shooting. He was told a Twin Falls School District student was shot, but not the name of the teenager.
He and Canyon Ridges school resource officer Matt Triner along with principal Kasey Teske and two vice principals spent several hours at the school to aid in the investigation.
Dobbs met Sunday with school administrators from Robert Stuart Middle School and Canyon Ridge High School, plus the schools resource officers and a police leadership team. The police officers brought us up to date with the investigation, he said, but added there was some information police couldnt disclose.
Their first decision: whether to cancel school Monday. They decided school would continue as usual but with heightened security. Staff members at Robert Stuart and Canyon Ridge met before school Monday.
By mid-day Monday, phone calls were still coming into the school district office from parents with comments and concerns. But Dobbs said most of the parents hes heard from have positive comments about how the district is increasing security and working with the police department, or want to share information related to the investigation.
Weve also fielded some of the concerns theyve had, he said, or feedback about what the district could have done differently.
Dobbs is encouraging students, staff and parents to say something if they hear or see anything suspicious.
Said the superintendent: This is something a community gets through working together.
TWIN FALLS Construction on the Main Avenue redesign isnt expected to start until next year, but there are still a lot of details to be decided before then.
On Monday, the Urban Renewal Agency board adopted an oversight plan for the project, creating a Main Avenue Project Oversight Subcommittee that will divide the responsibility for approving cost changes with the URAs executive director.
The executive director will have the power to approve any change orders worth less than $5,000, up to $30,000 in a month, and a subcommittee of three URA board members will approve change orders valued at between $5,001 and $15,000, up to $100,000 per month. The executive director and subcommittee will make monthly reports to the full board.
The project will be bid this fall, with construction to start as soon as practical in 2017 and to be done by Oct. 1, URA interim Executive Director Phil Kushlan told the board. The plan now is to do the Main Avenue construction in a single phase, a change from a previous plan to break it into two phases, one west of Shoshone Street and one east. The older plan had called for the first phase to be bid and completed this year, but it was decided early this year to combine it into one phase to avoid disrupting business during the busier summer retail season.
On Tuesday, representatives of the project designers and the government agencies involved will hold a Project Delivery Workshop where they will discuss whether to use the traditional design-bid-build model, where the design and construction phases are separate, or whether to go with some version of a construction manager/general contractor model, like the city is doing with the City Hall/Public Safety Complex project, where the construction manager is involved in the design and where a guaranteed maximum price is negotiated beforehand between the construction manager and the project owner.
Theres strengths and weaknesses in each method, he said.
The workshop participants will also discuss ways to minimize the impact of the construction on Main Avenues businesses, and details such as whether to do some of the construction at night.
Planners also need to decide whether the Commons Plaza that will go at the site of the former Rogerson hotel will be built in conjunction with the Main Avenue work or the work across the street at the former Banner furniture building, which is being renovated into the new Twin Falls City Hall.
BURLEY Idaho Transportation Department officials gave a report to the Cassia County commissioners Monday on an upcoming $23 million project that will replace aging bridges at the Interstate 84, I-86 Salt Lake City interchange and reconfigure the ramps to make them safer and increase mobility.
The interchange connects the west coast with the eastern and southern markets and is a key transportation link for the northern half of the U.S.
Mike Scott, ITD project manager said the bridges were built in the late 1950 and 1960 and are due for replacement.
Scott said the interchange will be redesigned to make I-84 toward Salt Lake City appear as the mainline.
Now it appears that I-84 is an exit rather than the mainline, he said.
The project is in still in the data-collection stage and several alternatives will be developed, screened down to two alternatives and then one will be selected.
Construction is scheduled for November 2017 through October 2019.
Mike Pepper, with KMP Planning of Twin Falls, said the company is reaching out to stake holders to identify safety and mobility issues at the interchange.
Some things that are not working include the westbound curve on I-84 at the interchange.
People are coming too fast around the corner and merging on the curve, Pepper said.
Other issues include ice that lingers under the bridges and visibility when coming out from underneath the bridges.
We will continue to finesse this, Pepper said.
$7 Million Revamp on U.S. 30 West of Burley Planned
The Idaho Transportation Department will revamp 3.5 miles of U.S. 30 from 400 West to Parke Avenue in Burley.
Nathan Jerke, project manager and spokesman for ITD said the project was proposed about 10 years ago but was placed on a back burner for several years.
Jerke presented the $7 million project to the Cassia County commissioners on Monday.
The highway will be widened to included two through lanes in each direction, turn bays at intersections and other selected locations, widened shoulders, reconstruction of disturbed irrigation structures and access control at select locations.
Jerke said they have evaluated the need for a traffic signal at Washington Street and Bedke Boulevard, but none is needed at this time. The infrastructure will be placed underground in case the need arises in the future.
An open house will be held this summer to present the preliminary design phase to the public. Construction is expected to start in the fall 2018 and be completed in about a year.
The road is a two-to four-lane corridor with about 80 public and private accesses and is used by heavy trucks for agricultural activities.
Jerke said it has a deteriorating driving surface.
The new road will have 12-foot wide lanes and 6-foot wide shoulders.
At the juncture of 16th Street and the highway safety, measures will be added like curbing to help with the access to a convenience store and lighting.
Weve had a couple of pedestrian fatalities there in the last few years, Jerke said.
Jerke said the highway will taper off to two lanes just past 400 W.
Commissioner Paul Christensen asked if the McCain Foods expansion played a role in the projects reemergence.
The McCains project was an early driver but even if that stalls this project is going forward, Jerke said.
The project will also include utility coordination and relocation with Burley, irrigation systems and discussions with adjacent property owners about highway access.
BURLEY Cassia County School District officials asked Cassia County commissioners Monday to consider for the third time reducing or waiving building fees for the districts $37 million bond projects.
Each time the commissioners have tabled the issue and no decisions were made.
Commissioner Paul Christensen asked County Administrator Kerry McMurray to prepare a fixed cost analysis so the commissioners could review what the countys actual costs are related to the permits.
The permit fees for the Raft River High School building are $21,650.29.
It boils down to Id really like them to pay, said Dave Zanone, Cassia County building inspector. Most projects have fees included in the bids.
Zanone said the Malta project will require one to two inspections per week and the time to travel to Malta.
Its substantial to us, Zanone said.
Debbie Critchfield, spokeswoman for the Cassia County School District, said the money for permits was left out of the original estimates and were part of the $15 million bond shortage. Patrons in the district failed to approve a second construction bond in March that included the fees.
We recognize that you have overhead costs and appreciate any relief we can get, said Gaylen Smyer, Cassia County School District superintendent.
Chris James, fiscal manager for the school district said in an email to the commissioners and other Cassia County officials that schools are not a commercial enterprise but public infrastructure.
I know all instances of double taxation cannot be avoided and money does change hands between public entities, James wrote. This is however one of those instances where tax payers have approved money to go to the school system and now a portion of it is being requested to be paid to another public entity in the form of permits. So essentially, the county is levying fees on the tax payer funds that were allocated for school construction. So it is a fee added upon a tax. As a tax payer I find this a little reprehensible.
James suggested that hard costs like mileage and time be estimated.
Im not trying to shortchange your operating costs, James wrote. I understand as well as most the cost of doing business for a public entity. Lets just try to think outside of the box like Twin Falls did when they waived permit fees for the new schools being constructed in Twin.
It is with great pride that I ask you to join me in voting for Grant Loebs for Twin Falls County prosecutor on May 17. I have had the pleasure of working for Grant for over 18 years in the prosecutors office. During that time I have witnessed his work ethic and commitment to the citizens of Twin Falls County.
Grant is always willing to put forth the extra effort to ensure that justice is served. He has dedicated his career to holding criminals accountable, giving crime victims a voice, and overseeing the civil litigation of Twin Falls County. His trial preparation is second to none. He leaves no stone unturned and is an extremely effective and persuasive communicator.
I have observed first hand Grants honesty and dedication to the people of Twin Falls County. He has an excellent relationship with surrounding law enforcement and has the utmost respect of fellow prosecutors, attorneys, judg es and citizens of the county.
I have never known Grant to take a short cut. His analysis of criminal cases and legal issues is always in depth and well-thought out. Grant is an excellent leader. While other prosecutors offices around the state experience constant turnover, Grant has built an office of extremely experienced attorneys and staff who are loyal to Grant as well as to the mission of the office.
Grant is a highly respected leader who has effectively represented the interests of the citizens of Twin Falls for over two decades. Twin Falls County is fortunate to have the opportunity to vote for Grant Loebs as its prosecuting attorney an excellent leader and true professional.
Jill Sweesy
Twin Falls
If we didnt know Donald Trump better, Id swear his recent Cinco de Mayo taco bowl tweet was an insensitive parody. But sadly, we know Donald Trump. And he really thinks publishing a photo of him eating a Trump Grill taco bowl declaring I love Hispanics! is solid and serious Latino diplomacy. Perhaps Sean Hannity should eat a Cheesy Gordita Crunch from Taco Bell and hell become President Trumps Ambassador to Mexico. I had some Orange Chicken from Panda Express awhile back so I think Im in the running to oversee the embassy in Beijing. (And I love Asians! Just in case I didnt mention it earlier.)
So Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee. Fortunately, The Donald has promised to deliver party unity, and in just the first few days since he locked up the nomination he hasnt disappointed. Since the Cruz-killing Indiana primary, Trump has reached out to skeptical conservative Republicans by supporting a minimum wage increase, declaring he now wont be self-funded during the general election, throwing his own conservative tax plan in the trash, and naming a Soros-connected executive as his finance guru. So we should all just calm down, people.
And if that doesnt ease your concerns about him, this will: High-level surrogates have articulated soothing, healing messages of their own, like If you cant support the nominee, then get out of the party.M. Huckabee. And Donald may choose a Democrat as a running mate.B. Carson. And Holy smokes, this spaghetti is delicious! Make me the Italian Ambassador!S. Palin. (Still fact-checking that last one.)
In another sign of Trumps growing party unity, neither Presidents Bush are getting involved in the election this year, House Speaker Paul Ryan says hes not ready to get behind Donald Trump, and the previous GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, says he simply cannot vote for Trump. Every election brings a stretch of histrionic rhetoric about unprecedented aspects of the current election the worst this and the most that but Im honestly not sure if weve ever enjoyed this much unity before!
In my unique position as a radio talk show host, I get the distinct pleasure of having literally dozens of political conversations each week over the phone. I ask them questions like Is there anything Donald could do as a candidate to alienate you? This weeks caller got a little caught up on the word alienate because, after all, it does have four syllables. I never did get an answer. Then again, I only asked it four times. Another erudite Trump supporter who ditched Cruz because of a misleading mailer in Iowa wasnt fazed by Trump perpetuating tabloid stories about Rafael Cruzs involvement in the JFK assassination and another bunk story about Ted Cruz having multiple mistresses. I had to order an extra pallet of Duct Tape after that call.
Theres a lot of chatter now about an alternative. Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a #NeverTrump guy, has written a well-publicized letter discussing another option. Massive numbers of conservatives have taken Mike Huckabees challenge and are unflinchingly leaving the party. Google searches for Libertarian Party skyrocketed after Ted Cruz suspended his campaign. I cant tell you how many times Ive heard from different folks who simply will never, ever vote for Donald Trump. There is pressure out there for a mainstream conservative candidate and for a system that can produce something other than two New York liberals who have been greasing both sides of a corrupt system for decades, as our two viable choices. Its highly unlikely such an effort could be successful with a limited time window before the general election.
If Trump has done anything positive, he has ferreted out the conservative movements summer soldiers and sunshine patriots. Neals First Annual List of Fairweather Conservatives includes a whole host of surprises: Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Pat Buchanan, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter, Bill OReilly and a big boatload of other Fox News personalities, not to mention a few million Americans who are conservative unless they are just too angry to be.
We can certainly count on them to stand up for limited government and the culture with the only exception being: when it mattered the most.
The historic visit King Mohammed VI starts this Wednesday to China will certainly open a new era of cooperation between the two countries, which share same values, goals and stands on a number of international issues.
During this visit, the Sovereign will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, said the Ministry of Royal Household, Protocol and Chancellery. The two leaders will also chair the signing ceremony of several bilateral agreements.
King Mohammed VI will also meet with several Chinese senior officials during this trip seeking to launch strategic partnership between Morocco and China, which have always maintained good relations of cooperation and friendship since the establishment of their diplomatic relations in 1958.
According to Chinese Ambassador to Morocco Sun Shuzhong, the royal trip will foster further the strategic, comprehensive and exemplary partnership set by the two countries sharing a common history which dates back to the 8th century AD.
Relations between China and Morocco have been developing steadily and smoothly, yielding fruitful results. In the political field, Moroccan-Chinese relationship is marked by frequent high-level exchanges between the two sides, mutual trust and understanding.
In the economic and commercial fields, cooperation between the two countries is gaining momentum, as China has become one of Moroccos major trade partners. The mutually beneficial cooperation set by the two countries is growing rapidly in the fields of fisheries, telecom, manufacturing, industries, technologies, public works, roads construction
The expanding cultural cooperation is also contributing to the rapprochement and entente between the two peoples. Last year, over ten thousand Moroccans visited China for either business or tourism purposes. The number of Chinese tourists to Morocco is also increasing. A growing number of Moroccan students have started learning Chinese in a bid to foster the bridge of understanding between two countries and enhance further their cultural exchange.
According to some experts, Moroccan and Chinese economies are complementary which can unleash huge growth and development potentials if all untapped resources are better harnessed.
The first round of local elections held only in Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley could be contested because two major political fronts are already claiming victory ahead of the release of official results.
Hezbollah has claimed victory in the Bekaa Valley with its deputy chief Sheikh Naim Kassem stating that they had a complete victory. They presented candidates in 80 of the 143 jurisdictions which includes the nearby town of Brital close to the Syrian border.
The Beirut List, an alliance of mainstream parties and senior politicians, headed by Jamal Itani, also claimed that it had won all 24 seats being contested for in the Beirut municipality. Former Prime minister Saad Hariri is part of the group and gave a victory speech saying there is a new political page after the elections. Speaking about the elections, he said Beirut asserted that its decision is in its hands and that parity is an irrevocable choice that no one can shake or play with. Unfortunately, some political forces did not appreciate it, he said.
In what sounds as an offer to the newly created Beirut Madinati party, Hariri said the fact is that you resemble us and you do not resemble those who tried to use your votes for one purpose: break parity, and harm the Beirutis, Beirut and its political will. He described the party as a part of Beiruts social, civil, cultural and youth fabric.
Beirut Madinati meaning Beirut is my city has refrained from making statements until after the official results are announced. They aim to do away with traditional political maneuvers that are affecting the city. Local media reported that Madinati was leading in one of the capitals three districts.
Final results could further be delayed as a judge inside the ballot counting center stated that they are short-staffed. The delay led to a sit-in outside the Interior ministry on Monday evening but a released statement said the ministrys role in the electoral process ends upon handing over the ballot boxes to the relevant registration committees that are headed by judges. Results of the Rashaya and Western Bekaa districts were however available on the ministrys website on Monday evening.
It is the first elections in the country since 2010.
President Faustin Archange Touadera of Central African Republic has declared his assets publicly as required by the new law in force in the country.
According to local media, Touadera who served as Prime Minister for Francois Bozize, last week handed over to the Constitutional Court in Bangui documents enumerating his assets.
The declaration of assets meets the legal requirements of CARs new constitution which states that 30 days after his swearing in, the President must lodge at the Constitutional Court a written statement of his property and assets.
Article 58 also stipulates that cabinet members should publish their assets before taking office.
Central African Republic, one of the worlds most chronically unstable countries, suffered the worst crisis in its history in early 2013 when mainly Muslim Seleka fighters toppled President Francois Bozize.
Touadera, 58, a former mathematics professor who campaigned against corruption, won 62.71 percent of votes in elections held in February.
He named his first cabinet last month with hope that it can help the CAR leave behind decades of poor governance and rebuild a country that remains fragile after years of conflict.
As CAR is one of the worlds poorest countries with very few functioning institutions, Touadera will need to address funding shortages, corruption and the states weak capacity.
The trial of former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo and youth leader Charles Ble Goude, resumes on Monday at the International Criminal Court.
The trial of Gbagbo, 70, and his firebrand youth militia leader Charles Ble Goude, 44, opened on January 28, and is set to last three to four years.
The new trial session is expected to last for about two weeks as a sixth witness for the prosecution comes before the court this Monday.
The identity of the witnesses is not unveiled.
The witness will be grilled on 85 documents and videos, the Hague-based court said.
Gbagbo and Ble Goude, known for his fiery rhetoric, have denied four counts including murder, rape and persecution after some 3,000 people died in five months of violence in the country.
Gbagbo declared himself the winner of a November 2010 presidential election, but France, the former colonial power, the United States and the United Nations said victory belonged to his rival Alassane Ouattara.
The row triggered a bitter standoff that resulted in bloody clashes on the streets of Abidjan.
Prosecutors accuse Ble Goude, dubbed Gbagbos General of the Streets because of his powerful oratory skills, of ordering his Young Patriots militia to murder, rape and burn alive hundreds of people during the crisis.
Rwandan government on Monday said landslides caused by heavy rains have killed at least 49 people and destroyed hundreds of buildings in the country over the weekend.
The torrential rainstorms have destroyed 500 homes, damaged infrastructure and injured another 26 people from Saturday night into Sunday morning, officials said in a statement.
The hilly, densely populated central African nation is frequently hit by landslides and the government has been moving people out of the most at-risk areas in a bid to limit the casualties.
At least 67 people have been killed in such incidents across Rwanda from January to April this year, 12 of them on a single night in the suburbs of the capital Kigali, where 1,500 homes were damaged during rainstorms.
The disaster management authorities have blamed El Nino weather phenomenon for the increase in natural disasters.
Philippe Habinshuti, the director of disaster response and recovery at Rwandas Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugees quoted by Xinhua said that an assessment was still underway to determine the total damages and that the death toll could rise.
The geographical location of Rwanda, a country made up of hills and valleys, makes it particularly vulnerable to landslides.
Kenyan police on Monday clashed with opposition leaders and their supporters who are calling for the dissolution of the countrys electoral body.
IEBC must go, protesters shouted at the protest in the center of Nairobi before police intervened.
With 15 months until elections, they had been staging a sit-in along the highway outside the offices of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in Nairobi, who they accuse of bias and corruption.
Police lobbed tear gas at the demonstrators as they tried to access the building that hosts the Electoral body.
The IEBC last week dismissed the oppositions accusations of bias and said its members would not quit.
We are committed to fulfill our constitutional mandate and give this country a flawless, free and credible election in 2017, the Commission said in a statement released at a news conference. The Commissioners are not resigning.
Members of the opposition Coalition of Reform and Democracy (CORD,) which unsuccessfully sought to overturn the 2013 election results, staged a street protest last month.
The 2013 vote, which brought Kenyatta to power, proceeded calmly despite the opposition challenge. Raila Odinga, the opposition leader who has lost previous votes, ended up accepting a court ruling. He is expected to run again in 2017.
Ethiopia authorities on Monday said they have recovered some of the over 100 Ethiopian children who were kidnapped in a cross-border raid last month by a south Sudanese militia group.
Armed men of South Sudans Murle tribe recently crossed borders into Ethiopia and raided 13 villages in Anuak and Nuer Zones of the Gambella Regional State bordering South Sudan.
The armed men numbered in hundreds opened fire on civilians, killed over 200, and wounded at least 75 others.
Ethiopias effort to get the children back achieved the first result today with dozens of children released, Tewolde Mulugeta, Foreign Affairs spokesperson of the Horn of Africa nation said. He did not disclose how many children were released.
Ethiopian Prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn who described the attackers as primitive and destructive forces said the Murle gunmen were not affiliated to either South Sudan government or the armed opposition group (SPLM-IO.)
Note that South Sudans Murle and Ethiopias Nuer and Anyuak tribes who live along the common borderline frequently engage in a cross-border cattle raids and child abductions.
Nigerias anti-graft watchdog, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC,) on Monday interrogated the spokesperson of former President Goodluck Jonathans presidential campaign.
Fani-Kayode has been reportedly interrogated in an underground office for hours.
The commission reportedly insisted that Femi Fani Kayode returns $4.2 million he allegedly received for running Jonathans presidential campaign for a second term last year.
Fani-Kayode has frequently denied wrongdoing, saying the allegations are baseless, wicked, shameful and irresponsible.
According to the Vanguard newspaper, the former minister, confronted with EFCCs evidence of how he collected the huge sum drawn from the Central Bank, admitted having received the monies.
Local media reports that the former Minister would most likely be released on an administrative bail on certain conditions.
Jonathans successor, Buhari, has made of struggle against corruption a mainstay of his administration since his inauguration in May 2015.
Endemic corruption costs the West African country millions of dollars per year, with Nigerian Information Minister Lai Mohammed saying in January that the country lost $6.8 billion in public funds between 2006 and 2013 at the hands of just 55 individuals, including government ministers and bankers.
Economic relations between Morocco and China are poised to gain momentum given their complementary resources and potential and more particularly given the willingness of the two countries leaders to put bilateral cooperation at the service of Africa.
This topic will surely be high on the agenda of talks to be held between King Mohammed VI of Morocco, who is expected on an official visit to china as of Wednesday, and President Xi Jinping. Actually, both Morocco and China have worked out African strategies, based on values of friendship, active solidarity, mutually beneficial cooperation, shared development, and balanced partnership. Therefore, both countries can play a key part in a triangular Morocco-China-Africa partnership.
King Mohammed, a fervent advocate of South-South cooperation and a driving force in promoting African development, has recently underscored the special place the African continent has in his heart, because of the brotherly relations based on cooperation and solidarity with African peoples.
Moroccos strategic geographical position between Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East, its political stability, its skilled human resources, its solid political and growing economic integration with Africa, result of years of economic diplomacy spearheaded by King Mohammed VI, are all factors likely to contribute to the success of this triangular cooperation.
Besides, as King Mohammed VI is fully aware of the key role that the private sector can play in promoting bilateral and multilateral relations, he has been keen on exporting the Moroccan business experience as a new driver of growth and development in Africa. In this vein, he made sure to associate Moroccan businesspersons and economic operators in the projects funded or supported by Morocco in a number of African countries.
Moroccan operators responded to the Kings call and started contributing to the economic take-off of sub-Saharan African countries, offering thus a real competitive advantage through their knowledge of the African market.
China, the global economic power which has been posting a double digit growth rate for years, is spurring its development and innovation momentum, but increasingly needs, in order to maintain its economic superiority, raw materials, a diversification of its partnerships, and the opening of new markets.
And Chinese rulers and firms found in Africa a new Eldorado. They injected in the continent investments worth billions of dollars in the frame of a win-win cooperation and project to bring up direct investments in Africa to $100 billion by year 2020. By that time, Chinese-African trade is expected to soar to $400 billion.
Yet, China seeks to expand its presence beyond its traditional market in Anglophone Africa and to conquer Francophone Africa, where Morocco and Moroccan enterprises are very active. China therefore regards the Kingdom as a gateway to Africa, which has come to be known as the continent of opportunities.
The Moroccan Kings visit to China will undoubtedly provide opportunity to explore the existing huge untapped cooperation potential and give a new impulse to the two States forward-looking partnership, in addition to enhancing a mutually beneficial south-south cooperation.
Volunteers and empty-nest seniors make Yuan Xiao, a typical food for Lantern Festival, in Handan, Hebei province, March 3, 2015. [Photo/IC]
The Chinese society is aging at an unprecedented rate. The number of people aged 60 or above reached more than 220 million at the end of 2015, accounting for close to 16 percent of the country's population. The figure is expected to increase to 25 percent by 2030. The elderly population is expected to grow to 500 million, larger than the entire population of the United States, by 2050.
These drastic demographic changes are driven by the declining fertility rate because of the one-child policy and changing social values toward child-bearing, as well as the rising longevity as a result of the general improvement in living standards. The impact of aging on the social service system is profoundly significant.
Unlike Japan, South Korea and other developed countries which were rich enough before the aging of their populations, China is not there yet. China's problem is compounded by the vast regional disparity in household income and the urban-rural divide.
As a Confucian society, old-age support in China has been traditionally reliant on filial piety and family support, which have been unfortunately weakened by the emerging 4-2-1 family structure (4 grandparents, 2 parents and 1 child) and the long physical distance between retired parents and their working children. Worse, the elderly suffer not only from acute illnesses requiring hospitalization but also from chronic disability because of diseases such as dementia, stroke and osteoporosis, which need long-term care that is far more resource-consuming.
The gap between mounting demand for elderly care and the limited capacity of service provision is starkly immense in China.
According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, China has only 2.1 nursing home beds for every 1,000 elderly, a level far lower than the international standard for lower middle-income countries. Only about 30,000 elderly care institutions have been registered with 5.8 million beds in the country, suggesting enormous unmet demands. Eldercare in China is still in its infancy. Despite the existence of government-funded elderly homes, standards of service tend to be low. More important, the chance of getting admitted is as good as winning a lottery given the extremely long waiting list.
Private facilities have been thriving, mainly in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, but expensive costs have denied most senior citizens access. Associated with low occupational prestige, the people working in the eldercare sector are typically lowly educated with inadequate professional training.
These challenges, however, also augur immense opportunities. Catering to the variety of needs of the elderly population, the "silver hair" market has the potential to flourish in China. Some think tanks estimate the Chinese people will spend more than 10 trillion yuan ($1.54 trillion) from 2016 to 2020 on eldercare, with an annual growth rate of about 17 percent. A government report estimates the market could be worth 4 trillion yuan. The development of the silver economy has been, however, largely constrained by the lack of supportive policy framework and limited sources. A few important policy moves have been taken in recent years.
Shah Deniz 2 project scores contract worth $1.5B
The Shah Deniz consortium today announced the award of a $1.5 billion contract for the transport and installation of the deeper water subsea production systems for Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the BOS Shelf LLC, Saipem Contracting Netherlands B.V. and Star Gulf FZCO consortium.The scope of work of the contract is for the management and operation of the new-build Subsea Construction Vessel (SCV) Khankendi for the transport and installation of the deeper water subsea production systems and subsea structures at all five flanks of the project.Frank Wilson, BP's Vice President for the Shah Deniz Stage 2 Marine and Subsea programme commented: "We are pleased to continue cooperation with our strategic offshore installation contractor and its major local consortium partners to progress the execute phase of the giant Shah Deniz Stage 2 project. The new flagship vessel Khankendi, which is currently under construction by Baku Shipyard, will provide essential support for the installation of the Stage 2 subsea structures - the biggest subsea production system ever built in the Caspian. The construction of the Khankendi is making excellent progress with the hull strips and bow block already integrated. This major contract award for the installation of subsea production systems underpins our commitment to deploy new advanced subsea production technology for the first time to the Caspian as part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2 development".The contract scope is planned to be completed by the middle of 2022, with a five-year option to extend the contract to cover the installation of remaining trees, flying leads and jumpers at the East-South, East-North and West-South subsea flanks between 2022 and 2027. The scope also includes the reactivation of the Pipe-lay Barge Israfil Huseinov and the second pipe-lay installation campaign of the deeper water flow-lines in 2019.Work on Shah Deniz Stage 2 and South Caucasus Pipeline expansion (SCPX) projects continue to move forward with more than 70% of all first gas work across Azerbaijan and Georgia already complete in terms of engineering, procurement and construction. The project remains on schedule for 2018.
Workers rights in Georgia
By Messenger Staff
Last week an International Workers' Day was marked. For the occasion, Georgias Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili released a special statement where he drew attention to the major problems in terms of realization and protection of employees' rights in the country, which need to be timely addressed.Gaps in labor legislation were also discussed in the Public Defender's report of 2015.In particular, the Labour Code does not define the maximum quantity of daily working hours or the quantity of working days per week; there is no set maximum allowable limit of overtime working hours; the list of spheres that require a specific weekly working time of 48 hour, is very wide; labour legislation does not define the minimum remuneration for labor; the Labor Code of Georgia does not provide for the full list of grounds for dismissal of employees that leaves a wide field of assessment for the employer, while it is not predictable and clear for the employee as to what may become a basis for the termination of labor relations, etc.The situation in terms of labor security is worrying in the country. According to information provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 82 people were injured and 42 killed in the workplace in 2015. Investigations were launched into 108 criminal cases, out of which 42 investigations were ultimately suspended. Criminal prosecution was initiated only in 16 cases, out of which 10 cases went to court, the Ombudsman said, and concluded that the data shows that the response to similar criminal cases is not an effective mechanism for the protection of the workers' rights.Nanuashvili said that the existing situation necessitates the establishment of a labor inspection mechanism for supervising labour conditions and safety, which will be authorized to use sanctions in case of any violations of the law.Despite a number of tragic incidents, which in most cases were caused by the violation of safety rules, the state has an inert approach to this issue, which makes it clear that the Government is still not sufficiently aware of the vital importance of labour safety, Nanuashvili said.The protection of labor rights is problematic in public service as well. In some cases, contests and certification exams are only of a formal nature and relevant agencies make completely unfounded decisions. In some cases, the dismissal of officials was illegal and unjustified, Nanuashvili added.Georgia faces serious problems in terms of protecting workers rights. This is no active body that will check the qualifications of workers, especially those in construction. This issue directly affects peoples lives.
The News in Brief
National Movement members to wait for auction results near Tbilisi City Hall
United National Movement members plan to wait for the results of an auction that relates to the 29-hectare land along the Krtsanisi-Shindisi road (that is under construction) in the vicinity of Tbilisi City Hall.
As a member of the Tbilisi City Council from the United National Movement party, Irakli Abesadze, has declared, the auction will be over today. According to him, all Tbilisi residents must realize that a territory which was planned to be used for a road is being sold. A total of 528 trees were cut for the road's construction and thousands of lari have been spent, but this is at risk of being wasted.
All this has happened to be wasted as Ivanishvili wants to purchase the territory, he said.
According to him, they will arrive at the City Hall at about 16:30 and observe the final results of the auction. (IPN)
UNM Lays Out Rules for Compiling Its Party List of MP Candidates
On April 30, the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party laid three principles based on which it plans to compile its party list of MP candidates for the October parliamentary elections.
UNM parliamentary minority leader MP Davit Bakradze said on Saturday that the process of compiling the party list will be completely transparent and democratic which will be based on principles and not based on anyones desires.
The first principle, he said, concerns regional representation; regions where the UNM and its candidates received more votes in the 2014 local elections will be increasingly represented in the party list. He said that it will be calculated based on a formula which will secure the fair and transport allocation of quotas.
Each region will know that their representation [in the party list] will depend on votes they garnered in previous elections, Bakradze said.
He said that this approach will apply to party-list candidates as well as to the process of selecting majoritarian MP candidates, which the party will nominate in 73 single-mandate constituencies.
Under the existing mixed electoral system, 77 seats in the parliament are allocated proportionally through party-list contest among political forces which will clear a 5% threshold, and 73 lawmakers are elected in 73 single-mandate constituencies with a majority vote.
The second principle, based on which candidates will be included in the party list, stems from the need of renewal and attracting new energy to the party, MP Bakradze said.
The party has to attract new faces, individuals who are well-known and successful. This is our response to the main problem, which is the incompetence of the incumbent government in contrast, we will present a team having competence and public confidence and you will see in this party list many new faces, people who are successful and professionals, he said.
The third principle, Bakradze said, is naming of candidates by party leadership in order to secure continuity, because the party already has experience and there are people who are professionals in specific fields.
The final list will be approved by the partys [main governing body] political council and then the list will be presented to the public in the nearest future, MP Bakradze said.
According to the proposed scheme, 14 places in the top 30 of UNMs party list will go to candidates named by the party leadership and 16 will be allocated based on regional representation 6 places to Tbilisi; Imereti and Samegrelo 3 each; Kvemo Kartli 2; Kakheti and Adjara 1 each. (Civil.ge)
Georgian soldier dies in Ukraine war
One more Georgian soldier is reported to have died in the war in Ukraine.
Revaz Tsiklauri was reported dead late on Sunday. Tsiklauri died in the town Abievkaa, near Donetsk. A facility he was in was shelled.
Tsiklauri was from the village Lapankuri, near Telavi in eastern Georgia, but had lived the last 13 years in Ukraine with his family.
He served in in the military in Ukraine on a contractual basis and was a member of the 90th Air Assault Battalion.
Mikheil Ukleba, Georgias Ambassador to Ukraine, told Rustavi 2 that Tsiklauri was a Ukrainian citizen. The embassy is awaiting official confirmation of the soldiers death.
He will be buried in Ukraine on Wednesday.
At least seven Georgians have died fighting in the Ukrainian war which began two years ago. (DF watch)
Former state Rep. Ana Rivas Logan is leaving the Republican Party, she announced Monday.
She plans to register as a Democrat, she said.
"The GOP of today is not the party I joined," said Rivas Logan, who also served on the Miami-Dade School Board. "It's not the party of my parents. It's a party that has been radicalized and held hostage by a group of extremists."
Rivas Logan was welcomed to the party by another Republican-turned-Democrat: gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist.
"Bienvenida @anarivaslogan to the Democratic Party!" Crist wrote on Twitter. "Glad you are here my friend."
The Tweet helped fuel speculation Monday morning.
The bottom line is that the Democrats have a very weak bench, said Carlos Curbelo, a Miami-Dade School Board member and Republican candidate for U.S. Congress. If Charlie Crist wanted to choose a Hispanic female to run with him, there is no one else.
Curbelo added: I get the sense that this is a very calculated move, and that it is highly likely that she would be chosen.
Rivas Logan said she could not be considered for the November election. She pointed to a state law saying candidates for partisan posts can run only if they have not been a member of a different political party for 365 days prior to the start of the qualifying period.
But the law is murky, Curbelo noted, because the lieutenant governor runs in tandem with the governor and is not an independent candidate.
Regardless, Rivas Logan said she wouldn't be positioning herself for lieutenant governor.
"Do you really think they need two people who switched parties?" she said. "What kind of political sense would that make?"
A career educator, Rivas Logan served on the Miami-Dade School Board from 2004 to 2010.
She won a seat in the Florida House in 2010. But she lost reelection in 2012, after redistricting drew her into the same Kendall-based district as Republican state Rep. Jose Felix Diaz.
On Monday, Rivas Logan called the Republican Party "a party that attacks women and minorities and one that asked me, and my former Hispanic Republican colleagues in the Florida legislature, to turn on their own people by supporting extreme anti-immigrant policies."
Pollster and strategist Dario Moreno said Rivas Logan was most likely changing parties to "resurrect herself as a state representative."
"Those seats are becoming more competitive," Moreno said. "The Democrats are running what I consider a competitive candidate against [state Rep. Erik] Fresen. I wouldnt be surprised to see Ana run in a western Miami-Dade district."
As for the likelihood of her being named Crist's running mate?
"A one-term state representative who lost her reelection bid would not be a great choice," Moreno said.
@JeremySWallace
The man considered a leading contender to become Florida's next governor left no doubt that he will support Donald Trump in November.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam told reporters after a Florida Cabinet meeting in Tallahassee today that there is no question that he will vote for Trump in November over likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
"I have said from the beginning I would support the nominee," said Putnam, who was elected agriculture commissioner in 2010. "He wasn't my first or second choice. I started with Jeb. Then I was with Senator (Marco) Rubio and all indications are he is going to be our nominee. As a proud Republican I don't intend to support Hillary Clinton."
It's a big contrast with former Gov. Jeb Bush, whom Putnam campaigned with in Iowa before that state's caucuses. On social media last week, Bush said he could not support Trump for the presidency.
"Donald Trump has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character," Bush wrote. "He has not displayed a respect for the Constitution. And, he is not a consistent conservative. These are all reasons why I cannot support his candidacy."
Asked about Trump's poor numbers with women voters and Hispanic voters, Putnam acknowledged that could be a problem for the real estate mogul.
"I am concerned about how he has positioned himself with some key voting blocs," Putnam said.
Though some Republicans have expressed concern that Trump could hurt down-ballot races, Putnam was quick to point out Trump carried 66 of 67 counties in Florida in the Republican primary. He also said he is intrigued by new polling released earlier on Tuesday that shows Clinton and Trump essentially tied in Florida.
Putnam is widely rumored to be interested in running for governor in 2018, when Gov. Rick Scott will be barred from running for re-election because of term limits.
@JeremySWallace
A retired Bartow deputy chief of police will be Florida's next parole commissioner as a member of the Florida Commission on Offender Review.
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet voted Tuesday to pick David Wyant to replace Tena M. Pate, who resigned her seat on the panel after 13 years.
The Florida Commission on Offender Review (formerly the Florida Parole Commission) meets regularly to consider petitions for parole from inmates and is the investigative arm of the governor and Cabinet in their role as the Board of Executive Clemency, which considers requests by convicted felons to be pardoned or to have their civil rights restored.
Wyant has spent 20 years in law enforcement. Besides being a former deputy police chief, Wyant worked as a detective sergeant and as a special investigations unit detective before retiring in 2014.
During a public interview with Scott and the Cabinet on Tuesday, Wyant said his experiences in law enforcement will help him research each case thoroughly to be certain whether an applicant has bettered themselves and would better the community if they were returned to it.
I can assure you that I will do my homework and only recommend those that are worthy of your approval, Wyant told Scott and the 3 other elected members of the Cabinet before they voted to give him the job over two other finalists for the position..
The job is for six years and pays about $91,000 a year. His appointment is subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate when they next meet in March 2017.
Well, it didnt cost much but we finally got the tab for the inaccurate radio ad attacking Californias minimum wage by Florida Gov. Rick Scotts agency.
Enterprise Florida sent us invoices for the ad which showed a total of $5,747 for voice talent, production costs and media placement in the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets. (We first asked about the cost April 27th and after we couldnt get an answer we submitted a public records request on May 4.)
The radio ad coincided with the Republican governors job-poaching visit to California and prompted a spat with California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat.
The ad stated: "Seven hundred thousand. Thats how many California jobs will be lost thanks to the politicians raising the minimum wage.Now Florida is adding one million jobs, not losing them."
PolitiFact Florida rated that claim Mostly False. The 700,000 figure refers to the number of jobs California could have added by 2026 if it didnt increase the minimum wage, not a decline in net employment. Based on projections, California will still gain more jobs with the minimum wage increase than Florida during the same time frame. While experts agreed that a $15 wage will reduce employment in California, they said its near impossible to pin a number on the impact given how unprecedented the hike is.
Payday lenders have donated about $2.5 million to Florida politicians and and both political parties in recent years, according to a new analysis by a liberal group.
Allied Progress has drawn attention to the issue of payday lending in Florida by attacking U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic national committee chair, and other politicians who have taken money from the industry.
The group gave the Miami Herald an advanced copy of its new report, A Florida Plan: How Payday lenders bought Floridas political establishment. The report lists donations given to federal and state candidates as well as the states Republican and Democratic parties since 2009.
Overall, Republicans received $1.6 million and Democrats received about $890,000, while $29,000 went to independents. But the top individual recipients were South Florida Democrats.
Keep reading from the Miami Herald.
@PatriciaMazzei
The nations largest swing state could once again prove to be a decisive battleground between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, according to a new statewide poll that shows the likely presidential rivals essentially tied in Florida.
The Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday found support for Clinton and Trump at 43-42 percent, with a massive gender gap between women, who back Clinton, and men, who back Trump. Women favor Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, 48-35 percent, while men prefer Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, 49-36 percent.
Floridas large Hispanic population could pose problems for Trump, but Clintons got her own problems with the states white men, according to Peter A. Brown, the polls assistant director.
Republicans weakness among minority voters is well known,he said. But the reason this race is so close overall is Clintons historic weakness among white men. In Florida, she is getting just 25 percent from white men.
Quinnipiac found the same 43-42 percent Clinton-Trump split in Pennsylvania, and a 39-43 percent Trump edge in Ohio. The university surveyed voters in all three swing states because no candidate since 1960 has won the presidency without winning at least two of the three states.
Though Clinton has virtually assured her nomination, rival and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders fares better than she does against Trump in all three states, according to Quinnipiac. He leads 44-42 percent in Florida, 47-41 percent in Pennsylvania and 43-41 percent in Ohio.
More here.
Nurses Week is a time to reflect on and celebrate the influence nurses have on the health of our communities. Nursing care is provided in many arenas such as home care, community health, long-term care, end-of-life care, clinics and hospitals, just to name a few.
No matter where the care is delivered, healthcare is a high-risk environment that challenges the knowledge and expertise of nurses on a daily basis. This encourages nurses to continue to build on their knowledge and skill base in order to continue to provide quality and safe care.
It is a key tenet of nursing practice to provide safe care as defined in the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics for Nurses. As stated in the code, nurses have a professional responsibility in promoting a culture of safety. This provision helps to define the nurses role in maintaining an environment that helps to protect the patient.
Nurses are key participants in development of policies and procedures that promote patient health and safety, thus reducing errors and working to establish and sustain a culture of safety. Nurses are asked to consider how they can individually and collectively work toward creating a culture of safety in their work environments, for their patients and for their own safety.
Some of these actions include communicating when a situation may lead to unsafe care and working to problem-solve solutions, participating in planning that decreases variability in the delivery of care systems to decrease the risk of error, and being open to new methods to provide care as a team to ensure patient safety.
The ANA identifies attributes of a positive safety culture. These include:
Openness and mutual trust when discussing safety concerns and solutions without blame
Marshaling of appropriate resources human and equipment
A learning environment in which health care professionals learn from errors and proactively detect systemic weaknesses
Transparency and accountability.
Patients and family members are critical members of the health care team when it comes to promoting safe care. We need your participation in ensuring safe care delivery. The Joint Commission, who provides accreditation to many health care organizations, suggests the following actions by patients and families:
Speak up if you have questions or do not understand.
Pay attention to the care you get. Make sure health care workers wash their hands, introduce themselves and explain what they are doing.
Educate yourself about your illness.
Ask a trusted family member or friend to be your advocate or support.
Know what medications you take and why you are taking them. Medication error is the most common health care mistake.
Use a health care organization that has been carefully checked out.
Participate in all decisions about your treatment. You are the center of the health care team!
Nurses, patients, families and the entire health care team can work together to continue to improve the safety of the health care environment and to create a culture of safety together.
***
This Nurses Notes column is written by Carol Bensen, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer at Providence St. Patrick Hospital.
For Orson Murray of Missoula, there was a tell-tale sign that he was having a stroke, but he didn't recognize it and neither did anyone else he encountered early that day in April.
"I was not aware of it at the time," says Murray, who is now being treated as an outpatient of Providence St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula. "Later developments gave me a clue. There was deterioration in my coordination. I didn't know this was a symptom of stroke. I learned that from medical professionals later."
Daughter Audrey Murray says her father wasn't the only one who didn't recognize that symptom. He visited his doctor's office that day because he wasn't feeling well, but he didn't get to see the doctor because he didn't have an appointment. Another health professional recommended an allergy medication. Then in the parking lot of the drug store, Murray first grazed the car on his left as he tried to park his car, and then grazed the car on his right when he tried to adjust. But neither he nor those two car owners with whom he visited realized he was dealing with a stroke. Neither did the pharmacist.
"As members of the general public, we really don't recognize the symptoms of stroke," Audrey Murray said.
It was Audrey Murray, the daughter, who called an ambulance when she visited later that day.
"He was still reluctant to do that at that point," she said.
That difficulty in sometimes recognizing what the signs of a stroke are is why the U.S. medical community has designated May as stroke awareness month.
Every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a stroke, the American Stroke Association says, and it is one of the leading causes of long-term disability in the country.
But awareness makes a difference as Missoulas experience shows.
Knowing when to call
Back in 2007, state and local health officials carried out a 20-week public education campaign in the Missoula area to increase community awareness of the warning signs of stroke and the need to call 911. They also had telephone surveys done before and after the campaign among adults ages 45 and older to evaluate what difference the campaign made.
Their findings?
According to an article Montana officials published in the May-June 2008 issue of the Journal of Public Health Management Practice, the before-and-after surveys showed there was a significant increase in awareness of two or more warning signs for stroke, from 67 percent to 83 percent. Awareness increased among both men and women and younger and older adults.
There was no significant change in the percentage of those who said they would call 911 if they saw someone having a stroke that percentage rose only from 74 percent to 76 percent.
But there were sizable percentage increases in those who said they would call 911 if they themselves experienced sudden speech problems (51 to 58 percent), numbness or loss of sensation (41 to 51 percent), or paralysis that would not go away (46 to 59 percent). Those are all symptoms of stroke.
Time is brain
Thats the goal, to get people aware of what stroke symptoms are so they will activate 911 or get to an emergency room as soon as possible, says Polly Troutman, who was stroke coordinator at Providence St. Patrick Hospital from 2005 to 2009. Time is brain. Every second that goes by, brain cells are being destroyed.
Troutman said theres an easy acronym FAST to help people remember when to call. It stands for Face drooping Arm weakness Speech difficulty Time to call 911.
The American Stroke Association says that for every minute a stroke goes untreated, nearly 2 million brain cells die.
Thats an issue, says Crystelle Fogle, who manages the cardiovascular health program for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, because Montanans still are reluctant to get help.
Were trying to increase awareness of stroke signs and symptoms and also get them to take action, Fogle said. We still have stroke patients in Montana who will wait hours, days, before they seek medical attention.
There were 268 deaths due to stroke in Montana in 2014, Fogle said, most of them in people 55 or older.
Fogle noted that a current educational campaign in Flathead County could help Montana by providing data about what a second, follow-up campaign does for stroke awareness. There was an earlier educational campaign in Flathead County in 2008. This year, as with that earlier campaign, before and after surveys will help determine what people know about symptoms and when to take action. This second campaign will also help health officials know whether the 2008 campaign raised the base level of knowledge about stroke going into the 2016 campaign.
Flathead County is the first one where have gone back to do another stroke campaign, Fogle said.
Look for a similar effort in other counties in the future. Health officials say Missoula County could see a follow-up campaign on stroke awareness as early as fall 2017.
And although Providence St. Patrick Hospital has a primary stroke center where the goal is to work with stroke patients to reduce the disability and improve quality of life, Troutman said its far better to avoid a stroke.
The next big thing is really prevention, Troutman said.
In 2015, Providence St. Patrick had a total of 274 stroke patients, of whom 236 were treated for ischemic strokes those caused by an obstruction in a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain and 38 were treated for hemorrhagic strokes. Hemorrhagic strokes are caused when a weakened blood vessel ruptures.
The emergency room doctor picked up the phone on Jan. 3, 2014, and dialed the family in Billings with heavy news.
Zack Aschim, a diabetic, had collapsed in the shower, and his roommates had found him unresponsive with his insulin pump unattached.
The patient hadn't breathed on his own for some 40 minutes.
On the phone, the doctor from St. Patrick Hospital delivered a grim prediction to the family more than 300 miles away.
"There is a good chance that this is going to be the last time that you see him."
That day, Aschim's mom Rebecca, dad Shawn, little sister Gabbi, and grandparents Vickie and Larry Williams hit the road, praying for Aschim through a blizzard.
More than two years later, the Billings native believes those prayers worked. Aschim made a recovery he said he, his clinicians, and his family consider a miracle, and this week, he graduates from the University of Montana with a degree in theater.
"Waking up and having the same quality of life that I had, and that I have now, it shouldn't have happened," Aschim said. "I shouldn't have been able to work four months afterward, either.
"It defies all the odds, definitely."
In the hospital, doctors considered him medically dead at the age of 21, but now, he's more alive than ever. Since his recuperation, Aschim is fueled by a higher sense of purpose, a return to his Christian faith, and a dedication to use his skills as a "maker" to help others.
"I'm going to make this my own, for sure," Aschim said.
***
Aschim still doesn't know the reason he blacked out that day, and he learned about the details that transpired from friends, family and his doctors and nurses.
"They had given me drugs to forget, so there's a week that I don't remember," he said.
His roommates took him to the hospital, and there, the staff performed some 40 minutes of CPR altogether. He had fluid in his lungs, and he suffered a heart attack when doctors took him from the ER to the intensive care unit.
He took a shot of adrenaline to his heart and received chest compressions.
At first, the doctors didn't think he would live.
"I was in an induced coma for four or five days, and I woke up the day they took the breathing tube out," Aschim said.
Then, they figured he'd at least be damaged.
"Each day, the doctor would be like, 'There's an 85 percent chance that he won't be able to function at the level that he used to,'" he said.
"And then it was 75 (percent). Then 65."
Before the end of January that year, Aschim went home, and he took the semester off in Billings to recover.
***
In those first months after his collapse, Aschim had trouble eating because the back of his esophagus was scratched.
He still believes he aged 10 years in that short time, and he remembers being physically drained.
"The weeks after I had woken up and was able to function were very hard," he said. "I'd lost a lot of muscle mass after being in the induced coma, so I wasn't able to walk for about three days."
He did physical therapy for three months to rebuild his muscles.
He relearned the complicated math he used to do as a carpenter who computes fractions with ease.
That summer, he felt strong enough to work, and he took on the job of carpenter and technical director at Fort Peck Summer Theatre.
"I was excited to get back to theater," he said. "It had been a long time off, and I was ready to go back and do what I loved."
Since his collapse, he looks back in awe at the uncanny string of fortunate turns that led to his recovery, like the doctor in the ER being a cardiologist when he needed just that specialist. The revelations are steering Aschim back to his roots.
"I grew up Christian and had fallen away for a while from the faith, and after this, it was an amazing thing," Aschim said. "There's something. There's something that pulled me out of this because everything was against me, really."
***
So Aschim has returned to the faith of his youth, and he's not afraid to fight for his beliefs on a university campus where he's swimming upstream.
"School is a very hard place to keep your religious values," he said.
At the same time, he knows his religion is one of love, and he values other people's opinions and interpretations even as he delves into Bible studies on his own.
Aschim's grandfather is a Baptist preacher, and Aschim reads a Bible his grandparents gave him, one with extra large print. His grandfather does prison ministries in Billings, and Aschim has helped.
He's considering following his grandfather's footsteps in the church, just as he's already followed his grandfather in being "a maker," a carpenter drawn to using his skills to help others.
He uses his hands to build, and some of his favorite passages in the Bible are about building the church after Jesus ascended.
"That's really interesting, how to spread faith when everything is going against you," he said.
***
In some ways, Aschim understands what it's like to be the odd man out. He entered the world of theater in high school because it was the one place he fit in. He started as an actor, but a teacher introduced him to the work backstage.
It fit, and it has since.
Last semester, he was the scenic designer for "Chorus Line," and he created a 22-foot-tall art deco fan unit built in three parts.
"It looked beautiful, and they lit it really well," Aschim said.
Earlier, in "Fiddler of the Roof," he built some of his favorite props: "I made four cheese wheels out of cardboard and hot glue and foam. That was fun."
He was always studious, but he's become more driven since the episode that nearly killed him two years ago.
Despite the odds, he's not only designing and building props in the scene shop, Aschim is teaching other students, said Mike Monsos, professor and director of the School of Theatre and Dance.
"People look up to him quite a bit. He's a leader in the shop," Monsos said.
And since the accident, Aschim is living life to the fullest and reveling in the moment, he said: "He seems to have fully grasped the concept of how fragile and short life is."
Monsos said he's thankful Aschim survived and proud to know he'll be representing UM as a professional in the business. He too believes an incredible force had a hand in bringing Aschim back to life.
"St. Pat's did miracles, basically, to get him back. I don't know what else you would call it," Monsos said.
***
Aschim tires sooner than he'd like, and he has an auditory distraction that sometimes makes it hard to focus if more than one conversation is taking place at once. Other than that, he's back to full health, looking for jobs and planning to live outside Montana for the first time.
Ideally, he'd like to be in charge of a scene shop in a small Christian college and take classes to be a pastor at the same time.
In conversations, Aschim doesn't necessarily argue with people about religion, but he has some personal experiences to share when people question him.
"I can tell you a story," he said.
Opponents of proposed coal export terminals found events moving ahead of them as they prepared for a series of public testimony rallies across Montana on Monday.
The draft environmental impact statement (for a Longview, Washington, coal project) does thorough coverage of health impacts in Washington, but its not complete or accurate about its effects in Montana, said Harold Holm, a Missoula resident assisting the Northern Plains Resource Council before its Peoples hearing on Monday evening. The rail capacity for Missoula is not fleshed out. We have between 13 and 15 coal trains coming now. Theyre projecting 25 trains a day.
NPRC members plan to gather statements to submit to the Washington state draft environmental impact statements public comment period. In addition to Monday's session in Missoula, they scheduled gatherings in Helena and Livington on Tuesday and in Billings on Wednesday in advance of a major rally May 26 in Spokane for the EIS hearing.
But while they were getting ready for the Missoula event, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected an application to build a separate Gateway Pacific coal export facility near Bellingham, Washington. Both the Bellingham and Longview proposals would load an estimated 44 million tons of coal a year for export across the Pacific Ocean. Arch Coal was backing the Longview Millennium Bulk Terminal site, while Cloud Peak Energy and SSA Marine were the supporters of the Bellingham project. Montanas Crow Indian Tribe has interests in the Bellingham project, but the Lummi Indian Tribe in Washington led the protest against it in defense of traditional fishing grounds.
Today the U.S. Army Corps chose one tribes treaty rights over another harming good-paying union and tribal jobs, Sen. Steve Daines wrote in an email after the Bellingham decision was announced. The Gateway Pacific Terminal would provide access to international markets for Montana coal and agriculture products including Crow coal creating much needed economic prosperity. Once again, the federal government is trampling on Montanans livelihoods and I will fight tooth and nail to ensure Montanans have a voice in Montanas future.
Crow Tribal Chairman Darrin Old Coyote called the Corps decision an unprecedented step to make the decision without completing an environmental impact statement giving the Crow an opportunity to comment on the the Lummi fishing rights claims.
I am deeply disappointed that the Army Corps of Engineers disregarded the treaty rights and the trust resources of the Crow Tribe and refused to engage in meaningful consultation with us on the Gateway Pacific Terminal Project, Old Coyote wrote in an email.
Longview resident Les Anderson was in Missoula to lead the coal terminal opposition rally. He said the Army Corps rejection was further proof the export programs were bad for the nation.
A few years ago, (former Montana Gov.) Brian Schweitzer came to Longview and told us shipping coal was no different than shipping wheat, Anderson said. But from the start, nobody wanted this. Were not just fighting fossil fuel proposals. Were trying to move toward a transition that takes us away from fossil fuels altogether.
In an order issued Monday denying Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabsts request that retired District Court Judge Ed McLean make an immediate ruling on whether to dismiss the case against Cody Marble, McLean wrote that he will not be rushed in reviewing the matter.
This Court would point out to the Missoula County Attorney that nowhere in its research could it find that it was to be a rubber stamp to the wishes of the prosecutor, he wrote.
Marble was originally sent to prison in 2002 for raping a 13-year-old boy while they were in custody at the Missoula County jail. Last summer, the Montana Supreme Court remanded the case back to Missoula County District, asking it to re-examine a decision to deny Marble a new trial.
In April, Pabst filed a motion to dismiss the underlying case against Marble. Judge McLean released him from custody on April 21, but has not made a decision on the motion to dismiss, instead inviting former county attorney Fred Van Valkenburg to weigh in on the matter by appearing as an amicus curiae, or friend of the court. McLean cited a need to grant him courtesy and common decency for characterizations Pabst made of Van Valkenburg in her original motion.
Pabsts filing in the case included part of a deposition between Van Valkenburg and Marbles now-deceased victim Robert Thomas after Thomas recanted the story of his rape. Thomas had been given limited immunity during the deposition, and while statements he made during the hearing couldnt be used against him, he could be charged with perjury for recanting his story.
And I would advise you that if in fact I am able to establish sufficient evidence outside of what you say in this deposition, that you lied during that trial on the substance of the issue, and that is whether or not Cody Marble raped you, that I would in fact prosecute you for perjury for your actions in lying at that trial, Van Valkenburg told Thomas, according to the record.
Thomas then recanted his recantation, and reverted to the story that he had been raped by Marble.
On May 3, Pabst filed a motion asking McLean to make an immediate ruling without Van Valkenburgs input, arguing that allowing his comments regarding a criminal case would be an unprecedented position and that failing to grant her request for dismissal violated the separation of powers under both the federal and state constitutions.
In his order on Monday, McLean denied the request, and added that Pabsts original motion to dismiss was 27 pages long, violating a court rule that limited such documents to a maximum of 20 pages.
SUPERIOR Virginia L. Ragsdale left this earth on April 27, 2016, to be reunited in heaven with her beloved husband, Norman, wearing her red two-piece swimsuit she wore in 1953 that turned Normans head.
Virginia was born July 4, 1920, in Lawrence, Kansas, to Ura Ethylin Bowers and Byron Norton Roberts. When she was 17, they made the long journey to California to start a new life there. She graduated from high school in 1938, married soon after and had a daughter, Dawn Kathleen McGowan, who preceded her in death.
Virginia married the love of her life, Norman J. Ragsdale, on Dec. 4, 1953, after a very short courtship. To this union, a loving daughter, Christine, was born. Virginia and Norman were married 34 years.
Virginia loved volunteer work. She gave her time to the Missoula Aging Services for several years. She was an avid reader who loved nature and the simple things in life.
She was preceded in death by her parents and two sisters, Mary Victoria Roberts and Margaret Chetwood.
Virginia is survived by her daughter, Chris (Doug) Watson of Missoula, and their family, Chance and Janiece Watson (Jaylin and Briella) of Gillette, Wyoming, as well as Trey Watson (Sara and Alicesun) of Spokane, Washington; and Virginias granddaughter, Karrie Lawerance (Christopher and Joseph) of North Carolina.
Always classy and elegant, Virginia was the epitome of style, whether it was the day she fulfilled a dream of riding in a helicopter at age 92 or when she had her hair dyed a beautiful light pink and purple. She was daring and adventurous in everything she did.
The lives Virginia touched are too many to name, but they know who they are. She wouldnt want tears shed because shes no longer with us; she would want us to smile when the sunshine hits our faces, laugh when the summer breeze tickles our cheeks and remember, with each autumn leaf that gracefully floats to the ground, the fabulously full life that Virginia lived. She really lived!
Virginias family wishes to thank the kind and loving caregivers at Partners Hospice of Missoula, Mountain View Village Assisted Living and Mineral Community Hospital of Superior, including her special other daughter Cathy Jones, and honorary granddaughter Sammi Francis.
Per Virginias request, a remembrance of her life will be held at a later date. Sunset Memorial Funeral Home is assisting with arrangements. Condolences for Virginias family may be sent to missoulafuneralhomes.com.
JOHNSRUD PARK Ron Pierce and Pat Saffel were over their limit for fish in daily possession on the Blackfoot River by about 100 and theyd only been on the water for an hour.
The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks logos on their hats helped excuse the excess, including the arm-long bull trout they had onboard. And the fact their fishing poles were tipped with electrodes instead of dry flies made their catch-and-release story plausible.
Its our maiden voyage for the year, Pierce said as he beached the drift boat at the empty fishing access site landing. I think we got about 20 percent of the fish in the reach.
In addition to that lunker bull trout, Pierce and Saffels live well held a fish mongers display case of cutthroat, rainbow, brown and hybrid trout and a few mountain whitefish. About half were 12 inches or longer, big enough to make any paying client proud. For the two fisheries biologists, it was the mark portion of the annual mark/recapture census of river populations.
For more than 30 years, FWP boat crews have floated stretches of the upper, middle and lower Blackfoot with electro-fishing gear and recorded the results. A generator in the aluminum drift boat radiates a negative charge into the water, while positive electrodes dangling off the bow connect the circuit. The energy field stuns any fish swimming in range.
While Pierce rowed the boat close to shore, Saffel netted every fish he saw and plunked it into the live well. Most anglers avoid the fast, muddy water of spring runoff season, but thats when the FWP crews prefer to go. The heavy flows push fish to the rivers edge, making them easier to find and catch.
Every mile or so, the two men pulled ashore and logged the load. After adding a dose of fish anesthetic to the well, they pulled each fish out and clipped a bit of its fin. Then they measured the fish and put it in a net basket in the river to recover.
The sport fish sacrifice a bit of fin for statistics. When they float this stretch again next week, the biologists count the number of fin-clipped fish caught twice. The ratio produces a reliable estimate of fish per mile in the river. With last years drought pushing the Blackfoot to its lowest flow in 28 years, the angler community is eager to know how the fishery endured.
The length measurements reveal how the river environment has changed. Whirling disease that used to be stunting head growth in rainbows in the past decade has all but disappeared. And the mix of juvenile and adult trout has also expanded.
Were starting to see a lot more of the bigger rainbows in the lower and middle stretches of the river that used to get caught below Milltown Dam, Saffel said, holding up a 15-inch trout. In the old days, wed mostly get 8-inchers here."
The dam used to trap about 15 percent of the Blackfoot rainbow populations when they washed over the spillway into the Clark Fork River. Big cutthroats indicate the success of restoration work in the Blackfoot tributary streams where the native trout spawn.
***
The 32-inch bull trout had its fin clipped, with the sample stored in a special container. Researchers will tease out its DNA and figure which of a dozen Blackfoot River tributaries it spawned in. Bull trout are so rare, the spring census doesnt bother trying to calculate population numbers for them. Biologists get more accurate counts finding the bulls in fall as theyre laying eggs.
The survey occasionally finds a northern pike or a small-mouth bass. Both non-native predators are danger signs for the Blackfoot, likely coming from bucket-biologists dumping them either in upstream or downstream lakes in the system. Neither species does well in the cold waters of the Blackfoot, so their presence could indicate continued illegal stocking.
But the find of the day that brought cheers from both Saffel and Pierce was a pinkish-gray little trout about 9 inches long.
Its a juvenile bull trout, Saffel said. Its probably 2 or 3 years old. They dont grow very fast. When theyre in their small spawning streams, they eat mostly bugs. When they move to the big water, they eat any other fish they can get in their mouths, and they really start putting on the girth. But that comes with a lot of risk. They used to be the big fish, but now theyre the small guys in the river. This guys 9 inches now. Hes got 23 to go.
A historic preservation advocate on Monday expressed frustration with current plans for the Missoula Mercantile, but she agreed with Mayor John Engen on one point: No one has stepped forward to pay for any alternative.
We do not have anybody in our pocket that is coming forward (with a funded alternative proposal), said Page Goode, the board president of Preserve Historic Missoula, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the historic resources in the area, at a monthly meeting of City Club Missoula.
Other than that, Goode did not pull any punches in expressing her disappointment with the mayor and the city over the process.
The current plan by Bozeman developer HomeBase Montana is to deconstruct the historic building and replace it with a five-story, $30 million hotel.
Engen told the crowd gathered at the DoubleTree that he supports the plan because it would bring life back to a corner of Missoula that has sat vacant for six years.
Engen also reiterated that on the subject of waiting for a compromise or a better plan for the private property, no one has been willing to talk with their checkbooks.
Without somebody writing a check, Im not sure theres another project out there, Engen said. From 2010 to 2016 I didnt have anyone come to me with a proposal. No proposals for a compromise have been brought forward (since HomeBase unveiled their plan). As all of this is happening, Im not sure anyone has written a check to Octagon Partners (the owner of the building). Frankly, if somebody wants to see something else happen, if theres a developer who is ready to do something, I think they have every opportunity to do that by writing a check.
The Historic Preservation Commission has until June 7 to either deny or approve HomeBases application for a demolition permit for the building, which served as a commercial hub in Missoula since it was built in the 1870s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
We were blindsided on March 3 as the Historic Preservation Commissioners were told that the Merc must be destroyed, Goode said.
She said there have been several red flags in the process. The first, she said, was the mayor telling the HPC that they must approve the application.
Then the application for a demolition permit was submitted, and then within 24 hours approved by the historic preservation officer, she said. Then another red flag. Upon our review of the application, there are significant omissions. The ordinance clearly states that significant background information and evidence must be included for the application to be complete, such as structural testing. But because the application was approved by the citys Development Services, the clock is ticking for the HPC, and time is of the essence.
Goode said that at a subsequent meeting, HomeBase stated that the commission must be biased if they do not approve the permit.
This happens even before they have the opportunity set forth in the ordinance to review the application, Goode said. Red flag.
She said she wished the process had been more transparent from the beginning.
***
Engen disputed Goodes assertion that historic preservation officer Leslie Schwab approved the application within 24 hours, saying Schwab has worked long and hard on the application and reviewed it for much longer than one day.
The mayor also decried what he viewed as hyperbole that is hampering civil debate on the matter.
Hyperbole blows (the conversation) up, he said.
Engen said since he received a call in 2010 that Macys, the last tenant of the building, was closing, he heard all kinds of proposals that fell through for the property because the developers couldnt find a way to save the building in an economically feasible manner.
The fact of the matter is until this latest proposal from the folks at HomeBase, I dont think we had a viable project, he said. While I am generally a proponent of reuse, in some cases the perfect is the enemy of the good. In this building where there is nothing happening today, no electricity or running water and the only life happening in there is about trespassing, we have the opportunity to have life on a corner of downtown Missoula that needs life.
Engen said that his advocacy for the project, after lengthy consideration, is based a little bit on emotion, but mostly on the practical matter that a better alternative hasnt been presented.
Its ok to disagree, he said. I dont believe historic preservationists are lunatics or obstructionists. I think those people have a difference of opinion.
He added that he believes downtown needs a hotel because people and developers want to invest in Missoula, and he doesnt believe other potential investors will be discouraged because there has been such a tense community conversation over this project.
We would be having a much different conversation if the Merc building was a public building, but it is not, he added.
***
Goode said that Preserve Historic Missoulas concerns about HomeBases proposal are twofold.
The first is that the Merc is conceivably our most important structure, she said. It represents the establishment of our economic structure in 1869 and moving forward. Its more than just a building. Its a symbol. It might be an orphan to any one architectural style, but each addition represents a different economic era. It is also arguably on the most important corner in Missoula. It should not be dismissed because its not pretty. Its the physical embodiment of where we came from.
Goode said her organizations second concern is preserving the process of the citys historic preservation ordinance, which was put into law in 2010.
That law states that the city recognizes our community contains irreplaceable historic resources that enhance our sense of place and cultural heritage, she said. These resources visually convey our history, stimulate revitalization, enhance property values, attract tourists, promote civic and neighborhood pride and give us a sense of identity.
BUTTE - The new owners of the long-vacant Copper King Hotel in Butte hope to do a complete make-over of the building and reopen as a full-fledged hotel with convention space and a nationally recognized restaurant.
But first they want to give away most of the hotels current contents - including beds, TVs, dressers and other furniture - to anyone who shows up at the empty hotel Saturday with ways to haul it out.
Matt Nistler, who owns the hotel with his brother, Ben, and Rex Leipheimer, said the building at 4655 Harrison Ave. across from Bert Mooney Airport will be open to the public starting at 8 a.m. Saturday. Most of the contents will be given away free, but they will not include commercial kitchen equipment.
People should just have pickups or other vehicles capable of hauling the furniture, Nistler said.
He said if he and the other owners can get some financial assistance from Butte-Silver Bow County and general community support, they would invest more than $8 million to remake the hotel and convention space into something Butte would be proud of once again. That amount includes the purchase price for the hotel and land, he said.
Most of the rooms will be kept intact, he said, meaning the walls will remain. But they will be remodeled and rooms that were adjacent to the old ballroom will be turned into family suites.
The remodeled hotel will have convention space that has been missing in Butte since the Copper King was closed in January 2014, Nistler said.
Without it, Butte has been crippled for event space, he said.
Nistler said they hope county officials will come through with assistance from the Hard Rock economic development fund. They also are close to landing a nationally recognized restaurant for the location, he said, and could announce that soon.
The Cimarron Group Inc. and its president, Ken Burningham of the Seattle area, filed for bankruptcy in federal court last year and averted a public sale of the empty hotel. Burningham initially sought $2.5 million for it.
A federal judge approved one sale of the hotel to Scott Haeffner, who runs a financial services business in Butte, but Haeffner later backed out.
The judge approved the sale to the new co-owners last December for about $1.2 million.
BILLINGS - The widow of Wesley Sindelar reported receiving photos of her husband's bloody body and autopsy, along with a note that read, "For Your Family Album."
James Douglas Sindelar, 74, convicted in March of mitigated homicide for shooting his son Wesley Sindelar, is being investigated for sending the bloody photos to Wesley's widow, Victoria Sindelar.
According to an affidavit of Deputy Chief of Criminal Operations Christopher Morris, on April 12, Victoria Sindelar received an envelope sent from the Yellowstone County Detention Facility. Enclosed was the note and a color photograph of Welsey Sindelar "all bloody" as well as two pages of black and white thumbnails from Wesley Sinderlar's autopsy.
"Only the defendant would have had access to these materials at the Yellowstone County Detention Facility," Morris wrote in his affidavit.
Morris is seeking a handwriting sample to confirm James Sindelar sent the photos to Victoria Sindelar.
Defendants have legal access to case evidence prior to trial and defense attorneys can provide them with these materials while incarcerated.
Over the 11 or so weeks Cafe Altro Paradiso has been open, Ive taken some photographs that are as awful as the food is good.
The restaurants carpaccio is simple and marvelous, a single piece of raw bison pounded so thin that when it is laid over small, newly fried potato chips and a mound of arugula salad, it drapes like purple silk. My picture, though, could be a close-up of a skinned knee, or an aerial shot of a dormant volcano made out of flesh.
One night, a whole turbot was roasted on the bone until its skin neared blackness. Its upturned mouth and fan-shaped tail hung over the edges of a plain white plate. On the side was an off-white gob of mayonnaise in a small white dish, which did nothing to improve my picture but did taste very good on the edge of a forkful of sweet, slightly sticky fish.
If you added a sprig of curly parsley, the restaurants lamb chop could come from a 1950s supper club. A meat with two sides, its barely photographable, and Id eat it again in a minute. First, Id go after the white shell beans cooked to the brink of collapse. Then Id take a strip of Calabrian chile with a forkful of the chop. I might skip the slices of roasted shoulder on the side of the plate a little tough but not the thin curve of meat and fat that, left on the outside edge of the bone, crisped up like bacon. Id save it for last, like an after-dinner chocolate.
A proposed Puget Sound shipping terminal for Montana coal is dead after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied it a permit Monday.
Citing the fishing rights of the nearby Lummi Nation, Corps Col. John Buck determined that as currently proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal could not be permitted.
Valued at $700 million, the port was to be located near Ferndale, Washington. The Lummi Nation had cited treaty rights in January 2015 when it asked the Army Corps to reject the project.
"Today was a good day for the Constitution and treaties in general," said Tim Ballew of the Lummi Indian Business Council. "The federal government, through its agencies, upheld its decisions that were made in the past."
The Lummi treaty with the U.S. government recognized that the tribe's existence evolved around fishing, Ballew said. It granted the Lummi fishing rights in perpetuity.
The port was advocated by Cloud Peak Energy and the Crow Tribe of Montana. Those port proponents have an agreement for a coal mine on Crow Reservation. The coal was to be shipped from the Pacific Northwest.
The Crow have a right to profit from the coal on their land, said Darrin Old Coyote, tribal chairman. He said the Army Corps killed the coal port before the Crow had a chance to formally make its argument.
Word that the Army Corps would deny the permit began circulating in February after Buck met with U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana. Zinke and U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, had countered that the Crow Tribe had a right to profit from it's coal and was losing out to the Lummi Nation.
"The Gateway Pacific Terminal is incredibly important to Montana, the Crow, and even to the blue collar workers in Washington state because it is literally the gateway to economic prosperity and rising out of poverty," Zinke said Monday in a prepared statement. "Furthermore, to kill a project before an Environmental Impact Study is completed sets a terrible precedent as an advocate of conservation, I fear for the future of our lands and resources. It's a sad day in America when even our Army Corps of Engineers can be wooed by special interests."
Daines, who advocated for the Army Corps to finish an environmental study of the port and make a decision later this year or in 2017, said Monday that no tribe had ever before been allowed to kill a project before a study was completed.
"The Gateway Pacific Terminal would provide access to international markets for Montana coal and agriculture products including Crow coal creating much needed economic prosperity," Daines siad in a prepared statement. "Once again, the federal government is trampling on Montanans' livelihoods and I will fight tooth and nail to ensure Montanans have a voice in Montana's future."
The Army Corps seemed indicate that the project could be retooled and reproposed. John Marshall, Cloud Peak CEO indicated the port's partners would regroup.
"We are very disappointed with the Army Corps' decision today. Supporters worked relentlessly to help stand up to the anti-fossil fuel groups seeking to deny GPT a fair, timely permitting review," Marshall said. "GPT has been subjected to an unprecedented parallel process imposed by the Corps that served to pick winners and losers among Native American Tribes with differing interests in the project. We are working closely with our partners, SSA Marine and the Crow Tribe, as well as other stakeholders to review our options in light of the Corps' decision."
In an order issued Monday denying Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst's request that retired District Court Judge Ed McLean make an immediate ruling on whether to dismiss the case against Cody Marble, McLean wrote that he will not be rushed in reviewing the matter.
"This Court would point out to the Missoula County Attorney that nowhere in its research could it find that it was to be a rubber stamp to the wishes of the prosecutor," he wrote.
Marble was originally sent to prison in 2002 for raping a 13-year-old boy while they were in custody at the Missoula County jail. Last summer, the Montana Supreme Court remanded the case back to Missoula County District, asking it to re-examine a decision to deny Marble a new trial.
In April, Pabst filed a motion to dismiss the underlying case against Marble. Judge McLean released him from custody on April 21 but has not made a decision on the motion to dismiss, instead inviting former county attorney Fred Van Valkenburg to weigh in on the matter by appearing as an amicus curiae, or friend of the court. McLean cited a need to grant him "courtesy and common decency" for characterizations Pabst made of Van Valkenburg in her original motion.
Pabst's filing in the case included part of a deposition between Van Valkenburg and Marble's now-deceased victim Robert Thomas after Thomas recanted the story of his rape. Thomas had been given limited immunity during the deposition, and while statements he made during the hearing couldn't be used against him, he could be charged with perjury for recanting his story.
"And I would advise you that if in fact I am able to establish sufficient evidence outside of what you say in this deposition, that you lied during that trial on the substance of the issue, and that is whether or not Cody Marble raped you, that I would in fact prosecute you for perjury for your actions in lying at that trial," Van Valkenburg told Thomas, according to the record.
Thomas then recanted his recantation and reverted to the story that he had been raped by Marble.
On May 3, Pabst filed a motion asking McLean to make an immediate ruling without Van Valkenburg's input, arguing that allowing his comments regarding a criminal case would be an "unprecedented position" and that failing to grant her request for dismissal violated the separation of powers under both the federal and state constitutions.
In his order on Monday, McLean denied the request and added that Pabst's original motion to dismiss was 27 pages long, violating a court rule that limited such documents to a maximum of 20 pages.
Butte police reports
FLED ON FOOT
After fleeing on foot from police, Dale Hjelt, 25, of Butte, was arrested Monday at an apartment complex on the 1500 block of Elm Street. He faces charges of carrying a concealed weapon, resisting arrest, obstructing a police officer all misdemeanors and for a $4,000 warrant from Butte city court.
POT AT PARK
Alicia Barrett, 48, Butte, was arrested Monday at Stodden Park while parked near the gazebo area, where she admitted to smoking marijuana, police said.
STUFF STOLEN
Car audio equipment worth $3,200 was reported stolen from a vehicle parked at 406 Motoring detail shop, 5050 Harrison Ave. Taken were a JVC stereo, car audio battery, two amplifiers and one speaker from a 1999 Volkswagen. Police have video of the crime scene and are investigating. The report was made Monday.
CREDIT CARD THEFT
Police are investigating the theft of three company credit cards. Purchases were made at various Butte establishments to the tune of over $900. No arrests have been made.
WARRANT ARREST
Police arrested Angelina Bromme, 28, homeless, at the Butte Rescue Mission, 1204 E. Second St., on Monday for criminal contempt, a misdemeanor, on an outstanding $1,000 warrant from Butte city court.
NO LIABILITY INSURANCE
Butte-Silver Bow police arrested Bradley Folland, 59, of Butte, on Monday for driving with a suspended or revoked license and driving without liability insurance, near Platinum and Montana. Both are misdemeanors.
"It is not much for its beauty that makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit." Robert Louis Stevenson
Plaudits were aplenty at last week's Emma Park ceremony naming Butte this year's Tree City for Montana. And spirits were high. That our spirits were awakened was particularly indicative that trees have much to do with our health.
It is not much for the beauty of trees, as for the subtle something that trees provide to us, a subtle something like well-being.
" Trees seem to improve health," according to a July 2015 Washington Post article written by Chris Mooney. The article was forwarded to me last July by Charlie O'Leary, the volunteer chair of Butte-Silver Bow's wonderful Urban Forestry Board who brings to mind the quote from 18th-century historian Thomas Fuller: "He that plants trees loves others besides himself."
The Post article focuses on research that indicates urban neighborhoods filled with trees are very good for our physical health. The research says public trees especially (as opposed to trees planted privately, such as in our backyards) have a particular impact.
"It seemed like the effect was strongest for the public (trees)," researcher Marc Berman told the Post. "Not to say the other trees don't have an impact, but we found stronger effects for the trees on the street." This, according to the article, may be due to public trees being more accessible to all residents in any given neighborhood.
The research, led by psychologist Omid Kardan of the University of Chicago, builds on prior research showing what the Post refers to as "the cognitive and psychological benefits of nature scenery."
We know that trees are good at improving things like air quality trees pull in ozone, particulates and other pollutants to their leaves.
We also know that certain factors impact how we feel our income and age are two such factors. The research reported by the Post found that "having 10 more trees in a city block, on average, improves health perception in ways comparable to an increase in annual personal income of $10,000 or being 7 years younger." In other words, trees particularly public trees make us feel better and younger.
At last week's ceremony, I sat next to the wonderful Karen Byrnes, director of Butte-Silver Bow's Community Development Department. Karen's spirit was alive everyone was in a good mood! as she relayed to me how trees also have an awesome economic benefit. So I went looking and found on the Internet CityLab writer Laura Bliss. CityLab is a Web site for urban planners and others creating the cities of the future, www.citylab.com.
" In an era of overwhelming need for urban infrastructure improvement, trees offer cities some of the best bang for their buck," Bliss wrote in an April 2016 article titled "What Are Trees Worth to Cities?"
"Trees remove carbon dioxide, filter air pollution and produce oxygen," wrote Bliss (of course a woman named Bliss would be writing about trees!) "They absorb rainwater, UV radiation and noise. They slow down traffic (and) improve property values "
Bliss added that research has shown that "urban canopies" in Austin, Texas, annually save that city nearly $19 million in building-energy use, $5 million in reduced carbon emissions, and $3 million in reduced air pollution. Bliss wrote that Austin has estimated that its public trees are valued at $19 billion as stand-alone physical assets what Bliss refers to as "arboreal worth."
Butte is home to 4,400 public trees, and the $10,000 that comes with the city's designation as this year's Tree City USA will allow the Urban Forestry Board to plant many more. Because these trees will improve our health, well-being and economy, we should all applaud the board as true tree heroes. In addition to O'Leary, Urban Forestry Board volunteer members are Sharon Chebul, Phil Cammack who coordinated the private fund-raising effort to recently plant the new trees on Elizabeth Warren Avenue Kriss Douglas, Mark Syverson, Janel Madrazo and Anton Brennick.
Last week's ceremony was so awesome and trees are so incredible, I'm about to break out in verse. But, alas, I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree.
The board that oversees Superfund grant money could spend more than it originally anticipated this year to help fund the 19 finalists vying for grants.
Despite trimming the pool of 41 applicants, the cumulative request $919,764 still exceeds the $250,000 the 11-member Superfund Advisory Redevelopment Trust Authority had planned to dole out.
The money comes from nearly $15 million reached in an agreement between the county and Atlantic Richfield Company. It's to compensate Butte-Silver Bow for the environmental damage wrought by more than 100 years of mining activity.
The advisory board opted to invest the money last year and use the annual interest generated expected to be about $250,000 to fund community projects.
Initially, the 41 applicants asked for a total of $1.5 million. The board whittled the list, focusing mostly on historic preservation and community development projects. But the requests still exceed the planned expenditure.
Special projects planner Julia Crain said the board wants to make an impact with the money.
"I think the board was really blown away by the interest and impact these projects could have on the community," Crain said.
Finalists are asked to present their projects to the board at the May 10 and May 24 meetings. Applicants who do not make the final cut can reapply next year, Crain said.
Planning director Jon Sesso said the board could choose, at its discretion, to partially fund the projects. Final decisions are expected in late May or early June.
Here are the finalists:
Barbara Miller, National Affordable Housing Network, for mining neighborhoods redevelopment program, $242,600 (over three-year period).
Lori Casey, BSB Planning Department, for sidewalks in Butte, $108,980.
J.P. Gallagher, BSB Parks and Recreation, for Miner's field at Copper Mountain, $100,000.
Brett Barry, Covellite Theater, for the Covellite Theater Project, $74,829.
Karen Byrnes, BSB Community Development, for Greeley area storm water improvements, $50,000.
Lois Podobnik, Science Mine, for expanding networks of learning opportunities in support of hometown competitiveness, $44,311 (over two phases).
Mike Boysza, Carpenters Union, Inc., for the Carpenters Union Hall Uptown Butte's Labor Temple since 1906 $31,482.
Ellen Crain, Butte Archives, for unveiling and preservation of the C. Owen Smithers Photograph Collection, $31,200.
Hayes Novich, Manufacturing Consortium of Montana, for Rethink Butte, $29,634.
Kellee Anderson, Butte-Silver Bow Urban Forestry Board, for Victory Circle, $25,000.
Bruce Cole, Butte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization, for Central Butte historic improvement program, Emma Park neighborhood, $25,000.
Don Andrews, Covellite International Film Festival, for Covellite International Film Festival, $25,000.
Brendan McDonough, Montana Gaelic Cultural Society, for An Ri Ra Montana Irish Festival, $25,000.
Pat Munday, Mai Wah Society, for restoring Butte's Chinese history, an architectural assessment to stabilize and preserve the Mai Wah-Wah Chong Tai building, $22,924.
Karen Byrnes, Community Development, for landscaping and landmark gateway, $19,824.
Mary McCormick, BSB Historic Preservation office, for Jacobs House rehabilitation, $18,000.
Jeanette Kopf, World Museum of Mining, for ore vein stope development, $17,995.
Amanda Curtis, Butte America Foundation, for KBMF 102.5 FM Butte America radio, $15,000.
Lee Whitney, St. Mary's Neighborhood Reunion Committee, for design and installation of interpretive signage for lost neighborhoods, $12,985.
MSU Extension named four more people to the Silver Bow 4-H interim advisory council Monday even as 4-H kids protested in front of the local extension office earlier in the day.
Joining Butte-Silver Bow County commissioner Sheryl Ralph are:
Tom Whalen, 4-H parent.
Gayle Clark, 4-H parent.
Michelle Phifer, 4-H parent.
John Castle II, Farm in the Dell director.
Tracy Ellig, Montana State University communications director, said MSU Extension state overseer of all 4-H clubs and councils has not stipulated the length of time the volunteers will serve on the council.
"The safest thing to say is until there is some stability," said Ellig. "I cannot give you an exact date."
Last Tuesday, in a letter to previous council officers, the Montana 4-H Center for Youth Development suspended the Silver Bow 4-H Council advisory board for allegedly failing to follow 4-H charter rules.
Former President Don Berryman and Vice President Diana Widhalm maintain the letter was the first they'd heard of a specific "corrective action plan," which the umbrella organization said they failed to follow.
On Monday, up to 50 Confederates 4-H Club and Classy Clovers 4-H Club members skipped morning classes to protest MSU Extension's ousting of longtime volunteer leaders and advisory council officers. They stood outside the building that houses the extension office at Mercury and Idaho.
"We want our council back," "we love our leaders," and "judge livestock not people" were some of the posters kids held.
Kellee Anderson, Extension agent, has been at odds with the former board, according to both Anderson and the longtime volunteers.
New appointee Tom Whalen, owner of Whalen Tire and a 4-H supporter, said he helps "wherever they need help. They asked me three times to do it. There are so many issues; I'm just trying to figure out what's going on."
As the newest appointed interim council members scramble to learn the role they will play, Chairwoman Ralph is laser-focused on the end goal:
"My job is to make sure the kids have a county fair where they can learn and participate as they normally would," said Ralph last week. "That's my goal and to make sure they're impacted as little as possible."
Ellig said Anderson will continue in her advisory board to the council. Dan Lucas, MSU Extension agent in Granite County, will also serve as an adviser.
Anderson said last week: "There's a group of people that's trying to construe that the Extension office is killing the 4-H program, which is not true at all."
I am concerned with the Democratic political process. When this article was written, Bernie Sanders had swept Alaska, Hawaii and Washington with 13, 17 and 25 delegates respectfully. Clinton only garnered 3, 8 and 9 delegates. What I found disturbing was that she was still light years ahead of Sanders.
Why? Because of the 469 super delegates Clinton accumulated before she even started her campaign. These super delegates are the people who are sitting or retired Democratic representatives, political buddies who in my opinion are looking for favors, if she is elected president.
This process is a way of eliminate any grassroots candidate(s) that might find his or her way into the Democratic race. Business as usual. Looking at this closely, how many voting delegates has she actually earned? Take away the 469 super delegates, and shes only earned 774 delegates.
Sanders on the other hand has earned over 900 delegates. What does that say about the current Democratic political process? If you take away the political hacks who voted for Clinton, this means you have a card-carrying Socialist by the name of Bernie Sanders as the lead Democratic candidate.
It almost appears as though Democrats are trying to give us another Socialist president. The rhetoric between Hillary and Sanders is not that much different to begin with. Sanders says he's a devout Socialist, who is the distribution of wealth poster boy; a guy who wants to implement a everything is free society.
And, then you have Clinton who is a closet Socialist. Whats the difference?
If youre a Democrat, is this your agenda? Its not as though you have a plethora of good candidates to pick from. So, why on earth are the Democrats trying to give us a Socialist government through a Socialist president? Do we have that many people who are disenfranchised or dont know whats going on?
Or, they dont know what a Socialist is? Maybe its because Clinton and Sanders know the majority of the voting base are from people who looking for free handouts. Very upsetting!
-- Kevin Brown and his wife, Dawn, reside in Dillon. He retired after serving 41 years in the U.S. government; Navy Senior Chief (27 Years), DOD contractor and EPA (15 years). Brown was born and adopted in Tehran, Iran. He lived in several Middle East and Sub-Continent countries with his parents and in the U.S. Navy.
Its no secret that our nations prisons are overcrowded and failing to keep our communities safe. Compared to peer nations around the globe, no country has more of its population behind bars. Our per-capita incarceration rate is five times higher than Great Britain, nine times that of Germany, and fourteen times higher than Japan. Almost one-quarter of the prisoners worldwide are in American jails, despite the United States accounting for just five-percent of the worlds population.
The reasons for our prison overcrowding are many, but one factor has been the tough mandatory-minimum sentencing laws that were enacted in the 1990s. The intent behind these laws was good to bring consistency to sentencing. At the time, judges were given wide discretion in sentencing criteria, which led to some disparities in sentences for similar crimes.
But over time those mandatory minimum laws meant that some offenders could get very long sentences for relatively minor offenses. For instance, the federal mandatory minimum sentence for non-violent drug offenses is currently 10 years.
In fact, most of the offenders behind bars today are non-violent drug offenders. Instead of using the sentencing to hold them accountable and treat the root of their crime, we are keeping them in jail, making their reentrance into society much more difficult.
Im not suggesting we should suddenly go soft on crime. What I am suggesting is that we need to become smarter about how we sentence criminals. Because not only is our corrections system the largest in the world, its by far the most expensive as well.
And believe it or not, there is a very good chance that reform of our justice system could be passed by the US Congress this year. Already, thirty-four Senators (19 Democrats and 15 Republicans) have co-sponsored the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 (SRCA). One of the most recent additions to that co-sponsor list is Montanas Senator Steve Daines.
The SRCA is good step toward relieving overcrowding while focusing tougher sentencing on repeat and violent offenders. The SRCA would allow judges more discretion in sentencing for lower-level crimes.
Most significantly, it would allow a judge to lower the mandatory minimum from ten to five years for drug offenses for defendants who have never had a violent offense, do not participate in gang activity, were not involved in the production or wholesale level of drug trafficking, and had never distributed drugs to a minor.
The SRCA also expands the so-called safety valve which allows judges to waive mandatory minimum sentences altogether for some first-time, nonviolent drug offenders.
Sentencing reform is never an easy task to accomplish. For basic public safety, we need to make sure that the people who should be behind bars are behind bars. But prescribing a sort of one-sized-fits-all approach to sentencing and taking away discretion from judges has produced the new problem of expensive prison overcrowding we have today.
The SRCA is a measured approach that has attracted significant support from conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats alike. Thats rare in Washington these days. So lets encourage our Congressional delegation to work to keep the momentum going.
Thank you Senator Daines for taking a leadership role on a difficult issue. It really will make a difference for Montana and our nation.
-- State Senator Nels Swandal, R-Wilsall, is a former Park County Attorney and District Court Judge for Park and Sweet Grass counties.
To all persons regarding Donna M. Jenks, deceased, who died on or about March 27, 2016.
You are hereby notified that Dale Sanderson is the successor trustees of the Donna M. Jenks Revocable Trust. At this time, no probate administration is contemplated with regard to the above-referenced decedents estate.
Any action to contest the validity of the trust must be brought in the District Court of Muscatine County, Iowa, within the later to occur of sixty days from the date of the second publication of this notice, or thirty days from the date of mailing this notice to all heirs of the decedent, spouse of the decedent and beneficiaries under the trust whose identities are reasonably ascertainable. Any claim not filed within this period shall be forever barred.
Notice is further given that all persons indebted to the decedent or the trust are requested to make immediate payment to the undersigned trustees. Creditors having claims against the trust must mail them to the trustees at the addresses listed below via certified mail, return receipt requested. Unless creditor claims are mailed by the later to occur of sixty days from the second publication of this notice or thirty days from the date of mailing of this notice, a claim shall be forever barred, unless otherwise allowed or paid.
Dated this 5th day of May, 2016.
Donna M. Jenks Revocable Trust:
By: Dale Sanderson,
Successor Trustee
119 Wright Street
P.O. Box 1607
Iowa City, Iowa 52244-1607
Date of second publication
17th day of May, 2016.
The total package increase is 3.5 percent with the amount remaining from benefits to be applied to an annuity rather than base salary. According to the meeting minutes, Riibe has requested no pay increase during the last three years of his employment with the Muscatine Community School District.
WAPELLO, Iowa A discussion on which Louisa County offices will eventually move into the former Louisa County Jail in Wapello turned testy for a short time during the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.
The initial specifications and design for the separation and renovation of the former jail had been provided earlier to the supervisors by County Engineer Larry Roehl, but details on which county offices would go into the building have continued to evolve over the past few weeks.
The supervisors decided several months ago to separate the historic two-story jail from a newer annex and renovate the newer section to accommodate a meeting room for the supervisors and provide space for other county offices.
At Tuesdays meeting, the supervisors held their latest discussion on the project with Veterans Affairs director Andy Beaver and outlined his offices possible move into the annex. They showed Beaver a sketch of the proposed renovations and described potential space for his office.
Beaver currently has an office at the Louisa County Complex about five miles northeast of Wapello. The supervisors also hold their meetings there after giving up their original meeting room in the county courthouse in Wapello a couple of years ago.
That meeting room is now being used by the countys community services/general assistance office, but that has created a space crunch for the adjacent County Auditors office, especially during elections.
According to the supervisors discussion, that could mean the Community Services/General Assistance office might also be moved to the annex. County Auditor Sandi Elliott said Tuesday her office, which had also been included in earlier office relocation discussions, was no longer being considered for any move. The supervisors also indicated they would be talking with emergency services director Staci Griffin, whose current office is at the county complex, about moving into the annex.
During the discussion with Beaver, Supervisor Randy Griffin said he was concerned the supervisors were suggesting specific offices before meeting with the countys department heads to get their input.
We need to have other people involved, and I just felt it would be (discussed) in an open meeting, he said, suggesting the countys monthly department head meeting would provide that opportunity.
Supervisor chairperson Paula Buckman, however, indicated time would be a factor because the design needed to be finalized and bid notices published.
We need to get this done and we never said wed do this as a group, she responded to Griffin.
Eventually, the supervisors indicated they would talk with Staci Griffin about a possible move, but that discussion occurred after the meeting had adjourned, so no final decisions were made.
In other action, Beaver provided his monthly update to the board, explaining he was now helping to staff the Muscatine County Veterans Affairs office while its director, Jennifer Watkins-Shoening, is on maternity leave.
Beaver said he would be spending about a half-day a week in Muscatine under a joint assistance agreement between the counties. Cedar County VA Director Patricia Hamann will also be providing assistance under the agreement.
The supervisors also met with Roehl for his weekly update. He indicated work was continuing on grading county roads, including several where road crews earlier had cut shoulders in an effort to rebuild the roadway. He assured the supervisors that complaints over the shoulder work were being addressed.
The board also approved an auditing agreement letter with Eide Bailly and approved a beer and wine permit for Caseys Highway 78.
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 []
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said on Monday a US-led coalition airstrike had killed a senior military leader of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.
"On May 6th, a coalition airstrike targeted Abu Waheeb, ISIL's military emir for Anbar Province and a former member of al-Qaeda in Iraq who has appeared in ISIL execution videos," said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook here at a briefing, referring to another acronym of the group.
The strike was successful and three other IS fighters were killed, Cook added.
"We think this is a significant member of the leadership team (of IS), particularly in a critical area (of Anbar province)," said Cook.
Iraqi 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.
The City of Cape Town is testing multiple new technologies to enhance its law enforcement capabilities, including virtual loop and video detection systems.
As part of these tests, the city has run a trial using Kria T-Exspeed cameras which are used for measuring vehicle speeds without laser or radar detection.
Apart from speed violations, the T-Exspeed cameras can detect tailgating, the skipping of red lights, and the illegal changing of lanes.
A T-Exspeed camera system was mounted on the Wetton Road bridge in Cape Town, which many members of public mistook for the M5 average speed over distance camera.
The cameras use video imagery to determine the rate of movement of an object within the image, said Syntells Lance Bailey.
The cameras will not initially be used to issue fines, because their speed-measurement technique has not been approved for enforcement in South Africa.
How the Kria T-Exspeed camera works
T-Exspeed systems can detect multiple vehicles in transit on six parallel lanes, including two-way traffic flow.
The T-Exspeed cameras can measure multiple vehicles speed with 99% accuracy, detect red light violations at intersections, and read vehicles licence plates and dangerous goods placards.
Thanks to the embedded automatic number plate recognition, T-Exspeed cameras can measure section speed and can compare licence plates to blacklists in real time.
Using its stereo cameras, it also recognises every vehicles three-dimensional class and colour for advanced traffic monitoring functions.
These functions include detecting violations such as tailgating, change of lane, transit with pedestrians on zebra crossings, and wrong-way traffic.
The videos below shows the Kria T-Exspeed camera system in action.
More on speed cameras
New Cape Town ASOD Speed Camera plans
Cape Town speed camera system details
New Cape Town speed camera system how it works
DA Shadow Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Marian Shinn says that the ANC government cannot deliver the opportunities and freedoms of a digital future.
This is in response to Minister Siyabonga Cweles 2016/17 Budget Vote speech, where he said progress was made in the roll-out of broadband a result of government and private sector investments.
He said the government is doing a good job at developing a framework for spectrum in the country, and that its policies are good for telecommunications in South Africa.
Shinn disagreed, saying the ANCs desire to extend their capabilities and offerings to all South Africans has, for years, been undermined by regulatory uncertainty, and political ignorance and interference.
If the private sectors role in delivering connectivity to the entire country is not properly recognised and incentivized, SA Connect will continue to fail, said Shinn.
She said there is also no money for dual illumination, and no money to educate the public about why they need to move from analogue TV.
There is no money for the call centre for viewer support. And theres no money to buy the 5 million decoders government is giving to poor households.
The ANC governments policy obsession with control, rather than facilitation, of the ICT sector continues to marginalise under-serviced and poor communities, said Shinn.
More on the ANC
What the ANC promises you regarding faster Internet
ANC Governments ambitious broadband goal for 2016
Fixing South Africas broadband rollout failure: Minister
A Deltona man shot himself in the arm while cleaning a gun but didn't realize it until two days later, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office says.
Michael Blevins admitted himself to hospital with gunshot wound
Blevins said he'd been cleaning gun
Blevins was taking pain medication for unrelated back injury
Michael Blevins, 37, admitted himself to Florida Hospital Fish Memorial on Saturday after finding bullet wounds and dried blood on his left upper arm, a Sheriff's Office incident report states.
He told deputies responding to the hospital that on Thursday of last week, he was cleaning his gun in his living room, holding the .22-caliber revolver in his right hand. Blevins said he was resting the gun against his chest so his dog wouldn't jump up near it.
As he was standing, he said he felt a sharp pain in his back from a previous, unrelated injury. Blevins' back gave out, and he fell over. As he fell, he said he heard a gunshot and then hit his head on the coffee table.
Blevins said he didn't feel anything from the gunshot. He said he takes pain medication for the back injury, which is why he thinks he didn't feel the bullet. He was wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt, so he didn't see any obvious injury to his left arm, he said.
He continued on his normal routine for the next couple of days, until he wore a light brown shirt. That's when he noticed an entry and exit wound and noticed blood stains, he said.
Deputies determined the shooting was accidental.
A steady crowd is gathering at Port Canaveral to see close up part of a SpaceX rocket that made a successful landing just days ago.
Falcon 9 booster returned to Space Coast late Monday night
The rocket was the 2nd to successfully land on a floating barge
Onlookers can watch crews work on the rocket at Port Canaveral
The Falcon 9 booster, the second to successfully land on the barge, arrived around 10 p.m. Monday on the autonomous spaceport drone ship.
Dave Keller drove all the way from Sarasota to see a piece of space history before it's hauled off to be used again.
"I mean, where else can you be a couple hundred yards from people working on a rocket?" he said. "It's inspiring to see what these guys are doing."
Keller isn't the only one taking in the sights along the port. A steady stream of curious onlookers has set up shop with a stellar view of the rocket.
"It has a lot of people talking," says Grills owner Joe Penovich.
Port restaurants like Grills have the welcome mat open for viewing the rocket. They have an ideal deck to see all the action, and business is up with people coming by marvel at it.
"It's been great for our business, and I'm excited for the industry," said Penovich.
"American ingenuity, and it's great to see us out front," adds Keller.
The Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:21 a.m. Friday. The rocket delivered a satellite to orbit for a Japanese television and communications company called SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation.
The JCSAT-14 satellite will hover more than 22,000 miles above Earth in geostationary orbit, delivering broadcast, data and internet service to Japan and beyond.
Last week's launch was the second time this year SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket and then landed it on the barge.
SpaceX said the booster is expected to be here at least until Wednesday night. More visitors are expected to swing by to take a look. After that the rocket will go to Kennedy Space Center for refurbishment and possible re-use.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has released its latest barge landing video. The newest clip features three different angles.
The company called it the "hottest and fastest landing yet." The rocket will undergo tests and will eventually be launched again.
Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of SpaceX, said the goal is to reuse rockets to drive down the cost of launches. SpaceX is hoping to ramp up the number of launches. By the end of the year, the company wants to be able to launch every two to three weeks.
A Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, as seen from Port Orange, early Friday, May 6, 2016. (Jesse Paquin, viewer)
The nation is still shocked by the murder of outspoken businessman Jacob Juma.
His tweets on Eurobond among other government corruption are said to be the reason he was assassinated. Juma was a self proclaimed billionaire, and below are other things you did not know about him.
1. He was only 42 years old. He was born in Western Kenya and completed his high school education at Bungoma High School.
2. He had powerful connections to the YK 92, a group whose sole purpose was to help President Moi win the hotly contested 1992 elections. It is believed he made his money here.
3. He studied finance and accounting at the University of Nairobi, perhaps explaining his expert knowledge on the Eurobond saga.
4. He was embroiled in a litany of high profile legal suits. He was once sued by NCPB over the supply of 400 metric tonnes of grain worth sh500 million. He was also involved in legal tussles with Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala (during his stint at the Mining Ministry) and former President Daniel arap Mois daughter Jennifer.
5. He lived a flashy life and was always eager to show it. He once turned up for a newspaper interview in a chauffeured Rolls Royce Phantom. He routinely wore designer suits imported from major fashion houses in Europe and his office was a collection of some of the most expensive furniture. He was known to shop in high end places in Dubai and London
6. His Karen house is worth a reported Sh100 million.
7. He reportedly fell out with the Jubilee government 3 years ago after losing a multi-billion deal. He soon started his social media campaign against the government.
8. He predicted his death more than once, and even gave names of police officers sent to kill him by top government figures.
Additional reporting by Nairobi News
In what sounds like an episode from Ripleys Believe It or Not, rapper Bobby Mapesa is saved. Word on the street has it that the Tuzidi rapper found salvation last Sunday when he stepped into a church for the first time after 11 years.
Speaking to a local publication, Bobby said that all the beef and negativity does not seem worth it now and is seeking forgiveness from anyone he has ever wronged.
I hope that anyone I ever wronged forgives me, I have found it in my heart to forgive anyone that offended me. I now have an open heart and I realise that all this beef and negativity isnt everything and Im inviting everyone to join me, he said.
He also revealed how negative influences shaped him while growing up.
When I was younger, when people used to go to church, I would go to F2. I havent told my mom that Im saved yet but I guess my fans now know. Growing up, I had negative influences that shaped me and I dont think thats who I am. I want to use my talent for positivity because I know small kids follow my music and sing along to every lyric, said Mapesa.
He insisted that this latest move is not a publicity stunt, before concluding that he wants to leave a great legacy. Musically, he says he would like to work with Mercy Masika who really impresses him.
I have been angry with the media and society for a long time but Im letting go because I want to enjoy life in a positive way. I want to leave a legacy that will stand the test of time.
The move has attracted its fair share of doubters, with some terming it as the joke of the year. Mapesa is best known for some of the dirtiest lyrics in the Kenyan music industry and it is hard to take him seriously.
SACRAMENTO As Gov. Jerry Brown prepares to release his revised state budget this week, he's hearing a chorus of calls from Democratic lawmakers, liberal interest groups and even some Republicans urging him to significantly boost spending to help California's poorest residents.
Brown's budget comes after tax collections in April, the state's biggest revenue month, fell $1 billion short of expectations and cast uncertainty on what the state can afford.
The governor is required to release his budget by Saturday. He then hands the process over to lawmakers who have a month to mold their own spending plan by June 15.
In January, Brown proposed a $122.6 billion spending plan that avoided sweeping new initiatives or substantial increases in ongoing programs, even as the state saw a revenue spike thanks to an improving economy.
Instead, warning that a recession may be imminent, Brown urged spending the surplus revenue to rehab state buildings and pre-fund employee retirement benefits costs that can more easily be curtailed if revenue plummets. He also wanted to set aside an extra $2 billion in a rainy-day fund.
"It would be short-sighted in the extreme to now embark upon a host of new spending only to see massive cuts when the next recession hits," Brown told lawmakers then.
By law, about half the state's spending goes to K-12 education and higher education. One of every $5 in Brown's January budget went to health care, and 9 percent was for prisons.
The state has already committed to about $1 billion in new spending since January. Much of it was part of an agreement to modify health insurance taxes to fund Medi-Cal, the publicly funded health plan for the poor. The agreement included promises to boost funding for developmental disability services and save money for future health care costs for retired state workers.
Other new costs include raising the minimum wage by 50 cents Jan. 1 on its way to $15 by 2022, which will cost $3.6 billion annually once fully implemented. New state-worker contracts also will cost more than planned after the administration made labor concessions to corrections officers that it's likely to match for other union bargaining units.
Despite the governor's reluctance to bless new ongoing costs, legislative Democrats are pushing several initiatives to help people they say continue to struggle through the economic recovery.
"We're very focused on assuring that people get access to food, people get access to shelter, and much of the devastation that was done in 2008 gets slowly repaired," said Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, who heads the Assembly Budget Committee.
The Senate wants $2 billion to build more than 10,000 permanent housing units for the homeless. The money would come from Proposition 63, a 2004 ballot measure that increased taxes on the wealthy to pay for mental health treatment.
Democrats are also pushing to repeal the maximum family grant in CalWorks, which prevents families from getting additional welfare benefits if they have another child while receiving state assistance.
The legislative women's caucus is seeking $800 million to increase childcare provider rates and offer care to more families. Advocacy group Parent Voices says 194,000 children are waiting for child care.
"California is one of the most expensive states in the country, so I want to be able to provide for them," said Vaea Sanft, 31, a father of two from East Palo Alto who joined hundreds of parents rallying for childcare funding last week in Sacramento.
Republicans have their own budget ideas, though they face long odds in a Legislature dominated by Democrats.
The top legislative Republicans sent Brown a letter asking him to prioritize funding for Denti-Cal, a dental program for people with low incomes. State watchdogs have said the program pays so little that many dentists won't participate.
GOP lawmakers also have proposed a variety of tax breaks they say would make California more affordable.
"We're trying to put the money where it's going to be used efficiently and effectively," said Sen. Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga.
Angwin remains a small hub of land use issues, ranging from a reconfigured Pacific Union College property sale offering to timber harvest requests to a possible year-end resumption of county rezoning deliberations.
About 3,000 people live in what is essentially a village combined with a college located on Howell Mountain overlooking north Napa Valley. Growth debates there occasionally grab a countywide spotlight.
That happened in 2012 when county voters turned down Measure Us attempt to strip residential development potential from some Angwin properties. Measure U arose from controversies surrounding PUCs efforts to sell land near its campus. The Seventh-day Adventist college wanted to raise money for its endowment.
PUCs latest land sale effort, a modified version of its ongoing attempt to market 578.5 acres of agricultural land in the Howell Mountain wine appellation, has so far generated no outcry.
Were not selling land for massive development, apartments, all of that, PUC spokeswoman Jennifer Tyner said last week.
The 578.5 acres can be broken into five individual estates, each marketed as being suitable for vineyards and a home. The asking price for the five estates added together is $51.5 million, according to a marketing brochure.
Howell Mountain Estates represents a microcosm of characteristics that combined make the Napa Valley a major attraction, the marketing brochure says. Rugged ridge lines and rolling hillsides border verdant valleys and meadows replicating the greater valleys stunning scenery.
The brochure, which recently came to the attention of some Angwin residents, is from Newmark Cornish & Carey, the listing agents.
Tyner said the college has had this area on the market for several years, but subdivided it into five parcels to make the offering more attractive. Lot line adjustments are almost complete and the property is now being advertised with the ability to purchase individual parcels or a combination of parcels.
Potential buyers have looked at the land, but no deals are pending, she said.
Buyers would have to let the college retain access to its forest preserve. Tyner said that PUC is working to permanently protect 600 acres to 800 acres.
Duane Cronk of Save Rural Angwin the group that spearheaded Measure U said its hard for the community to know what the college is doing. He didnt know if the latest property sale offering configuration is new, though it is new to him.
That said, he didnt think this particular, proposed sale would have a big impact on Angwin.
It wouldnt change the nature of the village, it wouldnt create traffic, he said.
But that doesnt mean a sale might not lead to concerns. Angwin resident Mike Hackett said he hopes a lot of trees wouldnt be cut down to make room for vineyards. The marketing brochure says the potential for 297 acres of vineyards assumes 40 percent conversion of forests.
This is part of a trend that is happening, said Hackett, who is chairman of Save Rural Angwin. The valley floor is planted out in vineyards.
Hackett is among those seeking a November ballot to limit timber harvests in the countys watersheds. The effort is opposed by Napa Valley Vintners, Napa County Farm Bureau, Winegrowers of Napa County and Napa Valley Grapegrowers, which say the county already has stringent laws for hillside vineyard development.
Meanwhile, the landscape around Angwin faces some degree of change, even if the PUC property on the market doesnt become vineyards. Three timber-clearing requests for the area are pending with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. They are:
Ciminelli Estate 1 mile north of Angwin. The project would create 17.8 acres of vineyards and maintenance areas on 40 acres and would require removing 16.3 acres of forest.
Le Colline Vineyard at 300 Cold Springs Road southeast of Angwin. The project would create 35 acres of vineyards and maintenance areas on 88 acres and require removing 32 acres of forest. It is near the Land Trust of Napa Valleys Linda Falls preserve.
Davis Estates Friesen Vineyard at 1875 Friesen Drive near Angwin. The project would create a 14-acre vineyard on 38.7 acres and require removing 10 acres of forest.
A draft environmental impact report is out for the Ciminelli request and a final report for the Davis Family Estates request. Neither report found any significant effects, such as on water quality, that couldnt be mitigated to less than significant status.
However, the Davis report prompted letters of concern from groups ranging from Napa Vision 2050 to California Fisheries and Water Unlimited to the Land Trust of Napa County, which owns the neighboring Dunn-Wildlake preserve and submitted comments on a vineyard project for the first time in its 40-year history.
It also prompted letters of support for the project from several vintners, among them Stuart Smith of Smith-Madrone Vineyards & Winery and Davie Pina.
Go to http://calfire.ca.gov/resource_mgt/resource_mgt_EPRP_PublicNotice to read the reports.
On yet another front, Napa County is considering whether to change the designation for two key Angwin areas from urban residential to a mix of agriculture, public institutional and commercial.
The Board of Supervisors discussed the matter on July 22, 2014. PUC officials asked the board to take no action and Save Rural Angwin representatives asked for some of the land to be designated for agriculture and open space.
Supervisors reached no consensus. They instructed county staff to come back with options.
Planning, Building and Environmental Services Director David Morrision said on Wednesday that the issue could go to the Planning Commission this fall. It would then go to the Board of Supervisors.
That will be very significant, Cronk said.
The original posting of this story gave the incorrect name of Davis Estates.
There are students the world over who, when they want to learn how to read in English, turn to a Napa-based publication, Easy English Times.
For two decades, Easy English Times has been used as an important real life resource in literacy and English programs. The eight-page newspaper is printed 10 times a year and is distributed all over the world.
The Easy English Times includes articles about current events, life skills and citizenship, and it even showcases student writing. The pieces are written at varying levels of difficulty in order to accommodate a wide array of readers.
Publisher Betty Malmgren started the newspaper along with a few others after realizing that there were English as a Second Language classes that were using outdated and expensive textbooks. Having been a journalist herself, Malmgren decided that a newspaper publication, which is easy to produce, would be a good alternative to textbooks.
The paper was used only locally at first, but it didnt take long before the Easy English Times was being requested across the country and from such overseas locations as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Easy English Times is used in several literacy programs at the Napa County Library, including an ESL class and one-on-one literacy tutoring for adults.
I use it for dictations, vocabulary, reading, pronunciation you name it, said Yvonne Martin, who teaches an ESL class Friday mornings at the library. Martin said that the newspaper is versatile and user-friendly. It also gives the students an opportunity to submit articles, which, once printed, makes them feel like celebrities, she said.
Its very exciting and thrilling for them, Martin said. Students get to share their stories as well as receive acknowledgement and recognition. Its very powerful.
Learning tools like the Easy English Times benefit students, she said, in ways that textbooks cannot. Students like David Meza, 71, of Napa.
Meza, one of Martins ESL students, is from Mexico, but has lived in Napa for the last 30 years. He used to work in the field doing things like pruning vines and driving a tractor, he said.
Its hard to learn English, Meza said. Although he is now retired and has made many friends over the years, Meza said that he is interested in learning English so he can communicate better with more people. Simple situations like going to the airport can be difficult if he is unable to answer questions asked of him, he said.
Meza said that one of the reasons he has waited until so late in life to learn English is because, when he came to the United States, he could hardly read in Spanish. He was never taught, he said.
Adult illiteracy is a huge problem even among English speakers, according to Robin Rafael, literacy coordinator at the Napa Library. Rafael said that there are an estimated 14,000 functionally illiterate adults in Napa County. That means that they lack the literacy needed for most jobs and many everyday situations.
The literacy program at the library uses a combination of textbooks and real-life materials, including the Easy English Times. Because the newspaper covers issues that are current and interesting to adults, learners are more interested and engaged when reading it, Rafael said.
The librarys volunteer tutors like the Easy English Times because it makes students feel like theyre being treated like the adults that they are. The Easy English Times is a paper that allows my learner to have an awareness to current events that is complex enough not to insult the learner yet is easy enough to understand, said one library tutor.
Mays 20th anniversary issue includes articles on Harriet Tubman being selected to be on the $20 bill and immigrants who fought in World War I. Student contributions came from Vallejo, Santa Rosa, Calistoga, Fairfield, Santa Cruz and San Diego in California as well as Illinois and Ohio.
About 5,000 copies of the Easy English Times are printed each issue and distributed, with more readers enjoying the paper on the Web, Malmgren said. The cost of the newspaper for classrooms, which includes a teaching guide and other materials, is $1 per copy plus shipping and handling.
Its a labor of love, Malmgren said. She and her editor, Lorraine Ruston of St. Helena, do everything themselves from writing articles to packaging and mailing them. One of the most rewarding things about doing this work, though, is being able to give students a voice, Malmgren said.
The 20th Anniversary Special Edition of the Easy English Times is out this month.
For information, visit EasyEnglishTimes.com or call 707-253-9641.
One of the largest schedules of summer classes has been released by Napa Valley College in anticipation of summer registration.
Summer classes begin as early as June 1, featuring credit classes starting at $46 per unit for residents.
Classes are free for high school students 15 years or older who are entering grades 10, 11 or 12 this fall, provided they register in person, beginning Thursday.
Summer school sessions are five, six or eight weeks long and feature day and evening classes that help students train for a variety of occupations, including emergency medical technicians, psychiatric technicians and welders.
With an additional emphasis on courses that transfer to California State University and University of California, the college is also offering an array of classes that can help families whose college-enrolled sons and daughters may be coming home for the summer and need to complete a few more units before returning to school.
At the Upper Valley Campus in St. Helena, students will have multiple opportunities to take a variety of courses that satisfy various CSU transfer requirements.
Other classes help students who may be looking to advance to careers in business, accounting, computers, speech, politics, criminal justice and hospitality.
NVC students this summer will also find a wide range of classes in the arts and humanities, science, math, social and behavioral sciences, physical education and health sciences.
Five-week sessions begin June 1; six- and eight-week sessions start June 13.
A complete Summer 2016 Class Schedule, including registration information, is available at the college Welcome Center, located in the north lobby of the 1300 Building. It is also available at napavalley.edu/academics/schedule/pages/welcome.aspx.
The staff at the Upper Valley Campus in St. Helena is also available to assist students with registration, at 967-2903 or uvc_sthelena@napavalley.edu.
Students can also enroll at NapaValley.edu.
The website also provides information about student services, including counseling, financial aid, fees and child development center services.
For information, call the Office of Student Services at 256-7362.
Fifteen years ago, the idea that foreign disinformation might be a problem for European countries seemed ludicrous. Free media looked as triumphant as free markets; Western television and newspapers had comfortable funding and big audiences. But the business model that once supported media across the continent, indeed all across the West, no longer works. Much Western journalism is poorly resourced, and the proliferation of information has made it harder for people to judge the accuracy of what they see and read.
At the same time, authoritarian regimes, led by Russia but closely followed by China, have begun investing heavily in the production of alternatives. Because national media is often weak, it has become far easier for channels such as RT (formerly Russia Today) and Sputnik (a Russian "news" agency) to establish credibility in smaller European markets. But even in larger countries, the Russian use of social media as well as a huge range of online vehicles - "news" websites, information portals, trolls - are beginning to have an impact. Chancellor Angela Merkel tasked Germany's spy agency with investigating the Russian use of propaganda in Germany after a fake story about a girl allegedly raped by a refugee blew up into a major scandal, thanks in part to a concerted Russian online effort.
The messages have little in common with Cold War propaganda. Russia does not seek to promote itself, but rather to undermine the institutions of the West, often using discordant messages. RT pumps out scare stories about migrants, and also portrays the West as racist and xenophobic. Russian-backed websites promote conspiracy theories - 9/11 was an "inside job," Zika was created by the CIA - while ridiculing the excellent Western investigative journalism that revealed the ties among Russian politics, business, organized crime and intelligence.
These messages, which are picked up and used by both far-left and far-right political parties across Europe, chime with Kremlin foreign policy goals. The European Union is a particular target, and no wonder: The E.U. has been instrumental in weaning the continent away from dependence on Russian gas and in dismantling the corrupt and exploitative Russian gas-export model in Eastern Europe. NATO, which belatedly is coming to grips with the real threat that Russia poses to some of its members, is regularly cast as an aggressor.
Some countries are waking up to this, especially those that have been hardest hit. The invasion, occupation and dismemberment of Ukraine in 2014 was preceded by a highly effective propaganda blitz that fomented confusion in Russian-speaking areas and blinded both Ukrainians and Westerners to what was really going on. In response, Ukrainian organizations such as StopFake began to expose and ridicule Russian propaganda. A major project designed to teach "media literacy" has also been launched. A debate about the role that public broadcasters might play in reestablishing trusted sources of information in Ukraine has begun.
There have been broader attempts to tackle the problem. The European Endowment for Democracy (a much smaller counterpart to the National Endowment for Democracy) has carried out a comprehensive analysis of the Russian-language media, its reach and its impact. The European External Action Service, the E.U.'s foreign-policy arm, compiles weekly disinformation bulletins, tracking the activities of the Kremlin's myth- makers. NATO countries have set up a small center, based in Latvia, that responds to Russian disinformation as well.
But so far, the United States has failed to invest seriously in understanding or pushing back against this problem. There is no modern equivalent to the U.S. Information Agency, an organization dedicated to coping with Soviet propaganda and disinformation during the Cold War. Although there has been some extra funding for U.S.-backed foreign broadcasters such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, they cannot provide a complete response.
Partly because the U.S. media market is so vast, there is still little understanding of how disinformation campaigns work here either. There is certainly no public analytical database of what Russia says, when and where. Nobody - even in the Western intelligence community - compiles transcripts. Nor do we know which elements of the Russian message are effective, who believes them and why. It's high time we learned, because other countries, notably China, are beginning to use some of the same techniques. Fifteen years ago, the free press seemed unchallengeable; 15 years from now, we may find ourselves, as Ukraine did two years ago, the targets of disinformation campaigns we are unprepared to fight.
Anne Applebaum, a Post columnist, and Edward Lucas, a senior editor at the Economist, are this week launching a counter-disinformation initiative at the Center for European Policy Analysis, where they are, respectively, senior vice president and senior adjunct fellow.
Challenges of growing old in California
Last January Napa County had two weeks where no skilled nursing home beds were available. All the nursing homes were full. People needing rehabilitation services or nursing home care after a hospital stay, had to go to Solano, Sonoma or Contra Costa counties.
It was rough on families, especially on elderly spouses, who had to drive up to an hour each way to visit a loved one during their rehab stay.
Only four nursing homes remain in Napa County. It is not enough for the number of people who need both short- and long-term care. And as the population of older people continues to increase, we are all going to feel a real crisis of care. This problem needs to be addressed. If something does not change today, local nursing homes will NOT be able to meet the needs of seniors in our community.
I moved to Napa from Oregon two years ago to be an administrator of an innovative, patient-centered skilled nursing and assisted living facility. Here, I was shocked to find out that Medi-Cal only pays for skilled nursing facilities to provide long-term custodial care.
The difference is that Oregon Medicaid (the federal version of Medi-Cal) pays for multiple levels of care. The results are pretty shocking. In Oregon, I was constantly fighting to keep my census (the number of patients) up. In California, I am working on a rather lengthy waiting list for long-term care. Poor people who are old and need to go someplace to be taken care of due to frailty, memory impairment or illness have no place to go.
In Oregon, Medicaid pays for dementia care units, assisted living facilities and adult foster homes (called Board and Care6 Bed RCFEs in California). The result is that the long-term care population in Oregon nursing homes are either medically complex or are extremely disabled and mostly need two staff members to help them with their activities of daily living.
Their system allows for people to live in the most appropriate level of care. The quality of life for the patient is better, the quality of life for the other residents in that facility is better, the state is not spending unnecessary money on the most expensive type of long-term care (skilled nursing facilities) and, the most important related to this discussion, skilled nursing beds are available to those patients who need them, when they need them.
There is no shortage of studies and data out there that highlight the demographic change we will have in the next 10 to 20 years. The bottom line is that the demand will increase for both short-term rehab services and long-term care that skilled nursing facilities currently provide. Only seven new skilled nursing facilities have been built in the entire state of California since 2005!
In Napa County, four skilled nursing facilities have closed in the last 15 years. The only new facilities being built in California are licensed as a residential care facility for the elderly (RCFE, commonly known as assisted living) and, Medi-Cal does not pay for this care. Only seven counties in California (Napa is not one of them) can use an assisted living waiver (which allows for assisted living facilities to care for Medi-Cal recipients) but it is ineffective and insufficient to address the larger need of system reform.
California needs to follow Oregons lead and adopt a Medicaid system that allows people needing long-term care to live in assisted living homes instead of forcing them all to stay in skilled nursing facilities. We need to make changes now.
The most effective thing would be to contact your state representative (not local or county, as Medi-Cal is a state program) and explain that Medi-Cal reform needs to be a high priority. Specifically, the Medi-Cal benefit must be expanded to include assisted living facilities.
Secondly, you can join a local senior advocacy group in your area. I am a member of the Napa County Alliance on Aging. We meet on the Second Tuesday of every month at Queen of the Valley at 8 a.m. If you would like to make a difference in the lives of seniors in Napa County, please join us.
Id like to hear your thoughts on this subject.
Dane Reeves is an administrator at Piners Nursing and Guest Homes. He can be reached at dane@piners.net or 224-7925.
Newspaper aids literacy
There are students the world over who, when they want to learn how to read in English, turn to a Napa-based publication, Easy English Times.
For two decades, Easy English Times has been used as an important real life resource in literacy and English programs. The eight-page newspaper is printed 10 times a year and is distributed all over the world.
The Easy English Times includes articles about current events, life skills and citizenship, and it even showcases student writing. The pieces are written at varying levels of difficulty in order to accommodate a wide array of readers.
Publisher Betty Malmgren started the newspaper along with a few others after realizing that there were English as a Second Language classes that were using outdated and expensive textbooks. Having been a journalist herself, Malmgren decided that a newspaper publication, which is easy to produce, would be a good alternative to textbooks.
Bike commuter honored
Megan Hess Lilla doesnt need Bay Area Bike to Work Day this Thursday as encouragement to get on her bicycle and make her daily commute using pedal power.
She regularly bikes from her house near Fuller Park downtown to an office complex on Soscol Avenue. There she works as lands program assistant for the Land Trust of Napa County.
Its really just 2 miles each way, Lilla said. Theres no real excuse not to.
Lilla has been named Napa Countys bike commuter of the year by the Napa County Bicycle Coalition. Bay Area Bike to Work Day and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission each year announce the winners chosen by bicycle coalitions from each of the nine Bay Area counties.
The award will be presented Saturday at the 5th Annual Napa BikeFest at Oxbow Commons.
City of Napa allows nursery move
A local nursery that has left its home of more than a decade has been granted a landing spot in north Napa at least for now.
DJs Growing Place on Thursday received the city Planning Commissions blessing to move its flower, herb and vegetable growing operation to a 1.47-acre site near Big Ranch Road and Trancas Street.
According to city staff, the business, which husband-and-wife owners Curt and Debbie Gore started in 1992, has been on the lookout for a new home because of a planned land sale at its current site farther north on 4074 Big Ranch, in unincorporated Napa County.
On Monday, Rachel Hale, the property owner at 4074 Big Ranch, disputed the citys account, saying the Gores told her in August 2015 of their intention to end their lease early and move, before the land was put on the market. The planned land sale also has fallen through, making the site available once more, she said.
The move closer to Trancas, however, is not permanent, as DJs new site partially occupies residentially zoned land that could hold up to 10 new homes in the future. Commissioners agreed to give the nursery two years on the property, with the option of a third year.
County OKs Canard winery
Richard and Carolyn Czapleski plan to build a small winery so they can produce their Canard Vineyard wines on the 25-acre property theyve farmed near Calistoga since 1983.
The heart and soul of Napa Valley is small farmers, Richard Czapleski told the Napa County Planning Commission on Wednesday.
They won approval to build a 10,000-gallons-a-year winery at 1016 Dunaweal Lane with up to 70 visitors a week and eight marketing events with up to 30 guests apiece. The approval came by a 2-1 vote, with two commissioners absent.
In many ways, this is a model application, Commissioner Heather Phillips said.
Most candidates endorsing Measure Y
Measure Y has fans and skeptics among the eight candidates running for three Napa County supervisor seats on the June 7 ballot.
The proposed quarter-cent sales tax would raise an estimated $8 million annually and would last for 10 years. Although a general tax, the Board of Supervisors has said money would plug a $68 million funding gap for a $103 million new jail along Highway 221.
In addition, supervisors said they would spend any tax revenue not needed for the jail on childrens programs, such as affordable child care and child abuse prevention.
Running for the 2nd District seat are incumbent Supervisor Mark Luce and challengers Derek Anderson, Ryan Gregory and James Hinton.
Running for the 4th District seat are incumbent Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza and challengers Chris Malan and Diane Shepp. Running for the 5th District seat is Belia Ramos, who is not opposed.
EIR finds no major impacts for Palmaz helipad
A new report analyzing the proposed, private Palmaz heliport east of Napa reaches what is likely to be a controversial conclusionall potential major problems associated with the project can be overcome.
Christian Palmaz wants to fly his helicopter to and from the familys rural home at 4031 Hagen Road near Mount George. The draft environmental impact report said steps can be taken to avoid causing any significant impacts, such as the sound of whirling helicopter rotors disturbing neighbors.
We think the mitigations proposed are feasible and reasonable, said attorney Brian Russell on behalf of the Palmaz family. We think with a less-than-significant impact, it should be approved by the Planning Commission.
Robert Pursell lives near Palmaz Vineyards and doesnt relish the prospect of having a heliport located about 1,200 feet from his childrens bedrooms. He said the report fails to adequately address issues brought up by dozens of project critics who attended a Jan. 14 county meeting.
People warned me the (environmental impact report) would not reflect an honest evaluation of the project and unfortunately, they are correct, Pursell said.
Yountville hotels, V Marketplace sell for record $148 million
In what could be the largest private sale of a Napa County lodging and shopping property, the Vintage Estate of Yountville has sold for $148 million.
On April 26, Brookfield Hotel Properties of Maryland bought the 22-acre Napa Valley property from the Egan, Ghilotti and Sandbach families.
We are thrilled to acquire this iconic property and are excited to be part of this community, said Shai Zelering, managing director, operations and asset management for Brookfield Hotel Properties.
The company declined to comment on the sale price, which was calculated by the Napa County Assessors office from deed records.
The mixed-use estate includes the Vintage Inn and the Villagio Inn & Spa, two restaurants, a spa, meeting space, a three-acre vineyard and more than 43,000 square feet of retail and office space in the V Marketplace.
Queen of the Valley may end inpatient pediatric care
Citing declining numbers of patients and the increased use of specialty pediatric hospitals, Queen of the Valley Medical Center is considering ending inpatient pediatric care services.
That would mean that Napa County children who need to be hospitalized would most likely be sent to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Patients could also be sent to childrens hospitals in Oakland, Davis or elsewhere.
We are reviewing the scope of inpatient pediatric care and the validity of sustaining or suspending this service, said Queen CEO Walt Mickens in an email to staff. There has been a steady decline in volume over the past several years.
Michens cited a variety of factors, including industry trends toward increased outpatient pediatric services, the use of specialty pediatric hospitals that are better equipped and the demographic make-up of Napa, which is generally older and has fewer births than surrounding towns.
A former St. Helena police officer who lives in Solano County was arrested last Thursday on felony stalking and battery charges filed in Idaho.
Scott Collinson, 33, faces two felony charges of stalking and one misdemeanor battery charge. He was booked into the Solano County Jail and will be extradited to Idaho.
Collinson worked for the St. Helena Police Department from 2007 until he medically retired last September.
Its unfortunate and sad, said St. Helena Police Chief Bill Imboden. He was a good officer while he was here. He did his job and was popular among the community and the department.
The charges are related to incidents that occurred in Boise, Idaho. On Dec. 21, two girls under the age of 15 reported being followed by a man whod asked concerning questions about the clothes they were wearing, according to the Boise Police Department.
On April 2, an adult woman told Boise police shed been approached by a man who asked her questions about her clothing and then touched her inappropriately, police said.
With the help of surveillance footage, Boise police say they were able to identify the man as Collinson. A warrant for his arrest was issued on May 3, and he was arrested on May 5 at his home in Cordelia near Fairfield.
Boise police say the investigation is ongoing, and detectives suspect there might be additional victims who havent come forward.
The St. Helena Police Departments role in the investigation was limited to giving the U.S. Marshals some contacts inside the Fairfield Police Department and verifying that Collinson hadnt undergone any specialized tactical training during his time in St. Helena, Imboden said.
The warrant was served by the Fairfield Police Departments Special Operations Team and Major Crimes Unit, in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals. According to Fairfield police, the departments Crisis Negotiation Team was able to contact Collinson inside his house and take him into custody without incident.
A photo taken at the scene shows an officer in tactical gear armed with a rifle behind an armored vehicle, and Collinson with his hands behind his head. Imboden said police typically take extra precautions when dealing with suspects who have law enforcement training.
A Napa native, Collinson graduated from Napa High School in 2000 and from the Napa Valley College Police Academy in 2004. He worked for the Cal State Hayward Police Department and the Novato Police Department before coming to St. Helena.
In August 2013, while out on medical leave from the St. Helena Police Department, Collinson was cited for DUI after crashing his motorcycle in Fairfield. He eventually returned to work for a few months before going out on medical leave again in March 2014. He never returned to work after that.
Imboden said theres no reason to believe Collinson was involved in any inappropriate activity while serving in St. Helena, and the department hasnt reopened any of his old cases in light of the new charges.
We certainly hope that Scott wasnt involved in these allegations, but the legal system will have to take its course and it will be up to the people of Boise to decide whether or not hes guilty of what hes been charged with, Imboden said. If he did anything, I hope he gets the help he needs so he can move forward and have a productive life.
It was a dream come true: Gunilda Jean Rianda wanted a gathering place for seniors, and in 2008 her former home was opened as the Rianda House Senior Activity Center. Wednesday, May 4, about 20 seniors gathered to celebrate the eighth anniversary with a birthday party and an open house.
Rianda House is unique in its focus on engaging the community of seniors in the upper Napa Valley with inventive and creative in-house programs. It also partners with other local agencies to address the needs of seniors.
Executive Director Julie Spencer said the organization builds on the sense of community as it creates a perfect gathering spot to meet and make friends.
For instance, Dr. James Keolker is providing a Power Meditation for Seniors class at 9 and 10:15 a.m. on May 13, 20 and 27.
There will also be a presentation of The Fight for Womens Suffrage in the United States by Dianne Fraser on Wednesday, May 18, at 3:30 p.m., and a Nature Walk with Ken Stanton on Wednesday, May 25, at 8:30 a.m. for a 2-mile walk at Lake Hennessey. These are just a few of this months programs.
Last year, according to Spencer, Rianda House opened its doors to more than 950 individuals, who frequented the center some 10,750 times. This year, as the organization designates May as a Rally4Rianda fundraising month, there will be a Sip & Support event from noon to 4 p.m. at Velo Vino on Thursday, May 12, and a Classic Car Show from noon to 3 p.m. on May 21 at the Tre Posti Event Garden, 641 Main Street in St. Helena.
For information call 963-8555 or visit RiandaHouse.org.
For the first time in its 27-year history, Napa Valley Wine Train is planning a service that will deposit tourists at a string of Upvalley wineries for tours and tastings.
Participants say this elegant service, called Quattro Vino, is a way for wineries to host visitors without further congesting Highway 29.
Wine Trains new owners, Noble House Hotels & Resorts and partner Brooks Street, said the new excursion train will stop at four Napa Valley wineries.
For $249 per person, riders will board a new one-car train a second car will be added shortly for a six-hour, 36-mile tour up and down the valley.
The train will stop at the Robert Mondavi, Charles Krug, Merryvale and V. Sattui wineries in Oakville and St. Helena where guests will enjoy tours and tastings. On board theyll choose from a small bites menu. The new excursion is set to launch on June 1.
We are incredibly excited to launch the Quattro Vino Tour as a new Napa Valley Wine Train offering, said Pat Colee, chairman and founder of Noble House.
Before Noble House and partners bought the train, the only winery tours offered were mostly one-way train excursions and the winery was reached via bus or shuttle. Those tours will continue. The traditional Wine Train lunch and dinner trains will continue as well.
However, passengers taking the Quattro Vino tours will simply hop off the train and walk to the wineries, each located adjacent to the tracks.
Tom Davies, president at V. Sattui, said he was really excited to participate after being approached about the Quattro Vino tour.
We need to find ways to get visitors out of their cars, especially with the gridlock weve been having lately and the construction on Highway 29, Davies said.
Anything we can do to get guests out of their cars and visit the winery is a win for the community, he said.
Since purchasing the Napa Valley Wine Train in September 2015, Noble House has been making small enhancements to the Wine Train, including buying the first 36-seat 1920s Pullman rail car that will be the home of Quattro Vino. A second 1920s Pullman open car will also be added to the Quattro Vino tour.
The new Pullmans and current Wine Train cars are undergoing an interior makeover to feature a hip and contemporary vibe while preserving the classic elegance and charm of the cars, Colee said.
The cars will have a lot of character, reminiscent of the eras in which they were built, said Colee.
There will only be one Quattro Vino train per day, said Colee. Using sections of parallel tracks along the route, there is room for a train to pull over so another can pass, he said.
We dont want to make it too commercial. We want it to be a very special experience, said Colee. There are only four stops because there has to be enough time for riders to get off the train, tour and taste at each winery and then get back on in six hours, he noted.
The idea of tourists getting on and off the train was once a hot button issue for locals. When the Wine Train opened for business in 1989, some residents protested any stops at all, saying the train would disgorge hordes of people at one time and ruin the quality of life for locals.
Colee said he hasnt heard about any such controversy today.
I think that issue is over with, and weve had nothing but enthusiasm about what we are planning, said Colee.
The train is regulated by the Public Utilities Commission, and the new ownership has received permission to stop on the tracks, said Jake Donoghue, chief executive officer of Noble House Hotels & Resorts.
No other train uses the tracks, which are owned by Noble House and partner Brooks Street.
As for other changes planned for the Wine Train, Colee said we have a lot of ideas, including doing something special to the station itself, but nothing they could discuss yet.
The railroad line was originally built and operated by Samuel Brannan in 1864 as a tourist railroad to take visiting San Franciscans as they arrived by ferry in south Napa to Calistoga. In the 1980s, it was purchased by Vince DeDomenico, the man behind the Rice-a-Roni brand of products, the San Francisco treat made famous by television ads featuring San Francisco cable cars and a memorable jingle.
Before the purchase by Noble House and partners in late 2015, the Wine Train was embroiled in a lawsuit when a group of mostly black women was asked to leave the train for reportedly being too boisterous. They filed a lawsuit that was recently settled.
Nearly 20 years ago, Tuesdays With Morrie was a best-seller. Its the tender story of the relationship between writer Mitch Albom and his favorite college professor, Morrie Schwartz. On graduation day, Albom gives Morrie a gift and promises to stay in touch, but he never does. Sixteen years later, Albom remembers his promise and reconnects with Morrie, who he learns is dying. For the next 14 Tuesdays, a student and teacher meet again for their final class together to discuss the meaning of life.
Last Friday, I attended a retirement reception for former St. Marys College Dean Steve Sloane. Before losing their Lake County ranch to last summers devastating fires, professor Sloane and his wife, Kit, ran a foundation that helped people with disabilities gain self-confidence by learning to ride horses.
His Politics Department chair eloquently recalled Steves many contributions. Then, fighting back tears, Steve reached out to embrace several former students, saying, It was always all about you.
Last week, I also attended a celebration for another former St. Marys colleague, Dr. Paul Zingg, who is retiring after 13 years as president at CSU Chico. Numerous faculty, staff and community leaders praised Paul for his remarkable record of achievement at Chico; however, it was Student Body President Taylor Herrens comments that were among the most compelling.
Ms. Herren recalled how, as a first-year student, she charged into the presidents office to demand a meeting to discuss consideration of a student proposal that urged the university to no longer include fossil fuel companies in its investment portfolio. To her surprise, President Zingg came out, invited her into his office to listen to her concerns, and then took her group to lunch to talk more and plan a response.
Ms. Herren, who also heads the California State Student Association, thanked President Zingg for being willing to listen to a student who had no power or credibility.
Dr. Zingg recalls, I took Taylors concerns seriously, treated her as partner in the work of the university, and recognized that no one could speak better for students than students.
While I long ago forgot the specifics of Tuesdays With Morrie, I often begin campus talks with an adapted quote therefrom: Teachers touch eternity, they never know where their influence stops.
On Sunday, my wifes former student Sami Abusaad came to visit. Sami traveled to St. Marys College years ago from the historic town of Bethlehem and currently lives in Yountville. I left them alone in the living room but could hear them talking and laughing over the next two hours.
As they reminisced, it was clear that a young man who came from halfway around the world had forever been positively influenced through a relationship that would eternally bind him and his former teacher. The next day he texted, Thank you, Nushi, youve been such a blessing to me and countless others. I feel so privileged that our paths crossed.
My boyhood friend and longtime colleague, Dr. Mario Rivas, often shares with students and educators that he flunked out of Oaklands Laney College at the end of his first year. After serving in the Air Force, Mario eventually returned to Laney and went on to obtain a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.
When asked why he went back to Laney, Rivas quickly answers, Mrs. Johnson, adding, She smiled at me! Mario and I went to an all-boys Catholic high school and few teachers ever smiled at us
I recently visited Mario and my alma mater, St. Marys High School in Berkeley, with another of my wifes students from Barcelona, Dr. Tono Pena, who would like his daughter to study there. While touring the campus, I encountered two of my own former students. Amy Gonzalez, or Ms. G. as her students call her, invited me into her Diversity Club meeting, gave me a hug and whispered, Youll always be my dean. Andrea Panlilio and I also embraced as she asked about my granddaughter, Briahn, whom she had advised about college last year.
As high schools and colleges graduate another class of young men and women in the coming weeks, countless teachers and students will say goodbye to one another many promising to stay in touch. The years will pass and some students will recall, or someday realize for the first time, the powerful impact that a former teacher had on their lives. Many will reunite in the years ahead and rediscover that they are bound together forever.
Tom Brown is a St. Helena resident who served as a dean at Saint Marys College of California for 27 years. He currently is a consultant and speaker at colleges and universities that are seeking to keep more of the students they enroll. Send comments, questions or suggestions for future columns to: thedean@tbrownassociates.com.
General
The NATO Summit of Heads of State and Government in Warsaw, Poland will be held on 0809 July 2016. The meetings will be chaired by the NATO Secretary General.
This first media advisory is intended to provide information about accreditation, visa, accommodation arrangements for media representatives. A second media advisory released closer to the event will provide information on a broader array of media-related topics.
The meetings will take place at the Warsaw National Stadium (al. Ksiecia J. Poniatowskiego 1, 03-901 Warsaw - Poland). The Media Centre will be collocated with the Summit venue and will be open from Thursday 7 July until Sunday 10 July. More details regarding the opening hours will be provided at a later stage.
Media Accreditation procedures
Media Accreditation is now open. Applications must be made online here: https://my.hq.nato.int/.
Applications for accreditation must be made no later than 18:00 (Brussels time) on Thursday 23 June. All media need to make an accreditation request, including media with permanent NATO accreditation. In addition, NATO pool cards for individual Summit events will be needed procedures will be detailed in a subsequent media advisory.
Summit Media Credentials must be collected in Warsaw and only in person by each individual applicant. Each applicant must present himself or herself at the NATO Media Accreditation office (hours and days listed below) located near the Summit site.
In accordance with NATO media accreditation procedures, NATO reserves the right to deny or withdraw accreditation of media representatives from media organizations who abuse the privileges or put the accreditation to improper use or act in a way not consistent with the principles of the organization.
The Accreditation Office will operate in the vicinity of the Summit location. It will be open for pass collection on:
Tuesday 05 July: 12h00 to 18h00
Wednesday 06 July: 08h00 to 20h00
Thursday 07 July: 08h00 to 22h00
Friday 08 July: 06h00 to 20h00
Saturday 09 July: 06h00 to 15h00
IMPORTANT:
1/ The final screen of the on-line application process displays a summary of all the data submitted. This is the DATA CONFIRMATION SCREEN. It is strongly recommended that media representatives PRINT this Data Confirmation screen and bring it when collecting the media credentials (pass) in Warsaw, when using the shuttle bus the first time and when requesting visa.
2/ Polish citizens are requested to fill in their PESEL number (Polish ID number) when submitting the accreditation request.
Visas
All journalists requiring visas for Poland will be responsible for ensuring that they have the appropriate visa to enter the country. Media are advised to first request accreditation, and apply for visas in good time.
Further details are available on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: http://www.msz.gov.pl/en/travel_to_poland/visa/
Accommodation and transport
Media are encouraged to make early arrangements for their accommodation in Warsaw. The Host Nation Poland has identified a number of hotels recommended for the media representatives.
In order to make the hotel reservation it is recommended to contact the official partner for accommodation Mazurkas Travel - nato2016.media@mazurkas.pl. Mazurkas Travel will share the link to the on-line reservation system for media representatives and explain the booking procedure.
There will be regular shuttle transport for accredited media between the designated media hotels and the Media Centre. Details on the shuttle bus schedule will be made available closer to the Summit. Media representatives can also book accommodation in other hotels, but no shuttle bus will be available.
Preliminary information on the media programme
The programme of the summit is not yet finalized. Further information may be forthcoming in early July, and a definitive media programme will be delivered to media representatives upon accreditation. Currently, and in order to guide media travel plans, NATO is working on a tentative schedule that would see the Summits formal opening during the afternoon on Friday 8 July, and its end late afternoon on Saturday 9 July 2016. Other events might take place in the margins of the morning of 8 July and the day before. We will confirm details in due course.
Basic information about the media centre
The International Media Centre (IMC) is the central distribution point for Summit information and material including live and recorded video and audio, photo and other. Further details will be issued in due course, but the IMC will include:
A filing centre including workstations equipped with internet connectors (RJ 45) and wifi, standard electrical outlets (230 V). Media representatives wishing to use the landline connection should bring their own cable in order to connect to internet. The filing centre will also include a number of ISDN lines and distribution panels for the live video and audio feeds
Information Desk and media office support
Internal Television Circuit (CCTV), for live and recorded broadcasts, information about the program, press conferences schedules and other information;
NATO and Host Nation Press Offices
Editing area for broadcasters (closed and open working spaces) including broadcast live video and audio feeds, and transmission services
Television stand up positions indoor and outdoor; satellite truck parking area
Host TV and Eurovision Master Controls
An area for press conferences (including pre-cabled facilities) and interview areas;
A fully equipped TV studio wired for live transmission
Individual lockers in the filing and broadcasting areas
Hosted catering and food / drink for purchase.
Security checks of media belongings: Security personnel will have full authority to examine and test any equipment and any other items brought by media to any secured site including the Media Centre. Media are advised to plan enough time to allow for security checks each time they plan to enter the grounds.
Broadcasting / Host TV
Polish National Television (TVP) will operate as Host TV. TVP will cover all official NATO Summit events as well as some events on the Summit margins.
Live video and audio feeds will be available in the IMC (details regarding distribution are below), without added graphics or chyrons. Host TV will be shown LIVE on Closed Circuit TV screens throughout the IMC (headsets available for audio language selection) and via NATO Website http://www.nato.int/. Live satellite feeds of main summit events events will be provided by NATO free of change without encryption and no downlink charges. This is arranged by NATO and the Polish Host as a courtesy to the general public with the understanding that the video and audio may be used only for appropriate news and public affairs uses.
Dedicated broadcast workspace in the IMC will be made available for TV and radio use. It is comprised of a mix of open editing space with workstations for 3 and small editing booths (3m/3m, all with table, chairs, electricity and internet connection). The editing spaces will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Booking an editing space must be done by individual TV or Radio organizations and for themselves, in full transparency.
EBU/Eurovision is handling the booking of TV and radio workspaces on behalf of NATO (contacts mentioned below).
TV & Radio workspaces will be cabled by default with one video cable (BNC termination) switched permanently to the TVP / NATO PRIMARY POOL signal. Format will be as origin, HD1080/50i with embedded audio & translation channels. Broadcasters who require the other HOST signals (secondary POOL, National Briefing rooms, Replays) etc., switchable onto this video cable and / or who require a down-converted SD SDI version of all HOST signals will need to book a matrix router panel with Eurovision.
Eurovision will also provide for its television clients comprehensive broadcast facilities, including live stand-up positions for live programme inserts, tape play out in multiple formats, tailor made production and transmission packages and multi-signal distribution of Host TV video and audio signals.
Booking requests for a dedicated editing space and/or other Eurovision assistance should be addressed to the contacts at the end of this advisory before 12:00 GMT on 1 July 2016.
Summit organizers have foreseen a number of indoor and outdoor Stand-up Positions for TV at the IMC. These positions can be reserved:
EITHER by contacting the host nation on a first come, first served basis, and TV media who opt for this option need to be completely self-supporting (contact information is below);
OR positions can also be reserved via Eurovision which is managing use of some stand-up space for its clients. Please contact them directly (contact information is above) to make your arrangements.
Bringing equipment to the IMC
Any large amount of equipment that media would wish to install in the Media Centre should be put into place on 7 July. Further details will follow.
Uplink trucks (live transmission trucks) will be given access to the open-sky car park at the IMC. Electricity supply system (power generator) will be in place; TV teams should bring their own cables to connect themselves to the electric network (at least 80 meters, 125 A, 63A, 32A, 23A).
All trucks must pre-register and provide details (e.g., registration number, dimensions) at http://ow.ly/4n9cg5 no later than 18.00 (Brussels time) on Thursday 23 June. Drivers and technicians operating these vehicles must have the Summit Media accreditation.
A more complete schedule and a separate technical advisory on broadcasting aspects will be available closer to the summit (e.g., free satellite transmissions, live streams, and distribution and recording points).
Contact Information
NATO Media Coordinator
Mrs. Alina Coca
Phone: +32.2.707.5041
Email: NATOSummitMedia2@hq.nato.int
Host Nation Media Coordinator
Mrs. Joanna Wajda
Phone: +48.22.523.71.83
Email: natowarsawsummit2016@msz.gov.pl
Logistics (stand ups allocation, other logistics related questions)
Col. Artur Golawski
Phone: +48.261.846.519
Email: natosummit.medialogistics@mon.gov.pl
Host Nation Broadcaster - TVP
Mrs. Grazyna Baczynska
Phone: +48.601.600.286
Email: grazyna.baczynska@tvp.pl
Eurovision
TV Special Events
Mr. Ivan Stojanovic
newsoperations@eurovision.net
Tel: +41 22 717 2225 or +381 63 20 66 11
Eurovision Radio Operations
Ms. Julia Lonicer
Radio-Ops@ebu.ch
Tel: +41 79 230 1508 or +41 22 717 2658
Accommodation
Email: nato2016.media@mazurkas.pl
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UK defense secretary holds phone talk with Russia counterpart
US to attempt set Russia oil price cap above $60 per barrel?
Russia, Turkey defense ministers confer about Ukraine situation
Armenia official: Terms for buying, building houses for those displaced from Artsakh have improved
Saudi Arabia forum set to draw American business leaders despite existing tensions
Iran plans to increase natural gas exports to Turkey
Iran army ground forces holding exercise in West Azarbaijan Province
Sovereignty renunciation to be punished in Armenia with 12-15 years of imprisonment, as per justice ministry draft
2 pilots killed in Russia fighter jet crash
Russia, France defense ministers discuss Ukraine
Fighter jet crashes into house in Russias Irkutsk
150 residents of 3 Karabakh settlements handed over to Azerbaijan get compensation certificates
Rishi Sunak confirms UK premier bid
Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson hold talks
Biden slammed for 'scary' long pause during interview
Elite US troops conducting exercises on Ukraine border
Iran MP: Military exercises on Azerbaijan border are decisive response to Israel
Xi Jinping elected Communist Party of China Central Committee general secretary
Armenia envoy presents credentials to Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency chair
Hungary to approve by years end Sweden, Finland petitions to join NATO
US researchers debunk main theory for origin of life
Iranian MP: Iran will conduct military exercises wherever it deems necessary
Finnish delegation to visit Ankara to discuss NATO membership
Social media giants are likely to oppose Turkey's new law
Pastor steals $900,000 to buy stocks and car in U.S.
Lithuanian President Nauseda is named most popular politician in country
Charles III will embark on longest tour of world in history of royal family
Deputy Director of Institute of Oriental Studies of RAS: Baku's goal is that Karabakh has no Armenian population
Hurricane Roslyn in Pacific Ocean intensifies to third category
Italy's new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, begins forming government
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has brought an action against Mathias Depfner, the head of one of the largest media companies in Germany Axel Springer AG, for expressed words of support to the German satirist Ian Bemerman who had cited an insulting poem about the Turkish President on ZDF TV channel , reports Deutsche Welle.
The Turkish government required to impose a ban on Depfner, after he said he was laughing at jokes about Erdogan. In case the ban is applied, it will not allow Depfner to make any statements about Bemerman. In addition, Erdogan also plans to file a lawsuit to the Superior Court if the ban is not satisfied, said the lawyer of the Turkish president Ralph Hecker.
On April 10 the Turkish government requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany to initiate a criminal case against the TV host Jan Bemerman . After that, the Justice Minister of Germany Heiko Maas replied that the issue of whether Bemermans poem is a satire or a slander will be considered in a prejudicial inquiry. He noted that the trial against Bemerman will be held in any case.
Bemerman cited the poem on March 31 at Neo Magazin Royale show on German TV channel ZDF. In his satire, the author accused the Turkish leader of oppressing Kurds and Christians , as well as closing opposition newspapers.
YEREVAN. Everything is studied, and there are reactions, Vahram Baghdasaryan, head of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia National Assembly (RPA NA) Faction, on Tuesday told reporters in the NA, and reflecting on the fact that the names of 37 Armenian citizens are in the Panama Papers.
To the remark that the names of Armenian officials likewise may be in these documents, he responded: If there are such names, the respective agencies are conducting studies within their framework (). So far it is merely information; it is simply a print. Lets be patient, see the relevant authorities conduct relevant studies; then we will draw conclusions.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released a database, in which there are around 214 thousand offshore companies that are registered in 21 different locations. This information was presented along the lines of the investigation into the Panama Papers, which contain information on the aforesaid offshore companies and those who are behind them.
The section on Armenia has 37 names, including Mihran Poghosyan, now former Head of the Compulsory Enforcement Service of Judicial Orders of the Republic of Armenia, who had resigned from this position, and in connection with his name being mentioned in the Panama Papers.
The Armenian National Congress of America received on Monday a letter from the U.S. Embassy Ankara in response to a public call for a principled American stand against the attacks upon Garo Paylan, and an official expression of U.S. concern for his safety.
We are aware that Mr. Paylan was one of a number of parliamentarians from several political parties injured after fighting broke out during a recent debate in parliament on a contentious and politically charged issue, the Embassy said.
While the ANCA notes, with satisfaction, that this letter confirms that Garo Paylan is, in fact, on the U.S. government's radar screen, we hold that this response falls far short of specifically calling out the attacks on Mr. Paylan.
Our reading of the text is that it makes general reference to broad-based American commitments to freedom of expression and also cites the existence of official U.S. reporting on discrimination within Turkey against minorities. These are, of course, welcome. But they do not amount to a U.S. condemnation of the attacks and threats against Mr. Paylan, or an expression of concern for his security and safety, ANCA said in a statement.
Even if I wished so, I cant be responsible for everything Mihran Poghosyan, ex-Head of the Compulsory Enforcement Service of Judicial Orders of Armenia, did.
Armenian National Assembly (NA) Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov told the aforementioned to journalists Tuesday, referring to the Panama document previously published by ICIJ. The latter includes the names of 37 Armenian citizens involved in the offshore schemes. The name of Mihran Poghosyan is also in the list.
To the question as to whether people who have registered their businesses in offshores are guilty, Sharamzanav said: Im neither a judge nor a lawyer or representative of law enforcement system. All those who will turn out to have been included in suspicious transactions, complicity and crime should be punished, regardless of whether that is me or you.
In his words, so far they have come across no name of an official but for Mihran Poghosyan. When speaking about democracy, we should consider the presumption of innocence; a person is innocent unless the court has proved his guilt,he added.
Armenian Ambassador to Bulgaria Armen Sargsyan extended his credentials to the Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev Tuesday.
After the solemn ceremony, the Bulgarian President and Ambassador Sargsyan had a private talks, during which Rosen Plevneliev attached importance to the further development of historical friendly ties between the two countries. He also noted that the sides have a great potential to deepen the cooperation in the commercial and economic spheres.
The Bulgarian President expressed hope that the newly-appointed Ambassador of Armenia will contribute to the further development and expansion of the ties between the two countries through his powers and experience.
For his part, Ambassador Sargsyan noted that it is necessary to exert every effort to give a new impetus to the Armenian-Bulgarian relations. The Ambassador also briefed the President on the key directions of Armenias foreign policy, referring to the recent developments concerning the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and the Armenian-Turkish relations.
Apart from this, the interlocutors discussed prospects for organizing high-level bilateral visits in the future.
COCOA BEACH and PORT CANAVERAL, Florida The 7th annual Thunder on Cocoa Beach super boat race has returned once again to Floridas Space Coast. According to event organizers, this years race will feature more world class race teams than ever before.
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Friday May 13: Parade of Super Boats
From 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., the Super Boat Parade will head south along State Road A1A from Port Canaveral to downtown Cocoa Beach. A block party and VIP race party will be take place later that night in downtown Cocoa Beach.
Saturday May 14: Race Village Opens
The Race Village on Dave Nesbit Drive in the Cove at Port Canaveral will open from noon until 10 p.m. on May 14, 2016. The event will feature the powerboats on display along with food, drink, live music, and the 2016 Miss Thunder on Cocoa Beach Bikini Contest .
Sunday May 16: Race Day
On May 15, 2016, the first super boat race start time is at noon, followed by a second race that begins at 2 p.m. The race route runs from Jetty Park to Lori Wilson Park. The race will also pass The Cocoa Beach Pier, Fischer Park, and Shepard Park.
For more information, visit www.thunderoncocoabeach.com
Professor Dianne Stewart and 2016 PhD graduate Nicole Varga are the recipients of this years Eleanor Main Graduate Mentor Awards. The awards, established in 2015 by the Laney Graduate School to recognize graduate faculty and graduate students for mentoring excellence, are presented annually during the graduate school's commencement celebrations.
"Once again, we had a tremendous pool of nominations for these awards, says Lisa Tedesco, dean of Laney Graduate School. Mentorship is a cornerstone of graduate education. Rewarding those that do it well not only brings visibility to the importance of mentoring, but it is also an opportunity for us at the Laney Graduate School to pause and recognize those faculty and students that are setting the standard for high-quality mentorship.
Stewart, associate professor of religion and African American studies, is also director of the Emory College Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, with the express purpose of mentoring students into graduate school. For Stewart, mentoring students is a professional responsibility that is also deeply fulfilling.
Over my years on the graduate faculty, I have tried to provide a high level of mentorship support for a wide range of graduate students with the aim of advancing the careers of, and creating options for, the most talented and unburdened students as well as those beset by obstacles," Stewart says. "For me, mentoring is a vocational commitment and endeavor one that I find very fulfilling, despite the sacrifice and vulnerabilities involved.
Nicole Varga, a 2016 PhD graduate in psychology, credits mentoring for her academic success and career path.
As a first-generation college student, I always relied heavily on guidance and encouragement from mentors at all stages of my educational trajectory. With the support of my mentors at Ursinus College, and through the incredible mentorship Ive received from my graduate adviser Patricia Bauer here at Laney, I became the first person in my family to attain a bachelor of science, a masters, and a doctorate," Varga says.
Mentoring "indispensable" to graduate education
Beyond the recognition of their own mentoring practices, both Stewart and Varga appreciate the importance of positioning mentorship as a priority in the Laney Graduate School through programming as well as incentivizing mentoring success through the Eleanor Main Graduate Mentor Awards.
Graduate programs are as good as the students they produce, and mentoring is crucial to building and maintaining the most reputable and desirable graduate programs, says Stewart. In the rigorous climate of publish or perish, mentoring is often overlooked or undervalued as a measurable factor in advancing the university's prestige and stature.
"The best way to signal that mentoring is indispensable, indeed a requirement, is to reward outstanding mentors and provide a range of incentives and training opportunities to produce a climate of excellent mentorship across the structures of the Laney Graduate School," she says.
Varga agrees. Graduate training is a time in which students are expected to become experts in their respective fields. Although much of the content we are expected to know is acquired through coursework, the professional skills needed to become successful are often passed down through interactions with our mentors," she explains.
"I think it is important that the Laney Graduate School honor those who go the extra mile in order to prepare undergraduate and graduate students for the world outside the classroom and to provide students with the tools necessary to make the most out of their education," she says.
Stewart and Varga were formally recognized as the 2016 recipients of the Eleanor Main Graduate Mentor Awards on May 9 during the Laney Graduate School commencement ceremony for doctoral students.
Honoring Eleanor Main's legacy
The mentor awards are named in honor of the late Eleanor C. Main, who joined the Emory faculty in 1969. During her time at Emory, Main served as chair of the Department of Political Science, director of the Division of Educational Studies, acting dean of Emory College, interim dean of the Laney Graduate School, associate dean of both the College and Laney Graduate School, and associate vice provost for graduate studies. She was also a recipient of the prestigious Thomas Jefferson Award, which honors Emory faculty or staff who have significantly enriched the intellectual and civic life of the Emory community.
It is fitting that these awards are named in honor of Dr. Eleanor Main, says Tedesco. Her legacy at the Laney Graduate School and, indeed, Emory University is one of strong advocacy and mentorship for colleagues and students. She was an outstanding leader who inspired colleagues and students with her wisdom, passion, generosity and remarkable dedication to advancing the mission of this great University.
Fast Facts Howard Chiou School: Laney Graduate School Department/degree program: MD/PhD Program Research/dissertation topic: Changing Culture in Healthcare Other degrees and schools: Bachelor's degree in human biology and master's degree in anthropology, both from Stanford University Plans after graduation: Complete his MD at Emory School of Medicine, then considering a career in public health and preventive medicine Meet the Class of 2016 Read more profiles of students in Emory's Class of 2016, including graduating students from each of the nine schools that make up the University.
Many aspiring doctors dread the words "medical error," but for Emory graduate student Howard Chiou, they have served to fuel a greater curiosity into hospital culture.
Like many graduate students, that curiosity set him upon a path of dedicated research and discovery, eventually becoming a launching pad for his doctoral dissertation, Changing Culture in Healthcare.
My research topic basically developed itself after I learned about the enormity of the problem of medical error, says Chiou, who will receive a PhD in anthropology through the Laney Graduate School on May 9.
Medical errors contribute to tens of thousands of preventable deaths in the United States each year. But through his research, Chiou found that the medical community was also talking more and more about its culture and particularly its struggles to change.
I wondered if anthropologists might be able to help doctors and nurses, but also realized that understanding hospital cultures anthropologically might teach anthropologists about what that culture is and how it works, he says.
Medical errors and the anthropologist
Interests in science and anthropology merged early for Chiou, who grew up in New York City. He was accepted to Stanford University for undergraduate studies, where he majored in human biology and also obtained a masters degree in anthropology.
After deciding to pursue both a PhD in anthropology and an MD, Chiou began researching graduate programs. He discovered that Emorys Laney Graduate School was, at the time, one of only a few institutions in the country that offered the joint MD/PhD in anthropology.
I loved the strength and breadth of the MD/PhD Program, as well as its interdisciplinary connections with the School of Medicine and the Rollins School of Public Health, says Chiou.
Under the direction of his advisers Emory anthropology professors Peter Brown and Carol Worthman and physicians Melvin J. Konner, who is also an anthropology professor, and Timothy G. Buchman, director of the Emory Center for Critical Care Chiou got to work.
The goal of his research has been to to improve our understanding of hospitals as cultural and social systems undergoing dramatic change, Chiou explains.
As a medical anthropologist, Chiou was embedded in hospital units implementing a new intervention that was meant to improve patient safety through checklists and improve teamwork between doctors and nurses.
I combined tools from traditional cultural anthropology and healthcare quality improvement to study two hospital units in the U.S. and one in Australia, he says.
Although all sites received the same intervention, there was substantial variation between the sites in its implementation, and I argue that explaining this variation requires an anthropological understanding of healthcare.
Hospitals as cultures
When considering the impact of his work, Chiou notes, In healthcare, we tend to view hospital changes as technical, but I argue that even the simplest checklist requires complex social and cultural change.
I'm hoping that my work might provide those seeking to improve healthcare with new ways from which to think about creating their own changes, he adds.
Ever the anthropologist, Chiou also has thoughts about how his work might impact the study of culture itself. I think that the hospital offers a really neat laboratory for anthropologists, he says. Some of my professors have joked that my research interests are a bit old-school, as I'm interested in thinking about how to think about culture.
But Chiou contends that understanding hospital cultures not only tells us about an important part of our society, but also provides a useful lens from which we can draw insights on how to think about how cultures and organizations work more generally.
After receiving his PhD, Chiou will continue his work towards earning an MD, with an anticipated graduation date of 2017. Hes now considering a career in public health and preventive medicine.
When asked whats next, Chiou expresses excitement about the possibilities before him. I have so much more to learn, he says. Although I'd like to stay involved in working to help improve health care, I'm also really excited about the idea that we should be doing more to prevent patients from becoming sick in the first place.
Chious research and ambitions embody the graduate student experience, says Laney Graduate School Dean Lisa Tedesco.
At the Laney Graduate School, we are dedicated to training tomorrows leaders, she says. We expect our students to do transformative work and to leave Emory prepared to engage complex problems in the full range of their complexities.
Howard has been an exemplary graduate student, and I look forward to seeing where his curiosity, ambition and dedication lead him next.
CSUF College of Education faculty member Christine Mayfield, far right, teaches Suzan Sabagh, from left, Rania Bacalnoni and Nesren Mouhtasb an arts-focused curriculum for Syrian refugee children.
Samar Katbi traveled to Turkey and witnessed the need to train teachers to educate Syrian children who are refugees of war.
These families fled their homeland and lost everything because of war, said Katbi of Irvine, who came to the U.S. nearly 20 years ago from Syria. These children have no access to Turkeys schools kids are left without education.
Cal State Fullertons Ding-Jo H. Currie stepped in to help after learning about the plight of the Syrian children at a monthly interfaith meeting she hosts in her home.
Katbi, a former third-grade teacher and principal who founded Minaret Academy, an Islamic school in Anaheim, and Maria Khani, founder of A Country Called Syria, a traveling exhibit of artifacts from Syrian culture, were seeking assistance in training local Syrian American women volunteering to help Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan this summer.
The volunteers plan to offer instruction to teachers working with children affected by war and displacement. People have been fleeing Syria since 2011, due to the civil war, many living as refugees in Middle Eastern countries. As a result, millions of Syrian children are not attending school.
The children and teachers are facing trauma and family loss, and learning has been a challenge, due to the lack of teachers and psychological adjustments, said Currie, a former chancellor of Coast Community College District who now teaches in the Universitys Educational Leadership Department. My question was, What can we do to help?'
Currie turned to colleagues Lisa Kirtman, associate dean of the College of Education, and Christine Mayfield and Kristine Quinn, both lecturers in elementary and bilingual education, who offered their support. Mayfield and Quinn volunteered to develop an arts-focused curriculum to teach the women who were educators and professionals in their homeland.
We both teach the social studies methods course in the multiple-subject credential program and encourage our students to become active global citizens, said Quinn. Were always trying to model the goals we set for our students. In a small way, we are working locally to act globally. We cannot ignore what is happening around the world, especially when its affecting children in such profound ways. In war, children are always the largest victims.
A two-day, teacher-training workshop was held recently for the Syrian American volunteers, including Katbi. They learned teaching strategies, techniques and insights on how they can assist teachers in refugee camps. The curriculum focuses on such topics as creating safe learning spaces, student-centered engagement in classrooms and using art to facilitate expressions of emotions.
We developed an arts-based approach because art is universal across cultures and art heals, Mayfield said. We also wanted to include lessons on how teachers can create a safe environment, where children can learn, exchange ideas, begin to trust again and feel a sense of normalcy without fear.
Organizing the workshop was a way to give back to the community on a global scale and foster building interfaith bridges of understanding, tolerance and acceptance, Currie said.
This is an example of showing our Titan spirit our passion of service, of connecting the world and demonstrating through action how we are a humanity of one, she added.
15:04
Queen Elizabeth has been caught on camera saying Chinese officials were "very rude" to the British ambassador during a state visit to Britain by President Xi Jinping last year.She made the comments at a garden party at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, the same day that Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, was filmed making undiplomatic remarks about Nigeria and Afghanistan being corrupt countries.
His comments were especially awkward as he is hosting both countries' leaders at an anti-corruption conference in London on Thursday, while the queen's comments are not helpful to the British government's determined efforts to court Beijing to boost trade ties with China.Under her constitutional role, the 90-year-old monarch never makes any politically or diplomatically sensitive comments in public, and it is rare for the content of her private conversations to be revealed.In footage broadcast by the BBC, the queen is seen meeting senior police officer Lucy D'Orsi, who is introduced by an official as having been in charge of security during Xi's visit in October last year.
"Oh, bad luck," the queen says in response.
Orsi then describes her dealings with Chinese officials as "quite a testing time" and recounts that at one point they had walked out of a meeting and told her "the trip was off".
The queen says: "They were very rude to the ambassador."The BBC reported that in China, items about the queen's remarks were censored from its news bulletins.The Chinese authorities often censor items they object to from foreign news bulletins, which can only be seen by very few people in China as foreign TV channels are only allowed in high-end hotels and a tiny number of select apartment buildings.
A spokeswoman for the queen said: "We do not comment on the queen's private conversations. However, the Chinese state visit was extremely successful and all parties worked closely to ensure it proceeded smoothly.
"Xi's visit was full of pomp and ceremony, with Cameron and his finance minister George Osborne keen to impress the Chinese leader and present Britain as China's firmest friend in Europe.
The queen has been careful to keep her views to herself during her 64-year reign, but several other members of Britain's royal family have made undiplomatic comments about China in the past.The queen's husband, Prince Philip, warned some British students in China in the 1980s that they would get "slitty eyes" if they stayed there too long.
Her eldest son, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, has skipped two state banquets for Chinese guests in Britain, and described some Chinese officials in a journal that was leaked to the media as "appalling old waxworks"
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As the Internet becomes more and more intrinsically intertwined in our lives it also becomes the target of new laws and regulations. Freedom of speech is usually the first activity to be taken away from users in many countries. Revoking that one freedom can take the form of censorship and simply blocking opposing views to that of the government in power. Offshore web hosting provides freedoms that many governments would rather not be available to their citizens. While we might think freedom of speech is taken for granted, it is not for many (even those that think they have it).
India, a large democracy that is still emerging into the modern world, has one of the more oppressive freedom of speech laws. The government of India is often accused to keep certain things from its citizens. This is quite a contradiction considering India based companies offer cutting edge hardware and infrastructure to their customers. There are concerns to be taken into account prior to using India as your offshore web hosting provider.
In the United States there are more and more restrictive laws being passed that stifle freedom of speech in the real world and on the Internet. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized many websites for various infractions that many citizens view as attempts at censorship.
In Europe it is slightly better as the European Union has passed a few laws that give more protection to citizens as far as information is concerned. Citizens there are also given a few freedoms that transcend to the digital world but are still weighted in the real world. Europe has a lot of countries that make up the body of the European Union and this is where it gets difficult to find a quality service for your offshore web hosting. Each country has their own laws, regulations and penalties for breaking their laws that must be abided by.
Iceland is viewed as a leader in laws that regulate citizen access to the Internet. These laws transcend from the real world and effect companies that do business on Iceland soil. For these reasons, many people across the globe take advantage of Iceland as their choice for offshore web hosting.
Remember, your website is governed by the laws of the country it is hosted in. Most people purchasing web hosting dont realize this till it is too late. This is also why many people are investigating and taking advantage of offshore web hosting.
Iceland has a history of protecting citizens at a government level. Companies offering offshore web hosting in Iceland are effectively able to extend those protections to their clients. The Iceland government actually made it illegal to perform censorship within their borders. This basic right is included in the constitution of the country and is afforded to all companies and persons within the borders of the island.
This constitutional protection against censorship has made it rather difficult for outside companies to litigate their concerns in Iceland. This is one reason so many use offshore web hosting based in Iceland. As the legal obligations are usually much more relaxed than in their own country. Iceland also has the distinct benefit of being pro-active towards the Internet and uses thereof.
While there are many options for web hosting, both offshore and in your own country, there are many legal requirements that need to be kept in mind. No matter what your website needs, choosing a proper web host should be your first concern. The constitutional protections against censorship and the protection offered by the government of Iceland make it an ideal place to use for your offshore web hosting needs.
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Dental clinics set for community members, vets
by Pete Rosenbery
CARBONDALE, Ill. Two upcoming events at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will offer free dental services for community members, including an inaugural event to assist veterans.
The sixth annual Give Adults a Smile Day is July 8 at the SIU Dental Hygiene Clinic, 1365 Douglas Drive, located west of the SIU Arena. The inaugural Give Veterans a Smile Day is July 9 at the same location.
Both events are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Appointments can be made until May 13 by calling 618/453-8826. After that, patients can leave their name and telephone number in a phone message that will be checked periodically.
Although a waiting list is already in place for Give Adults a Smile Day, organizers encourage eligible patients to call as openings may become available. A limited number of openings remain available for the veterans dental event. Patients will be seen by appointment only.
________________________________________________________________________________
Media Advisory
Reporters, photographers and news crews are welcome to cover both the Give Adults a Smile Day and Give Veterans a Smile Day, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., July 8 and July 9, respectively, at the SIU Dental Hygiene Clinic. Organizers anticipate 150 to 175 people will receive dental care over the two-day period. For more information, contact Jennifer S. Sherry, associate professor and event coordinator, at 618/967-9424 or by email at clnteth@siu.edu.
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Jennifer S. Sherry, associate professor and event coordinator, said a student came forward with the idea for Give Veterans a Smile Day. The purpose of the events is to provide dental services to underserved groups, and Sherry said there are several veterans who do not have dental coverage.
We need to take care of those who have given so much for us, she said.
Sherry anticipates about 75 appointments each day, with about 50 volunteers including dental hygiene students and dental hygienists and dentists from the community. In both events, patients 20 and older will receive free dental exams, X-rays and cleanings. Patients must be uninsured or on adult Medicaid and have a financial need. Veterans who do not have dental insurance are eligible for the July 9 event and must present their veterans card.
For more information, call 618/453-8826.
More information on the universitys dental hygiene program is available at sah.siu.edu/undergraduate/dental-hygiene/index.php.
Law school commencement ceremony is Friday
by Pete Rosenbery
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Kim Foxx, a former Cook County assistant states attorney and two-degree Southern Illinois University Carbondale alumna, will deliver the keynote address during the commencement ceremony for the SIU School of Law on Friday, May 13.
The commencement ceremony for 91 graduates -- including three who will receive a joint J.D./Master of Business Administration degree -- is at 3 p.m. in Shryock Auditorium on the Carbondale campus. In addition, one graduate will receive a joint J.D./Master of Public Administration degree and nine graduates will receive Master of Legal Studies degrees. SIU Carbondale Interim Chancellor Brad Colwell will confer the degrees at the ceremony led by School of Law Dean Cynthia Fountaine. The commencement is free and open to the public.
A 1997 SIU School of Law graduate, Foxx earned a bachelors degree from SIU Carbondale in political science in 1994. A Chicago native, Foxx spent 12 years as assistant states attorney in Cook County, including nearly five years as supervisor of the juvenile justice bureau. Most recently, Foxx worked as chief of staff for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, overseeing a $4 billion annual budget. Foxx is the Democratic candidate for Cook County states attorney in November.
Foxx previously served on the Chicago Council of Lawyers board and was a 2010 Illinois State Bar Association Diversity Leadership Fellow. She received the 2012 Commitment to Justice Award from the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice for her work in juvenile justice. She was a 2014 Edgar Leadership Fellow, and sits on the advisory board of the University of Illinois Institute of Government & Public Affairs. She is also on the Adler University Board of Trustees.
The ceremony marks the 40th anniversary of the law schools first graduating class in 1976, and several members of that class will attend. Thomas Britton, a member of the charter class and a former faculty member, associate dean and acting dean, was named this years Outstanding Faculty Member by the graduating class and will speak. Aaron OBrien, chosen by his classmates to represent the Class of 2016, will also speak at the ceremony.
The ceremony will also recognize nine Turkish human rights lawyers detained since their arrest in March with the law schools Rule of Law Citation. The citation is a formal recognition by the law school faculty of the important tradition of the legal profession that requires lawyers to stand firm in support of liberty and justice in the face of oppression and, by their words and actions, to honor and support the Rule of Law, even at great personal risk.
A commencement hood and scroll placed on an empty chair in the front row with law school faculty symbolizes the law school standing with lawyers who are suffering for the Rule of Law.
The nine attorneys were arrested based on allegations they were members of an illegal organization. The lawyers, however, according to the Rule of Law citation, are known for their work representing minority groups and people accused of terrorism and crimes against the state.
Two Afghan interpreters who risked their lives working for British forces have lost their High Court challenge to gain access to a government assistance scheme. Ruling judges, according to RT online, said the policy, which denies the pair access to the scheme, is lawful. They also refused to grant them permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. Lawyers for the Afghan interpreters told the High Court in March that AL, who was still in hiding in Kabul, and Mohammed Rafi Hottak, both gave principled and brave service. Hottak has been granted asylum in Britain, but still has family in Afghanistan. They said their clients were being treated differently from Iraqi interpreters, who were all given government assistance when their lives became endangered due to their work with British forces. In deciding the case, Lady Justice Arden, Lord Justice David Richards and Sir Colin Rimer said the territorial reach of the Equality Act 2010 is not such as to include the claimants circumstances and that there is no direct or indirect discrimination on the basis of nationality. Lawyer Rosa Curling, from the firm Leigh Day, said: Our clients are very disappointed. We hope that the Supreme Court will allow us to take this legal fight forwards on behalf of these brave men. The recent reported suicide of the former interpreter Nangyalai Dawoodzai highlights again how the current policies are failing. Afghan interpreters must be treated equally to those who served in Iraq for the brave service they gave to this country and its Armed Forces. One of the two interpreters involved in the lawsuit said: We are disappointed by todays judgment, and we hope to be granted permission to appeal. The campaign for the men who risked their lives for British soldiers in Afghanistan continues. We must be allowed to live in safety, free of threats from the Taliban and now the Islamic State. --IANS ahm/ ( 327 Words) 2016-05-10-04:04:04 (IANS)
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation on a PIL seeking a probe by the agency against the people named in the Panama Papers. A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh issued notice on the plea by advocate M.L. Sharma, who also sought an investigation against the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chief, his associates and others, for, what he said, was the market regulator's failure to act on the issue. A notice returnable in four weeks has also been issued to the SEBI, the Reserve Bank of India and the union finance ministry. Even as top court issued notice, the central government has already constituted a Multi-Agency Group comprising various agencies inquire into the list of about 500 people named in the Panama Papers. Seeking probe against the SEBI chairman, his associates, share-holders and share brokers and the certain companies under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and SEBI regulations, Sharma has said that even though market regulator was aware of the circulation of P-notes and that of the off-shore accounts of some companies way back in 2007, yet it did not move into the matter. --IANS pk/vd ( 223 Words) 2016-05-09-21:20:04 (IANS)
Paytm, the largest payment and commerce platform, has shown great potential in the Cars and Bike category by clocking a galloping triple growth in online purchases. The company sold over 1000 bikes in the month of April this year, while contributing to 5 percent of Hero Electric's pan India total month sales. Orders for two-wheelers came from over 100 different cities spread across 18 states in April. Customers from as far as Tinsukia in Assam and Ranipet in Tamil Nadu purchased bikes on Paytm. In order to gain a strong hold in the automobile market, Paytm will launch the service of vehicle financing this month followed by offering insurance service in the coming months through third party partners. Presently, Paytm has over 800 dealers already functioning in their network and local commerce is being used to build this category. The Paytm advantage for all prospective buyers lies in the expansive range of bikes on the platform, the lucrative customer offers and the hassle free buying experience. To leverage this advantage, Mahindra launched Gusto 125 model exclusively on Paytm in April. Through the Paytm app a user can book the motorcycle variant as per the ex-showroom price that they wish to purchase. The dealers in the Paytm network fulfill these orders and provide convenience throughout the entire process. On the announcement, Vice President Paytm, Renu Satti said, "Overall two wheeler industry is around 16 million units (number of vehicles), and we are targeting at selling half a million bikes this year. By next quarter, we will have the largest network of dealers on our platform with an integrated solution for a customer looking to buy a bike. We also plan to do a few exclusive launches with OEMs like we did for Mahindra Gusto 125 last month." On the strategy towards the four wheeler category, she further added, "We aim at becoming the preferred one-stop solution for booking a car, getting financing and other related services like car insurance. We are speaking to the OEMs and third party partners to enable it on our platform." The announcement of a triple growth in the cars and bikes segment showcases Paytm's prowess in their local commerce approach. Currently, the brands that Paytm offers in the car and bike segment comprise Honda, Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra, Datsun and Hero, Yamaha, Mahindra respectively. (ANI)
Gaya senior superintendent of police Garima Malik confirmed to media the arrest. "He has been arrested, we will let you know more details soon."
The 30-year-old was absconding after the incident, was arrested from Bodh Gaya, about 15 km from Gaya.
Yadav is the son of legislative council member Manorma Devi of the ruling Janata Dal (United) (JD-U).
Yadav allegedly shot dead Aditya Sachdeva, a teenager on Saturday night for overtaking his car on the Bodh Gaya-Gaya road.
--IANS ik/ahm
( 120 Words)
2016-05-10-07:38:03 (IANS)
All the polling booths, state and central government offices and quasi-government organisations, beneficiaries in the muster rolls of welfare schemes like MGNREGA, self-help groups, youth associations and similar other bodies will witness the event as they will swear that they will not receive money for voting.
This is the first time ever that such a massive people's movement against distribution of money for voting has been initiated in the country by the Election Commission.
Reports from different districts indicate that the move has got wider support from various cross sections of the public including political parties who will take the pledge at 10 am.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address a political rally at Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district tomorrow.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi who was set to address rallies in the state today has cancelled his events due to health reasons. (ANI)
A floor test will be held in the Uttarakhand Assembly today to ascertain whether ousted Congress chief minister Harish Rawat still enjoys a majority in the House. During the two-hour-long special session from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the President's rule will be kept in abeyance for a single agenda of vote of confidence. The proceedings will be video-graphed and the result of the voting will be placed before the Supreme Court tomorrow in a sealed cover. The Uttarakhand Assembly has 70 members, out of which 27 belongs to the Congress, excluding the nine rebels. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 28 members, while there are six from other parties. Ousted chief minister Harish Rawat will need at least 32 members for claiming his majority on the floor. The rebel MLAs will not be allowed to participate in the floor test. The Supreme Court rejected their pleas yesterday after they moved the apex court against the Uttarakhand High Court's decision dismissing their petition against the disqualification. The apex court also said the voting will be overseen by Principal Secretary (Legislative Assembly and Parliamentary Affairs) in the state. The court allowed the Centre's plea to modify its earlier order in which the designation of the officer was stated as Principal Secretary (Legislative Assembly). The Assembly will be out of bounds for media and all legislators and officials have been barred from carrying mobile phones to the House. Uttarakhand had plunged into a political crisis when nine Congress legislators, including former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, revolted against their own government during a debate over an Appropriation bill on March 18 during the Budget Session of the Assembly. Thereafter, the Speaker had disqualified all nine congress rebels under Anti-Defection law, hours after the President's rule was imposed in the state on March 27. (ANI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday hailed the demand to change the name of 'Akbar road' in Lutyens Delhi to 'Maharana Pratap road' saying that there are a disproportionate number of roads named after Muslim conquers. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy told ANI that Pratap was a fearless warrior and never bowed down in front any external power and hence to honour the king who made several sacrifices, the name of the road should be changed. "There is a disproportionate number of roads named after Muslim conquers, about 33 percent of roads in this Lutyens Delhi alone have Muslim names, so I think Maharana Pratap was the man who fought fearlessly, his cousin who had surrendered to Akbar had come and offered him compromise but he said no compromise, I will prefer to eat chapatti made out of grass, therefore I fully support that Akbar road should be renamed as Maharana Pratap road," said Swamy. Earlier, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar appealed to Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd.) VK Singh to make efforts to rename the road after Maharana Pratap. (ANI)
Cutting across party lines, Members in the Rajya Sabha today expressed their concern over the menace of 'paid news' in the country. Raising the issue during Zero hour, Mr Vijay Goel of the BJP said the menace has assumed a serious proportions of late. ''Today, while reading a newspapers, it gets tough to differentiate between a news item and an advertisement.. Off late, there have been a lot of news that appear more like advertisements,'' Mr Goel said. In this context, he pointed out that one day he came across a report claiming that there had been been no let-up in pollution levels in Delhi due to odd even scheme. However, the very next day, the same newspaper carried another piece saying that the scheme had been a big success. He said that there should be a committee set up by the media to determine its accountability. Associating himself with the issue, Mr Sharad Yadav of the JD-U said that the issue needs a short duration discussion in the House. Members of the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Left also related themselves with the concerns on the issue. While Mr Anand Sharma of the Congress said that it was a very serious issue, Mr Sitaram Yechury of the CPI-M termed 'paid news' a 'blot' on the face of Democracy. Responding to the concerns expressed, Minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said it was a serious issue and that there should be a short duration discussion of half-an-hour on the issue. Speaking on the matter, Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley pointed out that it was an important matter. ''Whatever the Members have shared is based on their experiences. While the Government is committed to free speech, aberrations need to be dealt with,'' he said. ''Many of us have been victims of the menace,'' he added.While noting that giving advertisements is an individual's right, Mr Jaitley, said however, if a Government gives advertisements in excess, it is a serious matter''. It is notable that BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had a few days ago raised the issue and said that there should be short duration discussion on it in the House.UNI AR SB 1340 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0092-724686.Xml
Elaborate security arrangements have been made in view of President Pranab Mukherjee's two-day visit to the temple city beginning from May 12. The local police was also on high alert following the Janata Dal (United) rally to be held on the same day at Pindra. Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar along with other party leaders would be present in the rally. Mr Kumar is also expected to join the President in religious functions to be held on the banks of Ganga in the morning of May 13. Though the President's main programme would be to attend the Centenary Year Celebrations of the Banaras Hindu University(BHU) on May 12 at 1800 hrs after his arrival from New Delhi at 1700 hrs, his religious activity on the next day would be the real test for the security personnel. District Magistrate Rajmani Yadav said here today, "As per the schedule, the President will reach Varanasi at around 1700 hrs on May 12 and will attend the BHU function from 1800 hrs to 1900 hrs. The President will have a night stay at Laxman Das guest house inside the BHU campus. Next morning, he will visit Dashashwamedh ghat and pray at Baba Vishwanath temple between 0600 hrs and 0700 hrs on May 13 morning. The President will leave for New Delhi at least 1000 hrs. Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav are also expected to participate in the BHU function. Chancellor of BHU Dr Karan Singh would also be present. Varanasi also happens to be the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Officials said Mr Mukherjee will spend the early morning of May 13 as a VIP pilgrim in the holy city , taking part in the celebrations of Ganga Saptami-the day of the rebirth of Goddess Ganga-at Dashaswamedh Ghat, before offering prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The day is also celebrated as Ganga Utpatti Divas. According to the programme the President will perform 'aarti' amid the chanting of the 'devi sukta' and 'rudra sukta' mantras, while offering reverence to Goddess Ganga on her banks at the Dashaswamedh Ghat on the occasion of 'Ganga Saptami',said Pt Shrikant Mishra, who is hosting the event. "As the President is arriving on a very auspicious day, the rituals to be performed by him have been selected accordingly. After the President completes the rituals and performs 'aarti', he would be given dry fruits as 'prasad' and also a 'rudraksha' garland," he said. From Dashaswamedh Ghat, the President would move to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple (KVT). Temple officials said during his 20-minute stay inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, the President would offer 'rudrabhishek', 'dugdhabhishek' and 'jalabhishek' amid the chanting of mantras by 11 priests. Following the rituals, the temple trust and officials would honour the President on the temple campus. Mr Kumar will be among the other VIP pilgrim performing the same rituals with the President. All the rituals would be performed by a team of 51 priests under Mr Kumar's supervision. According to the ADM Protocol office, after arriving at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) by chopper from the LBS International Airport, the President would attend the varsity's centennial year function at the Swatantrata Bhawan on the evening of May 12. Following a night's stay at the varsity guest house, the President's fleet would reach Dashaswamedh Ghat before 0600 hrs on May 13. After completing his pilgrimage in Kashi, the President will leave KVT at 0710 hrs to return to the BHU campus to board his chopper for the airport.UNI MB PR SV SB1248 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-724510.Xml
The ninth accused was acquitted by the court.
The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Wednesday by the Ranga Reddy district court.
The main accused, Faisal Dayani, a gym instructor, and the others were convicted for dacoity.
The prosecutor said under section 395 of the Indian Penal Code, the accused may be sentenced to life or rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years.
However, the charge of gangrape against the accused was dropped as the victim withdrew her statement.
The sensational activities of the gang came to light in 2014 when a girl lodged a complaint with the police that the gang raped her in front of her fiance.
After barging into a guest house in Pahadi Shareef area on the city's outskirts, the accused also looted Rs.60,000 from the couple.
The gang, however, has been charged under Section 354 B of Nirbhaya Act (assaut or use of criminal force with intent to disrobe woman).
The gang was allegedly involved in extortion and settling of disputes. Its members used snakes to threaten their victims. Police had also seized four horses from their possession. They have also been charged with showing cruelty to animals.
--IANS ms/mr
( 232 Words)
2016-05-10-14:28:05 (IANS)
Reacting to All India Congress Committee President Sonia Gandhi's emotional outbreak on her Italian link. as referred by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the scam, at an election rally in Thiruvanthapuram yesterday, Ms Karat said, ''emotion has no place in politics.''
The party will have to answer the charges raised against many politicians and officials in connection with the purchase of a fleet of helicopters by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
The BJP-led NDA alliance is also answerable and equally responsible to complete the probe monitored by Supreme Court, Ms Karat said.
However, the party was against personal attacks and condemned such moves, she said, apparently referring tirade against Ms Sonia Gandhi, launched by thePrime Minister in connection with her Italian link.UNI PCH KVV ADB 1525
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Mass sit-in protests were organised in the streets of Manipur to demand implementation of Inner Line permit in the state. Thousands of people, students, young and old took part in the protest and blocked one side of the road to enable free flow of traffic. An all party meeting held yesterday chaired by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, had decided to leave for New Delhi on May 16 to meet Central leaders about the matter. The representatives of almost all political parties, including the Congress, BJP and Left attended the meeting and supported the three Bills passed by the State Assembly on August 31 last year to protect indigenous people of Manipur. All 60 members of the House had also supported the Bills. Opposition raised by some organisations of Churachandpur district was also discussed. Churachandpur and all other hill districts are protected and no one from the valley was allowed to own lands in the hill districts. The valley area, which is just 10 per cent of the total land area mostly settled by Meitei people belonging to general and OBC categories, had been flooded with immigrants, who were more in numbers than the tribal population. The representatives called for proper discussion as most of the Central leaders were not aware of the problems and simply brushed aside the matter by saying that anybody is allowed to settle anywhere in the country. They said such a rule affects small states like Manipur and when the vast population from other parts of the country and neighbouring countries settle in the state, the original settlers become minorities like it happened in Tripura. They further said that the hill districts of Manipur and neighbouring states like Mizoram and Nagaland were protected, hence Manipur valley has become the target of all immigrants in the region. The state has been facing unrest as it was found that in most of the border and city areas, population of immigrants was now more than the indigenous people. UNI NS AD RJ AN1511 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-724781.Xml
The weapon trials for indigenous Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) will be carried out from next month, the Rajya Sabha was informed today. After its first armed version gave successful results in firing 70 mm rockets, the other weapons will now be tested in July-August, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said in a written reply. The demonstration of rocket firing from the LCH was conducted during IAF's Iron Fist exercise held in March at Jaisalmer which was a success, he said. The development flights carried out for sea level trial in Chennai and Banaglore and cold weather as well as high altitude tests in Leh also gave positive results. After completing the developmental flights and weapon trials, the LCH would undergo certification tests, the Minister said. UNI MK SB/AE 1541 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-724969.Xml
At the age of 93, the grand old man of Indian politics is eyeing a record 13th straight and second successive win from the home turf of Tiruvarur, an agrarian constituency. The son-of-the-soil tag gives him the added edge as DMK patriarch and five-time Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was expected to emerge unscathed in the May 16 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. His bonding with the people of Tiruvarur was immense and still going strong, giving a clear edge to Mr Karunanidhi over his principal rivals, the ruling AIADMK and the CPI, which was part of the umbrella coalition that contained the four-party People's Welfare Front, DMDK led by actor Vijayakanth and the Tamil Maanila Congress of former Shipping Minister G K Vasan. Interestingly, Mr Karunanidhi was first elected to the State Assembly from Kulithalai in 1957 in the composite Thanjavur district as an Independent (the DMK then was not a recognised party), when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was India's Prime Minister. Now, when the fourth generation of the Nehru family was in politics, the nonagenarian from the Dravidian heartland is still hungry for success in the electoral battlefield. The DMK veteran's electoral winning record was perhaps unmatched in the country as he had tasted success in all the 12 previous polls. Though he had tasted success in all the elections he contested in his political career spanning more than five decades, Mr Karunanidhi's highest victory margin of 50,249 votes was registered only in Tiruvarur in the previous elections in 2011. Despite a multi-cornered contest, and the ruling AIADMK and the Communist Party of India (CPI) going all out to woo the voters, Mr Karunanidhi clearly has the edge in his home town. During campaigning he seeks votes as a 'elder brother', while his son and DMK Treasurer M K Stalin, who canvassedhere yesterday, said while his father was the 'son of the soil', he was the 'grand son of the soil' and appealed to the voters to re-elect Mr Karunanidhi to the Assembly for the overall development of the constituency. He also recalled various welfare measures launched by Mr Karunanidhi during his visit earlier and assured the voters that all the promises made in the DMK's election manifesto, including the waiver of farm loans, would be fulfilled. More UNI GV RP1543 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0105-724725.Xml
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) election in charge for Puducherry Mr Pugazhenthi today ridiculed Chief Minister N Rangasamy for his reported speech that two bottles of liquor could not be taken to Tamil Nadu from Puducherry.Talking to newspersons here today, Mr Pugazhenthi said it was not fit for a Chief Minister to be talking about liquor smuggling.He said it was expected that the N R Congress would release its election manifesto, but the party has not released it yet. Party supremo Jayalalitha had already branded Mr Rangasamy as "traitor", he added.Mr Pugazhenthi charged that cases are being foisted against AIADMK workers and who are prevented from canvassing, while the N R Congress is going in groups for canvassing. AIADMK Rajbhavan constituency candidate and party election wing Secretary P Kannan who was present took strong exception to the statement of Mr Rangasamy that the Rajya Sabha seat was gifted to the AIADMK out of gratitude. Every one in Puducherry is aware of what happened at the time of Rajya Sabha elections here, Mr Kannan said adding that nine members were ready to topple the Rangasamy government . Mr Rangasamy had surrendered before the AIADMK functionaries and pleaded to help him. Former AIADMK secretary A Anbazhagan said the AIADMK workers are being threatened. UNI PAB MVR -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-724862.Xml
:A 26-year-old youth was found murdered atVazhapattampalayam in Tamil Nadu near here today. Police said the deceased identified as Chandrasekeran of Koodapakkampet here was involved in the murder of one Porayur Suresh sometime ago. Meanwhile, he was found murdered near a lake at Vazhapattampakkam this morning. Prevous enemity is suspected to be the cause for the murder. Kottakuppam police seized the body and sent it to Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) here for post-mortem. A case has been registered and investigation was, under way, police added.UNI PAB KVV AK 1615 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-725111.Xml
Most of the Ministers of Mr Gogoi's ministry were present at the meeting, which went on for nearly two hours.
Issues pertaining to possible alliances in the post-counting scenario and party's predictions for its own outcome were reportedly discussed at the meeting.
Mr Gogoi later left for New Delhi, where he is scheduled to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other party leaders.
Congress is vying for a fourth straight term in the state, under Mr Gogoi, while BJP is leading an alliance of regional parties Asom Gana Parishad and Bodoland People's Front to form its maiden government in the state.
The state's main Opposition party All India United Democratic Front had fought the polls in alliance with JD(U) and RJD, which do not have any notable presence in the state.
Counting of votes for all 126 Assembly seats is scheduled on May 19. UNI SG PL RJ AS1558
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Odisha Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat today said so far, the chit fund companies have returned deposits of 1,027 people, who had invested their money with them. Replying to a question of Tara Prasad Bahinipati (Cong), the Minister told the state Assembly that as per the information received from the office of the commission constituted to probe into the chit fund scam so far 1,027 depositors had been identified and the chit fund companies had paid back their money. Mr Amat clarified that the government has not returned money to any depositors. He said, steps would be taken to return the money after identification of depositors. The Minister said Commission constituted by the government to probe into illegal collection of money by various chit fund companies has received 8,96,305 applications by October 31,2013 last and the process to identify the real depositors is on. He further said, on the direction of the Special Court steps are being taken to refund the hard earned money of the depositors by confiscating the movable and immovable property of some specific chit fund companies. Mr Amat said steps are also being taken to invite online applications from the depositors for the return of their deposits. To another question, the Minister said the crime branch/economic offence wing and the Koraput SP have any information about chit fund company of Madhya Pradesh active in Koraput district. He assured that action would be taken if any information in this regard was available with the government.UNI BD-DP AKM RJ AN1657 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-725160.Xml
Bayern Munich have signed 18-year-old Portuguese midfielder Renato Sanches from Benfica, the Bundesliga club said today.Sanches, strongly linked in British media with a move to Manchester United, will join the German champions in June on a five-year contract."FC Bayern has been watching Renato Sanches for a long period," Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told the club website."We're pleased we've been able to sign him despite big-name international competition. Renato is dynamic, a good tackler and a technically skilled midfielder who'll add even more strength to our team."REUTERS AKC AS1736 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-725241.Xml
With poll strategist Prashant Kishor(PK) discussing the strategy for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2017 with the block presidents of the party here today, Congress leaders announced that the process for selection of candidates for the Assembly polls have started and by the end of this month, party's vice- president Rahul Gandhi could sit with the leaders to choose the names. "We are ready with the names of the panel of candidates in each of the 403 Assembly constituencies of UP and now by the end of this month, Mr Gandhi would sit with the leaders to give his approval," announced AICC General Secretary and in-charge of UP Madhusudan Mistri here. He also hinted that the process of candidates selection would virtually start after May 19 next, when the results of the five state assembly polls would be announced. There is also a proposal to hold a massive conference in Lucknow very soon, where the newly appointed 30,000 party cadres would participate. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is expected to address them. Mr Mistri,who was here to attend the meeting with PK and state party president Nirmal Khatri with the block and district presidents, did not ruled out any pre-poll alliance with any political outfit but on the other hand also claimed that the party was preparing itself for all the 403 assembly seats. "We are not averse of any pre poll alliance but at present there is nothing He, however, said that at present there is no proposal for joining hands with BSP in UP polls, which had supported the Harish Rawat government in Uttarakhand to pass the floor test today." In West Bengal, we aligned with the Left Parties but such thing cannot be repeated in other states," he clarified. The AICC general secretary and Rajya Sabha member, also ridiculed the media reports about any proposal by PK for suggesting Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi to be projected as CM candidate in UP polls. "There is no truth in such reports. It is up to the high command to decide on the CM candidate as the party leaders and workers of the state are demanding for such move to counter the other opposition parties," he told mediapersons here. He also contradicted any move by the high command to change the organisational set for UP at present. "We have no information about Priyanka Vadra joining active politics," he disclosed. However, during the meeting, the leaders demanded that the party's assembly candidates should be announced earlier, no outsider or imported leader should be given the ticket, the party's poll manifesto should have several sops for the masses besides a CM candidate should be projected. Out of the total 685 block presidents, 582 participated in today's meeting. "In today's meeting we sat to hear the suggestion given by the block and district presidents and we even asked them to send us the issues they think should be included in the poll manifesto with giving all the details like total expenditure of the scheme and from where the funds would be acquired," Mr Mistri said. He also announced that very soon the party will announce the manifesto, campaigning and other committees in connection with the UP assembly polls. UP Congress president Nirmal Khatri announced that very soon, party will launch a yatra in Bundelkand region to rake up the drought situation in the region. "Congress was committed to rake up the failures of UP government and aware the people about the lapses of the Central as well as state governments," he said.UNI MB JW RJ AN1741 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-725201.Xml
Government today said it is planning to invest five billion dollars in South Asia to develop regional connectivity with the help of Asian Development Bank (ADB). "With ADB support, India is presently developing two priority road corridors. The first road corridor will connect India with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan through the "chicken neck" area of North Bengal. The second road corridor will establish India-Myanmar connectivity in the state of Manipur. Other projects are being simultaneously pursued to complement these two road corridors," said Shaktikanta Das, Economic Affairs Secretary in the Finance Ministry.Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) at Agartala and Petrapole on the India-Bangladesh border will be operationalized. Another ICP at Moreh on the India-Myanmar border will be developed, he said. "We are also planning to establish ICPs and improved Land Customs Stations (LCS) at key border points with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan to ease the movement of goods and people within the subregion. India is planning to develop regional connectivity projects worth almost five billion dollars in SASEC," Mr Das said. UNI ASH RN VN1827 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0388-725337.Xml
Determined to stop laundering of black money via round-tripping route from Mauritius, India today signed a pact with the Indian Ocean country to amend the existing double taxation avoidance bilateral treaty.The Protocol for amendment of the Convention for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and capital gains between India and Mauritius was signed by both the nations today at Port Louis, Mauritius, said an official statement.With this Protocol, India gets taxation rights on capital gains arising from alienation of shares acquired on or after April 1, 2017 in a company resident in India with effect from financial year 2017-18, while simultaneously protection to investments in shares acquired before April 1, 2017, has also been provided, according to the statement issued by the government. Further, in respect of such capital gains arising during the transition period from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2019, the tax rate will be limited to 50 per cent of the domestic tax rate of India, subject to the fulfillment of the conditions in the Limitation of Benefits Article. Taxation in India at full domestic tax rate will take place from financial year 2019-20 onwards.Interest arising in India to Mauritian resident banks will be subject to withholding tax in India at the rate of 7.5 per cent in respect of debt claims or loans made after March 31, 2017. However, interest income of Mauritian resident banks in respect of debt-claims existing on or before that date will be exempt from tax in India.The Protocol also provides for updation of Exchange of Information Article as per international standard, provision for assistance in collection of taxes, source-based taxation of other income, among other changes. The statement said the Protocol will tackle the long pending issues of treaty abuse and round tripping of funds attributed to the India-Mauritius treaty, curb revenue loss, prevent double non-taxation, streamline the flow of investment and stimulate the flow of exchange of information between India and Mauritius. "It will improve transparency in tax matters and will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance. At the same time, existing investments, i.e. investments made before April 1, 2017 have been grand-fathered and will not be subject to capital gains taxation in India, ''the statement added.UNI NM SW RP1907 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0426-725642.Xml
India cannot unilaterally open the haats for trade on border with China in Arunachal Pradesh, the Lok Sabha was informed today."We are very keen that there should be as much business between the people of India with those of China. But it cannot be done unilaterally. We cannot force them(China) to be party to haat on India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh in North East," said Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju during Question Hour.The Minister said it was easy to open the airport and seaport as the place falls with the boundaries of the country, but to open landport which sits on the land boundary, the consent of the other country is must, which is not there yet," he said.However, in other North East states such as Meghalaya two haats are already functional on India-Bangladesh border and six more have being set up of which four are in Meghalaya and two will be in Tripura," the Minister informed the House, adding the government was making constant effort to identify more and more places where border haats could be set up in keeping with Centre's 'Look East' and 'Act East' policies.Mr Rijiju also said no haat could be opened on the border areas which are still in dispute.UNI PRA SW -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0384-725955.Xml
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today welcomed the developments, leading to the rise of rhino population in Assam and attributed the rise to conservation efforts initiated by the State Government. Taking a dig at Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest, Prakash Javadekar, for crediting the Union Government for the rise in rhino population, Mr Gogoi trained his gun on the Centre and asked when the Centre was so eager in claiming the credits. It (Centre) should also own the discredit for its alleged failure in checking the dwindling population of Asiatic lions in Gir forest of Gujarat. In a statement here, Mr Gogoi said, "Rise in deaths of Asiatic lions has posed a threat on the very existence of the wild cats which are found only in Gujarat." The Chief Minister stated that when Gujarat is considered as one of the favourite dens of the saffron party, the failure of BJP Government both at the State and Central level in saving the lives of Asiatic lions cast a ray of doubt on the sincerity of the Government in its wildlife conservation efforts. In Gujarat 76 lion deaths were reported in 2013, 78 in 2014, while the number increased to 91 in 2015. In the last five years, over 300 lion deaths were reported in Gujarat, which make the mockery of conservation efforts of the Centre and the State Government in Gujarat. Expressing deep anguish over the deaths of Asiatic lions in Gujarat, Mr Gogoi advocated for an exhaustive conservation efforts in Gujarat, in line with Kaziranga National Park in Assam ,where the Government has succeeded in increasing the number of rhino population, despite several adversaries. UNI SG KK RJ BL2016 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-725790.Xml
Two minor girls, who reportedly went missing since April 18 from Mhaintamtsi village, Jalukie under Peren district, were found in Delhi and rescued by the police on May 6. According to a statement by Peren police today, the father of the missing sister -- aged 11 and 14 years -- lodged a missing and abduction case at Jalukie police station on May 2 and investigation was taken up immediately by police. During investigation, the girls were traced to Delhi and subsequently, the North East Cell of Delhi Police was alerted to keep track of the two kidnapped girls and on May 6, the two girls were found and rescued by Delhi Police in Hauz Khas Police Station area. It is suspected that the kidnappers sold the girls for flesh trade to their handlers in Delhi. In this regard, a special team of Nagaland police was being dispatched to bring back the two rescued girls to Nagaland, after which a thorough investigation would be done to arrest the culprits based on the statements of the two girls. So far, no arrest has been made in this connection, the SP added. UNI AS SW 2015 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-725902.Xml
Senior Superintendent of Berhampur Circle jail Raghunath Majhi today suspended one warden and transferred another following seizure of a huge quantity of cash, intoxicants, weapons from the inmates of jail during a three hour long surprise raid yesterday.Mr Majhi suspended jail warder Chinmaya Pradhan and transferred another warden Mangulu Sethy on administrative ground following the raid. A joint team of the police and district administration seized 6 mobile phones, 3 SIM cards, 17 powered ganja pouches, 80 cigarette packets, 1200 gutkha pouches, Rs 83,430 in cash, one gupti (a sharp weapon), two knives, 17 lighters, 100 match boxes, 200 packets of bidi, four fans from different cells in the jail.A majority of the items were seized from the cell of former Sanakhemundi Congress MLA Ramesh Chandra Jena. UNI XC DP BM SW VN2131 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-726058.Xml
The Utkal University, the premier institution in Odisha today decided to go for offline admission to the post graduate courses this year following hacking of its e admission site. Last week a suspected Pakistani group had defaced the website of Utkal University and the University authority had lodged a complaint with the Cyber cell of the Odisha Crime Branch police. The Cyber cell which probed into the hacking of the University website traced the server to Germany. The PG Council of the University which met here in an emergency meeting unanimously decided in favour of offline admission this year after its e-admisison website was hacking by a Dubai-based cyber attacker who identified himself as Ahmad Chanda. The University sources said the last date for accepting application form scheduled for May 14 has been extended up to June 7 to allow the students to apply off line. However, those who had earlier applied for on line should not be worried, the University authority said and claimed that the hacker has not been able to break the security and all the data of the website are intact. As per university sources, over 13000 students have submitted their applications online for admission into various post graduate course.The University has filed another complaint with the Cyber Cell of the Crime Branch on the hacking of its e admission site.UNI DP BM SW BL2151 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-726090.Xml
Activists of Shetkari Annadata Organisation (SAO) along with affected farmers from Paithan taluka of the district, whose lands had been acquired for the secondphase work of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), today took out a 'morcha' (march) to the district collectorate here demanding to give compensation early for their lands acquired about 16 monthsback. The farmers from Nilajgaon, Chincholi, Jambali and Meharban- Tanda, led by SAO president Jayaji Suryawanshi, started their march from Kranthi Chowk and concluded at the collector's office. There the protestors raised slogans for their demand of give payment their acquired lands for DMIC project else return their lands. Talking to reporters later, Mr Suryawanshi said at least 8,000 acre land had been acquired from 1,500 farmers 16 months back by the authorities for the second phase of DMIC project. As per the agreement, the compensation should have been paid to the farmers within 90 days of acquisition of land, but they have not received the money even after the lapse of 16 months, he said. The SAO president further said that if the affected farmers did not get the money into their bank accounts in next 15 days, then the government should return their land. Some of the farmers reacted that, ''if we do not get payment within 15 days, we will start sowing kharif crops on our lands and will not give possession to the authorities.'' Later, a delegation handed over a memorandum of their demand to the district collector.UNI VKB SS SW BL2240 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-725549.Xml
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today chaired a high-level meeting on the drought and water scarcity situation in parts of Madhya Pradesh in which Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and senior central and state officials participated. An amount of Rs 1875.80 crore has been released to the state under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), after adjustments of the state balances. This is in addition to Rs 657.75 crore released as central share of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for 2015-16 to the state. A further amount of Rs 345.375 crore has been released as first installment of SDRF for 2016-17. The Chief Minister apprised the Prime Minister of steps being taken for drought relief. He said 61 lakh farmers had been given a total of Rs 4664 crore as relief assistance. This is the highest ever in the state of Madhya Pradesh. He said due to preparatory steps taken over the last ten years, the state was relatively well placed to tackle the drought. These steps included creation of water storage structures. Despite the second successive year of deficient monsoon, transportation of water is required only in 113 villages. Even if it does not rain till the end of June, this number will be only around 400 villages out of approximately 50,000 villages. Mr Chauhan said the state was giving highest priority to the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. The Chief Minister also outlined the preparations for implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. The Prime Minister and the Chief Minister discussed various agriculture measures including micro-irrigation, use of liquid fertilizer, use of space technology, and focus on building farm ponds. They also discussed strategies to increase awareness about water conservation and storage, and involving the youth organizations such as NCC, NSS, NYKS, and scouts and guides, in these activities, and steps for tree plantation and protection in the catchment area of the river Narmada. UNI NAZ SW 2354 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-726156.Xml
Hundreds of space enthusiasts in Delhi witnessed a tiny black dot crossing the Sun, marking a rare astronomical event -- the Mercury transit as the planet crossed the Sun between 4.43 p.m. and 7.01 p.m. on Monday. However, in Srinagar, where astrophysicists and space experts gathered under the aegis of Indian Astronomical Congress to witness the transit had to rely on webcasting from Noida, Uttar Pradesh, as clouds blocked the Sun in the valley. "It's a very rare event, as last time it occurred in 2006 but was not visible in India. The next transit is due 16 years from now, which is a long time. The cloudy weather here in Srinagar, did obstruct the observation but the live streaming helped a lot," Prof. Manzoor Malik, HOD Physics, Kashmir University, told IANS on phone from Srinagar. He said the discussions and debates drawn from the conclusions of the transit will be initiated by the Indian Astronomical Congress from Tuesday onwards at the varsity. In the national capital, people, especially children were mesmerized after watching the rare celestial event at the Nehru Planetarium. "It was a lifetime experience and I am so excited to share my experience with my friends tomorrow. I first spotted a small dot cross over the Sun, later the planetarium officials briefed me and told that it's a rare moment I'm witnessing," Ishani Nair, a Class 5 student from Elizabeth Gauba School, told IANS. "The Mercury transit left me spellbound. Through a solar telescope I could see the planet Mercury crossing in front of the Sun. It was like a tiny object moving between the Sun and the earth," Deepanshu, a Class 6 student, said. According to Nehru Planetarium director N. Rathnashree around 1,000 people came to see the Mercury transit event at Teen Murti. We had made different projection set ups using solar telescope to facilitate people to witness such an important and rare celestial event. This opportunity allowed people to see the rare astronomical event in real than what they read in text books, Rathnashree told IANS. Mukesh Sharma from Nehru Planetarium said that this was a rare astronomical event that takes place roughly only 10 times in a century. Last time it was sighted in 2006. "Venus stands between the earth and Mercury, so it's a rare moment when Mercury would directly come between the earth and the Sun. However, though much is known about the planet Mercury, the transit would still be useful for the researchers," said Sharma. Mercury is the smallest, and the next planet to the Sun. It takes 88 earth days to orbit around the sun. --IANS kd-am/rn/dg ( 452 Words) 2016-05-09-21:08:03 (IANS)
"There will always be exceptions," the New York Times quoted Trump as saying when asked in an interview on Monday how his proposed ban would affect London's mayor.
On Khan's election, he said, "I was happy to see that. I think it's a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because frankly that would be very, very good."
The New York billionaire drew flak for his proposed ban on Muslims soon after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people.
Mr. Trump has been criticized for his proposed ban, which he announced soon after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Time magazine after his election, Khan criticized Trump's approach to Muslims and said he planned to visit the United States before the inauguration.
"If Donald Trump becomes the president I'll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can't engage with American mayors and swap ideas," Khan said.
Trump's Democratic rivals and many of his Republican presidential opponents, Muslim and human rights groups have time and again condemned the proposal as divisive, counterproductive and contrary to American values.
He, however seems to remain least interested in changing his stance. (ANI)
The 69th Cannes Film Festival will begin tomorrow in the French Riviera town of Cannes with the screening of celebrated American director Woody Allen's new film 'Cafe Society' set in Hollywood of the 1930s.It is the third time that the Cannes festival opens with a Woody Allen film. In 2011, the influential festival had kicked off with his literary drama 'Midnight in Paris' and 'Hollywood Ending' had opened the festival in 2002.'Cafe Society', starring American actors Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg, is about a young man who arrives in Hollywood in the 1930s looking for work in the film industry. The film will be screened out of competition at the festival, which has so far shown 13 films of the director, including 'Annie Hall' (1978), 'Manhattan' (1979), 'Hannah and Her Sisters' (1987) and 'Irrational Man' (2015).Twenty-one films from 15 countries will compete for the prestigious Golden Palm this year. Among the notable entries are Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's 'Julieta', Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi's 'The Salesman', American director Jim Jarmusch's 'Paterson', 'I, Daniel Blake' by Ken Loach (United Kingdom), 'Ma' Rosa' by Brilliante Mendoza(Philippines), 'Graduation' by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, and 'The Last Face' by American actor-director Sean Penn.The competition jury is presided over by Australian director-producer George Miller and includes American actor Kirsten Dunst and Canadian actor Donald Sutherland. After last year's spectacular success of 'Masaan', which won the Promising Future Prize in the UN Certain Regard section of the Cannes festival for its director Neraj Ghaywan and the international critics prize, there is no Indian feature film in the official selection in Cannes in the 2016 edition. The official selection from India this year include a new documentary film in the Cannes Classics section, a short film in the student category and another student film project. 'The Cinema Travellers' by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya is a 96-minute documentary about a traveling movie theatre in India. 'Memories and My Mother' by Aditya Vikram Sengupta is part of the student film projects in the Cannes festival's Atelier section, which encourages the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers. Another Indian film student, Saurav Rai, is part of the Cinefondacion section with his 28-minute short film, 'Gudh'.The Directors Fortnight, a parallel event at the Cannes festival, has one Indian film, 'Raman Raghav 2.0' (Psycho Raman) by Anurag Kashyap. The Critics Week, another parallel event, has a film, 'A Yellow Bird', by an Indian-origin director from Singapore, K Rajagopal, starring Seema Biswas.A Pakistani film made in 1958 is an official selection in the Cannes Classics this year. 'Jago Hua Savera' (Day Shall Dawn' by Aaejay Kardar will be screened in the section for restored films. The Uttar Pradesh government will promote the state as a location for film shooting in Cannes this year while the contemporary Marathi Cinema will be showcased at the Cannes Film Market. The 69th Cannes Film Festival runs up to May 22. UNI XC SV 1032 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0177-720850.Xml
The president of China, which has grown increasingly frustrated over North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons, congratulated its leader, Kim Jong Un, on his promotion to chairman of the ruling party, North Korean state media said today.Kim, 33, the third-generation leader of isolated North Korea, added the title of chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) yesterday, the closing day of the country's first ruling party congress in 36 years."I wish the Korean people fresh success in carrying out the cause of socialism under the leadership of the WPK headed by Chairman Kim Jong Un," Chinese President Xi Jinping told Kim in a message, North Korea's KCNA news agency said."We will make efforts together with the DPRK side to bring happiness to the two countries and their peoples and contribute to peace, stability and development in this region by steadily developing the Sino-DPRK friendship and cooperation."DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.China's official Xinhua news agency cited Xi as saying that friendship between the two countries "was personally forged and carefully fostered by the two countries' leaderships of the older generation"."The traditional friendship is a treasure of both sides," Xi added.There was no direct mention of North Korea's nuclear programme. North Korea said it would strengthen its defensive nuclear weapons capability, a decision adopted in defiance of U.N. resolutions.China, North Korea's chief ally and main trading partner, backed tough U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea in March following the North's fourth nuclear test in January. REUTERS KU GC0604 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0348-724375.Xml
The victor of the Philippines' presidential election, tough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, announced plans today for a radical overhaul of the country's unitary system of government that would empower the provinces.Duterte's win in yesterday's poll has not been confirmed, but an unofficial count of votes by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed he had a huge lead over his closest rivals, one of whom has already conceded defeat.By mid morning today, the rolling ballot count showed Duterte had almost 39 per cent of votes cast. He was more than 6 million votes ahead of the second-placed candidate with 90 per cent of votes counted from an electorate of 54 million.Duterte's spokesman, Peter Lavina, told a news conference in the southern city of Davao that the new president would seek a national consensus for a revision of the constitution to switch from a US-style system of government to a parliamentary and federal model.The proposal to devolve power from Manila fits with Duterte's challenge as a political outsider to the country's establishment, which he has slammed as self-serving and corrupt.The spokesman said Duterte would also seek peace agreements with rebel groups in the south of the archipelago, where the outgoing government has been using force to quell militancy.The 71-year-old's truculent defiance of political tradition has drawn comparisons with US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, as have his references to his libido.That tapped into popular disgust with the ruling class over its failure to reduce poverty and inequality despite several years of robust economic growth. His campaign vows to crush crime and drug abuse also resonated with voters.SOUTH CHINA SEA TALKSHowever, Duterte's incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the Southeast Asian country's authoritarian past.Duterte made a succession of winding, bellicose and at times comical remarks on television late yesterday as the votes were being counted, venting over corruption and bad governance and telling anecdotes from his 22 years as mayor of Davao city.He said corrupt officials should "retire or die" and reiterated his support for police to use deadly force against criminals."If they put up a good fight and refuse to surrender and if you feel your life is in jeopardy, shoot. You have my authority," he told reporters in Davao, wearing a checked shirt and slouched in a chair.He also said that he wouldn't go on any overseas state visits to places where the weather was cold.In an early indication of his unorthodoxy, Duterte told reporters yesterday that if he became president he would seek multilateral talks to resolve disputes over the South China Sea.The outgoing administration of President Benigno Aquino has asked a court of arbitration in The Hague to recognise its right to exploit waters in the South China Sea, a case it hoped could bolster claims by other countries against China in the resource-rich waters.Duterte said negotiations should include Japan, Australia and the United States, which is traditionally the region's dominant security player and contests China's development of islands and rocky outcrops in the sea.The influential Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times, said yesterday that "if there is anything that can be changed by Duterte, it will be diplomacy"."China will not be too naive to believe that a new president will bring a promising solution to the South China Sea disputes between Beijing and Manila. Only time will tell how far the new leader, be it Duterte or not, will go toward restoring the bilateral relationship."FIGHTING THE ESTABLISHMENTDuterte's entertaining speeches, often loaded with profanities, have shed little light on his policies beyond going after gangsters and drug pushers.He has been vague on what he would do to spur an economy that has averaged growth at around 6 per cent under outgoing President Benigno Aquino.In a report on Monday, ratings agency S&P Global said a Duterte presidency would create uncertainty, especially if he picks fights with the political elite."He could take some time getting used to the many compromises required in the national leadership position," it said.One indication of that came yesterday as Duterte told reporters he planned to loosen restrictions on foreign ownership of companies across all industries, which could meet with resistance from protectionist forces.One of Duterte's economic advisers told Reuters spending on education would be lifted to benefit "disadvantaged regions" and agriculture and rural development will be prioritised to spread wealth more evenly across the country."Everything seems to be in imperial Manila," said Ernesto Pernia, professor emeritus of economics at the University of the Philippines. "He wants to give more attention to the lagging, the backward regions."Pernia said the pursuit of tax evaders and corrupt officials should bolster government revenues to fund extra spending.REUTERS SDR PR RK0958 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-724417.Xml
Long-running efforts to fully restore Israeli-Turkish ties strained after an Israeli raid of a Turkish boat in 2010 must now await the formation of a new government in Ankara, Israel's top diplomat in Turkey said.Turkey downgraded diplomatic relations and ejected Israel's ambassador in 2011, a year after Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, part of a humanitarian aid convoy trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, and killed 10 Turks.Israel is currently represented by Shai Cohen, its consul-general in Istanbul.The two sides have signalled for months a deal is imminent, including compensation for the Mavi Marmara victims and an easing of the Gaza blockade.Israeli officials said a deal was reached in December, and President Tayyip Erdogan said in March he expected positive results soon, raising hopes an agreement was imminent.The next meeting "will have to wait until the composition of the new Turkish government on May 22," Cohen told reporters late on Monday. "I believe it will take another round or two in order to conclude the deal ... Most of the issues between Israel and Turkey are already, to a certain extent, clear."Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will step down on May 22 after a rift with Erdogan. Forming a new government could delay both domestic and foreign policy initiatives.SYRIA AS IMPETUSNATO member Turkey and Israel cooperated militarily beginning in the 1990s, a relationship seen as vital to Middle East stability by the United States but viewed warily by Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party, in power since 2002.The impetus behind fixing the relationship now is security, especially with Islamic State and other jihadists in control of swathes of Syria, which Israel and Turkey both border, Cohen said. However, restoring military ties will take time, he added.Another factor is natural gas. Energy-poor Turkey wants to pipe product from Israel's offshore Leviathan field, estimated to hold 500 billion cubic metres, for domestic use and export."Everyone is looking forward to see how Israel can export to Turkey, and through Turkey to the West, natural gas," he said.Cohen ruled out lifting the sea blockade on Gaza in place since 2007, calling it a "non-issue," even though Erdogan has repeatedly made it a condition for restoring relations.Talks instead focus on how Turkey can bring its goods overland to rebuild Gaza, whose infrastructure has been battered by the blockade and Israeli incursions. About half of building goods in Gaza are from Turkey, and this could be increased in line with Israel's capacity to monitor shipments, Cohen said.Israel wants to ensure that Turkish supplies do not amount to cooperation with Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union.Israel accuses Turkey of hosting a Hamas command centre and wants Ankara to bar leaders of the Islamist group. Erdogan met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Istanbul as recently as December.REUTERS AKC AS1643 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-725164.Xml
Xi also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on behalf of CPC and in his own name said he hoped that the ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will achieve new accomplishments in the cause of building socialism under the leadership of Kim, reports Xinhua.
Asserting that China-DPRK friendship was personally forged and carefully fostered by the two countries' leaderships of the older generation, Xi said that the traditional friendship was a treasure of both sides.
He also noted that the CPC and the Chinese government attach great importance to the ties between both nations.
The Chinese President said that his country stands ready to work with Pyongyang to promote the constant development of bilateral relations for the benefit of both countries and to make positive contributions to safeguarding peace, stability and development in the region.(ANI)
France's government decided today to bypass parliament and impose a relaxation of the country's protective labour laws by decree, sidestepping a rebellion against one of socialist President Francois Hollande's flagship reforms. The decision, announced by Prime Minister Manuel Valls, follows weeks of street protests against the bill which seeks to make hiring and firing easier and the realisation that lawmakers within the ruling party looked certain to shoot down the proposal. "Because the country must move forward ... the cabinet has authorised me to engage the government's responsibility, which I will do later on," Valls told lawmakers to boos and heckling from the some quarters and applause among ministers. Defeat would have delivered a hefty blow to the unpopular Hollande, who has said he will only run for re-election next year if he lowers a jobless rate stuck above 10 percent. The government hopes the reform will encourage firms to recruit. The government's decision not to compromise by watering down further the labour bill is also a strong signal to international investors and rating agencies, who have so far taken a welcoming but cautious approach towards Hollande's pro-business turn. A rarely used clause in France's constitution - known as 49.3 - allows for reform by decree and underlines the strong powers wielded by the executive under France's presidential system, designed by World War Two leader Charles de Gaulle. It is the second time in as many years Valls has used the clause, having last year rammed through parliament a law which loosened up Sunday trading rules and regulations in the transport and legal sectors. Although Valls diluted parts of the labour bill in March following student protests, the proposal retains measures giving more flexibility to employers to agree in-house deals with employees on working time. It also offers companies less restrictive conditions for layoffs made for economic reasons. Rebel legislators in the Socialist Party accused the government of riding roughshod over parliament. "It's a heavy-handed way of using the constitution to prevent the nation's representatives from having their say," Laurent Baumel, a rebel Socialist lawmaker told reporters, calling the decision "anti-democratic". REUTERS AKC NS2001 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-725839.Xml
Foreign companies should not use the United States as an excuse for not doing business in Iran following last year's deal on Tehran's nuclear programme, US Secretary of State John Kerry said today.Kerry is due to meet representatives of British and European banks in London on Thursday to discuss the issue of dealing with Iran under the terms of its deal with world powers."Businesses should not use the United States as an excuse if they don't want to do business, or if they don't see a good business deal ... that's just not fair, that's not accurate," Kerry told reporters in London."We sometimes get used as an excuse in this process," he said.Tehran has accused Washington of dragging its feet in the implementation of the nuclear deal and has blamed remaining US sanctions, which include a ban on Iran-linked transactions in US dollars being processed through the US financial system, for the reluctance of European banks to do business with it. REUTERS PY BL2023 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0298-725969.Xml
In a tailored Western suit, 33-year-old North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a rare congress of the ruling Workers' Party that cemented his control over the isolated country but lacked the introduction of major reforms.Still, the first Workers' Party congress since 1980 signalled a restoration of the role of the party in a country where the military held primacy under his father, Kim Jong Il, said experts on the country's opaque leadership.The four-day event that ended yesterday included Kim addressing the 3,467 delegates for more than three hours at a stretch. The meeting underlined a stability of leadership that is likely to mean fewer of the purges and executions that marked Kim's early years of rule following the death of his father in 2011.While a greater role for the party might help improve strained relations with ally China, analysts said, rival South Korea and the United States are less likely to be impressed, as North Korea also called during the congress for expansion of its nuclear arsenal, for what it said are defensive purposes.Some party cadres had expected Kim to announce Chinese- or Vietnamese-style reforms at the congress, according to the Seoul-based Daily NK, a website run by North Korean defectors with sources inside the country, and were disappointed when Kim's speech, aired by state TV on Sunday, mainly returned to old themes with vaguely communicated policy.The congress did not, for example, formally recognise the growing role of a grey market in one of the world's most state-controlled economies.But Michael Madden, a US-based expert on the North Korean leadership, said it was significant that Kim had put forward a five-year economic plan."There's going to be a gripe that there's no policy meat, that he didn't sit there and give everybody a technocratic speech about policy, but a party congress is not the forum to do that," he said.The power of the military expanded during Kim Jong Il's 17-year tenure, which did not include a party congress.Madden said that the number of military people with key roles in power organisations had been reduced. "We are definitely seeing a drawing-down of the military's political influence in North Korea's political culture," he said.Military-themed slogans, a staple of state propaganda, were less visible during the party congress, held in the capital Pyongyang. Instead, propaganda signs were overwhelmingly focused on the Workers' Party.Changes in party posts announced at the congress were not as dramatic as some analysts had anticipated. Some North Korea-watchers had expected more prominence for younger party officials."The scale of generational change was surprisingly not big, which shows how stable Kim Jong Un's regime is," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute near Seoul.OVERSEAS AUDIENCE?The party congress may also have created an opening for mending ties with neighbour China, which has grown frustrated with the North's pursuit of nuclear weapons and backed tough UN sanctions to punish Pyongyang."China thought the military-first political system was not a normal one. It looks similar to martial law," said Lee Min-yong, a North Korea expert at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul.Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country holds its own Communist Party congress every five years, sent a letter of congratulations to Kim on his elevation to party chairman."Holding the party congress means we are going back to the original socialist system. I think in Kim Jong Un's mind, he wanted to get along with China," Lee said.South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said the third-generation leader offered no new strategy at the event."The Kim Jong Un regime is focused on solidifying his power structure and securing its nuclear status," he told parliament on Tuesday.South Korea had warned that the isolated North could conduct a fifth nuclear test in conjunction with the congress.Kim cut a modern figure during the congress in tortoise-shell glasses and a dark suit with grey necktie, a departure from the drab jacket buttoned to the neck favoured by North Korean leaders, or the jumpsuits worn by his late father.Kim's grandfather, founding leader Kim Il Sung, also switched between Western suits and the North Korean-style "peoples' suit."The young leader, who spent part of his childhood in Switzerland, also showed his ease in front of an audience - a trait shared by his grandfather but not his father, who never gave a speech that was publicly broadcast. REUTERS AKC AN1920 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-725743.Xml
Turkish border guards have beaten and shot Syrians trying to reach Turkey, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today, as fighting in the border province of Aleppo intensifies threatening to force more people to flee.HRW said in a report based on interviews with victims, witnesses and Syrian locals that in March and April 2016, five people, including a child were killed and 14 were seriously injured as a result of border guards' shootings and beatings.In response to the report, a senior Turkish presidency official said the authenticity of the video could not be verified. Reuters was not able to verify the report.A video released by HRW purporting to show the victims of the beatings and shootings depicted a bloodied body with bandages around his exposed torso. Another male corpse is shown with red and purple marks all over his back and arms.A recent surge in fighting in Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, wrecked a 10-week-old partial truce sponsored by Washington and Moscow that had allowed UN-brokered peace talks to convene in Geneva.Ankara says it keeps an "open door" policy for those fleeing the five-year conflict. For over a year, only those requiring emergency medical treatment not available on the Syrian side have been able to cross legally while others rely on expensive smugglers to guide them on the dangerous route.Tens of thousands are instead interned in camps on the Syrian side, a version of the "safe zone" policy long championed by Turkey, but one which is not internationally sanctioned or recognised."Turkey admits refugees at designated points of entry if and when there is an imminent threat to civilian lives across the border," the official said.HEAVY PRICEHRW published excerpts of interviews with four victims, five witnesses, and six local Syrian residents who described seven occasions in March and April in which Turkish border guards shot or assaulted 17 Syrian asylum seekers and two smugglers.Footage of some of the victims and bodies was taken by a security guard of a local internally displaced people camp, HRW said.In its press release, the rights group recognises Turkey's right to protect its border, which includes the border town of Kilis increasingly targeted by rocket fire from Islamic State areas in recent weeks, but says it must respect international norms on use of lethal force as well as the right to life.Earlier this year, Turkey and Europe agreed on a plan to send back migrants and asylum seekers to Turkey from the Greek Islands, with Brussels committing six billion euros to help support refugees in Turkey.The legality of the deal, aimed to stem the flow of migrants to European shores, hinges on Turkey being a safe country of asylum, which rights groups and NGOs have said was not the case.Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at HRW said:"EU officials should recognise that their red light for refugees to enter the EU gives Turkey a green light to close its border, exacting a heavy price on war-ravaged asylum seekers with nowhere else to go." REUTERS AKC NS2002 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-725749.Xml
A US official today signaled Washington's willingness to work with Rodrigo Duterte, the presumed victor in Monday's Philippine presidential election."We work with those elected," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Duterte's victory has not been confirmed, but an unofficial count of votes by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed he had a huge lead over his two closest rivals, both of whom conceded defeat.REUTERS PY BL2136 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0298-726086.Xml
Gunmen killed two policemen in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta as they slept in a security post on Monday evening and three soldiers were killed in a second attack, police and the army said.The raids took place a day after five police officers were shot dead in the same region.Recent violence has raised concern that militants might resume an insurgency that has been quiet for the past several years. A labour union today called for the evacuation of oil workers from the region.The army said it would use "all available means and measures" to crush militants attacking oil facilities, saying: "They will stand to regret the consequences of their actions."The two policemen, who were asleep on guard duty, were killed in Delta's Rivers state, a police spokesman. The soldiers died in an attack in Bayelsa state, the army said.Last week, a group known as Niger Delta Avengers attacked a Chevron facility in the Delta after claiming a strike in February against a Shell pipeline, which shut down the 250,000 barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal. The violence has pushed Nigeria's crude output near to a 22-year low."Best thing for any reasonable company to do is evacuate its workforce," said Cogent Ojobor, chairman of the Warri branch of the Nupeng oil labour union.Chika Onuegbu, chairman of the trade union in Rivers state, said Chevron had evacuated some staff from the Delta following a similar move by Shell."There is high alert around various installation around the Niger Delta due to recent attacks," Onuegbu said. "Those evacuated are where their platforms have been attacked but others are working."Ikeja Electricity, Nigeria's biggest power firm, said it expected extended outages after the attack on Chevron hit gas supplies needed to generate electricity.Delta residents have long demanded a greater share of oil revenues. Crude oil sales account for about 70 percent of national income in Nigeria but there has been little development in the region.President Muhammadu Buhari has extended an amnesty agreement signed with militants in 2009 to end their campaign to blow up pipelines, but has upset them by ending generous pipeline protection contracts.The incidents are a further challenge for a government faced with an insurgency by the Islamist militant Boko Haram group in the northeast, and clashes between armed nomadic herdsmen and local people over land use in various parts of Nigeria.REUTERS PY BL2340 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0298-726150.Xml
Body in a bathtub
According to reports, Rommal Sudnaik of Wilkinson Street in El Dorado observed water leaking from a bathroom of his brothers apartment. He called out to his brother Rawle Sudnaik 36, but got no response.
He then broke into the apartment and saw his brother nude and submerged in the bathtub which was filled with water.
Rommal tried to get a pulse but realised his brother was unresponsive.
Officers of the Tunapuna police station were alerted and they went to the scene along with District Medical Officer Dr Victor Terapalli and their colleagues from the Homicide and crime scenes unit.
The body was ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre, and investigations are continuing.
An autopsy done late yesterday revealed death was due to natural causes. In an unrelated incident, a 46-year-old man of Old Bay Road, Maracas was chopped once in the neck by a fellow villager following a heated argument early yesterday.
Osabio Mendoza was liming with a group of villagers at about 1 am yesterday when an argument erupted over a bicycle owned by the victim. Mendoza accused a fellow villager of deliberately damaging his bicycle. It is alleged that the villager became enraged and dealt Mendoza a single chop to the neck.
A bleeding Mendoza went to the Maracas Bay Police Station and reported the incident. He was conveyed to the Port-of- Spain General Hospital where he was warded in serious but stable condition yesterday. Sergeant Benjamin and a party of officers are conducting enquiries.
Jury told victim stabbed multiple times
She was killed after she opened the door to a fellow villager who asked to pick portugals from the victims family citrus field.
When told that he could go ahead and pick, but dont raid the trees, Jason Hosten, 44, is accused of confronting Probation Officer (PO) Krista Lackpatsingh, 23, as she stood at her front door. The State is alleging he stabbed her repeatedly. The trial opened yesterday in the San Fernando High Court, with the testimony of Kristas parents Jade Lackpatsingh, a former primary school principal and Steve Lackpatsingh, who teaches at Cedros Secondary.
The State is alleging that Hosten confronted Krista at the door and grabbed a knife from the kitchen which he used to stab her. The incident happened on January 20, 2004 at Limefield Road in Cedros where the Lackpatsinghs lived.
In opening the case before a 12-member jury and Justice Carla Brown-Antoine, Senior State Attorney Shabaana Shah said that Krista worked as the Probation Officer at the Point Fortin Magistrates court and on that fateful day, had arrived home at about 3 pm. Krista was inside the house when she heard noises and on opening the front door, was confronted by Hosten, the jury heard.
When Krista told Hosten to go-ahead and she made to close the door, Hosten is alleged to have pushed his way inside. He grabbed a knife and proceeded to stab her all over her body. He then went upstairs and found a black purse, Shah said, and took money. The prosecutor called Kristas mother who testified that she and her husband arrived home from school.
The mother testified that she and husband Steve had entered their home from the backdoor as was customary.
Mrs Lackpatsingh told the judge and jury that she and husband sat down for about five to ten minutes. The mother said she then walked towards the corridor to go upstairs to change her clothes, when she saw her daughter Krista on the ground near the kitchen.
There was blood everywhere, Mrs Lackpatsingh testified.
At this point in her testimony, Lackpatsingh began to sob and a court Orderly handed her some tissue paper.
I started to scream and call out to Steve, Mrs Lackpatsingh said.
Prosecutor Shah called Mr Lackpatsingh who testified that he is the Dean of Discipline and a teacher at Cedros Secondary School.
He testified that when he and his wife arrived home, they sat down and spoke about what they were going to cook for dinner.
The father said that when he saw his daughters body, there was blood on the floor, on the wall and in her right hand which was in a upward bent position, was a knife. There was a towel close to the body and a dish-washing sponge. I did not get a pulse and I told Jade that Krista was not alive, Lackpatsingh said. The trial continues tomorrow.
UNC election appeal to be heard next month
The appeal, which was expected to be called yesterday, will now be heard on May 24. Justice Mira Dean-Armorer in a ruling last month had agreed with the PNM that the notice of the petition for the La Horquetta/Talparo was served outside of the five day period prescribed by the Representation of the Peoples Act.
Justice Dean-Armorer said the notice of the petition was served three days out of the prescribed time, adding that the court had to strictly apply the time lines set out in the legislation.
In a dead heat, Kangaloo holds the key
The legislation ostensibly requires a simple majority but this has been questioned by the Opposition which has expressed the view that a special majority is needed.
The Senate comprises 30 senators - 15 Government and 15 non-Government (nine Independents and six Opposition members). If all the non-Government members do not support the Bill, then Standing Order 54(2) will apply. This Standing Order states, (2) The President or any other senator presiding shall not vote unless on any question the votes are equally divided, in which case he shall have and exercise a casting vote and any reason stated shall be entered in the minutes of proceedings. The exercise of the power, however, is governed by convention, Montano said.
When the President makes a casting vote, he really does not have any discretion, Montano told Newsday yesterday.
He is governed by the Standing Orders which require that the conventions of the British Parliament and they are written down by the way must be followed. The relevant convention essentially is that the President would be required to vote in such a way as to make no change as pertains to the existing situation. If there is a piece or legislation going forward by the Government and there is parity, then the Bill will stand to be defeated by the casting vote of the President.
Perhaps better safe than sorry. Hamel-Smith concurred with this position. When there is a tie the President of the Senate has the final say, Hamel-Smith said.
There are principles upon which his judgment should be exercised.
It should be done in a way to allow for further debate. If it comes down to a tied vote, he is required to maintain a status quo, meaning the Bill should not be passed. In the case of a legislation, maintain the legislative status quo means the law should remain the same and should not be altered. The former Senate President said, however, that there is nothing to compel the Senate President.
There is nobody to compel him or her to vote in a particular way, Hamel-Smith said.
These are just guidelines or principles upon which she should exercise her judgment. But I would like to think that on something as clear-cut as this, it is so clear-cut I would imagine that those advising would feel constrained to advise her to vote against.
|Maintaining the status quo means maintaining the situation prior to the introduction of the Bill or prior to what you are seeking to achieve. Something like this is so absolutely clear-cut it would really surprise me if the Senate President were to do otherwise.
The thing you should try and do is to continue the debate so there will be an ultimate resolution. A recent precedent came in 2013. In September of that year, Hamel-Smith voted against a motion by the Peoples Partnership administration to deviate from the Standing Orders and hold a latenight sitting.
He said he voted against the Government to maintain the status quo and to pay due regard to criticisms that had been made by President Anthony Carmona over inefficient Parliament hours
AG: No SSA lobbying
Newsday understands that Independent Senator Hugh Russell Ian Roach also attending the meeting. Roach and Junkere both expressed conditional support for the bill when they spoke in the debate last Tuesday. Speaking with reporters outside of Tower D at 5.30 pm while the meeting was still in progress, Al Rawi said, The meeting with Independents is ongoing. The technocrats are answering questions as we speak. When Newsday asked how many of the nine Independents attended the meeting, the AG replied, Several of them are upstairs.
Saying he preferred the Independents identify which of them attended the meeting, Al Rawi said, Understand that this can in no way be seen as a lobby. What this is, is a simple opportunity to allow for clarification of concerns as it relates to the operationality of an arm of national security which is best done in camera. Reiterating these kinds of meetings took place under the former Peoples Partnership (PP) government whilst bills were in the Parliament, the AG stressed, I dont want to put any undue pressure on anyone who comes or doesnt come to these events.
Explaining that the Independents do not operate under the whip system that the Government and Opposition do, Al Rawi said, We decided it was appropriate to allow the Independents and the Opposition that form of interrogation so that any questions that they had to the actual operationality and function of the SSA could be understood and that direct questions could be had. Saying that members of the SSA and other national security agencies were answering questions from the Independents, Al Rawi said their identities would not be revealed for national security reasons.
It would not be appropriate to expose persons whose responsibility it is to engage in work on national security to public odium, he explained. Recalling that only Independent Senators were invited by the PP to in camera meetings with technocrats on bills such as the Miscellaneous Provisions (Defence and Police Complaints) Bill, 2013 (Soldier Police Bill) and the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill, 2014 (Runoff Bill), Al Rawi declared, We simply bettered the process by making sure the Opposition is allowed the opportunity to have access to the same information.
Rejecting Opposition Senator Wade Marks criticisms of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowleys comments in 2013 about in camera meetings with Independent Senators when the PP was in office, Al Rawi said it was a case of comparing mangoes with cherries. Explaining Rowleys remarks then, was in the face and context of no one from the Opposition being invited, Al Rawi said Government specifically stated in its letters to Independent and Opposition senators that, the same material would be presented to both groups and they would both be afforded the opportunity.
Expressing gratitude that the Opposition saw, the light of propriety and civility and will attend todays meeting at Tower D, Al Rawi noted the Oppositions position that it would need a week to consider the material presented to them. While Al Rawi hoped that Mark and other Opposition Senators would not publicise the names of the persons they meet with today, he added, I cannot prescribe to the UNC what rules of propriety look like. I can merely suggest. that would be entirely up to them.
TT, Ghana sign agreements
In addition to the government- to-government agreement, a memorandum of understanding on joint identification and development of commercially viable natural gas projects was also signed by Thomas Manu, Ag CEO of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Gerry Brooks, National Gas Company (NGC) chairman.
Mahama subsequently hosted Rowley and the TT delegation to a State luncheon. Following the luncheon the delegation was accompanied by Mahama and other high-ranking officials on a tour of the Tema Oil Refinery and the Volta Aluminum Company Ltd (Valco). Both leaders addressed the management and workers at the refinery and Valco.
Coming out of todays meetings and activities, Rowley and Mahama acknowledged their interest in further exploring opportunities for mutually beneficial collaborative efforts with a view to economic development in both countries.
The final activity for the day was a cocktail reception for the business community at the M?venpick Ambassador Hotel. A post on Rowleys Facebook page said the Prime Minister and his delegation arrived in Ghana on Sunday from London. Also in Ghana are members of a private sector delegation who will be joining Rowleys delegation for three days of meetings and activities with a view to exploring and strengthening mutually beneficial economic ties. Included in the business delegation are Brooks and Energy Chamber CEO Dr Thackwray Driver. When he left the country on May 1 on his 12-day overseas trip, the Prime Minister indicated Government will be seeking to develop an arrangement which is mutually beneficial to TT and Ghana.
Rowley said the Ghanians have been impressed with this countrys model of development. Prior to the May 24, 2010, general election, the then Patrick Manning administration was pursuing an energy initiative with Ghana. That initiative was not continued under the former Peoples Partnership administration.
Huge turnout expected for Rainbow Cup
The event will be held under the auspices of the Rainbow Warriors Triathlon Club.
Main organiser Jason Gooding, in a telephone interview, pointed out yesterday, there are three events in the triathlon the Olympic Distance triathlon, the Sprint triathon and the Relay triathlon, (which) will go off at the same time at seven oclock in the morning. Then right after that we have a kids triathlon for (children) 15 years and under, as well as a trya- tri event for adults, he continued. Its for adults, but its for anybody that wants to do a short distance, just to try it for the first time.
In the afternoon, at 1.30 (pm) we have the 5K run. According to the events website, the kids triathlon will be split up in three categories - ages 10-12, ages 13-15 (both starting at 11.30 am) and ages 7-9 (starting at 1 pm).
The respective male and female winners of the Olympic Distance triathlon will get US$1,500 each, while the runners-up will get US$1,200 apiece, the third-placed finishers US$1,000 apiece, the fourth-placed finishers US$800 and the fifth-placed finishers US$600.
In the Sprint Distance triathlon, the winners (male and female) will each receive TT $2,000, followed by $1,500 for the runners-up, $1,000 for the third-placed finishers, $800 for the fourth-placed finishers and $600 for the fifthplaced finishers.
As far as the sprint relay is concerned, the winning team will get $1,200 with $900 for the silver medallists and $600 for the bronze medallists. And, in the 5k run/walk, the winners in both male and female sections will get $1,200 each, followed by $1,000 for the runners- up, $800 for the third-placed finishers, $600 for the fourthplaced finishers and $400 for the fifth-placed finishers. Trophies and medals will be at stake in the youth triathlon events, as well as the try-a-tri. Gooding said that 600 participants are expected at this years Rainbow Cup.
We have about 150 in the Sprint triathlon, 50 in the Olympic distance triathlon, about 100 kids and people doing the try-a-tri, then we have 300 runners, he said. We have to make sure to keep it manageable so weve put a cap on it. Clement Briere is set to defend his Olympic Triathlon crown, and Gooding stated that there will likely be participants from Venezuela and Canada, in addition to those from Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada and hosts Trinidad and Tobago.
Registration for the respective events will be done on the competitions website only (rainbowtri.com), on a first-come first-serve basis, and the costs for the various events will range from US$10-$100 (TT $70-$700).
Among the sponsors for the Rainbow Cup are Massy Stores, Rainbow Warriors Triathlon Club, Grafton Beach Resort, Odessey Timing Company (main sponsors); Blue Waters, Gatorade, Subway, Mikes Bikes, Renew Star Serpentine Limited, Classic Awards Limited and Stream Events TV (bronze sponsors).
Circumstances can allow for abortion
The IRO group met yesterday to discuss the issue of abortion, which became a major topic when it was a discovered that the Zika virus could cause microcephaly in newborns - babies born with small skulls and brains. The debate has since been whether an expectant mother should have an abortion to avoid having to cope with a child born with major mental and physical infirmities caused by microcephaly.
Yacoob said he was unable to attend yesterday meeting, but the Muslims concept was that they could tolerate that except to save the live of the mother.
Muslims do not agree with disposing of the foetus because you dont want a child. We are having a meeting on May 15 to discuss Zika and abortion because that is something unusual, so I cant really give a statement on that, Ali said Ali said if a woman was raped and became pregnant, the people involved would have to determine, as individuals, whether to have an abortion because no one from any religious organisation will tell you to go and do it because you would be passing judgement on something that you know nothing about.
Abortion is based on certain circumstances which is based on the life of the mother. It also has to be based on whether the mother is a minor or a an adult, and if the adult decides to have an abortion and the doctor agrees to do it, then they can go ahead and do it, nobody can object to that.
It is not legal to have an abortion, but it happens in every society.
The parents of an underage child or the woman would have to determine what to do. Sometimes it could be a young girl that it has happened to, but the parents would have to decide what should be done because no one can be sure how the pregnancy came about. It is a complicated thing, Ali said.
Independent senator skips meeting
I dont want to tell you that yet, he said.
The Senator confirmed he already has a position and has prepared a presentation, should he be called upon to speak.
I have a position but as long as there is room for further information being provided in the debate, we remain open, the senator said.
He is one of the five remaining Independents due to speak in the debate which may continue over successive sittings or, alternatively, end in a single session. It is for the Government to determine when and if it wants to put the Bill to a vote.
Opposition will sit with Al-Rawi
Instead, the Opposition said that as a responsible group, its Senators will today meet with Al-Rawi and his technical experts.
We had no intention of storming any meeting. We are a responsible Opposition. We do things lawfully, Senator Wade Mark told Newsday, in a rejection of claims made in another daily newspaper.
Todays meeting is set for 11.30 am, ahead of the Senates start at 1.30 pm. The Opposition intends to hold a media conference at 4.30 pm. Mark yesterday asked why Al-Rawi had sought eleventh hour meetings on a Bill already under debate in Parliament.
He urged the debate to be postponed by one week. He also said that instead of two separate meetings, the AG should have held a combined meeting of Independent and Opposition Members, with technocrats and security experts present, all under media scrutiny. Mark read out his letter dated May 9 to Al-Rawi making his case.
Marks letter quoted a news report (dated April 17, 2013) of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowleys remarks as the then Opposition Leader critical of the former Peoples Partnership government for holding secret talks with Independent Senators on the Soldier Police Bill. Mark recalled Rowleys criticism of parliamentary decision-making based on secretive information and Rowleys remarks that any Independent Senator who voted with the then government might be accused of making deals with the latter.
Mark, reading his letter, said now Opposition MPs are disadvantaged by not having had the benefit of meeting technocrats.
He said the meetings come very late in the day, after 12 Opposition MPs debated the Bill in the Lower House in three sittings, and four Independent and three Opposition Senators debated it in one sitting of the Senate.
Mark said that in the absence of Al-Rawi agreeing to send the bill to a joint select committee (JSC), the AG should send it to a Senate Select Committee.
Padarath wants CPU beefed-up
In a press release issued yesterday, Padarath said the State has a duty of care to protect all the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago especially the children. His call for additional staff follows reports of a teenaged girl giving birth at the San Fernando General Hospital.
Padarath noted the CPU has been repeatedly crying out for help as they struggle with the existing workload adding that the State must become serious about protecting the nations children.
He pointed out that there has been a rise in reported cases of child abuse, specifically sexual abuse, in the last few years. He added that parents needed to become brave in tackling the issue and the society needed to have dialogue on whether parents should be held accountable for concealing abuse against their children.
Padarath said it was time for open dialogue on sharing the identities of sex offenders. He lamented that for too long the society has been reactionary and the time had come to put measures in place to prevent instances of abuse whether it be sexual, physical or emotional. He said Government through Dillon needed to act swiftly to prioritise the protection of the nations children. Padarath said the Government should begin dialogue with the Police Service and the Childrens Authority as soon as possible on these matters adding that Dillons silence was unacceptable.
PP collects $6.8B dividends from NGC
A Parliament committee chaired by Small heard how in the year 2015, the State invoked its right to request payment of a whopping $6.8 billion dividend, to itself. This request came in a year when NGCs profits fell to $605 million.
That has to be an extraordinary event, Small said during the sitting of the Joint Select Committee on State Enterprises.
There should be some explanation for that extraordinary event. The committee heard how the NCG made a profit of $605 million in 2015. This was down from $3.3 billion in 2014; $4.4 billion in 2013 and $3.9 billion in 2012. Over the years, dividends have been paid out: $3.8 billion in 2014, $2.6 billion in 2013 and $1.6 billion in 2012. Small said the $6.8 billion payment in 2015, appeared to come out of retained earnings.
The company is paying dividends out of retained earnings, Small said. And that is not necessarily the best practice. That was more than double the profits. That was not the best financial practice in my respectful view. NGC Ag VP (Finance and Info Management) Narinejit Pariag said the Stateowned company has a dividend policy which allowed payment of up to 99 percent of profit.
However, payments are also made based on, special requests from shareholders.
The company is well-capitalised, Pariag said. At the end of 2015, the companys gearing ratio is just around 11 percent.
This allowed the company to make the payment of dividends without jeopardizing the company. The point made is noted. It is not something that is sustainable...The request would have been made during the course of the year and that would have been fulfilled by the organisation. Mere months after this dividend payment, a freeze on salaries and bonuses would be implemented by NGC which employs 811 persons according to information given to the committee.
Officials also said a lack of capital investment over time, resulted in a gas supply shortage, which will only be remedied in 2017 or 2018.
Questioned on this matter yesterday, Former Finance Minister Larry Howai said, I dont recall that figure. Without researching, it could be either the inclusion of part of the prior year as well as proceeds of the (NGC) IPO. The committee also heard that the controversial Beetham Wastewater project was 78 percent complete when the contractor left the project amid a legal dispute. The project, according to NGCs Ag President Olave Maria Thorne, remains under review. Pariag said about $943.7 million was spent on the project thus far.
Thorne alluded to the official trip of NGC chairman Gerry Brooks who yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding on joint identification and development of commercially viable natural gas projects with Thomas Manu, Ag CEO of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), in Ghana.
She said the NGC is looking to other international arrangements, including with Venezuela.
We are looking at the possibility of getting gas outside of Trinidad, primarily from Venezuela, Thorne said. She said Venezuela offered medium to long-term prospects, including its Loran-Manatee field.
What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames
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Our country is in an economic freefall and youd better get ready for some pain because its coming
(Bugout.news) The headlines last Friday on The Drudge Report should have been quite frightening to any American who gives a damn about their country and who is truly interested in seeing it thrive once more. This shouldnt be a partisan issue, by the way, but unfortunately it seems to have turned into one.
Eight years ago a little-known U.S. senator from Illinois bested the most well-known name in the Democratic Party for its 2008 presidential nomination; at the time, Barack Obama was running largely on a platform in which he blamed President George W. Bushs administration for the Great Recession and the destruction of wealth it caused.
It worked. That, and a false promise of healthcare reform propelled Obama into the White House, and he handily won reelection over a hapless GOP opponent from Massachusetts who couldnt get out of his own way.
Now, after nearly eight years of Obamas policies, to say that the U.S. economy is anything but moribund and on life support is to be so intentionally disingenuous, or completely clueless, it should defy belief.
Record citizenship renunciations in the Age of Obama. Record number of Americans (about one-third!) no longer in the workforce because they cant find decent-paying jobs. And why not? Because job creation has slowed to a fraction of what is needed to actually grow the economy, which, as another headline indicates, is practically non-existent.
The blame for all of this cannot be laid only at the front steps of the White House. Congress refusal to exert its own authority to influence many of Obamas policies has hurt the nation as well, so there is plenty of blame to go around.
But you know what? At this point blaming someone is meaningless because it really doesnt matter. There will be plenty of time for discussing that later. In the meantime, it appears that the die has been cast; the death spiral of the U.S. economy has begun, and it will be enjoined by death spirals of other developed countries as well, to include China and Russia.
And what ensues is, quite frankly, not going to be pretty.
Already were seeing signs of how concerns over slowing economic activity and growth are manifesting. In terms of Russia and China, both appear to be outsourcing those concerns with military aggression and expansionism. Both nations are corrupt and authoritarian (yes, in many ways the U.S. is too, but not quite as bad as these other two for now), and both have restive populations concerned about how theyre going to make their way in an era of slow (or no) growth. Militarism and nationalism are old tricks used by crumbling regimes in modern history to take the publics mind off their own economic misery at home. It works for a time, but the end result is never good; the world either winds up in war, or the major countries convulse into revolution. Believe it or not, that is more likely to happen in Russia, a nation full of nuclear weapons, but China especially among its Uighur and Mongolian ethnic groups is not beyond civil unrest and disorder.
In the U.S., meanwhile, throw a contentious presidential election into an already steaming cauldron of economic discontent and what you have is a powder keg that needs but a small spark to explode.
And this summer, at some point, it will. Some are saying the eruption comes when Republicans gather in Cleveland, Ohio, to nominate billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump to be their 2016 presidential candidate. A hugely polarizing figure, Trump nevertheless seems to be on a glide path now to the nomination after his last two remaining opponents, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, dropped out last week.
Hillary Clinton, who appears likely to win the Democratic nomination despite the fact that the FBI is all over her for using an unsecured private email server while serving as Obamas secretary of state, is equally polarizing to those on the right, but as evidenced thus far, its only the Left-wing revolutionary types using mostly rent-a-mobs who are disrupting Trump campaign events, with promises to continue doing so throughout the summer.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economy will continue to tank throughout the summer as well, and so will those of other great powers. Job creation in America, such as it is, will be tepid. And of the jobs being created, most will allow earners to barely get by.
Fear and loathing, jealously, frustration, anger, depression, hopelessness all of these base emotions are being fomented and then preyed upon by the same master manipulators who have always been behind the scenes pulling the strings. By keeping the population riled up and distracted, they empower themselves. But this time, they may have created a monster they ultimately will be unable to control.
Whats coming may be unstoppable. What you do between now and then to prepare, however, is entirely in your hands. Its valuable time. Dont waste it.
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Pot legalization measure headed for November ballots in Maine and other states
(Freedom.news) In what appears to be part of a national trend, an initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana won a spot on Maines November ballot after the secretary of state determined on Wednesday that the measure had garnered a sufficient number of valid signatures.
On Friday, Maines House of Representatives and Senate voted to indefinitely postpone legislative consideration of the Marijuana Legalization Act, which means the measure will go before voters in November. The legislators had the option of approving it exactly as submitted or opting not to take action the latter effectively places it on the ballot. If passed, the initiative would give adults 21 and over the right to possess and transport up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and grow a half-dozen flowering marijuana plants in their homes.
The certification of the Maine initiative comes as similar measures are headed toward statewide ballots throughout the nation. According to NORML, a Washington-based group that advocates for marijuana legalization, an adult-use initiative has already qualified for the Nevada ballot, and the group anticipates that similar measures will be voted on in November by citizens in Arizona, California, Massachusetts and Michigan.
In addition, Florida, Missouri and Ohio are expected to have medical marijuana initiatives on their fall ballots.
Never in modern history has there existed greater public support for ending our nations nearly century-long experiment with marijuana prohibition and replacing it was a taxed and regulated adult marketplace, Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, told AMI Newswire.
Armentano said prohibitions against marijuana place financial burdens on taxpayers, lead to disrespect for the law and disproportionately penalize young people and people of color.
A pragmatic regulatory framework that allows for the legal, licensed commercial production and retail sale of cannabis to adults, but restricts and discourages its use among young people, best reduces the risks associated with the plants use or abuse, he said.
Opponents of Maines measures, however, will paint a different picture by focusing on societal ills associated with drug use. Maine Gov. Paul LePage, for one, sees marijuana as a gateway drug whose use can lead to addictions to more dangerous substances, according to the governors press secretary, Adrienne Bennett. She also noted that the state is now in the midst of a major heroin problem.
David Boyer of Maines Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol discounts the gateway argument, arguing that the problem is not that most Americans move on to harder drugs after using marijuana. Instead, he said the real problem is the current illicit market run by drug dealers.
These folks who use marijuana wouldnt be interacting with the criminal market otherwise, Boyer told AMI Newswire. We dont see why we cant trust adults to use a drug thats safer than alcohol.
Boyer said the initiative would place a 10-percent tax on marijuana sold by state-licensed vendors, with the resulting millions of dollars in annual tax proceeds going into the states general fund. Municipalities will have the option of denying licenses to vendors, he said, noting that the state has a history of local control and strong local governance.
Boyer said he was proud to be part of a state-by-state movement to remove marijuana prohibitions.
This is definitely bigger than Maine, he said. Maines motto is Dirigo, which means I lead.
The nonpartisan Maine Peoples Resource Center surveyed residents of the state in March and found that 53.8 percent of respondents favored the initiative, while 42.4 percent opposed it and another 3.8 percent were unsure. The survey had a 4.15-percent margin of error.
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap initially invalidated more than 47,000 signatures collected by the measures supporters and concluded that it lacked enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. A Business and Consumer Court, however, reversed the original decision, leading to the secretary of states eventual certification.
(c) 2016. American Media Institute.
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Uma Bharti Launchs Rural Sanitation Initiatives for Ganga Rejuvenation in Jharkhand
Jharkhand, Tue, 10 May 2016 NI Wire
Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti launched nine projects for rural sanitation initiatives under Namami Gange Programme for conservation of river Ganga in Sahibganj, Jharkhand . Speaking on the occasion the Minister said the entire 83 Km. stretch of Ganga in Jharkhand will be covered under this programme. She said the project will focus on three significant interventions; Promotion of safe, individual hygiene practices to ensure open defecation free status of all 78 villages along the river Ganga, Promotion of cost-effective, appropriate local, low cost, easy to manage technologies using local resources to ensure improved access, sustained use and maintenance of infrastructure created for effective management of solid and liquid waste and strengthening of local institutions including panchayats, village level sanitation committees and self-help groups to effectively manage, enhance and maintain facilities established for improved sanitation in the villages and an integrated and a holistic livelihood approach.
The Minister said the main aim of the projects is to improve the health and quality of life of around 45,000 households located in these 78 villages of the Ganga River basin in Jharkhand through improved sanitation practices, while also improving the quality of waste water and storm water runoff flowing from the villages into the river Ganga. Sushri Bharti said 78 units will be established in project villages for collection, storage and composting of degradable solid waste and for setting up small enterprises for non-biodegradable material. She informed that 5,460 households will be supported for adoption of composting facilities using vermin composting for productive use of animal and agro-waste and 1,860 households will be supported for adoption of biogas plants to facilitate safe disposal of animal waste. The Minister said that eight village level crematoriums and 32 bathing Ghats will be constructed along with 40 community toilets. She said that more than 10,000 soak pits will be constructed through community participation to safely contain and dispose surplus and waste water emerging from households and community managed hand pumps. The Minister informed that community-led construction of 152,000 meters of open channel drains in project villages to ensure speedy and safe disposal of domestic waste and storm water runoff and construction and refurbishment of 92 community ponds to enable bio-treatment and safe disposal of domestic waste and storm water runoff will also be taken up.
The entire project will be carried out under the overall guidance of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with the support from UNDP, community organizations and NGOs. Project initiatives will contribute to improved, sustainable solid and liquid waste management in the identified villages and will reduce contamination in the Ganga from rural sources including agriculture. UNDP will provide technical and implementation support.
Source: PIB
Galaxy J5 (2016): Things to Look Out For
New Delhi, Tue, 10 May 2016 NI Wire
Samsung has time and again proved that it's a game changer and will always be. Having launched some wonderful flagships over the recent past - which not just offered high-end performance but were even low on pocket, it's all set with the launch of its novel Galaxy J5 (2016).
Termed to be the successor of Samsung's July 2015 release J5 series, Galaxy J5 (2016) is indeed a surprise package and is sure to give other smartphones a run for their money.
The launch of J5 (2016) is to take place today and while we wait for detailed insights, let's here have a look at what the phone has to offer in terms of design and functionality.
The Design
Samsung is done with the bizarre plastic texturing and is totally in for smoothly refined metal bodies. In all its recent flagships, Samsung has opted got metal bodies with a fine finish. Galaxy J5 is indeed one nice phone that would make you fall in love with it. The perfectly designed metal frame adds to its class and gives it the much liked elegant feel. For a mid-range phone, Samsung's Galaxy j5 (2016) certainly possesses a class appeal which makes it give some tough competition to the high priced elite models in the market. As stated, it will be available to you in three color variants: Pink, White and Gold.
Display & Functionality
The all new Galaxy J5 (2016) is decked with metal frame boasting of 5.2-inch HD Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen supported by 720x1,280 pixels (282 ppi pixel density). This new handset from Samsung measures 145.8x72.3x8.1 mm in dimension and weighs approximately 159 g. It is outfitted with 1.2GHz quad-core processor and runs Android 5.1 Lollipop. Furthermore, Galaxy J5 (2016) comes with a 16GB internal memory that can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card and the device also has a 2GB RAM.
The Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) supports dual SIM and backs regular connectivity options like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3G, 4G (this requires support for Band 40 used by certain LTE networks in India). If you talk of other add on features, the device is equipped with sensors as well which include the Proximity sensor, Accelerometer and Ambient light sensor.
Camera
Well, this is what seeks the major attention in a smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) has a 13MP rear camera and with f/1.9 aperture, autofocus, and 28mm LED flash. For selife, it has 5MP front-camera supported with f/1.9 aperture and LED flash. The device has a removable battery of 3,100mAh.
So far there has been a lot of hype around Galaxy J5 (2016). Given the fact that its predecessor, the Galaxy J5 released in 2015 did extremely well, one can expect the 2016 model to excel the previous one and proved to be more efficient and a profitable investment from end users' viewpoint.
With the launch happening today, let's wait for getting more details. Stay tuned as we bring to you every update about your favorite smartphones!
A startup company called Hyperloop Technologies is trying to develop Elon Musks Hyperloop transportation system. They aveg $100 million of venture capital.
Josh Giegel, vice president of design and analysis at Hyperloop Tech indicates they have developed a tube, robots, a length of track, and various pieces of the electromagnetic propulsion system. A couple of hundred miles away, 2,000 feet of track in the Nevada desert is being readied for a public test of the track and electromagnetic propulsion system.
Two-year-old Hyperloop Tech has already grown from a handful of engineers in a garage to 140 people across three acres of old industrial buildings near downtown Los Angeles, plus a patch of desert in North Las Vegas.
Hyperloop Techs growth is impressive and they are far ahead of a competitor, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, which is funded by donations.
Beyond the steel tubes and welding robots, theres a wind tunnel, a huge pressurized chamber called the levitation rig, and an even bigger vacuum tube (appropriately dubbed the Big Tube) for testing the full set of Hyperloop components. A block of electromagnets are floating a large, flat steel square a foot or so in the air. It hovers there stiffly, so stiffly that even when you press down on it very hard, it does not budge. This was a demonstration of the Hyperloops shock absorption system.
This device is used to test the levitation system needed to lift up Hyperloop capsules.
A rendering of a Hyperloop pod carrying a shipping container.
Hyperloop Tech engineers are tweaking Musks original plan, which imagined solar cells atop the tubes feeding energy to acceleration points every 40 or 50 miles where pods would get an extra magnetic shove. In between, pods could coast without much slowing down thanks to their air cushion and low pressure in the tube reducing friction (a well-designed braking system could reclaim energy when it was time to slow down). But counting on solar energy to deliver the sudden bursts of power to the acceleration magnets doesnt look practical for all places or weather conditions. And Hyperloop Tech claims to be in talks with governments and businesses all around the world. The company is designing the Hyperloop to use any power source.
Rob Lloyd, Hyperloop Techs CEO, said The first test washe checks his watcha few hours ago. This morning [in the middle of April 2016]. In May, 2016 they expect to be running the test sled down the test track at speeds of more than 400 miles per hour. By the end of the year, they plan to break 700 miles per hour.
Airlines expend a tremendous amount of energy getting up to 30,000 feet and dont recapture any of it on the way back down. The low pressure inside Hyperloop Techs tubes aims to replicate the atmospheric drag at about 160,000 feet. The company calculates that the magnetic boosts required every 40 miles or so will allow a Hyperloop to be more efficient than rail can be at very high speeds.
Freight rail in the U.S. is already quite profitable and efficient (Warren Buffett invests heavily in it). But a high-speed freight backbonebroadband for goodslinking major population centers could make economic sense
SOURCES Technology Review
High Speed rail companies in Texas, Minnesota and Nevada all plan to tap private cash from investors globally, with help from foreign train makers and governments eager to export train technology. The projects would rely on partnerships with Japanese or Chinese firms that face saturated train markets at home.
North American High Speed Rail Groups project in Minnesota said last year it would seek money from Chinese investors. Now, it said it is considering two foreign partners for the $4.2 billion project, which seeks to connect the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to Rochester, Minnesota, by 2022.
Texas Central is paying for engineering studies with $75 million from Texas investors, $40 million from a state-backed Japanese development fund and about $130 million in design work from two firms. The Dallas-to-Houston rail line is projected to cost $12 billion and be completed by 2021.
In Nevada, privately financed XpressWest plans to link Las Vegas to Southern California. Started by Las Vegas developer Marnell Companies, the company formed a joint venture last fall with a consortium of Chinese firms, infusing $100 million into the project expected to break ground as soon as this year.
Despite the huge geographic distance existing between Rabat and Beijing, the two capitals have decided to overcome this obstacle by setting out a strategic partnership model thanks to a proactive royal diplomacy and vision regarding China as a world economic power.
China has big dreams. Morocco too aims high. Sensing the need for more partners and diversified markets as the North African Kingdom is becoming also a regional player and growing power in Africa.
After reaching out to Russia and the Gulf countries, Morocco now looks forward to developing relations with China. The visit King Mohammed VI pays to Beijing starting this May 11th perfectly illustrates the countrys new strategic vision and foreign policy, spearheaded by the Sovereign.
Though it remains committed to its strategic relations with its allies, Morocco has, in recent months, sought to diversify its partnerships at political, strategic and economic levels, said king Mohammed VI in his historic speech during the first Morocco-GCC summit held in Riyadh on April 20.
My successful visit to Russia, last month, is part of that process. It has made it possible to turn Moroccan-Russian relations into an in-depth strategic partnership, and a number of major agreements have been signed in several crucial areas, said the Monarch.
We are also looking forward, in Morocco, to launching a strategic partnership with India, and also with the Peoples Republic of China, to which I will soon be paying an official visit, added King Mohammed VI.
According to French expert in international relations Charles Saint-Prot, King Mohammed VI trip to China clearly shows Moroccos new foreign policy led by King Mohammed VI who has fully perceived the geopolitical developments of the modern world which has become more multipolar.
Morocco adapts quickly to new realities on the international scene to preserve its national interests, deploying a subtle diplomacy which is more diversified and more balanced, said Professor Saint Prot.
During the latest vote by the UN Security Council on Sahara, China has adopted a positive stand. Beijing had also refused to allow the secessionist Polisario to participate in the China-Africa Cooperation Forum held last year in Johannesburg.
The African continent is the new Eldorado of the Chinese firms offering win-win cooperation. For Chinese leaders, Africa is a continent embedded with huge business opportunities to be grasped responsibly. They injected billions of dollars in investments and by year 2020, Chinese trade with Africa is expected to soar to $400 billion and direct investment in the continent to $100 billion.
China wants a free trade agreement with Morocco. It regards the Kingdom as a gateway to Africa and southern Europe. Chinese telecom giant Huawei is planning to install its new regional headquarters for the French-speaking Africa in Casablanca, a move which shows interest of Chinese companies in Morocco, a regional player and vital hub in triangular cooperation.
Three families of Mexican tourists killed by error by Egyptian security forces in September have received $140,000 each as a compensation for the death of their relatives, a tourism official told the media on Monday.
The families of three of the victims have each received a bank transfer worth $140, 000, said Ahmed Ibrahim, treasurer of the Egyptian Travel Agents Association.
Egyptian security forces on September 13 hunted down a group of 18 tourists [mistaken for terrorists] traveling in four vehicles, in restricted zone in the Wahat area of the Western Desert. The security forces fired at the group from helicopters killing in all 12 people, eight Mexicans and four Egyptians. Many were also wounded in the attack.
The three families according to Ibrahim agreed not to sue Egypt for the killing of their loved ones and accepted the compensation.
The federation is also negotiating with other families.
Negotiations are under way with the other five families in order to close the case definitively, Ibrahim said.
Egyptian authorities have not been involved in the negotiations and have blamed Windows of Egypt Tours, the tour operator, for failing to liaise with authorities as the group entered a no-go zone. Authorities have refused to apologize publicly for the incident.
Elhamy ElZayat, chairman of Egypts tourism federation, told media that the compensation was not an act of apology by Egyptian authorities but a move to revive the countrys battered tourism industry.
We need the tourists to come back. We are doing this for the country, ElZayat said.
Families of the Egyptian victims have not received any compensation yet and will have to wait for the outcome of local investigations, El Zayat pointed out.
Head of Libyas Government of National Accord (GNA) urged the international community to lift the arm ban saying that fight against IS will be meaningless with the embargo still reinforced.
Head of GNA Faiez Serraj who was attending an Arab League meeting Monday in Cairo blasted the UN-imposed restriction, saying that it doesnt make sense that the international community supports our war against terrorism, and forbids us from arming ourselves.
Libya is struggling to weed out IS militants who have imposed their own rule since entering the country in 2014.
Serrajs who entered Tripoli in March with his team, is also struggling to assert his power in competition with two other rival administrations, respectively based in the far East headed Prime Minister al-Thinni and in Tripoli led by Khalifa Ghwell.
The international community has stood by the side of GNA tasked to reunite the country and address the numerous challenges that have gripped the country since the death of Col. Gaddafi in 2011.
Prime Minister-designate also reportedly urged the international community to release Libyan assets frozen outside the country.
Around 2,000 Tunisians have been stopped from joining terrorist groups in war zones around the world so far this year, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.
In 2016, 1,877 Tunisians were prevented from leaving the country to travel to hot spots, said Interior Ministry spokesman Yasser Mesbah.
Since January, Tunisian security authorities have also busted 33 suspected terrorist cells and launched legal procedures against 1,400 people accused of belonging to a terrorist organization, Mesbah further told Shems FM; a private radio station.
Most of those stopped from joining conflict zones according to Mesbah are aged between 20 and 23 and have been put under surveillance.
Last year, a UN Working group put the number of Tunisians joining the terrorist groups in conflict zones at more than 5,000 including around 700 women.
Tunisia has been facing growing extremism since the 2011 revolution. Last year, three major terror acts stroke the country killing altogether 71 people mostly foreign tourists.
IS and other terror groups found fertile grounds in the countrys poor regions where they have been able to lure thousands of youths.
Gripped by the growing security concern, authorities have enhanced army and police capability. Mesbah said since January up to 1,733 raids have been carried out on the homes of people suspected of sheltering terrorist elements and 140 people suspected for facilitating youths travel plans have been arrested and brought before court.
Bathrooms for all! Photo: MARK RALSTON/This content is subject to copyright.
On Monday, California sent a message to a certain other state that happens to be embroiled in a battle with the U.S. Justice Department, when its assembly passed a bill that would require all single-occupancy restrooms to be open to anyone, regardless of their gender or gender identity. In a statement, the bills sponsor pointed out that, Restrooms are a necessity of life, making equal access to them a civil rights issue. The bill passed on a 55-19 vote and will now be put to a vote in the California Senate, according to Reuters.
Although measures banning gender discrimination are already in place in much of California, this one goes further, saying that no public bathroom should be set aside for a single sex. In addition to barring discrimination, lawmakers point out the bill would also cut down waiting time at single-occupancy public restrooms because all bathrooms would be open to everyone. Way to level the playing field, California.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Monday that the Department of Justice is suing North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, and the University of North Carolina for the states refusal to disband its transphobic bathroom law. This action is about a great deal more than just bathrooms, Lynch said. This is about the dignity and respect we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we, as a people and as a country, have enacted to protect them indeed, to protect all of us.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch announcing federal action on North Carolina. Photo: Drew Angerer/2016 Getty Images
Good morning and welcome to Fresh Intelligence, our roundup of the stories, ideas, and memes youll be talking about today. In this edition, North Carolina and the Justice Department sue each other, Trump is misunderstood, and the case against Sumner Redstone is dismissed. Heres the rundown for Tuesday, May 10.
WEATHER
Yesterdays rash of huge and deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma and Nebraska could continue into today with severe storms, hail, and even more tornadoes forecasted into the afternoon in the middle of the country. New York City can expect a cloudy day with maybe a few light showers and temperatures in the low 60s. [Weather.com]
FRONT PAGE
North Carolina Gets Litigious, Justice Department Follows Suit
Yesterday was North Carolinas deadline to stop enforcing its controversial bathroom bill, which the Department of Justice found was discriminatory toward transgender people. Lest you think the issue will be quickly resolved, instead of meeting the deadline, North Carolina filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department accusing it of blatant overreach. Attorney General Loretta Lynch responded by calling on a North Carolina federal district court to declare that the bill violates the Civil Rights Act. If North Carolina refuses to act, the Justice Department has said it can withhold billions of dollars of federal funding from the state. [Reuters]
EARLY AND OFTEN
Trump: I Didnt Mean Tax the Rich More, I Meant Tax Them Less
That didnt take long. After dominating yesterdays headlines with his call to tax the wealthy more, and even saying he was willing to pay more himself, Trump is back in the headlines saying that, of course, he was misunderstood: The rich should still receive tax breaks, but maybe smaller tax breaks than he originally planned. Im not talking about a tax increase. Im talking about a tremendous tax decrease, OK? OK. [Reuters]
Bigfoot Was Robbed
President Obama yesterday signed a law making the bison, everyones favorite trendy burger meat, Americas national mammal. There used to be tens of millions of bison across the country before settlers who didnt know they would one day be the national mammal shot so many of them that they almost went extinct. Today only tens of thousands of bison remain.
Trump to Christie: Youre Hired
After acting as Trumps opponent, punching bag, and lobotomized minion, it looks like Chris Christie has gotten himself a real job. Trump recently appointed Christie to head his transition team: If Trump wins the White House, Christie will plan the administration, help manage Trumps move, and, were guessing, install a bunch of gold toilets. [Reuters]
P.J. ORourke Endorses Second-Worst Thing That Can Happen to This Country
Humorist and outspoken libertarian P.J. ORourke shocked listening audiences when he announced he would support Hillary Clinton while appearing as a panelist on National Public Radios Wait Wait Dont Tell Me. He said he was endorsing Clinton along with her lies and her empty promises and described her as the second-worst thing that can happen to this country. But shes way behind in second place. Quite the endorsement. [Politico]
THE STREET, THE VALLEY
Gaps Springtime Comeback More of a Springtime Setback
Gap, the struggling clothing company, had forecast what it called a springtime comeback, but said comeback sadly failed to materialize. The company posted disappointing earnings yesterday, which sent its shares tumbling 15 percent. It was an especially tough year for Gaps budget spin-off, Old Navy. [Bloomberg]
Redstone Wins Court Case, Competency Still an Issue
A judge has ruled in favor of Sumner Redstone, throwing out the case brought by his ex-girlfriend and caretaker who claimed Redstones inner circle manipulated him into firing and disinheriting her. Still, the case brought unwanted attention to the billionaire media tycoons frailty, which could spark a power struggle at the companies he controls. Redstone owns 80 percent voting stakes in both Viacom and CBS. [NYT]
Mixed Signals: Feds Now Really Concerned About Mobile-Phone Security
The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission released separate statements yesterday saying theyre beginning an inquiry into smartphone makers and wireless-service providers over concerns that companies slowness to release software updates could leave phones vulnerable to security breaches. [Bloomberg]
In Reverse Mariel Boatlift, the U.S. Sends Cuba the Kardashians and T-Mobile
T-Mobile is making headway in Cuba. The wireless-service provider announced yesterday that it will team up with a Cuban wireless provider to cut costs of calls between the U.S. and Cuba by as much as 65 percent. Also, your T-Mobile device should now work on Castros island just fine. [CNet]
MEDIA BUBBLE
Facebook Gets In On That Sweet Liberal-Media-Bias Action
Facebook is in a bit of hot water after a story broke on Gizmodo quoting journalists who used to work at the company saying they routinely suppressed conservative stories in favor of liberal-leaning stories for the sites trending-news section. Some employees, known as news curators, also said they falsely inserted stories into the section on instructions for their superiors. So, guys, maybe dont get all your news from Facebook?
Las Vegas Review-Journal Hemorrhage Continues
A flood of journalists are leaving the Las Vegas Review-Journal after billionaire casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson purchased the paper late last year. Yesterday, Jennifer Robison, one of the journalists who uncovered the identity of the papers secret new owner, just announced her departure; she was the last reporter involved in that story who remained at the paper. [NPR]
Huge News for Fans of Mockumentaries, Tim Robbins
Spotify is following the example of basically every other online company there is by expanding into original video content. The Swedish music-streaming service already boasts some clips from Comedy Central and the BBC, but it will now release its own programing such as a mockumentary series with Tim Robbins and something with Russell Simmons. [Variety]
PHOTO OP
Deadly Winds
Massive tornadoes ripped through the middle of the country yesterday, killing at least two people. This huge tornado was spotted in Oklahoma.
MORNING MEME
Happy Belated, David Attenborough
Beloved nature documentarian David Attenborough turned 90 on Sunday, and since then, adorable memes have kept flowing in. We love this little interaction with a frog, which we think captures the man and his inexhaustible capacity for wonder.
OTHER LOCAL NEWS
Holy Man Wears Same Shirt for Three Days
A you guessed it Florida man managed to shoot himself in the arm while cleaning his gun. This wouldnt be news but for the fact that he had no idea hed shot himself until he decided to change his shirt three days later and discovered the bullet wound. Either this guy is a total badass, or the NRA is right and getting shot really isnt that big of a deal. [Daytona Beach News-Journal]
Kentucky Towns First Running of the Goats Ends in Adorable Chaos
Covington, Kentucky, inaugurated its first Running of the Goats, and boy did they run. A group of goats made a break for it, taking the community on a 24-hour goat chase through town that injured one goat-chaser and ended when the last couple of goats were found in a nearby wood. [UPI]
HAPPENING TODAY
NASA to Make Big Announcement, Almost Certainly Aliens
NASA has said it will announce the latest findings of its Kepler Space Telescope today at 1 p.m. The announcement is most likely that Kepler has found a new planet outside of our solar system, but according to the internet, its definitely going to be aliens for real this time. [Techradar]
Hyperloop Technologies to Make Big Announcement, Almost Certainly Aliens
Hyperloop Technologies, the startup that makes components for Elon Musks futuristic transportation scheme the hyperloop, has said it will announce something big tomorrow. The media has been invited to a small-scale hyperloop race track north of Las Vegas for a demonstration and said announcement, again probably about aliens. [electrek]
Primaries in Nebraska and West Virginia While Candidates Eye California
Two primaries tomorrow in West Virginia and Nebraska havent been getting much media attention thanks in part to the massive California primary looming just over the horizon. But the Democratic primary in West Virginia, at least, will be an important test of Bernies momentum and Hillarys ability to rebuild her image in coal country. [AL.com]
Photo: @againwithbeth/Instagram The tombstone left in Central Park back in March.
Back in March, a tombstone featuring Donald Trumps name and the epitaph Made America Hate Again mysteriously appeared in Central Parks Sheep Meadow. It was promptly removed, but because it could be considered a threat on the candidates life, the Secret Service and officers with the NYPDs counterterrorism unit began investigating. Initially, they had trouble figuring out who did it: A check for fingerprints yielded nothing, and though a nearby security camera caught a group of people unloading something from a truck, the license plate was illegible. But more than a month later, the NYPD has cracked the case: According to the Times, theyve identified a 33-year-old artist named Brian A. Whiteley as the person behind the stunt.
The cops big break came the weekend after the tombstone was left in the park, when Gothamist published an interview with an anoymous artist who claimed to be behind the project. The interview included photos and details of how the artist had the stone made at a tombstone shop in the New York City area, so police decided to check out a random Brooklyn showroom to see if it had been made there.
They were in luck: The owner told him that he had indeed made the headstone to the specifications of the customer, whom he described as a hipster in an interview with the Times. The owner gave police the customers information, as well as video of him loading the stone into a truck. The officers then confirmed with the trucks owner than the same man had indeed rented it.
And so, yesterday, the cops paid a visit to Whiteley, who hasnt been charged with a crime.
In an April interview with Daily Intelligencer arranged by a publicist, the artist (who declined to give his name) said, Ive been kind of stressed out about it, and paranoid, that the Secret Service is going to show up and, like, pull me out of my house.
He explained that the purpose of the stunt was to get Mr. Trump to understand what type of legacy hes leaving behind. He added: I think it was important to comment on the fact that due to some of his rhetoric, instead of being known as a businessman or a celebrity of sorts, he is starting to be remembered as a person who is fostering hatred. (The date of death was left blank, he said, to show that theres still time for him to change.)
The artist said at the time that he normally doesnt speak about his work because I like maintaining a mystery to projects, but he wanted to clear some things up because he was concerned that the project was being misconstrued and might be seen as a threat. But now it appears that speaking to the press was the key not only to unraveling the mystery hed worked so hard to cultivate, but to allowing authorities to track him down.
Chill out. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
New polls show Donald Trump catching up to Clinton nationally, statistically tying her in two key swing states and leading her in a third. Public Policy Polling has Clinton leading Trump 42 to 38 percent nationally, down from 48 to 41 percent in March. The pollster attributes that narrowing gap to Republican voters unifying behind their standard-bearer while third-party candidates pick off more would-be Clinton voters than could-be Trumpists.
Meanwhile, Quinnipiac finds Trump leading Clinton by four points in Ohio, and trailing her by a single digit in Florida and Pennsylvania. And while many liberals are counting on Trumps rank misogyny to produce an unbridgeable gender gap, Quinnipiac shows that women are more tolerant of chauvinism than men are of female authority: Clinton wins Ohio women by 7 points, but she loses Buckeye State men by 15.
If youve assumed that Clintons transparently superior intelligence will win voters to her side in the fall debates, Quinnipiac offers another sobering data point: Large majorities of voters in all three states already believe Clinton is more intelligent and has higher moral standards than the Donald and they still trust him more to handle the economy.
Bottom line: These polls suggest that the American electorate may be just stupid (and/or male) enough to send a pseudo-fascist to the White House. But you really shouldnt freak out.
Here are three reasons why you dont need to apply for Canadian citizenship just yet:
1. Quinnipiac thinks the electorate is getting whiter.
All three Quinnipiac polls are based on the assumption that the 2016 electorate will be more white and less black and Hispanic than it was four years ago. Republicans have long hoped that without Obama on the ballot, the voter pool would lighten up a bit, so to speak. But theres little reason to think that will actually happen. Across the country, Hispanic voter registration is spiking one group projects that Latinos will cast nearly 2 million more votes this year than they did in 2012.
Q Poll Ohio sample is 4 pts. more white than 2012 Ohio exit poll; PA sample is 3 pts. more white and FL sample is 2 pts. more white. Alan Abramowitz (@AlanIAbramowitz) May 10, 2016
Whats more, Quinnipiac put up a less-than-stellar record this primary season.
Worth noting that Quinnipiac had by far the worst predictive track record in the primaries, per @bpolitics analysis pic.twitter.com/KXjeWStKsH McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) May 10, 2016
2. The undecided voters in PPPs Clinton/Trump poll lean Democratic.
While Clinton only leads by four points in PPPs national poll, 14 percent of voters in the survey are undecided and overwhelmingly liberal. In a Sanders/Trump race, this indecisive electorate backs the socialist 41 to 8 percent. PPP shows that voters overall would prefer a generic Democratic candidate to a generic Republican 49 to 41 also, 54 percent of voters have a higher opinion of head lice than they do of Donald Trump.
New PPP poll: Trump is less popular than lice!! Hahahaha! pic.twitter.com/wCFjjpnJy4 Jena Penya (@JenaPenya) May 10, 2016
Sanders has vowed to do everything in his power to keep Trump out of the Oval Office, so, once he accepts defeat and stumps for the Democratic ticket, many of these head-lice-leaning voters should come home for Clinton. And thatd go a ways toward solving her hypothetical swing-state problems, as Sanders leads Trump in all of Quinnipiacs head-to-heads.
3. All of the other polls.
Were six months from a general election. One little poll of Ohio means nothing. Right now the RealClearPolitics average of all polls shows Clinton up by a healthy 6.5-point margin. Recent surveys have found upward of 70 percent of American women dislike the Donald, and that number is climbing.
Trump is struggling to raise money, and a sizeable portion of his party does not want him to win. All signs point to a Clinton landslide. And remember, most signs and all polling averages pointed to Trump winning the Republican primary. If you didnt think Trump could win the primary but now believe he has a good shot of winning the general, youre probably making the same mistake twice.
According to Trump, Khan is one in 1.6 billion. Photo: Spencer Platt/2016 Getty Images
On Friday, Londoners elected Sadiq Khan as mayor. Khan, who belongs to the British Labor Party and whos served as a member of Parliament since 2005, also happens to be the citys first-ever Muslim mayor. In an interview with Time, Khan pointed out that his religion could have ramifications on his relationship with the United States if a certain tangerine-coiffed GOP front-runner is elected president Trump has repeatedly called to ban Muslims from the country.
I want to go to America to meet with and engage with American mayors, Khan said, citing Rahm Emanuel and Bill de Blasio in particular. If Donald Trump becomes the president Ill be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I cant engage with American mayors and swap ideas. He added that hell plan to visit the U.S. before January just in case.
But in an interview with the New York Times on Monday, Trump ever the benevolent leader reassured Khan that theres no need for concern. In fact, Trump said, he would consider making a special exception to the ban just so Londons new mayor could visit. There will always be exceptions, Trump said before adding that he was happy to see that Khan was elected. I think its a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job.
When asked why he has such high hopes for Khan, Trump replied: Because I think if he does a great job, it will really you lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing.
As for the rest of the worlds 1.6 billion Muslims, theyll have to wait to visit America until our countrys representatives can figure out whats going on.
Sanders is likely to win West Virginia tomorrow for the same reasons Clinton won it in 2008.
Two weeks ago, the West Virginia primary looked to be a big deal for Republicans, with a state tailor-made for Donald Trump holding a contest with confusing delegate-selection rules. Now the GOP primary like the one in Nebraska the same day doesnt much matter, and a lot of people wont realize how much this state was going to be Trump Country even if the nomination was still undecided. It could well be one of his best states in November.
The Democratic primary, for the second straight competitive cycle, features a candidate who is heavily favored to win the nomination but will probably lose the primary. In an interesting reversal of fortune, the big 2008 winner, Hillary Clinton, is now the underdog. And most indications are that many of the very voters who preferred her to Obama, as a protest against a national party that seemed to have grown out of touch with places like West Virginia, are now voting for Bernie Sanders, mostly on protest grounds rather than agreement with his policy views.
The most fascinating exit-poll finding from the 2008 Democratic primary is that half of voters did not plan to vote for the partys nominee in the general election. Twenty-nine percent planned to vote for John McCain, and Clinton led among them by an astounding 77/7 margin. Self-identified moderates were 45 percent of the electorate; Clinton won them 70/24. Amazingly, self-identified conservatives were 21 percent of the electorate, and Clinton won them 60/25.
In one of the few West Virginia primary polls taken this year, from PPP, self-identified liberals and somewhat liberals are leaning toward Clinton. But Sanders has a 24-point lead among the moderates who are 35 percent of likely voters, and an 18-point lead among the 22 percent who self-identify as conservative. Are these right-leaning voters feeling the Bern? Doesnt look like it: Sanderss favorability ratio is 21/72 among somewhat conservative voters and 16/75 among very conservative voters. They just dislike Clinton and what she stands for even more. And West Virginia is especially prone to protest votes, as was evidenced by the 42 percent won against Barack Obama by an obscure Texas prison inmate named Keith Judd in the 2012 primary.
The underlying reality is that West Virginia is a throwback to the era when there were a lot of self-identified conservatives and right-leaning moderates voting in Democratic primaries, especially in and near the South. As Nate Cohn points out in an interesting piece on places like this (including Oklahoma and Kentucky), party registration and closed primaries have tended to keep such voters in Democratic presidential primaries in higher numbers than in non-party registration and open-primary states where it is easier for the same people to vote in Republican presidential primaries. Race is also a factor: The parties are less polarized by race in a state like West Virginia with its small nonwhite population. But candidates that rely on heavy support from nonwhite voters Obama in 2008, Clinton in 2016 have little demographic traction. And a final, and very big, factor is that national Democrats drag a big anchor in states where fossil fuels are a big part of the economy. Clintons slim odds of an upset in West Virginia may have expired when a laid-off coal miner confronted her in front of cameras with an out-of-context quote about her pleasure that new energy technologies would force coal companies to close.
Its unlikely that West Virginia coal miners, current or former, will naturally gravitate to Sanders, who is more of a climate-change ultra than Clinton. But he will benefit from her more immediate identification with their perceived enemies.
The dynamics, generally speaking, suggest some caution about treating West Virginia as a barometer of much of anything, whether its Sanderss appeal to white working-class voters or some last-minute Clinton collapse (even in defeat, shes likely to do much better than Obama did in 2008). As always, the Democrats proportional-delegate-allocation rules will limit the pledged-delegate gains Sanders might make tomorrow; West Virginia only awards 29 pledged delegates. But it should continue another Sanders winning streak that looks to continue next week in Oregon and possibly even in Kentucky, where a lot of the same dynamics will be in play and where theres been no public polling this year.
Photo: kennapilling/Twitter
Deanna Pilling thought she was doing a nice thing when she arrived on the Utah State campus to surprise her daughter, McKenna, and help her move out for the summer.
To let her daughter know she was in her dorm room, Deanna did what any mom in 2016 might: She whipped out her cell phone and sent McKenna a selfie from her bed.
There was just one problem: McKenna was in her own bed. Her mother had wandered into a strangers bed. (They later discovered the bed belonged to a friend of McKennas who lived in the same building.)
McKenna (again, as any daughter in 2016 might) tweeted the selfie and the subsequent texts between her and her mother, and more than 16,000 people have shared them since.
momma pilling at it again. pic.twitter.com/KzPINUYeNR McKenna Pilling (@kennapilling) May 6, 2016
My mom wishes she would have taken a better selfie to send me, McKenna told Fox 40, discussing the popularity of her tweet.
This isnt the first time in recent weeks that Pillings school, Utah State University, has made headlines. The school was also host to a now-viral Snapchat love story/dance battle just last week. Whats in the water out there?
Louis Latour adds New Zealand producer to portfolio
Louis Latour Agencies has bolstered its portfolio with the addition of Marlborough producer Seresin Estate.
The winery follows Champagne Gosset, Cognac Frapin and Morgenhof Estate in recently joining the companys roster.
It is Louis Latours second biodynamic producer, along with alongside McHenry Hohnen of Margaret River, Australia.
Louis Latour will be supplying the UK trade with a wide range of Seresin Estates wines, including its Pinot Noirs, Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs.
Seresin Estate also produces an organic range called MOMO, which is made using grapes from its estate and those of selected organic growers from across New Zealands most famous region.
These wines are said to have a more classic Marlborough style.
Will Oatley, Louis Latours managing director, said: I am delighted that Seresin Estate has agreed to join us. The wines have great depth and character and are the perfect addition to our portfolio of family owned wine and spirit producers.
Michelle Connor, Seresin Estates general manager, said: Louis Latour Agencies is part of a family business that stretches back over 200 years. The values associated with this are complimentary to Seresin Estate - recognising the importance of personality and individuality of the wines and brands.
They work with some of the best independent retailers, wholesalers, restaurants and hotels making Louis Latour Agencies an ideal partner to expand our UK distribution.
Related articles:
ikr he really is a savage
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I fucking hate Bill Maher, he is just the person who would continue to give that cunt a platform.
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What do you guys think is gonna happen with the North Carolina bill in the courts??
Do you think this is gonna end up at the Supreme Court?
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idk, I'm surprised (and glad) that the DOJ has been fighting it to the extent that they have, if it does end up at the Supreme Court it could really set some monumental precedents.
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I think it probably will end up in the Supreme Court. Regardless of the decision made by any lower court, it's going to be appealed. So yeah, it's just a matter of time, imo.
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It likely will end up there. I'm pleasantly surprised that the DOJ is going so hard on this
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Dan savage is SO gross, it takes a priestess of evil like Ann to make him look good
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Examples? I don't really follow his drama.
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He's blatantly transphobic (which makes his exchange here ironic I guess), biphobic, sexist, etc
That "yourfaveisproblematic" tumblr has some good receipts tbh
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I don't know much else about Savage, but I stopped being interested in what he had to say after reading some really extra comments about women's bodies that were juvenile at best and hateful at worst. smh that so many women read and send in questions to his column.
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people are actually clapping for her in that clip.. jfc
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can someone accidentally hit ann coulter with a car already?
i swear ha and satan got way too much in common (in stores now)
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paging caitlyn rn
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buckle up buckaroo
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i dont understand why ppl continue to give her and sarah palin a platform.
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Bill Maher does because he's good friends with her. As if we needed more evidence he's a piece of shit.
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ia
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Because they give good soundbites and get press attention for their kneejerk remarks. No one is going to write headlines about having a great financial plan for education reform, sadly.
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IA, like, these Heffas just being extra and racist/homophobic/terrible for attention. Girl boo.
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bryan is too good for this show
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they're trash but so is dan, so fuck all of them. team nobody.
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poor bryan cranston coming in with the ultimate dad-point, "maybe it's time for a viable third party that's socially conscious but fiscally responsible." glad that other guy pointed out that that describes the current democratic party. it's the moderate party. we need a viable progressive third party now.
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I'm kinda hoping that with the GOP falling apart, the more progressive parts of the Democratic party will feel safer breaking off and forming their own party.
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What a fucking dream come true that would be. Many of the dems are full of shit, they'll talk the talk about being for the people and then silently U-turn on everything they've said when they get a giant paycheck from the Koch Brothers the next day.
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omfg if only
sick of so many complacent moderates keeping leftists scared into voting democrat by smugly pointing out "well it's either us or the republicans! :)"
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+1
Completely agree.
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How fitting! I just finished "Lies: And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them" and the chapters on Ann coulter gave me life!! From exposing her using endnotes and "sources" to lie, her elitist hypocrisy and to her being an overall asshole, I murmured "yaaass bitch expose ha" at the book on several occasions. I highly recommend the book
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Haven't read the book, but I went to Miami on vacay once and this waiter dude told me she had just been in because she had a nearby mansion on Star Island and it's basically all a persona/performance by her for money and publicity. The fact that she has a giant mansion in Miami made me realize that fuck yes, of course it's all about her getting money.
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No doubt. She writes books "validating " all of the horrible le leftist beliefs and cons them into thinking she's (and they're) right because she says them more eloquently than the average republican and fudges her sources to make it look like she has proof in her statements. She preys on pearl clutching, religious, racist and all around horrible people so that they buy her books and book her to speak in places. And its funny because even if she doesn't genuinely believe the shit coming out of her mouth, she uses the left-wing systems and ideals to get rich. They paved the way for her to be absolute scum just so she could use that to get rich quick. Its hilarious.
I dont't even drink but I'm popping the biggest bottles when she dies.
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omg, I love that book. I need to go back and reread it. that and "the truth with jokes" was such a revelation to me as a teen growing up in the bush years.
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can't stand dan savage. what ever came out of his bondage sex scandal?
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It's ridiculous that anybody thought that was a scandal.
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Man that's a whole lot of white people who don't need to be talking about this stuff lol
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So it would be wrong to have empathy for victims of sexual abuse and to not work with their abuser? She's a nightmare. Woody Allen is not being "persecuted." Get out of here with this shit.
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i imagine overhearing a conversation between kristen stewert and jesse eisenberg would be fucking annoying.
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Amusingly, in the article Jesse says he doesn't recall having this conversation with her at all. But he's worked with Woody twice now, so ... ugh.
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If we were persecuted for the amount of shit that's been said about us that's not true, our lives would be over."
Oh. Eww.
I just. Girl. You know he married his ex-wife's adopted daughter. He is on record with his gross ass 'amazing white savior to the poor savage' narrative and can't seem to think of a single thing his wife brings to their relationship or him as a person. So even if you are such a twit that you think Dylan Farrow is a liar (which. Again. Gross.) The other shit is pretty clear and known.
Edited at 2016-05-10 03:44 am (UTC)
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mte, and that recent interview was so disgustingly paternalistic too, idg how he can justify his actions by saying he never thought of her as a daughter when he clearly still has that mindset.
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Yes, that was so gross the way that he described his relationship with his wife, he said something similar in an interview a few years ago. He really does play the white savior that saves the poor minority child from poverty really well.
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Yeah. That was one of the most disgusting things masquerading as normal I've seen in a long time. Like he doesn't even realize it's a problem or that something is off with this story of taking her from the streets (which...he didn't buy whatever) as a child and then marrying her (but lucky her because he took her European capitals and he made sure she got this education and he changed her entire life and he blahblah)
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exactly like...how can you be so fucking delusional and stupid
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There are also court papers from the custody hearing back when he was accused of molesting Mia's daughter Dylan that basically say "even if it can't be proved he molested her, his behavior toward her is weird, unhealthy and inappropriate." His behavior was verifiably fucking creepy and he did not get the custody he asked for for a reason.(Notably, in those same papers the judge totally dismisses the "Mia made all this up to get back at him" scorned-woman defense that people like to use as justification to dismiss the abuse claims against Allen.)
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she should just not comment at all.
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That's what Elaine Stritch did. I don't get why more actors who work with him don't do that. Scarlett and Kristen just made themselves look like idiots trying to justify their decision.
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yeah, if you've already made the decision to work with him, then just own it and don't bother to answer this question.
also, when you say that you don't know any of the people involved and that you shouldn't personalize the situation, you're still taking the possible abuser's side when you say that you wouldn't want to be judged by false rumors about yourself. you are effectively putting yourself on his side even though you just said you don't know any of the people involved. she should think about the fact that she would also not like to have been molested and have nobody believe you because your abuser is a powerful man. if you don't know what the truth is, then don't take a side.
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Scarlett was the biggest dumbass. She went after his daughter and called her irresponsible for pulling her name into the mess.
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Pretty much. Just say your involvement was on a professional level and move on. No need to defend this jackass. But she has a tendency to put her foot in the mouth.
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she's the fake deepest of them all
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So "personalizing" the situation would be "very wrong" if it was about empathizing with the victims, but it's totally cool to personalize it to empathize with Woody ("If we were persecuted for the amount of shit that's been said about us that's not true, our lives would be over"). She's a garbage person, and manages to somehow get worse as time goes on.
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MTE
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ikr like what kind of mental gymnastics
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Thank you for this.
I haven't said this before on ONTD, but I worked with Malone (the adopted daughter who accuses Woody of having molested her when she was seven) for about eight months, seven years ago. I am not in touch with her now and I was never very close with her or anything so I don't want anyone to think that I am trying to pretend I was ever her best bud because I was not, but I just want to say that she is a very, very bright woman, funny as shit and always seemed to have a lot of integrity.
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Well said.
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ONTD, rip her apart for me, cause I have to go to bed. She's such a piece of shit.
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I think they just want to read the comments, not start a movement....
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How'd I know I'd wake up to something like this?
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Her PR agent is the best.in.the.business.
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You wish. You know he is going to keep churning these annually until he kicks the bucket.
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She's a very unlikable and sometimes disgusting person (the female Jeremy Renner, if you will). Does she have any redeemable qualities?
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Her taste in music? She was perfect casting as Joan Jett. I remember when the MET ball did a punk theme, she was the only female celeb on the red carpet who could name rock/punk bands from the '70s, LOL.
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The only redeeming thing about her is her redcarpet looks during the last Twilight movie. She signs interesting movies. Apart from that, she is as insufferable as they come. Makes sense that she gets along with Jessie so well. I wish Mia would stop dating him.
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They broke up a while ago, actually
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i like her fashion sense i guess
but yeah she opens her mouth and its like.....girl,no.
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She was saying this kind of offensive shit for years and ONTD and media was always finding excuses for her idiocy. She only cares about herself.
This is a woman who was pissed off that she had to appologize for comparing paps photographing her to being raped.
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not really tbh
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"It was fruitful for the two of us to go on with it"
I'm kind of in shock she said this - I'm assuming she means like creatively or whatever vs "we just wanted the money" but my god
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how dare u
kristen is a free spirit and a FEROCIOUSLY passionate artist, she obviously means it was CREATIVELY fruitful for her to work with a gentleman accused of child rape by a person she does not know
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won't someone please think of the rich Hollywood actors?!
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Also, who uses fruitful in that context. Jeez, she's pretentious as fuck.
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http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/101603430.html?thread=17473827430#t17473827430 lol where you at girl
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LOL I love Phaedra
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the timing of this post is a huge coincidence, for a second i thought they were the OP.
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what a mess lmao
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Right there bb.
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she's dense as fuck, and probably so annoying to be around. just the most annoying hipster girl you can imagine
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you know, when you have a history of being a fucking idiot in every single interview - maybe you should just say "no comment" when asked why you're working with a child molester.
kristen stewart is garbage.
there's a HUGE difference from tabloids gossiping about who you're dating and working with a man accused of molesting his daughter.
just admit, you're thirsty for an award because most people think you have the charisma of cardboard.
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Jesse was probably a big reason she signed on to the movie too. They love working together and are friends.
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well, she needs new friends
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Another sources denied it and said they are just friends and co-parents.
WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
Ben Afflect and his wife Jennifer Garner were spotted kissing at a hotel bar in Paris, according to sources.This led to speculation that they may be getting back together? They seperated a year ago but haven't divorced yet.One source said they're "in a weird place. They are comfortable with each other and there is still an attraction." and Jennifer is trying to be non-judgmental, whatever dat means?
Chadwick is perfection
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Best part of the movie/best thing in the last 5 Marvel movies I can't wait for the solo movie.
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too true
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so much so
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He was amazing. Every time he was on screen I was like
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Chadwick Boseman went method: According to Feige Chadwick was "the only choice we ever had." During production Chadwick went Daniel Day Lewis on his role For the entire run of the production, he spoke in that accent, whether he was on camera or not. Hes that kind of actor, he has a very specific process. Its very intense performance.
Where's leaving dead rodents on your coworker's doorsteps like a real cat does. Go all the way! /s
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Not everyone can be Jared Leto sis, even DDL is in awe of his amazing method skills. /s
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lmao
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nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
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Lmaoooo
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Or walking around set knocking shit off tables.
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Chasing Falcon up a tree...
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lmao
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LOL i saw this movie with my sister and every time Black Panther was skulking around in the background, I would lean over and whisper to her that I kept expecting him to do that little chirp our cat does when he prowls around the house, like "Mrrrr?"
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Imagine the size of his litterbox
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lmao
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lol irl
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[ Spoiler (click to open) ] Steve didn't die. I was NOT prepared for that to happen. NOPE.
I don't want Binky in Black Panther, fuck that noise. you know fandom would make 3 million gifsets of Seb Stan but ignore Chadwick bleahhhh I was so relieved that
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[ Spoiler (click to open) ] I was convinced T'Challa was going to try and hit Bucky and kill Steve and it would ~unite Bucky and Tony or some such shit. I think about 3 times I thought it was going to happen.
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Your icon. <3
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<3
people are so mad I love it tbh!
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your icon is great
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I think he's only gonna be in the end credit scene, to prepare for Infinity Wars.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/4ii6pg/now_that_civil_war_is_out_lets_revisit_those/
https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/4ip1aw/civil_war_spoilers_i_found_another_link_between/
remember these mysterious tweets? turns out they were legit
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pic.twitter.com/QCvDeppCkg Russo Brothers (@Russo_Brothers) January 20, 2016
Yeah I was thinking about them, their last tweet was this pic which was from the alt-j album cover. Which guess what? one of their songs was in the movie.
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their best song tbh
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I'm still not over them using left hand free lmao
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chadwick didn't have that accent when he ordered coffee from me though!!!
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deets please
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haha it was actually really embarrassing because i'd forgotten about his character, but they filmed a lot of this movie in atlanta & i work downtown, so he came in and ordered some coffee one day & my coworker was like "hey isn't that guy in the avengers (which he clearly wasn't so i was so confused lmao)?" and she asked if he was falcon and he just laughed so hard, and WHAT A GREAT SMILE HE HAS. then i looked him up when i got home and was like OH YEAH, BLACK PANTHER!!!!!!! he was really sweet though!
Edited at 2016-05-10 08:51 pm (UTC)
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I mean, they didn't really subvert the genre of villains, they just used a different trope instead of the one Marvel has been beating to death. Also, I thought that said that Chadwick actually spoke to DDL and I was like damn, that's awesome lol.
And fuck you, Feige, you're not being cute or clever.
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But what about the future of Buckynat?! You can't ignore that "You could at least recognize me line."
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Yeah, that line was really odd. Like, even if they fought before in TWS, why would Nat say that unless there was an even deeper history there?
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Like, I saw a theory about the AoU flashback and how the guy with Widow in them looked like Bucky; and if her mind was messed with, it could easily be him. They should explore it.
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Honestly, I think they're reaching with that theory. That's a tap out move, you do that when you're training and you have to signal to your partner that they need to let go. I think in the movie she just doesn't have anything to grab on to because his arm is smooth, so she does that instead.
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god i hope they explore that. i'm pretty sure it was a nod at their shared history but they actually gotta pull through and make a storyline out of it
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seb's bucky is a black hole of emotion and scarlett can't muster up an ounce of chemistry with anyone other than chris, so buckynat needs to stay in the comics where it belongs.
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god yes
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everyone is reading way too much into that line
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I hope, but not holding my breath.
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I don't think they're going with BuckyNat. I'm 80% sure Steve/Natasha is endgame.
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Considering how... empty and obedient he is (i.e. every movement he makes is following orders) plus Nat being born in the 80s, I honestly don't know how they'd make that work out.
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there is no buckynat
brutasha will continue
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Imo they are deliberately burying hints into movies so that if marvel decides to a solo film and commit to it, they can say we actually gave you hints. This line, him using a gun from her locker, still showing soviet links, vasily karpov are all hints that can be used one day
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[ Spoiler (click to open) ] three of the super soilders
Also someone direct me on where I can start reading Black Panther. I kind of stan him now. Someone told me thatwere played by the stunt doubles but IDK if that's true. If it is that's kinda cool.Also someone direct me on where I can start reading Black Panther. I kind of stan him now.
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He just got a brand new run!
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ooo interesting.
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Yup! they were played by, Chris, Scarlett, and Anthony's stunt doubles.
I also concur with your bp question, I need more especially since we aren't getting his movie for another two years.
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They were, I checked the cast and stunts' list in the credits. The female supersoldier was actually Scarlett's stunt double.
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You can see them credit during the cast list. The guy Bucky fights in the cage is Jackson Spidell, Chris' double.
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But YES at the ending/villain choice. I dont understand anyone who says the stakes were low because [ Spoiler (click to open) ] no character died. The Avengers as a concept died. Thats one massive casualty.
Edited at 2016-05-10 08:35 pm (UTC) NOPE at Bucky hijacking TChallas movie. Get the entire fuck out of here.But YES at the ending/villain choice. I dont understand anyone who says the stakes were low because
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MTE @ all of this.
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Honestly all I can see Bucky's involvement is being in the post credit scenes, it would be stupid as fuck if he was a central character in the movie. \_()_/
I agree with you about the ending/villain, they were unappreciated.
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[ Spoiler (click to open) ] Steve's letter was an empty olive branch. The Avengers are over. All but two of the members are on the run, and one of them is crippled (which makes Steve's line that The Avengers are Tony's family pretty fucking ballsy).
Tony himself is held hostage by the accords, which is made clear by his conversation with Rhodey. If he turns his back on them, Rhodey lost his legs for nothing.
So on one hand you have Tony politically and emotionally isolated, raked by guilt more than ever and still processing Steve's betrayal. On the other hand you have Team Cap as actively hunted outlaws, having to completely redefine their place in the world.
They're definitely not okay and it's going to be very interesting to see how this situation and these relationships will be unfucked. Nah.
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Mte. Like when Tony smiled at the phone Steve gave him. And didn't take Ross's call clearly knowing there was a break in and knew who did it. They are far from healed, but they ain't broken.
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MTE @ all of this. [2]
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i am so sick of bucky and his constant manpain
bless this comment
Edited at 2016-05-10 08:41 pm (UTC)
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I agree. I love the ending. Thanos is coming and the Avengers as a whole are gone. The next movie will be interesting.
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They all still seemed on good terms to me, lol.
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ITA, not here for the Binky show
it's T'Challa's time to shine. let the fucker stay frozen.
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iaia
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MTE. And I was so sad at the end because for once you could say that the villain won.
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"Frankly, it just seemed like an easy ending, We thought a more complicated ending would be more interesting to see the ramifications of that moving forward. Killing Cap ends that conceptually. There would be guilt on Tonys part. The more difficult and more interesting place to leave a family fight is: can these important relationships ever be repaired? Is this family broken permanently?
LMAO shut the fuck and just say Marvel wouldn't allow you to kill him.
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Why would they ever admit that even if it were true? Like are they trying for career suicide? Use your head a bit.
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The fact that all of their secret identities have been known since Ironman have really lowered the stakes. The whole point of regulation was transperancy and accountability for them in their secret identities. (But now all of a sudden the world's most ghost like assassin's identity is just on every news outlet. Like they didn't even know Winter Solider existed FOR REAL until the last Cap Movie. Now all of a sudden they know him to be James Buchanan Barnes? HOW?!) And with Black Widow leaking all of Sheild's Intel, there's nothing for them to reve because it's all out in the open. THAT'S why spider-man was a huge part, not because Tony found him on YouTube, but because he was willing to give up his secret identity.
I just think they totally biffed it.
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Tbh the part where they were like "JAMES BUCHANAN BARNES ON THE RUN" or whatever COMPLETELY threw me off bc if the world knew that would be a much bigger deal? Like, Captain America's BFF is alive and everyone's just like oh ok.
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that was my major gripe with the movie. there's really nothing much going for team cap when secret identities are not at stake. unless you're steve himself (with the failures of SHIELD still haunting him, and the dreaded prospect of Bucky being taken in), there were no good reasons to root for his team. they could've highlighted cap's skepticism towards authority, but even that was poorly (or not at all) conveyed. and with natasha siding tony, it didn't seem like a big deal any longer. sure, there were hints about martin freeman's character being shady, but the ideological arguments for team cap were awfully weak.
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I hope that we all just pretend like Steve/Sharon never happened in the next movies. lmao. It was really badly done and the writers need to accept that and let it go.
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mte, though I didn't even think it was as fun as it should've been.
No commect on BvS since I didn't see it.
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I agree with all your points.
I get that Steve/Sharon was supposed to be movie!awkward, but it was real life awkward as well. I cringed.
I've never read a Marvel (or DC) comic in my life, so I can't compare the CW storylines, but the movie was just disappointing. I just didn't emotionally connect to any of it.
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i agree with all this, except i didn't really mind steve/sharon i'd like to see more sharon with or without steve anyway
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tony has no hand in breaking them out of the prison, though. he just infers it's happening as he gets steve's letter and ross's call comes at the same time.
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Honestly I think ant-man would've been so much more improved if they just straight up didn't have a villain and really stuck to him having to pull off some crazy heist.
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totally agree. the stakes were already high enough for him b/c of his criminal history/issues with his daughter.
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I really enjoyed Ant Man but I was disappointed at how underused Corey Stoll was.
still, Corey is wayyyyyyyy too good for the MCU, and I say this as a Marvel stan.
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See, I kinda had the same problem with both villains. I Daniel Bruhl, but oy, really?? The old 'my family died, so I'm going to enact wildly elaborate and large-scale revenge' thing? It's SO been done. I get the whole parallel with Tony and his parents and Bucky, and that "the living are not done with you yet" scene with T'Challa was wonderful, but I was disappointed at how simplistic and familiar that was. Similarly, I was annoyed that Corey Stoll's entire motivation was basically 'my fake dad didn't love me enough!!' (re: Michael Douglas). And Scott's whole thing was just 'I'll do anything to make my kid happy.' I'm heartless and have no interest in movie kids, but I still think it's fair to say those were kinda thin all around.
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I LOVE Paul Rudd but Ant-Man was dumb. I'm cool with having him in the ensemble movies because I thought he was great in CW but ugh no more solo films for Ant-Man please.
It also doesn't help that I can't stand Kate from Lost lol.
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[ Spoiler (click to open) ] when tony asks peter "so you can climb walls? how do you do that?" and peter responds "well, its a long story..." then tony just with something else that was the end of it, but what I didn't notice before is that peter is actually about to say something else and gets INTERRUPTED by tony, its really fast and really subtle and actually very hilarious, maybe it was obvious for most people but for me it wasnt lol i watched it for a second time and something i didnt notice the first time was
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i think it was hilariously meta because it was also kind of a dig at the fact that we've heard spider-man's origin story TOO MANY TIMES and the directors were like "what happened was...LOL GOTCHA." like they knew we weren't about hearing about the spider-bite again until Homecoming.
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additionally, they did it again when peter went on about sticking up for the little guy and "when you have the power to do something, and someone gets hurt because you didn't..." etc. etc. that was a longer way of saying "with great power comes great responsibility." when you have the power you have responsibility to do something with it.
that whole spider intro was A+
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It's funny I felt like that would have made him Team Cap if he'd had Cap's side of the story and not just what Tony told him(and gave him money, way to bribe a kid there Tony) - because that in a nutshell was Steve's reason for not wanting to sign the accords. I felt like Tony was uncomfortable hearing it because on some level he knew it was similar to Steve's reasons, not being able to ignore it when a situation is "going south".
Edited at 2016-05-11 03:46 pm (UTC)
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[ Spoiler (click to open) ] steve didn't die because chris evans has two movies left. they'll kill him anyway at the end of infinity war i really liked the ending but lbr
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I 100% believe they'll get him to sign on for more. They pulled out a 7th when he was adamant about it only being 6. They'll get him to do it again. Bucky/Sam are never going to get to be Cap.
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did you read his rolling stone article tho? he sounds exhausted. i think they pulled the 7th because it made sense with infinity war being two parts, but if he signs on for more it's gonna be a whole new arc. idt he's up for that
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not here for basic bucky pulling focus from t'challa/BP in his own damn movie. also MOVE UP THE RELEASE DATE MARVEL YOU FOOLS
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Marvel is being an asshole, holding out on us! I'm sure they're spacing out release dates to not oversaturate the market or whatever. BUT COME ON, WE KNOW YOU CAN TOTALLY FINISH THESE MOVIES WAY BEFORE THOSE RELEASE DATES. JUST GIVE THEM TO MEEEEE
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I'm actually kind of happy Thor now has Black Panther's release date since there is literally a one week difference between the release of Thor and Justice League, I just don't want any hinderance when it comes to Black Panther and the box office.
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same. i'm actually interested in BP's solo film and while I love Bucky the best, I don't want him to be a main feature in the BP movie. Now, if it's something small, like in the end, maybe they realize everything is going to shit and he has to take him out of cryo or something, that's cool. Twenty minutes, top, if they're going to. I'm under the impression that there is a lot of story to be told with BP, so, they need to focus on that.
I think I heard someone (not anyone official, but someone) say that the MCU has reached the point where it's so interconnected, that not having cameos seems goofy, because they all know each other and the idea of them not coming to help or at least showing up seems off. and i agree to extent, but like i said, i don't want Bucky, or anyone else to overshadow BP's movie.
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crisis pregnancy centers are despicable. what part of THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS confuses you, assholes?
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This is what always gets me about pro-lifers. Once the child is born they don't give a shit about the child or the mother. Keep the baby? Republicans deny maternity leave. Need help to support your child? They'll shame you for needing help or government assistance. Birth control to prevent pregnancy? Nope. Increase minimum wage? Nope. These centers are evil.
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"close your legs if you don't want a baby" was a reply I saw from an anti-choicer. They must either have sexless marriages or 100 babies.
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I've seen this disgusting comment so many times, almost always from a man. It drives me nuts because you know if guys could get pregnant this argument would never come up.
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Sounds like something my mom would say :/
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This is the exact philosophy of my Catholic parents
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"the consequences of sex is pregnancy!!!"
Cool, well I'm just trying to get an orgasm, so
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Yea, that sentiment is so fucking unrealistic lol. And what about people who never want children? Should they just remain celibate their whole lives?
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I remember seeing a "person on the street" type interview once and a woman said in one breath "I'm against abortion and government funded daycare"
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It all comes down to them wanting women to stay at home and pop out as many babies as possible. Why would a woman want to support herself and her children when she's supposed to be married and in the kitchen like God wanted, etc.
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"How about we treat every young man who wants to buy a gun like every young woman who wants to get an abortion?" pic.twitter.com/uhmGa6TSAL Elizabeth Day (@elizabday) October 3, 2015 Yup. And yet it's "we must protect gun owners at any and all times!!!" This tweet really puts it into perspective
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I knew someone who volunteers at a crisis pregnancy center. She was a girl who married young & had babies young & pretty much convinced younger girls that if they just had their baby their lives would turn out just like hers. The worst.
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i wish dan savage wasn't our official voice of the gay community
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Dan Savage for gay men, Ellen for the lesbians. What a time to be alive.
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I'm choosing to pretend you mean Ellen Page not DeGeneres, I'd be more OK with that.
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And now Caitlyn Jenner for the trans community
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What has Ellen done? (aside from enabling Bieber of course, ugh)
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Hes not.
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nothing like rich white people to tell us how to live
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i wonder, ontd, what issue is most important to you?
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maternity/paternity leave and gun control
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Fixing our fucked-beyond-belief economy and punishing those responsible for letting it get that way in the first place.
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education reform and healthcare
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Obliterating white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
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met
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Climate change.
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Increasing voter engagement/participation for democrats/people who lean democrat, having democrats vote in the midterms!!!!, and having a strong progressive democratic party base emerge.
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it's a tie between accessible reproductive health for all women and gun control.
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The environment and global warming, literally nothing else is more important right now.
Coastal cities are already fucked. Bye bye New York!
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Climate change and women's rights.
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Was it John Oliver that had that video of a doctor that was like "I have to tell you this, but it's not true. There is no statistical association with getting an abortion and cancer" or whatever it was and it was so sad because the doctor was so resigned about it but so committed to deliver accurate healthcare info
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yeah i think so, i watched that recently and i was stunned by the gross misinformation they were forced to say
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browsec chrome extension works for youtube :)
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I use ZenMate. Also I have included an alternative source for the video for those not in US.
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I would like to see the end of a 2-party system in the US. This election cycle has really highlighted how unsustainable it is. There's such a divide between the moderates and extremes in both parties and the compromises aren't worth the in-fighting. I would like to see both major parties commit mitosis and the legitimization of the green party as a real contributor to the landscape of American politics.
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Comment twins, lol, although yours is more in-depth. But for real, there is such a wild spectrum in both parties, they both need to split.
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I actually feel like this will be the last presidential election with two parties. Granted it will only move to a three party with a Libertarian option moving into the ranks but I think that could open things up to new parties down the line.
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lol it's just going to get worse. out of the ashes of Bern will rise a more aggressive and alienating progressive party, which will just polarize the landscape even further. we are witnessing the fall of America
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the winner take all system necessitates two parties so there would have to be a massive overhaul in how we allocate votes and seats (ie proportionally) which isn't very common in presidential systems. duverger's law blah blah
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It's amusing to me that in his farewell address, George Washington specifically spoke out against many of the things that plague us today.
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Even more amusing to me are the politicians who spout off about doing and upholding "what the Founding Fathers intended" when a) what they intended is not what you want to do and b) the Founding Fathers barely agreed on anything in the first place
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I would love it if 2016 saw the end of the two-party system. If Sanders ran as independant and won, I would probably lay myself to rest (in the good way).
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I have to wonder if he could. If he lost liberals the election, I would never forgive him, but he is soooo liked and takes votes from both trump and Clinton that it's possible he could do it. That being said, I'd rather he just hop on the ticket with Hillary. Chancing splitting the liberal vote is too dangerous.
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That sounds like a complete disaster and I hope he never does that.
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He couldn't win the democratic ticket, there's no way he could win as a 3rd party. All he'd do is contribute to Trump winning. I'd lose any respect I have for him if he ran 3rd party.
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lol, you people don't know much about politics do you? This can't and never will happen.
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I'm also tired of hearing that adoption is an easy solution. With all the children that end up in foster care, let's stop pretending that this is a some sort of Disney movie.
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Birds dress me every morning, so I don't know what you're talking about.
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lol
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Yea, I find that very annoying, not to mention the woman still has to go through a pregnancy and birth.
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I've talked about this a few times before here, but I used to work as a clinic-escort, and one of my main duties besides getting everyone safely inside was dissuading people from visiting the Crisis Pregnancy Center next door. They would stand there and scream that there were free ultra-sounds next door, and then we couldn't accept them when people brought them over because we weren't convinced they were done by a licensed professional, so patients would have to pay us anyway and they'd just have wasted time. Their main goal was to confuse people into going over there (particularly immigrants), and either convince them that abortions are linked to cancer, or that their church would provide for their child (they never did-they gave them some clothes and diapers at best. Kids grow past infancy you guys!). They would also try to convince the clinic workers to leave their jobs (basically try to get another Abby Johnson situation out), by saying they offered "better" ones and offering $5000 up front if any of us left.
Every single person who runs/helps support a CPC should fucking drown.
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I still remember being called a slut by whoever answered the phone (and this was a woman who worked there, not just some random woman) at a women's clinic almost seven years ago when I had a scare. That because I was 24 I was "supposed to know better" and that it was basically my fault if I was in need of their services. They're not even listed as an anti choice clinic (which I didn't even know existed at the time) so that makes it a little worse imo, wondering how many other girls or women were told those same things.
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I wonder how fast the clinic found out that some prolife twat infiltrated their hiring process to be evil and shitty?
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I wouldn't know because she claimed to be the manager as well so asking or demanding to talk to a higher up didn't get me anywhere. Scary thing is, this was in Georgia, so for all I know she wasn't even lying about being the manager/supervisor.
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I once had a doctor at fucking Planned Parenthood judge me for my sexual history.
That was literally the last place I expected to get a lecture about the risks of promiscuity.
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Just here to express how much I fucking hate Dan Savage
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I hate evil shit like this, that takes options away from women and ruin their health.
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Also, unless Sanders runs independant (or Clinton dies or something), I'm probably not voting for president. I just can't.
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that means a vote to trump
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Hope he enjoys it as much as he did that taco salad.
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do a write in, but please do vote. there are other important things aside from the presidency to vote for.
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When looking at this week's key data of the oil and energy industry, we see that prices have stabilized in the mid $40 range as global outages continue to disrupt oil supply.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Chart of the Week
The type of oil produced in the U.S. has becoming increasingly different from the type of oil that is imported. More than 70 percent of the oil produced in the Lower 48 has an API gravity of 35 degrees or higher, which is a lighter form of oil. Related: Russian Oil Executives Not Optimistic About Oil Prices
But 90 percent of the oil that is imported into the U.S. has an API gravity below 35 degrees, which means the oil is much heavier and more viscous.
Many refineries process heavy crude, so the surge in light oil means refiners have all the light oil that they need. Therefore, they have shifted their imports to heavier types of crude. As a result, imports of light oil (from, say, West Africa) have declined, while imports of heavy oil (Canada) have increased.
Market Movers
Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) evacuated staff from an offshore oil field in Nigeria after a militant group, known as the Niger Delta Avengers, has stepped up attacks on oil infrastructure. Shell left behind essential personnel but reportedly evacuated 100 employees from a facility that produces 90,000 barrels per day.
Chevron (NYSE: CVX) announced last week that its Okan offshore facility in Nigeria was also shut down after militant attacks. The outage affected 35,000 barrels per day.
Kosmos Energy (NYSE: KOS) announced that it has made a significant natural gas discovery off of the coast of Senegal. The well marks the fifth successful well drilled in the Mauritania-Senegal Fairway. The companys share price was still down nearly 12 percent after reporting a net loss of $59 million for the quarter.
Tuesday May 10, 2016
Oil traders have largely dismissed the massive wildfires in Canada, which caused the outage of more than 1 million barrels of oil production per day. Instead, the markets saw that the wildfires might not spread as much as was previously thought over the weekend, and the fires remained at a distance from some major sources of production. Again, as we said last week, the supply disruptions, for now, have more to do with the evacuation of personnel, and not lasting damage to facilities. The outage is very substantial, but unless it lasts much longer than expected, the oil markets should not be affected by the events too much.
Meanwhile, reports from Genscape suggest that oil storage levels continue to climb, a bearish signal for oil. Crude prices shot up in early trading on May 9 but WTI lost more than 2 percent by Mondays close and Brent dropped by nearly 4 percent.
Saudi oil minister dismissed. The big news from the weekend came from Riyadh, where long-time oil minister Ali al-Naimi was removed in favor of the former chief of Saudi Aramco, Khalid al-Falih. The 80-year old Naimi was expected to eventually leave power, but the move came somewhat as a surprise. The reshuffling caused some uncertainty in the oil markets, as the loss of Naimis steady hand makes interpreting Saudi oil policy a bit more tricky. On the other hand, the move ensures that Saudi Arabia will continue to pursue its current strategy of elevated production and fighting for market share. Coordinated action within or outside of OPEC is unlikely. Ultimately, little changes in terms of supply and demand for oil.
Saudi Aramco IPO. New details surfaced over the planned IPO of Aramco over the weekend. The Telegraph reported that Aramco is looking at a three-way listing in New York, London, and Hong Kong. The listing of 5 percent of the company, which could raise $100 to $150 billion (although some analysts believe it will be less), would allow the Saudi government to invest in other sectors of its economy. The IPO could come as soon as next year. Related: Global Rig Count Continues To Fall
Aramco to boost production. Lost amid the eye-raising government reshuffle were comments made by Aramcos CEO on Tuesday that the state-owned firm would increase oil production this year to meet rising demand. Were seeing a global increase in demand, said Amin Nasser, Aramcos CEO. We are meeting that call on us." Saudi Arabia typically ratchets up output to meet summer demand, when the country burns oil domestically to meet a spike in electricity demand, but the company is also eyeing higher demand elsewhere, including the United States. Specifics were not mentioned but Nasser cited the Shaybah field, which will add 250,000 barrels per day within a couple of weeks. Aramco also wants to double natural gas production and nearly double refining capacity over the next 10 years.
Brazil in political crisis, economy worsens. The Brazilian president continues to fight for her survival. Meanwhile, the state-owned oil company Petrobras is looking to take a $1 billion loan from China in order to service its debt, credit that it needs much sooner than expected. The loan was originally scheduled for 2017, but Petrobras is in need of cash. Also, in a sign of a deteriorating Brazilian economy, Reuters reports that gasoline and diesel consumption is falling. GDP contracted by 3.8 percent in 2015, and in the 12 months ending in March 2016, both gasoline and diesel consumption declined by 6 percent, compared to the same period a year earlier. That compares to an average annual increase of almost 7 percent for gasoline and 4 percent for diesel between 2004 and 2014.
Oil discoveries at 60-year low. New oil and gas discoveries dropped to their lowest level in six decades as companies cut exploration budgets. According to IHS, the oil industry only found 2.8 billion barrels of oil and petroleum liquids in 2015, the lowest total since 1954. The dismal result is largely due to low oil prices, which has forced draconian cuts in spending on exploration. Industry wide expenditures on exploration have fallen from $95 billion in 2014 to an expected $41 billion in 2016, with more cuts coming next year. But some of the largest companies also saw discoveries start to slow in the years leading up to the crash in oil prices. The low levels of new discoveries, which mostly come from offshore fields that would require large-scale development, will not be felt for many years. Wood Mackenzie estimates that the world could see a supply shortfall of 4.5 million barrels per day by 2035 if the industry does not pick up the pace of new discoveries. Related: A Glimpse Into What Saudi Arabias New Oil Policy Will Look Like
18 bankruptcies in March and April. According to Fuel Fix, 18 North American oil and gas companies filed for bankruptcy protection in March and April as creditors began to cut off lending. The bankruptcies accounted for a combined $8.9 billion in debt. That takes the total bankruptcy list to 69 companies since early 2015.
Libyas oil exports fall further. As we discussed last week, the standoff between Libyas eastern and western governments is threatening the nations oil supply. The Eastern government blocked exports from a major terminal in an effort to wrestle control of the port away from the western Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation. But that has merely cut off much of Libyas oil exports. Reuters says that oil production at some oil fields in the southeast have been slashed by one-third because of the port disruption, taking Libyas output down by about 150,000 barrels per day to just 212,000 barrels per day. Before the fall of former dictator Muammar Qaddafi, Libya produced 1.6 mb/d. Production will have to be throttle back even further in the near future the National Oil Corp. says that the storage tanks at the Hariga port will fill up in less than three weeks. If that occurs, more production cuts will be necessary.
By Evan Kelly of Oilprice.com
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In late April, Russia was left standing at the alter in Doha, as Saudi Arabia walked away from a production freeze deal, leading the negotiations to collapse with no result.
A few days later, top Russian oil executives met at the Third National Russian Oil and Gas Forum that convened in April 19-21 in Moscow, Russia.
While discussing major factors influencing the oil market at the Forum, the speakers agreed the geopolitics have become an essential factor, although the condition of the world economy and market forces along with the technological advancement seemed to still be taking a lead in driving oil prices.
We must understand that the oil prices cannot change drastically because we are now reaching the projected output level that we set out to achieve with the investments that we historically made six, five, four years ago, and the production cannot be curtailed, said Vagit Alekperov, LUKoils Chief Executive Officer. According to Alekperov, last year LUKoil spent 300 billion rubles on investments in the industry, and 112 billion rubles of investments in the first quarter of 2016. Related: ISIS Working On Driverless Car Causes More Worry Than Necessary
Alekperov also said that the complex geopolitical situation in the Persian Gulf has caused the OPEC members from the Middle East to compete harder for their share of the oil market.
What we see here, is that amidst the oil prices slump the Persian Gulf countries attempt to increase their production output to cover their budget deficits caused by slashed oil revenues, including compensating for the part of budget they need for procuring arms, Alekperov noted.
However, LUKoils CEO believes oil prices are passed their lowest point, and the equilibrium price should fluctuate around $50 per barrel for the rest of 2016 and first half of 2017. Prices should then rise in the second half of 2017 as demand begins to exceed supply.
The Chairman of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shohin, described a litany of geopolitical issues affecting oil prices. The fact that the Saudis rejected freezing the output blaming it on Irans absence from the negotiations and its refusal to cooperate by announcing intention to raise the production back to pre-sanctions level of 5 million bpd plus a couple million bpd on top of that; turmoil in Libyas political situation, and a lack of a legitimate government there ; let alone the conspiracy plots that impact oil prices in countries that may be regarded as unfriendlyall this definitely points to a high role of geopolitics in global oil market, he said. Related: Its Not Looking Good For Canadian LNG
However, as we have seen, the oil price did not react to the Doha agreement derailment, and in my opinion, the price of $40, $41, $42 per barrel shall remain as an equilibrium price under current market situation through 2016, Shohin added. The Chairmen also stressed the importance of energy efficiency and technological advancement as crucial factors making the long-term difference in the industry.
Technological breakthrough have enabled the US to transform from the net-importer to the net-exporter on the global oil market, and this is a long playing factor, he said.
According to Shohin, weak and disappointing global economic growth is keeping prices from rebounding. We see the world economy growth rate lingering at just a little slightly over 3 percent, which means that there will not be any additional demand, taking into account the already existing high volumes of excess supply of oil on the market, Shohin said. Thus, my pessimistic forecast is that under the favorable concurrence of all the factors we talked about, the equilibrium price in 2017 will not go beyond USD 50 per barrel.
Saudi Arabias Deputy Crown Prince said in the lead up to the Doha summit that his country could ramp up oil production much further. But Russias Energy Minister Alexander Novak was unimpressed. They (Saudis) have the ability to raise output significantly. But so do we, Novak said. Related: Crisis In Venezuela A Lesson From Saudi Arabia
Russias Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich commented that the Russian Government was going to revise its budgetary planning for the next year based on an oil price of $40-45 per barrel.
Alekperov reassured the audience the Russian oil industry was resilient enough to withstand any price fluctuation and volatility. However, Alekperov also emphasized that the Russian government had to adopt new legislation on a production sharing agreement to encourage investment in the industry, and to introduce the legislation recognizing the discoverers rights to give an incentive to exploration of the new oilfields across the regions of Russia.
Our industry is at a very mature stage of development. We have not launched a single new oil province in the last year except for Northern Caspian. We need stable legislation to ensure a stable industry development and functioning, otherwise raising production would be impossible. Alekperov stated.
By Ekaterina Prokrovskaya for Oilprice.com
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The oil markets have suddenly been hit with a multitude of unexpected supply disruptions, the largest of which comes from the more than 1 million barrels per day that have been knocked offline because of wildfires in Canada. However, the outages in Canada are expected to be temporary projects will restart once the fires are brought under control and oil workers can return to their sites.
Nigeria, on the other hand, is suffering some oil supply outages that threaten to be a little longer lasting. It began in February when a major oil pipeline that connects to the Forcados export terminal, which exports around 250,000 barrels per day, suffered an attack from a militant group known as the Niger Delta Avengers. Shell declared force majeure on exports from the Forcados terminal. Nigeria lost the export volume, an outage that the IEA projects will cost the country $1 billion in revenue for the month of May. Nigeria hopes the terminal will be able to restart in June. Related: Turkey, At Energy Crossroads, Sliding Towards Authoritarianism
But the attacks are picking up pace. Last week Chevron saw one of its offshore platforms attacked in the Niger Delta, disrupting 90,000 barrels per day of oil production. The Okan facility, which it operates in conjunction with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., is also a gathering point for production from several fields, so the attack knocked off output from all of them at once. The Okan offshore facility in the Western Niger Delta region was breached by unknown persons," Chevron said in the statement. "The facility is currently shut-in and we are assessing the situation, and have deployed resources to respond to a resulting spill." The disruption could also lead to natural gas shortages at nearby power plants, according to Nigerias largest electricity company.
A Nigerian oil workers union said that staff should be evacuated from the Niger Delta after a string of attacks on pipelines and other oil infrastructure. "Best thing for any reasonable company to do is evacuate its workforce," Cogent Ojobor, chairman of a branch of the Nupeng oil labor union said in an interview with Reuters. Nigerias oil production has fallen to 1.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) because of the attacks, its lowest level in more than two decades. The decline means that Nigeria is fallen behind Angola as Africas largest oil producer. Related: Saudi Arabia To List Aramco Shares In New York, London, Hong Kong
Shell responded to the latest attacks with a decision to evacuate 100 employees from its Eja and Bonga facilities, as a precautionary measure. It was unclear if the Eja, which is located 10 miles offshore and produces 90,000 barrels per day, lost output. A spokesperson for Shells Nigerian subsidiary said that operations at the Bonga field will continue.
Attacks on oil pipelines and production facilities in the Niger Delta are nothing new. People living in the Niger Delta region have suffered from poverty and the environmental fallout from oil production for decades. Nigeria sources about 70 percent of its national income from oil production, but people living in the region still live in poverty. That has fueled resentment, crime, and at times blowback against the oil companies operating in the Delta. Between 2006 and 2009, the Delta was hit with armed conflict over oil. One of the key demands of the latest group, the Niger Delta Avengers, is for a greater share of oil revenues to reach local communities.
The timing for Nigeria could not be worse. The collapse of oil prices is cutting deeply into government revenues. Nigerias cash reserves have plummeted below $27 billion, its lowest level in more than a decade as the country fights to maintain the stability of its currency. That has led to a shortage of dollars, which in turn, has led to shortages of basic goods, including fuel. Tensions continue to boil over. Related: A Glimpse Into What Saudi Arabias New Oil Policy Will Look Like
The government needs to address this very quickly, Chika Onuebgu of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria told Bloomberg in an interview. Insecurity is becoming a big problem in the Niger Delta with the return of these attacks.
Its highly likely that violence will escalate in the Niger Delta as the government increases its military presence and the militants respond with further attacks, BMI Research said in a research note. In the short term, more oil and gas installations will be targeted.
By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com
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Trade between Russia and China in the first quarter of the year grew 3.6 percent on the year, to $14.2 billion. A senior CNPC official has confirmed that the company is interested in buying a stake in Russias biggest oil company, Rosneft. Gazprom Neft, another energy giant, has been selling its crude to China in exchange for yuan rather than dollars since last year.
These are all instances of a strategy pursued by Moscow and Beijing that has been gathering pace since oil prices collapsed and the West hit Russia with a series of economic sanctions for its military involvement in Ukraine.
China has clearly demonstrated its ambition to expand its international influence by transforming its economic model into one that is less reliant on heavy industrial production and turning its currency into a rival for the greenback. The yuan is already in the currency basket of the IMF, the Special Drawing Right, and international trade in yuan is growing fast. Related: Russian Oil Executives Not Optimistic About Oil Prices
Russia, on the other hand, needs cash to prop up its sluggish economy that is still over-reliant on oil, and it doesnt mind getting yuan instead of dollars. Diversifying the economy is difficult and will take time, so the Kremlin is looking to do the most it can with what it has, and what it has is an abundance of oil and gas (metals and minerals, toobut thats another story). Supporting China in its quest for more international weight seems to be another thing that Moscow doesnt mind.
So, China is the most natural market for Russias oil and gas, and if this means letting the Chinese in by selling them a stake in Rosneft, the Kremlin appears willing to take that once unthinkable step.
On the other hand, the perceived sanctity of state control of Russias oil and gas sector is not as complete as one might believe. After all, none other than BP holds 19.75 percent in Rosneft, a stake almost equal to the one that is now being put up for sale. Related: What OPEC Has To Fear From The New Saudi Oil Minister
Rosneft is working on becoming a truly global company. However, low oil prices are taking their toll and Rosneft needs cash. A stake sale would help, along with its long-term crude oil supply contract with CNPC, which closed in 2013.
CNPC, for its part, is suffering the fallout of the oil price rout as well, plus some problems unique to China. The company cannot downsize because jobs will be lost, so instead of investing into loss-making E&P activities, it can shore up its finances by becoming a shareholder in the Russian company, which, its worth noting, is still profitable despite challenges.
Russia and China have similar political priorities, which basically boil down to a greater international influence that would support economic sustainability. Related: Why Oil Prices Will Likely Drop Below $40 Soon
Its no coincidence that China introduced last month its new, gold-backed yuan. Its no coincidence that both China and Russia have been buying golda lot of it.
The CNPC-Rosneft deal is a milestone along the road to what some analysts see as a new world order. The U.S. dollar is still firmly in control of its top status, but struggling under the weight of a $19-trillion national debt, that may not last forever.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Last weeks resignation of Turkeys Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu has marked one more stepping stone in President Recep Tayyip Erdogans path to authoritarian rule. Erdogan has followed this path for a while now, envisioning a New Turkey, restored to the glory of its predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, at its heyday.
Interestingly, despite numerous warnings from scholars and observers, Erdogan has been left to do more or less whatever he wants. His persecution of the Kurdish minority has been merciless, in spite of calls from human rights groups to stop the violence. Turkey is also squarely at odds with the U.S., which is providing weapons to Kurdish fighters in Iraq.
Terrorist attacks are a frequent occurrence in Turkey these days as the destruction of the Syrian civil war spreads across the region. This unfortunate fact adds kindling to the fire Erdogan has stoked since he came into power: Turkey is surrounded by enemies but it can overcome them under his presidency and regain its grandeur - though, only if no one interferes with his rule. Hence the crushing of anti-government protests. The latest instance of this came on May 1, when 200 people were arrested.
The Turkish president hopes to consolidate power even further with his initiative to change the countrys system from a parliamentary to a presidential republic. Related: Germany About To Make Big Changes To Its Renewables Policy
In a recent interview with Sputnik, former Secretary-General of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Ertu?rul Yalc?nbay?r, said: In my view, May 5 [the day Davutoglu announced that he would not run for the post of chairman of the ruling AKP] should be considered as the date of the actual structural transition of Turkey to the presidential system.
Erdogan is not happy with opponents at home and he is not happy with Turkeys international partners, most notably the EU. In the latest show of strength, Erdogan refused to amend Turkeys anti-terrorist laws in line with the EUs in order to win a visa-free regime for Turkish citizens.
In the face of the increasingly undemocratic rule of President Erdogan, one may wonder why the EU is courting Turkey so insistently. One answer is the migrant crisis, which has been partially resolved with the EU-Turkey agreement that has seen migrants being taken back to Turkey in exchange for cash. Another reasons comes down to oil and natural gas: Turkey is a major hub for Middle Eastern and Central Asian hydrocarbons and its importance for the energy security of Europe will only grow, as evidenced by the map of existing and planned pipelines below. Related: Worlds Largest Shipping Company Preparing For Another Oil Price Crash
(Click to enlarge)
Source: BQ Magazine
The EU needs an amicable Turkey and its unclear how much Europe is ready to swallow in order to ensure Turkeys cooperation. Related: Its Not Looking Good For Canadian LNG
Apparently, it can swallow a lot. There have been reports that Erdogans regime supports ISIS, despite the fact that the countrys military has taken part in airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria. And while much of this news can be considered Russian propaganda, no one is quite sure exactly how much. Turkey is reportedly one of the channels for ISIS oil, and Erdogans own son is purported to have benefitted from that. One Turkish MP was quoted as saying that the President uses ISIS to deal with the Kurds.
In short, the political developments in Turkey should give its European neighbors cause for concern. After all, Turkey is preparing to become an EU member.
It seems, however, that membership in the EU is not as high on the agenda in Ankara. Complete control over the country is, however. And Erdogan is not exactly concerned about European opinion right now Europe needs Turkey more than Turkey needs Europe and, moreover, one of Erdogans stated aims is to make Turkey independent from the West. How realistic this is is another question; but the fact remains that Turkey is firmly on the path to an authoritarian regime, with all the grim but predictable consequences from such a development.
By Irina Slav of Oilprice.com
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A Panama-registered oil tanker that disappeared from radar three weeks ago en route to Senegal has now reportedly washed up in Liberia without its crew, sparking fears of a pirate attack gone very wrong.
The last location of Tamaya 1, which is registered in Panama, was recorded on April 22, heading to the port of Dakar, Senegal, from the south. All contact with the crew was then lost.
In 2014 alone, there were some 20 recorded pirate attacks; however, authorities remain at a loss so far over how this tanker washed up off course without its crew, and an alternative theory is that the crew simply abandoned ship mid-journey.
Our best bet is that the vessel's owner might have gone broke and had no money to pay crew members; and therefore, the crew abandoned the ship, a source with the Liberian National Port Authority said, as cited by British news outlets.
Related: Russian Oil Executives Not Optimistic About Oil Prices
But locals in northern Liberia where the vessel washed up said it took the local authorities a couple of days to notice the mysterious presence of the ship and send in an investigative team.
Authorities argued that the abandoned ship posed no security threat to locals and hence the slow response. But armed patrols were dispatched to the area after looting was reported. The stolen cargo, including crude oil, was retrieved.
Related: Turkey, At Energy Crossroads, Sliding Towards Authoritarianism
In the meantime, Liberias coast guard chief, maritime security chief and high ranking government officials have since visited the scene and an investigation is under way.
The mystery deepens as all communications and other major parts of the ship were removed, apparently in a deliberate move, before authorities arrived to inspect the vessel. There were no recent operational documents on board, according to reports.
By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
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If the presence of an iconic giraffe in the backyard hasnt caught your attention, and the fact that at least three stories of the house at 2344 E. Back Bay St. appear to be built into the side of the bluff rolling down toward Lincoln Memorial Drive doesnt spike your curiosity, consider this... (PHOTO: Molly Snyder) X
While seemingly half of Milwaukee thinks their houses were once home to speakeasies, the Becker-Fitch House has perhaps the most amazing secret basement tavern this towns ever seen.
The home or at least one amazing room of it will be open this Saturday, May 14, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. as part of Historic Milwaukee Inc.s annual Spaces and Traces event, which this year features the East Sides Historic Water Tower Neighborhood.
First, a little history of the house, which was designed by William D. Kimball in 1895 for William Becker, who owned an eponymous leather company in town. Additions were made in 1897 and 1901. The house before demolition of the chateau wing. (PHOTO: Courtesy of Milwaukee County Historical Society) X
Back in those days, the waves of Lake Michigan lapped at the bluff next to the house and across Back Bay Street which was, until 1917, called Terrace Court stood a trio of homes whose backs faced the nearly oval Woodland Court, which was subdivided into more than 20 lots, six of which hosted homes. Nowadays, that land across the street is Back Bay Park.
In 1915, Milwaukee Road founder Albert Earling bought the gorgeous French provincial chateau-style house, with its turrets and gables, its barn topped with a large, open summer room, and its skylit conservatory-style greenhouse for his daughter Harriet and her husband Lawrence Fitch, who was president of Wisconsin Malleable Co.
A year later, the Fitch tapped his friend, architect Herman Buemming, to remodel the house, building an addition atop the greenhouse and, later, in the 1960s. the chateau wing and some other sections were demolished.
In 1922, the Buemmings and the Fitches cruised from Key West to Havana, during which time the idea for an entertaining room may have been broached and the next year, Buemming teamed with Alexander Guth to design such a space on the lower level of the Fitch home.
Accessed via a spiral staircase hidden behind a panel in the wall of the living room above the panel was later further obscured behind one of the French tapestries Harriet brought home from Europe in 1927 the so-called Tavern Room (which was described as a den in official paperwork since Prohibition was in force at the time) is a two-story entertaining space, partially above ground and partially below, that is executed in a rustic style that recalls a 17th century Irish pub.
Hidden behind the visible heavy wooden beams many of which were recycled from area barns is a substructure of bolted steel beams.
Its quite amazing to behold. The spiral staircase deposits you in the balcony, where you can gaze over the rough-hewn balcony giving on to the main area below, with its large fireplace and rustic plastered walls dotted with a variety of tiles and motifs. Directly across the open space was an organ loft, now covered with wooden panels.
Up here and in other parts of the home are original World War I-vintage posters that aimed to raise funds for French war orphans. Harriet Fitch was instrumental in organizing a campaign among children at dozens of Milwaukee Public Schools to support this cause.
Follow the steps down and you can see a carved grotesque where balcony meets wall. Off to the sides are some storage areas for wine and other quaffs, which were brought in by boat, since the lake met the house at the bluff back then.
Along the south wall are some built in cabinets. One has an old icebox and another was filled with a shortwave radio used to maintain communications with the marine liquor delivery vessels. Though the radio itself has since been donated to The Pabst Mansion, a web of wiring remains dangling.
The space was also graced with ironwork by Cyril Colnik, though much of that has since been donated to Villa Terrace a couple lots up the bluff. Gas and wood stoves stood in the room and a large model schooner hung from the ceiling.
Alas, poor Mr. Fitch didnt get much time to enjoy his home pub, as he died in 1924. But his widow made the most of it. In 1926, the Milwaukee Sentinel noted that she hosted a visiting group of 21 students from Yale her husbands alma mater at the house (surely they visited the Tavern Room), and after she married attorney Frederick Thwaits in 1927 they continued to entertain in the space.
In fact, best as anyone can tell, the room stayed in commission at least until Harriet (by then the widow of Walter Dake) died in 1962 at the age of 85. After her passing, the Milwaukee Journal called Harriet, "Milwaukees undisputed social leader."
The following year, according to Harriet's wishes, the furnishings auctioned off and the house was readied for sale. Family members bought the home from the estate, and it now belongs to her granddaughter-in-law, Mrs. Thomas S. Van Alyea Jr.
In 1964-65, the western end of the chateau (which the Journal acclaimed as "a monumental landmark on Milwaukees lower east side) was lopped off apparently to create space to build the brick home than now stands next door its roof flattened out and its turret removed. An apartment was created on the lower level, just outside a door to the Tavern Room.
Though when I got a peek, I was lucky enough to get to see the old ballroom, the gorgeous plastered ceilings in the living room, the painted motifs on the cabinet doors in the dressing rooms and other interesting features, only the Tavern Room will be open to the public for the tour this weekend.
A former foreclosure at 5601 W. Vliet St. in Washington Heights now contains a hopping pizzeria thanks to owners Ann Brock and James Durawa of WyEast Pizza.
Brock and Durawa fell into the pizza business while they were living in Portland, Ore.
"Wed just purchased our house, and we were pretty much eating like crap," says Durawa. "I was really tired of eating frozen pizzas, so I started reading Peter Reinharts American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza. And then I started messing around and making my own dough."
Brock laughs. "Yes, we ate a lot of pizza. Like every weekend for two solid years."
Along the way, Durawa also took the opportunity to gain experience as a fill-in at Apizza Sholes in Portland. And by 2009, theyd purchased and customized a trailer and launched WyEast Pizza.
For four years, the two operated WyEast out of their customized trailer. But when family matters drew them back home to Wisconsin in 2014, they finally began to think about establishing a brick and mortar.
"We knew we were offering something that perhaps Milwaukee didnt have, and we were pretty sure people would be interested," says Durawa. "The opportunity to own our own space was something we just wouldnt have had in Portland, but it was possible in Milwaukee."
Durawa, who'd looked at a variety of restaurant spaces across town, says he first came across the former Papa Joes Pizza & Pasta while walking his dog in the Washington Heights neighborhood, and he and Brock became intrigued.
"I watched it for probably months," he notes. "Finally, when I caught wind that the building had gone into foreclosure, I attended a meeting of the Vliet Street Business Association, and things just developed from there."
Not quite a year later, theyd transformed the little restaurant into a hip, modern space complete with a Forno Bravo gas-fired domed Italian pizza oven.
The renovation, which was completed by Edward Haydin of Arc-Int Architecture and Matthew Jones of Hometown Building, includes a dining area that seats almost 30 guests at dining tables, as well as counter seating against the wall near the register.
What to expect
WyEast was busy when we rolled in on Thursday night around 6:30 p.m., which was right on time, since the restaurant sold its last pizza at about 7:30 p.m.
Service is informal, with pizza orders taken at the counter and delivered to tables when completed. Pizzas are made and baked to order, cooked two at a time in the oven. On average, that meant about 45 minutes to an hour, not a bad wait for great pizza especially if you while away the time with a beer and a bit of good conversation.
The menu, which currently includes 10 pies plus a seasonal special, will be expanded to include a house salad and appetizers including mixed olives and focaccia with two rotating dipping sauces. According to Durawa, a roasted vegetable medley may also be an option during the cooler months, when the salad is likely to shift over to more of a slaw.
On the beverage side, the restaurant offers a selection of wines ($7-8 a glass), along with four tap beers and a list of brews by the bottle (with most priced at $4-5)
"Our offerings reflect a selection that caters a bit more to people who enjoy beer," says Durawa of the beer selection. "Weve got Schlitz, but then we have an 11 percent barley wine from Pennsylvania. Overall, our list has a Midwestern focus, but wed eventually also like to bring in some beer from Portland if we can."
If youre looking for a sweet ending to your meal, WyEast also offers Purple Door ice cream sandwiches for $3.25, including flavors like vanilla chocolate chip, espresso molasses and raspberry green tea lemon.
The pizza
Its not quite New York-style. And not quite Neapolitan. But WyEast pizza is a delightful hybrid of the two.
The dough, which derives its texture from an extended fermentation period and long rise, is cooked to perfection at 800+ degrees, producing a crust with an exceptionally puffy, crunchy exterior and a tender, airy interior.
Similarly to a New York-style pie, WyEast has a thin crust which gets thicker and chewier around the edges. Toppings, particularly cheese, are plentiful, and unlike traditional Neapolitan pies, theres little to no "pooling" of toppings in the middle of the pizza, a characteristic typically resulting in a somewhat soggy center.
Pizzas come in two varieties: red pies created with a base of tomato sauce, mozzarella, pecorino Romano and herbs, as well as white pies with a base of olive oil, mozzarella, pecorino Romano, ricotta and herbs.
Among the red pies, the most popular (for good reason) is the "Hot Marmot," which boasts a slightly sweet and savory combination of pepperoni, fresh garlic and sweet hot goats horn peppers which have been marinated in a maple syrup brine ($22).
But, there is also the "Three Sisters" featuring mushrooms, garlic and basil ($20); the "Loowit" with green olives and sweet hot peppers; the "Zig-Zag" with soppressata and nicoise olives; the "Hogsback" featuring sausage and red onion ($19); and "Avalanche" a vegan option featuring tomato sauce and herbs ($14).
White pies include the "Cloud Cap" with mushrooms, roasted garlic and fresh rosemary ($20) and "Cape Blanco" with fresh garlic, sausage and cracked pepper ($21). Add fresh arugula to either for just $2.
If youd prefer to customize, you can start with an add on pie featuring tomato sauce, herbs (and cheese, if desired) for $14 and add up to three additional toppings ($2-3 each) including pepperoni, sausage, soppressata, anchovies, sweet hot peppers, green olives, fresh or roasted garlic, red onion, fresh mushrooms, fresh arugula, basil or nicoise olives. That said, meat lovers should note that pies are limited to one meat option each to preserve the structural integrity of the pizza.
More on the way
Currently, WyEast is open Thursday, Friday and Sunday from 4:30 to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 4:30 to 10 p.m. But in the coming weeks, once some of the kinks are worked out, Brock says theyll add dinner service on Wednesday nights, too.
Once timing on pizza orders is standardized a bit more, Brock notes theyll also begin taking call-in orders for carryout.
"Were toying with a number of ideas," says Brock, "including potential for lunch service. Our focaccia is pretty delicious, so perhaps well add sandwiches to the menu. But we really want to get all the kinks worked out before we make too many changes."
The parking lot, which was poured last week, is currently getting its finishing touches, which will include a patio that seats an additional 12 customers. Landscaping is being added to create green space on the lot, as well as promote healthy water drainage for the property.
A grand opening celebration is also forthcoming, and is likely to take place in the next month or so. Watch OnMilwaukee for details as they develop.
Halfway between the American and the French Revolutions, in 1781, as Immanuel Kant ruminates on the meaning of Enlightenment, the planet Uranus is discovered, and taken as the cosmic torch of the revolutionary age and the collapse of the Old Order.
On the day Bernie Sanders was born, the Sun was 75 degrees from being at the perfect 180 degree opposition to Uranus. By the astrological rule of thumb, the day-for-year progression method, we infer that at the age of 75 years an unprecedented event will turn Bernie Sanders' life upside down. That much is clear.
There are no astrological indications anywhere near so powerful and apt in the charts of either Clinton or Trump on Inauguration Day or Election Day or during the periods of the conventions. But neither does Sanders have particularly happy stars on those important pre-inaugural dates. So astrologers have been hesitant to make strong calls. ... mixed signs ... ask again later.
"A GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC CAMPFIRE"
A digression: Early in the last century a group of students calling themselves Sabians were assembled around the figure of a brilliant and astonishingly handsome young Presbyterian minister named Marc Edmund Jones (1888-1980). Jones studied theology at the University of Chicago, where he held ministerial and academic positions, and, under the eminent American philosopher John Dewey, he obtained his doctorate in Philosophy at Columbia University. Eventually though he's found in sunny San Diego at the center of an esoteric society . . . out of which came a Book of Marvels: 360 pithy emblematic images, invoked through elaborate randomness, which translate the arche-numerics of the Zodiac into human concepts. They are published as The Sabian Symbols in Astrology, Marc Edmund Jones, 1969, 3rd ed.
Back to the Inauguration.
When the Bernie Sanders progressed Sun reaches the opposition of Uranus it simultaneously will happen to leave the sign in which it has shone for the last 30 years (a day-for-a-year, recall) while entering the freedom-loving sign of Sagittarius, precisely opposing at zero degrees 20 minutes. Sag, the image of the wise, untamed centaur embraces the revolutionary import of Uranus. The Sabian symbol of this first degree of Sagittarius is: A GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC CAMPFIRE. This is the only one of the 360 symbols with direct reference to the USA, or for that matter to any historical event. The short commentary by Jones includes this suggestive remark: "In his symbolic and periodical return to center he regrasps each potentiality of being." (pg. 211)
RETURN TO CENTER?
By David Swanson, American Herald Tribune
We once again owe the great reporter Seymour Hersh a serious debt for his reporting, in this case for his London Review of Books articles on President Barack Obama's war making, now published as a book called The Killing of Osama bin Laden. Despite the title, three of the four articles are about Syria.
But there is a shortcoming in how Hersh tells history, as in how many reporters do. I've watched Hersh do interviews about the topic on Democracy Now and never once heard him mention the U.S. public. In his book, the public gets one mention: "The proposed American missile attack on Syria never won public support, and Obama turned quickly to the UN and the Russian proposal for dismantling the Syrian chemical warfare complex." Taken in isolation, that sentence suggests what I think is an important causal relationship. Taken in the context of a book that spends many pages offering other explanations for Obama's decision, that one sentence seems to be simply stating two unrelated incidents in chronological order.
A few sentences later, Hersh writes that Obama had claimed to have evidence of Bashar al Assad's guilt in a chemical weapons attack, but then turned to Congress for a vote and accepted Assad's offer to give up chemical weapons. From this, Hersh concludes that Obama must have been made aware of evidence contradicting his claim. (In fact, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper supposedly rather pointedly told Obama that his claim was "not a slam dunk.") Elsewhere Hersh credits Obama's decision not to bomb Syria to "military leaders who thought that going to war was both unjustified and potentially dangerous." Hersh writes that a report contradicting Obama's chemical weapons claims led the joint chiefs of staff to warn Obama that attacking Syria could be "an unjustified act of aggression."
You may be wondering which of the seven wars Obama is now engaged in isn't an unjustified act of aggression, or how a chemical weapons attack would make a war into a justified act of aggression, but Hersh also cites a DIA assessment in 2013 that overthrowing Syria could create a Libya-like disaster -- something that a 2012 DIA assessment also warned was in the making. But, one might ask, where is the public uproar or any other sort of consequence for the White House from the fact that Obama blatantly lied about a Libyan threat to massacre civilians in Benghazi and used that lie to create the current disaster in Libya? What has been the downside to the president of having lied about a mountaintop rescue in order to get into more warmaking in Iraq and Syria? How have endless lies about Ukraine or drone strikes come back to bite the prevaricator in chief? What would have been different about getting caught lying about a chemical weapons attack in Syria? And with those lies having in fact been told and being now well-exposed by Hersh and others, is it possible to find a dozen Americans and a dog who give a damn?
The difference was this. Public pressure had made the 2003 U.S. attack on Iraq illegal and shameful, powerful enough to toss out Congressional majorities in 2006 and to deny Hillary Clinton a nomination in 2008. Syria 2013 resembled Iraq 2003 in too many ways. WMD lies were still unstable ground. Other types of lies were much preferred. Secretive wars and slow buildups would be better tolerated. A new shock and awe over WMD lies, entering a new war on the side of al Qaeda, with the strongest supporters of such madness actually opposed in this case because the president was a Democrat -- all of this was just too weak a proposal for the public. Once the question was made a public debate, with true war mongers screaming for Obama to uphold his "red line," the public made more phone calls, sent more emails, and challenged more Congress members at public meetings over this question than over any other question ever before in history. And Congress members were heard saying they didn't want to go on record as having voted for "another Iraq."
Now, that may explain why Congress made clear it would vote No if forced to vote. But what determined the emperor's decision to tell Congress to take a vote (a role not actually assigned to presidents in the U.S. Constitution)? Here's where it helps to read Chapter 1 of Hersh's bin Laden book, the chapter on the killing of bin Laden. This is a chapter largely dedicated to President Obama's mad and reckless rush to violate various policies, outrage various bureaucrats, burn Pakistani relations, endanger sources, and generate various falsehoods that would have to be corrected, in order to as quickly as possible announce to the public that he had slain the terrible dragon. Obama falsely claimed that bin Laden was engaged in running a major terrorist organization and had been armed and killed in a shoot out. In fact, bin Laden was an irrelevant old invalid, unarmed, unguarded, and murdered in cold blood. Obama also lied about how bin Laden had been found, which facilitated lies to the effect that torture had accomplished something, a lie put into the movie Zero Dark Thirty by the CIA. Never directly mentioned in this saga is the looming presence of the U.S. public, the entity to which Obama went running head over heels to blurt out his news and plead for a triumphal arch to be built in his honor.
U.S. politicians have a very odd and corrupt relationship with the public, as has that public with itself. Numerous actions are taken on behalf of donors in stark opposition to the public will. But public opinion remains a major focus for politicians. Perhaps Hersh considers the point too obvious to mention, or perhaps he considers it false. He doesn't say. But he should be aware that much of the public considers it false, that even peace activists who try to pressure politicians for peace often believe they have no impact. Hersh must also be aware that politicians go out of their way to pretend that the public has no impact.
Hersh is clear that the decision to proceed with eliminating Syria's chemical weapons came after the decision not to bomb. But he paints the decision not to bomb as an internal decision focused on picking the policy that would have the best results and be based on accurate information. He cannot be unaware that most U.S. government policies are not shaped around those criteria.
The general view of the U.S. public is that "democracy" should be spread around the globe and that any politician who changes their position in response to public demand is shameful and disreputable. Politicians in the United States are applauded for claiming to ignore opinion polls and to act on principle, which they universally claim. "There is probably a perverse pride in my administration," said President Obama, "and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top -- that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular." The identical sentiment has been articulated by nearly every U.S. politician for many years.
In the late 1990s, Lawrence Wittner was researching the anti-nuclear movement of decades past. He interviewed Robert "Bud" McFarlane, President Ronald Reagan's former national security advisor: "Other administration officials had claimed that they had barely noticed the nuclear freeze movement. But when I asked McFarlane about it, he lit up and began outlining a massive administration campaign to counter and discredit the freeze -- one that he had directed. . . . A month later, I interviewed Edwin Meese, a top White House staffer and U.S. attorney general during the Reagan administration. When I asked him about the administration's response to the freeze campaign, he followed the usual line by saying that there was little official notice taken of it. In response, I recounted what McFarlane had revealed. A sheepish grin now spread across this former government official's face, and I knew that I had caught him. 'If Bud says that,' he remarked tactfully, 'it must be true.'"
Admitting to public influence is usually the last thing an elected official wants to do. It's viewed by them and by the public alike as the exact equivalent of admitting to the influence of campaign bribery, . . . er, I mean, contributions. Even well-meaning activists see elections as exactly as corrupting a factor of pure principled politics as lobbyist meetings, proposing as a result such "reforms" as longer terms in office and term limits. And yet, when it comes to the decision not to bomb Syria in 2013 (and instead merely to keep arming and training proxies and searching for other means of more slowly making a bad situation worse), the White House admits to public influence.
This was not merely reading polls, in which the U.S. public opposed arming proxies even more than dropping bombs. But neither was it "doing the right" wonky thing, and the public be damned. Remember, Obama asked the CIA for a report on whether arming proxies had ever "worked," and the report said no it hadn't -- except for that time in Afghanistan (blowback not included). Obama was intent on doing what both the public and the military warned against. But he wouldn't do it in too big and dramatic a manner under a public spotlight with the words "Iraq Part II" flashing on the marquee. Here's a bit of Obama's self-portrait as Saint Francis in The Atlantic:
"But the president had grown queasy. In the days after the gassing of Ghouta, Obama would later tell me, he found himself recoiling from the idea of an attack unsanctioned by international law or by Congress. The American people seemed unenthusiastic about a Syria intervention; so too did one of the few foreign leaders Obama respects, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. She told him that her country would not participate in a Syria campaign. And in a stunning development, on Thursday, August 29, the British Parliament denied David Cameron its blessing for an attack. John Kerry later told me that when he heard that, 'internally, I went, Oops.'"
Obama is also quoted as listing the House of Commons vote as one of the major factors in his own decision. And then there's Joe blurt-it-out Biden, in the same article:
"When I spoke with Biden recently about the red-line decision, he made special note of this fact. 'It matters to have Congress with you, in terms of your ability to sustain what you set out to do,' he said. Obama 'didn't go to Congress to get himself off the hook. He had his doubts at that point, but he knew that if he was going to do anything, he better damn well have the public with him, or it would be a very short ride.' Congress's clear ambivalence convinced Biden that Obama was correct to fear the slippery slope. 'What happens when we get a plane shot down? Do we not go in and rescue?,' Biden asked. 'You need the support of the American people.'"
Corruption is Root Cause of all Ailments
10 May, 2016
By Asif Haroon Raja
Terrorism was pushed into Pakistan from Afghanistan by the ones who had engineered 9/11 and initiated war on terror in October 7, 2001. Pakistan was made an ally to capture Afghanistan but was then forced to fight against its own people on its soil. Terrorist groups in FATA and Baluchistan and a political party in Karachi were fully supported by foreign powers to destabilize Pakistan and then at an opportune time extract its nuclear teeth.
The Army did a splendid job in defeating terrorism after recapturing 18 units in the northwest, breaking the back of separatist movement in Baluchistan and dismantling the militant wing of MQM which had bloodied Karachi. While the Army did its job commendably, the political, economic and judicial prongs that were required to move in step with the Army lagged behind. The civil administration has yet to take over the captured regions in northwest or in interior Baluchistan. Military courts had to be established in early 2015 because of dismal performance of the lower courts. Not a single terrorist was convicted and punished. The Army undertook management of the internally displaced people and development works and is now managing their rehabilitation and resettlement. Cadet colleges and technical colleges have been opened in South and North Waziristan and in interior Baluchistan.
After clearing North Waziristan, the Army is now hunting sleeping cells, facilitators, abettors and sympathisers of terrorists in urban centres. In the process, the Army gathered that political leaders in Sindh were financing terrorism to the tune of Rs. 260 billion annually. Dr Asim Hussain and Uzair Baloch provided lot of information in this regard, which forced Asif Zardari and top guns of PPP to flee to Dubai. The Army has now learnt that corruption is the root cause of all the ailments including terrorism and until and unless this cancer is rooted out terrorism cannot be eliminated. However, the politicians see nothing wrong with corruption particularly when the PPP during its last rule (2008-13) institutionalized it and broke all records of corruption. Since then, corruption has seeped into every layer of society which has degenerated the morals of the society as a whole.
Politicians are least interested in saving honor and dignity of their own or their families. They think money and power will make them famous. They are not much interested in national interests since they cannot comprehend national security issues. They are not interested in true democracy, or rule of law, strict accountability, fair and free elections, ethics and values or in spreading education. They are least concerned about the plight of the poor who elect them. Hence they pay little attention to their basic problems of jobs, education, clean drinking water, justice and security of life, honor and property. The only interest they have in life is their self-interest which they guard zealously.
For about seven decades the politicians in league with bureaucrats, industrialists and businessmen have been systematically looting the nation and enriching their coffers with wealth
earned through commissions, kickbacks and corruption. Practice of corruption gained currency after 1985 and peaked between 2008 and 2013. Most of their black money has been secretly syphoned to foreign banks and offshore companies. Panama leaks has given a glimpse of it. They have purchased high value property in posh areas of Dubai, London, Washington and New York. Their insatiable lust for power, pelf and wealth has made Pakistan poor and debt ridden. Over 35% live below poverty line while the lower middle class is finding it difficult to make their two ends meet.
To safeguard their ill-gotten wealth and property, the politicians dupe the people by singing songs of democracy and by making false promises, but neither empower local bodies nor fulfill their promises. They bend or break laws at will to suit their whims and defy the judiciary. Axe of accountability fall upon the poor or those in opposition. They have politicized the police, bureaucracy and other government agencies. Hideous Thana (Police) culture and Patwari system has remained in vogue all these years. Education has purposely been given lowest priority to keep the masses illiterate and ignorant. They want workforce for their lands and industries and for domestic works. They favor status quo since Anglo-Saxon laws and Westminster democracy are pro-rich and anti-poor.
No effort has ever been made to carryout political, electoral, and judicial and police reforms and whatever efforts made were cosmetic in nature. Despite the country overburdened with the weight of over $70 billion foreign debt, the rulers and elites have brought no change in their ostentatious lifestyle and continue to lavishly waste government resources like parasites. At the same time they keep begging the US, IMF and World Bank for more loans to upkeep their high lifestyle. They also have the bad habit of flaunting their wealth shamelessly.
The PPP initially had Al-Zulfiqar terrorist group as its militant wing and later made Lyari gangs in Karachi to confront MQMs militancy. Politicised police and civil administration have been protecting the militants while RAW has been guiding them to keep Karachi lawless. Raisani government in Baluchistan (2008-2013) was also involved in criminal activities, while ANP government in Khyber Pakhtunistan (KP) was involved in massive corruption and opposed Kalabagh dam. Earlier on, the MMA governments in KP and Baluchistan (2002-2008) patronized religious extremist groups.
Operation Zarb-e-Azb and Rangers led operation in Karachi apart from giving deadly blows to crime and terrorism also revealed for the first time that the ones sitting in power in Sindh are in league with criminal elements to promote crime and terrorism and earn money. MQM and PPP have all along been financing criminal gangs and Mafias and are now financing terrorism. The ones in jails were also well looked after. This well-knit nexus has mixed up crime, terrorism and corruption with politics. MQM believes in politics of violence and blackmail and had gained control over Karachi through terrorization. It got linked with RAW in 1989 and since then the party has been funded and its militants trained in India to undertake crimes ranging from target killings, extortion, land grabbing, kidnappings for ransom, bank robberies, murdering key witnesses, investigators and prosecutors and threatening judges.
This crime and terrorism interconnection has been broken but so far only small fishes in plenty have been netted and none has so far been convicted and punished except for Saulat Mirza who was hanged. The big fish are yet to be caught and put on trial. Arrest of Indian spy Kal Bhushan Yadav has given an idea about the extent of penetration made by RAW in Pakistan since 2002. RAW network extends from Baluchistan, where it is connected with BLA, BRA, BLF, Baloch nationalist Sardars, to Makran Coast, to Karachi Coast where many fishermen of both Pakistan and India are acting as agents, to MQM in Karachi, to southern Punjab where Chottu gang and several other gangs operated, to FATA where it was connected with TTP and its affiliates.
While the PML-N government has taken some bold initiatives to improve the economy and to control law and order as well as terrorism, and has been extending full support to the ongoing operations in the three conflict zones, but a lot is yet to be done. Little work has so far been taken on certain important aspects of 20-point National Action Plan, like operationalization of Joint Intelligence Directorate, reforms of Madrassas, Police and FATA. Poverty which breeds extremism and terrorism, injustice which rear hatred against the elites, and corruption which promotes all sorts of evils including terrorism are not in the list of corrective measures.
Since corruption is common to all political parties, no party is in a position to point finger at others. There is a dire need for all parties to carryout in-house screening to weed out black sheep. Ongoing tussle between the government and opposition over the judicial commission and terms of reference with regard to Panama leaks is losing steam owing to division in opposition parties and problems within PTI. The people are however charged up and want across the board accountability of all the wrongdoers. They look towards Gen Raheel Sharif to rid Pakistan from the leeches that are sucking the blood of the nation and want him to stay on beyond November. Gen Raheel is focused and is determined to take the ongoing operations to their logical conclusion and to make CPEC functional before hanging his boots in November.
The writer is a retired Brig, war veteran, defence analyst, columnist, author of 5 books, Director Measac Research Centre, Director Board of Governors Thinkers forum Pakistan. He takes part in TV talk shows and delivers talks. asifharoonraja@gmail.com
South Asian Dirtiest Intelligence Game 10 May, 2016 By Zaheerul Hassan
Related News European nationals working as spies with govt's approval: FO Related Articles The Panama Leaks and Nawaz Sharif Family
By By Saeed Qureshi Pakistan-Iran Sensibilities
By By Asif Haroon Raja More on this View All European nationals working as spies with govt's approval: FO
Gul slams US intelligence agencies' report on Pak Proactive, reactive, offensive and counter intelligence operations are obligatory elements of well comprehensive thoughtful intelligence plan of proxy wars. Usually, the plans of such nature in proxy wars are being executed through organized intelligence network in the rival countries. Execution of covert intelligence operations while using the invisible state's sponsored actors really brought dynamic changes in military doctrine because it reduces the chances of all out and nuclear wars amongst the rival states. But experiences reveal that lethality of offensive intelligence operations is even much more than all-out war.
The dirtiest aspects of such hostile operations are; terror financing with the purpose of weakening governments' writ, killing human beings including children and women, damaging public and state property, propagating against strategically vital assets like nuclear, psychological warfare and promoting sectarianism in a targeted countries. In this regard, the executers of aggressive or offensive intelligence operations also ensure the transmutation of their plans into political instability and economic insecurity that should ultimately lead to polarization in the society and end at the bifurcation of the targeted state. However, successful intelligence agencies always try to counter the offensives while timely exposing rival's plan, eliminating traitors and their facilitators. Sometimes the agencies also adopt tit for tat against the aggressor intelligence agency. In this context many examples are available where CIA, KGB, MI-6, Mossad, RAW and ISI under took number of operations against their respective rival agencies.
In fact, in twentieth century, Mossad, RAW, CIA, KGB, MI-6 and NDS (the National Directorate for Security, Afghanistan's spy agency) emerge as the top most intelligence agencies which are notorious for conducting militant operations in various targeted states of Middle Asia and South Asia. For instance, U.S. has launched her military offensives basing on wrong intelligence information in Iraq and Libya. In this connection, most of the European countries including UK were the major allies of USA. But now in 2016, after killing thousands of people, former UK premier Tony Blair and US President Barack Obama have openly sought apology while acknowledging that attacking Libya and Iraq was our mistakes. In an interview, "worst mistake" to Fox News US President Barack Obama admitted that the biggest mistake of his presidency was a lack of planning for the aftermath of the fall of late Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, with the country spiraling into chaos and grappling with violent extremists.
Similarly, from 1979 to 1989 U.S. and Pakistan have jointly carried out covert operations against Soviet Union's invasion in Afghanistan. Here, Pakistan was forced to support U.S due to USSR's potent threat of advancing towards warm water. Although, the said joint adventures remained successful in disintegration of Soviet Union but failed in its consolidation phase. Aftermath, Soviet Union disintegration, Pakistan has been left alone by U.S. Moreover, Pakistani authorities of that period did not make any plan to deal with vibrant armed groups of locals who participate in Afghan Jihad. Thus, RAW got a chance to invest against Pakistan which resulted into emergence of TTP. Indian notorious agency took number of subversive actions while funding TTP and separatists of Balochistan.
Nevertheless, in our region, China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iranian Balochistan are main areas of interests of CIA, RAW, Mossad and Afghanistan. But India is the only country that openly and covertly has supported and fomented terrorism through Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka from 1983-2009. She is also directly carrying out subversive activities with help of local traitors of BLA and TTP in Pakistan. In short, we can say that main objectives of dirty game of stated intelligence agencies are to create political and economic instability, indirectly capturing of natural resources, safe guarding their respective countries' disrupt strong Pak-China ties, interests locally and regionally, try to create the int0eroe hegemonic.
Recently arrested Indian agent, Commander Kul Bushan and apprehension of two sub agents in Sindh clearly reveal the naked examples of Indian state sponsored terrorism in Pakistan. The arrested agents have confessed that they were tasked to direct and control militant activities, support separatist elements Balochistan, foment sectarianism, carryout target killing, disrupt Sino-Pak agreement over CEPC and promote political instability in Pakistan. Out of them, Yadev a Commander in the Indian Navy crossed the Pak-Afghan border 12 times but currently sneaked through Iranian border and arrested in Balochistan. During initial investigation, he confessed his links with separatist, sectarian and terrorist organizations in Karachi and Balochistan. He also disclosed that as per RAW requirements, separatists of BNA used to dispatch individuals to India for militant training in the camps established under arrangements of Border Security Force (BSF). It is the same model that RAW has adopted in seventies and established "Mukti Bani" (trained force of militants) against Pakistani security forces.
Yadev also disclosed that during his latest stay he contacted various Baloch nationalist leaders and insurgents, including Dr. Allah Nazar Baloch, Brhamdagh Bugiti and Harbyar Mari, to execute the tasks to sabotage CPEC project. In this regard this he distributed millions of rupees among the nationalists and insurgents in the troubled province. During investigations, the Pakistani investigating agencies also dig out that Indian Spy Yadave was directed to made fictitious calls to depict that so called terrorists of Pathan Kot air base attack were receiving instructions from Pakistani territory. Moreover on his directions, Karachi, a city of 20 million and economic hub, was frequently hit by religious, political and ethnic violence.
Yadvae is not the only agent who has been red handily arrested but there are two more very notorious RAW planted agents Ravinder Kaushik and Sarabjit Singh were apprehended in 1975 and 1990 respectively.
Karnal born Indian spy Ravinder Kaushik was recruited by RAW and given extensive training in Delhi for two years before his successful launching as civilian tailor in one of the unit of Pakistan Army. He underwent Circumcision so he could pass as a Muslim. He was well versed in Punjabi language but was taught Urdu too. He was given proper religious education and acquainted with the topography and other details about Pakistan. He, till his arrest in 1975, kept on passing valuable able information to RAW.
Spy Sarabjit Singh and Kirpal Singh were arrested for carrying out blasts in Pakistan. They killed more than 25 individuals in two different bomb blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad. Indian government has made unsuccessful efforts of their release. However, in a bloodstained conflict, spy Sarabjit Singh was murdered by the other prisoners of same jail in 2013 and due to heart failure in Kirpal Singh, 54 died in Kot Lakhpat Jail. Both were already sentenced to death for spying and terrorism in Pakistan. But as usually Indian media has started alleging Pakistan for their natural death of Kirpal. Thus, Indian allegations against Pakistani officials are not more than nonsense assumptions created by RAW to betray the international community with the purpose of covering RAW's war crimes against its neghibours since spy Kirpal has already been convicted and waiting for implementation on sentences passed by the court.
On 7 May 2016 Karachi Police and law enforcement agencies during a search operation Indian Spy Arshad has been arrested. According to sources the suspect came to Pakistan in 2011. At the time of arrest, he was in possession of three mobile phones, 10 SIM cards, Lap Top and classified documents. He confessed that he is serving employee of the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Pakistani supreme intelligence agency ISI and locals law enforcement agencies have been continuously monitoring RAW's activities and able to collect ample evidence like: telephone conversations, documents of secret nature, maps of important locations, Afghan and Pakistani SIMs those were in the possession of militants,moles and their facilitators. In this regard, at various occasions the folders containing secret proofs of RAW involvement in ongoing militancy in Balochistan were handed to Indian counterparts by both present and former Premiers of Pakistan. For this purpose India has established more than 15 Indian consulates in Afghanistan, the majorities are located near the Pakistan border and Yadev was stationed at Kandahar.
Anyhow, he was part of a special desk set up by RAW to sabotage the CPEC and Sino-Pak relationship. However, Pakistan has taken very positive steps while assuring national community and friendly countries that her territory will not be allowed to hide out of terrorists. In this connection security forces successfully hit TTP. Pakistan has assured China that she will go for all out cooperation against ETIM. Similarly, China has always extended cooperation and supported Pakistan on international forums since Beijing is aware of the facts that CIA, NDS, RAW, Mossad and MI-6 are operating against the common interests of both the countries.
In fact, there is a need to make some concrete efforts and cohesive actions for the protection of common interests of China, Central Asian states, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Russia and others underdeveloped countries of South Asia. In this context some joint operational level forum can be established to defeat the ongoing dirtiest intelligence game. China, Pakistan and Russia can be given leading role in the proposed united front. Moreover, requisite mobilization be done aggressively at diplomatic front. Islamabad should ask India, Washington and UK to stop interfering in our internal affairs. Simultaneously, the government should take all patriotic lords on board and rush down for the speedy development of the largest province of Pakistan.
Pakistan army has already launched Operation Zarb-e-Azab under the leaderships of General Raheel Sharif to eradicate the evils of terrorism and corruption. On 4 May 2016, while addressing retired and serving officers and troops at PIFFERS' Home in Abbottabad he very rightly diagnosed that syndicate of terrorism, corruption and nepotism is the dangerous one for the progress of the nation. He assured the troops that security agencies, Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies are adamant to eliminate this dangerous syndicate and project of CPEC will be secured and completed in the best interest of the country.
D printed cane toad (Rhinella marina) skeleton and spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) cartilage model.
Scientists from Massey University have developed a simple 3D scanning and printing method that will help students learn anatomy.
3D digital replicas of a cane toad skeleton and the tough cartilage from the head of a spiny dogfish were made using consumer-level scanners. The skeleton and cartilage replicas were printed using a selective laser sintering 3D printer. These test cases explain how high-quality replicas can be made more accessible and make a case for wider application of 3D printing in anatomy.
Lead author Dr Daniel Thomas of Massey's Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences says the aim was to make anatomy more accessible to students and teachers.
"Anatomy teaches us about the ecology and evolution of an animal and can give us crucial information for developing conservation strategies. It's not always possible for learners to study original anatomy specimens though, which is where high-quality 3D printed models come in.
"Imagine a classroom in Silverdale being able to print a moa skeleton or a university class in America being able to examine a kakapo beak that was scanned here in New Zealand."
The School of Engineering and Advanced Technology printed the pieces using their laser sintering 3D printer. "The scanning system we used is reasonably inexpensive for a school or university to buy. Online services for 3D printing are great if an educator or learner doesn't have their own printer.
3D scan of a cane toad (Rhinella marina) skeleton.
"There is no maximum size limit for printing or scanning, as bones that are larger than the printing chamber can be printed in multiple pieces," says Dr Thomas.
He acknowledges anatomical models don't account for biological variation and there are aspects lost by moving away from dissection. However, the fundamental advantage of models is they can provide educational opportunities to learners who may otherwise not have access to original specimens.
Dr Thomas will use 3D scanning and printing to increase the range of specimens that students can study in his vertebrate zoology classes.
The frog skeleton and dogfish cartilage models can be used to make large class sets and are available for downloading and 3D printing from the NZ Fauna website. Click here for frog skeleton and click here for the spiny dogfish.
In this May 7, 2016 file photo, a wildfire burns south of Fort McMurray, Alberta. A dry and blistering hot northern Alberta is burning and doing so unusually early in the year, but that's only the latest of many gargantuan fires on an Earth that's grown hotter with more extreme weather. (Jonathan Hayward /The Canadian Press via AP, File)
Alberta's unusually early and large fire is just the latest of many gargantuan fires on an Earth that's grown hotter with more extreme weather.
Earlier this year, large wildfires hit spots on opposite ends of the worldTasmania and Oklahoma-Kansas. Last year, Alaska and California pushed the U.S. to a record 10 million acres burned. Massive fires hit Siberia, Mongolia and China last year and Brazil's fire season has increased by a month over the past three decades.
It got so bad that in 2009, Australia added a bright red "catastrophic" to its fire warning index.
"The warmer it is, the more fires we get," said Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at the University of Alberta.
Last week, temperatures pushed past 90 degrees Fahrenheit (mid 30s Celsius) in Alberta, which is unusual for May in northern Canada.
It's not quite so simple though. Many factors contribute to the complex increase in big fires, Flannigan and several experts said. They include climate change, the way people use land and firefighting methods that leave more fueltrees and brushto burn.
But the temperature one stands out, Flannigan said.
"The Alberta wildfires are an excellent example of what we're seeing more and more of: warming means snow melts earlier, soils and vegetation dries out earlier, and the fire season starts earlier. It's a train wreck," University of Arizona climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck wrote in an email.
In this Sept. 11, 2015, file photo, a firefighter turns his head from flames of the Butte Fire burning near San Andreas, Calif. A dry and blistering hot northern Alberta is burning and doing so unusually early in the year, but that's only the latest of many gargantuan fires on an Earth that's grown hotter with more extreme weather. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
Worldwide, the length of Earth's fire season increased nearly 19 percent from 1979 to 2013, according to a study by Mark Cochrane, a professor of fire ecology at South Dakota State University.
Fires had steadily been increasing, but then in the late 1990s and early 2000s, "we've suddenly been hit with lots of these large fires we can't control," Cochrane said.
In terms of acreage burned, the worldwide total may be dropping because of better firefighting, but in North America and Siberia "fires have grown quite a bit due to warming," Columbia University climate and ecology scientist Park Williams wrote in an email. "My estimate is that global warming has been responsible for about half of this increase."
For the entire U.S., the 10-year average number of acres burned in wildfires has more than doubled from about 3 million acres in the mid-1980s to 7 million acres now, according to an analysis of government data by The Associated Press.
Twelve years before the Fort McMurray fire set northern Alberta ablaze, a study by Flannigan and University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver found that "human-induced climate change has had a detectable influence" on a dramatic increase in wildfires in Canada. Flannigan said the area burned in Canada has doubled since the 1970s "and we think that's due to climate change."
"Globally we are seeing more fires, bigger fires, more severe fires," said Kevin Ryan, a retired U.S. Forest Service scientist who is now a fire consultant, with a recent stint in Indonesia, where fires were big last year.
In this Sept. 12, 2015 file photo, a fireman works to contain a wildfire on a field in Ogan Ilir, South Sumatra, Indonesia. A dry and blistering hot northern Alberta is burning and doing so unusually early in the year, but that's only the latest of many gargantuan fires on an Earth that's grown hotter with more extreme weather. (AP Photo, File)
Fires in some places, such as Indonesia and Canada, are bad when there's an El Ninoa warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather worldwidebecause it triggers drought in those regions, Ryan said. In Indonesia, changes in land use are a bigger factor than climate, Ryan said.
But elsewhere, it's temperature and moisture, too much of one and not enough of the other, scientists said. As the air warms, it gets "more efficient at sucking the moisture out of the fuels" which makes them more prone to burn, Flannigan said. Then add in lightning. A study found that lightning increases 12 percent with every degree Celsius and that can trigger more fires. Flannigan said there's evidence of fire-triggered clouds in Alberta causing at least two more fires because of lightning.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences earlier this year in a study determined that "climate warming has resulted in longer fire seasons." But other factors, such as the way fires are fought and land use, make it difficult to scientifically attribute individual fires and regional fires to climate change, the report and other scientists said.
"This is absolutely a harbinger of things to come," said Canadian climate scientist Weaver, now a Green party legislator in the British Columbia parliament.
More information: U.S. fire statistics: U.S. fire statistics: www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_statistics.html
2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
A new study from Tel Aviv University, Cornell University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine reveals genetic proof of the Jewish roots of the Bene Israel community in the western part of India. They have always considered themselves Jewish.
"Almost nothing is known about the Bene Israel community before the 18th century, when Cochin Jews and later Christian missionaries first came into contact with it," says first author Yedael Waldman of both TAU's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Cornell's Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology. "Beyond vague oral history and speculations, there has been no independent support for Bene Israel claims of Jewish ancestry, claims that have remained shrouded in legend."
"Human genetics now has the potential to not only improve human health but also help us understand human history," says Prof. Eran Halperin of TAU's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology and TAU's Blavatnik School of Computer Sciences, who together with Prof. Alon Keinan of Cornell University's Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology advised Waldman. The research was published in PLOS ONE on March 24, 2016.
From folklore to science
According to their oral history, the Bene Israel people descended from 14 Jewish survivors of a shipwreck on India's Konkan shore. The exact timing of this event and the origin and identity of the Jewish visitors are unknown. Some date the event to around 2,000 years ago. Others estimate that it took place in 175 BCE. Still others believe their Jewish ancestors arrived as early as the 8th century BCE.
"In the last few decades, genetic information has become an important source for the study of human history," says Prof. Keinan, the study's senior author. "It has been applied several times to the study of Jewish populations across diasporas, providing evidence of a shared ancestry."
The research team, including members of Prof. Keinan's lab, Prof. Eitan Friedman of TAU's Sackler School of Medicine, and Prof. Gil Azmon and colleagues at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the University of Haifa, based their study on data from the Jewish HapMap project, an international effort led by Prof. Harry Ostrer of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, to determine the genetic history of worldwide Jewish diasporas. They used sophisticated genetic tools to conduct comprehensive genome-wide analyses on the genetic markers of 18 Bene Israel individuals.
"We found that while Bene Israel individuals genetically resemble local Indian populations, they constitute a clearly separated and unique population in India," Waldman says.
How the community grew
"The results point to Bene Israel being an 'admixed' population, with both Jewish and Indian ancestry. The genetic contribution of each of these ancestral populations is substantial," adds study co-lead author Arjun Biddanda of Cornell.
The results even indicate when the Jewish and Indian ancestors of Bene Israel "admixed": some 19-33 generations (approximately 650-1,050 years) ago.
"We believe that the first encounter involved Middle-Eastern Jews and was followed by a high rate of tribal intermarriage," says Waldman. "This study provides a new example of how genetic analysis can be a valuable and powerful tool to advance our knowledge of human history."
Explore further Study finds genetic links among Jewish people
More information: Yedael Y. Waldman et al, The Genetics of Bene Israel from India Reveals Both Substantial Jewish and Indian Ancestry, PLOS ONE (2016). Journal information: PLoS ONE Yedael Y. Waldman et al, The Genetics of Bene Israel from India Reveals Both Substantial Jewish and Indian Ancestry,(2016). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152056
PETROSS sugarcane (right) is 20% more productive than normal sugarcane (left). PETROSS sugarcane is 17% taller with 43% more stems that are 18% thicker stems. Credit: University of Illinois
Imagineinstead of acres of oil wells on barren landendless fields of towering green sugarcane, with each stalk producing renewable and sustainable biofuel.
The University of Illinois and the University of Florida have been awarded a third round of funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to realize ultra-productive biofuel crops.
ARPA-E supports initial research for high-potential, high-impact energy technologies to show proof of concept prior to private-sector investment. ARPA-E grants are extremely competitive, and it is rare to receive additional funding, called "plus-up funds," and even rarer to earn a second round of plus-up funding.
Nearly $300,000 of plus-up funds will sustain the research project called Plants Engineered To Replace Oil in Sugarcane and Sweet Sorghum (PETROSS) for another year while it seeks additional investors and commercial partners.
"Our research project is on a trajectory to produce sugarcane that could give the U.S. an inexhaustible and environmentally friendly oil supply that could satisfy one quarter of the nation's fuel and provide a renewable source of jet fuel," said Project Director Stephen Long, Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at Illinois. "These crops could be grown in areas of the Southeast that can no longer produce food crops, giving the region a much needed economic boost."
PETROSS is engineering sugarcane and sorghum to produce 20% oil, which equates to 13 times more biodiesel (and six time more profit) per acre than an acre of soybeans. Naturally these crops produce just 0.05% oil, which is not enough to convert to biodiesel. PETROSS has now produced a cane that accumulates 13% oil by dry weight. With just 5% oil that can be turned into biodiesel, PETROSS sugarcane is 4.5 times more profitable than soybeans per acre.
With ARPA-E's additional funding, the project will continue work to increase yields and to improve cold tolerance to expand the growing region of sugarcane, which is currently limited to small regions in Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
To increase yields, PETROSS is improving photosynthesis, which turns the sun's energy into biomass for biofuel production; an improvement in photosynthesis directly correlates with an increase in yield. PETROSS has developed a plant that is 20% more efficient (producing 20% more biomass) under normal conditions. Under cooler conditions, PETROSS cane is nearly 50% more efficient.
ARPA-E's funding will support a techno-economic analysis of converting the PETROSS oil into jet fuel, another year of field trials in Florida, phenotyping of DNA assembled by PETROSS, phenotyping of PETROSS sugarcane, and an evaluation of PETROSS sugarcane by Syngenta.
Illinois is leading the project at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology; the partner institutions include the University of Florida, Brookhaven National University, and the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
Explore further Biodiesel from sugarcane more economical than soybean
OECD guidance aims to help stop profits from the trade of minerals falling into the hands of armed groups in conflict regions. Credit: James Oatway/Panos
Responsible sourcing of raw minerals from conflict regions could be achieved if firms were to collaborate and if there was more pressure from consumers, a new University of Sussex report argues.
Research by Constantin Blome, Professor of Operations Management at the University of Sussex, has found that simple measures such as companies developing and sharing lists of certified smelter and refineries could make a big impact in the global drive to stop profits from mineral trade falling into the hands of armed groups.
The report comes as industry experts and policy makers gather in Paris this week (10-12 May 2016) for the world's largest conference on conflict minerals.
In the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, various armed groups are profiting from the mining of the minerals tin, tantalum, tungsten (3Ts) and gold and using the revenue gained to continue to wage war, perpetrate violence and commit human rights abuses. Left unchallenged, this perpetuates instability and hinders economic and social development in conflict regions.
In 2010, international efforts to reduce trade in conflict resources led to the DoddFrank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (US) and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas (global).
However, more than five years on, Professor Blome's research on 'Stopping conflict minerals with the OECD Guidance for responsible mineral supply chains: Status Quo in Europe' reveals not only that few firms are fully implementing the OECD Guidance, but why.
Certainly, cost is not an issue. The study found that while the cost of implementing the guidance is higher for small firms, the average cost is 0.0002% of annual sales. Moreover the research found that firms will benefit if they source minerals responsibly by enhancing their reputation, improving investor relationships and better risk management.
However, the greatest barrier to implementation centres on the need to develop reliable data regarding the conflict-free nature of minerals. The absence of standard certification schemes compounds this issue with auditing proving problematic due to lack of coordination along the supply chain as well as a lack of appropriate types of audit.
Furthermore, gaps in the framework are also counter-productive to the process of ensuring conflict-free supply chains. These include:
lack of clarity over responsibility for resolving due diligence issues
unclear terminology
accountability loopholes
the fact that the guidance is voluntary not mandatory
Professor Blome said: "One key solution is for firms to work together with others in the supply chain or industry, perhaps through industry associations. Industry collaboration would facilitate audits through the sharing of information, standardise certification schemes and enable traceability, as well as reduce costs for companies particularly smaller companies who have a higher cost burden.
"Yet, it is equally important for consumers and customers to apply pressure on companies, through campaigns and purchase choices, for 'conflict-free products' as this will encourage companies to fully comply and improve transparency."
The study found that jewellery firms achieve the highest level of Due Diligence implementation. While this is perhaps due to less complex supply chains compared to other industries, these firms have been exposed to the 'blood diamonds' issue, and as a result have a heightened awareness of responsible sourcing of minerals, directly as a result of consumer pressure. The effect is greater at the consumer end of the supply chain but there is a trickle-down effect. Similarly, companies in the supply chain of firms that have to comply with the Dodd-Frank legislations also achieve a high level of implementation.
Ultimately, to make 'conflict-free' products, firms need to work together, and consumers need to levy their purchasing power to pressure the companies, to source responsibility. In this way the guidance would become mandatory in practice, without ever needing to be in legal terms.
The study is based on in-depth interviews with senior executives investigates the current status of the OECD Due Diligence implementation across European firms based on firm perception as well as the barriers and solutions to implementation across five industries: automotive, aerospace and defence, electronics and general manufacturing, jewellery, and smelting and refining. In a detailed report and short policy brief Prof Blome presents a set of clear recommendations for different firms based on size, industry and where they are in the supply chain that could improve implementation of Guidance and more responsible supply of minerals.
The most commonly mined conflict minerals from the DRC are cassiterite (for tin), wolframite (for tungsten), coltan (for tantalum), and gold ore.
Your mother and sister probably won't like your boyfriend if he is a hunk. The reason may be surprising for some, but is perfectly logical. Researchers call it the Juliet Effect. Credit: Thinkstock
Why do we choose the partners we do, and why do we get flak about it from our parents? Professor Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair and Associate Professor Robert Biegler from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Department of Psychology say it comes down to simple genetics.
"We see a conflict between mother and daughter because of opposing interests," says Biegler.
The researchers knew this was the case from their research several years ago. They even know why, and named the conflict the "Juliet effect" after the conflict between Juliet and her mother Lady Capulet in Shakespeare's drama.
Juliet's mother hates Romeo
Juliet's mother would rather have Juliet marry Paris, who is from a good family. Juliet has set her sights on the heartthrob Romeo from the archenemy's family.
But what's new is that you find the same opposing interests between sisters.
Your sister would choose the steady fellow for you
It's the old story. The daughter of the house brings home the handsome hunk and proclaims that he is the love of her life.
But her mother prefers the respectable fellow with promising prospects, or maybe the rich guy from a good family.
As it turns out, your sister would probably agree with your mother, and would rather you have a steady, boring partner, too. This despite the fact that mother and sister would both rather have a hunk themselves.
Everything is ultimately about genetics and mathematics.
"For their own partners, women focus on an attractive appearance that suggests good health and an ability to pass on their genes. At the same time, they prioritize qualities in their sister's partner that can provide direct benefits for the whole family," say the researchers. "This is consistent with our previous studies where we compared mothers' and daughters' choices," they add.
Studied sisters
The context for this new insight is a survey that the researchers undertook among female students and their sisters.
Participants were asked to rank 133 different characteristics that described the perfect partner for themselves or their sister. A similar survey was conducted among mothers and daughters a few years ago.
"For the most part, women choose the same ideal partner characteristics for themselves as for their sister. The qualities of faithfulness, loyalty, honesty, trustworthiness and reliability score highest when women are asked who would make an ideal partner," says Biegler.
But some clear differences also emerged. "The women perceived characteristics like being understanding, empathic, responsible, helpful, sensible and kind as more important for their sister's partner than for their own," says Biegler.
Women found being sincere, humorous, charming, sexually satisfying and fun as more important for their own partner than their sister's.
Relative's partner must contribute directly
The reason is really simple. You are more closely related to your own kids than to your sister's kids or your grandchild. The transfer of your own genes is ultimately most important.
Shared genes
You are basically and obviously 100 percent of your genes. These genes make you just you. Your behaviour may be modified by culture, but the genetic basis is not changed because of that. We say that r = 1.
You get half of your genes from your mother and half from your father. We say that r = 0.5. You transfer half of your genes to your child. Therefore you are as much related to your children as to your parents. Thus, r = 0.5.
Your child passes on only half their genes to your grandchild, i.e. half of the half that you share with your children. So you are more closely related to your child than to your grandson. The grandchild is therefore r = 0.25 and is as closely related to you as your sibling. For great-grandchildren and cousins?? r is half that again, i.e. r = 0.125.
You share so much genetic material with your relatives that you can't be blase about whom they have babies with. They also carry on some of your genes and are part of what is known as your "inclusive fitness". But they can't get in the way of your own direct gene transfer.
"The ideal partner for your sister or your daughter can't drain resources from you and decrease the chance that your own genes can be passed on. Preferably he should directly increase your own chances. This can be achieved in part if your sister or daughter makes big gains by choosing a particular partner, and is able to spread your shared genes much more effectively," says Biegler.
But an advantage for your sister will rarely outweigh your decreased chances. Normally you want to have the greatest genetic advantage when a relative chooses a partner that can provide direct benefits for you, in terms of wealth or status, for example.
You don't want to spend money or other resources on raising your sister's or daughter's kids, unless it can bring you a considerable advantage in spreading your shared genetic material. And then you'd often rather spend the resources on increasing the survival and status of your own children, or have more kids yourself who can procreate.
"Women prefer for their daughter or sister to choose someone who can contribute to the upbringing of their own children and grandchildren, or who at least doesn't pose a burden," Kennair says.
This also means that the man should be trustworthy, take care of his children, preferably be strong financially and have a social status that does not diminish your or your descendants' chances of spreading their genes.
Your own partner may contribute indirectly
So why would you rather have a good-looker yourself?
"The underlying truth remains: passing on your own genes is the priority. The primary consideration is to find a partner who can give you attractive children who survive. They need to be attractive enough to pass on their genes to the next generation to the greatest extent possible," said Kennair.
That's why the muscular heartthrob is a more interesting choice than the boring geek for one's own partner.
"A healthy hunk is presumably in good health, attractive to others as a partner and can transfer those genes to your children," says Kennair.
Then your children might also be more attractive than if you choose the geeky nerd. It's nice to have a stable guy, but in the end you'll be drawn to the handsome man instead.
Trying to exert influence
But it's no sure thing that you'll end up choosing the heartthrob. Your mother or sister might try to influence you to choose a different partner than the one you like best. Yes, this happens even in our society where we like to think that we choose our own partner.
Whether you opt to listen to them is another matter entirely. That can depend on your own living situation, or if your family refuses to provide financial assistance or other help if you go for the heartthrob against their wishes.
Not a moral issue
Kennair and Biegler are moving into an area that often evokes strong feelings. But, they say, none of this is a matter of morality, only of passing on genes.
"People who haven't behaved according to this pattern have been deselected through generations. A larger proportion of them simply didn't get to pass on their genes to a new generation. So their contribution to the gene pool dwindled," says Kennair.
But for those who still want to look at it all through a moral lens, it just gets worse.
Latent in us
The best possible outcome, of course, is if the heartthrob you've set eyes on is also a kind and steady-as-they-come kind of guy with good prospects.
But there's no guarantee you'll just be able to pick one that has absolutely everything, you know. This perfect guy may prefer your sister. Or your mother. It may be part of the reason they won't allow you this heartthrob.
It could be that your sister would like you to choose another partner so that the heartthrob will be available to her instead. She may not even be thinking about it, and it's far from certain that she's actually trying to steal your guy.
The same underlying mechanism may even still exist in your mother, even though she is past her baby-making days. It lies dormant in both of them, just as it does in you.
This mechanism is a result of competition and has yielded the best results over generations, regardless of morality.
No one is saying that any of this is necessarily conscious. It is a result of genetic transfer through all the generations before you. Your mother and your sister are also out after the best possible partner.
Equal, but similar
Perhaps most interesting is that this also applies in a relatively egalitarian society like Norway, where women are largely financially independent and choose their own partners.
Today, Norwegian women can usually even provide independently for themselves and their children. But they seem to be attracted to partners with exactly the same qualities as the partners of women in countries where the family chooses their partner. In very few cultures do women have much choice.
"It's the exception for women to choose their own partners. In most cultures, it isn't this way," says Kennair.
In most cultures, the mother will usually get her way. But the researchers' hypothesis is that the stronger the parents' control is over their children in a culture, the stronger the conflict between the sisters is also.
"If you can't win over mom, you still have a chance to win against your sister. The less chance you have to win one conflict, the harder you have to fight to win the other," suggests Biegler.
That's why it is more important for you that a grandchild passes on their genes than that a cousin does.
This has nothing to do with morality. It is more or less pure mathematics. We assume monogamous relationships.
But even for independent Norwegian women, it can be an advantage if the partner doesn't take off and leave you with almost all the responsibility for the kids. This can also reduce your chances of effectively passing on your genes.
Maybe you would have liked to have more kids if you had been able to afford it. Or maybe your sons become paupers who don't get support from others' mothers.
"In the end, though, Norwegian women are more attracted to the good-lookers than the boring, kind and steady typesthe same attributes that have been playing out for generations before us for the greatest genetic success," say the two researchers.
Explore further Why we are secretly attracted to people who look like our parents
More information: Robert Biegler et al. Sisterly love: Within-generation differences in ideal partner for sister and self., Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences (2016). Robert Biegler et al. Sisterly love: Within-generation differences in ideal partner for sister and self.,(2016). DOI: 10.1037/ebs0000060
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FORT EDWARD | A Granville woman who police said sold prescription drugs during a police investigation last year has pleaded guilty to a felony charge.
Jacqueline T. Wallace, 33, of Park Avenue, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance for her role in drug sales in the Granville area last fall.
She was one of 11 people arrested in a sweep of alleged drug dealers around the county last November.
Washington County Judge Kelly McKeighan sentenced Wallace to 6 months in Washington County Jail and 5 years on probation.
Criminal arrests listed on the State Police public information website between May 7 and May 9:
* Kyle R. Mulcahy, 21, of Corinth, charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated at 11:53 p.m. May 7 on Aviation Road in Queensbury.
* Amanda L. Brueder, 23, of Kingsbury, charged with misdemeanor DWI at 2:52 a.m. May 8 on West Brook Road in Lake George.
* Richard J. Mozal, 65, of Queensbury, charged with misdemeanor DWI at 1:55 p.m. May 3 in Malta.
* Christopher D. Lewitinn, 21, of Stillwater, charged with misdemeanor unlawfully dealing with a child May 6 in Malta.
* Tyler M. West, 23, of Fort Ann, charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief May 8 in Hartford.
GLENS FALLS | Architect Gary McCoola showed a sketch that depicted an aerial view of a mall planned for downtown Glens Falls in the early 1970s as part of the citys Urban Renewal program.
The sprawling suburban-style complex was planned for the intersection of Warren and Glen streets, in the vicinity of what is now Burger King and Glens Falls Civic Center.
Construction was started but halted a month later when the developer pulled out.
Im very happy this project was never built, McCoola said, suggesting its architecture would have clashed with a historic downtown.
McCoola, who owns a local architecture firm, was one of four panelists who spoke Saturday at Chapman Historical Museum, in conjunction with a new museum exhibit, A Look Back: 50 Years Ago, that focuses on the citys Urban Renewal program.
The exhibit, which runs through Sept. 4, includes photographs of more than 30 buildings along Glen, Warren and Ridge streets scheduled for demolition in 1966, when Glens Falls started its Urban Renewal program.
The Glen, Warren and Ridge streets project was one of three Urban Renewal projects in Glens Falls.
The others were farther down on Ridge and in the Hudson Avenue neighborhood.
The design for the mall was a harbinger of what might have been in downtown Glens Falls if the Urban Renewal strategy, prevalent around the country at the time, had continued unabated.
Virtually the entire downtown of Ilion, a village in Herkimer County, was razed, said Paul Cummings, another panelist.
Officials in cities like Glens Falls embraced the Urban Renewal strategy because it was tied to federal redevelopment funding, he said.
It really was a top-down approach of you go where the money is, said Chris Round, another panelist.
Cummings and Round are both planners with The Chazen Companies.
Urban Renewal was a strategy to demolish large blocks of older buildings and replace them with large-scale new development.
It was big and it was sweeping and there were all sorts of factors going on, Round said.
At times, the new development never got built and property sat empty, he said.
Le Corbusier, a French-Swiss architect, influenced the Urban Renewal strategy with his Radiant City concept, later used in the design of Empire Plaza in Albany, Cummings said.
Urban Renewal concepts started showing up in federal legislation in the 1940s, and the term was first used in a 1950 appropriations law.
Glens Falls officials embraced the concept as a way to get federal funding to revive a downtown that was losing businesses to Queensbury and was facing a perception that downtown parking was limited, panelists said.
As a grant writer, you work from the context that you go where the money is, Cummings said.
Our community leaders knew that there were problems here, said Timothy Weidner, the museums executive director.
But residents were not convinced it was a wise approach.
Even now you see lots of bitter commentary in the community about Urban Renewal, Weidner said.
Glens Falls officials reversed course in 1979 when then Glens Falls Mayor Edward Bartholomew recruited Rutland furniture retailer Gilbert Godnick to renovate, instead of demolish, the building at 229 Glen St.
Spot Coffee is now located in that building.
Around that same time, a group that included architect Robert Joy redeveloped, instead of demolishing, a row of nine buildings stretching from the building that houses Morins Dive Center on Warren Street, around the corner with Ridge Street to where Cornerstone Pizza Cafe is located now.
Local redevelopment strategy now focuses on determining the best reuse for one building at a time, instead of mass redevelopment of whole blocks, panelists said.
Restoring cant always be the answer. Sometimes because of the empty blocks and the missing teeth, you do want to build new, said Nina Oldenquist, another panelist.
Panelists said it is important to advocate for local control of how state and federal redevelopment funds are used.
Theres a real political element to this conversation that we havent gone to because thats not part of our expertise, said Oldenquist, a planner at JMZ Architects and Planners.
CHESTER | North Warren school officials are planning to start a Backpack Program to provide food for students to take home on weekends.
Interim Superintendent Bernard McCann said a committee consisting of himself and faculty members have been working on the project.
Im very excited about it, he said. Hopefully, well be able to start the second, third week of September.
North Warren is the latest school to join the BackPack Program, in which the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York provides a pack a bag full of food including breakfast items, entrees, bread, a milk card, vegetables and fruit snacks for students to take home on weekends.
The Helpers Fund, a Chester-based nonprofit, has agreed to help fund the project, according to McCann. The organization helps provide financial assistance to families in the area and also helps run a food pantry and provides scholarships to North Warren students.
McCann said he also has reached out to some other community groups to see if they would donate additional funds to help provide more food when the school district as three-day weekends and extended holidays throughout the year.
Ive got pledges of over $1,500. Im hoping to reach about $2,000 and I think that would cover it, he said. It will also allow us to buy fresh food.
Since the food bank is only able to provide nonperishable food, McCann said he would like to be able to provide fresh fruit such as oranges or apples.
Several local school districts are participating in the program including Corinth, South Glens Falls, Bolton, Glens Falls, Hudson Falls, Johnsburg, Warrensburg, Greenwich Fort Edward and Whitehall.
In other business, the Board of Education held a public hearing on its Smart Schools plan.
North Warren is set to receive nearly $300,000 in state funds as part of a bond proposal that passed in 2014. Vivienne Frederick, the districts technology coordinator, outlined what school officials intend to do with the money.
The district was an early adopter of wireless technology in the building, according to Frederick. Its current system is old and slow. The plan is to replace the wireless switches and install a wireless access point in every classroom.
The new system would be much faster, she added. The district is spending about $236,000 on the upgrades. About $152,000 of that would be paid for through in Smart Schools funds, according to Frederick. The rest is coming from another state funding source that districts can tap for technology projects.
WHITEHALL A Whitehall man was charged Friday after police found he was running an unlicensed bar and illegally serving prepared food in a building on North Williams Street, authorities said.
Richard T. Corsetti, 55, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of unlawful sale of an alcoholic beverage after he allegedly sold beer to two undercover Whitehall Police officers who were investigating complaints at the 16 N. Williams St. business known as Sasquatch Saloon. The waterfront building formerly housed Liberty Eatery & Marina.
Whitehall Police Sgt. Richard LaChapelle said Corsetti was also found to be violating his license to sell food by selling items that were beyond the microwaveable fare he was permitted to sell by the state Liquor Authority. He was selling baked potatoes and pulled pork that were not permitted and could face fines from the state Department of Health, police said.
Corsetti had a seasonal state liquor license that ran between December and April. There were no indications he applied to renew it, LaChappelle said.
Liquor Authority spokesman William Crowley said Corsetti applied for a new temporary liquor license in September that was denied, but he was approved for a seasonal license that ran between Jan. 8 and April 30. Since that seasonal license was approved, the operator did not take any steps to renew or get a new license, Crowley said.
We have nothing to indicate he had re-applied, he said.
LaChappelle said the police department had received tips that alcohol was illegally being sold in the business since the license ran out.
Corsetti said he has closed the establishment until he can figure out what was going on with his liquor license application.
They cashed my checks. As far as Im concerned, it (the liquor license) is in the mail, he said. This caught me off guard. Ive run a lot of places and Ive always tried to stay above board.
Corsetti said he had a winter license and applied to have a summer license at the bar. He said the Department of Health action stemmed from selling food that was not on his menu.
Corsetti said he has extensive restaurant experience in New York, Vermont and Nevada. He formerly ran Smokin on the Water Barbecue several years ago in Whitehall.
He was issued tickets to appear in Whitehall Village Court.
SARATOGA SPRINGS The owners of the Mouzon House restaurant and others have sued the City Council over its approval last month of a long-term lease of land to the Saratoga Springs City Center Authority, which plans to build a controversial multi-story parking garage on the site. The site is located next to the restaurant.
The lawsuit, filed last Thursday in state Supreme Court in Ballston Spa, seeks to have a judge annul the lease approval on the grounds that the councils narrow 3-2 approval of the measure makes it invalid, in part because it lacked the support of Mayor Joanne Yepsen.
The new lawsuit is the second over the garage plan brought by the Mouzon House, which last October sued over the citys amending of its solar access ordinance so that the garage could cast a shadow during certain times of year on the solar panels installed on the Mouzon House.
The 2.62-acre city property, which is now a surface parking lot, is next door to the Mouzon House property on York Street. On the west, it is across Maple Avenue from the City Center, which wants to built a 480-spot parking garage to meet what its says is a need for additional parking for its convention business. The added parking would also be available to other downtown patrons.
In the lawsuit, restaurant owners David and Dianne Pedinotti note the solar access issue, but go on to say that construction of a parking garage further will damage the Mouzon House restaurant business by effectively sealing off the Mouzon House restaurant from the rest of the vibrant and economically thriving downtown urban core of Saratoga Springs.
The councils vote on the 20-year lease came after the city solicited proposals from private developers for a parking garage that would also have included mixed-use development a proposal the Pedinottis said they could support because it would bring people other than those seeking parking into the area. Two developers responded last September with proposals that city officials reviewed.
The City Council majority concluded that the two proposals were vague and probably didnt provide as much parking as needed, given that some of the parking would be set aside for tenants.
At a public hearing before the vote, the Mouzon Houses lawyer argued that the lease of public land required a three-fourths majority of the council for approval a standard not met by the 3-2 vote.
At the time, City Attorney Vincent DeLeonardis said he was unaware of any such requirement.
Yepsen and Accounts Commissioner John Franck opposed the lease, under which the city will be paid $50,000 per year by the City Center. The lawsuit also argues that Yepsens opposition made the lease approval invalid, because it argues that state law confers upon the office of mayor the power to approve or disapprove a proposed lease of city real property.
Several people identified as city taxpayers are also plaintiffs in the lawsuit along with the Pedinottis.
The previous lawsuit over the solar access law remains pending before state Supreme Court Judge Thomas D. Nolan Jr. in Ballston Spa.
Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 395-3086, swilliams@dailygazette.net or @gazettesteve on Twitter.
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
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Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia had accused Seth Terkper of diverting $250 million of proceeds from the countrys $ 1 billion Eurobond it issued in 2015 to a private account at the United Bank of Africa (UBA) at a student forum in Accra Polytechnic.
Terkper has however denied any wrong doing. According to him, Bawumias comments are factually wrong and technically deficient of the reality on the ground.
The former deputy governor of BoG has subsequently indicated that Terkpers position is not tenable. He has therefore called for a parliamentary probe.
What the Minister has done violates the Bank of Ghana Act and I would ask quite humbly that this transaction be reversed, that the there should be a parliamentary enquiry into how this happened and the Minister should re-consider his position, he said on Cit FMs Citi Breakfast Show.
His position is not tenable, if you are the one supposed to enforce the law and you are violating the laws and you are violating the laws he should resign.
He continued: He is a very good friend of mine, I like him a lot, he is a nice person and all of that but I think there is no minister of finance in the world who can maintain his position when he has violated this law in the manner that has been done.
But Terkper responded saying he will not resign.
He said he took the decision in consultation with the ministrys legal team.
Dr. Bawumia has made the news for the past days when he disclosed to some students of the Accra Polytechnic on May 05, that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has transferred the sum of $250 million, representing proceeds from government's latest $1 billion Eurobond issued in 2015, to a private bank.
He further revealed the money in the private bank has now been borrowed back by the government through treasury bills.
In a statement signed by Mr. Tekper argued the transfer of money to the GIIF by the government breaches no law.
The statement explained A key strategy of GIIF is to use its resources to leverage investor funds for accelerated infrastructure development, adding the governments allocation of the $250 million seed fund for the GIIF in 2014 was to achieve this end.
It, however, warned such "misinformation of Ghanaians and the international community in this manner" may end up creating uncertainty in the minds of investors about the country's economy.
It could also "damage the appetite for Ghana bonds", it added.
Below is the full statement released by the Ministry of Finance:
Read full Statement below:
PRESS RELEASE REBUTTAL TO DR. BAWUMIAS STATEMENT ON THE EUROBOND AND THE GHANA INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT FUND INTRODUCTION
1. Governments attention has been drawn to a statement by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the running mate to the Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, that Government is diverting US$250 million of the US$1.0 billion Eurobond issued last year to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), which he claims not in operation, to a private account in a private bank, for election campaigns ahead of the November polls.
2. The Government wishes to state unequivocally that, the statement is factually wrong, technically deficient and gives a wrong impression to both Ghanaian and international investors and development partners.
THE GIIF ESTABLISHMENT
3. We note that the passage of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund Act, 2014 (Act 877) established a Fund which is owned by the Republic of Ghana to mobilise, manage, coordinate and provide financial resources for investment in a diversified portfolio of infrastructure projects in Ghana for national development.
4. Section 5 of the Act provides for the sources of money for the Fund, which includes a portion of the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) from of the oil revenue; and moneys borrowed and raised from local and international capital market or from its affiliates. Further, as noted, a portion of the Bond proceeds was given as seed money to GIIF.
5. Furthermore, the Fund is mandated by Section 3 of the law to invest in, purchase, maintain and realize any investment of any kind.
6. Consequently, GIIF is set up as Sovereign Wealth Fund and its a Statutory Fund just like the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and is by law operationally independent.
7. The Funds of GIIF are, therefore, not to be comingled with central government funds.
8. The Board of the GIIF has been inaugurated with the Ag. CEO in place the Fund is in operation. The administrative processes for its full operation has begun and an Ag. CEO has been appointed.
9. Following from the above facts, a key strategy of GIIF is to use its resources to leverage investor funds for accelerated infrastructure development. It is in line with this that the Government allocated an amount of US$ 250.0 million as a seed fund for the GIIF in 2014 and not in 2015 as stated by Dr. Bawumia.
10. Accordingly, the Board which has the powers under Section 3 of the Act to manage and invest contributions made to the fund and to reinvest into the fund to generate returns could put its resources in a commercial bank for the sole purpose of investment.
11. Section 3 of the Act also confirms the provision in Section 21(2) of the Financial Administration Act that makes provision for the investment of public money in securities.
12. Consequently, the funds which goes into GIIFs Account in any Commercial Bank, cannot be misapplied for election purposes. Rather, any idle fund will earn interest to support infrastructure development of the country.
13. It must be noted that Public Funds do not only reside in the Bank of Ghana. There are public funds in Commercial Banks and International Financial Institutions where necessary, acting as agents for the Bank of Ghana. This is all accounted for as part of Public Funds.
USE OF EUROBOND PROCEEDS
14. In a related development, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is mixing operations of the Eurobond funding in both 2014 and 2015.
15. It may be recalled that in 2014, Parliament gave approval for Government to source for a Eurobond to finance infrastructure budget of Government in 2014. Considering that the GIIF is now a special vehicle for the purpose of developing infrastructure budget of Government, the Eurobond financing of the 2014 infrastructure budget was the most appropriate thing to do.
16. The 2015 Eurobond of US$1,000.0 million is for refinancing of domestic debt purposes only. This amount was on the back of a World Bank guarantee (US$400 million).
The guarantee and the amount was solely for refinancing of domestic debt. Nowhere in the prospectus or the policy statements of Government has the issue of budget financing been linked to it. 17. We may recall that as part of the IMF Extended Credit Facility Programme, The Bank of Ghana would no more finance Government budget deficit. This is what we call the zero financing of the budget by the Central Bank.
Consequently, Governments strategy to manage the financing of the budget is to explore alternative financing instruments. One of the strategies is the earning of interests on Governments own idle funds in the Banks. Following from this, a number of Request for Proposals (RFPs) and stakeholder engagements have been held to implement this strategy.
CONCLUSION
18. In conclusion, we wish to assure all Ghanaians that the US$250 million seed money to GIIF lodged by the Board with a Commercial Bank is safe and has already started bearing interest to the idle Fund.
19. It must be noted that Ghana now sources for some of its financing from the international capital market. The market has stringent rules and international law backing these transactions.
The document revealed Afoko as shareholder of West African Petroleum Company. The company is registered in the jurisdiction of the British Virgins Island, one of the very popular tax havens, and it is still active.
It was incorporated on January 13, 2005 with an address in Amman, Jordan.
Another company, Gold Coast Resort International, was also linked to Afoko. The company is registered in the jurisdiction and incorporated on April 16, 2006. The company is linked to the United Kingdom, and according to the published papers, it is still active.
The leaked papers does not suggest any act of corruption.
However, corrupt public officials and powerful politicians are known for stashing money in tax havens.
More than 370 reporters in nearly 80 countries probed the files for a year. Their investigations uncovered the secret offshore holdings of 12 world leaders, more than 128 other politicians and scores of fraudsters, drug traffickers and other criminals whose companies had been blacklisted in the US and elsewhere, according to ICIJ.
Iceland Prime Minister (PM), Sigmundur Davi Gunnlaugsson, resigned when his familys offshore investments were leaked.
British PM David Cameron has also come under pressure after the paper showed that his family held undisclosed wealth in tax havens offshore.
In Pakistan, PM Nawaz Sharif rebuffed calls from opposition for him to resign. He demanded his opponents to back their calls with evidence.
He had therefore gone to the High Court, (Labour Division) to seek a declaration that the conduct of the University was unfair to him and violation of the duty imposed on the university by Article 23 of the Constitution.
Plaintiff is also seeking an order of injunction restraining the University's Management, Vice Chancellor, officials, agents, servants, privies from reassigning him from his role as Deputy Director of Physical Development and Municipal Development Services Directorate to the extent of approval by University Council.
At todays sitting, Mr. Ahene-Amanquanor who was led by his lawyer, Mrs. Maame Ama Hany tendered his witness statement and other exhibits to the court after which he was cross-examined by Gloria Coffie, counsel for the University.
In his statement of Claim, he opined that he was employed on June 22, 1993, as a site engineer and accepted same on August 4, 1993.
According to plaintiff on February 26, 2010, he was appointed as Deputy Director of Physical Development and Municipal Services Directorate of the University.
Plaintiff contends that his appointment was analogous to the rank of Associate Professor and Senior Member at the University hence his appointment was made under the authority of University Council.
According to him, by reason of his appointment as Deputy Director his position could only be varied by management of the University per approval of council of the university.
In May 2012, Plaintiff said categories of employees embarked on strike which prevented other employees from going to work or performing their duties assigned to them by the University.
While on strike, plaintiffs said University Vice Chancellor, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, sent his driver to him to request for fuel voucher to be endorsed by him.
Plaintiff declined to endorse and explained to the driver that employees were on strike and that he was unable to endorse same.
In the midst of the strike, the plaintiff received a letter dated on June 25, 2012 from the Office of the Vice Chancellor directing him to proceed on leave.
Plaintiff said he had previously applied for leave which had accumulated over the years adding he had outstanding leave of 620 days.
The plaintiff said he was surprised when he was asked to proceed on his outstanding leave of 620 days by the Vice Chancellor who is not the proper person in charge of granting or refusing leave applications.
The University Human Resource Directorate granted him his leave of 682 days on October 5, 2012.
However on leave, plaintiff said he received a request from the Vice Chancellors office to return the Universitys vehicle in his possession but he declined since he found it absurd.
Per a memorandum, dated October 1, 2012, the Vice Chancellor of the University wrote to the Director of Finance authorizing him to withhold Plaintiffs salaries until he returned the official vehicle.
On February 23, 2015, plaintiff was reassigned to assume duties at the Korle Bu Campus of the University as Project Manager within the College of Health and Sciences with effect from March 1, 2015
This plaintiff contends that this was a derogation of his job role and attempt to do away him and whittle down his hard earned reputation.
He was therefore seeking damages and cost and an order to set aside letter by the Vice Chancellor purporting to reassign him.
The University in their statement of defense, noted that plaintiff failed to apply for his leave in line before travelling outside, adding that he travelled without the Universitys permission.
It contended that plaintiffs re-assignment was necessary as a result of restructuring of the directorate and the re-assignment did not affect his rank as a Deputy Director as well as his other rights and privileges as a senior member of the university.
The Vice Chancellor is the academic and administrative head of the University and can re-assign duties to senior members of the defendants institution, the defendant stated.
According to the defendant, plaintiff salary was withheld when he deliberately decided to keep the universitys vehicle.
The reason why the plaintiffs salary for the said period has not been paid was due to an administrative oversight and plaintiff has also not demanded same from the defendant, the University added.
He stated that the perpetrators could not compete with him and decided to fight him spiritually.
A colleague actor and three others turned me into a cow and buried it so I would die gradually as the cow rots, he said.
According to the actor, he was redeemed by God from that situation.
Until recently, Agya Koo had been off the screens following accusations by some movie producers that he had become arrogant and charges exorbitantly.
Contrary to the claim, the actor stated that he had been accused wrongly and blamed movie producers decision not to engage his services on mere speculation and a cost-cutting strategy.
I will like to apologize for yesterdays wardrobe malfunction, I agree the dress was sexy but my intentions was very far from how it was portrayed. To @iamkaakaa and mz4lawsn your brand means a lot me and I am sorry for what it looked like. # To err is human, to forgive divine definition. Thank you all so much for all your kind words. #ghana #africa #happymotherday #travelwithhamamat #africansupermodel #hamamat, her post read.
The categories he won were Afro-pop Song of the Year, Music Producer of the Year, Hiplife/Hip-pop Artiste of the Year, Best Music Video of the Year and the coveted Artiste of the Year.
First of all I would like thank God for showing me favor in every step of my career.I dont know where I would be with the Lord ordering my steps.To my Parents Mr. and Mrs. Adablah I cannot express my gratitude for the Discipline and Morals you have instilled in me.To Charterhouse for providing a platform for Ghanaian musicians to display their God given talents for the world to see.To the Board and the Academy. Your work isnt easy and we appreciate the time and effort given to the process.To Vodafone for standing behind Ghanaian music. Ghana Thanks You! his post read.
Previously, the Central Bank was taking all the proceeds from the sale of these commodities and selling to the banks in the form of foreign exchange.
The decision to direct the export earnings on cocoa and gold to commercial banks forms part of a four-stage process to liberalize the foreign exchange market to make it easier for companies to access foreign currency.
READ MORE: Low commodity prices continuously hinder growth
President of the CIB, Clifford Duke Mettle, is optimistic the move will ensure that foreign currency is moved gradually to banks for use by those who need it.
Mr. Mettle, who is also the Director of E-Banking, Products and Marketing at uniBank said the reform when implemented would boost the export drive of the various banks.
The accident, which happened around 9.00 pm on Monday, saw an overloaded boat capsized on the Volta lake as it was heading towards Makango in the East Gonja district of the Northern region.
The Ghana Navy has begun a rescue operation to save some of the passengers who appear to have drowned.
This is the second time an accident of this nature is happening in the area.
District Chief Executive of the area, Emmanuel Poku has told Accra-based Joy FM that the victims in the latest accident defied a directive not to move on the lake after 6.00pm.
He said even though the district has distributed a lot of life jackets to residents affected, many of them failed to wear them as they were trying to "sneak away."
An Accra Circuit Court presided over by Aboagye Tandor on Tuesday remanded Edmond Agbota who plead not guilty into police custody.
The prosecutor of the case Police Chief Inspector Kwabena Adu told the court that the complainant is the chief accountant at the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Between January and December 2015, the internal auditor at the ministry audited the suspect and found out that over 98,000 cedis could not be accounted for in the ministrys voucher file.
The audit showed that the suspect made payments for third party services, staff honorarium, and allowances but the parties involved never receive the monies.
The prosecutor also told the court that the accused withheld taxes to be paid to the Ghana Revenue Authority yet cheques were written and signed in favour of the GRA but the money totaling 120,299.40 never got to the GRA.
Agbota was arrested following the complaint to the police and he admitted to giving an amount of 90,000 cedis to his friend who lives at Spintex but could not lead the police to the exact location.
I am on a weight loss journey and I have made a conscious effort to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I have stocked my fridge with all kinds of fruits and vegetables I bought from the local market.
The million dollar question is how safe are these fruits and vegetables we buy from the market? What is proof that they are free from pesticide poisoning which accounts for millions of deaths around the world?
An estimate by the WHO on pesticide poisoning shows that there may be 1 million serious unintentional poisonings each year It is also estimated that 25 million agricultural workers in the developing world suffer an episode of poisoning each year. The WHO says governments have not in many cases committed fully to monitoring levels of pesticides.
When you buy tomatoes for instance from the market and they go bad within two days because you did not refrigerate them, Shakespeare Djokoto an Agronomist with over 27 years of experience working with vegetable farmers says there is something terribly wrong.
What most of the farmers are doing is to apply more nitrogen to get the sizes and deliver to the market. Nitrogen brings in a lot of water and when it happens that way it will crumble in a matter of days. What they should apply are the cell wall building chemical like Calcium Nitro-potassium and the rest which they dont apply because they are more expensive.
Most vegetables he says should be able to stay on the kitchen shelf for a week or two without going bad.
Djokoto during his many years working at the Ministry of Agriculture worked with over 1,500 vegetable farmers across the country. During this period he observed that the farmers do what they like and get away with it.
Chemical are not being properly applied, one of the dangers we are also having is that they are not applying what we call the pre-harvest interval.
Pre- Harvest interval means knowing when to harvest the yields after applying pesticides, but most farmers harvest their crops immediately after pesticide application and bring them onto the market without considering the danger this could pose to consumers.
He also bemoaned the water sources for irrigating the crops. In Accra for instance, it is common to see many vegetable farmers along the Accra Tema motorway, Dzowulu and Atomic areas using water from gutters to cultivate vegetables. Most of these farmers supply to some of the local restaurants and markets.
Djokoto says all these farmers must be checked as the source of the water for irrigating the crops could contain chemicals which may be harmful to humans.
He says the farmers are having the leeway because the Ministry of Agriculture which is responsible for ensuring farmers do the right things has neglected its duties.
The extension system is crumbling because most of the guys are aging and because most of them are aging and they are not being replaced the vacuum for the extension delivery system is widening.
You have the officers in the cities using Pickups which could have bought 10 - 15 motorbikes for the extension officers. You have the District director who is using car he is fueled by government the extension officer who I supposed to go to the farmer has to pre-finance his fuel before he is given tnt. This system doesnt look fair.
There are a lot of pesticides with inferior quality on the market and farmers who buy such cheap products are forced to apply it over and over again for the results they want. Djokoto wonders if the Environmental Protection Agency EPA is doing enough to track these influxes of pesticides on the market.
During his visit to the Atuabo Gas Plant together with President Mahama, Dr. Rowley said "The gas pipeline is something that will serve Ghana immediately. Trinidad and Tobago is in a position to provide the technical and other expertise immediately."
"We are small and we have limited resources but in the areas where we have resources (we have) a 100 years or more experience and experienced personnel. We can bring that to bear and on these projects immediately."You are larger in Ghana and you have the resource base, but in terms of dealing with some of the third parties, you are in your infancy so, there is a tremendous benefit if we do these things together," he added.
The exercise which began on Thursday, April 28 and ended on Sunday, May 8 was to afford people who have turned 18 years and those who were unable to register the last the exercise was conducted to register and vote in the November 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Speaking on 'News @10' on TV3, Prof Asante backed the call for extension of the registration exercise.
The whole idea is, we do not want to disenfranchise anybody even though a lot of Ghanaians wait till the last minute. It is also true that especially in the universities, the way things were done wasnt such that it allowed majority of the people the opportunity to register. I would be happy if the EC would consider giving an extension, he said.
Prof Asante however added that areas which had genuine difficulties in registering should be extended; not the entire exercise.
Information is that people were able to register at quite a lot of places. My concern has to do with the university campuses. I think the EC should be critical in terms of areas to extend the time. They should look at areas where concerns have been expressed, he indicated.
According to him, there is no need for the Electoral Commission to extend the limited voter registration exercise considering the fact that the constitution provides the opportunity for those disenfranchised to do so at a later date.
The University Students Association of Ghana hadaccused the Electoral Commission of disenfranchising students eligible to vote with their handling of the limited voters registration exercise on university campuses nationwide.
This follows complaints about the number of registration centres on the various university campuses through Ghana, leading to lower numbers of students being registered than in previous exercises.
There have therefore been calls by some parties for the limited voter registration exercise to be extended following the above complaints, as well as confusion at some centres over faulty machines and long queues.
But, Dr. Jonah has strongly indicated that an extension of the exercise is not needed.
"There is no need for an extension because CI 91, and even CI 72, the law that CI 91 has come to replace, both make provisions for continuous voter registration. Anybody who has not been able to register in this limited registration exercise, will at a later time before the elections, I think two months before the elections, have the opportunity to walk to any district office of the EC and register," he told Radio Ghana.
According to some reports, Smith, who is the Ghanas High Commissioner to the United Kingdom is mounting pressure on the NDC Parliamentary candidate for the constituency, Tony Gyimah to accept the amount in order to step down for him.However, a group that supported Victor Smith in the 2012 election known as "Friends of Victor Smith in the Abuakwa north constituency led by Kwame Owusu Danso on Tuesday denied the publication, Starrfmonline.com reports.
The protest is scheduled for June 4 at Hohoe in the Volta Region.
A similar march last month was cancelled by the Regional Security Council citing the presence of the president in the region.
The group said in a statement the march is to change the cloud of hopelessness engulfing the country and to preach the message of hope for a better day after John Mahama is kicked out of government.
It alleged that president Mahama sensing the nationwide unpopularity with their governance is scheming to preserve his scandal-ridden incumbency.
The group also alleged that: Due to its rapidly dwindling support within Ghana and especially within the Volta Region, John Mahama has sought to co-opt Togolese nationals as part of his constituency base, bussing them into Ghana where necessary, even to the extent of constructing cross-border roads to facilitate this. Is there no limit to John Mahamas desperation?
When it comes to morality, it is completely absent from John Mahamas DNA. He is pathologically immoral, corrupt, and debased.
The court presided over by Chief Justice Georgina Wood ruled that the EC should delete the names of all dead people and persons who used the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards to register to vote. The court alsoordered for the deletion of names of minors on the register.
However, on an interview on Radio Ghana, Dr. Kwesi Jonah said "It is going to be very difficult for the EC to carry out to the latter what the supreme court has ordered."
According to him, the EC should be able to seek ideas from the political parties and other personalities on the way forward towards cleaning the electoral roll.
"...It is going to be very hard. How are they going to be able to identify people who registered with the national health insurance card? How are they going to be able to identify people on the register who are still under 18? It is a tough one," he stressed.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission has been threatened with another suit should they show reluctance in implementing a Supreme Court ruling ordering it to clean the voters' register.
According to him, the Supreme Court decision on the voters register is ambiguous and lacks precision.
The court presided over by Chief Justice Georgina Wood ruled that the EC should delete the names of all dead people and persons who used the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards to register to vote. The court also ordered for the deletion of names of minors on the register.
However, there has emerged some divided opinions on the Supreme Court judgement and its accompanying orders.
Some schools of thought believe the court did not cite NHIS card holders as being among those to be deleted. Others however think otherwise.
For Dr Wereko-Brobby, the various spins that have been attributed to the judgement is rather worrying and an indictment on the country's democracy.
"I think it is ambiguous. Laypersons will read it one way, while lawyers will have a field day to argue about what it means," he told the Daily Graphic.
He added that if the judgement truly meant NHIS card holders should be deleted, then about 14 million cards would have to be sorted out at a rate of 100,000 cards per day for a period of five months.
"Delete is one form of cleaning but it is not exclusive that cleaning means delete. There are many ways to clean other than deleting."We need further and better particulars from the Supreme Court," he said.
Whether it is steamy salsa lessons in South America or drunken nights in the Balkans, whether you are looking for sunny holidays or want a little more exotic, take a look at these cheap destinations.
There are many things to consider in your travel budget, including flights and accommodation of course, but there are also all the expenses that you will face once you have arrived. For this reason, most people prefer to travel to very cheap destinations. And once you are there, you can treat yourself without breaking the bank.
1. Hungary
Located on the river Danube, Budapest - Hungary's historic capital - is one of the most beautiful European capitals. Although the cost of living has increased in recent years, Budapest is still served by many airlines at a low cost; allowing you to keep some extra cash off your budget to indulge yourself once arrived. Treat yourself to delicious cakes, taste local brandies and take time to relax in the many spas in the city.
Budapest is a relatively cheap city. It is possible to eat for GH10 a meal, find train tickets from GH10 and even stay in a youth hostel dorm beds for ten euros.
2. Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, the seaside resorts located along the Black Sea have undergone a tourism boom in recent years, because Bulgaria is much cheaper than traditional cheap travel destinations such as southern Spain. If you prefer the atmosphere of the big cities to the beaches, visit Sofia, the capital.
A budget of GH100 per day per person is enough to discover local specialties, try the "robust" local drinks, sleeping in a comfortable bed and make new friends.
3. Greece
Because of the economic situation of the country, the cost of living has declined in recent years in Greece. Of course, a vacation in Santorini or Mykonos is relatively expensive, but there are many quieter and less known islands such as Paros and Skiathos where you can sunbathe and drink iced Mythos (a brand of Greek beer) for 2- 3 euros a pint.
If you like to party by the pools and enjoy the cheap shots, then go to Ios, an island famous for its rave parties popular with young backpackers.
4. Cambodia
Cambodia is one of the cheapest countries in the world: we can find a dorm bed for less than GH15 and eat a meal on the street for less than GH10. Vacationers were reluctant to visit this country about a decade or two ago, but Cambodia is now one of the hottest countries in Southeast Asia. Cambodia is very popular with backpackers and tourists seeking luxury palace worthy of 5-stars at a cheap price.
5. Vietnam
Although Vietnam has gained popularity in recent years, this beautiful country is very cheap and still preserved from mass tourism pangs. GH150 per day is sufficient to afford a bed in a guest house, eat local food, pay for transportation and a few drinks - a pint of Bia Hoi, the most popular beer in Vietnam costs 10 000 dong, or about GH2!
The city still retains a French atmosphere: you can find patisseries that produce croissants as delicious as those found in France and find a few meters away a seller of pho, the Vietnamese national dish (a mixture of rice noodle, herbs and beef)
6. India
Shopping in luxury stores in Mumbai or sleeping in an international hotel in Delhi will cost you a lot if you were in Dubai but outside those enclaves, the cost of living is extremely low in India. Even if you are traveling in first class in trains (The Rajdhani and The Shatabdi Express are the most comfortable of them: they have air conditioning and meals are included in the ticket price). A budget of 1,500 rupees (GH100) per day is enough to live like a maharajah.
In Delhi you will find many stalls selling delicious street food in the narrow alleys and boulevards around Connaught Place in the city center. Choose where you eat carefully. If the sellers stall is clean and filled with customers, which is a good sign: when there is flow, the food is generally fresh. But if you have a weak stomach, do not forget to carry with you a box of Imodium in case.
7. Sri Lanka
As stated in the areas travel brochure, "Offering numerous sandy beaches, mountains shrouded in clouds, waterfalls, tea plantations and palm trees that seem to float in the breeze, Sri Lanka will give you the impression of being in Paradise".
In Sri Lanka, you can sample delicious fish curry, trek in the jungle or relax in hotels along the beach for a pittance - in this country, GH150 per day is enough to live like a king. Although modern tourism began to develop on this idyllic island in the 1960s, Sri Lanka remained somewhat away from the main tourist trail in Southeast Asia, which means it is still possible to spend a luxury vacation without breaking the bank.
If you can tear yourself away from your luxurious air-conditioned room, you can explore temples, monasteries and many stupas scattered throughout the Sri Lankan area, which will allow you to learn more about the culture Buddhist - 70% Sri Lankans are Buddhists.
8. Bolivia
Known as the "Tibet of the Americas", Bolivia is a relatively inaccessible country: it is one of only two countries in South America that has no access to the sea (the other country is Paraguay).
In La Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia, a walk along Calle Jaen will transport you to the Spanish colonial era. Indeed, this street is home to some of the best preserved colonial buildings of the city, with whitewashed facades and small latticed balconies.
You will also find many museums, including the former home of Pedro Domingo Murillo, the leader of the La Paz revolution in 1809. Food and drinks are extremely cheap in Bolivia. With a euro, you can buy a bottle of Pacena - a local beer - or a bowl chairo.
9. Honduras
If you dream of Central America, you can go to Belize, Costa Rica or even Guatemala. If you wish to travel without breaking the bank, theres nothing like Honduras. Although the country is relatively full of tourist tourists, you can discover the white sandy palm fringed beaches that have nothing to envy to those of the Maldives, dive spots worthy of the Red Sea, and many inexpensive restaurants, allowing you to spend a great time for less than GH100 per day.
10. Argentina
With the savannas of the central plains of the Pampa region, steep Andes Mountains on the western border with Chile, there is no shortage of things to do and see in Argentina, the eighth largest country in the world.
If you prefer the lights of the city, go to Buenos Aires. Populated by over 12 million people, this city, one of the busiest in the world, is renowned for its fast hectic night. Discover the colorful and flamboyant style of life of the Argentine capital by staying a little off the beaten path. This will allow you to discover a different side of Buenos Aires for less than GH150 per day.
He studied the map of stars, and discovered one city was missing from a constellation of three stars.
Using satellite images provided by the Canadian Space Agency and then mapped on to Google Earth, he discovered the city where the third star of the constellation suggested it would be.
Daniel De Lisle, from the Canadian Space Agency, said the area had been difficult to study because of its dense vegetation, but he noted satellite scans of the area found linear features which "stuck out".
He said this could mean there is something underneath the big canopy, and it could be a man made structure."
While an American expert said one image showed a street network and a large square which could possibly be a pyramid, which could indicate a Mayan city in the area.
The Mayans, who originated in the Yucatan around 2600 BC, rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize.
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The Osun State born Adebayo, who resides in the Anuoluwapo area of Ilogbo in Ogun State, was nabbed by officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, after serving a demolition notice on a building under construction and demanding for money from the owner of the building.
Miffed by the action of the impostor, the workers on the site alerted the officials shortly after Adebayo served the demolition notice.
Upon his arrest, the suspect said he was once employed as a project staff by the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment about eight years ago, but was laid off without any benefit four years after, adding that after he was laid off, life became difficult for him as he could no longer take care of his family, leading to his wife leaving him.
He then decided to go into the crime with his friends younger brother.
I used to work with the Ministry of the Environment. I was part of those employed as project staff and we worked there for good eight years.
I was relieved of my job about four years ago. They just laid us off without any benefit and they did not collect their identity cards from us.
The only thing I have to say is that when someone works for government, they should at least recognise the efforts of such person.
You cannot just lay off people like that without anything. We all know the situation of the country. I know I dont have the authority to do what I have been doing, but I have to survive.
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The spokesperson for the Ministry, Adeshina Odunuga, said Adebayo had been going about impersonating as a town planner with the ministry before he was caught.
This gentleman goes about to mark buildings, serve demolition notices, serve stop-work orders and collect money and other forms of inducement to reverse the orders.
Sometimes, he threatened owners of buildings. He was arrested by officials of the ministry who got to a site and was told one of them had just left. He was called back and that was how he was arrested.
According to the Punch, Shonde who surrendered to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), of the State Police Command after a few days of being on the run, allegedly told newsmen that while he was on the run, he tried to kill himself but was not successful and had to report to the police after his father and some friends begged him to do so.
The suspect said he agreed to submit himself to the police after a conversation with one of his closest friends who begged him to come out from hiding after he had sent a Whatsapp messages to the friend that he wanted to take his life.
The suspect was said to have also sent about 70 text messages to some of his friends that he wanted to commit suicide.
Some of the text messages, read:
I want to die, Please help me. I cant face police or cell. You are the only one advising me not to kill myself. I will respect you till I die. I want to go to the Attorney General of Lagos State to surrender myself.
The 57-year-old suspect said he had planned to escape to Ghana and the Republic of Benin, before he finally surrendered to the police.
But maintaining his innocence, Shonde said he did not beat his wife to death as it is being peddled but that he only slapped and pushed her after she had confessed to sleeping with another man and was begging him to forgive her.
My parents, who were against the union, shunned our marriage. My mother is dead. My father, who is over 90 years, has been full of regret, saying he had warned me. She dated the manager of a publishing firm while still married to me.
On that Thursday, after she said she had taken my N20,000, all I did was to slap her. I am sorry I did that. But even after that, I still bought moi-moi and pap for her when she said she would not cook. I took garri that night.
She ate and suddenly started to vomit. I asked her what the problem was, but she said nothing. On Friday morning, she was still lying down when I left her. I even dropped the upkeep money that I always gave her and left for work.
The staff at a Chinese mail order firm are reportedly enjoying a holiday in Spain, all thanks to their employer, Li Jinyuan, billionaire owner of direct sales firm of Tiens group.
The treat was reportedly arranged for 2,500 workers, for which Jinyuan had chartered 20 planes as well as four high speed trains, and booking 1,500 hotel rooms.
The Guardian reports that their trip had included visits to Madrid and Barcelona, revealing that this trip is not the first of its kind.
The news reports reveal that Li, who is reportedly Chinas 33rd richest person, had sent more than 6,400 workers on a trip to France in what is believed to be the countrys largest ever tour group.
According to the French government and their infamously strict privacy laws now dictate that parents could be facing thousands of pounds in fines or jail time for posting intimate snapshots without the permission of their children.
The fines are reported to range up to 45,000 if found guilty of breaching their right to privacy at their young age.
The news reports reveal that a professor of education and social research had revealed that mums and dads will one day face "backlash" for their actions.
The professor identified as, Nicola Whitton from Manchester Metropolitan University tells The Guardian:
"I think were going to get a backlash in years to come from young people coming to realise that theyve had their whole lives, from the day they were born, available to social media. Parents have to work out whats right for them, but be aware that this is another person, another human being, who may not thank them for it in 15 years to come.
"It may seem hard, but my line would be dont put pictures online until theyre of an age where its appropriate to discuss it with them."
ALSO READ: Teenager reportedly bedridden for years due to grief
Tracing the genesis of his battle with the disease, Rufai said:
"I have been undergoing dialysis twice weekly since January at about N80,000 a week, aside from medication - a cost far beyond my means, thanks to support of my family and friends.
Meanwhile, I have been advised by my medical consultant at the hospital that kidney transplant remains the final solution.
I have been referred to a reliable hospital in India. The cost of traveling, surgery, medication and upkeep for the kidney transplant is N9 million.
The worrisome part is that I lost two older siblings to the same ailment in quick succession before we realized the threat."
How it started
"It started in January. I was called that my son was being rushed to the hospital. The following day, he was discharged while I decided to check my blood pressure at the hospital.
The doctor then told me my blood pressure is high and he gave me recommend some medications. I bought the medications and started using them but I noticed that I begin to have some pains in my stomach after I began to use the medications.
I complained to doctor that I was feeling discomfort inside of me. He then checked my BP again and later referred me to Ifako General Hospital where series of other tests were conducted. It was then they discovered the kidney problem issue."
What I want
"I humbly solicit every assistance from you towards raising the needed sum within the shortest possible time, to survive this harrowing condition.
I will be eternally grateful for every assistance from you."
We are appealing to kind hearted Nigerians, corporate bodies and the government at various levels to come to the aid of this young man.
Name: Rufai Bashiru Gbolahan
Bank: GTBank Plc
Premium Times reports that the caucus said Accordingly, we plead with our brothers, the Niger Delta Avengers for Gods sake, to do a deep re-think and graciously allow peace to reign, for our collective national interest and indeed to save the Niger Delta from ruins.
The groups spokesman, Osita Okechukwu also asked the militants to blame former President Goodluck Jonathan for the underdevelopment in the Niger Delta region.
Okechukwu said May we honestly ask the Niger Delta Avengers, where they were, when our dear former president, His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, from 6 May, 2010 to 29 May, 2015 presided over Nigeria?
Were the Niger Delta Avengers in deep slumber when Jonathan, for good five years failed to Clean-Up the Niger Delta, failed to complete East-West road, failed to review Oil Blocks, failed to Amend the Constitution to their taste, and failed to build the three Greenfield Refineries which he awarded?
The APC caucus also said President Buhari has outlined various developmental projects for the Niger Delta people, adding that the bombing of oil facilities will further endanger the region.
The caucus added that In actual fact, if there is anything to avenge, or anybody to blame, the barb should be directed at ex-president Jonathan and cohorts who criminally neglected the Niger Delta and by extension Nigeria via unconscionable planlessness and squander-mania.
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh (Rtd.) has sent a team of investigators to fish out those behind the recent bombings in the Niger-Delta region.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement on Tuesday, May 10, said that Cameron's statement was based on the country's past records and not the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
He said fine-tuning the country's image, which over the years has been dragged in the mud home and abroad, is what Buhari is trying hard to achieve, which according to him, is why why the President was chosen as a keynote speaker at a pre-anti corruption summit in London.
It (Camerons statement) is certainly not reflective of the good work that the President is doing. The eyes of the world are on what is happening here," Shehu said.
The Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria. Things are changing with corruption and everything else. That, we believe is the reason they chose him as a keynote speaker at the pre-summit conference.
He stated this when he paid courtesy visit to the Emir of Katsina during his official visit to the state.
We will not betray trust and we will not let those who betray the trust of Nigerians go scot-free except the ones we dont know, he said, stressing that the ongoing anti-corruption war is not a witch-hunt.
We are not out to victimise anyone but we are bent on ensuring justice, Buhari who spoke in Hausa said.
Earlier in an address, the Emir of Katsina, Abdulmumini Kabir, had accused the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration of abandoning the contract for River Niger dredging, noting that in-land waterway is the wealth of the nation.
A statement signed by the Director Media & Public Relations in the Federal Ministry of Health, Mrs. Boade Akinola reads: "Mr President has assured members of the international community that all funds received by Nigeria will be well utilised and accounted for under his watch to avoid a repeat of this national embarrassment.
He also promised that all indicted will be given fair hearing and those indicted will be sanctioned to serve as deterrent to others.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, May 6, 2016 flew to his hometown, Daura in Katsina State on a four-day visit.
The President also promised to do everything in his power to keep Nigeria together.
According to the viral video, where the PM made the statement, he was having a discussion with the Queen at an event at the Buckingham Palace to mark her 90th birthday.
Also part of the conversation with queen was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who said President Muhammadu Buhari is not corrupt.
Many Nigerians felt insulted at the statement, not because it was untrue but because it was uttered by a man in the middle of Panama Papers scandal and a country, Britain, where looted Nigerian funds are believed to be laundered.
According to SaharaReporters, which cited a source at the EFCC, Lawal has confessed to laundering $25 million for the ex-minister.
Report also said that First Bank has distanced itself from the scandal, saying the bank did not handle the cash for which Lawal was arrested.
The bank said Lawal acted in his "private capacity" as a long time friend of the former minister.
The attacks have pushed Nigeria's crude output near to a 22-year low, sparking worries that militants might resume a full-scale insurgency in the Delta, a region where many complain of poverty despite sitting on much of the country's energy wealth.
Last week, a group known as Niger Delta Avengers attacked a Chevron facility in the Delta after claiming a strike in February against a Shell pipeline, which shut down the 250,000 barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal.
"Best thing for any reasonable company to do is evacuate its workforce," Cogent Ojobor, chairman of the Warri branch of the Nupeng oil labour union, told Reuters.
Chika Onuegbu, chairman of the Trade Union in Rivers state in the Delta, said Chevron had evacuated some staff from the Delta following a similar move by Shell.
"There is high alert around various installation around the Niger Delta due to recent attacks," Onuegbu said. "Those evacuated are where their platforms have been attacked but others are working."
Ikeja Electricity, Nigeria's biggest power firm, said it expected outages after the attack on Chevron hit gas supplies needed to generate electricity.
"Consequently, with this recent attack, the supply line is likely to drop further, leading to extended periods of outages across our network and other parts of the country," the company said in a full-page newspaper statement.
Residents in the impoverished Delta have long demanded a greater share of oil revenues. Crude oil sales account for about 70 percent of national income in Nigeria but there has been little development in the region.
President Muhammadu Buhari has extended a multimillion-dollar amnesty signed with militants in 2009 to end their campaign to blow up pipelines, but upset them by ending generous pipeline protection contracts.
He said the government is working with major oil companies to ensure that the refineries are working at full capacity.
The NNPC GMD also said some multinational companies have signified their interest to purchase of the refineries.
He also said the refineries will not meet local demand, even if they are overhauled, adding that the nation will also depend on output from other privately owned refineries.
Kachikwu said We have gotten commitments from some of the majors. Agip has indicated interest to work with us on Port Harcourt, Chevron on Warri. We are talking to Total on Kaduna.
The refineries would not be sold but joint venture partners with established track records of success in refining would be invited to support the running of the refineries in order to ensure efficiency."
The minister previously told newsmen on Saturday, April 23, 2016, that undefinedto produce at maximum capacities.
He tasked the governors to go back to a comprehensive study and report carried out by the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) on how best to address farmers/herdsmen conflicts.
"When I was in PTF we did a comprehensive report on grazing reserves and cattle routes across the country. Grazing reserves were carved out; cattle routes were marked out, dams, water and veterinary clinics were also established with the help of our leaders, traditional and district heads at that time.
"Any herdsman, who allowed his cattle to destroy farm land then, would be fined and when he failed to pay his cattle would be sold to pay the fine, and if there was remaining change the amount would be handed over to him.
"But, now what do we see. The grazing reserves and the routes had been taken over by the rich and politicians, he said.According to the president, the disappearance of the grazing reserves and the cattle routes has been causal factor for the persistent conflicts between farmers and herdsmen across the country.
He said he had already directed the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Governors Forum to study the PTF Report with a view to addressing the menace.
In his contribution at the parley, Alhaji Isa Funtua, a member of the Katsina Elders Forum, called for the establishment of vocational training centres in the three senatorial districts of the state.
He said the centres, when operational, would address the problem of delinquencies and unemployment among the young population in the state.
Funtua expressed his readiness to partner with the state government in establishing such training centres. Other speakers at the event commended the foresight and vision of Gov. Aminu Masari for organising the Katsina Business and Investment Summit aimed at attracting investors into the state.
The statement said that the event is in furtherance of ongoing efforts by the Buhari administration to enhance the security of lives, property and investments in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.
It said that President Francois Hollande of France, who hosted the first Regional Security Summit in Paris on May 17, 2014, would participate in the second edition.
According to the statement, Hollande, who is scheduled to arrive in Abuja on Friday on an official visit to Nigeria, will be joined by the Presidents of Cameroon, Niger Republic, Chad and Benin Republic.
Furthermore, it said that the U.S., Britain, Equatorial Guinea, the European Union, ECOWAS Commission, the Economic Community of Central African States and the Gulf of Guinea Commission would also be represented at the summit.
Top on the agenda of the summit, according to the statement, is the successful conclusion of the ongoing military operations against Boko Haram.
It also said that the speedy resolution of the humanitarian crises caused by the barbaric acts of the terrorist group would also feature prominently in the discussions at the summit.
Before proceeding for the summit, Buhari is expected to meet with Hollande and the French delegation at the Presidential Villa on Saturday morning.
In a statement by the Acting Director, Defence Information, Brigadier-General Rabe Abubakar, the military said it is fully aware of the militants who have vowed to cripple economic activities through pipeline vandalism, oil theft and kidnap of expatriate workers in the Niger Delta region.
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) is not unaware of the emergence of a group in the Niger Delta region who have vowed to cripple economic activities through pipeline vandalism, oil theft and kidnap of expatriate workers in that region; it will not hesitate to deploy every available resources to deal decisively with any threats to economic lifeline of the nation.
The military will employ all available means and measures within its rule of engagement to crush any individual or group that engages in the destruction of strategic assets and facilities of the government in the Niger Delta or any other location and they will stand to regret the consequences of their actions," the statement said.
While the military and other security agencies would continue to put in place more proactive measures within the creeks and other places to fish out those responsible for the heinous crime, it will remain focused and assure oil companies and law abiding community members of their safety and protection of their sanctity.
The DHQ advises the community leaders, traditional rulers and the general public to cooperate with the security agencies to ensure the apprehension of the culprits for the interest of our great nation; as no individual or group interest is above national interest of this country, the army said.
Shekarau was urged to appear at the EFCCs office in Kano today, May 10, 2016, Daily Trust reports.
Shekarau was invited and is expected to come to the commissions office in Kano today (Tuesday), he had accepted that in his acknowledgement, a source said.
According to the EFCC, Shekarau benefited from the money which was shared by Alison-Madueke in order to ensure the re-election of former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
Meanwhile, former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has also been invited for interrogation by the EFCC over allegations of money laundering.
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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had summoned Shekarau for questioning over his alleged involvement in the N23 billion campaign fund scandal which was allegedly spearheaded by former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The EFCC accused Shekarau of being a beneficiary of the money which was allegedly shared by Alison-Madueke in order to secure the re-election of former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaking through his media aid, Malam Ghali Sadiq, the former governor said he did not sight the money in question when it was brought to his residence.
"Wali approached me on the day he collected the money and said because of security he wanted to share the N950m in my residence and I obliged.
"He brought the money to my house around 2am. I was at my room upstairs when they came in and I remained there up till the time they finished the sharing.
"Wali and some other party members shared the money according to the directives given to them. So I did not even see the money with my eyes," Shekarau was quoted to have said.
He also confirmed that he received the EFCC invitation letter, promising that he would honour the invitation as soon as possible and narrate all he knows about the money.
"We are aware of the development and the evacuation is being done in categories of workers and cadres," Cogent Ojobor, chairman of the Warri branch of the Nupeng oil labour union, said. "My members are yet to be evacuated."
He gave no numbers.
"Our operations at Bonga are continuing," a spokesman for Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) said in a statement. It said it would continue to monitor the security situation in its operating areas and take all possible steps to ensure the safety of staff and contractors.
Last week, militants attacked a Chevron platform in the Delta where tensions have been building up since authorities issued an arrest warrant in January for a former militant leader on corruption charges.
President Muhammadu Buhari has said there would be a crack down on "vandals and saboteurs" in the Delta region, which produces most of the country's oil. A group known as the Niger Delta Avengers claimed responsibility for the Chevron attack. The same group has said it carried out an attack on a Shell oil pipeline in February which shut down the 250,000 barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal.
The major charge reads: on December 12th, 2016, at Zaria, while armed with dangerous weapons to wit: pistols, guns, dane guns, cutlasses, knives, capults, axes, clubs and sticks caused the death of one 98NA/46/2900 Cpl Yakubu Dankaduna of the Nigeria Army in the entourage of the Chief of Army Staff by shooting him with guns when the said soldier alighted from the entourage of the Chief of Army Staff in order to disperse and clear the road which you unlawfully blocked knowing that death is likely the consequence of your actions and you thereby committed the offence of culpable homicide under the section 221 of the Penal Code."
The other four charges had to do with blocking of major roads in Zaria and disturbances of the peace of the ancient city.
The Prosecuting Counsel, Barr. Dari Bayero complained to the Judge that the sureties to the 34 accused have refused to produce them in court and therefore pleaded with the Court to decide on whether to withdraw the bail or not.
Justice Hanatu Balogun asked the sureties, Musa Usman, Muhktar M.Sherrif and Khalid Isah why the accused were not in court.
Musa Usman, who spoke in Hausa, said: I did not get bail for anyone. I was on my own on the 18th of December, 2015 when I got a call from Kaduna State Commissioner of Police to appear in his office. I obliged. The Commissioner said to me, look, I have been instructed by the Governor to get your detained women and children out of our cells and send them home with immediate effect, before the Army find them and kill them. I dont want them to spend 15 unites once we bring them. So, go and get buses and take them away, the commissioner told me, he said.
I was able to arrange that. They were in different police cells in Kaduna. As soon as they police brought them, they were put in a bus. One bus was going on the way to Zaria conveying those who came from that axis up to Kano. Another was headed towards Niger state for those who came from that side up to Lagos. I did not even see their faces, so I dont know them, he said.
At this point Bayero interrupted pointing out that the three had signed as their surties with their passport and addresses on the form.
To these, Usman explained: I was told that there was a woman among the detainees who gave birth in the police cell. The Commissioner gave me a form to sign as her surety so that she and the baby can be allowed out. Yes, I am sure of that. Then, he gave me another form to sign. It was for children, 7 boys and 12 girls. They are between 9, 12, 14, the oldest is 17. I was not told that I will bring them to Court. I just signed to let them out
The Defence Counsel said as livid I know we will end up like this. Because it was so difficult getting these men to Court today, he said. The Police cannot just tell you to come and sign and then the accused are free. .
My Lord, the prosecutor was not with the police at that time, so he did not know what transpired, he should stop making such statement, the lead Defense Counsel, Barrister Festus Okoye, interrupted Bayero.
Presented with evidence of his signature by the Judge, Usman confirmed his signature, but said he was unaware that the names were up 34.
I am only aware of the woman that had given birth and the children. I dont know that there was a list with up to 34 other names, he said.
And the problem is that it was only last Friday that the lawyer said that I should produce them today in court. Some of them live in Kano, Niger, Lagos and I dont know them personally, he said.
The Judge then asked him when he would be able to bring them, in which he said, he would need 30 days to do so.
Al-Makura said this on Tuesday when he inspected the ongoing construction of Akwanga-Angwan-Zaria bridge in Akwanga Local Government Area of the state.
I will fulfill my covenant with the people of the state by embarking on projects that will be of benefit to the people in both rural and urban communities, the governor said.
He promised that his administration would embark on provision of massive infrastructure to both rural and urban communities in the state.
He said the construction and reconstruction of roads across the state had been the central focus of his administration, considering the plight of some communities during rainy season.
The governor noted that his administration would not relent in its vision and mission to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people of the state.
He said his administration would continue to place high premium on development programmes to enhance the people's wellbeing.
According to Al-Makura, the administration will be fair to everybody and ensure speedy transformation in terms of human and infrastructure development.
Al makura disclosed that government had revoked the contract for the construction of Akwanga-Angwan-Zaria bridge, saying it would be re-awarded to a more competent contractor.
The governor explained that government would open up villages around Angwan-Zaria, the headquarters of Akwanga-West Development Area through the construction of the bridge and rural roads.
He said a feasibility study would be done next week so that the state government could begin work as soon as possible.
I will not support Ali Modu Sheriff for President in 2019. I am qualified to be VP if it is the will of God. God is taking me to a higher place, how, I dont know, he said.
If he gives me the VP slot, it is a good thing for Ekiti people even though, you cannot set out to say you want to be VP. But you people should not worry yourself about 2019 because nobody knows who will be alive in 2019 but mentioning my name for VP is good for Ekiti, he added.
The call was made by caucus spokesperson, Osita Okechukwu in Abuja on Monday, May 9, 2016.
The escalation of bombings of the Niger Delta region is an ill-wind which blows no one good; not the least the good people of Niger Delta whom the Avengers claim to avenge their age-long ills, he said.
Otherwise, may we honestly ask the Niger Delta Avengers, where they were, when our dear former President, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, from May 6, 2010 to May 29, 2015 presided over Nigeria?
In other words, were the Niger Delta Avengers in deep slumber when Jonathan for good five years failed to clean-up the Niger Delta, failed to complete the East-West Road, failed to review oil blocks, failed to amend the constitution to their taste, and failed to build the three greenfield refineries which he awarded?
In actual fact, if there is anything to avenge, or anybody to blame, the barb should be directed at ex-President Jonathan and his cohorts who criminally neglected the Niger Delta and by extension Nigeria via unconscionable planlessness and squandermania.
It is our candid view that bombing of Forcados pipeline, Bonga Oil field, Chevron trunk lines and other oil and gas installations will neither facilitate the implementation of the 2014 National Conference Report, funding of the Amnesty Programme, nor the clean-up of the Niger Delta region, he added.
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The attack was believed to be part of a plot to frustrate his campaign.
Obaseki said irrespective of their plots, his burning desire to serve the people of the state will propel him to victory.
Meanwhile, his attackers have been arrested by the police in the state. Three persons were arrested in connection to the attack, with two locally made pistols recovered from them.
police spokesman in the state, DSP Abiodun Osifo, who confirmed the arrests, said that the Command is still investigating the incident.
The suspects are with us and the intelligence unit of the Command is investigating the incident to ascertain the true picture of the attack. Until after investigation I cannot tell you more, Osifo said.
Also, in a statement signed by the Obaseki Campaign Organisation and made available to newsmen in Benin City, it described the attack as a "shock".
Obaseki have been moving peacefully to visit delegates across the 192 wards of the state and has successfully been canvassing for their votes without running anybody down. The attack on his campaign train at Sobe while he was waiting to address delegates came as a huge shock to us," the statement said.
While we await the police investigation into the matter, we urge all aspirants of our great party, the APC to caution their followers against violence and actions capable of bringing the party in a bad light. Prior to this attack, we had it on good authority that some hoodlums are being sent to our camp as spies and were mandated to cause chaos at any given opportunity.
It is our strong belief that this election is not a do or die affair and it does not worth the blood of any person, therefore we must all comport ourselves as gentlemen and women in gthis race for governorship."
The former President said the move by the lawmakers is absolute nonsense.
You will recall that Obasanjo in a letter dated January 13, 2016, criticised the legislators for being insensitive to the economic situation in the country.
A move that saw the Senator representing Kogi west, Dino Melaye accusing the former President of introducing corruption into the national assembly in his bid to run for a third term in office.
Obasanjo who spoke on Monday, May 9, 2016, at the 3rd Covenant University International Conference on African Development, praised Presdent Buhari.
He also refuted claims that the Buhari led administrations corruption war is only targeted at the opposition.
The former President also said PMB served under me and I know him a little bit. He hasnt deviated from what I knew him for. Actually he is not a perfect man, indeed no leader can be perfect.
OBJ added that Buhari might not be grounded in both the economy and foreign affairs, he is doing well in fighting Boko Haram and in his anti-corruption crusade. I am very optimistic as far as Nigeria is concerned because we have somebody that will do it well as president.
The former President caused a stir across the nation on Friday, February 5, 2016, when he said the abducted Chibok girls might never return.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and senators have commended the process that produced the new executives.
The INEC Administrative Secretary in the state, Dr Okwu Aniemene, who represented the commission, gave the commendation after the state congress of the party held at the Michael Okpara Square, Enugu.
Aniemene noted that INEC fully endorsed the peaceful and transparent process that produced a new state executive committee of Enugu State chapter of PDP.
"The present exercise as well as conduct and comportment of PDP members has been transparent and worthy of emulation by other political parties in the state, he said.
He also commended Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and the leaders of the party in the state for shepherding the party in such an orderly manner as to produce a new set of executives without rancour.
Similarly, Akwa Ibom senators in the National Assembly on Tuesday, May 10, commended the peaceful conduct of the PDP congress in the state.
NAN reports that a total number of 1,234 delegates voted during the congress to re-elect Obong Paul Ekpo as state chairman of the party.
The Senate Minority Leader, Chief Godswill Akpabio made the commendation during an interview with newsmen at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo.
I commend the peaceful conduct of the state congress and the harmonious relationship of the party in the state, he said.
Also speaking, Sen. Bassey Akpan, commended the peaceful conduct of the PDP state congresses.
In Akwa Ibom, we witnessed the peaceful nature of the primaries of the congresses which springs from the wards to local government and now to the state level.
I have just finished voting in a well peaceful manner, Akpan said.
He stressed the need for stakeholders to re-establish and redefine the party as the largest party in Nigeria and Africa.
Lamido also spoke on the need to restructure the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He made the comments during a recent interview with The Nation. Excerpts below:
What are you doing to effect reconciliation in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?
You dont know what we are doing and how hard we are working within the party, who we are reaching out, who we are talking to and people we are trying to reconcile. You dont need to see it on the face book or on the pages of newspapers before you can understand that we are doing it. What we want you to know is the result, which you will know when the time comes.
Many times, you know we do a number of things quietly. When you are talking about reconciliation, people have been offended. So, you need to go there, plead and beg and because all of us, including you people, know that the current national mud is not what we are expecting.
If the APC woos you, will you defect?
Stop the APC from dreaming. They are free to dream. I have been saying so. But, what I am saying is that the APC is a formation of small-small parties. Small party CPC, small party ACN and small party ANPP. Rather than joining me, Im joining them? No. Since they said we are a party of evils, everything evil is the PDP, why cant they as saints come and clean us? Let them come to the PDP and purify us.
If you are given a presidential ticket, will you accept it?
You see, you are not given a ticket. You are you earn a ticket. You work to earn it.
If you are offered the ticket, what will be your reaction?
If I am offered a ticket in the PDP in 2019, I will thank God Almighty, and thank those who see in me the element that, yes, I can serve as the President of Nigeria. So, I will offer to serve.
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Shameel Joosub, Vodacom CEO, made this known yesterday, Monday, May9, 2016, in a statement saying, Vodacoms decision is based on the fact that the business sustainability of M-Pesa is predicated on achieving a critical mass of users. Based on our revised projections and high levels of financial inclusion in SA there is little prospect of the M-Pesa product achieving this in its current format in the mid-term.
In other markets where financial inclusion is limited and where there is a more supportive macro environment, M-Pesa continues to gain solid traction based on exponential growth in customer acquisition. Kenya and Tanzania are prime examples of this. It is important to note that this decision does not affect M-Pesa customers in Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique and the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), where the product continues to grow exponentially, the statement said, according to Innovation Village.
Vodacom is fully committed to mitigating any inconvenience to customers impacted by the decision and assures all M-Pesa SA customers that their funds remain safe and readily accessible. We remain of the opinion that opportunities exist in the financial services environment and we will continue to explore these, Joosub added, in the statement.
The report revealed that MTN kicked off the year with 39,924,737 internet subscribers and ended the first quarter with 33,356,595.
South Africa-based MTN had been fined a record N780 billion by Nigerias Communications Commission (NCC) on October 26, 2015, for non-compliance with a deadline set by the NCC to disconnect all unregistered sim cards.
The decline in MTN's data subscribers is not really a surprise to industry experts as the company itself had earlier reported in February that its subscriber base had dipped by 6.9%.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
However, we noticed the Lagos scenes were not perfect, below are 14 things that would have happened if 'original Nigerians were involved.
1. The crowd were not shouting 'Egba mi ooo' or cursing when the Lawma guy was thrown out of the truck.
He fell just like that!
2. Nigerians don't jog when there is a shoot out, they run and scream!
Who else saw the tear gas they threw? Nigerians are immune to that gas.
3. The patrol trucks used were not made in Nigeria.
Remember when Captain America kicked the patrol vehicle at someone, a Nigerian made car would have divided into two.
4. Captain America can not simply kick a Nigerian like that when they have eaten Fufu.
5. When Captain America and his team started fighting with the bad guys, Nigerians would have gathered to count scores.
6. Falcon can not fly into Oshodi market and they will not beat him up
They will simply tie him up, pour petrol and burn him... Winch no dey fly for afternoon!
7. Plus he has to drop money for Alaye
8. We don't use posters like this.
Proper Nigerian handbills are like this.
9. Market women wear and tie Ankara.
Not this!
10. Lagos Okada men use Bajaj, not this make
11. And we noticed the mobile number too. [on the left]
12. No one was taking pictures
13. When he called for fire rescue. Please tell him nobody got fuel for that.
14. When Black widow was beating those men in Oshodi park, market women would try to separate them.
Nigerians have few words of advice for Captain America, incase he decides to come to Nigeria.
ALSO READ: 12 things every Nigerian child can relate to
Yiru Sun wore a white gown and braided her hair like a bride as she took her guests to the place where her wedding reception would have taken place.
Sun - a Princeton graduate and Corporate Vice President at New York Life Insurance canceled her wedding two months before her big day after refusing to sign a prenuptial agreement. She decided to look for some less privileged kids and family to have a sumptuous meal instead.
Her wedding was supposed to hold on the eve of Mothers Day celebration rather she turned it into a luncheon after joining forces with Salvation Army and Inwood House who found guests to attend.
At that moment, I started to think it was God's plan. I cannot be the princess of my wedding day, but I can give the kids a fairy tale, Yiru told the New York Post.
ALSO READ: Jilted bride destroys dress with bridesmaids after groom cancels wedding via text message
The children were given balloons, Ice pops and had their faces painted. They told reporters it made them feel special.
I thought it was an incredibly selfless act,
Just to turn around and do something that helps others is an amazing show of character, a guest William Natal told CBS New York.
Yuri single mother to a six-yr-old girl said hosting the kids helped take her mind off the fact that it was supposed to be her wedding day.
She told reporters that she wasnt comfortable with the prenup adding that she initially felt frustrated when she decided to call the wedding off.
ALSO READ: Jilted bride donates reception to homeless people after groom cancels wedding
The corporate Vice President ended the day by telling guests how she had grown up poor in China before coming to study in America and winning a full scholarship to obtain her PhD in electrical engineering at Princeton.
My guests feel even happier than wedding guests, they don't need to prepare wedding gifts, she jokingly told reporters.
Among seven accused present on the first day of a terrorism trial that began in Brussels under heavy security seven weeks after suicide bombers killed 32 people in the capital was Marouan El Bali. He survived the gunfight in January 2015 when police shot dead two armed men who had returned from fighting with IS in Syria.
In summarising the case against the 16 accused, nine of whom are still at large, the judge offered details of how security services had used telephone taps to help combat a potential threat from more than 300 Belgians who have fought in Syria.
In a tapped call in November 2014 an unidentified man told another who was on a police watchlist: "I've got everything."
Six months after a first Islamist attack in Belgium, when a Frenchman shot dead four people at Brussels' Jewish Museum, that was enough to set off an intensive monitoring operation. It led to the Verviers raid, a week after Islamist attacks on the Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish grocery had shocked Europe.
The judge said investigators had heard cryptic messages, some from Turkey and Greece, to various alleged members of the Belgian cell, including those named Fatty and Big Lanky.
Among those involved was Abdelhamid Abaaoud from Brussels, who fought with Islamic State in Syria and is believed to have been an organiser of several attacks in Europe, including those in Paris last Nov. 13. Abaaoud was killed in a gunbattle with French police five days after militants killed 130 people.
Criticised by some for failing to prevent the March 22 IS suicide bombings at Brussels airport and on the city's metro, Belgian leaders have highlighted the operation at Verviers, a rundown industrial town near German border, as a major success.
As well as the two dead gunmen, both from Brussels' Arab immigrant community, police found assault rifles, bomb-making material and items of Belgian police uniform. Abaaoud later boasted online that he had eluded capture and returned to Syria.
El Bali, who was found in the safehouse, has protested his innocence. His lawyer told reporters outside the court on Monday that he had merely been visiting a childhood friend.
Eskom, which provides virtually all of South Africa's power, is facing a funding crunch as it races to bring new power plants online.
With year-round sunshine and thousands of miles of windswept coast in South Africa, investors are warming to the renewable energy potential, with 66 projects completed or underway since the government launched a first bid round four years ago.
Other investors include South Africa's Investec Bank, state pension fund Public Investment Corporation, SIOC Community Development Trust and Lereko Metier.
The project is funded by a mix of debt and equity. The debt is funded from a club of South African banks, namely Rand Merchant Bank, Nedbank Capital, ABSA Capital, Investec and the Development Bank of South Africa.
Rodrigo Duterte, the tough-talking mayor of Davao City, said China should respect the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone granted to coastal states under international law and should team up with the Philippines to jointly exploit offshore oil and gas.
"I would say to China, 'do not claim anything here and I will not insist also that it is ours'. But then I will just keep (turn) a blind eye," he told reporters, as results of an unofficial vote count came in showing him winning a hefty 40 percent of the votes.
Tensions between the Philippines and China have risen as an international tribunal in the Hague prepares to deliver a ruling in the next few months in a case lodged by Manila in 2013 that could undermine Beijing's claims to 90 percent of the South China Sea. China has rejected the court's authority.
Duterte, 71, has puzzled diplomats with what has so far been a contradictory position on how he would deal with China's assertiveness and a blockade by its coastguard of waters and islands claimed by the Philippines.
During one presidential debate he said he would call for dialogue with Beijing, but moments later added he would ride a jet ski to disputed Spratly islands occupied by China and plant a Philippine flag there.
But on Monday he said that talks were needed between claimant countries - the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and China - plus big powers like the United States, Australia and Japan.
"They would want a multilateral roundtable discussion, probably this year," he said of Western countries.
"I do not think anyone is interested in going to war. Although we are allies with America, we will agree to, say, multilateral participation."
Finding Peace of Mind: Discover These Five Places in Europe to Unwind
A Davenport man was in the Scott County Jail on Tuesday on a $150,000 bond after police say they found crack cocaine in his car and powder cocaine and packaging materials in his home.
Corey Anthony Jones, 27, is charged with controlled substance violation, a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison; controlled substance violation, a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison; and two counts of failure to affix drug stamp, a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Jones will be back in court Friday.
According to an arrest affidavit filed by Davenport police in support of the criminal complaint:
On Monday, the departments tactical operations bureau was conducting a crack cocaine investigation involving Jones.
Detectives followed Jones from his home to a local restaurant, where he was detained. A search of the car turned up 66.1 grams of crack cocaine and $2,149 cash.
Detectives later searched Jones home in the 1200 block of Gayman Avenue, where they found 37.85 grams of powder cocaine, a digital scale and packaging material.
Neither the crack cocaine nor the powder cocaine was affixed with an Iowa Drug Tax Stamp that is required by law, according to the affidavit.
Jones pleaded guilty in February 2008 to unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver in Rock Island County and was sentenced to four years in prison.
IOWA CITY Although she was legally entitled to turn over an unwanted newborn to hospital officials, a Davenport woman gave birth in a bathroom at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and left the baby alive in a trash can on Mothers Day, authorities said Tuesday.
Ashley R. Hautzenrader, 22, told police she didnt realize she was pregnant. After giving birth, she first tried to flush the baby down the toilet because she thought it was stillborn.
She was arrested and faces one count of child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison. Tuesday, she was released to the custody of the Department of Corrections.
The baby was discovered in the trash shortly after delivery, university spokesman Tom Moore said. But citing a federal health care privacy law, he declined to provide details on just how the baby was found and in what condition it was when the incident became public.
In fact, many of the details that might explain how such a thing happened inside a busy health care facility were being shielded by authorities, including whether Hautzenrader was a patient there.
A room number listed in the police report as the location of the incident is in or near the pediatric specialty clinics in the John Colloton Pavilion, according to a hospitals and clinics directory.
According to a university Department of Public Safety criminal complaint, Hautzenrader entered a bathroom in the Colloton Pavillion about 9:24 p.m. Sunday and delivered a baby into the toilet.
She told police she didnt know she was pregnant before entering the bathroom.
The newborn was not crying, Hautzenrader said, leading her to think the child was dead. Police said she attempted to flush it down the toilet.
Failing that, Hautzenrader then placed the child in a pillow case and put it in a trash can, police said. She cleaned the bathroom and left.
Hospital employees later found the baby alive in the trash. But Moore said identifying them would give clues about Hautzenraders private health information.
Officers confronted Hautzenrader, who admitted to putting the child in the trash can, authorities said.
The university's interim Public Safety Director Lucy Wiederholt said the incident remains under investigation.
Attempts by reporters to reach immediate relatives of Hautzenrader in Davenport were unsuccessful. No one answered the door at a Davenport address that is listed on Hautzenraders arrest affidavit.
Court records show she is the mother of at least one other child. She is identified as the petitioner in a paternity and child support recovery case filed in Scott County in May 2015.
Photos posted on her Facebook page starting in late 2014 show her cradling a baby girl who has what appears to be an oxygen tube attached to her body.
Since 2002, Iowa has had a safe haven law that allows parents to leave a newborn up to 14 days old at a hospital without being prosecuted, according to the Iowa Department of Human Services.
Moore said the process of bringing a baby to the university Hospitals and Clinics under the law is very easy. The newborn can be brought to any location in the hospital including reception desks, clinics and inpatient units and turned over.
The child will be accepted and cared for with no questions asked, Moore said in an email.
The university does not keep records on the number of children turned over under the save haven law, Moore said.
A Rock Island teenager pleaded not guilty Tuesday in the April 27 shooting death of 15-year-old Jescie J. Armstrong.
Kire G. Carr, 17, appeared with Rock Island Assistant Public Defender Hector Lareau and waived his right to a preliminary hearing during a short hearing at the Rock Island County Justice Center.
He is charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Two of those charges claim that he shot Armstrong while committing an armed robbery.
Associate Judge Norma Kauzlarich denied prosecutors motion to house Carr at the Rock Island County Jail instead of the Mary Davis Juvenile Detention Home in Galesburg, Ill., where he is being held on a $1 million cash bond.
I know that the Rock Island County Jail has the facilities to separately house a juvenile detainee; however, my understanding is that its empty and that would effectively place Mr. Carr in a form of solitary confinement, she said. Im not willing to do that at this time.
Rock Island County States Attorney John McGehee said after the hearing that he plans to renew the motion once Carr turns 18 in July.
McGehee said Carr has been charged as an adult, and we want to treat him as an adult.
Housing Carr locally while the case is pending would be a cost-saving measure for the county, McGehee said. He did not know the exact cost of keeping juvenile offenders at Mary Davis, but estimated it is more than $100 a day.
McGehee declined to comment on a motive or any particulars of the case. Carr is the only person who has been charged, he said.
Carr will be back in court June 10 for a pretrial conference. A jury trial is set tentatively for June 27.
Carr, wearing a black sweatshirt and gray sweatpants, smiled at family in the courtroom gallery as he was led out of the courtroom after the hearing.
Rock Island police were dispatched just before 2 p.m. April 27 to the 500 block of 20th Avenue after receiving a report of shots fired inside a home.
Officers found Armstrong, who had been shot in the head, inside the residence. He was taken by ambulance to Trinity Rock Island, where he later died.
Carr was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service the next night at an apartment in Columbus, Ohio.
Marshals said in a news release that Carr and a female accomplice were involved in a dispute with several others that led to the shooting of Armstrong. The marshals said Carr was staying in Columbus briefly and had plans to flee to coastal Georgia.
First-degree murder in Illinois carries a possible prison sentence of 20-60 years.
Two of the charges Carr faces carry an enhanced sentence of 45 years to life in prison because he is accused of using a firearm in the offense.
Those opposed to Robbie Ortiz's grocery store for Division and West 7th streets, Davenport are still not convinced even after a little face time with the business owner Monday night.
But a couple of neighbors who braved Monday's rain to come to City Hall and speak favorably of Ortiz's development suggest he is winning over some fans outside of the City Council.
Until Monday, about the only public support Ortiz had for his project was coming from those with "alderman" in front of their names. Eight out of 10 Davenport aldermen gave him the thumbs up two weeks ago, though he needs to go before council two more times to get approved. The second reading on his project is coming up at Wednesday's City Council meeting.
Until aldermen took a swing at the project, Ortiz was not getting much love from the city. The city's community development staff recommended denial, and the Davenport Plan and Zoning Commission unanimously opposed the project earlier this year when rezoning was put to a vote.
Ortiz sought a rezoning change to convert a boarded-up house at 1808 W. 7th St. and a vacant former grocery store next door into a gas station/convenience store. He still seeks to rezone the 1808 parcel but has dropped gas pumps in favor of a slightly larger neighborhood grocery store.
Per city rules, Ortiz needed eight aldermen, which is considered a super majority, instead of the usual majority because of Plan and Zoning's thumbs down.
When aldermen voted two weeks ago, critics like Moira Bradford, a neighborhood watch captain for the area, saw no reason to continue speaking out, she said. Bradford did not attend Monday's meeting, which Ortiz and aldermen called so that he could update neighbors on concessions he is willing to make to build his store.
For instance, Ortiz said he will not sell $2 "single shot" bottles of hard liquor, something he sells at his other gas station convenience stores in Davenport and LeClaire.
Of the six residents who showed up Monday, four spoke and two of them were opposed.
Diane Soppe's concerns included liquor sales and parking lot lights.
"My bedroom is in the front of my house," Soppe said. "I don't want lights coming in there."
Ortiz said the lights will be "pointed down." He has said that liquor sales will make up no more than 3 percent of his business.
Preston Hedrick had another concern. "You're going to get trash," he said.
Ortiz said he will help solve a trash problem that already exists in the neighborhood by putting in receptacles on two corners of the property.
Janet Crowell and Troy Negus said they support the project.
"I would appreciate not having to jump in the vehicle every time I needed to go to the store," Crowell said.
Negus said he lives next door to the vacant house, where he has seen animals taking up residence.
"If nothing is done there, we still have two crappy buildings," he said.
Third Ward Alderman Bill Boom, who was one of the two "no" votes two weeks ago, said one reason not more neighbors showed up for Monday's meeting could be because they have indicated to him that everything has already been said. Another reason could have been the rain, Boom added.
As to how much support actually exists in the neighborhood for the store, Ortiz and his critics could not agree.
Ortiz said he talked to 120 neighbors and "there are a lot of them for it."
Soppe said a petition was delivered to aldermen with 75 signatures of those against the project.
Alderman Kyle Gripp, at large, said residents will get another chance to be heard Wednesday.
Five years ago, Kelly Lao landed a freelance job at the German American Center, Davenport, to create an exhibit about German immigrants who fought in the American Civil War.
She had just graduated from Western Illinois University-Quad-Cities with a master's degree in museum studies and hadn't found a full-time job. The temporary work would help support her two young children and would build her resume.
She tackled the job with skill, creativity and enthusiasm. When the center's volunteer coordinator left, Lao took over those duties, too. A few months later, she started another freelance stint, creating an exhibit on pencils. Soon, she was writing and sending out news releases.
When an executive director was hired about a year later, Lao was hired as a full-time assistant, and when the director left earlier this this year, Lao, 32, stepped into the position.
"Everything moved really fast from one thing to another," Lao said.
Lao takes over the center at a good time. After operating for years under a succession of directors, or sometimes no director at all, the center stabilized under director Janet Brown-Lowe, board president Jerry Nieman said. Brown-Lowe brought solid, well-researched and numerous exhibits (important for repeat attendance), raised money and forged collaborations with other cultural organizations. She raised the bar.
Sitting at her new desk, Lao explains that she didn't always aspire to museum work. Her face often breaking into an infectious smile, Lao says that from about age 9, she always thought she would work in fashion design.
She liked dressing up, making Barbie doll clothes on her plastic sewing machine and, eventually, going "thrifting" with her sister to create her own do-it-yourself fashions.
She graduated from Orion (Ill.) High School, then headed to Iowa State University, Ames, to study fashion design. Although her last name is Chinese, her heritage is Puerto Rican/Cuban, and she had qualified for a four-year, all-tuition paid scholarship.
Ever the achiever, she enrolled in the university's honors program. That required students to do special projects, and Lao was paired with a retired anthropology professor, tasked with helping to catalog all the African textiles the professor had collected over a lifetime.
Within nine days, Lao switched her major to anthropology. "Once I learned of her work the places she had traveled and the people she had met," anthropology sounded more interesting, she said.
Lao also enjoyed the cataloging, the kind of work one might do in a museum.
After two years at Iowa State and the birth of her first child, Lao had a new goal. She left Ames and moved to Davenport to establish residency so she could attend the University of Iowa. She wanted to complete her degree in anthropology and to get a certificate in museum studies. Being "home" also meant that extended family could help with child care.
Lao tended bar and waited tables and commuted to Iowa City where she received her certificate in 2008.
But the economy was in the throes of the Great Recession, and there were no jobs to be had. So she enrolled in Western's new master's museum studies program, with classes held mainly at the Figge Art Museum.
"Kelly doesn't let any obstacle be an obstacle," said Ann Rowson Love, who founded Western's program and now is the Ringling Museum liaison for Florida State University.
"She is so creative and innovative!" Love said. "I remember when I met her for the first time and finding out that she was not only starting grad school but was the mom of two small children. The kids thrived, while at the same time, Kelly worked and went to school."
In 2011, the class at Western took a capstone trip to Berlin, where Lao got her first big dose of German culture.
"It was 10 days, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.," she said. "We saw museums and art galleries and artists' studios, and they let us go to Kriskringle Mart (a Christmas market).
"It was go, go, go."
She also served an internship at the Putnam Museum in Davenport, helping to catalog the Chinese and Japanese collections and contributing to the remodeling of the ancient Egypt exhibit.
"I sponge-painted one of the walls and wrote one of the panels (text accompanying the objects), she said. "It was really exciting to work on a permanent exhibit."
While creating exhibits is fun, running a nonprofit also means raising money. All the time. Lao's former mentor from Western says Lao is up for it.
The Western program covered fundraising, management and grant-writing, and students were required to work with community organizations on grant projects to learn the process. "Kelly has already had proven success," Love said.
"She has a passion not only for museums but for the Quad-Cities overall," Love continued. "She is the kind of 21st century leader we need in small, community-based museums."
The Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice is moving forward with closing a youth detention center in Kewanee over objections from a bipartisan legislative oversight panel.
Agency Director Candice Jones said in a statement Tuesday that the panel's advisory vote last week is "disheartening," but it's hard to justify keeping the maximum-security facility open. She said outcomes have been poor and the state can transition to smaller centers proven to rehabilitate youth.
Last week, members of the state's Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability voted against the closure. Some suggested using the 15-year-old facility in other ways to ensure it won't be left abandoned or deteriorate.
Tuesday's announcement drew a rebuke from Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., who lobbied to keep the youth center open.
"We had an opportunity to raise the bar by providing the highest quality care for the kids at this facility, however, Governor Rauner refused to give nearly 200 hard working men and women at the Kewanee Center a chance. My heart breaks for the families who are losing their jobs," Bustos said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
She said the center is the only juvenile justice center designated as a special treatment facility. She also called it a "major driver" in the area economy.
Jones says the state agency was prepared for the opposition and officials will work with employees at the northwestern Illinois center to find other placements.
(Times reporter Ed Tibbetts contributed to this article.)
MUSCATINE, Iowa Rotary Club of Muscatine members heard some impressive statistics about the Class of 2016 on Monday from Muscatine High School Principal Mike McGrory.
Prior to the club awarding scholarships to five MHS seniors, McGrory, a Rotarian, told members that:
29 percent of the graduating seniors have grade point averages of 3.5 or higher;
52 percent have grade point averages of 3.0 or higher;
183 seniors took a total of 506 Advanced Placement classes;
32 seniors have taken five or more Advanced Placement classes;
The senior class put in 6,184 volunteer service hours;
Class members raised more than $140,000 for charities at the local and national levels;
MHS seniors earned 817 college credit hours, either through classes taken on site at the high school or at Muscatine Community College.
McGrory said demand for AP courses at MHS will raise the number of offerings during the 2016-17 year to 21.
This year, Rotary Club of Muscatine increased the number of $1,000 scholarships it awards from three to five. That was made possible by additional fundraising by the club, said president Mary Odell.
Odell said there were nearly 100 applicants for the scholarships.
"There are so many compelling stories," she said.
The five scholarship winners all gave brief remarks when receiving their scholarships.
Recipients are:
Camila Franco, who will attend Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids, for two years. She is planning to transfer to the University of Northern Iowa at that time and hopes to be an elementary school teacher.
Akouvi Alda Dansou, who will attend the University of Iowa in communication studies, though she said she is considering changing to elementary education.
Theodore Van Winkle, who will pursue a degree in music education at the University of Iowa.
Macy Morrow, who will be attending Iowa State University. While initially leaning toward a degree in chemical engineering, she said Monday she is considering a medical career, perhaps as a physician's assistant.
Gabrielle Hartman, who will be attending Bard College in New York with hopes of becoming a professional orchestral member. Her interests also include global health.
SPRINGFIELD Gov. Bruce Rauner is renewing his call for a "clean" bill to fund elementary and secondary education next school year.
The Republican's statement comes in conjunction with a visit Monday to Lyons Township High School in west suburban LaGrange and follows last week's release of Illinois State Board of Education figures on what a Democratic proposal to overhaul the state's school funding formula would mean for individual districts.
The governor has said he supports changing the way the state distributes money to school districts, but he wants to fully fund the current formula while lawmakers continue to work on those changes. If lawmakers approve his plan, it'd mark the first time in seven years that districts would receive the whole amount state law says they should.
"Our priority right now should be funding our schools for the upcoming school year," Rauner said in a written statement. "Since day one, I have been committed to building a world-class education system in Illinois that ensures every child goes to a high-quality school and can go on to a high-paying career. Fully funding our schools is a step closer to making that a reality."
Many Democrats argue that it doesn't make sense to put more money into a system that does a bad job of distributing money to poorer districts that need it the most.
"I am encouraged that the governor and Republicans recognize the current system's failings," Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said in a written statement issued in response to Rauner's remarks. "They said they want a system that recognizes the needs of rural and low-income communities. Lucky for them, that plan is pending in the Illinois Senate and they will soon get the chance to vote for it."
Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, has been working for the last several years on legislation that would redirect state money to the neediest districts. In an effort to win support from both parties and all parts of the state, Manar's latest version includes provisions intended to prevent any districts from losing money in the first year under the new formula.
Despite Republican statements to the contrary, figures the State Board of Education released last week show that Manar's bill would do just that.
Had his formula been in place for the 2014-15 school year, the last for which the board has complete data, Lyons Township's funding would've been unchanged compared with the current formula.
Under Rauner's plan, the district, which spends $2,700 more per student on instruction than the state average, would gain $104,000 next year compared with the current year.
Poorer districts, meanwhile, would see substantial gains under Manar's plan.
For example, the Decatur School District, which spends $2,799 less per student on instruction than the state average, would've seen $5.3 million more in state funding in 2014-15 had the new plan been in place. Under the Rauner plan, Decatur's funding would go up by $625,000 next year.
Figures for how districts would fare under Manar's plan with the level of overall funding Rauner has proposed for next year are not yet available.
With strong backing likely from Chicago and downstate Democrats, passage of Manar's plan in the Senate may hinge on additional support from suburban Democrats, some of whom represent districts that would eventually see state funding dip under the proposal, and downstate Republicans, many of whom represent districts that stand to benefit.
GOP senators, like Rauner, have been highly critical of the bill, labelling it a bailout for Chicago Public Schools.
The proposal would direct an additional $175 million to the state's largest school district, and the state would begin picking up the tab for Chicago teachers' pensions, something it already does for the rest of the state. Chicago would lose $74 million under Rauner's plan.
Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, has come out in opposition of Manar's plan, despite the fact that 35 school districts he represents would've gained an average of nearly $130,000 in 2014-15 under the new formula, according to state board figures.
"This debate has to be bigger than who were winners and who were loser" under a certain proposal, Righter said.
"Really the issue here is, What do we want the school aid formula to achieve?" he said.
From his perspective, the formula should aid districts that are doing their part through local property taxes to fund schools but still struggling to provide adequate money due to low property values.
Given its relatively low property tax rate compared with surrounding suburbs, Chicago could do more locally to fund its schools, Righter said, adding that it should also be held accountable for poor financial and academic performance.
Changes to policies on public input at Davenport School Board meetings and on agenda items were unanimously approved Monday night by board members.
However, the board also discussed at length how the district could acknowledge that information from the public has been received and is being processed.
Tom Hansen, Davenport, approached the district four months ago with concerns about school bus policies. After what he previously told board members was a delay in being able to air his concerns, he now has turned his attention to the changes, which he contends will limit public access and input .
School board members Daniel Gosa and Clyde Mayfield had several questions on how the policy changes would work.
The school board regularly examines various district policies and edits, or changes them on an as-needed basis.
Monday night's action items concerned "meeting notice and posting of board meeting agenda," (bylaw 903.09) "community requests to place item on agenda," (903.18) and "public input at board meetings" (903.15).
The policy committee is headed by Jamie Snyder, who said board members examined policies from other school districts before suggesting changes, such as adding email as an option in one of the rules.
Hansen, however, took issue with the changes. "I have a very troubling story on this whole process of how my common-sense issue (on busing) was handled," he said in an email message sent before Monday's meeting. "It was unjust," Hansen said of the board's action. "Now they are going to twist my bad experience to justify making it even harder for the public to get issues addressed."
At Monday's meeting, Hansen distributed copies to the board of policies from the Bettendorf, North Scott and Pleasant Valley districts.
In general, the board approved an email option for getting items on the agenda, and noted that requests could be added to the tentative agenda at the discretion of the agenda committee.
The amendment also does away with a requirement that community members to contact the board secretary at least four days before a meeting to seek extra time to speak at the meeting.
Mayfield's biggest concern was allowing public input on agenda items. It is also important to promptly acknowledge receipt of a public request, he said.
Iowa's open meetings law can be confusing, board member Richard Clewell said. School board meetings are held in the public, but aren't public sessions. "It's hard to understand sometimes," he said.
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Thank God, for Ted Cruz. Or, rather, Iowa's GOP officials should praise anyone who will listen that the firebrand defeated presumptive nominee Donald Trump in Iowa's caucus.
The Republican soul-searching is already under way, more than a month from the party's national convention in Cleveland.
Nevada, where Trump throttled the opposition, looks like it will pay the price.
The Republican National Committee is "likely" to strip Nevada of its vaunted early primary position, Politico reported on Sunday. Repeated electoral weirdness and low turnout have plagued Nevada for multiple cycles now.
And, frankly, more diverse alternatives, such as Colorado, might better deserve the honor of winnowing the presidential field, Republican officials told Politico.
Nevada does nothing for us, one RNC committeeman said.
Ouch.
Every cycle, Iowa's first-in-the-nation status comes under fire. The Hawkeye State is too rural and too white relative to the American electorate, dissenters say. More populous and diverse states, such as Illinois and Texas, should play a larger role in picking nominees from both parties.
But those complaints typically fade. At least they do in a normal year.
Nevada's pending loss shows that no early state can sit on presumed "sacred cow" status. It's especially true for Republicans. Party bosses are fiending to reach out to Latinos. And Trump has proven the national irrelevance of the Christian conservative wing, a big player in Iowa.
Of course, many late-primary states did wield power this time around, thanks to tough primaries in both parties. Indiana did Cruz in just last week, essentially handing the Republican nomination to Trump. Even so, many a Republican official -- with a vested interest in raising their state's profile, mind you -- would love to strip Iowa and New Hampshire of what they deem as undeserved power.
Nevada might be the immediate victim of 2016's chaos, but it's unlikely to be the last substantial overhaul of the post-Trump era.
For years, big-state RNC committee members have called for a "rotating" or "randomized" primary calendar. Trump's tumultuous rise, fueled by early primary victories, only empowers their argument.
Surely, the campaigns of Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio could have been very different had, say, Florida or Texas initiated the process. Instead, the dead or dying status of both campaigns changed the dynamic when those large states finally had their say.
The concern shouldn't be limited to Iowa Republicans. The Democratic caucus, don't forget, was fraught with confusion and allegations of irregularities. The state party is undergoing a wholesale review, a process no doubt initiated by concerns over Iowa's early state status.
But mainline Democrats ultimately got the candidate they wanted. Republicans can't say the same.
The primary calendar's effect on Iowa's overall influence shouldn't be understated, but it's also about cash and jobs. More than $70 million was spent in the lead-up to the caucus in February, reported SMG Delta. That's a sizable sum for advertising departments looking for a boost. Campaign staff rent hotel rooms and buy diesel fuel.
It's only the beginning of the GOP's reckoning after Donald Trump seized the party. He's openly flouting every basic tenet of post-Reagan economic conservatism. His criticisms of NATO challenge the basic world order established after World War II.
Much of the public debate will be about policy or, at least, how the party comes to grips with Trump's not-so-typical positions. Internally, Republicans will continue seeking ways to avoid another outside insurgent.
And no one is safe.
For several years, I have supported the elimination of the office of lieutenant governor in Illinois as a means of improving efficiency and saving taxpayers' money. I agree voters should be given the option to abolish the office. What I and many others have come to disagree with over time, is the line of succession that would follow when a governor dies, resigns or is removed from office prior to the end of term.
Under the state Constitution and statute, the job of governing Illinois would fall to the lieutenant governor, followed by the elected attorney general and the elected secretary of state. It is the governor and the General Assembly that set priorities and chart the direction of the state, not an attorney general or secretary of state. Voters have elected a governor and lieutenant governor on a joint vote since the 1970 amended Constitution resolved the issue of Republican Gov. Richard Ogilvie and Democrat Lt. Gov. Paul Simon serving together.
In the event of a vacancy in the governors office, it is logical that a member of the same political party succeed him or her to continue the path that voters statewide chose. As a Chicago Tribune columnist noted, replacing the current Republican governor with Democrat Attorney General Lisa Madigan or any Democrat, should the office become vacant, would offend the ideals of democracy.
I support the positive intentions of saving taxpayers' money and eliminating redundancies, but not having a well thought-out line of succession is too problematic to ignore. We need to be sure we arent moving forward with a process where a person is next in line to become governor, if he or she has a completely different approach to governing an approach that was not supported by the voters. It was clear to me after listening to many people that the most recent attempt to abolish the office lacked the necessary legislative support, evidenced by the Senates overwhelming rejection of an identical proposal on Apr. 21 with Republicans and Democrat opposition.
What I heard from a number of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and from citizens is that the current succession order is flawed. My proposal would have abolished the office and added the minority leaders of the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives to the succession order in the event that one party held all other constitutional offices and majorities in the General Assembly. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats rejected my proposal, and voters in November wont have an opportunity to abolish the lieutenant governors office.
Amending our state Constitution is a serious responsibility, and I dont believe half-measures are the appropriate path to take. I will re-file my proposal to abolish the office and amend the succession order in the next General Assembly. It will still save taxpayers at least $1.6 million a year and, just as importantly, protect the will of the voters.
VA Black Hills Health Care System, the Dakotas VA Regional Office, and the Black Hills National Cemetery will host a Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemoration Ceremony to thank and honor Vietnam-era Veterans at 5 p.m. May 23 at the VFW Post 1273, 420 Main Street in Rapid City.
This is a well-deserved but long overdue welcome home to recognize the service and sacrifice of Vietnam Veterans," said Sandra Horsman, Director, VA Black Hills Health Care System.
As part of the event, Vietnam veterans will be presented with a lapel pin.
Prior to the ceremony, a Benefits Claims Clinic will take place from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. During this Claims Clinic, VA representatives will be available to discuss both claims for compensation benefits and enrollment and eligibility in health care.
Following the ceremony at 5:30 p.m., veterans and family members are invited to participate in a Veteran Town Hall. The meeting is intended to provide an open forum for VA officials to share updates and hear directly from beneficiaries about VA services.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate for president, will bring his campaign and message to South Dakota on Thursday with personal appearances in Rapid City and on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, according to a campaign press release.
The Vermont senator will hold a rally at 10:45 a.m. on Thursday at the new gym at the Pine Ridge School at 101 Thorpe Circle, in Pine Ridge. That will be followed by a 2 p.m. rally in Memorial Park in Rapid City. The senator will be present at both events, according to the release received late Monday night.
Sen. Sanders is fighting for the Democratic nomination against former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has a strong lead in the delegate count. But Sanders has vowed to continue running until the Democratic convention and until the nomination is final.
The events are free and open to the public, though due to anticipated crowds, the public is encouraged to arrive as much as two hours prior to the speaking engagements. All members of the public will need to go through Secret Service screening, which can take a while because screening is handled one by one.
The press release indicated that in his visits to the Black Hills region, Sanders will discuss a wide range of issues, including getting big money out of politics, his plan to make public colleges and universities tuition-free, combating climate change and ensuring universal health care.
For security reasons, the press release said, members of the public are encouraged that, please do not bring bags and limit what you bring to small, personal items like keys and cell phones. Weapons, sharp objects, chairs, and signs or banners on sticks will not be allowed through security.
DEADWOOD | The dog knew before anyone else.
As a teenager, Amanda Vrem loved sleeping with Lucy, the familys pet boxer. Sometimes Lucy would nap by Amandas side. Other nights the dog would bed down in her nearby kennel.
But one night when Amanda was 17, Lucys frantic barking woke up the entire family. Laurie, Amandas mother, raced to her bedside and found her daughter in the midst of a seizure.
It would be the first of many.
That dog saved her life, Laurie said last week while combing out a Sheltie at her pet grooming and boarding business, The Paw Spa in Deadwood. Oh God, I was so scared.
Amanda was diagnosed with diabetes at age 11.
It changed her whole life overnight, her mom said. All at once she went from being a kid to being an adult."
Amanda couldnt spend overnights with friends; she had to constantly monitor her blood sugar; spent a week in intensive care in Rapid City; and she became insulin-dependent.
We realized we had a big problem, Laurie said.
That problem has led to a life-long struggle for Amanda, a quiet, shy, yet friendly woman who just turned 30. Though no one could figure out quite why, she struggled through high school, all the while befriending other classmates with challenges and attracting nearly every dog in the neighborhood.
She was a quiet kid just trying to stay alive. But even in middle school she helped disabled classmates on the playground and in the classroom, Laurie said. Kids like that and dogs just seem to take to Amanda. They know shes special.
When asked why she helped disabled classmates, Amanda gave a half-smile, then said, I dont remember. But I love to be around dogs.
They dont judge, her mother quickly added. She always wants us to adopt the less fortunate dogs, the ones nobody wants.
After graduating from Lead-Deadwood High School in 2005, Amanda spent several years attending the Northern Hills Training Center, a nonprofit organization in Spearfish dedicated to helping the disabled live independent lives. After attempting a couple of different living scenarios, she returned home in 2009.
With her diabetes, maintaining employment was difficult, but Amanda did occasionally volunteer at the Western Hills Humane Society in Spearfish and the First Step Childcare Center in Deadwood.
The diagnosis
A month after her first seizure 13 years ago, Amanda suffered her second. It left her comatose for a day and her mother wasnt sure shed wake up. She did and a subsequent MRI revealed that Amanda had been born without a corpus callosum, a broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres of the brain, leaving her unable to process messages.
So all the time she had struggled in school was due to that, her mother marveled. That put another piece of the puzzle together for us.
Placed on anti-seizure medications, her events were limited to about once a year and usually occurred at night. Three years ago, the seizures returned with increased frequency first once a month, then as often as once a day.
Its awful because you dont know if theyll come out of it, Laurie said. It stops everything. You wonder, is this it? Will she be OK this time?
Within the last year, Amanda has suffered seizures as infrequently as twice a week and as often as four times a day, her mother said.
We saw her thought processes were slowing down, Laurie said. She wasnt the kid she was five years ago.
After exploring neurologists on the internet, they visited a specialist in Sioux Falls who ordered an MRI, the first since Amanda was 17. It revealed changes in her front temporal lobe. When a Rapid City neurosurgeon told the Vrems it was beyond his expertise, Amanda was referred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., last October.
Major surgery
On Nov. 30, Amanda underwent a front temporal lobectomy in which surgeons removed a bone flap on the right side of her skull, took her off anti-seizure meds, attached electrodes directly to her brain and captured the data they needed when she eventually experienced a seizure, her mother explained.
Tracked by a team of Mayo doctors as part of a trial study, physicians tested her memory, comprehension, speech and reading skills, something her mother says Amanda agreed to, to help others suffering from seizures, brain injuries and PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
On Dec. 7, surgeons removed her front temporal lobe, the area of her brain causing the seizures, and two days later she was sent home. But, once back in the Black Hills, Amanda didnt eat and had difficulty sleeping. Admitted to the hospital, it was three days before doctors discovered she was septic and had an infection in her head.
I asked for life flight to the Mayo, said Laurie. The doctor said, `We dont have time. Were doing emergency surgery right now. Three and a half hours later, he came out and said he got it all.
The five months since that operation have been anything but easy on the Vrems. On Feb. 1, Amanda was helping her mom out at The Paw Spa when she suffered a stroke. Her father rushed her to the emergency room in Deadwood and watched as his daughter collapsed getting out of his pickup.
When the feeling returned to the left side of her body after she had been transported to Rapid City, doctors ruled out a stroke, said she had suffered a localized seizure, and sent her home.
It was a nightmare, Laurie recalled. In the middle of the night, she called to me because she had no feeling in her left leg and arm.
Transported by ambulance once again to Deadwood, then Rapid City, an MRI revealed Amanda had suffered another stroke. In a matter of hours, she was life-flighted back to the Mayo Clinic. After being examined, the doctor who had performed her surgery issued an ominous warning.
This is bad, he told Laurie. This is not good, a bad stroke for someone her age.
Amanda remained hospitalized at the Mayo Clinic for two weeks, before being returned to a rehabilitation hospital in Rapid City for another month. She still attends occupational and physical therapy in Spearfish three times a week, uses a cane, a brace on her leg, and wears a helmet to protect her skull in case she falls.
In addition, Amanda awaits yet another surgery to place a metal plate in her head to replace the bone flap doctors were forced to remove. Her mother said the family hopes that operation will alleviate the daily headaches from which Amanda now suffers.
Dream dog
A small sign beneath the counter at The Paw Spa proudly proclaims, To have a dog is to know what its like to be unconditionally loved.
About four months ago, the smile returned to Amandas face when she got her dream dog a bull terrier named Spud, who the family hopes to have trained as a service dog. Training will cost an estimated $4,000 to $8,000, Laurie said.
Hes the dog I wanted, Amanda said as Spud licked her face. I saw one on TV once on an animal rescue show. Every since, Ive wanted one. Hopefully he will help me live a somewhat normal life.
While Medicaid has covered the overwhelming costs of medical treatment, life-flights, ambulance trips and continued therapy, the family has been forced to cover at least $30,000 in incidental costs, including nearly six weeks in Rochester, Minn., two trips to Denver, and countless trips to Rapid City, Laurie said.
A mothers love
No one knows why Amanda has been forced to deal with such physical challenges. And her mother is quick to divert attention from the financial hardships endured by the family to efforts to try to make Amandas life more meaningful.
As a parent, you wonder what you could have done to make this happen, and what you could do to make it go away, she said. If I had just one thing, if I could take the diabetes away, if I could trade places, Id do it in a heartbeat.
I know they say the Lord doesnt give you more than you can handle, but when I returned from the Mayo the last time, Laurie said looking heavenward, I had to ask, `Are you really up there?
The Rapid City school system would spend $11 million less than last year, but also raise pay for non-teaching staff under a proposed $188 million district spending plan for 2016-17 that was unveiled Monday night.
The plan is only a draft, but as written it would slow district construction work, and possibly give local property owners a tax break along the way.
With higher salaries for South Dakotas teachers secured by the state Legislature this year via a sales tax hike, the Rapid City School Board may shift its focus to raising pay for non-instructional employees.
A preliminary budget proposed for the 2016-2017 fiscal year is $11 million less than the 2015-2016 budget, and includes step increases, or pay raises, for employees in food services, support services, and secretarial and clerical staff, according to Assistant Superintendent and Business Manager Dave Janak. For some of those groups, it is the first step increase awarded since 2010.
Expenses and revenues are balanced in the proposed budget for 2016-2017, coming to a total of $188.6 million. As of March, the districts budget for 2015-2016 sits at $199.6 million.
Janak said he expects property taxes to decrease, though he was unable to provide specific numbers.
During a meeting in late April, School Board President Jim Hansen expressed a desire to prioritize fairer pay for district employees over building improvement projects. Speaking at Monday nights School Board meeting, Janak said Hansens directive is being taken seriously.
This has repeatedly been the priority the board has given us, Janak said, and were following it.
Janak did not provide details of the step increases for non-teacher employees or other specific aspects of the budget during his brief presentation on Monday evening.
The process for figuring out what the districts financial situation will look like in the 2016-2017 fiscal year is still in its early phases. The numbers Janak presented to the School Board on Monday are only a working draft and are subject to change, as contract negotiations between the teacher, administrative, and paraprofessional employee groups have not yet concluded.
Though much remains uncertain, the districts prioritization of employee pay over building improvements is already having a noticeable impact. Janak attributed the projected $11 million reduction in the 2016-2017 budget partially to a decrease in spending on building projects, which are paid for out of the capital outlay fund.
Estimates for 2016-2017 show $28.9 million in capital outlay expenses, as compared to the $30.3 million spent out of that fund so far in 2015-2016.
The state allows the district to use up to 45 percent of the capital outlay fund for purposes other than construction and maintenance. Last year, the district used $3 million from capital outlay to free up money in the general fund to pay for increased teacher salaries.
The School Board has recently begun to consider shifting more of the available 45 percent to employee pay. Whether that will happen in 2016-2017 remains uncertain, Janak said, as contract negotiations will likely play a significant role in deciding what to do with capital outlay dollars in the years ahead.
Another contributor to the lower budget comes from a $1.8 million reduction in the pension fund, which is expected to take in and spend $2 million for 2016-2017. This year, the pension fund took in and spent $3.8 million.
The School Board will hold a study session focused on the general fund on May 18, and a final draft of the proposed budget will then be published no later than July 15. A budget hearing will be held before Aug. 1, then approved sometime before Oct. 1.
People have a right under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to receive care without being segregated from society, writes the New York Times, citing a scathing rebuke of South Dakotas health care system just published by the Department of Justice.
The report is especially critical of the states treatment of people with developmental disabilities who often find themselves warehoused in nursing care facilities because community facilities and practitioners are not available in our rural state. Thousands of patients were being held unnecessarily in sterile, highly restrictive group homes.
There are 19 private businesses for people with developmental disabilities in South Dakota providing a range of services from occasional check-ups to intensive around-the-clock care. These private entities are concentrated in our more urban areas and serve the needs of people who are willing and able to be served. That point is important because a number of people with developmental disabilities do not have the capacity to judge what kind of care they may need. These are often people with profound life-threatening behaviors, usually because they are so vulnerable.
Private care providers are allowed to pick and choose who they serve and to what extent. The practical effect of this policy, or lack of regulation, is that our providers serve the easy cases and reject people with too much complexity, or who develop reputations for conditions like defiant disorder, or who miss too many appointments because they cant keep track of time or read, or who are otherwise just too much trouble. There is no requirement for these facilities to serve the developmentally disabled even though tax dollars are paying for the lions share of services.
The upshot of our lack of due diligence since passage of the ADA is that the state of South Dakota now faces a possible lawsuit to force compliance with the act. To his credit, Gov. Daugaard has a good understanding of the difficulty of providing services to people in their own homes or communities.
In this state where you can fly for miles without seeing a single voter, finding people to do anything is a challenge, never mind finding those rare spirits who can and will care for the toughest cases.
Its no wonder we default to nursing homes who have the facilities but not the ability to meet the intent of the ADA. Or, worse, to correctional facilities because we just dont know what else to do.
In a rural state where so few people are so widely dispersed, concentrating facilities is the most economically efficient alternative. The proof is in the pudding. Not including family care, we have a small number of private and public providers located in our cities or far out on the plains, keeping people with developmental disabilities segregated in adult day programs, trying to help them find jobs, but mostly confining them to low-paying workshops.
At the same time, we are ratcheting back the facilities we do have at Yankton and Redfield. Our intent is to outsource care to private providers in our communities. Interpret that to mean the regions around Sioux Falls and Rapid City. There were once more than 1,800 people at the South Dakota Developmental Center at Redfield. There are now 180 clients served by 340 staff. The clients are often left to sit in large common spaces for extended periods because, while staff funding is not currently an issue, finding people to provide services is.
It is the toughest kind of challenge to already overwhelmed governments at any level. Lets hope we can figure it out before were forced on a path not of our choosing.
UGLY: Now that Roy Jeffs has pulled back the curtain a bit on life at the FLDS compound in Custer County, it is time for law enforcement in this state to take a closer look at a secret society that has a notorious nationwide reputation. Roy Jeffs is the son of Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison for child sexual assault yet still leads the FLDS. Roy Jeffs spent time at the Pringle compound, which features manned guard towers at its remote location. While there, he said he saw underage girls with babies and members regularly poaching wildlife in the Black Hills. He said he too was sexually abused by his father before eventually escaping from the clutches of the group in 2014 while working for a FLDS construction crew in Iowa. Despite complaints from neighbors, the state has turned a blind eye to the activities of the polygamist group that recently saw its Pringle leader, Seth Jeffs, charged in Utah with food stamp fraud and money laundering.
GOOD: So maybe the city won't need to spend $38 million to bring Barnett Arena into compliance with the American with Disabilities Act? That certainly could be the case, according to Geoffrey Ames, a project manager with Meeting the Challenge, which has worked with other communities faced with ADA challenges. In a question-and-answer piece in Friday's Rapid City Journal, he said the city has a number of options available to make the facility more accessible for the disabled short of spending many millions of dollars. Some of the problems, for example, can be addressed by changing policies, he said. The Civic Center Advisory Board deserves credit for inviting Ames here and getting a valuable perspective on solutions that will ultimately be paid for by taxpayers.
BAD: Sen. Mike Rounds has again illustrated the disconnect between those working in the Washington, D.C., bubble and average Americans who want elected officials to focus on to name a few issues improving the economy, reducing the cost of health care and higher education, and limiting the role of the behemoth known as the federal government. With all these and many other critical issues that need to be addressed, South Dakotas junior senator and former governor sent a press release Monday touting the latest bill he introduced: The Cyber Act of War Act, which requires the executive branch to define when a cyber act constitutes an act of war and for the federal government to compile reports on those efforts. It is hard to get excited about a bill that seems to do little more than keep bureaucrats busy while having no impact on our daily lives.
" " Americans love their ice cream so much that the average American eats more than 23 pounds (10 kilograms) of the stuff every year! Jonathan Knowles/Getty Images
Ice cream is arguably the best offering in the frozen aisle, but it's so much more than a chilly dessert. It's an experience. A bite of nostalgia. A spark for the senses. That's why the average American consumes more than 23 pounds (10 kilograms) of ice cream every year, according to the International Dairy Foods Association.
That's also why craft ice cream enthusiast and founder of Ohio-based Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Jeni Britton Bauer, launched her now-national brand in the first place. (Of course that booming $11 billion ice cream industry didn't hurt.)
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"It's like poetry to me," Britton Bauer says in an email. "Ice cream is all about scent. You can tell stories and transport people. Higher butterfat ice creams hold and carry more scent. The flavor blooms and builds as you eat it."
While ice cream has been around for centuries Alexander the Great liked his snow and ice with honey and nectar while Nero Claudius Caesar seasoned his mountain snow with fruits, according to the IDFA it's not the only frozen indulgence on the menu. Similar options like gelato, frozen custard and frozen yogurt also vie for every sugar-lover's attention. But can they come close to the deliciousness that is real ice cream? We talked with frozen dessert experts Jeni Britton Bauer and Bob Graeter of artisanal ice cream brand Graeter's to find out.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un speaks during the first congress of the countryas ruling Workersa Party in 36 years, in this photo released by North Koreaas Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang May 6, 2016. Reuters
The president of China, which has grown increasingly frustrated over North Koreas pursuit of nuclear weapons, congratulated its leader, Kim Jong Un, on his promotion to chairman of the ruling party, North Korean state media said on Tuesday.
Kim, 33, the third-generation leader of isolated North Korea, added the title of chairman of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) on Monday, the closing day of the countrys first ruling party congress in 36 years.
I wish the Korean people fresh success in carrying out the cause of socialism under the leadership of the WPK headed by Chairman Kim Jong Un, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Kim in a message, North Koreas KCNA news agency said.
We will make efforts together with the DPRK side to bring happiness to the two countries and their peoples and contribute to peace, stability and development in this region by steadily developing the Sino-DPRK friendship and cooperation.
DPRK stands for Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the Norths official name.
Chinas official Xinhua news agency cited Xi as saying that friendship between the two countries was personally forged and carefully fostered by the two countries leaderships of the older generation.
The traditional friendship is a treasure of both sides, Xi added.
There was no direct mention of North Koreas nuclear programme. North Korea said it would strengthen its defensive nuclear weapons capability, a decision adopted in defiance of UN resolutions.
China, North Koreas chief ally and main trading partner, backed tough UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea in March following the Norths fourth nuclear test in January.
Guwahati, May 8 : Security forces had recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition including two assault rifles from Aizawl, capital city of Mizoram on May 7, officials said on Sunday.
According to the reports, Assam Rifles in joint operation along with Mizoram Police recovered two AK 56 Assault Rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition from the house of Lalrintluanga resident of Laungmual, Aizawl.
An army official said that coming at the heel of recovery of four AK 56 Assault Rifles by 10 Assam Rifles in Hnahlan on May 5, these operations highlights the sustained efforts by Assam Rifles to check illegal movement
of weapons from across the border and their synergy with Mizoram Police.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is considering whether to lift the three-decade-old US arms embargo on Vietnam, US officials say, as he weighs calls to forge closer military ties with Hanoi against concerns over its poor human rights record.
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is considering whether to lift the three-decade-old US arms embargo on Vietnam, US officials say, as he weighs calls to forge closer military ties with Hanoi against concerns over its poor human rights record.
The debate within the US administration is coming to a head amid preparations for Obamas trip to Vietnam in the second half of May to bolster ties between Washington and Hanoi, former wartime enemies who are increasingly partners against Chinas growing territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea.
The full removal of the embargo something Vietnam has long sought would sweep away one of the last major vestiges of the Vietnam War era and advance the normalization of relations begun 21 years ago. It would also likely anger Beijing, which condemned Obamas partial lifting of the arms ban in 2014 as an interference in the regions balance of power.
On one side of the internal debate, some White House and State Department aides say it would be premature to completely end restrictions on lethal military assistance before Vietnams communist government has made more progress on human rights.
They are at odds with other officials, including many at the Pentagon, who argue that bolstering Vietnams ability to counter a rising China should take priority, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
Boosting the security of allies and partners has been a major thrust of Obamas strategic pivot towards the Asia-Pacific region, a centerpiece of his foreign policy.
Even as Vietnam seeks warmer relations with the United States, though, US officials are mindful that suspicions linger among Communist Party conservatives that Washington wants to undermine their countrys one-party system.
One major factor in Obamas decision will be whether Vietnam will move forward on major US defense deals, a potential boon for American jobs that could soften congressional opposition to lifting the weapons ban, according to one source close to White House policymaking.
There have been questions about whether Vietnam, which has relied mostly on Russian weapons suppliers since the Cold War, is ready to start buying US-made systems. Diplomats have seen increasing signs that Hanoi is seeking ties with US defense contractors but Washington wants tangible commitments, according to the source.
Vietnam is big buyer of weapons from Russia, its Cold War-era patron, including Kilo-class submarines and corvettes. It could look to the United States for items such as P-3 surveillance planes and missiles to beef up its naval forces and coastal defenses.
At the Pentagon, the prevailing view appears to be more in line with Defense Secretary Ash Carters congressional testimony late last month that he would support lifting restrictions on the sale of US weapons to Vietnam.
That comment raised eyebrows at the White House, where officials said Obama had yet to rule on the issue.
Obamas final decision could hinge on whatever recommendations come from a visit to Vietnam early this week by Daniel Russel, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, and Tom Malinowski, the administrations top human rights envoy.
It was not clear whether Obama was leaning for or against ending the embargo ahead of his trip, which will make him the third consecutive US president to visit Vietnam.
Obama eased the ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam in October 2014, allowing shipments of defensive maritime equipment to help Hanoi build up its deterrent to Chinas pursuit of its claims in the South China Sea, which conflict with those of its neighbors such as Vietnam and US ally the Philippines.
UNDESERVED AT THIS TIME
John Sifton, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said lifting the arms ban would be undeserved at this time. The group, in an April 27 letter sent to Obama, described the Vietnamese government as among the most repressive in the world.
While a number of US lawmakers favour closer military ties with Vietnam because of shared concerns about China, others have deep misgivings.
Democratic US Representative Loretta Sanchez, a member of the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam who also has a large Vietnamese-American voting bloc in her California district, said lifting the embargo would be giving a free pass to a government that continually harasses, detains and imprisons its citizens.
Obama has the power to bypass Congress to lift the embargo. But his administration would hope for support from Republican US Senator John McCain, a decorated former prisoner of war in North Vietnam who backed the 2014 partial lifting.
Some US officials see signs that Vietnam is starting to pay attention to human rights criticism. But concerns remain over the governments heavy-handedness towards political opponents and treatment of workers and there is worry that Washington will lose some leverage if it gives up the arms embargo without securing concessions for reforms.
One senior US official suggested that it might be best for now to set the issue of the lethal weapons ban aside.
These things do take time, the official said. But others said the door should remain open to lifting the embargo as preparations proceed for Obamas visit.
If Obama opts against removing the ban for now, another option that might mollify the Vietnamese would be creating a working group to map out the path towards doing so, one US official said.
Guwahati, May 8 : Security forces had apprehended two militants and recovered arms and ammunition in two separate operations in Assam on Sunday, officials said.
Based on intelligence input, army and police hand launched a joint operation at Nagdalbari area in Lower Assam Chirang district and nabbed a militant of a newly floated outfit group.
The nabbed militant was identified as Lakhiram Murmu and he is a local trained cadre of ADF and was involved in carrying out extortion activities in the area.
One Pistol and three live rounds were recovered in possession from him.
In separate incident, army and Kokrajhar Police launched a joint operation and apprehended one terrorist of NSLA (AT) from Guruphella village in Kokrajhar district.
The apprehended militant was identified as Junas Mardi alias Joyking Mardi.
He was an active terrorist of the banned organization and was involved in numerous cases of extortion, money collection and providing administrative support to the banned organization, an army official said.
A rifle along with one live round was recovered from the militant.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba
KATHMANDU, May 10: Nepali Congress president and the leader of the main opposition party in Parliament, Sher Bahadur Deuba, has accused the government of neglecting the environment for consensus by politicizing the judiciary and recalling the Nepalese ambassador to India.
Taking part in the discussions on the government's policies and programs in the Legislature-Parliament today, he said the biggest challenge at present is that of budget implementation and it would be ambitious to say that one would do so without forging consensus, which was unbelievable.
How appropriate is it for the government to say that it would hold the local body elections when the government has itself constituted a commission for delineating the border and number of local bodies and when the commission has not yet submitted its report, leader Deuba wondered.
He argued that although the local body election action plan has been mentioned in the policies and programs, it would not be possible without consensus among the parties.
Stating how practical the topic of producing 10,000 megawatt power in 10 years as mentioned in the government's policies and programs would be, the main opposition party leader slammed the policies and programs citing that it failed to include any plan for expediting the hydropower projects as Seti, Karnali and the like which the previous government had proceeded.
"It is not proper to talk ambitiously of electricity development without forging agreement on the power transmission line," he said and reminded the government to ponder whether one could see results by bringing policies and programs without any basis.
The main opposition party leader accused the government, saying there was shortage of essential goods in the market, and black market and corruption were thriving even after the lifting of the border blockade and the post-earthquake reconstruction works were in limbo.
"Although it is said that the ministries have released the relief and the grant for the earthquake survivors, the Chief District Officers have been saying that they have not received it. The earthquake victims have not received even blankets in the name of relief, a great injustice has been done to them," Deuba said.
Saying it would be a joke to talk of economic prosperity within five years in a country which has achieved less than one per cent economic growth rate, he said a 'temporary' government bringing a highly ambitious policies and programs is a mockery of the parliamentary system.
"The policies and programs brought by a temporary government are also temporary. There is unrest in the country at present and the need of the day is to move ahead by forging consensus with the agitating sides," he reiterated. RSS
Open Democracy - 10 May 2016
Perpetrators of sexual violence escape justice, while their victims are trapped between exhortations by womens advocacy groups not to asuffer quietly and the social stigma attached to sexual violence.
Audience in Chui Village during a public meeting, Nagaland. Photo: Dolly Kikon The Indo-Naga armed conflict is recognized as the longest insurgency in South Asia. It started as a movement for the right to self-determination in the Naga Hills during the transfer of power from the British colonial administration to the government of India around 1947. In 1997, the government of India and the Naga armed opposition groups signed a cease-fire agreement. The post 1997 ceasefire period came to be known as the era of peace process. However, during this period, violence against women escalated. When I was carrying out fieldwork on womenas testimonies of sexual violence in Nagaland two year ago, Naga women activists and advocacy groups emphasized that survivors of sexual violence must not asuffer quietlya. Yet, the social stigma attached to sexual violence was glaring. The tendency of blaming women for the violence they experienced contributed to the culture of impunity.
During my fieldwork, a woman in Dimapur observed, aThe girls are not completely blameless. They are partly responsible for it. Men can smell the sexual signals that girls give out. They attract men and get raped.a I came across such comments regularly. I realised how children were socialised and taught about morality and chastity on the basis of such world views. The male and the female reproductive organs were described as calculators that performed the arithmetic and values of profit and loss. The logic went like this, aOnce a man touches a woman (sexual intercourse), if he does not marry her, the girlas life is destroyeda . Yet, the logic of moral chastity was detached from social realities like the structural violence and the militarisation of Naga society as a consequence of the Indo-Naga armed conflict since Indiaas independence in 1947.
A majority of male household members between the 1960s and the early 1990s either joined the Naga armed groups and went underground, or were tortured and killed by the Indian security forces. For several decades during the heights of the Indo-Naga conflict, it was women who sustained and held the family together. Today the number of women-headed households, widows, women destitutes, survivors of sexual violence, and teenage pregnancies are some of the pressing issues in Naga society, yet it is the hymen centric moral and cultural code that is perpetuated in overwhelming ways.
With the help of counsellors and activists who were involved in the case, and the consent of her guardians, I documented the experiences of Beth, a fifteen-year old survivor of sexual violence in Dimapur. Bethas father sexually abused her from 2010 to 2013. As a cadre in one of the Naga insurgent groups, her father lived in the ceasefire camp, where newly disarmed insurgents were relocated (and where many thousands of Naga insurgents have languished since the 1997 ceasefire), but frequently visited the family and raped Beth. In 2013, the father fled from Dimapur after Bethas aunty reported the incident to the police. The case travelled between different legal jurisdictions a the insurgent courts, the customary family meetings, and the state police stations a because Bethas father and the aunt who reported the case to the police belonged to rival insurgent groups. Political rivalry and family rivalry were intertwined. The state agencies like the police were apprehensive to get into an internal matter where rival insurgent groups were involved. Bethas story captures how violence transgresses the boundaries of the family, the political associations, the legal courts, and the state agencies as well in conflict zones. Beth described the composition of her family in Dimapur as follows:
There are six of us (siblings) but none of us have any contact with one another. We are all out of touch. There are three of us from my mother who was the first wife, and there are three children from my stepmother, the second wife. All my stepsiblings stay with my step-mother, but my real brother and sister have been distributed in different relativeas houses. My real mother lives in the neighbourhood and has remarried. She lives with her husband.
Often, women and children are clubbed together as a single category in rehabilitation programs on militarisation and conflict, even though a large number of children are often abandoned, trafficked, or become orphans in such situations. The urgency to provide care and security to children in conflict zones for state agencies and humanitarian organisations alike requires the arduous task of locating relatives willing to become guardians for children like Beth and her siblings. The home is interpreted as a natural hub of love, security, and care without taking into consideration the structural violence and trauma that the social units and relations have undergone.
Issues of rehabilitation and trauma counselling are huge challenges in militarised societies. In cases of sexual violence, competing authorities that involves both state and non-state actors, often present their own versions of justice. Since the 1997 Indo-Naga ceasefire agreement, the legal institutions of the state, quasi-legal units like the insurgent justice system (i.e different tribunals and institutions set up by the Naga insurgents to adjudicate between the Naga public and the armed groups) and the state administrative organs (like the judiciary, executive, and the legislative) including the tribal customary courts all co-exist within their respective constituencies. For instance, female cadres of two Naga insurgent organisations who were sharing with me about crime against women in Dimapur city stated that perpetrators (whether it was civilian or their respective cadres) were given acapital punishmenta when found guilty. Why would the onus of providing justice in Naga society fall on the Naga armed groups? How did Naga insurgents living in ceasefire camps since 1997 become the harbingers of justice in militarised societies like Nagaland? What was the role of the Indian state in this arrangement?
We have to understand this phenomenon in the light of the history of militarisation and violence. The Indian state is deeply implicated in escalating the culture of sexual violence and impunity. Granting impunity to perpetrators like the Indian security forces since Indian independence under extra constitutional legislations like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) (1958) only legitimised this culture of violence. Today, hundreds of cadres continue to wait inside the camps, uncertain about their future. Some have surrendered and become entrepreneurs, while others have lost their lives in factional conflicts. The government of India is yet to accept its role and responsibility in the destruction of property and the psychological trauma and loss of lives in the Indo-Naga conflict. The act of sexual violence was always inscribed on others like the Indian security forces. However, Bethas story tells us that Naga men also commit sexual violence on Naga women. This reality will force us to break the silence and taboo against sexual violence in Nagaland.
Dolly Kikon is a social anthropologist, and teaches in the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne. She is involved with civil and political rights movement in Northeast India and closely works with advocacy groups focused on land rights, womenas rights, and campaigns against sexual violence
sacw.net - 11 May 2016
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, for better or worse, was a large presence on the political landscape of India for fifty years. In a fragmented sociopolitical and religious ethos, he represented the pluralism that would bind the people of Jammu and Kashmir together for a long time. Such personages leave indelible marks of their work and contributions on societies for which they have tirelessly worked, and their work, for the most part, traverses religious, class, and party fault lines. To associate such personages with just one political party or one religious group amounts to an inexcusable trivialization. Given the militarization and rabid fragmentation of Kashmiri society, it becomes necessary to evoke the man who symbolized Kashmiriyat or pluralism in the face of divisive politics. It also becomes necessary for federal countries to reassess and reevaluate their policies vis-A -vis border states.
Despite the diatribe, aquiet diplomacy,a negotiations, has the political landscape of Kashmir changed at all since 1953? I am still amazed to see how much the intelligence agencies of India and Pakistan continue to invest in trying to erase the name, ideology, and work of one Kashmiri nationalist, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. Several state and non-state actors in Kashmir can and have been coopted, mellowed, and made to follow the pied piper. Yet, the unfinished business of the powers to be on both sides of the Line of Control to ride roughshod over the history of Kashmiri nationalism and the evolution of a political consciousness in Kashmir, which began much before 1989, continues unabated. Itas interesting that the organization founded by him, the National Conference, bandies his name before every assembly election, but otherwise, conveniently, forgets his politics. My detractors level the allegation that I aeulogizea Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, but I believe, with the force of my conviction, that he, with all his contradictions, was a force to reckon with. How seriously do the Governments of India and Pakistan take current political actors, state and non-state, in Kashmir? So, I thought Iad revisit a long forgotten chapter of history, which, at the time, garnered tremendous international attention and condemnation of the arrogance of nation-states.
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullahas release in January 1958, after an ignoble incarceration of four and a half years, was welcomed by the populace of Kashmir with an unbounded ebullience, which was marvelously delineated in the Time, January 20, 1958:
At weekas end Sheikh Abdullah, wearing a long black funeral-black achkan over loose white pajamas, held on to the windshield of his jeep and waved to crowds lining the road and jamming the towns along the way as he rode to the capital at the head of a 30-car caravan. Srinagar welcomed him with a frightening din. When the Sheikh appeared on the balcony of a Moslem shrine, people prostrated themselves in a heap below, crying vows that they would lay down their lives for him. From across the city Premier Bakshi warned that Kashmiras future was foreclosed, that his police would tolerate no challenge to law and order in athis border state of the Indian Union.a
On April 22, 1958, the Special Correspondent of The Times of London wrote:
. . ., oneas impression on returning to the valley of Kashmir for the first time since Sheikh Abdullah was released is that he is still a power to be reckoned with. Alone, his principal colleagues and supporters all in gaol [sic], his every movement under police observation, his very presence is enough to deprive the present Kashmir Government of all peace of mind. Yet one cannot imprison a man indefinitely because he is admired and loved; nor presumably maintain in office a Government if it is unable to make itself either.
Although Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the then Head of Government in Kashmir, claimed that the Government had sufficient evidence to indict the Sheikh, his wife, Akbar Jehan, and their trusted colleagues, the Government would not bring them to trial, as that, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad cunningly claimed, would encourage the dissemination of aPakistani propagandaa and aother anti-Indian forces,a which the more loyal than the king premier would not brook. He audaciously reiterated the uncorroborated charge that the Sheikh had been the recipient of funds from Pakistan to, allegedly, fund the upkeep of aprivate forces of volunteers.a Bakshi, outrageously, contradicted himself when he accused the Sheikh of inciting subversive acts to disrupt public order and right after asserted that, athe situation in Kashmir was absolutely normal and that there had been no demonstrations worth mentioning in protest against the rearresta (The Times, May 6, 1958). The irony of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, an aIndian Muslim,a being put behind bars for voicing and advocating the right of self-determination aby the very Indians who won admiration and sympathy in the world in attaining their owna (Extracts from Commentary by Edward R. Murrow, 1 May 1958), wasnat lost on the world community.
The rearrest of the Sheikh created a constituency for his and Akbar Jehanas politics in those parts of the world that had lent moral support to Indiaas glorious struggle for freedom in 1947. An acclaimed American commentator profoundly noted, aIt is ironic that the Lion of Kashmir who fought so long for freedom has been jailed again by a freedom-loving state. The Lion exemplifies the spirit of Thoreau, who said, aI was not born to be forced.a And Norman Corwin once wrote, aFreedom isnat something to be won and then forgotten. It must be renewed like soil after yielding good cropsaa (Murrow, in broadcast over CBS Radio Network, May 1, 1958). Kashmir was, despite all claims to the contrary, Jawaharlal Nehruas singular failure and cast serious doubt on the veracity of the Preamble to the Constitution of India. The Chicago Daily Tribune was just as unequivocal in its criticism of the Sheikhas detention as other international commentators and political analysts,
His [Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah] arrest was under Nehru Governmentas Preventive Detention Act, which permits Indian authorities to hold a suspect upto [sic] ten years without lodging formal charges. Abdullah has been making himself unpopular by demanding that the people of Kashmir be permitted to decide their own future by a plebiscite. Abdullahas record of arrests in the days of the British rule rivals that of Nehru himself. In a recent letter to Nehru, Abdullah remarked that the Prime Minister had turned the Vale of Kashmir into a political graveyard and was treating prisoners as if they were in a Nazi concentration camp. He may wonder whether there has been any significant advance toward freedom since Mr. Nehru dispossessed the British. All that has happened is that Abdullah has become a martyr in the cause of liberty under Britainas heir. (May 5, 1958)
It did not take a skeptic to question Indiaas democratic credentials. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had been arrested for ahis political leaning which runs counter to the Government of India in Kashmir. . . . Sheikh Abdullah was never known for resorting to or even calling for violence; all that he had called for was that the people of Kashmir should be given their just right and that they should not be oppresseda (Al-Zaman, May 7, 1958). Perhaps Nehru had forgotten his categorization of political arrests as criminal, which buttressed the conviction of those struggling for their political freedom.
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah forcefully countered the allegation of breach of pledge leveled against him by the Government of India in 1953 and later in 1958:
With all the force at my command, I repudiate this allegation and submit that the responsibility for breach of pledges rests elsewhere. A pledge is not a one-sided affair. . . . When the charge of the breach of faith is, therefore, leveled against me, I have a right to pose the question as to where lies the responsibility for not implementing the promises and assurances given by the Government of India to the State of Jammu and Kashmir from the date of the tribal raid until my arrest in 1953. (Abdullah, aBreach of Pledge,a 31-32)
He did not desist from trying to find a solution to the Kashmir conflict which would be in accordance with athe freedom struggle of Kashmir and the independence movement of the Indian peoplea (Abdullah, aThe Kashmiri Viewpoint,a 41). He sought to find a practical solution to the deadlock that would enable preservation of peace in the Indian subcontinent, while maintaining the honor of everyone concerned.
(Nyla Ali Khan is a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma, and member of Scholars Strategy Network. She is the author of Fiction of Nationality in an Era of Transnationalism, Islam, Women, and Violence in Kashmir, The Life of a Kashmiri Woman, and the editor of The Parchment of Kashmir. She is editor of the Oxford Islamic Studiesa special issue on Jammu and Kashmir.)
New business incubation space in the works for downtown Salina
Saline County is in the approval process for an incubator space for retail and specialty food businesses in downtown Salina.
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Locally heavy thunderstorms during the evening will give way to mainly clear skies after midnight. Potential for severe thunderstorms. Low around 55F. SSW winds shifting to NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%..
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Locally heavy thunderstorms during the evening will give way to mainly clear skies after midnight. Potential for severe thunderstorms. Low around 55F. SSW winds shifting to NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
With news that Amazon Prime and five other new startups have recently gotten into the food delivery game, we honestly thought that the food-delivery market was saturated. Oh how wrong we were, as the advent of the latest meal-delivery service proves the market is in fact ripe for expansion. Enter Nom Nom Now, the San Francisco-based company that "uses only the freshest, restaurant-quality ingredients" in preparing meals for your dog.
"Cooked weekly in our local kitchen, our meals are individually portioned and ready to serve your dog with no prep," reads the company's website. Starting at $36.24 a week (plus tax, but including the delivery fee), the company delivers to your home fresh meals that, truth be told, look better than much of what I ate in college.
The Chronicle spoke with Nom Nom Now CEO Nate Phillips, who assured the paper that his client base is both diverse and growing. "Our customers aren't all in Pac Heights," he explained. "The initial reaction is definitely like 'that's a huge indulgence.' [...] And then we talk a little bit more and it becomes less about the indulgence and more about maintaining health."
Some of the not-indulgences include meals with names like Heartland Beef Mash (pictured above), Tasty Turkey Fare, Porkalicious Potluck, and Chicken Chow-Wow, and my just provide an answer to that question we've all been wondering as of late: Have we hit peak San Francisco yet?
Related: These Pics Of Dogs In Giants Gear Are The Most Important Thing To Come From Baseball Season So Far
In three days, the "playa," a remote portion of the Nevada desert that becomes a makeshift city of 70,000 during the annual Burning Man festival, has experienced two earthquakes.
The AP reported the first quake last Thursday in the Reno Gazette-Journal, a 3.5 magnitude event per the US Geological Survey. Then, yesterday, CBS SF and the AP report the second quake, magnitude 3.6.
In a remote region near Gerlach more than 100 miles northeast of Carson City, few felt the effects of the tremors. University of Nevadas Seismology Laboratory told the AP that the area has seen more seismic activity recently. After the second quake, Washoe County Sheriffs Office spokesman Bob Harmon told CBS and the AP that no damage had been reported.
Burning Man will occur this year on August 28th through September 5th.
Related: Missing Burning Man? Watch This Feature-Length Film From BM 2015
Having lost a significant ballot vote on Saturday in the city of Austin, ride-share companies Uber and Lyft both announced they were pulling out of the city completely, and as BuzzFeed reports, both apps went off the air in the local area Monday.
The citizens of Austin, Texas apparently rejected the ride-hailing companies' campaign to keep the city from requiring fingerprint-based background checks for all drivers. They got the measure on the ballot to repeal a local ordinance requiring the more stringent checks, and after it passed, Lyft issued a statement saying they'd be "pausing" operations there. "Lyft and Austin are a perfect match and we want to stay in the city," the company told BuzzFeed. "Unfortunately, the rules passed by the City Council dont allow true ridesharing to operate.
The companies collectively spent some $8 million to get the repeal measure passed.
As the Wall Street Journal says, Austin is now "the largest U.S. city where Uber isnt currently available." And as the paper explains, regarding Austin's insistence upon the Live Scan method of background checks with fingerprints, used by the FBI and now required in Austin:
The companies are refusing to yield on this issue in part because the Live Scan method is costlier and takes longer to process. Both companies need to sign up a large number of new drivers on a regular basis to expand to new cities and to replace the high portion of drivers who stop driving after a few months.
Uber pulled a similar tantrum in San Antonio last year, also over local regulations, only to decide to come back and operate in the city after all, as Slate reported last October.
Previously: SF's 37,000 Lyft and Uber Drivers Will Be Ordered To Get Business Licenses
California's open firearm carry prohibitions got a boost Monday, when the state's Supreme Court ruled 7-0 that loaded guns in a backpack or fanny pack is the same thing as concealing the weapon on one's person.
Laws prohibiting people from concealing loaded weapons on their person are nothing new what's arguably groundbreaking is the decision that bags carried on the body fall under those rules. As explained by the California Attorney General's website, "Generally you may not carry a concealed firearm on your person in public unless you have a valid Carry Concealed Weapon (CCW) license...California law does not honor or recognize CCW licenses issued outside this state."
To get a CCW license, one must "Contact your county sheriff's office or, if you are a resident of an incorporated city, your city police department" to get "a copy of their CCW license policy statement and the CCW license application." But it's not as simple as filling out a form: As Shouse California Law Group explains, in addition to the myriad of county-by-county regulations, one must be "of good moral character" and you must have good cause "for issuance of the license because you or a member of your family is in immediate danger."
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, CCW licenses are "unavailable in most populous areas of the state except to police and security guards."
People caught carrying a concealed weapon without a permit on the person or in a vehicle while in any public place" are subject to misdemeanor charges and up to a year in jail, based on a statewide law, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, "passed nearly five decades ago to plug a hole in state firearms laws after members of the recently formed Black Panthers began conducting 'cop watch' patrols of Oakland neighborhoods while openly carrying guns."
And according to the Supreme Court decision issued Monday, that law doesn't just cover a gun covered by a shirt-tail (for example) but extends to backpacks, fanny packs, and any "other container on the body and clothing that is being worn," the Associated Press reports.
"The distinction is untenable," Justice Ming Chin wrote in the court's decision (you can read the full decision in People vs. Wade, S224599 here.)
"It would require, for example that we treat differently a gun in a zippered pocket of a pair of cargo pants -- which would violate the statute -- from a gun in a fanny pack tied around the waist -- which would not violate the statute -- even though, from the perspective of easy access, the gun at the waist might be closer at hand than the gun in the knee pocket of the cargo pants."
The argument over whether or not backpacks and their ilk constituted open carry violations came about following the 2014 prosecution of Steven Wade, who was arrested in Los Angeles after after "police found a loaded revolver in a backpack that he had been carrying and tossed away as officers chased him," the Chron reports.
A trial court initially dismissed the charges against Wade, "citing an appellate court ruling that found a knife contained in a backpack was not carried 'on the person,'" the AP reports. But according to Chin, the two cases differed, as in the knife case, the defendant wasn't carrying the backpack, and a knife can still be used in such lawful pursuits as fishing, hunting, camping, picnicking and the like, which Chin says a handgun could not.
Wade "concedes that he carried the loaded firearm, but he argues that, because it was in his backpack, it was not on his person," Ming wrote in the court's decision.
"We disagree. The backpack was on his person and, accordingly, anything inside that backpack was also on his person. Case law strongly supports this conclusion."
The nephew of a long-time San Francisco public defender is expected to appear in court today, after he was arrested Friday in her fatal stabbing.
According to the San Francisco Police Department, officers were called to a home on the 400 block of Arkansas Street at 10:54 a.m. Friday, on reports of a "possible stabbing."
When they arrived they discovered 65-year-old Marlene "Marla" Zamora "inside the residence unconscious and not breathing." She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police say that "based on evidence obtained during the course of the investigation," 19-year-old Angelo Zamora was arrested for both the slaying and "local traffic warrants," and was booked into San Francisco County Jail. According to a spokesperson with the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, he remains in custody at San Francisco General Hospital for treatment of an undisclosed medical condition as of Tuesday morning.
According to SFPD spokesperson Officer Grace Gatpandan, "no one else is a suspect in Marlas murder," Bay City News reports. As yet, no motive in the stabbing has been publicly announced.
As previously reported, neighbors say that Angelo was found inside the home and covered in blood when police arrived Friday. According to the Ex, Marla was Angelo's aunt, while Bay City News describes her as the alleged killer's great-aunt.
A neighbor tells SFist that Angelo had been living with Marla, and says that area residents called police after they heard screaming and saw Marla's's body in the backyard.
As we noted in an earlier report, Marla was a 29-year veteran of the Public Defender's office as their principal trial attorney. She was perhaps best known for her defense of Edwin Ramos, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador convicted in 2012 for mistaking a San Francisco family for rival gang members and shooting them to death from a passing car in 2008 a case that's recently received renewed attention as SF's Sanctuary City policies have faced scrutiny.
She tried some of the toughest cases a public defender could try, including the Edwin Ramos case, San Francisco Public Defender Adachi said Friday afternoon.
This was a case where everybody in the city was against her and her client, but she fought that case with everything she had. She was just a tremendously caring, compassionate person.
Expected in court at 1:30 today, Marla's nephew is now the one in need of a defender. But that person won't come from Adachi's office, as SF's PD said Friday that "For obvious reasons, our office would not be able to represent anyone charged [in this case]. Marla Zamora was one of us."
Previously: Longtime SF Public Defender Marla Zamora Stabbed To Death At Her Potrero Hill Home
ELK POINT, S.D. | Authorities have identified the woman who died in a two-vehicle crash Monday on Interstate 29 near Elk Point.
The South Dakota Highway Patrol said the driver of a sport utility vehicle lost control in heavy rain, crossed the median and collided head-on with a van.
The crash happened shortly before 1:30 p.m.
Casondra Caudill, 32, of Tarkio, Missouri, a passenger in the SUV later died from her injuries. The passengers in the van, Korbyn Bertsch, 45, and Brent Starr, 35, both of Sisseton, South Dakota, were both seriously injured, the patrol said.
The van driver, Duane Wanna, 69, of Sisseton, the SUV driver, Shelby Steele, 24, of Sioux Falls, suffered minor injuries, the patrol said.
-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SIOUX CITY | The City Council voted Monday to finalize a cost-sharing agreement to help plan the construction of an Interstate 29 interchange near 235th Street.
Under the agreement, Sioux City would contribute $171,387, or about 28 percent, of the estimated $600,000 justification report, which is required before a decision on whether a new I-29 exit can be built. The interchange is estimated to cost about $20 million.
The Iowa Department of Transportation will pitch in $198,000, the same as Woodbury County has agreed to pay. Sergeant Bluff will pay $8,759, and Salix will pay $754. The Siouxland Initiative will pick up the remaining $40,200.
Officials are planning the interchange between mile markers 138 and 140, which would give direct access to Sioux City's Southbridge Industrial Park, which is located south of Sioux Gateway Airport.
While IDOT is involved in the project, the final decision on whether to create a new exit will come from the Federal Highway Commission.
Once officials select a consultant, that will take about three months, and another two years through the end of 2017 would be needed to complete the report.
If the exit is approved by the FHC, it could take three to five years to pinpoint governmental funding, and building the exit could take another two years.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | A woman faces an assault charge for assaulting a man with a knife during a domestic disturbance Tuesday morning.
South Sioux City police arrived at the Cherry Ridge Apartments, 800 Riverview Drive, at about 7:58 a.m.
A man had suffered an injury on his right wrist from a knife during an argument while a child was present inside the apartment, Police Lt. Doug Adams, said.
Wenda Wright, 36, of South Sioux City, was arrested and charged with first-degree assault and child endangerment.
The child was not injured. The victim was treated at the scene and released.
Wright was booked into the Dakota County Jail. Her bond information was not available.
STORM LAKE | A woman faces a child endangerment charge for allegedly hitting her stepdaughter with a wire hanger, authorities said.
Storm Lake police reported that on May 4 they were told of a case of possible child abuse which was reported to the Iowa Department of Human Services.
Investigators were advised an 11-year-old girl had alleged on April 30 she was struck with a wire hanger by her stepmother as a form of discipline.
The victim and witnesses were interviewed by police. Injuries the girl suffered were consistent with the alleged assault, authorities said.
Sarah Diu, 31, of Storm Lake was arrested Monday and charged with child endangerment causing bodily injury -- a felony.
Diu was booked into the Buena Vista County Jail on $5,000 bond.
SIOUX CITY | A fundraiser dog walk to promote awareness of puppy mills will be held Saturday beginning at PetSmart, with registration at 8:30 a.m. and the walk beginning at 9:20 a.m.
The Strut Your Mutt for Puppy Mill Dogs will raise funds for educational campaigns about puppy mills in Siouxland.
The walk will start at PetSmart, 5001 Sergeant Road, move along Lincoln Way and then turn onto Mayhew Avenue before looping back to PetSmart for a total of 1.75 miles.
After the walk there will be booths for refreshments, dog nail painting and paw print participation certificates.
Underground Yoga will host a short dog yoga class in combination with their kids yoga class.
Registration for the dog walk is $20, and all proceeds go to help educate Siouxland on puppy mills and help Iowas 15,000 puppy mill dogs.
For more information, contact Kathie Pfaffle at 712-251-4632 or kpfaffle@iafriends.org.
SIOUX CITY | This time, families of Heaven Zevenbergen and Angelica Perez shed tears of happiness instead of sorrow as they walked out of the courtroom.
Three months after they were sentenced to five years in prison for staging a bank robbery, both women returned to the same Woodbury County District Courtroom Tuesday, only to learn they would soon be set free after District Judge Jeffrey Neary reconsidered his initial sentence.
Neary suspended the remainder of each woman's prison sentence and placed them on five years probation. They were expected to be released from custody Tuesday afternoon.
The decision to reconsider and reduce the sentences, Neary said, helped him find a middle ground in the appropriate punishment. Both women had pleaded guilty to second-degree theft as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. Those plea agreements left the sentence up to Neary, who had two options: probation or five years prison, the statutory sentence for that charge.
Neary said that at the time of sentencing, he didn't believe probation was an appropriate punishment, but neither was a five-year prison sentence, even though it would have been reduced significantly through earned-time sentence reductions and other credits.
"This is an effort to strike a balance between all those particular considerations," Neary said in court Tuesday.
In an interview after the hearing, Neary said that he had intended the original prison term to be "shock sentencing," a short stint in prison that, it's hoped, will scare an offender into avoiding future criminal behavior. Neary said it was always his intention to reconsider the two women's sentences.
"It was clearly an option I was considering at the time of sentencing," he said.
Zevenbergen and Perez, both 19, each pleaded guilty to an Aug. 15 plan in which Perez arrived at the Security National Bank branch at Hy-Vee, 2827 Hamilton Blvd., in disguise and passed Zevenbergen, who was a bank employee, a note demanding cash and saying she was armed. Zevenbergen then gave Perez $10,000.
Assistant Woodbury County Attorney James Loomis said at sentencing that Zevenbergen then faked passing out to give Perez more time to escape. Perez mistakenly locked her keys in her car and had to hide the cash and her disguise in the Perry Creek ditch nearby. When the two returned later, most of the money was missing.
Police recovered approximately $600 of the cash.
Loomis declined to comment after Tuesdays' hearing.
Both women had had no disciplinary problems while in prison, Neary said, though the Iowa Board of Parole denied parole to each of them in April. They were eligible for another parole hearing in four months.
Neary said he had received 14 letters from community members prior to his reconsideration of the sentences. The writers of the majority of those letters did not want to see Zevenbergen and Perez released early, and Neary acknowledged during Zevenbergen's hearing that there would be differences in opinion on an appropriate sentence.
"We might disagree how long Ms. Zevenbergen should remain in prison," Neary said.
Zevenbergen and Perez still must pay $10,000 restitution to the bank. Other terms of their probation include completing substance abuse and mental health evaluations. They also must complete a victim empathy course.
ELK POINT, S.D. | One person was killed and four others were injured in a two-vehicle crash Monday afternoon on Interstate 29 west of Elk Point.
According to a South Dakota State Patrol news release, a 2015 Chevy Equinox occupied by two females was driving south on I-29 at 1:24 p.m. Monday when the vehicle veered through the median into the northbound lane and collided head-on with a northbound 2006 Chevy Express van occupied by three males.
The female passenger of the Equinox, a 32-year-old, died from her injuries, the release said. A 42-year-old male passenger of the Express sustained life-threatening injuries. Neither was wearing a seat belt, the release said.
The 24-year-old female driver of the Equinox and the 69-year-old male driver of the Express suffered serious, non-life-threatening injuries, and a 35-year-old male passenger of the Express sustained minor injuries, the release said. All three were wearing seat belts.
No names have been released.
Agencies involved at the scene included the Union County Sheriff's Office, Elk Point Police, Elk Point Fire and Rescue, Vermillion EMS, Jefferson EMS, Siouxland Paramedics and South Dakota Highway Patrol.
The crash remains under investigation by the South Dakota Highway Patrol.
SIOUX CITY | UnityPoint Health -- St. Lukes Childrens Miracle Network has announced the inaugural Ride for Miracles, set for Sept. 19-30, with a mission to raise awareness and funds for Childrens Miracle Network in Sioux City.
The ride will cover nearly 4,500 miles in 12 days. Riders will travel with no chase cars and no safety nets.
The challenging route will take riders around the five Great Lakes, starting with the northern route through Canada.
Riders will also stop at Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals to meet children and share their story along the way.
In 2015, St. Lukes Childrens Miracle Network funds touched over 21,800 pediatric visits and served kids from 36 counties throughout Northwest Iowa, Northeast Nebraska and Southeast South Dakota.
Since becoming a Childrens Miracle Network Hospital in 1989, St. Lukes has raised more than $8 million to improve, advance and enhance pediatric and newborn health care in Siouxland.
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | High school students seemingly exist inside a constant cloud of noise.
They chatter excitedly among themselves. Videos constantly stream across the screens of their smartphones. Earbuds and headphones deliver music directly to their ears.
Alex Boutthavong hears none of this.
He won't hear the applause Sunday when he and his fellow South Sioux City High School seniors graduate.
What he will do is smile, probably a lot. And if someone turns up the music to a ground-shaking level, there's a good chance he'll start dancing, too.
Being born completely deaf, Alex said, has presented its challenges ever since he started school. But you won't hear him complaining about it.
"A long time ago I was thinking negative about myself because I'm deaf, but this is who I am," he said through sign language interpreters Shelly Groetken and Amy German. "I have goals and I have dreams I want to chase, and I will be successful. Before, people thought I couldn't do anything because I'm deaf. That persuaded me to be more positive to myself to think I can make a difference."
The son of Panya and Bounchanh Boutthavong, Alex has made a difference at South Sioux City, showing other students that physical limitations don't have to limit one's high school experiences.
"He does not let his non-hearing slow him down," said Linda Swanson, his school counselor. "He doesn't say I'm not going to do something. He just does it."
He's done a lot in four years.
He was a student manager for the volleyball team. He staffs the school's computer lab help desk, assisting students with their computer needs. He was on the wrestling team this year.
And most of all, he dances. He can't hear the music, but it still makes him move, especially his favorite hip-hop songs.
"I have a skill that I can feel the beats," Alex said.
He's used that skill for roles in school musicals "Grease" and "Fiddler on the Roof." He's a popular participant in school talent shows, and he's also formed his own dance team, made up of kids who can hear.
"One reason that I became a dancer is to show it's possible and that the deaf can do it," he said.
He's been showing those possibilities since he began preschool. It wasn't easy to learn sign language and English, Alex said, but he did it. He won over classmates who didn't know how to communicate with him, or even were a little freaked out, by teaching them sign language or writing notes back and forth with them. As technology has advanced, it's become easier to talk with friends via text message and social media.
"What's really great is more students want to learn sign language because of Alex and they want to communicate with him," Swanson said.
And even better, she said, is that students treat him as they would anyone else. They're drawn in by his smile and laughter.
"He just has such a phenomenal personality," Swanson said.
That's been a key, Alex said, to getting through high school. A smile and a laugh break down the barriers that being deaf may create.
"I don't try to hide it, and this is who I am," he said.
Alex, who turns 18 Sunday, plans to attend Western Iowa Tech Community College next fall and study computers, then transfer to a four-year college. He also will keep dancing and hopes to find a role for it in his future.
In a way, he said, he's had it easier in high school than some students because he's had more adults -- interpreters, teachers and counselors -- looking out for him and helping him.
He's grateful for that help, and also for the chance to show other teenagers that he's no different than they are.
He hopes that through all he's done, he's been able to inspire others, help them realize that everyone has a weakness, something that can hold them back. It's up to each student to do something about it.
"That's my goal is to encourage other people to follow their dreams and to show them it's possible," he said.
It's a message that can be heard by all.
WASHINGTON -- The first rule in elections is: Go for the votes you can get. By that measure, Hillary Clinton is right to try to put the old Obama coalition on steroids.
Donald Trump will expand the Democrats' opportunities among non-white Americans, and produce Clinton landslides among Latinos. They have good reason to fear and despise the man who has demeaned them.
And watch Republicans for Clinton become a major force in American politics, an alliance of mostly well-off, well-educated voters -- plus women of all classes. The members of the party of Lincoln who support Clinton will see that against Trump, she is the safe and even, by the non-ideological definition of the term, conservative choice.
But Clinton also has to challenge Trump for at least a share among angry and struggling white working-class voters with real economic grievances. Their votes matter if she wants to keep Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania in the Democratic column.
Clinton's visit to Appalachia last week reflected this realism, but it was about more than electoral calculation, since she is highly unlikely to carry either West Virginia (most Democrats think she'll lose its primary today to Bernie Sanders) or Kentucky this fall. Believe it or not, there are moral obligations in electoral politics. This is why her Appalachian outreach represented one of the admirable moments of her campaign. A progressivism that writes off the white working class is not worthy of being called progressive.
Trump, of course, mocked her visit and reveled in the pushback she got from voters who are part of his base. She had to offer an apology for her statement earlier this year that "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."
Politically, it was not, to be charitable, a wise thing to say. But consider the context of that line at a March CNN town hall:
"I'm the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right, Tim? And we're going to make it clear that we don't want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories."
The media often don't put comments of this sort in context because, as you can see above, it takes a big fat, space-consuming paragraph to make it clear that she was speaking with empathy for coal miners, not consigning them to the economy's dustbin.
And her speech last Tuesday in Athens, Ohio, offered un-glitzy, realistic policies to try to bring back an Appalachian economy that can no longer rely on coal. "At a time when our energy sector is changing rapidly, we need to invest in coal communities," she said. "We need to figure out how to bring new jobs and industries to them, and we need to stand up to the coal executives trying to shirk their responsibilities to their workers and retirees."
Now contrast this with Trump's speech in Charleston, W.Va., on Thursday. "I'm going to put the miners back to work," Trump declared, "and she said I'm going to put the miners and the mines out of business."
The first part of that statement is a policy lie, but not the sort of lie politicians typically get called on. The truth is that for a whole series of reasons (as thoughtful reporting over the years by the Louisville Courier-Journal has shown), the region's old coal economy is not coming back to anything like where it was. In suggesting he can reverse these large economic trends, Trump is making a promise he cannot possibly keep. But a nice sound bite grabs more attention than Clinton's more complicated post-coal revitalization ideas.
In her speech, Clinton acknowledged several times that many of the voters she met with during her Appalachian tour would never vote for her. The trip nonetheless made sense as part of a larger obligation of leadership. Making America governable again requires breaking down barriers that get in the way of empathy across the lines of race and class but also of social status and personal values. And making America a more just nation requires honest talk about policies that can actually lift up those still hurting in our economy.
The hard political truth is that economic justice and empathy are the true alternatives to Trumpian divisiveness.
DES MOINES | Ride-hailing services like Uber will be governed by state regulations in Iowa next year, thanks to a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Terry Branstad.
The regulations require ride-hailing companies to be permitted by the state transportation department and drivers to undergo background checks, and set minimum insurance levels for drivers.
The new state regulations, which go into effect Jan. 1, establish a baseline set of requirements for ride-hailing companies like Uber, which to this point has been governed in Iowa by local ordinances.
Uber has previously announced plans to expand into Sioux City by this summer.
Local governments, like the Sioux City Council, still may pass additional regulations if they choose.
This is really a positive step forward for Iowa, Sagar Shah, general manager for Uber in Iowa, said Monday. Its real exciting for the industry, for the riders and drivers, and the economic opportunities that will be created for everyone with this uniform regulation.
Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft use an internet-based application to pair people looking for a ride with drivers who are independently contracted by the service.
Uber operates in the Quad-Cities, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Des Moines and Ames, and has served more than 100,000 Iowans, according to a company official.
We look forward to expanding in new cities now, around Iowa, Shah said. One excellent outcome from this bill is the ability to expand elsewhere in the state.
The legislation generated a tense debate over insurance requirements, but ultimately was approved unanimously by state lawmakers.
As technologies and industries continue to innovate and evolve, so should Iowas laws. And this bill aims to do just that, Branstad said.
The ride-hailing companies permit filing fee of $5,000 will go to the states Road Use Tax Fund, which funds road construction and repairs.
Drivers must carry $1 million in liability insurance, and if the vehicle being used has a lien most notify its holder.
SIOUX CITY | City Council members backed away Monday from a proposed hike in water and sewer rates after expressing concerns the increase would be too costly for many years.
The five-member council voted unanimously to table a city staff recommended plan to raise water rates by 7 percent and sewer rates by 3.5 percent, effective July 1.
"Seven percent and three-and-a-half percent seem to be extraordinarily high," said Councilman Dan Moore, who specifically mentioned the hardship the higher rates would cause for households with limited incomes.
"People are going to be upset with a rate increase," Mayor Bob Scott added.
No one spoke for or against the proposal during the council's weekly meeting Monday.
In the first year, the average residential customer would pay an additional $3.58 per month for water and sewer, or $42.96 for the year, according to city figures.
Sewer bills for the average residential customer would increase by $1.20 per month the first year, and $1.25 and $1.29 per month in the second and third years. Residential water bills would increase $2.38 per month in the first year, and $2.49 and $2.69 per month in the second and third years, respectively.
The increases, expected to bring an additional $5.3 million into city coffers over three years, would help replace aging infrastructures, upgrade the wastewater treatment plant and pay off debt to relocate utilities in the way of rebuilding Interstate 29.
Donna Forker, the city's budget and finance director, said the proposed increases are necessary for the city to maintain its budget and fund future projects.
"With the utilities side, there is nothing we can do while our hands are tied," Forker told the council. "We've been just skipping by where we should be with water (rates)."
The increased revenue would help the city pay off nearly $40 million in costs incurred for having to move utility lines in the path of I-29 construction.
Debt related to sewer line relocations total $32.2 million over five years, while the water line debt is $5.7 million over that same period.
The council will discuss the proposed rate increases during its next regular meeting on May 16. Any change to rates would require three readings before the ordinance would go into effect.
Corrections reform has become one of North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjems key planks in his campaign for governor. The states prison system and most county jails are dealing with overcrowding issues. And, as Department of Corrections Director Leann Bertsch noted in the past, we cant build our way out of the problem.
Stenehjem told the Bismarck Tribune Editorial Board recently that the state needs to find alternatives to prison sentences, especially in many drug cases. He wants the state to develop better treatment options for those fighting addiction and mental illness. Defendants facing drug-related charges wont get a pass, theyll be expected to get treatment, be tested to prove they are clean and be required to not have any more violations.
Drug dealers, the ones responsible for getting people hooked on drugs, still will be facing jail time, in many cases lengthy sentences.
This isnt a new issue and its a problem across the nation. The Bismarck Tribune has been consistent in urging reforms and work is under way on developing solutions.
The interim Incarceration Issues Committee has been holding hearings and working with the nonpartisan Council of State Governments Justice Center. The council in a recent meeting with the committee cited a 2014 study that found two-thirds of North Dakota judges had sentenced someone to prison so they could get treatment. The council noted that this is the most expensive way to provide treatment.
The interim Incarceration Issues Committee has been asked to develop legislation to cut costs and reduce recidivism. Whatever they offer will likely face a battle. The 2017 legislative session will be dealing with tighter budgets and there may be some reluctance to use funds on corrections reforms. However, as Stenehjem argues, there will be a return on the investment in treatment. If offenders can be turned into productive citizens they will be a benefit to society.
Thats why its important the committee do a thorough job on legislation. They need to be able to persuade the Legislature to act.
On the national level, the group Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration also is working on alternatives to arrest and prosecution. More than 100 current and former law enforcement leaders are involved in the project. The groups recommendations could prove helpful to North Dakota.
Last fall the states prison population was 1,783, more than triple the 578 inmates in 1995. Projections show the population reaching 2,985 by 2025. The state needs to find a way to stop that growth and the interim committee can play a major role in doing so.
We need to end the waste of talent caused by drugs and the financial drain from the overcrowded prison and jails.
Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune
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
Patricia Ann Hitt, 76, of Hughesville, MD passed away May 8, 2016 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, MD. She was born February 10, 1940 in Alabama to the late Robert E. Bass and Sarah Maude Taylor Bass.
On May 21, 1960, Patricia married her beloved husband, Thomas Edwin Hitt at Andrews Air Force Base Chapel. Together, they celebrated 56 wonderful years of marriage.
She dedicated over 31 years of employment at Giant Food, Inc. as a talented and creative florist. She was an excellent cook and prepared many delicious meals. She enjoyed vacationing at the beaches and Florida, especially trips to Sea World. Her hobbies included riding roller coasters, cheering on the Washington Redskins, and watching her NASCAR favorite, Jeff Gordon. Her greatest love was for her family, especially her grandchildren and great grandchildren, and her pets.
In addition to her beloved husband, Patricia is also survived by her children, Robert Hitt (Lori) of LaPlata, MD, Thomas Hitt (Sherri) of Leonardtown, MD, and Kimberly James of Jacksonville, NC; 7 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren; and many extended family and friends. She is preceded in death by her parents.
Family will receive friends on Friday, May 13, 2016 from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m., with a Service of Remembrance at 7:00 p.m., at Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A., 22955 Hollywood Road, Leonardtown, MD 20650. Interment will be private. Memorial contributions may be made to St. Mary's Animal Welfare League, P.O. Box 1232, Leonardtown, MD 20650 and American Cancer Society, Hope Lodge, 636 W Lexington Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Arrangements by the Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A., Leonardtown, MD
Orebro (Sweden), May 08, 2016 (SPS) - The Swedish Left Party has asked the government of his country to recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), as the best contribution to a peaceful solution to the conflict in Western Sahara.
In a statement at the end of its General Congress, the Swedish Party stressed that the official recognition of SADR by the Swedish government is the best contribution that can bring the country to find a peaceful solution to the Saharawi-Moroccan conflict, an initiative which could encourage other countries to take the same decision.
Sweden, according to the political party, must work for the organization of a referendum for the Saharawi people to decide their future and to work in collaboration with the African Union to strengthen the international isolation of Morocco.
The Swedish party also called for the exercise of economic sanctions on Morocco to put an end to its occupation of Western Sahara, and to work to increase the humanitarian aid to the Sahrawi refugees. (SPS)
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EDINBURGH (Sputnik) He added that if Brits voted against the UK membership of the European Union, there would be arguments in Scotland over the issue of the second referendum on the independence from London.
"As a passionate European it seems to me that the UK leaving the EU completely changes the political dynamic on the question of Scottish independence," McLeish said.
UK nationals are set to vote on June 23 in a referendum on the country's EU membership, after Prime Minister Cameron and the leaders of the 27 other EU member states had reached a deal in February to grant the United Kingdom a special status within the bloc.
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Megumi Igarashi, 44, also known as Rokudenashiko, meaning good-for-nothing girl, was convicted on Monday over her July 2014 arrest for distributing obscene images. She was fined 400,000 yen (about $3,687).
Igarashi was previously cleared on one charge related to reproductions of her vagina, after selling plaster versions of the kayak at a sex shop in Tokyo. Her lawyers argued that the kayak did not obviously resemble female genitalia and could not be considered obscene.
Months later, she was arrested again, for creating and displaying plaster molds of her decorated vagina, and sending and selling discs containing the code to 3D print it.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) US and Afghan troops liberated on Tuesday Ali Haider Gilani, son of former Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who was taken captive in Afghanistan three years ago, Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
Ali Haider Gilani was kidnapped in 2013 in the central Pakistani city of Multan. According to media reports, the act of kidnapping was allegedly conducted by the militants of the Taliban movement.
"The Afghan National Security Adviser, Mr. Mohammad Hanif Atmar, in a telephone call to the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sartaj Aziz, informed that Mr. Ali Haider Gilani son of Mr. Yusuf Raza Gilani, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan," the statement reads.
General elections were held in the Philippines on Monday. According to preliminary results, Rodrigo Duterte, who served as mayor of Davao City for more than 22 years, won the presidential election by a landslide.
"We did everything in our power to maintain the overall level of our relations, but in recent years for various reasons, bilateral relations faced huge challenges. We hope that the new Philippine government will work with us to solve the existing disputes in [a] rational way and take substantial measures to put bilateral relations on a path of stable development," Lu Kang told journalists at a briefing.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) A bomb explosion in the Afghan province of Kandahar killed one policemen and one civilian as law enforcement attempted to defuse a roadside mine, spokesman for the governor Samim Ikhpelwak told local media.
Five more police officers were injured by the explosion.
The bomb was presumably a roadside mine planted by insurgents to target security forces, the Afghan agency TOLOnews reported.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) President Barack Obama will emphasize nuclear disarmament this month during a historic visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.
Just in: President Obama will visit #Hiroshima after conclusion of G-7 Summit, 1st US Pres to do so pic.twitter.com/Ukm17HLLBZ Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) 10 May 2016
"Finally, the President will make an historic visit to Hiroshima with Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," the statement said.
Obama visiting Hiroshima/Nagasaki would be chance to say civilians should NEVER be targeted. https://t.co/QYpXoBDFqP pic.twitter.com/Cmqg1Foxrp Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) 10 May 2016
The visit comes as part of a seven-day trip to Vietnam and Japan for a Group of Seven (G-7) summit.
NEW DEHLI (SPUTNIK) Asia Khatoon's family has said she was brutally tortured by her Saudi employers, which led to her eventual death. The family is now struggling to get the 25-year-old's body back as the incident threatens to potentially create a diplomatic row between the two countries.
The news about Khatoon's death only emerged when her family received a telephone call from an anonymous person in Riyadh. Just three days prior to her death, the government of the Indian state of Telangana, where the victim is from, approached the Indian federal government and foreign ministry in an attempt to rescue Khatoon on behalf of the family. However, the efforts of the doomed young woman's relatives were in vain.
"She was locked in a room the day she reached there and was not given any food. My daughter used to call me and cry. She complained of body aches and heart burns. She said she could not eat," the victim's mother, Ghousia Khatoon, told the press.
"The constitution that gives us the right to agitate also specifies our duty. This bus is bought with public money. It is your bus, so we wanted people to remember this," said Kataria. The dead vehicles will be towed via the city's arterial roads to send a message to the common people.
The motivation for the campaign came from garment workers' protests in the city; the demonstrators had rallied against the government's pension plans. Up to 150 state-operated buses were damaged during their demonstrations and eight were burned. The recent protests cost the public budget about 150 million Indian rupees ($2.25 million) in total. Several artists and other public figures are also lending their hand in support of the campaign.
NEW DELHI (Sputnik) The Indian Air Force plans to introduce Russian S-400 Triumf Missile System to its military arsenal next year. The cost of the deal has not been divulged by India but according to other sources, India is likely to pay approximately USD 6 billion for five S400 units.
Expressing enthusiasm over the performance of the S-400 Triumf Missile System, Parrikar said in Parliament today that the S-400 has better performance parameters compared to the S-300 in many respects, such as maximum and minimum target engagement range, minimum target engagement altitude, and maximum speed of target engaged. Parrikar also said that the S-400 is better in terms of the number of targets and maximum radar cross-section of targets engaged simultaneously as compared to the S-300. It also takes less deployment time as compared to the S-300.
The "excessive maritime claims" refers to Beijings construction of artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago. While Washington has accused Beijing of attempting to establish an air defense zone, China maintains it has the right to build within its own territory and that the islands will be primarily used for humanitarian purposes.
Tuesdays freedom of navigation patrol by the guided missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence is meant to challenge Chinas territorial claims. Similar patrols have been conducted in recent months by the USS Lassen and US fighter aircraft.
UAE is crucial for India's maritime strategy in the Indian Ocean. Apart from India, UAE is also member of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium which has served as a forum for sharing information and cooperating on maritime issues. India has been pushing for a greater role for the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium which needs the requisite political will.
In the region, where the balance of naval forces is changing with the increasingly prominent presence of the rapidly modernizing Chinese Navy, India wants the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium to work towards providing a stable maritime order.
The enormous bundle of 11.5 million documents exposing hundreds of thousands of companies and individuals is online as a searchable database with interactive visualization depicting links between persons, companies and countries.
According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), an organization which, until today, had sole access to the documents, the database reveals the names of the real owners of many shell companies.
The website opens with a disclaimer, noting that there not all people and organizations on the list use tax havens illegally. The statement also mentions that many people have similar names, and recommends diligent ID validation.
The gas pipeline project has been met with opposition from some EU member states over fears it would increase European energy dependence on Russia. At the same time, Germany has repeatedly expressed its interest in the project, saying that it would bring more benefits for EU members and provide energy safety and security to the 28-nation bloc.
MONTEVIDEO (Sputnik) On June 2, Vienna is expected to host the 169th OPEC meeting to discuss the current state of affairs in the global oil industry. Several non-OPEC states, such as Russia and Oman, are expected to participate in the meeting.
"The June meeting of OPEC member states and other producers of cheap oil will not be required to make any decision on freezing output at January 2016 levels, since the market will take care of leveling prices at around $40-50 a barrel," Ortiz said.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The Federal Reserve Bank of New York will cooperate with the Central Bank of Bangladesh and the financial messaging services provider Swift to help recover proceeds lost in a cyber fraud event in February, the bank said in a press release on Tuesday.
"The parties also agreed to pursue jointly certain common goals: to recover the entire proceeds of the fraud and bring the perpetrators to justice, and protect the global financial system from these types of attacks," the release stated.
In February, the New York Federal Reserve blocked $850 million worth of transactions from Bangladeshs account, but did not prevent the illicit transfer of another $101 million.
"Khalid al-Falih backed al-Naimi decision in November 2014, when OPEC decided to transition from a 'swing producer' to a 'volume maximizer' that aims to push the least-efficient producers, such as high-cost producers, out of the market," Giovanni Staunovo said.
Joel Hanley, editorial director with European & African Oil, expressed a similar view, saying that any OPEC members hoping to witness any changes in June when Falih was expected to attend his first OPEC ministerial meeting "are sure to be disappointed."
"The new oil minister's recent statements signal that Saudi Arabia will continue with current policy, increasingly unpopular with other OPEC members and producers outside the group, of defending its share of the global oil market by keeping output high regardless of prices. Nor is the kingdom likely to join other producers in a pact to freeze output unless Iran comes on board," Hanley added.
Non-OPEC Burden of Adjusting Supply
The study revealed that some territories are disappearing at a faster rate than anticipated. While the average sea-level rise was projected to be 3 to 5 mm annually in the Solomon Islands, research has shown that the actual rate is over double, up to 7 to 10 mm annually.
Many scientists assert that the fate of the Solomon Islands is the tip of the iceberg of what can be expected on coastlines and islands around the world, looking toward the first half of the 21st century. Some argue that there is little chance now to avoid the rise of oceans, as it would require steep and immediate cuts in carbon emissions around the world, especially in developing countries.
Additional factors indicating a global ocean-level rise include tectonic movements and wave energy that damages shorelines. According to the study, islands with shorelines unprotected from open-ocean waves will suffer more dramatic damage.
This global environmental disaster most deeply affects the local inhabitants of archipelagos like the Solomons, where residents are forced to abandon homes established in the beginning of the 20th century by missionaries. Inhabitants of the islands effectively become environmental refugees, and must move or perish, relying on what little resources available to them.
Under the current sea-level dynamic, Taro, the capital of Choiseul Province, one of the nine provinces making up the Solomon Islands, is expected to become the first provincial capital on Earth to relocate residents and services in response to the impact of rising oceans.
However, in 2012 geophysicists in the UK published a supercomputer model which demonstrated that iron in the planet's core is more efficient at conducting heat than previously thought.
"Put simply, the paradox is that in this model, so much heat escaped from the core via conduction that there wasn't enough energy left over to fuel convection (when heat creates motion) in the liquid outer core. The implication: Earth's magnetic field shouldn't exist," LiveScience explained.
The 2015 paper appeared to overcome this conundrum, because it apparently proved the traditional model.
"There was a big problem in how you generate a magnetic field, and now, because of our results, that problem has basically gone away," study co-author Ron Cohen told LiveScience.
However, Cohen and co-authors Peng Zhang and K. Haule have now printed a retraction of their paper, based on experiments by an international team of scientists led by Professor in Theoretical Physics Igor Abrikosov.
"L. Pourovskii, J. Mravlje, S. Simak and I. Abrikosov could not reproduce our findings, which led us to re-examine our computations. We found an error of a factor of two that is due to our neglect of spin degeneracy (two electrons per band), which would halve the electronelectron resistivity," and increase the flow of electric current, they explained in their retraction.
New Delhi (Sputnik) Many of the world's most endangered species are also its most remarkable. One such species is the Great Indian Bustard possibly the heaviest flying bird in the world. It inhabits the grasslands of India and stands well over a meter in height. It has a black crown on its forehead, a pale head and neck, and grey and brown feathers; it is one of nature's superstars.
Great Indian Bustard among 39 species in Rajasthan -Wildlife of India Press Wildlife of india (@wildlifeInd) 6 May 2016
The magnificent creature is listed as a critically endangered species on the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Indian government's efforts to conserve this rare species have not seen much success, as is evident from the dwindling population.
"The population of the Great Indian Bustard is known to have decreased to less than 300 in the country. The population of this species is declining due to changing land use in important bustard habitats, which are grasslands" India's State Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javdekar said in the country's parliament on Monday.
In an open letter, Doepfner expressed his support for Jan Boehmermann, a German comedian whose satiric poem about Erdogan caused the Turkish president to complain and, with the subsequent complicity of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, filed a lawsuit in Germany. Doepfner's letter, published in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, stated that he had laughed loud at the poem and "wholeheartedly" supported the comedian's right to express himself.
A spokesperson for publishing house Alex Springer claimed that the company is unaware of the recent developments, but noted that Doepfner "wanted to defend the freedom of art and satire in his open letter that was the reason for his letter."
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Poland will wait and see how the events unfold before backing its former Prime Minister Donald Tusk for the second term at the helm of the European Council, the Polish foreign minister said.
Tusks current term as the president of the European Council expires in June 2017.
"It is too early to talk about this [backing Tusk] because theres still a year left before the next elections and much can happen," Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told Polish Radio on Monday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)Andrzej Duda, who started a four-day visit to Canada on Monday, said he was counting on stronger military cooperation between Canada and Poland.
"I hope that there will also be an increased presence of Canadian troops stationed in Poland, more than now," the president said, as quoted by the national news agency PAP.
On Tuesday, Duda is scheduled to meet with Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for talks that will focus on stepping up NATO presence on the eastern border and the upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw.
The islands of the Aegean may become temporary reception centers for migrants if the 6 billion euro ($6.8 billion) deal with Turkey falls through; in that case, the EU will send the money to Athens instead, German newspaper Bild reported on Tuesday.
EU officials are making contingency plans because of the increasing likelihood that Turkey will not fulfil the conditions of its migrant deal, which was struck in November following negotiations between former Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the EU Council.
The deal contains 72 requirements that Ankara must meet in order to receive 6 billion euros in financial aid, a speeding up of the EU accession process, and visa-free travel in the Schengen zone for Turkish citizens. In return, the EU wants Turkey to control its borders and prevent illegal migration to Europe.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Prosecutors in southern Germany have ordered a media blackout of a stabbing attack that occurred at a Munich train station early Tuesday, a local broadcaster reported.
#BreakingNews 1 dead, 3 hurt after stabbing at train station outside #Munich German Man said to shout 'AllahuAkbar' pic.twitter.com/dfOEazVLbo Discovery1 (@DennisFBox) 10 May 2016
The attack took place at the Grafing S-Bahn station at around 5:00 a.m. local time (3:00 GMT), Bayerischer Rundfunk said. The assailant, an unidentified young German national, was detained after injuring four passengers, one of them severely. The radio cited witnesses who claimed the man had shouted "Allahu Akbar," which means "God is great" in Arabic, as he lurched into the crowd.
Horrific news out of Germany with dead & wounded from railway station stabbing rampage. Our prayers with #munich. pic.twitter.com/qjbhL8SuUD Mikael Sollenberg (@MikaelSoll) 10 May 2016
One of the reportedly five victims in a stabbing incident in a Munich train station early Tuesday morning has died, according to a Bavarian criminal police spokeswoman.
The German expert, however, did not mention that it was a report of an American think tank Rand Corporation, which had made even a direr conclusion: if Russian tanks and troops rolled into the Baltics tomorrow, the outgunned and outnumbered NATO forces would be overrun in less than three days, not three weeks.
Karl-Heinz Kamp said that the proposed move is a deterrent measure, but is quite insignificant as the Alliance has neither the money, nor the means, nor the people for more intense measures.
The decision has already caused a lot of criticism in his home country.
A recent poll conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the largest private operating non-profit foundation in Germany, found that more than half of German citizens 57% believe their country should not send troops to protect the Baltic countries and Poland against an attack from Russia.
About half of Germans (49%) oppose setting up NATO bases in eastern members of the alliance to deter Russia, while 40% said they would support such a move.
The newspaper quoted prosecutors who said the busted terrorist cell had links to Daesh and al-Qaeda, which are outlawed as terrorist organizations in Europe, the United States and Russia.
The Islamists planned to strike civilian, government and military targets, including ports, airports, hotels and shopping malls, the outlet said.
"The security guards must be the police's "extended arm" and contribute to maintaining law and order" Mats Kirestam, police chief in central Sweden, said in a statement on the police website.
Around New Year, the police gave the Migration Board the right to deploy security guards at around 30 accommodation centers, citing, among other issues, assaults with or without knives, blackmail, intimidation, fights between asylum applicants, vandalism and suicide threats. According to a recent survey by the police, competent security guards are compulsory in a larger number of places than the Migration Board had previously identified.
Last week, Denmark's Ministry of Finance stated in its Convergence Program 2016 that the 100,000 refugees that Denmark expects to take in until 2020 will in the long run improve public finances by 0.15 percent of the country's GDP, which is equivalent to 2.7 billion kroner (roughly half a billion dollars).
"The conclusion is basically very clear: in the future, state income is going to surpass government expenditure in relation to the inflow of refugees and their descendants isolated," Marianne Frank Hansen, deputy manager and economist at Dream told Politiken. According to her, migrants may turn into an economic boon already in 2035.
BERLIN (Sputnik)Earlier local media reports mentioned witnesses who claimed the man had shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great" in Arabic) as he attacked commuters at an S-Bahn station in Grafing.
"The attacker is a 27-year-old German citizen. We cannot currently confirm reports that he shouted Allahu Akbar, but we do confirm that the suspect made remarks that indicated a political motive," Michaela Grob.
A Bavarian criminal police official told Sputnik earlier that one person died and four were wounded. Other reports put the number of those injured at four.
Mr Khan however, has hit back at the multi-millionaire's generous offer by saying:
"This isn't just about me it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world."
London's new mayor also said that he hopes to visit the United States before January, in case Donald Trump wins.
Son of a Pakistani bus driver, champion of workers' rights and human rights, and now Mayor of London. Congrats, @SadiqKhan. H Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 7, 2016
Mr Khan was declared the winner in the Mayoral race on Saturday, after a fierce battle against his Conservative opponent, Zac Goldsmith. He said that he would be a "Mayor for all Londoners," fighting against "politics of fear".
Deeply honoured to take this oath. I will be a Mayor for all Londoners. pic.twitter.com/u1GXBkRvDZ Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) May 7, 2016
Mr Khan said that he would be keen to visit the US to see what the Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio is doing.
"I think Bill de Blasio is doing interesting housing stuff in New York Rahm Emanuel is doing interesting stuff with the infrastructure bank in Chicago. I want to go to America to meet with and engage with American mayors."
However, Khan remains unimpressed with Trump's tactics and has compared them to those employed by his opponent Zac Goldsmith.
"Conservative tacticians thought those sorts of tactics would win London and they were wrong. I'm confident that Donald Trump's approach to politics in America won't win," Khan pointed out.
YouGov research reveals that most British people did not welcome Obama's contribution to the debate, however. The majority (53%) say it was inappropriate for the President to express a preference on how Britain should vote.
Writing in the Daily Signal, Nile Gardiner, a leading authority on transatlantic relations, is director of The Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, said: "The British do not take kindly to being told how to vote, and there can be little doubt that the Obama intervention will backfire in June."
Scaremongering
Alex Salmond, the former First Minister of Scotland and now a Westminster politician believes the referendum campaign so far on both sides has been dominated by "scaremongering," ranging from "at best puerile and at worst outlandish".
74% of voters reject Cameron's warning that #Brexit might bring military
conflict or war (2753 voters for @YouGov) pic.twitter.com/9OIGNiGQDg Tim Montgomerie (@montie) May 10, 2016
However, Cameron's warning that World War 3 could break out if Britain left the EU triggered a huge backlash among senior Conservative MPs and ministers.
"It's pretty desperate stuff. If a house is on fire, most people would get out and try to douse the flames from there, not stay in and risk being burned," Justice Minister, Dominic Raab said.
Bernard Jenkin MP accused his leader of "parroting propaganda."
The latest survey by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) survey showed that business opinion in favor of leaving the EU had in fact hardened as the campaign continued. 54.1 percent of businesspeople polled would vote to 'Remain', down from 60 percent in February 2016, and 37 percent would vote to 'Leave' up from 30 percent on the BCC's previous survey.
"Business opinion is split over the EU, yet this survey shows that businesses are rejecting the remain campaign's main tactic of talking down Britain and its dynamic economy," said John Longworth, Chairman of the Vote Leave Business Council.
"Despite the claims of the pro-EU camp to the contrary, business is not fearful of the referendum or the result. This is because they know it is safer to take back control and spend our money on our priorities."
Instead of using encryption technology, a lot of diplomats reportedly use WhatsApp, to discuss highly sensitive issues such as Syria and Ukraine.
Within the report, Fletcher argues that there is immense frustration with the existing IT, as well as impatience amongst UK diplomats, who all want to see tangible results.
"Our current IT impedes our ability to deliver top class diplomacy for the UK. The FCO should be able to say that no diplomatic initiative will ever fail because of poor technology. We want our staff away from their desks, using state of the art devices and a range of off the shelf applications to help them engage and influence," the report states.
The urgency for better technology is also highlighted, stating that the change must come as soon as possible.
"From Summer 2016, we expect to see wifi across the UK estate and network, new android smart-phones and lightweight laptops, faster and more reliable infrastructure via 'the cloud' and an array of new software."
Fletcher highlights the fact that the work UK diplomats do should be unclassified and seen as highly sensitive, allowing for the public to access information where necessary under the Freedom of Information Act. However, the author acknowledges that where certain countries have security risks, information should be harder to access.
"We also need IT which makes working to the higher tier easier across the network, including countries where the security environment is challenging. Finally, we should consider further how security classifications can depreciate over time for papers of short-lived sensitivity (i.e. at the end of negotiations or an international conference)," the report reads.
Fletcher's comments also call on the FCO to allow diplomats to collect digital as well as face-to-face intelligence. This comes as the government plans to push ahead with the Investigatory Powers Bill (IP), dubbed the Snoopers' Charter. This legislation will allow government bodies the right to hack into a citizen's Internet network, personal computer and mobile phone device.
We face a century of huge global change. Effective diplomacy is no luxury. It helps a nation survive and thrive. "The future of FCO". Hansi Escobar (@hansiescobar) May 10, 2016
Fletcher's recommendations will be reviewed by the FCO and changes implemented where necessary.
An exercise for schoolchildren in the French town of Embrun to learn more about life as a refugee has given them a new understanding of what asylum seekers go through, according to Lionel Liron, their teacher, in an interview with French Sputnik
"I think that they were able to experience the social and psychological conditions in which refugees live. But they experienced it for 24 hours a real refugee is in a state of uncertainty and never knows when it will end," he said.
For the project, called "On the Run," the 73 children, aged from 14 to 18, spent 24 hours experiencing life as a refugee, during which they had to walk 20 kilometers in the rain, without food and a small amount of water.
The revelation sparked feverish debate in Britain and outrage among some in parliament, as lawmakers had not yet approved airstrikes to be carried out in Syria, leading to accusations that the government had breached parliamentary protocol.
While the JCHR accepted the drone strike against Khan was part of a wider armed conflict against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, and was therefore covered by the Law of War, chairperson Harriet Harman said the government had not been "crystal clear" about the legal basis for killing Khan.
The committee also raised doubts over the governments claims it doesn't have a policy of targeted killing, with ministers and other officials previously refusing to answer questions about whether the UK has its own 'kill list' of people set to be targeted.
"Although the Government says that it does not have a 'targeted killing' policy, it is clear that it does have a policy to use lethal force abroad outside armed conflict for counterterrorism purposes," the parliamentarians said.
Legal Questions
The report has once again highlighted the delicate legal debate surrounding the issue of drone killings outside of warzones, with the committee noting that Defense Secretary Michael Fallon had demonstrated a "misunderstanding of the legal frameworks that apply".
This has led to worries that such confusion, demonstrated by senior officials such as the Defense Secretary, could leave British officials at risk of persecution.
"We were also concerned that the ongoing uncertainty about the Government's policy might leave front-line intelligence and service personnel in considerable doubt about whether what they are being asked to do is lawful, and may therefore expose them, and Ministers, to the risk of criminal prosecution for murder or complicity in murder," the committee said.
Jennifer Gibson, staff attorney at human rights NGO Reprieve, who also gave evidence to the Committee, said the report was a "wake-up call".
"Not only does the committee raise troubling questions about whether the Government 'misunderstood' the legal frameworks that apply, but it warns they may be at risk of prosecution for murder as a result," the report said.
"The UK's silence in the face of repeated questioning by the committee only further reinforces the very real danger that the UK is following the US down the slippery slope of kill lists and targeted killings. This is alarming, given the CIA's secret drone war has killed hundreds of civilians and been described as a failed strategy' by Obama's own former head of defense intelligence."
Professor Valerie Hudson, an expert in social and international affairs at Texas A&M University highlighted the issue of male-dominated societies in January 2016. Professor Hudson told Sputnik that the social legacy of the refugee crisis would be an alteration in the sex ratios of Europe.
"It appears that one of the legacies will be an alternation in the sex ratios of Europe a masculinization of the sex ratios. That, in turn, may lead to another legacy, a tragic legacy, which is a less open society for women," Professor Hudson predicted.
Meanwhile, the European Union's scheme to redistribute 160,000 migrants among member states has already fallen short since it was agreed in 2015.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Ankara and Brussels postponed a high-level meeting scheduled for Friday to discuss the issue of visa liberalization for Turkish citizens visiting the Schengen area, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini's spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic confirmed Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Turkish media reported that the meeting, at which the prospects for the liberalization of the visa regime between Turkey and the European Union were due to be assessed, had been postponed.
"There was a high-level dialogue meeting scheduled for later this week, but this meeting has been rescheduled to [a] later date that still needs to be agreed," Kocijancic told reporters.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)Police arrested a 27-year-old after he attacked four commuters with a knife in the town of Grafing, 22 miles from Munich. He reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great" in Arabic).
Herrmann was cited by local radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk as saying that the man had come under police attention in another German state days before the attack over drug consumption and psychological problems. "No further police action followed," the minister added.
Bavarian police did not confirm reports that the attacker could have had Islamist motives. An Upper Bavarian police spokeswoman said he had been heard to make political remarks at the time of the attack.
In mid-March, both sides agreed to a deal under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the EU through its territory in exchange for Syrian refugees residing in Turkey. In return, the 28-member bloc promised to accelerate Turkey's EU accession bid and introduce a visa-free regime between the two sides.
Turkey has already fulfilled the bulk of the requirements needed for the free travel deal with the five most problematic criteria still remaining. On Friday, Erdogan rejected the EU call to revise Turkey's national anti-terrorism laws, warning that pressing Ankara to do so would lead to a split in relations.
"Freedom of press and association is a cornerstone of a well-functioning democracy. When anti-terrorism laws are abused to rein in opposition, we cannot accept that, " the EU lawmaker said.
Turkey currently defines terrorism to include non-violent political activities which can be exploited by the authorities to jail dissident journalists and academics. The European Union wants Turkey to narrow its definition of terrorism to avoid potential crackdowns on journalists as well as to ensure fair trials and freedom of speech and assembly.
A spokesperson for the group wrote in an open letter to the government:
"We will not be a party to this massacre by remaining silent and demand an immediate end to the violence perpetrated by the state."
The petition did not come without controversy, immediately after the appeal Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, labelled the group terrorists and said they had committed treason. They also faced an attack from the Justice and Development Party, (AKP). Many of the scholars lost their positions at universities and faced trial for their part in the government appeal.
State of academic freedoms in Turkey reflected by institutional action taken against #AcademicsforPeace as of today. pic.twitter.com/WYq8bHBeJz Hulya Dagdeviren (@hulyadagdeviren) May 9, 2016
However, it was because of this persecution that the committee decided to honor the group with the award.
"The call of Academics for Peace has a special status due to the clarity of the text and the massive backlash of the Turkish state, its organs and the defamatory public reaction," the committee said in a statement.
The award comes a week after the EC have said that unless Turkey address human violations they will not be given visa-free travel in the EU. It also comes after Erdogan himself, replied to the conditions set by the EU stating that he would not address Turkey's anti-terrorism laws for the sake of visa-free travel.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) will present a plan for the removal and relocation of Soviet monuments in the country by late June, Pawel Ukielski, the Institutes deputy head, told local media.
"Within two months, we will have certainty on how many monuments [remain], what condition they are in and who owns some of the monuments the vast majority remain under the supervision of local authorities but some of them may have other owners. It is necessary to explore that in depth, after that, the whole plan will be presented to local and central authorities" Ukielski told the Onet media outlet on Monday.
In March, IPN head Lukasz Kaminski announced that about 500 Soviet monuments, "symbolizing the supremacy of the communist system in Poland," would be relocated to a special military-historical museum.
"We counted on people to take an interest, but the turnout is still huge," WWF spokesperson Joonas Fritze told Finnish national broadcaster Yle. Luckily, one of the seals took a fancy to the rock shortly following the launch of the live feed, prompting the visitor counter to skyrocket.
The idea for the live feed was set into motion by researchers at the University of Eastern Finland, whose goal is to accurately identify all of the 320-odd Saimaa seals. The animals may be correctly identified through their unique patterns of spots.
"The seals have personal patterns on their fur, kind of like people's fingerprints," said Fritze, who also pointed out that the patterns never fade or disappear.
In addition to the research function of the camera, the WWF wants raise environmental awareness by showing the Saimaa ringed seal live in its natural environment.
"Naturally we also hope that once people get to know the species, they will become interested in participating in our conservation efforts," Fritze said. "One thing people could do is to stop fishing with nets, because net-fishing is the number one cause of death among ringed seals."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)Bavarian police have found no evidence that the man who stabbed a passenger to death on Tuesday at a train station east of Munich had any Islamist links, police officials told reporters in Munich.
"We have found no evidence that he was part of an Islamist cell," local police vice president Petra Sandles told journalists at an emergency press conference.
Criminal director Loothar Koehler said the 27-year-old, a German citizen from the central state of Hesse, had not been known by German intelligence agencies to have "any form of connection to Islamist or Salafist groups." Neither was he influenced by Islamist propaganda videos, Koehler added.
The number of German troops has been falling since the country's reunification, but Defense Minister Ursula Van der Leyen has decided that now is the time to boost their numbers, citing increased security risks.
On Tuesday the minister announced her department's plans for an increase in troop numbers, in order to cope with "new threats and growing responsibilities," the German newspaper Focus reported.
Van der Leyen's plans reportedly include the abolition of Germany's 185,000 troop limit, and the initial creation of 7,000 new jobs in the armed forces.
Delighted about #DubsAmendment news. Focus now turns to the details of UK Govt can best assist unaccompanied child refugees ASAP Refugee Action (@RefugeeAction) May 10, 2016
Labour Lord Dubs, 83 proposed an amendment to the bill, titled #DubsAmendment, it promised to support and accept the relocation of 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees, who had already crossed the borders into Europe. Lord Dubs who had himself fled Nazis to Britain as a child, won huge support for his new proposal.
However, the government has come under huge pressure again, this time from MP Yvette Cooper, who has called for them to "hurry the process up" as a delay in children reaching the UK could impact the lives of thousands.
Now #DubsAmendment has passed we need your help to act fast and get children here in time for new school term. https://t.co/HuudDtjble HelpRefugeesUK (@HelpRefugeesUK) May 9, 2016
The government said in a Commons meeting today it could take up to seven months for child refugees to reach the UK. MP Cooper said in response to this time frame that a delay could seriously hinder the lives of child refugees attempting to enter the UK.
"Seven months may be a fast time for bureaucrat it's a very slow time for a child," MP Cooper said in the Commons debate.
The heated discussion continues with MP Cooper saying:
"Children are at risk right now. There are 11-year-olds still sleeping in tents in Calais on their own. There are 14-year-olds who want to be surgeons who have been out of school for two years. There are teenage boys who have been abused who are at risk of being abused again."
On March 31, the Institute of National Remembrance announced that the Polish authorities were planning to demolish about 500 monuments to the Red Army soldiers.
Russia has expressed its discontent regarding the removal of Soviet monuments in Poland many times. In April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Poland had become the European leader in terms of the desecration of Soviet monuments.
According to the 1992 Russian-Polish Agreement on Friendly and Neighborly Cooperation, Poland must protect and preserve Soviet and Russian cemeteries, graves, monuments and other memorial sites located in the country.
Vaclav Havel International Airport, named after the last president of Czechoslovakia, is the busiest airport in the newer EU member states. In 2014, it catered for over 11 million passengers.
On March 22, a series of blasts hit Brussels Airport and a metro station located near the EU institutions in the center of the city, killing 35 people. The Islamic State militant group, which is outlawed in many countries, including Russia, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
IS also claimed responsibility for the November 13 Paris attacks, which killed 130 people and injured over 350 others, raising global terrorism concerns and stirring Europe to reinforce its safety and security measures.
The TTIP would create the biggest trading zone in the world, opening up the EU and US markets to each other. However, the talks have been mired in controversy because of their secretive nature, disagreements over regulatory issues food safety and genetic modification in particular and the contentious Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism.
Malmstrom said she is worried that the TTIP negotiations which have been going on for over three years are facing growing criticism, with protests in Germany and France warning that the deal could be called off. She blamed EU leaders, saying: "In this area, I don't think they are doing enough".
French President Francois Hollande has threatened to scupper the TTIP negotiations amid growing differences between the EU and the US over food safety and cultural issues. "We will never accept questioning essential principles for our agriculture, our culture and for the reciprocity of access to public [procurement] markets. At this stage [of the talks] France says 'No!' " Hollande told a meeting of left-wing politicians in Paris.
The Cabinet of Ministers under the chairmanship of President Francois Hollande has allowed me to resort to point 49.3 [of constitution], which is what I intend to do," Valls said, addressing the National Assembly the lower house of the French parliament.
According to him, the government has developed "a consistent and balanced text "during debates, the adoption of which it considers necessary. However, it is improbable that a majority of French lawmakers would support the bill, the prime minister added.
Following a Freedom of Information request from the newspaper in July 2015, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) refused to release the documents, citing the protection of international relations and police methods.
'Ambivalent'
"We appealed that decision and in April this year, the FCO reviewed the files again and said some of it could be released," Norton explains.
"But a lot has been blacked out, redacted and retained for the following reasons: international relations, protecting police methods and protecting personal information under Section 40."
The newly-released documents reveal that after receiving top secret Special Branch reports between the Doves and the Spanish Foreign Ministry in 1968, John Bennet, head of the Gibraltar and South Atlantic Department wrote: "My own view is that nothing is lost, and much may be gained by smiling on the process."
"What we can see during this controversial episode in Gibraltar was that Whitehall was ambivalent towards the backdoor approach by the Doves and that positive things were said of a 'process' which contributed to Gibraltar's worst ever periods of civil disorder," Norton said.
'Worry'
Looking ahead and towards the UK referendum on British membership of the EU, Norton says there is a worry among Gibraltarians.
"The worry in Gibraltar is that without Britain being a member of the EU, Spain might feel free to act as it wishes without constraint from the UK," Norton told Sputnik.
"The European aspect definitely complicates things and colors the whole history, after this whole episode [at the end of the 60s] the border with Spain was closed for 16 years. That border only reopened because Spain wanted to become part of the EU community and they had to lift this restriction to become part of Europe."
British MPs have been warned not to be ambivalent towards the Rock and must take Gibraltar into consideration in the event of a Brexit from the European Union.
Politicians on the Science and Technology committee in the UK House of Commons have summoned no less than Professor Duncan Wingham, Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Julia Maddock, his Associate Director of Communications and Engagement.
We're pleased to announce that our new polar research vessel will be called RRS Sir David Attenborough #NameOurShip A photo posted by @nercscience on May 6, 2016 at 3:41am PDT
NERC, in March, launched an online poll to name the new research ship. It said on its website: "Currently we're calling her 'NPRV', which isn't very catchy!"
The campaign was quickly hijacked by jokers keen to name the vessel Boaty McBoatface. The plan worked and when the poll closed in April, the spoof name was top of the list.
No matter what they call him, in our hearts he will always be #BoatyMcBoatface pic.twitter.com/j72KOypV97 Charles Edward Frith (@charlesfrith) May 8, 2016
The suggestion, which sent the competition viral in March, received 124,109 votes, four times more than second-placed RRS Poppy-Mai after a 16-month-old girl with incurable cancer, who has now died.
On launching the campaign, Universities and Science Minister, Jo Johnson, proclaimed: "Can you imagine one of the world's biggest research labs travelling to the Antarctic with your suggested name proudly emblazoned on the side?"
If Boaty McB cant be named such. Shall we have an EU referendum and ignore result #EUreferendum #BoatyMcBoatface Steve Long (@stevelong11) April 29, 2016
Ministers and academics quickly moved to find a way of getting round the embarrassment of the poll and decided on a compromise, naming the Royal Research Ship 'Sir David Attenborough' after the well-known naturalist while allowing the submarine onboard to be named 'Boaty'.
If we petition David Attenborough to change his name by deed poll to #BoatyMcBoatface then they have to call the ship that, don't they? Sarah Henderson (@shh_1984) May 6, 2016
Petition calling for Sir David Attenborough to change his name to #BoatyMcBoatface in the "interest of democracy" https://t.co/TZdBKsFD5a Jemma Crew (@jemmacrew) May 6, 2016
A new petition has now begun for Sir David Attenborough to change his name to Boaty McBoatface.
Will one consequence of the #Brexit referendum be to show that EU more popular in Scotland than UK? Angus B MacNeil MP (@AngusMacNeilSNP) May 10, 2016
Ironically, opposition to an EU exit Brexit now seems so high that it could swing the entire vote and provide one of the strongest arguments for a united Britain yet.
The editor of pro-Scottish independence blog 'Wings over Scotland' Stuart Campbell told Sputnik that this could maybe fuel a backlash amongst voters elsewhere in the UK.
"I suspect a very large number of people in England would suddenly not be so keen on the idea of the [United Kingdom] any more. If England and Wales had both voted to leave [the EU] and were forced to stay in by Scotland, they wouldn't be terribly well-disposed towards the idea of a union with those pesky jocks," Campbell told Sputnik.
"From the perspective of Scotland you can say 'oh look, this proves we've got influence', but then you could counter-argue 'look what happens when we exercise that influence', because there would be a barrage of hatred for it."
The UK will hold a referendum on its membership of the European Union on June 23, and most recent polling shows support for the EU in Scotland at 76%, compared to just 44% UK-wide.
Iain Duncan Smith, who resigned as the government's Work and Pensions Secretary in March, sparked the controversy after alleging that UK Prime Minister David Cameron watered down key demands relating to restrictions for EU migrants, coming to the UK on the insistence of Germany.
The former Conservative Party leader even claimed there was an empty chair known as the 'German chair' in Downing Street, which featured as a symbol of influence Berlin held in the negotiations.
"It's like they were sitting in a room, even when they were not there," he told British tabloid, the Sun.
STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) The countrys border controls, introduced on January 15, were due to expire on May 12.
In Norway, Just One Per Cent Of Migrants Arriving At Northern Border Granted Asylum https://t.co/4ThhFpkn7U pic.twitter.com/mu1fCehj3i Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) 4 March 2016
"In the Schengen area, there are many undocumented migrants, who may want to move to another country. Introduction of border controls in Norway has a good preventive effect on possible arrival [of new migrants]," Anundsen said in a statement, released to media.
Sefcovic stressed that the migrant crisis would be one of the main topics during the six-month presidency of Slovakia.
In recent months, Europe has been grappling with a major influx of migrants. The majority of the asylum seekers come from conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Slovakia was one of the states in Europe, along with Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary that strictly opposed the implementation of the mandatory EU quota scheme to relocate thousands of refugees throughout the bloc.
"[You] will not be wiretapped, I assure you. We live in a time when everyone who threatens the security is subject to monitoring by the secret services Look, we are near a school and there are probably cameras on the street that record the movement of people. When [we] enter a bus, there will also be cameras. However, these cameras helped, for example, to identify the killers, terrorists, suicide bombers at the airport in Brussels, helped by identifying these people to reach their accomplices, helped special services to identify an entire terrorist network," Blaszczak told Telewizja Polska.
Blaschak dismissed the opposition's criticism of the anti-terror legislation as "totally stupid," adding that there could be no negotiations with terrorists.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Khan, Labour and first Muslim to hold the post, has spoken out against Heathrow expansion, as it is harmful for air quality. Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative mayor candidate who lost the election, even promised to resign and force a by-election in case the government backs building a third runway at Heathrow.
"Heathrow expansion is the first real political battle. Khan has flip-flopped on this, mainly to get election, but London needs an expanded Heathrow. Cameron kicked this into the long grass to avoid clashing with Goldsmith, who was opposed to Heathrow, and [Prime Minister David] Cameron doesn't have a very good track record on Heathrow either. It will be an interesting fight, perhaps the Mayor will back Heathrow," Atkinson said.
Cameron has been reluctant to make an official statement on the issue, but International Development Secretary Justine Greening predicted in March that the Cabinet would conclude that the airport should not be expanded.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Kalfin has been in office since November 2014.
"I am stepping down from the government over a decision of the ABV [Alternative for Bulgarian Revival] political party. I have made lots of efforts in the past year and a half so that there is higher income, more jobs, fairness, and predictability in the social systems in Bulgaria. I am content with what I have achieved," Kalfin, also the country's minister of labor and social policy, said as quoted by the Focus information agency.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) The president also announced the start of Operation Shield aimed at fight against drug trafficking and organized crime.
"This is a difficult decision, but we can not be a part of this movement all the time, we will show attitude they [migrants] deserve but there is a necessity to close the border in front of this illegal flow," Varela said Monday, as quoted by the local La Estrella de Oro news portal.
A total of 238 people were airlifted aboard two Panamanian planes to Mexico, where they are entitled to a 20-day stay. They plan to use this time to secure a passage to the United States.
Thousands of Cubans have been stranded in Costa Rica and Panama after Nicaragua closed the border last November, prompting Costa Rica to organize free flights to El Salvador and Mexico between January and March 2016.
"I would not link the push against offshores to the Panama papers. They are totally different things. De-offshorization' exists in the Russian economy, but no one has banned offshore companies. There is nothing inherently illegal in offshore companies, and this is an important point to remember. It is only illegal when it is an attempt to evade taxes"
In April, the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung exposed the alleged involvement of the world's wealthy including a number of former and current leaders, in offshore schemes by publishing materials it claimed came from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama firm selling offshore companies.
Mossack Fonseca refused to confirm that the leaked papers were authentic, although it claimed that it had been hacked.
The US once again finds itself in a quagmire where the lines between allies and opposition are blurred. Since August 2014, the US has spent over $7 billion and carried out in excess of 5,000 airstrikes against the Daesh network in Iraq.
In order to get a handle on its clumsy campaign against the fundamentalist Sunni extremist group, the US must garner the support of the same moderate Sunnis that incomprehensibly persecuted in the post-Saddam debaathification process. But, in doing so, the US plays into the hands of the Mahdi Army, seeking to sow suspicion among Iraqi leaders that the US does not support the countrys current government.
To make matters worse, divisions between moderate tribal leadership and extremist groups like Daesh and al-Qaeda are tenuous at best. The Iraqi composition of the Daesh network includes former secular Sunnis who were Baathist loyalists under Saddam Husseins regime.
"Since the beginning of 2016, inter-agency operations have reached more than 780,000 civilians in besieged areas and areas difficult to access," Dujarric said, adding that many of these people had received help more than once.
Syria has been mired in civil war since March 2011, with government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Israeli police arrested two "terrorists" in Jerusalem after they stabbed two elderly women, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
"Police units arrest 2 terrorists who carried out stabbing attack in Jerusalem," Superintendent Micky Rosenfeld said on Twitter.
Police units arrest 2 terrorists who carried out stabbing attack in Jerusalem. Heightened security continues at public areas in the city. Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) 10 2016 .
The women came under attack in Jerusalems Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. Their condition was described by police as moderate. The women were in a group of other people when they were attacked by unidentified assailants. They are both in moderate condition, the police spokesman said.
ANKARA (Sputnik)Two Turkish police officers died and one was injured Tuesday after an unsuccessful attempt to defuse a bomb in the eastern Van province, local media said.
The explosive device was planted by militants from a separatist group called Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a police source told Turkeys Dogan news agency.
PKK is outlawed in Turkey as a terrorist organization. A ceasefire between Turkey and Kurdish militants collapsed in July 2015, prompting Turkish authorities to launch a military operation in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern regions.
HMEYMIM (Syria) (Sputnik) The so-called "silent" period in Aleppo, Syria has been extended for another 48 hours starting at midnight, May 10, the head of the Russian Reconciliation Center said Tuesday.
"In agreement with the leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic and the moderate opposition, the Russian and American sides have extended the "silent period" in the city of Aleppo by 48 hours, starting from 00:01 May 10, 2016," Lt.-Gen. Sergei Kuralenko said.
CAIRO (Sputnik)The Riyadh-backed opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) has not been notified about a date of the next International Syria Support Group (ISSG) meeting, the HNC deputy head at Geneva talks told Sputnik.
"We have not been notified about the date of the meeting and have not been officially invited either. All in all, the final date has not been set, but we expect it to be in the second half of May," George Sabra said.
He added the Syrian opposition faction expected ISSG to work out a new approach toward creating a transitional government in Syria.
As for Erdogan, he reacted angrily to Davutoglu's growing popularity ratings at home and abroad, Melnikova said, adding that the PM was especially praised for promoting a visa-free regime between the EU and Turkey, which should come into force in mid-summer of this year. The fact that the Turks' free entry into the Schengen zone will be associated with the name of Davutoglu also angered Erdogan.
Melnikova quoted expert Ilshat Sayetov as saying that Davutoglu was a supporter of systematic reforms and opposed the creation of an authoritarian regime, repeatedly calling for the freedom of the press, the expansion of human rights and the principle of separation of powers.
"Erdogan fears the slightest signs of disagreement with him and acts on a 'to be on the safe side' basis. The process of transition to a super-presidential republic should see no obstacles, and Erdogan has decided to clean the entire field of potential competitors," Sayetov said.
The relations between the two men became further aggravated after the opposition newspaper Sozcu Gazetesi published a front-page photograph of a man who looked like Binali Yildirim in one of the casinos in Singapore. The presidentially-controlled media outlets were quick to claim that the photo being leaked to the press was the work of Davutoglu, who "wanted to tarnish the President's image and weaken his position."
At the same time, Turkish newspapers reported about Davutoglu's possible visit to the United States in early May. Citing a source close to the Prime Minister, the Hurriet Daily News pointed out that the White House immediately confirmed Davutoglu's meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)Safar Ali Keramati told the International Bitumen and LPG Seminar in Tehran on Monday that the country is developing major infrastructural projects aimed at boosting its export capacities, the Shana Petro Energy Information Network reported Monday.
The NIOC deputy head noted that the removal of sanctions will have a great and positive impact on Iran's presence in the global market adding that the country managed to retain its LPG market share even under the sanctions regime, producing eight million tons of liquefied gas per year.
In August 2015, Tehran and six international mediators, including Russia, reached a historic deal with Iran to ensure the peaceful nature of its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of anti-Tehran sanctions, in particular on the energy sector.
The news comes as there is rising criticism in Europe over a deal brokered between the EU and Turkey to relocate "irregular migrants" from Greece back to Turkey in return on a one-for-one basis for Syrian refugees being sent from Turkey to EU member states.
Turkish border guards are shooting, beating & killing Syrian asylum seekers: New report https://t.co/kAP3KaSumL pic.twitter.com/yJa0yE4HEh Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) May 10, 2016
The deal has been heavily criticized because of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's record on human rights, his suppression of free speech and independent media as well as his war against the Kurds. Many NGO's in Greece have backed the UN refugee agency UNHCR in boycotting the EU-Turkey deal over human rights abuses in Turkey.
"Turkey's border closure is trapping tens of thousands of civilians in Syrian displacement camps near the border which are under attack from government forces and [Daesh, also known as ISIL], recently killing 20 and injuring 37 people in a single attack," a spokesman for Human Rights Watch told Sputnik Tuesday (May 10).
ANKARA (Sputnik) The explosion was reportedly the result of a car bomb attack targeting a group of police officers.
Violence in Turkey escalated in mid-2015, when the Turkish government launched a military campaign against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is considered to be a terrorist organization by Ankara, in the country's southeast. The situation aggravated further in December, when the Turkish authorities declared a curfew in a number of southeastern regions.
ANKARA (Sputnik) The explosion took place in central Diyarbakir when a car bomb detonated as a police vehicle was passing by.
According to Daily Sabah newspaper, a number of police officers and the militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), as well as civilians were injured in the explosion.
Turkish ultranationalist Alparslan Celik who initially claimed that he killed the Russian pilot was arrested alongside 13 others in the Turkish city of Izmir in early April on charges of illegal possession of firearms. While he accepted the responsibility for the killing as a commander of a militant group, Celik insisted he had repeatedly ordered his men to take the Russian pilot prisoner instead of gunning him down.
Murat Ustundag, Celiks lawyer, told Sputnik that the public prosecutor handling the case decided to drop the charges after becoming convinced that theres simply not enough evidence to back up the accusations.
"The pilots death couldve been caused by shrapnel fragments to the head, internal bleeding or the four bullets fired from the ground that hit him. The videos posted on YouTube show that the distance between my client and the Russian pilot parachuting to the ground was simply too great for the former to shoot at the latter. Also, imagine a squad of 500 simultaneously firing their guns. How can you determine which of the firearms used fired those four bullets? And even if you can find that gun, theres no way to determine its owner," Ustundag said.
Die Welt warns that al-Zawahiri has found support for the new caliphate idea not only from Nusra Front leaders, but from militants of other Syrian armed opposition groups, as well "and even among those that are [currently] fighting each other."
In his latest address, the terrorist leader called on supporters of the vision of a caliphate to unite. He added that the entire Muslim world has high hopes for Syria, where the 'Arab Spring' has paved the way to the caliphate. He also noted that he would be willing to give up his supreme authority to see the realization of the new fundamentalist state, and to provide Nusra fighters with complete freedom of action.
According to Die Welt correspondent Alfred Hakensberger, "the news does not bode well, either for Syria or for Europe and the United States." The terrorists plan to establish their new 'state' within a two year period. "The Daesh caliphate has already shown the bloody consequences that could result if al-Qaeda were to establish its own state," the journalist added.
Concurrently, the Free Syrian Army often referred to as "moderate" rebels by Western media outlets announced that it would not comply with the strictures of the ceasefire, citing concerns that the Assad regime would use the lull in combat to stifle opposition.
The so-called moderate rebels, according to top US military officials, consist of al-Nusra Front militants, an al Qaeda spinoff extremist network only questionably less virulent than Daesh.
Introducing stability to the war-torn country has become increasingly complicated as the US government continues to provide military aid to groups in moderate opposition to Assad, under the guise of combating Daesh. US weapons and supplies consistently either end up in the hands of Daesh, who share many common allegiances with al-Nusra, or are otherwise turned against the Assad regime, undermining the effectiveness of the Syrian-Arab Army.
Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded a $104.5 million contract for the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) program, the release stated on Monday.
The work will be performed at Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be complete by February. 28, 2017, the Defense Department added.
KIEV (Sputnik) Kiev authorities launched a military operation against independence militias in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The confrontation has claimed over 9,000 lives, according to the UN estimates.
"There are some ideas for a police contingent, there are some others for lets give a weapon to the monitors so Im very open to discussion," Zannier told reporters on Monday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Russian experts on board the aircraft will monitor compliance with the agreed parameters of the flight and the use of observation equipment, according to the statement.
"Between May 10 and 14, a joint mission of Italy and the United States will perform an observation flight over the territory of the Russian Federation on a Hungarian An-30 surveillance aircraft under the international Treaty on Open Skies," Ryzhkov said in a statement.
The Open Skies Treaty was signed in March 1992 and became one of the major confidence-building measures in Europe after the Cold War. It entered into force on January 1, 2002, and currently has 34 States Parties, including Russia and the majority of the NATO countries. The treaty allows its participants to openly gather information on each other's military forces and activities.
KHABAROVSK (Sputnik) Gordeev added that the two countries agreed on the subjects of the exercise's practical part.
"Representatives of the EMD and Indian Armed Forces have agreed that the drills will take place in the second half of the year at the Sergeyevskiy site in the Primorsky Territory," Alexander Gordeev told reporters.
Russia and India signed a protocol on the drills in the Russian southeastern city of Vladivostok in April.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) Jordans Ministry of Defense signed an agreement with the US Department of Defense to secure the deal, the statement noted. The company did not indicate how many of the weapons will be sold or at what cost.
"Our international partners rely on the kind of extended-range precision TOW provides," Raytheon TOW Program Director Scott Speet said. "We're looking forward to providing them this capability for many years to come."
The tube-launched, optically-tracked, wireless-guided weapon system can fire multi-mission TOW 2A, TOW 2B Aero and TOW Bunker Buster missiles. It is widely used as an anti-armor and anti-fortification weapon system throughout the world, according to Raytheon.
"The Russian inspection group of four people will visit the compound of the second infantry brigade, as well as the Spring Storm command center, from where the Russian officers will be able to observe the activity of the Estonian army and NATO allies. The Russian officers will also conduct an observation flight over southeastern Estonia on an Estonian Air Force An-2," the statement reads.
The Russian officers will arrive in Estonia under the Vienna Document of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The scientists then broke for lunch, to prepare for the thought processes required to come up with additional ground-breaking ideas.
But seriously, the professors then suggested that an alternative way to maintain the habitability on the Earth would be to attach a giant solar sail to the planet, something at least 20 times the diameter of the planet. Using this method, it is postulated that our Earth could then sail through the galaxy, as Thor Heyerdahl did the Pacific Ocean, on his basket of reeds.
If all else fails, the scientists suggest that humans can simply upload themselves into storage.
Student debt in America now exceeds $1.41 trillion, with over 2/3 of that debt accumulated within the past seven years. Certainly, these wild-eyed research projects are more likely to send students to debtor's prison than they are to save lives, whether in 500 million years or just tomorrow.
The US has no choice but to further strengthen its presence in Europe due to Russia's recent actions, Timo Soini said while addressing the Paasikivi Society on Monday. According to him, by enhancing its military presence in the Baltic region, the US promotes safety and security in the region. Soini is the leader of the Finns Party, part of the country's governing coalition.
"The United States' commitment to Europe is of particular significance to Finland," he said, according to the newspaper Uusi Suomi.
According to Soini, such ceremonial speeches draw attention to the fact that Finland is part of the West. Finland's Foreign Minister also denounced the tendency to label Finland as a country caught between the East and the West. According to Soini, the mantras regarding Finland's fence-sitting during the Cold War have taken on a life of their own.
The matter was revived, however, when Love filed a lawsuit against the UK government demanding the return of his computers and storage devices, since he had not been charged of any crime. The National Crime Agency responded by renewing their demand for his encryption keys, seeing the civil proceedings as a new means to get a judge to force Love to hand over his passwords.
In court, investigators stated that they refused to return the equipment seized from Loves home, on the grounds that the devices may contain data of which he did not have legitimate ownership, such as hacked files. UK officials argued that if Love wanted his devices back, he would have to turn over the passwords to prove that they did not contain unauthorized data.
Privacy advocates criticized the UK governments position, pointing out that requiring people to unveil their personal files to authorities precisely because the government lacks compelling evidence risks shifting the burden of proof from the government to the individual, and creates a precedent of official intrusion. Loves supporters also raised concern that forcing him to turn over his passwords could have negative implications for journalists who need to guard confidential information.
"In the morning of May 10, Ghani will meet President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon to discuss the issues of joint fight against terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking, as well as regional cooperation," the spokesperson told RIA Novosti.
Afghanistan is in a state of political and social turmoil, fighting the continuing Taliban insurgency, while other extremist groups, such as Daesh, outlawed in many countries including Russia, have expanded their activities in the country and neighboring states.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)The US decision to normalize ties with Cuba indicates Washingtons disillusionment with sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
"The normalization process between Cuba and the US indicates that our US colleagues have realized that neither sanctions nor double standards in human rights policies will work," Lavrov said at a meeting with Cubas five national heroes in Moscow.
The so-called Cuban Five Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, and Rene Gonzalez were intelligence officers who were sent to Florida in 1992 to monitor US-based anti-Cuban groups.
About 200 US troops were deployed to Moldova earlier this month to take part in NATO's Dragon Pioneer 2016 exercises, which will continue until May 20. The troops were supposed to take part in Victory Day celebrations on May 9, but were forced by the activists to stay away.
Commenting on the dustup, Russia's Svobodnaya Pressa online newspaper suggested that the protesters' small victory was interesting precisely because it occurred despite the Moldovan government's generally anti-Russian and pro-EU/pro-Washington course, indicating that significant numbers of Moldovans, just like people in many other countries, continue to view the North Atlantic Alliance as a threat, rather than a source of security in the world.
Speaking to the newspaper, Alexei Anpilogov, the director of the historical research fund 'Osnovanie', recalled that "in its own time, just after NATO was founded, the Soviet leadership made a very correct move proposing that the alliance accept the USSR as a member. Having rejected the proposal, the alliance's leaders were effectively forced to endorse the idea that the alliance was not created in order to maintain global security, but for the confrontation with the USSR, that is, with historical Russia."
"And it must be said that the alliance's leaders did not make any great mystery out of this. It's sufficient to recall the famous speeches made by Churchill, Truman, and other politicians. At the same time, at the beginning they had said that the alliance was meant to confront the Soviet Union and the entire Soviet bloc for ideological reasons."
"However," Anpilogov added, "when Russia deliberately abandoned its Soviet ideology, dissolved the Warsaw Pact and the USSR itself, nothing changed. Our politicians struggled with all their might to integrate into the Western world. NATO really could have built a strong partnership with Russia, which had officially renounced communism, and any other ideology in fact. We were given verbal promises at the time that there would be no NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, much less into the post-Soviet space."
CAIRO (Sputnik) George Sabra added that Russia should exert pressure on its allies to strengthen the truce and to implement the articles of the ceasefire, related to the deliveries of the humanitarian aid.
"There is no more need in partial or temporary ceasefire. There is need in a full-scale ceasefire throughout the country that will be in force permanently. There should be a clear, resolute position regarding those, who violate the truce," George Sabra said.
Syria has been mired in civil war since March 2011, with government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups.
Zhou explained what it actually means.
Abes government has taken a series tough actions including enforcing the new security laws, and a persistent weak economy despite Abe's three arrows of monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and structural reforms have both greatly angered the Japanese voters, he said.
Abe is now trying to play the diplomatic card to distract public attention and garner support for a victory in the parliamentary election in July, which Abe hopes will facilitate his bid to amend the Constitution, added the expert in foreign affairs.
Another foreign affairs researcher, Wang Taiping, explained the timing of the Japanese Prime Ministers trip to Russia.
With US President Barack Obama's term coming to an end thus the US diplomatic influence waning, and with both the US and Russia softening attitudes on thorny issues such as Syria, Abe saw it as good timing to pay a visit to Russia, he said.
However, Japan's unilateral move to mend ties with Russia without America's consent might jeopardize its relations with its important ally, as Washington" does not approve the top-level contact between Russia and Japan," the agency added.
Abe's Russia visit is a diplomatic maneuver like a double-edged sword to Japan, it concluded.
Valentina Kistanova, the director of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Russian Institute of East Asian Studies, says that the Japanese prime minister is serious about resolving the decades-long territorial dispute.
"We have seen plenty of similar statements from both sides in the past. But I think that Abe really does want to go down in history as the leader who managed to resolve this problem, which has overshadowed relations between the two countries for 70 years now."
"In his own time," Kistanova recalled, "Abe's father, Shintaro Abe, did a great deal of work as minister of foreign affairs to invite Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to Japan. At that time, Gorbachev moved away from Moscow's previous position, which was that the territorial issue does not exist, and believed that it was necessary to at least discuss the issue. At the time, Shintaro Abe was fighting cancer, but left his hospital bed for the sake of a personal meeting with Gorbachev. This shows how important the issue was for him, and that it is likely just as important for his son."
The removal of Turkey's prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu from power has given the EU powers quite a jolt: the Turkish politician leaned toward closer cooperation with the West. While he was the architect of "neo-Ottomanism," he was at the same time considered a "modernizer."
As Cengiz Candar of Al-Monitor's Turkey Pulse noted, "The era of Davutoglu in Turkish, international, Middle Eastern and Islamic world politics has come to an end He coined the famous motto 'zero problems with neighbors.' Yet There is nearly no neighbor or a major international player that Turkey does not have acute problems with."
"The impact of Turkish President Recep Erdogan's move Wednesday to replace Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is already being felt in the western chancelleries with the signs that the scenario now is one of an acrimonious divorce between Ankara and the European Union," Ambassador M. K. Bhadrakumar, former career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service, writes in his article for the Indian Punchline blog.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The political solution to the crisis in Syria suggested by Russia may not be workable, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview aired on Tuesday.
"Right now they [Russia] are angling for the political solution they want," Kerry stated in an interview with CNN. "And it's not necessarily a workable equation. We understand that."
Kerry argued that Russia has an interest in not getting "bogged down" in Syria forever because it would not want to become "a target" of Islamic extremists or the Sunni world.
MOSCOW, May 10 (Sputnik) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US State Secretary John Kerry discussed in a phone call on Tuesday additional efforts to ensure sustainable ceasefire and political process in war-torn Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Lavrov and Kerry continued the discussion of ways to resolve the Syrian conflict through sustainable ceasefireand support of intra-Syrian dialogue in Geneva under UN auspices," the ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, the top diplomats also considered the best ways to use the International Syria Support Group in Syrian reconciliation process.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) NATO is an alliance of 28 independent states, the majority of which, including the United Kingdom, are member states of the European Union.
"As former Secretaries General of NATO, we have followed the British EU debate carefully and with growing concern. Given the scale and range of challenges to peace and stability we collectively face, the Euro-Atlantic community needs an active and engaged United Kingdom," the letter, published by The Telegraph magazine, read.
The five former NATO Chiefs behind the letter are UK's Lord Peter Carrington, Spain's Javier Solana, Lord George Robertson, the Netherlands' Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, and Denmark's Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Chen's Empty and Full uses both painting and sculputure to show the crossover between new and traditional in art. Rheagan's Pieces, Parts, Place is a series of photographs abstracting urban architecture.
Empty and Full, a selection of paintings and an installation by Albuquerque-based artist Xuan Chen. Empty and Full comprises three bodies of work with flowing color combinations, hard-edged patterns and hybrid forms of painting and sculpture. These series of vivid abstract works show the crossover between new technologies of image making and traditional painterly practice.
Chen begins each process by constructing colorful 3D drawings on her computer. Based on digital drawings, Chens Light Threads paintings explore transparency and luminosity. These dimensional acrylic paintings made with bright embroidery threads capture and reflect light. Empty and Full is a series of paintings created by meticulously arranging strips of poured vinyl paint on wood panels. Her large-scale installation incorporates sewn fabrics, mylar film, felt, wood and paint.
Born in Qingyang, China, Chen moved to the United States to complete a PhD in materials science and engineering at the University of California in Berkeley. She then received her MFA in studio art from the University of New Mexico. Chen has won the Miami University Young Painters Competition, the Reggie Gammon Memorial Award from the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque, and a WorkingArtist.org grant.
In the project room is Pieces, Parts, Place, a series of photographs by Hayley Rheagan, who plays with abstracting urban architecture by using the cameras tendency to flatten space. With her keen eye for symmetry and color, Rheagan transforms naturally found geometric patterns into vibrant compositions. Originally from New Mexico, Rheagan currently lives and works in St. Petersburg, FL.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US State Secretary John Kerry discussed in a phone call on Tuesday additional efforts to ensure sustainable ceasefire and political process in war-torn Syria.
"The key is going to be enforcement [of the ceasefire in Syria]," Kerry stated in an interview with CNN. "We are looking at other methods of enforcement beyond that, but we are not there yet, but we are building what I hope will be a stronger structure."
The cessation of hostilities, negotiated with the help of the United States and Russia, has been in place in parts of Syria since late February. A new truce was hammered out on April 29 for Damascus and the northern Latakia province.
"A much-needed recalibration of Turkish foreign policy will have to include repairing relations with Russia," University International Relations Professor Soli Ozel wrote in the paper published by the Center for American Progress (CAP).
Turkey was hugely dependent on its economic relationship with Russia, and faces major problems without it, Ozel acknowledged.
"If a president imposes his own will without changing the constitution, it means that Turkish democracy has begun to lose all it has gained. The president needs to immediately return to the boundaries laid down by the constitution," he says.
"What we are going through cannot even be described in words."
It has been suggested that even sultans of the former Ottoman Empire followed law and order more stringently than does the increasingly embattled Erdogan.
"If you look at Erdogan, everything he says instantly becomes law. Every day, Erdogan is taking steps toward a one-man regime," Erdem says.
"From now on there is only one man in Turkey and that man is Erdogan."
Former Turkish justice minister and constitutional lawyer Hikmet Sami Turk agrees, telling DW that Davutoglus resignation could spell troubling times for the future of the country.
"It is becoming increasingly clear with every event that Erdogan lacks impartiality. He intervenes in government tasks. He is acting like the de facto AKP leader. He is completely disregarding the constitution," he said.
KIEV (Sputnik) Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) European Department Poul Mathias Thomsen assured Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman of the fund's readiness to support Ukraine in implementing the necessary reforms, the Ukrainian Cabinet's press service said on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Groysman, who recently took the prime minister's office, met with Thomsen to discuss the aims and prospects of the new Ukrainian government, which relies on IMF assistance.
"The head of the IMF's European Department, Poul Thomsen, welcomed the formation of a new government and assured the readiness of the IMF to support Ukraine in implementing the necessary changes," the cabinet's press service said in a statement.
He is joined by Brazilian-British journalist and activist Victor Fraga to discuss what comes next for Dilma, the Workers Party, and a polarized country?
Greeces Parliament passed its harshest austerity measures yet yesterday as Eurozone finance ministers gathered to finally take up the issue of debt relief for Greece. But will Greeces creditors demand even more cuts from the countrys government? Becker is joined by by economist and investment analyst Patrick Young.
Journalist and author Greg Palast joins us to discuss how the Obama administration created an echo chamber in the mainstream, alternative and social media? According to the New York Times, Ben Rhodes, Obama's chief communications adviser admits that he was responsible for creating that echo chamber and getting the media in line with Obamas foreign policy.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) According to research by Medialogia monitoring and analysis company, commissioned by the Gazeta newspaper, Russian media outlets wrote 51,933 news stories citing Peskov in the period of January 1 to March 31. There have been 20,964 articles quoting Zakharova in the same time period.
Russian Defense Ministrys Igor Konashenkov and Investigative Committees Vladimir Markin came third and fourth, with 10,543 and 10,119 articles, respectively.
Last year, during the same time period, there have been 37,753 stories conveying what Peskov said. Zakharovas predecessor Alexander Lukashevich was quoted 5,456 times.
Russia's Tu-95MS strategic bomber, known to NATO as the 'Bear', will be kitted with Kh-101 long-range cruise missiles with conventional warheads. The warplanes flew over Moscow's Red Square during the May 9 military parade, the newspaper Izvestia quoted former Russian Air Force chief Pyotr Deinekin as saying.
He recalled that during the parade, which marked the 71st anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in World War II, the Tu-95MS bombers could be seen flying with special mountings on the wings.
"During the bombers' flyover, foreign military attaches, of course, could see external mountings on the planes' wings for the newest Kh-101 strategic cruise missiles," Deinekin said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a series of meetings Tuesday through Friday in Sochi with representatives from the country's Defense Ministry and military industrial complex, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
The president is working in Sochi from today, and today the seventh series of meetings with the leadership of the Defense Ministry and military industrial complexes will begin. As you know the president himself has said several times that this is very good practice when the president and the heads and producers of the military industrial complex convene here so as not to be distracted by the routine everyday schedule in the capital, and delve deeply every day into the issues and developments of the armed forces, as well as perfecting the military industrial complex and discussing current issues and ways of resolving them, Peskov told journalists.
Russian President Vladimir Putin usually holds meetings with there presentatives of all core Russian Ministries.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) A review on the full liberation of Russian gas exports is possible no earlier than in 2018, a source in the Russian Economic Development Ministry said Tuesday.
The ministry believes that the optimum variant of maintaining the export of pipeline-delivered gas is through a single export canal in the current macro-economic conditions. But before reviewing the possibility of a full liberalization of gas exports, its necessary to conduct an analysis of the effectiveness of the decision already made in regard to the liberalization of [liquefied natural gas] exports [after 2018 when the LNG plant in Yamal begins operations], as well as the redistribution of obligations in providing the domestic market with gas between all of its participants. Currently, independent gas producers have the ability of delivering gas for export through an agency agreement with Gazprom, the source told RIA Novosti.
The Russian legislation currently only allows Gazprom and its subsidiary Gazprom Export to export pipeline gas.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Moscow is concerned about "unfair" competition in the European and global energy markets, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
"In addition to fair competition, there have been attempts to introduce elements of unfair competition, including exerting unilateral pressure, which is illegal, and pushing own jurisdiction on other nations," Lavrov said.
The foreign minister said the government was prioritizing "energy partnerships between the state and the private sector."
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) and even Afganit active anti-tank defense systems (physically intercepting incoming anti-tank weapons) are now found on the heavy and medium IFV/APC as standard features.
This, the expert notes, is a radical departure from the previous practice where ERA was installed on tanks only while armored vehicles active defense systems were the technology demonstrated mainly for arms shows domestically and abroad, not for actual force protection.
Tayfun armored lorries further confirm the conclusion. Tayfun vehicles are designed to be a secure means of troop transportation, saving lives in case of terrorist and mine attacks on troops en route, and making the entrepreneurial armor-cladding of existing standard lorries unnecessary.
If companies refused to pay, the hackers threatened to release private information obtained in the hack. In total, SEA demanded over $500,000 from various companies.
Currently on the FBIs "Cyber Most Wanted" list, both Dardar and Umar Agha are believed to be in Syria. Romars role in the extortion scheme was to help redirect funds from entities which could directly transfer ransom money to Syria because of sanctions, according to prosecutors.
In addition to companies, the Syrian Electronic Army has also been accused of hacking into the US Armys website in June 2015. For a brief period, all internet traffic to the military site was redirected to an image promoting the Syrian Army.
Romar will appear in court in the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Gizmodo, a technology new website, claimed Monday that the Facebook news column, which shows news highlights trending around the world, was manipulated by contractors to "routinely suppress" stories appealing to US conservatives.
"We take these reports extremely seriously, and have found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true," Facebook Search head Tom Stocky, in charge of Trending Topics, wrote in his account.
According to a new analysis, Wall Street donors have begun donating to Clintons campaign en masse. She "has raised $4.2 million in total from Wall Street, $344,000 of which was contributed in March alone," a Wall Street Journal report reads.
The uptick began soon after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio dropped out of the race.
"More than 500 donors, including many Wall Street executives, who gave more than $200 to a Republican who later dropped out, including Mssrs. Bush and Rubio, have since given to Mrs. Clinton," the report reads.
The increase in Clintons Wall Street donations is especially noteworthy when compared with the amount contributed to Trumps campaign.
"The former secretary of state received 53 percent of the donations from Wall Street in March, up from 32 percent last year and 33 percent in January through February, as the nominating contests began.
There is no intention from the side of the artist or the center to insult Jewish memory. Its an artwork that tries to speak about the situation of hidden evil everywhere. Every criminal was once a tender, innocent and defenseless child, Fabio Cavallucci, director of the Centre for Contemporary Art, told The Guardian in 2012.
The image even upsets Cattelan himself.
"I wanted to destroy it myself. I changed my mind a thousand times, every day. Hitler is pure fear; its an image of terrible pain. It even hurts to pronounce his name. And yet that name has conquered my memory, it lives in my head, even if it remains taboo. Hitler is everywhere, haunting the specter of history; and yet he is unmentionable, irreproducible, wrapped in a blanket of silence," Cattelan has said of his sculpture.
The buyer of the statue remains unknown, as the high bid was placed anonymously by telephone.
"Im not trying to offend anyone. I dont want to raise a new conflict or create some publicity; I would just like that image to become a territory for negotiation or a test for our psychoses, Cattelan asserted.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have nearly identical favorability ratings in three key swing US states, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday.
NEW OHIO Q POLL: Trump leads Clinton 43-39. Compared to 42-42 tie in late February. Meanwhile, Sanders leads Trump 44-42. Andrew J. Tobias (@AndrewJTobias) 10 May 2016
"Six months from election day, the presidential races between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the three most crucial states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, are too close to call," Quinnipiac Poll Assistant Director Peter Brown said.
US Senator Bernie Sanders, who is still vying for the Democratic party nomination, fares better than Clinton against Trump, the poll noted.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) A list of possible names for the B-21 strategic bomber has been narrowed down after holding a naming contest for the aircraft, the US Air Force public information office said in a statement on Tuesday.
"We received an overwhelming number of nominations, which to me is a testament to how invested our Airmen are in the future of their Air Force," Deborah Lee James, secretary of the US Air force, stated in the statement. "Thank you to everyone who submitted, and we're looking forward to announcing the B-21's name in the fall."
NEW YORK (Sputnik) Additional patrols have been deployed to commuting locations throughout New York City in the wake of a deadly stabbing near Munich, a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department (NYPD) said in a statement on Tuesday.
"There'll be an increase in NYPD resources at commuting locations in response to incident in Germany," says @CommissBratton. NO known threat NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) 10 May 2016
"There has been a significant increase in police presence in subway stations and transit hubs. The New York travelling public can expect to see additional police officers, K-9s and bag checks," the statement noted.
"We have NYPD detectives stationed in Europe that gather intel so we can analyze & protect NYC," @CommissBratton says on @SquawkCNBC NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) 10 May 2016
Additional patrols were deployed after a man stabbed a passenger to death and injured three others at a Grafing train station 22 miles east of Munich, Germany.
The FBI, which is entitled to query the intelligence database, is expected to minimize its database searches for information related to non-foreign intelligence matters. According to a 2014 report by the PCLOB, the FBI was found to be the most active user of the foreign intelligence database for queries into US persons.
Despite legislation and increased oversight in US government surveillance practices, the amount of data collected on US citizens is still unknown.
The Tuesday Senate hearing was convened more than one year in advance of the 2017 vote to reauthorize the controversial section 702 of FISA. Civil liberties advocates have strongly opposed the bulk data collection as a violation of privacy and an apparent violation of the US Constitutions prohibition of undue search and seizure.
The PCLOB is an independent federal executive branch agency, whose members are appointed by the US President and confirmed by the Senate.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) President Barack Obama has been briefed on the US counter-Daesh campaign has directed the US National Security Council to ramp up efforts on all fronts, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday.
"The president directed his National Security Council to continue to intensify our counter-ISIL [Islamic State] operations across all military and civilian fronts," Earnest stated.
Daesh, outlawed in a number of countries worldwide, including Russia, controls large territories in Syria and Iraq, spreading its influence to North Africa and other regions.
"With this sentence, Alaa Saadeh is being held accountable for conspiring with his brother and others to travel overseas to join ISIL," US Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin stated.
Saadeh, who pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in October, will spend the rest of his life on supervised release after leaving prison, the release noted.
Some independent voters have unwittingly registered for a far-right extremist group that goes by the name of the American Independent Party," Robert Cruickshank, senior campaign manager for Democracy for America, a progressive group supporting Sanders, told AlterNet. That party was founded to support the racist, segregationist George Wallace during his campaign for president all the way back in 1968. It stays on the ballot only because voters sometimes choose it when they register, thinking theyre registering as an independent."
This could be a major blow to the Senator, as independents strongly favor Sanders. This weeks poll from NBC News|SurveyMonkey found that in head-to-head matchups between Sanders and Donald Trump, the Senator wins by an overwhelming 52% to the former reality television stars 30%. In the same poll, Trump beats Clinton among independents 39% to her 37%.
City Administrator Natasha Henderson filed the wrongful termination lawsuit in federal court in Detroit, asserting that she was fired hours after she asked Flints chief legal counsel to investigate her suspicions about mayor Karen Weaver. It was Hendersons second voicing of her concerns to the authority.
Hendersons lawsuit claims that she was fired in violation of whistleblower and free-speech protections.
The claims are that Weaver ordered her assistant and a volunteer to direct donors wanting to help Flint residents to her political action committees website, instead of to the Safe Water/Safe Homes fund. As of yet, it has not been confirmed whether donations meant for Flint residents went to the mayors fund.
A recent New York Times story describes Ben Rhodes, a Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, as a key figure who shapes how the US media discusses current events. It has been suggested that Rhodes is responsible for creating a so-called echo chamber in American media, effectively corralling journalists to fall in line with the administration of the US President.
The echo chamber phenomenon can be described as a state in which a set of views is established as the only possible truth, and that view is then shared by all participants, into which no outside information or opposing view can penetrate.
"We've known this," Palast told Loud & Clear, referring to Rhodes' outing in the Times. "It's just the first time that someone from the inside confirmed it." According to Palast, this state of affairs has lasted for years.
He also noted that even in the United States, speculation is rife that the schism between Europe and Russia had been "fabricated" by American neoconservatives.
"US presidential candidate Donald Trump, by admitting that the war in Iraq was a mistake, broke a taboo which exists among Republicans who had buried the case. The same can be said about Ukraine, and it indicates that Americans are beginning to air their dirty laundry," he said.
Separately, he said that French authorities were certainly wrong on Syria and Ukraine, citing two possible reasons for such blunders. On the one hand, the government could receive inaccurate intelligence, and on the other "despite the information, the politicians wanted to go in a direction not connected with the reality. On the Syrian issue, we simply ignored reality," Juillet pointed out.
"At the time of the conflict in Iraq, when four journalists were taken hostage in Syria, we maintained good relations, though not officially, with Syrian [intelligence] services. These ties have always been of service to us. Suddenly, all the bridges have been cut. This is utter nonsense," he said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)Donald Trump vowed to temporarily shut down the US border for Muslims after last Decembers lethal attack in San Bernardino by a radicalized couple with links to Islamists.
"There will always be exceptions," the presumptive Republican nominee told the New York Times on Monday when he was asked if the ban would affect Khan.
This came after Khan, a UK national of Pakistani descent, told Time magazine he feared that he would not be able to travel to the United States by virtue of his faith.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) A meeting of the special investigating group devoted to the newly posted Panama Papers online database, which includes at least 149 Polish names, is underway on Tuesday in Warsaw, local media reported.
On Monday, the International Consortium of Independent Journalists (ICIJ) published documents on 320,000 offshore accounts that were leaked from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca.
The US surveillance plane RC-135W was tracked down flying over the southern area of the Baltic Sea near the Russian border, the Rambler News Service reported, citing the liveuamap.com website which monitors the movement of military aircraft.
The plane's tail number, 62-4131, was tracked as it flew over the territory of the United States less than 24 hours ago, according to the website planefinder.net.
The aircraft reportedly conducted a 10-hour observation flight at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters, during which the plane could be seen flying near the Russian border for a least two hours.
UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik)UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Hussein on Tuesday called on Turkish authorities to respect human rights during the security and counterterrorism operations, conducted in country's southeastern provinces.
"However, while Turkey has a duty to protect its population from acts of violence, it is essential that the authorities respect human rights at all times while undertaking security or counter-terrorism operations and international law prohibiting torture, extrajudicial killings, disproportionate use of lethal force and arbitrary detention must be observed," Hussein said in a statement.
At the same time, Hussein criticized the violent actions conducted by the youth groups or Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, who attack the Turkish army in country's southeastern regions.
Another French couple, the Floch family of Brittany, have handed over their own WWII-era medals to the Russian Embassy in Paris so that they could then be delivered to the relatives of a Russian officer who made the ultimate sacrifice while liberating the ancient city of Palmyra from Daesh terrorists in March 2016, RIA Novosti reported.
The hand-over ceremony, which was attended by Russian Ambassador to France Alexander Orolv, took place at the embassy on May 9, coinciding with celebrations marking the 71st anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II.
Among those are sanctions on missile technologies and conventional weapons, terror list sanctions and targeted sanctions on anyone connected with support of terror, ballistic missiles, human rights abuses and censorship and destabilizing regional activities, including in Syria and Yemen.
According to White House guidance, the website says that anyone found to have had dealings with those on the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN) would put themselves at risk of being cut off from the US financial system. This includes foreign financial institutions, who would risk losing their correspondent account with US banks.
In a separate analysis on the issue, Bloomberg noted that for the same very reason Europes biggest banks prefer to stay out of Iran, unwilling to go anywhere near Iran-related business for fear that they will run afoul of remaining US sanctions on the country.
Among those who are not prepared to do business in Iran yet are Frances Societe Generale SA, Germanys Deutsche Bank AG, Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group AG, ING Groep NV in the Netherlands and the UKs Standard Chartered Plc.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)On Monday, Celik's lawyer Murat Ustundag told RIA Novosti that the Turkish prosecutors office had insufficient evidence to charge his client.
According to the Anadolu news agency, citing security sources who spoke on a condition of anonymity due to official restrictions on contact with the media, a decision not to press charges against Celik was reached after the prosecution examined video evidence.
A Russian Su-24 combat plane was shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet over Syria on November 24, 2015, and fell 2.5 miles from the Turkish border. The crew of the plane ejected and one of the pilots, Oleg Peshkov, was killed by fire from the ground, while the second pilot survived and was later rescued.
PRAGUE (Sputnik) According to Czech Radio, the generator is expected to arrive in Australia on Thursday and weighs some 120 metric tons.
Usually such cargoes are transported by sea but in this case it was decided to dispatch the generator by air because of the urgent needs of the Australian side, the broadcaster noted.
The An-225 Mriya was developed in the Soviet Union within the framework of the country's space program. The aircraft, originally conceived to airlift the Soviet Buran (Snow Storm) reusable space shuttle, is currently operated by Ukraine's Antonov Airlines. It has achieved a number of records, including having the largest carrying capacity of 253.8 metric tons.
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Wrong depiction of the map of India could land the violators in jail with a maximum term of seven years and fine up to Rs 100 crore.
This measure has been envisaged by the government against the backdrop of instances where certain social networking sites showed Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as part of Pakistan and China respectively.
Recently, 'Twitter' had shown the geographical location of Kashmir in China and Jammu in Pakistan triggering protests from the Indian government after which it was corrected.
According to the draft 'The Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016', it will be mandatory to take permission from a government authority before acquiring, disseminating, publishing or distributing any geospatial information of India.
"No person shall depict, disseminate, publish or distribute any wrong or false topographic information of India including international boundaries through internet platforms or online services or in any electronic or physical form.
"Whoever acquired any geospatial information of India in contravention of the law shall be punished with a fine ranging from Rs 1 crore to Rs 100 crore and/ or imprisonment for a period upto seven years," according to the draft bill.
Geospatial Information means geospatial imagery or data acquired through space or aerial platforms such as satellite, aircrafts, airships, balloons, unmanned aerial vehicles including value addition or graphical or digital data depicting natural or man-made physical features, phenomenon or boundaries of the earth or any information related thereto including surveys, charts, maps, terrestrial photos referenced to co-ordinate system and having attributes.
The government also proposed to set up a Security Vetting Authority to carry out security vetting of the Geospatial Information of India in a time bound manner and as per the regulations framed by an apex committee.
The Security Vetting Authority shall consist of an officer of the rank of Joint Secretary to the government of India or above as chairman and two members--one a technical expert and the other, a national security expert.
"Any person who wants to acquire, disseminate, publish or distribute any geospatial information of India, may make an application alongwith requisite fees to the Authority for security vetting of such geospatial information and licence thereof to acquire, disseminate, publish or distribute such Geospatial Information in any electronic or physical form," the draft bill says.
PTI
tech2 News Staff
Facebook is now testing a new feature for iOS and Android, dubbed "Discover", which will reportedly allow users to peruse public and private groups and see which friends are in local groups.
According to a report by International Business Times, "Discover" will be found found in the Facebook app under the "More" tab and then "Groups." The page displays more than 25 categories, including parenting, school and education and sports. Each category lists suggestions for Groups based on Facebook interests, activity and friends.
Facebook wants users to join more relevant groups, which will in turn, increase their time spent on the social media platform. The groups will be divided into categories for different interests such as parenting, networking and food respectively. In conversation with Mashable, Facebook said that only a select group of people have the feature right now and it will roll out more broadly in the near future. According to the company, Facebook had one billion users participating in groups as of January.
Recently, Facebook lost the first round in a court fight against some of its users who sued the social networking company, alleging it unlawfully collected and stored users biometric data derived from their faces in photographs. The judge presiding over the case in a California federal court turned down Facebooks motion seeking dismissal of the suit.
Facebook filed the motion arguing that the users could not file a complaint under Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) as they had agreed in their user agreement that California law would govern their disputes with the company, and that BIPA does not apply to tag suggestions. The court found that Illinois law applies and that the plaintiffs have stated a claim under BIPA.
tech2 News Staff
Lenovo had announced via its official social media channels that it will be launching its Z1 smartphone in India today. The smartphone is a project funded by Lenovo and is actually called the ZUK Z1. Lenovo however is branding the device as the Lenovo Z1 for the Indian market.
Premium build quality aside, the Lenovo Z1's highlight is indeed the Cyanogen OS. The handset will come feature-packed with Cyanogen's special Android-based software and will also include the various customisations that the software is known for. The Z1 is expected to run Cyanogen OS 12.1 out of the box, which is based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.
The ZUK Z1 features a 5.5 inch Full HD screen, and will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor. It is loaded with 3GB RAM and 64GB storage. The device also packs in a 13MP SONY IMX214 camera on the rear, and an 8MP front camera.
In addition, the key features of the device as revealed by ZUK include 4G radios, support for Bluetooth, GPS, USB Type-C port, a fingerprint reader and Wi-Fi. It is powered by a 4100mAh battery.
Lenovo recently made a claim that the Micromax will not be only company to run Cyanogen OS in India. The Lenovo Z1 is indeed going to be second brand to run the same OS officially.
To recall, Cyanogen, Micromax and Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus went through a rough phase last year, when Cyanogen Inc. suddenly decided to give exclusive rights to Indian smartphone maker Micromax for its Yu-branded smartphones. This took place when OnePlus had already started selling its smartphones with the Cyanogen OS. Just before the launch of its Yu smartphones, Micromax took OnePlus to court which led to OnePlus stepping down and building its own Oxygen OS for its handsets in order to keep selling them in the country. Post the legal tussle, only the OnePlus One smartphone was allowed to get Cyanogen OS updates.
tech2 News Staff
There have been plenty of murmurs in the rumour mill about Motorola's upcoming Moto G4 (or Moto G 4th generation) smartphone and its sibling, the G Plus. And while the handsets leaked out in plenty, few details were known about the actual specifications. With the launch approaching, Motorola India started putting up teasers about its upcoming handsets, giving plenty of hints. But now there is another big leak that gives out the complete hardware specifications down along with a few minor details such as the presence of NFC.
Twitter user Roland Quandt put out a detailed specifications sheet of the upcoming smartphone and as it turns out, there's is plenty of stuff in there as well. Adding to this is another leak that reveals some more confirmed specifications coming from another Twitter user Vaibhav Jain.
Combining both leaks, we can now expect the Motorola Moto G4 to arrive in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 variant with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage and another model sporting a Snapdragon 617 with 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The cameras would include a 13MP unit for the rear and a 5MP fixed focus unit up front. The handset is expected to arrive with dual SIM slots and will pack in a 3200mAh battery. The display is expected to be a 5.2-inch Full HD unit.
Coming to the 'Plus' version of the handset, it is expected to come with a similar 5.2-inch Full HD display with the only addition being the 16MP camera on the back. This handset may also pack in NFC and Laser autofocus as an added bonus.
Both handsets will boot to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and come with the standard splash-proof water resistance rating. The handsets are expected to be launched on May 17 in India.
tech2 News Staff
Opera has introduced a new virtual private network app dubbed Opera VPN, which will be available to iOS devices and can be downloaded from the App Store. The app will be available in select markets, with the support for the English, Arabic, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish languages. The Opera VPN app also lets users choose from one of the five locations including Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Singapore and USA.
President of SurfEasy, Operas VPN division, Chris Houston mentioned in a blog post, "Our new Opera VPN for iOS is a completely free solution that offers many of the features of our SurfEasy application: data encryption, online freedom, five server regions to choose from, online anonymity, ease of use, and so on. We make money here in two ways. The easy one to explain is advertising. While we dont offer this today, we will likely introduce advertising into the application in the future."
The Opera VPN app also comes with a built-in ad blocker. One can enable the VPN on an iPhone or iPad and the app will remove ads across apps and browsers. This method will have users save mobile data. The company claims that Opera VPN also prevents trackers from storing your information, means that ads cannot follow you across the internet. Houston added, "With the new Opera VPN app, we let people bust through firewalls, break down the barriers of the web and enjoy the Internet with freedom."
Pranjal Kshirsagar
Early last month an open letter on Quora by a pink slip-ed employee of Local Oye, a local services provider startup, to its founders and investors sparked off a volley of replies, tweets and justifications. The letter by the employee revealed the frivolous lives led by top layer executives. Juicy details included how there were drinking sessions in the middle of the day in office, and CEOs and senior staff stayed away from office for months together. The founder eventually did admit to making some mistakes in finances, product and hiring, but also made a strong statement at the end that they will not stop partying.
Working in a startup has always conjured up an image of everyone from the CEO to the intern sitting in the same room, seated on bean bags, sipping on coffee from a high-end cafe, walls adorned with colourful posters -- you get the drift. But reality is catching up real soon for these dreamy startups. Till last year, when the wave was just cresting, it looked very rosy, very upbeat as investors were pouring in money as long as their firms were outdoing competition. But that too began to change with the sheer number of startups springing up, competing for every bite of the pie. Also, investors who didn't get expected returns on a company suddenly became averse to investing in others.
Going back to the dreamy image of working in a cool, hep and happening startup, we dig in a little deeper and talk to those who have been there and done that and come out with not-so-great experiences. Some of the responses we got exposed the huge gap that these startup founders need to address when on one hand, they do get sufficient, if not bloated up, funding but tend to over-spend in areas that could have been avoided in the long run. We talked to someone working for an app-based job search platform.
He shares how the company would celebrate Saturdays and the day would be all fun and games and team building activities. He joined in August last year and by December that stopped. And soon after that, his entire team was asked to leave citing 'business needs'. "The co-founders were good to work with, the place was nice. It came as a shocker, but we realised this is happening in all startups," he adds.
Another ex-employee of Housing.com - the startup already infamous for its leadership snafus, shares the same sentiment. He was laid off under the label of 'cost cutting and re-structuing of business'. "Startups in India are having a hard time raising new capital, there is a funding crunch, this was inevitable considering the bloated rounds startups had been raising so far with unjustifiable valuations. Startups are now watching their cash burn carefully, this means scaling back on some of the exorbitant perks that were being offered, fewer and smaller parties, etc. Many startups have seen layoffs as a result of the lack of funds in the market, this impacts the culture, as not only are people let go during this times but others voluntarily chose to move on, morale is definitely compromised, however employees who are in the startup game could choose to embrace these difficult times and work on reinventing themselves and their startups," he says.
Another serial startup employee, who has worked across several such companies in Mumbai, says that now there is a marked focus on generating revenues. Hiring is controlled, candidates go through more intense interviews than before. "A year ago, thought was let's get people onboard and then think where to fit them. This process is completely vanished now. We never had party culture, but whatever we had for employee welfare is scrapped now," he reveals.
But all said and done, most of them would love to go back to a startup. "The amount of freedom that startup allows for individual, would be never matched in corporates. The casual dressing and flexible timings would be difficult to give up after so many years," adds serial startup employee.
Startups, however, need to pull up their socks and get their game straight. Maneka Tanwani, managing editor at OpenFin, a China-based startup tells us, "The slowdown is definitely here. Companies (with pressure from investors) have now realised that the honeymoon period is over and they need to show results. In terms of changes, I have seen startups across APAC are going lean. It has moved beyond slashing offsites and parties - it's coming to big time retrenchment." Maneka, who had been incidentally covering the APAC tech startup space as managing editor of an online news portal adds that as investors are obviously looking for returns, startups can't help but axe non performing business streams.
Taking this point further, Gautam Sinha, co-founder of global recruitment firm startup CBREX, and someone who has worked in corporates and has been an angel investor says that it all boils down to companies spending OPM -- other people's money, like their own. Any company that thrives on this culture of 'waste' will never lead to the creation of a long lasting business, explains Sinha. Highlighting on a very important factor of running a successful business -- be it any size, any economy, any geography, he says, "I feel some of this (startups going bust) has to do with maturity of the founding team and with the current focus on RoIs, founding teams will be forced to "grow" up faster." Citing his own example he shares that all six of them in the founding team of CBREX have spent between a decade and two decades either starting companies or working in companies. "This helps when you are building a culture as from the start the approach is balanced, a key virtue when you are building something ground up," says Sinha signing off.
Editor's note: Some names have been withheld on request
IoT Evolution is the leading event for education on the technologies, solutions and impact that the IoT will have on the ente
BD-India first blue economy meet held
Staff Reporter :
The First Meeting of Joint Working Group (JWG) to operationalize the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Blue Economy and Maritime Cooperation in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean Region was held on Monday in the city.
According to a Foreign Office statement, both sides discussed possible areas of cooperation under this MoU for further strengthening the bilateral relationship. Discussions pertained to Cooperation in capacity building and training, sharing of information and joint research in several areas including marine biotechnology, green tourism and hospitality, marine aquaculture, deep sea fishing, maritime pollution response, ocean disasters and services etc. were also discussed for mutual benefit.
Both the sides agreed to meet at regular intervals to monitor the progress of cooperation activities being undertaken under this MoU.
The MoU in this regard was signed during the visit of the Prime Minister of India to Bangladesh in June 2015.
The Bangladesh delegation was led by Rear Admiral Md. Khurshed Alam (Retd.), Secretary (Maritime Affairs Unit), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the Indian Delegation was led by Sujata Mehta, Secretary (West), Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
The Indian delegation called on the State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, Shahriar Alam and also met the Foreign Secretary, Md. Shahidul Haque.
SWIFT trashes BB, CID allegations against its technicians
SWIFT has turned down the allegations brought by Bangladesh Bank and police that technicians with a global financial network left the nations central bank more vulnerable to hackers three months before $81 million cyber heist. In a statement on Monday, SWIFT came up with the comment in the wake of a Reuters story that quoted Bangladesh Bank and Bangladesh Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials as saying that the central bank became more vulnerable to hackers when technicians from SWIFT connected a new bank transaction system to SWIFT messaging three months before a $81 million cyber heist. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a Belgium-based organisation, provides a network that enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardized and reliable environment. SWIFT termed false, inaccurate and misleading the allegations made by BB and CID officials to Reuters against its technicians, saying the accusations have no basis in fact. SWIFT was not responsible for any of the issues cited by the officials, or party to the related decisions. As a SWIFT user like any other, Bangladesh Bank is responsible for the security of its own systems interfacing with the SWIFT network and their related environment -- starting with basic password protection practices -- in much the same way as they are responsible for their other internal security considerations, the statement reads. It further said, SWIFT looks forward to the meeting with Bangladesh Bank and New York Federal Reserve Bank officials in Basel today (Tuesday), when the banks security issues and these baseless allegations will be discussed. SWIFT will not comment further ahead of that meeting. Hackers reportedly swindled out the huge amount of money from the central banks account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February last. The sensational heist surfaced after a Philippines newspaper published a report on it. -- Dhaka, May 10 (UNB)
Hangman enters jail as Nizami execution looks imminent
An inmate of Kashimpur Central Jail was brought to Dhaka Central Jail on Tuesday as he is likely to be the main hangman for condemned war criminal Jamaat leader Motiur Rahman Nizami. Law enforcers entered the jail along with hangman Mohammad Raju around 3pm, jail sources said. According to them, Nizamis family members might be asked to meet him for the last time today after getting the governments order to execute the Appellate Division verdict rejecting the review petition of the Jamaat Ameer. Meanwhile, police and members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) were deployed in the jail area as part of the beefed security measures. Besides, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Tuesday said the verdict against condemned war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami will be executed anytime if the Jamaat ameer does not seek presidential clemency. On May 5, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court rejected the petition of Nizami seeking review of its earlier verdict upholding the death penalty awarded by the International Crimes Tribunal. The full text of the verdict was released on Monday last. Later, it was read out to the Jamaat chief at Dhaka Central Jail. On March 15, the ICT issued a death warrant for Nizami for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 after the apex court released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty. On January 6, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by the Chief Justice, upheld the death sentence of the Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer. The Appellate Division upheld the ICT-1 order sentencing Nizami to death for wartime crimes, including genocide and murder of intellectuals. The apex court upheld his death penalty on three of the four counts of charges while he was acquitted on the rest one. On October 29, 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Nizami to death for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. The tribunal sentenced Nizami, the 1971 commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaate-e-Islami, the capital punishment each on four counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al Badr a criminal outfit. Nizami filed an appeal with the SC on November 23, 2014 challenging the death sentence and claimed himself innocent and sought to be cleared of the charges. -- Dhaka, May 10 (UNB)
Barisal journalists protesting attack on fellows
Journalists' community of Barisal on Monday forming human chain in front of Ashwini Kumar Hall protesting attacks on fellows demanded immediate arrest and speedy trial of the attackers.
The programme was held under the banner of Barisal Journalist Community.
It was addressed among others by Anisur Rahman Swapan, president, Nazrul Biswas, former president of Barisal Reporters Unity, Kazi Nasiruddin Babul, president, Kazi Miraz, joint secretary of Barisal Press Club, Ferdous Sohag, president of Barisal Electronics Media, Humayun Kabir, president of Barisal Television Media Association.
The speakers in their speeches and the participants in their carried banners told recently attacks and harassments against journalists increasing day by day due to failure of the government in facing the liable for trial.
They giving examples of recent two incidents of attacking journalists of Deepto TV at Chittagong and a journalist of local print media at Barguna, said culture of avoiding the incidents without trial making it increasing. So the participants demanded immediate arrest of the attackers of journalists, speedy trial and exemplary punishment of the attackers to ensure safety and security of the professional journalists.
Sadiq Khan dismisses Trump`s Muslim ban `exception`
Sadik Khan A said Trump (l) thinks \"that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam.
Sadiq Khan has rejected US presidential hopeful Donald Trump's offer to make the new London mayor an "exception" to a ban on Muslims travelling to the US."This isn't just about me. It's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world," he said.Mr Khan also warned that Mr Trump's "ignorant" views of Islam "could make both our countries less safe".Mr Trump said he was "happy" that Mr Khan would be leading London."If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing," he added.Last year, the Republic presidential hopeful called for a temporary halt to all Muslims entering the US in the wake of the deadly terror attack in San Bernardino, California.He said many Muslims nursed a "hatred" towards America and a ban should be in force "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".Mr Khan, the son of Pakistani immigrants and now London's first Muslim mayor, expressed concern during his election campaign that he would not be able to visit the US if Mr Trump were elected because of his faith.Asked by the New York Times how the ban would apply to Mr Khan, Mr Trump said: "There will always be exceptions."But in response, the new London mayor said: "This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world."He added: "Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe - it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays in to the hands of the extremists."Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong."Mr Khan officially took office on Saturday following Thursday's election, which saw him defeat his Conservative rival by Zac Goldsmith by 1,310,143 votes to 994,614 - giving him a larger personal mandate than either of his predecessors Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone.Mr Khan accused the Conservatives of using tactics "straight out of the Donald Trump playbook" in their campaign against him during the mayoral race, saying: "They used fear and innuendo to try to turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other."But senior Conservatives including Chancellor George Osborne and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon have defended the tone of the Tory campaign, saying it was part of the "rough and tumble" of an election.
Khaleda received money from ISI: Joy
UNB, Dhaka :Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy has alleged that BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia has repeatedly taken money from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for elections.He came up with the allegation in a status on his Facebook page early Tuesday."I've said before that Khaleda Zia is a Pakistani agent. She has repeatedly taken money from ISI agents for elections. She has made war criminals Ministers," Joy said. He further said, "Now the Pakistani Government is openly lobbying on her behalf." Joy, also the Prime Minister's ICT affairs adviser, shared a link of a news portal headlined 'Pakistan lobbies for BNP chief Khaleda Zia in Commonwealth'.Earlier on May 2, Joy also branded Khaleda as a liar and thief, and asked her not to throw mud at Bangabandhu's grandson.
14 killed in Idlib air attacks
Al Jazeera News :New air strikes on the town of Binnish in Idlib province in Syria's northwest have killed at least 14 people.Fighting also appeared to continue on Tuesday inside and around the city of Aleppo, 50km from Idlib city, according to the British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Government forces and rebels in Aleppo had initially agreed on Monday to extend their truce for a second time, according to the army, as the United States and Russia vowed to "redouble" efforts to end the five-year conflict.Aleppo onslaught: New ceasefire announcedThe cessation of hostilities was initially to last for two days but was later extended until Tuesday at 00:01 am (21:01 GMT Monday).Announcing a further prolongation, the army command said: "The 'regime of silence' in Aleppo and its province has been extended by 48 hours from Tuesday 01:00 am (local time) to midnight on Wednesday."The US and Russia also agreed to try extend a February 27 ceasefire across the whole of the country.But Tuesday's deadly airborne raids, by either Syrian or Russian warplanes wounded dozens of other Syrians, the Observatory said. A local rebel commander was also among those killed. There were no immediate details about other casualties.Idlib province, which borders Turkey, is almost completely controlled by rebel groups, including the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front along with Ahrar al-Sham. Washington and Moscow on Monday hailed some "progress" in reducing the fighting but admitted to ongoing "difficulties" in achieving a de-escalation in some areas as well as in ensuring humanitarian access to besieged areas. On Sunday, Syrian rebels fired rockets into a regime-held district of Aleppo, killing five civilians including two children, the Observatory reported.
Brokers rule admission at DMCH
Reza Mahmud :
Although the Dhaka Medical College Hospital authority has been trying for long to clear the hospital compound of the brokers, most of the patients still suffer in various ways. The brokers' audacity continues taking advantage of the patients' helplessness and tendency to get treatment before others.
A patient told this correspondent on Tuesday that a broker asked her to pay Tk. 500 as ultra sonogram charge. "When it was said to him why should I pay extra amount when the official rate is Tk 120, the broker said: You will get quicker service and will be able to leave the hospital before others.
When contacted, Assistant Director of the hospital Dr. Khwaja Abdul Gafur told The New Nation on Tuesday, "We have been trying our best to remove the cheats and brokers from the DMCH compound. But the problem is that the patients and their attendants are not conscious enough about it. If we catch brokers of any number and try to handover them to police, none agrees to be the plaintiff of the case, nor gives evidence. As such, police cannot take legal action against the fraud.
There are warning marks at many points of the hospital. These are: Help the authority to catch the brokers, and never give money to them. If any broker is found loitering, please dial the cell phone number given below. But the warning has failed to improve the situation.
One of the brokers was found waiting outside the ultra sonogram room yesterday. He was taking talking with the patients and supervising them unnecessarily, but there was none to stop him. At that time, one of the women from the rear of the row said that the same broker had asked for Tk 300 from her for same service.
The officials of the hospital said, the entrance of unauthorized persons into the hospital is prohibited. But as a large number of patients escorted by their relatives and friends come to the hospital every day, it becomes really difficult to check all of them to sort out the brokers.
Many of the outdoor and emergency patients alleged, the brokers disturb them in many ways. In the pathology department, brokers obstruct the patients to go there after 11 am. If any patient goes there after 11 am, the patients are asked to wait outside. "They (brokers) say us at 12 pm, the schedule time is over, come tomorrow," said Sumona a patient coming from Mirpur. She said, the brokers try to keep patients away from the DMCH pathology. They eventually try to take them in other private hospitals and clinics.
The patients and their relatives also alleged, many frauds and thieves also get inside the hospital. Last week, Nasima Begum, mother of a minor girl patient from Brahmanbaria, became the victim of aggyan party. Nasima Begum's daughter Jonaki was the admitted patient. The day the authority released Jonaki, her mother Nasima Begum was taking preparation for returning home. At 1:30 pm, three youths came to her and gave her some biscuits and said: It is from the authority for your daughter. But after taking smell of the biscuits, Nasima Begum fell unconscious. The youths then left with her gold ornaments and Tk seven thousands in cash. The victim was then admitted to the hospital.
Burials at Uttara-4 graveyard may resume soon
Staff Reporter :
A portion of land of the Uttara graveyard at sector 4 which, now faces legal complication will be used for burial purpose very soon, said Md Mesbahul Islam, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dhaka North City Corporation on Tuesday.
Talking to The New Nation he said the DNCC has taken steps to settle the long-standing issue so that the remaining land of the Uttara graveyard under sector 4 can be used for burial purpose.
"We have discussed issue with Mr. Abdul Alim Mollik recently and requested him to withdraw his prayer for the stay order. And he (Mollik) has already been convinced and assured us of withdrawing his stay order prayers immediately," DNCC CEO said.
When asked if Abdul Alim Mollik would not withdraw the stay order, the DNCC CEO said that he gave the word to the DNCC that he (Mollik) is going to withdraw the stay order as soon as possible. "We are waiting for his word. In case if Mollik would not withdraw the stay order, we will then move for legal procedures as early as possible," Mesbahul Islam said. To cope with the growing pressure, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) about a decade ago had handed over 23 kathas land to then undivided DNCC in the north site of the Uttara graveyard under sector 4 but this space remain unused due to the land litigation. In the wake of locals' demand and newspapers report, DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq, CEO MD Mesbahul Islam, Chief Engineer Brig Gen Md. Syeed Anwarul Islam, concerned officials and Afsaruddin Khan, councillor of Ward No-1 held a meeting recently and discussed the issue. A vested quarter is still on a ploy to grab the remaining land of the Uttara graveyard by constructing more establishments there in the future, according to locals.
The residents of the sector have urged the DNCC Mayor as well as the authority concerned to take steps to settle this long-standing issue so that the remaining land of the graveyard can be used for burial purpose. According to the DNCC statistics, the capacity of Uttara graveyard at sector-4 is 600 graves while sector 12 is 1,200.
But these burial grounds cannot meet the rising demand for burial plots in the area. Residents of Uttara sector alleged that some local influential people remain always active to grab the land and they have already taken various moves in this regard.
They are telling other residents of the sector that a new mosque and a madrasa would be established there on the north side of the graveyard. Talking to this reporter, some residents in the area said that a section of house owners in the northeast side of the graveyard do not get tenants to let their flats as the graveyard is just situated in front of their balconies. Local alleged that these people along with the incumbent Councillor Mohammad Afsaruddin Khan are advocating for establishing a new mosque and a madrasa there.
But the local people do not have any need to establish another mosque or madrassa as they have already a big mosque with sufficient accommodation facilities. They said they need sufficient space for their graveyard. Some employees of the graveyard preferring not to be named said that they are worried as the graveyard's land is being grabbed in many ways.
"We don't have any option. Some local people don't want to see the existence of the graveyard here. As a result, the graveyard is running out of space." On an average 100-150 bodies are buried in the graveyard in a year. The densely populated area has hardly any place for eternal rest for its dwellers in the near future, they added. The charge for a general grave (two years) is Tk 500 only, for 10 years Tk 5 lakh, for 15 years Tk 8 lakh, for 20 years Tk 12 lakh for 25 years Tk 15 lakh at Uttara graveyard. Recently, the graveyard authority allows three options-general, 15 years and 25 years.
The City Corporation is not selling any space as the government in January, 2009 had declared rules and regulations that no one will be able to buy permanent space in any graveyard under its jurisdiction.
According to DNCC official, every two years the soil of the graveyard is sifted. The bones retrieved are buried in a specific place and the soil is replaced. This gives space for new graves. As per the Islamic rules, burial space should not be bought permanently. Moreover, the space in Dhaka is decreasing day by day. So, it will be difficult for us to accommodate more bodies in future, he added.
Besides, Ahsania Mission, a non-government organisation, occupying some portions of the northeast area of the graveyard, is running a clinic named Nagar Shastho Kendra. Locals have raised question why Ahsania Mission was allocated land inside the graveyard to establish this clinic (Nagar Shastho Kendra) as it has reduced the space of the graveyard. In the past it was a family graveyard of late two brothers Mohammad Aminuddin and Mofizuddin. Later, RAJUK acquired 43 kathas of land and handed it over the undivided DCC for graveyard to meet growing demand for burial plots in the residents of city's Uttara area, according to graveyard authority sources.
They added RAJUK also handed some 23 kathas of land to the DCC for expansion of the graveyard almost a decade ago.
Originally, RAJUK had a plan to construct a mosque and a madrassa on that 23 katha of land. But as a big mosque with a sufficient land is situated just 500 yard off the graveyard at Road No. 6 under sector 4 in the area, RAJUK later handed it over to DCC for expansion of the graveyard. The Uttara graveyard was established on July 10 in 1995 on 66 kathas of land. Hazi Mohammad Abdul Alim Mollik, a residence of House No. 39, Road No. 10 under Sector 4, filed a writ petition against the expansion of graveyard during the army-backed emergency government in 2007.
Since then, the open space of the north side of the graveyard has remained unused. The then ward councillor late Hafizul Islam along with local people on several occasions had tried to convince some residents whose houses are adjacent to the northeast and northwest side of the graveyard to withdraw the writ petition and not to oppose the expansion the last resting place. "But all his efforts went in vain," a local said. Talking to The New Nation a leader of Uttara Jano Kallan Sangstha Sector 4, said that they are hopeful to get back the remaining space of the graveyard.
"We are now very much hopeful as Mr. Abdul Alim Mollik will withdraw the stay order as he has already been convinced,"" he said.
Alleged BCL polling criminal denied bail by Ctg court
UNB, Chittagong :
A court here on Tuesday rejected the bail petition of Nurul Azim Rony, general secretary of Chittagong city unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League in an arms case.
Chittagong Judicial Magistrate Abu Reza passed the order after Rony's counsel Advocate Eftekhar Saimul Chowhdury filed a petition before the court seeking bail for his client. Eftekhar yesterday said "We will file a petition with the High Court soon against the two year jail sentenced by a mobile court".
Besides, the leaders and activists of BCL staged demonstrations and brought out a protest rally in front of the deputy commissioner's office following the court order.
On May 7, police arrested Nurul Azim Rony, 26, general secretary of city unit Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) from Chariaboard Government Primary School polling centre in Hathazari upazila during voting in the union parishad elections, and recovered a firearm from his possession. A case was filed with Hathazari Police Station.
Foreign ministers meet in Paris
Al Jazeera News :
Representatives of Britain, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey and the European Union are in Paris to try to relaunch the Syrian peace process.
Monday's meeting of the Friends of Syria - an international diplomatic group - was to take place in the presence of Riad Hijab, head of the moderate Syrian opposition coalition.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, arrived in Paris for the talks and was to hold a meeting with his French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault. The US and Russia, who support rival sides in Syria's civil war, said they would work to revive a February "cessation of hostilities" agreement that reduced fighting in parts of the country for several weeks. Against this backdrop of renewed diplomacy, Syria's state news agency SANA said, quoting the military high command, that a ceasefire in the embattled northern city of Aleppo would be extended by 48 hours beginning at 1am local time on Tuesday (22:00 GMT Monday).
Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from Paris, said there are three key issues the Syrian opposition is looking to focus on. "The opposition wants the cessation of hostilities to take place across Syria and not be a local arrangement," she said. "Humanitarian access needs to be provided, with various organisations trying to get food and medical help to people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. "There also needs to be discussion on people who have been captured during the fighting, according to the opposition."
The efforts in Paris came on the same day that forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fought rebels near Aleppo and jets carried out raids around a nearby town, according to a UK-based monitoring group.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes struck the town of Khan Touman, southwest of Aleppo. Rebels also fought government forces east of Damascus and fighter jets struck the rebel-held towns of Maarat al-Numan and Idlib.
Also on Monday, a tentative deal was reported to have been reached to end a strike in a Syrian prison by nearly 800 mostly political detainees. The arrangement could eventually lead to the pardon and release of those held without charges. Rights groups said the deal, brokered late on Sunday, would end a mutiny in the Hama prison in central Syria that started last week when political detainees revolted after five inmates were to be taken to Sadnaya prison for the execution of death sentences passed by an extra-judicial military tribunal.
Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Gazientiep in nearby Turkey, said the negotiations were ongoing and details were still filtering through. "There are government delegations inside the prison, with representatives from the defence ministry and the interior ministry speaking to prisoners about their demands," she said. "People have been released but we don't how many exactly."
US, India cooperation should help to know truth about terrorism or hired killers
As the spate of targeted killing is spreading growing horrors in Bangladesh the USA and India have agreed to work together with Dhaka to counter violent extremism here before it takes root, media report said Tuesday quoting diplomatic sources in Dhaka. To make it clear the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal came to Dhaka on a quick visit after the killing of the US embassy staff Xulhas Mannan and his friend to offer the US government total support to Bangladesh government in its fight against extremism. And now immediately after Biswal's visit, Indian foreign secretary Mr Subramanyam Jaishankar is due in the capital this evening carrying similar message of help to combat extremism. Bangladesh has become easy for the killers to kill people whether they are terrorists or hired killers taking advantage of inimical and intolerant politics of the country. It is a hotspot now for carrying targeted killing of bloggers, writers, professors, religious preachers and minorities publicly defying the presence of the government and throwing challenge to its authorities. These killings cannot be called secret killings. The killers demonstrate defiance or feel safe. The recent rush of such killings gives the feeling of total insecurity about ones personal safety. The people are rightly worried where the country is heading without political discussions or debate taking place between the government and civil society members. It is also not known who are on the list of target killing. Only in yesterday's papers a family member was killed in Rupganj near Narayangonj, not too far from the capital city in the morning giving the clear impression that the killers have nobody to fear. Many are not sure if the impact of political vacuum can be blamed for suspecting terrorists with international connections or the killers are just home grown disaffected persons. Blaming police cannot be of any help when they are not free from political control and politics. We have efficient police, well educated and trained, but they are restrained by politics. Whenever any killing takes place the people in the high positions of government hold the opposition responsible. After that how independent police investigation is possible is a matter for everybody to know. In New Delhi's assessment that killers are homegrown militants responsible for the recent attacks, as the Bangladesh government also so believes. The US on the other hand thinks they may be indigenous or even affiliate of the Islamic State (IS). That is why the truth is important to find a solution. US ambassador Marcia Bernicat after meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque on Monday in the capital further said "Our three governments -- Bangladesh, India and the United States -- all fighting extremism. We're all on the same page here. All three of us are on the same page in that regard."We are not sure if people of Bangladesh are on the same page. We shall ask the US and India governments not to impose any theory of their own about extremism in Bangladesh. Our observation is that we have no terrorism but our political intolerance is promoting extremism. We must know the truth about the killings and the whole truth. The country is going through a terrible time. The government cannot see how mismanaged it is. Our government and our people need help.
All set to hang Nizami
Staff Reporter :Authorities of Dhaka Central Jail have taken all preparation to hang death row convict Jamaat Chief Motiur Rahman Nizami.Sources said, he will be hanged in anytime on Tuesday night for his crimes against humanity during the country's Liberation War in 1971 after completing all legal procedures, in line with the International Crimes Tribunal verdict.Home Minister Asaduzzaman Kamal told The New Nation in the evening that the order to hang Nizami was sent to the central jail authorities as he did not seek for presidential clemency. Nizami, 73, became the fifth convicted war criminal hanged for atrocities during the War of Independence since the war crimes trial process began six years ago.A former minister in the then BNP-Jamaat led four-party coalition government, Nizami had been in jail since 2010, when he was arrested to be tried for his crimes committed during the Liberation War. Meanwhile, the authorities stepped up security in and around the Dhaka Central Jail as well as across the country. Roads leading to the central jail were blocked with barbwire barricades after the evening. Additional policemen were deployed around the jail and heavily armed Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel were also dispatched there to prevent any violence or subversive act.BGB convoys were also patrolling the city's key intersections and roads as part of enhanced security measures. Nizami was given capital punishment by the International Crimes Tribunal in October 2014 after being convicted of mass murder, rape and orchestrating the killing of intellectuals during the Bangladesh's war of Independence. Prosecutors said that he was responsible for forming pro-Pakistani Al-Badr militia which killed top intellectuals, including writers, doctors and journalists, in the most gruesome chapter of the war.Their bodies were found blindfolded with their hands tied and dumped in a marsh at Rayer Bazar in Dhaka.As the Al-Badr chief, Nizami had ordered the killings designed to "intellectually cripple" the nation.The Supreme Court (SC) cleared the last hurdle for execution of Nizami on Thursday after rejecting his final appeal against the original death sentence handed down by the an International Crimes Tribunal in October 2014.Officials read the SC's verdict to Nizami on Monday night after he was brought to Dhaka Central Jail from Kashimpur prison, senior jailor Jahangir Kabir told reporters. Twenty-six family members of Nizami visited him at the Dhaka Central Jail at 7:55pm riding three cars after the jail authorities called them up to meet the death row convict. Two sons of Nizami, his wife and a grandchild were among them. They came out from the jail after two hours and left the place without saying any anything.
War criminal Nizami hanged
Countrys top war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami was finally hanged in the wee hours of Wednesday for the horrendous crimes he had committed against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 to thwart Bangladeshs independence. After long six years of trial, the 73-year-old Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami was hanged in Dhaka Central Jail at 12:10am. Motiur Rahman Nizami was hanged at 12:10am for his crimes against humanity, said Senior Jail Super of Dhaka Central Jail Jahangir Kabir while talking to reporters at the jail gate around 12:30am. Acting Inspector General (Prisons) Col Iqbal Hasan, Civil Surgeon Abdul Malek Mridha, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Mohammad Salauddin and Jail Jahangir Kabir were present during the execution. Jail sources said the body will be sent to his village home at Manmathpur in Santhia upazila of Pabna where he will be buried. Earlier, Nizami, the 1971 commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaate-e-Islami, was given the final bath followed by an imam administering him tawba (seeking pardon to the Almighty), an Islamic ritual, in line with the practice ahead of hanging. Hours before the execution, family members of Nizami, who served as the Industries Minister during the 2001-2006 BNP tenure, were allowed to meet him inside the central jail. With the latest execution, five war criminals have so far been executed, while two others - Jamaat leader Ghulam Azam and BNP leader Abdul Alim who had been sentenced to imprisonment unto death - died in jail. Earlier, Jamaat leaders Abdul Quader Mollah, AHM Kamaruzzaman, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury were executed as they had been awarded death penalty for their crimes against humanity in 1971. Earlier, the full verdict of the Supreme Court rejecting the review petition of condemned war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami was released on Monday. Later, a copy of the verdict reached the Dhaka Central Jail around 7:05 pm and it was read out to Nizami. Nizami was shifted to the Dhaka Central Jail from Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur on Sunday night. On May 5, the Appellate Division rejected the petition of Nizami seeking review of its earlier verdict upholding the death penalty awarded by the International Crimes Tribunal. On March 15, the ICT issued a death warrant for Nizami for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 after the apex court released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty. On January 6, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by the Chief Justice, upheld the death sentence of the Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer dismissing his appeal petition. The Appellate Division upheld the ICT-1 order sentencing Nizami to death for the wartime crimes, including genocide and murder of intellectuals. The apex court upheld his death penalty on three of the four counts, while he was acquitted in one. The SC upheld his life term imprisonment on two charges, out of four in connection with the arrest, detention, torture, and murder of three people, including headmaster Maulana Kasim Uddin of Pabna Zila School on June 4, 1971, complicity in torture, murder and rape at Mohammadpur Physical Training Institute in Dhaka, and murder of Badi, Rumi Jewel and Azad at Old MP Hostel in Dhaka on August 30, 1971. The Appellate Division acquitted the Jamaat leader on two other charges. On October 29, 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Nizami to death for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. Nizami filed an appeal with the SC on November 23, 2014 challenging the death sentence and claimed himself innocent while refuting all the charges. On July 29, 2010, the Jamaat chief was arrested for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. He was shown arrested on August 2 the same year for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War and the trial began nearly two years later on May 28, 2012. Born on March 31, 1943 in Pabnas Santhia upazila, Nizami rose to the rank of president of East Pakistan unit Islamic Chhatra Sangha (ICS), the student wing of Jamaat, in 1960. Later, he became the president of West and East Pakistan ICS (now Islami Chhatra Shibir) in 1966. During the countrys Liberation War in 1971, then 28-year-old Nizami was the chief of Chhatra Sangha and the supreme commander of the notorious militia group Al-Badr which brutally killed and tortured many pro-independent forces and their family members. He had also played a key role in the formation and running of the Razakar and Peace Committee that helped Pakistani occupation forces. After the Liberation War, Nizami along with his guru Ghulam Azam fled to the UK. After the assassination of Father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August 1975, military ruler Ziaur Rahman permitted Ghulam Azam and Nizami to return to Bangladesh in 1978, paving the way for the revival of Jamaats politics. In 1991, Nizami was elected an MP from Pabna-1 constituency with Jamaat ticket. Nizami took over as the Ameer of Jamaat from his guru Ghulam Azam in 2001. In the same year, he was again elected MP from Paban as his party had joined the election under the banner of BNP-led four-party alliance. As the four-party alliance formed the government, Nizami had been inducted in the cabinet and served as the agriculture minister until 2003 and thereafter as industries minister until 2006. Nizami was defeated in the December 2008 general election as a candidate of the Four-Party Alliance.--Dhaka, UNB
In a dramatic shift away from the Edwards administrations priorities, the House Appropriations Committee advanced a state budget May 9 that gives the attorney general autonomous spending control and eliminates the office of inspector general, among other changes.
AG Jeff Landry
In a dramatic shift away from the Edwards administrations priorities, the House Appropriations Committee advanced a state budget May 9 that gives the attorney general autonomous spending control, eliminates the office of inspector general, reverses cuts to a free college tuition program and reallocates funding reductions for safety-net hospitals.
In recent history at least, the Appropriations Committee has traditionally rubber-stamped the executive budget proposal presented by the sitting governor, but its final actions on HB 1, which contains the budget, could be charting a course for a political collision with the House on one side and the Senate and Gov. John Bel Edwards on the other.
The budget changes were driven by Appropriations Chairman Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, and were a surprise to many on the committee who had no clue such sweeping alterations were in store. The budget bill now moves to the House, which has a solid conservative majority.
Edwards, the first Democratic governor to be elected in the Deep South in 12 years, seems to have more support in the Senate, which will likely make its own changes to the budget bill that are more in line with what the governor initially proposed beginning the week of May 16. A House floor vote on HB 1, meanwhile, could come as early as Thursday.
Speaking with reporters at the Baton Rouge Press Club about the committee vote, Edwards said he had some concerns with the suggested changes and described the across-the-board cuts and the reshuffling of offices as not the right thing to do.
The biggest surprise to come out of the first committee vote involved removing the office of the attorney general from the main budget bill in HB 1 and allowing it to have its own standalone appropriations bill.
We want to try budgeting differently than we have in the past, Henry says of the change, adding it would give the attorney general more flexibility.
It would also give the Division of Administration, which is the governors budgeting arm, less authority over controlling the attorney generals spending.
Rep. Pat Smith, D-Baton Rouge, suggests that such a move would push Attorney General Jeff Landry toward becoming a loose cannon. Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, says that a standalone budget could face constitutional challenges down the line.
Landrys office, which requested the amendment, released this comment to reporters: The attorney general is a separate, elected constitutional officer.
Breaking from others who preceded him, Landry has been taking more initiative during his first year in office to intervene in cases the state is involved with and hes repeating his constitutional authority to do so with or without input from the governor. Landrys ability to control his own budget, rather than being part of the executive budget proposal, is an extension of this developing political narrative.
Another budget amendment eliminated all funding for the inspector generals office, which operates as an independent watchdog agency. Henry argues that the office duplicates services already offered by state police, the attorney general and legislative auditors.
Inspector General Stephen Street says his office actually generates money for the state and is the only investigative arm with no political ties. Eliminating an office that can actually investigate the Legislature sends a bad message, he maintains.
The optics of that are horrible for our state, Street notes.
After Edwards downsized the free college tuition program by $183 million in his executive budget proposal, the committee voted to reverse that reduction and found the money needed to make TOPS whole. The money was taken from various departments and agencies using across-the-board cuts.
In other action, the committee also voted to overturn Edwards decision to fund only five out of the states nine safety net hospitals. Instead, members reallocated that overall funding reduction in a manner that all of the hospitals would now have to share in the cuts.
The bill, SB 54, is sailing through the Legislature with little critical questioning. Thats what newspapers are for.
The Advocate published some damn good journalism today, throwing back the veil on the genesis of legislation put forward as a public safety initiative but which, not coincidentally its never coincidental would line the pockets of a corporation.
Senate Bill 54 would authorize the installation of cameras on police cars that can automatically scan license plates and identify uninsured motorists and stolen vehicles. It sounds like a good idea on the surface, but as The Advocates Tyler Bridges reports, fines generated by the technology would substantially benefit a private company, and the bill owes its genesis at least in part to a private meeting held in the office of former Louisiana House Speaker Jim Tucker.
Read the report here.
PhRMAs successfully lobbying of Congress to keep U.S. drug prices the worlds highest is as American as apple pie, and former U.S. Congressman Billy Tauzin of Louisiana is its Johnny Appleseed.
How did we miss this one?
In a long-read article published in mid-March titled The Lobbyist Who Made You Pay More at the Drugstore: Heres how the pharmaceutical industry keeps Americas drug prices among the highest in the world Wendell Potter and Nick Penniman at BillMoyers.com report on how the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America PhRMA, the lobbying arm of the U.S. pharmaceutical industry has successfully padded its bottom line and protected its financial interests, even and especially when those interests run counter to the interests of consumer protection and sound health policy.
Its as American as apple pie, and former U.S. Congressman Billy Tauzin of Louisiana as good an example if there ever were one of the scourge of Congress' "revolving door" is its Johnny Appleseed.
From the article:
For many years, Tauzin was one of the pharmaceutical industrys most important allies in Congress, especially from 2001 to 2004, when he chaired the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the Food and Drug Administration. While he held that chairmanship, drug companies and insurance and health professionals contributed nearly $1 million to Tauzins congressional campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Thats chump change, though, compared to what the pharmaceutical industry paid him as its top lobbyist when he left Congress in 2005. His salary increased more than twelvefold from $162,100 to $2 million the minute he signed on as president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the industrys powerful trade group. PhRMA spent $26 million on lobbying in 2009, during the debate over the Affordable Care Act, to shape the law to its satisfaction. Individual companies within the pharmaceutical and health products industry spent millions more on top of that. In fact, at $275 million, the industrys federal lobbying expenditures in 2009 stand as the greatest amount ever spent on lobbying by one industry in a single year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The total swelled to $558 million when lobbying expenditures from hospitals, medical device manufacturers and other health care companies and organizations were included. The industry also doled out millions of dollars in campaign contributions in 2008 and 2009, much of it to Democrats who ostensibly were in charge of writing the reform legislation. PhRMAs ability to influence elections and public policy has made it the envy of most other corporate advocacy groups in Washington. Not only is PhRMA consistently among the top spenders on lobbying activities every year, it is widely considered to be the most effective. The PR and consulting firm APCO Worldwide asked hundreds of the citys movers and shakers in 2013 which of approximately fifty leading trade associations had the most clout. PhRMA came out on top, garnering the most wins in the most categories. It was voted the best at lobbying, the most effective at having a local and federal presence and the group whose members most frequently mobilize to contact policymakers. In other words, what PhRMA wants, PhRMA is very likely to get.
Read the full article here.
Pre-purchase property inspection is a relatively new thing in the United Kingdom. Its not something that most people have heard about, but it has become increasingly popular over the last few years with the rise in property prices and increased demand for high quality homes.
What are the benefits of pre-purchase building inspection? What can you expect to find out when you pay someone else to inspect your home before you buy it? And what should you look for during an inspection?
Many people want to know if theyre buying a house thats been well maintained or if its had any serious problems. If youve found a place on the market that seems attractive, but then discover some issues after moving in, you may not be as excited about buying it as you thought you were.
Its important to do your due diligence when looking at properties. A lot goes into making a property appealing to potential buyers, from the landscaping to the flooring to the kitchen appliances. The same applies when inspecting a property there are many things that need checking over to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Here are some of the benefits of performing a pre-purchase inspection:
You get to see exactly what will happen to your money
When you go shopping for a new car, youll probably be shown several different models. You might even be shown one that looks like a great value, but doesnt fit around all of the extra features that you want. When it comes time to actually buy the vehicle, however, you wont have seen how your money will be spent on it once you drive it off the showroom floor.
Likewise, when you shop for a new home, you dont really know what youre getting yourself into until you move in. In order to get a feel for whether the home youre considering is what you want, you normally have to spend quite a bit of time inside it. This allows you to learn more about everything that youre going to be spending your hard-earned cash on.
A pre-purchase building inspection gives you much the same kind of experience without having to spend thousands of dollars. Since youre paying for the service, you can expect to see exactly what youre paying for, instead of just seeing a vague idea of what you might end up with.
You find out about potential major repairs
Some buildings are very expensive to maintain, which means that owners often neglect them for the sake of saving money. While youre paying for a building inspection, youre also paying for a professional who knows how to spot signs of trouble and repair work that needs doing.
If you notice that a particular area of your new home needs fixing right away, you can call in an expert to take care of it quickly. If you find that theres something wrong with your boiler, you wont have to wait weeks for a plumber to come over and fix it. Instead, youll have access to a solution immediately.
You can save hundreds of pounds by finding out about potential problems early on
One of the biggest expenses when you first buy a home is the cost of moving in. Many people dont realize this until its too late. Buying a home involves not only paying for the actual house, but also for moving costs, furniture, and other items that have to be moved along with the home.
Having a good idea ahead of time of what youre likely to encounter can help you avoid these kinds of costs. If you know youll need to replace the plumbing system, for example, youll be able to put together a budget for the expense and plan accordingly.
You can protect your investment by finding out if the homes been well cared for
While there are plenty of people who think that houses always look better when theyre newly built, youd be surprised at how well maintained older residences can still look nice. Sometimes, though, those homes need some additional maintenance to keep them looking their best.
This could involve repairs that arent so noticeable or small improvements that you wouldnt consider otherwise. Even worse, some houses have fallen into disrepair without anyone noticing. This is why having a professional perform a building inspection prior to purchasing a home is such a big benefit.
Not only will it give you insight into the state of the property, but it will also give you peace of mind knowing youre not getting taken advantage of. As long as youre aware of the potential pitfalls, youll have less reason to worry about the state of your new home.
You can use information gathered during a building inspection to negotiate a lower price
If youre worried about buying a home because you suspect that it may need extensive renovation work, you may already have a rough idea of how much work youll need to do to bring it up to scratch. That knowledge can come in handy if you decide to buy the home.
You can use all of the details that you gather during a building inspection to present a realistic picture of what the home is worth to prospective buyers. If a potential buyer thinks that the home is worth more than what you paid for it, you can try negotiating a lower price.
You can sell your home faster and for more money
If you decide to list your home on the market soon after buying it, youll need to price it accurately in order to attract buyers. But if youve already done a thorough building inspection, youll know exactly what work is needed and what the current market conditions are.
In other words, youll be able to make a more accurate estimate of the amount of money youve invested in the home and how much its worth. If you find that youre selling your house for close to its full market value, you can use this information to convince the potential buyer that your home is worth the asking price.
Even if youre planning to stay in the home for a while before you decide to sell, the fact that you did a thorough building inspection will give you more confidence when listing it. Prospective buyers will know exactly what theyre paying for.
Your home will hold its value longer
As mentioned earlier, the value of a home depends heavily upon the condition of the building itself. If your home is in bad shape, potential buyers wont be interested in buying it. On the other hand, if youve performed a thorough building inspection and know what sort of repairs are necessary, you can offer your prospective buyer a compelling reason to invest in your property.
When you buy a home, youre essentially agreeing to have it inspected periodically to ensure that it stays in top shape. Not only does this allow you to avoid expensive repairs down the road, but it can also increase the value of your home.
You can make smart decisions about property investments
Buying real estate isnt as simple as just driving a couple of minutes to pick up a house. There are lots of considerations involved, ranging from location to cost. The same is true when youre investing in property.
If you find a house that meets all of your requirements, youll want to make sure that you have a solid understanding of where it stands with regards to the rest of the market. If you havent spent enough time researching the area, you could inadvertently end up with a bad deal.
There are lots of resources available online that can help you determine the overall level of competition in your area. They can also help you figure out if there are any properties that meet your requirements that you didnt know about.
If you own rental property, you can use the information to identify tenants who might cause damage
If you own rental property and youve noticed that certain tenants consistently cause damage, you can use the results of a building inspection to identify them. You can then contact them directly to let them know that youre watching them closely and that you dont appreciate the problem theyre causing.
They might start taking better care of their homes, which would be good news for everyone. It could also be the case that youll find out that theyre responsible for previous damages that werent caught during a previous visit.
You can make smarter decisions about hiring contractors
If youve hired contractors to build or repair your home, you might want to ask them for references. However, unless you perform a thorough building inspection, you might not know exactly what to look for.
For instance, maybe you only checked the roof for leaks or the walls for cracks. You might not have looked underneath the foundation for anything that could cause a future issue. By performing a building inspection, you can ensure that you hire reputable contractors who will be trustworthy with your money.
You can avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition
Of course, the main benefit of structural inspections perth is that it helps you avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition. Before you make the decision to buy a home, you should do whatever you can to find out about the state of the building.
You can also ask your realtor about what sorts of inspections are typically recommended. Some agents say that its standard practice to check the heating system, the roof, the electrical wiring, and the floors. Others will tell you that they recommend that you check the entire structure.
Either way, if you choose to hire an inspector, youll find out exactly what needs to be fixed and how much it will cost to do so.
As a result, it can be concluded that a pre-purchase building inspection is highly important for the buyers because it provides transparency regarding the current conditions of the structure. Additionally, the building owner is made aware of any upgrades or repairs that are required, which could lead to a fair deal throughout the purchasing and selling process.
Paris, TX (75460)
Today
Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Potential for severe thunderstorms. Low 48F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..
Tonight
Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Potential for severe thunderstorms. Low 48F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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How to choose a sextoy for Indian
Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one.
Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points: Does the size fit you (the partner)?
Does the size fit you (your partner)?
Is the environment able to produce sound without problems?
Price range
First of all, the choice of size is quite important.
Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women.
For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage.
Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems.
Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise.
If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level.
Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it.
Finally, there is the price range.
The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest.
Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy.
Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy?
I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance.
For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics.
If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out.
How to buy sextoys in India
The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping.
For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below.
Sextoy is one of them.
Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping.
SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India.
They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry.
Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card.
To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy.
ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal.
Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on.
Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture.
Cautions for Indians using sextoy
When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind
Keep sex toys clean
Watch out for electrical leakage
Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy
As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone.
Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there.
It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case.
In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness.
Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful.
If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it.
You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly.
Summary
What did you think?
In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India.
The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future.
As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values.
However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health.
If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try?
Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women.
I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it.
CARBONDALE With a $2.5 million grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the city park district will be celebrating the grand opening of a 10-year project on May 28.
Carbondale has aspired to build an outdoor municipal swimming complex for more than 40 years, according to Kathy Renfro, executive director for the city's park district.
And now it looks like the dream will become a reality.
The outdoor aquatic center also called the Super Splash Park located within the Carbondale SuperBlock complex, will feature a lazy river, competition pool, zero-depth entry leisure pool, play structures, water slides, a bathhouse and concession stand.
With hours from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., park district members will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10:30 a.m. on opening day to welcome guests to the new facility.
"The ribbon cutting ceremony will be open to the public," said Lawerence Erickson, vice president of Carbondale Park District. "It'll be a very short celebration 'cause people want to get in there," he added.
Admission to the park ranges from $5 for a youth daily admission pass, to $156 for an adult (non-resident) season pass, and $250 for a (non-resident) season pass for a family of four.
Group discounts are also available for daily admissions.
Unlike other water parks in the region, Renfro said, the splash park allows for patrons to bring their own snacks and beverages, to be consumed in designated areas.
The opening of the outdoor aquatic center, Renfro said, will be another step toward improving the quality of life for Carbondale residents, and citizens from the region.
CARBONDALE Despite a few showers Tuesday morning, the Gary Sinise Foundation broke ground for a custom smart home for Jared Bullock, a retired US Army Sergeant, and his family.
The foundation is an organization that creates programs for veterans, defenders, first respondents and their families.
On Oct 13, 2013, the Green Beret who has served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, among others was injured by an improvised explosive device while carrying out a routine patrol.
This caused Bullock to lose his right arm from above the elbow and down, and his right leg from above the knee and down.
In September, after he retired, Bullock said he and his wife received a phone call from actor Gary Sinise, founder of the Sinise Foundation, who shared his interest in building the family a suitable home specific for Bullock's needs.
"We sat there and talked for a little bit and then, (Gary said) 'I want to build you a house.'" Bullock said. "It was one of the most amazing things. I can't even actually put it into words."
Soon after the call, the couple, who were involved with designing plans for the home, said they decided to have the foundation place their new home in between the two cities where the pair grew up.
"It's kind of a middle ground, and with the five acres, and the 2000 acres of National Forest in the backyard, you can't beat that," Bullock said.
The Metropolis-born veteran also said their relocation to the Carbondale area would provide an opportunity for his son to grow up the way he did.
"(Southern Illinois) is where I grew up and I think that kind of made me into who I am," Bullock said. "Being able to get out into the woods and do the things on my grandfather's farm, that's what I want for my son. I think it will be awesome for him to be out here."
His wife, Jesica Bullock, who grew up in West Frankfort, said that the home will also relieve physical concerns, such as showering, for Bullock.
"(When I work and Aiden's at school), I know that he is safe if he needed a shower he can do it by himself and be able to do everything that he needs," she said. "It is a peace of mind; a comforting feeling all around. We're very blessed in so many ways with this house."
During the ceremony the family saw the final product of their new smart home, which will be located in Carbondale on Hickory Trail Road, for the first time.
Bullock's home will be one of the 46 specially adopted smart homes that the foundation will be complete this year as part of their R.I.S.E. program.
Pat Velasco, board member of the Gary Sinise Foundation, said "too often we take for granted our nation's freedom and security defended each day by great rave individuals like Jared. It is a great privilege (for the Gary Sinise Foundation) to support this incredible soldier."
DU QUOIN The Du Quoin City Council voted 4-1 Monday night to extend the comment period on its proposed Amusement Tax, to allow state representatives time to craft an alternative.
Objecting to the two-week extension was councilman Chuck Genesio, who expressed his displeasure at how officials with the state's Agriculture Department voiced their non-support of the Amusement Tax at this past week's Chamber of Commerce dinner. That was, allegedly, before they had voiced their displeasure to the city's mayor or council members.
The Amusement Tax is a proposed 5 percent tax on gross amusement income at the Du Quoin State Fair, which would hopefully generate enough funds to allow Du Quoin city officials to pay for expenses associated with its police and fire coverage at the state fair and other fairground events. The taxes from a percentage of fair and fairground sales would be split 75 to 25, with the larger portion going to the city of Du Quoin.
Mayor Guy Alongi has said that if the tax is implemented this year, it could generate between $25,000 to $30,000 for the city by the end of the year.
The mayor reported that earlier on Monday, Alec Messina, an advisor to the governor, visited Alongi to apologize for the Ag Department's public disapproval of the Amusement Tax, before alerting Alongi and the city council. Alongi said the meeting lasted about three hours and that the two men discussed possible solutions.
Saying he was respecting the negotiations process, Mayor Alongi declined to say what alternatives were proposed or suggested.
"What was said was were going to actively work together for the next week, or two, to try and come up with a solution with the tax," Alongi said. "I gave them some options that I thought were workable. If theres some type of agreement, I think we both understand that it needs to be some intergovernmental agreement."
City Council members also approved the mayor entering into a contract with the Indianapolis, Indiana-based RenoSys, an aquatics construction and renovation company, to restore the city's swimming pool. That measure authorizes the mayor to enter into a contract not to exceed $150,000; that company has done work on swimming pools at Dixon Springs State Park and in Mattoon, the mayor said.
MARION Anyone who's a fan of ButterBurgers and frozen custard, could have their craving satisfied soon: Culvers may be coming to Marion.
On Monday, the Marion City Council approved a Tax Increment Financing agreement between the city of Marion and the fast-food restaurant firm based in Wisconsin.
City Administrator Gail West said the franchisee has not officially closed on the property and the group is not willing to disclose too many details. However, she said it would be next to the IHOP on Blue Heron Road. IHOP has started turning dirt in both Marion and Carbondale.
West said the franchise is planning to buy the land from Marion Heights, LLC and by the time a TIF agreement happens with the city, a deal is imminent.
I anticipate they will close between this month and next month, West said. There is no construction timeline yet.
The maximum reimbursable amount from the TIF agreement is $1.56 million, and there isnt anything on the property. She said the project costs are estimated at about $2.4 million.
Besides Culvers, West said there are other developers looking at Marion for business. She said a hotel group is looking for a space, and the city is trying to move a lot of business toward the new interchange by Interstate 57.
That has been our development corridor, she said.
West said there are a few deals that may happen in the next month or so, but it is too early to make a public announcement.
Mayor Bob Butler said the increase in businesses coming to Marion is creating a magnetic effect, which is attracting other businesses.
Success breeds success, he said. People and business are going to gravitate to places where they think they are more likely to succeed.
The mayor said he feels the city is continuing ahead with great momentum, and it is doing everything it can do keep it going.
BENTON The Franklin County Sheriffs Office is seeking a teenage girl and an infant reported as missing, according to a county emergency management alert issued Tuesday.
The teen is Emily M. Womble, 17, described as 5 feet, 3 inches tall, weighing 120 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes.
The infant is Oakleigh A. Elders, 16 months. No further description was provided.
The are reported as possibly being with Eli C. Elders, an 18-year-old male described as being 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighing 180 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.
They are reported as possibly being in San Antonio, Texas or Florida.
Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriffs office at 618-439-4850 and reference Case No. 16-0774.
DECATUR A Decatur woman died early Sunday after her vehicle collided with an Illinois State Police squad car rushing to assist in the hunt for a Mahomet suspect who had allegedly shot and wounded a police officer.
State Police said the trooper was northbound on Oakland Avenue at 11 p.m. Saturday with lights and siren activated on his way to Interstate 72 when Kelley E. Wilson allegedly pulled out in front of him at the intersection with Harrison Avenue. Police say the squad car was unable to avoid striking the driver's side of Wilson's vehicle, the impact of the collision causing massive damage as it injured both drivers.
Wilson was rushed to Decatur Memorial Hospital, where the 26-year-old mother of two was later pronounced dead at 1:07 a.m. Sunday. The 53-year-old trooper was hospitalized, and an update on his condition was not available Sunday night.
Wilson was alone in the vehicle.
The crash remained under investigation Sunday as police from multiple jurisdictions continued their hunt for the gunman. State Police director Leo Schmitz issued a statement Sunday expressing remorse for Wilson's death: At this difficult time, the Illinois State Police extends its sincerest condolences to her family and continues to investigate this crash, Schmitz said.
Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and the ISP trooper.
The gunbattle in Mahomet that had provoked a wide police response involved a suspect later identified as Dracy C. Pendleton, 35, of Bellflower, who police continued to hunt Sunday and described as armed and dangerous.
Mahomet police say Pendleton had been pulled over in the village about 10:45 p.m for a minor traffic offense. It's not clear exactly what happened next, but at some point, a physical confrontation ensued with Mahomet police officer Jeremy Scharlow, who received a blow to the head and tried to subdue Pendleton with a shot from a stun gun.
Mahomet Police Chief Mike Metzler, quoted in local media, said Pendleton then opened fire with a handgun, hitting Scharlow in the arm. Scharlow returned fire and likely hit the suspect; bloodstains were found in a nearly house into which he ran. He came outside again with a rifle believed to be an AK-47 and opened fire again before fleeing in a truck.
That vehicle was later found crashed into the gates of a business near Mahomet called Mid-America Sand & Gravel. A white pickup truck is now missing from the business, and Mahomet Police say they believe Pendleton stole it to make his escape.
Scharlow was released after treatment at a hospital.
State Police said Pendleton is being sought for the attempted murder of Scharlow, 35, and have warned the public to be on their guard. Police believe Pendleton may be forced to try and seek treatment for his gunshot wound.
An extended family member told The Associated Press that Pendleton had recently moved out of his home after separating from his wife.
Jack Dollahon said that Pendleton his grandson's half brother works as a contractor and is a father of two sons, both younger than 2.
Pendleton is described as 5 feet 10-inches tall, 155 pounds, with blue eyes and blond hair. Anyone with information about him can call 217-384-TIPS or go to www.373tips.com.
This story was originally published in the Decatur Herald & Review, a sister newspaper of The Southern Illinoisan. Source
URBANA Veterinarians at the University of Illinois now say a dog found shot and tied to a rural bridge last month is healthy enough to move to a permanent home.
The university's Veterinary Teaching Hospital said on its website Tuesday that the Labrador mix known as Bear is headed to live with a family.
Ford County Sheriff Mark Doran has asked that the family not be identified since investigators are still trying to determine who shot Bear.
Bear was found April 20 near Sibley, 35 miles north of Champaign. He had a broken jaw, shotgun wounds and infected eyes. His mouth was taped closed and he was tied to a spot on the bridge that allowed his paws just touch the ground.
Doran has said investigators have identified potential suspects.
-- The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD This year's Illinois Governor's Prayer Breakfast has been postponed and could eventually be cancelled.
Glenn Hodas of the Illinois Governor's Prayer Breakfast Committee tells the (Springfield) State Journal-Register that the state's ongoing budget stalemate has made it difficult to find speakers for the event.
Gov. Bruce Rauner's office says there are still plans to hold this year's prayer breakfast and that there's an ongoing search for speakers. But Hodas says the event's prospects are dim because the spring legislative session is winding down and it's usually held when legislators are in Springfield.
Organizers believe this could be the first year the annual event hasn't been held since its inception in 1963.
-- The Associated Press
ROBBINS, Ill. A bill that's moving through the Illinois Legislature is aimed at ensuring local police departments properly handle rape investigations.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart worked on the legislation with Democratic state Sen. Bill Cunningham of Chicago after dozens of rape kits were found in the Chicago suburb of Robbins in 2013 that hadn't been sent to the state police crime lab for DNA testing.
The bill seeks to institute checks and balances on the handling of rape investigations by local police departments in an effort to prevent similar miscarriages of justice from occurring in the future, the Daily Southtown reported.
The existing Sexual Assault Evidence Submission Act would be amended to require state police to notify the appropriate state's attorney's office, as well as the agency conducting the investigation, of positive DNA matches on sexual assault evidence submitted by local police departments. It would allow the state's attorney to keep tabs on pending sexual assault cases to make sure local police departments follow through with their investigations.
Currently, the state police crime lab is required to notify only the investigating agency when there's a hit on submitted DNA evidence, and then it's the agency's responsibility to locate the identified suspect and obtain a DNA sample to confirm the match.
In Robbins, the police department failed to collect confirmation samples from the identified sexual assault suspects so they could be arrested and prosecuted, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office.
"They just did not follow up on these investigations," said Cunningham, the bill's sponsor. "So you had a situation where a positive match was made, a rape suspect was identified and then the police department didn't follow up on it, essentially allowing a rapist to go free."
State police weren't aware that Robbins officers failed to follow up on so many leads because the agency didn't get involved beyond informing the police department of the DNA matches.
The bill also would require state police to post on their website a quarterly report of the number of sexual assault case submissions made by every law enforcement agency statewide, the number of positive DNA matches made on those submissions and the number of times an agency has followed up a positive match with a confirmatory sample.
"We are confident this will help prevent incidents like those that occurred in Robbins from happening again in the future," he said. "And if we find out it doesn't, we can come back and look at different remedies."
The legislation passed the Senate last month and is making its way through the House. Cunningham expects it to pass the House by the end of May and hopes Gov. Bruce Rauner will sign it into law this summer.
RALEIGH, N.C. A potentially epic clash over transgender rights took shape Monday when the U.S. Justice Department sued North Carolina over the state's new bathroom law after the governor refused to back down.
In unusually forceful language, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said North Carolina's law requiring transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate amounts to "state-sponsored discrimination" and is aimed at "a problem that doesn't exist."
She said it serves only to "harm innocent Americans."
Billions of dollars in federal aid for North Carolina and a potentially landmark decision regarding the reach of the nation's civil rights laws are at stake in the dispute, which in recent weeks has triggered boycotts and cancellations aimed at pressuring the state into repealing the measure.
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department said the law amounts to illegal sex discrimination and gave Gov. Pat McCrory until Monday to say he would refuse to enforce it. When the deadline arrived, a defiant McCrory instead sued the government, arguing that the state law is a "commonsense privacy policy" and that the Justice Department's position is "baseless and blatant overreach."
"This is not a North Carolina issue. It is now a national issue," said McCrory, a Republican who is up for re-election in November, declared at a news conference.
The governor accused the Obama administration of unilaterally rewriting federal civil rights law to protect transgender people's access to bathrooms, locker rooms and showers across the country.
Later in the day, the Justice Department struck back by suing the state, seeking a court order declaring the law discriminatory and unenforceable.
A judge could begin hearing arguments in the competing cases within weeks, during which North Carolina will probably try to stop the government from temporarily blocking the law or stripping away federal funding, said Rina Lindevaldsen, a Liberty University law professor specializing in family and constitutional law.
With appeals courts around the country diverging on whether transgender people are protected under federal civil rights laws, "this seems like the kind of thing that's on track for the Supreme Court," she said.
Defenders of the law have argued that it is necessary to protect the safety and privacy of people in bathrooms. Opponents have argued that the danger of a transgender person molesting someone in a restroom, as some have warned, is all but nonexistent.
Lynch spoke directly to residents of her native state, saying they have been falsely told by North Carolina proponents that the law protects vulnerable people from harm in bathrooms.
"Instead, what this law does is inflict further indignity on a population that has already suffered far more than its fair share," she said. "This law provides no benefit to society, and all it does is harm innocent Americans."
Stars such as Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam have canceled shows in North Carolina over the law. PayPal abandoned a planned 400-employee operation center in Charlotte, and Deutsche Bank froze expansion plans near Raleigh.
Nearly 200 corporate leaders from across the country, including Charlotte-based Bank of America, have urged the measures repeal, arguing it is bad for business because it makes recruiting talented employees more difficult.
The law, which took effect in March, was passed in reaction to a Charlotte ordinance allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity.
It also excludes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from state anti-discrimination protection and bars local governments from adopting their own anti-bias measures. But the Justice Department has focused largely on the bathroom provisions.
Nearly half of North Carolina registered voters last month said cities should be prohibited from passing ordinances such as Charlotte's, according to a poll by Elon University. Nearly four out of 10 said cities should have that leeway.
A CNN/ORC Poll released Monday found 57 percent of Americans oppose laws that require transgender people to use facilities corresponding with their sex at birth. Three out of four said they would favor laws that guarantee equal protection for transgender people in jobs, housing and public accommodations.
Several other states in recent months have proposed similar laws limiting protections for gay, bisexual and transgender people. On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi sued that state over a law that will allow workers to cite their religious objections to gay marriage to deny services to people.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat running against McCrory for governor, has refused to defend the law and has called for its repeal. On Monday, he warned in a video that McCrory "is pouring gas on the fire that he lit" when he signed the measure.
Lynch likened her agency's involvement in the North Carolina dispute to the fight against both racial segregation and prohibitions against gay marriage.
"This is about the dignity and the respect that we accord our fellow citizens," Lynch said. "It's about the founding ideals that have led this country, haltingly but inexorably, in the direction of fairness, inclusion and equality for all Americans."
The Justice Department noted a ruling last month by a federal appeals court that a transgender Virginia high school student has a right to use bathrooms that correspond with his new identity.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is binding on five states, including North Carolina. A Virginia school board is seeking a re-hearing by the entire appeals court.
The U.S. Education Department and other federal agencies could try to cut off money to North Carolina to force compliance.
The state university system risks losing more than $1.4 billion in federal funds. An additional $800 million in federally backed loans for students who attend the public universities could also be at risk.
___
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other country on earth - and its not even close. The problem is a result of too many nonviolent drug offenders being sent to prison under a system of inflexible mandatory minimum sentences.
As The Southern rightly pointed out in a recent editorial, this isnt a fair, smart, or effective way to protect public safety. These penalties dont allow our courts to distinguish between high-level violent offenderswho should be our focusand lower-level nonviolent offenders. While once seen as a strong deterrent, mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses are a big reason why our federal prison population has skyrocketed since 1980.
I believe that we have now reached a tipping point in the national conversation about criminal justice. Changes in the system are coming - here in Illinois, and in many other states.
At the federal level, I negotiated the bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley to reform mandatory minimum sentences and give sentencing judges in federal courts greater discretion to consider the individual circumstances of each case. Our bill has strong support from law enforcement, including the largest group of prosecutors in the country, as well as the civil rights community, and it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a strong bipartisan vote. Cosponsors in the Senate run the political gamut from Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey on the left to Utah Senator Mike Lee, a Tea Party Republican.
The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act would make thousands of low-level nonviolent drug offenders eligible for reductions in their sentences every year. It would eliminate some of the worst injustices in our sentencing regime, like the law that mandates life without parole for nonviolent drug offenders with three strikes.
Across America, inflexible drug sentencing policies are ruining the lives of countless people who might have benefitted from less expensive, more effective policies, including treatment and a second chance. This includes people like Scott Walker, the Benton man who was recently freed after serving 18 years of a life sentence in federal prison for a nonviolent crime. And people like Alton Mills, a Chicago man who was serving a mandatory life sentence for a low-level nonviolent drug offense until, at my request, his sentence was commuted by President Obama in January after 22 years. The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act will not spare wrongdoers from paying for their crimes but it will allow judges discretion in those cases where smarter sentencing makes more sense than mandatory long-term sentences.
Aside from the social costs, mandatory minimums have helped cause explosive growth in prison spending. It costs, on average, $30,000 a year to incarcerate a non-violent offender more than tuition, room and board at many universities. Since 1980, the cost of operating federal prisons has soared by 1,100 percent. And our federal prison system today is dangerously overcrowded, operating at about 30 percent over capacity. All told, the costs of federal incarceration and detention now consume nearly one-third of the U.S. Justice Departments entire discretionary budget. Spending ever-more tax dollars on incarceration means not spending those same tax dollars on more effective, alternative approaches to reducing crime and recidivism.
If Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brings this legislation before the full Senate, we can achieve historic criminal justice reform this year. This is the best chance in a generation to reform our federal drug sentencing laws we shouldnt waste it.
So it has come to this: Trump 2016.
What first seemed a joke, then an unsettling possibility and then a troubling likelihood, became a grim certainty last week as Donald Trump, real estate developer turned reality show ringmaster turned would-be president, won an emphatic victory in Indiana's Republican primary. His last remaining rivals, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, both dropped out within 24 hours, leaving Trump the de facto nominee of what used to be called, with some pride, the Party of Lincoln.
In response, a remarkable constellation of Republican officials and enablers have pronounced themselves unalterably opposed to the duly selected leader of their party.
"Never, ever, ever Trump" tweeted Tim Miller, a former spokesperson for Jeb Bush.
"With God as my witness," wrote GOP strategist Rick Wilson, "I will never vote for Donald Trump."
A Washington, D.C., blogger tweeted an image of his voter registration card burning. The governor of Massachusetts and the former head of the state GOP both said they will not vote for Trump. "I have no plans of supporting either of the presumptive nominees," said Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo.
And, the unkindest cut of all: A number of Republicans say Trump's candidacy will drive them into the arms of someone the party has long regarded as the very embodiment of evil. "I'm with her," tweeted GOP speechwriter Mark Salter, invoking the campaign slogan of the dreaded Hillary Clinton.
One is tempted to draw an analogy to rats deserting the Titanic, but that would unfairly malign the rats. After all, they didn't drive the ship into that iceberg. The Republicans, though, are very much the architects of their present misfortune.
When you spend decades stoking people's insecurities, resentment and outrage, when you devote thousands of radio and television hours to scapegoating the marginalized and demonizing the vulnerable, when you campaign on coded appeals to xenophobia, racism and misogyny, when you make facts optional and lies routine, when you prioritize expedience above integrity and embrace ignorance as somehow more authentically American, you may not credibly profess surprise when you produce a candidate who embodies all those traits.
The damage the party has done itself is manifest and may be irreversible. But the bigger concern, by far, is how much damage the party has done to this country. It's a question that has loomed for a very long time.
In pondering Election Day, then, one is reminded of the person who finally makes a doctor's appointment six months after discovering a mysterious lump. Sometimes, people behave as if avoiding knowing about the bad thing avoids the bad thing itself.
But of course, it does not. You either have cancer or you don't. Visiting the doctor does not affect that one way or another. It simply tells you what you're dealing with.
Similarly, this country has either lost itself down a rabbit hole of ignorance and lies, fear and fury, or it has not. Certainly, the symptoms have long been obvious. From faith-based foreign policy to cynical obstructionism to economic hostage-taking to birther nonsense, right up to Donald Trump's neo-fascism, it has long been clear that something was wrong with the GOP, that it had become a fundamentally unserious haven of cranks and kooks.
Now, the party offers us its kookiest crank as president. Make no mistake: Any country that would elect Donald Trump as president deserves Donald Trump as president. But the question is: Are we that country? Are we that far gone? Whether we are or are not, it's past time we knew. So fine, let's do this.
What's coming in November is not an election. No, it's a reckoning, long overdue.
To the Editor:
On May 4, 2016, the Illinois Collaboration on Youth (ICOY) and more than 60 partner organizations sued Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and the directors of six state agencies to ensure that we are paid for services we provided under our FY 2016 contracts. Centerstone is one of the partner organizations supporting this lawsuit. The lawsuit claims breach of contract, and asks the court to enforce our contracts with the state.
The Governor and state agencies issued contracts beginning July 1, 2015. Providers and companies, in good faith, signed contracts to provide healthcare and related supportive services to many of our states most needy and vulnerable citizens. We signed the agreements and were told to deliver. We have provided, monitored and measured the services we were contracted to provide. We have upheld our obligation, caring for our states most vulnerable children and adults.
Unfortunately, for 10 months, Centerstone and other providers have been doing this without pay. We have depended upon reassurances from state officials and others that they would honor the contracts and resolve the budget crisis in a fair way. This has yet to occur, and we cannot continue to sustain the losses the state has imposed on us.
By joining in this lawsuit, we are acting to protect our organizations, those we employ and those who depend on us for care each day. Our contracts cannot be cancelled retroactively. State agencies have never provided any notice to reduce or terminate services. The uncertainty around these agreements has created a risky business environment for all of Illinois.
Pay Now Illinois is an initiative to support our case, and to bring attention to and spread the word statewide that providers need to be paid for the services they have provided as part of state contracts.
More information about Pay Now Illinois is available at www.PayNowIllinois.org. I hope that you will visit and join the Pay Now Illinois movement to ensure the state does not destroy the already fraying fabric of its human service safety net across the state of Illinois.
John G. Markley, Chief Executive Officer
Centerstone
A bill to provide flood relief funds for farmers cleared the General Assembly this past week but faces a promised veto by Gov. Nikki Haley.
A veto does not sit well with local farmers.
Why not sign the bill? Orangeburg County farmer Edwin Smoak said. I think that agriculture is something that needs all the support it can get. I sit down to a meal three times a day and that is because of agriculture.
Smoak said though he will be able to survive another year through crop insurance, the full impact of last years historic flooding may not be known for another four or five years.
We are not asking for help every year and we are not asking for hand-outs all the time, he said. This was a disaster. When a disaster happens, I think a little bit of help goes a long way.
Haley has consistently stated she would veto the legislation, saying farmers shouldnt be treated differently than other flood-impacted businesses in South Carolina.
The Republican governor reiterated Monday her veto will be based on fairness.
Haley said farmers can buy crop insurance and have a number of federal programs that can pay for lost yields or prepare damaged fields for the next planting. That kind of help is not available to other small businesses which lost everything in the catastrophic October floods.
My heart breaks for farmers, Haley said. But it would be wrong to bail out the farmers when we cant bail out small businesses, when we cant bail out homeowners.
Agriculture officials, however, say even farmers who paid the most for crop insurance didnt recoup enough money to cover what it cost them to plant the crops.
Orangeburg Democratic Sen. Brad Hutto said he does not know why Haley is so opposed to the assistance.
It seems like she is going out of her way for this fight, Hutto said. She just wants to poke them in the eye and say I can make some of you fail and Ill do that.
Hutto said Haleys argument on fairness seems weak, echoing concerns by other farmers who said the government treats some people and groups differently from others all of the time by giving tax breaks to certain businesses or regulating one industry more closely than another.
Before heading to the governors desk, the bill will have to be ratified by both the House and Senate. That is scheduled this week.
South Carolina Farm Bureau President Harry Ott expressed optimism farmers will live to plant another year.
I dont want to say it is too late ... but the earlier and faster is better for the farmers, Ott said. We understand the process and will work through the process and do it as quickly as we can and still get it done.
In the meantime, Ott is hoping farmers and their respective suppliers have been able to come to agreement on payment.
If they know the money is coming, maybe the bankers and the feed dealers will work with them, Ott said.
If the governor vetoes the bill as expected, an override is likely if those who supported passage do not change positions, Ott said. The House vote was 95-6 and the Senates was 33-3.
A governors veto requires a two-thirds vote by both the Senate and House to override.
Ott said the bill can also pass should the governor opt not to sign it.
Should a Haley veto be sustained, there will be a lot of financial difficulty and a lot of land not planted, Ott said.
The South Carolina Farm Aid Fund would provide S.C. farmers with $40 million in state aid.
The bill would allow farmers to apply for grants of up to $100,000 each. The grants could equal 20 percent of a farmers total loss.
The funds are meant to provide a revenue bridge so farmers can plant and not be forced to literally sell the farm.
In order to qualify for the money, farmers would have to prove they sustained a 40 percent loss, and the funds can only be used for direct crop inputs such as seeds, fertilizer and expenses related to planting.
The $40 million in the bill would come from state surpluses, so the money would not have to wait on the budget process.
The historic October floods submerged many fields in The T&D Region, damaging crops and preventing farmers from harvesting.
State agriculture officials wanted the monies available for March and say May will be the absolute latest deadline for farmers if they are to benefit from flood relief funds for this years crop.
Calhoun County Clemson Extension Agent Charles Davis said failure to pass the farm relief bill would have a negative impact both financially and psychologically on farmers.
Farmers have a lot of debt on their hands that they accumulated last year, Davis said. They need ways out of that. Crop insurance did not fit the bill.
Davis said any relief no matter when received will be of great benefit.
They took a big hit to their equity and they had to put a lot more on the table to mortgage it, Davis said. Anything we can help to knock down that debt even now will help.
In Orangeburg County, Clemson Extension Agent Jonathan Croft said he has been hearing farmers are not happy about Haleys veto threat. But he is optimistic the veto will be overridden.
A lot of them (farmers) continue on this year, but we have got to have a good year this year, Croft said, adding he does not even want to think about consecutive bad years.
Coy and his brother Eddy Ott said all farmers need relief this year.
If farmers dont get some kind of assistance somewhere, either in grant form or with some kind of natural disaster assistance, it will be tough, Coy Ott said.
He said the challenges will be compounded by low commodity prices.
Nothing looks profitable, Ott said. It will be tough for family farms that have been around for centuries and for decades that have had a good foothold in agriculture. It will be difficult for them to hang around.
Farmers were also hoping to receive about $60 million from the federal government, but it was later discovered the federal funds would not be available.
Last Octobers torrential rains wiped out $330 million in South Carolina crops at harvest time. Farmers lost an additional $45 million because they couldnt plant winter crops in bogs, according to the state Department of Agriculture.
The figures dont include losses from last years spring freeze and summer drought.
South Carolina State University Professor of Early Childhood Education Dr. M. Evelyn Fields recently chaired the national conference for the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education.
The 2016 Annual Conference entitled Pathways to Success in Higher Education: Powerful Partnerships for Powerful Results was held in Long Beach, California from April 7-9.
Higher education faculty and staff came from across the nation to present over 65 sessions on various topics that affect African Americans in higher education.
Dr. Rosetta Dingle, assistant professor of music education in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at S.C. State, presented at the AABHE National Conference. The title of her presentation was A Content Analysis of Partnerships among Higher Education Institutions.
Fields, who has served on the AABHE National Board for the past six years, was recently elected president-elect and will take office in June 2017.
She will also chair the 2017 national conference that is scheduled to be held Raleigh, North Carolina from March 23-25, 2017. Institution partners will include North Carolina State University and Shaw University.
Fields is the immediate past chair of the Department of Teacher Education, the former associate provost for academic affairs and the former president of the faculty senate at S.C. State.
She currently serves on the state board of the S.C. Association for the Education of Young Children and is the owner of the Seafood Academy Restaurant and Bar in Columbia. She holds a M.Ed. and a Ph.D. in early childhood education from the University of South Carolina.
Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev was born on May 10, 1923 in Nakhchivan city of Azerbaijan. In 1939, after graduating from the Nakhchivan Pedagogical School, he entered the Architecture Department of the Industrial Institute of Azerbaijan (now the State Oil Academy of Azerbaijan), but the incipient war impeded the completion of his education.
Since 1941, Heydar Aliyev has headed a department at the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Nakhchivan, and in 1944, was sent to work at state security bodies. He received special education in the cities of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and Moscow. In 1957 he graduated from the History Department of the Azerbaijan State University. Having worked for twenty five years at state security bodies, Heydar Aliyev worked as a deputy chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR since 1964, and from 1967, held the office of chairman of the committee, and rose to the rank of a major general.
Elected, at the Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in July 1969, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev became the head of the republic.
Elected a candidate to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union's Communist Party in 1976, and a member of the Political Bureau in 1982, Heydar Aliyev was appointed the first deputy chairman of the USSR's Council of Ministers. While on this position, Heydar Aliyev headed the most significant areas of the USSR's economic, social and cultural lives.
For twenty years, Heydar Aliyev has been a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR, and for five years, worked as a first deputy chairman of the USSR's Council of Ministers.
In October 1987, as a sign of protest against the policy pursued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union's Communist Party and, personally, by Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, Heydar Aliyev resigned from his post.
In bound with the tragedy committed on 20 January 1990 in Baku by the Soviet troops, Heydar Aliyev, appearing the next day at the Representative Office of Azerbaijan in Moscow with a statement, demanded that the organizers and executors of the crime committed against the people of Azerbaijan be punished. As a sign of protest against the hypocritical policy of the USSR leadership towards the critical conflict in Nagorno Karabakh, in July 1991, he left the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
After returning to Azerbaijan in July 1990, Heydar Aliyev first lived in Baku, then moved to Nakhchivan, and the same year was elected a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan. In 1991-1993, he held the post of chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan, deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In 1992, at the constituent congress of the New Azerbaijan Party in Nakhchivan, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the Party.
In May-June 1993, when, as a result of a crisis in the government, the country was on the verge of a civil war and faced the peril of losing independence, the people of Azerbaijan demanded to bring Heydar Aliyev to power, and the then leaders of Azerbaijan were obliged to officially invite Heydar Aliyev to Baku.
On 15 June 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan, and on 24 June, by a resolution of the National Assembly, he proceeded to fulfilling the authorities of the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
On October 3, 1993, as a result of the nationwide vote, Heydar Aliyev was elected president of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
At the election held on October 11, 1998, he was re-elected president of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Heydar Aliyev, giving his consent to be nominated as a candidate at the 15 October 2003 presidential elections, relinquished to run at the elections due to health problems.
On December 12, 2003, national leader of the Azerbaijani people, President Heydar Aliyev passed away in a Cleveland hospital in the US, where he had been undergoing medical treatment, and on December 15, was buried at the Alley of Honor in Baku.
/By Trend/
NATO chief has expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in Turkey's Kilis border province, which has recently been hit by several Daesh rockets fired from Syria, Anadolu Agency reported.
In a written statement Monday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO "stands in solidarity with Turkey" in the face of such attacks.
"I am concerned by the deterioration of the situation in Kilis and the shelling by ISIL [Daesh], which directly affects the security of Turkey," Stoltenberg said.
"I deeply regret the loss of life of Turkish nationals in Kilis, and extend my condolences to the Turkish people and the families of the victims," he said.
"NATO stands in solidarity with Turkey. The alliance has taken measures to strengthen Turkey's security and will continue to do so as long as necessary," he added.
Kilis lies six kilometers (four miles) from the Syrian border.
Turkish towns and provinces have been repeatedly struck by fire from across the frontier since mid-January.
In Kilis province alone, the local governor said 20 people have been killed and almost 70 others wounded by rockets which have fallen inside Turkish territory since attacks began earlier this year.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus - speaking on May 2 after a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - said that in the last three months 55 rockets had been fired by Daesh into Kilis.
The Turkish military has shelled Daesh positions in retaliation. On May 2, Turkish forces struck Daesh gun emplacements and ammunition dumps in the Suran, Arshak, Ikdakh and Ihtimalat regions on the Syrian side of the border, initially killing 50 terrorists. This figure later rose to 64.
/By Trend/
/By Azernews/
By Gunay Camal
The U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick, has revealed that the MG, established to broker a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, does not plan to meet with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Brussels.
Of course, my Russian and French counterparts and me are in regular touch with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to urge restraint and the need to enter into negotiations on a comprehensive settlement, Warlick told APA on May 10, adding that this time they do not plan to meet with Mammadyarov.
Earlier, Mammadyarov told reporters that a meeting with the co-chairs can take place on the sidelines of an event which will be held in mid-May in one of the cities of Europe.
We plan to meet with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in one of European cities, likely in Brussels, next month, Mammadyarov said, adding that the exact date and time will be determined later.
Brussels will host a meeting of Eastern Partnership Foreign Ministers will take place in on May 23. Azerbaijan and Armenia are both party to the Eastern Partnership Program.
Last time Azerbaijans Mammadyarov met the OSCE MG in late 2015, as part of 70th Session of the UN General Assembly. The sides discussed the negotiations process to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.
Peace talks over the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that emerged over Armenias territorial claims against Azerbaijan are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. However, as Armenia continues to follow non-constructive position, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries over 20 years.
Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.
/By Azernews/
By Gulgiz Dadashova
Heydar Aliyev made an exceptional contribution to the history of Azerbaijan and played a great historical role.
President Ilham Aliyev made the remark at an official reception has been held at the Heydar Aliyev Center to mark the 93rd anniversary of national leader Heydar Aliyev on May 9.
"He twice headed the state of Azerbaijan and both times led Azerbaijan from recession, anarchy, and chaos to development and progress," he stressed.
May 10 marks the 93rd anniversary of Heydar Aliyev. Heydar Aliyev thanks to his unwavering convictions and historical vision, succeeded in materializing the idea of national statehood, building a modern Azerbaijani state and realizing the independence dreams of Azerbaijani people. The Heydar Aliyev phenomenon gained a status of eternity as representatives of all generations honor the national leader and pay tribute for his tireless work to develop Azerbaijan.
"In 1969, Azerbaijan occupied one of the last places among the republics of the Soviet Union. Thanks to efforts, skills, knowledge of Heydar Aliyev and his affection to the Azerbaijani people, in 13 years the country turned into the most advanced republic. In the Soviet Union, except the Russian Federation, there were only two republics, which did not receive subsidies from the center. One of them was Azerbaijan, President Aliyev explained.
He further noted that Heydar Aliyev was quite unreasonably dismissed from all posts in 1987. It was a great injustice and a provocation against him and, at the same time, against Azerbaijan, President Aliyev said.
Heydar Aliyevs dismissal was followed by recession that deepened in 1990s.
"Political crisis was boosted by economic crisis. People completely lost confidence in the then authorities. The civil war flared up. The Armenian occupation combusted and began to expand, our lands fell under the occupation, the President said, adding that in such a difficult time the people again turned to Heydar Aliyev.
The Azerbaijani people invited him to the power and pinned great hopes on him. In the most difficult time of the countrys independence, Heydar Aliyev was again next to his people. He has agreed to lead his people. Since 1993, Azerbaijan has begun to observe a breakthrough in all areas. The civil war was ended, illegal armed units in Azerbaijan were disarmed and an order was established, while the country entered a period of development, President Aliyev said.
He stressed that the next phase - the period covering the years 1993-2003, was a period of development and stability. Today, Azerbaijan is self-affirmed as an independent state in the world.
President Aliyev further emphasized that since 2003 Azerbaijan continues the policy of Heydar Aliyev, noting that there are no alternatives to this policy.
"The experience of recent years shows that our country and our people can go forward pursuing only this path," President Aliyev said.
The president, speaking about the priorities of the state, noted that Azerbaijani citizen, his/her problems, concerns and safety stands in core of the state policy. Security issues in Azerbaijan are ensured at the appropriate level. There is a socio-political stability. Peoples well-being in improved.
"Although the ongoing economic and financial crisis in the world, has also affected us, I believe that we managed to honorably get out of this crisis, and today there is no problem in the economic sphere. Our financial position is stable, economic development continues, despite the problems associated with the decline in oil prices in 3-4 times, we deal with these problems with dignity. I am confident that we will successfully end 2016," he emphasized.
President Aliyev voiced belief that in the coming years, Azerbaijan will enjoy even greater respect in the international arena. The processes in the country are going in a positive direction. Our initiatives related to regional cooperation, enhance not only us, but also the neighboring countries. We have a very precise program on the further development and our vision for the future is very clear. The work to be done in the coming years will further strengthen us. We have no doubt in the further development of the country. Azerbaijan will continue to follow the path of development. All the problems, including in the social sphere, that the country faces are solved and will be solved."
He went on to add that although oil prices have fallen by 3-4 times, wages and pensions increased by 10 percent in Azerbaijan this year, social programs have been implemented and issues related to the construction of schools, hospitals, the problem of displaced persons and other social issues are being solved.
The president once again reminded that the main challenge before Azerbaijan is the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
By using political and diplomatic, as well as other factors in this direction, we are strengthening our position in the negotiation process. Justice supports and protects our position. Nagorno-Karabakh is a historical, native Azerbaijani land and in legal terms, it is an integral part of Azerbaijan. The decisions and resolutions adopted by international organizations protect and enhance our position.
As for the differences between Armenia and Azerbaijan, they are obvious. I have repeatedly stated that it is impossible to be unconscious of the advantage of Azerbaijan in the political sphere, in the economic sphere as well as in all other areas, including in the field of army building. April battles also showed that today the Azerbaijani army is among the strongest armies world-wide and is able to perform any task.
Theretofore, President Aliyev stressed, the country has a clear vision of the plans for the future. We must strengthen our country, further improve the welfare of the Azerbaijani people and Azerbaijan should take even more firm position on the global scale. In short, the international norms and principles, of course, play a major role in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But we have to become even stronger, and we go down this path, the president said.
President Aliyev, addressing the event which also honored the 71st anniversary of Victory over fascism, also reminded the role the Azerbaijani nation played in the WWII.
Azerbaijan played a great role in achieving victory - both at the front and in the home front, the president stressed.
A total of 600,000 citizens of Azerbaijan fought in World War II, half of them, or 300,000, were killed and never returned home. The Azerbaijani people demonstrated heroism during the war. Many Azerbaijanis were awarded with high awards and medals. Military equipment was produced in our factories. These equipment and weapons have rendered indispensable service to the Soviet Army in the most difficult moments of the war.
In those years the Azerbaijani oilmen have worked tirelessly to supply the Soviet Army with fuel. During the war, Azerbaijani oil workers provided 90 per cent of the fuel that was used by the Soviet army.
All these factors, as President Aliyev said, give ground to say that Azerbaijan has played a huge role in the victory over fascism.
Earlier on the same day, President Ilham Aliyev and his wife Mehriban Aliyeva attended a solemn ceremony in Baku to mark the 71st anniversary of victory over fascism in World War II. President Aliyev and Mehriban Aliyeva met with war veterans and congratulated them on Victory Day.
Commemorating the great leader
On the birthday anniversary of the savior of the Azerbaijani people, President Aliyev and his wife Mehriban Aliyeva, family members, relatives and friends of the national leader visited the Alley of Honors.
President Aliyev laid a wreath at the grave of national leader Heydar Aliyev, and paid tribute to him.
Later, President Aliyev, Mrs. Aliyeva and daughter Leyla Aliyeva attended a tree-planting event in a green space on the 29th-30th kilometer of Zigh-Heydar Aliyev International Airport highway.
The head of state was told that more than one million trees had been planted so far along Zigh-Heydar Aliyev International Airport highway in an area covering 969 hectares and measuring 20 km in length.
President Aliyev, his wife and daughter Leyla Aliyeva planted a tree here.
Starting this year, Flower Festival celebrated across Azerbaijan every May 10 and honoring the memory of national leader Heydar Aliyev is held in different format. The colorful holiday, celebrated since 2004, from now on will focus on importance of ecological protection.
Four Egyptian banks will be arranging the biggest financing in the history of the country's housing sector worth E20 billion ($2.25 billion) to build 500,000 low-income homes, said a report.
State-run Social Housing Fund is expected to receive a billion pounds loan from the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr, Banque Du Caire, and Housing and Development Bank (HDB), reported Amwal Al Ghad.
NBE, Banque Misr, and Banque Du Caire have decided to contribute around E6.33 billion ($711.2 million) each to the loan; while the HDB's share will amount to E1 billion ($112.4 million), a source familiar with the matter stated.
The financing is designated to secure liquidity needed to build 500,000 housing units as part of the country's national project to build one million homes for low-income citizens, said the report.
The loan will be repaid over four years, the source said, expecting the fund and the four lenders would sign the final agreements within the current month, it added.
Omniyat Group, a leading real estate developer in Dubai, will have over 2,000 hotel rooms and serviced apartments in its portfolio by 2020.
Aligning its vision with the Dubai Tourism Vision of attracting 20 million visitors by 2020, the group is looking to bring more super-luxury hospitality brands to its upcoming and planned iconic projects with plans to introduce another uber-luxury hospitality brand to the region before the end of 2016.
The group has earlier brought brands such as ME by Melia and Langham Place for the first time to the UAE and the Middle East region.
Details of the new project will be released at a later date.
Over the past 10 years, Omniyat has become the curator of the worlds finest designer hospitality brands, said Mark Phoenix, managing director, Omniyat.
Our state-of-the-art projects that are strategically located around the top touristic and business destinations in Dubai will meet the desires of the most demanding world travellers. In 2016, we will add another trophy label, an uber-luxury hospitality brand to the upper end of our portfolio, Phoenix revealed.
Putting the Omniyat brand on the global hospitality stage will be its flagship project - The Opus the exterior and interior of which have been designed by the late legendary architect, Dame Zaha Hadid.
The hotel portion of The Opus in Burj Khalifa District will be opened in the third quarter 2017, enhancing one of the top central business districts of Dubai with first-class services offered by ME by Melia Hotels International.
The company will be opening Langham Place Downtown Dubai Hotel and Residences in Burj Khalifa district by 2020, comprising more than 406 rooms and serviced apartments.
With other projects planned to be announced, Ominyat will have an inventory of over 2,000 hotel rooms and serviced apartments, thus making it a major player in Dubais premium hospitality segment. - TradeArabia News Service
Rents in Sharjahs residential property market are set to continue to decline throughout 2016, following an average fall of 5.7 per cent during Q1 which has dragged the annualised rate of change in rents down to -8.3 per cent, according to international real estate consultancy Cluttons.
Cluttons Sharjah Spring 2016 Property Market Outlook report shows that unlike last year, the fall in villa rents has accelerated, with average rates declining by 13.2 per cent in Q1 2016 alone, whereas average apartment rents fell by 1.5 per cent in the first quarter, leaving them 7.7 per cent down compared to Q1 2015 figures.
The report also highlights the growing awareness amongst tenants to seek out well managed properties, with good quality facilities and rents that are perceived to be fair.
Suzanne Eveleigh, the Cluttons' head of Sharjah, said: "This sentiment among tenants creates an opportunity for landlords to differentiate themselves by undertaking refurbishment and modernisation of properties while the market works its way through the current slowdown."
"We have already seen numerous instances of this being done during the last downturn in the market and it is these properties that are now fully let and in high demand. That said, even in our portfolio of managed properties, voids have crept up to around three per cent, up from the usual average of 0.5 per cent to one per cent, reflecting the softening conditions. The situation is far more challenging in buildings where landlords haven't been proactive," she noted.
Cluttons research shows that demand for suburban-style living continues to rise in Sharjah, predominantly because of the relative affordability when compared to Dubai.
Developers are conscious of the demand for more luxurious gated accommodation and are continuing to rush new schemes to the market.
"These emergent high-end communities will help cater to the strong demand from both residential investors and tenants who are seeking out this type of housing in Sharjah," remarked Eveleigh.
"Al Zahia and the Dh2.4-billion ($653 million) Tilal City are examples of such communities that are progressing quickly. We expect to continue seeing larger and more elaborate residential communities built on the outskirts of the city, with a specific focus on the Airport Road corridor," she stated.
According to the report, the weaker conditions in the market are expected to persist as the year wears on, with rental falls of between three per cent and five per cent likely, on average.
Faisal Durrani, the head of research at Cluttons, pointed out that the rents across Sharjahs more affordable areas remained linked to the performance of Dubais rental market.
"With a weak short-term outlook for Dubai, we do not expect to see any turn around in rental value growth until jobs linked to the World Expo in 2020 start to materialise, which we should start to see in the next 12 to 18 months. Until then, the rental market in Sharjah is expected to remain subdued," noted Durrani.
On the office market, Cluttons said rents across Sharjahs main submarkets have stayed flat over the past six months, with all three of the citys main areas (Al Soor, Al Majaz fringe areas, and Al Majaz prime areas) experiencing no change.
The only market to have showcased any change in the past 12 months is the fringe areas of Al Majaz, where office rents increased by 7.7 per cent between Q1 2015 and Q1 2016 and currently stand at Dh70 per sq ft, up from Dh65 per sq ft in 2015.
While the silver lining for Sharjahs office market is the relative stability in the level of prime office supply, the level of requirements has continued to dwindle. The vast majority of requirements that we have been recording are from the emirates important SME (small and medium enterprises) sector; which is usually for space in the region of 1,000 sq ft. said Durrani.
Aside from this core demand driver, Cluttons has noted a handful of requirements from oil and gas linked occupiers, who, alongside the public sector and quasi government sector, continue to drive larger space requirements.
"Despite the relative stability in the emirates office market, we are expecting to see rents decline this year between Dh5 per sq ft and Dh10 per sq ft across the board," stated Durrani.
"With entry level rents in comparable, desirable and sought-after office submarkets in Dubai such as Deira, Bur Dubai, Garhoud, Jumeirah Lake Towers and Business Bay currently standing at between Dh60 per sq ft and Dh75 per sq ft, it is likely that Sharjahs office landlords will be left with little option but to drop rents to below those in Dubai in order to entice demand," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Five tiny Pacific islands have disappeared due to rising seas and erosion, a discovery thought to be the first scientific confirmation of the impact of climate change on coastlines in the Pacific, according to Australian researchers.
The submerged islands were part of the Solomon Islands, an archipelago that over the last two decades has seen annual sea levels rise as much as 10 millimeters (.4 inch), according to research published in the May issue of the online journal Environmental Research Letters.
The missing islands, ranging in size from 1 (2.5 acres) to 5 hectares (12.4 acres) were not inhabited by humans.
But six other islands had large swathes of land washed into the sea and on two of those, entire villages were destroyed and people forced to relocate, the researchers found.
One was Nuatambu Island, home to 25 families, which has had 11 houses and half its inhabitable area lost since 2011, the research said.
The study is the first that scientifically "confirms the numerous anecdotal accounts from across the Pacific of the dramatic impacts of climate change on coastlines and people," the researchers wrote in separate commentary on an academic website.
The scientists used aerial and satellite images dating back to 1947 of 33 islands as well as traditional knowledge and radiocarbon dating of trees for their findings.
The Solomon Islands, a nation made up of hundreds of islands and with a population of about 640,000, lies about 1,000 miles northeast of Australia.
The study raises questions about the role of government in relocation planning, said a Solomon Islands official.
"This ultimately calls for support from development partners and international financial mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund," Melchior Mataki, head of the Solomon Islands' National Disaster Council, was quoted as saying in the commentary.
The Green Climate Fund, part of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, was founded to help countries deal with climate change.
The Solomon Islands was among the 175 nations who in April signed a global agreement reached in Paris to curb climate change.
Relocation has occurred ad hoc on the islands, the study said.
Several Nuatambu islanders moved to a neighboring, higher volcanic island, the study said. Other people were forced to move from the island of Nararo.
Sirilo Sutaroti, 94, is among those who had to relocate from Nararo. He told researchers: "The sea has started to come inland, it forced us to move up to the hilltop and rebuild our village there away from the sea." -Thomson Reuters Foundation
Dubais auto parts and accessories trade accounted for Dh40.5 billion ($11.03 billion) in 2015, representing 3.3 per cent of Dubais total non-oil foreign trade, which amounted to Dh1.28 trillion ($348.5 billion), revealed statistics by the Dubai Customs.
The figures were announced to an audience of auto parts manufacturers, suppliers, fleet operators, and regulators at the Automechanika Dubai 2016, which kicked off on May 8 and concludes today (May 10), and is being held at the World Trade Centre.
The Dubai auto-parts statistics update was provided by Nassim Al Mehairi, manager of statistics section at Dubai Customs, said a statement from Dubai Customs.
In terms of volume, around 2 million tonnes of auto parts and accessories were traded in 2015, it added.
Japan, South Korea, US, Germany, and China were Dubais top country partners last year in terms of auto parts trade at Dh5.5 billion ($1.5 billion), Dh3.4 billion ($925.7 million), Dh3 billion ($816.8 million), Dh2.9 billion ($789.6 million), and Dh2.9 billion, respectively, it stated.
Major components of the emirates booming automotive aftermarket trade were sedan tires at Dh3.3 billion ($898.5 million), auto batteries at Dh2.6 billion ($707.9 million), truck and bus tires at Dh2.4 billion ($653.4 million), fuel filters at Dh1.1 billion ($299.5 million) and clutches at Dh1 billion ($272.2 million), it said.
Ahmed Abdul Salam Kazim, director of strategy and corporate excellence at Dubai Customs, said: We make sure to be present at such auto parts exhibitions and trade fairs to reach an audience of auto parts manufacturers, suppliers, fleet operators, and others, and introduce them to the top notch services and facilitations we offer.
Dubai Customs takes great care in safeguarding the community against the perils of counterfeit auto parts, so that consumers can rest assured that they buy only genuine parts and auto dealers can be kept safe from the losses resulting from the fake parts entering the markets.
Ahmed Pauwels, CEO of Messe Frankfurt Middle East, the organising company of the fair, expressed his gratitude to Dubai Customs for its continued support of and annual participation in the Automechanika Dubai 2016.
Figures announced by Dubai Customs play a great informative role in helping dealers envisage their business outlook and future growth of their investments, Pauwels added. TradeArabia News Service
National oil giant Saudi Aramco expects soon to sign a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) for a joint oil-to-chemicals project, chief executive Amin Nasser said on Tuesday.
Sabic has previously said the proposed project could cost as much as $30 billion, processing petrochemicals directly from crude oil instead of first refining the oil into products such as naphtha.
"It makes absolute sense as Aramco is specialised in oil and refining, and Sabic in petrochemicals," said one industry source familiar with the project, adding that the scheme could create as many as 100,000 jobs directly and indirectly.
Aramco's participation could benefit Sabic by giving it better access to funding as well as assistance in marketing products, said Mazen al-Sudairi, head of research at Al-Istithmar Capital.
"The change in feedstock prices prompted Sabic to change strategy - they want to produce specialty products - and with Aramco possibly joining them as an investor, it will open a big door for them," he said. Reuters
Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC) has announced a net profit of KD24.7 million ($81.8 million) for the year ended March 31, 2016.
This represents an increase of 34 per cent or KD6.3 million ($20.8 million) over the KD18.4 million ($60.9 million) net income posted the previous year. This is after excluding KD12.9 million ($42.7 million) in extraordinary unrealised gains resulting from the reclassification of Sadafco (Saudi Dairy & Foodstuff Company) from an associate investment to a subsidiary during the previous year, said the company.
Earnings per share (EPS) for the year amounted to 23.63 fils compared to 29.80 fils the previous year.
QPICs board of directors recommended a cash dividend of 10 per cent (10 fils per share), subject to approval by the company's general assembly and regulatory authorities, it said.
Revenue from consolidated sales increased 48 per cent to reach KD162.1 million ($536.5 million) from KD109.2 million ($361.4 million) reported the previous year.
Total assets stood at KD521.5 million ($1.73 billion) as at March 31, 2016, compared to KD527.9 million ($1.75 billion) on March 31, 2015, representing a slight decrease of 1 per cent mainly owing to the decrease in fair valuation of unquoted financial assets available for sale.
QPIC chairman Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah said the results show the soundness and diversification of QPICs investments, which can withstand the geopolitical and economic circumstances that the region is encountering.
QPIC continues to actively seek new local and regional investment opportunities, in partnership with well reputed international players within the field, he said.
QPIC vice chairman and chief executive officer Sadoun Ali said: The year-end results were in line with our expectations and the recently adopted policy to diversify QPICs main sources of income. Despite the deteriorating performance of the oil and gas sector, and the lower dividends received from Equate Petrochemical and The Kuwait Olefins Company over the past two years, QPIC has maintained and enhanced its profitability levels through its subsidiaries and associates. In particular, Sadafco and Kuwait Aromatics were the main contributors to QPICs higher share of income, and we expect them to continue to deliver positively in the future. TradeArabia News Service
A ceasefire in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo will be extended by 48 hours beginning at 1 a.m. on Tuesday (2200 GMT Monday), state news agency SANA said on Monday, quoting the Syrian military high command.
Aleppo, Syria's largest pre-war city, has witnessed a vicious flare-up in fighting in recent weeks, shattering a nationwide cessation of hostilities agreement and causing peace talks to collapse.
The cessation of hostilities and such local truces do not include Islamic State or al Qaeda's Syrian branch, the Nusra Front.
Rebels and the mainstream Syrian opposition have said the Syrian government uses this fact to continue to attack rebel positions. Both sides accuse the other of causing the cessation of hostilities to break down.
In an attempt to revive the cessation of hostilities, a number of short-term local truces have been put in place since April 29, first around Damascus and northern Latakia and then in Aleppo.
The Aleppo truce went into effect in the middle of last week, but there has still been some fighting between rebels and government forces.
The most significant outbreak of violence has been southwest of Aleppo around the town of Kham Touman, which rebels seized on Friday, inflicting a rare setback on government forces and allied Iranian troops who suffered heavy losses in the fighting.
The chief negotiator for the main Syrian opposition at Geneva peace talks, Asaad al-Zoubi, criticised the extended Aleppo truce in an interview with Al Jazeera television, saying such measures serve only to allow thousands of reinforcing troops to be sent from Iran, which is supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"The truce has not been done for the interests of the Syrian people," he said. Reuters
State oil company Saudi Aramco wants to expand globally and is looking at potential joint ventures in several countries, including Indonesia, India, the US, Vietnam and China, chief executive Amin Nasser said on Tuesday.
"We are looking at the current market status that, even though challenging, is an excellent opportunity for growth," he told reporters during a rare media visit to company facilities in Dhahran.
The company is continuing to build its oil production and refining capacity, and its Shaybah oilfield is expected to reach output capacity of 1 million barrels per day "in a couple of weeks", Nasser added.
Aramco has been working to boost Shaybah's capacity by 250,000 bpd to rebalance its crude oil quality and help compensate for the maturing of other fields.
He said demand for Saudi Aramco's oil is increasing and the company is meeting that demand.
"We will meet the call on Saudi Aramco...The trend is increasing," he told reporters. "We are seeing demand growth in different places. We are seeing increases in India, in the US, and we are meeting that call on us," he said, adding that he expected total oil demand to climb by 1.2 million barrels per day this year.
Domestic demand during the Saudi Arabian summer will cause a slight increase in burning of liquids for power generation, he said, adding that Aramco's average crude output in 2015 was 10.2 million barrels per day.
Nasser said Aramco expects a huge ship repair and shipbuilding complex that it is developing at Ras Al-Khair on the kingdom's east coast to be fully operational by 2021.
Under a sweeping economic reform programme announced last month, Aramco is to play a big role in developing industrial projects as Saudi Arabia tries to diversify its economy beyond reliance on oil exports.
The first part of the shipbuilding complex will be ready by 2018, and it will eventually make oil rigs and tankers, Nasser said.
A presentation by the company showed the complex would create 80,000 jobs and allow Saudi Arabia to reduce its imports by $12 billion, while increasing the country's gross domestic product by $17 billion. - Reuters
Internal differences are killing Opec and its ability to influence the markets has all but evaporated, top Russian oil executive Igor Sechin told Reuters in some of his harshest remarks ever about the oil group.
Russia, which has been hit hard by the oil price collapse, was flirting with the idea of cooperating with Opec in recent months until tensions between Opec members Saudi Arabia and Iran ruined a global deal to freeze output.
Sechin - one of the closest allies of President Vladimir Putin - was the only Russian official to consistently oppose the deal with Opec even after the Kremlin effectively endorsed the plan.
Now that his gloomy predictions about talking to Opec have come to pass, Sechin feels vindicated and wants to help Russia avoid similar embarrassment in future.
"At the moment a number of objective factors exclude the possibility for any cartels to dictate their will to the market. ... As for Opec, it has practically stopped existing as a united organisation."
"The company (Rosneft) was sceptical from the very beginning about the possibility of reaching any sort of joint agreement with Opec's involvement in current conditions," said Sechin, in comments over the weekend which were embargoed.
"Just to remind you, the only one question with which we responded to those who were interested to know our position: 'Who should we agree with, and how?' The development of the situation has clearly shown we were right."
Sechin's comments about the end of the era when Opec could influence prices chime with those of Saudi Arabia's newly appointed energy minister Khaled Al Falih.
Falih, who took over on Saturday from long-serving Ali Al Naimi, has been very vocal in the past year about his views that the oil market needs to rebalance through low prices and that the Saudis have the resources to wait.
Falih's ultimate boss, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who oversees Saudi oil policies, has also signalled that the world is moving to a new era where supply and demand rather than Opec will determine prices.
Sechin, who was born in 1960 - the same year as Falih - is also calling on Russia to abandon any hope that prices can be fixed by anything other than market rebalancing.
"At the moment, key factors which are influencing the market are finance, technology and regulation. We can see this with the example of shale oil which ... became a powerful tool of influence on the global market," Sechin said in the emailed comments.-- Reuters
Majid Al Futtaim, the leading shopping mall and leisure pioneer across Mena, has entered into a franchise agreement with Abercrombie & Fitch to establish a retail store presence in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
This expands upon Majid Al Futtaims existing relationship with Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Beginning in 2013, the two parties entered into a joint venture agreement in the UAE and a joint operating agreement in Kuwait for all the companys brands, including Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister.
With Majid Al Futtaims support, the American retailer that focuses on upscale casual wear for young consumers has opened eight locations to date in the Middle East, including the first ever Abercrombie & Fitch Fragrance Room and one of its most successful opening day sales for Hollister when it launched at Mall of the Emirates.
This franchise agreement encompasses the Abercrombie & Fitch, Abercrombie and Hollister brands. The first stores in the new territories will be in Qatar during the first quarter of 2017 and in Saudi Arabia in the second half of 2017, with Bahrain and Oman to be opened at later dates.
We are excited to continue extending the companys presence in the Middle East. We have seen significant demand within the last few years in the UAE and Kuwait and we look forward to helping Abercrombie & Fitch Co. grow in this market, said Rajiv Suri, chief executive officer at Majid Al Futtaim Fashion.
We expect there to be strong demand for our brands in these new markets, and we are thrilled to partner with Majid Al Futtaim Fashion to expand our presence in the Middle East, said Arthur Martinez, executive chairman of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. This arrangement represents our second major franchise partnership, as we continue to expand our brand reach. - TradeArabia News Service
Ramada Downtown Dubai, a leading hotel in the UAE emirate, has appointed Farrah Ismail as its new director of sales and marketing.
A Malaysian national and a graduate of SHATEC International Hotel & Tourism School of Singapore, Ismail boasts 25 years of hospitality experience in Asia and Middle East region. She started as a sales executive at Holiday Inn and was promoted to assistant sales manager following the propertys rebranding to Crowne Plaza in Malaysia. She then joined Hotel Istana by Meritus Hotel & Resorts in Kuala Lumpur as part of its pre-opening team and progressed into heading sales, conference catering and revenue management. She later moved to Bahrain and worked as director of revenue and reservations at Ritz Carlton Hotel and Spa in Manama. Ismail set off her career in the UAE by joining Dusit Thani Dubai as director of sales and marketing (DOSM) and held a similar role at Millennium & Copthorne in Dubai. She was then appointed as complex DOSM for Novotel, Ibis and Adagio in Fujairah. Prior to joining Ramada Downtown Dubai, she was the DOSM of Melia Dubai.
In her new role, Ismail is tasked with developing and executing new sales schemes aimed at yielding higher profit for the property. She will head both sales and marketing teams in the implementation of new and existing campaigns to boost occupancy and revenue, amid the highly competitive market. She is also responsible for strengthening the hotels existing partnerships and keeping an eye on new and emerging markets. - TradeArabia News Service
The St. Regis Abu Dhabi has announced the appointment of two senior appointments members to its executive committee.
Dimitrios Kotsifakos joins the property as the new executive assistant manager food and beverage and Emil Nilsson has been welcomed as the new director of sales.
A native of Greece, Kotsifakos has 12 years of food and beverage (F&B) managerial experience earned at a variety of prestigious hotels including Fairmont Le Montreux Palace in Switzerland, Hilton London Metropole and Ios Palace Hotel & Spa in Greece. He first joined Starwood in 2010 as complex assistant director of F&B in Costa Navarino, Greece.
In late 2011 Kotsifakos moved to the Middle East joining Grand Hyatt Dubai as the assistant director of F&B. In 2013 he returned to Starwood as the director of F&B for The Westin Abu Dhabi before moving to Qatar to manage the food and beverage operation for Sheraton Grand Doha. He holds a Diploma in Hotel Management from Le Monde School in Greece and a Bachelor in International Hotel Management from S.H.M.S University in Switzerland.
Nilsson, a Swedish national, brings to the hotel over 12 years hospitality experience with nine years sales specialisation in the Middle East.
Most recently he headed the sales and marketing for Dusit Thani Maldives. Prior to this, he led an extensive career with Starwood holding a variety of positions including complex director of sales and marketing for W Retreat & Spa Maldives and Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa. Nilsson also played a senior role at The Westin Dubai and Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Spa firstly as a complex senior sales manager before being promoted to complex assistant director of sales.
Nilsson holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hospitality and Tourism Management) from The University of New England Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School as well as a Bachelor of Science in Business and Economics (Business Administration) from University of Orebro. - TradeArabia News Service
LANDER State lawmakers rebuffed the notion Wyoming serves as a tax haven for foreign interests seeking to hide their assets at a hearing here Monday, saying revelations in the so-called Panama Papers did not warrant an overhaul of the states corporations laws.
Instead, legislators set about making what they framed as a modest attempt to close loopholes in the regulations governing limiting liability companies, or LLCs, and praised officials at the Secretary of States office for not overreacting to the news.
This whole business with the Panama Papers demonstrated that we dont really have a problem, said Sen. Charles Scott, a Casper Republican. Where there were some deficiencies we were able to get them promptly remedied.
An investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists into the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co. has generated worldwide calls for increased financial transparency. The law firm is alleged to have helped its clients legally stash money overseas in attempts to avoid paying taxes.
But Wyoming officials expressed pride in the states business laws, which allow individuals and groups to establish a limited liability company in the state without disclosing their identities.
Whats going on here is Wyomings reputation is at stake, and the protection of Wyomings reputation as a great place to do honest and legitimate business, Secretary of State Ed Murray told the committee.
Murray said he ordered an audit within two minutes of learning of Wyomings connection to the Panama Papers. The investigation found Mossack Fonseca established 24 entities in Wyoming through its subsidiary, M.F. Corporate Services Wyoming LLC.
That figure, Murray noted, was a fraction of the 214,488 entities the Mossack Fonseca is said to have registered worldwide.
Wyoming authorities found the company did not have the contact information for a person associated with its firms. Instead, M.F. Corporate Services listed its registered agent, the person who is hired to register the firm as company in Wyoming, as a contact.
M.F. Corporate Services quickly provided that information, Murray said, though officials in his office noted their inquiry into the company is ongoing.
Murray, in an interview, rebuffed the suggestion Wyomings laws might assist foreigners seeking to hide their assets from tax collectors in their home countries. His offices response to the Panama Papers proves Wyomings laws work, he said.
I believe there will always be some bad actors. But I dont believe our LLC law facilitates a disproportionate increase in fraudulent activity in any way, shape or form, the secretary of state said.
Lawmakers, for their part, took two actions to tweak the states corporations laws. They struck down a proposed amendment that would have barred companies from marketing Wyoming as a place that provides anonymity or secrecy to businesses seeking it. The language in the draft bill raised possible First Amendment issues, they noted.
And they approved a motion to draft a bill that would prohibit a registered agent as serving as a companys official contact person.
What this will do is to make sure there is a real person somewhere in line thats not just a registered agent for the respective LLC, said Sen. Cale Case, a Lander Republican who co-chairs the Corporations Committee.
He noted the committee will continue to study the wider issue of corporate filings during the interim legislative session.
Wednesday support meetings
Alcoholics Anonymous: 6:30 a.m., 917 N. Beech; 8:30 a.m., 500 S. Wolcott; 10 a.m., 328 E. A St.; noon, 500 S. Wolcott, Ste. 200; 5:09 p.m., 917 N. Beech; 7 p.m., 500 S. Wolcott, Ste. 200; 7 p.m., Glenrock, 615 W. Deer St. (downstairs); 7:30 p.m., 837 E. C St.; 8 p.m., Douglas, 628 S. Richards #5; 8 p.m., 328 1/2 E. A (upstairs), closed; 8:23 p.m., Evansville, 719 3rd, Evansville Christian Church. Unless otherwise noted, all meetings are open. Casper info: 266-9578; Douglas info: 307-351-1688.
Al-Anon: 7-8 p.m., 500 S. Wolcott, Ste. 200, 12-24 Club, for grades 6 and up; 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 302 E. 2nd. Use east entrance, meet downstairs in Room 12.
Narcotics Anonymous: 12 p.m., 500 S. Wolcott, 12-24 Club; 8 p.m., 302 E. 2nd St., Methodist Church, enter east side. Web site: http://www.urmrna.org.
Nicotine Anonymous: Noon, 500 S. Wolcott, 12-24 Club. Info: Pam M., 577-0518; Troy Y., 267-6326.
Signup to register online for OLLI
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Casper College will be offering online registration starting with the summer 2016 classes. The first day for registration is Thursday, May 26.
OLLI members will receive a registration time in the mail. Those who are not OLLI members, but plan to sign up for summer classes must become an OLLI member by Wednesday to receive an online registration time. Registration times begin at 2 p.m., and each members time is randomly generated by computer. For those who choose not to register online or do not get a registration time, they may come to the Chapman Lobby to register on May 26 between 5-6 p.m., said Karen Arnold, lifetime learning specialist.
The cost for the summer membership is $20 for the summer session, May 30-July 29. Membership includes one complimentary class and a tuition charge of only $8 for all other classes.
The Chapman Lobby is located on the second floor of the Nolte Gateway Center on the Casper College campus. For more information call Arnold at 268-2099 or Vicki Pollock, lifelong learning specialist, at 268-2097.
Got cans, need a hat?
105 aluminum cans equals one pound, and you can take a hat of your choice by donating that pound of aluminum cans to Joshuas Storehouse, where it will be traded for milk for children.
Most of the hats range from $12 to $25 in value. The Cans for Hats exchange will take place daily through Friday at 334 S. Wolcott. Save those aluminum cans and trade them to support the Milk For Minors Program. Call 265-0242 for more information.
After School at the Library
Elementary-age students are invited to attend our weekly After School at the Library program at 4 p.m. at the Natrona County Library. Come use your creativity and show us what you can build with LEGOs. All supplies provided. Call 577-READ ext. 5 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.
Tour new residential respite
The public is invited for Tours and Hors doeuvres at Wyomings newest community residential respite care at 304 S. Fenway. Open houses will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, and May 9, 11, 17 and 19. Call 577-4832 with questions or to schedule a private tour.
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 the communitys combat veterans to relax and share their stories with other 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.
Taco bar at the Elks
Wednesday Night Special at the Casper Elks Lodge is Taco Bar with all the fixings. All you can eat for $7. Build your own tacos, nachos, taco salad or any combination you desire with green chili and refried beans. Children 5 to 12 are $3, serving from 6 to 7 p.m. or until gone. Also enjoy a dessert for $1. Member, significant other and guest accompanied by a member. For more information, call 234-4839.
Auto club meets
The regularly scheduled meeting of the Oil Capitol Auto Club will take place on Wednesday at Zs Classics on East Yellowstone. The meeting will start at 7 p.m., so arrive a little early and catch up with old friends. This is the last meeting before the Memorial Day Car Show and there is much to discuss. Come on down. Call Jerry for more info at 577-7119.
Coin club meets
The Casper Coin Club will meet at 7 p.m., at Casper College, Gateway Building, Room 222. Topic for the evening will be coins of uncommon denomination. Call Al at 237-1156 if you have questions.
Archaeologists meet
The monthly meeting of the Casper Chapter of the Wyoming Archaeological Society will be held at 7 p.m. The meeting is on the ground floor of the Oil & Gas Conservation Commission Building, 2211 King Blvd. Please use the entrance on the east side of the building.
Following a brief business meeting, David Vlcek will speak on High Elevation Archaeological Research in the Northern Wind River Range. In 2015, Bonneville Archaeology conducted archaeological investigations in the Bridger/Teton National Forest from the iconic Squaretop Mountain and the upper Green River southward towards the glacial region north of Titcomb Basin. Visitors and new members are welcome to attend the meeting. Please contact Mavis Greer, Chapter President, at 237-2037 or via email at mavis@greerservices.com if you have any questions.
The Wyoming Attorney Generals office wants a judge to dismiss a sexual harassment lawsuit against the state Military Department.
The Justice Department filed suit against the Wyoming Military Department in March, alleging it failed to protect a female worker who reported being sexually harassed by her immediate supervisor.
The Attorney Generals office, which is representing the military, asserts the woman did not effectively prove her boss created a hostile work environment. Nevertheless, counsel also argued, the Justice Department filed the womans claim outside the statute of limitations for civil cases.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S District Court for Wyoming, alleges the woman suffered sexual harassment regularly from her boss, the former director of the Wyoming Military Departments Youth Challenge program, Don Smith.
The program, located at Camp Guernsey, serves at-risk youth by providing a 22-week residential course instilling values, skills, education and discipline using a military-type structure, the lawsuit states.
The alleged harassment began in late 2010 and included unwanted emails about Smiths personal life, unwanted written expressions of affection toward the woman, including songs and poems, and the invasion of her work space to discuss personal issues, according to the lawsuit.
The woman repeatedly rejected her boss advances and filed multiple complaints with the department related to the alleged harassment, and Smiths failure to stop the behaviors. The woman ultimately resigned in September 2011 over the continued harassment and agencys lack of assistance, the suit alleges.
A four-year statute of limitations exists for civil actions according to federal law, Deputy Attorney General Van E. Snow wrote in his motion filed May 2. The Justice Department filed its complaint four years and six months after the woman resigned from her position, meaning her case cannot be litigated.
Snow also claims the woman failed to prove Smiths actions created an abusive work environment. He concedes she was subjected to unwelcome sexual harassment. However, Smiths behavior was not abusive, intimidating, or degrading and he did not touch the woman, Snow wrote.
The deputy attorney general also asserts the woman did not prove she had no other choice but to quit her job.
Merely establishing that the plaintiff resigned in response to the defendants actions is not enough. Snow wrote. The plaintiff must further demonstrate that the defendant created working conditions that were not only tangible or adverse, but intolerable and that he or she had no other reasonable choice but to resign.
Federal Judge Kelly H Rankin is overseeing the case.
Andy Johnsons battle with the Environmental Protection Agency is at its end.
The Pacific Legal Foundation, who helped represent Johnson, announced this week that they have reached a settlement with the federal government about the pond Johnson built on his property in Uinta County.
Johnsons pond has drawn the EPAs ire for years. The fight started a few years ago when the EPA wrote to Johnson and said that the pond he built for his animals to drink from may have violated the Clean Water Act. Johnson was told he would be fined $37,500 each day if he didnt restore the land.
As part of the settlement, Johnson agreed to plant willows by the pond and temporarily fence off part of it from livestock, according to the foundation. In a statement, the EPA said the agreement was the result of a dialogue between the EPA and Johnson to resolve compliance issues.
While the two sides may not agree about Johnsons pond, the Wyoming resident said the settlement was in his favor.
It was actually more than we could have ever hoped for, even going to court, he said. Its good. Its a win-win.
Jonathan Wood, Johnsons attorney with PLF on the case, said that the foundation represented Johnson pro bono.
Obviously he has unfairly suffered for the past two or three years with these illegal EPA threats, demanding that he rip out his pond, threatening him with tens of millions of dollars in fines, Wood said. And really putting his property and his familys financial future at risk. The settlement gets rid of all of that, that risk and all of the threats.
The pond will remain, Wood said, and Johnson wont have to pay any fines.
There was public backlash after news of the EPAs order broke in March 2014, according to Star-Tribune archives. Both of Wyomings senators, John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, joined Louisiana senator David Vitter in speaking out against the EPAs compliance order.
In their letter, the senators wrote that the EPA appears more interested in intimidating and bankrupting Mr. Johnson than it does in working cooperatively with him.
Part of the problem concerned the effect Johnsons work had on Six Mile Creek. The EPA pointed to the fact that Johnson didnt follow rules that required him to receive a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The state approved Johnsons initial plans and issued a permit, the Star-Tribune reported. Johnsons camp also argued that the order was illegal due to the fact that stock ponds like Johnsons are exempt from the Clean Water Act, according to the PLF.
Johnson didnt back down. His legal team maintained that the pond helped rather than hurt the area, allowing for new wetlands and habitats for wildlife and fish, according to a news release from the legal foundation.
On Tuesday, Barrasso released a statement saying that the issue shouldnt have come to this.
Local land-use decisions should never be driven by Washington, and the EPA should never be able to fine someone millions of dollars for building a pond on their own land, he said in the statement.
In a separate statement, Enzi said hes supported Johnson since his battle with the EPA began in 2013.
Its nice to see the EPA put in check a little bit, Enzi said in the statement. All the worry and angst that Mr. Johnson and his family had to go through, and even the embarrassment that the EPA should be experiencing right now, could easily have been avoided if only the EPA would follow the law instead of trying to make new laws on its own. I appreciate Mr. Johnsons determination to stand up to a bully.
Wood said another part of the settlement was that neither side would admit wrongdoing. Johnson doesnt have to admit that he could have violated the Clean Water Act. The EPA doesnt have to admit that the compliance order Johnson received could have been illegal.
In an email, the EPA maintained that Johnsons dam for the pond didnt follow the well-known and well-established Clean Water Act permitting process.
The Wyoming resident is ready to move on from the uncertainty of the last few years.
We didnt even know if we were going to have it, Johnson said about the pond. I didnt know if I was going to go to jail. We didnt know if we were going to pay these astronomical fines. We had a lot of plans. Right now, our kids enjoy it, our friends and family enjoy it. Our animals enjoy it. Its been a huge benefit in every way you can imagine.
The bankrupt coal mining companies operating in the Powder River Basin paid nearly all of their Campbell County taxes before a Tuesday deadline, bringing relief to officials in state and local government, which desperately need the money at a time of an economic downturn and smaller revenues.
Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources paid $34.5 million and $14.5 million respectively, squaring their tax bills with the county. Peabody Energy sent $38 million the production tax portion of its bill with the county. The company still owes nearly $3 million in taxes for land, other property, such as equipment, and from a state audit that found the company didnt pay enough in 2008, said Becky Brazelton, the county treasurer.
The money is vital to the state and the northeastern Wyoming county, which is reeling after layoffs of some 500 miners in March. Questions have lingered over whether the bankrupt companies would come through.
The deadline for production tax on coal mined in 2014, and land and equipment in 2015, was 5 p.m. Tuesday. Companies can pay the entire bill at once or in two installments. Interest will accrue on Peabodys outstanding $3 million unless the company sends the check by mail and the postmark is May 10, Brazelton said.
Of the remaining $3 million, $2.2 million was for land and property and $750,000 was from a Wyoming Department of Revenue audit that found the St. Louis-based company didnt pay enough in 2008 in taxes.
Peabody spokeswoman Beth Sutton said the county tax period occurred prior to the time the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The remaining amount will be included in the list of debts that will be subject to the final plan of reorganization and court approval, she said.
We anticipate property taxes will be paid at that time, Sutton said. We are committed to the communities where we operate and will work with local officials as we move forward through the Chapter 11 process.
Campbell County School District gets the largest share of the tax payments. The Wyoming Department of Education receives some money as does Campbell County Memorial Hospital. Taxes also flow to the countys cemetery district and weed and pest control. County government operations are also dependent on taxes.
Brazelton described feeling relieved that Arch came through and Peabody mostly paid its bill.
Weve been in contact with the schools, letting them know they have paid because everybody was on pins and needles, she said.
The money represents the largest source of revenue for the 9,000-student Campbell County School District. The money pays salaries, benefits, supplies, computers and other parts of education operations, said Don Dihle, the districts business manager.
The district has 1,750 employees, making it one of the largest employers in Campbell County, he said.
SANTA FE, N.M. When most people think UFOs and the unexplained in New Mexico, they turn to Roswell.
But residents of a tiny town in the northern part of the state say they've also seen some strange sights.
Residents of Dulce, a small town on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation, say they've seen flying saucers, UFOs and fast moving lights moving back and forth in the sky, The Santa Fe New Mexican reported. One resident even says he's tracked Bigfoot.
"The whole town of Dulce, whoever you want to talk to, they'll tell you what they've seen a lot of them," said Geraldine Julian, 78,who claims to have seen multiple UFOs and other strange activity starting in the 1960s. "It's not just a fairy tale. All the things are true, and I believe every last one of them, too, because I've seen it myself."
Legend has it space aliens are working with the U.S. government at the so-called "Dulce Base" underneath the Archuleta Mesa, a mountain that overlooks the town.
Adding to the mystery, Gabe Valdez, a former New Mexico State Police trooper, documented unexplained cattle mutilations in the area in the mid-1970s. Though many said Valdez's evidence was clearly left by aliens, Valdez has said otherwise.
"The evidence that was left there, you know, predators don't leave gas masks, glow sticks, radar chaff. They don't leave that stuff. They don't have vitamin B-12," Valdez said in a radio interview.
Dulce has been featured on the History Channel's "UFO Hunters" television show. When interviewed for the show, Valdez told a different story, saying a mutilated cow was left with a fetus inside that looked like "a human, a monkey and a frog."
With all the rumors, employees at the town's casino and hotel said they get visitors who are in search for UFOs.
"They prefer rooms with a view of the mountain, that way they can see it," said Chelse Anderson, 27, who works at the Wild Horse Casino. "We have some (guests) that wander around the building at night."
The casino's hotel is already booked for next weekend, when a local nonprofit is hosting a Dulce Base UFO Conference as a fundraiser. Apache Indigenous Defenders Inc. is using the conference to raise money for organizations that work to keep local Native traditions alive.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) Laura Drescher, an engineer by trade, married into a family of child welfare workers.
Husband, mother-in-law, sister-in-law. So Drescher heard lots of shop talk at the dinner table. But all of it in the abstract.
Pass the potatoes.
Then Drescher met Aubri Thompson and all that talk came to life in a girl whose mother and two brothers had died and who had lived in she thinks 21 foster homes and attended 13 high schools, never long enough to make lasting friends.
"I didn't have anybody, not really," Aubri said.
When she finally got together with Drescher and her husband, Bryan, through a mentoring program, they changed one another's lives, The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1WVrOU5 ) reports.
And maybe lives well down the road.
From aging out of the foster system, being unprepared for life on her own and feeling pretty much alone, Aubri found new hope in Laura and Bryan. They took her to a family Christmas gathering she even got the traditional new pajamas.
Laura, a civil and environmental engineer at Burns & McDonnell, and Bryan will soon move into an old building in Kansas City, Kansas, that used to be a convent.
Eight boys in foster care will live downstairs, and eight girls upstairs. The Dreschers, who have no children, will live in the middle.
The place is a big white building with a bright blue door.
Thus, the Blue Door Project, a new group home and shelter started by the couple and others in Bryan's family to help foster kids, particularly the older ones facing the same problems as Aubri, who now works and attends college.
The color blue, according to the flier, symbolizes strength, freedom and new beginnings.
"Aubri was my catalyst for all this," said Laura, who will keep her engineering job. "But this family was meant to do this."
Carla Drescher, Bryan's mother and the former director of behavioral health for Kansas, will serve as executive director. Her husband, Phil, said of Laura: "She's an engineer, but she has a social worker's heart."
"They sucked me in," a smiling Laura, 28, said of her husband's family.
Then she turned serious and started rattling off statistics like the ones she used to hear at the dinner table: Half of foster kids age out without getting a high school diploma. Many will be homeless at some point.
Aubri, now 20, is too old for Blue Door, but she showed up on a recent Sunday to help get the place ready for an open house.
Laura wanted her to paint the door blue.
Of Laura and Bryan, Aubri said: "Most of my life I was a case number; that I didn't matter. They showed me I do matter."
Chance at stability
Think of your high school years.
Now imagine going to 13 schools and moving every few months.
That's reality for some kids. And when some age out of foster care at 18, they sometimes lack the most basic of skills: shopping, budgeting, taking care of a car, cooking, housekeeping and healthy eating. Some don't even have a driver's license.
"Just seeing how a married couple lives day to day," Laura said. "They're going to see me go to work everyday. I will take them shopping. I'm going to teach them how to cook."
Aubri remembers the feelings of first being on her own.
"Overwhelmed," she said.
There are resources to help, she quickly added. But a lot of kids don't know where those are or whom to ask for help. Things for her went smoother when when she met the Dreschers through Youthrive, an initiative that supports foster youth as they transition out of the system to adulthood.
"I think I always had the stigma of being a foster kid, but it never mattered with Laura and Bryan and their families," Aubri said.
Youthrive founder Tim Gay attended a Blue Door open house recently and said such a facility could provide much needed stability in the lives of older foster kids.
"This family (the Dreschers) not only wanted to do something like this for a long time, but they have the experience to make it work," Gay said.
Carla Drescher, who has worked 25 years in child welfare, said that many young people face the same challenges as Aubri and that Blue Door will help fill gaps so some kids don't have to move so often.
"If this works, this place will be the first of several in the metro area," she said.
The organization bought the old convent last fall for $175,000. JE Dunn Construction will oversee a budgeted $300,000 renovation. Some of the work will be donated. The hope is to open by August in time for the school year.
The Blue Door Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, is accepting donations to help get started. After that, Drescher said, it will operate on an annual budget of $750,000, most of that coming from the per diem rate provided to foster care providers.
For Aubri, who studies theater at Kansas City Kansas Community College, she's back to feeling a bit overwhelmed.
"I was a foster kid all those years and I never even had anybody to spend holidays with," she said inside the Blue Door house. "There were times when I thought nobody cared.
"It's kind of crazy that I can help inspire something like this."
___
Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com
This is an AP Member Exchange shared by The Kansas City Star.
PHOENIX Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed legislation this morning that would have allowed some developers to levy their own taxes.
In his fourth veto of the session, the governor said he understands the need for "community facilities districts. These are existing methods that developers can use to build infrastucture in new subdivisions.
But the governor found problems with provisions that would have allowed developers to demand that cities accede to formation of such districts.
The changes would have allowed those districts to have their own governing boards, complete with the power to tax homeowners, that are controlled by the developers.
"I'm a strong advocate for building our economy, and I know that growth and development are key to that success, Ducey said in his veto message.
PHOENIX Gov. Doug Ducey is refusing to force Arizona to join with other states to restrict what kind of gun laws each can adopt.
The governor said he is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment right to bear arms. But he said what was in HB 2524 essentially would surrender Arizona's right to decide what laws it does and does not want about things like requiring background checks when a weapon is purchased.
"I believe it's important that Arizona continue to chart its own course and retain its sovereignty,'' he wrote in a veto message.
The legislation sponsored by Rep. Bob Thorpe, R-Flagstaff, would have required Arizona to enter into compacts with one or more states, with each agreeing not to enact new laws on the transfer of firearms. That would have tied the hands not only of future legislatures but also preempted the constitutional right of Arizona voters to propose their own gun laws.
Ducey said he has nothing against protecting the rights of gun owners. In fact, he signed two other measures today, one to allow gun owners to carry their weapons on public streets near and through college and university campuses, and the other to allow lawsuits against cities that enact their own gun laws beyond what the legislature permits.
But the governor said these are Arizona decisions, unfettered by any interstate compact.
SAHUARITA Discussions about border issues often focus on the differences, but on Monday the goal was to find common ground.
A group of Southern Arizona residents, city officials, ranchers, business owners and law enforcement officers gathered here for a congressional field hearing, Life on the Border: Examining Border Security through the Eyes of Local Residents and Law Enforcement, held by U.S. Rep. Martha McSally of Arizona and New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce, both Republicans.
I want to make sure as decision makers, policy makers, those that are running for office are trying to come up with ways to address these things now and in the future, that they are hearing from facts, hearing from people on the ground that are being impacted by failed policies every day, said McSally, who chairs the House subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security.
Although the number of people coming illegally through Southern Arizona is down, ranchers in rural areas continue to see traffic coming through their land. Instead of seeing large groups of migrants looking for work, they said, they now encounter smaller groups carrying drugs.
I can remember a time in 1999 I saw two different groups of people crossing the ranch that numbered larger than 100, Frank Krentz said. We used to approach these people as Christians to make sure there were no injuries and tell them that Border Patrol would be here shortly to help them.
But that all changed after his father, Robert Krentz, was shot and killed nearly six years ago when he was out on his ranch and saw someone walking across a pasture. Now we dont go near these people. Not knowing what the situation holds, we dont put ourselves in a position that would get us into trouble. The slaying remains unsolved.
Just last week, said Daniel Bell, president of the ZZ Cattle Corp., there was a fire started by people crossing illegally who were later caught by the Border Patrol.
These were all breaking points that caused ranchers on the border to demand more boots on the ground, he said.
While the focus of the hearing was border security, McSally said it was as important to include the perspectives of business owners and city residents.
As we are trying to keep those who are trying to do us harm out, weve got to make sure that we are having a free flow of commerce and traffic thats legitimate for trade opportunities for growing our economy. We can do both really well with the right strategy, technology and right input from those being impacted, she said.
I understand the need for more security away from the ports of entry, but we cannot let that affect the legal crossing of goods and people, said Douglas Mayor Danny Ortega. As I have often heard, we need high fences and wider gates; we also need to talk about making it more efficient and easier to trade goods and services with Mexico.
I am a big proponent of efforts and initiatives to promote trade and tourism in Southern Arizona for the benefit of my state and my country. I am also an ardent proponent of enhanced security at our borders rural areas as well as at our border ports of entry, said Jaime Chamberlain, president of JC Distributing Inc. in Nogales.
The more effective and efficient that our enforcement agencies are at the border, the faster our produce, our manufactured goods, our cattle, our mining equipment and our Mexican consumers can cross the border, he said.
And everyone agreed theres a need to address the legal immigration system to meet current demands.
If we take folks who are coming for economic reasons and we provide for safe and efficient ways for folks to come through the ports of entries, its a lot easier for law enforcement, said Mark Adams, coordinator of Frontera de Cristo in Douglas.
Revamping and modernizing the legal immigration system is something I think its important and should go hand in hand with increasing border security because those are really the root issues of why we are in the situation we are in today, McSally said.
The Border Patrol is about 5,000 agents short of what it needs to effectively control the border, according to Art del Cueto, president of the local Border Patrol union.
Technology and better access has made a difference, said Bell, whose ranch shares 10 miles with the Mexican border, of which 2 miles have a tall pedestrian fence and the rest is barbed wire. The government recently completed a 2-mile road project. We need to keep that progress and keep it going, he said.
And in some places, theres still a need for a fence, McSally said.
Sometimes terrain doesnt allow it because its so rough, but where the terrain does allow it and where we can be good stewards of resources, there are still some places where physical barriers should be put up, she said.
But a barrier in and of itself is not going to secure the border, she said.
While del Cueto said checkpoints and the so-called defense-in-depth strategy are still needed, border residents and business owners said they would like agents to patrol closer to the border, and they expressed concerns with the economic impacts, civil rights violations and that checkpoints shift traffic to the rural areas.
Even if there was no agreement on this, McSally said it was good to listen to the different perspectives.
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and Nan Stockholm-Walden with Farmers Investment Co. and The Green Valley Pecan company also testified.
PHOENIX Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed two measures Monday that could have allowed some developers to get around requirements to show they have enough water to sustain their projects.
The governor said the bills, sponsored by Sen. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, would have undermined provisions of state laws designed to protect the states water supply going back more than three decades. That, he said, made them unacceptable.
Were not going to allow bills that get in the way of the 1980 Groundwater Management Act or take away from the work of the people that have come before I came into office in protecting Arizonas water, Ducey told reporters of his opposition to the measures.
In a separate veto letter, the governor said Arizona has a proud and longstanding reputation as a global leader in water management.
He acknowledged Griffins concerns that the federal government was exercising too much control of the water supply in Cochise County in its bid to ensure the continued flow of water in the San Pedro River. But Ducey said there are greater issues at work.
While I appreciate the sponsors efforts to protect Arizona from federal overreach, Im concerned that SB 1268 and SB 1400 would encourage a patchwork of water ordinances throughout our cities and leave our water supplies in peril, he wrote.
Ensuring the certainty and sustainability of Arizona water is a top priority, he continued. I will not sign legislation that threatens Arizonas water future.
The actions are the second and third vetoes of the session. Ducey earlier this year rejected a measure mandating that students be taught cursive writing, a measure that, coincidentally, also was sponsored by Griffin.
Griffin did not return calls seeking comment.
The decision is a slap at not only Griffin but the two other Republican lawmakers who represent Cochise County, House Speaker David Gowan and Rep. David Stevens, who also pushed for the changes.
It also marks a defeat for a developer that had hoped to make an end-run around its legal problems that have thwarted its efforts to construct a 7,000-home development in Sierra Vista.
But Ducey called the two measures some bad bills.
Both measures have their roots in the 1980 law that has resulted in the creation of five active management areas.
For the Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson areas, the goal is safe yield by 2025, when the amount of groundwater withdrawn is no more than recharge. Pinal and Santa Cruz have other goals.
Outside those areas, developers must get a determination from the Department of Water Resources on whether there is a 100-year assured water supply.
But the lack of that does not prevent them from building. They do, however, have to disclose that fact to initial buyers.
The state law, however, does allow counties to mandate that 100-year showing of adequate water before construction can begin. Cochise and Yuma counties have adopted such ordinances.
What happened here is that Castle & Cooke, which is pushing the Tribute development in Sierra Vista, did get such a finding from the state water agency. But that was overruled by a judge who said the agency did not properly consider competing claims to the groundwater, including the Bureau of Land Management, which wants to protect the flow of the San Pedro River.
That ruling is under appeal.
In the interim, Griffin introduced two measures designed to short-circuit the need for the developer to win the lawsuit.
SB 1400 originally would have required county supervisors to review and unanimously re-enact its water-supply requirement within two years. Facing stiff opposition, she diluted it.
It still required review. But it would take a unanimous vote of the board to scrap the mandate.
The potentially more far-reaching measure would have allowed any city in either county to simply decide it was no longer subject to the county ordinance.
There were some conditions a city would have to meet, like having conservation plans and mandating low-water-use plans in rights of way. But SB 1268 was crafted in a way to ensure that Sierra Vista could fit within the law.
That would have allowed the City Council to simply opt out of the county ordinance and clear the way for the development. Calls to Castle & Cooke were not returned.
The veto also comes despite strong support for the measure from Gowan.
The water belongs to us when its underneath that ground, he said during floor debate. This is private property were talking about.
And he said its about economic development.
We have enough to make sure we put people back to work and that other people who want a private home, who want private property, have that ability, Gowan said.
The veto cheered Sandy Bahr, lobbyist for the Sierra Club.
Both SB 1268 and SB 1400 created loopholes for special interests to avoid complying with important requirements for water adequacy and put at risk the health of our aquifers, streams, rivers and springs, she said in a prepared statement.
PHOENIX Gov. Doug Ducey is being asked to deny future legislatures and even future voters the power to mandate background checks on the private sale of guns.
HB 2524 would require Arizona to enter into a binding contract with other states that have also agreed not to impose any new requirements on the sale or transfer of guns beyond what is required under federal law.
Once entered into such an agreement, formally called a compact, the state would have only limited options to withdraw.
But the measure does more than show willingness of a majority of lawmakers to tie their own hands.
As crafted, it would overrule a provision in the Arizona Constitution that specifically gives voters the right to make their own laws. And it even would form a barrier to constitutional amendments, at least as far as guns are concerned.
Rep. Bob Thorpe, R-Flagstaff, who is pushing the measure, conceded the point. But he said theres a very good reason for it: He wants to protect Arizonans from being talked out of their gun rights by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Hes gone from state to state trying to push constitutional amendments within the state that take away peoples Second Amendment rights, he said.
And he said that Bloomberg, who is a billionaire, has the kind of money to push voters in Arizona to adopt a law and perhaps even a constitutional provision to require a background check every time a weapon is transferred.
Arizona has no such law. The only requirement that exists now is for licensed gun dealers.
But there is a specific exemption for the person-to-person sale of weapons. And that has been interpreted to include individuals who go from gun show to gun show, selling multiple weapons.
With Congress unwilling to amend that law, Bloomberg has been eyeing a state-by-state effort, including going directly to voters in states like Arizona where the constitution permits such initiatives. It is exactly that eventuality that Thorpe wants to preclude.
Im trying to uphold established Second Amendment rights as far as firearms transfers, he said.
Todd Rathner, a member of the National Rifle Association board, was more direct.
The whole point is to try to stop some New York liberal with a bunch of money from imposing his values on the state of Arizona, he said.
Those concerns are not academic.
In 2014, voters in Washington approved Proposition 594, which would expand background checks to include gun shows and private firearms sales. Of the approximate $11 million spent on that effort, at least $3.5 million came through Everytown for Gun Safety, set up by Bloomberg.
A similar measure, backed by the same group, is already set for the November ballot in Nevada. Bloomberg has pledged to spend $50 million on similar measures elsewhere.
Thorpe conceded his legislation could be seen as a method of denying voters in Arizona the same right.
I get that, he said. And I dont know if I have a perfect answer for you.
But Thorpe said he sees overriding the right of initiatives as protecting a greater good.
You look at what Bloomberg is trying to do, he said.
Hes trying to reduce constitutional rights, Thorpe continued. My bill ... is trying to uphold peoples constitutional rights.
What makes the measure work legally is a 1949 federal law where Congress gave its consent for two or more states to enter into agreements to prevent crime and in the establishment of their respective criminal laws and policies.
Attorney Nick Dranias, who helped craft Thorpes bill when he was with the Goldwater Institute, said that means any agreement between states has the effect of federal law. And Dranias said federal law trumps not only state law but even state constitutions.
He said there is a long history of pre-empting voters from making their own laws.
For example, he said, Arizona is in a compact with other states over how to divide up water from the Colorado River.
Dranias said thats a contract. Arizonans cannot vote to void a valid contract, no matter what the state constitution says.
Even if Ducey signs the measure, nothing will happen until at least one other state approves the same language.
Rathner said hes working with Utah to do exactly that. And like Thorpe, his goal is stopping Bloomberg from doing here what happened in Washington.
This is part of the education process and part of the strategic moves that we need to make in order to prevent them from walking in and doing what they did in Washington, which was to come in and spend $20 or $30 million and fool the voters, Rathner said.
But should voters here be denied the right to make that decision? Rathner said the NRA believes that needs to be an option to protect the rights of gun owners.
Thats what they pay the NRA for, thats what they send their $25 in for, to make sure were doing everything we can to stop this stuff, he said.
That presumes the legality of the plan is upheld.
Whether or not this will work is going to end up, I believe, being decided by the courts, Rathner said.
If nothing else, having the compact in place and forcing that court fight would slow up any initiative drive.
Help India!
By NNN-Bernama,
Melbourne : A group of Islamic extremists is urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires in Australia..
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US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to start forest fires, claiming scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels forests when they do the same to our lands, The Age newspaper reports.
The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the eye for an eye doctrine.
The newspaper said the posting which instructs jihadis to remember forest jihad in summer months says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time.
Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organisation were to claim responsibility for the forest fires, the newspaper quotes the website as saying.
You can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia and in Australia.
The Age said with h the nation heading into another hot, dry summer, Australian intelligence agencies are treating the possibility that bushfires could be used as a weapon of terrorism as a serious concern.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the Australian Government remained vigilant against such threats, warning that anyone caught lighting a fire as a weapon of terror would feel the wrath of anti-terror laws.
Any information that suggests a threat to Australias interests is investigated by relevant agencies as appropriate, McClelland said.
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Unheard & Unspoken: Terror stories from Madhya Pradesh: Part 12 (concludes)
By Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net
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Madhya Pradesh has more than 4 million Muslims. This 6% of the total Madhya Pradesh population live in a peculiar situation with hardly any economic or educational prosperity in addition to lack of political representation.
Earlier before BJP rose to power in MP there was 13 Muslims out of 230 MLAs, however in 2008 assembly election only one Arif Aqueel from Congress was elected from old city of Bhopal, now he is the sole Muslim member in 230 members in assembly.
Crumbling history
The capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal was earlier a Muslim kingdom, it still have its relics left in the form of 25% of population in Bhopal district is Muslim, highest in the state. But the situation of the Muslims in the capital is grim, majority of them are semi-literate and unemployed. And according to some the biggest threat Muslims are facing not only in Bhopal but in whole MP is an attack on their religious freedom.
According to Masood Ahmed Khan, Secretary of the Coordination Committee of Indian Muslims (CCIM), Muslim students in MP schools are facing identity crunch, Surya Namaskar, Bhojan Mantar, Gita Saar, Singing of Vande Matram are being made mandatory in MP schools by the government, when Catholic Church of MP approached Jabalpur high court those mandatory rules were struck down for non-Hindus but Muslim students are still being harassed by fellow classmates and teachers if they decline to follow the Hindu culture.
Speaking on economic condition of Muslims, he said Muslims are financially sound in some districts like Indore, Ratlam, Jabalpur and Burhanpur but generally they are economically weak in other parts of MP. The reason he gave is non-implementation of prime ministers 15 point program for minorities and Sachar Committee recommendations. Muslims are facing huge difficulties in getting loans for their business or education from banks, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has declared openly that he is not going to implement Sachar Committee recommendations.
Chief Minister of MP didnt allot land for the construction of Aligarh Muslim university branch in Bhopal, Muslims of MP are trying their best to setup AMU campus in Bhopal but government is opposing it. Even the Muslims students are not getting scholarships properly from the MP govt. said Masood Khan discussing the MP governments approach towards education empowerment of Muslims.
Union Minister of Minorities Affairs Salman Khurshid seen on dais at State Waqf Boards Conf. along with MP Minorities Welfare Minister A. Vishnoi, Bihar Minorities Welfare Minister Shahid & MPWB Chairman Ghufran Azam in Bhopal on June 20, 2012.
Ajay Vishnohi a stern RSS worker and Animal husbandry minister is seen as mind behind Gau-Vansh Vadh Pratishedh (Sanshodhan) Vidheyak, or the Madhya Pradesh Prohibition of Slaughter of Cow-Progeny (Amendment) Bill 2011. This bill is being termed as draconian by many in the state, by implementing this bill MP became the first state in India which has banned eating of beef, and 7 years rigorous imprisonment is provided for slaughtering a cow and arrest can be made by head constable on mere suspicion. A state which holds the top rank in the country for malnutrition of children and which failed to guarantee educational rights to minorities, will now protect cows by forming Gaushalas Gau Raksha Samitis on the expenditure of tax payers money in the whole state, thus Hinduizing the state.
Interestingly Ajay Vishnohi Animal husbandry minster a well-known hardcore RSS worker is also minority affairs and wakf minister of MP.
MP State Wakf Board has over 14,980 properties under its supervision, according to its own website 1,696 properties is being encroached or cases are pending on them, 296 of them are in Bhopal alone, this is according to the government data. Even agricultural land of MP wakf board runs into thousands of acres covering nearly every district. All-India State Waqf Boards Conference was organized in Bhopal on 20th of this month, to discuss the challenges wakf boards is facing to protect wakf properties, Ajay Vishnohi the chief guest and the main speaker, the man in the center of the allegations of encroaching wakf properties will give tips to 25 state wakf board on how to save them.
There were 105 grave yards in Bhopal district alone now after continuous encroachments only 25 are left, said Dr. Mubarak Khan a medical practitioner from Bhopal and member of CCIM. He even alleged that half of the encroached wakf properties are now the government properties or the properties of ministers. He said Muslim rulers of that time were secular and more honest than the present governments, Whenever any Muslim ruler built something for the welfare of Muslims, on the same tune they will construct for non-Muslims, like for example our begum rulers built Darul Shafaqat for Muslim orphan kids, in the same way they built orphanage homes for Hindu children.
Dr. Mubarak is also of the opinion that if even the remaining wakf properties are being utilized in proper way then MP Muslims will not need any help from the government for education and economic upliftment.
Apart from this Madhya Pradesh has always been in the news as a breeding ground for extremist groups, Muslim radical outfits were targeted heavily by the administration, but when it comes to radical outfits among Hindus it is alleged and observed by many that they enjoy patronage of MP government. In the recent years scores Muslim youths were arrested from different parts of MP especially from Malwa region on charges of terrorism, MP stand on first position in the list of states with highest number of terror accused, unfortunately all of them are Muslim youths.
Advocate Shahid Siddiqui, President of the Social and Democratic Party of India (SDPI) Madhya Pradesh alleged that government is breeding hindutva radicalism in the state on ideological basis and for the benefits in the long run. He even said police administration is not independent in MP to operate impartially. Police today in MP work under direct supervision of right wing forces from the government, they had to work according to governments diktats, and they had to investigate what government asks them to do, and had to turn a blind eye on government orders. There is an undeclared policy of MP government that police should not keep a tab on Hindu fundamentalist group and free hand should be given to them. That is why we had seen how major bomb attacks by Hindu fundamentalist groups are planned in MP, all the perpetrators of Hindutva terror strikes were from MP. He said.
Talking on the inability of MP police to control Hindutva extremist he said, Police had let go a Hindutva activist who planted a bomb in World Tablighi Ijtema in Bhopal by terming him insane. Majority of Muslims youths who were arrested by MP police and ATS are from Malwa region but the fact is the companions of Sunil Joshi, a RSS worker went on record to state that he organized a 10 day terror training camps in Malwa region, but police have not investigated this fact.
He also added, MP Police knew about everything, they knew the bomb planters, the organizers of terror training camps, but they turned a blind eye following obediently the policy of the government.
One important reason which is giving independence to BJP government to implement anti-Muslim policies and to slowly infiltrate Hindutva in the state administration is weak opposition both in the assembly and on the ground level. Self-proclaimed secular Congress is the major opposition party in MP, but often congress is accused of being mum on the actions of BJP government concerning Muslims and Hinduization of administration. It seems for MP congress 6% votes of Muslims is not worth taking ire of the right wing forces, and been seen as anti-Hindus.
Mohammad Ibrahim Qureshi is the former chairman of MP State Minorities Commission and a Congress leader close to former CM Digvijay Singh. He said MP government is complicit with Hindutva right-wing forces, but he refuse to accept any leader from his party is encouraging this trend. He even said Muslim leaders from his party are trying their bit to raise the issues concerning their community.
Maulana Mohammad Haji Haroon is the President of the Congress Minorities Cell, he agrees with Ibrahim Qureshi that BJP government is propagating communalism here in MP, patronizing extremist Hindutva elements and targeting Muslim youths. When we asked him what congress and its Muslim leaders are doing in raising this issue, he stated that Congress is raising this issue and trying to solve this problem, but seeing the track record of MP congress in the last decade its hard to believe him.
Maulana is also president of Jamaitul Ulema MP unit, he said while Congress might not be doing enough but JIU is doing their bit. As part of our all India campaign against the harassment of Muslim youths, we here in MP are collecting data on the arresting of Muslim youths in terror cases from every district. We are trying hard to establish our volunteers in every district and town to empower Muslims. We will provide the data to the Delhi head office so they can raise this issue more effectively. There are many problems concerning Muslims here not just terror arrests and we are trying our best to take the plights of MP Muslims to Delhi.
In the last decade MP had seen a drastic increase in the ghettoization of Muslims, with no leadership, education and economic backwardness, isolation the condition of Muslims in MP is not expected to improve any time soon.
Help India!
By Shafeeq Hudawi, Twocircles.net
Kozhikode: With battle lines drawn for the upcoming assembly polls, campaigns of both the United Democratic Front and the Left Democratic Front have reached maximum speed, and none of the two alliances are leaving any stone unturned to get Adivasi votes.
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The reason for focussing on the tribal votes is understandable: these votes may turn out to be a key factor in deciding the result in at least a couple of seats in the Wayanad district. According to the 2011 census, Adivasis constitute 18.5 per cent of the total population in Wayanad. Of all the tribal communities of the district, the electoral behaviour of Paniyas, the largest tribe comprising 45.6% of the Adivasi population, Kurichiyas (16.6%), Kurumas (13.8%) and Kattunayakas (11.2%) are set to play a major role in the two ST reserved constituencies of Mananthavady and Sulthan Bathery and to lesser extent in Kalpetta Assembly segment. Mananthavady, which has the highest tribal population in the district, has mostly picked elected Congress candidates in the Assembly polls in the past. This time, the constituency is likely to see a close fight, with both Congress and CPM fielding candidates from Kurichiya community. Congress, which is hoping to retain the seat, has again fielded Tribal Affairs Minister P K Jayalakshmi, with CP I (M) leader O R Kelu slated to give her a tough fight. The electoral battle in Mananthavady is between the tall claims of development being made by Jayalakshmi, especially in the tribal sector, and the Ministrys non-performance as alleged by her opponents.
Tribal leader C K Janu holding campaign among Adivasis at Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad
Meanwhile, the picture in Sulthan Bathery is slightly different, with a triangular fight between three different Adivasi communities on cards. Congress has given poll ticket to Kurichiya leader and incumbent I C Balakrishnan. The CPI (M), hoping to gain by creating division in the tribal vote bank, has fielded Rugmini Subramanian of Kuruma tribe, which holds some sway in the constituency. Making it a tight fight is the candidature of C K Janu, a prominent Adivasi leader who belongs to the Adiya community, under the NDA banner.
Landlessness remains a key issue in Polls
This time too, land remains the biggest poll issue in Wayanad, at least for Adivasis, with large sections of the community remaining marginalised and landless. Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha leader and tribal activist Professor Geethanandan told Twocircles.net the issues of landless people will be one of the main issues, raised in election. The promises, assured by the UDF Government in 2013 through CK Janu-Antony Pact, still remain on papers. Hundreds of Adivasis are left without land to cultivate. As per the pact, each tribal family has to be provided with five acres of land, he said.
In 2003, the Adivasis had gathered under the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha protesting the delay in allotting them land, which had been contracted in October 2001 in Muthanga of Wayanad district. These tribals had launched a land redistribution agitation in Muthanga. They put up over 700 huts and established a check post to regulate entry. As part of the agitation Adivasis took captive 21 persons, mostly state policemen and forest department officials. The pact was signed following these agitations.
The ill equipped health institutions, which fail to meet requirements of Adivasi people also find a place in the demand list of tribes people. Within the last two years, there have been several infant deaths and incidents have been reported in Wayanad.
Tribal Party Not in Fray
With its leader C K Janu sided with NDA and announced as candidate at Sulthan Bathery, the Adivasi Ooru Vikasana Munnani, the lone Adivasi party, has decided to keep off the electoral battle. Formed last year, the party leaders had said that it would contest in three seats of Wayanad with tribal population. AGMS leader Geethanandan said that the Adivasi votes will be divided among the three fronts due to the absence of their party.
Help India!
By TCN News
New Delhi: Of the total 1,078 successful candidates in the final list of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examinations, only 36 Muslims could make it to this years result, with Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan bagging the second rank. The number of Muslim candidates is almost the same as last few years.
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In 2015, 38 Muslims had cleared the exams, while the number stood at 30 in 2013 and 34 in 2014.
Although Khan, a resident of Bijbehara South Kashmir, bagged the second rank, he is the only Muslim in the top 100, with the next person being Mohammed Ikramullah Sharriff at 111. Fourteen Muslims feature in the Top 500.
The selected UPSC candidates are recommended for various government posts which include Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and several other allied services.
Although Muslims comprise 13.4% of total population, they are dismally represented in the top government services, often due to lack of education and unavailability of resources. They are roughly 2% in the civil services.
Editors note: The story has been updated after it was brought to our notice that three more Muslim candidates have cleared the exams. Their names and ranks are: Dr Ibson Shah I (575), Arish Bilal (639) and Dr Bilawal Shafeeq Choudhary (1,019).
Help India!
By Amit Kumar, TwoCircles.net
Delhi: The Central Industrial Security Force has made it clear that there is no ban on wearing a face mask, Burqa or Hijab in the Delhi Metro and that the person needs to remove them only during frisking.
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Speaking with Twocircles.net, CISF Public Relations Officer Deputy Commandant Hemendra Singh clarified that the face needs to be uncovered only during security check. This has been a standard procedure for a long time and there is no such rule that one cannot wear a Hijab or a Burqa while travelling in the Metro. Singh, however, refused to comment on the incident of May 6 when Humera Khan was refused to board the Metro while wearing a Hijab and said that if there has been any such issue, the person can file a complaint.
On April 13, news agency PTI had done a story which said that in the wake of the Rajinder Nagar Heist on April 11, where two unidentified men stormed the control room and looted around Rs 12 lakh cash, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has issued a set of fresh instructions. Henecforth, covering of the face by travellers using any kind of cloth or cover like surgical masks, mufflers, dupatta or anti-pollution caps was not allowed during frisking.
The measure was there in place and suspicious people were asked to remove it during frisking but it will now be strictly implemented in all cases. This (is) to ensure that all faces are seen by security personnel and are also captured on CCTV cameras. In case there is an incident, everyone should be identifiable, the PTI story quoted a CISF official.
Help India!
By Sidhartha Dutta & Rupesh Dutta
New Delhi : Assams veteran Muslim politician Badruddin Ajmal wants to float a secular Third Front to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party away from forming the new government in the border state, but his ideal chief minister candidate is AGP chief Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who has fought the polls in alliance with the BJP.
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Ajmal, MP from Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency, in an interview with IANS here said he was anticipating a hung assembly when results for the polls are announced on May 19.
This, he said, was likely to increase the chances of a Third Front of all secular parties, including the Congress, to step in.
There is a presumption that a Third Front will be formed, including all secular parties, to keep the BJP away from forming a government in Assam, said Ajmal.
The proposed Third Front would also include the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which have 12 and 10 seats, respectively, in the outgoing assembly.
A scholar from Deoband in Uttar Pradesh and one of Indias richest politicians who made his millions from the familys perfume businesses, Ajmal is known to wield a huge clout among the Assam Muslim vote bank.
His AIUDF had won 18 seats in the 126-member assembly in the last elections held in 2011. The party also has three Lok Sabha members.
The AIUDF chief who may become Assams next kingmaker post-May 19 said the idea of forming a Third Front was possible because the AGPs (pre-poll) alliance with the BJP is just an eyewash and none of the parties in Assam would be able to garner majority to form a government on its own.
Political parties have already started looking for re-arranging their combinations, he said.
The Congress will also project Prafulla Kumar Mahanta as the chief minister if they are not able to form the government on their own. Even I suggested his name. He is the ideal person to become the CM, Ajmal said.
Asked why would Mahanta support the Third Front, Ajmal said: It is their (AGPs) compulsion. They have been out of power for the last 15 years. If they carry on with the BJP and are still not able to form the government, then they will be finished.
He said that it was impossible for the BJP to make a dent in the politics of Assam where communalism has never worked.
It is a land of love and peace between different faiths and communities.
He dismissed as rumour reports that he had secretly aligned with the BJP. There is an ideological difference between the BJP and us. They are anti-Muslims and have always hurt the sentiments of Muslims. Even if we get signal from them, well not support them. It is against our faith, said Ajmal.
He projected AIUDF to get 30-plus seats in the next assembly but said he himself was not a contender for the post of the next chief minister.
If we secure more than 24 seats, then the entire political scenario of Assam will change.
On the issue of illegal migrants, he said: There should be a law to identify illegal migrants, and to deport them back to Bangladesh.
French Senate Approves Shared Player Liquidity
May 10 2016 Jason Glatzer
The French Senate approved an amendment to its gaming regime last week to allow for shared player liquidity with other countries in the European Union and the European Economic Area.
French gaming regulator Autorite de regulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL), who has been pushing for an amendment to be adopted for some time with hopes that it would jumpstart the country's struggling ring-fenced online gaming market, informally announced its approval on May 3.
ARJEL welcomes the adoption by the Senate of the sharing of poker liquidities with European countries presenting a high level of regulation arjel (@arjel)
French-licensed online poker operators can currently offer services to players outside of France, however, players residing in France are restricted to playing on these networks. This, along with high tax-rates applied to online gaming operators in the country, are believed to be the main reasons for the consistent decline in the country's online poker market since its peak in 2011, and why almost half of the of the country's players are active on unlicensed sites.
ARJEL and other vested groups pushed for years to amend gaming laws to allow for shared player liquidity. Hopes began to rise that this could become a reality a little more than a year ago when Poker Industry Pro reported that French President Charles Coppolani proposed international shared liquidity in a meeting with French Budget Minister Christian Eckert. Eckert later confirmed that text regarding shared liquidity would be included in the then pending Digital Bill, whose main mission is to establish the principle of internet neutrality.
Hopes were temporarily dashed in January when the Digital Bill was passed with shared liquidity text omitted. However, just a couple of weeks later new optimism grew with ARJEL stating that an amendment was planned to be presented in April to allow shared player liquidity for French-regulated online gaming networks.
Now that shared liquidity is permitted under French gaming law, the next step for the country's gaming regulators is to negotiate partnerships to make this become a reality. Prime candidates include Spain and Italy with both ring-fenced markets struggling. Additionally, both countries would not require an amendment to their gaming laws in order to share liquidity with dot-fr poker rooms.
If a shared liquidity deal was struck between either or both countries, it appears PokerStars is in the best position to capitalise on this due to operating the biggest online poker rooms in Spain and Italy and the second biggest in France behind Winamax according to the PokerScout Online Poker Traffic Report.
While Winamax operates the biggest regulated online poker room in France, taking advantage of shared liquidity may prove to be more difficult as they do not currently have a foothold in either Spain or Italy. Other candidates for shared liquidity if France reaches a deal with Spain or Italy could be partypoker who operates the third largest regulated online poker room in France, fourth in Spain, and sixth in Italy, and iPoker who operates the fourth largest in France, third in Spain, and third in Italy.
Another potential country speculated for potential shared liquidity is Portugal, whose regulated online gaming market is expected to launch in June. The country's gaming regulator Regulacao Inspecao de Jogos announced last month during an online meeting organized by the Portuguese players association ANAon that shared liquidity would be allowed under certain conditions.
Stay tuned at PokerNews for more developments in the French gaming marketplace.
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Political figures condemn scattered separatist advocacy Updated: 2016-05-07 07:59 By Shadow Li(China Daily)
The special administrative region's political heavyweights have condemned advocacy of "Hong Kong independence", saying it is unpopular with the public and has no future.
Speaking on a radio program, National People's Congress Standing Committee member Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai said on Thursday that the more people talk about "Hong Kong independence", the more the central government will be concerned about national security.
Fan said that before Hong Kong returned to the nation in 1997, people on the mainland spoke very highly of Hong Kong and its people. However, the agitation for "Hong Kong independence" has disgusted many mainland compatriots, said Fan.
She added that this is also why candidates for the chief executive must be loyal both to Hong Kong and the nation.
Fan made the remarks before high-ranking central government official Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, begins a three-day visit to Hong Kong on May 17.
Zhang is slated to deliver a keynote speech at a Belt and Road Initiative summit to be held in Wan Chai.
Fan said she expected Zhang to discuss a range of issues-including politics, the economy, the financial situation and people's livelihoods - in his speech.
Like Fan, ex-security secretary Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong has also warned that talk of "Hong Kong independence" threatens mutual trust between Hong Kong and the central government. He cautioned that the issue could create even deeper divisions in society.
Lee said the public should condemn people advocating it because it can only lead to a dead end. He added that the SAR will not survive economically without support from the mainland.
Lee, who is a Hong Kong deputy to the NPC, said there is no political or legal warrant for "Hong Kong independence".
Recently, some opposition parties tried to include words of self-determination into their manifestos. Fan, however, called the contention of self-determination for Hong Kong just another way of advocating for "Hong Kong independence".
Under the Basic Law and the "One Country, Two Systems" principle, Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy. But it is impossible that the autonomy also covers national defense and foreign affairs, Fan said, adding that the fact Hong Kong is a part of China will remain unchanged after 2047.
Taiwan's WHO event role in jeopardy Updated: 2016-05-10 08:08 By Peng Yining(China Daily)
Democratic progessive party leader Tsai Ing-wen attends to the talent competition of children with mental disabilities in Taiwan. [Photo/IC]
Participation in assembly since 2009 has hinged on adherence to 1992 Consensus, official says
Without the endorsement of the 1992 Consensus, Taiwan's cross-Straits relations, including the island's participation in activities held by international organizations, will be severely affected, experts said.
After being invited on Friday by the World Health Organization, Taiwan plans to participate in the World Health Assembly from May 23 to 28 in Geneva as an observer, in the capacity of "Chinese Taipei".
Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said the island's participation is an arrangement based on the One China principle, which is the cornerstone of the 1992 Consensus.
Taiwan's participation in the WHA since 2009 has been a special arrangement made on the political foundation that both sides of the Taiwan Straits adhere to the 1992 Consensus, Ma said.
If Taiwan sabotages the common political foundation for cross-Straits ties, the arrangement will no longer exist, Ma added in a statement.
The mainland has a clear and consistent stance toward Taiwan's participation in activities held by international organizations, which is that there must be a proper arrangement based on the One China principle and made through cross-Straits consultations, said Huang Jiashu, professor of Taiwan studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing.
"Taiwan's participation in international affairs is a result of peaceful development of the cross-Straits relations," said Huang. "If the ties collapse, the island's space in the international community will surely be squeezed."
On May 20, Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party, will assume the island's leadership and deliver a speech.
Huang said that if the new leadership continues to dodge inquiries about its position on the 1992 Consensus and undermines cross-Straits ties, it is possible that the Taiwan delegation would be forced out of the WHA, which begins three days after Tsai takes office.
According to Huang, the DPP wants to continue cross-Straits cooperation and exchanges, which he called "the superstructure", without endorsing the One China principle, which he described as the "substructure".
"Like any construction, the superstructure will not exist without the substructure," Huang said. "The DPP's claims of keeping the status quo are actually a cover for destroying cross-Straits ties."
It was not until 2009following current Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou's election victory and the rapid warming of cross-Straits relationsthat goodwill from the mainland enabled Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer, said Liu Guoshen, dean of the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University in Fujian province.
"Although the DPP hasn't made clear its stance toward the 1992 Consensus, the mainland has approved their participation in this year's WHA, showing its goodwill and restraint," he said. "I hope the DPP will understand the message sent by the mainland and cooperate with the mainland to protect the interests of people from both sides."
China to unveil detailed plan on "zombie companies" Updated: 2016-05-10 14:03 (Xinhua)
BEIJING - China is expected to release a detailed plan on "zombie companies" soon to reduce capacity in oversupplied industries, The China Securities News reported Tuesday.
"Zombie companies" are economically unviable businesses, usually in industries with severe overcapacity, kept alive only with aid from the government and banks.
The plan, which is being drafted by China's economic planner and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, will support banks in implementing differentiated credit policies to companies in different sectors.
A platform between banks and companies will be established to better identify inquiries and provide effective financing services for companies, according to the report.
The plan will begin trials in around 20 cities nationwide this year, said the paper.
China will increase financial support to its industries as they are being encouraged to transform themselves amid the country's industrial upgrades, according to a guideline jointly released by eight economic regulators including the People's Bank of China.
Development of emerging sectors and upgrades to traditional ones will receive more support, and financial institutions will be encouraged to make long-term loans to high-tech firms, technical equipment manufacturing and some basic industries, said the guideline.
However, loans to "zombie companies" that have suffered continual losses and are unable to pay back their debts will be slashed or withdrawn, according to the guideline.
Arrest of China's 'Queen of Ivory' welcomed Updated: 2015-10-12 10:59 By Jack Freifelder in New York(China Daily USA)
Wildlife activist groups around the world are applauding the arrest of a Chinese woman by Tanzanian authorities in connection with a notorious ivory-trafficking ring.
A 66-year-old Chinese woman named Yang Fenglan was charged Wednesday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, along with a pair of Tanzanian men - Salvius Matembo and Manase Philemon. All face charges of involvement in organized crime.
Yang, known colloquially as the "Queen of Ivory", has been accused of trafficking 706 ivory tusks totaling nearly 2 tons between 2000 and 2014, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) said in a release on Oct 8. It's worth $2.7 million in total.
The case was postponed until Monday, according to an Oct 8 report by the Associated Press.
Andrea Crosta, executive director and co-founder of the Elephant Action League, said this arrest is very important, but it's also important to stress that ivory is not just pulled out of Africa by Chinese consumers and traders.
"It's also actively pushed out by African traffickers, businessmen and corrupted government officials," she said.
Iris Ho, wildlife program manager at the Humane Society International, told China Daily that activists around the globe support the high-profile arrest. She added that the development sends a clear warning that the "days are numbered" for poachers and traffickers.
The illegal ivory trade is a public relations disaster, not only for China but also for Africa, Ho said. "More importantly, combating wildlife trafficking is as much a national interest to the US as it is to China. President Obama and President Xi's joint pledge to stem the ivory trade underscores that realization."
In September, US President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping agreed to end commercial ivory sales in both the US and China. The move also was seen as a way to bolster's China's promise to crack down on the domestic ivory trade.
Amani Ngusaru, the WWF country director in Tanzania, said "Tanzania's elephants have long been an easy target for poachers and traffickers."
Tanzania's elephant population has dropped from a total of nearly 110,000 in 2009 to slightly more than 43,000 in 2014, according to figures from the Tanzanian government.
Elisabeth McLellan, co-head of the WWF's Wildlife Crime Initiative, said: "The arrest of the 'queen of ivory' will send shockwaves through the organized criminal networks driving the global poaching crisis. Law enforcement agencies are now targeting the kingpins behind the illegal wildlife trade, not just the foot soldiers."
Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reiterated the Chinese government's stance on fighting the ivory trade.
"We believe that it is the common responsibility of all countries to protect endangered wild species, including elephants, and the international community needs to tackle the problem with concerted efforts," Hua said. "The Chinese government underscores the importance of preserving wildlife, and will earnestly fulfill its international obligation by stepping up legislation and education to clamp down the smuggling of related items."
In January, China destroyed 6.1 metric tons of illegal ivory seized over the years in Guangdong province.
jackfreifelder@chinadailyusa.com
(China Daily USA 10/12/2015 page4)
Around China Updated: 2016-05-10 08:21 (China Daily USA)
BEIJING
Husband stabbed wife's colleague
A husband, surnamed Zhou, has been jailed for stabbing a man he believed had slept with his wife. The victim, surnamed Li, who survived, was a co-worker of Zhou's wife who stayed over after eating supper with the couple on Sept 18. Zhou left the house on business after eating, but returned early next morning to find Li asleep in his house and stabbed him. Zhou's wife said Li stayed overnight because he was drunk. On May 5, Zhou was sentenced to eight months imprisonment with probation for one year.
BEIJING TIMES
Phony police in blackmail attempt
Five men who tried to blackmail a hair salon owner out of 8,000 yuan ($1,230) have been jailed. On Sept 8, one of the men went into the salon and asked for sex before the others, posing as police officers, arrived and demanded money from the owner, surnamed Chen, who refused to pay. On Nov 28, one of the men, surnamed Zhang, gave himself up to the police and the others were caught soon after. They have each been jailed for six to seven months and fined 2,000 yuan.
BEIJING MORNING NEWS
JILIN
Woman crashes into nine cars
A female driver crashed her BMW X5 into nine cars after confusing the accelerator pedal with the brake. The accident, which involved six stationary and four moving vehicles, including her own, occurred at about 3 pm on Thursday. No one was injured but nearly 3 million yuan worth of damage was caused.
NEW CULTURE DAILY
ANHUI
Wife sexually harassed on bus
A husband in Hefei attacked a man who sexually harassed his wife on a bus. The husband, surnamed Huang, and his 44-year-old wife took the bus with their son on May 1, but a 37-year-old, surnamed Li, took out his penis and rubbed it on the wife's hip. Huang then attacked Li and called the police. Li admitted sexual harassment and was detained.
ANHUI BUSINESS DAILY
GUANGDONG
Teacher's hoax suicide bid
A college teacher in Shunde called the police and said he wanted to commit suicide because his ex-girlfriend would not take him back. The man, surnamed Wu, had repeatedly been refused by his ex, and on May 3 told police he would kill himself if she did not reunite with him. He then hid in a toilet after police arrived at his house. Officers found Wu two hours later and reprimanded him.
INFORMATION TIMES
House breaker stole collectibles
A man in Zengcheng has been detained after stealing commemorative coins, gold, silver and jade artifacts from other people's houses. The 33-year-old, surnamed Wu, comes from a rich family and only stole for the thrill, he told police. Wu was caught on March 28. The case is under further investigation.
INFORMATION TIMES
Man killed over dogfight
A 21-year-old man in Guangzhou fatally injured a 62-year-old in a fight about their dogs. The younger man, surnamed He, attacked the older man, surnamed Xiao, on April 23 after Xiao's dog allegedly harassed He's. Xiao was seriously injured and died on May 5 in hospital, while He was detained by police.
GUANGZHOU DAILY
SICHUAN
Affair funded with son's loan
A middle-aged man borrowed money from his son to fund an affair he was having and crashed his newly bought car after he was exposed. On April 30 the son of the man, surnamed Lin, discovered the affair and demanded that the money be returned. Lin deliberately crashed his car before calling the police.
NEWSSC.ORG
HUBEI
Headless snake bites man
A man in Xianning was bitten by the disembodied head of a snake while he was slaughtering it on April 28. The 48-year-old, surnamed Li, was slaughtering two cobras for a friend when the head of one that he had cut off jumped up and bit him. He was rushed to to hospital and is said to be in a stable condition.
CHUTIAN METROPOLIS DAILY
SHANDONG
Acid injected by jealous wife
A wife in Tengzhou who suspected her hotelier husband was having an affair with his secretary injected sulfuric acid into the other woman's vagina. The incident happened on the night of Dec 18, 2010 when Ni Xia, with the help of another woman and two men, abducted the secretary and injected the acid. The victim called the police as soon as she was alone and was sent to hospital for treatment. She has now fully recovered and the four suspects are awaiting trial.
MODERN WOMEN
HUNAN
Father kidnapped his own son
A man in Changsha kidnapped his two-year-old son after the boy's mother won a custody battle and refused the father any visitation rights. The child was taken away from the residential community where he lived with his mother by a group of men on the afternoon of May 4. Police later discovered that the boy, who had been reported missing, was with his father, who said he missed his son too much.
LEGAL EVENING NEWS
JIANGSU
Mother, son meet after 62 years
A 62-year-old man from Shanghai has been reunited with his 96-year-old mother for the first time since being given away in 1954. Dong Jianping discovered that he was adopted in 2009 when he went to collect his late stepmother's belongings, including his adoption certificate. Dong began searching for his real parents, and recently found his mother in Yangzhou with help from the police and local government.
CHINA NEWS SERVICE
Fake PI scammed doubting woman
A woman in Nanjing was scammed out of 80,000 yuan by a fake private investigator she had hired to do background research on her boyfriend. The woman, who is in her 20s, met her boyfriend while playing a game online earlier this year, but grew suspicious of him as she didn't even know his real name. She paid a detective to investigate, but he disappeared with her money and never did any work. Two suspects have been detained.
YANGTZE EVENING NEWS
Nursing mother took drugs
A woman in Nanjing took drugs with her husband despite the fact that she was nursing a baby at the time. Police received a tip-off and detained the woman, surnamed Wang, her husband and two of her relatives on April 24 while the four took drugs together.
YANGTZE EVENING NEWS
HONG KONG
Elderly woman stole meat, veg
An elderly woman from the mainland was caught red-handed stealing raw meat and vegetables from a supermarket. The case was exposed by local media on Thursday. The stolen goods, which were hidden in the woman's crotch, were enough to cook a four-course meal, according to reports.
XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
ZHEJIANG
Fraudster stole 8 million yuan
A 65-year-old woman in Hangzhou cheated 10 other elderly people out of more than 8 million yuan by promising to pay them high levels of interest. The woman, surnamed Lyu, started borrowing money in 2007 for a project she said she was working on. However, she never paid any of it back. At the trial on Thursday, Lyu told the court that the money had all been spent. The prosecutor said Lyu was guilty of fraud and the court will make its judgment at a later date.
QIANJIANG EVENING NEWS
(China Daily USA 05/10/2016 page6)
HNA lines up takeover of Singapore logistics firm Updated: 2016-05-10 08:40 By Du Xiaoying in Beijing and Liu Xiaoli in Haikou(China Daily USA)
HNA Group Co Ltd plans to buy a controlling stake worth around $1 billion in CWT Ltd, a listed Singapore logistics company, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The Chinese industrial conglomerate declined to comment, but an anonymous insider described the plan as "not yet at the substantial stage, and therefore no real news".
The WSJ report, published last week, said negotiations between HNA and CWT shareholders had been ongoing for several months and were now close to conclusion.
An HNA cabin crew member talks to passengers during a flight. Provided to China Daily
Last week, the Fortune Global 500 company announced it planned to establish a dedicated HNA Tourism Group Co, a new platform to better integrate its aviation and tourism resources, which will help it grow its presence globally.
"It is the right moment to establish such a company," said a senior official from the group, who asked to remain anonymous.
That move does not mean that the group's two main pillars, HNA Tourism Holding and HNA Aviation, will be replaced.
Instead, the new company will focus on China's huge tourism market and linking HNA group's huge potential in aviation and tourism, the company said.
Hou Xuchao, the co-founder of China Insights Consultancy, said integrating aviation with tourism resources in such a way is an industry trend.
Airline firms cannot survive using traditional operational patterns alone, he was cited by National Business Daily as saying, and standalone tourism internet companies are also finding it harder to achieve sustainable development operation independently.
HNA said the new company will act as a large-scale aviation tourism industry holding group, with a strategy to develop tourism, aviation and mobile internet assets in the most ecologically friendly manner.
The company will have its own shareholders, board of directors and separate supervisory management boards overseeing aviation, tourism and internet operations.
The company said it will also integrate the management of its internet development and innovation resources, which will drive investment in businesses related to aviation, tourism and finance, and as well as handle all related upstream and downstream activities.
China's tourism industry has enjoyed rapid development in recent years, with aviation seen as a strong element of the overall travel sector.
At the end of 2015, HNA Group had total asset of 600 billion yuan ($92.31 billion), a fleet of more than 1,100 aircraft, serving nearly 700 domestic and international routes flying to more than 200 cities. It carries some 77.4 million passengers yearly.
Contact the writers at duxiaoying1@chinadaily.com.cn and liuxiaoli@chinadaily.com.cn
HNA-Caissa to raise up to 8 billion yuan
HNA-Caissa Travel Group Co plans to raise as much as 8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) through a private share sale as the Chinese tourism and catering company seeks funds to expand its cruise and global-travel services.
The company's controlling shareholder HNA Tourism Group and as many as nine other investors will buy the shares, HNA-Caissa said in a statement on Monday. The funds will be used for four projects including a cruise ship sales platform and international travel package services.
A share sale raising the maximum 8 billion yuan would be equivalent to 40 percent of HNA-Caissa's current market value of 20 billion yuan and roughly double its combined revenue in the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shares of the company on the Shenzhen exchange dropped by the daily limit of 10 percent Monday after trading resumed following a six-month suspension.
"The company may fall another 20 percent to 30 percent from current levels to be in line with its peer valuation as the broader market has fallen a lot since HNA-Caissa Travel was suspended in November," Zhou Yuhua, analyst at Sealand Securities in Shenzhen, said by phone. "Meanwhile, there is a dilution effect on the share price as the size of the placement is very big."
The stock had been halted since Nov 9 pending a "major asset reorganization plan," according to a company statement at the time.
HNA-Caissa also said on Monday in a separate statement that a plan to acquire Beijing Capital Airlines and its controlling shareholder fell through after it failed to gain the needed regulatory approvals on time.
A person answering the phone at HNA-Caissa's investor relations office said the company had no additional comments.
-Bloomberg
(China Daily USA 05/10/2016 page16)
The shift from traditional to new media Updated: 2016-05-10 08:14 By TIAN ZHIHUI/ZHAO FAN(China Daily)
China's top leader Xi Jinping recently reiterated the importance of media. Talking about how to promote the "Convergence of Traditional Media and New Media", Xi said media should pay attention to both convergence and management, and ensure media convergence advances in the right direction. Besides, Xi recently visited the offices of three mainstream media outlets, stressing the urgency and significance of embracing new media.
New media have expanded across China, with Jiemian and The Paper in Shanghai, Jiupai in Central China's Hubei province, and the Cover in Southwest China's Sichuan province. They have increased their share in the market, too. The first impact of new media on the traditional media is the loss of readers, resulting in falling circulation. Consequently, advertisers have turned to new media and it is becoming increasingly difficult for publishers to survive, let alone make profits.
Moreover, readers' habits have changed in this age of new media. The old way of storytelling no longer appeals to readers and viewers. The younger generation favors mobile devices and entertaining ways of storytelling, forcing the traditional media to focus on visualization and participative reporting. Information technology devices allow readers to access information without the limits of time and space, further reducing the attractiveness of the print media.
The relationship between journalists and readers, too, has changed. User-generated content has become a vital part of news production, and "citizen journalism" is today an accepted fact. Editors are not the only gatekeepers for media outlets. In the age of information explosion, it's the users that decide what and when to read.
The traditional media have no choice but to change in order to survive. And traditional publishers have to gradually shift to new media to avoid becoming history.
According to a China Internet Network Information Center report, issued in July 2015, the number of mobile phone users in the country is 620 million, which reflects the huge market for "mobile reading". Therefore, the traditional media should adopt creative mobile strategies to meet people's fast-changing appetite. One way of doing so is to customize the contents of mobile terminals.
As more and more traditional media outlets direct their attention to mobile apps, only uploading contents from the print editions on the internet will not be enough to draw readers and to shift to new media. Publishers should pay more attention to readers' experiences. For example, they have to find out what kinds of contents are suitable for mobile devices and what sort of presentation gives the best visual feeling. Publishers' "mobile-phone strategy" will, to a large extent, determine the success of their shift to new media.
Publishers should also use a combination of new methods to present news, because readers and viewers today demand more and varied information. They need to adopt methods like visualization and virtual reality to effectively present an event. And to shift to new media, publishers have to build a journalists' team that can make full use of new technologies and know how to combine them with objective journalism.
Therefore, journalists need to radically change the way they approach news, which essentially means the traditional media have to change the way they tell a story and train their journalists in new media skills.
More importantly, the traditional media ought to make more efforts to engage and interact with readers and viewers, who in turn can make greater contribution to the presentation of a story. And user-generated content is a source that editors should pay more attention to, because "citizen journalists" have been responsible for quite a few "breaking news". Interactions with readers and viewers are equally important as they can help editors focus more on what their target audiences want.
Tian Zhihui is professor of new media studies at the Communication University of China, Beijing. And Zhao Fan is MA student of Communication University of China.
From the Silicon Valley to the worlds most populous nation, fintech, a combination of finance and technology, has developed into a booming industry that continues to draw an extraordinary level of funding from investors.
The most recent gold-spinning episode was the completion by Alibabas Ant Financial Services Group (Ant Financial) a fintech behemoth established in October 2014 of a $4.5 billion Series B round of financing in April. The company is expected to go public soon.
Skyrocketing into innovative startups, fintech has been transforming the way we lend, transact, invest and insure. According to a list jointly compiled by Australias H2 Ventures and KPMG on the worlds top 50 fintech startups, there are 25 unicorn companies worth $1 billion or more in the United States and seven in China.
The fintech industry differs greatly in many ways in the US and China, said Long Chen, a finance professor at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and a well-known economist in China.
The influence of fintech on the public life in Western countries lags far behind than that in China, Chen wrote in a recent opinion piece in Caixin magazine. The practice of fintech in China is much more broad and deep.
With its pillar business units: Alipay, the worlds leading third-party payment platform, which split from Alibaba in 2011; Ant Fortune, which includes the money market Yue Bao and the third-party financial services platform Zhao Cai Bao; Koubei; the private online bank MYBank; micro-loan provider Ant Micro Loan; and Sesame Credit, Chinas first credit-rating system Ant Financial has profoundly transformed everyday life for Chinese people.
Ant Financial can handle more than 80,000 transactions per second, outpacing all of its leading Western counterparts and breaking Visas world record of 14,000 transactions per second.
On micro loans, Ant Financial has issued some $96 billion to small- and medium-sized enterprises and rural and urban merchants in the past five years. Americas biggest peer-to-peer (P2P) consumer loans platform, the Lending Club, reported $16 billion in loans over the same period, Chen said.
Morgan Stanley estimated that there are more than 1,500 P2P lending platforms in China, and the total volume of P2P lending in China surpasses $33.2 billion, more than in the US.
Still, credit, security and risk control in Chinas P2P market remain problematic. In February, the Chinese government investigated online P2P lending industry players and cracked down on Ezubao, a company that officials said was a Ponzi scheme that offered mostly fake investment products to nearly 1 million investors. Ezubao enticed them with promises of annual returns of up to 15 percent and was accused of defrauding investors of more than $7.6 billion.
Cheng Li, CTO of Ant Financial, visited Silicon Valley to talk at the Ant Financial Tech Forum on Sunday.
Innovative technology and extensive data analysis underpin everything we do, Li said. The cloud and Big Data power our rigorous credit, security and risk- control processes and allow us to tailor our products to customers individual needs and operate in the safest, most efficient and cost-effective manner.
Our mission is to grow a financial ecosystem in China and beyond by collaborating with domestic and international partners, Li said.
Fintech also helps bring about lifestyle changes.
We call it from fintech to finlife, said Li, adding that Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle-enabler. Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, pay the utility bills, make doctors appointments or buy movie tickets directly from various modules within the app and also purchase wealth management products such as Yue Bao.
More than 600,000 brick-and-mortar merchants and some 1 million taxis now accept Alipay as a payment method across China. As of December 2015, Alipay was accepted in more than 50,000 retail stores outside of China, and tax reimbursement via Alipay was supported in 24 countries and regions, including South Korea, Germany and France.
Contact the writer at junechang@chinadailyusa.com.
China warns Philippines against 'blackmailing' on S. China Sea Updated: 2016-05-10 10:18 (Xinhua)
BEIJING - China will never "bully" small countries, nor will it tolerate "blackmail" on the South China Sea issue, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Beijing on Monday.
Spokesman Lu Kang made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to claims that the Philippines initiated arbitration due to the two countries' very unequal strengths which makes it unable to solve maritime delimitation disputes with China through dialogue.
"Such an argument confuses right and wrong and reminds us of the so-called theory of original sin of major powers," said Lu.
Calling the rhetoric "obviously from those who attempt to smear China", Lu said the logic behind the rhetoric is that "a strong nation is bound to seek hegemony".
China adheres to the path of peaceful development and follows a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, said Lu.
China persists in building good-neighborly relationships and partnerships with its neighbors and in solving disputes through dialogue and negotiation, he said.
Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China has successfully solved boundary issues with 12 of its 14 land neighbors via consultation in accordance with historical facts, on the basis norms of international law, said Lu.
The entire length of demarcated and delineated boundary has reached 20,000 kilometers, which accounts for 90 percent of China's total land boundary, he added.
Another example is that China and Vietnam delineated the maritime boundary in the Beibu Gulf via negotiations, Lu said.
China knows its responsibility and obligation to safeguard regional peace and stability, said Lu.
Stressing that China has dealt with the South China Sea issue in a constructive way, Lu said the door for dialogue has always been open.
NASA chief expects joint space effort Updated: 2016-05-10 11:10 By Chen Weihua in Washington(China Daily USA)
'I believe it will happen one of these days,' Bolden says of US-China cooperation
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden remains optimistic about future space cooperation between China and the US despite legal hurdles.
The US Congress passed a law in 2011 banning NASA from engaging in bilateral agreements and coordination with China.
"I believe it will happen one of these days," Bolden said in a talk at the Brookings Institution on Monday about the prospects of futures US-China space engagement.
He noted that the US now works with China on "an incredible basis" in terms of earth science to look at glacial characterization in the Himalayas, to look at things such as earthquakes, known as geo data, and some aspects of lunar science.
A former NASA astronaut, Bolden reminded the audience that unlike corporations, government is inherently slow.
"Am I happy? No. But are we making progress? Yes," he said.
He called for patience and cited the example that even during the height of the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union collaborated in space. That cooperation continued with Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russia is now a key partner in the International Space Station, a joint venture that also involves the US, Japan, Europe and Canada.
"So patience is a virtue. It will happen in time," he said of the possible collaboration.
Bolden admitted it won't happen during his tenure as National Aeronautics and Space Administration administrator, which ends with the departure of President Barack Obama in January.
"In a world [in which] we tend to concentrate way too much on confrontation, it is with the US, Russia and China that we can find a lot of common ground in the area of space," said John Allen, a senior fellow at the Brookings and a retired US Marine Corps four-star general, who moderated Monday's talk.
At the International Astronautical Congress in Israel last October, Bolden said he believed the ban on NASA's partnership with China wouldn't last.
"The reason I think that where we are today is temporary is because of a practical statement that we will find ourselves on the outside looking in, because everybody ... who has any hope of a human space flight program ... will go to whoever will fly their people."
China and the US agreed in their annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) last June to establish regula consultations on civil space cooperation.
China has a robust space program in cooperation with many European countries, under which China hopes to complete a space station by 2022.
While the US has embarked on a Mars mission, China also approved its first independent Mars-exploration program last month, and will launch its first Mars probe in 2020.
China's previous effort to explore Mars with Russia in 2011 failed after the Russian launch vehicle carrying Yinghuo-1, China's first Mars probe, crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
Over the years, Chinese officials have called for more international cooperation, including with NASA, in its space programs.
On Monday, Bolden asked how many in the audience saw the 2015 film The Martian and read the book.
In the movie, the China National Space Administration offers its Taiyang Shen (a classified booster that can carry a payload to Mars) to NASA to help save astronaut Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon.
Zhao Lei and Ma Chi contributed to this story.
chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com
Beijing condemns US warship patrol Updated: 2016-05-11 02:13 By Wang Qingyun(China Daily)
Incident 'further justifies building of defense facilities'
This satellite image shows the Yongshu Jiao of China's Nansha Islands. [Photo/Xinhua]
Beijing expressed "resolute opposition" on Tuesday to a patrol by a United States warship in the South China Sea near Yongshu Reef in the Nansha Islands.
The Ministry of National Defense said the patrol only further justified China's construction of defense facilities in the area.
The USS William P. Lawrence entered Chinese waters near the islands illegally on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, adding that the warship was monitored, tracked and warned.
Yongshu Reef belongs to China but is also claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines.
Reuters quoted Bill Urban, spokesman for the US Department of Defense, as saying that the freedom of navigation operation was a challenge to "the excessive maritime claims of some claimants in the South China Sea".
Lu said, "The action by the US threatens China's sovereignty and security, endangers the safety of people and facilities on the reef, and harms regional peace and stability.
"China strongly opposes such action by the US and will continue to take measures to safeguard our sovereignty and security." Lu said the flexing of US military muscle in the name of freedom of navigation poses the biggest threat to peace and stability in the area.
The Defense Ministry said China has dispatched vessels and aircraft, including two fighter jets and three warships, to identify the US vessel and warned it to leave.
The ministry said the provocation exposed an intention "to disrupt the regional situation and reap gains from it, and further proved that China's construction of defense facilities on ... islands and reefs in the Nansha Islands is totally justified and very necessary".
China will enhance maritime and air patrols as well as the construction of "various defense capacities" in the area according to its needs, it added.
Li Guoqiang, deputy head of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies, said the unauthorized entry into Chinese territorial waters by the US military vessel "is against the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and violates the rights littoral states enjoy under the convention".
The US has frequently demonstrated its military power in the South China Sea recently. Examples include US B-52 bombers flying near Huayang Reef in December and the destroyer USS Lassen entering within 22 kilometers of Zhubi Reef in October.
Xinhua contributed to this report.
Enhanced ties eyed with the DPRK Updated: 2016-05-11 03:22 By Xinhua and China Daily(China Daily)
Participants in a parade wave bouquets and carry the DPRK national flag as they march with a model of the Unha space launch vehicle in Kim Il-sung Square, Pyongyang, on Tuesday. WONG MAYE-E/AP
China hopes to enhance healthy and good relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the remark at a regular news conference in Beijing a day after the DPRK concluded its first ruling party congress in 36 years and its leader Kim Jong-un was promoted as chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea.
Lu said China upholds a policy of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, as well as safeguarding its peace and stability, and resolving issues through dialogue and consultation.
On Monday, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, sent a congratulatory letter to Kim.
Xi said the friendship between the two countries was personally forged and carefully fostered by their leaderships from the older generation.
Speaking on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and personally, Xi said he hopes that people in the DPRK will see new accomplishments in the cause of building socialism under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea headed by Kim.
China is ready to work with the DPRK to promote the constant development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the two countries and the two peoples, and to make positive contributions to safeguarding peace, stability and development in the region, Xi said.
At the congress, Kim described the DPRK as a responsible nuclear weapons state, saying it will strive for world denuclearization and faithfully fulfill obligations of nuclear nonproliferation.
Pyongyang has conducted a series of nuclear tests and satellite launches since January that have increased tension on the peninsula.
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HA NOI The Directorate for Roads of Vietnam (DRVN) has suggested that Uber and Grab taxis should have signs on their cars to differentiate them from conventional taxis.
The draft sparked a wave of protest from many traditional taxi companies, however, who said this change would amount to legal recognition of Uber and GrabTaxi.
o Quoc Binh, chairman of the Hanoi Taxi Association, said that the draft decree did not make it clear what requirements taxi firms like Uber and Grab need to meet to have signs attached to their cars. Traditional taxi firms are subject to constraints on the number of vehicles they operate and are required to display their headquarters and business licences, as well as providing training for their drivers.
Taxis like Uber and Grab Taxi, meanwhile, will be legalised under the decree but face no such constraints.
Nguyen Anh Quan CEO of Thanh Cong Taxi said that they are legal businesses but face many constraints such as limitations on the number of vehicles. If the DRVN allowed Uber and Grab taxis to have Taxi E signs on their cars this would be unfair to traditional taxi firms.
Binh added that conventional taxis, which have meters inside the cars, come under the control of state authorities. However, he was unsure of who will take responsibility for Uber and Grab taxis, which currently calculate fares using online software.
This representative told the media that after nearly 20 years of development, Ha Noi has only 18,000 taxis due to the limitations of the city development plan. If the DRVN under the Ministry of Transport allowed Uber and Grab Taxi to display a Taxi E sign, the number of taxis in the city would rapidly increase and the industry would become difficult to control.
Nguyen Tuan Anh, CEO of GrabTaxi, said that because amendments to the decree are only in the draft stage he would not comment.
An industry insider said that the war between traditional taxis and high-tech taxi companies will become fiercer. The eventual winners in this industry will be the ones who have a good business strategy and offer the best customer service.
In an interview with VnExpress online, Deputy Minister of Transport Le inh Tho said that the draft did not reflect the views of the ministry and needs adjusting.
Tho also said that the ministry will not differentiate Uber and Grab cars from traditional taxis. To ensure fair competition, all taxis are required to comply with rules regarding the age of the car, driver training and vehicle safety.
The DRVN confirmed that a request for Uber and GrabTaxi to display a Taxi E sign is only an idea at this stage and it will finalise amendments to the relevant decree at the end of the month.
The request will be contained in the draft amendments to Decree No. 86 on the business of transport by motor car, prepared by the DRVN.
It is expected the Directorate will collect opinions from stakeholders, including Uber and GrabTaxi, before approving a final draft for submission to the Government.
Tho acknowledged that the Ministry of Transport asked Uber and Grab to calculate the number of drivers they employ but this has not yet been provided by either company. The ministry will require traffic inspectors to launch sweeps targeting Uber and Grab taxis and strictly handle any violations. -- VNS
HA NOI The rate of IPv6 usage in Viet Nam was reported at only 0.03 per cent, 300 times lower than the worlds average rate at 10.4 per cent.
The figures were released at a conference on IPv6 organised by Viet Nam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC) to celebrate Viet Nam IPv6 Day in Ha Noi late last week.
According to statistics from CISCO, APNIC and Google, IPv4 is the fourth version in the development of the Internet Protocol, which is one of the core protocols of standards, based on Internet working methods and routes most of the traffic on the Internet.
Meanwhile, IPv6 is the upgraded version of IPv4, with larger address space, which will help deal with IPv4 exhaustion.
Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Phan Tam said that as the ministry had early realised the challenges of exhausting IPv4, it released instructions in 2008 to boost the IPv4 to IPv6 transition, aiding the development of Internet usage.
As the trend of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has become a reality and will soon be booming in Viet Nam, the demand for IPv6 will become more urgent, Tam said.
To meet this requirement, the ministry has established a task force to further develop IPv6.
According to Tam, 2016-2020 is the key period in which developing and providing services on the IPv6 platform will help increase Internet traffic on the platform.
The deputy minister said that one of the aims of the task force was to create a stable eco-system among Internet service providers and IT application providers.
Only when we create an eco-system can the IPv6 traffic be increased, he said.
The ministry will work with the task force to review all legal documents, mechanisms and policies to support the development of services on the IPv6 platform, creating opportunities for IPv6 traffic to increase in the future, he added.
In addition, Tran Minh Tan, VNNIC director, said that the country expected to lift the rate from 0.03 per cent to between one and two per cent by Viet Nam IPv6 Day next year.
Tan said that the country had gone through five years implementing the national action plan on IPv6 with the overall objective of having safe and stable operations.
The Internet infrastructure in Vietnam is ready, while enterprises were ready on human resources, as well as having fruitful conditions to roll out IPv6 services to customers, he added.
The director also emphasised that according to the roadmap implementing the national action programme on IPv6, this year played an important role as the start of the third implementation phase, the transition phase, which would last from now until 2019.
This is also the longest, most important and most decisive time for the application of IPv6 in the countrys Internet activities, the director said. VNS
HA NOI Commercial banks employees have received higher salaries in the first quarter this year thanks to the improved performance of banks.
According to the financial reports released by banks recently at their shareholders meetings, employees at Vietcombank got the highest monthly average wage of VN23.5 million (more than US$1,000) in Q1 this year, up VN5 million against the same period last year. The bank, which has 14,750 employees, spent VN1.016 trillion for wages in the period, up 30.7 per cent against Q1 2015.
Vietinbank also reported an average salary rise of VN2.4 million per month in Q1, helping more than 21,000 employees to receive VN20.6 million as monthly salary.
The bank, whose pre-tax profits surged 54 per cent in the first three months this year to VN2.404 trillion, set aside VN1.3 trillion for its employees salaries, up 21 per cent year-on-year.
Though the number of employees increased 24 per cent to 23,834 due to its merger with Mekong Housing Bank (MHB), Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV)s salary costs in Q1 this year still rose 18 per cent to VN1.25 trillion. Average monthly wage at the bank was VN17.5 million.
After the merger with MHB, BIDVs provision fund in Q1 nearly doubled in the same period last year to nearly VN2 trillion, causing the banks pre-tax profit to decline to roughly VN2 trillion.
Though the business results were not as good as expected with total assets declining from VN124.8 trillion by the end of 2015 to VN122.2 by the end of Q1, Eximbanks total salaries for employees still rose from VN243 billion to VN267 billion, helping a bank employee receive a monthly wage of VN14.5 million.
According to experts, finance and banking have been among the industries that have offered the highest salaries to mid-level and senior managers.
A report from Navigos Search, a personnel recruiting agency in Viet Nam, said that the highest salaries were offered by employers in the banking and services sectors in the first quarter this year. Senior directors of a commercial bank and a customer services company get a monthly salary of over VN200 million.
Monthly salaries from VN100 million to VN145 million were also offered to candidates by companies in the banking, healthcare, customer services and trading in Q1 this year, Navigos reported. VNS
HCM City E-commerce websites saw turnover increase by 45 per cent last year and investment go up by 30 per cent.
In the first 10 months figures are available only for that period the sales reported by 839 e-commerce websites were around VN11.6 trillion (US$520 million) compared with VN8.1 trillion in the same period in 2014.
A recent survey of 105 websites by the Ministry of Industry and Trades e-commerce and information technology department found that 89 per cent of those portals sell products and the rest, services.
Most of them are based in HCM City (44 per cent) or Ha Noi (40 per cent), with 97 per cent belonging to companies. Two per cent are foreign-owned and one per cent, State-owned.
Thirteen per cent do business both in the international and domestic markets, eight per cent focus on a single province and three per cent focus completely on foreign markets.
Around 62 per cent are on social networks, with Facebook alone accounting for 70 per cent.
Computers, smart phones, electronic and digital products and office equipment are the most popular items bought online, accounting for 23 per cent.
Fashion products and accessories also account for 23 per cent.
They are followed by real estate (12 per cent), household appliances (10 per cent) and accommodation and tourism (8 per cent).
Some of the most popular websites are pico.vn, lazada.vn, thegioididong.com, esale.zing.vn, fptshop.com.vn, nguyenkim.com, hc.com.vn, and dienmaycholon.vn.
Seventy six per cent of websites said customers come back for a second time.
Over half the websites that took part in the survey said their major source of revenue is advertising while 23 per cent collect fees on orders and 12 18 per cent collect other fees like membership.
Despite the strong growth last year, e-commerce websites face operational challenges. For instance, around 31 per cent of them suffer from a lack of quality human resources, not surprising considering there are around 200,000 websites and they each need at least one IT expert to manage them.
According to vietnamworks.com, demand for internet/online media professionals has surged in recent years.
Additionally, 25 per cent of websites believe that customers who do not trust the quality of products sold online or who worry about paying online would hinder the industrys development, while 22 per cent believe shipping costs are still too high and 20 per cent complain about unhealthy competition among e-commerce websites.VNS
HA NOI Movie lovers in Viet Nam will be enthralled by an array of the best European films during the European Film Festival 2016 (EFF), which will showcase 13 contemporary films from EU member countries.
The film festival provides an in-depth portrait of Europe including its lifestyle, culture and traditions, helping to enhance mutual understanding between Europe and Viet Nam.
The EFF 2016 reflects the excellence, innovation, and diversity of European cinema through a range of films that include drama, comedy, tragedy, and passion. The festival is also an opportunity for movie lovers to catch up on award-winning films that are not usually screened in regular cinemas.
Over the course of two weeks, the 17th edition of the festival will bring audiences a wide selection of entertaining, challenging and thought-provoking films, unavailable in regular cinemas. Films screened have encountered success in their country of origin and have won national and international awards.
The world of the silver screen has no borders. No passports or visas are required to take you from one country to another. Cinema has successfully shared diverse culture, people, histories and perspectives to audiences from across the globe for over a century. As the birthplace of cinematography and home to a number of prestigious international film festivals, Europe is renowned for its cinematic heritage. By maintaining the presentation of European cinema in Viet Nam, the European Union hopes to break down language and cultural barriers, and aims to involve people from across the spectrum of Vietnamese society. This cultural event is believed to be an excellent bridge to bring the people closer. said Head of the EU Delegation to Viet Nam, Ambassador Bruno Angelet.
Founded in 2000, the EFF has become a prominent annual cultural event in Viet Nam. It has established itself as a reliable vehicle to bring new and captivating aspects of European culture to Vietnamese people, by showcasing films that would otherwise not be available in Vietnamese commercial cinemas.
The EFF, which is part of a broader series of Europe Days 2016 events, will open in Ha Noi on Friday, in a Nang on Saturday and in HCM City on Sunday. All films will be screened with English and Vietnamese subtitles. Free tickets can be picked up from tomorrow, May 11.
Each business has a different way of doing public relations. But an electronics store in Ha Noi made an unforgettable reputation for its latest PR campaign. Late last month, Tran Anh Electronics Store hired young women wearing bikinis to welcome visitors and introduce air-conditioning products. And the company succeeded in creating quite a buzz, as the companys name has become familiar with many locals.
Some people might praise the companys plan to use PR girls in swimsuits as a creative way of advertising, but the majority of the public said it was tacky and created a bad reputation.
Images of promotion girls in two-piece swimwear helping customers park their motorbikes and leading them into the store, where they introduced products, have sparked fury on social media.
Despite an explanation from marketing director Tran Anh, who said that it was not a PR programme and the company had co-operated with a partner to make a sex education clip, a lot of net citizens expressed their criticism, saying the company tried to create a scandalous promotion to get attention.
Its hard to find a connection between air conditioners and gender, said a reader.
Lan Huong, an office worker, said this type of advertising was especially disturbing because women, elders and children were in the store. Huong said she and her family would never go to the store after the incident.
Worse still, Ha Nois Department of Culture and Sports has decided to impose a VN40 million (US$1,794) fine on Le Viet Chung, from the marketing department of Tran Anh Electronics Store, for employing promotional girls in bikinis to greet customers.
Nguyen Thanh Phong, chief inspector of the department, said the company had organised the marketing event without permission from the authorities.
Thief must be strong enough to commit a crime
People say that health is a treasure, and it might true for a thief like Nguyen Van Thanh.
Taking advantage of the fact that the Unification Day and May Day holidays last four days, Thanh decided to break into a supermarket to steal money.
As an employee at Xanh (Green) Supermarket, Thanh knew every corner of it, so he carried a backpack containing rope, a flashlight, gloves, a hammer, food and drinking water and climbed onto the stores roof the previous day to hide.
Thanh waited until midnight when the supermarket security guard fell asleep, then entered the room where money is kept through the ventilation system using rope.
After breaking the safe locks and disabling the codes, he stuffed a large amount of money into his backpack.
But the backpack was too heavy, so he could not use the rope to escape through the ventilation system.
After a moment of thought, Thanh decided to escape by the front door. But God not smile at him.
When he opened the industrial roll up door, the noise awakened security guards, who then called out to local residents for help. Thanh was later arrested with more than VN2.7 billion (US$121,000) on him.
He must have struggled to carry such a big package of money because Thanh was only 1.6m high with a small figure, according to a police investigator.
Perhaps he can sign up for a gym after the incident, or at least start lifting weights in prison. -- VNS
MANILA Anti-establishment firebrand Rodrigo Duterte stormed to a huge win in the Philippine presidential elections, according to poll monitor data released Tuesday, after an incendiary campaign dominated by his profanity-laced vows to kill criminals.
Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, hypnotised millions with his vows of brutal but quick solutions to the nations twin plagues of crime and poverty, which many believed had worsened despite strong economic growth in recent years.
And after a record turnout of voters in Mondays elections, Duterte scored a commanding victory, according to data released by the PPCRV, a Catholic Church-run poll monitor accredited by the government to tally the votes.
With 89 per cent of the vote counted early on Tuesday morning, Duterte had an insurmountable lead of 5.92 million votes over his nearest rival, administration candidate Mar Roxas, according to the data.
"Its with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people," Duterte said as the results came in, adding his law and order platform was the key to his success.
"What I can promise you is that I will do my very best not just in my waking hours but even in my sleep."
Duterte had 38.65 per cent of the vote, with Roxas on 23.16 per cent and Senator Grace Poe in third with 21.71 per cent, according to PPCRV.
In the Philippines, a winner is decided simply by whomever gets the most votes.
Poe, the adopted daughter of movie stars, had already conceded just after midnight on Tuesday.
"As a staunch supporter of electoral reform, I have a firm belief in the voice and sentiment of our people. I honour the result of our elections," Poe told reporters in Manila.
"I congratulate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and pledge my support in working to heal our land and to unite our people toward the continued development of our country."
Threats to kill
Duterte, a pugnacious 71-year-old, surged from outsider to the top of surveys with cuss-filled vows to kill tens of thousands of criminals, threats to establish one-man rule if lawmakers disobeyed him and promises to embrace leftist rebels.
In his final rally on Saturday, Duterte repeated to tens of thousands of cheering fans his plans to end crime within six months of starting his presidency.
"Forget the laws on human rights," said Duterte, who has been accused of running vigilante death squads in Davao.
"If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because as the mayor, Id kill you."
Another key message of Dutertes campaign was his pledge to take on the elite, even though his vice presidential running mate was from one of the nations richest and most powerful families.
Poe had seen her popularity slide after critics pointed to her taking US citizenship then later giving it up.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, the early favourite, was in a distant fourth place, according to the poll monitor, after crumbling under the weight of a barrage of corruption allegations.
In an intriguing sub-plot, former dictator Marcoss son and namesake was in an extremely tight race for the vice presidency. After leading early, he fell just a few hundred votes behind with 10 percent of the vote to be counted on Tuesday morning, according to the poll monitor. AFP
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday signed a decision to provide urgent assistance to farmers in the central provinces who suffered losses from the unusual fish death that occurred in early April. Photo vneconomy.vn
HA NOI Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday signed a decision to provide urgent assistance to farmers in the central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue, who suffered losses from the unusual fish death that occurred in early April.
Accordingly, family members of fishing vessel owners and workers working on vessels and fishing logistics households are each eligible for 15kg of rice per month over the course of one and a half months.
Up to VN5 million (US$227) will be offered to each fishing vessel below 90CV that is temporarily forced to stop going out to sea.
Fishery business owners and fishing logistics vessels will be able to enjoy interest-free loans within six months to stockpile seafood from May 5 to June 5.
Toxic fisheries that are caught in the waters within 20 nautical miles of the shore will be provided with financial aid worth less than 70 per cent of their value.
Other aid will be reserved for environmental clean-up actions, including transport and collection of disinfectants.
The mass fish death was discovered in Ky Anh Township, Ha Tinh Province on April 6, then spread onwards to Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien - Hue.VNS
A view of Long Bien bridge accross the Hong (Red) River in Ha Noi. Photo vnexpress.net
HA NOI Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has just issued an official note regarding the draft blueprint for a transportation and hydroelectric project on the Hong (Red) River of Ha Noi, affirming that the Government has not started the process of approving the project yet.
The reason cited was because there is not adequate legal foundation for the approval.
The Government also asked the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to co-ordinate with relevant industries and ministries to build a master plan for the Red River to ensure sustainable development.
The building of the plan must be conducted carefully with the participation of relevant localities, scientists, research organisations and agencies, the Viet Nam Fatherland Front and other social and political organisations representing the people living in the Red River area.
Xuan Thien Co Ltd proposed a trans-Asia waterway and hydropower project planned to be implemented on the Red River at a total cost of VN24.5 trillion (US$1.1 billion).
The project consists of three or six dams to be built on the river and dredging a 288-kilometer river section from Viet Tri City in Phu Tho Province to Lao Cai City in the province of the same name.
The plan will construct seven ports along the waterway, including Pho Moi, Apatite, Quy Xa, Van Phu, Ngoc Thap, Co Tiet, and a port north of Ha Noi.
The investor said its own finances would account for 30% of the total investment cost and bank loans would make up the remainder.
The company proposed implementing the project under the build-own-operate (BOO) format. It wanted to collect fees from VN10,000 to VN45,000 (up to US$2) per tonne of cargo transported on the waterway and sell electricity at an initial price of VN1,900 per kWh and VN3,560 per kWh (US 16 cent) later to recover the investment capital over a period of about 25 years.
The company said the project would help create a smooth waterway from Lao Cai to Hai Phong City for vessels of 400 to 600 DWT and generate 912 million kWh per year once completed.
However, experts and residents have been protesting the project over fears for its environmental impact.--VNS
Hai PHONG Engineers from the Military Command in Hai Phong City, in co-ordination with the relevant units and the local authority, successfully removed four bombs to a safe place to defuse them.
This information was revealed by Lt Col ang Ba Nhinh, chief of the Military Command of Kien Thuy District.
According to the commander, the bombs belong to the war period.
Each bomb is 1.2m in length, 35-40cm in diameter and weighs nearly 250kg.
Local resident Nguyen Van Chieu of Uc Gian Village discovered the bombs on Sunday at the bottom of his pond while digging the area.
His family immediately reported the bombs to the local military command.
Meanwhile, a family in Loc Ha District in the central province of Ha Tinh found a dozen mortar shells while building a house on Monday.
The rusty shells were buried in groups, local authorities said.
Three mortar shells were removed from the ground by local residents.
The local authorities and the bomb clearance team successfully removed 12 more mortar shells from the area after several hours.
Each mortar shell is 25cm in length, 6cm in diameter and weighs over 1kg. Most of the shells are rusty.
Nguyen Van Thuan, police chief of Phu Luu Commune, said they had not yet determined whether any explosive material remained in the shells.
The people living here said they also found a number of bullets while building houses in the past, but never so many. VNS
The government has gained the right to tax capital gains arising in Mauritius from sale of shares acquired on or after April 1, 2017, in Indian companies.
India and Mauritius on Tuesday signed a protocol for amendment of a three-decade-old double taxation avoidance agreement. The agreement was signed in Port Louis. During a transition period of two years, the tax will be limited to half the Indian tax rate. The full tax rate will kick in from 2019-20.
This could bring some disappointment to foreign investors. What was expected widely was exemption on capital gains would continue with some additional conditions. However, it is not as bad as you would imagine, said Daksha Baxi, executive director, Khaitan & Co.
The development could affect investors in the US, many of whom use Mauritius to route money to India. The tax treaty between India and the US does not grant investors credit in the US for taxes paid in India.
This protocol is a result of many years of negotiations between the two countries. The obvious push is because of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Initiative of the G20 countries, which has explicitly gone against countries proving to be tax havens or having harmful tax practices, said Neeru Ahuja, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.
Mauritius may cease to be preferred routing destination for some inbound and outbound multinationals and India can hope to achieve its fair share of taxes, Ahuja said.
Baxi said the choice before foreign investors would be whether to invest in India. The only treaty where there will be some capital gains benefits will be the one with the Netherlands, Baxi said.
Mauritius accounted for 34 per cent of foreign direct investments in the country between 2000 and 2015. In April-December 2015, inflows from Mauritius were Rs 39,506 crore. According to NSDL data, Mauritius accounted for Rs 3.78 lakh crore or 20 per cent of assets under custody of foreign portfolio investors (FPI). The treaty amendment brings about a certainty in taxation matters for foreign investors. It reinforces Indias commitment to the OECD-BEPS initiative of stopping double non-taxation, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted.
WHATS THE DEAL? Capital gains arising in Mauritius from sale of shares acquired on or after April 1, 2017, in Indian firms to be taxed
During transition period of two years, tax will be limited to half the Indian rate. Full rate to kick in from 2019-20
Singapore treaty says as long as Mauritius pact allows exemption, Singapore residents will get exemptions
Withholding tax to apply on interest arising in India to Mauritian banks at the rate of of 7.5% for debt claims or loans made after March 31, 2017
Adhia also confirmed that the move would impact investments coming through Singapore: Capital gains on shares for Singapore can also now become source-based due to direct linkage of Singapore DTAA Clause with Mauritius DTAA.The Singapore treaty has a clause that says that as long as the Mauritius treaty allows tax exemption to companies in India, Singapore residents would also get similar exemption.
Investments prior to April 1, 2017, are grandfathered. Expect a surge in investment flow, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das tweeted.
In January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had at a global summit organised by a financial newspaper criticised the double taxation avoidance agreement with Mauritius.
U R Bhat, managing director, Dalton Capital Advisors, an FPI, said, The move ends the uncertainty on taxation routed from Mauritius. He added that investors lived in fear because of they were unsure how the law would be interpreted by taxmen. Dont expect any adverse reaction from the market as the changes apply prospectively. It is on investments made after April 1. So investors will have enough time to plan their investments.
At present, short-term capital gains are taxed at 15 per cent, while long-term gains are tax free. A finance ministry release said the protocol would improve exchange of information between the countries and address treaty abuse and round-tripping of funds. It was also expected to curb revenue loss, prevent double non-taxation, and streamline the flow of investment.
Other key features of the protocol include a limitation of benefits clause. The lower tax rate during the transition period is subject to this. A resident of Mauritius, including a shell or conduit company, will not be entitled to the benefit if it fails the main purpose test and bona fide business test. A company will be deemed a shell or conduit company if its expenditure on operations in Mauritius is less than Rs 27,00,000 (Mauritian Rupees 15,00,000) in the preceding 12 months. Another provision deals with withholding tax on Mauritian banks. Interest arising in India to Mauritian resident banks will be subject to withholding tax in India at the rate of 7.5 per cent in respect of debt claims or loans made after March 31, 2017, the protocol states. Interest income of resident Mauritian banks in respect of debt claims existing on or before March 31, 2017, shall be exempt from tax in India, it adds.
With inputs from Samie Modak
At a time when the global luxury market is struggling to attract customers to keep their exports afloat, jewellery exports from India skyrocketed over the last five years. jewellery exports from India quadrupled since 2010-11 due to rapid shift in consumer preferences in favour of light weight, modern and contemporary designs of gemstones studded ornaments without compromising on the feel good pride.
Data compiled by the apex trade body Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) showed Indias jewellery shipment at $2959 million in the financial year (FY) 2015-16 compared to $566 million in FY 2010-11. From the previous financial year i.e. 2014-15, however, exports of silver ornaments recorded a jump of 44%.
The growth in silver jewellery exports has opened an opportunity for Indian designers to compete with existing market leaders including Thailand, China and Turkey. Subdued price quote and growing consumer confidence have lured customers to pick an alternative to gold with guaranteed buyback. All these factors have resulted in growth of silver jewellery exports from India.
There is a silver lining in silver jewellery exporters. Until a few decades ago, India was exporting primary silver bars. Today, the world can see our presence in silver jewellery. Our growth indicates that we can easily become the largest silver jewellery exporter in the world, said Praveen Shankar Pandya, chairman, Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).
Silver prices in the international have declined by 50% over the last five years to trade currently at $15.44 an oz. Silver price marginally recovered in financial year 2017 though. In domestic markets, however, the impact of price fall was limited due to depreciation in the Indian rupee. In domestic currency, silver slipped to Rs 36,990 a kg, a decline of 34% from the level of Rs 56290 a kg in FY 2011-12.
The slowdown in European manufacturing activity has benefitted India over the last few years. Understanding the need of overseas consumers, India has invested immensely in technology advancement for modern and contemporary designs of intrinsic jewellery. So, accumulating all, India is reaping the advantage of its expertise in the jewellery sector, said Rahul Mehta, managing director, Silver Emporium, one of Indias largest silver jewellery exporters.
Silver Emporium is planning to set up a large warehouse in the United States to serve its customers in American countries efficiently.
India is in the nascent stage in terms of silver jewellery exports as the industry needs government policy support. A few years ago, India had a policy for duty drawback on silver which despite repeated reminders, exporters are yet to receive payment from the government.
Such unfavourable policies prevent us from exports despite huge appetite for Indian jewellery in global markets, said Mehta.
Meanwhile, Indias silver import too jumped four-fold in the last three years from 1900 tonnes in 2011-12 to 7954 tonnes in FY 2014-15.
03:58 Rishi Sunak to become next British PM Rishi Sunak has been elected unopposed as the leader of the British Conservative Party.
00:34 Increase seen in Victorian ambulance wait times New data obtained by the Herald Sun shows ambulance wait times have increased since Premier Daniel Andrews came to government in 2014.
00:56 Brad Hazzard announces retirement from politics New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard has announced his retirement from politics at the next state election.
02:18 Sydney has wettest October after record-breaking rainfall Sydney has had its wettest October yet, with over 290 millimetres of rain this month.
02:38 Budget deficit at $36.9 billion for this year The Albanese government is set to deliver its first budget on Tuesday night.
WATERLOO A Waterloo man called his victim a monster as jurors found him guilty of picking up the 13-year-old girl and taking her to a hotel for sex.
You dont know that you have a monster in your house, 27-year-old Orlando Ramirez Ruiz said in Spanish to the girls parents as he was being led from the courtroom in handcuffs. You know more than you say you know.
His comments were interpreted for the court after he left.
Following about two days of testimony, jurors deliberated Monday afternoon before convicting Ramirez of third-degree sexual abuse and enticing a minor. Third-degree sexual abuse is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and enticement carries up to five years in prison. Sentencing will be at a later date.
Assistant County Attorney Elizabeth ODonnell said Ramirez had talked with the girl through social media and arranged to meet Sept. 18, 2014, when she was supposed to be in class. The girl told officials at George Washington Carver Academy she had a doctors appointment, and Ramirez arrived at the office and picked her up.
He then took her to Motel 6 on LaPorte Road where they had sex, authorities said.
He paid for a hotel room. He paid in cash. Why do people go to hotel rooms in the middle of the day under this set of circumstances? ODonnell said.
Ramirez took the stand in his own defense and said the girl had asked him to pick her up for a doctors appointment because no one else was available, but then she told him it was a plan to skip school. He admitted to taking her to the hotel room but said he didnt have sex with her.
There are two sides to this story, and he wanted to be able to tell his side, defense attorney James Metcalf said.
During the investigation, authorities found semen in the underwear the girl was wearing that day. Criminalists with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation who examined the DNA said Ramirez couldnt be ruled out as a contributor and the match was one in 21.
Other evidence included a physical exam that found signs of sexual activity, a text conversation where Ramirez told the girl not to tell anyone about what they did at the hotel and a phone call he later made to the parents where he offered to make things right by paying them or marrying the girl.
WATERLOO A former Waterloo man has pleaded guilty to weapons charges in connection with an October incident where he shot and killed a dog during an argument.
Charles Brewer Jr., 19, entered his guilty plea to charges of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm Monday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. Sentencing will be at a later date, and the charge carries up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
He remains in custody until sentencing.
Brewer was prohibited from handling firearms because of a prior conviction and because he was subject to a restraining order stemming from a domestic abuse case, court records state.
On Oct. 5, Brewer was involved in an argument and altercation with Larry Chestnut outside Chestnuts West Mullan Avenue home, authorities said. Chestnuts pit bull came to his assistance, and Brewer drew a .17-caliber handgun and shot the dog, killing it, authorities said.
Brewer left the area and remained at large until he was detained in East Chicago, Ind., in March. He also is facing state intimidation charges in connection with the October shooting.
Court records state while Brewer was in custody at the Linn County Jail in Cedar Rapids on April 11, he resisted being moved to another area of the jail. Brewer made verbal threats to a sheriffs deputy and spit in the face of the deputy, records state.
WATERLOO Timothy Petersens friends and relatives gasped when they saw photos of the twisted metal that had once been his Harley Davidson motorcycle in court Monday.
Petersen, 34, a Black Hawk sheriffs deputy, had been riding his motorcycle off duty Aug. 4 when a Chevrolet Suburban allegedly pulled out in front of him on Crossroads Boulevard. The two vehicles collided.
The motorcycle went up, he went up. The motorcycle came down. He came down right beside it, said Ruth Berry of Waterloo, who witnessed the crash.
Petersen later died of his injuries at Covenant Medical Center.
Prosecutors charged the Suburban driver, Shawna Marie Flippo, 30, of Waterloo, with failure to yield at a stop sign causing death. The charge is a misdemeanor, but the state is seeking jail time. She also was cited for failure to have insurance and driving while suspended.
Her one-day bench trial was Monday.
County Attorney Brian Williams said Flippo was obligated to wait at the Best Buy/BioLife driveway until traffic cleared before proceeding through the intersection.
When in doubt, take a right. Go a different direction or sit and wait all day until you are sure, Williams said.
He said Petersen was the only person who took corrective action, breaking before the collision.
Defense attorney Ray Walton said Flippo did what any reasonable person would have done.
This was a tragic accident, Walton said. She was not trying to harm Mr. Petersen.
Walton called the crash bad luck, which drew another gasp from Petersens friends and relatives in the courtroom. The defense also took issue with the placement of the stop signs at the intersection, questioning whether the sign in the evidence photos was intended only for motorists leaving the BioLife parking lot or for others on the drive.
Petersen was on Crossroads Boulevard, which didnt have a stop sign.
Officer Enes Mrzljak, who responded to the collision, testified Flippo first told him she had insurance but later she admitted the insurance had been suspended.
He said she told him she had been exiting the driveway when a delivery truck that was entering the driveway from Crossroads waved her through so the truck could make the turn.
Officials with the Iowa State Patrol said they were unable to determine Petersens speed at the time of the crash. Using his skip marks, State Patrol investigators said the motorcycles minimum speed was 14 to 20 mph.
The speed limit on the section of road is 25 mph, and the defense noted Petersen had estimated he was traveling 30 to 35 mph when he talked to paramedics before he died.
A state trooper said he determined the cause of the collision was the SUV being out in the middle of the roadway.
Magistrate Patricia McGivern ruled Flippo was guilty of driving while suspended and no proof of insurance. But she indicated she needed more time to consider the stop sign violation and will rule on that on a later date.
WATERLOO A pilot program will place Chromebook computers in the hands of all Waterloo Community Schools sixth-graders next fall for use in school and at home.
The plan is moving forward after Board of Education approval Monday to purchase 1,508 computers for $408,121 from CDW-G of Vernon Hills, Ill., using physical plant and equipment levy funds. The computers were purchased as part of a technology life cycle replacement plan.
Of those, 900 will be Chromebooks for sixth-graders at the four district middle schools. Others will be for district administrators as well as staff or students at five schools.
We had some pretty substantial conversations at the middle school level, Matt OBrien, executive director of technology, told the board. This is a significant step.
The model of one computer device for each student is being tested after hearing concerns from middle school staff and administrators about student access to technology.
Weve typically looked at enrollment and basically what weve done is have a roughly 1 to 3 ratio, said OBrien, not counting additional devices purchased through funding sources such as grants. What we looked at was the total cost of ownership of devices. Based on that analysis, the district is able to roll out the initiative at no additional expense because Chromebooks are roughly a third of the cost of the others.
The 1,268 Chromebooks approved for purchase each cost $193. In comparison, the 100 Lenovo ThinkPad E560 laptops each cost $707, the 82 Lenovo ThinkCentre M700 desktops cost $717 each, and the 58 Apple iPads cost $375 each. A total of 870 Chromebook cases will be purchased for $14 each.
Ron Morlan, instructional technology coordinator, said teachers will focus on using the Chromebooks for literacy. That will include online formative response tools allowing for immediate feedback from teachers and peers on a students work and what he called the four Cs communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.
To help pay for computer damage, loss or theft, families will be invited to pay an optional $25 that will go into a cooperative loss coverage fund. Those who do would have a small copayment, said OBrien, in those situations. Others would be billed for parts at cost.
In other business, the board approved the purchase of a new scoreboard at Memorial Stadium for $154,600 from Iowa Direct Equipment & Appraisal of Cedar Falls, the lowest of two bids. Installation will be completed by Aug. 5. PPEL funds are being used in the project.
DES MOINES -- City officials in the Jones County community of Anamosa are asking residents to use bottled water until they identify an unknown chemical that entered the water supply sometime over the weekend.
While mixing chemicals to treat drinking water Friday afternoon, officials say a city employee noticed the mixture looked different than it usually does. He shut down the pump, preventing the mixture from entering the water supply. However, the automated system later opened the valve and mixed the suspect chemical into the citys water supply.
Officials with the city and the state Department of Natural Resources were working with the chemical supply company to determine what chemical they delivered to Anamosa. The city was flushing the water distribution system and has contacted hospitals, schools, restaurants and other public facilities advising them to use bottled water.
Officials say they will notify residents when water is safe to drink and the advisory is lifted.
Impaired driving
Officials in the Iowa Department of Public Safetys Governors Traffic Safety Bureau say they have formed a first-of-its-kind-in-Iowa Impaired Driving Coalition to combat problems associated with impaired driving in the state.
The task force includes members of state public safety, corrections, transportation, public health and human rights agencies, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Criminalistics Laboratory, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Iowa Attorney Generals Office, as well as city, county and state law enforcement officers and private partners.
The coalition has been asked to review existing Iowa data, laws, regulations and programs, and to propose a coordinated statewide impaired driving plan for preventing and reducing impaired driving behavior.
The purpose of the statewide impaired driving plan is to provide a comprehensive strategy for preventing and reducing impaired driving, based on coordinated efforts designed to reduce deaths and increase public safety that eventually will be submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for approval.
Traffic safety
The Iowa Department of Public Safetys Governors Traffic Safety Bureau has established a new award in honor of Des Moines Police Officers Susan Farrell and Carlos Puente-Morales who were killed in the line of duty by an impaired motorist who was driving the wrong direction on Interstate 80 west of Des Moines.
The Farrell/Puente-Morales Award will be presented at the bureaus annual conference to a law enforcement agency that has displayed a strong emphasis on addressing impaired driving throughout the year.
All agencies that have a GTSB contract will be reviewed by bureau staff and one agency will be selected as the award recipient by reviewing their enforcement, education or public awareness efforts in the fight against impaired driving, officials said Monday.
Grant applications
The Iowa Women's Foundation is accepting applications for its 2017 grants.
This year the foundation awarded more than $89,000 -- the largest amount in the organizations history. The 2017 total is expected to approach $100,000, organizers say.
The foundation awards grants to fund Iowa nonprofit programs that focus on empowering women and girls through training, resources and financial literacy.
An RFP is available online at iawf.org. In order to be considered for a grant, nonprofit organizations must complete an application. Eligibility requirements and the application are available at www.iawf.org. All applications are due by 5 p.m. May 31.
DES MOINESGov. Terry Branstad signed legislation Tuesday that would prohibit state funds from being invested in or contracted with companies that are openly engaged in a boycott of Israel.
Backers said the bill, which is similar to previous restrictions placed on the investment of public funds in Iran and Sudan, is intended to counter the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement that is trying to encourage countries, governments and companies to boycott Israel and Israeli companies.
We think this boycott of Israel is totally wrong and this is a way that we can make a strong statement about our support for Israel and our opposition to those that would boycott Israel, Branstad told reporters at a signing ceremony attended by a couple dozen advocates and legislators.
I just think its the right thing to do, added the Republican governor. I think it sends an important and a very clear signal that were not going to do business with people that boycott Israel. We think that is wrong and we think that is a prejudicial position that some countries and some companies have taken. We want to stand on the side of what is right and good.
Branstad drew parallels to when Iowa joined other U.S. states in demanding the divestment of public funds in companies engaged in business activities in South Africa as a way to successfully force an end to that countrys policy of racial segregation. We dealt with this before with apartheid in South Africa, so I think we need to stand up to evil, the governor said.
You have countries like Iran that want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and its a stand against that kind of bigotry and hatred, Branstad told reporters. We saw this with the Nazis in World War II.
The Rev. Gary Nims on behalf of the United Methodist Church advocacy team had written Branstad requesting he veto the bill in deference to Palestinian Christians seeking to promote investments in companies that do no harm to efforts to attain a peaceful co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians.
We feel boycotts for social, political and economic change are political speech protected by the First Amendment, Nims wrote in his letter. The United Methodist Church supports this peaceful action in the name of justice.
The bill, he added, gets Iowa involved in U.S. foreign policy, which is the sole right of the federal government. He said his church does not support a boycott of products made in Israel, but opposes products made by Israeli companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories.
In becoming the ninth U.S. state to enact such legislation, Branstad said Iowa was reinforcing ties with an important trade partner, noting since 1996 Israel has imported $482.6 million worth of Iowa goods, making it the states 34th largest trading partner. He said Iowans also share the same values of freedom and democracy with Israel along with a strong economic bond.
Legislative critics had expressed concern the bill would create bureaucratic headaches for retirement funds via the Board of Regents, IPERS and others that would have to research thousands of companies connected with mutual funds to comply with the bill.
DES MOINES - A National Republican group launched an effort Monday to unify factions within the party around their 2016 GOP presumptive presidential candidate Donald Trump and in particular to rally women behind his campaign against likely Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton this fall.
"Women's voices and votes will make the difference," said Carrie Almond, of Chillicothe, Mo., president of the National Federation of Republican Women who is leading a "Destination: White House" bus tour that launched in Iowa to register Republican-leaning women to vote and rally federation members to help elect GOP candidates and "put a Republican back in the White House."
Almond shrugged off polls indicating Trump has challenges in attracting the support of women voters, saying her federation passed a unity resolution in March to support the GOP presidential nominee "so we are ready to rally behind the presumptive nominee and take this across the finish line to victory." She noted her federation's members logged more than 4.2 million campaign volunteer hours in 2014 helping Republican candidates.
"It's the women in the family unit, when there's trouble, who bring everybody to the dining room table and say, 'OK, let's all have a nice meal and make up.' So that's what we're going to be doing is getting everybody united, registered to vote and engaged to be ready to take us back to the White House in 2016," said Almond, before boarding the red, white and blue bus nicknamed "Rosie," that will end up in Maine by month's end.
Almond said it's "quite easy" for women to support Trump when the opponent is Hillary Clinton and the next president will make critical appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court. "We have to have a Republican to help get that situation taken care of in our favor. No question about it," she said.
On hand to give the bus tour a rousing send off at the Republican Party of Iowa headquarters were Iowa's National Republican Committee members Tamara Scott and Steve Scheffler, State Auditor Mary Mosiman and other Republican activists.
Republican women once were a dormant electorate in Iowa but have been experiencing a rebirth and rejuvenation in recent campaign cycles to the point where they are a key coalition that will be needed to elect Republicans this fall.
"As you know, we've got a challenging task ahead of us here in this election and I guess one of the biggest places where I think you could be of assistance is to encourage people out in the grassroots, people that have traditionally worked for our candidates, not to sit out this election," Scheffler told those gathered to make the bus tour's first stop.
"No political candidate is perfect," he noted. "The bottom line is when you look at the alternative, Hillary Clinton, who in my view is very flawed, who is ethically challenged and maybe should be somewhere besides the White House, we have a big job to do. No candidate is perfect but we have to do everything in our power to make sure that our presumptive nominee is elected president."
The bus tour is slated to make Iowa stops Tuesday in Denison, Waterloo and Walcott.
WATERLOO A bid to secure federal grant dollars for a downtown Cedar River white-water course was scrapped again.
Waterloo City Council members voted 3-2 Monday to apply for a $750,000 grant for the estimated $2.6 million project. But they needed four votes to submit the application to the National Park Service by todays deadline.
Councilmen Ron Welper, Jerome Amos Jr. and Pat Morrissey supported seeking the grant, which would have required a $750,000 local match.
Councilmen Tom Lind and Bruce Jacobs voted against it, contending the project would ultimately require local property tax support they were unwilling to provide.
Its a want not a need for the city, Jacobs said. I see other priorities that we would use our taxpayers money for before this, so I could not in good conscience vote for this.
Councilman Steve Schmitt abstained from voting, citing a conflict of interest because he owns a building along the river he expects may gain value if the course is built.
Im not going to put myself in a position of personally benefiting myself based on what I do on City Council, Schmitt said.
While losing the opportunity for the grant is a setback for the project, Leisure Services Director Paul Huting said no one is pulling the plug. A design contract funded by the Waterloo Development Corp. is nearing completion while the city continues to look for other funding options.
Huting said Waterloo and Cedar Falls, which also is planning a downtown white-water course, were expecting to make a joint presentation to the Black Hawk County Gaming Association later this year.
Several members of the public also spoke against the application, including Bill Kammeyer, who suggested the city would be better off dredging the Cedar River than building a white-water course that is not going to have any value to 95 percent of the people in Waterloo.
Resident Steve Murphy said the white-water course was part of an overloaded city agenda and it was time for the city to tap the brakes and set priorities.
Mayor Quentin Hart rejected Murphys advice.
Were not going to tap the brakes, Hart said. Were going to continue to move forward to try to find different things for our community to be and do.
This (grant rejection) is a check mark for all of us to take and look in history with surrounding cities and other places around the state, he added. We made a decision with regards to this particular grant and we will have to live with our decision.
WATERLOO -- Waterloo Police say they found bullet casings near a Waterloo elementary school after a shots-fired call Tuesday afternoon.
Sgt. Andrew Clark said shell casings were found at the intersection of Idaho and Polk streets, just across the street from Highland Elementary School, on Tuesday afternoon.
"It sounds like there was some subjects shooting at a vehicle," Clark said.
Highland Elementary was not locked down at any point Tuesday, according to Clark.
There were no other damage reports or injuries, according to Clark.
No arrests have been made at this time and police aren't looking for any vehicles in particular, according to Clark.
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For nonbelievers in Waterloo, the path to being treated as equals has been as long as it has been lonely.
Despite being one of the fastest growing segments of our population, nonbelievers (or religious nones as theyve been referred to in the media and in studies about our countrys changing demographics) have been and are often treated as nonexistent members of our society, especially when it comes to government affairs.
While many nonbelievers have long hoped for a local government where their voice is given equal time to that of followers of popular area religions, its often not the case. Too often the prominent religions of the area control the conversation and dictate the terms of how religion and what religion gets to have a say in the happenings of local government. Even worse, very few elected officials ever stand up or speak out for nonbelievers in their ward or city.
May 2, 2016, will hopefully be the night when all of that changed.
Thanks to an invitation by new Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart who brought back prayer to city council meetings after a 12-year hiatus the secular community of Waterloo finally got to have its voice heard with a secular invocation, followed by a Day of Reason proclamation by the mayor. (Waterloo became only the second city in Iowa to issue such a proclamation.)
While this historic night didnt solve all the challenges faced by the secular community of Waterloo, its at least a start. Consider it the framework to the bridge that will connect nonbelievers and their local government and mayors office.
Not only did Mayor Hart allow the secular community to share in the process of starting off a city meeting and share a bit of its worldview, he also avoided violating a 2014 Supreme Court ruling that requires all minority faiths be included in the process of public prayer/invocation.
Because he allowed a secular invocation, he helped those in attendance for the meeting experience an invocation unlike any invocation they may have heard in the past. There was no mention of God, Jesus Christ, Allah, Muhammed, Yahweh or any other deity, supernatural force or higher power. There was no special pleading for the mayor and councilmembers to receive divine intervention. There was no part of it that called for bowed heads or an Amen at the end of it, but that didnt make it any less inspiring or impactful.
The invocation was a call for our elected officials and those in the chamber to embrace all that has come from an evidence-based approach to governing, relying solely on reason, observation and experience to produce the best path forward. It was a call for those present to not reach for or resort to their chosen holy book when determining the best way to solve a problem but rather to look around the room and realize the only hope of making things better for everyone is to consider what is in the best interest of all, not just a few.
In the end, it was about humanity. It was about appreciating only human beings working together can solve earthly problems.
The historic night was a culmination of hard work, determination and persistence by the secular community of Waterloo, specifically the Cedar Valley Atheists, to have its voice heard while taking the first step in changing the stereotypes about being a nonbeliever in America.
Commonly referred to as the CVA, this collection of nonbelievers (self described atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, skeptics and a variety of other titles to describe where they fall on the nonbeliever spectrum) rallied to challenge the mayors plan to bring prayer back to City Council meetings. In the end, a letter writing and emailing campaign caught the attention of the mayor and began a discussion on the role religion and religious expression does and should play in our government.
More importantly, it started the process of bridge building between the secular community of Waterloo and its local government.
This bridge will allow nonbelievers in the area to proudly wear their nonbelief on their sleeves the way many believers and apologists do while serving their community with the same amount of commitment and drive.
That bridge is far from complete. Its going to take some work from both sides. But in the end, its a bridge all of Waterloo benefits from. A more inclusive Waterloo is waiting on the other side.
Right to be heard
BOB KAISER
CEDAR FALLS The Constitution guarantees the right to assemble, right to protest and right to free speech. I think we just saw them all violated on TV. An invited speaker was shut down at a western college as the students did not like his views. The Courier had a letter within the last month that suggested one of our Sunday opinion writers should quit giving his conservative views.
I consider myself a conservative. There seems to be several who think they should shut down the other view because they dont want to hear it, and of course theirs is the correct view. I went to a political rally at the high school where quiet protesters were lined up with their signs and away from the entrance the way it should be. What other country could that happen in? The instances in St. Louis and Chicago were not what the Constitution guarantees. They were rowdies and hooligans. Everyone has a right to be heard as I have a right to write this letter. You dont have to agree with me and you dont have to listen or read, but you dont have a right to keep me from being heard.
White-water costs
FOREST DILAVOU
WATERLOO When running for office, our new mayor recognized the need to lower taxes in Waterloo. At budget time he asked for help to lower taxes. Three councilmen came up with ideas. The other four had nothing to offer, took the mayors budget and added to it and passed the increase on to the taxpayers.
Three of the four who had worked on other budgets could have helped lower costs. The fourth council person had not worked on other budgets. Last week a new way to spend more taxpayer dollars surfaced in the river white-water project. When this was first presented it was no tax dollars, now its going to cost us.
The three who have ideas to lower taxes are trying to make sure the taxpayers do not have to pay for it. Please help and ask the council to reduce our taxes and quit spending our tax dollars.
Healthy school
JOSH MERRIFIELD
WATERLOO Did you know childrens increasing rates of obesity, unhealthy eating and low physical activity may cause them to not outlive their parents? We think it is a scary thought, so our seventh-grade service learning class at Blessed Maria Assunta Pallotta is trying to encourage kids to eat healthier and improve their everyday lifestyle by becoming a Blue Zones School.
Here at Blessed Maria, we have added a salad bar to our school lunches every day and have some of our classes do movement breaks and activities in the middle of classes. Most of the students here have enjoyed having the salad bar because every day many students go to it.
Our class is trying to encourage kids to be healthier, such as going for bike rides and staying active, instead of sitting on the couch, playing video games and eating potato chips.
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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.
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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.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI, May 10, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- After 24 years working as a Certified Public Accountant and Enrolled Agent Michigan CPA Doug Zandstra has earned his title as a Certified Fraud Examiner. This accreditation, which requires a minimum of five years' relevant experience and continuing education, allows Zandstra to turn his skills in fraud and embezzlement auditing towards a market he feels is woefully underserved: small businesses.
"20 years ago, businesses had mechanical controls," Zandstra points out. "All of that has changed. Today's businesses move money electronically, and that makes small businesses much more susceptible to fraud and embezzlement."
For the past several years, Zandstra has been growing his practice in litigation support and forensic accounting, including embezzlement prosecution, asset detection, and business valuations. Zandstra has been admitted to court hearings as a industry expert on many occasions, and he is known for his ability to simplify and communicate complex financial concepts.
"I routinely find red flags while preparing tax returns for plumbers, electricians, and contractors - red flags which add up."
Zandstra cites recurring credit card charges for non-existent or outdated subscriptions, excessive administration fees for investment, and unbilled receivables and gaps in invoice and check sequences among a wide array of internal problems which can add up quickly for small businesses, for whom losses tend to be much greater.
A 2014 Global Fraud Study conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) showed that typical companies lose an average of 5% of their annual revenues to fraud. Companies with fewer than 100 employees are at significantly higher risk than larger corporations, which are more likely to have anti-fraud measures in place. According to the ACFE's study, small companies lose an average of $155K each year due to fraud.
Proactive fraud protection is key, the study concludes. "Proactive detection measures -- such as ...internal audits -- are vital in catching frauds early and limiting their losses," the ACFE report reads. Even the smallest business of just one person can benefit enormously, Zandstra has learned.
"Losses can add up quickly, but they can also be prevented," asserts Zandstra. "Small to mid-sized businesses stand benefit the most from having someone like me perform a review of their accounting system," Zandstra asserts. "A small company can be analyzed and preventive measures put in place inexpensively. Losses from inventory shrinkage, misappropriated assets, or skimming, however, can become impossible to recover from. A little prevention goes a long way."
About Doug Zandstra, CPA CFE EA
Based out of his office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Doug Zandstra leverages technology to meet the accounting and tax preparation needs of small to mid-sized businesses across the country. His diverse accounting background includes hands-on bookkeeping, experience as a controller and a manager at both a top national CPA firm and his own small, independent firm.
Mr. Zandstra's accreditations include Certified Public Accountant, Enrolled Agent, and Certified Fraud Examiner.
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This partnership was formed with the goal of bringing next generation air medical transportation to the industry.
FORT PIERCE, FL, May 10, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Both leaders are twenty five plus year veterans in the global jet air ambulance arena. The joint venture brings together two air medical organizations, highly respected for many years throughout the Americas, and more recently worldwide. The pairing of the two provides a clear one call option for air medical transports from the tip of South America to all areas of North America and Canada, and now worldwide.
The partnership was formed with the goal of bringing next generation air medical transportation to the industry. " We have studied our operations and have determined a number of key changes and upgrades we can incorporate right now into our transport model, that greatly enhance the clinical level of care to our patients, largely unconsidered by most of our competitors," said Mr Salinas. "Technology and cutting edge clinical techniques available today are readily available in lighter more portable packages than was imagined even a just few years ago. And, incorporating them into our program moves us into a pro-active treatment and preventive care mode, as opposed to the old school damage control and reactive mindset of air medical providers not yet embracing the full scope of advanced research and technology."
At the newest Fort Pierce Florida base, Mr Hoehn has assembled a team of experienced medical and aviation specialists that are tasked with safety and patient care as a priority above all. "Superior client services spur customer satisfaction and return growth from a business perspective," said Mr Hoehn. "However, as important as that is on our agenda, patient care and outcome, along with safety for clients, crew and ground support are always the number one priority, ahead of business ambitions. With the alliance of the two organizations, we are finding many ways to bring the goals of enhanced patient care, safety and client convenience into one innovative program without losing sight of keeping costs at a thoughtful level."
The combined fleet includes 8 jets at various bases. Salinas and Hoehn anticipate additional aircraft based in the US and other potential bases currently being evaluated for forecast need and feasibility. American Jet Rescue is found at www.AmericanJetRescue.com, and personalized inquiries are welcomed at phone 1 772 217-6162.
With over 20 years of Experience Jet Rescue is the largest fix-wing air medical transportation provider in Latin America. The company has flown over thousands of successful missions to and from world-wide destinations.
Jet Rescue is accredited by the European Aeromedical Institute (EURAMI). Its air ambulance services are licensed by Mexico. and international agencies. Jet Rescue Provides Immediate Access to Air Ambulance Service in Cuba.
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May 9, 2016 | By Kira
Disney Research and ETH Zurich have once again collaborated to develop a unique 3D printing process with real-world (and really fun) toy-related applications. The software tool, known as DefSense, enables users of all skill levels to design and build flexible 3D printed objects that can sense when they are being bent or deformed. These customizable, 3D printed input devices could then be used as game controllers, electronic musical instruments, or even for 3D character animation.
Thanks to advances in multi-material 3D printing, it is already possible to create flexible, bendable and customizable toys. However, in order to make these toys responsive to physical deformation, advanced programming skills are required. Disneys goal was to make the process streamlined, error-resistant, and accessible even to novice designers.
They successfully accomplished this using a two-step fabrication process involving 3D printing and a novel optimization-based algorithm. Several test toys were then created, including a 3D printed Armadillo man action figure, which demonstrated the possibility of 3D character animation, and a 3D printed musical instrument based on an organ pipe.
"3D-printed objects that can sense their own deformation will open the door to a range of exciting applications, such as personalized toys, custom game controllers and electronic musical instruments," said Markus Gross, vice president at Disney Research. However, added scientists Moritz Bacher, determining how to route the sensors within the object and how to interpret their readings is a complex design problem in all but the most trivial cases."
The sensors that allow the 3D printed toys to tell when they are bent are known as piezoresistive sensing elements. These wires are imbued with a certain electrical resistivity that changes when bent. By measuring the changes in this resistivity, it is possible to acurately infer the level and type of deformationthat is, whether it is being bent on an angle, twisted, or stretched.
Of course, to achieve this level of precision, the wires require precise placement inside the object or toy, and normally, this would require in-depth technical knowledge. To solve this, Disney created an optimization algorithm that computes sensor layouts based on pre-determined deformations, and guides the user in placing the wires inside the object.
Our method simultaneously optimizes the internal routing of the sensing elements and computes a mapping from low-level sensor readings to user-specified outputs in order to minimize reconstruction error, explained the researchers. Our results indicate that the optimization based design greatly outperforms manual routings in terms of reconstruction accuracy and thus interaction fidelity.
Ideally, Disney Research and ETH Zurich had envisioned the possibility of 3D printing both the toy and piezoresistive polymers, however 3D printable piezoresistive materials with good conductivity and deformation properties currently do not exist on the market.
To correct for this, they resorted to a two stage fabrication process in which the object is 3D printed with built-in grooves. The piezoresistant wires can then be manually positioned and secured with adhesives. As soon as 3D-printable piezoresistive materials of good quality are available, our method can be used to create 3D sensor routings with little modification, they said.
As mentioned above, the test objects they created include a 3D printed Armadillo figurine with sensors in each of its limbs. We envision an artist or even an end-user creating a physical instance of an on-screen character by simply 3D printing it. After fabrication, the custom controller may be used to animate the on-screen character in a very direct and natural fashion.
A second 3D printed object they created is a custom musical instrument that is designed to be held in one hand and manipulated by the other. The instrument can sense four types of deformation (two bends, a twist, and a pull), allowing users to program specific sounds, tones, or pitches for each. In addition, Disney Research 3D printed a rectangular bar and a sheet with embedded sensors. You can view the process and results in the Advanced Interactive Technologyes (AIT) ETH Zurich video below:
Responsive and interactive objects are key to the future of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and 3D printed flexible input devices in particular could play a major role in making robotic interactions richer, more natural, and more meaningful.
The research, titled DefSense: Computational Design of Customized Deformable Input Devices, was the result of a collaboration between Disney Research, ETH Zurich, McGill University and IST Australia. The research team will be presenting their work at the ACM Conference of on Human Factors in Computing Systems, taking place in California later this month.
In addition to DefSense, Disney Research has developed a range of 3D printing applications that, presumably, are all about getting your kids hooked on the latest movie merch and toys. These include 3D printable walking robots, 3D printed soft-skins for kid-safe robots, and a process for super-fast, support-free resin 3D printing.
Posted in 3D Software
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May 10, 2016 | By Alec
The advantages of 3D printing over injection molding are obvious. Especially for small product batches with complex geometries, a 3D printer is by far the easiest and most cost-effective solution. The only constant challenge has been to try and match the surface quality and structural properties of injection-molded parts. However, a team of Austrian researchers from the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien) might have found a solution. They have developed a new 3D printer that can 3D print the high-viscosity polymers used in injection molding machines, and have combined the light processing technology of DLP 3D printers with the laser accuracy of SLA technology to optimize surface resolution.
This new 3D printing solution has been developed by a TU Wien group headed by Professor Jurgen Stampfl, who specializes in the development of new materials and complimentary 3D printers. They are constantly looking to efficiently adopt high quality plastics for 3D printing and improve the surface quality and mechanical properties of those parts. This is, they believe, the key to getting the 3D manufacturing revolution underway. This research of TU Wien was funded by the Horizon 2020 EU program with the project number 633192 (ToMax).
In particular, they have been focusing on those high-viscosity and impact-resistant polymers with fantastic surface finishes that are not yet available for 3D printers. Through a new 3D printing technology based on DLP (Digital Light Processing) tech, they now have harnessed those materials. As they explain, the Austrian engineers have built a 3D printer that relies on a DLP light source. While those usually harden complete areas in a single wave, they have combined the DLP light source with a precision laser (usually the forte of SLA 3D printers) to greatly increase the printing resolution.
Whats more, this new 3D printing solution has a wide range of material options at its disposal. While DLP and SLA 3D printers usually rely on inelastic thermosetting plastics such as (meth)acrylate and epoxides, the Austrian researchers have modified their resin system to accommodate a much wider variety of polymers, even those with high-viscosity and excellent impact strength properties. This makes it the first 3D printing system that can work with these polymers, which had been monopolized by injection molding. The Austrian design also accommodates numerous ceramics, such as aluminium oxide, zirconium oxide, bioglass and tricalcium phosphate.
This paves the way towards a wide range of innovations. The researchers believe the thermomechanical properties of their 3D printed components can become superior to those of injection molded parts. Furthermore, they can be 3D printed at an excellent resolution of <20m, making it possible to 3D print cellular structures with a wall thickness of just 100 m. The current 3D printer model has a build space of 144 x 90 x 160 mm. High-strength components that simultaneously feature a high elongation at fracture (e.g. snap fits) and, similarly, rubber-like parts (e.g. absorber elements) may be produced. Compared to conventional SLA materials, the impact strength of 40 kJ/m and the elongation at fracture of 40% as well as the heat resistance have been increased considerably, they reveal.
This interesting technological innovation could thus lead to a wider range of 3D printing applications. It represents, the Austrian developers say, a promising alternative to polymer injection molded parts that are designed to withstand high levels of mechanical stress. Combined with the geometric design freedom and resource efficiency of 3D printing, a lot is possible. And of course no expensive molding processes are necessary. Is this the solution that ushers in the real 3D printing revolution?
Posted in 3D Printer
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pizzaslice wrote at 5/11/2016 12:34:16 AM:Is there a patent!?
Ikhtisad Ahmed in Scroll.in:
On April 25, Islamists butchered LGBTQ activists Xulhaz Mannan and Tonoy Mahbub in the presence of Xulhazs mother at Mannan's home in Dhaka, for being the pioneers of practicing and promoting homosexuality in Bangladesh (sic). Two days before that, extremists hacked to deathRezaul Karim Siddique, a Muslim professor of English at Rajshahi University in northwest Bangladesh. His killers accused him of calling to atheism.
At the time of writing this piece, news of the hacking of a Hindu tailoraccused of insulting the prophet has just come in reportedly the doing of the Islamic State or its local agents. Along with the murder of the bloggerNazimuddin Samad earlier this month, the red hues greeting the Bengali New Year have been painted with blood.
The most recent killings mark the widening range of targets of the unconscionable machete-wielding Islamists in Bangladesh. A total of 35 such fatal attacks have taken place since 2004, and counted Hindus, Christians, moderate Muslim preachers, secular intellectuals and activists, and foreigners as their victims. By turns, Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent and the Islamic State laid tenuous claims on these heinous killings including ones that preceded their appearance in this region.
Attacks on progressive intellectuals in Bangladesh date back to the countrys birth in 1971. They resumed again in the early 2000s, with the attacks on celebrated poets Shamsur Rahman and Humayun Azad. While Rahman survived with minor injuries, Azad died of his injuries months later. Jamaat-e-Islami, the countrys biggest Islamist party, and its proxies played a crucial role in the war crimes of 71, including listing and rounding up leading intellectuals for revenge killings in the final three days of the war. Ziaur Rahman, the founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the countrys president from 1977 to 1981, rehabilitated the Jamaat in politics after the assassination of the nations founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 1975.
More here.
Chris Woolston in Nature:
A story about epigenetics in the 2 May issue of The New Yorker has been sharply criticized for inaccurately describing how genes are regulated. The article by Siddhartha Mukherjee a physician, cancer researcher and award-winning author at Columbia University in New York examines how environmental factors can change the activity of genes without altering the DNA sequence. Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Chicago in Illinois, posted two widely discussed blog posts calling the piece superficial and misleading, largely because it ignored key aspects of gene regulation. Other researchers quoted in the blog posts called the piece horribly damaging and a truly painful read. Mukherjee responded by publishing a point-by-point rebuttal online. Speaking to Nature, he says he now realizes that he erred by omitting key areas of the science, but that he didnt mean to mislead. I sincerely thought that I had done it justice, he says.
Mukherjees article, Same But Different, takes a personal view of epigenetics a term whose definition is highly contentious in the field. The story features his mother and aunt, identical twins who have distinct personalities. Mukherjee, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for his best-selling book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (Scribner, 2010), writes that identical twins differ because: Chance events injuries, infections, infatuations; the haunting trill of that particular nocturne impinge on one twin and not on the other. Genes are turned on and off in response to these events, as epigenetic marks are gradually layered above genes, etching the genome with its own scars, calluses, and freckles. The article is drawn from a book by Mukherjee that is due out later this month, called The Gene: An Intimate History (Scribner, 2016).
More here.
Security Purchase Plan
Perth, May 10, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Strategic Elements Ltd ( ASX:SOR ) are pleased to offer you a limited opportunity to purchase new shares at a discount to the Record Date in Strategic Elements Limited ("SOR") prior to the next phase of potential developments in the Nanocube Memory technology and other projects.
As you are a current shareholder, you are eligible to acquire discounted shares under our Share Purchase Plan ("the Plan") under the Terms and Conditions set out in this document.
- You can purchase shares at 11.5 cents whilst the price as at the Record Date was 14 cents being an 18% discount to the closing price of shares on the Record Date.
- You can purchase a minimum of $1,000 and a maximum of $15,000 of shares.
- The Plan is capped to a total of $1,000,000 and applications will be accepted on a first received basis (with oversubscriptions accepted at the Directors' discretion and subject to all legal and regulatory requirements).
- The Plan is set to close 31 May 2016 however this may be altered at the Directors discretion.
- There is no need to fill out and post the application form if you elect to pay by BPAY. Your application is received immediately on the date your BPAY payment is received. Please use the reference code printed on the attached application form.
Please note: The Company last conducted a Share Purchase Plan (also capped and offered on a first received basis) in May 2015. Funds from that heavily oversubscribed raising were prioritised towards acquisition and commencement of work on the Nanocube Memory technology.
Your current opportunity comes at a particularly exciting time in the Company's development, with the rapid development of the Nanocube Memory technology. The proceeds of the Plan will be used to further progress investments and supplement working capital including:
- Australian Advanced Materials Pty Ltd (AAM): 100% owned AAM is continuing to develop the Nanocube Memory technology under licence from the University of New South Wales. The Nanocube Memory technology is developing rapidly. Success in innovative new sectors such as Printed Electronics requires partnership. Going forward, a priority focus of the Company will be on development and activities related to partnering.
- Australian Printed and Flexible Electronics Sector: The sector is expanding globally, however Australia is only just beginning to understand the opportunity. As a first mover in Australia (and Pooled Development Fund status), SOR has strong potential to be a dominant player. SOR will work with researchers and inventors across Australia to increase development of the sector and generate technology acquisition and development opportunities. SOR is establishing a 'Printed and Flexible Electronics Advisory Panel' to assist these activities.
- Strategic Materials Pty Ltd (SML): The high-grade Golden Blocks permit is being maintained. Corporate strategies including 'spin off' of SML shares (free distribution of SML shares to SOR shareholders in an agreed proportion to the number SOR shares they hold) are being assessed. It is intended the Company and/or its shareholders will retain control of the gold assets within SML.
Key Features of The Plan
Under the Plan, Australian and New Zealand shareholders on the register as at 5.00pm on 04 May 2016 can subscribe for up to $15,000 worth of shares at 11.5 cents each without brokerage or other costs.
Key features of the Plan include (a) you are eligible to purchase shares to the value of $15,000, $12,500, $10,000, $7,500, $5,000, $2,500, $2,000, $1,500 or $1,000 (b) applications are treated on a first received basis up to a total of $1,000,000 (c) the Plan closes on 31 May 2016 (d) shares under the Plan are expected to be issued on or about 03 June 2016.
The issue price was calculated having regard to the Company's circumstances and represents an 18% discount to the closing price on the Record Date and is at least 80% of the volume weighted average price for the Company's Shares calculated over the last 5 days on which sales of Shares took place prior to the Plan being announced.
Details of the Company's current activities are set out in the announcements made by the Company to ASX and are available from ASX, or the Company's website at www.strategicelements.com.au. You should read the attached Terms and Conditions carefully before participating in the Plan.
The Company's special registration by the Australian Federal Government as a Pooled Development Fund means some shareholders may not pay tax on capital gains when selling their shares. However, the tax implications of applying for shares under the Plan will depend on an applicant's individual circumstances. Applicants should seek their own independent tax advice prior to applying for shares under the Plan. The Shares issued under the Plan will be quoted on ASX.
There is no need to return the application form if you elect to pay by BPAY. Please use the reference code printed on the attached application form (refer to link below).
Applications will be accepted on a first received basis. If you wish to participate in in the Plan, please submit your application to the Company as soon as possible.
To view the release, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/2RZK3038
About Strategic Elements Ltd
Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) shares are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange under the code SOR. The Company is registered under the Pooled Development Program run by the Australian Federal Government to encourage investment into SMEs. To assist Pooled Development Funds to invest and raise capital, the Federal Government enables most shareholders in a Pooled Development Fund to make capital gains and receive dividends tax-free.
The Chocolate Lady on the plaza in historic Old Mesilla buys at least 800 pounds of pecans from local growers every year for its rich turtles, toffee, bark and other handmade treats.
The small shop is among 13 stops on one of the states newest culinary trails, the New Mexico True Chocolate Trail, which features chocolatiers who make their own confections right here in the state, particularly those whove added a New Mexico twist chile, pinon or pecans, for example.
People really do crave authentic flavors in something that is already so beloved as chocolate, says New Mexico Tourism Secretary Rebecca Latham. In fact, people in New Mexico have been loving chocolate for a long, long time; archaeologists have traced chocolate use back 1,000 years at Chaco Canyon.
The Land of Enchantment also boasts the Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail, the New Mexico Ale Trail and the Breakfast Burrito Byway. Like the others, the Chocolate Trail is designed to draw tourists to destinations around the state.
Weve seen such tremendous success with all our trails and we know theyre very useful with trip planning and trip inspiration, Latham says.
Ready to expand
The Chocolate Trail has been around informally for a few years but was revitalized earlier this year with a new online map to make it more user-friendly. For the green chile cheeseburger and breakfast burrito trails, diners voted on which restaurants should be included.
But there are so few chocolatiers in the state that theres room for everyone on the Chocolate Trail, and the Tourism Department plans to add new chocolatiers as it learns of them.
Theres nothing Id like to expand more than the Chocolate Trail, Latham says. We want to be sure theyre all included.
Mesillas Chocolate Lady makes chocolates by hand in the European tradition but also offers such things as a sweet and spicy chile-pecan bark, says chocolatier assistant Lucy Rathgeber.
The shop also puts pecans and its popular pecan crunch candy into icy treats.
In southern New Mexico its hot, so we also make homemade ice cream, Rathgeber says.
Albuquerque shops
At Joliesse in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, husband-and-wife chocolatiers Troy and Grace Lapsys also make European-style chocolates by hand.
We are French tradition, New Mexico character, Troy Lapsys says, adding they are the only French-trained master chocolatiers in the state.
They try to merge flavors and use local produce such as lavender that is grown within half a mile of the shop, New Mexico pecans and chipotle, Hatch and habanero chiles. A lavender sea salt caramel is among the specialties at Joliesse.
Joliesse also has a dessert and wine bar where chocoholics can sip the Wicked coffee brew made with espresso beans, 70 percent dark chocolate and handmade chile syrup.
We do wine and chocolate pairings quite often, Lapsys adds. You can really experience the back and forth of how chocolate and wine interact with one another.
He also has partnered with local breweries to put on beer and chocolate pairings.
Other Albuquerque shops on the Chocolate Trail are:
The Chocolate Cartel, where flourless chocolate cake and Mayan-style hot chocolate made with red chile and other spices are hot commodities along with other goodies made with Venezuelan chocolate known for its dark, cherry-roasted flavor.
The Chocolate Cartel is run by master chocolatier Scott J. Van Rixel and his brother Tim.
The Chocolate Dude offers its own versions of Oreos, graham crackers and Rice Krispies treats, plus freshly made truffles, fudge, brittles, chocolate-covered fruit and coffee and chocolate drinks.
Theobroma, where molded chocolate comes in every shape imaginable from sports-themed pieces to chile peppers and fish.
In Santa Fe
The chocolate tradition also flourishes in Santa Fe.
Chocolate Smith uses organic dark chocolate and pure flavors such as cinnamon, coconut and cherry to craft such treats as butter caramel with pecans, pinons or sea salt.
Kakawa Chocolate House specializes in drinking elixirs with recipes from historical sources, including intensely flavored Colombian drinking chocolate spiced with native herbs, flowers and chiles, as well as contemporary creations. The artisanal chocolate shop aims to balance the traditional with the cutting edge and uses fresh and seasonal ingredients to make such things as agave caramels.
Todos Santos Chocolates is famous for its gold- or silver-leaf covered chocolate Milagros.
C.G. Higgins coffeehouse offers handmade chocolate drinks, all-natural truffles, toffees and chocolates.
Specialties at Senor Murphy include pinon brittles, rolls, tortugas, fudges and toffees as well as chile-infused candies and chile-dusted nuts.
Although it is primarily a bakery cafe, Chocolate Maven also is known for its rich chocolate fudge, Mayan chile hot chocolate, chocolate croissants and chocolate cakes and cookies.
Two unexpected entries on the trail in Santa Fe are Terra at the Four Seasons and Santa Fe Brewing Co.
They are taking it one step farther, Latham says.
Terra offers red-chile-infused chocolate desserts and drinks while Santa Fe Brewing turns out an Adobe Igloo beer with dusty raw cacao nibs and red chile flakes for a unique twist on a traditional winter brew.
Fairs, festivals
Also on the trail are two festivals. Why stop with just storefronts? Latham says, adding that fairs and festivals are strong motivators for travel.
Chocolate Fantasia brings the best of Grant Countys confectioners together in February in historic downtown Silver City to offer a taste of their homemade gourmet chocolates.
The Southwest Chocolate and Coffee Fest held in March in Albuquerque touts itself as the nations largest consumer festival for chocolate, coffee and gourmet foods and includes chocolate eating contests, live music, cooking demos and more.
AUSTIN, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is demanding the resignation of a Fort Worth superintendent who helped sanction restroom guidelines for transgendered students.
Superintendent Kent Scribner recently approved policies requiring the Fort Worth Independent School District to offer transgender students access to single-stall restrooms. Alternatively, theyll be allowed to use restrooms when other students arent around.
In a statement Monday, Patrick said Scribner placed his own personal political agenda above the districts 86,000-plus students.
Patrick has no school district authority, but called on local parents to oust Scribner.
Top Texas Republicans have delighted conservatives by vowing to fight to keep men out of womens restrooms.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department is suing over North Carolinas new law requiring transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate.
LAS CRUCES The Today show is broadcasting live Tuesday from White Sands National Monument to help the National Park Service recognize and celebrate the agencys centennial year.
Weatherman Al Roker will be at the monument during the morning broadcast along with a live crew and the public is welcome to watch from a distance.
The monument is one of several parks being featured for its unique geological resources, according to a release from White Sands National Monument.
The series, 100 Years of National Parks Today, profiles National Park Service sites as the service celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The centennial project aims to connect with, and create the next generation of park visitors, supporters and advocates.
The monument will open at 6:30 a.m., assuming there is enough light outside to avoid any safety concerns, the release said. The public will be able to see the broadcast. However, park officials are asking that they not interfere with filming activities.
On Sunday, the famous colony of Mexican free-tailed bats that call Carlsbad Caverns their home were the subject of filming for the Today show. Roker said he had been in the area since Saturday, while the film crew had been in Carlsbad for three days in preparation for the shoot.
The Caverns portion of the show will air on Tuesday morning during the White Sands live broadcast.
In the five years it took the federal Food and Drug Administration to finally move toward regulating electronic cigarettes, there has been a 900 percent increase in the number of high school students vaping and inhaling substances often laced with highly addictive nicotine containing chemicals most probably never heard of.
The FDA got off to a slow start in regulating e-cigs, which use battery-produced heat to vaporize e-liquids into an inhalable vapor. Back in 2010, a federal appeals court tossed the agencys plan to regulate e-cigs as drug-delivery devices instead of tobacco products.
Meanwhile, there hasnt been enough research on e-cigarettes and the vapors they create for scientists to reach consensus on whether theyre less harmful, or more harmful, than regular cigarettes. Critics argue that the vast number of vapor formulas and flavors being marketed including cotton candy and gummy bear are part of a plot to addict a new generation of vapers to replace conventional tobacco smokers.
That skepticism likely has its roots in Big Tobaccos efforts decades ago to boost cigarettes nicotine content while vehemently denying that smoking caused cancer.
Predictably, trade organizations like the American Vaping Association and Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association are taking a lesson from Big Tobacco and vowing to sue the government over the new regulations which are still at least three years away.
While scientific studies are playing catch-up, its prudent that the FDA move forward with plans to regulate the devices and the e-liquids that go into them. Although the new rules issued by the FDA extend long-standing restrictions on traditional cigarettes and now include e-cigarettes, hookah tobacco, pipe tobacco and nicotine gels, they inexplicably allow the kiddie-friendly flavoring of e-liquids to continue even while phasing out flavored cigars.
Although most states, including New Mexico, already prohibit selling e-cigs and e-liquids to minors, the new federal rules impose stiffer penalties and better enforcement.
Given the exploding popularity of vaping among minors, and the lack of scientific study surrounding the practice, it would be unconscionable for the FDA to stand idly by.
This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
The states economy relies in part on college students graduating quickly and getting into the workforce, and Gov. Susana Martinez wants every college and university in New Mexico to redesign degree programs and offer tuition incentives to that end.
Among the points she made Monday morning during a speech at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Martinez said she wants the number of credit hours for the states programs to be set at 120 credit hours.
Currently, a little more than 30 percent of programs fit that bill, but she wants to see more than 50 percent of programs reach that mark by next fall.
The governor also called for colleges to offer tuition incentives for students to take 15 credit hours per semester and to adopt other practices to encourage students to graduate in four years.
The future of our economy actually depends on them getting into the workforce much quicker and very prepared, she told an audience of university administrators. Well work together to find ways to do it without endangering accreditation or compromising on the quality of our degrees.
The Legislature passed a budget for the coming fiscal year that reduces spending for the states higher learning institutions by nearly $20 million. It is the first time since fiscal year 2012 that the states higher education institutions have seen a decrease in state funding.
UNM lost about $8 million, and the university has raised tuition and cut vacant positions among other measures to address the shortfall.
Some other state schools also have raised tuition. New Mexico Highlands in Las Vegas boosted it by 12.5 percent, or about $300 per semester, pushing the new total for full-time New Mexico undergraduates to about $2,700 a semester next fall.
The New Mexico State University Board of Regents voted against raising tuition, and now the school in Las Cruces is facing about a $10 million shortfall. NMSU regents will meet Friday to discuss the budget.
Joseph Cueto, a spokesman for the state Higher Education Department, said the reforms will reduce costs and save money not only for our students and families, but for our colleges and universities as well.
In 2016-17, about 73 percent of UNM programs will be at 120 credit hours, and about 87 percent will have cut their programs from 128 credit hours. UNM also waives the final semesters tuition for students who graduate within four years.
In 2015, UNMs most recent four-year graduation rate was roughly 20 percent and about 50 percent for six-year graduates. Thats up from 15 percent for the four-year rate and about 45 percent for the six-year rate in 2011.
According to a Legislative Finance Committee report released in December 2015, New Mexicos fiscal 2013 graduation rates of 14 percent for four-year graduation and 41 percent for six-year graduation ranked 49th and 47th in the nation, respectively.
A Valencia County grand jury has decided against indicting the Corrales police officer accused of aggressively shaking the hand of her sons teacher, according to her attorney.
Police wrote in a criminal complaint that Julie Rogers, 33, shook the Bosque Farms Elementary School kindergarten teachers hand aggressively and later bumped into her shoulder during a dispute in October.
A Magistrate Court case charging Rogers with one felony count of battery on a school employee was dismissed in March. At that time, special prosecutor Ed Perea said he planned to take the case to a grand jury in state District Court.
Presented to the grand jury Thursday, Rogers was not indicted.
They heard the evidence and said no charges, Rogers attorney Ray Twohig said Monday.
Perea said that because there was no physical evidence in the case, jurors had to weigh testimony from Rogers, the teacher, a police officer and another school employee.
It didnt meet that standard of proof thats required in order to indict, he said. The standard of proof is probable cause, which is right at that 50 percent mark.
According to the original complaint filed in Magistrate Court, the teacher told a Los Lunas schools police officer that when she reached for a handshake, Rogers squeezed her hand and tightened her grip until the teacher told her to let go. Later, the teacher said, Rogers purposely stepped into her and shoulder bumped her.
Rogers told the officer that she didnt know of anything that happened, but said the teacher grasped her hand tightly.
Twohig said Rogers is relieved that she was cleared by the grand jury.
Her job, her career as a law enforcement officer is on the line, Twohig said. If she gets convicted, she gets terminated.
Unless new evidence emerges, the case cant be refiled, Perea said.
Its no longer a case at this point unless new information comes up, he said.
Twohig said he feels that is unlikely.
Think about it. Youve got a handshake and a shoulder bump, he said. Im not too worried about it.
SANTA FE New Mexico doctors, nurses and health care advocacy groups spoke out Monday against the state Human Services Departments plan to cut Medicaid provider rates, even as health care executives appeared resigned to the cost-saving move.
The proposed rate reductions, which were unveiled last month and would generate as much as $33.5 million in state-level savings, are a fallout of New Mexicos budget crunch. They would take effect in July.
Lorie MacIver, an Albuquerque nurse and labor leader, was one of more than a dozen people who spoke at a Medicaid Advisory Committee hearing in Santa Fe. Like most of the others who spoke, she expressed concern about the states plan to address a daunting funding shortfall in the joint state-federal health care program.
We are extremely concerned that the poorest and most vulnerable people of New Mexico are going to be hurt the worst, MacIver said.
How to comment
To weigh in on the New Mexico Human Services Departments proposed Medicaid provider rate cuts, you can send comments by phone, email or mail. The phone number is 505-827-1337 and the email is To weigh in on the New Mexico Human Services Departments proposed Medicaid provider rate cuts, you can send comments by phone, email or mail. The phone number is 505-827-1337 and the email is madrules@state.nm.us. The department has set a June 1 public comment deadline.
Meanwhile, Albuquerque physician Jennifer Anderson urged top HSD officials to consider ways to find more dollars instead of cutting costs, saying shes concerned the provider rate cuts could hurt the states ability to recruit new physicians.
Human Services Secretary Brent Earnest told reporters after Mondays hearing that the agency has asked advisory panels to study other possible cost-saving steps, but that those probably wont be completed and submitted to the federal government for approval by July 1, the start of the states new budget year.
During the hearing, Earnest said the provider rate cuts and other steps including Congress recent decision to waive insurance fees for one year could make the agencys Medicaid funding shortfall less daunting.
We are satisfied were making progress on the budget, but it doesnt mean we dont have more work to do, he said.
New Mexicos Medicaid enrollment is skyrocketing the agency now estimates there are roughly 877,000 New Mexicans on the states rolls and that number is expected to rise to more than 925,000 by July 2017.
The enrollment growth is due in part to Gov. Susana Martinezs decision in 2013 to accept federal funding to pay for most of the cost of expanding New Mexicos Medicaid program to low-income adults. Historically, the program has provided health care coverage primarily for low-income children, pregnant women, disabled adults and the elderly.
But paying for Medicaid growth has proved difficult, even as some advocates tout the economic benefits of Medicaid expansion.
Plummeting oil and natural gas prices prompted the Legislature to pare back state spending for the coming year, and although Medicaid spending is expected to rise, the funding level will not be enough to meet the Human Services Departments request to keep up with enrollment growth.
Aware of the looming shortfall, lawmakers also mandated provider rate cuts in the $6.2 billion budget bill they passed. Overall, state Medicaid expenses will make up 15 percent of the states budget for the coming year or roughly $929 million.
The proposed cuts which would range from 1 percent to 8 percent would apply to doctors, hospitals and dentists around the state, but would spare mental health and substance abuse providers from being affected. Although they could bring savings in state dollars, they would also mean that New Mexico would lose out on as much as $127.5 million in federal money. Thats because the federal government pays New Mexico between $3 and $4 for every dollar it spends on Medicaid services.
Lauren Reichelt, director of the Rio Arriba County Health and Human Services Department, said the health care sector makes up roughly a quarter of the jobs in the northern New Mexico county.
She also said during Mondays hearing that focusing on cost savings, not more funding, is a misguided approach.
Meanwhile, in an open letter earlier this month, more than 20 health care advocacy and labor union groups also urged the Martinez administration and legislators to look at other funding sources for Medicaid.
There are sensible options to increase revenues without harming New Mexico families, the groups wrote in their letter. The governor and lawmakers must consider options such as, but not limited to, raising tobacco or alcohol taxes.
Martinez, however, has maintained a no tax increase stance since she took office in 2011.
Copyright 2016 Albuquerque Journal
The future, it seemed, was bright for Chris Berkheimer.
A veteran of the first Gulf War and a graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law, Berkheimer was named the states deputy director of homeland security in 2003 under Gov. Bill Richardson. He had previously worked in Richardsons congressional office in Washington, D.C.
Berkheimer lost a state Senate race in 2004 but bounced back with appointments as a mediator and later as a judge for the New Mexico Workers Compensation Administration.
Then came an avalanche of allegations: sexual harassment, drunken driving, battery, road rage, bar fights, violations of restraining orders and more. He lost his job at the Workers Compensation Administration, and the state Supreme Court later suspended him from practicing law. There was a divorce, along with a nasty battle over custody of his daughter.
Now, Berkheimer is running for the state House of Representatives with an ankle bracelet.
Berkheimer, who is challenging incumbent Christine Trujillo for the Democratic nomination in House District 25 in Northeast Albuquerque, is serving a nearly yearlong sentence in the Metropolitan Detention Centers Community Custody Program after pleading guilty in May 2015 to violating a restraining order to stay away from his daughter. He says he unintentionally crossed paths with his daughter while she was walking home from school.
All defendants in the Community Custody Program, an alternative to jail, wear ankle bracelets so their movements can be monitored. They also need permission to leave their homes. Berkheimer says hes allowed to leave his house to campaign four days a week.
Berkheimer initially was sentenced to the Metropolitan Courts Domestic Violence Repeat Offender Program but got booted out of that program. A therapist says Berkheimer had been making little progress and had become hostile toward her during a group session. He was then sentenced last October to 330 days in the Community Custody Program.
Berkheimer denies threatening the therapist and says he shouldnt have been placed in the program because he was a first-time offender. A second charge of violating a restraining order to keep away from his daughter had been dismissed as part of a plea agreement, court records show.
Berkheimer, who says he manned a 27-ton artillery piece for the Army during the first Gulf War, says some of his troubles over the past decade have been due to his war-caused post-traumatic stress disorder. He says he believes he also suffers from traumatic brain injury from the war.
Berkheimer says he was diagnosed with PTSD in 2003 and is now considered 100 percent disabled by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He hasnt had a paid job since the Workers Compensation Administration but says he has done volunteer work.
In an interview at his home, Berkheimer, 48, describes himself as aggressive. He says that as a result of his PTSD, he suffers depression and sometimes his emotion overcomes reason. He talks of his intelligence while describing those who have crossed him as liars, corrupt, incompetent and substance abusers. He largely blames others for his troubles.
Albuquerque lawyer John Wertheim, a Berkheimer friend, says some of Berkheimers troubles are due to a judicial system that has a lack of understanding in how to deal with people who have PTSD.
I view him as an example of how this country is treating vets, Wertheim says.
Troubles come to light
When exactly Berkheimers life began to unravel is unclear, but his troubles became front-page news in 2007.
A woman who had been injured on the job accused Berkheimer of putting a hand on her thigh and propositioning her after a workers compensation mediation hearing in Roswell.
The womans lawyer, who had attended the hearing from Albuquerque via teleconference, corroborated the womans story, saying he witnessed the encounter between his client and Berkheimer because the audio and video feeds for the teleconference werent immediately shut off after the hearing.
Berkheimer resigned from the Workers Compensation Administration within a couple weeks of the allegations becoming public.
He later told the Disciplinary Board of the New Mexico Supreme Court, which investigates alleged misconduct by lawyers, that he was pretty sure the back of his hand hit the womans knee when he reached for his briefcase and that he also banged the womans leg with his briefcase. But he denied propositioning the woman and said he was the target of a vendetta by people connected to the Workers Compensation Administration who were upset because he had reported agency corruption to the Governors Office.
A hearing committee for the Disciplinary Board found Berkheimer had sexually harassed the woman in violation of conduct rules for lawyers. A unanimous Supreme Court suspended him from the practice of law for at least two years, imposed nearly $6,300 in disciplinary costs and ordered him to take annual sexual harassment training courses during his suspension and afterward if reinstated to practice law.
Berkheimer says he took two sexual harassment courses, but he hasnt sought reinstatement as a lawyer or paid the $6,300 in costs.
I was so disgusted with the process, he says, later adding, The corruption in this state goes all the way to the Supreme Court.
A woman who once worked with Berkheimer told the Journal that he treated her with respect and dignity.
DWI violations
Berkheimer was arrested for drunken driving in July 2013 after being pulled over, according to Albuquerque police, for being unable to keep his car in a traffic lane.
Berkheimer said he had consumed a few beers, but an officer said he looked and smelled drunk and performed poorly in field sobriety tests, according to arrest records. Tests showed he had a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent the level at which a driver is presumed to be drunk.
A judge dismissed the case in January 2015 because the state hadnt brought it to trial in more than 1 years in violation of Berkheimers right to a speedy trial. Berkheimer says the arresting officer never showed up for court because he had no case.
Berkheimer says he also was arrested for drunken driving in New York. He says he was over the limit but fleeing a mob after a man tried to hit him with a beer bottle in a bar parking lot.
He says he had left the bar after being told to get out by the owner. He denies an allegation by the mother of his daughter that he got into a fight with the man, described as being 70 years old.
In another incident in 2009, Berkheimer, appearing intoxicated, told police he had been punched in the face for no reason at a Downtown Albuquerque bar, according to police records. The man who allegedly threw the punches told police that Berkheimer had made several lewd comments about his girlfriend. No charges were filed.
Berkheimer says a friend was the one who made the comments about the girlfriend and that he was hit after stepping between the friend and the man whose girlfriend had been the target of the comments.
Berkheimer also has a history of confrontations with other motorists.
In April 2010, he was charged with battery for allegedly spitting in the face of a woman after he and the woman pulled their vehicles over in a road rage incident. Berkheimer denied spitting on the woman, and the charge was dismissed after he attended aggressive driver improvement school. Berkheimer says he was charged because he is a large man and the other driver was a small woman.
It was the second road rage incident involving Berkheimer in two weeks, according to police reports. He wasnt charged in that incident or a third alleged case of road rage in 2005 that led to a minor crash. Berkheimer says he doesnt recall the details of those two cases.
It takes two to tango in any road rage incident, he says.
Alamogordo Daily News
ALAMOGORDO A man accused of shooting his ex-wife and her boyfriend is back in jail after a 12th Judicial District judge revoked his bail because of the severity of the accuseds crimes and prior criminal convictions.
Judge Jerry H. Ritter Jr., from the bench Monday, said, (Terrick) Thompkins is not bailable. He doesnt have a constitutional right to bail.
Todd Holmes, Thompkins defense attorney, said he was shocked by the action.
This is wrong, he said. Weve got a right to file an appeal to the Court of Appeals. This needs to go up there.
His client was immediately taken into custody by Otero County Sheriffs Office courthouse security deputies then transported to the Otero County Detention Center after his hearing. He was jailed on a no-bond hold until his case is resolved in court.
Thompkins, 34, is charged with two counts of first-degree felony murder in the double-homicide of Phillip Banka, 33, and Jessica Thompkins, 30, in March 2015. He is also charged with one count of first-degree felony child abuse (great bodily harm), second-degree aggravated burglary (deadly weapon), second-degree shooting at a dwelling (great bodily harm) and three counts of third-degree abuse of a child (not resulting in death or great bodily harm).
And he also is charged separately with fourth-degree felony possession of a firearm by a felon because he was allegedly in possession of an AR-15, a shotgun, several handguns and a revolver at the time of the 2015 fatal shooting.
The judge said he revoked Thompkins bail based on Article Two Section 13 of the New Mexico Constitution that states all persons shall, before conviction be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses when the proof is evident or the presumption great Also the defendant has previously been convicted of two or more felonies, within the state
Thompkins has a 2004 assault, and breaking and entering conviction as well as a 2015 battery on a household member conviction.
The judge set a June 7 competency hearing but his trial date has not been set.
Representing the state, Chief Deputy District Attorney Scott Key said he believes not everyone has a right to a bail bond.
Theres a reason why the (state) constitution has exceptions, Key said. One of which is when the quantum of weight is great. The community is at risk. The eyewitnesses are at risk and the court found as such.
Twelfth Judicial District Attorney David Ceballes said he was pleased with the courts decision to revoke Thompkins bond.
Our concerns regarding bond conditions and safety of the community were clearly articulated in our emergency motion to review conditions of release, Ceballes said. So, I am pleased the court ruled in favor of our motion and revoked the bond. We will now return our focus to preparing the case for trial.
Thompkins defense attorney Holmes said he is shocked by the judges ruling.
Not once did the state mention the constitutional provision about capital offenses, Holmes said. Not once did they mention their motion. Not once since March 2015 did they file a motion to say hes not bailable. Its only in response to him bonding out of jail. To me its really shocking that theyre allowed to do that. The only reason we had this hearing was because he bonded out.
He said Thompkins did everything to fulfill his obligations.
There was a bond in place, Holmes said. He paid $24,000, followed his conditions of release and showed up to court.
On March 12, Alamogordo Police Department officers responded to a home in the 1500 block of Florida Avenue around 10 p.m. in reference to a possible shooting incident.
Upon arrival APD officers found Banka and Jessica Thompkins dead inside the home from what appeared at the time to be gunshot wounds then found a 13-year-old boy who was suffering from non-life threatening injuries inside the residence as well. The boy survived his injuries after being treated at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center.
Moments after officers responded to the first home, APD dispatchers received a shots fired call at a second residence in the 1200 block of North Florida Avenue.
Officers along with New Mexico State Police officers and Otero County Sheriffs deputies responded to the second home then found Thompkins allegedly with a firearm at the home. He eventually exited the home and officers arrested him without further incident.
SAN ANTONIO A San Antonio lawyer has been charged with 35 counts of sexual assault and compelling prostitution for allegedly coercing some clients into have sex with him.
Mark H. Benavides was freed late Monday on increased bond $250,000 following his indictment last month.
The former South Texas judicial candidate was arrested in November on a charge of compelling prostitution, then freed on $15,000 bond.
A Bexar (bayr) County grand jury in April indicted Benavides on additional counts involving nine alleged victims. Prosecutors say the encounters since 2009 including dozens allegedly videotaped by the suspect happened in motels, the attorneys office, vehicles and a courthouse.
A judge on Monday upped the attorneys bond and also required Benavides to wear an electronic monitor.
The defendant declined comment.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. Colorado Springs officials are eyeing a moratorium on building in landslide zones as owners of about 80 homes participate in the citys third landslide-related buyout since 1995.
The Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1T2e3l5) homeowners signed on to pursue buyouts, condemnation and demolition in a program administered by Colorado and funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Councilman Don Knight is among those asking for the moratorium on new developments in landslide areas while city officials study the issue.
He said during a Monday work session that he thinks the council is shirking its duties when members read Gazette articles about homes in landslide zones and then continue with business as usual.
Council President Merv Bennett says the issue will come up for discussion at the May 19 summit with Mayor John Suthers.
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Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazette.com
Duke Energy Renewables has begun construction on the 25-megawatt Caprock Solar Power Project near Tucumcari, according to a news release issued Tuesday.
The company acquired the project from Infigen Energy, which first announced the project a couple of years ago.
Completion of the project, which will generate enough energy to power about 5,000 average homes, is expected later this year.
Power from the project will be sold to Western Farmers Electric Cooperative under a 25-year agreement.
Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, organized in 1941, is a generation and transmission cooperative that provides electric service to 21 member cooperatives and Altus Air Force Base. Members are located primarily in Oklahoma and New Mexico, with some service territories extending into Texas and Kansas.
WASHINGTON The Justice Department will not seek the death penalty against Ahmed Abu Khattala, the suspected Libyan militant charged in the Benghazi attacks that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The department revealed its decision, which pushes the case forward toward trial, in a brief court filing that offered no additional explanation.
In a separate statement, spokeswoman Emily Pierce said Attorney General Loretta Lynch made the decision after reviewing the case and consulting with federal prosecutors. She said the department is committed to ensuring that the defendant is held accountable for the 2012 attacks.
Abu Khattalas attorneys, who have challenged the strength of the governments evidence, had implored the Justice Department to remove the death penalty as a possibility should he ultimately be convicted of any capital crimes at trial. With that punishment now off the table, he would face a maximum sentence of life in prison if found guilty.
It was a decision that was the correct decision, but was also a courageous decision so were pleased, one of his attorneys, Eric Lewis, told The Associated Press.
Abu Khattala, captured by U.S. special forces in Libya two years ago and brought to the U.S. aboard a Navy ship, has been awaiting trial in federal court in Washington in connection with the September 2012 violence at a diplomatic compound in Benghazi. Prosecutors have described him as a ringleader of the attacks, which quickly emerged as a political flashpoint and became the topic of congressional hearings involving Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, secretary of state at the time of the rampage.
The 18-count indictment arises from a burst of violence that began the night of Sept. 11, 2012, at a State Department diplomatic compound, an attack prosecutors say was aimed at murdering American personnel and plundering maps, documents and other property from the post.
U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in the first attack at the U.S. mission, along with Sean Patrick Smith, a State Department information management officer. Nearly eight hours later at a CIA complex nearby, two more Americans, contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, died in a mortar attack.
Abu Khattala has pleaded not guilty to charges including murder of an internationally protected person, providing material support to terrorists and destroying U.S. property while causing death.
Assuming it doesnt resolve through a plea agreement, a trial of Abu Khattala would represent one of the most significant terrorism prosecutions in recent years and also an illustration of the Obama administrations commitment to prosecuting suspected militants captured overseas in U.S. civilian courts.
Since arriving in the United States, Abu Khattala has made multiple court appearances alongside his lawyers. He sought unsuccessfully to have the case against him dismissed last year, and a separate request for him to be returned to Libya was also denied.
The Justice Departments decision comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of death penalty protocols at the state and federal levels, although a federal jury in Boston last year sentenced Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death after prosecutors sought that punishment. He is being held at the Supermax federal prison in Colorado.
Executions in the federal system are exceedingly rare; the last federal defendant put to death was in 2003, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
The Justice Department has said it is reviewing the policies, though nothing has been publicly announced, and President Barack Obama has said hes deeply concerned about the death penaltys implementation.
At her January 2015 confirmation hearing, Lynch said she thought the death penalty still can be an effective punishment.
The Flagship brand of Greendot Health foods Ltd, Cornitos has partnered with MasterChef Australia, Season 8 the award winning global TV series, telecast Monday to Friday on Star World & Star World HD.
MasterChef Australia is an extremely noteworthy and prestigious platform that would help the brand Cornitos move to higher tangent. Being a partner for the world's most popular cooking show, gives due mileage to the brand and its products.
Commenting on the association, Mr. Vikram Agarwal, Director of Greendot Health Foods Limited Cornitos, said Undoubtedly, it is one of the most loved food and cooking shows globally and we are happy to partner with MasterChef Australia S8 telecast on Star World Channel.
The distinguished Chef Judges for MasterChef Australia S8 are Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan and the participant of the show are Nidhi Mahajan, Cecelia Vuong, Matt Sinclair, to name a few.
MasterChef Australia S8 telecast on Star World & Star World HD starts from 9th May 2016, 9:00 pm onwards.
Viacom18 recently flagged off its CSR behaviour change communication campaign to tackle the unhygienic sanitation condition in the slums of Mumbai. The company has adopted four slums Subhash Nagar, Dsouza Chawl, Upadhyay Nagar and Salve Nagar in the densely populated Andheri suburb of Mumbai.
Under the umbrella of Chakachak Mumbai, Viacom18 has been working over the last year to renovate and reconstruct over 200 toilets for the residents of these areas. Underlining the importance of instigating a change in peoples mindset at the ground level, Viacom18 has roped in Padma Shri and Ramon Magsaysay award winner Jockin Arputham and under-privileged womens self-help collective Mahila Milan to undertake a concerted behaviour change communication programme.
With more than half the countrys population without access to a toilet, coupled with the peril of open defecation, India is facing a sanitation crisis. While Prime Minister Narendra Modis Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has seen a number of corporates aligning with the cause, a majority of the work has focussed on construction of toilets in the rural India. But with each passing day, the realisation dawns that building awareness about the need to use toilets is as, and perhaps more, important in realising the dream of an open defecation free India.
Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom18, flagged off the drive along with Kesarben Patel, Corporator - Salve Nagar, K-East Ward, Andheri East and well-known Marathi film personalities Mahesh Kothare, Urmila Kanetkar Kothare and Sonalee Kulkarni.
It is my firm belief that just as its people define the organisation, the organisation has a soul that is the collective of its people. It is with this belief that Viacom18 has been at the forefront of amplifying socially relevant issues, through our movies, TV series, support for social causes and various on ground activities. When we formalised our CSR journey, we decided to contribute towards realising the challenging dream of a Swachh Bharat, both through enhancing infrastructure and building awareness, said Sudhanshu Vats. He further added, We are Indias favourite storytellers and we decided to leverage that primary strength to build the story of why good sanitary practices are important. Thus, our entire behaviour change communication campaign focusses on how cleanliness leads to prosperity.
Commenting on the initiative, Kesarben Patel said, The Government is happy to encourage like-minded stakeholders for the benefit of each and every individual in the city and communities at large. These toilets are a step towards providing each and every citizen with access to clean sanitation. Now the onus is on the community to use these toilets judiciously, own them and safeguard it as an asset to the community. Just building these toilets is not our objective or Viacom18s, we would want the community to use them. We should eliminate open defecation from the community.
With the 360-degree approach of infrastructure development and behaviour change communication programme, Chakachak Mumbai looks set to bring about a noticeable improvement in the swachhta quotient of this maximum city.
Brothers share multiple deployments
After spending their entire childhood together, some siblings go their separate ways as adults and keep in touch from a safe distance. For the De La Pena brothers, thats not the case.
Capt. Christopher De La Pena, the U.S. Air Forces Central Command Lessons Learned Directorate deputy director, and Army Reserve Sgt. Nicholas De La Pena, a public affairs broadcast journalist with AFCENT Public Affairs, are currently deployed together at Al Udeid Air Base for the second time.
Chris has been in longer than I have, and deployed more, Nicholas said, but we were mobilized at the same time for both of my deployments.
Christopher has served in the Air Force for more than 10 years and has deployed three times. For two of those deployments, Nicholas was deployed as well, but that was not the first time Christopher was deployed with family.
During my first deployment, Nicholas was still in college and had not joined the Army yet, Christopher said. I wasnt alone though. My cousin had recently gotten out of the Air Force and was actually working as a contractor at the same base as me.
For most service members, the experience of deploying with a family member never happens. The De La Penas deployment experiences are a rare occurrence. Still, their concurrent deployments did not mean they were always able to see each other.
During my first deployment, our schedules never linked up, Nicholas said. It was almost a comedy of errors. We were going in and out of many of the same places and barely missing each other every time.
They were able to keep in touch throughout that deployment though, Nicholas said. With advancement in the cellular tower networks and Wi-Fi across Southwest Asia, it was easy. Especially since Nicholas job requires Internet access.
Whether we are deployed or at home, we are each others support network, Christopher said. We rely on each other and will always find a way to keep in touch.
Their support network also includes Christophers wife, who has held down the homefront. She took care of the house and bills and also watched my three dogs, plus Nicks two (dogs). She is amazing and we have come to rely on her, he said.
In a strange twist of fate, the brothers are able to see each other more often during their current deployment than they do when at home.
We see each other as much as possible back home, but its hard because we live on opposite ends of the country, Nicholas said. For this deployment we are both at Al Udeid Air Base. Its great being here together because we see each other at least once per week.
Air Force personnel deploy as individuals, as opposed to the Army which generally deploys entire units, Christopher explained. This means that deploying members of the Air Force dont necessarily know anyone they are deploying with.
Having your brother there makes deployments much easier, Christopher said. At least I know I will have one familiar face.
For Nicholas, deploying with his brother has another positive side effect as well.
He is my older brother, my mentor, Nicholas said. I look up to him and can go to him for advice. It is amazing to have him right here when I need him.
As an Army NCO, Nicholas is expected to be a leader and mentor to lower enlisted Soldiers. When he has questions about leadership or mentorship, he often takes them to his older brother.
My experiences and time in service have given me a lot of opportunities to learn some of the lessons he is now learning, Christopher said. If I can help him have an easier time learning them than I did, I will. It is a great feeling knowing that I am helping advance his career in some small way.
The head of the Air Force Space Command revealed his updated Commanders Strategic Intent May 6. The strategic intent document serves as the overarching document guiding the command.The global expanse of our nations international engagements increasingly demands that our Air Force provide Global Vigilance, Global Reach, and Global Power today and in the anticipated environment 20 years from now, said Gen. John Hyten. More than ever, AFSPC is called upon to deliver agile, integrated, and resilient effects in, from, and through space and cyberspace that are critical to fulfilling these strategic demands.The intent document outlines three primary priorities for the command -- win todays fight, prepare for tomorrows fight, and take care of Airmen and their families.Every U.S. military operation across the planet, from humanitarian operations to full spectrum combat depends upon integrated space and cyberspace effects to accomplish national objectives, Hyten said. Space and cyberspace are perhaps the most inherently joint of all operational domains as all Services rely equally upon the effects delivered, in, from and through these domains.According to the National Space Policy of the United States, Space systems allow people and governments around the world to see with clarity, communicate with certainty, navigate with accuracy, and operate with assurance.Hytens strategic intent emphasizes the importance of delivering integrated multi-domain combat effects.The effects that AFSPC provides the joint force and the nation are not services, he said. They are combat and combat support effects that open doors and neutralize threats.Our nation expects AFSPC to provide the space and cyberspace contributions necessary to achieve agile information superiority, he continued. When we deliver actionable information on the battlefield faster than our adversaries, the joint force can outthink, out-decide and out-act the enemy.As outlined in the intent, potential adversaries around the world are moving quickly, continuously adapting to counter Americas capabilities and reduce the asymmetric advantage the nations armed forces provide. Their vigor in pursuing advanced capabilities and their strategic goals continue to transform the dynamics of the nations operating environments.Recognizing this trend, President Barack Obamas National Space Policy makes clear the way ahead, stating the United States will employ a variety of measures to help assure the use of space for all responsible parties, and, consistent with the inherent right of self-defense, deter others from interference and attack, defend our space systems and contribute to the defense of allied space systems, and, if deterrence fails, defeat efforts to attack them.In implementing the policy, Hyten stresses, No one wants a conflict that extends into space or cyberspace, but we must be prepared for when and if it does.The Commanders Strategic Intent highlights the importance of multi-domain integration: the Air Force as a service is moving away from stove-piped, cross-domain solutions towards fully-integrated, multi-domain operations. Space and cyberspace assets will act in concert with assets from all domains to deliver combat effects.To preserve our domains and provide our contribution to agile information superiority, the command must organize, train, equip and operate for a fight that may extend into our operational environments, Hyten said. We must take an enterprise view that raises us above employing our individual systems and platforms alone and unsupported.Secondly, we must embrace resilience capacity as the measure that informs how we experiment, prototype, design, train, integrate, and fight as an enterprise, he continued. An enterprise view and resilience capacity are the two critical concepts that inform how we fight through contested, degraded, and operationally limited environments to provide effects on the battlefield and respond to adversary actions on tactical timelines.Hyten also charged commanders with protection and care of the Air Forces greatest resource -- Airmen and their families -- saying, Trust enables leaders to empower Airmen to innovate, act quickly and decisively, manage and take calculated risk, learn from mistakes and rapidly adapt to achieve our shared mission, vision, and intent.The general urged the command to maintain the passion, innovation, integrity, and courage of its predecessors, calling Airmen to rededicate themselves to the profession of arms as they face new and dynamic challenges in both space and cyberspace, stressing that Airmen, not machines, deliver effects to execute the Air Force core missions of air and space superiority.In addition, Hyten recognized the stressors placed on Air Force families such as war, deployments, and budget uncertainty, and charged commanders to develop and maintain a wingman culture that does a better job taking care of family members.To win todays fight, prepare for tomorrows fight, and take care of our Airmen and our Families, AFSPC must increase our ability to operate effectively in contested, degraded, and operationally limited environments, and reconnect to our profession of arms, he said. To do so, we must increase the resilience of our enterprise and our people in everything that we do. We must view ourselves first as warfighters and Airmen, and continue to move fast.
Actor Vivek Oberoi, who has entertained audiences with his portrayal of gangsters in films, says he enjoys playing real life characters on screen.
Gangster and real life characters always excite me as an actor, the Shootout at Lokhandwala star said in a statement here. Vivek is all set to portray the role of former underworld don Muthappa Rai in his forthcoming gangster drama Rai, helmed by Ram Gopal Varma.
To portray a larger-than-life character like Muthappa Rai on the big screen will be a challenging task. I am working hard towards it, the 39-year-old actor said.
Rai will go on floors this June and it will be shot in various locations including London, Dubai and India.
Vivek made his debut in Bollywood with underworld drama Company which was a huge hit. He played Maya Dolas in Sanjay Guptas Shootout at Lokhandwala and returned for another such performance as gangster-turned-politician Pratap Ravi in RGVs Rakht Charitra (part one and two).
The Bihar Police on Tuesday arrested Rocky Yadav, the son of a Janata Dal United MLC Manorma Devi, who is accused in killing of a teenager in the Gaya town in a case of road rage recently.
Rocky has confessed to the crime. He was arrested with his weapon. His SUV has also been seized, police officer Garima Malik said.
Rocky Yadav, his face hooded in black, was paraded before the media. He told reporters he was not in Bihar on the day of the shooting: I was not in hidingI was in Delhi and came because my mother called me. I didnt shoot anyone.
Police sources say he was tracked down after his mothers prolonged interrogation at her Gaya home. He was found in a factory near Bodh Gaya, 25 km from Gaya town, with his Rs. 10 lakh pistol.
Maine goli nahi maari. Me Dilli me tha jab ye sab kuch hua. Mataji ka phone aaya to phir mein Gaya aaya. (I didnt shoot anybody. I was in Delhi when the incident happened. I received a call from my mother and came to Gaya), said Rocky Yadav, accused of firing shots at class 12 student Aditya Sachdeva in a fit of rage when the latters car overtook his SUV on May 7 night.
When asked about the reason behind his hiding from the police, Rocky said that he wasnt hiding anywhere and will give his statement in the court. Kahin chupne ki koi baat hi nahi he. Me apna jawab nyayalaya me dunga.
However, the accused later contradicted his statement to the police by claiming in a press conference that he didnt fire or kill anybody. Rocky said he had come down from Delhi at his mothers insistence.
Rocky was reportedly incensed that Sachdeva and his four friends Nasir, Kaifi, Ankit and Ayush Agarwal had overtaken his Land Cruiser on the Bodh Gaya-Gaya stretch while returning from a birthday party.
Following this, Rocky chased down the vehicle and despite their pleas for mercy roughed up Nasir, who was driving it. It was when the five tried to escape that the lawmakers son allegedly shot at the car.
Pakistan has opposed the bid by India and its G4 allies for permanent seats in the UN Security Council, saying their demand was based on poor logic and reflected self-serving national ambitions of a few countries.
Pakistans envoy to the UN Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, at the informal meeting of the General Assembly on Inter-Governmental Negotiations on Security Council reform, said the objective of the Councils expansion should be to respond to the concerns and aspirations of all, not just a few.
A statement issued by the Pakistan mission at the United Nations claimed that Lodhi last week exposed the G-4 position on Security Council expansion.
Indias Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, speaking on behalf of the G4 nations Brazil, Germany, India and Japan had said at the meeting that the problem of imbalance of influence in the Council cannot be corrected if only non-permanent members are added to the powerful UN body.
The statement by the Pakistan mission said Lodhi exposed the poor logic of India and its allies by saying that the G4 formula of adding more permanent seats reflected the self-serving national ambition of a few at the expense of the world bodys wider membership.
To propose allocation of 4-6 seats permanently to that many countries, while handing over only 4-5 seats to the rest of the membership is not only poor mathematics but also poor logic and even poorer rationale for a just and meaningful reform, Lodhi was quoted as saying by the statement.
The news of Pune woman thrashed for Wearing Short Dress has gone viral on social media. The 22 year old was beaten and threatened by mob of men on 1st May, the girls only fault was that she was wearing short clothes and accompanied by two of her male friends. Pune is known as civilized city, now has become unsafe for women and crimes against them are increasing.
If you look at CIDs annual crime report that gives chill spine, molestation, sexual harassment, kidnapping and rape reporting is on the rise from 2013, and now it has only worsened. Atrocities against women in the state shot up by 46.08 per cent last year, with a simultaneous surge in atrocities against children, claims the annual report of the state Criminal Investigation Department.
During 2013, crime against women increased by 46.8% in the state: molestation (106.7%), sexual harassment (103.4%), rape (66.6%), kidnapping and abduction (64.4%), dowry (30.3%), cruelty by husband and his relatives (15.2%).
Out of all the crimes against women, 33% pertain to cruelty by husband and in-laws, for which the conviction rate is as low as 2.6%. In two years, the percentage has gone up by 20%. The conviction rate for sexual harassment and molestation is 11.5% and 11.9% respectively. However, there is a decline in crimes under immoral trafficking by 21 per cent, and murder for dowry by 17 per cent.
Cases of crimes committed against children were 6,410, up by 85.47% in 2013 this year they have further gone up. Around 197 cases were about child murders, of them six have been registered under infanticide and 191 as other murders. The incident of infanticide showed a decrease by 4.45% from 2012. Around 1,546 cases of rapes against minors were reported in 2013 up from 917 in 2012. The Mumbai Commissionerate ranks first in reporting child sexual abuse cases at 221, followed by Pune railway (89), Pune commissionerate (83) and Thane commissionerate (81). Rape cases in the under-10 age group were 242 in 2013 and in 127 in 2012.
Its not only Pune city, but registration of cases involving crimes against women, including molestation and rape, has seen a steep rise in 2015 in the rural districts too, data released by Pune Rural Police shows. The information shows that there has been a 44 per cent increase in the number of molestation cases and 20 per cent rise in rape cases.
Officials, however, attribute the hike to sensitisation of police about crimes against women and the increasing tendency among women to come out and report sexual assaults. In 2014, a total of 354 cases of molestation were lodged with various police stations under the jurisdiction of Pune Rural Police. The number of such cases in 2015 was 508. While in 2014, the accused were arrested in 351 cases, in 2015, arrests were affected in 502 cases. In both the years, the percentage of arrests remains at 99 per cent of the total number of cases reported.
Similarly, a total of 150 cases of rape were lodged in 2014, which went up to 181. In 2015, the accused in 179 cases were put behind bars.
The data released also shows that there has been a noticeable fall in burglary cases. In 2014, 807 burglary cases were registered under the jurisdiction of Pune Rural Police. The number came down to 647 in 2015.
Top brass police officers of Pune police claimed that the high numbers should be taken positively as it reflects better policing and awareness, which has prompted women to come forward to file complaints. Even though crimes against women have doubled in the city, the Pune police have claimed that they have taken adequate measures to curb such crimes. Complaint boxes have been put up in various schools and colleges for a direct interaction with the police, maintaining anonymity. The police stations were directed that lady officer should do investigation of all women-related cases only. The move was intended to make the victims feel comfortable and thus discuss the case. This also was to encourage more women to come forward and lodge complaints.
Its not only Pune in particular, but if you look at the state of Maharashtra a whopping 17,800 number of cases of crime against women and 3,456 cases of crime against children were reported in the state in the year 2012, the State Economic Survey report for 2013-14 said. The report, tabled in the State legislature, said that among cases of crime against women, 1,839 cases of rape, 1,140 cases of kidnapping, 329 dowry deaths, 7,415 cases of domestic violence, 3,935 cases of molestation, 1,294 cases of sexual harassment, 366 cases of illegal trafficking were reported. It said 212 children were murdered in 2012 and 917 cases of rape against children were reported that year, while 893 children were kidnapped, besides 199 children were found abandoned. There were 1,482 cases of crime other than rape, kidnapping and dowry deaths against women, while 1,023 cases of crime against children other than rape, murder and kidnapping were reported.
Here the big question is, when will all this stop?
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
Amit had allegedly threatened the girl, saying that she cant cause any harm to him as he is an influential person.
Amit Mukhedkar one of the accused responsible for attacking a 22 year old woman in Pune is planning for remarriage. He had posted an advertisement on quikr which mentioned, Looking for a girl for remarriage and serious relationship It also mentions something about his previous marriage. His Facebook profile shows his current location as Melbourne, Australia. https://www.facebook.com/amit.mukhedkar.56?fref=ts&pnref=story
On 1st May, a 22 year old girl travelling with her two friends at 5.30 am was stopped by five men. The woman was returning from the Sangeet rehearsal for her friends wedding. At Lullanagar main signal, a car was running parallel to her car. The window glasses were tinted, but a man rolled down the glass and peeped into their car.
The man then started heaving abuses at the victim and her friends. The gang of men in the car followed the woman all the way towards her home, and stopped her car there. One of her male friends tried to intervene, but was hit by the suspect. That was when the other men dragged her out of the car and started hitting her. The victim was worried and felt that she could have been raped if her friends had not intervened. She dialled 100, but the call went unanswered. She kept trying the number and finally cops arrived after an hour and filed an NC (non-cognisable) complaint.
The victim said, After I became aware about NC, I visited the Kondhwa police station so many times for filing a case. I finally managed to file a proper case on Sunday. The police did not comment about the delay in filing the FIR, but said, We have registered an FIR under Sections 354, 323, 504 and 34 of the IPC and have arrested Mukhedkar and Gupta.
Two accused named Amit Mukhedkar and Shubham Gupta, have been arrested and they were granted bail. Now police is searching for the other culprits.
The accused allegedly threatened the girl, saying that she cant cause any harm to them as they are influential persons. They themselves disclosed their names and numbers to the victim. They all were drunk.
DCP Arvind Chaweria of Zone IV (under which Kondhwa falls) said, This was a case of burking practice among cops who avoid filing FIRs to control the recorded crime rate. Strict action will be taken against cops responsible for not registering FIR. I will personally oversee this case and no one will be spared if found guilty.
When AV tried to contact Amit Mukhedkar, he defended himself and said, This news is fake and I have not attacked that girl.
When asked him to explain his stand Amit said he is not in a mood to talk on this issue.
Many suspect that these two guys are affiliated with certain political groups.
Avid reader Remigius Dias said, Most Indians are hypocrites of our religions and social norms. We need to be more honest with ourselves and our neighbours at work and in the neighbourhood in which we live.
Alleging horse-trading by Congress, the BJP on Tuesday admitted defeat after the conclusion of two-hour long Supreme Court-monitored trust vote proceedings in the Uttarakhand Assembly. The official results of the trust vote will be announced by the apex court on Wednesday. However, going by the media reports, it is almost clear that former Congress chief minister Harish Rawat has survived the trust vote and proved majority in the 70-member House.
Congress sources claimed Mr Rawat has won the trust vote with the support of 33 lawmakers, two more than he needed for majority. With nine Congress rebels barred from voting, the strength of the 70-member assembly was 61.
In what appeared to confirm that Mr. Rawat had won, a BJP lawmaker said the party was ready to sit in the opposition. Sources said 28 lawmakers voted for the BJP in todays trust vote.
While Rawat refused to reveal the result while speaking to mediapersons, he and other Congress MLAs flashed the victory sign and thanked the Supreme Court for the floor test. He further said, I thank the Supreme Court, democratic forces, people of Uttarakhand and gods. Uttarakhand will be victorious tomorrow (on Wednesday).
The BJP, on the other hand, appeared defensive. While BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi accused the Congress of using money power, he also conceded that the Congress had won.
Today democracy has lost and money power has won, he said.
Earlier, the BSP had announced that its two MLAs Sarwat Karim Ansari and Haridas would support Congress in the floor test of Uttarakhand early on Tuesday morning. The development is not unexpected as both the MLAs were part of six-member Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) that was already supporting the Harish Rawat led Congress government. However, the BSPs move is significant for UP politics. A BSP leader said that party strategically decided to announce support for Congress at last moment to give a message that it was against the BJP.
BSP sources said that the BSP preferred the Congress because the most important factor is the Muslim vote. The BSP needs Muslim voters to defeat the Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party government of UP and regain power in the state where the party did not win a single seat in the Lok Sabha polls despite being the main opposition party.
This rework comes on the heels of the just-released documentary Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, which exposes the CDCs fraud, deceit, and obstruction of justice regarding the MMR vaccine. Vaxxed has received global media attention and is waking up Americans coast to coast to the criminal activity at the CDC. It is suspicious that Thompson and the CDC have now decided, 20 months since Thompson first blew the whistle of fraud and malfeasance at CDC, to take action by publishing a rework of the data.
Dr. Thompson has admitted in taped phone conversations and in a statement through his lawyer, that he and other authors of the study, which include senior officials at CDC, manipulated the data and violated study protocol to conceal their findings linking the MMR vaccine to autism. In what can only be described as scientific fraud, Dr. Thompson is now poised to publish a rework of the data in a blatant attempt to exonerate the MMR vaccine.
According to multiple reliable sources, CDC whistleblower Dr. William Thompson, a senior scientist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will soon publish a reworking of data from a controversial study first published in 2004. If true, this is of major concern. For over a decade, officials have cited this disputable study to claim no connection between the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism and to deny compensation to parents of MMR vaccine-injured children.
While the CDC claims no knowledge of a connection between MMR and autism, Dr. Thompsons own statement to Congressman Bill Posey (R-FL) when he released thousands of documents to Posey is explicit, We hypothesized that if we found statistically significant effects at either the 18-month or 36-month threshold, we would conclude that vaccinating children early with the MMR vaccine could lead to autism-like characteristics or features.
In fact, the CDCs data did show statistically significant effects at the 36-month threshold, proof that the CDC knew their study found a causal connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. CDC responded to this finding by manipulating the data to make this finding disappear.
The agency and Dr. Thompson are engaging in data raking, utilizing scientific data designed for one purpose to achieve another end. These steps demonstrate a complete lack of scientific integrity at CDC, a federal agency charged with protecting the public health.
According to Congressman Posey, after concealing the MMR vaccine-autism link in their study, the authors met in a conference room at CDC to destroy the documents.
The data and analysis from 2004 are corrupted and therefore it is not a wise or responsible use of taxpayer-funded time or taxpayer dollars to reanalyze that which has already been illegally manipulated. In addition, as a self-proclaimed party to scientific fraud, Dr. Thompson cannot be trusted with any data or analysis, especially while in the employ of the CDC.
All these actions serve as further evidence that the CDC cannot be trusted. When the CDC insists the MMR vaccine does not cause autism or they have no research demonstrating that vaccines are linked to or cause autism, they are guilty of criminal behavior and complicit in the injury of innocent children the world over.
It is clear the CDC cannot be trusted and has committed overt scientific fraud. We, the undersigned, call on the US Congress and the Department of Justice to hold CDC officials and study authors Dr. Frank DeStefano, Dr. Coleen Boyle, Dr. William Thompson, Dr. Tanya Karapurkar Bhasin, and Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp accountable for their criminal actions.
We also call on Congress to remove any oversight of vaccines from the Department of Health and Human Services. We call on Congress to immediately repeal the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which gives immunity to vaccine manufacturers thus removing the necessary incentive to ensure the safety of vaccines. Finally and most importantly, we call on state legislatures to immediately repeal all vaccine mandates nationwide as it is each persons inalienable right to determine what is put into their body or that of their childs.
Weston A. Price Foundation
Age of Autism
Alliance for Natural Health
Childrens Medical Safety Research Institute (CMSRI)
Green Med Info
Thinking Moms Revolution
Producers of The Greater Good
Not everything you hear about science may be entirely reputable, says John Oliver. On Sundays Last Week Tonight, Oliver skewers the absurd ways talk shows, news outlets, and scientists themselves cater to the public desire for sensationalist science studies by reporting on studies that deserve better than to be twisted out of proportion and turned into morning show gossip. Its even becoming a problem, because people are starting to associate all science with the kind of mundane reports that make the news, leading to doubt and skepticism about real science that proves climate change is occurring or that vaccines do not cause autism.
The problem has a range of causes, and scientists are not immune to criticism themselves. As Oliver points out, scientists earn tenure and receive funding on the basis of their publications. With so much riding on the success of their studies, its not hard to image juicing up results or even p-hacking to seek out interesting, if meaningless, findings. Oliver cites a Vox report that found statistically significant results between eating cabbage and innie bellybuttons as well as eating raw tomatoes and Judaism.
15:00 Video: If we start thinking that science is a la carte and if you dont like one study, dont worry another will be along soon, that is what leads people to think that manmade climate change isnt real, or that vaccines cause autismboth of which the scientific consensus is pretty clear on. If they are going to say, A study says, they should have to provide sourcing and context.
Oliver said that the media should tell us if a study is industry funded.
Ive got a really fraudulent study claim that medicine and the media have given us FOR DECADES:
New study says. its safe to inject untested mercury into pregnant women and babies
its safe to inject aluminum into humans..
.its safe to inject multiple live viruses into children .and none of this can lead to autism.
Oliver needs to find out what hes talking about. Guess how many of the studies HE CITED are industry connected? ALL OF THEM. Maybe he'd like to do a special segment on that topic.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism.
By Thomas P. Zacharias, Ph.D., president of National Crop Insurance Services.
The 2014 Farm Bill was nearly four years and more than 40 public hearings in the making.
It was a long process that tested farmers patience and gave professional critics on both sides of the aisle ample opportunity to unfairly characterize the men and women who put food on our tables and clothes on our backs.
In the months and years since, crop insurance has proven its worth to the rural economy and new Farm Bill policies have kicked in to help growers cope with falling commodity prices. Yet agricultures political opponents have been unrelenting in their misguided attacks on Capitol Hill and in the press.
Luckily for farmers, it looks like they have a pretty powerful ally in their corner: The American public.
A new public opinion poll conducted in April showed that 86 percent of voters have a favorable view of farmers. Whats more, those high marks cut across party lines.
The bipartisan support continued when it came to farm policy, too. Ninety-two percent of respondents said they supported federal spending on farmers, which is not surprising since 81 percent agreed that, a strong and thriving American farming industry is critical to American national security.
Views of farm policy remained favorable even after survey participants were told that critics argue that big farms and agribusinesses can afford to protect themselves without government help.
Moreover, Americans said that farm policy should be a shared investment among farmers and taxpayers. Nearly three-quarters believe that farmers should help fund farm policies so that taxpayers are not paying the full cost.
That is exactly what crop insurance does, which may explain why nearly 80 percent of those polled supported farmers receiving discounts on crop insurance premiums. And when Americans found out how much of the crop insurance tab farmers paid, they were pleased.
Nearly seven in 10 voters either said that farmers were being asked to pay too much or were paying the right amount of their premiums. Similarly, eight in 10 felt that the loss deductibles farmers shoulder before receiving aid is about right or even too high.
The national survey, which was conducted by North Star Opinion Research and commissioned by the National Crop Insurance Services, also shed valuable light on who America thinks should deliver crop insurance. By more than a 20-point margin, respondents say that farmers and American taxpayers are better served by insurance delivered by private companies instead of the government.
Bottom line: Americas appreciation of farmers and farm policy continues, and it is as strong as ever thanks to the smart, commonsense choices that Congress has made.
Thats fortunate, since agricultures opponents are already gearing up for their next big opportunity to unfairly criticize rural America and weaken Americas successful farm safety net.
The phone survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted April 3-7 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percent. It can be accessed here.
#30
For more news, go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com
Why Turkey's Historic Churches Are Being Turned Into Mosques
Frescos like these in the Hagia Sophia have been covered up since the church was converted into a mosque. Christians in Turkey have -- throughout the centuries -- been turned into a tiny, dwindling minority. The remaining few Christian churches in Anatolia are also on the path to total annihilation. Hagia Sophia in Trabzon: Church-mosque-museum and now mosque again The Hagia Sophia, Greek for "Holy Wisdom," was one of the many historic Orthodox churches located in the city of Trabzon. The third and youngest of the Hagia Sophia's in Turkey, the church was first converted to a mosque during the Ottoman rule. In 1964, it was turned into a museum. Since 2013, however, it was converted into a mosque. Christian symbols in the church have been damaged or destroyed. Nails have been pounded into the walls in order to hang curtains inside the new "mosque" to create a separate section for women. The frescos on the ceiling have been veiled with wooden curtains and the mosaics on the floors have been covered with a carpet. Some walls have been painted green. A toilet and ferroconcrete structures have been built around the former church. Watch this video to see the transformation of the church-museum into a mosque: Your browser does not support the video tag. The city of Trabzon (or "Trapezus" in Greek), is located in the ancient land of Pontos, in the north-eastern Black Sea region of Turkey. The first Greek settlements appeared in the region as early as 800 BC. Many renowned Greek philosophers, such as Diogenes and Strabo, were born and raised in Pontos, which means "sea" in Greek. The region is also central to the Christian faith. Pontos and its inhabitants are mentioned thrice in the New Testament. The Pontic (Pontian) people were some of the very first converts to Christianity. Trabzon had its own bishop as early as the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325. "Trabzon," wrote the historian Sam Topalidis, "was the ancient capital of the Greek-speaking Komnenos Byzantine Kingdom (1204--1461) within the Pontos--the northeast portion of Anatolia adjacent the Black Sea. It survived until 1461, eight years after the fall of Byzantine Constantinople when both localities fell to the Ottoman Turks." The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II invaded and captured the city after a month-long siege and took its ruler and his family into captivity.[i] A forgotten genocide: Pontic Greek genocide Pontos was first invaded by Seljuk Turks in the 1070s and 1080s, and then by the Ottoman imperial army. The demographics as well as the culture of the region have ever since been totally changed. "During the following two centuries of Ottoman rule, the 16th and 17th centuries, Greek communities in Asia Minor resisted constant pressures to convert to Islam," reported the Pontian Greek Society of Chicago. "Most managed to preserve their religion, ethnic traditions, and culture. During the 17th and 18th centuries, however, thousands of Greeks were forced to convert to Islam, among them 250,000 Pontian Greeks. Thousands of Greeks fled to Christian Russia to escape Turkish persecution, particularly following the numerous Russian-Turkish wars in the 19th century." The gravest mass murders of Christians took place during the latest stage of the Ottoman Empire as well as the founding phase of the Republic of Turkey. The main organizer of the Christian genocide was the Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) whose aim was to achieve the "Turkification" of Anatolia by eliminating Christian communities. In 2007, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) declared: "Be it resolved that it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks." "These atrocities," according to the Pontian Greek Society of Chicago, "include the burning of hundreds of villages and the murder of their inhabitants, particularly in the Pontus region. In September of 1921, this campaign of terror and extermination resulted in the arrest and execution of hundreds of prominent Pontian Greeks on trumped-up charges of treason. "As a consequence of the deliberate and systematic policy of 'Turkey for the Turks,' approximately 2.5 million Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks were murdered or were victims of the 'white death.' This term was used to describe all deaths that resulted from lack of food, disease, and exposure to the elements during the deportations and death marches." "The Pontians had suffered a lot throughout their history of nearly 3,000 years," wrote the author Olga Balytnikova-Rakitianskaia. "But the genocide was the most terrible of their misfortunes, for it deprived the Greeks of the Black Sea not only of their friends and relatives, but also of their native land." The final stage of the end of the Greek Orthodox civilization of Pontos was during the 1923 compulsory exchange of populations between the states of Greece and Turkey. As a result of this forced population exchange conducted in the aftermath of the genocide, Anatolian and Pontic Greeks were forcibly removed from their homeland. In extreme panic and fear of their lives, the majority of Greeks had already fled before the signing of the convention, according to the researcher Aris Tsilfidis. "The Convention concerning the Exchange of Populations between Greece and Turkey which was signed on the 1st of May 1923 was conducted in order to save the remaining 189,916 Greeks from further persecution and death at the hand of the Turks." Even 93 years later, the very few remaining traces of Christianity in Turkey are still being systematically eradicated by state authorities. Apparently, even the supposed "secular" constitution of the country has not enabled many historic churches in the country to remain churches. Today, Trabzon is one of the cities with the highest number of mosques in Turkey. According to the statistics of Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), the city had 1,952 mosques in the year 2014, which means there is no shortage of mosques in the city. The systematic conversions of historic churches or church-museums into mosques, therefore, speak volumes about the level of tolerance, religious freedom and pluralism in Turkey. Meanwhile, the Islamic State (ISIS) has also been busy converting historic churches into mosques in their self-declared Islamic caliphate. In 2015, the Chaldean Churches of St. Joseph and of St. Ephrem in Mosul, for instance, were turned into mosques by ISIS terrorists. Nuri Kino, president and founder of "A Demand For Action," told Newsweek the church conversion is proof of the Islamic State's intentions with Iraqi Christians. "A year ago they said, 'Convert, pay or die.' Then it turned out to be a lie, that even if you pay, you will not be able to stay," Kino said. "If they changed a church to a mosque it is further proof of their cleansing, something that many call a genocide," he added. "They destroy our artifacts, our churches, and try to erase us in any way they can." The intentions of Turkey and the Islamic State (ISIS) -- in terms of their treatment of Christians and churches -- appear to be quite similar, with one exception: The Islamic State is a rogue regime; Turkey is a NATO member and a candidate for EU membership.
[i] "Trebizond: The Last Greek Empire of the Byzantine Era, 1204-1461", by William Miller, Publisher: Argonaut Inc. 1969.
May 10, 2016
An Egyptian court will resume its deliberations May 23 in a long-running, on again, off again human rights case that has placed the country at the center of an international controversy again.
The controversy revolves around a case that began in 2011 and supposedly ended in 2013, but that Egypt recently resurrected, apparently in response to being roundly criticized by world leaders for new, high-profile human rights violations.
In 2011, the government raided 17 foreign and Egyptian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Cairo, confiscating their funds, documents and equipment and detaining numerous workers, challenging the NGOs right to receive foreign funding.
In 2013, Egypt sentenced 43 people in that case, including 19 Americans, to one to five years in prison.
Jump to March 10, when the European Parliament issued a resolution condemning the human rights situation in Egypt after the killing of Giulio Regeni, a young Italian doctoral student. Six days after the resolution was announced, the Egyptian government decided to renew its investigation into NGO funding and reopened the 2011 investigation, again freezing assets and detaining staff, and issuing a gag order on the media.
The targets of the new investigation include rights activists Gamal Eid, a lawyer, and Hossam Bahgat, a journalist. Both men are NGO founders, and both have had their assets frozen and are not allowed to travel. Human rights observers considered the occurrence a setback and feared a quick escalation in rights violations.
That prompted the European Parliament to issue another, harsher statement March 24 saying, We are witnessing a mounting pressure on independent Egyptian civil society organisations, in particular human rights organisations and defenders. The recent imposition of travel bans, asset freezes and the summoning of human rights defenders are not in line with Egypt's commitments to promote and respect human rights and fundamental freedoms as guaranteed by its Constitution and enshrined in the EU-Egypt Association Agreement, which is the basis for our partnership.
The statement added, The decision to revive the so-called 2011 foreign funding case, targeting EU partners who are crucial in the democratic development of Egypt, is of serious concern. The EU also asked Egypt to allow the independent functioning of civil society organisations and human rights defenders, free of fear of intimidation.
That wasnt the end of the international consternation. On April 20, as the Cairo Criminal Court prepared to address aspects of the cases of Eid and Bahgat, among others, a UN spokesman said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would follow closely the legal proceedings in Egypt against the NGOs and human rights defenders. The statement underlined a defendants right to a fair trial and convenient legal proceedings.
The Egyptian government immediately rejected the UN statement. The Foreign Ministry objected to any intervention in the Egyptian judiciarys work, especially a few hours before the session was to begin.
Judge Ahmed Abu Zeid, spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said, The statement is an attempt to target and terrorize the independent Egyptian judiciary, although such words are not in line with the UNs powers and responsibilities and its constant claim to respect the state of law and the independence of the judiciary.
Also on April 20, in a potential blow to the criminal courts proceedings, an administrative court ruled that NGOs do have the right to receive foreign funding.
The Cairo Criminal Court decided to adjourn the April 20 session until May 23.
Eid, who is also head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, told Al-Monitor, This case is political and fabricated. The aim is to silence independent NGOs that enjoy credibility and independence.
He said, Civil society organizations are the last standing parties to criticize the governments policies in political, economic, developmental and rights issues and to document rights violations committed by the state. Consequently, the governments main aim is to eliminate these organizations, terrorize their members and mobilize Egyptian public opinion against them.
Eid compared President Abdel Fattah al-Sisis rule to previous Egyptian regimes such as that of former Presidents Hosni Mubarak and Mohammed Morsi. He said, Unfortunately, Sisis regime is the worst ever in Egypts history. Under previous regimes, nobody dared freeze money, forbid activists from traveling or threaten civil society members with imprisonment, as is currently the case.
The organizations raided in the original case in 2011 included the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, the American organizations Freedom House and the International Center for Journalists, and some Egyptian organizations. The reason given was that the foreign organizations did not obtain permits from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the Egyptian organizations did not obtain permits from the Ministry of Social Security.
At the time, the government accused the groups of receiving foreign funding worth $60 million between March and December 2011 without notifying Egyptian officials. The organizations were also accused of using the money to serve foreign purposes, including political training, supporting the campaigns of representatives of political parties, mobilizing voters and preparing reports sent to the United States. The government said this shook Egyptian sovereignty and threatened security and stability in the country.
May 10, 2016
The head of the Communication and Information Technology Committee of the Egyptian parliament, Ahmad Zeidan, told the daily Youm 7 late last month that his committee is working on legislation to regulate social media websites Facebook in particular in coordination with other committees that might be involved in the issue, such as the Information, Defense and National Security committees.
Parliament member Gamal Abdel Nasser had already called on April 4 for enacting a law with the purpose of dealing with violations on Facebook since it has been infringing on freedoms, saying, The West sold us Facebook only to blackmail us. In a statement that gave rise to controversy in Egypt, Abdel Nasser urged the ministers of interior and telecommunications to monitor Facebook violations and take immediate action against them. Shortly after that, Speaker Ali Abel Aal said, The parliament will soon enact a law to regulate the use of Facebook and Twitter, thus moving the debate from the streets to the parliament.
Lawmakers such as Khaled Abdel Aziz were critical of parliaments direction toward regulating Facebook. In the open age of the 21st century, it is no longer relevant to impose further restrictions on freedoms, especially since we live in a liberal country characterized by a climate of freedom and democracy. Social media is now one of the main pillars of information, he told Al-Bawaba News on April 2. In turn, parliament member Khaled Youssef criticized the call for legislation to regulate Facebook, stressing that priority should be given to a law governing information flow rather than regulating social media websites.
Meanwhile, other deputies hailed the decision to enact a law regulating Facebook. Among those was Wafd Party representative Mohammad Khalifa, who called for the state to regulate Facebook, arguing that group administrators must disclose their affiliations and determine the purpose of the page posting news. Member of parliament Gamal al-Aqabi requested the shutdown of Facebook and Twitter, at least in the meantime, as these websites fuel violence and damage the countrys economy.
Over the past few months, Egyptian media outlets have published multiple reports about the cybercrime bill. According to reports, the draft bill stipulated, If the crime is committed against a government or a state officials website, or a website run by their proxies, the perpetrators shall be sentenced to life or hard labor, with a fine ranging between 100,000 and 500,000 Egyptian pounds [$11,200-$56,300].
A number of lawsuits requesting the shutdown of Facebook and Twitter have been brought before Egyptian courts, with the latest case awaiting verdict slated for June 26. According to this lawsuit, Foreign intelligence agencies have been using social media since before the January 25 Revolution to this day with the aim of fueling protests and inciting violence, killings and arson of public and private property on Egyptian territories.
Despite the parliaments plan to enact a law regulating Facebook, as well as the Communication and Information Technology Committees determination, the Interior Ministry-affiliated Department of Internet Surveillance periodically reports on its efforts in monitoring Facebook pages inciting against the police and army. In January, Maj. Gen. Isam Hafiz, the head of the Interior Ministrys Department of Internet, Information and Documentation Surveillance, announced that 4,000 subversive individuals had been detected on the internet, inciting violence against the state. Hafiz indicated that the cybercrime law has been drafted and is waiting for parliaments approval. According to this law, crimes such as libel, slander and vice will be punishable by six months to three years imprisonment. As for terrorism and national security crimes, they are punishable by 3-15 years imprisonment, and in certain cases by a life sentence.
Political activist Hazem Abdel Azim denounced in an April 7 tweet the cybercrime law, worrying that wording of the cybercrime draft bill seems too loose, saying that it criminalizes anybody whose posts threaten national security, but that what threatens national security "requires elaboration.
In an interview with Al-Monitor, parliament member Samir Ghattas criticized Abdel Nassers call for a law to regulate Facebook, arguing that such a call should not be made by a democratically elected parliament.
Ghattas added that there are other legislative priorities the parliament should look into, including the parliaments agenda, and therefore, discussing a law related to Facebook should not be included in this legislative session.
He asserted that Egypt will not follow in the footsteps of China, which blocked Facebook but has an internal alternative website. Ghattas explained that the government enjoys full powers when it comes to monitoring violence-inciting pages and arresting owners. In this respect, there is no need for Facebook-specific legislation, he said.
According to Ghattas, the Support Egypt coalition, which represents a parliamentary majority, will not be able to propose a bill for regulating Facebook since such a bill will be opposed by many deputies as it does not have priority in the minds of many legislators, not to mention that it curbs the peoples freedom and rights.
May 10, 2016
The latest skirmish between Israel and the Gaza Strip earlier this month proved once again that Hamas sends its subcontractors, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) likes to call them, into the field. Israel has suspected for years that the armed wing of Hamas uses the Al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees whenever it wants to escalate tensions with Israel without engaging in an all-out clash. Such indirect action would provide the organization deniability for the attacks on Israel.
On May 5, for example, Islamic Jihads Al-Quds Brigades and armed members of the Popular Resistance Committees joined together in shelling IDF forces engaged in exposing an additional tunnel in Gaza along the border with Israel. The timing of the shelling, as the tunnel was being unearthed and just as Israel had stopped supplying cement to Gaza, was a signal to Israel that it was about to cross a red line that would force Hamas to react. This time, an escalation was averted only through Egyptian mediation efforts.
Israel formally blamed Hamas for the shelling because it had given the orders to fire, but it is also closely monitoring the growing military cooperation within the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, for its part, got what it wanted: drawing attention to Israels economic pressure on Gaza. The way it chose to do so illustrates the close cooperation among the various organizations operating in Gaza.
A Palestinian security source told Al-Monitor that the cooperation among the Gaza organizations, about which Israel and the Palestinian Authority have known for quite some time, has been greatly strengthened in recent months.
During Israels 2014 Operation Protective Edge, Hamas had already established a joint headquarters for all the Gaza organizations to exert control over the firepower against Israel. Now, subcontractors are an integral part of the alignment in the Gaza Strip. Whereas in the past, Hamas' Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades had turned to subcontractors only during escalations with Israel, the cooperation has now become a strategic asset for Hamas given its changing standing in the Arab world.
Al-Monitor has learned that senior officials of al-Qassam Brigades have reached an understanding with the heads of Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees to hold joint training exercises leading to the formation of a unified military force, while maintaining the individual nature of each organization. An Israeli defense source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Indeed, we have identified a unification and preservation of uniqueness.
This cooperation is based on personal contacts between the organizations' leaders. Some have known each other since they were children, growing up in the same neighborhood and moving up within their respective organizations in parallel.
The Palestinian security source surmised that Hamas has a vested interest in cooperation among the organizations. Whereas Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees enjoy Iranian financial and even military support, including training under the auspices of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran has been treating Hamas like an outcast ever since the head of Hamas' political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, took an adversarial position against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Over the past two years Hamas leaders have sought ways to ease tensions with Iran and even tried to arrange a visit to Tehran by Meshaal and another one of its top leaders, Mousa Abu Marzouk, but all their reconciliation efforts failed. The relationship between Iran and Hamas reached a new low in July 2015 after a Hamas delegation visited Saudi Arabia. What little support the military wing was able to get from Iran through the connections of Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar dried up.
The increasing closeness between Hamas and Saudi Arabia has not replaced Iran's generous past support. The cutoff seriously hurt Hamas and led to its decision to cooperate with Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees.
The union has two goals. A long-term one is to bring these two organizations as close as possible to the military wing of Hamas and allow them the operational freedom of which they were deprived in the past, in the hopes that eventually ties with Iran can be improved. In the shorter term, they hope to enjoy in one way or another the advanced military support the two organizations still get from Iran. For Islamic Jihad and the Resistance Committees, this arrangement is the best of all worlds.
The IDF is well aware of this mutually beneficial rapprochement among the large Gaza organizations and the nurturing of Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees by Hamas. Although Israel reacts to every shell or Qassam rocket fired from Gaza as though Hamas had fired it itself, it seems that gradually and systematically the differences between the organizations are being blurred. If Hamas used to claim that rogue organizations operating under its nose were the ones that fired at Israel, this argument now appears spurious.
Now the question is whether the joining of military forces in the Gaza Strip will make of Hamas' political wing a burden for the military, which might decide one of these days to get rid of it.
May 9, 2016
TEHRAN, Iran The Iranian tycoons Babak Zanjani and Reza Zarrab are now both finding themselves in dire straits. Zanjani, one of the most well-known magnates in Iran, has been sentenced to death for allegedly not paying back money owed to the Oil Ministry from oil exports he arranged under the sanctions era. Zarrab, an Iranian-born businessman who only years ago was exonerated of alleged bribery, corruption and being involved in a smuggling racket that involved several Turkish Cabinet members, is now in detention in the United States under money laundering charges, among other allegations. He was arrested in Florida on March 19 over an indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan.
In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Amir Abbas Soltani, an Iranian lawmaker and a member of the parliamentary committee tasked with pursuing the Zanjani case, claims Zarrab traveled to the United States on purpose in order to get caught. Soltani said, There is no difference between Zarrab and Zanjani. Plus, Zarrab is an important person, the key figure to this [Zanjani] corruption case.
Zarrab intentionally visited the US and surrendered himself based on a premeditated plan. Following Zanjanis case in Iran, he sensed a lurking threat awaiting him. He thought he would be captured by Iranian officials if he stayed in Turkey, Soltani told Al-Monitor.
Soltani added, Zarrab sought a safe haven by going to the United States. Our judiciary officials were pursuing his case. The situation in Turkey wasnt good for him as Tehran and Ankaras relationship improved. If he were found guilty by Irans judiciary, based on our agreements with Turkey, he would have had to be extradited to Tehran.
According to Soltani, Zarrab knew that there is no extradition agreement between Iran and the US. That is why he decided to go to the United States. He is waiting to see when it will all blow over to and what will happen to Zanjani. If he [Zanjani] gets executed, Zarrab can deny a lot of the facts after Zanjanis death.
On April 27, Zarrab pleaded not guilty to four conspiracy charges, including bank fraud and money laundering conspiracy. These charges carry a maximum sentence of 75 years in prison. Zarrab had earlier declined to seek bail in Florida, where had been detained.
In Soltanis telling, Zarrab is a close confidant of Zanjani as well as a senior manager of his companies. They both established more than 70 companies, and many of them were administrated by Zarrab.
The Iranian member of parliament further told Al-Monitor, Zarrab often visited Iran before Zanjanis arrest. He repeatedly sent a message to us that he had no relationship with Zanjani. But it is completely clear that he was connected to Zanjani and was one of his managers.
Soltani emphasized, Most of Zanjanis assets in Turkey are in the name of Zarrab. However, a few months ago, Rasool Koohpayehzade Zanjanis lawyer claimed that Qodrat Tanjil, one of Zanjanis partners, had illegally taken over some of his clients assets in Turkey.
Soltani told Al-Monitor that there are more than 30 charges against Zanjani and Zarrab, including "stealing the Iranian Oil Ministrys money.
He added, Zanjani has been sentenced to death, but he doesnt believe he will be executed. That is why he hasnt taken his death penalty seriously. Of note, the Iranian Oil Ministrys lawyer recently suggested that Zanjanis death sentence would be overturned if he returns the outstanding debt to the government. According to Soltani, 12,000 billion toman [$4 billion] belonging to Irans Oil Ministry is in the hands of Zanjani.
For years, Zanjani transferred billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenues through a network of companies stretching from Turkey to Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. At one point, he told an Iranian magazine that he had amassed a fortune of $10 billion.
Asked when Zanjani and Zarrabs alleged scheme began, Soltani told Al-Monitor, There was a connection and relation between Irans former government [led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] and Zarrab. He had written a letter to the former governor of the Central Bank [of Iran].
According to Soltani, Four of Ahmadinejads ministers played a role in this case. They were the ones who gave Zanjani control over 12 supertankers.
There is also speculation about Ahmadinejads relationship with Zarrabs father, Haj Hossein Zarrab. One Iranian news outlet claims that during a meeting aimed at encouraging entrepreneurs in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz in 2007, the senior Zarrab submitted a proposal for the establishment of the SFK steel company to Ahmadinejad, and that the then-president accepted it at the same meeting.
Asked about one picture of the senior Zarrab next to an official of Ahmadinejads government, Soltani told Al-Monitor, I havent reached a conclusion on Zarrabs fathers relationship with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Moreover, when challenged about the Turkish governments position on Zanjanis case, Soltani said, The Turkish government supported Babak Zanjani and Reza Zarrab. We also saw how the Turkish court exonerated Zarrab with the help of the ruling system.
In response to why Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not come to Zarrabs aid, Soltani said, How do you know that Erdogan hasnt helped Zarrab? They dont publicize these issues.
Asked if Iran has asked the US government to extradite Zarrab to Iran, Soltani said, Iran hasnt requested this, but Im sure [the Americans] would say their Supreme Court is independent, and that they cant interfere. Thus, I believe it is really unlikely that they will help.
Soltani added, If Iranian officials had decided to investigate Zarrab sooner, the riddle of Zanjani would have been definitely solved by now. He seized the opportunity to distance himself from the hanging rope.
Soltani concluded, If the US cooperates with Iran, the loose end of Zanjanis case will be tied. Zarrab is the key to [solving] this problem.
May 10, 2016
TEHRAN, Iran A small protest was held April 13 in front of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance building in the Iranian capital of Tehran, during which demonstrators gathered to criticize President Hassan Rouhanis administration for not respecting the economic guidelines known as the resistance economy.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who introduced the general policies four years ago to thwart the effects of US-led sanctions, designated this Iranian calendar year the year of Resistance Economy: Action and Implementation a slogan that has since been exploited by hard-liners to accuse Rouhanis economic team of poor performance.
The hard-line take on the resistance economy has led to misunderstandings about the concept one of the most controversial in Iran. Indeed, far-right political groups seem to have used the supreme leaders remarks to ratchet up pressure on Rouhani over his liberal economic positions.
The April 13 protest was not unprecedented. Hard-liners had also held a protest in March to criticize what they called excessive imports. That criticism comes as official data released by the Customs Administration show a sharp fall in the value of imports from $53.4 billion in the 2014-15 fiscal year to $41.4 billion in 2015-16. Protesters, however, insist that massive imports have already led to the bankruptcy of many domestic manufacturers.
Hojatollah Abdolmaleki, a lecturer at Imam Sadiq University who attended the March protest, called for the strengthening of domestic production as a strategy that could destroy the enemys weapon and help the country win the economic war. In an interview with the semi-official Fars News Agency, Abdolmaleki expressed concern about the inability of liberal economists to implement the 'resistance economy' program, warning that there is a semantic and theoretical deviation from the original doctrine. He also denounced efforts to attract foreign investment, claiming that the Rouhani administration has been neglecting 10 quadrillion rial of capital, which he insists is already available within Iran.
This is while the resistance economy does not discourage foreign investment at all. Article 10 of the doctrines general policies clearly calls on executive authorities to ease regulations, provide incentives for foreign investors and use the incoming capital for boosting knowledge-based industries. Meanwhile, Article 12 underlines that the economy will remain vulnerable to external pressure if the government fails to either expand strategic ties with other countries or engage in active diplomacy, which is a must in order to push national economic plans forward. The latter article even encourages authorities to take advantage of international organizations capacities to make the Iranian economy more dynamic.
Pro-Rouhani experts argue that hard-liners have misunderstood the concept of resistance economy as mere self-sufficiency or at the very least, feign such misunderstanding. Self-sufficiency means we have to plant what we need, but the resistance economy urges us to plant more in order to feed ourselves and others at the same time. This way we will make other economies dependent on ours, said prominent economist Mousa Ghaninejad in a recent interview with leading economic magazine Tejarat-e Farda.
Ghaninejad argues that Iran should redefine its national security policies, urging officials to build an economy based on engagement and stronger international ties, so that Iran can use its industrial know-how as an effective tool to protect and advance its national security interests. In his opinion, China or South Korea would be good models to follow rather than North Korea a country that sees self-sufficiency and militarism as a means of protection.
Liberal economists, who are a majority among economists in Iran but who have little political leverage, believe that the countrys economy needs structural reforms and should produce only the products in which it has a comparative advantage. Samira Karami, secretary of the budget and planning committee of the Expediency Council, wrote in Tejarat-e Farda on April 15 that development plans must be focused on the industries in which Iran has a comparative advantage. This is the model all emerging economies have used to survive their dire economic straits, she said. To this end, a political consensus should first be achieved, according to Masoud Nili, top economic adviser to Rouhani. Indeed, Nili warned in January that political groups have to reach a consensus or forget about economic prosperity.
However, Ghaninejad believes the administrations efforts to reach a consensus with rivals will fail simply because hard-liners do not intend to make a compromise. Iran urgently needs to make structural reforms or else will have to "deal with plunging oil revenues as well as underdeveloped and vulnerable industries for long years which is not the utmost goal of the resistance economy, he has warned.
In this vein, misunderstandings between the hard-liners and the ruling moderates over how to approach economic development that will bring benefits to all social groups appear to be turning into a sad tragedy. If this continues, it could eventually result in economic and political chaos, delaying economic reforms, creating dissatisfaction among middle and lower classes, and ultimately threatening the long-run sustainability of both the economy and current politics.
May 10, 2016
On May 6, Iranian social media accounts that monitor the Syrian civil war began to share pictures of Iranian soldiers who were killed and captured at the hands of an anti-government Islamist alliance in Khan Tuman, in southwest Aleppo. The attack and heavy losses one of the largest single-day losses for Iran startled even social media users who support Irans involvement in the war. While some accounts blamed a Russia-imposed cease-fire for allowing its soldiers to be caught off guard, other accounts immediately began sharing dated pictures of Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani, implying he had been sent to the area for reinforcement.
Iranian media and officials immediately went on the offensive to explain the strategic importance of Khan Tuman, giving subsequent reports of heavy opposition losses in the attack which included al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra fighters and reassurances of Irans commitment to the government of Bashar al-Assad.
Ismail Kowsari, a member of the Iranian parliaments National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, decried the psychological war in the media about the heavy death toll numbers. According to Kowsari, of the Iranian defenders of the shrine, 13 were martyred, 18 were wounded and five to six were taken captive. There were reportedly dozens of fighters from Lebanese Hezbollah and Afghan Shiite groups also killed in the attack.
The Khan Tuman attack took place one day after the United States and Russia announced a cease-fire in Aleppo province. Kowsari denounced the cease-fire as simply being another method for the United States to achieve its goals in Syria, and he accused the United States of working with opposition groups to violate the cease-fires.
According to Entekhab website, quoting Lebanons As-Safir newspaper, during a May 7 meeting between Assad and Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian officials had reportedly conveyed their concern about Russias proposals for a political solution at a time when armed opposition groups are increasing their forces traveling through Turkey. The Iranians reportedly believe that the political solutions would limit Russias military involvement before having established dominance over the armed fighters and this would cause a change in the battles.
Former commander of the Iran-Iraq War Mohsen Rezaei also blamed the cease-fire for the heavy losses. In a May 9 statement, Rezaei, who is secretary of the Expediency Council, wrote, Some months ago Khan Tuman in south Aleppo was freed, but a few days ago, takfiris, taking advantage of a cease-fire at a time neither a plane nor artillery was active, surprise attacked Syrian forces and Iranian advisers. Rezaei accused Saudi Arabia and Turkey of backing the attack, though he did not offer details.
Despite the denouncements of the cease-fires, Iranian officials have been careful to not distance themselves from Russia in public statements. At a May 10 press conference Velayati denied a reporter's question that Russias position on Assad has softened. Up until now I have met with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin five times and at no time have I sensed any wavering on his support for Syrias legal government, Velayati said. He added that Assad was elected two years ago for a seven-year term and that Irans red line is that Assad would finish his term.
Hosseinali Rezaei, a public relations official for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said May 10 that most of the wounded have returned to Iran but the bodies of 12 soldiers killed in the attack are in the hands of takfiris, a term Iran uses to label violent Sunni extremist groups who excommunicate other Muslims. He added that fighting is ongoing in Khan Tuman.
May 10, 2016
RAMALLAH, West Bank When Druze Mostafa Zahr ad-Din Saad turned 18, he received a notice for military service in the Israeli army. He refused to serve just like his brother had done a year and a half before and their father many years ago. On April 17, Saad posted on his Facebook page a picture of the letter that he had received informing him that he was exempted from the military service.
He wrote, "Dear extended family and friends, a year ago I promised that I will never replace my violin with a firearm. Today I want to inform you that I was exempted from military service in the Israeli army, which is imposed on Arab Druze." The exemption came after Saad had refused to join the military; to avoid a prison term he had claimed that he was mentally unfit for the military service.
He continued, "Thanks to the only democratic state in the Middle East, I got a certificate saying that I am crazy [and not fit for military service]."
Saad is among the Druze who recently refused to enlist in the Israeli army based on nationalistic and patriotic principles. In the past few years, the number of young Druze refusing to join the army has been increasing. In the past, these cases were not made public, but Saad's brother Omar publicly announced his refusal to serve in the Israeli army in December 2014.
The Druze are the only Israeli Arabs who serve in the Israeli army. It all started in July 1954 when then-Minister of Defense Pinhas Lavon decided to impose conscription on all young Arabs under the Israeli Defense Service Law. Yet in 1956 this law was amended and conscription was limited to young Druze, under an agreement with the Druze leadership at the time. The law stipulates that every Druze over the age of 18 should serve in the Israeli army for two years.
The Saad brothers' refusal was inspired by their father, who had also refused to serve in the army in the past. Mostafa Saad told Al-Monitor that his refusal and that of his brother are based on principles and convictions they were brought up with, as an Arab Palestinian family. "We refused to serve as individuals, and we were never part of a group or anything. But [our refusal] was a contribution to a public cause and encouraged dozens of young people to do the same," he said.
Omar Saad told Al-Monitor that the main reason for his refusal is his belonging to the Arab Palestinian people and the Palestine Youth Orchestra at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. "I could never imagine myself wearing a military uniform for an entity that occupies, kills and humiliates the Palestinian people. I could never imagine myself standing at a checkpoint on the entrance of Palestinian villages and towns and participating in the oppression of my brothers and sisters, with whom I live, laugh, eat and play music," he said.
Omar Saad, whose case turned into a public opinion discussion, also spoke about the price he had to pay for taking his decision. He explained how he was sent to jail seven times, a total of 200 days, during which he was moved between the prison and a hospital after being taken ill. "Of course it was not an easy experience, but the support I got from my family and the civil support I received from around the world helped me stay strong and finish what I had started," he said, speaking about the support he got from a campaign launched to support him.
Druze youths have been launching campaigns refusing to serve in the Israeli army since 2014. One of the most influential campaigns, "Refuse and your people will protect you," was launched in June 2014, when Druze young people tore up military service notices in public and collectively refused to serve. Another campaign, "[Tasahal] Tolerate others, it is not worth it," was launched in May 2014. The word Tasahal refers to the Israel Defense Forces' name in Hebrew, meaning the Israeli army does not deserve the service of the youths.
The refusal of young people to serve in the Israeli army indicates that they seek obtain exemption from service. Upon their refusal, they are arrested and sent to prison for a period of time that may equal the full military service period; most of these young people have been locked up for such a time. Article 46(a) of Israel's Defense Service Law stipulates that anyone who does not serve his term under the law will be imprisoned for two years.
Samer Sweid, a member of the Druze Follow-up Committee, told Al-Monitor that this was not a new phenomenon and that the media and technological developments promote the national and patriotic feeling among young Druze, who have started to get to know other communities with which they share a language, history and culture.
According to Sweid, this phenomenon is perhaps spreading faster due to social networks; when a young man used to refuse to serve, only his family and friends would know about it. He said this is what happened in 1997 when he was sent to prison for seven months as punishment for his decision not to join the Israeli army.
"We now ask the young people's families to make their sons' refusal public in order to spread awareness, encourage other youths and show them that they have a choice even if they have to pay for it," Sweid said.
He believes young people's refusal to serve has helped change the stereotypical image of the Druze and that of the Druze soldiers in the army in the eyes of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; Druze have been considered to be the worst in dealing with Palestinians at checkpoints, courts and prisons. Sweid explained that Israeli army leaders have used the Druze to tarnish their image among Palestinians, saying, "I have been meeting with many Palestinians in the West Bank recently and they now look at the Druze differently. They accept us more and especially when they find out we refuse to serve in the Israeli army."
According to Sweid, 40% of young Druze are not serving, half of whom based their decision on national and patriotic reasons, and half of whom are exempted under the law, as they are female or religious men.
Speaking to Al-Monitor, Adel Shedid, a professor of Israeli studies at Hebron University, agreed with Sweid that the issue of Druze refusing to serve in the army was nothing new, but that more people have recently started to refuse serving in the Israeli army and this has turned into a phenomenon that is now becoming public.
Shedid attributes the rising refusal rates of Druze young people mainly to the discrimination against Druze soldiers after they complete the military service, in terms of the privileges granted to them in particular and the discrimination against the Druze community in general. According to Shedid, the Druze are treated differently than Jewish Israelis when it comes to post-consription privileges such as housing benefits, loans, assistance in finding high-level jobs in state institutions and educational grants at universities.
He further noted other reasons behind this phenomenon such as the recent awareness campaigns among young Druze as a result of technological developments that have created a sense of patriotism after years of having been separated from other Palestinians inside the West Bank. In addition, the Druze began communicating with the Palestinian society after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA), at both the popular and official levels.
"In the past, the Druze used to introduce themselves as Israeli Druze; however, today they introduce themselves as Arab Druze or Palestinian Druze. They no longer see the Palestinian struggle movement in a negative way and they no longer see themselves as part of the Zionist project," Shedid said.
Despite the rise of this phenomenon and its spread throughout the media, the reality shows that it would be difficult for it to turn into a comprehensive movement of refusal adopted by all young Druze mainly because the Druze young people are forced to take the economic repercussions of such a decision into account. The Israeli army service provides job opportunities that could be difficult for young people to find on their own.
May 10, 2016
When I told fashion designer Dalya Bar Or that I remember my grandfather wearing Ata clothes, she laughs. "Everyone remembers a grandfather or uncle wearing Ata," she says. "The moment the topic is mentioned, that's what people say."
Bar Or, both a designer and a historian of fashion, wrote her doctoral dissertation on "Ata and Israeli society, 1934-1986," which has naturally occasioned hearing this excited response from Israelis many times. In its time, Ata had a mythical and symbolic status in Israel, though the grand Zionist textile factory closed its gates 30 years ago. Its unique status is now bringing Ata back to life, as Itay Yaacov, a fashion correspondent for the XNet website, documented eight months ago.
The Ata label was acquired by publicist and businessman Shahar Segal, and last month its official revival was announced with the opening of a store on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv, adjoining the urban triangle marking the hipster lifeline of the city. The location is no coincidence, and symbolizes the essential difference between the new label and what Ata once was. Passersby can now get newly excited at seeing the famous logo a blue triangle with the word Ata, proudly raised above the store.
"Ata made its mark because it was planned as an aggregate concern, a company that creates an item from the thread to a finished product," explains Bar Or. "People thought it was a government factory, and [Israel's first Prime Minister] David Ben-Gurion helped popularize this notion by wearing the concern's clothes. If he wears it, the workers will wear it."
The company was established in 1934 by Erich Muller, an Austrian textile manufacturer. He changed the style of young Jews in the land of Israel. Ata designs were developed in line with the self-understanding of the Israeli "sabra" image: simple, clean, efficient, ready for work and for dancing the "hora," a popular Israeli circle dance. Ata clothes became the uniform of pioneering Israel and after the creation of the state, that of [Labor precursor] Mapai representatives and their Socialist voters. The opportunity to wear clothes made exclusively in Israel as well as the clothes' practicality enchanted young idealists.
"Ata wasnt only a textile factory; it fulfilled an important role in forming the nationalism of the new Israeli society. The basic products of the factory reflected 'true Israeliness': the Zionist establishment's pioneered Socialist asceticism," Bar Or wrote in her dissertation.
Bar Or notes that when the Ministry of Education compiled a list of "50 Zionist terms" to mark the first 50 years of the State of Israel, Ata was one of them. Even today, Ata clothes are considered a symbol of the good and beautiful Israel of yesteryear.
"Israeli society is very militaristic, and Ata clothes are basically a uniform. The combination of nostalgia and militarism creates the passion for Ata," Yaacov told Al-Monitor.
The new Ata clothes will only be sold at the flagship store in Tel Aviv, apparently to make it a nostalgic as well as fashionable pilgrimage destination. They draw from the old designs with an eye to modern fashion.
"Clothes there are inspired by the spirit of Ata," Yaacov explains. "Functional but fashionable work clothes, and replicas of iconic patterns like the white Sabbath shirt and the blue shorts. Fashion designer Yael Shenberger says that adjustments were made for a new era. For instance, the pockets are made to fit a smartphone. They also tried wearing the clothes while riding a bike to make sure it's comfortable to ride with them."
These changes and the store's location attest to the target market: young, urban, up-to-date Tel Avivians, although Yaacov says, "Even my father got excited and said he'd visit the store to check the current clothes' quality compared to the past." The nostalgic element adds to the appeal for young Israelis, but the vintage look seems more aesthetic than ideological.
Bar Or was glad to hear of Ata's return. "Its a brilliant move," she asserts. "Segal has a good sense of trends. Today people cling to nostalgia and are attracted to unisex, nongendered clothing like Ata offered. It will attract millennial Tel Avivians, for whom it will be nice and inexpensive to walk around with the Ata bag and show it to Grandma at the kibbutz. I don't think there's an ideological agenda here, but what business has one today?"
While the new Ata clothes are manufactured in Israel though Segal did not promise they will be in the future the textiles aren't necessarily. That is, it won't be an Israeli concern from A to Z like the old Ata. "I got excited about the story because I have a nostalgic side," Yaacov says, "but the market is small and flooded, and you need more than nostalgia. Ata was a textile factory, and that was its vision and its power. To take only the nostalgic side without reviving the label's essence Israeli textile manufacturing is now a completely dead industry leaves it at the level of a fashion thing. They're doing a good job, but it remains on the level of 'cool.' We have to see what will happen with the second collection; it will certainly be interesting."
May 10, 2016
Turkey was once a self-sufficient country in terms of food and generated major revenue from the export of food items. In recent years, however, it has become an importer in the realm of agriculture as a result of decreased state support for farmers and stockbreeders and the privatization of state-owned meat and dairy enterprises under the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The shrinking output of meat, in particular, has sent prices skyrocketing, meaning that meat is now a luxury product beyond the reach of many low-income households. The importation of meat and livestock has failed to remedy the situation, and the crisis is growing even bigger amid the worsening conflict in Turkeys Kurdish-majority eastern and southeastern regions, the traditional leaders of the husbandry and stockbreeding sectors.
According to Ozden Gungor, head of the Turkish Agricultural Engineers Chamber, state support for agriculture and husbandry over the past 12 years amounted to only 70 billion Turkish liras ($25 billion), while imports of agricultural and animal products and other food items were worth 320 billion Turkish liras ($137 billion).
In the husbandry sector, the eastern and southeastern provinces account for 46.3% of Turkeys sheep, 36.8% of goats and 28.4% of cattle, according to Semsi Bayraktar, chairman of the Turkish Agricultural Chambers Union. However, the region has seen thousands of people migrate due to the worsening security situation, marked by heightened violence and terrorist attacks by Kurdish militants and heavy-handed military operations against them. Some 100,000 farmers and stockbreeders left their villages, fields and pastures in the two months after unrest flared up in the southeast in July 2015, moving to urban areas or other safer places. Taking livestock to pasture became virtually impossible as many rural regions were declared security zones off-limits to civilians and lengthy round-the-clock curfews were imposed on residential areas. Thousands of farmers were forced to sell their livestock and quit husbandry, bringing stockbreeding in the region almost to a halt and further widening the shortage in meat production.
As a result, meat prices have soared. Over the past year, they increased by more than 25%, forcing the Food, Agriculture and Husbandry Ministry to impose a price ceiling.
Yet neither the price ceiling nor the meat imports produced the desired results, leading the government to return to the importation of livestock. Shortly before his decision to step down as prime minister and AKP chairman last week, Ahmet Davutoglu signed a Cabinet decree that gave the green light for the importation of 570,000 animals by the end of the year.
Under the decree, state-owned enterprises are allowed to import tax-free 400,000 cattle for meat production, 150,000 cattle for breeding and 20,000 sheep and goats. One interesting detail allows the importation of animals alien to Turkish lands, an activity subject to the Cabinet's approval. Turkey's Directorate-General of Agricultural Enterprises and the Meat and Milk Enterprise are now planning to buy cattle from the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java as well as buffalo from African countries.
In previous years, tons of buffalo meat had made its way to Turkey clandestinely as the domestic supply shrunk. Turkey had also imported thousands of Angus cattle from Uruguay, but their meat, which some retailers pass off to customers as local, disappointed Turkish tastes.
With the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice looming in September, the importation of livestock is likely to rekindle an old debate about whether the sacrificial slaughter of alien animals is religiously permissible. Some have argued against it, claiming the imported cattle and sheep have been bred alongside pigs, while others have been dismayed that people could question whether sheep and cattle are Muslim or not.
Agriculture Minister Faruk Celik insists the importation of livestock and meat will go on in an effort to pull down prices. In which regions the imported buffalo will end up remains unknown. How those destined for breeding will be reared domestically is also unclear. Yet the biggest question is how the alien animals will fare with Turkish consumers, who, having turned up their noses at Uruguayan beef, are now forced to try meat from other faraway lands by the Kurdish conflict at home.
May 10, 2016
Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, deputy chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, spoke about trends in Israeli society reminiscent of the dark European era between the world wars at a May 4 event marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, the start of an emotional and special period in which Israelis remember the Holocaust, honor their war dead (May 11) and celebrate their independence (May 12). Almost at the same time, the prime minister of Israel once again pointed to the anti-Semitic phenomena in the world and the Middle East, saying they remind him of the dark era that preceded the 1930s in Europe.
Israeli society is not an amorphous place; the prime minister is the one who bears ultimate responsibility for the shape it is in. He himself demonizes his countrys minorities. He is the one who entrusted the education of Israeli children to a political party (right-wing HaBayit HaYehudi) that believes the biblical designation of chosen people justifies trampling the dignity and basic rights of millions of other people. And so, the words of Golan could be interpreted as an arrow directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. No wonder Netanyahu claimed Golans remarks were fundamentally incorrect.
Nonetheless, historic analogies are not a matter for generals, nor the jurisdiction of politicians. To examine whether Israel 2016 is reminiscent of the 1930s in Europe, or whether the association is indeed unfounded, Al-Monitor sought the help of professor Zeev Sternhell, the former head of the political science department at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It is hard to find a greater authority to referee the stormy debate sparked by Golan.
Fascism is the central theme in Sternhells personal and professional biography. Sternhells Polish family was murdered by the Nazis. He lived in hiding until being taken to France on a train full of children by the Red Cross. In 1951, at the age of 16, he immigrated to Israel, alone. He served as an officer in all the wars from the 1956 campaign in the Sinai Peninsula to the first Lebanon War in 1982. In 2008, he was injured by an explosive device placed at the entrance to his home by a radical right-wing activist.
Sternhells book "The Birth of Fascist Ideology" has been translated into seven languages. In awarding him the 2008 Israel Prize in Political Science, the judges said his studies had brought about significant change in the scientific community, in the concept of ideological movements in general, and radical ones in particular. "The things he says, even when their tone is critical, stem from a deep commitment to the state and society in Israel," the judges added. The panels words may have been a veiled reference to his comments 18 years earlier to the now defunct Davar newspaper: Only someone willing to crush [the West Bank settlement of] Ofra with tanks will be able to stop the fascist flood threatening to drown Israeli democracy. In April, Sternhell was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the interview, Sternhell presents to Israeli society an apocalyptic forecast such as canceling elections in Israel. History teaches us that often what seems today as an apocalypse later becomes the reality.
Golan was right in every word he uttered, Sternhell said at the outset of our conversation. At the start of the previous century, anti-Semitism served as xenophobia. Today, hatred of the other serves the same role for the radical Jewish right in Israel. Fascism started developing as an extreme manifestation of violating the universal and ethical values of enlightenment and its political expression: liberalism, democracy and human rights. In the view of the radical Israeli right the HaBayit HaYehudi party, the radical wing of the Likud, [Yisrael Beitenu Chair Avigdor] Liberman and his people adherence to enlightened values is childish. Therefore, hating the Arabs and abusing foreigners and refugees is permissible.
The right sees liberal democracy as a danger to the people and the state and thats why it strives to undermine it. For them nationalism is natural, whereas citizenry is artificial and thats why it can be revoked. That is what Vichy France did in the 1940s when it adopted race laws and revoked the equal civil standing of the Jews, even of those whose grandfathers were born in France and fought in its wars.
The full text of the interview follows.
Al-Monitor: Are we on the verge of fascism or perhaps were already there?
Sternhell: Its a gradual process. We have yet to cross the red line, but we are dangerously close. We are at the height of an erosion process of the liberal values on which our society is based. Those who regard liberal values as a danger to the nation, the homeland and the Jewish state are the ones currently in power. They are striving to delegitimize the left and anyone who does not hold the view that conquering the land and settling it through the use of force are the fundamental foundations of Zionism. Thats why universal values and universal rights are enemies of the state, in their view.
Al-Monitor: What is the significance of this process?
Sternhell: For people like [Education Minister] Naftali Bennett and [Justice Minister] Ayelet Shaked [both of HaBayit HaYehudi], democracy is the rule of the majority. The next step is rule of the Jewish majority, since Arabs do not belong to the Jewish nation but rather to an artificial body known as a community of citizens who has no right to determine existential issues. After that, elections can be done away with altogether because we are in a constant state of emergency. The Israeli right operates by frightening those who dont think like it does. Look what Minister Yuval Steinitz [reportedly] said that if the comments of the deputy chief of staff had been made by a colonel, he would have been discharged from the army.
Those who deny the enlightenment of the past 250 years object to the notion that at any time and in any place, by virtue of his very being, man is a cognitive creature; that's why he is a free creature equal to all other human beings. Already in the second half of the 18th century there were those who claimed that the only true rights were historic rights. The Jewish [political] right claims that our ownership of the land is defined in unique historic terms and thats why the Palestinians do not have democratic rights.
Al-Monitor: Were you surprised by the findings of the Israel Hayom newspaper poll indicating that 59% of young Israelis [only Jews] identify with the right?
Sternhell: This is a natural outcome of the demographic growth of the various Orthodox groups and the chauvinist education provided by the school system. I'm surprised the figure of those identifying with the right isnt higher given the general climate in Israel, the naturalness of the colonial situation, the unquestioning trampling of Palestinian rights and the placing of the army at the beck and call of the settlers.
Al-Monitor: Given the positions adopted by the Labor Party and its possible decision to join the right-wing government, is there any future for the Israeli left?
Sternhell: Since [the right came to power in] 1977, the left wing of the Labor Party the conformist left has been following in the footsteps of the right in order not to be cut off from the people. The drift to the right is becoming more pronounced. The establishment left which is more center than left is not scared by the occupation and the settlements and it also thinks theres no solution to the conflict. In terms of an overall national strategy, the Labor Party is close to Netanyahu and will not have any trouble joining his government. This will lead to a moral collapse and also hasten the demise of the left.
Al-Monitor: Absent domestic pressure, can foreign pressure stop the occupation and the flourishing nationalistic trends that support it?
Sternhell: Heavy international pressure can have a welcome effect on negotiations with the Palestinians and on preventing the disaster of a binational state, but not on stopping the destructive trends within Israeli society. This can only be done by Israeli society itself.
Al-Monitor: Do the growing power of the right throughout Europe and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trumps rise signal that fascism is moving center stage?
Sternhell: There is no methodological reason to assume that fascism and Nazism belong to the era between the two world wars and were buried forever in 1945. These phenomena are part of Western culture and could resurface, especially in times of crisis. The neoliberal economy and globalization hurt salaried workers in the West and the waves of immigration are threatening the unique culture of European society. Trump proves once again that anything can happen anywhere, and everyone is capable of everything.
The central ideological structures of fascism are evident to anyone wishing to see them. In the previous century, fascist movements expressed their positions openly and forcefully. Today, those who challenge core liberal values and strive to eliminate them obfuscate their positions. Thats why we must deduce one thing from another and activate our imagination to identify the threats.
Medical, finance, military jobs and more will be filled at a job fair in Birmingham Wednesday.
About 140 employers will fill the BJCC Exhibit Halls 1, 2, and 3 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Between all of them, the Alabama Career Center System estimates there are more than 4,700 available jobs.
The Alabama Career Center System is partnering with WRBC Fox 6 News and the City of Birmingham to host the fair. The event is free and open to the public, but job seekers are encouraged to pre-register by clicking here and bringing a printed copy of their confirmation to the event. This will allow job seekers to enter the event faster.
Employers who have committed to attend include: the Birmingham Police Department; Walmart; UPS; Brookwood Medical Center; Dollar General; Regions Bank; ACIPCO; Schneider Trucking; Birmingham Public Library; Birmingham Southern College; UAB Health Care; Waffle House; Wells Fargo; LabCorp, and others.
Several military recruiters, including the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps., and the Army National Guard, will also be there seeking qualified candidates.
Job seekers should dress professionally, be prepared to interview on the spot and bring many copies of their resumes.
"This is an excellent opportunity for those who are looking for work to come out and meet with dozens of employers," Alabama Department of Labor Commissioner Fitzgerald Washington said in a statement. "The great thing about our job fairs is that we require all employers who participate to have open positions to fill."
UNIMPEACH_Beer_Mockup_1.jpg
Unimpeachable Pale Ale by Salty Nut Brewery. (Courtesy photo)
Salty Nut Brewery's controversial Unimpeachable Pale Ale isn't available for drinking yet, but it is already in high demand in the craft beer community.
Since debuting the logo last month, the Huntsville brewery is preparing for the beer's big taproom debut June 1. It will also be packaged in 32-ounce Crowler cans the same day when Alabama's new growler law takes effect statewide.
Unimpeachable Pale Ale T-shirt by Salty Nut Brewery. (Courtesy)
Unimpeachable Pale Ale, inspired by the Gov. Robert Bentley scandal involving his former political adviser Rebekah Mason, will be available this weekend in limited quantities during Rocket City Brewfest. Jay Kissell, co-owner of Salty Nut, said the beer may go fast.
"We'll have beer for both the Friday and Saturday sessions, but we don't expect it to last for the entire session either day," he said.
The beer, which is made with fresh peaches and Idaho 7 hops, has been shared via Adweek, Food & Wine Magazine and other media outlets across Alabama since Salty Nut shared the logo with AL.com on April 25.
The small business is even selling T-shirts, pint glasses, posters and stickers to mark the upcoming release. Kissell said online orders began shipping Monday and T-shirts, stickers and pint glasses will be available for purchase in the Salty Nut taproom this afternoon.
"We've seen a lot of interest in Unimpeachable merchandise -- it's fair to say greater than we expected," he said. " ... We've heard a lot of enthusiasm for Unimpeachable Pale Ale from customers in our taproom, as well as through phone calls and e-mails."
Kissell runs Salty Nut Brewery with business partners Brent Cole, Daniel Yant, Sean Kirschenmann, Sarah Shea Stisher and Patrick Howard. The brewery moved recently from 4411 Evangel Circle to the former Yellowhammer Brewing building on 2406 Clinton Avenue West.
Bentley signed the growler law, also known as House Bill 176, the day after he apologized to the people of Alabama for inappropriate comments he made to Mason in 2014. It was the same week former Alabama Law Enforcement Secretary Spencer Collier hurled the affair rumors into the national spotlight.
The bill will allow breweries that make less than 60,000 barrels per year to directly sell up to 288 ounces of its beer per customer per day for off-premise consumption. The law also abolishes the requirement that brewpubs can only open in historic buildings, historic districts or economically-distressed areas.
Breweries like Salty Nut are gearing up for the law change, which they believe will make them more competitive in the marketplace.
"We're focused on the positive attention that the passage of growler law has brought to the state of Alabama," Kissell said. "Eight years ago, Alabama had a very restrictive legal structure for breweries. That has changed dramatically and the industry and consumers are seeing the benefits."
A brand new mixed-income community is up and running in Woodlawn with more homes to come.
The Woodlawn Foundation celebrated the opening of The Park at Wood Station with a ribbon cutting Monday. The development is a 64 unit mixed-income townhouse-style multi-family development comprised of 15 different buildings.
"We're excited for what this development means for Woodlawn and for the entire city, because I think the impact will reach far beyond this wonderful neighborhood," said Gillian Goodrich, a board member at the Woodlawn Foundation.
The first 64 units are all affordable housing that are 100 percent full. The next phase - 13 single-family homes to be sold rather than rented - is set to break ground within the next month.
Construction began on Wood Station in 2014. The Woodland Foundation's $13.6 million townhouse project has 28 two-bedroom units and 36 three-bedroom units, all more than 1,700 square feet.
Montgomery's McKean & Associates served as the architect. Northport-based Doug Hollyhand Realty was the General Contractor and Hollyhand Development was the developer. Construction on Wood Station finished in the Fall.
Regions Bank invested $11.4 million in equity and Protective Life provided a $1.4 million mortgage. The Alabama Housing Finance Authority also provided $1.1 million in low-income housing tax credits so poorer families could rent the homes at lower rates.
"No spot in this whole city has seen such a transformation as we have seen right here in Woodlawn," Birmingham Mayor William Bell said. "Woodlawn is on the way back, and the entire city of Birmingham is on the way back."
Elementary school is a great place to learn the three R's.
But where do you go to learn about "Living and Dying in 3/4 Time"?
For legions of Parrotheads across the country, that answer is obvious. And for a Birmingham-area mom whose son joined family members for "his first pilgrimage to a Jimmy Buffett concert," it was an event worth sacrificing a little in-class learning for the coastal kind.
After the concert held recently at Oak Mountain Amphitheater, Amanda Sims (who said her son, Casey, maintains good grades and will not suffer academically for a single missed day), took the time to explain the educational benefits in this excuse letter to the elementary school:
In this age of modern technology, we are often surprised when we are unable to solve a mystery, especially a seemingly simple one such as a person's identity. Yet, many people in Alabama, who died in accidents or from foul play, remain unidentified in 2016. Some identities have been mysteries for many decades, while others are more recent discoveries. Still, the question remains: Who are they? Can you help restore their identities?
1. Five who died on a riverboat, unknown date, Rogersville
This mystery has more questions than any other listed here. According the late Willane Belew Abernathy in her "History of Elgin Crossroads and Nearbys," five unidentified bodies are buried in Belew Cemetery in Rogersville. Abernathy's grandfather, a carpenter named John Harrison Belew, donated the land for the cemetery in 1908 and was known to make caskets for those interred there, according to Lee Freeman at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library.
Abernathy wrote: "Later, there were five people who died on the riverboat coming down the (Tennessee) river. He (Belew) gave them each a burial plot. We do not know their names, but there was a little redheaded child and her father." Today, two of those five graves are marked. The stones are inscribed:
"Young Red Haired Girl Died on Riverboat."
"Old Man Died on Riverboat."
Click here to see the FindaGrave.com entry.
There are no dates on the stones or in Abernathy's book. When did they die? And more puzzling, did they die of an illness on the boat - perhaps during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 - or was there an accident? Which riverboat? Were all the victims related and why couldn't they be identified at the time? Where are the other three buried and were their graves once marked?
Anyone with information can contact Kelly Kazek at kkazek@al.com or Lee Freeman at Florence-Lauderdale Public Library at 256-764-6564.
2. Jackson County John Doe, 1981, accident victim, Scottsboro
A man who was struck by a car and killed in Scottsboro, Ala., has not been identified since the incident in 1981. He was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery beneath a marker that reads "Unknown White Male," and may have rested peacefully if not for a photo in a local newspaper. In August 2014, the newspaper ran a morgue photo of the John Doe, hoping for new leads. A local man saw the photo and thought the man looked like William Bradford Bishop Jr., who is on the FBI's Most Wanted list for the murders of his wife, children and mother in 1976. Authorities exhumed the John Doe in October 2014 but the DNA was not a match for Bishop's. The body was re-interred. Click here to see his FindaGrave.com entry.
He was described as: "approximately 55 years old, with blue eyes, brown/grey hair" and about 5 feet- 9 inches tall and 155 pounds. Anyone with information on the John Doe should call the Scottsboro Police Department at 256-574-4468.
3. Mollie and Pap Doe, 2004, funeral home mummies, Ensley
In 2004, a year after it closed, Shortridge Funeral Home in Ensley caught fire. When a passerby spotted two bodies in the ashes, authorities came to see if foul play was involved, only to learn the bodies were mummified - the unclaimed remains that had been stored in the funeral home for decades. Vivi Abrams wrote for The Birmingham News: "Residents in the Ensley area of west Birmingham said Pap and Molly [sic] were understood to be a husband and wife who supposedly stabbed each other to death during a drunken fight in the 1930s. No one ever claimed their bodies, and they remained at the funeral home ..."
The funeral home owner at the time, W.E. Shortridge, who was active in Birmingham's Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and '60s, told some community members the corpses were preserved in case someone showed up to bury them. According to the Abrams article, resident Jane Norman, who was born in the early 1940s, recalled the male mummy had a mustache and a cloth around his hips and a little bit of hair. Norman said she also heard the couple's names were Richard Cloud and Molly Fleming but this has never been proven.
The remains were buried together in one coffin in Lakeview Cemetery in Edgewater. The Jefferson County Coroner's office retained some genetic samples for possible identification in the future. Contact the Coroner's Office with information by calling 205-930-3603.
4. Lee County Jane Doe, 2012, presumed murder victim, Opelika
On Jan. 28, 2012, the partial skeletal remains of a little girl were found in the woods behind a mobile home park in Opelika, according to Police Capt. Shane Healey. The child, of African heritage, likely died between 2011 and 2012. Authorities determined Opelika Jane was between 4 and 7 years old. She was likely "abused and malnourished" before her death leading authorities to believe she was murdered. Her height, weight and eye color could not be determined from the remains but the FBI Victims Identification Project created a facial reconstruction that shows what she may have looked like. She has not been buried, Healey said. "Her remains are still being analyzed by forensic scientists for clues," he said.
Click here to see her full profile at MissingKids.org.
Anyone with information should call Healey at Opelika Police Department at 334-705-5200 or the FBI Mobile Field Office at 251-438-3674.
5. The "First" Children, no dates, north Alabama
Although graves of babies with no names are fairly common - either because they died before names were bestowed or because of the expense of carving memorials - it is more unusual to find memorials to older children who could not be identified. Even more unusual was a finding that three northern Alabama cemeteries have legends about unidentified children who were the first to be interred in them. And their stories are nearly identical.
The
Girl in the Rock Grave, interred in Liberty Hill Cemetery in Flat Rock in Jackson County. The story surrounding a pile of rocks says they mark the grave of the first person buried there. Thelma Marshall wrote on
Yacco Indian Baby, interred in Tate's Chapel Cemetery in Centre in Cherokee County. According to Dennis Ison on
Anyone with information on these children can email kkazek@al.com.
6. Etowah County John Doe, 1998, murder victim, Gadsden
The skeletal remains of a young black male were discovered by men fishing in the Coosa River on May 29, 1998, according to Toni Driskill with the Gadsden Police Crime Scene Unit. Authorities found multiple bullet wounds to the head and stab wounds to the base of his spine and right hip. His age is estimated between 17 and 21 and he was about 5 feet, 8 inches tall. Scientists created a facial reconstruction but had to approximate his jaw because the mandible was never found. Other limbs were also missing.
Click here to read the full profile on DoeNetwork.com.
His remains are stored at the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee, Driskill said. If you have information, contact Driskill at the Gadsden Police Department at 256-549-4500 or the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee at 865-974-4408.
7. Tuscaloosa County Jane Doe, 1982, murder victim, Romulus
On April 18, 1982, the body of a white female was discovered in Slaughter Creek near the Sipsey River in Romulus. Her age is estimated between 34 and 38. According to Sgt. Jeremy Franks with the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office, authorities exhumed the remains in 2013 for DNA testing that was unavailable in 1982. The victim had been beaten and strangled to death. She was about 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed about 110 pounds. She had dark-brown hair, brown eyes and a scar under her right eyebrow.
Click here to read her full profile on DoeNetwork.com.
Her remains are interred in Sunset Memorial Park in Northport. Anyone with information should contact Sgt. Franks at 205-752-0616 or the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences at 205-344-5420.
As the United Methodist Church began its global meeting, held once every four years, the stage was set for a showdown over the denomination's long-standing opposition to homosexuality.
On the eve of the first decision-making General Conference since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, 111 clergy signed and released a letter saying they identified as lesbian, gay or transgender. About 80 percent of the pastors, deacons, elders and ministry candidates who signed the letter say they are coming out publicly to their bishops and district superintendents for the first time.
That puts them in direct conflict with the denomination's ban on "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" in ordained ministry.
"While some of us have been lucky to serve in places where we could serve honestly and openly, there are others in places far more hostile, who continue to serve faithfully even at tremendous cost to themselves, their families, and yes, even the communities they serve, who do not receive the fullness of their pastor's gifts because a core part must remain hidden," the letter says.
A similar letter was released by 15 clergy in New York on May 1.
The United Methodist Church, the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination with 7.4 million members, has debated homosexuality at its General Conference every four years for four decades.
Since 1972, the United Methodist Church has kept its policy against homosexuality. It bans same-sex unions and does not allow openly practicing homosexuals to be ordained. The United Methodist Book of Discipline calls homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching."
The General Conference, May 10-20 in Portland, Oregon, will vote on numerous proposals to change the policy on homosexuality, but gay activists face an uphill battle.
"The General Conference has been very consistent on this issue," said Mark Tooley, a United Methodist who serves as president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a group that lobbies for orthodox Christian theology and monitors liberal trends in U.S. Protestant denominations. "It's surprising to a lot of people who had a sense of inevitability."
While the U.S. membership in the denomination has declined, membership in Africa has expanded, and those members have an increasingly important voice in the General Conference debates. While the U.S. leadership has become more accepting of homosexuality, the newer African members have held the conservative line.
African bishops issued a statement last September calling on Methodists to "submit to the teachings of Scripture that God designed marriage to be between man and woman."
Without the church's growing global membership, the United Methodists would very likely have taken a turn towards acceptance of gay marriage, like several other mainline Protestant denominations, Tooley said. The United Methodists are shrinking in America, but growing elsewhere, with 12 million members worldwide.
"It's almost unique to U.S. churches," Tooley said. "The Africans alone will probably have 40 percent of the delegates at the General Conference."
While the number of United Methodists in Africa grows by about 250,000 members a year, the number of U.S. United Methodists shrinks every year, by more than 50,000.
At the 2012 General Conference there were 300 delegates from Africa. The General Conference usually has about 850 voting delegates, split between lay members and clergy, who decide church policy. Representation from outside the United States will likely make up half the delegates in 2016.
Africans will constitute about 30 percent of the 864 delegates to this year's General Conference.
So while gay rights activists and lobbying groups have achieved major successes in the Episcopal Church, the UCC, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA), it's not likely to happen in the United Methodist Church, Tooley said.
"They always assumed the Methodists would go along with the other mainline denominations," he said. "Liberal groups can no longer win because of demographic trends. Others have vowed to publicly defy the church."
United Methodist clergy have repeatedly defied the church's ban on gay marriage. In 2013, retired United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert came to Birmingham and performed a same-sex wedding ceremony.
Joe Openshaw and Bobby Prince, members of Discovery United Methodist Church in Hoover, held a church ceremony in Birmingham presided over by Talbert. It was held in another church that allows same-sex weddings. Talbert agreed to officiate the wedding despite a request from North Alabama Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett and other United Methodist bishops that he refrain from doing the ceremony, which is against United Methodist church law.
"We as the church have the privilege of inviting people to come to God's table, but we do not say which ones can and which ones can't," Bishop Talbert told AL.com. "They are all created in the image of God. They all have a place at God's table. They should not be excluded."
Every United Methodist conference in the country, including North Alabama and Alabama-West Florida, has elected lay and clergy voting delegates to attend the General Conference.
Brother Bryan at Cafe Dupont.jpg
Staff and residents of Brother Bryan Mission gathered for dinner on Monday night at Cafe Dupont.
(Courtesy of Brother Bryan Mission)
Cafe Dupont, a downtown Birmingham restaurant known for fine dining, is normally closed on Mondays.
But owner Chef Chris Dupont opened up last night for a free private dinner for the staff, residents and program participants of Brother Bryan Mission.
Although Cafe Dupont was recently included in AL.com's list of "Alabama's Most Expensive Restaurants," the tab for Brother Bryan Mission was zero.
"They offered to prepare the meal and serve it to us," said Jim Etheredge, executive director of Brother Bryan Mission.
"We're all serving people in some form," Dupont said. "They're right down the street. They're in our community. It's a great gift for a local group trying to do good. It's been a good relationship."
Dupont served a gourmet meal with beignets for dessert to a group of about 60 people.
"It was easily a $50 meal," Etheredge said. "I would have hated to pick up the tip tab. I couldn't put a price on it. If we had to pay for it, we couldn't have."
Staff, residents and friends of Brother Bryan Mission eat at Cafe Dupont on May 9, 2016.
Brother Bryan Mission through most of its history has been a shelter for homeless men, but now focuses on addiction rehabilitation programs.
Dupont first invited Brother Bryan Mission to dine at his restaurant last year. Since then, he's hired two residents who have been through the mission's rehabilitation program as dishwashers, Etheredge said. The mission has a 9-month drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, and a back-to-work follow-up program. Residents can continue to live at the mission for two years during the work program.
Etheredge said that more than just a great meal from a prestigious restaurant, the men got a full serving of dignity from Dupont.
"He was gracious," Etheredge said. "He seems to enjoy doing it and our guys enjoyed it. It's a fantastic treat for us. For him to treat our men with the dignity that he treated them with, that made it special."
The Brother Bryan Mission party filled the entire downstairs area of Cafe Dupont.
"Everybody had a great time," Etheredge said. "When most of our men come to us, they're broke and downhearted, they don't have a lot of hope. Here's a guy saying, 'I think the world of you.' The servers could not have been more cordial to us. They got no tips for this, but they were serving us like a guy paying a $200 tab."
Last year, the Brother Bryan Mission unveiled a $1.4 million expansion, including a new building in downtown Birmingham, and celebrated the mission's 75th anniversary.
The mission is named for the man often called Birmingham's patron saint, the Rev. James A. "Brother" Bryan.
"Brother Bryan has been an important part of the history of downtown Birmingham," Dupont said. "It takes a few folks to believe in that message and carry that on."
A white marble statue of Bryan kneeling in prayer was unveiled at Five Points South in 1934, was moved to Vulcan Park in 1966 and returned to Five Points in 1982. Bryan was known for stopping on the street to pray with strangers and offering them food if they were hungry. He started scholarship funds, ran a soup kitchen and clothes closet during the Depression and started a mother's club of women who made quilts to raise money for charity. The Princeton-educated pastor had popular radio programs on WAPI and WBRC and tirelessly campaigned for the poor and for better race relations. He operated a mission church for blacks and started Bible studies in Titusville, Crestline and other communities throughout the city.
Bryan was the pastor of Third Presbyterian Church from 1888 to his death in 1941. He asked a member of his church, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Roger Snyder, to start the mission to help homeless men. The mission opened in 1940.
The mission keeps alive Bryan's vision with a food pantry that hands out 120 food boxes a week to the needy on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. The mission runs completely on donations and accepts no government funds.
More than 250 guests celebrated 60 years of friendship and service with the Birmingham Chapter of The Links, Incorporated at its Diamond Anniversary Gala at the Harbert Center. Founded in 1956, the Birmingham Chapter has been heralded locally and nationally for its programs and initiatives that are models of excellence and innovation. The Birmingham Chapter is distinguished as Alabama's first chapter of The Links, Incorporated.
"This is a significant milestone year for both our organization and members," said Birmingham Chapter president Marquita Davis, executive director Jefferson County Committee on Economic Opportunity (JCCEO). "Also, it was an opportunity to reflect on our history and on what lies ahead."
Guests viewed a 60-year picture history screened on the second floor.
Event co-chairwomen were Carnetta N. Davis and Camelia Holmes. Leading the celebration's planning were Steering Committee members Cheryl Kidd, Debra Pickens, Samuetta Nesbitt, Kim Hitchens, Ronda Bell, Cathy Bradford and Brenda Adams.
The theme of the gala was "An Evening with Friends." Festivities began with a reception and buffet and live music. A four-foot "60th Anniversary" ice carving welcomed guests as they entered the third floor dining room for a plated dinner and program. The room was framed with green uplights, and the Links logo was projected on the wall. Each table featured an egg-shaped vase on a lighted base holding three white roses. Napkins were secured with "diamond" napkin rings.
Special guests included Anne Turner Herriott, 19th Southern Area Director, The Links Incorporated; Connie Harris, vice president, Magic City Links, Inc. and Betty Underwood, president, Tri-City Chapter.
Chapter member and Southern Area secretary Vanessa Falls presented the organization's Legacy Award to Alabama Power Foundation accepted by John Hudson, senior vice president Marketing and Business Development.
The Links, Incorporated, is an international, not-for-profit corporation, founded in 1946. The local chapter evolved 10 years later when a core group of eight women came together with a determination to impact the civic, cultural and educational aspects of life in Birmingham. These founders were Hattie Calloway, Columbia Clayborne, Madeline Davis, Mayo Forniss, Minnie Gardner Gaston, Theodora Shores, Bernice Sterling and Essie Taggert.
Investigators are asking for the public's help in a probe into a suspicious fire over the weekend at Tallassee's historic Mount Vernon Mill Building.
Last Wednesday, firefighters from Tallassee responded to a fire at the 19th century building about 10:55 p.m.
At one point, more than 100 firefighters from 11 departments battled the blaze and a state helicopter dumped water on the structure. Between six to eight houses in close proximity to the mill were evacuated the night of the fire.
The mills had been vacant for about 10 years and had no electrical power.
The State Fire Marshal's office announced today that a joint investigation into the fire has been launched with the Tallassee Police and Fire Departments and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Witnesses are currently being interviewed. Potential witnesses or anyone who thinks they may potentially have information concerning this fire are encouraged to contact investigators at the arson hotline at 1-800-654-0775, or through the website.
Investigators are also asking that the public share videos and photographs of the fire at a Dropbox link.
According to Encyclopedia of Alabama, the Tallassee Falls Manufacturing Company began producing cotton at the mill in 1841. They later produced wool cloth.
The owners used Tallassee Falls to power the mill, which was a major part of the town's economy for 160 years. The mill provided cloth for Confederate Army uniforms.
A Birmingham minister was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for his conviction on murder and kidnapping in the workplace shooting death of his estranged wife, who had a protection order against him.
James Davis
A jury on March 23 had found James Davis, 52, guilty of murder and kidnapping in the shooting death of his estranged wife, 55-year-old Stephanie Grigsby Davis on June 6, 2014.
The killing happened at the Glenwood Autism and Behavioral Health Center off Sicard Hollow Road near Liberty Park where Stephanie Grigsby Davis worked. She was shot six times with two different guns - .44 and .357 caliber revolvers.
Jefferson County Circuit Judge Virginia Vinson sentenced Davis to life for the murder of Stephanie Davis and another life sentence for the kidnapping of a man who he had hitched a ride with to the center. The sentences are to run concurrent.
Prosecutors asked for a life sentence, Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Joe Roberts stated in an email after sentencing, "because anything less than Life would have been less than Justice for Stephanie."
"This was a Life sentence case from the very beginning," Roberts stated.
Roberts stated that Davis "committed a cold blooded, brazen murder of a completely innocent woman as she sat at her desk at her place of business."
"As I told the jury in the trial you cannot find a person to say a bad word about Stephanie Davis. She was kind, she was generous, she was a great daughter, a great friend and even a great wife to the defendant despite his abuse," Roberts stated. "When Stephanie had enough of the abuse she did everything the right way. She filed police reports about the abuse, she obtained a protection from abuse against the defendant and officially filed for divorce."
Roberts, however, stated Davis didn't want to let his estranged wife go. "Instead he shot her dead. The evidence at trial showed the defendant shot Stephanie and while she lay there helpless on the floor of her office he stood over her and put more bullets into her body," he stated.
"The family greatly misses Stephanie and will always be less than whole without her around, but are grateful that justice was served and grateful that Judge Vinson recognized the heinous nature of this crime and sentenced the defendant to the maximum," Roberts stated.
Three witnesses were called to the stand by prosecutors during the sentencing, including Stephanie Davis' mother.
"He needed to be guilty," Stephanie Davis' mother, Earlean Hall, had told AL.com after the guilty verdict. "She didn't deserve to die like that."
Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Matt Casey also prosecuted the case.
Davis' attorneys with the Jefferson County Community Law Office called no witnesses and Davis did not address the court, Roberts said.
The community law office had not responded to a request for comment prior to publication of this story.
While Davis didn't say anything at Tuesday's hearing, he did write the judge a letter last month apologizing for killing his wife and asking for mercy from her.
"I loved Stephanie more than anything," Davis wrote. "Since the age of 14, when I was called to preach by God, He has always been first in my life, and next was Stephanie."
"Judge Vinson, I am very sorry for what I (have) done. I pray daily that God will forgive me for taking my wife's life," Davis wrote. "I pray to God that he would put upon her mother, her brother, and the other family members hearts to forgive me," he wrote.
Davis, who did not testify at trial, also denied in the letter that he had kidnapped the man to give him a ride. He said he never pulled a gun on the man.
Huffman High School 141229
The interior of Huffman High School. A teacher at the school has been accused of running a sex-for-grades scheme in a lawsuit filed by a former student. (Madison Underwood/al.com)
(Madison Underwood|munderwood@al.com)
A spokeswoman for the Alabama State Department of Education confirmed the agency never notified Birmingham City Schools about a high school teacher's felony gun convictions when they found out about them in 2008.
In an email, department spokeswoman Erica Pippins wrote that the agency is charged with making a suitability determination for certified applicants for jobs. The agency determined that Phillip Smith III was qualified to hold a teaching certificate, in spite of the felony conviction.
"In Mr. Smith's case that was done," she wrote in an email.
She wrote that the agency didn't notify Birmingham City Schools.
Smith has been accused of running a sex-for-grades scheme out of his Huffman High classroom, according to a lawsuit filed by a former student of his. One victim told AL.com that Smith slid a note onto her desk offering to trade sex for A's.
In 2014, he was charged under Alabama's teacher sex and sodomy laws in a case that involved another student at Huffman. He took a deal for a misdemeanor, endangering the welfare of a child, and avoided both a prison sentence and a requirement to register as a sex offender.
Smith began teaching at Wenonah High School in 2000, after he passed a criminal background check. School systems are allowed to run a background check every time a new teacher is to be employed, Pippins wrote.
Another one of Smith's former students at Wenonah High School said yesterday the teacher also made advances at her in 2000, his first year of teaching, and then tried to flunk her when she didn't reciprocate.
"I'm positive he's been doing this his entire career," the former student said.
His first brush with the law happened in 2002, when he was accused of misdemeanor domestic violence. In 2004, he pled guilty in federal court to dealing guns without a license in a case that involved more than 100 firearms.
Smith took a leave of absence in 2006 and 2007 to serve his sentence at a federal prison camp. When he returned, he transferred from Wenonah to Huffman High School, according to a spokeswoman for the Birmingham City Schools.
The Alabama State Department of Education cleared him to hold a teaching certificate in 2003 and again in 2008. The agency found out about his felony gun conviction in 2008 from an independent source, Pippins wrote in an email.
The department of education can revoke a teaching certificate for Class A felony convictions, and for sexual crimes and crimes against children.
"For other convictions, and for misconduct that is not criminal, the Department reviews the facts on a case-by-case and considers, among other things, aggravating and mitigating factors, and the likelihood of harm to students," Pippins wrote.
Roy Moore's attorney says he believes the Alabama Court of the Judiciary will hold a hearing early this summer on judicial ethics charges filed last week against the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court related to his January order on gay marriage.
The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) on Friday filed six charges with the Court of the Judiciary related to Moore's opposition to same-sex marriage and his order telling state probate judges in January not to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Under the law, Moore was automatically suspended from the bench with pay when the JIC complaint was filed.
The Court of the Judiciary, after a hearing on the charges, could discipline or remove Moore from the bench.
A JIC official on Monday declined comment about the commission's complaint.
Next step
Moore's attorney, Mat Staver, who is founder of the legal group Liberty Counsel, said Monday that Moore has 30 days to respond to the latest charges. "We will file well within that time," he said.
After a response is filed the Court of the Judiciary will set a hearing date. The date is usually set immediately or within a few weeks after the response is filed.
Hearings, based on the court's most recent cases, occur within a few weeks or months from the time the hearing date is set.
Staver said he believes the hearing will be held early summer.
In some cases over the years judges charged by the JIC have had their cases resolved within a matter of days after the judge reached an agreement with the commission and court.
But Staver said they plan to "vigorously" fight the charges against Moore.
Staver says the JIC has no authority to wade into the administrative orders of Alabama's chief justice or an injunction by the Alabama Supreme Court on March 3, 2015 prohibiting probate judges from issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
The JIC's complaint focuses on Moore's Jan. 6 administrative order telling probate judges that the Alabama Supreme Court's March 3, 2015 order was still in place, although the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2015 had ruled same-sex marriage was legal.
The Southern Poverty Law Center in the past year had filed several complaints about Moore's anti-gay marriage comments and orders with JIC, including the one that led to last week's charges.
Staver said federal appeals and district courts have interpreted the meaning of the U.S. Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling the same as Moore; that the ruling only applied to those few states in the cases that were being argued to the high court. The ruling has to be applied on a case by case basis in each state and in the meantime the state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage still apply, he said.
Even if that is not the correct legal view, Staver said, the JIC has no place in interpreting law.
"This is a legal issue," Staver said. If the JIC can file a complaint to have a judge removed from the bench because the commission doesn't agree with a legal interpretation "that puts all judges at risk," he said.
What could happen at the hearing?
Witnesses would testify and evidence would be presented by JIC at the hearing before the nine-member Court of the Judiciary.
According to state law "the allegations of the (JIC) complaint must be proved by clear and convincing evidence, and no judge may be compelled to give evidence against himself or herself; provided, however, that a judge who chooses to testify on his or her own behalf shall be subject to cross-examination."
At the end of the hearing the Court of the Judiciary would vote on whether to dismiss the charges, discipline Moore, or remove him from office. That decision could come immediately or within a few days.
Disciplinary measures could include suspension without pay, censure, or any other "sanction as may be prescribed by law" for violation of a Canon of Judicial Ethics.
"With respect to all matters other than removal from office, the court shall convict only with the concurrence of no fewer than six of its nine members," according to the court of the judiciary website. "With respect to removal from office, the court shall convict only with the concurrence of all members sitting."
A failure to convict within ten days after the conclusion of the hearing would constitute an acquittal, according to state law.
The Alabama Court of the Judiciary is made up of judges, lawyers and lay people. The Chief Judge is J. Michael Joiner, who is a judge on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. The others are: James W. Woodroof, Jr., circuit judge Limestone County; Laura Petro, circuit judge Jefferson County; Jeffrey T. Brock, district court judge in Conecuh County; John V. Denson, II, attorney in Opelika; S. Dagnal Rowe, Sr., attorney in Huntsville; L. Gwaltney McCollum, Jr., of Jasper; Lucinda Samford Cannon, of Opelika; and Daryl O. Perkins, of Birmingham.
If Moore were to be removed as chief justice, it would be the second time in the past 13 years. In 2003 Moore was kicked off the bench by the Court of the Judiciary after he refused a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Supreme Court building.
Leak?
Staver said Monday that they also believe that word of the pending charges against Moore were leaked by the JIC to two newspapers days before the JIC filed the complaint. The complaint and the JIC process is supposed to be confidential, he said.
Staver said he believes the leak was politically motivated. "We will find out who that is and bring that person to justice," he said.
Jury selection began Monday in two separate murder trials in Morgan County, including an alleged gang-related shooting that occurred in 2013 and the 2014 slaying of a Priceville woman.
Don Evan Robinson III, 39, of Hartselle is charged with murder and first-degree domestic violence in the June 13, 2014, beating and strangulation of Stacey Lauren Jones. The 33-year-old Jones was found dead in her home in the 100 block of Meadow Lane in Priceville.
Jurors were selected Monday and testimony began that afternoon, according to court records.
Jury selection also began Monday in the murder trial of Elias Nava, who was just 16 in August 2013 when he allegedly gunned down 18-year-old Jim Uriostegui at a mobile home park on Alabama 20 in Decatur.
Officers responded Aug. 6, 2013, to a large fight at the mobile home park and found Uriostegui lying on the ground with severe physical injuries, including a single gunshot wound to the chest. He was pronounced dead at Decatur Morgan Hospital.
Both Nava and Uriostegui claimed gang affiliations, according to police.
Talks to end Syria conflict may end up without the required results as stakeholders are on different wavelengths.
Russia President Vladimir Putin says the situation in Syria remains complicated, and thats true.
But he is optimistic that Moscows cooperation with Washington will lead to fundamental changes in Syria.
His comments were made a day after the issuing of a joint US-Russia statement that focused on a shared understanding to revitalise a nationwide ceasefire in Syria and intensify efforts to find a political solution.
For some, this was an indication of better cooperation between the world powers that support opposing sides in the conflict.
The significance of the statement had more to do with the timing, and whether the opposing sides and their regional backers believe in the joint efforts.
It was no coincidence that it was released just an hour before a meeting of the Friends of Syria in Paris on Monday.
That meeting was called for by the opposition, but sources close to the opposition say they were disappointed with the outcome.
The French foreign minister and the European Union foreign policy chief welcomed the United States-Russia statement and expressed hope that the opposition and the government would return to talks in Geneva.
For many in the opposition, the Geneva process is nothing more than a waste of time because the Syrian government is not willing to make political concessions and is pushing for a military solution.
So, the opposition believes, the only way forward is to shift the balance on the ground and that would require advanced weapons.
Other players
Like the opposition and its backers, the Syrian government and its regional supporters have shown that they, too, are not on board.
They fear a US-Russia agreement could involve compromises that would be hurt their interests, and they have been sending messages.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanons armed group Hezbollah which has troops fighting alongside the regime in Syria, said there is no hope for peace in Syria in the next few months.
The adviser of the Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ali Akbar Velayati reiterated in Damascus that the issue of Syrian President Bashar al-Assads status is a red line, only days after the Russian foreign minister declared Assad was not an ally the way Turkey is an ally of Washington.
Coinciding with Velayatis visit, the Iranian media did not just acknowledge that 13 of its men were killed in battle one of the single biggest losses since it militarily intervened in Syria but that up to six others were captured in the southern countryside of Aleppo.
Many observers said that was a message that Iran is paying with blood and that they are a main player that has to be taken into consideration when a deal is struck.
There are growing suspicions in both camps that the US and Russia are working on, or may have already agreed upon, a future Syria.
The opposition knows it is in a weak position and any deal at this point in time will not be in its favour. And while Iran and Russia may be strategic allies, they do have different interests in Syria.
There are fears that Moscow may be using Syria as a card to bring about the lifting of Western sanctions following the Ukraine crisis.
Putin was right when he said that the situation is complicated. But he may be wrong when he said cooperation with the US may change that. Because clearly not all players in the conflict are on board.
What does the verdict against Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami mean for Bangladesh and its politics?
The decision to hand a death sentence to the leader of Bangladeshs main religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, has once again brought to the worlds attention the countrys controversial war crime trials after a year-long hiatus.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, head of Jamaat-e-Islami, has been convicted by a specially set up court of a string of crimes committed during the countrys 1971 war of independence against then West Pakistan. These include murder, rape, incitement and leading the armed group, Al Badr, against pro-liberation supporters during the war.
The verdict, which comes soon after the death of the imprisoned former Jamaat leader, Ghulam Azam, is particularly noteworthy because it is the first one to be announced since Januarys general election. The only other pronouncement that has come from the court since then has been the decision on the appeal of another senior Jamaat member, Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
It's not uncommon in that part of the world for trials like this to go on and on, but they still have to deal with these men. In a sense, the trials have become a thorn in their sides and they have to find a way to walk away from it all. by - Toby Cadman, a British lawyer
This is in stark contrast to last year, when the country was preparing to go to the polls. Verdicts were being handed down with striking regularity, increasing in rate as the election drew closer, to the point of almost one a month and culminating in the hanging of Jamaat member, Abdul Quader Mollah just weeks before voting took place.
The trials, which were Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas response to long-standing popular demands for justice, are being held at Bangladeshs International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Dhaka. They were set up to deal specifically with allegations of local collaborators with West Pakistan who are accused of murder, rape and torture.
A political play
But the process has been mired in controversy ever since the first of the 16 accused men, all of whom are leading members of the main opposition parties, were put in the dock early last year.
Human Rights Watch and the International Bar Association are just two of a number of bodies that have formally criticised the ICT for being incompatible with international standards on matters of transparency and fairness, and for not following due process.
But it is the allegation that Hasina had hoped to benefit politically from the trials that appears to have gained momentum in recent times, especially given the silence of the court since the election in January.
Toby Cadman, a British lawyer representing the accused, even cites political involvement as being behind the revision of Sayedees death sentence in September to life imprisonment.
Its no coincidence that the decision to commute the sentence happened when Hasina was attending the annual United Nations General Assembly gathering in New York, he said.
She did not want to risk violence on the streets of Bangladesh while she was facing world leaders. The courts decision was a demonstration of her control of the courts. The lives of these people are in her hands.
But members of the Awami League refute these claims and insist that all decisions made by the ICT are independent.
Syed Faruk, the partys representative in the UK, denies that the prime minister has had any hand in the legal process: Sheikh Hasina has been campaigning to bring these men to trial for many years, he said.
Long before any talk of elections. But she has had absolutely no say in any of the decisions since the trials started. Our courts are completely impartial and we are proud of our justice system.
Still, the ICT has yet to adequately explain why the trials have stagnated. In June, at a meeting at the British House of Lords, Bangladeshs newly appointed foreign minister, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, pointed out to Al Jazeera that preparation for the cases were complex and time-consuming. This does not, of course, explain the swiftness of the proceedings last year.
A stagnant process
Some observers point towards speculation in Bangladesh that the mens fates are no longer a priority, given that Hasina and her party are back in power for an historic second term.
Manzoor Hasan, a barrister involved in issues of governance and transparency says: Political commentators are openly saying that the trials are not the main concerns for the ruling party, and that it is now focusing on what it considers to be more important issues affecting the country.
He adds: Its also believed the government wants to avoid any further unrest on the streets, and it certainly doesnt want that.
In short, there is a chance the government stands to lose more than it will gain if the trials continue, given that they have already resulted in violent street protests that have left hundreds of people dead,.
Zafar Sobhan is the editor of the secular, pro-independence newspaper, The Daily Tribune, known especially for its damning editorials against Jamaat. He says the facts support the political agenda theory, but adds that any delays do not necessarily undermine the credibility of the court.
Different cases take different lengths of time, he said. I dont think one can expect cases to be resolved at a consistent pace. Unnecessary delay is, of course, not a good thing, but I have heard neither the prosecution nor the defence raise this complaint.
In the meantime, more than a dozen men languish in prison awaiting their fate, some of them influential and well-known. For this reason, everyone agrees the current situation must eventually be resolved, whatever the politicking.
Cadman says: Its not uncommon in that part of the world for trials like this to go on and on, but they still have to deal with these men. In a sense, the trials have become a thorn in their sides and they have to find a way to walk away from it all.
For the men inside, this is their only hope. And for the hundreds of thousands Bangladesh people who lost family members in what is described as one of the bloodiest wars of the 20th century, their hopes for justice remain unfulfilled.
Follow Shamim Chowdhury on Twitter: @shamiminlondon
A shelter in Mexico offers migrants a chance to eat, wash and rest as they brave the dangerous journey to the US.
Guadalajara, Mexico With its leafy, brightly painted entrance, the new FM4 migrant shelter in Guadalajara is a welcome sight for the weary migrants making the hazardous journey from Central America and southern Mexico to the US.
Whether driven by economic desperation or displaced by the regions rampant, gang-related violence, the majority of migrants have spent weeks clinging on to La Bestia, the freight train that runs to the US border.
Here they have a chance to rest, wash and eat, while volunteers from non-governmental organisation FM4 Paso Libre offer them clean clothes, medical attention, and legal and psychological counselling.
This is the best shelter weve been through. They have my respect, says Alvaro, a Honduran migrant who is particularly excited by the prospect of a shower and a change of footwear. I havent taken my shoes off in two weeks and my feet smell awful.
Alvaro, 26, and his cousin Emilio, 23, who asked that their names be changed to protect their identities, left home to seek work in the US.
Having lost what little money and possessions they had while fleeing immigration agents, the pair must now also dodge the ruthless gang members who demand $100 from every migrant boarding the train. Upon reaching the border, they intend to work in Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California, until they can afford a human trafficker, or coyote as they are known, to smuggle them across.
Weve been begging for food. Sometimes old women come to the train tracks and throw bags of food for us to catch as we go past, Alvaro explains. We spend each night clinging on to the train so we cant sleep until we reach our destination. We get off in each city and try to sleep on the street for a few hours and then we get on board the next train.
A culture of respect for migrants
Guadalajara, the capital of the western state of Jalisco, lies on the longest of the three routes to the US.
We believe approximately 8,000 migrants come through Guadalajara each year, says Enrique Gonzalez, a fresh-faced lawyer with circular glasses and a thick ginger beard. In almost six years weve helped about 20,000 people.
Gonzalez is FM4s legal representative and one of six formal employees.
The organisation relies on regular donations and 140 volunteers to support the migrants who pass through. Founded 11 years ago, FM4 opened its first kitchen and day shelter in 2010 but had to shut it down last summer after the surrounding streets became a hive of coyotes, gang members and addicts looking to prey upon vulnerable migrants.
With the support of local government, it reopened in a safer area in March. The shelter will soon be equipped with bunks so migrants can stay overnight.
FM4s next challenge is to make local authorities respect the basic rights of undocumented migrants. While federal law establishes their rights to health, justice and education, Gonzalez says this legislation is rarely enforced in Jalisco because there is no state law to back it up. Migrants can currently report crimes or receive medical attention if accompanied by lawyers, he says, but if they attempt to do so alone they risk being unlawfully deported.
Working closely with FM4, Jaliscos first independent state congressman, Pedro Kumamoto, recently proposed a law that would guarantee migrants rights to health, education, justice, and legal recognition of any children born here, while outlawing labour discrimination. The bill already has sufficient congressional support to be voted into law, Kumamoto says, although the state governor must then ratify it.
With migrants currently suffering institutionalised xenophobia and discrimination, Kumamoto tells Al Jazeera that Jalisco is facing a humanitarian crisis. We must build a culture of respect for migrants, he says. We want full recognition of the rights of all people, regardless of their immigration status.
Danger everywhere
Although the western route through Guadalajara takes twice as long to traverse as the central and Gulf routes, many migrants consider it the least dangerous option.
In eastern Mexico predatory drug gangs such as Los Zetas are known to kidnap migrants for ransom, forced labour or prostitution. In 2010, the Zetas massacred 72 migrants who refused to work for them or could not pay for their release. But, Gonzalez emphasises, this doesnt mean the western route is safe. Theres violence here too and there are fewer shelters along this route.
REPORTERS NOTEBOOK: The personal horrors behind Mexicos gang violence
Women account for just 9 percent of migrants on the western route, Gonzalez explains, as they typically take the shorter routes. Yet they face dangers whichever path they choose, with Amnesty International estimating that 60 percent of female migrants suffer sexual violence.
Ive spoken to women who were travelling alone and in order to survive, in many cases they find a partner and offer them sexual favours throughout the entire journey, in return for protection, Gonzalez says. That way they avoid being raped by 10 or 20 people.
Asylum in Mexico
Despite the dangers, many migrants feel it is worth the risk to escape the violent realities of home.
I want to do something good with my life. Life in Honduras is very difficult with all the gangs there, a former gang member explains. I have a couple of gunshot wounds in my leg from when I was 15. I used to do bad things but then I got out and started working as a mechanic. Now I want to get further away.
Few of the migrants fleeing the violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador realise they may be eligible for refugee status in Mexico. FM4 is currently helping 10 migrants to apply for asylum, although Gonzalez admits its a difficult process as the Mexican authorities are as tough on immigration as their US counterparts.
Asylum is an attractive proposition for Eduardo Ramos, a 42-year-old Salvadoran businessman who arrived in Guadalajara a month after leaving home by bus. Having previously lived for nine years in the US, Ramos had saved enough money to build a home and open a business back in El Salvador.
When I returned home I was extorted by street gangs and even the police. Then my oldest son was kidnapped. I sold everything I had to pay for his release, Ramos says.
I was planning to return to the United States but now theyre offering me asylum here in Mexico. If I can stay here legally Ill bring my family and start a peaceful new life away from the gangs. I dont want to return to my country.
READ MORE: Mexicos lost generation of drug addicts
There is also plenty of internal migration in Mexico. Of every 10 migrants that come through here, four are Mexicans. They usually come from the poorest, most marginalised southern states like Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca, Gonzalez notes. Theyre not necessarily migrating to the United States, but to northern Mexico, where theres seasonal agricultural work.
This is the case with Laureano, 23, and Lenin, 37, from southern Tabasco state. Were migrating for economic reasons. Work is scarce in Tabasco and pay is very low, Laureano explains. Were going to work in the vineyards in Tijuana. The grape season is about to start and theyll pay us in dollars there.
With no money for bus tickets, they have been travelling on the train for almost a week. Its very dangerous, Laureano says. Many of our companions have been injured and weve even seen people fall from the train and lose their lives.
Having lost their few belongings along the way and suffered during bitterly cold nights, the pair were relieved to reach the FM4 shelter.
I wasnt expecting anything like this, Lenin says. Theyve been really kind and treated us like family.
Follow Duncan Tucker on Twitter: @DuncanTucker
Dakar, Senegal Every morning, Ibrahima Syla arrives early to open the doors of the Fama Boutique, his shop at the Soumbedioune Craft Village in Dakars Medina neighbourhood. Along the narrow shop walls, the entrepreneur arranges his leather creations handbags, wallets and shoes fashioned out of snake, crocodile and camel.
Leather is in my blood, says the 56-year-old, who learned the art of working with animal pelts from his father. I can kill the animal, tan it, cut it, and produce it.
Sylas handicrafts retail at between $10 and $175, depending on their size and the type of leather. Many of his customers are European or American tourists eager to snag a leather handbag for a fraction of the price they would pay at home.
Tourists who come to Senegal and appreciate art come to [the Craft Village] to buy something original, explains Syla. It is illegal to sell items here that arent made in Senegal.
The former president, Leopold Sedar Senghor, established craft villages around Senegal to protect the countrys traditional artisans.
But Syla, who has worked in Soumbedioune since 1999, says he has noticed a rise in Chinese vendors selling imitation products in markets across the city over the past two decades.
I feel concerned about it [affecting my business], he says. An original product is something like a dream and you dont want someone to take it.
Chinese products
In Senegal, Chinese-made goods are often equated with low-cost, low-quality products. Many merchants hawking their wares to both local and foreign customers hesitate to admit that an item is made elsewhere even in the rare case that it carries a Made in China or Made in India label.
In terms of business, you have both sides: you have local people in any country in the world who benefit from products coming from elsewhere, explains Daouda Cisse, an expert on Chinese imports and exports to African countries. You also have buyers who favour certain products because of [the customers] purchasing power.
The owners of stalls in Ngor Beach, Pointe des Almadies and Sandaga display products they say they made by hand themselves, although there is a clear similarity between most of the items on offer around the nations capital.
Not far from the ferry terminal to Ngor Island, a shopkeeper who introduces himself as Mame Fall welcomes us to his small store. Although he sells the same objects as his neighbours, Fall says he stitched every piece by hand.
[This dress] is made in Senegal I made it at home, he says. The workshop here is small, so I just expose my work here and make them at night.
While the dress isnt labelled, several cotton T-shirts featuring pieces of African-style print have a Made in India label on the collar. When asked about them, Fall doesnt miss a beat.
[The T-shirts] are Senegalese, he explains. Its Senegalese fabric I buy the T-shirts and afterwards, I add the Senegalese fabric.
Similar items can be found across Dakar.
Sino-Senegalese economics
After a decade of recognising only Taiwan, Senegal re-established diplomatic ties with the Peoples Republic of China in 2005. Chinese products amounted to 7.7 percent of the countrys total imports, at a value of nearly $407m, in 2015 (PFD).
Chinas largest exports to Senegal are manufactured goods. Cisse says local production of clothing and footwear has been most affected by this, but Chinese-made handicrafts are also entering the market.
Senegal itself is a good place for handicrafts. There is a competition happening nowadays with the Chinese handicrafts coming into the market, he explains. But I still think people would be more in favour of buying local handicrafts than Chinese ones.
Some of these items are sold by the dozens of Chinese shopkeepers concentrated in the Centenaire neighbourhood. These vendors often double as importers or wholesalers who sell their products to local entrepreneurs.
And, despite concerns for his own livelihood, Syla says he has no qualms with the Chinese vendors selling their products in Dakar.
I am not against the Chinese because they also need to earn their daily bread, he explains. I would like that the Chinese make original things. They are capable of doing so.
Made in Senegal
Tourists are among the most sought-after clientele for Dakars handicraft vendors. With an estimated 836,000 arrivals in 2014, 306,000 jobs or 9.9 percent of the countrys total are connected to the tourism industry (PDF).
American Carmen Paraison visited Dakar from her current residence in the Ivory Coast. The 27-year-old bought several souvenirs from the citys markets, including a boubou a traditional dress. While the items arent labelled, Paraison believes most of her purchases were made in Senegal, with the exception of the boubou.
This particular store that I went into had many different boubous among other products like purses, key chains and jewellery. They had a very large quantity of each product in different colours, explains Paraison. Variety is fine, but it just looked like [the handicrafts] were mass-made.
Counterfeits of traditional clothing and fabrics, such as Ghanas famous kente cloth, are commonplace in West African markets. The more affordable copies are often made in China and imported across the continent, but retain some distinct differences from the locally made versions.
I could tell that it wasnt real traditional African fabric and the construction of [the dress], the way that it was sewn, I could tell that it wasnt hand-made, continues Paraison. The boubou was in a plastic cover and it just looks like it was something made in a factory.
While Paraison was hoping to only purchase locally made products to support Senegalese artisans, she is sympathetic to the vendors predicament.
When the shopkeeper says something is not made in China and it clearly is, I do feel deceived, she says. But at the same time, I dont think they want to readily admit that these things are made somewhere else.
Artisans such as Syla rely on their customers ability to differentiate between products of varying quality.
When asked if he would support a Made in Senegal label initiative, Syla says it would meet with a mixed response.
There are vendors who do that, but there are other [shopkeepers] who dont want that, he explains. I put my business cards in all my creations to show that I made it.
Ali Haider Gilani, abducted in 2013, was recovered in a joint operation by Afghan and US forces, foreign ministry says.
US and Afghan forces have freed the kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister in Afghanistan, the Pakistani foreign ministry has said in a statement.
Ali Haider Gilani, the son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces, the statement on Tuesday said, adding that preparations were being made to return him to Pakistan following a medical check-up.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chairman of the prominent Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), tweeted that Ali Haider Gilani had been recovered in a successful operation.
PM @YR_Gillani received call from ambassador of Afghanistan.His son @haidergilani has been recovered in a successful operation.Alhamdulillah BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) May 10, 2016
The rescue operation was carried out overnight Monday in the eastern border region of Paktika province, and according to the Afghan government, Gilani was being held by al-Qaeda affiliated group.
Al Jazeeras Qais Azimy, reporting from Kabul, said the news demonstrated the capabilities of Afghan security forces in the restive border region, and could possibly pave the way for a thawing of relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Afghan government has spent the past few years trying to build trust with Pakistan, and this could be one of the reasons why they pushed to secure the release of Gilani, he said.
The news comes just over three years after Gilani was kidnappedby suspected Taliban fighters in a hail of gunfire on May 9, 2013 in Pakistan, two days before the national election in which he was campaigning.
Gunmen on a motorbike opened fire before abducting him in a black Honda car on the outskirts of Multan in Punjab province. His secretary and a bodyguard were killed, and four people wounded.
In May last year he was able to phone his father to tell him he was well.
Gilani senior was prime minister from March 2008 until he was sacked and indicted by the Supreme Court in April 2012 for refusing to re-open corruption cases against the then-president.
He had complained after the kidnapping that his family was not given security despite being threatened.
Explosion targets armoured police vehicle in centre of the city, killing three and wounding at least 45.
A car bomb struck an armoured police vehicle in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir, killing three people and wounding at least 45, the governors office said in a statement.
The explosion went off in the district of Baglar in the centre of the city, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.
Explosives in the vehicle were detonated from a distance as the police van passed, wounding 12 police officers, the statement added.
Five of the wounded were inmates being moved while under police custody, a security source said.
Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr, reporting from Gaziantep near the Turkey-Syria border, said the Turkish government has labelled it a terrorist attack and the wounded included police officials as well as civilians.
In March, seven policemen were killed in a similar attack, a car bomb targeting the police, and even today the police were targeted in another town, she said.
Parts of Diyarbakir and other towns in the region bordering Syria, Iraq and Iran have seen intense security operations since conflict between the state and PKK re-ignited last July.
Earlier on Tuesday, two police officers were killed while attempting to defuse a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Van, Anatolia news agency said.
Turkeys southeast has been rocked by waves of violence since a ceasefire between the PKK and the government collapsed last July.
The PKK has been fighting against the Turkish state since 1984, initially for Kurdish independence, although it now presses for greater autonomy and rights for the countrys largest ethnic minority.
The Egyptian government has been using disproportionate force in dealing with protesters, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders who appear to be taking part in peaceful protests or dissenting, the United Nations has said.
The worsening crackdown on peaceful protest and dissent in Egypt represents a further setback for an open political environment and a vibrant civil society, said a statement released by the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner
The use of force against civil society and against the expression of dissenting views on political issues contribute to a deteriorating climate for the promotion and protection of fundamental rights that form the essential components of a democratic society, it added.
READ MORE: Egypts image crisis has grown worse
Anti-government protests broke out on April 15, and again on April 25 after the Egyptian government ceded two islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia. According to the UN, more than 380 protesters, journalists and human rights activists were arrested during the rallies.
The UN condemned what they called a harsh response of mass arrests and continued clampdown on peaceful protests during the largest rallies in Egypt over the past two years.
Security forces stormed Egypts Journalists Syndicate in Cairo on May 1 and arrested two journalists, two days before World Press Freedom Day.
And last Saturday, Egypt sentenced six people to death, including two Al Jazeera journalists, who were accused of leaking state secrets to Qatar.
Asmaa Mohamed al-Khatib, identified as a reporter with the pro-Brotherhood Rassd news outlet, was also sentenced to death in absentia. Ibrahim Helal, former director of news at Al Jazeeras Arabic channel, and Jordanian citizen Alaa Omar Mohamed Sablan were both tried in absentia.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says Egypt is second only to China as the worlds worst jailer of journalists, holding at least 23 in jail.
Facebook denies that its editors have been suppressing news stories supporting conservative political viewpoints.
Facebook has denied allegations that its editors have been suppressing news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social networks influential trending news section.
The denial came a day after the popular technology website Gizmodo published a report claiming that Facebook editors routinely manipulated the sites trending list in favour of progressive news stories.
The report was based on the anonymous testimonies of former Facebook news curators.
Depending on who was on shift, things would be blacklisted on trending, one former Facebook employee, identified as politically conservative, told the website.
Id come on shift and Id discover that Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) or Mitt Romney or Glenn Beck or popular conservative topics wouldnt be trending because either the curator didnt recognise the news topic or it was like they had a bias against Ted Cruz.
Responding to the allegations, which ironically became a trending topic on Facebook as well as Twitter, social media sites vice president of search, Tom Stocky, said they have found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true.
The Gizmodo report also alleged that as well as discriminating against conservative news items, Facebook editors were instructed to artificially inject selected stories into the trending news module, even if they were not popular enough to warrant inclusion.
Stocky, on the other hand, said this would not be technically feasible.
We have in place strict guidelines for our trending topic reviewers as they audit topics surfaced algorithmically, he said. Facebook does not allow or advise our reviewers to systematically discriminate against sources of any ideological origin and weve designed our tools to make that technically not feasible.
We do not insert stories artificially into trending topics, and do not instruct our reviewers to do so, he said.
READ MORE: Facebook warns users of state-sponsored hacking
The allegations came only weeks after Facebooks founding CEO Mark Zuckerberg took aim at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his controversial policies in a company conference without naming him.
I hear fearful voices calling for building walls and distancing people they label as others. I hear them calling for blocking free expression, for slowing immigration, for reducing trade, and in some cases even for cutting access to the internet, Zuckerberg said.
The allegations in the Gizmodo report draw criticism from conservative and liberal figures alike.
Facebook has the power to greatly influence the presidential election, the Republican National Committee said in an online statement.
It is beyond disturbing to learn that this power is being used to silence viewpoints and stories that dont fit someone elses agenda.
Bloomberg Editor Bill Grueskin shared a link to the Gizmodo report and said:
For anyone who cares about press freedom, this is frightening stuff https://t.co/ET5pbVi0Aa Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) May 9, 2016
Former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who published the first of a series of reports detailing United States and British global surveillance programmes, based on classified documents disclosed by Edward Snowden, also criticised Facebook.
Aside from fueling right-wing persecution, this is a key reminder of dangers of Silicon Valley controlling content https://t.co/BCromK3Wvu Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 9, 2016
Facebook topped more than a billion users in 2012, rising to 1.65 billion users today, according to the analytics website Statista.
The companys largest market is in North America, where it has 222 million users.
The electricity crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip affects every facet of daily life, from making bread, to obtaining medical treatment, to earning a living. It also endangers lives: Last week, three siblings were burned alive after the candles they were using during a power cut set their house on fire.
Gaza is currently on a schedule of eight hours off and eight hours on, but even this is unreliable and subject to frequent change. Distribution is unequal, and cuts of up to two hours are common during each eight-hour span. The bombing of Gazas power plant in 2006, coupled with sanctions and restrictions imposed as part of Israels blockade on the coastal enclave, have exacerbated the crisis, while the electricity network suffered further damage in the 2014 war.
READ MORE: Gaza electricity crisis People are dying daily
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah and the Hamas authorities in Gaza have been at a stalemate on how to solve it. At the funeral of the three siblings last week, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh blamed the crisis on PA policies, such as imposing fuel taxes and refusing to build a gas pipeline to increase the power stations capacity.
Gazas estimated daily electricity needs range from 350 to 450 megawatts, which would rise to 600 if the Israeli blockade was lifted and Gazas economy was allowed to prosper. Gaza currently gets around 200 megawatts a day, well short of its needs, and has started looking to alternatives such solar power although this is unaffordable for the average resident.
Here, Al Jazeera profiles a cross-section of Gaza residents who have been affected by the power crisis in different ways.
Al-Arair family, Shujayea
The al-Arair family still lives in makeshift caravans built on the site of their destroyed home in Shujayea.
When night falls during Gazas rolling blackouts, darkness envelops entire streets. Headlights from the occasional passing car reveal small groups of children playing by the side of the road, as young men sit on the broken walls of homes that were never rebuilt.
We go to bed worrying about flooding and fires. by Asmahan al-Arair, mother
The few shops that can afford a backup generator are bright spots in the darkness. A blue glow also emanates from some apartment windows, as families use LED lights powered by car batteries.
This densely populated area of Gaza City has yet to recover from the 2014 Israeli offensive that killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and flattened entire neighbourhoods.
The electricity network in this area was never rehabilitated, said Muataz al-Arair, a 23-year-old unemployed electrician who shares two tin-sheet caravans with his family of 10.
Electricity lines hang above Shujayeas streets, as many families connect illegally to the network.
When it rains, our caravan is at risk of electrocution, Muatazs mother, Asmahan, told Al Jazeera. The children are afraid of touching the doors. They keep crying until someone comes and opens the door for them. We go to bed worrying about flooding and fires.
One of her sons has a nine-month-old baby. Even changing diapers can be a challenge when its really cold and we have no hot water, she said. The family fears the summer months, which can get unbearably hot in the caravans, with fans only usable for a few hours a day. There has been no progress yet on rebuilding their home.
I cant count the times I started baking bread, and had to throw it away because the electricity went off, Asmahan said. They do not keep to the schedule. And we cant afford an alternative system.
Amany Sadeq, 28, nurse , Khan Younis
At Khan Younis Nasser hospital, nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit, specialising in the care of premature babies, work on a permanent state of alert.
The babies need the incubator to live on. The most important thing is the ventilator. When the electricity cuts off, its dangerous. It needs to be continuous, nurse Amany Sadeq, 28, told Al Jazeera.
The babies need the incubator to live on ... When the electricity cuts off, it's dangerous. by Amany Sadeq, nurse
When the ventilator is down, we have to give manual oxygen to the babies until the electricity comes back, she added. Two months ago, we had to continue pumping oxygen to the babies for two hours, as the hospital was completely out and they were trying to stretch an electricity line from the municipality. The temperature of the incubator is also important and needs to be stable.
While there have not been any cases of death here because of power cuts, the neonatal unit, which typically cares for between six and 10 babies at a time, is one of the most affected by the electricity crisis.
According to the maternity departments clinical nurse manager, this wing of the hospital experiences three or four power cuts a day. While the hospital has three generators, they often need repairing and cannot always be relied upon, particularly when fuel is scarce in Gaza.
Solving the electricity crisis in Gaza is not simply about keeping the lights on; it is about saving lives, Tony Laurance, CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians, told Al Jazeera. The regular fluctuations in power supply as hospitals regularly switch from mains to backup generator power damages sensitive equipment, causes delays to treatment and puts patients at risk.
Despite improvements in providing hospitals with a continued source of energy supply in the past two years, whether through solar or spare generators, the problem endures.
Sameeh Akila, 65, r etired taxi driver, Gaza City
Sameeh Akila lives on the fifth floor of a high-rise building in Tel al-Hawa, a neighbourhood in southern Gaza City. The former taxi driver, used to travelling freely all across the city, now relies on the presence or absence of electricity to come and go from his home. Life follows the rhythm of the power schedule.
There are exactly 105 stairs. I have knee problems, so most of the time I avoid walking up when there is no electricity and the elevator is down, he said.
Sometimes I go to the local mosque for prayer, then stay out until the electricity comes back. I spend my time at the local supermarket and talking to the neighbours, usually from 11am until 8pm, he added.
In Gaza, routine daily activities are governed by the electricity schedule. Some families use backup systems in their homes, but these are normally not powerful enough to operate heavy loads, so people rush to do what they need to washing clothes, baking, charging appliances before the electricity cuts out again.
Sidqi Shaheen, 36, f armer, Khan Younis
Going to my farm morning after morning to irrigate the fields should be a normal, everyday thing. But not here, said Sidqi Shaheen, a 36-year-old farmer from Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Parts of Shaheens fields are located in the 300-metre buffer zone, a no-go area on the border with Israel. Farmers are normally allowed to access their fields up to 100m from the fence, but they often complain of being shot at by Israeli troops stationed on the other side of the border.
Several times, I had to go to the fields at night to turn on the water pump for irrigation after 10pm when the electricity came back on, and of course its dangerous, Shaheen told Al Jazeera. Sometimes we only get three hours of electricity all day. The company does not have a schedule. If they had, I could organise my work.
Earlier this year, the Israeli army sprayed Shaheens fields with herbicide, purportedly to enable security operations near the border fence. He lost of all his crops, as well as the chance to repay his mounting debt.
Previously, his fields sustained more than $11,000 in damages during the 2014 war, for which he says he was never compensated. This harvest was his hope to get back on his feet.
Most of the farmers irrigate their farms with water pumped from the aquifer. The engine operates with electricity, Mohammed Bakri, the Gaza director of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, told Al Jazeera.
Many farmers have installed new engines [for their irrigation systems] that work on fuel, but even this is not available all the time, and its expensive. This increases the cost of production and means farmers lose at least 30 percent of their income.
Aya Nashwan, 19, English literature student, Gaza City
Aya Nashwan was only 10 when Hamas took control of Gaza and Israel imposed its blockade, controlling and severely limiting the movement of people and goods in and out of the coastal enclave. She grew up as Israel rationed all of the basic human needs of Palestinians in Gaza, even calculating the calories each person, on average, needed to avoid starvation.
I didn't remember the last time I'd seen the electricity on for the whole day in Gaza. by Aya Nashwan, student
Like many of her peers, she has never been abroad. Her hope of leaving Gaza led her to enrol in a university course about English literature. An aspiring writer, she joined the writers group We Are Not Numbers to tell the Palestinian truth all over the world.
Nashwan said that students in Gaza often organise study groups according to the electricity schedule, which varies by area, in order to avoid studying by flashlight or low-intensity LED lights, which have caused her painful headaches while studying for her final high-school exams.
Once, a few weeks ago, I was so angry, she told Al Jazeera. I had a presentation the following day, and came back home to prepare it. I waited the whole day for the electricity to come back on, but it didnt.
Another time, I remember that the electricity stayed on all day. I didnt remember the last time Id seen the electricity on for the whole day in Gaza. Everyone was wondering what the problem was, and still acted like it would be cut at any moment. It was something like a miracle.
Ahmed Manasras family condemns the ruling, saying it was an unjust court decision.
Israels Jerusalem District court has convicted a 14-year-old Palestinian boy on two charges of attempted murder after he allegedly carried out a stabbing attack on two Israelis.
Ahmed Manasra was with his cousin, 15-year-old Hassan Manasra, who was shot dead by Israeli police after the incident on October 12 at the illegal Pisgat Zeev settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.
There was no kind of justice in the courts handling of the case this was an unjust decision. We did not expect it, Ahmeds father Saleh Manasra told Al Jazeera.
READ MORE: Oz Israels prison for Palestinian children
Shortly after the alleged attack, Manasra was hit by an Israeli driver who rammed him with his car. A video showing Ahmed bleeding on the ground and gasping for help was shared widely, garnering media attention.
Voices of Israeli bystanders shouting and swearing at the boy, telling him to die, were heard in the video, causing outrage.
He did not have the intention to kill anyone he and his cousin were merely trying to scare Israelis with the knife. There is no evidence that he tried to stab anyone, Tariq Barghouti, Ahmeds lawyer, told Al Jazeera.
This is a racist court and a court of the occupation. It had a preconceived notion about the incident due to the media uproar and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahus statements about it. The Israeli public opinion influenced the court decision and led to the conviction of the child Ahmed Manasra on no basis and without any explanation, he added.
After the incident, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas appeared on television accusing Israel of using excessive force against Palestinians, in which he referred to Manasras case as an execution.
Netanyahu responded by saying Abbass comments constituted a new big lie. The Israeli government released videos and photos showing Manasra alive in an Israeli hospital shortly after.
Another video exposing an Israeli security interrogation of Manasra was leaked to local media. In the video (WARNING: some viewers may find this disturbing) which Al Jazeera cannot verify, several Israeli police interrogators are seen yelling at Manasra and accusing him of attempted murder, causing more uproar.
Barghouti expects that Manasra may face up to ten years in prison, but says his defence is planning to appeal against the courts decision.
How is this an attempted murder when the Israeli soldier, Elor Azarya, who was filmed executing a Palestinian man in Hebron, wasnt murder? A small comparison such as this one is enough to explain that we are dealing with a court without any kind of justice, said Barghouti.
The soldier was charged with manslaughter, spurring thousands of Israelis to rally in support of Azarya at Tel Avivs Rabin Square on April 19.
Manasras next court session is set for July 11, but his lawyer says he expects the session to be postponed until the end of July, after which the sentencing is supposed to take place.
In the latest wave of violence since October, the Israeli army has killed at least 206 Palestinians, including protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers, while 33 Israelis have been killed in stabbing and shooting incidents.
Populist mayor Rodrigo Duterte has claimed victory in the Philippine presidential elections, following the withdrawal of his opponents.
Nicknamed the punisher, 71-year-old Duterte has promised a relentless crackdown on crime and the overhaul of the countrys constitution.
The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said that with 90 percent of the presidential ballots counted, Duterte had about 39 percent of the votes.
The PPCRV is a Catholic Church-run monitor accredited by the government.
Dutertes main rivals the ruling party candidate Mar Roxas and Senator Grace Poe both conceded defeat after polls showed the mayor heading for a resounding victory.
Duterte said he accepted the mandate with extreme humility.
READ MORE: Why the Philippine Punisher could be president
Al Jazeeras Marga Ortigas, reporting from Manila, said many Filipinos had grown frustrated during six years under President Benigno Aquino.
They were years of broad economic growth but that prosperity didnt trickle down fast enough. Aquino and his administration were criticised as too elite, too impersonal, and out of touch, she said.
Tapping into that sentiment, Duterte, mayor of the southern city of Davao, emerged as the frontrunner by brazenly defying political tradition, drawing comparisons to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the US.
He made some astonishing claims that in the first three to six months of office he is going to solve major problems, like crime and corruption, Richard Heydarian of De La Salle University told Al Jazeera.
Of course no experts will agree with him.
The mayors single-issue campaign focusing on law and order chimed with popular anxiety about corruption, crime and drug abuse, but for many his incendiary rhetoric and talk of extrajudicial killings echo the countrys authoritarian past.
He orders his police to basically go out and shoot criminals, Ortigas said. He also says corrupt politicians can face being shot by policemen.
So, there is this fear that he can turn into a mini dictator.
Many Filipinos are concerned that Dutertes style of governance can carry the country back to the days of Ferdinand Marcoss dictatorship that ended with an uprising 30 years ago.
On the other hand, Al Jazeeras Wayne Hay, reporting from Dutertes homebase, Davao, said his supporters see him as an authentic man of action.
He is very popular here. One of the reasons he is so popular is his crackdown on crime, he said. This used to be regarded as one of the most dangerous cities in Philippines, but now its regarded perhaps as one of the safest.
His supporters, people who are voting for him, believe he should take a lot of credit for that.
Some members of Marcos family also had success in Mondays election.
The late dictators daughter Maria Imelda Josefa Romualdez Marcos, who is known as Imee, has won the seat of governor in her home province. And his 86 year-old widow Imelda has run successfully for a seat in Congress for the third time.
Marcos son, Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr, who was tipped to become the vice president, is currently trailing behind his rival, Leni Robredo.
While authorities described the overall conduct of the elections as peaceful, police said at least 10 people died across the country in election-day violence as gunmen attacked polling stations, ambushed vehicles and stole vote-counting machines.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines National Election Monitoring Center said in a statement that they monitored 22 election-related violent incidents.
OPINION: The Philippines autocratic nostalgia
In the worst attack, seven people were shot dead in an ambush before dawn in Rosario, a town just outside Manila known for political violence, Chief Inspector Jonathan del Rosario, spokesman for a national police election monitoring task force, told the AFP news agency.
Another 15 people were killed in election-related violence in the run-up to the polls.
There were several reports of electronic voting machine hitches, and voting was extended in several districts after delays in the opening of polling centres.
More than half of the population of 100 million people were registered to vote in the election to choose a president, vice president, 300 politicians and about 18,000 local government officials.
Health workers have resorted to moving care facilities into caves to protect from air strikes as their numbers shrink.
Doctors and healthcare professionals in Syria have faced attacks for most of the five-year civil war. If conditions of a previous ceasefire are any indication, the strikes are likely to continue despite the precarious new truce in the north.
Providing healthcare in Syria means living under the constant threat of air bombardments, a lack of basic equipment, or an inability to provide patients with chronic disease the medicines they need.
Media attention flared after an air strike on a medical facility operated by Reporters Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross killed 30 people last month.
But for doctors and other health workers in the country, such attacks on their care centres are nothing new.
Syrias Yamadiya hospital in north Latakia near the Syria-Turkey border was being bombed while the United Nations still claimed the existence of a ceasefire. The first hit came on March 23 at about 11am when nearly 40 bombs rained down on the hospital, Dr Saira Murady told Al Jazeera.
Murady attributed the attacks to Syrian government forces. It was not possible to independently verify the claim.
READ MORE: Al-Qaeda chief urges Syria rebel groups to unite
Yamadiya hospital was originally a small tent facility established to help internally displaced people. The hospital staff moved into a school and expanded services to accommodate the increase in war refugees.
But the bombing continued even after the staff relocated hospital operations.
Dr Abu Ali sustained a broken arm and chest wounds in one such attack. The hospital and its remaining doctors, including Murady, now work out of a nearby cave in the hope of protecting patients and themselves.
The attacks are not Muradys only concern. The violence has meant a dwindling number of physicians with advanced training in specific medical procedures, and hospitals have been forced to rely only on the doctors who remained inside Syria.
We get used to working under bombs, but the hard part was bringing specialists in this area, said Murady, who began working at the hospital in 2013 as an emergency room physician.
Deadly attack hits hospital in Syrias Aleppo
Dr Bachir Tajaldin visits Yamadiya hospital every two weeks after leaving the area in 2012 out of concern for his familys safety. He linked the high number of amputations at Yamadiya hospital to the lack of specialists in vascular surgery.
Theres no replacement for this health staff. The normal situation when you lose a doctor or a nurse, there is a new generation of the health staff that have graduated from the universities and institutes. But now the hospitals are destroyed and universities are in government-controlled areas, said Tajaldin.
Dr Hasan al-Araj was the last cardiologist in Hama province. He worked out of a hospital built into the side of a mountain, but was killed in the second week of April when an ambulance he was riding in was bombed in an air strike, according to Syrian American Medical Societys Lobna Hassairi.
The organisation previously functioned as a networking group for Syrian doctors in the United States, but has transformed its focus to on-the-ground efforts since the start of the civil war. The medical society now has 106 facilities in eight Syrian provinces.
Hassairi shared a quotation from Araj after his death. In a blog post, when asked what he would say to the international community about medical professionals working in Syria, Araj wrote, We need protection.
Mohamad Katoub is also concerned by the lack of medical specialists working in the country.
Katoub is an advocacy manager on behalf of hospitals and medical facilities in East Ghouta, near the capital Damascus. East Ghouta was the site of chemical attacks in 2013 which killed about 1,000 people.
Describing strikes on healthcare facilities as the main challenge to doctors, Katoub spoke about the difficulties of working with limited medical supplies in besieged areas.
Katoub said the chief of the intensive care unit at a hospital in East Ghouta instituted new standards after comparing supplies and equipment to the average number of patients admitted. Patients were limited to two litres of IV fluid a day, regardless of their needs.
The doctor said no more than two litres. Even if he will die, we cannot spend more than two because the third litre will save another life, Katoub said.
The Syrian government is deliberately maintaining the scarcity of medical supplies, according to Elise Baker, research coordinator for Syria for Physicians for Human Rights.
The few aid deliveries that are able to get through, the Syrian government is still stripping out medical aid, said Baker.
The group received information from field sources that the few supplies that do get through to besieged areas are often not usable. Bakers sources reported receiving expired medicines, defective syringes, or injectable drugs without the required syringes.
Shadi Martinis family owned a hospital in the main northern city of Aleppo, where he worked as a health administrator before the civil war started in March 2011. He is now on the board of Orient for Humanitarian Relief, an organisation that supports medical care in Syria and Turkey.
READ MORE: Aleppo patients have nowhere to go
A group of doctors he works with in Idlib province was also forced to move their field operations into a cave because of the repeated bombings. If the doctors and patients manage to survive barrages, there is still the issue of a scarcity of supplies.
Once a month they will get a direct hit, so all the time we have to bring new equipment, Martini said.
In one month, the ambulance network Martini oversees received 13 direct hits.
Martini said doctors and healthcare workers try to keep ambulances from being targeted from above by digging large holes in fields with lots of trees, so the vehicles can take cover when they come under fire.
Over a dozen reportedly killed in strikes hours after ceasefire extended in nearby Aleppo.
New air strikes on the town of Binnish in Idlib province in Syrias northwest have killed at least 14 people.
Fighting also appeared to continue on Tuesday inside and around the city of Aleppo, 50km from Idlib city, according to the British-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Government forces and rebels in Aleppo had initially agreed on Monday to extend their truce for a second time, according to the army, as the United States and Russia vowed to redouble efforts to end the five-year conflict.
The cessation of hostilities was initially to last for two days but was later extended until Tuesday at 00:01 am (21:01 GMT Monday).
Announcing a further prolongation, the army command said: The regime of silence in Aleppo and its province has been extended by 48 hours from Tuesday 01:00 am [local time] to midnight on Wednesday.
The US and Russia also agreed to try extend a February 27 ceasefire across the whole of the country.
But Tuesdays deadly airborne raids, by either Syrian or Russian warplanes wounded dozens of other Syrians, the Observatory said.
A local rebel commander was among those killed. There were no immediate details about other casualties.
Idlib province, which borders Turkey, is almost completely controlled by rebel groups, including the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front along with Ahrar al-Sham.
Washington and Moscow on Monday hailed some progress in reducing the fighting but admitted to ongoing difficulties in achieving a de-escalation in some areas as well as in ensuring humanitarian access to besieged areas.
On Sunday, Syrian rebels fired rockets into a regime-held district of Aleppo, killing five civilians including two children, the Observatory reported.
Video shows masked man shouting the Arabic phrase before setting off an explosion at an anti-terror training exercise.
Efforts to fight terrorism should not be hampered by perpetuating sterotypes against Muslims, said the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), after police in England used the phrase Allahu Akbar at an anti-terror training exercise.
Mondays exercise at a shopping mall in Manchester comprised more than 800 volunteers, including a masked man dressed in black who, in video footage, was seen running and shouting the words before setting off an explosion.
Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the MCB, told Al Jazeera that by using this word [in the terror training], Muslims around the world are being associated with terrorists.
Muslims use this term in prayers and is a perfectly noble term and we must not allow the terrorists to hijack it, said Versi.
READ MORE: Visit my mosque day in UK bids to tackle Islamophobia
Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan from Greater Manchester Police said while the exercise was based on a suicide attack by an extremist Daesh [ISIL] style organisation, the use of the word was unacceptable.
On reflection we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam.
We recognise and apologise for the offence that this has caused.
Versi added that using this term in such exercises is not helpful in any way before welcoming the police for recognising the problem and for apologising.
Reactions raced through social media, mostly on Twitter, where people condemned the act.
Im disgusted by Manchester Police using Allah hu Akbar in a terrorism training exercise. Once again demonising Muslims and Islam, said a Twitter user.
https://twitter.com/a_leesha1/status/730058261169373184
Absolutely disgusting from Greater Manchester police. 'Allah hu Akbar' is one of our most holy phrases and they too have disrespected it sofwan (@SofwanAhmed) May 10, 2016
Police said there was no specific threat in Manchester and that the exercise was devised in December, a month after the Paris attacks that killed 130 people.
READ MORE: Muslims face worsening environment of hate in UK
A British Muslim Labour party candidate, Sadiq Khan, was sworn in as Londons new mayor this month after receiving the largest number of votes of any London mayoral candidate ever.
Some of the fault lines surrounding Khans election were visible on social media where many users mocked what they saw as xenophobic responses to Khans mayorship.
The case against Assange is as political as it is legal; where does it go from here? Plus, Kenyas election influencers.
Bray JazzVarious venues Bray , IrelandApril 29 -May 1, 2016With first-rate music festivals mushrooming all over Ireland, Bray Jazz remains a highlight in a crowded calendar. Now in its seventeenth year, Bray Jazz' tried and tested format strikes a pleasing balance musically, with jazz, folk and world musics in the afternoon and evenings catering for the traditionalists and modernists alike. The weekend program, whilst full, is not overly cluttered, and mornings are left free to either catch up on sleep, explore the oldest of Ireland's seaside towns, walk by the shore or venture into the heather-clad foothills of the Wicklow Mountains.The seventeenth Bray Jazz Festival served up a colourfully eclectic program, with a series of outstanding duo concerts in the Town Hall pointing to a more themed approach to programing this year. Enthusiastic crowdsthe largest for some yearswere treated to the contrasting strains of jazz from Europe and the Americas, withand theTrio presenting two very different sides of the same coin.And in this, the centenary of the Easter Rising, when Republicans raised arms against British rule in Ireland,'s suite A Shy-Going Boy cast a highly personal light on events whose significance is still the source of fresh analysis and debate a hundred years on.As ever, high calibre local bands marked the Bray Jazz Trail, with the town's great pubs, hotels and eateries resonating to the sounds of vocal jazz standards, bebop, soul, funk, free-jazz and more bedsides, on this busy and memorable Bank Holiday weekend.Traditionally, the opening concert of Bray Jazz has kicked off in the Town Hall in the early evening, but with plans seemingly afoot to grow the festival, Bray Jazz 2016 got underway at one o'clock, and in a new venue to boot.The Well, a church with a long and convoluted history, had hosted workshops in past editions of Bray Jazz but this year was the first time that concerts were staged here as part of the festival's main program.Mexican pianist Alex Mercado has grabbed a little spotlight since the release of his second album Symbiosis (Self-Produced, 2014), which featured heavyweightsand.This performance, however, drew mainly from his recent solo piano release, Refraction (Self-Produced, 2015), and it was a performance full of flare and vision."Art is a prism that absorbs reality and turns it into colors," Mercado told the audience. With the church's columns and arches bathed in blue and orange spotlights, and with the natural sunlight filtering through the church's windows, Mercado's musical prism reflected the dual strands of classical and jazz that inform his idiom. Melodically and rhythmically pronounced, Mercado's impressive two-handed technique unleashed technical bravura on thrilling tracks such as "Magnifying Glass" and "Aguila o Sol," and refinement on the quietly mesmeric "Refraction" and the elegiac "Broken Light." Whether attacking or caressing the Steinway keys, a notable classical vein colored Mercado's dramatically undulating compositions, including one wholly improvised number."Metropolitan Blues," inspired by Mexico City, captured the chaotic rhythmic currents of the densely populated metropolis, and brought more overtly jazz-influenced playing from Mercado than at any time during his performance, from bluesy cadences to accelerated-esque runs. A stellar performance concluded with the episodic title track to Mercado's first album, The Watcher (Self-Produced, 2012), an energetic number of grand design.A technical heavyweight and a bold yet nuanced composer, Mercado is a virtuoso of whom we're sure to hear more.Bray Town Hall has played host to more folk music than jazz in the festival's life but such is the quality of the music, year after year, concert after concert, that these sunset performances are often a highlight of the three days. Harpist Catriona McKay and fiddler Chris Stout, without doubt, provided one of the most memorable concerts of Bray Jazz 2016.Drawing inspiration from the music of Scotland's Northern isles, the duo began with the gentle "Louise's Waltz" before unleashing the foot-stomping reel "Time to Retreat." Having collaborated for twenty years and recorded together for over ten, the deep-rooted connection between the two musicians was pronounced, both on lyrical airs such as the hymnal "A Home Under Any Tree" and on jigs and reels where lead and comping roles were swapped back and forth either side of exhilarating unison play.McKay's rhythmic, melodic and harmonic dexterity was simply phenomenal and her comping was every bit as thrilling as her lead lines; not for nothing was the harpist voted Scottish Traditional Instrumentalist 2014. Stout was no less impressive and together the duo spun a virtuoso masterclass on "Edges of High Water." A two-part segment from Seavaigers (Coda, 2014)the duo's collaborative suite with composer Sally Beamishbegan with a haunting lament recalling a mass-drowning of fishermen in the late 18th century; Catriona's unaccompanied harp then broke through the pervading melancholy like a shaft of sunlight, ushering in a delightfully cheery, upbeat melody.Two stirring reels with the working title of "Barry's Reels" were inspired by a project the duo undertook in 2014 with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra"a good gig to land" quipped Stoutand Irish classical pianist Barry Douglas. Meaty rhythms underpinned flowing melodies, with McKay bringing Piazzolla-esque drama to the second reel. A captivating concert was rounded off with "Michael's Wood," a delicate air of undeniable beauty.Passionate, emotive and upliftingMcKay and Stout's concert will rest long in the memory.It had been three years since Magnus Ostrom last visited Irish shores for two low-key gigs in Navan and Carrick-on-Shannon , and the intervening period has seen the quartet develop into an increasingly powerful live unit. Bray Jazz was only the fourth gig of a tour promoting band's third album, Parachute (Diesel Music AB, 2016), and the four memberswith Adam Forkelid subbing forstuck fairly closely to the sheet music throughout. Yet despite the relatively few road miles with this new material Ostrom striking compositions were delivered with no little swagger and bundles of energy.Melody and infectious groove lay at the heart of punchy tunes like "Dog on the Beach" and "Parachute," and the harmonically intricate "Junas," withand Forkelid afforded greatest leeway to stretch out. Ostrom, however, is also a fine balladeer, as the brushes-directed "The Green Man and the French Horn" demonstrated. The dreamy reverie of the hypnotic "The Shore of the Unsure," the rock-inflected buoyancy of "Reedjoyce," the epic melodic contours of "Longing" and the plaintive tones of "Song for E"Ostrom's heartfelt tribute tomade for satisfying shifts in dynamics.The leader flexed his rhythmic muscles on the lively, prog-rock tinged "The End of Eternity," his solo spot juggling polyrhythmic bustle and humor to great effect. For the encore, the quartet ratcheted up the energy levels once more with "Piano Break Song," delivery a final dose of groove-based melodic medicine of the most infectious kind.What's clear is that EST has informed Ostrom's solo music to some degree, just as Ostrom helped shape the music of that unique, uber-influential trio. Yet five years and three albums into his solo career, the confidence in Ostrom's writing, and above all in the live delivery, leave no doubt that the drummer is plotting a new course all his own.The hullaballoo in Ireland surrounding how the centenary anniversary of the Easter Rising should best be commemorated revealed much about the nation's sense of identity, its unresolved issues with the past and present, the romanticism and the schisms that persist. Uprisings against English rule in Ireland date back to the early sixteenth century but the Easter Rising of 1916, which led to civil war and the eventual partition of the country, is still a matter of emotive historical debate. In the end, however, the big event passed off with color, pageantry and solemnity that seemed to satisfy all.Poets, writers, documentary makers and composers of every stripe all labored hard to commemorate the centenary of the Easter Rising but few had such a personal connection to the events of Easter Week 1916 as Ronan Guilfoyle, whose suite, A Shy-Going Boy paid tribute to his grandfather, Joe Guilfoyle, who served in the Volunteers under Eamon De Valera.The eight-part suite was interspersed with audio recordings of Joe Guilfoyle and Padraig Pearse, one of the leaders of the 1916 armed insurrection, subsequently executed by the English army. The suite was an attempt by Ronan Guilfoyle to reconcile the "quietly-spoken, humorous old man" that he remembered his grandfather as, with the idealistic youth who fought the English and would go on to serve on Michael Collin's intelligence staff and engage in political assassinations.Musically, the suite was melodious and tempestuous in turn, with Guilfoyle's sextet comprised of some of the best musicians from Ireland's exciting contemporary music scene. Saxophonist, trumpeterand guitaristplied rich harmonious lines or wove dancing counterpoint under the bedrock of Ronan Guilfoyle's elastic bass ostinatos,'s lithe drumming and pianist's bold, sometimes angular attack.Martial drums and sombre harmonies set an early tone of contemplative gravitas, though on the whole the suite was characterized by a combustible energy, and a sense of ever-evolving drama. Dense ensemble passages and exhilarating solos dovetailed over punchy rhythms and sharply defined riffs. Kimura played a largely comping role, though her interventions, particularly her two-handed, staccato motifs, were just as thrilling as the extended guitar, saxophone and trumpet solos. Her sketchesbar one rumbling explorationwere brief, but significant in the context of the suite as a whole, conjuring atmospheres both brooding and nostalgic.Drum, bass and guitar carved out a twisted blues that bore Guilfoyle's signature knottiness but the music followed strikingly melodic contours for the most part, gospel-sweet at one extreme and intensely Mingus-esque at the other. To bass accompaniment, the sound of Pearse's oratory championing blood-shedding as "a cleansing and sanctifying thing" struck a chilling cord. The intense ensemble passage that ensued evoked the adrenalin and frenzy of battle that such oratory endlessly inspires. The final segment grew from a quietly celebratory motif into an anthemic ensemble chorus of beauty and power.Even a twenty-minute interruption due to technical difficulties could not diminish the effect of the sextet's performance of what is arguably one of Guilfoyle's most arresting extended compositions. Hopefully, A Shy-Going Boy will make it onto record, take wings, and reach the wider audience it merits.Glasgow'sand Dublin'stwo of the finest exponents of instrumental guitar in their respective countriesfirst came together at the Glasgow Jazz Festival 2013 and the story continues to unfold. With Clark on nylon string Lowden acoustic and Buckley on a solid-body Nemesisdesigned and built bythe duo regaled the Town Hall audience with a delightful program full of lyricism and helter-skelter virtuosity that drew in the main from its recording The Day of the Duo (Self-Produced, 2013). Opening with a cheery rendition of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Triste," the set offered up covers of jazz standards, reimaginings of Celtic folk tunes, a dash of bossa nova and a few originals for good measure.'s tunes featured on a couple of occasions, with "I Love You Samantha"sung by Bing Crosby in the 1956 film High Societyplayed with a hushed lyricism that was in stark contrast to the duo's fiery interplay on the Buckley originals "Floren's Dance"a Calypso-esque jauntand the bluesy "Urban Sprawl," from the Buckley recordings Spirit Level (2000) and Sketches of Now (2008) respectively.Earl Zindar's "Elsa"which became a jazz standard thanks to pianist Bill Evans's fascination with the piece over the yearswas taken at a leisurely pace, as was "Sleeping Tune," a delicate interpretation of a composition by Scottish piper Gordon Duncan. At the slower tempos that such balladry dictated, the chemistry between the two guitarists was particularly keen.The duo stepped up a couple of gears on Jerome Kern's "Nobody Else but Me," unleashing impressively fleet runs on this 1946 chestnut. But for the fact that Kern overslept after playing requests at a party, Clark informed the audience, the prolific Broadway musical composer would have boarded the ill-fated RMS Lusitania, which was sunk by a German U-boat with the loss of over a thousand lives.A prolonged ovation brought Clark and Buckley back for an encore of Luis Bonfa's "Manha de Carnaval" ("A Day in the Life of a Fool"), putting the seal on a highly satisfying set in some style.With four albums to her name since 2004's debut, Ano Neko (2004), Dobet Gnahore is perhaps not the most prolific of recording artists, but as her stunning Mermaid Theatre concert demonstrated, she is certainly one of the most visceral. The multi-faceted artist from Ivory Coastthough based in France since the turn of the millenniumentranced the audience with her evocative songs and wildly exciting dancing, backed by an excellent pan-African band.Gnahore cast her spell from the opening number, fusing her resonant vocals and kalimba to intoxicating effect. Ivorian drummer Mike Di Bo, Madagascan bassist Liva and Cameroonian guitarist Julien Pestre had only been together since September 2015 but they played with the cohesion of a veteran ensemble. On the bubbly "Na Dre," the title track of Gnahore's 2014 release, the singer exploded into dance that was as graceful as a Balinese classical dancer and as athletic as a ninja warrior. Not for nothing has leading world music magazine Songlines described her as "one of Africa's most dynamic performers."Gnahore married striking melody with social consciousness on "Barra," which championed the dignityand necessityof honest work. Gnahore clearly knows the meaning of hard work and the singer demonstrated her percussive chops on bongos as Perstre released a cutting solo. Merengue-type grooves and driving drum rhythms led Gnahore through a wonderfully agile dance that made a seated theatre feel like entirely the wrong venue for such dance-happy music.In past editions of Bray Jazz world music fare such as the Balkans-influenced Yurodny, Brazilian six-piece Orquestra do Fuba and Justin Adams/Juldeh Camara had crowds dancing in an unseated, after-hours venue. This was the one type of venue lacking at Bray Jazz in this edition, though that said, Gnahore's infectious personality had the crowd on its feet and dancing as best it could in the narrow space between seated rows.Political corruption, love, and the condition and rights of African women were at the heart of much of Gnahore's songs. On the gently grooving "Zina"the only song sung partly in English, Gnahore sang: "She is weak, she is fragile, you keep her in a cage. You take advantage of her kindness, she's the target of your rage." Otherwise, Gnahore sang in a number of African languages (she masters seven) and French, her splendid voice as powerful and as beguiling as her frequent improvised dances.Gnahore paid tribute to Papa Wemba, the Congolese singer who passed away just a week before this concert at the age of sixty six. His fusing of rumba, soukos, Caribbean flavors and western idioms influenced the likes of Manu Dibango and Femi Kuti amongst others. Speaking in French, Gnahore gave thanks for Papa Wemba and spoke of the importance of perpetuating his great music.The concert began as it had started with Gnahore stage-front, accompanied only by guitar, her hushed vocals gently captivating. The tempo quickened for the final encore, a melodious tune that invited an audience singalong. A rousing ovation greeted Gnahore and band and the crowd filed out of the Mermaid Theatre, with beaming smiles on every face.The most adventurous piece of programing at Bray Jazz 2016 saw French outfit Chromb! blast The Martello with its anarchic blend of avant-garde jazz-cum-art rock. The deafening volume raised by Antoine Mermet on saxophone, keys and vocals, keyboardist Camille Durieux, drummer Leo Dumont and bassist Lucas Hercberg, however, could not disguise the serious musicianship and sophisticated arrangements, laced with a peculiarly Gallic humor.Warped prog rock or artsy punk?-esque satire or-esque tribute? Trying to hang a name on Chrombs! music is a thankless and fairly pointless task. It was, however, impossible to remain indifferent to the music's force, which proved divisive to say the least. After the initial shock waves of the decibel-heavy, thundering rhythms of the opening number, one woman, at high speed, sought solace at the bar, exclaiming as she passed: "This is a fucking nightmare!" A small number soon exited the venue, having requested and obtained a refund on the grounds that this simply was not jazz!The beboppers, and in turn,, the free-jazz practitioners and the jazz-fusion bands all received similar charges of musical misconduct, though one suspects that Chromb! is unlikely to take such a reaction to heart. For the majority who stayed, the synth-drenched motifs, soaring saxophone, punkish grooves and poppish hooks, wild screams and madcap humor made for a pretty irresistible cocktail. Fun yes, but in no way frivolous. Chromb!'s music was bonkers but brilliantly executed.With several albums to its name, Chromb! remains something of an underground band, though this may change come July with the band's participation at 12 Points 2016, in San Sebastian, where international media and promotors will be faced with the dilemmarun for the nearest exit or succumb to Chrombs! visceral, intoxicating music. There is no middle way.During the three days of Bray Jazz 2016 multiple venues around the town resonated to jazz acts of various stripes, from Nat King Cole-esque crooners to nuanced jazz standard vocalists likeand cutting edge instrumental jazz outfit Umbra. Bray Jazz stalwartsand Max Zaska shared the Bray Jazz Trail with newcomers Vernon Jane and CC Brez and there was an album launch gig for the guitar duo ofand John Keogh, whose album Street Life (Self-Produced, 2016) was presented in its entirety at The Ocean Bar and Grill. Yet with many of the Bray Jazz Trail concerts running at the same time as the main program it was an either or choice on occasion.Two standout shows on the Bray Jazz Trail were the hard-driving, straight-ahead trio Firm Roots (on The Harbour Stage), which featured guitarist Mike Nielsen, bassistand drummer Jerry Fehily, and theQuintet in The Hibernian Inn, with drummer, keyboardist Greg Felton, guitaristandonce againbassist Cormac O'Brien joining the internationally renowned saxophonist Buckley in a roaring set loaded with bluesy bop workouts and timeless standards.Contemporary music in Norway is among the most varied and fascinating in Europe andandare two of the leading figures. The two musicians traverse back and forth the terrain between traditional influences, and, as their recent performance in a large ensemble at Vossa Jazz 2016 demonstrated, in experimental areas too. This intimate duo gig in Bray Town Hall presented the folk, church and classical strands that inform both musicians to a significant degree.On the opening number, over Apeland's subtle harmonium drone and counter melodies, Okland produced a haunting, somewhat plaintive melody that would have brought a tear to a hangman's eye. The tune set the tone for much of the music that followed. The first of a brace of old religious tunes filled the cosy Town Hall chamber with a vaguely mournful air, while the more uplifting second tune exhibited the ghost of the blues in the melody.As Okland explained, in times past many Norwegian preachers traveled to America, opening themselves to the influences of that country's church music, later returning to Norway with an enlarged musical vocabulary. As the organist in Sandviken church, Bergen, hymnal music is part of Apeland's musical DNA, and this element of Norwegian tradition colored the duo's dialog to a greater or lesser degree on almost every song in the set.An injection of rhythmic pace accompanied a pibroch, a musical form of the Scottish highlands traditionally for bagpipes but increasingly played by fiddlersnotably Bonnie Rideoutfollowed by a Norwegian folk tune in 6/8 that, for a brief moment, conjured images of twirling dancers. On the whole, however, the music was just a little one-paced, producing a lasting melancholy effect.Okland and Apeland paid tribute to iconic Norwegian fiddler/composer Ole Bull (1810-1880) with the aptly titled "La Melancholie," from the duo's Homage a Ole Bull (ECM, 2011). A light waltz with a pretty melody, which Okland said was most likely attributable to Bull, was followed by a piece by Edward Grieg, who was also greatly influenced by Bull's adaptations of folk music.A newly minted number inspired by a walk around the Bray headland underlined the spontaneous nature of folkloric composition, while a surprisingly melancholic Norwegian wedding march underlined the continuity of tradition. For the encore, the duo lifted the tempo and the mood a tad with a pretty tune by Okland that wasn't a million miles away from an Irish air. Apeland's closing harmonium embellishment placed a hymnal seal on a timeless folk tune and a memorable recital.Prior to his headlining gig in the Mermaid Theatre, Kenny Werner presented his world-renowned Effortless Mastery masterclass, which he last gave in Ireland at the Sligo Jazz Project 2013 . With an emphasis on playing as opposed to striving or impressing, Werner's inspiring talk will no doubt have struck a profound cord with the musicians present in the theatre.Werner's philosophy about music was much in evidence during the evening concert, withandequal partners in a mesmerizing exhibition of the art of the piano trio. The simplicity with which Werner addressed the opening bars of the Richard Rogers/Lorenz Hart tune "With a Song in My Heart," gradually teasing out more ornate phrases, indeed seemed effortless. With Hoenig, whether on brushes or sticks, the rhythms were pushed and pulled continually, his bass drum and cymbal accents responding to and cajoling Werner. Weidenmueller provided the fulcrum, his solid grooves keeping the ship steady at all times.An extended unaccompanied piano intro bled into a "Siciliana" by Johannes Sebastian Bach, with the trio skipping along at the pace of slow jig before injecting pace towards the end as Werner stretched out vigorously with a series of flowing glissandi. A number of new songs required sheet music for the trio to follow the through-composed narrative, though improvisation was central to "Dinner Under the Stars" and "Animal Crackers," the former an elegant, classically-tinged slow-burner that flared dramatically towards the end, the latter a rhythmically knotty, tightly arranged outing that flirted with dissonance and abstraction.A fresh spin was put on the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein tune "The Song is You," with slow funk passages alternating with dizzyingly fast interplay. Werner married lyricism and virtuosity on "Try to Remember," the Harvey Schmidt/Tom Jones tune from the 1960 musical The Fantasticks, with a brief nod to' "St. Thomas" raising its head.An up-tempo version of's "Pinocchio" featured a terrific solo from the ever-impressive Hoenig, and "Beauty Secrets," the last song on the trio's album The Melody (Pirouet Records, 2015), moved from hushed contemplation to more robust, flowing dialog. A standing ovation brought the trio back for one more tune, a lilting, playful version of's "In Your Own Sweet Way," which featured the incredible sight of Hoenig bouncing a stick off the stage, scooping it up in the air and carrying on without missing a beat; Werner isn't the only one who knows something of effortless mastery.Over in The Well, Swiss trio Vein andwere renewing each other's acquaintance, as they have done periodically for seventeen years. It's a rare collaborative venture for Osby, who has usually preferred to lead his own groups. This gig marked a quick return to Ireland for Vein, following its appearance at Belfast's Brilliant Corners jazz festival in March, but the addition of M-Base veteran Osby, needless to say, created an entirely different dynamic.In Belfast a couple of months previously, tunes like "Under Construction" had predominantly featured pianist's light, classically-influenced touch, yet with Osby stoking the group's engine the tunes were altogether meatier and the energy levels were also raised a notch. One constant, however, was the driving grooves of bassistand drummer, which propelled pianist and saxophonist to some charged soloing. A lively blues tune by Osby featured an extended solo from Michael Arbenz, fueled by incendiary drumming. The ballad "Black Tortoise," from Vein's Jazz Talks (Unit Records, 2015) saw Osby at his most persuasive, with a measured solo that balanced passion and grace. The lighting cast pink, blue and yellow colors on the church's arch and columns, which mingled with the natural light filtering through the windows to contribute to a special atmosphere.Osby sat out a couple of new tunes from Vein's forthcoming release and the music seemed to breathe more minus the saxophonist. There was, however, no lack of muscle and fire in the trio's delivery on the first tune, while the second, a wonderfully melodious ballad, underlined the finesse that is also a hallmark of the trio's play.The quartet reunited on "No Change is Strange," which moved from simmering introspection to feisty exploration via Osby's most animated improvisation of the set. Not to be outdone, Florian Arbenz unleashed a solo of technical brilliance and controlled passion that reverberated around the church walls.Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz," a song that Osby has returned to again and again, capped an energized, engaging set in lyrical, easy-blowing bluesy fashion.The last act of Bray Jazz 2016 came in the late-night venue The Martello, remodeled this year to create the ambiance of an intimate jazz club. The honor of playing the final concert fell to drummer's new band Conclave, a vibrant Latin-jazz quintet steeped in the rhythms of Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian, Haitian and Uruguayan cultures.Guilfoyle's tireless industry, flanked by conguero Ed McGinn, bassist Andrew Csibi, Venezuelan pianist/keyboardistandplaying at least his third gig of the festivalguitarist, drove the ensemble relentlessly through searing Latin-jazz/jazz-rock terrain that eventually pulled the crowd onto the dance floor.Chris Guilfoyle, mining a bottomless well of ideas, reeled off one spectacular solo after another. Osio, an impressive soloist himself, churned out buoyant salsa riffs that ignited the percussionists. Jazz standards were given the Cuban treatment, Afro-Cuban classics were reworked in a scintillating cross between Fania All Stars and early-period Santana.Conclave provided the perfect exclamation mark with which to conclude Bray Jazz 2016. With the musicians all involved in numerous projects, Conor Guilfoyle's combo may struggle to play together with any frequency, but a recording, at the very least, is surely worth a shout.With sold-out shows across the three days for the first time since before the recession, Bray Jazz seems to have turned a corner. The festival served up, arguably, the best line-up of music in its seventeen editions, with many truly memorable concerts to cherish.The Well made for a marvelous addition to the main program's venues and will hopefully host many more outstanding concerts in the years to come. The free concert there by Alex Mercadosupported by the Mexican Embassywas a great way to bring people into the festival and give them a taste of what the larger program had to offer.Bebop, swing, vocal standards, cutting-edge contemporary jazz of radically diverse styles and Afro-Latin jazz meant that jazz was represented in many of its primary colors. African rhythms and Celtic and Nordic folk music enriched the program; such diversity can only succeed in drawing an ever broader spectrum of people to the Bray Jazz.There were more concerts this year than previously, offering greater choice to festival goers. The Bray Jazz Trail was particularly strong this year, with any number of enticing concerts by the best of Dublin's jazz musicians. With several musicians playing multiple gigs in diverse combos an artist-in-residence may be an option worth pursuing in the future. It would be another facet to the festival and a potential leg-up for the musician in question.Bray Jazz is gradually broadening its horizons and there is undoubtedly great potential to grow the festival further still. Satellite towns and iconic locations throughout beautiful County Wicklowhost to innumerable famous film shoots from Michael Collins to Braveheart and from Barry Lyndon to Angela's Ashescould prove a significant draw to those visitors looking for something more than a merely musical experience from their visit.The tourist board Failte Ireland and Wicklow County could be the biggest beneficiaries of such expansion.Whatever the future holds Bray Jazz is in the very capable hands of George and Dorothy Jacobs, who will doubtless continue to steer the festival cheerfully from strength to strength, and from one adventure to the next, much as they have done for the past seventeen years.The eighteenth edition of Bray Jazz will be held over the May Bank Holiday weekend, 2017.Photo Credit: John Cronin, Dublin Jazz Photography
Giuseppe Sabella Three Gainesville Police officers responded to the 34th Street Wall after one or more people spray painted a swastika on its memorial, which honors five students murdered in 1990. It is sick, a responding GPD officer said.
At first, Adam Tritt said he never planned to memorialize the murder of five students in the Fall of 1990.
There were little memorials all over town flowers here, candles there, and we figured wed put a memorial in one spot that was easy to get to, that was central, and that was the whole idea, he said.
When he decided to paint a mural on the 34th Street Wall, Tritt said he never expected it to last.
I was flabbergasted when it was there a year later, he said. I was dumbfounded when they got actual permission to put a frame around it.
On April 30, at least one unidentified person marked the memorial with a white swastika within an existing red heart. A pair of white SS bolts were sprayed next to the heart.
The memorial honors Sonja Larson, Christina Powell, Christa Hoyt, Manuel Taboada and Tracy Paules, all of whom Danny Rolling killed in August 1990.
Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said GPD receives a few calls about the wall each year.
Painting the wall, he said, is still considered illegal, but the department has an unspoken rule to not prosecute people for doing so.
Even if they were painting a picture of sunshine and rainbows it would still be an act of criminal mischief if we followed the absolute letter of the Florida law and, over the past, law enforcement agencies have chosen to let that wall serve as a place for artists and for people to display graffiti, he said.
Police are not allowed to paint the wall, even to cover especially offensive vandalism, Tobias said.
As of press time, the symbols were covered in a fresh coat of black paint. It is unclear who is responsible for maintaining the memorial.
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The recent vandalism, Tobias said, is an insult to the city.
For somebody to want to do something that egregious in a public space is just embarrassing, he said.
Tritt said he never met the students Rollings murdered, but he still decided to create the memorial with his friend Paul Chase.
We were poor; we were broke, Tritt said. We took one scooter to Wal-Mart, and we got the gallons of paint that were left over because they were mixed badly and they couldnt sell them.
The students families planted five trees in the nearby median, each adorned with a students name, for the 10th anniversary of their murders.
Tritt said most people have no idea why the memorial exists, and those who do may still vandalize it.
Theres assholes everywhere, he said.
Follow Sara on Twitter: @saradmarino
Email: smarino@alligator.org
Local authorities said credit card fraud is a consistent problem each year.
Gainesville Police arrested two Houston, Texas, men last week after authorities said they found 25 counterfeit credit cards, according to a police report.
Shoppers are most vulnerable to credit card fraud when they shop online, Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said.
On the Internet, thats the No. 1 place where credit card numbers are compromised, he said. You have to figure out a balance between convenience and security.
Residents are more likely to become victims of credit card fraud during holidays, such as Mothers Day and Valentines Day, said Alachua County Sheriffs Office spokesman Lt. Brandon Kutner.
He said shoppers may try to find the best deals on unreputable websites, sometimes leaving their credit card numbers at the mercy of criminals.
Sheriffs deputies arrested three Miami men April 3 after authorities said they were in possession of 21 fraudulent credit cards, which were possibly created with a machine found in the trunk, according to a police report.
Kutner said local authorities have found card skimmers on gas station pumps, and skimmers have also been found on cash registers in other areas of Florida.
His recommendation: Routinely check credit card and bank statements.
As technology evolves, also the ability for a tech savvy criminal to compromise the technology evolves, and so we see a new type of crime thats being committed because of those technological advances, Kutner said.
Follow Sara on Twitter: @saradmarino
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Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has a huge electoral problem looming on the horizon, and it seems he and many of his supporters either do not want to acknowledge it or would rather dismiss it as a non-issue. The problem is Trump does not seem to do well with a diverse general election constituency.
For one, he has run a campaign that highlights building a border wall, calls for a temporary ban on all Muslim immigrants and refers to undocumented Mexican immigrants as drug dealers and rapists. Trumps rhetoric did well in fact, very well in Republican primaries, but it probably does not have the mettle to win a long general election against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Take a look at the 2012 election, in which former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney lost, even though he won a majority of white male voters. Trump needs to get all those voters, plus women, Latinos and African-Americans. The policies and things Trump has said just dont go over well with most voters. But Trump is lacking something else that he vitally needs: the full support of his party.
Trumps nomination has already splintered the Republican Party in a way that will not be fully reparable this election cycle. While some, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will in all probability come around to Trumps appointment as nominee, other Republicans seem to already be packing their bags and looking to 2020 for a more promising candidate. Many Trump supporters say Trump does not need help from the "establishment," but the hard truth is a general election candidate cannot be picky when it comes to supporters.
The division will likely increase, with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin saying she will put her support behind Ryans opponent in his district this November, recalling a former colleague, former House Speaker Eric Cantor, who met a similar fate. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has also been vocal on the difficulty of candidates who have local campaigns to run and win with Trumps policies as the banner for the Republican Party.
Trump seems to understand his own general election problem to a certain degree, ergo the Cinco de Mayo taco bowl. While it may not be working, it clarifies how he recognizes his own shortcomings, to some degree. On the other hand, his woes with the establishment will be difficult to repair, since he will have to become part of it and unite the party.
Although Trump has started off his general election campaign from behind, winning the primaries by a lot, he has potential for giving gains to the Republican Party this election cycle. Ironically, the things that made Trump so popular with primary voters dont look promising for the future of the party. Trump can continue to claim he is very popular with minorities and women, but saying it will not make it true, no matter how many times he says it. If Trump wants to win, he will have to do something that you cannot do over Twitter or at a rally: effectively organize the Republican Party and make peace with dissenters. If not, his losses against crooked Hillary will be huge. Really huge, folks.
Kevin Foster is a UF political science senior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
Some mornings I wake up, look in the mirror, and thank God for makeup. And then I think to myself, how do men get by without it? Well now, more than ever, guys are embracing the fruits of the beauty industry thanks in large part to the rise of male-specific grooming brands and the gender-fluidity revolution of the past couple years. There's no better proof of this shift than M.A.C.'s newest collaboration, launching June 2. The brand will expand upon Harry and Peter Brant's unisex makeup collection, which originally launched in September 2015. And before you write this off as just makeup for dudes, let me tell you that the brothers have put together a collection of pure makeup magic that anyone, of any gender, can enjoy. It's one of the most wearable collections M.A.C. has released in a while, featuring user-friendly, universally flattering lip stains, brow gels, sculpting creams, and neutral shadows that feel refreshingly simple and incredibly chic. When I sat down with the pair before the launch, the boys gave me the full download on what you can expect.
The brothers agree that their makeup obsession started while watching their mother get ready for red-carpet events and fashion shows. In case you didn't know, the Brants' mother is supermodel Stephanie Seymour, their father billionaire art collector Peter Brant, which basically makes Peter and Harry Manhattan royalty. And while they may have been raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, they technically grew up all over the world, traveling alongside the family's globe-trotting entourage. "We'd help her choose her outfit and makeup colors," says Peter, the older of the two. "We were like little closet fairies picking things out," says Harry.
By the time they were 12 and 14, the brothers were regulars on the New York City nightlife sceneand wearing full faces of makeup. "I was 14, stealing invites from my parents' mail because they weren't going to anything. I have the same name as my dad, so I'd be like, 'Hello, Peter Brant plus three,' and it worked," Peter says. From there, makeup became a passion, and they'd wear it to hide signs of a wild night and to accentuate their features. Fast forward to 2016, and their M.A.C. collaboration does all of the above.
Laser hair removal played a mean joke on me. Every six weeks, I dutifully visited my aesthetician, who spread cold gel on my skin and flashed it with a laser. I kept going back until I'd completed five sessions. And I was elated when my underarms stopped growing 5 o'clock shadows. The hair was fine and minimal; it barely grew backuntil it wasn't, and it did. A few months later, it was as if I hadn't spent six months of time and money on a hair-removal plan. Hell-bent on smooth underarms, I'm starting the whole process over again, now with the help of New York City dermatologist Paul Jarrod Frank. But this time, no mistakes. Here's what most people tend to get wrong.
1. You didn't shave first. Lasers heat hair to damage the stem cells in hair follicles, but if the hair is too long, the laser can burn your skin. That's why "you want hair in the follicle but not above the skin," says Frank. "Freshly shaved is the best for treatment." If you can't resist waxing, allow hair to grow in for at least one week before a laser appointment. And although it takes several months for full laser hair removal, you can also shave in between visits.
2. You didn't go to someone with experience. This may be as obvious as saying don't use kitchen shears to trim your bangs, but it's hard to know how versed someone is with a laser unless you ask. Whether it's a physician, laser technician, or aesthetician, you want to make sure the person does hair removal regularlyevery day versus once or twice a month, says Frank.
3. You didn't check the device. Cool gel, tinted goggles, flashing lightturns out my first laser experience was with IPL. "If you're going to a spa environment, generally you're going to get less advanced technology," says Frank. "IPL can work well; it just usually takes more treatments. And you can have some slightly higher risk of burns." That's because IPL is contraindicated for darker skin tones, including tans. For those individuals, Frank recommends seeing a physician, who can use a more appropriate device. For my second attempt at hair removal, Frank is using a diode laser. It hurts like a stinging, burning emmer effer, but it's also over in seconds and is way more effective than IPL.
2005 ..
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), in collaboration with UNICEF, the World Bank, UNDP and ActionAid, is holding a National Forum on Inclusive Development on 10 May 2016 at the Accra International Conference Centre. The theme is, Promoting Growth and Fair Opportunity for the Poorest. The National Forum is one of a series of national []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
The Secretary-General condemns the deadly terrorist attack against police officers in Cairo on 8 May. The Secretary-General conveys his condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of Egypt. The United Nations stands firmly with the people of Egypt in their fight against terrorism. New York, 9 May 2016 Read more on []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
AR's Editor Joe Shea Talks About Elections On Iranian TV Bear Stearns Saved By Fed As Lehman Bros. Falters; Major Bank
Failure Looms Over Wall Street, Sends Markets Into 200-Pt. Dive Lie Upon Lie Five Years Into the Iraq War
The Administration Still Churns Out Lies by Randolph Holhut A Small Tragedy Even at 90, As Friends Turn Cool
She Knows the Show Must Go On by Joyce Marcel I'll Take Me Imagine John Wayne or Arnold
In Heels, Silk and a Girdle by Elizabeth Andrews Sen. Nelson Calls For New Fla. Primary; Gov Crist Backs 'Do-Over' Who'll Win? Ask Spock Spock.com Engine Predicts Winners
By Site Searches; It Can be Wrong by Jay Bhatti Chatting Up The Cat God Gave Me Dominion Over Him
But I Think He's a Non-Believer by Constance Daley Death of a Thug The Life and Horrors of Suharto by Andreas Harsono ___________________________ This Just In Sierra Club: McCain Ducked All 15 Key Votes On Green Laws (AR) A Work By AR's T.S. Kerrigan Is Chosen As 'Best Poem' By Wordpress Site Murder At Mile 63
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AFTER 5 YEARS, WE'RE STILL LIED TO ABOUT IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Next week is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And it is likely that sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 4,000th American soldier will die in Iraq. [MORE] Momentum
OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - It's 1931, and a 14-year-old girl is standing alone on a stage. She's small and lively with dark curly hair, widespread hazel eyes, slender wrists and an open, eager face filled with the wonder of performing. Her name is Rose, and one day she will be my mother. But now she is performing an Eugene O'Neill monologue called "Before Breakfast" for a ladies' club in a wealthy suburb of Long Island. [MORE] One Woman's World
COMFORTABLE WITH MYSELF by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I'm not sure but I think I may be socially incorrect. [MORE] On Native Ground
ENOUGH FOR A WAR, NOT FOR A PEOPLE by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Last week, the National Governors Assn. met in Washington, D.C. One of the tasks the NGA had on its agenda was to ask President Bush to increase federal spending on roads, bridges and other public works projects as a way to stimulate the economy. He rejected their pleas out of hand, claiming that infrastructure projects wouldn't offer any short-term economic boost. [MORE] Brasch Words
BEWARE THE SELF-REVERENTIAL PRESS by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter called Sen. Barack Obama's surge to the Democratic nomination "inevitable." It also called for Hillary Clinton to "start her campaign for Senate majority leader." [MORE] Constance
A CONVERSATION WITH MY CAT Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Normally, when the cat starts his evening rant of meowing continuously until he makes his point, I just take it as long as I can, pick him up, and put him in the garage for the night. He doesn't want to go, but the meowing stops and I don't care if he likes it or not. [MORE] Momentum
OUT OF STRUGGLE, ART by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Here we are again at the crossroads of art and social change, having the opportunity to watch good and great films about the lives of women in support of the Women's Crisis Center. [MORE] Campaign 2008
HOW TO PREDICT SUPER TUESDAY II WINNERS? ONLINE SEARCH by Jay Bhatti NEW YORK, March 4, 2008, 7:00PM ET -- With the outcomes of the Texas, Vermont, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries to be decided tonight, how possible is it that online searching can predict who will win tonight's primaries? [MORE] One Woman's World
DON'T VOTE; IT ENCOURAGES THEM by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Call me angry and disgusted but don't call me un-American because I won't be voting come November. [MORE] On Native Ground
BUSH AND THE KEYBOARD COMMANDOS by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As the days tick down toward the eventual departure of President George W. Bush from the White House, it's a hopeful sign that most Americans are no longer moved by his Administration's constant exploitation of terrorism for political gain. [MORE] Momentum
WHICH AMERICA DO YOU LIVE IN? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It's a little confusing. [MORE] Make My Dat
THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] On Native Ground
FIDEL RETIRES: NOW THE COLD WAR IS REALLY OVER by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Maybe now, we can finally say the Cold War is over. [MORE] Make My Dat
THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] One Woman's World
POLITICS IS NO PARTY by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Are you having a hard time focusing your eyes? Do you have faint red spots all over your body? Is there a ringing in your ears and do you see wavy lines when you look at your television set? Do your hands shake when you try to hold a cup of coffee? And have you recently been forgetting what day of the week it is - or what year? [MORE] Make My Day
FOR BETTER OR WORSE ... A LOT WORSE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- "Marriage: It's Only Going to Get Worse." [MORE] Constance
YOU CALL THESE RIGHTS? by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- When you express an opinion you hope to persuade others to your point of view. It doesn't always happen but still, opinion writers try. [MORE] Momentum
THE BRIDGE WOMAN by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Out there in America - yes, still - is a generation of women who were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and who came to radical consciousness in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am one of them. Hillary Clinton is one of them. [MORE] On Native Ground
OBAMA AND MY GENERATION by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I originally planned on voting for Dennis Kucinich in the Vermont Primary on March 4. [MORE] The Willies:
WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines? [MORE] One Woman's World
DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I wish I could feel delight in my poet's mansion being like Grand Central Station all the time, but I can't. And I wish my place was such a place that someone would one day write: "Her door was always open and she always made you feel all fuzzy and warm in her presence. She could make a cup of coffee seem like a banquet." [MORE] Reporting: Panama
PANAMA'S VIOLENT LABOR UNREST INTENSIFIES Mark Scheinbaum PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb, 15, 2008 -- After just one day of relative calm, wildcat construction strikes by some members of Panama's largest union flared up again Friday morning, four days after a police sniper shot one worker. More than 140 demonstrators have been injured and at least 500 arrested, authorities say. [MORE] Brasch Words
TO STIMULATE ECONOMY, BUY A CHINESE-MADE U.S. FLAG by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Walking down Main Street, pushing a grocery cart loaded with clothes, toys, and appliances was Marshbaum. Fastened to the right front corner of the cart was an American flag tied onto a three-foot ruler. [MORE] Make My Day
THE TOOTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- To commemorate the death of noted shark exploder Roy Scheider, and the "Jaws" movies that resulted in Erik never setting foot in the ocean again, we are reprinting this column from 2003. Shark Experts 0, Sharks 1 [MORE] Momentum
THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - As I write this, it's raining ice. Maybe a half a foot of snow and ice has already landed up here in the woods of Dummerston. Our cars are encased in it, and the door to the house is blocked. The satellite dish that brings in our Internet service quit about 20 minutes ago - frozen solid. [MORE] The Willies
AMERICA TO HILLARY: GET OUT! by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton has adopted the Rudy Giuliani strategy, and it's working - for Sen. Barack Obama. It turns out to be the strategy all Democrats are seeking - an exit strategy. But it's not for Iraq. It's for her exit from the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. [MORE] Constance
CONFESSIONS OF A DISAPPOINTED VOTER by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- A week ago at just about this time, I completed an article and was about to submit it as scheduled to The American Reporter. I was feeling rather elated, ready to show up on Super Tuesday morning, firmly touch the X next to Rudy Giuliani's name and get on with my day. He was my choice; he would get my vote. [MORE] Reporting: Florida
SIERRA CLUB SET TO SUSPEND FLA. CHAPTER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 10, 2008 -- The national Sierra Club is set to suspend its Florida chapter after years of divisive infighting, the president of the national club told Florida members in a letter delivered to some this weekend. It is the first time in its 116-year history that such a step has been considered by the club, according to news reports. [MORE] One Woman's World
PLANT A NEW WORLD THIS SPRING by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- For a little while, the men will just have to toss and turn in their fear-free-women beds. For a small space of time Hillary Clinton will just have to trudge on toward the White House without my faint applause in the background. [MORE] On Native Ground
VERMONT AND THE 5 STAGES OF CONSERVATIVE GRIEF by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- First, Vermont tried to convince the nation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. [MORE] Make My Day
REBEL WITHOUT A TONGUE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Kids' brains work in amazing ways. At times, they can grasp complex concepts and make impressive discoveries. Other times, you have to wonder how we ever survived as a species. [MORE] The Willies
FOR DEMOCRATS, NOW IT'S ABOUT RACE, INCOME AND GENDER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Feb. 6, 2008 -- It's not a good time to be a Democrat. As the Super Tuesday results demonstrated, the presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has divided the partly along clear racial, income and gender lines - the very distinctions the party has sought to erase in principle but has emphasized in its pursuit of diversity. [MORE] Momentum
SUPER TUESDAY BLUES by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Super Tuesday has come and gone and I still can't get excited about the upcoming presidential elections. [MORE] The Willies
ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY, YOUR PUSH IS NEEDED by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 5. 2008 -- I'm expecting a sea change tonight. I believe that for the first time in this nation's history we will once and forever banish racism as the deciding factor in the destiny of African-Americans, and indeed adopt diversity as our path to the future. [MORE] Campaign 2008
AT 88, EVERY VOTE REALLY COUNTS by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 5, 2008 -- Pearl Turner will caucus for Mitt Romney tonight in Denver. [MORE] One Woman's World
STAND BY YOUR WOMAN by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The black vote. The gay vote. The fundamentalist vote. The Hispanic vote. [MORE] An AR Special
SUSPECTS IN BENAZIR ASSASSINATION HAVE TIES TO MUSHARRAF by Ahmar Mustikhan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Gordon Brown this past Monday feted coup-leader-turned-President Pervez Musharraf at 10 Downing Street, Britain's new prime minister probably didn't ask the Pakistani dictator a question that is now on many minds: Did you order the murder of Benazir Bhutto? [MORE] Momentum
TO THE VERMONT DELEGATION: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. Back when President George W. Bush and Dick Vice President Dick Cheney were building up to their loathsome war in Iraq, very few people were brave enough to call the bullies' bluff. [MORE] On Native Ground
IF BUSH HAS HIS WAY, WE'LL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. - In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that it would endanger the process that has been made over the past year. [MORE] Campaign 2008
CLASH OF COMMENTS AND PROTESTORS AT CLINTON, OBAMA RALLIES IN DENVER by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 1, 2008 -- At least four presidential campaigns of both partiers rolled into in Denver this week ahead of the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" primaries in 22 states, but it was the Democratic presidential contenders who drew the big crowds and duked it out Wednesday. If sheer numbers are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama - preceded by a buoyant and beautiful Caroline Kennedy - won the round handily. He is the overwhelming favorite to win the Colorado primary next Tuesday. [MORE] The Willies
WHY THE FLORIDA PRIMARY STINKS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Jan. 30, 2008 -- I was with my wife and daughter driving the back way from Miami home to Bradenton when we stopped at a McDonald's in Clewiston, the only big town along the vast shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state's precious freshwater reservoir. The McDonald's had three televisions at a central seating area, each tuned to a different network, and our table was in front of CNN as the very first election results started to pour in around 7:30PM. With them, almost as counterpoint, suddenly came such an overwhelming odor of cow plop that my wife started to throw up as we all ran to the parking lot. [MORE] Passings: Suharto
DEATH OF A KEMUSU THUG by Andreas Harsono JAKARTA - A few minutes after hearing that former president Suharto had died in his hospital bed, Marco, a militia leader in downtown Jakarta, raced to Suhartos house, wearing his jungle camouflage and began guarding the Suhartos residence on Cendana Street. [MORE] Constance
I REMEMBER YOU by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga.. -- It seems to be more often lately that the sentiment is spoken but it's always been out there: "You never get over the death of your child." This is true. But the heartfelt expressions come from some who cannot fathom the notion of losing a child; their own child is who is in their mind, not another mother's child. [MORE]
The recent conclusion of National Small Business Week provides a good opportunity to reflect on how vital small businesses are to the health of the American economy: They employ about half of private-sector workers and generate more than $6 trillion in annual revenue. Given their pivotal role in driving our economy, it's essential that legislators and regulators do everything in their power to ensure their success.
That includes ensuring their access to credit by avoiding regulatory overreach in the rapidly growing online lending sphere.
I'm well aware of the challenges facing small-business owners. I used to be one. Starting an enterprise requires courage, dedication and hard work to be successful. Unfortunately, a quality product and sound business plan will not always guarantee success because in today's climate small-business owners are forced to comply with a complex, fragmented, unpredictable and costly regulatory structure.
Another key challenge for small businesses is access to capital. Credit availability has tightened, especially in rural areas like those that make up a majority of my district in Colorado, due to burdensome regulations that have inundated traditional lenders like community banks and credit unions. Without access to capital, many small businesses cannot pursue new opportunities or grow their businesses by purchasing equipment, expanding inventory and hiring employees. Consequently, 28 million American small businesses are at risk for stagnation or failure because of rising regulatory compliance costs for both lenders and borrowers.
Online small-business lending, which uses advanced underwriting techniques, can expand access to credit for our Main Street businesses. These lenders bring technology-based efficiencies to the small-business market, including tailoring the size of loans, repayment amounts and durations to help small businesses gain access to capital they can use to serve their unique business needs.
Online small-business loan applications also create an efficient method for capital distribution. Lenders are able to make a decision about a loan in a fraction of the time and the loan proceeds can be disbursed to the small business borrower's account in days or hours. The shorter time frame enables businesses to move quickly in order to capture opportunities suited to their day-to-day operating needs or short-term use cases. For example, a florist looking to increase inventory ahead of the busy Mother's Day weekend could get the needed funds in a matter of hours and meet the influx of customer demand. In addition, online lenders can offer small-business borrowers a shorter duration to repay the loan, structuring a borrower's repayments to match the increase of cash flow from the loan and reduce debt.
As with most innovations in the financial services market, there have been calls to regulate this sector of our economy more heavily. However, despite claims to the contrary, the online lending space is already regulated. Online small-business lenders, especially balance sheet lenders, are subjected to an existing rigorous regulatory framework, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering regulations, the prohibition on "unfair or deceptive acts or practices" and Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations. In addition to federal regulations, online small-business lenders are subject to state regulations and examination, and many are also subject to money transmitter laws and regulations.
It is imperative regulators as well as my colleagues in Congress approach the online small-business loan market with care and an understanding of the contribution these lenders have made in expanding access to credit. Regulation for the sake of regulation has already had a devastating impact on other sectors of the financial services industry. Using this mentality for online small-business lender will only have negative consequences.
Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., is a member of the House Financial Services Committee.
With the focus on alternative small-business lending growing more and more intense, the threat to innovation is not just from over-regulation. It is also from a number of new small-business lenders that are indeed unscrupulous and predatory in their practices targeting cash-strapped businesses.
Here I am focusing predominantly on merchant cash advance businesses and other business-to-business lenders which are earning a reputation for adding to businesses' long-term financial difficulties when providing short-term financing. Their misguided pricing and other predatory practices are squandering these lenders' chance to play a constructive role in alternative lending's legal and regulatory future. This miscalculation can have devastating effects on future innovation in small-business lending.
Some city and state governments are already focusing efforts on online small-business lenders, which may put the practices of MCA companies even more under the microscope. In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel launched an initiative last year aimed at preventing small businesses from taking out loans they couldn't afford. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will likely pay more attention to unscrupulous small-business lenders after establishing a new position of assistant director for the CFPB's Office of Small Business Lending Markets.
Illinois, New York and California have moved to regulate this industry. The Illinois bill would bar online lenders from making loans in which the total monthly payments exceed 50% of the borrower's monthly net revenue. A separate requirement would require lenders to disclose the percentage of their loans that have defaulted. In addition, online small-business lenders based in other states would be required to obtain Illinois lending licenses. Unfortunately, it will not be long before an established set of differing and conflicting state regulations is limiting small-business lenders across the country, and frustrating innovation in the space.
But the industry is also taking note of bad apples. Stories of predatory practices whereby lenders are scouring Uniform Commercial Code filings for recent borrowers identifying businesses in potentially dire need of funds to entice them to take more on debt they can't afford has led other lenders to believe something must be done to protect consumers. Corporate Turnaround, a company that specializes in negotiating debt payment terms for small-business owners, is seeing an exponential rise in the number of clients coming in for help in consolidating multiple merchant cash advance loans and other debts. Many of these borrowers were likely in a tough place and may have been convinced to take on a short-term debt solution that resulted in long-term financial difficulty.
The broader sector of alternative lenders should be concerned about the effects a few companies are having on innovation and a potential regulatory response. Although more regulations can limit credit availability, some form of government response to the new small-business lending sphere is virtually a necessity to confront the dangers to some borrowers. Instead of waiting to see what happens, small-business lenders should take the initiative to work with Congress to develop sound regulations for the industry. Establishing industrywide disclosure requirements, rate limitations and other measures to prevent lender abuses will not only protect the small-business owners from catastrophic results, but also help to legitimize the industry.
The rapid growth of alternative small-business lending with billions of dollars being lent and new lenders popping up every day is reminiscent of the go-go years of the payday lending industry. Filling a desperate need for cash to those left out of the traditional banking system, the payday-lending marketplace ballooned to heights unimaginable in such a short span of time.
These MCA businesses and other business-to-business lenders, like the payday industry, tout relatively low defaults some industry observers estimates defaults may be close to 15% but the question becomes what happens to those 15% when they default? The sometimes heart-wrenching tales of those who cannot make payments on these loans are making their way into the media and have begun to generate a response from regulators, much as it did with the payday lenders.
As with any red hot market, quality control can be sketchy and a few bad apples can bring the wrong kind of attention to an entire industry. Many payday lenders were overly aggressive in the loans they made, in the collection efforts they used and the legal premises under which they operated. These lenders as a whole ignored the legitimate complaints and worked tirelessly to frustrate efforts to find regulatory and legal compromise. As a result, the payday loan industry and its customers have suffered from sometimes overly restrictive state and federal regulations that caused some lenders to abandon the market, leaving credit-deprived consumers with even fewer credit options. Had the industry been willing to work with the authorities while they were forming these regulations, the dialogue may have resulted in a better solution.
If they are not careful, these new small-business lenders will suffer a similar fate. The complaints of unfair practices and outcomes are starting to get louder, yet the lenders have not come to the table to discuss what is being done and what more can be done to protect the borrowers while also giving them access to credit they desperately need.
Some lenders have taken the prospect of regulation, and the need to engage with regulators, seriously. They admit what while they don't like a lot of regulation it is a necessity for any lending product. Lenders with this attitude, while in the minority, support industrywide disclosure requirements, rate limitations and other measures to prevent lender abuses, protect business owners and in turn legitimize the industry. Additionally, the Small Business Finance Association, an industry trade group, hopes to focus on the education of policymakers and customers.
However, while most companies act honorably and with the best interests of the customers in mind, the lack of oversight makes it possible for more reckless or aggressive players to do damage to both the customers and the image of the industry.
The industry's insistence on being self-regulated is not practical, realistic or advisable. Everyone benefits from the certainty of uniform rules. The mainstream financial services system operates this way for a reason. While it may be challenging, it is possible to regulate the industry but still allow for the innovation and risk-taking needed to serve this underserved market.
To make matters worse, as recently reported, a number of the larger players in this space, such as Prosper and OnDeck, have failed to meet profitability expectations. In the short term, this could put intense pressure on these lenders to employ even more aggressive loan-generating tactics that may result in a further increase in consumer complaints.
The maturing small-business lending industry must do more to create a public discourse highlighting how its innovative lending models really help small businesses thrive. They must also be open to making changes to address legitimate concerns. If they fail to do this, they will likely find themselves in the same business-crushing crosshairs as the payday lenders. The anti-payday-lending fervor severely limited the introduction of innovative lending solutions for already credit-starved consumers.
Without concerted action, small-business lenders could suffer a similar fate.
Kevin B. Kimble is the principal of KBK Consulting Group, and the founder and director of policy development of the Financial Services Innovation Coalition, a group advocating on behalf of a coalition of nonbank consumer lenders, small-business lenders and community groups.
A former cybersecurity expert with the National Security Agency joined the board of directors at Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio.
The $73 billion-asset holding company announced Tuesday that Chris Inglis, a retired deputy director with the federal intelligence organization, was unanimously elected to the board.
Inglis was NSA deputy director in the Bush and Obama administrations from 2006 to 2014, serving as senior civilian and chief operating officer for the Department of Defense intelligence agency. He specialized in information security and intelligence operations. Previously, he served in London as the U.S. government's senior liaison to the NSA's British counterpart from 2003 to 2006.
Stephen Steinour, Huntington's chairman, president and chief executive, said in a press release that he expects Inglis' expertise in cybersecurity will "significantly strengthen Huntington's governance at a time when our industry faces rising critical challenges from cyber attacks," and will "maximize alignment with our investments in information security toward protecting our customers, shareholders and colleagues."
Inglis currently sits on the board of FedEx, teaches cyber studies at the U.S. Naval Academy and chairs the U.S. Strategic Command's Intelligence Panel on the Commander's Strategic Advisory Group.
Its always hard coming out. But its even harder not being true to yourself. So, inspired by Bruce Jenner and other intrepid souls, Ive decided to finally start living the life I was meant to:
I identify as Barack Obama.
Oh, I can hear the cynical statements now. Duke, your I.Q. is 50 points too high. Duke, you can speak fluently without a Teleprompter. Duke, you know there arent 60 states and can pronounce corpsman. Duke, youre melanin compromised. All these things are inconsequential details, the stuff of tiresome prigs -- sort of like genitalia on a man.
Given my identity, compassion dictates I be allowed to use the bathroom of my choice. My preferred bathroom happens to be in the White House. The same is true of my preferred bedroom, kitchen, living room, Blue Room, Green Room and Map Room; and my preferred chef, servants and security detail. Ill have my preferred executive orders, too.
Some backward thinkers will insist I use the facilities appropriate to my station; others, thinking themselves reasonable, will offer to paint my place white and erect four majestic columns at its entrance. To them I will say, youre insensitive, bigoted, narrow-minded, unscientific, ambition-phobic racists who should be killed with fire. As with the children and youths for whom the Obama administration (my administration) has so courageously taken up the cudgels, it is unconscionable to suggest I shouldnt be allowed to use the facilities consistent with my identity.
Many, though, in the grip of white male (whatever that is) linear thinking, will dismiss my righteous claim by flippantly saying Im not Barack Obama. Well, this is my reality not yours. As American Thinkers James Arlandson recently pointed out, philosopher Immanuel Kant informed that we can't know the thing-in-itself without our mind filtering it. Fellow enlightener Friedrich Nietzsche further clarified that [e]verything is Interpretation: ... Against those who say There are only facts, I say, No, facts are precisely what there is not, only interpretations. We cannot establish any fact in itself.
And my own personal, provisional fact is that I have strong and persistent feelings Im really Barack Obama. If you say feelings arent facts, youre not paying attention.
Everything is relative to a reality that isnt really there.
Besides, dont be an unscientific fascist. When a born-male sentient biped informs us hes really a girl which is now old hat and neednt even be questioned rightful deference is shown to his reality because, as PsychCentral.com puts it, he has exhibited gender dysphoria, which is defined by strong and persistent cross-gender identification. Oh, I know youve heard that intrauterine anomalies might cause the brain of a developing XY-biped to not be fully masculinized. Ze may then end up with a female brain. Of course, a recent scientific study purports to have debunked the very notion of male and female brains, but it doesnt matter.
There is no brain scan used to confirm the realness of a gender dysphoria diagnosis.
Theres no genetic test used.
Theres no hormonal test.
Theres no medical test of any kind.
Rather, the diagnosis is based, again, on strong and persistent cross-gender identification on strong and persistent feelings lasting for more than six months, that youre really, deep down, a member of the social construction fascists call the opposite sex.
So dont waste time telling me a brain scan would reveal that I dont have the gray matter of a Barack Obama, that my brain is in a considerably more used condition. Dont tell me that status dysphoria is a mental disorder. I have feelings, too. And my feelings say Im what fascists call the guy I voted for.
The point is that, scientifically, theres every bit as much medical proof a trans-status biped such as me is Barack Obama as there is that a transgender person is an opposite-sex member. Zes stuck in the wrong body Im stuck in the wrong position.
Our trans-status and transgender diagnostic methods would constitute malpractice in any other branch of medicine, you say? You may claim that recommending someone for sexual-reassignment surgery based on a gender dysphoria diagnosis is akin to a patient exclaiming to a cardiologist, Doc, I have strong and persistent feelings I have heart disease! I need a bypass! and the physician responding, Have they lasted for more than six months? Yeah? Okay, well, medical tests show no signs of arteriosclerosis. But, what the heck, Ill cut your chest open. My response to this line of what fascists call reasoning is, youre an insensitive, bigoted, narrow-minded, unscientific, ambition-phobic racist who should be killed with fire.
And be warned, we trans-statuses and transgenders will have many allies in our bonfire of the insanities. Psychologists also define something called species dysphoria, which is when an individual identifies as a different kind of creature. Examples of people brave enough to live as their true animal selves may be Texas resident Wolfie Blackheart, who insists "I am a canine; and a Norwegian woman called Nano who says shes a cat. (Question: if Wolfie and Nano met, would they fight likewell, you know? And would they identify it as a catfight?)
Note also, theres every bit as much scientific evidence of trans-status and transgenders validity as there is of trans-species validity.
In our camp also should be those with Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID). These people insist that one or more body parts, such as their legs or eyes, dont belong on/in their bodies. Not only have some mutilated or blinded themselves on this basis, but there are enlightened physicians who, respecting these patients identity, have agreed to perform amputations. And why not? Remove whats between your legs remove your legs whatever makes you happy.
And remember, theres every bit as much scientific evidence of trans-status, transgenders and trans-species validity as there is evidence that a BIID biped really should be a no-ped. Feelings uber alles.
So I am Barack Obama. At least, that is, until January 20, 2017, at which time I may identify as Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. And theyre coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-ha. Or are they coming to take you away, bigoted, narrow-minded, unscientific, ambition-phobic racists who should be killed with fire? That all depends on the outcome of these refreshingly fact-free culture wars.
May the strongest feelings win.
Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Twitter or log on to SelwynDuke.com
Proponents of Trumpismo define it as an insurgency, a rebellion against years of betrayal, as populist rage against a failed Establishment, or as voters lashing out at what they perceive as disenfranchisement. (They usually really mean alienation, but as the Donald himself would say: Whatever.) On the other side, most respectable Republicans and just about everybody who makes a living claiming to be a steward of conservative thought or policy, regard it as a misguided dead end, fueled by equal parts of fear and ignorance, and while futile in that it will result in Democrat victory in November, it is nevertheless, mortally dangerous because it also threatens a variety of established interests from politics, to corporate cronyism to the conservative clerisy. Accordingly, Anti-Trump die hards recoil in disgust, and mount their high horses in the manner of the severely conservative 2012 Standard Bearer: I see way too much demagoguery and populism on both sides of the aisle and I only hope and aspire well see more greatness.
Are anger and contempt all there is to make of this primary cycle? What if, aside from the bitter enders in each camp, there is something else happening here, and something so important that the real tragedy would be missing the opportunity it represents for the nation?
In Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 (2012), Charles Murray draws a sorry picture of a bifurcating American society and culture. He describes a diminished social mobility and, what is worse, limited social interaction between a new dominant and an abject class -- two distinctive social/cultural spheres whose mutual impermeability have been hitherto unknown in American history. Marriage, industriousness, education, manners, religiosity, and civic virtue and involvement are a few of the forms of thought and life in which Murray, and others, identify as profound and alarmingly self-perpetuating divergences between these two classes. One group looks confidently to a globalizing future, secure in their ability to cope and prosper. The other is threatened on all sides by economic insecurity, family dislocation, cultural rot and the breakdown of everything that once represented the good life in America for working people of modest means.
Murrays shorthand for these two classes at the extremes is Belmont (after an archetypal upper-middle-class suburb near Boston) and Fishtown (after a neighborhood in Philadelphia that has been white working class since the Revolution). Today, denizens of Fishtown and their closest neighbors seem to be overwhelmingly represented among the supporters of Donald Trump. It certainly was an archetypical Fishtown group who engaged in the much publicized dialog of the deaf with Ted Cruz in Indiana the day before his defeat there. This encounter pitted a smirking wise guy (an Ohio electrician) and his bros offering no argument but Make America Great Again backed by an abundance of insolent incredulity, against a spruce, glib, stuffy Ivy League-educated lawyer who could not land even a single punch in the verbal brawl that ensued. Based on this episode, an observer would seem justified in believing that Fishtown and Belmont have little to say to each other this election year. That certainly appears to be the self-defeating lesson Republican political and cultural elites have drawn from the whole 2016 Republican primary process. And so, in utter exhaustion, having barely survived the torturous climb up the primaries cliff, these elites have collapsed just below the peak, unable yet, in their bitterness and contemptuous frustration, to glimpse the fertile political fields in the valley below.
Writing of this election season, Walter Russell Mead has noted:
Up until now, at every similar crisis in American history, a wave of religious revival like the colonial-era Great Awakening, and a series of successor movements has renewed and refreshed this source of national coherence and strength. Without something like this today, its not clear that American culture will continue to support the kind of republic that weve come to think of as eternal and unchanging.
Although it is downright laughable to imagine Donald Trump as a George Whitefield -- perhaps Henry Ward Beecher may be a little closer to the mark -- he could in fact be playing a very unlikely, albeit purely secular version, of that role. Among those who have absorbed Charles Murrays thesis, there has been much despair about the likelihood that the Fishtowners and their immediate demographic neighbors could ever rouse themselves from the morass of un and underemployment, seductive governmental assistance, mal-education, and mass culture degeneracy in which they find themselves. Increasing nihilism, self-indulgence, and moral dodginess seemed to loom for what had once been, and must be again, this very bedrock of American society. And then came Make America Great Again.
Donald Trump is speaking to what has become vestigial folk memory in Fishtown about what this country is, what it has done and what it is capable of doing again. In his undisciplined, meandering rhetorical style, Trump exhibits no fluency in the language of classical liberalism or the American Creed, because he is not a native speaker. Instead, Trump evokes rough virtues once universally celebrated there -- at least until Fishtown men stopped wearing ties to funerals. Of course these are John Fords, William Wellmans, Frank Capras or John Milius truths rather than Frederich von Hayeks, but so what? Trump is offering nothing more nuanced than the Marseillaise scene at Ricks. It is just as sloppily jejune, but it speaks successfully to people untouched thus far by National Review or The Weekly Standard, and hitherto given up entirely by the political class to TMZ. If Trumpismo can spark their political re-engagement then it creates the opportunity to persuade them to embrace the serious, and potentially painful, policy reforms and personal renewal necessary to begin returning this nation to security and prosperity. Rather than fear their reaction, political leaders can once again enlist their energy and renewed faith in America. Instead of deprecating a chance to rebuild social capital, politicians and opinion leaders worthy of the name ought to be prepared to run to the front of the parade and guide it.
Trumpismo may turn out to be a better political opportunity than a pathetic Republican leadership class deserves.More greatness, anyone?
A number of people at AT and elsewhere have written about the New York Times fascinating but also deeply disturbing story of how Ben Rhodes, a callow, unsuccessful but well-connected short-story writer became the Obama administrations primary foreign policy mandarin. This should come as no surprise to careful observers of this administration. Rhodes, according to the Times piece, is Obamas foreign policy guru a man who has a mind meld with the president. What Rhodes and the president share though, is not so much a leftist approach to foreign affairs -- though presumably that plays a role -- but rather a talent for creating foreign policy fables that flatter Obama and his coterie, and can be passed off to lapdog media types as successes. In this, Rhodes is just one more piece of the fictional story that is Barack Hussein Obama, the country and the world his stage, and the rest of us merely players -- if that.
For those that dont want to bother to read the long and mostly flattering article, Rhodes path to foreign affairs stardom came while working for an MFA (at NYU), at which time he had little knowledge of foreign policy or even an interest in it. According to the Times, he had an epiphany after the 9/11 attacks and through his well-connected family (his mother was close friends with the publisher of Foreign Policy magazine) ended up as a staffer for former Congressman Lee Hamilton, a notorious critic of Israel, a topic about which he and Obama also appear simpatico. Rhodes older brother David currently is president of CBS News, though is it fair to assume that in that case, the younger brothers connections to the White House greased the skids of the elders rise.
But what is particularly interesting about the Rhodes story is the essential admission from within Obamas inner circle that Obama is truly an unapologetic and compulsive fabulist. In the case of the Iran deal, Rhodes, at Obamas behest, invented a story of Iranian moderation, and the administrations determination to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, neither of which are true, but which Rhodes sold to sycophantic media types like the Atlantics Jeffrey Goldberg among many others. Rhodes justified this by his contempt (shared by Obama) for the so-called foreign policy blob by which he means the views of vastly more experienced and educated people than he and his boss. The advantage that Obama and Rhodes have over the blob is not any expertise, ability or in the end success, but rather a knack for creating pleasing fictions about the world around them, and then selling them to a gullible press and public.
And this, of course, is the secret of Obamas success in general. Sometime during his initial stint in college Barry Soetero, a self-admitted poseur, transformed into Barack Obama, a fictionalized version of himself that he has since ridden to remarkable political success. Obamas genius such as it is, was recognizing that his unusual background, modest talents and looks marked him as a princeling among his liberal college professors that he could manipulate to his benefit. In the crude words of his future vice-president an articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy who was also a mainstream African-American. On the basis of grades never made public, Obama managed to move from run-of-the-mill Occidental College to Columbia and thence to Harvard Law School. There he managed become editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Review, despite never penning an article, the usual sine qua non for such a position.
This event was significant enough to interest a publisher who suggested Obama write a memoir about his actually rather unremarkable life. In effect, this was the opportunity for Obama to formally fictionalize his life experiences under the banner of a nominally true story. The problem was that Obama lacked the ability and energy to write it. This problem was solved by Obamas rooting section in academia in the form of Bill Ayers (unrepentant terrorist and college professor) who almost certainly actually wrote Dreams of My Father for Obama, something Ayers doesnt actually deny, rather maintaining a deliberate and condescending vagueness on the topic.
Dreams is nothing but a fable, and Obama by adopting it as his own, became a fabulist of the first order. At times he went overboard, as in telling his publisher that he was born in Kenya for the books initial publicity pamphlet, a remarkable error that the Obama machine and media eventually pinned on the publishers employees, though anyone involved in publishing knows the author always supplies that information. Either Obama didnt have presidential ambitions at the time, was just ignorant of the Constitution, or both. That didnt stop him from becoming a Constitutional Law professor, though.
More importantly, although he did not write the book, he rode the critical success of the work to fame and some fortune, and added another significant part to his fable -- that he is a writer of unusual talent. In fact, there is almost no evidence of this. He most probably did not write Dreams, he never penned a law review article either as editor of the Harvard Law Review or as a law professor (again a major oddity) and he doesnt write his speeches -- as the piece on Rhodes makes clear. Sure, he reviews and edits them. Obama is in his own estimation a better speechwriter that his speechwriters or would be if he actually bothered to write one. No matter. It is now part of a fable which has morphed into fact as far as most of the media is concerned. Obamas almost preternatural self-regard reinforces the conception, since either Obama must be man he says or an obsessive liar -- there is no middle ground.
Viewed from this perspective, much of the Obama presidency can be seen as nothing but fable making, especially, but not exclusively, in foreign policy. Obamas feud with Benjamin Netanyahu is almost baffling except in this sense. That a sitting president would nurse and exacerbate a grudge with the elected leader of an important American ally over nearly a decade is hard to explain other than as part of a self-directed fictional psychodrama that also soothes his anti-Zionist animus without being explicitly anti-Israel. Likewise, Obamas phony friendships/relationships with foreign government heads, among them Putin, Erdogan, and Merkel, are actually with leaders who obviously view him with contempt. Hillary Clintons disastrous turn as secretary of state is enmeshed in Obamas fictional bubble, allowing her and her acolytes to claim with a straight face that shes qualified to become president.
Its the same on the domestic front. Just the other day at Howard University Obama bragged that race relations had improved under his presidency, a claim that the public knows is untrue, and which is belied on virtually a daily basis. Does Obama actually believe it, or does he consciously know hes lying -- as with if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor? It hardly matters for the fabulist. The line between fact and fiction blurs until such distinctions are meaningless.
Obama took leftist relativism and the building of narratives, turned it first into biography and then in Orwellian fashion, into governing principle. The lesson will not be lost on those that follow him.
To be clear, I donated to the Cruz campaign, advised the campaign, and voted for Ted Cruz in the Missouri primary. That said, I never criticized Donald Trump in public. My reasoning was simple enough: I planned to vote for him if he won the nomination. Having written a few books about the Clintons, I knew the alternative much too well.
With Indiana, the die was cast. For a moment, I was relieved. It meant that my friends -- some real, more virtual -- would no longer crowd my Facebook page with virulent anti-Cruz messages. The relief did not last long. Even before all the Indiana votes were fully counted, many of my Facebook friends -- some Cruz supporters, some not -- were now posting virulent anti-Trump messages.
A day or two of this defiance I could understand. I respect principled dissent, but Sunday proved to be something of a watershed. I realized that people who would rather post nasty memes about Trump than sweet reminisces about their moms were not sane enough for Jack World. I started unfollowing them.
Many of these posts came with the disclaimer that if Hillary won the presidency, it would not be the fault of the NeverTrump dissenters, but of the presumed idiots who voted for Trump in the first place.
Nonsense. It is as if a conscientious objector announced his principled resistance to a particular war and then continued to boast about his principles once or more a day until the enemy prevailed. That resister could say he did help the enemy win, but no one would believe him.
To be sure, if Trump had not won, many of his supporters would have loudly proclaimed their refusal to support the candidate that did. They would have blamed a Republican establishment that denied their man his due. And they would have had a point. The NeverTrump people, however, can only blame the Trump people.
To call Trump a racist is to call his supporters racist. The irony, of course, is that Trump has not even talked about race. For the record, Muslim is no more a race than Catholic, and Mexican is no more a race than American. His supporters see through this overworked left-wing sophistry.
The charge that Trump is a liberal does not change hearts or minds either. In 2008, the Republican establishment warmly embraced John McCain. Just four years prior, McCain openly flirted with the idea of serving as John Kerrys running mate in his attempt to unseat George W. Bush.
In the faint praise department, Trump is as reliably conservative as McCain. The Second Amendment, the pro-life cause, and our national borders will have more of a future under Trump than they would have under McCain and inarguably more than under Hillary.
The accusation that Trump is brash, rude, and vulgar might carry some weight if establishment Republicans werent so spectacularly docile. It is their docility that makes Trumps brashness and belligerence stand out more. Had they a little more moxie, Trump would still be firing apprentices on national TV.
And to believe there would be no difference between a Trump presidency and a Clinton one is to have ignored the last quarter-century of American history. With the possible exception of Aaron Burr and her own husband, Hillary Clinton has no peer in the annals of political brigandry.
Say what one will, but Trump won fair and square. To insult Trump is to insult his voters. The problem is that there are a lot of these voters, and they have the potential to expand -- or contract -- the Republican base.
In Missouri, for instance, 50 percent more voters turned out in the Republican primary than in a tightly contested Democratic primary that same day. To put that in perspective, Missouri is an historic swing state. McCain carried it by less than 1 percent in 2008.
Many of the Trump voters have not voted for a Republican candidate before. Some have not voted period. They have no particular allegiance to the Republican Party. If the NeverTrump people -- prominent and otherwise -- continue to defame their candidate and disrespect them, they have no incentive to vote for Republicans down ticket.
If, however, Party worthies negotiate a deal with Trump and embrace him at the convention in July, Trump supporters can have a major impact on the partys success in November and going forward.
If not, does anyone know a good defense lawyer?
Jack Cashills new book, TWA 800: The Crash, The Cover Up, The Conspiracy can now be pre-ordered on Amazon.
North Carolina has rightly refused to submit to the politically correct federal bully challenging its common sense law, HB 2, which says restrooms should be limited to people with the appropriate plumbing, and that crossdressers sharing the facilities with your daughter, wife, and daughter is not a good, or safe idea.
North Carolina has filed a lawsuit challenging the Department of Justices ultimatum demanding that the state cease and desist enforcement of that law. As NBC News reported:
It was the state's response to the US Justice Department, which last week gave Gov. Pat McCrory until the end of the day Monday to respond to a letter that said the law violates federal civil rights statutes. Monday's lawsuit called the Justice Department's legal position "a baseless and blatant overreach" and a radical reinterpretation of federal laws, especially the Civil Rights Act's ban on sex discrimination. "Transgender status is not a protected class," under the law, the suit said, and if the Justice Department believes it should be, it should ask Congress to change the law.
Of course, reinterpretation of the law and bypassing Congress is nothing new for this administration, which seems to think that saying that only biological females may use the ladies room is equivalent to having whites only drinking fountains. This is. of course, nonsense. Rosa Parks made history by sitting in front of the bus. She did not try to use the mens room at the bus station.
Being black is something you cannot change. Discriminating on that basis is wrong and perniciously evil. But saying a mans civil rights are being violated because he self-identifies as a woman and needs to use the ladys facilities is nonsense based on politically correct psychobabble. Sorry, dude, if you feel you are trapped in the wrong body, deal with it. But you already have a restroom designed just for you.
You are not being denied equal access to a public accommodation. Having the wrong body, if that is to be believed, does not entitle you to use the wrong restroom. It was never the intent of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to allow boys to use the little girls room. It is also dangerous, allowing any creep to put on make-op and a dress and follow your daughter, sister, or wife into the restroom.
This was the same sort of nonsense that led the Supreme Court to ignore both federalism and state laws to say gay marriage was a civil right as much as interracial marriage was. But being black is something one cannot change and allowing blacks and whites to marry did not change the state, culturally, and historically sanctioned institution of marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Transgender restrooms change everything. Amazingly, the right to privacy championed by liberals has been jettisoned by liberals who see nothing wrong or dangerous in the concept. Kimberly Ross, writing for RedState, notes the slippery slope this puts society on:
The attack on gender norms has increased exponentially over the past few years, and will continue as biologically-assigned gender becomes offensive. Even large, middle-class retailers like Target have gotten on board with the trend to erase the fine lines which define male and female. Last August, Target began to remove gender-based signs. Earlier this year, they introduced a gender neutral home goods line, so kids wont feel like theyre being pushed a specific direction. On the contrary, it is quite alright to encourage the traditional idea that boys should be boys and girls should be girls. In fact, we must The slippery slope to accepting everything begins by refusing to acknowledge that DNA is stubborn, and that who you were created to be is a not a mistake. If we never question transgenderism, though it battles against inherent norms, then well begin put a stamp of approval on everything. As recently reported by The Independent, a criminal psychologist announced online that pedophilia is a sexual orientation, like being gay or straight. While Im not asserting that trans individuals are in any way child molesters, I do believe that promoting a delusional view of gender, and making rationalizations along the way, has led us to this point to where we must accept and never question anything.
Over a million signatures were gathered on a petition opposing Targets gender neutral bathroom. These are not bigots but husbands worried about wives, parents worried about their children literally being exposed to something they should not be forced to deal with.
As Todd Starnes writes at Fox News Opinion:
The nations second-largest discount retailer announced on April 19 that they would welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender. In response, more than 1.1 million customers joined a boycott sponsored by the American Family Association. Nearly everyone has a mother, wife, daughter or friend who is put in jeopardy by this policy, AFA President Tim Wildmon said. Predators and voyeurs would take advantage of the policy to prey on those who are vulnerable.
Breitbart.com has compiled a list from daily news accounts giving a preview of what will become the norm if PC restrooms are forced upon us. A few examples:
Palmdale man arrested for videotaping in womens bathroom PALMDALE A 33-year-old Palmdale man who allegedly dressed as a woman while secretly videotaping females using a department store bathroom was charged with several misdemeanor counts Tuesday, authorities said. Jason Pomare was charged with six counts of unlawful use of a concealed camera for the purposes of sexual gratification, according to Sergeant Brian Hudson of the Los Angeles Sheriffs Departments Special Victims Bureau. Sexual predator jailed after claiming to be transgender to assault women in shelter A biological man claiming to be transgender so as to gain access to and prey on women at two Toronto shelters was jailed indefinitely last week after being declared by a judge a dangerous offender. Pro-family leaders are pointing out that this is exactly the type of incident they warned of as the Ontario government passed its gender identity bill, dubbed the bathroom bill, in 2012.
There will be sexual assaults among these incidents, to be sure. No responsible parent lets their child use a public restroom without accompanying them. Free-for-all restrooms only make the vulnerable more so and is some people want their daughters or wives to use the stall next to a potential predator, they can go to Trump Tower. For the rest of us, unconfused about our gender or anatomy, such nonsense should to be forced upon us.
Okay, not all transgendered people are predators. But when did surgically altering your body bestow upon anyone an alleged constitutional right to use another genders restroom.
The whole concept of someone being trapped in the wrong body is nonsense. Evangelical Christians and others believe the Almighty does not make such mistakes. If someone is confused about their sexual identity, he should just drop his drawers and take a wild guess. It is ironic that liberals who insisted we stay out of the bedrooms of homosexuals and lesbians now insist transgendered people should not stay out of the wrong bathroom.
Male and female created He them. And He put each in the right body. We are different. Deal with it.
Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investors Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
For conservatives the sudden urgency of accommodating the transgendered in the nations bathrooms is incomprehensible. Where could such madness come from?
Im glad you asked, because my Three Peoples theory explains the whole procedure to you.
The point is that ever since the Death of God -- with Hume in the 18th century, or Nietzsche in the 19th or Time magazine in 1965 -- the folks I call the People of the Creative Self have been imagining new gods.
In our age the reigning gods are now the gods of creativity. Young scions of the ruling class express a yearn to do something creative with their lives -- videography, or activism, perhaps. And it all started with the Death of God to the educated classes beginning in the late 18th century, although I like to push the start date back a bit to Michelangelos David as the Birth of the Ego. When I look at the David I do not see David, or the beauty of marble, but the self-advertisement of a creative genius: a Trump for the early 1500s.
The point of the creative life is self-invention, and the story of the religion of creativity is the story of the various roles that creative genius could play upon the stage of life. In Romanticism there is the agonizing depth of feeling, in Marxism the rage against injustice. In Baudelaire there is the courage to look into the heart of darkness, in the Fabians the cool competence of the rational expert, in Dada the glomming onto the new physics of uncertainty, in feminism a revolt against domesticity, in environmentalism a new birth of upper-class asceticism.
But all these journeys of creativity are difficult, and made harder by the old saw that many are called [to creativity] but few are chosen. We should expect, therefore, that those not chosen would seek out creativity on the cheap, much as we moderns imagine ourselves as bold adventurers when we travel the world in the utter safety of jumbo-jets and cruise ships.
The easiest way to get creative is with sex. Now the arc of human sexuality is the most profoundly creative, perhaps the only creative, thing we ordinary humans can do, because every baby is a miracle. But really, darling, where is the creativity in falling in love, getting married, and raising children, compared to advocating for global health?
So here you are, at 20, all kitted out in artistical black in some creative yeasty urban ideopolis. Now what? Art? Activism? The easiest way to get creative is with sex. Why not make a cult out of ringing the changes on sex, LGBT-wise? And why not haul in the tools of cultural Marxism to epater le bourgeoisie when they recoil in horror from your brave new world of non-binary gendering?
But why cant the sexual creatives just go off and do it in their Manhattan lofts and wherever? Isnt it enough for them to insist on the right to be creative in any way they choose?
Not quite. The culture of the People of the Creative Self has two strains. On the one hand is the absolute right to be creative and challenge the status quo; that is what they demand for themselves. But creatives also advocate for the People of the Subordinate Self using the politics of rights. Hillary Clinton said it the other day: were going to defend our rights -- civil rights, voting rights, workers rights, womens rights, LGBT rights, and rights for people with disabilities. Because were all helpless subordinate victims.
Rights talk has turned out to be political gold for liberals, so why not combine the right to be creative with the rights of helpless victims? You demand your right to be edgy and out there with the demand to be cosseted as a helpless victim in your safe space. You launch your activist Panzer divisions into a double envelopment on the racist, sexist, bigoted god-botherers: it ends in a Kesselschlacht that would make a German general proud.
If you are a liberal the fight for inclusive bathrooms must look like the dawn of a Thousand Year Progressive Reich as the arc of history bends towards justice.
Unless it isnt.
Theres another take on this, starting with my favorite quote from Nicholas Wade of The Faith Instinct: Men like power and will seize it if they can. But if they can't rule, their next preference is that no one rule over them. Thats why I say that government is injustice and politics is violence.
People just hate being bossed around by sanctimonious hypocrites, whether they are Puritan or Progressive. And when they force us to accommodate their sad-faced gender benders, progressives really have jumped the shark.
In response Americans might easily start to look around for someone to lead us out of our slavery to the progressive Pharaohs in the land of Egypt unto a Promised Land.
Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also see his American Manifesto and get his Road to the Middle Class.
At a campaign event in Virginia yesterday, Hillary Clinton appeared dumbfounded when a small business owner told her of the drastic rise in costs for health insurance under Obamacare. Jena Lifhits of the Weekly Standard summarizes (video below):
"A $400 increase, assuming you didn't have some terrible healthcare event, which it doesn't sound like you did," Clinton said at a campaign event in Virginia. "I don't understand."
The voter told Clinton that her health insurance plan had a rigid income cut-off that was preventing her from qualifying for subsidies.
"I have seen our health insurance for my own family go up $500 a month in the last two years," the voter said. "We went from $400-something to $900-something we're just fighting to keep benefits for ourselves."
The woman said that she was also finding it difficult to provide benefits for her employees.
"The thought of being able to provide benefits to your employees is almost secondary. Yet, to keep your employees happy, that's a question that comes across my desk all the time," she said.
Clinton offered numerous solutions but avoided addressing the source of the problem.
"What you're saying is one of the real worries that we're facing with the cost of health insurance because the costs are going up in a lot of markets. Not all, but many markets," Clinton said. "I think that the Affordable Care Act is a big step forward for the vast majority of Americans, but we have to look at out of pocket costs, copays, deductibles, premiums."
It's chilling to learn what punishment the social justice warriors have in store for beneficiaries of white privilege. Monday's blog post by Thomas Lifson, "Meet Julian Castro, who has big plans" discussed HUD's scheme to move "disadvantaged" inner-city families into upscale white suburban neighborhoods. Since the Republicans are too cowardly to defund this diversity scheme, might they at least consider introducing the following program guidelines?
1) The pool of applicants shall be limited to couples who have been married for at least five years, have no criminal records, and have not received welfare for more than two of the last five years. This restriction would benefit the entire inner-city community, not just the few chosen for the relocation. It provides an incentive for them to make choices that will improve their lives.
Without this guideline, HUD will likely select the most "disadvantaged" families: large families, including teenagers with criminal records, headed by single mothers. This will reward bad behavior in the inner city and inflict maximum punishment of the suburban white population (no doubt the real goal of the plan).
2) The apartments or homes used in the relocation must be located within a quarter-mile of the primary residences of 1) ten most senior HUD and DOJ employees or 2) members of Congress (ordered by leadership seniority) who fail to support this legislation.
3) All funding of HUD's relocation programs will be terminated if any of these guidelines are violated.
Skyrocketing crime is but the first phase in the punishment in store for the too white suburbs. The Democrats will blame the violence on guns and restrict gun ownership in those communities, leaving the homeowners defenseless a fitting punishment for those born of white privilege.
As a protectee under the Secret Service Act, Hillary Clinton might serve time in her "gilded cage" mansion in Chappaqua if convicted a felony and sentenced to prison.
Under the Secret Service Act, Hillary receives lifetime Secret Service protection as a spouse of a president. There is no provision in the act to terminate protection, even upon a felony conviction. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) would therefore have to decide how to incarcerate someone with a Secret Service detail.
If Hillary were sent to a regular prison (likely a low-security Club Fed), it would be difficult for the BOP to accommodate the Secret Service with their weapons and communications. Most likely the BOP would decide to create a special home confinement arrangement for her similar to that allowed in some cases for pre-release inmates. The BOP regulations provide that inmates may serve up to six months of home confinement, which includes surveillance or other monitoring methods. Given the conflict between the Secret Service Act and criminal law, the BOP may elect to create, in effect, a special private confinement facility at Hillary's luxury home with an inmate population of one.
There is yet another problem for the BOP. The Criminal Code has specific language (Title 18, 3621) that prohibits giving special treatment to the rich and famous:
In designating the place of imprisonment or making transfers under this subsection, there shall be no favoritism given to prisoners of high social or economic status.
The BOP may elect to ignore this provision in order to accommodate the Secret Service. This all presumes that the Justice Department pursues a successful prosecution and also that Obama will not pardon Hillary.
Not since World War II have there been as many refugees as we see today. Some sources put the number of displaced people at more than 60 million, including about 8 million internally displaced Syrians.
The refugees have to go somewhere, so they end up in huge camps that have become breeding grounds for disease, terrorism, and misery. The world response to this crisis is about what you'd imagine; halting, confused, and critically underfunded.
The U.S. has given more than $4 billion to Syrian refugees alone, making the United States the biggest contributor by far. Private U.S. charities have given twice that much. But most of the economic burden for refugees falls on the host country.
In the case of Kenya, the government has said enough is enough. They are eliminating the ministry in charge of refugees and closing two huge camps where 600,000 mostly Somali and South Sudanese refugees took shelter.
The humanitarian disaster that sent these people fleeing their homes will be nothing compared to the catastrophe of sending them back.
Philadelphia Tribune:
The Kenyan government said Friday it will close two refugee camps, including one of the worlds biggest, due to a lack of security and economic challenges as human rights groups condemned the plan. The closure of the camps will have adverse effects and the international community should collectively take responsibility for the humanitarian needs that arise, Karanja Kibicho, permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, said. The government has disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs, which works with humanitarian organizations looking after the welfare of refugees, Kibicho said. The voluntary repatriation process in an agreement signed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Kenyan government and the Somali government in 2013 has been very slow, Kibicho said. He said Kenya has been hosting the refugees for nearly 25 years and it has taken its toll on the country. The camps targeted for closure are Daadab and Kakuma. Daadab in eastern Kenya is the largest, with more than 328,000 refugees, mainly Somalis escaping conflict in their war-torn country that is struggling to defeat an insurgency by the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab insurgents. The Kakuma camp hosts 190,000 refugees, the majority of them South Sudanese escaping civil war in their country. Kibicho said the camps have bred terrorists from al-Shabab. Al-Shabab has vowed attacks on Kenya for sending troops to Somalia to fight the militants as part of the African Union forces bolstering Somalias weak government. Two attackers in the September 21 Westgate Mall in Nairobi in which 63 people were killed lived in Kakuma camp. Its not the first time Kenya has threatened to send home the refugees and international rights groups condemned the move. Officials have not provided credible evidence linking Somali refugees to any terrorist attacks in Kenya. Human Rights Watch is not aware of convictions of Somali refugees in connection with any attack in Kenya, Human Rights Watch said in a statement. Amnesty International said the move is reckless and could lead to the involuntary return of refugees to countries where their lives could still be in danger.
Kenya is telling the rest of the world to fish or cut bait when it comes to resettling the refugees. In typical U.N. fashion, the 25-year process of sending these people home has proceeded at snail's pace. There are glaciers in the world that move faster.
Will they actually start these people on their way home? I don't see this as a realistic option. There's no way that the U.N. could possibly feed and care for 600,000 people on the march who are hundreds of miles from home. So Kenya, while serious about getting more help and speeding the process of resettlement, felt that this was the only option to wake the world up and take notice of their plight.
The world is paying attention now.
This current shakedown campaign by the Obama administration and the leftist media is insane. What sentient American citizen thinks people should, outside their homes, in a public place, be able to use a restroom not of their gender? Only the radical social justice warriors who have nothing better to do with their lives than work toward the destruction of American norms.
Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday asked Gov. McCrory if there had been incidents of molestation in bathrooms by transgendered people. "No," the governor answered. But the governor neglected to say what the commonsense opposition to the law actually is: it is not the fear of molestation by transgendered people, who are something like 0.3% of the population. No. It is the commonsensical fear of the pedophiles and rapists who will likely take advantage of the newfound freedom to enter any restroom or locker room at will to ply their particular perversion. Sadly, such depravity is much more common that transgenderism.
When Target announced that their stores would now allow all of their customers to enter the bathroom of their gender identity of the moment, millions of people rebelled, petitioned, and cost the company millions of dollars in sales. Do those people fear the very occasional transgendered person, whom they would likely not notice? Of course not. But who, given the company's declaration, wants to go to Target with young daughters or granddaughters and let them go to the restrooms alone? Nobody. Do they really think that their oh so politically correct announcement will not be met with enthusiasm by the perverts among us? Do they actually believe that pedophiles are stupid and will not grasp this opportunity to "dress up" in order to fulfill their particular obsession, whatever it may be?
Have there not been enough sexual deviancy scandals in this nation that ordinary citizens do not recognize the danger of such a ridiculous law? Is Attorney General Lynch really this clueless, that she believes that this is about anti-discrimination? Of course not. She knows exactly what this is about: further destruction of what was once normative American culture and traditional family, the twin enemies of the left. Tear down every tenet of family values, the protection of children from sexual deviancy; let's make all children available to abuse. That is the goal. Let's equalize the vulnerability of the young.
Once the LGBT activists won the right to marry in the Supreme Court, their dilemma was where to go next with all their money and power. Bathrooms. Of course. Why should freshman students at college have any expectation of privacy at their college or university? Why should a young girl from Iowa expect a girls only bathroom at, say, USC or Berkeley? No. They should be launched into Obamaworld, a world designed to smash any and all privileges that come with a traditional upbringing. With pleasure and delight will those pretensions of privacy and traditional values be smashed to smithereens.
Most Americans have only sympathy and tolerance for those who feel they were born in the wrong body. Their torment is unimaginable. But the leftist media is so disingenuous in making this issue about fear of such people, of whom there are so very few. They know better but prefer to exploit them to further demean those with the common sense to see the writing on the wall. It is an imbecilic issue all around, and it is dangerous. The administration, the DOJ, are groveling in the gutter on this one. And it is by malevolent design.
A new, unscientific survey by Military Times of active-duty service personnel shows that the troops prefer Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton by more than a 2-1 margin.
About 1 in 5 of those surveyed responded that if those were the two choices in November, they wouldn't vote.
In a new survey of American military personnel, Donald Trump emerged as active-duty service members' preference to become the next U.S. president, topping Hillary Clinton by more than a 2-to-1 margin. However, in the latest Military Times election survey, more than one in five troops said theyd rather not vote in November if they have to choose between just those two candidates. But given only those choices, 21 percent of the service members surveyed said they would abstain from voting.More than 54 percent of the 951 troops Military Times surveyed said they would vote for Trump, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, over Clinton, the Democratic front-runner. Only about 25 percent said they would vote for Clinton in that matchup. The results, while not a scientific sampling of military voting patterns (see our methodology below), show strong support for Trump among troops despite critics' attacks that he lacks foreign policy or national security experience. Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders fared slightly better than Clinton in a similar head-to-head matchup with Trump, but still trailed the reality TV star and business mogul by a 51 percent to 38 percent margin. About one in 10 military members said they would not vote at all given those two candidates. Military personnel also demonstrated strong support for Trump in a Military Times reader survey conducted in March. Trump was the most popular candidate among the six presidential candidates remaining then, and the clear choice among Republican service members.
Does the fact that Trump is more of an isolationist and would be less likely to get us involved in an overseas conflict make a difference to our troops? For some, perhaps. But Trump has promised to raise defense spending in response to the terrible state of readiness of our military. You would think that would matter more to our soldiers rather than whether Hillary Clinton would be more eager to use military force than Trump.
The military has promised to improve the absentee voter procedure so that the votes of our men and women overseas will be counted this time. It is widely believed that many military ballots from 2012 were never counted due to their late arrival. Participation by active-duty military personnel in the 2012 election was at an all-time low.
Mitt Romney also enjoyed a huge advantage in the 2012 election with our troops. Trump should get a boost from our military in swing states, where the election promises to be close.
Further to yesterday's article on the anti-Trump bias by the moderators of the Voice of America (VOA) show Issues in the News, a look around some of VOA's other Twitter accounts reveals similar anti-Trump sentiment.
Keep in mind that such views run contrary to VOA's charter. In short, they appear to be illegal.
Moving on to Jee Abbey Lee, who is VOA's social media expert and a regular contributor to the station's main newscast, International Edition. Ms. Lee appears to have been born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Lee's Twitter feed indicates a less than stellar face for VOA, such as a tweet from last week where she comments that "[w]hen I ask my interns to tweet more, this is what I get." Of course, she is retweeting her interns' view that he "[F****] love green tea." Now that is certainly working to build a social media stream as the VOA charter intends.
But more importantly, Lee's views on Trump seem clear in this tweet from February 28, where she calls him un-American: "Donald Trump. Standing up for everything un-American since 1946." In another posting, Ms. Lee states that "[d]espite #NeverTrump efforts, Trump trumped 'em all #RIPGOP."
Carol Castiel, VOA's director of current affairs programming and the host of multiple shows on the broadcaster, has been prolific in sending out anti-Trump quotes and stories via her VOA-affiliated Twitter account, as well as a couple of negative pieces on Bernie Sanders, yet she has a glowing timeline for Hillary Clinton especially the NYT's endorsement of Clinton. So much for "balanced" coverage of each candidate, as the VOA charter requires. If Twitter histories are any indication, Ms. Castiel would be a clear Clinton promoter.
So the anti-Trump bias at VOA runs broad and deep.
That said, Trump isn't helping his own cause, given his emerging incoherence on Muslims. After proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. before he received the GOP nomination, he is now engaged in a massive flip-flop over London's new Muslim mayor. According to Trump, "[t]here will always be exceptions" to any bans with enough exceptions, there is no ban. Plus he "was happy to see that" London elected a far-left-wing Labour Party Muslim mayor (rather than a Conservative candidate), and he thinks such a result is "a very good thing."
We learned this week that potential Democrat V.P. nominees are taking Spanish lessons:
The Castro brothers -- Julian and Joaquin (not Fidel and Raul) -- are said to be studying Spanish very hard in the event that either one is picked as Hillary Clintons running mate.
Julian, the US Housing and Urban Development Secretary and former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, is on the short list of vice presidential potentials, along with Elizabeth Warren. His twin Joaquin -- a congressman -- is lower down on the list.
Surprisingly, they dont speak Spanish, one insider told me. They are cramming with Rosetta Stone. (A spokesman for Julian denies he is studying Spanish.)
The two Texans -- raised by their single mom, Chicana activist Rosie Castro -- both went to Stanford and Harvard Law, but were never fully bilingual, which has become an embarrassing issue.
People think that you either are fluent in Spanish or cant speak it at all, Joaquin told the Washington Post. Not everything is that black or white.
If she picks either brother, Clinton would expect him to campaign among Latinos.
Even if they cant give interviews in Spanish, they have to be able to say a few phrases, one politico said. Right now, Michael Bloomberg has better Spanish.
New development projects on previously undeveloped land often encroach upon existing private properties and farmlands. Sometimes such a property includes cemeteries. Usually in such cases, the bodies are dug up and moved to a new cemetery with the developers footing the bill. But sometimes families refuse to move the graves of their ancestors forcing developers to build around the cemeteries or the graves, such as in Amity, in the state of Indiana, U.S, where there is a grave right in the middle of the road.
Something similar happened when the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in the city of Savannah, Georgia, United States was being expanded. Centuries ago, this area was woods and farmland belonging to the Dotson family. Their family cemetery was packed with more than a hundred people including those of many slaves. Among these graves were those belonging to Richard and Catherine Dotson, who died within seven years of each other in the late 1870s and early 1890s, nearly two decades before the Wright brothers flew the first flight.
The graves of Richard and Catherine Dotson on Runway 10 of Savannah Airport.
Years later, as World War 2 approached, a military airport was opened and much of Dotsons' property became part of the airfield. The army moved most of the Dotson family cemetery to Bonaventure Cemetery, but four graves including that of Richard and Catherine Dotson, were left in place.
After the war ended, the army airfield was turned into a civilian airport. Construction on the new airport started in the 1960s and new tracts of land were acquired for its expansion. During one such expansion in the 1970s, these old graves ended up in the path of a planned airport runway. Since federal law prohibits the moving of graves without the permission of the next of kin, the airport authorities decided to pave over the graves instead.
The original location of the two graves are now marked by two tombstones laid flat with the runway. The graves are located, embedded into the asphalt, about eleven hundred meters from the west end of Runway 10. The graves are near the edge of the runway, so planes dont roll over the site, but passengers and pilots can see them when a plane taxis by.
Photo credit: USAToday
Photo credit: www.the-line-up.com
Photo credit: Pinterest
The Mathis Airport in Georgia, United States (now closed), is another airport that has a bunch of headstones laid flush with the runways surface. When the airport was built in the 1960s, the Anglin family gave permission to the airport to incorporate the graves under the runway. According to some Anglin family members, there are perhaps 16 to 20 people buried underneath the runway.
A couple of headstones for graves flush with the runways surface at the Mathis Airport. Photo credit: www.airfields-freeman.com
One of the tombstone embedded in the runway of Mathis Airport. Photo credit: Robert S/Flickr
Sources: savannahnow.com / Wikipedia / Stuck at the Airport / northfulton.com
Many smartphones are beautifully designed, intricate pieces of technology. Some are built from plastic, others from a higher grade polycarbonate and others still from a variety of metals. Many have a toughened glass front screen and all are stuffed full of potentially delicate electronics. Many smartphones can survive a tumble or two but this is not a chance many of us would wish to take with a device costing upwards of several hundred pounds or dollars. Because of this, we have a wide and varied market for smartphone cases of all type and design. Some are tougher than others and add shock proofing and water resistance. Others are designed to provide an element of additional protection for our devices but to also look good. There are cases covering all budgets, needs, and requirements. Quite often the manufacturer will sell a range of accessory cases for a particular smartphone and in the case of the Google Nexus, Google has followed suit, relatively recently releasing the Live Cases for the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6 and Nexus 6P smartphones as a follow up to the 2014 Nexus 6s Skrillex case, showing above.
Customers can design their Live Case via the Google Play Store and it can use whatever image or photograph you want, with filter and effects applied. However, unlike a normal case these Live Cases are designed to interact with your Nexus device via the inbuilt NFC (Near Field Communications) radio. When the appropriate Nexus device is wearing the case it will interact with the Live application, also found in the Google Play Store, and can show a Live Wallpaper associated with the case design. Furthermore, the case also includes a button, which is connected to the device via the built-in NFC radio. This button may be customised to perform almost any action the user wishes. The technology behind the $35 Live Case is a clever use of NFC technology. When designing the case, the Google Play Store looks through your Google Photos library to help select the right image and guides you through the phone model, design, and matte or glossy finish for the case. But what if you decide you want more than a picture of your cat, on your Live Case? Luckily, Google has this covered too.
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Tomorrow, May 10th 2016, Google is set to unveil a new artistic partnership with American artist, Jeff Koons, to create Live Cases for the current breed of Nexus smartphones. Weve seen a number musicians promoting the hashtag KoonsXGoogle, but we have very few hard facts and plenty of speculation as to what designs Jeff may be working on. Still, a quick search of social media shows artists as varied as Bono and Lady Gaga seemingly supporting the new KoonsXGoogle project: Its unclear what for but its expected that a series of cases and live wallpaper designs will be released tomorrow.
At one time, Nokia were the market leader for mobile phone sales across much of the world. Their feature phones combined reasonable specification with an easy to use interface and, perhaps most importantly, great battery life, call clarity and reception. As the world evolved from feature phones into smartphones, Nokia continued to use Symbian OS: an aging platform with many millions of users around the world but in desperate need of an overhaul. Finally, Nokia adopted Microsoft Windows Phone rather than experiment with Android or reinvent the Symbian software. Not many years later, Microsoft bought the Nokia handset manufacturing business in a move that looked at the time like it was ensuring that at least one equipment manufacturer would continue to sell the struggling Windows Phone devices. Nokia continued on as a business with main interests in networking and licencing patents, but was unable to sell many handsets: we have seen their engineers experimenting with a number of Nokia devices over the months. Nokia will be released from the binding agreement preventing them from selling handsets later this year.
Today, the Finnish company has announced quarterly results. The headline figures are that the combined networking equipment business dropped 8% over the year and was below market consensus: the industry expected the new combined business to sell 5.5 billion but sales were weaker at 5.2 billion. There are a couple of themes as to why Nokias sales both fell and missed the expectations: one is that Nokia is experiencing a slowdown in China, which is having an impact on networking sales. The company expects this trend to continue throughout 2016. Nokias networking business hasnt stood still since the handset manufacturing business was split off: the business bought Alcatel-Lucent last year (although the business sale was not completed until January) and so this set of results included the Alcatel-Lucent numbers. This deal has been something of a theme in the results because another reason why Nokias sales slipped is given as because management have been concentrating on integrating the two businesses. Indeed, Nokia are increasing their cost savings as a result of acquiring the Alcatel-Lucent networking business from approximately 900 million to over 900 million). The company declined to provide any additional guidance.
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Despite these weaker sales figures than expected, Nokias earnings before interest and taxes jumped to 337 million, higher than the forecasted figure of 270 million. Group operating profits have been buoyed by Nokias patent portfolio and finished the period at 345 million. However, what is perhaps most telling is Nokias warning that the Chinese carriers are investing less into their network.
Technologys ever-changing landscape has led some of the industrys largest and most profitable companies to expand on what they offer by entering into new markets. Samsung is one of these companies and it has recently been rumored that they have a whole team dedicated to manufacturing the chips for self-driving cars. Samsung is known mostly by the average consumer for things like TVs and smartphones but they also manufacture their own processors for a wide variety of products including their own mobile devices, and now it looks like Samsung is preparing to be a leader in the chip business for autonomous vehicles.
A new report suggests that Samsung is quite serious about providing chips for self-driving cars, stating that they have a whole team which has been formed specifically to work on producing chips for these vehicles. The report is referring to this new team as a task force and that it will be made up of people from Samsungs already-existing chip division, but more specifically from the system LSI unit which is said to be responsible for things like the non-memory chips that power processors in TV displays as well as image sensors in cameras. This new targeted initiative on chips for autonomous vehicles follows Samsungs initial announcement to enter into the automotive market last year when they set up a team for automotive parts. Samsung has also been looking to focus more on their presence in automotive electronics as they initially announced earlier this year.
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It shouldnt be too hard to envision Samsung as being capable of becoming the leader in autonomous vehicle chips, as theyre already the only provider for electric batteries for BMWs electric and hybrid cars, and they have plenty of experience in the semiconductor business. It was only a matter of time before Samsung made decisions that would lead it to show more of a presence in the self-driving car market, especially considering that other technology companies like Google are well into the development of cars in the space. With the new team reportedly set, Samsung could have plenty of opportunities to provide the chips for autonomous vehicle processors for any of the companies already working on development of self-driving cars.
BlackBerrys dip into the Android world towards the end of last year was an interesting and long overdue development. BlackBerry have for years developed their own operating systems, culminating in BlackBerry 10, which arguably arrived too late to the mobile device world to have so much of an impact. BlackBerry 10 has languished with Windows Phone at the low end of the market share figures, often being incorporated into the other category. However, BlackBerry have some excellent ideas when it comes to software such as keeping their (admittedly only) device up to date with Google software patches, the BlackBerry Keyboard, and the BlackBerry Hub. The BlackBerry Hub is how the device can collate many (not quite all) accounts and services into one central point its where BlackBerry owners can check their calls, text messages, instant messages, social network fees and of course, email messages. And its a feature Samsung are believed to be replicating for the next generation Galaxy Note device.
Samsung is calling this feature Samsung Focus and its rumoured to debut with the Galaxy Note 6, due later in the year. The software will integrate a similar number of functions as we see with the BlackBerry Hub including email accounts, calendars, contacts and memos. In some respects, the Samsung Focus may duplicate some of Googles efforts into improving the Gmail application, which may now be used to collate a number of different email accounts. Samsung currently still includes the old Email application in their device software. The Samsung Focus application is reputed to follow Googles Material Design guidelines and include screens showing calendar entries, meeting invites and have the ability to easily create memos to remind users of tasks and similar. There will be a dedicated contacts page that will collate all relevant information from a given individual on the one page, plus the ability to easily change priorities for notifications.
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Samsung Focus is an interesting development from the company, which has explained numerous times it is going to sharpen up its software. On the one hand, the Samsung Focus feature could mean the company does away with writing its own calendar and contact managers and instead combines these services into the one application. On the other hand, Samsung may be duplicating some of Googles efforts around some of the other stock applications such as integration with Google Keep and Google Now. Its unclear if Samsung will roll out Samsung Focus to other devices in the Galaxy line up after the next Note phablet is released.
T-Mobile had introduced its Spring Break promo last month that offered 2 lines with 6 GB of data each at just $80 per month. However, those wanting to sign up to that plan may now have just a few hours to do so, as an online report seems to indicate that the un-carrier is all set to pull down the curtains on that promo by the end of today. However, even as T-Mobile is looking to end its promo offer from last month, the report states that the carrier will likely introduce another unbeatable rate plan offer, so not all is lost for those looking to get the most bang for their buck by signing up for an inexpensive plan from T-Mobile.
While T-Mobile is yet to make its new promo official, the report seems to suggest that the carrier will discontinue its Match Your Data Mobile Internet rate plan from May 25th. According to an image thats said to be of an internal T-Mobile document, the company plans to start notifying its customers about the impending end of the aforementioned plan from Wednesday, May 11th via SMS or e-mail. Subscribers of the plan will automatically be migrated to a mobile internet plan that brings 5 GB of LTE data for just $20. Those customers will also be eligible for a $10 bill discount per month if they already have a voice line on their account. Those without a voice line, meanwhile, will be moved to a $10 Mobile Internet plan that will bring 1 GB of LTE data, but such customers wont be eligible for any discount.
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Theres a lot happening at T-Mobile these days, with some reports indicating that the company is likely to launch a couple of mid-range smartphones from Samsung and LG on its network later this month. While the Samsung Galaxy J7 was unveiled earlier this year in China and launched recently in India, the LG K10 was introduced to the world media back in January this year at the CES 2016 trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Meanwhile, T-Mobile recently acquired the rights to put an ad on the right shoulder of American sprinter, Mr. Nick Symmonds. When the companys CEO, Mr. John Legere, asked his followers on Twitter what message theyd like T-Mobile to put on Mr. Symmonds shoulder, popular opinion apparently suggested a profane reference to AT&T, although the un-carrier is unlikely to go down that route.
(ANSA) - Rome, May 6 - A show by contemporary street artist Banksy titled 'War, Capitalism & Freedom' opens in Rome May 24.
The exhibit features 150 paintings, sculptures, stencils, record covers and rare objects - some of them never displayed in public before - from private collections, and is on view at Palazzo Cipolla through September 4.
Banksy - whose real identity remains a mystery - has made a name for himself by bringing attention to the world's most pressing issues, including the ongoing exodus of people fleeing wars in Syria and elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East.
In December 2015 he visited the 'Jungle' Refugee Camp in Calais, France, one of the largest such camps in western Europe, leaving behind four new artworks including a mural featuring Steve Jobs carrying an early Macintosh computer and a sack over his shoulder and noting his background as the "son of a migrant from Syria". In another piece, he references Theodore Gericault's iconic 1819 painting 'The Raft of the Medusa' to depict an imperiled group on a sinking raft hailing a modern cruise ship on the horizon. In January this year, a new mural appeared outside the French embassy in London, criticising the alleged use of tear gas against refugees at the Calais camp.
"In the history of Western art, no one else has managed to bring issues of this breadth to the attention of such a vast and heterogeneous public," said curator Stefano Antonelli.
(ANSA) - Rome, May 10 - Premier Matteo Renzi said Tuesday that his government will work to help the European Union rediscover its true values.
The union is facing big challenges with the asylum-seeker crisis and the possibility that Britain will leave it. "What is happening in Austria should make us reflect," Renzi said in his enews referring to the political crisis in Vienna, where Social Democratic Chancellor Werner Faymann has been forced to quit despite pledging a tough stance on migrants and threatening to introduce controls at the border with Italy.
"If the political world gives in to fear, those who manufacture monsters become invincible".
"The public end up following the ghosts of their own fears and they close the door to hope, courage, the future...
"Come on Europe! You were conceived by pursuing an ideal, not by feeding a threat. "We Italians will do everything to ensure that Europe returns to being itself again". Last week Pope Francis berated the union for having lost its way as he called for the EU to be more welcoming to migrants. "What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom?," he said after receiving the prestigious Charlemagne Prize in the Vatican.
(ANSA) - Bari, May 10 - Two Afghan nationals were detained by Carabinieri police from the southern city of Bari on Tuesday in relation to an investigation into alleged plans to stage terrorist attacks in Italy and Britain, ANSA sources said. Hakim Nasiri, 23, is accused of international terrorism, and Gulistan Ahmadzai, is accused of aiding illegal immigration.
Three other people are wanted in relation to the probe - two are suspected of terrorism offences while the other is suspected of crimes linked to illegal immigration. Photos and videoes of Bari, Rome and London were among the material found in the mobiles phones of one of the suspects detained in Tuesday's terrorism operation, officials said.
Rome's Colosseum and Circus Maximus sites featured in the material. "The organization prepared, via inspections of sites (including via photographic and video documentation), terrorist attacks on airports, ports, police vehicles, shopping centres, hotels, in addition to other unspecified attacks in Italy and England," investigators said.
(ANSA) - Bari, May 10 - Two Afghan nationals were detained by Carabinieri police from the southern city of Bari on Tuesday in relation to an investigation into alleged plans to stage terrorist attacks in Italy and Britain, ANSA sources said. Hakim Nasiri, 23, is accused of international terrorism, and Gulistan Ahmadzai, is accused of aiding illegal immigration.
Three other people are wanted in relation to the probe - two are suspected of terrorism offences while the other is suspected of crimes linked to illegal immigration. Photos and videos of Bari, Rome and London were among the material found in the mobile phones of one of the suspects detained in Tuesday's terrorism operation, officials said.
Rome's Colosseum and Circus Maximus sites featured in the material. "The organization prepared, via inspections of sites (including via photographic and video documentation), terrorist attacks on airports, ports, police vehicles, shopping centres, hotels, in addition to other unspecified attacks in Italy and England," investigators said. Nasiri was domiciled at the Bari-Palese centre for asylum seekers and had been granted 'protection status', which is similar to refugee status, earlier this month. Ahmadzai was domiciled at Borgo Liberta in the province of the southern city of Foggia and was granted protection status in September 2011. Investigators said they had uncovered a criminal association "for international terrorism in Italy and abroad" made up of a "network of logistic support of a subversive supranational religious organization, functionally linked to the international terrorist organization called ISIS, to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and al-Qaeda". They said suspects in the probe provided "support to individuals willing to conduct suicide attacks or combat actions in foreign countries, in particular Iraq and Afghanistan".
The material investigators found also included images of weapons, of Taleban militants and audio files downloaded from the web with radical Islamist prayers, proselytization and indoctrination. "The terror cell spread the violent ideology of the holy war and combat techniques (operation manuals, manuals to manufacture explosives), via the instrument of the Internet," read the warrant for the detentions, adding that the material was "ready to be used".
Howeber, there was no imminent threat in Italy, Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe told a press conference Tuesday.
"We have absolutely no evidence pointing to an imminent attack in Italy," he said.
The gang's possession of photos of sensitive targets like airports and ports "are significant elements, but the fact that they were already ready to carry out attacks is a further and not demonstrated step (in investigations), but they were certainly preparing," he said.
Two members of the gang were arrested, one on suspicion of planning terror attacks and the other for allegedly abetting illegal immigration.
Three suspects are at large - two suspected of planning terror attacks and the other of abetting illegal immigration.
EBRD: Serbian delegation at annual meeting in London
(ANSAmed) - BELGRADE, 10 MAY - A Serbian delegation, led by Finance Minister Dusan Vujovic, will take part in an annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London on May 11-12, which will also deal with the Western Balkans' investment potential.
Serbia's representatives will participate in several meetings, including a meeting of the EBRD Board of Governors, in which a new EBRD president will be elected.
The EBRD has so far invested in Serbia around 4.2 billion euro in over 200 projects. Only in 2015 it invested 478 million euros through 25 projects. (ANSAmed)
ROME - She has been known across Europe as the 'mother of the Erasmus' program. Almost 30 years after she invented the exchange program among European university students, Italian Professor Sofia Corradi, 82, was awarded at the monastery of Yuste in Caceres, Estremadura (Spain), the prestigious prize 'Charles V', which has been awarded over the years to personalities who have contributed to European construction. The prize came after a life dedicated to enabling European youth to study in foreign countries. And thanks to her, a former professor of Permanent Education at the University Roma Tre, who taught until 2004, four million university students from 4,000 universities were able to travel.
The prestigious award comes thanks to an idea born at the University of Bologna. Professor Corradi's candidature was made by an international research group on interpretation and inter-cultural mediation Alfaqueque and in particular at the initiative of Mariachiara Russa, a member of the research group and a professor of Spanish language at the Department of Interpretation and Translation of the Alma Mater.
The ceremony was attended by Italian Education Minister Stefania Giannini, who thanked Corradi for her ''extraordinary work. We owe to her obstinacy the Program that has completely revolutionized the lives of our offspring, contributing to European construction''.
It is necessary to ''defend Europe and its values from tendencies that, anachronistically, try to divide it by calling on irrational fears and uncertainty'', said Italian President Sergio Mattarella in a message sent to the king of Spain and the Foundation European Academy de Yuste during the ceremony to award the prize to Professor Corradi.
ISTANBUL - Turkish border police are shooting at Syrian asylum seekers attempting to reach Turkey, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), which reiterated an allegation already reported last month.
According to the US NGO, the ''excessive use of force'' by the Turkish army against refugees and human traffickers has killed five people, including a child, and seriously injured 14 others.
HRW sent on Wednesday a letter to the Turkish interior minister asking to ''investigate the excessive use of force by its border guards'', charged of hitting asylum seekers.
According to the report, the Turkish army shot dead three Syrian asylum seekers (a man, a woman and a 15-year-old) and a human trafficker, who was hit to death by another smuggler.
The NGO also stressed that the Turkish government is continuing to talk about an ''open-door policy'' towards Syrians ''although it is building a wall at the border'' - a third of which has already been completed - and is sending back refugees at the border ''at least since mid-August''. HRW asked Ankara to effectively reopen the border.
Last month, on the eve of the start of repatriations from Greece as part of an EU-Turkey agreement, Amnesty international also accused Ankara of forcibly repatriating refugees to Syria - allegations denied by the Turkish government, along with those made by HRW.
MYTILENE - The migrant crisis which is affecting Greece above all (there are more than 53,000 migrants in the country at the moment) raises dramatic questions which are yet to be answered. One seems to be particularly urgent: after the humanitarian assistance that follows the arrival of migrants, how do you help them out of reception centres and on to the path of integration? A meeting was set up to tackle this question in Lesbos, in the front line of the crisis, which brought together NGOs, business executives with a social vision, local authorities and innovation consultants.
Developed from an idea of Vasili Sofiadelis from Visions 2 Ventures and Pavlina Proteou from Beyond Csr Net - two companies that offer strategies for social business - the meeting was a laboratory of proposals, often made during brainstorming sessions, to establish innovative paths towards integration.
Participants from countries including the United States, Italy and Greece came together to discuss co-working, or shared spaces which provide migrants and social entrepreneurs with a place to exchange ideas and support each other.
"Asylum seekers can leave the camps once they are registered, but they cannot work, and they need in particular legal advice on what to do," said Lesbos lawyer Haris Petsikos. "Another problem is that many of them do not speak either English or Greek, so they need translators".
The meeting discussed a proposal to develop a network of co-working spaces at the European level, to aid integration and provide economic resources. A pilot project may be launched soon in Lesbos.
'Most' of Regeni requests met 'Useful and cordial' Cairo meeting
(ANSAmed) - ROME, MAY 10 - Rome prosecutors' requests to get information from Cairo counterparts in the probe into Giulio Regeni's murder were "largely" met in a meeting Sunday, sources said after the prosecutors reported back to Rome Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone Tuesday. The Italian investigators described the meeting with their Cairo counterparts as "useful and cordial", the sources said.
The Egyptian investigators reportedly gave the Italian ones phone records of the remaining eight out of 13 people whose calls the Italians were interested in, as well as testimony from various people quizzed by Cairo authorities.
Regeni, 28, disappeared on January 25, the heavily policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that toppled former strongman Hosni Mubarak, and his mutilated body was found in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3. (ANSAmed).
(By Denis Greenan).
BARI - Three men were detained and two sought as Italian police on Tuesday broke up an alleged ISIS support network based in the southern city of Bari that was allegedly planning terror attacks in Italy and the UK.
Among the material seized were martyr chants, a caricature of US President Barack Obama, and a photo of one suspect with Bari's mayor.
Investigations are focusing on a centre for producing false documents as well as on foreign fighters, police said.
Two Afghan nationals were arrested in Bari: Hakim Nasiri, 23, accused of international terrorism, and Gulistan Ahmadzai, accused of aiding illegal immigration.
Bari resident Zulfiqar Amjad, a 24-year-old from Pakistan, was stopped in Milan and also accused of aiding illegal immigration.
Two people are still wanted in relation to the probe, suspected of terrorism offences. A police detention order named them as Qari Khesta Mir Ahmadzai, 30, and Surgul Ahmadzai, 28.
They were resident at a migrant reception centre in Bari.
All five suspects had obtained rights to stay in Italy and to humanitarian assistance and protection in recent months.
Two of the suspects had visited seven cities in 9 days, the detention order documentation showed. Cities visited included London, Milan, Paris and Istanbul.
Material investigators found belonging to them included photos taken in front of an Italian navy ship in the port of Bari, images of weapons, of Taleban militants and audio files downloaded from the web with radical Islamist prayers and indoctrination.
Photos and videos of Rome and London were also among the material found in the mobile phones of one of the suspects detained in Tuesday's terrorism operation. (ANSAmed).
Tunisia: 1,877 youth banned from travelling to war zones 33 terror cells dismantled since start of year
(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, MAY 10 - Tunisian authorities, from the start of the year until today, have prevented 1,877 youth from leaving the country to travel to war zones, according to the spokesman of the Tunisian interior minister, Yasser Mesbah, stressing that 140 people accused of recruiting fighters to send them to conflict areas have been arrested.
Some 1,400 others have been reported to judicial authorities as suspected members of terror organizations and 33 cells have been dismantled since January 1, 2016. Such data confirmed the constant work carried out by Tunisian authorities against terror, said Mesbah. (ANSAmed).
Turkey: car bomb in Diyarbakir, 3 dead, 22 injured Injured include police officers, detained civilians
(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MAY 10 - At least three people have been killed and 22 injured in a car bomb that exploded in the mainly Kurdish-inhabited city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday afternoon, CNN Turk reported.
Those injured by the bomb, which exploded while a police vehicle was passing, include several officers but also civilians detained by the police, according to CNN.
The Anadolu agency reported that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which fights for Kurdish autonomy, was behind the attack.
(ANSAmed).
Syria: Gentiloni, strong convergence with Hijab opposition
(ANSAmed) - PARIS, MAY 10 - Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has said, at the end of a meeting on Syria in Paris, that ''with the leader of the Syrian opposition, Riyad Hijab, we have registered a significant convergence of opinion and also his engagement in returning to the negotiating table and fully supporting action by Staffan de Mistura and the United Nations if the ceasefire will be respected''. According to Gentiloni, ''it is very useful that the leader of the Syrian opposition has confirmed the intention of working in close contact with the United Nations''. ''As you know - the foreign minister recalled in Paris - the talks in Geneva broke off early during the latest round because part of the HNC delegation (the Syrian opposition) left them ahead of time. If the cessation of violence will really occur on the ground, they are willing to return to the table in Geneva''.
The meeting yesterday, with the most important foreign ministers among the opposition's supporters, also served the purpose of recognizing ''the role of coordination of Riyad Hijab'' as leader of HNC. Although ''nothing was formalized, the political meaning is clear: there are different shades in the Syrian opposition but there is a leader who has met with the foreign ministers of the main countries, a credible leader, a former Syrian prime minister, a personality who can certainly play a very important role'', he concluded. (ANSAmed).
Turkey must respect conditions for visa waiver, EU deputies EU Commission postpones meeting with Turkey on waiver
(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, MAY 10 - Before agreeing to visa liberalisation for Turkish citizens, the European Union has to be sure that Turkey is respecting all the conditions that have been requested, the European Parliament's committee on civil liberties said on Tuesday.
During a debate with the Commission, the majority of MEPs reaffirmed that Turkey should not be discriminated against, however it should also not be favoured in any way.
A meeting between the EU and Turkey scheduled for Friday to discuss the visa waiver plans has been postponed, a spokesperson for the EU commission said, adding that the delay had been a joint decision.
The spokesperson added that despite the resignation of Turkish Premier Ahmet Davutoglu, EU officials are still in "regular contact with Turkish authorities". (ANSAmed).
Oceans and fisheries officials from the 21 APEC member economies are mounting an expansive effort to fight the costly accumulation of man-made debris in the Asia-Pacifics oceans and waterways. The aim is to enhance the sustainability of marine ecosystems critical to livelihoods and food security in the worlds most populous region.
Officials took forward measures to better position governments and the private sector to prevent and manage marine debris as part of a three-day policy development meeting this week in Arequipa. An assessment of the challenge helped to provide impetus for action.
Floating and microscopic debris is a growing problem that jeopardizes the marine environments and resources that feed our people and fuel our economies, said Asis Perez, Lead Shepherd of the APEC Oceans and Fisheries Working Group, which administers regional policy collaboration within the sector. We are deepening our partnerships within APEC to improve controls required to mitigate this borderless threat.
The collaborative solutions that we are pursuing are guided by a shared recognition of the urgent need to limit pollution to protect marine ecosystems and ensure the sustainability of the economic activities that depend on them, explained Perez, who also serves in the Philippine Department of Agricultures Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
APEC economies are mobilizing to reduce the losses that they suffer due to marine debris which total an estimated USD1.26 billion annually. This includes vast amounts of consumer plastics, metals, rubber, paper, textiles, fishing equipment, vessels and other lost or discarded items that affect fishing, tourism, shipping and insurers.
They are also working to address the impact of microplastics, or small plastic particles from sources such as cosmetics, clothing and industrial processes, that can be ingested by marine life and put food safety and human health at risk.
We are focused on raising awareness of the socio-economic impact of marine debis and facilitating the adoption and alignment of appropriate management policies to moderate it, said Perez.
Officials are advancing a new two-year training initiative for governments and private sector representatives to move towards these ends. The program will analyze case studies, foster information-sharing on complex areas like microplastics and boost the proliferation of best practices in marine debris management and prevention.
Work is also underway in APEC to lower financial barriers to waste management system development and improvements, and encourage project investment, in coordination with the private sector. Emphasis is on pinpointing financing bottlenecks, potential investment pools, best-in-class business models and economic, legal and regulatory conditions necessary to accelerate waste management funding.
Test sites are being established in the APEC region to identify viable approaches to eliminating the leakage of plastic and waste into oceans and waterways, added Perez. Our goal is to develop models for scaling investment that can be applied across the region.
Sites have already been created in Angeles City, the Philippines, along the banks of the Pampanga River which drains into Manila Bay, as well as Bandung, Indonesia, home to the Citarum Riverthe third largest in Java. The sites were born out of public-private engagement bridging the oceans and fisheries and chemical sectors.
# # #
For more:
Details on APECs cluster of technical meetings underway in Arequipa through this week and subsequent meeting of Trade Ministers to modernize globalization can be found here.
See the complete schedule of APEC meetings in Arequipa here.
For additional information, or to arrange possible media interviews with APEC officials, please contact:
David Hendrickson (in Arequipa) +65 9137 3886 at [email protected]
Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at [email protected]
More on APEC meetings, events, projects and publications can be found on www.apec.org. You can also follow APEC on Twitter and join us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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Shower Mistakes That Cause Dry Skin
These 5 Shower Mistakes Are Ruining Your Skin And You Don't Even Know It
Sometimes it feels like there should be a red carpet leading up to your shower. There should be a velvet rope at the door and an usher to move aside the curtain so that you could step in. The steam from the already running water should greet you with a smile before the water pellets embrace you in a warm hug.
No one can blame you if you stay in there a few minutes longer and turn up the heat just a little more. But theres just one problem with that youre wrecking your skin.
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Showers are supposed to be easy. Wake up, turn the water on, soap, rinse, hang out for another seven minutes while you contemplate the inner workings of your entire existence and then dry off and find your clothes. But it might be time that you take another look at your shower routine because it might be the very reason that your skin isnt looking refreshed. A poor shower routine can cause dry skin, irritation and even body acne.
The shower is supposed to be a sacred place so we talked to dermatologist Dr. Jared Jagdeo about the daily washroom missteps that can lead to everything from dry skin to can.
Youre Showering For Too Long
Yes, spending 20 minutes in the shower is can be a glorious reward to a long day or a perfect method for easing into your morning. It feels so good. But you may need to discover another way to find your zen. Skin care experts recommend taking short showers, lasting 5 to 10 minutes to avoid drying out your skin. In fact, Dr. Jagdeo suggested less than five minutes when possible.
So avoid doing all your shaving in the shower or taking extra time luxuriating with your shampoo or using shower time to plan your out days activities while your fingertips start pruning.
The Water Is Too Hot
Is your skin red when you get out of the shower? Are you playing double-dutch with the water stream before you get in. Dr. Jagdeo warns against taking hot showers in order to project the natural moisture of your skin. Hot showers strip away your bodys natural oil barrier, which the body needs to keep your skin moist and smooth. In a Wall Street Journal report, Dr. Melissa Piliang of the Cleveland Clinic suggested the perfect temperature of which to shower is 112 degrees Fahrenheit of lower in order to wash away dirt and bacteria.
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Youre Not Moisturizing
The number one mistake I find men make in the shower is using harsh soaps and not moisturizing immediately after the shower, said Dr. Jagdeo. What makes a soap harsh depends on the way your skin reacts to it so if the soap is leaves a filmy substance or dries out your skin, its time to find a new one. Dr. Jagdeo also advised against using any soap or cleansing product with heavy fragrances. He recommends Cetaphil Men Daily Clean Bar and using a moisturizing product with sun protection.
Youre Using The Wrong Soap
Everyones skin is different. The format of the soap whether its liquid shower gel or bar soap is less important than the ingredients. Stick to fragrance-free soaps, especially if you have sensitive skin. If you have dry skin, find a soap that includes glycerin, which is free of synthetic chemicals and retains moisture. Avoid soaps high acid content or pH value as well.
Youre Using A Wash Cloth
Its not uncommon to reuse the same washcloth everyday and simply hang it up in the shower until the next shower. But thats a bad call. First, scrubbing too hard with a washcloth can leave you skin red and irritated. Sure, using a washcloth is a great way to reach all your cracks, crevices and pertinent parts but leaving the wet rag in the moist environment such as the shower also fosters a breeding place for bacteria to thrive and then be reapplied to your skin and face.
Loofahs, sponges or any other applicators are no different. They all carry risk of fostering bacteria and spreading that to your skin and can even cause infections. Some applications may be too abrasive and form other microscopic skin injuries. Instead apply soap directly to your skin instead.
Want To Flee A Trump America? This Site Will Help You Marry A Canadian
Trending News: How To Meet And Marry A Canadian (Hint: It Involves Maple Syrup)
Why Is This Important?
Because love and fear and desperation know no borders.
Long Story Short
A matchmaking website specifically designed for Americans looking to escape a Trump-led USA by pairing up with a Canadian is now officially accepting applications on their wait list.
Long Story
Theres something essentially American about the entrepreneurial spirit behind MapleMatch.com. The sites creator sees an opportunity, comes up with a concept, and cashes in on peoples desperation. Its like Canadian journalist Naomi Kleins perfect example of the Shock Doctrine, only funny!
Created by American Joe Goldman, MapleMatch is a very simple, minimally designed dating site requesting the most basic information from respondents: your name, age, zip/postal code, nationality, gender and the gender of the person you are interested in meeting. There is also a box asking for suggestions on how to improve the site.
As Barack Obama said during Justin Trudeaus official welcoming ceremony at the White House, Were two different countries, but were like one big town, Goldman told Canadas Global News.
Our side [of] this town happens to have a megalomaniac trying to seize power, so were naturally concerned.
While Goldman says he isnt taking any money from anti-Trump groups, his political bias is obvious. The site sells itself as a way to make it easy for Americans to find the ideal Canadian partner to save them from the unfathomable horror of a Trump presidency. The companys slogan is Make dating great again.
Goldman boasts that there is tremendous interest in his site and makes the rather Trumpian claim that, We have seen immense traffic on our site over the last few days, and signups have surpassed our expectations.
Own The Conversation
Ask The Big Question: Are MapleMatch users aware that emigrating to Canada isnt as easy as marrying a Canadian?
Disrupt Your Feed: Sorry Americans, Canada is all filled up with real refugees you know, the ones the US didnt want.
Drop This Fact: According to Statistics Canada, In 2011, Canada had a foreign-born population of about 6,775,800 people. They represented 20.6% of the total population, the highest proportion among the G8 countries.
Ted Cruz Open To Possibility Of Restarting Campaign
Trending News: We May Not Have Seen The Last Of Ted Cruz's Presidential Bid
Why Is This Important?
Because just when you thought things were finally going smoothly for Donald Trump, there's a chance they won't.
Long Story Short
Appearing on Glenn Beck's radio show, former Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said that he'd be willing to restart his campaign if he managed to win Nebraska's primary. He also said he's not ready to support Donald Trump as a candidate yet.
Long Story
Life is pretty good for failed Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Despite living his entirely life as one of the most uniquely unlikable people ever born and (possibly) murdering dozens of people in cold blood, he's done alright for himself. He's got a wife, kids who I assume don't always recoil from his touch, an elected position in the Senate and for a while there, he was a legitimate threat to Donald Trump's campaign. Those days are behind him, but a go-getter like Ted Cruz can't help but display that trademark Canadian ability to look on the bright side: if he manages to win the Nebraska primary, he could totally jump back in this thing, you guys.
"We launched this campaign intending to win. The reason we suspended our campaign was that with the Indiana loss, I felt there was no path to victory," Cruz said Tuesday on conservative host Glenn Beck's radio program. "If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly."
Basically, Ted Cruz's campaign be like
HBO
Cruz is not actively campaigning in Nebraska, and would still not have a path to victory even if he managed to win (he was mathematically eliminated from contention long before he suspended his campaign). The best he could hope for now is the best he could ever hope for: a brokered convention, one in which Donald Trump somehow fails to get the remaining 169 delegates he needs (out of 505 remaining) to secure the nomination outright.
Regardless of what happens in Nebraska or elsewhere, Cruz also told Beck that he's not ready to support Trump in the general election.
"This is a choice every voter is going to have to make. I would note, it's not a choice we as voters have to make today,"
Then again, Cruz would need just 133% of the remaining delegates to take the outright nomination himself. Anything could happen!
Own The Conversation
Ask The Big Question
Would Ted Cruz have been better equipped to beat Hillary Clinton in the general election?
Disrupt Your Feed
Ted Cruz needs to accept that he's been beaten and go hide out for a while.
Drop This Fact
Trump is on pace to receive more votes than any other Republican primary candidate in history, a record currently held by George W. Bush's 2000 campaign.
Viv Artificial Intelligence Assistant Is Smarter Than Siri
Trending News: Meet Viv, Siri's More Effective Sibling
Why Is This Important?
Because Siri was just the first step.
Long Story Short
The creators of Apple's artificial intelligence assistant, Siri, have come out with a new product, Viv, which can handle more complicated tasks and partner with third party sites. Ordering things online is definitely going to become a helluva lot easier.
Long Story
Siri is great and all, but she's got some flaws (sorry baby). Most of what she can do is Google search things for you, which is helpful, but also not spectacular with a boat load of other requests. For instance, what if you wanted to order some flowers for your mom on Mother's Day? Siri wouldn't be able to do that since it doesn't play well with external sites. It'd probably just take you to the site that you can order from or tell you how to get to the store. That's where Siri's younger sis, Viv, comes in.
Dag Kittlaus, the creator of Siri, introduces the next-generation AI. Meet Viv. #TCDisrupt https://t.co/kKDaEt8Way TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) May 9, 2016
The AI assistant Viv was created by Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, the same guys who invented Siri and sold it to Apple. What makes Viv special is its ability to handle more complicated tasks and work with other apps or websites. For instance, it can answer things too complicated for Siri, such as queries like: "On the way to my brother's house, I need to pick up some cheap wine that goes well with lasagna," according to The Verge.
Want to order a pizza to the office? No matter how complicated the order is half-and-half, side of caesar salad, etc. Viv can handle it.
"Our sense is there will be a move away from having hundreds of different apps that act independently," said Adam Koopersmith, one of Viv's investors, as quoted by The Verge. "These services will be integrated into everyday life. Viv will be the platform to enable it."
Viv works a lot like Facebook's new Messenger bots and Amazon's Alexa in this way by working with other apps and sites, but it also talks like those services, which enables us to speak in the conversational way humans really communicate. And also like those services, Viv will only get better the more it talks with and learns from humans just so long as nobody corrupts it like Tay, Microsoft's teenage chatbot.
Viv isn't currently owned by anyone in particular, Facebook and Google are very interested. Will be exciting to see who wins the sweepstakes.
Own The Conversation
Ask The Big Question
Will we all be asking bots to do everything for us instead of actually using our fingers?
Disrupt Your Feed
Thought people chatting to their headphones as they walk was annoying? Just wait till it's more socially acceptable to chat with your AI assistant in the middle of a crowd.
Drop This Fact
Siri was originally intended to be open to other apps, before Steve Jobs turned it into something that didn't work with other services, as he famously did with all of Apple's products, according to a report on Viv by The Washington Post.
Global law firm Dentons has announced a move which it says will disrupt the pay-to-play legal referrals industry. Nextlaw Global Referral Network is a technology-based platform which allows member law firms to connect and track referrals.The network is free for firms to join and is not territorially exclusive allowing more than one firm in a city to join and then share referrals based on differing strengths.Dentons says that by not charging a fee, it will allow firms of all sizes to be recognized for their particular expertise. Its aim is that small and medium sized firms with a single office or practice area will particularly benefit from the new network. Holman Fenwick Willan has announced a significant hire for its Australian major construction and projects practice. Richard Abbott and his team joined from Holding Redlich and are based in HFWs Sydney office. They continue the firms growth in the Australian construction and infrastructure market following a number of hires in the practice in the past two years. Clifford Chance has announced the promotion of 14 lawyers to counsel or consultant across its Asia-Pacific region.They are: Mark Gillgren (finance) in Perth; Yasuko Moriwaki (capital markets) in Tokyo; Tianning Xiang and Julie Zhu (corporate) in Beijing; Yi Yang and Yan Yuan (corporate) in Shanghai; Bong-Sang Cho, Chad Morgan and Thomas England (finance) in Singapore; Joanna Charter (finance) in Hong Kong; Natchapon Padungkittimal (finance) in Bangkok; Richard Sharpe and Lei Shi, (litigation & dispute resolution) in Hong Kong; and Kelvin Teo (litigation & dispute resolution) in Singapore.The news follows last month's partner promotions announcement of Yusuke Abe (Tokyo Finance), Timothy Democratis (Beijing Finance) and Edith Leung (Hong Kong Finance).A former executive director of US ex-law firm Dewey & Le Beoeuf has decided that he would rather represent himself than pay lawyers to defend him. The Wall Street Journal reports that Stephen DiCarmine and the firms former CFO Joel Sanders are facing charges relating to matters in the run-up to the law firms 2012 collapse.The article says that DiCarmine gained a law degree in the 1980s but has not practiced law for much of his career but told the judge at a hearing last week that he was considering representing himself to save on fees to Bryan Cave lawyer Austin Campriello. The judge warned DiCarmine that the consequences of getting it wrong are very severe.
Yesterday, the County Court heard that he showed the woman a newspaper headline containing the word sorry in the days following.Conney is accused of raping the woman in her bed in the early hours of the morning, after she declined his invitation to meet the previous night. He pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, his lawyer telling the court that the issue of consent was in dispute.According to a report by The Age, Chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert QC told the jury Cooney range the woman three times on the night of July 13 2001, while she was out with friends, asking to meet him. She declined and turned her phone off but woke up at 1.32am the next day to a loud banging and saw that Cooney was outside.She opened the door, he pulled her outside and went inside, closing the door behind him, before opening it moments later, smiling and told her to go back to bed. He then raped her on her bed after she told him: please dont do this. You are going to regret it, the court heard.Prosecutors allege that he bit the woman and pulled out clumps of her hair during the attack and afterwards kissed her on the cheek and told her he was going back to a nightclub, leaving at 1.42am. He then phoned her the following Monday and said, that was hysterical, I hope youre on the pill.In a later meeting, Cooney showed her the front page of that days Herald Sun which carried the headline I am sorry. Prosecutors argue that that action was an admission of his wrongdoing.When the woman contacted police over the incident in 2014, a covert recording was made where the woman told the accused she felt tortured. He responded by saying he was sorry she felt that way.The woman reported the rape to the firm, which investigated but she did not tell police over fears she would be sacked. Cooney resigned around five weeks after.Defense Counsel Peter Morrissey said that there is no question Conney was at her home and that the pair had intercourse but asked the jury not to rush to a judgement to see if the woman had a tendency to exaggerate things.The trial continues.
Australian undergraduate law degrees are currently recognised in Singapore under the SAFTA."A new process to allow Australian universities to make a case to use the term 'university' in Singapore is particularly pleasing and will enhance recognition of Australia's high quality institutions, said Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson.Masters in Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy will also now be recognised under the agreement. Robinson said she looks forward to expanding the list of mutually recognised courses between Australia and Singapore. University of Sydney deputy vice-chancellor (registrar) Professor Tyrone Carlin, said the changes make qualifications more valuable.It offers real job security for students from Singapore studying Law at the University of Sydney, knowing they can go home and their educational achievements will be valued, he said.He also acknowledged the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) throughout the negotiations.I thank DFAT for consulting with the university sector during the process, and understanding the importance of qualification recognition in these and hopefully future trade negotiations, he said.A joint statement by the Australian and Singaporean governments said that the changes will mean more certainty for Aussie law firms operating in Singapore and Singapore firms collaborating with such Australian law firms.
By Ellie Rennie, Deputy Director, Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology
The DAO
For many people, the birth of the internet happened on August 9, 1995, when Netscape went stratospherically public. Something similar is happening right now, and it could do for organisations and their governance what the internet did for information and its distribution.
The DAO is a wildly ambitious, risky and radical new entity that has already raised more than US$29 million in a little over a week. When it reaches the end of the funding phase on May 28, it will begin contracting blockchain-based start-ups to create innovative technologies.
The extraordinary thing about The DAO is that no single entity owns it, and it has no conventional management structure or board of directors.
Embracing the ether
How can an investment fund work without management oversight? In 2013, a Russian-Canadian genius called Vitalik Buterin, proposed to do for managers and directors what the industrial and robotics revolutions did for factory workers: replace them with technology.
Buterin is the co-creator of Ethereum, a platform that, among other things, aims to automate management through code: creating rules that determine what can be done within an organisation through smart contracts. Buterin wonders:
[] what if, with the power of modern information technology, we can encode the mission statement into code; that is, create an inviolable contract that generates revenue, pays people to perform some function, and finds hardware for itself to run on, all without any need for top-down human direction?
These code-made organisations are called distributed autonomous organisations (DAO). A DAO is a cryptographic technology that relies on multiparty secure computation the same technology used by Bitcoin to ensure no attacker can subvert it. In a surge of spectacular self-conceit, The DAO is the name given to the first major DAO to launch on the Ethereum platform.
For another two weeks, anyone can trade Ethereums altcoins, Ether (ETH or , the crypto tokens of Ethereum), for tokens on The DAO ().
Once the creation phase is complete, anyone with a project can pitch to and receive investment from The DAO. Only those who own DAO tokens will be able to vote on which projects are funded by The DAO, and receive rewards if those projects make a return.
It all sounds like science fiction, a spontaneous entity evolving out of something named after a nebulous gaseous material) (thin air?), which claims to be immutable and incorruptible.
The significance of this DAO The DAO is that its creators have done the hard work in coming up with a rulebook and its underlying code that others can copy, and thereby use to set up other DAOs.
This standard DAO framework was created by Slock.it, an Internet of Things company that plans to propose more than one project to The DAO when it is formed.
The rules are designed to ensure no one interest can take over a DAO. For example, token holders can withdraw their stake if they disagree with a decision, while keeping their stake in any project that The DAO took when they were invested, and continuing to earn a return from those that make profits.
The DAOs white paper, as well as Slock.its proposal are attracting significant attention in crypto currency forums.
Whos in charge?
For social scientists like us, The DAO is perhaps one of the purest experiments in microeconomic theory, particularly of contracts, digital organisations and mechanism design. And it is likely to produce significant insights into how innovation occurs.
The thinkers behind Ethereum and The DAO are also investigating radical new governance models that might be implemented using blockchain, including Futarchy, which uses prediction markets to choose between competing policies.
One immediate area to watch will be how the token-holders on The DAO behave. Will all token-holders pay sufficient attention to responsibly vote? Or will it fall victim to crowd mentality? Does having a financial stake mean that voters are more likely to do due diligence, as Stephan Tual, COO of Slock.it suggests?
Needless to say, like all activities at the frontiers, The DAO will be highly risky as an investment, and not just because nine in ten start-ups fail. The DAO is only as good as the code it is made from.
As recent disputes in the bitcoin community have demonstrated, code is susceptible to the human error and frailty of those who made it.
Another dimension that no one is talking about is the lack of diversity of the curator team (a group intended to do due diligence on contracts), when research shows that gender and cultural diversity on boards is a good thing. If The DAO fails, it may be because it did not work hard enough to involve a broader group of thinkers in its design.
The DAO reflects a Silicon Valley culture where attracting venture capital for technology start-ups is equated with democracy and seen as the height of innovation. A system in which only those who buy tokens can vote is not an experiment in democracy, but in plutocracy.
Yet the appeal of Ethereum is that it provides a platform for those who dont want to build a private blockchain to create, organise and govern. This opens blockchain technology up to a world far beyond helping big financial corporations and markets achieve efficiency gains.
It is possible that the innovations that prove the most transformative will actually be those parts of our social fabric that are currently not reaching their full potential because no effective distributed coordination mechanism exists. An interesting example is scholarly publishing.
In a recent paper with some other co-authors, we have suggested a new way to move scholarly publishing on to the blockchain by reinventing a journal as a DAO.
To paraphrase US congressman Barney Frank, governance is the name for the things we do together. If DAOs can remove some of the messier aspects of governance, we might be able to do a whole lot more.
Ellie Rennie owns DAO tokens and ETH. She receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Jason Potts receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is also an Adjunct Fellow at The Institute of Public Affairs.
Originally published in The Conversation.
Two new visa initiatives are being introduced that will enhance tourism, youth mobility and business links between Australia and Singapore.The new visa arrangements have been developed as part of the Australia-Singapore Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the two countries have agreed to implement a Work and Holiday visa arrangement for young adults from both countries."This reciprocal Work and Holiday arrangement with Singapore will allow residents aged 18 to 30 years to travel, live, work and study in each other's country," said Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton."This new arrangement will promote cultural exchange and strengthen people-to-people links by creating opportunities for young people to travel and undertake short-term work and study to supplement their holiday experience," he added.The Work and Holiday arrangement will make available 500 places in each country per year with the potential for growth in future years. This brings Australia's overall Working Holiday Maker visa programme to a total of 39 partner countries.In addition to the Work and Holiday visa initiative, the Australian Government will also soon introduce an option of a long validity, multiple entry visitor visa for Singaporean nationals to visit Australia, an extension of the current one year visa.Indeed, Singapore is one of the top countries for visitors to Australia, with more than 203,000 visitor visas granted in 2014/2015, up 4.6% compared to 2013/2014."The new visitor visa arrangement will further boost tourism and business links between Australia and Singapore and allowing for a longer validity period will encourage repeat visits and align with the Government's agenda to reduce unnecessary red tape," Dutton said.He explained that the option of a long validity, multiple entry visitor visa for Singaporeans will be targeted at frequent short term travellers to Australia. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection will continue to work closely with its counterparts in Singapore to implement the arrangements as soon as possible.Details of the new arrangements will be made available on the Department of Immigration and Border Protection's website soon.
Hi me and my partner are going on a trip to Bali and are stopping through Brisbane and Sydney for over 8 hours.I am aware of the transit visa and both me and my partner have applied together (same envelope/ flights) and are still waiting to hear back. My partner has no criminal record and a contact in Australia. I was completely honest about my past with drugs and the resulting criminal record I also told them I changed my life around and will be attending law school in August. Unfortunately the charges gave me over 12 months of jail time. Any suggestions on what I should do if I am denied? It seems ever country I want to travel through (from Hawaii) requires a clean criminal record...
To anyone who can help!
I've been living with my Mexican girlfriend for 1 year now (8 months in Canada, 4 months in Mexico), and since that time we have had two failed Visitor VISA (subclass 600) applications; once from Canada for failure to prove ties (bit difficult when she wasn't living in her country at the time) and now recently here in her home town, this time because of a misunderstanding - she was told after getting biometrics done to wait for a response on the results of said biometric data before uploading documents to the application, only to be rejected for lacking supporting documentation!!
Now I am running out of time to stay in Mexico, my Visitor VISA will expire at the end of June, and I would like to know if there is any other way to get her into the country. We've heard that if she starts the partner VISA application process outside Australia she will need to wait between 12 - 15 months outside of the country whilst the application is processed, and for us that is unreasonable and unacceptable!
Would it be better to try and get her a student VISA? Do student VISA's have conditions whereby you cannot apply for a different VISA stream once inside the country? Please any advice would be greatly appreciated!! We are very close and cannot imagine being apart for 12-15 months to wait for a VISA application to process!!!
Thanks!
Hello,I have read a few threads an one I saw was very similar to what I have to ask but here goes.I have a Fijian Husband who has an offshore partner provisional visa.He was charged with an AVO and his sponsor ship cancelled. He replied to immigration saying that I did abuse to him and now of course he does not have any proof. As we have once again sorted things out etc he had 28 days to respond. 14 to go. I am not allowed to ask anything about this visa at all so how do we go about it. I am definitely not saying I did domestic violence at all.Is there a path you can take his permanent visa would have taken effect this month had this not happened. We do not have children together and I am obviously alive. HELP PLEASE
The 2016 BMW 320i is available in two trim levels and is priced starting at Rs 36.9 lakh; 520i will go on sale shortly.
BMW has added a petrol variant of the updated 3-series to its model line-up following the cars launch in January this year. While the carmaker's 3-series diesel can be sold in Delhi, thanks to an engine under 2 litres, the uncertainty around diesel is perhaps the reason for this reintroduction. Launched as a CBU (unlike the diesel car that is locally assembled), the new 3-series petrol, badged 320i, is available in two trim levels with prices starting at Rs 36.90 lakh for the entry-level Prestige trim and Rs 42.70 lakh for the top Luxury Line variant. (All prices ex-showroom, Delhi)
The 320i comes with a 2.0-litre TwinPower Turbo four-cylinder petrol motor that pumps out 184hp and 270Nm of torque. The engine is paired to an eight-speed automatic gearbox as standard, while the Luxury Line variant gets the addition of paddle shifters. BMW claims a 0-100kph sprint time of 7.3 seconds, similar to the diesel sibling.
Standard features on the 320i include LED headlamps, heated wing mirrors with memory function, dual-zone climate control, ambient lighting, electric adjust front seats with memory, BMW iDrive system with a 6.5-inch screen bundled with BMW Apps and four drive modes. It gets 16-inch alloy wheels.
The Luxury Line furthermore gets a choice of upholstery, a fifth Sport+ drive mode, a larger 8.8-inch iDrive touch infotainment system with handwriting recognition and navigation, an electric sunroof, a 205W audio system and 17-inch alloy wheels.
Like its diesel sibling, the 320i gets variant-specific details, with the Luxury Line trim getting more chrome bits on the interiors and the exterior.
BMW has aggressively positioned its new petrol luxury sedan with pricing that's lower than that of rivals. The Mercedes C200 is restricted to a single variant, the C200 Avantgarde (Rs 38.9 lakh), and the Jaguar XE has two trims Pure (Rs 39.9 lakh) and a the fully loaded Portfolio (Rs 47.9 lakh)
With this new pricing, BMW aims to regain a share of the petrol luxury sedan market, a segment it vacated a while ago when it stopped sales of the petrol 3-series in its prefacelifted guise. BMW also seems to be working on introducing a petrol 5-series with the cars brochure available on the companys website.
The petrol 5-series, badged the 520i, will be powered by the same 184hp 2.0-litre TwinPower turbo-petrol motor and will be available in one fully loaded Luxury Line trim. The 5-series will get features such as a 10.2-inch touchscreen iDrive system, a 600W Harman Kardon audio system and adaptive LED headlamps to name a few. BMW is expected to reveal prices for the petrol 5-series soon.
When introduced, the 520i will rival the likes of the Audi A6 35TFSI and the Mercedes E200.
NHTSA
While Nikkei did not specify the source of the information regarding the upcoming recall, it appears that Honda would want to make a preemptive campaign to avoid any additional injuries.Last week, Takata was ordered by the NHTSA to replace up to 40 million airbags. The recall order comes after the Japanese automotive supplier already was in the middle of the largest automotive recall ever recorded.Considering that Honda is Takatas biggest customer, it would make sense for the automaker to be involved in an upcoming service campaign.Nikkei estimated that the Takata recall would cost Honda approximately $1.87 billion. Meanwhile, the Japanese parts supplier might encounter significant financial issues because of the many callbacks caused by its products. Some analysts estimate Takata will not survive the airbag fiasco.As Automotive News notes, the total number of airbag inflators that must be replaced has risen to approximately 69 million. The Takata airbag fiasco affects 17 automakers, so the situation has attained unexpected levels for all parties involved.As we mentioned above, Takata was asked by theto recall additional airbag inflators last week, as they discovered that around 40 million of them did not feature a desiccant to reduce moisture. Because of the lack of that particular chemical, which you can sometimes find in shoe boxes when you get new sneakers (not in the same form, obviously), the airbag inflators might fail because of dampness.Global statistics place Takata airbag-related deaths at 13 people worldwide. All the cases involve the failure of airbag inflators built by the aforementioned company, and the victims were killed because the parts ruptured and sent metal and plastic shrapnel towards the driver after an impact.
We are no closer to finding out if the RC 500 can cure boredom and the hole in the ozone layer at the same time, but we can tell you the name of the actress. She is Mar Saura, which sounds a lot like a mission in Starcraft II.Believe it or not, Mar Saura is 40 years old, yet she still fills out a lingerie set as well as any VS or SI model even after having two children. Her wardrobe collection is also quite impressive, as she goes from office suit to lingerie, to evening dress, to lace summer dress in a matter of seconds. The outfit she settles on eventually includes leather pants and a fitted military red jacket, which she may see as being perfect for her date with the flyboy.One of the Spanish Air Force's many F-18 jets stationed in Torrejon makes a short appearance next to the Lexus coupe. But like we said in the beginning, a race would have been nice.The LC 500 is a halo car for Lexus, the best that the Japanese know how to build right now. Underneath the hood is the same 5.0-liter V8 engine you get in the RC F. But the placement is much lower and in line with the mid-engined mentality, plus they've used a brand new 10-speed automatic and changed some of the components to aluminum or carbon fiber.The bad news is that this is said to be a 2018 model that will come out roughly during the winter of 2017. While you wait, you might also want to know that there's an LC 500h model as well. The Multi-Stage Hybrid system drops a couple of cylinders down to a V6 and adds a lithium-ion battery pack. Oddly, it also gets rid of six full gears, making it a 4-speed. In our book, that's actually a good thing, and so is this Spanish video.
When you plan on running a tour of England's south-western extremity, renting a motor home is a very good idea. Not only is the whole country extremely camper-friendly but it also makes it a lot easier to plan on a very short notice - or even not plan at all. It gives you all the freedom you need while also reducing costs, so there really isn't any reason not to do it.After you see what this guy went through, you might think twice - or at least park your campervan at the town's outskirts and make your way in on a bike or something. The unnamed (for obvious reasons) tourist didn't, choosing instead to venture into the old settlement of St Ives at the wheel of his rented vehicle. A mistake that was going to cost him dearly, and we don't just mean money but also his self-esteem.You see, the streets of St Ives weren't exactly designed for this kind of vehicles - in fact, they were probably built in a time when the largest vehicle imaginable was a horse that enjoyed eating a little too much. The size of his motor home - coupled with the fact that they didn't have enough time to get acquainted - led him into a very embarrassing situation where a whole street (we say "whole" as if there was a lot of it, but there wasn't) was blocked because his vehicle got stuck in a scaffolding.The locals might have been a bit more understanding with the man since similar things apparently happen quite often, but the rest of the tourists found this to be just another cool thing to add to their holiday album. So large crowds gathered to have a laugh at the man's misfortune, complete with pictures and what not. Finally, after closing the street, a police officer tried to remove the campervan, but to no avail. The scaffolding had to be removed, and the vehicle reversed out of the treacherous street. The Mirror says the motor home suffered only minor damage, and the holidaymakers were able to continue their time away from work. And if the warranty deposit left with the company that rented the caravan was not enough to cover the damage, there's no telling when or if his self-respect will ever be whole again.
Nikola Motor Company may be virtually unknown, but that doesn't mean it's new on the market. The Utah-based firm has been around for some time, designing and manufacturing electric vehicles, vehicle components, energy storage systems, and electric vehicle drivetrains. The only reason you haven't heard about it so far is because it doesn't have a vocal CEO like the company using the surname of the Serbian inventor.His name is Trevor Milton, and his company describes him as a "visionary." No reason to doubt that, but it just goes to prove the difference good PR and self-promo can make for a brand's success. However, Nikola Motor Company (NMC) seems ready to poke its head out now, and it's announcing two new models that will be launched shortly should it receive the needed support.The first one is called Nikola Zero and it's a four-by-four electric adventure buggy not very different from the likes of Polaris RZR or Canam Maverick. It's got a maximum range of between 100 and 150 miles, 520 hp, and a 0-60 mph acceleration time of just three seconds. It's a completely insane vehicle that can be reserved with just $750. You would be taking a risk, though, as you can never really know what happens with these small enterprises in the future. But if it succeeds, you'll have to pay the $41,250 difference to own it, which is a lot of money for what is essentially nothing more than a fun car.The real start of the show is the Nikola One, a streamlined electric semi truck that uses an onboard turbine engine to produce its own energy. This setup offers some very impressive figures: a maximum range of 1,200 miles per tank, 2,000 hp, more than double the torque of an average diesel truck (3,700 lb-ft or 2,730 Nm), 30 seconds 0-60 acceleration under load, and a top speed uphill of 65 mph (105 km/h).As the picture demonstrates, the Nikola One owes much of these performance figures to its aerodynamic design. If that windshield doesn't prove to be distorting the driver's vision like the one on the Tesla Model X does, then it'll be a thing of beauty. The idea of streamlined trucks isn't new, and yet none has managed to look anything like the Nikola Zero so far.The company promises huge improvements over a regular diesel truck in both performances and profitability. The turbine that acts as a generator runs on CNG which NMC extracts, liquefies, and sells all by itself. In fact, it's offering 1,000,000 miles worth of free fuel for the first 5,000 owners, so if that's what was holding you back, jump on it. The deposit for a Nikola One is just $1,500, but the truck will eventually cost $375,000 when it's ready. Or should we say "if" it's ever ready? If it ends up looking like this and is half as good as NMC wants us to believe, then we sure hope it'll roll on our roads one day.
Read our series of articles and download the buyer guide
Fleet owners and managers need to remain vigilant about the latest safety recalls.
An SUV undergoes a grueling passenger-side small overlap front test for the first time, and crushes it.
The fleet and retail versions of the electric Silverado will offer customers a variety of options and are expected to be in high demand.
Bolts Dual Level Charge Cord allows for Level 2 charging on a 240v three-pronged dryer plug a smart option for organizations with temporary employees or those in leased or rented complexes.
In a tightly contested field of safety, technology, comfort, and style, the Chevrolet Equinox won out. It is the Fleet SUV of the Year.
Get a peek at GMs new Chevy Silverado EV in this State of the Fleet Industry Spotlight video, fresh from the show floor at Work Truck Week 2022.
Properly equipped 2015-MY or newer GM vehicles with the OnStar embedded module will now gain connectivity to Samsaras Connected Operations Cloud.
The 2024 Chevrolet Silverado HD will make its public debut at the State Fair of Texas and includes numerous upgrades.
To date, 20 vehicles from 13 manufacturers will be on display and available to drive at the 2022 Fleet Forward Conference.
The recently discontinued Trax will be reborn as a completely redesigned model.
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There have been a total of 197 fatalities in collisions on Iowa roads this year a 5% increase over 2021. Even so, hands-free legislation in both the Senate and the House remains stalled.
(l-r) Attorney Colin Dunn, plaintiff Theresa Swenson, and attorney Kevin Durkin hold a press conference in Chicago to discuss the trial verdict. Screen shot courtesy of Clifford Law Offices via YouTube.
VIDEO: Wrongful Death Trial Press Conference
A wrongful death lawsuit filed in Cook County, Ill., against a Missouri-based food refrigeration systems company and a former company fleet driver has resulted in a $22.7 million jury award.
The case revolved around a May 2012 fatal crash on Interstate 294, the southern part of the Tri-State Tollway in Illinois. Aaron Swenson, a 31-year-old private investigator, was stopped in morning traffic in a construction zone when a fleet van driven by Hussmann Corp. employee Adam Troy rear-ended Swensons car and rammed it into a truck stopped ahead.
Aaron Swenson suffered fatal injuries in the crash. His wife of nearly four years, Theresa (Tracy) Swenson, later filed a lawsuit alleging negligence against both Hussmann Corp. and Troy.
A criminal case against Troy is still pending.
The Illinois State Police lab showed that there were multiple narcotics in [Troys] blood, attorney Colin Dunn said during a press conference held the day after the April 25 verdict. Urine tests, he added, indicated the same drugs as well as marijuana.
Additionally, Dunn said, crash event data recorders showed that Troy was traveling at approximately 57 mph at the time of impact and hadnt applied the brakes even though traffic ahead had been stopped for some time.
In fact, within three seconds of the impact he had actually hit the accelerator, Dunn said. The impact triggered a five-vehicle collision.
Dunn and Kevin Durkin, partners at Clifford Law Offices in Chicago, represented Theresa Swenson in the case. The $22.7 million award is the largest in Cook County for a wrongful death case in more than a decade. After the two-week trial in Chicago ended, the jury took just three hours to reach its verdict.
This photo of the crash scene was entered into evidence during the trial. Photo courtesy of Clifford Law Offices.
Jeffrey Lipe and Jordan Tank, two of the attorneys for the defendants, didnt respond to requests for comment about the verdict or possible appeal plans.
Theresa Swenson, now 31 and living in Chicago, praised her attorneys efforts and the jurys decision. But she noted she has struggled to deal with the sudden loss of her husband the past four years. Since the accident, she has graduated law school and passed the bar.
Although civil justice is dispensed in the only way it knows how, through a verdict, it nonetheless sends a message to the defendants that they have to be more careful, that vans can kill, that you have to monitor your drivers, and that you have to screen them more carefully, Swenson said.
Dunn acknowledged that Hussmann Corp. has a drug-testing program in place for its drivers, but the attorney characterized the program as insufficient.
Headquartered in Bridgeton, Mo., Hussmann Corp. specializes in refrigeration systems and display equipment for the retail food industry.
This company needs to do a better job monitoring its drivers because we dont think what happened that morning was an aberration, Dunn said. He also alleged that Troy had a history of speeding tickets.
Swensons case was consolidated with another lawsuit filed by Joseph LeSanche, the driver of the truck that Aaron Swensons car struck after being rear-ended by the Hussmann van. LeSanche, now 25, filed suit against the same defendants about six months after the accident, according to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.
LeSanches attorneys argued that he suffered serious back injuries in the crash and has developed chronic pain that extends to his legs, requiring lifelong medical care. LeSanches case was tried at the same time as Swensons case. The jury awarded LeSanche $12.3 million.
To view the Clifford Law Offices' press conference following the verdict, click on the photo or link below the headline.
Photo courtesy of Capital Auto Rental.
Capital Auto Rental, a division of Capital Ford, has opened in Raleigh, N.C.
The company is celebrating its grand opening by hosting a business event on Tuesday May 17 in conjunction with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.
"Our family of dealerships has long been in the business of renting cars, but it was on a limited basis," said Tim Michael, dealer principal. "Last year, we decided to dedicate exclusive facilities and employees to our rental program under the name Capital Auto Rental. What makes our program unique is the wide assortment of vehicles available at any given time. Customers will be happy to find our prices very competitive with the national rental agencies."
Capital Auto Rental provides vehicles for daily, weekly, monthly, and long-term rentals. Corporate accounts affording discounts are also available, according to the company.
"Here a person can rent anything from a small economy car to seven-passenger SUVs, mini and cargo vans, 12- and 15-passenger vans, said Michael Erexson, general manager for Capital Auto Rental. We even rent Ford F-150 and F-250 trucks. And with the nice weather upon us, we're also finding a lot of demand for our convertibles."
In addition to the new Capital Ford of Raleigh facility, Capital Auto Rental services are also available at Capital Ford stores in Charlotte, Hillsborough, and Wilmington; University Ford in Chapel Hill, Durham, and North Durham; and Capital Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge in Garner.
"Attention to detail and our customer-driven focus have made Capital Ford the number one Ford dealer in the Southeast, said Erexson. We proudly bring that same set of standards to our Capital Auto Rental business."
Chinese officials plan to invest $11.9 billion by the end of this year to expand aviation infrastructure, according to a recent report from Xinhua, the countrys official press agency. Most of the investment will go to airport construction, with 11 key new projects planned and 52 upgrades to existing facilities. The general aviation sector, especially aircraft research and manufacturing, has became a hot spot of both industrial upgrading and social concern, said Feng Zhenglin, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The goal is to foster new growth sectors, improve transportation, and boost employment, according to a statement from a government executive council. In 2015, the CAAC allotted $80 billion for 193 projects.
Chinas cabinet said last week it would support developing the countrys aviation industry and opening up low-altitude airspace for civil aircraft, according to Reuters. Officials have relaxed some restrictions on civil flight in recent years, but there is still a lot of state oversight compared to whats the norm in Western countries. Flight plans have to be approved in advance, a process that can take several days. Western companies, such as Cessna, Diamond Aircraft, and Pilatus, have created joint ventures with Chinese partners to produce airplanes there, but so far GA growth has been slow.
Most of the contracts required for the upcoming delivery of large amounts of more Russian weapons to Armenia have already been signed, according to the Russian ambassador in Yerevan, Ivan Volynkin.
Armenia is to pay for them with a $200 million loan which Russia pledged to allocate to it about a year ago. The Armenian government moved to speed up the implementation of the arms deal following the April 2 escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The government instructed the Armenian Defense Ministry to negotiate supply contracts with relevant Russian government agencies. We are now working on the signing of the contracts, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian said during an April 27 visit to Moscow.
As far as I know, contracts relating to most of that [Russian-Armenian loan] agreement have already been signed, Volynkin told RFE/RLs Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Monday. The deliveries will be carried out within mutually acceptable time frames.
The Russian envoy did not give any dates. You cant just pick a weapon somewhere and [immediately] get it, he said. It has to be produced, and that takes time.
Meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Yerevan on April 7, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian complained about a certain slowdown in the implementation of the $200 million deal by Rosoboronexport, Russias state arms exporter. He asked Medvedev to help conclude the contracts with the Armenian side.
You see, every country has some bureaucratic mechanisms that do not allow to instantly solve such issues, Volynkin said in that regard. You need to work out the list of weapons, terms for the delivery and the like.
In February, Moscow disclosed the types of military hardware which Yerevan will be allowed to buy with the Russian credit. The deadliest of these weapons is the Smerch multiple-launch rocket system and TOS-1A heavy flamethrower designed to destroy defense fortifications and enemy personnel with thermobaric rockets.
Russia has reportedly sold 18 Smerch launchers and as many TOS-1A systems to Azerbaijan along with more than 90 T-90 tanks, over 30 combat helicopters and other offensive weapons. The Russian arms deliveries to Armenias arch-foe, reportedly worth about $5 billion, stemmed from contracts signed in 2009-2011.
Armenian leaders stepped up their criticism of those arms deals immediately after last months Azerbaijani military offensive in Karabakh. Medvedev effectively rejected the criticism, saying that Moscow sells weapons to both Armenia and Azerbaijan and thereby sustains the military balance in the Karabakh conflict.
Volynkin insisted that that balance has not been disrupted by the Russian-Azerbaijani defense contracts. Russia regards Armenia as a strategic ally and will continue to supply it with the most advanced weapons, he said.
We will do everything in our power to preserve this allied relationship, added the diplomat.
Ohanian similarly stated on April 27 that Yerevan will not reconsider its close military and political ties with Moscow. I dont see a single fact indicating that our strategic relations have been somehow disrupted or changed, he told RFE/RLs Armenian service.
Armenia can also spend the Russian loan on buying, at discounted prices, Russian-made anti-tank weapons, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, demining and communication equipment, armored personnel carriers and heavy military trucks.
The anti-tank systems include 9M133 guided missiles that first went into service with the Russian army in the late 1990s. The 135-milimeter rockets can supposedly destroy tanks within a 4-kilometer range.
The two sides also negotiated last year on the delivery of Russian Iskander missiles to the Armenian army. With a firing range of up to 500 kilometers, the sophisticated systems would make Azerbaijans vital oil and gas infrastructure even more vulnerable to Armenian missile strikes in the event of a full-scale war for Karabakh.
An Armenian army general claimed late last month that Armenia already has such missiles in its military arsenal. The Defense Ministry in Yerevan did not deny or confirm the claim.
10 May 2016 17:26 (UTC+04:00)
By Gulgiz Dadashova
Just a month ago world leaders has gathered in Washington to mull nonproliferation and ways to keep nuclear materials from terrorists. At a time when the U.S. reiterates its strong commitment to keep the topic of nuclear disarmament in the geopolitical agenda, the smallest nation in the South Caucasus -- Armenia -- has announced its nuclear ambitions, in fact skipping the due attention of Washington.
Armenia can be the second North Korea, as its authorities had already declared the country to be an owner of a nuclear weapon and vowed the use of nuclear weapons against its neighbor country Azerbaijan, against which it has illegal territorial claims.
The two South Caucasus countries -- Azerbaijan and Armenia remain in a state of war since early 1990s when the latter staged a war against its neighbor and occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijans internationally recognized lands, turning over 1 million people into refugees and IDPs.
Long-simmering tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan flared again on April 2 when the Armenian side began to shell the Azerbaijani positions and settlements along the frontline. Despite the Russia-brokered agreement achieved on April 5, Armenia continues to violate ceasefire with Azerbaijan by shelling its positions and civilians using prohibited weapons.
Following the recent clashes on frontline, Armenias ex-PM, member of the country's Parliament Hrant Bagratyan, as well as Major-General Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan have claimed that Armenia possesses nuclear weapon hinting at its possible use against Azerbaijan.
The claims follow the facts of nuclear smuggling from Armenia, which were mentioned in annual statistical reports of the IAEA Incident and Trafficking Database (IDTB), Database on Nuclear Smuggling, Theft, and Orphan Radiation Sources (DSTO), reports by NTI, SIPRI, and other open media source.
Expert Elkhan Alasgarov believes the U.S. may impose sanctions against Armenia given its nuclear ambitions,which is a serious threat not only to Azerbaijan, but also the globe.
Alasgarov reminded that even back in 2011 Georgian law enforcement agencies arrested Armenian citizens, who were trying to sell radioactive materials and looking for buyers in this country. And recently the number of such smugglers has increased.
"All these give reason to believe that the nuclear ambitions of the current leadership of Armenia have reached a serious point, and these actions require an immediate reaction of the international community, the expert said pointing at the case of Iran, against which the world powers imposed sanctions due to its nuclear studies.
The constant incidents on the Armenia-Georgia border and rising number of Armenian citizens involved in cases of illicit trafficking of nuclear materials, is sufficient proof of the existence of the Armenian route for smuggling of weapons-usable nuclear material, experts say.
Uncontrolled radioactive sources or dirty bombs can cause harm to human health or the environment, while in the hands of terrorists these sources can turn into a real threat against the whole world. Actually, the scope of the threat is daunting.
It doesnt take much to unleash a catastrophe: Uranium -238, Cesium-137 or Plutonium, that Armenian citizens were trying to smuggle through Georgia to Middle East,is enough to build a nuclear bomb.
This is also the time when the world fights against terrorists from ISIS, PKK and Al-Gaida and others.
Experts claim that the presence of the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant enables the Armenian leadership to buy radioactive material abroad, which then are sold further. The Armenian-Turkish border is closed, while Russian border guards stand on the border between Iran and Armenia. That is why Armenian smugglers try to use the territory of Georgia and its access to sea, which allows seeking buyers from larger region.
Alasgarov believes that the cases of smuggling of nuclear materials through Georgia should be thoroughly investigated by the International Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and urgent measures should be taken.
Asked about whether such a sale of radioactive material without the consent of the Armenian authorities is possible, the expert ruled out this possibility.
The political scientist also spoke about the equally important question of whether such a possible sale of radioactive material without the consent of the Armenian authorities?
"This is impossible, since the last four detained Armenian smugglers, about which media reported, have safely transported radioactive materials through Armenias territory and to the border. Some argue that the Armenian authorities sell them [radioactive material] to respective customers to get profits, Alasgarov said.
The expert believes that uttering the presence of nuclear weapon by the Armenian official can also be regarded as the nuclear threats, which puts the country in a par with North Korea for the blackmail.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned that Armenia pollutes the transboundary rivers, mainly Araz River with the nuclear waste of the Metsamor NPP and other materials, he reminded.
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Follow Gulgiz Dadashova on Twitter: @GulgizD
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10 May 2016 18:07 (UTC+04:00)
By Rashid Shirinov
The final status of Nagorno-Karabakh will be determined in the context of a comprehensive settlement of the conflict, which will also include the return of occupied territories to Azerbaijani control, U.S. Ambassador James Warlick, the OSCE Minsk Group's co-chairman, said in an interview to Trend on May 10.
The Minsk Group was created in 1992 and spearheads the OSCE's efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It is co-chaired by France, the Russian Federation, and the United States.
Talking about possible recognition of the independence of Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh region by Armenia, Warlick stressed that no country recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh. "We continue to urge the parties to show goodwill and congregate at the negotiating table to achieve a lasting settlement of the conflict.
Earlier, two members of Armenias National Assembly initiated an idea of recognizing Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region as a free state. On May 5, The Foreign Ministry of Armenia denied the rumors about Armenias plans to recognize the independent region, naming them groundless. It noted that the government's decision does not mean approval of that initiative.
Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal, but they have not been enforced to this day.
A precarious cease-fire was signed in 1994. However, the Armenian forces commit armistice breaches on the frontline almost every day.
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10 May 2016 13:35 (UTC+04:00)
By Guy Verhofstadt
Europes refugee crisis is far from solved, but there are signs that the agreement finalized by the European Union and Turkey on March 18 is reducing the flow of refugees and migrants from Turkey to Greece. According to Frontex, the European border-management agency, the 26,460 migrants detected crossing the EUs external borders in the eastern Mediterranean in March amounted to less than half the figure recorded in February.
The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has already declared that the deal, whereby the EU pays Turkey billions of euros to shut down the Turkey-Greece migratory route, is producing results. Many EU governments are breathing a sigh of relief. The flows of refugees on this route may well have been stemmed.
But at what price?
Turkey and the EU are now working together closely to execute the agreement, yet relations between them are increasingly strained. And the deals legitimacy and legality has rightly faced a wave of skepticism from NGOs, charities, and human-rights lawyers. As the agreement is implemented, a number of flashpoints are already foreseeable.
A key element of the deal is that EU leaders agreed to allow visa-free travel for 75 million Turkish citizens by the end of June. Originally, Turkey was obliged to meet 72 benchmarks by then, with some EU diplomats claiming that only half have been met. In early May, however, the European Commission gave conditional support to visa-free travel while insisting on fulfillment of five of the most important criteria.
Time will tell whether the EU stands up to Turkeys government and ensures that the necessary conditions (which are technical as well as political) are met. But we can expect stormy waters ahead.
For one thing, granting Turkeys population visa-free access to the EUs border-free Schengen Area is hardly uncontroversial. When EU leaders signed up to the visa deal, they did so in relative secrecy and at the peak of the refugee crisis. But it is likely that the very same populists and nationalists who drove EU leaders to craft the agreement with Turkey in order to contain the refugee crisis will now lead the backlash against visa-free access for Turkish citizens.
Moreover, Tusk has not acquitted himself well. During a recent visit to Turkey, he asserted that the Turkish government is the best example in the world of how to treat refugees. To be sure, Turkey has taken more than its fair share of refugees from Syria and elsewhere. But it is obscene for an EU representative to suggest that Turkey is a role model for others.
Turkey is not a safe country for refugees. Indeed, there is growing evidence that it is pushing Syrian refugees back across the border. And shocking reports have emerged of Turkish border guards shooting at Syrian civilians who are fleeing the Islamic State and the civil war in their country.
Calls for the European Commission to investigate these claims have been met with shrugs. Human Rights Watch and the United Nations estimate that at least 100,000 Syrian civilians are now stranded on the Syrian side of the Turkish border. But by signing up to a grubby deal with Turkey, EU leaders have forfeited any right to lecture President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Erdogan knows it.
The EU-Turkey deal has also dramatically diminished the EUs credibility as a defender of freedom of speech and press freedom. Bekir Bozdag, Turkeys justice minister, disclosed last month that Turkish prosecutors have opened over 1,800 cases against people for insulting Erdogan since he became President in 2014. Those targeted include cartoonists, journalists, and even children.
Instead of encouraging politicians in Europe to stand up for press freedom and fight for reform in Turkey, the EU-Turkey agreement risks silencing them, for fear of upsetting Erdogan. The Turkish governments decision to seek the prosecution of a German comedian, Jan Bohmermann, for insulting Erdogan illustrates just how vulnerable the EU now is to Turkish extortion. EU leaders know that if they press him too much, he can at any moment reopen the refugee floodgates.
The EU-Turkey deal has been so good for Turkey that other transit countries have taken notice. Libyas vice president, Ahmed Maetig, has expressed hope for a similar agreement with his country to restrict the flow of migrants to Europe, despite the fact that the government does not control large parts of the coastline.
Paying other people to deal with ones problems might be a successful short-term solution, but it is rarely viable in the longer term. Europe needs to work with Turkey, not become dependent on it. By signing up to this deal, the EU has given Erdogan the keys to its backdoor. This will not help Turkeys EU membership prospects, and it certainly isnt in the EUs long-term interests.
The keys to the EU need to be taken back from Erdogan. But this can happen only if Europe devises a collective response that is capable of dealing with global migratory pressures. That means putting in place a genuine European asylum and migration strategy, establishing a European coast guard and border force, and providing legal and safe routes for both asylum-seekers and migrants. Until then, the EU will remain beholden to neighboring countries to do its dirty work.
Yanis Varoufakis, a former Greek finance minister, said that by agreeing to the EU-Turkey deal, Europe has lost its soul. That seems too generous. Europe has sold its soul. As a result, it is in danger of undermining its own raison detre.
Copyright: Project Syndicate: Europe Sells Out
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10 May 2016 10:40 (UTC+04:00)
The 93rd birthday of Heydar Aliyev, the national leader of Azerbaijan, is marked in Azerbaijan on May 10.
Heydar Aliyev was a talented and prominent politician and public figure who devoted his life to prosperity and well-being of his nation.
The great leader led the country into the most, perhaps, a dramatic period of its history, and laid the foundations of a new Azerbaijani statehood.
As many as 35 years of the history of Azerbaijan beginning from the late 1960s and proceeding in the 21st century is connected to the name of great leader Heydar Aliyev.
For these years, he assumed the responsibility of Azerbaijan, saved the state and the nation of hard and strict tests of history, created an independent country that we call modern Azerbaijan now and its present realities, and laid a reliable foundation for its bright future.
The rebirth of the Azerbaijani people in all fields of public-political, economic and cultural life during these years is linked to the name of this great personality.
He holds a special place in the history of Azerbaijan, whose role in the fate of the nation is undeniable.
After Azerbaijan gained independence, Heydar Aliyev's Azerbaijanism idea became the basic one for the Azerbaijanis living both in the country and across the world.
"We all should unite around this idea," Aliyev said. "Azerbaijanism means preserving national identity, national and spiritual values, and at the same time enrichment them with universal values, as well as ensuring the development of any person.
National leader Heydar Aliyev was a politician and a self-sufficient person. "I did that all by myself in my life!" was the leader's credo, evidencing of self-reliance, intelligence, morality and courage of the great leader.
Heydar Aliyev was elected president of Azerbaijan in a nationwide vote on October 3, 1993, and was re-elected in 1998.
Heydar Aliyev survived the chaos and uncertainty which racked Azerbaijan during its first years of independence.
State building is hard work requiring a particular responsibility in approaching the commitments in this context.
Heydar Aliyev was well aware that the state building must begin with the "frame", with the fundamental structures and reforms, but not with decisions that would cause global public applause.
Building a modern state on a strong and solid foundation and on national values had been one of Heydar Aliyev's main goal.
Constructive activities in the armed forces, structural changes, unification of combat operations under a single leadership, new military techniques based on established practices had brought new quality to the Azerbaijani army as well.
Azerbaijan's oil strategy began to boom thanks to the fruitful activity of Heydar Aliyev, who has become one of the key contributors to Azerbaijan's rapid development.
"Contract of the Century" signed with the Western oil companies in Baku on September 20, 1994 was of vital importance for Azerbaijan and played a crucial role in the establishment of internal stability in the country, and achievement of success in foreign policy.
Heydar Aliyev, who spearheaded the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project, did much to attract huge western capitals to Azerbaijan, what created many new jobs and lead to the development of several fields. Foreign capitals immediately earned on the economic growth of Azerbaijan, which today is recognized as the highest in the former Soviet space.
Azerbaijan's foreign policy had also gone through radical changes in this period. Azerbaijan strengthened its place in international relations system by setting its short-term international goals, and signed major strategic contracts with European countries, the United States, newly independent states, Turkic states, Muslim world, Iran, Asia, Africa and South America. One of Heydar Aliyevs most crucial foreign policy achievements was the accession of Azerbaijan to the Council of Europe in 2001, and its integration into the European family.
Today his immortal ideas and wise policy is successfully continued by President Ilham Aliyev. Under this farsighted policy, Azerbaijan is rapidly developing and gaining much reputation in the international arena day by day.
On this day the people of Azerbaijan pay tribute to the loving memory of Heydar Aliyev, the national leader of the Azerbaijani people, wise leader and genius personality.
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May 10 marks the 93rd birthday anniversary of the architect and founder of the modern independent state of Azerbaijan, outstanding statesman, brilliant son and national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev.
On the birthday anniversary of the savior of the Azerbaijani people, President Ilham Aliyev and his wife Mehriban Aliyeva, family members, relatives and friends of the national leader visited the Alley of Honors.
President Ilham Aliyev laid a wreath at the grave of national leader Heydar Aliyev, and paid tribute to him.
The national anthem of Azerbaijan was played.
Then, the head of state and his family members laid flowers at the graves of prominent ophthalmologist, academician Zarifa Aliyeva, outstanding statesman Aziz Aliyev, renowned doctor and scientist Tamerlan Aliyev.
The ceremony was also attended by Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, Parliament Speaker Ogtay Asadov, Head of the Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev, ministers, heads of committees and companies, MPs.
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10 May 2016 13:27 (UTC+04:00)
By Nigar Abbasova
The Azerbaijani Parliament considered several changes proposed to the Criminal Code during its regular plenary session on May 6.
MPs took up the issue of toughening penalty for illegal credit taking and violation of its usage principles, as well as for the misuse of public funds. The legislation in effect envisages a penalty in the amount of a double extent of damage or arrest for the term of up to two years for obtaining credit, credit eases, and single purpose interest free government loans by means of false representation of the economic situation or financial state of an organization or individual as well as for the misuse of credit by executives or entrepreneurs. In compliance with the current legislation in case the deed causes major damage the penalty envisages fining in the amount of a triple extent of damage or arrest for the term of from two to five years.
New legislation envisages administering of punishment at the rate of from double to fourfold extent of damage or arrest for the term of up to two years for the former case and from triple to fivefold extent of damage or arrest for the period from two to five years in the latter case respectively.
Parliamentarians also considered the law envisaging the enhancement of maximum amount of a fine for the misuse of public funds or credits obtained under the government guarantee.
In accordance with the proposed amendments delayed submission of the information on the use and return of finances raised by means of government loans or under government guarantee by principal or repeated borrowers (the law is not extended to participants) as well as provision of corrupted details will be counteracted by penalties ranging from the double to fourfold extent of damage (currently in the double extent) or arrest for the period of up to six months. The penalty will range from triple to fivefold extent of damage should the deed cause major damage to the government alongside with the deprivation of right to hold certain positions and to be engaged in specific business for the period of up to three years or arrest for the term of from one to two years.
The parliament also approved the law envisaging the increase of rate of tax payment for land misuse. In accordance with the amendment rate of tax for the lands of agricultural population remains in the same amount of 0.06 manats, penalty for land misuse toughens and reaches the amount of 10 manats for 100 square meters. Tax rate for the lands the intended use of which is not possible due to meliorative or other agro technical reasons also remains the same. Possibility of designated use of lands is determined in accordance with the rules and criteria approved by appropriate government agency. In contrast to the revenues from land tax which are forwarded to the budgets of municipalities, taxes for misuse of lands will be directed to the state budget.
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10 May 2016 12:47 (UTC+04:00)
By Gunay Camal
The U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick, has revealed that the MG, established to broker a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, does not plan to meet with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Brussels.
Of course, my Russian and French counterparts and me are in regular touch with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to urge restraint and the need to enter into negotiations on a comprehensive settlement, Warlick told APA on May 10, adding that this time they do not plan to meet with Mammadyarov.
Earlier, Mammadyarov told reporters that a meeting with the co-chairs can take place on the sidelines of an event which will be held in mid-May in one of the cities of Europe.
We plan to meet with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in one of European cities, likely in Brussels, next month, Mammadyarov said, adding that the exact date and time will be determined later.
Brussels will host a meeting of Eastern Partnership Foreign Ministers will take place in on May 23. Azerbaijan and Armenia are both party to the Eastern Partnership Program.
Last time Azerbaijans Mammadyarov met the OSCE MG in late 2015, as part of 70th Session of the UN General Assembly. The sides discussed the negotiations process to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.
Peace talks over the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that emerged over Armenias territorial claims against Azerbaijan are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. However, as Armenia continues to follow non-constructive position, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries over 20 years.
Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.
10 May 2016 16:58 (UTC+04:00)
By Gulgiz Dadashova
Heydar Aliyev made an exceptional contribution to the history of Azerbaijan and played a great historical role.
President Ilham Aliyev made the remark at an official reception has been held at the Heydar Aliyev Center to mark the 93rd anniversary of national leader Heydar Aliyev on May 9.
"He twice headed the state of Azerbaijan and both times led Azerbaijan from recession, anarchy, and chaos to development and progress," he stressed.
May 10 marks the 93rd anniversary of Heydar Aliyev. Heydar Aliyev thanks to his unwavering convictions and historical vision, succeeded in materializing the idea of national statehood, building a modern Azerbaijani state and realizing the independence dreams of Azerbaijani people. The Heydar Aliyev phenomenon gained a status of eternity as representatives of all generations honor the national leader and pay tribute for his tireless work to develop Azerbaijan.
"In 1969, Azerbaijan occupied one of the last places among the republics of the Soviet Union. Thanks to efforts, skills, knowledge of Heydar Aliyev and his affection to the Azerbaijani people, in 13 years the country turned into the most advanced republic. In the Soviet Union, except the Russian Federation, there were only two republics, which did not receive subsidies from the center. One of them was Azerbaijan, President Aliyev explained.
He further noted that Heydar Aliyev was quite unreasonably dismissed from all posts in 1987. It was a great injustice and a provocation against him and, at the same time, against Azerbaijan, President Aliyev said.
Heydar Aliyevs dismissal was followed by recession that deepened in 1990s.
"Political crisis was boosted by economic crisis. People completely lost confidence in the then authorities. The civil war flared up. The Armenian occupation combusted and began to expand, our lands fell under the occupation, the President said, adding that in such a difficult time the people again turned to Heydar Aliyev.
The Azerbaijani people invited him to the power and pinned great hopes on him. In the most difficult time of the countrys independence, Heydar Aliyev was again next to his people. He has agreed to lead his people. Since 1993, Azerbaijan has begun to observe a breakthrough in all areas. The civil war was ended, illegal armed units in Azerbaijan were disarmed and an order was established, while the country entered a period of development, President Aliyev said.
He stressed that the next phase - the period covering the years 1993-2003, was a period of development and stability. Today, Azerbaijan is self-affirmed as an independent state in the world.
President Aliyev further emphasized that since 2003 Azerbaijan continues the policy of Heydar Aliyev, noting that there are no alternatives to this policy.
"The experience of recent years shows that our country and our people can go forward pursuing only this path," President Aliyev said.
The president, speaking about the priorities of the state, noted that Azerbaijani citizen, his/her problems, concerns and safety stands in core of the state policy. Security issues in Azerbaijan are ensured at the appropriate level. There is a socio-political stability. Peoples well-being in improved.
"Although the ongoing economic and financial crisis in the world, has also affected us, I believe that we managed to honorably get out of this crisis, and today there is no problem in the economic sphere. Our financial position is stable, economic development continues, despite the problems associated with the decline in oil prices in 3-4 times, we deal with these problems with dignity. I am confident that we will successfully end 2016," he emphasized.
President Aliyev voiced belief that in the coming years, Azerbaijan will enjoy even greater respect in the international arena. The processes in the country are going in a positive direction. Our initiatives related to regional cooperation, enhance not only us, but also the neighboring countries. We have a very precise program on the further development and our vision for the future is very clear. The work to be done in the coming years will further strengthen us. We have no doubt in the further development of the country. Azerbaijan will continue to follow the path of development. All the problems, including in the social sphere, that the country faces are solved and will be solved."
He went on to add that although oil prices have fallen by 3-4 times, wages and pensions increased by 10 percent in Azerbaijan this year, social programs have been implemented and issues related to the construction of schools, hospitals, the problem of displaced persons and other social issues are being solved.
The president once again reminded that the main challenge before Azerbaijan is the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
By using political and diplomatic, as well as other factors in this direction, we are strengthening our position in the negotiation process. Justice supports and protects our position. Nagorno-Karabakh is a historical, native Azerbaijani land and in legal terms, it is an integral part of Azerbaijan. The decisions and resolutions adopted by international organizations protect and enhance our position.
As for the differences between Armenia and Azerbaijan, they are obvious. I have repeatedly stated that it is impossible to be unconscious of the advantage of Azerbaijan in the political sphere, in the economic sphere as well as in all other areas, including in the field of army building. April battles also showed that today the Azerbaijani army is among the strongest armies world-wide and is able to perform any task.
Theretofore, President Aliyev stressed, the country has a clear vision of the plans for the future. We must strengthen our country, further improve the welfare of the Azerbaijani people and Azerbaijan should take even more firm position on the global scale. In short, the international norms and principles, of course, play a major role in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But we have to become even stronger, and we go down this path, the president said.
President Aliyev, addressing the event which also honored the 71st anniversary of Victory over fascism, also reminded the role the Azerbaijani nation played in the WWII.
Azerbaijan played a great role in achieving victory - both at the front and in the home front, the president stressed.
A total of 600,000 citizens of Azerbaijan fought in World War II, half of them, or 300,000, were killed and never returned home. The Azerbaijani people demonstrated heroism during the war. Many Azerbaijanis were awarded with high awards and medals. Military equipment was produced in our factories. These equipment and weapons have rendered indispensable service to the Soviet Army in the most difficult moments of the war.
In those years the Azerbaijani oilmen have worked tirelessly to supply the Soviet Army with fuel. During the war, Azerbaijani oil workers provided 90 per cent of the fuel that was used by the Soviet army.
All these factors, as President Aliyev said, give ground to say that Azerbaijan has played a huge role in the victory over fascism.
Earlier on the same day, President Ilham Aliyev and his wife Mehriban Aliyeva attended a solemn ceremony in Baku to mark the 71st anniversary of victory over fascism in World War II. President Aliyev and Mehriban Aliyeva met with war veterans and congratulated them on Victory Day.
Commemorating the great leader
On the birthday anniversary of the savior of the Azerbaijani people, President Aliyev and his wife Mehriban Aliyeva, family members, relatives and friends of the national leader visited the Alley of Honors.
President Aliyev laid a wreath at the grave of national leader Heydar Aliyev, and paid tribute to him.
Later, President Aliyev, Mrs. Aliyeva and daughter Leyla Aliyeva attended a tree-planting event in a green space on the 29th-30th kilometer of Zigh-Heydar Aliyev International Airport highway.
The head of state was told that more than one million trees had been planted so far along Zigh-Heydar Aliyev International Airport highway in an area covering 969 hectares and measuring 20 km in length.
President Aliyev, his wife and daughter Leyla Aliyeva planted a tree here.
Starting this year, Flower Festival celebrated across Azerbaijan every May 10 and honoring the memory of national leader Heydar Aliyev is held in different format. The colorful holiday, celebrated since 2004, from now on will focus on importance of ecological protection.
10 May 2016 18:40 (UTC+04:00)
By Rashid Shirinov
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan has assured the manat will retain its stable rate in 2016.
"Azerbaijani manat will stay stable till the end of 2016," Elman Rustamov, the CBA Chairman told journalists on May 9, Trend reports.
The CBA has bought about 85 million dollars in order to stabilize the rate of the currency. The Central Bank has issued loans of about 1 billion manat to the banking sector.
Rustamov said that manats exchange rate is determined in accordance with market demand. "The national currency has stayed stable lately," he stressed.
That is an extremely successful case as compared to high instability of manat in 2015. The rate of U.S. dollar against manat soared from 0.78 to 1.05 AZN in February 2015 and 1.55 in December. After these events the CBA decided to put manat in floating exchange rate.
Rustamov added that further forecasts about manat depend on internal and external factors and oil prices.
He noted that the situation that exists today suggests that Azerbaijani manat will not face any major changes in its exchange rate: Oil prices and the overall economic situation over the country allow suggesting that.
The head of the CBA also added that major reason of Azerbaijani foreign exchange reserves growth is not increasing raw material prices, but the revenues of the oil fund.
Our foreign exchange reserves have increased since the beginning of the year, and the current figure is $4.2 billion. The figure was lower in the beginning of the year. Foreign exchange earnings were received both from management and market. Rustamov said.
The official rate of manat for dollar was set at the level of 1.5094 AZN on May 10, 2016. Azerbaijani manat has strengthened by 0.04 percent in comparison to its May 6 rate against U.S. dollar.
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10 May 2016 12:34 (UTC+04:00)
By Nigar Abbasova
Large scale project in power industry will be launched in Azerbaijan later this year.
Azerenergy, the country's sole power producer, is planning to commission the second combined cycle power unit on Shimal TPP in the second half of 2016, Trend reports. Construction of the power unit is practically complete.
We have faced several difficulties but left them behind, currently all activities are running in accordance with the planned procedures. The power unit is expected to launch in the second half of the current year, a source said.
Capacity of the second combined cycle power unit on Shimal TPP is expected to reach 409 megawatt.
For now, the power plant meets one forth of energy demand of Baku and Absheron peninsula. After the construction of the second power unit the figure will reach 35-40 percent. Construction of the second power plant is carried out in accordance with the agreement signed with Japan Toyo Engineering company. Currently one combined-cycle gas plant with the capacity of 400 megawatt is functioning in Shimal power plant.
Azerbaijan holds an electrical power system with the generation capacity of 7,129 megawatt, enabling to produce about 24 billion kilowatt of electricity a year. That empowers the country to export 2.1 billion kilowatt of energy annually.
Azerenergy is taking the leader position for the number and length of distribution networks in the country.
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10 May 2016 13:11 (UTC+04:00)
By Fatma Babayeva
Amid increasing oil exports to Europe Iran is determined to increase its production to pre-sanctions level of 4 million barrels per day.
Tehran may only negotiate joining oil freeze plan when that target has been achieved. Now, joining this plan for Iran is a volunteer act of self-sanctioning.
This statement was made by Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zangeneh to Irans Press TV on May 9.
The oil freezing plan mentioned by the Minister has been put forward by the OPEC and non-OPEC major oil producers in the beginning of 2016 with the aim to curb the oil output of those countries at the level of January 2016 in order to tackle current oil glut problem of the global market and to push up oil prices which fell 65 percent since June 2014.
Last, Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company Rokneddin Javadi told Bloomberg that Iran would reach to pre-sanctions volumes of oil production (4 million barrels per day) by July and pre-sanction oil export volume (2.2 million barrels per day) by the end of this summer.
Iran considers oil freezing plan unfair and rejects to join it for now.
The Islamic Republic will take any move to regain its lost market share, said Zangeneh by blaming Saudi Arabia for the freefall oil prices above $100 per barrel to around $40 per barrel.
Iranian Minister of Petroleum further added that oil prices plunged as a result of the persistence of the Saudis to keep their oil production at 10 million barrels per day by underrating the prices that Iran quotes its clients.
Saudi Arabia is suffering major losses by persisting on keeping its oil production at the current level, he said.
The minister previously said Saudis pursue the strategy to bring down oil prices and accordingly to harm Iran.
Nevertheless, Zangeneh stressed out that the country can do with oil prices even at the current level of around $40 per barrel.
Moreover, Iran increased its oil export to Europe up to 500,000 barrels per day in April, according to the data published by International Oil Daily. Irans oil sales to French Total amount to 230,000 barrels per day while oil deliveries to Turkey stood at 100,000 barrels per day and to Syria 50,000 barrels per day.
Whats more, Iran signed new contracts with European companies on exporting oil.
In accordance with these contracts inked with French Total and Spanish Sepsa, Iran plans to export 250,000 to 300,000 barrels per day to Europe in the near future.
Iranian Minister Zangeneh belives that the prospects for Iran's oil industry are promising. A great number of European and Asian companies have already shown a strong interest to take up projects in Iran.
He further stressed that the growing interest of Europe and Asia in Iran's oil industry could eventually make the U.S. facilitate the participation of American companies in this sector in Iran.
Although most of the sanctions have been cleared in January 2016, Iran still has problems with banking system. The U.S. sanction which bans to conduct transactions in U.S. dollar with Iran is still in place, and the export of U.S. technologies to the Islamic Republic is also prohibited which creates obstacles for Iran to find investment and cooperate with international companies.
The new oil investment framework known as Iran Petroleum Contract will be unveiled by July, according to the Iranian officials.
According to the BPs statistical review of world energy 2015, Iran holds 9.3 percent of the worlds total proven oil reserves.
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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva
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10 May 2016 12:30 (UTC+04:00)
Iran has managed to attract $3.418 billion in direct investment following the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), said the country's president, Hassan Rouhani.
Rouhani made the remarks addressing a gathering of people in Kerman Province, IRINN state-run TV channel reported.
Rouhani said that investment permissions have been issued over the past four months for investment activity in the country.
He further slammed those who criticizing the government over the JCPOA and said the nuclear deal has paved the way for economic activity in Iran.
Speaking about plans for developing the country, the president called for national unity in order to contribute to the country's development.
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10 May 2016 14:12 (UTC+04:00)
By Fatma Babayeva
The industrial flow of the natural gas was discovered in the first exploration well of the new promising field Giurgiu, the Turkmen Oil and Gas Ministry reported on May 6.
The well was drilled by the Turkmen Geology State Corporation in the territory of Mary region located in the south-east of Turkmenistan near the rich gas field Galkynysh.
Daily flow rate at the well amounts more than 600,000 cubic meters of natural gas per day, and the orifice (diameter of the flow through pipe) is 20 millimeters, according to the results of the preliminary tests.
The powerful industrial inflow of the natural gas was obtained at a depth of over 4,600 meters in the carbonate deposits belonging to the Oxfordian Age.
Moreover, the close location of the Giurgiu field to the well-known giant Galkynysh gas field is promising great prospects for the new field.
The field expands even more gas-bearing zone than Galkynysh field which confirms its possible extension that predicted earlier by the 3D seismic survey method.
At the moment, other prospective areas are also being tested at Giurgiu field.
The estimated total reserves of the Galkynysh field together with the adjacent Yashlar field amounts to 26.2 trillion cubic meters of gas, according to the results of the independent audit carried out by the British Gaffney, Cline & Associates. If the reserves in newly discovered Garakel field are also added to this figure, the block's reserves rise to 27.4 trillion cubic meters.
Moreover, 9 new wells are set to begin production at Galkynysh field by the end of 2016. Turkmenistan plans to add the extracted gas from this field to its exports China.
After Russia stopped buying Turkmen gas, the country directed this gas to other markets. In addition, Turkmenistan commenced the construction of its section of TAPI pipeline recently. Meanwhile, the country plans to enlarge its LNG exports as well. Currently, the country sells LNG to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Georgia, Iran and Tajikistan.
According to the BP statistical review of 2015, Turkmenistan holds 9.3 percent of the worlds total proven natural gas reserves and produced 2 percent (70 billion cubic meters) of the worlds total blue fuel output.
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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva
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10 May 2016 14:22 (UTC+04:00)
The delegation of Russia's Federation Council led by the Chairman Valentina Matviyenko will pay an official visit to Kazakhstan, RIA Novosti agency reported on May 10.
Matviyenko and the delegation members are expected to meet in Astana with the Kazakh leadership and the chairmen of houses of the country's parliament: Chairman of the Kazakh Senate (upper house of parliament) Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Chairman of Majlis (lower house of parliament) Baktykozha Izmukhambetov. Matviyenko's speech before the Kazakh Senate's members is also planned.
The visit's program envisages the meeting of the commission on cooperation between the upper houses of the two countries' parliaments. The agenda includes, inter alia, the development of transboundary regions within the Single Economic Space.
"The strategic partnership relations between Russia and Kazakhstan, based on centuries-old traditions of friendship between our peoples, are on rise and develop in all spheres," said Matviyenko.
She also noted that the Russian-Kazakh interparliamentary dialogue became one of the most important areas of bilateral cooperation.
Strong ties have been developed between the two countries' legislative bodies, added Matviyenko.
She praised the level of interaction of the Russian and Kazakh parliamentarians on platforms of integration associations, in particular, CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and others.
Russian Federation Council's delegation will visit Kazakh city of Uralsk on the second day of the visit. The Council Chairman plans to meet with representatives of the Russian diaspora.
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10 May 2016 13:38 (UTC+04:00)
Iran and the UK are looking forward to exchanging legal teams in order to streamline efforts to help businessmen from both sides for mutual investment, Trend has found out.
"We met with the chairman of the [Iranian] Bar Association. Both sides are very keen to build relationships. We talked about possible future activities, including perhaps brining specific legal sector delegations to Iran and doing the same in the other way round," Elspeth Macdonald, international policy advisor at the Law Society of England and Wales told Trend May 7.
"I think there would be a lot of interest from the English legal sector. Iran has lots of aspects that make it a very exciting prospect, including young population, good infrastructure, highly educated workforce, and that geographically the country is situated in a very useful position," she said.
Iran has a population of 80 million. But the country is surrounded by a lush market of 300 million population. Tehran is keen on luring foreign investment for joint venture that could meet both domestic demands and the regional market's.
Iran has been kept away from international business under years-long sanctions. Many experts believe that in the post-sanctions era, Iranian firms are more than anything else in need of legal consultation to prepare for the new situation.
"The issue of course at the moment is the banking question and the finance question. I think that has caused as much frustration here as in London. But certainly I think the business interest is there. So it's about finding ways to get through the obstacle. There is a lot of interest in the UK to invest in Iran and vice versa," Macdonald said.
Despite the removal of sanctions that came in the wake of the implementation of a Tehran-world powers deal in January, world banks are still reluctant to start business with Iran.
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10 May 2016 09:47 (UTC+04:00)
By Amina Nazarli
Bathing in crude oil, commonly referred to as black gold, has become a very popular trend in medical practice of Azerbaijani health resorts.
Naftalan oil, a unique source of the Land of Fire considering a remedy of many diseases, popularized Azerbaijan long before the oil boom that made Baku world famous in the 19th century.
The healing properties of this special type of oil is known to medicine for over 600 years and have been successfully used in the treatment of various diseases.
As it penetrates the skin, the oil accelerates the metabolic process, boosting cell regeneration. It has a calming, cooling and antiseptic effect, relieves joint pain, cures psoriasis, calms the nerves and beautifies the skin.
Head of the information and analysis sector of Naftalan region Executive Power Ulfat Aliyev said that large-scale work is carried out in order to make Naftalan resort city to one of the centers of international tourism.
As for the few several years great strides were made for the development of the tourism in Naftalan and promotion of this health center abroad.
The reconstruction work in the resort town in accordance with the State Program on development for 2014-2018 has made the center, known since 1926, even more modern and attractive.
New wellness centers of international level such as Chinar Hotel & Spa Naftalan, Naftalan hotel Qashalt and Garabag Resort & Spa have been built here. Conditions here are excellent not only for recreation, but also for treatment. Some eight tourist facilities operating in Naftalan area able to accommodate over 2,000 guests daily, he said.
Resort town Naftalan attracts tourists not only in summer but also in winter. Only last December some 1,300 tourists visited Naftalan.
Last year more than 16,000 national and foreign tourist visited Naftalan. This is more by six times compared to the past five years.
Medical value of Naftalan is known beyond the country and foreigners come to Azerbaijan to experience these oil baths, resembling a chocolate fountain. Being one of the most ancient resorts in the world, today Naftalan attracts people from all over the planet.
At the same time, the number of foreign tourists arriving in Naftalan are rapidly increasing. In this period, more than 3,000 foreign visitors came to Naftalan from 42 countries, including Germany, Turkey, Canada, Poland, France, Italy, Japan, China, Spain, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and others, Aliyev noted.
The expert added that resort cities of other countries seeking to establish international ties with Naftalan.
Currently, Naftalan is cooperating with a French city, Italian town of Positano, Russian city of Yessentuki and the Polish town of Uniejow, he said.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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KWS Wheat has launched two new wheat varieties that offer high yields of grain suitable for biscuit and cake flours.
The Basset and Barrel varieties are both short, stiff wheats with good resistance to diseases including yellow rust. The company said that, so far, Barrel had performed especially well in the north of the UK while Basset had proven particularly strong in the east.
The varieties aim to reverse the decline of the amount of Group 3 biscuit-grade wheat planted, which in recent years has been abandoned by many farmers in favour higher yielding wheats designed for animal consumption. KWS said the new Dynamic Wheats close this deficit, with Barrel matching the yield of Group 4 feed wheat Reflection on a UK basis and both Barrel and Basset matching Reflection in the east.
Kirsty Richards, value chain manager at KWS, said: Farmers are appreciating that high yields can be delivered by these high quality wheats.
"Critical to what we do"
Richard Plant, category manager (agriculture) at United Biscuits, also spoke at the launch and highlighted the importance of Group 3 wheats to the biscuit industry, saying: Group 3 wheats are critical to what we do.
Wheat groupings are defined by the National Association of British and Irish Millers (NABIM). Group 3 wheats are defined by soft milling characteristics, low protein content, good extraction rates and an extensible but not elastic gluten. This makes them ideal for biscuit and cake production as too high a protein content results in a chewy biscuit which shrinks during baking, and extensibility rate determines whether the biscuits can be produced to a consistent shape.
Part of the collapsed bakery ingredients supplier BFP Wholesale has been bought by a firm which is run by a director of Kent Foods for an undisclosed sum, British Baker can reveal.
The joint administrators, Rob Croxen and Will Wright from KPMG, confirmed the partial sale of BFP to C&C 25 Limited, which lists John Mcgregor Dalglish as its lone director. Dalglish is also a director at Kent Foods Limited, an ingredients supplier headquartered in Glasgow.
The sale means C&C 25 will acquire the Leeds and Livingston sites and all of the stock of the national bakery ingredients wholesaler. British Baker understands that former BFP managing director Nick Harris will have a role in the new business.
The staff connected with the Leeds and Livingston sites will also transfer to the purchaser. Meanwhile, the Sevenoaks and Highbridge sites have ceased trading.
Rob Croxen, partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said: We are pleased to have completed a swift partial sale of the BFP Wholesale business, safeguarding the operations and employees at the Leeds and Livingston sites.
The administrators were appointed on Tuesday, 3 May after BFP had undergone a sustained period of declining revenues, which was exacerbated by the withdrawal of its credit insurance. The final death blow for the company followed weeks of rumours and calls to British Baker from bakers who were unable to get their orders from the wholesaler.
Shockwaves
Its collapse last week sent shockwaves around the industry and it is understood many suppliers sent representatives to the Sevenoaks headquarters of the company over the last week to speak to administrators and management in a bid to get stock back.
The company had been owned by the private equity consortium Zimt Holding since 2014 after it was sold by the French yeast company Lesaffre. Zimt moved quickly to try and improve the situation at BFP by closing its depot in Tamworth in Staffordshire and appointing Bill Thurston as chief executive.
However, in its most recent accounts for the year ended 31 December 2014, BFP said that difficulties on the high street and food price deflation had resulted in a 3.1m decline in turnover to 73m and it made an operating loss of 1.6m.
A full list of BFPs creditors has to be unveiled within eight weeks of its collapse into administration.
The US is no doubt a hodge-podge of ethnic and cultural diversity, and that is best represented in the Hispanic population. Despite the fact that Latin American immigration appears to have stagnated, the US Census Bureau expects this demographic to reach 106 million by the year 2050 a 57% increase from 2015 and thats after the bureau actually lowered its projections.
There are two sides to this coin: A group this big, with so much growth potential, Hispanic consumers represent a large segment of purchasing power for a number of products. And at the same time, they are driving food trends that can be seen in product development ranging from flavor fusion to food mashups that represent multiculturalism in often surprising ways.
What it means to be Hispanic is a tricky proposition, and it can mean different things to different people, especially in specific regions of the US. So, how are people purchasing Hispanic products, and how is this culture affecting what baked foods and snacks Americans of all ethnicities are eating?
Purchasing power
Its not just the demographic thats growing. According to research from Mintel, Hispanic consumers pocketbooks are growing, too. From 2010 to 2014, the Selig Center for Economic Growth estimated that their purchasing power grew from $1 trillion to $1.25 trillion and projected it to hit almost $1.7 trillion by 2019, thanks to improving labor market conditions that lead to increased disposable income.
In 2013, AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing, a research firm dedicated to Hispanic-specialized marketing, identified a consumer segment it called Upscale Latino, which accounted for 29% of the US Hispanic population and 40% of the groups spending power.
Partnering with Nielson, AHAA conducted a comprehensive study of Hispanic households that earn $50,000 to $100,000 per year and discovered that this group is on average 33-years old, living active lifestyles and often have young families 85% have a household of three or more falling in line with the target shopper for many bakeries and snack food manufacturers.
Breaking border barriers
The growth of Hispanic spending is happening at a time when Mexican brands are also experiencing growth in the US.
In October, Milling & Baking News reported that Grupo Bimbo, Mexico City, is gaining a foothold with its Mexican brands such as Takis, a corn chip produced by Grupo Bimbo subsidiary Barcel USA. During an October call with analysts, Fred Penny, president, Bimbo Bakeries USA, said that Bimbo and Marinela are two Mexican brands that account for a significant portion of our sweet goods business. Chairman and CEO Daniel Servitje noted that the companys sweet goods portfolio made a smooth transition to the US market from Mexico, and the salty snacks like Takis are following suit.
We have a separate team working on these categories with synergies also with the Bimbo Bakeries business in many regions in the country, and were very pleased with the growth, Mr. Servitje said. We have a plant in the US focused on basically producing these salty snacks items, and we also do a lot of export from the Mexico zone. So thats a growing business.
More than Mexican
With proximity on its side, its not only easy for Mexican foods and flavors to quickly gain popularity in US markets, especially in large border states such as Texas and California, but its also easy for American consumers and marketers to assume that Hispanic directly translates to Mexican.
Not so.
In terms of the Hispanic population in South Florida, we dont have the same situation as California or Texas with Mexicans, where theres one particular ethnicity, said Luis Lacal, president, Bakery Corp., Miami. In South Florida, you have about 20 different nationalities, so any product you want to bring to the market doesnt go to just one.
Some products gaining popularity, Mr. Lacal observed, include Colombian pan de queso, Cuban or Argentinian empanadas and Mexican bolillo. However, Bakery Corp. actually faced challenges in creating Hispanic products in an area with high Hispanic multiculturalism. In Miami, youve got about 70% Cubans, and the other 30 to 40% is divided between 15 or 20 different nationalities, he said. Quite a few years ago, we got into the Latin flavors, especially with muffins and pastries, using mango, guava, dulce de leche, pineapple tropical flavors from the Caribbean and it did work for a while, but you have so many Hispanic bakeries Mexican, Cuban, Colombian you have a lot of bakeries already taking care of that.
In the end, Bakery Corp. chose to concentrate on the American foodservice business, including hotels, restaurants and cruise lines, making French breads and dinner rolls. Interestingly, the bakery also produces an RTE Cuban sandwich thats made with French bread.
Millennials and multiculturalism
Its not just multi-cultural Hispanic consumers who have diversity of palate. Non-Hispanic millennials, according to Mintel, are also branching out into non-Mexican Hispanic foods. According to the companys report Defining Ethnic Food, 48% of millennials have eaten Central or South American foods, including arroz con pollo and pupusas, in the past three months, which will likely fuel interest in broader Hispanic cuisines.
On the flip side, a bakery such as Pan Pepin, located in Bayamon, PR, doesnt have a Hispanic demographic per se because its consumer base is 100% Latino but can still be influenced by outside cultures such as Mexican. We are a totally Latino market but we are Caribbean Latinos, not Mexican or Central American yet tortillas have really started growing here, observed Mario Somoza, Pan Pepin president and CEO.
We got into the tortilla business about six years ago, Mr. Somoza said. We saw it as a growing category. It was a small market, but it has kept growing on average at a double-digit year-over-year rate. After using a copacker and seeing how well tortillas would do, the bakery recently installed its first tortilla line in-house.
Mr. Somoza pointed out that Puerto Rican consumers are drawn to a more Americanized type of tortilla. In fact, tortillas, while a seemingly universal product, carry their own Hispanic individualism, especially when it comes to geography. A big seller here [in Puerto Rico] is the wheat flour tortilla, which is a little bit softer. Not so much as in Mexico and other Central American countries where corn is preferred, Mr. Somoza said.
Mr. Lacal had a similar observation. In every single country from Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, even though they use and eat tortillas, each one of them have a different kind of tortilla than Mexico, he said.
Flavor fusion
Rather than lumping everything into one type of Hispanic food, knowing what types of flavors are born out of specific ethnicities can help bakers and snack makers tweak their product development and fuse flavors for new and interesting products.
Caribbean Hispanics Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans were about using spices to highlight the flavor of the food, Mr. Somoza said. We do put a lot of spices in our food, but its not hot spice like you would find in Mexico or Central America. In those locales, spices and chiles are used more for heat when it comes to flavors.
According to Mintel, brands have an opportunity to mine the interest in Mexican foods, as noted in Defining Ethnic Food. Focusing on flavors specific to certain regions of Mexico, as well as other Latin and South American cuisines, is a great starting point for fusion concepts.
Mintel also noted that non-Hispanics are seeking savory, tangy and sweet options in their food choices. However, hotter flavors have been driving product innovation, specifically in snack foods, over the past five years.
On Tuesday, the Florida Department of Health met with Pinellas County leaders and mosquito control to discuss ways theyre fighting the Zika virus.
The first case of Zika was reported in Pinellas County on Monday.
109 confirmed cases in Florida
New cases in Pinellas, Orange counties
National politicians and local health care experts discuss Zika plans
Florida has more confirmed cases of the virus than any other state.
State health officials say that out of the 109 cases statewide, only five cases are still exhibiting symptoms. According to the CDC, symptoms associated with the Zika virus last between seven and 10 days.
"This is a new virus, yes," said Dr. Rob Krueger, entomology and education support specialist with Pinellas County Mosquito Control, "but it's operating the same way and we do our same overall business with each type of case like that that comes through."
Mosquito control officials said theyve been going door-to-door talking to residents about the Zika virus and have been using three different types of trapping techniques.
According to Krueger, the biggest concern is standing water.
"For this particular mosquito they prefer standing water, said Krueger. If given a choice to breed in a lake or in a pool or breed in a little tiny capful of water, they would choose that capful of water.
Krueger said residents should be aware of their surroundings, empty out anything that could contain water and use mosquito repellent.
Federal lawmakers are also concerned, and are pushing for a bill that would dedicate $2 billion to Zika virus research on treating and preventing the disease.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla, took to the Senate floor Monday after the state's two latest cases were announced. He urged lawmakers to pass a bill and get funding.
Nelson said the virus is raging and it's only a matter of time before it spreads across the Southern United States.
"This is the same kind of emergency funding request that would be in the aftermath of an earthquake or a hurricane or some other natural disaster," said Nelson. "It is now affecting the American people, its an awful virus and we need to get at it and stop it before its too late."
The disease has been reported throughout much of Latin America and Caribbean in recent months, and has been confirmed in most of the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently reports more than 470 cases in the continental U.S., all so far associated with travel to Zika-affected areas.
Polls show less urgency than Ebola
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently reports more than 470 cases in the continental U.S., all so far associated with travel to Zika-affected areas.
Polls show that the public isn't nearly as scared of Zika as it was about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the handful of cases in the U.S. in 2014. Aides to GOP lawmakers, even those representing Southern areas most vulnerable to Zika, say they've yet to hear from many anxious constituents, though they said this could change.
"Very few calls/letters," emailed a spokeswoman for Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla.
One voice for immediate action, however, is Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who's leaving the Senate after his unsuccessful presidential bid.
"It is just a matter of days, weeks, hours before you open up a newspaper or turn on the news, and it will say that someone in the continental United States was bitten by a mosquito and they contracted Zika," Rubio said in an April 28 floor speech. "When that happens, everyone is going to be freaked out. [....] This is going to happen."
On Monday, the National Governors Association weighed in, urging the administration and lawmakers returning to Washington "to work together to reach agreement on the appropriate funding levels needed to prepare for and combat the Zika virus."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
With May being National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month, the Manatee County School District is acknowledging it, hoping to raise awareness.
Manatee schools working to raise awareness, education about teen pregnancy
Officials say teen pregnancy costs Manatee taxpayers $11.1 million each year
County's teen pregnancy rate dropped but is higher than national average
In Manatee, the teen pregnancy rate dropped 24 percent from 2013 to 2014. However, its still higher than the national average.
Mary Ann Legler, the It's Your Choice Coordinator with the School District of Manatee County and Chair of Healthy Teens Coalition Manatee County, said this makes educating teens a top priority.
Making sure students have the correct education to make wise decisions, she said. In fact, it has been shown nationally if you give students the medically accurate information, they are most likely to postpone having sex.
Legler said teen pregnancy costs Manatee taxpayers $11.1 million every year.
To help, for the past three years, her group, Healthy Teens Coalition, has been going into schools, homeless shelters and more, educating teens about making smart decisions.
But instead of just adults talking to the teens, they have teens and young adults doing the talks. So far, it is having a positive impact.
I believe when young people talk to other young people, it gives more credibility, said Willie Simmons, Teen Health Educator with Healthy Teens Coalition. They trust us more. Just because were just as young as they are and we are going through the same thing.
School leaders said in addition to their school programs, parents are encouraged to talk to their children about risky behaviors. They believe this will also help bring numbers down.
In addition to teen pregnancy seeing high numbers in Manatee, so is the rate of HIV cases. In Manatee, HIV cases aong people of all ages increased by 95.5 percent from 2013 to 2014.
Al-Qaida has been an ongoing issue since its inception.
And according to one former U.S. Senator from Florida, the terror organization was created within the borders of an allys country.
During an appearance on a nationally-seen political broadcast, former U.S. Senator Bob Graham said, We know that Saudi Arabia started al-Qaida.
PolitiFact Florida heard the claim and gave it a HALF TRUE rating on the Truth-O-Meter.
PolitiFact writer Josh Gillin says thats because it has to do with money.
Al-Qaida was created just after the Russians moved into Afghanistan in 1979 to fight what they called invaders. In the process, other countries, including the United States and Saudi Arabia, started funneling money to the group.
Later, when Osama bin Laden broke away to create and alternate group, money continue to be funneled to the fighters.
There were people in Saudi Arabia and other countries giving money to these fighters, and this is the group that became al-Qaida, Gillin said.
For that reason, Grahams statement received a HALF TRUE rating.
SOURCES: Saudi Arabia created al-Qaida, Graham says
Tampa Police are investigating a possible road rage incident that occurred on or near the Howard Frankland Bridge.
At about 9:54 p.m., police say several motorcyclists and a driver in an SUV were involved in an altercation.
Someone in the SUV reportedly fired a gun, injuring one of the motorcyclists, who has been taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The SUV has not been located. The cause of the altercation is not known at this time.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Mayor Tory has declared a need to control the illegal pot dispensaries that are popping up in Toronto like dandelions in the Spring. The consulting firm Canadian cannabis brands says there are 100 stores as of today and there are 21 more moments away from opening. It produced the interactive map above. None of them are legal. Many have rib-tickling names and all offer brain soothing smoking material. Mr. Medicinal, Sticky Stems, Green Wagon, HempClub and who knows what else. They populate streets where they might never have been expected, even if legal. Avenue Road, Mt. Pleasant, Lawrence and the Allen, The Danforth they are everywhere. Speaking with reporters Monday, Tory said the appearance of marijuana dispensaries with heavy concentrations is some neighbourhoods is like a crisis. This cant continue on this basis, Tory said regarding the budding of the new businesses. City News says Vancouver councillor Kerry Jang is calling on Toronto to adapt his citys dispensary licensing system. The bylaw, which was approved last June, is about taking back our storefronts, controlling the situation that saw businesses selling and promoting marijuana sales to kids and stores opening near schools, Jang says.
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Beaumont's Cinemark Tinseltown could be serving beer, wine or even the unofficial state cocktail, the margarita, within a couple of months.
The Plano-based chain is following a trend that other theaters have seized on in recent years, offering patrons plush seats, dinner menus and other upgrades that cater to more of the senses than just sight and sound.
Cinemark has applied for a permit from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and is displaying a sign in front of the theater at Interstate 10 and Walden Road that it is pursuing the ability to sell drinks. A Cinemark spokesperson was not available on Monday to give specifics on the Beaumont theater's proposed bar menu.
The company already serves alcoholic beverages at 11 other Texas theaters.
Across the state, at least 200 theaters offer drinks to their patrons, said Chris Porter, spokesman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
"Many of those are part of the Alamo Drafthouse chain," Porter said.
Alamo Drafthouse, which is prevalent in large metro areas like Houston, Austin and Dallas, offers its patrons a dinner menu, plenty of options from a full bar, comfortable seats and a no-tolerance policy for phone texting during the movie.
Some theater operators also are restricting ages of moviegoers in the evenings with some refusing entry of children 16 and younger unless accompanied by an adult. With the orientation toward a more adult experience comes a wider range of offerings that appeal to adults, including beer and wine.
The Jefferson Theater in downtown Beaumont offers craft beers and wines on Tuesday and Friday classic movie nights. Patrons can also buy regular concession offerings, like popcorn, candy and sodas.
"It's been fantastic," said Emily Wheeler, marketing manager for the city's event facilities department. "We've had great support for it."
One dedicated fan is City Councilman Mike Getz, who specifically mentioned the Alamo Drafthouse model as an example of the kind of success movie houses can experience.
"I tremendously enjoy it," Getz said of watching a movie at the Jefferson with a cold adult beverage.
If Cinemark Tinseltown gets its liquor license, it would be the only commercial movie house in the area taking a step toward catering to evolving taste.
B&B Theatres, based in Liberty, Mo., also is expanding into the adult beverage business, but hasn't aimed for it yet at its theater in Central Mall.
Porter said most of TABC's experience with alcoholic beverages at theaters is good.
"As with any licensed location, TABC receives occasional complaints from movie theaters with liquor licenses. These complaints are usually related to overservice of patrons or sales of alcohol to minors. However, these complaints are rare, and the vast majority of theaters are in full compliance with state laws," he said.
Cinemark's 11 locations in Texas include Edinburg, Plano, Katy, Houston, Pharr, Temple, Roanoke and two in El Paso and two in Austin.
"Of the Cinemark locations, just one (Edinburg) has been cited for sale of alcohol to a minor in February 2014," said Porter. "They paid a $1,200 penalty and the matter was settled."
The Beaumont theater is in a light-industrial zone, which means it doesn't need a specific use permit to sell drinks because it is at least 300 feet from a church or a school, said Chris Boone, director of planning and community development for the city of Beaumont.
It also must ensure that no more than 51 percent of its business is tied to the sales of alcoholic beverages, Boone said.
DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/dwallach
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Sam's Southern Eatery, a franchise that offers Louisiana-style cuisine, recently opened a second Southeast Texas location.
The new lunch and dinner spot - located at 2401 Memorial, Suite 200, Port Arthur - had a grand opening last Wednesday.
Sam's menu includes fried and grilled seafood, po'boys, burgers and sandwiches.
Sam Gazawaneh opened the first Sam's in Shreveport in 2008. Since then, the chain has expanded to 43 locations in seven states.
Southeast Texas diners can eat at the Sam's in Port Arthur or at the Sam's in the Mars shopping center in Beaumont on College and Fourth streets.
All of the franchises use Sam's Gazawaneh's recipes, including his recipe for "Sam's special sauce," which is Gazawaneh's version of tartar sauce.
More: samssoutherneatery.com
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Doctors Express, 3195 Dowlen Road, Suite 105, is now AFC (American Family Care) Urgent Care.
The company announced late last month on its Facebook page that "while our name and look have changed, everything you trust is still the same."
More: afcurgentcarebeaumont.com
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Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas and the Spindletop Center opened a new Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) earlier this month on the third floor of the Baptist Behavioral Health Center, 3250 Fannin St.
The new unit is "an emergency behavioral healthcare alternative" for people with "acute psychiatric or addiction disorders," according to a news release from the Spindletop Center.
More: bhset.net; stmhmr.org
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Anthony Tran, general manager of Paul Davis Emergency Services of Beaumont, has opened a new franchise office at 4849A Lafin Drive in Beaumont.
The company assists residential and commercial customers with fire, water and mold damage restoration, according to a news release from Paul Davis Restoration.
The franchise provides service 24 hours a day and responds to emergencies within two hours, the release said.
More: beaumont.pauldavis.com
Have an In the Works tip? Email LocalNews@BeaumontEnterprise.com
Sallie Rainer, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Texas, Inc., has been named one of the Greater Houston Women's Chamber of Commerce's 2016 Breakthrough Women.
The women selected are recognized for being trailblazers in their industries and for demonstrating courage and leadership in reaching their goals, according to a news release from Entergy Texas.
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The White House and Democrats are pressuring congressional Republicans to act on President Barack Obama's demands for money to combat Zika, but even the likelihood that the onset of mosquito season will spread the virus has failed to create any urgency.
Republicans from states at greatest risk, such as Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Georgia, have been slow to endorse Obama's more than 2-month-old request for $1.9 billion to battle the virus, which causes grave birth defects. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently reports more than 470 cases in the continental U.S., all so far associated with travel to Zika-affected areas.
Polls show that the public isn't anywhere nearly as scared of Zika as it was about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the handful of cases in the U.S. in 2014.
Aides to GOP lawmakers, even those representing Southern areas most vulnerable to Zika, say they've yet to hear from many anxious constituents, though they said this could change.
"We all agree that this is a serious matter and it should be negotiated on a bipartisan basis, but we should at least have a plan from the administration for how the money's going to be spent," said Texas Sen. John Cornyn in prepared remarks. "There is no plan. It's a blank check."
On Monday, the National Governors Association weighed in, urging the administration and lawmakers returning to Washington this week for a brief, three-week May congressional session "to work together to reach agreement on the appropriate funding levels needed to prepare for and combat the Zika virus."
Kevin Sexton, director of the Jefferson County Mosquito Control Division, said on Monday that Zika is not currently a threat to the region.
"I hate to make light of it, but it's kind of overblown at this time," said Sexton. "We're vigilant and we're listening. Right now, it's not a major problem."
Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick said he was approached last week by a concerned resident whose wife is pregnant.
"The Commissioners Court has always been quick to approve mosquito control expenses that would try to keep the mosquito population down," Branick said. "I know of no other way to combat it other than to tell females of child-bearing age to wear protective lotions and sprays, avoid those times in the early morning and late evening when the mosquito population is most active."
One voice for immediate action is Sen. Marco Rubio R-Fla., who's leaving the Senate after his unsuccessful presidential bid.
"It is just a matter of days, weeks, hours before you open up a newspaper or turn on the news, and it will say that someone in the continental United States was bitten by a mosquito and they contracted Zika," Rubio said in an April 28 floor speech. "When that happens, everyone is going to be freaked out .... This is going to happen."
Thus far, Rubio's urgency on Zika is not widely shared.
"Sometimes the wheels of Congress move very slowly," said Cornyn.
One reason for the slow pace may be Ebola, which affected far fewer people but created more public fear than Zika has. The Ebola panic proved to be unjustified and was contained to just a handful of U.S. cases
A poll in March by the Kaiser Family Foundation found by a more t han 2-to-1 margin that respondents said the government is doing enough to fight Zika. But an October 2014 Kaiser poll on Ebola found that only about half of respondents thought the government was doing enough.
Just 34 percent of those polled on Zika were worried that someone in their family would be affected by the virus, versus 65 percent who were not worried; the comparable figures on Ebola showed 45 percent worried someone in their family would get sick from Ebola, versus 54 percent who were not worried.
In addition, Congress approved $5 billion to battle Ebola in 2014 and perhaps half of that money is unspent, though the administration has designs to use it to help other lesser developed countries build up their health care systems. The threat of Ebola has not been wholly snuffed out.
In April, the administration bowed to pressure from Republicans and diverted almost $600 million in previously approved funds, including more than $500 million in remaining Ebola money, toward fighting Zika. That has bought time for Republicans to seek greater details and potentially respond to Obama's request by including Zika funds in an upcoming spending bill that could be delivered to the president before Congress recesses in mid-July for seven weeks. One option is adding the money to a popular measure funding politically sacrosanct veterans programs.
Just one other GOP lawmaker besides Rubio - Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan - has endorsed Obama's $1.9 billion request.
"Instead of working together to protect Americans, Washington has descended into another partisan fight," Buchanan said.
Still, it's clear the White House won't get anything approaching its $1.9 billion request for emergency money to battle Zika. Senate Republicans privately floated a $1.1 billion Zika-fighting measure, but House Republicans are likely to press for a lesser amount - and require offsetting spending cuts elsewhere in the budget, an idea that the administration has not ruled out.
Andrew Taylor writes for The Associated Press.
BScott@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/brandonkscott
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Peter Piper Pizza advertises you bring the people, well bring the party, but the guests one family invited to a Laredo location on Friday night brought a different, violent kind of bash.
Laredo Police Department Public Information Officer Joe E. Baeza told mySA.com his department received multiple calls to the restaurant, located at 4600 San Dario Avenue, around 8:45 p.m. for a fight inside the business. A viral video posted on Facebook by a user named David Navarro reveals what happened.
RELATED: Brawl breaks out near Pat O'Brien's in downtown San Antonio, 1 man hospitalized
The violent footage starts with one man punching another, Tim Duncan jersey-wearing individual atop a table. Customers and Peter Piper Pizza employees attempt to pull the men from each other, but the aggression continues while children look on.
A third man gets a slice of the squabble by initially picking up a bench and looks as if he is advancing toward the fight with it in hand. Three women yank the furniture from his hands, but he reappears a few seconds later and lands a few surprise jabs on one of the men involved in the first fight again, while children look on.
RELATED: Three women arrested in South Carolina following bikini brawl caught on video
Baeza said based off preliminary calls, he believes the fighting was a case of embroiled exs within one family. He added that it was mutual combat situation in which neither party wished to file charges.
Since Navarro posted the video on Saturday morning, it has garnered a reaction from at least 2,000 users, nearly 4,000 shares and a thread of more than 1,000 comments as of Monday.
One customer, a woman named Dennise Ramos, commented on an unofficial business page for the location, asking that those involved be banned from returning.
RELATED: Social media amazed by high-def video of 'girl fight on 6th Street'
They are a danger to children who are your source of money, she said, adding that the situation was a lack of common sense and compassion.
Peter Piper Pizza regional and corporate offices were not immediately available to comment on the brawl, but Baeza said the companys priority Friday night was to disperse the crowd quickly out of the "family-oriented business."
This isn't the first time violence has broken out at a Peter Piper Pizza. In 2014, a fist fight was caught on camera at a Peter Piper in Burleson, and in 2015, a 5-year-old girl was bitten on the ear by another child at a Peter Piper in Chandler, Arizona.
mmendoza@mysa.com
Twitter: @MaddySkye
A Beaumont woman and two children are being treated in local ICUs after a Tuesday morning collision with two dump trucks on Highway 124 near Fannett.
The accident happened at 7:45 a.m. when the 32-year-old woman, who was driving a 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe in the northbound lanes, met a Peterbuilt dump truck that was traveling southbound.
As the vehicles passed, two rear tires came off of the Peterbuilt, striking the Tahoe, said DPS Trooper Stephanie Davis in a news release.
The impact caused the Tahoe to spin and cross into the southbound lanes, where the Tahoe collided with a Freightliner dump truck that was following the Peterbuilt.
Davis said the driver of the Freightliner slowed down and tried to move to the shoulder, but could not avoid the crash.
After the Tahoe struck the Freightliner, the dump truck veered off the roadway and into the woods, where it struck several trees before catching fire, according to Davis.
The driver of the Tahoe was taken to Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital with serious injuries. As of Tuesday afternoon, she was being treated in the hospital's ICU.
The woman was carrying four passengers in her Tahoe, all under the age of 12. Davis said two of the kids were treated and released from a local hospital. The two other children were taken by medical helicopter to Hermann Memorial Hospital in Houston. Davis said both of those children were in stable condition in the hospital's ICU on Tuesday afternoon.
The driver of the Peterbuilt, a 57-year-old Beaumont man, was not hurt in the crash, according to Davis.
She said the driver of the Freightliner, a 49-year-old Beaumont man, managed to get out of his dump truck before it caught fire and was not injured.
Davis said a preliminary investigation of the Peterbuilt indicates that some sort of equipment malfunction caused the rear axle and tires to become dislodged from the vehicle.
HELP E.S.L. TEACHERS
While discussing immigration into the United States, I often hear, "If people come to our country, they should learn our language." I wholeheartedly agree. An extraordinarily useful way for people who do not speak English to learn the language is instruction from an ESL (English as a Second Language) instructor.
The problem is that ESL instruction in our schools is in desperate need of assistance. Many of our ESL-certified teachers are underpaid and overworked. If we are to have the best outcome of immigration, we have to offer proper instruction of English.
Personally, I welcome people from various cultures. Some of the kindest and most interesting people I have met have come from other countries and have also felt welcome in their countries.
Therefore, I believe that it is the wrong idea to dismiss people from other countries outright. We should welcome people to America, while offering a means for them to learn our language with adequate ESL instruction.
Ben Simpson, Vidor
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MUSLIMS CARE TOO
Well, here's something you didn't hear on the news: "Muslim youth helping out flood victims." The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association partnered with Humanity First to conduct flood relief operations in Houston, collecting over $8,000 and distributing over 20,000 food items in the affected areas. Volunteers whose own cars and residences had been damaged carpooled with others and decided to help out their community.
While such acts are droplets compared to the monetary damages caused by the recent floods, it's the spirit that counts. Service to humanity is a cornerstone of the Islamic faith.
Acts like these should be reported by the media since it helps strengthen community bonds. It makes people realize that not all Muslims are terrorists like the so-called ISIS in the Middle East. Such acts ought to be made known to the fear-mongers who like to demonize the name of Islam and American Muslims.
Alamzeb Khan, Montgomery
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HONOR TEXAS WOMEN
The only way to put female monuments on The Great Walk (the walkway that goes from the door of the Texas State Capitol to Congress Avenue) is to get a bill passed by the Legislature then have it assigned to the Texas State Preservation Board's office.
I have been trying to request sponsorship from Texas senators and House members to propose a bill to the Legislature to have a monument of an important or historical Texas female figure placed on The Great Walk where there are only male figures. Each event, from the Alamo Monument to the monument of the Confederate Dead, there were women involved also.
A few of the famous women who have passed through Texas include Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson, Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards and Miriam Ferguson, a two-time governor of Texas (1925 through 1927 and 1932 through 1935) whose husband, James Ferguson, was governor of Texas from 1915 through 1917.
Otradom Pelogo, Austin
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Houston-based CHI St. Luke's Health - Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center has appointed William Brien, MD, as interim president.
Here are five things to know about Dr. Brien.
1. His appointment took effect May 9.
2. He also serves as vice president of medical operations and chief clinical officer at Baylor St. Luke's.
3. Dr. Brien takes over for former Baylor St. Luke's President Wayne Keathley, who completed his inaugural term earlier this year and agreed to stay in the role until an interim president was named.
4. Dr. Brien joined CHI St. Luke's last year from Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was professor and executive vice chairman of the department of surgery and director of orthopedic surgery.
5. Dr. Brien earned a medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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New medical schools are launching nationwide with the intention of addressing the physician shortage.
They provide curriculums that allow students to spend time doing research, working in community health settings and following the same patients for months, according to a STAT report. However, they face an array of challenges, such as recruiting students and faculty when they don't have accreditation, and fundraising to build and then run a top-tier medical school.
Despite these challenges, medical schools are slated to open over the next few years on campuses at Washington State University, based in Pullman, New York City-based City University of New York, Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., among other places, according to the report. Additionally, the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, which will welcome its first class of 50 medical students this summer, is building a nine-month research and innovation block into its four-year program; the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is on track to launch its medical school in the fall of 2017; and Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente's new medical school is slated to launch in 2019 in Pasadena, Calif.
But these new medical schools must rely on massive fundraising campaigns and acceptance from the local community to compete among the 140-plus other MD-granting institutions in the nation, according to the report. New medical schools also face the challenge of getting accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which oversees U.S. medical schools.
"What we're doing is certainly a little bit risky," Clay Johnston, MD, inaugural dean of the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, told STAT.
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Louisville, Ky.-based Humana is going to stop offering individual plans in two more states in 2017: Kansas and Wisconsin, according to Louisville Business First.
Earlier this week, the insurer said it would exit the Affordable Care Act exchanges in Alabama and Virginia. Humana currently doesn't offer ACA plans in Wisconsin, according to the report.
Humana has sent letters to insurance regulators in each of the four states, claiming the decision was made "only after much careful thought and analysis," according to the report.
Overall, Humana's exit will affect approximately 26,000 people in individual plans across the four states.
Rob Brandt, regional manager at Medline, is all too familiar with the painkiller addiction.
In high school, his son Robby was given pain medication after having his wisdom teeth taken out. He liked the way he felt and functioned just fine. He started to get pain medication through his friends and before he knew it, he was addicted. After this first year in college, he decided to get clean and entered basic military training. Unfortunately, though, his past snuck up on him and the addiction returned. In October 2011, Robby died.
With an estimated 289,000 heroin users nationwide and unintentional overdoses from prescription pain medications increasing, opioid addiction has hit a fever pitch in the U.S.
According to the CDC, more people died from drug overdoses in 2014 than in any year previously recorded. From 2000 to 2014 nearly 500,000 people died from drug overdoses.
Not only is it killing thousands, opioid addiction has an "extended cost just of addiction and addiction treatment, cost to communities, cost to families. It's got a lot of tentacles that can lead to damage both financially and from a community standpoint," Mr. Brandt says.
Knowing this, and that nurses are often the first point of contact for patients, Mr. Brandt wanted to help educate nurses.
He worked with Martie Moore, RN, former CNO of Portland, Oregon-based Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and current CNO of Medline, to create a free online course for nurses called Battling the Painkiller Addiction Epidemic that aims to explain the significance of painkiller addiction in the U.S., the signs and symptoms of opioid abuse and withdrawal and alternatives to treating pain to help prevent abuse.
Development of the course started in 2015, and the course launched in February.
Here, Mr. Brandt and Ms. Moore share ways nurses can help fight opioid abuse.
1. Learn about it. Mr. Brandt believes educational resources, such as the course he developed with Medline, are important for nurses. As nurses become more aware of opioid abuse and the size of the epidemic, it gives them an opportunity to learn what to look for when they're taking care of patients. "Nurses are at the forefront of dealing with patient care and more apt to identify when a patient they're working with may be struggling with addiction," Mr. Brandt says.
Ms. Moore adds, "Greater research and media attention around opioid addiction has helped bring awareness to the issue. To make greater strides in fighting opioid abuse, nurses need to have a deeper understanding of what dependency and addition truly means."
Nurses also need to understand the neurobiology of dependence and its impact on the brain. As they better understand this disease in all practice settings, they will be able to intervene more quickly with the right interventions.
Additionally, knowing that each individual responds differently to opioids, nurses must understand discrepancies and addiction behaviors in patients. Using open-ended questions and reflective language, for instance, can help ensure consistency in patient history, according to Ms. Moore.
Finally, a nurse should become educated on non-opioid methodology for pain management when the situation is appropriate. For example, a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that acupuncture is effective in reducing people's chronic pain more so than standard pain treatment.
2. Realize addiction impacts the entire family. It creates fear and chaos in the home and can split families apart. There is a lack of awareness, stigma, and families are either afraid to ask for help or don't know where to go for help. Nurses are in tune and engaged with the family, so it gives them an opportunity to have that interaction with the family, to let them know there are resources available, according to Mr. Brandt. "Nurses can be the pivot point for an addict to get help. They can be the pivot point for the family to be able to engage in help. They can be the pivot point to prescribe or not prescribe when they identify certain warning signs in a patient," he says.
3. Educate patients and their families. It is important to educate patients on painkillers at the point of origin, whether that be the point of prescription or the point of the pharmacy. So when a nurse provides information on a prescription, that nurse must communicate to the patient that they are taking an addictive substance, as well as dictate warning signs of addiction. Nurses should also communicate to patients the importance of disposing of unused medication. With Mr. Brandt, his son exhibited warning signs, but his family wasn't educated enough to identify them. So he says that conversation at the point of origin can be critical to raising that awareness for a family, and also even connecting them with resources to deepen that sense of awareness.
4. Rely on nurse leadership. Nurse leaders need to make sure their organizations' nurses are educated on opioid addiction. Recently, at the American Organization of Nurse Executives meeting, this issue was discussed as one of the most pressing issues facing hospitals and other care settings across America.
Mr. Brandt acknowledges that educational courses are a great starting point to fighting opioid abuse, but nurses must also rely on nurse leadership to recognize the importance of education on this issue. Ongoing education can improve patient care and outcomes. Ms. Moore says understanding complexities of addiction will allow nurses to effectively deal with the epidemic, and in the end, save lives.
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As nurses continuously work to improve their skills and knowledge, they have various tools, such as online education, specialized training, peer-reviewed journals and clinical trials and research, at their disposal. But the in-person meetings conferences, symposiums and summits with medical associations and societies also offer much value to nurses' education and growth.
"Inspired while attending one of their conferences, nurses have gone on to initiate new education and training programs, new research-based practices and new protocols that improve the care and safety of patients," says Kaye Englebrecht, director in SmithBucklin's Healthcare + Scientific Industry Practice. "That's why nurses meet to collaborate and share ideas, knowledge and best practices so that they can return to their jobs better able to help their patients."
With more than 11 years of experience working with nursing associations, Ms. Englebrecht serves as executive director for both the National Association of Orthopaedic Nurses and the Association for Nursing Professional Development.
Here, she provides four thoughts on why these face-to-face meetings are vital to the healthcare industry.
1. Exposure to new approaches. There's a lot of value in nurses from different regions and backgrounds talking with one another about how they approach a particular practice or challenge. "The conversation starts with, 'We do it this way because ,' and then they give their colleague the evidence-based practice that shows why," Ms. Englebrecht says.
2. Education and training. Meetings offer nurses opportunities to receive their continuing education units. Ms. Englebrecht says SmithBucklin, which serves 10 nursing organizations, works closely with the American Nurses Credentialing Center to ensure their nursing associations are accredited and able to provide a high level of professional nursing educational program. SmithBucklin also tailors its programs to ensure the content is current and relevant so that it meets members' needs.
3. One-on-one connections. Many nursing organizations have been around for decades, and some nurses have had relationships that have lasted just as long, thanks to these face-to-face meetings. Young nurses find mentors who guide them on their career path. Even if a nurse only sees the colleague once a year at a conference, that person may still be their go-to throughout their career. Others will seek out their network to help solve on-the-job problems. "You see them hug [at these face-to-face meetings]. They have that connection, the connection they made 30 years ago. You can know who you can turn to when you need a question answered," Ms. Englebrecht says.
She believes attendance is growing for nursing organizations' meetings because nurses value those one-on-one connections. She says nurses are deeply connected in a personal way with the patients they care for, so that translates into what they do in their careers. They understand the importance of those personal connections and they want to maintain them.
4. A comfortable environment to problem-solve. When nurses walk into a room and there are 1,000 other people who do what they do, they feel like it's family and like they can ask questions, according to Ms. Englebrecht. "I think when you get a group of people in a room, there's just a different dynamic that goes on. You can see people's facial expressions and you can see their body language, and I think it's just a better environment to talk about how to creatively solve problems," she says. "They feel like they have resources to go to. There's just an energy there you can't replicate through social media or chat or email," she says.
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Twin Cities (Minn.) med-tech executive Doug Kohrs and two partners started Responsive Orthopedics with the goal of providing affordable knee and hip devices, according to Star Tribune.
Here are six key insights:
1. Bundled payments allow providers to offer patients low-cost, standardized medical devices. However, many major device manufacturers will not sell the models due to low profit margins, and many venture firms are hesitant to fund start-ups if the start-up offers low premiums.
2. On April 1, CMS enrolled 67 metro regions, including the Twin Cities, in their Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement program. The program awards providers for quality outcomes, with CMS setting a goal of tying 85 percent of its 2018 payments to value-based care.
3. In a 72-page analysis, Citrigroup Global Markets analysts argued many dominant orthopedic players are not keeping pace with bundled payments, which then allows start-ups to come into the market as they are more willing to utilize such payments.
4. Therefore, Mr. Kohrs and his partners self-funded Responsive Orthopedics, with the intent of offering low-cost systems for hip and knee replacements. Mr. Kohrs and his physician partners have thus far invested up to $10 million in Responsive Orthopedics, which will sell FDA-cleared devices.
5. The company will sell devices to hospitals using bundled payments for hip and knee procedures. Responsive Orthopedics will not sell physician-owned distributorships.
6. Responsive Orthopedics aims to lower devices' cost by up to 40 percent through changing the distribution process. Responsive Orthopedics' devices cost less than other orthopedic device companies' devices because they are standardized to fit about 90 percent of patients.
"We want to disrupt the industry in a way that benefits the industry," Mr. Kohrs said. "This should allow Mayo and the others to get [better] pricing from the other manufacturers."
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Despite sectarian division and the ever-present ghosts of the past in Northern politics, the latest election campaign gave some tentative signs of normalisation, in that bread-and-butter issues - taxes and public services - featured strongly and the economy took centre stage in the parties' election manifestos.
All committed themselves to lower corporation tax, help for businesses and the creation of tens of thousands of jobs.
However, and as eminent economist and commentator John Simpson has noted, political debate has tended to lack detail - none of the parties offered a fully costed budget or explained how the slated (and much-vaunted) cut in corporation tax will be funded.
Being aspirational rather than specific is, of course, not unique to the north's political parties - and they can get away with it more easily because the bulk of fiscal and tax powers remain with London.
Stormont's weakness is compounded by the large fiscal transfers it requires from Her Majesty's Treasury. Officially, Northern Ireland's net fiscal deficit in 2013-14 was 9.3bn, or around 12bn, depending on the exchange rate. That is equivalent to an eye-popping 25% of estimated GDP.
Put another way, if Northern Ireland were an independent state, its yearly deficit would be more than eight times the EU ceiling on such imbalances - making Greece look like a model of fiscal rectitude in comparison.
The next Executive is almost certain to face tough budgetary decisions. UK chancellor George Osborne is determined to cut the 'block grant', and the lowering of the corporation tax rate will result in another loss of revenue. Tighter budgetary constraints are bound to cause tension within the new Executive.
Sinn Fein will not want to introduce unpopular measures, lest it allows the hard left to make hay. The redistributionist-minded SDLP and even the austere Ulster Unionists may well oppose spending cuts if they decide to opt out of government and go into opposition.
Stormont's budgetary wrangling with Westminster is a symptom of a weak real economy. There is a broad recognition that the Northern Ireland economy is under-performing when compared to most other regions on these islands.
Northern Ireland has the second-lowest GDP per capita, with only the Welsh faring worse. Since 2007, it has been below the EU average.
Nor is this all down to the Troubles.
Under-performance was in evidence well before violence erupted in the late 1960s - in part because Northern Ireland's economy has many of the weaknesses of other ex-industrial and peripheral regions in Britain and the rest of Europe.
That has meant an over-reliance on the state. The Northern Irish public sector is very large, accounting for 28% of employment, according to Britain's statistics agency (a more normal level in European countries is a third less, at around 20%).
There are other problems, too. Energy costs, business rates and lagging productivity have all been identified as barriers to growth. It has long been recognised across the political spectrum that Northern Ireland needs a stronger private sector.
Stormont's economic plans are centred on following the Republic's success in attracting foreign investment, with the corporation tax set to fall towards the rate that has long prevailed in the Republic. Stormont is to gain control of corporation tax in April 2018, and a rate of 12.5% is expected.
If the political parties can get their act together, it is possible that further fiscal and tax powers will be on offer over the course of the new Assembly term.
But in the much nearer term, Northern Ireland faces a big risk. Next month, voters will be returning to the polls for the UK referendum on its membership of the EU. The political consensus is for staying. Of the five main parties, only the long-time Eurosceptic DUP will campaign to leave. Opinion polls suggest that Ulster will vote to remain in the EU - though a majority of unionists may decide to 'leave'.
Certainly, the north has benefited from generous EU funding in the form of agricultural subsidies, regional funds and peace initiatives.
From 2007-13 it totalled 2.5bn, most of which went to farmers. Whether a post-Brexit British government would be prepared to replace this funding in full is far from certain.
The border is another big consideration. A Brexit would bring in new barriers to cross-border commerce. There is even the possibility that checkpoints and customs posts would be re-erected.
That would be good for no one.
Cross-border trade has been declining as a share of the Republic's total trade.
North-south trade is much more important to Northern Ireland than to the Republic.
Britain outside the EU would almost certainly have a trade-destroying effect - and the damage to Northern Ireland in particular could be considerable.
And as if the economic complications were not enough to be worrying about, there are much greater dangers.
The Scottish nationalist government has said that it would seek to break away from Britain if Brexit happens.
It is not hard to see a crumbling UK causing alarm among Northern Ireland's unionists. Little Englanders might advocate ditching the peripheral nations, which some see as subsidy junkies.
Irredentists on this island would see an opportunity, too. In a society where insecurities are deep and strong, and in which paramilitarism is alive and thriving, it is all too easy to see an abyss opening up.
Sean Sheehan, regional director NI Consumer & Small Business with Bank of Ireland UK, and Philip Tasker, business development manager at Works Services
Bank of Ireland has launched its latest Enterprise Week programme - aimed at boosting small businesses in Northern Ireland.
Enterprise Week, which will run from May 13 to 20, will see the bank host a week-long series of events to help firms network, showcase innovation and inspire new ideas.
Sean Sheehan, regional director of Bank of Ireland UK, said: "Enterprise Week is taking place at a time when we are seeing both resilience and a measure of confidence in small businesses, despite a climate of uncertainty.
"After a number of challenging years, the size of the business market is growing as evidenced in recently published research and the increase in our small business account numbers is consistent with this recovery.
"Our week-long initiative will focus on providing businesses with new and innovative ideas.
"Small businesses are essential to delivering Northern Ireland's export growth ambitions and we will be hosting a round table with industry experts and business customers to explore the challenges businesses are facing and the supports they need."
One of the firms which Bank of Ireland has previously supported is Belfast-based snow ploughing and gritting business Works Services.
Philip Tasker, business development manager at Works Services, said: "It would have been very difficult to grow as we have over the last couple of years without the support of Bank of Ireland UK. Commercial finance has had a massive impact on cash flow and it's been critically important to our growth and success."
Credit Suisse confirmed it started the year with a quarterly loss for the first time since 2008 after suffering "some of the most difficult markets on record".
The Swiss banking giant reported a loss of 484 million Swiss francs (344 million) for the first quarter against pre-tax profits of 1.5 billion Swiss francs (1.1 billion) a year earlier after client activity "drastically reduced" during the market turmoil at the start of 2016.
It marked the bank's worst first-quarter performance since the height of the financial crisis and comes as it leads a major restructuring to slash costs, including axing around 6,000 jobs.
Tidjane Thiam, chief executive of Credit Suisse, said there had been "tentative signs of a pick-up" in March and April, but warned trading would remain tough.
He said: "In the first quarter of 2016 and particularly in January and February, we operated in some of the most difficult markets on record with volumes and client activity drastically reduced.
"Subdued market conditions and low levels of client activity are likely to persist in the second quarter of 2016 and possibly beyond."
Credit Suisse shares bounced back by nearly 6% despite the first quarter blow as the losses were smaller than feared, while the bank has already said that reorganisation costs were expected to push it into a loss for the first quarter.
Mr Thiam joined in July last year from insurer Prudential and has been spearheading a revamp to cut costs and refocus the group on private banking and away from investment banking.
The bank said it was making "good progress" on its overhaul, accelerating job cuts with more than half - 3,500 - of the roles already gone.
It has cut more than 1,000 jobs in its global markets business since late March alone and said more than half of its 2016 target to cut annual costs by 1.4 billion Swiss francs (1 billion) was made in the first quarter.
Credit Suisse revealed in February that it slumped to a full-year pre-tax loss of 2.4 billion Swiss francs (1.7 billion) - its first annual loss since 2008.
Apprenticeships must be encouraged by the new Economy Minister, says economist John Simpson
Northern Ireland's new Economy Minister must act as a "salesperson" for the province on the global stage, it's been claimed.
The new Department for the Economy (DfE) will combine the economic and business role of the Department of Enterprise and Investment (DETI), as well as taking in the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL).
Economist John Simpson said the department must "refresh and deliver more ambitious skills training and apprenticeship places".
He said the new department brought together critical policy levers and represented a major opportunity to improve Northern Ireland's economy.
And he said it also needs to tackle energy costs for businesses across Northern Ireland.
Former Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell launched a task force to examine the difficulties facing manufacturing here, and high energy costs came out on top as the main concern.
"The new department brings together many of the critical policy levers. The ambition of both the DUP and Sinn Fein is that, during the next five years, 50,000 extra jobs should be created in Northern Ireland. This ambition needs clarity on the means by which it might be achieved," Mr Simpson said.
He said the "reshaping of policy for the economy" should not only rely on a drop in the rate of corporation tax alone.
And the new minister needs to be a "salesperson who will take our message to the global market", according to Ann McGregor, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
"NI Chamber has long campaigned for and supported the devolution and ultimate reduction of corporation tax but we always acknowledged that, taken in isolation, this was not a sufficient policy change.
"We must ensure that our indigenous businesses as well as those international investors have access to a skilled and motivated workforce."
And she said it was crucial the new Department for the Economy "plays a leadership role" in helping businesses to access information.
It's been rumoured that Sinn Fein could go for the department, with former Department for Regional Development (DRD) Minister Conor Murphy potentially taking up the role.
Glyn Roberts of the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association said the new post must be a "one-stop shop" for economic development, and reiterated his own calls for a junior ministerial role to tackle 'entrepreneurship and skills'.
"Given the huge role retail plays in supporting local employment, the Department for the Economy should conduct a 'retail policy review' to examine ways to support further growth in the sector," he said.
"Further education colleges can support the retail sector by working in partnership with retailers to develop entrepreneurial skills to support the sector's growth.
"A new professional and vocational route, running parallel to academic, from school right through to university, must be created."
Mr Simpson said the new minister "can expect greater political pressure to take account of the spread of additional jobs across Northern Ireland". Stephen Kelly of Manufacturing NI said the new minister "also needs to quickly tackle issues that remain a blockage to growing the economy including our energy cost problem, creating a skilled workforce and increasingly difficult labour issues including employment law, apprenticeship levy and the challenges of affording the national living wage".
Danske Bank markets its brand in many sports including rugby and the Irish League
Danske Bank is Northern Ireland's most profitable business for the second year in a row in the Belfast Telegraph's Top 100 Companies, in association with Arthur Cox.
The Danish-owned bank, which is led by Kevin Kingston, recorded pre-tax profits of 139.7m - more than double those of the company in the number two position and a 40% jump on last year.
>>The Belfast Telegraph Top 100 is available with today's paper<<
Danske said it was "delighted" at claiming the top spot once more and added its success was down to tight control of costs and the improving economy, particularly renewed health in the housing/mortgage market.
The improved property market also meant it no longer had to set aside money to cover bad debts, known as impairments.
Chief executive Mr Kingston said: "We are delighted to retain the top spot in the Belfast Telegraph's listing of the Top 100 companies in Northern Ireland for the second year running.
"The bank's continued progress reflects a combination of improved revenue performance, ongoing cost control and impairment recoveries."
He also told how the bank had managed to increased its share of big-business customers.
"For many years we have seen large numbers of business and corporate customers moving over to Danske Bank from other institutions," Mr Kingston said.
"However, in the past year it has been particularly pleasing to see many existing customers also start to once again invest in growing their businesses.
"We have also seen increased customer activity in personal banking, with notable demand in areas like private banking, wealth and, increasingly, the mortgage market.
"We have started 2016 very strongly and we look forward to driving more growth for the bank and our customers in the months ahead."
Over the first few months of this year pre-tax profits at Danske grew 11% to 35m, suggesting its dominance of the Top 100 could continue next year.
Danske employs 1,400 people in 46 branches and four regional finance centres across Northern Ireland.
The latest Belfast Telegraph Top 100 Companies list, which is published free today with this newspaper, reflects an environment of growing profitability among most companies.
Economist John Simpson, who compiles the results from accounts registered with Companies House, said this year's qualifying level of pre-tax profits had increased to 2.2m - compared to 1.8m last year.
Danske is the only bank operating here that appears in the Top 100.
The list covers only companies with entities registered in the province, reporting profits for their operations here.
While it now forms part of a much larger Danish operation, Danske Bank in Northern Ireland still has a locally registered company.
Despite the absence of the other banks, there are many familiar names in the eagerly anticipated list.
Aerospace giant Bombardier, which admitted it had experienced a "challenging year", appears in the top 100.
It is among stalwart manufacturing companies such as tyre pressure monitoring systems company Schrader in Co Antrim, veterinary pharmaceuticals company Norbrook in Newry, Severfield in Co Fermanagh (formerly Fisher Engineering), and Ulster Carpets in Craigavon.
Food firms such as Moy Park, Hilton Foods and Tayto crisps maker Manderley also show up in the results.
Seven of the top 20 companies reported declining profits, but they still held onto their coveted places in the upper reaches of the top 100.
Women in Northern Ireland appear to be breaking the glass ceiling with three of the leading five firms in today's Belfast Telegraph Top 100 led by females.
The eagerly-awaited run-down of our top profit-making companies is published today - and women are making their mark in the upper reaches of the list.
>>The Belfast Telegraph Top 100 is available with today's paper<<
Sara Venning heads up number two company NI Water; Carla Tully leads number four firm AES, which owns the Kilroot and Ballylumford power stations, while Janet McCollum is chief executive of number five firm, poultry giant Moy Park.
But there are just three other female leaders among the rest of the chart - Elaine Birchall of food and drink company SHS Group; Darina Armstrong of Progressive Building Society, and Margaret Heffernan, who heads up supermarket chain Dunnes.
Richard Kirk, head of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Northern Ireland, said the fact that two women were leading Northern Ireland's biggest utility firms demonstrated that engineering was becoming a more attractive profession for women.
"It is fantastic to see recognition of these women's achievements in engineering - they are the outstanding leaders we need to inspire the next generation.
"The UK still has one of the lowest ratios of female-to-male engineers in Europe, and more than half of surveyed girls said they were put off by science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) careers due to lack of female role models. Not only are these women contributing to their professions and companies, but they are showing young girls the many opportunities available to them in engineering.
"It is a growing sector which will need to attract young women in order to meet future demand and deliver better outcomes for society."
Ann McGregor, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also welcomed the growing female presence.
"A few years ago there were very few female leaders amongst our top firms and it is fantastic to see three in the top five of this year's Top 100.
"It shows clearly that having a female CEO is no impediment to the success of a company. They are an inspiration to a future generation of young female business leaders."
But Roseann Kelly, the head of Women in Business, said the presence of just six female leaders in the overall Top 100 was inadequate and reflected a wider failing.
"This is not a result of men stopping women from taking positions of leaderships. Rather, it's a reflection of the continuing reluctance of big society, of men and women, to accept that a greater contribution by women will inject new vigour and success into our economy," she said.
Premium
Margaret Canning Opinion Conservatives have gone back to traditional territory with a mini-budget that just might cost the party the next election
Many of the measures in Kwasi Kwartengs first big statement as Chancellor had been trailed in advance changes to stamp duty, the cancellation of both the rise in National Insurance and the rise in corporation tax, and bringing forward a cut in the basic rate of income tax to 19 pence.
Sir Kenneth Branagh (pictured) will star alongside Sir John Hurt in The Entertainer at The Garrick
This is the first look at Sir Kenneth Branagh as he dons his dancing shoes to star in the revival production of The Entertainer.
The Belfast-born actor and director will star in the production as Archie Rice - which was famously first-played by Laurence Olivier in 1957.
The Entertainer tells the story of a family of performers on the seedy music hall circuit in post-war Britain
The Entertainer will mark the final production in the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Companys Plays at the Garrick season. The Winters Tale, Harlequinade / All On Her Own, Red Velvet, The Painkiller, Romeo and Juliet and The Entertainer make up the seven-play season of work for the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company.
Directed by Rob Ashford The Entertainer also stars John Hurt as Billy Rice (the father of Archie) Phil Dunster, Jonah Hauer-King, Pip Jordan, Crispin Letts, Sophie McShera, Greta Scacchi and Kate Tydman.
The Entertainer will be broadcast live to cinemas worldwide on October 27 and tickets are now onsale.
Whatsonstage describes it as: "A proud past, a shabby present, an uncertain future: the state of the nation in 1956 perhaps, but also the state of the Rice family in a run-down seaside resort, where Archie is fronting a strip-show in a seedy theatre.
"Ever the entertainer, he carries on joking, dancing, singing - increasingly dead behind the eyes. This is a modern classic: it is a play about the state of the nation, but it is also a play which is vaudeville: funny, sleazy, sentimental in turn, after turn, after turn."
The Entertainer runs at the Garrick Theatre, London from 20 August - 12 November.
Life changing: Bronagh had to give up her job and decided not to have any more children
Great support: Rebekah with her parents Donna and Paul and some of her wigs.
Around 90% of lupus sufferers are female. Here, Laurence White talks to local two women about coping with this debilitating and incurable condition.
Lupus is a poorly understood chronic illness which can lead to severe complications and is even potentially life threatening. Yet such is the low awareness of the disease that, according to a recent survey, it can take seven and a
half years to get a proper diagnosis from the onset of symptoms.
It is an incurable autoimmune disease in which the bodys defence mechanism begins to attack itself and can cause inflammation and damage to joints, muscles and other organs.
Women are most likely to get the disease accounting for 90% of cases, although, it can also affect men and young children. Lupus is neither contagious nor infectious, although this is a common misconception among people when they meet those with the condition.
Chris Maker, director of charity Lupus UK, says: When people hear that lupus is an autoimmune disease they immediately equate it to other diseases of the immune system like Aids and HIV. That is totally wrong.
We talk to two women about the disease.
'I now have dialysis three times a week and I had to splash out on some wigs after my hair fell out'
The first hint Lisburn teenager Rebekah Green had of anything wrong was one day in December 2014, when she came home from school complaining of a sore knee.
Rebekah, now 17, recalls: "I told my mum but we both thought it was just something associated with wear and tear on the joint.
"We went to my GP who took a number of blood tests and shortly afterwards I was referred to Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast."
It was there after more blood tests and scans of her knees and other joints that doctors delivered the diagnosis of lupus.
"I had never heard of it", says Rebekah. "I didn't know what treatment I would get or what was involved."
Initially, Rebekah was put on a course of eight steroid tablets taken each morning, but her condition took a threatening turn in July last year when she suffered three seizures.
"I was at home and mum was making the dinner. She asked me to help her mash the potatoes and when she turned around I was taking the first seizure.
"She was so shaken that she couldn't even remember the telephone number for the ambulance for a few moments.
"I didn't know what was happening or what I was doing at the time. I took two seizures at home and another in the ambulance on the way to hospital."
Rebekah says the seizures were triggered by high blood pressure, a side effect of lupus, and she was kept in intensive care in hospital for over a week. "Obviously, my mum, Donna, dad Paul and little brother Daniel were under a lot of stress at this time, trying to keep home life as normal as possible and going to work and school," she says.
Rebekah was given dialysis in hospital after her kidneys failed but the treatment worked and she was allowed home.
Doctors also discovered two cysts on her liver.
Then last December came another frightening episode.
"I couldn't get a breath and I had to be taken to hospital and put into an induced coma," she says. "I had a breathing tube and another tube for feeding me during the three days I was in intensive care.
"I was then put on dialysis again and now have to have it three times a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - for three hours each time.
"I feel zonked out after undergoing the treatment but feel terrific in the intervening days and I'm full of energy.
"Unlike some other people with the disease, I don't suffer from fatigue but after the treatment last July, which involved getting drugs intravenously my hair fell out.
"Every morning when I woke up I would find clumps of it on my pillow.
"It is growing back but much more slowly than I would like. At the time, I had really long hair which went right down my back.
"I ordered some wigs on the internet and have been wearing them.
"My friends know I have wigs but they are fine about it."
Rebekah has now left school and was supposed to start a hairdressing course in Belfast last September, but postponed it on doctor's advice until September this year.
"I hope everything goes okay in the coming months and I can start the course.
"I am looking forward to it", she adds.
I have never been able to go back to the job I loved or have any more children
It was two decades ago, when Newry woman Bronagh Galloghly was still a relatively new mum, that she began to experience the symptoms that would lead to a diagnosis of lupus.
I couldnt lift my arms to brush my hair, she says. My fingers and ankles were swollen and the fatigue was all-consuming. I thought these were just the after-effects of having my daughter Danielle who was still very young at the time. I just carried on until it got so bad that I went to my GP.
I was lucky that she was really clued up and did the correct autoimmune screening blood test. Within two weeks I got the diagnosis that I had lupus. Indeed I was a textbook case.
What followed meant a big upheaval for the family.
Bronagh spent three weeks in Musgrave Park Hospital where she was given large amounts of steroids that was the standard treatment at the time, she says, but which are now known to have severe side effects. She was also given CT scans to determine if any internal organs had been damaged.
It was an awful time, says Bronagh. The children were very young and my husband Damian, a bricklayer, had to take a year off work to look after them and become my carer.
The children have had a very different life from what I would have hoped for them. For example, I was never able to go back to work. I had been a medical receptionist before having the children (she also has a son James). I would also have liked more children, but that was not an option either.
My daughter once said to me that she did not want to know what other mothers do. She thought every mother went to bed to sleep for several hours during the day every day.
Over the years the children have seen me in hospital on drips and oxygen and seen me taken away from home in an ambulance. In a way it has made them better people. It has made me and them more empathetic to others who are ill. Indeed my daughter decided to study occupational therapy because of my condition. She has seen how OTs and physios have looked after me over the years.
Shortly before the interview Bronagh was hanging out the washing. To most that is just an everyday chore, but it takes a lot out of the 49-year-old woman.
My 81-year-old mother was away out early this morning, but it takes me a good while to get going in the morning. It took a lot of effort for me to hang out the clothes this morning, she says.
Over the past 20 years Bronagh has suffered a number of huge flare-ups in her condition requiring hospitalisation.
I get terrible fatigue, even worse than normal, muscle weakness and every step is painful. My hands start to close in through the pain in the joints and I also suffer shocking headaches, she says. Other symptoms include skin rashes the skin gets hot and tight which can occur all over the body. I have also suffered hair loss but fortunately it is only slight.
This is an awful sickness and you can be really very ill. I have developed asthma as a side effect of the lupus and even getting to hospital when I have a flare-up can be very taxing. It can take me six to seven months to get back on my feet after a bad flare-up.
Bronagh is full of praise for the medical staff at Musgrave Park Hospital and for their determination to get their patients the most advanced medicines for treating the disease. She adds: Some of the medicines are very expensive and they have to really fight to get them. I cannot praise the staff enough for all they have done for me over the years and I know they do the same for everyone with the condition.
Bronagh is affected by virtually all the symptoms of the disease and that includes an intolerance to bright sunshine.
Even going out to the clothes line I have to be covered in sunblock or I will get a rash. I used to go on sun holidays years ago but now it would just too much hassle, she says.
I have to plan every outing. I had a meeting in Belfast last night and had to go to bed for several hours to make sure I was well rested before the journey.
She describes lupus as an invisible illness, adding: If you saw me with my make-up on and getting ready for a night out I usually have to come home early you wouldnt think there was anything wrong with me or that I have to take 14 tablets a day.
Another problem is that lupus can lead to other conditions. I also have Raynauds a condition that limits the blood supply to hands and feet when I get cold and Sjogrens syndrome which leads to tear and saliva glands drying up. Thats the sort of complications you can get with lupus. But there is life with lupus even if the quality of it can be affected.
For further advice or help go to www.lupusuk.org.uk or the local support group www.lupussupportgroupni.co.uk
Symptoms of the disease with no cure
The main symptoms of lupus are fatigue, joint pain and rashes but may also include fever, swollen lymph glands, hair loss, high blood pressure, headaches, stomach and chest pain and depression.
While there is no cure for the disease treatments which can alleviate the symptoms include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria, corticosteroids, and immunosuppressants.
Other advanced drugs are available for those patients who do not respond to the usual treatments.
Source: NHS Choices website
Solicitor Sam Webster with Daniel McArthur and his Wife Amy at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Daniel McArthur and his Wife Amy at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Gareth Lee ( Gay Rights activist) with Michael Wardlow (Chief Commissioner for the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland) at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Daniel McArthur and his Wife Amy at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Gareth Lee ( Gay Rights activist) with Michael Wardlow (Chief Commissioner for the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland) at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Gareth Lee ( Gay Rights activist) with Michael Wardlow (Chief Commissioner for the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland) at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Daniel McArthur and his Wife Amy at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
Christian bakers sued for refusing to make a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan face being forced to express a political opinion in conflict with their faith, Northern Ireland's top law officer argued today.
Attorney General John Larkin QC told senior judges the McArthur family should have constitutional protection for turning down a customer's order based on their religious beliefs.
Mr Larkin has intervened to back the owners of Ashers' Bakery in their bid overturn a ruling that they acted unlawfully.
Last year Belfast County Court held that the firm discriminated against Gareth Lee on grounds of sexual orientation and religious belief or political opinion.
In a landmark case the Co Antrim-based company was ordered pay the gay rights activist 500 in damages.
Mr Lee had requested a cake depicting Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie below the motto 'Support Gay Marriage' for an event to mark International Day Against Homophobia.
Bosses at the bakery, run by the McArthurs, refunded his money for the order placed at its Belfast city centre shop in May 2014 because the message went against their Christian faith.
Although the family insist their problem was with the cake and not the customer, Mr Lee claimed he was left feeling like a lesser person.
In a case he brought with backing from the Equality Commission, the County Court held that business was not above the law.
Ashers is challenging the verdict, with their legal team insisting it was wrong to force them to choose between operating a business or adhering to their faith.
The Court of Appeal was told the family believed it would have been sinful to bake a cake with the gay marriage message.
Mr Larkin has now stepped in to examine sexual orientations regulations at the centre of proceedings, and whether they directly discriminate against those who hold religious beliefs or political opinions.
On day two of the appeal hearing he said: "There are very large questions about the role of conscience in all sorts of business."
A panel of three judges led by Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan were told the dispute centred on expression.
"I say very clearly, if it was a case where Mr Lee had been refused some of Ashers excellent chocolate eclairs because he way gay or perceived to be gay I would be standing on the other side of the court," the Attorney General said.
"But it's not about that, it's about expression and whether it's lawful under Northern Ireland constitutional law for Ashers to be forced... to articulate or express or say a political message which is at variance with their political views and in particular their religious views."
Referring to century-old legislation, Mr Larkin submitted: "Northern Ireland has always had constitutional protection for religious beliefs."
In written arguments which formed part of his case he questioned whether the Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order 1998 would compel Ashers to put the words 'There is no God' or 'Christianity is a lie' on a cake.
According to the Attorney General the right to decline to express a view inconsistent with religious belief is protected under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The "embarrassment and inconvenience of having the service refused" does not reach the level of seriousness required to engage private and family life entitlements under the Convention, he contended.
In legal papers submitted as part of his case he concluded: "Although the case for the plaintiff (Mr Lee) is put pleasantly and with every appearance of sweet reasonableness, what cannot be disguised is that the defendants are being compelled, on pain of civil liability, to burn a pinch of incense at the alter of a god they do not worship.
"The constitutional law of Northern Ireland, supplemented by the ECHR, resists such a compulsion."
Robin Allen QC, for Mr Lee, noted that the cake order was refused 10 days after the Stormont Assembly had again voted against introducing same-sex marriage.
He told the court the case was indisputably about political opinion.
The barrister contended: "The single core point which divides an act which would be favourable to an individual from the act which occurred - it's one word, the word gay.
"Take that out (and leave) 'Support marriage' or 'Support Christianity' or 'Support opposite sex marriage'... all of those things would have led to a different course of conduct."
The appeal continues.
Solicitor Sam Webster with Daniel McArthur and his Wife Amy at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Daniel McArthur and his Wife Amy at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Gareth Lee ( Gay Rights activist) with Michael Wardlow (Chief Commissioner for the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland) at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Daniel McArthur and his Wife Amy at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Gareth Lee ( Gay Rights activist) with Michael Wardlow (Chief Commissioner for the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland) at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Gareth Lee ( Gay Rights activist) with Michael Wardlow (Chief Commissioner for the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland) at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
PACEMAKER BELFAST 09/05/2016 Daniel McArthur and his Wife Amy at Belfast High Court on Monday, The Christian owners of Ashers Bakery, the McArthur family, are seeking to appeal a ruling that found they acted unlawfully by refusing to bake a cake with a Slogan supporting gay marriage in May 2014. PHOTO Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
The Christian owners of the bakery at the centre of the same-sex cake storm have warned that their case has implications for freedom of expression right across the UK.
Exactly two years after the McArthur family, owners of Ashers Baking Company, refused to make a cake bearing a pro-same-sex marriage slogan, they were back in court in a bid to overturn a ruling that they had discriminated against a gay customer.
As they took their battle to protect their religious beliefs to the High Court in Belfast yesterday, Ashers' manager Daniel McArthur, accompanied by his wife Amy, said they do not want to be forced "to endorse a campaign that is against their deeply held religious beliefs".
Last year Ashers bakery was ordered to pay 500 for refusing to make the cake, which featured Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie and the slogan 'Support Gay Marriage'.
A Belfast court found that customer Gareth Lee, who was backed by the Equality Commission, had been discriminated against on the grounds of his sexual orientation.
The McArthur family decided to appeal the decision with financial backing from the Christian Institute.
The hearing was scheduled for February. However, it was halted following a last-minute intervention by Attorney General John Larkin amid concern over a potential conflict between sections of the province's equality legislation and UK and European human rights laws.
The High Court appeal finally got under way yesterday before Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, Lord Justice Weir and Lord Justice Weatherup. It is expected to last four days.
"Two years ago we were asked to help promote a campaign to redefine marriage in Northern Ireland," said Daniel McArthur before the hearing.
"We never imagined that two years later we would find ourselves still living with the consequences of that request.
"We never imagined that the Equality Commission would try to force us to promote that campaign. Or that the County Court would agree with them.
"So we're here again and we're hoping this court will rule that we are not required to endorse a view that goes against our conscience."
He added that the Attorney General's involvement "confirms there are big issues at stake".
"This was never just a case about one little bakery in Belfast," he said.
"It's always had implications for freedom of expression throughout the UK. Throughout, God has graciously sustained us, even though we're just weak sinners."
Family barrister David Scoffield QC told the court that it would have been "sinful" for the family to go against their conscience and bake the cake with the slogan backing same-sex marriage.
He said it was "not a refusal to provide a cake to the gay customer, the issue was the cake he requested".
The lawyer added that the case "raises important issues of principle", and that the message on the cake was inconsistent with the McArthurs' "deeply held religious beliefs".
"The issue is the extent to which those who hold such religious convictions can be required by the law to act in a manner inconsistent with their convictions."
He added: "It makes it extremely difficult for any business such as a printer or someone who, as we have seen in this case, creates T-shirts or creates cakes, to run any kind of bespoke service if faced with the position that someone could come through your door and order something which is clearly objectionable."
Mr Scoffield insisted that had a heterosexual person ordered a cake with the same message, they would also have been refused.
"It isn't a discrimination case, as anyone who ordered the cake would have received the same treatment... it didn't matter who ordered the cake, they couldn't in conscience produce it," the lawyer said.
"This was not a failure to offer a service. This was a totally abnormal order."
The controversy erupted in May 2014 when Mr Lee, a member of LGBT advocacy group Queer Space, ordered the cake for a private function marking International Day Against Homophobia. He paid the 36.50 in full when placing the order at Ashers' Belfast branch, but two days later the company phoned to say it could not be processed.
Mr Scoffield said the person who took the order had no idea what Mr Lee's sexual orientation was and had never heard of Queer Space.
He said the alleged discrimination was not against Mr Lee, it was against the message, but the law only covered harm caused to an individual.
"Discrimination must be against the person, not against an idea or an object," he added.
"A cake cannot have a political opinion or a religious belief, it is a person who can do so."
Following a three-day hearing last March, District Judge Isobel Brownlie found Ashers directly discriminated against Mr Lee, who had been treated "less favourably" contrary to the law.
Ordering the baker to pay damages of 500 the judge said religious beliefs could not dictate the law.
However, the McArthurs said they believed they were being punished for their Christian beliefs and they should be allowed to retain the freedom to decline business that would force them to promote a cause with which they disagreed.
At hearing.
Corncrake has been heard on the island
A corncrake looking for love on Rathlin Island is thought to be only the second of the species heard in Northern Ireland in 17 years.
The RSPB says the notoriously shy birds have been virtually wiped out here in recent years due to changes in farming practices.
But in recent days the distinctive 'crex-crex' mating call of a male corncrake has been heard on Rathlin around dusk, prompting hopes the species will make a comeback.
Given its secretive nature, the corncrake is almost impossible to spot, with only its unmistakable call giving it away.
While common off the western coast of Scotland and in Donegal, the last known pair to breed in Northern Ireland were recorded in the late 1990s.
A male was also heard in the Church Bay area of the island in May 2014, but was unable to attract a mate after being disturbed.
Every summer the pigeon-sized birds make the long distance trip from Africa, seeking out the appropriate protective cover for breeding grounds.
In a bid to bring back the bird, RSPB NI staff launched the Giving Corncrake A Home project to create the right conditions for it on Rathlin.
Nettle roots have been taken from the mainland and planted round the edges of hayfields with brambles cleared to create "corncrake corridors", which provide essential connectivity between areas of suitable habitat.
Rathlin Island warden Liam McFaul said he was delighted that this work was paying off.
He said: "Even if the male doesn't manage to attract a mate this year, it's a really encouraging sign that the work we're doing for these shy, secretive birds is making a difference."
In Northern Ireland corncrakes were flourishing at the end of the 1960s, but by the 1980s had largely receded to the western counties, particularly Co Fermanagh. And by the 1994 breeding season not a single corncrake was recorded.
A previous study by the RPSB said changes in agricultural practices in Northern Ireland reduced the birds' population by 80% in just three years, from 1988 to 1991.
Around this time farmers were encouraged to start cutting earlier and to produce silage instead of hay.
The problem was further compounded by an increase in sheep farming, which resulted in further loss of hay meadows.
With the latest encouraging signs, the RPSB has pledged to continue its work on Rathlin Island.
Police at the scene of the shooting
Police at the scene of the shooting in Divis area of west Belfast
Belfast , UK - May 09, pictured is the scene of a shooting where a delivery driver Dan Murray has died after been shot in the neck and chest on Monday May 09, 2016 Belfast , Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )
Belfast , UK - May 09, pictured is the scene of a shooting where a delivery driver Dan Murray has died after been shot in the neck and chest on Monday May 09, 2016 Belfast , Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )
Sinn Fein MP Paul Maskey at the scene where Dan Murray was shot dead in a car in west Belfast. Picture By: Arthur Allison.
Belfast , UK - May 09, pictured is the scene of a shooting where a delivery driver Dan Murray has died after been shot in the neck and chest on Monday May 09, 2016 Belfast , Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )
Belfast , UK - May 09, pictured is the scene of a shooting where a delivery driver Dan Murray has died after been shot in the neck and chest on Monday May 09, 2016 Belfast , Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye )
Belfast shooting: Dan Murray has been shot dead in a car in west Belfast.
Dan Murray who was shot in the face in his north Belfast home.
A hot food delivery driver targeted twice previously by dissident republicans was shot dead in his car in west Belfast last night.
The fatal shooting happened in the Divis area shortly before 10.30pm.
It was reported by local people that the man was hit in the neck by his assailant.
He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, but did not survive despite efforts to save him.
He was targeted while sitting in his dark-coloured Ford Focus car in Lady Street after possibly being lured to the area by a bogus fast food delivery order.
The driver's seat and seatbelt were seen to be heavily bloodstained by witnesses.
The victim was named locally as Daniel Murray (54).
Police confirmed the death late last night.
It was the third shooting in Belfast in the space of less than 24 hours.
Two other young men were wounded in the other two attacks.
West Belfast Sinn Fein MP Paul Maskey said his thoughts and sympathies were with the dead man's family.
He visited the scene, where police informed him the man had passed away.
He said: "This a sad night for Belfast and for society with a number of shootings across the city.
"There will be a family grieving tonight and my sympathies go out to them.
"These types of attacks serve no purpose and must stop."
Mr Murray was previously targeted in a gun attack almost exactly a year ago.
He was shot in the face by dissident republican vigilantes in 2015 near his north Belfast home.
Mr Murray, who was originally from the Turf Lodge area of west Belfast, said at the time he had been accused of being a drug dealer - which he denied - and would have to flee his home.
As he recovered from that shooting, he said the attack was an attempt to execute him.
"It was one face shot, one head shot. They didn't aim for anywhere else," he said.
"I've no idea why - there was no warning.
"I've been given a second chance and I want to find out why.
"They are accusing me of drug dealing and I want them to prove it.
"They've branded me a drug dealer - and I'm not." Mr Murray described the previous shooting in detail.
"They had a 9-mill gun. It was an execution (attempt) - they came straight in and 'bang'.
"They didn't hesitate, they didn't give any warnings. I turned around and the bullet went into my face.
"It hit my jaw, hit the bone and went right down and into my shoulder.
"I staggered when they shot me, I thought they had shot me in the throat at first and I could feel most of the pain in my shoulder. There was a lot of blood."
Mr Murray discharged himself early from hospital after surgery, saying he was going to contact the various paramilitary groups to ask why he was being targeted.
He had been wounded in a Continuity IRA gun attack before last year's murder attempt.
He claimed that was an extortion bid, and again denied he sold drugs. He challenged the paramilitaries to produce any evidence of criminal activity.
West Belfast SDLP MLA Alex Attwood condemned those behind all the shootings.
He said: "I am appalled by the events of the last 24 hours in areas of west and north Belfast.
"Those behind these deplorable shootings must be condemned outright by us all.
"We must demonstrate the same resolve we did in the past - resist those who carry out these atrocities, who use guns to reject Irish democracy and ignore the rule of law.
"I urge anyone with information about these shootings to share it with the police so those responsible can be taken off our streets."
Mr Murray leaves a partner and a young son behind.
His wife died several years ago.
People in Carrickfergus have paid tribute to a young soldier who was fatally attacked on a night out in Wales.
Private Matthew Boyd (20), of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, was set upon in Brecon after leaving a pub to make the short journey back to his barracks in the early hours of Sunday.
The serviceman was found unconscious and injured on Lion Street in the market town at around 1am. He was taken to hospital but doctors were unable to save his life. Two men - aged 22 and 23 - were later arrested on suspicion of murder and were last night being questioned by Dyfed-Powys Police.
Mr Boyd was not wearing his Army uniform when he was set upon. The attack is not believed to be linked to terrorism.
Yesterday, Carrickfergus was left shocked by the news that the soldier had been murdered.
Matthew grew up in Northern Ireland, but he moved to Gibraltar when he was just seven with parents Michelle and David, brothers Darren and James and sister Katie. The young man then went on to join the Army in 2012, when he was just 17.
His grandparents and other members of his extended family still live in Carrickfergus and are well-known in the area. His aunt Elaine Mawhirk, who works as a beautician in Ballyclare, said: "Matthew Ian Boyd had an amazing young life in such a short time. He is with us all and always will be
"He was completely loved by all the family so much. He had such a strong pact with his brothers - they are devastated.
"He was on a training exercise in Brecon and he didn't even have to go. The reason he was there was they were short of men and he volunteered. The training exercise was for new recruits."
Matthew's grandmother Maureen Boyd also spoke out about the family's pain.
"We are a broken family today," she said. "Senseless. No words for that heartache we feel. Woke up today and you're hoping it's all wrong. My heart has just been broken in two."
Matthew's mum Michelle Rogers wrote below a photograph of Matthew posted on Facebook: "He's so beautiful. My baby boy taken so soon."
His brother Darren added: "Broke my heart when I woke up and heard you were gone, but I know that you will never be gone for me.
"You will always be in my heart. We had good and bad days, I just want you here with me. Always in my heart I will make my big brother proud!"
And Matthew's cousin Craig Leitch said: "RIP Matthew Ian Boyd taken from us far too soon and murdered by scum. Proud to have you as a cousin and fighting for us in the British Army.
"My best friend growing up and we might have drifted apart through the years with moving countries, but you'll be forever in my heart until we meet again."
Local DUP MLA David Hilditch added: "As news broke over the course of the day, people have been very sympathetic and have been expressing their condolences through social media.
"The family would be known to quite a few people and the news has been received with shock. It's very, very sad and our thoughts are with the whole family. It's terrible that a young life has been lost in these circumstances."
The murdered soldier's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ivor Lopez, said: "The whole regiment is devastated to learn about the tragic death of Pte Matthew Boyd of The Royal Gibraltar Regiment.
"Matthew - or Boyd as he was commonly known by his friends - joined the regiment in August 2012 when he was just 17 years of age. A committed and utterly reliable individual, Pte Boyd was an outstanding soldier with a bright future ahead of him.
"Witty, full of life and with an outgoing personality, he was widely respected and an extremely popular member of this unit. His untimely death leaves a huge void in the regiment and his loss will be acutely felt by all of us. The regiment has lost a great soldier and a close friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with Matthew's family and friends."
Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street and the message that sparked gay cake row
Two years ago, the order sparking the so-called 'gay cake' case was placed at Ashers Baking Company in Belfast. Here is a timeline of how events unfolded.
May 9, 2014 Gareth Lee places an order at Ashers Baking Company on Belfast's Royal Avenue for a cake to be decorated with the slogan Support Gay Marriage alongside the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie. The order is accepted by Karen McArthur and payment of 36.50 is made in full.
May 11, 2014 Mr Lee is informed that the order cannot be completed. Mr Lee is offered a full refund.
June 26, 2014 Equality Commission writes to Ashers requesting that modest compensation be paid.
October 24, 2014 Equality Commission puts the bakery officially "on notice" of impending court action.
March 26, 2015 The three-day civil suit opens at Belfast County Court. Mr Lee tells the court he was left feeling like a lesser person when his order was declined.
March 27, 2015 In evidence, Ms McArthur, an Ashers director, said she had taken the order to avoid a confrontation in the shop but as a born-again Christian "knew in her heart" it could not be completed. Her son, Daniel McArthur, the firm's general manager, tells the court his family could not compromise their deeply held religious beliefs.
May 19, 2015 District Judge Isobel Brownlie rules in favour of the Equality Commission. The judge finds Ashers acted unlawfully and directly discriminated against Mr Lee on grounds of his sexual orientation and political beliefs. She said Mr Lee was treated "less favourably", contrary to the law. The company is ordered to pay agreed costs of 500.
June 10, 2015 Ashers say they will appeal against the judgment.
November 2, 2015 For the first time the majority of MLAs vote in favour of changing the law on same-sex marriage. However, the proposal falls when the DUP deploys a 'petition of concern' blocking mechanism.
December 3, 2015 Two same-sex couples launch a landmark legal action in Belfast's High Court to judicially review the Assembly's refusal to legislate on same-sex marriage.
February 3, 2016 An appeal hearing is dramatically halted after a last minute intervention from Attorney General John Larkin.
March 3, 2016 Mr Larkin is given the green light to make representations at the full appeal hearing.
May 9, 2016 An appeal in the case of Gareth Lee v Ashers Baking Company is to be heard before Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan and two other top judges in Belfast's Royal Courts of Justice.
A Northern Ireland woman who survived the 1973 Summerland fire disaster has revealed for the first time that she will always be haunted by the sight of her panic-stricken father rescuing his younger daughter and leaving her behind.
Ruth McQuillan-Wilson was only five years old when the holiday complex on the Isle of Man was engulfed in flames, killing 50 people, 11 of them children.
The Co Down woman, now 48, said the horrific scars on her arms and legs are an everyday reminder of the inferno that became known as the UK's 'forgotten tragedy'.
But the mother-of-five admitted that she is also tortured by the fact that she didn't get a chance to tell her late dad she doesn't blame him for what happened on the first day of what was supposed to be a dream holiday.
Now, almost 43 years later, she is writing a book about what happened that dreadful day, as well as campaigning for a public apology from the Manx authorities.
It was August 2, 1973, when Ruth, sister Lynda (aged two-and-a-half), mother Muriel (35) and father Sam (36) escaped - but not together - from the devastating blaze that engulfed Summerland.
Theirs was just one of the Northern Ireland families caught up in the second-worst peacetime loss of life from fire in the UK. It started with three young boys smoking in a disused kiosk, spread rapidly and ended with catastrophic loss of life amid scenes one eyewitness described as "hell on earth".
Incredulously - and with eerie echoes of the Hillsborough disaster - a public inquiry later attributed the death toll that day to 'misadventure', with no specific individuals or groups held responsible.
Even the boys who started the fire were fined only 3 each - and ordered to pay 33p compensation - for wilfully damaging a kiosk.
Many people may have forgotten Summerland, but Ruth will certainly never forget grasping in vain at her dad's coat, the panic, the indescribable pain, the screaming, the petrified look on her mother's face, the stampede, and the trapped people burning to death because fire doors had been locked.
Afterwards, there were months in hospital, the skin grafts, the looks on other people's faces when they saw her scarring from third-degree burns, hurtful taunts, suicidal thoughts, survivor's guilt and the post traumatic stress that tortured her family for decades - and the unresolved issue with her father that he took to his grave nine years ago.
"Maybe another five-year-old wouldn't remember much about that day but it's so clear in my mind," she said.
"I remember standing at the docks waiting to go on the boat to go across to the Isle of Man. I was so excited.
"We arrived, checked in, visited the beach and Summerhill Glen - that was such a beautiful place - and then back to Summerland, and straight up to the top floor.
"I remember amusements, slot machines, the patterned carpet... it was a huge place.
"Suddenly, Dad noticed smoke coming out of a ventilation shaft. He wasn't happy and started to go back down the stairs. I saw the smoke and then the whole place erupted into flames. There was widespread panic. The flames were coming towards us and there was no way out.
"We were still together at that stage, and I remember reaching out my hand, trying to grab hold of my dad and almost touching his coat before he disappeared. I can still see that coat today.
"He'd lifted Lynda and clambered over railings with her, saw a door that had buckled in the heat and got through it. He then literally threw Lynda down a flight of concrete steps to a man below who caught her."
Ruth found out later that her father tried to go back for his wife and other daughter but the heat was too intense. He'd also been informed outside that there was no way they would survive a conflagration that needed 93 of the island's 106 firefighters - and all 16 fire engines - to fight it.
"My mum and I had to go back up the stairs," recalled Ruth, who lives in Dromore.
"Mum then climbed down the rails from the terrace and called for me to follow. The melting skin was hanging off my legs. I was in terrible pain. But I climbed down and got onto her back and the two of us slid down onto the floor.
"Somehow, through the smoke, she spotted a broken window. She had to stand on a dead body to reach up to it and saw a fireman. She handed me out first and then the fireman pulled her out.
"Afterwards, in the hospital I said, 'Daddy, why did you lift Lynda and leave me behind?' It must have hurt him. It affected our close relationship. He was so distant after that."
The legacy of that fateful day was enduring.
"We were sent home on the boat: a long painful journey. I remember arriving in Belfast and lying in the back of an ambulance, wondering where I was going," she said.
"They took off the dead skin and then removed skin from both my stomach and my back for grafting, so I have scars there too. It was extremely painful. It was horrific.
"I was in hospital for three months; the Royal for a couple of weeks and then the Ulster at Dundonald. My burns wouldn't heal, the grafts wouldn't take. They gave me salt baths to try and get them to heal which wasn't nice."
Ruth - who is now married to second husband Robert (50) - missed almost a year of school because of her injuries.
"When I went back into P2 I was a stranger," she said.
"The other children had moved on. And I didn't come back as the wee girl I was in P1 - confident and chatty. I was a different child entirely.
"The defining moment for me, growing up, was when I was about eight and the other girls in school were talking about getting married. One said to me 'Who's going to want you? You're not going to get married with your legs burnt to cinders.' That made me realise what the future held.
"I didn't really go out much, and dating wasn't exactly straightforward either, although I did eventually get married - twice."
Ruth says that neither her children - Gemma (28), Daniel (25) Sophie (23), Joshua (20) and Tabitha (17) - nor her stepsons Christopher (29) and David (26) have ever seen the full extent of her injuries which, when she was younger, had both adults and youngsters turning away in disgust.
"When I was a child they were very vivid," she said. "To this day when I get out of the shower my legs are purple because of the heat. With my scars, skirts or shorts aren't an option. When it comes to the hot summer and everyone is on the beach in their shorts I'm not; I have to wear heavy trousers."
What happened in Douglas that day was rarely discussed afterwards.
"I think my parents never wanted to talk about it because we all came so close to dying," she said.
"Mum, who's 77, told me she thinks her mind has just blocked it out completely.
"Lynda, on the other hand, only remembers green frogs; someone handing her green plastic frogs."
Breaking down in tears, she added: "I hate the thought of my dad (who died from cancer on New Year's Eve in 2007, aged 70) thinking that I held what happened in Summerland against him. I didn't.
"We just never got the chance to sit down and talk about it. I wanted to tell him I never blamed him but he died without us clearing the air."
Sometimes, the darkest of all thoughts have visited Ruth's mind.
"I have definitely felt suicidal at times over the years," she said.
"I was thinking 'Am I going to live like this for the rest of my life?' It wasn't just the physical injury; it was inside my mind. I couldn't get any peace. Even now, there's times I feel like running outside and screaming."
Despite the mental anguish, Ruth has never had any therapy but she said she would consider it.
"For a long time I didn't know how many had died in the fire, but I was aware at the time that there were dead people around me," she said. "I found out for the first time that day what death actually meant."
Ruth got a mere 10,020 - "the 20 was for the clothes I lost" - compensation for what happened to her.
"It was put away until I was 18 and dad had to put a certain sum towards it every year to keep it in trust," she said.
"When I came of age it had accrued interest and he gave me certain amounts over the years until it was finished. I got married in between times and it soon dwindled away."
Ruth believes - in the light of the recent Hillsborough verdict - that the time is right for the authorities to own up to the catalogue of human errors on the Isle of Man that cost so many people their lives and almost wiped out her entire family.
"The Manx authorities need to issue a public apology to the victims," the grandmother-of-three said.
"We didn't get a verdict like Hillsborough. We didn't get justice. They said there were no villains when came to Summerland but it's clear there were so many mistakes made."
These mistakes include the emergency services not being called for 20 minutes after the fire started, the huge, multi-storey complex not being properly fireproofed in the first place, a failure to invoke an emergency evacuation procedure even through there were 3,000 people inside - and the all-too-late discovery during the ensuing mass panic that fire doors had been locked.
Ruth, who is hoping to publish a book about the tragedy, has also written an open letter to the Liverpool boys who started the fire.
"In a way, myself and those boys grew up together," she said.
"I wonder if they ever think about the people who were killed or injured. I wrote an open letter to them. The Liverpool Echo published it in March. Nothing yet, but I'm still hopeful. It would mean everything to me if one of them would get in touch.
"I want to know how their lives panned out. I wonder if they've lived a secret the way I have, hiding my injuries? Did they hide the truth from their partners and from people they met in life? Did they have to hide that they were the three boys who started that catastrophic fire?
"If that was the case and they had been in a bad place for years then maybe speaking to a survivor would help them in some way as much as it was going to help me."
She added: "Even now I feel guilty for surviving when other wee girls died. I've had a life and they didn't. I often wonder why I was chosen to live."
Missing schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson was let down by the State, a senior police officer has told her inquest
Former police officer Norman Baxter leaving Laganside Court in Belfast after speaking at the inquest into the death of missing schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson
Schoolgirl Arlene Arkinson was a forgotten victim who was failed by the State, a former high profile detective has told her inquest.
In a stinging attack on police hierarchy, retired chief superintendent Norman Baxter said the prime suspect could have been charged with murder years earlier.
He told Belfast Coroners Court: "She was a forgotten victim and that's quite a terrible thing."
Mr Baxter was brought onto the Arkinson inquiry in March 2002 and despite not having any new evidence, decided within a few months to pursue the paedophile Robert Howard.
He said the investigation had been in a "vague" status - neither active nor closed, adding: "It was in the ether."
Fifteen-year-old Arlene, from Castlederg, Co Tyrone, disappeared in August 1994 after a night out at a disco across the border in Co Donegal.
The teenager, who had a troubled background, was last seen being driven off late at night by Howard. Her body has never been found.
Howard was acquitted of her murder in 2005 by a jury which was not told of his previous conviction for murdering teenager Hannah Williams, whose body was found in Kent in March 2002.
Mr Baxter said he believed the dysfunctional Arkinson family were not seen as a priority for police between 1994 and 2002.
"I think the Arkinson family were seen as people who had no standing and therefore society did not bother with them and therefore she was not of importance and not a priority," he said.
"I think it is a terrible case that a 15-year-old just vanishes and after a period of statutory obligation you park it and move on."
The decision to charge Howard with murder, in May 2002, was made while he was being held at Belmarsh Prison on suspicion of killing Hannah Williams.
Although there was nothing new evidentially, Mr Baxter's approach differed from previous investigators who believed that a prosecution could not go ahead without a body.
He added: "Robert Howard could have been charged years earlier. If there was a recognition that this was a family and this was a victim."
"If proper steps had been taken in 1994 then Hannah Williams would be alive, potentially."
Howard was described as a "menace", able to roam across the UK and Ireland committing horrendous, depraved offences.
While some officers believed passionately that he had to be stopped they were "lone voices in the system", according Mr Baxter.
There were institutional failures across a range of responsibilities and the State was "ineffective" in dealing with him, he added.
Meanwhile, the court also heard of the animosity that existed between some police and members of the Arkinson family who were perceived as pests and troublemakers.
"All they were trying to get was some resolution," said Mr Baxter, who claimed he had a better understanding because he was from the same country area.
During examination by Kevin Rooney QC, representing the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Mr Baxter rejected suggestions he was being critical of the original investigation.
The s tatement that Hannah Williams could potentially be still alive was a dangerous generalisation, the lawyer said, adding that Mr Baxter failed to secure a conviction in 2005.
However Mr Baxter hit back: "There was a large timespan between 1994 and 2002 and the work that was done by people at that time who were responding collected evidence which formed the foundation of the prosecution.
"The issue lies with what happened in the time gap. I do not have an issue with the investigative steps, it is the issue about what was being done to move the thing forward.
"I think, if there had been a constant review of cold cases, if this thing had been looked at again - there was the potential that he (Howard) could have been charged earlier."
There were some heated exchanges between Mr Rooney and Henry Toner QC, a lawyer representing the Arkinson family.
At one point Mr Toner sprang to the police officer's defence accusing the PSNI of attempting to throw him to the wolves.
Earlier, the inquest heard that when charged with Arlene's murder Howard "lost control" and hinted he would co-operate with police if he could be transferred to a jail in Northern Ireland.
Howard believed Maghaberry prison had single cells with en suite facilities while at Belmarsh he had to "slop out", the court was told.
"He was thinking of his personal conditions," said Mr Baxter.
On another occasion he suggested he might co-operate if he could to be sent to a prison in Scotland, it was claimed.
The hearing has been adjourned until Monday, May 16.
The DUPs Emma Little Pengelly on the steps of Stormont yesterday
Northern Ireland's newly-elected Assembly will not be fully functioning for another fortnight - and perhaps even longer.
And by then it will be only six weeks until the 108 MLAs begin their 10-week summer recess.
A late May bank holiday may also prevent the return of routine plenary sessions on the Hill.
So not much business or legislation is expected to be completed this side of July 2, when Stormont closes for the summer.
The first meeting of the new legislature is on Thursday, but that is only to confirm the reappointments of First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, and to elect a new Speaker.
The share-out of ministries under the d'Hondt formula is not expected to take place until Monday, May 23.
By that time the Ulster Unionists and SDLP are expected to have decided whether they are taking their seats on the Executive, or will become part of the official Opposition.
But speculation over which party will take which department was already under way even before the election count finished last Saturday afternoon.
The DUP has first pick and is widely expected to opt again for Finance Minister, despite strong indications during the election campaign it would take Education first.
There is speculation Sinn Fein, which has next choice, will plump for the new Department of the Economy, with former MP Conor Murphy or Mairtin O'Muilleoir being tipped for the post.
The DUP also has the third choice and could then decide on Education or Agriculture. If it again passes on Education, it could go to the Ulster Unionists, as the party has fourth pick.
The biggest-spending department is Health, and could be left until last, as it was after the last election in 2011. That would mean it falls to the SDLP.
The returned and new MLAs were consumed with less lofty affairs yesterday as they gathered at Stormont, mostly for party meetings. Some of the old hands were showing the new kids on the block the ropes.
Gerry Carroll and Eamonn McCann - representing the only new party in the Assembly, the People Before Profit Alliance - were on their way back home by lunchtime, promising not to return until Thursday.
New Sinn Fein MLA Catherine Seeley admitted to being a little awestruck. "It's quite surreal. It is very like the first day of school," said the former teacher, who made headlines after coming in for sectarian abuse online while working in a Protestant school in Belfast.
The SDLP's Daniel McCrossan, who made it through the internal party wars in West Tyrone, was among those taking a rest on the steps outside.
"There's a whole new face to the party. We have a new energy which I believe will help to rebuild the party right across the province," he said.
The Union flag was flying at Parliament Buildings yesterday, but it was nothing to do with the return of the local legislature. It was because it was Europe Day, one of the designated dates when the flag is hoisted.
The chief winemaker of one of Australia's best-known vineyards has said Northern Ireland is the firm's biggest market.
Neil McGuigan of McGuigan Wines - whose family originally come from Co Monaghan - said: "I think people see it as a local boy gone overseas, done good and sent wine back."
The Australian drinks company launched its new Founders Series of wines during an event at the Ulster Museum hosted by MasterChef star John Torode.
During the evening, the pair matched each wine to a different course.
In one course, the chef paired the brand's Cabernet Sauvignon with a seared sea bream rested on a bed of champ in a lemon butter sauce.
John Torode said: "It's a relationship of like-minded people who want people to be a bit more relaxed around food and wine and not be scared to try things.
"We're now looking at wine and food and how it works together. And how the world's changing."
Neil McGuigan added: "There's an ethos about good food which is springing up in Ireland. The consumption here is the largest of McGuigan wine anywhere in the world. The reason why our brand has done well, I think, is because our roots are in Ireland, Co Monaghan.
"We came to Australia around 180 years ago and there is a strong fondness between Australia and Ireland - it's the only place I can go in the world where my name is pronounced correctly."
Police at the scene of the murder of Dan Murray in west Belfast
A takeaway delivery driver was lured to his death by a bogus fast food order, detectives have revealed.
Dan Murray, a 55-year-old father of six, was shot in the head when he drove into the Lady Street area of west Belfast on Monday night.
Mr Murray, who was known to police and had survived a previous murder bid, had been dispatched in his black Ford Focus to deliver food to a house in the street.
Detectives said the order was actually called in from a phone box around a mile away at the junction of the Antrim Road and Cliftonville Road.
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Detective Chief Inspector Richard Campbell said: "We believe it is likely that the gunman or gunmen were waiting for Mr Murray in the area."
The killing was the latest in a spate of shootings in the north and west of Belfast. The murder was the fourth gun attack in the city in four days.
Mr Campbell said it was too early to determine if dissident republican elements were involved. He said he had not ruled out a drug-linked motive.
In regard to a previous murder bid on Mr Murray last year, the investigating officer said: "That will form part of my investigation to establish whether there is any link between that previous incident and his tragic murder last night."
He said detectives would also be working to establish whether Mr Murray had been informed of a direct threat to his life in recent times.
Mr Campbell added: "This was a brutal attack. It has robbed a family of a partner, father and brother and it's important for the local community to help us by coming forward with any information they may have."
Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Dan Murray who was shot in the face in his north Belfast home. Belfast shooting: Dan Murray has been shot dead in a car in west Belfast. Belfast , UK - May 09, pictured is the scene of a shooting where a delivery driver Dan Murray has died after been shot in the neck and chest on Monday May 09, 2016 Belfast , Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast , UK - May 09, pictured is the scene of a shooting where a delivery driver Dan Murray has died after been shot in the neck and chest on Monday May 09, 2016 Belfast , Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Kevin Scott / Presseye Sinn Fein MP Paul Maskey at the scene where Dan Murray was shot dead in a car in west Belfast. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Belfast , UK - May 09, pictured is the scene of a shooting where a delivery driver Dan Murray has died after been shot in the neck and chest on Monday May 09, 2016 Belfast , Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Kevin Scott / Presseye Belfast , UK - May 09, pictured is the scene of a shooting where a delivery driver Dan Murray has died after been shot in the neck and chest on Monday May 09, 2016 Belfast , Northern Ireland ( Photo by Kevin Scott / Presseye ) Kevin Scott / Presseye Police at the scene of the shooting in Divis area of west Belfast Kevin Scott / Presseye Police at the scene of the shooting Kevin Scott / Presseye / Facebook
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In a joint statement, Stormont First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness condemned the recent shootings as "barbaric and wrong".
"We unreservedly condemn the actions of the perpetrators who care only for themselves," they said.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families, and in particular the family of Daniel Murray who was shot dead.
"Anyone with information about the attacks should bring it to the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) immediately."
Sinn Fein MP for the area Paul Maskey condemned the killing "unreservedly".
"There can be no place in our society for such actions," he said.
"Those behind this incident have nothing to offer the community and need to stop these futile actions immediately.
"I would appeal for anyone with information on this shooting to bring it forward to the PSNI."
SDLP west Belfast Assembly member Alex Attwood said: "I condemn this atrocity. All with information should tell the police so that everything that can be done is done to pursue those who use the gun.
"This is one of a series of incidents. There is a pattern of violence including murder. The few seek to impose their will over the heads of the people.
"This threat needs to be assessed and addressed at policing and political levels. The huge numbers of good people, our older citizens and young families who live amid this threat need new actions and renewed hope that the threat will be comprehensively faced down."
The Irish Republic's Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan condemned what he described as a "sickening murder".
"In recent days there have been a number of shootings in the city," he said.
"My thoughts are with the family and friends of all those affected.
"I stand in solidarity with the communities of north and west Belfast against those criminals who inflict fear. Such thuggish behaviour has no place on our streets.
"I encourage anyone with information on these attacks to contact the PSNI."
Mike Nesbitt said a police assessment of IRA structures did not make a UUP re-entry to the Executive 'any more attactive'
A police assessment on IRA structures does not make an Ulster Unionist re-entry to the Stormont Executive "any more attractive", party leader Mike Nesbitt has said.
Mr Nesbitt met with Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable George Hamilton to receive a briefing on paramilitary activity in the region.
The UUP walked out of the powersharing administration last autumn amid a crisis sparked by a murder linked to the Provisional IRA. A subsequent independent examination ordered by the Government said all the main Troubles paramilitary organisations retained structures, though their leaders were committed to the peace process.
Following last week's Assembly election, the UUP and other smaller Stormont parties are mulling whether to join a Democratic Unionist/Sinn Fein led administration or form an opposition.
Mr Nesbitt had highlighted an updated assessment from Mr Hamilton as crucial to the UUP's deliberations. He has said other factors would also influence the decision, such as the need for a "progressive" programme for government and a commitment from parties to work collaboratively across departments.
The UUP leader said the police briefing had become even more central in the wake of a number of recent shootings in Northern Ireland, among them a murder in west Belfast on Monday night.
After the meeting at PSNI headquarters in Belfast, the UUP leader said: "The Chief Constable confirmed no change from the assessment given to the Secretary of State last October - PIRA still exists.
"This is not surprising, but disappointing, given PIRA have drawn the roadmap that others are following. George Hamilton would not be drawn on this week's shootings, but these are serious criminal acts. I encourage those who have knowledge of the perpetrators to throw the guns in the streets and the perpetrators behind bars.
"The Chief Constable's assessment does not make re-entry to the Executive any more attractive, but we have two other tests regarding the Programme for Government to which we expect to have answers in a few short days."
Mr Hamilton said: "Over the course of the last seven months, there have been a number of very serious crimes committed in our community. Significant PSNI resources have been allocated to progress the investigations into these incidents.
"This investigative activity, or wider intelligence to date, has not indicated any change to the position reflected in the October 2015 Paramilitary Assessment."
Earlier, the outline of a proposed programme for government for the next Stormont Executive was circulated among the smaller parties.
The DUP and Sinn Fein, the region's two largest parties, had already carried out provisional work on the coalition's new five year plan ahead of last week's election - a poll which consolidated their position as the two main players.
The document was issued to the SDLP, UUP and Alliance Party - all junior executive partners in the last mandate - at the opening meeting of negotiations to form a government at Stormont.
As a period of potential horse trading kicked off, Prime Minister David Cameron called both DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness to congratulate them on their success in the Assembly election.
While the UUP and SDLP both had relatively disappointing showings in the election, they retain sufficient strength to take one ministerial position each in the next DUP/Sinn Fein led coalition.
The cross-community Alliance Party does not have the numbers to be there by right, but it is widely anticipated it will be invited to take on the politically sensitive justice portfolio, as it has done in past mandates.
With recent legislation paving the way for parties eligible for government to instead enter official opposition, the smaller parties now face a significant political choice.
SDLP leader Colm Eastwood indicated significant changes would be needed before the SDLP signed up to the programme for government.
"We are a long, long way off," he said.
"We need to work very hard and intensively over the next weeks to make sure we have a substantial programme for government that we can all sign up to - we will only sign up to one that actually meets the needs of the people who have been left behind."
The parties are due to reconvene on Thursday for further discussions. They have a two-week deadline to form the executive.
The new Assembly will meet in plenary session for first time on Thursday, when a vote will be taken to formally confirm Mrs Foster as First Minister and Mr McGuinness as Deputy First Minister.
A terminally-ill man who fulfilled his dying wish when he married the love of his life 11 weeks ago has lost his battle with cancer.
Popular swimming instructor Willie Turner passed away in Portadown on Saturday, surrounded by family members including wife Lyndsey, who he tied the knot with in a ceremony organised by the local community.
The 43-year-old's funeral will take place today, with the cortege going from his mother's home in the town for a service in Seagoe Parish Church at 2pm, followed by interment in the adjoining cemetery.
Willie captured hearts across Northern Ireland when, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer last year, he revealed that marrying his fiancee was at the top of his bucket list.
The couple were gifted a fairy tale wedding in Brownlow House in Lurgan on February 22, organised within hours of the Belfast Telegraph sharing details of Willie's final wish.
Such was the outpouring of love that local businesses rallied round to offer their services free of charge to help make his dream come true.
In what was a beautiful but bittersweet day, the happy couple toasted their new status as man and wife, surrounded by 50 members of their family and close friends.
A proud and happy Willie told the Belfast Telegraph: "We are over the moon. It is lovely and what I've always wanted, especially under the circumstances.
"I've lived my bucket list and the only thing on there was to marry Lyndsey, and I've done it thanks to everyone who has so generously made it happen and made it happen so very quickly.
"It is unbelievable how good and how helpful people from our wee country have been, and it is very humbling. We are just so thankful to everyone."
Willie also got his wish to spend his first and last holiday abroad in Lanzarote with his new wife, sons Bobby (two) and Freddie (one), step-sons Luke (11) and Jake (10) and 12-year-old daughter Karson.
Willie was given just months to live when he was diagnosed on August 7 last year with adenocarcinoma - cancer of the lung lining.
Last November, he was determined to beat the cancer and said that his goal was to live to see his boys start school and prove the doctors - who had given him between 12 and 18 months to live - wrong.
The swimming instructor said at the time: "Denial is a great thing. Just looking at the boys and thinking about everyone around me - my daughter, my mum, my three sisters and Lyndsey - I have to fight it, yet I can't help worrying about what will happen to them. That upsets me and I try not to think about it."
Willie put up a brave battle, but despite months of gruelling chemotherapy, his condition continued to deteriorate after his wedding and he passed away peacefully at home on Saturday evening.
A protester chained himself to the top of a 60-tonne lorry yesterday as oil exploration company InfraStrata tried to bring a drilling rig into Woodburn Forest.
Mark Chapman said he would have preferred not to spend the morning on the enormous vehicle carrying the rig, but he felt he had no choice.
Last week a local resident was granted leave for a judicial review of the decision by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council to allow InfraStrata to explore for oil close to a Co Antrim reservoir that supplies drinking water to thousands of homes across Belfast.
Yesterday a protest was held after police closed Paisley Road near Carrickfergus to allow InfraStrata to bring its rig into the forest, where it has already built a wellpad. Campaigners slowly walked up the road ahead of the lorry, forcing it to drive at snail's pace. The vehicle then had to halt after it was scaled by Mr Chapman.
The maths tutor chained himself by the neck to the rig with a bicycle lock as officers in climbing gear boarded the lorry.
"I'm upholding environmental law," he said to cheers from the gathered campaigners.
Mr Chapman's protest was brought to an end by police officers, who charged him with obstructive sitting.
He agreed to present himself at Musgrave Street PSNI station in Belfast and was released on police bail at the scene.
Mr Chapman said it was his second attempt to climb on the rig as it moved towards Woodburn Forest.
"It was just going so slowly that I couldn't resist the temptation to jump on top," he added.
"It was there, it was going so slow, there were no police around and I knew I could just get on without being dragged off."
Mr Chapman told how he felt he had no choice but to protest.
"The huge issue is the development that has been permitted to go ahead with permitted development rights by the local council," he said.
"There is huge opposition to this development and I am a small part of that opposition.
"Stop The Drill have been working hard through the courts and had been given leave for a judicial review of the development.
"Despite that, InfraStrata had decided to go against the spirit of the court and bring this rig in.
"I am hoping that they will soon see sense and see that oil drilling in a water catchment area is a totally ridiculous thing to do.
"I would have preferred not to have sat on top of that rig for the morning, but it seemed like the option of last resort.
"The drill is probably going to go in anyway, but by delaying it, it allows the legal process to run its course."
Chief PSNI Inspector Stephen McCauley said: "This action forced the convoy to stop, obstructing the highway, and meant police were required to close the road to ensure the safety of the public, protesters and road users.
"Officers were also concerned for the safety of the male aboard the rig, as well as the potential for public order issues to arise."
InfraStrata declined to comment.
Canary Wharf: The two men were believed to be members of a five-person terror cell with suspected links to Isis. File photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA
Two Afghan men have been arrested in Southern Italy suspected of being members of an Isis-linked terror cell who allegedly were planning to attack London's Canary Wharf and hotels across the city.
Hakim Nasri, 23, has been arrested by authorities in the city of Bari on suspicion of international terrorism alongside Guilstan Ahmadzai, 29, who is being held on suspicion of aiding illegal immigration.
The two men were believed to be members of a five-person terror cell with links to Isis. The cell had allegedly been established in Puglia, in southeastern Italy, to carry out violent attacks with the purpose of international terrorism, in Italy and abroad, according to the arrest warrant.
Prosecutor Roberto Rossi said videos and photos were seized from the two suspects' phones showing landmarks in Rome, Paris and London.
He added: "It was clear these were not tourist images. They appear to have been scouting sensitive sites."
These potential targets in London included West India Quay, Sunborn Yacht hotel, South Quay footbridge and a Premier Inn hotel in Stratford near the Olympic Park and Westfield shopping centre. The suspects' alleged targets in Rome included the Colosseum and the Circuc Maximus.
Investigators said they also found pictures of mutilated US soldiers and prayers on their phones.
Another of the five suspects was said to have been arrested in Milan on Tuesday, while the other two are believed to be in Afghanistan, sources told Reuters. Three of the suspects are accused of international terrorism and two of aiding illegal immigration.
Authorities in Bari said in a statement: "The group carried out preliminary inspections of locations, taking photographs and videos, to prepare terrorist attacks."
Independent
A call centre worker who is believed to have posted a video of his girlfriend's dog performing a Nazi salute has been arrested.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was widely criticised following the emergence of the footage, which shows the pug, named Buddha, jumping up when he hears the words "gas the Jews". The dog also raises its paw in an alleged Nazi salute after hearing the phrase "sieg heil".
The video, called "M8 yer dug's a Nazi", has clocked up nearly a million views on YouTube.
The 28-year-old call centre worker was arrested on April 28, a week after the video came to light. He appeared at Airdrie Sheriff Court in Scotland the next day on suspicion of posting offensive material online.
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: "A man was arrested on Thursday, April 28, in relation to the alleged publication of offensive material online (improper use of electronic communications under the Communications Act 2003). A report has been submitted to the Procurator Fiscal".
The force said it wanted to make it clear that offensive material would not be tolerated.
Police spokesman DI David Cockburn added: "Posting offensive material online or in any other capacity will not be tolerated and police will act swiftly to tackle hate crimes that are motivated by malice or ill will because of faith, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.
"This clip has been shared and viewed online, which ultimately has caused offence and hurt to many people in our community.
"There is no place for hate crime in Scotland and police take all reports of incidents seriously."
After the video went viral, the alleged poster revealed in a blogpost that he had been fired from his job.
He said that as soon as the video started racking up hits, he "knew it would happen", but he also insisted that the video was just a joke.
However, his attitude was attacked as "outrageous" and the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities dismissed any idea that it should be taken lightly.
Later, the man issued an apology to the Jewish community, insisting that he never intended to offend anyone.
He said:"Honestly, I don't hate anyone - the whole purpose of this was just to annoy my girlfriend."
David Cameron said Nigeria and Afghanistan were "possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world" as he chatted with the Queen
David Cameron's description of Nigeria and Afghanistan as "fantastically corrupt" has been branded "embarrassing" and "unfair" by the two countries on the eve of their leaders' visit to the UK.
The Prime Minister was caught on camera making the unflattering comment during a conversation with the Queen ahead of an anti-corruption summit which he is hosting in London on Thursday.
Labour accused the PM of having "egg on his face", but Downing Street downplayed the significance of the remarks - pointing out that the presidents of both countries had acknowledged the scale of the problem they faced.
Afghanistan's Ashraf Ghani and Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari are due to attend the London summit and each has written an essay for an accompanying book, discussing their efforts to tackle graft in their countries.
According to extracts released by Number 10, Mr Ghani acknowledges in his piece that Afghanistan is "one of the most corrupt countries on earth" and Mr Buhari that corruption became a "way of life" in his country under "supposedly accountable democratic governments".
Mr Cameron was caught on a broadcast camera chatting with the Queen, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Commons Speaker John Bercow at a Buckingham Palace event to mark the monarch's 90th birthday.
"We've got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain," Mr Cameron told the Queen. "Nigeria and Afghanistan - possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world."
Mr Buhari's spokesman Garba Shehu later released a statement on social media: "This is embarrassing to us, to us say the least, given the good work that the president is doing. The eyes of the world are on what is happening here. The Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria. Things are changing with corruption and everything else."
And a spokesman for the Afghan embassy in London said: "President Ghani and his Government since in office have taken major steps to fight corruption. Countering corruption is a top priority along security issues for the National Unity Government.
"We have made important progresses in fighting systematic capture in major national procurement contracts and are making progress on addressing institutional issues as well as issues related to impunity. Therefore calling Afghanistan in that way and taking bold decisions by NUG is unfair."
Labour likened the episode to a previous occasion when Mr Cameron was caught by a TV microphone revealing how the Queen "purred" with pleasure when he told her Scots had rejected independence.
"This is another gaffe from the PM - you'd hope he'd have learned his lesson when it comes to off the record comments and the Queen but sadly not," MP Wes Streeting said.
"The fact that David Cameron has egg on his face shouldn't deflect from the more serious issue: for all his talk about corruption he's failing to act.
"If the PM really is serious about tackling corruption at the summit this week he needs to get his own house in order and make good on his promise to deliver public registers of beneficial ownership for the UK crown dependencies and overseas territories."
In the footage, the Archbishop - who has considerable experience of Nigeria from his time as an oil executive - is heard to intervene to say that "this particular president is actually not corrupt ... he's trying very hard", in an apparent reference to Mr Buhari. Mr Cameron responds: "He's really trying."
Mr Bercow is also heard making a joke about the summit, quipping: "They are coming at their own expense, one assumes?"
After some laughter, Mr Cameron answers: "Yes ... because it's an anti-corruption summit, everything has to be open, so there are no sort of closed-door sessions, it's all in front of the press."
Asked whether Mr Cameron regretted his comment, a Downing Street spokesman said: "Both leaders have been invited to the summit because they are driving the fight against corruption in their countries. The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with them as they do so."
The spokesman declined to say whether the Nigerian or Afghan governments had contacted Downing Street following the Prime Minister's remarks.
He made clear that the PM was aware that he was being filmed at the time he spoke, telling reporters: "The cameras were very close to him. There were multiple cameras in the room."
Anti-corruption movement Transparency International ranked Afghanistan as 166th and Nigeria 136th out of 168 countries and territories in its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2015.
Booker-winning Nigerian author Ben Okri said he was "appalled and surprised" by Mr Cameron's comments, telling ITV News: "I think it sends a very wrong signal out to the world."
The director of policy at development charity ActionAid, Alison Holder, said: "We desperately need action to stop tax havens fuelling tax dodging and corruption.
"Nigeria has signed up to new rules to publicly reveal who owns shell companies. David Cameron has a fantastic opportunity to demand the same transparency from British overseas tax havens at this Thursday's anti-corruption summit."
Christine Jiaxin Lee allegedly spent some of the 2.3m on luxury handbags
Christine Jiaxin Lee, who was accidently given access to millions by her bank, has been arrested as she tried to fly home to Malaysia.
A banking error led to Sydney-based student, being given access to an unlimited overdraft in her Westpac bank account. The 21-year-old made withdrawals totalling AU$4,653,333.02 - around 2.3million.
While some of the money has since been recovered, about AU$3.3million is still outstanding, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The police accused her of placing some of the money into other accounts.
Ms Lee was stopped at Sydney airport while trying to fly to Malaysia on an emergency passport.
Living in Australia as a chemical engineering student at the University of Sydney, Ms Lee is now involved in a court case over the funds. Accused of not telling the bank about the issue, she is also charged with knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime and dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.
Some of the money was allegedly spent on designer handbags and luxury apartments. But police alleged around $33,000 was transferred every week into private accounts in other banks.
She was released on bail after her boyfriend, Vincent King, posted a $1,000 bail.
He expressed shock over the allegations and claimed he had no idea his girlfriend had the cash.
Thats big money, he told reporters, adding she was a good girl.
However, Lisa Stapleton, magistrate at Waverley Local Court, raised doubts over whether any law had been broken if the bank had inadvertently allowed Ms Lee access to the money.
It isnt proceeds of crime. Its money we all dream of, she said, adding the vast quantity of money amounted to a lot of handbags.
They gave it to her, Ms Stapleton said. If that was proved to be the case, then Ms Lee would owe the money to Westpac and have to pay it back, but she wouldnt necessarily have broken the law.
However, prosecutors said the bank and police had attempted to talk to Ms Lee about the money but she had not responded to emails or phone calls, news.com.au reported.
Independent
Forensic experts of the police stand next to a commuter train standig on a platform of the train station of Grafing near Munich, southern Germany, where a man killed one person and wounded three others in a knife attack on May 10, 2016. AFP/Getty Images
Police say there is no evidence that a man suspected of stabbing four people at a station outside Munich had any accomplices or was part of an Islamic extremist network.
Senior police official Guenther Gietl said a woman reported hearing the words "infidel, you must die" at the time of the stabbing early on Tuesday.
However, police said there is no sign that he had any contact with Islamic extremist groups or any evidence of radicalisation.
And another senior police official, Lothar Koehler, said the suspect made a "rather confused impression" during questioning
Authorities also say they are doubtful as to whether the suspect can be held criminally responsible.
This suggests that the man may not be mentally fit to stand trial.
Prosecutor Ken Heidenreich said Tuesday that the man's statements do not fit together.
Officials say there appears to have been no particular reason for the man to choose the Grafing Bahnhof station as the location for his attack.
They say he caught a train there from Munich in the early hours of the morning.
Image from a video taken through a car window of a tornado near Wynnewood, Oklahoma (Hayden Mahan/AP)
Two people have been killed by strong tornadoes that swept across portions of southern Oklahoma.
Emergency services said one twister hit the town of Wynnewood as a number of violent storms raked the Southern Plains and the Ozark mountains.
The emergency director in Garvin County, Bud Ramming, said a man believed to have been in his late 70s was found dead in a home.
Elsewhere, police in Johnston County said a man died near the town of Connerville.
Some of the weather was so bad that forecasters declared a tornado emergency for the towns of Roff and Hickory.
The tornado emergency notice said: "You are in a life-threatening situation. Flying debris will be deadly to those caught without shelter."
One person sustained minor injuries in Murray County, where the tornado moved slowly through a rural area on its path that would take it south of Roff, said Gary Ligon, Murray County's emergency management director.
He said the injured person was taken to hospital.
The Storm Prediction Centre in Norman, Oklahoma, warned that twisters as far north as Nebraska and Iowa could develop.
The bad weather should settle in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys on Tuesday, forecasters said, while another storm system should bring bad weather to the area from north Texas to near St Louis on Wednesday.
Monday's series of violent thunderstorms dropped tornadoes near Oklahoma City and in the rolling hills south of the city, destroying some homes and barns. Oklahoma Highway Patrol closed Interstate 35 near Wynnewood for 15 minutes so the storm could pass, temporarily shutting down the primary route between Oklahoma City and Dallas.
Meteorologists said twisters with wind speeds above 110mph were possible from eastern Oklahoma to central Arkansas. Hail 2in or more in diameter was possible from eastern Texas to south-eastern Kansas.
About 41 million people from Houston to Sioux City, Iowa, were at risk for some type of stormy weather.
This is the shamed former housing chief convicted of carrying out a lewd act in front of shocked young woman at a luxury Northern Ireland hotel.
Ex-company director Dermot Leonard pleaded guilty last week to outraging public decency after an incident at the four-star Slieve Donard Hotel in Co. Down last year.
Leonard was chief executive of Apex Procurement NI which is linked to Apex, one the provinces largest housing providers, until he resigned in September last year - nine months after the flashing incident.
At Newtownards Crown Court on Thursday the 55-year-old, of Ailesbury Crescent in south Belfast, admitted performing a sex act in the spa of the high class Newcastle hotel on January 26 last year.
Exposed
A prosecution lawyer told the court how a woman in her 20s was using the spa when she spotted a man in the sauna with his shorts pulled down and she could see his penis was exposed.
The spa was busy with guests, including many children, but Leonard continued to perform a sex act on himself for a few seconds and continued to stare at her while she moved to a different part of the spa.
The police were called and it transpired that earlier the same day, Leonard had approached a middle-aged woman and made personal comments to her which she found offensive, although there was no suggestion of any physical approach.
Leonard was arrested after cops checked CCTV footage but when he was interviewed he denied doing anything wrong.
He told police he had been lying down but jumped up when he saw an elderly woman struggling with the sauna door but his shorts became snagged.
Denying that he was performing a sex act or exposing himself at any stage, Leonard instead claimed the woman must have seen him putting his hands to his shorts to adjust himself.
The prosecution lawyer revealed that Leonard had a relevant conviction for a similar matter from 20 years ago.
Judge Piers Grant adjourned the case for a medical report into the consequences for the victim who was deeply affected by the incident and felt that she needed counselling.
Judge Grant released Leonard on continuing bail and is due to appear in court again tomorrow.
Photo issued by the University of Edinburgh of PhD students and researchers working on NASA's Valkyrie robot in the University of Edinburgh's School of Informatics. PA
It could have walked straight out of a scene from Star Wars - but this space-exploring humanoid robot is for real, and being developed in the UK.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh hope that in around five years their 6ft (1.8m) tall creation, which weighs a shade under 20 stone (125kg), will be ready to go to Mars.
Like the Star Wars character C-3PO, the robot walks on two legs and has jointed arms and hands that can grasp objects.
There the comparisons end, however. The humanoid machine taking shape in Scotland is much bigger and less friendly looking than its film world cousin - a product of engineering necessity rather than deliberate design.
Perhaps fittingly it has been named Valkyrie, after the female war spirits of Norse mythology.
But the robot is not designed for battle, only to act as a servant for human astronauts. US space agency Nasa, which is collaborating on the project with the University of Edinburgh, intends to send Valkyrie to Mars before the first human explorers who are expected to journey to the Red Planet in the mid 2030s.
Professor Sethu Vijayakumar, director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, said: "Valkyrie is a huge scientific undertaking. We are looking forward to tackling the many technical challenges involved in developing a large-scale humanoid robot, and pushing the state of the art in humanoid robotics.
"At the moment the robot is a pretty basic shell which can walk up a set of three small steps and can reach out and grip something and pass it on to someone. It reacts if you push against it, either swaying or taking a step back.
"The big challenge will be getting Valkyrie to interact with people; you have to have some pretty adaptable algorithms. The dream is to have something that can be a co-worker for astronauts on space missions, for example."
Valkyrie is the only example of its kind in Europe and one of three prototypes in the world.
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Whatsapp Photo issued by the University of Edinburgh of PhD students and researchers working on NASA's Valkyrie robot in the University of Edinburgh's School of Informatics. PA
Nasa built the machine's basic hardware before shipping it to the University of Edinburgh, which has a worldwide reputation for designing "smart" robotic systems.
The humanoid design was chosen to make it easier for Valkyrie to work alongside people so that, for instance, no special ramps have to be provided to accommodate wheels.
"We want systems that work in environments built for humans," said Prof Vijayakumar. "Also, small wheels sometimes get stuck and big wheels are not very manoeuvrable. It's not by accident that humans were designed to be bipedal."
Maintaining balance is one of the biggest hurdles to be crossed when designing a walking humanoid robot.
Valkyrie overcomes this problem by rapidly computing in real time how to alter its centre of mass position to stay upright.
Currently the robot is equipped with a pair of stereoscopic camera "eyes", other cameras on its belly, and an intricate set of force sensors to help it react to touch and pressure.
It has no "ears" and, unlike C-3PO, cannot speak. But it has one sensory system not possessed by humans - a spinning laser radar or "Lidar" housed in its face. The instrument measures the distance to objects by firing pulses of light at surfaces and timing how long it takes the reflected "echoes" to bounce back.
The robot has a total of 34 "degrees of freedom" - essentially, modes in which it can move.
Prof Vijayakumar said he expected Valkyrie to acquire more dexterous capabilities over the next three years. Theoretically, it could be ready to work alongside humans in four to five years.
Although Valkyrie has been specifically designed to support Nasa space missions, the Edinburgh team believes the robot's potential is far wider.
"We have a much bigger remit and can see the technology in a lot of other domains, for example health care and disaster scenarios," said Prof Vijayakumar.
Scientists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are also involved in the project.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizamis family arrives at Dhakas central jail to meet with him prior to his execution, May 10, 2016.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, the chief of Bangladeshs largest faith-based party, was hanged shortly after midnight on Tuesday for war crimes committed 45 years ago.
The 73-year-old leader of the opposition Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) was executed at Dhakas central jail less than three hours after family members were summoned there to see him for the last time.
Senior Jail Superintendent Jahangir Kabir told reporters that Nizami was put to death at 12:10 a.m. Wednesday (local time), and his body would be sent for burial to his village in Santhia, a sub-district of northwestern Pabna district.
Earlier, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal discussed events leading up to Nizamis execution.
We have exhausted all legal procedures before he was hanged. He was asked whether he would seek presidential mercy, and he said no, Kamal told BenarNews. Under the Bangladeshi constitution, the president can pardon any person condemned to death.
Tight security
Nizami was brought to Dhaka from Kashimpur jail on Sunday. By Tuesday, officials deployed army and police units around the central jail in anticipation of potential post-execution violence and hangmen were transported from the Kashimpur jail to carry out the execution.
Meanwhile, paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh forces were deployed throughout the Bangladeshi capital to counter any protests by Nizami supporters. Traffic on roads leading to the jail was brought to a standstill.
Gonojagoron Moncho (Mass Awakening Platform) activists gathered at the Shahbag Square in Dhaka to celebrate as authorities carried out final preparations.
This execution will be earmarked as a milestone in our history. This execution will tell our next generations that we have not spared the killers even after 45 years, spokesman Imran H. Sarker told the gathering as activists hugged, chanted slogans and flashed the victory sign.
Nizamis execution was the first one of a convicted criminal from Bangladeshs 1971 war of independence from Pakistan since November, when JeI Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, a senior official from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), were executed together.
For days afterward, the country remained on a heightened state of alert as thousands of police and paramilitary units were deployed in Dhaka and other major cities. The government shut down social media sites Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp for several days over fears that troublemakers could communicate with each other or foment violence.
Reign of terror
Nizami was arrested on March 29, 2010, on a charge of hurting religious sentiment, and he was later arrested on war-crime charges.
On Oct. 29, 2014, Bangladeshs war-crimes tribunal sentenced Nizami to death for four charges, including planning the massacre of intellectuals and other crimes committed during the war in 1971. He appealed to the appellate division of the Supreme Court, but on Jan. 6, 2016, it upheld his death sentence.
According to the Bangladeshi legal system, he was given the opportunity to petition before the apex court for a review of its verdict. Last week, the Supreme Courts appellate division rejected his petition and ordered his execution, starting the countdown that led to his hanging just after midnight Wednesday.
Jamaat-e-Islami officially opposed Bangladeshs birth and sided with the Pakistani army during the war. JeI formed auxiliary units to aid the Pakistani army in killing, torturing and raping civilians, the war-crimes tribunal observed in its verdicts.
Nizami was head of one of the auxiliary forces, Al-Badr. The war crimes tribunal said Al-Badr was behind the murder of Bangladeshs leading intellectuals on Dec. 14, 1971 two days before Pakistani forces surrendered in Dhaka.
The tribunal, known officially in Bangladesh as the International Criminal Court, also determined that the JeI chief perpetrated massacres in his hometown in Pabna some 205 km (127 miles) northwest of Dhaka.
A group of pro-independence war veterans gathered at the Santhia Bazaar to remember the local victims of Nizamis alleged torture.
Nizami established a reign of terror in Bera and Santhia areas of Pabna. The Pakistan army and Nizamis men encircled the whole village in Bausgari and killed innocent people indiscriminately. At least 600 people died there, Johurul Haque, a Santhia resident who testified against Nizami, told BenarNews on Tuesday night.
We are very happy with his execution.
Nizamis son, attorney Nazib Momen, told reporters that the allegations against his father were false.
Bangladeshi police walk past a rally of secular activists as they protest against a strike in Dhaka, Nov. 23, 2015.
A Sufi Muslim leader in Bangladesh has been hacked to death in a case which police believe could have stemmed from a dispute over land or religious beliefs.
The body of Mohammad Shahidullah, 65, was found in a pool of blood in a mango farm near the north Bangladeshi town of Rajshahi on Friday, according to police.
The killing came amid rising concerns over a wave of machete killings by suspected Islamic extremists against religious minorities, liberal activists and foreigners in Bangladesh. Over the last five weeks, about a dozen such murders had been reported.
But police were quoted saying that it was too soon to declare that Islamic militants were behind the latest killing.
Nisarul Arif, superintendent of police in Rajshahi, told The Daily Star newspaper that police investigations are "focusing on two possible reasons."
Shahidullah's involvement in Sufism might have hurt somebody, or it was a consequence of land dispute, he said, according to the newspaper.
Abul Kalam Azad, another police officer in Rajshahi, was quoted in The New York Times that the attack on Shahidullah differed from the others in that it did not appear to have been carried out in the open, but rather in a secluded field.
When asked if the police suspected Islamist militants, Azad said it was too soon to tell, according to the report.
Shahidullah was a local leader in Sufism, the mystical form of Islam popular in rural Bangladesh, but considered deviant by many of the country's majority Sunni Muslims, including the Saudi Arabia-inspired Salafis and Wahabis, who are gaining strength in the country, Agence France-Presse reported.
Sufis have been targeted in several of the 37 suspected Islamist attacks recorded by police in the past three years, it said. In September the custodian of a Sufi shrine and his assistant were killed in the port city of Chittagong.
Shahidulah's son, Russel Ahmed, filed a murder case over his father's death with a local police station on Friday.
In the case statement, he mentioned his father as a spiritual Sufi leader and that those against Sufism had threatened him in the past, according to The Daily Star.
In the past five weeks, two gay activists, a liberal professor, an atheist activist and a Hindu tailor had been hacked to death.
Islamic militants have been blamed for or claimed dozens of murders of atheist bloggers, liberal voices and religious minorities in recent years including Sufi, Shiite and Ahmadi Muslims, Hindus, Christians and foreigners.
Fifteen drug convicts on death row, including 10 foreigners, will face firing squads at an unspecified date in mid May, a spokesman for Central Java police told BenarNews on Tuesday.
The executions would be the first since eight mostly foreign drug convicts were executed in April 2015 amid a diplomatic uproar involving Indonesia, Australia and Brazil.
The executions would also be third round carried out under the administration of President Joko Jokowi Widodo since he took office in October 2014.
Officials from Jokos administration could not be reached on Tuesday for confirmation about the new round of executions.
The 15 convicts include four Chinese nationals, two Nigerians, two Senegalese, one Pakistani and a citizen of Zimbabwe, Central Java Police spokesman Aloysius Liliek Darmanto said.
Five are Indonesian citizens while 10 are foreigners, Liliek told BenarNews.
The Indonesians are four men and one woman, he said, declining to name all 15 convicts.
Central Java Police have 180 personnel prepared to serve as members of firing squads, he added.
However, the executioners have not been dispatched to Nusakambangan as they still wait for instructions from the attorney general, Liliek said, referring to a penal island off the southern coast of Central Java that is home to Indonesias highest security prison.
Eight drug convicts, including two Australians, a Brazilian and two Nigerians, were put to death there on April 29, 2015. Personnel were sent to the island about 72 hours before the executions.
On Jan. 18, 2015, six other drug convicts were executed in Boyolali, Central Java.
If the Nusakambangan procedure is followed, security will be tightened around the Wijaya Pier at Cilacap port, the closest port to the island.
Transferred to Nusakambangan
Over the past two weeks, four drug convicts on death row were transferred to Nusakambangan, but the prisons coordinator said he did not know if the transfers were related to possible executions.
All are under the authority of the attorney general, our duty is only to accommodate, Abdul Haris told BenarNews.
Indonesian Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo could not be reached for comment.
Previously, he told reporters that the government did not want to release specific details about the executions to avoid violent protests.
Following the April 2015 executions, the Jokowi administration was criticized by Australia and Brazil for carrying them out.
Australia recalled its ambassador to Indonesia after two of its citizens, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were among the eight who were shot.
Not the answer
The Jakarta Post in January quoted the attorney general as saying that the death sentences were needed against drug offenders as shock therapy against serious crime.
Jokowi used a similar phrase in December 2014 to describe executions in combating drug offenses.
Human rights groups in Indonesia, however, are protesting the possible executions.
Al Araf, the director of Imparsial, a Jakarta -based rights group, said Jokowi had failed in his electoral campaign promise known as Nawa Cita (nine priorities for a better Indonesia).
Nawa Cita focuses on the respect of human rights. If the execution is conducted, it means the government is not consistent, he told BenarNews.
In my opinion, the death penalty should be removed completely. Why dont we encourage a more civilized law? The law is supposed to humanize people and correct mistakes, he added.
Meanwhile, Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), said Indonesias policy of capital punishment needed to be re-examined.
Drug crimes involve a lot of people. Punishments cannot be imposed on one or two people who get caught, Haris told BenarNews.
He said the government should reveal large networks behind drug trafficking in Indonesia, no matter who is exposed.
Hariss colleague, Puri Kencana Putri, said executions had no deterrent effect or effect in reducing drug-related crimes. Data from the National Narcotics Agency in 2015 said that the number of drug addicts increased to 5.9 million people from the previous year.
Thats the proof, she told BenarNews . The death penalty is not the answer. It should be abolished.
Arie Firdaus in Jakarta contributes in this story.
Newly elected Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem (center) and members of his staff take part in a thanksgiving ceremony at his office in Kuching, May 9, 2016.
Updated at 10:49 a.m. ET on 2016-05-11
The Barisan Nasional coalition just extended its decades-long rule over the eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak with a decisive legislative electoral win, but new allegations of corruption from abroad are buffeting its governor and long-time former chief minister.
The ruling coalition took 72 of 82 seats in the states legislative assembly polls on Saturday, in a vote touted as a litmus test at the national level for Barisan, whose current government in Kuala Lumpur has been mired in a corruption scandal.
At the state level, residents across resource-rich and heavily forested Sarawak voted Chief Minister Adenan Satem into office in his first electoral bid as the incumbent.
Two years ago Adenan succeeded Abdul Taib Mahmud, who then became governor of Sarawak despite allegations of corruption accumulated over his 33 years as chief minister. Both men belong to the same party, the United Bumiputera Heritage Party (PBB).
Now, an Australian senate committee has opened an investigation into money-laundering allegations against Taibs family over multi-million dollar real estate deals and assets owned by it in Australia, Malaysian media reported on Tuesday. The reports said that the committee was looking closely at AU $55 million given to the Adelaide Hilton hotel, which is owned by the Taib family.
Taib, who is better known as Pak Uban (white-haired uncle), separately faces allegations of massive corruption and profiteering from illegal logging. He has denied such allegations that came from abroad.
It appears, however, that voters were satisfied enough with Adenans job performance to date as chief minister, and that the old cloud of alleged corruption hanging over his predecessor did not harm Adenan at the polls.
Voter Heyward Maxwell Pengabang, 32, said he was delighted with Adenans performance so far, adding that the chief minister has helped keep living costs for the people of Sarawak lower than in other states in Malaysia.
Thanks to Adenan, Sarawakians do not have to pay tolls on roads and utility and tax bills are relatively low, he said.
With all these issues of increasing cost of living, these changes really help most of the normal people like myself, Heyward told BenarNews.
Progressive leader?
Since taking office in 2014, Adenan has implemented policies that have set his administration apart from his predecessor, including policies to combat illegal logging and corruption, as well as instituting some people-friendly policies.
For example, Adenans administration has recognized the private Chinese Unified Education Certificate in the state. This is a controversial issue in the rest of the country because the educational qualification geared for ethnic Chinese Malaysians is not accepted by public universities and public service agencies.
Adenan also implemented a policy that led to tribal communities in Sarawak which form 50 percent of the states population being officially recognized on government forms.
Lim Kit Siang, the national leader of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and a stalwart of the opposition whose party won only three seats in Saturdays election in Sarawak conceded at a news conference afterward that Adenan had instituted changes leading to improvements in under-developed Sarawak.
Unsavory elements
Yet it also appears that Adenans popularity did not win him the election alone.
Adenan, a former cabinet minister in the federal government, helped Barisan retain its grip on state politics by banning opposition leaders and activists from other parts of Malaysia from entering his state during the campaigning season.
Those barred from setting foot in the state included Selangor state Chief Minister Mentri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali.
Prior to election day, Adenan said such a ban was needed to protect the interests of Sarawak from unsavory elements.
Compared with Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak enjoys a degree of autonomy in administration, immigration and judicial matters, including controlling the entry and residence of non-Sarawakians.
Fractured opposition
For its part, the opposition bloc that contested the election was fractured and trailing behind Barisan even before the polls were held, according to one political science expert.
The failure [of opposition parties] to negotiate the allocation of seats led to split votes even in areas where they could have won, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia associate professor Mohd Faisal Syam Abdol Hazis told BenarNews.
In addition, instead of uniting against a common enemy, bickering among the opposition parties undermined their cause, he said.
I believe this is also one of the reasons for low voter turnout. The opposition parties failed to convince voters that they were a better choice. Instead, they showed that they simply cant work together to achieve a common goal, Mohd Faisal added.
An earlier version incorrectly reported that Barisan Nasional had ruled over Sarawak for 53 years.
The Bible has been under attack in the western world for over 200 years but never more intensely than today. These attacks have taken different forms and have come from many different corners of the academic world, from philosophers, to scientists, to textual critics. In the specialized world of archaeology the attacks have increased dramatically in the past 50 years. Once a specialization filled with Bible believing individuals, the field of archaeology is now overrun with atheists and skeptics, agnostics and those committed to the destruction of the Bible as a source of true historical information.
These attacks on the Bible are a part of a sweeping movement in western culture. Spearheaded by academic elitists in the university and the public educational system, the news and popular media, and the entertainment industry, these revisionists cloak themselves with supposed objectivity, purity of motives, and the superiority of science over the "uninformed", "unscientific", religious community.
They regularly mock those who question their world-view and their conclusions by name-calling and the worst forms of anti-Bible and anti-Christian propaganda. They have powerfully infected the church by turning Bible believing Christians against the very Scripture which is the foundation of truth and life in this world. Instead of contending for the Bible, Christian academics, pastors, and lay-persons are making egregious accommodations to these destroyers of faith and truth.
In these days of intense spiritual battle, God has called ABR to step into the gap to contend for the truth and to assist the church in this critical hour. ABR is a non-profit ministry dedicated to demonstrating the historical reliability of the Bible and to give answers to questions being asked by believers and non-believers alike. We do this by using original archaeological fieldwork and research along with studies in other apologetic disciplines. We take on the bold claims of skeptics and critics. We challenge the bizarre anti-biblical propaganda that is purveyed upon the public as gospel through television and print media. We uphold the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is God's message for the salvation of all mankind!
We know Hannah for her sorrow. She longed for a son, but couldnt have children. We know her for her faithfulness. Hannah never gave up hope that God would hear her prayer. We also know her for her sacrifice. She dedicated her baby Samuel to the Lord and left him at the temple to serve God all the days of his life (1 Samuel 1:11 NIV).
Hannah is one of the most recognizable women in Scripture for all these reasons. Many of us remember her story for her deep anguish over not being a mother. We all most likely recall her time at the temple, taking her request to God in powerful prayer. And what mom wouldnt be impacted by Hannahs bold move leaving her little blessing at the temple to be raised by Eli the priest?
Hannahs life had significant moments that stand out, but there are other facts about her we often overlook. Are you wondering if theres more to Hannahs story than you thought? Here are 5 things you may not know about Hannah in the Bible.
1. Hannah knew how to respond with grace, or not respond at all.
Hannah showed unmatched restraint with her words. She not only knew the right things to say, but also when to say nothing. For years Peninnah, Elkanahs other wife, ridiculed Hannah for her infertility. Yet instead of responding to her tormentor, she kept her mouth shut.
During one of the familys annual trips to the tabernacle, Hannah had enough of the ridicule. She didnt lash out at Peninnah, but she knew it was time to do something. She left the dinner table and went straight to God with her plea. Her character was tested when Eli accused her of being drunk. And once again Hannah demonstrated grace and humility through her words.
Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation (1 Samuel 1:16 ESV). By describing herself as Elis servant, she acknowledged his position of authority. When she could have easily mouthed back at him, she chose to display proper respect.
2. Eli the priest asked God to bless Hannah with a child more than once.
Once Hannah explained herself to Eli, his heart softened. He then reassured her of Gods intention to answer her prayer for a son. But that was just the first time Eli went to God on Hannahs behalf.
Eli was right. God answered her prayer. But the story didnt end when Hannah gave birth to Samuel. It didnt end when she took him to the temple either. Each year Eli blessed Elkanah and Hannah again, asking God to give them more children because of her sacrifice.
Before they returned home, Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, May the Lord give you other children to take the place of this one she gave to the Lord (1 Samuel 2:20 NLT).
3. Hannah had 5 more children after Samuel.
God didnt just honor Elis blessing the first time. God continued to answer the prayers for Hannah. She had three more sons and two daughters while Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord (>1 Samuel 2:21b NLT).
Hannah prayed fervently for her children, before and after God granted her the blessing of having them. Need to pray for the children in your life? Download our FREE prayer guide for blessings for your children.
4. Hannah was the fourth woman in biblical history to suffer through infertility.
Before Hannah, three other women endured the despair of not being able to conceive. Sarah was the first, followed by Rebekah and then Rachel. However, Hannah accepted Gods promise with unwavering faith. The other three did not.
Sarah laughed at the angels proclamation that God would give her a child. (Genesis 18:12 NIV) Rebekah questioned, If all is well, why am I like this? as her twins struggled in the womb. (Genesis 25:22 NKJV) Rachel gave the responsibility to her husband. (Genesis 30:1 NIV) But Hannah trusted God without doubt or concern. Her reverent fear of the Lord was just one more quality of her godly character.
5. Hannahs famous prayer may have prophesied the coming Messiah.
As Hannah dedicated Samuel back to the Lord, she fulfilled her commitment. How hard this must have been for her as a mom! I wonder whether I would have been able to go through with it, but Hannah praised God for her blessing. She thanked Him for His sovereignty. And at the end of her prayer, we find evidence of Gods plan for the salvation of all mankind.
He gives power to his king; he increases the strength of his anointed one (>1 Samuel 2:10b NLT).
Some scholars believe this verse refers to King David, who Samuel would one day anoint as king over Israel. Yet, according to Matthew Henry Commentary, many theologians claim this verse goes beyond King David to the birth of Jesus.
The commentary states, We have reason to think that this prophecy looks further, to the kingdom of Christ, and the administration of that kingdom of grace The ancient expositors, both Jewish and Christian, make it to look beyond David to the Son of David.
These 5 details of Hannahs life tell us a lot about her as a person real, humble, passionate. By looking at these details, we can understand her trials and rejoice in her triumphs. And just maybe, we can learn a little something about our own lives as well.
Kristine Brown is a writer, dramatist, and former English teacher. She desires to support women in their spiritual lives with practical teaching for real-life struggles. Kristine devotes her time to freelance writing and her non-profit ministry, More Than Yourself, Inc. You can read more from Kristine at www.morethanyourself.com.
photo credit: sparrowstock
For Immediate Release, May 9, 2016 Contact: Tierra Curry, (928) 522-3681, tcurry@biologicaldiversity.org Oregon Spotted Frog Gains More Than 65,000 Acres,
20 River Miles of Protected Habitat in Oregon, Washington PORTLAND, Ore. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today designated 65,038 acres and 20.3 river miles of critical habitat for Oregon spotted frogs in Oregon and Washington. The frogs were protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 2014 in response to a petition and lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity. Once abundant from British Columbia to California, spotted frogs have disappeared from 90 percent of their former range. This important habitat protection is good news for Oregon spotted frogs and for future generations because we cant save endangered species without protecting their homes, said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center. Protecting this critical habitat will not only benefit the frogs but will also improve the health of wetlands and rivers that benefit millions of people and a host of other wildlife species. The Oregon spotted frog was put on the candidate waiting list for federal protection in 1991. The Center and allies petitioned for the frogs protection in 2004 and entered into a settlement agreement with the Service in 2011 requiring a decision on the frogs protection. It was protected as a threatened species in 2014, after 23 years on the waiting list. The critical habitat protected for the frog is in 14 separate units in Deschutes, Jackson, Klamath, Lane and Wasco counties in Oregon, and Klickitat, Skagit, Skamania, Thurston and Whatcom counties in Washington. It is illegal for federal agencies to fund or permit actions that destroy or adversely modify critical habitat. The Oregon spotted frog once occurred throughout the Willamette Valley, Puget Trough and elsewhere. Today there are fewer than 100 known sites where the frog still survives, and it is likely extirpated in California. Most remaining populations are in Oregon. The Oregon spotted frog is 4 inches long and calls while under water. It is a highly aquatic frog and needs clean water and stable flows for egg-laying, tadpole development and adult overwintering. The species is threatened by loss of wetlands, poor river management that forces artificial flows, reduced water quality, drought, invasive species and other threats. Worldwide, more than one-third of amphibian species are threatened with extinction. Amphibians have been on the planet for millions of years, and when they start dying off its a wakeup call that we need to take better care of our resources, said Curry. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. www.biologicaldiversity.org
The Planet Earth Institute (PEI) and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) initiative, in partnership with the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), has launched 'Her Excellency Mrs Ameenah Gurib-Fakim PhD Scholarship Programme' in Mauritius. Additional partners will be announced in due course.
Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of the Republic of Mauritius, and Vice Chairman and Trustee of the Planet Earth Institute, and Dr Alvaro Sobrinho, Chairman of the Planet Earth Institute
The programme will begin with 10 full PhD research grants for Mauritian researchers (or African researchers studying in Mauritius). Following the pilot 10 grants, the programme is aiming to expand across Africa to award 10,000 PhD Scholarships in the coming decade in the areas of water, energy, agribusiness, health and blue-sky research. The PEI and the BMGF hope that the areas of focus will help to equip Africa with the critical mass of scientific leaders it needs to become a continent of knowledge-based, sustainable economies.
The grants awarded to the initial 10 researchers will cover the entire duration of the PhD and will include both the full cost of academic and research time required at host universities, as well as a generous living expenses stipend. The scholarship winners will be announced by 1 July and the research placements will be intended to begin in September 2016.
Successful applicants will spend time at both an African and a UK host university, as well as time in industry, as relevance to the potential impact on economic growth and job creation are critical to the programme.
In Africa, the host institutions are the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, the University of Cape Town, the University of Pretoria, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the University of the Witwatersrand, Rhodes University and the Sir Magdi Yacoub Research Network.
In the UK, the host academic institutions are the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of Greenwich, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, Middlesex University and Newcastle University.
A full-time programme co-ordinator will be based at the Planet Earth Institute Foundation in Mauritius to work alongside the senior executive team.
Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of the Republic of Mauritius and vice chairman and trustee of the Planet Earth Institute, says, This PhD programme is about offering a new and exciting opportunity for Mauritian researchers and also to take a further step toward Africa taking its rightful place as a leader in global science race. If Mauritius is to become a knowledge-based economy and Africa a knowledge-based continent, we must invest in equipping our people with the skills they need to thrive. They must be problem solvers; job creators and innovators.
Given that there are 11 million young Africans entering the labour market each year, we must not let these talents go to waste. This programme, starting with Mauritius as a laboratory before its rollout across Africa, will support our talented young people to become entrepreneurs and to support the development of research critical to the future of Africa.
Dr Alvaro Sobrinho, chairman of the Planet Earth Institute, adds, With the council members of the Planet Earth Institute Foundation, including figures such as Lord Boateng, Sir Christopher Edwards and Sir Magdi Yacoub, and with the support of leading scientists such as Professor Paul Younger, the PEI is committed to creating a world-class PhD programme for Mauritian scientists.
We have partnered with the very best universities in the world in Africa and the UK, and we will now partner with the very best of the private sector. Whats more, through the PEI Foundation networks, the Ameenah Gurib-Fakim scholars will have opportunity to promote their research to a global audience.
For more information, go to www.PlanetEarthInstitute.org.uk.
Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) moved on Friday to clear another hurdle on its $108bn proposed acquisition of SABMiller.
Fotolia
The maker of Budweiser and Stella Artois wants to align the terms and conditions of its other bonds with those of the 40bn note it issued in January to fund the proposed acquisition of its smaller rival. Since 2009, AB InBev has issued 17 notes, for a total value of 26.65bn.
The modifications were crucial to avoid any possible suggestion that the merging of the two brewers under a new holding company could be read as a cessation of AB InBev as a business, said the company. Such an interpretation could trigger a potential default on the terms and conditions of the old issued notes.
"We wanted to be proactive and considered that it would be beneficial to amend certain terms and conditions of the legacy notes to ensure that all of noteholders of the company are treated on a consistent basis to allow for the combination," AB InBev said. "This does not change any other terms, like the coupon or maturity date."
Source: Business Day
PARIS: Seita, the French subsidiary of Britain's Imperial Tobacco and the maker of the iconic Gauloises and Gitanes cigarettes, said Tuesday it would appeal to France's top court against regulations imposing plain packaging.
The appeal to the Council of State, France's top administrative court, won't suspend the regulation from entering force on January 1.
"Our rights to use our brands, several of which were created more than 100 years ago in France, should be respected," Seita's director for global corporate affiars Axel Gietz said in a statement.
France published in March a decree introducing plain packages, the culmination of efforts launched by the government in 2014 to require tobacco firms to sell cigarettes in packages that contain neither logos nor distinctive colouring.
Seita said the decree suppresses four out of five distinctive elements of a brand under French intellectual property laws, thus depriving businesses owners of their rights under the French constitution. Japan Tobacco International (JTI) said it had filed an appeal immediately after the publication of the decree in March.
In 2012, Australia became the first country to mandate plain packaging for cigarettes in a bid to reduce smoking rates, and tobacco companies have so far failed to overturn it using intellectual property arguments. Tobacco firms also failed to have the matter accepted for international arbitration.
Meanwhile, the EU's top court last week ruled that the bloc's new laws on plain tobacco packaging and a ban on menthol cigarettes were legal.
Britain is set to begin introducing plain packaging later this month, although the country's High Court is expected to soon hand down a ruling on the measure which would have packages covered with health warnings.
Source: AFP
The economic surge in Africa has increased the need for world-class communications across the continent and has in turn been mirrored by the increased recognition for communications campaigns executed across Africa.
In 2015, The Public Relations Institute of South Africa, responsible for hosting the Prism Awards, introduced the Pan-African Campaign of the Year, a new award to recognise excellence in PR in Africa. In addition to this, the first ever African Excellence Awards took place in 2016, once again to acknowledge top-notch PR in Africa.
Industry awards are a dime a dozen, but the magnitude of the challenges communications professionals have to be cognisant of and overcome to execute a campaign, is what truly makes Africa-specific awards spectacular.
When communicating in Africa, a one-size-fits-all approach doesnt work. Individual markets have many differing factors, which makes communications challenging.
Individual markets need to be understood, prioritised and a custom-made solution needs to be applied to achieve results. Executing a PR campaign that changes behaviour and builds advocacy, requires consideration of all cultural nuances and economic status. Something which is considered the norm in one African country may be offensive in another.
Subsequently, content needs to be highly customised for the individual African market, unless it transcends borders as well as cultural boundaries. The language and tone used needs to be relevant to the local people.
Trevor Chueu, Africa Lead at FleishmanHillard, identifies one of the biggest challenges he faces when activating a campaign, With high penetration in Africa in mobile communication, some countries have adopted usage faster than others. Media consumption needs to be looked at closely. The finer details such as whether the market is using a feature phone or smart phone will determine how you communicate to the target audience. Can they only read an SMS? Can they access social media channels? Do they have internet access? These are all questions which need to be answered before execution.
Infrastructure development is another communications challenge still prevalent in Africa. The challenge of mobility impacts the access to radio, newspapers, internet, etc., and ultimately prevents consumers from certain types of media consumption, adds Chueu.
With the challenges of executing a PR campaign in Africa in mind, Chueu voices his opinion around judging the Africa-specific awards, Whenever we achieve remarkable PR results, the judging criteria needs to measure the results against the challenges faced when activating a campaign. If an agency was not able to communicate due to Africa-specific issues, how the PR professionals come up with a creative way to reach the target audience, should be a big consideration.
Chueu adds, PR professionals need to show us how they have creatively adapted to a market when they deliver the campaign. I personally believe that when scrutinising PR campaigns, we need to take into consideration the market in which it was executed. A concept considered as creative and ingenious in the Kenyan market, may not necessarily be seen in the same light in South Africa. Equally, the judges of these awards should be pan-African, representing many cultures.
The perception of all things nuclear being an uncontrolled evil needs to change as the use of radiation technologies expand in medicine and industry. Therefore, there's a greater need to educate the general public about these technologies and their risks, agreed speakers at the opening of the 14th International Congress of the International (IRPA14).
Accidents undermine confidence
Every care must be taken to ensure that the use of radioactive materials poses no undue hazard to the public or environment, said Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global centre for cooperation in nuclear applications, energy, science and technology.
Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency
Accidents involving nuclear technology or materials can be harmful to human health or the environment and can also undermine public confidence in nuclear science and applications, as was the case with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. There was a key lesson for everyone involved, safety cannot be taken for granted, he said.
Increasingly recognised as a clean energy
This is of particular interest in South Africa, where the governments integrated electricity resource plan (IRP) for 2010-2030 includes a framework for the generation of 9,6MW in nuclear energy, said Zizamele Mbambo, deputy director general for nuclear energy in the department of energy (DoE).
Nuclear energy is increasingly recognised as a clean technology that can make huge inroads into South Africas energy demands. There are challenges that we are facing related to the negative public perceptions that require us to demystify nuclear, he said.
Industry needs to be proactive
This sentiment was echoed by Renate Czarwinski, IRPA president, in her welcome address. We need to be proactive in recognising the public needs and demands. A precondition for a successful explanation and discussion of the system of [radiation] protection with the public and stakeholders is trust and knowledge, she said.
Educating the public about the importance of nuclear science and technology is one of the ambitions of the Southern African Radiation Protection Association (SARPA), the organisation that co-hosts the congress alongside the South African Radiation Protection Society (SARPS).
Making sure civil society understands
Our responsibility as radiation protection professionals, in addition to the actual radiation protection, is to make sure that civil society understands nuclear technology, said Shane Motlhalogo, SARPA executive board member.
The congress brings together close on 900 delegates from 72 countries at the Cape Town International Conference Centre (CTICC) from 9 to 13 May.
A tech solutions company conceived by South African entrepreneurs, has set its sights on expanding into both the African and International markets this year, thanks to a US$ 2,5m funding injection from private investors.
Mark Chirnside, CEO of ThisIsMe
You are who you say you are
ThisIsMe CEO, Mark Chirnside says that his company's solution and app (available on Apple and Android app stores) conclusively proves that, not only you are who you say you are, but that you are still alive assisting in preventing identity theft and other instances of fraud.
ThisIsMe verifies an individuals identity to other individuals, businesses, financial institutions and regulators. It does so using links to Home Affairs and the major banks.
With a focus on compliance related to the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) and the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) in the financial space, the business has attracted substantial interest from South African corporate businesses and the customers they serve.
Chirnside shares that - since its launch over 20 corporates have signed up to use ThisIsMes solutions to verify the identities of their clientele.
This includes two banks, one being from the top five in South Africa; three insurance companies; fund managers; and HR businesses, he adds.
Expanding further afield
We are planning to enter at least three different regions this year and progress in terms of expanding into two of these countries - Australia and New Zealand - is very advanced.
On the African front, we are in talks with a potential partner in Nigeria, which represents a particularly demanding market, he concludes.
As part of its evolutionary process to broaden its scope and offering within the industry, Fulcrum Capital has acquired a 30% equity stake in Kapara Insurance Brokers
Peter Gordon, head of Fulcrum Capital
Pete Gordon, head of Fulcrum Capital, says: A major component of our strategy is to partner on a meaningful minority equity basis with a select group of short-term insurance brokerages in identified geographic regions. We are looking forward to an exciting journey ahead with Kapara.
Kapara was founded in 1999 by David Dowding and Morag Dover. Based in Johannesburg, it has a strong track record in the commercial and domestic insurance markets.
Dowding affirms that Fulcrum is the right partner to enhance development within Kapara management.
In the changing and challenging times in the financial service industry we have recognised that it is essential to strengthen and develop our management team and to sustain our position. This partnership is an important step for Kapara to strengthen our capital base, develop our management team and enhance sustainability in the broker market. Our strength will remain in providing our personal approach to service, he says.
Indaba is set to increase its commitment to transformation and inclusiveness to South African tourism by growing the SMME sector in tourism. This follows the success of the first ever Hidden Gems platform that hosted 70 SMMEs at this year's Indaba. Sthembiso Dlamini, Acting CEO of the South African Tourism (SA Tourism), owners of Indaba, calls the platform "groundbreaking".
It is a particularly gratifying that many of the SMMEs conducted business at the event. This platform has provided the SMMEs with a window into the international arena while providing South Africa with a broader tourism offering, she says.
SA Tourism support of SMMEs will continue beyond Indaba. Through initiatives such as assisting SMMEs to be graded through the Grading Council, we can ensure they are market ready. This is important as SMMEs are what will make domestic tourism affordable for South Africans, thereby growing this important sector of the tourism market, she adds.
Indaba is all about business
With the theme of Putting you at the centre of business success this years Indaba welcomed 5,013 visitors, and while this is slightly down on last years number (by 203) the event utilised 96% of the Durban ICCs space and 3,000 more meetings were conducted than last year.
This shows the high quality of Indaba says Dlamini. In a time when we have to acknowledge economic conditions, Indaba is delivering quality buyers to our exhibitors, and Indaba is all about business.
Apart from the Hidden Gems platform, also new this year was the opening of the trade floor with a symbolic ribbon cutting by the South African Minister of Tourism, Derek Hanekom. This was followed by an official welcome by the Minister and the bid partners. Over the three days of Indaba, a number of Media and Tech Talks were held as well Speed Marketing sessions.
Tourism is everyones business
Ndabo Khoza, CEO for KwaZulu-Natal, Tourism, says there needs to be a greater appreciation of tourism by everyone in the country. People need to realise that tourism is everyones business. It is important to view Indaba not only in the value it brings over the three days it runs, but also in the longer term business it brings to the City, province and country.
Dlamini also announced that the final negotiations are underway for a strategic partner to be brought onboard by SA Tourism and that an announcement in their regard will be made in due course.
Lindiwe Rakharebe, CEO, Durban ICC says it is always an honour and privilege to host Indaba. Phillip Sithole, Durban Tourism Head adds to this saying that as a platform Indaba gives the City big numbers. Judging from what we have observed over the last three days, we are very happy. As the City of Durban we invest heavily in Indaba, so we await the announcement of SA Tourisms strategic partner eagerly and we hope that we will be a part of that.
Dan Sommer, senior director: market intelligence lead at Qlik, says that companies need to move beyond traditional BI and embrace the endless possibilities that connecting people with data and ideas will bring.
Dan Sommer
Sommer was in South Africa to discuss business analytics market trends with particular reference to innovation and industrialisation. Market dynamics and the competitive landscape are undergoing tectonic changes now, as tipping points cause a change in centricity around data, analytics, buying and selling. Love it or hate it, we are experiencing a shift from power to empowerment, he said.
In his view, the emergence of data junkies is requiring businesses to embrace a new approach. Sommer likens this to moving from being a gatekeeper to becoming more of a shopkeeper. What used to be the systems era that saw IT pushing out reports is gone. Over the past decade, that has evolved into the personal analytics era. Today, individuals are bringing their own analytical tools to organisations that serve them to become more efficient employees, he said.
Moreover, many enterprises are moving from on-premise data structures to cloud-based information. Half of organisations are accessing external data sources. Increasingly, data is born in the cloud especially for the mid-market and down. With no clear leader emerging yet in the cloud BI segment, we expect data connectivity from both on and off-premise components to become the key to capturing market share. Ecosystems of analytics are starting to emerge around where the data is.
Sergey Khakimullin via 123RF
Importance of small data
This is resulting in companies (and decision-makers) needing to be more agile when combining data sources with one another. Much of this, Sommer said, is not revolving around big data but instead with small mata.
It is those fleeting business moments that will help define the new era of BI. For example, imagine the possibilities when a company combines the client information it has on its warranties with mapping information. Suddenly, new business models open up to upsell and cross-sell based on where customer premises are - or even what they look like.
With the cloud-based market still accounting for less than 10% of the overall market, the bridging phase will see a significant amount of combination between on-premise and off-premise BI. From the perspective of customers and employees, the ease of use and overall experience of accessing data will remain critical in this migration.
We are seeing the rise of data-driven analytical centres of excellence inside organisations. The new era of BI is here and it is one that will have a fundamental impact on how business is conducted.
Former South African Airways CEO Monwabisi Kalawe and private investigator Paul O'Sullivan appeared in the Kempton Park regional court on Monday on charges of extortion, intimidation, forgery and fraud.
The case - dating back to 2014 - relates to fake overseas bank statements procured by Kalawe last year, allegedly to dig up dirt on SAA board chairwoman Dudu Myeni. Kalawe sent the documents to O'Sullivan who later made them public.
In e-mails, O'Sullivan called on Myeni to resign and re-instate Kalawe as CEO of the airline. At the time Kalawe, who had been hired to implement the struggling airline's long-term turnaround strategy, had been suspended allegedly at the behest of Myeni, who is a close associate of President Jacob Zuma.
In a founding affidavit filed by Kalawe in the Labour Court to have a disciplinary inquiry against him stopped and his suspension lifted, he argued that SAA had charged him with sending the documents to O'Sullivan knowing he would make them public. However, Kalawe denied this and claimed to have made the disclosures in the interests of the national carrier. Kalawe later withdrew his application for an interdict against the disciplinary inquiry and the matter was heard before private arbitrator advocate Nazeer Cassim SC.
Kalawe received a R2.7m payout to resign from his position as CEO in April last year. SAA later lodged criminal charges against him and O'Sullivan.
Kalawe's legal representative Lee Binneman, of Schindlers Attorneys, said on Monday they were still awaiting proper confirmation of the charges. "We are still waiting to be provided with the contents of the police docket, and the case has been postponed to 7 June for that purpose," he said. Binneman said once they had been provided with the contents of the police docket, they would be able to respond to any charges.
National Prosecuting Authority of SA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said Kalawe, O'Sullivan and Abednigo Mbulawa have been charged with extortion, intimidation, fraud and forgery. He said they were released on a warning and the matter was postponed for disclosure of the police dockets.
Myeni's attorneys, ENS Africa would not comment on the matter, saying it was "sub judice".
Source: BDpro
African governments have been urged to liberalise the airspace to stimulate new aviation business opportunities and boost trade across the continent. According to experts, the lack of a fully liberalised airspace, high taxes, and poor infrastructure continue to hurt the industry despite its potential.
Statistics from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) indicate that Airlines on the continent suffered a loss of almost $130 million in 2015. According to Raphael Kuuchi, the IATA vice president for Africa, African airlines could make more losses in 2016 if these constraints are not addressed.
Partnerships and collaboration key
Kuuchi told Business Times that African Airlines operate on a basis of individualism which makes it hard for them to become profitable adding that passenger numbers on the continent are projected to increase by more than 4.7 percent by 2034, presenting a huge business opportunity for the airlines. "All players in the value chain must work together and embrace strong partnerships to become competitive."
Dr. Elijah Chingosho, the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) secretary general, said it is critical for African airlines to form trusted partnership and entities for a safe and viable industry. Chingosho who was speaking during the 5th Africa Aviation stakeholder's convention in Kigali on Sunday added that adopting a win-win strategy will help reduce the cost of transport on the continent.
Held under the theme "Winning together through innovation and collaboration," the conference attracted more than 400 aviation experts and key stakeholders from across the continent to deliberate on ways to make air transport a viable business.
Dr. Chingosho believes streamlining customs procedures while emphasizing the free movement of people and goods will further stimulate the sector that supports more than 6.9 million jobs and contributes $80 billion in GDP in Africa.
The cost of air transport
The cost of air transport in Africa is still high despite a reduction in oil prices. In fact, statistics indicate that travelling within Africa is more expensive when compared to travelling outside the continent.
However, profits are still inadequate in most regions, with Africa registering a net profit of only $0.19 billion and revenues percentage of 1.13% in 2014.
On the other hand, Asian carriers, for instance, registered a net profit of $5.04 billion, while North America recorded $13.2 billion.
This presents African aviation a challenge to become innovative to improve their balance sheets.
Championing Africa's agenda
Meanwhile, given the resources and a conducive business environment, Barry Kashambo, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regional director, believes African airlines will play an imperative role in championing Africa's agenda 2063. This is possible when market players and policy-makers embrace smart regulations to help enhance competitiveness and efficiency.
The agenda 2063 approach seeks to push the continent effectively towards building on the already existing progress while strategically exploiting all possible opportunities available in the immediate and medium term to ensure socio-economic transformation within the next 50 years.
However, for this to happen, RwandAir chief executive officer John Mirenge says liberalizing the continent's skies is the only best option Africa needs. "We are only being a hindrance to our development if we don't liberalize our airspace," Mirenge said.
Renewed commitment from government of Rwanda
James Musoni, the Minister for Infrastructure, assured of government's commitment to continue supporting the aviation industry. We will ensure that we continue taking the lead in supporting the industry by encouraging free movement of people and technological innovation to bring down the cost of doing business.
This way, aviation players will be able to make profits and increase their contribution towards the continent's economic development, he added.
According to Musoni, Rwanda is already on the path of becoming an aviation hub in the region. This is evidenced by the investments and resources government has committed toward making Air transport an enabler to the country's economic growth, Pascal Nzaramba, the director in charge of Airports Unit Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority (RCAA) said.
As the winning agency of the Pendoring Prestige Award last year, with its Sanlam Musiekfees campaign, King James Cape Town is the agency behind this year's Pendoring campaign, which kicked off yesterday, 9 May 2016.
We want to communicate in a stirring and sincere way the message that Pendoring will henceforth celebrate the best marketing communication, not only in Afrikaans, but also in Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu, members of the King James creative team explain.
In a country as diverse as ours, we tend to see the large number of indigenous languages as an obstacle. Therefore, our campaign aims to remind South Africans that having as many languages as we do, is actually something beautiful, something to celebrate, something to unite us.
In true agency fashion, many people across multiple disciplines have worked together to create an integrated campaign to do Pendorings new positioning proud. The opportunity to join forces on the 2016 Pendoring campaign made us realise just how lucky we are to live in a country with so many languages and to be part of such a colourful kaleidoscope.
Besides print, online and television offerings, the campaign will also include a one-of-a-kind dictionary, designed to help members of the advertising community to connect with their peers, according to the team.
Prizes
As before, only gold winners will be eligible for the two main awards The Prestige Award and the Umpetha Award, each of which includes an overseas study tour worth R100,000. Each gold winner in every category receives R6000 and silver winners R2500 each.
Both overall student winners of the best Afrikaans work and the best work in one of the other indigenous languages will receive R10,000 and an internship at King James Cape Town in 2017.
The eligibility period for entries is from 1 August 2015 to 31 July 2016 and entries must be in before Monday 1 August 2016. Finalists will be announced on Friday 16 September 2016 and winners at the prestigious gala event at Vodacom World in Midrand on 28 October 2016.
For more information, go to www.pendoring.co.za.
The funky new Smart, 'baby' of the vast Daimler stable, is even cooler, and it is bigger, safer, more fun to drive than its predecessor and enriched with a wide range of new fancy kit.
The quirky Smart is offered in two-seater Fortwo and four-seater Forfour formats and a choice of two engines, manual or automatic transmission, and in four specification levels Base, Passion, Prime and Proxy, with price tags between R174,900 and R242,900.
Trendy appeal
The Fortwo range, which is likely to appeal to single, trendy people of both sexes only offers a 1-litre, three-pot engine that produces 52kW and 91 Nm, linked to a five-speed manual transmission a combination designed for economical city driving. The more family-friendly Forfour version is offered with a choice of two engines a 52kW with a manual transmission and slightly more powerful 66kW engine with a six-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission.
At the local media launch I drove both the Fortwo and Forfour models, but not the top of the range Forfour auto models (only due to arrive here in July). Although still a tad choppy, the suspension is a definite improvement on that of the previous model. The handling, too, is better although still not quite as refined as contenders such as Fiat and Volkswagen (for the Fortwo) and Toyota Aygo, VW Up, Renault Twingo, Citroen C1 and Opel Adam (for the Forfour).
One of the most impressive features of the new Forfour is that it now also brings to the market a much more driver-friendly manual transmission in the place of the irritatingly slow auto box of the previous model, as well as a stepped-up six-speed automatic gearbox for its more powerful models. The Smart cars also move quite a few steps up the refinement stakes in the safety department, exterior and interior looks, living quarters and driver assistance systems such as Lane Keeping Assist, Crosswind Assist and Forward Collision Warning.
Impressive storage capability
Both the Forfour and Fortwo versions offer surprisingly generous (considering their size) and easy to access storage space (particularly the Forfour with its fold-down back seats), as well as the practicality of a twin-section tailgate, perfect for crowded parking lots.
In the beauty stakes all the models are funky - cute and gaily dressed with bright exterior two-tone colours, daytime running lights and prominent grill with trim in a choice of colours to match or contrast with body panels, including silver, white or black. Performance-wise, both models are on the sleepy side in the 0-100km/h stakes, but fuel consumption is frugal with claimed usage of 4.1-litre/100km for the Fortwo, and 4.2-litre/100km for the Forfour.
Because of its compact size, neither version has a spare wheel or run-flat tyres, although even the entry level models have ABS brakes, electric windows, central locking, stability control and even cruise control. Further up on the snazzy (and more expensive) variant ladder, standard features include a multi-function steering wheel clad in leather, a multi-media system with real-time navigation, 3.5-inch colour display touch screen and smartphone integration.
Parent company Daimler does not disclose sales volumes of any of its vehicles but readily admit that the Smart plays in the limited volume segment of the local market. Internationally, the Fortwo has already sold 1.6-million units and it records annual sales of 100,000 of its funky city car.
Both the Smart Forfour and Fortwo have grown up in many ways but still are more 'hearts than minds' purchases and prospective buyers will have to weigh-up some important Ps pose, practicality, purchase price, performance and its purchase price-inclusive three-year/60,000km service plan before signing on the dotted line.
It is a "wonder plant" that is uniquely blessed. Agronomists in Africa believe it can restore degraded landscapes while economists think it is a potential "green gold", and a silver bullet for design and architecture that is already attracting a global market.
Bamboo the highly versatile giant grass that can grow in almost any kind of climate and thrive in the poorest of soils has been in existence for hundreds of years in Asia, Latin America and parts of Africa. Yet for a long time the potential of this fastest-growing plant on earth, with recorded growth rates of up to one metre per day for some species, remained largely unexploited.
It was not until recently that widespread commercialisation of bamboo began taking root, spurring hopes of generating income and creating jobs for the rural poor.
The world bamboo market is growing, led by China and an increasing demand for sustainable products in Europe and the United States. According to the International Network of Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), an intergovernmental organisation registered with the United Nations that promotes the growing of bamboo and rattan for economic and environmental gains, the global bamboo economy is now valued at $60bn, and is a potential income generator for rural communities.
To tap into this lucrative green economy, African governments and the private sector have begun positioning themselves to commercialise bamboo. The profit potential has become even greater as environmentalists link bamboo with climate change mitigation, and the possibility of increased income through carbon credits.
So far 18 African countries with natural bamboo Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda have joined INBAR, which is assisting them with bamboo information, technology transfer, capacity building and policy formulation. Other countries, like Angola, Gabon and Zambia, are expected to join the network.
According to INBARs director general, Hans Friederich, bamboo can be a strong pillar of Africas future green economy. He says it can help reduce poverty and protect the environment, and that it provides a practical and rapid solution for some of the natural resource and poverty challenges facing many African countries today.
It is an amazing plant that provides a great opportunity for making an income because it grows incredibly fast and a farmer can sell it as a raw product or can make products out of it, Friederich told Africa Renewal. It also does not require any fertilisers or pesticides because it has no real threat from diseases or pests. Once it is planted, you can leave it.
Bamboo is used to make a long list of high-value products. In fact, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the plant has over 2,000 different uses, China reckons there are nearly 10,000 uses and can fetch even more money if processed.
Commercially bamboo is used for furniture and a variety of building and roofing materials, from fencing poles to veneer, floor tiles, panels for walls and ceilings, scaffolding material, door and window frames and window blinders.
In the paper and pulp industry, bamboo can be made into newsprint, toilet paper and cardboard, which would help to conserve Africas finite resources, such as its forests. The textile, food and chemical industries convert bamboo into fabrics, T-shirts, wine, vinegar, biochemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Domestically, bamboo is used to make mats, baskets, canoes, fishing kits, bicycles, fences, toothpicks, school desks, pencils and rulers, to name just a few products.
Bamboo is also a source of bio-energy. A majority of sub-Saharan African households use firewood or charcoal made from timber for cooking, often leading to deforestation, land degradation and indoor pollution. As the population in Africa increases, the massive harvesting of firewood and charcoal will be unsustainable, according to INBAR. Bamboo provides a clean and renewable energy alternative in the form of charcoal briquettes and wood for domestic and industrial use.
On protecting the environment, some swear the bamboo plant is magic in mitigating the effects of climate change through rapid reforestation, slowing soil erosion and repairing damaged ecosystems. Bamboo also serves as an excellent large-scale carbon sink, each plant taking in almost double the carbon dioxide of a tree.
Commercial bamboo farmers may also benefit from acquiring carbon credits. INBAR, the China Green Carbon Foundation and Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University have developed a methodology that will enable project developers to quantify the carbon fluxes within a bamboo plantation, which can allow the calculation of carbon credits earned. This would mean more income for bamboo farmers.
Commercial bamboo farming has the potential to create thousands of jobs, since it is labour intensive. Bamboo plants are typically planted, maintained and harvested by hand. In Ghana, about 1,500 people were employed when a commercial project started recently. In China, the bamboo industry employs nearly 8-million people, a number that is expected to hit 10-million by 2020, according to INBAR.
A bamboo plant matures in four to eight years, depending on the species; however, it can be harvested as a perennial crop, without deforestation, three to five years after initial planting. It can be sustainably harvested for well over 40 years. Once it starts growing, bamboo remains rooted in the soil, producing new shoots each year. This helps secure the soil and maintain slope stability.
Unlike forests, where everyone says, Dont cut that tree, bamboo grows back fast when you cut it. The more you cut, the more it grows, says Friederich. Africa, he says, boasts huge reserves of largely untapped indigenous bamboo, amounting to some 8% of the worlds bamboo resources, and excellent weather conditions for growing commercial species.
Challenges
That bamboo is versatile and has lots of potential is not in doubt. So why have African countries overlooked the plants potential for so long?
The biggest challenge is a lack of awareness, Tesfaye Hunde, the head of the East Africa Regional Office of INBAR in Addis Ababa, told Africa Renewal, adding that lack of finances and the absence of a national policy and strategy programme to develop and use bamboo resources were also hampering progress.
As awareness grows, more countries are turning to bamboo. The use of bamboo is dramatically increasing, says Hunde, adding: Up to 36 countries in Africa have natural bamboo-growing regions and INBAR is working with other organisations on bamboo technology transfer and training farmers in the region developing a bamboo value chain from farmers to markets requires national policies, technology transfer and investment.
African governments also face the challenges of equipping farmers with bamboo planting and maintenance skills, supplying seedlings and teaming up with the private sector for processing and value addition.
Moreover, despite promising market potential, those who wish to commercialise bamboo products still face hurdles such as a lack of research, product innovation and marketing skills. Another challenge is to accurately designate bamboo to meet international trade and forestry standards.
Bamboo shows big potential but suffers from an image problem, Gary Quince, the European Unions ambassador to the African Union, was quoted as saying. Many farmers see it as a pest because it grows fast when in fact this is its real benefit.
The question is whether bamboo species are invasive, considering their characteristics, such as rapid growth. There is fear about bamboos ability to displace native vegetation, alter habitat and upset food chains. A statement by the American Bamboo Society says the plant has a low potential for invasiveness but recognises that some running bamboo species can be aggressive spreaders if not well maintained. INBAR is providing its member states with information on the issue, such as what species are best for different soils and how to maintain, intercrop and harvest bamboo plants.
Other organisations such as WWF, GIZ and SNV, and UNEP, FAO, UNDP, NEPAD and ICRAF are also showing interests in bamboo, mostly through South-South cooperation, according to Friederich. Already China and The Netherlands have agreed to fund a joint project in Africa. INBAR is currently talking to the European Commission, the Canadian government, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the City Foundation about possible collaboration.
To fully benefit from the bamboo boom, the private sector needs to be at the heart of green economy development in order to drive demand and provide investment. Again, value addition needs to be more innovative if African bamboo is to take the global market by storm.
However, there are those on the continent calling for proper planning before going full blast on bamboo. Nigerian environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey sees a unique problem: Bamboo, which is normally a free resource throughout rural Africa, could fall into private hands that would deny villagers access and use of this resource.
Article published courtesy of Africa Renewal.
The most powerful currency that cuts through all of the world's most lucrative business deals and transactions is the value of trust, not money. Money is a by-product of creating trust. Once we trust you then we can buy from you, then we can do business with you, then we can give you our money in exchange for goods and services we trust, and then a relationship based on trust can ensue.
In the wake of the recent VW emissions scandal where software was fitted to deliberately fool tests, we look at 10 other times big businesses have lied to their customers.
A business and all of its brands achieves the status of trustworthiness by creating and selling unfailing products that deliver on their stated brand promise. Once trust is lost, it is really almost impossible to regain.
I am saying 'almost impossible' because redemption is a very powerful act if it is delivered with great authenticity and offered with powerful sincerity after a company has behaved very badly. Lying companies do survive the lies! I mean Coca-Cola, Nestle and many more bottled water companies made billions while lying about the source and purity of their product compared to tap water in the developed world. These companies are still in business today, making billions.
First it was Volkswagen. Now Mitsubishi has been forced to apologise after confessing it had exaggerated the fuel economy of more than 600,000 cars. Japanese government officials have raided one of its offices and research facilities, forcing the company's share price to drop to an all-time low.
On the same day, Volkswagen reached an agreement in the United States to compensate half a million American owners of its diesel-powered cars. In what some are starting to call an international pattern of cheating in the car industry, the German car-maker was found to be falsifying its emission data last year.
But exactly how did Volkswagen get caught? It is interesting to know!
The International Council On Clean Transportation is an independent non-profit organisation founded to provide unbiased research to environmental regulators. One day, the council, working with West Virginia University, began a routine emissions test of three vehicles a VW Passat, a VW Jetta and a BMW X5. The BMW passed the test, but both VW models not only failed but failed spectacularly emitting 7-to-25 times the acceptable emission limits of nitrogen oxides. Later, those results were reported at a conference, which got the attention of the US Environmental Protection Agency. The agency then tested more VW vehicles, and the results were consistently over the limit. When the EPA threatened to block sales of VW's 2016 models, it forced Volkswagen to admit it had installed the deception device.
Mitsubishi and Volkswagen are not the first and only companies to be caught with their pants down, entangled in their web of lies.
History is littered and fraught with companies who lied to consumers to gain greater profits. Year after year, companies use the biggest lies to dupe unsuspecting consumers. Everyone would like to believe that the majority of companies have the consumers best interests at heart when developing and marketing their products, but thats often not the case.
In an attempt to increase profits, some of the most well-known companies have used shameful lies and marketing ploys never proven to be true to rack up more profit and dupe unsuspecting consumers.
In Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception, Nobel Prizewinning economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller deliver a fundamental challenge to these unethical phenomena of marketing and selling of lies to consumers, arguing that markets harm as well as help us. As long as there is profit to be made, sellers will systematically exploit our psychological weaknesses and our ignorance through manipulation and deception. Rather than being essentially benign and always creating the greater good, markets are inherently filled with tricks and traps and will "phish" us as "phools."
Phishing for Phools therefore strikes a radically new direction in economics, based on the intuitive idea that markets both give and take away. Akerlof and Shiller bring this idea to life through dozens of stories that show how phishing affects everyone, in almost every walk of life. We spend our money up to the limit, and then worry about how to pay the next months bills. The financial system soars, then crashes. We are attracted, more than we know, by advertising. Our political system is distorted by money. We pay too much for gym memberships, cars, houses, and credit cards. Drug companies ingeniously market pharmaceuticals that do us little good, and sometimes are downright dangerous.
Phishing for Phools explores the central role of manipulation and deception in fascinating detail in each of these areas and many more. It thereby explains a paradox: why, at a time when we are better off than ever before in history, are all too many of us leading lives of quiet desperation? At the same time, the book tells stories of individuals who have stood against economic trickery and how it can be reduced through greater knowledge, reform, and regulation.
Why do businesses phish for phools?
Robert Shiller: A fundamental concept of psychology is that people often make decisions theyre not happy about. Thats why people go see therapists! If businesses have a chance to profit by tempting us into making decisions that are good for them but bad for us, they will take it. They have just as powerful an incentive to provide us with what we dont want as to provide us with what we do want.
Skechers and Vibram made unfounded claims regarding their shoes
Let's be candid, there are industries and businesses we actually expect to lie to us, whose revenue is enhanced when they dont tell their customers the truth.
One good example is the cosmetics industry. If you dont understand how the cosmetics industry works the good, the bad, and the ugly you will be a victim of its advertising manipulations, exaggerations, and deceptions, and that isnt good for your skin or your budget. What most women dont realise is how everyone in the cosmetics industry knows that the marketing and advertising for cosmetics is either meaningless, hypocritical, or dishonest.
Why do most cosmetics companies mislead and often out and out lie to consumers, and how do they manage to get away with it?
The simple answer is that those who constantly seek everlasting beauty, eternal youth and want to be aesthetically pleasing to the eyes of the world like to be lied to. We want to believe that the products we buy can get us what we want. We prefer the promise of eternal youth (or some approximation), clear, silky hair and flawless skin to reality. No matter how many thousands of products there are, often dozens of them from the same companies, and all guaranteeing some degree of a miracle, it still happens we just dont seem to have a learning curve. We want the next one we buy to be the answer. Using either scientific mumbo jumbo or concoctions said to come straight from the earth, or a mix of both, they tell us exactly what we want to hear. Most cosmetics companies need to lie just to gain a consumers attention because the truth is never as enticing as the deception.
The death of caveat emptor leads us to rely in a general way upon the truth of claims asserted in marketing and advertising. (Even when we shouldn't.)
When companies lie, marketers lie as well: Let us throw the lasso of truth around the marketers of lying companies
Whether marketers lie knowingly when they do their job or are just innocent participants when a company they work for plots lies and deceptions, the fact remains that their myriads of pervasive marketing communications market lies and deception. It is therefore a no-brainer that marketers in such companies lie as well.
Marketers are trained extremely well on how to spin, how to write elegantly, how to stay in the brand voice, etc. Were also trained brilliantly on how to lie and how to lie well. In all honestly, we lie so well that sometimes we dont even realise we are doing it. All of the half-truths, omissions, and spin we put on all of our marketing pieces could be what is holding us back from an authentic connection with the exact audience were trying so desperately to attract. It could be argued that weve become such good liars that we cant even tell the difference between lies and truth anymore.
When a person tells a lie, they have to deal with the consequences in their own life. But when a marketer lies, it discredits the entire marketing and advertising industry. Throwing shade on hard working and honest companies and marketers who value their customers trust. Lying about the performance of your products and the excellence of your services doesnt pay off any more. Thats because when you fabricate a story that just doesnt hold up to scrutiny, you get caught. Fast. It doesnt take long for the reality to catch up with the story. Its tempting to spin a tall tale about a piece of technology or a customer service policy, but once we see it in the wild, we talk about it and you wither away or you survive with tainted reputation.
Duplicitous marketers telling the biggest terrible lies: How does it all happen? Where does it begin? It starts with SPIN. Wrong kinds of spin.
Then there are omissions. We highlight all the good stuff and leave out all the bad stuff. We don't even care how the bad stuff will affect customers and consumers adversely.
Then we start downright lying. This is when we make false product claims and conclusions that are not based on facts and scientific proof.
Being a great marketer does not have to mean being a great liar!
It all starts with having a really sensitive radar for spin, omissions, and lies. Start scrutinising every piece of information you communicate to your target markets. Ask yourself, "Will this hold up to scrutiny?
The irony that underpins every story about marketers who lie is that the company they work and lie for has to be trusted before it can deceive. Or else no one will believe the lie. This is called reputation mining. Once trust is earned, consumers lower their guard when they should be careful and alert at all times during the pre-purchase period, often with unpleasant consequences.
What exactly is reputation mining and how can it lead to deception?
Authors of Phishing for Phools and Nobel laureates Robert J. Shiller and George Akerlof explain:
George Akerlof: Lets say you have this reputation for selling wonderful avocados. Then you have the opportunity to start selling people awful avocados if thats more profitable. We think thats how things [happened] in financial markets [before] the 2008 financial crisis.
Robert Shiller: Financial markets are a special case because they present, for most people, a very difficult judgment about the future: What is this market going to do? It invites a kind of exploitation of them by storytellers, people who will play tricks on them to get their money to manage. In many cases, theyre more sales and marketing people than market researchers.
In conclusion, it is true that companies and marketers might try to take advantage of consumers and investors, perhaps with outright lies, perhaps with subtler forms of deception, perhaps by manipulating their emotions. But from the standpoint of standard marketing and economic thinking, thats nothing to panic about. The first line of defence is competition itself and the markets invisible hand. Companies and marketers that lie, deceive, and manipulate people are not going to last long if they continue lying, deceiving and manipulating consumers. The second line of defence is the law. If a company is really engaging in fraud or deception, government regulators might well get involved, and customers are likely to have a right to compensation.
But for economists and marketers, competitive markets are generally trustworthy, and so the old Latin phrase retains its relevance: caveat emptor.
The companies and brands mentioned on this article, and many more not mentioned, all had long-standing good reputations. All had so much to lose. Whether they lose so much is debatable.
*Note that Bizcommunity staff and management do not necessarily share the views of its contributors - the opinions and statements expressed herein are solely those of the author.*
Ringier Africa and One Africa Media (OAM) have agreed to merge their pan-African Classifieds assets to create and grow Africa's largest classifieds group. In the joint venture deal announced today, 10 May 2016, Ringier One Africa Media (ROAM) was officially launched - becoming Africa's classifieds leader.
Ringier Africa GM, Leonard Stiegeler
The new entity comprises some of the continents leading homegrown brands, including OAMs Jobberman, Brighter Monday, Cheki, BuyRent Kenya and PrivateProperty Nigeria; as well as Ringier Africas Expat-Dakar, ZoomTanzania and PigiaMe. Jointly, the existing shareholders of both companies have committed to continue to significantly invest into the JV to build out its market leadership.
As millions more Africans come online to connect and conduct commerce, predominantly via mobile, Ringier One Africa Media is strategically positioned to lead the marketplaces double digit growth, covering both vertical - car, real estate and jobs - and horizontal classifieds businesses.
The new joint venture between the companies and further joint investment into its brands will enable the creation of nation-wide synergetic classifieds systems allowing for improved user experience and improved audience reach across currently six African countries in three strategic regions: Nigeria and Ghana in English-speaking West Africa; Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in East Africa; and Senegal in French-speaking West Africa.
Ringier Africa brings into the joint venture extensive marketing and distribution capabilities, its unparalleled knowledge of horizontal classifieds in some of the continents biggest economies, and its considerable group experience in applying local and international knowledge to developing internet markets.
One Africa Media brings with it its extensive knowledge of serving professional traders and companies with vertical classifieds in Africa, state-of-the art technology to service its users on all devices and platforms and a strong group of founders of its brands. Additionally, One Africa Media is backed by US-based Tiger Global Management, and SEEK, a leading employment classifieds group based out of Australia.
Improved user experience and improved audience reach across currently six African countries
In ROAM, the leadership of the groups classifieds companies will be joint together and OAMs CEO Justin Clarke will become the Acting CEO of the new group.
Ringier Africa and Asia CEO Robin Lingg, said: One Africa Media has pioneered the vertical classifieds market in Africa - and Ringier has built and grown some of the biggest horizontal marketplaces on the continent. We now have a clear, focused vision to operate and grow Sub-Saharan Africas most innovative, expansive and profitable classifieds company together.
Ringier Africa GM Leonard Stiegeler, added that the joint focus of ROAM will be to serve its users across Africa with best-in-class marketplace platforms. Combining the groups strengths will help our users reach a larger audience with their offers and find what they are looking for easier and faster.
Since it was founded in 2010 by Justin Clarke and the late Carey Eaton, One Africa Media has aggregated and grown Africas largest marketplaces in employment, auto and property. Apart from the assets that form part of the deal, OAM is also a stakeholder in the South African-based Private Property South Africa and Safari Now. OAMs largest investors and shareholders are Tiger Global Management and SEEK.
Ringier Africa, established in 2011, is the continents leading diversified digital media company - with a focus on content, classifieds, e-commerce and digital agencies. In content it runs the leading West African news platforms Pulse and its pan-African digital agency network is called Ringier Digital Marketing (RDM). Ringier Africa is fully owned by Ringier AG, Switzerlands leading international media company.
Al Ismaili, Shehzad Tejani and Faiz Hirani make up the formidable 'triforce' of Bamba Group , a Kenyan tech startup that has modernised data collection. Bamba's SMS, app and web data collection software is able to run in any country - including emerging markets - and enables clients to communicate, survey and obtain feedback from beneficiaries, clients, suppliers and the public.
Bamba Group co-founders and directors: Al Ismaili, Faiz Hirani and Shehzad Tejani
Bamba Group also happens to be the first East African country selected by prominent US tech accelerator Techstars, as reported earlier this year. In the spirit of #AfricaMonth, the founders share why they believe Nairobi is rife with opportunity and offer some startup advice for aspiring techpreneurs.
Describe your product offering. What makes it unique?
Bamba Group: Bamba deploys technology to help organisations increase their efficiency through data collected accurately and within the timeframes they specify. Bambas solution helps our customers track their teams progress against set objectives and to reduce their costs. Our SMS, app and web data collection software enables our clients to communicate, survey and obtain feedback from their beneficiaries, clients, suppliers and the public. The unique feature of the product is the ability to incentivise respondents to reply to surveys.
What are the opportunities and challenges for tech startups in Kenya right now?
Bamba Group: One of the great things about the tech ecosystem in Nairobi is the diversity of the problems local tech startups are tackling. From data collection to the Google Maps-based address system and GPS-tracked boda-boda rides. It is a fantastic environment to work in. The key opportunity is the sheer scale of unaddressed needs in all the sectors of human activity - education, transportation, communications, finance, to name but a few.
Running a startup in an African country comes with challenges such as the lack of funding, which is available for the Silicon Valley based startups, for example. Another challenge every tech startup faces in Nairobi is the relatively small size of the pool of highly skilled developers.
How has Bamba Group been funded?
Bamba Group: Our passion for what we do and our ambition to make Bamba a great company has been the key to our success to date. We have grown in size with many more employees and clients. Bamba began as a team of three. We called ourselves 'triforce'. The triforce team was confident in the companys potential and invested our own money when we started. It took us a year to get our first client whose payments covered our expenses.
What is your long-term vision for Bamba Group?
Bamba Group: Bambas near future plan is to open up offices across the globe and become the leading provider of the SMS-based services.
What practical advice can you give aspiring African techpreneurs?
Bamba Group: We have learnt a great deal since the company was founded. Here is the advice we would pass on to any techpreneur:
1. Let the market help you shape your product. Embrace agility if you want to succeed in an industry that is rapidly evolving.
2. Place your employees at the heart of your organisation. Pay them well and treat them well. Help them feel like they're an integral part of the company so that they can clearly see how they contribute to the companys success.
3. Selling is hard especially while the first product is being built. There were many nos before we got our first yes from a client. It took almost a year of persistence before we got our first customer. What also helped was our ability to adjust our course quickly enough when things were not working.
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Czech Republic: University holds Racist Ball, Says Nothing Wrong with Stereotypes
10. 5. 2016 / Sam Graeme Beaton
cas cteni 3 minuty
The Janacek Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (JAMU) is facing criticism and allegations of racism after photos of a themed ball, titled From Ray Charles to Kanye West (Od Raye Charlese po Kanyeho Westa) have been circulated on social media. The event, which was held at Divadlo na Orli at the end of February, was advertised through graphics featuring fried chicken and watermelon, a long-held stereotype concerning African American people, with the venue being listed on the Facebook event page as being in a small ghetto in the middle of Brno (V malem ghettu uprostred Brna). In addition, the traditional competition to find the King and Queen of the ball was renamed in favour of selecting the Biggest pimp and top hoe (nejvetsiho pimpa a top hoe), another crude stereotype concerning sexual promiscuity of black people. It is unclear whether the event was officially sanctioned by JAMU, however the email address provided on the event page does feature a jamu.cz email address.
166 photos of the ball, which have been uploaded to Facebook, include watermelon decorations, servings of fried chicken and at least nine people in blackface, a practice which has been widely condemned for its racist origins. Several participants can be identified by being tagged in the photos, and all appear to be studying at JAMU. After being challenged over the theme and content of the ball, Ples JAMU defended the actions, stating that thank goodness we do not have to share all trends, influences and opinions on the social, political and cultural situation of the United States in Central Europe (Diky bohu nemusime ve stredni Evrope sdilet veskere tendence, vlivy a nazory tykajici se socialni, politicke a kulturni situace ve Spojenych statech) and claiming that the method of expressing admiration for the artistic creations of a particular ethnicity does not particularly matter (Co konkretne se vam na inspiraci a svym zpusobem i vyjadreni obdivu k umelecke tvorbe urciteho etnika nezda?). These replies have been met with derision. As one commentator put it, A celebration of black music and culture does NOT look like this.
As further scrutiny has been placed on racism in the Czech Republic and Slovakia over the past year in light of welcoming further refugees and asylum seekers into Europe, the JAMU ball reflects further ingrained and even institutionalised stereotyping that goes beyond the current increase in racism towards people of Middle Eastern origin. The ball panders to a crude and offensive representation of black people, of which many tropes go back more than one hundred years to the days of mass disenfranchisement and segregation of African Americans. That this has originated from students of a university raises the question if enough if being done to combat discrimination in higher education and amongst the wider student population.
There are stories like this in the Czech Republic every day that never make it to the outside world because of a lack of translation. You can support us and help reveal what's happening in Central Europe today. Please make a contribution today on www.paypal.com and send your donation to redakce@blisty.cz. We fully rely on crowdfunding in our work. Thank you.
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Czech police has shelved the investigation of a knife attack against a muslim man in Prague
10. 5. 2016
cas cteni < 1 minuta
The Prague police has decided to shelve the investigation of a knife attack against a muslim man which took place in Prague in January. "We received the decision to shelve the investigation of the crime on Monday," said the man's partner, activist Eva Z. She added that her boyfriend was shocked by the news. "He has emigrated into what he thought was a democratic country and now he sees that it is perhaps not that democratic, after all."
The Czech police has refused to comment, but said that the muslim man can appeal against the decision to shelve the investigation.
Source in Czech HERE
There are stories like this in the Czech Republic every day that never make it to the outside world because of a lack of translation. You can support us and help reveal what's happening in Central Europe today. Please make a contribution today on www.paypal.com and send your donation to redakce@blisty.cz. We fully rely on crowdfunding in our work. Thank you.
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The president has until May 20 to renew the sanctions authority and is facing pressure from a business-led coalition of lobbyists to let it expire, the group said in a press release.
While some clamber for normalized U.S. relations with Burma, international crimes against minorities persist and the unreformed military maintains significant political power, said former U.S. Congressman Tom Andrews, President of United to End Genocide. President Obama has until May 20 to stand up against those responsible for atrocity crimes and support the many genuine reformers in the country.
The 34-page report, Supporting Human Rights in Myanmar: Why the U.S. Should Maintain Existing Sanctions Authority, describes how Myanmar authorities continue to confine more than 140,000 Rohingya and other Muslims to more than 40 squalid internment camps in Rakhine State, while another one million Muslims in the country face severe restrictions, particularly on freedom of movement. The report also alleges that the Myanmar Army is responsible for perpetrating with impunity extrajudicial killings, torture, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and forced labour against Kachin civilians in an ongoing civil war in the countrys north.
While very positive reforms are taking place in the country, ethnic and religious minorities continue to endure systematic abuses, said Matthew Smith, Executive Director of Fortify Rights. The scale of ongoing abuses and the militarys outsized role in those abuses demands more focus now, not less.
The new report draws on 43 interviews conducted by Fortify Rights and United to End Genocide with eyewitnesses and survivors of human rights violations as well as U.N. officials and others in Yangon Division, Rakhine State, and Kachin State in Myanmar in March and April 2016.
The organizations expressed particular concern about ongoing and unchecked abuses in ethnic areas that may amount to atrocity crimes defined under international law as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.
Since reforms began in earnest in Myanmar in 2011, the U.S. has removed most economic sanctions against the country, including most investment bans and trade embargos.
Existing U.S. sanctions on Myanmar ban imports of jade and rubies and target Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) responsible for human rights abuses. U.S. businesses are prohibited from doing business or completing transactions with blacklisted persons or businesses, and arms transfers and investments with Myanmars Ministry of Defence are also prohibited. In 2012, the U.S. further implemented annual reporting requirements for U.S. investments in Myanmar exceeding $500,000 in order to promote responsible investment.
Myanmars jade trade generated an estimated $31 billion in 2014 alone, much of which is unaccounted for or kept out of state coffers. The countrys jade mines produce the worlds highest quality jade and are located in contested territories in war-torn Kachin State. Myanmar military-owned firms, drug lords, and others are said to control the jade trade, including many individuals and entities presently sanctioned by the U.S. government.
The current sanctions regime is deliberately limited and creates incentives for human rights abusers to clean up their act, said Matthew Smith. These measures are sensible and should remain in place. Known human rights abusers shouldnt profit from improved bilateral relations.
In Rakhine State, the report describes how displaced Rohingya, Kaman, and other Muslims are denied adequate food, shelter, and health care. The authorities continue to impose severe restrictions against more than one million stateless Rohingya and other Muslims, including on freedom of movement, infringing on the rights to health, education, and livelihood.
In Kachin and Shan states, armed conflict since June 2011 has displaced more than 100,000 ethnic civilians, and authorities have restricted humanitarian organizations access. Myanmar Army soldiers have committed extrajudicial killings, torture, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, forced labour, and used human shields in the conduct of the war, according to eyewitnesses, survivors, and aid workers interviewed by Fortify Rights and United to End Genocide.
Fortify Rights and United to End Genocide believe these acts may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law.
The report concludes that the political environment remains fragile despite significant political reforms over the past few years, including a transfer of power in April to President Htin Kyaw, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, and their partythe National League for Democracy (NLD).
The same military that ruled Myanmar for decades maintains disproportionate influence today. With the authority to appoint 25 percent of parliamentary seats, the military enjoys an effective constitutional veto and, through the constitution, it controls three key government ministriesDefence, Home Affairs, and Border Affairs.
Fortify Rights and United to End Genocide recommend that the U.S. Government establish clear benchmarks for the eventual lifting of sanctions, including unfettered humanitarian access to displaced persons, the abolishment of orders and practices that impose restrictions violating the human rights of Rohingya and other Muslims, and the amendment of the 1982 Citizenship Law, which revoked Rohingya access to citizenship.
While Myanmar has undergone significant reform in recent years, authorities continue to commit gross human rights violations across the country, said Tom Andrews. President Obama should renew the sanctions authority without delay and make clear that promoting human rights in Myanmar will remain a priority in U.S. foreign policy.
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BENGALURU (PTI): In a bid to carry out better research in the area of rocket nozzle, Indian Space Research Organisation has established Nozzle Testing Laboratories at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Nozzle Testing laboratories (NTL) that were inaugurated recently by ISRO Chairman, are "unique" facilities established for the first time in the country towards carrying out advanced R&D in the area of rocket nozzle, ISRO said.
Stating that performance improvement in propulsion systems is essential towards achieving cost effective launch vehicles, the space agency said apart from propellant energetics, the nozzle plays a vital role in improving propulsion system performance.
It said by improving performance of existing nozzles and developing new nozzle concepts, which can operate at both low and high altitude regimes, it is possible to obtain significant gains in the delivered specific impulse of rockets.
ISRO said the NTL has the capability to cater to a wide range of studies related to nozzles such as contour optimisation for large AR (Area Ratio) nozzles, flow separation, techniques for flow separation control, nozzle wall heat transfer, among others.
The NTL consists of a Nitrogen gas generation and storage system, a graphite cored induction heater (for heating nitrogen), a test chamber, a diffuser system and heat exchanger, coolant system and power supply systems.
For nozzle performance evaluation, heated nitrogen gas is allowed to expand in nozzles kept in the test chamber having simulated altitude pressure, ISRO said.
Noting that gaseous nitrogen admitted to the storage heater from the top exits the heater at the required temperature, it said the facility utilises fast response pressure transducers and instrumentation to study nozzle phenomena.
Nozzles up to Area Ratio (AR) 300 and more can be tested in the facility.
The planet Mercury is seen in silhouette, lower third of image, as it transits across the face of the sun Monday, May 9, 2016, as viewed from Boyertown, Pennsylvania. Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls
NEW DELHI (PTI): Scores of people across India on Monday observed a rare astronomical phenomenon, Mercury's transit of the Sun, that occurs only 13 times in a century as planet Mercury was seen navigating as dot on the solar disc.
This phenomenon took place when the planet was seen as a small black dot travelling from one limb of the solar disc to the other.
This occurs only when the Sun, Mercury and the Earth are lined up in one plane. It appears as a dot on the disc because its angular size is very small compared to that of the Sun as seen from the Earth.
The next transit of Mercury will take place on November 11, 2019 but the event cannot be seen from India as the same will begin after the sunset time of all places in the country.
"The transit of Mercury on November 13, 2032 will be visible again from India," Deputy Director, Nehru Planetarium, Delhi, N Rathnasree said.
The phenomenon is a relatively rare one which occurs 13 or 14 times in a century. It occurs in May and November. The interval between one November transit and next November transit may be 7, 13 or 33 years whereas the interval between one May transit and the next May transit may be 13 or 33 years.
There were also a warning issued not to view the phenomenon with a naked eye.
"In Delhi, we had also created a dark room in which the enlarged Sun was viewed on a projector. More than a thousand people attended the session," Rathnasree said.
In all the four metropolitans, the event started at 4.41 PM.
In Kolkata, despite a partially overcast sky, enthusiasts on Monday viewed the passage of the mercury across the sun.
"The size of mercury being very small in comparison to the sun, it appeared just like a dot on the solar disc," Director of Positional Astronomy Centre (PAC) Sanjib Sen said here.
The transit of Mercury was visible from most parts of of Asia (except south eastern parts and Japan), Europe, Africa, Greenland, South America, North America, Arctic, North Atlantic Ocean and much of the Pacific Ocean area.
The entire transit, from beginning to end, was visible from eastern North America, northern South America, the Arctic, Greenland, extreme northwestern Africa, western Europe, and the North Atlantic Ocean.
The last transit of Mercury had occurred on November 6, 2006 when just the end of the event was visible from the extreme north-eastern parts of India at sunrise.
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Altona-born radio host and executive Eric Friesen will be presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Brandon University during their spring convocation later this month.
Mr. Friesens support and promotion of the performing arts over the course of his distinguished career have enriched the lives of individuals in Canada and beyond, said Brandon University president and vice-chancellor Gervan Fearon. At Brandon University, we believe arts and culture nurture personal growth and foster a quality of life that attracts individuals to communities. Mr. Friesens contributions exemplify this outlook.
Friesen began his storied career at a local radio station before hosting several CBC Radio programs, including Studio Sparks, OnStage at Glenn Gould Studio and In Performance as well as serving as a network executive. He has been the program director for the launch of classical and jazz station, Classic 107, in Winnipeg, a host on Minnesota Public Radio and works as a consultant for Radio New Zealand Concert.
Provided
He also serves as the artistic director of the Studio S festival at the Thousand Islands Playhouse in Ontario, chairman of the Honens international music festival in Calgary and he co-hosts a book club at a federal prison in Kingston, Ont.
Last week, the university announced that former Prime Minister Paul Martin would also receive an honorary degree from the university.
The degree will be presented to Friesen at an afternoon ceremony on May 27. The university said it grants honorary degrees based on significant service to the university community or society; excellence in professional life or public service; or advancement of knowledge through research or teaching.
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TORONTO Canadians could soon find themselves leaving their wallets behind when they step out for a coffee or a bite to eat, as all five of the countrys biggest banks announced partnerships Tuesday with Apple Pay.
The mobile payment system allows customers to upload credit and debit card information to certain Apple devices such as newer model iPhones and Apple Watches.
Customers can then use their devices to pay for purchases of up to $100 at stores and restaurants that are equipped to handle the technology.
Apples tap-and-pay system was first launched south of the border in 2014 and has been gradually expanding internationally.
It was introduced in Canada last November but without support from the big banks, so it was only previously available to Canadians with American Express cards.
Avinash Chidambaram, vice-president of product and platform development at Interac, says he expects Canadians to embrace the technology quickly and readily.
When Apple Pay launched in the United States, contactless payments were a new phenomenon for shoppers, and it took some time for them to adjust their payment habits.
Canadians, on the other hand, are already used to paying with a tap because the technology was introduced into credit and debit cards some time ago, Chidambaram says.
(In Canada) you can find contactless Flash terminals at virtually any merchant that you want to shop at, says Chidambaram.
Whereas in the U.S. theyre just starting that process of converting their magnetic stripe (cards) to chip-and-pin and contactless technology.
However, Jonathan Magder, Canadian payments lead with Accenture Strategy, says getting customers to change their habits can be tricky.
Motivating shoppers to change how they pay will require incentives such as discounts, coupons or reward points, he says.
Will Apple Pay really drive mobile payments adoption in Canada? I think it could help a bit, but until you go beyond payments it wont move the needle that far, says Magder.
Royal Bank (TSX:RY) and CIBC (TSX:CM) customers as well as holders of Canadian Tire Bank and ATB Financial MasterCards were able to use Apple Pay as of Tuesday.
TD Bank (TSX:TD) says it will make the service available for Interac and Visa cards in the coming weeks.
The Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) and Scotiabank (TSX:BNS) have indicated they will roll out Apple Pay in the coming months.
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MONTREAL Engineering giant SNC-Lavalin said Tuesday it wants to turn the page on its checkered past by making restitution to municipalities and other public bodies in Quebec for obtaining contracts through questionable means.
The provincial government launched a program last November aimed at recovering money paid in connection with public contracts obtained as a result of fraud or fraudulent tactics. It gives businesses and individuals two years to voluntarily make such payments for contracts dating as far back as 1996.
Following an internal investigation, Montreal-based SNC has decided to submit in the coming days what it said will be a fair proposal to make restitution for some contracts obtained in Montreal, Laval, Quebec City and Saint-Cyprien.
SNC Lavalin President and CEO Neil Bruce speaks to reporters in Montreal, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, following a business luncheon. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
We think its important for us to put everything in the last 20 years in the past and move on and this is a great opportunity for us to do that, CEO Neil Bruce told reporters after speaking to the Montreal Board of Trade.
Other municipalities or public bodies that feel wronged can present evidence as to why they should obtain restitution. They have 60 days following the submission of a companys proposal to formally respond before negotiations begin through Francois Rolland, a retired judge who will act as mediator.
Quebecs justice minister has to approve all settlements, which must be reached by November 2017.
Although the company said in a news release that it is making the payments in response to the government program, Bruce said SNC-Lavalin isnt admitting culpability and only following the process set up by the province.
Were basically taking the opportunity to enter the process, which is a global agreement that basically puts anything that may or may not have happened in the past, Bruce said.
By participating in the program, companies cannot be sued civilly over the contracts but are not immune from criminal charges.
Top SNC-Lavalin executives testified before the Charbonneau corruption inquiry that the company illegally donated money to provincial and municipal political parties to obtain work contracts.
SNC-Lavalin (TSX:SNC) said Tuesday it has found no evidence of its involvement in fraud relating to provincial contracts.
While several former company executives face fraud-related charges involving the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, the actions didnt raise the price of the contract, said company spokesman Louis-Antoine Paquin.
Under the reimbursement program, companies repay at least 20 per cent of the value of the contracts plus a 10 per cent administrative charge.
The process allows details and penalties to remain confidential, although a final amount recovered by all participants will be disclosed in late 2017 or early 2018.
Although the process isnt fully transparent, its a way to collect and disperse money without provoking an interminable numbers war among participating companies, said Michel Nadeau, head of Quebecs institute of good governance of private and public organizations.
I hope the judge in charge will find a good settlement and, at the end of the process, the Quebec government will say we collected $180 million from the 10 to 12 engineering firms, he said in an interview.
Quebecs restitution program doesnt affect contracts in other provinces or those awarded by the federal government. It also doesnt affect criminal fraud and corruption charges SNC-Lavalin faces over allegations of illegal activity in Libya. The company has said it will plead not guilty to those charges.
Bruce said participating in the provincial program is the latest in a string of efforts to rebuild its reputation since it uncovered problems in 2012 that led to the removal of a former chief executive and other senior officials.
The Autorite des marches financiers, Quebecs securities regulator, certified SNC-Lavalin to do business with the provinces public sector organizations after the company strengthened its ethics and compliance measures.
In December 2015, SNC-Lavalin signed an administrative agreement under a federal government program that allows companies facing charges to continue to secure contracts from Ottawa.
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OTTAWA Theres nothing frightening about adopting and implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said Tuesday at the UN.
Bennett earned a standing ovation from a UN forum in New York by announcing that Canada is now a full supporter of the 2007 declaration, without qualification.
But what that declaration signifies in the Canadian context depends on who you ask.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett talks with reporters at a meeting of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat in Halifax on Wednesday, in an April 27, 2016, file photo. Bennett earned a standing ovation from a UN forum today in New York when she announced Canada will move forward with implementing the declaration. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
In the words of one lawyer who represents indigenous resource interests: Treaty making starts again today.
UNDRIP, the acronym by which the declaration is known, describes a global set of collective and human rights covering indigenous issues including language, identity, culture and traditions, health and education and free, prior, informed consent over resource extraction. The declaration is not considered legally binding.
What does this mean for Canada now? Bennett told the UNs permanent forum on indigenous issues.
It means nothing less than a full engagement on how to move forward with adoption and implementation, done in full partnership with First Nations, the Metis nation and Inuit peoples.
Canada is uniquely placed, she said, because it is one of the few states in the world that has already incorporated indigenous rights, in Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act.
By adopting and implementing the declaration, we are excited that we are breathing life into Section 35 and recognizing it now as a full box of rights for indigenous peoples in Canada, said the Liberal minister.
Canada was one of four countries, including Australia, New Zealand and the United States, that voted against the declaration when it was first passed in 2007 even though Canadian diplomatic officials had helped draft the original declaration.
The former Conservative government initially argued that the free, prior and informed consent provisions amounted to a de facto indigenous veto on major resource projects, and questioned how UNDRIP could be accommodated within existing Canadian constitutional protections.
Bennett did not directly address those concerns Tuesday, but said the declaration fits within Canadas long history of treaty and constitutional rights.
Lets be honest: implementing UNDRIP should not be scary, she said.
Recognition of elements of the declaration began 250 years ago with the Royal Proclamation, which was about sharing the land fairly. UNDRIP reflects the spirit and intent of our treaties.
The countrys two largest resource extraction industry associations welcomed the adoption of UNDRIP, with both the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Mining Association of Canada saying the declaration largely mirrors practices already adopted by resource companies over the past decade.
These are opportunities to recast relationships, Brian McGuigan, CAPPs manager of aboriginal policy, said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
A lot of our companies feel they already achieve a lot of whats required by UNDRIP in a corporate context and in a resource development context.
Pierre Gratton, president and CEO of the mining association, presented the Liberal governments position as correcting a historical anomaly.
Weve been historically seen as a leader but then we had this funny situation at the UN where we were a dissenter on something that was so important to indigenous peoples worldwide, Gratton said in an interview.
This move really puts us back where we properly belong and also where I think, in practice, we have largely been.
But Larry Innes, a lawyer with Toronto firm Olthuis, Kleer and Townsend who represents First Nations groups, said resource industries are looking a bit in the rear-view mirror in their assessments of UNDRIP.
Consultation with indigenous communities on mitigation measures for major resource projects has become established practice, but free, prior and informed consent means much more than that, Innes argues.
Comments this week from Bennett and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould suggest a new nation-to-nation relationship is indeed in the works.
Its easy to be dismissive of this as a lot of fuzzy warmth, said the lawyer, whose clients include the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in the heart of oilsands country.
But for those of us who have been in the trenches on this for a while, were hearing different things today than we have in the past.
Since the patriation of the Constitution in 1982, governments have taken the view that Section 35 is a mostly empty vessel until courts read rights into it through litigation, said Innes.
Bennett on Tuesday acknowledged Section 35 entails a full suite of rights, with UNDRIP as the backdrop.
Treating indigenous peoples as governments to be consulted rather than simply stakeholders is a whole new ball game, said Innes. Treaty making starts again today.
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Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version had an incorrect first name for Brian McGuigan.
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Vanessa Hamilton is promising to rebuild the Manitoba Liberal Party in Brandon, even after a surprise announcement that leader Rana Bokhari, who originally convinced Hamilton to join the party, will step down.
From the moment I met Rana, I believed in her and her vision for Manitoba, Hamilton said when she announced shed give up her seat on Brandons city council to run for the Manitoba Liberals in the spring election.
On Monday, Hamilton said she had a good chat with Bokhari shortly after the election, which saw both Hamilton and Bokhari finish in third place in their respective constituencies, but hasnt spoke with her since and wasnt aware of her plans to quit.
File photo Brandon East Liberal candidate Vanessa Hamilton, right, greets provincial Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari at the East End Community Centre to officially kick off her campaign in January.
I heard first, like others, via social media, she said, adding she originally supported Bokharis decision to stay on as leader but is now supporting her decision to step down.
Bokhari announced her plan to resign in a written statement Saturday evening, days after telling reporters she was intending to stay on and possibly run in a byelection to gain a legislature seat.
The leader has been under pressure to step down after leading a campaign that featured several gaffes and missteps. The Liberals had only one seat in the legislature prior to the election, but had high hopes based on strong polling numbers and the popularity of the federal Liberals.
I dont hold anybody at fault, I knew going in what I was getting into. I know that the Liberal party didnt have a lot of money, that was no secret, Hamilton said. She said her campaign was run on about $2,000.
The organization of the Liberal party has been negligible for a long time and she did do a lot of work. I think all members and all candidates need to respect what she brought to the party and not diminish her role in that.
Hamilton will take a few months away from politics and then focus on better organizing the party in the Wheat City.
She admitted that next election the party needed to have candidates installed sooner, and may need to dig itself out of debt.
Were meeting soon to discuss everything and I have no idea what shape were in. If we are in debt and we need to get ourselves out before we continue on and build ourselves for the next election. Thats the main priority for sure.
On April 19, three Liberals Cindy Lamoureux, former leader Jon Gerrard and Judy Klassen were elected. All three ruled out a run for the leadership Monday. That means the party, which has already struggled financially to pay Bokhari a salary as leader, may have to find money to pay a replacement as well.
Brandon University political science Prof. Kelly Saunders said its shocking that none of the three MLAs will take over the leadership.
Right from the start they have to appoint another interim leader and then they can start the process, she said. In her statement, Bokhari said she would remain as interim leader until a replacement was found.
She cant stay on as interim leader if shes looking to help the party rebuild over the long term, Saunders said.
Saunders figures that between a rebuilding NDP both nationally and provincially, and a newly elected PC party with a host of tough decisions to make, theres still potential for the provinces third party to make gains when the legislature goes into session on May 16.
Theres going to be a budget coming down, you want your people in place now you need to come down guns blazing. You need to have a presence in question period and scrums, holding the governments feet to account that is probably going to be a pretty tough budget.
And if they manage that, Saunders doesnt think Brandonites are adverse to voting Liberal.
When you look at the federal election in October, the city of Brandon went Liberal there was a split between Brandon and Souris, she said.
And next time around, Hamilton will still be here.
I know this is where I belong and I feel comfortable here. Im not going anywhere.
tbateman@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press
Twitter: @tombatemann
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A Honduran man who raped a woman as she slept might be deported after serving his jail sentence, his lawyer says.
His children have applied to come to Canada to be with their father and their plans may also be at risk, defence lawyer Philip Sieklicki said.
Obviously, this offence is completely his fault, Sieklicki said. But it would be unfortunate if he is deported and his childrens application is affected.
However, in rejecting Santos Fidel Martinez-Tomes request for a conditional sentence, Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said he was the one to blame for the position he put his family in.
I hope that you understand that it was your job to consider their needs, Hewitt-Michta said.
Martinez-Tome raped a woman in the summer of 2013, after she had come to his home with a friend and fell asleep after drinking.
She awoke to find Martinez-Tome on top of her having sex with her.
Martinez-Tome admitted what hed done to police, later pleaded guilty to sexual assault and the 40-year-old was sentenced on Monday.
He received 18 months in jail, followed by 18 months of probation.
Martinez-Tome escaped a life of poverty in Honduras, and came to Canada in 2008 to work at Maple Leaf Foods and pursue a better life for his family.
His wife and five children remain in Honduras, and had hoped they could join him in Brandon soon.
ihitchen@brandonsun.com
Twitter: @IanHitchen
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FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. Its impossible to tell where one house ended and the next began.
Zoom out on this stretch of Beacon Hill Drive in southwest Fort McMurray and its a scene sapped of colour all charred black, ashy white and sickly beige.
Zoom in and everyday objects become discernible in a tangled sea of rubble the lopsided frame of a swingset, a barbecue, a wire cage for a pet hamster or bird.
By the curb is the husk of a pickup truck, its tires melted puddles on the pavement. Further back, the remnants of a wall, crumpled like a piece of paper, and whats left of a homes interior plumbing, water still spurting out.
Yet bus shelters remain intact.
Beacon Hill was one of the first Fort McMurray neighbourhoods to catch fire a week ago, regional fire chief Darby Allen told reporters on a bus tour Monday of the northeastern Alberta city.
If not for the quick action and smart decisions of firefighters, much more of Fort McMurray would have suffered the same fate, he said.
Up to 90 per cent of the city was saved in the end 2,400 structures damaged and 25,000 still standing.
As the bus makes its way through downtown Fort McMurrays main drag, Franklin Ave., nothing seems amiss except for the absence of a single human being. Strip malls, the local college and the hospital were all untouched by the flames.
Firefighters worked for 12 hours to keep flames on a thickly treed hillside from spreading, Allen said. Had they not been successful, we would have lost the downtown.
Uphill, in the community of Abasand, its a scene of stark contrast.
On one side of a street, a row of homes is perfectly intact. On the other, a condo complex has been flattened.
Under the parking garage of the complex remain a few parked vehicles. A blackened childrens bicycle leans against a chain-link fence along with an adult-sized one. Across the way is a blackened bath tub and an singed stove, flipped upside-down.
When destroyed buildings can be found so close to pristine ones in the aftermath of a fire, its not a fluke, said Allen.
When you see isolated instances like that, it was specific firefighter operations internally that stopped the spread of that fire.
To Fort McMurray residents seeing the devastating images on television or social media for the first time, Allen had a message hundreds of emergency workers gave their all to save as much of the city as they could.
Fort McMurray is still alive.
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This article was published 10/05/2016 (2358 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
TORONTO It was during a teary conversation with her pastor that a woman who is now accused of killing her stepdaughter said the girl died like a dog after being starved, beaten and locked in a room, a Toronto court heard Tuesday.
Elaine Biddersingh, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Melonie, made the key disclosure to Rev. Eduardo Cruz, who later went to police, giving them a much needed break in the case.
Her words were she was not fed, she was not given medical attention, she was not given anything, Cruz told Biddersinghs trial. She died like a dog. Those were her words, she died like a dog.
Melonies body was found in a burning suitcase in an industrial parking lot north of Toronto in 1994, but her identity remained a mystery until Cruzs conversation with Biddersingh at a St. Catharines, Ont., church in November 2011.
Melonies father, Everton Biddersingh, was found guilty in January of first-degree murder in his daughters death, but jurors at the current trial have been instructed to disregard that conviction as completely irrelevant to the case before them.
Court heard that Elaine Biddersingh, her husband, and two sons had been members of Cruzs congregation for about a year at that point, with the church helping them financially and emotionally as the family was very poor.
I did everything I could to help this family, Cruz said. I try to counsel them, try to help them economically.
One day, Biddersingh lingered around the church until most others had left and then asked to speak with Cruz alone about something important, he recalled.
Cruz asked Biddersinghs husband to leave and then, left alone with the pastor, Biddersingh started to cry, the trial heard.
Biddersingh told Cruz about how Melonie had come from Jamaica to live with her father and stepmother in Toronto, court heard. She told the pastor Melonie was deprived of food and water, and confined to a room, he said.
Cruz said Biddersingh told him about one instance where she tried to give her stepdaughter food but was caught by her husband and beaten for doing so.
She told me (Melonie) was ill, very thin, Cruz said, adding that Biddersingh also told him about her husband beating Melonie. She said that the girl was kept locked in a room.
Biddersingh then told Cruz that Melonie was found dead in the family apartment in 1994, court heard.
Biddersingh did not call police, or call for an ambulance, saying there was no phone in the home at the time, Cruz said.
She didnt call anybody, Cruz said. She just told me they found the girl dead in the room. She didnt tell me I was upset or not upset.'
Biddersingh did, however, tell Cruz how Melonies body ended up in a suitcase, court heard.
Elaine said; I was watching a commercial on TV and I saw a commercial for luggage and I turned around and spoke to Everton and said lets put her in the luggage,' Cruz recounted.
The conversation I had with her is fresh in my mind.
Biddersingh then told Cruz that she, her husband and a stepson drove to a rural area with the suitcase containing Melonies body, where the luggage was set on fire while she sat in the car.
After hearing Biddersinghs story, Cruz said he told the woman he would have to go to the police.
I said what youre telling me is very serious and I need to know if its the truth,' Cruz recalled. She said pastor, its 100 per cent true.'
The trial heard that a few days later, Cruz and Biddersingh met with police, who asked Biddersingh if she felt she was in danger at home.
She said no, Im not afraid, and she said no Im not in danger,' Cruz recalled.
Biddersingh and her husband were arrested in 2012 after a DNA test confirmed Melonies identity.
The trial has heard from a Crown prosecutor that Biddersingh was the mastermind behind horrific physical and emotional abuse suffered by Melonie, while her husband was the enforcer.
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This article was published 10/05/2016 (2358 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Six stories in the news today from The Canadian Press:
RACHEL NOTLEY SAYS 2,400 BUILDINGS LOST IN FORT MCMURRAY, BUT 25,000 SAVED.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says the ocean of fire that hit Fort McMurray burned about 10 per cent of the buildings, but the hard work of firefighters saved the bulk of the city so it can be rebuilt. But as for the 80,000 residents who were ordered out of the Alberta city a week ago today, Notley said theyd have to wait at least two weeks to hear when they might be allowed to return.
FORT MCMURRAY: A CITY OF STARK CONTRASTS
Fire chief Darby Allen took reporters on a bus tour of Fort McMurray yesterday and they saw areas sapped of colour all charred black, ashy white and sickly beige. Zoom in and everyday objects become discernible amid the rubble the lopsided frame of a swingset, a barbecue, a wire cage for a pet. Up to 90 per cent of the city was saved in the end 2,400 structures damaged and 25,000 still standing.
SOURCE: GHOMESHI CHARGE TO BE WITHDRAWN FOR PEACE BOND.
A sexual assault charge laid against former CBC radio star Jian Ghomeshi is expected to be withdrawn Wednesday, a source has told The Canadian Press. In exchange, Ghomeshi will first have to sign a peace bond. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the arrangement means Ghomeshi wont have to face a trial that had been scheduled to start on June 6.
LITTLE APPETITE TO AMEND ASSISTED DYING BILL
A Liberal-dominated committee examining the medically assisted dying legislation is showing little appetite for amendments. Liberal MPs used their majority to reject proposed amendments from the NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green party to make the bill more permissive. At the same time, the Liberals rejected multiple proposed amendments by Conservative MPs to make the bill more restrictive. The committee will continue making its way through some 100 proposed amendments today.
BIG BANKS MOVING TO MEET FINTECH CHALLENGE
Technology firms have turned several industries on their head. The way people buy books, hail a ride home from the bar or find a room for the night while on vacation have all changed. And now financial technology or fintech firms are turning their sights on the banking industry, but Canadas big banks arent going to give up their dominant position without a fight.
CANADIAN DOCTOR DETAINED IN PAKISTAN
A former high-ranking Pakistani politician with Canadian citizenship is being held in Karachi on trumped-up political charges, supporters say. Dr. Asim Hussain, an orthopedic surgeon with family and property ties in London, Ont., was arrested in late August by paramilitary Pakistan Rangers for allegedly financing terrorism through his hospital.
ALSO IN THE NEWS TODAY
Firms reporting results today include Sun Life Financial, Sleep Country, Rona, Yellow Pages, TMX Group, George Weston Ltd., and Kinross Gold
Groups and individuals opposed to Energy East will hold a news conference in Montreal.
Statistics Canada will release the capital and repair expenditures survey.
Opinion
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This article was published 10/05/2016 (2358 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
From the editor: Last Friday, Brandon-Souris Conservative MP Larry Maguire stood up in the House of Commons to speak against a bill brought forward by ailing Liberal MP Mauril Belanger to amend the National Anthem Act. The private members bill sought to change the lyrics in all thy sons command to in all of us command, so to make them gender neutral. Maguire was one of several Tory MPs who stood up to filibuster the bills passage. His speech, as recorded by Hansard, is published below.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Ottawa-Vanier for his dedication and commitment not only to his constituents but also to Parliament and to our great nation. It is a great opportunity for me to say that I first befriended the member for Ottawa-Vanier at the first committee that I was ever charged to be on here in the House of Commons. It was scrutiny of regulations, and he was part of that committee as well. I appreciate his dedication to our country.
These last few months, the member has been a beacon of inspiration to Canadians. He has shown great courage and audacity while carrying out his duties in the House and in his constituency. The mere fact that we are debating his private members bill today in this House is a shining example of his resolve during such challenging times.
Having said that, I will begin my comments regarding Bill C-210.
Our shared history defines us as Canadians. It has shaped our identity. The symbols, events, achievements, and yes, even the lyrics of our national anthem are what bind us together in Canada. For generations, through world wars, horrific tragedies, great achievements, citizenship ceremonies, Olympic games, and the beginning of each school day, we have sung our national anthem, as written, with pride and enthusiasm.
The intent of this legislation is well meaning as we want our symbols and institutions to be as inclusive as they possibly can be; however, rewriting the lyrics of our national anthem in the name of political correctness would go too far. I worry, as do many Canadians, that if the words of our national anthem could be changed through a private members bill, what sort of precedent would we be setting for future changes on other issues of Canadian identity?
Without making light of it, maybe the botanists will be in an uproar about the shape of the maple leaf on our flag and demand that it be changed. Some may be upset that the almighty beaver will not stop chopping down trees, so the National Symbol of Canada Act must be amended to swap out the beaver for an animal that is far less destructive. Yes, for my colleagues or Canadians who may know, the National Symbol of Canada Act recognizes the beaver as the symbol of sovereignty of Canada. While we are at it, perhaps the maple leaf tartan, which is another official national symbol, needs to be redesigned because some people do not like how they look in plaid. I would also be remiss not to point out that the word God is also included in our anthem. Should we amend that line to ensure Canadians who are either agnostic or atheist feel included?
In Canada, we pride ourselves on being inclusive. We strive to accept and understand our differences. However, no one I talk to believes this change is necessary. People do not think our national anthem is broken. Every member of this House wants to recognize Canadian identity through our national anthem. However, we should ask ourselves, is rewriting the words to O Canada necessary?
Given those lyrics as currently written have inspired millions of people to immigrate to our country; while they pulled the heartstrings of millions after winning the gold medal game and many medals in the Vancouver Olympics; were sung at our childrens high school graduations; and stirred millions of brave men and women to fight and die for our country, do we believe this change is necessary or should we refocus our efforts and priorities on growing the economy? Should we be refocusing our time to improve the quality of life for Canadians?
We should also remember that the last government attempted to start the process of changing the anthem, and after listening to Canadians who thought the idea was offside, dropped the process. Remember that every time legislation has been introduced to change the lyrics, the idea has been defeated in this House for over the last 100 years.
I know my hon. colleague is probably thinking that the 11th time is the charm. While I applaud his tenacity, I will decline his revisionism.
I will also encourage all members of this House to carefully weigh the implications of changing our national anthem after it has served us well for over 100 years. Is it worth opening a Pandoras box of changing the symbols of our great nation in the name of political correctness?
I, for one, will stand up for the current national anthem, lacrosse, and yes, even the majestic beaver, so help me, God.
Business leaders in Cork have rejected claims that a new flight to Boston could cause problems with employment laws.
The Department of Transport has given a tentative approval to Norwegian Airlines International to run a direct flight from Cork to Boston.
One graduate has stuck a LED panel on his graduation cap, otherwise known as a mortar board.
A controversial part of the graduates dress, it is often issued only to women in Irish ceremonies which has led to urban legends that the idea of wearing the cap was abandoned in protest at the admission of women to the university.
A senior courts official has called for a "big bang" solution to tackle the housing crisis.
Edmund Honohan, the Government-appointed Master of the High Court who last year said repossessed homes should be nationalised, branded modular houses at 243,000 a unit as a joke.
"We need a big bang in relation to finding property for the public housing sector," he said.
Mr Honohan told the Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness there is no law to stop compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) for repossessed or vacant houses or properties where an owner is threatened with repossession.
"We need to assert the right of the Irish government to attend to a national crisis in as economic and efficient a way as possible, and this certainly is as economic and efficient a way, the immediate seizure of vacant properties," he said.
Mr Honohan said the initiative would freeze evictions and repossessions and give room for a mortgage to rent scheme to allow people to live in the homes and lease them from the state.
The barrister - appointed by the Government to deal with preliminary issues in High Court cases - hit out at the current attempts to solve the unprecedented housing and homelessness crisis.
More than 5,500 people are homeless - a third of them children, tens of thousands of people are on waiting lists for a council house and rents have passed peak boom levels with a home in Dublin costing on average of 1,464 a month.
"From a constitutional point of view, if there's a crisis, which there is, let's not play around with joke solutions like modular housing. Let's get in there and do what's needed," Mr Honohan said.
He later clarified his remarks saying: "I mentioned that modular housing is a joke solution. Modular housing is not, but it is at 243,000 euro a unit - at 90,000 let's put them up."
Mr Honohan said outright purchase of distressed or repossessed homes was the better solution.
He also said he does not see any reason why a rider cannot be attached to a property sale to protect a tenant - giving them first option to buy the home or time to remain to find a new place to live.
Mr Honohan said any challenge in the courts to CPOs could be fought on the basis of the state's "housing crisis".
"The social requirements, the social demands, the common good, overrides the right to property - that's the bottom line," he said.
The hearing took place as residents from an estate in Tyrrelstown, west Dublin, protested outside over the purchase of their rented homes by investors in Twinlite Developments.
Forty tenants have said they have received evictions notices and more than 100 others are in homes owned by the company.
Funke Tobun, spokeswoman for the residents, called for the Government to buy out the investors.
"We want to stay in our homes and are willing to pay reasonable, affordable mortgages or rents," she said.
"The only way this can happen is if the government acquires the homes. There is no other way. This would save the state money anyway as many tenants will become homeless if we leave."
Meanwhile, Mr Honohan said he had also raised concerns about the treatment of lay litigants and the lack of a "debtor friendly" approach in some divisions of the High Court.
"The impression given in the Commercial Court and elsewhere in the High Court is that big money talks," he said.
Mr Honohan also said public private partnerships should be abandoned.
Joan Burton has announced her resignation as leader of the Labour Party.
The former Tanaiste made the announcement at a press conference in the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin.
The move comes after Labour lost 30 seats in Februarys poll - a disastrous result for the party following a tumultuous term in office.
This afternoon I informed my colleagues that I intend to step down as Leader of the party once my successor is elected. -@joanburton The Labour Party (@labour) May 10, 2016
Ms Burton, who was elected leader after the resignation of Eamon Gilmore in 2014, said her resignation will take effect once her successor has been chosen.
Deputy leader Alan Kelly and Cork East TD Sean Sherlock are expected to put their names forward for the upcoming leadership contest.
It is understood that Brendan Howlin may stand, but only if his election is uncontested.
Under Labour rules leadership candidates must be nominated by a TD and seconded by a TD, limiting the options for candidates.
The contest is expected to last several weeks and all party members will be eligible to vote.
Bookmakers Boylesports installed Tipperary TD Mr Kelly as the odds on favourite for the leadership.
The Dublin West TD said she had asked the executive board of the party to immediately make arrangements for the election of a new party leader.
She told reporters she was honoured to serve as Labour leader for two years, and as deputy leader before that.
In 2011, the people of Ireland asked the Labour Party to take on the responsibility of government during the worst economic crisis this State has ever known, she said.
Like most of the party, I entered government with both hope and fear in my heart - hope that with unyielding effort and sustained policy implementation we could turn things around; fear that the situation had already deteriorated to a point of no return.
In the five years that followed, the Labour Party stood by the Republic, helping people back to work, safeguarding the social protection system against those who would have stripped it to the bone, building new schools across the country, and securing the funding for a new social housing programme while all the time dealing with the morass of failed banks and toxic banking debt.
In everything we did, our overriding focus was to bring about recovery so that families could face the future with hope rather than despair, and so that communities could once again prosper.
This afternoon I announced that I intend to stand down as Leader of the Labour Party. My full statement: https://t.co/RXJyco0Wnj Joan Burton (@joanburton) May 10, 2016
"Despite Februarys election result, I firmly believe we made the right decision in 2011.
Ms Burton added that she was conscious the recovery still hasnt been felt in all homes and that the party couldnt deliver quickly enough for many people.
We didnt do everything right but I believe we left Ireland a better place than we found it the true test for any party in government, she said.
The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, thanked the former Tanaiste for her work while in government.
He said: "On her retirement as Leader of the Labour Party, I thank Joan Burton for her work in government over the past five years, both as Tanaiste and as Minister for Social Protection.
"During this time, she and her ministerial colleagues in the Labour Party played a major role in rescuing the Irish economy, which was on the brink of collapse when we entered government in 2011. Many of the tough decisions that had to be taken to turn the country around were unpopular and politically difficult but Joan Burton and her colleagues were steadfast in doing what was right for the country.
"In her role as minister, Joan Burton spearheaded many of the welfare reforms that helped the last government to surpass our job creation targets to the point where the unemployment rate has been reduced from over 15% to 8.4%.
"I would like to wish Joan Burton, her husband Pat and family every success and happiness in the future."
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has said the suspension of water charges will go beyond the nine-month period, as the Dail will not vote to bring them back, writes Daniel McConnell, Irish Examiner Political Editor.
Mr Martin said the charging regime as we have known it since 2014 are now gone and said given that 90 members of the Dail oppose water charges, they are unlikely to be returned.
Speaking on RTE's Today With Sean O'Rourke, Mr Martin revealed that Minister Leo Varadkar revealed during the talks that he felt the water charges was Fine Gael's 'e-voting machines' issue multiplied by ten.
Asked was he breaching the confidentiality of the talks, Mr Martin quipped he was showing the same attitude to the talks that Mr Varadkar adopted.
Mr Martin rejected that his and his party's stance on water charges was nothing more than rank populism. He retorted that the new Government would not have lasted six months had the water issue not been dealt with.
Even though he has argued for their suspension, Mr Martin said those who have not paid water charges to date should do so, as it is the law of the land.
Asked about his own support for the Fine Gael minority government, he denied he would pull the administration down if it was in the best interest of his own party.
"I think people will want to give this Government formation fair wind," Mr Martin said.
He also described the failure of the Government to publish the O'Higgins report into alleged corrupt practices in An Garda Siochana as a scandal.
He was making his comments in the context of widespread leaks to media outlets in recent days, which revealed that many of the complaints made by Garda Maurice McCabe were legitimate, if somewhat exaggerated.
The Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) is calling on the new Government to tackle the rising cost of insurance for the sector.
The call comes as the organisation holds its 43rd annual conference in Wexford this week.
SATs tests for 11-year-olds in England are being sabotaged in an "active campaign" by individuals opposed to British Government reforms, it has been suggested.
A Department for Education (DfE) source blamed a "rogue marker" for the leak of an English test due to be taken by youngsters across England.
It is the second time a paper has been published online in recent weeks.
The answers to the Key Stage Two grammar, punctuation and spelling test are understood to have appeared on a website for an English exam board on Monday evening, where they remained in a password-protected area for several hours before being removed.
A DfE source said: "While the test doesn't appear to have leaked into the public domain and can go ahead, a rogue marker did attempt to leak the test's contents.
"It is clear there is now an active campaign by those people opposed to our reforms to undermine these tests and our attempts to raise standards."
The DfE said it was urgently investigating how the tests appeared on the site for exam markers working for a Government contractor.
The leak was not judged to be significant enough to cancel Tuesday's test, with the number of visitors to the site thought to be in the dozens, but Labour said the gaffe was a "body blow" to parent and teacher confidence in the Government.
A DfE spokesman said: "We are aware that Pearson, the external marking supplier responsible for Key Stage Two tests, published the Key Stage Two grammar, punctuation and spelling test on its secure marker site for a short period of time. We are urgently investigating this breach.
"Unlike the Key Stage One test, we have no evidence to suggest this was leaked into the public domain by the time schools began to administer it. The integrity of the test has not been compromised and schools should and must deliver it as planned.
"The site can only be accessed by Pearson's approved markers, all of whom are under secure contract. Any distribution of materials constitutes a clear breach of that contract."
Last month a spelling test due to be taken by thousands of seven-year-olds was scrapped after it was accidentally released online.
The section of the Key Stage One final exam was published as a sample paper on the DfE website on January 26, which a DfE spokesman described as "deeply regrettable".
Shadow education secretary Lucy Powell called for an emergency review of the primary assessment system in light of the most recent breach.
She said: "The possibility that education ministers have compromised the Sats Key Stage Two spelling and grammar test coming, as it does, hot on the heels of their cancellation of the KS1 spelling and grammar test due to incompetence, calls into question the ability of ministers in the department to properly manage our education system.
"This news undermines the validity of the Sats spelling and grammar test children are sitting today and is a body blow to parent and teacher confidence in the primary assessment system."
Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said the latest leak is a "disaster" for children, schools and teachers.
"After months of confusion and mismanagement, they mark the dismal culmination of a dreadful year for primary pupils and their teachers," she said.
"They constitute an experience which must never be repeated; those who have engineered it must be held to account."
A top leader of the so-called 'Islamic State' group in Iraq's Anbar province has been killed by a coalition air strike, according to the Pentagon.
Abu Wahib and three others were killed when their vehicle was struck on May 6 in Rutba, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said.
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Two teenagers who bashed and robbed an elderly resident during a violent home invasion at a Tuggeranong retirement village tried to steal the man's car to escape, police say.
The two teens are believed to have broken into the man's home at the Goodwin Retirement Village in Monash about 1am on Tuesday, striking him in the head and arm before stealing cash.
The juvenile offenders then tried to flee in the man's car but could not get it started. They smashed a window before they escaped.
The elderly man was treated by paramedics before he was taken to Canberra Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
A police investigation has been launched and forensic officers have examined the scene.
Private equity's push into the Australian coal sector has continued as Denham Capital takes control of some of Peabody Energy's best undeveloped acreage and hints it may buy more of the struggling coal miner's Australian business.
Peabody sold the tenements in Queensland's Bowen Basin to little-known Pembroke Resources, which was only registered as a company in Australia in April 2014.
Struggling: Coal miner Peabody has sold some of its Australian acreage. The coking coal tenements were sold for $104 million and include royalty streams. Credit:Dean Osland
Denham is behind Pembroke, and the move comes after fellow resources-focused fund manager Taurus Funds Management bought Anglo American's Foxleigh coal mine last month.
The coking coal tenements were sold for $104 million and included royalty streams.
A bitter stoush between veteran pollster Gary Morgan and his landlord, a property syndicator backed by the wealthy Liberman family, has ended in a stalemate.
The nasty blueblood spat over unpaid rent and new lifts in a premium Collins Street building ended in Melbourne's Supreme Court with neither Mr Morgan nor his landlord, boutique fund manager Impact Investment Group, being able to claim a win.
Pollster Gary Morgan in front of his offices at 401 Collins Street. Credit:Jesse Marlow
The battle erupted after Impact evicted renowned polling company Roy Morgan Research from its 401 Collins Street address on Christmas Eve last year, a property it had owned for 15 years before signing a $32 million sale and leaseback deal with Impact in 2014.
On the one side was Roy Morgan, one of the nation's most reputable research firms with a host of international clients. On the other was Impact Investment Group, a busy boutique syndicated fund with an ethical mandate founded by Chris Lock with the backing of Danny Almagor and Berry Liberman, daughter of billionaire Boris Liberman.
Retailers' claims that multinational food companies are treating Australia like Treasure Island are a "fallacy" and unless returns improve suppliers will be unable to invest to fuel growth, leading food executives say.
As Australia's largest baker, Goodman Fielder, announced plans on Tuesday to close another regional bakery, George Weston Foods' chief executive-elect Stuart Grainger said investment in new equipment was becoming harder to justify as margins and returns were squeezed by ongoing pricing pressure from the major retailers.
Outgoing George Weston chief executive Andrew Reeves and incoming CEO Stuart Grainger say investment in equipment and innovation is becoming harder to justify as returns come under pressure.
"The average age of food production assets is 40 years, there's investment needed in the assets or in innovation, but both of those are starting to get trickier to justify," Mr Grainger told Fairfax Media in an exclusive interview.
"We invested $250 million (on a new small smallgoods factory in Castlemaine) in 2011 I'm not sure we'd be making that decision today," he said.
"I've got a disability and a low education, that means I've spent my whole life working for minimum wage. You're gonna lift the tax-free threshold for rich people," audience member Duncan Storrar explained. "If you lift my tax-free threshold, that changes my life Rich people don't even notice their tax-free threshold lift. Why don't I get it? Why do they get it?" "We have increased for 500,000 Australians, the ability to no longer be in the second-highest taxation bracket," O'Dwyer replied on an entirely different subject, with a look of "stay on message, don't engage the poor person" fixed to her face. And that was before explaining how the tax breaks would help small businesses afford um, $6000 toasters? That must be a great comfort, Duncan. Toast for all! What colour are those ants, again? Meanwhile Tony Abbott has been keeping himself front-and-centre as a warrior for the most fact-adverse elements of the hard right, from helping launch Kevin "branch stacking? What branch stacking?" Andrews' campaign in Melbourne to hitting the campaign trail with George "Safe Schools are basically pedophiles" Christensen.
But it's not just Tony making a subtle point about who's the real Liberal standard bearer for the party. The Tasmanian Liberal contingent is busily white anting the PM too. That the notoriously conservative state Liberal Party were displeased with the change of leader was made clear when it decided that current Tourism Minister Richard Colbeck would be placed fifth on the Senate ticket (despite being #1 on the 2013 ballot), thereby turning him from a definite candidate to a very probable loss, given that there are currently only four Tasmanian Liberal senators. And since the Turnbull-approved Colbeck will probably be out of a job, they're now agitating for former employment minister Eric Abetz - outspoken Abbott-supporter, Turnbull-critic and angry supporter of dangerously made-up beliefs regarding abortions and breast cancer - to be back on the front bench. "Eric has been a warrior for Tasmania and while he can polarise opinion, Tasmania owes Eric a massive debt," Marcus Allen, who is campaigning for Denison against popular independent MP Andrew Wilkie, told Fairfax. "I have no doubt that when the time is right, Eric's skills and talents will be recognised." So we had a frontbencher looking like a goose, some poor work by the ministry, angry refutation of facts and more signs that the Liberal Party are already positioning themselves to take Turnbull down should he win. What a day!
And how's the opposition doing? Badly, is how! Labor were hardly heaping glory on themselves either. Today began with the party angrily accusing the Greens of entering into preferencing deals with the Coalition in the marginal seats they seek to win from Labor - a wildly implausible situation which the Greens have in any case categorically denied - and then responded to the suggestion from Adam Bandt on last night's QandA that they'd be able to work with Labor in the event of a hung parliament with a jibe that Bandt was "dreaming" and that "Labor will not be going into coalition with any party." Turnbull also ruled out working with the Greens, to which the entire nation went "um, yeah, we'd noticed. Passed that 2014 budget yet? No? Hmmm."
And it's good that Shorten is keen to avoid the nightmare that was Labor under Julia Gillard, when they had to work with independents and the Greens to pass um, the most legislation per day ever. Then Shorten doubled down for the second time in as many days on Labor's commitment to offshore detention and turn backs as it came to light that Labor's candidate for the seat of Herbert, Cathy O'Toole, had been part of the #letthemstay campaign, protesting at the office of the current MP, the LNP's Ewen Jones. And this column went on and on about this yesterday, but it's great to see how happy everyone is to use actual people suffering actual abuse as a platform to look tough on um, people asking for help. So yeah, everything's going just swell for lovers of kind, intelligent policy that's to the benefit of the nation. Top work, team. Dennis the Menace
When American comedy duo Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key came up with a name for the kitten starring in their new film Keanu, they made sure the more famous owner of that name couldn't sue them. "It turns out Keanu Reeves doesn't own the name Keanu," Peele says with a grin, "and we felt because not everybody knows who Key and Peele are that we would pick a mascot to make this movie about something bigger than us and it helped knowing our Keanu was cuter than the other one!" Tough sell: Comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele use a kitten named Keanu to play on audiences' love of their pets. Credit:Steve Dietl It's unlikely the pair will continue to remain under the radar much longer, thanks to their five seasons on the Comedy Central sketch show Key & Peele that turned them into a viral sensation, racking up more than a billion views on YouTube and leading to their biggest fan, President Obama, inviting Key to appear with him at the 2015 White House Correspondent's Dinner as "Luther", his anger translator. In the film, Rell (Peele) is an introverted stoner artist and Clarence (Key) is his naive, all-too-eager cousin. When Rell's kitten, Keanu, is cat-napped, the strait-laced pair must impersonate ruthless killers in order to infiltrate a street gang and retrieve the purloined feline. But the incredibly adorable kitten becomes so coveted that the fight over his custody creates a gang war, forcing the reluctant heroes to take the law into their own hands.
In another nod to their comedy chops, the duo not only earned Keanu Reeves' approval, but also his voice in a scene where Rell is tripping on drugs and thinks the kitten is talking to him. "He was a really good sport," Peele nods gratefully. "His sister had sent him the trailer when it came out and he loved it, so he took time out while shooting a film in Budapest to record the voice for our director." The pair first teamed up on MADtv's sketch show in 2004 and their chemistry was instant. They left after five seasons, and co-starred as FBI agents in the first season of Fargo, while Key has also featured in the final season of Parks and Recreation as well as supporting roles in the films Let's Be Cops and Pitch Perfect 2. Sitting together in a plush Beverly Hills hotel, the biracial comedy team, both 37, acknowledge the idea for the film was initially a tough sell. "When we would tell people we were working on a movie about us and a kitten and that the kitten gets stolen by a gang, their response was usually, 'that sounds ridiculous!' " Peele admits as he smiles over at the movie poster featuring a cute kitten in gang attire. "But Keanu is actually there to make sense of why our characters would put themselves in harm's way: because people have such strong feelings for their pets, you understand why they'd do anything to get him back." Not surprisingly, acting alongside the fussy felines played by seven tiny brown tabbies at various points in filming was not always easy. "There's one point where I have to tell the cat to scratch the picture of my ex-girlfriend, but then you have to make the kitten do what you want instead of fidgeting or looking for somewhere to pee," admits Peele, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film.
Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt. Credit:Sky News And who better to guide us through these thrilling days than a woman about whom we know so much - our encyclopaedic familiarity running the gamut from "Amazonian" to "Asbestos-like in office environments". Yes, we surely do know Peta Credlin well, her height as familiar as any large number on a tape measure and her voice as commonplace to our ears as that of Queen Victoria. Of course, we jest. We don't really know Peta Credlin at all - and given the veracity of what little we do know is still in contention, she must rank as the most famous yet least familiar figure to assume a public role since somebody else who doesn't spring to mind right now. So as Peta takes her place as a Sky News commentator - including debuting a regular Monday engagement opposite the beloved Bolt - it is a much anticipated occasion. She has so far appeared twice. Her first outing was a leisurely Saturday afternoon affair timed perfectly to ensure nobody in the country saw it but that the Murdoch Sunday tabloids had some good copy. Just like a weekend with Tony! So far, so familiar. But the rest was all new: Peta squared off against David Speers, esteemed inquisitor cast in the difficult role of quizzing a contentious political player with whom he had, suddenly, become colleagues.
Speers, as ever, coped just fine. And how did Peta do? She confessed to being nervous -"out of my comfort zone" - but the viewer would hardly have known. She is a natural TV presence - a natural presence, full-stop - and her command of detail, of politics and of policy are well evident. In many ways, the question is not "Why is Peta Credlin on television?", but, "Why wouldn't she be?" But that first appearance with Speers - more an introductory interview than a commentary gig - was not the best way to judge. For that we had to wait for this past Monday evening and her first gab-fest with Bolt - and such serendipity, it fell on the first full day of the election campaign.
What, a keen viewer wondered, would they say? And who would they say it about? Well, to start with, it was all about each other, with Andrew gushing fit to burst as he welcomed his new TV chum. "I love the way you've confronted your critics!" he emoted as if she were Helen of Troy, before hailing her various personal qualities and concluding: "I'm proud to call her a friend." So far, so good, especially for Credlin - because we know what happens when Andrew doesn't consider you a friend. He is better among fellow travellers, especially since launching his brave experiment of merging a media career with an on-going public Rorschach test. As he tries in vain to ever detect a ray of sunshine in all those black splodges, this is a role better played out in friendly company. And who could be more friendly than Peta, with whom Andrew shares both a political philosophy and an abiding concern than Tony Abbott's Caesar-like qualities should never be forgotten by an ungrateful world. Oh, what a time they had! Lamenting this, liking that, looking askance at something over there, with the suggestion never far from either lips or raised eyebrows that Prime Minister Turnbull is a traitorous galoot in a posh suit. And therein lies the rub when it comes to Peta Credlin, TV pundit.
Queenslanders eager to see if part of Mr Turnbull's Smart Cities plan might push back shocking congestion between Brisbane, the Gold and Sunshine coasts, or keen to hear of boosts to education, changes to TAFE or more money for hospitals to help such innovative policy might feel a bit underwhelmed. Another day, another camera click in Queensland. Credit:Andrew Meares Everyone wants to encourage innovation. But on Tuesday, like the day before, there was no link to a specific Coalition policy or funding endeavour. As Mr Turnbull left the hospital in Chermside, in former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan's marginal electorate of Lilley, a young volunteer for Mr Swan held up a few placards.
In days gone by Mr Swan no slouch in front of the cameras and with journalists in general would have provided the alternative side of the economic argument right then and there, front and centre. Not today. Today his young volunteer was on his mobile phone. TV crews packed away. Buses left. Debate gone. In the past two days Mr Turnbull has been photographed and videotaped in five of south-east Queensland's most marginal seats: Petrie, Moreton, Bonner, Forde and Lilley, like a checklist. On Monday morning it was the Brisbane Markets in Rocklea in Labor's marginal seat of Moreton. Lots of images for TV news. But no mention of a Sydney hedge fund that is still trying to buy out that Queensland's iconic fruit and vegetable market.
Then on to Petrie on Brisbane's northside at North Lakes, to promote the government economic action plan, before later appearing at a fruit company in Mansfield in the electorate of Bonner. Then on Tuesday morning, Mr Turnbull visited the electorates of Forde and Lilley, in Loganholme and Chermside.
Tuesday's sole 15-minute media interview simply allowed the Canberra press gallery to raise the issues of the day. And Mr Turnbull rose to his best in weeks at the suggestion quickly denied by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten that the Greens would negotiate a joint-party agreement with Labor to hold government if there was a hung parliament. Mr Turnbull said the Coalition would not negotiate with the Greens if there was a hung parliament, as existed during Julia Gillard's time as prime minister in 2010-2013. "Why would we run the risk of having another Labor-Greens independent government; another hung parliament," Mr Turnbull thundered. "Which is plainly within the contemplation of the Labor Party, it is plainly within the enthusiastic contemplation of the Greens.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has hit back at claims the government's superannuation proposals are retrospective as the Institute of Public Affairs prepares a public campaign against the "unfair" policies.
The free market think-tank, which has close ideological ties to the Coalition, is the latest force to wade into a battle over the changes contained in the May 3 budget.
The changes target tax breaks on high-end retirement savings and include a $1.6 million limit on the size of tax-free retirement accounts, a doubling of the rate of tax on super contributions paid by people earning between $250,000 and $300,000, and restrictions on the amount of post-tax income that can be transferred.
The academic and the TV host married in 2002 and now have two children, daughter Aisa, 12, and son Zayd, 9.
The Project's Waleed Aly poses with the Gold Logie and Silver Logie for Best Presenter. Credit:Getty Images
He accepted her apology, but Carland recently joked to Meshel Laurie that "he never lets her forget it".
While Carland has opened up about rejecting Aly, the 37-year-old presenter revealed his own "dirty little secret" during his acceptance speech.
"If she had my job she'd be much better at it than me," Aly said in a tribute to his wife.
"She's sharper, wittier, funnier and infinitely more charming and likeable and I'm really glad she doesn't have my job because otherwise I definitely wouldn't have it."
He added: "I definitely wouldn't have it but the reason she doesn't is because she has bigger, more important things to do and everyone who knows it knows she changes you and she makes you better.
"She has done that in her work, she has done that in her community and they don't give statuettes to people like that, sadly, but one day if life is fair they might just give her a statue."
Disability advocates fear that information about the National Disability Insurance Scheme will not reach thousands of potential participants after the federal government dumped its ad campaign six weeks before the introduction of the $22 billion reform.
The government scrapped the $14 million advertising campaign as part of a $66.7 million federal budget measure, diverting the money to the NDIS savings fund, which will contribute to the future costs of the scheme.
Under a confidential settlement, Ms Jones now expects to receive the full value of her total and permanent disability insurance (TPD) payout.
The National Disability Insurance Agency, which administers the scheme, is already promoting it through the social media hashtag #ndisready and community meetings in areas where the scheme is being launched.
Advocacy director of the NSW Council for Intellectual Disability Aine Healy said some people with a disability and their carers do not use social media and those who do are likely to already be informed about the NDIS.
The Australian Electoral Commission has dumped plans for a ballot of its public servants on a controversial workplace deal after being advised not to do anything "politically contentious" during the caretaker period leading up to the election.
The commission has told its employees that it could not risk anything that could be seen as a breach of caretaker conventions with the federal poll looming.
Australian Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd. Credit:Jay Cronan
The move means the commission's 1600 public servants will be organising the federal election on July 2 while still in an industrial dispute with their employer.
Queensland's LNP will allow its members to vote according to their conscience if Independent MP Rob Pyne's bill aimed at decriminalising abortion makes it through the committee process.
Labor has had a conscience vote policy on the issue since the early '80s.
That hasn't helped lift the procedure from the state's criminal code, where it has sat since 1899.
Instead, it has been amended to provide what lobbyists such as Children by Choice label as "ambiguous" protections for medical professionals. Women can still be prosecuted under criminal code for attempting to procure an abortion, unless their doctor deems it necessary for health reasons.
As the federal election campaign rolls forward on a 'jobs, jobs, jobs' mantra from both sides, the Palaszczuk Government was spruiking its own achievements in the employment arena - albeit using slightly tweaked figures that added almost 11,000 jobs to their total.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told parliament her government was "delivering on its commitment to create more jobs for Queenslanders", with 60,000 jobs already created since January 2015.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told parliament her government was "delivering on its commitment to create more jobs for Queenslanders", with 60,000 jobs already created since January 2015. Credit:Bradley Kanaris
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, about 61,000 jobs have been created in Queensland in the last 15 months.
But the Palaszczuk Government did not come to power until mid-February 2015.
The Queensland government has taken another step towards approving the use of medicinal cannabis, with a new bill set to establish the framework for the prescription, dispensing and administration of the drug.
The bill was announced by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who said she had been "moved by the stories of families with young children with epilepsy, suffering life-threatening seizures, and what they go through on a daily basis".
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the medicinal marijuana bill is not a "green light for the recreational use". Credit:Rohan Thomson
Ms Palaszczuk said the government had worked with Victoria and New South Wales in drafting the legislation.
But she stressed it was not "a green light for the recreational use of cannabis, nor for people to grow their own cannabis, even if for therapeutic use".
Flood and cyclone-ravaged regions across Queensland want to know why the Turnbull government delayed $1.2 billion in natural disaster relief funding by two years in the budget.
Concern over a billion-dollar shortfall to Queensland's June 2016 budget was first raised by state treasurer Curtis Pitt last week.
Flood and cyclone-ravaged regions across Queensland want to know why the Turnbull government delayed $1.2 billion in natural disaster relief funding by two years in the budget.
Now the Local Government Association of Queensland says if the state is hit by more cyclones in the next two years and the state government has not received the funding councils will not be covered for disaster recovery costs.
Deputy premier Jackie Trad told parliament on Tuesday the decision was a "blatantly political decision".
Labor has opened the latest sitting of Parliament by quickly taking care of some overhanging business.
A by-election for Toowoomba South, following John McVeigh's switch to federal politics, has been set down for July 16.
Former LNP state MP John McVeigh. Credit:Harrison Saragossi
Mr McVeigh resigned last month, leaving the LNP one short in the parliament. But it shouldn't have any impact on votes in the hung parliament, with Deputy Premier Jackie Trad confirming the pairing agreement the government has in place with the Opposition - which sees a member sent out of the chamber, if an opposing member is sick or away for another agreed reason - will remain in place.
It will, however, send voters back to the polls just 15 months after the last state election and two weeks after the federal poll.
Recent major data security scandals include the leaked Panama Papers database of more than 200,000 shell companies. This cast aside the veil of confidentiality over the arrangements of many high profile local and global business people. These events shine a light on the importance of data safety, especially for small businesses.
Small businesses are embracing the flexibility and efficiency gains technology brings. Today's climate of rapidly developing technology, together with increasingly paperless offices, means considerable business information is stored online. Data protection is now a material issue for even the newest and smallest online business.
Small businesses must be aware of their obligations to protect customer data. Credit:Erin Jonasson
What obligations apply to Australian SMEs?
Customers are increasingly concerned about data protection. But legal obligations are not straightforward for small businesses. Privacy, data-matching, spam and surveillance laws impose a complex matrix. There are additional laws for telecommunications and health businesses. Small businesses need to chart a viable course through the requirements, to meet their legal obligations and the expectations of customers.
Above all, you need to understand your legal position before headhunting from the competition. Here are five considerations to make before dangling a carrot in front of the opposition's best people.
Recognise, however, that this is a high risk/high return strategy. It is high risk because you potentially expose the business to legal action. It is high return because it can be a great, albeit reasonably expensive, short-cut to putting together an experienced team.
If you want a crack team and you want it now, one way to get it is to poach a group of high-performing staff from another business.
There are serious legal issues for both the employer and employee to consider if you want to hire a competitor's staff, stresses Ursula Hogben, general counsel with law firm LegalVision.
The first port of call should be an exploration of whether the staff member has an employment contract with a restraint of trade clause and, if so, what it says.
"A restraint clause may say an employee cannot work for a competitor in a certain area, or for a certain period. Future employers need to determine whether it will be upheld to prevent the employee working for the new employer," advises Hogben.
She says it is not common knowledge but restraint clauses are not automatically upheld. "Each state has its own legislation. The relevant NSW act is the Restraint of Trade Act 1976 (NSW). To enforce the restraint clause, the previous employer has to persuade the court the clause is reasonable, valid and enforceable. The court will ask whether the employer has a legitimate interest to protect and if the restraint clause is a reasonable protection of that interest."
Next, says Hogben, the court will consider the facts including the nature of the business, the ex-employee's role, information they had access to and the length of the restraint period. "If a court considers a restraint clause is too broad, for instance if it covers a wider area or a longer period of time than necessary, it may narrow the area, reduce the period, or simply not uphold the clause."
The world's smallest cars, built at the mind-numbingly small scale of billionths of a metre, are gearing up for the world's first nano-grand prix.
The molecule-sized cars, complete with chassis, two axles and four freely rotating wheels, are so small that they have to be monitored by special high-resolution microscopes.
Rice University's four-wheeled nanocar. Credit:Tour Group, Rice University
Nobody will see this miniature grand prix, at least not directly. But cars from five teams will be viewable through sophisticated instruments, known as scanning tunnelling microscopes, developed for the grand prix to be held in October in the French city of Toulouse.
Each of the entries will be propelled across a custom-built gold surface by an electric current supplied by the tip of a scanning electron microscope. The track will be kept cold, at minus 268 degrees, and in a vacuum.
Victoria's so-called 'flameproof houses' were more likely to burn down than older designs in the Christmas Day bushfires, a damning CSIRO report has found.
Homeowners in fire-prone areas have since 2009 been legally required to use flame-resistant materials at an added cost of up to $200,000.
Wye River resident Sheryl Smith lost her home in the Christmas fires. She now faces the prospect of rebuilding the home to strict new construction standards, which she estimates will cost around $200,000 more than before Credit:Jason South
But the report exposes a number of serious flaws in the policy that in many cases means homeowners have wasted their money, say experts.
On Christmas Day, in the coastal communities of Wye River and Separation Creek, 116 houses were lost to bushfire.
That's it for Melbourne Express. It is now 14.5 degrees but feels like 10.5 degrees.
The answers to our quiz questions: this is Treasurer Scott Morrison's first budget and the new Queensland Opposition Leader is Tim Nicholls.
Keep warm and be safe. Express will be back tomorrow.
A would-be car thief was forced to flee after his victim threw her hot cup of tea at him.
Police investigating the aggravated burglary at a house in Mornington, south-east of Melbourne, said the woman's actions made the burglar run off.
According to police, a Mornington woman who saw a man in her garage "threw her cup of tea at him, causing the man to run off". Credit:iStock
The woman entered the garage of her Adelaide Street home shortly before 6am on Tuesday to find a man crouching near her car.
Victoria Police spokeswoman Belinda Batty said the woman approached the man, thinking it was her husband.
A Yarra Trams authorised officer has sought to put Melbourne's tram operator on trial for false imprisonment, in fallout from a sustained workplace interrogation by two managers who wanted to know who had pinned a poster of Napoleon Bonaparte to a staff room wall.
Ticket inspector Tahsin Halici alleges that he was unlawfully detained inside the East Preston tram depot for more than an hour, during which time he and 10 of his colleagues were prevented from drinking water, going to the toilet, speaking with each other, using their mobile phones or seeking union assistance, under threat of instant dismissal.
The snap interrogation of Mr Halici and other Yarra Trams officers almost three years ago was sparked by a poster of the 19th century painting, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, which had been pinned on the staff room wall in defiance of a management directive.
Details of the tense standoff were heard in the Federal Circuit Court in Melbourne on Tuesday, as Mr Halici, who still works for Yarra Trams, sought to bring the matter to trial. Yarra Trams argued the allegation of false imprisonment was "untenable" and should be thrown out of court.
A contentious decision by one of Victoria Police's most senior officers to not proceed with charges of perverting the course of justice or perjury against two policemen will be reviewed by the Office of Public Prosecutions.
Assistant Commissioner Brett Guerin ignored the recommendations of an internal police investigation when he decided not to lay the charges against the two officers, who allegedly assaulted two teenagers in 2014.
Assistant Commissioner Brett Guerin. Credit:Wayne Taylor
Mr Guerin, who is responsible for internal force watchdog the Professional Standards Command, also chose not to consult the OPP before he proceeded with assault charges against Leading Senior Constables Dennis Gundrill and Simon Mareangareu over an alleged altercation outside a Vermont convenience store.
According to correspondence obtained by Fairfax Media, the serious allegations of perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice will be dealt with by an internal disciplinary hearing.
Former West Coast Eagles midfielder Daniel Kerr is in custody after allegedly breaching a violence restraining order.
The premiership player was arrested overnight and fronted the Perth Magistrates Court on Tuesday, when he was remanded in custody until May 24.
It is understood Kerr sent two text messages to his ex-wife, Natasha Pozo on Saturday and Sunday.
According to ABC News, the police prosecutor told the court Ms Pozo interpreted one of the messages as a threat.
Four people have been charged with the bashing murder of Perth father Alan George Taylor, one of them being a 17-year-old boy.
The body of Mr Taylor, 42, was found beside his Girrawheen home on Arnos Way on April 22.
Alan George Taylor was killed in his Girrahween home.
The teenage boy fronted Perth Children's Court on Tuesday, with police alleging he was part of an attack that killed the fly-in, fly-out worker.
The boy was not required to enter a plea and was remanded in custody.
Perth councils are moving to protect trees on private development sites from being chopped down but say they are hamstrung without state support.
Councils welcomed a federal government promise to work with Perth to set decade-by-decade tree canopy cover goals, but said the state needed to come to the party.
A ficus cut down on a Gwelup development site, despite its position on the boundary. Credit:Leisha Jack
The federal government is beginning work with state and local governments to set goals to 2050 and has allocated $40 million to tree-planting grants for councils.
Although many Perth councils have already set such targets, they are finding that the more ambitious they are, the bigger the barriers.
Seoul: The president of China, which has grown increasingly frustrated over North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons, congratulated its leader, Kim Jong-un, on his promotion to chairman of the ruling party, North Korean state media said on Tuesday.
Kim, 33, the third-generation leader of isolated North Korea, added the title of chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) on Monday, the closing day of the country's first ruling party congress in 36 years.
"I wish the Korean people fresh success in carrying out the cause of socialism under the leadership of the WPK headed by Chairman Kim Jong Un," Chinese President Xi Jinping told Kim in a message, North Korea's KCNA news agency said.
Berlin: A lawyer for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was seeking a court injunction against the head of one of Germany's biggest publishing houses, in an escalating row over a satirical poem.
The chief executive officer of Axel Springer, Mathias Doepfner, had expressed solidarity with a German TV comedian who wrote the crude ditty about Mr Erdogan.
Gag order target: Mathias Dopfner, CEO of German publishing group Axel Springer.
In an open letter published by the German weekly Welt am Sonntag last month, Mr Doepfner cited Germany's tradition of upholding freedom of opinion, art and satire.
The Reserve Bank of Australia ( RBA ) has lend some support to arguments for abolishing negative gearing, saying it could be a good thing for financial stability.In an RBA internal briefing note obtained by the ABC under freedom of information laws, the central bank noted: Any change which discourages negative gearing may be good from a FS [financial stability] perspective.The memo blamed negative gearing for speculative investment, saying the interaction of negative gearing with the capital gains tax (CGT) discount may encourage chasing of capital gains.However, the Federal Government has dismissed the internal memo from the RBA, with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann telling the ABC it is an entirely unremarkable document and does not represent the official position of the RBA.This is an old document, it is an internal document, it is a document that outlines historical perspectives, he told the ABC.It is not an official position of the RBA and it shouldn't be misrepresented that way.According to the public broadcaster, the document was produced sometime between March 2014 and April this year. It is unclear whether it was written before or after Labor announced its proposal to limited negative to new housing in February this year.While the RBA memo has lend support to arguments for curbing negative gearing, it also said there would be a potential increase in rents from making the practice less attractive.In the Governments Federal Budget announcement last week, Treasurer Scott Morrison vowed not to touch negative gearing, saying its removal would increase the tax burden on Australians just trying to invest and provide a future for their families.
Latest News Westpac's second-half profit takes $824 million blow from unit sale The bank's fiscal 2022 results will be out in November
Banking Code of Compliance Committee welcomes moves to boost transparency Changes supported by ABA will hold banks to account, says BCCC chair
The Australian capital city rental market continues to weaken, new property figures have revealed.Figures released by CoreLogic RP Data show rents increased slightly by 0.1% in April. However, overall, capital city rental rates edged lower over the year, falling 0.2% over the past 12 months.Perth and Darwin experienced the largest falls in rents over the year, dropping by -8.9% -12.6%, respectively. Five of the eight capital cities saw modest rises in rents over the past twelve months, including Sydney (1.4%), Melbourne (1.7%), Adelaide (0.5%), Hobart (1.1%) and Canberra (2.5%).Canberra is the only capital city where the annual rental change is currently stronger than it was a year ago.Corelogic RP Data research analyst Cameron Kusher said he anticipates that the weakness in the rental market will persist over the year and rents will continue to fall over the coming months.The annual change in rental rates continues to be at its slowest pace since before 1996, he said.At the same time last year, rental rates increased by 1.7% which indicates a sharp slowdown in rental growth over the past year.The sluggish rental market has been driven by falling real wages, excess rental supply in certain areas and lower rates of population growth.With dwelling approvals at recent record highs and construction activity set to peak over the next 24 months, accompanied by many new properties still to settle, we anticipate that the weak rental market conditions will persist with rental growth continuing to slow and, or, fall in most capital cities, Kusher said.Based on current market conditions, landlords wont be in a position to lift rental rates and may actually need to reduce rents in order to keep their tenants. We see renters as holding a stronger negotiation position and where they now have the potential to upgrade into higher grades of accommodation for a similar, or lower rents.In Australias two largest capital cities Sydney and Melbourne rental yields have hit record lows.Weve seen rental yields move to record lows of 3.1% for houses and 4.0% for units in Sydney and in Melbourne, rental yields are at a record low 2.9% for houses and 4.0% for units, Kusher said.
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You dont have to bring tomatoes to this show they are already supplied.
Over the last year, the monthly Its All Happening comedy night at Franks Lounge in Fort Greene has become a must-see stand-up show and not just because it comes with food. We chatted with comedian (and sometime cook) Brian Parise and his co-host Janelle James about comedy, cuisine, and performing at a neighborhood institution.
What is unique about this show?
Brian Parise: We cook food for the show, and sometimes well do sketch videos on the pull down screen.
Janelle James: Im a black girl, hes a white guy. Were doing that whole swirl thing. Were the only black girl, white guy, New York cookie of comedy shows.
What does the cooking add to the show?
BP: Usually its very homey with the smell of pasta while youre watching comedy. Its like youre watching comedy in an Italian grandmothers kitchen. But it also makes the audience more relaxed.
JJ: He makes fancy stuff. He made the real Italian s, not f Kraft.
What is Franks Lounge like?
BP: This is a cool spot. In this neighborhood most of the venues are places that popped up recently after the area changed. This place has been here for 50 years.
JJ: I used to dance here when I first moved to New York when I was a teenager. I used to live right around the corner and come in my pajamas at 3 am, and thats when the party was getting started.
BP: Were also bringing in new people to the bar, because its a neighborhood bar.
How do the regulars feel about the new show in their spot?
JJ: The regulars are the people whove been coming here for 50 years, so were bringing in some younger people. The regulars are used to us now, and I know all of them so they know the deal.
Anything to add?
BP: We do the show every second Thursday. We have an email address [itsal lhapp ening @gmai l.com ] where well have people sign up and then well blast it out a week before so people dont have to remember.
Its All Happening at Franks Lounge [660 Fulton St. between Lafayette Avenue and S. Elliot Place in Fort Greene, (718) 6259339)]. Next show May 12 at 8 pm. $5.
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Its called gratitude, and thats right.
Dozens of Beastie Boys fans crowded into Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn Heights to show their appreciation for the late emcee on Saturday afternoon, in what is now an annual celebration of the neighborhood natives life and work. Four years after the rapper and human rights activist passed away from cancer, the organizer of MCA Day says it is amazing to see how he continues to inspire people.
I am just so impressed that so many people are indebted to keeping his memory alive, said Mike Kearney, a self-proclaimed diehard Beastie Boys fan who drives down from Boston every year to put on the event.
At least 150 people some from as far away as Australia showed up throughout the afternoon to dance to the Beastie beats, shoot hoops, and doodle on the sidewalks in a humble tribute to Yauchs memory, Kearney said.
This is the least we can do, to offer a little bit of gratitude and respect for somebody who did so much for us, he said.
The Yauch festivities will continue later in the summer with a free event at Littlefield in Gowanus in August, which will include music, art, and guest speakers.
MCA Day at Littlefield (622 DeGraw St. between Third and Fourth Avenues in Gowanus, www.littl efiel d.com ), Aug. 20, noon6 pm. Free.
Is Fornell going to survive? Thats the question for NCIS Dead Letter, which will also introduce Sarah Clarke as FBI Special Agent Tess Monroe and Duane Henry as MI6 Officer Clayton Reeves.
In this episode, the NCIS team works with FBI and MI6 as the international manhunt continues for escaped British spy Jacob Scott, who has left one colleague fighting for his life in the ICU.
You need to prepare yourself, the doctor warns Gibbs as Fornell is brought into the hospital following the shooting that left him in critical condition, former MI6 Chief Terdei dead and Gibbs house a crime scene. And the danger isnt over yet. Everyone is a potential target, as Vance says. And why is someone looking for Ziva?
He lost a lot of blood, the doctor informs Gibbs before leaving him to go work on Fornell. When McGee and Bishop join him, they tell him Terdeis body has been secured and theres a BOLO out for Scott. Tony, just back from Russia, says that agents are bringing in Emily, but she doesnt know anything yet.
And they have no idea how Scott got back into the US. So whats their next move? According to Gibbs, Were gonna find Jacob Scott and were gonna kill him.
It just so happens that as the agents show up to check out a former motel, now Wellness Retreat & Day Spa, the owner has been waiting for the police because someone broke in. That someone is, of course, Jacob Scott, and thanks to the security camera, they know he removed something from the wall. Fake ID? Money? It could be anything. He also knew theyd see the footage, as he warns them, Stop following me. Or more people will get hurt.
NCIS season 13 airs Tuesdays at 8pm on CBS.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
UB nursing school takes White House pledge on opioid education
The UB School of Nursing pledges to teach the Center for Disease Control and Preventions Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain to their advanced practice registered nursing students. Photo: Douglas Levere
Joining the AACN national initiative to assure that our advanced practice registered nursing students are prepared on best-practices to combat this crisis is a priority for our school.
BUFFALO, N.Y. As part of the ongoing efforts to combat prescription drug and opioid abuse, the University at Buffalo School of Nursing announced its commitment to the White House National Opioid Education Campaign.
The UB nursing school joins 190 other colleges and universities in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in pledging to teach the Center for Disease Control and Preventions Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain to their advanced practice registered nursing students.
The national pledge, taken April 29, was featured as part of the White House Champions of Change event on Advancing Prevention, Treatment and Recovery.
Prescription drug and opioid abuse is a growing crisis in our nation, says Marsha Lewis, dean of the UB School of Nursing.
Joining the AACN national initiative to assure that our advanced practice registered nursing students are prepared on best-practices to combat this crisis is a priority for our school.
According to a White House fact sheet, more Americans die every year from drug overdoses than they do in motor vehicle crashes, and the majority of those overdoses involve prescription medications.
Health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid pain medications in 2012 enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills.
Outstanding local students are recipients of the 2016 WNY Medical Scholarship
Christine Robertson, left, and Jessica LaPiano, students in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, have been awarded the 2016 Western New York Medical Scholarship.
The recipients promise to stay and practice medicine in Western New York
The 2016 scholarships are being funded by the John R. Oishei Foundation, the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation and West-Herr Automotive Group.
BUFFALO, N.Y. The debt that medical students have to repay when they graduate is pretty much a fact of life for anyone who aspires to be a physician.
But not so much for Jessica LaPiano of Lancaster and Christine Robertson of Williamsville, first-year students in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.
They are the 2016 recipients of the Western New York Medical Scholarship award, which provides four-year tuition scholarships to select, local students who attend the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.
The scholarships are provided by the Western New York Medical Scholarship Fund, an independent, community organization founded last year by UB medical school alumnus John J. Bodkin II, MD, who is co-chair with David M. Zebro, principal of Strategic Investments & Holdings. They teamed up with local organizations to create the fund to keep more locally trained physicians in Western New York to help address the physician shortage.
We felt that if we could offer scholarships to Western New York students who went to high school here and have established family ties here, and then offer incentives, such as mentoring by local doctors, we could influence them to stay and practice here after graduation and residency, said Bodkin.
That plan works perfectly for both scholarship recipients especially as they contemplate Buffalos future as a regional health care destination.
And while they each note that graduating without significant medical school debt is an enormous gift, they also stressed their gratitude to the scholarship committee for allowing them to be able to give back to the community that has nurtured them.
I love the city of Buffalo and have always wanted to remain here, said Robertson, who is thinking about pursuing general surgery. The city and its people are going through an incredible renaissance right now and it is so exciting to be part of that progress. It is such an honor to have been awarded this scholarship. I am thrilled that I will have the universitys support to stay and practice in Buffalo.
LaPiano said: Knowing that I have a place in the Buffalo medical community when I have completed my training motivates me to work even harder, she said. I am very excited to know that I will be part of Buffalos rising medical community. Buffalo has been and always will be the city that I call home. I am grateful for the opportunity this scholarship provides me to give back to the community that has inspired and mentored me.
The 2016 scholarships are being funded by the John R. Oishei Foundation, the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation and West-Herr Automotive Group.
To be eligible for these scholarships, UB medical students must meet highly select criteria: They must have graduated from a high school within the eight counties of Western New York, excel academically and have a demonstrated financial need.
In order to accept the scholarship, they also must pledge to stay in Western New York to practice for at least five years. Each awardee will receive a minimum of $30,000 annually for each of the four years of medical school.
Representatives from the Western New York Medical Scholarship Fund and the medical school conduct interviews with candidates who meet these criteria and make the final decision.
Local leaders stress that addressing the regions physician shortage will take multiple approaches. For example, the new medical school building also will address the shortage because it will allow UB to increase its class size, educating 30 percent more physicians each year.
What you should know about Puerto Rico's debt crisis
An article on Vice about the debt crisis in Puerto Rico, which last week defaulted on a $400 million debt payment, quotes Craig Centrie, a UB lecturer in Latino studies in the Department of Transnational Studies. Puerto Rico has been a political pawn historically since its inception, he said. Most significantly during the Cold War, PR was used as a tool of propaganda between the U.S. and Soviet Union to demonstrate the overall superiority of capitalism over communism.
Read more:
http://www.vice.com/read/everything-we-know-about-puerto-ricos-death-crisis-and-what-it-means-to-the-us
The Go Bright for Sight 5K Colour Run returns for the second time on Saturday 25 June at Droitwich Lido Park. Starting off dressed in white, participants can run, jog, walk or dance their way through the paint stations. Everyone is fully covered in paint and smiles by the time they reach the finish line, having raised money for local sight loss charity Sight Concern Worcestershire.
Fiona Blake, fundraising manager for the charity, says, We had such a memorable time last year. Were excited about painting even more people red, blue, green and purple as they pass through our Paint Stations en route. Were delighted that Fortis Living are joining us again as Blue Paint Station sponsors and we are thrilled to welcome our new Red Paint Station sponsor, AKW.
Sight Concern is asking all participants to raise as much sponsorship as possible to help its work, supporting local blind and partially sighted people to lead independent and fulfilling lives. Enter online at: www.sightconcern.co.uk/colour-run or call 01905 332 902. Tickets must be booked in advance.
Climate Center has invested heavily to respond effectively to the changes to the F-Gas regulations by ensuring the lower GWP R32 refrigerant is readily available for customers in all of its 45 branches nationwide, as an alternative to R410A.
The changes to the F-Gas Regulations came into force with the aim of encouraging users to use refrigerants with a lower global warming potential (GWP). From 2025 any gas with a GWP higher than 750 will be banned in new split air conditioning systems.
With these measures in place, installers are increasingly seeking an alternative to R410A equipment. Climate Centers investment also coincides with manufacturers Daikin and Toshiba launching their new R32 air conditioning ranges.
R32 is a single component, zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) gas with a GWP of 675, significantly less than R410A, which has a GWP of 2088. In addition the use of R32 will lead to a reduction of refrigerant charge of up to 30%. This means that heat exchangers and components can be made smaller resulting in more compact systems.
Robert Franklin, national development director at Climate Center, said: Climate Center is committed to distributing lower GWP refrigerants, however new legislation has inevitably conjured up concern across the industry in terms of how it will affect businesses. We have been working extensively to ensure that it has minimal impact on our customers by making sure they are up to date with F-Gas regulations and have the resources to comply. Ensuring that the alternative to R410A is readily available is a fundamental part of this.
WATCH: Very cool camera angle of Bryce Harper's winning HR
The Phillies punched their World Series ticket in dramatic fashion with Bryce Harper hitting a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
INDIAS RELATIONS WITH INDONESIA
Navrekha Sharma and Baladas Ghoshal
Research Asia; 306 pages
MASALA BUMBU
Enhancing the India-Indonesia Partnership
Gurjit Singh (editor); Beritasatu; 299 pages
In January 1950, at our first Republic Day, Indonesia President Sukarno was Indias honored guest. Contrast that with what I witnessed in 2007 in Jakarta at the launch of a Festschrift in honour of a noted intellectual Yusuf Wanandi: in that fine collection of over 80 essays, no Indian figured among the authors. It was a striking demonstration of our lack of intellectual contact. Fortunately, that mutual distancing is now being bridged. These two works enrich our knowledge of Indonesia. In the same genre, two recent works on Myanmar by former Indian ambassadors, Rajiv Bhatia and P M S Malik, also bolster Indias Act East policy via intellectual discourse.
Former Ambassador to Indonesia Navrekha Sharma has teamed with Baladas Ghoshal, to produce an authoritative study, taking advantage of the archival documents that New Delhi has begun to release. Mr Navrekha has written the first four chapters; the next three come from Prof Ghoshal, while the final one is a joint product. The former sketches the ancient cultural links, symbols of which have persisted after the arrival of Islam. Chapter 3 details the connections between the leaders in the independence period; Soekarno (named after Karna of Mahabharata), was steeped in domestic tradition, and resembles Gandhi more than Nehru. But the affinities of that era did not endure.
Indonesia declared independence in 1946, but the Dutch fought a rearguard action with military intervention, an issue that went to the United Nations (UN); a final settlement, and end of Dutch intervention came only in 1949. In April 1947, India followed the United Kingdom and extended de facto recognition, but even an August 1947 secret visit by Mohammad Hatta (in a Dakota aircraft piloted by Biju Patnaik) did not persuade India to extend de jure recognition; Nehru felt it would be counterproductive for Indias relations with the Netherlands.
India played a key role in 1945-49: Indonesia had sizable presence at the March 1947 Asian Relations Conference; Indian consulates opened in Batavia and Yogyakarta, sustaining contact with revolutionary leaders and helping in their communication with the outside world; New Delhi hosted two conferences on Indonesia in 1948 and 1949; and Nehrus intervened continually with the Dutch, the US and the UN. For four years Nehru rarely spoke on world affairs without drawing in the subject of Indonesia. Was it refusal to let Soekarno, Hatta and Sutan Syahrir set up a government in exile in India in 1948, or that Indian support was offset with a concern over dialogue links with the West, which soured relations when Indonesia became fully independent? The answer is not clear.
A 15-page account in Chapter 4 on the 1955 Bandung Conference provides fascinating insight. It suggests that Indias action blocking Indonesias from creating a permanent Asian organisation in that country also contributed to distancing in our relations. At the first non-aligned conference at Belgrade in September 1961, these differences emerged openly.
In the next three chapters, Prof Ghoshal sketches the subsequent evolution, i.e. slow movement in political ties and fair growth in economic cooperation. In the final chapter the co-authors conclude: these relations are civilisational and also deeply fraught, carrying with them a heavy baggage of mistakes, miscalculations and misunderstandings.
The book Masala Bumbu, ably edited by ambassador Gurjit Singh was published in 2015, coinciding with the Sahabat India Festival of India in Indonesia held that year. It uses the device of juxtaposed articles by eminent Indonesian and Indian authors, on themes that cover political, economic, cultural and media ties, as also regional cooperation, sustainable development, youth exchanges, plus even offbeat issues such as consumption patterns and middle classes, and corporate social responsibility for business. One virtue of this device is that it brings into the fold a wide range of contributors, and provides a benchmark of a bilateral relationship. Mr Singh, known for his proactive style, had edited and produced a similar work at an earlier ambassadorship at Ethiopia.
In an essay titled Democratic DNA, Pallavi Aiyer notes the familiarity of the noisy Indonesian environment for an Indian, and argues that the real hyphenisation for an Indian in Asia is with this country, and not China. She feels that the central challenge that both face is ensuring that democracy did not turn into the tyranny of the majority in a pluralistic society. Farah Quinn writes about the comparable rise of the middle class in both countries and how this can be a connector. Bunker Roy writes about the relevance of the Barefoot College model for SE Asia, and the training provided to illiterate rural women from eight of these countries for solar power projects that has electrified remote villages. It adds up to an unconventional collection of perspectives from real leaders of the two countries on how each country is relevant to the other.
We need more studies of this nature, academic as well as those that shine light on new areas for mutual cooperation. Niggles? One misses a list of suggested readings, and indexes in these books, which add value for researchers and readers alike.
The reviewer is honorary fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi
IndiGo Airlines says it is getting ready to start international flights from Chandigarh Airport, but claims there are issues with customs clearance
The uncertainty over the commencement of international flights from persists, as Airlines have been dragging their feet on starting international operations from here. In a hearing in Punjab and Haryana High Court today, only two operators, Air India and IndiGo Airlines, informed the court about their preparations for international flights. IndiGo has issues with customs clearance, Air India is awaiting clearance from DGCA.
Jet Airways, Air Asia and GoAir apprised the court of Justice S S Saron that they have no plans to introduce international flights from Chandigarh Airport. Vistara said that 5/20 rule was a hitch but remain non-committal on connecting Chandigarh to international destination if the rule is relaxed. Go Air informed the court that it was not commercially viable for them to operate international flights from Chandigarh.
A PIL in Punjab and Haryana High Court was filed earlier on delay in international flights from the Airport that currently caters to 4.5 million passengers per annum and is utilizing 33 per cent of its capacity. It has been built at a cost of Rs 1,400 crore and annual maintenance cost of the newly built airport is over Rs 70 crore.
According to estimates, about 40 per cent of the international passenger traffic at Delhi airport can be handled at Chandigarh airport.
The High Court has directed Air India and IndiGo to submit their contentions to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, for the delay in international flights and Government of India has to submit the ATR (Action Taken Report) to the court during the next hearing on 24 May. The court observed that senior officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation should have come for hearing as it seems that the message has not been reaching the right authorities. Chandigarh Airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 11 September last year.
is an SPV in which the Airports Authority of India has 51 per cent stake and Punjab and Haryana hold 24.5 per cent each. Flights to this airport have been limited to operate between 7 am and 8 pm. Chandigarh Airport is a defence facility with a civil terminal. There have been reports that the Ministry of Defence has approved flight operations during night but so far the flights still operate between 7 am and 8 pm. Sources in the told that night landing facility is a must for international flights and this is one of the reasons for the delay in plans of airlines to commence international flights.
Consumer electricals company has launched a smart ceiling fan which could sense the temperature in the room and change the speed accordingly, in order to accelerate its growth in a fan market which is growing at a slow pace.
The electric fan market, which is at around Rs 6,000 crore at present has been growing at 4-6% over the last two years, has seen value addition in terms of designs and colours and a little improvement in features.
"The fan market has been struggling in the resent past owing to the issues in the real estate sector, but has been seeing a revival over the last two to three months," said Rangarajan Sriram, vice president, Fans. He refused to share details of company's sales.
He added that the new fan 'Avancer E-Sense' offered by the company is India's first Radio Frequency (RF) enabled remote and temperature-sensing smart ceiling fan.
It has intelligent speed control sensors that adjust its speed automatically, on the basis the ambient temperature. It also has a RF technology enabled remote, which is safe for children and is multi-directional ensuring smooth operations, he added.
Starting from Chennai now, the product will be available in 10 cities including Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, in the future, he said. He added that the company is planning to come up with various innovative and value added products to address the growing market requirement.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is working on ways to ensure that transactions such as the one industrialist Vijay Mallya struck with Diageo for Rs 500 crore don't take place in future. It will shortly ask national depositories to freeze the shares owned by Mallya in listed companies, two persons familiar with the plan told Business Standard.
At present, Mallya holds stakes in United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd (UBHL), United Spirits (USL), and Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd (MCFL).
The ED has informed market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India about the share freeze. It will write to the National Securities Depository Limited and Central Depository Service Limited, the two national depositories, said an ED official on condition of anonymity.
Confirming the development, another ED official, who also did not wish to be named, told Business Standard that the agency wants to ensure that no third-party rights are created by Mallya or a group company owned by him.
By taking such a step, the ED is looking to ensure that no big deals or transactions, such as the USL-Diageo one, takes place. In February, Mallya had reached a Rs 500-crore deal with Diageo, to whom he had sold controlling stake in USL in a multi-billion dollar deal, to step down from the chairmans post of the liquor company.
Mallyas holding company UB Holdings now has a four per cent stake in United Spirits. He is no longer the largest shareholder in United Breweries, and has lost management control of MCFL.
Although the entities controlled by Mallya still own 32.4 per cent of United Breweries (Heineken, which acquired S&N owns more, around 37.5 per cent), four per cent of United Spirits and 22 per cent of Mangalore Chemicals.
However, more than half the shares in United Breweries and United Spirits are pledged to UB Group lenders.
It is learnt that the board of MCFL, which Zuari Fertilizer & Chemicals took over last year after wresting control from Mallya, had appointed Ernst & Young LLP to do a forensic investigation into the Rs 200-crore investment MCFL had made in Bangalore Beverages Ltd.
The audit was also asked to look into various advances made by MCFL to Mallya's flagship UBHL, of which a sum of Rs 16.68 crore was outstanding as of March 31, 2016. Bangalore Beverages is a step-down subsidiary of UBHL and is facing liquidity crunch. The audit found that these transactions may have involved irregularities and elements of mismanagement in the company.
MCFL has made provision of Rs 200 crore for potential diminution in the value of investments in Bangalore Beverages Ltd. It has also provided for Rs 16.68 crore advances receivable from UBHL in its books of account for 2015-16.
Earlier, alleged financial irregularities had come to fore at United Spirits relating to loans advanced to UB Group firms including for the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Mallya, who left India for the UK following the deal with Diageo, has resigned from the Rajya Sabha ahead of a hearing by a Parliamentary ethics panel. The ED is also investigating Mallya for suspected money laundering on suspicion of siphoning part of a 2010 IDBI Bank loan of Rs 950 crore to Kingfisher Airlines.
BELEAGUERED BARON
Soon 'Facebooking' at work might not bother your boss. Instead, you might just be encouraged to spend more time on the social network. Facebook is planning to launch its enterprise social network (ESN) for businesses, simply named 'Facebook at Work'.
The ESN, still in beta mode, is already being used by 450 companies and about 60,000 companies across the world are in the queue. The social media giant expects ESN to be a major source of revenue in the future.
In India, companies like Godrej, YES Bank and L&T Infotech have already started using 'Facebook at Work'. The social media giant plans to reach out to global working population of three billion. It is targeting a host of Indian start-ups, including Paytm, Zomato, Practo, Delhivery, AskMe and Urban Ladder to ramp up the numbers.
"India has turned out to be a very important market for us as the growth we have seen here is phenomenal. Start-ups as well as traditional companies have shown a lot of interest in the product," said Julien Codorniou, director, platform partnerships. "We've been adding a new company every day over the past few months, and India has seen the fastest adoption rates," he added.
'Facebook at Work' is an enterprise version of the standard Facebook platform. Similar to the popular social networking site in terms of look and feel, 'Facebook at Work' has profiles, news feed, groups and messages. The news feed shows latest facts and figures from the groups and channels an individual follows. The groups can either be open for all employees of an organisation or be accessible to specific teams.
Two different companies, if they are on the platform, can connect to each other seamlessly. Facebook would also allow usage of utility software such as Office365.
It retains the famous 'Like' button and other similar features. "These are things we picked up from Facebook as they are effective and have worked there as well," said Codorniou.
The global launch of 'Facebook at Work' is still a few months away but the beta mode has found many takers, reinforcing the company's belief that it would be a runaway success. "At present, we are giving it to the companies with at least 5,000 employees. Once we launch it (the full version), we would open it to other companies as well," added Codorniou.
"The bigger the company, the better," said Codorniou. Among the biggest global clients on the platform are Royal Bank of Scotland and Telenor.
Facebook will now directly compete with Slack, HipChat, Yammer and a few others in this space. The company said the ESN would work on both mobile and desktop.
"Rolling out Facebook at Work to companies in India is a significant milestone. As the workplace transforms, businesses want new ways for co-workers to collaborate effectively and be more productive. We are excited at the high rate of adoption globally, and I look forward to working with all businesses in India," Codorniou added.
JSW Steel is one of seven bidders that has selected for the next stage of the sales process of its UK operations, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, reviving hopes that the operation, which employ 11,000 people, might yet be saved. Should JSW be successful, it would mean the collection of factories passing from the hands of one Indian owner to another.
JSWs capacity is nearly twice that of Tata Steels Indian operations, trailing only state-owned Steel Authority of India. In recent weeks, Indian media reports have also linked it with a possible bid for struggling Indian peer Essar Steel. However, its expansion drive was recently met with a credit downgrade from Fitch amid concerns over its debt.
JSW did not comment on whether it was bidding for Tata Steels UK business.
Other bidders for include commodities trading group Liberty House and Greybull, the investment firm which has provisionally agreed to acquire Tatas Scunthorpe steelworks.
Also on the list is a Chinese group and US steel producer Nucor, according to a person with knowledge of the process. A Nucor spokeswoman declined to comment but said: Like most companies, we are always looking for good opportunities.
She added: We never limit ourselves when looking at the future, and are constantly evaluating unique market opportunities or product niches. If the right opportunity comes along, it has to fit our long-term growth strategy and provide the right return on the investment of our shareholders valuable capital.
A management buyout team called Excalibur, led by senior managers from UK, is also thought to be among the seven. A spokesperson declined to comment.
Bidders who only wanted to buy parts of Tatas operations piecemeal were excluded from the next round.
One was Albion Steel, a start-up including a former Corus chief executive, which was interested in Tatas specialist steels unit in South Yorkshire.
A spokesperson for Tata Steel said: The board of Tata Steel Europe has announced that seven expressions of interest submitted for Tata Steels UK business have been immediately taken forward to the next stage of the sale process. In addition, Tata Steel Europe is clarifying outstanding points with a number of other parties who have submitted an expression of interest.
The future of Britains steel industry was plunged into doubt when Tata said it would seek to withdraw from the country at the end of March, following years of losses.
Despite pouring more than 1.5bn of investment into the former Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, which it acquired for 6.2bn in 2007, the Indian group has described its UK business as almost worthless. Tata Steels group executive director, Koushik Chatterjee, last month said that its UK business was losing as much as 1m a day.
This is yet further evidence of the significant interest that exists in the future of the UK steel industry
UK steel producers have been hit by falling steel prices, high energy prices and persistently weak European demand, triggering a crisis that has claimed thousands of jobs and led to plant closures in the past year.
The resulting political pressure led the government to offer to part-nationalise up to a quarter of Tata Steel UK alongside hundreds of millions of pounds in loans.
A 15bn pension scheme, which has 130,000 members and a 485m deficit, is an obstacle to any sales, with at least two prospective buyers saying they would not want to take it on.
Following due diligence, the next step is for bidders to table a firm offer, said one person involved in the process. Tata has pushed back its final deadline to offload the collection of factories beyond Britains EU membership referendum on June 23.
A spokesperson for Community, the steelworkers union said: This is yet further evidence of the significant interest that exists in the future of the UK steel industry. Community will continue to act as a responsible stakeholder in the sales process.
We will ensure that all potential investors recognise the importance of Tatas highly skilled workforce to any future success of the business.
The broader JSW Group was named by Credit Suisse in October as one of ten Indian groups facing severe difficulty in managing their liabilities.
itel mobile, part of the Transsion Holdings conglomerate based out of Hong Kong and one of the leading players in Africa, is planning to set up a manufacturing facility in India. The company plans to have manufacturing centres in Noida, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Initially, the company will manufacture feature phones and smartphones. Besides, the company plans to bring two more brands by the end of this year.
Sudhir Kumar, CEO, itel India, said: "We have great plans to set up manufacturing units in India, and export worldwide over a period of time due to the cost-effectiveness of manufacturing as well as the projected volumes that can be generated from the country".
The company will be manufacturing its own brand and will not be contract manufacturing for any other brands, said Kumar. Under the itel brand, a feature and smart phone ranging from Rs 700-10,000, was launched in North India in April 2016 and they are sold across 10-12 states of North India. End of this year, the company plans to launch Tecno, its premium brand, and Infinix, which will be for online.
The company has identified a few potential locations for manufacturing facilities. Besides Noida, other two potential locations are Andhra Pradesh and Maharastra as the company's shipment will be through sea so the plants will lie close towards port areas.
"Discussions are currently ongoing and by the end of June, we will have a much clearer picture of the locations, investment amount and the industrial path we are going to follow," said Kumar, who refused to comment on investment numbers.
He added, investment will depend on business opportunities and favourable government policies. At the moment, the company will start with assembling units in India and it is in search of suitable locations in Noida to set up manufacturing units.
Kumar said the company is planning to develop an ecosystem in India, which will include designing, shipping and manufacturing products ranging from camera modules to LCDs. "We are currently in discussion with a few players operating within the Indian market, regarding strategic partnerships," he said.
The plants in India will also cater to export markets over a period of time due to the cost-effectiveness of manufacturing as well as the projected volumes that can be generated from the country.
As India is equidistant from both China and Africa, it makes greater sense to set up manufacturing here, said Kumar.
Transsion Holdings Conglomerate is one of the leading phone manufacturers and feature phone manufacturer. itel has sold 70 million handsets globally. In 2015, its sales volume reached 30 millions handsets. So we thought this is the right time to enter the Indian market.
The company has six factories, two in China (Huizhou, Shenzhen) and four in Africa (two in Ethiopia, one in Nigeria, one in Kenya) and plans to set one factory in Noida. Everyday around 3 lakh devices are manufactured based on current demand. This is the amount of devices it produces for Africa and China combined. The maximum manufacturing capacity for the company's factories is around 5 lakh devices a day.
has achieved a major breakthrough in its industrial park being developed at Gopalpur in south Odisha with the project getting the status of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The SEZ notification promises to draw firm investments to the Gopalpur project where the steel company is the anchor tenant.
"Yes, it (the Gopalpur industrial park) is notified. Recently, we have got the SEZ notification. A lot of people are interested to invest in the project. They were waiting for the notification", said T V Narendran, managing director, said on the sidelines of a summit on 'Sustainable Mining' organised here by Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (Fimi).
The SEZ notification is for 500 hectares (or 1,235 acres). The Gopalpur multi-product SEZ has the potential to attract investments of the order of Rs 15,000 crore.
Investments are expected to flow in areas like defence, electronics, LEDs (light emitting diodes) and solar cells.
"We have already got an investment for the Gopalpur project. To draw investors, roadshows have been held in China, Singapore, Israel and Dubai. Our ferro alloys plant at the site is almost ready where we are investing Rs 500-600 crore", Narendran said.
On the Kalinganagar steel project, he said, "Different components of the steel plant have been commissioned. Production has started from the blast furnace and SMS (Steel Melting Shop). We would like to reach the capacity (of three million tonne) as quickly as possible though I cannot comment on the timeline now."
has roped in Ernst & Young as the consultant for the Gopalpur SEZ project while Singapore-based Jurong has been engaged for designing the master plan.
"Jurong has given the design for the SEZ while we have engaged a Delhi-based company to submit the cost estimates for external infrastructure development in the SEZ area. Our ferro alloys plant of 55,000 tonne per annum capacity is nearing completion and it is expected to be commissioned by July this year", said Arun Misra, vice president, Gopalpur project and managing director, Tata Steel SEZ.
Mumbai-based Sure Safety Solutions Ltd in collaboration with UK's Megitt Defence has started operations of the aerial target manufacturing facility at the Gopalpur park.
The industrial park at Gopalpur is spread over an area of 2952 acres. Of this, 1235 acres of land has been registered in the name of Tata Steel.
There are too few new-age Indian Internet that have more than 15 months of data on what happens when they shut down their websites and switch over to mobile apps only. This meant that when fashion discovery portal shut down its website in favour of its mobile app in May last year, it essentially went in blind.
Fast forward to a year later and is bringing back its website, and just as the Flipkart-owned company did last year, it's kicked off a raging debate about the viability of app-only business models. It's clear that not having a website was hurting the company in some way, but what changed in these past 12 months?
APP-ONLY: STILL TO BE TRIED AND TESTED Pros Better unit economics
Higher user engagement on app
Works best for services used frequently
Better product focus Cons High cost of customer acquisition
Lacks hooks to bring customers back
High drop-offs for transaction-led businesses
Reduces customer choice
had justified its move to an app-only platform last year saying that 90 per cent of its traffic at the time came from the app and so did 70 per cent of its revenues. Mukesh Bansal, co-founder of Myntra, had said that he wasn't too worried about the short-term attrition in sales. Now the company says it expects a 15-20 per cent increase in revenues for this year, after the return of the website.
Bringing in a new perspective is Sujayath Ali, the co-founder and CEO of Voonik, a fashion discovery portal and competitor to Myntra. Voonik says it began focusing on its app-only model about six months before Myntra, after it saw healthy uptake for its Android app, back at a time when the market for fashion discovery apps was still virgin territory.
"There's one key piece that everybody has missed: the app gives you very good retention initially, but slowly, users will start uninstalling (the app) for various reasons. After 15 months when we look at the data, we realise that there's no way to reach them, unlike on desktop or mobile website," said Ali at a start-up conference in Bengaluru recently.
The key premise of his argument is that apps, unlike websites, are not reliant on search to bring people back on to the platform. Especially in a transaction-led business such as e-commerce, which no single person uses every day, the justification for a user to keep an app installed for long periods just does not exist.
Citing Voonik's data, Ali said that the uptake of the mobile app in the first six months was extremely encouraging, but what ensued in the next six months made it clear that the company needed to bring back focus on its website.
It's exactly what might have happened at Myntra, and it's something the company would not have been able to guess without going ahead with its app-only plan.
Different needs
Today, there are several services in India that are predominantly app-only, take for instance food ordering or taxi hailing. Many of these services have never had websites altogether, but experts say this only works when the service is used on a regular basis.
Myntra, on the other hand, is a transaction-led business, which makes it more prone to uninstalls, even though it uses its seasonal sales to keep customers engaged. However, given that the company is now going back on its app-only decision, it's clear that either sales didn't work to reduce uninstalls or the cost of using them to retain users was far too high. Parent Flipkart did the same with its BigBillionDay sales by restricting deals only to the mobile app.
The cost of customer acquisition for food delivery services is among the highest due to intense competition in the space, but ideally it's still a one-time cost for the service. While food delivery services have a long way to go in figuring out sustainable business models, for Myntra, the cost of customer acquisition in its app-only avatar is a recurring cost, hurting the company's bottom line.
"Because of this, a lot of end up paying a higher cost for customer acquisition. Very few people know what happens to an app after 15 months or 12 months; that these users don't come back. Basically, when you don't offer them (the users) that choice, you're going to lose that loyal customers," added Ali.
The way to go
With 250 million smartphones in use today, India is definitely a mobile-first market; however, the same can't be said about it being a mobile-only market. Experts unanimously agree that for e-commerce, being platform agnostic is probably the best way to go forward for now. It's a model that has been proven by giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, and it's got a lot to do with offering customers choices.
With over a billion people accessing its services on mobile, Facebook continues to innovate for the web, giving each and every one of its 1.6 billion users a choice.
The Myntra debate is especially important since it has uncovered one of the biggest flaws of the smartphone ecosystem: it isn't a self-sustainable model just yet. Web search is still a big way through which customers find products to buy online and websites act as a funnel to bring more users onboard, and while there's a lot of innovation around app-install ads by Google and Facebook, they're still too expensive.
While this may portray smartphone apps in a negative light, several businesses agree that apps earn them more money. For Voonik, the unit economics of its app are two to three times better than that of its desktop website and mobile website, and it says every sale it makes on an app is close to becoming cash positive. If the same is true for Myntra, while the relaunch of its website will boost revenues, it could hurt margins and could even upset the company's plans of becoming India's first e-commerce player to become profitable.
Vodafone plans to roll out its 4G network across Delhi National Capital Region in the next two months with a download speed of 8-10 mbps. Vodafone has also invested around Rs 1,000 crore to upgrade its network - Vodafone Supernet - with around 10 million subscribers in NCR. SuperNet is a seamless network experience that empowers one to remain connected at all times, for voice and data needs.
"We will provide 4G coverage across Delhi NCR in six-eight weeks. Customers can avail the service at 3G rates. On Vodafone network, we will be delivering download speed of 8-10 megabit per second," Apoorva Mehrotra, Vodafone India's, business head for Delhi NCR, told reporters here.
Currently, Bharti Airtel is the only operator with 4G services in the region. Vodafone's current offerings in the region include 1GB 3G mobile internet data for Rs 255, 2GB for Rs 455 and Rs 655 for 3GB.
"We have installed 3,200 mobile sites in FY16 at the rate of 9 sites per day. Vodafone has more than 15,000 sites in Delhi NCR," he said.
On the issue of call drops, he said, "We are still finding it tough to install mobile sites in new buildings that are coming up in the region as resident welfare association resists installing of mobile towers. We have faced such issues in Lutyens Delhi and East Delhi and are working to resolve it."
Meanwhile, the company also launched Vodafone 'U', for the customers. It is the company's latest customised offering for the youth - a life style proposition that has a bundle of benefits that includes the world of internet, voice, music and digital offers and experiences.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) on Tuesday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release the balance amount of Rs 2,352 crore as was sought by his government towards drought relief measures.
The state government had asked for a Rs 3,064-crore assistance from the Centre to undertake relief activities covering supply of drinking water, cattle fodder and the distribution of input subsidy to farmers in the drought affected areas in . The union government has so far given Rs 712 crore to the state for this purpose.
Chief Minister KCR met the PM Modi in Delhi and explained about the drought situation prevailed in the state. He also informed the prime minister about various measures being taken up to provide relief to people in drought affected areas.
"Crops were damaged in 13.52 lakh hectares affecting 2.18 million farmers in the state. Cotton, maize and soya bean among other crops were affected while vegetable and horticulture crops in another 23,700 hectares were also damaged.We will distribute the input subsidy to the affected farmers as soon as the Centre releases the funds to us," Chief Minister Rao said in a meeting, which lasted for about one and half hours.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and other officials were also present in the meeting.
The chief minister explained to the PM Modi about the progress on two of the state government's flagship programmes-Mission Bhagiratha and Mission Kakatiya.
The state government has undertaken a massive programme called Mission Bhagiratha, aimed at providing drinking water through pipeline to each household across 24,000 habitations and 90 per cent of the work on this project was expected to be completed by 2017. Mission Kakatiya involves restoration of 46,000 ponds and other minor water resources.
He also requested PM Modi to release funds promised under the AP Reorganisation Act towards the development of backward regions in the state, according to the chief minister's office.
The enforcement agency is looking to ensure that no big deals or transactions, such as the one Mallya struck with Diageo for Rs 500 crore, take place
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will shortly ask depositories to freeze shares owned by industrialist Vijay Mallya in listed companies, at least two persons familiar with the plan told Business Standard.
At present, Mallya holds stakes in United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd (UBHL), United Spirits (USL), and Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd (MCFL).
The agency has informed market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) about the share freeze. The probe agency will write to the Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and Central Depository Service Limited (CDSL), the two depositories, an ED official said, on condition of anonymity.
Confirming the development, another ED official, who also did not want to be named, told Business Standard that the agency wants to ensure that no third-party rights are created by Mallya or any group company owned by him.
By taking such a step, the enforcement agency is looking to ensure that no big deals or transactions, such as the USL-Diageo one, takes place. In February, Mallya reached a Rs 500-crore deal with Diageo, to whom he had sold controlling stake in USL in a multi-billion dollar deal, to step down from the chairman's post at the liquor company.
Mallya's holding company UB Holdings now has four per cent stake in United Spirits, he is no longer the largest shareholder in United Breweries, and he has lost management control of Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd.
Though, entities controlled by Mallya still own about 32.4 per cent of United Breweries (Heineken, which acquired S&N owns more, around 37.5 per cent), four per cent of United Spirits and 22 per cent of Mangalore Chemicals.
However, more than half the shares in United Breweries and United Spirits are pledged to UB Group lenders.
It is learnt that the board of MCFL, which Zuari Fertilizer and Chemicals took over last year after wresting control from Mallya, had appointed Ernst and Young LLP to do a forensic investigation into the Rs 200 crore investment MCFL had made in Bangalore Beverages Ltd, as per the PTI report.
The audit was also asked to look into various advances made by MCFL to Mallya's flagship UBHL, of which a sum of Rs 16.68 crore was outstanding as of March 31, 2016. Bangalore Beverages is a step-down subsidiary of UBHL and is facing liquidity crunch.
The audit found these "transactions may have involved irregularities and elements of mismanagement in the company."
MCFL has made provision of Rs 200 crore for potential diminution in the value of investments in Bangalore Beverages Ltd. It has also provided for Rs 16.68 crore advances receivable from UBHL in its books of account for 2015-16.
Earlier, alleged financial irregularities had come to fore at United Spirits relating to loans advanced to UB Group firms including for the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Mallya, who left India for the UK following the deal with Diageo, has also resigned from the Rajya Sabha ahead of a hearing by a Parliamentary ethics panel. The ED is also investigating Mallya for suspected money laundering on suspicion of siphoning part of a 2010 IDBI Bank loan of Rs 950 crore to Kingfisher Airlines.
At the end of thirty years of flying from Indian Navy aircraft carriers, the iconic Sea Harrier jump jet made its ceremonial last flight on Wednesday. Readying to take its place is the naval version of the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), which recently completed a successful flight-test campaign in Goa.
While the Sea Harriers operated from the INS Vikrant and INS Viraat, now both retired, the Naval Tejas will operate from the Vikrants successor, an indigenous aircraft carrier that is scheduled to be commissioned in 2018.
Commodore (Retired) CD Balaji, chief of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), which oversees the Tejas development programme, told Business Standard that taking off and landing from a 200-metre deck has been fully established. So has hot-refuelling --- topping up the aircraft after a sortie with the engine running and the pilot in the cockpit --- which allows a rapid turnaround between sorties.
For the navy, it is vital to ready the Tejas for the INS Vikrant and, subsequently, INS Vishal. The MiG-29K will be the medium fighter on INS Vikrant, as it already is on INS Vikramaditya. The Tejas is crucial for filling in the light fighter slot.
Balaji reveals a committed navy is funding 40 per cent of the development cost of the Naval Tejas. The MoD has allocated Rs 3,650 crore for the naval programme.
The ADA chief described the flight trials in Goa between March 27 and April 25, in which two Naval Tejas prototypes flew 33 sorties from a Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) -- a full-scale replica of an aircraft carrier deck. Built on land, the SBTF allows carrier deck take-offs and landings to be validated, without unduly endangering an aircraft carrier, or an aircraft prototype and pilot.
When taking off from an aircraft carrier, a fighter revs up its engine to the maximum, while held back by a restraining gear system (RGS). Then, the RGS is disengaged, and the fighter shoots forward, accelerating to take-off speed in just 200 metres of deck. At the end of the deck runway, a ski-jump lifts the aircraft upwards, after which it flies on its own power.
In December 2014, the Naval Tejas had taken off from the SBTF ski-jump after rolling 300 metres. Now, the fighter has proven it can take off from just 200 metres, even carrying two R-73 close combat missiles.
With this campaign, ski-jump launches are no longer a challenge. We will now explore the limits the fighter can be taken to. We will further fine-tune the control law software to take-off with higher payloads, said Balaji. In aircraft carrier combat operations at sea, the Naval Tejas must take off with up to 3.5 tonnes of payload--- more fuel for longer range; and more weapons for a lethal punch. For this, the aircraft carrier would steam into the wind, ensuring a wind-over-deck speed of up to 20 knots. That would provide added lift to the aircraft, allowing higher payloads.
In aircraft carriers with catapult launchers, as the navys next indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vishal, could be, the catapult allows higher launch speeds and, therefore, higher payloads.
Similarly, fitting the Tejas Mark-2 with the more powerful General Electric F-414 engine (the current Mark -1 fighter has the smaller F-404 engine) will allow greater payloads and more ambitious mission objectives. Even more challenging than taking off from a 200-metre carrier deck is to land an aircraft back on the carrier. This requires touching down precisely at the edge of the runway, aligning the approach with the help of an optical landing system and a landing control post. At landing, an arresting gear system --- including wire cables across the deck runway --- latches onto a hook on the fighters tail and rapidly decelerates it to a halt. In the current campaign, the Tejas did over 60 approaches (without actually touching down) to gather data for fine-tuning the control law software. In the next campaign this month, we will do touch and go approaches to validate the software and then graduate to full landings, explains Balaji. Finally, the Naval Tejas demonstrated its fuel jettison capability --- a safety feature that allows the fighter to quickly jettison on-board fuel if it encounters a problem soon after launch and must quickly return for an emergency landing on the carrier.
By mid-2017, we will have established on the SBTF that the Naval Tejas can be flown off an actual carrier, and we will then graduate to ship-based testing. We currently have two prototypes in testing, and will build a third by then, says a satisfied ADA chief.
should prosecute those responsible for attacks in India instead of simply placing some under house arrest and allowing others to roam free and deliver speeches, says former diplomat of that country Husain Haqqani.
He also warns that unless all jihadi groups are seen as threats and action is taken by against them, more attacks like the one on Pathankot airbase will occur, adding the jihadis have not brought success over the last 30 years and will only inflict more damage on that country in years to come.
The former ambassador of Pakistan to the US says being smaller than India, Pakistan cannot succeed in a conventional military offensive but it hopes to force India's hand by disrupting life in its cities and creating fear all round and this deep-rooted desire for military competition even by unconventional means is the reason why terrorism endures.
In an interview to PTI, Haqqani spoke about his latest book 'India vs Pakistan: Why Can't We Just Be Friends?' and issues related to Kashmir, Pakistani Army and normalisation of ties.
He decided to write this book, published by Juggernaut, to get "through to young Pakistanis and young Indians" as hate is not good foreign policy.
He says the setting up of a joint investigation team on the Pathankot attack case "reflected the desire by the civilian government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to demonstrate to India his intention" of improving relations.
"It also reflected the need for the military to alleviate international pressure by demonstrating its willingness to investigate the attack. However, like earlier such investigations until and unless all jihadi groups are seen as threats and action is taken against them, more such attacks and many more such investigations will take place," he says.
"I have repeatedly stated ever since the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan has to seriously prosecute those responsible for attacks in India instead of simply placing some under house arrest and allowing others to roam free and deliver speeches. This also applies to the Pathankot investigation," says Haqqani, currently the Director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute.
In his book, now available on the Juggernaut app, he says Pakistan uses terrorism as a low-cost means of bleeding India and Pakistani terrorist groups' masterminds are almost always set free by Pakistani courts.
Asked about it, he says, "Being smaller than India, Pakistan cannot succeed in a conventional military offensive but it hopes to force India's hand by disrupting life in its cities and creating fear all round.This deep-rooted desire for military competition even by unconventional means is the reason why terrorism endures.
"Pakistan's current army chief, General Raheel Sharif, has mobilised the military against jihadi groups that attack inside Pakistan and that is a positive thing. But the policy of tolerating and supporting jihadis attacking Afghanistan and India remains unchanged."
Uncontrolled armed militias, which is what the anti-India jihadi groups are, are a danger to any society and Pakistan has to act against all jihadi groups for the sake of its own people, he says and rues that the "temptation to persist with irregular warfare and the alliance between Islamist militants and the Pakistani security apparatus still remains strong".
He suggests that Pakistan needs to "shut down the jihadi groups and India needs to reassure Pakistan's establishment that it is not out to gobble up Pakistan and the paranoid support of terrorism is unnecessary".
He alleges that India's approach to Pakistan has been inconsistent. "It neither sustains dialogue for long enough for it to bear fruit nor does it stay away from talks consistently to convey the message that talks and terrorism cannot go together."
Asked whether Sharif needs to reciprocate gestures like the one made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he went to Lahore and attended the wedding of the former's grand-daughter, Haqqani replies, "Gestures only go so far in ending mistrust and changing entrenched security policies. I think it is time for substantive actions, not just gestures that look great for a few days but have no lasting impact on the relationship."
Haqqani also terms as a "self-defeating strategy", the military's view that irregular warfare with the help of Islamists is a cheap and easy option.
On Kashmir issue, he says Pakistan never had a strategy to press its claim and always approached the issue emotionally.
"Over the years at regular intervals, India has called for normalisation first while Pakistan has insisted on 'resolving' Kashmir first without offering alternative intermediate solutions. This encapsulates the predicament of India-Pakistan discussions."
He is of the view that normalisation of relations with India is far more important for Pakistan today than it was in the early years of its life as an independent state.
"The problem for Pakistan's ruling elite is that after 69 years of describing Kashmir as Pakistan's primary 'cause' it is not easy, especially for an overbearing military, to effectively manage a major shift in priorities.
High Court Tuesday dismissed the petition of nine rebel Congress MLAs challenging their disqualification, holding that by their conduct they have "voluntarily given up membership of their political party", implying that they can be disqualified on that ground.
"This court, subject to scrutiny of Speaker's action on the principles of natural justice, therefore, holds that the ingredients of paragraph 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution are met against the petitioners.
"By their conduct, it has been established that they have 'voluntarily given up membership of their political party', even if they have not become members of any other political party," Justice U C Dhyani said in his 57-page judgement.
He was giving a verdict on the two writ petitions filed by the nine MLAs against Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal in disqualifying them for joining hands with BJP MLAs against the Congress government headed by Harish Singh Rawat.
The judgement refers to the joint memorandum signed by the nine MLAs along with the BJP MLAs and given to the Governor on March 18.
It had urged the Governor to forward a message to the Speaker, seeking division of vote on the Appropriation Bill as in their estimation the government was in minority and was being run in an unconstitutional manner.
It had also contended that the Speaker had not adhered to prescribed procedures and had disregarded the majority. 35 members, which include 26 members of BJP and 9 members of Congress, continued to demand for division of vote, they voted against the bill and the Appropriation Bill was not passed.
They contended that the government was in minority and the Cabinet of Rawat be dismissed.
Justice Dhyani said the petitioners have clearly stated in the joint memorandum that they voted against the Bill and since (the majority was against the Bill), therefore, the Appropriation Bill could not be passed.
The judge noted that the MLAs also concluded in their joint memorandum that the Appropriation Bill was not passed and the government was in minority.
He said whether the Bill was passed or not was not a fact under adjudication before him. A request was therefore made that in exercise of constitutional powers conferred on the Governor, by the Cabinet of Rawat, be dismissed.
"A prudent man would, therefore, in normal circumstances, believe that the petitioners were not only aggrieved with the working of the Speaker, as also with Shri Harish Rawat, but also the fact that they voted against the Bill, and therefore say that the Appropriation Bill could not be passed.
"They also say that the government is in minority. Although, they say in the letter that they are Members of the Indian Congress, but were not hesitant to say that they voted against the Bill, the Appropriation Bill was not passed and the government is in minority," the judge observed.
Referring to the petitioner's argument equating the disqualified MLAs' action to that of the petitioners in a case related to former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, the court said the instant case appears to be on a different plane.
"In Yedyurappa's case, they did not go to the Governor with the members of the opposition; they did not say that they voted against the Bill; and they did not say that the Appropriation Bill could not be passed; and they did not say that the government is in minority.
"The MLAs in Yedyurappa's case only said that Shri B S
Yeddyurappa, Chief Minister, has forfeited the confidence od the people and, therefore, he expresses his lack of confidence in the government headed by Yeddyurappa and, as such he withdraws his support from the government headed by him," the judgement said.
Justice Dhyani observed that there were also other reasons why the MLAs were saved from disqualification in Yeddurappa's case which are not available in the instant case.
"The words 'voluntarily giving up membership' are not synonymous with 'resignation' and have a wider connotation.... It, therefore, follows that even in the absence of a formal resignation from membership, an inference can be drawn from the conduct of a member that he has voluntarily given up his membership of the party, to which he belongs," he said.
Further, the judge observed that an act of giving a letter requesting the Governor to call upon the Leader of the other side to form a government itself would amount to an act of voluntarily giving up the membership of the party on whose ticket the said members were elected.
"The court is bound to protect the Constitution and its values and the principles of democracy which is the basic feature of the Constitution," the judgement said.
"A political party functions on the shared beliefs. Its own political stability and social utility depends on such shared beliefs and concerted action of its members in furtherance of those commonly held principles.
"Any freedom of its members to vote as they please independently of the political party's declared policies will not only embarrass its public image and popularity but also undermine public confidence in it which, in the ultimate analysis, is its source of sustenance-nay, indeed its very survival.
"Intra-party debates are of course a different thing. But a public image of desperate stands by members of the same political party is not looked upon, in political tradition, as a desirable state of things," the judgement said.
The judge noted that the manifesto of a political party is a statement of its policy and the promise of a future government.
"One may argue that deserting the leader and deserting the Government is not synonymous with deserting the party. What constitutes defection under Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution is deserting the party," he said.
The judge said dissent is not defection and the Tenth Schedule while recognising dissent prohibits defection.
"The instant case is an illustration of the fact that the petitioners have not only deserted the leader and deserted the Government, but under the garb of dissent, they have, by their conduct, deserted the party, otherwise they would not have said in the joint memorandum that they voted against the Appropriation Bill, it was not passed, the Government is in minority and, therefore, the Cabinet of Harish Rawat be dismissed.
"There is a thin line of difference between deserting the
Leader/Government and deserting the party. Dissent is permissible only so long as it does not tread into the realm of 'voluntarily relinquishing the membership of the party'.
"If dissent is permitted to unfathomable limit, then it will amount to deserting the party and would also tantamount to 'voluntarily giving up his membership of such political party' under Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule," Justice Dhyani said.
Referring to freedom of speech and expression, the judgement said "Everybody looks at things from his own point of view. Whereas the petitioners term their action as 'valid criticism' or 'dissent', the Speaker and the Chief Whip of the Indian Congress in would term it as 'voluntarily giving up their membership of such political party', which would attract Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule. The beauty lies in the eyes of beholder!"
"An Appropriation Bill is matter of policy decision and if any policy is attacked or if there is clear violation of the manifesto or if there is the fall of the government, the same will attract paragraph (2) (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and will amount to 'voluntarily giving up membership of the party'.
The judge maintained that every case has to be decided on its own merits and said that the petitioners are clearly the victims of their own actions, probably not knowing fully well that it will take them so far.
"The court is sympathetic to them. Such type of things happen when people assemble together. But one should not forget that they are responsible law makers. They make the law, which is implemented by the Executive and is adjudicated by the Judiciary. The fourth estate i.E. The Press, brings the actions of all wings of democracy to the notice of We The People of India," the judge said.
On the complaint of the MLAs that the Speaker had not observed principles of natural justice, Justice Dhyani said the Speaker might have been elected on a ticket of a party but when he is performing the job of a Speaker he has to be unbiased and non-biased leaving aside his party affiliations.
"A Speaker includes pro-tem Speaker and the likes. It is apparent on the basis of documents on record, in the instant case, that the opportunity to the liking of the petitioners was not granted by the Speaker, but that opportunity cannot be termed as insufficient opportunity," he said.
"The inference is that the principles of natural justice have not been violated by the Speaker, while adjudicating the petitions of the petitioners. No interference is, therefore, called for in the impugned order. Both the writ petitions, therefore, fail and are dismissed," the judgement said.
The judge said the Court is fully conscious of its limitations and directed that at no point of time, this judgement shall come in the way of Speaker-party respondent no.1 to review his own order, in accordance with law, if petitioners are so advised to move for the same, on any of the grounds available to them in law.
About 126 million people have been covered by the Pradhan Mantri Jan Suraksha Yojana a year after the insurance and pension scheme was launched.
With no increase in premiums in the second year of the policy, insurers are expecting larger volumes to be generated in 2016-17.
Data from the Jan Suraksha Yojana website show more men have been covered by the scheme than women. The accident plan had the highest enrolment at 94.2 million, followed by 29.6 million for term insurance and then the pension plan. The premium is Rs 330 for the life plan and Rs 12 for the accident plan.
The pension scheme has the government contributing Rs 1,000 or half the subscriber's share, whichever is lower, for five years if the enrolment is before December 2016. It guarantees a minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000.
State Bank of India had the highest enrolment followed by Punjab National Bank and Andhra Bank. The performance to potential ratio showed Indian Bank, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur and Bharatiya Mahila Bank were the top three banks.
Banks are an integral part of the scheme because both the policy and claim will be dealt through them. Insurers offering the scheme must tie up with a bank because premiums cannot be paid in cash.
Insurers fear the premiums will not cover administration and distribution costs. But the government has decided against increasing premiums till 2017-18.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has constituted a three-member committee to prepare a policy framework for taxi and other transport operators.
The committee will be headed by Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and have Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and Delhi Transport Commissioner as its members.
A group of taxi and other transport operators had met Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Shipping on Monday, apprising him of the situation that has emerged following Supreme Courts order of December 15, 2015 and directions of EPCA dated April 29, 2016 banning diesel taxis in the NCR, and the various problems they are facing as a result of the ban.
"The three-member committee will look into these issues and come up with appropriate policy recommendations to address the same in a time bound manner," said a ministry press release today.
The taxi operators in the NCR had taken to streets last week to protest ban on diesel taxis after which both the Centre and the Delhi government sought a review of the Supreme Court decision. The Delhi government has even proposed a phased ban on non-CNG taxis.
The Union government had last year come up with an advisory for licensing, compliance and liability of on-demand information technology based transportation aggregator.
It said cab aggregators should obtain licence under section 93 of MV Act, 1988 which provides for licensing of agents that solicit customers for public service vehicles.
Last month Karnataka notified On-demand Transportation Taxi Aggregators Rules under the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, 1988 not just to regulate companies like Ola and Uber.
The aggregators, unlike conventional taxi services, do not own vehicles but provide an online market place to drivers and customers.
Ignoring the internal warnings about the potential threat of bio-terrorism and general safety of consumers, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has decided to stop regulating imported food and beverages sold at duty-free shops. Business Standard reviewed internal documents of FSSAI, dated between January and April 2016, showing the authoritys chairperson overruling his subordinate officials opinion that the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) Act, 2006 requires the authority to regulate imported food, regardless of whether it is sold at duty-free stores or in other parts of the country. The internal advice made a persistent case for continued regulatory oversight of duty-free shops to ensure imported food products are generally safe for consumption and particularly to address potential bio-terrorism. The internal decision comes at a time when FSSAI faces a case in the Delhi High Court, filed by Hyderabad Duty Free Retail Limited, a 100 per cent subsidiary of GMR. The firm, which runs the duty-free operations at Hyderabad International Airport, has contended that FSSAI has no power to regulate the food and beverage products being sold at different international airports. So far, FSSAI had argued in court that it did. FSSAI did not respond to detailed queries sent by Business Standard. But the chief executive officer of FSSAI, Pawan Kumar Agarwal said, The issue that you mentioned has been resolved in favour of what people wanted. The market for duty-free goods sold in India was estimated at $215 million annually in 2012 by the CAPA Centre for Aviation. According to industry experts, more than 70 per cent of this is food & beverages that comes under the purview of FSSAI regulations. The total business of retail, food and beverages at duty-free shops in India was estimated to have a potential of $3.5 billion by 2021. Now, FSSAI chairperson Ashish Bahuguna has ordered that the authority lay off regulating this industry entirely. I am not sure whether pursuance of this matter would be judicious deployment of our resources, given that this affects only a minuscule number of people (who are, in any case, carrying similar food articles purchased from abroad in their personal luggage), he wrote in January.
FSSAIs legal experts and officials objected to the chairpersons recommendations. Its legal advisor wrote, To fulfil our legal obligation under the Act, we cannot afford to bypass any group of food business operators under the legal boundary of India. If such food is brought into the country even if it is at duty-free shops, it could pose risk to the life of millions (even minuscule quantities if they have trace levels of the above bacterial and viral agents) if we have not even brought it in our ambit and followed the basic procedures of inspection and sampling. It is appreciated that our resources are limited at present, but the same will need to be provided to ensure all areas concerning food are addressed as per enacted legislation. The advice came appended with an 11-page note on the threat of bio-terrorism from even small quantities of virus and bacterial agents could be used through food to cause grievous injuries to many. The note said the FSSA Act is concerned with any food within the geographical territory of India and if any untoward event occurs at the duty-free shops, it is also covered by the laws of the country. In the developed world, every imported food consignment is subject to careful scrutiny, especially addressing the capability of food as a tool for bio-terrorism, said the advisor. Section 1(2) of the FSSA Act says, It extends to the whole of India. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) FSSAIs equivalent is the regulatory agency entrusted to take steps to protect the public from a threatened or actual terrorist attack on the US food supply and other food-related emergencies. The FSSAI chairperson responded to the warning from his subordinate about bio-terrorism and said, A very interesting and informative treatise, which has little or no relevance to the case at hand. We have to address basics of food safety, not of bio-terrorism or disease control which are within the mandate of other agencies. We must recognise that the aim of our Act is to ensure the availability of safe and wholesome food and cannot be the instrument to prevent acts of bio-terrorism, which, in any case, will operate outside the confines of the legal system of the country. The measures adopted by us have to be no more restrictive of trade than is required to achieve an appropriate level of health protection. He added that passengers arriving in the country were allowed to carry food for personal consumption and these goods were not for commercial purpose and hence, cannot pose risk to public health under normal circumstances.
Something To Chew On $215 million: The market for duty-free goods sold annually in India in 2012 by the CAPA Centre for Aviation. More than 70% of this is food & beverages that came under the purview of FSSAI regulations till date. $3.5 billion: Estimated total business of retail, food and beverages at duty-free shops in India by 2021
(With inputs from Sahil Makkar)
Respected Indians in the global financial world continue to come back to their home turf, lured by the growth rate of the country and the opportunity to tap a market that is familiar and capable of accommodating more.
After Citibanks Vikram Pandit and Standard Chartereds Jaspal Bindra, the latest names entering the Indian market are Anshu Jain, former co-head of Deutsche Bank AG, and Bhupinder Singh, the banks former co-head of corporate banking business in Asia-Pacific.
Jain and Singh are floating a non-bank financial company (NBFC) that will leverage technology to tap business opportunity in education, housing, and small & medium enterprise segments all three under-served in India. The NBFC, in which one or two more Indian prominent business houses could invest, would be reasonably large, said sources in the know.
The investor base could remain closed to four or five investors, including Jain and Singh.
Jain left Deutsche Bank in June 2015, while Singh left the bank less than a year ago.
Jains role in the new company will be as an investor and a mentor, while the entire operation will be headed by Singh, sources said, adding if the new structure fits the bill, the NBFC could also apply for a banking licence once on-tap becomes the norm later this year.
The draft guidelines are just fresh off the press; there will be live discussions around it and the final guidelines will come. If the NBFC is found to be a right structure, eventually, it would want to become a bank, said a source. The central bank came with the draft guidelines on on-tap banking licence last week. Jain and Singh, who easily qualify to become bank promoters, given their net worth and long association with banking, easily fit the bill for being the promoter of a full bank.
The yet-to-be named NBFC is expected to start operations in about six weeks and will have its head office in Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai.
The NBFC is busy hiring top talents from foreign and Indian firms and is expected to use technology to originate loans. The credit model will be evolved around smartphones and Aadhaar numbers.
Last month, Jaspal Bindra, former Asia-Pacific chief executive at Standard Chartered Bank, joined the board of Centrum Group as executive chairman. Bindra, who left Standard Chartered in February 2015, is expected to have picked up about 20 per cent stake in Centrum for an undisclosed amount.
Similarly, a fund managed by former Citibank chief Vikram Pandit in November 2014 picked up about 50 per cent stake in JM Financials realty lending arm FICS.
Some of the private sector banks are increasingly looking like public sector ones. After ICICI Bank declared that Rs 44,000 crore are at risk of turning toxic, it was the turn of Axis Bank to declare that it was monitoring Rs 22,600 crore worth of assets, 60% of which can turn non-performing. The result: ICICI Bank reacted negatively to the disclosure, but Axis Bank trades higher.
Part of the reason for no reaction in the market is that the news was already discounted because the disclosure was made at the time of results in April. Further, the maximum stress in Axis Banks books is in the power and iron and steel sector. Most of the issues in the power sector are sorted out, especially on the environment and fuel availability fronts. Similarly, iron and steel sector is in a revival mode with the government imposing heavy import duties on cheap imports from China, Japan and South Korea.
According to veteran banker KV Kamath, the economic growth and asset resolution will take care of the challenge. Kamath pointed out that China, nearly 13 years back, had a non-performing asset of nearly 50% of its GDP. Indias NPAs were then only 5 to 10%, the same proportion as of now.
Indian banks have been disclosing their non-performing assets that were earlier hidden. The sharp rise in provisioning by banks across the board in the final quarter is a result of the change in norms.
In a conference call with analysts, Axis Bank said they are maintaining provision coverage of 70% which adds up to Rs 9,000 crore, much higher than the average of Rs 2,208 crore. Axis Banks management pointed out that there is scope of NPAs increasing from outside the watch list. Accretion to the list can be from small and medium enterprises books and the retail book.
Motilal Oswal, in a note on the banks results, has said that with the disclosures, Axis Bank has identified nearly 14% of corporate loans as additional stress. Giving some colour to the watchlist, Motilal Oswals report points out that nearly 79% of these loans were disbursed between FY10 to FY12 and 17% were prior to FY09. Iron and steel account for 24% while Power accounts for 23%.
But what is worrying is that out of the known leveraged groups, nearly 75% of them are outside the watch list. Also, 28 per cent of loans of restructured assets are not in the list.
So is the worst behind Axis Bank now that it has transparently declared its problem assets?
As in the case of ICICI Bank, analysts downgraded their earnings estimate of Axis Bank. Motilal Oswal has downgraded its earnings estimates by 10% for the present fiscal and the next. But given the strength of the banks network and presence, the research firm says that the bank is geared up to ride the next growth cycle. Its strong presence in the retail and SME (small and medium enterprises), strong capitalisation of 12.5% and expanding liability franchise makes it rightly positioned to catch the next wave of growth.
Analysts have appreciated the transparency shown by the bank. Angel Broking in its note says that the disclosure by the bank gives better clarity on earnings going ahead; further, the core business of the bank continues to grow strong.
In the analyst community, all seems to have been forgiven for Axis Bank.
The Government vide press Note No. 4 (2001 Series) opened up the defence industry sector for 100% Indian private sector participation in defence manufacturing including ammunitions subject to licensing. The defence industry sector was opened up for private sector to meet the growing needs of the Armed Forces and to harness the potential of private sector in our endeavour of achieving self-reliance in defence manufacturing. .
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Several private companies have been issued industrial license by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) for manufacture of arms and ammunitions. .
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The procurement of ammunition is an ongoing process which is done on war wastages reserve scale. So far, no decision has been taken to procure a specific type of ammunition from private sector. .
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This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to Shri Vijay Goel in Rajya Sabha today. .
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DM/NAMPI/RAJ ?
The Defence Acquisition Council has in its meeting held on 17th December, 2015, accorded approval for purchase of S-400 LRSAM system (Triumf Missile System) along with associated equipment and missiles from Russia. A contract has been signed for supply of five Full Mission Simulators for SU-30 MKI aircraft with a Russian firm during 2015-16. .
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S-400 has better performance parameters compared to S-300 on account of (i) maximum and minimum target engagement range, (ii) minimum target engagement altitude, (iii) maximum speed of target engaged, (iv) number of targets engaged simultaneously, (v) maximum radar cross-section of targets engaged, and (vi) deployment time. .
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The five firing units of S-400 LRSAM system are planned for induction in Indian Air Force in 13th plan period (2017-2022). .
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This information was given by Defence Minister Shri Manohar Parrikar in a written reply to Shri N Gokula Krishnan in Rajya Sabha today. .
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DM/NAMPI/RAJ ?
Following is the text of the Inaugural Address made by Shri Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance at the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) 2025 Second Regional Consultation Workshop here today. .
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Distinguished Heads and members of delegations from the SASEC countries; Mr. Hun Kim, Director General, South Asia Department; my colleagues from different Ministries of the Government of India, ladies and gentlemen. .
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It gives me pleasure to be with you in this Second Regional Consultation Workshop on SASEC 2025. Todays Workshop will discuss a long-term vision and a ten-year roadmap that will help our sub-region attain new heights of growth, development and prosperity. Let me compliment ADB for facilitating this event and preparing inputs to guide in our deliberations. .
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In the last week, we met in Frankfurt for the annual meeting of the ADB where all of us acknowledged that Asia will be the biggest driver of growth in coming years. It will definitely attract bigger investment. .
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SASECs success as a regional cooperation program can be attributed in large part to its strategy of pursuing hardware and software initiatives in tandem. Cross border infrastructure projects are complemented with the necessary simplification and harmonization of procedures at the borders and improvements in testing and measurement facilities. To support trade facilitation, we build capacity to apply the latest technological interventions, and comply with international standards and best practices. We do this through periodic training of our human resources. .
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India has always engaged with its neighbours in addressing common challenges --- economic vulnerability, social deprivation, environmental degradation. We have also engaged with them in the pursuit of common goals --- sustainable growth, inclusiveness, prosperity. We have always believed that mutual support of each others endeavours can add impetus to individual country initiatives. In SASEC, we have long held the principle that regional cooperation complements domestic undertakings. National and regional initiatives are very much interrelated. Over the past 15 years, through ADB, we have seen the interrelatedness by uncovering the regional spillovers of national initiatives, and realizing the benefits of positive externalities by financing cross-border projects and national projects with regional dimensions. .
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The SASEC initiative supported by ADB assists the six participating countries in the sub-region to address many issues that impede growth and development. By providing a platform for dialogue and cooperation, SASEC helps participating countries to develop a better understanding of each others strengths and weaknesses. Over the last two decades, SASEC has helped craft solutions to cross-border issues. I thank ADB for making SASEC a project- driven initiative that looks beyond the bilateral bottlenecks. .
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Recently, SASEC has also established specialised forums on customs and electricity transmission to provide more focused technical support to national and bilateral efforts in these areas. The Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal (BBIN) Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) is a shining example of cross-border cooperation among four countries to ease movement of vehicles and goods transiting through third countries. India is also involved in the negotiation of the India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) MVA which will boost South Asia's connectivity eastward. . .
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With ADB support, India is presently developing two priority road corridors. The first road corridor will connect India with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan through the chicken neck" area of North Bengal. The second road corridor will establish India-Myanmar connectivity in the state of Manipur. Other projects are being simultaneously pursued to complement these two road corridors. Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) at Agartala and Petrapole on the India-Bangladesh border will be operationalized. Another ICP at Moreh on the India-Myanmar border will be developed. We are also planning to establish ICPs and improved Land Customs Stations (LCS) at key border points with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan to ease the movement of goods and people within the subregion. India is planning to develop regional connectivity projects worth almost $5 billion in SASEC. .
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India is also developing the East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC), with ADB as our lead partner. Phase1 of the ECEC will be implemented as the Vizag Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC) project. The ECEC covers some of the existing growth centres, but it also has the potential to develop other centres that can be linked through efficient multi-modal transport systems and infrastructure services. Growth in the corridor would be distributed spatially within the region and have significant implications in connecting to global production networks and value chains in ASEAN, in line with our Governments 'Act East' policy. The goal of the ECEC is not only to generate domestic output and employment, but more importantly, to create a more competitive environment for the development of trade and industry in the region. .
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The ECEC will facilitate the movement of the bulk of Indias major natural resources like coal and iron ore and can serve as a node for extractive and downstream value-added industries. Creation of world-class infrastructure supported by transport corridors, logistics services, development of human capital and skills, communications, energy grids and institutional policies that support trade both within the region and outside will be a significant addition to the stock of public capital and lift major constraints to growth nationally and regionally. .
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I am happy to note that SASEC programme has accorded priority to trade facilitation. It is imperative to recognize the challenges and opportunities of this region and to realise its potential. It is a fact that South Asia is among the least integrated region in the world. Problems in trade facilitation, non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and infrastructure deficit hindered intra-regional trade in South Asia. In the World Banks ease of doing business ranking SASEC countries generally occupies lower positions in trade facilitation. Four SASEC countries have long coastline that could be developed to its full potential to integrate this sub-region with global production centres. .
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Recently, India launched a major port-led development initiative called Sagarmala", which will help modernize India's Ports and coastlines to contribute more in India's growth. About 90% of Indias trade by volume and 70% by value are moved through ports. The major ports thus play a key role in facilitating external trade. The focus has been on improving the port infrastructure, modernization of existing facilities and increasing the capacity and draught at ports. The Government of India has been promoting capacity enhancement of major ports through PPP projects for the construction of berths/terminals/jetties and mechanization of berths for cargo handling. Apart from the modernization of the existing ports in the east coast, India is developing two new ports on the same coast line at Dugarajapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and at Sagar Island in West Bengal. These ports will further enhance our trade with our neighbours and ASEAN countries. .
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India has also been assisting its neighbours in the sub-continent to improve their power situation. The India-Bangladesh transmission line is providing safe and reliable interconnection of the power grids to supply of 500 MW of power from India to Bangladesh. A 1320 MW Maitri Thermal Power Project, a joint venture of Indias NTPC Ltd and the Bangladesh Power Development Board, will be developed. The Power Grid Corporation of India is also engaged in developing three 230 kv transmission lines in Myanmar with the support of a credit line of US $ 64 million between the Exim Bank of India and the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank. India is also investing to develop hydroelectric projects in Nepal and Bhutan.India is currently engaged in discussions for a mega gas pipeline project linking Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan with India. Under this project, a 1,680 km long pipeline would be constructed. At the request of the four participating countries, ADB has agreed to house the secretariat of this project. .
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Ladies and gentlemen. .
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India is committed to continue its close relations with countries of South Asia and South East Asia. We are presently engaged in a number of regional initiatives that includes SAARC, BIMSTEC, the Mekong-Ganga initiative, India-ASEAN Partnership, and the East Asia Summit, among others. These initiatives provide a much wider space to pursue the many possibilities that an expansive and vibrant Asian landscape has to offer. Asias dynamism is an excellent opportunity for all of us, to further intensify our drive towards the common goal of sustainable and inclusive growth. It is in this context that we welcome ADBs proposal to develop a SASEC Vision document and a comprehensive long-term operational plan to guide our efforts more deliberately and resolutely into the future. .
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In conclusion, let me once again compliment the ADB for organizing this workshop. I hope that country delegations will contribute their ideas to help shape a well-rounded vision document and operational plan. The need of the hour is to acknowledge our strengths and weaknesses and, through cooperation, develop synergies through mutual support. The ADB is in a unique position to take a neutral view and to play a very good role as facilitator, advisor and catalyst in the SASEC region. .
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I wish the workshop all success and look forward to fruitful deliberations on SASEC 2025. Thank you." .
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The weapon trials for LCH are planned in July-August 2016. The demonstration of Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) in 70 mm rockets firing conducted during IAFs Iron Fist event held in March, 2016 at Jaisalmer was successful. The flight trials were successful with respect to system integration, structural integrity, noise and vibration, functionality of system and safe separation of rockets. .
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The Development flights carried out earlier at Bangalore, Chennai (sea level), Leh (cold weather), Jodhpur (hot weather) and Leh in Summer (hot temperature & high altitude) as well as confirmatory firing trials of rockets integrated on LCH during IAFs Iron Fist event in March, 2016 have given adequate confidence for carrying out certification firing trials. .
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The certification firing trials with integration of mission sensors such as electro optical system, helmet pointing system and weapon systems air to air missiles, turret gun and rockets are planned during July-August 2016. .
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This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to Shri Paul Manoj Pandian in Rajya Sabha today. .
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DM/NAMPI/RAJ ?
Oil rose from a two-week low on concern that supplies from Nigeria and Libya, holders of Africa's largest crude reserves, will be disrupted. Futures advanced as much as 2.2 per cent in New York. Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp. are evacuating workers from the Niger Delta because of deteriorating security, a union official said. In Libya, some fields will be forced to halt output unless a port blockade is lifted, according to the National Oil Corp. Canada's oil-sands companies curbed supply as wildfires ripped across northern Alberta last week. Gains accelerated as global ...
Saudi Arabian Oil Co, the world's biggest oil exporter, said it will keep expanding and meet demand from customers as global consumption increases, the head of the state-run producer said.
Saudi Arabian Oil, also known as Saudi Aramco, will boost capacity at the Shaybah oil field in the Rub Al-Khali desert in southeastern by 33 per cent to one million barrels a day in the next couple of weeks and will double natural gas production over the next decade, Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser told reporters on Tuesday. Aramco is looking for joint ventures in countries from the US to China, he said.
"Saudi Aramco will continue to expand," Nasser said at the company headquarters in Dhahran in eastern . "We will soon be publishing our annual book and you will see there is significant growth in our annual oil production compared to previous years."
is seeking to reduce its reliance on oil sales amid lower prices for its most lucrative export.
As part of that effort, the king's increasingly influential son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, wants to sell stock in Saudi Aramco for the first time, creating what could be the world's largest listed company. Brent crude rose on Tuesday as much as 3.7 per cent to $45.24 a barrel. Crude averaged about $100 a barrel from 2011 through 2014.
"Even though it is challenging, it's still an opportunity for us to grow," Nasser said of the expansion plans. The company is looking to develop more joint ventures in countries including the U.S., China, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and South Africa, he said.
The plans include boosting refining capacity to 10 million barrels a day, Nasser said. Saudi Aramco already has refining and petrochemical partnerships in the US, China, South Korea and Japan, as well as in Saudi Arabia, giving it a share in plants capable of processing 5.4 million barrels a day. Of that total amount, it directly controls 3.1 million barrels a day of capacity, he said.
Global crude demand will rise by 1.2 million barrels a day this year, Nasser said. Saudi Aramco, which produced 10.2 million barrels a day on average last year, will meet customers' requests for oil, he said. "We are seeing an increase in India, China, the US and from different parts of the world," Nasser said.
"We are meeting that call on us from our partners across the world."
The company is working to sell shares in an initial public offering on the domestic exchange as well as internationally, Nasser said. A supreme committee with oversight of the company is giving direction in the share sale process, he said.
IPO plans
Aramco is finalising proposals for its partial privatisation and will present them to its Supreme Council soon, its chief executive said about the centrepiece of the kingdom's efforts to overhaul its economy.
The company has a huge team working on the options for the initial public offering (IPO) of less than five per cent of its value, which include a single domestic listing and a dual listing with a foreign market, CEO Amin Nasser said on Tuesday.
They will be presented "soon" to Aramco's Supreme Council, headed by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is leading an economic reform drive to address falling oil revenue and sharp fiscal deficits by boosting the private sector, ending government waste and diversifying the economy.
The marketing domain has topped the MBA summer placements at the premier Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur).
Almost 50 per cent of the 2015-17 batch students participating in the summer placement process were offered internships in marketing by brands, including Lava, Godrej, Nielson, ACC and Idea Cellular.
The domains of consulting & strategy and operations followed next with 14 per cent each of the offers made to students.
Analytics and finance accounted for 11 per cent and 9 per cent respectively of the total offers made during the summer placements to the MBA students.
IIT-K witnessed participation from 30 companies. Around 20 percent of the students bagged multiple offers during the process.
The first time recruiters at the MBA summer placements included marquee names, such as Godrej, ACC, Indiamart, Nielsen, Arvind Mills and Idea. Other key recruiters were Boeing, Bharat Petroleum, Tata Motors, Policy Bazaar and Deloitte.
According to an press communique, some of the companies also offered Capstone projects in conjunction with internship to students. Capstone is a multi disciplinary independent research project.
The summer placements occur on a rolling basis starting from September. A good summer placement is reckoned as a precursor to a good final placements; hence, due diligence is maintained.
In all, there were 34 students participating in the summer placements received 42 offers with the average stipend of about Rs 33,000. The highest stipend stood at Rs 1,10,000.
The 2015-17 batch possessed experience in industries like IT (35 per cent), manufacturing (15 percent), government sector (6 percent), education (6 percent), besides energy, power and telecom.
The students had prior work experience ranging from 0-11 months to over 36 months with 35 percent holding experience of 12-23 months, followed by 29 per cent (0-11 months) and 21 percent (24-35 per cent).
Here are a few intra-day trading strategies from for trade today:
BBTC (Bombay Burmah Trading Corp)
LTP : Rs 397.45
Action : BUY on dips
Targets : Rs 404 / Rs 408
Stop-loss : Rs 389
Comment : Momentum indicators are supporting continuation of uptrend. Volume has moved
above the 10 day average. The stock has taken support around Rs 385 and has started to reverse.
NCC
LTP : Rs 78.25
Action : BUY on dips
Targets : Rs 79.8 / Rs 82
Stop-loss : Rs 75.5
Comment : Momentum osicallators are supporting continuation of the uptrend. MACD is above the signal line . Volume have jumped and is near the 10 day average. The stock has moved above the resistance of Rs 78.25.
BF Utilities
LTP : Rs 563.85
Action : Buy on declines
Targets : Rs 573 / Rs 580
Stop-loss : Rs 547
Comment : The momentum oscillators like RSI and Stochastics are coming off the oversold region and is supporting further upside. The has started to reverse from the lower bollinger band of Rs 550.
Disclaimer: This report has been prepared by Financial Services Limited (GBNPP), here in after referred to as GBNPP. GBNPP, a publicly listed company, is engaged in services of retail broking, credit, portfolio management and marketing investment products including mutual funds, life and general insurance and properties. Each recipient of this report should make such investigation as it deems necessary to arrive at an independent evaluation of an investment in the securities of companies referred to in this report (including the merits and risks involved). This document is not for public distribution and has been furnished to you solely for your information and must not be reproduced or redistributed to any other person. Persons into whose possession this document may come are required to observe these restrictions. Opinion expressed herein is our current opinion as of the date appearing on this report only. While we endeavor to update on a reasonable basis the information discussed in this material, there may be regulatory, compliance, or other reasons that prevent us from doing so. Prospective investors and others are cautioned that any forward-looking statements are not predictions and may be subject to change without notice.
Delhi-based businessman Vishvanidhi Dalmia has filed a recovery suit in the Bombay High Court against brokerage India Infoline Commodities and four of its officials including IIFL Holdings chairman Nirmal Jain, following delay in recovery of money invested in the National Spot Exchange (NSEL). IIFL Holdings is the promoter of India Infoline Commodities. Dalmia, who has business interest in real estate, garment exports and securities markets, has filed a suit to recover Rs 11.38 crore (Rs 7.6 crore investment and Rs 3.78 crore interest). Earlier, a Mumbai-based investor had filed a similar case against another commodity broker to recover Rs 9 crore in the scam.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has formed a committee to look into the role of brokers in the case. In his petition, filed on Friday, Dalmia said an India Infoline Commodities employee informed him that investments in commodities were extremely safe, that it could fetch a return of 13-15 per cent per annum and that the payments were backed by stocks. He stated he was told by India Infoline Commodities that was regulated by various ministries and Sebi. Dalmia accused India Infoline Commodities of mis-selling, false assurance and lack of disclosure. Earlier, officials of some brokerages were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police on charges of inducement and mis-selling of NSEL products. The Enforcement Directorate, too, is probing if the case involved money laundering.
We have not received any such notice. The allegations are with an ulterior motive and mala-fide intention. We reiterate and strongly deny such allegations. As the public is aware, the matter related to NSEL defaulting to investors is under investigation/consideration for the last two-and-a-half years by the government/investigating agencies/regulators and court, said an IIFL spokesperson.
At a time when global luxury are struggling to attract customers to keep their exports afloat, jewellery exports from India grew exponentially over the past five years. Indias jewellery exports quadrupled since financial year 2010-11 because of rapid shift in consumer preferences in favour of contemporary designs of gemstone-studded ornaments.
Data compiled by Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) show Indias jewellery shipment at $2,959 million in financial year (FY) 2015-16, compared with $566 million in 2010-11. From FY15, exports grew by 44 per cent.
The growth in silver jewellery exports has opened an opportunity for Indian designers to compete with traditional market leaders like Thailand, China and Turkey. Subdued prices, growing consumer confidence and guaranteed buyback have helped Indian silver ornaments emerge as an alternative to gold jewellery in international market.
There is a silver lining for Indias silver jewellery exports. Till sometime back, India was a primary exporter of silver bars. Today, the world can see our presence in silver jewellery. Our growth indicates that we can easily become the largest silver jewellery exporter in the world, said Praveen Shankar Pandya, chairman, GJEPC.
Such unfavourable policies prevent us from exports despite huge appetite for Indian jewellery in global markets, said Mehta.
Rising jewellery exports reflected in silver import as well. Indias silver import jumped four-fold in the past three years from 1,900 tonnes in FY12 to 7,954 tonnes in FY15.
Here are a few trading ideas from of Anand Rathi for trade today:
ABB : BUY
Target: Rs 1312
Stop Loss: Rs 1232
The stock is moving after taking support at its 50 day exponential moving average and has been making higher top higher bottom formation from last four sessions. It snapped the losses made in the previous week and gave the highest daily close of last six trading sessions. One can buy the stock with the stop loss of Rs 1232 for the upside target of Rs 1312 levels.
ASHOK LEYLAND: BUY
Target: Rs 108.50
Stop Loss: Rs 101
The stock is moving after taking multiple supports around its Rs 100 zones at its 50 DMA on daily and weekly chart. The overall trend of the stock is intact to positive and has been respecting to its 35 weekly moving average on closing basis from last two years. Thus a positive move towards Rs 108.50 and higher levels cannot be ruled out. One can buy the stock with the stop loss of Rs 101 for the upside target of Rs 108.50 levels.
INFOSYS : BUY
Target: Rs 1250
Stop Loss: Rs 1176
The stock gave a breakout after holding onto the support around Rs 1170 levels and has been continuously trading in an uptrend. It took support around its Rs 1170 levels after a decline witnessed in previous two weeks from Rs 1268 to Rs 1170 levels. It started to move with built up of long position and reclaimed its 1200 zones. Thus recommending to buy the stock with the stop loss of Rs 1176 for the upside target of Rs 1250 levels.
CEAT: SELL
Target: Rs 999
Stop Loss: 1061 The stock has been witnessing selling pressure from last four weeks and making lower top lower bottom formation. It broke its support of Rs 1040 levels and gave the lowest daily close of last forty three trading sessions. It witnessed short built in previous session with an open interest addition of around 17%. We have fundamentally contrary view on the stock but suggesting a trade for immediate profit booking decline towards Rs 999 levels. Thus we are recommending selling the stock on bounce back move with the strict stop loss of Rs 1061 for the downside target of Rs 999 levels.
Disclaimer: We are suggesting all these stocks to our clients but no personal holdings.
is a Derivatives Analyst - Equity Research at Anand Rathi
Maintaining that the people of Kerala were shocked to hear from Prime Minister Narendra Modi certain baseless comments in his recent election rally speech, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Tuesday said "this is unbecoming of a prime minister".
"I was appreciative of your visit to Kerala in the wake of the Paravur temple fire accident. We acknowledge positively to such good deeds. But the people of Kerala were shocked to hear from you certain baseless comments in your recent election rally speech in Kerala. In that speech, you made certain statements that had nothing to do with reality and likened Kerala to Somalia. This is unbecoming of a prime minister and has created a great deal of agony and protest," he said in a letter to Prime Minister Modi.
"It turned out to be far away from truth when you said that an image of a boy eating from waste dump at Peravoor in Kannur district of Kerala, stirred your mind. You have said so, in spite of facilities at your disposal to check the veracity of reports on such incidents taking place in any corner of this country., said the chief minister.
It was reported by the media that Renjith and Rajith, children of Rajeevan and Sarada, and also Abhinav, Sudeep and Akhil, children of Sasi and Santha, belonging to Paniya community and staying at Thiruvonappuram Ambalakuzhi Colony in ward 12 of Peravur grama panchayat, were bunking classes to trespass a waste treatment plant for consuming stale food, he said, adding that an inquiry was immediately done on the matter by the Department of Scheduled Tribe Development and the local police.
As per the report of the Director of Scheduled Tribe Development Department submitted to the government on 18-11-2015, he said, these children studying in the 5th and 6th standards at Vekkalam U.P. School are facing complaints of skipping classes and trespassing farmlands and residential properties. "They also trespass the waste treatment plant, despite stern warnings from the plant workers. Their parents are agricultural labourers and they get jobs on a steady basis, because of which the family did not experience difficulty in getting food or other necessities. The two families were given an acre of land each in the 10th block of the rehabilitation centre in the Aaralam Farm, but they have not yet moved to that place for permanent settlement. Currently these families are living in habitable homes," said the CM.
He further said the Peravur Police in their report of 24-11-2015 said the children were taken to the school free-of-cost on vehicle by the school manager Shibu Kalamandir and were provided with free mid-day meal and on two days a week milk and egg. "They rarely go to school. Everyday, these children after having food would leave their homes at their convenience. They are in the habit of jumping the walls of the waste treatment plant and pick the scrap, which they sell to buy food of their liking from hotels. They also trespass farmlands to collect areca nut and coconut and used to sell them.
"The respective reports of the police and the Scheduled Tribe Development Department confirm the fact that the children never went to the waste treatment plant in search of food. In the police report, it has been said that these children gather scrap and sell them for buying food from hotels. The facts being so, what was your motive behind saying such a blatant lie to the people of Kerala? I can assure you that no child in Kerala takes stale food. In Kerala, 25.02 lakh school- going students are being provided with free mid-day meal and egg on one day and milk on another in a week. For five years, the government of Kerala has been giving rice at rupees one to 94 lakh people. Now, we are giving that free of cost, making us the second State in India to do so," he added.
The Chief Minister said he also could not agree to the Prime Minister's comment on political violence and murders in Kerala getting sidelined by the respective governments that came to power so far in Kerala. "This is totally baseless. We have probed the political murder of T P Chandrasekharan and charge-sheet submitted to the court in a time-bound manner. Three CPM leaders and seven hired killers were sentenced to 11 years in prison in this case. We had requested the Union government for CBI inquiry to find out the conspiracy behind the murder of T P Chandrasekharan. Unfortunately, till date, the Union government has not responded to this request. One is forced to suspect whether this attitude of the Union government is an outcome of the nexus between the BJP and the CPM," he added.
He further said no one in Kerala is going to panic on hearing the word 'solar'. "The people of Kerala know well that not a single penny of the government was lost in the Solar scam case, which is a financial fraud, the victims of which are private parties. It is interesting to note that the allegations as part of the Solar scam were raised by a person chargesheeted in 33 cases. You have been quite eloquent on several occasions regarding the solar power initiative in Kerala. In the recent Renewable Energy Roundtable Conference held in California, attended by 196 nations, you proudly mentioned three projects, of which, one was the Nedumbassery International Airport that works solely on solar power. I wonder whether it befits a prime minister to feel disgraced during the time of elections and proud on other occasions," he added.
"May I bring to your attention that Kerala is above the average in terms of economic growth and human resource development for the past five years. Kerala's human resource has caught the attention of the world. Yet, you compared Kerala to Somalia that is reeling under poverty and internal strife. Is it not Kerala a State in India? And is it not a shame for the prime minister to pronounce that a State like Somalia exists in the country?"
"You have said in your speech that there is a place for Kerala in your heart. If that is the case, then you could have been sincere with your statements on Kerala. The high office of the prime minister has been graced by stalwarts from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Dr Manmohan Singh. And with a great deal of regret, let me point out that they never attempted anything that brought disrepute to the office of the prime minister like you have done," he said, adding that it is my earnest request that you would show some political decency by withdrawing your statements made couple of days ago in Kerala that are baseless and contrary to ground realities," said the chief minister.
Former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga will represent the country at a special session of the United Nations General Assembly focused on UN, Peace and Security commencing today at the UN Headquarters in New York.
The President of the UN General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, has organized a high-level thematic debate of the UN General Assembly focused on UN, Peace and Security on May 10 and 11.
The thematic debate titled 'In a of Risk: A New Commitment for Peace' will be a platform to identify key threats and engage in a strategic reflection about today's challenges to international peace and security.
Kumaratunga, Chairperson of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation, will make the introductory remarks at tomorrow's session, reports Colombo Page.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of former Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has been recovered from Afghanistan's Ghazni province in a joint operation conducted by the Afghan and the US forces.
Gilani's recovery was first announced by Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and later confirmed from the Foreign Office, reports Dawn.
Gilani is reported to be safe and in good health and arrangements are being made to bring him back to his country.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, was soon conveyed the news by the Afghan National Security Adviser.
Bilawal said that former premier Gilani received a call from the ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan, informing him about his son's recovery in a successful operation in Afghanistan.
Ali Haider was kidnapped by gunmen in Multan's Farrukh Town on May 9, 2013, days before he was slated to run for the Punjab Assembly from PPP-200 constituency.
In the kidnapping two of his associates were killed.
His family is one of the most powerful in Multan and a key clan in the PPP, whose campaign for re-election had been dramatically curtailed by Tehrik-i-Taliban threats at the time.
Aamir Khan, who will soon be seen in the upcoming action flick 'Dangal,' has showered praise on the upcoming Marathi film 'Sairat'.
The 51-year-old actor applauded the movie by tweeting, "Just saw Sairat. I'm heartbroken, still recovering from the shock of the end."
He added, "Congratulations to Nagraj, Ajay-Atul, Rinku Rajguru, Akash Thosar, Tanaji Galgunde, Arbaaz Shaikh, the entire cast and crew & to Zee. "
"Please watch it if you haven't already," reads his tweet.
Actor Ritiesh Deshmukh had also lauded the film earlier, saying he feels that 'Sairatt' deserves to be the highest-grossing Marathi film ever.
"#Sairat : haven't seen a better love story in a long time - the genius of @Nagrajmanjule & the magic of @AjayAtulOnline - ??? ???????? ??." he tweeted.
"#Sairat rightfully deserves to be the highest grossing Marathi film ever," reads Ritiesh tweet.
Directed by Nagraj Manjule, the forthcoming romance film that follows the story of Parshya, a low-caste man, and Archie, the daughter of an upper caste landlord, who fall in love despite pressures from society, is slated to hit the theatres on April 29.
Nepal's former envoy to India, Deep Kumar Upadhyay, has expressed his disappointment over the comparisons being made between Kathmandu's relationship with Beijing and New Delhi.
Speaking to ANI, he said Kathmandu's relation with China is a geographical necessity and comparing it with the country's relationship with New Delhi is not right.
"India should be proud that our engagement and relations with India cannot be compared with any other countries. We have a relation of culture and tradition with India which is beyond comparison. Sometimes I am hurt when comparisons are being made. More people speak in Nepali in India than in Nepal," he said.
"In every part of India and state, there is Nepali. See we share such relations with India that it should only be made more permanent and stronger. Regarding relations see sometimes it is the will of heart based on situation," he added.
Talking about Nepal's ties with China, he said Kathmandu can hire technology and take help in infrastructure, but added trade, transit and constant supply is not possible now.
"Why do you want to distance Nepal by comparing relations with China?" he told ANI in an exclusive interview.
Upadhyay further said Nepal is 100 percent dependent on India for fuel.
"In trade, see previously 30 percent now we are 70 percent dependent. And if now, you try to create problem, instead of easing the problem than it's obvious that a man will cry out of pain," he added.
The political crisis in the Himalayan nation escalated on Friday as Kathmandu recalled Upadhyay hours after cancelling President Bidhya Devi Bhandari's visit to the Simhastha Kumbh at Ujjain.
As per reports, the decision was taken after a Cabinet meeting during which his role in the latest political crisis came under criticism.
Anil Kumar Jha, a district member of Nepal Sadbhawana Party, lost his life after being drowned in the Bagmati River at Samanpur of Rautahat district.
The deceased has been identified as 45-year-old Anil Kumar Jha of Samanpur-1, reports The Himalayan Times.
Jha, who had gone to look after crops at Barhathawa VDC in Sarlahi on Monday, might have drowned while crossing the River, locals said.
His family members started a search after he did not return home till late night but was found drowned in the river, Area Police Office, Samanpur, informed.
The police suspected that Jha might have drowned after he lost control due to excessive consumption of alcohol.
SP Ganesh Regmi said Jha's body has been handed over to his family members after conducting autopsy at the District Hospital in Gaur.
The case is being further investigated.
Brussels Capital Region lawmaker Dr. Manzoor Zahoor Ellahi has signed a petition extending his support in creating awareness regarding the proposed annexation of Gilgit Baltistan and the construction of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Ellahi, a Pakistani-born lawmaker and a member of the Socialist Party of Belgium (Parti Socialiste), also happens to be the doctor of Pakistani embassy in Brussels.
He signed the petition along with Motaher Chowdhury, the local councilor for Ixelles-Brussels.
The Europe-wide signature campaign is being organized by Junaid Qureshi, a Kashmiri writer, international human rights activist and a senior leader of the Jammu Kashmir Democratic Liberation Party (JKDLP).
In Brussels, the Signature Campaign was held on May 7 and 8.
The organizer for Overseas Affairs of United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) based in Pakistani Administered Kashmir, Dr. Ishaq Khan, also visited the venue of the signature campaign to sign the petition and expressed his support.
"We stand against all designs which divide our motherland further and we will not allow anyone to loot our resources. We stand against the division of Jammu and Kashmir, the proposed annexation of Gilgit Baltistan by Pakistan and the construction of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor which is being built without any say or consent from the people of Gilgit Baltistan," he said.
Meanwhile, Qureshi expressed his satisfaction regarding the progress of the Signature Campaign.
"Hundreds of signatures were already collected in the first leg of the signature campaign in The Netherlands. Brussels, being the unofficial capital of Europe, seat of the European Parliament and home to other European institutions, proved to be a very successful city for our Campaign," he said.
He hoped to gather the same positive response from the public in Vienna, Geneva, Paris and various cities of UK.
Talking about the campaign, he said, "More than three thousand pamphlets and flyers were distributed to the public and more than 500 signatures were collected in just 2 days. I am also very humbled by the visit and support of MP Manzoor Zahoor Ellahi and Councilor Motaher Chowdhury. It clearly shows that human rights issues stand above party politics or other sentimental alliances".
Expressing his delight over Ellahi's support, Qureshi said, "It is very encouraging to see that a Pakistani MP is supporting our efforts against the annexation of Gilgit Baltistan and the construction of CPEC. This should serve as a wake-up call to the Pakistani establishment and all other supporters of Pakistan's duplicitous policy on Jammu and Kashmir.
The Pakistani authorities should conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into the killing of human rights activist Khurram Zaki and appropriately prosecute those responsible, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
Zaki, 40, had been publicly critical of extremist cleric Abdul Aziz and militant sectarian groups.
On May 7, four unidentified gunmen opened fire at Zaki at a restaurant in Karachi, killing him and wounding two others.
Zaki had been receiving threats and had confided to friends that he was on several militant 'hit lists'.
A thorough and impartial investigation with proper witness protections is absolutely critical to ensure those responsible for Khurram Zaki's death are brought to justice, said Brad Adams, Asia director of the Human Rights Watch.
The Hakeemullah group, a relatively unknown faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the murder, saying that Zaki was targeted because of his stance against Abdul Aziz.
However, the Pakistani authorities and others have expressed skepticism at this claim.
On May 9, the police registered a criminal case against Abdul Aziz, Arungzeb Farooqi, a leader of the anti-Shia Ahle-Sunnt-Wal-Jammat (ASWJ), and the unidentified gunmen.
Abdul Aziz has been acquitted in several criminal cases in the past because witnesses recanted their statements.
The authorities have accused Aziz of abducting Chinese nationals working in Pakistan, inciting supporters to commit violence against state functionaries, targeting security officials, and extending support to the extremist group Islamic State (ISIS).
The Pakistan Government has failed to take a clear stand against intimidation and violence by militant groups or defend the right to freedom of expression, the Human Rights Watch said.
The censorship of documentaries and critical comment on violence by sectarian groups makes a few people who express their opposition more vulnerable, it said.
"Zaki's murder highlights the unacceptably dangerous climate that human rights defenders face across Pakistan," Adams said.
Article 12 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders sets out that governments shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection for human rights defenders against 'any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary actions' related to their efforts to protect and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms.
"The Pakistan Government needs to protect rights activists and promote an environment where they can carry out their work free from threats, attacks and intimidation," Adams added.
A retired Frontier Corps official was killed today during a shootout with the police in a local hotel in Peshawar.
The man, who was killed in mysterious circumstances at Bangash Hotel in Dabgari area, had stayed in one of the hotel rooms last night, SSP Operations Abbas Majeed Marwat said, reports The Express Tribune.
The person had identified himself as Yahya, a resident of Wazirsistan and stayed in room 24 of the hotel, the police officer said.
The next morning when hotel staff knocked at the door, he fired from inside.
The firing prompted the hotel management to call for additional police force, which used tear gas to tackle the suspect. However, the man was found dead in the room when the firing stopped, the senior police official maintained.
The hotel manager said the person was a retired Frontier Corps official, adding his card and other belongings have been seized by the police.
A gun and several bullets were recovered from the possession of the accused while a gunny bag was also removed from the room handed over to the bomb disposal squad for clearance.
Maverick anti-crime candidate has won the presidential elections after his opponents withdrew from the contest.
The official PPCRV poll monitor said the mayor of the southern city of Davao had more than 14.8m votes, about 39 percent, with 90 percent of ballots counted.
Although the official result has not yet been declared, main rival Mar Roxas admitted defeat after the polls, reports Daily Star.
Duterte, who has been the long-time front-runner in a campaign driven by economy and corruption, said that he accepted the mandate with 'extreme humility'.
President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino is standing down as the Constitution limits presidents to one six-year term. Filipinos are also picking a vice-president and local officials.
The 71-year-old stirred controversy during campaigning with his incendiary comments.
He has credited his success to his tough stance on law and order.
His record as the crime-crushing mayor of the southern town of Davao, once notorious for its lawlessness, earned him the moniker 'The Punisher' and resonated with voters.
The election campaign has also focused on reforming the economy, infrastructure and on the territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.
Duterte has suggested he will disregard democratic checks and balances if they get in the way of fixing the country's problems.
Branding the outcome of the Uttarakhand Assembly floor test as the 'defeat of communal forces', the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre should learn a lesson from the entire episode and mend its 'unconstitutional ways'.
"The Samajwadi Party is principally opposed to the President Rule. But the recent events had led the Supreme Court to intervene in the matter and it is being said that in the floor test, communal forces have been defeated," Samajwadi Party spokesman and Minister Rajendra Chowdhary told ANI.
"Now the Supreme Court will open the envelope and decide the matter. Communalism has harmed this nation a lot, no matter how powerful the government is they cannot go against the Constitution," he added.
Asserting that imposition of President's Rule just before the floor test on March 28 went against the principles of the Constitution, Chowdhary also said that the communal forces must not be allowed to flourish in the nation.
"Even Akhilesh Yadav had said that imposing President's rule ahead of the floor test was unconstitutional. Communalism should not be allowed to spread in the nation and secular forces must be strengthened. This is a lesson to the Centre, which has been behaving in an unconstitutional manner," he added.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal earlier today said the BJP's defeat in the Uttarakhand floor test has come as a huge setback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA.
"Uttarakhand floor test outcome is a huge setback to Modi Govt. Hope they will stop toppling Govts now," Kejriwal tweeted.
Congress leader Indira Hridayesh earlier told ANI about the details of what happened during the floor test and asserted of a positive outcome for the party.
"We reached early and took out seats. We had been instructed earlier that those who vote in favour will sit on the right and those against on the left. After being seated the Speaker read the entire procedure and then began calling out names of the candidates who raised their hands indicating their motion. 33 of our candidates cast their votes in the motion," she said.
Adding that the result of the floor test was a clear message to the nation and political parties, she asserted that the BJP could not have been given a more smashing reply as they had openly indulged in murdering democracy and putting the development of Uttarakhand on a standstill.
The proceedings of the floor test were video-graphed and the results of the voting will be placed before the Supreme Court tomorrow in a sealed cover.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un on his election as the chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
Xi also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on behalf of CPC and in his own name said he hoped that the ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will achieve new accomplishments in the cause of building socialism under the leadership of Kim, reports Xinhua.
Asserting that China-DPRK friendship was personally forged and carefully fostered by the two countries' leaderships of the older generation, Xi said that the traditional friendship was a treasure of both sides.
He also noted that the CPC and the Chinese government attach great importance to the ties between both nations.
The Chinese President said that his country stands ready to work with Pyongyang to promote the constant development of bilateral relations for the benefit of both countries and to make positive contributions to safeguarding peace, stability and development in the region.
It was the turning of the tide for manufacturers other than Maruti in India, when Hyundai announced its entry on the peninsula. The Korean carmaker laid the cornerstones in the country exactly two decades ago, in May, 1996, before beginning operations in the year 1998.
On the occasion of Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL)s 20th anniversary in India, we look at five pivotal achievements that have defined its successful journey here.
Santro gains immediate popularity
At a time when Maruti Suzuki was ruling Indias automotive roost, Hyundai made its way into the Indian market with the Santro in the late 90s. Launched in numerous variants, including the Zip Drive and Zip Plus, the iconic tallboy went on to become a runaway success.
The distinctive styling of the first generation garnered mixed reviews, but the car was a success primarily due to its power steering feature and price. Thereafter, the car got its next-gen Xing avatar that was an even more resounding success in the country, even exporting high volumes.
In its final years, Santro had become a popular option as a hatchback taxi, and the car was still selling close to 30,000 units per year, before being pulled back from the market.
18 till I (Hyun)dai for SRK
90s kids would remember their childhood unfolding around a flourishing TV advertising industry and Shah Rukh Khan simultaneously establishing his image as Indian cinemas ultimate romantic face.
Hyundai was quick to connect the dots and roped in SRK as its brand ambassador, in the year 1998. From various TV commercials to the actor dancing on a Hyundai i10s roof in Rab Ne Banaa Di Jodi, the association has stood the test of time for 18 years, helping Hyundai to enhance its mass appeal.
I was young and was hoping to grow bigger as an actor when I signed up for the Hyundai Santro in 1998, and so there is a sense of shared success with the Santro, said King Khan during Hyundais 20th anniversary celebrations recently.
Twin production facilities
Success was met with logistical constraints for Hyundai in India, in the wake of increasing demand for its products. The carmaker though was quick to react and commissioned its second plant in Tamil Nadu, in February 2008.
The new facility provided an additional manufacturing capacity of 3,00,000 units per annum to Hyundai India, raising total production capacity to 6,00,000 units per annum. The current production capacity of HIML stands at 6,50,000 units per annum.
In addition, Hyundai has also set up a research and development facility (Hyundai Motor India Engineering HMIE) in the cyber city of Hyderabad.
Ramped up exports; large dealership network
With its strategies in India, Hyundai raced to the second position in the list of Indias largest car manufacturers. Its cause has also been helped by a widespread dealership network. To support its growth and expansion plans, HMIL has established 449 dealerships and more than 1,150 service points across the country till now.
Hyundai has also managed to establish HMIL as a major global export hub. It currently exports to around 92 countries across Africa, Middle East, Latin America, Australia and the Asia Pacific. HMIL has been Indias number one exporter for the last 10 years consecutively.
Three consecutive ICOTYs; Creta success
Coming back to its products, Hyundai is the only car manufacturer to have grabbed the Indian Car of The Year (ICOTY) on four occasions. It repeated the success of the Grand i10, in 2014, and Elite i20, in 2015, with the Creta for the third consecutive time this year.
Its first offering in the compact SUV space, the Made in India Creta has been a blockbuster hit in the country. Launched last year, it has helped Hyundai to assert its position in Indias fast-growing big car segment, especially at a time when the competition is higher than ever before.
On the occasion of its 20th anniversary celebrations, HMIL organised a grand carnival for its employees and envisioned itself as the most beloved and trusted car brand through modern premium brand experience and a great place to work. It sums up perfectly how the Korean company has made the country its own.
Let us know your experience with Hyundai in the comments sections below.
Source : CarDekho
There is a lot of buzz around the launch of the Toyota Innova Crysta, with fans rushing to showrooms to see their beloved MPV in an all new and premium avatar. But in all this, there is a part of India which is deprived of this joy -- the Delhi/NCR area. As the ban on diesel-engine cars with a capacity of 2.0 litres or more continues, the Innova Crysta remains out of reach for the National Capital Region. Toyota has also decided to stand firm against the Supreme Court ban as it refuses to alter the size of the engines of its cars.
Stating that this ban is the worst advertisement of India", Mr. Shekar Viswanathan, Toyota Kirloskar Motor vice-chairman, said, If we don't get a breakthrough on Monday, our vehicles despite being compliant of all regulations in India would continue to be banned. That's the worst advertisement of India." When asked what Toyota plans to do if the ban continues, he replied, "Then, we will sit out of the market where the ban is imposed. We cannot change the engine specification as our customers may not desire it."
Mr. Viswanathan also raised questions on the ban, saying, Does the ban suggest to mean that other diesel, petrol and CNG driven vehicles don't pollute? Why is the ban only on 2,000 cc and above diesel cars and SUVs?" He added: "While the latest BS-IV compliant cleaner vehicles are banned, old vehicles of pre-BS era, BS I, I and III continue to pollute." He also hinted that such bans do not augur well for the industry, with "losses, laying off of people and hardships for dealerships" following such directives.
This is not the first time someone from the industry has reacted to the diesel ban. Carmakers like Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz have also voiced their concerns against the same. While Jaguar said that the air in Delhi is "far dirtier" than what its cars emit, Mercedes said that it has been difficult for the company to get investments after the diesel ban.
Also Read: Delhi Diesel Ban Receives Reaction From Automotive Industry
Read More on : Innova Crysta india
Source : CarDekho
Launched approximately a month ago, the Tata Tiago has sold 3,022 units since then. The response can be identified as moderate rather than encouraging and the number is likely to increase in the coming months.
Introduced at a modest price of Rs. 3.20 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), the Tiago is expected to bring back the numbers for Tata. The Indian carmaker has faced the heat from its growing competition and with the Indica finally retreating, the manufacturer was in dire need of a product which would help its diminishing foothold in the market. Tata has been able to control the pricing of the Tiago, which is Rs. 80,000 cheaper than its competitors.
The Tiago comes feature-packed with attributes such as eight-speaker Harman sound system, rear wiper, demister, fourteen-inch alloy wheels and foglamps. It has a lot of storage space which adds to the convenience of the occupants. It runs on a 1.05-litre diesel and 1.2-litre petrol engine whose power figures are 69bhp/140Nm and 84bhp/115Nm respectively. Read about the car in detail here.
Tata must have expected a stronger response from the market for it was able to pack the product well (check our road test) and control the most important aspect in this segment, the price. In fact, someone who is planning to buy an entry-level hatch can think of the Tiago (the Alto 800 LX model, second variant in line, costs you almost the same as base version of the Tiago), just that the buyer will have to compromise on some features (check our variant-wise breakdown of the Tiago). We hope the response to Tatas offering will be much more encouraging in the coming months given the overall performance of the car.
Source : CarDekho
At meeting held on 10 May 2016
SML Isuzu announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 10 May 2016, inter alia, have:
1. Took note of the resignation received from Kyoichiro Takashima with effect from 10 May 2016. Consequently, he ceased to be Director of the Company with effect from 10 May 2016.
2. Approved the appointment of Takeru Kikkawa, aged 55 years, as Additional Director of the Company on rotation basis (Category: Non-Executive Non-Independent Director) with effect from 10 May 2016 in place of Kyoichiro Takashima. He will hold office upto the ensuing Annual General Meeting of the Company. 3. Approved a proposal for raising long term borrowings by way of External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) for partial funding of Capex Plan of Rs. 220 crores (approved by the Board and communicated to stock exchange on August 08, 2014), from The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., Japan, in the nature of unsecured loan, for an amount upto Rs. 140 crores designated in US Dollars. Details of Loan agreement to be executed with the bank will be shared on signing of the agreement. lt has also been decided to cover forex risk and interest change risk through hedging.
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Sales rise 24.14% to Rs 4.32 crore
Net profit of Bombay Oxygen Corporation declined 82.78% to Rs 0.67 crore in the quarter ended March 2016 as against Rs 3.89 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2015. Sales rose 24.14% to Rs 4.32 crore in the quarter ended March 2016 as against Rs 3.48 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2015.
For the full year,net profit declined 95.06% to Rs 0.38 crore in the year ended March 2016 as against Rs 7.70 crore during the previous year ended March 2015. Sales rose 2.01% to Rs 16.28 crore in the year ended March 2016 as against Rs 15.96 crore during the previous year ended March 2015. ParticularsQuarter EndedYear EndedMar. 2016Mar. 2015% Var.Mar. 2016Mar. 2015% Var.Sales4.323.48 24 16.2815.96 2 OPM %-31.94-220.40 --42.51-76.07 - PBDT1.088.04 -87 2.4813.99 -82 PBT0.047.43 -99 -0.4811.41 PL NP0.673.89 -83 0.387.70 -95
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On 10 May 2016
Havells India announced that :
1. Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board has allotted land admeasuring 62.09 acres to the Company, at Vasanthanarasapura Industrial Area, Tumakuru in the state of Karnataka for establishing a Unit for manufacturing of Cable & Wire, MCB, LED, Electronics, Solar Lights at a tentative rate of Rs. 40.35 lakhs per acre.
2. The Company has entered into a non-binding MoU with M/s Pan Projects for taking on lease the land for setting up of manufacturing facility in the State of Assam to enable the Company to avail of the rebates and benefits under the policies of Government of India and Assam. The arrangement is subject to change of land use and various other government approvals.
3. With respect to the earlier communication sent to the Stock Exchanges on 4 January 2013, QRG Enterprises, one of the promoter companies, has vide an Assignment Agreement dated 9 May 2016, completed the assignment of the brand "HAVELLS" for electrical products, to the Company effective 1 April 2016.
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Hindalco Industries fell 1.91% to Rs 89.90 at 11:07 IST on BSE on worries increase in Chinese output could further weigh on aluminium prices.
Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 64.43 points, or 0.25%, to 25,624.43
On BSE, so far 5.32 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 15.47 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit high of Rs 91.40 and low of Rs 89.30 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 145 on 11 May 2015. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 58.85 on 12 February 2016. The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 9 May 2016, gaining 4.33% compared with 4.11% rise in the Sensex. The scrip also outperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 31.02% as against Sensex's 6.94% rise.
The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 206.50 crore. Face value per share is Re 1.
Reports indicated that China's aluminium output increased to 84,500 tonnes per day in March, up from 71,400 tonnes per day in February. Aluminum prices have been on a sustained downtrend in the past few days. China is the world's largest consumer of steel, copper and aluminum.
Hindalco Industries will declare its Q4 March 2016 results on 28 May 2016. The company's net profit fell 88.7% to Rs 40.46 crore on 5.3% decline in net sales to Rs 8021.23 crore in Q3 December 2015 over Q3 December 2014.
A part of the Aditya Birla Group, Hindalco Industries is the world's largest aluminium rolling company and one of the biggest producers of primary aluminium in Asia. Its copper smelter is amongst the largest single location custom smelter globally.
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Hindustan Unilever rose 1.81% to Rs 861.45 at 11:51 IST on BSE after the company's Chief Financial Officer P.B. Balaji said that he expects a sequential improvement in the company's sales volume growth in Q1 June 2016.
Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 34.29 points, or 0.13%, to 25,654.57.
On BSE, so far __ shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 1.19 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 866.60 and a low of Rs 847 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 944 on 8 July 2015. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 765.35 on 27 January 2016. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 9 May 2016, falling 0.46% compared with 4.11% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 2.36% as against Sensex's 6.94% rise.
The large-cap FMCG giant has an equity capital of Rs 216.39 crore. Face value per share is Re 1.
Hindustan Unilever (HUL)'s Chief Financial Officer P.B. Balaji was quoted as saying after the announcement of the company's Q4 March 2016 results yesterday, 9 May 2016, that he expects a sequential improvement in the company's sales volume growth in Q1 June 2016. His comments came after the company reported a tepid volume growth in its domestic consumer business in Q4 March 2016. Volume growth stood at 4% on year-on-year basis in Q4 March 2016. Balaji was quoted as saying that the demand remains subdued, especially in rural areas, and a good monsoon would be a welcome tailwind. He also said that raw material prices are going up and HUL is considering options including price increases. The HUL stock shed 0.8% to settle at Rs 846.10 yesterday, 9 May 2016, after the company's tepid sales volume growth in Q4 March 2016 disappointed investors.
HUL's net profit rose 7.02% to Rs 1089.59 crore on 3.26% growth in total income to Rs 8027.91 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015. The growth in net profit in Q4 March 2016 was adversely impacted by base effect. HUL said it had booked higher exceptional income in Q4 March 2015 from the sale of subsidiary. Net profit before exceptional items rose 13% to Rs 1031 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015. The result was announced during market hours today, 9 May 2016.
HUL said net sales of its domestic consumer business grew 3.6% on year on year basis in Q4 March 2016. The growth rate was adversely impacted due to phasing out of excise duty incentives, a one-time credit for excise duty refund in Q4 March 2015 and marginal price degrowth. Volume growth stood at 4% on year on year basis in Q4 March 2016.
HUL's net profit fell 5.39% to Rs 4082.37 crore on 3.38% growth in total income to Rs 32487.80 crore in the year ended 31 March 2016 (FY 2016) over the year ended 31 March 2015 (FY 2015).
HUL's consolidated net profit fell 6.43% to Rs 4082.42 crore on 3.23% growth in total income to Rs 33591.04 crore in the year ended 31 March 2016 (FY 2016) over the year ended 31 March 2015 (FY 2015).
The domestic consumer business grew by 4% with 6% underlying volume growth. Reported growth was impacted due to phasing out of excise duty incentives, HUL said. Profit before interest and tax (PBIT) grew by 10% with PBIT margin improving by 90 basis points. Profit after tax but before exceptional items, PAT (bei), grew by 6% to Rs 4078 crores. Net profit was at Rs 4082 crore, with the growth rate impacted by the higher exceptional income arising from subsidiary and property related sales in previous year, the company said. The strong track record of cash generation was sustained as cash from operations exceeding Rs 5000 crore for yet another year, it added.
HUL Chairman Harish Manwani commented that the company has delivered another year of competitive and profitable growth in challenging markets and a deflationary cost environment.
HUL is a leading fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company.
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With a view to encourage electronic units to make in India, the government is contemplating a three pronged approach which would help the sector ascend on the accelerated path of promoting growth in this sector. The first prong entails a shift towards a long term policy horizon so that the policy path is known and the end user has clarity in what is in store for the industry. Secondly, the taxation regime is being made stable, which entails putting in place a grandfathering clause to bring clarity to the system and thirdly all support schemes are being put in place to help us leapfrog to higher echelons of growth. This was stated by Dr Aruna Sharma, Secretary, DeitY, during the Conference on Championing Manufacturing in India, in the session on ICTE , organised by CII.
According to Dr. Sharma, while electronics manufacturing has an advantage of a large consumer base, we have fallen behind while developing a competitive advantage in the production of components, which remains a challenge. The government is planning to address the challenge by looking into the differential tax system across the sector, promoting innovation and research, and building local capacity for components production.
Commenting on the three specific segments viz mobile, LED and PCB, Dr Sharma mentioned that at a time when our country has an advantage in low end manufacturing, the government is promoting the segment by hastening a shift towards smart phones. India is keen on leveraging the analogue technology, in which we have a comparative advantage, to create a global footprint in the area of electronics. Similarly, all concessions would be provided for the development of the PCB and LED industry. Medical and Automotive electronics are other focus areas with growing opportunities for which significant research is happening at IITs, said Dr Sharma.
The differential taxation between units operating within and outside SEZs would be abolished and equal treatment would be provided across units so that there is no perceived advantage for companies operating in SEZs, stated Dr.
Sharma.
Dr. Sharma requested CII for draft policy papers on the three major segments of electronics viz Mobile, LED and PCB so that government and industry could work together for a comprehensive policy on the subject.
During the Panel Discussion, Mr Amit Kharbanda, Managing Director, MyBox-Hero Electronix Venture mentioned that it would be possible for the electronics industry to augment the requisite volume in production provided the government addresses industry concerns on distortions accruing from FTAs especially with ASEAN countries and creating an integrated ecosystem for electronics industry for which the criticality of R&D needs to acknowledged.
According to Mr. Vinod Sharma, Managing Director, Deki Electronics Ltd, the electronics industry has a promising future provided the problems characterized by 3Cs are addressed. These pertain to high cost of operation eg. finance, energy, logistics; complex and discretion based policy regime which leads to high transaction costs and corruption.
Mr Ramesh A Vaswani, Director & Advisor Corporate Affairs, Intex Technologies stressed on the need for a comprehensive policy to promote holistic growth of the industry. He called for integrated policy so that it becomes logistically convenient for labour to stay close to the unit. This would entail facilities such as residence, food, transport etc. There is need to identify electronic manufacturing clusters and provide the supporting ecosystem; secondly, there is need for a legislation so that every school child has the right to internet. Subsidy should be provided to access broadband on smart phone so that rural citizen can take advantage of the net and thirdly, create supportive policies to benefit domestic manufacturing.
Mr Amrit Manwani, Chairman, Sahasra Group of Companies, while highlighting the potential of the sector underscored the importance of encouraging domestic manufacture of LED packaging in the country and promotion of alternate indigenous technologies in electronics which are environmentally friendly . There is also a need for creation of PCB specific clusters and develop production technology in India through research to move up the technology value chain.
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The Japan share market advanced for second straight session on Tuesday, 10 May 2016, as investors continued hunting for recently battered stocks, thanks to yen depreciation against the greenback. The Japanese currency weakened against the greenback after Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso statement on Monday that the government is ready to intervene in the currency market if the yen continues to rise or falls rapidly against other currencies. The minister reiterated those views again on Tuesday, saying that the yen's rise was one-sided, further unwinding the currency's strength.
Total 31 out of 33 TSE sectors advanced, led by financial stocks, insurance, and glass and ceramic product issues. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 349.16 points, or 2.15%, from Monday at 16,565.19. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange finished 28.24 points, or 2.16%, higher at 1,334.90. On the First Section, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones 1,663 to 240, while 48 ended the day unchanged.
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Receives bids for 2.72 crore shares
The initial public offer (IPO) of Parag Milk Foods received bids for a total of 2.72 crore shares on the fifth day of bidding for the IPO today, 10 May 2016, as per data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) website at 16:00 IST. The IPO was subscribed 1.4 times. The IPO of Parag Milk Foods which was slated to end on 6 May 2016, was extended till tomorrow, 11 May 2016. The company has also revised the price band of the issue to Rs 215 - Rs 227 per share from Rs 220 - Rs 227 per share earlier. The IPO opened for bidding on 4 May 2016.
The company raised Rs 342.85 crore by selling 1.51 crore shares to a total of 17 anchor investors ahead of the opening of the IPO. The shares were allotted to the anchor investors at Rs 227 per share, the top end of the Rs 220 to Rs 227 per share price band for the IPO.
The IPO of Parag Milk Foods, one of the leading manufacturers and marketers of dairy-based branded foods in India, comprises of fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to Rs 300 crore and offer for sale of up to 2.05 crore shares from existing shareholders.
The three investors who are selling shares via the IPO are India Business Excellence Fund (IBEF) which is a unit scheme of venture capital fund Business Excellence Trust, India Business Excellence Fund I (IBEF I) and IDFC Private Equity Fund III (IDFC PE) which is a unit scheme of venture capital fund IDFC Infrastructure Fund 3. IBEF is selling 21.09 lakh shares, IBEF I is selling 39.17 lakh shares and IDFC PE is selling 82.59 lakh shares via the IPO.
From the promoter group, Netra Shah is selling 20.04 lakh shares and Priti Shah is selling 11 lakh shares. Other selling shareholders are selling a combined 31.81 lakh shares.
The company will utilize the proceeds of the fresh issue of shares to fund the expansion and modernisation at its existing manufacturing facilities at Manchar in Pune and Palamaner in Andhra Pradesh and improving the marketing/distribution infrastructure. The company has earmarked Rs 147.70 crore the expansion and modernisation plan. It has earmarked Rs 2.29 crore for investment in its subsidiary for financing the capital expenditure requirements in relation to the expansion and modernisation of the Bhagyalaxmi Dairy Farm. A sum of Rs 100 crore will be used for partial repayment of the working capital consortium loan.
Promoted by Devendra Shah, Pritam Shah and Parag Shah, Parag Milk Foods manufactures a diverse range of products including cheese, ghee (clarified butter), fresh milk, whey proteins, paneer, curd, yoghurt, milk powders and dairy based beverages targeting a wide range of consumer groups through several brands. The company currently has aggregate milk processing capacity of 2 million litres per day. The cheese plant has a raw cheese production capacity of 40 MT per day. The company's two flagship brands are Gowardhan and Go.
The company operates a diary farm through its subsidiary Bhagyalaxmi Dairy Farms Private Limited. It is a fully automated cow farm housing over 2,000 holstein breed cows with superior quality yields. It produces farm-to-home premium fresh milk, which is marketed under the Pride of Cows brand in Mumbai and Pune.
Based on the consolidated financial performance, Parag Milk Foods registered net profit of Rs 31.92 crore on revenue from operations of Rs 1230.60 crore for 9 months ended 31 December 2015. The company reported net profit of Rs 25.96 crore on revenue from operations of Rs 1438.70 crore for the year ended 31 March 2015. The company has stated in its Red Herring Prospectus that it has not declared any dividend in the last five financial years. The company has no formal dividend distribution policy.
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With effect from 09 May 2016
Speciality Restaurants announced that Tara Sankar Bhattacharya has tendered resignation through his letter dated 07 May 2016 (the "Letter") as (i) an Independent Director on the Board of Directors of Speciality Restaurants Limited (the" Company") and (ii) a member of the Audit Committee and Risk Management Committee. The Letter was received and acknowledged by the Company on 09 May 2016.
In terms of Section 168(2) of the Companies Act, 2013, the resignation is effective from 09 May 2016, being the date on which the Letter was received by the Company.
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As India moves towards $ 10 trillion economy and aspires to achieve ambitious target of manufacturing contributing 25% to GDP, the steel industry is poised to play a pivotal role, said Ms Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Government of India in a session on Steel at the Conference on Championing Manufacturing in India - Excellence, Growth and Employment. The Secretary added that the Steel industry has a multiplier of 6.8% to GDP and apart from employing 6 million people directly, it provides associated employment of more than 2.5-3 million. She said that Steel being a core sector, it is essential to have a robust steel industry for any economy to develop its economic and defence security, infrastructure and India's growing urbanization.
The Steel industry is crucial to change the face of impoverished states of central and eastern India. Moreover, India's steel industry is very much competitive. Six Indian steel companies are amongst the world's most competitive firms. However, India's per capita steel consumption is low which should be increased. Pointing the biggest challenge of dumping faced by the sector, she said, As long as there is excess capacity in the world, we need to be more competitive through three ways - the industry should be qualitatively better; it has to be the most cost competitive and be environmentally sustainable.
Ms Sundararajan further stated that all stakeholders including policymakers, industry and others need to be brought at a single platform.
To address high cost of capital, Government is looking long term funding (5/25) and also working on operationalizing infrastructure funds. In coming months, with National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) in place, India will be able to lower cost of funds. Adding to this, Mr Seshagiri Rao MVS, Co-Chairman, CII National Committee on Steel and Joint Managing Director and Group CFO, JSW Steel Ltd said that steel being a long gestation industry; requires cyclical funding at different stages to meet its requirements.
Also to address the environmental challenges, Japan is interested to fund Indian companies in exchange of Carbon Credits. Government is also talking at multilateral funding to address the sustainability issues, added Ms Sundararajan. Answering to the question of environmental sustainability being cost negative, Mr P Madhusudan, Chairman, CII National Committee on Steel and CMD, RINL pointed that cutting carbon emission actually help in utilizing energy optimally and 40 MW of their energy consumption is through conversion of waste heat and gas. He said that leveraging India's mineral resources is a great opportunity to Indian industry as raw material cost contributes to over 30% of the overall cost.
In his earlier remarks, with regard to the issue of dumping Mr Rao said that China lost around $100 billion in 2015 against a profit of $200 in 2014.
Highlighting the fact that logistics adds over 30% to the cost of production, Mr B K Das, Vice President (Iron Making), Tata Steel Limited said, Indian Steel Industry's global competitiveness will largely depend on the logistics factor.
Mr Sridhar Krishnamoorthy, Managing Director, Gerdau Steel said that at times, there is mismatch in capacity and demand. Focus should also be given on labour productivity and skills.
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Tata Steel rose 0.46% to Rs 330.55 at 9:24 IST on BSE after the company said it has accepted seven expressions of interest for the sale of its UK business.
The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 9 May 2016.
Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 4.14 points, or 0.02%, to 25,684.72 .
On BSE, so far 1.10 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 12.11 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 331.55 and a low of Rs 328.65 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 381.20 on 11 May 2015. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 200 on 29 September 2015. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 9 May 2016, rising 2.11% compared with 4.11% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had, however, outperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 39.69% as against Sensex's 6.94% rise.
The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 971.22 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.
The board of Tata Steel Europe announced that seven expressions of interest submitted for Tata Steel's UK business have been immediately taken forward to the next stage of the sale process. In addition, Tata Steel Europe is clarifying outstanding points with a number of other parties who have submitted an expression of interest. The remaining parties who submitted expressions of interest have been thanked for their participation in the process but informed that their expressions would not be taken forward currently. As previously announced it is Tata Steel Europe's primary intention to assess expressions of interest for the whole of Tata Steel's UK business. The seven expressions of interest being immediately taken forward are on this basis. Expressions of interest for parts of the UK business are not being taken forward at this point. In the next phase of the sales process the progressing interested parties will be given access to further business information and management team presentations in order for them to rapidly progress their interest to a binding stage.
Tata Steel Europe said on 20 April 2016 that it welcomes credible expressions of interest for Tata Steel UK's operations. The company issued the clarification after recent media reports suggesting a possible management buyout of Tata Steels' Port Talbot manufacturing facilities in UK. Port Talbot is Tata Steel's biggest UK plant with about 4,000 workers, according to reports. On 11 April 2016, Tata Steel Europe announced that the company has commenced the formal process for the divestment of its entire holding in its British subsidiary Tata Steel UK. Tata Steel Europe has decided to sell its entire holding in Tata Steel UK due to the deteriorating financial performance of the UK subsidiary.
On consolidated basis, Tata Steel reported net loss of Rs 2127.23 crore in Q3 December 2015 as against net profit of Rs 157.11 crore in Q3 December 2014. Net sales declined 16.5% to Rs 27818.73 crore in Q3 December 2015 over Q3 December 2014.
Tata Steel is Europe's second largest steel producer, with steelmaking in the UK and Netherlands, and manufacturing plants across Europe. The combined Tata Steel group is one of the world's largest steel producers, with a steel capacity of more than 28 million tonnes and 80,000 employees across five continents.
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A 24-year-old ITI student was lynched by a mob, which accused him of being a cattle thief, in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, police said on Tuesday. One of the alleged attackers has been arrested.
The incident happened on Monday evening at Harindanga in Diamond Harbour where the victim Koushik Purakait had come to visit his relatives.
According to the complaint filed by the family, a large mob thrashed Koushik accusing him of having stolen a buffalo.
The youth was brought to the city's SSKM Hospital where doctors declared him dead.
Police said they have arrested one of the alleged attackers and detained four others.
"We have arrested one person and detained four others for interrogation," said Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar Choudhary.
Koushik's father in his complaint has named 10 people for the attack including Tapas Mallik, a panchayat member representing the state's ruling Trinamool Congress.
He also alleged police inaction.
"My son would have been alive if police had acted in time. While my son lay bleeding, some of the attackers demanded Rs.1 lakh from us," he said.
The incident has taken political colour with Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sujon Chakraborty pointing fingers at the Trinamool.
"Only animals can do such a thing, this cannot be an act of humans. We all know how Mallik led the attackers and lynched an innocent boy," said Chakraborty who met the father at the SSKM Hospital.
--IANS
and/vd
At least 40,000 Christian and other non-Muslim refugees, currently residing in migrant centres in Germany, are being discriminated against and harassed by other asylum seekers, and even guards because of their religion, human rights groups said.
The groups, according to RT online, presented the results of the survey at a press conference, said they interviewed at least 231 Christian migrants, who had mostly arrived from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Of them, at least 88 percent said they were harassed by Muslim migrants due to their religion, according to Open Doors Germany group, a mission supporting the persecuted Christians that took part in the survey.
Also, nearly 50 percent of those interviewed said they had been discriminated against and harassed by guards in refugee centers. The majority of guards in these centers are Muslim, according to German media.
Additional surveys of the 231 Christian migrants showed that 42 percent of them experienced insults, 37 percent claimed to have received physical injuries, and 32 percent even had death threats.
The document was only "the tip of the iceberg," said Open Doors Germany head Markus Rode, adding there is "fear and panic" among the non-Muslim newcomers, Deutsche Welle reports.
According to AVC (Action on Behalf of Persecuted Christians and the Needy), who also took part in the survey, up to 40,000 Christian refugees and members of other religious minorities are being harassed for their religious beliefs in German centers, Bild reports.
Women, who have been rescued from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) slavery in the Syrian city of Rakka, say "they are still unprotected" and even meet their tormentors again in the refugee camps, Karl Hafen, from the International Society for Human Rights based in Frankfurt, said.
"I've seen (Christian) families who returned [home] voluntarily because of threats," Paulus Kurt from the Center for Oriental Christians in Germany (ZOCD) said.
Christian refugee Fadi S. from Syria, who took part in the conference, said when he arrived in a German refugees camp, he was "shocked" to encounter Muslim fundamentalists from whom he had actually fled.
German legislation is currently unable to handle the situation, according to the human rights organizations. They called on Berlin authorities to house Christian refugees separately from Muslims. Also those being persecuted should be given separate accommodation, the groups added.
An overwhelming 1.1 million asylum seekers arrived in the country in 2015, and more are to come in 2016.
German citizens are concerned about the future, as 81 percent of the country's citizens say the migrant crisis is "out of control" under Chancellor Angela Merkel's authority, according to a February poll.
--IANS
ahm/
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday left for Tajikistan for a two-day visit to the neighbouring country, said a statement issued by the country's Presidential Palace.
"President Ghani, leading a high-level delegation, at the official invitation of Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon, left this morning for Dushanbe," Xinhua news agency cited a statement as saying.
During the visit, Ghani will hold separate meetings with Tajikistan president, prime minister, parliament speaker and other officials, in order to discuss bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries, the statement added.
--IANS
py/
The Akash missile has the "potential" to become the "mainstay" of India defence in its category and Israeli missiles were not chosen over it, parliament was told on Tuesday.
To whether the army has decided to go for Israeli quick-reaction surface-to-air missile (QR-SAM) after rejecting further induction of the Akash missile, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the Rajya Sabha, in a written reply, that the Akash missile system falls in the Short Range Surface to Air Missile (SRSAM) category, which is separate from the OR-SAM.
He lso said that procurement of QRSAM is a separate multi-vendor case under the 'Buy Global' category and vendors from Israel are among the competing firms, but did not give any further details.
Media reports had said that the Army decided to go for Israeli QR-SAM to take on enemy fighters, helicopters and drones after it found that the Akash missile was not fast enough.
The minister also said that the Akash system was not considered by the Indian Navy as it is not suitable for shipborne use yet.
"The Akash System was not considered for induction by Indian Navy as its current version is not a stabilised system suitable for shipborne usage," Parrikar said.
"As the Akash system evolves through the process of continuous development, its current short-comings are bound to be addressed and the missile has the potential to become India's mainstay in the category of Short Range Surface to Air Missiles," he said.
The minister also said that the production of the missile needs to be ramped up to meet the demands of the air force and army.
"It is relevant to mention here that as soon as the Akash missile was successfully tested, the air force had dropped its plan to co-develop the missile through import of technology from France," he said.
The army signed a contract for procurement of two regiments of Akash in March, 2011.
--IANS
ao/vd
The Asiatic Society said on Tuesday it is planning an exhibition on the life and works of Alexander Csoma de Koros, a celebrated Hungarian indologist who lived in the eastern metropolis in the 19th century and worked as a librarian at the society in the last decade of his life.
"We are thinking of an international standard exhibition on Koros's life and works while he was in India. The aim is to specifically chart out his works year-by-year and showcase it to the public. We plan to draft a proposal on it," Keka Banerjee Adhikari, curator of The Asiatic Society's museum, told IANS.
Koros aksi compiled the world's first Tibetan-English dictionary.
The exhibits would include Koros's personal artefacts such as his desk, his early photographs, his handwritten archival documents, manuscripts collected in Tibet as well as his correspondence, added Adhikari.
Last week, Koros's room in Asiatic Society's heritage building on Park Street was thrown open to a Hungarian delegation led by the central European country's minister, said the curator.
Dilip Roy, the administrative officer of the Society said the officials urged the delegation to collaborate on restoring the Indologist's room as a possible museum.
The delegation gifted the society fresh prints of the two books by Koros, which were published by the society and have been out of print. A scroll highlighting Koros's life history was also presented, said Adhikari.
Also a renownted Tibetologist, Koros was born in the Transylvanian village of Koros in April 1784. In 1819 he embarked on a quest to the East to research the theory that their ancestors belonged to Central Asia and his thirst for knowledge brought him to India and Tibet.
He joined the society (then known as the Asiatic Society of Bengal) in 1831 and presented all his papers to the organisation which had already been sponsoring his researches from 1824 by giving him a monthly stipend of Rs.50. He was appointed as the society's librarian in 1837, a post which he held till his death in 1842 in Darjeeling, according to the society.
According to S.B. Chakraborty, general secretary of the society, the researchers are hoping for a collaboration with Hungary revolving on Koros's unfinished work.
--IANS
sgh/ssp/vd
First he drove the economists into a tizzy by suggesting he would be open to renegotiating US public debt; then Donald Trump said the US would never default on its debt as it can "print" money. And as the pundits were shaking their heads over how the self-styled "king of debt's" talk of US default could send the global economy spinning, he suggested the wealthiest Americans were likely to pay more taxes under his administration.
While the experts discussed how 'The Donald' was deviating from his past promise to slash taxes across the board, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee called his likely Democratic rival an 'enabler' of her husband Bill Clinton's infidelities.
And lo and behold the long forgotten Monica Lewinsky affair between the then President Bill Clinton and a White House intern in 1995 and 1996 was back on centre stage with TV talking heads discussing was it fair for a thrice-married Trump to rake the private life of an opponent.
Trump stuck to his guns saying his comments were a 'retribution' for Clinton playing "the woman's card to the hilt" and suggested while he was focused on trade, immigration and veterans issues, the media had built up a "small amount" of his speech "like it's the biggest thing in the world."
"But it is a big thing," Trump added in the same breath. "Hey, look, he was the biggest abuser of women, as a politician in the history of our country. He was impeached."
Hillary Clinton herself declined to take the bait saying she would not comment on "how he's running his campaign," but "a lot of his rhetoric is dangerous."
But Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren responded to Trump's Twitter assaults taunting her as "goofy" by calling him a "bully", fuelling speculation about her becoming a running mate for Clinton, who is said to be looking for someone who can act as an attack dog.
And as the pundits were left yakking about whether this or that would help or hurt Trump, the master manipulator turned his attention to mending fences with the Republican Party establishment still smarting over his harsh rhetoric against it.
He distanced himself from 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's call to oust House speaker Paul D. Ryan over his refusal to endorse Trump's candidacy ahead of a summit Thursday with him and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus.
On his part, Ryan, who will serve as chairman of the party's convention in July to formally anoint its standard-bearer, was still not ready to support Trump but acknowledged "He's the nominee. I'll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention."
He also offered to step down as convention chairman if Trump so wanted even as the likes of former presidents George H W Bush and George Bush, his brother Jeb Bush and the Republicans' last presidential nominee Mitt Romney, still refused to support Trump.
But the 2008 Republican nominee John McCain, whom Trump had once declined to call a war hero for being taken a prisoner during the Vietnam War, said it was "foolish" for the establishment to ignore the will of millions of Republican voters.
And as the pundits wondered whether the tactics that have brought the Republican nomination in Trump's grasp would work with a more diverse electorate in the November presidential poll as well, the conversation once again revolved around The Donald.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
--IANS
ak/tb
Punjab, which is a leading state for cycle manufacturing, is all set for an E-cycle revolution with Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal giving the go-ahead for laying the foundation stone of the proposed 'E-Cycle Valley' in industrial city Ludhiana.
Badal announced the decision for setting up of the 'E-Cycle Valley' after visiting the factory of leading e-cycle manufacturer Bafang at the Suzhou Industrial Park in China and meeting with leading cycle and component manufacturers during his China visit.
He also gave the go-ahead for allotment of land to five international companies to manufacture e-cycles for the domestic and international market.
"I have studied the entire eco-system necessary to come out with affordable electric cycles and am confident this can be implemented at the E-Cycle Valley in Ludhiana. The Punjab government will fast track permissions as well as allot land to all the five promoters who have decided to set up manufacturing facilities including four Chinese and one Taiwanese company," Badal said in a statement released here.
He said that the E-Cycle Valley would be set up in an area of 300 acres.
"E-cycles were non-existent in India and there is huge scope for these. Time is ripe for e-cycles to make an entry into India and pioneering companies will benefit the most," Badal said.
"Efforts are on to facilitate manufacture of 15 lakh cycles per year, besides creating 1.5 lakh employment opportunities," he told investors.
Hero Cycles chairman Pankaj Munjal, who is part of Badal's delegation, listed the potential of the e-cycle industry in India.
"There is a huge gap between the cycle and motorcycle segment with consumers paying Rs.4,000 on an average for a cycle and Rs.50,000 for a motor cycle. There is a huge potential for competitively priced e-cycles costing Rs.10,000 and even premium ones costing up to Rs. 25,000," he said.
Punjab's industrial hub, Ludhiana, 110 km from here, is well-known for cycle and cycle component manufacturing.
--IANS
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Actors Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling have reportedly welcomed their second child together.
A birth certificate obtained by tmz.com states that the second child from Mendes' relationship with Gosling is a baby girl named Amada Lee Gosling.
The document stated that she was born on April 29 at 8:03 A.M. at Providence St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
The news of the pregnancy was confirmed just before he was scheduled to appear on "Jimmy Kimmel live!", which is aired on Star World and Star World HD in India, to promote his film "The Nice Guys".
Amada, which means "beloved" in Spanish, sounds familiar because it's the middle name of their first born, Esmeralda Amada Gosling. It happens to be Mendes' grandmother's name and the character she played in 2007's "We Own the Night".
Mendes and Gosling fell in love while filming "The Place Beyond the Pines". They welcomed their first child together in September 2014.
News of her second pregnancy broke last month. She was spotted leaving a building here with a large bag to cover her baby bump.
--IANS
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Four people, including two women, were hacked to death in a family feud in Telangana's Adilabad district on Tuesday, police said.
Three others were injured in the brutal attack in Bhanisa town, about 260 km from here.
Unidentified attackers threw chilli powder in the eyes of the victims before hacking them to death in broad daylight.
Naymat Khan (57) and his son Yonus Khan (30) were murdered near a scrap shop. Nayamt's wife Wahida Begum (50) and another relative, Ayesha (15), were killed at another place in the town.
Wahida was earlier a member of the Bhanisa municipality.
The near simultaneous attacks caused panic in the town. Police sent additional forces and launched a hunt for the killers.
Police suspect that dispute over property in the family led to the murders.
--IANS
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Denying interim relief to JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to stay the rustication order passed by the university against them over a controversial event on Kashmir in the campus.
Justice Manmohan said he will "not stay the order" and issued notice to the Jawaharlal Nehru University, asking it to file its response along with all relevant documents, including the enquiry report.
"I have to ask for records. I have to see whether fair procedure was followed. I have to look into the facts. The matter requires consideration and decision can't be taken overnight," said the judge posting the matter for May 30.
Khalid and Bhattacharya approached the court against the rustication order and Rs.20,000 fine imposed against Khalid. The university took the action on April 25 after a probe panel set up by the varsity administration found them guilty of "misconduct" and "indiscipline".
The two students were found guilty of staging a protest demonstration under the pretext of holding a poetry reading, the chief proctor had said.
Counsel, appearing for both, told the court that they were rusticated without proper hearing and notices, arguing both were hiding for 10 days and thereafter surrendered and were sent to jail and how can an enquiry committee be set up behind their back.
On the other hand, counsel for JNU said that notices were served to them at their residential addresses and jail. After the counsel for Khalid raised objection on Rs.20,000 fine imposed on him, the university said it will extend the date of its payment till the next date of hearing.
The February 9 event led to the arrests of JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya on sedition charges after it was alleged that participants at the event shouted anti-national slogans. Delhi Police repeatedly claimed they had evidence against Kanhaiya Kumar and the other students but failed to produce it in court, leading to their release from jail on bail.
--IANS
gt/vd
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has said London's new mayor Sadiq Khan could be an "exception" to his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Khan has rejected Trump's offer.
Khan, a Muslim, was elected to run the British capital last week.
On Monday, Trump said he was "happy to see" that Khan was voted in, according to the New York Times.
Asked about how his proposed ban would affect Khan, 45, who is also a member of Britain's Parliament, Trump said: "There will always be exceptions," the Times reported.
"I think if he does a great job, it will really - you lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing," Trump was quoted as saying.
However, Khan rejected Trump's offer on Tuesday.
"This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world," Khan said.
"Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe - it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists. Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong," the Guardian quoted him as saying.
Trump's "ignorant" views of Islam "could make both our countries less safe," Khan added.
Trump called for the ban in December after Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, killed 14 people in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. The Islamic State said the two were its followers.
In an interview with Time, Sadiq Khan said he would like to go to the United States to meet with American mayors.
"If Donald Trump becomes the president I'll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can't engage with American mayors and swap ideas," he said. He said he planned to visit the United States before January in case Trump wins the presidential race.
--IANS
rn/bg
India and the US will engage in two-day bilateral consultations from Wednesday at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to discuss the American move to levy high fees on temporary working visas, an official statement said.
"The government of India looks forward to the consultations with the US at the WTO, scheduled for May 11-12," the commerce ministry said in a statement here.
"India hopes that the United States will constructively engage with India to address its concerns regarding recent US measures which impair the ability of both US-based Indian companies and Indian professionals to supply services in the US.
"The H-1B and L-1 categories of non-immigrants, for which there has been a significant fee hike, correspond with the categories of specialists and intra-corporate transferees, both of which are part of US' commitments under the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services," the statement added.
India had approached the WTO's dispute settlement body, in March, against the US measures imposing increased fees on certain applicants for the L-1 and H-1B category visas on the ground that the move would impact Indian IT professionals.
The statement noted that India and the US share a mutually inter-dependent and beneficial relationship in trade in services, with the US accounting for almost 60 percent of software exports from India, while Indian IT professionals have had a positive role in contributing to the competitiveness of the US economy.
The increasing volume of services trade has contributed to significant economic growth as well as employment creation within the US, it added.
"The situation therefore presents a win-win relationship for both nations. The US fee hike measures for the H-1B and L-1 categories are not only adversely affecting the competitiveness of India's services industry engaged in the US market, but also creating uncertainties for Indian service suppliers," the statement said.
According to India, the American visa fee hikes also run counter to the basic principles of a transparent and predictable trading environment that lies at the heart of the WTO agreements.
"India is hopeful that deliberations during the WTO consultations shall be constructive and would result in removal of these trade restrictive measures," it said.
--IANS
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For a stronger connect with their fans, Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Daredevils on Tuesday signed TSD Corp as their digital innovation and technology partner.
The company has handled the likes of Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, and Harbhajan Singh apart from IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab.
"Delhi Daredevils is the second IPL franchise after Kings XI punjab that has entrusted us with their digital identity. DD awarding us this mandate is a great validation of the value we add to our clients' social identity. It gives us immense pride and we look forward to doing some exciting work and take the DD social presence to greater heights," Pankaj Rahul Singh, COO at TSD Corp, said in a statement.
Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua said: "We chose TSD for their creativity, great content creation abilities. They understand the pressures of the IPL season very well and their experience of delivering great activations successfully in such conditions will definitely stand us in good stead."
--IANS
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Assam's veteran Muslim politician Badruddin Ajmal wants to float a secular Third Front to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party away from forming the new government in the border state, but his ideal chief minister candidate is AGP chief Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who has fought the polls in alliance with the BJP.
Ajmal, MP from Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency, in an interview with IANS here said he was anticipating a hung assembly when results for the polls are announced on May 19.
This, he said, was likely to increase the chances of a Third Front of all secular parties, including the Congress, to step in.
"There is a presumption that a Third Front will be formed, including all secular parties, to keep the BJP away from forming a government in Assam," said Ajmal.
The proposed Third Front would also include the Bodoland People's Front (BPF) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which have 12 and 10 seats, respectively, in the outgoing assembly.A scholar from Deoband in Uttar Pradesh and one of India's richest politicians who made his millions from the family's perfume businesses, Ajmal is known to wield a huge clout among the Assam Muslim vote bank.
His AIUDF had won 18 seats in the 126-member assembly in the last elections held in 2011. The party also has three Lok Sabha members.
The AIUDF chief -- who may become Assam's next kingmaker post-May 19 -- said the idea of forming a Third Front was possible because the "AGP's (pre-poll) alliance with the BJP is just an eyewash" and none of the parties in Assam would be able to garner majority to form a government on its own.
Political parties have already started looking for re-arranging their combinations, he said.
"The Congress will also project Prafulla Kumar Mahanta as the chief minister if they are not able to form the government on their own. Even I suggested his name. He is the ideal person to become the CM," Ajmal said.
Asked why would Mahanta support the Third Front, Ajmal said: "It is their (AGP's) compulsion. They have been out of power for the last 15 years. If they carry on with the BJP and are still not able to form the government, then they will be finished."
He said that it was "impossible" for the BJP to make a dent in the of Assam where "communalism has never worked".
"It is a land of love and peace between different faiths and communities."
He dismissed as "rumour" reports that he had secretly aligned with the BJP. "There is an ideological difference between the BJP and us. They are anti-Muslims and have always hurt the sentiments of Muslims. Even if we get signal from them, we'll not support them. It is against our faith," said Ajmal.
He projected AIUDF to get 30-plus seats in the next assembly but said he himself was not a contender for the post of the next chief minister.
"If we secure more than 24 seats, then the entire political scenario of Assam will change...."
On the issue of illegal migrants, he said: "There should be a law ... to identify illegal migrants, and to deport them back to Bangladesh."
(Sidhartha Dutta can be contacted at sidhartha.d@ians.in and Rupesh Dutta at rupesh.d@ians.in)
--IANS
sid-rup/sar/dg
British Prime Minister David Cameron was caught on camera describing Nigeria and Afghanistan as "fantastically corrupt" in a conversation with the Queen.
At a Buckingham Palace reception on Tuesday afternoon, a television microphone caught Cameron saying: "We've got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain... Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world," RT online reported.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby intervened, however, to defend the Nigerian premier.
"This particular president is not corrupt ... he's trying very hard," said Welby.
It was not known whether Cameron knew his comments were being recorded.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has embarked on a sweeping anti-corruption crusade since taking office last May. However, critics have slammed the campaign as a politically motivated witch-hunt, accusing Buhari of using corruption as a cover for weeding out political opponents.
Despite having the highest paid public officials in the world and Africa's biggest economy, oil-rich Nigeria is one of the largest beneficiaries of British aid, with Britain committing to spend 860 million on the country.
Afghanistan's President Ghani took office in 2014 amid rampant allegations of fraud, pledging to eradicate corruption, but graft is widely believed to have worsened across the country during his tenure.
Cameron has pledged to use Thursday's summit in London, organized before the Panama Papers leak, to clinch an agreement committing world leaders to tackling corruption and ensuring greater financial transparency.
It will bring together a bevy of political leaders, officials from the financial world and FIFA and UEFA representatives.
--IANS
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Rome, May 9 (IANS/AKI) Late Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's youngest son has urged Muslims to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem in an audio message, US terrorist-tracking organisation SITE tweeted on Monday.
"Jerusalem is a bride whose blood is our dowry," Hamza bin Laden purportedly says in the online message, quoted by SITE.
"The fight to free Jerusalem is a battle between faith and unbelief that requires the unity of the Ummah (the Muslim community)," SITE quotes the message as continuing.
Believed to be 23 or 24 years old, Hamza bin Laden has been touted as a future leader of the terror network.
"The liberation of Palestinian land has been brought much closer by the Syrian revolution," says the message, which SITE's director Rita Katz claims was recorded about five months ago.
The message was released a day after Al Qaeda leader, the Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri allegedly urged rival militant groups in Syria to unite or risk death in an audio recording posted to the Internet.
In the audiotape, Zawahiri allegedly lent his support to the Al Qaeda affiliated Al Nusra Front's plan to create a sovereign state in Syria that would rival the self-declared caliphate of the Islamic State jihadist group.
Zawahiri become Al-Qaeda's leader in June 2011, a few weeks after Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid on his compound in Pakistan by US special forces.
It is believed that Hamza bin Laden managed to escape from the compound during the raid by US navy seals. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Al Qaeda released a message in August, purportedly from Hamza bin Laden calling for Jihad against America and its allies. It specifically suggests London, Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv as targets for attacks.
He is believed to have taken part in attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan as early as in 2005.
--IANS/AKI
vd
Over 15 lakh acres of in India is under encroachment, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Replying to a question about unsocial elements occupying hundred of hectares of forest land, the minister said: "Encroachment on forest lands has been reported by various state and union territory governments. Protection and management of forests is primarily the responsibility of the concerned governments."
According to data, Madhya Pradesh tops the list with 5.34 lakh acres of forest area under encroachment as of March 2016. Assam with 3.17 lakh of forest area under encroachment comes second as of 2015.
The minister said that except for Goa, Lakshadweep and Puducherry, all other states and union territories have some land under encroachment.
Odisha has over 78,000 acres of encroached while Maharashtra over 67,000 and Arunachal Pradesh over 58,000 acres.
Even Andaman and Nicobar Islands has over 4,000 acres of land encroached. Chandigarh has 14 acres of under encroachment, the minister said.
According to the India State of Forest Report released in 2015, the total forest and tree cover in India is 79.42 million hectares, which translates to about 196.26 million acres -- about 24.16 per cent of the total geographical area of the country.
Pakistan should conduct a prompt and impartial probe into the killing of human rights activist Khurram Zaki and prosecute the murderers, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
Zaki, 40, had been publicly critical of extremist cleric Abdul Aziz and militant sectarian groups.
On May 7, four unidentified gunmen opened fire on Zaki at a restaurant in Karachi, killing him and wounding two others.
Zaki had been receiving threats and had confided to friends that he was on several militant "hitlists".
"A thorough and impartial investigation with proper witness protections is absolutely critical to ensure those responsible for Khurram Zaki's death are brought to justice," said Human Rights Watch.
"It's appalling that activists who are at the forefront of opposing violence by militant groups should themselves become targets."
The Hakeemullah group, a relatively unknown faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the murder in a phone call to Reuters, saying Zaki was targeted because of his stance against Abdul Aziz.
On May 9, the police registered a criminal case against Abdul Aziz, Arungzeb Farooqi, a leader of the anti-Shia Ahle-Sunnt-Wal-Jammat (ASWJ), and unidentified gunmen.
Abdul Aziz has been acquitted in several criminal cases in the past because witnesses recanted their statements.
Similarly, the Pakistan government has failed to hold ASWJ and its affiliate, the militant Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), accountable for attacks on people from the Shia Muslim community.
--IANS
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Real Madrid midfielder Lucas Vazquez has sustained an injury to his left knee and will miss the final La Liga game against Deportivo La Caruna on Saturday.
Real Madrid medical staff explained on Monday that the 24-year-old "has been diagnosed with a medial collateral sprain in his left knee", according to the Spanish club's official website.
Staff added that Vazquez's recovery will "continue to be assessed", reports Efe.
The midfielder was injured during Sunday's La Liga game against Valencia at the Santiago Bernabeu and though he completed the match he was unable to train on Monday.
Vazquez will miss the last La Liga match against Deportivo, so that he can appear in the UEFA Champions League final against Atletico Madrid on May 28 in Milan's San Siro Stadium.
--IANS
pur/bg
Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US, says that an ex-chief of the ISI spy agency had admitted that "some retired Pakistani Army officers" were involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack that claimed 116 lives and injured hundreds of others in 2008.
Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha, who then headed Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency, made the admission to his CIA counterpart, Gen. Michael Hayden at a meeting in Washington in December 2008, Haqqani writes in his new book, "India vs Pakistan: Why Can't We Just Be Friends".
The publisher, Juggernaut Books, says there is a specific reference to the Pakistani Army in the book, a no-holds-barred analysis of the India-Pakistan relationship by Haqqani, adviser to four Pakistani prime ministers, including Benazir Bhutto.
In the analytical book, Haqqani quotes a secret, hitherto unpublished letter from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the US secretary of state, complaining that while Pakistan was accused of assisting terrorism in Kashmir and Punjab, the US silence on "terrorism being carried out by the Indian government in Kashmir" was difficult to understand.
The letter also accuses India of "terror, subversion and sabotage" in Pakistan's Sind and Punjab.
In the book replete with revelations and anecdotes, Haqqani also describes how an inadvertent intelligence tip-off through phone intercepts from Indian saved the life of then president Pervez Musharraf.
The attack was planned for December 15, 2003 and thanks to the tip-off, the ISI could foil it and nab the perpetrators, he said.
In the book, the former diplomat also quotes an ISI briefing that contended that the objectives of Indian spy agency RAW were "to divide Pakistan on ethnic and sectarian basis; to disprove and ridicule the two-nation theory; and weaken Pakistan to the extent that it ceases to pose any threat to Indian hegemonic designs".
Haqqani also states that "the reason why Kashmir remains a problem that is neither solved nor set aside lies with Pakistan ... Pakistan's claim to Kashmir has never been accompanied by a coherent strategy or a well-considered endgame to get it".
Haqqani say every schoolchild in Pakistan learns that 'Kashmir is Pakistan's jugular vein' asking "is it really Pakistan's jugular vein if the country has survived for 69-years without Kashmir?"
He also examines the key pressure points in the relationship between the two countries -- Kashmir, terrorism and the n-bomb -- and points out where both sides were to blame.
"Pakistan developed, and continues to develop, its nuclear bombs as a direct response to India, nothing more, nothing else ... Pakistan's nukes are centred on India," the book says.
Haqqani goes on to establish how, under the military's influence, Pakistani nationalism had evolved as anti-Indianism and how Pakistani textbooks continue to reinforce these feelings among the youth.
"Pakistan was not like other countries that raise an army to deal with threats they face; it had inherited a large army that needed a threat if it was to be maintained and the only threat that could be invoked was India ... Pakistan has continued to nurture a national narrative of grievance against India," says the book.
The book is available on the Juggernaut app.
--IANS
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Seven Taliban militants were killed after an unmanned plane of the NATO-led coalition forces struck a vehicle in Afghanistan's Kunduz province, an official said on Tuesday.
"Based on a tip-off, a coalition forces' drone carried out an air raid against a vehicle running in Nah-r-Sufi locality of Chahar Dara district on Monday night. The air strike left seven militants killed and two other militants injured," district Governor Zulmai Farooqi told Xinhua.
In another development, a Taliban military chief named Abdul Jabar Mardan for the neighbouring Baghan province was killed during a special operation conducted by Afghan forces on Monday evening, an official told Xinhua earlier on Tuesday.
--IANS
lok/vm
Seven Indian companies, including two from the services sector, will be participating in this year's edition of Southeast Asia's biggest industrial subcontracting and business matchmaking event being held here from May 11.
Wings Travel Management and Zilingo will be the first Indian companies from the services sector to participate in Subcon Thailand 2016.
Both start-ups, Wings Travel Management will be looking for investment opportunities in the tourism sector while Zilingo will be looking for opportunities in e-commerce.
The other Indian companies that will be participating in this annual event, organised by UBM Asia (Thailand) along with the Board of Investment of Thailand and Thai Subcointracting Promotoion Association, are V-Guard Industries (electrical appliances), Lloyds Steel Industries (steel and heavy engineering fabrication), Grauer and Veil India (chemicals), and Zenith Enterprises (machinery).
Bilateral trade between India and Thailand has grown significantly and has multiplied more than four times between 2004 and 2014 - from $2.05 billion to $8.65 billion.
The trade figure in 2015 includes Thai exports of $5.29 billion and imports of $3.03 billion. India ranks 10th as an export destination for Thailand and overall the coutnry's 16th trading partner.
Major Thai exports to India include chemicals, plastics and articles fabricated from it, gems and jewelry, airconditioners and their parts, internal combustion engines with piston, auto and auto parts, iron, steel and its products, rubber, electrical machinery and parts and computers and computer parts.
Major Thai imports from India include chemicals, boats, auto parts, electrical machinery and parts, precious and semi-precious stones, silver and gold, plants and products of plants, ore, remnants of iron and its products, iron, steel and its products, medicinal and pharmaceutical products and thread and fibre.
Thai companies operating in India are in the fields of agro-processing, construction, automotive, engineering and banking. These include Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, Italian-Thai Development (ITD), Delta Electronics, Rockworth Office Furniture, Krung Thai Bank, Thai Summit Auto, Pruksa Real Estate, Thai Airways International, and SCG Trading.
Indian companies operating in Thailand are in the areas of chemicals, textiles, pharmaceuticals, steel, automotive, and information technology. These include the Indo Rama group, the Aditya Birla Group, Tata Motors, Ranbaxy, Dabur, Lupin, and NIIT among others.
Along with Subcon Thailand, this year two other events are simultaneously being held in this Thai capital - a machinery exhibition called Intermach 2016 and Sheet Metal Asia 2016.
(Aroonim Bhuyan is visiting Bangkok at the invitation of Board of Investment of Thailand. He can be contacted at aroonim.b@ians.in)
--IANS
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Are you sinking into depression? Let your speech tell you.
Analysing variations in emotions in your speech could be a pointer to neurological impairments such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and thanks to an android app being developed by Indian researchers, speech patterns can be constantly monitored and changes detected.
"There is a stark contrast between a normal person's speech and one who may have suicidal tendencies, Alzheimer's symptoms or Parkinson's disease. When a person speaks into the app based on speech emotion recognition, it stores the normal voice patterns and detects if there is any deviation over time, Susmita Bhaduri of Kolkata's Deepa Ghosh Research Foundation told IANS.
"This is a non-invasive method for early detection of AD," Bhaduri added.
Almost 47 million people are living with dementia around the world with 4.1 million of them in India, according to the World Alzheimer Report 2015.
In the early stages of AD, the patient suffers from intermittent memory deterioration leading to lack of cognitive and perceptual ability in speech, language and construction of sentences et al, the researcher said.
"In the early stages there are mild memory losses, patients and their relatives are not able to relate the symptoms with AD and they tend to relate the cognitive changes to age. It usually takes two to three years after onset of symptoms to start medication. Our model could be a routine check-up mechanism," Bhaduri explained.
Apart from Bhaduri, the study, published in the Journal of Neurology and Neuroscience in March, is co-authored by Dipak Ghosh, who is affiliated to the C.V. Raman Centre for Physics and Music, Jadavpur University as well as the varsity's Rajdeep Das.
The published data indicates the model's applicability in diagnosis and prognosis of other cognitive diseases, various types of mental depressions and even for the assessment of suicidal tendencies of severely depressed patients.
"The android application is developed as proprietary software at our foundation. We are in the process of validating it with relevant data, in collaboration with entities like (Kolkata's) Institute of Psychiatry," Bhaduri added.
Interfacing at the human-machine interaction, the basis of the technique lies in the field of speech emotion recognition or the study of emotional content of speech signals.
"Our work involves monitoring specific parameters of speech signals spoken out of two elementary emotions, anger and sadness. We analysed 1,200 samples of speech with the tool, showing clear differences between different emotions," Bhaduri explained.
Research is "desperately needed" given the gravity of the situation surrounding Alzheimer's, Amit Dias, an epidemiologist and geriatrician told IANS, conceding diagnostics have a very important role to play.
"We are open to possibilities but we need to try it out and gather evidence for any new technique on the table," Dias, of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Goa Medical College, told IANS.
(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)
Authorities on Tuesday dropped all charges against a man charged with killing the pilot of a Russian fighter jet downed by Turkey in November 2015 and set him free.
Alparslan Celik, who had been remanded in custody for 37 days, said he was the one who told his men not to fire at the parachuting pilot, Xinhua news agency cited a report by Anadolu news agency.
A public prosecutor in Izmir decided to drop the case after examining the video evidence.
On March 31, Turkish security forces apprehended 14 people, including Celik. A long-barreled Kalashnikov rifle and two handguns were seized during the operation.
Celik and 13 other suspects were detained for "violation of firearms law".
Following the downing of a Russian fighter jet on November 24, relations between Russia and Turkey soured rapidly. One of the jet's two pilots had been killed while the other was rescued by Russian forces.
--IANS
lok/mr
Italian police on Tuesday arrested two Afghans, and were looking for one more, for allegedly planning attacks in Italy and other European countries such as England, France and Belgium.
These people were part of a cell that could be linked to Islamic State or Al Qaeda, EFE news reported quoting media.
The arrest warrant includes five names, but according to investigators, two of them could have returned to Afghanistan as they are missing.
--IANS
lok/rn/dg
In case the adventurous among you are looking for a brush with the rough and tumble of military life and want to have a closer look at the lives of the valorous men in olive green, opt for 'Veer Yatra' this coming summer vacations.
Maharashtra Ex-Servicemen Corporation's (MESCO) first-ever attempt at introducing military tourism in the country will afford tourists an opportunity to get a ringside view of military life.
Tourists will be taken on guided tours at warfare centres and memorials, defence establishments and given an insight into military management techniques and games, the art of war and survival techniques and much more.
MESCO will spice up the tours with camp fires in colonial-era guesthouses, white water rafting, crocodile sightings and forest adventures, complemented by delicious Konkani cuisine on the western coast of Maharashtra.
"Military tourism is a well established concept worldwide, but has not been explored in a structured way in India. The military, its intricacies, heroism, security, wars and other things generate huge interest," MESCO managing director Suhas Jatkar said.
The package tours organised by the ex-servicemen's association, a state government undertaking founded in 2002, will fund welfare measures for former defence forces personnel, war widows and their families.
The endeavour will also serve to strengthen the emotional bonds between the military and the civilians, besides inculcating a spirit of patriotism among the youngsters, Jatkar said.
--IANS
qn/tsb/bg
That Nepal, our closest and historically friendly and strategically situated neighbour should now accuse India of backing a plot to topple K P Sharma Oli's government in that country is a sad commentary of New Delhi's handling of Indo-Nepal relations.
The cancellation of the Nepalese president's visit to India as well as Nepal recalling its ambassador from New Delhi are pointers to increasingly strained bilateral relations. The Oli government must admit its failure in keeping the promise of amending Nepal's new democratic Constitution to provide equal rights to all sections, particularly the Madhesi population.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, needs to ensure there is no trust deficit. Is the opinion, if any, external affairs ministry in determining the trajectory of such relations given due weight by the prime minister? Or are the broad contours of such policy determined entirely by the Prime Minister's Office, rendering the existing mechanism of institutional arrangements redundant? If it's the latter, it must change.
S K Choudhury, Bengaluru
Letters 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
Till May this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made about 40 foreign trips to countries in five continents. In the same period, he hosted more than 30 heads of state or government. True, his predecessor travelled almost as much in the same time span. But Manmohan Singhs visits, despite including the large journalists contingents that Mr Modi jettisoned, never attracted the same intensive publicity, with selfies, tweets, rally-style speeches to non-resident Indian fans, meetings curated by Silicon Valley stalwarts, interludes for drum-playing, and informal tete-a-tete on ornate swings.
The crisis situation with judicial burden is occupying a high mindshare in the policy space and public discourse - perhaps thanks to the "emotional appeal" by the Chief Justice of India, which was misreported widely as an "emotional breakdown". While the symptoms of the crisis are obvious, the diagnosis of what ails the justice system is by and large adversarial.
US-focused funds seem to have lost steam in the recent past. While the three-year category average compounded annual return of these funds, which have garnered assets under management (AUM) of Rs 1,186.21 crore, is a handsome 16.09 per cent, the return over the past year has shrunk to a dismal -2.31 per cent. Financial experts, however, suggest that investors should stay invested in these funds for the long haul.
The outlook for the US equity markets has turned negative in the short-term. The primary reason for this is US Fed policy. With the US economic recovery turning out to be less robust than anticipated, the Fed has climbed down on its earlier guidance of four rate hikes and has now settled for two. The Fed is also concerned about the weak state of the global economy. Due to this change of stance, portfolio flows are now moving out of US equities and into bonds, gold and emerging markets, resulting in the current bout of underperformance.
ALSO READ: Dividend yield funds brave falling markets
Indians who have invested in US funds need not lose heart, though. The US markets long-term prospects remain attractive. Says Rahul Gupta, equity analyst at Live Squawk, a London-headquartered financial markets data analytic firm: The job market in the US has shown continuous improvement. The US is also not witnessing the kind of deflationary pressures that the euro zone and Japan are. He is optimistic about a US recovery over the long term. According to Pankaj Sharma, executive vice-president and head of business development & risk management at DSP BlackRock Investment Managers, the US has historically been a resilient economy, showing an immediate and rapid recovery after each recessionary phase, as exhibited across decades.
US funds also provide Indian investors with the benefit of diversification. The correlation between Indian and US equity markets is low, so there is a high possibility that the US markets would do well when the Indian markets are underperforming. Such diversification helps lower the overall risk of your portfolio, says Kaustubh Belapurkar, director-manager, research, Morningstar India. The US market provides Indian investors access to scale. When Indian investors put money in the US market, they invest in the world's largest equity market, says Vishal Dhawan, chief financial planner, Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors. They also get to buy into companies with global operations. Many US-based companies such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Apple, etc have a huge user base both in India and across the globe. By investing in US funds, you get exposure to large, well-established companies and can benefit from their global growth, says Belapurkar.
US funds, and hence stocks, also get you exposure to sectors for which there is no representation on the Indian bourses, such as defence, aeroplane manufacturing (Boeing), e-commerce (Amazon), and so on. Sharma adds that US-focused funds are a useful investment tool to create long-term assets for meeting liabilities in the US, such as childrens education.
Finally, Belapurkar advises that your allocation to US funds should be a steady-state allocation. Dont invest in these funds when the Indian markets are not doing well and stop your investments or pull out money when the local markets are buoyant. Dhawan suggests that investors who are starting out should have at least a five per cent exposure (of their overall equity portfolio) to US funds, which they might increase gradually to 10 per cent.
ALSO READ: Limit your exposure to global gold funds
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday fielded its topmost leaders to make public the graduation and postgraduation degrees of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. BJP President Amit Shah demanded a public apology from Delhi Chief Minister for terming the PMs degrees fake, while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief was indulging in of adventurism as a substitute to of governance.
The AAP persisted with its allegations that the degrees were not genuine, but the PM received support from an unlikely quarter. For me these (questions on PMs degrees) are non issues, said Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. BJP President Shah said the PM was unlikely to file a case of defamation against Kejriwal. The AAP plans to send a team to Delhi University to verify the documents made public by BJP leaders. Shah and Jaitley released copies of Modis bachelors and masters degrees.
According to the document, the PM graduated from the Delhi University as an external candidate in 1978. He had enrolled in the BA (Pass) course in 1974 and passed it in third division four years later. They also released his BA mark sheets. AAP leader Ashutosh alleged there were discrepancies in the documents, including how the PMs name was spelt differently in the BA degree and the mark sheets as Modi as well as Mody.
In some places, it is Narendra Kumar Damoderdas and in others Narendra Damoderdas, he said.
AAP leaders also alleged there were discrepancies in totalling of the marks.
Jaitley said he remembered Modi visiting Delhi in post-Emergency years to appear for his exams. The Finance Minister berated AAP for raising the issue. Jaitley said the PM comes from a humble background and completed his schooling and college studies while being involved in social work. The AAP, since it claims to represent aspirations of the common man, should have applauded the PM. Instead, they have levelled unverified allegations without checking facts. They have brought public discourse to the lowest level, Jaitley said.
Jaitley pointed out the allegations came from a party which has legislators who have been prosecuted for fake degrees. In this case, the threat to federal polity comes from a Union territory, he said. The PM passed his MA in first division from the Gujarat University in 1983, he added.
Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi said he has not issued any orders to seal the university records. I have not issued any such orders and if the university department dealing with RTIs has done it in its own capacity, I am not updated about it, Tyagi told PTI.
Asked about the veracity of the degrees, copies of which were released by BJP President Amit Shah, Tyagi did not comment. We have received an order from the Central Information Commission (CIC) and we will respond to it after checking our records, he said.
Delhi Chief Minister took to Twitter, alleging DU has sealed the records. Docs in DU hv been sealed. BJP presents Farzi docs in a PC n gets real records sealed? Why? Implement CIC order. Allow inspection, he said.
The Congress government in Uttarakhand is likely to be restored after an in-camera floor test in the Assembly on Tuesday suggested Harish Rawat continues to enjoy a majority.
The result of the Supreme Court-monitored floor test will be officially declared on Wednesday, but will only further embarrass the Union government after a series of unfavourable orders on the issue by the Nainital High Court and Supreme Court.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Delhi looked crestfallen, but in their defence continued to question the conduct of the partisan Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, calling for a debate on the issue, said there was a need to revisit the Speakers role in testing the House majority and implementation of the anti-defection law.
Any public representative should resign from the House or be disqualified the very next day of changing the party from which they were elected. That is the spirit of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, Naidu said.
Congress leaders were triumphant and raised slogans accusing the government of being murderers of democracy in both Houses of Parliament. Congress members in the Rajya Sabha disrupted proceedings to resist the governments move to get the Uttarakhand budget passed. It is likely that the government will lose Wednesdays vote on the Uttarakhand budget in the Rajya Sabha. Government strategists, however, took solace in the fact that it is a money Bill that the Lok Sabha has already passed on Monday.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House, demanded that the government apologise to the nation. Even Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: Uttarakhand floor test outcome is a huge setback to Modi [government]. Hope they will stop toppling governments now.
The BJP expects Rawat to announce several populist measures, recommend dissolution of the Assembly and call for fresh elections.
In a hint that the battle for Uttarakhand wasnt over yet, sources said the Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the sting against Rawat purportedly trying to offer money to his partys rebel legislators will be a key BJP plank to outmanoeuver Congress.
Emerging from the Vidhan Sabha after the floor test, Congress MLAs claimed Rawat managed to get the support of 33 MLAs against BJPs 28. BJP legislators concurred with this. The effective strength of the Vidhan Sabha had been reduced to 62 (including one nominated member) after the apex court on Monday refused to stay the disqualification of nine rebel Congress MLAs.
Rekha Arya, Congress MLA from Someshwar, and Bheem Lal Arya, BJP MLA from Ghansali, were alleged to have crossed sides during the floor test. All six members of the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF), which includes two MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), are said to have voted for Rawat. BSP appeared to have sided with Rawat on the instructions of party chief Mayawati.
Soon after the floor test, Rawat said, The clouds of uncertainty hanging over Uttarakhand will disappear tomorrow.
In the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley urged the Congress to pass the Uttarakhand Budget. The appropriation Bill of the state has to be sanctioned by Parliament as all expenditure from April 1 has to be validated, he said. Congress opposed this saying the Assembly had passed the Bill.
Congress Member of Parliament Abhishek Manu Singhvi said once the floor test verdict was declared and a government took charge, the Assembly could pass the Budget for that period, retrospectively, in the event of the Parliament not passing it. A euphoric Congress did not allow the Finance Bill to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha. With three days left for the end of the session, the government is keen that Rajya Sabha passes a clutch of important Bills, including the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Code.
Congress sources in Dehra Dun said the party was debating whether to hold snap elections in the state. A section of party leaders want Rawat to go for snap polls and take advantage of the victory, said a senior Congress leader. However, state Congress Chief Kishore Upadhayay said there was no such plan.
(With inputs from Kavita Chowdhury and Archis Mohan)
Assembly floor test was concluded on Tuesday and the Supreme Court will receive the result in a sealed cover on Wednesday. According to reports, the Congress has claimed victory in the floor test.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's MLA Ganesh Joshi on Tuesday conceded the party had lost the floor test in the Assembly on Tuesday."The BJP has won the battle of principles, but lost the game of numbers," Joshi told news agency ANI after the floor test.He also accused the Congress of using money power to win the floor test. "We did not use money power, perhaps if we had, we could have got this," he was quoted as saying.The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the High court's ruling that prevented nine rebel Congress members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from voting in the crucial floor test. The rebel MLAs challenged the decision of the Uttarakhand High Court which has dismissed their petition against their disqualification by Assembly speaker.
On March 27, Uttarakhand was brought under President's rule by the Centre on grounds of "breakdown of governance".
President Pranab Mukherjee signed the proclamation under Article 356 of the Constitution, dismissing the Congress government headed by Harish Rawat and placing the Assembly under suspended animation on the recommendation of the Union Cabinet.
Here are the recent developments in the matter:
Leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party, which has 2 MLAs in the Uttarakhand Assembly, on Tuesday said her party would support the Congress party in the Supreme Court-mandated floor test. 'No deal with BJP, our party is supporting Congress', says BSP Chief Mayawati was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. In another development, Congress MLA Rekha Arya was seen arriving at the Assembly with BJP leaders, suggesting she has switched sides.
2) A day before the scheduled floor test, in a boost to Chief Minister Harish Rawat, the Uttarakhand High Court dismissed a petition filed by nine Congress MLAs against their disqualification, a decision that will bar them from participating in a crucial floor test in the Assembly on Tuesday.
3) Two days ahead of the Tuesday floor test in the Uttarakhand assembly, a video of a new sting operation allegedly showing a Congress legislator talking of bribe to at least a dozen party MLAs to keep them on ousted chief minister Harish Rawat's side surfaced.
The sting allegedly shows Congress MLA Madan Singh Bisht admitting to payment of Rs 25 lakh each to 12 legislators.
4) The Supreme Court on May 6 ordered a floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly on May 10.
In a significant order detailing the modalities of the floor test to be conducted on Tuesday between 11 am and 1 pm for the single agenda, the court directed that the nine rebel Congress MLAs, who have challenged their disqualification by the Speaker in the High Court, will not participate in the floor test "if they have the same status" at the time of vote of confidence.
According to the order, the nine disqualified Congress MLAs would be able to vote if the High Court permitted them.
5) The Supreme Court on April 27 extended its stay on the quashing of President's rule in Uttarakhand, ensuring that the April 29 floor test in the Assembly ordered by the High Court would not take place.
However, while hearing the Centre's appeal against the Uttarakhand High Court judgement, the apex court framed seven tough questions and even gave liberty to the Attorney General to include other questions the government would like to be addressed.
6) The Uttarakhand High Court on April 21 quashed the imposition of Presidents rule in the state.
A Division Bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice K M Joseph and Justice V K Bist, said that the March 27 proclamation of the Centre to put Uttarakhand under Presidents rule was contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court.
The Bench restored the Harish Rawat-headed Congress government but asked it to prove its majority in a fresh floor test on April 29.
A day later, the Supreme Court ordered the Uttarakhand High Court order be kept in abeyance till April 27.
7) Questioning the Central government's assertion on the political crisis in the hill state, the Uttarakhand High Court on April 20 told the ruling dispensation that even the president can go wrong.
"There is no decision like that of king, which can't be subject to judicial review. That's the essence of Constitution. Even the President can go wrong, everything is subject to judicial review," the High Court said.
8) The Centre moved the Uttarakhand High Court on March 30 challenging an interim order by a single bench directing a floor test in the Assembly on March 31, days after President's Rule was imposed in the state.
In response to the Centre's petition, a two-judge division bench of the Uttarakhand High Court stayed the floor test on the Assembly floor.
9) The Uttarakhand High Court on March 29 told former chief minister Harish Rawat to take a floor test in the Assembly on March 31.
March 28, former chief minister Harish Rawat moved the Uttarakhand High Court seeking revocation of President's Rule in the state and restoration of his government. Additionally, Rawat termed the Modi government's decision to impose President's rule as a "brazen display of high-handedness and authoritarianism".
Atleast 19 persons including
three children were injured in a mishap involving two buses and a taxi in the southern parts of the city this morning, police said.
The mishap occured at around 11.50 AM on the Diamond Harbour Road in the Ekbalpore area when driver of a private bus suddenly applied break resulting a state-owned bus coming from behind hiting it on the back side, a senior official of Kolkata Traffic Police said.
The private bus, of route no 17 then hit a private car moving ahead of it which then collided with a taxi, the official added.
A total of 19 persons, including traffic constable of South-West Traffic guard Sibu Barman, were injured, he said.
All of them, excepting Barman were released from hospital after initial medical treatment and the driver of the private bus Rajibul Haque has been arrested, the officer said.
An estimated 2,379 pigs died of deadly swine disease, medically called Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), in the Mizoram-Myanmar border Champhai district till today, Champhai Area Vawk vulh Association (CAVVA) or Champhai pig rearers association leaders said.
The pigs were believed to have been infected with the virus from pigs imported from Myanmar, veterinarians said.
Official sources confirmed the development but did not corroborate the death toll cited by the Pig Rearers' Association.
The sources said a meeting, convened by Aizawl District Deputy Commissioner Kannan Gopinathan and attended by officials of the state Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department and experts at the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, decided that the Aizawl district administration would issue order prohibiting import of pigs and piglets from Myanmar.
K. Zamlova of the CAVVA said that there were more than 5,000 pigs still surviving in Champhai town and surrounding areas even as many of them were taken sick after being infected with the PRRS.
Champhai District Veterinary Officer Dr Lalchungunga Pudaite told PTI over phone that though there is no vaccination and specific treatment for the PRRS, some of the infected pigs responded to antibiotics.
Tornadoes destroyed homes, overturned vehicles and stripped the bark from trees as they churned across Oklahoma, part of a strong series of storms that hit the Plains.
At least two people died in weather so violent that forecasters declared a "tornado emergency" for communities in the path of one of the twisters.
"You are in a life-threatening situation," forecasters declared while warning the communities of Roff, population 725, and Hickory, population 71, which were ultimately spared major damage. "Flying debris will be deadly to those caught without shelter."
Dana Lance was driving through the Pontotoc County community of Roff on her way home from work yesterday when the skies grew ominous, sirens wailed and forecasters on the radio told people to take cover.
"I parked and went into the school, which has a safe room," Lance said. "There were kids and elderly people, dogs and cats, babies. It was like the whole town was there."
In nearby Murray County, where Hickory is located, emergency management director Gary Ligon said one person was injured.
Garvin County officials said a man believed to be in his upper 70s died when another tornado hit a home near Wynnewood, south of Oklahoma City. That storm, caught on video by several storm chasers, appeared white against the dark clouds of a supercell storm. In Johnston County, the sheriff's office said a man was killed by a tornado near Connerville.
The Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management reported the storms destroyed a radio station building in Coal County and an undetermined number of homes in Murray, Garvin and Johnston counties.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, had warned of a substantial tornado risk and said Arkansas could see tornadoes overnight yesterday.
The bad weather should settle in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys today, forecasters said, while another storm system should bring storms to the area from north Texas to near St Louis tomorrow.
In Hugo, near the Red River, Charles Webb piled one of his dogs and one of his cats in the laundry room yesterday and hunkered down as the storm came over his house, clipping trees and spinning up debris. Webb said he emerged from his home minutes later to see blue skies.
"We're real lucky, but we've been lucky for a lot of years, fortunately," Webb said yesterday.
At least two policemen were killed and five others injured today in an explosion outside the Balochistan University in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's southwestern province.
"The attack targeted a police check-post outside the university gate set up for security purposes. Two policemen were killed while five persons, including three policemen, injured," Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti said.
He said the bomb disposal squad was at the scene to find out what caused the explosion.
"The injured were shifted to the hospital," he added.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying its special unit targeted the police through IED.
Militants belonging to banned extremist outfits and separatist groups regularly carry out subversive activities against security personnel and installations in the troubled Balochistan province.
The province rich in natural resources has been plagued by an insurgency and growing sectarian killings for more than a decade.
On May 3, five Rapid Response Group police personnel, including an officer, were injured when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Eastern Bypass area of Quetta.
In February, 10 people, including four security personnel, a woman and child were killed and 23 others injured in a suicide attack in Quetta.
As many as 39 locations on the busy roads of the national capital now have Pelican Signalling systems installed by Delhi Police, a technology which enables pedestrians to request convenient traffic management for crossing roads at the push of a button.
Delhi Police has installed Pelican Signals at 39 locations in the national capital to facilitate the pedestrians to cross roads safely, the Lok Sabha was told today.
"In this Signalling system, the pedestrian green light is activated once a request is registered by pedestrians to cross the roads by pressing Push button in the Pedestrian Control Panel," Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said today answering queries on the Pelican system.
To prevent the misuse of Pelican Signals, Delhi Traffic Police are spreading awareness about the operations of the system and ensured proper deployment of traffic staff at selected signals where repetitive misuse is noticed, the minister added.
The Pelican crossing system was first introduced in United Kingdom in 1969 before it was adopted in Ireland and other nations.
Four militants were apprehended
from different localities of Manipur during the last two days, a police statement said today.
One active member of KNF (N) was apprehended at Nongbram Village by a group of Manipur police commandos and troops of 2 Assam Rifles, the statement said.
Identified as 19-year-old Henthangsiam Vaiphei, the cadre was allegedly involved in transportation of arms and ammunition for that outfit.
Around 10 am, a member of proscribed KYKL (MDF) was nabbed from Uyumpok in Imphal East district.
The militant identified as Ningthoujam Geetchandra Singh (28) was picked up from his own locality.
Based on the statement of the militant, another KYKL activist Yengkhom Babananda Singh alias Roji was apprehended from Pukhao Laipham in Imphal East district.
Police said that the duo was allegedly involved in extorting Rs 5000 from the teaching staff of the primary schools.
On May 9, another team of police commandos arrested a member of RPF identified as N Rakesh Meetei (30) from Nongdam under Porompat PS, the police statement said.
Sixy five Sri Lankans, including Nissanka Senadhipathi, a businessman having links to the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa figured in the new edition of 'Panama Papers' with offshore accounts, media reports said today.
Three offshore entities, seven intermediaries and 53 address in Sri Lanka have also been exposed in the offshore leaks database made available by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the Colombo Gazette reported.
According to the documents leaked from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, Senadhipathi incorporated an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands with three others.
The Lanka government was investigating Senadhipathi's firm Avant Garde for running a floating armory in the southern port of Galle.
The government had handed the floating armorys operation to the Sri Lanka Navy. Senadhipathi was closely linked to the previous Rajapaksa regime. The government had accused the Rajapaksa of siphoning off billions of dollars during his regime. The former president denying accusations had challenged the government to prove the charges.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake had said last week that the government will set up a special panel to chase its nationals likely to figure in the Panama Papers.
Sri Lankan law allows nationals to set up offshore operations, but it must be declared to the Inland Revenue Department and the Exchange Control department of the Central Bank.
The failure to do so will be liable for prosecution under the Inland Revenue Act, exchange control laws and anti-money laundering legislation.
Over 68,000 dog bites were reported by the civic bodies in the national capital last year with most number of the cases being from north Delhi, Lok Sabha was informed today.
In his written reply, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary gave the details of the cases of dog bites and monkey bites in the national capital since January 1, 2014.
In his reply to questions by MPs K N Ramchandran and D K Suresh, he said a total of 68,675 dog bites were reported by the three municipal corporations, the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Cantonment Board in 2015. The latest figure for the current year is 16,632 dog bites.
The highest number of dog bites, 39,602, was reported by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) in 2015. In the current year also, the civic body has reported 11,314 dog bites till date.
The number of dog bites are also high in areas under the East Delhi Municipal Corporation. Last year 26,584 dog bites were reported while in the current year 4,783 cases have come to light so far in those areas.
South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) reported the highest number of monkey bites, at 766, in 2015. A total of 937 cases were reported in Delhi last year.
In the current year, 268 cases of monkey bites have been reported so far.
The minister said dispensaries of local bodies provide free rabies vaccine and anti-rabies serum to persons bit by stray animals.
The civic bodies are also making efforts to curb the population of stray dogs as per the policy of Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001.
Over 400 monkeys were caught by the monkey-catchers hired by the three municipal corporations and relocated to Asola Bhati Mines between April 1, 2015 and March 31.
The New Delhi Municipal Council has also relocated 188 monkeys from 2015 till date, to Asola wildlife sanctuary, he said.
Two airstrikes struck a northwestern Syrian town today, killing at least 10 people, wounding many others and knocking out the dome of a mosque, opposition activists said.
The air raids on the town of Binnish in the northwestern province of Idlib came hours after a fragile and limited cease-fire in the nearby city of Aleppo and its surrounding countryside was extended for the third time, for another 48 hours starting at 1 a.M. Today morning.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll is expected to rise as some of the wounded are in critical condition. The Local Coordination Committees said some of the wounded have not been identified.
A Facebook page known as the Coordinators of the Revolution in the city of Binnish posted the photo of a wounded child with blood stains on his face, saying he was referred to the intensive care unit in the town of Bab al-Hawa near the border with Turkey. The posting said the child will be referred to a hospital in Turkey and added that he has no adult to accompany him asking any relatives who identify the boy to come forward.
Another photo posted on the Facebook page showed at least three dead bodies in dark blue bags placed on a pavement.
"Most of the 10 people killed were passersby," said Muayad Zurayk, an opposition activist based in the nearby Jabal al-Zawiya region. "The situation is appalling in this region because of daily massacres."
The LCC said the warplanes were Syrian while the Observatory said it wasn't clear if they were Syrian or Russian.
The Observatory said those killed included a local rebel commander of a faction linked to the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham militia. The militia is part of the Jaish al-Fatah coalition, made up of several groups including al-Qaida's branch in Syria known as the Nusra Front, and other jihadi militias.
Binnish, a Jaish al-Fatah stronghold, is in Idlib province, which borders Turkey.
Jaish al-Fatah, or Army of Conquest, last week launched a wide offensive near Aleppo, capturing the village of Khan Touman and killing dozens of fighters including 13 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
The extremist Nusra Front and its more powerful rival the Islamic State group, are not included in the cease-fire agreement that was brokered by Russia and the US.
Widely perceived as a possible 'kingmaker' in case of a hung verdict in the Assam elections, AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal favours a secular front of parties comprising Congress, AGP, BPF and his own with a few others to prevent BJP from forming the next government.
He even goes on to suggest that Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, whose party AGP is in alliance with BJP, be the next chief minister.
"All these parties must come together to form the Third Front Alliance as this is the only way to keep the communal BJP out of power and save Assam and its people," Ajmal told PTI in an interview.
He claims his party is expected to win over 30 seats and will have a major say in the formation of the next government.
Claiming to be the 'kingmaker' in the next government, Ajmal said, "Without us, no party can form the government in the state. It is the party we support that can form the government and AIUDF's importance cannot be denied."
Asked whether he aspires to be the next chief minister of the state, he said, "I am not dreaming to be the chief minister. My ideal choice for the post is former two-time AGP Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.
"The ideal chief ministerial candidate of the alliance will be Mahanta as we have worked with him for 10 years. He is the right choice. We have good experience with him and he had given adequate representation to the minority community."
Referring to AGP-BPF pre-poll alliance with BJP, the Dhubri MP said, "As per my knowledge, AGP has a covert understanding with Congress and an overt alliance with BJP which I think is due to financial reasons.
"AGP will be the maximum gainer in this election. If they had fought the elections on their own, they would not have got more than five or six seats but with BJP's financial support, they are expected to win 10 to 12 seats."
AIUDF, the largest Opposition party with 18 seats in the outgoing assembly, has formed an alliance with JD(U) and RJD although these two parties do not have any significant presence in the state.
AIUDF also invited Congress and AGP into the alliance in its attempt to create a "mahagathbandhan" on the lines of Bihar elections to defeat BJP, but it did not succeed.
According to Ajmal, BPF leader Hagrama Mohilary has time and again said he will go with whichever party forms the government in Assam.
He also expressed confidence that Congress with the intervention of the party's central leadership will also join the Third Front and bring its ally United Peoples' Party (UPP) within the alliance.
Result of the election to the 126-member Assam Assembly will be declared on May 19.
Asked about Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi dismissing the
idea of a Third Front government in Assam with Congress as a constituent, Ajmal said he was confident the "party High Command will intervene as it stands to gain a lot from this".
"The Congress has no chance of coming to power in any of the states where elections are being held but in Assam it can be a part of the government, if the Third Front comes to power. Therefore, we are sure their Delhi leadership will intervene to ensure it becomes an alliance partner," he said.
Ajmal was, however, critical of the last 15 years of Congress rule under Gogoi alleging that not much development had taken place leading to Assam lagging far behind other states.
"The major problem of flood and erosion has not been tackled while there has not been much progress in the industrial sector and road and connectivity. Even the law order situation is far from satisfactory though the Chief Minister himself holds the Home portfolio," he adds.
"There should, however, be no ego clash and all secular parties should come to an understanding to stop the BJP from coming to power in the greater interest of Assam," he says.
Asked whether such an alliance can give a stable government, Ajmal says, "All the constituent partners have to make some sacrifices and keep aside their ego in the greater interest of secularism and Assam."
On whether the AIUDF will be a part of the ministry, he said it will be decided by the party's core committee only after the results are announced on May 19.
Asked about Congress allegations that AIUDF has a secret understanding with BJP and had put up candidates in certain seats where they had no chances of winning, Ajmal says his party will never go with BJP as they have basic ideological differences.
"Our ideological differences are like East and West and they indulge in anti-Muslim activities which we cannot support at any cost."
"In no way shall we support the BJP. Look at Kashmir where Peoples Democratic Party has an alliance with BJP. When Mufti Mohammed Sayeed died only 2,000 people attended his funeral whereas at least two lakh people should have attended a chief minister's last rites. If we have an alliance with the BJP, our party AIUDF will be finished in five years," he claims.
On AIUDF's role if BJP along with its pre-poll allies come to power, Ajmal says, "We will play the role of the good opposition."
He, however, says the BJP-AGP-BPF alliance is a "very temporary" partnership and will not last too long.
"They will not be able to complete the full term in office. All parties in the alliance are disparate with not much in common.
Andhra Pradesh government today established the 'AP Non-Resident Telugu Society' (NRTS), headed by the Chief Minister, to promote 'Brand AP' among the Telugu communities settled abroad and encourage their active participation in the development process of the state.
The NRTS will promote and seek investments in various sectors in AP from Non-Resident Telugus and foreign investment agencies and industrialists.
It will also act as a platform to address the concerns of Non-Resident Telugus on relevant issues and strengthen social and cultural bonds among NRIs, according to state Chief Secretary Satya Prakash Tucker.
"There is a huge interest among Non-Resident Telugus towards meaningful contribution for the growth and empowerment of people living in Andhra Pradesh.
"There should be an institutional mechanism to channelise their interest towards tangible contributions or investments from Non-Resident Telugus in AP. Hence, the Society is being set up under the aegis of the state government," Tucker said in an order today.
The Society's registered office would be located here, while its area of operation would be "all over the world", the order said.
The 10-member governing body of the Society would be headed by the CM, with the Minister for NRI Affairs, Advisor to government (Non-Resident Telugu Affairs) and Principal Secretaries of seven key departments as members.
An eight-member executive council headed by the Advisor (NRT Affairs), with two NRI members, would manage the Society affairs for a three-year term, the Chief Secretary added.
A 27-year-old man killed one person and wounded three others in a knife attack at a German station today that prosecutors said had "an apparent Islamist motive."
"The assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motivation -- apparently an Islamist motive," said a prosecutor's spokesman. "We are still determining what the exact remarks were."
He added that "one man has died" of the wounds sustained in the attack.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said the Army is pursuing procurement of foreign-made Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile, a move which comes amid reports that the force is not satisfied with the indigenously developed Akash surface to air missiles.
In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Parrikar sought to differentiate the two missile systems saying QRSAM is a separate category of missiles.
Media reports had earlier said that the Army has decided to go for Israeli QRSAM to take on enemy fighters, helicopters and drones after it found that the Akash missile was not fast enough to guard its forward tactical battlefield areas.
Also, the Army has argued that the Akash missiles have a higher radar ground since several vehicles and equipment is needed for the system.
"The Akash weapon system falls under the short range surface to air missiles category and QRSAM is a separate category of missiles. Procurement of QRSAM is a separate multi-vendor case under the Buy (Global) category and vendors from Israel are among the competing firms," the Minister said.
He added that production of Akash has also been ramped up to meet the requirements of the Air Force and the Army.
"As the Akash system evolves though the process of continuous development, its current short-comings are bound to be addressed and the missile has the potential to become India's mainstay in the category of SRSAM," he said.
Austria's centre-left today begins the search for a new leader and new direction after a sharp drop in support, at the hand of the populist far-right, forced Chancellor Werner Faymann to quit.
Analysts said this new departure might even see Faymann's Social Democrats (SPOe) taking the radical and dangerous gamble of dropping its historic opposition to a tie-up with the far-right.
The SPOe and their centre-right "grand coalition" partners the People's Party (OeVP) have dominated Austrian politics since World War II but their support has been sliding for years.
During the last general election in 2013, they only just scratched together a majority, and polls suggest they will fail to do so again at the next ballot in 2018.
Mirroring similar trends across Europe, the centre-left has been bleeding support to fringe groups, which in Austria's case means the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPOe) of Heinz-Christian Strache.
Speaking Monday, Strache said Faymann's resignation "does not solve the SPOe's basic problem, which is its utterly wrong policies (decided) over the heads of people and against Austria's interests."
Tapping into unease over Europe's ongoing migrant crisis, the FPOe is leading opinion polls and on April 24, its candidate won the first round of elections for the largely-ceremonial post of president.
Norbert Hofer, 45, who presents himself as the friendly and reasonable face of the FPOe, will now be up against Alexander van der Bellen, a former head of the Greens who came second, in a May 22 runoff.
The two ruling parties' candidates were knocked out of the race with just 11 percent of the vote each against 35 percent for Hofer.
This dismal performance, due also to a worsening economic situation and the coalition's inability to agree reforms, means that for the first time since 1945, the president will not be from one of the two centrist parties.
This could result in a situation in which the new president makes use of some of the head of state's considerable but hitherto unused powers, such as firing the government or dissolving parliament.
Deputy Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner, head of the OeVP, will replace Faymann on an interim basis but it was unclear who would be his permanent successor as chancellor and SPOe boss.
Two possible candidates are Christian Kern, 50, head of the national railways company, and Gerhard Zeiler, 60, former chief of national broadcaster ORF. A decision may be taken at a party meeting on May 17.
The Ayush ministry will sign a pact with the World Health Organization (WHO) to spread the significance of Ayurveda and Ayush all over the world.
"The information related to Ayurveda and Ayush should spread out to the whole country, as well as the world. Hence, the Ayush Ministry will sign an agreement with the WHO in the days to come," Union Minister of State for Ayush Shripad Naik said yesterday.
"It is the mission of the Ayush ministry to make Ayurveda reach each and every district across the country," he added.
Naik presented 'Sandu Ayurveda Gaurav' and 'Sandu Ayurveda Bhushan' awards to veteran doctors for rendering continuous and devoted service in the field of Ayurveda.
"We should make India free from diseases and it is the first step towards this. World Yoga Day was celebrated on 21 June. The preparations for the second World Yoga Day are going on for the last two months," he said.
Naik further said we will celebrate the World Ayurveda day soon.
Stating the future of Ayurveda is bright, Naik said it is needed to promote and spread the ancient practise of medicine.
"Last month, a team of American doctors were in the country for a discussion on cancer. I am pleased to state that India and the US will sign an agreement in the next two months to carry out a research on cancer. This agreement will take place in the US in the presence of Prime Minister Modi," he said.
Security was stepped up in Bangladeshi capital today as authorities are set to hang Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for committing war crimes during the country's 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.
"The government is fully prepared for executing the verdict...The execution could take place anytime unless he (Nizami) seeks presidential clemency," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters.
Asked if the 73-year-old chief of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party could be hanged later today, Kamal evaded a direct answer saying "wait, you can see".
His comments came as elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion joined police in stepping up security around the Dhaka Central Jail in old part of the capital. The jail guards have beefed up the security inside the facility.
Jail officials said as per procedure the full text of the Supreme Court judgment was read out to Nizami hours after it was issued, rejecting his final review petition.
TV reports quoting unidentified jail officials said a group of hangmen from among the prison inmates was kept ready after necessary exercises as per procedure. Shahjahan Ali would lead them as the chief executioner and another inmate Raju would act as his top aide.
Prison officials earlier said jail doctors checked the heath of the death row convict last night after the verdict was read out to him while senior jail officials saw him at his solitary confinement earlier today.
But they remained tight lipped when asked whether Nizami plans to seek the presidential clemency admitting his guilt, an obligatory procedure required to be exhausted ahead of his hanging.
Jamaat on Saturday, however, said: "question doesn't arise at all to seek mercy to anybody else except Allah".
Nizami's his eldest son and lawyer Najib Momen supplemented the party statement, saying "he (Nizami) will not seek clemency to the President".
President Abdul Hamid has earlier rejected two such appeals by 1971 war crimes convicts, including Nizami's top aide then Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, who were subsequently executed last year.
A former minister in ex-premier Khaleda Zia's BNP-led four-party coalition government, Nizami has been in jail since 2010, when he was arrested to be tried 1971 war crimes.
He was given capital punishment in October 2014 by the tribunal after being convicted of "superior responsibility" as the chief of the infamous Al-Badr militia forces in 1971.
He was particularly found guilty of systematic killings of over 450 people in his own village.
Nizami appears to be the last remaining top perpetrators of crimes against humanity as Bangladesh so far executed four war criminals since the trial process began six years ago.
Normal life was
disrupted in Odisha's tribal dominated Malkangiri district today in a bandh called by Congress demanding immediate steps to ensure uninterrupted electricity and water supply.
The bandh remained peaceful by and large with no violence being reported from any where, police said adding elaborate security arrangements were made to prevent any untoward incident during the bandh.
Vehicular movement came to a halt, while shops and business establishments remained closed in most places during the shut-down. A large number of commuters were seen stranded at bus stands.
Bandh supporters put up pickets at many places, particularly in the district headquarter town of Malkangiri town. A large number of Congress workers led by former Nabarangpur MP Pradip Majhi held a demonstration carrying placards near the district Collector's office.
Majhi said the district administration had been given seven days time to sort out the problems but no step was taken to meet the demand, Majhi said.
If the problems are not solved immediately, water supply to the quarters of the officials would be snapped so make them understand the plight of common people, he said.
Congress leaders said power failure has become a regular feature despite government's announcement that there would be no power cut in the state.
A Belgian man on trial over a foiled jihadist plot told a court today that he obeyed detailed orders from Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the late ringleader of the deadly Paris attacks.
Mohamed Arshad, 27, said he acted on instructions from Abaaoud to buy walkie-talkies, ingredients for explosives, rent two vehicles and a flat in the town of Verviers, purchase furniture and work to obtain false papers.
Arshad is one of seven men who went on trial in Brussels yesterday accused of belonging to a cell plotting to kill Belgian police officers, which was dismantled in a deadly raid in Verviers in January 2015.
"It was not very well thought out. I did what was asked of me," Arshad said in a deposition to the court, adding that Abaaoud had put "pressure" on him during calls the latter made from Turkey.
Abaaoud was killed in a French police raid days after the November 13 Paris gun and bombing attacks in which he allegedly played the role of ringleader.
He also had close links to the cell behind the March 22 Brussels airport and metro attacks.
French President Francois Hollande has said the same terror cell was behind the Paris massacre, in which gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people, and the Brussels attacks in which 32 people died.
Both attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
Arshad said he acted on Abaaoud's orders to obtain five fake passports and five false identity cards using photographs and money he acquired during a visit to Syria in September 2014. One photo was of Abaaoud himself.
In order to obtain the documents, he said, he contacted small-time criminal Souhaib El Abdi, who is on trial with him in the Brussels court.
"I provided false papers, but I did nothing else. I did not leave for Syria. I was not involved in any terrorist act," Abdi told the court.
However, hours after the Verviers raid, Abdi left Belgium with his brother Ismael and were arrested at the French- Italian border early the next day.
The main suspect at the trial of the Verviers cell is Marouane El Bali, who is accused of attempted murder for firing at police during the gunfight in Verviers, 120 kilometres east of Brussels.
He denies the charges.
Killed in the raid were Sofiane Amghar and Khalid Ben Larbi who went to Syria to join Islamic State in April 2014. The two then slipped back into Belgium to the Verviers hideout.
Arshad allegedly went to France and Germany to take them to Verviers.
Nine suspects who are still at large are being tried in their absence.
Pakistan's PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari today hit out at Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, accusing him of "damaging" the country's foreign policy by giving his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi a "certificate of friendship" and over his handling of the Kashmir issue.
Addressing a rally in Bagh area of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) - where his Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) party heads the government - ahead of election in the region on June 26, Bilawal also accused Sharif of going "soft" on India on the issue of the disputed region.
"Mr prime minister (Nawaz) you attended Prime Minister Modi's oath-taking ceremony and forgot about the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat... The premier damaged the foreign policy of Pakistan by giving Modi his certificate of friendship," he said.
He further said that Sharif is "jeopardising the issue of Kashmir by building his associations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
In his speech, Bilawal several times chanted "Modi ke yaar ko ek dhakka aur do, corruption ke sardar ko ek dhakka aur do" (Give another push to Modi's friend Sharif, give another push to the mastermind of corruption, in the wake of the Panama Papers controversy).
Bilawal, who is the son of slain two-time premier Benazir Bhutto, also criticised the international community and the UN for failing to help the people of Kashmir.
"Sixty-seven years have passed but you (the UN) have also been unable to implement one resolution of plebiscite in Kashmir just like in south Sudan and East Timor," he said.
He asked people to reject Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the next election, as it was the best way to rupture relations between Sharif and Modi.
He told his supporters that none of Pakistan's previous leaders dared to stand with an Indian prime minister when India was involved in "worst atrocities in Occupied Kashmir".
He also criticised Sharif for remaining silent over the issue of arrested alleged Indian agent Kulbhushan Yadav.
"Even if a pigeon from Pakistan goes to India, it is considered as an agent. But if an Indian agent is arrested in Pakistan, our government is treating it like a pigeon," he said.
He also asked Sharif to step down over the issue of Panama Papers leaks.
"I demand the prime minister to step down in order to conduct a transparent inquiry into the Panama Papers revelations," he said.
A BJP member today made a strong plea in the Lok Sabha that the Enforcement Directorate expeditiously unearth the money laundering in the Bikaner land scam case in Rajasthan, suggesting that it is connected to a company linked to Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Kirit Somaiah did not take any name but referred to "brother-in-law" of the family, an apparent reference to Vadra.
He said the land involved in the scam is 1400 acres.
Reports recently had it that the Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at various locations in Rajasthan in connection with the Bikaner land scam case.
Congress has already refuted reports that Vadra has any land in Bikaner.
Notwithstanding the opposition's criticism, BJP General Secretary Anil Jain today praised the Manohar Lal Khattar government for the "big achievement" of bringing under control widespread violence during the Jat quota stir within three days.
Asked if the government was able to take timely steps to control the situation, Jain claimed, "The government performed its duty. It summoned Central forces on time and a conspiracy to create divisions in the state police force was blunted."
Jain, in-charge of the party's Haryana affairs, said, "The violence started on February 19 and by February 22, it was brought under control."
The Haryana government has set up a committee under retired IPS officer Prakash Singh to inquire into the acts of "omission and commission" on part of
civil and police officers during the Jat quota agitation.
Thirty lives were lost during the protests. Large scale damage to property, both government and private, was caused, especially in Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonipat which formed the epicentre of the stir.
When asked who is responsible for the lives lost during the stir, Jain, who held a meeting with Haryana ministers and BJP MLAs to assess the performance and seek feedback of the government's functioning, said, "Those who pushed the state into violence and hatched a conspiracy."
"It all started from one place, one region. Never before, this kind of a conspiracy was hatched. Everyone knows, whose stronghold Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonipat are and whose advisors have been caught. Things have been exposed before the people, how a peaceful state was put on the boil and you can yourself draw the conclusion who is responsible for the lives lost," Jain said, apparently referring to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Jain hit out at former Haryana Chief Minister Hooda, who
has accused the BJP-led government in the state of following a policy of 'badla' (revenge) and has also charged the main opposition, INLD, of being "hand in glove" with the Khattar government for registration of a case in connection with the re-allotment of a plot to a firm in Panchkula in 2005.
The BJP leader said that if the need is felt, the case would be handed over to the CBI.
To another question, he said, it is not just Hooda, "anyone who has done wrong, will be punished as per law."
He took a dig at Hooda, saying when he was the chief minister of Haryana for 10 years, what stopped him from initiating a probe into the allotment of land to Devi Lal Trust in Chandigarh.
"It is not the question of A or B. Our government will probe any wrongdoing. But, we want to ask Hooda, what stopped him from conducting a probe all these years when he was the CM," Jain said.
The Haryana State Vigilance Bureau has registered a case of cheating and corruption against the then Chairman of HUDA, a post held by Hooda, and four ex-HUDA officials for allegedly re-alloting a plot to the firm in Panchkula.
Hooda had alleged that the BJP government had registered the case against him after Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Assembly (Abhay Singh Chautala) wrote a letter in this regard.
Nidhi Chaphekar, a Jet Airways crew member who was injured in the Brussels airport bombings, has been discharged from a hospital here.
Nidhi (42) was discharged from the Breach Candy hospital in south Mumbai yesterday. She has made significant recovery and has been asked to take rest, a Jet Airways official said today.
Nidhi had arrived in the city on a Paris-Mumbai Jet Airways flight on May 6. Since then she was undergoing treatment at the hospital.
On March 22, three bombs went of--two at the Brussels airport and one at Mallbeek metro station, leaving 35 people dead, including three suicide bombers.
She was on her way to board a Jet flight for Newark when the explosions took place.
Nidhi had suffered 15 per cent burns and fractured an ankle.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov lost his majority in parliament today after the resignation of his deputy, a member of the ABV party which withdrew its backing for the centre-right coalition.
Deputy prime minister Ivailo Kalfin, who also served as labour minister, stepped down after the centre-left ABV (Alternative for Bulgarian Revival) said it would no longer back the government.
Founded by former president Georgy Parvanov, the party has 11 deputies, which guaranteed Borisov a narrow majority of 125 within the 240-seat parliament.
A former bodyguard, firefighter and police chief, Borisov has governed on the basis of a fluctuating majority for the past three years following a first term in office between 2009 and February 2013 when he stepped down during mass nationwide protests about poverty and corruption.
His GERB party only won 83 seats in the 2014 elections, forcing him to form a minority government with the rightwing Reformist Bloc (23 lawmakers), 10 of whom have since joined the opposition.
The two parties had also secured support from the moderate nationalist Patriotic Front (18 seats) and the ABV.
ABV's decision to withdraw its support for the coalition gives greater weight to the Patriotic Front, which recently presented a bill which would ban Muslim women from wearing the full veil.
Although the ABV emerged out of a split within the Bulgarian Socialist party, the two may decided to field a joint candidate for the upcoming presidential election in October.
The National Institute of Open Schooling has postponed the diploma exams for elementary school teachers in Meghalaya scheduled from May 12 to 23 in view of the by-election, officials said.
"The competent authority of NIOS has decided to cancel the entire Diploma in Elementary Education exam in Meghalaya," NIOS Deputy Director R D Mahapatra said in a letter to the state government.
He said the reschedule of the learners registered for April-May 2016 examination will be allowed to appear in October-November examination.
The state's education department Commissioner and Secretary E P Kharbhih has sought rescheduling of the said examination in view of the by-elections for the Tura Lok Sabha constituency.
The by-election was necessitated following the demise of former Lok Sabha speaker Purno A Sangma.
The US Secretary of State Ashton Carter today "commended" the US and Afghan forces for the professionalism and skill they demonstrated in rescuing the son of Pakistan's ex-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from the clutches of Taliban militants in Afghanistan.
"In the counter-terrorism operation targeting al-Qaeda operatives, the partnered team freed Ali Haider Gilani, the son of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who had been held hostage since he was kidnapped three years ago in Pakistan," Carter said in a statement.
"We will work with the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to return him home safely after he receives a medical evaluation," he said.
Carter said this raid demonstrated the growing capabilities and effectiveness of the Afghan security forces and is an excellent example of the strong security and intelligence partnership between Afghan and US forces under Operation Freedom's Sentinel.
"Working alongside our Afghan partners, we will continue to make it clear that there is no safe haven for terrorists in Afghanistan," Carter said.
A scheme for voluntary certification of yoga experts to promote the ancient practice as a preventive and drugless therapy would help in deploying professionals both within and outside the country, the government today said.
"To ensure credibility of knowledge and skills of yoga experts and professionals, a scheme for voluntary certification of yoga professionals was launched on June 22 last year by the Ministry of AYUSH in collaboration with Quality Council of India (QCI)...
"The scheme aims at promoting authentic yoga as a preventive, rehabilitative and health promotive drugless therapy and certifying the competence level of yoga professionals, which would help their deployment within and outside the country," said Minister of State for AYUSH, Shripad Yesso Naik in written reply in Rajya Sabha.
He said consequent to unanimous adoption of June 21 as the International Day of Yoga (IDY), all efforts were made by the Government to celebrate the IDY worldwide.
The IDY celebrated on June 21, 2015 across the world was a grand success as millions of enthusiastic people participated in the event successfully organised in 192 Member countries of the United Nations, he said.
Replying to another question, he said that the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), an autonomous organisation under his Ministry in collaboration with AIIMS in New Delhi.....Conducted a study to evaluate efficacy of AYUSH QOL-2C in improving quality of life in non metastatic breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
"The study has been completed and data analysis started. The objective of the study did not include cure of cancer," he said.
A three-and-half-year-old child, who was being treated for burn injuries at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), allegedly contracted HIV positive virus after transfusion of blood.
The boy of a daily wage earner from Kamrup district was admitted to GMC Hospital with 40 per cent burn injuries in April last year.
"The boy was discharged from the hospital in October 2015. During his treatment, 10-12 operations took place and multiple blood transfusion was done from our internal blood bank," GMCH Superintendent Babul K Bezbaruah told PTI here.
On March 29 this year, the child was again admitted for two further operations, he added.
"Before operation, when we tested his blood on March 31, it appeared to be infected with HIV positive virus," Bezbaruah said, adding the hospital did not have any information of the child for last six months till he was readmitted.
He declined to confirm if the virus was infected after taking blood from the GMCH's blood bank as both parents do not suffer from the disease.
"We have formed a five-member committee to look into the incident. Only after a thorough inquiry, we will be able to tell anything in this regard," Bezbaruah said.
GMCH Superintendent, however, claimed there is an open wound in his leg and the enquiry committee will look into the possibility of contracting the virus through it.
The doctors have already operated the child on April 28 for burn-related injury and one more operation is due, Bezbaruah said.
China will introduce a blacklist system to name and shame errant tourists who deface Mt Everest and other historic scenic spots in Tibet with graffiti and doodles.
"Starting this year, we will set up a blacklist system to punish badly-behaved tourists, such as those who leave graffiti. The blacklist will be made public through media outlets," said Gu Chunlei, deputy head of the tourism bureau of Tibet's Tingri county.
Condemning tourists who doodled on the tablets, he said they have now "lost their beauty."
The busy tourist season on Mt Everest, known in Tibet as Mt Qomolangma, begins every May with an influx of tourists arriving at the Base Camp.
The total number of trips to the Base Camp topped 40,000 in 2015 and an average of 550 trips were made every day during the busy season, state-run Xinhua agency reported.
Tourism is booming in Tibet as over 4.3 million tourists mostly Chinese visited the Himalayan region in the first eight months of 2015 raking up a revenue of USD 3 billion.
Some of the visitors have left tablets at the camp and a viewing platform at the entrance of Jiawula Pass covered with doodles, Gu said.
The Everest Base Camp is located 5,200 metres above sea level and allows climbers and tourists to rest. Online photos showed one tablet covered with doodles, mostly signatures.
One piece of graffiti, right in the middle of a tablet, read "tonight we hunt tigers" next to a drawing of a tiger claw, state-run Global Times reported.
"We will separately set up tablets for graffiti to meet the tourists' demand," Gu said.
A villager in northeast China has claimed to have survived an encounter with a tiger after scarring the beast by shouting at it.
Cao Bingguang from Chunhua Town in Hunchun in Jilin Province was picking wild edible plants in a local forest with fellow villager Xiang Laoqi on May 5.
After they split up, Cao suddenly heard footsteps nearby. He looked up and saw a tiger less than 20 meters away.
"I was petrified," Cao recalled. "I thought, 'That's it. I'm done!'"
He had never seen a real tiger before. He found the big cat to be about 80 centimeters tall with very strong legs.
It was so near that he could clearly see the stripe on its face, state-run Xinhua agency reported.
While fear gripped him, he remembered some guidance from the local forestry department: 'Don't run from a tiger. Look it straight in the eyes and shout at it. That might scare it away.'
Cao began calling his friend Xiang as loudly as he could, and backed away slowly.
To his surprise, the tiger stared at him for a few seconds, turned around and leaped into the woods.
As the animal disappeared, Cao ran for his motorcycle and rode back to Chunhua nonstop.
"I fell down several times. I even didn't realize I had scraped my legs," he said.
Cao called the police when he arrived at the village.
Policemen and other locals began a search of the forest.
They found Xiang safe and sound, but the tiger was nowhere to be found.
Forestry experts suggest anyone encountering a tiger should resist the urge to turn and run or lower their heads, as such behaviour would lead the predator to regard you as a prey.
The best thing to do is stay still. If the tiger comes close, you should protect your head and neck with both arms and shout for help.
Bordering Russia, Chunhua is located in Hunchun National Siberian Tiger Nature Reserve. Cases of tigers injuring domestic animals are occasionally reported.
Siberian Tigers almost died out in China in the 1950s.
But they have been spotted in greater numbers in recent years thanks to conservation initiative.
According to an official survey, the number of Siberian tigers in Jilin Province has increased from less than 10 in 1998 to about 27 in 2015.
A 24-year-old woman was allegedly robbed and murdered in China by a driver of a taxi-hailing company, prompting the firm to suspend 8,000 drivers who have violated its rules.
The suspension was imposed on drivers in southern China's Shenzen city who have allegedly violated company rules of Didi Dache and they will be required to reverify their qualifications.
A woman in Shenzhen was robbed and killed on May 3 by a driver registered on the Didi Dache car-hailing platform.
The driver - who has been caught - was later found to have used his real ID card and driver's license when registering with the app, but later used a fabricated license plate during operations.
A inspection by Shenzhen police found that 1,425 drivers for five major car-hailing apps - including Didi Dache and Uber - had histories of drug crimes, and 1,661 had major criminal records, the state-run Xinhua Agency reported.
Car-hailing companies, whose drivers are mainly private car owners, have come to the attention of supervision authorities after several recent incidents, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.
A regulation on the management of car-hailing services is expected by mid-May.
On May 1, media reports said four teenage girls in Haikou, South China's Hainan Province called the police to report that their Didi Dache driver was indulging in obscene sexual act while driving, the report said.
LJP MP today met Home Minister and sought imposition of President's rule in in the backdrop of several crime-related incidents in the state including the recent murder of a teenager in Gaya allegdly by a ruling JD(U) MLC's son.
The young Parliamentarian, son of Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, also submitted a memorandum to the Home Minister in this regard.
"Ever since the new government came there, a trail of murder has come after it. No one is safe there, be it traders, doctors or students," he alleged.
"The son of the ruling party's power-drunk MLC has shot dead a student Aditya. There has been a rise in crimes of serious nature like murder, rape, extortion and robbery due to which the youth are forced to migrate," he said.
Chirag, in the memorandum alleged that "besides, a trend of political murders has also begun in which all those who had in the past raised voice against the ruling establishment are being eliminated."
The LJP Parliamentary Board Chairman urged the Home Minister to bring under the President's rule for, what he called, the "betterment of the state" and keeping in mind the "new situation".
20-year-old Aditya was shot dead allegedly by the son of a ruling JD(U) MLC Manorama Devi for overtaking his vehicle in Gaya district, triggering widspread shock and outrage and giving fresh ammunition to the opposition parties to attack the Nitish Kumar government. The accused was arrested early this morning.
Voicing concern over the worsening drought situation in the country, Lok Sabha members today demanded that the government should waive the loans of farmers and work on war-footing to ensure that people do not suffer for want of drinking water.
Participating the short duration discussion on drought, drinking water crisis and need for inter-linking of rivers, Aparupa Poddar (TMC) said the situation is bad as farmers are committing suicide and crores of people are not getting drinking water.
"We need to work together to deal with the issue. The Water Resources Minister should speed up the inter-linking of river programme," she said.
Chandrakant Khaire (SS) said Maharashtra, particularly the Marathwada region, is suffering from severe drought.
"Farmers are committing suicide due to drought situation as there is no production. Till now 392 farmers have committed suicide. Tankers are providing water but there is an urgent need to increase it," said the member from Maharashtra.
He demanded that the central government should give Rs 5 lakh to the family members of each deceased farmer.
"Government should announce complete waiver of farm loans," he said.
Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) said the situation is very alarming in the country as over 40 crore people are affected due to two prolonged drought situation.
"We should optimally utilise the water resources. The problem is there because we have 4 per cent of total water on the planet while 18 per cent of the world's population," he said.
He said water is a state subject and it should remain with them.
Although the government has made some attempts for water management but it has not revolutionised, he said.
Mahtab said that drought is there in many parts of the India and crores of people are affected but there is no discussion about this in neither in media nor in the House.
"During the fag end of the session" the House is discussing this important issue, he said, adding the Swachh Bharat mission would push up the demand for water in the country.
He also said that some members, individuals and companies are getting income tax benefits in the name of agri income.
People are showing income of Rs 100 crore also and taking exemption. "This should be stopped," he said.
He said the inter-linking of river programme has many flaws and instead the government should focus on connecting rivers in states.
"These are 'dry days', not of Bihar, but shortage of water due to faile dmonsson," he said.
A P Jithender Reddy (TRS) said that the House is discussing the important issue in the last.
Even after 69 years of Independence, people in the
country do not have proper facilities for drinking water, food and house, Reddy said.
The TRS member also said that every year the Finance Minister reads his budget speech but no one bothers whether the money is reaching the needy or not.
"It is unfortunate that one person is wearing suit worth lakhs and on the other hand, people do not have proper clothes. Why is this discrimination? Why people are not getting water...In Latur where there is huge water crisis, people are facing lathi charge," he said.
Mohammed Salim (CPI-M) demanded that the government should act on the war-footing to provide relief to people reeling under the water crisis.
"We need short, medium and long term solution to deal with the drought and drinking water crisis, he said while noting that 50 per cent of the population is still dependent of agri sector for livelihood.
He also said that the Prime Minister, who works for long hours, should also take time to visit Marathwada and see for himself the drought situation there.
M R Reddy (YSRCP) highlighted the problem of depleting water level and demanded that government should act on the proposal of inter-linking of rivers.
Supriya Sule (NCP) said Maharashtra government is not serious and has not done enough to deal with the drought situation in Marathwada.
She demanded complete farm loan waiver along with restructuring of the past loans to provide relief to farmers.
Congress today created ruckus in the Rajya Sabha over Uttarakhand issue as well as CAG report which had reportedly pointed out irregularities in Gujarat State Power Corporation's KG basin gas project, thus forcing early termination of the proceedings of the House.
Due to the disturbances in the House, consideration of the crucial Finance and Appropriation Bills was postponed for tomorrow.
The House, which yesterday saw a virtual washout, managed to conduct business in the pre-lunch session today. However, in the afternoon, Congress members created ruckus over the government move to present the Uttarakhand Budget bill even as the Centre insisted that it was a Constitutional necessity.
As the Upper House met after lunch recess by when the outcome of Uttarakhand confidence motion was clear, Congress members were on their feet shouting slogans against the central government. "Loktantra ke hatyaro, sharm karo (Feel ashamed, you murderers of democracy)," they chanted.
Amidst the din, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien tried to initiate discussion on Union Finance Bill but Congress leader Anand Sharma raised questions over the move to bring the Uttarakhand budget bill in the Supplementary list.
Contending that the state assembly had already passed its budget, he said passing the Uttrakhand budget is not the responsibility of this House" and termed it a "Constitutional impropriety."
Slamming the "mental and moral bankruptcy of the government", Sharma also asked why the Uttarakhand budget bill had been brought in the Supplemntary list.
Leader of House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley responded by saying that the passing of the state budget on March 18 was "highly contentious" as the arithematic was highly loaded against it.
He emphasised that the order of appropriation has to be sanctioned by Parliament as all expenditure from April 1 has to be validated.
The Finance Minister said if the state assembly revives, it can pass its budget but insisted that the bill has to be passed to provide sanction to all expenditure made since April 1, when the President's Rule was in force.
This, he said, has nothing to do with what happened in the floor test in the state assembly today.
However, Sharma and other Congress members appeared not convinced by the argument. Jaitley also mentioned that the state budget had not received the assent of the Governor which is a necessity.
Kurien said he too was in agreement that the House should pass the Bill to sanction the expenditure during President's Rule. He also told members that the Bill is a 'Money Bill' which would anyway come into force even if Rajya Sabha does not give its nod.
Chiding the protesting members, Kurien said there are
people questioning the relevance of Rajya Sabha and by refusing to discuss Bills, they were making it irrelevant.
Congress member Pramod Tiwari, however, said that while the Finance Minister's assumption is that the Budget was not passed by the state assembly, his party believes it was passed.
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said the "political point" seemed that the government was keen to pass the state's budget when the matter was to come before the Supreme Court.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi urged the chair to pass the Bills by voice vote.
Even as no consensus over the Uttarakhand budget issue appeared imminent, Congress member Jairam Ramesh raised the issue related to CAG report on GSPC. He said he had given a notice for a short duration discussion on the issue 11 days back but had got no response.
Other Congress members too then rose on their feet and reached the Well of the House shouting slogans "20 hazar ka kya hua" (What happened to 20,000 crore) and "Modi teri tanashahi nahin chalegi" (Modi your dictatorship won't be accepted).
SP member Jaya Bachchan then rose and protested that she too had given a notice for discussion on women's issue three months back and had got no response. She claimed that there are some parties who block proceedings when their discussions are not allowed.
As the ruckus prevailed, Kurien adjourned the house for fifteen minutes till 3 pm.
The same scenario prevailed when the House re-assembled.
When Badnore rose to speak on the Appropriation bill, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad chided him saying, "First apologise for all wrong doings in Uttarakhand".
Rajiv Shukla (Cong) also said, "Naqvi can apologise for the mistakes."
Agitated at the continuous ruckus by the Congress, the Treasury Bench members accused the opposition party of "goondaism" and attempting to "hijack" country's development by not allowing discussion on important Bills.
As ruckus prevailed when Kurien took the Appropriation Bill for the discussion, Congress and Samajwadi Party members sought postponement for tomorrow.
"The Appropriation Bill and Finance Bill and other important bills will be taken up tomorrow and disposed off," Kurien said before adjourning the House for the day at 4.05 pm.
The discussion on the Appropriation Bill, initiated by BJP leader V P Singh Badnore will continue tomorrow, he added.
Before the House was adjourned for the day, Jairam Ramesh asked about the status of his notice seeking discussion on Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation's (GSPC) KG basin gas project. To this, Kurien said it is under the consideration of the Chairman.
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Earlier, when the House re-assembled at 3 pm after a brief adjournment, Naresh Agrawal (Samajwadi Party) said it seems that the House will not be allowed to run.
He said it is natural for some to rejoice and be in an upbeat mood after the development in Uttarakhand, which he said was a "slap" on the face of those who wanted to usurp power.
As Agrawal sought adjournment for the day, Kurien who was in the Chair said that the Appropriation Bill and the Finance Bill needs to be discussed and passed.
Agrawal said the Bills can be discussed and passed tomorrow, to which Kurien sought assurance.
Anand Sharma, Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha, said he is for passing of the Finance Bill tomorrow but Congress has objections over the Uttarakhand Appropriation Bill.
Finance Minister and Leader of the House Arun Jaitley then said there are other important Bills like the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and wondered if someone was trying to give "leniency" to some by not passing the Bill.
It seemed that the Chair was set to adjourn the House for the day but Naqvi, nudged by Jaitley, got up and objected to demands that the House be adjourned.
"House should not be adjourned. Some people want to hijack the development of the country," he said.
Satyavrat Chaturvedi of the Congress said the House will not be allowed to run.
A furious Naqvi said this amounted to "goondaism" and asked the Chair to call out the names of speakers to discuss the Finance Bill.
Amid the commotion, Union Minister Smriti Irani said the country's interest and functioning of Parliament should not be allowed to be sacrificed at the altar of the Congress.
Kurien was forced to take up the discussion on the Bill and called out Jairam Ramesh's name. He said he cannot speak amid all the noise. The next speaker was BJP leader V P Singh Badnore who began reading his speech amid slogans.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said if this is how the Chair wants the House to run, then there will be no passing of any bill tomorrow. Kurien then adjourned the House till 4 PM.
When the House met again at 4 PM, the Chair said the Finance Bill and Appropriation Bill will be taken up for discussion and disposed off tomorrow before adjourning the House for the day.
Adopting a novel way of protest, Congress members today staged a 'dharna' in the Lok Sabha after the party was disallowed from raising the issue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attack on Sonia Gandhi, regarding which a notice for privilege motion has been given by it.
The Congress members, including party's Leader in the House Mallikarjun Kharge, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ravneet Singh and Ranjeet Ranjan, sat in the Well of the House to register their protest while the House took up a discussion on drought, drinking water and inter-linking of rivers.
Kharge raised the issue, over which the party had been trying to speak since morning, soon after the House met after the lunch break.
"We have given the notice...Some ruling should come. Since morning we are agitating but the Chair has not given time. This is an important matter. You have taken our President's name publicly. The Prime Minister should not say this outside the House. Whatever he want to say, say in the House and not outside," he said.
He said his party did not want to disturb the House but the Chair should allow them to read the notice and it would be for the Chair whether to accept it or reject it.
He said Congress members will sit on dharna peacefully and the Chair can start the discussion on drought, drinking water and inter-linking of rivers.
Citing a rule, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said it is the Chair who would decide whether it is a Privilege Motion or not.
Veerappa Moily has given notice for Breach of Privilege against the Prime Minister, alleging that a "lie" had been spoken outside the House about UPA leaders taking money in the chopper deal.
Congress today alleged that there was diversion of food grains in Punjab due to a "nexus" between the state government and "food mafia", leading to heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches in Rajya Sabha.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa claimed that CAG reports have highlighted diversion of food grains and "corruption in Government of Punjab" in the distribution.
Citing figures, he alleged there was a collusion between the state government and "food mafia".
Members from the ruling Shiromani Akali and BJP in Punjab objected to Bajwa's statement.
As the two sides argued, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked Bajwa not to level allegations against anyone.
"Allegations not permitted during Zero Hour," Kurien said and added he would go through the records.
However, the Congress member said he was only quoting CAG reports.
In his Zero Hour mention, Chandrapal Yadav (SP) said the central government was playing politics over drought in Uttar Pradesh.
He said drought is a natural calamity, but Centre was enacting a "political drama" by sending an empty water train to the state. The train, he said, has been stationed at Jhansi.
A photo journalist was electrocuted while taking pictures of the train, Yadav said.
He said the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has announced Rs 20 lakh assistance to the family of the deceased.
Yadav also claimed that Centre was prompt in sending water to BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
The SP member demanded that Centre should release Rs 10,500 crore to deal with the drought situation.
Referring to allegations of death of a dalit in Banda district due to hunger, he said the person died of heart attack.
Devender Goud T (TDP) also raised the problems being
faced by people in Telangana due to drought and continuing heatwave.
He said the state was facing the "worst drought" and farmers were selling cattle at throwaway prices as there was shortage of fodder. People were also migrating to other places from the worst affected districts.
Noting that 200 people have died due to heatwave in the state, the TDP member urged the Prime Minister to intervene to help the state with additional funds.
T Subbarami Reddy (Cong) expressed concern over threat to Western Ghats due to industrial activities. He said the Western Ghats were a hotspot of biodiversity and need to be protected. He called for striking a balance between environment and industrial activities.
Raising the issue of linguistic minorities in different states, Baishnab Parida (BJD) said there was no school in Delhi which teaches in Odiya. He said there are about 10 lakh Odiya speaking people in Delhi.
Congress today raised in the Rajya Sabha the issue of deletion of reference to party icons and leaders from history books in some BJP-ruled states and demanded that the state governments should be stopped from spreading misinformation.
Raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention, Rajeev Shukla (Cong) said history cannot be wiped out but some state governments are attempting to distort it by removing reference to leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.
The Congress, when in power, did not change schemes named after BJP icon Deendayal Upadhyay, why then was BJP removing it, he asked.
He alleged that contributions and struggles of Congress leaders in freedom struggle and building of India are being dropped from textbooks and schemes named after them are being renamed.
Claiming that there is plan afoot to drop names of Congress leaders from cockpit announcements made on arrival at an airport named after them, he said it is being planned that announcements should strictly be about arrival at the particular city airport and not give out full name of the airport.
"You are sullying the atmosphere and misinformation is being spread," he said, demanding state governments should be stopped from tampering with history.
Anand Sharma (Cong) said removing of sacrifices of great leaders from textbooks will not be tolerated and any such attempt is condemnable.
Responding to this, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said no reference to any leader or icon is being removed but those who have been previously omitted for political reasons are being added.
His statement met with protests from the Congress party who moved into ailes, waving newspaper clippings reporting how history books in some schools have dropped reference to leaders like Nehru.
Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said if any name has been removed, the government should look into it.
Naqvi retorted back at Congress saying the name they are mentioning as being dropped continues to be part of history textbook.
As Congress members threatened to move into the well, Kurien said he will not tolerate such behaviour.
He said he agreed that it was an important issue and it is also on record that on his asking the minister (Naqvi) stated that the deletion of names will not happen.
Ali Anwar Ansari (JDU) raised the issue of 150 people
from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Telengana and Andhra Pradesh who are stuck in Saudi Arabia because the 'bin Laden' company they went to work for hasn't paid their wages for six months.
The company has demanded 200 rials to release their bond that would allow them to travel to India, he said, adding the Ministry of External Affairs should intervene and help get the labourers stuck in Saudi Arabia return back by providing them tickets and other travel documents.
Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) raised the issue of the government deciding to dilute the compulsory jute packing norm for wheat saying it will impact 40 lakh farmers and four lakh industrial labourers employed in jute industry.
"Dont fall for plastic lobby," he said seeking review of the decision.
A day after Congress President Sonia Gandhi made an emotional response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's jibes at her Italian origin, BJP today said the party becomes emotional whenever there are graft charges against them.
Congress use "emotional politics" whenever there are graft charges, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said at a meet-the-press programme here.
"Neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor BJP has targeted and leveled corruption charges against Sonia Gandhi.....I do not know what is the reason when there are charges of corruption, they always use emotional politics. It is an old practice of Congress party for many years," Gadkari said.
Mentioning about the scams during the previous Congress-led UPA regime, Gadkari said when corruption charges come "Congress aansu bahate hai (party sheds tears).'
Referring to AgustaWestland deal, he said it was a judicial matter.
"It is not connected with the Indian government. The decision of the Italian court is independent, impartial and unbiased. The court in the judgment has written something, which you know. I do not want to repeat it.
"So it is the problem between Congress and the Italian court. Now it is the time for the Indian government to investigate the matter and the government is investigating," he said.
Sonia Gandhi while addressing an election meeting here last night had said India was her home and "it is here that my ashes will mingle with my loved ones".
The Congress President used an election rally here to hit back at Modi after the Prime Minister raked up her Italian roots twice in the last three days while making a veiled attack on her over the controversial AgustaWestland chopper deal.
A Delhi court has refused to order re-investigation in a case against a cop, accused of raping and threatening a woman, saying it could not be proved that he had done anything forcefully or against her consent.
Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar dismissed the woman's plea challenging the acceptance of cancellation report by a metropolitan magistrate in the case against the then Station House Officer (SHO) of Defence Colony Police Station here, noting that they had friendly relations.
"Considering the fact that no incriminating evidence of alleged incident of rape of complainant by the inspector could be collected during the course of investigation and their friendship is revealed (to be) since 1998 which is disclosed from her complaint...No inference regarding the guilt of the alleged accused can be inferred from facts and circumstances of the present case," the judge said.
"I am of the considered view that revisionist has not been able to show any material on record file on the basis of which it can be held that accused Inspector had done anything forcefully or against her will and consent," the judge said.
An FIR under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC was lodged by the woman at Hauz Khas police station here on July 16, 2014 alleging that she was repeatedly raped and threatened by the Inspector.
The police later filed a cancellation report in the case after which the woman approached the court with her protest petition on February 10, 2015. She had contended that the cancellation report filed by the investigating officer be not accepted and the case be re-investigated.
However, on April 10, 2015, a magisterial court accepted the cancellation report.
She then filed a revision plea alleging that the accused cop had repeatedly raped her for a long time and had exploited his official position.
The sessions court, while dismissing the woman's plea, noted that there was a delay on her part in lodging the first complaint against the then SHO and police inquiry was closed as she did not cooperate.
"Action was not taken against the Inspector upon her complaint as the inquiry conducted by police were eventually closed as complainant did not cooperate," the judge noted.
The court said the complainant was on friendly terms with the cop and her sample could not be collected for medical examination as the alleged incident had happened two years ago.
Alleging laxity and irregularities in the police probe into brutal rape and murder of a Dalit woman in Kerala, Union Social Justice and Empowerment minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot today charged the state police of "shielding" the accused.
Gehlot, who recently visited Kerala and met the family of the deceased woman in Ernakulam district, said, "According to the mother of the deceased woman, they had given several complaints to police against a local MLA, alleging the latter was threatening her for the last five six months. She said the local MLA had abused her daughter in the past and called her achoot (untouchable). The mother was openly accusing the local MLA for her daughter's death when I had gone to meet her.
"But then the police did not take any action. The Superintendent of Police also agreed that the deceased had given complaints but then he could not tell me why no action was being taken. It has been more than 12 days and still the accused has not been arrested. This is a matter of concern," Gehlot said.
Yesterday, Gehlot tabled a report in Parliament alleging "laxity and irregularities" in the police probe into the case.
"The post mortem report states that the incident happened between 1 and 4 PM but the police reached the crime spot at around 10 PM. Ideally either the District Collector or the SDM should have visited the spot immediately after the incident, but they were informed much later.
"Then the initial probe started with the charge of murder. Relevant sections of rape were added later. The post mortem report was available after four days of the incident. Evidence from the crime scene could have been lost in between. Also the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) amendment Act was added almost after four five days. So there have been serious irregularities and lacuna in the investigation," Gehlot alleged
He further said that deceased was from the SC community, and thus a senior police officer of the level of Deputy SP should have been entrusted with the investigation at the outset without waiting for the apprehension of the accused.
Considering the "severity and sensitivity" of the crime, an SIT should have been formed at the very outset, he said and questioned why an FIR in the case was not lodged by the victim's mother, despite her being present at the crime scene, but by a panchayat member.
Gehlot further alleged there was a delay of four days in
submitting the report to court which was not adequately explained.
"Despite all efforts, the suspected accused persons have not been apprehended and this is a matter of great anxiety and concern. The relative isolation of the family, unwillingness of the neighbour immediately after the incident to disclose facts relating to the occurrence and withdrawal of the deceased's sister into silence have deprived the investigation team of vital information," he said.
Gehlot said he brought these aspects to the notice of the District Collector and the SP at a meeting and asked them to ensure that they are taken into account in the process of investigation.
The minister said he had also interacted with a medical officer about the treatment being given to the deceased.
"The mother was psychologically affected by the tragic incident. She was disturbed and disconsolate. I consoled her and promised her that justice to the victim would be ensured and all appropriate assistance to the family would be given," he said.
"It is reported that the woman belonged to Scheduled Caste. The mother is reportedly from Backward Class. She was a student of law and a dancer. The family appears to be extremely poor with the daughter earning and partly and occasionally supporting the family," he said in his report.
The state government has announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakhs to the victim's family and promised a job for her sister which is pending clearance by the Election Commission. Under Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) rules 2016, the family will be entitled to further compensation of Rs 8.25 lakhs, he said.
"Also, under Dr Ambedkar National Relief scheme for Scheduled Caste Victims of Atrocities, the family will be entitled to one-time aid of Rs 5 lakhs for murder and Rs 2 lakhs for rape on the forwarding of the report by the District Collector and the state government. The amount will be released by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment," Gehlot said.
Six of the 10 youths detained by Delhi Police for suspected links with banned outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were again questioned for several hours today at the Special Cell office.
Investigators confronted them with inputs they have acquired from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the Indian government's nodal agency that deals with cyber security threats, which Delhi Police had approached for help in the case, a senior official said, adding so far they have found no incriminating evidence against them.
Meanwhile, sleuths interrogating the three arrested in connection with the terror ring, claimed to have traced the communication trail in Pakistan.
Prime accused, Sajid, had allegedly contacted one Rashid Awan, who police said is an active JeM operative, and Awan is an associate of Kashif Jan, who is suspected to be one of the handlers in the Pathankot incident, an official privy to the investigation said.
Delhi Police has also sent a proposal for the procurement of hardware for its new social network monitoring centre aimed at tracking down youths who are at the threshold of radicalization and provide them with the right counselling.
Delhi Police's anti-terrorism unit Special Cell had picked up 13 youths from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh after a series of late night raids on May 3, following which three -- Sajid, Sameer Ahmed, and Shakir Ansari -- were arrested and the remaining 10 detained for questioning.
Four of them were released on Saturday with Delhi Police arranging for their sessions with a clinical psychologist to help them "deradicalise". Guardians of the remaining six released yesterday had to give undertakings ensuring that their wards will be on the "right path" henceforth.
Nepali Congress chief and opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba today denounced Nepal's government led by Prime Minister KP Oli for "vitiating" the "environment of consensus" by recalling its envoy to India.
Participating in a discussion on the government's policy document in the Parliament, Deuba hit out at the government for "vitiating the environment of consensus" after it recalled the ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyaya, who is also a senior Nepali Congress (NC) leader.
The Oli government has sacked Upadhyaya for allegedly conspiring to topple the coalition government and for visiting western Nepal with Indian ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae.
Nepalese officials have accused Upadhyaya working "against national interest".
Upadhyaya continues to stay put in his post in New Delhi, and has reportedly denied he colluded with India to topple the Oli dispensation back home.
The former prime minister Deuba said the biggest challenge Nepal faces today was the implementation of the budget.
"It would be ambitious to say that one would do so without forging consensus, which was unbelievable," Deuba said adding that a "temporary" government bringing highly ambitious programmes was a mockery of the parliamentary system.
Deuba also denounced the government move to hold local body elections "in the present situation."
"How appropriate is it for the government to say that it would hold the local body elections when the government has itself constituted a commission for delineating the border and number of local bodies and when the commission has not yet submitted its report," Deuba wondered.
Conducting local body polls would not be possible without forging consensus among parties, he stressed.
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The NC president also criticised the government for announcing ambitious plans like producing 10,000 megawatt power in 10 years without a proper homework. The government policy document failed to include any plan of action to expedite hydropower projects while making the announcement.
"It is not proper to talk ambitiously of electricity development without forging agreement on the power transmission line," Deuba said.
He reminded the government to think whether one could see results by bringing policies and programmes without any basis.
He said there was shortage of essential goods in the country, black marketing and corruption thrived even after the the border blockade was lifted and the post-earthquake reconstruction work was in limbo.
"Earthquake victims have not received even blankets in the name of relief, a great injustice has been done to them."
It would be a joke to talk of economic prosperity within five years in a country which has achieved less than 1 per cent of economic growth rate, Deuba said.
President Bhandari has on Sunday unveiled the government's policies that accorded priority to self-dependency and post- quake reconstruction. Bhandari announced that the fiscal year will be the "year of departure towards prosperity".
The government announced that, through the programmes, the upcoming five years will be theperiod of attaining prosperity and the country will be transformed into a developing country from a least-developed country within a decade.
has affected nearly a quarter of the country's population and has left an impact on over 1.5 lakh villages, the government said in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday as it sought " consensus" on the contentious issues like the inter-linking of rivers.
The House saw a discussion on the drought, water-scarcity and inter-linking of rivers, with members voicing concern over the worsening situation and demanding waiver of loans of farmers.The members also emphasised the need for working on war-footing to ensure that people do not suffer for want of drinking water.
Replying to the debate amid din and repeated disruptions by Congress members, Rural Development Minister Birender Singh said 313 districts, 1,58,205 villages and 4,44,280 dwellings in the country have been hit by .
In an attempt to dispel the notion that the government was doing nothing to deal with drought, he said Rs 1,360 crore had been allocated to states like Andhra pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka well before the .
"There is no lack of funds. On vote of account we have already given Rs 564 crore (rpt) crore to drought-affected states. As per the sharing pattern, the state has to contribute 50 per cent to the share. We have sent Rs 1900 crore to the states.
"This means the states have Rs 3800 crore to deal with the situation. Of this, 10 per cent could be used for anything which relates to combating of drought and 15 per cent is for operation and maintainance," the minister said.
Listing out the steps undertaken to deal with drought, Singh said over 9.33 lakh hand pumps have either been restored or repaired, 14,80,000 riser pipes were either replaced or extended, and 27,728 new borewells were commissioned.
The minister said the government has also increased funding under the MNREGS. He said the people had lost faith in the scheme due to the UPA regime, but the NDA-government has "restored" it.
"We have increased the MNREGA funds from 37,000 crore to Rs 45,000 crore," he said, adding that the mandays have been increased to 252 days by the NDA dispensation.
He also emphasisised on having a consensus to deal with the issue of drought. "There needs to be a consensus to deal with the problem of drought....On inter-linking of rivers," he said.
The House saw verbal duels between the Congress members and the Minister. Singh, who was in Congress before the last Lok Sabha polls, hit out at his erstwhile party colleagues, saying he knows everything about the party and should not be compelled to "open my mouth".
BJP chief Amit Shah today took a dig at Congress President Sonia Gandhi, saying everyone was aware of her "love for her son, National Herald and 2G".
"Soniaji, everyone in this country is aware of your 'desh prem' (patriotism) and 'putra prem' (your love for your son), your National Herald prem' (your love for National Herald).
"The nation is also aware of various other scams including 2G, 3G, Adarsh scam, CWG and AgustaWestland," Shah said at a rally in a bid to counter Gandhi's emotional speech in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday, wherein she attacked BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking jibes at her Italian roots.
"Yesterday, Soniaji came to Kerala and said allegations were leveled against her. Humne to kisi par aarop nahi lagaya (we have not made any allegations against anybody). We said bribe takers in the chopper deal will be punished.
"Soniaji aap batiyae, aapko dar kyon lag raha hai. (Soniaji tell us why are you scared). Dal mein kuch kala nazar aa raha hai (There is something fishy)," he said.
"There is corruption everywhere. The 10-year UPA rule resulted in scams totaling 12 lakh crore rupees but Sonia Gandhi ji talks about her love for the nation in Kerala," he said.
At a press meet in Thiruvanathapuram, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "Neither the Prime Minister nor BJP has targeted and levelled corruption charges against Gandhi...I do not know what is the reason, when there are charges of corruption, they always use emotional politics. It is an old practice of Congress for many years."
He said when charges of corruption are leveled against Congress, the party sheds tears.
Gandhi while addressing an election meeting here last night had said India is her home and "it is here that my ashes will mingle with my loved ones".
The Congress President used an election rally here to hit back at Modi after the Prime Minister raked up the issue of her Italian roots twice in the last three days while making a veiled attack against her over the controversial AgustaWestland chopper deal.
BJP's only agenda was to uproot both Congress-led UDF and
CPI-M led LDF from Kerala, Shah said.
He also wanted to know if 93-year-old V S Achuthanandan, who is the LDF candidate from Malampuzha, would be made chief minister by the CPI-M if the LDF was voted to power.
LDF has always unleashed violence against BJP-RSS workers, he alleged.
BJP-NDA wants an opportunity to rule the state, he said and claimed that the experiment with the UDF-LDF did not do any good to Kerala.
"Communists and Congress are not fighting the polls on any ideology, and only want to come to power," he said.
Shah also addressed meetings at nearby Thrissur district.
Former Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's kidnapped son was today recovered from Afghanistan in a joint operation carried out by the US and Afghan forces, three years after he was abducted by suspected Taliban militants.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of ex-premier Gilani, has been recovered from Afghanistan's Ghazni province, Pakistan's Foreign Office said in a statement.
"The Afghan National Security Adviser, Mr Mohammad Hanif Atmar, in a telephone call to the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Mr Sartaj Aziz, informed that Mr Ali Haider Gilani son of Mr Yusuf Raza Gilani...Has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni," the statement said.
Ali's transfer to Pakistan is being arranged following a required medical check-up, it said.
Ali's recovery from Afghanistan was also announced by Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Twitter.
Former premier Gilani received a call from the ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan, informing him that Ali was recovered in a successful operation in Afghanistan, Bilawal said.
Ali was kidnapped by gunmen in Multan on May 9, 2013. He was abducted when he was leaving a street corner meeting outside the house of a supporter in Multan's Farrukh Town. His two associates were killed during the kidnapping.
At the time of the abduction, Ali was contesting for the general election from a constituency in Multan.
Ali's rescue comes over two months after the recovery of Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, who was found by security and intelligence forces from Balochistan's Kuchlak area nearly five years after his abduction in 2011.
Shahbaz was kidnapped from Lahore on August 26, 2011, near his company's head office in Gulberg area.
A fake suicide bomber repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" before acting out an explosion during a counter-terror drill at one of the UK's largest shopping centres in Manchester, inviting criticism from the community members for the use of "stereotypes" for the exercise.
The mock bomber dressed in black walked in and shouted at the crowd at Manchester's Trafford Centre overnight as hundreds of people ran screaming and hid in shops and restaurants.
The bomber playing the part of a terrorist repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) before acting out the explosion that rocked the food hall, the Independent reported.
Community groups and activists condemned the use of "stereotypes" for the exercise, with some raising concerns it would fuel anti-Muslim prejudice, the paper said.
Greater Manchester Police's Assistant Chief Constable Gary Shewan later apologised for any offence caused, it said.
"The scenario for this exercise is based on a suicide attack by an extremist Daesh (ISIS) style organisation and the scenario writers have centred the circumstances around previous similar attacks of this nature, mirroring details of past events to make the situation as real life as possible for all those involved," he said in a statement.
"However, on reflection we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam.
"We recognise and apologise for the offence that this has caused," he was quoted as saying by the paper.
Dr Erinma Bell, who was made an MBE for her anti-gun campaign work in Manchester, was among those criticising the decision.
"We need to move away from stereotypes if we want to achieve real learning," she wrote on Twitter. "A terrorist can be anyone."
Anti-Islamophobia group the Community Safety Forum called the use of the phrase "Allahu Akbar" offensive and said it was not necessary to make the scenario real, the paper reported.
"This sort of thing panders to stereotypes and further divides us," a spokesperson added. "It will increase anti-Muslim hate crime."
Police stressed that there was no specific threat to the Trafford Centre, which is the second-largest in the UK.
The exercise, codenamed Exercise Winchester Accord, was planned in December and is part of a national programme, coming after previous drills in London, Glasgow and Essex, the paper added.
A section of Food Corporation of India (FCI) employees today threatened to go on an indefinite strike from June 29 to press for their demands such as pension and other facilities for class III and IV staff.
Protesting at the FCI's headquarters here, the Bhartiya Khadya Nigam Karamchari (BKNK) Sangh today said if the approval and implementation of the their legitimate demands would further be delayed, the union has no other option but to go on an indefinite strike from June 29.
The employees from seven states including Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttrakhand among others demonstrated at the FCI's headquarters here to register their protest, the union said in a statement.
Addressing the gathering, BKNK Sangh President JS Duggal expressed deep resentment over "the negative attitude of the management and government in approval and implementation of settled demands despite making all efforts.." the statement quoted Duggal.
The employees are demanding parity in payment of fringe benefits on cafeteria approach to category II and IV employees at par with the category II and I, implementation of pension, formulation of compassionate appointment policy, shortage of staff and provision of departmental examination for their promotion among other facilities.
The Food Ministry had agreed to settle these demands years before but the implementation is still awaited, it said.
FCI is the nodal agency involved in procurement and distribution of foodgrains.
The first AIIMS-like institution on Ayurveda will be inaugurated in Delhi within three months as part of steps to popularise the Indian system of medicine, Government today told the Rajya Sabha.
"Just like there is an AIIMS for allopathy, the first AIIMS for Ayurveda is going to start in Delhi. The building is ready. We will inaugurate it in next three months. The AYUSH is trying to have an AIIMs like Centre on Ayurveda in all state capitals," Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik said during Question Hour.
The All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) is coming up at Jasola in Delhi. A 200-bed hospital will also become functional.
Replying to a question about the Ayurveda clusters set up so far by the government, Naik said it has assisted 10 Ayurvedic Clusters in the country, which may prepare Unani and Siddha medicines also.
The government allocated Rs 16032 lakh to these centres and allocated Rs 6949.81 lakhs, the reply said.
Replying to another question regarding the present status of the implementation of the scheme for distributing free essential drugs and the total number of medicines provided under the scheme, the minister said all states have notified free drug policy.
"The National Free Drugs Initiative under the National Health Mission does not specify the number of drugs to be provided free of cost...While the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) includes 376 medicines, the number of drugs that states decide to provide free of cost varies.
"The decision to increase, decrease the number of essential medicines to be provided free of cost is to be taken by respective state/union territory governments," the minister said.
In a symbolic protest, scores of traditional fishermen in Goa have decided to lay down their canoes, nets and other equipment in front of the state government tomorrow for its failure to curb unnatural ways of fishing.
Goencho Ramponkaracho Ekvott (Unity of Goan Traditional Fishermen) has planned to hold the protest before the State Fisheries department office here.
"The traditional fishing industry have cent per cent locals in it. But the new ways of fishing using high voltage LED lights, trawlers (fish boat) with Chinese engine and bull trawling have left us bankrupt with no fish catch," GRE President Agnelo Fernandes told reporters yesterday in Cavelossim beach village of South Goa.
The traditional fishermen who dominated the business till recently have been finding themselves at the mercy of trawlers which take away the maximum catch from the sea.
Fernandes said in addition to trawling, the new unnatural techniques have made the profession completely unviable, forcing the traditional fishermen to fend for themselves.
"Time and again, we have petitioned Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado and Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar. They are fully aware about our problems. But they don't want to find a solution," he said.
Fernandes said in the protest around 13 traditional fishermen have decided to give up their occupation symbolically in front of the state government.
"We are putting down all our nets, canoes and other equipment. Let government take it over," Fernandes said.
The GRE joint general secretary Olencio Simoes alleged that fisheries department has turned a blind eye towards the illegalities off shore as they have vested interests.
When contacted, State Fisheries minister Avertano Furtado said the government has been sympathetic towards the problems faced by traditional fishermen and we are doing all possible things to solve them.
"Don't expect the solution overnight. I appeal traditional fishermen not to resort to such a protest," he said.
Four persons were arrested from Telangana's Warangal district for allegedly cheating e-commerce giant Flipkart by ordering high-end cell phones, replacing them with fake ones and claiming refund, police said today.
The accused, identified as Gajjela Srinivasulu Reddy, M D Fazaluddin, J Ashok Kumar and Sayyad Jaleel, all belonging to Nellore, had worked for Flipkart in Nellore in the past and identified some lacunae in the system, Warangal Police Commissioner G Sudheer Babu said.
Elucidating the modus operandi, Babu told PTI that the accused placed orders for high-end mobile phones from the company website under fictitious names and email Ids. After the delivery of the product, they used to call up the customer care saying the handset was not functioning properly or it was damaged and sought refund.
Following the complaint, the company refunded the entire amount.
Srinivasulu even posed as a professor of Kakatiya University and asked the Flipkart representatives to collect the damaged/faulty handset. Instead of returning the original one he used to replace it with identical fake handset, the senior officer said.
After noticing that the handsets returned were fake, Flipkart representatives lodged a complaint with KU Police, Warangal.
During the course of investigations, Srinivasulu was arrested yesterday and based on the information provided by him, the three others were also held, Babu said.
Police recovered 21 handsets worth Rs 7.10 lakh, Rs 6.50 lakh in cash and one laptop from their possession.
Actor Vivek Oberoi, who has entertained audiences with his portrayal of gangsters in films, says he enjoys playing real life characters on screen.
"Gangster and real life characters always excites me as an actor," the "Shootout at Lokhandwala" star said in a statement here.
Vivek is all set to portray the role of former underworld don 'Muthappa Rai' in his forthcoming gangster drama "Rai" helmed by Ram Gopal Varma (RGV).
"To portray a larger-than-life character like 'Muthappa Rai' on the big screen will be a challenging task. I am working hard towards it," the 39-year-old actor said.
"Rai" will go on floors this June and it will be shot in various locations including London, Dubai and India.
Vivek made his debut in Bollywood with underworld drama "Company" which was a huge hit.
He played 'Maya Dolas' in Sanjay Gupta's "Shootout at Lokhandwala" and returned for another such performance as gangster-turned-politician 'Pratap Ravi' in RGV's "Rakht Charitra" (part one and two).
A German court today threw out a bid by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for an injunction against the boss of German media giant Axel Springer in a widening row over free speech.
Erdogan had sought a court order to stop the media group's chief Mathias Doepfner from repeating support for a TV satirist who crudely insulted the Turkish leader.
The legal action came after Doepfner published an open letter in one of the group's newspapers, in which he backed Jan Boehmermann -- the satirist who in a poem accused Erdogan of bestiality and watching child pornography.
But the court dismissed Erdogan's application on the basis of the "constitutionally guaranteed right of the defendant to the freedom of expression".
"When a potential conflict arises between the fundamental right to the freedom of expression and the personal rights of the plaintiff, it is admissable for Doefpner to publicly express an opinion in this controversial debate," said Christina Harpering, spokeswoman for the Cologne court.
Boehmermann's recital of his so-called "Defamatory Poem" on national television in late March sparked a diplomatic firestorm and a row over free speech.
In a controversial move, Chancellor Angela Merkel authorised criminal proceedings against the comedian after Turkey requested he be prosecuted for his "smear poem".
During the broadcast Boehmermann gleefully admitted his poem flouted Germany's legal limits to free speech and was intended as a provocation.
In his letter, Doepfner took the comedian's side, declaring: "For me your poem worked. I laughed out loud."
Erdogan has come in for fierce Western criticism of late over his increasingly authoritarian rule.
US President Barack Obama has warned that Turkey's approach towards the media is taking it "down a path that would be very troubling" after two leading opposition journalists were put on trial.
In response Erdogan defiantly declared he would not take "lessons in democracy" from the West.
A German man who officials said had drug and psychological problems stabbed to death one person and slashed three more in a bloody dawn attack at a railway station today.
Police arrested the 27-year-old after the apparently random assault around 5:00 am (local time) at the commuter railway station of the small town of Grafing, east of Munich.
One of the victims, a 56-year-old man, later died of his wounds in hospital. Authorities had earlier wrongly given his age as 50.
The others injured were men aged 43, 55 and 58. One of the victims was seriously hurt, the other two more lightly wounded.
Police and prosecutors initially said the attack appeared to be "politically motivated" and with an apparent Islamist motive after eye witnesses had reported hearing him scream "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest).
However, hours later, Bavaria state's interior ministry said that "so far we have no evidence for an Islamist motive, but the investigation continues".
"We have found the man had psychological and drug problems," ministry spokesman Oliver Platzer told AFP.
Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that "from Berlin I don't want to feed and evaluate speculation about the motive."
Bavaria's interior minister Joachim Herrmann said the attacker, named locally as Paul H, was a German national, as authorities said he hailed from central Hesse state and did not have a migrant background.
"As to what extent there were other background factors, or whether this is more about questions of mental instability or drug addiction, still needs to be investigated," Herrmann said on BR24 television.
Earlier Ken Heidenreich, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, had said that the "assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motive -- apparently an Islamist motive... We are still determining what the exact remarks were."
In the dawn attack, the assailant stabbed one man aboard a train, another on the platform, then left the station and slashed two more men on bicycles outside, said Bavarian police spokesman Karl-Heinz Segerer.
"In the meantime local police received an emergency call, and the officers quickly arrived at the scene and were able to detain the man," said Segerer on NTV channel.
Bloody footsteps and police forensic officers in white plastic suits could be seen at the cordoned-off railway station in video footage from Grafing, 30 kilometres east of the Bavarian capital.
Budget carrier GoAir will launch a daily evening flight service connecting Srinagar to the national capital from next month as part of its network expansion plans.
The proposed flight, which is scheduled to commence operations from June 15, will make GoAir the only carrier to have evening services to and from Srinagar.
"Effective June 15, the GoAir flight G8 229 will take off from Delhi at 16:50 hours and arrive in Srinagar at 18:10 hours while the return flight G8 228 will take off from Srinagar at 18:40 hours and arrive Delhi at 20:05 hours," the airline said in a release here.
With the commencement of this flight, the Wadia Group- promoted no-frills carrier will be the only airline with last arrival and departure in the valley, it said.
According to the airline, there was a long-standing demand from local authorities, leisure travellers and various trade organisations for operating flights post 6 pm in the valley.
"Srinagar has been a focus city for GoAir since long and it has always served the valley with first arrival and last departure flights for the last three summer seasons. With this new flight, GoAir will now serve Srinagar to Delhi 6 times non-stop," GoAir Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Prock- Schauer said.
The budget carrier currently operates across 23 destinations with over 975 weekly flights and approximately 2,000 plus connections weekly.
The new evening flights will help local traders and officials transiting between Srinagar and Delhi, the airlines said, adding leisure travellers can now spend more time in the valley before heading back home.
(REOPENS DCM 59)
Later, in a detailed statement, GoAir said that at all times it was following the procedures laid down by the manufacturers and the regulators.
"The manufacturer PW (Pratt & Whitney) has clearly prescribed checking intervals for engines at different stages of accumulated hours.
"Further the manufacturer prescribes necessary action after any finding in the aircraft/engine installed warning systems. These procedures are duly endorsed by the respective regulators and followed worldwide," the airline said.
The aircraft (A320 VT- WGB) reported "oil chip detected warning" on arrival at Delhi from Mumbai on February 8 morning, GoAir said, adding the approved procedure is that the aircraft can complete 10 hours before physical inspection of the chip detector needs to be done to identify the cause of the warning.
After inspection the necessary course of action is decided in coordination with the manufacturer/regulator, the statement said.
Further, GoAir said, "our statement can be verified with PW engine manufacturers in Hartford Connecticut USA".
As soon as new regulations are to be applied GoAir will follow these instructions whatever they are, it added.
Taking a dig at Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar for crediting the Centre for the rise in rhino populace in Assam, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today credited conservation efforts of the state government for the rise.
If the central government is so eager to claim the credit, it should also own up the "discredit" for its "failure" in checking the dwindling population of Asiatic lions in Gujarat's Gir forest, Gogoi said.
"Rise in deaths of Asiatic lions, which are found only in Gujarat, has posed a threat to its very existence which are found only in Gujarat," he said in a statement here.
Gogoi's comments were significant in the backdrop of Gujarat considered as the favourite state of the saffron party.
The Assam Chief Minister advocated for exhaustive conservation effort in Gujarat on the lines of such effort in Kaziranga National Park in Assam claiming his government has succeeded in increasing the number of rhino population despite several hurdles.
According to reports, in Gujarat 76 lion deaths occurred in 2013, 78 in 2014, while the number went upto to 91 in 2015.
In the last five years over 300 lion deaths have been reported in Gujarat.
West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi today congratulated the successful candidates in the Madhyamik examination.
The Governor described Madhyamik examination as a "very important step" in the career of a student.
In a message, Tripathi said,"I congratulate those who have succesfully cleared Madhyamik Examination, 2016, as also their teachers and guardians."
Around 11.4 lakh examinees appeared for this year's Madhyamik examinations, out of which 54.59 per cent were females, which was around 9.18 per cent more than males. The overall success rate in the exams was 82.78 per cent.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a twitter message also congratulated the successful candidates wishing them a great future ahead.
With a majority of buildings coming up being small in size, the government has come out with a draft notification to make eco-compliance mandatory for such projects.
The smaller projects, with a built-up area of over 5,000 square metres to 20,000 square metres, will have to comply with environmental conditions like installation of natural drainage, water conservation, rainwater harvesting and solid waste management, among others, according to the draft issued by the Environment Ministry.
The environmental conditions will be integrated with the 'building permission' -- except for hospitals -- being granted by local authorities, it said.
The draft policy seeks to amend the Environment Impact Assessment notification, 2006. The ministry has sought public comments within 60 days.
"The current environmental regime covers buildings and constructions of only above 20,000 square metres of built-up area whereas a majority of the buildings being constructed are of smaller size and it is important to integrate environmental concerns, considerations and best practices into construction and operation of building and construction sector projects of smaller sizes as well," the draft notification stated.
The Environment Ministry has proposed that local by-laws and the revised National Building Code should incorporate these environment conditions so that even smaller-sized buildings are eco-compliant.
As per the proposed amendments, smaller projects will have to maintain proper natural drainage system with adequate size of channel for ensuring unrestricted flow of water.
The smaller buildings should have water conservation, rain water harvesting and groundwater recharge system. They should also have the unpaved area of more than or equal to 20 per cent of the recreational open spaces.
That apart, the ministry has specified the projects that need to follow a solid waste management under which buildings should have separate wet and dry bins at the ground level for facilitating segregation of waste.
In common area, lighting must be of LED or solar lights should be provided. There should also be dust, smoke and debris prevention measures such as screens and installation of barricades at the site during construction.
The smaller projects should have green cover. A minimum of one tree for every 80 square metres of land should be planted and maintained. The existing trees will be counted for this purpose. Preference should be given to planting native species, the notification added.
The notification made it clear that the states adopting these objective and monitorable environmental conditions in their building by-laws and relevant laws and incorporating these conditions in the approvals given for building construction making it legally enforceable shall not require a separate environmental clearance for individual buildings.
Shipping Ministry has done away with six rules under the Merchant Shipping Act which had "become obsolete", in order to promote ease of doing business.
The Ministry had rescinded seven rules earlier and by doing away with these 6 norms, the number has reached to 13.
"The Ministry of Shipping, in accordance with the government's commitment to do away with obsolete laws which hinder efficient governance, has notified the final rescinding of the six rules under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958," a statement from the Ministry of Shipping said today.
"Out of a large number of rules and regulations, many had become redundant in course of time and were leading to avoidable delay, making it necessary to weed them out to achieve process simplification and improve governance," it said.
The norms rescinded today include Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention Certificates) Rules, 1975, Merchant Shipping (Radio Direction Finders) Rules 1968, Merchant Shipping (Distress Messages and Navigational Warnings) Rules, 1964, Merchant Shipping (Muster) Rules, 1968, Merchant Shipping (Pilot Ladder) Rules, 1967 and Life-boatmen's (Qualifications and Certificates) Rules 1963.
The Ministry had invited comments and objections from the public via a notification in Gazette on November 17, last year.
Seven rules stood rescinded through a notification in November last year and as of today, the Ministry has rescinded a total of thirteen rules under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958.
"The context, purpose and objectives of all the rules/regulations, administered by this Ministry, were studied and thirteen obsolete and unnecessary rules under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 were identified for rescinding in keeping with the government's ethos of Minimum Government, Maximum Governance," the statement said.
This step will simplify the legislative framework governing merchant shipping sector in India and streamline the processes and procedures in the shipping sector, it said.
"Besides, the rescinding of these rules will further promote 'ease-of-doing-business' in India and has been widely welcomed by the merchant shipping community and businesses," it added.
Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel today inaugurated a Centre for Perishable Cargo (CPC) at the airport premises here.
The CPC will facilitate farmers and businessmen in storing their food items before exporting them from the airport.
The newly-built CPC has an annual capacity of handling 14,600 tonnes of food cargo which can be stored in four separate cold chambers having different temperature levels, the Chief Minister said.
Patel expressed confidence that farmers and agro-businessmen of the state can now export their food produces and other food items in countries like US, UK, Russia, France, Germany, Singapore and Gulf countries using this centre which will keep their perishable products fresh till they are exported.
Around 40 tonnes of perishable food items can be stored in the cold storage facility daily, an official release said.
The centre is having four cold storage chambers having 10- tonne capacity each.
Half a million people die of cancer annually in the country due to lack of proper mechanism to identify the disease and necessary medical facilities to treat the terminal illness, V K Subburaj, Secretary Department of Pharmaceuticals, said today.
Delivering a lecture at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology here, Subburaj said there are only 20,000 beds available for treatment of "psychiatric problems" against the requirement of 10 million.
"Every year one million cancer cases are identified. Half of them die even before the disease is identified or diagnosed. We should focus (on) developing science and technology that would help reduce cost for the patients," he said.
"Cancer cases and cardiovascular cases are killing our economy (in terms of treatment cost)," he said in his lecture titled "Drugs and Diseases: An Indian Overview".
Subburaj said as many as 25 lakh patients suffering from cardiovascular problems need surgical interventions every year whereas the current infrastructure provides facility for only 2.5 lakh patients.
He asked the scientist community to focus more on developing technologies for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.
According to him, 80 per cent of the district headquarters in the country do not have psychiatrists and there is shortage of two million MBBS doctors as on today.
The Madras High Court has directed the Block Development Officer at Vellore to furnish required details regarding employment of one V.Kanthan to Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, Vellore Region.
Justice S.Vaidyanathan was passing interim orders passed on a contempt petition filed by Kanthan.
The court had earlier in 2014 directed the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, Vellore Region to pay Rs.3,000 per month. As it was not paid by the Corporation, Kanthan filed the contempt petition.
When the plea came up recently, counsel for the corporation in its counter contended that the petitioner was getting wages from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and he is also working on daily wages basis and his last drawn wages was computed to Rs.2,548 and hence he was not entitled for the similar amount.
It was also averred further in the counter that the petitioner's wife is a ward councillor and he undertakes work in the concerned Panchayat.
Counsel for petitioner submitted that it was duty of the Corporation to establish as to whether he is gainfully employed or not and they cannot shift the burden on him.
It was submitted by counsel for the corporation that when corporation officials approached the BDO to collect documents to establish the fact that the councillor's husband i.E., Kanthan was in employment, they refused to part with that.
In his order, the judge observed "If the averments made in the counter affidavit filed by the transport corporation are found true, it would be a serious offence amounting to misleading the court."
"In order to ascertain the genuineness, the Block Development Officer is directed to furnish the required details of regarding the employment of the said V.Kanthan to the officials of the respondent Corporation. However, on receipt of such details, the counsel for the corporation is hereby directed to file the detailed report."
The judge said "since as on date the gainful employment of V.Kanthan has not been proved, corporation is hereby directed to pay the arrears of wages under Section 17-B of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 as per the earlier order of this court on or before June 8 and report the same to this court in the next hearing.However, it is also made clear that such payment being made would be subject to the outcome of contempt petition."
The judge also made it clear that if the petitioner has mislead the court, it would be viewed very seriously and appropriate action will be taken.
In a bid to encourage local youth to join defence forces, the Indian Air Force will hold its recruitment drive in Goa next month, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said today.
"We have our own son of soil (Manohar Parrikar) as a Defence Minister. Two months back we successfully hosted Defence Expo in the state. The interest shown by youths in the expo was enormous," Parsekar said, announcing the dates of Indian Air Force recruitment drive that would be held in Goa on June 3 and 6.
"This is an attempt to provide Goan youths another employment avenue. The defence sector was never an attractive career option for Goan youths due to some misconceptions," the chief minister said.
"There were notions that if you join defence you will put to hard posting and have to be on India-Pakistan border. But that is not the truth," he added.
Parsekar said the recruitment drive will showcase and provide different avenues for the youths in defence sector.
The recruitment on June 3 is for the post of musician.
"Goans are good musicians. Our youths are best suited for this post. They should apply and get into this new avenue of career. The education qualification for the post is only Secondary School Education," he said.
Goa government has already held meetings with Director of Education, Director of Higher Education, District Collectors and other officials informing them about the drive.
"There should be awareness about this drive amongst the people and we will rope in different media for that," he said.
The Chief Minister said the state government is already giving incentive for the youths joining armed forces.
The subcontinent is set to receive a fair share of attention in the 11-day 69th Cannes Film Festival that opens tomorrow evening with the gala screening of Woody Allen's "Cafe Society".
India will expectedly hog much of the 'regional' limelight in Cannes with two entries - one documentary and a short fiction film - in the festival's official selection.
That apart, Anurag Kashyap's "Raman Raghav 2.0", about a 1960s Mumbai serial killer played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is set to premiere in Directors' Fortnight, a prestigious parallel section in which the Mumbai director's two-part "Gangs of Wasseypur" and "Ugly" bowed in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal, too, will be showcased in the latest edition of the world's premier film festival.
The festival on the French Riviera is known for attracting independent cinema heavy hitters as well as huge glamour wattage in the shape of Hollywood and European movie stars.
Kalimpong boy Saurav Rai, a student of Kolkata's Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI), will register his presence amid the glitz and glamour with his 28-minute Nepali-language diploma film "Gudh" (Nest).
Rai's film is among 18 titles - 14 fiction and four animation - selected from 2,300 entries received from film academies across the world for the Cinefondation competition, now in its 19th year.
"The film seeks to capture the vivid memories that I have of my growing up years," says 29-year-old Rai. "The political turmoil in Darjeeling forms a minute backdrop."
"Gudh is 80 per cent reality and 20 per cent imagination," he says, adding that even what he has drawn from his imagination is "very close to reality".
"That this cathartic personal journey of mine has made it to Cannes is a dream come true," says the young filmmaker.
The Cinefondation selection will be judged by a five-member jury presided over by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase. Three prizes are up for grabs in the section and the award-winners will be announced on May 20.
The other Indian film in the Cannes official selection - Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya's "The Cinema Travellers", a documentary on Maharashtra's travelling tent theatres - represents a journey of a completely different kind.
The 96-minute film, made over a period of eight years with the support of the India Foundation for the Arts, the Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University and Goethe-Institut India, is part of the festival's Cannes Classics section, which includes nine documentaries on cinema history.
The Cinema Travellers documents the changes and challenges that the once-thriving tent cinemas face in the digital age.
Among the restored prints to be screened as part of Cannes
Classics this year is the 1959 Pakistani film "Jago Hua Savera" (The Day Shall Dawn), the country's first nomination for the best foreign language film Oscar.
Directed by Aaejay Kardar, "Jago Hua Savera" was the result of a rare collaboration among talents from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan).
Based on a story by Bengali writer Manik Bandopadhyay and scripted by Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the film focused on the lives of impoverished fishermen of East Pakistan.
The female lead in "Jago Hua Savera" was played by Calcutta screen and stage actress Tripti Mitra.
In Cannes Critics' Week, the Singaporean-French production "A Yellow Bird", directed by debutant K Rajagopal and featuring Seema Biswas in a key role, homes in on the state of Indians in contemporary Singapore.
As an Indian voice in Chinese-dominated Singapore, Rajagopal is seen as an authentic representative of minority aspirations.
"A Yellow Bird" tells the story of the struggles of an Indian man released from jail after an eight-year incarceration for contraband smuggling.
"'A Yellow Bird' aims to examine the position of the 'Indian' in contemporary Singaporean society. The story stems from my own experiences as an Indian-Singaporean (in a society) where a sense of belonging to my birth nation is frequently questioned and tested," the director said.
In a significant breakthrough for Afghan cinema, Directors' Fortnight will host the premiere of debutante Shahrbanoo Sadat.
The 26-year-old Kabul-based director's first film "Wolf and Sheep" was developed in the Cannes Cinefondation Residence in 2010 and completed with Danish funding.
In the Cannes Atelier, a section that helps new projects get off the ground, the subcontinent will be represented by two proposed films - Aditya Vikram Sengupta's "Memories and My Mother" (India) and Pooja Gurung and Bibhusan Basnet's "The Whole-timers" (Nepal).
India, Nepal and several other South Asian countries held a discussion to set strategies and identify priorities to end violence against children ahead of the 4th South Asian Initiative' to end Violence against Children (SAIEVAC) Ministerial Meeting on Wednesday inn New Delhi.
Organised by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the three-day 'Technical Meeting and 4th Ministerial Meeting of SAIEVAC' seeks to assess the progress and developments in the past decade.
The government and civil society organisations delegates from other countries participating in the event are from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
"Day one of the technical meeting included an inaugural and various business sessions," an official statement from the ministry said on Tuesday.
Emphasising on child participation, V Somasundaran, Secretary, WCD, said that ending violence against children is a priority and a common goal and commitment of the region.
Stuti Narain Kacker, Chairperson of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights, highlighted the need for all member countries to act in a concentrated, cooperative, coordinated and comprehensive manner to identify and address areas of priority such as cross-border trafficking, documentation and sharing of good practises.
The members also discussed regional efforts and agreed on commitments and to identify priorities for for the next five years.
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An Indian naval ship and an army contingent have participated in a large counter-terrorism and maritime security exercise in Singapore involving 18 countries.
The 11-day ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus(ADMM-Plus) Maritime Security and Counter-Terrorism Exercise that began on May 2 aims to strengthen the capability and inter-operability of the ADMM-Plus militaries to more effectively address terrorism and maritime threats.
The exercise, co-hosted by Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF), involves about 3,500 personnel, 18 naval vessels, 25 aircraft and 40 Special Forces teams from all 18 ADMM-Plus countries.
India, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the US along with 10 ASEAN member countries makes up ADMM-Plus.
"Indian naval ship Airavat's participation will undoubtedly bolster India's ties and enhance links with all the participating navies," said India's High Commissioner to Singapore Vijay Thakur Singh while welcoming Airavat, its naval crew members, officersand the Indian army contingentlast night.
"I am sure all participating forces including the Indian Army would have benefited from the exposure and professional interaction offered by the ADMM Plus Counter Terror exercise. Working together for Maritime Security and countering terrorism are objectives that our nations share," Singh said.
The strong contributions by the ADMM-Plus members attest to their commitment to enhancing regional peace and stability.
India has deep historic and cultural linkages with ASEAN countries which have been strengthened in the recent past by vibrant economic engagement and a growing sense of a common future, Singh said.
India's active and positive contribution in numerous ASEAN-led mechanisms, namely the ASEAN Regional Forum and ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus as well as India's support for strengthening of the East Asia Summit has been acknowledged by ASEAN member countries.
"Navies of our countries enjoy long standing, close and robust bilateral ties," Singh said.
"The operations that the Indian Navy conducts with the Republic of Singapore Navy in its annual bilateral exercises, since the last 22 years, is indicative of the mutual trust and respect that both navies have for each other," Singh added.
More than200 Indian community and business leaders attended a reception on board the Airavat last night.
Close on the heels of Kenya, which recently set on fire over a hundred ton of its ivory stockpile, experts in India are mulling a similar provision to destroy the "white gold" to send a strong message against poaching.
"We ask the state forest departments to burn it (ivory) publicly or in the presence of the media," Project Elephant Director R K Srivastava told PTI from Delhi.
However, he admitted that few states in the country had so far come forward to make an ivory bonfire.
Part of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Project Elephant provides financial and technical support to all the 16 major elephant bearing states of the country.
Karnataka's Chief Wildlife Warden M B Hosmat said they had mooted a proposal to burn its ivory stockpile but the proposal is waiting government's approval.
"It will be for the first time that we'll burn it in our state. But the proposal is still in a preliminary stage. It will take some time for us to implement it," he said.
Karnataka is estimated to have the largest quantity of ivory in India followed by Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha as they have the largest number of tusker population.
Prof R Sukumar, well-known expert on Asian elephants, estimates that India must be having around 30 tons of ivory which is growing every year.
"Most of it comes from natural death of tuskers. Some is also seized from poachers through the forest department, customs and police," said the ecologist who works at the Centre for Ecological Sciences in the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.
There are chances of pilferage from the stock in custody of various state or central authorities as there is a heavy demand for ivory which is used for ornamental and decorative purposes.
In the largest ever pile of ivory set alight anywhere in
the world, Kenya had recently destroyed 105 tons of ivory including those confiscated from poachers and accruing naturally from mortality.
It was done as a demonstration against illegal ivory trade and poaching claiming 30,000 elephants every year.
Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), to which India is a signatory, ivory trading is banned.
Experts are divided over whether India should also be following the African model.
Sukumar has suggested part of the stock should be used for scientific research work and DNA bar-coding by institutions.
Shekhar Kumar Niraj, head of wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, said India needed samples of ivory for training of law enforcement agencies.
"Rather than burning it we should index it and keep it safely. It should be distributed for training purposes. Even sniffer dogs should be trained on ivory detection. Then we also need it for DNA bar-coding purposes which will also help in tracking poaching," he said.
Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Varun Goswami, however, said it was a good idea to destroy it because ivory had no use besides being ornamental.
In India, poaching of tuskers was at its peak during the eighties and nineties in southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu where 2,000 pachyderms were killed during the two-decade-long period.
Last year, there was again a resurgence of poaching as around 30 tuskers were found to have become victims of the market demand.
India is estimated to have about 30,000-35,000 elephants. Not all male elephants have tusks.
Iran's army is now equipped with a Russian air defence system after a long and controversial delivery process, Defence Minister General Hossein Dehghan was quoted as saying today.
"I inform our people that... We are in possession of the strategic S-300 system" and that it "serves our air force's counterattack command," Dehghan said, according to ISNA agency.
Parts of the system, including missile tubes and radar equipment, were displayed on April 17 during a military parade in southern Tehran.
The United States and Israel have criticised Russia for the sale of the S-300 system to the Islamic republic.
Tehran says it is needed to strengthen its air defence against possible attacks, including on its nuclear facilities.
Iran and Russia originally signed a contract for its delivery in 2007, but in 2010 Moscow suspended the sale after the UN Security Council issued a resolution against Iran's nuclear programme.
In 2015, shortly before the conclusion of an international agreement on Tehran's nuclear programme, Moscow re-authorised the delivery.
The two countries are also in talks for delivery to Iran of Sukhoi SU-30 fighter jets, a deal also criticised by Washington.
Dehghan also announced that Iran will start manufacturing this year an air defence system, Bavar 373, "capable of destroying cruise missiles, drones, combat aircraft and ballistic missiles."
"This long-range system is able to destroy several targets at once," he added.
A BJD member today asked in the Rajya Sabha whether the practice of appointing retired Supreme Court judges in various political capacities is morally correct.
During the Zero Hour in the House, A U Singh Deo said it is "good" that the NDA government was taking up judicial reforms.
"I would like to bring up an issue for the government to consider whether the practice of appointing retired Supreme Court justices in various political capacities is morally correct. And whether it poses serious danger to judicial neutrality as large number of government cases are pending in the the Supreme Court," he said.
He said the First Law Commission was of the view that it was necessary to safeguard the independence of Supreme Court justices by enacting a law baring further employment except as adhoc judges in the apex court.
Citing an article, Deo said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, when he was Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, had suggested an embargo on appointment of retired judges of higher courts to Commissions.
Nitin Gadkari, as President of BJP had also suggested that there should be a two-year cooling off period between retirement date and appointment date, the BJD member said.
Deo said that he had written to the Prime Minister and Minister concerned regarding the issue.
He said the minister informed that government had introduced judicial standards and accountability in 2012 in the 15th Lok Sabha, which has now lapsed.
"I request the government to bring the bill back," he added.
In his Zero Hour mention, BJP member Subramanian Swamy said May 10 (i.E today) is the day of first war of Independence and the House should have taken its cognizance.
"This day should be an important part of recognition all over the country. It is not being included properly in the text books," he said.
The BJP member said large number of people sacrificed their lives and the entire peasantry rose in revolt against the British.
He said Parliament should take a special note of the day and infact should have a "true version of the history which has been distorted in the past".
"The British called it mutiny and even today it is being called mutiny in our text books. It is a great national shame and should be rectified," Swamy added.
Husain Dalwai (Congress), raised the issue of detention
of "innocent persons" in relation to terror acts.
He said there cannot be any sympathy for terrorists, but at the same time arresting innocents was wrong.
When innocent people are arrested, they lose their reputation and they then can neither get jobs nor get married, he added.
He said the NIA did not find any evidence against the accused held in the Malegaon blast case. The accused were later freed.
"There should be strict action against terrorists.... Investigating agencies should have accountability. One is muslim, arrest him and put him in jail, this is wrong, this should be stopped," he added.
A Russian woman spy infiltrated ranks and before being executed passed on key information due to which many jihadists lost their lives, the terror group has claimed.
An article titled 'Elvira Karaeva -- Agent of the Russian Special Services' in Istok, the Islamic State's Russian- language online magazine, focuses on the woman whom in the Caucasus accused of being an agent of the Russian intelligence services.
Karaeva worked as a spy for four years, during which she secretly passed along information on the jihadi groups in the Caucasus, including locations and photographs of fighters, Fox News reported citing the article.
The article notes that although Karaeva was questioned by ISIS' "investigative authorities," she was able to convince them of her innocence.
But when the terror network used a "cunning investigative maneuver," the woman confessed and was later executed by an ISIS member, according to the article.
"Elvira the apostate gave information to the Russian special services about our brothers and sisters waging jihad...In the Caucasus Province," the article was quoted as saying.
"She shamelessly wormed her way into confidence...And then disclosed their (jihadists) location and contacts, thus making them easy prey for the henchmen of taghut," the article states.
"Because of her contemptible actions and close contacts with the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation), many of our brothers and sisters became martyrs," it said.
The woman was summoned for questioning more than once by the "investigating authorities" of the Caliphate, the article said.
"But every time she invented stories, twisting the facts. In her conversation with the investigators, she often lied and distorted the true meaning of events. Although our brothers had many valid reasons to detain her, they released her every time, trusting her word," it said.
The woman -- whose identity has not been confirmed by Russia -- provided the Kremlin with the location of safe houses, secret bases, and positions of ISIS members, according to the terror network.
The article claims the woman was caught on an audio recording speaking about her role with the Russian intelligence services. It also said that she was married to a jihadist, named Abu Muslim, whom she killed by poisoning.
The fourth issue of Istok was released May 2 by ISIS's Al-Hayat Media Center and translated by MEMRI's newly-launched Russian Media Studies Project, which released excerpts of the article in English yesterday.
Israeli police says two masked attackers have stabbed two Israeli women in Jerusalem, setting off a manhunt that led to the arrest of the assailants.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says five women were walking along a Jerusalem promenade today when they were attacked from behind.
Two of them, both said to be about 70 years of age, were stabbed. They have been taken to hospital with moderate injuries.
Rosenfeld gave no details about the arrested attackers. It's the latest incident in nearly eight months of attacks by Palestinians, mostly stabbings, which have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans.
About 200 Palestinians have been killed during the same time, most of them said by Israel to have been attackers while the rest killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra today expressed hope that Astronomical Society of India (ASI) would further enhance and contribute towards its activities in the state by creating more facilities in this field.
"We hope the ASI will further enhance and contribute towards its activities in the State by creating more astronomical facilities which would invigorate interest in scientific leaning among the youth of the State," he said after inaugurating the 34thannual meeting of ASI at the University of Kashmir here.
He said the outreach programme organised by ASI on awareness of students and teachers in the Valley will help "in inculcating the scientific temperament in the educational institutions."
The Governor suggested to Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi to enable participants from all over the country to visit the ancientrock cuttings in Burzhama and Sopore in the Valley, which are of high astronomical significance.
Chairman Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Kiran Kumar and President ASI Ajit Kembhavi spoke about the recent achievements, ongoing projects and future plans in the field of astrophysics in the country and the State.
Fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami's execution seemed imminent as an executive order to hang him was issued tonight after he refused to seek presidential clemency for war crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.
"Nizami did not seek mercy. The executive order to carry out the death sentence has been sent to the prison authorities," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said tonight.
His comments came as elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion joined police to step up security around the Dhaka Central Jail in old part of the capital. The jail guards have beefed up the security inside the facility.
The street in front of the jail has also been barricaded and closed to traffic.
73-year-old Nizami's family members, including his wife, two sons and their wives, went to the jail this evening after prison officials asked them to go and meet him for the last time, bdnews24 reported.
Nizami, the chief of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, was given capital punishment in October 2014 by a special tribunal after being convicted of "superior responsibility" as the chief of the infamous Al-Badr militia forces in 1971.
He was particularly found guilty of systematic killings of over 450 people in his own village.
His final appeal against his death sentence was rejected by the apex court on May 5.
A former minister in ex-premier Khaleda Zia's BNP-led four-party coalition government, Nizami has been in jail since 2010, when he was arrested to be tried 1971 war crimes.
TV reports quoting unidentified jail officials said a group of hangmen from among the prison inmates was kept ready after necessary exercises as per procedure. Shahjahan Ali would lead them as the chief executioner and another inmate Raju would act as his top aide.
Prison officials earlier said jail doctors checked the heath of the death row convict last night after the Supreme Court verdict was read out to him while senior jail officials saw him at his solitary confinement earlier today.
Jamaat had on Saturday said: "question doesn't arise at all to seek mercy to anybody else except Allah".
Nizami's his eldest son and lawyer Najib Momen supplemented the party statement, saying "he (Nizami) will not seek clemency to the President".
Nizami appears to be the last remaining top perpetrators of crimes against humanity as so far executed four war criminals since the trial process began six years ago.
Fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami will be executed tonight after he refused to seek presidential clemency for war crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said.
"He will be executed later tonight," Khan told PTI.
Khan said Nizami, the 73-year-old chief of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, preferred not to seek presidential clemency, his last chance to save his neck "because he understood the crimes he had committed were unpardonable".
"Nizami did not seek mercy. The executive order to carry out the death sentence has been sent to the prison authorities," Khan said.
The minister's comments came minutes after Nizami's family members came out of Dhaka Central Jail after their final meeting with him.
Witnesses said three cars carrying over 20 close relatives including his wife, two sons, their wives and a daughter reached the heavily guarded jail at 7.50 PM (local time) and came out at 8.40 PM (local time).
"We were asked by the jail officials to come to the prison as we earlier requested for the (last) meeting," one of the relatives told reporters outside the prison gate.
Four other 1971 war crimes convicts were hanged earlier soon after their last meeting with family members.
Meanwhile, elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion joined police to step up security around the jail in old part of the capital. The jail guards have beefed up the security inside the facility also. The street in front of the jail has been barricaded and closed to traffic since the evening.
TV footages showed that police formed a 20-yard perimeter around the main gate of the prison pushing back the crowds of reporters and camera crews and asked enthusiastic onlookers to keep a safe distance.
Nizami was given capital punishment in October 2014 by a special tribunal after being convicted of "superior responsibility" as the chief of the infamous Al-Badr militia forces in 1971. He was particularly found guilty of systematic killings of over 450 people in his own village.
His final appeal against his death sentence was rejected by the apex court on May 5.
Accusing Haryana Government of not fulfilling its demand of giving reservation to Jats under OBC category, members of the community today warned to intensify their protests June onwards even as they made a strong pitch for bringing a Central legislation to cover them under quota.
Akhil Bhartiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (ABJASS), which held day-long sit-in here, warned its members will occupy bungalows/residences of Parliamentarians "if the MPs ignored their demands" and said the indefinite protests will be expanded to 12 other states as well from June 5.
The Samiti representatives also met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh earlier in the day over alleged injustice being meted out to its members by the Haryana Government and claimed the latter has assured them to look into the matters raised.
"We will launch agitation on June 5 if our demands are not met ... We will be in Delhi again and none will be able to enter or leave its borders.
"Why none will be able to leave or enter Delhi? Because the moment we will start lining up tractors and trolleys towards Delhi, it will take 15 days for all the tractors and trolleys to be moved to Delhi.
"We will occupy residences of Ministers and Parliamentarians if they do not pay heed to our demands," ABJASS president Yashpal Malik said while addressing a community rally at Jantar Mantar.
He further insisted Centre to pass BJP Parliamentarian PP Chaudhary's private member bill introduced in Lok Sabha for amending National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) Act, 1993.
The bill, moved in December 2015, proposes to do away with statutory requirement of consulting the Commission for declaring a community as backward if it has already been announced so (backward) by a government.
Secondly, Malik demanded, the Haryana Government must issue gazette notification for Jat reservation and insisted those "falsely" implicated during quota agitation earlier be released immediately.
"Besides, the state government must give compensation to family members of those, who lost lives in earlier stirs. If any of our members is picked up now, we will launch agitation straight away," he added.
Meanwhile, Malik also announced formation of a 121-member committee of Samiti members to deal with the Manohar Lal Khattar Government on the reservation issue.
Malik claimed the Jats have support of all the political parties, but urged community members to not become a "tool" of any of the outfits.
The son of a ruling JD(U) legislator in Bihar, who was today arrested for the killing a youngster in a case of road rage, has claimed innocence, insisting he was in Delhi when the crime took place here.
"I was in Delhi...When my mother called me I came and presented myself before the SSP... I did not open fire," Rakesh Ranjan Yadav alias Rocky Yadav told reporters as he was being whisked away by the police following a press conference held by SSP, Gaya, Garima Mallik where she announced his arrest.
"I'll tell everything in the court," he said.
Minutes earlier, Mallik had said Rocky was arrested from his father Bindi Yadav's mixer plant located in Mastpura village in Gaya district. His mother Manorama Devi is a ruling JD(U) MLC.
"The main accused Rocky Yadav was arrested from his father Bindi Yadav's mixer plant located at Mastpura village of Bodh Gaya Police Station of Gaya district. Rocky was arrested along with the weapon (Beretta pistol) used in the crime," Mallik told reporters.
Rocky had allegedly shot dead 20-year-old Aditya Sachdeva, son of a businessman, after the vehicle in which the victim and his friends were travelling had overtaken his SUV on Saturday night.
Private carrier Jet Airways rolled out an all-new co-branded travel credit card for its customers in Bangladesh in association with the Dhaka-headquartered Eastern Bank Limited and global payments technology company Visa.
The 'Jet Airways Eastern Bank Limited (EBL) Visa Platinum Credit Card' is Bangladesh's first airline co-brand credit card and the card holder automatically gets enrolled into Jet Airways loyalty programme JetPrivilege on issuance of the card.
This is for the first time that such a card has been launched outside India by Jet Airways, the company claimed.
The co-branded travel credit card is tailored to meet the travelling and lifestyle needs of frequent flyers and allows them to accumulate JPMiles on their credit card spends, which can be later redeemed for free award tickets on Jet Airways, Etihad Airways and JetPrivilege's 30+ airline programme partners, a Jet Airways release said.
The card will be offered on the Visa network platform allowing card holders to access benefits and privileges across the world, it said.
"This joint initiative with Eastern Bank is another unique travel option aimed at making air travel more economical, and cost-effective for family travel. The innovative card will reward customers (in Bengladesh) with benefits at home and when travelling abroad," Jet Airways Whole Time Director Gaurang Shetty said.
The benefits that the newly-launched travel credit card offers include 2,500 JPMiles on the first swipe of the card within 40 days of its activation, potential of earning up to 5,000 JPMiles as Bonus in the first three months of card activation, earn rate of three JPMiles on every BDT 200 spent on domestic transactions and two JPMiles on every USD 1 spent on international transactions, among others.
Besides, a complimentary Dhaka-Kolkata-Dhaka Jet Airways economy class ticket as an enrolment gift, a 5 per cent discount on air tickets, booked through Jet Airways Bangladesh bookings portal, on flights originating in Bangladesh as well as priority check-in at select airports for all Jet Airways flights are some other benefits the new card offers to its customers in Bangladesh, the release said.
"The Jet Airways EBL Visa Platinum credit card is another feather in our cap. This product will add significant value for both the cardholders and bank", Nazeem A Choudhury, head of consumer banking of EBL, said.
JNU today saw high drama at an Academic Council meeting which was adjourned following ruckus caused by series of heated up arguments between teachers, students and administration.
The Academic Council (AC) is the statutory decision making body of the university and this was the first meeting ever since the new Vice Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar took charge in January.
While the university administration alleged that some students "literally pulled his (vc's) shirt and tried to pin him down" while he was leaving the venue amid ruckus, the students claimed that the VC left following uproar over report of the High Level Enquiry Committee (HLEC) which investigated the controversial February 9 event.
Meanwhile, a group of 52 teachers who are also members of the AC, passed a resolution demanding that "all unreasonable punishments in connection with the February 9 event be revoked".
"The meeting was not allowed to proceed by a group of teachers and their student supporters who from the very beginning pressed their demand to discuss an issue that was not part of the agenda. The behaviour of these teachers was unruly as they collectively shouted at the chair and sought to force upon him to begin the meeting with their item as first agenda," a statement issued by the university said.
"As the situation turned into pandemonium, the VC agreed to discuss their agenda. However, a group of teachers sought to force upon the chairperson to take a decision then and there by announcing revocation of the proctorial orders. As a result, there was no alternative left for him but to adjourn the meeting," it added.
While JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid Shora alleged that she and JNUSU general secretary Rama Naga were initially not allowed entry to the meeting despite the invitation, the university officials denied it.
"I have seen several negotiations with the
administration. I have seen previous JNUSU president talking very aggressively to the previous VC on the issue of hostels. But the previous VC handled it calmly by having a conversation with students," Shehla said in a JNUSU statement.
"It has now become clear that the VC is a puppet whose strings are pulled by the RSS. Even when the court has stayed the punishments, the VC cannot take a moral call on HLEC issue," she added.
ABVP member and JNUSU joint secretary, Saurabh Sharma claimed that the left-backed teachers and students didn't allow the agenda on OBC reservation to be discussed demanding that first the February 9 issue should be discussed.
The resolution passed by the teachers read, "the overwhelming sense in the AC meeting was that the whole range of punishments meted out to students is excessive and harsher punishments such as rustication, suspension, banishment from campus and exorbitant fines should be immediately revoked".
Meanwhile, the hunger strike by students against the punishment by the varsity in connection with the event during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, entered 13th day today.
So far, 12 students, including JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid, have withdrawn from the fast.
The university had yesterday formed a four-member team to discuss the demands of the students.
The students union, however, is yet to take a decision whether to enter into negotiations with the administration or not.
A journalist of an Itanagar-based newspaper was arrested today along with a sizable quantity of banned brown sugar from Assam's Dibrugarh town.
Dibrugarh Superintendent of Police Bir Bikram Gogoi said that Rahul Verma, the reporter, who is the son of Dibrugarh correspondent of a Guwahati based Hindi daily, confessed before the police that he regularly smuggled brown sugar to Arunachal Pradesh,
Along with the banned psychotropic substance a valid identity card of the newspaper was also recovered from his possession, Gogoi said.
Based on his statement, efforts are on to arrest other drug dealers/traffickers in the network, the SP said.
This is the 6th such arrest of drug trafficker after launch of "Operation Drugs Free Dibrugarh" by Dibrugarh Police, he said.
Yesterday five persons, including two girls, were nabbed by police as raids in Guwahati continued against drug addicts and peddlers.
Two drug peddlers were arrested near the MLA Hostel in Dispur with two packets containing 25 gms of suspected drugs, while a couple were apprehended in Krishnanagar of Chandmari here when they were buying narcotics substance from an unidentified peddler who fled away, police said.
Local people had caught a woman and two men from the banks of Brahmaputra and handed them to a battalion camp nearby but the two men fled away, police said.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has voiced deep concern over the rising trend of drug menace in the state and asked the state chief secretary to constitute a task force headed by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to address the issue of drug abuse.
A Lance Naik posted with the 17th Engineer Regiment allegedly attempted suicide by shooting himself thrice with his service gun at Delhi Cantonment today.
The condition of the Lance Naik Satish Patil (32), a native of Karnataka, is reported critical, a senior police official said.
Patil's colleagues were having breakfast at a mess and they heard three gunshots at around 8 AM. The Lance Naik, who is believed to be upset over some family issues, had not joined others for breakfast today, the official added.
Sri Lanka will make its prisons more "humane and effective" by adhering to international standards, days after a top UN official described the condition of detention camps and jails in the country as "deplorable".
Steps will be taken to provide clean water, proper sanitation, and adequate medical care to the prisoners in accordance to the minimum requirements prescribed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Minister of Prison Reforms Rehabilitation, Resettlement D M Swaminathan said.
"The government is committed to make the prisons system more humane and effective by adhering to the UN international standards," he said.
"Using modern technology for security measures in prisons, professionalising the staff at the Prisons Department, improving the rehabilitation programmes provided for prisoners are the other areas that we are focusing on to improve the standards of the prisons system in this country," he said.
Twenty officers from the Sri Lankan Department of Prisons are participating in the Correctional Managers' Conference and the Minister said he is convinced that the programme will assist local officers to balance both security and humanitarian needs in prisons.
"Both these factors need to be improved in our prisons system and prisons cannot be effective correctional centres if these two factors are poorly managed. Hence I believe that the theme of this conference is both timely and practical not only for our country but to the entire Asia Pacific Region," he said.
Swaminathan's comments comes days after UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment Juan E Mendez described the condition of prisons and detention camps in the country "deplorable".
"I am deeply concerned about the conditions of life in all prisons, all characterised by very deficient infrastructure and pronounced overcrowding. As a result there is an acute lack of adequate sleeping accommodation, extreme heat and insufficient ventilation," Mendez said on Saturday.
He said the prisons exceeded capacity by well over 200 or 300 per cent. In one of the prisons, he saw jail cells meant for one person being occupied by 4 or 5 inmates.
The visit of the rapporteurs are in accordance with the UN Human Rights Council resolution of March 2014 when the council prescribed an international investigation on alleged war crimes blamed on both the government troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Sri Lanka's military crushed LTTE rebels in a three decade-long conflict for control of the island's northern Jaffna peninsula.
A group of lawyers have filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court seeking that police should upload the First Information Reports (FIRs) on their website so that the accused can get a copy easily if he or she wants to apply for pre-arrest (anticipatory) bail.
Police often do not give a copy of FIR which makes it difficult for the accused to approach the court for bail, it says.
In many cases, police say that they have forwarded the FIR to the court concerned but the court refuses to give a certified copy saying the police have not submitted the original document, the petition says.
The PIL, filed by advocates Rajesh Khobragade, Jayesh Khobragade and Pushkar Varma, would come up for hearing on June 10.
The petitioners have referred to a Himachal Pradesh High Court's recent judgement that an accused has the right to get a certified copy of the FIR and it should be uploaded on the police website within 24 hours of filing it.
Further, the judgement also said that if the police forward the FIR to the court, then the latter should provide a copy to the accused within two working days, the PIL says.
Refusal by a court to give a certified copy of the FIR amounts to violation of Article 21 of the Constitution (right to liberty) and is against the principles of natural justice, it says.
The petitioners have sought a direction to magistrates and investigating officers to hand over certified copies of FIR to the accused free of cost at the earliest, preferably within 24 hours of its lodging.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate here had issued a
circular on October 9, 2014, directing the magistrates to issue certified copies of FIR in accordance with the Criminal Manual but it is not being complied with, says the PIL.
The petition also refers to a 2010 ruling of the Bombay High Court that a magistrate to whom an FIR has been sent must issue a certified copy to the accused on demand.
FIR is a public document and the accused is entitled to its copy, the PIL contends.
The manufacturing licences of 10 drug manufacturers in six states have been suspended, the government informed the Rajya Sabha today.
"The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) asked the State Licencing authorities concerned to suspend the manufacturing licences of 10 manufacturers of Liposomal Amphotericin B Injection on March 11, 2016," the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Shripad Yesso Naik said during Question Hour.
He said the injection is used for treatment of systemic fungal infections and for Vesceral Leishmaniasis (Kala Azar) and the manufacturing licences of such drug makers have been stopped after an expert group of ICMR made recommendations to this effect.
The Committee had also recommended that Liposomal Amphotericin injection marketed in India may be regulated under Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and the manufacturers of the injection were asked to prove the quality, safety and efficacy of their products on the basis of scientific criteria suggested by Expert Committee.
"We have not terminated their licence, but have asked the manufacturers to fulfil the conditions and then will restore their production. Directions have also been given to states to suspend licences of all such medicines till they fulfil the conditions," the Minister said.
"Show cause notices were issued to all 10 manufacturers to reply within 3 weeks as to why the manufacturing licences issued to them for their products Liposomal Amphotericin injection should not be suspended.
"Out of 10 manufacturers, 7 responded and it was found that their responses were not satisfactory to conclude that the products are safe and efficacious. Accordingly, state licencing authorities were requested to suspend manufacturing licences of all the ten manufacturers of the product in public interest," he said in his written reply.
Asked how many states have implemented the orders, Naik said, out of six states, five states have suspended the licences as directed by the Expert Committee, while the report from Gujarat is yet to come.
To a question on whether such medicines banned were being sold through CGHS dispensaries, the Minister said he will seek a report and asked the member if he had some information to share for action to be taken.
In reply to another question on implementation of Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products Act (COPTA) prohibiting the sale/advertisements of smokeless products within 100 yards of schools, the Minister said states are implementing the law.
"12 states, excluding Lakshwadeep, have implemented the law for displaying tobacco warnings on their products and states are implementing the law," he said.
On surreptitious advertisements on chewing tobacco in TV, the Minister said the Centre will help implement the law properly.
A day after senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia claimed that police took bribe to "settle the matter" after busting a liquor party which was also attended by his son, the crime branch today summoned him to provide "proofs" to substantiate his allegations.
Crime branch, which was handed over the probe yesterday, also summoned 25 youths, including Modhwadia's son Parth, who were arrested at the party here for allegedly consuming liquor.
An FIR was also lodged against a woman sub-inspector of police who had conducted the raid on Sunday after Modhwadia accused her of taking money.
Manufacture and sale of liquor is prohibited in Gujarat.
Modhwadia, the former state Congress chief, has been called to provide proofs on the charges of corruption he had levelled yesterday against Chandrakala Jadeja, attached to Satellite police station, said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) J K Bhatt.
During a press conference yesterday, Modhwadia claimed that Jadeja took a bribe of Rs 4 lakh to "settle the matter" after conducting raid at an apartment in Satellite area.
"The raid was conducted by the woman PSI and two constables of Satellite Police Station with an intention to extract money. The PSI asked for Rs 11 lakh and then settled for Rs 4 lakh. I have an audio clip, in which, she can be heard saying that she accepted Rs 4 lakh," Modhwadia had alleged.
He had also circulated an audio clip, in which, Jadeja is purportedly heard admitting that she has taken Rs 4 lakh from the family members of the accused for not arresting the women present at the party and expediting the bail process of 25 male accused.
Bhatt said an FIR was lodged against Jadeja and three others, including those who allegedly gave the bribe and two mediators.
"After the matter came to the attention of police inspector of Satellite (police station) M U Mashi, he has lodged an FIR with crime branch against Jadeja and 3 others under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act. We will conduct thorough investigation into this matter," said Bhatt.
The officer said Modhwadia has been summoned to give his statement in this regard.
"We have also asked him to submit any other audio clip or any other material to help us in our investigation," the JCP said.
He said all the 25 accused will be questioned at the crime branch headquarters.
On Sunday, police had raided a birthday party being held
at an apartment in Asavari Tower in Satellite area of the city and arrested 25 youths, including Parth, for allegedly consuming liquor.
All the youths were granted bail on the same day after doctors at Sola Civil Hospital collected their blood samples to determine whether they were drunk.
With the issue of raid and subsequent charges of corruption causing a flutter, the probe was transferred to crime branch.
The investigation into the case is now being headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) C N Rajput of city crime branch.
"We will also request the court to issue an order to seize passports of 25 accused. We have also recovered the CCTV footages of Asavari Tower to find out who actually visited the party and how many women were there, as it has been alleged that police have let them go after taking money," said Bhatt.
Moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq today said the statement of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on the reports of establishing Sainik Colony in the state was "not credible and could not be believed".
"The statements of the government, including the chief minister, on the subject were not credible and thus could not be believed as Mehbooba Mufti, who brushed the issue aside as mere rumours, actually indulged in trying to cover up the entire matter," Hurriyat said after a meeting of its executive council here.
Mehbooba yesterday said no land has been allotted by the government for establishing Sainik Colony and no power can go against the special status of the state.
In a major development in the much ambitious Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) today started the bidding process for the project and the contract will be awarded in the next 5-6 months.
"Yesterday, we received the approval from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for funding the project and today we started the bidding process," Metropolitan Commissioner UPS Madan said at an event here.
He said in the next 5-6 months, the contract will be awarded for Rs 17,500 crore worth project.
The project completion deadline has been set at 2019, but the commencement is itself getting delayed.
There was delay in signing of loan agreement between Maharashtra government and JICA for the project where the state will borrow to the extent of 80 per cent of the total cost.
As per MMRDA's plan, the MTHL will have a total of six lanes, three in either direction. Of the total 22-km, 16.5-km will be bridge component and the balance would be on coast at Sewri and Nhava.
Earlier, there were plans to have a metro line for public transport on MTHL, but it has been shelved off by MMRDA officials to have a toll-based bridge.
A person working in a Gurgaon-based MNC was today held for allegedly carrying a local firearm at a Delhi Metro station.
Officials said the incident occurred around 8 AM at the Vaishali Metro station when the 35-year-old man, identified as Navnit C, was intercepted by CISF security personnel after they detected the firearm-like object in his bag.
"A desi katta (local-made pistol) was recovered from his bag. The passenger could not give satisfactory reply for carrying the banned item," a senior Central Industrial Security Force official said.
The official added Navneet, a resident of Meerut, works in a multi-national company in nearby Gurgaon.
"As carrying firearms is banned in Metro, he was handed over to Uttar Pradesh Police," the official added.
Odisha for the first time witnessed some activities and movements of terrorists and "Jihadi organisations" last year even as the overall situation arising out of Left wing extremism improved during the period.
It was stated in the the white paper tabled in the Assembly today by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
It claimed that the suspected terrorists and Jihadi members have been successfully contained for the internal security of the nation.
"The terrorists and Jihadi outfits have chosen the peaceful coastal state (Odisha) as a safe hideout and to stay away from limelight," an official said.
"Last year based on an intelligence tip off, Odisha police arrested Ishwar Chandra Behera, a contractual photographer of ITR (interim test range), Chandipur on charge of spying and transmitting information of ITR, Wheeler Island and Dhamra though his mobile phones," the white paper said.
Ramachandran Subhas from Tamil Nadu was arrested for being involved in Puri serial train burning cases. His suspected involvement with some terrorist outfit is under investigation of the NIA.
In another incident, Delhi Police Special Cell in a joint operation with the state police arrested one Abdur Rehman from Cuttack for his suspected link with terrorist organisation like AQIS and running an unregistered madrasa where he was aiming to radicalize Muslim youths, the report said.
Claiming that the overall law and order situation in the state remained peaceful, the white paper said a total 1,03,200 cognisable offences were registered in Odisha in 2015 against 93,657 offences in 2014.
The report said there was rise in the number of murder cases from 1450 in 2014 to 1473 in 2015. The number of rapes too increased from 2011 in 2014 to 2286 rape cases in 205. However, there has been decline in the number of dacoity cases which was 486 in 2015 against 554 in 2014.
As many as 1787 loots, 4,046 snatching, 10,055 theft, 2,935 fraud, 1,976 riots, 54 antisocial activities, 6,016 dowry, 76 suicides due to dowry torture, 3,634 dowry torture cases and 1,698 family dispute cases have been registered in 2015, it said.
The white paper said 2,504 cases of torture of SCs and STs were recorded in 2015. While 1,816 cases have been filed in respect of SCs, 688 cases have been registered for ST category.
Besides, 10,542 accident cases have been registered in 2015 out of which 10,449 cases were found to be valid, it said.
On LWE in Odisha, the report said the situation had improved marginally in 11 districts in the state. These districts are Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Ganjam, Nabarangpur, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Sundargarh and Nayagarh.
However, in certain parts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Nuapada, Bolangir, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Bargarh and Kalahandi districts the LWE situation continued to remain challenging.
It said a total 72 LWE related incidents were reported in the state during 2015 involving death of 26 civilians, four security personnel and nine Maoists, while the pro-active taken by security forces led to arrest of 53 ultras, recovery of 255 weapons, 168 improvised explosive devices and a large quantity of explosives.
The white paper said 64 Maoists/militia men surrendered in the state during 2015 and the robust security resulted in total marginalisation of Odisha Maobadi Party of Sabyasachi Panda.
There was also significant containment of activities of Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha, a frontal organisation of CPI (Maoist) in Narayanpatna-Bandhugaon axis of Koraput district, it added.
Madhya Pradesh Tourism (MPT) has received the "Best Indian Destination for Wildlife" award by the Lonely Planet Group.
The award was handed over to MPT at a function in Mumbai yesterday by actress Amy Jackson, an official release said today.
On behalf of MPT Chairman, his Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Vinod Kumar Amar received the award.
Madhya Pradesh has 25 wild life sanctuaries including nine National Parks. Among them Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench are ideal habitat for tigers.
Madhya Pradesh has launched number of programmes for the conservation of flora and fauna because of which Kanha and Pench were regarded as the most beautiful national parks in Asia while Bandhavgarh and Pench are known world over because of tiger reserves.
Bureaucrat-turned-politician N K Singh was today honoured with Japan's second highest national decoration for his contribution in strengthening Indo-Japan ties in the field of trade and investment over last few decades.
The prestigious 'The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star' award was conferred on Singh by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a glittering ceremony at the Imperial Palace here.
The award citation hailed Singh's role in boosting Indo- Japan economic ties, particularly in promoting Japanese investments into India over many years.
Awards were conferred on a total of 91 eminent personalities, including eight foreign recipients. The awardees also had an audience with Emperor of Japan Akihito.
75-year-old Singh is a politician, economist and former top bureaucrat. Till recently, he was a member of the Rajya Sabha. He has been among the country's top bureaucrats and handled important portfolios such as India's Expenditure and Revenue Secretary and as a Member of the erstwhile Planning Commission.
He had served in the Indian Embassy here as Minister (Economic and Commercial) from 1981-85.
Singh, while expressing his gratitude to the Japanese government for the honour, said Indo-Japan relationship is at the cusp of historical changes.
The economic and geo-political considerations will widen and deepen this relationship, fortified by the personal chemistry and new initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Abe, he said.
The Emperor on the occasion expressed his deep appreciation for the endeavour of the awardees for the development of Japan as well as for their contribution in enhancing the relationship between Japan and the international community.
'The Order of the Rising Sun' is a Japanese government honour established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. A modern version of the order is being given to non-Japanese recipients beginning from 1981. It is conferred in recognition of distinguished accomplishments of an individual.
State-run NALCO today said it has signed an MoU with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, for research and development cooperation in the fields of mutual interest.
Under the MoU, R&D projects like Extraction of Gallium from Bayer liquor, Extraction of rare earth elements from Red Mud and Development of Reference Standards would be taken up, a company release said here.
"Extraction of Gallium from Bayer Liquor will be NALCO's first R&D project with BARC with an objective to develop indigenous technology for this strategic metal, for our country," Nalco CMD Tapan Kumar Chand said.
The pact was signed by BK Satpathy, Executive Director (Business Development), NALCO and Jagtap, Director (Chemistry Group), BARC in presence of NALCO CMD, Dr Chand and Principal Scientific Advisor to Union Government and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet, Dr Rajagopal Chidambaram.
Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral R K Dhowan, accompanied by wife Minu Dhowan, president Navy Wives Welfare Association (NWWA), will be visiting Mumbai on May 11 and 12 on their farewell visit.
Admiral Dhowan is scheduled to retire on May 31 after completing over 41 years of distinguished service.
Tomorrow, the Western Fleet, also known as Sword Arm of the Indian Navy, would bid the Admiral adieu at sea with a ceremonial steam past.
Admiral Dhowan and his wife would have their farewell interactions with officers, sailors, civilians and ladies of Western Naval Command at several functions organised specially for bidding them adieu, an official release said.
During Admiral Dhowan's tenure as the Chief of Naval Staff, which began on April 17, 2014, the Navy remained at the forefront of numerous activities to safeguard national interests, provide humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and promote maritime diplomacy.
Operation Rahat, which saw the Indian Navy evacuate more than 3,000 people of several nationalities from strife-torn Yemen, was planned and executed under Admiral Dhowan's watch as the Naval Chief.
Other significant achievements during his illustrious tenure were the Combined Commander's Conference (CCC) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on board INS Vikramaditya in December last year, and the International Fleet Review (IFR) held at Visakhapatnam in February this year with participation from 50 maritime nations, 99 ships including 24 foreign warships and 4,000 sailors.
Frontline warships INS Kolkata, INS Kochi, INS Kamorta and INS Kadmatt and Naval establishments INS Sardar Patel and INS Vajrakosh were commissioned during the Admiral's tenure.
Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today sought to revisit the role of the Speaker while testing the majority of a government and implementing provisions of anti-defection law, as the Congress won the high-stakes trial of strength in the Uttarakhand Assembly.
"In the backdrop of what has happened in Uttarakhand, we have to revisit the Speaker's role vis-a-vis the issue of testing of majority and also in the implementation of anti- defection law," Naidu, also the Union Parliamentary Affairs minister said.
"I want the debate to take place in this country," he said, adding there has to be a time limit set for deciding on cases of anti-defection law.
The senior BJP leader also suggested that all public representatives once deciding to quit their party and join another should resign forthwith and may seek a fresh mandate.
The Minister said, "Any people's representative, be it an MLA or MP, if he changes his party and switches over his loyalty, he should forthwith resign as per the spirit of the Constitution and recontest."
He said if a public representative switches his loyalty to join another party "he should be disqualified immediately."
Incidentally, a number of Telugu Desam MLAs have joined TRS
in Telangana and those of YSR (Cong) joining Telugu Desam party in Andhra Pradesh, not evoking any action under the anti-defection law.
Asked about the role of the Uttarakhand Speaker in disqualifying the nine rebel Congress MLAs, Naidu asked what remedy was there if the Speaker of an assembly acts "wrongly" and not in conformity with laid Constitutional provisions.
"What alternative do you have. We have to revisit that and then take a call," he said.
To a question on the implications of the Harish Rawat government winning the floor test in voting today, the Minister said the Central government had done nothing wrong in imposing President's Rule in Uttarakhand after the breakdown of Constitution in the state.
The Congress today won the high-stakes trial of strength in the Uttarakhand Assembly, in a clear setback to the Modi government which had dismissed the state government and imposed President's Rule on March 28.
The floor test which was the culmination of a number of twists and turns in the political drama marked by court battles.
The result of today's floor test is expected to be formally announced tomorrow after a video recording of the 90-minute proceedings of the Assembly is presented in Supreme Court in a sealed envelope.
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The event organised by Bengaluru Central MP P C Mohan and PES University Chancellor M R Doreswamy and was also attended by BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa, former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka among others.
"Modiji has given Rs 6,000 crore to the textiles sector it will create one crore employment in the coming days, that's why he has put a dynamic minister Smriti Irani as in charge Minister of the textiles ministry, in the coming days you will see the changes," he said.
Irani was shifted from the key HRD ministry to textiles.
Expressing his commitment to the development of Karnataka and welfare of its people, Naidu also sought to clarify that he is not limited to any particular region or language.
Recollecting various instances when he had worked for getting things done for the state, he said, "I had never claimed credit for it".
Naidu, who had won three Rajya Sabha terms from Karnataka, was reelected from Rajasthan for the fourth term recently.
The National Green Tribunal today sought Art of Living (AOL) head Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's reply on an application which alleged the spiritual guru had termed its earlier order as "politically motivated".
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued the notice and asked Sri Sri to file a reply within two weeks on the plea which alleged that he had shown disrespect to the tribunal's order asking AOL to deposit Rs five crore as environmental compensation for a three-day cultural extravaganza held here from March 11.
During the hearing, the counsel representing the applicant referred to media reports and said action should be taken against the spiritual guru for the statement allegedly "scandalising the tribunal and interfering with dispensation of justice by the tribunal".
"Let reply to this application be filed then we will proceed with the matter in accordance with law. List this matter on May 25, 2016," the bench said.
During the hearing, it asked whether such statement was given by Sri Sri or was it reported only in the media.
AOL's advocate told the bench that the application was based only on media report and no such statement was given by Sri Sri.
Meanwhile, the tribunal reserved its order on AOL's plea seeking its nod to accept the fine, slapped for allegedly damaging Yamuna's biodiversity, as bank guarantee instead of "payment of balance amount" of Rs 4.75 crore out of the Rs 5 crore.
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On March 9, the green panel had cleared the decks for the three-day cultural extravaganza of AOL on the flood plains of Yamuna river but had imposed a fine of Rs five crore on it as environmental compensation.
It had slapped fine of Rs five lakh on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Rs one lakh on the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) for not discharging statutory functions.
The tribunal's order had come on the pleas by NGOs and environmentalists who had sought cancellation of the festival on the ground that it would seriously endanger the fragile ecosystem on the riverbed.
Nigeria's oil output has slumped to a 22-year low, figures showed today, because of pipeline sabotage and increasing unrest that has seen major companies evacuate staff.
Data compiled by Bloomberg indicated that output in Africa's biggest oil producer has fallen below 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first time since 1994.
Rebels seeking a fairer share of revenue for locals in the oil-rich southern delta are increasingly targeting facilities, posing a fresh security challenge for President Muhammadu Buhari.
The attacks have sparked fears of a repeat of violence and kidnappings that plagued the region in the 2000s and saw Nigeria's output cut by a third, slashing government revenue.
It also risks hitting crude supplies at a time when Nigeria's oil-dependent economy is facing a slump because of the fall in global prices.
Fresh queues at petrol stations around the country restarted this week, following speculation the government was to withdraw fuel subsidies that keep prices low at the pump. Last week, rebels from the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) group claimed responsibility for an attack on the Okan offshore facility operated by US oil major Chevron.
The company said on Saturday some 35,000 bpd of crude was lost, although some estimates have put the loss higher.
At the weekend, Anglo-Dutch giant Shell evacuated most of its staff from its Eja production facility near the Bonga field.
Local media said 98 personnel were airlifted to safety by helicopter, leaving a skeleton staff protected by the military. Shell's Nigerian subsidiary did not confirm the operation.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today launched the anti-liquor campaign in Jharkhand here and came down heavily on the state government for allegedly setting up liquor shops in Jharkhand-Bihar border.
Kumar, who was addressing an anti-liquor meeting organized by Nari Shangarsh Morcha, Dhanbad at Town Hall alleged that since liquor has been banned in Bihar, Jharkhand government has been setting up liquor shops in neighboring districts of Bihar.
"...And this was in violation of Excise Act 2000 which bans sale of wine within three km radius of a border," Kumar said, adding the Jharkhand government has enhanced the minimum quota of liquor shops by 40-50 per cent in adjacent districts to Bihar ever since the ban was imposed.
Asserting the "Anti-liquor campaign is voice of 50 per cent population of (women) and no one can crush it now," Kumar said the campaign, which began in Bihar, has taken momentum and would now spread to other parts of the country.
Kumar said the campaign would continue and whoever would call him from anywhere he would squeeze some time and go there to narrate success story of Bihar.
Former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (P) Babu Lal Marandi was present there and shared dais with Nitish Kumar.
Taking a dig at Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das over his comment that the state would adopt the Gujarat model not Bihar model, Nitish said that he (Raghubar Das) must follow Gujarat model which had banned liquor sale following creation of state.
"Ban on liquor is Gandhiji model and that is why he (Nitish ) now adopts it on the centenary year of Gandhiji's Champaran Satyagraha," he said.
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Nitish Kumar also refuted the claim of some Jharkhand ministers that tribals are against ban of liquor.
"Tribal people too are in favour of complete on liquor as several families have been ruined from liquor. So now they are coming out against it in public," he said.
Kumar, who came here from Bokaro amid tight security, faced a slogan-shouting crowd which ranted 'Nitish kumar Murdabad', mostly women, when he did not initially meet them as announced earlier.
Later, he interacted with them.
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In Bokaro, Nitish Kumar said domestic violence has gone down in Bihar following the ban on liquor.
"After the ban on liquor peace prevails in Bihar....Women are happy (as) there is no domestic violence," Kumar said while addressing JD(U)'s Jharkhand unit workers' convention here.
Pitching for a social change in every state, Kumar claimed that social prosperity has ushered in Bihar after the ban.
Stating that the women had demanded the ban on liquor before the formation of his government, the JDU president said he would continue to discharge the responsibility given to him ten years ago.
There is no evidence yet that a German man who today stabbed four people, killing one, had an Islamist motive, a spokesman for Bavaria state's interior ministry said.
"So far we have no evidence for an Islamist motive, but the investigation continues," said spokesman Oliver Platzer, after the prosecution service earlier mentioned an "apparently Islamist motive".
"We have found the man had psychological and drug problems," Platzer told AFP.
There will be no new registration of diesel-run taxis in the capital, the Supreme Court today directed but gave a breather to cabs having all India tourist permits to ply in the capital till the expiry of their permits.
"No new diesel taxis will be registered in Delhi. All registration of city taxis shall only be permitted only if the vehicles operate on dual-fuel (CNG/Petrol), or purely CNG or petrol. We make it clear that no new diesel vehicles can be registered as city taxis," a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said.
The apex court allowed existing All India Tourist Permit (AITP) diesel taxis to operate in the capital till the expiry of their permit, which is issued for a period of five years, and said no renewal of the same would be done.
New AITP permits will be labelled 'AITP-N' and holders will not be authorised to offer point-to-point (within city) services in NCR while existing AITPs will be converted to 'AITP-O' permits for NCR to provide point-to-point services, like those used by business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, the court added.
It, however, clarified that which are being allowed to ply will run subject to norms on safety, security, pricing and other clearances given by competent authorities.
"Safety and security is an important aspect as you must have seen some of the recent incidents," the bench observed.
The top court also said that AITP taxi would be allowed to carry out point to point travel service within NCT.
The bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri and R Banumathi, modified its earlier orders which barred diesel taxis from plying in NCR.
The order came after senior advocate Harish Salve, appointed as amicus curiae in the case, told the bench that the ban order has forced 64,500 taxis off the road leading to a trouble situation overnight.
He suggested that Centre should issue norms for regulating taxis having All India Permits and it should decide a way forward for non- .
"The Centre should give new tourism permits allowing taxis to cater to point to point travel services within NCR. Meanwhile, let the present situation continue till the Centre comes out with new Rules regulating them," Salve said.
Solicitor general Ranjit Kumar argued that NCR-specific rules would be difficult to formulate, as AITP rules were meant for the whole country.
IT industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) assured the court that all its future contracts would ensure that cabs will only be non- .
On April 30, the apex court had refused to extend the
deadline fixed for diesel taxis including those run by aggregators like OLA and UBER in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) for their conversion into less-polluting CNG mode.
The bench, while rejecting the plea that it would affect livelihood of poor drivers, had said that it can't keep on extending the time as there was technology available for conversion.
The court had on December 16 last year considered the contention of Salve that all diesel taxis be moved to CNG fuel within a reasonable time but not later than March 1, 2016.
"We, therefore, direct that all taxis including those operating under aggregators like OLA and UBER in the NCT of Delhi, plying under city permits shall move to CNG not later than March, 1," it had said and later extended the period to April 30.
Barack Obama will make a historic visit to Hiroshima this month to "highlight his continued commitment" to nuclear disarmament, becoming the first sitting US president to tour the site where America first dropped an atomic bomb in 1945, killing an estimated 140,000 people.
The White House today said that Obama, who has been often accused by critics of making an "apology tour" to the Middle East and Europe during the first year of his presidency for the misdeeds of the Bush administration, will visit Hiroshima when he travels to Japan and Vietnam from May 21 to 28.
"The President will make a historic visit to Hiroshima with Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said in a blog post that "in making this visit, the President will shine a spotlight on the tremendous and devastating human toll of war."
Rhodes said that Obama, a Nobel laureate, will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, a once-ruined site at the centre of the city dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombing, on May 27 where he will share his reflections on the significance of the site the events that occurred there.
But he reaffirmed that the US president is unlikely to seek apology for that chapter in the American history.
"He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward- looking vision focused on our shared future," Rhodes wrote.
The symbolic visit would come after months of debate and speculation. Obama will be joined with Prime Minister Abe, who is hosting the G-7 summit in Ise-Shima later this month.
In April, secretary of state John Kerry visited the city, where 140,000 people died after the bombing on August 6, 1945, including those who died from severe radiation exposure.
After a second bombing of Nagasaki - the World War II ended. But opinions remain divided whether their use ended the brutality of the war and avoided a US invasion of Japan.
Rhodes said Obama's visit will reaffirm US' long-standing commitment - and the President's personal commitment - to pursue peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.
"As the President has said, the United States has a special responsibility to continue to lead in pursuit of that objective as we are the only nation to have used a nuclear weapon," he said.
"That commitment has guided our efforts to promote non-proliferation and nuclear security - a theme at the heart of four Nuclear Security Summits that the President hosted - and to take concrete steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our security and in the policies of other global powers," Rhodes said.
This would be particularly sensitive for Obama's visit. This December marks the 75th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, in Obama's home state of Hawaii.
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This would also be Obama's final G-7 Summit participation.
"This gathering will enable G-7 leaders to advance common interests across the full range of economic and security priorities and to address pressing global challenges," Rhodes said.
Obama and Abe will meet bilaterally to further advance the US-Japan alliance, including their cooperation on economic and security issues as well as a host of global challenges.
Obama will reach Japan from Vietnam, his first stop.
In Vietnam, he will hold official meetings with Vietnam's leadership to discuss ways for the US-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership to advance cooperation across a wide range of areas, including economic, people-to-people, security, human rights, and global and regional issues.
In Hanoi, Obama will deliver a speech on US-Vietnam relations. During meetings and events in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Obama will discuss the importance of approving the Trans-Pacific Partnership this year.
In more bad for the drought-hit Marathwada, only two per cent water is left in dams in the parched region, while 15 per cent is left in the state, a meeting of Maharashtra Cabinet was informed here today.
This is a sharp fall from the 10 per cent water stock available in the Marathwada dams and 25 per cent in the entire Maharashtra at this time last year.
Water is being supplied to 10,500 villages and hamlets through 5,159 water tankers, an official said.
Altogether 397 cattle fodder camps are now operational in Beed, Latur, Osmanabad and Ahmednagar districts, the official said.
This is the fourth year of drought in Marathwada in the past five years. Each of its 8,522 villages have been affected for two consecutive years.
Latur in Marathwada has been getting water by a special "water train" filled at Miraj in western Maharashtra.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Prasad Harichandan today termed the trial of strength in Assembly as a "victory for democracy".
"It is a victory for democracy. It has silenced the Narandra Modi government which had called for a Congress-free India," Harichandan said in a statement.
Modi and the Sangh Parivar should realise that assault on the Constitution and constitutional machinery leads to such consequence, the OPCC Chief said adding the conspiracy against parliamentary democracy has been foiled because of High Court and the Supreme Court.
In Dehradun, Congress won the high-stakes trial of strength in the Assembly, in a clear setback to the Modi government which had dismissed the state government and imposed President's Rule on March 28.
The result of today's floor test is expected to be formally announced tomorrow after a video recording of the 90-minute proceedings of the Assembly is presented in the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope, but Congress MLAs claimed victory and BJP MLAs conceded as much.
Pakistani police today gunned down a tribesman at a hotel here after he was reported to have fired aerial shots and also opened fire on security personnel.
The incident occurred at the Bangash Hotel in interior Peshawar city that falls under the jurisdiction of Shah Qabool Police Station.
Police received information that a tribesman was firing aerial shots. He was firing shots at short intervals from the ventilator of his hotel room.
Police rushed to the site and the tribesman, hailing from North Waziristan Agency, started firing on them to which the police party retaliated.
The tribesman was killed in the police firing. He was identified as Aayah Jan, a retired employee of Frontier Corps.
The police recovered a pistol from his hotel room.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) during search operation in Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa arrested three terrorists.
The arrested terrorists were involved in attacks on security forces since 2009-2011. The arrested terrorists were shifted to an undisclosed location for further interrogation, sources said.
The ICIJ has published a massive trove of 'Panama Papers' information on detailed offshore holding of companies in various tax haven nations, including thousands of documents related to India linking close to 2,000 individuals, entities and addresses from the country.
"The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) publishes today (Monday) a searchable database that strips away the secrecy of nearly 214,000 offshore entities created in 21 jurisdictions, from Nevada to Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands," the consortium said in its latest message.
"The data, part of the investigation, is the largest ever release of information about offshore companies and the people behind them. This includes, when available, the names of the real owners of those opaque structures," it added.
A random check of the database for India displays about 22 offshore entities, 1,046 officers or individual links, 42 intermediaries and as many as 828 addresses within the country ranging from the tony and posh locations of metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to mofussil locations like that in Haryana's Sirsa, Bihar's Muzaffarpur and Madhya Pradesh's Mandasaur and state capital Bhopal.
The global body that brought out the first edition of the 'Panama Papers', by way of secret offshore data sourced from a Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, said that the information about a particular country could have "duplicates" as it reiterated that "there are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts".
"We do not intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly," the body said on its web portal as part of the disclaimer on the release of the offshore "leaks" database.
India, taking note of over 500 entities figuring during the release of the first set of names last month, had created a Multi-Agency Group comprising officers from various central investigative agencies like the Income Tax department, Financial Intelligence Unit, Reserve Bank of India and Foreign Tax and Tax Research under the Central Board of Direct Taxes apart from the Special Investigation Team on black money reviewing the probe in these cases.
India has sought help of the US in probing the Pathankot airbase terror attack under Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, Lok Sabha was informed today.
Minister of State for Home Affairs, Haribhari Parathibhai Chaudhary, in a written reply, said, "The National Investigation Agency (NIA), investigating the Pathankot Airbase terror attack case, has sought assistance from the USA authorities regarding investigation of the case.
"In this regard, one request under Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) has been sent to the USA."
The Minister also said a Letters Rogatory has been sent to China in connection with one of the cases related to ISIS probed by NIA.
"Besides, during the last India-China Joint Working Group meeting on counter terrorism held in India on November 4, 2015, the Chinese delegation was alerted about India's concerns on the nexus and close linkages between terrorist entities in the Af-Pak region and ISIL and other terrorist groups," he said.
Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte may release jailed communist rebels in an effort to restart peace talks aimed at ending a decades-old insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, an aide said today.
The aide said Duterte, set to be sworn into office on June 30 after a landslide election victory yesterday, signalled his readiness to discuss the release of a number of imprisoned rebels, a key factor in the breakdown of peace negotiations three years ago.
Incumbent leader Benigno Aquino ended talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines in 2013 over the rebels' demand for the unconditional release of their detained comrades that his government was unwilling to grant.
Duterte spokesman Peter Lavina said the president-elect would consider allowing exiled communist leaders to return for the talks, and review the status of "political prisoners".
Lavina suggested the new government would not be averse to releasing detained rebels so they could take part in the talks, and allow ailing ones get treatment outside of prison.
"It is important to release political prisoners suffering from ailments," Lavina said.
Duterte, a hardline mayor accused of running vigilante death squads that have killed more than a thousand crime suspects in Davao, is a friend of Netherlands-based Jose Maria Sison, who set up the communist party in 1968.
Last month during the election campaign Duterte won the release of five Davao policemen and a civilian taken hostage by the rebels' New People's Army guerrillas a week earlier.
At the start of the campaign in February, Sison said in a video interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper that the rebels were pleased all the would-be Aquino successors backed peace talks.
Sison claimed Duterte, his student in a political science subject at a Manila university in the 1960s, would consider a "coalition" as long as the communists disarmed.
Running for almost half a century, the communist insurgency has claimed 30,000 lives, according to military estimates.
The rebels' strength has dwindled to less than 4,000 fighters from a peak of more than 26,000 in the late 1980s, according to the military.
Geraldine Roman today celebrated overcoming "bigotry, hatred and discrimination" as results showed she had become the first transgender politician to win a congressional seat in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.
After her victory in yesterday's election, Roman, 49, is being seen by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community as a source of hope in a country where Church influence means divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage are banned.
"The politics of bigotry, hatred and discrimination did not triumph. What triumphed was the politics of love, acceptance and respect," Roman told AFP after her victory for a seat in Congress representing the farming province of Bataan just northwest of Manila.
Roman, a Catholic, said she was looking forward to becoming a lawmaker so she could respond to critics who dismissed her as a one-issue politician not to be taken seriously.
"I'm elated, very, very happy. I'm also excited to work. I realise that the burden is bigger because the stereotype of people about the LGBT is we are frivolous, that we have nothing substantial to say, so I have to prove them wrong," she said.
Roman will be the highest-ranking openly LGBT politician in the Philippines, where other lawmakers have refused to come out for fear of losing support from the Catholic Church and other religious groups.
A political neophyte, Roman will succeed her mother as representative of Bataan, where her family has been a political force for three generations. Her mother had to stand down after serving the maximum number of three terms.
Roman's father was a former congressman whose death in 2014 prompted her to consider continuing the family legacy.
Political families dominate Philippine politics, from the local to the national level, and belonging to such a dynasty was widely regarded as being crucial to Roman's success.
Still the constituents of Bataan overwhelmingly endorsed Roman, with the vote count showing she had secured 62 percent support.
"She is also a human being. We all have rights. It's not an issue to me that she is transgender," farmer Bern Salenga, 49, told AFP during a campaign sortie in Roman's home town before the election.
Roman has been living as a woman for two decades, and proudly wore a pearl necklace and pink lipstick while campaigning.
She had a successful career as senior editor at the Spanish Agency. She speaks Spanish, French and Italian and won a scholarship to study in Spain, where she met her partner of 18 years.
She underwent sex reassignment surgery, and legally changed her name and gender, in the 1990s - a recognition she wants other transgender people to have.
A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court seeking to restrain the Supreme Court collegium from recommending appointments to the higher judiciary and the government from acting on the recommendations till the system is "defect-free and fool-proof".
It also sought a restraint on the Centre from acting on Supreme Court's collegium recommendation recently for elevating three High Court Chief Justices and a senior lawyer to the apex court.
The plea was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva which asked "how can this recommendation be challenged".
The bench also declined to list the matter for hearing today despite a spirited attempt made by a Mumbai-based lawyer, Mathews J Nedumpara, when it was informed that a similar plea was likely to come up for hearing tomorrow.
The court said if the other matter is listed for hearing tomorrow then the petitioner can mention his plea also and get it listed for tomorrow.
In his plea, the petitioner also urged for a declaration that selection and appointment of judges of the apex court and High Court be made by advertising the vacancies to invite applications from all eligible candidates.
He said that hundreds and thousands of lawyers are of the view that appointment to such offices should be open to all eligible candidates and only "the best ought to be selected and appointed".
Nedumpara has also said that the applications received should be processed by a competent authority through "an open and transparent mechanism".
Recently the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India T S Thakur has recommended elevation of Chief Justice A M Khanwilkar of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud of the Allahabad High Court and Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan of the Kerala High Court to the Supreme Court.
The collegium also recommended the appointment of former Additional Solicitor General and senior advocate L Nageswara Rao as a Supreme Court judge.
The apex court's current strength of judges is 25, against the sanctioned strength of 31. With the elevation of three High Court Chief Justices and Rao the strength will go upto 29.
Nedumpara has sought directions "restraining the collegium consisting of the Chief Justice of India and four senior most Judges of the Supreme Court from making any recommendation for appointment of Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts".
He has also sought to "prohibit and restrain the Union of India from acting upon any such recommendation made by the collegium, and further to stay all further appointment of Judges till the collegium system is improved and rendered defect-free and foolproof."
The petitioner has also urged the court to declare that "no selection and appointment of Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts be made except by notification of the vacancies and invitation of applications from all eligible candidates."
The petitioner, who is leading a campaign titled 'National Lawyers' Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms', said "hundreds and thousands of lawyers, believe that the offices of the Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are public offices of great esteem which should be open to all eligible candidates and, if found to be deserving, the best ought to be selected and appointed."
The plea alleged that "a large section of the legal fraternity and the public at large, of the higher judiciary being dominated by the kith and kin of sitting and former Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, celebrity lawyers, Chief Ministers, Governors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today congratulated successful candidates of civil services examinations and conveyed good wishes for their new and exciting phase of lives.
"Congrats to all those who cleared the civil services exam. My good wishes as they commence a new & exciting phase of their lives.
"To those who couldn't clear - the disappointment is understandable but you must look ahead & work hard for your future endeavours. Good luck," Modi tweeted.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal congratulated the exam's topper Tina Dabi, who hails from the national capital.
"Congrats to Delhi girl Tina Dabi, topper of UPSC exam. I wish her a bright career," he said on twitter.
The results of 2015's civil services examination, which is conducted by Union Public Service Commission annually in three stages-- preliminary, mains and interview -- to select candidates for the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others, was declared today.
Delhi's Tina has achieved first rank. Railway service officer Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan from Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi-based Jasmeet Singh Sandhu, an Indian Revenue Service officer, have secured second and third rank respectively.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BA degree circulated by BJP is "authentic", the Delhi University said today, seeking to put a lid on the swirling row over his educational qualification and termed as "minor error" discrepencies in his marksheets and degree certificate, which the AAP has claimed are forged.
DU registrar Tarun Das said the university has all relevant records of Modi's graduation and downplayed mention of 1979 as the year of his passing out when he had actually cleared his BA a year earlier. He also sought to downplay variations in his name.
The clarification by the DU registrar came a day after two BJP heavyweights -- party president Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley -- released copies of Modi's BA and MA degrees while strongly rebutting AAP's allegations of those being fake.
"We have checked our records and it has been authenticated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's degree is authentic. He cleared the examination in 1978 and was awarded the degree in 1979," Das said.
When asked about discrepancies in calculation of marks and the marksheets being "typed ones" while other degrees issued by the university during that period, as alleged by AAP had handwritten details, Das said, "It is not possible to comment on every variation. I can only confirm that the degree is genuine".
Earlier an AAP delegation led by party leader Ashutosh went to the university seeking details of Modi's degree but authorities refused to meet them, saying there was no prior appointment. The AAP leaders have been given an appointment for tomorrow.
The AAP has rejected DU's clarification and challenged it to allow its leaders to inspect Modi's academic details in the university record.
Asked about discrepencies relating to Modi's name on his marksheets and degree certificate, the registrar said, "The discrepancies in names in two marksheets exist in university records as well."
"The university seeks to maintain privacy of any student who is getting enrolled with it. In view of the queries and reports in media, we would like to state that Narendra Damodardas Modi had qualified for degree of Bachelor of Arts. His enrollment number was CC 594/74 and his examination roll number was 16594," he said.
Asked about variations in Modi's names on the marksheets, Das said it is a common error as far as middle names are concerned. "Similar errors are often pointed out by other students as well which are rectified when requested."
On being asked about AAP's allegation as to why he was awarded the degree in 1979 when he graduated in 1978, Das said "It is difficult to comment on minor errors.
Rejecting DU's clarification, AAP asked why the varsity
was "afraid" of complying with the directions of the Central Information Commission to release the details.
"What are they trying to hide? The weak defence put forth by the university registrar, shrouded in secrecy, further strengthens the fact that the DU is under pressure of the central government to authenticate a forged degree and marksheets," the AAP said in a statement.
The party also released marksheets of two individuals where name, course name and marks are handwritten.
"We have two degrees of different individuals, one from 1978 and another from 1980. While in the other degrees all the details including the name, course name and marks are handwritten, it is only Modi's degree that has been typed.
"The ones forging the degree tried to be smart so that the handwriting doesn't get caught in forensic tests but they forgot to use the proper format as well," senior party leader Ashutosh told reporters.
Another AAP leader Sanjay Singh wondered why the DU had not heeded to the CIC order of making the degree public.
"Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley had yesterday made public (the degree and marksheets) and said the same can be verified with the university. We came to DU but there is an atmosphere of fear and we were not allowed to meet anyone.
"If his degree is so authentic then why is DU not making it public despite CIC orders. Why records are not being allowed to be inspected? We have to keep some facts before you and our doubts are coming true that the degree has been forged," said Singh.
AAP also questioned Jaitley's claim yesterday that Modi used to stay at the ABVP office during the period when he appeared for his BA examination.
"The Indira Gandhi government had clamped Emergency in 1975, which continued for 19 months. By Modi's own admission, he was underground during this period and was living disguised as a Sikh.
"Is it possible that he wrote the exam with his real identity disguised as a Sikh? The office of the ABVP was also sealed during the emergency period. How is it possible that Modi stayed in that sealed office?
"The story being given by the BJP leadership is full of lies," the party statement said.
The idom that you can't escape the long arm of the law has come true for Robert Stackowitz, who has been on the run for nearly 50 years.
Stackowitz was serving a 17-year sentence for robbery by force when he escaped the infirmary at the Carroll County Prison Work Camp in Carrolton, Georgia, on August 22, 1968, according to US authorities.
He was finally recaptured on Monday in Connecticut, the US Marshals Service said in a statement.
A break in the case came after investigators found a possible alias that Stackowitz was using.
"Investigators then discovered an address in Sherman, Connecticut, which was linked to the alias," the service said.
"US Marshals in the District of Connecticut acted upon this information and were able to locate and arrest Stackowitz without incident."
He is currently in jail in Connecticut awaiting extradition back to Georgia, CNN reported.
Puranik Builders has raised Rs 300 crore from global private equity (PE) player KKR to fund two residential projects in Pune.
"Puranik has signed a definitive agreement with KKR under which the developer will receive Rs 300 crore for the financing of two residential projects in Pune - Abitante and Aldea Espanola," the company said in a statement here.
"We consider this Rs 300 crore of funding as growth capital which will take the group to the next level and enable Puranik to achieve exponential growth," the company's Managing Director Shailesh Puranik said.
KKR finances projects from its real estate-focused non-bank finance company (NBFC), a vehicle which counts GIC of Singapore among its partners.
"We believe that the residential market in the Pune area offers compelling opportunities. We look forward to extending our relationship with Puranik and exploring opportunities with the group in future," KKR's director Yesh Nadkarni said.
Construction on both Aldea Espanola and Abitante projects -- in Baner and Bavdhan -- are currently underway and the company has so far completed and delivered three phases of construction in Aldea Espanola and expects to complete the remaining 3.5 million sq feet of construction for both projects, worth Rs 2,500 crore, in next 5-6 years.
Puranik has so far developed over 5 million square feet of real estate and is developing an additional 15 million sq ft.
In a blistering attack on Donald Trump, a top Democratic Senator has said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is the natural evolution of a party which spent eight years honing a platform that is anti-immigrant, anti-women and anti-working people.
"The Republican Party's chickens have come home to roost in the form of Donald J Trump," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said in a major speech on the Senate floor yesterday.
"The party of Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower - the party of these great men nominated a misogynistic, anti-Latino, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant xenophobe. The party of Teddy Roosevelt nominated a billionaire con-man who scams working people," he said.
The Nevada Senator alleged that Trump represented everything that Americans detest about a system that is rigged for the super-rich.
Here is a person who was born into immense wealth, but uses his father's fortune to rip people off and intimidate those who speak out against his shady business practices, Reid alleged.
"Here is a person who was gifted the resources to make a difference in this world. He really could be doing things to improve the lives of working Americans. Instead, he has only worked to build his own celebrity - his own brand. And he uses that fame as a bully pulpit to sow hatred and intolerance," he said.
Reid, 76, said that the rise of Trump was no accident.
"His nomination is not some mistake. Donald Trump is the natural evolution of a party that spent eight years honing a platform that is anti-immigrant, anti-women, anti-Obama and anti-working people," he said.
"It wasn't all that long ago that Republicans used to engage Democrats on policy. There was a time when we could work together on substantive legislation. I saw it. I felt it. It was wonderful. But that all ended when President Obama was elected. Senator McConnell ordered a total blockade of any policy proposed by President Obama and Democrats," Reid said.
He said it was a sad day for the US when the Republican Party trusts the judgment of a vile, swindling billionaire.
"But anyone who has been paying attention to what Republicans have been doing for the past eight years should not be shocked," Reid said, adding that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee and he would support her.
"I'm not hiding from that. Republican senators need to stop waffling about Donald Trump. Not going to the convention doesn't take away the fact that he's the Republican nominee," he said.
"I hear a number of Republican senators say, 'I'm not going to the convention. Well, that solves the problem, doesn't it? Republican senators need to say whether they're going to vote for this guy," Reid added.
Tribals living in the remote Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh will not have to travel over a 100 km into neighbouring Assam for treatment as a medical facility is coming up soon in Miao town.
Being built by the Miao Catholic diocese, the two-storeyed hospital at Injan village will have around 25 beds to begin with.
"There is a lot of public demand for a hospital in the area as the nearest hospital is 120 km away in Assam's Tinsukia. No other medical facility is functional nearby," Bishop George Palliparambil said during a visit to Kolkata.
Once ready by this year, the hospital will have very basic facility for treatment of diseases like TB, malaria and jaundice which are common in this part of the north-eastern state.
"People die there not due to some complicated health conditions but because of very ordinary diseases which are curable. Due to geographical distance, no medical attention is available to patients when they need it," the Bishop said.
The Salesian prelate said the building of the Krick and Bourry Hospital is ready and they are scouting for funds to buy equipment.
Besides nurses from Kerala, they will have two doctors to be available 24/7 at the facility.
The Catholic Church also has plans to start a training centre for nurses for availability of manpower.
Also on the cards is a volunteer programme for youngsters who will be trained as village health workers.
"Their task will be to identify the sick and bring him under medical supervision," the Bishop said.
The new pact to levy capital gains tax on investments coming through Mauritius may put foreign portfolio investors in a fix and the impact is likely to be reflected in stock markets tomorrow with experts expecting the cost of foreign investments to go up.
Tax exemption on capital gains would be done away with in the case of investments from Singapore also.
The "colossal tax development" would have a significant impact for institutional investors as well as private companies which have been routing their funds into India through Mauritius, according to analysts.
Investments from Mauritius and Singapore account for a big chunk of foreign portfolio funds coming into the Indian stock market.
While there was no immediate reaction from leading foreign investors, the decision on capital against tax is largely expected to have its impact on the stock market.
"This is a colossal tax development and will have a significant impact for numerous institutional funds, asset managers and private companies which have used the Mauritius route to invest into India," Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP's Partner Rajesh H Gandhi said.
Analysts felt that the revised treaty would raise costs for foreign funds investing in India.
"With this change, the capital gains tax concession for investments from Mauritius into India gradually comes to an end. Further, this will also impact the similar benefit under the India-Singapore treaty.
"It will be interesting to see as to what impact this amendment will have on FPI/ FII investments into India eventually," Girish Vanvari, who is National Head of Tax at KPMG in India said.
After years of negotiations, India and Mauritius today inked protocol for amendment of the Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) whereby capital gains tax would be imposed at 50 per cent -- for two years starting from April 1, 2017 -- on investments coming from the island nation.
The full rate of capital against tax would be applicable on investments from Mauritius from April 1, 2019.
Experts said the decision to grandfather investments up to March 31, 2017, and giving a year's time to graduate to the taxation system will lend tax certainty to investments.
BMR Legal Managing Partner Mukesh Butani said the amendment will lend "certainty to investors on the applicability of treaty as investors have been nervous on the future of the Mauritius treaty".
Nangia & Co Managing Partner Rakesh Nangia said with a major part of FDI coming through Mauritius, many may argue that this is an unfortunate step in terms of the timing and the situation where a significant amount of reallocation is happening in terms of global investors from India to many other markets.
"But the way the treaty changes have been proposed to be implemented is very well-balanced," Nangia said.
Experts also said the revised tax treaty would expedite
investments that were waiting in the wings as tax concessions will be available till April next only.
On the other hand, the new pact with Mauritius provides certainty to foreign investors, especially considering that GAAR would be in force next year.
Gandhi noted that Singapore becomes a less attractive destination for investment into India because the capital gains tax exemption under the Singapore treaty will also be automatically removed.
"There is a proposal to provide for a concessional tax rate for two years ie gains accrued during 2017-18 and 2018-19 which makes Mauritius apparently better than Singapore for those two years," he said.
Under the amended treaty, the concessional rate would apply to a Mauritius resident company that can prove that it has a total expenditure of at least Rs 27 lakh in the African island nation and is not a 'shell' company with just a post office address.
Rahul K Mitra, who is National Head of BEPS & Tax Dispute Resolution at KPMG in India said while the amendment is not likely to impact FDI flow in India.
"For FIIs, investing in listed shares on the stock market, capital gains on shares held for more than 12 months would any way continue to be exempt from tax," he added.
While short-term capital gains are taxed at 15 per cent in India, they are exempt in Mauritius. Capital gains arising out of long term investments of 12 months is exempt from taxes in India.
Manoj Purohit, who is Director at Grant Thornton Advisory Pvt Ltd said the amendment would have a greater impact on the FDI of India coming from Mauritius as well as Singapore considering the co-terminus clause in India-Singapore treaty with India-Mauritius treaty.
"On the other hand, it will also provide a great relief to the bonafide investors as it would give them a clarity of taxation and end the litigation on treaty abuse," he noted.
Calling the long-awaited amendment "a mixed bag", Khaitan & Co's spokesperson Daksha Baxi said, "All the investments which were waiting in the wings would probably get expedited... It remains to be seen how the change in the India-Mauritius treaty impacts the exemption under the India-Singapore treaty," he added.
Another issue that needs to be addressed would be about re-negotiating the India-US treaty to get "resourcing" rule incorporated in that treaty similar to what that country has with many other countries including China.
"Currently, the source rules in the US prevent US resident from claiming credit for the Indian capital gains taxes against the US capital gains tax liability.
"If India succeeds in renegotiating the India-US treaty within this transition period, the US investor would be less weary and concerned about the capital gains tax incidence in India," Baxi noted.
Comedian Russell Brand and his girlfriend Laura Gallacher are reportedly expecting a baby together.
The 40-year-old actor and his on/off girlfriend Laura Gallacher, 28, are set to welcome their first child into the world in just four months' time, reported Female First.
"Russell might have bedded many of the world's most stunning women but now it's all about Laura and becoming a dad," a source said.
"They have been living as a couple for the last six months and are determined to make a go of their relationship. It feels like a new chapter in their lives and the couple are enjoying every moment, including discussing baby names," the insider said.
Laura, the younger sister of TV presenter Kirsty Gallacher, first began romancing Russell in 2006 but their relationship was short-lived and it came crashing down in 2007.
They then set tongues wagging about a possible reunion when they were spotted looking cosy again in public in 2009.
Their chemistry seemingly fizzled out and they've lived separate lives, dating new people, until they rekindled their relationship last year in Rome.
Britain, France, the US and Ukraine have blocked a Russian request to add two Syrian rebel groups to a UN terror blacklist and sideline them from the Syrian peace process, diplomats said.
Russia had requested that Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) and Ahrar al-Sham be added to the sanctions list for their ties to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Adding names to the UN sanctions list requires a consensus decision from the 15-member council and after objections were raised by the four countries, Russia's request was rejected.
"Russia publicly attempting to designate groups that are parties to the cessation of hostilities could have damaging consequences to the cessation just as we are trying to de- escalate the situation on the ground," said a spokesperson for the US mission to the United Nations yesterday.
"Now is not the time to shift course, but rather double- down on our efforts toward a reduction in violence."
Jaish al-Islam is a member of the Higher Negotiations Committee (HNC) that is taking part in negotiations in Geneva to end the five-year war in Syria.
The Saudi-backed rebel group is the most important in Damascus province.
Ahrar al-Sham is among the most powerful Islamist rebel groups in Syria.
Financed by Turkey and Gulf states, it has fought alongside the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, around Aleppo and in neighbouring Idlib province.
The dispute over the sanctions list came amid word from Moscow yesterday that the 17-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) would meet in Vienna on May 17 to try to get peace efforts back on track.
An attempt last year by the ISSG to come up with a single list of "terrorist" groups in Syria fell apart after scores of names were submitted from all sides.
A Security Council diplomat, who spoke on condition he not be named, said blacklisting the two groups would be "seriously counter-productive, damaging both efforts to maintain the cessation of hostilities and resume peace negotiations in Geneva."
He argued that isolating them from the mainstream opposition would result in a more hardline stance and drive them away from the search for a political settlement.
"It would provide a pretext for yet more moderate areas to come under target," he said.
The Damascus regime has consistently branded all its opponents - armed or not - "terrorists" since the outbreak of war in 2011.
The Delhi High Court today asked all app-based cab aggregators, including Ola and Uber, plying here to give details of their drivers and get their antecedents checked by police, saying safety of passengers can not be "compromised" with.
"I cannot compromise with the safety of passengers using taxi services in Delhi," Justice J R Midha said, asking Delhi government and police to check whether all drivers are driving taxis with valid licence.
"All taxi operators are directed to give details of their drivers along with their taxis registration numbers, details of driving licence within two weeks," the court said, adding that "we have to ensure that no passengers are harmed by any of the drivers in future."
"If someone comes from abroad to Delhi and hires a taxi and if a driver commits a crime, who will be held responsible? There should be some safeguard," the court observed.
On the basis of information given by taxi operators, it asked the authorities concerned to check the "criminal antecedents" of the drivers within two weeks thereafter.
To which, the counsel appearing for some of the app-based aggregators said they have no objection to it keeping in mind the safety of the public at large.
The court also asked the government to file an affidavit with regard to the status of its direction within four weeks.
The court, however, clarified that there should be no duplication of verification in cases where Delhi government has already carried out such exercise recently and granted licence to some of the operators to ply in Delhi.
"If they (all taxi operators) do not comply with the order of this court, Delhi government can move the court for further direction," the judge said and listed the matter for July 22.
The court's direction came during the hearing of a plea filed by Magic Sewa which has alleged that certain unlicensed taxi aggregators "have been disdainfully violating" government's notification on fares by charging very low amounts like Rs five per km or as high as Rs 38 per km.
The court had asked the government to convene a meeting with representatives of app-based cab operators, which are allegedly operating "illegally", to see if they are interested in getting fresh licence from the government.
The court, however, was today informed by the government
that a meeting was called but certain issues still remain to be clarified and they were going to bring a regulation which will cover all taxi operators.
Magic Sewa has said this was an urgent issue as during the ongoing odd-even car-rationing scheme, app-based taxi service operators were flouting fare rules and charging exorbitant fares.
It has alleged that unlicensed taxi aggregators "also charge the so-called 'peak time charge' or 'surge price' over and above the normal fares on a day and time of their own choosing. This 'peak time charge' or 'surge price' could be as high as five times the normal fare published by the unlicensed taxi aggregators".
It has also alleged that app-based cab companies were not complying with the City Taxi Scheme, 2015 or the fares notified under Motor Vehicles Act.
Ola and Uber, however, opposed the contention raised in the petition, saying they have all India permit licence and are not governed by Delhi government's scheme as this lies in the central government's domain.
Senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra, appearing for Delhi government, had said companies cannot be allowed to charge more than prescribed rates of fare in the shape of 'surge price' or 'peak time charge'.
He had further submitted that to "regulate auto rickshaws and taxi services, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) under relevant provisions introduced a scheme called 'City Taxi Scheme 2015' vide notification dated August 26, 2015.
State oil giant Saudi Aramco, which could soon become the world's largest listed company, will keep expanding despite low crude prices, its president said today.
"Saudi Aramco will continue to expand," Amin al-Nasser told reporters during a tour of the company's headquarters on Saudi Arabia's Gulf Coast in Dhahran, where it drilled its first test well in 1935.
Even though the current situation "is challenging, it is an excellent opportunity for growth," said Nasser, as the oil industry worldwide reels from the collapse in oil prices.
As part of the Saudi Vision 2030 unveiled last month, the OPEC kingpin announced it will sell less than five percent of Aramco in what officials say will be the world's largest-ever initial public offering.
Proceeds from the sale will contribute to creating the biggest government investment fund in the world, with a value of USD 2 trillion, whose profits can provide an alternative to plunging oil revenues.
With demand "increasing", Nasser stressed that Saudi Aramco "will meet the call," noting that the company which monopolises all production in the kingdom pumped an average of 10.2 million barrels per day last year.
Production at Shaybah oil field in the kingdom's east is increasing, he added without giving figures.
Bloomberg reported last month that Aramco will complete an expansion of the Shaybah field by the end of May, allowing the world's largest exporter to maintain total capacity at 12 million barrels a day.
The move will see Shaybah's capacity rise from 750,000 barrels to one million barrels a day.
Saudi Arabia today executed one of its citizens convicted of murder, raising to 92 the number of death sentences carried out this year in the kingdom.
Mohsen al-Dosari was found guilty of stabbing to death another Saudi man following a dispute, the interior ministry said in a statement.
Most people put to death in Saudi Arabia are beheaded with a sword
Murder and drug trafficking cases account for the majority of Saudi executions, although 47 people were put to death for "terrorism" on a single day in January.
According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia had the third-highest number of executions last year -- at least 158.
That was far behind Pakistan, which executed 326, and Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran, which executed at least 977, said Amnesty, whose figures exclude secretive China.
The Supreme Court today directed Maharashtra government to grant licenses to eight dance bars within two days and asked them to give an undertaking that they would not engage employees with criminal antecedents near the dance area.
"It is directed that an undertaking shall be given by appellants who have filed application that they shall not engage employees in the bar and dance area whose names have been mentioned in the affidavit given by the state.
"The undertaking shall be issued by tomorrow and the licenses shall be issued by day after tomorrow," a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh said.
Maharashtra government had filed an affidavit in the court informing the bench that they had not granted licenses to eight dance bars as they found some of their employees with criminal antecedents.
Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing for Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said not a single license has been issued till date.
He submitted that as FIR has been lodged against some employees of the bars, licenses were not being issued to them on the ground that they have criminal antecedents.
"Unless a person is convicted under the offence, he cannot be termed as a criminal. The licenses are being delayed on one pretext on the other," he said.
On the issue of increasing the height of railing adjacent to the dance stage, Bhushan told the bench that such deficiencies have been addressed.
During the hearing, one of the counsel said that criminal antecedents of dancers should also be looked into and conditions be imposed on them.
The court took strong note of this and said "are you trying to convey to us that they are criminals? Nobody can earn livelihood if they are convicted. We want to save the dignity of women.
"You want to take away means of their livelihood. Dignity of women has to be maintained and no obscenity of any kind would be allowed," the bench said.
The court has fixed the matter for further hearing on May 13.
(Reopen LGD23)
Earlier, the apex court had rapped Maharashtra government for not granting licenses to dance bars on account of non-compliance of some of the conditions and said it is better for women to perform than begging on the streets or doing something "unacceptable" for earning livelihood.
The bench, however, had acknowledged plea of Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for Maharashtra, that the state has to ensure that there is no "obscenity" in dance bars and the dignity of women is protected there.
It had asked all dance bars to get antecedents of their employees checked by local police, besides installing CCTV cameras at all entry points of dance bars.
The court had also asked dance bars to adhere to conditions like there should be railings to demarcate performance area with the place where audience will sit and watch.
Simultaneously, it had ordered police not to ask the dance bar applicants to furnish NoCs from municipal bodies, health and fire departments on the grounds that these documents must have been sought when the hotel or restaurants had come into being.
Prior to this, the court had rejected certain conditions like providing live CCTV footage to police on the performances in the dance bars and asked Maharashtra government to grant licenses to owners within 10 days after they complied with modified guidelines.
The bench had granted three days to dance bar owners to comply with the modified conditions.
The court had modified conditions of separating the dance stage and audience areas by a railing and said a three-feet high railing will be put up in the front. The bench had also allowed verification of criminal antecedents of dance performers and setting up of greenrooms for them.
Among other conditions which the court allowed was putting up of non-transparent partition between restaurant and permit room area and the petitioner Indian Hotels and Restaurant Association agreed to it.
The bench also said that permit area or the stage cannot be altered without prior permission of the competent statutory authority.
The Association had objected to the condition that makes it compulsory for dance bar owners to "ensure that adequate number of CCTV cameras which will live feed continuously to police control room be installed to cover the entire premises.
Alleging "undermining" of press freedom in Chhattisgarh, scores of journalists from the state today protested at the Jantar Mantar here and demanded release of the scribes who have been arrested there.
The protesters who hailed from various districts of Chattisgarh, alleged that journalists in the state are being "intimidated" by the administration and "self-styled vigilante" groups.
They also held black banners and placards bearing messages like 'journalism is not a crime' and 'stop illegal detention'.
The journalists demanded that the state government ensure an environment where they could report freely, especially in regions like Bastar, without the fear of being linked with Maoists.
"Every journalist is being intimidated by police. There is a nexus between administration and vigilante group to ensure that the journalists do not report truth," alleged Kamal Shukla, editor of Bhumkal Samachar, a Bastar-based newspaper.
Journalists from Chattisgarh had formed Patrakaar Suraksha Kanoon Sanyukt Sangarsh Samiti after the arrest of two local reporters last year in what the fraternity has alleged were "fabricated cases". The protest today was led by the Samiti.
Two other journalists were also arrested and another was made to leave Bastar, journalists associated with the Sangharsh Samiti alleged.
"We are being harassed on trumped-up charges of having links with the Maoists. Police want us to become their mouthpiece," claimed Kamal Chauhan of a weekly newspaper Rajat Khabar.
Meanwhile, global human rights body Amnesty International has demanded release of four journalists who have been arrested for writing "against" the state government.
"We demand that the Raman Singh government release four journalists who have been arrested for writing against the state government," the rights body said in a statement.
Earlier in March, a three-member fact-finding team of Editors Guild of India in its report had claimed that there is "a sense of fear" in Bastar and every journalist working there feels that he/she is "not safe.
With a tough-talking Filipino politician claiming victory in the presidential polls, China today called for a fresh start in ties with Manila amidst their raging row over the disputed South China Sea.
China, which has been dragged to a UN tribunal over maritime disputes by the Philippines, is on the defensive as it believes the tribunal's verdict may go against it adding a new dimension to the SCS in which the US is playing a major role.
With the unofficial count of votes showing longtime Davao city mayor Rodrigo Duterte winning the Philippine presidential election, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said: "China hopes the Philippines' new government can work in the same direction with China, properly handle our differences and get bilateral ties back on track with concrete actions."
Asked for China's reaction to Duterte's election, Lu told reporters here that China has always attached great importance to maintaining relations with the Philippines.
"However, China-Philippines ties have suffered from severe difficulties in recent years, due to well-known reasons," he said, alluding to the maritime disputes in the SCS, one of the world's most strategically-important waterways.
China and the Philippines have endured steadily worsening relations in recent years as they sparred over joint claims to parts of the SCS.
The Philippines has signed a new defence pact with the US and filed a legal challenge with a UN tribunal asking it to rule the Chinese claims to most of the sea invalid.
Duterte has called for multilateral talks involving the United States and Japan as well as rival claimants to resolve these disputes, but Lu ruled out this possibility.
He said China advocates the dual-track approach proposed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Under this, the directly concerned states would negotiate in line with international law while China and ASEAN countries would work together to maintain regional peace and stability.
China has ratcheted up its rhetoric over the SCS amid a report that a tribunal constituted under the UN Convention on Law of Seas (UNCLOS) - hearing the Philippines petition - is set to deliver its verdict in the next few months.
China has boycotted the tribunal's proceedings claiming it was illegal.
China claims the whole of SCS. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the area.
Capital markets watchdog Sebi today ordered Bharat Krishi Samridhi Industries' former director Basir Uddin Khan to refund the money illegally raised from the public to investors.
The company had mobilised funds from the public through issuance of redeemable preference shares (RPS) and non-convertible redeemable debentures (NCDs) in 2012 and 2013 without complying with the public issue norms.
The order comes after Sebi found that Khan was director in Bharat Krishi Samridhi Industries from June 30, 2011, to March 1, 2013, when the company had decided to issue NCDs and RPS.
"The noticee (Khan) was a director in the company during the period when the decisions regarding issue of RPS and NCDs were taken and also when monies were mobilised as subscription amounts against such securities," Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said.
"Accordingly, the noticee shall also be responsible and liable along with the others in the board for all the deeds/acts of the company during the period of his directorship," it added.
The regulator, in its order in October 2015, had noted that Bharat Krishi Samridhi Industries and its directors made a public issue of RPS and NCDs without complying with the public issue norms mandated under the Companies Act.
Accordingly, Sebi ordered the firm and its directors to repay the money to investors. However, the direction was not issued against Khan.
Now, in an order passed today, the regulator said Khan "shall, jointly and severally along with the company and others as ordered vide Sebi dated October 9, 2015, forthwith refund the money collected by the company through the offer and issuance of RPS and NCDs to the investors... With an interest of 15 per cent per annum."
Besides, he was barred from the securities markets for four years and the ban will continue till the completion of refund to investors.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet-headed by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has approved Tyagi's appointment for a period not exceeding five years or till the age of 65 years, it said.
58-year-old Tyagi hails from Uttar Pradesh.
As per the eligibility criteria, a person can hold the position of Sebi chairman till the age of 65 years or for a term decided by the government.
Sinha, a 1976 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, had assumed office as the Sebi chairman on February 18, 2011, when the previous UPA government was in power.
He was later given a two-year extension. Days before the end of his tenure in February last year, he was given another extension till March 1, 2017.
Many senior bureaucrats, including some Secretary-level officers, were in contention for the top post of capital market regulator.
Tyagi for a short while was also on the board of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The process for selecting the next chief of the Sebi started in September 2015, pursuant to which several applications were received for the position.
"Keeping in view the role and importance of Sebi as a regulator, it is desirable that persons with high integrity, eminence and reputation preferably with more than 25 years of professional experience and in the age group of 50-60 years may apply," the Finance Ministry had said while inviting applications for the post.
However, the government had in February last decided to give a one-year extension to Sinha to ensure stability due to volatile market conditions.
Sebi chairman receives consolidated pay package of Rs 4.5 lakh per month.
Besides chairman and whole-time members, the Sebi board includes independent members and nominees of Finance Ministry, Corporate Affairs Ministry and the RBI.
Italian food chain Slice of Italy plans to open 10 outlets in India this fiscal taking its total number to 25 in the country.
"We are looking to add 10 more outlets this fiscal, taking the total count to 25 outlets. We are also planning to launch an...App for customers in the near future for order bookings, safe and secure transactions and quickest deliveries," Slice of Italy MD Tarun Chaudhary said.
The company will open new outlets in Delhi NCR and tier II cities such as Chandigarh, Shimla, Mussoorie, Haridwar, Dehradun, Amritsar and Jaipur.
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Aviva India appoints C Shankar as Chief Ops, IT and CSO * Aviva Life Insurance today said it has appointed C Shankar as the Chief of Operations, IT and Customer Services Officer.
Shankar will be based out of Aviva Life Insurance's head office in Gurgaon, a company statement said.
"I am sure Shankar will contribute significantly towards Aviva India's continuous endeavours of producing positive customer outcomes and in the process, play an important role in building the company's future," Aviva India MD and CEO Trevor Bull said in a statement.
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Samsung India unveils smart range of series * Samsung India today introduced a new smart range of air conditioners and showcased India's first digital inverter compressor in direct cool single door refrigerator series.
The new range of ACs are equipped with multijet plus technology powered by DuraFin to beat the soaring temperature with improved performance and energy savings, Samsung India Electronics Vice President, Consumer Electronics, Rajeev Bhutani told reporters.
With meaningful innovation at its core, the new product series of ACs meets the performance, energy savings and design needs of Indian consumers, he added.
ICICI Prudential AMC elevates S Naren as executive director
* Private sector mutual fund house ICICI Prudential AMC has elevated its chief investment officer S Naren to the post of executive director.
ICICI Prudential AMC is the largest asset management company in the country with assets under management of Rs 1,79,403.46 crore as on March 31.
The company's board has approved the appointment of S Naren, as executive director on the board of ICICI Prudential AMC, subject to regulatory and other necessary approvals, a company statement said.
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Pepperfry appoints Neelesh Talathi as CFO * Online furniture market place Pepperfry has appointed Neelesh Talathi as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
In this role, Talathi will lead strategy, financial planning, accounting, legal and corporate affairs for Pepperfry.Com, the company said in a statement today.
Prior to joining Pepperfry, he was the CFO at Vedanta's iron ore division.
Pepperfry Founder and CEO Ambareesh Murty said, "his rich and diverse finance and operating experience will help us leverage scalable best practices as we continue to build a high growth, high margin and highly differentiated business."
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Morepen Labs posts Q4 net profit of Rs 2.76 cr * Morepen Laboratories today reported a standalone net profit of Rs 2.76 crore for the quarter ended march 31, 2016.
The company had posted a net loss of Rs 3.71 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Morepen Laboratories said in a filing to BSE.
Standalone total income from operations of the company stood at Rs 123.59 crore for the quarter under review as against Rs 85.25 crore for the year ago period.
For the fiscal ended March 31, 2016 the company posted a net profit of Rs 15.77 crore. It stood at Rs 58.23 lakh in the same period year ago.
Standalone total income from operations also rose to Rs 452.46 crore for the recently ended fiscal from Rs 370.26 crore for the year ago period.
Repco Home Finance Jan-Mar qtr net rises 21% at Rs 42 cr
* Repco Home Finance today said its standalone net profit rose by 21.3 per cent to Rs 42.22 crore for last quarter ended March 2016.
Company's net profit stood at Rs 34.81 crore in the corresponding period of 2014-15.
Total income during the last quarter of 2015-16 increased to Rs 240.29 crore as against Rs 191.39 crore in the previous fiscal, it said in a regulatory filing.
For the entire fiscal 2015-16, Repco Home's net profit increased by 22 per cent to Rs 150.08 crore from Rs 123.08 crore in the previous fiscal.
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Rays Power Infra commissions 11.5 mw solar proj in Telangana * Solar Energy firm Rays Power Infra Pvt Ltd has announced the commissioning of 11.5 mw solar PV project in Telangana.
"The 11.5 mw project's execution work had commenced in January this year and was commissioned in 3 months," the company said in a statement today.
Undertaken by Rays Power Infra on turnkey basis, the project was meticulously executed from land acquisition till its successful commissioning.
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Textiles Min, NDTV Ethnic Retail ink pact to promote handloom * Textiles Ministry today signed an agreement with NDTV Ethnic Retail to foster adoption of handloom products among youth to enable cooperation for marketing linkages and incubation facilities.
The initiative will promote premium handloom products to make them fashionable for younger generation and connect fashion designers with handloom in an institutionalised manner.
"NDTV Ethnic Retail will provide marketing support whereas we will provide incubation facilities," Development Commissioner (Handlooms) Alok Kumar told
A group of farmers in a small village of Gujarat's Kheda district are no longer dependent just on agriculture for livelihood, they are now members of unique 'solar cooperative society' set up with the efforts of an international research organisation.
Secretary of Dhundi Solar Ujra Udpadak Sahakari Mandali, formed last year in November in Dhundi village of Kheda, Pravin Parmar said monthly income of about 16 farmers, members of the society, will now increase by nearly Rs 4,500, thanks to solar power plants installed in their farms.
Non-profit organisation International Water Management Institute (IWMI), headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka, under a pilot project installed six solar power panels at fields of six farmers in the village with a population of about 1,500, its senior fellow Anand-based economists Neha Durga and Tushaar Shah said.
Under the project, they said, the power generated will be sold to state discom, Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (MGVCL), besides use for irrigation purposes.
IWMI has installed the six panels in the last six months and simultaneously persuaded some farmers, including Pravin Parmar, to form a cooperative society to get optimum benefit out of the project, they said.
"A large number of farmers in the village don't use electricity in their fields as diesel pumps are very costly. There was a greater readiness among farmers to participate in this. They were also willing to contribute their hard-earned money for the project," Durga said.
Parmar said that IWMI has invested Rs 6 lakh for the panels, adding that a power purchase agreement (PPA) has been signed between Dhundi Solar Ujra Udpadak Sahakari Mandali and MGVCL under which farmers have started selling the power generated by the solar panels at the rate of Rs 4.63 per unit from today onwards.
"As per government norms, a cooperative society should have a minimum of 11 members, while our society has 16," he said.
Chairman of Mandali, Laxman Parmar said, "We are small farmers, we took the risk as we believe in cooperative model like successful Amul. Earlier, farmers spent about Rs 750 per day on fuel to electric pumps. Many of them gave up on using pumps as it required huge money.
Two sisters were allegedly attacked by a man, who was stalking one of them for the last few days, in Mewla Maharajpur village here, leaving them injured.
Tabassum and Tarannum, who are teachers in a nearby private school, were yesterday attacked by their neighbour Pankaj, who was in an inebriated state, police said.
The incident occurred at around 1.30 PM when the sisters were alone at their home as their parents went to Delhi. Pankaj, who was armed with an iron rod and a knife, barged into their home and hit Tarannum with the rod, police said.
As she rushed outside screaming for help, he stabbed Tabassum and injured her hands and legs, they said.
The victims were rushed to a nearby hospital.
Tabassum accused Pankaj of stalking her on her way to school and throwing pieces of paper carrying his mobile number at her, a police spokesperson said.
She also alleged that a fortnight ago the accused had poured water and threw empty liquor bottles over their courtyard.
The accused was arrested and upon medical examination it was confirmed that he was intoxicated.
A probe is on in the matter.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said he was surprised by the Supreme Court directive to his state government to give licences to eight dance bars within two days.
"I am surprised by the Supreme Court directive. Since the state has repealed the old act, now permission can only be given under new act. If the hotels or restaurants which have asked for licence do not comply with the conditions of the act would it be legal to grant them licence," he told reporters.
"The court order fails to appreciate the legislative competence of the state legislature which has unanimously enacted a law. If somebody complies with all the conditions under this law, state will issue the licence but how can state act against the provisions of law which it has enacted," Fadnavis asked.
"If the state in any eventuality acts contrary to the law to deny the licence, the aggrieved person is at liberty to approach the high court," the Chief Minister added.
"The state government will once again put this view in front of honourable Supreme Court," he said.
The apex court today directed Maharashtra government to grant licences to eight dance bars within two days and asked them to give an undertaking that they would not engage employees with criminal antecedents near the dance area.
"It is directed that an undertaking shall be given by appellants who have filed application that they shall not engage employees in the bar and dance area whose names have been mentioned in the affidavit given by the state.
"The undertaking shall be issued by tomorrow and the licences shall be issued by day after tomorrow," a bench comprising justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh said.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav today expressed grief over the recent death of a youth in Gaya in a road rage case but alleged BJP and "BJP supported media" were targetting the state government through use of word like "jungle raj."
"The BJP and media supported by the party are advertising the Gaya incident in a way as if it is a rare and first incident of road rage," Tejaswi Yadav, the son of RJD president Lalu Prasad said in a statement as part of "Dil ki Baat" programme run by him.
"If a relative of any accused is member of a party (it) does not mean that the lawbreaker enjoys protection of the power that be," he said.
The Deputy CM in the Nitish Kumar government and younger son of Lalu Prasad alleged that the saffron party has maximum numbers of people with criminal background who enjoy its patronage.
"In Madhya Pradesh an officer was killed brutally by sand mafias. In VYAPAM scam witnesses were killed one by one...Then this is not called a 'jungle raj'," he said.
"When an engineer was killed in Jharkhand neither conscience of BJP was pricked nor the BJP-supported media remembered 'jungle raj' jumla (euphism)," he added.
Tejaswi referred to violence during quota agitation in Gujarat and Haryana to hit at BJP.
The RJD leader came down heavily on a larger section of media, print as well electronic, "which is singing in tune with a particular party (BJP) after giving a go-bye to principles of journalism".
Tejaswi Yadav said "our supporters neither express opinion by sending SMS to prime time channel nor air views on facebook and twitter. They give answer only by pressing EVM button at the time of election."
He strongly defended the grand secular alliance government in the state and asserted rule of law prevails and would continue to be like that in future too.
Three Naxals, two of them carrying cash rewardson their heads, have been arrested from two separate places in the insurgency-hit Bastar division of Chhattisgarh, police said today.
Two cadres, identified as Deva Muchaki (23) and Podiyami Gagru (25), were nabbed today by Dantewada police from Marjoom forests under Tongpal police station limits of neighbouring Sukma district, Dantewada Additional Superintendent of Police Gorakhnath Baghel told PTI.
The duo was allegedly involved in the recent encounter between a joint team of security forces and ultras in Marjoom area on May 7, in which two rebels were killed.
"They were also wanted in several other incidents, including attacks on police party. They were carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh each on their heads," he said.
In a separate incident, a Maoist commander identified as Barsuram Jurri (38), was nabbed from Tiralgarh village forests area under the jurisdiction of Bande police station in Kanker district last evening,a police official said.
A team of district police force had launched a combing operation, to the interiors of Bande, located around 300 km from the state capital Raipur.
While cordoning off Tiralgarh forest, they spotted a suspect and arrested him after chasing him for some distance.
"During his interrogation, the rebel admitted his involvement with the Naxal movement as being the Janmilitia Platoon Commander in Tiralgarh area," he added.
More than a Hiroshima or Nagasaki- type atom bomb today, security agencies worry about the use of a 'dirty bomb', especially by terrorists.
So how dangerous is a 'dirty bomb' or an explosive-laced with radioactive material?
On the eve of the anniversary of the Pokhran explosions, K S Pradeepkumar, head of emergency preparedness for India's main nuclear laboratory Bhabha Atomic Research Center here, busts some of the commonly held myths about dirty bombs and says India is well prepared to detect such devices thanks to a countrywide network.
Excerpts from an interview.
Q: These days there is a lot of fear of something called a 'dirty-bomb'. What is a dirty bomb?
A: Dirty means it is dirty, that is it will not really harm you but it makes you uncomfortable. See it is like getting dirt on your dress that does not mean you are going to die or that your health is in trouble but definitely, you have to go and change your dress.
Same way, a dirty bomb, which normally like any other explosive has some effect, but since it is integrated with radioactive material and after an explosion that radioactivity could spread out. Therefore, there is a chance of contamination on your body, even contamination on your dress, so definitely it calls for a decontamination of the people who are nearby. It also calls for a decontamination of the area.
Therefore, it is not in terms of a casualty or a serious injury we are worried about a dirty bomb, or what is called a radiological dispersal device. The concern is about the fear it may inject into the people because very large number of people will believe that they are all affected because they are all contaminated. It causes disruption.
Q: But what are the materials, which can be used to make a dirty bomb?
A: First of all a dirty bomb has never been used anywhere in the world. Nevertheless, it is mentioned that there were attempts made where people have tried to make one using radioactive Cesium-137 and explosives like RDX. It has never been used in India.
What is feared is that since the use of radioactive sources and radioisotopes is increasing in a very significant way world over. Moreover, in some places the security of sources is not fully ensured. Hence, there are cases of lost sources, misplaced sources etc.
These orphan sources can get into the hands of the bad-boys. It is believed that they can integrate these with explosives, and they can use it. However, it has never been used.
Q) But is it not dangerous to handle radioactive sources?
A) It is indeed so it is also a big challenge for those bad people who could try to assemble such devices, that is one of the reasons why assembling them has not been successful. Compared to the conventional explosives, whoever tries to integrate radioactive sources like Cesium-137 or Cobalt-60, they are all high-energy gamma emitters.
Therefore, during the assembly itself, even if one spends more than few minutes, the bad boys will get very high radiation exposure and will fall sick.
Q: So you are saying that if a terrorist has to use it, then the likelihood of the terrorist himself being exposed to such serious doses of radiation is high. Is that what you are saying?
A: Yes, unless, until they manage it with many remote controlled mechanisms, and if it is not shielded, they themselves would be subjected to high radiation field. Not only will they get affected, the pain will be extremely severe, so keeping it a secret will be very difficult from the neighbors.
Unlike conventional explosives transporting dirty bombs is very difficult. Escaping detection is almost impossible since transport of radioactive material is very difficult. Either it requires extremely large quantity of shielding like say by using hundreds of kilograms of lead.
In that case, the person will be moving about in a suspicious way, since it is hard to carry so much weight, or it will be a group of people. If enough shielding is not there, even the vehicle he is using, co-passengers, driver, they will all start getting a radiation exposure syndrome or acute radiation syndrome.
Therefore, world over it is considered very difficult to assemble it, as the terrorists are likely to be harmed more. However, much more challenges are on people like security agencies who would have to respond and take care of the public.
Q: In India, do we have the capability to detect hidden dirty bombs?
A: BARC has developed many systems. We have developed many systems like aerial gamma spectrometry systems, which can be used for searching such types of sources. It can be detected easily by BARC's equipment, even if it is shielded or kept hidden inside some building.
Q: There are some stories going around which say that if an explosive device like a dirty bomb is exploded let's say, in the heart of Delhi then all of Connaught Place will be obliterated and radiation will spread up to the Parliament Building, and all around several kilometers would get affected. In your assessment in the worst-case scenario what would be the situation?
A: Let me explain, the word 'affected' has to be used very carefully. See, we have highly sensitive radiation monitors. With this, even extremely small quantity of radioactivity can be detected. See for example, let me take the Fukushima accident, people detected extremely small doses of radioactivity as far away as in Europe and USA, and people started predicting everybody will be affected and there will be cancer.
It was wrong, okay, so what I want to tell is the radioactivity in the environment was extremely small, nevertheless, the scientists could detect it. Same way, if there is an explosion of a dirty bomb, what you have called it; there can be presence of radioactivity slightly above the natural background, even in 3-4 kilometers because it can be transported by the wind.
Nevertheless, if you ask me the question, even that radiation level will not be even one thousandth of the radiation level of what you are having in the high background dose area of Kerala where people are living for many-many generations.
So I will not like to use the word, people will be
'affected', but definitely nearby area may be around 30-50 meters from where a dirty bomb is exploded it can have high level of contamination, beyond that there can be a cigar shaped area where spread of contamination will take place.
That also may be 80 meters or slightly more than that, but it all depends upon what is the source you are using. I can tell you, more than 1.5 kilometer one need not bother at all. Again, I am telling, it may be possible to detect even up to 3 kilometer etc but that is not a concern.
Q: So, in case of a dirty bomb, what I understand is that the possibility of people dying is because of the thermal part of the bomb, and not because of the radiation. Is that what you are suggesting?
A: Yes, I think I have to make it very specific, when you talk of a 'dirty bomb'; we are talking about an explosive mixed with a radioactive material. When we use the word radiological dispersal device, it is of two types. One is a dirty bomb, where there is an explosive involved.
Another is just a dispersal of the radioactive powder in the public domain. However, in any case, if we are talking about a dirty bomb, it will have the same effect like any other explosive, blast effect, thermal effect, etc and added to it there will be a radioactive fallout.
What I want to tell is, any death or serious injury to the people will be limited due to the blast and thermal effect because of the explosive power. Radioactive fallout and radiation exposure is not going to cause serious health effects.
Q: So the people dying of radiation exposure are unlikely.
A: It is unlikely. Today, there are many myths around a dirty bomb. Not only about dirty bomb, you talk about radiation, there are myths. 30-40 years back, even to take an X-ray people were scared, but today the awareness has come to the level that people are asking for an X-ray. Incidentally, in India no one has ever died due to a high radiation dose at any of the facilities run by the Department of Atomic Energy.
Q: Do you suspect that a dirty bomb would ever be used in India; people have an anxiety about it?
A: The threat does exist since radioactive sources do get lost and misplaced but assembling a pile with a gigantic radiation dose is very very difficult. Moreover, at the same time, I would like to underline the fact that making a dirty bomb and using it is a big challenge. Since first, it will harm those who try to assemble such a device.
Traffic police today created two 'green corridors' for speedy transportation of two livers for transplantation, one of them being a distance of 210 Km.
While the heart of a woman who was declared brain dead was flown to Mumbai, liver of another dead patient was brought to Pune from Nashik by covering a distance of 210 km in 3 hours and 25 minutes, in almost half the estimated time.
Dr Sanjay Pathare, assistant director, medical services at Ruby Hall Hospital, said the heart of a 46-year-old woman from Satara district, who was declared brain-dead on Monday evening, was flown to Mumbai's Fortis hospital.
The woman had met with an accident. After it became clear that she had become brain-dead, the hospital retrieved her heart, liver, kidneys and corneas with the consent of the family. Of these, the heart was sent to Mumbai.
Sarang Awad, deputy commissioner of police (traffic) said a green corridor was created for the ambulance carrying the heart from the hospital to the Pune airport.
"The ambulance left Ruby at 11.02 am and reached Pune airport at 11.10 am," he said.
In the second case, liver of a brain dead patient was harvested and transported via green corridor from Nashik to the Sahyadri Hospital here in 3 hours and 25 minutes, Awad said. The distance covered was 210 km, he added.
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Fortis Hospital in Mumbai said the recipient of the heart which was flown from Pune was a 16-year-old girl from Ankleshwar in Gujarat.
The chartered flight carrying the heart arrived at Mumbai airport at 11.47 am and an ambulance brought it to the hospital in suburban Mulund at 12.07 pm through a green corridor arranged by Mumbai traffic police.
A Talathi and a Kotwal from Ankhoda village have been arrested by the Anti Corruption Bureau while accepting a bribe from a farmer.
Talathi Asha Nanaji Chichghare and Kotwal Dhanraj Suresh Bhoyar were arrested yesterday after they demanded a sum of Rs 4500 from the farmer.
According to ACB, the farmer approached the Talathi to get the record of his agricultural land at Chandanweli village transferred in the name of his daughter.
The farmer then complained to ACB upon which a trap was laid and Dhanraj was caught red handed while accepting the bribe money on behalf of the Talathi.
An offence was registered under Anti Corruption Act with Chamorshi Police Station against the duo before they were arrested.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi hailed as "victory for democracy" the high-stakes trial of strength in the Uttarakhand Assembly which her party clinched today.
"It is a victory for democracy," she said after the floor test, outcome of which would be announced by the Supreme Court tomorrow.
It is being seen as a clear setback to the Modi government which had dismissed the state government and imposed President's Rule on March 28.
At the AICC briefing, party spokesman and senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi remarked, "We may have reason to exult."
He, however, hastened to add that it is subject to the final result to be announced by the Supreme Court tomorrow.
Singhvi said that the Congress assessment is based on the verbal accounts of MLAs, the way they sat in the House and reports in the media and it should be taken with a "bucket full of salt".
"The political process has worked itself out. If we win, it will prove such political misadventures are akin to a Himalayan blunder," he said, taking a dig at the Modi dispensation.
He steered clear of a question whether after winning the trust vote, Harish Rawat should dissolve the House and order fresh election.
Several leaders in the party have been advocating such a course of action contending that it would help the party to go to the people on the theme of "murder of democracy".
Taking a dig at the Centre, Singhvi said, "Questions will
be asked if it was the arrogance of power. Was it an attempt to distract the people?"
He maintained that whatever be the decision tomorrow in the apex court, it is clear, "today is a victory for democracy".
Party General Secretary Digvijay Singh wished that the judiciary was "as forthright" on the issue of dismissal of the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh.
"I wish Judiciary was also as forthright as they were in Uttarakhand in Arunachal Pradesh too," he said.
"Hip Hip Hurray for Democracy and Three Cheers for Harish Rawat. Judiciary has saved our Democracy", he said on micro blogging site Twitter.
The party's chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala demanded that BJP should apologise to the nation.
"Democracy wins in Uttarakhand. Defeat for conspirators. Truth always wins over muscle & money power. BJP must apologize to the Nation," he said.
In a bid to check crime against children, the Uttar Pradesh government will set up 10 Special Juvenile Police units and six child-friendly police stations.
"UNICEF, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Law University and a NGO will help the government for the purpose," Principal Secretary Home, Debashish Panda said.
A presentation in this regard was given by UNICEF here before Home department officials. "The government will consider deployment of specially trained policemen in these units. Soon all 75 districts will have such units," he said.
UNICEF will impart training to prosecution officers and district government counsel in the next two months in child and women security related laws and RML Law University will be part of it, he said.
The son of Pakistan's ex-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was today rescued from the clutches of Taliban in a joint operation by the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, three years after he was abducted from his hometown in Pakistan's Punjab province.
Ali Haider Gilani "has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan," Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement.
Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar informed Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, about the in a telephone call, it said.
"Ali Haider Geelani's transfer to Pakistan is being arranged following required medical check-up," it said.
Today's development comes two months after the kidnapped son of slain Punjabi governor Salman Taseer was rescued by Pakistani forces in an operation near Quetta.
The of the rescue of Haider, believed to be in his 30s, was broken by Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Twitter.
"(former) PM Gilani received a call from ambassador of Afghanistan. His son Ali Haider Gilani has been recovered in a successful operation," Bilawal said.
With the coming into force of an amendment to the convention on the physical protection of nuclear material, the US has hailed the development as a significant step forward in protecting the world's atomic material and preventing nuclear terrorism.
"This Amendment strengthens the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) by adding requirements for states party to the treaty to protect nuclear facilities and nuclear material in domestic use, storage and transport -- not just international transit," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said.
Yesterday, the global community took a significant step forward in protecting the world's nuclear material and preventing nuclear terrorism with the entry into force of the 2005 amendment to the CPPNM, she said.
The amendment also legally requires the 102 signatory states to maintain even stronger standards of nuclear security than did the original CPPNM.
Entry into force of the amendment strengthens the global nuclear security architecture, which enables states to continue to safely and securely pursue peaceful uses of nuclear technology, Trudeau said.
"We commend the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for its role as depositary for the Convention. We will continue to work with the IAEA to universalise the amended CPPNM, which now becomes known as the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities (CPP)," she said.
The United States has asked India to put on "pause" the plan to launch commercial American satellites till the federal government gives a go ahead on mandatory technology exports, ISRO has told a parliamentary panel.
"For the launch of US-licensed satellites meant for non- commerical purposes from India, the US had enabled granting of export licenses upon signing of Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) in July 2009. The agreement was again renewed in 2014.
"For commercial satellites, we have got into a scenario where the American side is saying to hold it on pause. They are not agreeing with providing the necessary export clearance for the commercial satellite. This particular discussion is on hold for the last three Indo-US cooperation meeting," the then Department of Space Secretary K Radhakrishnan told a Committee on Government Assurances (2015-16) on December 3, 2014.
The Committee today tabled its report before Lok Sabha.
To facilitate the launch of US-licensed satellites meant for commercial purpose in India, discussions were initiated to conclude Commerical Space Launch Agreement (CSLA), it said.
"Even after several rounds of discussions, before the visit of the US President to India in November 2010, both sides could not converge on a mutually agreeable draft. The discussions were focused mainly on definitions and clauses on subsidies, improper business practices, transparency, inducements, etc.
"In January 2011, the US proposed a pause in further discussion on the subject," the report quoted the former ISRO Secretary as saying.
"The last meeting on CLSA with US officials was held in October 2010 at Bangalore and there may not be any further discussion on the topic in near future," Radhakrishnan had said.
The Committee said considering the fact that bilateral ties have improved a lot in the recent times, the department should renew its efforts and "strategise" for negotiations with the US authorities for arriving at an agreement for launching commercial American satellites by ISRO at the earliest.
A US warship sailed through the disputed South China Sea, the third American vessel in less than a year to pass through the waters near the artificial islands built by China to assert freedom of navigation, triggering an angry reaction from the Communist nation.
USS William P Lawrence, a guided missile destroyer, illegally entered China's waters near the islands today without the permission of the Chinese government, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.
Lu said the warship was monitored, tracked and issued with a warning.
US Department of Defence spokesman Bill Urban said in Washington that the freedom of navigation operation was in direct challenge to "excessive maritime claims of some claimants in the South China Sea."
China claims almost all of South China Sea which is disputed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
US has been dispatching its warships into the waters claimed by China to assert freedom of navigation.
"The action by the US threatens China's sovereignty and security, endangers the safety of people and facilities on the reef, and harms regional peace and stability," Lu said.
"China strongly opposes such action by the US and will continue to take measures to safeguard our sovereignty and security," he said, adding that China and other coastal states in the South China Sea have been working together to keep navigation and overflight free in the area for a long time.
In fact, the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea has never been a problem, Lu said.
He said the US introduced freedom of navigation operations in 1979 before the signing of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a treaty to which the United States is still not a party.
The purpose of these recurring "patrols" is to disrupt the order of the seas and oceans without adhering to the UN convention, he added.
The US sends military vessels and aircraft on surveillance missions against China as simple acts of provocation, Lu said, adding that the US actually considers itself above the UNCLOS and these activities are opposed by many countries.
Lu said that the flexing of US military muscle in the name of freedom of navigation is the biggest threat to peace and stability in the area.
Citing less number of working women in Haryana, Civil Services exam topper Tina Dabi today said she wants to work in the neighbouring state to contribute in empowerment of fairer sex there.
"I always wanted to work in a challenging state. That is why I chose Haryana. We all know the sex ratio of girl and boy child is quite less and that is why I would like to contribute my efforts for the empowerment of women there," she said.
22-year-old Tina, who has graduated from Lady Shri Ram College here, topped the 2015 Civil Services exam in her first attempt.
"My mother is my role model. She wanted me to study political science. I chose it and got through in the examination. It was one of my main subjects," she said, crediting her mother, a former Indian Engineering Service (IES) officer, who took voluntary retirement from the job.
Tina's father Jaswant is a serving IES officer. "It is the best day of my life," he said.
Tina was born in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. She did her schooling from Carmel Convent School there.
Elaborating more on her choice of Haryana as preferred state to work in, she said women should be given more chance to work in administration.
"Women empowerment is very important. I have seen how my mother has brought up me. It is because of her guidance and support that I could get top position in the test," she told PTI here at her home.
Tina is the eldest daughter of the family. Her younger sister Ria has passed Class XII this year.
"We are very proud of her. She topped in her graduation also," Ria said. Asked whether she would also like to follow her sister's footstep and join civil services, she said "it is too early to say. But as of now, we all are happy for her (Tina) success."
Tina's mother Himali said she provided all support to her daughter to prepare for the civil services exam. "It is not easy to prepare for this exam. It is very tough. Today's result is all because of her hard efforts," she said.
Her mother was also sporting a badge with the message "My daughter, my hero" on her dress. "My daughter is really my hero. There is No Alternative (TINA) for her," she quipped.
Besides Tina, railway service officer Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan from Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi-based Jasmeet Singh Sandhu, an Indian Revenue Service officer, have secured second and third rank respectively.
The results of civil services examination 2015 was declared today. A total of 1,078 candidates, including 499 in General category, 314 belonging to Other Backward Class, 176 from Scheduled Caste and 89 from Scheduled Tribe, have been recommended for appointment to various central government services, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said.
There are 172 other candidates in the waiting list.
The civil services examination is conducted by the annually in three stages-- preliminary,mains and interview-- to select candidates for the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.
A 12-member industry delegation from West Bengal and Odisha will visit Myanmar to explore opportunities for bilateral trade and increase economic cooperation.
The five-day visit starting from May 16 will include meetings with potential partners from Myanmar matching the profiles of the visiting delegates, the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCC&I) said in a statement.
The delegation will meet the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Mandalay Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Indian Diaspora in Myanmar and Cabinet Ministers of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
"India and Myanmar have enjoyed close geographical proximity, cultural ties and cordial relations through history that have facilitated long-standing trade relations across land and sea routes," BCC&I President Ambarish Dasgupta, who will lead the delegation, said.
"India has been a major trading partner of Myanmar and is its fifth largest trade partner. There is immense potential for bilateral trade, investment and other forms of economic cooperation with the country," Dasgupta said.
BCC&I director-general designate Subhodip Ghosh said that with the Centre's relaxation of rules on trade and investment for doing business with rapidly growing economy, the Chamber was trying to expand business relations with the neighbouring countries.
He said that India is the third largest export destination for Myanmar and its seventh largest source of imports.
In November last year, Myanmar had its first democratic election in 25 years setting roads ahead for its economic growth.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his election as chairman of the ruling Workers' Party, becoming the first world leader to greet the reclusive dictator.
Xi also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) congratulated Kim on behalf of the CPC in his own behalf and hoped that the North Korean people will achieve new accomplishments in the cause of building socialism under the leadership of the WPK headed by Kim.
The China-Democratic People's Republic of Korea, (DPRK) friendship was personally forged and carefully fostered by the two countries' leaderships of the older generation, Xi said.
"The traditional friendship is a treasure of both sides," he said, highlighting the close links between the two countries notwithstanding Pyongyang's isolation resulting in US sanctions clamped over its aggressive policy to acquire nuclear weapons.
Xi also noted that the CPC and the Chinese government attach great importance to the ties between the DPRK and China, state-run Xinhua agency reported.
China stands ready to work with the DPRK to promote constant development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the two countries and to make positive contributions to safeguarding peace, stability and development in the region, Xi said.
While China implemented the UN sanctions against North Korea, Beijing regards Pyongyang as a close ally along with Pakistan.
Asked to comment on North Korea's claim as nuclear power at the Worker's Party meeting, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang said here yesterday that "China's position on the Korean nuclear issue is subject to no change".
"We also believe that all the resolutions related to the Korean nuclear issue passed by the UN Security Council shall be observed and executed by all relevant parties without reservations," Lu said.
Yemen's government and Iran-backed rebels agreed today to free half of the prisoners and detainees held by both sides, in the first breakthrough in peace talks that began last month.
The deal came during a meeting of the joint working group on prisoners and detainees formed by UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
There has been mounting international pressure to end the Yemen conflict, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.
"It was agreed during the meeting to release 50 percent of the prisoners and detainees within the next 20 days," Mane al-Matari, media adviser to Yemen's foreign minister who heads the government delegation, told AFP.
A source close to the Huthi rebel delegation confirmed the agreement to release half of those held by both sides, describing it as "an exchange of prisoners".
The two sides will meet again on Wednesday to finalise the mechanism on how and when the exchange will take place, Matari said.
"The Yemeni government is committed to release all the prisoners as per the agreement," he said.
Matari estimated that their number is in the "thousands", but the rebel source said there may be only hundreds of prisoners involved.
Following a two-day interruption, the two delegations resumed face-to-face talks on Monday after mediation efforts and an appeal by the UN envoy.
Two other working groups, spanning military, security and political issues, also met on Tuesday but failed to make any progress on the thorny issues facing them, sources close to the two delegations said.
Those issues include implementing a UN Security Council resolution which orders the Huthis to pull out of territory they occupied in a 2014 offensive and surrender heavy arms they captured.
The two delegations remained far apart as the rebels demanded the formation of a consensus transitional government to handle other issues and the delegation of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi insisted he is the legitimate head of state, the sources said.
Ltd has bid for the British operations of Tata Steel Ltd , two sources with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed, worrying bankers about its high debt levels and pulling down JSW shares on Tuesday.
JSW Steel, controlled by acquisitive billionaire Sajjan Jindal, wants to become the world's third-largest steel company and the bid for the Tata assets is in-line with that goal, said a source close to the company.
Financial Times first reported JSW's bid, after Tata said on Monday that seven expressions of interest for its British assets had been taken to the next stage of the sale process it began last month. Tata did not name the bidders, but metals group Liberty House and a buyout team called Excalibur confirmed submitting expressions of interest.
Mumbai-based unsuccessfully bid in 2014 to buy some assets from Italy's second-largest steelmaker, Lucchini, to enter the European market. In 2010, it bought out Indian company Ispat Steel , more than a decade after JSW emerged from near-bankruptcy.
Joint Managing Director, Seshagiri Rao, and Tata Steel head spokesperson, Chanakya Choudhury, did not respond to requests for comment.
JSW Group, with interests in steel, power, cement and ports, had a gross debt of around 400 billion rupees ($6 billion) as of April, making it one of India's most indebted conglomerates.
Rao told Reuters last month that although the group was growth-hungry, it would not let its financial stability suffer.
Infrastructure bankers in Mumbai say, however, that they are uncomfortable with the JSW Group's debt, and they think the company is only testing the waters with the Tata bid.
One potential deal-killer is the big pension liabilities of the Port Talbot steel mill in Wales that JSW Steel might have to shoulder, said the bankers who did not want to be named.
The bankers also said that a bargain deal might help JSW Steel turn around Tata's money-losing UK business given their record of making steel efficiently and profitably in India without having any raw material security.
JSW Steel's shares, which have risen a quarter so far this year, fell more than 3 per cent on Tuesday to their lowest in a month. The BSE Sensex was up slightly.
($1 = Rs 66.6700)
Buoyed by increase in booked room-night transactions by 15 times in the first quarter this year, online aggregator of branded hotels, OYO Rooms is planning to triple its inventory by December.
"Our team delivered 15x year-on-year growth with 2.3 million booked room-night transactions in Q1 Jan-Mar 2016...We plan to grow deeper in all key business and leisure cities and triple our inventory by December 2016," OYO Rooms Founder & CEO Ritesh Agarwal said in a statement.
OYO Rooms currently has a network of 5,855 partner hotels in 170 cities of India with a total room capacity of 68,300.
Agarwal said: "95 per cent of our traffic comes from our own sales channels such as app, web and call-centre. The cities driving profitability for us are those that have matured over the last year which include Gurgaon, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata."
The company said that since February it has also regained profitability at a network-level but did not share financial details.
The company had recently launched operations in Malaysia.
Tata Steel Europe said on Monday that seven expressions of interest for its British operations had been taken forward to the next stage of the sale process.
The company added that it was clarifying outstanding points with a number of other parties who had expressed interest in Tata Steel UK.
"We believe that the bids being taken forward offer future prospects of sustainability for the UK business as a whole," Koushik Chatterjee, a group executive director at Tata Steel Limited, said in a statement.
In line with the ruling BJP's pre-poll promise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to launch the work on 'Clean Ganga' action plan later this month, official sources have said.
While entry-level activities relating to the ambitious 'Namami Gange' programme are already underway, execution of the comprehensive action plan aimed at freeing the river of waste and ensuring its unfettered flow is expected to be launched around May 15.
The Water Resources Ministry, which is executing the ambitious programme, may also invite Modi for an event to be held in October this year to mark the completion of the first leg of the cleaning operation.
"Entry-level activities are already underway at many places along the river. But implementation of the comprehensive action plan will take off sometime around May 15. The Government intends to clean the river by July 2018," the source said.
Sources said, Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) roped in for "condition assessment" of existing infrastructure, including ghats along the Ganga and their capacity utilisation, have completed their studies.
Engineers India Ltd (EIL), National Buildings Construction Corporation ( NBCCBSE 1.18 %), WAPCOS Ltd, National Projects Construction Corporation Ltd ( NPCC) and Engineering Projects India Ltd are the CPSUs the Government has engaged for the purpose.
They said the CPSUs will begin surface cleaning of Ganga's mainstream post-monsoon and that the effect of phase I activities under the project will become visible in October this year.
"If we clean the river surface now, it will become dirtier again during monsoon. So, it is advisable we begin the work post-monsoon so we need not repeat the work while the surface is cleared," they said.
The tendering process to set up sewage treatment plants (STPs), a medium-term activity under the project, in 118 towns along the Ganga will take "some time" to be completed, sources said. The actual construction of the plants would take about a year after the tendering process has been completed.
"It is a huge work. So, we want such bidders to come forward who will deliver quality job, who are worried about their image," the sources said.
They said the government is seeking international cooperation too even as it has urged villagers staying along the river to contribute to the cause.
"Recently, we entered into an agreement with a German Government agency to integrate various approaches in the implementation of the programme by providing support at national and state-level, particularly for Uttarakhand," they said.
Under the agreement, the two parties will exchange technical knowledge, information management and public outreach and communication.
The Water Resources Ministry has divided the entire 2525 km length of Ganga into five stretches, coinciding with boundaries of as many states -- Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal -- through which the river flows, and allocated the portions to the CPSUs for execution of entry-level activities.
The entry-level activities include works such as repair, modernisation and provision of public amenities at ghats, treatment of directly discharging drains in villages along the river and repair, renovation and construction of crematoria.
Deploying improvised wood-based cremation platforms, advanced trash skimming machines for removal of floating solid wastes, bio-toilets and bioremediation based sewage treatment in rural areas are also part of the activities.
Amid the government's big thrust on 'ease of doing business', Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday he felt "ashamed" that his own ministry had to wait nine months to get approvals for a 'simple automated parking lot'.
Gadkari, who has been very keen on this project, expressed anguish over this delay at its foundation laying ceremony at Transport Bhawan near Parliament House, prompting his colleague and Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu to promise a one-month cap on grant of all such permissions.
Naidu said the ease of approvals is equally important to translate "ease of doing business" into reality and the government is very serious in this direction.
Gadkari said the automated parking plaza will most likely be inaugurated by Prime Minister and added that he felt ashamed whenever Prime Minister wanted to know the progress as despite being a government agency, it took nine months for the Highways Ministry to get approvals from different ministries.
"It took nine months for just clearance to a project, construction will take another nine months. On the one side, you are talking about ease of doing business and on the other ease of approvals is another important aspect. We had a couple of meetings (with different ministries) and at the end of it now we have come out with a plan that entire permission has to be given in 30 days," Naidu said.
He further said congestion is a major problem in Delhi and Gadkari's innovative idea should inspire other ministries including the Railways Ministry to work in this direction.
Naidu further said Railway Ministry should follow this example because they are wasting a lot of public space.
"Prime Minister stresses to transform India...Make In India, Skill India, Digital India, Clean India, Start Up Stand Up so many initiatives are there...Prime Minister wants entire secretariat complex in one building," Naidu said and stressed that there was urgent need to work to simplify procedures.
"Putting into action is an important aspect... The initiative by Gadkari will serve as a light house for other ministries... That will be a model for other ministries and other agencies also. They should learn how to make use of land," he said.
Naidu said that in India the problem is mindset as new ideas are not that easily accepted by people including politicians and media.
He said Model Building Bylaws have been approved and "now from next month everything will be online. There will be no human intervention. No hand to hand transaction. What transpires in hand to hand connection, everybody is aware. We want to avoid that."
On delay in permissions for the parking lot, Naidu said he has taken note of it and will ensure improvement as his ministry is the nodal authority in this case.
He said the parking lot will come as a big relief not only to the staff of Transport Bhawan but also all visitors to the building. He said that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is already working on several plans to decongest Delhi NCR.
Transport Bhawan will be the first government building to have an automated multi level car parking facility in its premises at a cost of about Rs 9 crore.
The automated parking lot project is being undertaken by NHIDCL. The facility will comprise ground plus seven floors.
Spread over an area of 314 sq metres and with a height of 22 metres, the facility will be able to house 112 cars. The retrieving time for cars will be 120 seconds. The facility is being built by a Swiss Company.
A US navy warship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea on Tuesday, a US Department of Defense official said, prompting anger in Beijing which denounced the patrol as illegal and a threat to peace and stability.
Guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence travelled within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said. The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to "challenge excessive maritime claims" by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea, he said.
"These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise," Urban said in an emailed statement.
Beijing and Washington have traded accusations that the other is militarising the South China Sea as China undertakes large-scale land reclamations and construction on disputed featues while the United States has increased its patrols and exercises in the region.
Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway and Washington is concerned China will use it to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the U.S. ship illegally entered Chinese waters and was tracked and warned.
"This action by the U.S. side threatened China's sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability," he told a daily news briefing.
SENSITIVE AREA
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims.
The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the disputed Spratly Islands after Beijing used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from Fiery Cross.
"Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be the future hub of Chinese military operations in the South China Sea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including its large and deep port and 3000-metre runway," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
"The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of U.S. determination ahead of President Obama's trip to Vietnam later this month," Storey added.
Speaking in Hanoi ahead of Obama's visit, Daniel Russel, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, said freedom of navigation operations were important for smaller nations.
"If the world's most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships of navy of smaller countries?," Russel told reporters before news of the operation was made public.
"If our warships can't exercise its legitimate rights under international law at sea, then what about the fishermen, what about the cargo ships? How will they prevent themselves from being blocked by stronger nations?"
China has reacted with anger to previous US freedom of navigation operations, including the overflight of fighter planes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month, and when long-range US bombers flew near Chinese facilities under construction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November.
US naval officials believe China has plans to start reclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal, which sits further north of the Spratlys within the Philippines claimed 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusive economic zone.
The move also comes as tough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte looks set to take the Philippines' presidency. He has proposed multilateral talks on the South China Sea.
Criticism of China over the South China Sea will rebound like a coiled spring, a Chinese diplomat said on Friday, as a U.S. warship visited Shanghai against a backdrop of rising tension in the region.
The Supreme Court on Monday indicated of considering to modify its order banning registration of new diesel luxury cars and SUVs with an engine capacity of over 2,000 cc in Delhi and national capital region.
A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, Justice R. Banumathi and A.K. Sikri said: "We are open to modifying the order".
The apex court also sought a concrete road map for phasing out diesel taxis from NCR from the Delhi government, the Environment Pollution Control Authority and taxi owners association.
The court also indicated that all diesel cars, depending on their price and engine capacity, must pay one-time environment cess which would be determined after "deliberations".
While doubling the environment compensation charge (ECC) for loaded commercial vehicles entering Delhi, the top court by its December 16 order had imposed a blanket ban on registration of diesel vehicles of 2,000cc and above, including SUVs, in the NCR, noting that they are prone to cause higher pollution levels and are used by the more affluent sections of society.
During the hearing, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said that diesel was not the only "evil" responsible for pollution and other fuels like CNG and petrol also contribute.
"Petrol emits carbon monoxide, CNG vehicles release oxides of nitrogen while diesel emits particulate matters, all of which are polluting agents, he said and referred to a report by IIT Kanpur, which holds that other sources of pollution like dust, stubble burning etc. cannot be undermined.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for IT industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), told the bench that restriction on plying of diesel-run taxis in Delhi and NCR has crippled the transportation of BPO staff as there is paucity of cabs.
Requesting the court to allow cabs that ferry BPO employees to be exempted from the ban order, Sibal said the sector employees of 250,000 people in NCR are ferried mostly by diesel cabs.
The President of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), Joe Healy has claimed that modern broadband infrastructure is an essential requirement for rural areas in order to capitalise on economic and social opportunities.
Mr Healy said that for farmers who want to operate their businesses in a competitive and progressive way, rural infrastructure such as broadband is vital to reach the growth targets set out in Food Wise 2025.
Joe Healy also acknowledges that progress that has been made and he has encouraged the private sector companies involved in the roll-out of fibre broadband to rural areas to continue to work towards this goal at a pace.
Speaking at an event for Irish Telecom industry leaders last week, IFA President Joe Healy said that National Broadband Plan is key to closing the digital divide and the new government must make its rollout a key priority.
"The commitment to deliver the National Broadband Plan by 2020 will have to be realised and the pricing structure for rural customers must be affordable. IFA will hold the Government to account on this," he said.
Joe Healy said the network should be future-proofed for service provision and every rural home and business must have access to high-speed fibre broadband, "This is vital for the future of the 440,000 rural families in the country and the tens of thousands of small businesses that exist in rural areas."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
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The European Central Bank has asked large euro zone banks to detail how they are preparing for a British exit from the EU, including how they would deal with the shock to markets and any changes they would have to make to their business models.
The ECB, which supervises the 129 euro zone banks it deems most systemically important, has sent letters to banks with a large exposure to Britain, according to several people familiar with the matter.
The watchdog is taking stock of what specific exposure banks have to Britain and what contingency plans they have drawn up to prepare for all possible scenarios.
"ECB Banking Supervision is engaging with the relevant banks to ensure they are adequately assessing the risks and are prepared for all possible outcomes," an ECB spokesman said.
Britain is the world's fifth-biggest economy, and the EU's second largest. Many euro zone banks have large operations in London, home to the world's biggest foreign exchange market and a major global investment banking hub.
A source at a large German bank said the ECB had asked about its exposure to sterling, as well as its wider exposure to Britain in its fixed income, equities and loans portfolios.
"They also questioned us about how a Brexit may affect our business model," the person said.
The source added that his bank saw only negligible Brexit-related impact and had so far taken no specific action beyond making sure trading desks would be able to handle the high volatility expected on June 24 - the day after Britain's referendum on EU membership.
The ECB is able to be more open in asking banks about preparations for a possible Brexit than it could be on the prospect of Greece leaving the euro zone, given Britain is not a member of that bloc.
During the Greek debt crisis the central bank played down having a contingency plan for a 'Grexit', mindful of the political implications this would have on the currency union.
Ralph Hamers, chief executive of Dutch lender ING said on Tuesday that the ECB had been in touch with his bank over the Brexit issue.
He said a British exit would not necessarily lead to a review of its London-based financial markets and structured finance business - although if it caused other banks to move some trade out of Britain, ING might have to follow.
"But if the larger banks in the markets would move and with that the flow in the markets would move, we would move as well, clearly," he said during a results news conference.
People involved in Brexit preparations at some other German banks said issues like export-import financing and loans to British companies or German firms with a large UK business were also part of the discussions with the ECB.
Nils Beier, head of banking at consultant Accenture, who has had many discussions with banks about Brexit, said that most were vetting and hedging their positions to make sure they avoided trading losses. (Reuters)
Source: www.businessworld.ie
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It was announced this week that Danish retail brand Tiger have opened their latest store in Killarney Outlet Centre.
Tiger was established in 1995 and is today trading in 613 stores across 28 countries. The first Tiger store in Ireland was opened in 2011 by Gillian Maxwell and Niall Stringer. They now have 23 stores across Ireland and have recently been confirmed as one the finalists in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 Awards.
Associate Director of CBRE Retail, Niamh Sheahan said, "We are delighted to welcome Tiger to Killarney Outlet Centre and look forward to confirming further new store openings in the coming weeks. Stephen Murray of JLL acquired the unit on behalf of Tiger who have plans to further expand their portfolio."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
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Here at Business World, we support a diverse range of clients to get their corporate message across and improve their SEO qualities. We use our arsenal of content marketing skills to support a companys corporate message.
Supporting clients in the retail sector in Ireland, we can see the diverse ways that companies get their message across. Some are extremely successful, whereas others leave a lot to be desired.
Getting the right tone, content and platform for your corporate message is key to engaging customers, providing an insight into your business and remaining on the front page of Google.
Some recent innovative ways that companies get their message across include:
Irish / American tech pioneer, Intercom announced last month $50 million in funding, bringing the total funding raised to date to $116 million. The official company announcement came from Intercom CEO Eoghan McCabe in the form of a vlog (video-blog), a definite move away from a standard press release! The vlog generated a large deal of interest in the national press.
Another Irish tech innovator, Slack announced 80 new jobs for Ireland last month. Similar to Intercom, they have a broad range of innovative ways of getting their message across. This includes producing a podcast, something that is pretty rare in the Irish retail space. The podcast incorporates stories on working at Slack, stories on work and office culture, teamwork and innovation in the work place. It is a great platform to get their message out in a unique way.
Advertising
From these two examples we can see that a companys corporate message can be successfully communicated in none traditional ways.
This advertising has expanded and reached into corporate news, blogs, vlogs and podcasts as opposed to straight forward paid for advertising. Essentially these companies have used success stories to promote their brand in the marketplace.
Match your audience
To get your corporate message across it isnt necessary to produce a vlog or podcast but writing a strong blog or original news articles can get your message out there.
Once the message is published it can be used across multiple platforms as a tool to promote your products or services.
Here at Business World, we create content for a wide range of clients across news feeds, blogs and editorial articles. Business World produce market leading content marketing to get your company noticed, to allow your corporate message to reach the largest audience.
It was announced today that 'myITdepartment.ie', a technology services company based in Roscommon, is recruiting to fill ten new, full-time roles.
This will see the company grow to 28 employees. From its offices in Roscommon and Dublin, myITdepartment.ie serves more than 200 clients across the country as well as overseas in the UK and the US.
Newly appointed Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources Denis Naughten will officially open the new premises this afternoon his first outing as a Government Minister.
The new jobs will encompass a range of skill sets including positions in technical and engineering roles as well as finance, digital marketing and sales. The company has moved to new premises in Athleague, Co. Roscommon to facilitate continued company growth and enhanced client service.
Founder and Managing Director, Seamus Quinn says, "We are delighted to be in a position to offer these high quality jobs, particularly in rural Ireland. We have built up a very successful, growing company in the midlands despite a number of challenges including a lack of high speed broadband, which is obviously crucial to our business."
He added, "We have had to invest significantly in a wireless connection to facilitate business growth and the high calibre services we offer. The new government should prioritise investment in services outside of Dublin to enable more SMEs to develop and provide high quality employment."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
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LOGAN A mental evaluation has been ordered for Shane Hallstrom, to determine if the 25-year-old Smithfield man is competent to stand trial for allegedly killing his father.
Hallstrom stood silently in 1st District Court Monday afternoon next to his public defender Bryan Galloway, as Judge Kevin Allen said the court had received a competency evaluation request.
With that motion, Hallstrom will be diagnosed by doctors from the state hospital to determine if he understands the charges against him. The evaluation can take up to 60-days.
Galloway said he intended to request a separate evaluator to get a second opinion.
Hallstrom was arrested April 28 outside his Smithfield home after officers said he stabbed Calvin L. Hallstrom in the neck with a kitchen knife. The two had previously agreed to meet and spend the evening together, and try to repair their relationship.
Calvin was found lying at the entrance of the driveway, unconscious and bleeding heavily from the neck when officers and deputies arrived. He was transported to Cache Valley Hospital by ambulance where he was later pronounced dead. Shane was found kneeling near Calvins body. He was subdued and unwilling to speak to investigators. Officers later searched the home and found a three-inch long paring knife believed to be the murder weapon.
Hallstrom was booked into the Cache County Jail and later charged with 1st degree murder. He is being held without bail.
During Mondays court appearance, Judge Allen said given the nature of the charges, he hoped the state hospital would expedite the evaluation. He ordered Hallstrom to appear again June 20.
will@cvradio.com
A new wave of escalation hit Nagorno-Karabakh in early April. In the course of what was probably Azerbaijani reconnaissance by force, claiming dozens of dead on both sides, Baku managed to secure several heights controlled by Armenian forces. Immediate hostilities have receded for now, but the question remains how the military strength of both sides has changed in recent years, what this means for the future of the peace process, and the role of Russian arms in the resurrection of this conflict.
BACKGROUND: Thanks to the substantial revenues from gas and oil exports in recent years, Azerbaijans armed forces are now a well-financed and equipped force. This year, Azerbaijan budgeted US$ 1.7 billion for its army of 66,000 personnel, amounting to 5.1 percent of the countrys GDP. Azerbaijans modernized armed forces feature a range of new equipment, 85 percent of which is imported from Russia. Armenia also allocates a significant amount of its GDP, (4.29 percent) to the military. However, for Armenias impoverished economy, this represents only US$ 430 million for its 45,800 servicemen.
Azerbaijani ground forces possess around 450 tanks, 100 of which are third generation T-90 SA tanks and the rest are mostly older second generation T-72 tanks. Ground forces are also well equipped with 200 BMP-1, 2, 3 and BMD-1 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as 750 BTR-70 and 80A armored personnel carriers. Armenian ground forces have 228 T-72 and medium T-55 tanks at their disposal. The third generation is represented only by 20 pieces of T-80 tanks. The 420 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers that Armenia possesses display an even bigger disparity from its opponent. In addition, most of these vehicles are outdated and in a rather bad condition, with only 50 pieces of modern BMP-2 and 160 BTR-80.
Azerbaijans ground dominance is most visible in the field of artillery, with around 120 multiple rocket launchers and 60 older 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers. It has also purchased more modern Msta-S self-propelled howitzers, the infamous TOS-1 Heavy Flamethrower System, the self-propelled 120 mm Vena mortar system and several pieces of Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles from Russia. Azerbaijan inherited dozens of BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers from the USSR, but in 2013 also imported modern 9A52 Smerch multiple rocket launchers from Russia. It also purchased the portable anti-tank complex SKIF from Ukraine. Armenia also inherited dozens of Grads and purchased several WM-81 multiple rocket launchers from China in 1999 and later the French portable Milan anti-tank complex. Yet it lacks the more powerful Smerch and TOS-1 systems. Armenia also possesses the short range ballistic missile system 9K720 Iskander and Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles.
With regard to air defense, Azerbaijan possesses the Tor and Buk (MB, MI1-2) missile systems, and Osa-1T and Strela-10, S-300, S-200, S-125 and Indian-Israeli (SAM) Barak 8 tactical surface-to-air missile systems. Armenias air defense is less modernized and variable, yet it is still formidable. Its backbone is the S-300 surface-to-air missile system, supported by S-200, S-125, S-75, Strela and portable SAM Igla.
In the air, Azerbaijans dominance is undeniable. Baku has 16 MiG-29 and MiG-29 UB fighter aircraft from Ukraine as well as 19 Su-25 jet aircraft supported by 2 Su-24 attack aircraft and 2 Il-76 strategic airlifters. Over the last five years, Azerbaijans air force has purchased 60 MI-17 helicopters and 24 modern MI-35M helicopters. Armenia is significantly lagging behind in terms of fighter aircraft and its ground forces are supported only by 15 obsolete Su-25 jet aircraft and L-39 trainer aircraft. Armenia has 12 MI-24 attack helicopters, along with 10 multipurpose Mi-8 and several very outdated Mi-2 transport helicopters.
In the case of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian army is supported by ca 20,000 highly motivated servicemen of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army, armed with about 170 T-55 tanks, 250 infantry fighting vehicles, 320 pieces of artillery including 40 Grads, with a limited number of SAM and air force units. In addition, many ordinary residents of Nagorno-Karabakh are war veterans whose cellars are stocked with weapons.
IMPLICATIONS: Azerbaijans army is both larger and better equipped than its Armenian counterpart. However, in order to assess the actual strength of both sides, additional factors need to be taken into account, which led to Armenias victory against a much stronger and better equipped Azerbaijan in the 1990s.
Unlike Azerbaijan, which descended into chaos during the Karabakh war, Armenia built its statehood and managed to keep its society coherent, avoiding protests and factional struggles during the war. It was the domestic power struggle in Azerbaijan that allowed Armenians to seize the crucial Azerbaijani stronghold of Shusha. Armenia was also able to swiftly create a professional army, absorbing various militias, and thus boosting both morale and political stability in its army. Armenias priority for effective anti-aircraft capabilities over air superiority was crucial, enabling it to decimate Azerbaijans air force with small losses. A similar tactic was applied regarding tanks. Armenians used the difficult terrain of Karabakh, in combination with anti-tank weapons, to first destroy enemy tanks and then deploying their own tanks in a counteroffensive.
Armenia was also more active and successful in the field of diplomacy, effectively lobbying for its interests in Moscow and Washington. The Russian presence in Gyumri secured Armenias western flank, enabling it to concentrate its forces in Karabakh. And finally, whereas victory was an issue of prestige and justice for Azerbaijanis, Armenians viewed it as a question of national survival, which was mirrored in the morale of Armenian soldiers.
Yet today, many factors that previously worked in Armenias favor are no longer present. Unlike in the early 1990s, Azerbaijan is a largely stable country, with a well-equipped and trained professional military. Azerbaijan also enjoys a larger advantage in terms of military equipment than ever before. On the other hand, Armenias diplomatic influence remains strong and Azerbaijan would suffer heavily in terms of international condemnation should it seek to reintegrate the separatist region by force. And although Russia seeks a more balanced relationship with Baku, it could hardly abandon its ally Armenia if facing an Azerbaijani onslaught. Also, unlike in the early 1990s, Karabakh with its densely forested high mountains towering as a natural fortress over the Kura-Aras lowland is under full control of well entrenched Armenians.
Therefore, despite Azerbaijans superiority, reintegrating Nagorno-Karabakh by force would probably cost Baku too much in terms of both diplomatic and military losses. Yet the imbalance of forces has never been larger and Baku recently found a window of opportunity to strike with small losses in order to bolster the stability of the regime and to break the status quo regarding the stuck peace process.
It seems that this rare window was opened by Russia, Armenias closest ally. As a member of the CSTO, Armenia can buy weapons and equipment from other members at discounted prices. Although Yerevan purchased 35 T-72 tanks and 110 armored vehicles from Russia, the current condition of Armenias economy has limited Yerevan to mostly purchase firearms such as AK-105 rifles, machine guns, carbines and several sniper rifles. In contrast, Moscow provided richer Azerbaijan with much of the devastating weaponry accounted for above.
These purchases have certainly tipped the military balance in Bakus favor. In February 2016, Moscow announced it will provide Yerevan with a credit of US$ 200 million to buy new military equipment, including Smerch, TOS-1, the Avtobaza-M ground-based radar jamming and deception system, RPG-26 anti-tank rocket launchers, Tigr infantry mobility vehicles, Konkurs-M anti-tank missiles, Dragunov sniper rifles and KamAz trucks. Such purchases would probably reestablish the relative military balance between the parties. This might compel Baku to use the closing opportunity to conduct a limited and moderately successful operation in Karabakh.
CONCLUSIONS: It seems that full-scale war is still not an option for Azerbaijan. Yet for the government in Baku, facing social discontent, a successful minor operation in Karabakh, such as the one in early April, might help create a rally under the flag effect and force the OSCE Minsk group to take action regarding the peace process. Russian arms have provided this opportunity, and Russias announced credit to Armenia could provide a stimulus for action before the military balance is partially restored. At first glance, Moscows rearmament of Azerbaijan may appear as a strategic mistake, placing its ally Armenia in a difficult position. However, providing Azerbaijan with sophisticated weapons systems will make Baku more dependent on Moscow in years to come and will significantly weaken the position of other potential suppliers. And by strengthening its domination on the arms market in both countries, Russia has created a more effective leverage for influencing the military balance in the volatile South Caucasus than ever before. Therefore, in the long turn, the main beneficiary of the recent re-escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is Russia.
AUTHORS' BIO: Tomas Baranec is a graduate of Charles University in Prague. His research interests include nationalism and factors of ethnic conflicts and separatism in the Caucasus. He works at the Institute for Security and Defence Studies (Armed Forces Academy) in Bratislava. Juraj Beskid, Ph.D., works at the Institute for Security and Defence Studies (Armed Forces Academy) in Bratislava.
Image Attribution: www.bbc.co.uk, accessed on May 10, 2016
With great power comes great responsibility - or not?
Published on May 10, 2016
Story by Isabelle Bonenkamp
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Comment: The new Avengers-movie Captain America: Civil War got released at the end of April 2016 and critics worshipped the production so far. Nevertheless, some aspects of the screenplay remain questionable.
Spoiler Alert
The movie starts with a scene in 1991 where the Winter soldier a villainous assassin that became the sidekick of superhero Captain America and his last movie steals some super soldier serum out of a car and kills the occupants.
Then, the actual plot starts: the Avengers, a troop of superheroes amongst which to be found Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), are in Laos where they are meant to prevent a robbery of a biological weapon. While being successful in their mission as usual, they also create a lot of collateral damage and civilians die.
This turns the public opinion against them and the worlds head of states decide that this uncontrolled way of taking action everywhere would no longer be tolerable. Therefore, the United Nations wish to establish an international governing body to oversee and control the Avengers via the Sokovia Accords. The Avengers are forced to either sign the deal or retire.
This is where the Civil War begins: one side of the former team headed by Iron Man and Black Widow think it is reasonable to agree with the UN after all the damage; the other side led by Captain America and his side-kicks do not want their freedom to be limited by anyone, especially not a political organisation. But during the conference held in Vienna to ratify the accords with those that agree, a bomb explodes outside the building. A surveillance video identifies the perpetrator as Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier, Captain Americas brainwashed friend.
Knowing that a commando has the authority to shoot his friend at sight, Captain America travels to Barnes location in Bucharest (which is very obviously filmed in Berlin) to protect him. After an intense fight with German police officers and a very exiting race through Berlin no... the Capitol of Panem?.. no... ah the Instragram header in the beginning of the scene told me it is Bucharest... So: after an intense fight with German police officers and a very exciting race through Bucharest wait ... but why is everyone speaking German??
Anyway, Captain America successfully proves how great he is in creating collateral damage by punching and probably killing numerous underpowered German police officers and crushing cars and helicopters in Bucharest for the sake of one single, ruthless, unstable assassin. As this turns out to be illegal, both of them get arrested.
Then, another Instragram headline indicate the plot is to be continued in Berlin (Berlin gets to play itself!) where Barnes is held in a high-security cell. Captain America on the other hand gets a really nice pen bought for him by Iron Man who hopes the former might sign the Sokovia Accords now.
At the same time, the movies main antagonist Helmut Zuma (played by Daniel Bruhl) who also triggered the bomb in Vienna to frame Bucky infiltrates the building where Barnes is held and speaks the trigger words releasing the Winter Soldier in him. Consequently, the Winter soldier escapes from the cell, takes everyone in the building down and tries to flee with a helicopter. His friend Captain America however manages to stop him and they both take a bath in the Spree (main river in Berlin) sneaking away from the officials.
Barnes tells him about Zumas plan to wake up more Winter soldiers that are kept asleep in a Siberian Hydra facility until now. Immediately they follow him but not without destroying the Berlin airport (actually it is Leipzig) when fighting against their former Avenger-allies who try to stop them. As Captain America has not told them about the waiting danger in Siberia, they are there to make him retire since he is not willing to sign the Accords.
Nevertheless, having the support of the other half of the former Avengers amongst them the overpowered Scarlet Witch who actually could defeat all of them in once but somehow pretends not to for the sake of the scene Barnes and Captain America manage to escape. Their supporters get arrested and captured in a high-security facility under the sea. Iron Man learns from them what Captain America is up to and follows them to Siberia in order to help them stop the awakening of more Winter soldiers. But when the three of them finally enter the hall with the sleeping bodies they discover Zuma already killed all of them with a bulltet to the head. It is then when he reveals his true intention why he lured the three into the facility: vengeance for his family killed as a consequence of the Avengers fight against Ultron in Sokovia in their last movie by tearing the group apart. He makes them watch a video of a traffic camera from 1991 showing the incident where the brainwashed Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes kills the occupants of a car who turn out to be Tony Starks (aka Iron Man) parents. Iron Man loses his mind and attempts to kill Barnes: You killed my mummy! As usual, Captain America protects his friend and after a long fight they destroy Iron Mans suit together, leaving him lying in the facility.
The last scene shows Tony Stark in the Avenger headquarter reading an excuse letter by Captain America who justifies himself. At the same moment, one sees Captain America entering the underwater prison where his supportive side of the Avengers is held.
There is no doubt that this movie was directed very well and that the cast did a marvelous job. It is refreshing to see another plot than the usual superhero world-ending scenario. One can praise the screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for how well they included so many characters and still portraying each of them with a personality. Numerous critics have pointed out it would have been the best Marvel production ever done.
Maybe.
Nevertheless, one could also wonder why a 250 million dollar production either forgot the explanation for or simply did not change the language of the police officers in Bucharest into Rumanian. Of course, it might be that the majority of the viewers cares very little about geography, regulations, authorities and it might have been easier do film it in German since they did in Berlin anyway, but the times where German forces simply walk into another capital and shoot someone at sight are fortunately over. How did they not see that? It is confusing from a European perspective.
It is equally confusing to watch a movie that is pointing to the many dead civilians as a consequence of the actions taken by the Avengers portray a more ruthless Captain America than ever. The men he beats and probably kills in this movie to save his friend Bucky are most of time not typically super powered enemies. They are more or less in the wrong place, at the wrong time when he wants something else than the wellbeing of citizens. Not everyone who watches the movie might see it that way but especially the last scene of the movie hurts in this regard: Captain America walks through the entrance of the underwater prison where his friends are held numerous bodies lying around them. These bodies might have been working in the facility, but clearly since the movies purpose is to raise the topic of collateral damage they were no more than people hired. In the 21st century, long after the Nazis and the Cold War, where Charismatic leadership is more difficult to maintain than ever, there is no such thing as a faceless, obeying army or a faceless population masses that simply disagree or agree. People are where they are by choice, for a reason and there are reasonable laws that guarantee the maintenance of society mostly for the sake of the economy. But Captain America has not arrived in this world yet, he comes from and his mind stays in a world where there only is black and white.
So simple, and yet disturbing.
The movie seems to be taking his side: liberal and conservative. Who is called Captain America surely represents American values. But is that what superheroes stand for? What happened to: With great power comes great responsibility from Spider-Man? What is wrong with taking responsibility for your actions? In a movie where the question of responsibility is raised?
It is comprehensible that the character Captain America with his past experiences deeply mistrusts anyone but himself and he has never been of the reflecting kind but that does not make the tone of the plot convincing.
The characters that join his team are a lonely teenager, a wannabe group member and his two sidekicks. That makes him the exact same type of charismatic leader he fears so much to be controlled by. He could have been the one that is further growing in this movie, who sets an example. Instead, he destroys Tony Stark.
Captain America could have been the character to discover that it actually takes more courage to trust again and to let loved ones go not be selfish and to punch harder when you already have superpowers.
Taking his heroic self-convinced side however is a distraction from answering to the original problem. What about the collateral damage? What about the normal people? The movie fails its own purpose.
The writers Markus and McFeely wanted the plot to be naturalistic and deep, but there are holes that leave too many questions. Sure, it is a breath-taking movie until the very last minute, but with the standards raised by the plot, it actually is the worst Marvel production ever.
Story by Isabelle Bonenkamp
Faces of Berlin: Volunteer workforce helps refugee arrivals
Published on May 10, 2016
Story by Iryna Yeroshko
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During the summer of 2015, Germany opened its doors to refugees from Syria and other surrounding countries, which led to an overload of work for those state institutions set up to help refugees. A citizens' initiative Moabit hilft (Moabit helps) is one of the reasons why the refugee registration system hasn't entirely collapsed.
The Project
At the peak of the crisis, hundreds of people stood outside the State Office of Health and Welfare (LAGeSo) every day, waiting to see if their applications would pass the review process. After a long trek to Germany, people were desperate and fighting was reported between those waiting in line. "Moabit hilft" stepped in to help release this tension and to assist those outside the LAGeSo with their basic needs.
Nowadays the NGO is permanently situated at LAGeSo, and serves as a help centre where people can donate clothes, food and personal hygiene products as well as money. Volunteers sort through the donations and redistribute what's on offer to those refugees in need.
The volunteers
Hannah (20): I study mathematics and it's very mentally challenging. Here I have nothing on my mind. I just pack up sanitary pads or organise shampoo. Its an easy job. There are a lot of nice people around here. Refugees come here because they love having another place to go apart from their homes. I really have no idea how they stay positive after all theyve been through.
Jasmin (34): I work as much as I can here. Sometime it can be for as long as 12 hours. I made a promise to my grandparents that if there was a refugee crisis, I would help. They were both refugees from Germany in Jerusalem thats where I was born. In a way I'm a refugee myself because I cant go back to Jerusalem. The police would arrest me for expressing myself politically against genocide.
Jasmin (24): I was born in Germany; my mother was a refugee here from Lebanon. She fled because of war. The most challenging part of working here is when you know you cant help. Im working with a refugee and Im going to see a lawyer with him. He's 17; we're trying to get his parents from Syria to Germany. His parents are very old. He'll be 18 in September, and we know well never get a chance to get his parents here by then because it's a really short time.
Riyad (47): Im yet another refugee here [laughs]. Originally I'm from Libya, but I studied Material Sciences in Germany 10 years ago. My family and kids are here too, which is good. The children are going to a German school and they are fluent in the language. I still dont have permission to work, even though I would love to. We get financial help from LAGeSo, but I dont want to get money just like that. Thats why Im volunteering here as a coordinator.
Ho Jong (47): My wife was unhappy about the fact that we live a mostly self-oriented lifestyle. So we decided to do something to give back to society. 1) Put some money from our salaries into another account and use it to help people. 2) Invest our time in doing some "real" work. Every year we take two weeks of vacation to volunteer.
Unai (30): I used to repair cars before but it didnt bring me much joy. I wanted to change my life; thats why I moved to Berlin. I always wanted to work in a social field. Now I study pedagogy and work part-time. Here we serve tea, coffee and hot chocolate three times a day to people waiting in line at LAGeSo. It brings people joy. I like the atmosphere and what we do here.
Mustafa (29): Im from Palestine. I worked as an Arabic language and literature teacher in Syria. Its already the eighth month I've lived here. After I finish my German course I want to go to the university. Then I can become a teacher again.
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This feature report is a part of our EUtoo 'on the ground' project in Berlin, seeking to give a voice to disenchanted youth. It is funded by the European Commission.
Story by Iryna Yeroshko
Caller-Times file Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi will host a Lavender Graduation to honor the academic accomplishments of the LGBTQ community and their allies from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
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TUESDAY
CLASS: Wilton Cake Decorating Building Buttercream Skills will be from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday taught by Wray Nell Mosier at Hobby Lobby, 5425 S. Padre Island Drive. Cost: $35 per class. Information: 361-991-3641.
ART: The Port Aransas Art Center will host its Drop In & Draw Class by Pat Donohue from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesdays. Learn to draw or improve your skills. Cost:$20, nonmembers; $18, members. Information: 361-749-7334.
MILITARY: The Counseling and Training Clinic at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi is facilitating free and confidential support for the military, including active duty, reserves, guard and veterans. The group is designed to help participants who suffer from the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, sexual assault and traumatic experiences. The group meets from 6-7 p.m. Tuesday in room 2014 of the Natural Resource Center. Information: 361-825-3995.
WEDNESDAY
MEET AND GREET: The NAACP will welcome the Texas A&M University-Kingsville's new provost Heidi M. Anderson from 5:30-7 p.m. at Oveal Williams Senior Center, 1414 Martin Luther King Drive.
LGBTQ: Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi will host a Lavender Graduation to honor the academic accomplishments of the LGBTQ community and their allies from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Lone Star Ballroom. Cost: Free. Information: 361-825-3925.
EDUCATION: Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Teacher Education Induction Ceremony will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. Cost: Free. Information: 361-825-5581.
FOOD: Padre Island will kick off its first Dine Island, a unique three-course dining experience at a value price, island style from May 11-25. Participating restaurants include Angry Marlin, Boathouse Bar and Grill, Costa Sur, Island Time Sushi, Padre Pizza, Veranda and more. Information: 410-271-1167, www.facebook.Com/DineIsland
COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Ruben Ramos performs during the second day of Fiesta de la Flor on Saturday.
SHARE Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times The crowd at Fiesta de la Flor waits for Chris Perez to take the stage at Fiesta de la Flor on Saturday. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES The Harbor Bridge is lit purple in honor of Fiesta de la Flor on Saturday. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times A crowd packs the stage on the second day of Fiesta de la Flor on Saturday.
By Natalia Contreras of the Caller-Times
It turns out Selena is one person that can get thousands of people from all over the world to get along.
The second annual Fiesta de la Flor's expansion gave fans more to do and more room to dance. That atmosphere, combined with sunny skies, made for a safe, incident free two-day festival along the Corpus Christi bayfront.
Although a total number of festival goers was not yet available Monday, event organizers estimated more than 50,000 fans, some from across the globe, attended to pay tribute to Selena Quintanilla Perez.
"Everybody left happy. El Mercado and the Silent Disco were very popular and we plan on having it next year," said Teresa Rodriguez Bartlett, Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau spokeswoman. "We are still waiting on final numbers, but everywhere you went was crowded. It was so great to see the love people have for Selena."
The second annual festival, presented by Citgo, expanded beyond North Bayfront Park to include the American Bank Center and Art Museum of South Texas.
El Mercado, presented by Herrman and Herrman, PLLC, featured more than 80 international artisans from Mexico, Central America, South America and the U.S. inside the American Bank Center.
La Plaza, presented by Stripes, also offered more choices from dozens of food truck vendors on-site, Rodriguez Bartlett said.
Capt. Billy Breedlove said this year the event was better than last year's debut because the expansion allowed people to spread out. There were no arrests on festival grounds on Friday or Saturday and emergency personnel were never called to the site, Breedlove said.
"It was a very well behaved crowd," he said. "These are the types of events we like to see because they are important for the community."
Before the festival ended with a performance by La Mafia and fireworks, Selena's family also made sure to thank fans for all the love.
"We want to thank each and everyone of you for showing so much love to Selena," Suzette Quintanilla Arriaga said. "You came from so far away. Thank you so much for showing up and supporting and for being a part of this festival honoring and celebrating my sister's life and legacy that she has left behind."
Chris Perez said though he has played at other events celebrating Selena Fiesta De La Flor is his favorite.
"I am always amazed at the turn out here and how much people love Selena still," Perez said. "This is the only festival that I feel that kind of love and energy. We also have never had problems with people being uncool with each other here."
Twitter: @CallerNatalia
Contributed Rendering Flatiron Constructors Inc. and Dragados USA Inc. was tapped by the Texas Department of Transportation to design and construct a replacement span for the Harbor Bridge. State officials say the aging bridge has outlived its design and want to replace it with a more modern cable-stayed bridge with a higher clearance.
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By Chris Ramirez of the Caller-Times
A public meeting will be held Thursday to form a Community Advisory Board that will help inform residents about a voluntary acquisition program related to the Harbor Bridge replacement project.
The meeting will be from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Oveal Williams Senior Center, 1414 Martin Luther King Drive.
Organizers say the meeting's purpose is to inform residents about the implementation of the voluntary acquisition program. .
The new span will run in a path that is expected to heavily affect Hillcrest, a historically black neighborhood.
Residents will be informed of the roles and responsibilities of the advisory board and its structure. They also are expected to receive details of a voluntary acquisition program that was set up to assist property owners whose homes and land could be affected by the project.
Replacement of the bridge is slated to cost $898 million. The Port of Corpus Christi authorized up to $20 million to buy properties in the neighborhood and to relocate residents who want to move.
Representatives from the transportation department, the Port of Corpus Christi, the city of Corpus Christi and the Corpus Christi Housing Authority will attend to answer questions.
Twitter: @Caller_ChrisRam
EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the goal of the soon-to-be-created Harbor Bridge Community Advisory Board. The board's purpose is to inform residents about the implementation of a voluntary acquisition program.
Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times file
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By Kirsten Crow of the Caller-Times
A grass-roots group that helped secure a voluntary relocation and land acquisition program for the Hillcrest neighborhood met Monday evening with the firm that is charged with presenting residents with their options.
The neighborhood is expected to be heavily affected by the construction of the Harbor Bridge replacement, and eligible residents in the area are weighing whether to participate in the program.
In the Monday meeting between members of the Citizens Alliance for Fairness and Progress and Del Richardson & Associates, several residents expressed frustration, posing questions to the firm on funding details.
There are some questions that can't be directly addressed yet, firm representatives said individual circumstances will need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
The first step in that process will be individual surveys, said Frank Jordan II, who is leading the firm's outreach efforts. The survey includes about 30 to 40 questions.
"We're going to ask a lot of questions about you to get to understand you and get to understand your specific needs," he said. "I want to know each and every person in this room. With that information, you're going to make a decision about whether or not you want to learn more about this project."
The aim is to open the firm's office, at 2301 N. Port Ave., late next week, representatives said.
A series of workshops is also planned for the week of May 23. Details on those meetings are pending.
Port of Corpus Christi commissioners voted in March to hire Del Richardson & Associates for a three-year contract to coordinate the program.
Letters, which will notify eligible residents that the port is interested in purchasing his or her property, have been sent out, officials said.
Homeowners will have three years to decide whether to participate.
The meeting with the citizens alliance was held a little less than a week after Richardson and her staff attended a public meet and greet event put on by the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the Oveal Williams Senior Center.
The bridge construction project is a key piece in building the region's economic development, officials have said: The $898-million structure is expected to improve safety and also facilitate bigger ships with its higher clearance.
Twitter: @CallerCrow
Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times South Park Middle School teacher Gerardo Guzman works with sixth-graders in a math State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STARR) blitz program at the school. The school is in the third year as being rated improvement required by the Texas Education Agency.
SHARE Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Cunningham Middle School teacher Anna Adame works with eighth-grade English students in an intervention program in preparation State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam. Cunningham was first labeled "academically unacceptable" in 2012, "improvement required" for 2013 and 2014 and "met standard" in 2015. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times South Park Middle School teacher Anna Muniz (center) works with seventh-graders Chris Trevino (left), 12, and David Casas, 13, in a math State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STARR) blitz program. The school is in the third year as being rated "improvement required" by the Texas Education Agency. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Cunningham Middle School eighth-grader Jerry Eligio works during a science intervention program in preparation State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam. Cunningham was first labeled academically unacceptable in 2012, improvement required for 2013 and 2014 and met standards in 2015. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times South Park Middle School sixth-grader Oscar Gutierrez, 11, works in a small group during a math State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STARR) blitz program at the school. The school is in the third year as being rated improvement required by the Texas Education Agency.
By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times
There is much to learn from a campus that has overcome the dreaded "improvement required" rating by the Texas Education Agency.
There are four such schools in the Corpus Christi Independent School District. All of them had different hurdles to overcome. Each of them went about it differently.
The Caller-Times spent time at two campuses as they prepared for this week's assessments. One overcame academic struggles, another has for the past three years been rated poorly by the state. Improvement plans vary by campus and can include teacher training, tutoring programs and Saturday school for students.
Cunningham and South Park middle schools have undergone changes because of subpar academic ratings. The changes, unique to each CCISD school that performs poorly, are meant to create better learning environments for students and educators specifically so students will perform better in state mandated tests.
Cunningham was able to shed the TEA's "improvement required" rating last year 2014-15 school year after receiving a subpar rating since the 2010-11 school year. South Park has not met state academic standards the past three school years. The campus has persistently scored poorly in all indicators measured by the TEA to determine ratings student achievement, how much students improve, the difference between the highest- and lowest-scoring students, and college readiness.
Seven of the schools rated "improvement required" three consecutive years also have some of the highest number of an economically disadvantaged student populations and mobility rates in the district.
"In our side of town, it can be tough at times," Cunningham assistant principal Danny Noyola Jr. said. "If you want to have learning occur, you have to have strong discipline."
Changes to disciplinary measures were tackled oppositely by both campuses; Cunningham led the district in number of disciplinary referrals in 2013 and South Park last year got rid of in-school suspension, replacing it with a one-on-one counseling method for students. Noyola said the change at the campus prompted a culture shift.
South Park principal Ana Fuentes said working with students one-on-one has prompted change that has yet to be reflected in reported data.
Cunningham was at the forefront of state-imposed changes and was a test group for campus improvement efforts that have been adopted districtwide, said director of school services Ralph Silva.
Cunningham's instructional teacher adviser David Trevino said the school adopted an instructional model that includes a "data room," where student academic progress is literally plastered on the walls, was recently encouraged for all campuses because of its success.
"We got away from blaming kids for not learning," Trevino said. "It worked."
South Park also adopted an improved focus on data tracking, but because its demographic makeup, the school is eligible for federal funding that paid for a different learning model. They also have a data room.
Fuentes said progress at South Park is evident in April state assessments: 68 percent of 8th graders passed the reading test and 48 percent passed the math tests compared to last year's 44 percent and 22 percent passing rate, respectively.
Twitter: @CallerBetty
AP file photo In this Dec. 16, 2014, file photo, a man leaves the headquarters of Uber in San Francisco. College kids have moved beyond working at the local pizza joint to make money for college. Now they're inventing the next Uber.
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By Matt Woolbright of the Caller-Times
Council members' safety concerns and questions of fairness ultimately drove the City Council to require fingerprint background checks for ride-hailing companies.
The move, approved in a 5-4 vote Tuesday, caps months of discussion, during which city officials and residents debated whether fingerprint background checks are necessary for ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft.
The companies, which ended their Corpus Christi operations in March, have said they wouldn't return to the city if an ordinance requires drivers to undergo fingerprint background checks. The companies have generally been resistant to such measures.
The ordinance goes into effect Monday.
Supporters of Uber's business model have said the company's in-place background checks are sufficient. Advocates have also cited the business' additional safety measures, which include sending fares a photo of their driver before pickup.
Opponents have said fingerprints are required for a thorough review of criminal history.
Mayor Nelda Martinez has long supported fingerprint background checks, previously describing them as the best way to guard against gaps in information.
"Having the oversight in this requirement, I think, is a very small price to pay for safety," she said.
On Tuesday, several council members expressed concerns about Uber and Lyft's approach to regulations.
The company has historically left communities where fingerprint background checks are required.
The discussion has provoked impassioned arguments in the community and between city leaders, extending far beyond background checks and extending to the image of the city, drunken driving prevention and parity in regulations.
Taxi companies are required to use fingerprint background checks a mandate that some say makes sense. For others, the discussion on ride-hailing companies has raised the question on whether that requirement is needed for that industry, either.
The ordinance adopted Tuesday was originally passed March 8. It permits ride-hailing companies to operate but requires mandatory fingerprint background checks.
Although initially approved in March, the ordinance was essentially put on hold through a motion to reconsider that was then followed by a series of presentations and council briefings.
Martinez and City Council members Brian Rosas, Rudy Garza Jr., Lucy Rubio and Carolyn Vaughn voted in favor of the March 8 ordinance on Tuesday. City Council members Colleen McIntyre, Mark Scott, Chad Magill and Michael Hunter voted against.
Also in a 5-4 vote, the council turned down an ordinance proposed by residents that would not require a fingerprint background check. Martinez described it as "Uber-friendly." Voting against the proposal were Martinez, Vaughn, Garza, Rosas and Rubio. Voting in favor were Hunter, Magill, McIntyre and Scott.
In the meeting, Magill said he supported the citizen-proposed ordinance, in part, because it was an opportunity to deregulate taxis for a competitive environment and "speak into the world that this city is open to new technologies." The proposal was "a Corpus Christi initiative," he said.
"Do they get everything they want? No," he said. "So it's not a complete ordinance that Uber sent to us."
Residents can petition to put the issue up for election. It's expected city staff will research the details of the timeline for interested residents to move forward with that process.
Next week, the council will likely begin laying out a schedule to review an existing ordinance regulating taxi cab companies.
Congressman Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, said Corpus Christi and Austin made a "huge mistake running ride sharing companies off."
"I'm so passionate about this issue it will be my No. 1 concern in choosing who I vote for in the upcoming City Council election," Farenthold said.
The representative, who was expected to Skype into a Republican meeting on the issue later Tuesday, added he feels safer in Uber and Lyft than in taxis because the rides are tracked by GPS.
Farenthold stopped short, however, of proposing removing the fingerprint requirement for taxi drivers, saying the industries are different.
The council's vote comes on the heels of voters in Austin rejecting a citizens-proposed ordinance Saturday backed heavily by Uber and Lyft. Both companies ended operations in Austin on Monday as a result.
"Uber operates on the basis of threats," Austin City Councilwoman Ann Kitchen told the Caller-Times. "That's their model rather than sit down with the city and try to work with some common sense approaches they threaten. They're very difficult."
Twitter: @reportermatt
Twitter: @CallerCrow
SHARE Garza
By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times
Driscoll's Volunteer Fire Department Chief was behind bars Monday after he was arrested on suspicion of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Driscoll police and Texas Rangers arrested Felipe Garza Jr., 43, Saturday afternoon in the town's volunteer fire station. Police Chief Michael Cantu said parents of a 12-year-old girl walked into the police station Friday morning to file a complaint on Garza.
Cantu said after reviewing the evidence and reaching out to Texas Rangers for assistance, he determined there was enough evidence to proceed with the investigation and arrest Garza.
Police confiscated Garza's electronic devices to see if there was additional evidence on this alleged incident or any others, Cantu said.
Garza was in Nueces County Jail with a bond set at $200,000, jail officials said. Garza, who was terminated from his position at the volunteer fire department after his arrest, was chief for three years, Cantu said.
Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Air Force Academy cadets Riley Popovich (from left), Luke Robinson and Zach Gerlach fills work on a Habitat for Humanity home during a spring break visit to Corpus Christi on Tuesday.
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By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times
Residents interested in moving into a Habitat for Humanity home can attend a free information session Tuesday to learn more about the process.
Executive Director Barbara Sweeney said the organization is looking for families who qualify to move in houses that will be built in 2017.
The session, hosted at the Antonio E. Garcia Arts & Education Center, will show attendees how to qualify for the program. People interested in the program can be prescreened at the end of the session to figure out if they can be eligible to apply for a home.
The session begins at 6:30 p.m.
Twitter: @Caller_Fares
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By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times
Employees with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services are hoping Thursday's symposium will help professionals better identify and advocate for abused elders.
Silver Advocate Partners, a nonprofit board, is teaming up with Adult Protective Services for the 10th Annual Training Symposium for Service Providers of the Elderly & Persons with Disabilities at First United Methodist Church.
The all-day event will focus on a range of topics specifically targeted for professionals who work with elderly clients on a daily bases, Community Engagement Specialist Jennifer Catalani said.
The event is in May in honor of elderly abuse prevention month, Catalani said.
The agency expects more than 100 people to attend the session.
Twitter: @Caller_Fares
What has Gov. Abbott done about the six mass shootings on his watch?
Politics
In this photo taken Feb. 25, 2016, an Uber decal is displayed in the their window of the car owned by Steve Linnes, a music teacher in State College, Pa., who is also a part-time Uber driver. Gov. Tom Wolf and Pittsburgh-area officials said Tuesday, May 3, 2016, they want Pennsylvania regulators to greatly reduce their record-setting $11.4 million fine against ride-sharing company Uber. The Public Utility Commission fined Uber last month for operating six months in 2014 without the required approval. (Nabil K. Mark/Centre Daily Times via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT
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By Matt Woolbright of the Caller-Times
A vote on how ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft are regulated may come as early as this week, despite City Council documents in recent weeks suggesting May 17 was the earliest likely date for a vote following weeks of discussion and fact-finding.
Tuesday's council meeting, which was originally billed as a discussion-only date, includes two possible action items related to Uber and Lyft. Mayor Nelda Martinez said she doesn't know if a vote will be taken, but she "hopes there's a vote tomorrow."
"It's our responsibility to put in the necessary safety measures and guidelines," Martinez said. "If there's a part of the public that's not happy, there's a process in our city charter for them to act on that."
The first possible vote is on a City Council-produced ordinance, which may or may not include mandatory fingerprint-based background checks a poison pill for attempts to bring Uber and Lyft back to town. Council members in recent weeks have advocated for amending regulations on the taxi companies as well, so if the council opts to forego mandatory fingerprinting of ride-hailing drivers, it would also remove the requirement for taxi drivers, City Councilwoman Colleen McIntyre said.
The second item is the citizens' proposal, which is designed to entice Uber and Lyft to return their services to Corpus Christi. The City Council will have until June 24 to vote on the item. If no vote is taken or if it's rejected the citizens would be given the sheets to collect signatures to get the initiative on the November ballot, City Secretary Rebecca Huerta said.
The meeting comes the day after Uber and Lyft indefinitely suspended their services in Austin following the defeat of Proposition 1, which aimed to replace a city-backed ordinance that Uber and Lyft opposed with one crafted by citizens supporting the companies. Martinez said the Austin vote shows support for Uber's position on background checks wanes with education.
"Almost everybody, when they understand it better, decide it's common sense to go with the best tool that's available to benefit public safety," she said.
Adolfo Garcia, a ride-hailing driver in Corpus Christi who has been helping the pro-Uber movement here, said Austin and Corpus Christi's differing political slants would likely lead to a different result if voters here are asked to decide in November.
"The voters here will be more conservative, and as this story plays out in Austin our voters will have more objective information," Garcia told the Caller-Times. "Austin will regret this decision."
Twitter: @reportermatt
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Uber screenshot photos by COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Green N Go Cab driver Phillip Benesh turns off his meter after reaching his fare's destination on Thursday. Green N Go Cab driver Phillip Benesh walks to the front of his cab after helping a fare into the back on Thursday. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Uber COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Green N Go Cab driver Phillip Benesh heads to pick up a fare on Thursday. Cab company officials say they are losing business to Uber, whose drivers aren't required to pay the same costs to operate. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Green N Go Cab driver Phillip Benesh radios in to dispatch after receiving the location of a job on Thursday. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Green N Go Cab driver Phillip Benesh opens the door and helps a fare into the back of his cab on Thursday. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Green N Go Cab driver Phillip Benesh closes the back door of his cab after dropping off his fare at their destination on Thursday. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Green N Go Cab driver Phillip Benesh drives a fare to their destination on Thursday.
At least now perhaps our City Council can have an honest discussion about fingerprint background checks of ride-for-hire drivers without the council members who favor fingerprinting being labeled anti-progress except during public comment. There is no more progressive, tech-savvy Texas city than Austin, which voted resoundingly Saturday against a corporate-orchestrated rewrite of that city's fingerprint requirement.
Uber, Lyft and their backers spent nearly $9 million trying unsuccessfully to undo Austin's ordinance. Austinites like using those companies' app-driven ride services. The Austin vote wasn't against the service. It was a vote for Austin's sovereignty over itself and against being dictated to by corporate interests.
Uber-at-all-costs voters more than likely are more heavily outnumbered here than in Austin, where the Uber measure failed 56-44 percent. That's no reason for pro-fingerprint council members to be smug. They should consider with open minds whether not fingerprinting is worth the risk if an accurate assessment of the risk exists, minus spin-doctoring. We haven't been privy to one.
In the meantime, no matter what our council decides, there's a troubling effort afoot in the Legislature to undermine the home-rule authority that Austin voters exerted Saturday. State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, sent a strong signal Sunday to expect the Legislature to consider seizing ride-for-hire regulatory authority from cities.
What's interesting is that Texas state officials in recent years have made their careers by resisting federal encroachment on what they consider their authority. If they try to do the same to cities as they complain is done to them by the feds, voters should end those careers, on principle. They shouldn't accept that what's bad for the goose is good for the gander.
Schwertner, in a statement that sounded hauntingly familiar to anyone who follows both state politics and Uber-style rhetoric, described the issue as protection of the free market against "inconsistent and anti-competitive regulations" supposedly crafted to favor unions.
Actually, the issue couldn't be more consistent. It's consistently about fingerprinting. Nor could it be any more about fair competition on a level playing field. If fingerprinting gives traditional cab companies an advantage, the question should be what's wrong with the nontraditional companies' business models that this safety issue would work against them.
Schwertner will not be alone. Land Commissioner George P. Bush spun the Austin vote as a consequence of Austin-style liberalism. That would be amusing if it weren't an insult coming from Bush, who has been liberal with the state's money in hiring college buddies and the children of family friends at inflated salaries under the guise of cleaning house. Home rule should be a conservative principle not a principle threatened by unprincipled conservatives.
State encroachment on home rule has consequences beyond the corporate interests of ride-for-hire companies. A city's right to regulate or outlaw plastic grocery bags has been another target. And it bodes poorly for Corpus Christi if the city were to seek the Legislature's permission to consider a local-option motor fuel tax dedicated to street repair.
The issue would be the right to self-determination nothing more. Corpus Christi wouldn't be asking the politically tax-averse Legislature to approve a tax. The city has a billion-dollar residential street problem that the Legislature isn't going to solve. A local gas tax, which targets the users who wear out streets, could be a partial solution. If the city were to pursue it, the least that the Legislature could do is get out of the city's way. That's a big if, but it should be the city's if.
| BY Lynchy |
In the lead-up to the AWARD Awards the annual CB/LIA Legendary Lunch will be held in Sydney on Thursday May 26.
The lunch will be attended by top creative directors on both sides of the Tasman as well as from interstate plus selected production company executive producers.
Special guests will include Aussie expat Bob Isherwood, worldwide creative advisor of Innocean and Jeremy Craigen, worldwide creative director of Innocean.
| BY Ricki Green |
Independent digital agency, Deepend, has strengthened its award-winning team with the hire of a new account director, Holly Puzylo, to support continued client growth across sectors.
Hailing from the UK, Puzylo has more than a decade of international experience in developing and supporting the implementation of integrated solutions across multichannel marketing, analytics, and CRM. She joins Deepend following her role as account director at CACI London where she worked on blue-chip clients including Bupa, Allianz, Molton Brown, AXA and the RSPB.
Puzylo said she is looking forward to contributing to the dynamic Deepend team and getting fully immersed in the Australian digital landscape.
Says Puzylo: Aussies hold the international lead as early technology adopters and I am genuinely thrilled to be joining Australias largest independent digital agency. Deepends ever-expanding roster of high calibre clients and industry awards is testament to the companys leading reputation and the teams genuine passion to produce innovative work.
Dan Robathan, general manager and head of strategy at Deepend, said Puzylo is a multi-skilled leader, adept at managing teams and building strong relationships across the board.
Says Robathan: 2016 has already proved another big year for us with five award nominations to date and a spate of new business wins. We are looking to continue this momentum with Holly who makes a fantastic addition to our growing team. Having hit the ground running, she is already applying her considerable skills to make an immediate impact on the agency and our clients.
| BY Ricki Green |
New York Festivals International Advertising Awards is inviting advertising creatives to judge the Worlds Best Advertising competition. Registration is now open for the third annual YouBe the Judge! contest. Entrants are invited take a virtual seat at the New York Festivals executive jury table and match their skills against the 400 creative directors, executive creative directors, chief creative officers and worldwide chief creative officers who are judging the 2016 Worlds Best Advertising competition.
The 2016 YouBe the Judge! contest officially begins on Monday, May 9th at 9:30am US Eastern Time and ends on Monday, May 16th at 9:30am US ET. Contest award-winners will be selected based on the contestants selections that best match the scoring ranks of the 2016 Executive Jury.
In the case of a tie, the entrant who was the first to submit their rankings will be declared the winner. We will notify the winners by both email and telephone. A list of the top 25 scorers first names and last initials will be available online at after 10:00pm ET on the 19th of May, 2016.
Award-winners will receive the following prizes:
First Prize: New iPad and four All-Access passes valued at $1400 to the 2016 New York Show in NYC.
Second Prize: Two All-Access passes valued at $700 to the 2016 New York Show in NYC.
Third Prize: One All-Access pass valued at $350 to the 2016 New York Show in NYC. There is no fee to enter the 2016 YouBe the Judge! contest, To enter, register at www.newyorkfestivals.com/judge2016. You will then receive a confirmation email with a link to your personalized judging page. Please visit here for more information and to view the complete rules and regulations visit here.
The 2016 New York Show events will be on May 19th and feature four creative panel sessions, a cocktail reception, the awards ceremony, and an after-party. New York Festivals will welcome award winners, jury members and guests from around the globe to this day long series of events honoring the Worlds Best Advertising.To purchase tickets visit: Here.
The four creative panel sessions will take place during the day at the NYIT Auditorium on Broadway, located at 1871 Broadway (btw 61st & 62nd St).
Later that evening, guests from around the world will then join us for our Gala event at Jazz at Lincoln Centers Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th Street, New York City, for a cocktail reception in the Ertegun Atrium, followed by the awards ceremony in Rose Theater. A celebratory after-party will be held at Parkview Lounge, on the 4th floor of Time Warner Center, to toast all the winners of the Worlds Best Advertising.
| BY Ricki Green |
Fresh from the festival success of his Oscar-shortlisted animated film, Love in the Time of March Madness, director/designer Robertino Zambrano (right) is partnering with accomplished producer James Hudson (left) to take design and animation studio KAPWA to new places.
Zambranos unorthodox career has resulted in a collision of disciplines, from illustration, animation, and interactive design. He cut his teeth in New York, working at the award-winning digital agency R/GA, directing a myriad of digital and traditional content for leading brands including Nike and Google, including the highly awarded Nike+ Fuelband.
Upon his return to Sydney, Zambrano founded KAPWA as a collective creative practice, completing his first film, before being picked up as a director by leading animation house Mighty Nice.
While there, Zambrano met executive producer James Hudson, working together on marquee campaigns for Telstra and QBE.
Says Hudson: It was pretty obvious to me, on meeting Robertino, that he is a huge talent. The quality of his pitches, attention to detail and creative input on a project immediately stood out.
Plus we had similar taste in craft beer making any decision to team up pretty simple.
Hudson enjoyed many years as a director in his own right, filming in over fifteen countries, before moving into production, including several years as executive producer at animation and VFX house, Toybox, in Auckland.
Says Zambrano: As a creative producer, James brings an arsenal of experience to the table. His extensive live-action experience perfectly complements my design and animation skill set,
| BY Ricki Green |
Swisse Wellness heads to Melbournes bustling home of fresh produce South Melbourne Market with global ambassador George Calombaris capturing the chef and healthy lifestyle advocate in his element for new campaign via Noisy Beast.
The new series of Swisse commercials, which launch tonight, will run throughout the remainder of Network Tens 2016 MasterChef Australia series, and will feature popular Swisse products: Mens Ultivite, Vitamin D, Liver Detox and Wild Fish Oil.
The new commercials provide an insight into the preparation that goes into Calombaris famous cooking, following the long-time Swisse ambassador and MasterChef judge as he explores the local stalls and selects his favourite fresh local produce.
Says Michael Howard, director of marketing and sales, Swisse: Were really excited to be bringing something new to this campaign by filming in a live setting, and the fit could not be more perfect for George. His vibrant personality and genuine passion for fresh and healthy produce is captured naturally as he interacts with locals and learns about their offerings.
George has been part of our team for many years now and has also recently become a global ambassador for our brand. His passion around the importance of eating good quality, fresh and nutritious food and living a healthy lifestyle, coupled with his energy and enthusiasm for living life to the fullest makes him the perfect face to help us in our mission of making millions across the globe healthier and happier.
Says Calombaris: Working with Swisse for the last four years has been a very special partnership. My journey around health and wellness has really evolved over the past few years and I learn and discover things each day that help me stay on top of my game and firing at 100 per cent. Swisse has been a big part of that journey for me and I love that I get to join them in helping make others healthier and happier and the best they can be.
Im pumped for this next campaign. Its exciting to be closer to the source, talking to the growers, talking to the fish mongers, about their passion that in turn inspire me to cook with their amazing produce.
Serve with whole grain toast and a small salad for a comforting breakfast-for-dinner. Be sure to leave the stems on the peppers when halving and coringthis helps to hold in the egg as the pepper roasts and softens.
Prep time 15 minutes
Total time 30 minutes
Portion size 4 servings
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at 8:38AM
Apple's SVP for Apple Pay Jennifer Bailey demos the features of Apple Pay which is coming to Canada this JuneBy Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Apple Pay is available to all active Interac debit cards issued by CIBC and RBC. Your debit card does not have to be an Interac Flash enabled card. In stores, Apple Pay works with iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch. You will first need to add your debit card to the Apple Wallet to make mobile transactions. Interac can be used with Apple Pay to buy goods and services across Canada in the hundreds of thousands of Canadian stores wherever contactless payments
Apple Pay, which securely uses iPhone and Apple Watch to enable contact less payments, has been in Canada for some time now but limited to customers of American Express credit cards. That is all changing shortly as major banks and other credit card companies have been announced as partners and are looking to offer the functionality to their iPhone and Apple Watch-toting users.
Apple has confirmed that Apple Pay will be coming to CIBC (credit and debit), ATB (credit, debit coming later), Canadian Tire Financial Services (credit), RBC (credit and debit) and of course American Express has enjoyed the first-mover advantage since late last year.
Moreover, the following banking institutions plan on going live in the coming months with Apple Pay, BMO (credit and debit), TD (credit and debit) and Scotiabank (credit and debit).
Apple says Visa, MasterCard and Interac will all be supported where offered by the banks. While competing mobile payment solutions from Google and Samsung exist, Apple Pay is the dominant and more fleshed out ecosystem and the first to be available on a global basis.
Apple Pay also extends to purchasing physical goods within apps or purchasing items from the Apple Store, while American Express is currently live and that wont change, support for all of the rest of the banks above will also be going live sometime in June, with final timing to be confirmed.
"Apple Pay is an innovative, secure and convenient mobile payment method that will help further the growth and evolution of digital debit payments in Canada," said Mark O'Connell, President and CEO, Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation. "Interac, when paired with Apple Pay, will bring mobile payments into the 'everyday' and allow Canadians to experience enhanced simplicity and ease when paying with Interac."
With Canadians using Interac more than any other payment type, Apple Pay support of Interac is well positioned for a successful rollout in Canada. "Canadians embrace new technologies quickly and will, no doubt, find tremendous value and convenience when using their Interac debit cards with Apple Pay," said Avinash Chidambaram, Vice President, Product and Platform Development, Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation. "In the coming months, Canadians will also be able to use Interac for In-App payments, further simplifying the online shopping experience and providing yet another way for Canadians to use their own money when making purchases."
For Canadians, who have long had the ability to use touchless payments with their debit and credit cards, the availability of Apple Pay further simplifies the purchasing process. Apple uses hardware and software as well as features within its OS to enable a secure and fast payment using Touch ID to verify the user's identity and it is now possible to leave all your plastic cards at home and simply use Apple's Wallet app on the phone or the Apple Watch to make purchases.
Details
Security and privacy are at the core of Apple Pay, so when used with a payment card, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element of the supported Apple device.
Using the Interac Token Service Provider (TSP) service, each Apple Pay transaction is validated with a one-time unique token (a dynamic security code). The Interac TSP service was developed in collaboration with IBM, a world leader in mobile and cloud computing, Bell ID, a global provider of tokenization software for mobile payments, and Everlink, a leading provider of integrated payment solutions and services. Since Apple Pay transactions using Interac are backed by the Interac brand, consumers are further protected from fraud with transaction limits and zero customer liability.
Availability
Apple Pay is available to all active Interac debit cards issued by CIBC and RBC. Your debit card does not have to be an Interac Flash enabled card. In stores, Apple Pay works with iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch. You will first need to add your debit card to the Apple Wallet to make mobile transactions.
Interac can be used with Apple Pay to buy goods and services across Canada in the hundreds of thousands of Canadian stores wherever contactless payments are already accepted. Just look for the contactless symbol on the payment terminal at checkout.
During its recent earnings report, Apple has stressed that it is leaning on the profits of its services business which includes Apple Music, Apple Pay and iTunes and the App Store. As the sales of the iPhone decline and as varying economic realities impacted earnings, services has proven to be more profitable for Apple than both Mac and iPad sales combined.
Apple's services revenue was $5.99 billion in the fiscal second quarter, beating analyst estimates of $5.78 billion, according to StreetAccount. This was a 20 percent rise from the same period last year. Paving the way for services like Apple Pay in Canada and other countries is a smart and profitable way to bolster Apple's bottom line and further ensure customer loyalty to Apple's brand and products as well as expand their ecosystem.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at 10:18AM
Ladies Learning Code will be at Parliament Hill to mark Science Odyssey Week and launch their newest and biggest initiative - the code:mobile. The code:mobile is Canadas first-ever traveling computer lab on wheels, which will drive across Canada this summer to inspire and empower Canadian youth to not only use technology but to create with technology and become our future innovators.
Todays event highlights the growing importance of digital literacy for Canadians. Organizations like Ladies Learning Code are helping to teach Canadians, in particular young women, the necessary skills to succeed and become passionate builders of technology, said the Hon. Kirsty Duncan, the Minister of Science. These types of hands-on experiences with technology transform the way youth engage with computer science and lay the foundation for future pathways to discovery and innovation.
In partnership with Microsoft Canada through its YouthSpark initiative, the code:mobile will bring hands-on, interactive technology education to an estimated 10,000 kids from May to September 2016, travelling approximately 35,000km coast to coast, visiting over 22 Chapter cities. Ladies Learning Code believes that computer programming and other technical skills are tools of empowerment, and it is their mission to ensure that all Canadians - particularly women and youth - have access to these learning opportunities.
The code:mobile is our big bold move to inspire the next generation of technologists, said Laura Plant, Ladies Learning Codes Co-Executive Director. Since its inception in 2011, Ladies Learning Code has held over 600 workshops and events and reached over 24,000 learners across the country and we keep wanting to push that impact. In May, we announced a goal to teach 200,000 Canadian women and youth to code by 2020 and the code:mobile will help us make a big dent in our goal.
Ladies Learning Codes is a national organization with 29 Chapters across Canada that provides beginner-friendly computer programming workshops to people of all ages and gender, has growing youth programs Girls Learning Code, Kids Learning Code and Code:Mobile.
Microsoft is pleased to support Ladies Learning Codes code:mobile initiative to take coding to communities across Canada, especially to young people who, otherwise, would not have access to computer science education, said Dennis Lopes, Corporate, External and Legal Affairs Lead at Microsoft Canada. At Microsoft, we believe all young people should have access to computer science education so they can develop the computational-thinking and problem-solving skills that are critical for their and Canadas future.
To learn more about the code:mobile or request a visit, check out www.codemobile.rocks. Help spread the word on Facebook and Twitter using #codemobile.
Mr Refshauge said given Mitchell's mental disorder, and his long history of possessing firearms, there could be no assumption that the ammunition found at the house was for the guns also discovered there and could not be linked to the offences.
But two internal reviews by the directorate had also raised multiple questions about the design of the centre, including pedestrian access from Fred Daly Avenue, the failure of its facade to contribute positively to the streetscape, its potential noise problems for a neighbouring residential development and its ability to support "social and leisure activities" that would make the centre a focus for the Coombs community. It also raised concerns about how the design might not help crime prevention with "narrow internal areas, sight-line design issues, potential for entrapment and poor escape routes" .
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Three college students who first met while attending a Catholic high school in Florida have launched a scholarship fund to help others experience faithful Catholic education at a Newman Guide college. As we went off to different colleges, we kept in touch and found time to catch up whenever we returned []
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.
The Andhra Pradesh Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test (AP EAMCET 2016) results are declared on the board's official website.
Candidates who had appeared for the AP EAMCET exam can view the results on the official website.
How to view the results?
Candidates should visit the official website
Enter your register number
Click on the 'Submit' button
Results will be displayed on the screen
Take the print out of the result for future reference
About 2.90 lakh students had appeared for the exam this year in all 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh which was held between March 26 and April 4.
About AP EAMCET:
AP EAMCET is an entrance examination conducted to offer admissions into professional courses related to medicine, engineering and agriculture. Candidates qualify in the entrance exam will be admitted in various universities and colleges of Andhra Pradesh.
Also Read:
British Council Announces Summer School With Shakespearean Theme
May 10, 2016: The British Council in India is thrilled to announce the return of its Summer School.
Every year British Council hosts a Summer School course at its centre in Delhi. This programme is offered to Young Learners between the ages of 8 and 15. This year the theme for the course is William Shakespeare, arguably the world's most famous writer. Learners develop speaking, writing, reading and listening skills through engaging tasks, games and activities centred around The Bard.
Through fun, interactive classes students develop team building and group discussion skills by working with classmates in a safe, stimulating environment. By treating every child as an individual we help them to communicate confidently, and to use English in real-life situations.
Speaking about the British Council's Summer School, Michael Gordon, Teaching Centre Manager, India explained: "We know that one of the best ways to develop language proficiency is through stories, and Shakespeare's stories are some of the best stories ever written, and performed"
Gordon went on to state: "the language of Shakespeare is also wonderful. We introduce Children to it via carefully designed lessons, so that they understand and enjoy it, and feel inspired to read further and also to produce their own creative language".
Learners also get the opportunity to enter art and writing competitions, win prizes in a Shakespeare themed fancy dress event and take part in a performance in the final week of the course in our two hundred seat auditorium.
The Young Learner Summer School promises to be an enjoyable programme where children get to demonstrate their teamwork, creativity and English language skills. We also offer young learner speaking and writing courses, general English courses and workshops in storytelling, poetry, debating skills and more.
Our Summer School in Delhi runs in two sessions from 23 May - 12 June and from 20 June - 17 August.
About the British Council:
The British Council is the UK's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide.
We are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter. We work in more than 100 countries and our 7,000 staff - including 2,000 teachers - work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the arts and delivering education and society programmes. The British Council was established in India in 1948.
The British Council is recognised across India for its network of 9 libraries and cultural centres. We offer a range of specialised projects in arts, education, exams, English language and society to audiences across India and more than 100,000 members. We also provide access to English language training and learning for both students and teachers, offer UK qualifications in India and enable opportunities to study in the UK.
The Italian M3 rival is finally ready to hit the roads, with Alfa Romeo currently launching the Giulia in the European market.
The new Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde (or Cloverleaf for English-speaking countries) wants to offer not only a genuine alternative to the usual high-performance saloons from Germany, but aims to reshuffle the cards in the segment.
Powered by a Ferrari-inspired twin-turbo 2.9-litre V6 producing 503hp and 600Nm (442 lb ft) of peak torque, it is capable of a 0-62mph (0-100km/h) in 3.9 seconds, topping out at an unrestricted 190mph (305km/h).
Alfa Romeo claims that the Giulia QV offers the best power-to-weight ratio in its class, tipping the scales at 1524kg dry and offering a 50-50 weight distribution between the axles. Doors and wings are made out of aluminum, with a carbon-fibre bonnet and roof to keep the weight down and low to the ground.
The steering has just 2 full turns from lock to lock, aiming to offer Ferrari levels of directness while the company has integrated Torque Vectoring tech into the limited-slip differential in order to control the supplied torque independently for each wheel.
Engineers have gone for a double wishbone front suspension with a multilink rear and adaptable dampers sourced from ZF Sachs. The company aims to offer the Giulia QV in many configurations, including versions with AWD and/or paired with an eight-speed automatic gearbox in the place of the standard six-speed manual. Customers in the UK will only get the option of a RWD automatic version.
The driver will have four driving modes to choose from: Dynamic, Natural, Advanced Efficiency and a QV-exclusive Race mode which turns the stability control off and tunes the chassis for driving on a track.
The bodywork features an advanced aero agenda, including an active front splitter made out of carbon, offering a genuine 100kg of downforce at top speed. The drag coefficient of the new Giulia QV is rated at 0.32 Cx.
The new Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Verde is priced from 79,000 euros ($89,000 in current exchange rates) in Italy and an estimated 55,000 ($79,000 in current exchange rates) in the UK. Pricing in other European countries will be announced in the coming days.
PHOTO GALLERY
Takata expects to be in the red this year too, as airbag inflator recalls may increase to nearly 120 million units worldwide.
The Japanese company expects a net loss of 13 billion yen ($121 million) for the year that ended on March 31, which is at the opposite pole of previous forecasts that indicated a 5 billion yen ($46 million) profit, according to Takata, quoted by Autonews.
The number adds to the previous years net loss of 29.6 billion yen ($276 million) and has made Takata seek financial sponsors to replenish its capital and allow it to resurrect as a new company.
Japan and automakers in other markets are believed to follow the United States in recalling all airbags that use ammonium nitrate and lack a moisture-absorbing desiccant, which is the main factor behind the ruptures and shrapnel spraying into the cabin, following impacts that trigger the airbags.
At least 13 motorists have lost their lives in the United States and Malaysia and more than 100 have been injured worldwide in accidents related to this particular defect. The last two deaths linked to Takata were announced by Honda Malaysia, after two City cars were found to have their airbag inflators ruptured. In the United States, the last person killed by the problematic airbags was a 17-year old girl driving a 2002 Honda Civic on March 31 in Texas.
VIDEO
Energy storage and clean fuel company ITM Power opened the gates of the first public access HyFive hydrogen fuel station in London at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington.
UKs Transport Minister Andrew Jones opened the station supported by members of the European HyFive consortium, including Toyota, Hyundai, Honda and Renaults technology partner Symbio FCell.
The station is the first of the three to be opened in the UK as part of the pan-European HyFive project, funded by the European Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCHJU) and the UK Government Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).
The HyFive project (Hydrogen For Innovative Vehicles) includes 15 partners which plan to deploy a total of 185 fuel-cell electric vehicles from BMW, Daimler, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota. This consortium also plans to create a refueling station network in three parts of Europe to serve its fleet, with six new stations added to the existing 12 stations.
Transport Minister Andrew Jones also announced a 2 million government fund to support the adoption of hydrogen vehicles in public and private sector fleets. We are committed to making all cars and vans zero-emission by 2050, and hydrogen vehicles have a huge role to play in delivering cleaner, greener journeys.
The new refuelling station at Teddington is just one of 12 stations opening up this year, backed by 5 million of government funding, that will make it easier for more people to switch to this exciting new technology.
ITM Power is also commissioned to open a further four hydrogen refuelling stations in and around London before the end of 2016.
The opening of ITM Powers new filling station is an excellent example of how a coordinated hydrogen fuel infrastructure is successfully being developed in the UK with backing from the HyFive consortium, said Paul Van der Burgh, Toyota (GB) PLC President. We are pleased to continue our support for the wider provision of hydrogen fuel outlets, which will encourage increased customer uptake of zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell vehicles such as the Toyota Mirai saloon.
PHOTO GALLERY
Volkswagen is close to resolving part of its emissions-cheating scandal in the US, which would inadvertently reduce the costs of running a buyback program.
Autonews reported that talks are ongoing and that sources asked not to be identified, but it seems that a potential upgrade for 3.0-liter V6 diesel-powered models may include a new catalytic converter.
Even though a plan to recall V6 TDI models was proposed back in February, talks have since been delayed as US regulators and VW focused their efforts on issues that plagued the 482,000 vehicles with smaller diesel engines.
While VW is racing to meet their June 21 deadline concerning 2.0-liter TDI four-cylinder models, issues affecting larger-engine VW, Audi and Porsche models could be addressed during a new status briefing said to take place on May 19th.
In the US, the V6 TDI power unit is being used in multiple Audi models, such as the A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7, as well as the Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg SUV.
The German company has set aside 228 million euros for costs originating from the emissions crisis.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: Darren Handschuh
UPDATE: 4:25 P.M.
The RCMP in B.C. will be sending approximately 150 police officers to assist in Fort McMurray, according to Staff Sgt. Rob Vermeulen, media relations spokesperson.
The police officers being redeployed to assist Fort McMurray will be primarily comprised of tactical troop members and traffic services officers. Both are used to being redeployed on short notice for serious events, said Vermeulen.
He said local needs and contingencies were taken into consideration to ensure detachments across the province would not be adversely affected during the deployment.
UPDATE: 3:45 P.M.
Kelowna RCMP Const. Jesse O'Donaghey is also being sent to Fort McMurray to help.
"I have learned today that I am being deployed in a media relations capacity to northern Alberta to assist our partners battling the Fort McMurray wildfire," he said Monday afternoon.
He said he will be away for the remainder of this week and into next week.
ORIGINAL
At least one member of the North Okanagan RCMP has been sent to Fort McMurray to help out.
Const. Jocelyn Noseworthy, who occasionally also acts as the media liaison officer, will be in the northern Alberta city for the next two weeks.
It is not known if other officers from the area are being temporarily transferred or what Noseworthy's role will be, as officials with the RCMP did not return requests for more information.
With the entire city of Fort McMurray under evacuation, emergency resources are stretched thin.
Vernon Fire Rescue deputy fire Chief Jack Blair said he's unaware of firefighters from Vernon helping in Alberta.
Photo: BC Wildfire Service Siphon Creek Fire
The provincial government believes as many as 10 wildfires in the Peace region were deliberately set.
The Conservation Officer Service is asking people to come forward with information they may have pertaining to the fires.
Investigators with the BC Wildfire Service and Natural Resource Officers have found evidence to suggest at least 10 separate wildfires in three distinct areas have been deliberately set.
The fires are believed to be connected.
Extra conservation officers have been brought in to help with the investigation.
Some property damage has occurred, but there have been no reports of injuries so far. Some of the fires are still burning.
Hefty fines and jail time can be levied against anyone found to have started a wildfire.
Fines can amount to as much as $1 million.
The public is encouraged to report any suspicious activity or information related to these fires to the Report All Poachers and Polluters (RAPP) line at 1-877-952-7277. All tips can remain anonymous.
Photo: Contributed
A West Kelowna resident is once again reminding people to butt out before they toss out.
Jordan Abbate is re-launching his BC ButtHeads Facebook page after last year's success.
Abbate originally started the social media page to report those who toss lit cigarettes from moving vehicles.
It went well, most of the responses were positive, said Abbate of his page.
He said he wanted to continue the page to try and make a difference in the world, as well as to try and stop fires before they start after spending the majority of last week watching northern Alberta burn.
Kelowna in 2003, Slave Lake in 2011 and now Fort McMurray in 2016, unfortunately it's not going to end there, he said on Facebook. As the forests become more crowded and the trees are killed by disease, there's only going to be more tragic events like the one in Fort McMurray.
Visitors to the page are encouraged to click the link "posts to page," and upload a photo of the suspect vehicle along with information about who tossed a cigarette, when and where.
Users can then comment on the page and weigh in on the discussion.
Comments on the pictures generally involve something along the lines of calling the tosser 'ignorant, he said.
Those who see cigarettes tossed from vehicles are also encouraged to call the police who will investigate the complaints and issue a ticket or fine where appropriate. Fines start at $82 and go up to $173 under either the Motor Vehicle Act or Wildfire Act.
It's difficult to fine someone for tossing cigarette butts unless they are caught directly in the act of doing so, said Abbate. I believe the fines for people who get caught need to be more severe as a way to show other tossers, Hey, this will be you if you continue doing what you're doing.'
Last year, most of the vehicles reported to Abbates page had Alberta licence plates. He hopes this will change after the as the Wild Rose province is affected by devastating wildfires.
He reminds those who do catch butt tossers in vehicles to not take a photo while driving, or use a cellphone as distracted driving is against the law.
Get your passengers to take the pictures instead, he said.
Photo: Contributed
It is a Mothers Day Colleen Woelder will remember for the rest of her life.
Last Sunday, a day where Woelder should have been adorned with flowers and brunch was instead spent praying for the life of her best friend.
Her seven-year-old German Shepherds health took an unexpected turn last week.
She was acting really tired, lethargic, I thought maybe she was depressed because my sons dog had been visiting and then left so my dog missed him, explained Woelder.
The dog, named Mystery, got worse as the week progressed forcing the local hairdresser to go to an animal hospital.
We took her to Rose Valley Vet, for emergency surgery and Dr. Oz discovered she had hidden tumours in her liver that had never been detected before, not even with an X-ray, she said.
Realizing Mothers Day plans would have to be put on hold, Woelders three sons stepped up to help. Her children gave as much money as they could to save Mysterys life.
They did this for me, they tried to save her life for me, she said of the best Mothers Day present she could ask for.
Dr. Oz spent Mothers Day in surgery, away from his wife and mother of two children as well as a partner veterinarian.
He donated his time because he knew how expensive the surgery would be, said Woelder. He tried to save her but the tumours were too much, he did everything he could.
Mystery didnt make it despite Dr.Ozs efforts.
I just want to thank him and let everyone know what he did for my family on a day when he should have been with his family, she said. Its important to recognize him and his business.
The surgery still cost Woelder more than $4,000 even with Dr. Ozs volunteered time; however, her sons helped to foot the bill.
Woelder who owns Kelowna Hair Design says she still has two other dogs at home who are joining her in mourning the loss of Mystery.
It was a really hard day, but it meant so much to have my sons and Dr. Oz do what they did.
Photo: CTV An empty operating room at BC Children's Hospital
A shortage of specialized nurses means operating rooms at BC Children's Hospital remain empty.
Up to 25 per cent of operating rooms have been closed due to the shortage.
And, chief operating officer Linda Lemke told CTV News, the situation my not get better quickly.
OR nurses are a difficult position to fill. Theres actually a worldwide shortage of nurses who need specialized training, she said, adding that the problem is compounded at BC Childrens because it requires staff go through additional training to work on little people.
The sudden change, said Lemke, is due to retirements and nurses leaving for other jobs.
Normally, there are eight operating rooms available, but, because of the shortage, two have been closed.
About 56 cases have been cancelled or postponed since the beginning of May.
The union which represents nurses in the province, said there are about 1,000 vacancies for specialized nurses within the province.
"Emergency nurses across the province are in high demand... really any specialty area in nursing we are desperately short of right now, said B.C. Nurses Union President Gayle Duteil.
"It is not a quick fix. Specialty nurses do not grow on trees it takes upwards of over a year to educate and train nurses into specialty areas."
--with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: CTV
The British Columbia government will soon start pushing out information to the public that is commonly requested in Freedom of Information documents.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong announced Monday that the information will include the details of directly-awarded contracts, summaries of gaming grants and calendars of high-level government bureaucrats and cabinet ministers.
De Jong says travel expenses for cabinet ministers, including receipts, will be released on a quarterly basis.
The government pledged earlier to breakdown public information barriers following critical reports from by B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham and former B.C. privacy commissioner David Loukidelis.
Denham's report highlighted a failure to keep adequate email records and the wilful destruction of records in response to a freedom-of-information request about missing and murdered women along Highway 16, B.C.'s so-called Highway of Tears.
While the information release will begin almost immediately, de Jong says legislation surrounding the government's duty to document records won't be tabled this spring, and will be the focus of further review.
Photo: Google Maps
UPDATE: 4:40 p.m.
DriveBC says Highway 3 is expected to remain closed in both directions at Jaffray until 9 p.m.
There is a detour via Betania Road.
UPDATE: 9:45 a.m.
A hazardous materials spill has closed a section of Highway 3 in southeastern British Columbia.
Southeast District Traffic Services Sgt. Don Erichsen says a commercial vehicle rolled early Tuesday morning, closing the route just east of Jaffray, about 50 kilometres southeast of Cranbrook.
Erichsen says the truck was hauling hazardous goods, but he did not indicate what was spilled.
He says the situation is controlled but the cleanup could take hours.
Drive BC estimates Highway 3 will reopen by late afternoon and a detour over secondary roads is available.
A cause of the crash or a condition of the truck driver have not been released.
ORIGINAL
Highway 3 is closed in both directions near Jaffray, due to what DriveBC reports as a major incident involving a commercial vehicle.
The nature of the incident is not yet known, but it was first reported shortly before 3 a.m., and the road is expected to remain closed until 5 p.m. today.
The closure is two kilometres east of Jaffray Road.
An RCMP investigation is in progress.
A detour is available via Jaffray Baynes Lake Road and Kikomun Road.
Castanet will provide more details as they become available.
Send your news, photos and video to [email protected]
Photo: CTV
UPDATE 5:15 P.M.
Surrey RCMP is currently investigating a second shooting in less than 24 hours.
Police believe the two incidents may be connected and are seeking additional information from the public.
In the early morning hours of May 9, RCMP received a call from Abbotsford that there was a male at the local hospital suffering from non-life threatening gunshot wounds.
RCMP said the investigation is in the early stages, however, it does appear this is a targeted incident that occurred in Surrey. The male involved is not from Surrey and he is known to police.
Police are asking anyone who has any information regarding this incident that may have occurred in the 7500 block of 135 Street at approximately 2:20am on May 9 to call Surrey RCMP.
Anyone with further information who has not already spoken to police is asked to contact Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502, to remain anonymous call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, or solvecrime.ca.
RCMP responded to yet another incident of gunfire in Surrey overnight.
Two vehicles were apparently involved in the incident on the 7200 block of 151st Street in the Newton area of Surrey. A suspect vehicle was seen fleeing from the scene, and the intended target vehicle has been located.
No one was shot in the second vehicle, but one of male victim sustained minor injuries from shattered glass.
Police were called to a business on 151st Street about 7:45 p.m. Evidence was found at the scene to support that shots had been fired in the area.
Officers canvassed the neighbourhood, and it is believed this was a targeted incident. Surrey has been plagued for months by gang-related shootings tied to the local drug trade.
The area around 72nd Avenue, from 150th to 152nd streets was closed while police investigated.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502 or, if they wish to remain anonymous, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or www.solvecrime.ca.
Photo: The Canadian Press - The Canadian Press Smoke rises from buildings destroyed by a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta., in this May 6, 2016, handout still from video. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says the "ocean of fire" that hit Fort McMurray burned about 10 per cent of the buildings, but the hard work of firefighters saved the bulk of the city so it can be rebuilt.
"The fast action and the hard work and the dedication and the smarts of these first responders has, it appears, saved almost 90 per cent of the city of Fort McMurray," she said Monday after a ground tour of the devastation
All 80,000 residents ordered out last Tuesday will have to wait at least two weeks to hear when they might be allowed to return.
Regional fire Chief Darby Allen said the speed and rapid growth of last week's wildfire was unprecedented.
"I truly believe nothing else could have been done that wasn't done to protect the people and the structures within our city," said Allen. "They're rewriting their formulas on how fires behave based on this fire."
Notley said 2,400 buildings were torched, but 25,000 were saved, including the hospital, municipal buildings and schools.
Much of the downtown and the water treatment plant are also intact.
"This city will emerge from this emergency with real structural resiliency with most of its critical infrastructure saved," said Notley.
"This city was surrounded by an ocean of fire only a few days ago, but Fort McMurray and the surrounding communities have been saved and they will be rebuilt."
But Notley reiterated that the community is not yet safe for people to return.
Hot spots remain and large sections of the city don't have power, gas or water. She said a plan is to be developed over the next two weeks for the orderly and safe return of residents.
Evacuees have been out of their homes for a week under a mandatory evacuation order. They were forced to flee, some with just minutes notice, when a ravenous wildfire, pushed by shifting winds, overwhelmed several neighbourhoods in the south and southwest.
Darby said between 40 and 50 per cent of Fort McMurray could have been destroyed if firefighters hadn't been able to hold back the flames at key points, especially the downtown.
Some of the hardest-hit areas are nothing more than acrid wastelands of soot, ash and concrete.
Reporters who were also given a tour saw scorched skeletal outlines of furniture, vehicles and buildings. A cracked birdbath. The metal outline of a shed. A front doorstep leading to nowhere. Kids' bikes burned where they were chained up. Metal-topped barbecues with melted knobs on flame-streaked patios.
Homes that appear not to have been touched now face craters just across the street. Pristine bus stops and mailboxes remain ready for business next to charred ruins.
The dominant colours are blacks, greys, whites and ochre.
The hazy skyline is punctuated by towering light poles and the odd tree: Tall, black and twisted with stubby twig arms.
The Super8 motel is gone. Only the signature red-and-yellow sign remains.
Cars and trucks remain torched where they were abandoned, their paint jobs blistered and cracked. Wheels are burned to blackened hubs, upholstery is consumed to the springs, windows are smashed and dashboards melted to hardened goo.
It's a world of irregular shapes and fractured lines. Sections of jagged walls and brick rise from black-grey foundations like broken off sections of jigsaw puzzles.
Walls, beams and posts lie folded and twisted on top of one another. Utility meters bend to the left and right. Trees droop. Blown-out top floor windows are open to the sky in both directions. Blackened washers and dryers sit like lonely cubes. Over there is a bathtub.
There is wreckage everywhere.
But there are signs reconstruction has begun.
Teams work on power lines into the city, 435 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
The evacuees have been staying in hotels, campgrounds, with friends or at reception centres. The main one in Edmonton has had to deal with an added problem about 50 people have fallen ill with a stomach bug.
The wildfire sat at just over 2,000 square kilometres on Monday and moved within 30 kilometres of the Saskatchewan boundary. But lower than seasonal temperatures were giving crews a chance to extinguish hotspots in Fort McMurray.
Across the country, the Red Cross has collected $60 million in donations, including on Monday $250,000 from Atlantic Canada and $500,000 from Unifor, a union representing 4,000 oilsands workers.
Allen said everything is being done to get people back to the community as soon as possible.
"We are dedicating every necessary resource to bringing you home," he said.
"And we'll see you soon."
Photo: The Canadian Press
It's impossible to tell where one house ended and the next began.
Zoom out on this stretch of Beacon Hill Drive in southwest Fort McMurray and it's a scene sapped of colour all charred black, ashy white and sickly beige.
Zoom in and everyday objects become discernible in a tangled sea of rubble the lopsided frame of a swingset, a barbecue, a wire cage for a pet hamster or bird.
By the curb is the husk of a pickup truck, its tires melted puddles on the pavement. Further back, the remnants of a wall, crumpled like a piece of paper, and what's left of a home's interior plumbing, water still spurting out.
Yet bus shelters remain intact.
Beacon Hill was one of the first Fort McMurray neighbourhoods to catch fire a week ago, regional fire chief Darby Allen told reporters on a bus tour Monday of the northeastern Alberta city.
If not for the quick action and smart decisions of firefighters, much more of Fort McMurray would have suffered the same fate, he said.
Up to 90 per cent of the city was saved in the end 2,400 structures damaged and 25,000 still standing.
As the bus makes its way through downtown Fort McMurray's main drag, Franklin Ave., nothing seems amiss except for the absence of a single human being. Strip malls, the local college and the hospital were all untouched by the flames.
Firefighters worked for 12 hours to keep flames on a thickly treed hillside from spreading, Allen said. Had they not been successful, "we would have lost the downtown."
Uphill, in the community of Abasand, it's a scene of stark contrast.
On one side of a street, a row of homes is perfectly intact. On the other, a condo complex has been flattened.
Under the parking garage of the complex remain a few parked vehicles. A blackened children's bicycle leans against a chain-link fence along with an adult-sized one. Across the way is a blackened bath tub and an singed stove, flipped upside-down.
When destroyed buildings can be found so close to pristine ones in the aftermath of a fire, it's not a fluke, said Allen.
"When you see isolated instances like that, it was specific firefighter operations internally that stopped the spread of that fire."
To Fort McMurray residents seeing the devastating images on television or social media for the first time, Allen had a message hundreds of emergency workers "gave their all" to save as much of the city as they could.
"Fort McMurray is still alive."
Photo: Contributed
The cruise line that owns a ship headed toward Halifax says the majority of people who became sick with a gastrointestinal illness have recovered from their symptoms.
A spokeswoman with Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines says 12 passengers have been asked to stay in their cabins, out of 1,434 passengers and crew on board the Balmoral.
Rachael Jackson said in a statement today that the remaining passengers who became sick are better and have been released.
The Centers For Disease Control in the United States said Monday that 277 of 915 passengers on the Balmoral had reported being ill in a suspected norovirus outbreak.
It said nine of the 520 crew members had indicated they have a gastrointestinal illness, with the main symptoms being vomiting and diarrhea.
Jackson says officials have increased cleaning and disinfection procedures, begun collecting stool samples for testing and sent a public health and sanitation manager to oversee the outbreak response.
The Balmoral arrived in Saint John, N.B., on Monday and was due in Halifax on Wednesday at around 8 a.m. as part of a trip that is supposed to run from April 16 to May 20.
CDC adds Saint Barthelemy to interim travel guidance related to Zika virus
Media Statement For Immediate Release: Monday, May 09, 2016
Contact: Media Relations,
(404) 639-3286
CDC is working with other public health officials to monitor for ongoing Zika virus transmission. Today, CDC posted a Zika virus travel notice for Saint Barthelemy. CDC has issued travel notices (level 2, practice enhanced precautions) for people traveling to destinations with Zika. For a full list of affected countries/regions, visit http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-travel-information.
As more information becomes available, CDCs travel notices will be updated. Travelers to areas with cases of Zika virus infection 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 for Zika virus. The best way to avoid Zika virus infection is to prevent mosquito bites.
Some travelers to areas with Zika 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 should use 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. The sickness is usually mild with symptoms that last from several days to a week. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon and the number of deaths is low. Travelers to areas with Zika should monitor for symptoms or sickness upon return. If they become sick, they should tell their healthcare professional when and where they have traveled.
CDC has received reports of Zika virus being spread by sexual contact with sick 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
Should not travel to any area with Zika.
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 with Zika, either use condoms, the right way, every time you have sex 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) is very likely triggered by Zika in a small proportion of infections, much as it is after a variety of other infections. CDC is working with Brazil to study the possibility of a link between Zika and GBS. For more information on Zika, visit www.cdc.gov/zika .
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CDC works 24/7 protecting Americas health, safety and security. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are curable or preventable, chronic or acute, stem from human error or deliberate attack, CDC is committed to respond to Americas most pressing health challenges.
Please note: An erratum has been published for this report. To view the erratum, please click here.
Diagnostic testing for Zika virus infection can be accomplished using molecular and serologic methods. Real-time reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) is the preferred test for Zika virus infection because it can be performed rapidly and is highly specific (1,2). However, in most patients, Zika virus RNA is unlikely to be detected in serum after the first week of illness (2,3). Recent reports using adaptations of previously published methods (2,4) suggest that Zika virus RNA can be detected in urine for at least 2 weeks after onset of symptoms (3,57). Currently, the CDC Trioplex rRT-PCR assay is the only diagnostic tool authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for Zika virus testing of urine (1). Other laboratory-developed tests will need in-house validations to adequately characterize the performance of the assay and meet Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments requirements. Further investigation is needed to determine the sensitivity and utility of Zika virus rRT-PCR on urine specimens collected 14 days after onset of symptoms.
On the basis of the newly available data, CDC recommends that Zika virus rRT-PCR be performed on urine collected <14 days after onset of symptoms in patients with suspected Zika virus disease. Zika virus rRT-PCR testing of urine should be performed in conjunction with serum testing if using specimens collected <7 days after symptom onset (8). A positive result in either specimen type provides evidence of Zika virus infection. Procedures for the collection and submission of body fluids, including urine specimens, have been described previously (9). CDC recommendations for Zika virus testing of serum and other clinical specimens remain unchanged at this time (8). CDC will continue to review and update guidance for Zika virus testing as new data become available.
With a real-time mass spectrometer developed by Fraunhofer researchers, it has become possible for the first time to analyze up to 30 components simultaneously from the gas phase and a liquid, including in-situ analysis. This sensitive measurement system is also suitable for the automated monitoring and control of chemical reactions and biotechnological processes.
The automated detection of products or by-products directly during the process has become an indispensable part of monitoring production processes. Mass spectrometry is a quick and selective method of analyzing compounds in technical, chemical and biotechnical applications simultaneously, with a high degree of sensitivity, and over an extremely large measurement range. Besides the identification of compounds, this method also makes it possible to evaluate the ion currents quantitatively. By means of integrated data evaluation, concentrations of the monitored substances can be determined and changes of concentration for example in chemical or biochemical reactions can be measured and recorded.
However, detection in process mass spectrometry has till now been limited to compounds from the gas phase. Now researchers from the Fraunhofer Institutes for Chemical Technology ICT, Pfinztal, and Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, Stuttgart, have developed a mass spectrometer with which both gases and liquids can be monitored simultaneously in real time.
Multiple inlets with integrated membrane
The centerpiece of the new, patented measurement system foxySPEC is a modified bypass inlet located on the analyzer unit, with which components from the liquid phase can also be analyzed. A microporous membrane is mounted on this inlet. Driven by the vacuum on the permeate side, volatile substances from the liquid sample vaporize and pass through the membrane, Martin Joos from Fraunhofer ICT explains. On the other hand, the membrane is impermeable to polar, aqueous solutions. Additionally, its special spatial structure makes it resistant to clogging by solids.
In addition to this, a newly developed measurement sensor makes it possible to carry out even in-situ analysis of liquids, for example in fermenters used for biotechnological production processes. The process engineer Matthias Stier from Fraunhofer IGB describes the advantage: In such a case the membrane, which is integrated in the measurement sensor, is located directly inside the reactor that is to be monitored. Due to the physical phase transfer in the chemically inert membrane, the two membrane inlet systems do not display any cross-sensitivity and are very stable in the long term. The new membrane inlets are installed additionally to conventional gas inlets.
Automated control for real-time analysis
With the control unit, the user can determine which inlet is selected by the sampler. IGB engineer Stephan Scherle explains: The Siemens programming developed by Fraunhofer IGB enables us to select samples within seconds by using the appropriate valve switching between gas, liquid and in-situ analysis as required and therefore providing results in real time. Also, the quadrupole mass spectrometer employed is equipped with auto-calibration, so that up to 30 components can be detected simultaneously in a complex mixture of substances, without previous separation.
A wide range of applications
The detection limits of foxySPEC are below 10 g substance per liter and thus in the lower ppm range. Since the gases are sucked into the vacuum system of the detection unit via stainless steel pipes, distances of over 10 meters to the point of withdrawal are feasible. Time-consuming and cost-intensive transfer of the samples by pumping is no longer necessary. Depending on the length and diameter of the stainless steel capillaries, gases can be measured in real time in the vacuum down to 1 mbar or at overpressure up to 100 bar.
The real-time mass spectrometer is suitable for a wide range of applications in the chemical industry and biotechnology, pharmaceutics and food production. Further solutions are to be developed for specific industries.
Suitable for Industry 4.0
The low detection limit, the possibility of measuring several components at the same time and the high speed at which data are generated, are ideal prerequisites for making processes more efficient on the basis of continuous monitoring. In terms of the Industry 4.0 platform, the data can be analyzed in real time using intelligent programs, in order to identify other, previously neglected parameters in processes, and thus further optimize and speed up production. Since foxySPEC detects all masses that enter the measurement system, the unit is not just restricted to one substance, as with most sensors. Consequently foxySPEC can be used flexibly and is the ideal measurement system for demand-driven production. If various products are being manufactured in a plant in accordance with a customers requirements, foxySPEC can be used directly as a measuring unit without any need for further conversion or modifications, says Matthias Stier.
Spin-off company and marketing idea
Fraunhofer Venture supports the preparation of a spin-off company for the production, sales and marketing, and the remote maintenance of the foxySPEC real-time process mass spectrometer with funds from the program Fraunhofer promotes Entrepreneurs. The utilization concept developed in this context entails providing foxySPEC with a self-developed connect box, which enables the remote maintenance of the unit. Thus the user does not have to be an expert in the field of mass spectrometry.
foxySPEC is to be distributed via a B2B model. Currently the Fraunhofer team of developers is looking for distribution partners who will pass on the system, integrating foxySPEC as part of the users own system in a so-called OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) version. foxySPEC is expected to be available on the market from August 2017.
Demonstration at Analytica
The Fraunhofer researchers will use a first compact prototype to demonstrate how sensitively and selectively the mass spectrometer works. The demonstration can be seen at Analytica, Munich, from May 10 to 13, 2016 at the Fraunhofer joint stand in Hall A1, Stand 526.
An image of two coalescing water droplets. The figure to the left shows a snapshot from a molecular dynamics simulation, where the small dots represent water molecules. The figure to the right illustrates the interface transfer coefficient for heat transfer, where the blue color means that the resistance to transfer is large. It is difficult to transport heat into or out of the region where the two droplets merge.
When you see how difficult it is to get even next week's weather forecast right, you can imagine the challenges researchers are faced with when it comes to predicting the weather decades from now.
Climatologists need good models to predict climate change over time, but to predict how the Earth's climate is changing, they also need to understand how water droplets behave.
"Now, we are capable of describing the transfer of heat and mass across both planar (flat) and curved water interfaces," says ivind Wilhelmsen, a research scientist at SINTEF Energy Research. SINTEF is Scandinavia's largest independent research institute.
Wilhelmsen's research relates to nonequilibrium thermodynamics, and deals with an extension of the theories of the Norwegian Nobel Prize winner Lars Onsager. Most of us will find his research quite difficult to understand. However, it is of fundamental importance, not just for predicting tomorrow's weather, but also for understanding how weather and climate are going to change in the years to come.
It turns out that the water cycle and precipitation are among the largest uncertainties in current climate models.
How water droplets grow
"Water evaporates all the time from oceans, rivers and lakes. Then, clouds form in the atmosphere. Tiny droplets form in the clouds and eventually fall down as rain when they have grown large enough. How quickly these processes occur, how large the clouds become and when the rain falls all depends on how fast mass and energy are transported across water interfaces," says Wilhelmsen.
Some of the uncertainty in current weather forecasts and climate models lies in our fundamental lack of understanding of these transport processes.
"How water droplets grow depends on their interface transfer coefficients, which Wilhelmsen has calculated," says Professor Signe Kjelstrup from the Department of Chemistry at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
The research was part of Wilhelmsen's doctoral thesis, for which Kjelstrup was a supervisor, along with Professor Dick Bedeaux.
Many scientific fields can benefit from the research.
"This research is very general, and the results allow us to describe a wide range of processes across many scales, from evaporation from large lakes to the growth of water droplets that are only a few nanometres in size," says Bedeaux.
Scientists can use the results to better understand natural processes, through weather forecasts and climate models. However, the findings also have industrial relevance, and are useful in industrial processes that involve evaporation or condensation of water. One important example is steam turbines, which are the most widely used equipment to generate electricity on a worldwide basis.
"For many years, this has been a missing piece of the puzzle for several important processes, both in nature and in industry," explains Wilhelmsen.
"The findings are useful in a large number of applications, and we would like to see the results put to use," says Kjelstrup.
Started with little
The researchers began with only scattered fragments of a description of how droplets behave. Their first task was to connect the right pieces. There was no satisfactory description even for completely flat water interfaces.
"Now we are even able to describe curved interfaces," Kjelstrup says.
Water is special, and its peculiar properties are one of the reasons why life was able to evolve on Earth. These same properties posed huge challenges, however.
"We had to use all the tools at our disposal--experiments at low temperatures, molecular dynamics simulations at high temperatures, and advanced new theory to make everything fit together. This would not have been possible ten years ago," says Wilhelmsen.
Part of the challenge lies in fact that the relevant experiments can only be conducted at low temperatures. At high temperatures, researchers were able to use nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, where they could mimic on a computer how real water molecules interact with each other in a simulated volume. These simulations allow researchers to capture the anomalous properties of water quite precisely.
At lower temperatures however, the simulations became so computationally demanding that they were impossible to carry out, even on the most powerful supercomputers available today. The scientists then had to use advanced theory to pull the pieces together.
How the curvature of water droplets influences weather and climate
When water droplets first form in the atmosphere, they are very small. They then grow almost a million times in size before they eventually fall as raindrops. If we can determine exactly how fast water droplets grow under certain conditions, we can more easily predict when and how much it is going to rain.
"Since the water droplets are very small when they first form, the curvature of their interfaces affects how fast they grow," says Wilhelmsen.
The water droplets first grow by absorbing water from the atmosphere, and they are almost spherical in shape during this process. When they have become big enough, two water droplets can also collide and merge, or coalesce, into a bigger drop.
"We are now, for the first time, capable of describing how the transport of heat and mass occurs across water interfaces as two water droplets are coalescing. Here, the geometry and the curvature become more complicated," says Professor Bedeaux.
"Water droplet coalescence is an important mechanism in precipitation (as rain) in the tropics," says Wilhelmsen.
Fundamental research
The scientists want to emphasize that their work is fundamental research that provides a new understanding of processes that we have known about for a long time. But at the same time, the consequences of the findings can be substantial.
"We have now figured out a new piece of the puzzle. This piece can be used in climate models and weather forecasts to improve our understanding--not only of how the weather will be like tomorrow, but also of how weather and climate will evolve in the future. It is important to reduce the uncertainty in current climate models because this will allow us to convince more people that it is super-important to act as quickly as possible to do something about the global warming," says Wilhelmsen.
By revealing missing details behind the odd behavior of a science fair favorite -- a soupy mixture known as "oobleck" that switches back and forth between liquid and solid -- scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Georgetown University could help to end a long-running scientific debate and improve processes ranging from pouring concrete to making better body armor.
New research by NIST and Georgetown scientists deciphers the mechanisms that cause the materials to switch between liquid and solid in response to stress.
Oobleck's name is borrowed from a Dr. Seuss classic (Bartholomew and the Oobleck). Squeeze or pound it and, in an instant, the slurry of cornstarch and water becomes solid, only to revert to ooze once the stress is relieved.
The NIST and Georgetown scientists have developed a new picture to describe oobleck and similar mixtures of fine particles suspended in liquids. Based on flow measurements of tiny silica beads dispersed in solution, the model invokes two competing theories to explain the phenomenon of "shear-thickening" fluids, which stiffen in response to stress.
Known more formally as non-Newtonian substances, shear-thickening fluids are more than just curiosities.
"They dictate how much stuff you can move and at what speed," said Daniel Blair, a Georgetown University physics professor and co-author of an article published in Physical Review Letters. "In the chemical processing industry, you're looking for the most efficient way to move something through a pipe, without breaking a pump. To do that, you want to know as much as you can about shear thickening so you can control it."
Opposing theories--one drawing mostly on experimental evidence, the other on results of modeling studies--have been proposed to explain shear thickening in suspensions of microscopic particles, also called colloids. Rather than competing, it turns out that the two are complementary, according to the new research.
"The ongoing debate concerns the role of lubrication-based hydrodynamic interactions versus frictional contact forces," explained lead author John Royer, a NIST materials scientist.
At low concentrations of silica beads, Royer, Blair and NIST materials scientist Steven Hudson found that measurements of stress were consistent with the hydrodynamic model. The model posits that impact forces particles to pack into assemblies called hydroclusters. As stress increases, the hydroclusters contract and the fluid thickens, or becomes more viscous. Liquid is squeezed out of the clusters, creating an ever-thinner lubricating layer separating the particles and making the scattered clusters more rigid.
But as in earlier experiments, Royer says, the amount of shear thickening observed exceeded the levels that models indicated could be achieved with hydroclusters.
A competing model invokes frictional contacts -- essentially, particle collisions caused by stress--as the primary driver of thickening. But, the friction model requires materials to expand -- or dilate -- once stress surpasses a threshold and particles lock into place so that they are unable to squeeze by each other, as in the hydrodynamic model.
Therein lies the rub. Experiments to date have not yielded evidence of stress-caused expansion, leading some scientists to rule out friction as playing a significant role in shear thickening.
Royer and colleagues tackled these quandaries by measuring how colloids with different concentrations of bacterium-sized spheres responded to stresses ranging from slight to large. These measurements, done on a state-of-the-art rheometer, or flow-measurement device, at Georgetown's Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology, unmasked "a previously hidden transition from hydrodynamics-dominated to friction-dominated interactions as the shear thickening becomes more pronounced," Royer says.
They found a transition from contraction to expansion, which occurs without fanfare--or no observable change in shear-thickening behavior itself.
"This transition demonstrates that shear thickening is driven primarily by frictional contacts, with hydrodynamic forces playing a supporting role at lower concentrations of particles, when mixtures are less dense," Royer explained.
"These results now motivate new microscopic approaches to control shear thickening in industrial applications, by either minimizing thickening when steady flow is needed or controlling thickening for use as in flexible body armor applications."
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Protective clothing applications under development aim to exploit shear thickening to, for example, strengthen defense against knife wounds in the case of ballistic armor and to further enhance protection against penetration by projectiles and blast debris.
Paper: J.R. Royer, D.L. Blair and S.D. Hudson. A rheological signature of frictional interactions in shear thickening suspensions. Physical Review Letters. May 5, 2016.
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More on this News Release A crack in the mystery of 'oobleck' -- friction thickens fluids
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Journal Physical Review Letters Keywords CHEMISTRY/PHYSICS/MATERIALS SCIENCES MATERIALS POLYMER CHEMISTRY Original Source http://www. nist. gov/ mml/ msed/ a-crack-in-the-mystery-of-oobleck-friction-thickens-fluids. cfm Related Journal Article http://dx. doi. org/ 10. 1103/ PhysRevLett. 116. 188301 More in Chemistry & Physics Physics: From the atomic to the nuclear clock Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen A crack in the mystery of 'oobleck' -- friction thickens fluids National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) The cause of high Tc superconductivity at the interface between FeSe and SrTiO3 Science China Press Speedy ion conduction in solid electrolytes clears road for advanced energy devices DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory View all Chemistry & Physics news Trending Science News Antibody therapy opens door to potential new treatment for HIV Rockefeller University TGen-ASU researchers find tiny genetic switches in lizard tail regeneration The Translational Genomics Research Institute In scientific first, researchers visualize proteins being born Albert Einstein College of Medicine Achieving fish biomass targets: The key to securing a sustainable future for coral reefs Wildlife Conservation Society View all latest news
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Ken Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, is the richest man in Illinois. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Add another superlative to the burgeoning trophy cabinet of Illinois' richest person, Ken Griffin.
The Citadel founder has been named the nation's joint top-earning hedge fund manager in 2015 by Institutional Investor's Alpha, a trade publication that has been ranking hedge fund bosses for 15 years.
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Even though 2015 was Griffin's worst year since 2010, according to Alpha, he still raked in $1.7 billion last year.
In what the magazine described as a difficult year for hedge funds, that was enough for Griffin to tie with Renaissance Technologies founder James Simons for the top spot.
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Alpha said the list represents the domination of "quants" hedge fund managers who use sophisticated computer systems for their trading strategies. Six of the top eight managers on the list, including Griffin and Simons, are quants.
The ranking is further evidence that the 47-year-old Griffin's high-profile divorce settlement in October has not put a dent in his wealth.
With an estimated fortune of $7.5 billion, he's been climbing Forbes magazine's rich list in recent years, and is currently ranked the nation's 56th richest citizen and the 157th richest person in the world. Forbes in February also named Griffin 2015's top-performing hedge fund manager.
That kind of success has helped him indulge in a series of headline-grabbing purchases over the last couple of years, including a pair of artworks by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning for $500 million and a series of ultra-high-end properties in Miami, New York and Chicago. He also hired pop star Katy Perry to perform at a party in Chicago, and the band Maroon 5 to perform at a fete in New York.
Alpha reported that Griffin's flagship hedge funds, Kensington and Wellington, both posted gains of 14.3 percent, among the industry's best performers in 2015. Griffin was also the top-paid manager in 2014, and has appeared on the rich list for 14 of the 15 years it has been produced. He is the only Chicago-based manager in the top 10.
kjanssen@tribpub.com
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The University of Chicago Medical Center emergency room is currently in Mitchell Hospital, seen Feb. 17, 2016. On May 10, 2016, a state board approved U. of C. expansion plans that include a new location for a larger ER. Mitchell Hospital would be dedicated to cancer care. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune)
NORMAL, Ill. The University of Chicago on Tuesday cleared a big obstacle to bringing adult trauma services to the South Side.
The university received state approval for a $269 million expansion of its medical center in Hyde Park. The project includes a 30 percent increase in beds and a larger emergency room that would accommodate trauma stations.
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There was some question whether the hospital needed all of the additional 188 beds it sought, but the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board unanimously approved the proposal.
In voting in favor of the project, board member and Chicagoan Joel Johnson looked at U. of C. hospital officials and asked, "What took so long?"
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Dozens of South Side residents who had traveled to the Illinois State University campus to show their support for U. of C.'s health care plans applauded the rhetorical question.
Activists have campaigned for years for U. of C. to add urgent high-level medical care. The South Side has been without adult trauma care since Michael Reese Hospital in Bronzeville closed its center in 1991, forcing residents of communities that experience a disproportionate amount of gun violence to travel as far as 10 miles by ambulance to be treated.
U. of C. resisted community pressure for years. The hospital, which closed its adult trauma center in 1988, maintained that the expense of operating an adult trauma center should not fall on it alone, but rather be a regional effort.
But the university reversed course last year. In September, it announced a joint project with Sinai Health System to convert the emergency room at Holy Cross Hospital into a Level 1 trauma center.
Three months later, though, U. of C. dropped those plans and said it would bring the trauma center to its Hyde Park medical campus. But it tied the addition of trauma services to a larger expansion of the hospital that would allow it to treat patients with more complex conditions, such as cancer and heart disease.
Hospital officials maintain that revenue from the 188 additional beds would allow it to offset the costs of expensive trauma care. The additional beds would also reduce overcrowding at the hospital, said Sharon O'Keefe, president of the U. of C. Medical Center.
She told the state hospital board that the medical center was 100 percent occupied on 172 days last year. When the hospital is full, O'Keefe said, ambulances bypass the medical center and patients sit in the emergency department waiting up to 24 hours to be admitted to the hospital.
"Without a significant expansion of our bed base, our commitments to improve access to specialty care, expand emergency services and establish a Level 1 adult trauma service cannot be fulfilled," O'Keefe said.
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At the meeting, no one spoke out in opposition of the university's plans, a rarity that a number of board members noted. U. of C. provided transportation to Normal for some supporters.
Deleshia Kinney, a public health advocate, said the hospital expansion would bring much-needed investment in the health and well-being of South Side residents.
Support for the medical center's expansion is so widespread that even neighboring hospitals agree that there is a need for more beds. It's a rare show of unity in the health care industry, where hospitals usually oppose a competitor's attempts to expand.
Executives from South Shore, St. Bernard and Roseland hospitals said at the board meeting that because of overcrowding at U. of C., they have been unable to transfer patients there for more complex care than they offer.
"All South Side patients deserve more," said Tim Caveney, president and CEO of South Shore Hospital. "Members of the communities we serve should always feel confident that they can get the care they need, when they need it."
U. of C. expects to open the new ER with a trauma center in the first quarter of 2018. The rest of the project is expected to be completed by June 2022.
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Two students at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, have become the latest victims of "sextortion," in which people send sexually explicit photos or videos of themselves to someone over the Internet and are then extorted for money by the recipient in exchange for not distributing them further, the university police said Monday in an alert distributed to Mason students and staff.
Just last month, the Justice Department declared in a new report that "sextortion is by far the most significantly growing threat to children, with more than 60 percent of survey respondents indicating this type of online enticement of minors was increasing." The department performed a "National Child Exploitation Threat Assessment" by surveying investigators, prosecutors, analysts and victim service providers to determine the biggest threats in child sexual exploitation.
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At Mason, police said that unidentified suspects had gained the trust of two students over the web in the past week, then enticed them to broadcast sex acts through their webcams. "The suspects then recorded the footage of the victims," Capt. Brian R. Cozby wrote in the email, "and threatened to circulate the videos on the Internet unless the victims paid $5,000."
Mason officials declined to release any other information about the case, including whether the university police were enlisting any other law enforcement help to find the suspects or what was being done for the victimized students. University spokesman Michael Sandler said the investigation was continuing.
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In releasing a new "National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction" in April, the Justice Department made clear that sextortion has numerous tragic consequences. "The threat of sextortion directed toward children is not just restricted to the immediate sexual and emotional abuse imposed by the offender on their victims," the report found. "Sextortion victims engage in cutting, have depression, drop out of school or grades decline, as well as engage in other forms of self-harm at an alarming rate. In fact, a 2015 FBI analysis of 43 sextortion cases involving child victims revealed at least two victims committed suicide and at least ten more attempted suicide. Thus, at least 28 percent of these cases had at least one sextortion victim who committed or attempted suicide."
A 13-year-old girl named Amanda Todd is among the best-known victims of sextortion. In 2010, the Canadian girl showed her breasts during a video chat on the web. The recipient then messaged her on Facebook and demanded more, or else. When Todd refused to cooperate, the recipient shipped a photo to Todd's Facebook friends. In 2012, she posted a moving video about her predicament. Soon after, she committed suicide.
Investigators believe that sextortion is often committed by organized groups, rather than individuals, who not only recruit "agents" to extract explicit material from victims, but then pay monthly incentives "for the best-performing blackmailer," Cozby wrote. The Justice Department wrote that "it is becoming common for investigations to reveal that a single sextortion offender has been communicating with hundreds of potential victims. Forensic examinations of sextortion offenders' digital media commonly reveal thousands of organized folders containing videos and documentation of their contact with countless minors, often around the world."
In one 2015 FBI sextortion investigation, the Justice Department wrote, "offenders were specifically seeking out those children they considered easy targets because of their demonstrated willingness to post personal content online and engage in live-streaming video activity, whether the content was sexually explicit or not." President Barack Obama declared April "National Child Abuse Prevention Month."
In 2014, USA Today reported that the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force had recorded an increase in sextortion complaints from 5,300 in 2010 to 7,000 in 2013, a 32 percent rise in three years. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reported that it received more than 800 sextortion-related tips between 2013 and 2015, that 78 percent of those victimized were female, and that the offender in three-fourths of the cases was seeking more explicit material, rather than money or sex.
Interpol is also tracking sextortion. Their website noted that "the blackmailer might assume the identity of an attractive man or woman then, after gaining the victim's trust, will record footage of the victim in the nude or performing a sexual act," and threaten to circulate the footage to friends or post it online unless money is paid. But in another version, "the engagement between the victim and the criminal is interrupted by a child appearing on the screen during the sex act. The victim then receives a demand, often appearing to come from a police agency, stating that an investigation will be launched unless the victim pays."
The Justice Department said it was collaborating with NCMEC to distribute materials to law enforcement and social services presenters across the country, to increase awareness of sextortion. Justice also said it would develop training for prosecutors on investigation and prosecution of sextortion cases.
The Washington Post
Palos Hills Pancake House features a variety of omelets including the veggie omelet with seasoned homemade diced red potatoes. Wednesday, May 4th, 2016, in Palos Hills. | Gary Middendorf / Chicago Tribune Media Group (Gary Middendorf / Daily Southtown)
Kristen Lake grew up in Michigan but moved to the Southland to attend college. Several years later, she is still part of the region and owns her first business.
The Blue Island resident became the owner of Palos Hills Pancake House in February and has made what she calls small improvements to the restaurant, which had been in Palos Hills since fall 2014.
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"We've updated the menu slightly, just giving people more choices and a bit more leniency. They can choose what they want in their omelet or choose what they want in their skillet," Lake said.
"We're also trying to reach out to a little bit of the younger crowd. We've added Wi-Fi. It's small adjustments to the dining room to make it more comfortable so people hang around, drink coffee, work and whatever else."
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Lake graduated with a bachelor's degree in business from Saint Xavier University in Chicago in 2006 and received her master's degree in education from Chicago State University in Chicago in 2011. After teaching for Chicago Public Schools for a few years, she worked for a fast-food establishment.
"I was a manager at a local chain restaurant and I just wanted to move from management to ownership so I saved up my pennies and finally got an opportunity and found this place. It seemed to work out perfectly," she said.
"I just really like the community. They're very supportive. Everyone that comes in is very friendly."
Prices start at $6.50 for wraps, burgers and sandwiches as well as for pancakes, waffles and French toast.
Other starting prices include $6.99 for biscuits and gravy, $7.99 for eggs and crepes, $8.99 for omelets and skillets and $9.50 for Benedict dishes.
"We have really good French toast," she said. "We actually have stuffed French toast, which is French toast stuffed with honey cream cheese and typically topped with fresh fruit: strawberries, apples, bananas or anything like that. People can pick the topping."
Other popular items are blueberry pancakes and omelets, which diners can customize by choosing three ingredients, or more for an extra charge.
"We have excellent food. Everything is fresh. The strawberries, blueberries, apples and all the fruit we get is fresh almost daily or every other day. Our service is excellent. Our waitresses are really nice and attentive and really care that each customer has an excellent experience here," Lake said.
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Palos Hills Pancake House can seat approximately 50 people.
"We just want a good atmosphere, a family atmosphere with good food. People ask all the time, 'Is it OK if we hang out?' Yeah, that's great. I love having people in here even if they're just drinking coffee," she said.
"A lot of customers say we're like family. We're just really trying to create that type of atmosphere."
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Palos Hills Pancake House
Location: 10719 S. Roberts Road, Palos Hills
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Hours: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. daily
Menu: breakfast and lunch
Contact: 708-974-9010
Workers place the official banner on the Palais de Festival during preparations for the 68th international film festival in Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 9, 2016. (Thibault Camus / AP)
The first time Jodie Foster came to the Cannes Film Festival, she did so as a co-star in Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver," and as a wide-eyed 13-year-old, soaking in the spectacle. "Taxi Driver" would go on to win the festival's prestigious Palme d'Or.
"It was kind of like Mr. Toad's wild ride. It was very surreal," says Foster, who returns this year with her hostage thriller "Money Monster." ''I remember the red-carpeted steps. I remember all the naked ladies on the beach with their breasts out. I remember an amazing dinner up in the mountains there with (Bernardo) Bertolucci and Gerard Depardieu. It's a great place for this very exotic, spontaneous slumber party."
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The Cote d'Azur extravaganza of cinema and celebrity, which kicks off Wednesday, can be an eye-opening "slumber party" for newcomers and veterans alike. As the world's pre-eminent film festival, it's a seaside treasure trove of cinematic splendor a chic French Riviera oasis that for a week and a half gathers a significant portion of the movies' most revered filmmakers, biggest stars and striving dealmakers.
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But for all its elevated regard, Cannes first begun as a kind of United Nations for film in the wake of World War II is also tethered to world events. This year's festival, the 69th edition, comes six months after the November terror attacks in central Paris that killed 130. France remains in a state of emergency.
Last month, police staged a security exercise in which gunmen stormed the festival's Palais, the hallowed heart of Cannes. The images from the drill sent shivers through cinephiles accustomed to seeing stars regally ascend the palace steps, not masked men. Festival president Pierre Lescure has said that this year "the maximum" has been done to balance security and ensure "that the festival remains a place of freedom."
Though this year's program is, as always, full of socially minded films, it opens on a light note with Woody Allen's latest, "Cafe Society," a comedy about 1930s Hollywood. Also providing welcome escapism will be the upcoming Ryan Gosling-Russell Crowe comedy "The Nice Guys" and Steven Spielberg's Roald Dahl adaptation "The BFG," starring Mark Rylance as the tale's friendly giant.
The famed, 56-year-old stage actor will make his first trip to Cannes at a much different station in life than Foster did.
"I've always noted it on some of my favorite films, like 'Rashomon,' on the little DVD box," says Rylance, referring to the festival's golden palm logo. "The things that interest me out of the festival are not so much these big films that go there now. But they've often been the first sighting of someone like a Kurosawa or many, many others who have emerged from the obscurity into the light, so to speak."
This year, new voices will have to be loud enough to rise above a battery of international heavyweights. Cannes' main slate of "in competition" films vying for the Palme includes Asghar Farhadi ("The Salesman"), Ken Loach ("I, Daniel Blake"), Olivier Assayas ("Personal Shopper"), Pedro Almodovar ("Julieta"), Park Chan-Wook ("The Handmaiden") and Jim Jarmusch ("Patterson"), who'll also debut his documentary on Iggy Pop and the Stooges, "Gimme Danger."
George Miller, whose "Mad Max: Fury Road" played at the festival last year, will lead the jury that chooses the Palme winner.
But there's younger blood, too, including Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan and Jeff Nichols, both of whom have had films in competition before. Possible Oscar contenders often announce themselves at Cannes, where films from "Pulp Fiction" to "The Artist" have debuted. This year, Nichols' "Loving," slated for release in November, may be the most likely future awards season contender.
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Nichols, the 37-year-old Arkansas native whose films include "Mud" and "Midnight Special," says his film is his most mature yet. It's about Mildred and Richard Loving, who were sentenced to prison for their interracial marriage in 1950s Virginia.
"It's an important film and I don't say that lightly. I don't think movies are very important a lot of the time," says Nichols. "I felt in control of the process so much. We just had this control. It feels like the steadiest hand of a movie."
Just how much Cannes, rigid in its formal traditions and red-carpet protocol, will bend to the times is one of this year's biggest questions. It has drawn annual criticism for failing to celebrate female filmmakers more fully. This year, the 21 films in competition include three directed by women. That's a very slight increase from two last year. (The festival overall has a better percentage of female filmmakers, including "Citizenfour" director Laura Poitras. She will premiere "Risk," her Julian Assange documentary.)
Change is elsewhere, too. Amazon Studios, in just its second year of original movie releases, has five films at the festival, including those by Allen, Jarmusch and Nicholas Winding Refn. Refn returns to Cannes with "Neon Demon," starring Elle Fanning as an aspiring Los Angeles model, three years after his "Only God Forgives" was met harshly with boos.
He, like many others, will be seeking rebirth at this year's Cannes.
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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
Reporting from Burnsville, W.Va. Bernie Sanders renewed his commitment to campaign "until the last vote is cast" in the Democratic presidential race, saying his victory in Tuesday's West Virginia primary showed economically distressed voters "want real change."
Sanders, the Vermont senator, appeared headed toward a double-digit win in the night's lone Democratic contest, a result that pointed to the liabilities of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's candidacy heading into the general election.
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Republican Donald Trump cruised to victory in both Nebraska and West Virginia, contests sapped of any drama after a succession of make-or-break primaries in recent weeks cleared the GOP field. But exit polls in both states indicated some voter concern about Republican unity heading into the fall, underscoring the reservations about Trump expressed by party leaders in Washington.
Eight years ago, Clinton scored a decisive victory in West Virginia's Democratic primary against then-Sen. Barack Obama. But this time, armed with an all-but-insurmountable lead in the delegate race, she campaigned sparingly in the state. Her comments about the coal industry have hurt her with residents and risks her standing in nearby general election bellwethers Ohio and Pennsylvania. Three in 10 Democratic voters in West Virginia said they lived in a household with a coal worker.
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"She could not get elected dog catcher in this state," said Dave Waldron, an independent who voted Tuesday for Trump. "Who in their right mind would vote for that lady?"
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Trump wore a hard hat at a rally in West Virginia last week and mocked Clinton over saying in March that "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business" with alternative sources of energy.
"That's a tough one to explain, wouldn't you say?" he said.
Clinton apologized during one of her few stops in the state, saying she misspoke. But the comments were fresh on the mind of Democrats heading to the polls Tuesday.
Joe Sprouse, a registered Democrat and retired bank branch manager in Burnsville, said he was voting only in down-ticket races Tuesday and planned to vote for Trump in the fall.
"She's against coal, and that's what's kept West Virginia going," he said.
On Tuesday, Clinton nodded toward her ongoing primary battle with Sanders during a stop in Kentucky, which votes next week, even as it is increasingly clear her real focus is on the fight for swing voters in the fall.
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She pitched a new proposal to make childcare more affordable in Lexington, indicative of what will be a largely policy-driven campaign in the coming weeks when Democrats in eight more states will go to the polls in primaries.
But at an evening rally at Louisville Slugger Field, she said she was looking forward to debating Trump in the fall.
"We've got to unify America," she said. "Enough with the hate rhetoric and the insults. Let's look for ways that we can work together."
Most national polls show Clinton with an early advantage over Trump. But a trio of Quinnipiac University polls in key November battlegrounds showed tighter races. Clinton held narrow leads in Florida and Pennsylvania but trailed in Ohio, which borders both Kentucky and West Virginia.
Campaigning in Stockton, Calif., on Tuesday morning, Sanders highlighted the new polls, which also showed him in a stronger position against Trump than Clinton.
"There is no question about which campaign is energizing the American people," Sanders said. "If you want the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump, that's us."
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Sanders has acknowledged the narrow path he has to claim the nomination but nonetheless insisted he would campaign through the end of the primaries in June, including California's on June 7, and seek to make his case to delegates at the Democratic convention in July.
"We are in this campaign to win," Sanders said in a rally late Tuesday in Salem, Ore. " And we are going to fight for every last vote."
Mo Elleithee, a top spokesman for Clinton's campaign in 2008, recalled how the campaign then worked to make the same case then as she won six of the last nine major primaries.
"But at a certain point in the campaign, math beats momentum," he said. "And it happened in this race far earlier than it did in '08."
Given Clinton's own experience in Sanders' position, she recognizes the need to treat both Sanders and the remaining Democratic voters with respect, Elleithee said.
"However, she owes it to her party to not allow Donald Trump to get a huge head start on her," he added.
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Trump faces an uncertain reception this week from key GOP leaders. On Thursday, he will sit down with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who has said he is not ready to support the presumptive nominee, as well as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
More than one-third of Nebraska Republican voters surveyed in exit polls said they would be scared or concerned if Trump were elected president, and nearly half said the GOP was unlikely to unite. Only 1 in 10 West Virginia Republican voters said the party was united now, but 3 in 5 predicted that it would unite by November.
A former Trump rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, returned to the Senate on Tuesday and picked up right where he left off promising to fight the GOP establishment on behalf of the conservative movement.
Cruz said he had "no interest" in making a third-party run for the White House and cooled talk of restarting his presidential campaign. But he also made no move toward backing Trump, saying "there will be plenty of time" for voters to make up their minds.
Speaking on CNN, former candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also was reluctant to throw his full support behind Trump.
"I intend to live up to the pledge that we made," he said, referring to a document Republican candidates signed vowing to back the eventual nominee. "But, that said, these concerns that I have about policy, they remain."
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Finnegan reported from Burnsville and Memoli from Washington. Times staff writers Melanie Mason and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Twitter: @finneganLAT, @mikememoli
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UPDATES:
7:24 p.m.: This story was updated with comments from Bernie Sanders.
6:31 p.m.: This story was updated with Bernie Sanders winning the West Virginia Democratic primary.
6:15 p.m.: This story was updated with Donald Trump winning the Nebraska Republican primary.
5:31 p.m.: This story was updated to clarify that MSNBC has called the Democratic primary in West Virginia for Bernie Sanders, while other networks have him leading the race.
4:50 p.m.: The story was updated with Donald Trump being declared the winner of the West Virginia Republican primary.
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The story was originally published at 3:33 p.m.
Gov. Bruce Rauner talks with a history class at Lyons Township High School on May 9, 2016. (Annemarie Mannion / Pioneer Press)
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
Gov. Bruce Rauner says he was taken by surprise when his State Board of Education announced late last week that the financial situation at Chicago Public Schools is not bad enough to warrant state intervention.
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The board had reviewed CPS' finances as part of a broad offensive the Republican governor launched in January when he called for a state takeover of the troubled school district and pushed for legislation allowing CPS to declare bankruptcy. The board announced Friday that while the district has financial challenges, it doesn't meet the definition of "financial difficulty" that would prompt state action.
"To say that I was a bit surprised by that decision would be an understatement," Rauner said Monday at a news conference at Lyons Township High School. "On one hand, we've got Forrest Claypool and Mayor Rahm Emanuel screaming fire, disaster, mass layoffs, huge financial crisis. And on another hand, we've got a state agency, a state bureaucracy saying things aren't so bad. They're not trending very well, but there's no crisis. The city doesn't deserve to go on a watch list, they don't deserve to have any financial oversight. I'd love to get to the bottom of it. I can't explain it. Chicago's finances are quite opaque, to use a nice term for it. And I don't know. It would be nice to know the truth. My concern is, based upon what I've seen myself so far, the trends are bad, there is a financial crisis. And something needs to be done."
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Rauner also walked back his position on a CPS bankruptcy, saying, "I certainly don't advocate bankruptcy.
"That's a hard process and it's a dangerous process," Rauner said. "That said, I believe bankruptcy should be an option if it's absolutely necessary."
That's a change in tone from earlier this year, when Rauner was aggressively pushing the bankruptcy option.
"When I look at the numbers, I don't see an option. I either see bankruptcy or massive, massive property tax hikes on the people of Chicago," Rauner said in late February. (Kim Geiger)
What's on tap
*Mayor Rahm Emanuel has no public schedule.
*Gov. Rauner will attend four events in Springfield, including a fallen firefighters memorial ceremony. He's not scheduled to take reporters' questions at any of the stops.
*The Illinois General Assembly returns to the Capitol.
*The Cook County Board's Finance Committee meets. On the agenda is the redevelopment of the old county hospital.
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What we're writing
*Rauner tones down rhetoric ahead of end-of-session blame game.
*New Chicago police superintendent calls especially violent weekend unacceptable.
What we're reading
*The aspiring novelist who became Obama's foreign policy guru.
*Fingerprinting Uber drivers in Houston turned up some trouble.
*Much-hyped band from Oxford releases new album, but will it have verses and choruses?
From the notebook
*'No magic unicorn' and 'Little Dark Raincloud': A bipartisan forum of state lawmakers at the City Club of Chicago on Monday produced a fair amount of optimism, though tempered by the panel's two Democratic members.
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State Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, referred to himself as "Little Dark Raincloud" in pointing out the "very dramatic clash" of philosophical differences between Republican Gov. Rauner and Democrats who hold legislative supermajorities.
Biss also warned that if and when a budget agreement is ever reached after the state's lengthy impasse, lawmakers shouldn't "act as if it never happened" and that the "depth of the long-term damage" to social service providers should "guide our behavior."
State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, also said there's no quick answers toward reaching agreement on a budget even as rank-and-file legislative working groups continue their efforts.
"If there was a magic unicorn running through the state Capitol, someone would have caught it by now," Manar said. (Rick Pearson)
*VoteVets focus on prevailing wage: Those cable TV ads that VoteVets Action Fund is running in two contested Downstate legislative districts are part of a larger multistate push to protect local prevailing wage laws, the group said.
Cable TV records showed the group buying $185,000 in ads, part of pushing a study showing veterans who return home to construction-related work benefit "substantially" from prevailing wage policies.
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Prevailing wage laws require governments to pay prevailing union wages on public works construction projects. Republican Gov. Rauner wants to give local governments the option to forgo prevailing wage requirements as part of his pro-business, union-weakening agenda.
The study, whose authors include Frank Manzo, policy director of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, and Robert Bruno of the University of Illinois, concludes that there are "significant costs to repealing state prevailing wage laws for veterans."
VoteVets is running $127,470 in ads in the central Illinois House district where Republican state Rep. Sue Rezin of Morris is being challenged by Ottawa Democrat Christine Benson. It also has bought $57,660 in ads in the Kankakee state Senate district where Democratic Sen. Kate Cloonen is being challenged by Republican Lindsay Parkhurst.
There had been speculation that the group was gearing up a new round of ad purchases to support Democratic U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth's bid against Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk. The group had promised to invest heavily in Duckworth's campaign. (Rick Pearson)
Follow the money
*House Republican leader Jim Durkin reported raising $88,000 from 35 contributions, including $15,000 from the Illinois State Medical Society (the doctors' lobby) and $10,000 from the Illinois Hospital Association. The hospital group also gave $15,000 to Durkin's House Republican Organization.
*Track campaign contribution reports in real time with this Tribune Twitter account: https://twitter.com/ILCampaignCash
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Beyond Chicago
*Presidential race, Republican side: The daily rhetoric: Trumps softens his tone on Ryan to woo GOP leaders.
*Presidential race, Democratic side: Sanders tells supporters it's still not over.
*Obama popularity on rise, but he's still complaining.
*Brazil president impeachment effort thrown into chaos.
Israeli army soldiers secure the main entrance of the Qalandia checkpoint, a main crossing point between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, April 27, 2016. (Associated Press)
JERUSALEM Two masked attackers stabbed two Israeli women taking a walk in a Jerusalem forest on Tuesday, police said, setting off a manhunt to capture the assailants.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said five women were walking along a Jerusalem promenade near the "Peace Forest" when they were attacked from behind. Two of them, both said to be about 70 years of age, were stabbed and were taken to a hospital with moderate injuries.
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After setting up checkpoints and searching an Arab area of east Jerusalem, police arrested two men, but they were released soon after.
Israel has seen nearly eight months of Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, but also shooting and vehicular assaults, that have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians have been killed during the same time, most of them said by Israel to have been attackers while the rest were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
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In recent weeks, violence has also flared up on the Gaza border, with militants launching mortar rounds at Israel and Israeli aircraft and tanks responding. Israel has also discovered two underground tunnels stretching from the coastal territory into Israel and on Tuesday, the military said it has arrested a Hamas operative who has provided information about the Islamic militant group's tunnel network. Israel said it arrested another Hamas member last week who also had divulged details about the tunnels.
Israel and Hamas fought a 50-day war in 2014 that killed some 2,200 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them civilians. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and seven civilians were killed.
Toward the end of the 2014 war, Israel destroyed more than 30 tunnels that Hamas had dug under the border. Hamas militants had used the tunnels to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks.
The war left entire neighborhoods in Gaza flattened, destroying 11,000 homes. Tens of thousands of people remain displaced.
In Gaza on Tuesday, Belgium's visiting Foreign Minister Didier Reynders called Gaza's reconstruction "too slow," urging Israel to allow in more construction materials. Israel says the flow of goods into Gaza has been increasing gradually since the war.
Reynders also urged Israel and the Palestinians to return to peace negotiations.
Associated Press
William Grimshaw taught political science at the Illinois Institute of Technology for decades and wrote extensively on Chicago politics, but as a key strategist for the Harold Washington mayoral campaign, he was far from an ivory tower academic.
His wife, political activist Jacky Grimshaw, who survives him, worked on several Washington campaigns and was part of the Washington mayoral administration.
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"Bill was able to cross boundaries, knowing the practical side of politics and understanding how to put it in a political science context," said his former student Raymond Lodato, who teaches part time at the University of Chicago and is senior survey director of the National Research Opinion Center there. "He was very well-versed in the literature of political science but also saw how it impacted ordinary people."
William Grimshaw, 77, who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and who had recently suffered a fall, died March 30 in his Hyde Park home, according to his daughter, Kim Grimshaw Bolton.
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He grew up on the North Side and attended Lane Technical High School, according to his daughter, who said he transferred to Lake View High School, where he discovered his love of art but was otherwise unchallenged and dropped out. After a brief stint in the U.S. Army, which included an assignment in Orleans, France, he returned to Chicago and enrolled in Wright Junior College.
He was admitted to the University of Chicago in 1962. While there, he met a woman his daughter described as "a lovely young black woman." Despite the challenges facing an interracial couple, he and Jacquelyn Lane married in 1964.
After graduating with a degree in political science, William Grimshaw went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a master's degree in 1971, and a Ph.D. in 1978. His thesis, "Union Rule in the Schools: Big-City Politics in Transformation," was his first book, published in 1979.
In 1978, he became an associate professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology and taught there until he retired in 2008. He served as chairman of IIT's social sciences department from 1990 to 2002. He also was a visiting associate professor in political science at the University of Chicago for a time.
"He influenced thousands of students that he taught in that period of time," said Dick Simpson, a fellow political scientist now teaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who served two terms in the 1970s as alderman of Chicago's 44th Ward.
Simpson said William Grimshaw was the strategist for the Washington mayoral campaign. He was always concerned with urban and machine politics and their effects on the black community.
"His book, 'Bitter Fruit: Black Politics and the Chicago Machine, 1931-1991,' is still a classic," Simpson said.
Paula Wolff, director of the Illinois Justice Project, was a neighbor and a friend and also active in politics. "To me, the most important thing (about Bill) was that he was a powerful combination of an academic scholar and an activist," she said.
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Beyond his understanding of the way politics worked in Chicago, she said, "He was willing to get in and be involved in the process himself. He was there with his shirtsleeves rolled up and working the precincts and thinking about strategy."
Family members said his concern for the impact of political action on community members came from his own working-class roots. But Jacky Grimshaw said it also came from his experience as a "North Side kid" coming to the South Side.
"Getting more closely involved with the black community absolutely had an influence," she said. "But he came with an openness and a sense of fairness. Working in the black community gave him an opportunity to act out his values."
Until a few years ago, when they moved from their house on South Greenwood Avenue, living in the community also put the Grimshaws next door to a well-known neighbor President Barack Obama and his family. "They moved in when he was in the Illinois Senate," Jacky Grimshaw said.
They enjoyed being neighbors before the Obamas left for Washington in 2009. "I never had to lock my doors, never had to lock my car," said Jacky Grimshaw, adding that she has a vivid memory of watching as Michelle Obama taught daughter Sasha to ride a two-wheeler.
That Greenwood house also was home to what had been described as a half-ton of Rottweiler dogs. After his son got interested in the breed, William Grimshaw decided to breed their female dog, Jasper, resulting in a litter of seven pups. They kept Jasper and one puppy and found homes for the five surviving pups, but the venture was hardly a commercial success. Grimshaw loved being the alpha dog to the pack, his wife said.
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"He couldn't bear to part with these animals," she said. "It was Bill being pure Bill loving, caring, big-hearted."
In addition to his wife and daughter, Grimshaw is survived by his son, Christopher; a brother, Alan; and four grandchildren.
A celebration of his life is planned for 10:30 a.m. May 28 at Chicago Theological Seminary, 1407 E. 60th St., Chicago.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.
My four children were born more than 20 years ago. I had four birth experiences, and I think about those experiences rarely, if ever. In nearly 30 years of motherhood, those acute hours quickly faded into insignificance compared with the reality of my children's daily lives, their milestones, their achievements, their personalities, their challenges and the growth of our relationship as they changed from infants to school-age children to teenagers to adults.
I gave birth vaginally. But it has never occurred to me that this was some kind of achievement, since it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with luck. My children, too, do not much care about the specifics of how they were born. This is, I suspect, typical for women of my generation and the ones that preceded us.
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But for today's mothers, the expectations for childbirth and breast-feeding are higher than ever. Women are supposed to have the most authentic possible experience: They should reject pain relief; eliminate C-sections; embrace midwives, doulas and childbirth educators; and even defy standard obstetric recommendations when they conflict with those goals.
Birthing bullies
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Two powerful forces have arisen to push this dogma. First, the crunchy natural-birth subculture has slowly morphed into an industry, mainly catering to the most privileged women in society. Second, a cabal of natural-birth activists online, on the air and even inside hospitals has formed to shame pregnant women who eschew the right-thinking path. For these forces, childbirth has become less about having a baby and more about having an experience. And those who don't have "the perfect birth" can't possibly be good mothers.
For most of human existence, unmedicated, vaginal childbirth was simply the painful, dangerous, unavoidable way to have a baby. But for the past 50 years, in developed countries, it has no longer been a relief for the mother and the child to survive; it's been a given. So people began paying attention to how, not just whether, childbirth unfolded.
The original goals of this movement were "conscious deliveries," fathers in the delivery room, childbirth education and research into and abolition of practices such as perineal shaving and enemas that either had no benefit or were harmful. But by the 1980s, all of these shifts in medical practice had taken place, and a new goal took shape among activists: following the proper, naturalistic birth philosophy.
Until the 20th century, American midwifery required no formal education just a period of apprenticeship. With the rise of modern obstetrics, midwives saw the need to professionalize to compete. Emulating European practitioners, they created the credential of certified nurse-midwife. These are nurses who have undergone additional training in midwifery. The first two schools of nurse-midwifery opened in the 1930s, but the practice truly began to take off in the postwar years. In 1963, there were 275 credentialed nurse-midwives in the United States; by 1995, there were more than 4,000; today there are more than 11,000. The proportion of births attended by midwives has also risen, from 3 percent in 1989 to more than 8 percentin 2013 (12 percent of vaginal births that year).
Doulas and childbirth educators women who often call themselves "birth workers" have proliferated, too, mirroring the increase in midwives. Membership in DONA International, one of the leading doula certification organizations, increased to 6,154 in 2012 from 750 in 1994. There is a considerable body of scientific evidence suggesting that the presence of a doula can improve the childbirth experience for women, both physically and psychologically. A doula can rub a woman's back, get cool cloths for her head, and provide companionship and empathy. The benefits exist whether the doula is a family member, friend or hired support person.
Job opportunities
As the demand for alt-births has rose, an industry grew to serve it. Though it's difficult to determine exactly how much money the natural-birth industry rakes in per year, it's clearly a growing domain. It has several professional organizations, grass-roots activists and lobbyists working in state legislatures. Midwives make, on average, $75,000 to $99,000 per year across most of the country; doulas are paid $1,200 per birth, on average, according to WhattoExpect.com. The Midwives Alliance of North America, in part a creation of influential natural-childbirth advocate Ina May Gaskin (whose 2003 natural-birth handbook remains a reproductive-health best seller), is a major professional organization for American midwives but requires no educational credentials of its roughly 450 members beyond a high school diploma.
Women interested in birthing naturally can avail themselves of a variety of educational courses. These classes began gaining popularity in the 1960s; by 1975, The New York Times reported that the majority of hospitals had come to sponsor childbirth classes, compared with just 10 percent in 1970. By 2005, about half of expectant mothers had taken a childbirth class that year or during a prior pregnancy, according to a survey by Childbirth Connection, a nonprofit that studies childbirth and pregnancy. In the Washington area, one can attend birth classes costing anywhere from $160 at Lamaze's local chapter to $375 for a course with an instructor accredited by the childbirth-education group BirthWorks.
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Among the more curious practices recommended by natural-childbirthing businesses include "using candles to bring a soft glow to the birth environment," per GivingBirthNaturally.com, which offers its own online courses; using audio tracks to "re-train" the "subconscious mind" to eliminate the pain of contractions, per Hypnobabies, a company selling "real medical hypnosis techniques" for natural-birthing moms; and "steaming" the uterus post-birth per Natural Birth Works, a co-op of midwives, doulas and educators committed to a "natural way of life."
Aiming for perfection
Lamaze, perhaps the most famous brand of childbirth classes, serves as a good test case for the industry's shifting interests. "In the early 1990s, the organization reinvented itself as the champion of normal birth," Charlotte A. De Vries and Raymond G. De Vries wrote in their 2007 article "Childbirth education in the 21st century." That means no inductions or epidurals: "Seeking relief from labor pain without drugs protects your baby and your body from injury, helps labor progress, and facilitates breastfeeding, bonding, and other postpartum adjustments," Lamaze's website states, adding with a note of pity that an epidural still might be needed if a mother "can't move beyond (her) fear of labor pain." Rather than teaching strictly the facts about childbirth, Lamaze promotes one particular vision of the birth experience as normal and therefore good.
Ultimately, the natural-childbirth industry aims to shepherd women toward an "ideal" birth experience packed with emotional meaning and marketed as absolutely necessary and life-altering sometimes at the expense of ideal health care (which is available from doctors at local hospitals). And it shows: A study in Oregon found that the death rate for babies delivered in planned home births with midwives in 2012 was roughly seven times that of hospital-born babies. Data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2006 to 2009 revealed that babies delivered by midwives had higher death rates than hospital-born babies, whether they were born at home or in birthing centers. While not all natural births take place outside hospitals, home births represent an extreme and troubling iteration of the ideology, where the set-up, process and experience are sometimes valued over the outcome.
The natural-childbirth industry markets births more or less like weddings, suggesting to its targets that they have one chance to purchase the perfect day for themselves and their loved ones, as Markella Rutherford and Selina Gallo-Cruz explain in their 2008 paper "Great Expectations: Emotion as Central to the Experiential Consumption of Birth." "The idealization of the birth experience offers a legitimate opportunity to orchestrate another emotional consumer experience in which the bride-now-turned-mother produces, directs, and plays the starring role." Mothers Naturally, an educational program produced by MANA, invites mothers to "create [their] ideal birth environment and be supported physically and emotionally" as they "discover the safe personal care of a midwife."
But like the perfect wedding, the perfect birth is often out of reach; women who buy into the idealized experience can face enormous disappointment, distress and feelings of failure if they have a Caesarean section, choose an epidural or are unable to breast-feed, all of which result, at times, from factors outside mothers' control. A C-section, for instance, is typically done to save the life of a baby who may not survive without it, or whose risk of dying during a vaginal birth is much higher than usual such as babies in unfavorable positions or those whose mothers have some obstruction to the birth canal. Yet for mothers in search of the perfect experience, any medical intervention, even a lifesaving one, can become a source of bitter shame. "Too often they're hollowed out, haunted, hurting,"a self-declared "radical doula" wrote recently in New York magazine, referring to mothers whose births didn't pan out as expected. "When they talk about giving birth, they sigh or shrug or burst into tears. Whatever, they say, shaking it off. My baby is here. My baby is alive. That's what matters.
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"Bulls---! I never dare say. You matter. What happened to you matters."
Piling on
But reinforcing that guilt isn't helpful or supportive: It piles emotional distress atop an already stressful time. One mother recently reflected at Ravishly, a feminist website, on transferring to a hospital during a difficult home labor, writing that her son's "health doesn't negate my feeling of failure. His health doesn't heal what I lost."
"I felt inadequate and disappointed after my caesarean," one mother wrote on BabyCentre, a British parenting website. "I was made to feel even worse by people constantly harping on about the wonders of 'natural' birth."
This is tragic. Birth is beautiful, no matter the room or the lighting or the drug regimen. A healthy baby and mother the hardest-won goals of modern obstetrics matter more than anything else. Mothers already deal with enough judgment from society for their looks, their parenting choices and more. Without adding any benefits, the experience packaged and sold by the natural-childbirth industry only compounds their problems. As a doctor and a mother, I say: Enough is enough.
Washington Post
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Amy Tuteur s an obstetrician-gynecologist, a former clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School and the author of "Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting."
WASHINGTON It should be obvious to all by now that Donald Trump knows nothing of what he speaks. His disastrous economic ideas are but the latest in a litany of nonsensical proposals.
Yet, and still, his supporters that Republican base so carefully nurtured by the very GOP operatives and politicians who now find its members so distasteful proclaim his supremacy with such bracing observations as, "Well, at least he's got [spheres]," or "At least he speaks his mind," or "At least he doesn't suck up to anybody."
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These selections from the morning mail share a common element "at least" which seems apt enough, though "the least" seems more to the point. Trump was the least of so many other Republican candidates who offered governing experience, knowledge and even, in some cases, wisdom.
So why didn't these superior candidates win, especially given his consistently low favorability ratings? Indeed, both Trump and Hillary Clinton, presumptively speaking, would be the most disliked nominees at this stage of any in the past 10 presidential cycles, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.
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Trump's average "strongly unfavorable" rating of 53 percent 16 points higher than Clinton's is at least 20 points higher than every other candidate's rating since 1980.
Never mind the many elected Republican leaders who are distancing themselves from his candidacy. Not enough of them, to be sure, which is disgraceful and surely will be noted by future historians as cowardly. My own running list of sycophants remains handy for the duration of their likely shortened political careers. Nearly half of voters say they're less likely to support candidates who have aligned themselves with Trump, according to Morning Consult, a group that conducts weekly polls of 2,000 voters.
To answer my earlier question, the better candidates didn't win because, obviously, so many of them siphoned votes from stronger ones, giving Trump the lead and all-important momentum. Thus, the constant refrain from Trump supporters that the "establishment" is ignoring the "will of the people" is only true to a point. Trump is the choice of a plurality of the GOP, but not of a majority a distinction with a crucial difference.
At this stage, as the GOP convenes its circular firing squad composed of party leaders, operatives, hacks, flacks, politicos if you'll pardon the redundancy and, yes, certain media, they might better expend their energies considering alternative voting methods that might have prevented Trump's ascendancy and likely would prevent future demagogues.
One of these methods, already used by a variety of professional organizations to elect officers, as well as by the United Nations to elect the secretary-general, uses an "approval" ballot by which voters rank all the candidates of whom they approve rather than select just one. Far from new, this idea was suggested in 1770 by French mathematician and astronomer Jean-Charles de Borda, who expressed concern that several similar candidates would split the majority vote and allow a non-consensus candidate to win.
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Through election by order of merit, now known as the "Borda count," each candidate was awarded a number of votes equal to the number of candidates below him on each voter's ballot. The candidate with the most votes won.
Fast-forward a couple of centuries to 1977 when New York University politics professor Steven J. Brams and decision theorist Peter C. Fishburn devised "approval voting," which is similar but even simpler. By their method, voters would cast a vote for each candidate of whom they approve, in no particular order. The candidate with the most votes would win.
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Another ranking method, advanced recently in The New York Times by economists Eric Maskin and Amartya Sen, was developed by 18th-century mathematician and political theorist Marquis de Condorcet. This process called for ranking candidates in order of approval or not ranking them at all as an indication of disapproval. The candidate with the highest approval ranking would win.
Longtime voters might find such suggestions jarring, but a Trump nomination could be a rule-changer. He can brag that he has won a couple dozen contests, but the reality is that another of the other primary candidates might have beaten him if not for voters scattering their ballots among so many. This is to say, the majority of Republican voters rejected Trump.
Had an approval system been in place, it's conceivable that John Kasich could be accepting the nomination in July. And Trump would be piling up approval ratings where he belongs on reality TV.
Kathleen Parker is a Washington Post columnist.
Evanston Township High School District 202 Chief Financial Officer Bill Stafford said both District 202 and Evanston/Skokie School District 65 stand to lose millions of dollars worth of state funding if a propose school funding formula receives approval from state legislators. (Lee V. Gaines / Pioneer Press)
Members of Evanston's two school boards voiced frustration at a recent joint meeting between the two districts with a proposed school funding formula that would shift millions of state dollars away from both Evanston Township District 202 and Evanston/Skokie School District 65.
Gov. Bruce Rauner has said he would not support the latest rewrite of the state's school-aid formula introduced by Democratic state Sen. Andy Manar. The most recent iteration proposes to do what prior pieces of legislation have sought to accomplish: Shift state dollars from wealthier districts to poorer districts to provide more funding to schools in communities with lower property values. If the legislation passed, Evanston Township High School District 202 would lose $2.2 million while Evanston/Skokie District 65 would see a loss totaling roughly $6.1 million in annual state funding, according to chief financial officer for ETHS, Bill Stafford. Broken down per pupil, the loss would amount to $885 per student for District 65 and $719 per student for District 202.
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ED-RED, an advocacy organization which lobbies on behalf of dozens of school districts and counts both District 65 and District 202 among its members, has not taken a position on the school funding bill, said District 202 board member, Gretchen Livingston. Livingston also sits on the ED-RED executive board.
"The vast majority of ED-RED member districts would be losers under Senate Bill 231, just like the predecessor bills. There are a handful of ED-RED districts who would be winners," Livingston said.
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She said it "behooves" districts to come together around a funding model everyone can support.
"The problem is the winners and losers developed under the current model and all predecessor models -- none of them contemplate additional money coming in so there will always be losers," Livingston said.
Despite Rauner's stated opposition to the legislation, District 65 board president Tracy Quattrocki said the two districts "need to think aggressively" to successfully oppose the bill.
District 202 board member Anne Sills asked how best the district should amplify the message that the real issue is a lack of funding for public education statewide, which she said creates "this kind of dialogue about who wins and loses."
District 65 Superintendent Paul Goren said he's contacted colleagues in other districts in hopes of building support around opposition to the proposed funding formula without much luck.
"I did reach out to maybe six or eight school districts to see if there was interest in at least coming together for breakfast to talk about it and, with all respect to our colleagues, there was reluctance to do so," he said. Goren said he planned to meet with Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, to discuss the school funding proposal.
"No redistribution without more money," said District 202 board member Jonathan Baum. "It's very simply an easy message to get out."
Livingston cautioned that advocating for an influx of new money into the education system statewide is also complicated because it necessitates widespread support behind a revenue generating mechanism.
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"That is something ED-RED is grappling with, too. Will its member districts be able to line up behind a particular revenue option, whether it's income taxes or some other form of taxation?" she said. "That's been part of the conversation, but there's no easy answer. We represent many districts."
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Franklin Park's village president filed a defamation lawsuit against a village resident, claiming he was accused of sexual harassment.
Filed on April 22 in the Cook County Circuit Court, the complaint alleges Eugene Piltaver, 87, knowingly and maliciously re-published an email message with false information and accusations "knowing that such dissemination would cause great embarrassment, ridicule and substantial harm to [Village President Barrett Pedersen's] reputation."
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The complaint is focused on a mass email written by Franklin Park resident Ken Zurek that was sent on March 21. In that email, Zurek alleges impropriety regarding the hiring of Pedersen's executive assistant and makes accusations regarding Pedersen sexually harassing women at a restaurant in Franklin Park. Zurek claims the information was given to him by "credible" sources who wish to remain anonymous.
Piltaver is the only named defendant in the complaint and says he only forwarded the email to 12 other people with the subject heading "This very interesting!!!! What do you think about it????" because he wanted their thoughts or any verification they could provide him regarding the allegations Zurek made in the email.
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The defamation suit surprised him because he only "intended to substantiate the email," he says.
"I was just asking people, 'What do you think?'" Piltaver said. He says no malice was ever intended by forwarding the email and he didn't understand why he was being sued for that.
The complaint requests a trial by jury and seeks more than $50,000 plus legal costs. Piltaver said Friday he's consulting with his attorney on what his next course of action should be.
"I've been a political opponent of the mayor and his administration, which could be the reason for this action against me," Piltaver said. "Maybe I was the most vulnerable person to go after, and since Ken [Zurek] is pretty sharp, he didn't want to tangle with him."
Zurek, who ran unsuccessfully for the village board last year, is mentioned in Pedersen's defamation suit because of the email, but he is not listed as a defendant in the complaint.
Zurek has been publicly critical of Pedersen and his initiatives, and his criticism has manifested as blast emails and a public Facebook group attacking Pedersen's character and policies.
After he became aware of the lawsuit filed against Piltaver, Zurek sent out a mass email on May 5 asking his audience to take measures to make sure their email addresses are hidden from each other: "Due to complications brought about by a deeply troubled Mayor of Franklin Park ALL sent, copied, or forwarded e-mails shoud [sic] be distributed using the BLIND COPY function. That way no one but you will know who is on the e-mails distribution list! Please forward this to everone [sic] on your e-mail list."
On Monday, a man who identified himself as the manager for the restaurant said Pedersen has not been banned from the business.
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Pedersen has been advised by his attorney, Ryan B. Jacobson, to not comment on the litigation. Jacobson said the lawsuit and his legal services are being paid for out of pocket by Pedersen and that no village money is being spent on the matter.
"This was not a constituent challenging the decisions Pedersen has made while in office. This was an outright attack of Pedersen's morality, with no regard for the veracity of the rumor that was being spread," Jacobson said in an emailed statement. "Mr. Piltaver cannot play the victim when his past demonstrates a clear agenda against my client, and a willingness to 'punch below the belt' when the consensus is that Mayor Pedersen has enhanced the lives of the people of Franklin Park."
Alex V. Hernandez is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Northlake police are investigating a video of two minors that Northlake Elementary students reportedly shared on social media in April.
On April 19, police were contacted by a woman who told them someone had sent her a video of her daughter "performing a sexual act with another minor" via a Facebook message, Northlake Police Deputy Chief Jay Militello said.
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After an investigation, officers say the graphic video was reportedly sent by another minor, a 13-year-old girl from Melrose Park. Militello said the girl who sent the video message to the mother was charged as a juvenile with "minors involved in electronic dissemination of indecent visual depictions in need of supervision."
Terri Bresnahan, the superintendent for Berkeley School District 87, said district officials are "leaving it in the hands of the Northlake police at this time."
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"This is a very sensitive matter and right now, since it is an ongoing investigation, we've been cooperating with the Northlake Police Department and have been advised to not publicly share any information regarding the matter," Bresnahan said.
Militello said police will seek to speak to a few other minors who might have circulated the graphic video, as well as the boy depicted in the video. Illinois amended its criminal code in 2011 to address sexting, or producing, sending or receiving sexually explicit imagery, via cellphones or the Internet to allow authorities to intervene without filing criminal charges against minors.
"Internet safety is a priority in District 87," Bresnahan said. "In addition to meeting the state requirements for providing an Internet safety curriculum for all students in grades K-8 on an annual basis, we also provide several opportunities for ongoing dialogue on this topic with parents and students."
Bresnahan said Northlake Middle School hosted the Cook County Sheriff's Department this year for a presentation on Internet safety during its fall open house for parents and students. This was followed by presentations by the Cook County Sheriff's Department for each grade level of students during school in January.
Additionally, she said District 87 teaches the Child Lures Prevention program, which contains lessons on Internet safety and proper use of social media. A final parent meeting is planned for the evening of May 11 to provide further education on Internet safety for children.
Alex V. Hernandez is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Maria Kariotis is formally launching Marias Amore, a home-based womens clothing boutique, on May 19 with Shop, Sip, Support, a benefit for The Well of Mercy. (Jackie Pilossoph / Pioneer Press)
"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore," sang Dean Martin in the 1950's. When Italian clothing hits your eye in a California clothing boutique, that's amore, according to Maria Kariotis.
The Glenview mom of three said she was shopping in a San Diego clothing boutique a few years ago when she fell in love with the quality and prices of the store's Italian clothing. She became inspired to bring the concept to Glenview.
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Kariotis, the daughter of Italian immigrants, is formally launching Maria's Amore, a home-based women's clothing boutique, on May 19 with "Shop, Sip, Support," a benefit for The Well of Mercy, a Chicago-based organization for pregnant, unwed moms and their children.
"I truly feel in my heart that I am so blessed to be in the situation I am in," said Kariotis, who has previously worked in the wholesale merchandising and clothing retail industries. "I have always loved fashion, and my goal is to help other womenboth women who are my clients, and women in need."
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Maria's Amore carries women's clothing, belts and handbags made by Italian designers and imported from Milan.
"I think people associate Italian designers with high price tags, and that's where I think I found a niche," said Kariotis. "I'm selling quality merchandise that is fashionable and trendy at a really good price point. On top of it, you won't find my clothes anywhere else around here."
Debora Renna is Kariotis's buying consultant and the owner of the San Diego boutique, Amore.
"Lately, I feel like women are done with the dressy look," said the Italian-born Renna. "They want a sporty, chic lookjeans with a cute t-shirt or a sexy top, and clothing made with fabrics that don't wrinkle, that are soft and great for traveling."
"Shop, Sip, Support" will include vendors Stella & Dot jewelry as well as Laura Gorman Cosmetics, and a portion of sales will be donated to The Well of Mercy.
"I'm very proud of my mom for doing what she is doingstarting a business in her fifties and pursuing her dream," said Julia Kariotis, a junior at Loyola Academy who volunteers at the organization. "We both thought this was a perfect way to launch her business, by bringing women together to help women and children in need."
The Well of Mercy is a secure residence for pregnant women who have been abused or abandoned. The organization, which is privately funded, offers counseling and group support, career mentoring, work opportunities, and social events that help develop life skills.
To learn more about Well of Mercy visit TheWellOfMercy.com. To attend "Sip, Shop, Support," call (312) 259-2119.
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Jackie Pilossoph is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
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Gov. Mike Pence, right, shakes hands with Indianapolis attorney Geoffrey Slaughter after Slaughter was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court, Monday, May 9, 2016, in Indianapolis. Gov. Pence made the announcement during a news conference at the Statehouse. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) (Darron Cummings / AP)
Gov. Mike Pence named Indianapolis attorney Geoffrey G. Slaughter to the Indiana Supreme Court Monday.
Pence announced his pick of Slaughter, who grew up in Crown Point and is the son of Guy Slaughter, a former longtime Post-Tribune editor and reporter, from among three finalists selected in March by the state's Judicial Nominating Commission.
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Slaughter's appointment fills a vacancy on the five-member court and is Pence's first appointment to the court. His swearing-in will be announced at a later date.
The 53-year-old Slaughter succeeds former Justice Brent Dickson, who retired last month before he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 in July.
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Twenty-nine people applied for a chance to replace Dickson. The commission chose 15 semifinalists before selecting as finalists Slaughter, St. Joseph Superior Judge Steven Hostetler and Boone Superior Court Judge Matthew Kincaid.
Slaughter graduated in 1989 from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. After a two-year stint as a law clerk for a federal judge, he joined Kirkland & Ellis LLP, a Chicago law firm, and worked there for five years.
From 1995 to 2001, Slaughter was special counsel to Indiana's attorney general's office. He's been a partner since 2001 with Indianapolis law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, handing securities-fraud claims, environmental disputes, antitrust class actions and other cases.
Slaughter was a finalist for the state Supreme Court in 2012, when then-Gov. Mitch Daniels tapped Loretta Rush for the bench.
Pence cited Slaughter's experience in antitrust law and other legal matters for his selection.
Indiana University law professor Joel Schumm said the three finalists for the vacancy had spent "most or almost all of their lives" primarily handling complex civil cases involving businesses.
Schumm said many legal observers believed the court needed a new member with such extensive experience because recent retirements have left it with justices who largely worked as judges or prosecutors.
Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma hired Slaughter, rather than use the state attorney general's office, to defend against a lawsuit filed by advocacy groups seeking emails between GOP Rep. Eric Koch of Bedford and utility companies. The groups sought the emails following an unsuccessful push last year by Koch, the chairman of the House Energy Committee, to cut payments for excess electricity generated by home solar power systems.
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Both Slaughter's parents are deceased. Guy Slaughter died in 2001 and Evelyn Slaughter died in 2007.
As a youngster, Geoff Slaughter often was the subject of his father's column, "Seen From The Slaughter House."
Chicago attorney Joseph A. Morris, a Gary native, shared a friendship with Slaughter that dates to their work as co-counsel on a case in Indianapolis about 15 years ago.
"The striking thing about Geoff Slaughter is this is a fellow whose life percolates with ideas," said Morris. "He thinks a lot about the law." Morris said he and Slaughter often trade electronic clips about interesting cases in various courts around the country and chat about them.
Morris said Slaughter's areas of expertise were broad, from trade to civil law to First Amendment cases.
"His knowledge is encyclopedic," Morris said. "I think this is a great day for Indiana."
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Post-Tribune staff writer Carole Carlson contributed to this story.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo headlines the Wilmette Public Library's One Book, Everybody Reads program this year, featuring two of his novels, "Nobody's Fool," published in 1993, and "Everybody's Fool," the sequel that was released May 3.
One Book, Everybody Reads is the Wilmette Public Library's annual community-wide reading and book discussion program, funded by the Friends of the Wilmette Public Library. Each year, local residents are encouraged to read selected titles and participate in a series of events that explore the book and its themes. The program includes several community events, including this year a talk by Russo about both books on May 14 at Wilmette Jr. High School.
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The selection of a featured book is a yearlong process involving a committee of four librarians who review recently published titles in order to identify those that will appeal to the community.
"Russo is a beloved author and writes about the human condition with a wry sense of humor," said Betty Giorgi, head of Adult Services at the Wilmette Public Library. "Readers here appreciate a well told story and richly drawn characters and Russo delivers on both."
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"Nobody's Fool" tells the story of Donald "Sully" Sullivan, a hard-luck guy in the deadbeat town of North Bath in upstate New York.
"I almost never return to characters from previous books," Russo said. "I'm not against the practice, but in a good book its most important characters have resolved their conflicts, which is another way of saying that the dramatic tension is gone. Either you have to give them a whole new conflict, or focus perhaps on a minor character from the earlier book. I use both of these strategies in 'Everybody's Fool.'"
Russo was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his 2001 book, "Empire Falls." He has written six other novels, two collections, and the memoir "Elsewhere," published in 2012.
"Russo has a body of work that connects the reader with a distinct time and place populated with characters who touch both our hearts and souls," Giorgi said. "He writes what he knows and creates characters and stories that are authentic and bursting with humanity."
One Book, Everybody Reads events
What: A series of events related to the Wilmette Public Library's initiative. This year's book selections are Richard Russo's "Nobody's Fool" and "Everybody's Fool." All programs are free and open to the public and take place at the library unless otherwise noted. Go to www.wilmettelibrary.info/onebook or call (847) 256-6930.
2 p.m. May 14 Author Richard Russo discusses "Nobody's Fool" and "Everybody's Fool" at Wilmette Jr. High School Auditorium, 620 Locust Road, Wilmette. No tickets necessary. A book signing will follow the program.
7 p.m. June 2 Independent Bookstores: Alive and Kicking! Representatives from The Book Stall in Winnetka, Bookends & Beginnings in Evanston and Women & Children First in Chicago discuss the current state of independent bookstores.
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7 p.m. June 22 Evening Readers Book Discussion of "Everybody's Fool," led by a librarian.
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Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com on Monday reported a rise in net revenue in Q1 thanks to growing mobile business.
JD.com earned 54 billion yuan (8.3 billion U.S.dollars) in net revenue in Q1, up 47.3 percent year on year, with its gross merchandise volume growing by 55 percent to about 129 billion yuan.
Orders rose by over 50 percent in the first three months with more than two thirds coming from mobile terminals such as smartphones.
National online retail sales were over one trillion yuan in the January-March period, up 27.8 percent year on year.
Some 8,000 drivers suspended from using the taxi-hailing app Didi Dache have been promised their deposits back amid an intensive background check.
In a text message sent to many Shenzhen-based drivers, the company said: "You have violated the red line of service and we now suspend our cooperation with you."
A 24-year-old woman in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province was robbed and then killed by a Didi Dache driver on May 3, promoting the company to suspend some 8,000 drivers using the platform.
A spokesperson for Didi Dache said the suspended drivers could still withdraw deposits from its system, but they would need to re-verify their qualifications if they wanted to continue as drivers.
A March inspection by Shenzhen police found that 1,425 drivers for five major car-hailing apps - including Didi Dache and Uber - had histories of drug crimes, while 1,661 had major criminal records, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Four officials in east China's Shandong Province were sentenced to jail terms of up to 3.5 years for their responsibilities in a deadly blast at an explosives plant in Zhangqiu City in 2013, the local procuratorate said Monday.
The four are Li Naifeng, former deputy director of Jinan Economic and Information Technology Committee; Zhang Tieqiang and Sun Chengyi, another two committee officials; and Zhang Baomin, a former official at Zhangqiu's economic and information technology bureau, according to the people's procuratorate of Zhangqiu.
Li was sentenced to three years in prison suspended for four years by the people's court of Zhangqiu City in late April. Zhang Tieqiang was sentenced to three and a half years while Sun was sentenced to three years. Zhang Baomin got three years imprisonment suspended for three years.
They were convicted of dereliction of duty as they were responsible for supervision of the civil explosives industry, according to the court.
The explosion occurred on May 20, 2013 at a plant owned by Poly Explosives (Jinan) Co., Ltd. in Zhangqiu. Thirty-three people died and 19 others were injured in the accident, which also resulted in a direct economic loss of more than 54 million yuan (8.29 million U.S. dollars).
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A fish with a 'human face' is attracting waves of visitors to the home of its owner in Wugang City, Central China's Hunan Province, local media reported.
A fish with a human face is caught at a reservoir in Wugang City, Central China's Hunan Province, April 30, 2016. (Photo/syxwnet.com)
The "humanoid" carp belongs to Qiu Xioahua, a teacher at an elementary school in Wugang. Qiu has fished for nearly 20 years, but this is the first time he has caught this kind of carp.
The dark brown fish, caught by Qiu at a reservoir on April 30, measures 36 centimeters long and weighs 800 grams. The fish's mouth, nose and eyes resemble those of a human.
Pictures of the fish have gone viral on Chinese Internet platforms.
Domestic media reports of carp with a human face are rare. A 2010 report in the UK said the owner of a similar 'humanoid' carp was offered 40,000 pounds for it.
A lung donated by a patient in southwest China's Sichuan Province has been successfully transported to Wuxi in east China's Jiangsu province.
Security staff at the airport help to transport a lung donated by a patient in Sichuan province to east China's Wuxi, May 9, 2016. [Photo: yangtse.com]
A transplant surgery has been planned to be finished on Tuesday morning.
So far, no further information about this surgery has been revealed.
It's the first domestic lung to be transferred using the new "Green Passage" system. It took only six hours for the organ to reach the patient after being removed from the donor on May 9, located in a city about 1,800 kilometers away.
On May 8, a heart donated by a patient in east China's Hangzhou took only four hours and 16 minutes to be transported to Wuhan and was successfully transplanted into the recipient.
The "Green Passage" system, jointly established by China's health, police and transportation authorities, aims to shorten transportation time and reduce the damage or waste of human organs, as many become unusable or dysfunctional if stored for more than 12 hours.
A driver for Didi China's homegrown Uber competitor was caught half naked while working on Monday in north China's Tianjin City, triggering public concern over the safety and supervision of online car-hailing services.
Public concern over the safety and supervision of online car-hailing services has increased after Didi, China's homegrown Uber-competitor, was involved in another sex scandal.
The driver has been detained for 10 days for being half naked yesterday when servicing a female passenger who hailed his car through Didi application, local police said.
The woman, going by the name "Dandan Noodles 0228," posted her experience on microblogging website Sina Weibo. She claimed that she hailed a car through Didi's app on Monday morning. Halfway through the ride, she realized that the driver was wearing nothing from the waist down. He only had a pair of short pants loosely over his private parts.
The woman took a photo of the driver secretly and got off as soon as she could. She then contacted Didi's customer service and provided the photo as evidence. However, she only got a 10-yuan (US$1.53) coupon in compensation.
Later on Monday, the woman wrote on her blog again, claiming she was threatened by the driver and showing a screenshot of the threat.
In response to the scandal, Didi's spokesperson said that the company hadn't got in touch with the driver yet, but based on the evidence provided by the passenger, the company had halted his service. When the evidence is verified, the spokesperson went on, the driver will be banned for good.
The spokesperson also said that the company would launch an in-app police number to further enhance protection.
The government has also acted to regulate ride-hailing services. Local authorities in major cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai have taken measures to overhaul the market. The Ministry of Transportation is likely to introduce a regulation proposal later this month.
China's ride-hailing services have been involved in a string of scandals recently. Earlier this month, a woman was suspected of being murdered by a Didi driver in south China's Shenzhen City. In March, Didi, Uber and other car-hailing services in Shenzhen were found to not be conducting necessary investigations into drivers' qualifications. Last July, a driver who registered on Didi with stolen information raped a female passenger in Beijing.
A former senior official from north China's Shanxi Province went on trial for accepting bribes on Tuesday.
Prosecutors accused Bai Yun, member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Shanxi Provincial Committee, of taking advantage of her positions to benefit 17 companies, units or individuals and of accepting money and valuables worth more than 17.81 million yuan (2.73 mln U.S. dollars) between 2004 and 2013.
The case was tried at the intermediate court of Nantong City in east China's Jiangsu Province.
Bai, also head of the United Front Work Department of the provincial Party committee, confessed to her crimes during the trial, according to the court. The verdict will be announced on another date.
The CPC discipline inspection agency announced an investigation into Bai for "serious discipline and law violations" in August 2014. Bai was removed from her post a month later and expelled from the CPC in February 2015.
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Somalia security forces on Monday arrested two Al-Shabaab suspects during an operation in the capital, Mogadishu.
Spokesman of local government, Abdifitah Omar Halane said the security agencies launched manhunt for suspects behind the killing of two people on board in Hama-Jejeb district in Mogadishu and arrested the two suspects.
"The security forces conducted successful operation in Hamar-Jejeb district on Monday where they held two Al-Shabaab suspects," Halane said by telephone.
"We believe the suspects killed two men on a three-wheel motorbike in the district this morning, but the security forces pursued them and found them immediately," he added.
He said the two suspects in custody would be arraigned in court soon.
The incident comes after Al-Shabaab militants carried out a deadly attack at the main headquarters of Somali traffic police in Shangani district early on Monday where over three people including two police officers were killed and eight others injured, according to officials.
Such incidents come as forces from the African Union Peacekeeping Mission and Somalia National Army have stepped up their military operations against the insurgents in the Horn of Africa nation.
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The ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has wrapped up its 7th Congress which lasted four days and top leader Kim Jong Un delivered a closing speech, the country's state television reported Monday.
Kim gave thanks to the representatives at the congress, all party members, military officers and people for electing him the chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), and pledged to spare no efforts to struggle for the final success of the Juche revolutionary cause.
Kim Jong Un was elected chairman of the WPK at the 7th Congress of the ruling party. He had already been the head of the party, but with the title of the first secretary of the party.
The announcement was made by Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly.
Kim became the supreme commander of the Korean People's Army in December 2011 and the first chairman of the National Defense Commission in April, 2012. He is also holding the title of chairman of the Central Military Commission of the party.
Meanwhile, Choe Ryong Hae and Pak Pong Ju have been elected to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, raising the number of the committee members from three to five, according to an announcement made by Kim Yong Nam in the afternoon.
Previously, the members of the committee included Kim Jong Un, Kim Yong Nam and Hwang Pyong So, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army.
Nineteen members and nine alternate members were declared as members of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee.
The meeting also elected nine vice chairmen of the central committee of the WPK, including Choe Ryong Hae and Kim Ki Nam, who used to be the secretaries of the Secretariat.
The vice chairmen constitute a newly-created institution under the party's central committee.
Changes were made to the party's organization of core leadership. The congress did not announce the secretaries of the central committee, while some who had been secretaries of the Secretariat were given new posts as vice chairmen of the party's central committee.
Kim Yong Nam also announced 11 members of the central military commission and the members of the central review committee of the ruling party.
The editor-in-chief of the party's mouthpiece, Rodong Sinmun, was also appointed.
Kim Yong Nam also announced the names of chairman and vice chairman of the central inspection committee of the party.
The ruling party's 7th Congress opened Friday, the first time in 36 years and the first party congress since Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011.
Kim Jong Un delivered a three-hour work report of the Central Committee of the party and stressed that the DPRK will in the long run hold fast to the strategic line of "Byungjin," or the parallel development of nuclear weapons and national economy as long as the nuclear threat posed by imperialists continues.
Kim in his speech again claimed the DPRK to be a nuclear weapons state, which was never acknowledged by the international society. He said the DPRK will strive for world denuclearization and faithfully fulfill obligations of nuclear non-proliferation as a responsible nuclear weapons state.
Massive parades and a torch march are expected to take place Tuesday in Pyongyang to celebrate the success of the congress.
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The Syrian army announced on Monday extending a cease-fire in the northern city of Aleppo for additional 48 hours, state news agency SANA reported.
The fresh extension will start as of Tuesday morning, said the statement, adding that the truce, otherwise named as "regime of calm," excludes the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.
The extension came as part of the original truce that went into force for 48 hours on Thursday, and extended on Saturday for additional 72 hours.
The military statement noted that the rebels in Aleppo have violated the truce over the past few days, by firing mortar shells into residential areas in the government-controlled part west of Aleppo.
The U.S.-Russia-backed truce in Aleppo came to bring a lull to the troubled city that has witnessed the most violent shelling from the rebels on government-controlled areas.
Opposition activists also accused Syrian warplanes of striking rebel-held areas in the eastern part of the city.
The "regime of silence" has previously been announced to include areas in the countryside of the capital Damascus and the northwestern province of Latakia.
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The acting speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress on Monday announced a decision to nullify the chamber's vote for an impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff reacts during a signing ceremony for new universities at Planalto Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil on May 9, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]
However, the Senate decided to move forward and vote on Wednesday as planned.
LOWER HOUSE IMPEACHMENT VOTE ANNULLED
Waldir Maranhao, taking over as acting speaker of Chamber of Deputies last week, accepted an injunction filed last week by Brazil's Attorney General Jose Eduardo Cardozo who said there were irregularities in the lower house's voting session on April 17.
In a news release, Maranhao listed several procedural flaws that comprised the voting results: the president's defense did not have the chance to speak during the voting session, hindering the right of defense.
Also, some political parties made the decision to support the impeachment or go against it, rather than letting representatives vote based on their own will, he added.
In his decision, Maranhao said the Senate should return the case to the House, so it could hold a new vote on the impeachment proposal.
This latest twist in Brazil's opposition-led impeachment drive has led to confusion as to how the process would proceed.
After the April lower house vote, the impeachment case was passed to the Senate, which would vote whether to put the president on trial over charges of breaking budget laws in a session scheduled for Wednesday.
Maranhao was made lower house speaker last week, after his predecessor Eduardo Cunha was separated from his post by a Supreme Court decision, marking the first time in Brazilian history that the judiciary has ordered such a measure.
Cunha, who is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee after it came to light he had squirreled away millions of dollars in undeclared Swiss bank accounts, had used his influence to coerce other lawmakers to vote against Rousseff and to obstruct justice in his investigation, the court said.
Cunha is believed to be pursuing impeachment as a means of political revenge, after Rousseff's ruling Workers' Party refused to shield him from the Ethics Committee probe.
ROUSSEFF URGES ALLIES TO REMAIN CAUTIOUS
President Rousseff on Monday called on her supporters to remain wary after she heard the lower house impeachment vote against her had been annulled.
"I just heard that ... I can't measure the consequences, so please act cautiously. We are facing a state of affairs fraught with cunning and guile," warned the embattled Rousseff.
Rousseff was at a ceremony announcing the creation of five federal universities when the news broke on the mobiles of those in attendance, leading cabinet members, lawmakers, educators and students at the event to cry out in celebration.
But Rousseff urged her allies to not let their guard down, saying her political opponents' push to impeach her was not over.
"A fierce battle, filled with difficulties" still lies ahead, said Rousseff. "I urge you, members of congress, and all of us, to stay calm and stand up to it. There will be a fight, and a good deal of struggle."
"More than ever, we must now fight against ... this process that is tantamount to a coup," said Rousseff.
SENATE TO MOVE FORWARD
The nullification of the lower house vote sparked confusion about the impeachment process, since the next step was for the Senate to vote Wednesday on the motion to impeach Rousseff.
Hours after Maranhao's announcement, head of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, affirmed that the Senate will move forward to vote on Rousseff's impeachment case as planned on Wednesday, despite a sudden lower house about-face.
The lower house reversal, announced just two days before the Senate is to vote, "is an untimely decision," said Calheiros, and as such "cannot be accepted."
Accepting the lower house's decision to nullify its April 17 vote in favor of the impeachment drive would only serve to "delay the process," said Calheiros.
"It is not up to the president of the Senate to say whether the process is just or unjust, it is the decision of the plenary, of all of the senators," he added.
Meanwhile, Brazil's Attorney General Jose Eduardo Cardozo confirmed at a press conference that the lower house must hold a new vote on whether to subject Rousseff to an impeachment trial.
However, the opposition can also appeal Maranhao's decision at the Supreme Court.
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The United States and Russia have decided to intensify efforts to ensure the nationwide implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Syria, said a joint statement issued by the two countries Monday.
Washington and Moscow are using their influence with the conflicting parties in Syria to press them to abide by the ceasefire agreement that took effect on Feb. 27, refrain from disproportionate responses to provocations, and demonstrate restraint, according to the statement.
"We believe our joint efforts have brought about a significant decrease in violence in the areas of North Latakia and East Ghouta," said the joint statement.
"However, we also recognize the difficulties faced by the CoH (cessation of hostilities) in several areas of the country, especially in the recent period, as well as remaining problems in ensuring humanitarian access to the besieged areas."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is on travel to France Monday and will meet later in the day with representatives from France, Germany, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Britain on the situation in Syria.
The United States and Russia demand that Syrian government forces and the oppositions cease any indiscriminate attacks on civilians, said the joint statement, adding that Russia will work with the Syrian authorities to minimize aviation operations over areas that are predominantly inhabited by civilians or parties to the cessation.
Last Tuesday, Washington and Moscow agreed to extend the fragile truce in Syria to the northern Aleppo city and its surrounding areas following days of violence between the government forces and rebels that had killed over 120 people and injured hundreds of others.
The Syrian government has blamed the rebels in Aleppo for violating the truce, while oppositions accused Syrian warplanes of striking rebel-held areas in the eastern part of the city.
The United States and Russia, co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group, also intend to enhance efforts to promote humanitarian assistance to all people in need throughout Syria, particularly in all besieged and hard-to-reach areas, according to the joint statement.
In addition, the two countries are determined to redouble efforts to reach a political settlement of the Syrian conflict through UN-backed intra-Syrian negotiations in Geneva.
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Jordan on Monday called for a joint global action to counter the unconventional terror threats that are taking advantage of the digital space to spread their ideology.
Chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the Jordan Armed Forces Mashal Al-Zaben made the remarks at the opening of a conference for world's army commanders taking part in the 11th Special Operations Forces Exhibition 2016.
"Regional development made Jordan resort to equipping its army with the latest weapons and equipment while focusing on enhancing the capabilities of the border guards," he said.
The participants at the event called for more efforts to fight terrorist groups, stressing the importance of joint collaboration and sharing expertise in this regard.
A total of 105 delegates from 54 countries, including leaders, ministers of defense and senior army officers, will attend the event, which will run through May 12.
Over 380 companies from 37 countries will be showcasing the latest equipment used in special operations related to national security.
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The Saudi-led Arab coalition promised on Monday to keep the state of calmness in dealing with Houthis, after intercepting a ballistic missile from Yemen, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The coalition command highlighted that the missile was intercepted and destroyed by the Saudi Air Forces without causing damages. The forces also identified the location that it was launched.
The command considered the timing of the launch as serious escalation by Houthi militias, highlighting that the coalition and the international community are striving to continue with the state of calmness for the success of Kuwait negotiations that is going on by all Yemeni political powers.
The statement highlighted that the coalition won't take any action, but certain responses will be taken if the incident is repeated.
The command called upon the international community for serious stance against Houthis and their attempts to keep chaos in Yemen by hindering efforts to bring back security and stability.
The coalition has been engaged in a war in Yemen since March 2015 in support of the Yemeni elected government.
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Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday described leaders of the rebel groups fighting the government in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions as "dreamers."
"The victories achieved by the army in Darfur have turned the rebels' dream of an uprising against the government into a new setback for the dreamers who are running their battle against the homeland from Paris hotels," said al-Bashir when addressing a conference for Sudan's Workers Union.
Al-Bashir reiterated his government's endeavor to achieve a lasting peace in all parts of Sudan, saying "the government's signing of the road-map is a message that has affirmed to the world its belief in peace option and renunciation of war and fighting."
Last March, the Sudanese government unilaterally signed a road-map agreement backed by the African Union, stipulating arrangements related to cease-fire in Darfur, the Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions, engaging in a political process and involving the armed groups in the national dialogue conference.
However, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector, the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) together with the opposition Umma Party, led by Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, declined to sign the road-map.
The SPLM/northern sector and the armed groups in Darfur insist that a preparatory conference be held to bring together all the Sudanese political forces to agree on procedures to initiate an equitable dialogue with the government, a demand that the Sudanese government rejects.
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The Pentagon said on Monday a U.S.-led coalition airstrike had killed a senior military leader of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.
"On May 6th, a coalition airstrike targeted Abu Waheeb, ISIL's military emir for Anbar Province and a former member of al-Qaeda in Iraq who has appeared in ISIL execution videos," said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook here at a briefing, referring to another acronym of the group.
The strike was successful and three other IS fighters were killed, Cook added.
"We think this is a significant member of the leadership team (of IS), particularly in a critical area (of Anbar Province)," said Cook.
Iraqi 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 United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, expressed his outrage Monday at the ongoing "indiscriminate and seemingly calculated" attacks against civilians and civilian objects in Syria.
In a note to correspondents, Mr. Dieng said that between 27 April and 5 May, there were at least six attacks on medical facilities by different parties to the conflict in the north-western governorate of Aleppo alone, marking the "deadliest" two weeks since the cessation of hostilities accord, which came into effect on 27 February.
"These attacks reflect the continued blatant disrespect of international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict, and may constitute war crimes," the Special Adviser stated. "The international community cannot allow the perpetrators of flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law to enjoy impunity."
Mr. Dieng emphasized that just a few days ago, in its Resolution 2286 on health care in armed conflict, the Security Council had reiterated the need for Member States to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and ensure that responsible parties are held to account.
"It is crucial that the Council consistently apply this principle," he stressed.
Specifically, Mr. Dieng noted that the attack against the Al Quds Hospital on 27 April reportedly killed 55 civilians, including the last paediatrician in the city, while on 5 May, an attack on the Kamouna Internally Displaced Persons camp in northern Idlib governorate killed at least 30 civilians.
"Member States have a duty not to fail the Syrian people yet again and to uphold their pledge to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing," the Special Adviser said.
In this respect, he said that the international community should "step up its commitment" to end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes in Syria and thus contribute to preventing new atrocities from being committed.
"For this reason, I strongly support the Secretary-General's repeated calls to the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court," Mr. Dieng said.
In a humanitarian update, a spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today noted that on 4 and 8 May, two inter-agency convoys delivered critical life-saving assistance to 3,250 people in the hard-to-reach Syrian town of Qaratien in Rural Homs province, with food, water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, as well as other relief items.
On 6 May, an inter-agency convoy targeting 35,000 people in the hard-to-reach town of Bloudan, in rural Damascus, delivered essential relief items, including water and sanitation, health, hygiene and education supplies. This was the second of two convoys to the town, the first one of which was in mid-March.
Since the beginning of 2016, inter-agency operations have reached more than 780,000 civilians in need in besieged, hard-to-reach areas and across conflict lines. Many of these people have been reached more than once.
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Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan denied that the country has recently test-fired a 2,000-km range of ballistic missile, Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday.
On Monday, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi, said that the Islamic republic test-fired a ballistic missile two weeks ago with an "insignificant error margin," Tasnim news agency reported.
"We test-fired a missile with the range of 2,000 km two weeks ago, which had an error margin of eight meters," Abdollahi was quoted as saying.
"An eight-meter error margin means no error, means without error," Abdollahi said. "This missile can be guided to out of atmosphere and back to atmosphere, to hit its target with accuracy."
"We had no missile test recently with the range published in media on Monday," Dehqan said according to Tasnim news agency.
In the meantime, he said that Iran has never stopped undertaking defensive measures including missile tests.
Also, "We have never pursued an invasive view and what we are doing is (based on) upgrading our country's defensive capability," Dehqan was quoted as saying.
He reiterated that Iran's military doctrine is defensive and is aimed at ensuring the country's security.
House church gatherings are often
targeted and disrupted by authorities
in China. (Photo: China Aid)
China Aid
Reported and written in Chinese by Qiao Nong. Translated by Carolyn Song. Edited in English by Ava Collins.
(Guangzhou, GuangdongNov. 16, 2015) While house churches across China prepare for the upcoming holiday season, authorities have already begun to interfere with churches planning of Christmas parties.
Ma Chao, the leader of Guangfu House Church in Chinas southern Guangdong, told China Aids reporter Qiao Nong that local religious affairs bureau officers called him, asking whether Guangfu House Church would be organizing a large-scale Christmas gathering.
I said, Yes, we wont have foreigners participating, only Chinese. We will rent a place that can accommodate 1,000 people for a Christmas party, Ma said he told the officer.
Ma said police also harassed him about renting spaces after a previous landlord terminated the churchs lease.
[The sub-district office] called to ask me to go meet with them, but I didnt. Im very busy right now. During this call from the sub-district office, the officer said, You havent paid your management fees. I said, I never skip the management fee. He asked, Which building and room are you in? I responded, Are you mentally ill? How could you know I havent paid the management fee if you dont even know where I live? Ma said.
Ma said he believed he would be harassed no matter where he moved.
Guangfu House Church is not the only church facing increased scrutiny as the holidays approach. A house church in Langzhong, Sichuan, also reported that local police investigated their Christmas schedule.
They recently asked a member of our church where he would spend Christmas, said Li Mingbo, the pastor of the Langzhong house church. He said there would be a gathering place rented out for Christmas. The police then asked to know more about where the Christmas party would be held.
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
Delegates from Lithuania will promote the country's biotechnology and its laser, food-related and information technologies at the fourth China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services, to be held from May 28 to June 1, said Lithuanian Ambassador Ina Marciulionyte.
"We are sure this event will be a very good opportunity for us to present our potential," she said at a news conference in Beijing.
She said Lithuanian universities expect to find Chinese companies at the fair that will use their technologies and cooperate with their scientists to develop products.
A Lithuania-themed activity at the fair will be organized by the country's Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology and supported by its embassy in China and Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science.
Odeta Brigaityte, director of the Competence Center for Food Research and Technology at Kaunas University of Technology, will share achievements in the university's food-related technologies.
Vladislava Voiciuk from Vilnius University will give a speech that will focus on Lithuanian laser science, industry and achievements.
A woman tries out a Dassault Falcon 7X model at a business jets show in Beijing last year.WANG WEI/CHINA DAILY
Chinese corporate jet buyers, known for big spending, appear to have become more thrifty. That's because they now know they can buy affordable business jets, including used ones.
"Chinese buyers are shifting their focus from the range, cabin volume or luxury interior design to the aircraft's value in terms of money and performance," said Guan Dongyuan, senior vice-president of Brazilian manufacturer Embraer SA and president of Embraer China.
That marks a clear shift from the early days of executive jets in the Chinese market. Back then, rich Chinese buyers regarded business jets as status symbols, objects to flaunt so the world would know of their fortunes and social standing. That such jets helped them to be efficient and offered convenience was incidental.
"Although the majority of the corporate jet buyers in China have only their first or second aircraft, we have noticed that a growing number of Chinese buyers see business jets as means of transportation rather than as luxury assets," said Fang Xinyu, deputy president of Deer Jet.
"Chinese customers came into the business jet market later than Western counterparts, so they tended to buy the biggest-size, longest-range ones to show their social status. But now, they are more rational, looking for business jets that meet both their personal and business needs," said Ron Ho, managing director of Rockwell Collins China, a US-based innovative aviation and high-integrity solutions provider for both commercial and government applications.
"We continue to experience a demand for business jets in China. However, given China's 'new normal' (lower growth rate), the needs of potential owners have changed. We notice that the perception of jetsthey were considered and used as luxury toysis now that of a business facilitator that effectively supports business and impacts the bottom-line," said Bill Schultz, senior vice-president of business development for Textron Aviation China.
Heidi Fedak, senior manager of social media and external communications, Gulfstream Aerospace, said Chinese customers are very professional in choosing an aircraft that fits their needs.
"Our customers in China have come to recognize the many benefits of business aviation, including flexibility, reliability, safety, convenience, comfort and advanced technology in both the flight deck and cabin. They have also realized how those attributes can help them differentiate and grow their business," Fedak said.
A female Chinese attendant checks luggage compartments to prepare for a flight onboard a passenger jet of China Southern Airlines at Haikou Meilan International Airport in Haikou city, South China's Hainan province, June 12 2014.[Photo/IC]
HNA Group Co Ltd plans to buy a controlling stake worth around $1 billion in CWT Ltd, a listed Singapore logistics company, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The Chinese industrial conglomerate declined to comment, but an anonymous insider described the plan as "not yet at the substantial stage, and therefore no real news".
The WSJ report, published last week, said negotiations between HNA and CWT shareholders had been ongoing for several months and were now close to conclusion.
Last week, the Fortune Global 500 company announced it planned to establish a dedicated HNA Tourism Group Co, a new platform to better integrate its aviation and tourism resources, which will help it grow its presence globally.
"It is the right moment to establish such a company," said a senior official from the group, who asked to remain anonymous.
That move does not mean that the group's two main pillars, HNA Tourism Holding and HNA Aviation, will be replaced.
Instead, the new company will focus on China's huge tourism market and linking HNA group's huge potential in aviation and tourism, the company said.
Hou Xuchao, the co-founder of China Insights Consultancy, said integrating aviation with tourism resources in such a way is an industry trend.
Airline firms cannot survive using traditional operational patterns alone, he was cited by National Business Daily as saying, and standalone tourism internet companies are also finding it harder to achieve sustainable development operation independently.
HNA said the new company will act as a large-scale aviation tourism industry holding group, with a strategy to develop tourism, aviation and mobile internet assets in the most ecologically friendly manner.
The company will have its own shareholders, board of directors and separate supervisory management boards overseeing aviation, tourism and internet operations.
The company said it will also integrate the management of its internet development and innovation resources, which will drive investment in businesses related to aviation, tourism and finance, and as well as handle all related upstream and downstream activities.
China's tourism industry has enjoyed rapid development in recent years, with aviation seen as a strong element of the overall travel sector.
At the end of 2015, HNA Group had total asset of 600 billion yuan ($92.31 billion), a fleet of more than 1,100 aircraft, serving nearly 700 domestic and international routes flying to more than 200 cities. It carries some 77.4 million passengers yearly.
HNA-Caissa to raise up to 8 billion yuan
HNA-Caissa Travel Group Co plans to raise as much as 8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) through a private share sale as the Chinese tourism and catering company seeks funds to expand its cruise and global-travel services.
The company's controlling shareholder HNA Tourism Group and as many as nine other investors will buy the shares, HNA-Caissa said in a statement on Monday. The funds will be used for four projects including a cruise ship sales platform and international travel package services.
A share sale raising the maximum 8 billion yuan would be equivalent to 40 percent of HNA-Caissa's current market value of 20 billion yuan and roughly double its combined revenue in the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shares of the company on the Shenzhen exchange dropped by the daily limit of 10 percent Monday after trading resumed following a six-month suspension.
"The company may fall another 20 percent to 30 percent from current levels to be in line with its peer valuation as the broader market has fallen a lot since HNA-Caissa Travel was suspended in November," Zhou Yuhua, analyst at Sealand Securities in Shenzhen, said by phone. "Meanwhile, there is a dilution effect on the share price as the size of the placement is very big."
The stock had been halted since Nov 9 pending a "major asset reorganization plan," according to a company statement at the time.
HNA-Caissa also said on Monday in a separate statement that a plan to acquire Beijing Capital Airlines and its controlling shareholder fell through after it failed to gain the needed regulatory approvals on time.
A person answering the phone at HNA-Caissa's investor relations office said the company had no additional comments.
KingSoft Cloud Company, a subsidiary of the country's leading antivirus software and internet service company Kingsoft Corp, announced on Monday it has completed a Series C+ of financing for $50 million, with its valuation reaching $1.1 billion.
It will speed up its layout in cloud-computing services, which involve video, game, medical, government affairs and other enterprise-class cloud services.
This funding was led by a fund managed by China Merchants Securities Co Ltd, and Kingsoft Corp also participated. The company had already secured $60 million in an earlier Series C round of financing.
"The cloud-computing service will be the backbone of the whole company in the future," said Zhang Hongjiang, CEO of Kingsoft Corp, who is bullish about the prospects for the cloud-computing service market, and estimated its market scale would surpass $100 billion in the future.
"We will focus on the mobile video market, which is the core of our cloud-computing business. Furthermore, we will expand our research and development capabilities, attracting more talent, which has also been our long-term objective," said Zhang, who is also CEO of Kingsoft Cloud.
Zhang added the company now only focuses on corporate customers, and has no plans to expand its cloud services to individual consumers.
The Chinese cloud market is only 3 percent of its US counterpart, Zhang told media last month, saying that its prospects are promising.
Founded in 2012, Kingsoft Cloud has established data centers and operations in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, North America and other parts of the world. In December 2014, Kingsoft Group Chairman Lei Jun announced it would invest $1 billion in developing cloud-computing services over the next three to five years.
It entered the digital gaming industry in 2014, providing cloud services for 90 percent of domestic game developers. Last year it expanded into the online video industry, internet and government administration.
The company witnessed 300 percent growth last year, becoming one of the top three players in the country's cloud service field.
Charlie Dai, principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc, said: "Kingsoft's continuous investment in its cloud service is critical to ensure customer experience and its business growth in the cloud sector. Kingsoft has unique advantages in the gaming industry and is quickly expanding into other segments of the cloud market."
Cloud services have already become a key enabler in the digital transformation of Chinese companies such as Kingsoft, Dai said.
"The cloud market is evolving rapidly in China and around the world. Capabilities on hybrid cloud management, PaaS (Platform as a Service) and vertical solutions will be the key differentiators in the future."
Internet companies have stepped their transformation depending on cloud-computing, such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Baidu Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd, which provide different types of cloud services.
Customers examine a bottle of wine at an omnimedia experience store located in the cross-border e-commerce experimental area of Jinpu New Area in Dalian, Liaoning province.[Photo/Xinhua]
Dalian Gona Technology Group Co, a high-end numerical control machine tools manufacturer and a major investor in the Jinpu New Area in Dalian, Liaoning province, is planning to increase its capacity as demand for its products grows.
"Since we exported the first set of machine tools to Germany in 2013, the demand for our high-speed five-axis vertical machining systems has far outstripped supply," said Yu Dehai, Gona's chairman.
The company claims its system is so versatile, it can be used to make small aviation engine turbines, key components of precision instruments and other parts requiring high accuracy.
It has invested 2.36 billion yuan ($363 million) to build an intelligent manufacturing industrial park at the Jinpu New Area.
Yu said the annual output value is expected to reach 10 billion yuan once the new park becomes fully operational.
Gona is just one of several companies that expanded investments in the Jinpu New Area.
In October, chipmaker Intel Corp announced plans to invest $5.5 billion to upgrade its Dalian factory and make it the company's first global integrated circuit manufacturing center for 300-millimeter nonvolatile memory products. The term refers to chips that retain data after the power is turned off.
With an investment of $2.5 billion, the Intel Dalian factory started operation in 2010. It employs some 1,100 people.
Yang Xu, president of Intel China, said the investment is the largest made by the US company in the country. It would also make Dalian a top city for nonvolatile memory products.
Zhang Shikun, head of the administrative committee of the 2,299-square-kilometer Jinpu New Area, said he believes Intel's reinvestment embodies its recognition of the investment environment of Dalian and the Jinpu New Area.
"The Jinpu New Area is a strategic area for regional cooperation in Northeast Asia," Zhang said.
The Jinpu New Area has a simplified administrative structure, Zhang noted.
"We lay emphasis on the functional industrial parks. Then the industrial parks will perform better focusing on economic development," said Zhang.
Contact the writers at zhuchengpei@chinadaily.com.cn and zhangxiaomin@chinadaily.com.cn
A mother and her son look at advertizements for school area houses in Dalian, Liaoning province.SHEN XUECHEN/CHINA DAILY
Three years ago, I wrote in this newspaper about how Chinese parents would go to great lengths to get their children into popular primary schools.
At that time, one of the biggest controversies about the enrollment exercise, which begins roughly this time every year, centered on the "school-choosing fee" that a coveted school would charge parents who did not live within the attendance zone.
Such a practice had become an important source of finance for top schools to inflate their balance sheets, although no one would admit their places were for sale. As demand far exceeded the positions available at elite schools, the rates of "parental donations" could be as high as half a million yuan.
While some argued that it was an efficient way for those parents desperate to provide good education for their children, others said it's morally wrong for public primary schools to sell their places to taxpayers.
Now the booming business has vaporized after public schools are required to fill spots based on home-school distance. But ironically, capitalism has soared to new heights on the policy shift that has sent housing prices into the stratosphere, and made ambitious parents pay even more.
In my last comment, I cited an 8-square-meter flat in a courtyard house near a prestigious primary school in Beijing that sold for 1.3 million yuan. The records have been constantly rewritten since, hitting 3.4 million yuan for a 10-square-meter flat in 2014 and a 13-square-meter one for 4.8 million yuan early this year.
No buyers would live in the shoe-box flats. All they wanted was the registered address. But many still believe it was money well spent, from an economic point of view.
Besides first-class faculty and facilities, a top primary school usually offers a better chance to students of getting admitted to secondary schools that promise higher acceptance rates by the best university. Parents hope a good education will lead to better-paying jobs, with the benefits eventually outweighing the investment in the long run. Parents balk at "average" schools due to a widening gap between the elite schools and the rest, as the education system traditionally favors key schools.
To secure a seat, parents need to own the property from 8-9 years before they can consider a resale. But parents are more concerned about new education policy changes than the future value of the houses. Some buyers near a top school in eastern China's Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, were recently shocked to learn that due to an over-subscription of places, the school might have to introduce a lottery system for homeowners in the district.
I've sent my son to a local school known for rigorous discipline in Beijing. It was formerly a private school that accepted students from across the city if they passed entrance exams. I hope his baby sister will study in the same school in several years' time. But she won't be able to be admitted based on a test score, like her brother, and I get cold feet every time I check on the housing prices that have kept rising around the school.
We all agree that getting our children into good schools does not guarantee them a perfect future, but what does? The Chinese education rat race starts early and students need to triumph in a series of competitive exams to get ahead. A top school is probably the best gift parents can give to their children, when the distribution of good educational resources is geographically skewed.
I'll continue to keep my fingers crossed in a housing market that is spurred by policy, business and parents' anxiety. But my clock is ticking, and it's hard not to follow the flow.
Contact the writer at dr.baiping@hotmail.com
Yu Weijiao, chairman of Shanghai YTO Express (Logistics) Co CHINA DAILY
Shanghai YTO Express (Logistics) Co, China's third largest express-delivery firm by cargo aircraft number, will introduce at least three widebody air freighters to its fleet in 2018 to handle international delivery operations, its chairman said on Monday.
Yu Weijiao said the freighters will support the company's overseas parcel delivery service, cross-border e-commerce business and temperature-controlled supply-chain delivery services.
With a staff of more than 260,000 employees, 32,000 vehicles and 82 transit centers in more than 100 Chinese cities, YTO Express is the third Chinese express shipping company to have its own cargo aircraft, along with China Post's EMS and SF Express.
It is currently preparing an application for the supplementary international operations, which it will file with the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the International Air Transport Association by the end of August.
"There is growing demand for fast and efficient international express services between Chinese manufacturers and foreign buyers, especially in emerging markets such as Africa, the Middle East and South America," said Yu.
YTO Express also plans to help high-tech Chinese companies such Lenovo Group Ltd, ZTE Corporation and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd ship more parts and equipment to these fast-growing emerging markets, where they face stiff competition from rivals such as Dell Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.
Hangzhou-based YTO Cargo Airlines Co, one of its subsidiaries, ordered 20 Boeing 737-800 converted freighters in February.
It already owns five air freighters and operates five charter flights offering domestic air cargo services and it will own eight self-operated aircraft by the end of this year.
YTO Express opened branches in South Korea, Japan and Russia and Zimbabwe earlier this year, and plans to set up a total of 18 regional branches with warehouse and transit centers in priority markets such as Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates by the end of the year.
"Many opportunities come from Chinese consumers' soaring purchasing power and their application of information technology, as well as urbanization, which have pushed the country's express delivery sector onto a par with more sophisticated and segmented markets," said Yu.
YTO Express delivered 3.3 billion parcels and documents domestically last year, a 30 percent surge on an annual basis.
Hou Hanping, a logistics management professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, said better technology, equipment and more capital will enable capable carriers to rise to the next level of service by carrying more high-end foods, chemicals, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products.
zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn
Auto joint venture FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co Ltd is to build a new whole-vehicle manufacturing base in Tianjin, a move to increase its presence in China, where it already has four plants nationwide.
The construction of the new base, named North China Base, will start on next Wednesday and is expected to be finished in 2018, Sun Guowang, secretary of the company's board, said at a news conference on Monday.
"A nationwide network of the company's car-making bases will take shape when the new one is finished," Sun said, adding that it will help the company better meet the needs of consumers nationwide.
According to Sun, with an investment of 19.5 billion yuan ($3 billion), the new plant is expected to make 300,000 cars per year.
FAW-Volkswagen is a joint venture between the FAW Group and Volkswagen Group that makes Audi and Volkswagen vehicles in China.
It has become one of the country's top car makers since its foundation in 1991.
FAW-Volkswagen's four current bases in China are located in the northeastern city of Changchun, the southern city of Foshan, the southwestern city of Chengdu, and the eastern city of Qingdao, respectively.
The bases manufactured a total of 1.65 million vehicles last year, and aim to reach an annual output of 3 million vehicles by 2020, according to the company's forecast.
Covering 108 hectare of land, the new base is located at Tianjin Economic & Technological Development Area. "The location is near one of northern China's main ports, which makes it convenient for logistics," Sun said.
What he said referred to Tianjin Port, which is 45 kilometers away from the base.
When put into operation, the base will require 6,000 employees, mainly from local and surrounding areas of TEDA.
The automobile manufacturing industry is one of the pillar industries of TEDA, which has gathered world-known vehicle makers including Toyota Motor Corp and the domestic giant Great Wall Motor Corp.
The industry yielded nearly a million whole-vehicles last year, the types of which cover SUVs, sedans, new energy and special vehicles.
"Thanks to the mature industry in TEDA, it will be easy for us to recruit skilled workers," Sun said, adding that the new base will also attract its components suppliers to follow suit.
"Their coming will save us more cost for logistics, and make the industry here flourish more," he said.
Contact the writers at zhangmin@chinadaily.com.cn and liujing@chinadaily.com.cn
While economic slowdown and tightening government controls are considered major reasons for the recent slide in the Chinese business aviation industry, the problems of insufficient infrastructure and relatively strict regulations should be addressed immediately if the industry is to seek long-term growth in China, according to a report.
According to the China Business Aviation Special Report 2016, jointly released by Hurun Report and Minsheng Financial Leasing in late April, complicated procedures of applying for flight routes and difficulty in parking private aircraft are the biggest obstacles to increasing sales of business jets to Chinese billionaires.
The current situation is stopping the latter from making up their mind on owning a plane.
Qiao Kai, vice-president of Minsheng Financial Leasing, said that most business jets have to wait for up to six hours before they could take off during busy hours in China.
For, they have to make way for commercial and rescue aircraft. But such a long waiting time is unacceptable for business jet owners who are more often than not on very tight schedules.
In this sense, China should follow mature markets such as the United States to build more smaller airports to meet the rising demand for air space for private flights.
Charles Mularski, chairman of the Asia Business Aviation Association, said: "Congestion is another issue holding back the development of business aviation in China. So, dedicated business aviation airports should be built in China."
Among all the busy Chinese cities, Beijing is considered the most difficult place in terms of aircraft parking, said Mularski. Limits on aircraft parking slots and parking time are extremely strict. The current practice is to offload passengers and move the aircraft to a spot that is not busy. But the problem is it will incur additional costs to park in a less congested airport.
Regulations relating to holders of air operator certificates are also holding back business aviation in China, said Mularski. Business aviation is not recognized as a different segment. So, the requirements for large commercial airlines are also applied to business aviation.
Complying with these requirements creates huge overheads that may be acceptable for a large fleet of commercial aircraft but are too much for some business aviation operators to afford.
Then there is the problem of insufficient infrastructure, which widens the gap between demand and supply. To address this, it is necessary to build fixed base operators or FBOs of the kind that serve the general aviation industry by supplying fuel, parking, catering and maintenance services.
Beijing-based DeerJet plans to build another 24 FBOs in the next three years. These will make a good supplement to its current eight FBOs set up in Sanya, Shenzhen, Haikou, Changsha, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Nanjing and Guilin.
Fang Xinyu, vice-president of DeerJet, said the company has signed a contract with local partners in Qingdao to build an FBO there, which is expected to complete construction by the end of this year.
"While the Chinese government's austerity measures have put a stop to civil servants chartering business jets, the market comprising business people in need of a business jet for its efficiency remains vibrant. We have seen the demand rise, which is especially evident among business people outside Beijing," he said.
Shanghai Hawker Pacific, an FBO, reported a record high in terms of aircraft movement in 2015. Some 5,500 aircraft movements were monitored in 2015, up 20 percent year-on-year. Carey Matthews, general manager of Shanghai Hawker Pacific, believes this momentum will carry on this year, for they have monitored 1,380 aircraft movements for the first quarter of this year, up 20 percent year-on-year.
As a result, the Shanghai FBO has cleared a piece of land to build a second hangar, which is due to be completed in 2017. Covering 4,500 square meters, the hangar will be used for a combination of maintenance and parking. It is expected to hold up to 10 aircraft of mixed sizes.
"The steady and sustained maturation of the business aviation market in Asia is continuing despite economic uncertainty. What's driving this segment is that companies are getting value from their planes," said Matthews.
shijing@chinadaily.com.cn
QINGDAO -- Crude oil tankers arriving at Qingdao are waiting for days to be unloaded in unprecedented congestion caused by importers rushing to stockpile oil as prices are on the rise.
In the past few days, tankers have been in queues more than 10 deep off the port in east China, said Su Peng, an official with Qingdao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal. Though Qingdao is one of the world's busiest ports, Su has never seen anything like it.
The oil pipeline linking Huangdao in Qingdao and the neighboring city of Weifang is working at its maximum capacity of 45,000 tons a day, more than twice the amount passing through it the same time last year.
The monthly transport of oil away from Qingdao by road has been raised to one million tons from 600,000 tons the same period last year. And freight trains departing Qingdao are carrying 25 percent more oil than in 2015.
Crude oil processing companies and traders began ordering oil in massive quantities in February, when prices started rising from $26 US per barrel. The price now stands at $45, as the arrival of cheaper orders from earlier this year challenges the port's capacity.
Crude oil imports in ports across Shandong Province, home to Qingdao, rose 78.2 percent in the first quarter compared with the first three months of last year, according to customs statistics.
"Big vessels are jamming big ports, and small vessels are jamming small ports," said Sun Chenglin, logistics manager of Shandong Chambroad Petrochemicals, a major privately owned oil refiner.
The congestion is expected to be alleviated from June, authorities with Qingdao port told Xinhua, after analyzing its major customers involved in crude transport.
Liu Xintian, secretary-general of the country's Commodity Development & Research Center, said the market had been optimistic about the prospects of rising oil prices, and many Chinese companies imported oil at relatively low prices.
However, prices are not likely to exceed 50 dollars per barrel, said Liu. "Oil will lose its cost appeal compared with coal and natural gas if it hits 50 dollars," he said.
LendIt, the world's largest conference organizer for the online finance industry, said on Tuesday that the industry is set to rebound despite being challenged by rising investors' skepticism.
China has seen a flourishing online finance business, better known as peer-to-peer lending, as many technology firms have taken advantage of the Internet and mobile technology to offer loans and financial services to small businesses and consumers.
But rising fraud and irregularities, including the Ezubao incident, in the market have made investors skittish toward the emerging industry.
"A lot of things have happened that have challenged the industry but the fundamentals and the pace are still there," Jason Jones, the president of LendIt, said at a news conference in Beijing.
Jones said that China must deal with the high level of fraud and it has the ability to address the problem though innovation and technology involving big data.
LendIt will hold its first China conference on July 17 and 18 in Shanghai and more than 1,000 overseas and Chinese players in the online finance industry are expected to attend.
Emphasis on operational infrastructure, regulation and compliance will be the content featured at the conference.
The global online finance industry is facing skepticism after Chief Executive Renaud Laplanche of Lending Club, the largest US online finance firm, resigned on Monday over irregularities in its lending business. The resignation sent the firm's share price down by 35 percent that day.
Jones, the president of LendIt, said that the incident was a blow to the global online finance industry and the lesson is that firms have to act with integrity as the industry deals with other people's money.
"Fintech companies must continue to invest in their operational infrastructure and implement best practices around compliance," he said.
The second annual Consumer Electronics Show Asia will be held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center Wednesday to Friday. Serving as the vane of the technology industry, CES Asia showcases the breadth and depth of innovation in the field of Asian consumer electronics.
More than 350 companies, including key global brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Intel, IBM, Huawei and China Mobile, are participating and will present their latest products and technologies to executives of the industry, international buyers, the media and Chinese consumers.
The event will feature representative innovative technologies of the consumer technology industry, with a focus on the following five fields: virtual reality (VR), smart home, drones, automatic driving and connected car and electrical appliances.
In 2016, the so-called the year of VR, the world's technology giants, including Sony Corp, Google Inc, HTC Corp and Samsung Group, all engaged in developing VR technologies and launched VR products that drew attention from early adopters. At CES Asia, VR's advanced, immersive experience will be brought to visitors.
Products at issue are portable devices such as smartphones, ITC says
A new probe into alleged patent violations by ZTE Corp and Lenovo Corp Ltd in the United States illustrates just how Chinese tech enterprises should do more to integrate patent protection measures within their overseas expansion plans, according to experts.
The comments came as the US International Trade Commission launched an investigation into the two companies over a patent infringement complaint filed by Singapore-based Creative Technology.
Lenovo told China Daily on Monday it is looking into the case but didn't have any further immediate comment. ZTE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Xing Houyuan, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think tank under the Ministry of Commerce, said the US is paying closer attention to Chinese enterprises, as the latter scramble to carve out a bigger international presence.
"The growing number of investigations into Chinese companies reflects the US is very concerned about China's trade surplus in technology-related products," said Xing.
Data from China Trade Remedy Information shows the US launched over 360 patent infringement probes, or so-called Section 337 investigations, between 2007 and March 2015, and of those 152 cases targeted Chinese companies.
"This time the case focuses on leading Chinese tech companies and I believe the Ministry of Commerce will give guidance on how to deal with it," Xing said.
The ITC said on its official website the products at issue in the latest investigation are "portable electronic devices, such as smartphones.
Respondents to the probe also include Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, LG Electronics Inc and several other major smartphone vendors. The complainant requested the ITC "issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders".
Hao Junbo, a lawyer specializing in international lawsuits at Beijing-based Hao Law Firm, said it is important for Chinese companies to understand how to mount an effective defense at the ITC.
"Usually, it takes a long time and lots of money to defend such international cases. But instead of remaining silent, Chinese companies should move swiftly to voice their opinions and take action to protect their interests," Hao said.
The probe represents more bad news for Lenovo and ZTE, which have been wrestling with fierce competition at home and in the US.
But ZTE is not unfamiliar with Section 337 investigations. According to data complied by local newspaper Securities Daily, the company went through six ITC patent probes between 2011 and 2014. More importantly, it prevailed in four of them.
masi@chinadaily.com.cn
Emerging high-tech companies in Shenzhen are enhancing their investments in inland cities on Chinese mainland.
On May 10, ZTE signed a cooperation contract with Qingdao High-tech Industrial Development Zone in Shandong province to establish a research center focusing on the Internet and big data.
It is one of nine projects signed between Shenzhen high-tech companies with the zone, ranging from fintech, intelligent manufacturing, bio-medicine and new material industries.
Yang Jincai, director of Shenzhen's Intelligent Transportation System Association, said Qingdao's land resources are an attraction to Shenzhen's high-tech enterprises.
The zone also promises to provide startups with rent-free offices for three years.
Some Shenzhen technology companies started to transfer to the zone when China Merchants'Shekou Industrial Zone Co Ltd in 2012 established a 1,500,000 square meter office park there.
Its first stage has been put into use. Yang Tianping, vice president of China Merchants' Shekou Industrial Zone Co Ltd, said almost all offices have been rented.
BEIJING -- Competition between China's two largest smartphone makers is toughening up, as both scramble for a bigger share of the world's largest smartphone market with new device launches on the same day.
On Tuesday, Xiaomi released a 6.44-inch smartphone, yet another new line for the Beijing company, in addition to its Mi series and budget device RedMi.
The phablet, called Mi Max, will be priced from 1,499 yuan to 1,999 yuan when it goes on sale on May 17. Xiaomi launched a number of budget devices under its RedMi lines last year as it attempted to retain its premier position in the China market.
Xiaomi made its name through high-spec at low prices. Most of its phones released over the past five years have been priced around 2,000 yuan (about 300 U.S. dollars), a fraction of the price of an iPhone or high-end Samsung.
Just a few hours after the Xiaomi launch, Huawei unveiled a new model in its Honor range. The Honor V8, comes with dual cameras and a proprietary chip and is more expensive than its competitor, with the cheapest version coming in at 2,299 yuan.
Huawei has attempted to build a premium brand closer to the iPhone with its P and Mate series, similar to the Galaxy and Note series from Samsung. These devices have helped Huawei to challenge Xiaomi's dominance.
According to research firm Strategy Analytics, Huawei shipped 16.6 million smartphones in Q1, the most among all smartphone makers in China. Xiaomi came in only third place with 12.8 million, and Apple the fifth, with 11.5 million.
OPPO and Vivo are emerging as new rivals. OPPO ranked the second in Q1 with shipments hitting 13.2 million. Vivo shipped 12.5 million units.
Xiaomi remained China's largest domestic smartphone maker by market share in Q1, according to marketing researcher Nielsen, but its share is being slowly chipped away by rivals. The gap between Xiaomi and Huawei had narrowed to less than 1 percentage point as of March, according to Nielsen data.
"I'm in Beijing for the China Development Forum, where I'm meeting Chinese leaders from the public and private sectors. It's been a busy trip, but I managed to fit in visits to the Great Wall and the Temple of Heaven -- and I got to practice some Mandarin. Thanks to everyone I met on this trip. I'm looking forward to visiting again soon!", Mark Zuckerberg wrote Monday on Facebook. PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK WEBPAGE OF MARK ZUCKERBERG
Democratic progessive party leader Tsai Ing-wen attends to the talent competition of children with mental disabilities in Taiwan. [Photo/IC]
Participation in assembly since 2009 has hinged on adherence to 1992 Consensus, official says
Without the endorsement of the 1992 Consensus, Taiwan's cross-Straits relations, including the island's participation in activities held by international organizations, will be severely affected, experts said.
After being invited on Friday by the World Health Organization, Taiwan plans to participate in the World Health Assembly from May 23 to 28 in Geneva as an observer, in the capacity of "Chinese Taipei".
Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said the island's participation is an arrangement based on the One China principle, which is the cornerstone of the 1992 Consensus.
Taiwan's participation in the WHA since 2009 has been a special arrangement made on the political foundation that both sides of the Taiwan Straits adhere to the 1992 Consensus, Ma said.
If Taiwan sabotages the common political foundation for cross-Straits ties, the arrangement will no longer exist, Ma added in a statement.
The mainland has a clear and consistent stance toward Taiwan's participation in activities held by international organizations, which is that there must be a proper arrangement based on the One China principle and made through cross-Straits consultations, said Huang Jiashu, professor of Taiwan studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing.
"Taiwan's participation in international affairs is a result of peaceful development of the cross-Straits relations," said Huang. "If the ties collapse, the island's space in the international community will surely be squeezed."
On May 20, Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party, will assume the island's leadership and deliver a speech.
Huang said that if the new leadership continues to dodge inquiries about its position on the 1992 Consensus and undermines cross-Straits ties, it is possible that the Taiwan delegation would be forced out of the WHA, which begins three days after Tsai takes office.
According to Huang, the DPP wants to continue cross-Straits cooperation and exchanges, which he called "the superstructure", without endorsing the One China principle, which he described as the "substructure".
"Like any construction, the superstructure will not exist without the substructure," Huang said. "The DPP's claims of keeping the status quo are actually a cover for destroying cross-Straits ties."
It was not until 2009following current Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou's election victory and the rapid warming of cross-Straits relationsthat goodwill from the mainland enabled Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer, said Liu Guoshen, dean of the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University in Fujian province.
"Although the DPP hasn't made clear its stance toward the 1992 Consensus, the mainland has approved their participation in this year's WHA, showing its goodwill and restraint," he said. "I hope the DPP will understand the message sent by the mainland and cooperate with the mainland to protect the interests of people from both sides."
[Cartoon by Li Feng/China Daily]
The State Council has launched a campaign to tackle school bullying, the Ministry of Education announced on Monday.
The Education Supervision and Guidance Committee under the State Council has sent a notice to local education bureaus, the ministry said on its website.
The campaign aims to curb school bullying in primary and middle schools, including physical and verbal bullying. Cyberspace bullying will also be targeted.
The campaign covers all primary and middle schools across the country, including middle vocational schools.
Campus bullying is a serious issue in Chinese schools. Last year, a boy was stabbed to death by three classmates in Guangdong province. Also last year, a video clip showing schoolgirls slapping, kicking and beating another schoolgirl in Jiangxi province went viral online, triggering a widespread discussion of campus bullying.
According to the notice, an inspector will be responsible for monitoring all schools in his or her school district. The inspector is required to report any bullying to the school and to the local education inspection department.
Schools are required to invite public security and justice departments to provide anti-bullying education.
Procedures to prevent and handle campus bullying should be established, and the responsibility of school staff members should be clarified, the notice said.
It also called for improving support programs to prevent bullying, including the use of counseling. Schools are also urged to start a hotline for students to report campus bullying.
Additionally, staff members should be appointed to discover and investigate any campus bullying. If a crime is involved, the staff should report it to the public security department and cooperate with officers in filing a case.
Two residents of Henan province prepare to free animals.[Provided to China Daily]
Releasing into the wild what they perceive to be captive animals is a Buddhist practice with a long history in China, and one that is now mired in controversy.
Micro-blogger "cora liebo" regularly posts lists of animals "released" in the southwestern province of Yunnan - lists that have made jaws drop all over China.
One such posting in April listed bedbugs among the creatures released, along with 58 kilograms of snakes.
Such releases have been going on for years, and have included many bizarre species that are alien to Yunnan, including the notoriously invasive apple snail, which has caused severe damage to rice crops throughout Asia.
Rao Dingqi, an entomologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is worried that the release of alien species will seriously damage Yunnan's fragile ecosystem.
"Taking golden apple snails as an example, it is a species from South America that has a strong adaptive and reproductive capacity," he said. "It will damage the paddy-field ecology, affect the growth of crops and reduce the population of native species, perhaps even to extinction."
The forest public security bureau in Kunming, the provincial capital, is investigating the case.
The idea of releasing animals into the wild dates back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). The practice is thought to cultivate kindness, compassion and benevolence, and became popular when Buddhism was introduced to China.
A media report last month said that more than 300 foxes and raccoon dogs had been released without authorization in a suburban area of Beijing. Local people later complained that foxes had attacked their chickens.
According to Chinese law, people need authorization before freeing wild animals, and the environment must be suitable for the animals' survival.
All the foxes and raccoon dogs released in the recent incident were reportedly raised in captivity. The bureau subsequently recovered more than 100 foxes, most of which were already dead, many from starvation, because the animals were not equipped to survive in the wild. Rao believes such releases should not be done irresponsibly.
"Releasing animals cannot be done blindly," he said. "It is important to know about the animals' habitat and biological nature, and to release them only in a place where they can survive."
Kunming police believe the unregulated releases there have given rise to a black market in the trafficking and hunting of wildlife. More legislation is needed to stop these releases, along with heightened public awareness, Rao said.
When examining an amendment to the wildlife protection law during a session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on April 27, committee members suggested China should improve its supervision of animal releases.
NANNING - Power supply resumed Tuesday in two scenic counties in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region after heavy downpours caused a blackout for two days.
Rivers in Yangshuo and Pingnan counties swelled after persistent rainstorms, which damaged the power grid.
Floods and rainwater also gushed into the streets in Yangshuo's county seat, including a well-known bar and cafe on West Street. Many scenic spots also suffered waterlogging.
Yangshuo is known for its picturesque karst peaks and the turquoise Lijiang River. No casualties have been reported so far, although over 100 houses collapsed and 292 roads, two harbors and 9 bridges were damaged and hundreds of vehicles were submerged.
Schools had one day off on Monday, and all scenic resorts suspended business.
The Guangxi Power Grid made an emergency repair of 34 damaged power lines over the past two days to resume electricity supply. Local authorities have mobilized people to help drain and treat water.
Heavy rain has pounded much of southern and eastern China since the weekend. The rain also disrupted traffic and affected millions.
A new guideline introduced last year has streamlined the process of filing court cases, China's top court said on Tuesday.
By March, 14.2 million cases had been filed in Chinese courts, a 28.44 percent year-on-year increase. Of the total, 222,664 were administrative cases, up more than 60 percent year-on-year.
This follows a legal guideline adopted by the Supreme People's Court last May, which requires Chinese courts to accept appeals without hesitation and reply to litigants in a timely manner.
The guideline also stipulates that a civil, criminal or administrative appeal should be accepted as soon as it is registered previously a preliminary review of the merits of the case was carried out beforehand.
According to the top court, courts in four provinces Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong accepted more than 1 million cases after the guideline took effect.
Jiang Qibo, chief judge of the case filing tribunal under the top court, said that many grassroots courts were exploring new ways for residents to file lawsuits as they looked to speed up proceedings.
In Shanghai's Pudong court, for example, a case can be accepted within 15 minutes thanks to a self-service system, "which improves the court's work efficiency and reduces the waiting time", Jiang said.
In Jiangsu province, case filing has also been moved online. Residents can submit case materials through the internet, or even using their smartphones, Jiang said, adding that 25,779 cases were accepted via the online platform in the province last year.
But the official warned that the increasing number of cases has also brought challenges as there is a general shortage of judges across the country.
It is also important to put measures in place that prevent residents from filing unnecessary or vexatious lawsuits, he said.
Global experts gathered at the 2016 Low Carbon International forum on April 13 and 14 in Shanghai Lingang to share the latest results and challenges in reducing carbon emissions.
Deputy Mayor of London Matthew Pencharz delivers a speech at the forum. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]
Over 120 guests from around the world including Matthew Pencharz, who is the deputy Mayor of London, gathered at the event, according to the event organizers.
The forum is a platform for government, business leaders and professionals to present policy initiatives, technology solutions, design practices and community efforts to support carbon emission reduction, said the organizers.
Global experts exchanged ideas such as how to deal with problems under the COP21 agreements, opportunities and challenges in the carbon reduction industry and companies' responsibilities in the carbon emission reduction process.
The Lingang authorities have long been committed to promoting carbon reduction in the region. The Lingang Carbon Valley, which was jointly developed by Low Carbon Community Ltd (UK) and Shanghai Lingang New City Investment & Construction Co, was put into operation in early 2016.
The platform serves as a technology research and sharing center, new concept promotion and demonstration base, education and low carbon business incubator in Shanghai.
As a part of Lingang's carbon reduction plan, CleanPath China smart accelerator innovation center was formally introduced to the public in the forum on April 14. The center will provide incubation services to low-carbon technology developers in the world.
BEIJING - China is expected to release a detailed plan on "zombie companies" soon to reduce capacity in oversupplied industries, The China Securities News reported Tuesday.
"Zombie companies" are economically unviable businesses, usually in industries with severe overcapacity, kept alive only with aid from the government and banks.
The plan, which is being drafted by China's economic planner and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, will support banks in implementing differentiated credit policies to companies in different sectors.
A platform between banks and companies will be established to better identify inquiries and provide effective financing services for companies, according to the report.
The plan will begin trials in around 20 cities nationwide this year, said the paper.
China will increase financial support to its industries as they are being encouraged to transform themselves amid the country's industrial upgrades, according to a guideline jointly released by eight economic regulators including the People's Bank of China.
Development of emerging sectors and upgrades to traditional ones will receive more support, and financial institutions will be encouraged to make long-term loans to high-tech firms, technical equipment manufacturing and some basic industries, said the guideline.
However, loans to "zombie companies" that have suffered continual losses and are unable to pay back their debts will be slashed or withdrawn, according to the guideline.
Police officers stop vehicles in front of a flooded road section in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on May 10, 2016. [Photo/IC]
Days of heavy rains have left many parts of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, under water on Tuesday.
The downpour has flooded many subway stations and turned several tunnels into underground streams. On some road sections the water level was reportedly as high as one meter.
Municipal employees launched a cleanup operation to drain the flooded areas.
Some local residents blamed the bad drainage system for the flooding. They said the existing system is unable to meet the growing demands of the city.
Chinese villager survives wild tiger encounter (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-05-10 18:00
CHANGCHUN -- What should you do when confronted by a tiger in the forest? A villager in northeast China last week survived such an encounter after shouting at the beast.
Cao Bingguang from Chunhua Town in Hunchun, Jilin Province, was picking wild edible plants in a local forest with fellow villager Xiang Laoqi on May 5. After they split up, Cao suddenly heard footsteps nearby. He looked up and saw a tiger less than 20 meters away.
"I was petrified," Cao recalled. "I thought, 'That's it. I'm done!'"
He had never seen a real tiger before. He found the big cat to be about 80 centimeters tall with very strong legs. It was so near that he could clearly see the stripe on its face.
Terror gripped him, but he remembered some guidance from the local forestry department: Don't run from a tiger. Look it straight in the eyes and shout at it. That might scare it away.
Cao began calling his friend Xiang as loudly as he could, and backed away slowly. To his surprise, the tiger stared at him for a few seconds, turned around and leaped into the woods.
As the animal disappeared, Cao ran for his motorcycle and rode back to Chunhua nonstop. "I fell down several times. I even didn't realize I had scraped my legs," he said.
Cao called the police when he arrived at the village. Policemen and other locals began a search of the forest. They found Xiang safe and sound, but the tiger was nowhere to be found.
Bordering Russia, Chunhua is located in Hunchun National Siberian Tiger Nature Reserve. Cases of tigers injuring domestic animals are occasionally reported.
Siberian tigers almost died out in China in the 1950s. But they have been spotted in greater numbers in recent years thanks to conservation initiative. According to an official survey, the number of Siberian tigers in Jilin Province has increased from less than 10 in 1998 to about 27 in 2015.
Forestry experts suggest anyone encountering a tiger should resist the urge to turn and run or lower their heads, as such behavior would lead the predator to regard you as prey. The best thing to do is stay still. If the tiger comes close, you should protect your head and neck with both arms and shout for help.
Construction work on a tunnel to carry China's first subway line under the Yellow River was completed on Monday in Lanzhou, capital of Northwest China's Gansu province.
The 317-meter long section of Lanzhou Subway Line 1 runs 40 meters beneath the riverbed.
It is part of a 2,119-meter long stretch of tunnel, completion of which paves the way for a parallel tunnel to be built.
Work on both tunnels is scheduled to be complete by the end of the year.
Wu Dun, project manager, said the team faced technological difficulties and risks during construction.
Qian Qihu, a tunnel expert and fellow researcher at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, has previously described building a subway line under the Yellow River as a "world-class" engineering problem.
Xue Chaohua contributed to this story.
A student holds his CT scan results from the hospital on May 10, 2016. [Photo/IC]
Allegations made by students in Northeast China's Jilin province, who said they were poisoned after being exposed to toxic substances at their school, were called into question on Tuesday when the local government released what it said was proof the school was free of toxins.
The municipal government in Da'an city released a statement on Monday saying an indoor environmental test conducted by a professional company on Sunday proved the student dormitory at Xin'anli Township Junior High School was safe. The move followed a claim by 15 students that they had been poisoned after living and studying in the facilities since last October.
The claims went viral online on Monday after the students collectively posted on Weibo, China's major microblogging platform, that they had been diagnosed with illnesses related to formaldehyde poisoning. They cited symptoms including nausea, coughing and eye infections that they said were diagnosed at the First Hospital of Jilin University.
Students also uploaded photos showing CT scan results from the hospital, and a close-up of a female student's bloodied eye.
They claimed they had been exposed to formaldehyde, a colorless and highly toxic gas that can cause multiple health problems, and even cancer if exposure is long-term.
However, the Da'an government said the school dorm was also tested and found to be toxic free in October 2014, one year after its construction and before the students were moved in.
And Bao Wanguo, director of the infectious disease department at the hospital, told China National Radio on Tuesday that the hospital had never diagnosed the students as suffering from formaldehyde poisoning.
"The students' symptoms, including lung nodules, diarrhea and conjunctiva hemorrhaging, didn't fit in with those related to acute formaldehyde poisoning, but seem more like colds caused by a virus infection," Bao was quoted by CNR as saying on Tuesday.
All 15 students were sent to the hospital by the school for comprehensive medical checks and nine later left with their parents after their symptoms eased, according to the Da'an publicity department.
None of the students or parents responded to interview requests on Tuesday afternoon.
Guo Xiheng, a pulmonary physician from Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, echoed the toxic-free diagnosis.
"Normally, the effect of formaldehyde in construction and decoration materials won't last long enough to be as toxic as claimed in the original post after volatizing for a year before the students moved in," he was quoted as saying by Beijing News on Tuesday.
CHENGDU - Four officials in Southwest China's Sichuan province have been prosecuted for bribery offences, the provincial procuratorate said on Tuesday.
Huang Shunfu, former chairman of the board of Sichuan Provincial Investment Group Co, LTD.; Jing Gang, former standing committee member of Chengdu municipal committee of the Communist Party of China; Zhang Jun, former chairman of the board of Chengdu Construction Engineering Corporation Group; and Zhang Kanglin, former director of the land reservation center of the Bureau of Land and Resources of Chengdu were charged with accepting bribes and seeking interests for others, according to the indictment.
Participation in assembly since 2009 has hinged on adherence to 1992 Consensus, official says
Without the endorsement of the 1992 Consensus, Taiwan's cross-Straits relations, including the island's participation in activities held by international organizations, will be severely affected, experts said.
After being invited on Friday by the World Health Organization, Taiwan plans to participate in the World Health Assembly from May 23 to 28 in Geneva as an observer, in the capacity of "Chinese Taipei".
Two nations hope to upgrade FTA this year, Wang Hongyi reports.
Singapore and China's strengthened relations and cooperation in recent years have blazed a path for China's advanced engagement in the Asia-Pacific region, said Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.
Last year, Singapore and China commemorated 25 years of diplomatic relations, culminating in the exchange of state visits by Singapore President Tony Tan and President Xi Jinping.
"Singapore has always been part of the ancient maritime Silk Road. The majority of Singapore's citizens have ancestors from China. We enjoy a long-standing, wide-ranging relationship that transcends politics," Balakrishnan wrote in an opinion piece on Singapore-China relations published in China Daily earlier this year.
"Lee Kuan Yew always believed that a strong China that was positively engaged with Southeast Asia would strongly benefit the region," Balakrishnan wrote.
In 1994, the two countries jointly developed the first government-to-government project, called the Suzhou Industrial Park, to promote trade and the exchange of development experiences.
Their second government-to-government project, called Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, began in 2007.
Singapore has also launched a series of "private sector-led, government-supported" projects in response to different aspects of China's development interests, such as the Guangzhou Knowledge City, the Sichuan High-tech Innovation Park, Nanjing Eco Hi-tech Island and the Jilin Food Zone.
In 2015, the third government-to-government project, called the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative, launched during President Xi's State visit to Singapore. The latest project will support China's key development strategies and focus on four priority areas - finance, aviation, transport and logistics, and info-communication technology.
Balakrishnan said relations between Singapore and China have opened a path for China's engagement in the region. As the first Asian country to conclude a free trade agreement with China, Singapore was China's largest foreign investor from 2013 to 2015. China is Singapore's largest trading partner. "To support our growing economic ties, we aim to upgrade the FTA by the end of 2016," Balakrishnan wrote.
Developing human resources has long been a focus of bilateral cooperation. Since the mid-1990s, Singapore has received more than 50,000 Chinese officials and cadres for training programs. "These exchanges facilitate mutual learning and the fostering of friendships. Bilateral cooperation has also broadened to include financial services, social governance and environmental protection, among others," Balakrishnan wrote.
"As China develops, its role in the regional and global system also evolves. Singapore remains a strong proponent of China's integration into the international community. We welcome and support China's new initiatives such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Initiative."
Balakrishnan also said Singapore and China will work closely to promote regional cooperation.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations. Over the years, ASEAN-China relations have grown rapidly, based on the principles of mutually beneficial cooperation and ASEAN centrality.
As the current ASEAN-China dialogue relations coordinator, Singapore will work objectively with all parties to promote positive and forward-looking ASEAN-China relations, Balakrishnann wrote.
Contact the writer at wanghongyi@chinadaily.com.cn
Enterprises from China attend this year's Singapore Airshow at the country's Changi Exhibition Center in the Southeast Asian nation. Deng Zhiwei / Xinhua
(China Daily 05/10/2016 page5)
Thailand's annual plowing ceremony on Monday forecast average rainfall, growth in foreign trade and abundant rice as the country struggles with drought and a shaky economy.
Farmers in the largely agrarian economy are likely to welcome the news. Thailand is suffering from its worst drought in two decades with 30 out of 76 provinces affected, according to the Interior Ministry.
Southeast Asia's second-largest economy remains on shaky ground two years after the military took power in a bloodless May 2014 coup, with weak exports and consumption hurting growth.
The 69th Cannes International Film Festival is set to open on May 11.
Some four decades have come and gone since "A Touch of Zen" became China's first production to gain recognition at the 28th Cannes Film Festival in 1975.
Many Chinese films have been recognized by one of the most pretigious film awards in the world, including director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "The Assassin" winning Best Director at 68th Cannes. Here we present to you the 17 Chinese films awarded in Cannes from 1975 to 2015.
"The Assassin" by Hou Hsiao-Hsien won the award for Best Director in Cannes in 2015. [Photo/Mtime.com]
About the film:
A prize-winning Taiwanese film exploring the use of the death penalty will screen at the Cannes Film Festival later this month, adding to recent increased debate about the island's use of capital punishment.
Leon Lee's 23-minute film titled The Day To Choose puts its main character, a lawyer and strong opponent of the death penalty, in the difficult position of choosing how to punish the murderers of his wife.
Taiwan retains the death penalty despite calls to abolish it in line with international practice, but some have argued it is necessary in extreme cases such as the beheading of a four-year-old girl on a Taipei street in March.
Lee, a student in the German language department at Soochow University, developed the film with his producer Cheng Kuang-yu, based on a script that Cheng had long wanted to realise.
"What I really want to discuss in this short film is not only the issue of capital punishment, but how much a human will stick to (his or her ideals) when faced with adversity," Lee told Reuters on the set of the film.
The picture will screen in the short film corner at the prestigious annual Cannes festival in France on May 11-22 and has already won "Best Drama Short Film" at the 2016 Universe Multicultural Film Festival in California last month.
Related:
Mexico to have high profile at 2016 Cannes Film Festival
Frankie Zou uses herbal bittersand occasionally smoketo give cocktail drinkers a distinctive experience. Photos by Bruno Maestrini/Provided to China Daily
Botany is more than a name at one of Beijing's sleekest new barsit's an embrace of plants that can make magic in a cocktail glass, Mike Peters discovers between fragrant sips.
Frankie Zou is pouring one of his housemade vermouths, this one infused with chamomile, into a gleaming crystal glass.
"That gives the drink a floral character," he says as he reaches next for egg whites, then cognac, then freshly cooked pineapple juice, and finally a lemon juice-syrup blend to produce a sweet-sour finish.
He froths the carefully measured ingredients with a hand blender, to make the mixture airy and creamy, then pours it into a cocktail shaker and rhythmically pumps it up and down.
A patron at the counter murmurs: "I thought that was only done in the movies." Zou grins wickedly.
"I only do it when James Bond is coming to the bar," he says.
Zou's showmanship at Botany goes far beyond the shake-rattle-and-roll of bartenders in film, but his style is far too sleek for gimmicks like flipping peanuts into customers' mouths.
Instead he uses things like smoketo add a touch of wonder to his creations but also to add flavor. His "tricks", in short, have to be relevant, enhancing the customers' appreciation of what they are drinking.
Officials of Luxembourg and Jiading district of Shanghai sign a Memorandum of Understanding on May 5, showing their determination to cooperate in the auto industry. [Photo/jiading.gov.cn]
Crown Prince Guillaume and Princess Stephanie of Luxembourg visited Jiading district of Shanghai, as Luxinnovation, the country's national agency for innovation and research signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Shanghai International Automobile City located in the district on May 5, local media reported.
Gao Yun, head of the district, welcomed the royal guests and said that the MOU helps lay a solid foundation for friendly exchanges between the two countries. Gao expected to strengthen and expand the cooperation with Luxembourg in economy, trade, investment, and technology via the cooperation in auto industry.
Etienne Schneider, deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg, delivers a speech on cooperation with the Shanghai International Automobile City in Jiading district. [Photo/jiading.gov.cn]
Etienne Schneider, deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg, said that Luxembourg is willing to work with Jiading's automobile city, since they share a lot of similarities. Mr. Schneider considered the MOU as a sign of a closer relationship between the two.
According to the MOU, the two parties will reach a deal in market information, market entry strategies, business incubation, exhibitions and symposiums and will cooperate in R&D, market operation, and training.
Luxembourg officials visit the Shanghai Auto Museum in Jiading district. [Photo/jiading.gov.cn]
During the visit, the delegates of Luxembourg also toured the Shanghai Auto Museum.
A smartphone with an Android operating system and the Baidu Browser application is seen in this picture illustration taken February 22, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]
A young person's loss of life has turned into a meaningful lesson for China's whole e-service industry.
For over a week now, the largest Chinese search engine Baidu.com has been a target of public questioning and debate for its possible role in the death of Wei Zexi, a university student, who paid dearly for a cancer treatment that apparently didn't help prolong his life after allegedly being misled by promotional information from a hospital he found during an online search on Baidu.
Government investigators were dispatched to look into the roles of the search engine and the hospital in question.
People didn't have to wait for long for their conclusions. On Monday, investigators led by the Cyberspace Administration of China announced that Baidu's listing method, driven entirely by payments and in unclear format, had an indirect influence on Wei's decision.
At the same time, the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps was found riddled with "serious problems" by investigators led by National Health and Family Planning Commission.
They ordered the hospital department concerned to stop offering the unauthorized treatment and to withdraw the misleading promotional messages. The medical staff are to undergo a review of their qualifications, and anyone found directly responsible for irregularities faces professional discipline and even criminal charges.
Soon afterwards, Baidu announced its resolve to meet the requirements set by the investigators.
The investigations have set a precedent in China. They signal a victory for consumer rights and the rule of law in the young, flourishing, and immensely powerful internet market of 1.3 billion people.
They effectively announced the death of paid online listings for all medical and health products and treatments, and the start of all online platforms requiring from their advertisers industry licenses and regulatory approvals for the services and products they promote.
Other changes can be expected both in the practices of the internet industry, and in the rapidly growing, though at times messy, medical services contracted by public hospitals to private practitioners.
For Baidu, something of a natural monopoly in the Chinese search business, some temporary loss of advertising income and investor interest are inevitable. But the company should be grateful, because the kind of money it used to report to the world as good fortune can be dangerous any time, as Monday's investigation report reveals.
A change in its way of doing business will help it achieve a more healthy balance sheet.
The gate of Renmin University of China. [Photo/IC]
FAN DONGMEI, 48, has been rejected twice for doctorate enrollment in Renmin University of China after an interview. Fan said because of her age, no professors were interested in supervising her postgraduate studies. Beijing News commented on Monday:
It is not easy to find direct evidence of age discrimination. But although it is difficult to investigate the university's doctorate recruitment process, it is a fact that age discrimination exists in society.
According to the country's education law, Chinese citizens should enjoy equal educational opportunities, regardless of their ethnic group, sex, occupation, property status, or religious beliefs. And according to Article 9 of the Higher Education Act, citizens have the right to receive higher education whatever their age.
It is offensive to doubt the research capabilities of older candidates and reject them based on their age.
Many citizens have received their doctorate degrees later in life. Fan is even younger than some of these.
Instead of being discriminated against, older doctoral candidates should be applauded.
Age discrimination prevails in domestic universities due to the absence of basic legal awareness and the entire community's lack of a basic sense of equality.
The gate at Nanjing University of Science & Technology. [Photo/Weibo]
JIANGSU UNIVERSITY in Zhenjiang, East China's Jiangsu province, recently disqualified 21 students from receiving subsides intended for impoverished students based on their monthly mobile phone payments. Beijing News commented on Monday:
Unlike Nanjing University of Science and Technology that used students' monthly consumption in the university canteen to distinguish those who needed financial support, what Jiangsu University did is slightly more controversial because phone fees say little about a student's financial situation.
Of course, screening students from poor families by collecting information about their daily consumption may be less likely to embarrass them, as happened in the past when applications for financial support were often disclosed for public scrutiny.
However, the use of big data, which only applies to how much the applicants spend during a certain period of time, is still unable to identify whether students are from rich or poor families.
In comparison, college students in developed economies do not have to go through "campaigns" or appraisals to receive subsidies; all they need to provide is evidence of family income and taxes, which is very rarely forged. A fake application is usually easily identified and will become an indelible stain on a student's record.
Things are different in many Chinese colleges, which do require students to provide verified information about their family's income. In some cases, students (sometimes assisted by their family) choose to forge a certificate that can hardly be checked so they can masquerade as an impoverished student.
To efficiently use big data to identify those students who really need help, universities must be very careful not to infringe upon their legal interests or selectively collect their information.
In addition, they can resort to alumni and local governments to get a better idea about the family circumstances of a student. Such information should also apply to the future enrollment of "impoverished students". To further prevent fraudulent applications for the exclusive subsidies, the country should keep improving the nationwide credit investigation system.
Guangzhou citizens take part in a candlelight vigil on Saturday for Chen Zhongwei, a doctor who died on Saturday of a multiple stabbing by one of his former patients.[Photo by Chen Jimin/China Daily]
CHEN ZHONGWEI, a dentist in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, died on Saturday after being stabbed 38 times by a former patient. The case aroused nationwide attention and put violent conflicts between doctors and patients in the spotlight. Trust between the two has already been ruined and it will take a long process to rebuild it, said Beijing Youth Daily on Monday:
There have been too many similar cases in which patients attack, even kill, medical staff because they believe they have not received the proper treatment. The number of these cases is so many that we cannot say they are individual cases and they happen because there is widespread mistrust in the society.
Some media outlets repeatedly report on the conflicts between medical staff and patients by automatically pinning the blame on medical staff even though these media outlets lack even the most basic knowledge of medicine.
Worse, in order to gain popularity, some speculate about medical issues. A recent example was a case in Xuzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, which wrongly implied that a doctor might have removed a patient's kidney and sold it.
This implication is absurd. Everyone with even the most basic medical knowledge knows it is impossible to transplant a kidney without ample preparations such as type matching and rejection testing. But the hospital faced a major crisis as headlines appeared implying it "stole a kidney from a patient".
Such reports will further damage the already ruined relationship between doctors and patients. Media outlets have the right to dig for facts, but they need to remain bipartisan and professional.
Both the medical staff and the patients are victims of the worsening relationship between them. It is time for society to rebuild trust. That will be a long process, but we have no other choice than to start the job right now.
Just to show that the new Zhuhai website is for you, cityofzhuhai.com will put you up overnight at an exotic hot springs resort, or in elegant hotels around Guangdong, or provide other gifts just for doing a great job telling your story: Zhuhai Through My Eyes.
Thats right; all that is required is that you have been to, lived in or worked in Zhuhai and have something humorous or captivating to write about. Who doesnt? All the Zhuhai English website asks in return is for your awareness that this is the place to go for information on investment, travel, news and living in the delightful coastal city of romance.
Dong'ao Island, Zhuhai [Photo from cityofzhuhai.com]
Cityofzhuhai.com debuted on April 22, superseding the former Weekly News page of the Zhuhai Daily newspaper. Now, Zhuhai news and events and other must-have information is available daily, or even sooner. This essay contest is being held by chinadaily.com.cn and sponsored by deltabridges.com for overseas friends and local expatriates.
Language: English
Length: No word limit
Form: Feel free to write whatever you think, in travelogue, narrative prose, or poetic form.
Deadline: May 31, 2016.
Email: Zhuhai@chinadaily.com.cn
China Daily will select one 1st place, three 2nd, five 3rd, and 10 excellent award winners at the beginning of June. The essays will appear on chinadaily.com.cn, deltabridges.com, and the new Zhuhai English website cityofzhuhai.com on June 15 under the writers bylines.
Zhuhai Hengqin Chimelong International Ocean Tourist Resort [Photo from cityofzhuhai.com]
Prizes
1st place
One deluxe room at Imperial Hot Springs with breakfast, lunch and massage Imperial Hot Springs is a 5-star Japanese-style hot springs resort in the Zhuhai suburbs and an ideal place for a romantic getaway, with quiet, comfortable rooms and a private courtyard just outside the door.
2nd place
One superior room at Swissotel Foshan Hotel
Swissotel caters to discerning business and leisure travelers in Foshans business community. This international luxury 5-star hotel exemplifies exclusivity, elegance, and impeccable Swiss hospitality and service. Swissotel Foshan is the tallest building and a prominent landmark in Foshan.
One deluxe room at the Pullman Dongguan Forum
The Pullman Dongguan Forum is in the heart of town next to Qifeng Mt, with a peaceful setting and resort-style atmosphere, and yet it is a renowned 5-star business hotel.
One deluxe room at Crowne Plaza Foshan
Crowne Plaza Foshan is in the city center, close to the shopping hub and Ceramic Exhibition Center. It is 25 km southwest of Guangzhou and a 10-minute drive from Foshan train stations or a 50-minute drive from Guangzhou Baiyun Airport. There are 410 spacious guest rooms, six restaurants, 12 meeting rooms, a business center, swimming pool and gym.
Cantonese congee [Photo from cityofzhuhai.com]
3rd place
Mobile battery for smart phones and U-key with a chinadaily.com.cn logo
Provided by chinadaily.com.cn
Excellent
U-key with a chinadaily.com.cn logo
Provided by chinadaily.com.cn
The Zhuhai English Website cityofzhuhai.com is undertaken by chinadaily.com.cn, the largest English news website in China. Deltabridges.com is a public and media relations company based in Zhuhai and covering the Pearl River Delta area.
Website: www.cityofzhuhai.com
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Two foreign tourists pose for a photo in Huangshan Mountain. [Photo/china.com.cn]
China's struggling inbound tourism industry showed strong growth in the first quarter, with more than 6.22 million visits to the mainland, a jump of 10.9 percent over the same period last year, according to a tourism report released on Monday.
Beijing still ranks first on the must-see list, with more than 54 percent of visitors saying they would definitely visit the capital, according to travel service Ctrip, which included statistics from the China National Tourism Administration in its report.
"South Korea is the largest source country. Japan was next," said Yan Xin, Ctrip's publicity manager.
The report also found that, Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an, Shaanxi province, still attract the most attention from visitors. More than 14 percent said they would visit Shanghai and 9.2 percent of them would visit Xi'an, which has the famed Terracotta Warriors.
Other popular tourism destinations include Chengdu in Sichuan province, Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Lijiang, Yunnan province.
The China National Tourism Administration expects more than 137 million overseas tourists to visit China in 2016, an increase of 2.5 percent over the previous year. International tourism revenue is forecast to increase by 6.5 percent, reaching $121 billion.
That would be the second consecutive year of growth for China's inbound tourism market following a period of decline from 2011 to 2014.
Yan said the Belt and Road Initiative will bring many opportunities for China's tourism sector, as well as for travel services like Ctrip.
Zhang Lingyun, dean of the College of Tourism at Beijing Union University, agreed.
"Generally speaking, inbound tourists to China come from Japan, South Korea, the United States and a few other places," Zhang said. "If we combined several fragmented source countries, we could make a huge difference."
"Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan could exceed 13 percent of the inbound tourism market," he added.
Top 10 spots for overseas visitors
1.Great Wall, Beijing
2.Summer Palace, Beijing
3.Palace Museum, or the Forbidden City, Beijing
4.Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty, Xi'an, Shaanxi province
5.Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, Xi'an, Shaanxi province
6.River tour of Lijiang, Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region
7.West Street in Yangshuo, Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region
8.TheBund, Shanghai
9.Night river tour, Shanghai
10.Huangshan Mountain, Anhui province
Source: Ctrip
A demonstrator holds up Brazil's national flag at a protest against Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff calling for her impeachment, in Brasilia, Brazil, May 9, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]
BRASILIA - The acting speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress announced Monday the decision to nullify the chamber's vote for an impeachment process against President Dilma Rousseff and called for a new one.
Waldir Maranhao, taking over as acting speaker of Chamber of Deputies last week, accepted an injunction filed last week by Brazil's Attorney General Jose Eduardo Cardozo who said there are irregularities in the lower house's voting session on April 17.
In a news release, Maranhao listed several procedural flaws that comprise the voting results: the President's defense did not have the chance to speak during the voting session, hindering the right of defense.
Also, some political parties made the decision to support the impeachment or go against it, rather than letting representatives to vote based on their own will, he added.
This latest twist in Brazil's opposition-led impeachment drive has led to confusion as to how the process will now proceed.
After the April lower house vote, the impeachment case was passed to the Senate, which would then vote whether to put the president on trial over charges of breaking budget laws, in a session scheduled for Wednesday.
Whether that will now happen is not clear. Senate President Renan Calheiros has yet to address the issue publicly, but was said to be consulting on the matter.
In his decision, Maranhao said the Senate should return the case to the House, so it could hold a new vote on the impeachment proposal.
The incident is only the latest episode in Brazil's drama-filled political crisis. Rousseff has described the impeachment drive as a cloaked coup by conservative parties unhappy with her left-leaning policies.
Maranhao was made House speaker last week, after his predecessor Eduardo Cunha was separated from his post by a Supreme Court decision, marking the first time in Brazilian history that the judiciary has ordered such a measure.
Cunha, who is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee after it came to light he had squirreled away millions of dollars in undeclared Swiss bank accounts, had used his influence to coerce other lawmakers to vote against Rousseff and to obstruct justice in his investigation, the court said.
Cunha is believed to be pursuing impeachment as a means of political revenge, after Rousseff's ruling Workers' Party refused to shield him from the Ethics Committee probe.
The opposition can appeal Maranhao's decision at the Supreme Court.
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann arrives for a news conference in Vienna, Austria, May 9, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]
VIENNA - Former Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann, who quit his post on Monday following a lack of party support, is reportedly considering taking on an EU-related post in Brussels.
In an interview with the newspaper Oesterreich, Faymann said he would like to take "two, three months to recover from all the stress and do nothing," adding he will take some time to think, and "consider new goals."
He is however considering a role in Brussels, "something in the context of the EU," for which he said offers have already come in the past.
"I will see if something there takes my fancy. I would have an interest in becoming politically active on a European level," the former chancellor and Social Democrats (SPO) leader said.
Commenting on the SPO, he said he hopes it "returns to unity -- it has so many great members."
He said that while he still had the support of a majority of party members, without complete support in "difficult times" it would have been "irresponsible" to continue.
He also confirmed that he would be "completely withdrawing" from Austrian politics.
BEIJING - China will never "bully" small countries, nor will it tolerate "blackmail" on the South China Sea issue, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Beijing on Monday.
Spokesman Lu Kang made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to claims that the Philippines initiated arbitration due to the two countries' very unequal strengths which makes it unable to solve maritime delimitation disputes with China through dialogue.
"Such an argument confuses right and wrong and reminds us of the so-called theory of original sin of major powers," said Lu.
Calling the rhetoric "obviously from those who attempt to smear China", Lu said the logic behind the rhetoric is that "a strong nation is bound to seek hegemony".
China adheres to the path of peaceful development and follows a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, said Lu.
China persists in building good-neighborly relationships and partnerships with its neighbors and in solving disputes through dialogue and negotiation, he said.
Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China has successfully solved boundary issues with 12 of its 14 land neighbors via consultation in accordance with historical facts, on the basis norms of international law, said Lu.
The entire length of demarcated and delineated boundary has reached 20,000 kilometers, which accounts for 90 percent of China's total land boundary, he added.
Another example is that China and Vietnam delineated the maritime boundary in the Beibu Gulf via negotiations, Lu said.
China knows its responsibility and obligation to safeguard regional peace and stability, said Lu.
Stressing that China has dealt with the South China Sea issue in a constructive way, Lu said the door for dialogue has always been open.
One year after he established a task force to oversee nail salons in the state, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that 143 salons have been ordered to pay a total of $2 million in back pay and damages to 652 employees.
"New York State is cracking down like never before on the unscrupulous individuals that take advantage of the hardworking people they employ," Cuomo said.
Of the $2 million in back pay, a spokesman for Cuomo told China Daily that $600,000 already has been paid.
The Nail Salon Industry Enforcement Task Force was set up after a New York Times investigation showed worker abuse at nail salons, a majority of which are owned by Chinese-and Korean-Americans. Led by the New York State Department of Labor, the task force has opened investigations into more than 450 nail salon businesses, with 383 being completed to date.
The state ordered a series of reforms for the salons, including protective equipment standards for the workers, which prompted an outpouring of anger by nail salon owners. Several rallies were held to protest the reforms, which also required salons to purchase wage-bonds, a form of insurance to cover claims for unpaid wages of workers.
Last year, the Chinese Nail Salon Association of East America and the Korean American Nail Salon Association of New York filed a lawsuit against Cuomo and the State of New York to block the wage bond requirement. But the case was dismissed by the State Supreme Court.
"The wage bond hit the industry very hard," said Yu Jian, chairman of the Chinese organization told China Daily on Monday. "They encourage workers to sue their employers."
But Yu acknowledged that the regulation has pushed the nail salon industry on the right track by "forcing the businesses owners to learn about laws and about how to do payrolls," he said.
"Some of them may have paid their workers enough, but because they've never done the payroll properly. There is no evidence," he said. "Now most salons have set up payroll systems."
His association has held classes for salon owners to study the business laws.
"Many of them, in fact, thought they were paying the workers more than the minimum wage, but they didn't pay extra for overtime. They did the wrong calculation." Yu said. "The new stuff that they learned will benefit them in the future no matter if they stay in the nail salon industry or open other businesses."
TEHRAN - Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan denied that the country has recently test-fired a 2,000-km range of ballistic missile, Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday.
On Monday, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi, said that the Islamic republic test-fired a ballistic missile two weeks ago with an "insignificant error margin," Tasnim news agency reported.
"We test-fired a missile with the range of 2,000 km two weeks ago, which had an error margin of eight meters," Abdollahi was quoted as saying.
"An eight-meter error margin means no error, means without error," Abdollahi said. "This missile can be guided to out of atmosphere and back to atmosphere, to hit its target with accuracy."
"We had no missile test recently with the range published in media on Monday," Dehqan said according to Tasnim news agency.
In the meantime, he said that Iran has never stopped undertaking defensive measures including missile tests.
Also, "We have never pursued an invasive view and what we are doing is (based on) upgrading our country's defensive capability," Dehqan was quoted as saying.
He reiterated that Iran's military doctrine is defensive and is aimed at ensuring the country's security.
China warns US against shows of strength in South China Sea (Xinhua) Updated: 2016-05-10 20:38
BEIJING -- China on Tuesday expressed "resolute opposition" to a US warship patrol in the South China Sea near Yongshu Jiao in the Nansha Islands.
The US warship, USS William P. Lawrence, illegally entered China's waters near the islands on Tuesday without the permission of the Chinese government, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said, adding that the warship was monitored, tracked and issued with a warning.
It is reported that Bill Urban, the spokesman for US Department of Defense, said the freedom of navigation operation was in direct challenge to "excessive maritime claims of some claimants in the South China Sea."
"The action by the US threatens China's sovereignty and security, endangers the safety of people and facilities on the reef, and harms regional peace and stability," Lu said.
"China strongly opposes such action by the US and will continue to take measures to safeguard our sovereignty and security," Lu said, adding China and other coastal states in the South China Sea have been working together to keep navigation and overflight free in the South China Sea for a long time. In fact, the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea has never been a problem.
According to Lu, the United States introduced freedom of navigation operations in 1979 before the signing of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a treaty to which the United States is still not a party. The purpose of these recurring "patrols" is to disrupt the order of the seas and oceans without adhering to the UN convention.
The United States sends military vessels and aircraft on surveillance missions against China as simple acts of provocation, said Lu, adding that the United States actually considers itself above the UNCLOS and these activities are opposed by many countries.
Lu said that the flexing of US military muscle in the name of freedom of navigation is the biggest threat to peace and stability in the area.
Doves fly over the Peace Memorial Park with a view of the gutted A-bomb dome at a ceremony in Hiroshima, Japan August 6, 2006. [Photo/Agencies]
WASHINGTON - The White House said Tuesday that US President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima later this month, the first by a sitting American president.
Calling the visit to Hiroshima "historic," the White House said in a statement that Obama's trip will highlight his "continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."
According to another statement released by Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, the visit to Hiroshima is slated for May 27.
"He (Obama) will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future," said Rhodes.
The White House had previously ruled out the possibility that Obama would apologize for the US bombing of Hiroshima that killed tens of thousands of Japanese civilians in August 1945.
In a recent daily briefing, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said unequivocally that Obama does not believe that Japan deserves a formal government apology.
During his tenth trip to Asia from May 21 to May 28, Obama will also visit Vietnam and participate in his final G7 Summit in Ise-Shima, Japan, said the White House.
PASADENA -- The US-China Cleantech Innovation Forum 2016 was held Tuesday in the Southern California city of Pasadena, gathering nearly 200 China, US officials, business leaders and experts on clean technology fields.
Organized by US-China Cleantech Center, the forum was part of a "China Week" program which includes a series of conferences and exhibitions to promote bilateral cooperations in trade, culture and environment.
"By the year 2030, China's carbon emissions will reach peak level," said Jeffrey Dutton, acting director of US Commerce Department's China Office. "And China's 13th Five-Year Plan sets a goal to reduce total emissions by 10 percent. These are important milestones in the fight against climate change."
He said that trade and commerce are important parts of the US-China cooperation against climate change.
"Recent milestones in the global push to combat global climate change will be the increasing opportunity for clean technology confidence which translates into investments and job opportunities as well as economic growth in both of our countries," he said.
The one-day forum will discuss latest developments on clean energy, water, transportation technologies and green finance and investment.
This was during the Somare regime and it helped to destroy his government. The alternative government under Peter ONeill and Belden Namah was formed to much applause and it promised to expose corruption and bring to justice those found guilty.
In 2009, the Ombudsman Commission, Transparency International and other organisations worked on a commission of inquiry into massive corruption valued at more than K780 million within the Finance and Treasury Department.
PAPUA New Guinea has too long a history of corruption and too little has been done to expose it, investigate it and prosecute it.
After discrediting the Somare regime and in power for only a few months, the ONeill-Namah government went to the polls in 2012 but the political marriage between Namah and ONeill was shaky due to issues only known to them.
In the end, ONeill managed the numbers required and his Peoples National Congress party formed a new government to run the country and expose corruption.
It marched into Parliament and immediately established a special anti-corruption body Investigation Task Force Sweep.
In parliament, Belden Namah, by then the only opposition MP, teamed up with Dr Allan Marat and Sam Basil to ask some serious corruption related questions. One concerned was the Paul Paraka legal service invoices of which Namah produced evidence.
Only after Namah fired those questions did the saga come under media and public scrutiny - another massive corruption scandal of more than K102 million.
Task Force Sweep was confident it had more than enough evidence and continue to develop charges against those involved. This led to the arrest of the principal of Paul Paraka, who is now out on bail.
Task-Force Sweep, now disbanded, had already prosecuted a number of corruption cases and, according to chairman Sam Koim, there are more cases with concrete evidence that he would take to trial if he could.
It is estimated PNG loses more than K200-million to corruption each year, but it may be a lot more.
With the National Anti-Corruption Fraud Directorate the only surviving entity struggling to fight the corruption, and it is under siege, PNG urgently needs the support of the Australian Federal Police and Interpol. But it is unlikely they can intervene if Peter ONeill wants to keep them out.
In recent times, the call by two former prime ministers, the opposition, university students backed by the academic staff associations, civil society and thousands of individual Papua New Guineans for the prime minister to step down has reached a crescendo.
Since a warrant of arrest was served to ONeill in June 2014, several attempts have been made to delay due processes and these have so far not been resolved.
Looking at this matter from outside, one can perceive that the ONeill-Dion government has delayed, obfuscated and done away with proper investigations.
Such dictatorial behaviour and conduct by leaders and their cronies are of great concern to the people of Papua New Guinea. And this is the reason why students at the countrys two largest universities have taken a stand to protest and call for the prime minister to step aside and allow investigations to continue.
Despite huge pressure and the university students boycotting classes, Peter O'Neill sees fit to continue to hold office. He has demanded that the students return to classes and said he will not step down.
It seems that ONeill is fighting a losing battle he knows he is losing because he has no reasonable answers for a long list of many serious questions.
These include: why was Investigation Task Force Sweep disbanded when it was primarily set up to expose corruption? Why is ONeill going to the media to argue his case and trying to avoid the courts? Why did police commissioner Baki set up an unprecedented vetting committee to screen all the high profile fraud cases? Is this more red-tape meant to delay the judicial process? Will the current corruption charges against Peter ONeill be the first to test the screening process through this newly formed committee?
AUBURN Job creation is at the top of Colleen Deacon's to-do list if she's elected to Congress. And it's an issue she thinks the current representative, U.S. Rep. John Katko, hasn't spent a lot of time on.
During her opening remarks Tuesday at the Auburn Rotary Club luncheon, Deacon, D-Syracuse, outlined some of her ideas for improving central New York's economy, including working with businesses to determine what training is needed to fill positions and encouraging companies and universities to engage in partnerships.
She also supports tax credits for businesses that provide apprenticeships and internship programs.
Before shifting to infrastructure another top priority for Deacon she provided her assessment of Katko's work on central New York economic issues.
"I don't think he has done anything to address the issues of jobs and the economy here in this district," she said.
Before taking questions from the audience, Deacon shared her personal story. She grew up in Syracuse and started working when she was 16 years old. She graduated from high school and chose to stay at home and attend Syracuse University.
When Deacon was 26, she became pregnant with her son, Adrian. She didn't have health insurance and her employer didn't offer paid sick leave, so she relied on food stamps, Medicaid and WIC to get by for the first two months after delivering her son.
"How many members of Congress can actually say they've had to use the programs that they're voting on?" she said.
Deacon's time in public service began after giving birth to her son. She began working for then-Syracuse Mayor Matthew Driscoll's office and served as his press secretary for six years. She then took a job as U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's central New York regional director a position she held until last fall when she decided to run for Congress.
After her introduction, Deacon took questions for nearly 20 minutes. The topics ranged from campaign finance reform and term limits to trade. (She opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major trade deal, and isn't a fan of the North American Free Trade Agreement.)
One attendee asked Deacon whether Democrats would win back the House in November. While she wouldn't play the role of pundit, she does view the 24th Congressional District as a great pickup opportunity for Democrats.
"It's one of the top 10 most competitive races in the entire country, so this seat is a seat we feel we can win back," she said.
Deacon is vying for the Democratic nomination against two other candidates Eric Kingson, a Syracuse University professor and Social Security expert, and Steve Williams, a Syracuse-area attorney.
The trio will square off in a primary on June 28. The winner will face Katko in the general election.
(Photo : Sirens of Chrome)
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The stepdaughters of the late automobile heir Henry Ford II are worried they won't get a dime of his $350 million fortune. Why? Because their mom's lawyer is keeping Debi and Kimberly away from her. Kathleen DuRoss Ford, whose health is believed to be frail already, only speaks to her daughters via a conference call and her lawyer L. Frank Chopin is always around.
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Kathleen DuRoss Ford is the last wife of the late Ford Motors CEO Henry Ford II. Henry Ford was the grandson of Henry Ford II, founder of Ford Motors and that of the family fortune.
She is receiving roughly $10 million a year after the Ford Motors heir died at 70 in 1987. Since then, she has already enjoyed over $300 million and the use of the $34.8 million mansion owned by the Ford family trust, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Debbie and Kimberly were the daughters Kathleen from a previous marriage. Since DuRoss Ford's health turned frail after her back surgery, her daughters accused her lawyer L. Frank Chopin of influencing and controlling the 75-year-old, convincing her to leave her daughter out of her will.
In case this nasty family affair turns into a legal battle, history will only repeat itself. Kathleen herself waged a fight against her husband's children over his fortune after his death.
Henry Ford II left $350 million to be divided by DuRoss Ford, his three children from his first marriage (Edsel, Ann, and Charlotte), and his grandchildren. DuRoss Ford was willed at least $1.5 million per annum upon the approval of the trustees.
DuRoss Ford hired L. Frank Chopin to represent her during the case after she accused her stepson and another trustee of preventing her from getting her share in her husband's fortune.
DuRoss Ford and Henry's children were not really close even when he was alive. She was a model at a car show and with two daughters to raise when he met her in 1969. Ford was still married to his second wife, Italian socialite, Maria Cristina Vettore and his two daughters were close to their father's second wife that they did not attend his wedding to DuRoss Ford in 1980.
When Henry Ford II died left not just a written will but also a video will that would settle the family but that was not the case as DuRoss Ford still went to court in 1988. A settlement was finally reached that awarded her $10.5 million a year.
Police are investigating the claims against Chopin.
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(Photo : Roger Buick/University of Washington) The layers on this 2.7 billion-year-old rock, a stromatolite from Western Australia, show evidence of single-celled, photosynthetic life on the shore of a large lake. The new result suggests that this microbial life thrived despite a thin atmosphere
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Some ancient air bubbles that were discovered to be trapped in 2.7 billion year old lava flows in Western Australia's Pilbara, now provide possible evidence about how Earth's atmosphere would have weighed less than half of its volume today, suggesting it was thinner and more tenuous than first thought.
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This also means that Earth could have stayed almost free from any ice during that time even if the sun was much cooler before as opposed to today.
Researchers from the University of Western Australia examined and analyzed air bubbles found inside lava flows located in the Beasley River, in the aboriginal Pilbara region of Western Australia. These lava flows possess distinct features such as "toes", with cracked, glassy surfaces, suggesting that massive ribbons of this molten hot rock have crawled and dived into a beach.
According to author of the study, astrobiologist David Catling from the University of Washington, the sun was apparently about less than 20 percent luminous some 2.7 billion years ago, which means that Earth's atmosphere would have been covered in ice crystals today if the sun still shined the way it did billions of years ago. However, there are still similar conditions on Earth that still remain.
Catling says that the climate system back then also had rainfall and rivers and it is also possible that polar ice caps existed, however it is still warm enough for the planet to be not covered entirely in ice.
Today, theories about warmer than usual climate conditions involve our atmosphere becoming thicker and more dense through time, insulating the planet.
However, this new evidence of air bubbles preserved in rock that would have originally been under sea level reveals a totally different idea about the planet's atmospheric pressure especially during the Archean period, spanning from the formation of the crust 4 billion years ago to 2.5 billion years back.
In this new study, researchers compared the sizes of the air bubbles trapped on the surface of the lava flows which have been only affected by air pressure, and air bubbles trapped at the base of the molten rock, that have been affected by both air pressure and the lava itself, to determine the precise air pressure of the planet when this lava flow occurred.
Catling says that the results revealed that the atmosphere is basically a lot thinner during that time, weighing less than half of how it is today.
This would also mean that Earth some 2.7 billion years ago was home to only single celled organisms, as sunlight was one fifth weaker, and most importantly, the planet's atmosphere has no oxygen yet. A lighter atmosphere means weaker winds, different climate patterns including boiling point of liquids.
This new study is published in the journal, Nature Geoscience.
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Tagsair pressure, early earth atmosphere, ancient lava bubbles, Western Australia, earth ancient atmosphere thin
(Photo : University of Queensland) Prehistoric fossils discovered in Antarctica
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A multinational research team in Antarctica accidentally discovered a large trove of dinosaur fossils and those of other animals that once lived in tropical climes during the Cretaceous Period some 66 million years ago. Some of the fossils are thought to be 70 million years old.
Unearthed at the James Ross Island by a team of 12 scientists from the U.S., South Africa and Australia were fossils of dinosaurs, marine reptiles and ocean-dwelling animals.
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"We did find a lot of marine reptile remains, so things like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs -- a type of marine lizard made famous by the recent film 'JurassicWorld,'" said Steve Salisbury, of the University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences. "We found a lot of really great fossils."
Unearthing dinosaur fossils in the freezing landscape of Antarctica isn't surprising when one looks back at the early Earth. Some 170 million years ago, Antarctica had a tropical climate when it was part of the supercontinent called Gondwana.
It was heavily forested and harbored a multitude of ancient life forms. Antarctica turned arctic cold 25 million years ago when Gondwana splintered into the continents that exist today.
Salisbury believes the discovery of this fossil haul lays the groundwork for future expeditions.
"We found a lot of new ground to continue the search," he noted. "So, we'd all really love to get back down there at some point soon."
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TagsAntarctica, dinosaur, Fossils, Cretaceous period, James Ross Island, Gondwana
The state Legislature has established task forces to examine the growing heroin and prescription drug abuse problem. Now, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is doing the same.
Cuomo appointed 23 people to serve on a panel tasked with developing recommendations for addressing the heroin and opioid epidemic. The members include Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Jerald Woolfork, the vice president for student affairs at SUNY Oswego.
The task force will hold listening sessions throughout the state prior to making its recommendations. The dates and locations of the meetings haven't been released.
"Opioid addiction is a national epidemic that continues to plague families in communities across New York and the state has been taking aggressive action to tackle this crisis head on," Cuomo said.
"The heroin task force will take these efforts to the next level with a comprehensive action plan developed by a diverse coalition of experts. We will use the task force's recommendations to implement smart solutions that will protect public health, enhance safety in communities statewide and save the lives of vulnerable New Yorkers."
Cuomo touted previous actions to address the heroin epidemic, including legislation signed in 2014 that led to the launch of a public awareness campaign and sought to boost treatment options for opioid addicts.
His office also highlighted the impact of the state's naloxone distribution program. More than 225 registered training programs have been enrolled in this initiative and over 112,000 individuals have been educated on how to properly administer naloxone, an overdose antidote.
Since 2006, there have been more than 3,500 overdose reversals. More than 1,500 reversals were made in 2015, according to Cuomo's office.
The task force, which will be led by Hochul, will focus on expanding awareness of heroin and opioid addiction and how to best improve statewide prevention efforts.
The panel also will explore how to improve access to treatment and support for those recovering from addiction.
Susan Salomone, a member of the task force and executive director of Drug Crisis in Our Backyard, lost her son to opioid abuse. She hopes the committee will be able to provide clear direction on how to beat the epidemic.
"I look forward to working together to create a long-term plan that will help protect New York's children and families," she said.
(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) Shanghai Disneyland's TRON: Lightcycle ride was inspired by the 2010 movie 'TRON: Legacy.'
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Fans will surely drool on Shanghai Disneyland's exclusive attraction, the TRON: Lightcycle Power Run roller coaster, which is said to be inspired by the 2010 hit movie TRON: Legacy.
According to Inverse, the ride takes guests into a replica Lightcycle featuring its neon-rimmed tires signature. Guests are slightly tilted on their stomachs during the 60 mph twisting and turning ride throughout the Grid.
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For ultimate roller coaster daredevils, this may not be the ride for you as it does not have big loops and drops like a typical coaster ride. But it is equipped with multi-colored LED lights that can manipulate and trick riders' perceptions of the coaster's actual depth and space.
A video posted by Inside the Magic on YouTube gives fans a virtual tour of the much-anticipated thrilling ride.
The TRON: Lightcycle Power Run, which gives light and excitement to Disneyland Shanghai's Tomorrowland section, is the creation of Vekona International. The Dutch company is also responsible for other Disney coasters such as the Expedition Everest of the Animal Kingdom, the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster of Hollywood Studios and Seven Dwarf's Mine Ride of Magic Kingdom.
Aside from the TRON Lightcycle adventure, other rides such as Astro Orbiter-style jet pack ride and Buzz Lightyear shooter will also be featured in the Tomorrowland section.
Aside from the futurists adventures found in the Tomorrowland section, guests can also enjoy their favorite fairytale stories in Fantasyland, and thrill-seeking guests may go to Adventure Isle. All these different lands surrounding the castle promises to offer unique experiences.
Shanghai Disneyland welcomed a few thousands of guests during its soft opening over the weekend. The park will be officially opened on June 16.
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TagsShanghai Disneyland, TRON: Lightcycle, china, Shanghai Disneyland Tron
(Photo : Getty Images) Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for being elected to the post of the chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un upon his election to the post of the chairman of country's ruling party.
The 33-year-old temperamental and elusive North Korean leader was on Monday named the chairman of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)' ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) during a key party congress.
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Xi, who is also the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), wrote a congratulatory letter to Kim on Monday that North Koreans will achieve new accomplishments by building socialism under the leadership of the WPK chairman.
The Chinese leader, in the letter, offered congratulations to Kim on the behalf of the Central Committee of the CPC. "I wish the Korean people fresh success in carrying out the cause of socialism under the leadership of the WPK headed by Chairman Kim Jong-un," the Chinese leader said in the letter, according to North Korean state media.
Xi described the ties between both countries as a shared invaluable asset. He noted that the relationship between China and North Korea was forged and carefully fostered by leaders of the older generation from both nations. "The traditional friendship is a treasure of both sides," Xi wrote.
"China stands ready to work with the DPRK to promote the constant development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the two countries and the two peoples, and to make positive contributions to safeguarding peace, stability and development in the region," he added.
China is a longtime political supporter and the biggest trading partner of the secretive Korean state, known for military and rhetorical provocations targeted at South Korea.
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(Photo : Getty Images) Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has said he will seek multilateral talks with China and other claimant countries as well as superpowers such as the United States and Australia to resolve the South China Sea dispute once he assumes office.
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Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Monday vowed to address the South China Sea conflict upon assuming office saying he would opt to engage in multilateral talks with China, Manila's allies such as the United States, Australia, and Japan, as well as other claimant states, to resolve the territorial dispute.
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The 71-year old tough-talking mayor said instead of a confrontation with Beijing over the Philippines' claims in the South China Sea, it would be much better if the two countries would enter into a joint partnership to exploit offshore oil and gas in the disputed waters.
The South China Sea is believed to contain large deposits of oil and gas and is a very important international waterway where $5 trillion worth of ship-borne goods passes through every year.
Joint ventures
"If we want joint ventures, fine. We exploit gas and oil. I believe in sharing," he told reporters at a press conference.
Duterte said Beijing should respect the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the waters off its coasts, which is well within Manila's territory under international law.
He said talks between the claimant countries and China, and military powers like Japan, the United States, and Australia is vital to reach a consensus on the South China Sea row.
Multilateral Roundtable Discussion
"They would want a multilateral roundtable discussion, probably this year," he said referring to the United States, Australia, and other western nations.
Duterte reiterated that no country wants to go to war and despite being an ally of the US, multilateral talks is the way to resolve the South China Sea issue.
Duterte's announcement comes on the heels of an international arbitration court ruling, which is expected to be handed down in the coming weeks.
The Philippines filed a case against China over its territorial claims in the South China Sea before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague three years ago.
Political analysts are wary of Duterte saying the newly-elected president might trash the tribunal ruling altogether. The court's judgment is expected to go against China.
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TagsPhilippine President-Elect Rodrigo Duterte, south china sea conflict, joint ventures, Exclusive economic zone, Permanent Court of Arbitration, china
(Photo : NASA/Bill Ingalls) Can you see it? The planet Mercury is seen in silhouette, lower third of image, as it transits across the face of the sun Monday, May 9, 2016, as viewed from Boyertown, Pennsylvania.
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For those who missed this cosmic event yesterday, Mercury just passed directly between the sun and Earth for the first time in 10 years. The tiniest planet in our solar system and the nearest one to the sun can be viewed as a small black dot that transitioned and made its way across the blazing face of our host star.
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Astronomers say that this celestial event is rare, as it only occurs about 13 times in every 100 years. The next Mercury transit will happen again in 2019, and after that, the year 2032.
Mercury may pass between the sun and the Earth similar to a lunar eclipse however this transit spanned a total of seven and half hours, as the tiny world traversed through the sun. This event was visible in the eastern United States and Canada in North America, most of South America and Western Europe, along with West Africa.
However, in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and most of the African continent, Mercury was obscured by sunset, where the event finished earlier. Japan, some Western Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand unfortunately did not entirely see the show.
For those who were not in the visible regions, stargazers can watch the event on various live streaming channels online such as NASA TV, the European Space Agency or Slooh. Some observatories even opened their doors to the public such as the Royal Observatory Greenwich, hosting the transit on big screens live.
Apart from this, astronomers also utilized the Great Equatorial Telescope housed at the Observatory to view the fantastic transit, measuring 28 inches wide that is considered to be the largest lensed telescope in the United Kingdom. Using a new solar filter, the Great Equatorial Telescope made this viewing possible to the public, as the last time it was turned towards the sun was in 1927.
In the past, astronomers use the Mercury transit as a crucial scientific measuring tool, where it allowed them to compute the distances of the planets in the solar system. According to NASA's planetary science division director, Jim Green, today, this Mercury's transit was observed by astronomers to learn more about its thin and tenuous atmosphere.
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Tagsmercury transit 2016, Mercury, Sun, earth mercury sun transit
(Photo : Getty Images) Shanghai Disneyland welcomed a few thousand invited guests over the weekend as part of its six weeks trial operations.
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Although the official opening of Shanghai Disneyland is still a month away, thousands of guests got the opportunity to get a first-hand experience of the theme park as it kicked off its six weeks trial operations on Saturday, May 7.
Tens of thousands of Chinese tourists flocked in long lines to take a glimpse of the $5.5 billion Disney resort in Shanghai. Saturday was an invite-only affair with some 10,000 staff, their family members and other guests welcomed. More people excitedly came the following day - Sunday, May 8 - with the headcount reaching approximately 30,000, according to Shanghai Daily.
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"The enthusiasm that we have seen before the park has even opened is surprising," Elliott Weiss, a professor from the University of Virginia who wrote a case study on Disney's entry to China, told Bloomberg. "It is probably a combination of the strength of the Disney brand and the changing structure of the Chinese economy, where the middle class consumer is rising and showing a preference for western brands."
The chosen guests were given exclusive access to some of the park's famous rides including Mickey's Storybook Express, Lives like Tarzan: Call of the Jungle, Golden Fairytale Fanfare, Frozen: A Sing-Along Celebration in Fantasyland and Peter Pan's Flight in Fantasyland.
While some were patient, others complained of the long lines and the that took at least an hour just to get on a ride.
The resort attracted both the young and the elderly. A number of elderly people were spotted at the park over the weekend. One 85-year-old retiree from Shanghai said Disneyland "opens the eyes of the old people and young people to see something like this."
The Shanghai Disenyland six-week trial will see the site over 10,000 visitors a day. China International Capital Corp. analysts, spearheaded by Xin Yang, estimate the guest list would include nearly 15 million visitors before the year ends.
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TagsShanghai Disneyland, Shanghai, china, tourism, Walt Disney
(Photo : Reuters) Krispy Kreme was founded in 1937 and has more than 1100 shops around the world, with about 300 of those in the United States.
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A subsidiary of JAB Holding Company plans to acquire Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, closing the deal in the third quarter of the year.
The deal between JAB Holding Company and Krispy Kreme costs $1.35 billion or $21 a share. The price is 25 percent higher than Krispy Kreme's average closing level over the past 20 trading sessions. The Luxembourg-based investment firm owns Keurig Green Mountain, Peet's Coffee & Tea and Caribou Coffee, and now acquiring the North Carolina doughnut company.
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The deal comes after an affiliate of JAB Holdings recently added to its coffee empire with the acquisition of Keurig. JAB Holdings, which is predominantly owned by the Reimann family in Europe, also has stakes in Jacobs Douwe Egberts, the company behind Gevalia, Tassio and other brands. Outside of coffee products, JAB Holdings has stakes in bagel shop operator Einstein Noah, beauty products maker Coty and high-end shoe seller Jimmy Choo.
We are thrilled to have such an iconic brand as Krispy Kreme joining the JAB portfolio. This is yet another example of our commitment to investing in extraordinary brands with significant growth prospects, said JAB senior partner Peter Harf in a statement.
Krispy Kreme will be privately owned and will continue to be independently operated from Krispy Kremes current headquarters in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Krispy Kreme was founded in 1937 and has more than 1100 shops around the world, with about 300 of those in the United States.
The popular doughnut company has found a partner in JAB that could help it offset some of the weaknesses in its existing business. JAB has several coffee-centric businesses under its wing, and it is not difficult to imagine executives leveraging those brands to help Krispy Kreme.
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TagsJAB Holdings, Krispy Kreme, doughnut, coffee, coffee conglomerate, Keurig
(Photo : Reuters) Didi Kuaidi is improving the security of its service after oneof its drivers murdered a passenger in Shenzhen.
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Chinese ride hailing app Didi Kuaidi has announced the addition of an emergency button to its app to increase the safety feature of its service. The company is also planning to add a face-recognition system to ensure that a driver is the same person registered on its platform.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Didi is planning to unveil a host of features by the end of this month. The most prominent feature is the addition of panic button. The button will let the passengers call for help in case of emergencies. Another feature will allow the passengers to share their approximate time of arrival with family and friends. Apart from this, if a driver is deviating from a route, Didi and the passenger would be alerted.
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Didi Kuaidi was thrown into the limelight following a robbery and murder by one of its drivers in Shenzhen. The accident took place on May 1, 2016. The company confirmed that the driver had registered with a real ID and other formalities. He also passed a criminal background check.
Chinese state media said that the driver was using a different license plate at the time of committing the crime. Stephen Zhu, vice president of Didi Kuaidi, said "This has done huge damage to our community and the platform."
In order to boost its security, the company has also suspended about 8,000 of its registered drivers in Shenzhen. The company said that it carries out monthly review of its drivers. "This next level is about stopping the crime from happening," a statement from the company said.
China is looking to increase supervision of ride hailing services. The Ministry of Transportation plans to issue new rules and regulations later this month.
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(Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images) An Apple MacBook Pro laptop computer with Retina display stands on a table at a Gravis Apple retailer on Nov. 6, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. Apple is hoping for a strong Christmas season.
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Microsoft is currently gearing up to release the second version of their flagship notebook line, the Surface Book, by the turn of the month. These rumors claim that the upcoming Surface Book2 would be a force to reckon with. The Surface Book 2 is expected to be powered by Intel's 7th generation i5 and i7 processors and would be equipped with 4k display.
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Considering the word revolving around the soon-to-be released Microsoft Surface Book 2, it comes as no surprise how reports surrounding the upcoming unveiling of Apple's MacBook Pro 2016 have also made its way online. Fortunately for Apple enthusiasts, it seems like the tech giant is also planning to release the newest iteration of their laptop line very soon.
Just last week, IBTimes published an article postulating how Apple would be unveiling the latest MacBook device during the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which is happening in June. According to the same publication, Apple has historically unveiled their new laptop offerings around the start of the year's third quarter. In fact, in 2015, the tech company released their 15-inch MacBook Pro in May. Given historical trend, Apple fans can almost expect the announcement of the MacBook Pro 2016 by next month.
Apple has yet to comment on the rumors surrounding the release of the MacBook Pro 2016. Likewise, the company has yet to confirm the exciting upgrades that the upcoming Apple laptop would have. Nevertheless, there are already plentiful of rumors detailing what can be expected from the new MacBook.
According to MacWorld, the MacBook Pro 2016 could possibly see the return of the Butterfly Key Mechanism. Moreover, the new Apple laptop is expected to run on the new, sixth generation Intel chips - Skylake processors. As for its battery life, there is a chance that the new MacBook Pro 2016 would be boasting of a formidable 12 hour battery capacity.
At present, the least expensive version of the Retina MacBook Pro, which clocks in at 13 inches with 128GB of storage, goes for more or less $1400, and it is expected that the upcoming MacBook Pro 2016 will be priced within the same bracket.
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Tags MacBook Pro 2016, MacBook Pro 2016, MacBook Pro 2016 specs, MacBook Pro 2016 Features, Macbook Pro 2016 Release, Macbook Pro, apple, MacBook Pro 2016 Price, WWDC, Surface Book 2, Surface Book 2 vs MacBook Pro 2016
(Photo : Getty Images) A woman walks past the Mitsubishi Motors headquarters on April 20, 2016 in Tokyo, Japan. Mitsubishi Motors share plunged by more than 15% after the Japanese car maker announced it has falsified fuel economy tests data since 1991.
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Following Mitsubishi's admission of complicity in the mileage scandal, there may be a window of opportunity for Chinese firms to acquire the Japanese automaker now that its market value significantly plunged, according to China Daily.
"It may be a good opportunity for rich companies to buy the Japanese automaker or its technology," Yale Zhang, Automotive Foresight's managing director, said. "Its engines and SUV platforms are not bad."
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An article from Sohu.com written by Ou Duorui revealed that a Chinese giant automaker plans to purchase Mitsubishi with the help of foreign financial aid and law firms. Ou, however, failed to reveal further details about the possible deal.
Last month, Japanese officials raided Mitsubishi office for allegedly falsifying its fuel economy tests data for an estimated 600,000 cars. What's more, Mitsubishi officials shockingly admitted that the company has been using an inaccurate test method since 1991.
Just less than a week following its admission, Mitsubishi posted about $4 billion loss, while the company's shares nosedived to nearly half their value. However, Yutaka Tabata, the automaker's managing director, told Reuters that the company has sufficient cash ($4.23 billion) to cover the possible costs of correcting the fuel economy test data for the cars affected, which is estimated to reach $1 billion.
Tetsuro Aikawa, Mitsubishi president, has since apologized over the issue. "Customers bought our cars based on incorrect fuel-economy data. I can't help but apologize."
Although it is yet to be determined which cars were specifically affected, experts predict Mitsubishi sales in the mainland will dive. Zhang Zhiyong, an auto analyst from Beijing, said the scandal is another blow to the company's standing in China as it has previously been affected by safety defects issues.
Mitsubishi has since created a three-member committee to investigate the issue. The company has vowed to formally create a report and notify the public about the results of its investigation in a timely manner.
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TagsMitsubishi, automobile industry, Tetsuro Aikawa, SUVs
(Photo : Pixabay) Grizzlies in Yellowstone will soon be de-listed as endangered but this does not mean that they are safe.
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Grizzly bears will soon removed from the endangered species list, where environmentalists and scientists are becoming more concerned for the iconic species' future, since the bears will no longer be protected by conservation federal laws.
A draft rule was issued in March by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, petitioning the bears to be removed from the list, where the threatened wild species have been included in the list since 1975.
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Some 40 years ago, the bears were considered to be almost extinct, since population numbers dwindled to an alarming number of less than 140 individuals. Scientists are expecting for the bears to produce about 700 since then, however the expected number has not yet been reached in the Yellowstone area.
The draft involves that grizzlies can now be hunted and killed within a 19, 729 square mile area which will also be legal inside Yellowstone National Park, including parts of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming which will also depend on the population numbers per area.
The finalization of this federal plan will be set later this year, this would mean that Wyoming can allow killing of 58 percent of their bear populations, in Montana, 34 percent and eight percent for Idaho. Apart from this, the mentioned states are also required to implement a bear management plan.
After the draft's release, Montana's Fish, Wildlife and Parks then issued draft regulations that will include spring and fall hunting seasons across several districts near the border of Yellowstone. This set of regulations is known as the Grizzly Bear Management Unit, where each district is to abide a certain number or quota, for the number of bears to be hunted.
According to Montana's FWP's Ron Aasheim, this is the first true attempt in a sustainable management option down the road. In addition, strictly, no hunting is allowed until the final proposal, which is also included in the states' hunting programs.
Back in 2007, the grizzlies were de-listed for a short time, but a lawsuit prompted federal agencies to return them under the law's protection. Experts say that this can be a similar trend, since conservationists are arguing that the bears have not yet fully rebounded yet, versus local communities are hoping to revise for more options in bear hunting.
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TagsGrizzly Bear, grizzlies, endangered species, Endangered Species List, yellowstone grizzly bear, bear hunting
With debate on a major defense bill scheduled for later this month, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is urging congressional leaders to include a measure that would help military families when a service member is reassigned to a new duty station.
Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced the Military Family Stability Act in October. The bill contains several provisions, including giving military spouses the option of working for up to six months at their current job or moving early to the next duty station to pursue other employment opportunities.
Children of military service members would be allowed to remain at their current school to finish the year or move early to the next post during summer or winter break to prepare for the start of classes.
The measure also would allow military spouses to complete work on college degrees or job certification and license-granting programs within six months of their move.
Under the bill, there would be more flexibility for individuals caring for ill family members, assistance for families of individual augmentees who are deployed and the Department of Defense would be required to ensure the guidelines are applied to all service branches.
Gillibrand said the legislation would give military families more flexibility while relocating to a new station.
"We've heard from our military families about the challenges they face when a service member is reassigned, and we need policies that better accommodate spouses with careers and children in school," Gillibrand said. "The Military Family Stability Act would better serve the modern military family to give our service members, their spouses and their children new resources and much-needed flexibility when they have to move.
"We owe it to them to pass this legislation, and I'll be pushing to include these measures in the upcoming national defense bill that Congress is debating this month."
Gillibrand, who is hoping to include her bill in the National Defense Authorization Act, first introduced it in October. Supporters of the measure include U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, and two Republicans U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt and Richard Burr of Missouri and North Carolina, respectively.
In a statement, Blunt said providing military families with more stability can help them while relocating to a new site.
"The strength of our military lies in the unwavering support our service members receive from their families," he said. "The Military Family Stability Act honors their sacrifice by helping to address one of the frequent challenges these families face: an ill-timed move that cuts into a child's school year or costs a spouse a career opportunity."
Gillibrand's bill is supported by several military organizations, including the American Legion, Blue Star Families, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the National Military Family Association and Veterans of Foreign Wars.
(Photo : Chris Hondros/Getty Images) Investors include Baidu, JD.com and Tencent.
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A driver for a famous Chinese car-hailing service company was detained for 10 days for driving half-naked, news reports say.
The driver, a 33-year-old man registered as a driver for car-hailing company Didi Chuxing, was reported by a passenger as wearing nothing from the waist down, except covering his private parts with a loosely-placed pair of shorts, reports Shanghai Daily. He was driving along north China's Tianjin city in the morning Monday.
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The passenger, a woman, claimed that she was halfway through the trip when she noticed that the driver was in the said getup. She took a photo of the driver without the latter's knowledge, and then made an excuse to get out of the vehicle.
After getting out of the car, she then called Didi's customer service to report the incident, providing the photo as evidence. The company, however, only gave her a coupon as compensation.
Later in the day, the woman posted in her Weibo account that she received a threat from the driver through a text message. According to her, the driver texted, "You really have some guts. Are you trying to make some troubles here?"
A spokesperson for Didi said that they were immediately unable to contact the driver, but had halted his service based on the evidence provided by the woman. The spokesperson added that if the evidence is found true, the driver will be banned from the company.
The spokesperson also said that they will add an in-app police number to increase passenger protection.
Police were able to confirm that the driver indeed threatened the passenger with the text message. They added that the driver was found Monday at 9 p.m. and that he would be detained for 10 days.
This incident is one of the new incidents raising fears over the safety of the car-hailing services industry. Earlier, more than 8,000 drivers have been suspended for failing company service standards.
Last week, a driver was also suspected of robbing and killing a female passenger. The suspect dropped the victim's body in a remote area in Shenzhen.
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TagsDidi Chuxing, Didi, Didi Kuaidi, Uber, car-hailing apps, Tianjin, weibo
(Photo : Getty Images) A US warship sailed through the disputed Spratly Islands on Tuesday, challenging Beijing's claim to a newly constructed island.
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The Pentagon sent a warship to sail near a disputed reef in the South China Sea on Tuesday as the US made a fresh bid to counter China's territorial claims in the disputed maritime territory.
According to a senior defense official, the U.S.S. William P. Lawrence, a guided-missile destroyer, navigated within 12 nautical miles of Fiery Cross Reef - a part of Spratly Islands - on Tuesday.
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It is not clear whether the Chinese navy or military officials were able to make any radio contact with the US warship. This is typically the case when US or enemy ship navigates near Chinese maritime territory.
China has still not released any official statement over the US latest operation in the South China Sea. Experts say the move is certain to provoke angry reactions from officials in Beijing.
Tuesday's operation is part of the US' freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea, which was initiated last year to Challenge Beijing's construction of artificial islands spread in the disputed area.
Despite international pressure, China continues to defiantly carry out construction activities on various artificial islands in the South China Sea. Beijing has also sent several high-ranking military officials to its new islands to assert its rights over the region.
In response, the US recently carried out joint military drills with the Philippines in the South China Sea. The US is trying to forge unity between all the claimant countries in a bid to increase diplomatic pressure on China.
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TagsSouth China Sea, spratly islands, US and China
(Photo : China Photos/Getty Images) A teacher from a Chinese university has been suspended for smoking in class.
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A university teacher has been suspended for smoking inside the classroom while class is going on, a news report says.
Officials from the University of Jinan in Shandong province said that they have suspended a female teacher at the School of Education and Psychology, Dazhong Daily reported. This was announced via a notice circulated around the school.
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Photos that showed the teacher smoking while giving a lecture were posted on social media website Weibo. The photos were uploaded by user "I'm He Xiaoliao without princess syndrome."
"I don't want to breathe her second-hand smoke," the Weibo user wrote. "She doesn't even try to be discreet."
Others commented on the post, trying to explain the teacher's actions away. One commenter said that the teacher behaves that way because she thinks she's "indispensable."
A school official told the newspaper on Sunday that the teacher is a heavy smoker, and that she'd been caught before smoking while giving an exam.
Teaching the Wrong Things
If the teacher from the University of Jinan passed her second-hand smoke to her students, a teacher from Guizhou in southwest China passed the skill of drinking alcoholic drinks to his students.
It was reported last month that Gu Ming, teacher of Traditional Chinese Medicine manufacturing in Guizhou Anshun Vocational Institute, asked his students to drink alcoholic drinks in school as a test. He gave different marks based on the amount of liquor a student can drink.
Gu gave three different marks corresponding to the amount consumed, said a student on social media website Weibo. A full glass gives a student a full 100, half a glass gives a student 90, and a little sip will give 60. Those who refuse to drink even just a little sip will be given failing marks.
Gu's actions have been the subject of heated discussion online, with some bashing him for what he did and others actually defending him, saying that he was only helping the students get used to such a social practice.
Gu was taken off of his teaching position because of the incident.
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TagsUniversity of Jinan, Shandong province, Jinan, smoking, School of Education and Psychology
The International Trade Commission will keep a duty in place on Chinese petroleum wax candles a decision U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer says will benefit a central New York candle company.
The six-member panel voted unanimously on April 26 to keep the duty order. Commissioners considered whether to revoke the order, but determined that it would likely lead to "continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time."
Schumer, D-N.Y., advocated for the duty order to protect American companies, including Cathedral Candle in Syracuse, which he says were at risk because of unfair trade practices. He wrote a letter to the ITC in March urging the commission to reinstate the order.
If the ITC revoked the duty, Schumer said it would've had a negative impact on the 70 employees at Cathedral Candle's Kirkpatrick Street facility.
"This unanimous ruling is great news for Cathedral Candle and the city of Syracuse, which has a long and storied past as a candle making city," Schumer said. "We could not afford to let this all melt away because rapacious trade cheats like the companies from China refuse to play by the rules."
Schumer cited reports explaining China's attempts to evade the ITC's duty order and other duties. The Chinese government also increased export rebates to help the country's candle exports.
The duties were imposed after it was determined Chinese companies were dumping selling candles in the U.S. below the sales price in their home country or at prices below the cost of production.
Lou Steigerwald III, president of Cathedral Candle, said the ITC's ruling will help the company.
"We know that despite the dedication of our highly skilled employees and our constant investment in equipment, facilities improvements and efficiencies, we would not be able to effectively compete against products that were dumped into the U.S. market at unfair prices," Steigerwald said. "The continuation of an effective antidumping duty order on imported candles from China helps to establish a 'level playing field' for us to compete in."
This is the latest action taken by the ITC to keep duties on imported Chinese candles.
Schumer's office said a similar review was conducted in 2010 to determine whether the duties should remain in place. The commission ultimately decided to continue the duties.
"Rather than making it easier for Chinese candle exporters to undermine our producers, these duties will be kept in place to prevent a flood of cheap imports that would put these local jobs at risk," Schumer said.
Atheists sue Tennessee sheriff for 'censoring' negative social media comments about religion 10 May, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |
CRANFORD, N.J. (Christian Examiner) The American Atheists have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a citizen of Bradley County, Tenn., who claims the county's sheriff promotes Christianity on the department's Facebook page and deletes comments critical of him and his beliefs.
In the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga, the atheists and "Jane Doe" named so because of her fear of retaliation allege Sheriff Eric Watson is "depriving them of their rights under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution by favoring a particular religious point of view" and suppressing dissent to those views.
According to the lawsuit, the sheriff was made aware that deleting negative comments on the department's social media page that were not obscene or "threatening to public safety" was a form of censorship. However, the practice of deleting unfavorable comments continued, the atheist group alleges.
Today is one of the most historic days; not only did Jesus die on the cross for our sins, but he rose on this day! Luke 24:2-3 says, 'And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.' Mankind was redeemed forevermore when he was resurrected from the grave.
On March 28, the atheist group founded in 1959 during a challenge to public school prayer sent a letter to the sheriff about his Easter message on the department's Facebook page, as well as his past references to prayer, the death of a "man of God" he knew, and Christmas.
In the message on Easter, which featured an image of a stone being rolled away from a tomb with the title "He is Risen," the department wished citizens a "Happy Easter." The image was accompanied by the comment:
"Many of you will attend your churches for special services to celebrate this day, fill and color eggs, and have Easter egg hunts with your children. Those will be special memories spent with your family and friends. But we all know this special day goes beyond those activities. ...
Today is one of the most historic days; not only did Jesus die on the cross for our sins, but he rose on this day! Luke 24:2-3 says, 'And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.' Mankind was redeemed forevermore when he was resurrected from the grave.
Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice, and offered himself for our sins. This day represents the best gift any of us could receive, which is 'Eternal Life' with our Heavenly Father!!!"
The comment prompted a discussion of past U.S. Supreme Court rulings, whether God exists or not, and man's "invention" of gods.
On April 3, 2016, the sheriff's office reportedly posted a newspaper article about American Atheists' letter and the sheriff's response on the Facebook page. When comments critical of the department and the sheriff were made, they were deleted. The April 3 post, however, has since been deleted in its entirety.
Now, an April 5 posting carries a television news report about the controversy and claims, "The Bradley County Sheriff's Office protects and serves all citizens of Cleveland / Bradley County no matter what your beliefs are." That post is accompanied by numerous negative comments about the sheriff and Christianity, most posted within hours of the television report being uploaded.
On April 5, the atheist group also fired off a second letter to Sheriff Watson, criticizing him for deleting comments and requesting a copy of the department's social media policy.
Amanda Knief, American Atheist's legal director, said in a statement the lawsuit is "about protection the community's First Amendment right to speak out about its elected officials."
"The BCSO had no problem with public comments until they were critical of the sheriff or of his proselytizing at work. But the government doesn't get to silence speech it doesn't like even if that speech is negative, unflattering, and disrespectful of the sheriff's religion."
Ironically, the term of legal art describing the desire of the American Atheists and Jane Doe is a "prayer for relief." The group is asking the court to issue a temporary restraining order against the sheriff and the department to halt religious Facebook posts and "not favor one religion over another." They have also asked that Watson remove all references to religion and Easter on the department Facebook page and any other social media outlet.
Doe and the atheist group are seeking monetary damages for their hurt feelings, as well as recompense for the legal fees she and the organization accumulate.
Centenarian: Key to long life is to 'listen to what God knows to be best' 10 May, 2016 by Ann Lovell , |
RICHMOND, Va. (Christian Examiner) Buddy Hamilton has some advice for those who want to live a long life.
"Pay attention," Hamilton says. "Listen to what God knows to be best."
Hamilton, who celebrated his 100th birthday May 3, volunteers every week in the homeless ministry of First Baptist Church, Richmond, where he has been a member 82 years. He drives himself and two friends, Al Astle, who will be 100 in August, and Jack Mitchell, 90. Astle and Mitchell also volunteer in the ministry.
"Buddy really takes ownership of the shower ministry," says Vicky Nicholau, who coordinates the ministry as a volunteer. "He's here every Wednesday. The guests love him."
Many of those homeless guests, like Robert Taylor, 60, know Hamilton by name.
"Buddy is a great guy," Taylor says. "The way he greets people, his personality, I just love Buddy."
"Robert and I have known each other a long time," Hamilton agrees, smiling. The spry centenarian reaches around the taller, younger man to give him a pat on the back.
As a volunteer calls Taylor to take his turn in the clothes closet, one of two uniformed police officers patiently answers a young woman's questions. Other guests enjoy coffee and a pastry, waiting their turn for a shower or a snack bag. A few moments before, senior pastor Jim Somerville offered a short sermon. A few heads nodded as the pastor spoke, and some murmured an "Amen" or two. The atmosphere feels like family. Hamilton smiles as he surveys it all.
"This is a sanctuary for them," Hamilton says. "There is no anxiety or fear here. They get to know the police, and the police get to know them. Because of that, they know they are safe."
A LIFETIME OF HONOR
Born in 1916 in a house built by his grandfather on Richmond's Libbie Hill, Hamilton spent his early adult years as a captain for TWA's international division in the north and south Atlantic. He learned to fly when he was 18 years old on a gravel field at Richard E. Byrd flying field (now Richmond International Airport).
Then, during World War II, most planes of value to the government were in the hands of commercial airlines, Hamilton explains. As a result, the government conscripted TWA and all other airlines to fly military missions, and TWA's crews, including Hamilton's, were some of the first to make long-range flights over water during daylight hours.
After the war Hamilton returned to Richmond and rejoined his family's paper converting business. Eventually, he and his brother, Dick, bought the business from their father and ran it together for nearly 40 years. Hamilton retired in 1998 at age 82.
Throughout his life, Hamilton has also been active in FBC Richmond, where he has taught Sunday School and served as a deacon. He is the last elected "deacon for life," and the Sunday School class he attends but no longer teaches called "The Buddy Hamilton class" is one of the church's largest.
"It's the only Sunday School class we have named for a person," Somerville says.
But balancing his spiritual life and his professional life was often challenging, Hamilton acknowledges.
"For most of my life, I put a lot of effort into my business," Hamilton says. "I had one foot in the secular world and one foot in the spiritual world."
Then, when he was about 55 years old, the then-Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention sponsored a lay renewal weekend at FBC Richmond. During that weekend, Hamilton heard the testimony of a man "who had chosen intentionally to focus on the things of God."
"I decided I would do the same thing," Hamilton recalls. "It seems like a small step, but it was life-changing for me."
FOCUSED ON OTHERS
Learning to pay attention to the things of God helped him prioritize and look beyond himself, Hamilton says.
"The real sin of the world is inordinate self-interest," Hamilton explains. "Every sin can be traced to selfishness that starts at birth. I think this selfishness is wired into us from birth to allow us to survive.
As our parents respond to our cries, we begin to think we are the king," Hamilton continues. "To overcome this innate selfishness I must be willing to give my thoughts and words to the Lord before they become audible and trigger action."
Hamilton's character and spiritual insight are highly respected among those who know him, says Somerville.
"Buddy offers the perspective of years of experience, but he is remarkably open-minded," Somerville says. "When Buddy speaks, heads swivel to hear what he has to say. People trust him. There is universal recognition that he helped make us who we are."
In addition to his work in the homeless ministry, Hamilton delivers "Meals on Wheels" monthly to Richmond's Jackson Ward.
"Some people claim that's a bad part of town, but I don't think so," Hamilton says with a smile. "I have some great friends there."
Ann Lovell is a writer based in Richmond, Virginia.
Gaza children stage assault on Jews, capture of Israeli soldier 09 May, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |
GAZA (Christian Examiner) Most children's festivals the world over include clowns, balloons, hip-hop dances and face painting. In Gaza, they include simulated assaults on Hasidic Jews, stone-throwing clashes with security police, tunnel assaults and the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.
According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the eighth annual "Childhood Festival" in Khan Yunis, Gaza, featured these and other simulated "acts of defiance" against Israeli citizens and soldiers. A video of the event was aired May 5.
In the video, a girl dressed in a black burka repeatedly shoves a little boy dressed as an Israeli policeman, hoping to provoke her martyrdom. Another child, also dressed as a policeman, circles the girl with his weapon drawn.
Children are then shown throwing stones at the "police" and Jewish men rocking forward in prayer while young boys dressed in black t-shirts and camouflaged pants storm out of a "tunnel" near the stage.
Adults also take part in the presentation, pushing a cardboard Israeli tank with a tiny soldier inside as photographers rush in to snap photos of the tank assault on the young jihadists.
The video then shows dancers, followed by a little girl chanting with fist clinched.
"Hurry up, my child, and join the battle," she exclaims. "Die as a martyr, and blow up the enemies. Palestine an Arab clasping victory in one hand, and stones of fire in the other. An Arab filled with challenge, pride, and resolve."
All of the boys then are brought on the stage to conduct their military drills, kneeling, stomping, and laying in the prone position with their plastic automatic rifles. They are last seen standing over an "Israeli soldier" whose hands are tied behind his back. He is spirited away down the same tunnel from which the assault began.
As they leave, two Palestinian girls again take the stage to chant emphatically, "We are not afraid. The young people of Jerusalem are staging a knife revolution."
Marvel should have made Captain America gay, Vanity Fair writer laments Guest Reviewer | 09 May, 2016 by Michael Foust
LOS ANGELES (Christian Examiner) A Vanity Fair writer says Marvel made a mistake in its latest movie by not at least implying that Captain America could be gay if not writing his homosexuality directly into the script.
"Captain America: Civil War" grossed $179 million over the weekend, and in it Steve Rogers (a.k.a. Captain America) makes his heterosexuality well-known when he kisses Sharon Carter.
The Vanity Fair writer, Joanna Robinson, covers Hollywood and said there is an "intensely devoted section of the Captain America fan base who consider Bucky Barnes" and not any other woman "to be the true object of Steve Rogers' ... affection." Barnes is Captain America's friend in the series and also known as Winter Solder.
The rumor about Captain America's sexuality was advanced when "Civil War" directors Joe and Anthony Russo refused to address it during interviews with the media, Robinson wrote.
"[But ] doesn' t Captain America: Civil War go out of its way to 'define' Bucky and Steve's relationship when Cap smooches Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) while Bucky looks on approvingly?" Robinson asked in her column. "Where's the room for interpretation in that moment? ...Marvel seems to think it has to have its heroes in heterosexual love affairs in order to maximize audience appeal."
The kiss, Robinson argued, seemed out of place.
"So while Marvel was likely never going to make the homoerotic subtext of Cap and Bucky into text, would it really have hurt to keep their relationship more ambiguous?" she asked. "As if to put the nail in the coffin of speculation, Bucky and Cap paused for a moment in the middle of snowy Siberia to reminisce about their days chasing skirts in pre-War Brooklyn. It's a sweet, human bonding moment but one that also bristles with heterosexual virility. If Disney isn't inclined to give audiences a gay superhero, couldn't they have at least left us the dream of Bucky and Cap?"
But while Captain America apparently isn't gay, Joe Russo said in a recent interview that future Marvel movies likely will include gay superheroes.
"I think the chances are strong," Joe Russo told Collider . "I mean, it's incumbent upon us as storytellers who are making mass-appeal movies to make mass-appeal movies, and to diversify as much as possible.
"It's sad in the way that Hollywood lags behind other industries so significantly, one because you think that it would be a progressive industry, and two it's such a visible industry," Russo said. "So I think it's important that on all fronts we keep pushing for diversification because then the storytelling becomes more interesting, more rich, and more truthful."
United Methodist Church is set to have its quadrennial General Conference in Portland next week, where the issue of inclusion of LGBT people and their ordination in the denomination will be discussed.
The conference scheduled from May 10-20 is expected to attract thousands of members to commemorate the work done by the church, and to review the policies including acceptance of gay clergy within the church ranks.
The UMC has its presence around the world, and each region selects delegates to represent their church in the conference. In 2016, a total of 864 delegates will be sent to Portland, and an additional 2,500 members are expected to attend the event.
At present, the UMC formally regards homosexuality as being incompatible with Christian doctrine. The denomination's policies are hinged on the Book of Discipline, which states that, "self-avowed practising homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church."
It is the only mainline Protestant denominations which has not permitted openly gay clergy.
The delegates at the UMC conference operate in much the same way as American congress to deal with church's internal politics. The representatives sit together and form a committee to review church initiatives and other proposed amendments to the rulebook, which is then followed by debate and votes on new propositions.
On May 1, 15 clergy members and candidates wrote an open letter to the denomination, disclosing that they were LGBT people.
"We are compelled now to speak out and tell the whole truth of who we are to the wider church," they said in the letter. "Ministry requires honesty, courage, integrity."
"We teach our Sunday school children to speak truth. We challenge our congregations to see Jesus in 'the least of these.' We mirror God's welcome at our communion table."
"The UMC demands that we not tell our truth about who we are in order to be in ministry. It requires us to pretend we can excise the parts of ourselves that are LGBTQI, and to present a distorted version of ourselves to the world - all in order to avoid being hunted down and kicked out for being 'self-avowed practicing homosexuals.' It does violence to our souls. It is the very opposite of the integrity that is foundational to ministry," the letter states.
They come from a region comprising churches from New York, Long Island, and Connecticut. Leaders from that area have previously rebelled against the church's policy of not accepting gay clergy. They had announced that they will not consider sexual identity of members before allowing them to be ordained as pastors and ministers.
Earlier this year, proceedings were initiated against a UMC pastor from Kansas after she came out as a lesbian and admitted that she had a relationship with another woman.
The church was set to put Rev. Cynthia Meyer on trial, according to the written code espoused in the Book of Discipline. However, she was told that if General Conference amends the rules, she would be able to continue her ministry as a pastor. But, if the conference did not change the rules, she would need to step down from her position, or withdraw from the denomination and form an independent church.
Mark DeMoss, a member of Liberty University's board of trustees and the school's public relations officer, has resigned after the school's president publicly endorsed Donald Trump for president.
University President Jerry Falwell Jr. endorsed Trump earlier this year. The PR executive disagreed with Falwell and criticized him on The Washington Post two months ago, saying that the endorsement was a "mistake." DeMoss said that Trump does not exemplify "Christ-like behavior that Liberty has spent 40 years promoting with its students."
"It bothered me that he said Donald Trump reminded him of his father," DeMoss said in March. "Donald Trump certainly does not demonstrate Jerry Falwell Sr.'s graciousness and love for people. Jerry Falwell Sr. would never have made fun of a political opponent's face or makeup or ears. He would not have personally insulted anybody-ever."
Shortly after DeMoss' public statements, Falwell gave an interview to The Post, saying that he "was disappointed" in him. He added that his endorsement of Trump was personal and was not meant to represent the university.
"Any time you support a candidate, and you're an official at a university, you just have to accept the fact that a large percentage of the community is not going to agree with you," Falwell said. "I think our community is mature enough that they understand that all the administrators and faculty have their own personal political views."
However, according to DeMoss, he was asked to step down from one of the committees because of his previous comments, which prompted him to resign from the board of trustees as well.
"While the decision to leave the committee I chaired was not mine, the decision to step down from the board was mine," he said.
"The president/chancellor and the board chair and new executive committee chair were suggesting my motive for speaking to the Post was entirely political (that I was a political pawn of rival campaigns), rather than a genuine concern for the reputation of the university we trustees have (had) a fiduciary responsibility to protect. I concluded if they could not accept the reasons I gave them there was not sufficient trust to continue serving together."
Liberty University's version of letting DeMoss resign varied from his account. The school said that members expressed their displeasure over his comments to the The Post, but the reason he was asked to step down from the committee was not related to Falwell's personal endorsement of Trump.
"Individual board members have varied reasons for their displeasure regarding Mark DeMoss' comments to the Washington Post, most of which are not related to his disagreement with Jerry Falwell's personal endorsement of Donald Trump or a belief that Mark DeMoss' motivations were entirely political. Liberty would prefer to not inventory or detail all these reasons," Liberty University said in a statement.
"While members of the Executive Committee individually asked Mark DeMoss to resign from the Executive Committee, no vote was ever taken by the Executive Committee to ask Mark DeMoss to resign from the Executive Committee or from the Board of Trustees," the school continued. "On Thursday, April 21, he was asked by the Executive Committee to resign from the Executive Committee and encouraged by members of the Executive Committee to remain on the Board and serve on another committee."
DeMoss maintained that he did not want to cut his ties with Falwell, and that both of them had a common love for the school.
"I hope we have not 'fallen out' over this matter. I am a Liberty graduate and have been associated with the school for nearly 40 years. Despite our differences on this endorsement, Jerry and I share a love for Liberty University," DeMoss said.
DeMoss had served on university's board for 25 years and also as chief of staff to Jerry Falwell Sr., who founded the university.
DeMoss was a senior advisor to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's 2008 and 2012 campaigns for presidential seat, and had supported Marco Rubio this year before he ended his presidential campaign.
Chicago Public Schools will now allow students and staff to use bathrooms and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identities.
"Chicago Public Schools (CPS) today announced the implementation of new guidelines to support transgender students, employees and adults to ensure CPS schools are safe, welcoming environments for everyone in the school community," stated a press release from CPS.
Chicago school district has about 660 schools, and over 390,000 students, who will now have access to the bathrooms that correspond with their gender identities.
"The guidelines released today will help ensure every student and adult in the CPS family can participate in an environment of complete tolerance and respect," said CPS Chief Education Officer Dr. Janice K. Jackson.
The decision by CPS comes in the backdrop of a series of state legislations which require bathroom use in conformity with birth genders, and drew criticism from many conservative groups.
"Put concretely, boys now have the 'right' to undress in the girls' locker room before gym class so long as they say they would feel more comfortable doing so," Roger Severino, the director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation, wrote in an op-ed in The Daily Signal.
"Kids and teens have many things to worry about as they grow into adulthood and get an education. But having to deal with people of the opposite sex in their bathrooms and showers shouldn't be one of them."
However, the move by CPS attracted little resistance from local advocacy groups in Chicago, and was welcomed by LGBT people who touted this as a step away from perceived discrimination.
"It's a great day for gender-diverse students in CPS," said Vanessa Sheridan, director of transgender programming at the Center on Halsted. "This is an affirmation of their viability as human beings. The tide of public opinion is shifting to support the trans community in general."
CPS cited Title IX of Education Amendments (1972) to back its new policy, which originally intended to protect women from sexism and discrimination in schools.
According to a Reuters poll taken last month, 43 percent of Americans think public bathroom should be used in alignment with birth sex, while only 41 percent say that people's gender identity needs to be considered in giving them bathroom access.
The younger generation, those between the ages of 18 and 29, were more likely to agree (62 percent to 29 percent) that people should be allowed to use bathrooms as per their gender identities.
People aged above 60 years prefer people using bathrooms in accordance with the sex listed on their birth certificates (53 percent to 27 percent).
About 64 percent Republicans, as against 23 percent, supported bathroom ordinances requiring people to use bathrooms in conformity with birth sex. On the other hand, 57 percent Democrats thought people should be allowed to use restrooms according to their gender identity, and only 29 percent disagreed.
The US Department of Justice and the North Carolina remain at odds with each other, and filed counter lawsuits accusing the other of misinterpreting and violating the law.
The Justice Department sued the state of North Carolina and Governor Pat McCrory at a federal district court in the state citing violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964), Title IX of Education Acts Amendment (1972), and Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, and asked the court to have the state repeal the bathroom ordinance.
Several hours earlier, North Carolina filed a lawsuit at a different federal court accusing the Justice Department of "radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act," and "baseless and blatant overreach." The state asked the court to decide whether the recent legislation prohibiting bathroom access to opposite sex was in violation of US law.
"We're taking the Obama admin to court. They're bypassing Congress, attempting to rewrite law & policies for the whole country, not just NC," McCrory, a Republican, wrote on Twitter.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who spoke at a press conference after filing the lawsuit, said that at present the Justice Department is seeking certification from North Carolina to ban the bathroom law, but squeezing federal funding was one of the options that could be considered in future.
"While the lawsuit currently seeks declaratory relief, I want to note that we retain the option of curtailing federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina as this case proceeds," Lynch said.
A Reuters report stated an analysis by lawyers at the University of California, according to which North Carolina may lose $4.8 billion funds, mostly from the Department of Education, if it does not repeal the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, also known as House Bill 2.
House Bill 2 was passed in March this year, and North Carolina became the first US state to pass a law requiring people to use the multiple occupancy lavatories and changing rooms in accordance with their birth genders. Earlier, the ordinance was supposed to be implemented across the state, but later its enforcement was limited to government premises. The amendment now permits local governments to make their own laws, and reinstates right to sue the government for discrimination.
The law is considered discriminatory by LGBT groups, but the governor has maintained the ordinance is a "common sense privacy policy."
Lynch said that the Justice Department was aware of other US jurisdictions that have already passed or are contemplating similar laws, but did not comment whether any action was being planned against them.
Indiana became the first state in the U.S. to install "baby boxes" under the umbrella of "Safe Haven" laws where mothers can surrender their babies to government without revealing their identities.
Safe haven laws or "Baby Moses" laws allow abandonment of babies at places sanctioned by government, and are implemented all around the country. Parents are not questioned about their decision to part with their babies at the safe haven locations, which are set up at fire stations, hospitals, and police stations. However, many parents avoid the safe haven locations for fear of disclosing their identities.
In September last year, a baby was found wrapped in several layers of coats outside a church in Indiana near a Safe Haven location.
To prevent parents from abandoning their babies outside on the streets, two "Safe Haven Baby Boxes" were opened late last month in collaboration with faith-based and pro-life groups at Indiana fire stations.
The "baby boxes" are climate-controlled and allow air circulation. The doors are automatically locked once the door is shut after putting the baby inside. Fire and medical personnel are alerted to retrieve the baby within minutes, who then take him or her to a hospital for medical evaluation. The child is then handed over to the state's Child Protection Services.
"Anything we can do to make that specific situation better," Wes Rogers, captain at the Cool Spring Fire Department told Indystar. "We try to do it every day with running our calls, fighting fires and helping sick people. This is just another way to help."
The proposal of "baby box" installation at public facilities was approved by the state government under the provisions of existing safe haven laws.
In the US, the safe haven laws were first introduced in Texas in 1999 when bodies of around dozen babies were found in city trash cans. The legislation was later adopted in other 50 states as well.
The baby-box arrangement was common in the middle ages, and was reintroduced in the modern era in 1952 in Pakistan. Since 2000, baby boxes have been installed in many countries, and are relatively common in Europe, most notably in Germany which has about 100 baby hatches. Pakistan has installed over 300 baby boxes.
In Germany, a need was felt for the 'babywieges' (baby cradles) in 1999, when frozen bodies of abandoned babies were found.
The baby box concept has also become well-known among the Korean community after the story of a Korean pastor named Jong Rak Lee, who installed a baby box and has taken care of hundreds of abandoned children since 1999, was made into a documentary called, 'The Drop Box,' which was released in March of last year.
Monica Kelsey, who pioneered the creation of the first two baby boxes with the help of other non-profits, is a volunteer firefighter and an ardent anti-abortion advocate. Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization, will fund the first 100 incubator at an estimated cost of $1,500-$2,000 per box.
"I was abandoned as an infant back in 1973, so I've always been very close to the safe haven law," Kelsey told NBC News.
In 1972, Kelsey was abandoned by her 17-year-old mother who was raped and then left to die, according to her autobiography. Her mother had considered an abortion at an underground clinic because abortion was illegal at the time. At the clinic, she had a change of heart and did not terminate the pregnancy. After Kelsey was born, she left her at a hospital.
The provision of baby boxes was opposed by the Indiana Department of Health on the grounds that they might incur high costs of installation and will need to be monitored 24/7. The department also expressed concern about the safety of such boxes in extreme weather conditions and power outages. The health officials instead recommended increasing awareness about current Safe Haven facilities.
Kelsey, who founded Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc., said that she had intended to fund the boxes privately, and was not seeking state grants. She had asked the health department 18 months to standardize and improve the incubators.
"We have listened to all the concerns and listened to all the criticisms, and it's helped us improve the box," she said. "We've never lost focus on our goal. It's to save these babies that are abandoned."
AUBURN An Auburn accountant has admitted to intentionally defrauding six of her clients, using tens of thousands of dollars for her own personal gain.
Brenda Kayn, of 2151 Turnpike Road, pleaded guilty Tuesday morning in Cayuga County criminal court to one felony count of first-degree scheme to defraud and third-degree identity theft.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Christopher Valdina said the case dates back to 2012, when Kayn a New York State certified public accountant under the name BMK Services, CPA became the subject of an embezzlement investigation.
"She was diverting money to herself," he said. "She then continued to sign checks in the names of officers for an organization when she no longer had that authority."
According to Valdina, the 53-year-old intentionally stole several thousand dollars from her clients between July 22, 2011 and Sept. 25, 2012. So far, Kayn has paid approximately $40,000 in restitution to five of her victims, but District Attorney Jon Budelmann said one victim has not been repaid due to a discrepancy over the amount of money stolen, which could exceed $100,000.
"I had a payroll service so I collected tax money," Kayn said in court Tuesday. "I was taking my clients' money and putting it into a personal account."
A restitution hearing will be held to determine the amount of money Kayn still owes. Judge Mark Fandrich is expected to sentence Kayn to three years conditional discharge for scheme to defraud and a one year conditional discharge for identity theft. Both the restitution hearing and sentencing are scheduled for July 12.
Also in court:
A level-two sex offender in Auburn will spend another two to four years in prison for intending to menace someone with a knife.
George Burgman, of 191 Genesee St., Apt. 19, pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and resisting arrest in April.
According to the district attorney, 37-year-old Burgman has a lengthy criminal history dating back to 2000, including a conviction of third-degree rape in 2008.
As part of a plea bargain, Judge Fandrich granted Burgman the minimum sentence of two to four years in prison for a second felony offender.
A second felony drug offender was sentenced Tuesday for selling heroin in Auburn.
Jafar Torkpour, 27, was charged with third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance in April 2015.
"We all know how big a problem heroin is in this community," Budelmann said in court. "The defendant has a history of dealing drugs dating back to his teens."
Judge Fandrich sentenced Torkpour, of 109 Park Pl., to six years in prison plus three years of post-release supervision.
Half of Protestant pastors say their colleagues should step down from the pulpit for a time if they are accused of misconduct.
Most say such accusations should be kept in confidence until proven.
And few think pastors who commit adultery should be permanently banned from ministry.
Those are among the findings of a new telephone survey of 1,000 Protestant senior pastors from Nashville-based LifeWay Research.
Pastors believe church leaders should be held to high standards, said Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research. They also want to protect themselves against allegations that could be false.
Researchers asked pastors four questions about how to handle allegations of misconduct. They included whether a pastor should step down during a church investigation; when, how, and whether the congregation should be informed about allegations of misconduct; and whether a pastor who commits adultery can return to the pulpit.
No consensus on stepping down
Researchers ...
1
home World Christian missionaries describe persecution in Syria, seek help from UN
A Catholic nun and priest attended the #WeAreN2016 international congress on religious freedom, which was held April 28 to 30 in New York and sought protection from the United Nations against the brutalities of persecution.
Sister Maria de Guadalupe and Father Rodrigo Miranda, missionaries from the Institute of the Incarnate Word, spoke to conference delegates about what Christians go through in Syria, particularly in Aleppo, the country's economic center. They said the attacks from Muslim extremists are a form of genocide because they are targeted toward Christians.
Christian communities are attacked particularly during celebrations of important feasts; buildings and other church properties are destroyed every Christmas and Easter.
Father Rodrigo said members of the church are "kidnapped, tortured, martyred, beheaded, cut in pieces." And this is not even the whole story.
He said the Muslim extremists attacked Christian children in various ways. They would throw their cars or motorcyles toward children attending a Christian school. They would bury them alive while their mothers watched. Some children were beheaded and their heads displayed in public places. Girls as young as 10 years old are repeatedly raped and sold for protistution.
Father Rodrigo said the hostility toward Christians stems from the Muslim extremist group's "hatred for Jesus Christ."
"The motivation of today's genocide is the same from the very beginning, from the roots of our very difficult coexistence with Islam," he said.
Sister Maria said Christians in Syria live in persecution every day. There is no place in the city where they can find refuge, she said. She appealed to the United Nations to act on the matter.
Advocacy group CitizenGO petitioned the U.N. on April 29 to recognize the genocide that the Islamic State is doing to Christians in Syria and Iraq. The group recommended that the issue be taken to the International Criminal Court.
For Father Rodrigo and Sister Maria, forgiveness is still important in the midst of the atrocities.
"At the end of the day we have the cross that Jesus Christ gives us, and that is the way," Sister Maria said.
home Faith Franklin Graham calls New York Mayor Bill de Blasio a bully for Chick-fil-A boycott campaign
Evangelist Franklin Graham refers to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's call for boycott on the popular fast food chain Chick-fil-A as nothing but a form of "bullying, intolerance, and discrimination."
The son of preacher Billy Graham and president of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse charity has shared his sentiments on his Facebook page, referring to the calls for boycott made by the NYC mayor after Chick-fil-A announced a soon-to-open branch in Queens, New York.
Graham wrote on his Facebook post, "Can you imagine a city where a popular, successful business is singled out and attacked by the mayor who calls for a boycott a all because the business owners let it be known that they operate by Christian principles and believe in God's definition of marriage?"
He adds, "That's exactly what just happened to one of America's most successful businesses. Chick-fil-A has almost 2000 restaurants and sales of more than $6 billion annually. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that doesn't like their chicken sandwiches a and their high quality service."
Graham says he's known the family owners of Chick-fil-A for many years and have great respect for them. He concluded by hoping that the chicken restaurant earns record sales in its branches in New York and even asked those who agreed with him to comment on his post their appreciation for the family.
The NYC mayor has previously made a public statement against the fast food chain during an unrelated press conference. He recalled Chick-fil-A's President Dan Cathy's stand on traditional marriage during an interview in 2012 and criticized that it was plain wrong so he said he's not going to patronize the company and urged New Yorkers to do the same.
Queens Councilman Danny Dromm, founder of Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee and who organized the first Queens Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Parade and Festival also expressed distaste on the fast food chain's anti-LGBT values and refers to it as "purveyor of hate."
home World Italy police uncover terror plot targeting Vatican and Israeli embassy in Rome
Italian police were successful in uncovering and preventing planned terrorist attacks on the Vatican and Israeli embassy in Rome, leading to the arrest of four Morrocan individuals who are suspected to be Islamic extremists.
Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli appeared in a press conference on April 28 and told reporters that the transcripts of wiretapped conversations between three of the arrested suspects have clearly pointed to the planned attacks on the Vatican and Israeli embassy in Rome. Romanelli added that the suspects used the WhatsApp messenger service in their communication and described the messages as promoting lone-wolf attacks and that they were "very strong, very serious, and very efficient."
"This is a new profile, because it was not a generic indication, but an indication given to a specific person who was invited to act within the territory of the Italian state," Romanelli informed the Italian press, according to Ansa.
The prosecutor said they decided to act fast and issued the arrest warrants right away to the four arrested suspects who were still in the northern Lombardy region and for the fugitive couple who may already be in Syria.
The arrested suspects were Moroccan Abderrahim Moutahrrick and his wife Salma Bencharki, the 23-year-old Moroccan Abderrahmaneth Khachia, and the sister of a fugitive couple. The fugitive couple are 39-year-old Alice Brignoli and her husband Mohamed Koraichi. The couple are suspected to have left Italy in late 2015 for Syria with their three small children.
Romanelli said that they have proof indicating Islamic State terrorist's link with Moutahrrick and that the latter is under orders to carry out attacks specifically in Rome. Authorities believe Koraichi is the IS fighter in Syria who gave Moutahrrick the directive. In a recorded conversation, Moutahrrick is caught talking to Koraichi saying, "For these enemies I swear if I manage to bring my family to safety, I swear I will be the first to attack...in this crusading Italy...the Vatican with the will of God."
home World Africa church receives smuggled Bibles and banned training materials
A Christian volunteer from the U.K. recently brought in Bibles to a North African country where Christian materials are prohibited, and she brought home many amazing stories.
Holly (not her real name) recounted how God "blinded" the eyes of authorities as they passed through security checks at the airport with bags full of Bibles and training materials. They were carrying about 40 books a but security did not see even one.
"When we saw some of the suitcases going through, all the suitcases were being checked, all of them, except ours!" Holly said. "Maybe God did what he did with Brother Andrew and 'blinded their eyes' to it. It was amazing that we were the only ones who didn't get searched."
Holly was a volunteer for Open Doors, an organization started by Brother Andrew who went beyond the Iron Curtain to bring in Christian materials.
Although Holly was glad about how God made the airport security overlook their bags, she was not prepared for more miraculous stories from the Open Doors partners they were visiting.
Christians are highly persecuted in the African country they visited. Locals who are caught with Bibles and other Christian books could face at least two to three years in prison.
The organization partners that Holly and the team gave the books to were going to face the ordeal of traveling to their respective local communities carrying prohibited books. And they were going to pass through 20 checkpoints where the whole car could be searched. Checkpoint authorities have been known to be extremely thorough that they searched even under people's bonnets and inside their boots.
"But it was amazing because [the Open Doors partners] said, 'We can keep the Bibles on the back seat of the car, they'll just never see them,'" Holly said.
The reason? The church holds a 24/7 prayer meeting that began in 2003 and continues until today. The local Open Doors partners said constant prayer has helped the church avoid getting caught by the authorities. It has also made the church grow so fast.
There were also stories of miracles showing God's protection for His people. In one such instance, a man planned to kill his son, who became a Christian, by giving him poisoned tea. To his surprise, his son did not die.
"You were meant to just die instantly, but I can see now that your God protected you from that, and so this whole family will follow your God," the father told his son.
Stories like this seemed commonplace in the church, according to Holly. She said local believers prayed with intense faith that they were not surprised when they see God move on their behalf.
"We're not even surprised any more, this is what happens, it's what God does," they told Holly.
home Entertainment One Million Moms protests anti-Christian show 'The Real O'Neals' and lesbian scenes on 'Once Upon a Time'
One Million Moms, an organization that focuses on negative influences on the youth, has been putting pressure on the show "The Real O'Neals." They have been calling sponsors, the latest of which is Yum! Brands, to stop supporting the sitcom as it "mocks Christianity and insults Catholicism."
"1MM recognizes this show ridicules people of faith, and Christians across America are offended by it," the appeal on their website says. "Almost every scene is filled with sexual innuendos, implications, or mockery of faith."
The group has listed down several scenes that they consider offensive, including putting a Mary statue in the toilet, the daughter stealing money for the charity funds she is raising, the mom telling her 16-year-old gay son to have s** with a girl, among others.
"ABC network refers to this highly dysfunctional family as 'the perfect Irish-Catholic family,'" the group says.
1MM is encouraging everyone to contact its new sponsor to stop giving financial support to the show. Yum! Brands operates fast food chains like Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell.
The group also disagrees with a premise in another ABC show. The fantasy family series "Once Upon a Time," on its April 17 episode, introduced its first gay couple -- Ruby, a character from "Little Red Riding Hood," and Dorothy of "The Wizard of Oz." The two had a kissing scene, which the group finds unnecessary but the network says is "important" in a show that kids watch. Gay advocacy, the showrunners reportedly said, should be "normalized" rather than "marginalized," and gay relationships should become a part of everyday life.
"Homosexuality continues to be over-represented in the media because producers want people, and especially kids, to think it's normal and everyday life," says 1MM. "In reality, that is their fairytale."
One Million Moms, along with the American Family Association, is also calling on people to cancel their PayPal accounts. The online payment services company pulled out a project in North Carolina because it disagrees with HB2, a law that keeps people from using bathrooms of the opposite biological sex. The law has been taken by many as discriminatory against LGBT people rather than a safeguard for women and children from sex predators.
Allahu Akbar and Manchester police: The difference between racism and realism
In a simulated exercise at a major shopping centre in Manchester on Monday night a fake suicide bomber shouted "Allahu Akbar".
Police have since said the decision to ask the mock terrorist to use this "religious phrase...which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam" was "unacceptable". Greater Manchester Police's Assistant Chief Constable, Gary Shewan, apologised for any offence caused.
On the same night as the simulated attack in Manchester, a very real knife attack happened near Munich in Germany. One man and three others were wounded. What turned this from a national story to an international alert was a number of witnesses who said the killer shouted: "Allahu Akbar."
So why did Greater Manchester Police feel the need to apologise? Based on recent attacks in Paris and Brussels, it is perfectly realistic to assume that, were a terrorist attack to happen in Manchester, it might have Islamist roots.
In fact Shewan said the whole operation was "based on a suicide attack by an extremist Daesh style organisation". So the problem is not in the assumption that any imminent terrorist attack would be by Islamic extremists.
The key phrase for me is a comment by Greater Manchester's police and crime commissioner Tony Lloyd. Of the use of "Allahu Akbar" he said: "It didn't add anything to the event, but has the potential to undermine the great community relations we have in Greater Manchester."
It is not that it is overly presumptive for an attacker to shout "Allahu Akbar". The problem lies more with public perception of the phrase itself and Islam more broadly.
It literally means "God is great" in Arabic. It is not a battle-cry. Incidentally it is a phrase used by thousands of Arabic-speaking Christians in their worship. But the more we associate the phrase with terror the more we become suspicious of our Muslim neighbour when they peacefully go to prayers on a Friday and recite the same phrase.
One tweet I saw read: "If you're more offended by Greater Manchester Police using 'Allahu Akbar' during exercise than by actual terrorists shouting it...you're part of the problem."
But that is not the point. It is self-evident that recent attacks have been by Islamic jihadi fighters. What is not self-evident is the fight to still treat our Muslim friends with respect and dignity. It is a point that has been made over and over again but the vast majority of Muslims are not extremists. A smear that links a common phrase in Islam's prayer cycle to global terror is unhelpful. The police, whose job is to protect communities from all forms of violence, must be especially sensitive.
As Lloyd said, it was an "ill-judged, unnecessary and unacceptable decision".
Greater Manchester Police were right to apologise.
Bishops urge government to fast track vulnerable child refugees into UK
Several bishops and dozens of rabbis have led calls for the most vulnerable children in Europe to be fast-tracked into the UK in time for the school term in September.
A letter in the Times signed by faith leaders including the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams offered to help as they said more than 300 children who are most at risk should be "brought to Britain by the start of the next school year".
The charity Unicef and Yvette Cooper, chair of Labour's refugee taskforce, has made similar calls. Cooper said it was the "minimum we should be doing and I urge you to listen to the call from faith leaders and make this commitment today".
The joint calls come after Number 10 said on Monday that Britain would not be able to accept any refugee children from Europe for another seven months. "It is a new scheme so we need to work with councils to get it up and running and that is why we expect we will have the first children arriving by the end of this year," said the Prime Minister's spokesman.
The news prompted outrage from a number of Conservative MPs, including many Christians, who had threatened to rebel if the government did not change its opposition to taking unaccompanied children from Europe.
David Burrowes, Tory MP and former chair of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, said: "The PM's decision last week was a response to an urgent humanitarian need and demands and public expects an urgent response.
"We were able to relocate 1000 vulnerable refugees from Syria in three months so it should not take seven months before we relocate vulnerable children from Europe."
Last week Cameron announced a U-turn and said Britain would take unaccompanied child refugees from camps in Europe. However he did not say how many would be accepted and a time-frame was not clear until the statement from Number 10 on Monday.
The charity Citizens UK has said 157 children from the Jungle camp in Calais have family in the UK. In their letter the faith leaders say "all the children in Calais with valid legal claims, and the first 300 identified as most at risk in Greece and Italy" should be fast-tracked to the UK.
The letter celebrates the government's "bold and decent decision" to reverse its policy but adds, "we must not forget the urgency of the situation".
The letter is signed by the bishops of Durham, Manchester, Barking, Croydon and Stepney as well as the former Archbishop of Canterbury and Territorial Commander of the Salvation Army in the UK and Ireland. Dozens of the UK's most senior Rabbis also signed the letter.
Chinese bishop who was persecuted for his faith dies aged 90
A Chinese bishop who refused to join a government organisation set up to monitor Catholics has died aged 90.
Bishop Thomas Zhang Huaixin was consecrated as Bishop of Anyang, Henan province, in 2004, but only on the condition that he would not have to join the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA).
Relations have historically been strained between the Catholic Church and China's ruling Communist party (CPC) over irreconcilable claims to authority. The Vatican does not accept the validity of episcopal consecrations by the CPCA, and an underground Catholic Church refuses to compromise with the state and is loyal only to the Pope.
Bishop Zhang Huaixin was ordained in the Church in 1950, but suffered for his faith under the CPC's rule for two decades. He was labelled a "rightist" following Chairman Mao's 'Hundred Flowers Campaign' in the late 1950s, and served six years in labour camps.
His 2004 consecration was public and state-approved, however, signalling a slight easing of tensions between the Vatican and China's hardline government.
According to the Herald Malaysia, locals described him as a "much loved pastor, who managed to keep the faith and fidelity to the Pope, while trying to deal with the government".
The diocese of Anyang is said to have grown under his leadership.
However, the CPC is believed to be becoming progressively more suspicious of the influence of Christianity, which is experiencing significant growth in China. In 2011, the Pew Center estimated that there were nine million Catholic living on the mainland.
A funeral Mass for Bishop Zhang Huaixin will be held at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Anyang on May 14.
'Fear and panic' among Christian refugees harassed and abused for their faith
There is "fear and panic" among non-Muslim refugees in Germany, it was said on Monday, as human rights organisations warned that up to 40,000 Christian and other religious minority refugees in are being harassed for their faith.
The organisations, which include the German branch of Christian persecution charity Open Doors, interviewed 231 Christians who had arrived in Germany from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Of the 231, 32 per cent said they had received death threats, and 37 per cent said they had been physically injured. Almost half said they had experienced discrimination and harassment by guards at refugee centres, and 88 per cent said they were harassed by Muslim refugees because of their faith.
According to Deutsche Welle, a protestant minister from Berlin said that Christian refugees who refused to take part in Islamic prayer were threatened.
Head of Open Doors Germany, Markus Rode, warned that the results of the survey were just "the tip of the iceberg".
The six human rights organisations at a press conference yesterday urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to "address this intolerable situation of serious human rights violation" immediately.
It is not enough to only address religious freedom violations overseas, Open Doors Germany said in a statement. "If Christian refugees and other religious minorities in Germany are looking for protection from religious persecution and are equally discriminated against and persecuted... as in their Islamic countries of origin... this is a blatant disregard of the right to religious freedom".
The organisations called for German authorities to take religion into consideration when housing refugees.
Similar calls have been made in Sweden, where activists have warned that Christians and other religious minorities are also being persecuted.
According to the Swedish Evangelical Alliance, one Christian refugee in Kalmar, south-eastern Sweden, was threatened with "slaughter", and having his throat cut by a man who claimed to have fought with jihadist groups in Syria. A Pakistani Christian couple moved into a church when the husband's name was sprayed on a wall near their room calling for his death. A separate group of asylum seekers in Kalmar were forced to leave their accommodation when their harassment escalated.
Speaking to journalists yesterday, Syrian refugee Fadi said he fled his home country to escape from Islamist extremists, but was shocked to find Muslim fundamentalists were living in his accommodation when he arrived in Germany.
Germany accepted more than one million refugees in 2015, and remains the recipient of the largest number of asylum applications, according to the UNHCR. Merkel has faced both praise and criticism for welcoming so many people fleeing violence and persecution.
Germany: 'Islamist motive' behind train stabbing that killed one, injured three
One man has been killed and three injured in a knife attack near Munich that police said appeared to have an Islamist motive.
A 27-year-old German national stabbed four passengers at the railway station at Grafing, a commuter town about 20 miles southeast of Munich, at around 5am local time.
Witnesses told police that the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar", meaning "God is Greatest" in Arabic.
A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office said that the exact words of the perpetrator have not yet been determined, but, "The assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motivation apparently an Islamist motive."
The assailant has been arrested.
A 50-year-old from the town of Wasserburg died of stab wounds in hospital shortly after the attack. The other stabbed men, aged 43, 55 and 58, sustained lighter injuries, police said.
Man knifes rail passengers at Munich train station, one killed, three injured: https://t.co/hYhH28Qj9f pic.twitter.com/16LRNgElKp Reuters Top News (@Reuters) May 10, 2016
Germany, which is playing a supporting role in the fight against Islamic State, has not suffered a major attack by Islamist militants on the scale of those that have hit neighbouring France and Belgium.
However, ministers have repeatedly warned an attack is possible and German security services are on alert.
More than 800 home-grown radicals have left Germany to join jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq and about 260 have returned.
Germany has also been a transit country for militants who carried out attacks in Belgium this year and Paris last year. There are concerns that some of the more than one million migrants who arrived in the country last year have slipped off officials' radar.
Mayor of Grafing, Angelika Obermayr, condemned today's attack.
She told Sueddeutsche Zeitung: "The idea that people get on an S-Bahn train on a beautiful morning or do their paper round and then become victims of a maniac is terrible," she said.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
Germany: Mass baptism of 80 Muslim refugees who converted to Christianity
Over 80 Muslim refugees from Iran and Afghanistan have converted to Christianity and were baptised on Thursday in Hamburg, Germany.
"The motive for the change of faith is the same for many: they are disappointed with Islam," Albert Babajan, the pastor who conducted the mass baptism, told German magazine Stern.
One Iranian refugee, Shima, told Stern how Islam had never brought her freedom, rather she had lived under constant fear of sin.
"I've been looking all my life for peace and happiness, but in Islam, I have not found it," she said.
"To be a Christian means happiness to me."
Another Iranian refugee, Solmaz, said: "In Islam, we always lived in fear. Fear God, fear of sin, fear of punishment. However, Christ is a God of love."
The ceremony was conducted in the Hamburg city park, and the converts wore white robes, before being baptised in the lake.
Conversions to Christianity among the refugee population in Germany is not uncommon. Babajan has baptised 196 Muslims in 2016 and reportedly expects this number to grow to 500 by the end of the year.
There has been some suspicion as to the true motive behind those seeking asylum's conversions to Christianity.
Germany immigration authorities give priority to Christian refugees, as they would face prosecution and even death if they returned to their native countries.
In both Iran and Afghanistan, apostates face the death penalty.
"If I have the impression that someone does not believe from the heart, then I do not baptise them," said Babajan.
Rather than asking for memorised scripture, Babajan asks people how their lives have changed.
"Because the Christian faith changed the way of thinking, the world view. If someone told me that at night he can sleep again or an old enemy could forgive, then I know that in his heart he is a Christian."
Babajan has declined baptism to many who he suspected of mal-intent.
"There are maybe 20 or 30 per cent who really want to hear the gospel. For those who want to have a license, I must face the door... It is very easy, whoever does not believe will not be baptised," he told Stern.
Myanmar: No hope yet for Rohingya under Aung San Suu Kyi
The Rohingya people of Myanmar are regarded as some of the most persecuted people in the world. They are Muslims who live in a remote part of the northwest of the country and they are seen by many Burmese people as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, though they have lived in the country for generations.
With the accession to power of Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, revered in the West for her steadfast struggle against the regime for which she spent years under house arrest, there were hopes that their situation might find some relief. However, the new ambassador of the United States to Myanmar was asked last week to refrain from even using the term. The official Myanmar position is that the Rohingya are not among the officially recognised ethnic minorities. Scot Marciel was told that using the term was not "supportive of Myanmar's national reconciliation process".
To his credit, Marciel flatly refused. "Our position globally and our international practice is to recognise that communities anywhere have the ability to choose what they should be called... and we respect that," said Marciel, in response to a question on whether he intended to continue using the term Rohingya.
He added that this has been Washington's policy before and that the administration intended to stick to it.
The incident raises fears that far from Aung San Suu Kyi's regime heralding an improvement for the Rohingyas, under pressure from extreme Buddhist religious nationalists it's business as usual.
Aung San Suu Kyi has faced international criticism for not speaking up for the Rohingya people and challenging their treatment now that she has the power to do so. However, while she controls the government, religious nationalism in Myanmar is a powerful force. The Patriotic Association of Myanmar, abbreviated to Ma Ba Tha, has offices across the country. It's run by extremist Buddhist monks convinced Islam poses a deadly threat to Myanmar's identity. It's opposed to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, seeing it as soft on Muslims and too open to Western influence. It supports laws severely restricting religious freedom.
One of its most outspoken advocates, Ashin Wirathu, has called Muslims 'mad dogs'. Ma Ba Tha's precursor, the '969' movement, was implicated in violence in Rakhine state in 2012 that left more than 200 dead and a quarter of a million displaced. Many of them were Rohingya Muslims.
The Rohingya have borne the brunt of Buddhist nationalism. They face discrimination at every level. Many live in ghettos and refugee camps. Their land has been expropriated and given to Buddhist settlers. Violence, poverty and insecurity have driven many to take to boats in an effort to reach safety, as they believe, in Thailand; many have been left to drown.
Is Aung San Suu Kyi concerned about their fate? Perhaps. However, there are worrying signs that religious liberty and the plight of minorities are not at the top of her agenda and that she may even be personally resistant to change.
Suu Kyi was interviewed in 2013 by BBC journalist Mishal Husain and was challenged about anti-Islamic attitudes in Burma. When Husain pressed her, she said: "I would like to make the point that there are many moderate Muslims in Burma who have been well integrated into our society, but these problems arose last year and I think this is due to fear on both sides.
"This is what the world needs to understand; that the fear is not just to the side of the Muslims but on the side of the Buddhists as well."
According to a book by Peter Popham, The Lady And The Generals: Aung San Suu Kyi And Burma's Struggle For Freedom, she was incensed by the questioning and was heard to mutter off-air, "No one told me I was going to be interviewed by a Muslim."
Suu Kyi has never made a clear statement opposing the persecution of Rohingyas and other minorities and she has refused to endorse the judgment of Human Rights Watch about Buddhist nationalist responsibility for violence and discrimination. She has been widely attacked for her apparent acquiescence in wrongdoing.
However, reflecting on the incident, Popham wrote that her background was tolerant and liberal. He suggests her domestic enemies have always attacked her for being too close to the West and not 'Burmese' enough and that she became "hyper-sensitive" to the charge. By depicting her as foreign, her enemies "tried to lump her together with the Muslim minority who are also regarded by many Burmese Buddhists as aliens with no right to remain in the country", he says. "My hunch is that Suu Kyi feared that if she spoke up for the Rohingya, it would make it easy for her enemies to repeat this argument and if the Burmese masses fell for it, that could erode her standing and her chances of coming to power."
Now, however, she has come to power and for the Rohingyas, all the signs so far are that nothing much is going to change.
'Remain' Christians to Brexiteers: 'You are wrong politically, historically and theologically'
Battle lines are set as two opposing Christian groups on the European Union referendum exchanged barbs in an increasingly hostile debate.
Michael Sadgrove, retired Church of England priest and founder of the Christians for Europe blog, accused another Church of England priest and Brexiteer, Giles Fraser of being "wrong politically, historically and theologically" in a letter to the Guardian.
Sadgrove wrote the letter in response to an article by Giles Fraser, co-chairman of Christians for Britain, who said the Protestant reformation provided the "intellectual roots of Euroscepticism".
Fraser wrote in the Guardian: "The EU still feels a little like some semi-secular echo of the Holy Roman empire, a bureaucratic monster that, through the imposition of canon law, swallows up difference and seeks after doctrinal uniformity."
He added: "There are those of us who protest against our laws being crafted by some foreign power, beyond the control of our domestic parliament. Brexit perfectly recycles this defiant spirit of the Reformation."
However Sadgrove argued Fraser was "ill-informed" to cite the EU as a foreign power and said it was wrong to say the reformer Martin Luther was a supporter of the separate national churches.
Sadgrove added: "Theologically, there is no basis at all for the idea of separate national churches. Indeed, Paul's letters are full of references not just to the unimportance of nationality but to the need to work together, with each playing their part and learning and growing together, with an express condemnation of schism."
However Fraser told Christian Today he stood by his comparison between Brexit and the Reformation.
"It's important to see that this debate is not just about economics but about European identity. The question of European identity has been discussed for hundreds of years," he said. "It would be mad to think the reformation was not a contributor to European identity as was the centuries of influence by the Catholic Church."
He added: "This is a debate between people on the margins and people in the centre."
The two groups will take part in a debate ahead of the referendum although no date has yet been set. They are part of a wider effort on behalf of Christians to engage with the question ahead of the referendum on June 23.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has remained neutral on the matter as has the official line of the Catholic Church in the UK. However the most senior Catholic Cardinal in England and Wales, Vincent Nichols, has said he thinks Britain would face "complex problems" if it were to leave the EU.
He added: "There is a long tradition in Christianity and Catholicism in particular of believing in holding things together. So the Catholic stance towards an effort such as the EU is largely supportive."
Rodrigo Duterte, Catholic Church foe, on his way to winning Philippine presidency
Many Filipinos, including leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, regarded Monday's presidential election in their country as a fight between good and evil. The result speaks for itself.
Rodrigo Dutertea politician likened by some analysts to Cambodia's Pol Pot who has promised to turn the Philippines into a killing fields for criminals and corrupt officials, and who has admitted having led such extrajudicial killings as the long-time mayor of Davao City in Mindanaois on his way to winning the Philippine presidency via a landslide, getting over 15 million votes, 6 million votes more than his closest rival, Aquino administration candidate Mar Roxas, with 89 percent of the votes counted as of Tuesday morning, various news sources report.
Days before Monday's election, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) called on Catholic voters not to vote for a presidential candidate who is an admitted serial human rights violator, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
In a pastoral letter titled "A Matter of Conscience," Archbishop Antonio Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro City, a Jesuit priest just like Pope Francis, blamed the mayor in the extrajudicial killings of 1,424 individuals in Davao City. "These killings are immoral, illegal and sinful," the archbishop said, adding that such killings could never be justified.
A Redemptorist priest, Fr. Amado Picardal, said among the victims were 57 females and 132 young people ages 12 to 17.
Priests and nuns gathered together praying and telling their flocks not to vote for Duterte.
Duterte simply shrugged off the Catholic bishops' criticism, saying the election would serve as a referendum for him and the prelates.
"Some bishops came out saying 'Do not vote for Duterte.' I said let this election be a sort of a referendum, a sort of a plebiscite for the Church and me," Duterte told the editors and reporters of the Philippine Daily Star on Wednesday.
He actually urged Catholics "to heed the call of the bishops" and not vote for him.
"They say it would be a sin to vote for me. Good. If I lose I will not die. You should listen to the bishops not to vote for me. That's right. Anyway, I don't believe in the bishops," he added.
Duterte also vowed that the Catholic Church would have no role under his administration.
"No more. Why should I acknowledge them? They say I should not be elected. I will not die if the Catholics will not vote for me," he said.
Underscoring his difference with the Roman Catholic Church, he said he supports family planning, both modern and natural methods, stressing that the ideal number of children per family is only two to three so they could be raised properly.
Aside from having anti-Catholic views, Duterte has shown little respect for women, even fantasizing about being first in line in gang raping a murdered Australian missionary as he himself admitted.
He has also announced his alliance with the Communists, showing deference to the exiled leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines Jose Maria Sison, also a known mass murderer, whom he called "Sir" in one recent news conference.
Duterte came to power in 1988 in Davao City, a city known to international media as the murder capital of the Philippines, due in large part to a communist insurgency, the International Business Times reports.
Over the years, Duterte was able to curb the insurgency by pursuing a ruthless war on crime. He has been elected to the mayoralty no fewer than seven times.
"We're the ninth safest city. How do you think I did it? How did I reach that title among the world's safest cities? Kill them all," Duterte reportedly said last year.
Senior ISIS leader in Iraq killed in US air strikes
ISIS' leader in Iraq's Anbar province has been killed in a US-led strike, said a Pentagon spokesman on Monday.
Abu Waheeb died with three others when their vehicle was hit near the town of Rutba in western Iraq on May 6.
"ISIL leadership has been hit hard by coalition efforts and this is another example of that," said spokesman Peter Cook. "It is dangerous to be an ISIL leader in Iraq and Syria these days, and for good reason."
Abu Waheeb has been falsely reported dead a number of time before by Iraq media but this is the first time the Pentagon has confirmed his death.
The senior fighter was a former militant in Al-Qeada and has appeared in a number of ISIS execution videos, according to Cook.
The Anbar province in western Iraq has been largely controlled by ISIS since 2014. However coalition efforts have meant a number of towns have been recaptured including Ramadi and Hit.
Given his senior role Waheeb's death will hamper ISIS' ability to run operations in the province, said Cook.
"We view him as a significant leader in Isil leadership overall, not just in Anbar province," he said. "Removing him from the battlefield will be a significant step forward."
Waheeb was born in 1986 and was described as a rising star among ISIS ranks. The former computer science student was arrested by US forces in 2006 when he was a member of Al-Qaeda. However he escaped from in prison in 2012, according to the BBC.
Though US-led air strikes have taken out a numbe of ISIS members and some important leaders in recent months. However the group still controls much of its border-spanning "caliphate," and has inspired global affiliates. It has also shown it is able to orchestrate deadly external attacks like those that killed 32 people in Brussels on March 22.
Additional reporting from Reuters.
The latest threat to religion: We're all getting too rich
A new study has come out predicting the death of religion.
This time it's because we're all getting richer. Not long ago it was because we're all living longer: young people who expect to live a long time put off worrying about what will happen to them after they die so they don't start thinking about God until they're older and closer to death.
Now, according to Dr Nicolas Baumard in Current Biology, it's money. In a study with several other academics, Baumard argues that several religions with an emphasis on self-discipline and morality arose during the 'Axial Age' (500-300 BCE) and that this was because this was because people got richer.
According to Baumard et al, affluence put rich people at an evolutionary disadvantage because they lived a "slow life" they had fewer children, had less to eat since they were less aggressive about acquiring food and may have reproduced later in life. So, he thinks, the wealthy introduced moralising religions as a way offsetting these disadvantages by controlling the poor, who were more motivated by the "fast strategies" of acquisition, greed and procreation.
Writing in the New Scientist, Baumard said: "As more and more people become affluent and adopt a slow strategy, the need to morally condemn fast strategies decreases, and with it the benefit of holding religious beliefs that justify doing so.
"If this is true, and our environment continues to improve, then like the Greco-Roman religions before them, Christianity and other moralising religions could eventually vanish."
On the face of it, this doesn't sound terribly plausible. Of course there's a link between economics and religion, and there's certainly something that needs explaining about the religious movements of the Axial Age. Perhaps the scholars have got that right, though they're going against the flow in arguing it's a disadvantage to be rich.
But where they are certainly wrong and arguably unscholarly is in imagining that they've identified a future trajectory for religion based on their analysis of what happened in 500 BC.
On their particular point that religion will die out as people get richer there are plenty of modern examples to counter it. It might be true in Europe, but in other countries China and South Korea, for example the reverse is true.
Because the truth is that religion is not just one thing. Yes, for some people it's an an insurance policy against death, so if they expect to live a long time they don't bother going to church. And perhaps it's also a way of bringing order and spiritual harmony into society, controlling the violence and unpredictability that results from inequality. We can believe Christianity is true while at the same time acknowledging it fulfils social functions.
Religion adapts, changes and survives because it's rooted deep in human nature. Christians would say that this is because, in the words of St Augustine, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you." Where faith fails to address real human need in a way that is convincing and relevant, it falters. Where it engages hearts and minds in a way that's logically compelling and emotionally satisfying, it prospers. That is the challenge for the Church in every generation, and so far, so good.
Lord Macaulay, the great English essayist and historian, took a similarly long view of the future of the Church. He was writing about the Roman Catholic Church, but Protestants might take heart from his words as well: "She saw the commencement of all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the world; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca.
"And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St Paul's."
Or, in typically pithy fashion, there's GK Chesterton, who wrote in The Everlasting Man about Christian heresies and atheist assaults: "At least five times, therefore, with the Arian and the Albigensian, with the Humanist sceptic, after Voltaire and after Darwin, the Faith has to all appearance gone to the dogs.
"In each of these five cases it was the dog that died."
Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
Trump hits back at Russell Moore: 'He's a nasty guy with no heart'
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has hit back at comments by Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, he made on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
However, Trump hit back yesterday saying: "Russell Moore is truly a terrible representative of Evangelicals and all of the good they stand for. A nasty guy with no heart!"
.@drmoore Russell Moore is truly a terrible representative of Evangelicals and all of the good they stand for. A nasty guy with no heart! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2016
Moore replied with a tweet saying "Sad", following it up with a Bible reference, to 1 Kings 18:17-19. The passage describes an encounter between Elijah and King Ahab, in which the prophet tells the king he has "abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the Baals" and challenges Ahab to bring his prophets of Baal and Asherah to a showdown on Mount Carmel.
The context does not end well for the pagans; Elijah is victorious and they are all killed. Ahab dies in battle and his wife Jezebel is eaten by dogs.
Moore also said on MSNBC that it was true he was a "nasty guy with no heart", but that was why he needed "forgiveness of sin and redemption through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I think that's where most evangelicals are. We're looking though at a situation where there's a reality television character who's saying, 'Let's just not accept what we see as cultural decay, let's glory in it. And I think that's a problem long beyond this presidential election for the culture."
The row over Trump's ascendancy in the Republican party reflects a serious problem faced by US conservative evangelicals, in that neither presidential candidate really reflects their values.
In his CBS appearance Moore said that both Trump and Clinton represented "an amoral sort of vision of America that isn't what we believe in".
He said he believes many evangelicals, particularly those aged under 50, would believe they "cannot in good conscience vote for either candidate". While some conservative evangelicals would vote for Trump, he admitted, many others would not vote at all, would find a third party candidate or would write in for someone else.
UK complicit in 'moral outrage' of corruption, say Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders
Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders have branded corruption a "moral outrage" and said British-owned territories are "among the main enables of such corruption" in a joint letter to the Prime Minister.
The strongly-worded letter comes as David Cameron prepares to host the first international anti-corruption summit in London this Thursday. He has promised to put tackling corruption at the "top of the international agenda" and hopes the world leaders at the conference will sign a pledge to expose corruption and punish those who perpetrate it.
However the letter signed by 14 global faith leaders said the UK's overseas territories and its crown dependencies are complicit in global corruption.
The leaders welcomed the government's announcement that overseas territories and crown dependencies will adopt registers of beneficial ownership which will reveal who owns and controls companies. However the letter urged these to be made available to the public. It added the progress made on public registers of beneficial ownership was "disappointing" since they were raised at the G8 meeting in 2013.
"There is ample precedent for this action (particularly in the Overseas Territories), and commitments in this area will help to demonstrate that the UK is serious about tackling corruption around the world for the benefit of the world's poorest people."
The letter is signed by global leaders from the Anglican, Quaker and Presbyterian leaders as well as Dr Hany El Banna, Chairman of the Muslim Charities Forum and Rabbi Danny Rich, Senior Rabbi and Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism.
World leaders from a number of countries historically linked to corruption will attend the conference in Lancaster House on Thursday. Among the attendees are presidents Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, and Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg.
Russia will be represented by deputy foreign minister Oleg Syromolotov.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "We are in discussions with the Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies with major financial centres about their attendance, and expect a number to join the summit."
Ahead of the gathering Cameron said corruption is "the root of so many of the world's problems" and was the "enemy of progress". This was echoed by the faith leaders in their letter who said it cost poorer countries $1 trillion every year.
"We see how corruption stunts development and leads to huge financial outflows from the developing world. It deprives developing countries of the funds they need to provide decent health, education and other public services for their citizens."
A full list of the signatories is below:
Archbishop Francisco de Assis da Silva Primate, the Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil
Revd Suzanne Matale General Secretary of the Council of Churches in Zambia
Rev Jane Nyirongo, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Zambia
Rt Rev Bishop Alfred Kalembo, President of the Council of Churches in Zambia
Father Alberto Franco Executive Director, Inter-Church Commission on Justice and Peace, Colombia
Pastor Milton Mejia General Secretary of the Latin American Council of Churches and Caribbean Council of Churches
Humberto Shikiya General Director, Methodist Church of Argentina
Pastor Romi Bencke - General Secretary of the National Council of Christian Churches in Brazil
Dr Hany El Banna, Chairman of the Muslim Charities Forum
Paul Parker, Recording Clerk, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain
Very Rev Dr David Ison, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral
Rabbi Danny Rich, Senior Rabbi and Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism
Canon Rev Joel Edwards Strategic Advisor, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Canon Dr Angus Richie - Director of the Contextual Theology Centre, and Research Associate at the Faculty of Philosophy in Oxford
The family of an Alabama student who reported a teacher for allegedly offering to raise her grade in exchange for sexual behavior has filed a lawsuit against Birmingham City Schools, the Birmingham Board of Education and her former teacher.
The teacher, Phillip Smith III, was arrested in December 2013 for allegedly running a sex-for-grades scheme at a Birmingham high school.
An investigation into his behavior began after the 41-year-old passed a note to a female freshman during a test.
"Since you thing you got it like that, come to my class seventh block, and pull down your pants and let me kiss your ... it said the a-word," the female student told AL.com. Smith offered to change her grade to an A or B.
Then he took the note back, shredded it and threw it away, the report said. The female student panicked and did not return the next day, but she did report Smith's behavior, prompting an investigation. He was ultimately caught sexually abusing another 14-year-old student and charged under Alabama's sodomy and teacher sex laws.
TEXAS SCANDAL: Ex-teacher in West Texas gets 60 years for sex with multiple students
He accepted a plea deal that allowed him to stay off the sex-offender registry and avoid prison, even though the charges carried possible penalties of 20 years in prison. He was fired after the arrest.
But the family of the student who reported him didn't believe the school had done enough to protect their daughter and filed their lawsuit.
RELATED: HISD teacher charged with indecent exposure
Smith had a criminal history in the past that the school failed to notice prior to hiring him as a teacher. In 2002, Smith pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic violence, and in 2004 he was convicted of dealing guns in a federal case in which he served time.
In 2007, after he got out of prison, he was given his teaching job back.
A Birmingham City Schools spokesman says it doesn't have any records that officials were notified of Smith's federal charges. Birmingham City Schools says he only requested a leave of absence, according to WVTM.
ARRESTED: Fort Bend teacher accused of inappropriate relationship with student
The State Department of Education told WVTM that it became aware of the domestic violence conviction in 2003, and the firearm conviction in 2008, but both times, he was determined to be suitable for employment.
"Understand that not all convictions make a person unsuitable to work in an educational environment. Convictions for the crimes listed in section 16-23-5(b) of the Code of Alabama (1975) would preclude a person from holding any certification from the Alabama State Department of Education. The crimes listed in the statute include, among others, capital murder, rape, murder, kidnapping, or robbery, and any crime involving endangerment to the health, safety, or welfare of a child that was created on or after March 31, 2010," a representative for the Alabama State Department of Education said.
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Viral superstar Todrick Hall, an Arlington native, returns to Texas with "Straight Outta Oz." It's a lavish production featuring 20 original songs, costumes and sets.
The Todrick twister touches down July 20 at Warehouse Live. Tickets are $32.50 and $100 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.
The show will "tell the tale of Hall's adventures from his small town in Texas, to the big Emerald City lights of "Oz Angeles." No word yet on witches or yellow brick roads.
Hall has become a bonafide YouTube sensation thanks to his impeccably produced music videos, which often incorporate new themes into current pop songs. His channel boasts more than 2 million subscribers and more than 334 million views.
His most popular clips, "Disney Dudez," has more than 17 million views. A tribute to Beyonce, in which he sings more than 70 of her songs in four minutes, boasts more than 8 million hits.
Hall was a semifinalist on the eighth season of "American Idol." He's also gone on to Broadway, was the subject of an MTV docuseries and choreographed Beyonce's "Blow" video, which was filmed in Houston.
Animal Collective have offered up a pair of concerts from their current Painting With tour to help raise money for a North Carolina-based organization fighting against the state's controversial HB2, also known as the "bathroom bill." The band posted the two concerts a March 9th show form Los Angeles' Fonda Theater and a April 13th gig from Manchester, England's Ritz on their Bandcamp page following their Sunday night show at Asheville, North Carolina's famed Orange Peel venue.
"Recently, North Carolina passed a law, known as HB2, that dictates which bathrooms transgender people are permitted to use and attacks the rights of LGBT citizens to sue when their human rights are violated in the workplace," the band wrote to fans. "We felt that canceling our [Asheville] show, like many others have done in protest of this law, would be a disappointment to our fans and decided to go on with the performance. That being said, we don't condone or agree with any type of bigotry or discrimination."
Rather than cancel the North Carolina performance to protest the bill like Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato, Ringo Starr and many more artists have already done Animal Collective instead used the gig "to raise awareness and help those fighting for equality," as recent N.C. visitors like Mumford & Sons, Cyndi Lauper, Alabama Shakes and Father John Misty have done.
"For those who were at the show, you may have seen a table set up for Progress NC, who we were introduced to by NC Needs You. They are an organization 'dedicated to being a voice for forward-thinking North Carolinians who want to protect the balanced approach to government,'" the band wrote. All pay-what-you-want donations from the two concerts will go toward Progress NC.
Recently, the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch recently warned North Carolina lawmakers that HB2 violates both the Civil Rights Act and Title IX, which bans discrimination in education. As a result of the Justice Department's findings, North Carolina is in danger of losing nearly a billion dollars in federal education money.
North Carolina governor Pat McCrory responded to the Justice Department by suing the government, stating that HB2 was "commonsense privacy policy." On Monday, the U.S. government responded to McCrory's suit with a lawsuit of their own, claiming that North Carolina was in violation of provisions in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Title IX the Education Acts Amendment of 1972 and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act that outlaw discrimination on the basis of sex, CNN reports.
This article originally appeared on Rollingstone.com: Animal Collective Offer Live Albums to Help Fight North Carolina's HB2
More than a decade later, local architect Scott Ballard and his personal three-bedroom home on Colquitt is still turning heads.
Or maybe it just turned my head: Ballard's 2000-era home was recently highlighted in a brief sponsored post on Houston real estate news website Swamplot. It has also been featured in several magazines, including "Fine Homebuilding." The write-up was fairly barebones, so I had a chat with Ballard himself to discuss what went into the creation of this house.
As it turns out, the home you see now was previously a small bungalow. Its transformation was not simply a matter of making it bigger, due to such considerations as the large oak trees on the lot and Ballard's love of natural light.
REAL ESTATE NEWS: Modern home tour highlights city's great contemporary design
"The large lot was covered with old oak trees and I did not want to disturb any of them with the new construction so I kept the house footprint the same size as the bungalow, which meant a three-story house because of its larger size," Ballard said in an email. "Also, the small footprint meant any large space must be on an upper floor because the garage takes up much of the ground floor."
If you take some time to look at the pictures above, you'll notice Ballard is a big fan of exposed trusses and natural lighting. The natural lighting fits into his three basic rules for great residential architecture: large interior spaces, lots of glass, and floor-to-ceiling windows to transition from indoors to outdoors. The exposed trusses give an opportunity for viewers to get not only a glimpse, but also a better understanding, of the structure.
One of the cooler features of Ballard's home is higher up.
REAL ESTATE NEWS: Architecture tour offers contemporary homes, edible gardens
"There was the idea that I must have a view of the Houston skyline which led to a 5th level roof deck with a 360 degree of downtown, uptown and the medical center," he said. "Particularly useful during fireworks displays."
The Houston Association of Realtors lists the home at around $1.4 million. For more specific details about the home, like dimensions, property tax, etc., check out their website.
Police have identified a 51-year-old man found shot to death Monday at his home in northwest Houston.
George Milson was found dead about 12:30 p.m. inside his house in the 4100 block of Oak Shadows Drive, according to the Houston Police Department.
Police said officers discovered Milson shot dead in the living room. Neighbors told investigators they had heard gunshots at the home about 12:10 a.m. Monday.
So far, homicide investigators have no witnesses or suspects in the case.
Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).
A 78-year-old man with dementia has been found safe Tuesday, two days after he went missing from his home in Rosenberg and was later spotted in Louisiana.
Robert Elliott Milburn had last been seen by his friends between about 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday, according to the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office. He returned home unhurt Tuesday morning.
A suspect has been arrested in the shooting death of a 41-year-old man last year in southwest Houston.
Jonathan Leeroy Lemons, 25, is charged with murder in the death of Gary Moorehead about 1:20 a.m. Aug. 10 at 15500 Ridgerock Road near Stiller, according to the Houston Police Department.
Opposition is building in Clear Lake to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner's proposal to stop city payments that some homeowners associations receive to help offset the cost for private waste contracts.
Area residents met in late April to organize to fight the possibility of losing the subsidy, which pays $6 monthly per household. They said they plan to speak out at a May 24 City Council meeting.
The residents hope the mayor will withdraw the proposal when faced with the threat of having almost 6,000 homes in Clear Lake opt into receiving city waste services instead of continuing private contracts.
Homeowners associations that receive the payments in Kingwood and Memorial City are also protesting the mayor's idea.
If enough neighborhoods receiving the payments were to switch to city trash services, costs to the city to drop the subsidy would be more expensive.
"These (Clear Lake) communities represent thousands of new homes that the city will now have to add to its solid waste management budget," said City Councilman Dave Martin, whose District E includes Clear Lake and Kingwood, which contain 32 neighborhoods with subsidy agreements.
Such a development would run counter to Turner's desire to reduce expenditures in all city departments, Martin said.
Attempts to reach Turner for comment were unsuccessful by presstime.
Sponsorships found primarily in 3 districts
Three council districts - E; C, which covers much of the western half of the Inner Loop; and G on the city's west side - are home to 83 percent of the city's "sponsorship" agreements, records show. These districts also have the highest median household incomes in the city.
Council member Ellen Cohen, whose District C includes just over 1,000 residents who would be affected by the proposal, seconded the mayor's plea for "shared sacrifice."
Cohen said the proposal should be studied more thoroughly to ensure it's an effective way to help reduce a $160 million budget deficit.
"I think (the proposal) is a reasonable solution to consider," said Cohen, who wondered if another option might be to continue the subsidy at a reduced amount.
In District G, 81 homeowners associations receive the subsidy, with 22,592 residents in the program.
District G Councilman Greg Travis plans to try to use a budget amendment to preserve the city's sponsorship program.
His office received numerous complaints about the proposed cut, with residents citing their private contracts as an obstacle, given that the city hasn't provided them enough notice to plan around the proposal.
Turner has said cutting sponsorship payments to 48,000 homes relying on private waste services would save the city $3.5 million.
The city would need for fewer than 16,000 homes to move from private waste contracts to city service to secure a net savings.
Sherrie Matula, president of the Middlebrook Homeowners Association in Clear Lake and one of the organizers of efforts to counter the mayor's plan, calls the proposal unfair for an area that she said the city is milking for revenue and giving little in return.
City unable to serve Clear Lake, says HOA
"We have been on trash subsidies since the annexation of Clear Lake in 1977 because the city did not have the capacity to service Clear Lake with either garbage or fire department services," she said.
Matula said the area accounts for about $900,000 of the $3.5 million the mayor is hoping to save.
In a letter to the mayor's office, Clear Lake residents described the potential elimination of the subsidy, which has helped offset costs as the price for private services have increased over the years, as "financially devastating" to their community.
Matula said private contract costs per household range from $12 to $14 per month. The city estimates it will cost a monthly $18 per household to service each home.
The letter, endorsed by homeowners associations throughout the area, also notes that the city would have to provide trash containers for each home and claims that homeowners associations can't default on their contracts without any potential legal recourse. Residents said many of the contracts for private service do not expire until next year.
Solid Waste Management Department leaders anticipate some neighborhoods will cancel their contracts but expect the change will still result in a net savings for the city.
City Council began hearings on Turner's proposed budget in late April. A final vote could come as early as May 25.
"Clear Lake residents have sacrificed for years by paying their fair share of taxes while receiving $0 from the city on capital improvement projects," Martin said via email. "Cutting their level of city service even more would be grossly inequitable and totally unfair."
PHOENIX -- Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed two measures Monday that could have allowed some developers to get around requirements to show they have enough water to sustain their projects.
The governor said the bills sponsored by Sen. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, would have undermined provisions of state laws designed to protect the state's water supply going back more than three decades. That, he said, made them unacceptable on their face.
"We're not going to allow bills that get in the way of the 1980 Groundwater Management Act or take away from the work of the people that have come before I came into office in protecting Arizona's water,'' Ducey told reporters of his opposition to the measures..
In a separate veto letter, the governor said Arizona has "a proud and longstanding reputation as a global leader in water management.''
He acknowledged Griffin's concerns that the federal government was exercising too much control of the water supply in Cochise County in its bid to ensure the continued flow of water in the San Pedro River. But Ducey said there are greater issues at work.
"While I appreciate the sponsor's efforts to protect Arizona from federal overreach, I'm concerned that SB 1268 and SB 1400 would encourage patchwork of water ordinances throughout our cities and leave our water supplies in peril,'' he wrote.
"Ensuring the certainty and sustainability of Arizona water is a top priority,'' Ducey continued. "I will not sign legislation that threatens Arizona's water future.''
The actions are the second and third vetoes of the session. Ducey earlier this year rejected a measure to mandate that students be taught cursive writing, a measure that, coincidentally, also was sponsored by Griffin.
Griffin did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
The decision is a slap at not only Griffin but the two other Republican lawmakers who represent Cochise County, House Speaker David Gowan and Rep. David Stevens, both of who had pushed for the changes. It also marks a defeat for a developer who had hoped to make an end-run around its legal problems that have so far thwarted its efforts to construct a 7,000-home development in Sierra Vista.
But Ducey called the two measures "some bad bills.''
Both measures have their roots in that 1980 law which has resulted in the creation of five "active management areas.''
For the Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson areas, the goal is "safe yield'' by 2025, when the amount of groundwater withdrawn is no more than recharge. Pinal and Santa Cruz have other goals.
Outside those areas, developers must get a determination from the Department of Water Resources of whether there is a 100-year assured water supply.
But the lack of that does not prevent them from building. They do, however, have to disclose that fact to initial buyers.
At a recent meeting, Shadow Creek Ranch residents were updated on what months of investigations have revealed about the cause of odors that have so far led to more than 1,000 complaints from the neighborhood.
The answer: Nothing.
Elected officials from Pearland and Fort Bend County and two state representatives admitted that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality hasn't found the cause or causes because the odors have been too inconsistent to glean sufficient samples.
"We're looking to exhaust all potential possibilities," state Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, said of ongoing efforts to test all potential sources of the odors.
More Information Ongoing odors Residents can report odors at: pearlandtx.gov/scrairquality. Rep. Reynolds: http://www.ronreynolds.org/contact.php Rep. Thompson: http://www.edthompson29.com/index.php/2013-03-22-01-12-37 See More Collapse
"We're making sure TCEQ has all of the adequate resources to figure this thing out," said Reynolds.
Shadow Creek Ranch resident Sean Wagner said he noticed the bothersome smell over a year ago although he and his neighbors have just continued to endure it. He even said the foul smell has progressively gotten worse, particularly in the last two months.
Attempts to reach Maria Shaw, Shadow Creek Ranch general manager, were unsuccessful.
Residents say the odors have occurred since 2008 and have been more frequent and more intense in the past year, predominantly in the west side of the master-planned community.
Advised at the May 3 meeting at Reflection Bay Event Center to continue reporting the odors to the state agency, residents voiced concerns about why the issue was so difficult to pinpoint and requested that TCEQ take more aggressive steps.
Brandon Rogers, a representative from the nearby Blue Ridge Landfill in Fort Bend County, invited residents to tour the facility to check if what they smell there is the same as some of the odors wafting around their neighborhoods.
The odors are described as ranging from that of rotten eggs and garbage to sewage to chemicals.
Rogers said the landfill is considering new ways to contain any odors, including a mist blocker system that he said barricades odors on the landfill's premises.
The area also includes facilities for companies that store hazardous chemicals, including AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry, which operates a 45-acre plant that's within two miles of most parts of Shadow Creek Ranch.
That company has expressed confidence that its plant isn't the source of the odor and has invited residents for site visits.
TCEQ representative Kevin McCloud said 35 investigations have been conducted, but despite collaborating with the city of Pearland and other entities, the agency is having trouble even characterizing the odors.
"We need to get more scientists and engineers incorporated with our real-time (weather) technology," he said, noting that winds can sweep the odors away by the time investigators arrive to collect air samples.
"Based on our toxicology division, our samples haven't indicated anything of health concern," he added.
Reynolds suggested that residents reach out to his office as well as that of Rep. Ed Thompson, R-Pearland, who also attended the meeting, so that they can work on legislation which might give TCEQ "more teeth" in resolving the issue.
Reynolds is one of four Democratic candidates competing in a May 24 runoff to represent his District 27, which includes parts of Fort Bend but does not include Pearland.
Pearland City Councilman Derrick Reed said that all parties involved were focusing efforts to resolve the issue as soon as possible, adding that it's not just an issue for residents of Shadow Creek Ranch, which includes as many as 12,000 homes, but for the city as a whole.
Reed said the state should check local companies more thoroughly to help determine all who may be accountable for the odors.
"I hate to say it again but keep reporting online," said Keith Ordeneaux, another Pearland City Council member.
"That's the best thing you can do so we can figure this thing out," he added.
The owner of an automotive supply shop in Montgomery County gave a crook an alternative to going to jail after he and others broke into the shop.
The owner of Magnolia's Texas Truck Works, Scott Stephens, reported that his business was burglarized in the early hours of May 1. The alleged thieves were able to make off with a number of high-end auto parts like shocks, springs and suspension supplies.
Rogelio Barroga Jr. moved from Hawaii to attend NAU five years ago. The youngest son of Filipino immigrants, Barroga was the first in his family to attend college.
In the weeks prior to graduation, outstanding seniors from individual colleges are awarded the Gold Axe, an award symbolizing their achievements and contributions to NAU. This year, 43 graduating students received the Gold Axe.
Gold Axe winners are also eligible for the Presidents Prize, the highest student recognition from the university. The winners are chosen by NAU President Rita Cheng to honor exceptional graduates. Barroga was one of four outstanding seniors to receive both honors.
My parents were in tears, Barroga said about when his parents found out about his awards. They were in tears to see me and my family living the American dream. This is what we came for. Im very lucky to have a family that is so supportive.
Barroga said his father was his inspiration to major in Hotel and Restaurant Management.
My dad works in a school cafeteria in Hawaii, he said. I love to see the satisfaction on his face when his work is delivered to the students. I found my passion from my dad its always good to see people happy from the things you do for them.
Throughout his college career, Barroga held internships at Disneyworld, with the New York Mets and with the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, where he secured a position after graduation.
Barroga said he gets goosebumps when describing his internship at Disneyworld, where he was the only intern chosen to work in Disneys Five Diamond restaurant.
Out of the 3,000 interns who apply, they only take one, he said. Its so good to know there are people out there who are willing to put in their time to see me succeed.
The following summer Barroga interned for the Mets, which he said was the time of my life.
I found myself at Disney, whereas New York validated that the hospitality industry is for me.
Barroga spent last summer as an intern at the Hyatt in Monterrey Bay, Calif., and was offered a position in the companys corporate management training program in Chicago after he graduates.
Barroga said he decided to move to Arizona from Hawaii after a friend attended NAU and told him about the culture and people at the university. He said the idea of four seasons also appealed to him, since it is such a stark difference from his home state.
In addition to the Gold Axe and Presidents Prize, Barroga was also awarded the best brotherhood award through his involvement with Phi Sigma Kappa, as well as most outstanding new member of all NAU Greek life.
Barroga said he is especially thankful to Cheng for choosing him for the prestigious award.
For her to give me that Presidents Prize, that meant a lot to me, he said. Im excited to see the new levels that the faculty, staff and Rita Cheng especially will take the university in the future. The university is headed in the right direction.
His family will fly in from Hawaii on Friday to watch him walk in Saturday's commencement ceremony. His parents, who speak Ilokano, a dialect of Spanish, do not speak English very well, he said, but they are proud to see their son succeed with so many honors.
Barroga said he is thrilled to be the first in his family to receive a college degree.
It feels like pure euphoria, he said. Getting that degree will validate all the hard work and perseverance over the last five years.
After five years of stops and starts, the rooftop of Northern Arizona Universitys San Francisco Street Parking Garage will soon be covered in solar panels.
The installation, which is partially funded by $1 million in student fees, is expected to be up and running by September.
According to an agreement signed last week by Northern Arizona University President Rita Cheng, NAU will enter into an agreement with Denver-based BriteStreet Energy Group for a 700-kilowatt solar panel system. That's enough to offset nearly 2 percent of NAU's annual electricity usage.
Instead of paying for the panels outright, the university will pay BriteStreet a certain price for the energy generated by the system for 20 years. After that point, NAU will have paid for the system and will take ownership of it.
When completed, NAUs setup will be the largest individual solar installation in the Flagstaff area, generating about 1.2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, or about as much as used by 110 homes.
Though he didnt have exact numbers, John Morris, the universitys associate vice president for facility services, estimates the system will cost about $4 million.
A large part of making the solar panels a reality was a decision by the universitys student-led Green Fund to commit $100,000 per year for 10 years to help fund the project. The Green Funds budget is supported by a $5-per-semester fee assessed on all students.
Without that money, as well as an approximately $70,000-per-year incentive from Arizona Public Service for the next 20 years, the project wouldnt have happened, Morris said.
Those two contributions bring the cost NAU will pay BriteStreet down to 3 cents per kilowatt hour, which is 1.2 cents less than the rate APS currently charges the university for electricity, Morris said. If energy costs follow the universitys projections, it will save about $12,000 per year on its power bills for the next 20 years, Morris said. After that, when NAU will own the panels, those savings increase and over a 30-year time frame, the university estimates it will avoid about $1 million in energy costs, he said.
In return for shelling out $100,000 per year on the panels for the next decade, students with the Green Fund will get a say in how a portion of the universitys energy savings are spent after the system is paid for 20 years from now, Morris said. He said half of the savings an estimated $500,000 will be put into a fund that students and the university together will decide how to spend on sustainability projects.
Because the lifetime of the solar panels is 30 to 40 years, Morris said he could see that money being used to pay for new solar technology to replace the aging panels.
It would be a great way to keep whole thing going, he said.
In terms of how the solar panels will play into the universitys carbon neutrality goals, because APS is paying NAU for the solar power, the utility will be getting the credit for that renewable energy for the next 20 years. Only after the APS incentive runs out will NAU be able to count the solar power as clean energy in its portfolio, Morris said.
STUDENT DOLLARS
The commitment of $100,000 per year for the next 10 years was a substantial one for the Green Fund, established in 2010 with the mission of supporting student projects that help the university reduce its impact on the environment. Chipping in for the solar panels will now take up half of the funds annual budget.
But students at the helm of the Green Fund and the sustainability-focused Green Jacks group agreed that the financial commitment is well worth it for a project that so directly and visibly aligns with campus sustainability goals.
Those student groups have pushed for solar panels on campus since 2012. After some progress, the initiative hit a stalemate in November 2014 after the Green Fund and university administrators disagreed on how the energy savings should be split between the two. Instead of discouraging students though, it energized them, said Brandon Vanbibber, chair of the Green Jacks.
Vanbibber said last year the Green Jacks and the Green Fund worked together to raise awareness and grow support for the solar panels, including collecting petition signatures in favor of the concept. Vanbibber estimated they collected a total of 1,500 signatures.
Considering the bumpy road to the current solar agreement, it is an exciting moment for students and administrators to have finally reached a compromise, said Jessica Lazor, chair of the Green Fund.
I think this is a critical step forward toward making and keeping relationships between students and administrators for sustainability-related activities, she said.
The panels represent a great starting point, Vanbibber said.
Its a really important statement to make to students that sustainability is important and a priority moving forward, he said.
The following editorial appeared in The Orange County Register on Wednesday, May 4:
In yet another example of government waste, bureaucratic bloat and excessive regulation, Americans complete more than 23,000 forms for 68 federal agencies each year, according to a new analysis by the American Action Forum. Just filling out all these forms consumes 11.4 billion hours, which works out to about 35 hours per person almost a full work week.
The biggest offender, by a large margin, was the Health and Human Services Department, with 5,005 forms, including 943 forms related to the Affordable Care Act. That was 34 percent more than the next agency, the Agriculture Department, with more than 3,700 forms. This includes 334 forms for vegetables and specialty crops, which is more than the total number of crops actually sold in the country (222), AAF noted. The Commerce Department came in third with more than 2,000 forms.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Treasury Department, home to the Internal Revenue Service, came in only fourth with 1,599 forms 1,053 related to the tax code. These forms imposed far and away the greatest time burden, however, accounting for 77 percent of the total, thanks in large part to the incomprehensible individual and corporate tax system in the U.S., AAF added.
As if the sheer number of forms were not inconvenient enough, more than 1,400 Agriculture forms, more than 1,000 Treasury forms and nearly 450 HHS forms 28 percent of those agencies forms cannot be submitted online, AAF found.
While some forms are necessary to apply for certain programs, verify eligibility and make sure people are who they say they are, the amount of paperwork imposed on the public has clearly gotten out of hand as has the amount of government regulation in general.
The number of federal forms, 23,000, should give pause to regulators seeking to add more to the pile or to members of Congress wanting to cede additional power to the executive branch, AAF concluded.
It should also crystallize the need to significantly reduce the size and scope of government. The thought of filling out endless forms to provide personal information, file income taxes and apply for countless government programs would have been inconceivable to our nations founders. It should shock the conscience still today.
A lifeline for Puerto Rico
The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, May 3:
Drowning in red ink, the Puerto Rican government missed another big debt payment Monday. And while the island has defaulted on such bills multiple times over the past year, the process cant go on much longer the government has been cashing out whatever it can get its hands on just to keep operating. Meanwhile, it faces a growing number of lawsuits that could make it harder, if not impossible, to chart an orderly path out of its fiscal misery.
Thats why its encouraging to see leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Obama administration converging on a sensible proposal to help the territory climb out from under the crushing weight of its $70 billion debt. The measure would set up an oversight panel to help steer the islands finances and create a way to restructure its debt. Having dug itself into a ditch, the Puerto Rican government clearly needs independent supervision of its revenues and spending. And because U.S. territories are not permitted to go through bankruptcy the way companies and cities can, Congress has to provide a way to resolve the many competing claims from investors while protecting the interests of its 3.5 million residents who are, after all, American citizens.
Some important details remain to be negotiated, though, and an even bigger and more consequential default looms on July 1. That means lawmakers and the administration have to settle their differences soon on provisions governing how debts will be restructured, pensions protected and some badly needed growth injected into the islands economy.
Just as important, recalcitrant Republicans need to get over the idea that the bill would somehow bail out profligate Puerto Rican leaders. Theres no taxpayer-funded rescue here, just the overdue creation of a process to stop the fiscal bleeding and restructure debt. Until those steps are taken, the islands government will continue shuffling money desperately from one creditors account to another while its citizens, many of whom are impoverished, are neglected. (One example of that neglect is the islands limited response to the Zika epidemic.) And the longer Congress waits, the greater the chance that the island will sink too deep into the red to restructure its debts, and really will need a bailout.
Nepal stuck in neutral year after quake
The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday, May 4:
The actions of Nepal, assessed one year after its 2015 earthquake, is an excellent, unfortunate example of the maxim that the neediest countries are the hardest to help.
On April 25, 2015, the mountainous, landlocked state, population 28 million, sandwiched between China and India, was hit by a major earthquake. It killed an estimated 9,000 persons and destroyed many buildings in many towns and villages, including the capital, Kathmandu. Nepal is a poor country, its people depending primarily on agriculture.
The humanitarian world responded well. Donors, including China, India, Japan, Britain and the United Nations, pledged some $4.1 billion. America has provided some $130 million for relief and recovery.
The problem is that, a year later, virtually all of the $4.1 billion remains in the hands of the donors and has not yet been devoted to reconstruction, including in the vital domain of housing. It took Nepals government until December to set up a National Reconstruction Authority.
The reason is distressingly simple. The Nepalese government wants the donors aid to be channeled through it, enhancing its authority, but, much worse, giving its officials the maximum opportunity to steal.
Nepal, at present, has what can be considered to be an appallingly bad government. Its monarchy came to an end in 2008, to be succeeded by a maelstrom of political parties and factions. Its politicians first fought over a new constitution. More recently, Nepal has been scrapping with neighboring India, especially pointless given that India is one of the major post-earthquake potential aid donors.
In spite of the human misery engendered by the tangle standing in the way of meaningful recovery and reconstruction, the world should wait until Nepalese government officials stop standing in the way of the worlds desire to help the people of the country. As it stands now, the situation in Nepal has the eerie ring of efforts to help Haiti.
As Obama visits Vietnam, we wait for real reform
The following editorial appeared in The Seattle Times on Friday, May 6:
President Barack Obamas visit to Vietnam this month is an opportunity to remind that authoritarian nations leaders of their obligations to respect basic human rights.
Vietnamese-Americans will be following the trip. Many of them fled communist rule themselves and remain concerned about the welfare of their loved ones in the homeland.
A recent crackdown on peaceful critics of Vietnams one-party government casts doubt on the countrys ability to adhere to the promises it made as one of 12 signatories to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
To be included in that international trade agreement last year, Vietnam agreed for the first time to allow the formation of labor unions and to follow higher environmental-conservation standards. Such promises supposedly marked the beginning of a new era of transparency and civil discourse.
For part of 2015, Vietnam reported a decline in arrests and prosecutions of political dissidents.
But the numbers have suddenly crept up. As of last December, the U.S. State Department estimated that the government was still holding 95 political prisoners. On its Vietnam webpage, Human Rights Watch warns the countrys record remains dire in all areas. Those who dare to question state media or discuss civil rights in the open are subject to intimidation and assault.
In the last week of March alone, Vietnam courts convicted seven bloggers and activists.
Blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh and his editorial assistant, Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, were sentenced to five and three years in prison, respectively, for abusing democratic freedoms by simply posting critical views of the government on their popular website.
Last December, lawyer Nguyen Van Dai was removed from his Hanoi home after teaching human-rights workshops. His family has not been allowed to visit him or get him an attorney.
Other activists have been beaten up by police and subject to arbitrary detention. More than a dozen others have died while in custody.
Before Vietnam and the U.S. get too chummy over trade deals and a mutual desire to contain Chinas rise, they must first confront Vietnams systemic oppression against its own people. At every stop, President Obama should not let his hosts forget that the international community is watching and waiting for real reforms.
Wars fog, and fault, in hospital attack
The following editorial appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday, May 2:
Last October, a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship shelled a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, for nearly 30 minutes. The military was looking for a Taliban command center, but instead destroyed a facility operated by Doctors Without Borders. The international aid organization says 42 people many of them women, children and medical personnel died. A hundred people were being treated at the hospital at the time of the attack.
International outrage was swift. The Pentagon quickly admitted the assault was the result of human error and promised a thorough internal report that would assign blame and punishment. President Barack Obama issued an apology.
The loss of life prompted the organization to leave the region because it couldnt guarantee the safety of its workers or patients. The organization, founded in France and known primarily as Medecins Sans Frontieres, was not satisfied with the Pentagons assurances that it could mount a comprehensive inquiry and called for an independent international investigation to guarantee transparency. Its leaders called the attack a war crime.
On Friday, the Pentagon announced that 16 military personnel will be disciplined for their roles in the attack, but not court-martialed. It concluded that the airstrike was the result of human error and equipment malfunction. Accidents, incompetence and bad judgment are not war crimes, according to the commanders.
For failing to follow the militarys rules of engagement, punishment will include letters of reprimand, extensive retraining, suspensions and removal from command. This will effectively end a few careers and prevent promotion to higher ranks for all, but it is not the robust response that Doctors Without Borders called for.
The Pentagon apologized for the loss of innocent Afghan life and authorized condolence payments to 170 individuals and families as compensation. Nearly $6 million has also been allocated for the construction of a new hospital in Kunduz. Still, one has to ask whether the lack of court-martials in this case is a reasonable response to the facts. Is the idea of military justice an oxymoron when the military investigates itself?
99998. State 97760, Dhahran 464.2 Tiran.
1. Ambassador requested deliver following personal message in written form from Secretary to FonMin Eban re Tiran problem:
Dear Mr. Minister:
As you know, the continued presence of Israeli troops on the island of Tiran was one of the matters we discussed during the President's recent cordial discussions with Prime Minister Eshkol in Texas.3
We noted to the Prime Minister the desirability that Israel provide public indications of its willingness to reach understandings with the Arabs and suggested that withdrawal of your troops from Tiran would be one example of what we had in mind. The Prime Minister expressed understanding of this view but indicated that it would be difficult for your government to contemplate withdrawal from Tiran in the absence of assurances regarding the consequences of this act for Israel.
Encouraged by these exchanges, I subsequently instructed the US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia to explore this question further with King Faisal. Our Ambassador had a frank and detailed discussion of this subject with His Majesty on January 13. The King's comments made clear: (a) that he regards Tiran Island as part of Saudi territory, and [Page 107]that, for example, his government has granted a concession covering the island; and (b) that he has no plan to militarize Tiran or to use it to impede freedom of navigation into Tiran Strait.
I am greatly encouraged by His Majesty's position. On the basis of his assurances to our Ambassador, I believe that the problems the Israeli side foresaw if your government withdrew will not arise. Specifically, I would expect neither alienation of this portion of Saudi territory, its militarization nor its use in any way to interfere with freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran. I would therefore hope that your government would now consider that its troops can be withdrawn from the island without incurring adverse consequences for Israel.
As we have earlier indicated to your government, such action will remove a serious embarrassment in our own relations with the Saudi authorities. I therefore look forward to receiving a favorable response from your government. It will, of course, be immediately communicated to King Faisal and will, I am sure, have a useful and helpful impact.4
Sincerely
yours, Dean Rusk
2. Since much of good effect of forthcoming Israeli position on Tiran would be vitiated by public disclosure of King Faisal's attitude, we assume that FonMin will agree that this aspect should receive no publicity. For record, we will take a similar line with Saudis when conveying Israeli decision.
Rusk
Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967-69, POL 32-6 TIRAN. Secret; Exdis. Drafted on January 16 in NEA/ARP by Brewer; cleared by Atherton, Battle, and in the White House by Saunders; and approved by Rusk. Repeated to Jidda.
Neither printed.
See Documents 3941.
In a conversation with Battle on February 5, Ambassador Harman stated that Foreign Minister Eban was prepared to take up the issue of Tiran Island with the Israeli Cabinet but first needed a U.S. response to a number of clarifications. Harman asked if the United States could obtain Saudi Arabian acknowledgment that the Straits of Tiran was an international waterway. Israel also asked whether the United States could obtain from Saudi Arabia a binding written undertaking that Tiran Island would remain permanently uninhabited. Israel also asked whether the United States would underwrite any such Saudi undertakings by making them a matter of U.S. responsibility and commitment as regards Israel. Harman indicated that he was instructed to stress the need for absolute precision in these assurances. (Telegram 111432 to Tel Aviv, February 7; National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967-69, POL 32-6 TIRAN) Ambassador Eilts in Jidda assessed the Israeli response to Secretary Rusk's letter as very disappointing, and noted that Israel was proposing conditions that King Faisal could not accept. Eilts felt that the Israeli conditions raised the question of whether Israel had any intention of leaving Tiran unless forced out. (Telegram 2776 from Jidda, February 10; ibid.)
Nude photos of a teacher in a southwest Texas town close to the border has administrators there scrambling to figure out how the images ended up online.
The teacher, whose name has not been released by the school district, filed a report with the City of Eagle Pass Police Department during the last week of April that someone posted her nude photos on social media.
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A planned high-speed rail line remains a popular project with city officials, many of whom are holding onto hope for an eventual downtown terminal.
"We are looking at the best interests of the city," said District K Councilman Larry Green, noting the city is seeking an engineering firm to study a downtown rail link.
RELATED: Houston named among America's worst designed cities
Texas Central Partners, the private firm proposing the Houston-to-Dallas line, briefed a city council committee Monday, telling officials they remain on track to break ground in late 2017.
"That might slide into early 2018," said Shaun McCabe, vice-president of Texas Central Railway.
Any connection to downtown, which would likely require public funding, would be built later, said Holly Reed, manager of external affairs for Texas Central Partners.
The railway company will operate trains carrying up to 400 passengers every 30 minutes during peak times between the two metro regions. The trip will take about 90 minutes, officials said.
RELATED: Metro cities with the best public transportation
Texas Central Partners is developing the project, though the two are largely the same entity. Company officials said the entire project estimated to cost around $12 billion will be privately funded. Texas-based investors and engineering companies have contributed an initial round of investment, while the Japan Bank for International Cooperation will contribute significantly.
The bank helps fund projects that export Japanese technology, such as the Texas Central will do by importing Shinkansen high-speed train technology to Texas.
Questions remain about the line, particularly in rural areas where opposition is strong. Ranchers and county officials in many places between Houston and Dallas have called the line disastrous for their quiet way of life.
In Houston, concerns focus more on the effect in specific neighborhoods and worries over noise and visual blight. The issue that has drawn the most attention is the plan by Texas Central to stop the line near U.S. 290 and Loop 610.
RELATED: How Houston will look differently during the Super Bowl
"I am concerned there is a possibility of land-locking my district," District A Councilwoman Brenda Stardig said, noting details have made it hard to determine the traffic effects the line will have.
The train line would run parallel to U.S. 290, Hempstead Highway and a freight rail line, which Stardig said could be too much for the area to overcome in terms of crossings and large impediments cutting the neighborhoods in half.
The lack of a downtown connection, meanwhile, continues to worry some officials, including Green and Mayor Sylvester Turner. Houston Public Works has a pending request for proposals for an engineering firm to study the downtown link in greater detail. Green said the study would give Houston more information about the importance of a downtown link, which would then be turned over to the company so they can consider a possible link.
"It might make sense for them to do it," Green said. "We as a city want to know what the impact would be and is there another way."
RELATED: This is how much time, money you're wasting in traffic each year
Reed, the Texas Central spokeswoman, said the company would consider any alternative outside its own plans as "complementary" to its own plans. She compared the Houston discussion to a similar conversation happening in the Dallas area, where a link to Fort Worth is being studied.
That extension, however, is predicated on public funding, Reed said.
The next step in developing the line is a draft environmental report, expected in late summer or early fall. The report will be followed by a round of public meetings, in coordination with the company and the Federal Railroad Administration. Federal officials have to eventually approve the route and technology used and clear the company to proceed.
The deadline for the city's request for a qualified firm to study options for extending the high-speed rail or adding other transit services is May 27.
A Houston man at the center of a trial that stirred gang tensions and heightened police presence at the Harris County Courthouse was convicted Tuesday of murder.
The guilty verdict against Jonathan Rawlins, 23, in the 2015 shooting death of Ernest Moore drew little reaction in the courtroom, where more than a dozen of Rawlins' supporters watched from one side of the room while about a dozens of the victim's family and friends watched from the other side.
NASA officials on Tuesday announced that the Kepler Space Telescope has discovered 1,284 new planets, including some the same size as Earth.
"This announcement more than doubles the number of confirmed planets from Kepler," said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star much like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth."
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A federal judge in Houston Monday signed off on a back-to-school shopping excursion for a college student awaiting trial on charges of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes granted the uncontested defense motion for Asher Abid Khan, a 21-year-old University of Houston student, to spend one day doing back-to-school shopping with supervision by a probation officer.
READ MORE: Judge issues unusual one-sentence demand in terror case
Khan's lawyer, Tom Berg, stated in his request that Khan, who is free on bond and lives with his parents, has grown since his arrest and no longer fits in his school clothes. Khan's conditions of release allow him to attend school and religious services.
Khan faces up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted of supporting the international terrorist organization. He was 20 in June when a federal magistrate judge released him on $150,000 bond.
A special agent at the FBI testified at his detention and probable cause hearing that Khan caught officials' attention at the McAllen division while he was living in Australia in 2014. The agent testified that Khan sent a Facebook friend request to a man identified in court as SRG, whom he apparently knew from his mosque in Spring Cypress, called Champions Mosque.
THE ARREST: Spring man nabbed, accused of planning to join ISIS
According to the FBI agent, Khan told SRG via Facebook that he wanted to join ISIS, and he spelled out what each of the letters of ISIS stood for. A couple of weeks later, Khan told another unnamed individual that he wanted to "die as a shahid," or martyr for the Quran.
The FBI agents believe that Khan and SRG made plans to meet in Turkey near the Syrian border, but that Khan cut the trip short and returned to Houston because his parents and possibly the FBI had learned of the plan.
Under cross examination at the June 2015 hearing, the agent testified that Khan was partially interested in joining the effort in Syria because he was afraid his brothers and sisters might die there.
ISIS IN AMERICA: U.S. citizens accused of crimes tied to the Islamic State
Assistant U.S. Attorney U.S. citizens accused of crimes tied to the Islamic State Carolyn Ferko argued that Khan should be detained until trial on the basis that he had planned to commit suicide over a girlfriend when he was 16, that he expressed interest in becoming a martyr in 2014 and he had a passport and had traveled abroad in the past.
Threatening comments left on a Facebook page are prompting officials with the Council on American-Islamic Relations to call for an investigation by law enforcement, including the FBI.
The comments were apparently directed toward downtown Houston's Islamic Da'wah Center at 201 Travis.
"Need to blow this place up. We don't need this s--t in Texas," a commenter posted on the "Heart of Texas" Facebook page.
"I agree," another person replied.
The comments were posted on May 6. Arsalan Safiullah, a CAIR attorney, said he was tipped off about them on Monday. They were still on the Facebook page later that day.
"This clear threat to bomb a religious institution must be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice," Safiullah said.
Safiullah said he contacted the FBI's Washington, DC's headquarters about the threatening comments about noon on Monday. Houston-based FBI officials said they had not yet received the information from Washington but would be reaching out to CAIR in the meantime about the group's concerns.
"We take such matters very seriously and encourage anyone with information about a local threat to report it to the FBI or local law enforcement immediately," said Special Agent Shauna Dunlap, an FBI spokeswoman.
Safiullah said he was concerned the threats were made on the same Facebook page that was announcing a May 21 protest outside the Islamic center. The message said protestors could be armed.
"In the current climate, we haven't seen such a level of hate coming our way. We've been really concerned," Safiullah said. "If it was a Muslim person saying this about a church, I would hope a church group would also contact the FBI."
Some of the comments left on the Facebook page, however, were critical of the May 21 event and the anti-Muslim tone of the messages.
"Maybe instead of protesting a library, Y'all should read some books," one person wrote.
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The Houston mother who provided drugs and alcohol to her son and his prom date that may have contributed to the girl's death was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months behind bars.
Melissa Martinez pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing a controlled substance, taking responsibility for doling out hydrocodone pills to her son, 18-year-old Eddie Herrera and his date, 17-year-old Jacqueline Gomez.
Gomez died in a hotel bed after prom on May 16, 2014.
READ MORE: Jury sentences Houston man in prom death to decades in prison
Herrera, who attended Aldine's MacArthur High School with Gomez, was sentenced to 25 year in prison for assaulting her after prosecutors proved he choked her, likely during rough sex, causing serious bodily injury.
Medical examiners said it was unclear whether Gomez died from the choking, a drug overdose or a combination of the two.
THE CRIME: Teen accused of strangling his girlfriend during sex after prom
Martinez was taken into custody Tuesday after admitting she gave the teens drugs and two bottles of whiskey, as rented the room for after the prom.
She also lied to Gomez's mother about when the teens would be home, which was what the bereaved mother took her to task for on Tuesday.
"You're not even sorry for what you did," Annie Barron told Martinez from the witness stand. "And the punishment you got, you deserve every day. Every day."
The plea deal, in state District Judge Vanessa Velasquez's court, attracted family from both sides.
Prosecutor Justin Wood, who convicted Herrera, said he would object to any early release for good time for Martinez.
Defense attorney David Mitcham said Martinez felt regret and pain for what happened.
"I think this is a sad and tragic case for everyone involved," he said after the hearing.
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WASHINGTON - In her passport, Nesita Manceau lists her occupation as "housewife." But she does oh-so-much more. On paper at least, she's a corporate titan. And she's been tangled in an arms-running scandal involving North Korea and Iran.
Manceau is what could be called a "zombie director" of shell companies. She's been on the boards of scores of them. Lawyers in Florida, Oregon and Nevada have clients who call on her services.
The 55-year-old Filipina, who until recently was living in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, exercises what is required of an offshore corporate director: She simply signs her name. Time and time again.
Practically the sole function of an offshore corporate director is to cloak the identity of the real owner of a company or trust. The director serves as a legal shield, of sorts.
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The documents known as the Panama Papers teem with these zombie directors who sign corporate papers at the bidding of unidentified owners. Such directors can oversee, at least on paper, hundreds - and sometimes thousands - of corporations.
They are a crucial cog in the machinery of foreign law firms and registration agents who churn out phantom corporations, stock them with proxy directors, slap a soothing name on them, and register them on atolls or far-away nations. It is a volume business.
True owners of the shell companies often want passive directors with no control over, or even knowledge of, actual operations. Secretaries, Burger King cooks and housewives will do.
Corporate registration agents like Mossack Fonseca, the Panama law firm whose 11.5 million leaked documents comprise the Panama Papers archive, earn extra fees when they stock the boards of offshore entities with nominees who usually have no clue as to the identity of the true owners.
"The fact is, if you waterboarded them, they wouldn't come up with the name of the beneficial owner because they don't know," said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who has spent decades investigating money laundering and the use of offshore corporations.
But when government investigators come around trying to figure out who owns an offshore corporation, Mossack Fonseca offers up their names as if they had an actual financial stake and knowledge of operations. That happened in 2011, when the director of the Financial Investigation Agency of the British Virgin Islands, Errol George, wrote Mossack Fonseca inquiring about Fincom Trade Ltd. A company officer quickly responded.
"The Beneficial Owner of the company is Ms. Nesita Manceau whose address is: 1st Floor, Pacific Building, Port Vila, Vanuatu," wrote J. Elizabeth Maduro.
See-no-evil nominee directors are the mirror opposite of directors in the real corporate world, who usually have firsthand business experience that they use to hire and fire chief executives, oversee corporate decisions and protect shareholder interests.
The massive leak from the Mossack Fonseca law firm, shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its partners, including McClatchy Newspapers, includes emails, copies of passports and financial records, which all cast light on the structures used in offshore companies, including the functionaries like Manceau.
Manceau was born in a remote Philippine hamlet called Cabay in Eastern Samar province. Her former husband said she once served as a housekeeper after moving to the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.
"She was a house girl for Geoff," said Rene Manceau, a Frenchman who described himself as apainter. "Geoff," he said, was Geoffrey Taylor, an eccentric Brit who emigrated to Asia in the 1960s.
"She lived here for 20 years. She's in the Philippines now. She left Vanuatu four years ago," Manceau said in a telephone call from Vanuatu. The couple have a daughter, Elodie, who did not respond to messages left on her Facebook account. The mother could not be reached in the suburb of Manila where she resides. "I don't think she has a telephone. She's very poor. She has no money. My daughter asks me to send her money."
Manceau said his ex-wife has only a basic education - "nothing more than six years."
In spite of her humble roots - or perhaps because of them - Nesita Manceau directs corporations registered all over the world. She's been a director of companies in Britain, the Ukraine, Belize, the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, the Seychelles, Hong Kong and elsewhere. Manceau first appears in Mossack Fonseca records as a corporate director in 2001.
Exactly what she earned for each directorship is not known. But she usually worked with Taylor who set up a vast enterprise, the Vanuatu-registered GT Group Ltd., to register some 2,500 offshore companies, according to the documents. Taylor was known to pay 20 New Zealand dollars (about $13.50 U.S.) to his nominee directors.
Taylor matched Manceau's simplicity with his own eccentricity. He claimed to hold a knighthood from the Principality of Hutt River, a secessionist village in western Australia, and also called himself Lord of the Manor of Stubbington, a feudal title dating to the 11th century that he had apparently purchased.
One of GT Group Ltd.'s creations was a company called VicAm (Auckland) Ltd., of which Manceau carried the title of director. In mid-2009, VicAm Ltd. spun off SP Trading Ltd. Then the company exploded into global headlines.
On Dec. 12, 2009, Thai security forces seized a Russian-built Illyushin-76 cargo plane on the airport tarmac in Bangkok. The manifest said the aircraft carried "oil industry spare parts." But the agents discovered 35 tons of rocket-propelled grenades, missile and rocket launchers and surface-to-air missile launchers in the cargo hold.
The plane had left North Korea and was reportedly headed to Iran. It had stopped in Bangkok to refuel.
The seizure revealed a complex web of companies. The aircraft was owned by a company in the United Arab Emirates but was operated by a firm in Georgia, which in turn leased the aircraft to SP Trading, which chartered the plane to a Hong Kong company. The mastermind of the arms deal has never been publicly identified. The crew of four Kazakhs and a Belarusian pilot were held but later freed.
Employees of Mossack Fonseca stood by Taylor, who is now 73.
"He is a man of high credibility, professional history and moral standard . We do guarantee that Mr. Taylor and his GT Group are genuine and clean partners," an employee who signed his name as "Jiri" wrote in an interoffice email from the Prague office, where Jiri Myslivec worked, to headquarters in Panama. The Czech branch of Mossack Fonseca handled much of Taylor's business, often setting up shell companies in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
McClatchy could not locate Taylor. Journalists never succeeded in tracking down Manceau after the weapons seizure. And she continued to direct offshore companies registered by the Panama law firm until 2013.
Nominee directors of offshore companies that run afoul of the law rarely face penalties. The director of SP Trading was a Chinese national, Lu Zhang, who worked as a cook at a Burger King restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand. She pleaded guilty in 2010 and was convicted of making false statements on company registration forms but was released without penalty.
Manceau never ran into legal trouble. She was director of VicAm (Auckland) Limited, the sole owner of SP Trading.
Robert Palmer of Global Witness, a London-based watchdog group monitoring natural resource exploitation and money laundering, said nominee directors of offshore corporations are often seen as hapless and bearing little responsibility.
"It's precisely because these people cut such sad figures - or because they are not seen as the real masterminds of the businesses," Palmer said.
Nominee directors literally rent out their names, often for little money, and should face legal scrutiny, he said. "If you started prosecuting nominee directors, it would certainly become less attractive to be a nominee."
Emails show that Mossack Fonseca would routinely keep signed resignation letters on file of zombie directors so that they could be replaced at any moment.
Manceau is also known in the United States. She is, or has been, a manager or officer in four limited liability companies registered in Florida between 2004 and 2008. The lawyer who handled the incorporations, Mark Hankins, whose website lists his office in Lutz, north of Tampa, did not respond to emails or phone messages.
She also was listed as a manager of two LLCs in Nevada and two corporations in Oregon, all of which were registered between late 2004 and 2007.
The Portland, Oregon, lawyer who handled the two incorporations there, Lake Perriguey, declined to discuss how Manceau came to be listed as president.
"I can't really talk to you about any of my clients," Perriguey said.
Zombie directors at least nominally oversee companies that can move huge sums of money. In March 2015, Mossack Fonseca considered cutting ties with a Seychelles woman, Elisana Marie-Antoinette Labonte, who serves frequently as a director. Her name came up on a website, whistleblowers.org, as director of a Russian-controlled company seeking to transfer 240 million euros ($273 million) for "humanitarian, social, economic and development projects." The outcome of the debate was not immediately apparent.
As active as Manceau has been, the employees of Mossack Fonseca outpace her as corporate directors. The champion is Leticia Montoya Moran, a 63-year-old "corporate officer" at Mossack Fonseca who has sat on the boards of 10,969 companies in recent decades, according to a tally of the Panama Papers archive.
A document from the end of 2015 puts Montoya's monthly salary at $900. Her home is in Vacamonte, a working-class Panama City area with an erratic potable water supply.
Other Mossack Fonseca employees aren't far behind Montoya in directorships of companies in which Mossack Fonseca was the registered agent. Francis Perez has been a director of 10,544 entities, and Katia Solano of 5,296 entities. Both earn salaries similar to Montoya's.
"When you come up with a bunch of nominee directors who are on 5,000 corporate boards, there's no way in hell they know anything about the corporation," Blum said. "They don't know squat about it. Nor is it ever likely they will."
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AUSTIN -- Underscoring the growing political obsession of top state officials over where transgender Texans use the restroom, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday called for the ouster of the Fort Worth school superintendent over a new policy allowing students to use whichever potty they feel most comfortable with.
The unusual step of a state official injecting himself into a local issue came hours after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton publicly applauded North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory's announcement that his state is suing the U.S. Department of Justice to leave intact a controversial new law requiring people to use the public restroom based on their sex at birth.
"Dr. (Kent Paredes) Scribner has lost his focus and thereby his ability to lead the Fort Worth ISD. He has placed his own personal political agenda ahead of the more than 86,000 students attending 146 schools in the district by unilaterally adopting 'Transgender Student Guidelines,' Patrick said in a statement.
"Without any discussion with parents, board members, principals, and other community leaders, Dr. Scribner's unilateral action, underscores this lack of fitness to hold his position as superintendent.
"Every parent, especially those of young girls, should be outraged," Patrick continued. "I call upon the parents within the Fort Worth ISD to take immediate steps to repeal this stealthy scheme and remove Dr. Scribner from his post."
Scribner was not immediately available for comment.
Patrick's comments came after he said recently he would support a so-called "bathroom bill" like the one recently adopted in North Carolina. He said the issue is one of safety.
The Fort Worth guidelines mandate that students have access to restrooms consistent with "the gender identity that each student consistently and uniformly asserts," and requires accommodations in locker rooms, as well.
The policy requires school officials to offer transgender students access to a single-stall restroom or the opportunity to use a restroom when no other students are present, if they or other students are uncomfortable with them using a regular restroom.
Earlier in the day, Paxton issued a statement hailing North Carolina's decision to sue the federal government over its restroom-policy law -- and transgender advocates immediately blasted his position as continuing extremism.
"When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling on marriage equality, the attorney general instructed county clerks throughout the state to disregard the federal law. ... Now, the attorney general wishes to bring North Carolina's problems, boycotts and codified discrimination to Texas," said Steve Rudner, board chairman of Equality Texas. "Paxton is on the wrong side of the law again and wasting taxpayer dollars to further his own extremist agenda."
"A state the size of Texas cannot afford the economic losses currently being endured by North Carolina while the state steadfastly clings to a law demonizing the entire LGBT community," Rudner said.
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Border agents found a house in South Texas Monday filled with more than 35 undocumented immigrants and as well as a shrine to the La Santa Muerte, or the Goddess of Death, according to a news release issued Tuesday.
The bust began when U.S. Customs and Protection agents stopped a vehicle driven by a known smuggler in the Texas border city of Edinburg on Monday.
The traffic stop led to the discovery of the stash house in the 1700 block of North McColl, where agents ultimately found 37 people inside. Three of those were juveniles from Mexico and Honduras, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.
RELATED: CBP: 'Callous' human trafficker found with 31 'illegal immigrants' stuffed into Texas apartment
Agents arrested a U.S. citizen and a Mexican national who were alleged to have been the caretakers for the 37 people, who were transported to McAllen Border Patrol Station for processing, the news release reported.
At the home, investigators also found a shrine to the Goddess of Death, La Santa Muerte.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the saint is associated with the drug trade and narco-culture, but the "saint" is also associated with Day of the Dead. Santa Muerte is believed to be a protector of souls residing in the dark underworld.
RELATED: $1.6 million in illegal drugs seized at border on Good Friday
These immigrants are essentially held for ransom, Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr.said in a statement. And, these smugglers are putting these migrants in harms way in the middle of our residential neighborhoods.
RELATED: CBP: Eagle Pass agents seize more than 14 pounds of heroin hidden in a vehicle
Earlier in the weekend, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents rescued 25 illegal immigrants who were either part of smuggling attempts or needed medical attention near various checkpoints. They found numerous people hiding in trunks of vehicles, and as many as 13 smuggled people inside a camper trailer, according to a separate news release.
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Twitter: @tylerlwhite
-- TO THE CONVENTION: Ted Cruz is not releasing his delegates in at least three states, a sign he may hold onto some clout at this summer's Republican National Convention. Cruz sent a letter to Republican state parties in at least Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas on Monday informing them that he plans to keep the delegates he won bound to him.
Kansas delegates are particularly key: They are required to remain with whomever they are pledged to until the candidate officially releases them -- unlike most states, they are not allowed to vote their conscience unless explicitly given permission, which Cruz isn't giving them, by CNNs Teddy Schleifer.
-- Cruz braces supporters for platform fight with Trump, by Politicos Eli Stokols and Katie Glueck. The 25-minute call was a pep talk of sorts after the disappointment of last weeks Indiana primary, which forced Cruz to end his campaign and cemented Trump as the GOPs presumptive nominee.
Cruz, who spoke for four minutes, thanked supporters while acknowledging their disappointment along with his own. Asked to characterize Cruzs remarks, one source on the call replied, disappointed in [the] result, but no direct call to challenge Trump nomination. Simply to show up in Cleveland to protect [the] platform.
-- Cruz is itching to get involved in the bathroom wars From the APs Alan Fram: In an interview, (former Virginia AG Ken) Cuccinelli said supporters would push one platform plank saying, in effect, Boys should only be allowed to go in the boys' bathroom, and girls should only be allowed to go in the girls bathroom.
-- Dan Patrick heads to Fort Worth today, ahead of the Fort Worth ISD board meeting to personally express his outrage about the districts policy on transgender bathroom use, as the Star-Telegrams Yamil Berard put it.
In a dramatic move seeking to reverse a decision by the Fort Worth independent school districts new superintendent, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has called for the resignation of Kent Paredes Scribner after just six months on the job. Patrick blasted a proposal from Scribner, who was hired in October, that allows transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice and is consistent with their gender identity.
-- The Chrons Mike Ward sums up the policy: The Fort Worth guidelines mandate that students have access to restrooms consistent with the gender identity that each student consistently and uniformly asserts, and requires accommodations in locker rooms, as well. The policy requires school officials to offer transgender students access to a single-stall restroom or the opportunity to use a restroom when no other students are present, if they or other students are uncomfortable with them using a regular restroom.
-- Quorum Reports Scott Braddock: The actual Trump effect in Texas The minority party here is coming off a 2014 general election that saw more than $40 million spent on an effort that by any objective measure was a disaster, with the Democratic statewide ticket losing by more than 20 points. Every presidential result in Texas going back to 1992 when a Clinton was first on the ballot shows Democrats high-water mark here is about 44 percent for Clinton in 1996 and roughly the same for President Obama in 2008.
That fact, however, does not mean Democrats are without new opportunities in this once-in-a-lifetime election as the presumptive GOP nominee is not even embraced by the top elected Republican in the country: US House Speaker Paul Ryan. This publication is not in the business of predicting races but there is no doubt the battlefield is shifting.
-- Texas GOP chair race features contentious rematch, by the Statesmans Sean Collins Walsh. Although Woodfill has tried to cast Mechler as part of the establishment, the chairman isnt shying away from the presidential candidate that the national GOP establishment has spent months resisting, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Asked why he supported Trump given the candidates history of comments alienating Latinos and women, groups Mechler has tried to bring into the Texas GOP fold, he said, I think that candidates, when they run for nominations, take one position and frequently come back closer to the mainstream when it comes to the general. So I would expect some modification in some of that rhetoric in the future.
-- After Cruz bows out, Texas tea party mulls whats next, by the Chrons Mike Tolson. If nothing else, the tea party faithful are that - filled with faith. Not just in Cruz, but in the holiness of a cause based on constitutionally limited government and lower taxation. What started in anger and frustration about seven years ago already has changed the face of politics. But its adherents say they are sick that Cruz likely won't get the chance to pit his true conservative values against Hillary Clinton in November - a contest they are convinced he would have won.
CAPITOL DAYBOOK
HOUSE: 9 a.m. Higher Education (E2.014)
SENATE: 9 a.m. Property Tax Reform and Relief, Select (University of Houston)
SPEED READ
For foster kids, a push to make medical care treat psychological pain, Texas Tribune
City Hall grapples with Uber, Lyft departure as new firms eye opening, Austin American-Statesman
Why Uber and Lyft arent battling Dallas like they Austin, Dallas Morning News
Ramsey: Texas legislator, not local voters, have the final say, Texas Tribune
Judge in Mexico says El Chapo can be extradited to U.S., The New York Times
Cruz campaign used over use of music in videos, Associated Press
Convictions, lawsuits dont slow re-election bid, The Texas Tribune
RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
-- GOPers on Capitol Hill grapple with new Trump reality, by the APs Erica Werner. Congressional Republicans are returning to Capitol Hill to confront an awkward new reality: Donald Trump is their presumptive presidential nominee, but instead of uniting behind him, leading figures like House Speaker Paul Ryan are withholding their support.
That highly unusual state of affairs is creating a tricky situation for Republicans in the House and Senate, some of whom fear Trump could prove a drag on their own re-election chances in a year when the GOP is fighting to hang onto its slim Senate majority.
-- How Trump is running to the left of Hillary, by WashPosts Jose DelReal. Thats not the only area where the presumptive Republican nominee sounds like Sanders, who is challenging Clinton for the Democratic nomination. On a series of issues, including free trade and foreign military intervention, Trump is effectively running to the left not only of his own party but also of Clinton.
For weeks, Trump has openly praised Sanders, crediting the senator from Vermont for raising questions about the former secretary of states judgment on campaign finance, trade and foreign policy. He has also pointed to Sanderss questioning of Clintons qualifications as a sign that the topic is fair game.
-- COURTING SWING COUNTIES Per WashPosts Abby Phillip: Loudoun County was her first general-election-focused campaign stop since Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee Virginia has already held its primary and it highlighted the suburbs key role in this election. Loudoun narrowly went for President Obama in 2012, but the county is at the western edge of densely populated, liberal Northern Virginia, so its voters still sometimes lean conservative. Virginias 10th Congressional District, which includes all of Loudoun and is represented by Republican Barbara Comstock, is a target for Democrats seeking to flip the seat blue.
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Nudist baby boomers are struggling to recruit young people to join their liberated cause, according to an article in a Canadian publication.
CBC News reports that nudists at Van Tan Club in North Vancouver are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to lure in millennials.
"It's an older group, and I don't know why, but it tends to stay an older group," nudist Linda Kent, 65, told CBC News. "People who join tend to be older."
One club member suspects that "social and body image pressures" are deterring young folks, who are more self-conscious about their naked selves.
The naturist movement has been dealing with declining membership for some time. In 2007, the American Association for Nude Recreation estimated that 90-percent of its 50,000 members were over the age of 35. Many nudist colonies have tried marketing specifically to 18-35 year olds, but their numbers are still faltering.
An article in Tan, an Australian naturist magazine, speculates that Gen X and Yers don't like "formal, group activities" and are afraid of being outed as nudists on social media.
But most importantly, a lack of young people has caused a real manpower crisis in nudist colonies.
"It would be nice to have younger members because we're getting too old to do the physical work," Kent said. "Somebody's gotta do it."
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.
The Tow Center for Digital Journalisms Emily Bell spoke to Edward Snowden over a secure channel about his experiences working with journalists and his perspective on the shifting media world. This is an excerpt of that conversation, conducted in December 2015. It will appear in a forthcoming book: Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State, which will be released by Columbia University Press in 2016.
Emily Bell: Can you tell us about your interactions with journalists and the press?
Edward Snowden: One of the most challenging things about the changing nature of the publics relationship to media and the governments relationship to media is that media has never been stronger than it is now. At the same time, the press is less willing to use that sort of power and influence because of its increasing commercialization. There was this tradition that the media culture we had inherited from early broadcasts was intended to be a public service. Increasingly weve lost that, not simply in fact, but in ideal, particularly due to the 24-hour news cycle.
We see this routinely even at organizations like The New York Times. The Intercept recently published The Drone Papers, which was an extraordinary act of public service on the part of a whistleblower within the government to get the public information thats absolutely vital about things that we should have known more than a decade ago. These are things that we really need to know to be able to analyze and assess policies. But this was denied to us, so we get one journalistic institution that breaks the story, they manage to get the information out there. But the majorsspecifically The New York Timesdont actually run the story, they ignore it completely. This was so extraordinary that the public editor, Margaret Sullivan, had to get involved to investigate why they suppressed such a newsworthy story. Its a credit to the Times that they have a public editor, but its frightening that theres such a clear need for one.
In the UK, when The Guardian was breaking the NSA story, we saw that if there is a competitive role in the media environment, if theres money on the line, reputation, potential awards, anything that has material value that would benefit the competition, even if it would simultaneously benefit the public, the institutions are becoming less willing to serve the public to the detriment of themselves. This is typically exercised through the editors. This is something that maybe always existed, but we dont remember it as always existing. Culturally, we dont like to think of it as having always existed. There are things that we need to know, things that are valuable for us, but we are not allowed to know, because The Telegraph or the Times or any other paper in London decides that because this is somebody elses exclusive, were not going to report it. Instead, well try to counter-narrative it. Well simply go to the government and ask them to make any statement at all, and we will unquestioningly write it down and publish it, because thats content thats exclusive to us. Regardless of the fact that its much less valuable, much less substantial than actual documented facts that we can base policy discussions on. Weve seemingly entered a world where editors are making decisions about what stories to run based on if itll give oxygen to a competitor, rather than if its news.
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I would love to hear your thoughts on this, because while I do interact with media, Im an outsider. You know media. As somebody who has worked in these cultures, do you see the same thing? Sort of the Fox News effect, where facts matter less?
The distance between allegation and fact, at times, makes all the difference in the world.
Bell: Its a fascinating question. When you look at Donald Trump, theres a problem when you have a press which finds it important to report what has happened, without a prism of some sort of evaluation on it. Thats the Trump problem, right? He says thousands of Muslims were celebrating in the streets of New Jersey after 9/11 and its demonstrably not true. Its not even a quantification issue, its just not true. Yet, it dominates the news cycle, and he dominates the TV, and you see nothing changing in the pollsor, rather, him becoming more popular.
There are two things I think here, one of which is not new. I completely agree with you about how the economic dynamics have actually produced, bad journalism. One of the interesting things which I think is hopeful about American journalism is that within the last 10 years theres been a break between this relationship, which is the free market, which says you cant do good journalism unless you make a profit, into intellectually understanding that really good journalism not only sometimes wont make a profit, but is almost never going to be anything other than unprofitable.
I think your acts and disclosures are really interesting in that its a really expensive story to do, and it is not the kind of story that advertisers want to stand next to. Actually people didnt want to pay to read them. Post hoc theyll say, we like The Guardian; were going to support their work. So I agree with you that theres been a disjuncture between facts and how they are projected. I would like to think its going to get better.
Youre on Twitter now. Youre becoming a much more rounded out public persona, and lots of people have seen Citizenfour. Youve gone from being this source persona, to being more actively engaged with Freedom of the Press Foundation, and also having your own publishing stream through a social media company. The press no longer has to be the aperture for you. How do you see that?
Snowden: Today, you have people directly reaching an audience through tools like Twitter, and I have about 1.7 million followers right now (this number reflects the number of Twitter followers Snowden had in December 2015). These are people, theoretically, that you can reach, that you can send a message to. Whether its a hundred people or a million people, individuals can build audiences to speak with directly. This is actually one of the ways that youve seen new media actors, and actually malicious actors, exploit what are perceived as new vulnerabilities in media control of the narrative, for example Donald Trump.
At the same time these strategies still dont work [] for changing views and persuading people on a larger scope. Now this same thing applies to me. The director of the FBI can make a false statement, or some kind of misleading claim in congressional testimony. I can fact-check and I can say this is inaccurate. Unless some entity with a larger audience, for example, an established institution of journalism, sees that themselves, the value of these sorts of statements is still fairly minimal. They are following these new streams of information, then reporting out on those streams. This is why I think we see such a large interplay and valuable interactions that are emerging from these new media self-publication Twitter-type services and the generation of stories and the journalist user base of Twitter.
If you look at the membership of Twitter in terms of the influence and impact that people have, there are a lot of celebrities out there on Twitter, but really theyre just trying to maintain an image, promote a band, be topical, remind people that they exist. Theyre not typically effecting any change, or having any kind of influence, other than the directly commercial one.
Bell: Lets think about it in terms of your role in changing the world, which is presenting these new facts. There was a section of the technology press and the intelligence press who, at the time of the leaks, said we already know this, except its hidden in plain sight. Yet, a year after you made the disclosures, there was a broad shift of public perception about surveillance technologies. That may recede, and probably post-Paris, it is receding a little bit. Are you frustrated that there isnt more long-term impact? Do you feel the world has not changed quickly enough?
Snowden: I actually dont feel that. Im really optimistic about how things have gone, and Im staggered by how much more impact theres been as a result of these revelations than I initially presumed. Im famous for telling Alan Rusbridger that it would be a three-day story. Youre sort of alluding to this idea that people dont really care, or that nothing has really changed. Weve heard this in a number of different ways, but I think it actually has changed in a substantial way.
Now when we talk about the technical press, or the national security press, and you say, this is nothing new, we knew about this, a lot of this comes down to prestige, to the same kind of signaling where they have to indicate we have expertise, we knew this was going on. In many cases they actually did not. The difference is, they knew the capabilities existed.
This is, I think, what underlies why the leaks had such an impact. Some people say stories about the mass collection of internet records and metadata were published in 2006. There was a warrantless wiretapping story in The New York Times as well. Why didnt they have the same sort of transformative impact? This is because theres a fundamental difference when it comes down to the actionability of information between knowledge of capability, the allegation that the capability could be used, and the fact that it is being used. Now what happened in 2013 is we transformed the public debate from allegation to fact. The distance between allegation and fact, at times, makes all the difference in the world.
That, for me, is what defines the best kind of journalism. This is one of the things that is really underappreciated about what happened in 2013. A lot of people laud me as the sole actor, like Im this amazing figure who did this. I personally see myself as having a quite minor role. I was the mechanism of revelation for a very narrow topic of governments. Its not really about surveillance, its about what the public understandshow much control the public has over the programs and policies of its governments. If we dont know what our government really does, if we dont know the powers that authorities are claiming for themselves, or arrogating to themselves, in secret, we cant really be said to be holding the leash of government at all.
One of the things thats really missed is the fact that as valuable and important as the reporting that came out of the primary archive of material has been, theres an extraordinarily large, and also very valuable amount of disclosure that was actually forced from the government, because they were so back-footed by the aggressive nature of the reporting. There were stories being reported that showed how they had abused these capabilities, how intrusive they were, the fact that they had broken the law in many cases, or had violated the Constitution.
One of the biggest issues is that we have many more publishers competing for a finite, shrinking amount of attention span thats available.
When the government is shown in a most public way, particularly for a president who campaigned on the idea of curtailing this sort of activity, to have continued those policies, in many cases expanded them in ways contrary to what the public would expect, they have to come up with some defense. So in the first weeks, we got rhetorical defenses where they went, nobodys listening to your phone calls. That wasnt really compelling. Then they went, Its just metadata. Actually that worked for quite some time, even though its not true. By adding complexity, they reduced participation. It is still difficult for the average person in the street to understand that metadata, in many cases, is actually more revealing and more dangerous than the content of your phone calls. But stories kept coming. Then they went, well alright, even if it is just metadata, its still unconstitutional activity, so how do we justify it? Then they gowell they are lawful in this context, or that context.
They suddenly needed to make a case for lawfulness, and that meant the government had to disclose court orders that the journalists themselves did not have access to, that I did not have access to, that no one in the NSA at all had access to, because they were bounded in a completely different agency, in the Department of Justice.
This, again, is where youre moving from suspicion, from allegation, to factualizing things. Now of course, because these are political responses, each of them was intentionally misleading. The government wants to show itself in the best possible light. But even self-interested disclosures can still be valuable, so long as theyre based on facts. Theyre filling in a piece of the puzzle, which may provide the final string that another journalist, working independently somewhere else, may need. It unlocks that page of the book, fills in the page they didnt have, and that completes the story. I think that is something that has not been appreciated, and it was driven entirely by journalists doing follow-up.
Theres another idea that you mentioned: that Im more engaged with the press than I was previously. This is very true. I quite openly in 2013 took the position that this is not about me, I dont want to be the face of the argument. I said that I dont want to correct the record of government officials, even though I could, even though I knew they were making misleading statements. Were seeing in the current electoral circus that whatever someone says becomes the story, becomes the claim, becomes the allegation. It gets into credibility politics where theyre going, oh, you know, well, Donald Trump said it, it cant be true. All of the terrible things he says put aside, theres always the possibility that he does say something that is true. But, because its coming from him, it will be analyzed and assessed in a different light. Now thats not to say that it shouldnt be, but it was my opinion that there was no question that I was going to be subject to a demonization campaign. They actually recorded me on camera saying this before I revealed my identity. I predicted they were going to charge me under the Espionage Act, I predicted they were going to say I helped terrorists, blood on my hands, all of that stuff. It did come to pass. This was not a staggering work of genius on my part, its just common sense, this is how it always works in the case of prominent whistleblowers. It was because of this that we needed other voices, we needed the media to make the argument.
Because of the nature of the abuse of classification authorities in the United States, there is no one thats ever held a security clearance whos actually able to make these arguments. Modern media institutions prefer never to use their institutional voice to factualize a claim in a reported story, they want to point to somebody else. They want to say this expert said, or this official said, and keep themselves out of it. But in my mind, journalism must recognize that sometimes it takes the institutional weight to assess the claims that are publicly available, and to make a determination on that basis, then put the argument forth to whoever the person under suspicion is at the time, for example, the government in this case, and golook, all of the evidence says you were doing this. You say thats not the case, but why should we believe you? Is there any reason that we should not say this?
This is something that institutions today are loath to do because its regarded as advocacy. They dont want to be in the position of having to referee what is and is not fact. Instead they want to play these both sides games where they say, instead well just print allegations, well print claims from both sides, well print their demonstrations of evidence, but we wont actually involve ourselves in it.
Because of this, I went the first six months without giving an interview. It wasnt until December 2013 that I gave my first interview to Barton Gellman of The Washington Post. In this intervening period my hope was that some other individual would come forth on the political side, and would become the face of this movement. But more directly I thought it would inspire some reflection in the media institutions to think about what their role was. I think they did a fairly good job, particularly for it being unprecedented, particularly for it being a segment in which the press has been, at least in the last 15 years, extremely reluctant to express any kind of skepticism regarding government claims at all. If it involved the word terrorism, these were facts that wouldnt be challenged. If the government said, look, this is secret for a reason, this is classified for a reason, journalists would leave it at that. Again, this isnt to beat up on The New York Times, but when we look at the warrantless wiretapping story that was ready to be published in October of an election year, that [election] was decided by the smallest margin in a presidential election, at least in modern history. Its hard to believe that had that story been published, it would not have changed the course of that election.
Bell: Former Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson has said her paper definitely made mistakes, I wish we had not withheld stories. What youre saying certainly resonates with what I know and understand of the recent history of the US press, which is that national security concerns post-9/11 really did alter the relationship of reporting, particularly with administration and authority in this country. What we know about drone programs comes from reporting, some of it comes from the story which The Intercept got hold of, and Jeremy Scahills reporting on it, which has been incredibly important. But a great deal of it has also come from the ground level. The fact that we were aware at all that drones were blowing up villages, killing civilians, crossing borders where they were not supposed to be really comes from people who would report from the ground.
Something interesting has definitely happened in the last three years, which makes me think about what you are telling us about how the NSA operates. Were seeing a much closer relationship now between journalism and technology and mass communication technology than weve ever seen before. People are now completely reliant on Facebook. Some of that is a commercial movement in the US, but you also have activists and journalists being regularly tortured or killed in, say, Bangladesh, where its really impossible to operate a free press, but they are using these tools. It is almost like the American public media now is Facebook. I wonder how you think about this? Its such a recent development.
Snowden: One of the biggest issues is that we have many more publishers competing for a finite, shrinking amount of attention span thats available. This is why we have the rise of these sort of hybrid publications, like a BuzzFeed, that create just an enormous amount of trash and cruft. Theyre doing AB testing and using scientific principles. Their content is specifically engineered to be more attention getting, even though they have no public value at all. They have no news value at all. Like heres 10 pictures of kittens that are so adorable. But then they develop a news line within the institution, and the idea is that they can drive traffic with this one line of stories, theoretically, and then get people to go over onto the other side.
Someones going to exploit this; if its not going to be BuzzFeed, its going to be somebody else. This isnt a criticism of any particular model, but the idea here is that the first click, that first link is actually consuming attention. The more we read about a certain thing, thats actually reshaping our brains. Everything that we interact with, it has an impact on us, it has an influence, it leaves memories, ideas, sort of memetic expressions that we then carry around with us that shape what we look for in the future, and that are directing our development.
Bell: Yes, well thats the coming singularity between the creation of journalism and large-scale technology platforms, which are not intrinsically journalistic. In other words, they dont have a primary purpose.
Snowden: They dont have a journalistic role, its a reportorial role.
Bell: Well, its a commercial role, right? So when you came to Glenn and The Guardian, there wasnt a hesitation in knowing the primary role of the organization is to get that story to the outside world as securely and quickly as possible, avoiding prior restraint, protecting a source.
Is source protection even possible now? You were extremely prescient in thinking theres no point in protecting yourself.
Snowden: I have an unfair advantage.
Bell: You do, but still, thats a big change from 20 years ago.
Snowden: This is something that we saw contemporary examples of in the public record in 2013. It was the James Rosen case where we saw the Department of Justice, and government more broadly, was abusing its powers to demand blanket records of email and call data, and the AP case where phone records for calls that were made from the bureaus of journalism were seized.
That by itself is suddenly chilling, because the traditional work of journalism, the traditional culture, where the journalist would just call their contact and say, hey, lets talk, suddenly becomes incriminating. But more seriously, if the individual in question, the government employee who is working with a journalist to report some issue of public interest, if this individual has gone so far to commit an act of journalism, suddenly they can be discovered trivially if theyre not aware of this.
We see the delta between the periods of time that successive administrations can keep a secret is actually diminishingthe secrets are becoming public at an accelerated pace.
I didnt have that insight at the time I was trying to come forward because I had no relationship with journalists. I had never talked to a journalist in any substantive capacity. So, instead I simply thought about the adversarial relationship that I had inherited from my work as an intelligence officer, working for the CIA and the NSA. Everything is a secret and youve got two different kinds of cover. Youve got cover for status, which is: Youre overseas, youre living as a diplomat because you have to explain why youre there. You cant just say, oh, yeah, I work for the CIA. But you also have a different kind of cover which is whats called cover for action. Where youre not going to live in the region for a long time, you may just be in a building and you have to explain why youre walking through there, you need some kind of pretext. This kind of trade-craft unfortunately is becoming more necessary in the reportorial process. Journalists need to know this, sources need to know this. At any given time, if you were pulled over by a police officer and they want to search your phone or something like that, you might need to explain the presence of an application. This is particularly true if youre in a country like Bangladesh. I have heard that theyre now looking for the presence of VPN [virtual private network software] for avoiding censorship locks and being able to access uncontrolled news networks as evidence of opposition, allegiance, that could get you in real trouble in these areas of the world.
At the time of the leaks I was simply thinking, alright the governmentand this isnt a single government nowwere actually talking about the Five Eyes intelligence alliance [the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Canada] forming a pan-continental super-state in this context of sharing, theyre going to lose their minds over this. Some institutions in, for example, the UK, can levy D notices, they can say, look, you cant publish that, or you should not publish that. In the United States its not actually certain that the government would not try to exercise prior restraint in slightly different ways, or that they wouldnt charge journalists as accomplices in some kind of criminality to interfere with the reporting without actually going after the institutions themselves, single out individuals. We have seen this in court documents before. This was the James Rosen case, where the DOJ had named him as sort of an accessorythey said he was a co-conspirator. So the idea I thought about here was that we need institutions working beyond borders in multiple jurisdictions simply to complicate it legally to the point that the journalists could play games, legally and journalistically more effectively and more quickly than the government could play legalistic games to interfere with them.
Bell: Right, but thats kind of what happened with the reporting of the story.
Snowden: And in ways that I didnt even predict, because who could imagine the way a story like that would actually get out of hand and go even further: Glenn Greenwald living in Brazil, writing for a US institution for that branch, but headquartered in the UK, The Washington Post providing the institutional clout and saying, look, this is a real story, these arent just crazy leftists arguing about this, and Der Spiegel in Germany with Laura [Poitras]. It simply represented a system that I did not believe could be overcome before the story could be put out. By the time the government could get their ducks in a row and try to interfere with it, that would itself become the story.
Bell: Youre actually giving a sophisticated analysis of much of whats happened to both reporting practice and media structures. As you say, you had no prior interactions with journalists. I think one of the reasons the press warmed to you was because you put faith in journalists, weirdly. You went in thinking I think I can trust these people, not just with your life, but with a huge responsibility. Then you spent an enormous amount of time, particularly with Glenn, Laura, and Ewen [MacAskill] in those hotel rooms. What was that reverse frisking process like as you were getting to know them? My experience is as people get closer to the press, they often like it less. Why would you trust journalists?
Snowden: This gets into the larger questionhow did you feel about journalists, what was the process of becoming acquainted with them? Theres both a political response and a practical response. Specifically about Glenn, I believe very strongly that theres no more important quality for a journalist than independence. Thats independence of perspective, and particularly skepticism of claims. The more powerful the institution, the more skeptical one should be. Theres an argument that was put forth by an earlier journalist, I.F. Stone: All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed. In my experience, this is absolutely a fact. Ive met with Daniel Ellsberg and spoken about this, and it comports with his experience as well. He would be briefing the Secretary of Defense on the airplane, and then when the Secretary of Defense would disembark right down the eight steps of the plane and shake hands with the press, he would say something that he knew was absolutely false and was completely contrary to what they had just said in the meeting [inside the place] because that was his role. That was his job, his duty, his responsibility as a member of that institution.
Theres an argument that was put forth by an earlier journalist, I.F. Stone: All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed. In my experience, this is absolutely a fact.
Now Glenn Greenwald, if we think about him as an archetype, really represents the purest form of that. I would argue that despite the failings of any journalist in one way or another, if they have that independence of perspective, they have the greatest capacity for reporting that a journalist can attain. Ultimately, no matter how brilliant you are, no matter how charismatic you are, no matter how perfect or absolute your sourcing is, or your access, if you simply take the claims of institutions that have the most privilege that they must protect, at face value, and youre willing to sort of repeat them, all of those other things that are working in your favor in the final calculus amount to nothing because youre missing the fundamentals.
There was the broader question of what its like working with these journalists and going through that process. There is the argument that I was naive. In fact, thats one of the most common criticisms about me todaythat I am too naive, that I have too much faith in the government, that I have too much faith in the press. I dont see that as a weakness. I am naive, but I think that idealism is critical to achieving change, ultimately not of policy, but of culture, right? Because we can change this or that law, we can change this or that policy or program, but at the end of the day, its the values of the people in these institutions that are producing these policies or programs. Its the values of the people who are sitting at the desk with the blank page in Microsoft Office, or whatever journalists are using now.
Bell: I hope theyre not using Microsoft Office, but you never know.
Snowden: They have the blank page
Bell: They have the blank page, exactly.
Snowden: In their content management system, or whatever. How is that individual going to approach this collection of facts in the next week, in the next month, in the next year, in the next decade? What will the professor in the journalism school say in their lecture that will impart these values, again, sort of memetically into the next cohort of reporters? If we do not win on that, we have lost comprehensively. More fundamentally, people say, why did you trust the press, given their failures? Given the fact that I was, in fact, quite famous for criticizing the press.
Bell: If they had done their job, you would be at home now.
Snowden: Yeah, I would still be living quite comfortably in Hawaii.
Bell: Which is not so bad, when you put it that way.
Snowden: People ask how could you do this, why would you do this? How could you trust a journalist that you knew had no training at all in operational security to keep your identity safe because if they screw up, youre going to jail. The answer was that that was actually what I was expecting. I never expected to make it out of Hawaii. I was going to try my best, but my ultimate goal was simply to get this information back in the hands of the public. I felt that the only way that could be done meaningfully was through the press. If we cant have faith in the press, if we cant sort of take that leap of faith and either be served well by them, or underserved and have the press fail, weve already lost. You cannot have an open society without open communication. Ultimately, the test of open communication is a free press. If they cant look for information, if they cant contest the governments control of information, and ultimately print informationnot just about government, but also about corporate interests, that has a deleterious impact on the preferences of power, on the prerogatives of power. You may have something, but I would argue its not the traditional American democracy that I believed in.
So the idea here was that I could take these risks because I already expected to bear the costs. I expected the end of the road was a cliff. This is actually illustrated quite well in Citizenfour because it shows that there was absolutely no plan at all for the day after.
The planning to get to the point of working with the journalists, of transmitting this information, of explaining, contextualizingit was obsessively detailed, because it had to be. Beyond that, the risks were my own. They werent for the journalists. They could do everything else. That was by design as well, because if the journalists had done anything shadyfor example, if I had stayed in place at the NSA as a source and they had asked me for this document, and that document, it could have undermined the independence, the credibility of the process, and actually brought risks upon them that could have led to new constraints upon journalism.
Bell: So nothing you experienced in the room with the team, or what happened after, made you question or reevaluate journalism?
Snowden: I didnt say that. Actually working more closely with the journalists has radically reshaped my understanding of journalism, and that continues through to today. I think you would agree that anybody whos worked in the news industry, either directly or even peripherally, has seen journalistsor, more directly, editorswho are terrified, who hold back a story, who dont want to publish a detail, who want to wait for the lawyers, who are concerned with liability.
You also have journalists who go out on their own and they publish details which actually are damaging, directly to personal safety. There were details published by at least one of the journalists that were discussing communication methods that I was still actively using, that previously had been secret. But the journalists didnt even forewarn me, so suddenly I had to change all of my methods on the fly. Which worked out OK because I had the capabilities to do that, but dangerous.
Bell: When did that happen?
Snowden: This was at the height of public interest, basically. The idea here is that a journalist ultimately, and particularly a certain class of journalist, they dont owe any allegiance to their source, right? They dont write the story in line with what the sources desires, they dont go about their publication schedule to benefit, or to detriment, in theory, the source at all. There are strong arguments that thats the way it should be: public knowledge of the truth is more important than the risks that knowledge creates for a few. But at the same time, when a journalist is reporting on something like a classified program implicating one of the governments sources, you see an incredibly high standard of care applied to make sure they cant be blamed if something goes wrong down the road after publication. The journalists will go, well well hold back this detail from that story reporting on classified documents, because if we name this government official it might expose them to some harm, or it might get this program shut down, or even if it might cause them to have to rearrange the deck chairs in the operations in some far away country.
Thats just being careful, right? But ask yourselfshould journalists be just as careful when the one facing the blowback of a particular detail is their own source? In my experience, the answer does not seem to be as obvious as you might expect.
Bell: Do you foresee a world where someone wont have to be a whistleblower in order to reveal the kinds of documents that you revealed? What kinds of internal mechanisms would that require on behalf of the government? What would that look like in the future?
Snowden: Thats a really interesting philosophical question. It doesnt come down to technical mechanisms, that comes down to culture. Weve seen in the EU a number of reports from parliamentary bodies, from the Council of Europe, that said we need to protect whistleblowers, in particular national security whistleblowers. In the national context no country really wants to pass a law that allows individuals rightly, or wrongly, to embarrass the government. But can we provide an international framework for this? One would argue, particularly when espionage laws are being used to prosecute people, they already exist. Thats why espionage, for example, is considered a political offense, because its just a political crime, as they say. Thats a fairly weak defense, or fairly weak justification, for not reforming whistleblower laws. Particularly when, throughout Western Europe theyre going, yeah, we like this guy, he did a good thing. But if he shows up on the doorstep were going to ship him back immediately, regardless of whether its unlawful, just because the US is going to retaliate against us. Its extraordinary that the top members of German government have said this on the recordthat its realpolitik; its about power, rather than principle.
Now how we can fix this? I think a lot of it comes down to culture, and we need a press thats more willing and actually eager to criticize government than they are today. Even though weve got a number of good institutions that do that, or that want to do that, it needs a uniform culture. The only counterargument the government has made against national security whistleblowing, and many other things that embarrassed them in the past, is that well, it could cause some risk, we could go dark, they could have blood on their hands.
Why do they have different ground rules in the context of national security journalism?
We see that not just in the United States, but in France, Germany, the UK, in every Western country, and of course, in every more authoritarian country by comparison they are embracing the idea of state secrets, of classifications, or saying, you cant know this, you cant know that.
We call ourselves private citizens, and we refer to elected representatives as public officials, because were supposed to know everything about them and their activities. At the same time, theyre supposed to know nothing about us, because they wield all the power, and we hold all of the vulnerability. Yet increasingly, thats becoming inverted, where they are the private officials, and we are the public citizens. Were increasingly monitored and tracked and reported, quantified and known and influenced, at the same time that theyre getting themselves off and becoming less reachable and also less accountable.
Bell: But Ed, when you talk about this in those terms, you make it sound as though you see this as a progression. Certainly there was a sharp increase, as you demonstrated, in overreach of oversight post-9/11. Is it a continuum?
It felt from the outside as though America, post-9/11, for understandable reasons, it was almost like a sort of national psychosis. If you grew up in Europe, there were regular terrorist acts in almost every country after the Second World War, though not on the same scale, until there was a brief, five-year period of respite, weirdly running up to about 2001. Then the nature of the terrorism changed. To some extent, that narrative is predictable. You talk about it as an ever increasing problem. With the Freedom Act in 2015, the press identified this as a significant moment where the temperature had changed. You dont sound like you really think that. You sound as though you think that this public/private secrecy, spying, is an increasing continuum. So how does that change? Particularly in the current political climate where post-Paris and other terrorist attacks weve already seen arguments for breaking encryption.
Snowden: I dont think they are actually contradictory views to hold. I think what were talking about are the natural inclinations of power and vice, what we can do to restrain it, to maintain a free society. So when we think about where things have gone in the USA Freedom Act, and when we look back at the 1970s, it was even worse in terms of the level of comfort that the government had that it could engage in abuses and get away with them. One of the most important legacies of 2013 is not anything that was necessarily published, but it was the impact of the publication on the culture of government. It was a confirmation coming quite quickly in the wake of the WikiLeaks stories, which were equally important in this regard. That said, secrecy will not hold forever. If you authorize a policy that is clearly contrary to law, you will eventually have to explain that.
The question is, can you keep it under wraps long enough to get out of the administration, and hopefully for it to be out of the egregious sort of thing where youll lose an election as a result. We see the delta between the periods of time that successive administrations can keep a secret is actually diminishingthe secrets are becoming public at an accelerated pace. This is a beneficial thing. This is the same in the context of terrorism.
There is an interesting ideawhen you were saying its sort of weird that the US has what you described as a collective psychosis in the wake of 9/11 given that European countries have been facing terrorist attacks routinely. The US had actually been facing the same thing, and actually one would argue, experienced similarly high-impact attacks, for example, the Oklahoma City bombing, where a Federal building was destroyed by a single individual or one actor.
Bell: What do you think about the relationship between governments asking Facebook and other communications platforms to help fight ISIS?
Snowden: Should we basically deputize companies to become the policy enforcers of the world? When you put it in that context suddenly it becomes clear that this is not really a good idea, particularly because terrorism does not have a strong definition thats internationally recognized. If Facebook says, we will take down any post from anybody who the government says is a terrorist, as long as it comes from this government, suddenly they have to do that for the other government. The Chinese allegations of who is and who is not a terrorist are going to look radically different than what the FBIs are going to be. But if the companies try to be selective about them, say, well, were only going to do this for one government, they immediately lose access to the markets of the other ones. So that doesnt work, and thats not a position companies want to be in.
However, even if they could do this, there are already policies in place for them to do that. If Facebook gets a notification that says this is a terrorist thing, they take it down. Its not like this is a particularly difficult or burdensome review when it comes to violence.
The distinction is the government is trying to say, now we want them to start cracking down on radical speech. Should private companies be who we as society are reliant upon to bound the limits of public conversations? And this goes beyond borders now. I think thats an extraordinarily dangerous precedent to be embracing, and, in turn, irresponsible for American leaders to be championing.
The real solutions here are much more likely to be in terms of entirely new institutions that bound the way law enforcement works, moving us away from the point of military conflict, secret conflict, and into simply public policing.
Theres no reason why we could not have an international counter-terrorism force that actually has universal jurisdiction. I mean universal in terms of fact, as opposed to actual law.
Edward Snowden is a former intelligence officer who served the CIA, NSA, and DIA for nearly a decade as a subject matter expert on technology and cybersecurity. In 2013, he revealed the scope of NSA surveillance globally by providing classified NSA documents to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman, and Ewen MacAskill. He has been exiled in Russia since July 2013.
Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today
Emily Bell is a frequent CJR contributor and the director of Columbias Tow Center for Digital Journalism. Previously, she oversaw digital publishing at The Guardian.
The Supreme Court of Vermont recently demonstrated in Whitney v. Vermont Mutual Ins. Co., 2015 VT 140, 2015 WL 8540432 (filed Dec. 11, 2015) a practical approach to the application of an absolute pollution exclusion. The case facts involved a situation where a foster care provider noticed bedbugs in the home after a new foster child was placed with them. The Vermont Department of Children recommended that the house be sprayed with a pesticide in order to eradicate the bedbugs. The pest control company did in fact spray the house, corner to corner, wall to wall, including the foster care providers personal effects within the home, the oven and the duct work of the forced hot air heating system of the home. When the foster care parents returned to the home after the spraying operation, they noticed that the walls and surfaces of the home were visibly dripping with pesticide.
The pesticide company used the pesticide Chlorpyrifos. Chlorpyrifos is a known toxin that can cause nausea, dizziness, confusion, and, in very high exposures, respiratory paralysis and death. The substance has been banned for residential use by the Federal EPA and the spraying of foster home with the chemical violated both federal and state law. Testing revealed that there were high levels of the pesticide in the home.
The claim was submitted to the foster care familys homeowner policy. The claim was denied by the insurance company, Vermont Mutual Insurance Company, because the homeowner policy contained an absolute pollution exclusion.
The Court began its analysis by recognizing there were two divergent lines of cases that had construed the absolute pollution exclusion. In one line of cases, courts had construed pollution exclusions very narrowly and had concluded that they were inherently ambiguous and that the purpose of the exclusion was to address liability arising from traditional environmental pollution and not the ordinary acts of negligence involving harmful substances. Citing MacKinnon v. Truck Ins. Exchange, 31 Cal.4th 635, 3 Cal.Rptr.3d 228, 73 P.3d 1205, 1216 (2003). In a second line of cases the courts had concluded that the pollution exclusion, by its plain language, excluded all injuries that occurred from pollutants. Citing Quadrant Corp. v. American States Ins. Co., 154 Wash.2d 165, 110 P.3d 733 (2005). However, the Court in Whitney found that pollution exclusions are not presumed, as a class, to be ambiguous or to be limited in their application to traditional environmental pollution. Rather, the exclusion should be construed in the same way as any other insurance contract provision. In that regard, the Courts goal was to interpret the pollution exclusion so as to ascertain and carry out the parties intent.
Turning to the pollution exclusion in question, the policy excluded from coverage any loss caused by discharge, dispersal, seepage, immigration, release, or escape of pollutants. The term pollutant was defined as any solid, liquid, gaseous or thermal irritant or contaminant, including smoke, vapor, soot, fumes, acids, alkalis, chemicals and waste.
Turning to the facts of the case, it was beyond question that the dousing of the foster home with Chlorpyrifos constituted a discharge, dispersal, seepage, immigration, release, or escape of the substance. Therefore the question was whether Chlorpyrifos qualified as a pollutant. The Court found that Chlorpyrifos was in fact a pollutant because it could cause nausea, dizziness, and confusion, and at very high exposure, respiratory paralysis and death. The chemical had been banned for residential use. Use of the chemical in the foster home was a violation of EPA regulations and both state and federal law. Concentration levels found in the home were consistently high relative to the EPA action level at which point the EPA has determined that the cleaning of the house units was required. Therefore, it was not hard for the Court to conclude that in the context of the case, the concept of pollutant encompassed the Chlorpyrifos sprayed throughout the home.
The current El Nino weather pattern thats been in place since last summer over the central Pacific Ocean is on its way out, Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said Friday, but not before leaving Texas with one of its warmest winters on record.
Though above-normal rainfall is common during an El Nino, above-normal temperatures are not common, said the Texas A&M professor, noting that weather patterns in the state could change in the coming months under the influence of La Nina, a natural cooling in the Pacific that typically results in more hurricanes in the Atlantic and fewer in the Pacific.
Its believed the warm El Nino waters have been responsible for above-average rainfall over the last year in much of Texas and the southwestern part of the U.S.
Although there was a dry stretch in January and February, the six-month period that started in November and ended in April was the 7th wettest in Texas, based on records that go back to 1895. Nielsen-Gammon said his statistics show that if the wet October 2015 is included, those seven months are the wettest October-April period on record.
The rain, however, wasnt evenly distributed. While many parts of west-central, north-central and northeast Texas received more than double their normal precipitation, parts of the Coastal Bend and much of the Panhandle and High Plains received less than normal precipitation.
Temperatures also were noteworthy, with winter nearly nonexistent in many places, he said.
Many cities across the state, from Amarillo to Brownsville and El Paso to Beaumont, experienced one of their 10 warmest cool seasons (November-April) on record, Nielsen-Gammon said. Midland-Odessa came closest to setting a record their average temperature was 54.8 degrees, second only to the year 2000.
Low temperatures of 22 degrees in Abilene, 27 degrees in Dallas, 30 in San Antonio, 31 in urban Austin and 40 in Galveston were all records for mildness.
He foresees mild summer temperatures, particularly in the early summer months, but says long-range summer weather in the state is difficult to predict.
For hurricanes, the key will be how quickly La Nina develops in the tropical Pacific, he said. The sooner La Nina forms, the more active the Atlantic hurricane season is likely to be. Even so, Texas is a small target, so an active hurricane season across the entire Atlantic would not necessarily mean one or more landfalls in Texas itself.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The federal government on Thursday announced sweeping new regulations for electronic cigarettes that could upend the multibillion-dollar industry and for the first time require e-cigarette makers to submit their products for a safety review.
Before brands are allowed to stay in the market, regulators would have to check the ingredients, design and flavor of the fast-growing devices, which have found a foothold with teenagers.
Millions of kids are being introduced to nicotine every year, a new generation hooked on a highly addictive chemical Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. We cannot let the enormous progress weve made toward a tobacco-free generation be undermined by products that impact our health and economy in this way.
The rules issued by the Food and Drug Administration would also extend long-standing restrictions on traditional cigarettes to a host of other products, including e-cigarettes, hookah, pipe tobacco and nicotine gels. Minors would be banned from buying the products.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that turn liquid nicotine into an inhalable vapor. Though nicotine can be addictive, e-cigarettes lack the chemicals and tars of burning tobacco. Yet the devices have not been extensively studied, and theres no scientific consensus on any potential benefits or harms from vaping.
More than 15 percent of high school students report using e-cigarettes, up more than 900 percent over the last five years, according to federal figures. High school boys smoke cigars at the same rates as regular cigarettes.
Beginning in August, retailers will be prohibited from selling the tobacco products to those under 18, placing them in vending machines or distributing free samples. While nearly all states already ban sales of e-cigarettes to minors, federal officials said they will be able to impose stiffer penalties and deploy more resources to enforce the law.
The FDA action comes five years after the agency first announced its intent to regulate e-cigarettes and more than two years after it floated its initial proposal.
Public health advocates applauded the decision.
Ending the tobacco epidemic is more urgent than ever, and can only happen if the FDA acts aggressively and broadly to protect all Americans from all tobacco products, said Harold Wimmer, president of the American Lung Association.
The vaping industry says the lengthy federal reviews would be time-consuming and costly and could put many smaller companies out of business.
The regulations will cause a modern-day prohibition of products that are recognized worldwide as far less hazardous than cigarettes, said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association. If the FDAs rule is not changed by Congress or the courts, thousands of small businesses will close in two to three years.
The agency has stumbled before in its efforts to regulate the space. In 2010, a federal appeals court threw out the agencys plan to treat e-cigarettes as drug-delivery devices rather than tobacco products.
House Republicans are already pushing back. A House spending committee last month approved industry-backed legislation that would prohibit the FDA from requiring retroactive safety reviews of e-cigarettes that are already on the market and exempt some premium and large cigars from those same regulations. E-cigarette products introduced in the future would still undergo the safety reviews.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have long enjoyed a close relationship with the tobacco industry, which has already given more than $1.8 million to members of Congress this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The FDA first gained authority to regulate some aspects of cigarettes and other traditional tobacco products under a 2009 law. But since e-cigarettes do not actually contain tobacco, they were not covered by the original law.
The FDA spent more than two years finalizing its proposal for regulating nontraditional tobacco products, delayed for months by industry resistance.
Some smokers use e-cigarettes as a way to quit smoking tobacco or to cut down. However, theres not much scientific evidence supporting those claims, though officials said they are working on that research.
In the meantime, we know there are many other proven cessation tools available, Burwell said.
E-cigarettes sales grew to an estimated $3.5 billion in 2015, according to Wells Fargo. After ballooning over several years, sales have recently begun to slow due to negative publicity and questions about safety. Retail sales are dominated by a handful of traditional tobacco companies, including Reynolds Americans Vuse and Imperial Tobaccos blu brands. Those products are sold nationwide at convenience stores and gas stations.
Hundreds of smaller companies sell more specialized products often with refillable tanks and customized flavors at vape shops and over the Internet. That space alone may be worth $2 billion in sales, according to estimates, though precise figures are not available.
(Associated Press Writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this story.)
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The use of opioids in California workers compensation has declined in recent years, along with the associated payments, yet these potentially addictive painkillers remain the number one therapeutic drug group used in the system according to a new California Workers Compensation Institute (CWCI) study.
The CWCI research, based on pharmaceutical data from 10.8 million prescriptions dispensed to California injured workers from 2005 through 2014, identifies trends in the volume, cost, potency and types of opioids used in workers comp over the past decade. Opioids increased from 27.0 percent of all workers comp prescriptions filled in 2005 to 31.8 percent in 2009, but then retreated to 27.2 percent in 2014. That pattern was mirrored in the payment data, which showed opioid reimbursements as a proportion of total workers comp drug spend rose from 19.3 percent in 2005 to a peak of 31.9 percent in 2009 before falling back to 24.4 percent in 2014. The decline in opioid use accelerated in 2012, which coincides with increased scrutiny by utilization review and independent medical review programs and restrictions imposed by pharmacy benefit managers, medical provider networks and payors, but even with the declining use over the past 5 years, opioids remain the number one therapeutic drug group in California workers comp in both use and payments.
The distribution of 2014 California workers compensation medications by therapeutic group shows opioids accounted for more than a quarter of the prescriptions dispensed to injured workers, well ahead of anti-inflammatories, which accounted for nearly 1 out of 5 prescriptions, followed by musculoskeletal therapy agents, ulcer drugs, anticonvulsants, antidepressants and dermatologicals. All other therapeutic groups together accounted for 20.3% of the 2014 prescriptions, but none of those individual groups represented more than 2.5% of the drugs dispensed in 2014.
Other analyses in the study examine brand vs. generic opioid drug trends; changes in average payments for opioid and non-opioid drugs; the percentage of injured workers who received opioids at various points in the life of a claim; the number of opioid prescriptions per user and how that has evolved over time; and changes in the potency of opioids used in workers comp, as measured by the average morphine milligram equivalents per prescription as well as the average morphine equivalents per opioid user.
The results of the study have been released in a CWCI Research Note, Trends in the Use of Opioids in the California Workers Compensation System, available at www.cwci.org/research.html.
Source: CWIC
The 'Wheel Of Time' Rolls on for Ernie Watts on New Flying Dolphin Records Release [REVIEW]
Saxophonist/Composer Ernie Watts spreads his wings on 'Wheel Of Time.' (Photo : Patricia Watts)
It was November 1981. I was still married to my ex-wife. With no kids yet, we could rock'n'roll and the Rolling Stones were in town. When they went into "Brown Sugar," there was saxophonist Ernie Watts blowing big to recreate the iconic Bobby Keys sax solo. Man, did he wail! I knew him from a 1969 super-session of sorts with T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner and Otis Spann called Super Black Blues and loved him ever since. There isn't any rock'n'roll on his new Wheel Of Time CD (Flying Dolphin Records). It's only jazz but I like it. (His 19 albums as leader and his dozens of appearances on albums by Carole King, Milt Jackson, John Mayall, Carmen McRae, Gabor Szabo, Gerald Wilson and Lalo Schifrin point to his esoteric nature.)
This German quartet of his has been solvent for 15 years. Recorded in the motherland of Darmstadt by the Brothers Endel with pianist Christof Saenger, acoustic bassist Rudi Engel and drummer Heinrich Koebberling, it was mixed and mastered in California by Paul Tavenner. The nine tracks-one each by the backing trio, four by Watts, a resurrected Joe Henderson gem ("Inner Urge") and-my favorite-"Goose Dance" by young Canadian pianist Adrean Farrugia.
Watts is a shape-shifting genre bender. Always was. He's blowing big here just like he did with the Stones only instead of wooing the honky-tonk women, he's producing himself with flourishes of calypso, blues, waltzes and ballads. Watts wrote the title tune in honor of his old boss, bassist Charlie Haden [1937-2014] for which he blew in Quartet West on eight albums from '86 to '99. His "tribute" runs 6:51 and ends the CD on a lyrical, wistful, almost nostalgic note (and you can listen to it right here).
2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
TagsErnie Watts, REVIEW, The Rolling Stones, Bobby Keys
Akron police 4
Akron police are investigating after a 28-year-old taxi driver was attacked and robbed.
(File photo)
AKRON, Ohio -- Two men attacked and robbed a 28-year-old tax driver early Tuesday.
The incident happened about 12:30 a.m. in the 800 block of Eller Avenue.
The Rides for Less Taxi Service driver told police she got a call from a regular customer to pick him up in the 800 block of Barbara Avenue.
The man told the driver to pull into a parking lot on Eller so they could wait for his friend, police reports say.
A second man got in the car. The first man yelled at the woman while he punched her head, choked her and covered her mouth, according to police reports.
The man also repeatedly punched her in the back of the head. The woman tried to fight off the men. The first man grabbed her purse and the duo fled towards the intersection of South Arlington Street and East Wilbeth Road.
The men stole $50, the woman's keys, and credit and debit cards. The woman suffered a lump on her head and a cut on her lip, according to police reports.
No arrests have been made in the case.
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Akron police 3
Akron police are investigating after two women were shot at leaving an Akron nightclub.
(File photo)
AKRON, Ohio -- A 26-year-old woman suffered injuries after she wrecked her car while driving away from a man shooting at her.
The incident happened about 2 a.m. Tuesday on Brittain Road near Yuma Avenue.
The woman and a 24-year-old left a Brittain Road nightclub in a 2004 Buick Rendezvous. A gold four-door Chrysler pulled up next to them at the intersection, police said.
Someone in the Chrysler fired several shots at them. The women sped off with the Chrysler chasing them, according to police.
The women's car eventually crashed on Eastwood Avenue near railroad tracks. The 24-year-old was not injured. The woman was taken to Akron City Hospital, where she is expected to recover.
No arrests have been made.
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Brecksville Police Site.JPG
In November 2012, Brecksville voters agreed to rezone this 4-acre site from residential to community facilities for a new police station.
(Bob Sandrick, special to cleveland.com)
BRECKSVILLE, Ohio - The city will unveil revised drawings of its proposed new police station within four weeks, Councilman Michael Harwood announced last week.
However, information about the drawings was sketchy earlier this week, and it wasn't known whether the station would include a regional emergency dispatch center. Mayor Jerry Hruby couldn't be reached about the police station Monday and Tuesday, and Harwood was unavailable Tuesday.
Here are a few answered, partially-answered or unanswered questions about the police station, which is planned for the west side of Brecksville Road, across from City Hall:
How much will it cost to build the police station?
In August 2013, Hruby said construction would cost between $4 million and $7 million. No new estimate was available earlier this week.
How will the city pay for the project?
Three years ago, Hruby said the city would use existing funds for design and site preparation. For construction, the city planned to borrow money, then use the general fund to repay the debt over a period of years.
Why does Brecksville need a new police station?
Hruby said the city has outgrown the existing station, which is part of City Hall. The Police Department had about 12 officers when the existing station was built. Now, the department employs about 30 police officers, plus dispatchers and jailers.
Wasn't the city considering a regional dispatch center in the new station?
In August 2013, Hruby said the city hadn't decided whether the station would house a dispatch center that other communities would share. He did say the station would contain room for expansion. Last week, Harwood told his council colleagues about possible dispatch agreements but didn't provide details.
Will the new station include a jail?
Yes, but it isn't known if the city has determined the size of the new jail. The mayor's court and clerk-of-court office, now in City Hall, would also move to the new station.
What's the time frame for this project?
The schedule has changed over the years. In August 2013, Hruby said the original plan was to break ground in fall 2014 or the start of 2015, but the start date was then pushed back to spring 2015. In his annual state-of-the-city address earlier this year, Hruby said final design and construction of the new station is a top priority in 2016.
Why the delays?
That's a good question that couldn't be answered earlier this week.
What's the latest information we do know?
In spring 2014, the city hired Perspectus Architecture in Cleveland to design the police station at a cost of no more than $464,740.
Harwood mentioned Perspectus last week when he was talking to council about the project. He said that he, Hruby and Police Chief William Goodrich had recently met with Perspectus representatives to discuss the station. He didn't reveal details.
Brecksville Fire Station.JPG
Brecksville plans to renovate its fire station over the next two years.
(Bob Sandrick, special to cleveland.com)
BRECKSVILLE, Ohio - The city will start a two-year renovation of its single fire station later this year.
The project will cost at least $450,000, and probably more, according to city Service Director Ron Weidig. The city will tackle more critical building repairs, like a roof replacement, this year, but due to budgetary concerns, will have to wait until 2017 to complete the overall renovation.
Next week, the administration will seek City Council's permission to solicit bids for the fire station project.
Last fall, the city hired City Architecture Inc. in Cleveland for $25,600 to identify structural problems with the fire station, which is on Brecksville Road just south of Ohio Route 82, next to City Hall. Meanwhile, the city came up with its own, separate list of needed fire station repairs.
Some of what they found included:
Cracked walls. Weidig said moisture leaking through the roof might have caused the cracks. That's why replacing the roof is a high priority.
Cracked floors. The concrete is old and needs replacing, Weidig said.
Collapsing trench drains. When firefighters wash their vehicles, the water flows into trench drains in the floor. The drains must be replaced.
Cracks in hose tower. Firefighters dry hoses in a hose tower. Weidig said the Brecksville tower needs bracing and reinforcement.
Rusted and rotted man doors. The new doors will have locks accessible by cards instead of keys.
Fire Chief Ed Egut said the fire station was built in 1951 with two bays. Three more bays were added in 1974, and in 1983, the city modified the building to accommodate a full-time staff.
The last renovation occurred in 2003, when the city, among other things, added a training room and facilities for women firefighters.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Fairlawn man was sentenced to three years' probation Tuesday for his role in a corruption case involving a Summit County councilwoman.
Samir Abdelqader, 19, pleaded guilty in January to making false statements to the FBI.
According to court filings, he lied to an FBI agent in September 2014 when he said that he was not aware that Councilwoman Tamela Lee had contacted court officials to help him in a criminal case he had in Summit County Juvenile Court.
U.S. District Judge Christoper Boyko in Cleveland handed down the sentence.
Abdelqader was one of four people indicted and arrested in December following an FBI investigation into Lee.
Lee was caught on a wiretapped conversation asking for bribes and offering favors in return, according to the indictment.
Samir Abdelqader's father, Abdelrahman Abdelqader, and his uncle, Omar Abdelqader, also face federal charges.
Part of the criminal probe centered on Samir Abdelqader's arrest in an assault case, as well as the help Lee tried to give to his family in exchange for bribes, according to court filings.
His family pressured Lee to talk to officials at the court to try to resolve the case involving a 2014 fight. In a phone call recorded when he was locked up, Samir Abdelqader asked his uncle if "the lady" was coming to help, according to the indictment.
Lee asked the family for money, complaining that she was broke, and obtained her bribes by walking into one of the family's grocery stores and having a cashier give her money from the register, the indictment says.
Samir Abdelqader was sentenced to four months' probation for the fight.
Lee and the elder Abdelqaders have pleaded not guilty in the federal case. Lee lost a March primary election to David Hamilton.
If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland breweries often like to evoke the past in their names or beer styles they produce. When Masthead Brewing Co. opens downtown, it will draw on history that dates to the 1700s.
Moses Cleaveland - with the extra letter included - founded the city in 1796. By 1830, the city's population had just topped 1,000. As the story goes, when the Cleveland Advertiser was getting ready to begin publication, the newspaper editors realized they had a big problem that had to be solved quickly: 'Cleaveland' would not fit on the masthead.
"So we kind of imagined the editors got around a table, had a few beers, and instead of changing the name they said 'Why don't we just drop the A in Cleveland?' " said Frank Luther, one of the owners of the startup brewery. "Lo and behold, it worked. It fits our spirit."
That spirit is culminating with a lot of work, planning and a location chosen among scores of options for Luther and brewer Mike Pelechaty, and Matthew Slife, who came aboard 14 months ago.
"Four years ago we knew we wanted to do it," Luther said, "but we didn't know where it was going to be."
They considered relocating as far away as California, but found a saturated beer market. They scoured nearby suburbs. But the three Ohioans wound up in downtown Cleveland. The brewery will be at 1261 Superior Ave., near East 12th Street and across from Reserve Square. A fall opening is expected.
"I think we we're passionate about the Northeast Ohio brewing culture," Luther said.
Pelechaty, who recently worked at Black Box Brewing Co. in Westlake, said the market is strong and "will be even better. ... The consumer wins when they have more choices."
"The market is growing as fast as the breweries are growing," Luther added.
The name of Masthead Brewing Co. draws on Cleveland's name origin.
About the location
Downtown Cleveland has Butcher and the Brewer on East Fourth Street, Portside Distillery and Brewery near the East Bank of the Flats, and Hofbrauhaus Cleveland, which is less than two blocks away on Chester Avenue.
Masthead's building, owned by Warrensville Heights-based Weston Inc., shows a lot of promise. The three main investors are eager to begin exploring and working on it in June.
Built in 1921 and formerly a car dealership and most recently a Cuyahoga County title office, the building sits on the National Register of Historic Places, the owners said.
A sun patio is planned, and rollup garage doors will replace the 14-foot by 14-foot front windows facing the thoroughfare. The massive space, at 16,000 square feet, will hold 300 people in its open-floor plan with no interior walls, and an additional 108 outside.
The curved bar will extend 104 linear feet, and a small, domed Neapolitan pizza kitchen will be installed to cook made-to-order pies at 825 degrees in 80 seconds.
"We didn't want our whole tap room to be taken up by a kitchen," Pelechaty said.
"Being downtown we wanted to make sure it's quick," Slife added.
The location has private parking and decent street parking, bike rails out front and communal beer-hall style seating and pub-high tables planned inside. Trees out front are coming, they added.
"This building allows us to keep the historical integrity with our business model," Slife said. The architect is Westlake-based Sixmo Inc., which designed the recently opened Sibling Revelry Brewing.
Most importantly, Luther said, the investors were told "30,000 people work within a four-block" area of building.
Then there's signage.
"The signage should be a bit of a beacon," Luther said. "You should see it from (East) 9th and Superior."
About the beer
The beer will flow from a 20-barrel fermenter to bright tanks "right out into people's glasses," Luther said.
They plan 24 taps and also will offer wine, coffee, cider, mead and classic cocktails. They will start with eight beers.
"Our focus is going to be American and Belgian beers," said Pelechaty, who worked at Black Box from November 2012 to February. "Plus we're going to focus on barrel aging - specifically, bourbon-barrel aging. We'll foray into sours. We definitely want to start out on the American side of things, play with a lot of hops, brew the Belgians, then get into the deeper segment of beers."
Added Pelechaty: "What was unique about my role at Black Box was that I came in and (owner) Jerome (Welliver) was looking to run the business-side of things, and I took the lead on the brewing side of things. I owe him a lot; he gave me a great opportunity."
The partners sent Pelechaty to White Labs in San Diego for formal microbiology training at a Siebel Institute-run program. White Labs studies and supplies yeast for breweries across the nation. Siebel offers brewing-education programs. The brewery will maintain a lab on site.
And to avoid potential copyright infringements, beers will be named by style.
"The trademarking situation we're in is getting more and more complicated," Luther said. "One of the biggest challenges is someone goes to a beer festival and sees the (creative or colorful) name and doesn't know what they are getting.
"The brand is the brewery," he added, citing Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Stone IPA as two well-recognized beers.
Six-pack of facts about Masthead Brewing Co.
* Luther and Pelechaty have engineering backgrounds and were roommates at Ohio State, and they met Slife through mutual friends. Slife works at Cleveland Clinic in finance.
* Pelechaty is from Toledo, Luther from Cincinnati, and Slife from Cleveland.
* Luther and Pelechaty have been brewing about six years. "You can walk into any bar and get a beer, but in the brewery you can see Mike and I slaving away," Luther said.
* The three considered more than 500 names before settling on Masthead.
* Collaboration with Malt Haus, the malt house that opened on Carnegie Avenue this year, offers potential for Masthead to produce "an all-Ohio beer."
* When the space was a car dealership years ago, cars were able to drive straight in through the front, they said.
SEuc sign.jpg
South Euclid City Council is looking at ways to increase city revenues.
(Jeff Piorkowski/special to cleveland.com)
SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- Facing increased expenses, City Council is going to be examining in coming months ways in which it can increase the city's revenues.
Monday, at its regular monthly Committee-of-the-Whole meeting at which finances are discussed, council heard from the city's new Finance Director Brenda Wendt that the city now has $3.3 million in the bank. That figure, however, could be reduced quickly if new revenue sources are not found.
"We'll be revisiting charging for trash collection, revisiting an income tax increase, revisiting rolling back (the city's income tax credit), and we'll be looking at collecting money owed to us," said Council President Jane Goodman.
Money owed to the city includes delinquent income tax payments, EMS charges not recovered, and court fines and fees. Those court fines and fees were recently estimated at more than $750,000 for the years 2012-15.
During Monday's meeting, Wendt told council that the Regional Income Tax Agency lists 1,200 South Euclid residents who are late on their taxes and owe a total of $600,000.
As for the next few years, Wendt told council members, "We cannot continue this way."
While she said it is too early to project accurate revenues versus expenses for this year, Wendt said that if no new revenues sources are added, the $3.3-million balance could be reduced by 2018 to $1.6. By the next year, the balance would be gone.
Wendt suggested looking at charging for trash collection, as is done in many area communities. She said charging households $150 per year would generate $1.2 million in revenue for the city.
Goodman, however, noted that in 2012 residents passed a charter initiative stating the city cannot charge for trash collection without voters' approval.
"Costs are going up," Goodman said, "and we don't know how we are going to raise revenues. We can't sell things. We can't make property values go up, although we try with everything we do to make property values go up. The roads don't pave themselves. Every city in the country is going through this."
Another challenge for council is the fact that negotiations with its unions, including those for police and fire, will begin in the fall. Any raises granted would take effect in 2018. Often non-union workers get the same raises given to unions.
Noting that such future costs remain unknowns, Councilman at-large Dennis Fiorelli said, "It's mandatory that we be able to project out for three years."
Meanwhile, Goodman said the city hall roof, which has leaked for a few years, is in need of replacement. Estimates for that work are being gathered.
At the council meeting that followed the committee meeting Monday night, some council members spoke about a benefit negotiated into the last union contract. That benefit has the city paying educational reimbursement for workers who take college classes, working toward a degree in a field that directly coincides with the work they do.
Fire Chief Douglas Stefko sought approval of $10,000 for such reimbursement.
Ward 1 Councilwoman Ruth Gray said she didn't oppose, but said of such requests, "This needs to be put in the budget in advance."
With their thoughts on the budget challenges, council members agreed that they needed to know when such costs are coming.
The city sought to end the educational benefit during the last negotiations, but lost in arbitration.
It was three years ago that residents approved a three-year safety forces levy of 3.25 mills. Council will meet at 7 p.m. June 13 to begin discussions about renewal of that levy. It will consider asking voters to approve at the same amount, or increasing the figure.
If the millage remains at 3.25, Goodman said, the city will take in less money as property values have decreased since its passage.
Goodman said that the city is running lean in terms of the number of people it employs.
"You can only mow a lawn so low," she said of the possibility of letting go employees.
Of the situation moving forward, she said, "We have to make sure there is enough money to run the city."
In other South Euclid news, City Council is scheduled, on Tuesday, to interview five candidates seeking to replace Moe Romeo as Ward 2 councilman. Romeo resigned from the position, effective April 30.
Council has 30 days to select a replacement. If it does not do so, Mayor Georgine Welo will name Romeo's successor.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland Catholic Diocese says it was unaware of a letter invoking Bishop Richard Lennon's name that informed tenants who live in church-owned homes of steep rent hikes.
Homes on a street near the St. Rocco Church belong to and are controlled by the parish, though they are held in trusts in the name of diocesan bishops, said Robert Tayek, a spokesman said Monday evening.
About 20 tenants, who live on Roehl Avenue, learned of the rent increases of between 80 and 180 percent in hand-delivered letters dated April 18.
Many were worried that they would not be able to afford the new payments or find new homes to rent before June 1 when the rent would go up.
And they were upset that the church hadn't come to speak to them first, despite the fact some were long-term tenants.
The letter to the residents came from Cleveland attorney John Climaco and said: "This is to advise you that the Most Rev. Richard G. Lennon, Bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland, owns the property in which you reside."
It went on to explain that rent would increase by $200 in June and $200 more in July "due to increasing expenses, maintenance costs, real estate taxes and insurance."
It also informed the tenants they'd have to sign leases and transfer certain utilities into their names.
Tayek said the letter was sent on behalf of St. Rocco Parish and that Bishop Lennon and the Diocese were not aware it was being sent or that a decision had been made to raise rents.
Climaco, reached by phone, said he had no comment.
St. Rocco Parish, like many parishes in Cleveland, faces financial challenges, Tayek said in an email. Rental properties, in particular, come with their own set expenses and liabilities and the letter was the parish's attempt to deal with that, he said.
"After receiving feedback from the tenants, the parish understands and appreciates the reason for the concerns expressed by the tenants," Tayek said. "As a result, the parish has decided not to raise rents at this time and to instead work with the Diocese and others to determine fair rental rates for these properties. St. Rocco Parish regrets any anxiety caused by the letter and is committed to establishing fair rental rates and to ensuring that any decisions made related to the rent for these properties create no undue hardship for its tenants."
Father James Mayer, who was named pastor of the parish last month, could not be reached for comment. Earlier Monday, a church secretary referred questions for Mayer to an attorney with the Diocese.
The concerned renters met at a home on Roehl Avenue last week to discuss what they might do to prevent being displaced. Some of the renters are low-income, elderly, disabled or single mothers.
Monday night, Jasmin Santana, a community engagement coordinator with Hispanic Alliance, who is helping them with their effort said the group planned to meet Tuesday night to celebrate the reprieve and plan what they might need to do next to advocate for themselves.
Some of the tenants have said that while they have inexpensive rents, some of the homes are have not been kept up by the church and need repairs or that they have been responsible for paying for repairs.
Reed revives push to ban hand-held cellphone use
Cleveland Councilman Zack Reed says he witnessed a shooting Monday night on the city's East Side as he was returning home from a council meeting.
(Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com file photo)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- City Councilman Zack Reed had just finished lamenting the ongoing violence in the city during a council meeting Monday night.
On his way home, Reed says he ran "right into the problem."
Reed said he was sitting in his car at a red light at East 140th Street and Kinsman Avenue about 10 p.m. when he said he heard about three to four gunshots.
Moments later he heard seven to eight more gunshots when two males ran around the corner and in pursuit was a vehicle with the occupants firing at the two males.
"They were literally shooting right in front of me," Reed said afterward, admitting he was shaken up. "I had no idea where those bullets were going."
By the time the shooting was over a male had been wounded in the leg. The male was taken to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital for treatment, but his condition is unknown.
Reed said the wounded male told witnesses in front of a home on the 3500 block of East 140th Street that he was 14 years old. A police source also said the victim is 14, but a spokesperson with the department says he is 20 years old.
Reed posted pictures from the scene on his Twitter account moments after the shooting.
This is crazy I just witness a fourteen year old boy get shot.After@CleCityCouncil meeting tell them about violence pic.twitter.com/YVjSsKQxBZ Zack Reed (@zachreed12) May 10, 2016
The councilman said he briefly followed the vehicle involved in the shooting in an attempt to get a license-plate number but was unsuccessful. A police source said the vehicle involved was a silver Ford Focus.
"That probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but I couldn't help myself," he said. "My adrenaline was going and I said I've got to follow this guy. ... I wasn't going to confront the suspects."
Reed said he had just finished addressing council members Monday night, saying there were about 215 felonious assaults involving a firearm at this time last year, but there have been more than 400 this year.
"I told them we have a violence problem in this city," Reed said. "I'm going home and I run right into the problem.
"They were just shooting indiscriminately at these people. ... If I had been on the other side (of the intersection) I would have been right beside those sons of guns shooting."
It was the second shooting reported Monday evening. A police source said a 62-year-old woman was shot in the chest on Brinsmade Avenue near West 73rd Street. The bullets reportedly were fired into the woman's home. The police source did not have the woman's condition, but an EMS official tells WEWS Channel 5 she is in critical condition.
If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments section.
Fifth Third Bank Image - 2016-1.jpg
Vacant Fifth Third Building at 19053 Bagley Rd
MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio - The vacated Fifth Third Bank Building on Bagley Road is about to get a new tenant.
Economic Development Director Charles Bichara said, "there have been a number of impediments with that building, as it was set up specifically for a bank."
When Fifth Third Bank closed, the city informed all the banks and credit unions in the area of the vacancy. There was no interest in the property. "We found a doctor who is currently in Middleburg Heights, and talked him through the process of renovating and altering the building to accommodate his practice.
According to Bichara, the practice plans on hiring 2 more doctors and 10 additional support staff. This will bring the total number of employees to 24. In addition to the permanent staff, the project is expected to bring an additional 50 construction jobs to the city during the next six months
"The project will include the complete interior alteration of the location, and a 4,000-foot addition which will almost double the size of the existing building,"Bichara said. The estimated construction cost is $1.3 million. "There will be an additional $700,000 invested in new equipment, furniture and fixtures for the practice."
"Banking is becoming more Internet based, rather than people going to banks," said Middleburg Heights Mayor Gary Starr. "Because the building is on a major thoroughfare, there has been a great amount of interest in the property," he added.
"The vacant building on Bagley Road will now have a successful and needed service by our city. Mainly, a successful dentistry practice with a specialty of Orthodontics, Starr added.
"The building next to The Marriott Courtyard will be a spectacular development for our city," the mayor said.
Construction on the facility is expected to start in in June, and be completed in September.
BROOK PARK, Ohio -- Brook Park Mayor Tom Coyne is America's middle-class Donald Trump.
Some parallels are obvious. He's a blue-collar populist, blunt and politically incorrect. He has an ego the size of Trump Tower. And even his hair - which he no longer dyes red - has drawn attention. He's been married a couple of times, too.
Like Trump, Coyne has negotiated some big deals as the city's longest-serving mayor, most notably a land swap with the city of Cleveland that left Brook Park with the income-producing NASA's Glenn Research Center.
After 20 years in office, Coyne did not seek re-election in 2001 and later earned notoriety for his drinking problems. He tried for a comeback in 2005 and lost. But after the 2008 recession swallowed more jobs and homes, Coyne believed only he could save the city. So, in 2013, he ran for mayor as an independent and won by promising to make Brook Park great again, or to at least return it to the "working man's Beverly Hills."
Coyne has since made tough and unpopular decisions, such cutting employees and reducing services, that have helped keep the city afloat. He says Brook Park and other blue-collar towns across America need help from the federal government, but not from a Washington insider.
In an interview last week, Coyne said that Democrats and Republicans have failed the city through inaction and bad trade policies, key themes Trump often trumpets.
"He understands us," Coyne said of Trump. "He is saying what we feel, and therefore, let him shake the bedevils out of everyone in the canyons of Washington D.C. The American people are responding to him.
"Donald Trump won Brook Park, Ohio -- and Hartford, Connecticut."
To hear Coyne explain more about why he is backing Trump, watch the video above.
Josh Mandel checkbook universities
Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel announced Tuesday that five public universities will post their expenditures online at OhioCheckbook.com
(Jackie Borchardt, cleveland.com)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Five of Ohio's 14 public universities will post their spending online for public view, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel announced Tuesday.
Bowling Green State University, Miami University, Ohio University, Wright State University and Central State University will join Mandel's online checkbook. Operating expenditures will soon appear on OhioCheckbook.com, with plans to include foundation spending at a future date.
Mandel said Tuesday that the universities are the first in the country to put their expenditures online in a public database.
"In this process there are going to be leaders and there are going to be followers, and the universities we're recognizing here are leaders in transparency," Mandel said at a Tuesday news conference.
Mandel's office launched the online database with state expenditures in December 2014, and it has earned praise from conservative and liberal think tanks and government watchdog groups. Both the Buckeye Institute and Common Cause Ohio said the database will empower taxpayers to question government spending.
Last year, Mandel opened the database to local governments and school districts to post their expenses to the website. The treasurer's office is footing the bill for local governments and universities with savings from Mandel's term and could spend up to $2.7 million on the program in the next two years.
Gov. John Kasich's budget office has said it should house state expenditure data and plans to release a site showing state budgets, revenues, and expenditures later this month. The budget office has no interest in hosting university or local municipality expenditures.
Deborah Shaffer, senior associate vice president for finance and administration at Ohio University, said extracting the data for OhioCheckbook.com has not been difficult, though removing the personal information of students paid by the university to work has been trickier.
By the numbers
683: Number of local governments and school districts that have signed up -- about half have their expenditures online
$35 billion: Total in local government spending included in checkbook
$975,000: Cost of initial licensing fee and startup, paid for by the Ohio treasurer's office
$7,500 to $15,000: Per entity start-up costs depending on expenditure
3,962: Number of local governments Mandel has extended his offer to
Bartolo Colon
New York Mets starting pitcher Bartolo Colon delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, in New York.
(Kathy Willens, Associated Press)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Here are today's fun, topical or just plain weird political tweets curated by cleveland.com's resident Twitter lurker.
If Bartolo Colon can hit a home run in 2016, then an independent candidate can win the presidency in 2016. QED Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 9, 2016
Kristol, the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, figures if Colon, a 42-year-old pitcher, can hit his first career major league home run, then the #NeverTrump movement likewise will recruit a winning third-party candidate.
Ryan: I think it would be a mistake to pretend our party is unified after a very divisive primary. https://t.co/CFgyMrGgMk Luke Russert (@LukeRussert) May 9, 2016
Luke Russert of NBC News quotes an interview Paul Ryan did Monday on a conservative Wisconsin radio show. Buzzfeed's McKay Coppins offers his analysis on Ryan's comments regarding Sarah Palin:
And finally, Molly Ball with The Atlantic cracks a joke about the GOP politicians who are ducking the 2016 Republican National Convention:
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Valeant Pharmaceuticals ' new CEO Joseph Papa stands to receive over $67 million, but he insists he's not in it for the money. "This is not about the money," Papa said in an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer. "To me this is all about if I can play a small role in improving Valeant and [if] that has a beneficial impact on the entire pharmaceutical industry, I think I will have done something that is important." According to published reports, Valeant will pay Papa $67.4 million in cash, options and restricted stock this year. Valeant announced on April 25 that Papa would assume the role of chairman and CEO of the embattled company, to succeed Michael Pearson. Papa has more than 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry, including his most recent role as CEO of Perrigo . "The biggest surprise and the reason that really got me, is I looked at their pipeline. Because to me, that is going to predict how a company is successful in the future. Are they going to grow organically or not," Papa said.
Read More Valeant CEO Papa: I'm not in it for the money
Joseph Papa, CEO of Valeant speaks with Jim Cramer on the set of Mad Money Ashlee Espinal | CNBC
On Monday, Cramer watched as the stocks that were loved the most on Friday were suddenly loathed. It all came down to new data that changed the opinions of the most influential investors on Wall Street. U.S. employment data and Chinese trade figures were the proximate cause of Monday's mixed trading. When the Labor Department released non-farm payroll data on Friday, initially Cramer thinks the big buyers couldn't figure out what the data meant for the global economy. As a result, the market didn't sell off. Cramer fears that if the market can change so quickly from one leadership group to another, it could easily change back on one piece of data again. "Don't get too carried away, the market gods crushed those who did that just 72 hours ago," Cramer said. Read MoreCramer: Don't get carried awaythis market has 'no conviction whatsoever'
To find out where the index could be headed from a technical standpoint, Cramer turned to Carolyn Boroden, a technician who runs FibonacciQueen.com and is a colleague of Cramer's at RealMoney.com.
When reviewing the Feb. 11 bottom, Boroden found there were a series of hurdles that the S&P must cross in order to climb higher. Back in February, Boroden stated that investors must watch out for the 2,132 2,157 range as a ceiling of resistance. As the S&P approached those levels a few weeks ago, stocks fell. Thus, that area is a crucial hurdle that the S&P must jump over, if it is going to regain its momentum. "Put it all together and it is clear that the recent pull back in the S&P 500 was very much about the charts," Cramer said.
Read More Cramer: Not enough cash out there for S&P to rebound higher
The Puerto Rican flag flies near the Capitol building. US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned on Monday that time was running out to address the spiraling crisis in Puerto Rico a week after the island suffered a dramatic default. Joe Raedle | Getty Images
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned on Monday that time was running out to address the spiraling crisis in Puerto Rico a week after the island suffered a dramatic default. Mr Lew traveled to San Juan early on Monday morning as policymakers in the US capitol returned from a week-long recess, with less than two months to hammer out details of a rescue package before Puerto Rico faces a deadline on debts backed by its constitution. "It's very hard to do things like this until you are at a moment of necessity or crisis," Mr Lew said outside one of the island's hospitals. "This is that moment." Policymakers in the House of Representatives will unveil a new version of the emergency legislation on Wednesday, which will clarify how the bill will prioritize different creditors in Puerto Rico's labyrinthine web of bond issuers.
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Treasury officials have offered technical advice to politicians crafting the legislation and Mr Lew said that "there has been progress" after day-long conversations on Friday. "This is a good-faith effort to try and resolve the differences," he said. "There are pressures on Congress that every time they move in the right direction, pull it back a bit. This is not going to be a solution that anyone thinks is perfect." The island, which does not have access to bankruptcy protections like US cities and towns, has limped along as it balances a $70 billion debt burden with a severely underfunded pension system and basic services. More from the Financial Times :
The real cost of big tech's accounting games
Pfizer to trial triple-combination cancer treatment
North Korea PR drive backfires with journalist's expulsion Politicians in Washington have so far failed to coalesce around a single bill, with the Democratic leadership pushing back against a strict oversight board that could usurp local leaders in Puerto Rico. Mr Lew said that Treasury had not yet seen the latest revisions and refused to address if he would support a veto of the bill if it didn't include some level of protection for pensioners. "Our test is, is it a workable restructuring plan? Does it include enough of the credit to come up with a plan that can work? And are you left with a functioning commonwealth that can sustain basic services on the island? These are not bars that are unusual." Mr Lew said: "Pensions in some cases have already been reduced. Pensions have already borne some of the burden. In the world without any restructuring, pensions are very exposed. In order for a restructuring plan to be workable, the economy of Puerto Rico has to work. There is going to have to be a balancing of creditors and those who get retirement benefits and other bills the commonwealth has to pay. If the test is [that] creditors get paid 100 per cent before anyone else gets paid anything, there is not going to be a functioning Puerto Rico."
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Analysts have nonetheless warned that Congressional passage of emergency legislation may come too late to deter more lawsuits. Lobbyists have blasted the US capital with attack adverts and have targeted policymakers in their home states, characterizing the bill that would allow Puerto Rico to restructure its debt under the purview of an oversight board a "bailout". "That doesn't mean all debt is equal. We've never said the pensions should be made senior to all debt, but there does have to be a balancing and at the end of the day you're going to have to have a functioning economy. That's why an oversight board ought to have the discretion to make the trade-off decisions," Mr Lew said. "This is the alternative to a bailout," Mr Lew said of the Puerto Rico legislation being debated in Congress. "We have been very clear that it's not one size fits all. We understand that there is constitutional protected debt, we understand there are secured and unsecured creditors. We understand where pensions fit in the hierarchy without any legislation." A Treasury spokesperson added that it was understood that the so-called general obligation bonds would rank above the pensions. The default on about $400 million of obligations owed by the Government Development Bank on May 1 was in part blunted by emergency measures undertaken by the governor's office to transfer public agency accounts to commercial banks on the island.
Newly-elected mayor of London Sadiq Khan has told the publication Time that he could not visit the United States because of his Muslim faith if Trump were elected president.
Khan became London's first Muslim mayor on Saturday. He told the publication that Trump's controversial policy stances could make it hard for him to visit the world's largest economy and one of the U.K.'s strongest international allies.
"If Donald Trump becomes the president I'll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can't engage with American mayors and swap ideas," Kahn told Time in an interview. "I'm confident that Donald Trump's approach to politics won't win in America."
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Barely a month following the Panama Papers leak, the group of international journalists who linked some of the world's most powerful people to sheltering wealth abroad have released a sequel.
On Monday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published details on over 200,000 offshore entities in a searchable database on its website. The data were part of the initial 11.5 million files from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that an anonymous leaker sent to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung over a year ago. At the time, Sueddeutsche Zeitung asked the ICIJ to organize a global reporting collaboration to analyze the files, resulting in the first batch of revelations published in early April. Free to read, Monday's publication outlines basic information about companies, trusts and foundations set up in 21 jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and the U.S. state of Nevada. The ICIJ said it was careful not to disclose any private information, such as bank accounts, email exchanges or financial transactions. Speaking to CNBC's 'The Rundown' following the publication, ICIJ senior editor Michael Hudson explained the group's intentions. "We feel it's important to have transparency, this is like a corporate registry. If you are going to operate around the world, people should know who the owners, directors, powers of attorney are, essentially who is behind these companies." Monday's release, which the ICIJ calls the world's largest release of information about offshore companies and the people behind them, is part of the group's ongoing investigation to shed light on the extent at which individuals are creating secret corporate entities, i.e. shell companies, that critics say facilitate money laundering and tax evasion. But it's not just shell firms in question; Hudson also shined the spotlight on trusts.
An activist clutching a suitcase stuffed with fake money demands greater transparency in new legislation on April 13, 2016 in Berlin following the first Panama Papers leak. Sean Gallup | Getty Images
"Trusts are an interesting beast. Unlike a company, you sign away the assets, i.e. you giving away the money to someone else who is supposed to manage it for you and that way, you can say with a straight face that you don't have those assets. It's a way of turning definitions on top of each other and possessing money without officially possessing it." New Zealand is among the countries already coming under pressure following Monday's revelations. After combing through the ICIJ data, Radio New Zealand, TVNZ and Kiwi journalist Nicky Hager released a report stating that Mossack Fonseca recommended New Zealand as a good place to do business for its tax-free status and high confidentiality. Rich Latin Americans in particular were using shell companies and trusts to channel funds around the world, the report said. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was quick to respond. "The government takes the issue seriously and we've called for a review of disclosure rules for foreign trusts by tax expert John Shewan...As I've been saying for some time now, if there's any need for change in this area, the government will consider it and if necessary take action," Key said at a Monday media briefing. New Zealand and Samoa were the only locations in the 21 jurisdictions covered in Monday's data that provided information about shareholders, the ICIJ noted on its website, but discrepancies still remain. Even when shareholders are listed, they could be nominees appointed by the law firm that registered the company, it said.
According to Hudson, it's not just countries such as New Zealand or Panama that need stricter regulation; the entire offshore system is at fault.
"The offshore system is a global worldwide system, and that means New Zealand, Australia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Panama and the U.S. are all part of this system in some way or another, they're feeding clients to it and they are attracting clients."
The world's largest economy is actually one of the biggest tax havens in the world, with states such as Delaware, Wyoming, and Nevada boasting more secrecy laws than the British Virgin Islands, one of the most famous offshore havens, Hudson said. The Delaware Department of State told CNBC it was working closely with Congress and the Obama administration to combat international financial crimes. The other two states did not reply to emailed requests for comment. The 2015 Financial Secrecy Index, published by the international organization Tax Justice Network, identified all three states as national leaders in "offering egregious secrecy facilities." Washington is paying attention however. Last Thursday, the Obama administration announced that it sent legislation to Congress to create a centralized registry of the owners behind any new company in an effort to help authorities crack down on money laundering and other crimes. It is not illegal to set up trusts or shell companies, but the fact that owners who do can remain completely anonymous is the crux of the problem, according to financial experts.
LINCOLN -- Gov. Pete Ricketts contributed $50,000 to the Nebraska Republican Party last week, six days before Tuesday's primary election.
The funding was noted in a report of a late contribution filed with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. Such reports are required for contributions made within 14 days of an election.
Ricketts has been playing an active role in this year's legislative elections and is openly opposing the re-election of at least one incumbent state senator who is a fellow Republican.
But the $50,000 contribution is about more than that, gubernatorial spokesman Taylor Gage said Monday.
"The governor has supported the Nebraska GOP and legislative candidates for over a decade," Gage said.
"He has continued to do so this election cycle by endorsing several Republicans in legislative races and contributing to the state party to support their operations and organizational efforts for the national convention."
Ricketts has endorsed Steve Halloran of Hastings in his primary contest with Sen. Les Seiler of Hastings and recently attended a fundraiser for Halloran.
On Monday, the governor was keynote speaker at a luncheon in Kearney supporting John Lowe in his bid to succeed term-limited Sen. Galen Hadley, Speaker of the Legislature. Both of Lowe's primary opponents are also Republicans.
"Being a small business owner, I know that to grow our economy and create jobs, we must hold the line on government spending and lower the tax burden," Lowe said.
"If elected, I look forward to working with Gov. Ricketts to grow Nebraska," he said.
Ricketts is also supporting Mike Hilgers in his 21st District legislative contest in Lincoln and Lancaster County. Both of his opponents in the race to succeed term-limited Sen. Ken Haar of Malcolm are Democrats.
Two gubernatorial appointees, Sens. Nicole Fox of Omaha and David Schnoor of Scribner, also have the governor's public support.
Schnoor will automatically move on to the general election because he has only one opponent in Tuesday's primary. The top two vote-getters in each legislative district will meet in a November showdown.
Fox would appear to be the only endangered legislative incumbent in Tuesday's election. A Republican, she faces two opponents who are Democrats in a strongly Democratic South Omaha district.
Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte gestures during a labor day campaign rally on May 1, 2016 in Manila, Philippines. Dondi Tawatao | Getty Images
Firebrand mayor Rodrigo Duterte was set to become the Philippines' next president as results from Monday's election poured in and a rival conceded defeat, confirmation the outsider's vow to crush crime had resonated with voters. Early on Tuesday morning, a rolling ballot count by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed Duterte had almost 39 percent of votes cast. He was more than 5 million votes ahead of his nearest rival with 90 percent of votes counted. Grace Poe, a popular senator, won more than a fifth of the votes counted but conceded defeat to Duterte and said his lead reflected the will of the people. Duterte's incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the Southeast Asian country's authoritarian past. The 71-year-old's truculent defiance of political tradition has drawn comparisons with U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, as have his references to his libido.
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Duterte made a succession of winding, bellicose and at times comical remarks on television as the votes were being counted, venting over corruption and bad governance and telling anecdotes from his 22 years as mayor of Davao city. He said corrupt officials should "retire, or die" and reiterated his support for police to use of deadly force against criminals. "If they put up a good fight and refuse to surrender and if you feel your life is in jeopardy, shoot. You have my authority," he told reporters in Davao, wearing a checked shirt and slouched in a chair.
His man-of-the-people demeanor tapped into popular disgust with the political establishment over its failure to tackle poverty and inequality despite several uninterrupted years of robust economic growth. The election numbers reported by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) had, by 5:30 am (0930 GMT), accounted for about 90 percent of the 54 million registered Filipino voters. Duterte had 14.9 million votes, with the government's candidate Manuel Roxas second with 8.9 million, followed by Poe with 8.3 million votes. The PPCRV count is not official but Poe's decision to concede defeat added weight to his presumed victory.
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Virulent campaign
Duterte had earlier talked of making peace with his rivals after a "virulent" campaign, during which Poe called him "an "executioner". She later said she was willing to bury the hatchet. "I promise to cooperate with the healing process," she told reporters. "Duterte has a mandate. Let's give him a chance." In an early indication of his unorthodoxy, Duterte told reporters that if he became president he would seek multilateral talks to resolve disputes over the South China Sea. The outgoing administration of President Benigno Aquino has asked a court of arbitration in The Hague to recognize its right to exploit waters in the South China Sea, a case it hoped could bolster claims by other countries against China in the resource-rich waters. Duterte said negotiations should include Japan, Australia and the United States, which is traditionally the region's dominant security player and contests China's development of islands and rocky outcrops in the sea.
Asked about U.S. support for Duerte's proposal, Anna Richey-Allen, a spokeswoman for the State Department's East Asia Bureau, said: "The United States has consistently expressed support for nations to exercise peaceful means to resolve territorial or maritime disputes without the use or threat of force, intimidation or coercion, and in a manner consistent with international law." Policy uncertainty ahead At least 11 people were killed in violence before voting started, but otherwise the election was mostly smooth. Voters also cast ballots for the vice president, 300 lawmakers and about 18,000 local government officials. "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was neck and neck with Congresswoman Leni Robredo in the vice president race. Duterte's entertaining speeches, often loaded with profanities, have shed little light on his policies beyond going after gangsters and drug pushers. He has been vague on what he would do to spur an economy that has averaged growth at around 6 percent under Aquino.
In order to incentivize business investment, Congress should provide fiscal policy leadership, enact immigration and tax reform, and resume infrastructure spending, Motorola Solutions Chairman and CEO Greg Brown said Tuesday.
In the current environment, businesses have few incentives to invest, he said
"Companies don't like to invest in uncertain times. Be that as it may, we have more uncertainty than certainty. We need a Congress to act," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
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The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which produced the Panama Papers, said Monday that at least 36 Americans have been accused of fraudulently using off-shore accounts. USA TODAY could not reach the Americans listed in the Panama Papers for comment. The consortium also tried to reach them but did not get any comments.
Here are details on some of the U.S. cases included in Monday's release, which includes a database for the public to search off-shore accounts of hundreds of thousands of people and companies:
The sign in front of the building that houses Mossack Fonseca in Panama City. The law firm has been at the center of the Panama Papers scandal. Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Leonard Gotshalk: The former Atlanta Falcons offensive tackle turned Oregon businessman has faced criminal investigations for decades, yet he was still able to open an off-shore account through Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm whose 11.5 million documents on off-shore accounts were leaked.
In 1994, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Gotshalk for providing investors with "false and misleading information" about a company involved in oil and gas investments, according to the consortium. In 2004, an Oregon court convicted him of theft, sentenced him to 20 months in prison and ordered him to pay a fine. In 2010, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia unsealed an indictment against him, claiming he was part of a scheme to inflate the price of tech-company stocks.
Martin Frankel: The Connecticut financier pleaded guilty in 2002 for looting $200 million from insurance companies. According to the Hartford Courant, Frankel became notorious for his lavish lifestyle, which included purchasing jewels, furs, luxury cars and a compound where he recruited women "through advertisements in alternative publications." His story, which ended with a flight to Rome with two female friends, even became the subject of a novel.
More from USA Today: What to watch for in the West Virginia and Nebraska primaries
Top Islamic State commander killed in Iraq
3 teens charged with student's death in bathroom
Robert Miracle: Six people who ran a Ponzi scheme in Seattle were led by Miracle, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his part. The group was accused of defrauding more than 4,200 Indonesian investors out of $175 million. During his sentencing hearing in 2011, a federal judge ordered Miracle to give up a $38,000 diamond ring, a $27,000 painting he bought in Italy, and told Miracle he had "ruined people's lives," according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.
WHEN: TONIGHT, MONDAY, MAY 9 AT 6PM ET
WHERE: CNBC'S "MAD MONEY W/ JIM CRAMER"
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with new Valeant CEO Joe Papa tonight on CNBC's "Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer" at 6PM ET. Video of the interview will be available on www.cnbc.com.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
JIM CRAMER: We got an incredible chance to check with what may be the single most controversial company in this market today. I'm talking about Valeant. The previously gigantic pharmaceutical roll-up has seen its stock plunge over the last 12 months. And over the past year, Valeant has been accused of all kinds of shady practices, price gouging, channel stuffing. And the one that really worries me the most, which are accounting irregularities. However, a couple weeks ago, Valeant's board announced that they were replacing their admittedly loathed former CEO Michael Pearson with a much better executive, Joe Papa from Perrigo. So here is the question we need to ask ourselves: Is it possible Valeant can turn itself around, which might make the stock a real bargain at these levels? Or is the whole thing a value trap and you gotta steer clear of it? The-- we don't know the answer frankly. Let's take a closer look with Joe Papa. He's the brand new chairman and CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Find out more about what he thinks of this controversial company's prospects. Mr. Papa, welcome back to Mad Money. Good to see you, Joe.
JOE PAPA: Good to see you. Good to see you.
JIM CRAMER: All right, Joe. This is a tough one because I've known you for many, many years. And you-- made our viewers a huge amount of money. But you're going to a company that while there are 20,000 or more people that are all, I'm sure, very nice, Charlie Munger, one of the great investors of our time, associated with Warren Buffett, said that Valeant's a sewer because it jacked up prices of old medicines to game the system. Joe Papa, why would you want to be a part of that?
JOE PAPA: So Jim, I've been in the pharmaceutical business for 35 years. And what I've always tried to do is go to the data. Try to figure out what's there, what's not there. Because that to me is the most important question. So I did my diligence. And I looked at Valeant from not just the level of the noise because I hear a lot of news, either good or bad. But in terms of the growth. They've grown phenomenally in the eight years that-- that Mike was there. But there's some noise. I absolutely get that. So what did I do? I went in and looked at the information. I said, you know, "What do the people look like?" And candidly, Jim, I-- many of the people that are there-- they have 22,000 people, all dedicated to trying to improve patients' lives. And I think that's a really important, noble-- cause. And I think why-- that's why pharmaceuticals is so important
JIM CRAMER: But Joe, I mean, we know. I mean, first, it's Barron's this week in a well-researched piece saying that if the accounting had been generally accepted accounting principles, the company would have actually lost money rather than make $8.14. I'm sure these people are very nice and very good. But the accounting, Joe. The accounting seems wrong to me.
JOE PAPA: So I understand the comment on accounting. But-- let me just go through a little bit more. Because what else is there? Because that was the other thing that I said. What-- they have a global leading brand in a number of areas of opthalmics. The Bausch and Lomb products, the contact lenses, great products. They have-- global leading brands in dermatology, global leading brands in the GI disease area. So they've got great brands globally. I think that was really important to me. But you know the biggest surprise and the reason that really got me? Is I looked at their pipeline. Because to me, that's going to predict how is a company successful in the future. Are they going to grow organically or not? We've got 33 products in the pipeline. We got 10 products that are going to launch in the next 12 to 18 months. And they're for important things like psoriasis. They can make a difference for a patient with psoriasis. We've got products in the dermatology space. We've got products in the gastrointestinal space. We've got new products for glaucoma. All these, I think, are really just gonna drive us. Do I
JIM CRAMER: Joe, more than $30 billion in debt. A research-- I looked at the R&D budget. It's around 3%. Pfizer and Merck are 16%. This isn't a knockoff drug company, Joe. They have to spend more money. They have to be able-- you have to be able to pay this debt. You've got to be able to-- you must have to sell some things. Even though Bill Ackman, who's maybe your putative boss, says you don't need to sell anything. Joe, this is a situation that is dire.
JOE PAPA: Yeah. So I know we've got some things we're going to work on. I believe though that we're going to be generating cash because that's obviously important. We are generating cash. We're generating EBITDA. We've got over $10 billion of sales. So I do think the footprint is in place. I-- do I have to execute on things? Absolutely correct, Jim. But I do think that I look at it. There's-- first thing I need to do is stabilize the company. That's working with our employees, working with the physicians, making sure that we work with patients. I have to get that stabilization. Then I-- then after that, I've gotta turn it around. And that's gonna be launching some of these new products. I've gotta make sure that I take care of the debt holders. I-- I'm comfortable we've got a plan to take care of debt holders. And then importantly, obviously generate the total shareholder return-- for-the-shareholders
JIM CRAMER: Now, you do stand to benefit according to the press reports. $65 million is the package if things go right. You left Perrigo, and you get this. I mean, are you doin' it for the money, Joe?
JOE PAPA: Jim, this is not about the money. This is about to me-- as I said, I love the pharmaceutical industry. This is an industry that does more good for people than any other industry at least as far as I'm concerned. I'm a pharmist by my training. To me, this was all about if I could play a small role in improving Valeant and that has a beneficial impact on the entire pharmaceutical industry, I think I will have done something that's important. To me, that's what this is all about.
JIM CRAMER: Okay. You were last on the show February of 2015, where you were urging people to not tender to a Mylan bid, which is-- now, amounted to about 160 bucks, as David Faber and I - calculated it. Stock's at $94. Some of our viewers, who have made a lotta money with you, now feel that you left them with a $94 stock. You get to go onto Valeant. And they are questioning what they own.
JOE PAPA: Well, Jim, I-- so I can't say too much about the Perrigo company, of course. What I can say is
JIM CRAMER: But you did come on.
JOE PAPA: You're absolutely right. Perrigo-- before I joined Perrigo, it was a great company. When I joined-- while I was there, it was a great company. And Perrigo's gonna be a great company for the future
JIM CRAMER: But maybe Perrigo needs you, Joe. I meanjeez, you know, you liked it at 160. And now, they're at 94. Maybe Perrigo needs Joe Papa.
JOE PAPA: Well, I-think what I would really say, Jim, is that I'm really excited about the opportunity at Valeant. I do think that-- Perrigo's in good hands. They've got a great new CEO. So I'm just gonna probably say I'll leave Perrigo with the great CEO, the great succession plan that occurred. And I'm gonna really look towards tryin' to really make a difference at Valeant
JIM CRAMER: But let's talk about that path forward. I know that there is much in the pipeline. You said that. But what's the first thing-- and I know you said stabilization. But does stabilization mean get these multiple investigations behind you? Because the multiple investigations could hinder what you're tryin' to do.
JOE PAPA: So I think the first thing I have to do is just as I said, re-recruit my employees to my company. They
JIM CRAMER: Re-recruit?
JOE PAPA: Get their engagement back. That's an important message. They've had a tough nine months. There's no doubt about that.
JIM CRAMER: Well, I mean-they're in the paper every day.
JOE PAPA: So I-- but I think I can do that. I've gotta deal with some of the regulatory issues that are out there. And we've got a plan to do that. Just last week, we announced we're gonna put together a patient access and pricing committee.
JIM CRAMER: But-- does that mean that you have to roll back prices? And how can you roll back prices and also pay that debt?
JOE PAPA: Well, I don't know the action yet, but we're clearly going to look at patient access, make sure that if people want our drugs, they get access to our drugs. And to me, that's what's really important. 'Cause once again, the pharmaceutical industry in my mind is always gonna be about making quality products, make them for people to improve their health care outcomes.
JIM CRAMER: Okay. Did Bill Ackman reach out to you when you were at Perrigo and say, "You're my guy"?
JOE PAPA: In terms of joining
JIM CRAMER: Is that who made the contact?
JOE PAPA: I was contacted by an industry individual. It wasn't Bill.
JIM CRAMER: Okay. When you get in and you look, and you've only been there a few days. And I have to tell you you're totally stand up to come. Because I was candidly upset--. Because we have so many people in Perrigo. And it's a local company. It's from where-- it's-- you know it's from where I-- I have a house in Dublin, Joe. I mean, this is where I grew up. And I look at what-- what's happening. And I say to myself, "Okay, foremost pharmaceutical guy in the state, in a local company comes to this situation." And frankly-- maybe it's not solvable, Joe. I mean, maybe it's not.
JOE PAPA: Relative to how I can solve Valeant?
JIM CRAMER: Well, I mean the balance sheet. I keep coming back to that balance sheet, Joe. And you did get a pretty good balance sheet at Perrigo. You didn't have to worry about such a thing. You always had investment grade.
JOE PAPA: That is true. But I do think we can manage through this balance sheet question. It's an absolute priority for me. I wanna be clear that it's an absolute priority. But I do think we can manage that and also get the returns that we're looking for our shareholders.
JIM CRAMER: But do you think the political stuff can be behind you? I mean, it's election coming up. Are you somehow gonna get that behind you?
JOE PAPA: Well, I'm gonna work really hard at it, Jim. That's all I can promise. 'Cause that's an important objective for me. Once again, I think if I continue to focus on trying to improve patients' lives, then I think that's an important message. And, of course, working with our physician partners. That's an important part of how I believe we'll be successful.
JIM CRAMER: I gotta hand it to you. I gotta hand it to you 'cause you came on. You know I've been very critical. It- frankly, if you hadn't come on, then I would have had a lot more questions. And the fact is I had to hit you with the tough stuff. And you know that. And I really appreciate you coming on for both our viewers and for ourselves because we gotta figure out what to do.
JOE PAPA: Well, I-- and I would say it's always been a pleasure to have a chance to talk with you. And I'm looking forward to-- what I need to get done and importantly just be able to measure by that for the success for the future.
JIM CRAMER: And let's leave it like that. That's Joe Papa. He's the new chairman-CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals. He did make us a lot of money in Perrigo. Let's see what happens here. Mad Money's back after the break.
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Following are excerpts from a CNBC interview with Stephen Hester, CEO of RSA Insurance Group.
You or your company or both are part of the Remain camp because companies and people's personal views are getting convoluted now. So just tell us exactly the stance of you and RSA.
SH: Well I think you've got it absolutely right. I'm personally part of Remain but so too is the company. Now clearly from a company standpoint really our only access of commentary is economic and I think we're very, very clear that RSA itself benefits from us being part of the European Union. Something like 50 percent of the market value of RSA is our European operations where we can trade with single passports and so on. But also insurers, as a group, hold a very large part of the UK's savings and one of the things that is clear is if there was an exit from the EU, the value of U.K. assets goes down. And that's not good for insurers, it's not good for all the people who have their savings with insurers, so that's why RSA believes that we're better off, from a business perspective, from an economic perspective, in the European Union
Why does the value of the savings go down? Let me just pin down that one.
SH: I think the value of savings goes through a number of different routes. First of all, Sterling falls as a currency and so obviously any Sterling denominated assets are worth less, relative to everything. I think even in the medium- to longer-term. The second is that the uncertainty premium and the risk premium causes a further drop in Sterling assets or in risk related Sterling assets. And there's some uncertainty around what scale, but I think it's very clear that the drop is there, we lose some of the credit rating and so on. So I'm not saying it's going to be a disaster, we can't survive...
So you think that Britain would be marked down on the credit rating scale?
SH: I think the credit rating agencies themselves have said that that's a likelihood...
Which means there's a flow and effect across all products
SH: Exactly but I am certainly not in the camp that it would be a disaster. I think the UK is big enough and strong enough with enough ingenuity and so on to do OK outside the European Union. It's just clear that we will be poorer by an amount which is hard to judge. And so the issue will be: are they good reasons to deliberately want to be poorer? And that of course moves into the political realm of issues like sovereignty and so on and so forth.
So what don't you like about Europe? You're Remain, you like the idea of the company and indeed Britain remaining part of EU. What don't you like? If you had to side any part of you, I'm sure Boris has been trying to get you on his side as well. What was the one thing that you really agree with the exit campaign now?
SH: Here's the thing that I think you can apply to many aspects of international cooperation or even human evolution just to be pompous for a second. That the history of human evolution is about people giving up sovereignty in exchange for a bigger collective power. But of course the frustrations of a bigger collective power are you have a small amount of influence so, you know, if you're a single person and you marry -- you give up some power some individual rights and you share them.
When you become part of a community, part of a county, part of the county, every single time you're saying more of us together can get more done, but our own individual voice is less important and therefore, we will be frustrated by other people have different voices and we won't always carry the day. So, this is true of being a member United Nations, is true of being in NATO, is true of being in the in the UK. Scotland's frustrated in the UK. Every single point of human evolution we have traded sovereignty since the caveman days for greater collective power.
The Brexit people would come back to you and say you're absolutely right. And they'll take your historical analogy and they'll say it becomes imperial and empires only in one way. Whether it's the British Empire, whether it's the Roman Empire, that actually once that that collective just gets too big or the central decision making body gets too far away from their subjects then you see collapse.
SH: Well and I think that's right and so I think that if you structure very big organizations in a command and control way, at least in terms of democracies, you do get tensions which are hard to break down. Now democracy, in theory, is your way through that, it creates frustrations because people are very slow to move democracies, don't agree you get stalemate and we get that at many levels of government. But I don't think it would be possible to describe the EU as an imperial empire.
What about regulation though? Because this is the one big comment that is raised by the Brexit campaigner - that Europe ties down Britain with too much regulation. What about in your business? Is there regulation that you're hampered by because of the Europeans, because of Brussels?
SH: You know I would scratch my head at this argument, in part because the people who almost invented bureaucracy and exported it to the world were the U.K. Just think, when it's a nightmare to do business in India as it sometimes is, it's British bureaucracy and from my standpoint many of the most bureaucratic regulations we deal with are made in the UK. The banking commission all the stuff that came out of that in banks being one example, and the gold plating that goes on.
When it comes to bureaucracy, if we pulled out of the EU, it seems to me we'd have a double set of bureaucracy,0 because anyone who does international business would still have to abide by the rules of the countries they trade in. And there will be another set of different UK rules. From the insurance industry standpoint, we've just spent the last 10 years and a huge amount of money trying to harmonize rules with our competitors, so that if we're competing against Allianz in Germany or AXA in France, and they're very big players in the U.K. market as we are in the continental European markets, we're all working to the same set of rules. I think that allows business to flow much better. So to me, the bureaucracy argument is actually the opposite way round to how it's claimed to be.
The pro Brexit camp would argue that just 6 percent of U.K. businesses actually trade with the EU, a far greater majority of them are small and medium sized enterprises that don't have to worry. So as much as it's a problem for your business, by far the greater majority of U.K. businesses don't have to worry about that.
SH:They don't have to worry about that aspect, although in an interrelated economy, if small businesses are suppliers to big businesses and big businesses are affected, then you still get, if you like, a trickle down effect. But it seems to me, the lesson of the world for tens of thousands of years is: you come together to achieve more. And it seems to me whenever societies, whether economically or in any other way, wall themselves off, there's trouble. It could be religious trouble, it could be racial, it could be political, could be economic -- walling yourself off in the world is not a recipe for success.
I think the exit camp would take that to its logical conclusion and suggest why just stop with Europe? What they'd like to do is go global. They don't want a small European organizational structure we're working in, they just want to go to the world, go to everybody. And whilst it might take some time to get deals, ultimately they'll get done and they would suggest then we'd be in a better place because we are part of the final, obvious and logical conclusion of a global structure.
SH: Well I think that everyone is in violent agreement on this point. That in today's world, it is better to be a member of lots of different clubs because you're trying to maximize your collective influence and take down as many barriers as you can and so, I don't think anyone advocating we stay in Europe is not saying we shouldn't stay in the UN. We're not saying Europe shouldn't have a free trade deal with China
We haven't got a trade deal with China, we haven't got a trade deal with America and we don't have a trade deal with India. Is the UK more able to negotiate those outside of the EU the EU is blatantly been incapable of doing it within
SH: You make a good point and so when you ask the leaders of each of those countries that you mentioned, who they're more likely to negotiate a trade deal with, they say with the European Union. It's bigger and more influential...
With 28 different countries that can't agree on anything
SH: Let's look at the World Trade Organization, which is what we in the UK would be relying on if we came out of the EU, the World Trade Organization is the world's slowest body to negotiate trade deals because it's difficult when you're negotiating among lots of people you have less influence, it's slower. But nevertheless we all try.
Stephen Hester on banks
It is going from bad to worse for some of these banks. I don't see any sign of recovery despite the positive noises. RBS is trading at 21 pence in old money. And it's got this government overhang as well. Did you see a way out for the government, Stephen?
SH: You know I think that most major banks are now dealing with the core problem that most service industries are dealing with around the world. For the last seven years, eight years, since the financial crisis, banks have been dealing with the massive fallout of the financial crisis and regulation and political anger and so on and so forth of different scandals and fines. And we're now moving in a sense into business as usual, but business as usual as the service industries have not experienced it before. You no longer get in a service industry double digit growth, which bails you out of almost any problem. And so, service industries, like banks, like insurance, are having to say how do we live in a world of slow growth where our revenues don't go up every year? How do we do that? And where there are huge technological pressures?
And so the things that Toyota learned in the 1970s, 80s, that General Electric applied to aero engines, this intensity of operational skills and development and efficiency, the service industry has to learn today. Which is why we're seeing everywhere stories about robotics being applied to white collar jobs, not just to blue collar jobs. And so, I think each of these banks is is now struggling with the fact that historically, they've never had to live in a low growth environment for their service industry. And these are skills that are not fast to apply and as a consequence of that, return on equity is low because costs not coming down fast enough. And people are trying to work their way out of that equation.
That's a really defensive strategy though. There is another alternative, that's consolidation and your company itself was in the headlights from Zurich at the end of last year. Isn't that the other answer? Take over another business and growth?
SH: I always think that M&A, when you examine it, there are many stories about how it fails more often than it succeeds, in terms of value to the buying shareholder, and that's because if you use it as an escape from your own problems, you probably end up just multiplying your own problems because you had another headache of management in the integration to what you've got already. So certainly, as it relates to RSA, we've said no M&A, for at least 3 to 5 years, until we get really on top of our own issues, until we become amongst the best companies in our sector. Until everything that we currently own and control is going hummingly, no distractions. And I think we're in a world where, if you get distracted, the risk is you lose. You have to concentrate in these tougher climates.
So you're saying RSA is not for sale you would turn down an approach if it came in the next three to five years
SH: RSA is owned by its shareholders and our shareholders have a right to decide. And we demonstrated in the case of Zurich that we would listen, even though I personally didn't specially agree with the price on offer, but our shareholders wanted to see it. Now I think in our case, 9 months later most of our shareholders are pretty pleased that Zurich went away, because the share price is going up nicely - we've outperformed the industry - that's on the back of our business results having turned sharply upwards, and I think we can outperform our industry for the next three years.
If it's not M&A, and as you say the marketplace is not growing very much, then you have two opportunities: one is to cut costs on one side, and the other is to take share. You've obviously been focusing somewhat on the costs. How do you take share in that marketplace going forward? What's the key?
SH: In the short run, most of the economic news is about slow growth, and likely to be for a while and, in relatively mature markets, in relatively slow growing markets, taking market share means someone else has got to lose it and that someone else doesn't want to lose it. And so there's a very good chance that if you take share from someone in the short run, you're making a mistake, you're pricing things wrong, you're taking a risk you shouldn't. So I think in the short run, in this kind of market conditions, what you do is consolidate your market share and really improve your capabilities.
Note to Editors
Contact:
Sarah Whiteacre
CNBC
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Sarah.Whiteacre@cnbc.com
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Severe weather, slowing population growth and the threat of cyberattacks on utility companies and energy infrastructure are among the top dangers facing the energy market, the secretary-general of the World Energy Council told CNBC. Christoph Frei said the frequency of extreme weather events had risen by fourfold in the last 30 years and would likely do so again in the next three decades. "Why would this trend suddenly stop? Yesterday's unlikely is tomorrow's reality," Frei told CNBC on Friday.
Don Klumpp | Getty Images
He highlighted Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York in 2012, and the cyclone that struck the Philippines in 2013 as examples of severe weather events that could become more frequent. In addition, increasingly frequent droughts in countries ranging from Ethiopia in Africa to Colombia in Latin America would place higher competition on water supplies over the next 40 years, he said. That includes both water used for irrigation and drinking and water used for energy generation in hydro plants and thermal power stations. "Droughts can impact electricity. If it's a question of energy security versus water security, water trumps," Frei said.
More attacks on power supplies?
Attacks on major utility companies and power networks are an increasing concern for governments and corporations.
Hundreds of thousands of homes in Ukraine were left without electricity in December after an alleged malware attack on the power system. The assault was the first widely known example of hackers bringing down a major power network. In February, there were media reports that ISIS terrorists may have been planning an attack on a Belgian nuclear power plant. Read More Saudi Arabia plans on being a world-beater
"Cyber is among the top issues keeping energy (players) awake at night," Frei told CNBC. "Why should it be limited to Ukraine? We have seen other cyberattcks on banks ... why should this be different in infrastructure?" he added separately.
Population growth
World demand for energy is closely tied to economic growth. Expansion was driven in the latter half of the 20th century by a very sharp rise in the global population, which now tops 7 billion.
However, rapid population growth is now slowing, due to decelerating birth rates around the world. "The 'new normal' for China may be the new normal for the world ... economic growth was previously boosted by a huge growth in population," Frei told CNBC. Read MoreHere's what's really spooking oil: Barclays "If energy demand growth is not to come from people, it has to come from productivity," he later said.
Energy Futures
The Philippines is set to usher in regional mayor Rodrigo Duterte as its next president, according to early vote counts, but the headline-grabbing candidate's shaky policy agenda is likely to worry investors and markets.
Formal results aren't expected to come in until June but a ballot count by the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV)an accredited watchdogshowed Duterte held 39 percent of votes cast as of Tuesday. Earlier in the day, candidates Mar Roxas and Grace Poe both conceded defeat to the Davao City mayor. Voters went to the polls Monday in what was seen as a tight race.
71-year old Duterte, who's nicknamed "Duterte Harry" and "The Punisher," is hugely popular for his sensationalist rhetoric on crime and inequality despite numerous politically incorrect comments on topics such as rape and extra-judicial killings.
Following the PPCRV's results, Duterte spokesman Peter Lavina announced a few policies on Tuesday that the presidential hopeful intended to implement, including moving the constitution to a parliamentary model and brokering peace treaties with militant groups in the southern Mindanao province, Reuters reported.
But Duterte was yet to present a concrete stance on serious issues such as economic reforms, strategists said.
"Rodrigo Duterte's election platform lacked any content regarding his economic policies, creating considerable uncertainty about his future reform agenda," Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist at IHS Global Insight, said.
That could see international investors and fund managers reduce exposure to Philippines equities and local government debt, which could weaken the against the greenback in the short-term, Biswas warned.
The currency was trading nearly 1 percent higher at 46.86 per dollar on Tuesday afternoon, while the benchmark equity index was up 0.4 percent.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:
Allergan The drugmaker announced a new $10 billion share buyback program, planning to execute up to half that amount over the next four to six months. Separately, Allergan reported adjusted quarterly profit of $3.04 per share, beating estimates by 3 cents a share.
Lumber Liquidators The flooring maker lost an adjusted 35 cents per share for its latest quarter, 11 cents a share wider than expected. Revenue was below forecasts, as well. Lumber Liquidators saw same-store sales fall 13.9 percent compared to a year earlier.
Gap Inc. The apparel retailer posted lower-than-expected quarterly sales and also issued an earnings warning. Gap has been hurt by weak demand at both the Banana Republic and Old Navy chains.
Dean Foods The company is buying the manufacturing and retail ice cream business of Friendly's Ice Cream for $155 million in cash. Separately, Dean beat estimates by 7 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of 45 cents per share. However, revenue was very slightly below forecasts.
Norwegian Cruise Line The cruise ship operator matched estimates with adjusted quarterly profit of 38 cents per share. Revenue was below Street forecasts, however, due in large part to softness in the European market.
Hasbro The toymaker's stock was downgraded to "neutral" from "overweight" at Piper Jaffray, which said the stock is fairly priced heading into a time of year that is traditionally off season for the toy industry.
Stamps.com The internet postage service earned an adjusted $1.72 per share for its latest quarter, far above estimates of $1.06 a share. The company also raised its full-year outlook, as it continues to successfully integrate recent acquisitions.
SolarCity SolarCity posted an adjusted loss of $2.56 per share, wider than the $2.32 a share expected by analysts. The solar company's revenue did beat Street forecasts, but the company also cut its forecast for solar panel installations for 2016.
LendingClub The online lender remains in the news, following yesterday's ouster of CEO Renaud Laplanche. The Wall Street Journal reports that board member and former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack joined Laplanche is investing in an outside fund in which the company was also considering an investment.
United Continental United reported a 1.9 percent drop in revenue passenger miles for April compared to a year earlier. The airline maintained its prior forecast for a 6.5 percent to 8.5 percent decline for the second quarter, pointing to a stronger dollar, travel reductions from oil industry customers, and other factors.
Rackspace Rackspace reported quarterly profit of 37 cents per share, 15 cents a share above estimates. Revenue was essentially in line with expectations. The cloud computing company, however, gave a lower-than-expected revenue outlook for the current quarter. Rackspace is in the midst of a transition to an emphasis on services.
Hertz Global Hertz lost 12 cents per share for its latest quarter, 11 cents a share wider than expected. The car rental giant's revenue also fell below forecasts. Hertz has been impacted by a worldwide decline in rental prices, but it continues to back its prior 2016 forecast as it cuts costs.
Zoetis Zoetis is on the watch list following a New York Times report that investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square is cutting its stake in the animal vaccine maker. Pershing is said to be selling 16.85 million shares, which would cut its stake to 25 million shares.
Nokia Nokia reported lower-than-expected sales of telecom equipment for its first quarter, and it also said its full-year earnings would fall as demand for mobile equipment weakens in key markets. This marks the first earnings report for Nokia since it took control of Alcatel-Lucent in January.
Baidu Baidu was ordered by China regulators to change its advertising practices. That follows an investigation into the death of a college student who had cancer and had taken a therapy found through a Baidu ad.
Microsoft Microsoft is shutting down its China web portal, preferring to focus on software and services for Windows 10 devices.
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European equities ended higher on Tuesday, as sentiment was lifted by a handful of positive earnings and a sharp tick-up in commodity stocks and prices. The pan-European STOXX 600 came off session highs, to finish up 0.9 percent provisionally. All major sectors ended higher, with the exception of technology.
Britain's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX both posted gains of 0.6 to 0.7 percent by the close, while France's CAC closed up 0.4 percent. In peripheral markets, Athens stock exchange jumped 3.2 percent, after the country was offered further debt relief.
Market movers: Bank earnings, commodities
European markets
Banks were one of Europe's top-performing stock sectors on Tuesday.
Credit Suisse reported a pretax loss of 484 million Swiss francs ($498 million) in the first quarter of 2016, compared to a reported pretax profit of 1.5 billion Swiss francs in the same period last year. Shares in the lender rallied, finishing 5 percent up. Dutch lender ING jumped over 2.5 percent after it said its underlying net result was 842 million euros in the first three months of the year, falling 29 percent year-on-year due to higher "regulatory expenses". Meanwhile, French bank Natixis reported a 30 percent year-on-year fall in net income for the first quarter of 2016 due to weakness in its investment banking division, sending shares to close almost 7 percent down.
Nokia plunges 7.2%, while Pandora shimmers
Elsewhere, earnings season continued to shift sentiment. Shares of Danish jewelry maker Pandora rallied 11.2 percent after it posted market-beating revenue and profit. This gave a boost to fellow luxury stock, Hugo Boss . Easyjet ended 2.7 percent up, despite swinging to a loss for the first half of the year, citing "external shocks to demand from terrorism events relating to Sharm el-Sheikh, Paris and Brussels". Other transportation stocks were also higher, including Air France-KLM and Ryanair .
K+S also jumped 2.7 percent, after the German fertilizer provider reiterated its 2016 outlook and reported a smaller-than-expected fall in first quarter operating profit, Reuters reported.
On the other hand, net sales at Nokia's key networks business fell 8 percent year-on-year to 5.2 billion euros ($5.9 billion), missing a market consensus of 5.5 billion euros. Shares sank to the bottom of benchmarks, down 7.2 percent. In the insurance space, Munich Re shares fell over 2 percent after it cut its full-year profit guidance to the lower end of its range after a slump in first quarter profit. Staffing group Adecco reported earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization down 5 percent in the first quarter, sending shares down 5 percent.
Greek stocks climb
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There is a time of reckoning coming for start-ups in Silicon Valley that will result in layoffs and consolidations in the industry, tech investor Chris Sacca said Tuesday.
"We're in this era where money has essentially been free," he said in an interview with CNBC's "Power Lunch."
"We have a generation of some companies that have been able to creep along without anyone giving their businesses a lot of scrutiny, really. Now I think as things slow down, investors become a little more cautious and want to actually peek beneath the covers and see what's there. Some of these companies aren't going to be able to raise [capital] again."
One such example is the ride-sharing company Lyft, which still doesn't make money on a marginal basis per ride, he said.
"They just don't have the kind of offering that Uber does. And so I don't think they survive this in the current form," said Sacca, who is an Uber investor.
However, he isn't comparing the current situation to the tech crash of 2000, when there were companies with almost zero revenue. "What you have now are companies that have real business models but the contributory margins aren't there, the underlying health isn't there," said Sacca. "Believe me, it's expensive to run a company in San Francisco. What it costs to run one of these things is really off the charts right now." Venture capitalists appear to already be tightening the purse strings, according to a report out last month. Venture-backed companies worldwide raised $25.5 billion in the first quarter of this year, down from $27.9 billion in the first quarter of 2015, according to CB Insights' and KPMG's quarterly Venture Pulse report. Just five start-ups surpassed a $1 billion valuation in the first quarter of 2016.
Jack Dorsey 'uniquely talented'
Meanwhile, the early Twitter investor still believes Jack Dorsey is the right CEO for both Twitter and Square as long as he strengthens his management teams.
Sacca was an early advocate for Dorsey after Twitter CEO Dick Costolo stepped down last June. However, that support was contingent upon a strengthened role for COO Adam Bain and bringing in co-founder Evan Williams in some consulting capacity, Sacca explained. "We haven't seen both of these moves made and I think the company has struggled as a result," he said. "It's really hard for one person to cover two very challenging companies in an era of struggles around growth, et cetera. I sincerely hope he strengthens his benches in both companies." The Silicon Valley investor called Dorsey, who founded both Twitter and Square, a "uniquely talented" person who built two phenomenally successful companies. Despite its troubles, Twitter is still worth billions, Sacca noted.
"There's only one Jack Dorsey on this planet. He's an incredible person. The employees deeply believe in him, but there's only so many hours in the day. I think he can do both jobs if he has very strong people around him," he added.
Twitter stock is down more than 36 percent year to date. The social media company posted mixed quarterly results last month and gave sales guidance that disappointed Wall Street. On Friday, Square reported an adjusted quarterly loss of 14 cents a share on $379 million in revenue. Analysts had expected Square to post a loss of 9 cents a share on $344 million in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters. However, it raised its 2016 guidance.
Hillary Clinton for president
Sunland residents will see a limited number of local races when they head to the polls Tuesday for the 2016 primary election.
Many races, including the Beatrice City Council and Beatrice Public Schools Board of Education, will be included on the fall ballot and not impacted during this election.
Gage County Election Commissioner Dawn Hill said Monday that 2,491 people out of around 14,000 registered voters requested early ballots.
Of those, 2,058 had been returned Monday afternoon.
The spring election features a race for a seat on the Gage County Board of supervisors.
Democrats in Gage Countys District 6 will have a choice of John Hill or Robert Dorn for the open Board of Supervisors seat.
Because both candidates are Democrats in the partisan race, whoever draws the most votes Tuesday will win the seat.
District 6 covers the southeastern portion of Gage County, including all of Rockford, Sherman, Blue Springs-Wymore, Island Grove, Barneston and Liberty townships, in addition to the southern half of Logan township.
Hill is seeking his second term on the County Board.
Four men are vying for the Ward 1 seat in the Wymore City Council: Daniel Hawkins, Andrea Welch, Max Allen and Patrick Caslin.
Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Hill noted a change in one polling site. Those who used to vote in the 4-H building on the Gage County Fairgrounds will now vote in the University of Nebraska Extension office on West Scott St., near the fairgrounds' west entrance.
Information regarding the election and a complete list of polling places can be found on the County Clerks website at www.gagecountynebraska.us or by calling 402-223-1300.
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Whatever the reaction to allegations that Facebook deliberately suppressed conservative news, it's unlikely the company's bottom line will be impacted, experts told CNBC Tuesday. According to a Monday report by Gizmodo, a former contract worker for Facebook said the social networking giant allegedly often "suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers" by keeping such stories out of its newsfeed. (Facebook issued a statement denying the claims.) If the workers weren't following official Facebook policies, it's likely the news will blow over, said technology analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research. "The specific case here isn't that damaging," Dawson said. He added: "I don't think it's going to cause any users to stop using Facebook it now has so much power that it's hard for most people to contemplate giving up on it for principled reasons."
A Facebook executive fired back Tuesday. "We have in place strict guidelines for our trending topic reviewers as they audit topics surfaced algorithmically: Reviewers are required to accept topics that reflect real world events, and are instructed to disregard junk or duplicate topics, hoaxes, or subjects with insufficient sources," Tom Stocky, Facebook's vice president of search, wrote in a post. Gizmodo's report detailed accusations from an anonymous group of former Facebook news curators, one of whom said that Facebook had "a chilling effect on conservative news."
"Facebook does not allow or advise our reviewers to systematically discriminate against sources of any ideological origin and we've designed our tools to make that technically not feasible," Stocky responded. "At the same time, our reviewers' actions are logged and reviewed, and violating our guidelines is a fireable offense."
Republican Senator John Thune demanded a more detailed response from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who in the past has had spats with conservative politicians like Donald Trump. Republican presidential hopefuls have made extensive use of Facebook advertising. Zac Moffatt, the top digital strategist for Romney's 2012 campaign, told the Guardian in January that "Facebook is the easiest and most effective platform." Pew Research Center found that consistent conservatives are more likely than liberals to pay "a lot" or "some" attention to political posts on Facebook.
Still, it's also true that consistent conservatives are somewhat less likely than liberals to get political news on Facebook or Twitter, according to Pew. Pew attributes the gap to the fact that those who identify as conservative are less likely to use Facebook or Twitter at all.
That matters because being an open gateway to information is a key part of the Facebook brand, with the second part of their mission statement reading "People use Facebook to discover what's going on in the world," said Paul Munkholm, director of strategy at digital agency Kettle. "If users are suddenly unable to trust Facebook, that could have long term consequences to the image of the company," Munkholm said.
As the Puerto Rican debt crisis continues to unfold, mutual fund managers have been busy trimming their sails to reduce exposure to the commonwealth's crisis.
Over the past year, the number of funds with exposure to Puerto Rico has been pared to 29 out of a pool of 562 municipal bond funds from as many as 48 in June 2015, according to data from Morningstar and a study by Markov Processes International. Total dollar exposure has been cut as well, from about $9.9 billion last summer to $6.3 billion now.
The exposure issue is central to the debate now over what happens next. Island officials have been negotiating with Washington lawmakers for a bailout package, though that hasn't stopped the first wave of defaults from happening.
Puerto Rico missed a $367 million payment May 2 on its Government Development Bank notes, but municipal bond investors in general remain hopeful that there will be limited contagion.
"The majority of municipal bond mutual funds don't show exposure to Puerto Rico debt," Sean Ryan, a senior MPI research analyst, said in an interview. "It isn't really a systemic issue, which is one thing that investors should always be worried about. In this case, only a few are exposed versus the entire category."
The retreat from Puerto Rican debt positions has been strong:
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As hundreds of firefighters and some two dozen air tankers battle Canada's massive wildfires, scientists and other experts say prolonged modern droughts and climate change are creating a new perfect storm of super fires and other extreme weather events. "Based on what we know and in which direction the climate is going, yes, we can expect more frequent super fires," said Marko Princevac, a fire expert at the University of California at Riverside. "There is scientific consensus that climate change will lead to much more intense fires, more dry areas."
Smoke and flames from the wildfires erupt behind cars on the highway near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, May 7, 2016. Mark Blinch | Reuters
The Canada fire began May 1, and has forced more than 88,000 people to evacuate. It could burn for months before the blaze is under control.
Several Canadian communities are under mandatory evacuation orders, according to Alberta officials, including Fort McMurray an oil sands boomtown. Located primarily in Alberta, Canada, and regions of Venezuela, valuable crude oil is extracted and processed from oil sands. The current fire situation, as of an update late Monday, includes: A total of 29 wildfires are currently burning.
Fort McMurray wildfire is about 204,000 hectares more than 787 square miles, an area larger than Oklahoma City and was anticipated to grow by Tuesday.
The wildfire is approximately 25 to 30 kilometers from the Saskatchewan boundary.
There are 1,547 firefighters, 121 helicopters, 194 pieces of heavy equipment and 28 air tankers fighting the fires.
Several conditions are colliding to make the McMurray fire extremely difficult for firefighters.
Perfect storm of fire conditions
For starters, Fort McMurray features complex, hilly terrain, where the fire can spread much faster than on flat land. The reason lies in basic physics. Heat such as the sun striking a hill generates its own air known as "upslope flow" that travels to higher terrain. In the case of a fire, the blaze replaces the sun as a heat source, and the fire in essence produces its own "upslope flow" that's proportional to the fire's strength. "So now the fire is creating its own wind that helps it propagate," says Princevac. Trained in mechanical engineering that's about heat transfer and combustion, Princevac began studying fires in the wild about a decade ago. Wildfires, in essence, are another application of combustion. The McMurray fire is a crown fire in which the blaze spreads from treetop to treetop. And crown fires are much more intense and spread faster than surface-level blazes. The Canada fire also is being fanned by dry soil conditions. The last substantial monthly rainfall for Fort McMurray was in July, according to Environment Canada and the Citizen Weather Observer Program.
In the U.S., temperatures continue to set new records as the fire season in many parts of the country has now stretched to as many as 300 days of the year. During the first third of the year, from January through April, the average temperature for the contiguous United States was 4 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, making this period the second warmest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Meanwhile, climate change has already led to U.S. fire seasons that are now on average 78 days longer than in 1970, according to a report on the rising cost of wildfire operations from the U.S. government last year.
More wildfire risks
The six worst fire seasons since 1960 have all occurred since 2000, according to the U.S. report. Since 2000, many Western states have experienced the largest wildfires in their state's history. And literally adding fuel to the fire, more development has been taking place near U.S. forests over the years.
Speaking on Tuesday, the president of Saudi Aramco, or to give it its full name, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, said that despite the current oil market environment remaining "challenging," the company is still looking for growth opportunities and joint ventures.
Saudi Arabia's state-run oil company has said that production will trend slightly higher this year as it detailed plans to become the world's leading energy and chemicals company by 2020.
President and Chief Executive Amin Hassan Nasser told journalists that the company - which recently announced it's to sell a 5 percent stake - was still looking to expand its oil operations and was also looking at new joint ventures in the U.S., India, China and Indonesia. Over the next decade, the company expects to indirectly add 500,000 jobs to the kingdom's economy, al-Nasser told reporters. Currently it employs 66,000 people.
Presenting the Saudi Aramco strategy at the press conference, the company said that "by 2020, we intend to be the world leading integrated energy and chemicals company, focused on maximizing value creation across the hydrocarbon chain, facilitating the sustainable expansion of the Kingdom's economy and enabling a vibrant Saudi energy sector."
He also told reporters that demand for Saudi Aramco's oil is increasing and the company was ramping up production to meet that demand.
"We will meet the call on Saudi Aramco ... The trend is increasing," he told reporters, according to Reuters. "We are seeing demand growth in different places. We are seeing increases in India, in the U.S., and we are meeting that call on us." He added that he expected total oil demand to climb by 1.2 million barrels per day this year.
Nasser's comments come after Saudi Aramco's Chairman Khalid al-Falih was made Saudi Arabia's new energy minister at the weekend, replacing Ali al-Naimi who had held the post since 1995.
Read More Power and a 'brutal' battle against Iran: What the Saudi reshuffle REALLY means
The comments also come after a U.K. newspaper reported that Saudi Aramco was planning a 3-way listing in New York, London and Hong Kong and planned to sell a 5 percent stake in the firm. The Telegraph newspaper said on Monday that the state-run oil company was hoping to lure ExxonMobil, China's Sinopec and BP into buying into the company.
Nasser said that the company was looking at the logistics of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) but would not comment on speculation over targeted buyers.
"Right now we are just looking at how much to list and where to list at this stage and until now there is no discussion about stakes by this company or that and now we are just looking at where to list."
"As Saudi Aramco we are not talking to any of these companies about the listing of Aramco," he insisted.
It's the stupidity, stupid.
For the nation's public policy experts, the 2016 presidential race has proven to be an increasingly demoralizing lesson in the imperviousness of the American voter.
Trump supporters await the arrival of Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump at a campaign rally on April 23, 2016 in Waterbury, Connecticut. Getty Images
"The gap between what the candidates are saying and the complexity of the problems is mind-boggling and disappointing," said Democratic former Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, who is now director of Indiana University's Center on Congress. "I find myself distressed that this gap is so large, and I don't think it will change."
The current election, with its populist zeal, has only served to add as Donald Trump might say another 10 feet to the wall between the ivory tower and Main Street. And given the amount of fantasy claims from Trump's mass deportation plans to Bernie Sanders' universal free college proposals that fly free on the campaign trail, social scientists are confronting an intellectual crisis.
Worse yet, as the nation's first responders, they are finding themselves woefully unprepared.
The gap between what the candidates are saying and the complexity of the problems is mind-boggling and disappointing. Former Rep. Lee Hamilton
"Many of us feel powerless against it," said David Autor, a labor economist at MIT who serves on the executive committee of the American Economic Association. "We feel we can train our students, but our students aren't the public and we don't know how to school the public."
The challenge is by no means new: The callowness of the American voter over the years, produced a library of academic research, media reportage and exasperated-sounding book titles. What it hasn't produced is much in the way of an organized effort to inculcate the low-information, high-mistrust voter.
Now, with a presidential election animated by anti-establishment fervor on both sides of the political divide, the practitioners of social science are feeling particularly hard up.
It has traditionally been the case that conservative policy experts would clash with liberal policy experts in a conventional war of ideas. But with Trump and, to a lesser extent, Sanders, this election has repeatedly found policy experts scrambling to keep their own sides in check.
In February, a group of former Democratic White House economic policy advisors penned an open letter to the Sanders campaign, accusing it of making dubious economic claims about its domestic economic agenda. Among the concerns raised by the advisors was that Sanders was damaging the party's "reputation for responsibly estimating the effects of economic policies." Other liberal economists have voiced similar worries with the Vermont senator, but their chastisements have done little to curb his proclamations or stem the enthusiasm for his message.
Trump's campaign, meanwhile, has behaved like a reality distortion field for public policy. Last week, in an interview with CNBC, the presumptive GOP nominee proposed paying down the national debt by simply offering less than the full balance to America's creditors a notion that drew rebukes from all corners.
The moment occasioned a round of "dire warnings" from analysts and think-tankers, but it also showed how feeble the expert class can be at marshaling its authority, even when it is in agreement.
"It is hard to know where to begin," confessed Autor.
In 1992 the Democrats had lost five of the previous six presidential elections, four by crushing landslides. Clinton understood that something had to change; he couldn't run as just another liberal Democrat raging against the Reagan/conservative movement machine. Thus, his 1992 campaign was marked by three specific moments that sent a clear message that the Arkansas governor was a new kind of Democrat.
First, Clinton famously made a public comment slamming a black female rapper named Sister Souljah and the Rev. Jesse Jackson for associating with her. The "Sister Souljah Moment" grew out of a comment she made about black-on-black crime and how maybe black people should kill white people for a week instead.
The comment was taken out of context, but Clinton's sharp criticism of her resonated with many moderate voters who were put off by the prominent role Rev. Jackson played in the 1984 and 1988 Democratic conventions. It showed that the Democrats under Mr. Clinton would stop pandering to him and helped him clinch the nomination.
Once he did secure that nomination, Clinton's campaign made a big show of emphasizing just how strongly he supported the death penalty. That put him in sharp contrast to the 1988 Democratic Party nominee Michael Dukakis, who famously could not even publicly commit to supporting the death penalty when asked in a debate about a hypothetical case where his own wife Kitty were raped and murdered.
Lumber Liquidators quarterly sales slumped 10.2 percent, the fourth straight quarter of fall, as the company struggles to convince customers its hardwood flooring is safe amid fears that some of its products could cause cancer.
The stock fell almost 8 percent in afternoon trading.
The company also reported a much bigger quarterly loss as it spends heavily to put behind allegations that some of its China-sourced flooring contained excessive levels of a carcinogen.
Lumber Liquidators said on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to pay $26 million and 1 million shares through its insurers to settle a securities class action lawsuit.
Sales at the company's stores open at least a year fell 13.9 percent in the first quarter. Analysts on average had expected a 12.6 percent drop, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.
Selling, general and administrative costs jumped 20 percent to $117.2 million, including $13.5 million in legal fees.
Its net sales slumped 10.2 percent to $233.5 million.
The net loss widened to $32.4 million, or $1.20 per share, in the quarter ended March 31 from $7.8 million, or 29 cents per share.
Analysts had expected Lumber Liquidators to report a loss of about 24 cents a share on $237 million in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Mobile device maker Nokia saw its stock fall more than 7 percent Tuesday after reporting a bigger-than-expected network sales decline.
The company also said it sees sales declining further this year.
First-quarter network sales dropped 8 percent in from a year ago to $5.9 billion, missing Reuters' forecast of $6.27 billion. Nokia said the decline was due to customers holding off new orders while it integrates its purchase of rival Alcatel-Lucent.
Nokia bought Franco-American Alcatel for $17.8 billion earlier this year to help it more broadly compete with Sweden's Ericsson and China's Huawei in both fixed-line and mobile network equipment.
Democrats vote in today's West Virginia presidential primary, where Bernie Sanders holds a lead but really can't catch up to Hillary Clinton in the overall delegate race. Meanwhile, Republicans vote in West Virginia and Nebraska today, even though Donald Trump's the presumptive nominee. (USA Today)
Bernie Sanders used a rally in New Jersey to attack Trump and Trump supporter Carl Icahn. The billionaire investor Icahn said Sanders was wrong about him, but right about the troublesome wealth gap and some CEOs being paid too much. (CNBC)
Trump said London's new mayor Sadiq Khan could be an "exception" to his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. Khan, a Muslim, responded by saying, "Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe." (CNBC)
Facebook (FB) said it's not censoring the news and trends it shows users on the site's trending section. The social network was responding to a recent Gizmodo report that Facebook's human curators censor conservative news stories. (Recode)
California lawmakers have passed legislation requiring all single-stall bathrooms to be open to people of any gender. This follows the Justice Department's suit against North Carolina for its law requiring people to use bathrooms matching their sex assigned at birth. (Sacramento Bee)
Lumber Liquidators (LL) quarterly sales slumped 10.2 percent, the fourth straight quarter of fall, as the company struggles to convince customers its hardwood flooring is safe amid fears that some of its products could cause cancer. (CNBC)
Allergan (AGN) today announced a new share buyback program of up to $10 billion. Allergan expects to execute half of that in open market repurchases over four to six months subject to favorable market conditions.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is cutting his stake in animal vaccine maker Zoetis (ZTS). Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management is said to be selling 16.85 million shares, which would cut its stake to 25 million shares. (NY Times)
Valeant (VRX) new CEO Joseph Papa stands to receive over $67 million, but he insists he's not in it for the money. Papa outlined his plan of action taking over the helm of the embattled drugmaker in a CNBC interview. The stock has plunged 85 percent in the past year.
Chinese regulators have imposed limits on the number of lucrative health care ads carried by Baidu (BIDU). That follows an investigation into the death of a college student who had cancer and had taken a therapy found through a Baidu ad. (Reuters)
A German man armed with a knife killed one person and wounded at least three others in a dawn attack at a train station near Munich. Police are investigating witness reports that the 27-year-old suspect shouted "Allahu Akbar," which means "God is great" in Arabic. (NBC News)
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WASHINGTON -- It wasn't precisely an act of moral courage, but House Speaker Paul Ryan's comment that he's not ready to support presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump was at least ... something.
Whether it's a start or a finish remains to be revealed, but it would seem that we're witnessing the beginning of the end. To wit: A Republican friend, who has abandoned her behind-the-scenes work of getting conservatives elected, called me recently to express her condolences. "I feel sorry for you," she said, "because you (given your job) can't ignore the collapse of Western civilization."
Now a renegade from the nominating process, she is like so many others disillusioned by the Trump movement who've slipped the noose of politics in search of meaning beyond the Beltway. But Trump's triumph, though most insiders thought it impossible, should have surprised no one. He was inevitable not because he was The One but because he's a shrewd dealmaker with deep pockets and unencumbered by a moral compass. Both his platform and style were crafted to fit the findings of extensive polling he commissioned before announcing his run.
In other words, Trump didn't write a book you loved; he wrote the book you said you'd love. If people were outraged about immigration, why then he'd build a wall. If they were upset about manufacturing jobs lost overseas, well fine, he'd kill the trade agreements.
Trump was never about principle but about winning, the latter of which he kept no secret. What this means, of course, is that his supporters have no idea whom they nominated. He simply paid to read their minds and then invented a drug that would light up the circuit boards corresponding to pleasure and reward.
"Believe me," he crooned to the roaring crowed.
"I'm not there right now," said the speaker, crossing himself in the sign of the cross.
Poor Ryan -- a man of conscience in an unconscionable time. He wants to support the Republican nominee, but, at the end of the day, he has to answer to a higher authority. Trump, the party's standard bearer, isn't bearing the standard, Ryan said.
But what Ryan expressed as the basis for a desired meeting of the minds isn't about those standards, except the hope that Trump will behave better in the future. You know, act presidential and all that. Otherwise, Ryan is standing by the phone to hear that Trump will unify the party. How, pray tell? What would satisfy the Ryans of the party? For Trump to say, Hey, I was just kidding?
The problem, as with all relationships, is that certain words, once expressed, can't be taken back. No amount of backtracking can erase memories of what Trump really thought and said in a particular moment. It isn't only that his wildly conceived and frequently revised positions are at odds with those of leveler heads, but Trump has embarrassed those who can still be embarrassed.
Among those with either the gumption or nothing to lose by expressing no-support for Trump are both George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush. Neither will endorse the Republican nominee. Laura Bush, a consistent voice of sanity, recently hinted at a "Women in the World" conference that she'd rather see Hillary Clinton as president than Trump.
This is utterly treasonous to most Republicans. Not only is Clinton a Clinton, notwithstanding her Rodham-ness, but the next president likely will select up to four Supreme Court justices. Republicans magically think that at least Trump would pick good justices.
But upon what shred of fact or fiction do they base this assumption?
Still other Republicans are expressing disapproval by vowing not to attend the party convention in July. These include the last two GOP presidential nominees, Mitt Romney and John McCain, though McCain is on record saying he'll support Trump, which can be viewed as loyal or merely sad.
The "sads" have it.
McCain seemingly has forgiven Trump's remark that he was a war hero only because he was captured. "I like people who weren't captured," said the anti-hero who managed to avoid service and once compared his navigation of the sexually risky 1960s to "sort of like the Vietnam era."
This is the man who would become commander-in-chief.
Meanwhile, we're told, the party that adopted Trump without really knowing him is suffering an identity crisis and facing a moment of truth.
Phooey. The GOP began digging its own grave years ago and dropped one foot in when McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. With Trump's almost-certain nomination, the other foot has followed.
If Oracle wins against Google in court, Silicon Valley loses. The software company run by Larry Ellison alleges that the web-search titan illegally used Java programming language for its Android smartphone systems. Despite one favorable ruling, the copyright case looks weak. Worse, it could stifle computer coders and others in the high-tech epicenter. Google, now a part of Alphabet , already parried Oracle's challenge once. A judge ruled in 2012 that the relevant parts of Java, which connect various types of software, could not be copyrighted because they were in effect tools rather than ideas. The decision squared with two decades of legal precedent. Two years later, an appeals court reversed the ruling and returned the case for trial on the issue of fair use: whether the infringement was minor enough to be legal. Oracle is seeking $8.8 billion in damages, based on Android profit, and an order blocking Google from using Java without paying a fee. More from Breakingviews : From Allergan to Zoetis: new drug M & A perspectives An Oracle victory would be troubling. The software behemoth got hold of Java by acquiring Sun Microsystems, which in true Silicon Valley spirit never objected to Android. Many techies now consider Oracle a copyright troll, buying legal rights just to sue. What's more, squabbling over intellectual property goes against Silicon Valley tradition. It's easy to forget that Boston's Route 128 was once America's technology hub. The area's hierarchy, hostile to the ideas of competitors, quickly fell behind West Coast rivals that were allowing employees to share discoveries freely. Oracle is hardly the only technology powerhouse to seek court assistance for protection. Apple , Microsoft and others have, for example, waged multi-billion dollar patent battles, largely fighting to a draw. Yet Oracle's efforts to levy a costly toll on computer code the lifeblood of technology seem especially shortsighted. The $160 billion company has managed to keep pace with industry changes that have caught out Hewlett-Packard and other aging icons. New rivals such as Salesforce.com and Workday , however, are challenging its dominance with cloud-based software and other services. While it would be foolish to bet against Oracle and Ellison, they do themselves no favors by daring to undermine a pervasive culture of sharing. For more independent commentary and analysisfrom Reuters Breakingviews, visit breakingviews.com
A traffic sign with the Oracle logo sits outside Oracle headquarters on Dec. 16, 2014, in Redwood City, California. Getty Images
Here's how my day always starts. I wake up, roll out of bed, check my email and immediately begin hitting "delete." Delete, delete, delete. Every day, all day. Apparently some in the PR industry must get paid by the number of emails they send, because that's the only explanation for the couple hundred irrelevant and ridiculous messages I receive every day that have nothing to do with my job at CNBC.
Dragan Radojevic | Getty Images
Here is a sample from this morning: "NetApp will be featuring leading industry solutions for your data storage and management requirements." "YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles to host Healthy Kids Day." "News: Argentina announces Business and Investment Forum in September." "Social Reality Appoints Rahul Thumati as Chief Financial Officer." "In his new book, Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane, bestselling author Brett King gives insight into what the future will look like in the next 20 years and beyond." "Dr. Theresa Ashby launched Dynam Consulting, an executive advisory firm focused on creating powerful, competent and confident thinkers throughout organizations and developing groundbreaking strategic plans and processes that move organizations forward." And this one:
I decided to fight back. I was getting carpal tunnel hitting "delete" all day. So for the last two weeks I have taken the extra time to go through these emails and find the "unsubscribe" button. In addition, I have been replying with my own email:
Hey there, I get several pitches a day that have almost nothing to do with CNBC or my areas of coverage. I'm starting to send out this email to let you know when to pitch me a story, and when not to. At CNBC I cover defense, aerospace, agriculture, legal marijuana, Las Vegas and the California economy. I do not cover real estate. I do not cover media. I do not cover technology. For CNBC.com, I also do a franchise called Strange Success, which focuses on weird companies where the path to success has also been weird, and annual revenues have grown to at least $1 million. And by weird, I don't mean a pizza business. I mean a business focusing on curing hangovers, life-size sex dolls, getting rid of bathroom odor, where the creator of the business has had an odd path to success. I do not interview experts or authors. I interview CEOs, and for on-air, the CEO usually has to run a publicly traded company with annual revenues in excess of $500 million. I do not interview moms who are disrupting the playdate business, or 10-year-old whiz kids who've created a crazy new app. Please keep this in mind, so that we both save ourselves time and energy. Thank you.
Jane Wells
CNBC
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.
Think you're cheap? As it turns out, certain metropolitan areas are particularly thrifty when it comes to shopping, according to a new report from Coupons.com. The site used couponing as a proxy for frugality.
Some of the top 10 penny-pinching cities were Orlando, Florida; Washington, Charlotte, North Carolina; and New York. Together, residents of the 10 cities were able to save more than an estimated $259 million by using coupons for things like groceries and household items.
The rankings are based on savings, frequency of coupon usage and percentage of couponers as a share of population. "Otherwise, the most populated cities would lead the list," said Jeanette Pavini of Coupons.com.
Here are the top 10 "frugal" cities in America as ranked by Coupons.com, plus the money saved annually on average by each couponer. While residents of cities like New York saved the most per person, Orlando took the number one spot because a larger share of its residents use coupons.
Orlando - $205 Washington - $229 Charlotte - $272 New York - $476 Atlanta - $220 Cleveland - $223 Tampa, Fla. - $250 Nashville, Tenn. - $319 Raleigh, N.C. - $201 Virginia Beach, Va.- $362
To be fair, measuring "frugality" per se might not be so simple: The report did not address why exactly couponing might be more popular in certain areas and assumed that couponing can be a significant source of savings.
One reason coupons abound for household items and personal care products, for example, is that these products tend to be more expensive to begin with, said Tracie Fobes, a coupon expert and creator of Penny Pinchin' Mom.
There's an exception to every rule, goes the saying, and it seems that the presumptive Republican nominee is prepared to make one for London's newly elected mayor.
In an interview Monday, Donald Trump said "there will always be exceptions," when asked if Sadiq Khan, London's new mayor and a Muslim of Pakistani heritage, would be allowed to travel freely to the U.S., according to the New York Times.
Trump has previously courted controversy by saying that should he win the presidential elections in November, he would implement a temporary ban on Muslims traveling to the United States, following the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino last year.
Khan quickly responded on Tuesday morning, saying Trump and those around him "think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam."
"London has proved him wrong," he said in a statement emailed to CNBC.
"Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe - it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists ... This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world."
The Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission have asked mobile phone carriers and manufacturers to explain how they release security updates amid mounting concerns over security vulnerabilities, the U.S. agencies said on Monday.
The agencies have written to Apple , AT&T and Alphabet , among others, in order "to better understand, and ultimately to improve, the security of mobile devices," the FCC said.
The FCC sent letters to six mobile phone carriers on security issues, while the FTC ordered eight mobile device manufacturers including BlackBerry , Microsoft , LG Electronics USA and Samsung Electronics America to disclose "the factors that they consider in deciding whether to patch a vulnerability on a particular mobile device."
The FTC also seeks "detailed data on the specific mobile devices they have offered for sale to consumers since August 2013" and "the vulnerabilities that have affected those devices; and whether and when the company patched such vulnerabilities."
The agencies are opening the inquiry about how mobile carriers and manufacturers handle security updates for mobile devices because consumers and businesses are conducting a growing amount of daily activities on mobile devices and new questions have been raised about how the security of mobile communications.
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When Comerica CEO Ralph Babb admitted, first on a conference call with analysts and then again at his company's annual meeting, that he'd consider making a sale of some or all of his bank, it was a big inflection point for other Wall Street banks that have been fighting off low rates and poor share performance. Finally, someone was at least thinking about cutting a deal. Babb said on the bank's earnings call that it hired Boston Consulting Group to help it undertake "a more intense review of our expense base and revenue base." Comerica 's investors pushed for a sale, which temporarily buoyed shares. A company representative declined further comment when contacted.
Samuel Corum | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Elsewhere on Wall Street, other big banks awaiting annual shareholder meetings may get grilled with questions asking why they won't sell or, when they might start buying. Big banks' stocks have been hammered by factors including their fixed income, currencies and commodities trading business. Wall Street firms are cutting head count and compensation to offset plummeting profitability. Another bank that could hear shareholders eager to do deals is Morgan Stanley , according to a report from CLSA banking analyst Mike Mayo. Although he acknowledged that it's not "a high-probability event," Mayo said that after years of failing to generate returns exceeding the cost of capital, it's something he thinks will be on investors' minds. Read MoreHere's where Wall Street is hiring "It is hard for us to ignore that the implied break-up value is almost twice the current market cap," he wrote, adding, "there is a lot of value in the company, especially considering $25 in tangible book value in the institutional securities business alone." Mayo said the bank should expect shareholders will bring up the mergers and acquisitions question, as they did with Comerica, at the bank's annual shareholder meeting next week. Morgan Stanley did not respond to a request seeking comment.
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What does this mean for the industry?
The situation and its implications are fluid, but here's what we know
1. Lending Club's fundamentals appear strong. This is important for the industry, because as the largest marketplace lender, they are looked to as a bellwether for industry health. They meet street expectations every quarter. This quarter was no exception. In fact, it was the first quarter of positive EPS. A milestone that would have likely been the focus of today's news if not for the resignation announcement. From a purely performance-based standpoint, this was a positive signal.
2. Renaud Laplanche will be missed. He is not the first CEO in finance to resign, but he was the face of Lending Club and viewed as the godfather of peer-to-peer, the steward of marketplace lending. And now he's gone. This was unexpected. Markets don't like "unexpected".
3. Folks will jump to conclusions. What will we learn about the Lending Club loan irregularities? Therein lie perhaps the most forward-looking implications. Will this turn into an internal personnel issue or a more widespread marketplace lending issue? It appears to be the former, but not all the dust has yet settled. The initial reaction of the market is typically cautious, and Lending Club stock is down over 30 percent today as a result.
Bill Ackman, founder and chief executive officer of Pershing Square Capital Management LP Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of Zoetis fell nearly 2 percent Tuesday following a New York Times report that billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman is selling a stake in the company. Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management is trimming 16.85 million shares from his position in Zoetis, with a price range of $46.75 to $47, the Times reported. The sale would bring Ackman's holding to 25 million shares, according to the report. Zoetis's stock is down almost 3 percent this year, closing at $46.56 a share Tuesday.
The transaction is expected to be worth close to $800 million and will be backed by Bank of America and Credit Suisse , according to the Times.
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (left) on Monday joined Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner (right) to discuss DiNapolis fiscal-stress monitoring system, which helps New York governments determine if theyre having financial difficulties. Under DiNapolis system, Syracuse was classified with no designation, the most positive designation a New York government can receive, according to Miner. (Eric Reinhardt / BJNN)
SYRACUSE, N.Y. The City of Syracuse isnt considered fiscally stressed. Thats according to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapolis fiscal-stress monitoring system, which gave Syracuse a score of 32.5 percent for 2015.
Local governments with scores beginning at 45 percent have fiscal-stress concerns, according to a document on the comptrollers website.
It is the third straight year that Syracuse isnt labeled fiscally stressed, according to a news release that the office of Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner issued Monday afternoon.
Miners office cited DiNapolis data in the release. Both Miner and DiNapoli addressed the findings during a news conference Monday afternoon at Syracuse City Hall.
DiNapolis monitoring system uses financial indicators that include year-end fund balance, short-term borrowing, and patterns of operating deficits.
Its meant to be an early-warning system, so that if we have a municipality or a school district, [or] a community headed for trouble, we can early on identify what those issues are and hopefully, at the local level, and with some help from the state, avert a full financial or budget collapse, DiNapoli said in his remarks.
The system creates an overall fiscal-stress score that classifies whether a municipality is in significant fiscal stress; in moderate fiscal stress; is susceptible to fiscal stress; or has no designation.
DiNapolis office bases the system on a process that DiNapolis auditors have been using to detect financial problems in communities, according to a description in the release from Miners office.
Syracuse has a no designation classification, which is the most positive designation that you can receive, Miner said.
Several factors have helped stabilize the citys finances, including upgrades to bond ratings, diligence in paying off debt, and other budget decisions, Miners office contended in the release.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
Grassroots out maneuvered; Hasan Harnett replaced by Robin Hayes; will a Phoenix rise?
by Hal James and Raynor James
In spite of persistent, sustained efforts by grassroots Constitutional conservatives, a kangaroo court style proceeding removed Hasan Harnett as Chairman of the NC Republican Party on Saturday, April 30.The meeting of the NC GOP Executive Committee held in Raleigh began with registration at 9 a.m. and did not end until 6:15 p.m. Three hundred and three Executive Committee members initially participated. The total body has 695 members and includes all Republican members of the NC House and Senate. Approximately 23 members of the General Assembly participated Saturday.Everything that could be disputed was. The legality of holding the meeting, who was to chair the meeting, choosing the rules of the meeting, the date chosen for the meeting (since it was widely known from a calendar published in January that Chairman Harnett would be out of the country on April 30 and would be unable to defend himself), and whether Robert's Rules of Order could trump the NC GOP Plan of Organization were all challenged. These challenges happened not once per issue, but many times. The objections did not stop. They continued throughout the long day, and they were made by many different grassroots conservatives, including a few members of the NC General Assembly. Sadly, they were all overruled by the chair, and this includes a motion of "no confidence" in the person chairing the proceeding.The meeting was chaired by Billy Miller. Mr. Miller is very skilled at conducting a meeting that is designed to have the trappings of fairness while being grossly biased and unfair. It is really sad to see a very intelligent, skillful person use his abilities with evil intent. We were treated to several such performances on Saturday.Mr. Miller was ably abetted by Richard Hayes, a Professional Registered Parliamentarian and member of the American College of Parliamentary Lawyers, who was imported at significant expense from Denton Texas for the day.To get a feel for how biased the work of this duo is, let us consider two conflicting decisions regarding the use of Robert's Rules vs. the NC GOP Plan of Organization. In Saturday's meeting, it was ruled that although the NC Plan provides that removal from office shall be "by a 2/3's vote of the respective Committee," Mr. Miller said that when one considers Robert's Rules of Order and legal precedents, one will see that the phrase has been held to mean "by a 2/3's vote of members present and voting." Mr. Miller's smooth talk managed to make that sound reasonable, and this is in spite of the fact that one of the grassroots conservative members of the Executive Committee had just sited an example where the NC GOP Central Committee had forced a county that was trying to removed its county GOP Chairman to have a 2/3's vote of its entire Executive Committee in order to achieve their goal, and she had provided him with the written documentation to prove it.Now, are you ready for the kicker? That decision was what allowed the vote made on Saturday to remove Hasan Harnett from office. There were 79 "no" votes and 200 "yes" votes on the question of Chairman Harnett's removal. Two hundred votes are not 2/3's of the entire NC GOP Executive Committee. In order to remove him, a document written "by civilians for civilians" was viewed through a distorted legal lens, and the meaning of that document was changed on the spot. Presto, change-o!We witnessed a disgusting miscarriage of justice.At this point, attention was turned to the election of a new NC GOP Chairman. Grassroots members fought against choosing a Chairman saying that the State GOP Convention is convening in 6 days, and since we serve in lieu of the larger body between Conventions, we should leave it for the 2016 Convention to decide.That didn't fly.Steve Rader raised a Point of Order by saying that proper notification of all members of the Executive Committee was not possible since it was unknown at the time Saturday's meeting was called whether or not the Chairman's position would be vacated.That didn't fly.Senator Joyce Krawiec (NC Senate District 31) nominated former NC GOP Chairman, Robin Hayes. Mr. Hayes just happened to be present in the assembly although we had not seen him an Executive Committee meeting before.Parenthetically, since reports of Art Pope's being the establishment's usurper Chairman of Choice have been widely circulated, a new rumor has surfaced. That is the daylight scared Mr. Pope away, and Robin Hayes is the new usurper of choice, so the presence of Mr. Hayes had been noticed and widely commented on among attendees.Steve Rader nominated Keith Kidwell of Beaufort County.Bill Jett nominated Jack Brosch.Each candidate was given time to speak.Keith Kidwell, a large man with visual and vocal presence who is the Treasurer of the Congressional District 3 Executive Committee and who was introduced by Mr. Rader as a successful "uniter" in Beaufort County made a strong, short speech. Audience response made it clear that what he said was appreciated by grassroots people.Jack Brosch acquitted himself well, too.Mr. Hayes is an elderly, white man who moves slowly and stiffly, but his voice is surprisingly strong and energetic. He made a prepared speech that was allowed to go a bit longer that the announced time frame. Establishment types responded well to Mr. Hayes' speech. Grassroots people were polite. Honesty compels us to mention the fact that Raynor had her arms crossed in front of her waist, a frown on her face, and one foot twitching like an irritated cat's tail during much of the speech. We were on the front row and clearly visible to Mr. Hayes.At the conclusion of his speech, Mr. Hayes came down from the stage and headed straight for us. He offered to shake Hal's hand. Hal stood and shook it. Mr. Hayes next offered to shake Raynor's hand, and after a brief hesitation, she did, but her face did not lose its frown. Whatever else he is, the man is a consummate politician, and he's not the least bit shy about approaching the opposition.Jack Brosch received 5 votes, Keith Kidwell got 62 votes, and Robin Hayes was given 176 votes. He is our new NC GOP Chairman. With 176 votes. By way of interesting contrast, thousands of delegates are expected to convene in Greensboro on Friday May 6. One wonders whether their purpose is to be window dressing for the elite, establishment ruling class, or to make decisions for the Party.During much of Saturday's meeting, the doors were locked and much ado was made about "personnel matters," "executive session," and secrecy. Executive Committee members were lectured about non-disclosure of Party affairs. It was made to sound like the future of the Party is dependent on our silence. Between the lack of fairness and this drum roll, it felt like we were living in an inverted universe. Up was down. Bad was good. Where was Alice? Where was the Cheshire cat?What had the NC GOP just accomplished? We had wounded ourselves, that's what. Is it mortal? We don't know. We hope not. While we've just witnessed the worst of the Republican Party, we still don't know of a better tool for saving our country.Immediately after the removal vote, Raynor was so angry and destressed, she announced she was going to march herself down to the Board of Elections and change her Party registration on Monday morning. Hal and other grassroots friends immediately talked her out of it with a mixture of logic and kindness.Several other grassroots members of the Executive Committee made similar announcements. Some at the time. Some on social media since then. Time will tell whether they follow through or think better of it.We've shared the bad news, and there was a ton of bad news to share. We did not win this battle. However, as big and bad as it was, it was only a battle. It isn't the war unless we quit.The good news is that, in the process of gearing up to fight this battle and in executing the fight, a significant number of grassroots Constitutional conservative patriots have met and identified each other. We are in the process of forming a network across our state. That can become powerful. There is already some strength in our baby-step beginning.Imagine this; about twenty to thirty people arrived in Raleigh before 8 a.m. in order to organize to hold up pro-Hasan signs, give out pro-Hasan flyers and stickers, and distribute his defense team's rebuttal and alternative rules for conducting the meeting to arriving members. Many of them have driven 3 to 5 hours to get here!Prior to that, these people have emailed each other, talked to each other on the phone, and the ones who live near each other have met. They've shared strategies and ideas for how to "win one for the Gipper." [Translation: "Engineer the triumph of truth, justice, and Chairman Hasan Harnett."]On arrival, they introduce themselves to people they've never met, and when people recognize each other's names, they shake hands heartily, pat each other on the shoulder, and even sometimes hug each other. Big smiles break out repeatedly. All sorts of contact information is shared.Many of those same people will gather again soon at the 2016 Convention.What if they can maintain contact and cooperation? What if they can bring in other like-minded folks? Is it possible that a new awakening and a renewed determination to return our country to the representative Constitutional republic it was designed to be can rise from the ashes of our defeat? If so, we'll have Hasan Harnett to thank. After all, it is he who has brought us together.
BCCC Programs at the Washington County Center
News Release:
The following classes are available at the Washington County Center in Roper through Beaufort County Community College's Department of Continuing Education. These classes start soon, so sign up now. To register, call Eva Peartree at (252) 940-6375 or email eva.peartree@beaufortccc.edu.
Introduction to Computers (Windows 10): From the Box to Boot Up and Basic Navigation
In this workshop, students will learn what is involved in setting up their new computer or laptop. They will also explore basic navigation and what precautions needs to be taken in installing new programs on their new computer. Students will need to bring with them their laptops or tablets with Windows 10 installed. The fee for this 3-hour class is $25. It will take place on Wednesday, May 18 from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Taking Your Home Business to the World Market with Etsy
Have you ever wished you could sell the things you make online? Looking for a way to market to a specific group of people? Have collectables you have held onto for 20 years? Do you have materials that can be used to make other things? Have you written your own how-to articles that you know would sell to the right people? Have you given up on Ebay?
Pamela Zimmerman opened her first Etsy shop in 2008, and has had over 7,400 sales since. Although she was a fiber artist of international standing, with hundreds of awards to her credit and work appearing in numerous books, magazines and articles, Zimmerman found her work was not very marketable in Eastern North Carolina. Finding Etsy was the solution to selling. Pamela maintains 4 shops on Etsy.com, selling pottery, metal, fiber and vintage items.
This class is an orientation to Etsy.com, a world online marketplace with millions of sellers. You will learn what you can and cannot sell on Etsy, how to choose a name and open a shop, keys to success, how to list an item, how to find what you need on the Etsy website and how to collect money and ship. This class is free but participants are encouraged to register. It will take place on Thursday, May 24 from 2:00-5:00 p.m.
Introduction to Computers (Windows 10): Locating and Opening Folders and Programs
Students will learn how to save, locate, and open files and folders for storing of information. This workshop will also explore how to open programs, make shortcuts, and delete files, folders, and shortcuts. Students will need to bring with them their laptops or tablets with Windows 10 installed. The fee for this 3-hour class is $25. It will take place on Wednesday, June 1 from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Market your Business with YouTube
Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make but the stories you tell. By marketing your business on YouTube you have the opportunity to tell your story, and to educate, inform, and communicate with your target customers. This seminar will cover the basics on starting your YouTube channel, how to create effective videos, content management, advertising and monetization, and how to increase your brand online using videos on YouTube and social media.
Renae Simon has over 12 years' experience in business consulting, marketing and advertising, facilities management, special events management, and sales. She is a graduate of UNC-Greensboro. She is also a graduate of the REAL (Rural Entrepreneurship Action Learning) Institute and is a licensed facilitator of the course. This class is free but participants are encouraged to register. It will take place on Tuesday, June 7 from 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Introduction to Computers (Windows 10): Basic Microsoft Office
This workshop will introduce students to the programs included within Microsoft Office as well as basic navigation through some of the more popular programs such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Students will need to bring with them their laptops or tablets with Windows 10 installed. It is recommended that students have some previous knowledge of Microsoft Office programs as this workshop serves as an overview of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The fee for this 3-hour class is $25. It will take place on Wednesday, June 15 from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Contact: Attila Nemecz
Public Relations Coordinator
Beaufort County Community College
5337 US Hwy 264 East
Washington, NC 27889
252.940.6387 attila.nemecz@beaufortccc.edu
Family aims to raise awareness about invisible illness
Michelle and Jason Kemp's two children were born with cystic fibrosis. The Columbia family shares their story to raise awareness about the genetic disorder.
Best of Business 2022: Learn Who Won Our 15th Annual Reader Poll
Local professionals chose their favorite business and professional services, products, healthcare, dining and more. Find out who their top picks are.
Charter schools are here to stay, so deal with it
According to a report (PDF) published by the NC Department of Public Instruction, 79,575, or 5.2 percent, of North Carolina's public school students attend a charter school in North Carolina this year. That is an increase of over 10,000 students and 0.7 percentage points compared to 2015.While North Carolina's 158 charter schools are physically located in only half of the state's counties, all families have access to charters. Students are permitted to cross county lines to attend the charter school of their choice. In addition, the state has two virtual charter schools that allow students anywhere in the state to enroll. As a result, Clinton City Schools is the only district that has no students within its boundaries enrolled in a charter school. Fifteen districts have fewer than 10 charter school students, but it is a start.The availability of charter schools is one factor behind the remarkable growth of North Carolina's charter school sector. Legislative Republicans removed the cap on charter schools, enacted more generous growth allowances, and gave the green light to virtual charter schools. But I think it goes beyond that.There is greater knowledge and acceptance of charter schools among North Carolina families, most of whom welcome educational options. Additionally, state testing results and other metrics suggest that the academic quality of charter schools is on the rise. Most importantly, charter schools are responsive to the unique needs of the communities they serve. Unfortunately, some communities are better served than others.Charter schools are more popular in Region 6 than any other. Region 6 includes Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Lincoln, and Iredell counties. All three have significant shares of students who attend charter schools. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Lincoln counties, 9.4 percent of the public school populations chose charter schools. In Iredell County, it is 8.1 percent. I suspect that new assignment policies in Mecklenburg County will be a boon for area charters, particularly among families who desire neighborhood schools.Conversely, Region 7 is a charter school desert. Only 1 percent of public school students in this region, which includes 14 counties in the northwest, attend charter schools. Watauga County has the largest share of charter school students with only 3.5 percent. If the demand exists, these communities should work with charter and school choice groups to begin the process of establishing high quality charter schools in the area.Regions 2 and 4, composed of counties that stretch from Montgomery County to the coast, also have relatively small charter school market shares. There are exceptions, however. In Pamlico County, 16.5 percent of students attend a charter school, specifically Arapahoe Charter School. In addition, Columbus County and the city district within it, Whiteville City, each have over 9 percent of public school students in charter schools. Brunswick County charter schools, primarily Charter Day School, enroll an impressive 7.3 percent.Charter schools in or near the Triangle (Region 3) attract a significant number of families. Person, Vance, Durham, and Edgecombe counties have charter school shares that eclipse 14 percent. Chatham, Franklin, Granville, and Wilson counties have market shares that exceed 9 percent. The charter school population in the largest county district in the state, Wake County Schools, is 5.7 percent. Again, unpopular assignment policies may prompt more Wake County parents to consider enrolling their children in charter schools. Given their recent comments, the Wake County school board appears to fear charters' increasing market share.The 22.7 percent charter school share in Halifax County, 19.5 percent share in Northampton County, 17.1 percent share in Weldon City, and 10.5 percent in Martin County drive the 4.9 percent rate in the northeastern counties that make up Region 1. The primary factor behind charter school growth is the relatively low quality of district schools in Halifax and surrounding counties.Finally, counties in the regions that stretch from the southwest to the Triad have charter school shares that vary considerably. Mounty Airy City in Region 5 and Rutherford County in Region 8 have the largest shares at 9.4 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively. Millennium Charter Academy is the excellent charter school in Mount Airy. Rutherford County has two outstanding charter schools, Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy and Lake Lure Classical Academy.There are many reasons to be optimistic about the future of North Carolina's charter schools. Without a doubt, school district officials and public school advocacy groups will continue to grouse about the number of students enrolled in charters and the funding that goes with them. But charter school parents, students, employees, and advocates vastly outnumber them and are beginning to find the voice to champion and defend their schools of choice. Click here for the Education Update archive
The American Queen Steamboat Co. paid about $3.9 million to 86 Memphis employees in 2015.
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By Wayne Risher of The Commercial Appeal
The American Queen is on a roll in its fifth season on the Mississippi River.
It's running at 95 percent occupancy, owners are working aggressively to buy another boat, and several of next season's cruises are already sold out.
"We've been fighting an awareness problem for awhile, and now we've got awareness," said Ted Sykes, president of the Memphis-based American Queen Steamboat Co. "The sun is shining on us this year, absolutely."
The company is on pace to repay a $9 million loan from the city of Memphis 18 months to two years ahead of schedule, at least by February 2020, city records show. The loan is paid from landing fees of $89 a passenger.
With a $298,502 payment on April 15, the American Queen had paid Memphis $5,564,506 in principal and interest on the 2011 loan. The city Division of Housing and Community Development used a federal economic development grant to help the company refurbish the boat and put it back in operation.
"This is our fifth year of operations, and we're running passenger loads fuller, so we're paying it off faster," Sykes said.
Housing and Community Development director Paul A. Young said, "The early repayment schedule indicates that the passenger counts for the project are higher than projected, which means greater economic impact for the project as a whole."
Benny Lendermon, president of the Memphis Riverfront Development Corp., said, "They sure look like they're doing well to us. They're bringing a whole lot of people to Memphis."
Lendermon's agency operates a cruise ship dock at Beale Street Landing.
In return for the assistance, the American Queen has focused on hiring Memphians to staff the steamboat and its Memphis headquarters. An economic impact statement said the company had about 86 employees from Memphis, with a payroll of $3.9 million, and paid vendors $5,489,217.
Sykes said 65 to 70 percent of employees are from Memphis or New Orleans, where the American Queen spends winters.
Strong demand has driven an active effort to buy another vessel.
"We're working a couple right now, at the moment," Sykes said. "It will be lower Mississippi and it will be other things. We've got a lot of demand that we can't satisfy, so we've been aggressively looking at other tonnage."
Since the American Queen returned overnight cruises to the Mississippi in 2012, other companies have moved to tap the market's potential.
American Cruise Lines operates the Queen of the Mississippi and America. French America Line plans to bring the Louisiane to Memphis in late summer. And Europe's Viking River Cruises has plans to expand to the Mississippi starting with two ships in 2018, although the ships aren't under construction yet.
The American Queen recently announced a 2017 calendar that includes 31 cruises to, from or through Memphis. The schedule again will be heavy on cruises between Memphis and New Orleans. A cruise from Nashville to Chattanooga, missing from this year's offering, will return.
Sykes said the boat will go into dry dock in New Orleans after the last cruise of 2016 and come out in 2017 with an additional four luxury suites on the upper deck. "We have more demand for high-end space," Sykes said.
The reconfiguration will reduce the boat's capacity to 424 passengers.
Standard Construction wants to extend the area where it mines sand and gravel in northern Shelby County. (By Thomas Bailey/The Commercial Appeal)
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By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal
Newly discovered environmental problems have at least temporarily cost a sand-and-gravel mining operation key support for a proposed expansion near Rosemark in north Shelby County.
The Office of Planning & Development has put a hold on its recommendation that the Land Use Control Board approve the expansion as long as certain conditions are met. The board meets Thursday.
The planning board was to consider granting a special-use permit to Standard Construction Co. to expand by 47 acres its mining operation headquartered at 8476 Deadfall Road.
But last week the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) notified Standard Construction by certified letter that its inspectors confirmed environmental complaints during two inspections, one on March 29 and the other April 1.
Inspectors found murky, sediment-tainted water mining ponds had discharged into a roadside ditch and the Crooked Creek and Beaver Creek tributaries. Some of the turbid water appeared to come from a pipe, and some overflowed from a mine pond that filled to capacity.
"Disturbed soil, such as that from a surface mine, if not managed properly through appropriate erosion prevention and sediment controls, can be washed off-site during storms, and silt transport to local surface water is likely,'' states the letter from Joellyn Brazile, environmental program manager in the Division of Water Resources of TDEC's Memphis field office.
"Excessive siltation degrades waterways and water quality by causing adverse impacts due to biological alterations, reduced capacity in rivers and streams, and the alteration of the water's physical/chemical properties,'' the letter states.
The state agency will conduct a compliance-review meeting with Standard Construction on May 19 to present the facts and problems, discuss solutions and "facilitate resolution'' of the issues, Brazile writes.
In an April 29 letter to the Office of Planning & Development, an attorney representing Standard Construction states, "It is true that, due to the extraordinary 100 year rainfall events of the past couple of months, ponds on the Deadfall site reached their capacity and began to flow over their banks.
"Standard Construction has actively worked with TDEC to address and remediate this situation,'' attorney Nathan A. Bicks writes. "This event is the first time in the over 25 year history of this site that extraordinary, record rainfall has caused such a problem,'' the letter states.
"... Standard's TDEC permit does allow water discharge, but with restrictions and limitations. The overflow water was tested and found to be within the permit requirements,'' Bicks states.
Standard Construction's existing mining operation is north of Godwin and east of Deadfall roads. The company proposes to extend the operation south of Godwin and east of Deadfall on 46 acres it would purchase from John, Harold and Dan Byrd.
The OPD staff originally recommended approval of the special-use permit, as long Standard Construction met 45 conditions. The local government planners had supported the expansion, in part, because a staff review determined "mining operations within this area is part of the fabric of the community.''
Standard Construction says the change it seeks will neither intensify the mining operation nor add trucks to the rural roads because the new site would not be mined at the same time as the existing operation.
A number of property owners in the area submitted correspondence opposing the expansion. They argue the larger mining operation will create noise, pollute the environment and cause traffic hazards because of the large trucks hauling the material.
Standard Construction, based in Cordova, operates seven gravel pits and four hot-mix plants in West Tennessee and North Mississippi.
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By Jody Callahan of The Commercial Appeal
Four men who kidnapped another man in South Memphis Saturday afternoon apparently released him police said Monday.
The incident happened about 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Exxon at 1335 S. Bellevue, police said. Four men chased another man inside the Exxon, beat him and then dragged him out to a car and fled. But about an hour later, they released him, police said.
The victim is working with police and has identified at least one of the suspects, officials said. No one was in custody yet, however.
March 30, 2016 - Bob Corker is a United States Senator representing Tennessee. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal)
By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal
WASHINGTON Now that Donald Trump has in effect clinched the Republican presidential nomination, the guessing game has begun over whom the New York real-estate mogul will pick as his running mate.
On Tuesday, speculation turned toward Tennessee.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker's name was added to the mix after Politico published a story suggesting GOP insiders believe the Chattanooga Republican would be "an attractive, plausible vice-presidential pick" for Trump.
The article quoted unnamed sources who said Trump might find Corker a viable running mate because he is "an independent guy" who is "not afraid to buck the old guard."
Corker's office immediately brushed aside the speculation.
"Sen. Corker has no reason to believe he is being considered for vice president," said his spokeswoman, Micah Johnson.
But others think putting Corker on the ticket would make sense.
"Corker would bring a lot to the ticket," said John Geer, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. "He's respected on both sides of the aisle. He knows foreign policy pretty well, something people have been worried about in regards to Trump. It would be a big coup, frankly, for Trump if he were to secure someone like Corker."
Tennessee's senior senator, Republican Lamar Alexander, agreed Corker has a lot to offer.
"There's no question that Sen. Corker has tremendous talent and has succeeded at every level and has a bright future," Alexander said. "Any decision about that future is Sen. Corker's to make, but he would be great for our country in whatever capacity he chooses to serve."
The Politico piece appeared to be triggered, at least in part, by comments Corker made last week.
Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told USA TODAY he's offered to help Trump develop a foreign policy platform, making him one of the few senators to publicly embrace Trump as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. Corker said he and Trump's campaign have talked and that he stands ready to assist him in the general election.
Some GOP insiders, according to Politico, suggested that Corker's swift move toward Trump could give him a big advantage in the vice presidential lottery.
Geer, however, cautioned that people may be misinterpreting Corker's remarks and his motives.
"He does care deeply about policy he does want government to run as effectively as it possibly can," Geer said. "Yes, it could be interpreted that he wants to be vice president. But it's just as likely that he wants to be of help. He may see that Donald Trump would benefit from that kind of input, and he's prepared to be helpful as opposed to being at arm's length."
While Corker is a conservative Republican, he has an independent streak "that might be appealing to Trump," Geer said.
"He's super ambitious and may like to be secretary of State," Geer said. "That's something that might be more of interest to him if Trump were elected president."
Corker has seen his national stature grow considerably in the year and a half since he took over the reins of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Last year, Time magazine named him to its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people, ranking him alongside world leaders such as President Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"He is a conservative who prizes results over speeches," Alexander wrote in an essay published by the magazine. "If he is not president himself, Corker is an obvious choice for secretary of state or treasurer."
FILE- In this Aug. 2, 2012, file photo, U.S. Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., attends a victory party in Hendersonville, Tenn., after 6th District Republican primary win. A Wilson County Reagan Day fundraiser has been canceled over disagreements about which candidates will be allowed to speak at the event. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)
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By Erik Schelzig, Associated Press
NASHVILLE Reagan Day fundraisers have been a staple of GOP politics ever since the Great Communicator made a point of promoting the 11th Commandment thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. But in the conservative suburbs east of Nashville, the event has become too poisonous to be held this year.
According to party e-mails obtained by The Associated Press, three leading Tennessee Republicans refused to speak at the June fundraiser if their rivals were given the same opportunity, forcing the Wilson County Republicans to call off the event altogether.
The flap suggests just how fractured the GOP has become this election year, as Donald Trump and tea party supporters continue shaking up what's left of the Republican establishment. It also suggests what hardball tactics may come in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Bill Haslam in 2018.
The head of the county party has no comment on why the party canceled the event. But a flurry of correspondence obtained by the AP suggests that organizers couldn't get the three candidates to share a stage.
The event was to be held on June 7 in the district of U.S. Rep. Diane Black, who faces a tea-party rival, former state Rep. Joe Carr, in Tennessee's congressional primary this August. Black also is a top contender for governor, and will likely face state Sen. Mark Green, an Army veteran who has been speaking at other Reagan Day events around the state.
According to an e-mailed summary prepared by Wilson County GOP Chairman Tom Hoffman for fellow party organizers, Green refused to appear if Black was allowed to speak, and Carr then said he wouldn't speak either if Green didn't take the stage.
The event was being put together by Justin Hayes, a Carr spokesman and co-chairman of the Wilson County for Donald Trump campaign committee.
According Hoffman's message, Hayes suggested that the event feature Carr and Green and no one else. The state GOP then intervened to say that party rules require any Republican member of Congress be allowed to address the crowd.
Executive committee member Jennifer Winfree wanted organizers to confirm Green's refusal, calling it "troubling and baffling that a well-respected doctor and seated senator would be this obstinate."
Hoffman responded that he hadn't spoken to Green directly, but that Hayes "verbally represented" Green's position to him and others. The party then voted to cancel the event.
Hayes declined to comment to the AP, but the Carr campaign later called for a debate between Carr and Black.
Black, for her part, tweeted her regrets after the event was canceled, saying she had been eager to hear from the "tough guy" Green.
In an AP interview, Green denied that he had refused to appear alongside Black or anyone else.
"I don't know who's saying that I didn't want to be on stage with her, but that's just ludicrous," he said. "I relish the opportunity to speak with a person that I might be contending against in the future."
"She has every right to be on stage, and I would never suggest otherwise," he said. "It would be such a high-schoolish thing to do."
Former radio talk show host Steve Gill, who helped Carr publicize his campaign launch in April, had agreed to host the fundraiser. He said he was told Black was to blame for the cancellation.
"It seems to me the elbows are coming out early," Gill said, and that's OK with him. "You cannot be tepid and timid."
"If Donald Trump teaches us nothing it is that in this climate right now, you've got to play in bold strokes, you can't paint in pastel. Anybody who isn't playing bold now is losing out," he said.
SHARE Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald
By Clay Bailey of The Commercial Appeal
Bartlett begins the review of its annual budget Tuesday with no property tax hike anticipated.
But Mayor Keith McDonald can't make the same promise for the near future.
McDonald will present the $147.7 million budget including $73.5 million for Bartlett City Schools at a Board of Mayor and Aldermen work session Tuesday evening. The board will consider first reading on the document and maintaining the $1.62 property tax rate at its regular meeting following the work session.
First reading on both the budget and property tax rate is routinely a formality with passage expected on initial consideration to move the ordinances forward. Final readings and public hearings are set for June 14, about two weeks before the new fiscal year begins July 1.
The budget is one of the most important decisions the city makes annually, setting the financial blueprint for the suburb into the summer of 2017. Setting the property tax rate coincides with the budget.
McDonald said the proposed budget includes a 2 percent pay increase for employees, plus adding three police officers. There also are some adjustments in the fire department leading to the need for additional firefighter-paramedics.
The mayor noted that while the proposed budget allows the city to maintain its service level under the $1.62 property tax rate, "I can't rule out (a tax increase) next year."
"We're going to have to take a serious look at it," McDonald said.
Bartlett has avoided a property tax increase since 2007. Taxes were adjusted to the current $1.62 rate in 2013 as part of reappraisals. McDonald said the nine-year span without an increase not associated with reappraisal came during some "really, really difficult" economic times.
The city faces different challenges now. Online sales are impacting local sales tax revenues. Memberships at the Bartlett Recreation Center are flat, with expenses exceeding revenues generated by the center. Those examples of current budget issues, coupled with further public safety demands, create a formula for a potential future tax increase.
One factor apparently not pressuring budget decisions is Bartlett City Schools. The school board submitted a $73.5 million budget only a slight increase from the current $71.4 million.
School board Chairman Jeff Norris said the system has seen a moderate increase in enrollment, plus a slight increase in state funding. That allowed a raise for teachers under the budget presented to the city. He noted the success with the city's financial cooperation of providing students in grades 6-12 with MacBooks.
The school system's budget is "almost completely dependent" on state and county funds with help from the city. A substantial portion of the $2 million increase in the budget is based on the additional $1.2 million the district will receive through the state Basic Education Program funding.
"Fortunately, our school board is going about this in a conservative, well-planned approach," McDonald said.
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By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal
People stood and applauded in Collierville Town Hall on Monday evening after Buddy Billings was named the town's new fire chief by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
Billings started working in town government as a teenager. He's now 57.
Billings seemed close to tears as he stood at the podium and faced the board after the vote. "My heart's full right now," he said. "I stand before you a humble man. I want to thank God, first of all, for giving me the ability to do what I've done for so long." He also thanked the members of the board for their confidence and his wife for staying with him through thick and thin, plus the members of the fire department who backed him.
Billings had already been serving as interim fire chief following the retirement of Jerry Crawford at the end of February. Billings said he wasn't originally interested in serving as chief for the long term, and the town this year began a search for an outside replacement. Several candidates were interviewed, including former Memphis fire director Michael Putt.
But the search for an outside candidate ended when Billings changed his mind and said he'd like to serve as chief after all. Billings said conversations with firefighters and others in the community had led to his change of heart.
Mayor Stan Joyner nominated Billings and the five aldermen approved him by acclamation.
Afterward, Billings and well-wishers gathered in the lobby outside the board meeting area. The mayor gestured toward the visitors and said their presence showed the widespread support for Billings. "Everybody you see here is a firefighter or a spouse of a firefighter or a mother or father," he said.
In other action, the board took the first steps toward passing the annual budget. Board members voted on first reading to set the town's tax rate at $1.78 per $100 of assessed value, which is the same as the current rate, hiked last year to help pay for a new high school. This year's tax rate will require two more readings to pass the next meetings are scheduled for May 23 and June 6.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for May 23.
The board on Monday also voted to approve a final site plan and development agreement for the 207-unit Meridian Park Apartments just south of the FedEx World Technology Center on Bailey Station Road. The measure passed 4-2, with Tom Allen, Maureen Fraser, John Worley and John E. Stamps voting yes. Alderman Billy Patton joined the mayor in voting no.
The mayor said he knew the plan for the new apartments would pass because of an earlier commitment the town had made during the development process.
But he said he wanted to cast a symbolic vote against the apartment complex, saying that apartments lead to a strain on schools and other resources and that although apartment owners pay property tax, the town would likely receive more property tax if the apartment residents all owned their own homes.
FILE - In this Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015, file photo, provided by NBC, actor and comedian Tracy Morgan speaks during a monologue on "Saturday Night Live," in New York. Morgan has canceled an appearance at a Tunica Casino because of Mississippi's "Religious Freedom" law. (Dana Edelson/NBC via AP, File)
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By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal
For the second time in as many days, Mississippi's "religious freedom" law became the subject of a legal challenge Tuesday.
Campaign for Southern Equality, which earlier challenged the state's ban on same-sex marriage, Tuesday asked that its original action be reopened to address HB 1523, the so-called "religious freedom" law that allows private businesses and government officials to deny services to same-sex couples if doing so would violate their religious views.
According to the motion filed in U.S. District Court for the southern district of Mississippi, same-sex couples had just begun "to enjoy their rights as equal citizens in Mississippi" in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision legalizing gay marriage last summer, when Gov. Phil Bryant signed the new measure into law. The motion says the law "authorizes, indeed encourages, discrimination against LGBT Mississippians."
Two lesbian couples joined in the motion to reopen the Campaign's case, one day after the American Civil Liberties Union and a gay couple from the Meridian area sued.
The legal momentum building against the controversial law follows weeks of economic pressure from businesses and performers. Comedian Tracy Morgan canceled a show in Tunica because of the law, and rock musician Bryan Adams canceled a show in Biloxi.
North Carolina is facing similar pressure over its law on the use of restrooms by transgender people. The Justice Department sued the state Monday, with the state suing the federal government hours later.
In the Mississippi case, the Campaign for Southern Equality limited the scope of its new request to the section of the law that allows clerks to deny issuing a marriage license to same-sex couples as long as someone else will provide it.
"While HB 1523 states that 'the authorization and licensing of any legally valid marriage (shall) not (be) impeded or delayed' ..." attorney Roberta Kaplan of New York said in the filing, "it leaves the manner of doing so completely up to the person who 'recused' him or herself, and provides no enforcement mechanism for making sure that there is no delay or impediment."
The motion asks that the state be required to release the names of clerks who recuse themselves. Kaplan added that clerks who refuse to issue licenses to same-sex couples should also decline to issue them to heterosexual couples.
Bryant, a Republican, says the law is meant to protect those with sincerely held religious beliefs from violating their conscience. In a statement after the ACLU suit Monday, Bryant said the organization uses the federal court system "to push its liberal agenda."
It isn't the first time the ACLU has found itself the subject of scorn from state and local leaders, as well as much of the public, over causes the organization has chosen to defend.
Retired DeSoto County Schools Supt. Milton Kuykendall harshly criticized the ACLU over several lawsuits it filed concerning student discipline. He said the group was targeting the county and "chipping away" at its disciplinary policies that kept students safe and "separates our district from districts near us."
ACLU state attorney Josh Block says the organization won't relent in its fight against HB 1523.
"We won't rest until every last piece of this law is struck down and all LGBT people in Mississippi have equal justice under the law," he said on the Mississippi ACLU website.
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When homeowners in a neighborhood band together to fight an infection that threatens their community's health, they usually overpower the infection.
That is what happened in French Fort, a middle-class enclave within sight of the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge.
Their persistence has resulted in an agreement to demolish a long-vacant hotel that not only was a neighborhood eyesore, but also a depressing image of Memphis for truckers and other motorists entering the city from the bridge (Interstate 55).
We congratulate French Fort residents for their doggedness in pursuing the demolition, especially former school board member Sara Lewis; Mayor Jim Strickland for facilitating a meeting of all parties that resulted in the agreement; lawyer Steve Barlow and the University of Memphis School of Law Neighborhood Preservation Clinic for their work representing the city of Memphis in the issue, and hotel owner Lauren Crews, who Strickland commended "for stepping up and doing the right thing by this neighborhood and by Memphis."
Under the agreement signed last week by Environmental Court Referee John Cameron, the demolition must be complete by Sept. 1. The hotel has been vacant for more than 20 years.
The hotel sits at 271 Alston, which serves as one of the entrances into the neighborhood that was developed in the 1960s and targeted as one of the first new middle- and upper-income African-American neighborhoods in Memphis. It has remained that way.
Crews has proposed an ambitious long-term redevelopment for part of the area, including the former U.S. Marine Hospital, along with developing a new hotel, grocery store, events center and apartment complexes as part of a $138 million master plan stretching from the hospital to the Mississippi River.
He bought the old hotel in 2006 because he was "passionate" about protecting the area. Under the plan, the hotel would become new apartment building. But his plans to secure financing for a redevelopment have been sidelined while the Tennessee Department of Transportation delays moving forward with the nearby I-55/Crump Boulevard realignment project.
But French Fort residents had problems with Crews' plan, including concerns that he was not keeping homeowners adequately informed. His plans have diminished somewhat, apparently putting the main focus on redeveloping the historic hospital.
French Fort is a proud neighborhood, where residents realize they sit nearly adjacent to some prime real estate that offers great views of the bridge and the river. They not only are protective of their homes, but also of neighboring amenities like the National Ornamental Metal Museum and Chickasaw Heritage and E.H. Crump parks.
It is good to see Strickland jump into the fight to demolish the blighted hotel, which shows he is serious about being "brilliant" at the basics and getting rid of blight is one of the basics.
And, once again, Barlow and the U of M School of Law Neighborhood Preservation Clinic prove their worth. All involved now need to make sure the hotel is demolished by Sept. 1 and that the resulting debris is removed.
North Carolina Tapped Twice for Award Recognition
News Release:
May 9, 2016 Two of Governor Pat McCrory's biggest Information Technology (IT) priorities were honored last week by StateScoop Magazine at the National Association of State Chief Information Officer's (NASCIO) mid-year conference. North Carolina's Government Data Analytics Center (GDAC), which ties to Governor McCrory's vision of doing business with state government more easily, was recognized as State IT Program of the Year. Eric Ellis, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for the State, was recognized as State Up and Comer for his leadership and invaluable work at the North Carolina Innovation Center (iCenter).
"The important work that's been done at both the iCenter and GDAC deserves this recognition," said State Chief Information Officer Keith Werner. "GDAC has made incredible strides in improving the way everyone from our citizens to our law enforcement officials interact with the government. In cases such as fraud monitoring, the sharing of data through GDAC has led to agencies having improved service delivery, while also saving taxpayer money. In addition, through GDAC's Criminal Justice Law Enforcement Automated Data Services (CJLEADS) program, law enforcement officers are provided greater access to information about the people they encounter, helping to improve the state's public safety efforts. That said, if a single life is saved because of the system, its value is priceless."
StateScoop hosts these awards every year and opens the nominees up to public voting through an online forum. As "State IT Program of the Year," GDAC was one of the best examples of influential state and IT programs that had delivered cost savings, superior performance results and partnerships between agencies. As a "State Up and Comer," Eric Ellis was a State government employee who made someone think, "they'll be running the show some day" and is also a leader who accomplished exceptional IT work this year.
"Eric Ellis provides invaluable service to all of our agencies, and the state of North Carolina," said Werner. "Three years ago, he was instrumental in making the vision of the iCenter become a reality. Eric is always three steps ahead of anyone in the room, which truly benefits our state and its citizens. Because of the important work that Eric does, North Carolina has become a model in innovation for other states around the country."
To see the full list of StateScoop50 award nominees, click here. For more information on GDAC, visit http://it.nc.gov/nc-gdac. For more information on the iCenter, visit https://icenter.nc.gov/, and follow on Twitter @ncicenter.
Contact: Michelle Vaught
Public Affairs Director
Department of Information Technology
919.754.6425 919.610.7292 mailto:michelle.vaught@nc.gov
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By Jennifer Rubin
Losing a presidential election is agonizing, especially if the opponent who beats you is so obviously lacking in moral character and policy know-how. It is therefore entirely understandable that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wanting to preserve his dignity and political viability, would be so vocal about his belief that Ohio Gov. John Kasich, by staying in the race, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., by not agreeing to be Cruz's vice president, doomed his chances. (Rubio's camp denies that Cruz ever made a clear offer.)
There are two problems with Cruz blaming others. First, it is not at all clear that Kasich voters would have gone to Cruz. When Cruz finally got his one-on-one matchup in Indiana, he got thrashed. When given the chance to compete against Donald Trump in the so-called SEC primary, where Kasich was weak, Cruz did not win the states that he expected, a sign he was not winning over evangelicals in sufficient numbers. He was losing those voters to Trump, not Kasich.
As for Rubio, it is far from clear that having him as Cruz's VP would have helped Cruz, despite whatever polling the Cruz team came up with. The teaming of two freshmen senators lacking executive experience and displaying gaping differences on immigration may have made Cruz's life more difficult. Running on a strong anti-immigration platform, Cruz could well have discouraged his supporters by adding Gang of Eight participant Rubio. That would only have added credence to the allegation that Cruz is too manipulative and slick for his own good.
Blaming the other two candidates suggests that Cruz, if not for them, could have gained support of "somewhat conservative" and moderate voters. There is zero reason to believe that is true. Cruz spent his time in the Senate bashing such Republicans; they in turn saw him as reckless and irresponsible. (In some ways, Trump is now repeating Cruz's error by attacking House Speaker Paul Ryan.)
This is one reason Cruz's unfavorability ratings were so high. No, Cruz's fate with these voters was almost certainly sealed not by Kasich or Rubio, but by his own participation in the 2013 shutdown and his turn to the far right to keep up with Trump on immigration. Cruz had a flawed vision of the party that overestimated the strength of "very conservative" voters. As a result, his base was too narrow and ultimately unsustainable.
Moreover, Cruz shouldn't be playing the "Who let Trump win?" game. It was Cruz's decision not only to lay off Trump but also to fawn over him for six months that provided plenty of cover for Trump and allowed him to gain support on the right. Cruz, more than any other candidate in the race, gave Trump a level of legitimacy he did not deserve.
Cruz's team is likely looking ahead to 2020. If the "Rubio did it" argument is meant to undercut Rubio for 2020 and boost Cruz's own prospects, it is unlikely to work. There are better arguments for Cruz to make.
First, Cruz has yet to say that he would endorse the GOP nominee; Rubio has signaled that he would do so. Right there is a good place for Cruz to start in touting his own conservative bona fides over Rubio's. Rubio will be stuck justifying his support for an unfit demagogue and will take the heat for sacrificing conservative principles on the altar of partisan politics. Cruz can certainly join the #NeverTrump forces in crusading against capitulation.
If and when a third candidate is found, Cruz would do well to give that person his full support, showing that Cruz is not interested simply in his own political advancement. Cruz can show he finally and fully understands that a middle-of-the-road Republican (the kind likely to be picked as a third candidate) is his ally against the unprincipled Trump and against Hillary Clinton. For a freshman senator who made his reputation by annoying and attacking colleagues, Cruz's support for a third candidate might demonstrate that Cruz, not Rubio, is the team player on the conservative Republican team.
Second, Rubio is leaving the Senate while, presumably, Cruz is not. If the Florida Senate seat is lost, it is more than fair to ding Rubio for leaving the battlefield. Rubio refused to run simultaneously for re-election to the Senate and for election to the White House, with the excuse that he was going all-in on the presidency. Candidates on a presidential ticket generally have not given up their seats (e.g. Sen. John McCain), or if they did, they waited until they won nomination.
In fact, those close to him knew that Rubio's attention span with the Senate was short. It was widely believed that he would either run for president in 2016 or leave for the private sector to make money. There is nothing wrong with the latter, but Rubio will later be held to account for whatever ill consequences follow from his early retirement from the Senate.
In sum, Cruz does not need a self-justifying argument that seeks to absolve himself of responsibility for the 2016 loss. There is plenty of evidence that Rubio is looking out for himself, not the party or the movement.
Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for the Washington Post.
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By Noah Feldman
The Black Lives Matter movement may be starting to affect the thinking of federal judges, if a Texas case is any indication.
Last week, a George W. Bush appointee wrote a dissent that started this way: "Wayne Pratt received the death penalty at the hands of three police officers for the misdemeanor crime of failing to stop and give information."
The opinion was a dissent because the two other judges on the appellate panel thought the officers who killed Pratt during an arrest were entitled to immunity from being sued. So it's not as if the social protest movement has yet won a complete victory. But the Republican appointee's language was noteworthy and her opinion deserves analysis.
The facts of Pratt's case, decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, are complicated, even according to the lawyers representing his mother. By Erony Pratt's account, which the court assumed to be true for purposes of a motion to dismiss her case, officers from the Harris County, Texas, sheriff's department came upon Pratt after a minor traffic accident.
Pratt was running in circles around the car, "imitating a boxer." His hands were above his head, and he was saying that he was on fire, which he was not. Although the police didn't yet know it for certain, Pratt was acting strangely because he was high on cocaine and had also ingested a significant quantity of ethanol, or corn alcohol.
Restraining Pratt turned out to be difficult. Three attempts to Taser him failed. Another brought him to the ground, but Pratt continued resisting, and he was Tasered two more times before he could be handcuffed. At that point, Pratt said, "OK, OK, I'll quit I'll stop fighting."
But Pratt didn't stop fighting. He tried to run again, and was tackled. At that point he was Tasered once more the seventh time, by my count this time in "drive stun mode," which means the Taser is applied directly to the body. One officer rolled him over onto his stomach, and another put his knee on his back, and he was put in a hobble restraint, essentially, ankle cuffs. Pratt stopped resisting and said, "OK, I quit. I'm done." By now he was "hog-tied" according to the court's opinion.
Shortly thereafter within minutes EMS technicians arrived on the scene. Pratt wasn't breathing. They managed to bring his pulse back, but he died in the hospital the next morning.
What killed Pratt? Both the doctor for the county and the expert witness hired by Pratt's mother said the death had multiple causes. According to the expert, the cause of death was "due to the combined effects of prone restraint and cocaine and ethanol toxicity," with Taser use, cardiomyopathy, obesity and chronic drug use as contributing factors.
At the time of the arrest, the Harris County Sheriff's Department had a policy that prohibited the use of hog-tie restraints. On that basis, Pratt's mother brought a federal suit against the officers and the county alleging violations of his constitutional rights through the use of excessive force.
When law enforcement officers are sued for something they did while performing their duties, they invariably argue that they are entitled to what the law calls "qualified immunity." The point of qualified immunity is to set a high bar for lawsuits. To be sued successfully, police officers basically must have knowingly violated the law or acted so incompetently that it amounts to the same thing.
The majority of the Fifth Circuit panel held that the facts alleged by Pratt's mother weren't sufficient to demonstrate the use of excessive force. There was no single opinion for the panel. Judge E. Grady Jolly, a Reagan appointee, wrote that the Tasering wasn't clearly excessive.
A second judge, Gregg Costa, appointed by Barack Obama, cited two cases in which the Fifth Circuit found no violation of clearly established law when an arrestee was hogtied. His three-paragraph opinion said these cases forced the conclusion that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity.
Judge Catharina Haynes, the Bush appointee, dissented. She argued that it was clearly established that Pratt should not have been hogtied. Such a restraint, she said, amounted to deadly force when combined with drug use. And the officers had reason to think Pratt was high on something given his behavior when they found him.
Haynes went on to explain that when Pratt was hogtied, he wasn't presenting an immediate threat of harm to the officers, nor indeed did he threaten them at any time. That fact, she said, distinguished Pratt's case from those cited by the other two judges.
Haynes, based in Dallas, was a partner at the prominent Baker, Botts law-firm and an elected Texas trial judge for eight years before George W. Bush put her on the Fifth Circuit. She's not known as a leftist of any kind. And whether Pratt was black or white wasn't specified.
But the judge's opening salvo, referring to the killing of Pratt as the death penalty administered by police, makes sense only in the light of the Black Lives Matter protest movement drawing public attention to the use of excessive force in arrest and detention.
Maybe, as time passes, other judges will get the message, too and maybe that will save the lives of more arrestees, whether black or white.
Noah Feldman, a Bloomberg View columnist, is a professor of constitutional and international law at Harvard.
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Apple subsidiary, FileMaker, has introduced version 15 of its eponymous business-focused cross-platform relational database application for business users, swathed with a series of improvements with a focus on mobility, Web and iOS.
Access to all
Andrew LeCates, Director Solutions Consulting says the new version aims to fix such problems business users face as inefficient processes, scattered information and rigid technology.
When you are a small business theres a competitive advantage in developing custom software, he explained. Filemaker makes it easy to make custom apps for non professional developer.
Historically, FileMaker has evolved to become a good tool with which to build business applications without having any advanced development skills. However, the previous version was not without its critics. Will FileMaker 15 be sufficient to carry the brand forward?
If Im honest, I dont yet know as Ive not spent enough time with the software, but I do have some observations, principally relating to FileMakers sensible focus on enabling the growing iPhone enterprise. This Apple focus is well evidenced by some of the flagship features within the new release: Touch ID, 3D Touch and iBeacons support; iCloud and Box integration; App extensions within FileMaker Go and its desktop development environment.
Apple focus
Features like these make it clear FileMaker wants to take advantage of Apples growing dominance of the mobile enterprise this makes complete sense when you think about where we are in enterprise IT right now: When given the choice, 78 percent of employees will choose iOS; 74 per cent will choose Mac. FileMaker has also improved WebDirect for those who must adopt different platforms.
Apple is now the platform of choice across the enterprise. Its a pattern thats consistent with last years 2015 Apple Trends Survey that revealed a similar transformation in the AAPL enterprise place.
FileMaker 15 is also boosted by really mobile-focused things such as near instant record updates between devices and teams thanks to its enhanced performance; a much-improved and easier to navigate user interface and clear usage guides and instructions that aim to empower less experienced users to create and deploy FileMaker apps as quickly as possible.
You dont need to know how to work in SQL in order to achieve this. Making the complex simple in order to empower the citizen developer is one of the company's aims in FileMaker 15. It's up to users to judge its success.
Touch ID
Touch ID support is interesting. It means corporate information can easily be protected by a persons fingerprint, making it near impossible to access such data on a stolen device. There was a bit of a challenge getting our head around Touch ID as it associates the device to the user, explained LeCates. Our customers have been asking us for this We availed ourselves of Apples technology.
That focus on security also includes ideas drawn from the CyberSoC approach to securing platforms and devices. In this case it means you get things like a concealed edit box for authorization and proactive security warnings so databases can monitor themselves for unexpected use, and warn admins accordingly. SSL certificate enhancements also appear in the release.
In a press release, Ann Monroe, vice president of marketing, FileMaker, said: This new release represents our ongoing effort to simplify the development and deployment of custom apps that work seamlessly across mobile devices, PCs and the Web.
Toward WWDC
One thing that does concern me when looking through FileMakers offering here is the lack of mention of Swift support. Given the companys status as a wholly owned Apple subsidiary, it seems inevitable to me that future iterations of the software will make more use of Swift, particularly as an open source approach to cross platform development. It will be interesting to see what more we get to learn of Swift come next months WWDC event in San Francisco.
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Artificial intelligence, machine intelligence, cognitive computing whatever you want to call machines that are capable of understanding and acting upon their environment is no longer solely the purview of highly credentialed lab directors and deep-thinking computer scientists. It has entered mainstream consciousness, and the public expects IT to play a leadership role as machine learning enters our workplaces, our living spaces and our lives. Will you be ready?
Chances are that you are not. Most executives, in the opinion of New York Times technology columnist John Markoff, are ill prepared for this new world in the making.
This is unacceptable. People have been thinking about automated work forever. The first reference in literature (and consistent with the historical theme that the benefits of automation accrue to the elite of society) is probably the mention of automatai devices that opened and closed the gates of Olympus so that the gods in their chariots could go in and out in Book 5 of The Illiad. (As Daniel Mendelsohn noted in The New York Review of Books, this was some 30 centuries before the first automatic garage door opener.) And a close reading of the Odyssey reveals the hero visiting a king who has gold and silver watchdogs. People have been thinking about using technology to get work done since there was work to be done.
Coming to terms with machine learning is all the more critical because it could end up governing us at the highest levels of society. While taking part in a CES panel on A.I. in 2014, Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg went so far as to contend that the mastery of machine learning/cognitive computing/A.I. has become crucial for the development of countries. And at a recent Talks@Google, authors Richard and Daniel Susskind, two leading thinkers on the topic, were asked in all seriousness whether they thought countries would be better off run by machine intelligence.
Then theres Michael Froomkin, the Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein distinguished professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law, who concluded the WeRobot 2016 Conference by observing that the social importance of what we are talking about is getting exponentially big. We have just now crossed the Rubicon from the point of which this is just an expert subject to where the public is engaged for better or worse.
In short, I had ample reason to undertake a research project to discover what we know and what we need to know about machine learning, the state of A.I. and the coming age of robo assistants.
My first conclusion is that displacement is inevitable. In 1983, Wassily Leontief, a Nobel laureate in economics, said that the role of humans as the most important factor of production is bound to diminish in the same way that the role of horses in agricultural production was first diminished and then eliminated by the introduction of tractors. It is time, therefore, that executives and technology executives in particular started thinking about the immediate, short-term and long-term effects of the labor displacements that will be associated with the deployment of increasingly capable intelligent machines.
How should we be thinking about thinking machines?
Stanford professor Jerry Kaplan argues convincingly that one should not obsess about whether computers will one day surpass humans. In Kaplans opinion, This narrative is both misguided and counterproductive. A more appropriate framing is that A.I. is simply a natural expansion of long-standing efforts to automate tasks, dating at least to the start of the Industrial Revolution. Machine learning, cognitive computing and A.I. are each part and parcel of an ongoing evolution in workplace automation.
Nor should we get too pedantic about labels. For the longest time, academia has played a large role in creating the language used to discuss the evolution of machine intelligence. Kaplan shares an entertaining story of how the term artificial intelligence came to be. Thought to have been originated by John McCarthy, a mathematician at Dartmouth College, it first appeared in a proposal at the Dartmouth Summer Conference in 1956. It was specifically chosen to avoid association with cybernetics and its founder, Norbert Wiener, who defined cybernetics in 1948 as the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine.
No excuse for ignorance
There is a surprisingly rich set of resources on the robo-fication of work, learning and leisure that is varied, well written, recent and relevant to executive audiences.
Reading the free e-book The Future of Machine Intelligence: Perspectives from Leading Practitioners, by David Beyer, one will get a good idea of how many and varied are the ongoing research programs focusing on machine intelligence. The books subtitle is misleading, though. The books focus is not so much on business folk applying machine intelligence as on researchers trying to create it.
Some other titles worth exploring:
Peter Fingar, Cognitive Computing: A Brief Guide for Game Changers
Martin Ford, Rise of the Robots and the Threat of a Jobless Future
Jerry Kaplan, Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in an Age of Artificial Intelligence
John Markoff, Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Human and Robots, NPR Fresh Air; PBS News Hour
Daniel and Richard Susskind, The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Experts
You have your homework to do. As you ponder our future with machine learning, Id love to hear your thoughts.
Futurist Thornton A. May is a speaker, educator and adviser and the author of The New Know: Innovation Powered by Analytics. Visit his website at thorntonamay.com, and contact him at thornton@thorntonamay.com.
Microsoft is shutting down its MSN portal in China from June 7, as pressure appears to be building up on content services from foreign companies in a country that already bans access to Facebook and Twitter.
The Redmond, Washington-based software giant, however, continues to be committed to the Chinese market, offering a range of products including Windows 10, cloud services, and hosting the largest research and development center outside of the U.S, it said in a statement released to news outlets.
Microsoft did not give a reason for shutting down the news and lifestyle portal.
A Chinese regulator ordered Apple to shut down its iBooks Store and iTunes Movies barely six months after the services were launched in the country. The company has promised to get the services back online soon. China is Apples second largest market by revenue.
U.S. tech companies have been under pressure to comply with Chinese Internet regulations and censorship. The Microsoft site has also lost ground to local players like Sina, which operates a Twitter-like social network called Sina Weibo, and Sohu, which runs the Chinese search engine Sogou.com, according to the Nikkei Asian Review.
The company has meanwhile been expanding in the Chinese market through a number of tie-ups with local companies. It announced an agreement last year with its Beijing cloud partner 21Vianet, and IT company Unisplendour to provide custom hybrid cloud solutions and services to Chinese customers, with a focus on state-owned enterprises.
Microsoft also tied with state-owned China Electronics Technology Group to support the configuration, deployment and maintenance of localized Windows 10 for Chinese users in government institutions and critical infrastructure state-owned enterprises, and announced that Chinese search engine Baidu.com would become the default search and homepage for Chinese users of the Microsoft Edge browser in the Windows 10 operating system.
The company has also fallen foul of local authorities in some cases. China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce indicated earlier this year that a 2014 antitrust probe into the company continues.
Federales probing slow security by mobile phone carriers and ODMs. The FCC and FTC are tag-teaming to investigate non-existent or long-delayed OTA updates -- even when it's critical security vulnerabilities they patch.
[Developing story. Updated 10:05 am PT with more comment]
Oh yes, it's about time something was done about this perfect storm of a fiasco. And it's not just Google Android under investigation. Even Apple is being probed. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wave flaming pitchforks.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Stop trying to multitask -- it's a myth
Whats the craic? Todd Shields us from the ugly truth: [You're fired -Ed.]
Smartphone makers...and mobile carriers...face an inquiry by U.S. regulators into how they review and release security updates. [The FCC and FTC] issued statements...saying they want to know more [because] consumers and businesses face hacking threats.
The FCC sent letters to...AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile...Sprint...U.S. Cellular...and TracFone. ... The FTC said it had ordered eight companies to explain:..Apple...Google, BlackBerry...HTC...LG...Microsoft...Motorola...and Samsung.
Let's not mince words, people. Zack Whittaker says the companies face questions over slow security fixes:
[This comes] amid concerns that vulnerabilities are not patched soon enough. ... The FTC wants eight phone makers to explain. ... Meanwhile, the FCC wants cell carriers...to explain.
The investigation is thought to be in response to a complaint submitted by the [ACLU], which accused cell carriers of stalling [and so] exposing consumers to "significant cybersecurity-related risks." ... The FCC...cited Stagefright, a major security flaw that affected almost every Android device. ... It took weeks for other manufacturers to implement the fix. Some devices are still vulnerable.
Great example -- and not an isolated one, neither. Michael Tomkins paints his own experience:
My unlocked Sony Xperia Z2...finally received its...Stagefright...patch...on April 12th. ... The exact same patch was provided on the exact same phone...in other regions as early as 27th November.
That is an utterly shameful 138 DAYS...from when the patch was completely done being tested and applied, and ready to release. ... It was even longer from when the fix was made available...by Google. ... Somebody at Sony simply forgot to ever release it. ... But really, the problem...is quite clearly with Google, who have allowed both the carriers and manufacturers to play idiotic games.
It is high time that Google took Android back in-house. ... OS-level updates should then be sourced...from Google themselves. ... But sadly, there's not a chance of this happening.
Ouch. And here's the experience of viperidaenz:
My EU retail...Moto X 2nd Gen is still on the "Android security patch level"...that's 6 months old. It's still vulnerable to...drive-by remote code execution exploits. ... There's 34 critical exploits in the security patches since.
Teaches me for buy a phone from a Google owned company. They then go sell it to Lenovo who then fires half their developers.
I wonder what the companies will say. This Anonymous Coward predicts some of the responses from ODMsThis should be interesting:
Apple: We release updates directly to phones because we control the software and hardware.
Google: We publish updates to the core OS, Android vendors implement updates. We release updates to google apps. ... Vendors' devices access the play store if they sign a contract.
Samsung: We released 56 different phone models in 2014 and it's a pain in the **** updating even the flagships because of all the... Uhm... Value added software we load.
HTC: Uh. We publish updates on flagship models if it's convenient. Hey... Uh... Anyone want to buy a phone company?
Motorola: Who owns us now? Do we still make phones?
Blackberry: We're relevant! Our phones are secure... Uhm... Nevermind that we gave away our root keys when we said we didn't.
Update: But what of Apple in all this? David Goldman prescribes the government wants Apple to up its security game:
Bugs are a fact of life. ... Though Apple tends to have a better reputation...it is notoriously slow at delivering security patches. [They] come much faster than Android updates, but they're often missing crucial bug fixes. ... (A spokesman for Apple did not respond.)
About 30% of Android phones...don't receive any security patches. ... There are some one-year old smartphones that no longer receive [any] updates. ... That's a huge problem.
Regulators are right to be concerned. ... The PC industry shows there can be a better way. ... It's a problem worth solving.
And Finally
Actually, you can't multitask, so stop trying
[McGill University Psychology Professor Daniel Levitin says so]
Microsoft today declined to confirm that it will end the on-screen campaign that pesters Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users into upgrading to Windows 10.
Last week, BetaNews reported that Microsoft would halt the campaign after July 29, citing a company statement.
"On July 29 the Get Windows 10 app that facilitates the easy upgrade to Windows 10 will be disabled and eventually removed from PCs worldwide," Microsoft told the website.
Get Windows 10, or GWX in Microsoft shorthand, is the app that the firm downloaded and installed on hundreds of millions of Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs more than a year ago. Starting June 1, 2015, GWX began displaying several screens that trumpeted the free upgrade to consumers and small businesses, and at least initially, let users "reserve" a copy. It was just one part of a multi-pronged strategy Microsoft deployed to aggressively promote Windows 10 upgrades: Other elements ranged from background downloads of the upgrade files to automatic initiation of the upgrade process.
Microsoft repeatedly pushed GWX to users with changes or to replace apps that customers had manually removed. The nagging got so intrusive that many installed GWX Control Panel, a third-party app created by Josh Mayfield that not only removed GWX, but monitored PCs for upgrade attempts.
GWX will purportedly remain on Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs for an undisclosed period, Microsoft told BetaNews. "Just as it took time to ramp up and roll out the Get Windows 10 app, it will take time to ramp it down," the company said.
Last week, Microsoft reiterated that it would end the one-year free upgrade offer on July 29. The expiration of that deal would logically make GWX worthless, and thus a target for elimination.
But today, Microsoft declined to affirm that. "We will have more details to share as we move closer to July 29," a spokeswoman said when asked to confirm the statement to BetaNews and its accuracy.
That does not mean Microsoft won't disable and then later yank GWX: The company frequently uses the "more details to share" wording in its statements to Computerworld before eventually doing what most had expected all along.
And the contradictory messaging from Microsoft is nothing new.
In fact, when it restated its intention to halt the free upgrade offer last week, Microsoft sent mixed signals to long-time company watcher Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet when she asked the firm to clarify a vague statement.
The result: Confused customers, who are uncertain whether the upgrade would end this summer.
Although there is every reason to believe that GWX will be switched off -- ending the nagging to upgrade -- and the app scrubbed from systems after July 29, Microsoft's refusal to confirm as much hinted that the app may continue to serve other purposes. Microsoft could, for example, tweak GWX to deliver an upgrade pitch to Windows 7 and 8.1 users for full-price or discounted Windows 10 licenses, as it now uses the "Get Office" notifications which relentlessly appear in Windows 10.
Opera Software yesterday released a free VPN (virtual private networking) app for Apple's iOS, the mobile operating system best known for powering the iPhone.
Tagged as "Opera VPN," the app relies on the same backbone -- the Toronto-based SurfEasy, which the Norwegian browser maker acquired in March -- as does the firm's Opera desktop browser for disguising location, avoiding online tracking, and circumventing blacklists maintained by countries, corporations and schools.
Opera VPN's offers just a few settings after it's been installed on an iPhone or iPad.
In a public setting, such as a coffee shop's Wi-Fi network, a VPN also provides a secure "tunnel" to the destination, preventing theft of credentials and personal information like passwords.
Opera VPN is a stand-alone app, and not integrated with Opera Software's iOS browsers, which include Opera Mini and Opera Coast.
As with desktop Opera -- specifically the developer preview of the Windows, OS X and Linux browser, which gained the baked-in VPN in April -- Opera VPN on iOS is free to both download and use. Most VPN services charge monthly or annual fees.
Opera VPN may be free to users, but Opera Software isn't offering the free service for magnanimous reasons: It will rely on two monetization strategies to fund the service.
According to Chris Houston, the president of SurfEasy, Opera will insert advertisements into Opera VPN, although he couched the plan as "likely" rather than certain. "While there are not ads today, advertisements will likely be introduced in the application in the future," Houston said in a long post to his company's blog today.
SurfEasy -- now a division of Opera Software -- will also sell anonymized collections of data acquired from users of Opera VPN, said Houston. "This information is made available to third parties who are interested in better understanding the mobile ecosystem and how it's evolving," he explained.
Data from SurfEasy's paid VPN subscribers -- it continues to offer the service at prices starting at $6.49 per month -- and from those who use the Opera desktop browser's VPN feature, is not logged by the company, and thus not salable.
Houston also made explicit what was only speculative previously: Opera's added VPN to its desktop browser to boost usage. "The addition of the VPN to the Opera desktop browser is a way for Opera to differentiate its browser and expand the appeal to more people," Houston acknowledged. Theoretically, the more users of Opera, the more Opera Software will receive in payments from its search provider partners, which include Google and Yandex. Those providers pay Opera Software for setting their engines as the browser's default.
Opera is the perennial bottom entry on the list of the top five browsers worldwide, and could use help to further enlarge its numbers. During April, Opera accounted for 2% of the global user share as measured by U.S. analytics vendor Net Applications. That was eight-tenths of a percentage point higher than 12 months earlier, representing an impressive 69% annual increase.
Compared to others in the top five, however, Opera is a minor player: Google's Chrome held a 41.7% user share in April, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Edge browsers were pegged at a combined 41.3%, Mozilla's Firefox accounted for 10.1%, and Apple's Safari measured 4.5%.
Opera VPN can be download from Apple's App Store.
Today I want to briefly explain why the EU, particularly for the UK has become a force for social injustice and why leaving provides a vital opportunity for us to be able to develop policies that will protect the people who often find themselves at the sharp end of global economic forces and technological change. My plea to better off Britons who have done well in recent years is to consider using their vote in the referendum to vote for a better deal for people who havent enjoyed the same benefits as them. Because the EU, despite its grand early intentions, has become a friend of the haves rather than the have-nots.
Take the euro, for example. It has greatly favoured already wealthy Germany and its export industries at the expense of southern Europe. The euro has meant serious unemployment for millions of young Greeks, Portuguese, Spaniards and Italians and has produced political extremism. The EU is also working well for big banks. The bailouts being financed by extreme levels of austerity in countries like Greece have largely benefited financial institutions that lent irresponsibly before the crash. The EU is also working for big corporates that benefit from mass immigration. Businesses that have under-invested for decades in the productivity and training of their own and local workforces have no reason to mend their ways so long as cheap labour can be imported from abroad.
But if the EU is working for Germany, for banks, for big corporates and for the public affairs companies with large lobbying operations in Brussels, the EU isnt working for over regulated small businesses and lower-paid and lower-skilled Britons. They now have to compete with millions of people from abroad for jobs and a wage rise. The Governments own Migration Advisory Committee reported that for every 100 migrants employed twenty three UK born workers would have been displaced.
The construction of the Olympic Park was a powerful illustration of the way in which immigrants undercut UK workers through their willingness to endure family-unfriendly living conditions. Visiting job centres in East London at the time I met both skilled and unskilled workers who struggled to get work on the site. When I asked why they said that people from Eastern Europe, often living in bedsits, without UK housing and family costs, hugely underbid them for their work. Since then those stories have been borne out by the facts. Despite the all the statements about the Olympic Park helping British workers, we now know that nearly half of all the jobs on the site went to foreign nationals.
Given this evidence, I find the Labour Partys current position ironic. As Frank Field has pointed out, in saying they are now in favour of staying in the EU they are acting against the interests of the communities they purport to serve. Even Stuart Rose of the Stronger In campaign has admitted that immigration cuts the pay of the poor in a rare moment of candour and acknowledged that wages will go up for many Britons if immigration is restricted.
The downward pressure on wages is a trend will only get worse if we continue to have open borders with the EU and would get most difficult in a recession. A Bank of England study in December 2015 concluded: the biggest effect is in the semi/unskilled services sector, where a 10 percentage point rise in the proportion of immigrants is associated with a 2 percent reduction in pay.
This significantly affects British workers especially those on low wages.
We know that EU migration has increased by 50% since 2010. If the number of EU jobseekers entering the UK over the next decade remains at current levels, some 690,000 people would be added to the UK population as a direct result. And with 5 more countries due to join, that number looks conservative. This would be the equivalent of a city the size of Glasgow.
Another big negative economic effect of the level of immigration that the British people have never voted for and do not want is on house prices. Young people are the biggest losers from this. They are being forced to pay an ever larger share of their incomes on accommodation, are suffering longer commutes and often have to move far away from their families. We need to build around 240 houses every day for the next 20 years just to be able to cope with increased demand from future migration. Of course there are a number of issues in the difficulty to get housing in the UK but the impact of uncontrolled immigration make it a major factor in the demand for housing. Official data shows that over the last fifteen years, over two thirds (66%) of the additional households created in the UK were headed by a person born abroad.
The struggle to get on the housing ladder is one that affects families up and down the UK. Such is the pressure that the average age for a first time buyer is now 31.
Everyone should have the opportunity to own their own home, but as the EU continues to expand to other countries such as Macedonia, Albania, and Turkey, the population pressures that remaining in the EU would bring can only make that prospect less likely.
And as the Governments own recent figures show, to cope with the kind of pressure that immigration is placing on the schools system the taxpayer is having to find extra school places equivalent to building 27 new average-sized secondary schools or 100 new primary schools. So my Vote Leave and Conservative colleague Priti Patel was correct when she highlighted the fact that as always, when public services are under pressure, those without the resources to afford alternatives are most vulnerable. In short, getting a place in your local school gets more and more difficult.
The heavy burden of EU regulation is particularly hard on the smaller businesses that, all evidence shows, are the best route back into the workforce for the unemployed. Even though the vast majority of these businesses never trade with the EU they are subject to EU red tape at the cost of tens of billions of pounds. Those regulations dont just mean lower profits for small entrepreneurs, they also mean fewer new businesses starting up and fewer jobs created.
Then there are the higher grocery prices that the EUs Common Agricultural Policy has produced. The independent House of Commons Library has concluded that EU membership actually increases the cost of living, stating that the EUs Common Agricultural Policy artificially inflates food prices and that consumer prices across a range of other goods imported from outside the EU are raised as a result of the common external tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade imposed by the EU. These include footwear (a 17% tariff), bicycles (15% tariff) and a range of clothing (12% tariff).
This may not sound a lot for better off British families but for many it might be the difference between paying the rent or not paying the rent.
And this takes me back to my central appeal to what I think are the best, compassionate instincts of the British people. When you vote on 23rd June even if you believe what you are being told by those who want to remain in the EU; that you may have done ok from the EU think about the people who havent and, just as importantly, think about the economic changes that are coming fast down the track and ask, very seriously, whether a Britain in charge of all policy levers will be better equipped to cope with those changes than a Britain that is still part of what, all evidence suggests, is the dysfunctional, declining, high unemployment EU.
Because this EU vote is happening at a time of enormous global economic upheaval. We are at a point in the development of the world economy where, if we are not careful, we are going to see an explosion of have-nots. We are going to see increasing divides between people who have a home of their own and those who are, to coin a phrase, at the back of a queue a lengthening queue to ever get on the housing ladder. People who have jobs that arent threatened by automation and people who live in the shadow of the impact of technological innovation. People who benefit from the immigration of cheap nannies and baristas and labourers and people who cant find work because of uncontrolled immigration.
I have always wanted people to be able to own their own home but that gets more difficult particularly for young people through our inability to control the scale of migration.
We are entering a long period of much slower growth than weve been used to. We are entering a period when white collar jobs are going to be replaced by technology on the same scale that innovation has already replaced many manual, industrial and other blue collar jobs. In the coming decades the populations of China and India and other developing countries will be increasingly educated and will compete more directly with us. In this world we need to be nimble and we need to do everything we can to ensure that those likely to be most affected by these changes are, ideally, equipped to meet them or, if necessary, are cushioned from their worst effects.
Britain avoided the high unemployment and savage austerity that many Eurozone nations suffered because we wisely ignored the advice of groups like the CBI and retained sterling. The principle that it is better to be in control of our own destiny can and should apply to all areas of national life, starting with our borders. It should cover the design of agricultural and environmental policies and the implication of those policies for grocery and energy bills. To the design of trade agreements. To fisheries policies another regressive EU policy that has devastated some of our coastal communities. And, of course, to budget and tax policies.
If we want to cut VAT on fuel to help families afford to heat their homes, we should be free to do so. We should be able to choose how we spend the 350 million that we currently send to Brussels every week. It would in any normal world be a strange choice to make for a British government that whilst bearing down on welfare spending and other budgets since the election we continue to send to this wealthy EU hundreds of millions of taxpayers money. This is money that could help fund the NHS. It could fund extra training and infrastructure to help every Briton to thrive in the coming economic age.
The EU is fast sliding to economic irrelevance. Just look how its losing its share of world trade at twice the rate of the US. There are many reasons for this but one key reason is that its institutions have become irredeemably unwieldly. EU leaders and the Brussels army of bureaucrats cant agree on how to fix the euro. They cant agree on what to do about refugees. They cannot agree on what kind of transatlantic trade partnership they want with the USA such that it is very unlikely that it will ever happen. They cannot agree on the kind of steel and industrial policies that will ensure that Europe doesnt lose even more of its manufacturing base. The EU can only move as quickly as its slowest member states and that means it can only move very slowly indeed. And in todays global economy its not speed that kills but indecision. EU leaders and ministers spend so much time in Brussels, not agreeing decisions, that they arent focused on the challenges back in their home nations.
This is the key point. No matter what those who want to remain say about the EU as a market place, the reality is that it is first and foremost a political project; the aim of which is the creation of an overarching federal power, above the nation states. It is the reason why economic common sense cannot prevail and why many Greeks are now living in third world conditions, Italian banks are becoming insolvent and terrible levels of youth unemployment have become, for the EU a terrible price worth paying.
Yet outside of the EU an independent Britain can design migration, agricultural, environmental, budgetary and trade policies that the rest of Europe seems sadly incapable of agreeing upon.
I hope Ive persuaded you that leaving the EU is in the clear interests of social justice within Britain. Let me end by saying I also think it could also advance social justice across the whole continent. A vote to Leave by the British people might be the shock to the EU system that is so desperately needed. Perhaps Im being unrealistic. The EU does not have a good track record of changing course after member states have voted against the EU project in referenda. But Brexit coming after the Greek crisis, after so much impossibly high youth unemployment, after the election of so many extremist parties s hould be the moment when Brussels finally decides to give member states more freedom to design economic, social and migration policies that reflect the democratic will and particular needs of each individual state. Given we are so uninfluential inside the EU, our maximum moment of influence might be in leaving. Confronting the rest of the EU with the need and opportunity to radically change its structures is the most socially just and, indeed, European-friendly service that Britain can provide to our neighbours across the Channel.
Surely like me you believe the UK can do better. Why should we set such a low vision about our future by tying it to this failing project?
Inside the EU our politicians can only talk of what we would like to do to change things knowing they will achieve very little. Outside the EU we can change our destiny and dare to believe in the greatness of all our citizens.
Britain deserves better than this which is why on 23rd June we should take back control and vote for our own British independence day.
Ruth Davidson is leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, and MSP for Edinburgh Central.
The Scottish Conservatives had a good night on Thursday night at the Holyrood elections. We put on more than a quarter of a million votes, doubled our number of MSPs and leapfrogged the Labour party to become the official opposition in the Scottish Parliament.
I often feel as if Im acting in a bit of a bubble in Scotland. The party here is in the papers and on the Scottish news most days but my sister who lives just a few dozen miles south of the border in Newcastle still thinks I only work twice a year on the evenings I appear on Question Time.
It slightly took me by surprise, therefore, that a lot of the media requests that came in following the results, were from UK-wide media outlets.
In trying to explain the peculiar dynamics of Scottish politics right now, Id been keen to stress that a lot of the people voting for our party werent natural Conservatives. Some may even have woken up on Friday morning feeling a bit conflicted about backing us and our subsequent success.
I also stressed that one good night at the ballot box no matter how long youve waited for it (and weve been waiting two decades) does not a recovery make.
As a party, we are very much on probation and it is my job to marshall my new group of MSPs and to live up to the trust placed in us by the electorate. I take that responsibility seriously.
I thought it might be useful to explain to ConservativeHome readers how we planned and executed this campaign, the coalition of voters we managed to build, and lay out how we will proceed in our new role.
When I became leader of the party in Scotland nearly five years ago, I wanted to overhaul everything policy, structure, finance, the campaign machine the whole lot, and I did over time. But the one area I wanted to revolutionise more than any other was our candidates.
Not to get too poetic, but I believe candidates are the party made flesh; the carriers of our message, the face of our organisation in communities across the country and the rock around which our campaign teams are built.
I scrapped the current list, brought in people with real outside experience and expertise and established new ways to identify, recruit, support and assess the new team.
I wrote at greater length on this process in February, and those successful candidates were asked to carry a heavy burden.
In many parts of the country, where we were never in the running to return an MP last year, we proposed a two-election strategy. We asked people to work the seat hard for both general and Scottish elections and the party would support them through media, campaign literature and promotion to ensure their name became known.
We also completely changed the way in which we campaigned across the country. The Scottish parliament runs an additional member system where 73 of the 129 MSPs elected come from first past the post seats, while 56 are returned through a proportional system of top-up lists.
Despite the vast majority of our MSPs in the last four elections being returned through the list system, up to 90 per cent of our campaign spend had been in seats in the traditional method.
For this election, we turned that on its head. We needed to run a list strategy that understood and exploited a system that meant every list vote counted the same, irrespective of whether it was in a seat where we received a hundred votes or ten thousand.
That meant a asking our candidates to put their egos to one side, help out in each others seats and stick to national messaging. With a bit of help and some fancy voter ID, we identified thousands of people across the country that didnt vote Tory, but who could be persuaded to our message.
Instead of getting our teams on the ground to split their time between leafleting and canvassing, we did the lions share of the literature distribution centrally taking that burden off our local campaign teams and asked them to focus almost exclusively on one-to-one conversations on the doorstep.
I can say without any fear of contradiction that we have spoken to more people across Scotland in this election than at any election in the last 20 years.
We also focussed our efforts more tightly. Instead of sending literature to every single one of Scotlands four million registered voters, we identified those most likely to respond to our message and returned to them again and again. These were also the people we prioritised doorstep conversations with, striking anyone who was against so there was no wastage of future resource or effort.
We also made sure the message was clear, simple and direct and that the words I was saying on the television every night were the same as the words used by canvassers and in the literature that people received.
The election we fought was rooted in our values respecting the decision the country made to stay part of the United Kingdom, improving our schools, valuing vocational education as much as academic education, helping business and sticking up for families by opposing named person legislation.
It was also about being a strong counterpoint to a government which many people especially no voters at the referendum feel ignored and let down by.
There is a real yearning in Scotland for someone anyone to take the SNP on. Someone who will stand up to them and tell them no every once in a while.
The Labour party had two terms as the official opposition nine years and six leaders to try and land a blow on the SNP and they had comprehensively failed. We were able to ask people to give us a try.
I dont not know how many times during the campaign I said: If you vote for me, I will do a specific job for you. I will hold the SNP to account, I will say no to a second referendum on independence and Ill make them focus on the things that matter like schools, hospitals and growing our economy.
That sort of discipline and reinforcement of message demonstrated that we were united, professional and capable of taking the fight to the SNP.
In contrast, the Labour campaign was muddled and contradictory on the Union, threatened to tax everyone more and saw their leader barely leave the Edinburgh-Glasgow corridor when it came to visits, photocalls and campaign media.
In terms of results, our focus on ensuring we executed our plan to all target voters, no matter in which constituency they resided, saw us record big gains in seats that had previously been underworked up 10 per cent in Dunfermline, 11 per cent in Falkirk East, 12 per cent in Alex Salmonds home town of Linlithgow and more than 15 per cent in Angus South.
A concerted effort to target rural constituencies left behind by the SNPs rush to service formerly-Labour urban Scotland, allied with strong local candidates saw swings of 17 per cent in Aberdeenshire West, 18 per cent in Moray and 19 per cent in Aberdeenshire South and North Kincardine.
We took more than 40 per cent of the available list seats (24 out of 56), held the three first past the post seats we carried into the election and won four more outright.
We reached out across our core vote and asked people to support us who otherwise wouldnt give us the time of day. They are now looking for us to make good on our promises. To hold the SNP to account, to say no to a second independence referendum (helped by denying the SNP a majority) and to make them concentrate on the devolved areas of government affecting Scots families.
I will do so with gusto.
Im also now planning our local government campaign for next year, when every single council seat in Scotland is up for grabs.
I am acutely aware that we had a good night on Thursday when all the planning, messaging, campaigning and hard graft came together. But a good night is all it was.
To make sure this is a proper recovery and one built on stone and not on sand, I need to ensure there are hardworking local Conservative councillors in every community in Scotland.
The campaign is over. Its time to start the campaign.
In a previous article, I outlined how the Scottish Conservatives could build on their remarkable performance on Thursday by examining a list of 13 constituencies where the Tories might plausibly challenge the SNP incumbent in one or two elections time.
Building up in those seats is half the challenge. The other half is doing so whilst resisting the temptation to collude in isolating the Scottish political system from the rest of Britain.
Commentators like David Torrance are apt to say that the concept of British politics is dead, and it is certainly struggling.
In this article he remarks on how Scottish politics following the Northern Irish pattern makes a fantasy of Ruth Davidsons claim that a Scot or indeed, and Ulsterman or woman could be Prime Minister.
In another piece, he quotes a Tory MSP who claims that the Scottish Conservatives need to continue to distance ourselves from London i.e. actively collude in the Ulsterisation process.
This instinct must be strenuously resisted, for whilst it may deliver short-term gains it is bad for the Union and for Scotland, and very difficult for the Tories to actually pull off in any event.
If our country is not to end up being completely hollowed out into a sort of skeletal alliance, it needs national politics and national parties. Unionists have had to compromise a lot in the devolutionary era, but they should have higher ambitions than there mere, technical survival of the Union.
The benefits of union flow from pooling our resources, human and otherwise. Davidson is right to want Scots and Northern Irish to be able to serve in the highest office it should be a basic tenet of unionism that they can.
But this cuts both ways: Scots can only play a meaningful role in Britain if Britain plays a meaningful role in Scotland. If you allow Home Rule to pare the Union down to foreign relations and defence, it is inevitable that the posts of Foreign and Defence Secretary will be the highest to which those from some Home Nations can aspire.
Ulster itself provides the warning. The creation of Stormont against the express wishes of the far-sighted and sincerely unionist Sir Edward Carson has served neither Northern Ireland nor Britain well.
We have been denied the contributions which Northern Irish politicians might otherwise have made to national life, and they have exchanged broadly effective national governance for first an oppressive Protestant ascendancy and then an ineffective and rigidly polarised legislature.
It would be a tragedy, and a disaster for the Union, if devolution were to cut Scotland out of national life as completely as it has Ulster.
This is especially true because Northern Irelands political system was mutated by the fact that for too long every election was a border poll by proxy. Almost two decades after the Good Friday Agreement the realisation is slowly breaking that the referendum lock on the constitution removes the old imperatives from normal politics.
This has started to produce more political diversification on the Catholic side (where Sinn Fein and the SDLP are both in gentle decline), and waning turnout by Protestants whod turn out to vote for the Union but are otherwise uninspired by the DUPs old-fashioned, iron grip on unionist politics.
It would be doubly unfortunate if Scotland fell into the polarising, paralysing and wholly unnecessary dynamics of Ulster politics just as Northern Ireland itself began to move on, especially as nobody benefits from polarising politics around the constitution as much as the SNP. The referendum requirement gives you room to breathe, and to look beyond the constitution in your day-to-day politics.
But even if the Scottish Conservatives were minded to become Unionist nationalists in the mould of the DUP, their current arrangements preclude it.
If last weeks successes translate into gains at the general election, there will be a group of Scottish Tory MPs. Unlike the DUP they wont be tucked away in comfortable impotence on the Others benches, but taking the Conservative likely the Government whip.
That means taking ownership of national policy, not trying to have ones cake and eat it by setting your own (as even Davidson seemed to try, to a small extent, in 2015).
Even Murdo Frasers plans for a separate sister party included a joint Westminster caucus (unless you listen to Andy Maciver, who helped run his leadership bid), and Davidson was elected on a platform of rejecting that plan.
The Scottish Conservatives are Conservatives, and part of the UK-wide Conservative and Unionist Party. They must never forget why this is important, or stop striving to succeed as a British party as well as a Scottish one.
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Civil Society Leaders Lament Rising State Aggression
By Pradeep Baisakh
10 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org
Civil Society representatives from across the globe gathered in the International Civil Society Week (ICSW) in last week of April 2016 and expressed their agony over the shrinking space of the civil society across the globe. About 900 civil society leaders from 109 countries gathered in the Bogota, capital of Colombia as part of the civil society week organized by CIVICUS with an inspiring theme of Active citizens and accountable actions. The leaders brought out the contrast in state approach toward the civil society. On one hand, the recently adopted Agenda 2030 and Paris climate deal by the member-states of United Nations called for active involvement of the civil society, on the other a study being undertaken in 101 countries by CIVICUS, a global platform of civil society, suggests aggressive state action by the government and other agencies to curtail the independent voice of the civil society and human rights activists.
However, Ali Zeddini, the Nobel Prize winner for peace from Tunisia, who participated in the civil society week, said that the civil society has a critical role to play in ensuring lasting peace in several countries, especially in the Latin America. Civil society is the conscience of the people and as such must participate in the defense of our interests, saidZeddini. Zeddinis human rights league is part of the four groups in Tunisia, which got the Nobel for peace in 2015 for their crucial role in the peaceful revolution and democratic transition in Tunisia through popularly known movement: Arab Spring. Tunisias example shows that organized civil society can provide education and support to move away from violence and this can inspire other countries. From the political crises in Venezuela and Brazil to the Colombian peace negotiations, civil society must have a role in the whole peace process, before, during and after, he added.
The gathering happened against the backdrop of a global repressive trend of increased attacks on the people and organisations that defend basic human rights. Civil society is facing a global crisis, opined Danny Sriskandarajah, secretary general of CIVICUS. CIVICUS is tracking serious human rights violations in 101 countries, from dictatorships to democracies. Politicians fear dissenting voices. Anti-terrorism measures and the notion of insecurity are being used to shut down citizen action; political and economic inequalities are on the rise. From activists to social movements, lawyers to media, now more than ever we need civil society to stand together in solidarity against a global tide of government repression, said Sriskandarajah. Amongst the most brutal examples of repressive acts are the harassment, physical violence and targeted killings of human rights defenders, human rights lawyers and journalists, which continue to increase. In 2015 alone, 156 human rights defenders lost their lives and the murders of Berta Caceres and her fellow activist Nelson Garcia in Honduras in March highlighted again the on-going crisis. In Latin America land, environmental, and indigenous rights activists are being specifically targeted as mines, agribusiness and megaprojects such as dams are being pushed through in countries including Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.
A leader of civil society in India opined Things are no better in India. We are facing a crisis time where the role and space for civil society is fast shrinking.
Several parallel discussions were held in the four-days event of the civil society week. Accountability for implementation of SDGs by Amnesty International, Trends of global protest by CIVICUS; Towards a global citizens movement by Global call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), CIVICUS, World Social Forum and World Democratic Forum; Building a movement to fight inequality by ActionAid International are some to cite.
Nelson Mandela-Gracal Machel innovation award was given, as part of the week, to Smriti Nagpal of Atulyakala foundation from India and Ms. Tabassum Adnan of Khwendo Jirgafrom Pakistan on individual category. Smriti got it for running a social enterprise to promote act and paintings of the people with hearing and speaking dsability and providing an opportunity to love a life of dignity. MsTabassum got the award for valiantly fighting to protect women from societal violence in a patriarchal society. Two organisations also begged the award in organisation category.
The author is a freelance journalist based in New Delhi. He can be reached through e mail: 2006pradeep@gmail.com
Once, Most Jews Viewed Israel As The Anti-Semites Best Friend
By Jonathan Cook
10 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org
Nazareth: It was an assessment no one expected from the deputy head of the Israeli military. In his Holocaust Day speech last week, Yair Golan compared current trends in Israel with Germany in the early 1930s, as Nazism took hold.
In todays Israel, he said, could be recognised the revolting processes that occurred in Europe There is nothing easier than hating the stranger, nothing easier than to stir fears and intimidate.
The furore over Golans remarks followed on the heels of a similar outcry in Britain at statements by former London mayor Ken Livingstone. He observed that Hitler had in practice been supporting Zionism in 1933 when the Nazis signed a transfer agreement, allowing some German Jews to emigrate to Palestine.
In their different ways both comments refer back to a heated argument among Jews that began a century or more ago about whether Zionism was a blessing or blight. Although largely overlooked today, the dispute throws much light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Those differences came to a head in 1917 when the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, a document promising for the first time to realise the Zionist goal of a national home for the Jews in Palestine.
Only one minister, Edwin Montagu, dissented. Notably, he was the only Jew in the British cabinet. The two facts were not unconnected. In a memo, he warned that his governments policy would be a rallying ground for anti-Semites in every country.
He was far from alone in that view.
Of the 4 million Jews who left Europe between 1880 and 1920, only 100,000 went to Palestine in line with Zionist expectations. As the Israeli novelist A B Yehoshua once noted: If the Zionist party had run in an election in the early 20th century, it would have received only 6 or 7 per cent of the Jewish peoples vote.
What Montagu and most other Jews feared was that the creation of a Jewish state in a far-flung territory dovetailed a little too neatly with the aspirations of Europes anti-Semites, then much in evidence, including in the British government.
According to the dominant assumptions of Europes ethnic nationalisms of the time, the region should be divided into peoples or biological races, and each should control a territory in which it could flourish.
The Jews were viewed as a problem because in addition to lingering Christian anti-semitism they were considered subversive of this national model.
Jews were seen as a race apart, one that could not or should not be allowed to assimilate. Better, on this view, to encourage their emigration from Europe. For British elites, the Balfour Declaration was a means to achieve that end.
Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, understood this trenchant anti-semitism very well. His idea for a Jewish state was inspired in part by the infamous Dreyfus affair, in which a Jewish French army officer was framed by his commanders for treason. Herzl was convinced that anti-semitism would always prevent Jews from true acceptance in Europe.
It is for this reason that Livingstones comments however clumsily expressed point to an important truth. Herzl and other early Zionists implicitly accepted the ugly framework of European bigotry.
Jews, Herzl concluded, must embrace their otherness and regard themselves as a separate race. Once they found a benefactor to give them a territory soon Britain would oblige with Palestine they could emulate the other European peoples from afar.
For a while, some Nazi leaders were sympathetic. Adolf Eichmann, one of the later engineers of the Holocaust, visited Palestine in 1937 to promote the Zionist emigration of Jews.
Hannah Arendt, the German Jewish scholar of totalitarianism, argued even in 1944 long after the Nazis abandoned ideas of emigration and embraced genocide instead that the ideology underpinning Zionism was nothing else than the uncritical acceptance of German-inspired nationalism.
Israel and its supporters would prefer we forget that, before the rise of the Nazis, most Jews deeply opposed a future in which they were consigned to Palestine. Those who try to remind us of this forgotten history are likely to be denounced, like Livingstone, as anti-semites. They are accused of making a simplistic comparison between Zionism and Nazism.
But there is good reason to examine this uncomfortable period.
Modern Israeli politicians, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, still regularly declare that Jews have only one home in Israel. After every terror attack in Europe, they urge Jews to hurry to Israel, telling them they can never be safe where they are.
It also alerts us to the fact that even today the Zionist movement cannot help but mirror many of the flaws of those now-discredited European ethnic nationalisms, as Golan appears to appreciate.
Such characteristics all too apparent in Israel include: an exclusionary definition of peoplehood; a need to foment fear and hatred of the other as a way to keep the nation tightly bound; an obsession with and hunger for territory; and a highly militarised culture.
Recognising Zionisms ideological roots, inspired by racial theories of peoplehood that in part fuelled the Second World War, might allow us to understand modern Israel a little better. And why it seems incapable of extending a hand of peace to the Palestinians.
Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israels Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His website is www.jonathan-cook.net.
CPDR Questions Arrests of Five Youth Under UAPA In Kerala
By Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights
10 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org
In a series of assaults on democratic movements in recent years, the Kerala Police have arrested five youth and charged them with UAPA last week. According to information collected by our activists, they were accused of putting up posters calling for the boycott of the upcoming assembly election in Kerala. Among the arrested, Ajithan, Sabu and Chathu are members of an organization called Porattam, which gave a call to boycott elections in Kerala. Dileep is a student activist and a member of the editorial committee a students magazine called Padantharam. Gouri is part of Adivasi Samara Sangam. While four of them are arrested for putting up the posters, Dileep was dragged with them while he was talking to Ajithan and Sabu, in Kerala Sahitya Academy compound where he had reached to attend a meeting regarding the rape and murder of a dalit student named Jisha.
The arrest of these youth and slapping draconian UAPA on them only indicates malafide of the Kerala Police to silence dissenting opinion of people. It is one more case that illustrates the blatant misuse of UAPA and craves for its repeal. The Kerala Police that refuses to arrest the culprits in a brutal rape and murder of the dalit law student displays its extreme zeal to curb political dissent with its patent weapon of UAPA.
CPDR demands immediate release of Ajithan, Sabu, Chathu, Gouri and Dileep and scrapping of UAPA.
(Dr Anand Teltumbde)
General Secretary
Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR)
Role Of The Vice Chancellor: The Current Situation In JNU
By Shakti Kak
10 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org
The students and teachers in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) are up in arms against the current administration over a range of issues. The most important issue being the expulsion and levying of fines coupled with the disciplinary actions against a dozen of students. The hunger strike undertaken by the students is to soon enter into its third week. The teachers have also been on a hunger strike for more than five days. The students and the academic community have been mostly investing their energies from 9th February, when the new semester started, on a problem that was foisted on them by outside forces having a divisive political agenda.
The new vice chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar took charge on 27th January, 2016 and the campus has been in a turmoil since February 9, 2016. Within 10 working days of him taking charge, a script which has saffron fingerprints on it, has unfolded. In a campus which has a well earned reputation for upholding secualar ideals, the majority of the students and teachers became naturally agitated ever since. It would be more appropriate to say that the new VC was despatched to JNU with a plan of action that would replicate the sequence of events that had transpired in the Hyderabad Central University, IIT Madras and FTII Pune. A similar plan of action is also being currently attempted in Jadavpur University.
It is a tried and tested script that the ruling party and its student wing had successfully used before. They first raise objections to events where contemporary issues or topics related to Indian history are being discussed. The members from ABVP will then disrupt the meeting by shouting slogans, sucessfully provoking other students to react. After that, the second tier of the BJP's local leadership start complaining and write letters to the HRD minister and the university administration. Within no time a national versus antinational debate is kick-started. Lo and behold, students are rusticated, asked to vacate the hostel and if you dont, the police are urgently called in. In Hyderabad, the objectionable event was about showing a documentary on Muzzafarnagar, in IIT Madras it was about Ambedkar discussion forum, in JNU it was about a poetry session and meeting about human rights, Kashmir and Afzal Guru. You could call it Golmal 1, Golmal 2, 3, 4 and so on- to use Kanhaiya Kumars term in some other context. Serious attempts are being made in Jadavpur University for yet another Golmal episode but the vice chancellor is not letting it happen.
Which proves the point that the university administration led by a competent and willing vice chancellor can deal with attempts to disrupt the academic life of an institution. The vice Chancellor of JNU Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar had no such noble intentions. He has followed the script as it was handed over to him. For a scientist, not to question his RSS bosses speaks volumes about his training and capabilities.
At the time of his appointment, the apprehension of a person with RSS leanings heading an institution with a tradition of critical thinking and open debate were expressed by many in the media. Though Jagadesh Kumar denied any links with RSS or their science outfit Vijnana Bharti at the time of his appointment as the vice chancellor of JNU, his conduct in the university says otherwise. His RSS leanings have come to light as long ago as 1994 in a thread of a Newsgroup which was later absorbed into Google. In this thread, Jagadesh Kumar quotes from writings emphasising the crucial role that the RSS and its shakhas and swayamsevaks play in nation building.
Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar states in his post that the RSS plays the role of Life-Force-Prana-Shakti in the body of the society. This is operationalised through the shakhas to keep the flame of Life-Force burning in the hearts of the swayamsevaks.
At the time of his appointment, he told a newspaper that the heterogenous character of JNU is its strength and he will put all efforts to work together and take everybody along for nation building. (Telegraph) The nation building in a university which is considered a den of a huge anti-national block (Panchjanya) has a role cut out for the vice chancellor with his faith in the RSS ideology.
Could the JNU vice chancellor have handled the situation differently?
Jagadesh Kumars personal worldview and his training in science and technology appear to be at variance as at no stage has he tried to understand the structure of the institution he is supposed to head. He has not tried to even cross check allegations levelled against students terming them anti national.
Should the new VC have tried to understand fully the heterogenous character of JNU and engaged with different approaches to the notion of nation building? With the flame of Life-Force continuously burning in his heart, should he have accepted the demand of making the High Level Enquiry Committee more representative; should he have tried to find out the people who morphed the videos; should he have questioned the violent slogans raised by the ABVP on the campus; should he have shown some faith in the grievance procedures of the university; should he have consulted with the senior faculty of the university and should he have allowed the lynch mob outside the university campus create chaos and generate hate.
His silence in the crucial days after the 9th February incident, belies the direction given to him by the flame of Life-Force. Considering the ideological differences with the students and faculty, he should have engaged with all the stakeholders of this public funded university. As a scientist, with the flame guiding him, he should have had the honesty to go beyond the script handed to him and participated in discussions with all shades of opinions and views.
The sheer incompetence and narrow mindedness of Vice Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar has been evident too many times in last three months. He has alienated most of the university community. He has been sharing information with the police without discussing the issues with the university community. He is solely responsible for the damage done to the academic community for this semester. He has vitiated the atmosphere in the university by his silence and allowed unwarranted and false propaganda against teachers and students to be spread to the media.The damage to the university can be undone by the academic community insisting on his removal as the vice chancellor of JNU.
Shakti Kak was a student of JNU through the turbulent years of 1970s.
Police Apathy In The Brutal Rape And Murder Of Dalit Law Student In Kerala
By People's Union For Democratic Rights
10 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org
PUDR condemns police apathy in the case of brutal caste and gender based violence against Dalit law student in Kerala
PUDR strongly condemns the gruesome rape and murder of the Dalit law student in Keralas Perumbavoor district on 28th April 2016, and the appalling indifference demonstrated by the police in securing justice for her. The mutilation of her body is symptomatic of the brutal physical and sexual violence inhering in a caste-based patriarchal society, which is routinely inflicted on Dalit women to deny them dignity even in death.
Reports have surfaced narrating a long history of caste- and gender-based discrimination faced by the victim and her mother. As a household comprising only women, who work and support themselves, belonging to the so-called lower castes living in a predominantly upper-caste neighbourhood, the victim and her mother were constantly subjected to atrocities such as stoning, ostracization, cutting off water supply and sexual harassment. That the police refused to take any action on the repeated complaints of the victim and her mother reflects the bias in the police and administration, which willingly perpetuates and breeds impunity for crimes against Dalit women by turning a blind eye. Even after the brutal rape and murder, the police refused to file an FIR based on the complaint of the victims mother. It took five days, and significant mobilization by Dalit activists, to finally register the FIR, by which time crucial evidence was lost forever.
This, despite S.166A of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits the police from refusing to file an FIR in cases of sexual violence. The provision was introduced as part of the major reforms in sexual violence laws in 2013, based on the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee. Earlier in 2016, the amendments to the Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 were also notified. The new law, under S.4, reiterates this directive, by punishing a police officer for refusing to file an FIR in cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. These measures were crucial to end impunity for sexual violence, specially against Dalit women, and enable them to access justice.
It would appear that the welcome reforms triggered by another brutal rape and murder, in Delhi in 2012, has scarcely changed the culture of impunity in cases of sexual violence against Dalit women. From Bhanwari Devi in Rajasthan in 1992, to the Khairlanji massacres in 2006, from the Bhagana rapes and abduction to the Badaun rapes and lynching of young Dalit girls in 2014, and the rape and murder of a 17-year old schoolgirl in Rajasthan last month, the story of police inaction and lack of proper investigations and trials remains common in cases of violence against Dalit women.
Response by the public and the media to this incident of sexual violence has also been disquieting. While the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder led to massive outrage, protests and demands for justice, nothing of that magnitude materialized in this case. Simultaneously, the print, television and social media have contributed to making a spectacle of the violence, by disclosing the name of the victim in contravention of the law, and sensationalizing the heinous nature of the assault. Overtly and covertly, there has been an attempt to either detract from or completely erase the Dalit identity of the victim. At this juncture, it bears emphasizing that ending violence against women requires a recognition of the structural causes that breed such violence along different axes of marginalization of caste and gender, and the state apathy, including the polices care and gender prejudices, that prevent women of backward and dalit castes from securing redress.
PUDR therefore demands that:
1. Proceedings be initiated against the perpetrators under the Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as well as the Indian Penal Code, as amended in 2013.
2. A speedy trial be ensured in this case, and the mother of the victim be granted adequate compensation under the Kerala Victim Compensation Scheme.
3. Police officers who refused to file the FIR should also be punished with offences under S.4, Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and S.166A, IPC.
Moushumi Basu and Deepika Tandon
Secretaries, PUDR
10th May 2016
Printer Friendly Version Cuba Will Not Fall! By Andre Vltchek 10 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org Andre Vltchek and his 1952 horse. I am not sure who has invented those rumors that Cuba is now facing a mortal danger, that it has lost its bearings, and that it could collapse at any moment, after just one lethal visit by US President Barack Obama. The rumors and speculations are snowballing, and in some circles of the North American and European Left, they are already being confused with reality. I admire and love Cuba. It is an exceptionally strong, determined and resilient nation. Reading all the alarming reports, I decided to return and to speak to the Cuban people directly. I visited Cuba again. This time in between my work in war-torn Middle East and South America, a continent suffering vicious assaults by toxic counter-revolutionary cliques loyal to Washington and Europe. This time I decided to drive, to visit remote villages and historic revolutionary sites, as well as the area surrounding the territory stolen from Cuba by Western imperialism Guantanamo Bay. I drove for over 1,000 kilometers, in the East and West of the country. I worked in Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Havana, Bay of Pigs, Playa Giron and in one of the most remote (and before the Revolution the poorest) areas of the country Cienaga de Zapata. I visited Prensa Latina and ICAIC in Havana, but this time my main goal was simply to listen to the Cuban people. Were they aware of that mortal danger coming from the North? Were they ready to forge compromises? Was their revolutionary spirit getting diluted? My conclusion is clear and decisive: No! Cuba is not falling. Cuban people know; they are well aware of what is most likely behind the sweet talk of the US President. They will not yield, and they will not betray the Revolution. The danger from the West is real; it is there. It is always there, as it is real. Coercions, tricks, Machiavellian politics all will be used in attempt to derail, even to destroy the Cuban Revolution. But do not think for one second that the Cuban people dont see what the Empire is trying to achieve. Cuba is standing, where it has been for decades. It is doing better than before. It is also stronger than ever. Im convinced that it is going to prevail. Before I continue, I have one suggestion to make to those who are thinking otherwise and who are genuinely worried: go to Cuba and help if you think that the country is now facing unprecedented danger. Travel there, talk to people, work, write, film, photograph. Support Cuba abroad. Buy its products, listen to its music, watch films, read books. Spend money there, instead of in Thailand, the Virgin Islands or Egypt, if you need some sun. Do something real, something concrete. Cuba is the most internationalist country on Earth. It has been showing solidarity with dozens of oppressed and needy countries. It has already done so much for the others the rest of the world. Now do something for Cuba, instead of prophesying its collapse! Do it if you worry about its future, and do it even if you dont. Guantanamo city Santiago de Cuba is known to be a brave and strong-minded city. This is where the Cuban Revolution began on July 26, 1953. This is where a great poet, writer, and a national hero, Jose Marti is buried. And this is where, on January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro proclaimed the victory of the Revolution from a balcony in Santiagos city hall. Like Salvador Bahia in Brazil, Santiago de Cuba gave the world some of the finest musicians. Now, in legendary Casa de la Trova and in many other clubs, cabarets and music halls of the city, mixed couples of all races are dancing to the upbeat rhythms of son and salsa. In Cuba, racism is a foreign unknown factor. During my visit, on the second floor of Casa de la Trova, a young Chinese man was exchanging love notes with a black girl, while several local mixed couples were dancing cheek-to-cheek on an old parquet floor right in front of a brilliant, euphoric band. Here, no political correctness is needed. Nothing is forced. Racial and gender equality come naturally, instinctively, as a logical by-product of the Revolution. Countless Cuban people fought and died liberating African nations from Western imperialism. Thousands of Cuban doctors and teachers are still deployed in some of the poorest and remote parts of the world. Cuban Revolution fights for humanism. It struggles; it stands on the side of the oppressed, be they men, women or children. The color of the skin matters nothing. To all Cubans, one thing is clear: each person, each race deserves to live with dignity. This is my Communism. Cuba is my mother country. And that is why Western imperialism hates Cuba. That is why it is using its vitriolic propaganda to discredit the Cuban Revolution. That is why it tries to derail the country from the Communist course by all means at its disposal: through direct attacks, embargo, and now, through a new Machiavellian chapter of normalization. Ignacio Guerra Batancour, a mathematician from Santiago de Cuba is a determined supporter of the Revolution and the Cuban Communist system: Of course people are afraid of Obama and his motives for recently visiting Cuba. Did he come just in order to normalize relations between our two countries? I doubt it! But fortunately, Cuban people have plenty of revolutionary blood left circulating in their veins. And they are smart! Most of them dont want to become a colony again, and they dont want capitalism. Here we just want to improve our economic situation a little bit, but otherwise the great majority of people are happy with what they have. I am 64 years old He looks at most 50 I remember how things used to be before the Revolution. It was tough, humiliating We had to live with malnutrition, ignorance, and exploitation Things totally changed when Communism arrived. Now Im not rich either. Not at all! My wife and I have worked hard throughout our entire lives. She used to be a member of the international medical brigade. And all our family members got very good education. My wife is a doctor; our son is a neurosurgeon. We dont have much but we have enough; we have what we really need. And all of us are living meaningful lives. But now the United States will definitely try to destabilize Cuba Of course! We all know it. Those who say that they dont know are actually part of the plot against Communist Cuba. We see what the West is doing all over the world. But Cuba will not be allowed to fall. North Americans will try all sorts of tricks, but theyd never dare to invade. Because they still remember the Bay of Pigs and Playa Giron. This nation has great heart but it can also be tough. It has guts. It would not allow this system to disappear. I told him how much I love his country. He embraced me. Welcome! he said. Live healthy and long life! And come back to Santiago de Cuba, soon. Real friends are always welcomed. We will be waiting for you. Pedro Amaury Santos Llambio in Soplillar library. Playa Giron Here, the West dared. And it lost, spectacularly. Entire nation mobilized. In just one decisive moment, this green, gentle island turned to a monolith, to concrete barrier. They didnt pass! The people whom they came to liberate stopped them. I travelled Playa Giron, driving for over 250 kilometers, from Havana; first on the impressive six-lane motorway, then on a two-lane road. I had been driven and I drove the 1952 Chevrolet, painstakingly restored, shiny and still a reliable friendly monster. Cuba was changing, impressively, and I saw it all around me. The terrible years of extreme sacrifice were over. There were now excellent roads all over the island, comfortable and clean rest stops and fuel stations. Look, orange farms! Dariel, my friend and a driver kept showing me. And here is one huge sugarcane plantation and corn Fields were well attended and villages along the road simple but clean and self sufficient, with medical posts, schools and all basic services. Cuba did not look rich, but it didnt look poor, either. And it looked much better than three years ago, when I last worked there. It was definitely not falling apart. It was not collapsing. It was growing, improving and evolving. Not to notice, to deny the progress would certainly require great anti-revolutionary self-discipline. At the small but very informative Museum of Giron, I saw images, maps and documents, explaining those brutal events of the US-orchestrated and sponsored invasion of April 1961, aimed at overthrowing the government of Fidel Castro. More than 1,500 Cuban exiles and mercenaries landed on two sites along the Bay of Pigs. For 72 hours, intense battles raged all over the area Cienaga de Zapata. Gusanos, invaders, were finally defeated. Now the road originating from the motorway and leading all the way to Playa Giron is lined with monuments to fallen Cuban men and women who defended their motherland against the mightiest imperialist country on earth. Countless powerful posters keep reminding the travellers: GIRON THE FIRST GREAT DEFEAT OF YANQUI IMPERIALISM IN LATIN AMERICA And of course: PATRIA O MUERTE! Fatherland or Death! I ask the curator of the museum whether the local people see this place as merely a historical site, or whether they realize that the same acts of terror performed by the West here are still taking place all over the world? She answers clearly: We are well aware what is happening in the world. We watch news, we watch TeleSur, and we discuss the events. What happened here is only one of the thousands of terrible crimes committed by imperialism. I look at the photos of destroyed civilian airports, of injured and killed Cuban people. There is a pair of shoes belonging to a lady who lost her life during the bombing of a passenger airport. In Western lexicon, this is called failed invasion. I call it terrorism. Then a mixed group of US and Canadian tourists arrived in a huge bus. Loud and disrespectful, they began taking selfies in front of the monuments and exhibited military hardware. There were no feelings showing on their faces no feelings and no regrets. I approached an elderly couple from Minnesota: Does this evoke anything in you? I asked. Well, there was a battle, right? a man replied, a big but empty grin decorating his face. Yes, there was a battle, I said and walked away. While I was in Cuba, Fidel Castro addressed his people during the closing of the 7th Party Congress: We all reach our turn, but the ideas of the Cuban communists will remain as proof that on this planet, working with fervor and dignity, can produce the material and cultural wealth that humans need, and we must fight relentlessly to obtain these. To our brothers in Latin America and the world we must convey that the Cuban people will overcome. This may be one of the last times that I speak in this room. I voted for all the candidates submitted for election by Congress and I appreciate the invitation and the honor of your listening to me. I congratulate you all, and firstly, companero Raul Castro for his magnificent effort. We will set forth on the march forward and we will perfect what we should perfect, with the utmost loyalty and united force, just as Marti, Maceo and Gomez, in an unstoppable march. *** In Cuba, everything from defending the country to preserving the environment is considered a revolutionary act. I drove through the impressive biosphere, Cienaga de Zapata, a world heritage site. In the afternoon, a huge army of colorful crabs began crossing the road. The entire area is pristine, un-commercialized. I murmur to my driver that the crabs are definitely benefiting from socialism, and so are mangroves, swamps and beaches. He agrees. In a deep village, Soplillar, I encounter a small museum and a beautiful library with an impressive collection of books. Tables and seats are handmade with love, and so are heartwarming toys. A man in charge of the place, Pedro Amaury Santos Llambio is a university professor, with passion for rural education. For several days a month he teaches at the university in the city, but the rest of time he takes care of the museum and the library, located some 5 kilometers from the coast of the Bay of Pigs. You would not believe it, but this huge area of Cienaga de Zapata used to have only four schools before the Revolution. Children used to suffer from malnutrition; there was hunger and misery everywhere. All that you see here now is a direct result of the Revolution. Comrade Pedro Amary is a self-declared bookworm. And he knows many revolutionaries from both Cuba and abroad. He has even met one of the daughters of Noam Chomsky. He is convinced that Cuba will not fall. He believes in socialism. He educates people, informs them, and discusses the world with them. He explains: Cuba is very strong. We have done everything with our own hands. I have many Europeans coming here. I dont know why how do they find me? This place is so far from any big city But they come: thinkers, writers, and journalists We talk. I am open with them. I say: all that you now have in Europe is due to the massacres and theft that you have been committing all over the world. I tell him that I recently gave a speech at the Italian Parliament, telling there, straight to their faces, basically the same thing. I also tell him that in the future, Id like to come back and spend some time here, talk to local people in the village, and to read from one of my books in this library. We shake hands; we embrace. I talk to a few more people in the village. Cuba is not going to disappear. I feel it. If in danger, we will fight for it. Observed from here, it is that simple! *** Briefly I worked in Havana. It is more complex than the provinces. I met painters, filmmakers, journalists, and owners of private restaurants. Their language was ornamental, words selected more carefully. There was more talk about peace and understanding. Some people in Havana dont care about politics, but most of them do. I understand why many foreigners, after visiting only Havana and maybe one or two touristy beaches, feel that Cuba is losing its revolutionary zeal. But even in Havana, service providers is one thing, and regular citizens quite another. And of course, the great Cuban intellectuals and artists are almost unanimously with the Revolution. But during this visit I decided not to spend too much time in the company of my revolutionary intellectual comrades. I wanted to hear from provincial capitals and the countryside. *** At the other end of the country, Comunidad Glorieta is just a few kilometers from Guantanamo Bay, right next to the border with the United States. I stop a young woman in the middle of the street. She is 28 years old, working in a video store. Her name is Yarai. It is a random choice. I ask her whether she knows what is happening behind the barbed wire, on the occupied territory? She knows. Is she afraid? Afraid? Of course not! I hope there would never be a war with gringos Of course we want that territory, that base, to be returned to Cuba. We dont like them to have it. But am I afraid? Not at all! Others in the village react in a similar way. I often use the word fear. I ask whether people are afraid. It is because many of my friends all over the world keep expressing their anxiety, saying that Cuba would not survive, that it could soon be swept away. Back in Guantanamo City I saw huge playgrounds full of children. It was Sunday and thousands of people were out, playing, promenading, and talking. Another beautiful Cuban historic city! I witnessed a relaxed, optimistic atmosphere. Here too, I spoke to people. Some were indignant about the base, some indifferent. But there was no fear, and absolute certainty that the Cuban political system will survive. Guantanamo first line of defense against imperialism. Approaching Guantanamo, a huge poster declared: WELCOME TO GUANTANAMO! THE FIRST ANTI-IMPERIALIST LINE OF DEFENSE My local driver was paraphrasing Che. He used to be a schoolteacher. Now he was retired, but wanted to keep busy. When I told him that I am tired, he laughed: Che used to say that true revolutionaries have no right to get tired. All those who get tired have the right to be tired. But then, they have no right to call themselves true revolutionaries. This was Cuba. In that case lets stop for a quick coffee, I smiled. And lets keep working! Thats better! he roared, hitting me on the back. *** The base was suddenly there, in front of me, down below; huge, intrusive, disgusting, totally out of place; an illegally occupied Cuban territory; an imperialist stronghold. I made a grimace. A couple of Venezuelan travellers caught my facial expression. A girl said: Que mierda, no? What a shit! And I nodded. There was nothing else to add. She summarized it all fairly accurately. If Obama is truly serious about improving the relationship between the two countries, he should first return Guantanamo Base to Cuba, I said. All three of us just shrug our shoulders. Like: we know better. In Venezuela they definitely knew perfectly well what the Yankee imperialist doodle looks like. On the way there, our car was stopped at a checkpoint. Police in Cuba hardly stop cars, but here, near the border, things are always a little bit tense. The officer happened to be a young lady. How are you? I asked. Its like an oven here, she replied. So hot! Must be over 35C. She had ran out of cigarettes and was visibly tired. I had bought a pack of local smokes and a can of ice-cold soda at Loma Grande. Now, driving back towards Guantanamo city and Santiago de Cuba, I extended my hand and offered her both. For you, I said. You are trying to corrupt me, gorgeous! she was laughing her lungs out. She was openly flirting with me, in the most innocent and natural way. I knew that I had to respond, to return her compliment, somehow; otherwise she would get offended. This is how it was in Cuba. For a while I was searching for words. Western political correctness had made me clumsy. She had beautiful eyes, jet-black hair and a big gun hanging at her hip. The gringos would never manage to pass through this checkpoint, I said. Theyd freeze when confronted by your beauty. It was clumsy. I was out of practice, but it worked. She smiled happily. She hugged me, pressed her fragile body against mine for just a fraction of a moment, and then kissed me on my cheek. For a short moment both of us felt light, but all around us it was all damn serious, all real. Cuban tanks were just nearby, their cannons facing the base. There were bunkers and barbed wire clearly visible from where we stood. Yes, the first anti-imperialist line of defense. I was well aware that I was at the front, and on the correct side of the line. Ill now go, I said to the girl. I have to go. But Im always with your people. I thought that what I had just said was somehow out of place. It wasnt. She saluted me, her face suddenly serious. I saluted her back. Then I asked a few last questions: Are you concerned? I pointed towards the barbed wire. No. Not afraid of what may be behind Obamas visit? Not afraid that they will now try something else? Not scared that this time they may succeed, that they could finally manage to derail Cuban socialism? No, not afraid, she replied. Just that. Proud. Confident. A true Cuban! I got back into the car and in a few moments the checkpoint disappeared behind the curve. Diligently, I began cleaning my equipment as if it was an arsenal of weapons. I was wondering why I suddenly had a lump in my throat, and why my glasses got so foggy. So Cuba is not going to fall? No, Comrade, the driver replied. It cannot. It has no right to fall. We were speeding towards Santiago, Santiago de Cuba. Good. Then lets sing, I said in a hoarse voice. Lets sing now, damn it! Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: Exposing Lies Of The Empire and Fighting Against Western Imperialism.Discussion with Noam Chomsky:On Western Terrorism. Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania - a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia: Indonesia The Archipelago of Fear. Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or hisTwitter.
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By Susan Orr of the Courier and Press
Vectren says it continues to battle tough competition in its infrastructure services division, and those challenges contributed to a drop in first-quarter profits.
On Monday the Evansville-based energy company reported first-quarter net income of $48.3 million (58 cents per share), down 15 percent from the $57 million (69 cents per share) it earned during the same period last year.
The majority of Vectren's earnings come from its utility group, which provides electric and/or natural gas service to customers in Indiana and Ohio. The company also has a nonutility group, which includes both infrastructure services and energy services.
Infrastructure services utility pipeline work is done by subsidiaries Miller Pipeline and Minnesota Limited. Subsidiary Energy Systems Group handles energy services.
Miller Pipeline and Minnesota Limited focus mostly on pipeline maintenance, but sustained low oil prices have made it harder for Vectren to make money from this work.
When oil prices are low, oil companies delay new construction projects. And with fewer new projects, companies who ordinarily specialize in that work are now bidding on maintenance work. Additional competition also means winning bids are lower than usual.
"There's so many competitors now in that marketplace that it's just hard to compete at the same level of margin we've had historically," said Vectren Chief Financial Officer Susan Hardwick.
Vectren remains optimistic about this business in the long term, Hardwick said.
"We think we're in a great position once the market starts to turn a little bit."
Vectren's nonutility group posted a loss of $12.7 million last quarter, as compared with a $5.9 million loss a year earlier.
On the utility side, Vectren posted first-quarter profits of $61.1 million, down 3 percent from the same period last year.
Warmer weather this year was the main reason utility profits declined, Vectren said. Temperatures for the first three months of 2016 were warmer than they were the previous year, which meant customers did not spend as much on heating.
The impact of weather was partially offset by a timing-related drop in maintenance expenses at Vectren's power plants; and by increased returns from Vectren's ongoing gas pipeline replacement work.
Shares of Vectren (VVC) closed at $50.40 on the New York Stock Exchange Monday, up 52 cents from Friday's close.
Vectren's earnings report: http://bit.ly/1rDAtyX
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By Matthew Tully, USA TODAY NETWORK The Indianapolis Star
Sometimes in politics, as in life, you get a second chance to make a first impression. That seems to be the case for John Gregg, the former Indiana House speaker who is reintroducing himself to voters as he takes another run at the governor's office.
For the Democrat from Southern Indiana, this campaign for governor comes four years after the first. And as he unveiled his first TV commercial of the 2016 campaign Wednesday, it was, in some ways, as if he were a newcomer to the political scene.
Memories can be short in politics. And even though Gregg ran for governor not long ago, and even though he served six years as leader of the Indiana House, recent public and campaign polls have shown that most people don't know who he is.
So he's hitting the airwaves with a new commercial, and that news must have sent shock waves through the hearts of Indiana Democrats. Why?
Because many insiders still remember Gregg's much-criticized 2012 commercials. Even if you don't remember him, you might remember them. They were filled with hokey music, corny jokes, appearances by his buddy "Hobo," and a style that echoed back decades to "The Andy Griffith Show."
Full disclosure: I liked the ads. But I might have been the only one. The ads were particularly unpopular in the state's urban centers, places where a Democrat running statewide needs to maximize support and where many people justifiably argued that they didn't portray Gregg as the man to guide Indiana in a 21st century economy.
The ads came and the ads went and Gregg ended up losing a surprisingly close election to Gov. Mike Pence. But while Pence now has nearly universal name ID in Indiana for reasons that will both help and hurt him this year Gregg and his campaign faded from memory like so many also-rans before him.
So here we are six months before the general election and Gregg has that second chance to make a first impression. Some of us think he is getting started a bit late would a major policy speech or two over the winter have killed him? but six months is plenty of time in politics.
His first commercial, called "A Day in the Life," is a gentle one filled with scenes of factory floors, a couple looking over their bills, a man tying his work boots, and parents getting their kids off to school. In this era of wage stagnation, and with Pence able to point to a series of positive economic developments, Gregg offers this: "Politicians tell you there are more jobs. Your pocketbook tells you the truth."
In a race that most everyone expects to be one of the hardest-hitting Indiana has seen in a while, this ad is meant to reintroduce Gregg in a positive way and separate himself from an incumbent many believe has been too ideological.
"I believe Democrats, Republicans and independents all have good ideas," Gregg says, before promising to "work for you."
In a statement announcing the ad, Gregg's campaign was more direct, saying that Pence "is putting social issues ahead of everyday people."
Expect that case to be made harder in many ads as the months pass. But you don't start with an attack ad. As for Pence, he released a commercial just after Gregg, a well-crafted 60-second spot that suggests Indiana's economy is soaring and could hardly be more dynamic.
In the end, the race could turn on whether Hoosiers agree with Pence's optimistic take on the economy, or Gregg's more downbeat appraisal of the situation.
Will Gregg's commercial help him?
Well, he was smart to hit the airwaves as soon as the presidential primaries concluded, and the initial response from the Indiana Republican Party, suggesting that Gregg is a big-spending liberal, won't fly. If anything, Gregg's challenge will be to win over progressive Democrats after a career marked by many conservative positions.
On Gregg's Facebook page, the challenge he faces was made clear. Many urged him to more aggressively stake out liberal positions, a strategy that might help in some corners but isn't likely to win an election in a right-leaning state.
In reality, his embrace of gay rights and environmental protections this year has led to questions about whether his positions are simply political maneuvers.
He still suffers from an identity crisis.
"If you were a flavor, you'd be vanilla," one voter wrote. "As far as I can tell, your platform is, 'Hi, I'm not Mike Pence.' "
This is just one ad. But the voter is right. Gregg has a lot of work to do to define himself and his 2016 campaign. Even Pence critics want to see from Gregg details and signs of a vision for the state's future.
One 30-second TV ad isn't going to address those concerns.
This one sure doesn't. But four years after taking so much criticism for his 2012 ads, he is at least off to a much better start this time.
Matthew Tully is a columnist with The Indianapolis Star. Email him at matthew.tully@indystar.com or reach him on Twitter at @matthewltully.
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Our country is in transition. Everywhere we look these days, people are talking about the future of the U.S. and the new leadership that will soon vote into office. Now is the time to talk with young people about politics. We need to equip them with skills to maneuver through the political system as they progress through life.
How can we help young people navigate the political process? First, know your audience. Elementary schoolchildren are just learning about the political system in the U.S. Parents and teachers should encourage an open dialogue with them about how our system works. Explain the breakdown of the federal government. Have discussions about the president, vice president, congress, senators, representatives and the supreme court. Pull out a map of the U.S. Talk about their state, how state government works, governors and differences between state governments. Discuss the county they live in, how county government works, mayors and elected county/city offices. Explain political parties (Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, Green, etc.). By laying a strong foundation of knowledge about government structure and procedures, young people can then transition into more in-depth discussions and thought processes.
As young people transition into middle and high school, discussions should be encouraged. The educational environment can be an amazing place for these types of discussions. However, these discussions should have ground rules to make them positive learning experiences. The rules should include being respectful of another's viewpoint, listening to each side of an issue and no name calling, threats or bullying. Young people will be exposed to the negative side of politics sooner rather than later. History and government classes are a perfect place for these discussions, as well as club environments.
In July, the Republican National Convention will take place in Cleveland, Ohio. Likewise, the Democratic National Convention will also be held in July in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We will soon have the Republican and Democrat choices for President. From that point, the country will be moving full speed ahead until the November election.
Our young people will be exposed to viewpoints from various news sources. Help young people gather information and ideas from TV, newspapers, blogs, radio and social media. Then, encourage them to follow up and research. Political ads are a perfect example to use in a discussion of facts and how each party can distort a person, event or detail. The best way we can prepare young people is to help them develop critical thinking and research skills and then align them with their value system. The results will be young people that are informed voters who want the best for their country.
Jessica Fehrenbacher is the Make A Difference Grants Program Manager at Youth Resources of Southwestern Indiana. Since 1987, Youth Resources has engaged over 148,000 youth in leadership development and community service through its youth-led TEENPOWER, Teen Advisory Council, Teen Court and Make A Difference Grant Programs. For more information, please call 812-421-0030 or visit youth-resources.org.
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By Staff Report
A Western Kentucky man is accused of multiple felonies stemming from alleged misconduct with a child younger than 12.
Doug B. Robertson, 35, of Hartford, has been charged with first degree sexual abuse of a victim under 12 years old and unlawful transaction with a minor (illegal sex act) under 16 years old, according to a Kentucky State Police news release.
KSP was notified of possible sexual misconduct between Robertson and an underage girl on April 25. Detectives investigated the report and subsequently arrested Robertson on that day, the news release states.
Robertson is currently lodged in the Ohio County jail.
The investigation is ongoing.
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By Len Wells of the Courier and Press
A Southern Illinois man has been arrested after he allegedly dumped a trash bag full of kittens along a rural Wayne County road.
Curtiss Bean, 59, of Bluford, faces multiple counts of aggravated cruelty to animals.
The arrest of Bean came on Sunday, following a joint investigation of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and animal control officers from Wayne and Jefferson counties.
All 17 of the kittens were alive when found, said a spokesman for the Wayne County Humane Society shelter in Fairfield. One kitten has since died.
The bag of kittens had been discarded in a ditch along the Orchardville blacktop in western Wayne County.
Eight of the surviving kittens are receiving care at the Humane Society shelter. The remaining kittens are with a volunteer caregiver.
Bean was lodged in the Jefferson County jail in Mount Vernon, Illinois pending the filing of formal charges and setting of bond.
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By Chelsea Schneider/ USA Today Netowrk/ The Indianapolis Star
Former Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann is one of two finalists for the Ivy Tech presidency, though another finalist eliminated from consideration said he was told she has been selected as the next leader of the statewide community college system.
Ivy Tech Board of Trustees Chair Paula Hughes told IndyStar on Monday that the statement by finalist James King of Tennessees technical college system, was purely conjecture but acknowledged that Ellspermann is "a top candidate and maybe even the top candidate at this point.
Hughes would not confirm who would be recommended as Ivy Techs next president to the colleges board of trustees at a meeting scheduled for later this month. She also wouldnt confirm the other remaining finalist aside from Ellspermann.
We have a lot riding on this decision, said Hughes, who stressed the board has been very careful to follow the process.
It is conjecture to say that we have a firm commitment. We clearly dont.
Ellspermanns selection is widely anticipated after her unusual decision to step down as lieutenant governor to apply for the colleges top job. Gov. Mike Pence, who appoints the members of Ivy Techs board, has said he believes shes an ideal candidate for the position.
But King told IndyStar on Monday that he has no doubt what he heard from Hughes when she called Friday to tell him he was no longer in the running.
I was told that Sue had gotten the jobI didnt conjecture that. I was told that, King said.
King, who oversees Tennessees 27 technical colleges as a vice chancellor for the states Board of Regents, said he did a final interview with board members for about an hour Thursday and received the call from Hughes a day later.
He said he was surprised to hear it that quick but felt like the process followed to choose the next president was fair, despite rumors that Ellspermann was the favorite from the beginning.
I felt pretty good about the process, King said. I really didI really felt that I was going to be given a fair shot.
Earlier this year, the presidential search committee of Ivy Techs board had narrowed the pool of more than 30 applicants to nine people for interviews. Then the pool was narrowed again to three finalists, who were interviewed privately by board members last week.
At the interview, King said he was asked numerous questions, including what he would do in the first days of his presidency and how he viewed accountability.
Throughout the process, the college has declined to release a list of candidates.
The board is expected to publicly vote and name the next president on May 18. The base salary for Ivy Techs current president, Tom Snyder, is $300,000, plus other benefits. The college launched the search process last fall after Snyder announced his retirement.
Ellspermann has a doctoral degree in industrial engineering and was the founding director of the Center for Applied Research and Economic Development at the University of Southern Indiana.
But King also had been regarded as a candidate with a proven track record in higher learning. Snyder has described him as a mentor for Ivy Tech, which is grappling with low college completion rates of its students.
IndyStar reporter Stephanie Wang contributed to this article.
ERIN MCCRACKEN / COURIER & PRESS Student teacher, Austin Chamberlain helps a student complete a reading assignment after the class finished reading a book together in their fifth grade classroom in December. Chamberlain feels the first semester has really given him a lot of confidence as a teacher. He now is planning lessons on his own, and feeling more confident about offering his input as he works with the team of fifth grade teachers.
SHARE ERIN MCCRACKEN / COURIER & PRESS Taylor VanArsdale gives a student a high -five as she helps her with a reading assignment while student teaching at Lodge School in December. VanArsdale is one of 15 USI students participating in an USI and EVSC pilot program for student teaching, where they spend the entire year teaching at Lodge and Lincoln Schools. Austin Chamberlain poses with his fifth grade class on his last day as a student teacher at Lodge Elementary. Taylor VanArsdale poses with her second grade class on her last day as a student teacher at Lodge Elementary. Submitted photo
By James Vaughn of the Courier and Press
Fifteen students huddled in a University of Southern Indiana classroom in late April sharing stories about their first full year in elementary school classrooms.
It was their last class of the semester and last class as students. These teachers, who were all part of a new partnership between USI and the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp., were prepared to have their own classrooms.
Most of these teacher candidates talked about how much their confidence and patience had grown throughout the year. Austin Chamberlain talked about a realization he had earlier this semester that changed the rest of the school year for him.
"When I realized that they were just kids, it made everything so much better," Chamberlain said. "I was so mad at the beginning of the year, all the time. But then I was like, 'You know what? I was in fifth grade once.' I've had a great time ever since."
The program dubbed Teach Now, Transform Tomorrow is a two-year pilot placing USI students in classrooms at two high poverty, high priority EVSC schools for an entire year in hopes that the added brain power helps turn the struggling schools around.
If anything, it's made these students much more confident in their ability to be teachers, they said.
The program will continue next year at Lincoln Elementary School and Lodge Community School with a new cohort of 15.
'You get in teacher mode'
Chamberlain knows a lot more now than he did nine months ago when he first stepped foot in his fifth-grade classroom at Lodge, he said. He just had to get to know his kids.
"When I started hanging out with these kids, I thought, 'Man, these guys are interesting,'" he said. "They grow on you, and you start to love the environment and community and everything."
Now, he'll have to get to know a new group of kids. Chamberlain accepted a job as a sixth-grade science and social studies teacher at Evans School.
Coming into the program, Chamberlain hadn't planned on teaching at a school like Lodge, but he appreciates the time he spent there. He said Evans is a similar school.
"Same kind of students. Similar behaviors. Similar home-lives," he said.
But Evans, a pre-K-6 facility on the city's north-side, is an A school, much different from the atmosphere at Lodge, which has earned five consecutive Fs.
He said after spending a year at a school like Lodge, he has a newfound respect for every person in the building.
"Everyone has a job. Everyone has a role," he said. "Without everyone participating as a team, things don't get done."
Chamberlain had more responsibilities this semester, he said. During the first semester, he was kind of a fly on the wall who taught a little bit here and there. But this semester, he was the teacher.
"That's when you really get to learn things about the kids," he said. "When you call on someone, you know how they're going to answer. You just get to know everyone better. It feels more like you're going to work, not so much you're going to school."
He said being a teacher is way harder than he thought going into it. No college classroom can compare to the firsthand experience.
"When you go home, you don't just go home and quit," he said. "You go home and you think about like, 'Man, so and so didn't get it today. Why didn't he get it today?' It never really stops. You get in teacher mode and you just kind of stay there."
Chamberlain said the greatest experience he had this year was receiving a note from a student his last week in the classroom. He got chills talking about it.
"It was incredible," he said. "It felt really good that no one told her to do it. It's like, 'Man, you're 10 years old and you're doing this.' It's moments like that when you realize you're actually making an impact, because that's the goal when you decide you want to be an educator."
But he wouldn't be nearly as ready as he is to be an educator if he had done traditional student teaching, which is just one semester, he said.
"I would do it 1,000 times," he said about the yearlong program. "It's a lot of work, but I feel like I've been teaching for an entire year now, because I have."
'I'm still learning'
Taylor VanArsdale also has a job lined up. In fact, she started teaching May 2, two days after she graduated from USI.
She accepted a co-teaching job for the summer at Chapelwood Elementary School in Wayne Township in Indianapolis and signed a contract guaranteeing her a full-time job in the district come fall.
"It's nerve racking," VanArsdale said. "But it'll be OK."
VanArsdale went to elementary school in Wayne Township. She said it is also high poverty, making it similar to Lodge.
"It's those kids that need us the most, I feel like," she said. "They not only need a teacher, they need someone who cares for them because they might not get that at home; just being whatever they need you to be, whether that's a parent or a nurse or whatever."
VanArsdale applied for 10 jobs in EVSC before accepting the one in Indianapolis. Chapelwood, like Evans, is an A school.
She said the greatest lessons she learned in her second-grade classroom this year at Lodge were about management.
"Time management with your lessons. Time management with your planning. Time management overall," she said. "I used to spend, I don't know how many hours at school I wouldn't leave there until like 6 or later and this second semester I learned that you have to leave. You have to give yourself that time limit to get out of school and do things with your life that don't pertain to school."
She never stayed past 5 p.m. this semester.
"It was a huge stress relief getting stuff done and being able to leave at a reasonable time," she said. "There are a lot of things going on in our personal lives, and if you can take care of those things while also taking care of your school stuff, that helps a lot."
Learning to balance her time gave VanArsdale a more positive attitude, she said. She was able to come into the classroom everyday with a smile on her face something those kids need.
But VanArsdale's greatest challenge was with classroom management. She grew much more confident in her abilities as the year progressed, she said.
"I'm still learning," she said. "I'm more confident now, but there are still things I could learn and improve on to make it better. But for right now, with where I am, I am comfortable, and I feel like I am where I should be."
She can't recommend full-year student teaching enough, she said.
"I learned more in this experience than I ever did here in school," she said crouched down in a hallway at USI. "You literally experience everything you'll experience your first year teaching."
In the fall, the student teachers took a full course load on top of spending five days a week in the classroom. But this semester, they had just one other course.
"When I came back second semester, everything was on me," VanArsdale said. "The planning. Having the resources ready. I taught everything. So it was nice being able to focus on that without having those extra classes on top of it."
'They don't want to be anywhere else'
That won't change next year, said Terri Branson, a USI education instructor in charge of the program. But she does have advice for the new cohort.
"Relax," Branson said.
There are plans to expand and modify the program, but nothing is set in stone quite yet.
She is confident it will continue "in some form" once the two-year pilot is up.
"The teachers in these buildings have said they feel like the students progressed more and faster," Branson said.
She said they're awaiting this year's ISTEP scores to see measurable results. The goal is that the two schools' state letter grades climb as a result of the program.
Both USI and EVSC are conducting extensive research throughout the program, but the results are still premature. They won't have an authentic overview until the pilot comes to an end next year.
Five of this year's 15 students had jobs as of April 25 four in EVSC including three at Lincoln. Lodge does not have any openings this year.
Those job offers came earlier than normal, Branson said. She is confident the other 10 will snag full-time positions.
"We keep telling them, 'Don't panic,'" she said. "This isn't unusual."
These teacher candidates are more like first-year teachers than student teachers, Branson said.
"I think they have the maturity and the classroom knowledge and the management techniques of a teacher who's just completed their first year in a school rather than someone who's just completed one semester of student teaching," she said.
They've become accustomed to schools like Lincoln and Lodge, she said. That's where they want to be.
"One of the girls said, 'I don't think I could teach in another school,'" Branson said. "They don't want to be anywhere else."
Editor's note: This is the final part in a multipart series that followed Taylor VanArsdale and Austin Chamberlain through the school year
DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz visits with supporters at Wolf's Bar-B-Q at 6600 First Avenue in Evansville, Ind., Tuesday morning. Voting was still underway in the Indiana primary and Cruz was working for every vote he could garner.
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By Stephanie Wang, Tony Cook, Chelsea Schneider and Brian Eason/ USA Today Netowrk/ The Indianapolis Star
In the biggest races of Tuesdays primary, Hoosier evangelical leaders couldn't deliver the upsets they sought.
The religious right, a force capable of unseating a deeply admired 36-year U.S. senator such as Richard Lugar, didn't give Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz the boost he desperately needed.
The evangelical vote didnt lift up tea party favorite U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Howe. And even the challenger hand-picked specifically to stand up for religious liberty fell in a resounding rout by Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne.
Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana and an emblem of religious conservatism in the state, knew how those losses looked.
So, in a missive to his supporters last week, Clark pre-empted the problematic question he knew would come: Dont declare social conservatism and the tea party dead just yet.
I think the Republicans know who their base is, he said. They know they have to turn out that base. And they have to do that through convincing us where they stand on those issues.
The primary results also pose a challenge for Republican candidates in November's general election. Turnout in state and local races is often determined by the level of interest at the top of the ticket, and Cruz's defeat left many social conservatives feeling left out.
"When it comes to the issue of life, when it comes to the issue of marriage and when it comes to the issue of religious liberty, those are non-negotiables for social conservatives," Pastor Ron Johnson Jr., executive director of the Indiana Pastors Alliance, told IndyStar in the wake of the primary. "Social conservatives are not going to be interested or excited about this upcoming election, because we have nobody to vote for."
That could have implications in the governor's race, where Republican Gov. Mike Pence, a favorite of social conservatives, is running neck-and-neck in his rematch against conservative Democrat John Gregg.
With Pences first term marked by tumultuous social issues Indianas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, gay rights and abortion restrictions the governor is counting on his base of religious conservatives to turn out for him in November.
And beyond that, he cant afford to lose the more moderate Republican votes that shied away from conservative candidates last week.
I think hes got to expand his reach beyond the social conservatives and thats not something hes been able to do, said Joseph Losco, director of Ball State Universitys Bowen Center for Public Affairs.
Several factors contributed to the defeats suffered by social conservatives in Indiana's primary. Religious conservatives here have found their voice through the disenchantment of the tea party movement. But much of that anger has been co-opted by Donald Trump, and for Hoosier voters, well-worded promises of decisive action trumped religious principles.
I think Donald Trump did a good job about saying what he would do, said Robert Vane, a Republican communications consultant and former Pence campaign spokesman. He had an action-based message. Cruz had more of a biographical, philosophical message: This is who I am, this is what I believe.
Trumps message, whatever you think of it, was clearly successful.
Many evangelical voters spurned Cruz despite his talking up religious liberty and anti-transgender policies and despite Trump's outspoken support of allowing transgender people access to whichever restroom they feel most comfortable using.
Half of white evangelical voters turned to Trump, according to exit poll results reported by Politico. Cruz trailed in his core demographic, with 43 percent of the white evangelical vote.
That suggests to me that some social conservatives are seeing something in Trump that they believe is consistent with their values, said Indiana University political science Professor Marjorie Hershey. And probably a lot of that has to do with worry about diversity and fear of what he calls political correctness.
Other talking points, such as the economy, also appeared to resonate more strongly with voters than conservative stances on social issues.
On the Republican side of the U.S. Senate race, U.S. Rep. Todd Young, R-Bloomington, also leveraged a get things done platform and raised more money than his opponent, Stutzman, who was the favorite of many social conservatives.
Stutzmans hard line on social issues also might have stung voters in the populous Indianapolis metropolitan area, political scientists said.
Social conservatives tend to be reliable voters, but their influence wanes in high-turnout years as seen during presidential elections when voters with other priorities join them at the polls.
Thats what many social conservatives blame for losing what might have been their most telling race.
Long, who leads the Indiana Senate, landed in the cross hairs of the religious right for amending RFRA and leading discussions of gay rights legislation this year.
Just before the candidate filing deadline, social conservatives put up a challenger: Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne economist John Kessler.
But Long trounced him in the primary, 73 percent to 27 percent.
Kessler blamed the surge of voters who showed up, both for and against Trump.
They are coming out because of the presidential election. A lot of people are focused on that, he said. They dont know a whole lot about more local things. They just voted for the person whose name they knew.
He thought he had a good shot at beating Long, because social conservatives were so upset and the anti-establishment movement could have worked in his favor.
Had we had a normal turnout flip a coin, as far as who would have won, Kessler said.
Social conservatives still see a victory in Kessler's primary challenge: It forced Long to back down from a pledge to revive the gay rights issue.
Hes not as adamant as he was when the session ended, said Curt Smith, president of the Indiana Family Institute. I think its because he had a primary challenge.
Legislators recognize that voters care about these issues, and they care about the promises made to them. Those promises will be honored, or there will be a political challenge.
One thing Pence can learn from Tuesdays election is that his evangelical base might not be enough. If he wants a second term, some observers say, Pence will have to find the line that Cruz could not walk: appealing to social conservatives without alienating moderate voters.
For that reason, his supporters say, Pence is unlikely to tout hot-button social issues in his re-election campaign.
If you look at the last election, Mike ran 100 percent on economic issues, said Jim Kittle, a former Indiana Republican Party chairman. He did not run on social issues. The social issues that came up under his tenure were not brought up by him. They were brought up by the House and the Senate. He just happened to be standing in the way of gunfire.
Is he a social conservative? Kittle continued. Sure. But thats not what he ran on, and thats not what hell run on again.
Who turns out to vote will undoubtedly be important. And some believe Trump at the top of the ticket could help broaden Pences support, rather than diminishing it.
Clearly, Donald Trump has touched a lot of voters," said Marc Lotter, a spokesman for Pences campaign. "Hes talking about defending Hoosier jobs, as Governor Pence has said on multiple occasions, and I think that is a message that very much resonated with Hoosiers across the state.
A lot can happen between now and November, of course. But Pence's Democratic opponent, who supports LGBT rights but has similar conservative roots, could capitalize on the jobs message, too.
That fits with what John Gregg is saying, said Tim Henderson, Greggs campaign manager.
Adding to the question mark of the gubernatorial race: Even as a traditionally Republican state, Hoosiers historically have been willing to split the difference, said GOP consultant Jennifer Hallowell.
Indiana has voted for Republican presidents while putting Democrats in the governors office. And, in 2008, the state went for Democrat Barack Obama for president and Republican Mitch Daniels for governor.
So some evangelical Republicans want to better coalesce behind their causes.
The election results tell us that the church is generally sick, Johnson said. Weve done a very poor job of disciplining people about biblical truth and connecting the dots between their faith and the public philosophy.
JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Therapy work release counselor James Aiken leads a class about substance abuse and "triggers" at the Vanderburgh County Sheriff Administration, Detention and Corrections facility in Evansville recently. Vanderburgh County courts have taken over responsibility for operating community corrections, transforming it into a Therapeutic Work Release program emphasizing rehabilitation of inmates and not just incarceration.
SHARE JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Therapy work release counselor James Aiken leads a class about substance abuse and "triggers" at the Vanderburgh County Sheriff Administration, Detention and Corrections facility in Evansville recently. Vanderburgh County courts have taken over responsibility for operating community corrections, transforming it into a Therapeutic Work Release program emphasizing rehabilitation of inmates and not just incarceration. JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Therapy work release counselor James Aiken listens to Kirshawn Harvey in his office at the Vanderburgh County Sheriff Administration, Detention and Corrections facility in Evansville recently. Vanderburgh County courts have taken over responsibility for operating community corrections, transforming it into a Therapeutic Work Release program emphasizing rehabilitation of inmates and not just incarceration.
By Mark Wilson of the Courier and Press
Kirshawn Harvey knows what gets him into trouble, but that hasn't always stopped him from getting into it.
A habitual traffic offender, Harvey is serving a two-year sentence in Vanderburgh County's work release program.
"I tend to get in trouble mainly for driving. My issue is an addiction. I can't stop driving," he said.
But Harvey is confidant he is finally learning how to conquer his problem and is acquiring life skills that will help him stay out of trouble for good when he gets out. That wouldn't have been possible a few years ago, he said.
Until last year, the work release program was little more than part-time jail operated by the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office under the moniker of Community Corrections. Inmates would go to their jobs and then come back again to wait out the boredom until their next work shift.
However, since July 2015 the program has undergone a metamorphosis under a cooperative agreement between the sheriff's office and Vanderburgh County's treatment courts. That is when Superior Court Judge Wayne Trockman and Circuit Court Judge David Kiely took over daily operations and rechristened it Therapeutic Work Release to reflect its new focus on rehabilitation.
Sheriff David Wedding remains responsible for security operations and maintenance at the facility, which is housed in the same building as the jail.
"This has evolved big time from the way it was," Wedding said.
Harvey, who also spent time in the facility in 2008, recalls it as a much different place then.
"It was a lot rougher. Things were sort of all over the place. Nobody listened. People tended to break the rules," he said. "Nothing was going on there to motivate people. After awhile it tends to get frustrating."
Harvey recalled that there was nothing for the participants to do and the result was often trouble.
Trockman and Kiely, however, saw opportunity.
"We thought all that idle time could be turned into productive time. They are all here anyway. We've got their undivided attention," Trockman said. "We're trying to prepare them for their return to society."
Applying the same therapeutic concepts as Vanderburgh County's treatment courts, the overhauled work release program offers participants a wide range of behavioral, educational, vocational and employment counseling, substance abuse treatment and classes covering everything from personal finance and GED to fatherhood and meditation.
As with electronic home detention and GPS monitoring, defendants pay their own way to participate in work release $70 a week. Costs of substance abuse and behavioral counseling are covered by criminal justice money set aside by the Indiana Legislature last year to help fund community corrections programs.
Two key courses provided at Therapeutic Work Release are Thinking for a Change, a cognitive behavioral therapy program used by the Indiana Department of Correction; and Moral Reconation Therapy, an evidence-based behavioral therapy course.
Among the providers are Southwestern Behavioral Healthcare, Work One, Vincennes University, Old National Bank, the Parenting Time Center, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery, Life Choices prison ministry and others.
Therapeutic Work Release participants logged 2,066 hours of class as of Dec. 31, 2015, and two have earned GEDs, said Director Jodi Uebelhack.
It's all done with the oversight of case managers, counselors and the judges. Importantly, Trockman noted, it's also all done on site.
"The staff here ask what they can do to help. They show that they really care," said Taurus Tomlinson. "They help you here. Sitting in a jail cell is not going to help you. They try to help you as much as they can."
The 23-year-old has already signed up for a fatherhood class, Alcoholics Anonymous and volunteer community service. He hopes to complete his sentence with a stronger mind and more stability in his life.
"I'll be able to say I've gone however many days sober and kept a job," he said.
"The part I think is most important is that it shows you that not working is not OK and that working is a way of life. There are bigger and better things out there for you than being in here," Tomlinson said.
An important part of the program's new direction are the incentives participants can receive for completing various phases satisfactorily. The incentives include movie nights, daily passes on Sundays, weekend passes and four-hour passes on weekdays for family time.
Participants can even receive time cuts of as much as 60 days on their sentences for completing some of the counseling, earning GEDs and doing community service all while also working and taking part in other classes.
Harvey believes he has already benefitted from the counseling and classes at work release, both through participating in them directly and through talking to others about what they are learning.
"I still have a lot of stress but now I'm motivated. I'm focused on what I need to do. It's helping change my train of thought and learn strategies to stay on track," Harvey said. "It allows me to figure out things I couldn't figure out for myself before. I feel like I have my thoughts together and I know what I am going to do."
Harvey acknowledges that the time cuts are strong motivation.
"I'm trying to do everything I can do," he said.
Harvey, 28, said the week day family time he is recently married and has five children also has helped ease his mind.
"As a parent, that is something that is definitely needed," he said.
It isn't easy for work release inmates either. Participants are required to maintain employment, submit to drug and alcohol testing and follow the rules too. Failure to do so can lead to sanctions, including having participation in work release revoked.
Harvey, for instance, spent several days of his sentence in jail for causing a disturbance at the work release facility.
"Just like we have incentives for positive behavior, we use sanctions for negative behavior," Uebelhack said.
Trockman said work release participants are not as high risk as those in drug court and don't need state approval.
"It gives us another sentencing option as judges. Every sentence we do is an individual sentence. We like to place defendants in the program that is best for them," Kiely said. "I don't think anyone can dispute the success of treatment courts in Vanderburgh County.
"We want to introduce that success into work release."
SHARE Ku Klux Klan robe. Dubois County, circa 1979; Collection of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites
The KKK robe was her husband's; he was a high-ranking police officer in Huntingburg
By Will Higgins, USA TODAY NETWORK, Indianapolis Star
To mark Indiana's bicentennial, the Indiana State Museum is featuring an exhibit called "200 Objects," which consists of widely varying items that represent Hoosierness. IndyStar is joining the celebration by highlighting an object a week during the exhibit's run.
Several years ago Indiana State Museum officials learned that a Ku Klux Klan robe was for sale in an antique store near Evansville. The robe, red and adorned with stripes and crosses, was the uniform of a Klan higher-up, a chaplain.
Indiana has had an unusually long and strange history with the KKK. The museum wanted the robe.
Staff members were able to contact the widow of the man who had worn it. She gave them her husband's robe, along with the robe she wore, which is white, and the robe her husband wore before being elevated to chaplain, which also is white.
The couple wore the robes in the late 1960s and early '70s, the 74-year-old said. The extent of their involvement in the KKK, she said, was their attendance at KKK meetings at a dance hall in nearby Evansville. Her husband, who died in 2007, was a police chief in Southern Indiana at the time. She said he had been inspired to join the KKK by stories his Klansman grandfather told him of the KKK's halcyon days in the 1920s.
The Ku Klux Klan has long had a presence in Indiana. In the early '20s, under the direction of highly charismatic "grand dragon" D.C. Stephenson, the Indiana KKK's ranks swelled. More than one in four native-born, white Hoosier men joined up, according to the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Women joined the Women of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Ku Klux Klan, originally formed in the South following the Civil War as a secret society that used violence to to intimidate blacks, operated in Indiana in the 1920s openly and under the guise of patriotism. Here the black population was small, and the KKK was mostly against Catholics and Jews and in favor of Prohibition, according to M. William Lutholtz's book "Grand Dragon: D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana."
Nationwide the Klan at that time had 3 million to 6 million members, but "by all accounts," according to the encyclopedia, "Indiana's Klan was the largest and most politically powerful in the nation" with "chapters in every county." Members were a cross-section of society. In Indianapolis, "only the very rich and the very poor failed to belong in significant numbers."
Stephenson, who lived in a mansion in the Indianapolis enclave of Irvington, was a kingmaker. In 1924 candidates openly backed by the KKK won the governor's office, Indianapolis' congressional seat, the city's mayoral office and control of the City Council and the school board. "I am the law in Indiana," Stephenson famously declared.
But a year later KKK domination of Indiana ceased. In November 1925 Stephenson was convicted of second-degree murder following the death of Madge Oberholtzer, an acquaintance of his. He had raped Oberholtzer as the two rode on a train from Indianapolis to Hammond. His disgrace brought widespread discredit to his organization, which abruptly lost its influence.
In the decades since Indiana Klansmen have shown themselves from time to time by dropping leaflets or staging rallies. As recently as 1999, about a dozen of robed Klansmen rallied at the Indiana Statehouse. But their public address system was so poor that their audience, mostly angry anti-KKK protesters, could not tell exactly what the Klansmen were saying.
Editorial
Remember the TPP
Notable for its absence in the 2016-17 federal budget was any mention of a central economic measure that, if implemented, would impose a profound, binding and punitive regime on Australias economic future.
The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) so-called free trade agreement is not a trade agreement. The purpose of the partnership, drafted by global corporations, is to make corporations immune to the laws of sovereign countries in which they do business. Any countrys sovereign law whether social, environmental, food safety, labour protections any law or regulation that impacts a corporations profits is labelled a restraint on trade. The partnership permits corporations to file a suit that overturns the law or regulation and also awards the corporation damages paid by the taxpayers of the country that tried to protect its environment or the safety of its food and workers.
The lawsuit is not heard in the courts of the country or in any court. It is heard in a corporate tribunal in which corporations serve as judge, jury, and prosecutor.
The TPP was been conducted in secrecy. The reason is obvious. Had people known how they were being sold out, there would have been a firestorm of protest.
Resistance by governments to the deal was overcome with bribes and intimidation. All of the negotiations were conducted in secrecy. When the trade representatives signed on to the deal, it was then presented to the legislatures of the particular countries.
These trade pacts originate in the US, because American global corporations and the American mega-banks are the largest players in the world economy.
Among the top banks in the world based in TPP countries are: Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac, National Australia Bank, Bank of Tokyo, Sumitomo, Royal Bank of Canada, and Toronto Dominion.
The TPP will allow foreign firms to challenge policies that apply to domestic and foreign firms alike and that have been reviewed and affirmed by US courts.
And not only foreign financial firms but foreign subsidiaries of US firms operating in TPP nations could demand taxpayer compensation for financial regulations and government regulatory actions.
These agreements leave out some very major countries and economies, notably those involved in BRICS the economic co-operation framework established between Brazil, Russia, India and China and South Africa. The TPP will enhance competition with this rival bloc by stripping away the rights of previously sovereign countries to legislate in any way that limits transnationals profitability. Trade unions will be further sidelined.
The rules set out in the TPP will trump any commitments made at the climate change conference in Paris. There are references to a low-emissions future economy but none to climate change. These documents were written by and for the big polluters.
Governments, like Australias, are given assurances that they will retain the right to regulate. This is misleading. The agreement will work to lock in any weakening of regulation and this has been the trend with governments covered by the TPP, with their commitment to cutting red tape, removing obstacles to investment and hiring and firing.
The TPP might be referred to as a trade agreement, but only about five of the 26 chapters are about trade. The remainder go to the heart of the powers and role of government, in particular, they seek to override the governments sovereign powers and responsibility to legislate in the interests of its people, its economy and environment.
A governments capacity to act or likelihood of not acting because of fear of being sued for hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars covers almost every aspect of life including: price of prescriptions; environmental protection; workers rights; local content on TV; foreign investment rules; food and tobacco labelling; coal seam gas mining; financial regulation; internet privacy; environmental protection; government procurement, and much more.
There is already a lot of resistance to many of these developments. Across Europe there have been strikes against privatisation of the public sector, the cuts to social spending, and the decimation of agriculture. Opposition to the TPP is global.
Government aims at bleak future for unions
At a Future of Industrial Relations meeting in Sydney recently, pitched largely at lawyers working in the industrial/workplace relations area, federal Minister for Employment and Minister for Women, Senator Michaelia Cash, together with representatives of employer groups, outlined the rights agenda for industrial relations reform.
The familiar union bashing bile was spewed forth directed at the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), and the usual job-creating and productivity justifications claimed for strengthening anti-union laws and slashing penalty rates. But what also became clear is that the industrial relations reform strategy will be particularly targeted at winning the support of women.
Senator Cash, the main speaker at the meeting set the tone. And it was vicious. Alluding to union bullying, thuggery, violence and intimidation in the building and construction industry, she called for tougher laws and increased penalties, including prosecutions even when industrial disputes have achieved settlement.
We want to increase the penalties, have penalties that mean something that are going to hurt, she said.
Wilhelm Harnisch, boss of the outfit representing building and construction industry employers, Master Builders Australia, followed Cashs lead. A bunch of thugs who want to hold this country to ransom, to impose their will for unlawful industrial purposes, was how he vilified the CFMEU.
The other speaker at the Future of IR event, Russell Zimmerman, Executive Director of the Australian Retailers Association, was more restrained in his language but called for a reduction in penalty rates. He told the meeting that his organisation has asked the Fair Work Commission to reduce Sunday penalty rates in the retail industry from double time to time and a half.
The policy agenda outlined by these employer representatives and the federal Minister at the Future of IR event penalising/criminalising legitimate industrial activity by unions and cutting wages and conditions is familiar. As too, is the rationale put forward for these policies.
Harnisch said the federal governments proposed re-establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) is about the community, the economy, jobs. He said the industrial relations system must be an enabler not an inhibitor of the building and construction industry in maintaining jobs and investment in Australia.
On the ABCC, Cash said its restoration was necessary because of the importance of the building and construction industry to Australias economy. Together with the establishment of a Registered Organisations Commission, it was clear from Cashs contribution that the government wants a toughened regulatory regime to ensure that unions and union officials obey the law.
Referring to a reduction in the days lost to industrial action under the previous incarnation of the ABCC, Cash made it obvious that the plan is to eliminate the ability of unions, particularly the CFMEU, to adequately represent the interests of their members.
Senator Cash also referred to the changing nature of work and said it was necessary to have the right framework and policies for industrial relations in the era of the global economy. She said Australia needs a future-focussed industrial relations system to create the framework for business and industry creating jobs and increasing productivity. This is code for having an industrial relations system focussed on creating more flexible workplaces flexible in the interests of bosses: casual employment, no job security, on-call at all hours, reduced penalty rates, etc.
Cash said that in the 24/7 future workers will want to be constantly connected with their workplaces. Yeah right! She said employees do not necessarily want a 9 to 5 job.
On the question of cutting penalty rates, Zimmerman said, shops need to be open virtually all hours, adding that the cost of labour prevents that from happening.
Women in the strategy
In a brazen attempt to drive a wedge between the union movement and women workers, and to win the support of women for the governments reactionary industrial relations policies, Senator Cash suggested that increased participation of women in the workforce is being blocked by what she claimed was the bullying conduct of union officials making employment in certain industries especially building and construction unattractive to women.
She asked rhetorically: Are girls going to be subjected to the kind of behaviour that in any other workplace is unlawful?
Wilhelm Harnisch also took up the issue. Pointing out that only one or two percent of employees in the building and construction industry are women, Harnisch laid the blame squarely on the CFMEU. We have probably the most militant union in Australia, he said, preventing women working in the construction industry.
Warming to his theme, Harnisch said there is industrial thuggery every day, bullying in the building and construction industry, and that women do not want to go to work and have a union bully yell at you.
And there it is: unions which vigorously prosecute the interests of their members are said to scare off women from seeking employment in certain industries!
Cash also tied the theme of increased womens participation in the workforce to the quest for ever more flexible workplaces. Calling for cultural change and affordable and accessible childcare as well, she said greater flexibility in workplaces will benefit women, as they in particular, want the flexibility to be with their children.
Paternalistic, patronising, and supremely cynical, this aspect of the industrial relations strategy of the government and its far right supporters is aimed at alienating women workers from unions, and at winning the support of women for a crackdown on union activism and for the reduction of wages and conditions in the name of flexibility. It is a strategy that must be exposed and fought.
Budget Roundup
The Turnbull government has cut money from frontline specialist domestic and family violence services. This includes crisis services, womens and youth refuges, Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention Legal Services and Community Legal Services. This in the same week of the launch of a $30 million national awareness campaign, targeted at disrespect for women and girls; lip-service as it transpires. Domestic violence services are unable to cope with demand and provide adequate responses to the most vulnerable women and families in the country because of a lack of government funding.
$1 billion cut out of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which provides investment in green jobs.
The Australia Council for the Arts has had its funding cut for the second year in a row; $28 million and $23 million respectively.
In the public service, the budget confirms the government will cut another 3,000 to 4,500 jobs in coming years and press ahead with plans to further outsource and privatise public services including Medicare.
This follows as a direct result of the Turnbull governments staff cuts; one in three calls to Centrelink went unanswered last year, while the Tax Office no longer has enough experienced staff to crack down on the many big corporations and the top 1% who are rorting the system.
In health, the government has cut $1.2 billion from aged care, put a freeze on the Medicare rebate for GPs, undermining bulk billing; Tony Abbotts $54 billion cuts to hospital funding remain.
Overall the 2016-17 budget cuts funding to higher education by 20 percent and more than $1billion from clean energy; provides almost $3 billion for offshore mandatory detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru; An extra $30 billion on military; drives foreign aid obligations to their lowest ever levels.
Further, the budget:
cuts funding to mental health services including a 75% cut in funding over two years for specialist youth mental health programs provided by Headspace and the Youth Psychosis program;
shifts mental health service delivery from face to face support to online and call centre services leading to a loss of skilled specialist jobs in local communities;
cuts $115 million in funding to homelessness services including women and youth refuges from July next year by failing to renew the National Partnership on Homelessness. This will mean over 1,000 jobs could go across the country;
no long term security for abolishing the Working Womens Centres that support marginalised women in remote communities across Australia, with funding expiring at Christmas;
locks in the $240 million cuts from the Abbott government budgets taking money away from emergency relief and financial support to women and children leaving violence;
cuts $40 million from community legal centres and Aboriginal legal services from next year, with at least 100 jobs to go across the country; and
$1.2 billion in cuts to aged care.
The Australian Services Union says these cuts will see services close, people turned away from services and 1,110 jobs lost across the sector.
The Turnbull government also announced harsh measures attacking the most vulnerable in the community by:
Culture & Life
Crime and punishment
As everyone knows, the USA is the greatest country on Earth. The US propaganda machine drums it into people relentlessly. So relentlessly, in fact, that one is moved to say taking a line from the Bard methinks thou dost protest too much!
Apart from the crushing poverty, unemployment, homelessness, violence and crime, the heartland of capitalism is also plagued by persistent, pervasive and institutionalised racism. The lynchings that caused Paul Robeson to proclaim we charge genocide! in the 1940s may have ceased, but they have been replaced by the mass jailing of African Americans, fodder for the USAs commercial prison industry.
The US now has the dubious distinction of holding in its prison system no less than 25 percent of all the people in jail in the whole world. Confronted by advocates for the Black Lives Matter campaign, presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton responded very differently. Senator Sanders called for the end of mass incarceration, aiming for the US to no longer be the country with the highest number of people in jail by the end of his first term in 2020.
In contrast, Chelsea Clinton, campaigning on behalf of her mother Hillary, said Sanders proposal was of concern and that his plan worried her. Hardly surprising when you think about it: the mass incarceration of Black and Hispanic people in the US really got into gear with the racist Crime Bill that was a feature of her father Bill Clintons presidency in the 90s.
The best that Hillary Clinton has been able to come up with on this score is an almost meaningless promise to build a cradle to education and cradle to jobs pipeline, whatever that might be. Somewhat undermined when husband Bill denounced protesters from Black Lives Matter for coddling murderers.
The Clintons position is only marginally better than that of the Republican front runner, the openly racist and xenophobic Donald Trump (lets not beat about the bush: the mans a fascist).
Bernie Sanders is the only mainstream candidate who is concerned with policies rather than personalities. Consequently, Sanders has been endorsed with glowing tributes by a number of US trade unions. There are other political parties taking part in the US elections that are also concerned with policies (the Green Party, the Workers World party, to name but two). However, thanks to monopoly control of the mass media, most Americans are and will remain unaware that these candidates are even running.
Candidates for local office win votes by being tough on crime or espousing other populist slogans beloved of radio talk-show jocks. The real substantive issues of concern to the mass of US citizens barely get a guernsey.
The USAs social system is based on inequality and pandering to greed. It is not surprising then that those who have missed out on a share of the riches they are encouraged to covet will resort to trying to acquire them by stealth or force.
Such a self-help approach is frowned upon as criminal activity and is punished with a much heavier hand than the far more substantial criminal activity engaged in by the business community. Many of the anti-social actions undertaken by corporations or the wealthy, actions designed to increase their profits and devil take the poor or indeed, anybody else are not even illegal under capitalism, however much they may be deplored by reformers.
Equally frowned upon is seeking to escape from the tension and worry of coping with the frustrations of capitalism through the use of recreational drugs. Possession of these drugs if youre unlucky enough to have been in trouble before can get you sent to prison for life with no chance of parole.
It is well known that the crack cocaine epidemic was introduced into Black districts of the urban USA by the CIA, working with its Colombian associates. The resultant spread of the drug trade as a way of escaping from poverty among young Black Americans led to the criminalisation of a generation and effectively curtailed the growth of militancy among them. Which must have been a relief to the White establishment.
Many commentators, especially in the USA itself, have noted the re-emergence of slavery, as Black youths in particular are incarcerated in huge numbers within the private for-profit US prison system. There they are employed operating call centres or in manufacturing at a wage of a few cents a day. A capitalists dream of paradise.
No wonder some judges with a reputation for handing down harsh sentences have been accused of taking kick-backs from the prison industry!
The combination of tough on crime policies with a popular drug culture has resulted in not only the worlds largest prison population, but also one of the most inhuman.
Amnesty International has denounced torture in the US prison system. Arbitrary throw away the key sentencing is commonplace (especially in some of the Southern states like Alabama), death sentences are handed out (and carried out) as though they were an actual deterrent to crime, and the number of people killed by guns continues to climb towards the stratosphere.
Clearly US society is in deep crisis, a crisis enhanced by the growing militarisation of America. As militarisation grows, so does reliance on military solutions to social and other problems (such as drug use a medical, not a criminal problem).
US law enforcement agencies are arming themselves with heavy weapons as they engage in open warfare with the people they are supposed to protect. The killing by police of young unarmed Black men has reached epidemic proportions and produced mass protest demonstrations in numerous US cities.
However, as long as US society is subject to the iniquities of capitalism there is little chance of improvement. A radical social change affecting peoples attitudes to one another and their attitudes to society itself is needed to change things for the better. When people feel that the society they live in works for the people and not a privileged elite, they can and will give it their full support.
Anti-social behaviour will inevitably diminish accordingly.
In the meantime, the capitalist state will continue to wage war on its inhabitants as the contradiction between what it says and what it does wreaks its destructive effects.
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Exclusive: Former AppSense SVP Ayres Named U.S. CEO For Thin-Client Superpower IGEL, Partners Call It A Channel Game-Changer
Steven Burke
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Former AppSense Senior Vice President Jed Ayres, a 20-year technology industry veteran with strong channel ties and Silicon Valley connections, has been named U.S. president and CEO of German thin-client powerhouse IGEL Technology's North American business.
IGEL, which is privately held, is the largest independent maker of thin-client hardware systems with a fast-growing product line that encompasses both Windows and Linux systems with an acclaimed universal management software suite.
"This is a dream come true," said Ayres, who has headed up the marketing effort for the past year at AppSense, which was acquired by endpoint security/management provider LANDESK in March. "This is an opportunity for me to bring all my years of software, sales, marketing and channel experience to bear with a company that is singularly focused on the thin-client market."
Ayres, who takes the top U.S. job effective June 1, said he is planning to double down on IGEL's "channel-first" partner-led strategy with new tools and resources for partners and additional market development funds. He also pledged to strengthen IGEL's alliances with key vendor and channel partners including VMware, Citrix Systems, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Red Hat, Ingram Micro and Synnex.
"We are going to double down on our best partners," said Ayres, who also spent time at solution providers MTM Technologies and GE Capital IT Solutions. "Our solution providers can look forward to an enhanced partner program with new margin incentives and additional market development funds. Priority No. 1 is getting the channel firing on all cylinders."
IGEL partners said they see the appointment as a watershed moment for the company to make deeper inroads into the channel and potentially grab market share from competitors.
"This is a game-changer not only for IGEL but for the thin-client industry," said Brian Cambier, practice lead for virtualization for MCPc, a leading thin-client provider in Cleveland, where Ayres once headed up the marketing effort. "IGEL has always had a great product line, but now with Jed's appointment it shows they are serious about building a compelling channel with strong marketing in the U.S. IGEL was a sleeping giant. With Jed taking over as CEO, I am hopeful the giant has awoken."
Cambier said the appointment could reshape the competitive landscape, given Ayres' channel and Silicon Valley connections.
"I think this could have a stratospheric impact on the thin-client market," he said. "I think you'll see Jed building more channel relationships and business development to power IGEL's greatest asset, which is its intuitive flexible management software."
MCPc's IGEL business could easily double with Ayres driving new channel and business development initiatives, said Cambier, who has known Ayres for the past 15 years.
Mike Strohl, CEO of Entisys360, a Concord, Calif., thin-client and virtualization powerhouse, said Ayres is in a position to make an "immediate" difference for IGEL's channel partners and customers.
"IGEL really needed to do something like this, putting someone in place that is known in the channel and by customers," said Strohl. "Jed understands what we do as channel partners, the opportunity and the changes that need to be made. If the global organization at IGEL listens to him, the company is going to be successful."
Strohl said he is looking forward to Ayres using his channel and vendor contacts to drive IGEL's U.S. sales and marketing offensive.
"Jed is well known," he said. "People will take his phone calls. He knows our business and when he says he is going to do something, he does it. I expect him to come to us with resources, tools and a market development campaign to accelerate the IGEL market opportunity."
Strohl compared Ayres appointment to RES Software's decision last year to hire former Citrix Senior Vice President Al Monserrat, immediately changing the channel sales dynamic for RES.
"This business is all about trust and relationships," he said. "I think with Jed at the helm we can grow our IGEL business from low six figures to a fairly substantial seven figures."
Ira Silverman, founder and CEO of Gotham Technology Group, an AppSense Platinum partner based in Montvale, N.J., also expects Ayres appointment to drive sales growth for IGEL.
"I think we can grow sales significantly with Jed as CEO," he said. "Jed understands the channel, marketing, the sales cycle and the market. Marketing is about listening to customers. I think he'll listen to the market and adapt the product and services. I am sure he is going to do great things from a sales, marketing and channel perspective."
Adam Bari, managing director at IPM, one of the top thin-client and virtualization partners in the country, said he expects Ayres appointment to lead to a channel renaissance for IGEL.
"Jed believes in a channel-first approach to the business," said Bari. "It's incredible to have IGEL appoint someone like Jed who gets the channel and knows how to put money in the pockets of partners. Jed knows how to build a channel program and how to enable partners to earn money by selling solutions. He'll put the marketing dollars and resources needed into the program."
Ayres has the character, integrity, creativity and trusted relationships to take IGEL to higher ground, he said.
"Jed is a marketing Jedi," said Bari. "He is a force to be reckoned with and is going to bring excitement to IGEL and the channel. He is a marketing genius and one of the most creative people I know in this business."
Ayres said he is looking forward to driving sales growth working hand in hand with channel partners and key vendors. "It feels like this job was tailor-made for me," he said. "I know the partners, alliance vendors and customers. This is a big opportunity for IGEL and its partners."
Royal Caribbean Cruises and Madrid-based private equity firm Springwater Capital today announced an agreement to form a joint venture which will see Royal selling a 51 percent stake in Pullmantur and CDF to Springwater, which purchased Pullmantur's tour assets in 2014.
Pullmantur has been regarded as a distraction to Royal Caribbean leadership. The press release said the move was "dedicated to bringing culturally authentic, best-in-class cruise experiences tailored to Spanish and French tourists through the management of the Pullmantur and Croisieres de France cruise brands."
Neither Royal Caribbean or Springwater responded to questions from Cruise Industry News last week.
As part of the terms of the agreement, RCL will sell a 51 percent stake in Pullmantur and CDF to Springwater.
RCL will have a 49 percent stake, and retain full ownership of the ships and planes currently operated by Pullmantur and CDF, which will be leased into the joint venture. RCL will also provide marine operations services to Pullmantur and CDF through a management agreement.
This joint venture expands on the successful, pre-existing partnership between RCL and Springwater for the Wamos air transport, travel agency, and tour operation businesses. This investment also expands Springwater's existing tourism portfolio, which includes airline and travel agency investments in Spain, France and Portugal.
"Pullmantur and CDF have a long history of offering authentic, localized cruise vacations to their home markets," said Richard D. Fain, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Royal Caribbean. "We look forward to the new focus that this joint venture with Springwater will bring to these companies as they seek to grow."
Fain added: "Given the signs of recovery we have seen in the Spanish economy, as well as increased interest in cruising from tourists in France, we think this is the right time to bring together the extensive experience of our deeply valued employees at Pullmantur and CDF with the local travel and tourism expertise of the Springwater team. Springwater's local management presence in Madrid, coupled with RCL's long-standing history in cruise operations, will provide the foundation for improved returns in the future."
Martin Gruschka, Chief Executive Officer of Springwater, added: "We are delighted to announce the joint venture with Royal Caribbean, and look forward to working with Pullmantur and CDF employees. The transaction leverages our firm's travel sector expertise, and will take advantage of Pullmantur and CDF's strong client and travel industry relationships in the Spanish and French markets. These relationships paired with Royal Caribbean's cruise management will create the foundation for a successful, long-term strategic partnership."
The joint venture is expected to be completed later this year, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. It is expected to result in an immaterial one-time gain, which will be excluded from RCL's key metrics. Given the markets in which Pullmantur operates, the transaction is expected to have partially offsetting impacts on yields and expenses. The amount of these impacts will depend on when regulatory approvals are received and the transaction closes, but the net effect on the company's 2016 bottom line is expected to be neutral to marginally positive.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) posted a strong Q1, ended March 31, 2016, reporting net income of $73.2 million, or $0.32 per share, on revenues of $1.1 billion, up from a net loss of $21.4 million on revenues of $938.2 million last year.
Nevertheless, the results were below analysts expectations of $0.38 and the stock dropped nearly $3.00 in morning trading.
Earnings were driven by lower operating costs per passenger day combined with higher ticket prices and increased onboard spending.
Net revenue per passenger day was up significantly at $195.61 for Q1 of this year from $187.82 last year. Total operating expenses per passenger day dropped to $220.84 from $232.96. Gross revenue per passenger day was $251.47 for this year up from $248.98 last year.
Frank Del Rio, chairman and CEO, attributed the results to strong Caribbean demand and pricing offset by weakness in Europe and the drydocking of the Norwegian Pride.
For the second half of the year, Del Rio said pricing was up in the middle to high single digits with overall occupancy slightly down compared to this time last year.
Cruise capacity for the companys three brands will be up 10 percent in Q2 with the full year operation of the Norwegian Escape and the addition of the Sirena, and the earnings guidance is in the range from $0.80 to $0.85 compared to $0.69 last year.
The new Regent Explorer is expected to enter service in July. A sister ship has been ordered for 2020 delivery.
In other developments, Norwegian Cruise Line has a entered into a 40-day charter of the Norwegian Escape this fall at what Del Rio called premium pricing, and the NCLH is in the process of selling its land operations in Hawaii.
The full year earnings guidance is from $3.55 to $3.85 per year.
Del Rio reiterated that the company is on track to its stated target of $5.00 per share by 2017 and double-digit return on investment in 2016, growing to 14 percent by 2018.
As for Cuba, Del Rio promised a company ship would sail there by year-end.
We still believe Cuba will garner a yield premium, he said.
Enterprises are wasting little time in their transition to cloud computing. A recent study commissioned by Intel Security found that found that 80% of IT budgets will be allocated to cloud computing over the next 16 months. Hybrid deployments account for nearly one-fifth of enterprise cloud environments, a number thats very likely to rise as organizations speed deploy a broad and deep mix of cloud services.
Enterprises get the best of both worlds with hybrid cloud services offering the flexibility of private and public cloud services, said Scott Schober (@ScottBVS), President & CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems.
But this rapid transition presents new types of security risks.
From automatic updates to zero-day threats, hybrid environment security vulnerabilities are inevitable, said Robert Siciliano (@RobertSiciliano), CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com. There will always be gaps in security due to the complexity of these systems, regardless of ongoing assessments.
We asked Schober, Siciliano, and other IT security experts for tips to help security teams stay on top of the rapidly evolving threat landscape as organizations embrace the cloud. Heres what they had to say.
1. Integrate up and down the stack and across deployments
The Intel Security study found that the average organization uses 43 different cloud services. But just 35% use an integrated solution for managing security across all of those services.
Security risks arising from hybrid cloud systems are fairly common in organizations [that] typically develop private cloud systems initially and then expand by moving components into the public cloud, said David Waterson (@DavidLWaterson), founder and CEO of data security company SentryBay.
No wonder, then, that security considerations for hybrid cloud environments need to center around integration.
Organizations need to ensure that security between public cloud and private cloud is compatible, said Waterson. Hybrid systems introduce complexity into compliance issues the minimum standards met between the public and private clouds should satisfy compliance requirements.
Integration requires visibility across the entire environment public, private, and on-premise along with the proper tools and policies that ensure consistent levels of protection.
In order to keep hybrid cloud environments truly safe, it is essential that IT use encryption that works seamlessly across both private and third-party platforms, said Schober. Since the exchange of data between public and private servers is critical, things like encryption become paramount in order to secure that data.
Youll also need consistent policies and tools up and down your technology stack, working with cloud service providers to deploy the latest techniques in critical areas such as user identity and access management.
One way of increasing security is implementing multi-factor authentication access technologies, such as two factor-password and text message with a number or biometric identifier, said cybersecurity and legal consultant Bradley Shear (@bradleyshear). Threats are constantly evolving so vigilance is key and the ability to quickly respond to these emerging issues is paramount.
Sanjay Katkar (@sanjaykatkar), CTO of Quick Heal, recommends focusing on application security. IT security staffers should make sure the applications that are being deployed have gone through penetration testing and [have the proper] encryption, authentication and authorization, said Katkar. This is very important when preparing for handling targeted attacks, especially if your applications [are handling] sensitive data.
Cameron Brown (@AnalyticalCyber), a cyber defense adviser, also cited the importance of penetration and vulnerability testing, with a focus on testing both internal and external elements of the cloud infrastructure.
In this way, dependencies can be evaluated over time, with discrete security controls measured for effectiveness and adapted elastically to cope with evolving risks, said Brown.
Integration does not represent a new approach to security its more an extension of existing best practices across a hybrid environment.
The same issues apply to hybrid, pure play cloud, and on-premise systems: Protect and survive, said technology consultant Stephen ODonnell (@stephenodonnell).
2. Protect in real-time and never stop learning
Keeping on top of the risks and rapid changes in cloud technology requires an agile, real-time approach to security, incorporating it into the very fabric of the change management process as a critical core component, said Will Lassalle (@wlassalle), CIO of JLS Technology USA. This mindset will enable a continuously secure and compliant environment. Gone are the days of just becoming compliant right before an audit or being reactive to incidents.
Because cloud technologies and related security practices are evolving so quickly, security professionals need to rely on a variety of third-party resources to stay abreast of the constantly shifting threat landscape.
For example, the Computer Emergency Readiness Team Coordination Center maintains a database of vulnerabilities associated with the most common IT products, said cybersecurity professional Brett Miller (@DrBrettAMiller). In addition, Miller said, most vendors provide information relating to the vulnerabilities associated with their specific products. He also suggests subscribing to any number of blogs and webinars that cover security topics.
Chuck Brooks (@ChuckDBrooks), a corporate executive, public speaker, and author, advocates a similar broad-based learning approach. In a cybersecurity threat state of flux, information gathering is vital for any IT security team from a variety of sources, said Brooks. He recommends subscribing to US/CERT alerts and participating in organizations such as CompTIA and SANS, which offer updates and training.
Finally, do not underestimate the utility of social media for discovering the latest on threats and analysis, Brooks added. Many of the top people in the industry post on LinkedIn, Twitter, and hundreds of specialized social media groups.
IT consultant Duane Baker (@DBaker007) suggested that security teams are offered continuous access to professional development and opportunities to share experiences and techniques with their peers.
Miller recommends that cyber professionals attend at least three weeks worth of training annually.
This can be hard for some organizations to swallow, he said, but if an organization wants to protect its own along with customer and partner data, then the training of security professionals needs to be made a priority.
3. Be a team player
As mentioned earlier, ensuring end-to-end security requires visibility across public, private, and on-premise systems. Such visibility requires communication and collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders.
Good security is a team event, said Baker.
If you have any hope of staying ahead of the threats that are going to be presented through the journey of hybrid cloud adoption, you must learn that IT security staff cannot do it alone, said Corey Elinburg (@celinburg), chief cloud security architect with United Health Group. They are amazingly capable but finite creatures in an almost infinite world of new technology.
For starters, security teams need to be in sync with their colleagues in IT to ensure that security is a ground-up consideration for any new cloud initiatives.
Free-flowing communications with all IT departments in regards to security protocols, updates and emerging trends allows for the customer to stay on top of what might be a new risk and ahead of what is the next threat, said Siciliano, the IDTheftSecurity.com CEO.
Many organizations are concerned that overly restrictive security practices will stifle innovation. Thats why security teams must become unified in purpose and in practice with IT innovation teams, said Elinburg. His advice to security leaders: Don't resist that, embrace it. Become the innovation leader so you can set the terms of adoption, not struggle to manage the terms that were set for you.
IT security and software engineering departments are not as tight knit as they need to be, according to Ralph Rodriguez (@ralphopinions), founder and research fellow with Blue Hill Research. He suggests having a sponsor or advocate from each side attend the opposites meetings related to data security in the cloud.
The IT [security] sponsor needs to understand what software services are being deployed in this cloud and how the dev team is protecting this data, said Rodriguez. The dev sponsor needs to understand the tools and systems being used to monitor threats. This cross-pollination is a key step in protecting your ever-growing cloud.
Security teams also need clear communication with cloud service providers, assuring that the right service-level agreements are in place and that the lines of shared responsibility for assets, applications and infrastructure in the cloud are clearly articulated.
Collaboration between the provider and the customer is essential, said Siciliano.
What would you add to this list? Add your comments below.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission have opened parallel inquiries into the way smartphone security updates are issued and handled by major mobile carriers and device makers.
The two agencies say they are responding to the growing amount of personal information held in smartphones and a recent rise in the attacks on the security of that information.
The FCC has sent letters to AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular asking for information on their processes for reviewing and releasing security updates for mobile devices. The FTC has asked for similar information from Apple, Blackberry, Google, HTC, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, and Samsung.
The companies, which control the vast majority of mobile contracts and smartphone handsets sold in the U.S., have 45 days to respond, at which time the two agencies will analyze the responses and share data with each other.
The inquiries haven't risen to the level of a formal investigation or rulemaking, but they could depending on what is discovered.
"We're attempting to get an assessment on the state of what carriers do to push out patches for device vulnerabilities, how quickly they do it, and what are some of the barriers and challenges they have," said Neil Grace, a spokesman for the FCC.
As part of its inquiry, the FTC is asking for information about when device makers learn of vulnerabilities from software and chip vendors and when or if they issue security updates.
Because cellular carriers customize the software on their devices, it's often not possible for operating system vendors like Google to push updates directly to consumers. The updates have to be submitted to carriers and then work through the carrier's own control process before being released.
Part of the motivation for the inquiry was the Stagefright vulnerability that hit hundreds of millions of Android phones last year. Stagefright left phones vulnerable if a user clicked on a specially formatted MMS message.
Google provided a fix but had to wait until cellular carriers pushed the update to customers. On older phones, some consumers might not have received the update at all.
A report from Duo Labs examines the general health of 2 million devices, all of them running the Duo's two-factor authentication application. The devices, including laptops, desktops, tablets, and phones, highlight the pain that comes with allowing users to incorporate their own devices into the network.
In Verizon's most recent Data Breach Investigations Report, the data showed that basic defenses continue to be sorely lacking in many organizations.
And while security professionals continue to doubt Verizon's list of exploited vulnerabilities, the general fact that previously patched vulnerabilities are often the primary target of criminals holds true it's why patching and patch management is so important.
However, when Duo Labs looked at the state of their customer devices, again working with a sample of 2 million systems, there was a clear gap when it comes to basic security hygiene.
"Our data indicates a high rate of out-of-date and vulnerable endpoints that can expose your companys apps and data to malware, credential theft, and a potential data breach," the report states.
Of the devices with Java and Flash installed, the majority of the installations were out of date 60-percent for Flash and 72-percent for Java.
Vulnerable Flash and Java installations are one of the reasons criminals have been able to spread Ransomware to organizations the across the globe. All it takes is just one vulnerable installation for the criminal to get a foothold, and most exploit kits serving Ransomware target Flash and Java.
HTML 5 has rendered Flash obsolete for the most part, but Java continues to be required for legacy systems, which organizations need for day-to-day operations. Until they can both be fully wiped from the network, they're a known risk that administrators will have to deal with.
Another problem is Internet Explorer.
Duo Labs discovered that 25-percent of the Windows devices in their data set were running outdated versions of the browser, and half of the Windows XP systems are on either Internet Explorer version 7 or version 8.
Given that Internet Explorer is still something many organizations can't just dump, ensuring that the latest version is available is the best option. No one can ignore the fact that Microsoft's legacy browser has a huge target painted on its side.
Speaking of browsers:
"Eighty-two percent of Chrome users are up to date, compared to 58 percent of Edge and IE 11 users, and 66 percent of Firefox users. Chrome users may be more up to date than other browsers since Google rolls out updates and new versions automatically to Chrome, without required approval from the user." - Duo Labs, Trusted Access Report
Finally, Mac users were generally more up to date than Windows users when it came to OS footprints. The report notes that only 35-percent of the Windows installations were currently supported by Microsoft. On the other side of that coin, 53-percent of the OS X installations were current.
Duo Labs suggests that this is because Apple's updates are generally more stable and don't require any testing or staging.
In some cases, this is true, but Apple has a way of incorporating updates as part of their experience, so many users simply want them. When it comes to Microsoft on the other hand, updates are a chore and have been known to break things.
When it comes to security, having the basics in place (or the ability to do them) will save organizations from many problems. However, a lack of basics is a great way to ensure that what would've been a small issue, transforms into a time-consuming resource drain of a nightmare.
The full report is available on the Duo Labs website.
The U.K.'s National Crime Agency (NCA) failed in its attempt to use what critics described as a legal backdoor to force a suspected hacker to provide the decryption key for data on multiple devices.
Lauri Love, 31, was arrested by U.K. authorities in 2013 under suspicion of hacking into computers belonging to multiple U.S. government agencies including NASA, the FBI, the Federal Reserve, and the Army.
Love is the subject of separate indictments in courts in New Jersey, New York, and Virginia and faces extradition to the U.S. An extradition hearing is scheduled for the end of June.
When Love was arrested in 2013, the U.K. police also seized electronic equipment from his home, including two laptops, a hard disk drive, and an SD card. Love was later released, and the NCA decided not to press any charges in the U.K., but kept some of his devices holding encrypted data.
Love wants those devices back and has filed a civil application under the U.K.'s Police (Property) Act 1897 to recover them. During his application's pre-trial proceedings, the NCA asked the judge to use the court's "good case management" powers to direct Love to provide the encryption key or password for the data stored on three hardware devices.
In the U.K., police have the power to request passwords and decryption keys from suspects under section 49 of Part III of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). Failure to comply with such requests can be prosecuted and carries a prison sentence. However, RIPA also has safeguards, including human rights ones, for recipients of section 49 notices.
In fact, the NCA did serve a RIPA notice on Love in February 2014 requesting that he provide the password to decrypt the data. Love declined, saying that he had no information to give, and the NCA decided not to enforce the notice.
District Judge Nina Tempia declined the NCA's new request.
"After reading the papers and hearing from the parties, I am not granting the application because in order to obtain the information sought the correct procedure to be used, as the NCA did two and a half years ago, is under section 49 RIPA, with the inherent [Human Rights Act] safeguards incorporated therein," Tempia, of the Magistrate's Court, said in her ruling on Tuesday.
The case is important because had the judge accepted the NCA's request to order Love to produce the decryption key, it would have set a dangerous precedent, allowing police in the U.K. to bypass the few protections that exist for suspects to protect their passwords, some privacy advocates said.
"By requesting a direction as part of the civil application, the National Crime Agency is seeking to sidestep the RIPA scheme and effectively circumvent ... safeguards and the protections of the Code of Practice," legal journalist David Allen Green said in a blog post.
The ruling has no direct bearing on Love's extradition proceedings but might complicate the efforts of U.S. prosecutors if they counted on the NCA recovering evidence from Love's devices.
There's a parallel case in the U.S., where the FBI tried to force Apple to decrypt a seized iPhone using the provisions of a 1789 law called the All Writs Act. Critics argued the law was not intended to be used in this way.
On Tuesday, South Korean officials announced an investigation into a security incident at Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co., one of the key contractors involved with building out the nation's naval fleet.
North Korea is their top suspect, despite a lack of evidence.
According to local media reports, first published by Yonhap, South Korea's Defense Security Command released a statement that they've opened an investigation into the April 20 hacking at Hanjin.
"After identifying signs that Hanjin Heavy Industries may have been hacked on April 20, the Defense Security Command is currently leading a security investigation into whether any military secrets were leaked and whether North Korea was involved," official sources told the news service.
Hanjin is responsible for the development of some of the largest frigates and amphibious assault vessels used by South Korea's Navy, including the ROKS Dokdo. At this stage of the investigation, officials said there isn't any concrete evidence proving DPRK was behind the attack, but they're not going to rule out the possibility.
"North Korea could have been involved, but we are not absolutely sure at this stage," the official said.
The naming of North Korea as a suspect in a recent DIB hacking incident has peculiar timing.
For the last week, Salted Hash has had sources close to active IR investigations discussing artifacts and IOCs that suggest Lazarus Group has been active recently.
Lazarus Group is the name given to a group of actors, which many believe to be responsible for a number of attacks over the years, including the hack at Sony Pictures and attacks against other DIB contractors in South Korea.
The group is believed to have strong ties to DPRK, but others believe they're officially sanctioned by the rogue nation directly. There is nothing solid to suggest the IR investigations and the Hanjin attack are related, but the timing is certainly odd.
DPRK officials have said this latest investigation is nothing more than a political play, calling the reported attacks at Hanjin fabricated.
BRIDGEPORT The City Council voted on what amounts to a work-in-progress, $550.3 million budget Monday night.
A chunk of money totaling $3.6 million that was supposed to go to education and to trim the hit to taxpayers was instead set aside in a contingency account, as the city waits for the state to pass its own budget.
The hope was that by the time Mayor Joe Ganim and the Council convene again in roughly a month to set the tax rate, Connecticut lawmakers will have reached their own deal and Bridgeport will know what that means for state aid.
If the current projection for state aid goes up, $1.5 million of that $3.6 million would go to schools, and the rest to balance the budget, lessening the need to raise taxes. If state aid is cut, that $3.6 million would be used to patch the holes leaking red ink, and taxes would inch up even higher.
Were buying time, City Clerk Lydia Martinez said.
That could mean a strategic, time-saving veto from Ganim. Under the City Charter, if the mayor accepts the budget, he and the City Council have 21 days to set a tax rate. But if he vetoes it, they gain another seven days beyond that 21 to await the states budget.
Strategy aside, there seems little other reason for Ganim to veto the budget. It was a compromise between the executive and legislative branches and Democratic Town Chairman Mario Testa, who made a rare appearance at the council meeting.
I just like to see what the council people are up to, Testa told a reporter.
Ganims initial proposal since returning to office he ran the city from 1991 to 2003 came in at $560.3 million.
It also, roughly, spiked the prospective tax or mill rate from 42.1 mills to 51.4 mills. A mill rate equals the amount of taxes needed to pay for the budget divided by the assessed value of all taxable properties in the city, multiplied by 1,000.
That mill rate can then be divided by 1,000 and multiplied by an individual property assessment to arrive at an average tax bill.
No hard numbers were provided Monday to help residents anticipate what this new budget means for their tax bills. But Council President Thomas McCarthy said following Mondays vote that the mill rate under the current budget will likely still be around 50 mills or above.
That still means less of a tax hit for some had Ganims budget not been whittled down by the council since the mayor first unveiled it in early April.
Team Ganim, all along, has gotten some cover from a recent drop in property values, which the administration claims provides an automatic tax break to around half the property owners. But that still left the other half, including plenty of businesses whose real estate did not experience a similar decline.
Ganims budget had also flat-funded education something the council did not want to do.
There was some other shifting around of numbers on Monday. The council agreed to restore four positions members had wanted to cut, including $64,000 to keep ex-Police Chief Wilbur Chapman on board for another several months as the mayors public safety adviser. Also, despite discussion, the third of three new police classes totaling around 100 officers was not delayed.
The council did prevail in reducing the amount of concessions the mayor wanted from unions, from $5 million to $4 million, McCarthy said. And he said the council also eliminated $3.8 million that some suspected Ganim had set aside for potential raises to his allies in the police union, whose contract is up for renegotiation.
HARTFORD In the middle of an identity crisis over Donald Trump, Connecticut Republicans nominated both a Latino and an openly gay GOP candidate for Congress nationally Monday night at their state party convention.
Retired Marine Angel Cadena Jr. of Shelton and Sherman First Selectman Clay Cope emerged with the GOP endorsements in the 3rd and 5th congressional districts. State Rep. John Shaban of Redding was the choice of 4th District Republicans to challenge U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn.
Their political fortunes along with those of a party that hasnt won a congressional or statewide election since 2006 are now wedded to the lightning rod Trump.
Despite a Trumps landslide in last months GOP primary in the state, the real estate mogul remains an acquired taste for the party of George H.W. Bush and William F. Buckley Jr.
Heres the trick. Help Donald Trump, dont harm him, Larry Kudlow, the CNBC financial maven and Redding resident, told nearly 1,200 GOP delegates at the Connecticut Convention Center. Dont crucify him.
Kudlow might have appeared on the same ticket as Trump himself, exploring a run for U.S. Senate earlier this year, but ultimately opted not to run. As of press time, Republicans still had not settled on an endorsement for Senate among 1984 Olympian August Wolf, state Rep. Dan Carter of Bethel and Michael Kors fashion label co-founder Jack Orchulli of Darien.
In addition to nominating candidates for Congress, Republican leaders approved a slate of 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention that were all won by Trump. They include former wrestling executive and two-time Senate candidate Linda McMahon of Greenwich.
Last month, in the same cavernous convention hall, Trump drew more than 6,000 supporters to a rally in the states capital city. A cardboard cutout of Trump and Ronald Reagan greeted delegates onto their way into the convention hall from a happy hour reception the drink of choice for many Scotch on the rocks. Many posed for photos with the likeness of Trump, a linkage that Democrats in the state are all too eager to try to exploit.
It didnt matter which Senate or House candidates they nominate, any one of them would be a rubber-stamp for Donald Trump and his agenda, state Democratic Chairman Nick Balletto said on a conference call earlier Monday. The Trump Republican agenda is simply too extreme for Connecticut.
State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said Trumps positions on Muslim immigration and abortion are wildly out of step with Connecticut values.
As a matter of fact, we should coin him with the nickname Dangerous Donald, Osten said on the same conference call.
Former Norwalk Republican Mayor Richard Moccia said Democrats wanting the election to be a referendum on Trump should be careful what they wish for.
And the Republicans are going to make it a referendum on Hillary, Moccia told Hearst in an interview.
Moccia said the GOP needs to galvanize behind Trump and put the bitter primary season in the rear-view mirror.
To be divisive and not support him, I think, would be a mistake, Moccia said.
Leora Levy, a newly-elected Republican National Committee member from Greenwich who supported Jeb Bush and then Ted Cruz for president, said its time for Republicans to get behind the presumptive nominee.
neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
MILFORD The driver of a car struck head-on by a wrong-way driver on I-95 here last month has died of his injuries.
Terrell Wilson, 24, of Second Street in Norwich, died Monday, a family spokesman told the New London Day. Wilson had been an alderman in Norwich for one term, from 2013-2015.
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Donald Trump isnt the only candidate to toss around the word crooked to describe the Republican nominating process.
So is August Wolf, who fell short Monday night of qualifying for a U.S. Senate primary during the state GOP convention in Hartford.
Now the 1984 Olympian and money manager from Stamford is hinting that he could try to petition his way onto the primary ballot against state Rep. Dan Carter, R-Bethel, the overwhelming choice of party stalwarts to challenge Democratic incumbent Richard Blumenthal.
I wasnt treated fairly last night! Wolf Tweeted Tuesday afternoon. Arm twisting from do-nothing politicians at crooked convention! Wow.
The political newcomer then Tweeted, IT WAS A SHAM.
Wolf declined to comment further Tuesday, but has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday in Hartford to discuss the future of his candidacy.
Republicans are accustomed to bitter primary feuds in Connecticut, with the survivors at times limping into the general election against incumbent Democrats with widespread name recognition. Its been a formula for futility for the GOP, which hasnt won a statewide or congressional race in a decade.
Carter, a U.S. Air Force veteran who is in his third term in the Legislature, won 907 of 1,050 delegates (86 percent). Wolf got 123 delegates (12 percent), which was below the 15 percent threshold for automatically qualifying for an August primary. Michael Kors fashion label co-founder Jack Orchulli, of Darien, dropped out of the race and urged his supporters to embrace Carter. Wolf dipped below 15 percent when delegates were allowed to switch their votes.
If Augie wants to be a Republican and if Augie wants to run for something as a Republican someday, I think he should look at this as a learning opportunity, support the party and look at the next opportunity, Carter told Hearst Connecticut Media Tuesday.
Wolf must collect signatures from 8,079 registered Republicans (2 percent of party members) by June 7 to force a primary against Carter, who questioned the wisdom of such an endeavor.
If he does come across as a sore loser to the Republican Party or people in the state, I think that would hurt his chances of ever winning anything, Carter said. It would be pointless, in a way. It would hurt all of our chances of beating Dick Blumenthal.
While there is one school of thought that primaries offer challengers a chance to hone their campaign skills and gain exposure, some say it would behoove the states minority party to avoid primaries this year.
I dont see how a primary is in any way beneficial (for) the party out of power now, said Gary Rose, chairman of the Department of Government and Politics at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. They have to marshal their resources.
Asked about the prospect of contested primaries for the Senate or House, state GOP Chairman J.R. Romano said in a text message Tuesday, It is always encouraging to see so many Republicans willing to make this country great again.
No other candidates have given any indications that they would go the petition route.
In the 5th District, Sherman First Selectman Clay Cope got 226 of 247 delegates (91 percent) to challenge U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn. A request for comment was left Tuesday for Bill Stevens, the Newtown businessman who got 21 delegates.
Stevens would have to collect signatures from 1,865 registered Republicans in the district, which stretches from Danbury to the Farmington Valley and includes Litchfield County, Meriden and New Britain.
neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
Outsourcing. It is not an unfamiliar word in the entrepreneurial sphere. More and more entrepreneurs are trying to infuse this tactic in their business to be more productive.
With books like "The 4 Hour Work Week," the benefits of outsourcing have been overstated. Many entrepreneurs want to start outsourcing. However, many of them do not know where to start.
First, it is important for the entrepreneur to know and plan which areas of their business are better suited to be outsourced to an agency or group of freelancers.
There is no doubt that there are parts of your business that you would prefer not to do, whether it is due a lack of competency or interest. Why spend days or weeks working on tasks that are simply frustrating for you? Would it not be better to outsource those things to someone who has a track record of delivering superb results?
Related: 5 Questions to Help Decide If Outsourcing Is the Solution
If you are facing difficulty in choosing what to outsource, consider delegating these three tasks to increase productivity and free up your time for other activities.
Social media.
To many entrepreneurs, it appears that social media is overrated. It is partially true. However, it would be foolish to run a business without having a social media presence.
Social media can easily become time consuming. Every entrepreneur has their own social media addiction, whether that is Facebook or YouTube. There is no doubt that those social media feeds are distracting, but you do not have to overwhelm yourself with it. It is better to outsource it.
Depending on your preference, you may find one of the following approaches suitable for your business.
Hands-off approach -- Assign your assistant to create and schedule your social media posts. They can create a HootSuite account and start syncing your social media accounts. Then, they can start creating and scheduling your social media posts via the dashboard. With the hands-off approach, your assistant will focus on creating and scheduling lots of content while adjusting posts to match themes and trends, when necessary.
2. Hands-on approach -- Assign your assistant to dedicate a set amount of hours to social media. This approach is similar to the hands-off approach, with the addition of having your assistant to interact with the audience in either real-time or on a frequent basis.
3. Hybrid approach -- Assign your assistant to create and schedule your social media posts as well as infrequently interacting with the commenters. This approach is similar to the hands-on approach with the difference being the interaction is not as frequent. So, for example, your assistant may check social media for comments and questions twice a day rather than every two hours during their work shift.
I have always advised entrepreneurs to stick to the maximum of two social media channels. However, when you have an assistant, you may find it worth adding another social media channel to your marketing arsenal.
Related: Should Your Startup Outsource Tech? 4 Questions to Help You Decide
Although, please keep in mind that it is better to put out a consistent feed of content on a few social media channels than to put out an inconsistent feed of content on many social media channels. Make sure that you have a clear social media strategy before delegating it to your assistant.
Public relations.
Almost every entrepreneur wants their brand to be on television and in popular publications. It is getting featured that is the difficult part for the entrepreneur. Unless public relations are one of your strengths, it is in your best interest to outsource it to someone who has PR experience (preferably someone who has significantly more experience than you).
There are several free PR services, but the most popular one is HARO (Help A Reporter Out). I would recommend starting there first. I have used HARO to get featured on Monster.com and in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Related: Why Your Company Should Consider Outsourcing Content Creation
Website support.
As your brand becomes more popular, this area will become more important.
Your website is your home. There is an adage that says, Your first impression may be your last. Wouldnt you want to assure that website visitors are getting the best impression of your brand?
While website providers like Wordpress and Squarespace have made it easier to administer your site, it is probably not a good idea to invest much time in it, especially if your intention is to grow your brand as quickly as possible.
Instead, outsource this area of your business to someone else. Whoever you choose can not only keep your website current with content but can interact with the audience by replying to blog post comments and answering emails.
In an era where competition is at an all-time high, it is pertinent to maximize productivity by leveraging other peoples time. Outsourcing is your most important form of leverage. If you want to grow your business fast or even put your business on auto-pilot, nothing will be more important than outsourcing.
Related:
Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
As graduation season draws near, employers eagerly anticipate the fresh pool of talent about to enter the workforce. However, they should perhaps also anticipate ways in which they can best equip that talent with the tools and knowledge these young people will need to succeed in their new roles.
Related: Employees Yearn to Learn. Here's What Employers Can Do to Help.
Such preparation is crucial: Adecco Staffings second annual Way to Work Generational Survey recently revealed that an alarming 74 percent of participating millennial and Gen Z respondents reported feeling as though their colleges and universities had failed to fully prepare them for their post-grad careers.
While the reason for that gap between education and professional development may be debated, employers won't argue the need to prepare today's new workers for tomorrows skills. Here are two areas to think about: training and retention tactics.
Training 101
First, employers should determine what skills are most important for an entry-level job in their organizations. In a survey in which 536 C-Suite executives assessed their respective workforces, they were asked to identify specific skills employees most often lacked. Here, 41 percent of those executives identified critical thinking and/or problem solving as the toughest skill to recruit for.
While some would argue that those skills are impossible to teach, the savviest companies are actually answering the call, developing techniques from simulations requiring problem-solving, to training devoted specifically to critical thinking.
In addition to such soft skills, hiring managers recognize the value of on-site training to fine-tune employees hard skills, as well. In fact, one guide to building a better workforce found that 48 percent of best-in-class companies studied had increased their company training for just such critical skill areas.
Consider, for example, an onboarding program to increase new hires' digital literacy with technologies they may need in their roles. Webinars can be used to help employees improve their hard skills in such areas as writing, coding and public speaking, depending on the industry involved.
Employers might also consider helping job seekers develop critical professional skills before they enter the workforce. Ways to do this include fostering mentorships with aspiring candidates. Companies are offering job "shadowing" opportunities to college students; Adecco's CEO for One Month program, for example, cultivates problem-solving and leadership skills not traditionally taught as part of standard university curriculums.
Some companies partner directly with schools and universities on programs to ensure that students will have the skills they need. Participating employers also reap benefits, by building a strong pipeline for candidates trained in they skills necessary they need.
Related: Amping Up Employee Tech Skills Is a Bargain With These 4 Tools
Retention smarts
Once employers attract and secure top talent, its important to ensure they retain their best employees. The Way to Work survey found that one-quarter of Gen Z and Millennials believed someone should stay at a first job for one year or less, indicating a propensity by the youngest generation of workers to job-hop.
According to the Center for American Progress, the cost of replacing an employee ranges from 10 percent to 30 percent of that job's annual salary, depending on the industry, and length of time on the job -- making turnover expensive and employee retention strategy a top priority.
To keep unwanted turnover rates low, employers should help junior employees craft a desirable career trajectory within the company. According to the survey cited, 36 percent of students said that the opportunity for growth was their top priority for finding and taking a job. As such, Gen Z and millennial workers should be shown that they are valued, with opportunities to take on small leadership roles within the business.
For instance, if a specific part of a project can be delegated, these employees should be enabled to "own it." Competencies expected should be outlined from the outset so employees can eventually demonstrate how theyve mastered a skill and know when they can expect to take on additional responsibility.
Similarly, a company should be transparent about its policies regarding raises and promotions. Clear expectations should be set around performance reviews and the frequency of assessments. If a company has other procedures in place that determine who is eligible for a raise or promotion, and when, that too should be communicated to a new hire from the beginning.
College graduates entering the workforce can pose unique challenges for businesses, in terms of the training they need for skills not taught at their academic institutions.
Related: 4 of the Hottest Markets for Professionals Who Want to Teach and Train Others
If your company is hiring such workers, take the time to formalize a plan that ensures that your entry-level employees feel prepared and ready to exceed your expectations. Youll reap the benefits once they evolve into some of your most trusted workers.
Related:
Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Pouting potentates like J.R. Romano, the leader of Connecticut Republicans, will always be with us.
Romano, of Derby, the chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, banned a reporter from covering his partys convention Monday because the reporter had written news stories that apparently irked the chairman.
The reporter he chose to ban was Neil Vigdor, who is Hearst Connecticut Medias political reporter. And with all due respect to Vigdor, a fine reporter, its not about him.
Im tired of him having unnamed sources, Romano said.
Ah, the irony. No reporter enjoys using unnamed sources. Its far more persuasive when you can attach a persons name to a statement.
Sometimes, though, in the interest of getting at a truth that would otherwise go unreported, a reporter will protect a source up to and including, in some cases, going to jail and grant the source anonymity.
In fact, given Romanos vindictive turn toward a reporter, wed suggest that the GOP chairman is precisely the type of man who contributes to the continuing need to protect sources.
If Romanos nose is out of joint, my, my. Just imagine how peeved Richard Nixon must have been, what with those Woodward and Bernstein fellows talking to people all over Washington.
On the one hand, Romanos little fit has probably drawn more attention than it warrants. After all, he relented on Monday and said Vigdor could attend. The chairman saw the light after, wed imagine, some of the more experienced and sensible members of his constituency explained the First Amendment to him.
As House Minority Leader Themis Klarides said, Banning a member of the press because you may disagree with coverage is not a wise move.
So the sun came up today. The convention was covered. Neil Vigdor and all the political reporters of Connecticut will continue to talk with anyone they please even Republicans. It is, of course, yet another irony that presumptive Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump found Vigdor professional enough in the days before the Connecticut presidential primary to sit with him for an exclusive one-on-one interview.
And, in the interest of informing their thousands of readers of what is actually occuring as opposed to what control artists like the Romanos of the world would have them believe the Vigdors of the profession will write stories for those readers.
On the other hand, we do need to dwell on Romanos chutzpah for a moment: as noted above, his ilk would control peoples right to know the truth, whether it be the antic inner-workings of some political party or something actually important.
Over the years, Republicans have contributed mightily to Connecticut, up to and including the Republican General Assembly minority that this year was forceful and effective in bringing a dose of reality to budget negotiations in Hartford.
That legacy doesnt deserve to be even remotely soiled by the tantrum of a petulant state chairman, however long he may last.
STAMFORD A Bridgeport teen was charged early Tuesday with assaulting the 72-year-old, bat-wielding grandmother of her friend who thought she was a burglar, police said.
Sgt. Robert Littlejohn said Amber Stephenson, 19, was hanging out with a friend who invited her to spend the night at her grandmothers home on Avon Lane. But the friend told Stephenson she needed to stay on the porch and couldnt come inside, Littlejohn said.
Pa. is about to vote. Here's what to know about voting and ballot access in 2022
Elections
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Charlie Crist square off in their only TV debate
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Democrat Charlie Crist are expected to tussle over the economy, abortion and culture war issues.
The power suit has moved out of the office and onto the street in a variety of colours with the celebrity support of Julia Roberts and Cate Blanchett.
by Damien Woolnough
The gaudy outfits of Miss Piggy, mean she is surely the style icon of the filthy rich, writes Craig Brown
The other day I was in Sloane Street in Knightsbridge, walking past any number of expensive boutiques and luxury goods stores.
I was struck, above all, by the hideousness of the items in the highly polished windows.
The trouble with extremely rich people is that they feel duty-bound to signal their extreme wealth to passers-by, perhaps unaware that most of them are, at best, indifferent and, at worst, resentful.
But these days, those who wish to display their wealth are in for a tough time. Not long ago, expensive clothes were more attractive than cheap clothes.
The more you paid, the better you looked; if you wanted something that fitted perfectly, you would have to invest in haute couture.
Today, the availability of stretchy fabrics such as Lycra has ensured that even the cheapest clothes fit well.
And stores such as H&M and Topshop have meant that fashion has become democratised: for very little money, you can buy clothes that are beautiful, stylish, sexy, sassy, etc, etc, and are available everywhere.
This has left the very rich in a pickle. Now that attractive clothes are available to all and sundry, the rich obviously cant carry on wearing them or no one will twig how rich they are.
So, they have been driven to flash their wealth by wearing clothes that are too gaudy, too hideous, too dripping in gold and silver and yes! too expensive for the general public.
Hey presto! Luxury has become synonymous with vulgarity.
Sloane Street, reads the official website, is Londons premiere shopping avenue for the worlds most revered luxury brands.
I cannot recommend this website too highly, particularly for those who want a good laugh.
It is written in a sort of loopy, free-fall version of English, almost as though someone had cut trendy words from a dictionary statement, vision, lifestyle, creative, avant garde and thrown them any old how into the air.
For instance, they describe Versace as a one-stop shop from fragrances that will amplify the sensual odor of women with striking aura of scent.
Meanwhile, Atelier Versace is a small line of attire that dresses some of the most distinguished and visually demanding woman.
So, if you happen to be a visually demanding woman who wants to amplify her sensual odor for some reason, Miss Piggy springs to mind you know where to go.
Meanwhile, we are informed that a store called, off-puttingly, Billionaire Couture, was founded by Italian lifestyle tycoon Flavio Briatore, who has brought to reality the vision of a confident fashion label for men that epitomises masculine haute couture with every-day wear ability.
His stores have, at customer selection, hand-cut jeans and loafers featuring persuasive designs.
As an entrepreneur, Briatore has not neglected finishing touches. Exotic materials such as alligator skin on belts and gold on buttons ensure that Billionaire Couture makes an impression on both the wearer and whoever he greets.
A store called Billionaire Couture, founded by Italian lifestyle tycoon Flavio Briatore (pictured), sells horrible snakeskin belts and a t-shirt that looks as if a bit of damp newsprint has rubbed off on it
By the way, a horrible Billionaire Couture snakeskin belt costs 877; a T-shirt with what they call a striking logo design, which looks as though a bit of damp newsprint has rubbed off on it, costs 308; and a pair of Slim Biker Jeans, which look as though they have been bought second-hand from a down-at-heel charity store, cost 1,113.
These, we are told, showcase the brands rebellious side.
Those looking for something more straightforward are promised Escada is a chic brand with a unpretentious personality that is brought about by the its accessibility and the stores settled and kind store ambiance.
Come again?
A store called Jitrois is an exploration of how magnificent lambskin is when stretched into a fitted dress with pronounced shoulders (2,450), while Sandro is an outgoing brand delivering a multi- personality assortment of womenswear that is opened to the imagination of various dress sense.
People wishing to put their pricy new clothes into the most expensive suitcase possible must already know where to go.
After all, walking into Louis Vuitton presumably the writer means the store, not the person is a euphoria of taking part in a retail experience.
Those who wish to feel the euphoria of taking part in a retail experience without paying quite so much are advised to try their local Tesco.
And so it goes on. In Dolce & Gabbana, where ever you look is a purse with an animal print, fine denim with a metal plaque on the waist or an extrovert strapless dress perfect for an evening out regardless of what you look your eyes on, it wants to be touched, worn and make you look the part.
The great Edwardian writer Logan Pearsall Smith once observed that he loved to go window shopping, thinking of all the things I dont desire.
By so wildly exaggerating the risks of Brexit, David Cameron is in grave danger of becoming his own worst enemy
By so wildly exaggerating the risks of Brexit, David Cameron is in grave danger of becoming his own worst enemy.
Only a few months ago, Mr Cameron calmly and sensibly warned that unless Brussels yielded to British demands for fundamental reform, we will have to think again about whether this European Union is right for us.
Yet now, in an apocalyptic escalation of Project Fear, he declares that if we vote to leave the EU, war and genocide are all too likely to result.
Those two statements simply cannot be reconciled. Either Brexit is a sane response to the pitifully inadequate outcome of renegotiation, or else it is a mad gamble which may well plunge Europe into bloodshed.
No wonder Mr Camerons Eurosceptic colleagues have become so suspicious of what he says. They feel he has strung them along, by pretending he would only ever settle for serious reform, and then seeking to terrify people into voting for an EU which is essentially unaltered.
Boris Johnson yesterday traced this glaring contradiction back to the 2013 Bloomberg speech, in which Mr Cameron insisted we need fundamental, far-reaching change if we were to stay in the EU. As Mr Johnson pointed out, the Government has obtained nothing remotely resembling that degree of reform, so should logically be campaigning on the Leave side.
Isnt it ironic that having called the referendum with the aim of holding the Conservatives together, Mr Cameron whose ability to unite a congenitally fractious party has been one of his great strengths should now be deepening the rift between the two sides.
Hysteria of the luvvies
How unedifying, to put it mildly, to find the BBC broadcasting, in its coverage of the Bafta TV Awards, a series of unbalanced and ill-informed attacks by the winners on the Governments plans for the corporation.
Do these luvvies not realise how bad their hysterical special pleading sounds? Since so many of them receive enormous, though unspecified, payments from the BBC, they are inevitably open to the charge that they have consciously or unconsciously confused their own interests with those of the corporation.
Last year, a letter signed by 29 BBC stars, which claimed the Governments reform plans would damage Britain, was indeed found, despite initial denials, to have been orchestrated by BBC bosses.
Bafta chairman, and former BBC executive, Anne Morrison seized the chance to declare, ahead of publication of Thursdays White Paper on the future of the BBC, that our television industry is the envy of the world
On this occasion, while theres no evidence of quite the same level of co-ordination, suspicions are understandable. The tone of the evening was set by Bafta chairman, and former BBC executive, Anne Morrison, who seized the chance to declare, ahead of publication of Thursdays White Paper on the future of the BBC, that our television industry is the envy of the world.
She was followed by Peter Kosminsky, director of the award-winning drama Wolf Hall, who accused the Government of planning to turn the BBC into a state broadcaster, a bit like those bastions of democracy Russia and North Korea.
This phrase (which the BBC was fortunately too ashamed to broadcast) shows just how unhinged the Bafta great and good have become.
Nobody denies that the corporation is a national asset producing a fantastic range of outstanding programmes, from Wolf Hall to Strictly Come Dancing. Nor does anyone deny that the White Paper will need the most careful scrutiny when it is published.
Britain has been hit by a plague of toxic caterpillars imported from the Netherlands. They have been spotted crawling around the South of England and there are fears they could soon spread throughout the rest of the country.
The caterpillars pose a threat to humans, domestic pets and livestock and carry thousands of tiny hairs which can trigger severe skin rashes, fevers and asthma attacks. Cats and dogs are particularly at risk. If they eat one of these larvae they could suffer hyper-salivation, swelling of the tongue, vomiting, respiratory distress and conjunctivitis.
The caterpillars will grow up to become Oak Processionary Moths, but until then they should be given a wide berth. The Forestry Commission has been forced to lay 1,500 traps and use industrial vacuum cleaners to catch them.
Britain has been hit by a plague of toxic caterpillars imported from the Netherlands
Andrew Hoppit, the Oak Processionary Moth Manager at the Forestry Commission, warned the public not to approach any caterpillar nests they might come across. Instead they should report all sightings using the Tree Alert tool on the commissions website.
The caterpillars first invaded Britain in 2005 and can strip the bark off an oak tree in no time. In Belgium, the army has been called in to incinerate their breeding grounds.
When I stumbled across this story yesterday, I originally assumed that it had come from the committee which meets in Whitehall once a week to give me something to write about.
They know how much I love rare species. The Oak Processionary Moth is right up there with the Depressed River Mussel, the Horrid Ground-weaver Spider and the Little Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail all of which made guest appearances in this column on Friday. As for Andrew Hoppit and his wonderful job title, well, you couldnt make him up.
OK, guys, Littlejohns running out of material. Any suggestions?
Ive got a great idea, boss. How about an invasion of toxic Dutch caterpillars? Hell love that. Anything he can blame on Europe. You know the kind of thing they come over here, they eat our trees, they kill our labradors . . . Why not?
A couple of months ago, I recalled the spoof scare story dreamed up at the time of the 1975 European referendum, warning that if Britain voted to quit we would be invaded by poisonous snakes, many of them millions of miles long, which would creep into our homes in the dead of night and eat our children.
Call Me Dave started this campaign in scare story overdrive and has since set the controls for the heart of the sun
Obviously, someone had seen this sketch in the archives, failed to realise it was a joke, and used it as a template for the Remain campaign. Confronted with the increasingly ludicrous horror stories coming out of the pro-EU camp, perhaps the Leavers have finally decided to fight fire with fire.
It certainly has all the ingredients: toxic caterpillars from Holland, which we are powerless to prevent from entering Britain while we remain in the EU. Its perfectly plausible: Europe has already given us Dutch elm disease.
Once theyre here, we cant get rid of them under the Yuman Rites Act because they can argue that if they were sent back their lives could be in danger especially from the sadistic Belgian armed forces.
We are not allowed to deport rapists, murderers and terrorists, so we wouldnt stand a chance with caterpillars. Next thing you know, theyd all be living in council houses, on benefits, and acting as a magnet for creepy-crawlies from all over Europe and beyond.
If that doesnt clinch it, then the notion that poisonous foreign caterpillars are coming over here to kill our cats and dogs should be enough to push millions of pet-loving dont knows into the Leave column.
Not that the Leavers have resorted to this kind of nonsense yet, but given the patronising drivel coming out of Remain they may have no choice.
Some of you might think Ive delved a little too deeply into the realms of fantasy here, but at least the threat from toxic caterpillars has the merit of actually being true unlike most of the guff were being force fed by the pro-EU propaganda machine.
A rock critic once said of Little Richard that he hit the ground running and accelerated from there. Call Me Dave started this campaign in scare story overdrive and has since set the controls for the heart of the sun.
His speech yesterday was absurd. Did you honestly ever think you would hear a British Prime Minister warning that a democratic vote to leave the EU would lead to genocide and World War III?
When youre made to look shifty and opportunistic by Boris Johnson, youre in big trouble
This is a man who six months ago said that if he didnt get the substantial reforms he promised us, he would personally lead the Leave campaign. If that was truly the case, then Cameron should have delivered the speech that Boris Johnson gave three hours later.
Sorry, folks, I did my best but they wouldnt budge. Its time to go. Instead, he is trying to bully Britain into staying in a rotting, unreformed, anti-democratic superstate.
His Flashman act is not a good look, as Quentin Letts wrote recently both in sorrow and anger.
Cameron has in most ways been a fine Prime Minister. But did he really rescue us from Gordon Brown and save us from the Ed Miliband/Wee Burney axis simply so he could deliver us neatly trussed to the corrupt cesspit in Brussels and condemn this country to decades more rule by arrogant, unaccountable foreign politicians and judges?
As Ive conceded previously, there is arguably a respectable case to be made for staying in the EU not that I accept it. But this isnt it. And Cameron knows it.
He is insulting the intelligence of the people who twice voted him into office. Daves deceit diminishes him.
When youre made to look shifty and opportunistic by Boris, youre in big trouble. Thats what happened yesterday. Whoever thought that Dave would manage to make BoJo seem statesmanlike, measured and honest?
Cameron has painted himself into a corner and is now trying to walk out over the paint, dragging the rest of us by the hair. The risible ramping-up of the scare stories is a sign of his increasing desperation.
Theres still a long way to go before June 23, but hes already shot his bolt. When youve wheeled out World War III, where else is there to go?
Bring on the toxic caterpillars!
First we were urged to switch to diesel engines because they were allegedly less polluting than petrol. Now were being forced out of diesels and told to adopt cleaner, greener cars.
But scientists at Edinburgh University have just discovered that so-called eco-cars fill the air with even more toxins than conventional vehicles. Its something to do with heavier batteries and tyre wear and tear.
You couldnt make it up.
Everybody back on the (diesel) coach.
The name is Bond, Delores Bonds ...
Another one of those headlines I thought Id never read. Mum on run with two girls was helped to flee by cross-dresser MI5 spy.
The spy in question is one David Shayler, who was briefly famous after exposing alleged wrongdoing in the secret service.
I interviewed Shayler a couple of times on radio and TV. From what I remember he was a mad Middlesbrough fan, so hell have enjoyed his teams promotion at the weekend.
But whistleblowing cost him his job and he suffered a breakdown. He was last seen dressed as a woman called Delores Kane, wearing false breasts, a mini-skirt and a ginger wig.
We cant begin to imagine the kind of pressures facing members of the security services. Its not that long ago that an MI6 agent was found dead zipped inside a gym bag.
I guess thats why they call them the Funny People.
The Pope has called on Catholics to show Christian charity and welcome millions more Muslims to Europe. I wonder if hell still be so keen when they turn the Vatican into a mosque.
Put your trousers on, bonny lad
The Northumbria Police Sex on Legs tribunal is the gift that keeps on giving.
It all kicked off with revelations of an alleged affair between Chief Constable Mike Craik and his assistant chief Carolyn Peacock and now seems to involve half the force.
By the time this case is over, therell hardly be a copper in the North East who hasnt been called to discuss the sexual shenanigans and subsequent alleged cover-up.
Im particularly looking forward to the evidence of Brenda Blethyns TV detective DCI Vera Stanhope.
The Prime Ministers speech at the British Museum yesterday (pictured) marked a desperate new low for the Remain campaign
The Prime Ministers speech at the British Museum yesterday marked a desperate new low for the Remain campaign.
He employed cod history, absurd conjecture, total non sequiturs and one straight- forward untruth to argue that the course of British history suggests we ought to stay in the European Union.
The cod history concerned his argument that isolationism has never served this country well. When we turn our back on Europe, sooner or later we come to regret it.
He used as illustrations for this phenomenon pivotal moments in European history. Blenheim, Trafalgar, Waterloo. Our countrys heroism in the Great War. And most of all our lone stand in 1940.
Yet in every single one of the five historical cases the Prime Minister mentioned, it was an independent and sovereign Britain that after years of close diplomatic and strategic engagement with the Continent stepped forward to save Europe from domination by various foreign powers.
Freedom
If, in any of the cases he mentioned, Britain had already been a member of the European union of the day be it the one dominated by Louis XIV and Napoleons France at the time of Blenheim, Trafalgar and Waterloo, or that under the heel of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler in the 20th century World Wars she would not have been able to save the cause of freedom.
It took British independence of action for her to be able to do that, from the War of Spanish Succession to World War II.
The very word isolation is a false one for the Prime Minister to throw about anyhow.
Even in the period of Britains so-called Splendid Isolation between 1895 and 1904 when the government reduced its involvement in European affairs to concentrate on colonial expansion in Africa and Asia our country still had multi- farious treaty obligations, trading connections and military responsibilities with Europe.
And it was the most important of these, the Belgium Guarantee of 1839 a pledge signed by European powers to guarantee Belgian independence that eventually took us into World War I, when Germany invaded the country in 1914.
So when the PM says that isolationism caused war, he could not be more wrong; not only was there no genuine isolationism, our close involvement with Europe failed to prevent a tragic and terrible war. If one looks for the era when Britain was at its most proud and powerful, one doesnt find it in the post-1973 period after we joined the EEC.
If Winston Churchill (pictured) had committed any more to trying to save the Continent in June 1940 we could have lost the Battle of Britain and suffered a Nazi invasion
Rather, it was between 1850 and 1945, when Britain decided her own destiny, untrammelled by the EUs qualified majority voting, the Strasbourg parliament and the European Court of Human Rights.
As for Britains lone stand against the Nazis in 1940, Camerons statement it wasnt through choice that we were alone is not only glaringly obvious, it is also a nonsensical argument for remaining in the EU.
Of course we would have preferred allies such as France to continue fighting Germany, but the reality was the Continent offered nothing but danger despite full British involvement before the war in the League of Nations, the Locarno Pact and every other European body designed to keep the peace.
Salvation
By contrast, salvation came from the non-European parts of the world such as the U.S. (which provided the money and weaponry), Russia (which provided the blood of 27 million killed) and the British Empire and Commonwealth (which provided much of the resources) to defeat Hitler.
If Winston Churchill had committed any more to trying to save the Continent in June 1940 specifically the six RAF fighter squadrons that would be so badly needed in the following months we could have lost the Battle of Britain and suffered a Nazi invasion.
George VI actually welcomed the temporary end of our European involvement, saying: Personally, I feel happier now that we have no allies to be polite to and to pamper.
Camerons assertion that Winston Churchill would not have voted for Brexit is the most ludicrous of all.
It is true that in his great post-war speeches at Zurich and The Hague, Churchill spoke in favour of a United States of Europe to bind France and Germany together, harmonising iron and steel production but he never once stated the UK should become a member of any such body.
He saw the Special Relationship with the U.S. and the fraternal bonds with the Commonwealth as far more important, and when he had the opportunity in his post-war ministry to involve Britain in the early EEC negotiations, he kept Britain free of them.
For Cameron to state there is something unpatriotic about voting for Brexit is to betray a fundamental ignorance of the nature of a patriot, defined as one who defends or is zealous for his countrys freedom'
The Zurich speech took place in 1946; if he had wanted Britain to join the United States of Europe hed have said so by the time he left office in 1955.
Indeed, by 1962, when Harold Macmillans government was campaigning for British entry, Field Marshal Lord Montgomery visited the former PM in hospital and told reporters he had found Churchill sitting up in bed smoking a cigar, drinking whisky and protesting against Britains proposed entry into the Common Market.
For, as Churchill had written on May 9, 1938, in an article entitled The United States Of Europe: We have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not comprised. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed.
Churchill would undoubtedly have been pro-Brexit.
Montgomery, of course, had been Deputy Supreme Commander of Nato for most of the Fifties, and it has been that organisation which has kept the peace in Europe.
There is no question of Britain leaving Nato, indeed we are the second largest contributor to it after the U.S.
Far from falling for the PMs unsubstantiated warnings that Brexit will lead to war, we ought to look at what the EU itself has done to promote peace in its own continent.
For the greatest blood-letting on the Continent since World War II when a quarter of a million people died in the former Yugoslavian wars in the Nineties was not stopped, or even seriously hindered, by Brussels.
It took American air power to do that; once again the problem was made in Europe and the solution came from elsewhere.
If one is looking for tensions that make war more likely, one does not look at Brexit, but rather the terrifying rise of neo-Nazi parties across Europe, largely as a result of economic catastrophes wrought by the straitjacket nature of the euro.
Tensions
The tensions caused by taking democratic powers away from peoples and giving them to Brussels are precisely the ones that Brexit is designed to avoid.
For Cameron to use the white headstones in Commonwealth war cemeteries as part of his argument for allowing the EU to continue making 60 per cent of Britains laws, and for European judges to have the ultimate say over how our laws are interpreted, is to ignore the fact that the dead who lie below them fought for British independence and sovereignty, not for European unification.
I have known David Cameron personally for many years and have long been a great admirer. He is someone who reads a great deal of history and biography which is why he must know that his argument is nonsense and is testament to the panic said to be reigning in Downing Street at the Governments polling on Brexit.
Furthermore, for Cameron to state there is something unpatriotic about voting for Brexit is to betray a fundamental ignorance of the nature of a patriot, defined as one who defends or is zealous for his countrys freedom or rights.
Britains freedoms and rights have been ceded to Brussels in huge measure since Ted Heaths entry into the EEC on a fraudulent prospectus in 1973.
The post has been shared more than 120,000 times to date
A doting husband has become an online sensation after his tribute to his wife, who recently had her little finger amputated, has gone viral.
Libby Sanders, 37, from Jasper, Indiana, had a 'freak accident' as she tried to close a stubborn screen door in February, eventually leading to the amputation of her left pinky in March.
Six weeks since the operation, the mother-of-five is still getting used to the fact that the finger is gone - recently completely forgetting about the amputation as she was painting her nails.
Big love: Matt Sanders (left) has gone viral after showing support for his wife Libby (right) by painting his little fingernail to be a 'surrogate pinky' after Libby lost hers in a 'freak accident'
Matching up: Libby and Matt are now sharing a manicure as he paints his little fingernail the same color as the rest of her nails
Show of support: Matt's hand with his one-finger painted, with Libby's fist, shows that Matt is just painting the one nail
As she went from nail to nail with the paint brush, Libby was suddenly reminded of the loss, a moment she described to her husband Matt as 'a bummer'.
Recognizing that his wife needed him, Matt sprung into action, and offered up his own left pinky to be painted to complete the set.
In a moving Facebook post, nursing graduate school student Libby shared how Matt told her: 'I will be your surrogate pinky. You can paint my pinky to match your nails for the rest of our lives.'
Matt even allowed Libby to take a picture of their hands together to show his manicured nail sitting where her pinky once was.
Libby added: 'I cannot image [sic] a sweeter, kinder man. No words adequately describe our love.'
Since that day, Matt has kept to his promise. So, when Libby decided to paint her nails again, this time with a burgundy-colored polish, Matt dutifully painted his little finger nail again to match.
Going big: Libby Sanders' original Facebook post has been shared over 120,000 times to date
Trying it out: The couple currently have a burgundy manicure but the color will change each week
Before the accident: The pair gaze adoringly at each other in their wedding photo, while Libby shows her left hand as it used to look
To date, the original Facebook post has over 120,000 shares and the couple have received messages of support from hundreds of people. They are even being stopped in the street.
Matt revealed: 'I work in a public-facing role and had a couple I did not know yesterday comment on my painted pinky because they had seen the post.
He added: 'She's welcome to paint my nail any time.'
The post proved an immediate hit online, being shared more than 120,000 time since being posted one week ago.
As for the accident that robbed her of her little finger. Libby claims that it came out of nowhere explaining to Bravo: 'I was shutting the door really hard because it wasnt shutting all the way. I broke the door and the handle snapped off.
A perfect pair: The couple, who went to the same high school, have been married for six years after meeting again as adults
Getting used to things: Mother-of-five Libby is still adjusting to life without her little finger after losing it just six weeks ago
'A piece of it snagged my pinky and it bruised really badly.'
Eventually that part of her hand 'died' and in March she went under the knife.
Despite being a self-confessed optimist, Libby says her husband noticed she was self-conscious about her new hand and how she would put it in her pocket or hold it with her right hand.
In a further touching note, Libby says that Matt will look down at his little finger and it will remind him of his wife.
She has had sleep issues since childhood
29-year-old Ally Nicolopoulos, who suffers from insomnia, will also appear
Ms Kerr will appear on a special Insight programme on SBS on Tuesday
She says that they increase alertness, memory, cognition and mood
Even though we spend approximately a third of our lives sleeping, one Australian expert says that we're doing it all wrong.
According to Ms Fiona Kerr, the neural specialist from the University of Adelaide, we should all indulge in an 'afternoon nap' in order to function at full capacity.
'There's really interesting work done on not only taking a nap, but the length of naps,' she tells Daily Mail Australia.
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Nap time: Even though we spend approximately a third of our lives sleeping, one Australian expert - Fiona Kerr - says we're doing it all wrong, and that we should have an afternoon nap (pictured) to function at top capacity
NAPS - THE FACTS AND BENEFITS * Expert Fiona Kerr advocates a 15-30 minute daily nap. * According to Ms Kerr, this can increase alertness, memory, cognition and mood. * She says that a nap is like 'cleaning your inbox'. * Naps help you to store, retain and recall information faster and more effectively. * For the beginner napper, find a quiet, dark place and minimise stimulus. * Close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing for 20 minutes - even if you don't sleep you will feel refreshed. * Ms Kerr describes a nap as a 'shower for the brain'. Advertisement
'The best nap is really the 15-30 minute nap. It increases alertness, memory, cognition and mood.'
Ms Kerr will discuss the issue of sleep, how long we should do it for and when in a special programme for Insight, at 8.30pm on Tuesday on SBS.
'Naps are good for people because they serve as a cleaning the inbox function,' she says.
'If you have regular naps, you will store, retain and recall information faster and more effectively.'
One lifelong sufferer of insomnia, 29-year-old Ally Nicolopoulos, says she has had on and off issues with sleeping since childhood, adding that they have been chronic in the past year:
'I can go a complete night without sleep, and then the next night I'll similarly sleep for just one or two hours,' she says.
'I've tried everything, from sleeping pills to quitting caffeine to alcohol, to try and sleep better. At the moment nothing works, but I do think if I were a regular sleeper that a daily siesta would be useful.'
Interesting programme: Ms Kerr will discuss the issue of sleep, how long we should do it for and when in a special programme for Insight, at 8.30pm on Tuesday on SBS
Insomnia victim: Ally Nicolopoulos (pictured), 29, suffers from insomnia and has had bad sleep since childhood - she has tried everything from alcohol to sleeping pills and quitting caffeine
Hard time: 'I can go a complete night without sleep, and then the next night I'll similarly sleep for just one or two hours,' she says
The upcoming TV programme plans to look at sleep and how much the nation is getting, as well as hearing stories from the likes of Ms Nicolopoulos and other insomnia sufferers:
'There is a period of no man's land for napping, and you can have too much,' warns Ms Kerr.
'Between 30 and 60 minutes isn't good, because your brain thinking it's heading into REM mode.
The other week I curled up under my desk for 20 minutes
'Equally, if you have more than one and a half hours, your brain thinks it's going into its full sleep cycle, which explains the fuzzy head feeling people get when they're woken after this period.'
When it comes to her advise for beginner nappers, Ms Kerr says practice makes perfect:
'You will get better at it,' she promises.
'But at the beginning, try going to a quiet, dark place and cut down as much stimulus as possible. Relax for the 20 minutes and concentrate on your breathing.
'Even if you don't sleep you'll feel refreshed. The other week I curled up under my desk for 20 minutes in order to get a small amount of shut eye.'
Sleep advice: Ms Kerr says that her advice for beginner nappers is to go to a quiet, dark place and minimise stimulus - she says you will get better at napping
As for the benefits, the experts all say that regular daily naps will enhance your productivity no end:
'A nap is like a shower for your brain,' she says.
'It's about taking the pieces we have to juggle all of the time, and putting them down for a minute.'
Looks like they're not just for your nana, then.
The Insight Sleep special is on Tuesday 10 May at 8.30pm on SBS.
A woman with stage three breast cancer met the love of her life when she was least expecting it - while undergoing chemotherapy and intensive fertility treatment.
Annie Belasco, 32, from Windsor, booked a doctor's appointment in June 2009, after spotting a lump on her right breast during a sunbed session.
Having had a growth removed on her thyroid years earlier, she wasn't anxious - but her world quickly turned upside down when she was diagnosed with cancer and given a 30 per cent chance of survival.
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During her second appointment with the breast specialist, Annie Belasco was told that she would need chemo, radiotherapy and her right breast removed. She wore a wig and false lashes on her first date (left) with Sam after meeting him online
Annie married husband Sam, a saddler with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, in a dream ceremony in Ascot, Berkshire
During her second appointment with the breast specialist, Annie was given another dose of devastating news - that she would need chemo, radiotherapy and her right breast to be removed.
She was also recommended to freeze her eggs in case of adverse effects with the chemo.
'My world collapsed', Annie said. 'It was too much information for me to take on board.
'When the nurse asked if I had a partner, I wanted to scream, "no and this won't help me get one!". I had wanted to get married before I was 30.'
Her right breast, the cancerous lump and the 48 lymph nodes it had spread to were removed within weeks in September 2009 in London.
Annie, who was working as a recruitment consultant at the time and refused to take sick leave, then immediately underwent fertility treatment to harvest and freeze three follicles.
Just hours after joining online dating site Plenty of Fish, Annie received a message from a 'tall, dark and handsome' man named Saddler Sam (pictured right)
At the same hospital a month later she started fertility treatment.
'I was totally unprepared for the mood swings', she said. 'It was very difficult to hold down my job and inject myself daily with the hormone drugs to boost my follicle production, and then go for regular scans to check that my ovaries were producing lots of eggs.
'Wearing high heels was out - they made me dizzy. My eyelashes had fallen out too.
'One day in the office in December of that year, while interviewing a candidate, I was twirling my hair and tufts came out in my hand. Luckily the interviewee didn't notice, but I felt awful, it was devastating.'
That evening, Annie invited her friend Theresa around to her flat, and asked her to shave off all her hair. She then put on a wig, a glamorous dress and embarked on a night out in London.
Her mother, Liz, was horrified. 'She couldn't understand,' said Annie, 'But I couldn't let cancer stop me from looking for love.'
By Christmas 2009, Annie, aged 26 at the time, had undergone four rounds of chemotherapy.
Annie Belasco's world quickly turned upside down when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 25, and given a 30 per cent chance of survival
Due to the drugs she had been taking, she had put on three stone in five months, making her nearly 14st 7lbs and a size 18.
'I hated putting clothes on, nothing that I would normally wear fitted,' she said. 'I knew the weight gain was temporary but I didn't look like "me".'
A friend convinced a depressed Annie that going on a few dates would boost her confidence. Reluctantly she signed up to dating site Plenty Of Fish.
'I cringed at the thought of my real online profile: woman with one breast, no hair and undergoing chemo,' she said.
However, just hours after joining, Annie received a message from a 'tall, dark and handsome' man named Saddler Sam.
Three weeks later the pair were officially dating, and Annie describes Sam as 'the backbone' to her recovery
She said: 'We started chatting online. I felt guilty not mentioning the cancer, but it was great not to talk about it. I arranged to meet him the day after my last chemo session on January 5, 2010.
'I layered so much make-up and lashes on I could hardly see. But I felt good, I felt confident about meeting Sam.'
Sam, 29, worked as a saddler in the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment by Buckingham Palace. On their date he told Annie that he would love to do something saddler-related for a cancer charity in the future.
Annie responded with: 'Great idea! I've recently recovered from that,' and told him everything.
She said: 'He sympathised without patronising me and asked very direct questions. It was one of the most candid conversations I'd had, no one had dared ask me those questions head on before. I knew he was impressed that I hadn't stopped working.'
She added: 'He held my hand when he walked me to the Tube. Even though the chemo made me feel nauseous and hot, it was wonderful being touched without being prodded or injected.'
Annie reveals her joy and shows off her sparkler after Sam popped the question in Gran Canaria
The pair moved in together in early 2011 and Sam proposed that summer, during a holiday in Gran Canaria. Pictured: Annie on her wedding day
Three weeks later the pair were officially dating, and Annie describes Sam as 'the backbone' to her recovery.
He accompanied her the next time she went for treatment - although he fainted after watching a nurse insert a needle into her chest.
I cringed at the thought of my real online profile: woman with one breast, no hair and undergoing chemo.
Annie said: 'He didn't like seeing me suffering and being in the state that I was in. He eventually replaced my mum and came to my major oncology follow up appointments. I always felt safe. He wouldn't let me worry.
'We spent most nights together. I hated taking all my clothes off. I didn't feel like a proper woman. But Sam made me feel good. He used words like sexy and gorgeous.
'My scar from the mastectomy was not completely healed and I felt vulnerable. But I needed to tell him I wore a wig. He smiled and said he knew.'
The pair moved in together in early 2011 and Sam proposed that summer, during a holiday in Gran Canaria.
'It was the beginning of my new life, I felt reborn and like my wish had finally come true. I couldn't believe someone as amazing as Sam wanted to spend the rest of his life with me,' said Annie.
'By the time we married in October 2012, Id had a breast reconstruction, as I didnt want a prosthetic. Our big day, in Ascot, Berkshire, was perfect. There were no references to my cancer, this was about our happy ever after.'
Sam and Annie began trying for a baby straight away, and six months later she naturally became pregnant. Their son Joseph was born in February 2014
Sam and Annie began trying for a baby straight away, and six months later she naturally became pregnant.
Their son Joseph was born in February 2014. Then, last summer, Annie was finally given the all clear from cancer.
'Its amazing to think that five years ago I thought I was facing a death sentence. But here I am with my gorgeous son and Mr Right,' she said.
A widow whose husband died in an accident in Portugal just seven months after they married has shared an emotional post about her journey back to happiness to help others struggling with mental health issues.
Sinead Hingston, 35, from Dublin, Ireland lost her husband Geoff, 37, five years ago when she was 19 weeks pregnant with their first child.
In the searingly honest Facebook post she admitted her pregnancy was the only thing that had kept her alive, but said that 'there is always hope. Time is a wonderful thing we all take for granted in everything we do.'
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Sinead Hingston, 35, from Dublin, Ireland, pictured with her daughter Lily and partner Michael (left) lost her husband Geoff five years ago as they enjoyed a second honeymoon in Portugal
Sinead who has found happiness again with her partner Michael wrote the post, which has been liked almost 1,000 times, after reading about proposed cuts to mental health services in Ireland.
'I just thought that someone may take comfort in my story, that life does go on and can be "enjoyable" again,' Sinead told FEMAIL.
'People are afraid to talk, afraid people will judge them for feeling anything less than happy. Social media is amazing at hiding what really goes on.
'Life is hard, and everyone is fighting their own battle, so maybe if you know there are others out there that feel the same way, it will help them.'
The mother-of-one shared an emotional letter about her journey back to happiness to help others struggling with mental health issues
Sinead was 30 years old when she was holidaying in Portugal with Geoff
'A baby myself some might say, well I have never grown up so quick, so soon,' she explained in her Facebook post.
'I was 19 weeks pregnant, and can honestly say, hand on my heart, that that pregnancy is the only thing that kept me here.
'We were married a wonderful seven months. Life was amazing, happy, exciting. Then my reality hit.
'Widowed, nowhere to live, no life insurance and moving back from London to live with my parents, pregnant with our little Bubba. I have never felt a wave of darkness wash over me as quick as I did that day.'
Lily talks openly about her father even though she never got to meet him and Sinead says her daughter is the 'light' in her world
Geoff died while swimming during a boat trip and to this day Sinead and her family are still not sure what killed him.
Even now, she doesn't remember a lot after receiving the news he died.
'I laughed nervously. Then I passed out. I don't remember much, apart from being surrounded by people and faces all the time,' she recalled.
Her next coherent memory was giving birth to her daughter five months later.
'There it was. The moment I had been waiting for, to hold our beautiful baby, the one we had made together, the reason I was still here,' she said.
After her husband's death Sinead can't remember a lot about the next five months until she gave birth to her daughter Lily
'Our beautiful, perfect baby girl. I felt a new wave of relief, but also devastation. She was perfect. But he wasn't here. Nothing could have prepared me for that bit. The pain in my heart that he would never get to meet her.'
Her daughter Lily is now four years old and is 'the light' in her mother's world.
'She knows just what to say, when to say it (sometimes a little too much!) She makes me smile and laugh in ways that I never thought I'd be able to again,' Sinead revealed.
'She talks openly about the man she never met, her Daddy. It's her "normal".'
Sinead described life since Geoff's death in 2011 as a 'roller coaster ride' but said she's proud of the journey she's been on.
'I forced myself to live,' she explained.
Sinead said that nothing could have prepared her for the pain she felt when it hit her that Geoff would never get to meet his daughter
She met her partner Michael in 2013 and he has been a huge support.
'He deserves a Nobel peace prize for putting up with me at this stage,' she said. 'He's been by my side, through all of my emotions, my tears, my frustrations.
'He is simply amazing. My baby girl adores him too. We are making awesome new memories, but I will always treasure my old ones.'
The mother-of-one said she hoped her story would prove that 'there is always hope'.
'Time is a wonderful thing we all take for granted in everything we do,' she said.
'I have my ups and downs. I'd be lying if I said that I had never thought about how much better off everyone would be if I wasn't around, but those thoughts pass.
'There are days where I really just want to curl up under a duvet and not leave the house, but I make myself, because I know that feeling will pass, I know things get better, I'm living proof. When you hit the bottom, the ONLY way is up again.
So when you are feeling like this is it, like you can't do this anymore, just wait. Just take your time.
'Take a deep breath and surround yourself with the people or things that make you feel better, that make you feel happy.
Talk to people, they will want to help but they need to know you feel that way. We are scarily amazing at hiding how bad we can feel.
The best answer is not always the right one, as proved by these funny pictures of entirely incorrect pieces of homework.
Cheeky children have put their teachers in their place - from reminding them that 'not everyone has two legs' in a maths puzzle, to calling the science of classifying living things 'racism'.
One young know-it-all even had the nerve to tell their teacher 'you should not hit dogs' when asked to fill in the correct word on an exercise sheet.
The best answer is not always the right one, as proved by these hilarious images of utterly incorrect homework. One student even had the nerve to tell their teacher 'you should not hit dogs' when asked to fill in the correct word on an exercise sheet
Another student wrote that the best thing to do if you 'fell on the playground and scratched your knee' would be to 'get up and deal with it' - presumably not the answer the teacher had in mind
This naughty pupil has found a way of getting around this spelling test - however the fact that they can spell 'octopus' suggests that they know far more words than they're letting on
One cheeky pupil wrote that the best thing to do if you 'fell on the playground and scratched your knee' would be to 'get up and deal with it' - presumably not the answer the teacher had in mind
Another, brutally honest student wrote that they'd rather be stuck on an island with someone they hated than be alone, so they 'had something to eat'.
And a child even went as far as to write 'hell' when asked to describe school in one word - which surely did not go down well with their teacher.
Brutally honest: This child is telling it like it is and letting the teacher know that they'd 'rather be on an island with someone [they] hate so [they] can have something to eat'
And a child even went as far as to write 'hell' when asked to describe school in one word - which surely did not go down well with their teacher
No pocket money for honest Frankie, who describes himself as a 'freeloader'
One pupil, asked to 'assume the role of a Chinese immigrant in 1870' and write a letter home describing their experiences wrote the whole letter in Chinese - presumably not what the teacher was expecting
One pupil, asked to 'assume the role of a Chinese immigrant in 1870' and write a letter home describing their experiences penned the whole letter in Chinese - presumably not what the teacher was expecting.
According to translator Vanessa Tan, the letter read: 'The life here is bad. The working condition is not good and lacks employee benefits. However, please do not worry. Only about 10 people get serious injuries everyday and I am very careful.
'We have opened a small shop and business is not bad. Although I am not very good with the English language, I know enough to understand what the westerners are speaking.
'Hope that I can make a name for myself. I am working very hard here and will take good care of myself. How is everyone? I missed all of you a lot and hope that we can meet again.'
When asked what he thought he would look like in 100 year's time - a bleak Warren drew a tombstone with his name and 'RIP' on it
And one exasperated teacher was driven to comment on one pupil's spelling test, shocked by the strange sentences they chose to illustrate the word they were being asked to spell
This cheeky child decided to write that 'the science of classifying living things' is called 'racism' - a clever answer, but presumably not the one expected by the teacher
'We have sh**' is probably not what this teacher had in mind when they asked their students to unscramble the words
When asked what he thought he would look like in 100 years' time - a bleak Warren drew a tombstone with his name and 'RIP' on it.
And one exasperated teacher was driven to comment on one pupil's spelling test, shocked by the strange sentences they chose to illustrate the word they were being asked to spell - including 'Have patience, my kitten', when asked to use 'patience' in a sentence.
Another child pointed his teacher in direction of the Wounded Warrior Project, a military and veterans charity service organization empowering injured veterans and their families, when asked a question that presumed all the members of one family had two legs.
The pupil wrote: '[Quinton is correct] because 14 divided by two is seven, but not everyone has two legs. Go to www.woundedwarriorproject.org.)
Another child pointing his teacher in direction of the Wounded Warrior Project, a military and veterans charity service organization empowering injured veterans and their families, when given a question that presumed all the members of a family had two legs
'A pig is a pig until it becomes a bacon', wrote one child - which doubtlessly made their teacher smile
Ricky, age 10, has some novel advice for making a marriage work: 'Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck'
When asked to name the quadrilateral, Hope decided to give all the shapes on her page names, including Sam, Cate, Hary [sic] and Bob
This is probably not what the teacher had in mind when they asked their class to show their thinking
This child has slightly missed the point when asked to write '< or >', but technically they've still done what they were asked to do
High hopes: This adorable blond boy has written in his end of year book that when he grows up he wants to be 'a dog'
The Danish model has designed three shirts inspired by the
She's one of the world's most famous supermodels and Helena Christensen has proven that she's still got what it takes to turn heads.
The 47-year-old showcases her enviable body in a sizzling new shoot that sees her jet off to a five-star Mexican resort to debut her latest clothing range.
Trying her hand at fashion design, the model has created a capsule collection of 'boyfriend' shirts - all modelled by Helena herself in the exotic campaign.
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Helena Christensen has collaborated with Thomson Sensatori to create a line of boyfriend shirts
Created in partnership with Helena's design partner Camilla Staerk and Thomson Sensatori resorts, the shirts are intended as the perfect cover-up for beachside glamour.
In the new campaign, the Danish model poses up a storm in her custom designs, relaxing in hammocks against the glamorous backdrop of the Mexican resort.
Despite the north American country serving as the location for the shoot, Helena says that the inspiration for her blouses came from elsewhere.
She explained: 'The Caribbean is one of my favourite parts of the world, and my inspiration for this collection comes from the life and vibrancy that the destination is known for.'
The 47-year-old model oozes pool side glamour as she poses up a storm on location in Mexico
Helena has worked with design partner Camilla Staerk to produce the three shirt designs
The Danish model says that the design for the shirt was influenced by the Caribbean one of her 'favourite parts of the world'
Helena shows off her enviable figure in a series of pool side shots in the new campaign
The shirts will be available in three floral prints the Dhalia flower from Mexico, the Rosa de Bayahibe of the Dominican Republic and Jamaica's national flower the Tree of Life.
'Holidays are about relaxation and the right pieces can transform your experience and style,' Helena said.
'The shirts Camilla and I have designed transition easily from the beach to the bar; they're designed to feel chic in any environment.'
Describing her perfect holiday, Helen said: 'Ive been so lucky to spend so much of my career travelling, and its so important to be that you can relax and unwind when you take a holiday.
'The perfect holiday for me is good food, good wine, beautiful scenery, and of course, good company. Im a huge fan of spa treatments and think its important to take some time for yourself to relax and recoup
The three shirts will be given to guests staying at the Sensatori resorts in Jamaica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic for a limited time this summer.
The shirts will be available in three floral prints the Dhalia flower from Mexico, the Rosa de Bayahibe of theDominican Republic and Jamaica's national flower the Tree of Life
Helena shoots the campaign on location in Thomson Sensatori's five-star Mexican resort
Like most mothers, Australian model and presenter Rachael Finch does her best to juggle her demanding career, relationship and motherhood.
But unlike many, the 28-year-old and her husband Michael Miziner spend each weekend without their two-year-old daughter, thanks to the support of Mr Miziner's mother Irena.
While the pair enjoy time with their little girl throughout the week, her doting grandmother takes Violet off their hands from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning every weekend.
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Busy woman: Like most mothers, Australian model and presented Rachael Finch does her best to juggle her demanding career, relationship and motherhood
Ideal arrangement? But unlike many, the 28-year-old and her husband Michael Miziner spend each weekend without their two-year-old daughter, thanks to the support of Mr Miziner's mother Irena (not pictured)
Alone time: 'Every weekend [Violet] goes to Mish's mum's house, and we get our weekend to ourselves. I think that's incredibly healthy for the relationship,' Ms Finch said
Striking a balance: By the time the couple pick their daughter back up on a Sunday, they have renewed energy
'Every weekend [Violet] goes to Mish's mum's house, and we get our weekend to ourselves. I think that's incredibly healthy for the relationship,' Ms Finch told The Sunday Telegraph.
'And on Sunday, when we pick her up, we have 100 per cent energy back.'
The proud mother also has support from her own grandmother Elizabeth, 85, who often takes Violet for a walk in the afternoons.
Renewed focus: 'And on Sunday, when we pick her up, we have 100 per cent energy back,' she said
Family support: The proud mother also has support from her own grandmother Elizabeth, 85, who often takes Violet for a walk in the afternoons
Busy schedule: Rachael is a former Miss Universe Australia and one of the faces for retail giant Myer
Hopeful for three children: Despite being a successful model and brand ambassador, she explained how family had become more of a priority
Hopeful for the future: The couple would like to have three children, as four wouldn't fit in to their schedule
The former Miss Universe Australia, who is now one of the faces of Myer, a successful model and brand ambassador, explained how family was more of a priority now and that she would love to have three children as four wouldn't fit into their schedule.
'It was very much career and travel, which still exist, but the priorities have become Violet and family, because you have this little thing thats dependent on you,' she said, 'its like heaven in a body, just watching her grow. It changes your pace, your energy, everything.'
Ms Finch often takes to Instagram to proudly share snaps of her little girl.
Instant love: 'It was very much career and travel, which still exist, but the priorities have become Violet and family, because you have this little thing thats dependent on you,' she said
New take on life: 'Its like heaven in a body, just watching her grow. It changes your pace, your energy, everything,' she said
Love on the dance floor: Rachael and her husband Michael (not pictured) were married in January 2013 after they met on Dancing With The Stars
'My reason for everything,' she gushed recently next to a snap of Violet.
'Moments like this I will cherish forever,' she wrote next a photo of Violet sleeping on her lap.
Dog owners have slammed a politician who warned families not have 'dangerous' breeds as pets by sharing their own cosy selfies with their canines.
Alan Tobin, a councillor for Ashbourne Municipal District in County Meath, Ireland, posted a picture of a sign showing ten 'dangerous breeds of dogs' and wrote: 'It still amazes me that some people think these dogs are ideal family pets.'
Outraged owners hit back with pictures of the mutts cuddling up to cats and even babies in a post which has been shared more than 160,000 times.
A dog cuddles up to his feline best friend in a photo posted by Meadhbh MacNamara: Politician Alan Tobin said he was 'amazed' people thought the breeds were family pets. Outraged dog owners voiced their protest with cuddly pictures
Owner Rachael McArdle posted a picture of her giving her Staffordshire Bull Terrier a kiss
Mr Tobin captioned his picture: 'As a dog owner I'm absolutely delighted that signs I've asked for, with pictures, showing the dangerous breeds of dogs have been erected over the past week.'
The 'public safety notice' shows ten different breeds of dogs which are identified as being 'dangerous' and should be on the leash, be muzzled and under the control of someone over 16.
The breeds included German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Staffordshire Bull Terriers.
However dog owners reacted angrily to the signs, adding their own photographs in protest.
Councillor Alan Tobin had signs installed showing the 10 'dangerous' breeds of dog and asking for them to be on a lead or muzzled
Sara Ward posted a snap of her German Shepherd named Zoe and explained how she is 'mammy to abandoned kittens'
Lauryn Hall posted a selfie with her grinning Japanese Akita who had been rescued from a dog fighting ring
Meadhbh MacNamara wrote: 'My doggy George the German Shepherd with his best pal,' showing the dog lying down next to a small cat. She continued: 'Alan Tobin has no idea what he's talking about.'
While Rachael McArdle posted a selfie with her giving her Staffordshire Bull Terrier a kiss. She wrote: 'Yes my Staffie is a terribly aggressive, dangerous and unsafe family pet as you can see by this photo of him and I having our daily cuddles.'
She continued by calling Mr Tobin an 'ignorant, uneducated moron,' and said she would rather kiss her dog than 'share oxygen with the likes of you'.
Sara Ward posted a snap of her German Shepherd named Zoe and explained how she is 'mammy to abandoned kittens'. In the picture, Zoe is seen 'snuggled' with a three-week-old moggie.
Lauryn Hall posted a selfie with her friendly Japanese Akita who could be seen grinning for the camera.
Jamie Fincher posted a shot of her two Doberman dogs while they assisted with a presentation on therapy dogs to licensed professional counsellors
Andrea Meehan showed her Rottweiler dog being hugged by her son to show how 'maternal' she is
Mollie Phillips posted a snap of her German Shepherd gently snuggled up to a young baby and wrote: 'Yeah, they'll rip your face off'
She wrote: 'People are dangerous and dangerous people create dangerous dogs by mistreatment and downright sadism.'
Lauryn explained she has two Akitas, one of which was rescued from a dog fighting ring in Ireland and called her dog 'my best friend, my protector and frankly the best thing in my life'.
Jamie Fincher posted a shot of her two Doberman dogs while they assisted with a presentation on therapy dogs to licensed professional counsellors, and the pets could be seen in blue jackets.
While Andrea Meehan showed her Rottweiler being hugged by her son in a touching photograph. She wrote: 'As an owner of a rescue rottie for the last five years I'm disgusted at your post! She's the most maternal, loving and loyal dog who has changed many people's opinions of this breed.'
Mollie Phillips posted a snap of her German Shepherd gently snuggled up to a young baby and wrote: 'Yeah, they'll rip your face off.'
Kerry Furniss also showed a young baby cuddling with her Staffordshire Bull Terrier and wrote: 'This is my extremely dangerous Staffy ready to attack at any time - not!'
Zoe Allanah Bates shared a snap of her young sister hugging her family's German Shepherd. She described their pet as the most 'placid dog I've come across'
Caoimhe Lyons posted an adorable picture of her dog looking happy in a dog hoodie and wrote: 'I invite you to meet my Staffordhire Bull Terrier and call him "dangerous"'
While Kerry Furniss also showed a young baby cuddling up to her Staffordshire Bull Terrier and wrote: 'This is my extremely dangerous Staffy ready to attack at any time - not! It's the deed not the breed.'
THE 'DANGEROUS' BREEDS LISTED 1. American Pit Bull Terrier 2. Rhodesian Ridgeback 3. Bull Mastiff 4. Doberman Pinscher 5. Staffordshire Bull Terrier 6. Rottweiler 7. German Shepherd 8. English Bull Terrier 9. Japanese Akita 10. Japanese Tosa Advertisement
Zoe Allanah Bates shared a snap of her young sister hugging her family's German Shepherd. She described their pet as the most 'placid dog I've come across'.
Zoe claimed it was often smaller dogs who were 'vicious' when she was out walking her canine, and wrote: 'You must be afraid of dogs, intimidated by their size or never owned one of these breeds.'
Caoimhe Lyons posted an adorable picture of her dog looking happy in a hoodie and wrote: 'I invite you to meet my Staffordhire Bull Terrier and call him "dangerous".'
One annoyed Facebook user, Jacqulyn Delaney, even took it upon herself to Photoshop a muzzle on the picture of Mr Tobin.
She wrote: 'Here's another picture of a dangerous breed it's known as a "politician" they talk absolute s***e and also should be muzzled.'
Since Mr Tobin posted the sign on Sunday, it has had more than 120,000 comments on Facebook.
The politician appeared on Ireland AM this morning and apologised for his comments.
He said: 'I've certainly created a debate and I'd love to see what the result of that is.'
Since posting on Facebook, Mr Tobin said he had been contacted by people in other countries where the laws are based on the 'dog's behaviour' rather than the breeds.
When asked if he apologised for causing offence to dog owners. he said: 'I do apologise for that.'
A man claims he has gone to the extreme lengths of surgically removing his nipples and belly button, all in the name of art.
Karim Boumjimar, an 18-year-old Spanish-Moroccan artist, posted pictures of his lopped off body parts online, which he plans to sell them to the highest bidder.
The teenager, who is based in London, plans to turn the nipples into earrings and warned his Twitter followers that a 'belly button necklace' was coming soon.
Karim Boumjimar, an 18-year-old Spanish-Moroccan artist, has had his nipples and belly button surgically removed to flog online, in the name of 'art'
He hopes to sell them for 'a big amount' and warned his Twitter followers that his 'belly button necklace' is coming soon
Karim, who has appeared in Zayn Malik's BeFoUr video, shared a photo of what looked like his pierced, unattached nipples along with a topless selfie - revealing his apparently nipple-less chest.
He claimed he used foundation to hide his scars.
The nipples are to be sold as earrings, for around 100, although the artist hopes to get more for them in order to make back the money he paid for surgery.
In an interview with Dazed, Karim revealed that the operation 'wasn't really done legally' and that he was given 'so many drugs'. He was then handed his nipples at the end of it.
Karim shared this photo on Twitter with the caption 'body positive'. He said he used foundation to hide the scars from his operation
He claims that being nipple-less has allowed him to swim faster, posting a photo on Twitter that said: 'After removing my nipples and bellybutton I've become so fast at swimming. I'll see y'all at the Olympics!'
He claims his surgical adjustments have made him more aerodynamic, posting a photo on Twitter that said: 'After removing my nipples and bellybutton I've become so fast at swimming. I'll see y'all at the Olympics!'.
A few days later he tweeted saying: 'For the record I just wanna say that nipples are useless', accompanied by another selfie showing off his chest.
In the future, Mr Boumjimar plans to travel to Bosnia 'to get more body alterations'.
A few days later Karim tweeted saying: 'For the record I just wanna say that nipples are useless', accompanied by another selfie showing off his chest
One Twitter user accused him of lying, saying that the photo showing his cut off nipples was in fact of 'lemon ends', 'smh' being an abbreviation of 'shaking my head'
He told Dazed: '[I might get] something with my feet, like attach something to them', adding that cutting his tongue did not appeal to him.
Karim received a mixed reaction to his body modification on social media, with a number of his followers querying whether the pictures had been Photoshopped.
One Twitter user simply asked him: 'What the f*** is wrong with you?'.
Another accused him of lying, saying that the photo showing his cut off nipples was in fact 'lemon ends'.
Going on holiday is the time when many of us are a bit more relaxed about the budget and won't think twice about treating ourselves to meals out and little luxuries like a nice sun bed by the pool.
But for some determined money savers, a break from routine is no reason to stop pinching the pennies as a new Channel 4 Show Sun, Sea And Supersavers, which airs tonight at 8pm reveals.
The show features four couples battling it out to find the cheapest holiday. And they'll stop at noting to make savings, from pilfering extra sausages at breakfast, requesting a discount for bringing your own towels to a hotel and refusing to pay for sun loungers.
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Ashleigh Swan, 27, from Newcastle and husband Aaron feature in Channel 4's Sun, Sea And Supersavers in which they battle it out with another couple to have the cheapest weekend break in Great Yarmouth
Blogger Ashleigh Swan, 27, from Newcastle - who runs the website Ashleigh Moneysaver - and her husband Aaron were pitted against Jenny Drew, the Coupon Detective, from Leicestershire and husband Neil to see could get the cheapest break in Great Yarmouth.
A typical two night stay with meals out costs 200 and one arriving at the three star Sea Princess hotel Ashleigh announced she was aiming for a discount.
'I'm going to mention to the manager on the way in that I've brought my own towels so hopefully that will knock a few pounds off the price of the room,' she said.
Unfortunately the manager wasn't budging as she'd already got 40 off by comparing prices on Trivago, but she did manage to land a free day out at the pleasure beach thanks to a book of money saving vouchers.
The Dingwall family from Glasgow loaded up on sausages from their free breakfast to save for later in the day to cut costs on their holiday in Majorca
And the couple refused to let the rain force them into a restaurant for lunch, eating their picnic in the car instead.
Overall they saved around 50, but the results of their competition with Jenny and Neil will be revealed on tonight's show.
Jenny kickstarted her saving efforts in Great Yarmouth by going straight to Asda to stock up on food.
On the first night of the holiday she got a chicken meal for two for 91p and tracked down the employee putting reduced stickers on produce to get her salad marked down to 21p, before saving more at the till with the book of coupons she'd brought.
Julie Squire (left) saved 400 on flights home from Majorca by going home via Geneva and enjoying a cheap day of sightseeing en route
Next morning she made a lunch of 30p tuna sandwiches, although the couple ended up in a fish and chip shop because of the rain.
Jenny asked if there were any special offers and an assistant gave them the same deal without having a printed voucher.
Later she used a coupon to get into the Sea Life centre for half price and gave away another coupon she couldn't use to someone in the queue so it didn't go to waste.
'I did try to give someone a coupon at a restaurant in London and they looked at me like I was some kind of psychopath,' she admitted.
The couple also enjoyed a night out at the dogs, where their 10 ticket came with a meal and a free drink.
Jenny Drew saved money on a trip to the Sea Life centre with coupons and also went to Asda to shop in the reduced aisle on the first night of her holiday in Great Yarmouth
Enterprising Jenny saw a way to save more after using her own drinks voucher by approaching people who were ordering soft drinks at the bar.
'Could I buy you the soft drink and use your coupon to buy an alcoholic drink,' she asked one woman.
ASHLEIGH SWAN'S TIPS FOR SAVING MONEY ON HOLIDAY Compare hotel prices: I go on to Trivago, which is like a hotel comparison website. I also called the hotel and asked if I could have a further discount. They couldn't offer any more but I did get a free upgrade to a room with a sea view. Be confident: It's just about being cheeky for that one moment or two. A few years ago I would have paid the price and never questioned it. Some people will laugh along and say 'Oh go on then'. Other's won't and that's fair enough. Sign up for Kids Pass: For 1 you get an app on your phone that gets you loads of free vouchers. My kids got food school reports so we booked a surprise trip to Blackpool and I've got a free trip to the pleasure beach. We've saved 60 to 70 before we've even gone. Do your research: Always look up where the local family places are and see if there are discount vouchers. When you get there you'll always find maps and leaflets with money off vouchers. Try ticket splitting: If you're travelling by train as long as you're going from A to B through different stations it can work out cheaper to buy separate tickets. Use loyalty points: On holiday I used my Boots advantage card points to get meal deals with sandwiches, crisps and a drink for a picnic. Haggle: If you're eating out at local cafes or restaurants that don't have discount vouchers you can always ask for the best deal. Don't always rely on coupons: There might be a special offer on the menu that saves you more. On holiday we had a voucher for the Toby Carvery but when we went inside there was a deal that worked out better value.
The stranger had already handed over her coupon but Jenny was persistent saying: 'Get them back.'
She told the bar man: 'If you give her the coupon back, I'm going to pay for lemonade.'
The second set of couples were tasked with making savings on a trip to Marbella where the average cost of a family holiday for a week with meals and activities costs 2500.
Andrea Dingwall from Glasgow who admits she even haggles even in charity shops revealed ahead of the trip: 'There's nothing that will get in our way of saving a penny or two.
'The best deal we ever got was when we booked a holiday and got one child free place. So we took one child with us and another couple who were going and didn't have children adopted one of ours and we were able to get the two children free.'
For their Majorca break the Dingwalls choose accommodation where they would get free breakfast.
And as the family sat down for their morning meal, Julie asked for bottled water, extra sausages and extra toast.
As her son picked up his bottled water she told him: 'We're not going to drink this just now. We're going to put this in the bag.'
'Any uneaten sausages will be going in your bag,' her husband Richard said.
'We'll be actually trying not to eat the sausages,' she replied, wrapping up one from everyone's plate in tissue to save for later.
'Do you think we're OK just taking the plate?'
She later tried to reduce the cost of going to a waterpark by lying about her son's Calvin's age.
'He's under three and you don't have to pay,' she said.
However, her ploy didn't work as Callum was above the height limit for free entry.
Nevertheless they made a saving by not paying for a sun lounger or a locker.
'This bit of grass is free. We'll look after our own bags,' Richard said. 'It's a bit insulting to ask you for 3.50 just to hire a sun lounger.'
A few years ago Ashleigh would have paid full price without question but now she's not afraid to ask for a discount or to haggle
Next day he ended up lying on the sand on his towel after refusing to pay 12.40 for a sun lounger or 4 for an umbrella.'
Overall, the couple managed to save almost 1000 on their trip.
Teacher Julie Squire took a more tactical approach to a cheap break in Majorca.
By purchasing an indirect flight home and leaving a day early to go back via Geneva she managed to save 400 on flights.
The detour was six hour journey and took them to one of the most expensive cities in the world.
But Jenny managed to get by on 12 Swiss Francs for the day - around 8.50 - by taking the family on a bus trip around the city, including a visit to the UN headquarters.
Creator challenges you to spot the creature in five seconds
The latest brainteaser to sweep the web is challenging puzzlers to spot the panda in amongst the superheroes.
This time the bear is hidden in an Avengers poster and has had the internet scratching its heads.
Creator Matthew Merrill, from Fresno, California, challenges you to find the panda in just five seconds but people have been taking far longer before they have managed to spot it.
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The panda is back, but this time the bear is hidden among a line-up of superheroes in an Avengers poster
In fact, this teaser adopts a different style - meaning the hidden mammal is perhaps not in the place you would expect to find it.
The cheeky panda face is actually on the chest of Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, who is right at the centre of the image.
It is camouflaged by the bright glow of the badge, which is less noticeable among the glare of other shiny objects featured in the promotional image for Avengers: Age Of Ultron, which was released last year.
The cheeky panda face is actually on the chest of Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, who is at the centre
It is not the only image to vex puzzle fans this week.
Yesterday a photograph of a ginger cat left users struggling to tell whether the dark shape next to it is a shadow or another feline altogether
In the picture, which was shared on Imgur by Natural_Distortion, the ginger cat sits in the sun while the black shape next to it adopts the exact same pose.
And while hundreds of people debated which animal was real and which wasn't, others pointed out another oddity in the image.
A photography of a ginger cat sat on a porch has sent the Internet into a frenzy as it tries to guess whether it is accompanied by another cat or just its shadow
Commenting on the photo user Pentagalon wrote: 'I am so confused right now. Is that a black cat or the orange cat has a weird ass shadow with eyes? WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?'
But the intriguing image has captured the internet's imagination and received more than 800,000 views since its upload as viewers struggle to make sense of the photograph.
Although the major giveaway to the second shape being a real, live cat rather than a shadow is its glowing eyes, other users were more sceptical.
BrewSwillis adding: 'I think this is photoshopped since the cat on the left is casting a shadow whereas the black one is not.'
Natural_Distortion reveals on Reddit that there are in fact two cats Pete (left) and Sully (right) who is given away by his glowing eyes
In an effort to prove there are in fact two cats, Natural_Distortion revealed in a Reddit thread that the black cat is called: 'Sully. And the ginger is a female, named Pete. (SO thought she was a male at first) Brother and sister.'
He didn't attempt to explain the lack of shadow on the black cat, however.
This optical illusion is the latest in a line of mindbending photographs that have captivated users on social media.
Last month Savannah Root from Lamar, Missouri, shared an outline drawn with black ink on Facebook and thousands of people shared it as they tried to work what on earth it represented.
In the post, she wrote: 'I stared at this picture for an hour trying to figure out what it was.'
Savannah Root from Lamar, Missouri, shared the black and white drawing on Facebook last week and since then the image has had 26,000 likes, 4,500 shares and nearly 8,500 comments
She then invited others to post below about what they thought the image represented.
While some managed to spot the hidden silhouette of a cowboy straight away, many were left entirely stumped and thought the painting looked like a bat.
More obscure suggestions included a rat hanging upside down with wings, a bird carrying a baby and a penguin doing a wee.
Samantha JH wrote: 'Omg, so creepy! I was staring and staring at it thinking it was a bat upside down then turned away and looked back and BAM I see the man's face in a cowboy hat, half white, half black.'
Many were left stumped by the image after it was posted on Facebook and 9,000 people have commented
Meanwhile, Stephen Foley asked: 'Is it a penguin doing a pee (male, obviously and licking his lips?'
Samuel Rea also guessed wrong: 'Bird carrying a baby.'
But Louis Jones simply wrote: 'It looks like a black mess.'
Others were left frustrated by the image having not been able to work out what it was.
Victoria MacRae wrote: 'I note that Savannah said not to say what it is once you got it but I'm so grateful for those who did. As interesting as this is, I don't have an hour to spend staring at one Facebook post, I really don't. So, thank you!'
The red lines in this picture showed people who couldn't work out the image the correct way of viewing it
Some people spotted the cowboy straight away including Nathan Preshous, who said he spent half-an-hour staring at it as he wasn't expecting it to be so easy
Jennifer Alexander said: 'I never would have seen it. I had to check the comments.'
And some people spotted it straight away, leaving them wondering what all the fuss was about.
Nathan Preshous said: 'Saw a cowboy straight away and spent half an hour looking for what it was supposed it be, turned out to be a cowboy.'
With the image causing such a stir online, a number of people started offering tips for those who were unable to see the figure in the drawing.
Barbara Topping wrote: 'Close your eyes and squint at it and it becomes clear.'
Some people were left really frustrated by the image and others sought to offer tips on spotting the cowboy
Holly Spanjer suggested another technique: 'Place your hand over the dark side, you should be able to see it.'
Another brain teaser had the web stumped as people were asked to describe the colours of two hearts. One appeared purple while the other seemed bright red.
But in fact both answers are wrong. The hearts are, in fact, exactly the same hue - a vivid pink.
These two hearts in the image appear to be totally different colours. One appears purple while the other is a bright orangey red
In fact it is the placement of the geometric stripes that fools our brains into seeing something which isn't really there.
The narrator on the video from Bite Size Psych explains: 'If you zoom in on the picture you find that the striped bars aren't actually the same colour.
'These surrounding blue bars make the heart seem purple while these surrounding green bars make the heart seem orange.'
This gives us a vital clue to how our vision works. It suggests that we perceive an object's colour based on its proximity and contrast with surrounding shades.
The narrator on the video from Bite Size Psych explains: 'If you zoom in on the picture you find that the striped bars aren't actually the same colour'
These surrounding blue bars make the heart seem purple while these surrounding green bars make the heart appear orange
Meanwhile Tim Urban and Andrew Finn of the website butwaitwhy.com have created a fiendishly difficult puzzle based around three jelly beans.
The premise of the brain teaser is that you have to choose to eat one of three jelly beans laid out on a stump, two of which are poisonous.
'Two of the jelly beans on the stump are poisonous - youll die within 30 seconds of eating either one of them,' the riddle explains.
'But one of the jelly beans isnt poisonous and wont harm you at all. All three of the jelly beans are delicious. The situation works like this: You pick one of the jelly beans and eat it, and if you happen to pick the non-poisonous one, youre free to go.'
This gives us a vital clue to how our vision works. It suggests that we perceive an objects colour not based on its actual colour but on how it compares to the surrounding colours
Three jelly beans are laid on a stump and you have to choose one to eat, but two of them are poisonous and will kill you
According to the riddle, you decide to pick up the green jelly bean.
But just before you eat it, a man takes away the blue jelly bean explaining that it's definitely poisonous.
That leaves the red one on the stump and the green one still in your hand. You get one last chance to change your mind about which one to take.
Solving the riddle involves choosing between the red and green jelly beans - one of which is definitely poisonous.
You take the green jelly bean, leaving the red and blue
You might think that now it's down to two jelly beans that there's a 50-50 chance you have the poisonous one and decide to stick with green.
In fact, it's twice as likely to be poisonous and the red jelly bean is two thirds more likely to be safe.
'When you initially picked the green jelly bean, there was a 1/3 chance that it was the safe one to eat, and a 2/3 chance that it was poisonous and the safe one was still on the stump,' Tim Urban of Wait But Why explained.
'When the man removed a poisonous blue jelly bean from the stump, it told you no new info about the green jelly bean in your handthat still had a 1/3 chance of being safe.
The blue jelly bean is taken away and you're told it's definitely poisonous. Should you swap with the red sweet or stick with the green?
'But removing the blue jelly bean told you a lot about the red jelly bean - it told you that if the safe jelly bean had been on the stump, the red one is safe.
'Put another way, if you picked a poisonous jelly bean - which you would do two-thirds of the time - then choosing to switch after he removes one will save you every time.
'If you picked the safe one to start off with - which happens one-third of the time - then switching will kill you. So switching is a good choice two-thirds of the time.'
Recently, puzzlers were also challenged to find a hidden picture inside a red circle,
The brain teaser was said to test the internet's vision with people able to see everything from a detailed image to just an outline, while others struggled to spot anything at all.
Is your eyesight good enough to see the hidden picture inside this red circle? The brain teaser has appeared online quizzing internet users about whether they can see another shape hidden inside the red blob, above
While some claimed they could see the whole image in perfect detail, others were left scratching their heads in confusion.
When the dot is flipped you can clearly see a detailed sketch of a horse complete with a mane and tail, saddle and bridle and grass around its feet.
Some people can only see the outline of the image before the red spot is flipped, while others say they can see much more. Try the test below to see how you get on.
While some claim they can see the whole image perfectly, others are completely baffled by the image. When the dot is flipped, right, you can clearly see a detailed sketch of a horse complete with a mane and tail
The online teaser shows how some people only see the outline of the horse rather than the other details in the picture such as the grass, mane, tail and saddle
An image of an iPhone screen became an internet sensation recently as thousands of people deliberated over the photo, which was widely shared along with the question: 'How many threes can you see in this picture?'
Social networkers came up with the most common answers of either 15, 19 or 21. But which answer is correct?
There are in fact 19 number threes pictured in the image, but there could be 21 depending on how you interpret the question.
Can you count how many threes are on the iPhone screen? If you see 15, 19 or 21 number threes, you have arrived at the same conclusion as the majority of social networkers... but what's the correct answer?
Apart from the eight threes in the phone number, there are two threes on the key pad as the number eight button has been replaced.
At 3.33pm, the time also contains three number threes and the battery power at 33 per cent contains another two.
That totals 15, the answer many social networkers have come to. On closer inspection, however, there are a further four hidden digits, totaling 19.
Three of the letters in the contact's name have been replaced with threes and the letter 'I' on the number four key has also been replaced.
But many online posts give the answer to be 21, with people seeming convinced that there are a further two threes in the image. The differing opinions come down to the interpretation of the question. Many users have included the bar signal and the wifi signal, both of which show three bars. But whether 19 or 21 is the correct answer is a matter of opinion
But many online posts give the answer to be 21, with people seeming convinced that there are a further two threes in the image.
The differing opinions come down to the interpretation of the question. The images has been widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with the message. 'How many threes do you see in this picture?'
Many users have included the network bar and WiFi signal, both of which show three bars. But whether 19 or 21 is the correct answer is a matter of opinion.
The puzzle, which has been widely shared on Facebook and Twitter after resurfacing again online, has instigated heated debate - with many left flummoxed at how others arrive at a different answer.
Twitter user Dani posted: 'This thing annoyed the hell out of me when someone said 21. I was like no there's 18 until I looked again properly haha.'
How many threes can you see? Apart from the eight threes in the phone number, there are two threes on the key pad as the number eight button has been replaced. At 3.33pm, the time also contains three number threes and the battery power at 33 per cent contains another two. Three of the letters in the contact's name have been replaced with threes and the letter 'I' on the number four key has also been replaced
Facebook Ravi Vidyadhar Pathak came to a grander total and said: '28 if it's saying to count everything that resembles to 3 including the network signal which is 3 dots the page info on left which is 3 the buttons having 3 letters ABC.'
Another philosophical Facebook user Marc Joseph posted: 'I see only 2....and technically am correct cause you never asked how many 3's are there in the pic.'
Athene Whitfield finally concluded the answer was 19 but had made so many previous guesses she posted: 'I got to that in the end but thought - I can't send an answer through again!!? Was getting embarrassed!'
One user by the name of Sarah was so involved in the problem she posted a mock-up of the screen with the potential answers highlighted in purple.
When a friend posted 'Not sure where you get 20 from' she posted: 'Now I'm not sure.'
It followed an optical illusion poster featuring tigers and asking viewers to guess how many animals it featured.
On close inspection the picture has the big cats hiding in the bushes, bark and even the sky.
The image, which appears to have been produced as a poster, has two adults tigers and their two cubs in the foreground.
After that it becomes trickier to track down the felines in the picture but there are 12 other tiger faces hidden.
The image appears to have been used as a poster but has resurfaced on the internet
The puzzle has the big cats hidden in foliage, trees and even the ground with all 16 very difficult to find
In the foliage to the right of the tigers, there's a fern in the shape of a tiger's face, with two hiding in the dirt beneath the tigers' feet.
In the top of the picture, there are five feline faces hidden within the branches of the trees.
While another two are seen in the wide trunk of the tree on the left of the picture and another tiger is face is seen on the left behind it and the last one is hidden in the soil below.
The poster, which features 16 in total, appears to be aimed at children, like many of the logic puzzles which have stormed the internet recently.
Another recent brain teaser appeared to be a simple children's picture with tourists at a holiday campsite and challenged them to answer a list of nine questions.
The image is thought to be from an old children's magazine, according to The Independent, but the tough questions are likely to also leave adults baffled.
A recent challenge which baffled the internet is a logic puzzle from an old children's magazine that involves studying a picture of tourists at a holiday camp site and answering a list of nine questions
A series of clues is provided by the apparently calm scene involving boys at a campsite
The black and white drawing showed three people at the campsite. One is standing by the cooking pot with a ladle, another is rifling through his backpack, and a third is taking photos.
A sign nailed to a tree states said: 'On duty. Colin, 7. Peter, 8. James, 9'. The final name is obscured, but the number 10 is visible.
CAN YOU SOLVE THE PUZZLE BY ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS? 1. How many tourists are staying at this camp? 2. When did they arrive: today or a few days ago? 3. How did they get here? 4. Is there a town nearby? 5. Where does the wind blow from: north or south? 6. What time of day is it? 7. Where did Alex go? 8. Who was on duty yesterday? 9. What date is it today? *Scroll down for answers
A picnic blanket with four plates, four spoons and a watermelon is laid out on the ground and a hen is scratching in the grass nearby.
Nearby, a tent is pitched and a spider has built a cobweb between the edge of the tent and a nearby tree.
The first question asks how many people are staying at the camp.
They must also figure out whether they arrived that day or a few days earlier, how they got there and how far away the closest town is.
In addition, they are asked whether the wind is blowing from north or south and what time of day it is.
The next question is to state where someone called Alex went.
Finally, they must figure out who was on duty yesterday and what day of the week it is.
Unlike the many cartoons that have swept the web in recent months challenging users to spot figures hidden in a sea animals or Star Wars characters, this puzzle relies on deduction.
The answer to how many tourists there are is relatively easy to figure out.
As there are four spoons and plates on the blanket and four names on the duty list, the answer is quite obvious.
Hungarian cartoonist Gergely Dudas, also known as Dudolf, posted his latest puzzle a few days ago to celebrate Easter, challenging fans to find an egg cleverly disguised alongside a group of bunnies
The egg is cunningly disguised between a pair of white rabbit ears in the second row on the left hand side
The cobweb gives a clue to when the group arrived as it must have been a few days earlier to give the spider time to build it.
An oar leaning up against the tree is the key to figuring out how they got there - by boat.
The hen indicates that the nearest town is not far away as it's managed to wander into the campsite.
A flag on the tent, known as a windsock, shows that the wind is blowing from the south, but to figure this out you need to be aware that branches on the southern side of trees in the UK get more sun and grow more densely.
ANSWERS TO THE CAMP RIDDLE 1. There are four tourists four spoons on the picnic blanket and four names on the duty list. 2. They arrived a few days ago A spider's web has appeared between their tent and a tree in that time. 3. They got there by boat Note the oars by the tree. 4. No, a village is not far ..because there's a chicken wandering around. 5. The wind is blowing from the south A flag that shows the wind direction is on top of the tent. (To tell which direction is which, look at the branches - they're normally bigger on the southern side of trees - if you're in the Northern Hemisphere.) 6. Its morning Take the answer from question five to figure out east and west then work out the time based on the shadows. 7. Alex is catching butterflies His net is behind the tent. 8. Colin was on duty yesterday Colin is rummaging through his backpack (marked with a 'c'); Alex is catching butterflies; James is taking photos as his tripod can be seen sticking out of his bag. This leaves Peter - then, according to the list, that means Colin was on duty yesterday. 9. Today is August 8th... According to the list, Peter is on duty, and there is a watermelon - which ripen in August - on the ground.
To figure out the time, you need to use the previous answer which tells you south from north to figure out where is east and west and deduce the time based on shadows.
The answer is that it's morning because the boy by the cook pot's shadow extends to the west.
Because we're asked where Alex went, we can assume he's not visible in the picture. However a butterfly net can be seen behind the tent. So the answer is that he's gone to catch butterflies.
To figure out who was on duty yesterday first consider that Colin, Peter, James and Alex are staying at the camp.
Gergley's original spot the panda puzzle left the internet baffled at Christmas 2015
The original Where's Wally-style snowmen picture was liked by 42,000 people and shared 100,000 times within days, with many struggling to find the panda at all
Dudolf followed up the panda puzzle days later with another picture posted online, this time of a cat hidden among dozens of brightly coloured owls
He planted a few red herrings in the owl picture like a colourful bow tie and festive hats, but the owl's facial features make it particularly difficult to spot the cat
We know that Alex is catching butterflies and the person taking photos must be James, as there's a tripod sticking out of the bag marked J.
The person looking through the backpack is Colin as it's marked with a C.
That means Peter must be the one standing by the cooking pot. If Peter is on duty today, then according to the list on the tree Colin was on duty yesterday.
Figuring out the day of the month isn't too tricky as according to the duty list it's the 8th of the month.
But establishing what month it is may prove rather more difficult. The solution lies in the watermelon on the picnic blanket.
The answer is August 8, but you would have to be aware that it's the month in which watermelons ripen to find the correct answer.
Its long list of questions makes the puzzle even more baffling than a challenge by Gergely Dudas who first drove the internet mad trying to find a panda among a group of snowmen, and a cat blended into rows of owls.
The Hungarian cartoonist posted his latest puzzle a few days ago to celebrate Easter, challenging fans to find an egg cleverly disguised alongside a group of bunnies.
The panda craze was followed up by Reddit contributor, with the username Oneste, who created a mind-boggling puzzle in which he hid a panda amongst rows and rows of Stormtroopers - and TIE fighter pilots
A woman whose face was left disfigured after she received black market injections from a self-proclaimed 'physician' has finally had the cement nodules removed from underneath her skin after more than a decade of living with the damage that was once deemed untreatable.
Rajee Narinesingh, a 48-year-old transgender woman from Hollywood, Florida, who received harmful injections made up of cement and tire sealant in her cheeks, chin, and lips at a 'pumping party' in 2005, met with Los Angeles-based surgeons Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif for the second time on Tuesday's season premiere of the E! reality series Botched.
'The day we graduate medical school we say, "Doctor do no harm." Rajee has never been offered a surgical solution because the risks outweigh the potential benefits,' Dr. Dubrow explained of the reason why he and Dr. Nassif turned Rajee away last year.
Amazing transformation: Rajee Narinesingh had cement nodules removed from her face a decade after she had black market injections that left her disfigured. Rajee is pictured before (L) and after (R) her surgeries
Life-changing: The 48-year-old transgender woman from Hollywood, Florida, received harmful injections made up of cement and tire sealant in her cheeks, chin, and lips at a 'pumping party' in 2005
Looking great: Rajee's side profile is pictured before (L) and after (R) the surgeries performed on Tuesday night's episode of the E! reality series Botched
Rajee was one of the victims of 'toxic tush' doctor Oneal Ron Morris, who performed illegal plastic surgeries using substances such as Fix-a-Flat, Super Glue and mineral oil.
After the life-changing injections, Rajee was left with a face that was filled with hard lumps, but she felt too embarrassed to go to the authorities.
Rajee turned to Dr John Martin of Coral Gables Cosmetic Reconstructive Surgery in 2012 for treatment of the harmful procedure, and she was given softening injections and laser therapy.
Hoping to finally have the cement nodules removed from her face, Rajee appeared on Botched in 2015, but she was turned away after her consultation because Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif felt it was ultimately safer to leave her face as it was.
However, just a year later, the doctors were ready to give Rajee's face another look because Dr. Dubrow desperately wanted to help her, however, Dr. Nassif was admittedly still skeptical that it couldn't be done.
Horrible mistake; Rajee was one of the victims of 'toxic tush' doctor Oneal Ron Morris, who performed illegal plastic surgeries. Rajee is pictured before (L) and after (R) her surgeries
Suffering: Rajee hoped Los Angeles-based surgeons Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif would be able to surgically remove the cement nodules from her face because they had turned her away last year
Disastrous results: Rajee's face was left with golf ball-sized balls of cement in her face, which she had been living with for more than a decade
'I have to make sure my plan is a conservative one, it's a smart one and it doesn't take any undo careless risks with Rajee's face,' Dr. Dubrow told the cameras.
Dr. Dubrow explained to Rajee that he and Dr. Nassif have two major concerns when it comes to surgically taking the masses out of her face.
The doctor said that they are worried that when they go in there and try remove the cement, they will 'activate the inflammatory process' and turn her face into an 'inflammatory mess'.
Another concern was that the 'masses encase all the muscles, nerves, and blood vessels, and taking them out would do a lot of damage to the skin' and could potentially hurt her nerves.
However, despite the stressful situation, Rajee still managed to keep her sense of humor.
Disappointment: Rajee, who first appeared on Botched in 2015, met with the doctors just a year after she asked them to remove the cement nodules from her face but was told it wasn't safe
When Dr. Dubrow told her that he and Dr. Nassif were going to examine each side of her face and then switch, she couldn't help but joke: 'I'm going to be double teamed... by doctors at that! I've come a long way baby.'
Dr. Dubrow told the cameras that the nodules in Rajee's face have been 'treated with very judicious injections of steroids which has stabilized them from an inflammatory point of view'.
During the consultation, he happily reported to Rajee that the steroids 'have really localized things' and reduced any kind of inflammatory response, allowing the doctors to easily see where the cement lumps are located underneath her skin.
Dr. Nassif was also impressed and urged Dr. Dubrow to feel two of the nodules on the side of her face, noting that they are 'very circumscribed'.
'Last year surgery wasn't an option. Now? Terry may be on to something,' Dr. Nassif told the cameras.
Touch choices: Dr. Dubrow (L) and Dr. Nassif (R)were concerned that removing the masses would turn her face into an 'inflammatory mess' or damage her skin and nerves
Still has her humor: During her consultation, Rajee joked that she has 'come a long way' because she was getting 'double teamed' by doctors
The doctors ultimately agree to try surgery, but Dr. Dubrow warned Rajee that he wanted to start with one location at a time, which could result in multiple surgeries.
For Rajee's first surgery, the doctors tested the waters by removing a small piece of cement from her chin. Less than a week later, her chin was healing nicely, proving that the surgery had been a success.
After running some tests, Dr. Dubrow decided to schedule another surgery to remove the golf ball sized lumps of cement in her cheeks.
However, there were complications during the second procedure as a nurse told Dr. Dubrow that she heard a 'gurgling' from Rajee as her anesthesia started to wear off.
Full of hope: The doctors approved Rajee for surgery, but Dr. Dubrow explained that he wanted to work on one area at a time, which could result in multiple surgeries
Getting started; Dr. Nassif (L) and Dr. Dubrow (R) are pictured removing a small mass of cement on Rajee's chin
Looking happy: Rajee was all smiles when she struck a pose with Dr. Dubrow in his Los Angles office after one of her procedures
This is not good,' Dr. Dubrow said. 'When a patient wakes up during surgery it's kind of alarming because sometimes they may not know where they are, they may start thrashing around.
'Their blood pressure can go up because of anxiety, you sort of lose control of your surgical field. So it's really important to have the patient calmly under anesthesia.'
After adjusting her anesthesia, Dr. Dubrow started working on removing the cement form her cheek, which was a difficult task.
The doctor had to use a bone saw to carefully cut out the cement, while ensuring that he hasn't damaged the muscle tissue or the nerves in her face.
But Dr. Dubrow was able to do what was once thought to be impossible, and after hours of surgery, he was able to completely remove all the cement from his patient's face.
Coming along: After the doctors saw that Rajee's chin was healing beautifully, they ran some tests and approved her for her second surgery
Preparation: Dr. Dubrow circled the nodules on Rajee's face that he wanted to remove during the procedure
Tricky business: Dr. Dubrow, who is pictured operating on Rajee, had to use a bone saw to carefully cut out the cement, while ensuring that he hasn't damaged the muscle tissue or the nerves in her face
The surgery was a huge success as Rajee was left with an almost completely smooth chin and cheeks after she returned home to heal.
When Dr. Dubrow met with Rajee for the first time since the procedure, Rajee makes her post-surgery debut in front of her friends and family.
And, of course, she can't thank Dr. Dubrow and Dr. Nassif enough for everything that they had done for her.
Rajee broke down in tears as she gave Dr. Dubrow a big hug to thank him.
'I feel so pretty!' she told the crowd, explaining that she can't wait to start her new life with her newfound confidence.
Growing up: Rajee, who didn't become a woman until her twenties, is pictured as a young boy (L) and a teen (R)
Finding herself: Rajee believed that she was a 'feminine gay male' until she was in her mid-twenties and realized she is actually transgender
In a 2014 interview, Rajee explained that she turned to Morris for black market injections because she wanted to look like a beautiful woman, not a man in a dress.
Rajee believed that she was a 'feminine gay male' until she was in her mid-twenties and realized she is actually transgender.
'When I used to fantasize about being with guys I used to always picture myself with breasts and a vagina. I didn't realize I was doing it, it was just so natural for me. One day I just connected all the dots and thought "you're not gay, you're transgender."'
She added: 'The last thing I wanted was to look like a man in a dress. I wanted to be a beautiful woman.
'If you really want to live your authentic self as a woman you need to do some sort of face and body reconstruction. So I made the choice to get injections done. In our community it is called pumping.'
Price of beauty: Rajee, who is pictured before she received the cement fillers, turned to the black market procedures because she wanted to feel like a beautiful woman
'Thank you!' Rajee was filled with emotion when she hugged Dr. Dubrow after she made her post-surgery debut
Although she knew she wasn't see a licensed surgeon, she was looking forward to her first appointment with Morris.
'I was more excited than nervous because I was finally going to be the woman I had always wanted to be,' she explained.
However, after the injections, she was left with a large boil on her face that kept growing bigger and bigger, and then 'green pus exploded out of my face and onto the mirror. It was green and yellow and mixed with blood.'
She ended up spending years in solitude as a result of these botched procedures, until Dr. Martin agreed to help her for free in 2012.
Meanwhile, Morris has been accused of leaving women ill and disfigured after injecting them with a mixture of toxic substances at homes across Florida.
In addition to multiple counts of practicing medicine without a license with serious bodily injury, she is also facing a manslaughter charge after one of her 'patients' died following surgery.
Moving forward: Rajee told her family and friends that she couldn't wait to start her new life with her newfound confidence
Taking advantage: Oneal Ron Morris (L) is accused of leaving women ill and disfigured after injecting them with a mixture of toxic substances, including super glue and Fix-A-Flat
During the episode, the doctors also me with Vinny, who wanted to look like the 'perfect alien',
After years of being bullied as a child, Vinny began to idolize alien-esque stars such as Jefree Star.
Vinny had previously had a nose job and was unsatisfied with the results, and while the doctors were willing to help him at first, they didn't realize what they were in for.
'I want a thicker bridge, I want a thicker right here, I don't want a hump, I want it just to be flat,' he told them. 'And I want my nose to be straight with a smaller tip.'
Vinny noted that he wanted his nose to look 'unreal-y perfect', which leaves the doctors at a loss.
Hard to understand: During the episode, the doctors also met with Vinny, who wanted to look like the 'perfect alien'
Looking for a change: Vinny had previously had a nose job and was unhappy with the results
Saying no: Although they doctors said they could reconstruct his nose to help with his breathing, they refused to 'deform' him in the ways that he had asked them too
They examine him and determine that they can reconstruct his nose to help his breathing, but they wouldn't be able to give him the physical changes that he desired.
'Deforming your nose, that's not something that we do," Dr. Nassif told him.
However, the doctors were able to help Melissa, who called herself the 'Nip Slip Queen' because a botched breast reduction left her nipples that were too high on her chest.
Melissa explained that she had always been flat-chested until she developed DD breasts in high school.
After having a breast reduction, her nipples were put too high on her chest, but when she asked the doctor to fix it, he said it couldn't be done.
Making jokes: Melissa, who also appeared on Tuesday night's premiere, called herself the 'Nip Slip Queen' because of her botched breast reduction
Big problem: After having a breast reduction, Melissa was left with nipples that were so high that they peaked out of her bra
Offering help: Dr. Dubrow told Melissa that he could fix her nipples, but she would need to go up to a C cup, instead of the B cup she had
During her consultation, Melissa's nipples were showing even while she was wearing a bra. Although it would be difficult to fix, the doctors agreed to take on the case.
However, Dr. Dubrow warned her that in order to get her nipples lowered, he would have to give her a C cup, instead of the B cup she had.
Melissa went along with the surgery, but she broke down in tears during her post-surgery check-in because of how large her breasts were.
Dr. Dubrow assured her that the swelling would go down and her breasts wouldn't be that large afterand he was right.
After she healed a few weeks later, Melissa was ecstatic about the results and started wearing tops she wasn't able to wear for the past 15 years.
She even admitted that she now walks around topless all of the time.
If you meet someone new and their first name brings a clever quip to mind, think twice before saying it because it might not be as 'clever' as you think.
Some people have been hearing the same jokes about their given names their entire lives and, frankly, they're pretty tired of it.
Besides likely rolling their eyes in the moment, thousands of people are taking to Twitter to share the not-so-funny jokes they've heard about their names time and time again, using the hashtag #GrowingUpWithMyName.
So annoying: Twitter users are tweeting with the hashtag #GrowingUpWithMyName to share their frustrations about their first names
Not funny: Many have been hearing the same jokes for years, like this woman named Adele who gets quips about the singer
Celeb monikers: It's unlikely that Victoria Beckham gets Victoria's Secret jokes, and Adele is the reason other women with her name are told to sing
Found her! This girl named Sydney constantly hears quotes from Finding Nemo
Where's Joey? This girl named Chandler is used to funny comments about Matthew Perry's character on Friends
It seems that if there's a pop culture reference related to a person's name, people like to point it out all the time.
One girl named Victoria says she always gets asked, 'Oh my god, Victoria, what's your secret?'
Another girl, named Sydney, is likely sick and tired of the movie Finding Nemo, since it's contributed to her hearing about 'P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way' for years.
A girl named Amanda said she's heard the theme song from Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show, which starred Amanda Bynes, 'no matter the situation', while a poor girl name Anna has been getting grief since Frozen came out, with acquaintances asking, 'Is your sister named Elsa?!'
Times Square can't shine as bright as you: This girl named Delilah has been hearing jokes since the Plain White T's song Hey there Delilah came out
No, she doesn't want to build a snowman: The movie Frozen has caused problems for this girl named Anna
Could have it worse: Girls named Elsa probably battle more Frozen-related jokes
Flashback: This girl named Amanda has been getting the same joke for years
Old school: The Amanda Show, starring Amanda Bynes, was on the air from 1999 to 2002
'No, I cannot sing, no, I can't set fire to the rain, and NO, I did not cross the road to say hello from the other side,' wrote a young woman named Adele.
Women named Delilah have also faced their share of jokes since 2005 since the Plain White T's son Hey There Delilah hit radio stations.
'Where to begin...' tweeted a woman named Chandler who says she's heard both 'Ms. Chanandler Bong' and 'CHANDLAH BING' in Janice's high, nasally voice from Friends.
Bless you: Men named Jesus have heard every joke in the (good) book
Not so fragile: Krystal has heard plenty of puns on her name, and she's at her breaking point
Even people with more common names aren't immune especially if they're named after biblical figures.
Marys and Josephs hear the same jokes again and again. Marys get references to being Jesus' mom, being 'quite contrary', and having a little lamb, while Josephs are asked about their technicolor coats.
'People always saying "I'm sorry for my sins" or "Jesus, can you make this wish come true",' wrote a man named Jesus.
Weathering the storm: Sharing a name with a natural disaster can be tiresome
That's cute: Girls named after seasons and months have heard all of your jokes beofre
Problems: Some people just tweeted about having their name mispronounced or misspelled
Women with 'hippie' names get a hard time too.
A Twitter user named Sunny said she always gets asked: 'Are your parents hippies?' and 'Do your parents smoke weed?'
Summer said she gets called 'winter' by jokers, or is asked about her fictional cousins Autumn, Spring, and Winter.
'When people call me hurricane Katrina even though I was born before it even happened,' lamented another woman.
Transgender teenager Jazz Jennings hit back at critics of Target's restroom policy by sharing a picture of herself outside a women's bathroom in the store.
The 15-year-old YouTube personality, presenter and activist from South Florida thanked Target for inviting transgender employees and shoppers to use the restroom or fitting room that 'corresponds with their gender identity'. She wrote alongside the image on Instagram: 'Peeing in peace!'
It comes after the store came under fire from transphobic people who threatened to boycott the store after it spoke in support of the federal Equality Act last month which it said 'provides protections to LGBT individuals, and opposes action that enables discrimination'.
Scroll down for video
Bold: Transgender presenter and activist Jazz Jennings, 15, posted a picture of herself standing outside the Target women's restroom
'Peeing in peace!' The teen praised Target for allowing customers to use whichever bathroom they want
Supportive: Jazz, pictured left and right, thanked the store for inviting transgender employees and shoppers to use restroom that 'corresponds with their gender identity'
In the picture, Jazz, dressed in a jumper and shorts and carrying a Target plastic bag, stands outside the women's restroom with her had on the handle.
She wrote in the caption: "Peeing in peace! Thank you so much @Target for allowing all people to use the bathroom of their choice! #istandwithtarget!'
Jazz also called for unity on the subject, saying: 'Now I advise everyone to stop making a big deal about all of this'.
The influential YouTube personality was born male and now lives as a girl.
This week she also paid tribute to her mother who she thanked for 'letting me live my life authentically'.
She wrote on Instagram: 'You have helped shape the strong and confident individual that I am today thanks to your unconditional love and support.
Powerful: The influential teenager, from South Florida, pictured, posted the picture of herself in Target on Instagram
Threats: It comes after the store came under fire from transphobic people who vowed to boycott the store for its fitting room and restroom policy
'You are the best mother in the whole world (and I'm not exaggerating). You are not just my mother, but a motherly figure to all children across the globe. I love you'.
Target is one of a number of retailers who calling for inclusivity since legislation impacting LGBT people and limiting transgender people's ability to use bathrooms was introduced and signed into law in Mississippi and North Carolina and the debate of similar bills in other states.
In response more than one million people vowed to boycott the store, America's second biggest retailer.
In a blogpost last month Target wrote: 'In our stores, we demonstrate our commitment to an inclusive experience in many ways.
Queen Letizia refused to let wet weather damp her spirits on a visit to Seville today.
The Spanish monarch was all smiles as she braved the rain with a giant umbrella and with a Hugo Boss mac draped over her shoulders to join husband King Philipe VI for an event.
Letizia, 43, appeared unfazed by the showers as she greeted the crowds who had lined the street in in the La Rinconada area of the city to catch a glimpse of her.
Queen Letizia looked like an Old Hollywood star as she smiled under her umbrella in Seville today
The Spanish royal was equipped with an oversized umbrella and Hugo Boss rain mac at today's engagement
The mother-of-two brought a touch of Old Hollywood glamour to the grey day.
Showcasing her usual bold fashion choices, she wore a scarlet short-sleeved jacket and skirt.
And, while her snakeskin stilettos weren't the ideal choice for wet day, they certainly added to her chic look.
A red snake skin clutch, completed the look by tying her outfit and shoes together perfectly.
Queen Letizia of Spain braved the unusual downpour in Seville today while attending an aerospace event
Despite the downpour Letizia seemed undeterred by the rain, flashing her pearly white smile this morning
Determined to display her usual glamour Letizia opted for a bright scarlet skirt suit paired with a complimenting red snake skin clutch
The former-journalist's choice in footwear may have been a little impractical for today's weather with the queen pictured in a pair of snake skin stilettos
Surely a nod to the weather, the queen opted to keep her hair up today allowing her flash a dazzling pair of diamond earrings.
Luckily the mother-of-two was able to take some refuge indoors during the inauguration of an aerospace technology transfer incubator at the Aerospace Technology Park of Andalusia.
The park was created in 2010 in an effort to boost industry in Andalusia. The complex now plays hosts 538 companies and over 14,000 employees
The mother-of-two joined her husband King Felipe VI for a tour of the Aerospace Technology Park of Andalusia
Although the royal was not tasked with meeting all 14,000 employees she was glad to meet some involved in Andalusia's growing industry
The royals appeared impressed by the vicinity which was created in 2010 in an effort to boost industry in Andalusia. The complex now plays hosts 538 companies and over 14,000 employees
Although the royal was not tasked with meeting all 14,000 employees she was glad to meet some involved in Andalusia's growing industry.
Setting her umbrella aside Letizia and the king were lead on a tour of the park greeting workers in white coats this afternoon.
Crowds were able to catch a glimpse of the queen sans umbrella later today when she took to the balcony of the Municipality of La Rinconada in Andalusia.
She smiled down adoringly at the crowds as the rain gave off enough for her to remove her rain mac.
Crowds were able to catch a glimpse of the queen sans umbrella later today when she took to the balcony of the Municipality of La Rinconada in Andalusia
After having a pacemaker fitted, I was prescribed 20mg Xarelto (rivaroxaban). I have read it described as 'the most dangerous drug', and that thousands are suing the makers. I am 82 and healthy but terrified about adverse reports.
Rev John Theobald, Whitby, North Yorks.
The fact that lawyers are collecting cases of people who have suffered a side-effect from this drug is troubling to say the least.
'When making a decision about anticoagulation, it is essential to bear in mind dangers and complications'
I understand more than 3,000 lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. against the maker and distributor of Xarelto, alleging that the drug has caused unstoppable bleeding, even death.
However, to describe rivaroxaban as 'very dangerous' is unhelpful and emotive, and we must rely upon the evidence to make our decisions.
It's important to place the use of the drug in the context of the dangers of the condition being treated and consider the hazards of the alternative: warfarin. I hope that what I say may help you feel less concerned.
Rivaroxaban is a newly developed blood-thinner - a drug to prevent clotting - and is one of a group of three 'novel' anticoagulants; the other two are apixaban (brand name Eliquis) and dabigatran (Pradaxa).
These medicines are primarily used to prevent strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation, where the patient's heart beats irregularly, and often abnormally fast. There is a risk of a blood clot forming in one of the heart's chambers and travelling to the brain, causing a stroke.
The drugs are also used in patients with deep vein thrombosis, to prevent blood clots migrating from the deep veins in the legs up to the lungs causing a pulmonary embolism, which can be fatal.
'This drug is effective at preventing stroke. Although it is not without some risk, it compares favourably'
Prior to the arrival of these new anticoagulants, the only treatments available were heparin, which can be given only by injection, and warfarin, taken as a daily tablet.
It might seem more convenient, but warfarin is not without its problems as it's affected by what patients eat. This is partly because warfarin works by slowing the body's production of vitamin K, needed for the blood to clot. Food high in this (such as spinach and broccoli) can potentially interfere with the drug's effect.
As a result, patients can end up taking too much or too little. In the worst case scenario, unwanted and potentially dangerous clotting may still occur, or if the dose is too high, the risk is dangerous bleeding in the brain or elsewhere.
This is why patients taking warfarin must have regular blood tests to decide the dose.
Rivaroxaban and the two other new blood-thinners can be given in a standard dose without blood-testing (though an investigation by the BMJ in 2014 suggested blood-testing to adjust doses would make Pradaxa safer).
However, the disadvantage of these drugs is the lack of an antidote. If there is an adverse reaction - such as unwanted bleeding - the only solution is to wait a day or two for the drug to wear off.
In contrast, warfarin can, to a certain extent, be reversed by the injection of vitamin K.
But recent trial evidence suggests effective antidotes to the new drugs may have been identified.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has weighed up the pros and cons of warfarin and rivaroxaban. It now recommends rivaroxaban as an option, stating the drug should be used after an informed discussion about its risks and benefits compared with warfarin.
When considering its decision, the NICE committee heard evidence that in terms of the total number of significant bleeding events as a side-effect, there is no difference between the two drugs. There was a reduction in the number of fatal bleeds and intracranial haemorrhages (bleeding in the brain) - which can kill or cause permanent damage - with rivaroxaban, but a higher rate of bleeds in the intestine, which can be more easily treated before causing permanent damage.
When making a decision about anticoagulation, it is essential to bear in mind the dangers and complications of the condition being treated - in your case, I assume this is atrial fibrillation.
I hope that I can reassure you not to be terrified. This drug is effective at preventing stroke. Although it is not without some risk, it compares favourably with the alternative, warfarin.
I have had a bad case of constipation over the past few weeks. After a phone consultation with a GP, I was prescribed Laxido, which is good, but the struggle and straining has left me with a terrible aching in my back passage. It comes and goes but is very uncomfortable and sometimes makes my legs ache. The doctor didn't think it was anything to worry about.
Name and address withheld.
What concerns me is that you have not been examined and investigated further. You do not mention your age, but in older patients - by which I mean middle-aged and beyond - any alteration of bowel habit, such as constipation for several weeks, demands further investigation, even if prescribed laxatives seem to be helping.
I would not recommend taking the Laxido for longer than two weeks without seeing your doctor if your symptoms have not fully resolved.
You describe an ache that comes and goes and which, your longer letter explains, sometimes affects you at night. I can think of two possible explanations.
One is proctalgia fugax, a disorder in which there are fleeting but severe bouts of pain in the rectum with no other symptoms. It affects 5 to 10 per cent of people of almost all ages.
The episodes may last anything from seconds to minutes and typically occur a few times a year. Although there is some debate over the exact cause, it is thought to be down to an intense spasm of the rectum muscles.
To make the diagnosis, other causes of anal or rectal pain must be ruled out by examination. For example, haemorrhoids, abscesses, anal fissure, rectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease may all give rise to this symptom.
A second possibility is chronic proctalgia, where bouts of pain last at least 20 minutes - again this is thought to be due to muscle spasms. To diagnose this, the patient must have had episodes for at least three months and all other causes must be excluded.
The best course of action is to see your usual doctor, discuss things further and perhaps be referred for an investigation.
This should include a flexible sigmoidoscopy - where a viewing scope is used to examine the rectum and a few inches of the colon - or a full colonoscopy (to examine the entire colon) to rule out any sinister cause of the change in bowel habit and the subsequent bouts of pain.
By the way... GPs must have 15 minutes with patients
'One of the greatest anxieties is having to see patients with such haste that there is a sense of cutting corners and compromising standards while short-changing people the simple humanity that's so important'
As I have so often said, the pressures on general practitioners have multiplied exponentially in the last few years - so much so that many senior doctors are opting for early retirement and young doctors are becoming reluctant to choose general practice as a career option.
When 20 to 40 patients visit a day, one of the greatest anxieties is having to see them with such haste that there is a sense of cutting corners and compromising standards while short-changing people the simple humanity that's so important.
Working day in, day out under such pressure can lead to mistakes. In the event of a complaint or an error that results in disciplinary procedures, the doctor is assumed guilty until proven innocent. Between 2005 and 2013, 28 doctors are thought to have died through suicide while undergoing investigation by the General Medical Council. Many had mental health problems that required support and treatment, but this went unrecognised by the powers-that-be.
Write to Dr Scurr To contact Dr Scurr with a health query, write to him at Good Health Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email drmartin@dailymail.co.uk - including contact details. Dr Scurr cannot enter into personal correspondence. His replies cannot apply to individual cases and should be taken in a general context. Always consult your own GP with any health worries.
However, here comes a breath of fresh air from the British Medical Association with the suggestion that GPs should spend 15 minutes with each patient - rather than the current ten - and that there should be a cap on the total number of consultations in each day.
The union has recognised that major changes are needed to limit the current strains crushing the professional life out of so many GPs. Such a move can only help, but it requires changes that are impossible to achieve - the first being a vast increase in the number of GPs.
It currently takes about 12 years to train a first-year undergraduate at medical school to become a fully-fledged general practitioner.
Topping up the numbers with doctors recruited from overseas may involve accepting far lower levels of training and even compromising standards - and that's assuming they can be lured here in sufficient numbers.
I am not sure there is a solution within the current healthcare model.
Matthew Sargaison was snowboarding at speed in the Swiss Alps when a child veered into his path, forcing him to halt abruptly.
'The board stopped, but the top of my body didn't,' says Matthew, 47, who lives in Dulwich, South-East London. 'I jolted forward and felt a sharp, searing pain in the middle of my back. Then I collapsed.'
The father of two was airlifted to a hospital where, despite his extreme pain, an X-ray revealed he had no broken bones. He was discharged, prescribed painkillers for a 'muscular injury' and told to rest.
MRI uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body (file photo)
Four weeks after the accident, he was still relying on medication to make it through the day - he found sitting down 'terribly uncomfortable'.
'My wife, Sian, was annoyed with me for not doing anything about it,' says Matthew, a chief investment officer who works for a hedge fund in the City.
'She insisted I get a referral to the clinic her father runs, which offers a new type of scan known as an "upright" MRI.'
MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body.
With a traditional MRI, the patient lies down and must remain motionless in the machine's enclosed narrow tunnel. With an upright MRI, there are two large magnetised plates on either side of the patient, who can sit or stand.
It is thought to be particularly useful for spinal and musculoskeletal problems, because patients can be examined in various weight-bearing positions, such as sitting, standing or bending over, which put pressure on muscles, bones and joints.
'Upright MRI scanning for skeletal and muscular problems gives more accurate information' (file photo)
This makes any problem areas - such as troublesome discs in the back or trapped nerves - 'active' so they show up clearer on the scan.
Matthew, who was referred to the Medserena Upright MRI Centre in London, was asked to adopt various positions during the scan and then remain still - movement could blur the images and make the results unreadable.
The outcome of his 45-minute procedure was surprising.
'I'd half-expected a slipped disc, but I discovered I'd fractured the second lumbar vertebrae - a bone in my lower spine,' he says.
'Essentially, I had been walking around with a broken back.'
Upright MRI scanning for skeletal and muscular problems gives more accurate information because the person is under the effect of gravity
He was banned from intense exercise for six months to avoid splintering the bone. The fracture was only visible when Matthew was in a weight-bearing, seated position and flexing his back, which is why the X-ray failed to detect it.
A conventional MRI would most likely have missed it, too, says Francis Smith, a clinical professor of radiology at the University of Aberdeen and clinical director at the Medserena Centre.
'Pressure on the intervertebral discs - layers of cartilage in between bones in the back - is 11 times higher in an upright position than when flat on your back,' he says.
'This pressure means problematic discs bulge more when a patient is in an upright position.
'Upright MRI scanning for skeletal and muscular problems gives more accurate information because the person is under the effect of gravity.'
A 2008 paper in the journal Spine showed a significant rise in the detection of slipped discs when patients were scanned while bending forwards, backwards or sideways compared with lying down.
Last year, Glan Clwyd Hospital in Wales became the first NHS hospital to introduce an upright, weight-bearing MRI scanner. It performs 40 scans a week, generally on knee and spinal injuries.
'I recently saw a patient who was experiencing pain down his leg when standing,' says Dr Himanshu Patel, a consultant radiologist at the hospital.
The conventional MRI scan didn't uncover the cause, but the upright MRI revealed a narrowing and abnormal movement of the spinal canal, which was causing pain in the patient's back and leg due to the pressure when he walked.
Dr Patel says joint and muscle problems are the reason for 60 per cent of MRI scans.
A 2008 paper in the journal Spine showed a significant rise in the detection of slipped discs when patients were scanned while bending forwards, backwards or sideways compared with lying down (file photo)
'Scanning patients who have musculoskeletal problems in this way also frees up space on traditional MRI for neurology and oncology,' he says.
Another advantage is that upright MRIs are often open machines, therefore avoiding a key problem of other MRIs - claustrophobia.
One in seven patients is unable to have a scan as a result of this, which can cause delays in diagnosis. Upright MRIs also make it possible to scan obese patients who don't fit inside the traditional machines.
Jon Dearing, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Ayr Hospital, has referred obese and claustrophobic patients for upright MRIs at a private clinic in Newcastle.
'Traditional MRI scanners are still useful and 95 per cent of the time will pick up the problem,' he says.
'If there is a clinical suspicion of spinal stenosis - essentially arthritis in the spine - which doesn't show up on a normal scan, then a weight-bearing scan would be beneficial.
'It may be that upright MRIs are otherwise reserved for patients who are claustrophobic or obese.'
Matthew is back to full health following six months of taking it 'very easy'.
'I was incredibly lucky to have been able to have the upright MRI scan and walk away from this with no lasting damage,' he says.
A mother who blamed her inverted nipple on being pregnant was devastated to be diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer two weeks after her son was born.
Ruth Taylor, 39, was expecting her second child Harri, now two, when she noticed her nipple had puckered and retreated inwards.
She had been breastfeeding her daughter Anni, now three, and due to also being heavily pregnant, she put the change in her nipple down to these factors.
But after Harri was born she found a lump - and was horrified when tests confirmed it was breast cancer - and immediately she began worrying her children would be left without a mother.
Mrs Taylor had two operations to remove her lymph nodes - during which her nipple was cut out and lowered, leaving it crooked and pointing outwards.
After chemotherapy and radiotherapy she is finally cancer-free, and says she now wears her 'wonky nipple' as a badge of pride, refusing to have it corrected.
Ruth Taylor, 39, believed her inverted nipple was a normal symptom of her pregnancy. In February 2014, she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer just days after giving birth to son Harri, now two
After multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and radiotherapy Mrs Taylor is finally cancer-free. Pictured with husband Ed, 37, and children Anni, now three and a half and Harri, now two
Mrs Taylor, from Cardiff, said: 'I had noticed an inverted nipple months previously, but put it down to the fact I had been pregnant while breastfeeding so my body had gone through a lot of changes.
'I couldn't feel a lump, so I wasn't overly concerned.
'If I hadn't pestered the midwives to examine me while I was in hospital giving birth, chances are I would have just gone back to my busy life and ignored it for even longer.
'So to say the diagnosis rocked our world is an understatement - we were in shock, petrified, it felt surreal.
She continued: 'Cancer was definitely something that happened to other people.
'We couldn't believe we were holding a newborn and a toddler feeling completely vulnerable and uncertain about our future.'
Mrs Taylor, whose husband Ed, 37, is a teacher, had noticed her left nipple was inverted several months before Harri's birth - but wasn't worried about it.
Changes to the nipple's colour, position or shape can be a sign of cancer as the tumour causes changes in the breast.
BREAST CANCER: SYMPTOMS TO LOOK OUT FOR Changes that could be due to a breast cancer include: A lump or thickening in an area of the breast
A change in the size, shape or feel of a breast
Dimpling of the skin
A change in the shape of your nipple, particularly if it turns in, sinks into the breast, or has an irregular shape
A blood stained discharge from the nipple
A rash on a nipple or surrounding area
A swelling or lump in the armpit These signs don't necessarily mean cancer. Inverted nipples, blood stained nipple discharge or a rash can all be due to other medical conditions. Inverted nipples, blood stained nipple discharge or a rash can all be due to other medical conditions. But poeple who notice these changes should see their GP. Source: Cancer Research UK Advertisement
As the date for her elective Caesarean drew nearer Mrs Taylor became more concerned and raised the issue with midwives, continuing to pester them once Harri was delivered.
The day after Harri was born a midwife found a lump in Mrs Taylor's left breast.
She had scans and biopsies, and 11 days later received the devastating news she had an aggressive form of breast cancer.
Breast cancer during pregnancy is very rare, happening in around 1 in 3,000 pregnancies, with most women between 32 and 38 years old at diagnosis.
While pregnancy doesn't trigger breast cancer, the hormonal changes in the body during pregnancy can accelerate its growth.
Mrs Taylor said she felt 'lonely and scared' after her diagnosis. #
She said: 'I wanted to simply enjoy cuddling and caring for my newborn, but I felt so anxious.
'I was hurt I wasn't just able to enjoy my baby boy and I longed to be like other mums and focus on my children without any worries.
'I felt petrified of the results, what the doctors would find, the thought it had spread and the fear I would never see my children grow up.'
She said it 'broke her heart' to think of her 'happy-go-lucky' and 'cheeky' daughter having to grieve for her.
'I hoped Harri would be too young to remember,' she added.
Waiting for the results was the 'longest week of her life', as she and her husband tried to keep busy to protect the children from their anguish.
Mrs Taylor had already lost her father Cerdin Thomas, 62, to bowel cancer just 16 months previously - the day after Anni was born.
This meant she found it incredibly difficult to tell her mother Delyth, 63, and brother Ioan, 34, the news.
She was also heartbroken when doctors told her she might not be able to have more children because chemotherapy treatment might trigger early menopause.
Mrs Taylor had one operation to remove cancer in her lymph nodes (left) which cured her inverted nipple. But after another operation to remove the rest of her nodes, her nipple was left 'wonky' (right)
During her treatment Mrs Taylor feared she wouldn't survive- and considered writing goodbye letter to her children, while urging her husband to look for love again should she die
Mrs Taylor had her first round of chemotherapy when Harri was five weeks old and had her head shaved in April 2014 because her hair began to fall out.
She and her husband tried to focus on ensuring their children had a normal home life full of laughter and happiness.
But some days - worrying she might not survive - she wondered if she should write them goodbye letters.
To say the diagnosis rocked our world is an understatement - we were in shock, petrified, it felt surreal Ruth Taylor, 39
She even encouraged her husband to look for love again should she die.
Mrs Taylor said: 'We needed to protect the children from our fear and pain.
'Having two children under the age of two and dealing with the side effects of chemo was a struggle and there were days I felt so unwell it was hard to get out of bed.
'I made it through by focussing on one hour at a time. I had to - there was no other choice.
'Being a new mum with cancer could be quite a lonely place to be, but the children definitely encouraged me to focus on getting better.
'They kept us busy, sane and positive and I am really proud of how our family got through it together.'
After 18 weeks and six rounds of chemotherapy, Mrs Taylor underwent a lumpectomy in August 2014 to remove one lymph node, with the operation causing her inverted nipple to return to normal.
However, after more surgery the following month to remove the rest of her lymph nodes, her nipple was left 'wonky'.
But she said she is proud of it and does not want more surgery to have it corrected.
While doctors have said she could have her nipple corrected, Mrs Taylor says she feels more content in herself than ever and wears it as a badge of pride
On top of surgery, she underwent 18 rounds of chemotherapy - and lost her hair - as well as 20 rounds of radiotherapy to beat the disease
After undergoing 20 sessions of radiotherapy from October 2014 she has been told she is free of cancer.
She said: 'With regards to confidence, I am probably more content in myself than ever before.
'I do have a wonky nipple, and my oncologist mentioned possibly correcting it but I don't need to.
'I'm grateful I have a healthy wonky nipple - that's more than good enough for me.'
Mrs Taylor will remain on cancer medication for the next 10 years, but she hopes to come off the drug temporarily - with her doctor's approval - to try for another baby.
I do have a wonky nipple, and I don't need to correct it. I'm grateful I have a healthy wonky nipple - that's more than good enough for me Ruth Taylor, 39
She says she still worries the cancer will return - but feels finally able to make plans for the future.
She said: 'Sometimes I wonder if I'm naive to do so, but I want to enjoy life not waste my energy on worrying.'
'People would say to me I should be grateful I had two babies already, and I absolutely am - they are my world.
'But I didn't feel complete and felt hurt I might not be able to have another. I knew there was room in our family for more.'
Thinking of how tough Harri's first few months of life were, she 'could cry', she said.
'Looking back we are proud at how far we have come and feel very fortunate.'
Midwives found the lump on Mrs Taylor's breast minutes after her son Harri was born. Research suggests pregnancy does not cause cancer, but will accelerate the disease if it is already present in the body
'I'm grateful I have a healthy wonky nipple - that's more than good enough for me,' Mrs Taylor said
Throughout her ordeal, Mrs Taylor was supported by Mummy's Star, the only charity in the UK which supports women diagnosed with cancer during or within the first year of pregnancy and birth.
Pete Wallroth, founder and CEO, said: 'Cancer in pregnancy or post-birth is thankfully rare, but that also means that it is all the more isolating when it happens and it can throw a family into turmoil.
'We try to reduce this as much as reasonably possible for women like Ruth by connecting them with others in a similar situation.
'This has over time become known by those mums as their 'Mummy's Star family' - an outlet to those who will understand the unique nature of their situation and the emotions they go through.
'We work hard to raise awareness that cancer and pregnancy do sadly coincide, but that there are treatment options, and we try to help normalise the pregnancy and post-birth experience as much as possible.'
Indigestion pills taken daily by millions of people around the globe may increase the risk of dementia, heart attacks and kidney problems, research suggests.
Scientists found proton pump inhibitors - available in supermarkets and pharmacies without a prescription accelerate the ageing of cells which line blood vessels.
Researchers said that the discovery was a smoking gun which backs up previous reports linking long-term use of PPI medicines to several serious illnesses.
Sold in bottles and packets, the drugs are used to treat gastroesophageal reflux, a severe form of heartburn.
In Britain, it is now possible to buy PPIs over-the-counter of pharmacies without a prescription, and last year they were made available in corner shops and supermarkets for the first time.
The drugs are not recommended for long-term use, but doctors fear that because they are so readily available, people may take them without medical supervision for years.
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Proton pump inhibitors, which are used to treat gastroesophageal reflux, a severe form of heartburn, may increase the risk of dementia, heart attacks and kidney problems, research suggests
In the new study, lab tests at Houston Methodist Research Institute found long-term exposure to PPIs accelerated the aging of the human endothelial cells which line the inside of blood vessels.
Writing in the journal Circulation Research, they said: When healthy, these cells create a Teflon-like coating that prevents blood from sticking.
But older and diseased, the endothelium becomes more like Velcro, with blood elements sticking to the vessel to form blockages.
They suspect this increases the risk of problems such as vascular dementia, heart disease and kidney problems, which are all linked to clotting.
Study leader, Professor John Cooke, said: Long-term use of proton pump inhibitors may not be good for your body, they may not be good for your blood vessels.
It has been shown now by our group and others that users of PPIs are at increased risk of dementia, heart attack and renal failure.
We now have the mechanism, we now have the smoking gun that explains these observations.
He said for some people, with severe digestive problems, PPIs are essential.
But he added: It raises the question of whether these drugs should be over-the-counter, should be used without medical supervision. I think not.
'I think the regulatory authorities should reconsider the use of these drugs over the counter.
Professor Cooke suggested if people need long-term heartburn treatments, they should instead consider other types of indigestion treatments - such as H2 blockers which stop the stomach producing excess acid.
Tests at Houston Methodist Research Institute found long-term exposure to PPIs accelerated the aging of the human endothelial cells which line the inside of blood vessels. They suspect this increases the risk of problems such as vascular dementia, heart disease and kidney problems, which are all linked to clotting
His team carried out tests on a type of PPI called esomeprazole, sold in the US and UK under the brand name Nexium or Nexium Control.
The scientists suggested the findings would apply to all kinds of PPI - but accepted more research was needed before that could be proven.
They also stressed the study was carried out in the lab, rather than in humans.
But the findings are supported by a German study of 74,000 people, published in the journal JAMA Neurology in February, which suggested that elderly people who used PPIs at least once every three months had a 44 percent increased risk of dementia compared with those who did not take the drugs.
And a Stanford study of 3million people, published last July, suggested that people who took PPIs were 16 to 21 per cent more likely to have a heart attack.
But last night a spokesman for the drugs industry insisted that the pills were safe if taken short term.
John Smith, chief executive of the Proprietary Association of Great Britain, which represents the over-the-counter medicine industry, said: The authors recognise that clinical studies would be necessary to determine whether PPI medicines damage blood vessel cells in the same way inside the body.
This study focuses specifically on PPIs in long-term use, whereas PPIs available over-the-counter are only intended for short term use for treating acute conditions.
All over-the-counter medicines in the UK have been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and are rigorously assessed for safety and efficacy. Once on the market, their safety is continually monitored in light of any emerging evidence.
Forty different mutated genes are responsible for causing the 10 different forms of breast cancer, experts have discovered.
They have unearthed crucial new genetic information about how the disease develops and the genetic changes which can be linked to survival.
After anaylsing tumour samples, experts from the University of Cambridge, discovered breast cancer can be classified as 10 different diseases.
They then worked to gain a greater understanding of the genetic faults of these 10 disease subtypes.
Researchers discovered 40 mutated genes that cause breast cancer to progress.
A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge have identified 40 different mutated genes that are responsible for causing the 10 different subtypes of breast cancer
Yet, only a fraction of these genes were previously known to be involved in the development of the disease.
Professor Carlos Caldas, lead author of the Cancer Research UK research, said the METABRIC study 'mapped the genetic blueprints for breast cancer'.
He said: 'These new results give us even more detail about which genetic faults could be linked to how different types of breast cancer develop and progress.
'The information could, in the future, help design clinical trials for breast cancer patients, or give researchers more flags to look out for in liquid biopsies, a type of test used to detect genetic material in the blood that is released by dying cancer cells.'
As well as identifying the 40 mutated genes responsible for breast cancer, the researchers also found that one of the more common mutated genes, called PIK3CA, is linked to lower chances of survival for three of the 10 breast cancer subtypes.
Crucially, this may help to explain why drugs targeting PIK3CA work for some women but not others, they noted.
And the researchers believe their findings could pave the way for research to find new drugs to target the genetic faults and stop the disease progressing.
This discovery raises hopes of new trials, drugs and treatments to combat the disease, experts say
The research could also provide vital information to help design breast cancer trials and improved tests for the disease.
The findings add a more detailed layer of information to the METABRIC study, a major piece of research involving 2,000 patients in 2012, which revealed breast cancer can be classified as 10 diseases or subtypes.
Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research's chief clinician, said: 'Our research continues to highlight just how complicated cancers are.
'But we are managing to solve these puzzles faster than ever.
'This study gives us more vital information about how breast cancer develops and why some types are more difficult to treat than others, and this information is a great resource for researchers all over the world.
'Research like this will help us invent new diagnostic tests to guide treatment for breast cancer patients in the future.'
The results will be made available to the public so that other researchers can benefit from the work.
An outbreak of yellow fever could become the latest global health emergency, experts have warned.
A major flare up in Angola has been followed by two smaller outbreaks in Uganda and Congo, and while largely under control, scientists have warned countries to be vigilant.
Yellow fever is hard to spot early on and spreads quickly in towns, transmitted by the same mosquito that carries the Zika virus.
The pest bites in the daytime and has flourished during the abnormal El Nino weather of the past year caused by the warming of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America.
'What we hope is that El Nino will not be faster than we are,' said Sylvie Briand, head of WHO's department of pandemic and epidemic diseases.
An outbreak of yellow fever currently affecting Angola, Uganda and Congo could become the latest global health emergency experts have warned. Yellow fever is hard to spot early on and spreads quickly, transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the same pest that carries the Zika virus
'We are concerned for other countries that have high densities of mosquitoes.'
The concern comes as two Georgetown University professors have called on the WHO to convene an emergency committee under the International Health Regulations.
In addition, with frequent emerging epidemics, they call for the creation of a 'standing emergency committee' to be prepared for future health emergencies.
In their editorial, published in JAMA Viewpoint, Professor Daniel Lucey and Professor Lawrence Gostin, of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown, explain that the ongoing spread, and potential future spread of yellow fever, coupled with a limited vaccine supply, should compel the WHO to 'urgently convene an emergency committee to mobilize funds, coordinate an international response and spearhead a surge in vaccine protection'.
An epidemic of yellow fever, first reported in January, has been spreading rapidly in Angola.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) declared an epidemiological alert on April 22 for yellow fever in Latin America, where the Aedes aegypti mosquito vector is also actively transmitting Zika and dengue viruses.
Vaccine 'supply shortages could spark a health security crisis', say the professors, pointing out that spread of yellow fever has already taken place in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where efforts to vaccinate two million people are planned.
'Acting proactively to address the evolving yellow fever epidemic is imperative,' they say.
(Vaccine) supply shortages could spark a health security crisis Professors Daniel Lucey and Lawrence Gostin, Georgetown
Professors Gostin and Lucey point out that an emergency committee meeting would allow its members to advise the director-general, Dr Margaret Chan on the epidemic and trigger discussions about a surge in vaccine production even if a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) is not declared.
Finally, the professors say time has come to consider a more efficient way to manage potential public health emergencies.
'The complexities and apparent increased frequency of emerging infectious disease threats, and the catastrophic consequences of delays in the international response, make it no longer tenable to place sole responsibility and authority with the Director-General to convene currently ad hoc emergency committees,' Professors Lucey and Gostin write.
Instead, they support establishing a 'standing emergency committee' that would meet regularly to advise the director-general.
Experts have called on the WHO to convene an emergency committee, warning vaccine supply shortages could spark a health security
Until the development of the highly effective vaccine, yellow fever changed history, Ms Briand said, with outbreaks delaying construction of the Panama Canal and encouraging Napoleon to give up territorial ambitions in North America.
In Angola's capital Luanda, the first cases were at a roadside restaurant six months ago, when a group of friends fell ill with suspected food poisoning and several died.
Only when the restaurant owner died was the alarm raised.
Angola has had 2,267 suspected cases and 293 deaths.
Of the cases, 696 have been confirmed, including 445 from Luanda province.
Democratic Republic of Congo has had 41 confirmed cases, almost all of them imported from Angola, but the outbreak was discovered early and should be stopped quickly, Ms Briand said.
Uganda, which has seven confirmed cases in rural areas, was also well set up to tackle such outbreaks, she said.
Luanda's population is now almost completely vaccinated, but it used up the world's entire emergency stockpile of vaccines, and the slow vaccination campaign allowed the virus to spread to other provinces.
'The vaccine supply, which is usually sufficient, may become stretched if we have more outbreaks in the coming months,' Ms Briand said.
An early risk is Angola's population of foreign oil workers, who are in danger of taking the disease home with them.
Portugal and China, which both have strong links to Angola, have both taken the right steps to protect themselves, Ms Briand said.
But many countries in Africa do not have vaccination coverage for children, and Nigeria, which suffered thousands of yellow fever deaths in a multi-year outbreak in the 1980s, was still 'definitely a country at risk', she said.
An inspection at the showcase Delhi Zoo on Tuesday made authorities do a double-take after it emerged that not 16 but 33 chitals had died mysteriously over the past three months.
The grim survey was triggered by a Mail Today report about a spate of deer deaths at the zoo, reportedly caused by rabies.
A three-member team from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), a Government regulatory body for zoos, and representatives of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) separately visited the park to investigate the matter and found several lapses by zoo officials.
The spotted deer at Delhi Zoo have been dying in worrying numbers over the past three months
The zoos veterinary department told Mail Today on Monday that 16 spotted deer died after a suspected outbreak of rabies, with 13 samples testing positive. However, on checking the records the reviewers found that the death toll was actually more than double the quoted figure.
Records and postmortem reports of deer were examined, after which it was found that 33 deer died. The situation is alarming, said a senior officer.
The issue has drawn outrage from animal rights activists, who say something is wrong at Delhi Zoo, which houses over a thousand animals, reptiles and birds.
The zoo last hit the headlines two years ago when a young man was mauled to death by a white tiger after he jumped into the big cats enclosure.
Zoo officials are now trying to play down the number of deer deaths, which the CZA has already termed an epidemic.
A source confirmed the death toll to Mail Today, but zoo officials remained tight-lipped.
The inspection team found that zoo authorities were lax in dealing with the crisis and failed to act in time.
Despite the spread of epidemic, which resulted in the deaths of 33 deer, the zoos health advisory committee did not act and no meeting was held. The panel is supposed to meet every few months but no meeting has been held in two years, a senior official said.
Also, the zoo officials brought in two Himalayan black deer from Gopalpur in Himachal Pradesh last week, flouting CZA rules.
The CZA guideline clearly mentions that no animal should be transported during the summer. Despite this zoo officials transported high-altitude Himalayan black deer from Himachal. This is clearly in violation of government rules, the official added.
The move came at a time when Delhi is reeling under scorching heat, forcing authorities to shut down schools. Zoo officials are also facing criticism for sending just two veterinary officials to transport the animals.
Sources say the suspected rabies outbreak surfaced on February 14 after drain water swamped the deer enclosure. When two of the animals died, officials assumed they had drunk contaminated water. But soon other deer started falling ill, with at least one of them frothing at the mouth.
Samples from the dead animals were sent to IVRI, which confirmed the deaths were due to the rabies virus.
Officials suspect the chital died of rabies triggered by mongoose bites, but have found little concrete evidence of this so far.
The zoo has around 120 spotted deer. Following the deaths, 20 have been vaccinated and separated from the herd.
The inspection team pointed out that the process being adopted for vaccination is extremely time-consuming.
Animals are being vaccinated in a group of 5-6 and kept in separate areas so that the complete herd is treated. So far, close to 20 deer have been vaccinated. The process of vaccination of a group of animals takes 14 days, in which three doses of vaccine is given. If they continue to go at same pace then it will take a year to vaccinate over 100 deer at the zoo, an official said.
Facebook has rolled out a new enterprise offering Facebook at Work in India, to allow employees of an organisation to collaborate and connect with their co-workers.
The programme, which is at the beta stage, has seen firms like L&T Infotech, Telenor, RBS, YES Bank, Godrej Industries, Paytm, Zomato, and Delhivery coming on board.
Similar to Facebook, the product allows users to connect with their colleagues, see a newsfeed, comment and share posts, create groups, and chat using Work Chat.
Facebook has rolled out a new enterprise called 'Facebook at Work' in India. The site is meant to help co-workers connect and collaborate, and can be monitored by their employers.
Users cannot use their personal accounts to log in, and the access is managed by the organisation.
So, if an employee leaves an organisation, the login ceases to work - and hence the corporate data stay safe. Facebook at Work also has no ads or games.
The US-based company charges a fee based on the number of monthly active users.
At Facebook, our mission is to make the world more open and connected, and this is also true in the workplace. In a mobile-first world, we want to help people find simpler ways to collaborate and connect with co-workers, Facebook at Work director Julien Codorniou told the media in Delhi on Tuesday.
Facebook at Work is not a social networking solution, but a productivity solution. More than 60,000 companies globally signed up globally for the pilot. Of these, we have already got 450 companies on board. These include different sectors from banking, telecom, travel, retail and real estate, Facebook at Work Asia-Pacific head Ramesh Gopalkrishna said.
RK Nanda, a Delhi-based entrepreneur running a travel agency, a jewellery firm, and a music business, could be the man to help the CBI unravel the AgustaWestland money trail.
Working closely with middleman Christian Michel - the man accused of linking everyone together in the chopper deal scam - Nanda allegedly received nearly Rs 19 crore from Michel.
It is alleged that Nanda set up a shell company, Media Exim, nominally to export jewellery and music CDs.
Its been more than three years since the CBI registered cases to probe kickbacks into the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal. Christian Michel denies any wrongdoing in the failed deal.
More than three years after the CBI registered cases to probe kickbacks into the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal, Nanda is now being interrogated by the CBI to get further leads.
Dummy company
Sources allege that Nandas company, set up in 2005, was a dummy and was used for Michel to park illegal money.
On Michels instructions, Nanda also invested some money in real estate. Four properties he purchased were later sold.
According to the CBI, Nanda received Rs 6.5 crore from Michels Dubai-based company Global Services FZE between 2005 and 2007.
Nandas company, Supreme Airways, was used to buy air tickets for Michel's travels and his other contacts, for which a payment of Rs 12 crore was made.
The CBI on Tuesday questioned Nanda about the monetary transactions hoping to make a breakthrough in the case.
Consumers spending less on clothes and shoes in social media age
and culture increased nearly 8% in the year
The UK's 'experience economy' is on the rise, with people spending more on eating out, days out and holidays than they are pounding the high streets for more possessions.
With the recent demise of high street staples BHS and Austin Reed fresh in people's minds and the once seemingly unstoppable Apple recently posting its first revenue decline for 13 years, it seems people's priorities are changing, Visa Europe suggested.
Clothing and footwear sales are down, while spending on 'recreation and culture' climbed nearly 8 per cent year-on-year last month.
More meaningful: People are spending more on eating out and holidays than on clothes, data shows
With ever-greater numbers vying to out do one another on the 'experience' front via social media, much of the UK's experience economy is driven by consumers pre-booking activities online.
Kevin Jenkins, UK & Ireland Managing Director at Visa Europe, said: 'Growth in consumables remains evident, but consumer spending is increasingly focused on the experience economy.
'Eating out, booking holidays and discovering new experiences are all driving spending growth at a time when the lower cost of living is creating higher disposable incomes.
'In a month of mostly growth, the only sector to disappoint was clothing and footwear, again highlighting this shift'.
Expenditure on clothing and footwear fell by 2.8 per cent year-on-year last month, while spending on food and drink slowed to a five-month low of 1.7 per cent.
Across all categories, total consumer spend increased by 2.5 per cent year-on-year in April, up from 2.3 per cent in March.
Online spending grew 8.4 per cent year-on-year, the fastest pace of growth over the last 16 months, while face-to-face expenditure figures were broadly level compared to the same period in 2015.
Idyllic: With ever-greater numbers vying to out do one another on the 'experience' front via social media, much of the UK's experience economy is driven by consumers pre-booking activities online
Fun time: Spending on recreation and culture increased by nearly 8% year-on-year last month
Earlier this year, Ikea's head of sustainability, Steve Howard, said that the consumption of many goods, including home furnishings, had reached its limit.
He said: 'In the west, we have probably hit peak stuff. We talk about peak oil. Id say weve hit peak red meat, peak sugar, peak stuff peak home furnishings.'
Carla Buzasi, of trend forecasting service WGSN, said: 'Brunch with a friend followed by a yoga class might cost about the same as a new pair of jeans, but you dont get that warm glow of a shared experience with the latter.
'Crucially, it is also down to the fact that experiences have got so much better. Stuffy restaurants, which cost a fortune, have been replaced by hipster street food trucks, which are accessible to a much broader group of people.
Taking fun seriously: For now, at least, consumers' insatiable appetite for more and more belongings seems to have been overshadowed by our desire for more meaningful experiences, which, coincidentally, also provide perfect fodder in an era of over-sharing on social media
'Exercise classes take place in cool studios with lavish products in the showers, rather than your boring gym. The mundane has become an experience. And, for many people, thats much more fun than buying another piece of clothing.'
In December, the Office for National Statistics published data revealing that average household weekly spending on recreation and culture increased to nearly 70 in 2014.
For now, at least, consumers' insatiable appetite for more and more belongings seems to have been overshadowed by our desire for more meaningful experiences, which, coincidentally, also provide perfect fodder in an era of over-sharing on social media.
High street slump: Spending on clothing and footwear fell by 2.8 per cent year-on-year last month, Visa Europe said
The worlds biggest oil company looks set to join the London Stock Exchange in the biggest share listing of all time.
Saudi Arabia is planning to sell a 5 per cent stake in its 1.7trillion oil giant Saudi Aramco to investors raising a thumping 85bn.
The shares are set to be listed in London as well as in New York and Hong Kong undermining claims that uncertainty over Britains future in the European Union is damaging the UK. The listing would be the largest in history in a major coup for the LSE.
The move comes amid speculation that the Saudis might be about to overhaul their energy strategy following the collapse in the oil price. Veteran oil minister Ali Al-Naimi was dismissed over the weekend and replaced by Khalid Al-Falih, the chairman of state-owned Saudi Aramco.
Al-Falih is a close ally of Mohammad bin Salman, the kingdoms deputy crown prince and effective ruler, who is widely seen as the ultimate decision maker on oil policy.
Saudi, the most powerful member of Opec, dramatically changed tack in late 2014 and instead of supporting oil prices by backing production cuts started defending market share. However, Al-Falih said he too will continue to prioritise sales over prices despite the slump in oil from $115 a barrel in mid-2014 to below $30 early this year.
Crude has recovered in recent weeks, and has been buoyed by the prospect of prolonged production shutdowns in Canada due to raging wildfires, but fell around 3 per cent to below $44 last night.
Saudi Arabia will maintain its stable petroleum policies, said Al-Falih. We remain committed to maintaining our role in international energy markets and strengthening our position as the worlds most reliable supplier of energy.
Although Saudi is trying to wean itself off its dependence on oil, analysts believe Salman is waging war with Iran as Tehran attempts to boost production after the lifting of sanctions.
Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said: While newly appointed Khalid Al-Falih is a capable technocrat, he is unlikely to have the independent authority of his predecessor. Importantly, Mohammad bin Salman is more focused on ending Saudis dependence on hydrocarbons through sweeping reform and maintaining market share versus Iran than he is on pursuing higher oil prices.
She added: Moreover, Mohammed bin Salman seems fully committed to waging a brutal battle for market access against arch regional rival Iran, which has resorted to discounting its product in order to regain its pre-sanctions position in key markets such as China and India.
Croft said Salmans oil policy appears to be an extension of his provocative foreign policy efforts to roll back Iranian influence. Aramco is the biggest oil company in the world and controls around 10 per cent of global output. Its record breaking listing is scheduled for 2017 or 2018 with the proceeds set to be invested in projects to diversify Saudi away from oil such as car plants, weapons production and tourism.
Concern: The IMF's David Lipton
Last week a group of anonymous figures with the awesome brainpower required to work among the elite economists of the International Monetary Fund slipped quietly into London to go through an annual ritual.
Like students at British universities doing their finals, Her Majestys Government is put through a yearly agony of inspection.
The Funds team will spread out from the Treasury to the Bank of England and the City regulators to prepare a report card on Britains economic performance and its progress in maintaining post-crisis financial stability.
But this year the report card normally delivered at a Treasury press conference carries added significance because it is due to be released ahead of the Brexit referendum on June 23.
Its verdict could play in to the hands of those in the Remain camp attempting to spread fear among voters.
Already senior IMF officials have made no secret of their worries about what Brexit might do for global economic recovery and stability. But as the Funds deputy managing director David Lipton acknowledges in a rare interview those views were not based on the intense research the IMF normally injects into its work.
Its hard analysis to do and you cant do it on the back of an envelope, says Lipton, 62, a former economist in the Obama White House who has just been appointed to his second stint in his current role.
We should not be that surprised when the IMF produces its official Brexit verdict if it is seen by the government as another endorsement for remain.
Lipton says: Our first instinct is that the existence of the referendum creates uncertainty and thats a significant risk in itself.
If the British people were to choose exit then there would be a period of uncertainty about the successor arrangements for integration or lack of integration in trade, capital markets and other legal arrangements.
We see the prospect for an awful lot of uncertainty when European growth is weak and uncertain, he says.
Encouragingly, though, the IMF seems less parti pris than other voices ranging from President Obama to the OECD about a leave vote.
Lipton says: The referendum is the choice of the citizens of the UK and its their future. As an institution of which the UK is a member we will provide advice on how best to carry forward their decision whatever comes to pass.
Does he think producing a verdict in May, so close to the referendum, could be misinterpreted as political interference?
He says: We certainly have to be very careful in considering whether any finding we come up with are sufficiently reliable and whether and how to convey them to the authorities, our first obligation, and then public eventually.
The IMFs leaders are renowned for sometimes impenetrable analysis, arriving in client countries armed with a menu of austerity policies. When their presence becomes known, citizens may pour onto the streets to protest over feared cuts to their standards of living.
Lipton describes his role as a last line of defence in both terms of quality control and fine tuning of the policies the IMF takes, which leaves him reading mountains of technical economic documents every day.
But he also brings a different dimension. As the scion of a family closely impacted by the Holocaust he feels a close connection to the post-Cold War democracies of Poland and Ukraine, once great centres of Jewish culture and civilization, where the streets are paved with memories of a nearly extinguished society.
DAVID LIPTON, 62, IMF FIRST DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR Day in the Life: Usually gets up at 6.30am and heads to the gym or plays tennis. Then to the office. Truth is there is no normal day here. There are a lot of staff projects I oversee. His day finishes between seven to eight at night. Family: Lives in fashionable 14th Street corridor in downtown Washington DC with his wife Susan Galbraith, a Scot. Susan was a social worker for 30 years but runs a small business selling yarn called Looped. They have three grown up children. Oldest daughter was recently married in Austin, Texas, second daughter is at the Harvard Divinity School and a son will soon to graduate from college in Connecticut. Friends and colleagues: In the same class as Bill Clintons Treasury Secretary Larry Summers at Harvard. Also close to renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs. Spare time: Likes to read history and watch TV shows. He wont leave home without his iPad as he travels for work 104 days a year and allows him to carry a library of 200 books and watch junk TV shows. Enjoys his family vacations in Nantucket.
During our chat in the IMFs closely guarded headquarters in Washington he recommends I read Wartime Lies by Louis Begley, a lawyer in New York. It is the tale of Jewish child in Warsaw who was taken in by a non-Jewish family and protected.
Its the story of what it took for him to survive and how those experiences of living a false life effected the rest of his life, he says. When Lipton, as both a young economic policy maker and now the second most powerful person at the IMF, visits Warsaw and walks its streets the heritage of the Holocaust is on my mind. Everyone interprets their adulthood with what experiences and strictures they had as a child.
Born in Massachusetts, he studied economics at Harvard before joining the IMF where he worked as a staff economist for eight years. Lipton cut his teeth on the international stage as an economic adviser to the Solidarity government in Poland as the Iron Curtain came crashing down. His work on the economics of transition from Communism to capitalism was adopted by Russian reformers, until they were pushed aside.
He views Brexit and the populism during the American election campaign which has propelled Donald Trump to the top of the Republican ticket as a reaction against globalisation.
Explaining, he says: We think globalisation drove a process of growth and integration thats led a lot of poorer countries to grow faster than they would otherwise and to have rising living standards as a result. But it is also true, especially since the global financial crisis, that people have started to understand that this also brings vulnerabilities.
These include the loss of jobs in countries like the United States and Europe.
All of this requires change at the IMF too. It already has made some adjustments with the traditional Western powers ceding some voting power to China and other newly wealthy nations.
In Liptons view the next challenge for the IMF is to find ways of making sure that the global financial policies support rising living standards and dont destroy them. That is a new way of thinking for an organisation which for most of its 60 or so years of existence has been associated with harsh solutions to dealing with crisis.
Shares in pet healthcare specialist Premier Veterinary Group tumbled nearly 16 per cent yesterday after it plunged deeper into the red as it looks to expand in the United States.
The company, which provides healthcare plans for more than 100,000 pets, reported losses of 1.1m for the first half of the year.
Tough times: The company, which provides healthcare plans for more than 100,000 pets, reported losses of 1.1m for the first half of the year
That compared with losses of 570,000 in the same period a year earlier and shares fell 15.9 per cent or 21.5p to 120p. The group sells healthcare plans for pets under the Pet Care Plan brand through vets in the UK and overseas.
Budget airline easyJet suffered a 24million half-year loss after a spate of terrorist attacks and currency fluctuations took their toll.
The airline, which posted a 7million profit at the same point last year, said the Paris terrorist attacks 'significantly impacted trading', triggering a 2.7 per cent drop in revenue per seat.
The suspension of flights to the Egyptian tourist destination of Sharm el-Sheikh following the Russian airliner crash in November reduced revenues by a further 1.3 per cent.
Attacks: easyJet suffered a 24million drop in half-year profits, the company reports
The no-frills airline's total revenues in the first half increased 0.3 per cent to 1.77billion, but overall revenue per seat fell by 6.6 per cent on a reported currency basis, dipping to 51.29.
According to easyJet, profits took a hit from a 33million foreign exchange rate impact.
Carolyn McCall, easyJet's chief executive, said: 'EasyJet has delivered a robust financial performance during the half year despite the well-publicised external events.
'Consumers have enjoyed lower fares, which have decreased by six per cent year-on-year, the second successive year of falling fares, as the benefits of lower fuel costs are passed on to passengers. Active cost control by the airline has helped maintain margins.'
Fluctuations: According to easyJet, the airline's profits took a hit from a 33million foreign exchange rate impact
Passenger numbers increased to 31million, compared to 28.9million a year earlier. During the period easyJet cancelled 1,374 flights, compared to 683 flights in the first half of 2015.
Taking into account the timing of Easter and the effects of terrorism in Brussels, easyJet said it expects third quarter revenue per seat to decline by around seven percentage points.
EasyJet recorded a basic loss per share of 5.1p, compared with a profit of 1.3p last year. In early trading, shares in the group were up 3.03 per cent or 44.50p to 1,514.50p.
Suspension: The suspension of flights to the Egyptian tourist destination of Sharm el-Sheikh following the Russian airliner crash in November reduced revenues by a further 1.3 per cent
Subject to approval at its annual general meeting, the group plans to increase its annual dividend payout ratio by a quarter to 50 per cent.
The group faces ever-increasing competition from rival discount airlines, namely Ryanair. Sharp falls in the cost of oil has prompted a surge in low cost air travel as fares fall.
Despite competition from rivals and a spate of terrorist attacks, easyJet said consumers remain 'resilient.'
The airline added: 'Demand for air travel continues to grow, despite recent disruptive events', the airline said.'
Richard Hunter, head of research at Wilson King Investment Management, said: 'Headwinds have come on this occasion in the form of foreign exchange movements, although easyJet remains better placed than most to deal with the challenges facing airlines In general.
'History has shown that the sector is beset by exogenous factors, be they ash clouds, health viruses or terrorism atrocities, each of which is an unfortunate cost of doing business.
'Nonetheless, passenger numbers are still on the ascent, and easyJet has carved itself a niche which will increase barriers to entry for potential new rivals.
'Inevitably, recent events have had a negative impact on the airlines, and EasyJet is no exception. Over the last year the shares have fallen 21 per cent.
The grieving mother of a young man who was killed when a faulty concrete machine fell on him at a construction site has broken down outside of court after the case over her son's death was dismissed.
Clutching onto her son's ashes, Kay Catanzariti was left reeling once again after prosecutors dropped the charges over the death of Ben Catanzariti in ACT Magistrates Court on Monday.
The 21-year-old man was crushed when a boom from a concrete pouring machine collapsed on him at a Kingston building site in Canberra on July 21, 2012, Fairfax Media reported.
Kay Catanzariti (pictured holding her son's ashes) was left reeling once again after prosecutors dropped the charges over the death of Ben Catanzariti in ACT Magistrates Court on Monday
The 21-year-old man (pictured with his mother on his 21st birthday) was crushed when a boom from a concrete pouring machine collapsed on him at a Kingston building site in Canberra on July 21, 2012
On Monday, prosecutors asked to discontinue the case as there was 'no reasonable prospects of conviction' after new evidence from an expert report, commissioned by Schwing, emerged.
The prosecution documents alleged the failure of bolts was not caused by an incorrect tightening but was due to a 'metallurgical phenomenon called stress corrosion cracking'.
Ms Catanzariti - who was wearing her son's jumper in court that was worn on the day of his death - said her family has felt 'abused by the process' after the case reached a shocking decision.
'In our extreme grief, our inexperience has meant we needed to rely on those who know the system. Today I feel they have failed us,' Ms Catanzariti said in a statement to Fairfax Media.
'It has given me a death sentence, we have been taken advantage of in our lack of knowledge in the legal system when our minds aren't in our bodies.
'I now realise that Australia's legal system has little to offer ordinary people like us. Justice only exists for those cloaked in money and power.'
The concrete pump collapsed and killed Mr Catanzariti (pictured) and left two other workers seriously injured
Schwing Australia was charged with workplace safety offences after the concrete pump collapsed and killed Mr Catanzariti and left two other workers seriously injured. But the company pleaded not guilty in 2014.
California will consider lifting a mandatory water conservation order for cities and towns after a wet winter eased the state's five-year drought.
Members of the state Water Resources Control Board, who control the drought emergency program, will decide on May 18 whether to remove the 11-month-old statewide order.
The effort required at least 20 per cent water conservation overall by most of the water districts serving California's 40 million people.
Cities and water agencies that can prove they have enough water to get by even if the wet winter proves a blip and the drought continues for another three years, would be able to get rid of the mandatory conservation target.
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Water officials in California will decide on May 18 whether to remove the 11-month-old statewide order on water conservation. Pictured, a sign encouraging residents to save water in Rancho Santa Margarita
The rest would be required to save enough water to cover that longer-term drought shortfall.
But an executive order by Governor Jerry Brown would make permanent some of the measures adopted to deal with the current drought, including prohibitions against excessive water use while washing cars and watering lawns.
'This is not a time to start using water like it's 1999... this year could simply be a punctuation mark in a mega-drought,' Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the state water board, said.
California residents had achieved almost a 25 per cent overall cut in water use, saving an amount of water that would supply 17 per cent of the state's population for a year.
Water districts paid families to rip out their water-thirsty lawns and tried name-and-shame techniques for celebrities and others who failed to conserve.
But the state has been under pressure from water agencies to relax conservation requirements after snowfall and rain returned to nearly normal in some parts of the state this year.
Brown, who ordered the conservation in April 2015 at the worst of California's driest four-year stretch in history, made clear Monday that conservation must continue even if the statewide target is lifted.
With climate change, 'we know that drought is becoming a regular occurrence and water conservation must be a part of our everyday life,' Brown said in a statement.
The actions by the governor and state water officials 'are making permanent the idea that conservation programs are not a drought-only policy,' said Peter Gleick, president of the California-based Pacific Institute think-tank on water policy.
'Even without a drought emergency, we have to do a better job of monitoring and measuring and managing water. There's just not enough of it anymore for everybody.'
Practices such as letting lawn sprinklers send water streaming into the street or washing cars in the driveway without a shut-off nozzle on the hose, could be banned permanently. Pictured, a lawn is irrigated in Sacramento
Gleick said he was concerned by the state's current emphasis on turning more conservation decisions back to local water districts.
State water authorities would need to monitor local agencies closely to make sure they work in the best interests of the state as a whole, he said.
Under Brown's order, the state's roughly 400 water districts would be required to keep reporting their monthly water use, a requirement laid down last summer.
Practices that waste water, such as letting lawn sprinklers send water streaming into the street or washing cars in the driveway without a shut-off nozzle on the hose, would be banned permanently.
Brown's order also requires more intensive drought planning by both urban water districts and by farms, and directs state water officials to prepare new water restrictions in case the drought carries into 2017.
Agriculture was exempted from the statewide mandatory cutback order but many rural water districts serving farms saw their water allotments cut.
A strong El Nino brought Northern California winter storms that have filled water reservoirs in that part of the state higher than in most years, and laid down Sierra Nevada snowpack that is vital to the state's year-round water supply.
But nearly 90 per cent of California remains in moderate drought or worse.
Southern California overall is heading deeper into, not out of, the fifth year of drought, the government's US Drought Monitor said last week.
A Kansas City, Kansas, police detective helping respond to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack died after being shot Monday.
The detective, 39-year-old Brad Lancaster, was shot at least twice at approximately 12.30pm near the Kansas Speedway.
He underwent surgery at a hospital and later died, his department said in a statement.
Police said the gunman, allegedly Curtis Ayers, 28, fled in the officer's unmarked car, then hijacked a vehicle with two children inside before abandoning it in nearby Basehor, Kansas.
The two unidentified children were unharmed, police reported.
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Kansas City detective Brad Lancaster (pictured), 39, was shot at least twice at approximately 12.30pm near the Kansas Speedway on Monday
Ayers was ultimately taken into custody in Kansas City, Missouri, when he allegedly crashed the car he was driving while being pursued by officers, then was shot by police after trying to carjack a third vehicle.
The woman driving that car was wounded and taken to a hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, police spokeswoman Kari Thompson said without specifying her medical condition.
Ayers was hospitalized in a stable condition, police spokesman Patrick McCallop said.
'This individual was very dangerous. We are so happy that this individual is in custody,' Thompson told reporters later.
'We are so glad this situation has come to an end.'
Police said the gunman, allegedly Curtis Ayers (pictured), 28, fled in Lancaster's unmarked car before hijacking a car with two children in it
Ayers was ultimately taken into custody in Kansas City, Missouri, when he allegedly crashed the car he was driving while being pursued by officers
Kansas City, Kansas, Police Chief Terry Zeigler said in a tweet: 'Our detective fought a good fight, but unfortunately he died from his injuries. Thanks for the support & prayers.'
Carolynn Lancaster told the Kansas City Star her son 'was the rock of the family'.
He was a U.S. Air Force veteran who had served two tours of duty overseas, including one in Kuwait, the newspaper reported. Lancaster said her son had a wife and two daughters.
Ayers has had longstanding trouble with the law, having served prison time in Kansas in recent years for convictions involving child abandonment, fleeing or trying to elude law enforcers, and interference with a law enforcement officer, online Kansas Department of Corrections records show.
Ayers previously had been charged in North Carolina with offenses ranging from misdemeanor theft to possession of stolen goods and burglarizing vehicles, according to court records.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt has come under scrutiny after a tweet slamming Opposition Leader Bill Shorten spectacularly backfired.
On Monday evening Mr Hunt criticised Mr Shorten for failing to mention the Great Barrier Reef and the coral bleaching of the area during a trip to Cairns.
'Extraordinary. Bill Shorten goes to Cairns and fails to even acknowledge the Great Barrier Reef let alone offer any support,' Mr Hunt's initial tweet read.
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Environment Minister Greg Hunt has been slammed on social media for a tweet to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten about the Great Barrier Reef
He accused Mr Shorten of ignoring the reef during a trip to Cairns on Monday
Last week new research revealed half of the Great Barrier Reef was either dying or dead due to the coral bleaching
However social media users were quick to slam the environment minister, accusing him of being 'the pot calling the kettle black', with others blasting the coalition for their lack of action on climate change.
'Pot kettle black @GregHuntMP - you have spent three years ignoring climate change', Martin wrote.
'Your hypocrisy is utterly astounding. You should be ashamed of your tenure as Minister', Duncan posted.
'God only known that the Great Barrier Reef needs help with you as environment minister. Ur (sic) an embarrassment #auspol', another social media user tweeted.
Mr Shorten was in Cairns on Monday where he announced a plan to help Indigenous people become teachers
Mr Hunt was immediately slammed on social media by angry Twitter users
Some people accused him of being a hypocrite
Others called him an 'embarrassment' and said the Great Barrier Reef needed help with him as environment minsiter
One man went as far as to label Mr Hunt as a 'environmental terrorist'
'You are the greatest environmental terrorist in Australia. Pull your head in Minister because we all know you are full of it', Adam said.
On Tuesday morning Mr Hunt hit back at the critics with a follow up tweet.
'The Turnbull Govt is doing more than ever before to protect the Great Barrier Reef - including an extra $171m in last week's Budget,' he wrote.
Mr Shorten was in Cairns on Monday where he announced a plan to help Indigenous people become teachers.
Mr Hunt backed up his comments on Tuesday saying an extra $171 million was dedicated to the reef
Experts have warned that the bleaching of the reef is 'very strongly linked to global warming'
Last week new research revealed half of the Great Barrier Reef was either dying or dead due to the coral bleaching, caused by warmer water temperatures.
Dr Russell Reichelt said surveys showed about 50 to 60 per cent of the 900 reefs in the northern section of the Unesco World Heritage site have or would die.
Ms Smith is the New South Wales Senate candidate for the ALA
Far-right politician Kirralie Smith has called Waleed Aly's Gold Logie win 'ridiculous' and says it reflects a 'very closed industry'.
Ms Smith, the Australian Liberty Alliance Party's New South Wales Senate candidate, made the comments and said she challenged The Project co-host to a debate about radical Islam, according to The Daily Telegraph.
She said she'd invited Aly to a debate last year and that he had ignored it despite it being acknowledged by 'hundreds of thousands of people' on social media.
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Australian Liberty Alliance Senate candidate for New South Wales, Kirralie Smith, has called Channel 10 television presenter Waleed Aly's Gold Logie win 'ridiculous'
Waleed Aly poses with his Gold Logie at the 2016 Logie Awards in Melbourne
Waleed Aly and wife Susan Carland arrive at the 58th Annual Logie Awards at Crown Palladium in Melbourne on Sunday
Senate candidates for the Australian Liberty Alliance (from left) Kirralie Smith, Bernard Gaynor and Debbie Robinson at a press conference in Perth in 2015
Ms Smith said her party, which features stopping Islam's spread in Australia as one of its core policies, was 'not against any immigration, it is not based on that religious form, we are against ideology'.
'If Waleed Aly was someone who subscribed to the Koran and was preaching verses like: Strike at their necks and put terror into their hearts and cut-off their fingertips, we would have a great problem with that. But he is not preaching that is he? He is not preaching from the Koran,' The Daily Telegraph quoted her as saying.
'He actually discredits the Koran, because he does not follow it and does not obey it. We have a problem with ideology. While ever he is not representing a Koran, following Muhammad, the example of Muhammad, following the Koran, then: Fantastic. We do not have a problem with that, we are all for integration and not segregation and upholding western democratic values over and above sharia law.'
One of Aly's management team told the Telegraph on Monday he was unavailable for comment as he was preparing for the day's broadcast of The Project.
Waleed Aly poses with the Gold Logie Award for Best Personality On Australian TV on Sunday
Australian Liberty Alliance Senate Candidate Kirralie Smith for NSW, and Geert Wilders, the chairman of Netherland's Party for Freedom
Ms Smith's Australian Liberty Alliance is the same party that brought controversial anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders to Western Australia last year, where the behaviour of his entourage was likened to 'the sort of stuff that went on in Germany in the 1930s' by the state's Opposition leader, Mark McGowan.
Aly's Gold Logie acceptance speech on Sunday night was widely praised, with the award-winning host using the stage to call out a lack of diversity in the media and television industry.
'Someone who is in this room - and I'm not going to use the name they use in the industry - came up to me, introduced themselves and said to me: "I really hope you win. My name is Mustafa. But I can't use that name because I won't get a job",' Aly said.
At the start of his speech, Channel Ten presenter addressed the controversy surrounding the diverse nominees, telling viewers 'do not adjust your sets there's nothing wrong with the picture', adding: 'If you are in the room I'm sure there's an Instagram filter to return things to normal.'
One Twitter user posted this image as a suggestion of what Waleed Aly's reaction to Ms Smith's challenge to a debate might be
Aly's Gold Logie acceptance speech on Sunday night was widely praised, with the award-winning host using the stage to call out a lack of diversity in the media and television industry
Kelly Bell was among the social media users backing Aly's win, describing him as the 'classiest man to win a Gold Logie'
Others poked fun at what some more conservative commentators might think of the win
'This will continue to change our culture for the better' Reezy wrote
Aly also mentioned a man named Dimitri who came up to him a week ago and 'commanded' the Channel Ten presenter to win the Gold Logie.
He said his win mattered to people like Mustafa and Dimitri, and thanked people from different backgrounds for their support.
'To Dimitri and Mustafa and to everyone else with an unpronounceable name like I don't know, Waleed.
'I really just want to say one thing and it's that I am incredibly humbled that you would even think to invest in me that way,' Aly said.
'But I'm also incredibly saddened by it because the truth is you deserve more numerous and more worthy avatars than that and I don't know if and when that's going to happen.
'If tonight means anything and I don't know if it means anything, but if tonight means anything it's that the Australian public, our audience as far as they are concerned there is absolutely no reason why that can't change.'
The majority of the online response to Aly's win has been supportive, with thousands of Australians praising The Project co-host for his refreshing take on news and current affairs.
Anne was among social media users supporting Aly, and said the award was great for 'multicultural Australia'
Others said they had their minds changed while watching Aly take on the tough topics
After spending 321 hours trapped deep underground in 2006, Beaconsfield mine survivors Brant Webb and Todd Russell seem to have little desire to spend any more time together.
The pair attended a community event on Monday marking the 10th anniversary of their rescue.
They arrived separately and weren't seen to acknowledge each other as they mingled with a crowd of about 150 which included state and federal politicians.
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Tasmanian miners Todd Russell (left) and Brant Webb wave as they emerge from the mine lift having been rescued after being trapped underground at Beaconsfield gold mine for 14 days
The extraordinary photo taken just after the massive rescue effort finally cracked into the men's cage
Tasmanian man Brant Webb speaks to the media while attending a community event in Beaconsfield in northern Tasmania on Monday
Tasmanian man Todd Russell speaks to the media while attending a community event in Beaconsfield in northern Tasmania on Monday
'I'm not too sure, I don't know about Todd,' Mr Webb answered bluntly when asked if his former colleague would attend, before Mr Russell arrived.
Although they share the grief of losing workmate Larry Knight who was killed in the rock collapse on Anzac Day 2006, the pair have different memories of Australia's most famous mining accident.
Mr Webb, 47, said the anniversary always brings back memories of the disaster, which was sparked by a 2.2-magnitude earth tremor. The pair were trapped almost a kilometre underground for two weeks.
'When you go through a near-death experience for 321 hours it doesn't go away so easily,' he told reporters.
Tasmanian miners Todd Russell (left) and Brant Webb (second left) waving as they emerge from the mine lift having been rescued after being trapped underground at Beaconsfield gold mine for 14 days
Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten speaks with Beaconsfield Mine survivors Todd Russell and Brant Webb at the Waterfront Hotel during a visit to Beauty Point, Tasmania on Sunday - but the day after the two men ignored each other at a community event
He said the anniversary was an important opportunity to thank not just their fellow miners and emergency service workers who helped free them, but also those who have helped since.
'There's people who physically helped us get out and that's great, but your head space is about where you're at and you've got to keep that together and I want to thank all the people that really helped me mentally,' Mr Webb said.
Mr Russell, 44, views the anniversary differently.
'It's just another day for me,' he said.
'Time is a great healer and I've moved on ... I'm in a pretty good space.'
The duo shared a beer with federal Labor leader Bill Shorten on Sunday in a much-publicised event.
Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten speaks with Beaconsfield Mine survivors Todd Russell and Brant Webb at the Waterfront Hotel during a visit to Beauty Point, Tasmania - but the day after the two men ignored each other at a community event
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (right) along with former miners Todd Russell (centre) and Brant Webb (left) inspect the reconstructed rock collapse at the Beaconsfield Mine museum opening in 2008
Mr Webb on Monday sang the praises of Mr Shorten, who was Australian Workers Union national secretary in 2006 and acted as a fierce advocate for worker safety while the men were trapped underground.
'He's been a rock for us, as a family,' Mr Webb said.
'He calls up every Anzac Day to just make sure I'm OK mentally and on May 9, if we can we try to catch up.'
Miner Brant Webb speaks during the reception to thank those involved in the Beaconsfield mine rescue in Parliament House, Canberra in 2009
Monday's event was a sad occasion for Mr Knight's family.
His uncle Nigel Barwick cried openly after the gathering.
'That was a bit upsetting in there,' he said.
Mr Barwick works at the Beaconsfield Mine Heritage Centre on the site of the decommissioned mine.
Former Beaconsfield miner Brant Webb leaves the Launceston Magistrates Court, Thursday, July 24, 2008, after giving evidence at the inquest into the rockfall which claimed the life of Larry Knight in 2006
He said the family is hoping to include at the museum a tribute to the 44-year-old whose story has been overshadowed by the tale of survival.
'The most important thing to come out of a mine is a miner,' Mr Webb said.
But the strongest message was reserved for the survivors.
'Brant Webb and Todd Russell's story of survival and human courage was a story so compelling it has become Australian folklore and has burned into the psyche of a nation like no other story,' local mayor Christina Holmdahl said.
'Please be assured that you and your families have this community's total support and good will and I'm sure also from the people of all of Tasmania.'
A student who led a seven-day hunger strike at University of Missouri last year that caused the school's president and chancellor to resign had a history of stealing and misogyny, it has been revealed.
Johnathan Butler, who has since gone on to do a speaking tour, stole breakfast food from hotels, according to Fox News, posted videos calling women 'ratchet' and sang about crack cocaine.
Butler created a blog where he detailed 'trying to get caught stealing "free" breakfast items' from a hotel that he would go to before work.
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Johnathon Butler (pictured), a graduate student at University of Missouri, went on a seven-day hunger strike last year to oust the Mizzou president and chancellor
Since his successful hunger strike, Butler has gone on to do a speaking tour but questionable videos of the student have surfaced
He writes that for 61 days he 'indulged in the "free" food' and tried to get caught.
Butler made sure staff would see his face and made goofy faces at the hotel's security camera.
Fox News reported Butler's mission to get caught taking the 'complimentary' snacks, but Butler's blog posts on The Massive Impact have since been hidden or deleted.
A 2009 blog post shows a now-deleted YouTube video titled 'The Crack Cocaine Song' with a caption reading: 'This is a song about crack that me, my friend, and my roommate put together back in 2009. Good memories never die.'
In the nine-minute clip, portions of which have been uploaded by Heat Street, Butler can be seen in a room with his friend shouting and singing about crack cocaine.
In one video, Butler discusses with a friend the difference between men and women. He goes on to call women 'ratchet' and says men don't have the problems women do
In another video from 2009 he sings and laughs about crack cocaine and people selling the drug to pay child support
He strings together a narrative about a man 'selling crack' so he can pay for his 'girl's' baby and child support.
In a different 15-minute video from 2011, since deleted from YouTube but also uploaded by Heat Street, Butler debates 'a very important issueof XX versus XY', he says.
'Yes, ladies and gentlemen, male and female: which is better,' he adds in the video.
Butler and a friend discuss 'ratchet', meaning to them promiscuous, women in the video. After his friend explains his definition of a 'good girl versus a ratchet girl' Butler says: 'So youre saying, she jumps from male to male.
In a blog post that has since been deleted, Butler discusses stealing 'free' breakfast from a hotel and trying to get caught
'So this would be like in the kingdom, the wild kingdom, where theyre trying to get their prey.
'We have to call it what it is, ladies and gentlemen. Just ratchet.
'So what hes saying is that us as men, we dont have issues, its all women, obviously, because what do we do? We just eat, sleep, work, were the backbone.
Butler is the son of a wealthy railroad executive, Eric L. Butler (pictured), who earned $8.4 million in 2014
'Is that what youre saying?... Youre saying all women are trash, is that what youre saying?'
His friend says that's not what he's saying. He says it's a 'two way street' and that there are 'good girls' and 'ratchet women'.
'The only reason the "ratchet species" existed is because they choose to put themselves in that situation,' Butler says.
His friend goes on to explain women will do 'whatever they can' to get what they want and will 'lie, cheat, steal to get what they want'.
'What you do, it follows you. Like your transcript, what you do follows you for the rest of your life,' Butler says.
Butler is also the son of a wealthy railroad executive, Eric L. Butler.
Eric L. Butler is the executive vice president for sales and marketing for the Union Pacific Railroad and was compensation $8.4 million in 2014, according to regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The emergence of a new Nomads bikie gang in the ACT is set to raise tensions as different bikie factions now try to stake a claim for their own territory.
For decades, the Rebels were the only outlaw motorcycle club in Canberra, establishing up to five chapters in the ACT, The Canberra Times reports. Having just one bikie gang brought stability as there was no inter-gang conflict there for police to deal with.
However, in 2014 the Comanchero gang developed a presence in Canberra and set up a chapter there of former Rebels. Now a third gang, the Nomads, has been established after senior members of the Rebels changed their allegiance to them.
The Nomads established a chapter in Canberra after senior members of the Rebels bikie gang changed their allegiance to them
Concerns of an upsurge in inter-gang violence were raised when tattoo parlour, Tattoo Culture, in Tuggeranong owned by the father of one of the defecting bikies Michael Clark was allegedly targeted in the early hours of Monday morning.
Police said investigations into the fire at the tattoo parlour were continuing.
But, although aware of the new developments and the rise of a new bikie gang, an ACT Policing spokeswoman played down concerns.
She said there were no suggestions bikie numbers were rising in the ACT in spite of the new gang, and that existing gangs were just splintering into different factions.
For decades the Rebels were the only outlaw motorcycle club in Canberra, however, in 2014 the Comanchero gang developed a presence
The creation of a third bikie gang in ACT may see tensions rise there in the future
A police spokeswoman said the existing gangs were just splintering into different factions
'The presence of any additional [outlaw motorcycle gangs] who are potentially in conflict with each other does raise a concern for community safety,' the spokeswoman said.
'It would be naive to advise there is no risk to members of the public should any conflict escalate into physical violence.
'The community should be reassured that any dispute between gang members is just that, and there would be no benefit for deliberately involving innocent members of the community.
'They can be assured that police will pursue all persons involved and prosecute them to the full extent of the law so as to ensure the safety of the ACT community.'
A prisoner slashed another inmate's throat at a prison barbecue after he had finished buttering bread rolls, a court has heard.
Scott Maygar is accused of the attempted murder of Rodney Cherry at Maryborough Correctional Centre in Queensland in July 2008.
The 29-year-old allegedly slashed the man's throat at his table, breaking the bones in his face and leaving him to require 23 stitches.
Scott Maygar, a prisoner at Maryborough Correctional Centre (above) is accused of attacking another inmate at a barbecue in the jail
He will appear at Brisbane's Supreme Court for accused of attempted murder, assault occasioning bodily harm and grievous bodily harm at a later date.
According to The Courier Mail, the men had exchanged crossed words days earlier over Maygar's alleged treatment of a prison officer.
Cherry, 56, had been buttering bread rolls at his table when he was attacked.
The pair are both prisoners at the high security facility.
A Department of Justice spokesman confirmed the charges on Tuesday. Maygar will appear at Brisbane's Supreme Court at a later date for a plea hearing.
The 29-year-old is accused of attempted murder, assault and grievous bodily harm at Brisbane's Supreme Court (above)
When Dave went up against Boris the dynamics were as follows: one used a shining public amenity, one used a small room south of the Thames; one spoke to limousine loads of plenipotentiaries while the other addressed a handful of dingy scribes; one growled grimly of war and ebola while the other spoke of liberalism and 'sunlit meadows'.
In each of those contrasts, the first man was David Cameron, the second was Boris Johnson. War and ebola were used by Mr Cameron to menace us into staying in the European Union. Liberalism and can-do British independence were employed by Boris to encourage us to vote Leave.
Given old caricatures about the Out-ies being miserable oddballs for so long cast as Victor Meldrews in sandals and scowls this was a turnaround. Vote Leave is suddenly the sunbeam option. It is Remain who look moany.
A day of contrasts: David Cameron speaking at 8am (left) and Boris Johnson three hours later
The Prime Minister had booked the British Museum. That doesn't normally come cheap. All manner of Establishment worthies were on parade, including the American ambassador (thick with 10 Downing Street at present), Dutch ambassador and Jack Straw. Pastry dainties were served. Mwaw mwaw. Ciao!
Mr Cameron was escorted by David Miliband. Labour's lost leader hurriedly said the alliance was 'temporary'. Mr Cameron spoke under the Museum's central, glass-roofed courtyard.
Beforehand, reporters had been cooped up in the Egypt Room, a place redolent with lessons about fallen empires. Oh look, a Sphinx. Or is it Peter Mandelson?
Boris's speech began three hours after the Remain camp's heebie-jeebies. His venue was markedly less opulent: the offices of Vote Leave on the second floor of a high-rise, above the Caterers' Equipment Suppliers Association. There was a small tea urn in the room but it soon ran dry.
The Leave lot will not mind being the impoverished underdogs.
Part of their thrust is that the EU is an Establishment stitch-up, one which suits 'the usual suspects' rather than the working man and woman. The more foreign ambassadors oppose Leave, the more it may make voters ask 'why are our competitors so anxious about us doing our own thing?'
'Temporary' alliance: David Cameron was escorted by former Foreign Secretary David Miliband, pictured
Boris's speech was a long one and, by his standards, serious. It went on for a good half-hour, followed by questions. For most of that time he manfully kept a check on his inner clown. There were still a few moments when the jesting broke out at one point he started singing the European Union anthem in German but on the whole he succeeded in keeping things admirably cerebral.
He had begun by saying that he hoped the campaign would avoid personal insults. Only towards the end did he take a little, ironic dig at George Osborne.
Cooking slowly in front of some bright TV lights, Boris noted that it was Schuman Day, when the EU officially remembered one of its French co-founders. Schuman and Co had in effect set out to create 'a country called Europe'.
Boris quoted approvingly the 'Bloomberg' speech David Cameron gave when he announced his desire for a referendum.
Shining venue: All manner of Establishment worthies were on parade at David Cameron's speech today
The PM's Euroscepticism at that point had been quite right, Boris argued. It was illogical that he was now so keen on the EU. We would be 'mad' to miss this chance to bale out of an EU federal superstate.
Liberal cosmopolitans should support Leave rather than sign up to the sort of 'obscurantist and universalist system of government' Brussels was trying to ram down our throat.
He rejected allegations of Leave xenophobia. 'I can read novels in French and sing the Ode to Joy in German.' He gave us the first line. 'Sad', 'peculiar', 'absurd', 'bizarre': these were his words about the arguments of the Remain side.
He spoke of Greece's suffering the terrible youth unemployment caused by the EU and thumped his lectern with anger.
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A property that was once the headquarters for the Australian Nazi Party has gone on the market for $7.5million.
The Lyndhurst estate, located at 57-65 Darghan St in Glebe was bought for $3.3 million in 2005 by stockbroker Tim Eustace and his partner Salavatore Panui.
The couple spent four years restoring the six-bedroom property with the help of heritage architect Clive Lucas.
The property has a rather infamous history, being the former headquarters of the Australian Nazi Party, active in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Lyndhurst estate, located in Glebe was the former headquarters of the Australian Nazi Party, active in the 1960s and 1970s
Tim Eustace and his partner Salavatore Panui spent four years restoring the property after buying it in 2005 for $3.3million
Pictured circa 1880, the Glebe mansion was built in 1833 was designed as a marine villa by English architect John Verge for surgeon and pastoralist Dr James Bowman
Arthur Smith was the leader of the National Socialist Party of Australia when it was active during the 1960s until the 1970's
In 1847 James and William Macarthur were forced to sell the property to the Bank of Australasia due to financial difficulties
Over the years the property became Australias first theological seminary, a maternity hospital, a pickle factory, a broom factory and notably the Australian Nazi Party headquarters
The Glebe mansion was built in 1833 was designed as a marine villa by English architect John Verge for surgeon and pastoralist Dr James Bowman. It was originally on 36 acres that overlooked Blackwattle Bay and was considered to be a rural property.
Fourteen years after it was built Dr Bowman's brothers-in-law, James and William Macarthur were forced to sell the property to the Bank of Australasia due to financial difficulties.
Over the years the property was subdivided and became Australias first theological seminary, a maternity hospital, a pickle factory, a broom factory and notably the Australian Nazi Party headquarters.
Also known as the National Socialist Party of Australia, the Australian Nazi Party was a minor far-right party active in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Australian Nazi Party was a minor far-right party active in the 1960s and 1970s, their headquarters were raided by police in 1964
In 1972, plans for an expressway through Glebe meant the property was at risk to be demolished, but the plans were abandoned and Lyndhurst was protected for restoration by the Save Lyndhurst Committee
Since 1984, it was the the headquarters of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW before it was sold in 2005 to Tim Eustace and his partner
Tim Eustace says the house is very comfortable to live in. He hopes that whoever buys it will appreciate the architecture and use the space
While the property was subdivided and only occupies a fragment of its original estate, Mr Eustace says there is still a sense of the style of the period and an insight into how they lived nearly 200 years ago
The property is located at 57-65 Darghan St in Glebe. It was recently restored with the help of heritage architect Clive Lucas
Lyndhurst was originally on 36 acres that overlooked Blackwattle Bay and was considered to be a rural property. The Glebe property is now right by Sydney's CBD
Listed through from Sothebys International, the 1507sq m property will go to auction on Saturday. It's valued at $7.5million
In 1972, plans for an expressway through Glebe meant the property was at risk to be demolished, but the plans were abandoned and Lyndhurst was protected for restoration by the Save Lyndhurst Committee.
Since 1984, it was the the headquarters of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW before it was sold in 2005 to Mr Eustace.
'Even though it occupies a fragment of its original estate, you still get a sense of the style of the period and an insight into how they lived nearly 200 years ago from a privileged perspective,' Mr Eustace told the Daily Telegraph.
'There's a lot of feedback that it looks like a museum. In fact it's a very comfortable house to live in. It would be nice to think that whoever buys it will appreciate the architecture and use the space.'
Foreign banks are threatening firms trying to borrow money with higher repayments if Britain quits the EU.
Lenders are preparing to introduce controversial flexit clauses in company documents, enabling them to raise the cost of a loan in the event of Brexit.
Wall Streets Goldman Sachs and Germanys biggest lender Deutsche Bank are among a number of City giants reported to have broached clients about the move.
Wall Streets Goldman Sachs (pictured) is among a number of City giants reported to have broached clients about the move
Both Goldman Sachs and Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank, which have around 13,000 staff in London between them, are vocal supporters of the campaign to stay in the EU
Last night Peter Hargreaves, co-founder of investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, said: This astounds me.
'It is completely outrageous and clients of [banks that do this] should tell them to stick it and find somewhere else to get their money.
The 69-year-old, a prominent member of the Vote Leave campaign, added: Weve always known the mentality of the big banks they are all rapacious and out to make as much money as they can.
You cant trust them. I suspect there are ulterior motives at play here. These banks should stay out of politics.
Most discussions are said to have involved small and medium-sized companies, or firms which could be directly affected by Brexit for example, those which export to the EU such as car manufacturers.
The development plays into the hands of pro-Brussels campaigners led by Chancellor George Osborne who have warned mortgages and loans could become more expensive if Britain goes it alone.
Both Goldman Sachs and Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank, which have around 13,000 staff in London between them, are vocal supporters of the campaign to stay in the EU.
Lenders, such as Deutsche Bank (pictured) are preparing to introduce controversial flexit clauses in company documents, enabling them to raise the cost of a loan in the event of Brexit
They have warned about the damaging repercussions of Brexit and threatened to move large chunks of their businesses out of the UK in the event of a vote to leave.
Goldman Sachs has also donated around 500,000 to the remain campaign.
Last night one City commentator said the introduction of flexit clauses reported in the Financial Times was just the latest example of the hysterical nonsense generated by the pro-Brussels camp.
David Buik, of stockbroker Panmure Gordon, said: Ive never encountered such a degree of intransigence predictions of death and destruction if we leave the EU.
Goldman is bankrolling the remain campaign because it makes millions in fees from the Government from advising on privatisations and asset sales.
It wants to scratch the back of the Government which has filled its cup to overflowing.
Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
WE NEED YOUR VOTERS, PM BEGS NEW LONDON MAYOR SADIQ KHAN Win: New London Mayor, Sadiq Khan David Cameron has begged Londons new Labour mayor to help with the EU referendum campaign just days after branding him an extremist sympathiser. Sadiq Khan revealed the Prime Minister had called to congratulate him on his election victory last week, and asked for help in ensuring pro-Brussels Labour supporters vote in next months EU poll. Mr Khan told the London Evening Standard Mr Cameron was worried about the turnout in the referendum among EU supporters. Downing Street yesterday confirmed the two men had touched on the EU during a phone conversation on Sunday, but did not elaborate on Mr Camerons fears. A No 10 spokesman declined to say whether the Prime Minister stood by previous claims that Muslim Mr Khan was a threat to London. In the Commons last month Mr Cameron said he was concerned Mr Khan shared platforms with extremists. Last week he added: He stood on a platform with people who wanted an Islamic state.
Efforts to tackle the trade in rhino horn and elephant ivory will be put at risk if Britain leaves the EU, the environment minister will warn today.
Scientists based in Norway claim women are most interested in their sisters partner benefiting the whole family (file photo)
It's a story thats been told for generations a young woman falls in love with a handsome man, while her family urges her to marry a rich, respected suitor.
And sisters are particularly wary of their siblings potential partners but it isnt for entirely selfless reasons, research shows.
Scientists based in Norway claim women are most interested in their sisters partner benefiting the whole family.
The team asked 133 pairs of sisters to describe their perfect other-half, and who they would choose for their sibling.
Women generally chose the same ideal partner characteristics for themselves as their sister, preferring the qualities of faithfulness, loyalty, honesty, trustworthiness and reliability.
But they perceived characteristics such as being understanding, empathetic and responsible as more important for their sisters partners than for their own.
They went on to say being humorous, charming and sexually satisfying was more important for their own partner than their sisters.
Dr Robert Biegler, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said: For their own partners, women focus on an attractive appearance that suggests good health and an ability to pass on their genes.
At the same time, they prioritise qualities in their sisters partner that can provide direct benefits for the whole family.
Professor Leif Kennair added: The underlying truth remains: passing on your own genes is the priority. The primary consideration is to find a partner who can give you attractive children who survive.
They need to be attractive enough to pass on their genes to the next generation to the greatest extent possible.
The scientists claim that the best possible outcome is to pick a heartthrob who is also kind and stead, with good prospects.
A Sydney cafe owner has hit out a customer and refused to serve him after he complained of religious discrimination because Catholic rosary beads were pinned to the wall.
Ramis Amanoel, who runs Barista Haus Gladesville in Sydney's north-west, said a male customer came in on Monday morning and claimed it was 'religious discrimination' to have the Holy rosary hanging on the wall.
'He started losing his mind about the rosary. He was saying he was highly offended and shouldn't be subjected to this,' Mr Amanoel told Daily Mail Australia.
Barista Haus Gladesville in Sydney's north-west received complaints from a male customer on Monday morning who claimed it was 'religious discrimination' to have the Holy rosary (pictured) hanging on the wall
'He is a regular customer who has been coming in for ages. I have no idea why he did it. The anger he had towards it was unbelievable.
'It wasn't a one off random bloke. He comes to the shop every day, he is a normal person.'
Mr Amanoel said he and his co-owner Mark Moawad told the customer they would not be taking the rosary down and to take his business elsewhere if he was offended.
'We said "If you don't like it, you can leave". So he took his money back and went,' Mr Amanoel said.
The cafe pinned the rosary to the wall on Sunday and said the customer noticed it right away when he came past at 6.30am on Monday.
Owners Mark Moawad and Ramis Amanoel told the regular customer if he was offended by the rosary that he could take his business elsewhere because they were not taking it down
The owners put up a post on Facebook about the incident on Monday and is has since attracted more than 3,200 likes
It is not known if the customer is religious.
The owners put up a post on Facebook about the incident on Monday and is has since attracted more than 3,200 likes.
'We would just like to send out a statement to anyone who is offended and/or believes we have caused religious discrimination by our action,' the post read.
'We at Barista Haus will NOT be removing the rosary from the wall and we urge you take your business elsewhere.'
A driver has been killed after his out-of-control vehicle ploughed into a kitchen of a property and narrowly missing an elderly couple.
The 45-year-old driver, a local farmer, was trapped inside the Holden Commodore after smashing through the Gnowangerup home on Yougenup Road, 345km southeast of Perth.
The blue sedan had initially hit two neighbouring homes across the road after swerving into a fence about 10.30pm on Sunday.
The vehicle then toppled over before coming to a rest on its roof after crashing through the walls of the kitchen at the third property.
A driver has been killed after his out-of-control vehicle ploughed into a kitchen of a property on Sunday night
When emergency services arrived at the scene, police said they found wires exposed and could smell leaking gas as they feared there would be an explosion.
The power and gas supply were both cut off so the car could be dragged out of the severely damaged home. The driver was found dead in the vehicle.
'The car was completely covered in rubble, we couldn't even get to the driver's window or door,' Gnowangerup police sergeant Norm Gill told Seven News.
'I knew there was someone in there because there was no way to get out.'
The power and gas supply were both cut off so the car could be dragged out of the severely damaged home
The elderly couple, aged in their 70s, were in the next room but miraculously escaped uninjured
Police said there were difficulties trying to get to the driver's side as the vehicle was covered in rubble
The elderly couple, aged in their 70s, had known the driver since he was a young boy who lived next door, Seven News reported.
The pair, who were in the next room when the car smashed through but miraculously escaped uninjured, were left distraught after learning the death of the man.
A former law firm manager who allegedly raped one of his colleagues showed his victim an unrelated newspaper headline reading 'I am sorry,' just days after the attack, a court has heard.
On Monday, Melbourne's County Court heard former Arnold Bloch Leibler employee Dale Cooney turned up to the woman's home at 1.32am and banged on the door on July 13, 2001 after she ignored three of his phone calls.
After she answered the door, the 47-year-old grabbed her arm and told her to go back to bed, where he allegedly raped her despite her saying: 'Please don't do this. You are going to regret it,' The Age reported.
A former law firm manager who allegedly raped one of his colleagues showed his victim an unrelated newspaper headline reading 'I am sorry,' just days after the attack, a court has heard (stock image)
On Monday, Melbourne's County Court heard former Arnold Bloch Leibler employee Dale Cooney turned up to the woman's home at 1.32am and banged on the door
Chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert told the court the woman put up a fight during the ordeal and bit Cooney on the neck while pulling out his hair.
He said Cooney left the house ten minutes after arriving, kissed the victim on the cheek and told her he was heading back out to a nightclub.
A few days after the attack, the 47-year-old allegedly showed the woman an unrelated headline printed in the Herald Sun newspaper reading: 'I am sorry'.
The court also heard Cooney rang the woman, describing the incident as 'hysterical' and asked if she was 'on the pill'.
The woman did not report the rape to police until 2014 out of fear of being fired from the law firm. Cooney resigned five weeks after the alleged attack.
Defence lawyer Peter Morrissey told the court the issue of consent was still in dispute.
The trial continues before judge Bill Stuart on Wednesday.
A man is in hospital after being stabbed in the chest in front of a restaurant.
Police were called to the Mariosarti restaurant on Sherwood Road, in Toowong, in Brisbane, after reports a man had been injured during an altercation on Monday night.
The 26-year-old man was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital with non-life threatening wounds to the chest.
A man was allegedly stabbed in the chest in front of the Mariosarti restaurant (pictured) in Toowong, Brisbane, Queensland
Shortly before midnight police were called to Sherwood Rd in Toowong following reports that a man had been injured during a disturbance (stock image)
A police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that investigators are still trying to figure out what kind of weapon was used in the incident.
Investigations are continuing.
In an unrelated separate incident two years ago, the restaurant also made headlines after the restaurant's former co-owner Peter Milos was allegedly bludgeoned to death in his Morningside home by an associate, James Thomas Howell, who will stand trial for murder, the Brisbane Times reported.
The 26-year-old man was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital with non-life threatening wounds to the chest
'Betrayed': A translator on the front line in Afghanistan
Afghan interpreters were yesterday dealt a bitter blow as a court ruled to keep them out of Britain.
Judges sided with the Government and denied the heroes who served alongside British troops the same rights as those who served in Iraq.
The Court of Appeal ruling means hundreds of interpreters will be left in the war ravaged country because they were not serving on an arbitrary date December 19, 2012.
Last night campaigners slammed the bureaucratic obsession about employment dates as an interpreter said the threat they faced was greater than ever.
Lawyers representing two Afghan interpreters argued the Government was discriminating against them and others by denying them the same sanctuary given to Iraqi interpreters.
They also complained interpreters were not allowed to come to Britain under a relocation scheme if they had stopped working before December 19, 2012 or joined after that date.
Interpreters who were not serving then can only apply to come to the UK via a second scheme under which they have to prove intimidation. But the MoD has so far only allowed one interpreter to the UK under that scheme.
Last night one of the interpreters fighting to bring his family to the UK, Mohammed Rafi Hottak, asked how many interpreters must die before David Cameron allowed them freedom from the threats of the Taliban.
In an open letter, the father-of-three said: The threat to interpreters who were proud to work shoulder to shoulder with the British brothers is greater than ever. I would ask the Government how many have to die, face intimidation, see their families divided and live a life in fear for it to be believed the threat is real?
His comments came as Tory MP Crispin Blunt became the latest senior politician to back a Daily Mail campaign to give interpreters sanctuary.
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee said: We have a duty of care to these interpreters who took a huge risk. That debt of honour is far greater than that which we owe to others who have been allowed to come here.
Two interpreters, including Mr Hottak, and AL, who remains in hiding in Kabul, claimed the Government assistance scheme was illegal. But Lady Justice Arden, Lord Justice David Richards and Sir Colin Rimer rejected their case.
They decided there had been few verified instances of death or injury and there were safe areas in the country.
His comments came as Tory MP Crispin Blunt (pictured) became the latest senior politician to back a Daily Mail campaign to give interpreters sanctuary
The ruling came after figures showed Afghanistan was the most rapidly deteriorating war in the world, with the death toll soaring four times in three years to 15,000 last year.
Interpreters have been shot at, executed and their family members killed. Many have even been forced to flee the country to escape the Taliban. Up to a dozen made it to the UK, only to find it is Government policy to kick them out a prospect too horrific for one interpreter who killed himself last month.
In March, their lawyers told the Court of Appeal that AL and Mr Hottak, who has been granted asylum but still has family in Afghanistan, both gave principled and brave service.
The interpreters wanted the Afghan scheme to cover interpreters employed by the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Afghanistan before the 2012 cut-off date.
The High Court had ruled there was no direct or indirect discrimination on the basis of nationality. Lawyers at Leigh Day said they would now take their clients case to the Supreme Court. They said they have been contacted by nearly 100 interpreters who are stuck in Afghanistan and desperate to come to the UK.
Ducklings were later found in heartwarming video filmed on Mother's Day
Fire rescue team in Loveland, Colorado used pry bar and spreader tool in multiple attempts to reunite the family
A duck was separated from her 10 offspring after they fell through the gaps in a storm drain grate in Loveland, Colorado on Sunday.
But a fire rescue team saved Mother's Day for this fearless duck, who stood over the grate and watched as they worked tirelessly to reunite the family.
The heartwarming video, complete with dramatic background music, was made by Loveland resident Don Oft.
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One duck was separated from her 10 offspring after they fell through the gaps in a storm drain grate in Loveland, Colorado on Sunday
The Loveland Fire Rescue Authority received a call on Sunday, and arrived on the scene to find a duck desperately quacking away to her babies, who appeared to have fallen down into the storm drain.
Firefighters initially tried to use a pry bar, but additional resources were required to lift the heavy iron grate.
According to firefighter Rory O'Farrell, the heroes on the scene then utilized a spreader tool, often used to open up car doors after accidents.
They turned the tool on its side, and used several planks of wood as leverage in order to lift the heavy drain grate.
The Loveland Fire Rescue Authority received a call on Sunday, and arrived on the scene to find a duck desperately quacking away to her babies, who appeared to have fallen down into the storm drain
Firefighters initially tried to use a pry bar, but additional resources were required to lift the heavy iron grate
The mother duck remained on the scene, even fending off Oft's dog at one point as the firefighters made several attempts to save the ducklings
The mother duck remained on the scene, even fending off Oft's dog at one point as the firefighters made several attempts to save the ducklings.
From the video, it appears the firefighters eventually found the ducklings further down the storm drain, and all 10 were safe and sound.
Battalion chief Michael Cerovski sounded well-versed in duck rescues when he told KHOU: 'The mama ducks and papa ducks are usually patient because they know were there to give them a hand.
'But I dont know. I dont speak duck.'
According to firefighter Rory O'Farrell, the heroes on the scene then utilized a spreader tool, often used to open up car doors after accidents
From the video, it appears the firefighters eventually found the ducklings further down the storm drain, and all 10 were safe and sound
Dramatic scenes have erupted in court as accused 'burglar killer' Ben Batterham was granted bail.
The 33-year-old was charged with the murder of convicted rapist Ricky Slater, 37, after he broke into Batterham's house in Newcastle, north of Sydney, on Easter Saturday and a fight ensued.
He was granted bail at Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday by Magistrate Robert Stone and will soon walk free from Cessnock prison.
There were emotional scenes inside court as the bail decision was read out with Slater's mother Beryl Dickson visibly upset as she screamed 'murder, murder'.
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Accused 'burglar killer' Ben Batterham was granted bail at Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday after being charged with the murder of convicted rapist Ricky Slater on Easter Saturday
The 33-year-old was charged with the murder of convicted rapist Ricky Slater (pictured) after he broke into Batterham's house in Newcastle, north of Sydney, on Easter Saturday and a fight ensued
'He murdered my son and you are giving him bail. Look what you done. Murder, murder,' she screamed.
'Money can talk, they're rich.'
Magistrate Stone granted Batterham bail on conditions he not drink alcohol or take drugs and reside in an undisclosed location while awaiting trial for murder.
Batterham's lawyer, prominent Sydney barrister Winston Terracini, successfully applied for the 33-year-old chef's release on Tuesday.
The accused murderer appeared via audio visual link from Cessnock Correctional Centre.
Batterham, who looked down at his hands while the bail application was read out, was wearing a dark green prison issue sweatshirt.
In granting bail to Batterham with a $200,000 surety on his parents' home, Magistrate Stone said he did 'not agree with the Crown submission that this is a strong case' for murder.
There were emotional scenes inside court as the bail decision was read out with Slater's mother Beryl Dickson (pictured) visibly upset as she screamed 'murder, murder'
Ricky Slater allegedly broke into Batterham's house (pictured) and stole his partner's handbag from his seven month old daughter's room before being chased out down the street
Batterham sustained a facial wound (pictured) while falling in his pursuit of Slater who police allege stole a handbag from Batterham's infant daughter's bedroom
He said the combination of factors of 'a stranger found in your home with your partner's handbag' and standing 'in your child's nursery at 3am are in my opinion' reasons that could explain Batterham's response to Slater.
HOW THE INCIDENT UNFOLDED Slater broke into Batterham's home at about 3am on March 26 and stole a handbag from the nursery of Batterham's daughter. Police facts reveal Slater was armed with knives and had drugs in his possession. Batterham, who was celebrating birthday drinks with his friend Paul O'Keeffe, allegedly chased Slater from the house and down several streets. Police allege Batterham then tackled Slater on the ground, held him and punched him in the head. Slater was taken to hospital where his life support was switched off the following day. Batterham's charge of assault causing grievous bodily harm was upgraded to murder.
He said Batterham's 'aggression and anger' with Slater in the struggle that ensued 'may be explained by the accused'.
'It appears to be an immediate reaction to a stranger in his home.'
Batterham is to report daily to Newcastle Police and is not to leave NSW or apply for a passport.
The magistrate estimated it would take more than a year for the case to go to trial.
According to police facts, Slater broke into Batterham's home at about 3am on March 26 and stole a handbag from the nursery of Batterham's seven-month-old daughter.
Mr Terracini told the court last week that Slater was armed during the break in.
'What is relevant is that he did break in because there was personal property belonging to (Batterham's) wife.
'It was a home invasion. Secondly he (Slater) was found with weapons on him.'
Police facts seen by Daily Mail Australia reveal that at the time of the burglary and ensuing alleged fatal assault, Slater was carrying an arsenal of weapons and drugs, including three knives, Ecstasy tablets and three new iPhones.
Batterham's lawyer, prominent Sydney barrister Winston Terracini (pictured), successfully applied for the 33-year-old chef's release on Tuesday
Slater's mother Beryl Dickson visibly upset outside Newcastle Local Court and ran from the complex in tears
Batterham, who was celebrating birthday drinks with his friend Paul O'Keeffe, allegedly chased Slater from the house and down several streets.
Police allege Batterham then tackled Slater on the ground, held him and punched him in the head.
Slater was taken to hospital where his life support was switched off the following day and Batterham's charge of assault causing grievous bodily harm was upgraded to murder.
Mr Terracini has told the court that the murder charge will likely be downgraded to manslaughter and that Batterham has a reasonable chance of acquittal.
Photographs and documents of the prosecutor's case obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Australia last week showed the injuries Batterham sustained in the Easter Saturday struggle.
Magistrate Stone granted Batterham (pictured) bail on conditions he not drink alcohol or take drugs and reside in an undisclosed location while awaiting trial for murder
Photographs and documents of the prosecutor's case obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Australia last week showed the injuries Batterham sustained in the Easter Saturday struggle
According to police facts, Slater (pictured) broke into Batterham's home at about 3am on March 26 and stole a handbag from the nursery of Batterham's seven-month-old daughter
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He announced his break from surfing after a turbulent year that saw the death of his brother, the end of his marriage and a terrifying shark attack episode.
But Mick Fanning has been manning the taps for customers after ditching the waves for a different kind of foam pouring beers behind the bar of a craft brewery on the Gold Coast.
The 34-year-old three-time world champion co-owns Balter Brewing Co along with fellow professional surfers Joel Parkinson, Bede Durbidge, Josh Kerr and their marketing mate Stirling Howland.
And while it's obvious the men have bonded over their love for surfing they also share another thing in common their obsession with craft beer.
The beers are crafted by one of Australia's finest brewers Scott Hargraves, who ferments up to three brew tanks per week. Each brew contains 3,500 litres (35HL) of beer. The bar is currently serving XPA (Extra Pale Ale), ALT Brown and Porter and a non-alcoholic drink called the Hop Soda.
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Mick Fanning has been manning the taps after ditching the waves for a different kind of foam pouring beers behind the bar of a brewery
The 34-year-old three-time world champion has been running a boutique brewery on the Gold Coast alongside his fellow surfing friends
Meet the team: Fanning co-owns the brewery along with his fellow friend Bede Durbidge, who dreamt about opening a brewery one day
Meet the team: Fanning co-owns Balter Brewing Co along with fellow professional surfers Joel Parkinson (left) and Josh Kerr (right)
Co-founder Stirling Howland (pictured) said the boys have been 'rolling up their sleeves' to get the brewery business off the ground
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Mr Howland, former creative director for Billabong, said the boys have been 'rolling up their sleeves' to get the business off the ground since the boutique bar launched last month.
'When we started, we all knew we were here to work for Balter,' Mr Howland said.
'The boys know that no one here is bigger than the brand. Its a pretty grass root operation so everyone's rolling up their sleeves - all the boys are getting involved in the day to day shifts. Mick comes in, he'll clean, he'll mop the floors, he'll deliver the kegs, he'll do stuff that everyone else does as does Parko, Josh and Bede.
The customers are just super stoked that they've got this three time world surfing champion who happened to punch a shark and now he's serving them a beer Co-founder Stirling Howland
'The customers are just super stoked that they've got this three time world surfing champion who happened to punch a shark and now he's serving them a beer. I think that's how Mick handled himself through that ordeal he really has created this connection with the Aussie public.
'Mick's got a really nice aura about him, there's a really nice presence about him. He's just so approachable and people just feel super calm around him.'
After announcing in February this year that he would take a 'personal year', Fanning has been using his downtime casually surfing at his local beach as well as putting on the Balter work uniform to pour beers at the bar, which operates between Friday and Sunday each week.
'We've been very mindful of Mick this year and we respect his space but he has been keen to get involved with the bar he'll be spending a fair bit of time here,' Mr Howland said.
'Hes been on tour for 15 years and hes obviously had a pretty full on last year so we want to give him a bit of space so he could just go surfing without having to do it for a job for once.
'And people go "oh hes a surfer and thats a good job anyway" but its like anything. Anything has its pressures whether youre surfing or CEO of a company we've been respecting Mick's space a lot this year so we're just finding the balance with everyone.'
The three-time world champion made international headlines last July when he fought off a shark attack at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa
The brewery has been set up inside a large warehouse space in industrial Currumbin after the team spent about 17 months of planning
The fermenters (left and the control panel right) where all the beers are crafted by brewing master Scott Hargraves, who spends between two-three days weekly brewing 3500 litres of beer per brew
Balter's 12 tap bar system: At the moment, the brewery is only running four taps - XPA (Extra Pale Ale), ALT Brown, Porter and a non-alcoholic drink called the Hop Soda. By the end of the year all 12 taps will be operating offering up a variety of styles
The beers are crafted by Scott Hargraves (pictured), who spends between two-three days weekly brewing 3500 litres of beer per brew
And while it's not the everyday sight of seeing a handful of surfing legends serve you a pint, Mr Howland said all four surfers were passionate about opening up their dream brewery they completed RSA course (Responsible Service of Alcohol) so they could legally serve beer.
'The boys love it,' he said.
'Their enthusiasm is like they've just discovered surfing again weve found something we all enjoy and to be able to work on with friends on something like that its a dream job really.'
Their enthusiasm is like they have just discovered surfing again weve found something we all enjoy Co-founder Stirling Howland
'Its not a burden for them, they just love to come in and just get amongst it. Meet people and chat and hang out. Its kind of cool. Like even the other night, when Mick was in here, everyone sort of said hi and just let him do his own thing with his friends everyone was super cool.
The brewery has been set up inside a large warehouse space in industrial Currumbin after spending 17 months in the pipeline from planning and developing to creating the brand and 'putting it all into action'.
'Ive known the boys since our teenage years and I met Mick a bit later maybe in our 20s. We became quite close in the last six to seven years and that sort of how it came about. We did our own thing and we all just came back together on this project,' Mr Howland said.
'So Bede's been wanting to start a brew for years and a few years back the boys were in Brazil and I think they were in a brewery over there. He and Josh got talking "oh man, we should do this" and later that year, in December 2014, I just got a random phone call from Mick.
'He goes "Stirl, what are you doing?" and I said "I'm about to have a baby, you know?" and he goes "we want to start a brewery, are you interested?" And I said "oh yeah, okay?" I guess the rest is history.'
Co-owner and creative director Stirling Howland (pictured) said the Queensland-based brewery bar has been a 'dream job' to the group
The meaning behind the name of the brewery came to light after Fanning spotted the word 'Balter' on the internet, which means 'you don't have to be the best in the room to have a good time'
Each brew takes a full day - 12 hour process from milling the grains through to clean up under the guidance of Scott Hargrave
Fanning (right) having a laugh with mate and co-owner Joel Parkinson (left) who is also a world surfing champion
The brewery has been set up inside a large warehouse space in industrial Currumbin after spending 17 months in the pipeline
Fanning told Daily Mail Australia the best part about the brewery is being able to work alongside his 'best mates' and meeting the locals
The meaning behind the brewery brand name came to light after Fanning spotted the word 'Balter' on the internet.
'Mick actually brought the name to the table,' Mr Howland said.
'He loves the branding and marketing side so when I was going through the marketing process, I brought Mick right into it.
'Mick stumbled across the word on the internet just this middle English slang word. It was just a really interesting name and we just love how it sounds and we thought it would look good as a beer label.
'The meaning is what really grabbed us. We came into this to take it seriously but also have fun. The enjoyment element really resonated with us. Its our commitment to our work, our customers and each other.
'And whats not to enjoy about good beer with friends?', Mr Howland continued as he laughed. 'And that's what we loved about the name. We think it's really cool and Balter just stuck.'
Under the guidance of former Byron Bay Brewing Co master Scott Hargrave, the process of each brew takes up to 12 hours a day from milling the grains through to cleaning up per week.
'I cant say enough about Scotty,' Mr Stirling said.
'Before we decided to set any of this up, we knew the brewer was the most important part. We had experience setting up brands and building businesss but the brewer was the one thing we had not finalised.
'Three months in we secured Scotty for the role. We may be bias but the fact that we've got one of the best brewers in the country to front our brewery is phenomenal. Were super proud of Scott and the beer he makes.
'Hes just the most insanely cool guy to talk to about beer and his love for it and his knowledge just translates. The coolest thing about Scotty is he never makes anyone feel silly about not knowing something. Hes just a really good teacher and he makes everyone comfortable about it.
The brewery is currently serving XPA (Extra Pale Ale), ALT Brown, Porter and a non alcoholic drink called the Hop Soda, which is a collaboration between us and local Burger legends Burgster.
'We use the hops from our XPA to make a hop syrup and then combine it with Soda Water, house made lemonade, fresh lime and mint. Great for the designated driver,' he said.
'By the end of the year all 12 taps will be operating offering up a variety of styles.'
The brewery has been set up inside a large warehouse space in industrial Currumbin after the team spent about 17 months of planning
The crafted beers range from XPA (Extra Pale Ale), ALT Brown, Porter and a non-alcoholic drink called the Hop Soda
Balter Brewery Co founders: (from left) Bede Durbidge, Scott Hargrave, Josh Kerr, Stirling Howland, Mick Fanning, Ant Macdonald, Sean Ronan and Joel Parkinson
The brewery has been set up inside a large warehouse space in industrial Currumbin after the team spent about 17 months of planning
Fanning who was attacked by a shark in action during the final of the JBay Open on July 19, 2015 in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa
Fanning told Daily Mail Australia the best part about the brewery is being able to work alongside his 'best mates' and meeting the locals
Its great seeing everybody coming in and enjoying themselves in a place we built from nothing and to be able to serve them a beer - Mick Fanning
Fanning told Daily Mail Australia the best part about the brewery is being able to work alongside his best mates and meeting the locals.
'Ive grown up here my whole life and this city has always been a huge support to me so its great seeing everybody coming in and enjoying themselves in a place we built from nothing and to be able to serve them a beer it's really satisfying,' he said.
'Balter Brewery means friends, family and doing something together that we love.
'Bede had been wanting to open a brewery for years and when the discussion came up to do something in Currumbin, we just went for it and started to pull together our founding team.
'We got long time friends Ant Macdonald to run operations, Stirling Howland to build a brand around the idea, and Sean Ronan to help set it all up. The biggest part of giving ourselves the best chance of success was getting the Head Brewer position right.
'We aren't different or better than any other bars or pubs. We just have a cool place that all walks of life can come and feel welcome. Our brewer makes damn fine drop of beer which always helps. Just add your friends, some food, good music and you have a good afternoon ahead.
'We just want to continue to make great beer and share it with the people we meet along the way. Where that takes us and what that achieves I cant wait to see.'
And besides running the brewery this year, Fanning said he will be doing a bit of travelling and taking part in some surfing trips on the side.
Child refugees stranded across Europe may have to wait until winter to be allowed into Britain, Downing Street has said.
The revelation threatens to undermine David Camerons vow to help the unaccompanied children as a one-off humanitarian gesture. Tory MPs and Liberal Democrats were outraged that the youngsters might have to wait seven months.
Mr Cameron had initially rejected the idea to take child refugees from the continent a plan put forward by Labour peer Lord Dubs and campaigners including Save the Children. But he dropped his opposition after facing rebellion from his MPs and support for the scheme from the Daily Mail.
Delays: Child refugees stranded across Europe may have to wait until winter to be allowed into Britain
Yesterday No 10 said the Governments expectation was that children stranded in squalid camps would be allowed into Britain only by the end of the year.
It is a new scheme so we need to work with councils to get it up and running and that is why we expect we will have the first children arriving by the end of this year, the Prime Ministers spokesman told the Daily Telegraph.
Tory MP David Burrowes, who helped force the Government to accept the children, said: The PMs decision last week was a response to an urgent humanitarian need the public expects an urgent response.
'We were able to relocate 1,000 vulnerable refugees from Syria in three months so it should not take seven months before we relocate vulnerable children from Europe.
Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: In seven months hundreds more will have disappeared into the hands of traffickers and those who will exploit them.
If Macedonia can erect a fence in 48 hours to block off their borders it is inconceivable that a country as compassionate and great as ours cant act more quickly to help these vulnerable children.
The revelation threatens to undermine David Camerons vow to help the unaccompanied children as a one-off humanitarian gesture
Once again David Cameron has shown that this concession is more about calculation than compassion. The British people and organisations who have campaigned for so long on this issue deserve better.'
Last week the PM said ministers were co-ordinating with local authorities on plans to take child refugees, and pledged to speed up applications from child migrants with a direct family connection to the UK.
The Government had resisted calls to take in any refugees who had already fled to Europe because of fears that doing so would encourage more to make the perilous journey to the continent.
Downing Street said the amended plans would only apply to child refugees who had arrived in Europe before March 20, when the EU-Turkey migrant deal came into effect.
Jeremy Corbyn was last night savaged by his own MPs, furious at Labours failure to make progress in last weeks local elections.
There were angry recriminations at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, despite Labour sources promising earlier that he would reprimand rebels.
He was due to criticise them for parading on the media to give a running commentary on our party, but appeared to lose his nerve.
But last night, Jess Phillips, MP for Birmingham Yardley, said: I thought socialism was about we, but its all been about you and thats not a good thing.
Jeremy Corbyn was last night savaged by his own MPs, furious at Labours failure to make progress in last weeks local elections
Sadiq Khan, who was elected Mayor of London in one of the few Labour successes of the elections, told Mr Corbyn he must stop missing open goals.
The meeting was described by one anonymous shadow cabinet member as the worst one yet.
Mr Corbyn was expected to warn MPs to stop attacking him in public. Labour sources claimed he would say: We need, if not across-the-board unity, then at least respect for each other.
But he appeared to lose his nerve. MPs at the meeting said he toned down the warning dramatically when faced by his critics. He didnt say any of it, one said. It was just the usual waffle.
Mr Corbyn also told MPs that, based on the council elections last Thursday, Labour was not yet doing enough to win.
In a frank admission, the Labour leader said the results of the first national test of his electoral appeal were mixed, with a disastrous performance in Scotland partly offset by Mr Khans victory. However, a shadow minister likened Mr Corbyns diagnosis of the election results to a GCSE analysis.
Mr Khan, who received a warmer welcome at the meeting than Mr Corbyn, used it to take a thinly veiled swipe at the leader, saying Labour cannot afford to miss any open goals. He went on: There is no such thing as glorious defeat.
Mr Corbyn told MPs that the party was moving in the right direction under his leadership
IS DAVID MILIBAND PLOTTING A COMEBACK IN THE CAPITAL? David Milibands return to Britain this week has prompted speculation that he could try to return to Parliament as Labour MP for Tooting. There will be a by-election on June 9 after the South London seat was vacated by the capitals new mayor Sadiq Khan. Mr Miliband is back after taking a break from his job heading an international charity in New York to warn against leaving the EU. The deadline for applications to stand for Labour in the poll is 10am today and any party member can apply. Candidates will be grilled by Labours ruling NEC body tomorrow and the successful representative will be selected by Saturday. The timing has left observers wondering if Mr Milibands arrival is just a coincidence. Ladbrokes put the former Foreign Secretarys chances of becoming the candidate at 8/1. Local councillor Simon Hogg was favourite, with odds of 2/1. Labour has held the seat since it was created in 1974.
We only win when we talk about the issues that people care about most. And second, we must be a big tent that appeals to everyone in our country, regardless of their background. We lose when we take an us and them approach.
An aide to Mr Corbyn admitted he had not delivered the crackdown on rebels, saying he had talked around the text and gave his speech in his own words.
Constant sniping from critics has infuriated Labours top team, even though Mr Corbyn was a Labour rebel for decades, voting against Labour more than 500 times in the Commons.
A Labour source insisted he had asked MPs to be more loyal, adding: We are not talking about slavish loyalty, but the debate must be conducted in a way that supports our activists. They dont want people appearing on the media criticising the leader.
Mr Corbyn told MPs that the party was moving in the right direction under his leadership.
But for the first time in opposition since the days of Michael Foot, Labour lost council seats in the local elections. It trailed in third place in Scotland, where a revival is critical to any hope of victory at the 2020 election.
However, Mr Corbyn said the results were not as bad as some had predicted, and pointed to mayoral election victories.
Khan is planning to visit US soon 'in case Donald Trump wins'
Now The Donald says he would always allow 'exceptions' such as Khan
he would stop all non-American Muslims entering the U.S.
He says Trump's 'ignorant view of Islam' could make UK and US less safe
He rejected Trump's offer to make him an 'exception' to the rule
New London mayor Sadiq Khan said he has no interest in being an 'exception' to Donald Trump's proposed rule, banning non-American Muslims from the United States.
Trump, who proposed the controversial ban in November in the aftermath of the San Bernardino terror attacks, had previously said, 'there will always be exceptions,' pointing to the first Muslim mayor of a European capital as one of them, saying he was 'happy' to see Khan win.
But Khan has maintained a critical view of the presumptive Republican nominee, saying he would visit the United States before this year's presidential election in November 'in case Donald Trump wins.'
'Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe,' Khan said earlier this week.
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Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump (left) has said that London's new mayor Sadiq Khan (right) will be exempt from his ban on Muslims
In an interview with the New York Times Trump said he was happy to see Khan - the son of a Pakistani migrant bus driver - become the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital because he can 'lead by example'.
'I think if he does a great job, it will really you lead by example, always lead by example,' Trump added. 'If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing.'
Trump's pledge to ban Muslims from entering the US triggered a huge petition in Britain calling on the Government to ban him from entering the country.
More than half a million people in the UK backed the move, prompting MPs to debate the proposal in Parliament, but the Government said Britain should instead invite him to visit so the whole country could 'unite against him'.
Sadiq Khan (pictured yesterday) became became the first Muslim mayor of any major European capital last week. This morning he rejected Trump's apparent attempt to mend fences
After Sadiq Khan was voted in as the first Muslim mayor of London last week, the presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump (pictured) announced he will allow 'exceptions' to his plans for a ban on Muslims and insisted he was 'happy' to see him win
Sadiq Khan, who became the first Muslim mayor of any major European capital, immediately rejected Trump's apparent attempt to mend fences
The Republican caused particular fury in London last year when he claimed parts of London were 'so radicalised' by Muslim extremists that police were 'afraid for their own lives'.
Despite Trump offering him an exception to his ban on Muslims, Khan took aim at the Republican this morning.
'Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe - it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists,' he said.
'This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world.
'Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong.'
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton welcomed Khan's election as London Mayor on Saturday, tweeting: 'Son of a Pakistani bus driver, champion of workers' rights and human rights, and now Mayor of London.'
Trump's pledge to ban Muslims from entering the US prompted a huge petition (pictured) in Britain calling on the Government to ban him from entering the country
Last week Donald Trump's team demanded the British Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured yesterday) apologise for saying Trump was 'divisive, stupid and wrong' to suggest banning Muslims from entering the US - comments he made when the billionaire was still seen as an outsider in the Republican race but Downing Street said Mr Cameron had 'no intention of withdrawing' the remarks
Trump has come under heavy criticism for his stance on Muslims which critics have called discriminatory and racist.
But rather than back down from his inflammatory claims, last week Trump doubled down on his call to ban non-American Muslims from entering the United States - even if it causes problems going forward in the general election.
'They're destroying Europe, I'm not going to let that happen to the United States,' Trump said this morning during an interview on Morning Joe.
Last week his team demanded the British Prime Minister David Cameron apologise for saying Trump was 'divisive, stupid and wrong' to suggest banning Muslims from entering the US - comments he made when the billionaire was still seen as an outsider in the Republican race.
But Downing Street responded by saying Mr Cameron had 'not intention of withdrawing' the comments.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton welcomed Khan's election as London Mayor on Saturday, tweeting: 'Son of a Pakistani bus driver, champion of workers' rights and human rights, and now Mayor of London.'
Trump first announced his controversial plans to bar all non-American Muslims from entering the United States in the aftermath of the San Bernardino terror attacks last December
While he may be an 'exception' to the ban, Khan (pictured on his first day as Mayor of London) said yesterday that he is planning to visit the US before this year's presidential elections in November 'in case Donald Trump wins'
While he may be an 'exception' to the ban, Khan said yesterday that he is planning to visit the US before this year's presidential elections in November 'in case Donald Trump wins.'
In an interview with Time magazine, before Trump's announcement, he said: 'If Donald Trump becomes the president I'll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can't engage with American mayors and swap ideas.'
He has previously expressed admiration for mayors Bill de Blasio in New York and Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, both Democrats, and said he hoped to meet them both.
Khan criticized his rival in the bid to become the next mayor, Conservative party member Zac Goldsmith, for attempting to link him with extremism.
The day after winning the election he wrote a newspaper article directly attacking Prime Minister David Cameron for backing the campaign and accused him of using tactics 'straight out of the Donald Trump playbook' for focussing on his Muslim faith.
'Conservative [party] tacticians thought those sort of tactics would win London and they were wrong,' Khan said. 'I'm confident that Donald Trump's approach to politics won't win in America.'
Khan claimed that the Conservative campaign had tried to divide the capital's ethnic communities against each other in the campaign for City Hall instead of focussing on policies.
While he may be an 'exception' to the ban, Khan (pictured right with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, left) said yesterday that he is planning to visit the US before this year's presidential elections in November 'in case Donald Trump wins'
Trump became presumptive GOP nominee last week after his chief rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, threw in the towel after a disappointing showing in Indiana. Ohio Gov. John Kasich suspended his campaign the following day.
Generally, in politics, the nominee will shed off some of his positions that are more in line with the party's base in order to be palatable to the general public.
But on the Muslim ban, which is likely Trump's most controversial position, he's not budging.
'I don't care if it hurts me,' he told Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. 'I'm doing the right thing.'
'I've been guided by common sense, by what's right,' he continued.
'We have to be careful. We're allowing thousands of people to come into our country,' he said. 'Thousands and thousands of people being placed all over the country that, frankly, nobody knows who they are.'
'We don't know what we're doing,' he added.
Trump originally pulled out the idea in the aftermath of the San Bernardino terror attacks in which two ISIS sympathizers gunned down 14 at an office holiday celebration.
'Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on,' a statement from the Trump campaign read.
Trump later clarified that he meant Muslims who weren't citizens of the United States.
Even though Trump was criticized by many Republicans, including rivals like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney, he stood firm.
While Clinton is not yet her party's presumptive nominee, the former secretary of state's campaign already bashed Trump on his support of the Muslim ban.
'Trump is going to be the Republican nominee,' said a fundraising letter signed by Clinton's deputy communications director Christina Reynolds.
doesn't restrict late-term abortions up to nine months
Abortion has been classified as a crime within the state since 1899
A bill decriminalising abortion will be presented on Tuesday in Queensland
A bill proposing the decriminalisation of abortion for women who are up to nine months pregnant will be tabled in Queensland's State Parliament on Tuesday.
Independent MP Rob Pyne, representing Cairns, recently drafted a private member's bill to legalise abortion, which has been essentially prohibited across the state for more than 100 years, according to ABC.
The Liberal National Party will consider the bill this week and Labor members will participate in a conscience vote, LNP leader Tim Nicholls told ABC.
Abortion pro-choice supporters and pro-life protesters were seen rallying outside the Queensland Parliament on Tuesday as politicians discussed the proposed bill.
A bill proposing the decriminalisation of abortion for women who are up to nine months' pregnant will be tabled in Queensland's Parliament by Independent MP Rob Pyne (pictured) on Tuesday
Abortion pro-choice supporters were seen rallying outside the Queensland Parliament on Tuesday as politicians discussed the proposed bill (pictured)
Deputy Premier Jackie Trad (pictured left) recently said she is 'absolutely pro-choice' and that the state's government needs 'to catch up with legal precedent'
The Liberal National Party will consider the bill this week and Labor members will participate in a conscience vote, LNP leader Tim Nicholls (left)
The push to decriminalize abortion comes after a 12-year-old girl from Rockhampton, Queensland, was forced to request an abortion from the Supreme Court last month.
Although the bill doesn't restrict late term abortions, Mr Pyne said he could be willing to make such amendments to the proposal.
He said his main focus in making progressive changes within the state.
'It's not 1899, abortion should not be a crime,' Mr Pyne said.
'The world is changing very quickly and unfortunately our politicians aren't.'
Mr Pyne, representing Cairns, (pictured right) recently drafted a private member's bill to legalise abortion
'The world is changing very quickly and unfortunately our politicians aren't' Mr Pyne (pictured) said
ABORTION LAW IN AUSTRALIA ACT: Legal on request QLD: Legal if pregnancy would mean a serious danger to the women's health NSW: Legal if pregnancy would mean a serious danger to the women's health, fetal defects or for economic or social factors NT: Legal if pregnancy would mean a serious danger to the women's health or for fetal defects SA: Legal if pregnancy would mean a serious danger to the women's health or for fetal defects TAS: Legal on request VIC: Legal on request WA: Legal if pregnancy would mean a serious danger to the women's health, for fetal defects or for economic or social factors
The LNP has not stated a position on the bill but Deputy Premier Jackie Trad recently told the Brisbane Times that she is 'absolutely pro-choice' and that the state's government needs 'to catch up with legal precedent and treat pregnancy termination as a health issue, not a criminal issue.'
Abortion has been prohibited in Queensland by the state's criminal code since 1899 but a ruling in 1986 determined that procedures were possible if a medical professional determined there is a risk to the mother's physical or mental health, according to ABC.
The law was amended in 2009 allowing surgical or chemical abortions.
If the bill passes, Queensland will join Tasmania, Victoria and ACT in decriminalising abortions
Abortion pro-choice supporters (left and centre) stand next to a an anti-abortion protester during the rally
If the bill passes, Queensland will join Tasmania, Victoria and ACT in decriminalising abortions.
However, late-term abortions in Tasmania and Victoria need approval from a physician.
Late-term is considered past four months gestation in Tasmania and past six months in Victoria.
The bill will be presented to Parliament for debate at a later date.
A woman was seriously injured and five others were hurt Monday after a car rear-ended a taxicab, sending it crashing into a food cart in New York City's Upper West Side, officials said.
A black four-door sedan traveled at a high speed south on Broadway when it struck the taxi near West 62nd Street around 4:38pm, police told Daily Mail Online.
The sedan's driver then fled the scene, a New York City Police Department spokesperson said.
A rear-end collision caused a yellow cab to crash into a food cart Monday on the Upper West Side in New York
Five victims were transported to hospital after the crash. One woman was in serious condition
Out of the six injured, four were hurt after the halal cart toppled over. One victim refused medical attention
Police said the driver who rear-ended the taxi fled the scene after the incident. The driver was in a black four-door sedan
The driver of the sedan was traveling south on Broadway when they struck the yellow cab near West 62nd Street
One victim was reportedly a man in a motorized wheelchair. Pictured, firefighters respond to the crash site Monday
The impact of the collision sent the taxi crashing into a food cart, which toppled over, hitting a Con Edison truck and injuring four pedestrians, police and witnesses said.
Two others were also injured in the crash. A 39-year-old woman was sent to the Bellevue Hospital Center in serious condition, and four others were transported to local hospitals, a fire department spokesperson told Daily Mail Online.
One victim was injured but refused treatment, the fire official said.
The chain reaction crash happened a little before 5pm on Broadway and West 62nd Street on the Upper West Side
Pictured, a halal cart lies on its side after it was struck by a taxi in a chain reaction crash Monday
A man is being treated for injuries sustained in Monday's crash on New York City's Upper West Side
Bystanders watch as emergency responders treat victims at the scene of Monday's chain reaction crash
DNAinfo New York reported one of the victims was a man in a motorized wheelchair.
A witness who spoke to DNAinfo said she saw a woman who was put in a neck brace.
'She looked really hurt. You could see her arm was broken. Her bones were sticking out,' Laurie Adams told the news site.
A JB HI-FI store employee fed up with gender stereotyping in the gaming industry has taken matters into their own hands in a bid to change perceptions about female gamers.
Morris Umali, an employee at one of the electronics retailer's Melbourne stores, according to Daily Life, created a section in the store called 'games for girl', which contained exactly the same games as in the rest of the store.
He wrote on Facebook that he was sick of being asked for 'games that girls will like' and that the women he knew played 'shooters and scary games'.
Melbourne JB HI-FI employee Morris Umali posted this picture to Facebook of the 'Games for Girls' section he created - which features the same games as elsewhere in the story
Mr Umali even made a 'don't forget Mother's Day sign for the display, aimed at showing female gamers enjoyed the same games as anyone else
Mr Umali made the display because he was tired of customers asking for "games that girls will like"
Underneath a handmade sign were game titles like Dark Souls III, Far Cry and Grand Theft Auto.
In the lead-up to Mother's Day he even created a sign for the section saying 'Don't forget Mother's Day'.
His post created conversation about the subject and received widespread support.
One Facebook user brought up 'games for guys', to which Mr Umali responded: 'What games are for guys? It's not something I've ever been asked for at work, and I haven't set up a display for it'.
He thanked people for their support after he made the post.
One person said they'd laughed when they saw the photos and that they'd love to set up a similar section at their work.
Another wrote: 'games made aimed specifically for girls are usually so niche that girls often find them boring. Gamers play good games, regardless of gender'.
Mr Umali also said he'd never been asked for 'games for guys' at work
The 'games for girls' racks feature video game titles like Farcy, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Dark Souls III
Three high school girls in Delaware are facing criminal charges over the fatal beating of a classmate inside a school bathroom last month, authorities said on Monday.
Amy Joyner-Francis, a 16-year-old sophomore at Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington, Delaware, died following an early-morning fight on April 22.
The state Department of Justice said it had charged Trinity Carr, 16, with criminally negligent homicide and would seek to have her tried as an adult. She faces up to eight years in prison.
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Trinity Carr (pictured), 16, could be tried as an adult for criminally negligent homicide after hitting classmate 16-year-old Amy Joyner-Francis in their high school's bathroom
This is the horrific moment high school teen Joyner-Francis (right) was allegedly beaten by Carr (left)
Amy Inita Joyner-Francis (left and right), 16, died after being attacked by Trinity Carr, Zion Snow and Chakeira Wright, all 16, in the women's bathroom at Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington, Delaware, Thursday morning
Carr was the only girl to strike Amy, though all three girls planned the confrontation, according to the department.
The other two girls, Zion Snow and Chakeira Wright, have been charged with criminal conspiracy, which carries up to one year in prison. They will be tried as juveniles.
An autopsy concluded that Joyner-Francis died from a 'cardiac incident' that stemmed from a pre-existing heart condition but was brought on by the stress of the attack, according to the department.
'The cardiac incident would not have occurred if she had not been assaulted,' the Department of Justice said in a statement.
The fight broke out around 8.15am on April 22 before classes at Howard High School of Technology.
Students who witnessed the deadly scuffle said that Joyner and another girl started fighting in one of the women's bathrooms over a boy, when a gang of other girls jumped the victim.
At one point, someone slammed her head against a sink, according to witnesses who spoke with 6ABC.
Joyner-Francis was flown to A.I. DuPont Children's Hospital in critical condition, where she was later pronounced dead. The cause of death has not been confirmed
Authorities questioned Carr, Snow and Wright over the deadly brawl - all of whom have now been suspended from school.
'Now they know they're in very serious trouble and could spend a substantial amount of time in prison,' Mayor Dennis Williams told CBS News.
Paramedics (pictured) wheeled the student out of the school. Medics performed CPR on the victim before a helicopter arrived to transport her to a hospital
Amy was flown by helicopter to A.I. DuPont Children's Hospital in critical condition. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital
'My heart bleeds for the family,' Williams told a news conference.
Kaya Wilson was in a stall when the fight broke out and spoke with the local news station after leaving school.
'She was fighting a girl, and then that's when all these other girls started banking her - like jumping her - and she hit her head on the sink,' Wilson said.
'There was an altercation that initially started between two people, and my understanding is that additional individuals joined in against the one person,' Gary Fullman, chief of staff to the Wilmington mayor, told KTLA.
Speaking a day after her shocking death, the victim's father Sonny Francis told FOX29: 'I thought schools were a safe place.'
He added: 'I think this is a dream and I'm trying to wake up. All I know is my daughter is gone. She was the love of my life and it hurts.'
Sherry Dorsey Walker, a Wilmington city councilwoman, said that the family is asking for spiritual healing in the community and no retaliation. She says they're also 'asking people to just be calm and pray for them'.
Mayor Dennis William was emotional as he announced Joyner-Francis' death. He said: 'My heart bleeds for the family'
The councilwoman described the victim as 'a wonderful human being', adding that 'her loss is a big void, not just in the family'.
Her friends and neighbors knew her as the quiet teen who would focus on her homework.
Nik Stryminski told the News-Journal that Amy had kept him safe and out of a fight earlier this school year.
When he and another student were getting ready to fight she stepped in, backed him into a corner and calmed him down.
He said: 'She didn't believe in fighting, and the craziest thing is she died in a fight.'
Stryminski believes Joyner-Francis went into the bathroom not to fight but to 'talk things out'.
Troy Johnson, a sophomore at Howard, said Amy was a good influence to her peers with her calm personality.
'If I were to have kids I'd want them to hang around someone like her,' he told the News Journal.
Another student said Amy was often the one who calmly counseled her friends.
Amil Gibbs, a sophomore at Howard, told the News-Journal that she would sit with Amy during lunch and tell her about problems she had in school. And Amy would encourage her to 'be strong'.
From Twitter to Facebook #RIPAmy was trending last week as several people across the nation called her death senseless.
Actress Paige Hurd tweeted that she is 'hurt' by the loss of such a young life and her 'heart is so heavy for her and her family'
Another user tweeted about the plight of a world where a teenager 'gets murdered by her classmates in a school bathroom while other classmates record it'
Some said the worst part about Amy's senseless death is to know that 'we won't learn from this'
And others are calling for justice to be served against the girls who are responsible for Amy's death
On social media, many say they can't believe other students didn't intervene to help her.
Others said it's sickening to know that students stood there and watched and recorded as the fight erupted all because of a boy.
One Twitter user said she prays 'for this generation' and hopes 'justice will be served', while another said the world needs a 'cultural shift'.
Superintendent Victoria Gehrt called Amy's death an 'unbelievable tragedy for the family'. She also said that despite what happened, Howard High School of Technology 'is a safe school for our students'.
A student cries in front of Howard High School of Technology on Thursday after a city official announced a student had died after the confrontation inside the school
Kim Jong-Un has presided over a mass parade of tens of thousands of North Koreans as it emerged a top military chief thought to have been executed earlier this year is still alive.
Pyongyang staged a huge rally this morning, turning the capital's giant square into a sea of pink to celebrate a ruling party congress seen as a formal coronation for the 33-year-old dictator.
Kim waved from a balcony overlooking the expansive Kim Il-Sung Square, with huge crowds waving bouquets of artificial flowers over their heads as the young leader arrived.
It comes as North Korea claimed that one of its former generals, Ri Yong Gil, who Seoul said had been executed last year is actually alive and in possession of several new senior-level posts.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (top centre) waves from the balcony of the Grand People's Study House following a mass parade marking the end of the 7th Workers Party Congress, at Kim Il-Sung Square in Pyongyang
Nuclear-armed North Korea regularly holds mass military parades to celebrate key dates and show off its latest military hardware, including long-range ballistic missiles that are still under development
North Korea has claimed that one of its former generals, Ri Yong Gil (pictured in 2013), who Seoul said had been executed last year is actually alive and in possession of several new senior-level posts
Ri, who was considered one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's most trusted aides, missed two key national meetings in February. Seoul intelligence officials later said that Kim had him executed for corruption and other charges.
Nuclear-armed North Korea regularly holds mass military parades to celebrate key dates and show off its latest military hardware, including long-range ballistic missiles that are still under development.
Tuesday's events were an all-civilian affair apart from a military band. But several of the giant floats had military themes, showing cardboard mock-ups of missiles and space-launch vehicles.
'A strong nation needs nuclear arms and a strong army,' read the sign on the missile-themed float.
North Korea followed its last nuclear test in January with a satellite launch that was widely condemned as a disguised ballistic missile test.
Pyongyang staged a huge rally this morning, turning the capital's giant square into a sea of pink to celebrate a ruling party congress seen as a formal coronation for the 33-year-old dictator
Kim presided over the event from a balcony overlooking the expansive Kim Il-Sung Square, with huge crowds waving bouquets of artificial flowers over their heads as the young leader arrived
Tuesday's events were an all-civilian affair apart from a military band. But several of the giant floats had military themes, showing cardboard mock-ups of missiles and space-launch vehicles
The country's nominal head of state, Kim Yong-Nam, addressed the parade before it began, praising Kim Jong-Un and congratulating him on his election the day before as chairman of the ruling Workers' Party
The country's nominal head of state, Kim Yong-Nam, addressed the parade before it began, praising Kim Jong-Un and congratulating him on his election the day before as chairman of the ruling Workers' Party.
'The election... showed the absolute trust... of our military and people in the great leader Kim Jong-Un,' Kim said.
Leader Kim waved briefly to the crowd to thunderous applause but did not make a speech. Hundreds of balloons were released into the sky to boost the festive effect.
The four-day party congress, which ended on Monday, marked the first such gathering of the party's top decision-making body in more than 35 years.
The event gave Kim, who came to power following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in 2011, a podium to secure his status as supreme leader and rightful inheritor of the one-party state founded by his grandfather, Kim Il-Sung.
The congress formally endorsed Kim Jong-Un's legacy 'byungjin' doctrine of building an effective nuclear arsenal in tandem with economic development.
Kim Yong-Nam, in his speech to the parade, appeared to touch on this theme.
Now that North Korea was a powerful nation, he said, 'we can concentrate on economic construction and improving people's living standards'.
Leader Kim (right) waved briefly to the crowd to thunderous applause but did not make a speech. Hundreds of balloons were released into the sky to boost the festive effect
The four-day party congress, which ended on Monday, marked the first such gathering of the party's top decision-making body in more than 35 years
In formation: Parade participants carry the ruling Workers' Party flag as they march at the Kim Il Sung Square
The parade saw row after row of massed marchers, waving pink paper flowers, balloons of various colours and red party flags, and chanting 'Mansei (Long Live)!' in unison
In speeches during the congress, Kim praised the country's purported first hydrogen-bomb test in January and defended his nuclear arsenal as a deterrent against 'hostile' nations like the United States.
He also vowed to use it only if North Korea's sovereignty is threatened by another nuclear power.
The party meeting came at a time of heightened tension on the divided peninsula following the atomic test in January.
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, who has insisted denuclearisation by Pyongyang is the only way to revive talks, said the congress showed that nothing had changed.
'The North failed to show any sincere change to improve inter-Korea ties and instead vowed to continue to strengthen its nuclear programmes, this time describing itself as an official atomic power,' Park said at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The parade saw row after row of massed marchers, waving pink paper flowers, balloons of various colours and red party flags, and chanting 'Mansei (Long Live)!' in unison.
Some carried giant banners reading 'Mansei for comrade Kim Jong-Un, the top leader of our party and people!' and 'Glory to our beloved leader!'
On the main part of the square, static crowds raised different coloured placards to spell out giant slogans like 'The leader's Party', 'Kim Jong-Un's party' and 'Solidarity', and formed elaborate mosaic images of the party and national flags
Kim has reportedly overseen a series of killings, purges and dismissals since he took power in late 2011, part of what foreign experts call an attempt to tighten his grip on power.
Students from Kim Il Sung University carry the ruling Workers' Party flag as they march during a parade
On the main part of the square, static crowds raised different coloured placards to spell out giant slogans like 'The leader's Party', 'Kim Jong-Un's party' and 'Solidarity', and formed elaborate mosaic images of the party and national flags.
Park groundsman Kim Son-Dong, 46, clutching a floral bouquet, said it was hard to express his feelings about taking part in the parade.
'When I saw Marshal Kim Jong-Un, I was very happy. I thank him for guiding our people wisely,' he said through an official interpreter.
Kim has reportedly overseen a series of killings, purges and dismissals since he took power in late 2011, part of what foreign experts call an attempt to tighten his grip on power.
The South's report on Ri's execution seemed to be bolstered later in February when Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency confirmed Ri had lost his job by describing someone else as chief of the North Korean military's general staff.
He hadn't appeared anywhere in KCNA, the North's main media outlet for foreign audiences, until the report Tuesday that a person with the same name as Ri was among those awarded important positions during the just concluded Workers' Party congress.
The congress ended with announcements of personnel and organisational changes.
According to KCNA dispatches, Ri got three posts member of the party's Central Committee, alternate member of the committee's powerful Political Bureau, and member of the party's Central Military Commission.
Attendees cheer the arrival of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 7th Workers Party Congress at the April 25 Palace in Pyongyang
A TV report on a massive parade in Pyongyang, presided over by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (on screen, right), is seen at a railway station in Seoul
Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Tuesday that it confirmed Ri is back after analysing North Korean state media photos and video of the party congress.
South Korean media said that Seoul intelligence authorities were responsible for the initial reports on Ri's execution. But the National Intelligence Service South Korea's main spy agency tried to distance itself from the misstep, saying it never disclosed any information on Ri.
Monitoring developments among the North's ruling elite is very hard for outsiders; the country keeps strict tabs on visitors and its own state-run press acts as a disseminator of government propaganda. South Korea, which runs several intelligence organisations mainly tasked with spying on the North, has a mixed record.
Earlier this year, South Korean intelligence and defense officials faced criticism for failing to see in advance that North Korea had been preparing for its fourth nuclear test.
The NIS also failed to learn of the 2011 death of Kim Jong Il, the dictator father of Kim Jong Un, before Pyongyang's state TV announced it. In 2013, it saved its face by releasing its finding that Kim's powerful uncle Jang Song Thaek was purged, days before North Korea announced his execution.
The two young brothers who drowned in a river in Colorado on Mother's Day have been identified by authorities.
Daniel Foreman, seven, and Paul Foreman, 10, fell into the Little Thompson River near the community of Pinewood Springs around 12:30pm Sunday.
Despite a multi-agency response the boys could not be saved, the Larimer County sheriff's office said in a press release.
The children were identified Monday by the county coroner's office, local media reported.
The boys' father jumped in to try to save his children, a witness told the Denver Post.
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Paul Foreman, 10, left, and Daniel Foreman, seven, pictured with their father, died Sunday after being pulled out of a river in Colorado. The Larimer County coroner's office ruled the deaths an accident
The two brothers drowned Sunday after falling into the Little Thompson River (pictured) near Pinewood Springs, Colorado
Despite a multi-agency response, Paul and Daniel Foreman could not be saved. Their identities were released Monday
Lisa Phillips, whose son was playing with the young victims before they fell in, said her child ran home to alert her of the tragedy. She said saw firefighters attempt to revive the boys.
'They tried everything. There was nothing they could do,' Phillips told the Post.
The coroner's office ruled the deaths an accident, the Post reported.
It was unclear Monday how the boys ended up in the river. Phillips told the Post the brothers had been playing with water guns.
'There were not lots of witnesses,' Andrew Lucas, assistant chief of the Pinewood Springs Fire Protection District, told the Post.
'It was lightly populated and the calls came in once there was realization the boys were in the river and being swept downstream. Neighbors in the area were contacted by a witness or two who asked them to call 911,' Lucas said.
The boys' grandfather told CBS4 Denver the brothers and their father had been picnicking near the river.
According to Phillips, Daniel and Paul Foreman liked to play with Lego, video games and their pet rabbit.
An online fundraiser was set up to raise money for funeral expenses.
The river, though closed to the public, is a popular swimming spot on warm summer days, a local resident said
Pinewood Springs is located about 10 miles southwest of Loveland.
The river, though closed to the public, is a popular swimming spot on warm summer days, a local resident told the Post on Sunday.
'People are swimming in there everywhere. It is pretty risky. It is pretty fun. People are supposed to supervise their kids when they are down there,' said Carly Smith.
The Post described the river as 'raging waters' where 'granite cliffs form a waterfall and gushing currents cut a series of deep pools where people swim.'
A group of Sydney high school students who were filmed mocking and verbally abusing a disabled train passenger will be suspended.
The teenagers from Georges River College at Oatley, in Sydney's southwest, were filmed imitating and laughing at the highly distressed male passenger on Monday afternoon.
The video, viewed more than 350,000 times after being posted to Facebook, shows the group taunting the man on the South Coast line of the Sydney train until he got off at his stop at Hurstville.
The NSW education department said in a statement on Tuesday all students involved in the incident will be suspended, while NSW Police and Sydney Trains are investigating.
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The teenagers from Georges River College at Oatley, in Sydney's southwest, were filmed imitating and laughing at the highly distressed male passenger on Monday afternoon
The group of students may also face legal repercussions after the footage went viral.
'The behaviour of students involved in this incident is completely unacceptable, and the Department apologises to the young person involved,' the Department of Education said in a statement.
'All students involved in this incident will be suspended.'
The woman who filmed the disturbing incident uploaded the footage to Facebook in a bid to identify the alleged bullies.
'I am FUMING. How DARE these disrespectful pigs mock and taunt a disabled passenger,' the woman captioned the video.
'If anyone recognises the people in this video please let me know. I am absolutely disgusted by what just happened.'
The video, viewed more than 350,000 times after being posted to Facebook, shows the group taunting the man on the South Coast line of the Sydney train until he got off at his stop at Hurstville
The NSW education department said in a statement on Tuesday all students involved in the incident will be suspended, while NSW Police and Sydney Trains are investigating
The woman claims that once the group of children spotted her filming they threatened to hit her.
'There was a disabled man standing on the train when all of the school kids got on board,' she wrote.
'It was quite obvious that the disabled man was anxious about getting to his stop on time, which is what gave away his disability.
'Immediately the guys in the video started copying him... shouting in his face, mocking his clothing, ganging up on him and making the poor man extremely uncomfortable.
'Once they noticed I was filming they threatened to hit me, I was with my mum and didn't want to risk putting either of us in any kind of danger - which is why I didn't go down and sort it out myself.'
The group of students may also face legal repercussions after the footage went viral
One former student from the school the pupils were believed to have attended said he was 'disgusted' and would be calling up his old principal
'The man pulled out his phone to try to escape the harassment but the bullying continued until they got off at Hurstville.'
A number of people have since expressed outrage that the alleged bullying carried on without anyone stepping in.
Phil Robertson is diving back into the culture wars. And Lord, is he angry.
The 'Duck Dynasty' reality-TV patriarch's next in-your-face project is 'Torchbearer,' a film being screened next week for distributors at the Cannes film festival.
It's a fire and brimstone look at the decline of Europe and the United States from the viewpoint of an evangelical crusader. And the news from Robertson's perspective is not good.
Robertson says the Roman Empire's bloody debauchery, Robespierre's French Terror, the Nazi genocide, the Khmer Rouge, Boko Haram, the ISIS terror army, and America's embrace of abortion yes, he goes there are the predictable results of cutting God out of entire societies.
'If there's no God, what difference does it make if you're a mass-murderer or a saint? We'll all be dead soon, so who cares?' his Louisiana twang asks as pictures of pro-abortion activists fade to Adolf Hitler, and then to Mother Teresa.
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NO APOLOGIES: 'Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson takes aim at Hollywood and secular America in 'Torchbearer,' a film about the fall of 'godless' societies
'YOU ARE YOUR OWN GOD': Robertson's inner scold comes out when he suggests in the film that an oversexualized Hollywood is a sign that America has lost its way
ON LOCATION: Robertson appears at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the infamous Nazi death camp in Poland, to argue that Germany embraced Hitler as a surrogate for the God they had abandoned
The movie merges attacks on Hollywood celebrities, funding from the Ted Cruz political orbit, grisly ISIS execution footage, and even live shots filmed inside the Auschwitz death camp's crematorium.
'You know, people talk about hell? And some argue that there's not a hell?' the bearded contrarian deadpans down the barrel of a camera with the ovens just a yard or two behind him.
'Oh, I'm standing in hell.'
Nearly everything that that's gone wrong in the Western world, he argues, is the result of society crumbling because people break their ties with the Almighty.
Branding Hollywood as food for 'animals following our instincts,' he declares that 'the sexual experience is now the highest summit of our happiness' while Miley Cyrus writhes on her wrecking ball and Justin Bieber takes off his shirt.
'What happens when it still leaves us empty and lost?' Robertson asks as J.Lo twerks on screen.
And Kim and Kanye?
'You are your own god,' he declares over footage of the Kardashian-Wests posing for cameras at last year's MTV Video Music Awards.
The Duck Commander's inner scold comes out more times than a Sunday School teacher could count, but that's the point.
The film's likely targets, Bible-believing voters in flyover country, will recognize the vocabulary.
'When man stops believing in God, he'll believe in anything,' Robertson says during one segment about the Manson murders and the cult leader Jim Jones' death-by-Kool-Aid.
He told DailyMail.com on Monday night that 'the Nazis and the Shintoists and then the communists, and then the latest crop, the Islamists,' have a common denominator that appears 'when you remove the God of the Bible from your conscience and you let men, mere men, determine what's right and what's wrong.'
'They all wanted world domination. And there's a lot of murder involved in all four of them,' Robertson said. 'It seems that most people would say, "Hmmm, there's a pattern".'
POLITICS: Robertson endorsed Senator Ted Cruz, then a presidential candidate, in January and one of the backers of 'Torchbearer' has familial ties to millions that funded a pro-Cruz super PAC this year
EXHIBITS A and B: Jennifer Lopez and Miley Cyrus writhe in footage included in the film, illustrating what Robertson sees as a symptom of a lost nation
MESSAGE FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL: Robertson sits in Dr. Martin Luther King's jail cell, saying that despite his 'plea for our common humanity and nonviolent resistance, Birmingham descended into bloody riots'
David Bossie, the president of Citizens United the group whose name became synonymous with the rise of the super PAC following a 2010 Supreme Court ruling is one of the movie's executive producers.
He was quick to cop to a political motive for making 'Torchbearer,' telling DailyMail.com that he wants it to reinvigorate large numbers of U.S. Christians who don't engage with politics and have fallen away from voting.
'We can help motivate the evangelicals who didn't find themselves in Romney in 2012, or in McCain in 2008,' he said. 'So we're trying to educate, motivate and get those people on their feet and moving again.'
'Who would have thought that it would come down to Ted Cruz, who is truly an evangelical leader, and Donald Trump, who won a big chunk of evangelical voters, surprisingly enough?' Bossie mused.
Another executive producer on the project, Rebekah Mercer, has been linked through her father, the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, to Cruz's failed presidential bid.
The Mercer family gave at least $11 million this year to one of the pro-Cruz 'Keep the Promise' super PACs the one credited as the driving force behind a plan to persuade Republican National Convention delegates to support the Texas senator if Trump had been unable to win the GOP nomination on the first ballot.
Bossie said Mercer was motivated by the project's merits, and not by the promise of which candidate it might benefit in the fall.
'But now that Trump is the nominee,' he said of the real estate tycoon, 'he's going to need that kind of help' from the Christian right.
D-DAY: Robertson and director Steve Bannon are shown planning a shot at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France; '9,387 Americans are buried here,' Robertson says in the movie. 'All of these young men came from every corner of America. Though they died far from home, they showed their love of country by their sacrifice to defeat evil'
IN HIS OWN WORDS: THE DUCK COMMANDER ON THE DECLINE OF CIVILIZATION 'The sexual experience is now the highest summit of our happiness': Phil Robertson has a problem with singer-songwriter Justin Bieber, shown with model Laura Stone onstage at 'Fashion Rocks 2014' 'Duck Dynasty' patriarch Phil Robertson vents about 'godless' modern society in 'Torchbearer,' which will premiere in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention ON EVOLUTION: 'If a man is not made in God's image, if we're merely animals biologically determined by survival, then the right thing to do is let the weak die so the strong can live. This social Darwinism, it led right to the eugenics movement and people like Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. Sanger's idea was to week out the so-called "inferior" races.' ON THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE: 'Rome is no different than any other empire. It was destined to fade and die. You ask why? Divorced from God, the City of Man devolves into strife, war, and the will to power over others, which eventually ends in ruin.' ON THE FOUNDING OF THE UNITED STATES: 'If you have life, and you have liberty, and you're happy. happy, happy, what else is there? You know why you can have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Because they come from God.' ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: 'In the absence of God, man becomes the sole determiner of human worth. And if that man happens to favor the guillotine, well, expect a lot of heads to roll.' ON THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB: 'Fallen man, unanchored by God, uses the power of creation to destroy.' ON THE NAZIS AND WORLD WAR II: 'If you live by the utilitarian belief in the greatest good for the greatest number of people, what happens when the majority decides it's the greatest good to kill all the Jews?' ON MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.'S 'LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL': 'Reverend King was calling out those white Christian ministers who were standing idly by on the sidelines while blacks were fighting for their civil rights. Underneath it all was the implicit understanding that human rights do indeed come from God. ... And in a world where God does not exist he's not there there is no case for justice. Might makes right.' ON GENOCIDE:'When you take out God as the anchor of your civilization, you open the door to tyranny. Instead of human rights, ... we are nothing more than the masses. Just objects among other objects to be manipulated by the most powerful in society who declare themselves God and assign worth.' ON THE FLOWER-POWER GENERATION: 'Hey, we might not believe in God anymore, but we still feel a sentimental need to be nice to each other. Of course there was no one more sentimental than the hippies, but what started out as free love and flowers in your hair ended up with the Manson murders, a group of acid-dropping hippies on a murder spree because a man who declared himself God told them to.'
GODLESS AMERICA? Robertson proclaims from the steps of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.: 'You know why you can have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Because they come from God'
Steve Bannon, the executive chairman of the Breitbart News website, directed the movie and said it will have its official premiere during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 17.
Bannon shared writing duties with former Sarah Palin speechwriter Rebecca Mansour and Robertson's nephew Zach Dasher.
He told DailyMail.com that '"Torchbearer" is a war film. It's meant to shock, to disturb, to wake people from their sleep.'
'I admire Phil for having the guts to make this film because payback against him, I'm sure, will be intense.'
Robertson knows about payback.
He became a one-man lightning rod in 2013 after he told GQ magazine that homosexuality was sinful on the same level as bestiality.
The voices calling for his head were so loud that A&E network suspended him from his own show.
Robertson said Monday that he expects 'Torchbearer' to gin up the same kind of backlash.
'Insults, persecution, shunning, all those things come on such a regular basis from so many groups,' he said in response to a question about the gay-rights movement's view of him.
'Jesus warned his disciples, "Look, they will hate you. They will mistreat you. They will say all manner of mean things about you. Just rejoice and be glad.'
'To tell you the truth, it does not bother me one bit at all,' he said.
TENNESSEE: Robertson narrates part of the film from a judge's bench in the courthouse where the 'Scopes Monkey Trial' was held in 1925. He sees the epic clash between religion and science as a watershed event that began the movement to cast God out of the public square
NOT A FAN OF FRANCE: The 'Duck Commander' says the French Revolution was fought to preserve the rights of the state over its people, claims Robespierre's anti-religious fervor brought the slaughter of thousands
WHEN IN ROME: Robertson (center), shown with Bannon (left) and executive producer David Bossie (right), went on location to show sights where Nero and other emperors routinely slaughtered and maimed Christians in ancient Rome
The opening credits of 'Torchbearer' almost invite the next round of conflict that could turn Robertson into an even bigger Bible Belt cult hero.
They include former MSNBC commentator Toure blasting him for 'completely ignorant, dinosaur-age, kind of cro-magnon comments,' and an unnamed pundit pronouncing him a 'sweaty-toothed madman' who 'looks like a homeless lunatic who might shoot you.'
But Robertson looks positively angelic next to those stomach-turning ISIS killing scenes. In one, a helpless man is crushed under the treads of a tank.
'We had to show their barbaric nature. We just had to. Americans need to know what we're up against,' said Bossie, the Citizens United honcho whose film studio division has produced more than two dozen feature-length documentaries in the last 12 years.
The High Court of Australia will announce this week whether it will allow an appeal to reinstate Gerard Baden-Clay's murder charge.
Last year Baden-Clay, who is convicted over the death of his wife Allison, had his murder charge downgraded to manslaughter.
On Thursday the high court will decide whether the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions will be allowed to appeal the downgraded conviction to be reinstated as murder.
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This week the High Court of Australia will decide whether the Queensland Department of Prosecution will be allowed to appeal to have Gerard Baden-Clay's (left) murder charge reinstated over the death of his wife Allison (right)
Last year Baden-Clay (pictured) has his murder conviction downgraded to manslaughter
The court will hand down one of three decisions in open court.
It will either grant special leave to hear the appeal or refer to the full bench to hear it, refuse the application or ask for further oral submissions before it makes its decision.
The DPP applied for special leave to appeal Baden-Clay's manslaughter conviction, after community outrage over his reduced culpability in the death of his wife Allison in April 2012.
Allison was found on a creek bank 10 days after her husband reported her missing
Her body was found on April 30, 2012 after she disappeared from her Brookfield home in Queensland
Baden-Clay was convicted of her murder in 2014, but that was downgraded to manslaughter last year by the Queensland Court of Appeal after his lawyers argued he could have unintentionally killed his wife.
The appeals court ruled it could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt that Baden-Clay intended to kill Allison.
After spending $400 on a suit and weeks practicing dancing, a special needs student didn't attend his high school prom because his date - his 24-year-old sister - was turned away at the door.
Jayce Whisenhunt, 19, was devastated after his sister Jessica Helling was told she exceeded the age limit set at 20 to attend prom at Montgomery Central High School in Clarkesville, Tennessee.
Whisenhunt, who has autism, ADHD, and a learning disability, left the party in tears because he didn't want to stay without his sister.
Jayce Whisenhunt, 19, (right) was devastated after his sister Jessica Helling (left) was told she couldn't accompany her brother to prom at Montgomery Central High School in Clarkesville, Tennessee
The school district set the age limit to ensure the safety of the students, and guests who are 19 or 20 are subjected to background checks before they are allowed to attend, according to News2
Jayce, who attends a program at an off-site location separate from the high school, told News2: 'I asked her because I dont have anybody else for a friend, nobody else to hang out with.'
Helling, who graduated from the same high school, said she was honored to accompany her younger brother, and spent the whole day making him feel special.
According to the GoFundMe page, their father made sure they had flowers, and the siblings went out to dinner and took photos together before the big event.
'It was heartbreaking. It took everything for me not to bawl and squall crying because he had looked forward to it,' she told the local news channel.
The school district set the age limit to ensure the safety of the students, and guests who are 19 or 20 are subjected to background checks before they are allowed to attend, according to News2.
But the student's father Tone Whisenhunt was upset by the way his son was treated and choked back tears when he told WSMV: 'Your kids have one prom and he didnt even get to go to it.
'Thats what upsets me the most.'
Whisenhunt, who has autism, ADHD, and a learning disability, left the party in tears because he didn't want to stay without his sister
Tone told ClarkesvilleNow.com: 'I just think they should have some kind of an exception for special needs kids when it comes to their prom.
'Where was the protection when he was getting bullied all through school, but they want to protect him at a prom?'
Montgomery County school district spokesperson Elise Shelton said a copy of the rules was sent home, and that an exception could have been made if it had been planned beforehand.
But Whisenhunt has another chance to live it up, after the community caught wind of the story and decided to throw him another prom.
Held on June 10, Helling is already invited as prom queen, and the event will include a limo, dinner, DJ and red carpet. A GoFundMe page has been created to raise money for the party.
Father Tone Whisenhunt (right) said: 'Where was the protection when he was getting bullied all through school, but they want to protect him at a prom?'
Montgomery County school district spokesperson Elise Shelton said a copy of the rules was sent home, and that an exceptions could have been made if it had been planned beforehand
A broker, who had an affair with her billionaire client and was fired by Morgan Stanley after his widow complained that she had taken advantage of him claims she was wrongly terminated.
Ami Forte handled the investments of Roy Speer, the co-founder of Home Shopping Network and a Florida billionaire once listed on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.
She made tens of millions buying and selling on his behalf.
Because of her expertise in handling Speer's assets and other top-flight accounts worth $2 billion, she became a managing director and one of the few female members of Morgan Stanley's Chairman's Club, which was reserved for its top wealth-management advisers.
Ami Forte (right), a former broker at Morgan Stanley who had an affair with her client, Roy Speer (left), is challenging her firing, saying the bank knew about the relationship and all trades were above-board
She was also well known around her home near Tampa, serving on several boards and was once named 'Businesswoman of the Year' by the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
But there was something else between Forte and Speer: a years-long love affair - and after Speer died in 2012, things got messy, with his widow alleging that Forte and Morgan Stanley took advantage of him in his later years to earn millions in commissions.
Forte was fired, and she is now fighting back by filing an arbitration case against Morgan Stanley challenging that decision.
'I cared deeply for this person,' Forte said, during an exclusive interview with The Associated Press on Monday.
'The type of relationship we had changed over the years. We were very, very dear friends. It changed to a very dear friendship, there was a time when it was more than that.'
After Speer's death, his widow gained control of her husband's brokerage account and alleged that Morgan Stanley, through Forte, put through approximately 12,000 unauthorized trades in Mr. Speer's accounts, generating commissions of nearly $40 million.
Lynnda Speer filed suit with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, saying Forte and Morgan Stanley 'took advantage' of the elderly man, who died when he was 80.
Speer was the co-founder of Home Shopping Network (above, file photo) and a Florida billionaire once listed on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans
A three-person arbitration panel ruled in March that Morgan Stanley, Forte and a Morgan Stanley branch manager were guilty of elder exploitation, breach of fiduciary duty, constructive fraud, unauthorized trading and churning Roy Speer's accounts, along with negligence, negligent supervision and unjust enrichment.
The panel awarded Lynnda Speer $32.8 million, plus costs and legal fees likely to be several million dollars more.
Forte and another broker who worked with her were fired days later. She'd worked at Morgan Stanley for 16 years and her dismissal prevented her from receiving millions in deferred compensation and other benefits, she said.
Now Forte, who lives in Pinellas County, Florida, has struck back.
She has filed a multi-million dollar securities arbitration case before FINRA against Morgan Stanley and its subsidiaries, saying the company unjustly fired and penalized her. She says the basis for the arbitrator's decision was Morgan Stanley's conduct after she was no longer managing the Speer investment accounts.
'It's just not right,' Forte said. 'I have been a loyal employee, I loved that company. I've done everything for them. When times were tough, I rallied the troops.'
Forte, who was divorced when she met Speer, insists that her relationship with him wasn't manipulative.
Forte (above) and Speer had a years-long love affair - and after he died in 2012, his widow alleging that Forte and Morgan Stanley took advantage of him in his later years to earn millions
According to documents filed by Forte's attorney, Speer had been estranged from his wife for years. Forte and Speer began a relationship about eight months after meeting in 1999, she said.
'There were many, many people in Morgan Stanley who very much knew about that relationship for years and years and years,' Forte said.
Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
Forte questions whether she would have been fired had she been a male broker.
Speer visited the Morgan Stanley office several times a week, said Forte and her lawyer, Robert Pearl.
'Mr. Speer had no problem disagreeing with those around him, including the people at Morgan Stanley who serviced his accounts, when he felt it appropriate,' wrote a Morgan Stanley attorney in an arbitration document.
'He was not a person who was manipulated into doing anything he did not want to do.'
Pearl adds that there was no industry rule - or Morgan Stanley policy - that prohibited a relationship between a broker and a customer.
'He was my mentor, I looked up to him. He was an absolutely brilliant man. We were dear friends until the end,' said Forte, who added that she 'put distance' between herself and Speer in 2007, and assigned his accounts to others in her office.
Speer, who in 1982 co-founded the Home Shopping Club, which became the Home Shopping Network in 1985, was a 'remarkably sophisticated and controlling businessman' who had an active and risky investment strategy seeking above-market returns.
He was provided with detailed written summaries of his investments and maintained them in a notebook that he monitored daily, said court records, which also showed that Speer made a net gain of $24 million on his Morgan Stanley investments.
'Consequently, this dispute is not an attempt to recover losses, but rather is Claimants' attempts to recover commissions and other expenses that Mr. Speer paid in connection with the highly profitable investments he pursued,' the records say.
Regulators held dozens of hearings when Mrs. Speer brought the suit, which originally sought $400 million.
She'd sought damages from trading activity prior to 2009, but Roy Speer's account records prior to then had been damaged while in storage or destroyed, according to court documents. That prevented the panel awarding any larger amount.
Records show Mrs. Speer didn't voice any concerns while her husband was alive.
'My client was married to Mr. Speer for 52 years,' said Guy Burns, the attorney for Lynnda Speer.
'During that time he kept his business affairs separate from hers and from her. She was not allowed to have any information about any of his business affairs.
It is the focus of a breeding program at a s
While most people are familiar with kangaroos, an extremely vulnerable and unusual species that resembles a rat with large feet and short arms is making a comeback.
The bettong, which appears to be a cross-breed between a rat and a kangaroo, are the focus of a breeding program at the Secret Creek Sanctuary in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
Pictures of the small kangaroo-like animal with a thick curled tail emerged this week after a young bettong was left by his mother inside the sanctuary and cared for by staff members.
The bettong, (pictured) which appears to be a cross-breed between a rat and a kangaroo, are the focus of a breeding program at the Secret Creek Sanctuary in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney
Pictures of the small kangaroo-like animal with a thick curled tail emerged this week after a young bettong was left by his mother inside the sanctuary and cared for by staff members (pictured)
Theyre a really interesting species because they have a tail like a monkey that they can curl up, Secret Creek Sanctuary co-founder Trevor Evans told Daily Mail Australia.
They gather up all the grass in a little ball and hop on it and pick it up with their tail and carry their own nesting material and build a bottle shape in the grass,
The species is vulnerable mainly to foxes and cats and a few small populations can be found in northern NSW or Queensland, Mr Evans said.
The species is vulnerable mainly to foxes and cats and a few small populations can be found in northern NSW or Queensland
The species thrives in areas with a large dingo population because they protect the small furry creatures from foxes and cats
In the past 10 to 12 years, the sanctuarys breeding program has bred about 100 bettongs and sent them to other sanctuaries to continue efforts to increase the population, he said.
The species thrives in areas with a large dingo population because they protect the small furry creatures from foxes and cats.
[The species] lived with dingoes for thousands of years and survived with them, Mr Evans said.
If many of the existing populations were not protected by sanctuaries, they wouldn't survive, he said.
Two-page report stated flying home placed him at risk of 'heart failure'
Six weeks earlier Cardinal Pell claimed he was 'too ill' to return to Australia
Cardinal George Pell risked a heart attack if he flew home to Australia to face questioning at the Child Abuse Royal Commission earlier this year but that hasn't stopped him tucking into hearty meals of steak and chips.
Australia's most senior Catholic has been pictured strolling through Piazza Navona in Rome with a colleague before they sit down at the Domiziano restaurant to enjoy a beer.
Cardinal Pell, 74, submitted a two-page medical report in February which stated a flight to Australia to give evidence would severely impact his health and possibly lead to 'heart failure'.
He was allowed to provide testimony via video link and concluded his evidence on March 3. The images of Pell eating the heavy meal and drinking a beer were taken six weeks later, on April 18.
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Cardinal Pell pictured enjoying meal of steak and chips in Rome Australia's most senior Catholic washed down his food with a tall glass of beer. He was excused from returning to Australia to give evidence because he a health report suggested he was 'at risk of heart failure'
Cardinal George Pell insisted he was 'too ill' to fly home to Australia earlier this year to face questioning at the Child Abuse Royal Commission. He was pictured at the Caffe Domiziano Restaurant, Piazza Navona, Rome
Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal Pell has been pictured strolling through a piazza in Rome with a colleague before they sit down at a restaurant to enjoy a beer
Cardinal Pell seemed to be in good spirits during a lunch at a restaurant at a piazza in Rome
Cardinal Pell, 74, submitted a two-page medical report in February which stated a flight to Australia to give evidence would severely impact his health and was allowed to do so via video link
Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, has been pictured strolling through a piazza in Rome
Despite being grilled over several days in February and March Cardinal Pell, who is considered the number three in the Vatican and in charge of the organisation's finances, has always maintained his innocence and refused to resign.
He has been under fire since allegations emerged about him allegedly turning a blind eye to the abuse of children by members of the clergy in Ballarat, in central Victoria.
Cardinal Pell was questioned by the abuse royal commission over pedophile priests in the Ballarat and Melbourne dioceses when he was serving there in the 1970s and 80s.
He said he regretted putting the church before victims in the past but he had never put himself before either.
Cardinal Pell was questioned over Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale, who was jailed on pedophile charges in 1994, and other pedophile priests in the Ballarat and Melbourne dioceses.
While acknowledging that his denials of a cover-up angered abuse victims who said he must have known, he said he regretted putting the church before victims in the past but he had never put himself before either.
Cardinal George Pell tucks into steak and chips and washes it down with beer - but he was 'too ill' to travel home to Australia to face grilling over church child sex abuse scandal
Cardinal George Pell insisted he was 'too ill' to fly home to Australia earlier this year to face questioning at the Child Abuse Royal Commission but that hasn't stopped him tucking into hearty meals of steak and chips
Cardinal Pell spent four days giving evidence to the Royal Commission (left) said Gerald Ridsdale (right) was undoubtedly a capable man and was not someone people complained about to him at the time
Catholic priest Gerald Ridsdale, who was jailed on pedophile charges in 1994
He said the reason he sometimes came across as 'wooden' and 'armour-plated' was partly to do with how he'd been trained, partly to do with his personality and partly to do with 'needing to survive'.
Cardinal Pell said at the time the 'evil, insensitive stereotype' being pushed by the media was incorrect.
'It's very, very difficult and upsetting. There's no way around it and I've tried to put out the truth,' he said.
Cardinal Pell described claims that Victoria Police had also been investigating him over alleged abuse as 'extraordinary and completely false'.
He said he had not been approached by police.
He has always steadfastly refused to resign from his high-ranking position.
'I wouldn't resign as that would be taken as an admission of guilt,' Cardinal Pell said.
Cardinal Pell said he was in Rome trying to do with Vatican finances what he did to clean up pedophilia in Melbourne.
Cardinal George Pell (C) speaks at the end of a meeting with the sex abuse victims in Rome in March
Cardinal Pell leaves the Quirinale hotel after meeting the relatives and victims of sex abuse
He denies starting the fire for an insurance payout at NSW Supreme Court
Khan claims robbers who 'tied him up and blindfolded him' started it
Chris Noble, Bianka O'Brien and her baby son Jude died in the blaze
Adeel Khan accused of starting fire at his store in Rozelle, Sydney, in 2014
A convenience store owner blamed for a fire which killed a mother, baby and 27-year-old man living in the units above his shop has 'categorically' denied starting the blaze, claiming it was instead the handiwork of three 'criminals' who blindfolded him.
Adeel Khan is accused of murdering Chris Noble, Bianka O'Brien and her 11-month-old son by starting the fire in his store in Rozelle, Sydney, in September 4 2014.
The 44-year-old denies the charges, dismissing allegations he was financially struggling at the time.
On Tuesday his lawyers told the New South Wales Supreme Court that he was working at the store until closing time when three men tied him up and blindfolded him before dousing the place in petrol.
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Adeel Khan (seen above being escorted to a prison van on Monday) denies starting a fire in his Sydney convenience store which killed three people living in the units above
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that he believed the men were customers before they 'held him against his will'.
'Men he thought were customers entered the store but they were people with criminal intentions.
'He was robbed, threatened and held against his will,' his barrister, Luke Brasch, told the court.
He was discovered by emergency services in the early hours of the morning lying beneath the rubble of the building having been unable to escape the fire.
Mr Brasch denied the prosecution's suggestion that his client may have started the fire for financial gain, dismissing speculation he was almost $400,000 in debt at the time.
The blaze obliterated the convenience store and surrounding building, forcing emergency crews to search through the debris 'brick-by-brick'(above)
Chris Noble (pictured) sent a text message to his mother to tell her she loved him shortly before his death
Bianka O'Brien and her son Jude were also killed in the fire. Emergency services found the mother lying across her baby's body to try to protect him from the flames
'It is very much in issue that the accused was under such financial stress that would provide motive for him to destroy his business,' he said.
The prosecution also told the jury they would be given the option to consider an alternative charge of manslaughter instead of murder.
On Monday the court was told how he was likely to have known there were people sleeping above the store when he set fire to it.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC argued he was motivated to start the blaze in the hope of receiving an insurance payout and being able to cut his lease short amid financial strife.
'The accused was so intent on meeting his own needs and his desire to free himself from the lease obligations and repay his debts, he was prepared to put at serious risk the lives of any other people who happened to be in the vicinity,' he told the court.
Khan's wife arrives at The NSW Supreme Court to hear is first day of evidence on Tuesday (above)
Chris Nobles parents Liz and Ross (centre) arrived with family for the second day of the trial on Tuesday
According to The Daily Telegraph, the court heard he owed $373,000 to 'various financial institutions' and $13,000 in outstanding bills.
The court heard he had increased the shop's insurance to the value of $225,000 in the weeks before the fire.
Relatives of those killed in the fire wept as they heard how Bianka O'Brien, a 31-year-old mother, lay across her baby's body to try to protect him from the flames when she died.
Chris Noble, her 27-year-old neighbour, also died in the fire. The court heard how he sent his mother a text message to tell her he loved her.
Mrs O'Brien's husband John arrived wearing sunglasses and clutching a coffee to hear Khan's evidence
The fire caused an explosion which destroyed the building, leaving the residents upstairs unable tp escape.
'He obviously knew he was trapped and was going to die, because in the few seconds before he was killed ... he sent a text message to his mother saying, "I love you"' Mr Tedeschi said.
Khan denies three counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and three counts of manslaughter.
The trial continues.
Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to end crime in his first six months in office through mass executions of convicts and eliminating police corruption.
Duterte, 71, mayor of the southern city of Davao, won a landslide victory in Monday's election after captivating Filipinos with profanity-laced vows of brutal but quick solutions to crime and poverty.
While the official result is not expected until next week, a preliminary count has awarded Duterte nearly 40 per cent of the votes in Monday's election.
Winner: Controversial presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, 71, is set to be announced as the new President of the Philippines after securing nearly 40 per cent of the vote
'It's with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people,' the President-to-be said on Tuesday morning as the first results came in.
Duterte, whose campaigning style has drawn comparisons with U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, added that he 'feel a sense of gratitude to the Filipino people'.
Duterte vowed to push through on the central plank of his campaign platform: ending crime across the nation within six months and eliminating corruption.
While on the campaign trail, the elderly politician enraged critics and hypnotised fans with promises to ignore human rights laws and solve crime by killing tens of thousands of convicts.
On Tuesday, Duterte said a law-and-order crackdown that particularly targeted drugs would be one of his top priorities when he became president, and he was prepared to kill.
Wonder who he voted for: Duterte, whose solution to crime while Mayor of Davao reportedly saw him run vigilante death squads, casts his vote on Monday
Victorious: While the results has yet to be officially announced, Duterte's rivals have both conceded
'I will do it (fight drugs), even if they say I am an executioner,' said Duterte, who as Mayor of Davao has been accused of running vigilante death squads that have killed more than 1,000 people.
'Look what I did to Davao. I will not let down the people.'
Duterte, who on the campaign trail boasted of being behind the death squads, also had a warning for corrupt police.
'If you are a policeman and stick to your racket, choose: either you kill me or I kill you,' he said.
Speaking after his rivals conceded, Duterte also offered an olive branch to his rivals following a deeply divisive campaign that had seen President Benigno Aquino brand him a dictator in the making who would bring terror to the nation.
'I want to reach out my hand and let us begin the healing now,' said
The election commission was not expected to officially proclaim Duterte as the winner of Monday's vote for more than a week.
However it had authorised the PPCRV, a Catholic Church-run poll monitor, to tally the votes, and they showed on Tuesday morning with 91 percent of the total counted that Duterte could not lose.
Duterte had 38.68 percent of the vote, with administration candidate Mar Roxas on 23.32 percent and Senator Grace Poe in third with 21.66 percent, according to PPCRV.
Presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe conceded as the ongoing tally placed her third with 21,87 per cent
Local newspapers report on the Philippines presidential frontrunner and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte the morning after the election
In the Philippines, a winner is decided simply by whoever gets the most votes. The next president will be sworn in on June 30.
Poe conceded just after midnight on Tuesday, and Roxas followed just after lunch.
'It is clear Mayor Duterte will be the next president,' Roxas told supporters. 'I wish you success.'
Duterte had during the campaign dominated local media coverage and generated international headlines with relentless gutter talk, including branding the pope a 'son of a whore'.
He also boasted repeatedly about his Viagra-fuelled affairs.
Duterte caused further disgust in international diplomatic circles with a joke that he wanted to rape a 'beautiful' Australian missionary who was killed in a 1989 Philippine prison riot.
Duterte was enraged by the reaction to the rape comments, which included criticism from the US and Australian ambassadors, insisting they were taken out of context.
He said on Tuesday it would be up to them to repair relations with him, while also indicating he was prepared to hold direct talks with China over a highly sensitive territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
Analysts said Duterte was expected to moderate his inflammatory comments and he was unlikely to orchestrate his promised massive killing spree against suspected criminals.
'Extrajudicial killings and forgetting human rights, he cannot do that because it will create more instability and chaos, which is what he wants to prevent,' Earl Parreno, an analyst from the Manila-based Institute for Political and Economic Reform, told AFP.
Ted Cruz might be out of the race for the White House but he's still hoping to influence the Republican National Convention this July.
With the help of the Cruz campaigns former 'delegate wrangler' and former attorney general of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli, the Texas senator is determined not to see his party's values changed by the presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
In an email sent to pro-Cruz convention delegates on Sunday, Cuccinelli wrote that 'it is imperative that we fill the Rules and Platform Committees with strong conservative voices'.
Even though Ted Cruz is out of the race for the presidency, he is still hoping his delegates will have an influence at the Republican National Convention in July
The partys convention rules and policy platform are determined by a select group of delegates at the RNC who form temporary committees every four years, according to the New York Times.
All delegates then either agree upon or reject the rules and platform at the convention.
Cruz is planning a Monday night conference call, according to Cuccinelli's email, to discuss how the party can resist 'liberal' changes to the party's platform.
The campaign, and other conservatives, are worried about what changes Trump will bring to the Republican party's platform and general election agenda.
Trump has implied he is open to higher taxes and an increase in the minimum wage in a charge to beat Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.
In an email penned by Ken Cuccinelli (pictured), the former 'delegate wrangler' for the Cruz campaign urged Cruz supporters to make their 'strong conservative voices' heard when the RNC crafts its rules and policies
The fallen Cruz campaign said they are not trying to oust Trump from the nomination but are trying keep the party's values from becoming more 'liberal' as they are not sure what the Donald's agenda will entail
Because Cruz planned on having a contested convention he spent recent months electing delegates that would favor him at the RNC.
These delegates are free to vote how they please on convention rules and the platform, although many will still likely side with Trump.
Cuccinelli said Cruz will not try to find a loop hole in the convention rules to oust Trump of the nomination, the New York Times reported.
'Its important that this not appear as though we are pulling a stunt at this convention. This is about protecting movement conservatism,' Cuccinelli said.
Cuccinellis has asked the delegates to listen to Cruz's plea to hold on to conservative values as the campaign's supporters debate if they should back Trump.
Trump's supportive comments regarding transgender people's right to use the bathroom of their choice, his positive comments about Planned Parenthood and previous support for abortion rights have made conservatives nervous about his values.
'One of the things thats going to be required for people like me to be supportive of his candidacy is the platform,' said Tony Perkins, one of the platform committee members from Louisiana and the president of the influential Family Research Council, said.
Perkins, who was a Cruz supporter, said he will not tolerate any softening on the issues.
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese 'openly defied' Mr Shorten after being reluctant to say whether Labor was on a unity ticket with coalition
Labor candidate Sophie Ismail said turnbacks 'shouldn't be on the table'
According to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, Labor is 'divided' on issue
On first campaign day, Mr Shorten said turning back boats was an 'option'
Bill Shorten has insisted his party is united on asylum-seeker policy
Opposition leader Bill Shorten has insisted his party is united on asylum-seeker policy, despite a Labor candidate likening the government's current approach to German Neo-Nazism.
On Monday, Mr Shorten was forced to bat away claims of internal disunity, insisting Labor would be humane on asylum seekers but tough on people smugglers and defended his party policy which backed boat turnbacks as an 'option'.
But according to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Labor was 'divided on border protection,' after Labor candidate for Melbourne Sophie Ismail told Fairfax Media she did not believe turnbacks 'should be on the table'.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten (pictured) has insisted his party is united on asylum-seeker policy, despite a Labor candidate likening the government's current approach to German Neo-Nazism
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, who argued against turnbacks in 2015, said he would not condemn candidates for putting forward their personal views.
'They are entitled to do so,' he said
Mr Dutton is demanding Mr Shorten discipline the Labor frontbencher for 'openly defying' the opposition leader on what's supposed to be a bipartisan policy.
'If he can't govern them in opposition how on earth is he going to govern them in government?' Mr Dutton told Alan Jones on radio 2GB.
'This is the problem that Labor's got ... in opposition they promise they'll stop the boats and in government they undo the policies because of internal pressures.'
Mr Albanese, in an interview with the ABC's Lateline program, was also reluctant to say whether Labor was on a unity ticket with the coalition.
Mr Dutton is demanding Mr Shorten discliplne Anthony Albanese for 'openly defying' the opposition leader on what's supposed to be a bipartisan policy
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese, who argued against turnbacks in 2015, said he would not condemn candidates for putting forward their personal views
Another Labor candidate Cathy O'Toole was photographed holding a sign reading: 'Let them stay' at a protest outside the office of Coalition MP Ewen Jones
Last month, Labor candidate for Higgins in Melbourne, Carl Katter (pictured), retweeted that the German Neo-Nazi party greatly endorsed the government's current asylum seeker policy
Last month, Labor candidate for Higgins in Melbourne, Carl Katter, retweeted that the German Neo-Nazi party greatly endorsed the government's current asylum seeker policy, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Another Labor candidate Cathy O'Toole was photographed holding a sign reading: 'Let them stay' at a protest outside the office of Coalition MP Ewen Jones.
Ms O'Toole said she supported Labor's asylum seeker policy, but would not use the words 'boat turnbacks,' according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
'I support the Labor policy which says we will not be allowing people to put their lives at risk, to be exploited and to come to this country when we can make an alternative arrangement for them,' she said.
Mr Shorten said his party's asylum-seeker policy was clear.
'We will not put the people smugglers back into business, we will not allow policy which sees the mass drowning of vulnerable people seeking to come to this country,' he said.
But according to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Labor was 'divided on border protection,' after Labor candidate for Melbourne Sophie Ismail (pictured) told Fairfax Media she did not believe turnbacks 'should be on the table'
Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek suggested the turnback option was a last resort Labor would use if necessary in government
According to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Labor was 'divided on border protection'
'When it comes to unity, we've had our debates, we've set our course and we are absolutely committed to stopping people smugglers getting back into business'.
Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek suggested the turnback option was a last resort Labor would use if necessary in government.
'It's something we hope we'll never have to do but we have to have it in our policy in case it's necessary,' she told ABC radio.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen admitted not everyone within Labor supported boat turnbacks but the opposition was 'completely unanimous' in its position.
Ash wears a special dog life jacket m in case she goes under water
Ash's owner Paul Novotny says she shares the family's love of the water
A dog is making waves on Australia's beaches after learning how to surf.
Ash, a three-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier, can often be seen riding the waves at Cronulla Beach, near Sydney, along with her owner Paul Novotny.
Mr Novotny, a firefighter, from Wooloware, New South Wales, says the whole family shares Ash's love of the water.
'While watching myself and the kids surf it wasn't long till Ash gave it ago herself and started carving up the waves, from then she has not looked back and we can't get her out.'
Paul and wife Irene have three children, son Jay, 14, and daughters Sami, 12, and 10-year-old Ally.
Ash is a three-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier and can often be seen riding the waves at Cronulla Beach
After watching Paul and the kids surfing it wasn't long until Ash gave it ago herself and started riding the waves
Ash loves the water just like her family, Paul and wife Irene and their three children, Jay, Sami and Ally
Ash is a popular sight at Cronulla beach with onlookers cheering when she dismounts onto the sand
Mr Novotny adds that the surfing dog is a popular sight now on Cronulla beach.
'Whenever Ash hits the waves there are always onlookers on the water's edge with their phones out taking pictures and videos. They cheer her on especially when she does a perfect dismount onto the sand.'
However, Mr Novotny says that while the three-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier is not afraid of the water, he makes sure he takes precautions to keep her safe.
'We will not put Ash out in surf if I can't have my feet on a sand bank so I can help her over the waves,' he said.
'If the surf's too big she also will sit it out, but it doesn't stop her from having fun on the water's edge.'
While Ash is a good swimmer, according to Mr Novotny, he makes sure she wears a special life jacket made just for dogs in case she goes under.
Mr Novotny (pictured) says that while the three-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier is not afraid of the water, he makes sure he takes precautions to keep her safe
If the waves are too big Ash will sit the surfing out, but it doesn't stop her from having fun on the water's edge
A man is claiming that hospital maternity staff left his wife sitting in a pool of her own blood for over an hour after she gave birth to their daughter late last month.
Tip Kilby lost about a litre of blood while she gave birth to the couples first child, Sophia, at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children in Canberra in April, her husband Matthew Kilby told Daily Mail Australia.
But moments after their daughter was placed on the new mums chest, Mr Kilby said the hospital staff dispersed and no one changed the blood-drenched sheet his wife was still laying on.
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Maternity staff at Centenary Hospital for Women and Children in Canberra left Tip Kilby sitting in a pool of her own blood after she gave birth to her daughter, Sophia, in April, her husband claims (pictured)
Mr Kilby claims his wife lost about a litre of blood while she gave birth to the couples first child. He says the placenta was left sitting on a table after the 18-hour labour
She lost a litre of blood, and not even anyone popped their head in to check on us, Mr Kilby said.
His wifes 18-hour labour was hard to watch and the couple were left sitting there after with the placenta left sitting on the table, Mr Kilby claims.
The new father took a picture of his wife holding their daughter, in which you can see the childs feet dangling in the blood-soaked sheets covering the hospital bed.
Tip was so worn out she was just lying there with the baby on her chest, he said.
Mr Kilby said he does not blame the staff but said the oversight was the fault of the health system.
It's not the nurses fault they're so overworked and it's so understaffed, he said.
It is not the first time Centenary Hospital (pictured) has come under fire. In 2013, a review found that the hospital was not coping with the increase in births and demand for services
Tip was so worn out she was just lying there with the baby on her chest, said Mr Kilby
After a drawn-out pregnancy, Ms Kilby was able to hold her newborn baby daughter in a fresh set of sheets
Footage obtained by Daily Mail Australia directly after the dramatic birth reveals the extent of Ms Kilby's blood loss, panning across pools of red liquid on the hospital bed and floor.
It is not the first time Centenary Hospital has come under fire.
In 2014, the hospitals accreditation was at risk after reports that there was a toxic atmosphere and bullying in the maternity department, according to ABC.
The previous year a review found that the hospital was not coping with the increase in births and demand for services.
Centenary Hospital did not return calls for comment.
In footage obtained by Daily Mail Australia, blood-soaked sheets can be seen lying on the hospital floor
Joe and Jill Biden enjoyed a dinner date Monday night in New York City - about a year before their 40th anniversary.
They were seen getting out of Ralph Lauren's Polo Bar, located just a block away from the Trump Tower in Midtown, in the evening.
The vice-president wore a dark suit and tie, going above and beyond the restaurant's dress code.
Instructions listed on the Polo Bar's website say jackets are recommended for men, but not required.
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Joe and Jill Biden (pictured) were seen getting out of Ralph Lauren's Polo Bar, located just a block away from the Trump Tower in Midtown, on Monday evening
But Biden went all out and looked put together as he waved at an onlooker outside the restaurant.
His wife chose an elegant outfit for this warm spring date and paired her hot pink dress with a white jacket and grey stilettos.
Their security detail could be seen scanning various people with metal detectors before allowing them to go inside during the Bidens' date.
The couple got married in June 1977 and will soon celebrate four decades together.
The Polo Bar, Lauren's third restaurant in addition to RL Restaurant in Chicago and Ralph's in Paris, opened in 2015.
RL Restaurant was his first restaurant in 1999, followed by Ralph's in 2010.
Rihanna, Naomi Campbell, Barbara Walters and Chris Hemsworth are among many celebrities who have stopped by the Polo Bar.
The vice-president wore a dark suit and tie, going above and beyond the restaurant's dress code. The Polo Bar says jackets are recommended for men, but not required
Meanwhile his wife looked elegant on this warm spring evening in a hot pink dress, which she paired with a white jacket and grey stilettos
The couple got married in June 1977 and will soon celebrate four decades together. Their pick for Monday's dinner was Ralph Lauren's first restaurant in New York City, which opened in early 2015
Gilbert Courts, 57, was arrested Friday for allegedly stealing toilet parts from Columbus restaurants
A man dubbed the 'bathroom bandit' by Columbus police was arrested Friday for allegedly picking apart toilets to sell the parts for scrap to support a drug habit.
Police arrested Gilbert Duwayne Courts, 57, after investigators received tips from the public.
Cops went online to post stills from surveillance cameras showing Courts walking out of multiple local establishments with a backpack in which police said he carried urinal parts.
Courts allegedly targeted eight restaurants and stores from mid to late April, walking into the men's restrooms to quickly dismantle toilets and urinals.
On April 27, Courts allegedly carried out heists against four different McDonald's locations and one Taco Bell restaurant, 10TV reported.
The suspected vandal's choice of target tickled pun-loving public information officers with the Columbus Division of Police, who wrote in a Facebook post: 'The suspect can't wash his hands of this crime, multiple felonies.'
Courts was charged with 12 counts of burglary and 12 counts of vandalism. A Columbus burglary detective claimed Courts committed the crimes to raise money for buying narcotics.
This picture released by Columbus police shows a vandalized toilet - allegedly the work of Gilbert Courts
Accused 'burglar killer' Ben Batterham has left prison, saying he was very relieved to get out after spending 'a very tough' six weeks behind bars.
The 33-year-old was charged with the murder of convicted rapist Ricky Slater, 37, after he broke into Batterham's house in Newcastle, north of Sydney, on Easter Saturday and a fight ensued.
Batterham - who was granted bail at Newcastle Local Court earlier on Tuesday by Magistrate Robert Stone - has walked free from Cessnock prison at around 4.15pm.
Wearing a white t-shirt and sitting in the passenger seat of his lawyer Winston Terracini SC's Pajero as it rolled out through the prison gates, Batterham said in a soft voice: 'It's very good to be released'.
'I'm looking forward to seeing the kids, Monique and Charlie,' he said referring to his fiancee Monique Cameron and their eight month old daughter Charlie.
'Thanks to everyone for their support.'
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Accused 'burglar killer' Ben Batterham has left prison on Tuesday afternoon after he was granted bail
Accused 'burglar killer' Ben Batterham was granted bail at Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday after being charged with the murder of convicted rapist Ricky Slater on Easter Saturday
The 33-year-old was charged with the murder of convicted rapist Ricky Slater (pictured) after he broke into Batterham's house in Newcastle, north of Sydney, on Easter Saturday and a fight ensued
Batterham said the first thing he would do when he arrived at his home was to 'hold my daughter, just be with family. It's been a tough six weeks.'
Asked how his time in prison had been, he said ' very tough'.
Batterham will live at an undisclosed address while on bail and is believed to be returning to work as a chef at the exclusive Newcastle Club.
Earlier on Tuesday, dramatic scenes erupted inside court as the bail decision was read out with Slater's mother Beryl Dickson visibly upset as she screamed 'murder, murder'.
'He murdered my son and you are giving him bail. Look what you done. Murder, murder,' she screamed.
'Money can talk, they're rich.'
The 33-year-old man left Cessnock prison on Tuesday afternoon, saying he was very relieved to get out
Batterham said the first thing he would do when he arrived at his home was to 'hold my daughter Charlie'
Batterham will live at an undisclosed address while on bail and is believed to be returning to work as a chef
Magistrate Stone granted Batterham bail on conditions he not drink alcohol or take drugs and reside in an undisclosed location while awaiting trial for murder.
Batterham's lawyer, prominent Sydney barrister Winston Terracini, successfully applied for the 33-year-old chef's release on Tuesday.
The accused murderer appeared via audio visual link from Cessnock Correctional Centre.
Batterham, who looked down at his hands while the bail application was read out, was wearing a dark green prison issue sweatshirt.
In granting bail to Batterham with a $200,000 surety on his parents' home, Magistrate Stone said he did 'not agree with the Crown submission that this is a strong case' for murder.
There were emotional scenes inside court as the bail decision was read out with Slater's mother Beryl Dickson (pictured) visibly upset as she screamed 'murder, murder'
Ricky Slater allegedly broke into Batterham's house (pictured) and stole his partner's handbag from his seven month old daughter's room before being chased out down the street
Batterham sustained a facial wound (pictured) while falling in his pursuit of Slater who police allege stole a handbag from Batterham's infant daughter's bedroom
He said the combination of factors of 'a stranger found in your home with your partner's handbag' and standing 'in your child's nursery at 3am are in my opinion' reasons that could explain Batterham's response to Slater.
HOW THE INCIDENT UNFOLDED Slater broke into Batterham's home at about 3am on March 26 and stole a handbag from the nursery of Batterham's daughter. Police facts reveal Slater was armed with knives and had drugs in his possession. Batterham, who was celebrating birthday drinks with his friend Paul O'Keeffe, allegedly chased Slater from the house and down several streets. Police allege Batterham then tackled Slater on the ground, held him and punched him in the head. Slater was taken to hospital where his life support was switched off the following day. Batterham's charge of assault causing grievous bodily harm was upgraded to murder.
He said Batterham's 'aggression and anger' with Slater in the struggle that ensued 'may be explained by the accused'.
'It appears to be an immediate reaction to a stranger in his home.'
Batterham is to report daily to Newcastle Police and is not to leave NSW or apply for a passport.
The magistrate estimated it would take more than a year for the case to go to trial.
According to police facts, Slater broke into Batterham's home at about 3am on March 26 and stole a handbag from the nursery of Batterham's seven-month-old daughter.
Mr Terracini told the court last week that Slater was armed during the break in.
'What is relevant is that he did break in because there was personal property belonging to (Batterham's) wife.
'It was a home invasion. Secondly he (Slater) was found with weapons on him.'
Police facts seen by Daily Mail Australia reveal that at the time of the burglary and ensuing alleged fatal assault, Slater was carrying an arsenal of weapons and drugs, including three knives, Ecstasy tablets and three new iPhones.
The 37-year-old also had $570 in cash.
Batterham's lawyer, prominent Sydney barrister Winston Terracini (pictured), successfully applied for the 33-year-old chef's release on Tuesday
Slater's mother Beryl Dickson visibly upset outside Newcastle Local Court and ran from the complex in tears
Batterham, who was celebrating birthday drinks with his friend Paul O'Keeffe, allegedly chased Slater from the house and down several streets.
Police allege Batterham then tackled Slater on the ground, held him and punched him in the head.
Slater was taken to hospital where his life support was switched off the following day and Batterham's charge of assault causing grievous bodily harm was upgraded to murder.
Mr Terracini has told the court that the murder charge will likely be downgraded to manslaughter and that Batterham has a reasonable chance of acquittal.
Photographs and documents of the prosecutor's case obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Australia last week showed the injuries Batterham sustained in the Easter Saturday struggle.
Pictures show a facial wound caused by a fall during his 365 metre pursuit of Slater and bite marks inflicted by Slater before he lost consciousness.
Batterham can also be seen covered in scratches and abrasions, has severe bruising to his right cheekbone and a distinctive pair of teeth marks on the inside of his upper right arm.
Magistrate Stone granted Batterham (pictured) bail on conditions he not drink alcohol or take drugs and reside in an undisclosed location while awaiting trial for murder
Photographs and documents of the prosecutor's case obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Australia last week showed the injuries Batterham sustained in the Easter Saturday struggle
According to police facts, Slater (pictured) broke into Batterham's home at about 3am on March 26 and stole a handbag from the nursery of Batterham's seven-month-old daughter
Nicholas Morgan (pictured), from Felixstowe, Sussex, who changed his name prior to being jailed for possessing child abuse images just a year after he was sentenced under another identity
More than 800 sex offenders including rapists and paedophiles have changed their names by deed poll to disguise their criminal pasts.
One of their number was Nicholas Morgan, 46, from Felixstowe, Sussex, who changed his name prior to being jailed for possessing child abuse images in September 2015, just a year after he was sentenced under another identity.
The changes mean offenders are free to start new lives, without people finding out about their crimes.
But police will not reveal which names have been changed, with two forces claiming to do so would breach the perverts' human rights or data protection rules.
People on the sex offenders register must inform police within three days if they decide to use a a new name, and face five years in prison if they fail to do so.
However, the figures show the tactic is becoming increasingly popular as criminals attempt to begin new lives in unsuspecting communities.
According to a request under the Freedom of Information Act made by The Sun, 803 people on the sex offenders register have told police they have changed their names in the past five years.
Of these, there were 83 rapists, 126 offenders who had possessed or distributed child abuse images, 88 people convicted of indecent assault, and 44 convicted of sexual assault.
The force with the highest number of name changes was Nottinghamshire Police, with 149.
However, nationally the true figure could be far higher because only 18 out of the country's 45 forces responded to the request.
And many more criminals could be ignoring the law and using new identities the police know nothing about.
Three of the country's biggest forces, the Metropolitan Police, Greater Manchester Police and West Midlands Police said it would be too expensive for them to reveal the information
Three of the country's biggest forces, the Metropolitan Police, Greater Manchester Police and West Midlands Police said it would be too expensive for them to reveal the information.
Merseyside Police and Dyfed Powys Police said giving further details of the offenders would put their human rights at risk.
An NSPCC spokesman told MailOnline: 'These figures are deeply worrying and show the depths that devious offenders will plunge to hide their past.
'There must be tight monitoring in place to ensure children and families are protected from abusers who try to hide behind a new name.
'And parents must be able to find out if there is a threat to the community.'
The sex offenders register contains the details of any person who has been convicted, cautioned or released from prison for a sexual offence against children or adults since 1997.
They remain on the register for varying lengths of time, depending on the offence committed.
Roderick MacDonald, 77, (left) had changed his name from Robinson in 2012 and Matt Richards, 46, (right) was once known as Andrew Watt
The Home Office can refuse the right to issue a new identity to those who have signed the Sex Offenders' Register, but this restriction lapses once the offender is no longer on the register.
Morgan had changed his name from Nicholas Gregory after he was jailed for eight months at Ipswich Crown Court in 2013 for breaching a sexual offences prevention order made in 2010.
He was first convicted, under the name Gregory, in 2004 after having sex with a 13-year-old girl and jailed for five years.
He was jailed again last year after downloading child abuse images, and is thought to have been using a third identity.
In November last year, pensioner Roderick MacDonald, 77, was jailed for three years and eight months at Brighton Crown Court.
As Roderick Robinson he had received a suspended sentence in September 2012 for touching two young girls on a yacht but changed his name a month later and left the UK, breaching court orders by not informing police and his probation officers.
Richards, 46, (pictured) was jailed for 33 months for breaching the terms of his release having been previously jailed for sex offences against a 15-year-old girl in 2003
He had changed his name from Andrew Watt before beginning a year-long campaign to worm his way into and unsuspecting family in order to get closer to their young child
He was tracked down in October 2014 and sentenced to 18 months behind bars at a Maltese court after admitting importing and possessing indecent images of children.
On his return to the UK he was jailed for breaching the terms of his sex offender registration requirement and the previous suspended sentence.
And in June, hospital DJ Matt Richards, 46, was jailed for 33 months for breaching the terms of his release having been previously jailed for sex offences against a 15-year-old girl in 2003.
Last May, it was revealed that convicted rapist Mahmoud Al-Khouladi, 42, (pictured) had changed his name after his release from prison following a 13 year sentence and struck again
He had changed his name from Andrew Watt before beginning a year-long campaign to worm his way into an unsuspecting family in order to get closer to their young child.
The pervert's 'manipulative' methods were finally uncovered when the mother learned of his real identity and founds articles relating to his sordid criminal past.
Last May, it was revealed that convicted rapist Mahmoud Al-Khouladi, 42, had changed his name after his release from prison following a 13 year sentence and struck again - raping a woman in a churchyard in Didsbury.
Under the name Mahmoud Dadia he was jailed in 2002 after admitting rape, attempted rape and sexual assault for offences committed in Manchester and Eccles.
Tania Bassett from the probation officers' trade union Napo told MailOnline that it is up to the offender to inform authorities if they change their name, or other circumstances such as their address.
'There will be some who won't comply but generally most people on the register tend to be quite compliant,' she said. 'They will comply with the regulations and community orders.
'It's a very small number who don't, sometimes that might be down to the individual doing it deliberately or by mistake but the police will come down very strongly on those who don't inform them of a change of name or circumstances.'
Ms Bassett said instances of offenders changing their name by deed poll was still relatively uncommon, but tends to happen if a criminal may have found their name becoming widely known in the community or the media.
'I can understand why it's tempting if you're forced to return to an area where you name is public or in the paper,' she said. 'But it is quite a lengthy process to go through.'
'They will still be on the register, and police will be looking for them if they don't disclose the changes.'
A Home Office spokesman said: 'The UK has some of the toughest powers in the world to deal with sex offenders and we are committed to ensuring that the system is as robust as it can be.
Roman will be highest-ranking openly LGBT politician in the Philippines
49-year-old said 'politics of love, acceptance and respect' had triumphed
An election candidate in the Philippines has made history after becoming the first transgender politician to win a congressional seat in the country.
Geraldine Roman celebrated overcoming 'bigotry, hatred and discrimination' after her victory for a seat representing the farming province of Bataan just northwest of Manila.
The 49-year-old's triumph is being seen by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community as a source of hope in a country where Church influence means divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage are banned.
Transgender legislator candidate Geraldine Roman campaigns in a village in Orani town, Bataan province, north of Manila
'The politics of bigotry, hatred and discrimination did not triumph. What triumphed was the politics of love, acceptance and respect,' Roman said.
Roman, a Catholic, said she was looking forward to becoming a politician so she could respond to critics who dismissed her as a one-issue politician not to be taken seriously.
'I'm elated, very, very happy. I'm also excited to work. I realise that the burden is bigger because the stereotype of people about the LGBT is we are frivolous, that we have nothing substantial to say, so I have to prove them wrong,' she said.
Roman will be the highest-ranking openly LGBT politician in the Philippines, where other lawmakers have refused to come out for fear of losing support from the Catholic Church and other religious groups.
A political neophyte, Roman will succeed her mother as representative of Bataan, where her family has been a political force for three generations. Her mother had to stand down after serving the maximum number of three terms.
Geraldine Roman celebrated overcoming 'bigotry, hatred and discrimination' after her victory for a seat representing the farming province of Bataan just northwest of Manila
Roman's father was a former congressman whose death in 2014 prompted her to consider continuing the family legacy.
Political families dominate Philippine politics, from the local to the national level, and belonging to such a dynasty was widely regarded as being crucial to Roman's success.
Still the constituents of Bataan overwhelmingly endorsed Roman, with the vote count showing she had secured 62 percent support.
'She is also a human being. We all have rights. It's not an issue to me that she is transgender,' farmer Bern Salenga, 49, told AFP during a campaign sortie in Roman's home town before the election.
Roman will be the highest-ranking openly LGBT politician in the Philippines
Roman has been living as a woman for two decades, and proudly wore a pearl necklace and pink lipstick while campaigning.
She had a successful career as senior editor at the Spanish News Agency. She speaks Spanish, French and Italian and won a scholarship to study in Spain, where she met her partner of 18 years.
She underwent sex reassignment surgery, and legally changed her name and gender, in the 1990s - a recognition she wants other transgender people to have.
In 2001, a law was passed making it impossible for transgender Filipinos to change their name and sex.
Roman has vowed to campaign to lift those restrictions, and to push for an anti-discrimination bill that ensures equal treatment in the workplace, schools, commercial establishments and government offices.
Despite the focus on her gender, Roman said her priority was the people of Bataan, and to help more poor students nationwide get scholarships.
'Equality (is) not only in terms of gender but also in terms of socio-economic status. To be rich or poor should not matter. Whether educated or not, people should have the same opportunities so I'm going beyond gender to include more issues,' she said.
With her historic victory, Roman said she hoped more LGBT Filipinos would be inspired to join government.
Nearly a year after a shooting death along a San Francisco pier sparked a national debate on how the city handles criminal suspects in the country illegally, officials are considering a proposal that would clarify the guidelines under which federal deportation authorities could be contacted.
On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors are to vote on a proposal that directs law officers to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement only if the person detained is charged with a violent crime and has been convicted of a violent crime within the last seven years.
Current San Francisco law contains leeway for city employees to contact ICE when they encounter people who are living in the country illegally and not in jail. For those in custody, the previous sheriff, Ross Mirkarimi, required federal officials to get a warrant or court notice to hold an inmate facing possible deportation and forbade staff from talking to immigration authorities.
San Francisco supervisors will vote on a proposal to further tighten the city's sanctuary ordinance. This comes nearly a year after Kate Steinle (left) was shot by Francisco Sanchez (right), a Mexican national, who was in the country illegally, setting off a national debate over sanctuary protections
Father Cameron Faller, right, and Julio Escobar, of Restorative Justice Ministry, conduct a vigil for Steinle on Pier 14 in San Francisco (July 2015 file photo)
The new sheriff repealed the communication ban, but the San Francisco Sheriff's Department generally does not cooperate with ICE.
The vote comes after the shooting death of a 32-year-old woman walking along a San Francisco pier. Kate Steinle was shot by a Mexican national facing drug charges who had been released from San Francisco's jail despite a federal request to keep him in custody for deportation. The backlash against city leaders was fierce.
Republicans in Congress sought to punish cities like San Francisco, which is among hundreds of jurisdictions that decline to honor federal immigration requests, or 'detainers.' Even prominent Democrats, such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein, criticized Mirkarimi, saying repeat drug offender Juan Francisco Sanchez-Lopez should have been detained.
Supervisor John Avalos, the legislation's chief sponsor and longtime immigration advocate, said the ordinance reaffirms the message to immigrants that they won't be deported for reporting a crime or cooperating with police. 'We want to keep that clear separation,' he said.
Steinle was shot to death on a San Francisco pier. Authorities are seen in this file image taken from video
Sheriff Vicki Hennessy, who took office in January, opposes the legislation, saying that she should have discretion about when to notify federal immigration officials. As a constitutionally elected official, she doesn't have to follow board orders.
Under the proposed ordinance, Steinle's accused killer would still have been released from jail.
Would Sanchez-Lopez have been detained under the sheriff's new criteria? 'I'm not going to say with certainty, but what I can say with certainty is that he would have been looked at,' Hennessy said before the vote Tuesday.
Sanctuary-city critics continue to chastise San Francisco officials. But immigration advocates say a bright-line rule is needed to protect people such as Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno. The El Salvador native is in deportation proceedings after going to San Francisco police last year to report his car missing. He was in custody for two months.
'What happened to me was an injustice,' he said through an interpreter Monday. 'They unjustly deprived me of my liberties for two months.'
Detectives investigating the 1991 disappearance of Ben Needham are appealing for any young Greek men unsure of their parentage to come forward for voluntary DNA tests.
Ben was 21 months old when he vanished on the Greek island of Kos while on holiday with his mother and grandmother.
South Yorkshire Police has now offered a reward of 12,500 euros (9,800) and officers are handing out leaflets on the island in a fresh bid to obtain clues about the boy's disappearance.
It comes as it was revealed that Ben's grandmother was told he might have been taken from the island on a black speedboat.
Police are also looking into calls to a missing persons line in 1993 from an anonymous caller who claimed Ben was now known as 'Andreas' and was being cared for by a man named 'Nikos'.
Ben Needham (pictured) vanished while on holiday with his mother and grandparents on the island of Kos in 1991. He would be 26 now
Anguish: His mother Kerry has spoken previously of her anguish after her son
Detective Inspector Jon Cousins told a press conference in Kos on Tuesday they were following up 'specific intelligence'.
Det Insp Cousins said: 'I appeal to any individuals who believe they might be Ben themselves to come forward and speak to us.
'The question I would like people to ask themselves is: could you be Ben? As a child, did you have blond hair and blue eyes? Do you have doubts over who your parents are, or perhaps you look physically different to your parents?
'Perhaps there are no photographs of you as a child? If you have any of these doubts, please call us and there are trained detectives standing by to take your call.'
He said: 'We have a sample of Ben's DNA and it would be very simple for us to carry out a test and find out if they are Ben. This can be done in total confidence and no one else has to know.
Appeal: Kerry Needham, the mother of Ben, is pictured following his disappearance in Greece in 1991, left, and this week
'Someone with doubt about where they come from may be understandably nervous about what could happen to them and their family. I promise that anything they tell us will be treated with sensitivity and confidence.'
Det Insp Cousins said Ben would be 26 if he were alive today and he offered him reassurance: 'If we were to find Ben alive, any decisions made about what happens to him would be a matter for Ben and we would work with him to ensure we come to an arrangement he is happy with.
'He would not be forced to do anything he didn't want to do he would be in full control.
Missing: Ben is said to have been renamed Andreas and is being brought up by a man named Nikos, a caller told police investigating in 1993
'It would not affect his citizenship in Greece and nothing would have to change for him if he didn't want it to.'
Meanwhile, police have appealed to an anonymous Greek man who first contacted a reporter in 1993 saying he knew where Ben was and that his name had been changed to Andreas.
The man, who rang three times in total, also said the boy was being cared for by a man called Nikos and the reporter then contacted a missing persons helpline and passed on the information.
Police today said this information had been 'corroborated'.
It has also emerged that Ben's grandmother Christine was told he was taken from the island on a black speedboat.
The Daily Mirror reported that a friend of the Needhams said: 'Christine was told Ben was kidnapped and taken away on a black speedboat as they frantically searched the island.
'They have always believed he was abducted . There have been many theories that little Ben was stolen by a trafficking gang or even a paedophile network.
'And not knowing all this time what happened to him all this time just adds to their heartache. Somebody, somewhere must know what happened.'
Ben's mother, Kerry Needham, from Sheffield, has said there was no reason for someone to worry about coming forward.
Police and journalists gather for a press conference outside the farmhouse where Ben Needham vanished in July 1991
She said the fear of talking to Greek police in the past could have stopped people coming forward.
Ms Needham said: 'In Greece they have a statute of limitation and after a certain amount of time no one can be prosecuted for this crime, unfortunately.
'Now this timescale has lapsed and there is no fear of somebody getting into trouble for this then they might come forward.
'Also, having the British detectives to talk to, people might feel more comfortable talking to them than the Greek police.'
Detective Inspector Jon Cousins (pictured, centre) said it was possible Ben might have grown up with another identity and might have his own internal doubts about who he was and what had happened to his real mother
Ben Needham's grandfather Eddie, pictured during a visit to the island in 2012, points out to police officers where Ben was last seen
These leaflets are being distributed on Kos in the hope of finding Ben if he is still on the island and living under a different identity
Ben was 21 months old when he vanished on July 24, 1991, from outside a farmhouse in the village of Iraklis while on holiday with his mother and grandparents.
There have been numerous theories about what might have happened to Ben, including speculation that he had been buried alive, adopted by a gypsy family or sold to traffickers.
But despite 300 sightings and a number of appeals using special technology to age his photographs, he has never been found.
Asked today if they believed Ben was alive or dead Detective Superintendent Matt Fenwick said: 'We are keeping an open mind. It is likely that someone living on Kos today or lived on Kos in the past will have the answers and know what happened to Ben Needham.'
Ms Needham told Sky News she was grateful to the public for their support and added: 'They want to know the answers too. It's been a long time coming and they feel for us, they want to help us find Ben also.'
A DNA test was carried out on a man in Cyprus in 2013 in an attempt to find out if he could be the toddler, but it proved negative.
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At first glance this looks like a fairly ordinary photograph of a rocky hillside but take a closer look and you will find there is more to it than meets the eye.
Hiding within the picture is one of nature's masters of disguise - a leopard, whose spots give it a perfect camouflage.
The clever picture was taken by photographer Morkel Erasmus who said it had taken him seven years to capture this image.
Can you see it? At first glance the leopard is impossible to spot. Evolution has given leopards such camouflage in order to help them hide in the landscape before pouncing on their prey
Mr Erasmus took the pictures in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, on the border of South Africa and Botswana.
He said: 'I was motivated by my strong desire to photograph the elusive leopards as ever since visiting the Kalahari for the first time back in 2009.
'I had a strong urge to see and photograph leopards living in this harsh environment.
There it is! The leopard is hidden in the landscape of calcrete, otherwise known as caliche or hardpan. It is a type of sedimentary rock found in southern Africa and also in Australia and parts of the United States
'You see people posting trip reports on forums or sightings photos on social media and it's just leopards left, right and centre, but not for me.
'It took me eight trips in six years to even see my first leopard.
'When I saw the leopard it took me by complete surprise. She scuttled out of a small shrub as my vehicle came around the shrub.
'I was able to create a few frames as she lay down in the shade of the tree, before crossing the road and climbing up to the calcrete ridges.
The leopard is almost invisible against the hillside. Many animals have developed camouflage so they can hide from predators but the leopard has no natural predators, apart from human hunters
'Once she lay down among the calcrete, the camouflage was amazing. If you are ambling along on a game drive, even at a low speed of say 20km/h, you would struggle to spot her.'
Mr Erasmus said: 'It was absolutely incredible moment for me. It took me seven years to capture these images.
'Everyone's got that one elusive shot or species that haunts you - your Achilles' heel.
Did you spot it? Mr Erasmus has spent the last seven years trying to get these images of these elusive and magnificent creatures
'The only way to get the monkey off your back - is to go back time and time again to the place where you have the highest probability of getting the sighting and/or the shot.
'You need to have the patience to sit it out when you're there, and the fortitude of mind to resolve yourself to the next time if it doesn't work out at that particular time. I didn't give up.'
How do you tell an east African leopard from a southern African leopard? It's in the spots. The rosette pattern in the east African variety is circular whereas in the southern African leopard (pictured) the pattern is more like a square
This leopard - barely discernible in the bottom left hand corner - appears to be smiling or yawning. Leopards are pound-for-pound the best climbers among big cats
Serving members of the US military support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton by more than a two-to-one majority, according to confidential new survey.
The poll of almost 1,000 serving personnel taken between May 3 and May 6 found that in a likely Trump - Clinton general election in November only one quarter would support the former Secretary of State, despite her experience with foreign policy.
In the event of Bernie Sanders securing the nomination, 38 per cent of serving personnel said they would support the Vermont senator.
US military personnel are far more likely to support Donald Trump for president rather than Hillary Clinton
Trump received strong support from troops according to a new poll of almost 1,000 people by Military Times
Female service personal are more likely to support Hillary Clinton, pictured yesterday in Virginia over Trump
The survey by Military Times said one in five of those polled would not vote in the case of a Trump - Clinton election, compared with 10 per cent abstaining if Sanders is on the ticket.
Almost half of the troops surveyed identified themselves as Republican, however, female personnel expressed strong support for Clinton, with 51 per cent preferring her to Trump.
Military Times emailed 59,000 subscribers with 951 responding.
Officers were more likely than enlisted personnel to favour Clinton.
Army Captain Christian Pardo said: 'The candidates left just don't understand the military. The military perspective on some of their policies are just so far out there.'
Air Force 1st Lieutenant Tyler Livingston admitted he might consider abstaining in November. I really don't understand how a better candidate didn't jump into the race. I was hoping we see something else.'
However, despite Trump's position as the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, senior figures in the party such as House Speaker Paul Ryan have not yet pledged their support to the billionaire mogul.
Trump will meet Thursday with Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has offered his guarded support, and other GOP leaders in the House and Senate.
Ahead of the meeting, Ryan struck a conciliatory tone in interviews with home-state reporters Monday, while defending his stunning decision to refuse to back Trump.
Firefighters rush onboard plane to help the injured after landing in Orlando
Passengers describe moment when crew told them to fasten the seat belt
Oxygen masks crashed down and food spilled out of
At least eight passengers were injured on a flight when severe turbulence forced refrigerator doors to 'explode' in scenes 'like a movie'.
Passengers have described the moment oxygen masks crashed down and seat belts were fastened as cabin crew told them to remain calm.
The pilot of flight 1134 managed to land the JetBlue plane at Orlando at about 9pm local time on Monday.
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Veronica Hernandez Torres was travelling with her daughter, Amaia Zoe and mother, Ada Torres, when she took these dramatic photos showing oxygen masks
The pilot of flight 1134 managed to land the JetBlue plane at Orlando at about 9pm local time on Monday
Veronica Hernandez Torres was travelling with her daughter, Amaia Zoe and mother, Ada Torres, when she took these dramatic photos.
She told Univision: 'The turbulence worsened when the flight attendants were serving snacks to my daughter my mother and me.
'That was just the time it got worse, the drinks are all tacked above and we were asked to quickly buckle our seat belts
'The hostess ran to sit and went to the back, it was like a movie. The belts were buckled and at that moment the plane [experienced turbulence] and the oxygen systems came down. The doors of refrigerators exploded; it was horrible.'
The crew called out for a doctor when the turbulence calmed, and it was clear passengers were hurt.
Emergency crews, including firefighters, paramedics and police rushed onboard when the plane landed.
Fire crews come aboard the plane to look for any damage (left) after the plane landed (right)
Passenger Gelixa Marie Casiano tweeted saying she injured her back and neck on the flight
JetBlue replied in the two tweets above saying they would be contacting those injured to check on them and their progress
JetBlue flight 1134 experienced heavy turbulence when it was travelling to Orlando, Florida
Passenger Gelixa Marie Casiano tweeted saying she injured her back and neck on the flight. She was disappointed with the crew's response and 'lack of interest'.
JetBlue replied saying they would be contacting those injured to check on them and their progress.
A JetBlue spokesman told WESH: 'JetBlue flight 1134 experienced turbulence while en route from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Orlando.
'The flight arrived in Orlando at 8:52 p.m. ET. Medical personnel met the aircraft upon arrival to assist customers, and eight customers were transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.'
Supermarket bosses have warned shoppers against cooling off in their freezers after one prankster spent five minutes lying down inside one.
Jed Taylor, 18, from Croydon, hopped into the freezer at the Iceland store in New Addington, for a 5 bet - one pound for every minute he stayed in the giant chest freezer, set at nearly minus 20C.
He had been dared to jump inside the freezer by his friend Billy Bolton, who uploaded the picture to the New Addington Pathfinders Facebook page.
Cooling off: Billy Bolton uploaded this picture of friend Jed Taylor lying inside an Iceland freezer for a 5 bet
Recalling the incident, Mr Taylor, who attended Addington High School, told MailOnline: 'It wasn't actually that bad or too cold. I thought it was funny and I wasn't in there for that long.
'I wasn't concerned about it and it wasn't dangerous. It was definitely worth it. I don't think other people will copy it.
'I was in there for five minutes and for the bet was I got 1 for every minute I stayed in.'
Mr Taylor jumped inside the freezer at almost -20C in this Iceland store in New Addington, Croydon
Mr Bolton, who studied at Charles Darwin School in Biggin Hill, wrote on the original Facebook post: 'There's a guy in Iceland's freezer at [the] parade, not sure if he's dead.
'Must of had a rough night, does anyone know the owner of him? He might be chipped. Thanks.'
As Britain sizzled in a mini heatwave last weekend, supermarket chiefs warned others not to copy the stunt to cool off this Summer.
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These incredible photographs show the harsh reality of life in remote Mongolia through the eyes of a family embarking on a gruelling spring migration.
Hundreds of Kazakhs brave temperatures of -40C between February and April each year as they make the 100-mile trek across the Altai mountains in western Mongolia.
Photographer Timothy Allen captured these stunning pictures after linking up with a family - Shohan and his wife Perna - who move six times a year between seasonal camps in Bayan Ulgii Province.
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Gruelling: These stunning pictures show the he harsh reality of life in remote Mongolia through the eyes of a family embarking on a spring migration
Sub-zero: Families face temperatures as low as -40C as they make the 100-mile migration across the Altai Mountains in western Mongolia
Migration: Families have to take thousands of animals with them as they make the gruelling migration across the mountains
Sustenance: Kazakhs are famous for hunting with eagles and embark on yearly migrations with their animals. A family is pictured at meal time
He joined the same family last year, becoming the first outsider to walk with Kazakhs - famous for hunting with eagles - on their spring nomadic migration.
This year's trip, which took place in February 2016, followed the same nomadic migration as last year.
The destination, Shohan's family's spring camp in Tavan Bogd National Park, is a place that only a handful of outsiders have witnessed in the winter months.
Extreme: Breathtaking pictures show the scale of the task facing the Kazakh people as they embark on a long trek across the mountains
Hard work: Along with 200 families, the Kazakhs also brought around a thousand animals including yak, camels, goats and eagles on their migration, western Mongolia
Traditional: A year on from his first adventure, Timothy Allen has made another trip to visit the Kazakh eagle hunters of Western Mongolia
The big freeze: Kazakh families have to wrap up and cover their faces with temperatures often dropping as low as -40C during the trek
Giddy up: A Kazakh man rounds up livestock as he prepares to lead a trek across the Altai Mountains in western Mongolia
On the move: Eight photographers from Europe, USA and New Zealand as well as 13 Mongolians joined the migration this year
It takes them around five gruelling days to cross the mountains and reach the family's camp.
Mr Allen said: 'This is the beginning of their spring migration, the migration that takes them up to their spring pastures.'
Mr Allen and his group spent a few days in the remote location, accompanying Shohan hunting with his golden eagle.
Barren landscape: Mr Allen's photographs show the breathtaking scenery as families make their way slowly through the Altai Mountains in western Mongolia
The Kazakhs of western Mongolia are known for hunting with eagles and each year between February and April around 200 families make the 150km trip across the Altai mountains
Keeping warm: A group of Kazakh men gather in a hut as they take a break during the five-day trek across the mountains
Although a lot of the family's worldly goods can now be moved on the truck, the animals still needed to cross the mountains on foot
The group made the trip with three 4x4 vehicles, a six-wheeler overland truck and eight full-size gers (a Mongolian yurt) to accommodate everyone.
Although a lot of the family's worldly goods can now be moved on the truck, the animals still needed to cross the mountains on foot.
Shohan, Mr Allen and his team were joined by Shohan's eagle, the family's camels, sheep, goats, cows, horses and yak.
Mr Allen said: 'This was the most elaborate expedition I have ever undertaken. Moving 21 people across the Altai mountains in winter is no mean feat, believe me.'
The photographers and families were joined by herds of camels, sheep, goats, cows, horses and yak as they set off on the trek
The photographers made the trip with three 4x4 vehicles, a six-wheeler overland truck and eight full-size gers (a Mongolian yurt) to accommodate everyone
Another of Tim Allen's stunning pictures shows Kazakhs moving their sheep and cattle across the mountains of western Mongolia
Dinner time: A young Kazakh girl, with her family in the background, finishes off her bowl of broth during the migration across the Altai Mountains
Photographer Timothy Allen captured these stunning pictures after linking up with a family - Shohan (left) and his wife Perna (right) - who move six times a year between seasonal camps in Bayan Ulgii Province
Three Kazakh men keep warm during the trek by sipping on hot broth. Temperatures often dip to -40C during the gruelling five-day trek
A Mongolian family pose for photographs as they prepare to tuck into a celebratory feast in their home in a remote part of Mongolia
Mr Allen and his group spent a few days in the remote location, accompanying Shohan hunting with his golden eagle (pictured)
A Kazakh prepares for the gruelling migration by wrapping up one of their famous hunting eagles in an orange towel
A Kazakh family unload a truck at one of their homes in a remote mountain range. The annual trek takes around five days to complete
Hundreds of Kazakhs set off between February and April each year as they make the 100-mile trip across the Altai mountains
A Kazakh farmer holds acalf on his lap as he rides his horse and rounds up his livestock during the annual spring migration
Braving the elements: Up to 200 families battle harsh sub-zero conditions as they make their way across the mountains
The ten-year-old victim awoke to find Isak Andai, a teenage migrant from Eritrea who was housed with her family, 'fondling her breasts'
A ten-year-old Swedish girl was molested by a teenage migrant in her own home, just weeks after the alleged underaged boy had been placed to live with her family.
The victim was sexually assaulted after falling asleep in the family home in Eslov, southern Sweden, and awoke to find the perpetrator 'fondling her breasts'.
Isak Andai from Eritrea claims to be 15 years old, however his identity or age has not been proven and court documents state he may be as old as 19.
The victim lives with her parents and an older siblings in Eslov, 25miles north of Malmo; one of many families in Sweden who have opened up their homes to help the government house new arrivals following the refugee crisis.
Eritrean Andai, who arrived in Sweden without his parents, had been placed with the family, along with with a second unaccompanied underaged male migrant, a few weeks prior to the assault.
Andai and the other migrant boy, aged 17, had been staying in the victim's bedroom, while the victim had slept in the same room as her parents in order to make room for the two boys.
The victim told police how she had been spending time with Andai in the family's front room on the night of the assault.
They had been sat on the sofa using their smartphones and taking pictures, Lund County Court heard.
Andai had left the room, and the girl soon fell asleep on the sofa, but awoke when she felt Andai fondling and 'pressing hard' on her breasts on top of the bra she was wearing.
The ten-year-old told police she woke up because it hurt, and when Andai saw that she was awake he 'jumped off', court documents state.
She said her breasts hurt for several minutes afterwards and later described how she was scared of Andai after the assault.
'She thought a lot and was afraid. She didn't dare to talk to Isak after the incident. She didnt dare look him in the eyes either.'
Andai had been placed with the family in Eslov, southern Sweden, after telling migration authorities he was 15, however he carried no proof of identification and has indicated in police interviews that he is older, possibly 19
The victim told her brother and sister, both in their 20s, what had happened, after which her mother was informed and Andai reported to police.
When Andai arrived in Sweden he claimed that he had been born in 2000, based on what he had been told by his parents and what his identification had said.
However as any documents of identification had been lost on the journey from Eritrea to Sweden, his identity and age could not be established, and no further tests were carried out by Swedish authorities to support his claims.
During the investigation, Andai told police that he had started school when he was around ten, attended school for seven years, and then left school two years prior to arriving in Sweden, which would make him 19 years old.
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Rail enthusiasts have been left angry ahead of the Flying Scotsman starting its tour of England and Scotland today after the National Railway Museum decided to keep its schedule secret.
Officials at the museum in York are not publishing the timings of the famous locomotives tour in a bid to reduce the chance of people disrupting mainline services.
It comes after February's inaugural run following a decade-long refit was marred by trespassers, which saw all East Coast Main Line trains temporarily stopped - causing eight hours of delays.
Stunning: Hidden under a thick clock of smoke, the Flying Scotsman steams over the River Tyne as it leaves Newcastle for London today
Watching: The Flying Scotsman passes through Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire - close to where it was halted by trespassers in February
Network Rail paid 60,000 in compensation when 59 services were delayed by people encroaching on the track to get as close as possible to the Scotsman as it travelled from London to York.
But the decision to keep the timings secret has angered a number of members of the public who were keen to catch a glimpse of Flying Scotsman.
Andrew Burnie said on Facebook: Really sad that the timings for these runs seem to have been hidden. Was looking forwards to seeing the Scotsman in Edinburgh this weekend.
But because of the idiots who took to the tracks I now can't find the times it will be departing from and arriving to Waverley as they have been taken down to avoid a repeat.
Peter Chalmers wrote: How can we go and see her safely, as I planned, when times aren't being released? Diabolical, never known anything like it. Her only trip to Scotland and we are being conned.
Meanwhile Ian Dent had a suggestion for those who want to know the timings, saying: 'Find an engine driver, butter him up and plead with him to look in his special workings notices.
Arrival: The Flying Scotsman arrives in Newcastle today as part of its UK tour - the schedule for which has not been revealed
Arriving in Newcastle: Built in Doncaster in 1923, the locomotive soon became the star locomotive of the British railway system
What a view: The Flying Scotsman hauls the Cathedral Express over Durham Viaduct past the magnificent Durham Cathedral today
All the colours: The Flying Scotsman passes a rapeseed field near Durham, as part of its UK tour today
Facebook comments: The decision to keep the timings secret has angered a number of members of the public who were keen to catch a glimpse of Flying Scotsman
But it would be a lot less trouble if the idiots, and I make no apology for using that word for that is what they are, stayed the right side of the fences and off the railway altogether.
But Dan Louch said: If there weren't so many idiots that decided to trespass last time, Network Rail and the BTP [British Transport Police] wouldn't need to take these safety precautions.
Really sad that the timings for these runs seem to have been hidden Andrew Burnie, train enthusiast
Jim Lowe, the NRMS head of operations, said: It is vital that spectators do not venture onto the railway, particularly when it is on the mainline as a full timetable of regular services will be running.
In order to avoid overcrowding and incidents of trespass neither ourselves nor our partners will be publishing recommended viewing points or the timetable of when the train will be passing through specific locations.
And National Rail managing director Phil Hufton called on enthusiasts making plans to see Flying Scotsman as it visits various parts of England and Scotland over the next few months to stay safe.
He said: While the turnout to see Flying Scotsman so far has shown the passion and support for steam engines, and indeed the railway itself, the images of people stood on the railway taking photographs were deeply concerning and a breach of our safe operations.
I cannot stress enough how dangerous it is to go onto the railway without any formal training and without permission, as well as being illegal.
I am urging those who plan to enjoy seeing Flying Scotsman in the coming days to do so from a safe position and do not go onto the railway under any circumstances.
Through Durham: The National Railway Museum bought the locomotive for 2.3million in 2004 before work began on its restoration in 2006
THE FLYING SCOTSMAN: TEN FACTS ABOUT THE FAMOUS LOCOMOTIVE The Flying Scotsman, an A3 Pacific class locomotive, was originally built in 1923 for the London and North East Railway It was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and has been in the public eye since it first went into service, having been on display at the British Empire Exhibition the following year The Flying Scotsman took eight hours to complete the trip between London and Edinburgh and in 1934 was officially credited with becoming the first steam locomotive to be clocked at 100 miles an hour It holds a second record for the longest non-stop run of 422 miles when it was in Australia The locomotive weighs about 100 tons The Flying Scotsman has covered around 2,500,000 miles in its long career It had five numbers, 1472, 4472, 502, 103 and 60103 Doncaster railway works is where the engine was built The Flying Scotsman took eight hours to cover the 392 miles between London and Edinburgh At one stage it had a tender with a corridor to enable crew changes during the Edinburgh trip
Built in Doncaster, South Yorkshire in 1923, the Flying Scotsman became the star locomotive of Britain's railway network, pulling the first train to break the 100mph barrier in 1934.
The NRM bought the locomotive for 2.3million in 2004 before work began on its restoration in 2006. The Flying Scotsman was painted in its original livery of British Rail green and had its nameplates have been reattached.
The rebuild took much longer than anticipated and cost far more than the original expectation of 1.5million because many more repairs were found to be required than expected.
Chief Inspector David Oram from British Transport Police said: 'The railway is a hazardous environment and we would urge people to use safe vantage points to view and take pictures of the train, stay clear of the line and not be tempted to risk their lives and the lives of others by trespassing on the tracks.'
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A group of men in China were given the opportunity to experience childbirth and breastfeeding at an event in Harbin, northeast China.
The event took place on May 8 as part of a breastfeeding flashmob to celebrate Mother's Day in the country.
According to reports, high numbers of working mothers in China have abandoned breastfeeding citing high pressure from their companies.
Ouch! Men in Harbin, northeast China took part in an event that allowed them to experience childbirth and breastfeeding
The event was held to help promote breastfeeding in the country as the number of mothers breastfeeding has decreased
That doesn't look like a happy face! A husband reacts as he tries to see what childbirth will be like at the Mother's Day event
In the images, the men can be seen grimacing in pain as they experience childbirth while their partner looks on in amusement.
A couple of the men seem to be in excruciating pain, gripping onto the handle bars of the beds.
While in the breastfeeding photos, they all seem to have a bond with their 'fake babies'.
The aim of the event was to help raise awareness of the importance of breastfeeding.
2014 official figures show that fewer than 16 percent of urban mothers in China breastfeed their babies for the World Health Organization recommended time period of six months which is well below the global average of around 40 percent.
This isn't the first time that men in China have been able to get an insight into what childbirth might be like.
In 2014, Aima maternity hospital in Shandong province offered free sessions twice a week that allowed expectant dads to experience the pain.
Stimulation pads are attached to a device placed above the abdomen giving the wearer shocks that make you feel pain. A nurse casually rises the intensity on a scale of one to ten.
Chinese men are often not in the room when their partners give birth with some state-run hospitals forbidding expectant dads to enter.
All a bit odd: Male participants experience breastfeeding with dolls as part of a way to raise awareness of breastfeeding
Looks a bit painful! A man reacts as he experiences childbirth through a medical device at a hospital in Harbin, China
Oh dear! Stimulation pads are attached to a device placed above the abdomen giving the wearer shocks that make you feel pain
Uber and similar ride-sharing apps are still currently illegal in Victoria
They called on consumer affairs and federal government to crack down
More than 20 taxis blockaded the street and demanded action
Angry taxi drivers have warned the war they are waging against Uber could turn violent after clashing with police during a rally on parliament steps.
Taxi drivers protesting against ride-sharing service Uber clashed with police outside the Victorian Parliament in Melbourne after they were directed to move their cabs that were blocking the busy street.
A spokesperson for the Victorian Taxi Families group has issued a grave warning that things could turn violent if the state government did not address the matter.
More than 20 taxis blockaded Bourke Street near Spring Street for about an hour on Tuesday with drivers demanding the government crack down on Uber - which is currently illegal in Victoria.
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Taxi drivers protesting against ride-sharing service Uber clashed with police outside the Victorian Parliament in Melbourne
Angry clashes were sparked when police asked for the cars to be moved, but the drivers left them blocking the street while they listened to speeches on the steps of parliament.
Some 30 drivers surrounded the officers for about five minutes, screaming that they had been let down by Premier Daniel Andrews.
Their protests weren't sanctioned by the Victorian Taxi Association, who asked drivers to stay away and put their customers first.
After the clashes Victorian Taxi Families group spokesperson David Singh stressed that the ride sharing app was still illegal in Victoria, reports ABC.
'Uber is illegal. Ride-share is illegal and we need the rule of law to be enforced,' Mr Singh said.
'If the decisions are not made correctly, things will be out of my hands and the drivers will do what they want to do. It could get pretty ugly and violent.
More than 20 taxis blockaded Bourke Street near Spring Street for about an hour on Tuesday
Mr Singh called on consumer affairs, ASIC and the federal government to look into the way Uber operated in Victoria.
The VTF want Uber operators to pay $40,000 each for a licence, receive 12 demerit points if caught operating illegally, and have their cars impounded, Mr Singh says.
Cabbie John, who did not want his last name reported, bought his taxi licence in 1989 for $125,000 and says he's making a stand because Uber and other ride-sharing companies are affecting his future.
He said the premier had promised to protect taxi drivers but nothing had been done.
A spokesperson for the Victorian Taxi Families group has issued a grave warning that things could turn violent if the state government did not address the matter
Some 30 drivers surrounded the officers for about five minutes, screaming that they had been let down by Premier Daniel Andrews
Mr Andrews said his government won't be rushed on how to regulate Uber.
'To get it right is the most important thing,' the premier told reporters.
Opposition leader Matthew Guy said Daniel Andrews has to put taxis and Uber on a level playing field, quickly.
A new study has found that Muslim migrants in Germany are forcing Christians to take part in Islamic prayers at refugee camps and threatening those who leave the religion.
The report by Christian group Open Doors Germany claims that half of the 231 Christian refugees questioned said they felt bullied by Muslim migrants or guards, while in reception centres or refugee camps.
And now the organisation, which helps Christians around the world who feel they are being persecuted due to their religion, is calling for German authorities to keep non-Muslims in separate centres to ensure their safety.
Migrants line up outside a reception centre in Berlin after travelling to Germany. A study now says Christian migrants are feel bullied by Muslim refugees (file picture)
They point to one incident in Berlin where a Protestant minister claimed Christian refugees were threatened after they refused to take part in Islamic prayers with other migrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Iran.
The report also claims that Muslim guards at camps and detention centres also use threatening behaviour, and incidents of violence are sometimes not being properly documented by Arabic translators.
The Christian group wrote in the report: 'Discrimination and violence against Christian refugees in refugee centers happens far more frequently than this testimony.
'Although media, religious leaders and assistants and human rights organisations, many note the increasing number of documented assaults by Muslim refugees and security personnel in the accommodation, policymakers have generally not taken sufficient measures to protect the Christian minority.
Around 1.1 million migrants crossed into Germany last year from the Middle East and North Africa. Pictured is a refugee family in a temporary reception centre in Berlin (file picture)
German chancellor Angela Merkel has adopted a so-called open doors policy, by refusing to limit the number of refugees allowed into the country (file picture)
German authorities have been in a constant struggle since a large influx of migrants to the country over the last year after fleeing conflict.
Around 1.1 million migrants crossed into Germany last year from the Middle East and North Africa.
German chancellor Angela Merkel has adopted a so-called open doors policy, by refusing to limit the number of refugees allowed into the country.
However, the number of migrants arriving in Germany has slowed since the turn of the year.
A Canadian teenager has discovered a lost Mayan city in Mexico from his bedroom in Quebec almost 2,200 miles away.
William Gadoury, 15, compared satellite images supplied by the Canada Space Agency with Google Maps of the area in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
The teenager from Saint Jean de Matha decided on his search location using this theory that the Mayans built their cities to correspond with various constellations of stars.
Teenager William Gadoury discovered a missing Mayan city using a theory he developed himself
The Canadian teenager, pictured left, compared the locations of 117 existing Mayan cities with a map of the stars. When one constellation of three stars only related to two cities, he searched Google maps for answers
By studying satellite photographs of the area identified by Gadoury, scientists discovered a large pyramid
Gadoury studied the locations of 117 known Mayan cities and found the link between the cities and the stars.
He compared the existing cities with 23 different constellations. While investigating the final constellation, he saw three stars but only two known cities.
So, he searched the online maps and satellite imagery and found geometric shapes in an inaccessible part of Mexican jungle.
Incredibly, according to the Montreal Journal, Gadoury found a large 86 metre high pyramid and and 30 buildings.
The teenager contacted Dr Armand LaRocque of the University of New Brunswick who believes this could be the fifth largest Mayan city.
Gadoury named the new discover Fire Mouth.
Gadoury named the new city in southern Mexico as Fire Mouth or La Bouche de Feu in French
The lost city is in a very remote location and is covered by dense vegetation which prevented its discovery
Scientists praised Gadoury's discovery as scientists never linked the location of Mayan cities to the stars
He said: 'When Dr. LaRocque told me in January, we distinguish a pyramid and thirty structures, it was extraordinary. I did not understand why the Maya built their cities away from rivers, on marginal lands and in the mountains, said William Gadoury. He had to have another reason, and as they worshiped the stars, the idea came to me to verify my hypothesis. I was really surprised and excited when I realized that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched the largest Maya cities.'
Following the discover, it is likely that an expedition could be launched to the remote area to confirm Gadoury's theory.
Daniel De Lisle of the Canadian Space Agency praised Gadoury's ingenuity.
He told The Independent: 'What makes Williams project fascinating is the depth of his research. Linking the positions of stars to the location of a lost city along with the use of satellite images on a tiny territory to identify the remains buried under dense vegetation is quite exceptional.'
As well as participating in the expedition to the lost city, Gadoury hopes attend Brazil's International Science fair in 2017.
A Fort McMurray woman's plea for her dog to be rescued from her home threatened by wildfire has been answered by a heroic local - who found the animal inside while firefighters fought off flames.
As the wildfires continued to rage across Abasand, Fort McMurray, Stephanie Greene and her family had to evacuate without their pet puppy Max.
In desperation, all she could do was implore anyone still there to check their home for the lost family member.
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Stephanie Green said her daughter was thrilled to be reunited with their puppy Max (pictured together) after he was rescued from their family home when the family was forced to flee the wildfires
On May 3 she wrote on Facebook she was on her way to Calgary and safe, but she was 'devastated that we lost our dog Max'.
'Lost ALL of our belongings, our home, my truck, and our dog. Our family is separated but we're safe.'
Two days later she offered directions to their home, adding: 'Does anyone know if this one is still standing, my dog is in here. If it is and if he is saved [$]1000 reward.'
Remarkably, Marty Frost, who remained in the area due to his background in firefighting, saw the post and decided to investigate, CBC News reported.
He told the broadcaster he had difficulty searching for 'Abasand Max' which he named after the city neighbourhood in which the Greene's lived.
A few days later, he heard the properties were caught on fire so he raced to the scene in the nick of time - he rescued both Max and the Greene's pet rabbit.
Ms Greene said her daughter was elated to be reunited with her puppy - who needed only some water, food and a bath.
She posted on Facebook she was 'over the moon' when she received a phone call from Mr Frost, who had found her number on Max's collar.
She wrote: 'They got Max and yes it's him this time! He is wearing his tags and they also found the "rabbit looking thing" (Sadie) our rabbit! Such a flood of emotion! Thank you Marty Frost!
'He needs a bath and smells like smoke but he's with us now.'
She later told CBC: 'I don't care about the house. We got exactly what we wanted. To me, he's a real hero.'
Burned out homes are pictured in the Abasand neighbourhood of Fort McMurray, where the Greene's family house was located and from where Max was rescued
A trailer park in Fort McMurray is a scene of total devastation after the fires destroyed more than 2,000 homes
A firefighter pulls a hose through a blackened forest in a bid to fight off the raging inferno near Fort McMurray
Meanwhile, fire officials have begun assessing the damage in Fort McMurray, almost a week after a raging fire blasted through the Alberta, Canada city and reduced at least two of its neighborhoods to ashes.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley flew in on Monday to get her first direct look at the devastation after cold temperatures and light rain had stabilized the massive wildfire.
More than 40 journalists were allowed into Fort McMurray on a bus escorted by police and witnessed the damage, as Fort McMurray's fire chief referred to the blaze as 'a beast', adding he had never seen a fire like it in his life.
The fire destroyed about 2,400 homes and buildings and forced thousands of residents out of their homes, during one of the biggest evacuations in Canada's history.
A Chinese man was hospitalised for three weeks after discovering that his genitals had been slowly rotting.
According to reports, the man's underpants had been gifted by his wife and were laced with toxic chemicals.
The man surnamed Zhang and his wife, both from Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province had been quarreling before he was hospitalized.
A bottle of Paraquat: The man in China had his underpants laced with this toxic substance by his wife
According to Hangzhou.com.cn, the man did not realise what his wife had done until he found his genitals putrefying.
He also suffered from breathing difficulties.
Zhang was rushed to hospital where he spent two weeks in intensive care followed by a week in the burns unit.
He has since been discharged.
Doctors discovered that his underpants had been covered in paraquat, a toxic chemical used as a herbicide.
Zhang spent two weeks in intensive care after he realised his gentials were rotting (File photo)
According to Ren Zhangmo, a doctor at the Second Hospital of Zhejiang Medical Emergency Medicine, 'If immediately cleaned, there will not be a problem with herbicidal spraying pesticides'.
However the toxic substance which is odourless and colourless, stayed on the man's skin for some time.
The hospital also noticed that the man still has come difficulties breathing and doctors say he could encounter them for the rest of his life thanks to his wife's act.
Zhang's wife had allegedly wanted to get back at her husband for an earlier argument and had soaked his pants in the toxic substance before drying them in the sun.
She then handed them to her husband to wear on their daughter's wedding day.
Zhang's wife was arrested and police are conducting further investigations into the matter.
An elderly British couple were killed on holiday in France when their car careered off the road and plunged into a river.
Richard Lucas and his wife Mary died after their car went off the road at a dangerous bend in the Dordogne area of France, and landed on its roof in a deep river.
The pensioners car is believed to have been heading towards the left but their car continued straight on, crashing through trees and down a steep bank before flipping over and landing upside down, completely submerged in the river Dronne.
A passing driver alerted emergency services, and when rescuers arrived they immediately dived into the river to try and save the couple - but they were already dead.
Richard Lucas, 85 and his wife Mary, 83, from Lincoln, died after their car went off the road at a dangerous bend in the Dordogne area of France, and landed on its roof in a deep river
Mr Lucas, 85, and Mrs Lucas, 83, from Lincoln, have a holiday home in the south-west region that is popular with British retirees, and spend several months a year there.
The couple crashed just ten miles from their holiday home in the village of Paussac-et-Saint-Vivien, and were travelling in a UK-registered silver Mercedes on the D78 road towards the village of Brantome at the start of a busy bank holiday weekend in France.
A crane was brought in to lift the vehicle out of the river and police divers were deployed to search for evidence in the waters of the river.
A local police officer told media that apparently the driver lost control for an as yet unknown reason, and added that an investigation into the cause of the crash was ongoing.
The results of the postmortem will determine the cause of death but it looks like they died from drowning, the police officer said.
The Lincoln couple had been travelling towards the village of Brantome (pictured) when their car crashed down a steep bank before flipping over and landing upside down, completely submerged in the river Dronne
The Lucases were believed to have had four grown-up children: Charles, Adrian, Mike and Diana.
Over the weekend one of their sons and his partner attended their British property, a large detached bungalow overlooking the Lincoln Cathedral.
Friends and neighbours reported that Mr Lucas had been ill with Parkinsons disease.
Mr and Mrs Lucas, both local historians, were praised by those who knew them for their contribution to the city of Lincoln.
Mr Lucas was a former councillor in Lincoln from 1966 to 1972 and was president of the Lincoln Civic Trust, as well as being an active member of the local Rotary Club.
Meanwhile Mary Lucas was a former pupil and teacher at Lincoln Girls High School.
Eddie Strengiel [corr], chairman of the Lincoln conservative association, knew Mr Lucas through his work with the council said: He was a lovely man, they were a lovely couple. [Richards] friends in the Rotary Club will be devastated.
He was very active in the community, in the Civic Trust - he contributed a lot to our city. And both Richard and Mary cared greatly about the historic element of our city.
They enjoyed their holidays abroad and had a holiday home in France which they spent a lot of time in.
Neighbour Jenny Leonard said: We got on very well with them and have known them for over 30 years. We looked after each others houses when the others were away. They were a lovely couple and had four children.
The mayor of Paussac-et-Saint-Vivien, the picturesque village where the couple had their holiday home, said the news of their tragic death came as a shock.
I knew them well. They have been coming here for around twenty years for two or three months a year, every year, Jean-Pierre Desvergne said.
A top ISIS leader in Iraq who won online fame after being likened to a doner kebab, has been killed alongside three other jihadis in a US-led coalition air strike.
The Pentagon confirmed the death of ISIS commander Abu Wahib near the town of Rutba, in the Anbar desert on Monday.
The rotund 29-year-old was mocked on social media after images showing him wearing unusually coloured camouflage next to doner meat on a stick emerged on Twitter.
ISIS commander Abu Wahib, who won online fame after being likened to a doner kebab last year, was killed in a coalition air strike near the town of Rutba, in the Anbar desert on Monday
The weekend's strike was targeting Wahib and spokesman Peter Cook said Wahib was 'a former member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq who has appeared in ISIL execution videos'.
'We view him as a significant leader in ISIL leadership overall, not just in Anbar Province,' he added. 'Removing him from the battlefield will be a significant step forward.'
The men were traveling in a vehicle when they were hit. Cook provided no additional details and did not specify if a warplane or a drone had carried out the strike.
The killing of Wahib is the latest in a series of attacks on senior ISIS leaders in Iraq and Syria, where the jihadists still control huge tracts of land despite an intense US-led air campaign dating back to August 2014.
The strike was targeting Wahib and spokesman Peter Cook said Wahib was 'a former member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq who has appeared in ISIL execution videos'
Smoke billows as a member of the Iraqi government forces stands guard next to his vehicle after they retook an area from the Islamic State group on April 2, 2016 in Anbar province Moadh al-Dulaimi (AFP/File)
Some other recent targets include Suleiman Abd Shabib al-Jabouri, an 'ISIL war council member,' Abd ar-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli - the ISIS group's second-in-command also known as Haji Imam - and Omar al-Shishani, the man known as 'Omar the Chechen,' who was effectively IS's defense minister.
In February, US special operations forces captured Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, who was described as a chemical weapons expert.
'Since the start of 2015, we've targeted and killed more than 40 high-value ISIL and Al-Qaeda external attack plotters.
'We have removed cell leaders, facilitators, planners and recruiters,' Baghdad-based military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren wrote online last week.
Experts say the species of dolphin sare rarely seen this close to the shore
This is the amazing moment a pod of dolphins hunted down a shark and seized it with their jaws before pulling it to the oceans depths.
The rare footage was captured by drone flyer Bruno Kataoka, who stumbled upon the feeding frenzy off the coast of Sydneys Cronulla beach.
Marine experts say the species of dolphin known as false killer whales are rarely sighted off Australias coast, reports Yahoo.
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The pod of dolphins stalked the juvenile shark (left) before the leader lunged out and seized it with its jaws (right)
The pod of dolphins can be seen stalking the juvenile shark to tire it out before the leader lunges out and seizes the smaller shark with its jaws.
National Geographic guys would wait months to get such a thing, said drone photographer Bruno Kataoka, who captured the footage.
We just happened to be there at the right moment at the right time.
Marine Biologist Georgina Wood said it was an extremely rare encounter to catch on camera so close to the shore.
Oh its amazing, that kind of footage is just so rare to catch.
She said false killer whales are rarely spotted, despite being large numbers of them out the ocean.
Drone flyer Bruno Kataoka stumbled upon the predatory scenes off the coast of Sydneys Cronulla beach
The pod of dolphins were spotted stalking the juvenile shark during the rare feeding frenzy
Marine experts say the species of dolphin known as false killer whales are rarely sighted off Australias coast
Marine Biologist Georgina Wood said it was an extremely rare to see the species so close to the shore
False killer whales are a type of dolphin and are not from the same genus as the more widely known killer whale
The species got their name because they prey on other sea mammals, however they are not from the same genus as the more widely known killer whale.
The Australian whale watching season kicks off later this month, with more 20,000 humpback whales alone expected to migrate down the countries east coast.
The father of a 16-year-old boy whose body was pulled from the River Thames by volunteer divers exactly where he was last seen has criticised the 'disgusting' police response after it took two days to find him.
Ellis Downes jumped into the water near Culham in Oxfordshire to swim with friends on Saturday night but got into difficulty as he tried to head back to the riverbank and disappeared.
His father Darren has savaged the police delays in sending in divers and was shocked by how his family had been treated by both officers at the scene, citing a complete lack of compassion.
Disgusted: Darren Downes, the father of 16-year-old Ellis whose body was pulled from the River Thames by volunteer divers, has savaged police and accused the force of a 'complete lack of compassion'
He said the useless force had resulted in him having to visit the site where his son had died.
Speaking from his home in Didcot, he said: I am disgusted really. You think the police are going to do the best job possible but I guess nowadays that just doesn't happen. Now we have Ellis's body it's the best of the worst situation.
'It may have been another few days with the police handling it - we'll just never know. What Peter (Faulding) and the lads from the volunteer diver team did was absolutely brilliant. Outstanding, couldn't have done a better job.'
Ellis disappeared under the water at 9pm on Saturday, before Thames Valley Police launched an investigation that was later allegedly scaled down. His family then launched their own manhunt to find the boy and slammed police efforts, claiming they were under-resourced.
Mr Downes said: The police there seemed to avoid the subject really, they said they're just doing their job, there was a command of superiority, they had to do their bit and that was it.
Search: Friends and family of 16-year-old schoolboy Ellis took to the river on boats, kayaks and paddle boards
It was just a job to the policemen there really. Which isn't very good for me when my boy is down there under the water. There was a complete lack of compassion from them.
'I said to the police if that was a policeman under the water that they would have been there day and night to get them out. But when it's my son I was told we have to fit around their schedule.'
Ellis Downes disappeared on Saturday night at 9pm after he went into the River Thames
The discovery of the body came as volunteer divers from Surrey-based Specialist Group International claimed today that police refused to let their high-security cleared team into water.
The divers also alleged that the distraught Downes family helped carry their equipment into the water while 15 officers stood by - and that top brass refused to speak to the team.
Relatives of Ellis said police had failed to get divers to the scene, promising them only today - leaving the family to hire their own boat to trawl the waterway and request their own dive team.
The boys mother Emma thanked the volunteers from SGI today, saying: If it wasnt for you our little boy would still be in that river now.
SGIs chief executive Peter Faulding, who led the recovery effort, told how his team flouted top-level police instructions barring them from entering the water and recovered Elliss body within an hour.
He said: This is the most disgusting police response I've ever seen in 20 years of policing and forensic searches. I've never been so humiliated in my life.
Mr Faulding's wife saw the Downes familys pleas for help on Facebook and they immediately sent a professional team to the scene to help.
The forensic expert, who worked on the M15 body in a bag probe and the April Jones murder inquiry, said police blocked his colleagues from entering the river when they arrived in the afternoon.
Father and son: Ellis's father Darren Downes posted this picture on Facebook of the two of them together
He was denied meetings with their superiors, including the Superintendent.
HOW IT TOOK 48 HOURS TO FIND ELLIS'S BODY AFTER HE VANISHED Saturday, 9pm : Emergency services are called to reports that 'a boy had got into difficulty while swimming and had not been seen since' and begin searching the river overnight
Sunday, 9pm : Ellis Downes's sister Alex appeals for help on Facebook because 'useless' police are 'starting to give up the search already'
Monday, 4pm : Volunteer divers arrive to help but police tell them they cannot go into the water because it is a crime scene
Monday, 5pm : Ellis's father Darren says police won't allow the volunteer divers to enter the water 'because of political reasons', and brands them 'w*****s'
Monday, 9pm : Volunteer divers go into the water anyway after Elliss family help them take their equipment into the water
Monday, 9.46pm : They find the body which is later identified as that of Ellis
Tuesday, 11.13am : Police announce a body has been found and 'is believed to be that of Ellis Advertisement
Despite ringing and checking his security clearance, the search specialist said officers told him he was not to go anywhere near that water because it was a crime scene - although there was no police cordon or tape and the river was open to boaters.
Mr Faulding said: I spoke to the police to let them know that we were coming and I spoke to the Superintendent's PA. When we got there at around 4pm they were coming up to meet us and said, We can't let you dive.
I said, You're a Police Constable, can I speak to your superior? He said, The Superintendent said he doesn't want to speak to you. They said they weren't changing their minds.
Thames Valley disbanded their dive team, Sussex Police don't have one - there's hardly any. We were there and they were waiting for the Met (dive team).
Mr Faulding revealed that Ellis' father Darren had been a real gentleman and gone to issue police with an ultimatum - that if the divers weren't allowed in, the family would go in themselves rather than the divers with the same qualifications as police frogmen.
He said: The family just said, We want you to dive. They carried our boats, our equipment for us - the police stood by. There were probably 15 officers.
SGI divers found Ellis's body close to where he had been submerged off The Burycroft after less than an hour in the water.
He was found at 9.46pm - 48 hours after he went missing - at the bottom of the Thames by a diver who carried out an underwater fingertip search in pitch black water.
Mr Faulding scoffed at police claims that poor visibility had hampered underwater searches - saying that the whole job of a forensic diver is to work in tough conditions and the current had in fact been less than one knot.
Probe: Police, fire and rescue services and the Environment Agency combed the river for clues yesterday
Map; Ellis's body was found last night under the area where he was last seen in the Thames on Saturday
Tribute: Elliss heartbroken sister Alex Downes said: 'There are no words to explain how Im feeling right now'
That's their excuse, that the water was too murky to search, he explained. When we found him it was in pitch black water, by feeling around. That's what police diving is about - diving in sewage if you have to.
I am fuming. I've worked on all the biggest murders across the UK. I'm a world-leading, experienced forensic searcher. I've worked on cold cases, and I'm known to the police.
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Hampshire Police spent 15,000 on five iPhones and 50 iPads between 2012 to 2013
The Home Office spent 427,000 on rubber bullets police are not even allowed to use, it was revealed in 2013 Advertisement
It's just total incompetence at a senior level. It's just a poorly run operation. Sometimes you need to speak up, it's like Hillsborough. I'm just gutted for the family. It's a sad day and I think the policing wasn't done in a sympathetic manner.
Last night Elliss heartbroken sister Alex Downes, 19, who led the hunt for her brother, posted on Facebook: There are no words to explain how Im feeling right now, I thought I would wake up and it would have just all been a terrible nightmare.
My heart aches so badly it hurts, a massive part of it is missing. All I have now are the happy memories of the cheeky, loveable, handsome young man I was proud to call my brother, and I will cherish those memories forever.
Ellis, Im so sorry we didnt find you sooner but I hope you would be proud of me for doing everything I could to get you back, I was never ever going to give up on you. I love you so much words are not enough, my beautiful angel.
Darren Downes, Elliss father, confirmed the tragic death online, writing: I and my family would like to thank all the members of the village and surrounding areas that have helped in the search, and support in finding Ellis Niall Downes. Our world will never be the same again.
Thames Valley Police confirmed a body had been found at about 11am today, after a family friend revealed last night his body had been discovered close to where he went missing by Culham Lock.
Sadness: Nursery assistant Miss Downes, 19, said her 'heart is in a million pieces' following the discovery
She said: Everyone has been amazing. The general public and family and friends have all been helping, some people have been down at the river for 18 hours. Its closure. Its a relief that he has been found.
However, the force has not yet responded to today's claims from the diving team or told MailOnline whether or not it will be apologising to the family.
Looking forward to drive: Tributes to Ellis poured in as friends and loved ones praised the thoughtful, cheeky and polite boy, who loved his moped
A Metropolitan Police dive team were thought to have been going to join the search today - 48 hours after Ellis went missing - but volunteer divers got there first after reading the familys pleas for help.
Specialist Group International said the team had been searching late last night for the missing teenager, adding: Our dive team were deployed following the familys request for volunteers.
Ellis mother Emma told the group: We cant thank you enough, if it wasnt for you our little boy would still be in that river now. She had previously begged Dont give up on my baby boy.
Darren Downes said on Facebook at 5.20pm yesterday that the family had a specialist dive team ready but Thames Valley Police were blocking access to the river.
He said: We have a specialist dive team ready to find Ellis but because of political reasons the police wont let them gain access.
What a bunch of w******. Another night without our boy Ellis Niall Downes. Share the hell out of this. Well done, Thames Valley Police.
Ellis's friends and relatives had taken to the river on boats, kayaks and paddle boards to help look for the teenager.
Miss Downes's best friend Shannon Pryce said yesterday: 'We haven't had a diving team help yet. We've had to find our own resources. We've been phoning up diving companies to find help.
'We've had lots of people come and help, which we really appreciate. No matter how small, any help would be perfect.'
She added: 'Alex has been here since 7am this morning [Monday] and we'll probably be here until it's dark. She's not going to give up until she finds him.'
Detectives said yesterday that they were awaiting specialist dive teams to continue the underwater searches, which had been hampered by poor visibility.
A spokesman for Thames Valley Police confirmed today that a body believed to be Ellis had been pulled from the River Thames last night.
Officers were not treating his death as suspicious but unexplained and a file was being prepared for the Oxfordshire Coroner.
The spokesman said: Last night at around 11pm divers recovered a body from the river. Although formal identification has not yet taken place, it is believed to be that of Ellis Downes, aged 16, from Harwell.
We have a specialist dive team ready to find Ellis but because of political reasons the police wont let them gain access. What a bunch of w****** Darren Downes, father of Ellis
His family have been informed. His death is being treated as unexplained but is not believed to be suspicious and the matter is being passed to the coroner.
Emergency services attended the scene near The Burycroft, Culham, off the A415 at 9pm on Saturday following a report that a boy had got in to difficulty while swimming and had not been seen since. Thames Valley Police, together with search and rescue teams, have been carrying out searches to locate him.
Superintendent Rory Freeman, Local Police Area commander for South and Vale added: Our thoughts are with Ellis' family at this very difficult time.
But Ellis's uncle Spencer Jefferies said: Thames Valley Police had nothing to do with the search, it was organised by family and friends. They can take no credit at all for recovering my nephew because they wanted to send in their own team the next day... Useless to be fair.
Ellis was a former pupil of St Birinus School, in Didcot, and was completing a forestry course at Common Leys near Witney, the horticultural section of Abingdon and Witney College.
Upset: Mr Downes posted at 5.20pm yesterday that the family had a specialist dive team ready but Thames Valley Police were blocking access to the river
Mum and dad: Ellis's parents Darren and Emma started their own search after a delay in the police response
Alex Downes said it was out of character for her brother to have gone into the river. One of his friends valiantly leapt into the water to rescue him but was too late.
There are no words to explain how Im feeling right now, I thought I would wake up and it would have just all been a terrible nightmare Alex Downes, Ellis's sister
She said: Ellis was not a strong swimmer - he didnt like deep water. The people who were with him said he swam to the other side of the river and then had to lie down on the banks because he couldnt breathe properly.
Someone said "I will come round and pick you up in the car" but he said no and started to swim back and half way across he started to struggle.
Thames Valley Police said last night that the involvement of an unauthorised dive team could hinder a planned and coordinated police search operation, which was met with derision by those close to the search, who said the police efforts had been a disgrace.
In a twist it was claimed that police failed to confirm the body find with some agencies searching, meaning they may not have been informed of Ellis's death and continued to look for his body today.
On the hunt: The police launched a huge search at the weekend with boats and divers after Ellis went missing and partially closed the river, but the family said this was later scaled back
Mr Freeman added: We are absolutely committed to find Ellis and bring him back to his family.
A SORRY TALE OF RESCUE EFFORTS It is not the first time that police have been criticised over their rescue efforts in waterways. Last month the family of Londoner Jack Susianta, 17, said he could have been saved from drowning if police had done more to save him. The mentally ill teenager jumped into a canal but officers did not go into the water until four minutes after he went under. In 2007 ten-year-old Jordon Lyon drowned in a pond in Wigan as two PCSOs stood by as they had not been trained for such an incident. In 2008, police, firemen and paramedics in Lincolnshire refused to go to the aid of a man who drowned in 18in of ditch water, saying the location was too dangerous. Advertisement
Since police were first notified, we have deployed our air support helicopter, Fire and Rescue water search teams with thermal imaging equipment, Environment Agency boats equipped with sonar, marine support with remotely operated vehicle capability and a specialist dive dog.
These have been supported by volunteer search teams from across Oxfordshire and Berkshire as well as local police officers and staff.
A specialist dive team from the Metropolitan Police is joining the search team tomorrow morning [Tuesday] to continue the search for Ellis and it is important to stress that at this stage the involvement of an unauthorised dive team could hinder a planned and coordinated police search operation.
But Shaun Saunders wrote: Continuing a search, you did no such thing. I was there for eight hours and all I see was the officers standing around, then you refused a volunteer dive squad to enter the water but in the end they went in and found the boy within three hours.
The police service is a disgrace, no wonder people don't have faith in the police service.
Worried onlookers: The boy got into trouble while trying to swim back across the river, according to his family
Viki Brooks said: Should probably be praising the unauthorised dive team as they're the ones that did your job.
Others commented that while the lack of support was devastating, cutbacks meant the force didn't have their own divers and had to wait for reinforcements from Scotland Yard.
Elliss heartbroken sister: Alex Downes, 19, who led the hunt for her brother, said she had hoped it would have been a 'terrible nightmare'
The Environment Agency was out on the River today 12 hours after Ellis's body had been found.
Craig Thomas added this morning: Can't believe [I] just took flowers down to find Environment Agency search team and boat [had] not been told Ellis was found.
Tributes to Ellis poured in online as friends and loved ones praised the thoughtful, cheeky and polite boy, who loved his moped and was looking forward to learning to drive.
Jenny Hawkins said: Ellis was an absolute credit to you all - a clever, handsome, thoughtful, cheeky and polite young man. His time with you was short but you can be so proud at how incredible he was. Our love goes out to you all.
Jenni Morgan added: I am so sorry for your loss. He was a lovely, polite boy. It was our pleasure to assist yesterday in the search and I'm so happy you now have your boy home to rest.
Shannon Pryce said Ellis was a lovely young lad and didn't deserve to be taken this soon, while Paige Brian said Harwell will not be the same without you riding your bike up and down smiling that cheesy grin.
Joanne Ray said: There are no words that can convey how sorry we are to hear of your loss. I just hope you feel the arms of the village surrounding you during this desperate time.
Gary Boughton-Smith, the manager of Abingdon Marina, said at the weekend that it was not uncommon for people to swim in the area but still very dangerous at this time of year.
He said: 'It was only towards the beginning of the week that temperatures at night were dropping to almost freezing.
'It warmed up in the latter part of the weekend but the river is still very cold. When its first hot like this you have to be very careful as you can get cramp through cold.'
Iain Duncan Smith today insisted Turkey's EU membership was on the referendum ballot paper in a stinging rebuke to David Cameron.
Mr Duncan Smith said Turkey had been promised accelerated EU membership as part of a deal to tackle the migration crisis and the Prime Minister was wrong to dismiss concerns.
Mr Cameron told MPs last week Turkish accession to the EU was not 'remotely on the cards' and directly advised voters who had concerns 'don't think about it'.
Iain Duncan Smith today insisted Turkey was on the ballot paper because David Cameron had been part of a deal to accelerate EU membership
But at a Vote Leave speech today, Mr Duncan Smith said: 'Turkey is on the ballot paper because the European Union is on the ballot paper.
'As I understand it, unless I was wrong, the Prime Minister and others said they wanted to have a road paved from Brussels to Ankara - is it going to stop suddenly and we're going to down tools?
'The reality is the European Union has made it very clear that first of all they are going to get visa-free travel access to the European Union, which is going to be a huge step for Turkey and others.'
The former work and pensions secretary continued: 'Then, of course, the next stage is for them to enter the European Union. The negotiations will begin, they were told part of the deal for getting illegal migrants back from Greece to Turkey has been they would get accelerated negotiations.'
'It is on the ballot paper, everything to do with the European Union is on the ballot paper.
'The key point I would make is if you vote to remain in the European Union the risks are enormous - uncontrolled migration, the arrival of new nation states who have much lower income levels than the UK does.'
In an appearance before the Commons liaison committee last week, Mr Cameron struck a completely different tone.
He said: 'I don't think the accession of Turkey is remotely on the cards.'
Mr Cameron said Turkish membership would have to be agreed by every EU member - and pointed out the French planned a referendum.
Mr Duncan Smith used his speech to make a strong attack on the impact 'uncontrolled migration' has on British workers wages and house prices
The PM insisted this meant there should be no fear of growing migration from Turkey.
Mr Cameron said: 'If your vote on this referendum is being influenced by considerations of Turkish membership of the EU, don't think about it.'
Mr Duncan Smith's speech today protested the wider impact of 'uncontrolled migration' caused by Britain's EU membership.
He said: 'The construction of the Olympic Park was a powerful illustration of the way in which immigrants undercut UK workers through their willingness to endure family-unfriendly living conditions.
'Visiting job centres in East London at the time I met both skilled and unskilled workers who struggled to get work on the site.
David Cameron, making his own EU speech yesterday, has insisted voters do not need to worry about Turkish membership because it is not 'remotely on the cards'
'When I asked why they said that people from Eastern Europe, often living in bedsits, without UK housing and family costs, hugely underbid them for their work.
'Since then those stories have been borne out by the facts.
'Despite the all the statements about the Olympic Park helping British workers, we now know that nearly half of all the jobs on the site went to foreign nationals.'
TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: 'This is the man who cut tax credits, who cut disability benefits and who pushed half a million more children into absolute poverty. So we will take no lessons on social justice from the minister for foodbanks.
'He ignored the main Brexit problem everybody else is talking about the big hit on jobs and wages that most economists predict. Working families have still not fully recovered from the economic crisis, so the last thing they need now is another hit on jobs and pay.'
Mr Duncan Smith said the construction of London's Olympic Park, pictured, had made clear the damage done by mass migration of low paid workers from Europe
BREXIT 'WOULD CUT GROWTH AND HIKE INFLATION' SAYS THINK-TANK The value of the pound would slump by a fifth and inflation would soar within a year of Britain leaving the EU, a think-tank has warned. Some 0.8 per cent would also be knocked off UK plc's growth in 2017, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr). The report is the latest in a latest in string of dire predictions about the fallout from Brexit. Among the bodies to have issued warnings are the Bank of England, the IMF and the OECD. The NIESR researchers said a Leave vote in the referendum on June 23 would cause a 'significant shock to the economy'. 'In the short run, our analysis suggests it would lower GDP growth to 1.9 per cent in 2017, compared with a growth rate of 2.7 per cent in a world in which the UK voted to remain,' the report said. By 2030 the economy would be between 1.5 per cent and 7.8 per cent smaller than if the country had remained in the block, the researchers said. Over the longer term sterling would be likely to fall to around the same value as the euro. 'The world that emerges is one in which sterling depreciates immediately, by around 20 per cent, against a basket of currencies,' the report said. 'This drives inflationary pressure, causing CPI to jump by between 2-4 percentage points more than our Remain-based forecast in 2017. 'Meanwhile, GDP growth is around 0.8 percentage point lower next year compared with the counterfactual. 'As negotiations conclude, the short-run influences dissipate. In their place come long-run reductions in trade and FDI, as well as a potential impact on productivity.'
Are we really all in this together? IDS blasts the EU for hitting British social justice in favour of building its super state
Former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith today blasted the European Union for damaging social justice in Britain.
Echoing his bombshell resignation from the Cabinet earlier this year, Mr Duncan Smith said the malign influence of the European trading bloc hit the poorest hardest.
The senior Vote Leave supporter made a speech entitled Are We In This Together and said EU free movement rules were holding down wages while driving up prices.
Mr Duncan Smith sensationally walked out of David Cameron's government in the wake of the Budget over deepening cuts to working age benefits while pensioner perks were left untouched.
Iain Duncan Smith, pictured during today's speech, said quitting the EU would be in the interests of improved 'social justice' in Britain
He said: 'No matter what those who want to remain say about the EU as a market place, the reality is that it is first and foremost a political project; the aim of which is the creation of an overarching federal power, above the nation states.
'It is the reason why economic common sense cannot prevail and why many Greeks are now living in third world conditions, Italian banks are becoming insolvent and terrible levels of youth unemployment have become, for the EU a terrible price worth paying.
'Yet outside of the EU an independent Britain can design migration, agricultural, environmental, budgetary and trade policies that the rest of Europe seems sadly incapable of agreeing upon.
'I hope I've persuaded you that leaving the EU is in the clear interests of social justice within Britain. Let me end by saying I I also think it could also advance social justice across the whole continent.'
Mr Duncan Smith said Britain's 'maximum moment of influence' could be at a Brexit vote which encourages genuine reform.
But after the speech shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth said Mr Duncan Smith was in no position to make such warnings.
He said: 'Working people will take Iain Duncan Smith's warnings about social injustice with a large pinch of salt.
'After all, this is the Tory minister behind the Bedroom Tax and the man who opposed the introduction of the minimum wage and once warned that increased workers' rights through the European Union would lead to ''turmoil on the streets''.
'We should take no lectures from IDS when it comes to the pressures facing schools and hospitals. It is his Tory Government that is putting at risk the public services we rely on under the Tories schools are facing budget cuts, over 3.5 million people are on the English waiting list and it has got harder to see a GP.
'And let's also remember that leaving the EU would mean less money for local schools and hospitals.'
Remain campaign is 'demeaning' the Brexit debate by accusing me of being an 'extremist', Iain Duncan Smith claims
Alan Johnson, leader of the Labour In campaign, controversially branded leading Brexit activists as 'extreme'
Iain Duncan Smith today blasted the In campaign for the 'demeaning' claim that Brexit supporters were 'extremist'.
Former Labour home secretary Alan Johnson said Vote Leave figures such as Mr Duncan Smith Boris Johnson and Michael Gove held an 'extreme view' for saying there is 'absolutely nothing good about the EU at all'.
But he immediately faced a backlash from fellow Labour MPs voting for Brexit, who said Mr Johnson was 'copmletely out of touch' with voters.
Mr Johnson made the comments as he was joined by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at the launch of the party's pro-EU battle bus, which will tour the UK between now and the June 23 referendum.
Mr Corbyn - drenched in the pouring rain - insisted he was fully behind the Remain campaign despite his own 'many criticisms' of the EU.
Mr Johnson attempted to win over 'moderate' British voters by trying to portray leading Brexit figures as radical and irrational.
Speaking alongside Mr Corbyn in the pouring rain this morning, he said: 'We can all find things that are wrong with the European Union, but they can't find anything that's right - and that suggests a kind of, a certain mentality, that is not rational and not balanced, and I think the majority of British people have a rational, balanced, moderate approach to these questions.'
Mr Duncan Smith said: 'I don't know in what world it is extreme to want your democracy back. It's not extreme to want democratic government in your country.
A detective is set to be jailed after he harassed his ex-girlfriend with a series of fake leaflets claiming that she was a prostitute and sent her coupons for pornography.
Ian Mangham and Agnes Collowey, from Essex, were together for four years after they met when she was wrongly reported missing to police by her ex-husband.
But after the couple split in 2013, the detective sergeant placed adverts for her supposed services in pub toilets and phone boxes, leading her to get phone calls and knocks on her door all through the night.
Break-up: Detective sergeant Ian Mangham, left, has been convicted of harassing Agnes Collowey, right
Mangham, 50, from Loughton has been convicted of harassment, and is likely to be sent to prison when he is sentenced, as well as losing his job with the Metropolitan Police.
Hammersmith magistrates' court heard that Ms Collowey, 38, received a note through the door of her home in Chingford, apparently written by her ex, which read: 'Romanian whore. Dirty prostitute, get out of our street.'
She was also bombarded with junk mail after Mangham completed coupons in her name for products such as jewellery engraved with the words 'To my best lover' and pornographic films.
Ms Collowey told the court that the couple split in 2013 after four years together, having met at a police station where Mangham was working.
'A few months after we broke up he was trying to persuade me to get back together with him,' she said. 'I tried to tell him that we were so different there was no point continuing.'
Sentence: Mangham was told he is likely to be jailed after he was found guilty of a harassment campaign
After she told him not to visit her new home he began the junk mail campaign, she said, adding: 'Letters were coming every day from different companies.
'Some were very upsetting, like one which offered to look after my dog after my death and I received a letter from an undertaker's and a mobility company.'
Calls from local men seeking sex then began. 'One called for sexual services and said he found my number in the mens toilet of a Chingford pub,' Ms Collowey said.
'I was constantly receiving text messages and some were very rude and I had people knocking on my door in the middle of the night.'
One call was from a pub at the end of her road and another from a phone box opposite Highams Park train station, where a leaflet advertised Agnes's address and phone number.
Target: Ms Collowey, pictured outside Hammersmith magistrates' court, was wrongly accused of prostitution
'It made me feel scared and uncomfortable in my own home with my son. I feared for my safety,' Ms Collowey told the court, adding she also received mystery 'aggressive' texts and had her dustbins pushed over.
Mangham told the court he was not behind the harassment campaign and insisted that he 'wished her well' after their relationship ended.
He said he had bought a home for the couple to live in, and lent her 3,600 to find a new home after she moved up, as well as 500 to help set up a massage business.
The sergeant added that he had continued to see Ms Collowey after their break-up and once kissed, until she sent him a text message dumping him for good.
He admitted reporting her to the benefits agency in November 2014 and looking up her new boyfriend's LinkedIn page.
Two Afghan migrants are suspected of planning terror attacks in Britain
Two Afghan migrants suspected of planning terror attacks in Britain are on the run after police smashed a cell linked to Islamic State.
Surgul Ahmadzai, 28, is accused of scouting for targets in London before flying to Paris to meet Qari Khesta Mir Ahmadzai, 30, and on to Rome.
Three other members of their five-strong cell were arrested in Italy after pictures of suspected targets were discovered on their mobile phones.
Hakim Nasri, pictured holding what is believed to be a MS16 semi automatic rifle, who has been arrested by police and held on suspicion of international terrorism
This graphic shows suspected targets in Britain including several in east London's Docklands, a hotel at West India Quay, the luxury Sunborn yacht hotel in Royal Victoria Dock and an Ibis hotel nearby
These included London hotels, restaurants, a footbridge in Canary Wharf and the Emirates Air Line cable car over the Thames.
One of the hotels photographed was the Premier Inn at the busy Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London, around 200 yards from the Olympic Park.
It is suspected the cell was planning to exploit migrant routes into Europe and slip terrorists into the UK through Calais.
Another one of the alleged plotters, Hakim Nasiri, was described as a 'human bomb' after he was arrested on suspicion of international terrorism.
A picture of the 23-year-old Afghan posing with an MS16 semi-automatic rifle in a supermarket was among evidence seized by police.
There were reports that one of the terror cell's members had hunted for an assault rifle in Britain for another suspect. Nasiri was apprehended at an Italian refugee centre.
He had been granted provisional political asylum on May 5, despite the fact that undercover detectives posing as refugees inside the camp had been trailing him since December.
Also arrested were Afghan Gulistan Ahmadzai, 29, and Pakistani Zulfiqar Amjad, 24, both of whom are suspected of aiding illegal immigration.
The pair still on the run are believed to have fled to Kabul in Afghanistan, after slipping through the net following their European trip in December.
They were able to visit seven cities in nine days paying budget airline fares in cash.
Nasri, pictured again with the weapon, was arrested with Gulistan Ahmadzai and they were detained in relation to an investigation into plans to stage terror attacks in Rome and London
It is understood all five suspects had been granted refugee status in Italy, meaning they would have been able to take advantage of Europe's open borders to move freely around the continent.
Italian police said the migrants had been handed documents equivalent to EU passports which enabled them to travel between countries in the Schengen zone - which does not include the UK.
The Home Office could not explain how Surgul Ahmadzai had been able to travel to Britain, and how long he had stayed.
The ease with which the suspects were able to fly around Europe will fuel claims that the continent's open borders are a security risk.
Italian investigators detained four of the alleged terrorists briefly in December last year, including Nasiri and the pair now on the run.
The group were caught filming in a shopping centre in the southern Italian city of Bari.
Their mobile phones were seized, and police found photos of target sites including the local airport and a shopping centre.
But two days later, Surgul Ahmadzai and Qari Khesta Mir Ahmadzai left the country.
Other suspected targets in Britain included several in east London's Docklands. A hotel at West India Quay was photographed, along with the luxury Sunborn yacht hotel in Royal Victoria Dock and an Ibis hotel nearby.
Pictures of the South Quay footbridge to Canary Wharf and the Premier Inn outside Westfield in Stratford were also discovered.
The cell was allegedly planning other attacks in France, Italy and Belgium, including on Rome's Colosseum and the Circus Maximus - a chariot racing arena now used for music and sporting events.
Pictures of mutilated US soldiers were discovered on the phones, along with recordings of prayers to prepare recruits for martyrdom.
Nasri even had taken a selfie with who is believed to be the mayor of Bari, Antonio Decaro, during a march to show solidarity with immigrant citizens last September
Investigators also found a list of prices for smuggling migrants into Europe and information about trafficking activity in Italy and Calais.
They said most of the group's activities used Greece and Turkey as access points to Europe.
Police were unable to explain how two members of the cell were able to slip through the net.
Italian prosecutor Roberto Rossi told a news conference there was no evidence that an attack was imminent, 'but it is clear they were making preparations'.
The suspects were all officially resident near Bari, the main city in Puglia, which has become a magnet for jihadis.
They allegedly provided logistical support to an international organisation linked to Islamic State, investigators claimed.
Of the mobile phone evidence, Mr Rossi said the large number of photos of certain sites 'where tourists in general don't take pictures... they assume an extremely strong meaning'.
The two arrested Afghans were described as 'human bombs' by Right-wing politician Roberto Calderoli of the Northern League.
The third arrested man, Amjad, was granted a residence permit on Monday and made immediate plans to travel to Calais for alleged smuggling activities. This was what prompted Italian police to swoop.
This is the moment a deadly ISIS sniper was blown to pieces by a missile strike after he was spotted by soldiers in Syria.
The lone gunman was seen hiding out in the crumbling remains of a collapsed building in the war-torn country.
Dramatic video footage then shows a rocket smashing into the structure and exploding in a giant fireball.
Video captures the moment a deadly ISIS sniper was blasted by a missile after he was spotted by soldiers in Syria
The lone gunman was seen hiding out in the crumbling remains of a collapsed building in the war torn country
Dramatic video footage then shows a rocket smashing into the structure and exploding in a giant fireball
The exact location of the rocket strike and who fired it is not yet known, but it is believed to have taken place in late April.
Meanwhile, ISIS has murdered two of its own fighters in its Iraq stronghold, Mosul, after accusing them of treason.
Sources say Hashim Khidr al-Allou was beheaded in the city centre for 'communicating with the Iraqi government forces'.
Impact: The rocket can be seen exploding into a huge fireball after smashing into the derelict building
Footage shows a huge cloud of black smoke after the rocket pounded into the side of the collapsed building
The terror group then arrested another of its members - Junaid Yassin Ali Aiwaz over claims he had committed 'high treason' - by trying to escape Mosul with the help of Iraqi forces.
A pupil at a 31,000-a-year public school considered one of the best in Britain suffered serious burns to his hand and face after a science experiment went wrong.
The year-seven boy at Sevenoaks School in Sevenoaks, Kent - who is believed to be aged 12 - was taking part in a lunchtime science project when the accident happened.
Details of the accident have only been revealed this week, after the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) confirmed that it was investigating.
A year-seven boy at Sevenoaks School in Kent (pictured) - who is believed to be aged 12 - was taking part in a lunchtime science project when he suffered burns to his face and hands
The 31,000-a-year school in Sevenoaks was the best in the country in 2012, beating Eton and Harrow
The incident took place on November 6 last year, as the pupil of the 1,000-student school, took part in an experiment at a lunchtime science club.
He was left with serious burns to his face and one of his hands and was rushed to Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
He was subsequently transferred to a specialist burns unit at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead and is now recovering from his ordeal.
In 2012 the school, which charges boarders just under 31,000-a-year and day pupils just under 20,000-a-year, was ranked the number one school in the UK, ahead of Harrow and Eton.
Former pupils of the school, which dates back to the 15th century, include actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Clive Dunn.
A spokesman for the HSE this week confirmed that officers were investigating the incident, but declined to go into detail about the accident.
The boy was rushed to Tunbridge Wells Hospital (pictured) and later transferred to a specialist burns unit at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead and is now recovering from his ordeal
He said: 'The HSE is aware of this incident and is investigating.'
A spokesman for Sevenoaks School said this week: 'Sevenoaks School can confirm that a pupil was injured in an accident involving a science experiment.
'Following the accident, the school carried out a thorough investigation and has shared its findings with the Health & Safety Executive.'
In April this year, the school announced the launch of a 32m project to build what it called 'Europe's most advanced school science and technology centre'.
A double murderer with a history of extreme violence has been caught by police after cutting off his ankle bracelet and going on the run for six weeks.
Parole breaker John Wallace Lindrea, 54, was picked up at an address just outside of Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon, after Victoria Police appealed for public assistance in an attempt to locate him.
Fugitive Taskforce detectives and Brimbank Crime Investigation Unit members teamed up to locate him.
'He has been returned to prison for breaching parole conditions,' Victoria Police said in a statement.
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Convicted murderer John Wallace Lindrea (left) has been caught by police after breaking his ankle bracelet and going on the run for six weeks. Police initially believed he was travelling with his de facto partner Sally Roach (right)
He had been serving a 20-year minimum jail term over the 1993 murders of Kaelene McDonald and Andrew Johns after gate crashing a party at a property (pictured) in Kinglake, 46 kilometres north-east of Melbourne
Along with his double murder and prison escape convictions, the 54-year-old has also been convicted for burglaries and thefts
Lindrea, who was sentenced to a 20-year minimum jail term over two murders in 1993, was last seen in the Warrnambool area on March 25, during the Easter long weekend, a day after his parole was cancelled.
During a subsequent hunt for Lindrea, police described the convicted killer as a threat to the community due to his propensity for violence.
He was convicted for the 1993 murders of Kaelene McDonald and Andrew Johns, who were shot dead at a party in Kinglake.
Along with his double murder and prison escape convictions, the 54-year-old has also been convicted for burglaries and thefts.
Lindrea once tried to escape from Barwon Prison with armed robber Christopher Dean "Badness" Binse when they cut their way out of their cells, but he was recaptured inside the prison grounds.
Police in March declined to reveal why Lindrea's parole had been revoked, but told the public he might be travelling with his partner Sally Roach, 46.
The family of a father-of-two who went missing in Turkey after a night out have been left with an agonising wait after reports emerged that a body had been found.
Troy Ross, 28, a scaffolder from Leeds, West Yorkshire, was last seen on CCTV trying to kick down a door in his hotel in the resort of Fethiye after locking himself out.
His partner Deanna Willumsen, 28, had left the room earlier to visit a friend who was also staying at the hotel and returned to find the room abandoned.
Troy Ross, right, went missing while on holiday with his partner Deanna Willumsen, left in Turkey
She said on Tuesday: 'I'm unsure what's happening. There are a few rumours and it's in the Turkish news that he's dead but I haven't had any confirmation.
'No one has contacted me.'
The couple flew to Turkey on April 28 for a five-night stay at the Jiva Beach Resort hotel.
On Saturday April 30 Troy, who lived in Seacroft, went missing after going out drinking.
Mr Ross, pictured, vanished from the Jiva Beach Resort Hotel in Turkey on Saturday, April 30
Last week Miss Willumsen, from Kippax, returned to England to be with their three-month-old son Roman, who was being looked after by her mum while they were on holiday.
She said: 'When I turned up at the airport, I was fully expecting Troy to be there waiting for me.
'I thought he might just have been lying low and was worried about getting arrested because of the damage to the hotel door.
'When he wasn't there, that's when it him me that something bad might have happened. I was in hysterics. I still can't really focus on what I'm doing.'
Mr Ross has another son, a four-year-old also called Troy, from a previous relationship.
Mr Ross, pictured, got locked out of his hotel room and was seen kicking the door before leaving the building
Ms Willumsen last saw her boyfriend when she left their room at about 8.30pm on the Saturday evening to call on a friend who was also a guest at the hotel.
He was later caught on CCTV trying to break down the door of the empty room after locking himself out.
He was then seen leaving the hotel alone at about 9.30pm - and there has not been a sighting of him since.
Ms Willumsen, 28, from Leeds said: 'I'm just praying he is safe somewhere and that he'll be home soon'
Mr Ross is known to have had a small amount of cash on him as well as Ms Willumsen's bank card - which has not been used over the last week.
He did not have his passport with him when he went missing and had left his mobile phone back in the UK.
British officials have checked with the local police and hospitals in the area, but there has been no sign of him since he vanished.
Friends have contacted Turkish police and hospitals in the area but there still has been no sign of Mr Ross
Victim was the third victim of gun violence in the city in 24 hours
He was previously targeted by paramilitary 'Action Against Drugs' gang
Takeaway delivery man shot in his car as he worked in the west of the city
A pizza delivery driver has been shot dead in Belfast in the third gun attack in the city in 24 hours.
Dan Murray was in his car taking food to a customer in the west of the city when he was shot at around 10pm last night.
The murder of Mr Murray - who was well known to police and had survived a previous attempt on his life - came after two men were shot in separate paramilitary-style attacks earlier the day.
Dan Murray was shot dead in Belfast last night. He previously survived being shot in the face in an attack
He was targeted by the paramilitary group 'Action Against Drugs' but denied he was a drug dealer
Earlier yesterday evening, a 17-year-old boy was shot several times in the leg in the north of the city.
Around 1am on Monday morning, a man in his twenties was shot in the back and buttocks in the same Belfast district.
Both were taken to hospital but, though seriously wounded, neither are believed to have suffered life threatening injuries.
Last year, the day's third victim, Mr Murray, was shot by members of paramilitary group 'Action Against Drugs' but a bullet traveled through his neck and he survived. He denied by a drug dealer, The Irish News reported.
PSNI Detective Superintendent Kevin Geddes said: 'The victim was shot inside a car and was taken to hospital, but was pronounced dead a short time later.
'We are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information about this terrible crime to get in touch with us.'
Stormont First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have condemned the 'barbaric' killing.
In a joint statement, they said: 'The shootings in Belfast yesterday were barbaric and wrong. We unreservedly condemn the actions of the perpetrators who care only for themselves.'
Photos from the scene show Mr Murray's car as he took an order to Lady Street in the west of the city
He was the third man shot in a day of gun violence in the Northern Irish capital yesterday
Sinn Fein MP for the area Paul Maskey condemned the killing 'unreservedly'.
'There can be no place in our society for such actions,' he said. 'Those behind this incident have nothing to offer the community and need to stop these futile actions immediately.
'I would appeal for anyone with information on this shooting to bring it forward to the PSNI.'
SDLP west Belfast Assembly member Alex Attwood said: 'I condemn this atrocity. All with information should tell the police so that everything that can be done is done to pursue those who use the gun.
'This is one of a series of incidents. There is a pattern of violence including murder. The few seek to impose their will over the heads of the people.
'This threat needs to be assessed and addressed at policing and political levels. The huge numbers of good people, our older citizens and young families who live amid this threat need new actions and renewed hope that the threat will be comprehensively faced down.'
Johnson accused of asking Julie Bishop for help with her financial woes
Ex-employees say she was more focused on celebrities than paying bills
Celebrity dress designer Johanna Johnson has dismissed claims she owes the tax office $1.1 million as she continues to flaunt her high-life.
The Australian designer, whose Sydney bridal dress business went into liquidation earlier this year, is alleged to have defaulted on staff pay and taxes for years.
She responded to claims of owing money to the Australian Tax Office and avoiding customers on A Current Affair on Tuesday night, saying the $1.1 million figure was not correct.
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Johanna Johnson responded to claims of owing money to the Australian Tax Office and avoiding customers on A Current Affair on Tuesday night, saying the $1.1 million figure was not correct
The Australian designer, whose Sydney bridal dress business went into liquidation earlier this year, is alleged to have defaulted on staff pay and taxes for years
'I've got nothing to hide,' she said.
'Sorry, sorry that figure ($1.1 million) is incorrect and unsubstantiated, If you want to talk to me i'm happy to talk to you properly.'
When pressed by the reporter on ignoring attempts to be contacted, she said she was not in a position to legally comment.
The celebrity dress designer said the brides waiting for dresses were her 'main interest'
When pressed by the reporter on ignoring attempts to be contacted, she said she was not in a position to legally comment
She said the brides waiting for dresses were her 'main interest'.
Ms Johnson took to Facebook last Thursday to say she had been gagged by legal proceedings and assured brides that their dresses would be made.
'Although I have been unable to comment earlier due to legal proceedings, I am writing to assure you that we are working towards being able to deliver all orders concerning my former business as previously assured,' the post on her business' page read.
'I will be reaching out to each client personally.'
Ms Johnson took to Facebook last Thursday to say she had been gagged by legal proceedings and assured brides that their dresses would be made
Earlier this month it was revealed the celebrity designer jet-setted around the world in the comforts of First Class while failing to pay staff superannuation.
She is accused of owing $25,000 to a former production manager on top of the alleged tax bill.
Former employees claim Ms Johnson, who counts Madonna and Kim Kardashian among celebrity clients, ignored the company's financial woes to globe trot and build a reputation among Hollywood's A-list.
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Celebrity designer Johanna Johnson (right) was more focused on mingling with Hollywood's stars than paying employees' superannuation, former staff have claimed. She is seen above with star stylist Rachael Zoe (left) in Los Angeles
'These were all of course work trips, but personally it was a little bit of a slip in the face for us,' one former employee told The Daily Telegraph.
'It showed where her priorities lay and also that she didn't really care and had no interest in the superannuation situation.'
During one trip the designer checked in to the Qantas First Class Lounge, boasting to Facebook followers jokingly as she made her way to Texas from Sydney.
Another claimed she still received invoices from overseas suppliers after leaving the company.
'She has run away from all her problems and, as a result, her employees will never receive their entitlements and clients will never receive their gowns.'
Ms Johnson has allegedly been ordered to pay more than $1million to the Australian Tax Office or faces losing her business
Johanna regularly shares photographs from the red carpets of Hollywood events, posing with celebrities for snaps to appear on her Instagram account. She is seen above with actress Laverne Cox (left) and Michelle Dockery (right)
The designer (seen above during another trip to Lake Como) is also accused of not paying staff's superannuation
She was also told to hand over $25,000 in unpaid superannuation and taxes to former head of production, Alana Teasal, it was reported.
Ms Teasel told Fairfax Media how she had grown tired of watching her former employer travel the world to shower celebrities with free merchandise.
'Seeing Johanna Johnson continue to dress celebrities for free, participate in fashion weeks and go overseas for red carpet collections ... when she owes myself and others (entitlements) is the reason why I have pushed forward with the wind-up of her company.
'I feel like I need to stand up not just for myself as a former employee but also all the other ex-employees who are owed significant superannuation,' she said.
The designer is also accused of approaching Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, another of her clients, to ask for help.
'Today's office': Another photograph from the designer's travels revealed her drinking wine in a swimming pool at an L.A. house
She is also accused of asking Foreign Minister Julie Bishop for help on her taxes, an allegation the politician denied
Ms Johnson announced she was moving her company's head office to Los Angeles earlier this month. She is seen (left) during another trip to Hollywood and (right) at Vogue's Manhattan office
Ms Johnson has assured customers that while her Australian business faces collapse, brides with outstanding orders for wedding dresses will receive them
According to The Daily Telegraph the politician, who has worn the designer's gowns to a number of events, refused.
'Ms Bishop did not become involved in resolving the dispute and at no time was there any direct contact between Ms Bishop and the ATO, nor has there been any request for preferential treatment for Ms Johnson,' her office said.
The designer's Facebook page has been flooded with messages from panicked brides claiming to have been stood up for appointments and fittings at the brand's boutiques despite paying thousands for bespoke gowns.
The designer counts Maddona (above in one of her designs) and Kim Kardashian among celebrity clients
Ms Johnson assured fans it was 'business as usual' last month when announcing her company's move to America
Earlier this month Ms Johnson assured customers it was 'business as usual' after relocating its offices to Los Angeles.
In a lengthy post she described needing to spend more time with her children but insisted she said: 'To my dearest clients and brides... I need more time with my babies, and to get somewhat of a work/life balance back.
'(As much as I love my work, 7 day weeks are not good for anyone's soul!) We look forward to seeing our lovely clients in their fittings and updating you all with these great things ahead. Kindest, JJ.'
See more news on ISIS militants at www.dailymail.co.uk/isis
The information she leaked to Russia caused deaths of seven jihadists
She infiltrated ISIS and worked as a spy for four years, terrorists say
A Russian female 'spy' has been executed by ISIS after spending four years working undercover within the terror group, the jihadists have claimed.
The woman, named as Elvira Karaeva, reportedly infiltrated an ISIS enclave in Russia's Caucasus region and spent years leaking information which led to the assassinations of seven fighters.
She reportedly gave Russian intelligence services informations about terrorist fighters' identities, safe houses and military bases, ISIS claims.
Russian spy: Elvira Karaeva reportedly spent four years living and working undercover after infiltrating an ISIS enclave in Russia's Caucasus region (file photo)
Her capture and subsequent execution was reported in ISIS's Russian-language blog called 'Istok', where she is accused of being an agent for Moscow intelligence.
'Elvira the apostate gave information to the Russian special services about our brothers and sisters waging jihad...in the Caucasus Province,' FoxNews quotes the article as saying.
'She shamelessly wormed her way into confidence...and then disclosed their (jihadists) location and contacts, thus making them easy prey for the henchmen of taghut,' the article states.
The information leaked by the now reportedly executed Russian female spy led to the deaths of seven ISIS fighters, including Gochiyaev Biaslan, left, and Armiev Artur, right
The information leaked by the now reportedly executed Russian female spy led to the deaths of seven ISIS fighters, including one whom she was said to have been married to
'Because of her contemptible actions and close contacts with the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation), many of our brothers and sisters became martyrs.'
Karaeva, whose identity and alleged execution has not been confirmed by Moscow, was reportedly caught after ISIS got hold of audio during which she admits working for Russian intelligence.
ISIS also accuses her of murdering her terrorist husband, Abu Muslim, using poison.
from Mexico to Brooklyn, New York next month
El Chapo is headed to the Big Apple, sources say.
Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman will first be transferred to Brooklyn, New York when he is extradited to the U.S.
That move could happen as soon as next month, the sources said.
A federal jury in Brooklyn indicted El Chapo in 2014 on charges of laundering $14billion as the head of the violet Sinaloa Cartel, believed to be the world's largest drug-trafficking organization.
The indictment against El Chapo - which translates to 'Shorty' - accuses him of ordering hit men to carry out 'hundreds of acts of violence' including murders, torture, kidnappings and assassinations.
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Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (center) will allegedly be extradited to the U.S. as early as next month
Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that Guzman will first be transferred to Brooklyn, New York. Above the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
Brooklyn is likely to be just the first stop on El Chapo's American tour. He faces charges in a total of seven jurisdictions in the U.S.
The Mexican government is actively working to extradite El Chapo to the U.S., likely because American prisons are more secure.
El Chapo has twice escaped from high-security prisons in Mexico, the most recent happening last July when he sneaked out of his prison cell through a hole in his shower that led to an underground tunnel.
He was recaptured in January, after spending several months on the run with his henchmen.
A federal judge in Mexico ruled on Monday that El Chapo's extradition can move forward. Now it's the Foreign Relations Department's turn to approve the decision, which they have 20 days to make.
Meanwhile, El Chapo's attorneys are working to block the extradition on the grounds that it violates his human rights.
The decision comes just two days after the Sonaloa cartel boss was moved from a maximum-security prison near Mexico City to a one in Ciudad Juarez.
Mexico's Judicial Council said the judge, who it did not name, had agreed that the legal requirements laid out in the extradition treaty between the two countries had been met.
The Foreign Relations Department has 20 days to decide whether to approve Guzman's extradition, although his attorneys can request a delay or stop the process altogether if the decision is appealed.
Guzman was moved Saturday from a prison outside Mexico City to one in Ciudad Juarez near the US border.
Mexico's National Security Commission said the transfer was in line with security protocols, and it has rotated more than 7,400 inmates nationwide as part of a security strategy implemented last September.
Questions have arisen on both sides of the border about the decision to relocate the convicted drug lord to a region that is one of his cartel's strongholds.
One Mexican security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity acknowledged Sunday that the sudden transfer was to a less-secure prison.
The official said the Cefereso No. 9 prison on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, is not as impregnable as the Altiplano facility near Mexico City, considered the country's highest-security prison.
The official said that Guzman is being held in a maximum-security wing, however, where the same protocols are being enforced, including 24-hour monitoring via a camera in his cell.
Guzman was moved Saturday from a prison outside Mexico City to one in Ciudad Juarez near the US border (pictured)
'El Chapo' first broke out of another prison in 2001 and spent more than a decade on the run, becoming one of the world's most-wanted fugitives.
He was recaptured in 2014, but slipped out of Altiplano, which many previously had thought was inescapable, in July 2015 by fleeing through a sophisticated, mile-long tunnel that went up into the shower in his cell.
Mexican marines recaptured him in the western state of Sinaloa in January, after he fled a safe house through a storm drain.
He was returned to Altiplano, where he was placed under constant observation from a ceiling camera with no blind spots, and the floors of top-security cells were reinforced with metal bars and a 16-inch (40-centimeter) layer of concrete.
Some Mexican media speculated the move signaled an imminent extradition to the US, where he faces drug charges in seven jurisdictions.
But authorities denied the claims, and multiple analysts said there was no sign of a link between the prison switch and extradition.
Questions have arisen on both sides of the border about the decision to relocate the convicted drug lord to a region that is one of his cartel's strongholds (pictured, army and police at a checkpoint close to Ciudad Jaurez, where El Chapo was transferred on Saturday)
Guzman was notified of the judge's decision on Sunday evening, a judicial authority speaking on condition of anonymity said. The official was not authorized to be identified.
The drug lord's attorney Jose Refugio Rodriguez said he would continue trying to block the extradition.
He said that if the Foreign Department approves extradition, the defense will have 30 working days to seek a court order blocking a move to take his client to the U.S. to be prosecuted on drug charges.
Railway stations and public spaces in three cities in the Czech Republic have been evacuated after warnings of a terror attack involving up to ten bombs.
The national police force received an anonymous tip-off this morning, sparking a major response in the capital Prague and the cities of Pardubice and Plzen.
Authorities said they were informed that a bomb had been left at the central railway station in Prague and at other places across the country.
The national police force received an anonymous tip-off this morning, sparking a major response in the capital Prague and the cities of Pardubice (pictured) and Plzen
Railway stations and public spaces in three cities in the Czech Republic have been evacuated after warnings of a terror attack involving up to ten bombs
Authorities said they were informed that a bomb had been left at the central railway station in Prague and at other places across the country
There have been reports by Czech media that officers also ordered evacuations at public buildings in Pardubice and Plzen.
A primary school in Prague was also among the buildings evacuated while three squares in the city including Namesti Republiky were taped off by police.
Police chief Marketa Janovska told the local media: 'An anonymous person informed us by telephone that there were bombs at the central railway station in Prague and other places across the Czech Republic.'
Police patrol a public building in the city of Pardubice amid a warning that bombs would go off at 15-minute intervals around the country
There have been reports by Czech media that officers also ordered evacuations at public buildings in Pardubice and Plzen
According to Czech Radio, a call was made to police earlier today and there was a warning that the ten bombs would go off at 15-minute intervals around the country
According to Czech Radio, a call was made to police earlier today and there was a warning that the ten bombs would go off at 15-minute intervals around the country.
Police cordoned off a number of city centre squares and public spaces while rail passengers reported long delays in Prague.
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A devout Christian is spending more than $90million constructing a 500-foot long Noah's Ark which will become the largest timber-framed building in the world.
The full-sized wooden replica of the ship from the biblical story of Noah and the Great Flood is to become the main attraction at a US amusement park set to open in July.
Inside the ark will be several exhibits featuring Noah and his family, along with information to help the public understand the Bible.
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Enormous: The 510ft ship from the biblical story of Noah and the Great Flood is to become the main attraction in the Kentucky park
The attraction will be called The Ark Encounter and is due to initially open in July; the ark seen here under construction
It is the largest timber-frame structure in the US, the 510-foot-long full-size Ark is designed to be family-oriented, historically authentic, and environmentally friendly
Ken Ham who had the idea to create the Noah's Ark structure (pictured left) and an inside look at Noah's Ark in Williamstown, Kentucky
Ken Ham is president and chief executive of Answers in Genesis, the Christian organisation behind the Noah's Ark-themed amusement park in Kentucky.
He said: 'We want to challenge people that Noah wasn't some primitive brute. He was very intelligent.
'One of the big questions is how could he fit all the animals on board?'
The ark, which is nearing completion, will be 510 foot long and stand 80 feet high. It will be able to encounter 16,000 guests per day.
To build the full replica, 3.3 million feet of wooden boards will be used, not counting exhibits inside.
An artist's impression of what amusement park which will include the replica Noah's Ark will look like when it is completed
The replica Noah's Ark has been modeled on the exact measurements of the ship as recorded in the Bible
From above the amusement park site looks a long way off being ready to welcome tourists and customers when it opens in July
Deep within the ark work is underway to prepare all the rooms for the family-orientated amusement park in Kentucky
Other plans to be completed include to build a Walled City from the Tower of Babel, a first-century Middle Eastern village, as well as a walk-through aviary and a large petting zoo.
The attraction is designed to be family friendly, historically authentic, and kind to the environment friendly. It will be one of the largest green construction projects in the US.
In 2014, Answers in Genesis was awarded tax incentives, potentially worth more than $18 million over 10 years by Kentucky officials.
According to the Old Testament, Noah built an ark after being told by God that a great flood was coming and he had to save all of the world's animals.
In 2010, archaeologists in Turkey thought they had found the remains of an ark in Mount Ararat but other scientists have cast doubt on its authenticity.
Inside the Noah's Ark structure in Williamstown, Kentucky US (left) and (right) a man works on the replica Noah's Ark structure
The ark, which is nearing completion, will be 510 foot long and stand 80 feet high. It will be able to encounter 16,000 guests per day
A string of voicemails allegedly left by Sumner Redstone for a woman capture the billionaire mogul begging the unknown individual to join him, a male friend and another woman for a foursome.
Radar Online released the set of voicemails on Monday, shortly after a judge in Los Angeles dismissed a lawsuit that had been filed against Redstone and his estate by ex-girlfriend Manuela Herzer.
In the recordings, believed to have been made in the last two years, Redstone, 92, tells the woman he wants her to join him and his friend Bob and watch as they engage in sexual activity with another woman before joining the group.
'So what will probably happen will probably really excite you. Ill f*** her and shell s**k Bob off and hell f*** her and shell s**k me off,' says Redstone.
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Orgies: Sumner Redstone (above in 2012) is allegedly heard planning a foursome and describing threesomes in newly unearthed voicemail messages
Timing: The voicemails were released shortly after his ex Manuela Herzer (above with Redstone and Bob Evans in 2012) had her lawsuit dismissed
Redstone tells the unidentified woman at the start of the voicemail; 'Bob has never done a threesome with two men. He's done it with two women so he's a little bit nervous but he's gonna come cause I want him to.'
He later details to the woman he is leaving a voice message for what will happen before he and Bob engage in any sexual activity with the other woman.
'Ill make her j*** off in front of Bob because shes very hot when she j**k off,' he says.
'Shes better than what you do. She takes a long time and she moans. Then maybe I'll have her go down on him before we get in bed. Get him hard by s**king his p***k.
'And then we'll go to bed and he'll f*** her and she'll s**k me and I'll f*** her and she'll s**k him. Pretty good, huh? Don't tell me you wouldn't want that. Everyone would.'
Redstone then tells the woman she can join them next week if this is appealing to her and she 'plays her cards right.'
He also tells her that he and Bob will be having a threesome with another women that night, and Bob is nervous about the prospect.
'I know you're gonna get very hot thinking about what I'm going to be doing this afternoon. Maybe next week you can join us,' Redstone says before hanging up the phone.
His next voice message begins with him telling the woman; 'This is your great lover. So I did what I said. Had a hot threesome. Had this girl, Big producer. F***** the a** off her and she s**ked off another guy, I don't think I should tell you his name.
'Then he f***** her, and he s**ked me off.Pretty hot, right?'
'Before all of it I had her j**k off. She does a great j**k off and she moans. And I had this guy f*** her t***and then I had him go down and s**k her c*** off. Then she went down and s**ked him but I didn't want to him to c** because I needed his c**k for the bed.
'So honey, what I found is that when you lay down a woman's defenses, she's even hungrier than men. She'll do anything.'
He then asks the unidentified woman to let him know very clearly if she would like to join this group, warning her that she will have to f*** and s**k a lot of men and women but he thinks she will enjoy it.
Day in court: Herzer arriving to a Los Angeles courtroom on Friday morning (above)
Keep it going: Herzer quickly filed another lawsuit against Redstone's family for $70million on Monday (daughter Sheri and lawyer Elizabeth Burnett above)
The third voice message again begins with Redstone introducing himself as her 'hot lover.'
He again described a recent sexual encounter, this time again with a man and a woman.
'Before it even started she j**ked off. She moans so it's very exciting. Then I had her kiss him. And then I had him s**k her breasts. Then I had him go down on her and s**k her c*** and I had her go down and s**k his c***,' says Redstone.
He later describes what happened when they got into bed, saying; 'He f***** her and s**ked me off.'
Redstone then again asks the woman if she wants to join, telling her; 'You should only do it if you're excited about the idea of having everything, men and women at the same time.'
He then says that maybe the woman is not ready and he will look for another woman, but says; 'Of course I love you. I wanna f*** your a** off.'
Redstone apparently left another voice message as well, which was not released by Radar Online but who shared the transcript, where he told the woman; 'Hope you dont mind my language but Im craving that hot c*** of yours. The way I like to suck it and the way I like to f*** it.
'Lemme ask you a question. I know you say youre not ready for a threesome with a manbut what about a woman? I think you told me you did threesomes with women.'
Friends: Herzer and Redstone's ex Sydney Holland (above in 2013) were both kicked out of his home last year
The release of these voice recordings also comes as Herzer, 52, has filed a new lawsuit against Redstone's family.
Almost immediately after her mental competency lawsuit was dismissed by a judge on Monday, she filed the new suit claiming Redstone's family had conspired to cut her out of the will.
Herzer claims that Shari Redstone - Sumner's daughter - and her sons Tyler and Brandon Korff, along with Sumner's house manager Isileli Tuanaki and lead nurse Jeremy Jagiello, worked together to turn Redstone against his former girlfriend.
The lawsuit alleges that Shari spearheaded the plot, which stripped Herzer of her role as Redstone's primary caregiver as well as her share of the inheritance.
Herzer is seeking $70 million, plus legal fees, for what she calls 'criminal acts in intentionally destroying [her] special relationship with Sumner', which in turn causes him to disinherit her.
Police have launched an investigation after a 14-month-old girl died in suspicious circumstances when she fell ill at home.
Inayah Ahmed was taken to hospital in Glasgow last month after suddenly becoming unwell, but despite the efforts of medical staff she died three days later.
It was only after a post-mortem examination that police began a formal inquiry into the toddlers death. No arrests have been made.
Tragic: Inayah Ahmed died aged 14 months after reportedly choking on a piece of toast
The girl, described as 'the life and soul of the family', is said to have choked to death on a piece of toast after having difficulty eating solid food.
Yesterday, uniformed police were still guarding the family home in a smart new development in Drumchapel, in Glasgow's East End. A police van remained outside as officers continued their inquiries.
It is understood that Inayah lived in the house with up to 11 other members of her extended family, including her grandparents, her aunt's family and two uncles.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Police Scotland said: 'Police are treating her death as suspicious and inquiries are continuing.'
Officers refused to confirm how Inayah died or release the results of the post-mortem investigation.
Investigation: Police launched a probe yesterday after deciding that the death was suspicious
News of the babys death has stunned the local community who say the family, who are believed to have relatives living nearby, were always very friendly.
A friend of the family, who has asked to remain anonymous, said: They are a very nice family; they are just like any other family. Their kids are always in and out playing.
I was told that the baby choked on a piece of toast. Its really sad that it has happened to a wee baby like that.
Two other neighbours on the quiet cul-de-sac said they had heard that the baby had been struggling to eat and was being fed through a syringe.
It is understood locally that the grandmother and her husband are the householders, while one of their three sons is Inayahs father, who is believed to be in his mid-20s.
Hunt: Officers pictured at the young girl's home in Glasgow yesterday as the probe was ongoing
Other members of the family live at other properties elsewhere on the estate. None of the family could be contacted for comment yesterday.
Relatives have launched a fundraising campaign in the memory of the young girl in order to donate money to children who need medical care in the Middle East.
The wrote: 'On the April 20 our beloved Inayah went back to our creator. She was the life and soul of the family. Without her laughter and antics, everything seems so dull.
Senior police officers used force accommodation jokingly nicknamed 'love pads' to carry on 'illicit relations', an employment tribunal heard today.
Rumours about an alleged affair between ex-Northumbria Police chief constable Mike Craik and Assistant Chief Constable Carolyn Peacock, which was said to have led him to be punched by her husband Jim at a barbecue, spread so far that local solicitors had heard the story, the hearing was told.
Glossy posters of Mr Craik displayed in Northumbria Police stations were defaced with marker pen, showing him with a 'blacked over' eye, retired Pc Bryn Jones said in a statement.
Retired Pc Bryn Jones (left) told an employment tribunal brought by the force's former head of legal services, Denise Aubrey (right) that senior officers at Northumbria Police used force accommodation to carry on 'illicit relations' to the point that the flats were jokingly nicknamed 'love pads'
Mr Jones said it was long suspected senior officers used accommodation behind the headquarters to conduct illicit relations, to the point they were called 'love pads'.
He gave evidence to the employment tribunal at North Shields, North Tyneside, in support of Denise Aubrey, the force's director of legal services who was sacked for gross misconduct in 2014.
She was accused of gossiping about the alleged affair, after having given confidential advice to the police chief about libel.
But retired chief constable Sue Sim has told the tribunal she was wrong to want rid of Ms Aubrey, 54, having now seen the evidence.
Assistant Chief Constable Greg Vant and Mr Craik's secretary Juliet Bains were also said to have had an affair, the tribunal has been told.
Mr Jones, who was a Police Federation representative, told the tribunal that 'gossip was rife' in the force and the alleged affairs were 'up lifting' for officers on the ground.
He said in his statement: 'I can say categorically that as far as I am concerned the relationships were far from confidential and it would be inconceivable that rank and file officers within the Respondent force were not aware of them.
'I would also suggest that matters were very much in the public domain being the subject of gossip by local criminal solicitors.'
He said 'many' officers were summoned to briefings in late June or early July 2007 by their shift inspectors where they were told the barbecue incident at Mr Craik's house had not occurred.
Rumours about an alleged affair between ex-Northumbria Police chief constable Mike Craik (left) and Assistant Chief Constable Carolyn Peacock (right), which was said to have led him to be punched by her husband Jim at a barbecue, spread so far that local solicitors had heard the story, the hearing was told
Assistant Chief Constable Greg Vant and Mr Craik's secretary Juliet Bains were also said to have had an affair, the tribunal has been told
Mr Jones told the tribunal he was briefed about the incident the following morning and the deputy sergeant said the official line was 'no such incident has occurred.'
He said: 'I remember it very well because it was such a threat.
'At the time there was a lot of tension within the force. There were quite a lot of incidents where officers had been bullied.
'People were concerned about things, people were being disciplined left, right and centre for various things. Some things were quite trivial.
'We have a story here that the people at the top are human like the people on the ground. It was a relief to us.
'Before I had even got to work I had heard about this.'
He added: 'In fact rumours were already rife about this as I understand a number of force posters of Mr Craik had been damaged with one of his eyes blacked over with a marker pen - referring to the fact he had been involved in a fight.'
Staff were warned anyone caught doing this would be treated as 'having committed criminal damage', Mr Jones said.
Officers were warned not to look up details of the alleged incident on the police log as they might be held to account by the professional standards department, and 'any search was in any event pointless as the incident did not take place and there was no log of it', he said.
Mr Jones, who has now left the service, said it was thought Mr Craik heard rumours his secretary was having an affair with Mr Vant.
In his statement, he said: 'There was also a suggestion Mr Craik was furious about this. Apparently not only was it known that he was himself fond of Ms Bains but also that Mr Vant, when confronted about the matter had lied to him and had apparently taken advantage of her with his rank.
Jim Peacock (pictured), chief superintendent at Northumbria Police, allegedly attacked Mr Craik after finding out that he was having an alleged affair with his wife
'Again, and I know this was widely known by many of my colleagues because it was discussed, many were particularly angered at what was seen as a member of senior management "getting away with it".'
Mr Jones said to his knowledge there was no question of Mr Vant being disciplined.
'This would contrast sharply with my experiences as a Federation representative having seen far worse consequences for more junior officers that had behaved in a not disimilar way.'
He added: 'Another factor that no doubt caused considerable ill feeling towards the rank and file staff was the use of police premises to carry on his exploits.
'There were accommodation facilities at Ponteland behind the Respondent's headquarters and it was long suspected that this was frequently used by those in senior management to conduct illicit relations - Mr Vant being among them.
'This became such a joke that they were nicknamed the "love pads".'
Mr Jones said the gossip about Mr Craik's alleged affair with Mrs Peacock died down 'fairly quickly' as a result of threats of discipline.
He said: 'Threats of discipline were given to any officer seen or heard to be discussing the matter.
'People were still chatting about it for many years, however, everyone was a little cautious.'
Under cross-examination by Angus Moon QC for the police, Mr Jones said retired colleagues still laughed about the alleged affair involving their former chief constable, asking each other: 'Can you remember about the incident that never happened?'
He said the gossip about senior officers was a source of 'great humour' for staff.
He told the tribunal: 'Officers on the ground are under a lot of pressure with discipline hanging over them.
'When something like this occurs it becomes quite rife with gossip.
'It is quite uplifting for people on the ground floor, sad as it may be.'
'What caused the gossip was the fact that Mr Vant disappeared.
'It was just something that happened. There were many things that happened.'
During the tribunal, Mr Vant asked the tribunal judge Humphrey Forrester to reimpose a reporting restriction, lifted last week, which would prevent him and Ms Bains from being named publicly.
Addressing the tribunal, he said: 'There was no harassment, there was no evidence of harassment and no complaint of harassment, we were simply friends.
'There was no affair between us at the time, there was no evidence of an affair at the time, and there was absolutely, definitely no physical contact between either of us in the workplace.'
Both were long-term servants of Northumbria Police, he said, and 'conducted ourselves with the utmost professionalism at work at all times'.
When the judge and panel turned the application down after some deliberation, Mr Vant told the court: 'I am astonished by it to be honest, in the light of everything I have said today.'
Earlier today, the tribunal heard that former senior police press officer Maureen Berne felt she was expected to 'kill' a story about the alleged affair between Mr Craik and Mrs Peacock.
She said she was 'personally not convinced' that nothing had happened between the pair, and was later 'forced out' of her role as head of communications by Northumbria Police.
Ms Berne told the hearing that she was called to a meeting with Mr Craik and Ms Aubrey as the former Chief Constable explained how the rumours were false.
'I was told to try and kill the story with the media,' she said. 'Mr Craik was adamant nothing happened.
Retired chief constable Sue Sim (left) has told the tribunal she was wrong to want rid of Ms Aubrey, 54, having now seen the evidence, while former senior press officer Maureen Berne (right) told the hearing she was expected to 'kill' a story about the alleged affair between Mr Craik and Mrs Peacock
'He had had a journalist in his home, Nigel Green.
'He discussed the issue over the kitchen table with his wife present. Nigel was asked to kill the story.'
In her witness statement she added: 'Mr Craik was extremely strong in his rebuttal and spoke at some length.
'Given the extent of the rumours circulating in the force I was personally not convinced that nothing at all had happened as Mr Craik asserted but I followed the instructions given to me by him.'
Ms Berne told the tribunal how she was told to advise the media about defamation and how she was 'forced out' of Northumbria Police in 2015.
She said in her witness statement the force used a clause in her contract citing 'significant other reasons' for wanting her to be removed.
She said: 'There appeared to be a real sense of urgency to remove me from the organisation.
'Indeed the whole situation was completed within nine days which gave me and my family little time to consider all the legal options.
'The tactics employed by the Force were unnecessarily aggressive in order to achieve this apparent deadline.
'Indeed the impact of the situation caused me and my family a significant amount of stress which we are still dealing with today.'
She also told in her witness statement how Ms Aubrey had confided in her that she thought former Deputy Chief Constable Steve Ashman was 'out to get her.'
She added how she told Mr Ashman, who now serves as the force's chief constable, how she thought Ms Aubrey was 'unwell' and seemed 'very stressed'
She said: 'Mr Ashman made it clear to me that he considered she was not doing her job properly.
'He then waved a folded letter and referred to it as being appalling and badly written and used the words 'I've got her' or 'I've now got her.'
Ms Berne worked in corporate communications with the force between 1996 and 2000 and returned to become head of communications in 2007.
The tribunal continues.
A woman critically injured after she slipped and fell down a waterfall in the Blue Mountains had to be carried on a stretcher for more than six hours to get out of the bush.
Cheng Shi Min, 29, suffered head injuries after falling down the Empress Falls just after 1pm while hiking in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
A NSW Police spokesperson said it took rescuers more than six hours to carry Ms Min to safety through the rugged terrain.
Cheng Shi Min, 21, suffered head injuries after falling down the Empress Falls in the Blue Mountains
The Empress Falls is one of several waterfalls on the Valley of Waters track
She was hiking with her boyfriend, father and family friend when fell and injured herself
Strong winds prevented a helicopter from airlifting her from the scene, forcing rescuers to walk her out on a stretcher, treating her on the way.
She was taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical but stable condition.
Ms Min, who is from Singapore, was walking the Valley of Waters track with her boyfriend, father and family friend when she fell feet first down the waterfall, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Her boyfriend, Henry Yendle, rushed down to see her lying face first in a shallow pool of water.
'I ran down and yelled for them to call an ambulance, before jumping in the water, I just wanted to get her head out of the water,' Mr Yendle told the paper.
Ms Min, who is from Singapore, suffered head injuries and is now in a critical condition
Strong winds prevented her from being airlifted from the scene and she was instead carried out by rescuers
Ms Min's boyfriend said he found her lying face first in a shallow pool of water
'I couldn't pull her onto the ledge, so her dad and a German couple helped to get her out.'
The Valley of Waters area has been the site of several accidents, including fatalities.
In 2008 a woman died after she fell while walking the Valley of Waters track and in 2013 British tourist Josh Furber fell 300 feet to his death at the nearby Wentworth Falls.
Only half of physicians have completed voluntary training in painkiller use
The powerful painkiller is known as 'Hillbilly Heroin' and is widely abused
Americans have spent $35 billion on OxyContin since its release in 1996
Former FDA head Dr David Kessler said painkiller addiction is an epidemic
The former head of the Food and Drug Administration has blasted US doctors for prescribing too many painkillers that is leading to 'epidemic' levels of abuse.
Dr David Kessler, who was in charge of the FDA between 1990 and 1997, said: 'This has been one of the great mistakes of modern medicine.
'FDA has responsibility, the pharmaceutical companies have responsibility, physicians have responsibility. We didn't see these drugs for what they truly are.'
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Dr David Kessler, pictured, has described the levels of opioid abuse within the United States as an 'epidemic'
Kessler warned too many doctors were prescribing too many painkillers to too many patients
He told CBS News that 78 people a day were dying from painkiller overdoses.
'This is an American condition. This is an American disease. The inappropriate promotion of drugs contributed significantly to this epidemic. Because drug companies took a small piece, a sliver of science and widely promoted it as not being addictive. That was false.'
Kessler said everyone from the pharmaceutical industry to regulators and the medical community had to work together to stop the inappropriate writing of prescriptions.
He admitted he should have strengthened the rules while he was in charge of the FDA.
Americans have spent $35 billion on OxyContin - which is widely known as Hillbilly Heroin since its release in 1996.
The drug is a slow-release pain killer with a single pill designed to work over several hours. However, if the pill is ground up it will provide the user with an instant rush.
Last month the FDA said doctors who prescribe pain killers should undergo training to help counter their misuse.
Experts said the risk plans should apply to all prescription painkillers, including immediate-release drugs like Vicodin and Percocet.
Currently, the measures only apply to long-acting drugs like OxyContin, which slowly release their ingredients over 12 hours or more.
The FDA wants improved training for doctors who regularly prescribe painkillers to patients
It's the second time since 2010 that an FDA panel has recommended expanding painkiller-safety measures and mandating training for doctors. But the training plans instituted about four years ago are voluntary, and FDA figures show that fewer than half of the doctors targeted by the effort have completed the training.
Pharmacist Michael Fry from Oregon said: 'If we keep it voluntary we're never going to get many people trained.'
There are currently 1.5 million doctors with prescribing privileges.
Prescription opioid overdoses have been rising steadily for well over a decade, reaching nearly 19,000 in 2014 the highest number on record. Total opioid overdoses exceeded 28,600 that year when combined with heroin, which many abusers switch to after becoming hooked on painkillers.
Under the current risk-management programs, drugmakers fund voluntary training for physicians on how to safely prescribe their medications. However, many experts including a previous panel of FDA advisers said those measures don't go far enough and that physician training should be mandatory.
Dozens of Methodist clergy members took a stand for equality Monday by coming out as LGBT, on the eve of the church's quadrennial General Conference.
More than 100 pastors, deacons, elders and candidates from the United Methodist released a letter publicly, urging the church to reconsider its 'restrictive legislation' and instead see that 'all persons are made in the image of God'.
Posted online by the Reconciling Ministries Network, the letter comes just as the church's top policy-making body convenes in Portland, Oregon to consider roughly 1,000 legislative petitions, with 50 of these believed to be relating to homosexuality.
Dozens of Methodist clergy members took a stand for equality Monday by coming out as LGBT, on the eve of the church's quadrennial General Conference. Among those is Rev. Laura Young (left and right) a 48-year-old pastor from Westerville, Ohio
More than 100 pastors, deacons, elders and candidates from the United Methodist released a letter publicly that urges the church to reconsider its 'restrictive legislation', letter was posted on Reconciling Ministries Network (pictured)
It continues: 'LGBTQI people and their families exist in every church in every continent of this denomination.
'They are seeking to remain in faithful relationship with you, even when you refuse, because they know God's tender mercies and great faithfulness.'
Around 80 per cent of the 111 signatories are coming out to their supervisors for the first time, according to the LGBT advocacy group.
The letter ends with: 'May we find the body of Christ stronger at the end of our time together, not weaker or more deeply harmed.
'May we provide a powerful witness of finding unity even in our differences to a world fractured by fear and mistrust.'
Among those who signed the historic letter is the Rev. Laura Young, a 48-year-old pastor from Westerville, Ohio.
She told The Huffington Post that signing the letter lifted a spiritual burden.
Young explained: 'I signed the letter because I think that the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy that's been operating in the church and in our society is damaging to a person's soul.
She is an ordained minister as well as is executive director of the Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
The Rev added: 'The policies of the United Methodist Church ask LGBT people to live in secret and hide our light. God calls us to shine our light brightly, and it's time to change these unjust policies.'
Methodist church member Ralph Williams of Washington D.C. participates with others in a wedding across from Fort Worth Convention center, where a lesbian couple held a wedding protesting the church's refusal
The Book of Discipline constitutes the law and doctrine of the United Methodist Church (left) and is revised every four years. Julie Bruno, right, and her partner, Sue Laurie, marry across the street from United Methodist Church's general conference in 2008 in protest
The letter comes as African delegates pledged to stand firm on the the church's current rules on sexuality at Tuesday's conference.
Rev. Jerry Kulah, a delegate from the Liberia Conference told United Methodist Church that African delegates remain strongly opposed to changing church law that declares the practice of homosexuality to be incompatible with Christian teaching, even as same sex marriage is now legal across the United States.
Kulah said: 'It's not an issue of the church law remaining the same. It's an issue of what the Bible teaches, and the Bible teaches one man, one woman for life, as far as marriage is concerned.'
Methodist Church clergy members who have openly come out as gay and lesbian can be removed from the ministry under its current laws.
The letter comes as African delegates pledged to stand firm on the the church's current rules on sexuality at Tuesday's conference. Pictured: First United Methodist Church in Monrovia, Liberia
Rev. Cynthia Meyer, may face a church trial after Bishop Scott Jones of the Great Plains conference rejected a proposal to resolve a complaint lodged against her after she came out to her congregation in January
A Kansas minister who came out to her congregation in January, may face a church trial after Bishop Scott Jones of the Great Plains conference rejected a proposal to resolve a complaint lodged against the Rev. Cynthia Meyer, reported Religion News.
But such trials can be difficult to prosecute. In 2011 a church court declined to discipline a lesbian pastor because she refused to answer questions about her sexuality, according to Ethics Daily.
The United Methodist Church is one of the few Protestant denominations that continues to bar same-sex marriages and LGBT clergy.
Russia is preparing to test a nuclear missile which is so advanced it could get past Nato defences and decimate a large slice of Europe within seconds of launching.
The RS-28 Sarmat missile, dubbed Satan 2 by Nato, has a top speed of seven kilometres (4.3 miles) per second and has been designed to outfox anti-missile shield systems.
The Kremlin's new intercontinental ballistic missile will be ready for field trials this summer, according to the Russian news network Zvezda, which is owned by Russia's ministry of defence.
If a Sarmat missile were fired at London it would wipe out most of Britain, as well as northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands
The report comes only days after Russia showed off its military might in a Victory Day parade which was reminiscent of the Cold War days under the Soviet Union.
The Sarmat missile could deliver a warhead of 40 megatons - 2,000 times as powerful as the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Zvezda reported the missile could destroy an area the size of France or Texas.
Vladimir Putin (pictured) issued a warning to the West and Nato over their 'double standards' during a speech at the Victory Day parade
It is expected to have a range of 10,000 km (6,213 miles), which would allow Moscow to attack London and other European cities as well as reaching cities on America's west and east coasts.
Igor Sutyagin, an expert in Russian nuclear capability at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told Mail Online: 'The SS-18 is more than 30 years old. It is past its sell-by date.
'So even if you had the warmest relations in the world with Nato you would want to update your missiles. But (President) Putin of course is happy for it to be portrayed as an aggressive move. He wants to stress his unpredictability and his importance.'
Dr Sutyagin points out that the SS-18 missiles which the Russians currently rely on were designed in 1988 during the Soviet Union and were built at a factory in Dnipropetrovsk, in what is know the Ukraine.
He said the Russians cannot totally rely on the Ukraine-based maintenance engineers and he said Sarmat were designed and built by Russians at the Khrunichev plant just outside Moscow.
The Sarmat has been in development since 2009 and is scheduled to start replacing the old ICBMs in 2018.
Fat Boy, the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 (pictured), delivered 20 kilotons of power. Sarmat would be 2,000 times more powerful
Dr Sutyagin they would be no match for Nato systems like Aegis Ashore, the controversial missile defence shield which the US is deploying to Romania.
He said: 'Not only are they too fast but they have got rid of the predictable flight path. It manouevres all the way so it is terribly difficult for any missile defence system to shoot it down.'
The Russian Defence Ministry plans to put the Sarmat into service in late 2018 and remove the last SS-18 by 2020.
Military might: At the weekend a Yars RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile system was paraded through Red Square during the Victory Day parade but there was no sign of the RS-28 Sarmat
President Barack Obama will this month become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima since the U.S. dropped a war-ending atomic bomb on the Japanese city in 1945.
The White House announced the visit this morning, confirming suspicions that Obama, who has made nuclear non-proliferation a pillar of his foreign policy, would make a side-trip during the G7 summit later this month in Japan.
'We believe that this is the appropriate moment for the President to visit this city and shrine,' the president's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said this morning in a post on Medium.
Obama will on May 27 will make a stop at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and 'share his reflections on the significance of the site and the events that occurred there,' Rhodes wrote.
President Barack Obama will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima since the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city in 1945
The devastation of the bombing on Hiroshima was recorded from above
Hiroshima is a southern Japanese city, chosen for the A-bomb because of its size and because it hadn't been bombed in World War II at all making the impact of the atomic explosion easy to determine
'He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future.'
THE BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA Hiroshima became the first city in history to be targeted by a nuclear weapon when the U.S. Army dropped an atomic bomb on it on the morning of August 6, 1945. The bomb, containing a destructive power never before witnessed, directly killed an estimated 80,000 people, while some 160,000 almost half the city's population are thought to have died due to injury and radiation. Three days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, causing a similar number of deaths. The massive scale of destruction and killing led to Japan's surrender. The two bombings remain the only instances of nuclear weapons targeting cities during warfare. While some have called for the U.S. to apologize, many believe the bombings were justified and helped avoid thousands of deaths by speeding up the end of the war.
Secretary of State John Kerry said during an April visit that 'everyone' - and that includes the president - should visit the historic site and he would lobby Obama to take his turn.
Kerry became the highest ranking U.S. official to acknowledge the tragedy when he and his foreign counterparts participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the bomb memorial last month during a G7 function.
'What I got here was a firsthand sense of what happened in Hiroshima and what happens with a nuclear weapon, particularly in terms of its types of destruction,' Kerry said at a news conference after.
Kerry pointedly said, 'Everyone should visit Hiroshima, and "everyone" means everyone.'
'So I hope one day, the President of the United States will be among the everyone who is able to come here.'
The president's spokesman, Josh Earnest, had said outright during discussions of a possible visit that Obama would not apologize for the United States' use of the A-bomb during WWII.
Previewing today's decision, he also said 'symbolically' there's probably 'no more powerful illustration of that commitment than the city that contained the victims of the first use of that weapon.'
The U.S. deployed two nuclear weapons on Hiroshima, on August 6, and Nagasaki, on August 9, in 1945 as it sought to put an end to the global war. The bombs killed at least 129,000 people.
They were the first and only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.
The U.S. military gauged the damage from the Hiroshima bomb through aerial photographs like this one, which showed military and industrial installations with percentages of total destruction
The aftermath of America's World War II-era attack were captured by a U.S. Navy photographer who went into the hot zone to document the ruins
Kerry (at center) laid a wreath at the Memorial Cenotaph for the 1945 atomic bombing victims in the Peace Memorial Park, on the sidelines of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Hiroshima on April 11
Obama has pursued an agenda as president that would stop the spread of nuclear capabilities beyond the nine nations known to have them Russia, the UK, France, Germany, China, India and Pakistan. Israel is also believed to have nuclear warheads in its posession.
A nuclear-free world continues to be a 'long-term goal' of the president's, Earnest said last month as the topic of Hiroshima came up, and that's why he began hosting his annual nuclear summit.
'That goal is unlikely to be achieved during his lifetime but there certainly is progress that we can make in pursuit of that goal,' the White House official said.
The Obama administration, in conjunction with four other countries, doggedly engaged in talks with Iran that ultimately ended in a deal with the Middle Eastern country that Obama and foreign governments involved in the accord say will cripple Tehran's nuclear program.
Critics within the US, including many Republicans in Congress, are wary of the agreement, however, and are convinced that Kerry, acting as the United States' lead negotiator, did not oversee the best bargain.
The White House said today that in visiting Hiroshima, Obama would 'shine a spotlight on the tremendous and devastating human toll of war.'
'To be sure, the United States will be eternally proud of our civilian leaders and the men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II for their sacrifice at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world. Their cause was just, and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude, which the President will again commemorate shortly after the visit on Memorial Day,' Rhodes said in the Medium post.
A mass brawl involving about 40 people broke out on the campus of a Los Angeles high school on Monday, in a fight that officials believe was started at prom over the weekend.
A team of 12 officers and a supervisor dispatched by LA Unified School Police tried to break up the brawl as it happened at Sylmar High School in San Fernandino Valley at lunchtime.
According to reports, the fight lasted for 20 minutes, with numerous videos taken at the scene since uploaded to YouTube.
Major brawl: A team of 12 officers and a supervisor dispatched by LA Unified School Police tried to break up the brawl as it happened at Sylmar High School in San Fernandino Valley at lunchtime on Monday
An officer can be seen here in his video trying to restrain a student was kicking another on the ground
According to reports, the fight lasted for 20 minutes, with numerous videos taken at the scene since uploaded to YouTube
A mass brawl involving about 40 people broke out on the campus of Sylmar high school on Monday, in a fight that officials believe was started at prom over the weekend
Scene: Footage posted to YouTube showed a number of teens involved in a physical altercation
Witnesses said everyone walked away and that no one was taken to hospital, but several students were bloodied and bruised with black eyes.
KTLA 5 News reported that the reason behind the brawl was race and gang-related.
It is said that tensions flared between some black and Hispanic students at the prom at the weekend, and that school officials were worried the problem would come to a head Monday.
The videos show punches and kicks being through around, as other students fled for cover.
Officers can be seen jumping in to break up the fights, as others begin happening around them.
'It was just uncontrollable,' said one student,
'It was just uncontrollable': Student Juan Ayala (left) and another junior (right) give interviews after the fight
The principal sent out a letter to parents Monday to inform them of the fight and that students involved are receiving disciplinary actions. But there were no known arrests.
James Lee, the school's principal, said in a statement to parents that 'multiple students participated in a conflict during lunch on campus'.
According to Lee, 'disciplinary actions have been taken' and the parents of the students have been contacted.
Customers have been wrongly denied a free burger as part of a two-for-one deal at a chain food restaurant because they were women.
On Sunday, Grilld offered two burgers for the price of one at restaurants across Australia in a joint campaign with Movember Foundation to spread awareness for mens mental health.
The deal was mostly marketed towards men but available to anyone who brought along a friend and said 'May Eight', pronounced 'mayyte'.
On Sunday, Grilld offered two burgers for the price of one at restaurants across Australia in a joint campaign with Movember Foundation to spread awareness for mens mental health
However, it appears not all staff were informed of the terms and conditions, with customers complaining on social media they were denied the deal because they were women.
Get 2 for 1 @GrilldBurgers for you and a mate on #MAYEIGHT!!, Movember Australia wrote on Twitter.
The idea behind the initiative was to encourage men to catch up with a mate to help curb mens mental health issues.
A bit of conflicting info is the Mayeight offer for 2for1 only valid if 2 males ordering together? Or is it open to females, couples, etc? a customer wrote to Grilld Facebook on Sunday.
The burger chain responded that it was open to anyone.
However, many women have since come forward to claim they were denied the offer.
I was there with a male friend and apparently that didnt count [as two mates]. She [the wait staff] said its only valid when two guys order together, one woman wrote on Facebook. Thats why Im annoyed.
Just got refused the 2 for 1 burger for MayEight because apparently husband and wife dont count. Happy Mothers Day Grilld, another said.
Another woman said she had visited Grilld in Waurn Ponds, Geelong, for the deal, only to be told it was a male deal between mates and not available for myself and my daughter.
I got told the same today here in Perth, even though I was buying for my boy and I.. And they said you have to dine in. So Grilld only promote mens mental wellness if you dine in their store (not takeaway) and if a male orders the food. #fail, another wrote.
In their response to complaints on Facebook, Grilld said they were disappointed this is the experience we have delivered to you today
Grill'd confirmed the deal was intended for any two friends - no matter their genders
Same here in Penrith, went to Grilld today, offer didnt stand, another woman wrote on Facebook.
Another woman had gone to Grilld at Point Cook, south-west of Melbourne, and claimed she was also denied the deal with her husband.
In their response to complaints on Facebook, Grilld said they were disappointed this is the experience we have delivered to you today.
They confirmed, again, the deal was intended for any two friends.
Also at the Point Cook restaurant, Melbourne-woman Melanie said she was denied the two-for-one offer.
I ordered at the counter and asked if I could use the MAYEIGHT!! offer. Although the waitress was very pleasant she said as it was for mens health it was only available for men and although I was eating with a man the offer was not available to me, she told News.com.au.
She said she was disappointed that as a woman I cant be considered a mate or a support for my male partner or male friends.
Movember confirmed to News.com.au the offer was open to all pairs.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are virtually tied in three battleground states that often hold the key to the election with Trump edging out Clinton in all important Ohio.
In head-to-head match-ups, Trump leads Clinton 43 to 39 per cent in Ohio, the state that provided George W. Bush with his victory margin in 2004.
Clinton edges Trump 43 per cent to 42 percent in Florida, a state where Trump says he'll be competitive in part because he owns property there and spends so much time in the state.
In Pennsylvania, a Democratic-leaning state where Clinton has roots, the former secretary of state leads the real estate mogul by 43 to 42 percent.
Battleground: Clinton and Trump are locked in tight races in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania
'Six months from Election Day, the presidential races between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the three most crucial states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, are too close to call,' said Peter Brown, who conducted the poll. 'At this juncture, Trump is doing better in Pennsylvania than the GOP nominees in 2008 and 2012. And the two candidates are about where their party predecessors were at this point in Ohio and Florida.'
Gender politics are a main feature of the close races. Clinton leads among women in Florida by 48 to 35 per cent, while Trump leads among men 49 to 36. Both candidates are under water in favorability in Florida, with a 37 to 57 per cent negative rating.
Clinton gets just a quarter of the white male vote in Florida.
It's tight in Florida ...
and in Pennsylvania ...
and in battleground Ohio
'Woman's card?' Clinton has a huge lead among women
Trump has a huge lead among men but nearly two-thirds of voters say he's got the wrong temperament for an international crisis
There is trouble for Trump in internal numbers on immigration in the state. Fifty seven percent of Florida voters said illegal immigrants should be allow to stay here and apply for citizenship.
No Republican has won the presidency without Ohio, and Trump leads Clinton 51 to 36 among men in the state. Clinton takes women by 43 to 36 percent. Trump has a near-majority of whites, while Clinton has a huge lead among non-whites, 76 to 14 percent.
In a troubling sign for Clinton about the appeal of Trump's populist platform, Ohio voters say Trump would do a better job on the economy by 52 to 40 percent. Clinton's favorability numbers are at their worst in Ohio, where just 34 per cent have a favorable view of her, and 62 per cent have an unfavorable view.
Trump's greatest vulnerability is perceptions of his temperament. Asked whether Trump has the right kind of temperament to handle an international crisis, 63 per cent of Ohio voters and 62 per cent of Pennsylvania voters said he did not. Only about a third of voters in all three states said he did.
'Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are locked in Pennsylvania and they have similar, awful numbers on honesty and favorability,' said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll. 'The one glaring difference: Trump is crushed on the question of which candidate has the temperament and personality to handle an international crisis. It's a vote of confidence the Clinton camp can dine out on and Trump supporters have to see as a red flag.'
By the way: Bernie Sanders runs stronger than Clinton against Trump in all three states
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who trails Clinton in delegates even as he continues to win states, performs better than his primary rival. He leads Trump 43 to 41 in Ohio. In Pennsylvania, Sanders leads Trump 47 to 41 per cent, a six-point gap rather than a one-point gap. He runs a single point stronger than Clinton does against Trump in Florida.
The poll has a 3 per cent margin of error.
Clinton leads Trump nationally by 47 to 40 per cent, according to the RealClear Politics average of polls. Sanders runs even stronger, with a 51 to 38 per cent national lead.
Crown didn't accept plea and she is on trial at Bradford Crown Court
Court heard she told psychiatrist in detail how she took both of their lives
Girls were found at a women's refuge with nine chest stab wounds each
A mother who stabbed her two daughters to death told a psychiatrist how her youngest daughter cried in the corridor as she strangled her eldest, a court heard.
Italian Samira Lupidi was being questioned by psychiatrist Dr Jasanne Holloway when she said how she took the lives of three-year-old Evelyn and Jasmine, 17 months.
Family members were warned they would hear distressing information and some chose to leave Bradford Crown Court, West Yorkshire, before details were revealed by prosecutor Peter Moulson QC.
Italian Samira Lupidi (pictured) was being questioned by psychiatrist Dr Jasanne Holloway when she said how she took the lives of three-year-old Evelyn (right) and one-year-old Jasmine (left)
Addressing Dr Holloway, the prosecutor said: 'When she [Lupidi] returned to the room she started to strangle Evelyn with her hands, she said Evelyn was fighting but she could not stop.
'Miss Lupidi said "I cried a lot and then she stopped moving."
'In regards to Jasmine, she told you that she put a pillow over her face until she stopped moving.
'She described Jasmine as a beautiful girl and when she killed Evelyn, Jasmine was crying in the corridor, Miss Lupidi said: 'I never heard her cry like that.'
Samira Lupidi, left and right, 24, is on trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of murdering her daughters. She denies the charges but admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility
'Miss Lupidi said she didn't remember using the knife and every day asks the question, why?' the prosecutor added.
Lupidi is charged with the murder of her two children after stabbing them to death with a stainless steel knife at a womens' refuge.
Lupidi accepts she killed her girls but that she killed them in a fit of diminished responsibility.
Earlier the court heard that their father Carl Weaver, 31, described Maria Lupidi as 'displaying extreme jealousy and paranoia' and said he believed she was scared he would take their children if they ever separated, the jury was told.
Mr Weaver said in the statement: 'I often wondered how Sam coped with her while I was at work but she coped wonderfully. She never lost her temper with her and was always calm.
Chris Weaver (pictured with Jasmine) whose two young daughters were killed by his partner praised her for being 'an outstanding mother' in court
'Despite the sad and tragic events, I would still describe Sam as an outstanding mother. She never displayed any aggressive or worrying behaviour to our children. She loved and lived for our children.'
Peter Moulson QC, prosecuting, read Mr Weaver's statement to the jury.
In the statement, Mr Weaver said he and Lupidi, 24, had a 'volatile' relationship and would shout and scream at each other over 'petty things'.
He admitted smashing a plate and throwing eggs at a wall but denied domestic violence.
Mr Weaver said in the statement that he and Lupidi, who he calls Sam, met in Italy in 2011 and moved to the UK in 2014 after he lost his job.
He described the behavioural issues of their eldest child Evelyn, who he believed was on the autistic spectrum, but said Lupidi 'coped wonderfully', despite her feeling unhappy and isolated in England.
Mr Weaver said that his relationship with Lupidi deteriorated and said they would have separated if they did not have children.
He said she did not trust anyone and accused him of not being attracted to her and of being with other women, the jury heard.
The court was told that Lupidi had a 'traumatic and abusive' childhood and was brought up by her father after her mother was violent towards her and her brothers.
Mr Weaver said in his statement that he believed this had a bearing on Lupidi's personality.
He said: 'Sam displayed extreme jealousy and paranoia. I think she was scared if we ever split up I would get the kids and she would never see them again.'
Mr Weaver praised Lupidi for her patience with Evelyn, left, three, who he said suffered from behavioural problems, and Jasmine Weaver, right, one, who were found dead with nine stab wounds each
Mr Weaver said that he and Lupidi argued on the weekend before their daughters died because she had misinterpreted a conversation between family members about the girls' forthcoming christening.
It comes after the court heard yesterday that she heard him tell his brother Chris Weaver and his girlfriend Amy Sutton that he planned to take them away after the event.
Mr Weaver said: 'She said we were talking about dropping her off somewhere after the christening and we wouldn't let her see the children again.'
Mr Weaver said that his relationship with Lupidi deteriorated and said they would have separated if they did not have children
Mr Weaver said Lupidi and the girls had gone when he arrived home from work on November 16 2015 but when he rang the police he was told they were safe.
The court heard Lupidi rang Mr Weaver the following morning asking why he wanted to 'kick her out' and he said he suggested they met to discuss the children.
He said she rang him again at around 11.45am on November 17, and was 'panicking and crying'.
Mr Weaver added: 'She was shouting and screaming and I heard her say 'I've killed the babies'. She then said the word 'knife' and 'look what you've made me do'.
'I started panicking and though I thought she wouldn't have done that I wasn't sure.'
Earlier today, the court heard how Lupidi, 24, told police medical examiner Dr Andrew Cobb 'I'm a lovely mum' before adding 'I used to be' and breaking down in tears.
Reading Dr Cobb's statement to the court, Peter Moulson QC, prosecuting, said Lupidi denied thinking about self harm but said: 'Today, yes. When I hurt them, I want to hurt myself as well.'
Mr Moulson QC told the jury that forensic medical examiner Dr Cobb assessed Lupidi at Bradford Police Station after the girls were found with nine stab wounds each on November 17 last year.
Italian Lupidi is on trial at Bradford Crown Court and has pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but denies the two counts of murder.
Mr Moulson told the jury yesterday how Italian-born Lupidi and her two girls had ended up in the refuge, after she called police to her home in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire.
Mr Moulson said the defendant had told officers that the girls' father - her partner, Carl Weaver, 31 - had slapped her twice the night before and she was scared he was going to kill her.
Lupidi, pictured with her daughters, wanted to stab herself after the killings but could not go through with it, the court heard
The prosecutor described how, the morning after she was admitted, staff at the refuge found Lupidi running out of the flat she had been allocated and shouting that she had 'killed the children'.
He said the worker noted her hands were smeared with blood and each of the girls had nine stab wounds.
Mr Moulson said Lupidi told another member of staff: 'It's his fault. Now he has a reason to kill me. If I can't have them, he can't have them either. He was coming to get me. I had to do this.'
The prosecutor said a 14in kitchen knife with a 10in blade was found on one of the children's beds.
He said that after Lupidi was arrested, she said: 'I know what I have done. My life is nothing now.'
The jury heard Lupidi told police that Mr Weaver was 'psychologically and financially controlling', that he deprived her of money and he restricted her contact with family in Italy.
On 16 November, last year, whilst Mr Weaver was at work Lupidi called the police to their home in Church Lane, Heckmondwike, and alleged he had hit her on the arm and leg the previous evening.
Mr Moulson told the jury Lupidi believed Mr Weaver wanted rid of her after the baptism of the girls on the coming weekend.
Lupidi, of West Yorkshire, pictured with Evelyn, told staff at the refuge she feared her partner Carl Weaver would kill her and 'if she couldn't have her children, he couldn't either', the court heard
PC Kirsty Wright, who took Lupidi to the refuge after responding to the allegation of domestic abuse at Lupidi's home, said in a statement read to the court that Jasmine and Evelyn were due to be baptised on November 21 and Lupidi feared that Mr Weaver would use the occasion to leave her and take the girls with him.
PC Wright said: 'She was scared what Carl was going to do with her and that she wanted to move back to Italy.'
Lupidi had told officers that she had heard Mr Weaver say in conversation with his brother Chris Weaver, and brother's girlfriend, Amy Sutton, that Mr Weaver was going to abandon her.
Mr Weaver is alleged to have said: 'On Saturday someone won't come back with us.'
PC Wright's statement added: 'He said he would take her in the car and leave her so 'some paedo' will find her.
'She said Mr Weaver had said the children would be 'better off without her'.'
In another statement, refuge worker Shamailar Kosar said Lupidi had told her that her partner was planning to 'get rid of her' after the girls' planned baptism.
Lupidi, pictured with Evelyn, told police her partner had attacked her and was scared he would leave her
Workers at the refuge, pictured during the police investigation, said Lupidi ran out of her room with her hands 'covered in blood'
She said the defendant told her: 'He's going to do something bad to me.'
Ms Kosar also explained how she later found the girls lying stabbed on the bed after she was called by a colleague.
She said she had only seen Lupidi a short time before, carrying Jasmine.
Another refuge worker, Nasmeen Ashgaar, said in a statement that Lupidi said after the killings: 'He said I'm a bad mother. I am now.'
'I COULDN'T LOOK AT HER': REFUGE WORKER TELLS HARROWING TALE OF HOW SHE FOUND DEAD CHILDREN A worker at the refuge where the two children were killed described how she 'couldn't look at' the mother when she realised what she had done. Shamaila Kosar, who witnessed the aftermath of the killings, told the court how she found Samira Lupidi in her pyjamas with bloodstained hands. When she walked into the flat, she found the children covered in stab wounds, she said. Miss Kosar said: 'As I entered the flat I could see Jasmine lying there in her nappy and vest. 'I could see blood by her head. Her whole chest looked open with gashes in it. 'She [Lupidi] didn't seem to have a lot of blood on her. She was wearing a pair of pyjamas. 'She said she had told her mum and the girls' dad what she had done. 'I couldn't look at her because of what she had done. 'She told me in broken English that she thought her boyfriend would do something bad after that. 'She thought her boyfriend, his brother and his brother's girlfriend were all plotting against her.'
Ms Ashgaar said: 'She kept saying she loved her kids.'
Lupidi had wanted to stab herself after killing her daughters but was unable to go through with it, the court heard.
She was said to be pacing around the refuge office in an agitated state and constantly on her mobile to her mother in Italy as staff called emergency services.
Jacoba Laan, the refuge's manager, said: 'Samira was saything something about her beautiful babies but I could not understand her.
'She said that he [Mr Weaver] had said to her that morning he was coming to get her babies.
'She said: 'Him and his family can now say that I'm a bad mum and I killed my babies'.
'She said that she was going to strangle them [the girls] but couldn't do it and was going to kill herself.'
Mr Moulson explained to the jury that Lupidi admits killing the children and has pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
He said the defendant denies two counts of murder, and much of the case will revolve around her mental state at the time of the killings.
Mr Moulson said the jury they must set aside feelings of 'revulsion, anger and sympathy'.
The court heard Lupidi met Mr Weaver via the internet when he was visiting his grandma in Italy.
After giving birth to Evelyn in 2012 they moved to Yorkshire where Jasmine was born in 2014.
Lupidi had wanted to stab herself after killing her daughters but was unable to go through with it, the court heard.
Lupidi was pacing around the refuge office in an agitated state and constantly on her mobile to her mother in Italy as staff called emergency services.
Lupidi, pictured, admitted killing the girls and pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but the Crown rejected it and she is now on trial for murder at Bradford Crown Court
Flowers and tributes were left at the scene of the refuge in Bradford where the girls were killed in November
Wearing black trousers, a white shirt and a grey cardigan, and with her long dark hair tied back, Lupidi sat in the dock with two security guards and an interpreter, clearly upset for the entirety of the prosecution opening statement.
Three police vans attended the scene of the deaths, and the area was cordoned off for several hours as forensic officers searched for evidence.
Mr Weaver, 31, was described as 'devastated' over the deaths of his daughters, according to relatives, who were in the public gallery today.
Speaking in the wake of their deaths , his aunt Julie Britton said: 'He's just absolutely devastated. It's like a bomb has gone off in the middle of our family.'
A convicted killers online dating profile that advertises no baby-mama drama has outraged the family of his murdered wife.
Jonathan Crupi, 34, was found guilty of killing his wife Simeonette Mapes in their Staten Island home in July 2012.
In September last year, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder.
But now, he is looking for love from his cell in Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York with a dating profile that says: Im not married and I dont have any kids. No baby-mama drama here!
Mapes family recently became aware of Crupis profile on convictpenpals.com and the mother of the murdered school teacher is disgusted by it.
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Jonathan Crupis online dating profile that advertises no baby-mama drama has outraged the family of his murdered wife Simeonette Mapes (right, with Crupi, and left, his dating profile pic)
He has no baby-mama drama. It was just the way that he wrote that, it was like an attack on us, Theresa Mapes told NBC4.
It was an attack on this family like he hasnt done enough.
On his profile, Crupi says he is looking for romance and friendships and willing to write to women all over the world, and that race, creed or color doesnt matter to him.
Im looking for a fun, intelligent girl to stimulate my brain (and possibly my heart), he writes. Im a bit of a nerd, but thats cool now, right?
But it is the last line of his bio that is especially disturbing for Theresa Mapes, which says: Take a chance and write to me soon! You wont regret it.
Will they regret it? she said. Yes. It will be the sorriest thing they ever did if they wrote this person.
Theresa Mapes (pictured) was outraged to find out about Crupi's search for love. It was an attack on this family like he hasnt done enough, she said
Crupi pushed his wife (pictured together) down the stairs and stabbed her 15 times after she confronted him about sleeping with prostitutes, prosecutors said
Crupi pushed his wife down the stairs and stabbed her 15 times after she confronted him about sleeping with prostitutes, prosecutors said, just two weeks before their fifth wedding anniversary.
They said Crupi then ransacked the house to make it look like a home invasion before leaving to sleep with one of his favorite hookers.
After the tryst, prosecutors said he returned home and called 911, pretended to have just discovered his wifes dead body.
Although no murder weapon was ever recovered and there were no witnesses, the prosecution won by showing the jury circumstantial evidence, including Crupis Google searches for how to throat slash and what destroys DNA.
'HEY LADIES, ARE YOU AWESOME?' KILLER'S CREEPY DATING PROFILE BIO In his profile on convictpenpals.com, Crupi says he is maintains he is innocent and 'not married' and makes no mention of the woman he is serving time in prison for murdering Hey ladies, are you awesome? Like I am? I'm looking for a fun, intelligent girl to stimulate my brain (and possibly my heart). I'm 34 years old, Puerto Rican and Italian, and I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I'm a bit of a nerd, but that's cool now, right? I've been told that I'm really funny, adventurous, and down to earth. Oh, and that I'm handsome, too lol. I like good books and movies, I love to laugh, and I listen to all kinds of music. I also like to dance and cook, but not together. That's messy lol. I'm a dog lover too. There's nothing like a furry best friend by your side, right? I'm not married and I don't have any kids. No baby-mama drama here! Being in jail sucks, but I'm an innocent man and I'm working on my appeal. Patience is a virtue, and I've learned a lot of it here. For now, I just want to find an interesting girl to share experiences with. Ideally, I'm looking for someone who is happy being single, but open to the possibility of a relationship with the right person. Any race, creed, or color is ok with me. Seriously, if you are tall or short, blonde or brunette, tattooed and rude, or shy and a prude, it doesn't matter to me. I'm open minded and I hope you are too. Take a chance and write to me soon! You won't regret it.
Both Crupi and Mapes worked as teachers at the School for Classics in Brooklyn.
But Crupi has always maintained his innocence and told the judge during his sentencing that he did not kill his wife.
His case is now in the appellate process and he used his dating profile to once again, insist he is an innocent man.
Being in jail sucks, but Im an innocent man and Im working on my appeal, he writes. For now, I just want to find an interesting girl to share experiences with.
Its like my daughter meant nothing, Mapes said to NBC4. She was a good, good-hearted soul, person, and thats why I want that these convicts cannot do that.
She added: He took my world away, he destroyed my world, he destroyed my life, he destroyed my family.
Crupis attorney Mario Gallucci defended his client in an interview with Daily Mail Online, insisting that his client has a right to find love.
'He is sorry that Ms Mapes is upset,' Gallucci said, 'but he has his own life to live. He wants to find somebody to chat with.
'He is entitled to love just like anybody else. He believes he will be vindicated in the appeals process.'
In September last year, Crupi (pictured) was sentenced to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder
Britain gives more than 400 million in aid to Nigeria and
David Cameron made a toe-curling gaffe in front of the Queen today by boasting that he has 'two of the most corrupt countries in the world' coming to a key London summit this week.
The Prime Minister seemingly did not realise he was being filmed as he singled out Afghanistan and Nigeria for the insult.
The blunder came as he was talking to the Queen and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at an event in Buckingham Palace to mark the monarch's 90th birthday.
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David Cameron makes the blunder as he apparently fails to realise he is being filmed
Clutching a glass as he made small talk with the group - which also included Commons Speaker John Bercow and Leader of the House Chris Grayling - Mr Cameron said: 'We had a very successful cabinet meeting this morning, talking about our anti-corruption summit.
'We have got the Nigerians - actually we have got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain.'
He went on: 'Nigeria and Afghanistan - possibly two of the most corrupt countries in the world.'
The monarch did not respond to the PM's comment.
However, Mr Welby shook his head and responded: 'But this particular president is actually not corrupt... he is trying his best.'
Mr Cameron's candid comments risk causing diplomatic problems as they come just two days before he hosts a major international anti-corruption summit in London.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani are both due to attend the summit. They have acknowledge corruption in their countries and pledged to clean it up.
The gathering of the world's political and business leaders in London will aim to 'galvanise a global response to tackle corruption' and is being staged in the wake of the Panama Papers leak, which revealed widespread tax avoidance among the world's elite earlier this year.
The Queen did not respond to Mr Cameron's gaffe while the cameras were rolling
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, left, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani are both due to attend the anti-corruption summit in London this week
Afghanistan is at number 166 in campaign group Transparency International's latest Corruption Perceptions Index - second from bottom.
Only North Korea and Somalia, jointly ranked at number 167, are perceived to be more corrupt. Nigeria is at number 136.
Despite this, latest figures show that Britain gives 237million a year in aid to Nigeria and 198million to Afghanistan. The total aid spending on the two countries is 30 per cent up on when Mr Cameron came to power in 2010.
Two years ago, a report from an aid watchdog actually found that UK aid fuels corruption in Nigeria with one scheme actually increasing the likelihood that locals would have to pay backhanders to the police.
After Mr Cameron's remark, Mr Bercow - who has been repeatedly criticised over his own expenses - jokes to laughter: 'They are coming at their own expense one assumes?'
Mr Cameron went on: 'Yes ... Because it is an anti-corruption summit everything has to be open. There are no sort of closed-door sessions. Everything has to be in front of the press... It could be quite interesting.'
Downing Street declined to comment directly on the premier's conversations with the Queen but pointed out that the leaders of both countries had acknowledged the scale of the problem they faced.
The Prime Ministers spokesman said: Both President Buhari of Nigeria and President Ghani of Afghanistan have acknowledged the scale of the corruption challenge they face in their countries.
THE PM IS RIGHT: BOTH COUNTRIES ARE AMONG THE WORLD'S MOST CORRUPT Rankings from the charity Transparency International show that the Prime Minister is right and that both of countries are among the worlds most corrupt. War-torn Afghanistan is the third worst country in the world on the charitys corruption perception list; just behind North Korea and Somalia; while Nigeria comes 32nd from bottom. Meanwhile, Britain is ranked at number 10 alongside Germany and Luxembourg. Two years ago, a report from an aid watchdog actually found that UK aid fuels corruption in Nigeria with one scheme actually increasing the likelihood that locals would have to pay backhanders to the police. The Independent Commission for Aid Impact said that the Department for International Development was not up to the challenge of tackling corruption, often because it was concerned about offending local politicians. Here we compare the two countries' record on corruption: NIGERIA Transparency Internationals corruption perception index puts Nigeria at 136= out of 168 countries.
Corruption is endemic in Nigeria, with estimates as high as 400billion dollars lost since independence in 1960.
The discovery of huge reserves of oil and natural gas in the country have led to huge opportunities for corruption by public officials.
In 2014, a study by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact found: Petty corruption touches virtually every aspect of life and is accepted throughout society as normal and necessary. We heard stories of parents paying bribes to teachers in order to educate their children, students paying bribes to administrators to take exams, workers paying bribes to get jobs and to receive their salaries, and pensioners paying bribes to receive pensions.
It is believed that up to 20billion dollars has gone missing or misappropriated from the books of the state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The former government of President Goodluck Jonathan was involved in a series of scandals including kickbacks in the Ministry of Petroleum, and the stealing of millions of bank notes by the low-level officials at the countrys Central Bank. It has been alleged that 2.2billion dollars was illegally withdrawn from Excess Crude Oil, with half going towards President Jonathans re-election campaign.
Millions of dollars meant to be spent on vaccination and on the the fight against ebola have been illegally diverted.
Surveys show that the Nigerian police is seen as the most corrupt institution in the country, with people having to pay bribes before officers will agree to help them. AFGHANISTAN Transparency Internationals corruption perception index puts Afghanistan at 166 out of 168 countries.
The situation is so bad that the New York Times once wrote: Corruption can no longer be described as a cancer on the system: it is the system.
Corruption takes the form of the demanding and offering of bribes, nepotism, position buying and illegal land transfers.
Policemen are accused of turning a blind eye to or even colluding with criminals and insurgents in smuggling or kidnapping for ransom. One academic has written: Police officers extort goods from shopkeepers, levy taxes on vehicles at highway checkpoints, and impose fines on individuals unable to produce proper identification documents.
A UN survey in 2012 found that 50 per cent of Afghans had been forced to pay bribes for government services as high as 70 per cent in some parts of country. Money has been demanded by teachers, customs officials, judges and prosecutors.
Corruption in Afghanistan goes right the way to the top with former President Hamid Karzai himself apparently among the beneficiaries. The Kabul Bank corruption scandal saw members of his family and others accused of spending the banks money to fuel their lavish lifestyles. The bank also had favourable loans worth millions of dollars to Karzai and his brother.
A Pentagon report warned: Corruption directly threatens the viability and legitimacy of the Afghan state. But the situation has got worse since the US-led invasion of the country, with many citizens looking back to the days of the Taliban, who cracked down on it. Advertisement
In a collection of essays on the fight against corruption to be published on the day of the summit, President Ghani writes Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt countries on earth while Preside Buhari writes corruption became a way of life in his country under supposedly accountable democratic government.
Both leaders have been invited to the summit because they are driving the fight against corruption in their countries. The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with them as they do so.
Asked if Mr Cameron regretted embarrassing the Queen, the spokesman repeated his statement.
Asked if the Prime Minister believed it was OK for him to describe the countries as fantastically corrupt in light of the two presidents comments, the spokesman repeated his statement again.
Asked if the PM knew he was being recorded, the spokesman said: The cameras were very close to him, there are multiple cameras in the room.
Pressed on whether the intervention was choreographed, he added: I cant add to the fact these two presidents have said they have a problem with corruption and they are publishing those thoughts ahead of the summit on Thursday which we are inviting them to.
IS IT REALLY WISE TO BE JOKING ABOUT EXPENSES, MR SPEAKER? Speaker John Bercow (pictured) joked about whether the Nigerian and Afghan leaders were funding their own travel during the conversation at Buckingham Palace John Bercow joked about whether the Nigerian and Afghan leaders were funding their own travel during the conversation at Buckingham Palace. After David Cameron made his gaffe about inviting 'fantastically corrupt' countries to his London summit, the Commons Speaker asked to laughter: 'They are coming at their own expense one assumes?' Mr Bercow himself is no stranger to controversy about expenses, having been heavily criticised over globetrotting trips since he took the role in 2009. He charged the taxpayer almost 2,000 for hand finished beeswax candles for his grace-and-favour parliamentary resident, bought postcard pictures of himself to send to fans and even had his grand piano tuned in his palatial Westminster apartment. The spending on the Commons Speaker's official House account was exposed in February following a freedom of information request. More than 100,000 went on wining and dining other MPs and visiting foreign politicians - including just one meal with then Australian Speaker Bronwyn Bishop in May 2014 which cost 1,954. A 'standing down' dinner for Mr Bercow's deputy Dawn Primarolo was 2,057 last April. The former minister, who received 36,000 on top of her salary for the role, was made a peer months after retiring from the Commons. A Commons spokeswoman insisted that overall annual expenditure by the Speaker's Office had fallen 19.4 per cent to 504,000 since Mr Bercow took on the role in 2009. Advertisement
The spokesman refused to comment on which other countries had provided essays to the collection.
He also refused to comment on whether Britain had been in touch with either Nigeria or Afghanistan since Mr Camerons remarks.
But Tory MP Philip Davies called for Nigeria and Afghanistan to be stripped of aid until they clean up their acts.
It is completely unjustifiable for the Prime Minister to pour taxpayers money into Nigeria and Afghanistan even though he knows they are fantastically corrupt, it is an absolute scandal, he said.
Peter Bone, another Conservative MP, said the PMs pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of Britains income on aid meant more cash would inevitably be lost to corruption.
He added: We have got tied to this ridiculous target which means we are more interested in spending money than in where it ends up. It is perverse.
Why else are we giving millions of pounds to countries that we know are fantastically corrupt? We just end up lining the pockets of corrupt leaders, bent officials, criminal gangs and, in the worst cases, terrorists.
Steve Hilton, Mr Camerons former Downing Street guru, also criticised his intervention, highlighting a survey by the Economist suggesting the UK has a bigger problem with corruption than countries such as Brazil, France and the United States.
In a message on Twitter, Mr Hilton said: Before anyone gets too complacent, the UK is fantastically corrupt too.
Labour MP Wes Streeting said: 'This is another gaffe from the PM - you'd hope he'd have learned his lesson when it comes to off the record comments and the Queen but sadly not.
'The fact that David Cameron has egg on his face shouldn't deflect from the more serious issue: for all his talk about corruption he's failing to act. If the PM really is serious about tackling corruption at the summit this week he needs to get his own house in order and make good on his promise to deliver public registers of beneficial ownership for the UK crown dependencies and overseas territories.'
Garba Shehu, a spokesman for the Nigerian president, said: It is disturbing that despite all the efforts made by President Buhari in fighting corruption in Nigeria, his efforts have gone unnoticed. It is possible the Prime Minister was caught unawares and was referring to how things were done in the past.
The Afghan embassy maintained a diplomatic silence last night.
But Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: Muhammadu Buhari won elections last year promising to fight widespread corruption.
So to see our Prime Minister talk about him like this is disgraceful. The reason this summit is being held is to help bolster newly elected leaders like Buhari and not to cut them down. The Prime Minister has gaffed, yet again.
Mr Cameron also drew a rebuke from anti-corruption campaigners, who said he should look closer to home and deal with tax avoidance in British overseas territories, which are blamed for hiding dirty money. The secretive nature of the tax regimes in some dependencies, such as the British Virgin Islands, was highlighted in the recent Panama Papers scandal.
Mr Cameron is no stranger to the danger of unguarded comments in the presence of TV microphones.
In 2014, the Prime Minister was forced to issue a public apology to the Queen after he inadvertently revealed that she had purred with pleasure when he told her Scotland had rejected independence. And last year he was recorded talking about Yorkshire people hating each other.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had been due to attend the birthday tribute by parliamentarians this morning, but had to attend a family funeral.
A palace spokesman said the leader of the opposition had 'written personally' to the monarch to explain and offer his apologies.
It is understood that Corbyn, a vocal republican who declined to kneel to the Queen when he became a privy counsellor, sent the letter yesterday.
This morning's event saw delegations from both the House of Commons and House of Lords - which included every parliamentary party leader - visit the Queen's official residence to personally offer their congratulations on her landmark celebration.
The Lord Speaker, from the Lords, and Mr Speaker, from the House of Commons, addressed the Queen on behalf of the assembled guests and formally handed to her a portfolio containing the 'Humble Address' on behalf of their respective House.
After the ceremony, which took place in the White Drawing Room, the Queen held a short reception for her guests who drank champagne and orange juice and ate canapes including duck terrine and asparagus quiche as well crisps and pretzels.
Afterwards Mr Cameron paid tribute to the Queen, who he called 'simply remarkable'.
He said: 'When I came in I asked how often this happened and the courtiers didn't know, so it is all very exciting.
'I have been Prime Minister for six years and leader of the opposition for ten and I've never done something like this.'
British taxpayers send more than 400 million in aid money to Nigeria and Afghanistan, despite their poor record on corruption.
The Queen had a quizzical look on her face as she spoke to Mr Cameron at the event
In a damning assessment of the UK Government's reluctance to reduce its aid package to the two countries, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact said that the Department for International Development was not up to the challenge of tackling corruption, often because it was concerned about offending local politicians.
Corruption is endemic in Nigeria, with estimates as high as 400billion dollars lost since independence in 1960.
The discovery of huge reserves of oil and natural gas in the country have led to huge opportunities for corruption by public officials.
In 2014, a study by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact found: Petty corruption touches virtually every aspect of life and is accepted throughout society as normal and necessary.
'We heard stories of parents paying bribes to teachers in order to educate their children, students paying bribes to administrators to take exams, workers paying bribes to get jobs and to receive their salaries, and pensioners paying bribes to receive pensions.
It is believed that up to 20billion dollars has gone missing or misappropriated from the books of the state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The former government of President Goodluck Jonathan was involved in a series of scandals including kickbacks in the Ministry of Petroleum, and the stealing of millions of bank notes by the low-level officials at the countrys Central Bank. It has been alleged that 2.2billion dollars was illegally withdrawn from Excess Crude Oil, with half going towards President Jonathans re-election campaign.
Millions of dollars meant to be spent on vaccination and on the the fight against ebola have been illegally diverted.
Surveys show that the Nigerian police is seen as the most corrupt institution in the country, with people having to pay bribes before officers will agree to help them.
BRITISH TAXPAYERS SEND MORE THAN 400 MILLION TO NIGERIA AND AFGHANISTAN DESPITE THEIR ENDEMIC CORRUPTION PROBLEM Despite Afghanistan and Nigeria ranking among the most corrupt countries in the world, British taxpayers continue to send more than 400 million to the two nations. The latest figures show that Britain gives 237million a year in aid to Nigeria and 198million to Afghanistan. The total aid spending on the two countries is 30 per cent up on when Mr Cameron came to power in 2010. Here we compare how much we send to the two countries: NIGERIA Latest figures show we gave 237m in aid to Nigeria in 2014. More than 1billion has been given to the country since 2010 despite the fact it is rich enough to afford a space programme.
DfID says the money does not go to government officials, and claims there are robust checks in place to ensure the money does not fall victim to corruption.
A study into a multi-million-pound aid programme to boost schools found that it had produced 'no major improvement in pupil learning'. Researchers found teachers at subsidised schools frequently failed to turn up and children were left to play football all day.
It emerged earlier this year that Nigeria paid nearly 24,000 salaries to non-existent government workers in 2015. The ghost workers were paid 8m in total, while others were paid their salaries three times over.
DfID said our funding will support basic services such as healthcare and education, including for women and girls and anti-corruption measures AFGHANISTAN In 2014, the UK gave 198million in aid to the country despite the record on corruption. DfID says none of the money goes to the government and is only handed to local charities, with robust checks in place.
Millions has been spent in a bid to crack down on the opium and heroin trade, but despite all the efforts the countrys poppy harvest is now the highest ever.
Last month it was reported that two schools in Helmand province, which were refurbished using British aid money, are now being used as bases for the Afghan army.
Billions of dollars of foreign aid have been siphoned off by political elites linked to former Afghan president Hamid Karzai. Experts believe much may also have ended up in the hands of the Taliban.
DfID said our funding will support basic services such as healthcare and education, including for women and girls, economic development, and anti-corruption measures Advertisement
Despite its endemic history of corruption, the latest figures show we gave 237million in aid to Nigeria in 2014/15.
More than 1billion has been given to the country since 2010 despite the fact it is rich enough to afford a space programme.
DfID says the money does not go to government officials, and claims there are robust checks in place to ensure the money does not fall victim to corruption.
Meanwhile Afghanistan's record on corruption is even worse, according to Transparency Internationals corruption perception index, which puts Afghanistan at 166 out of 168 countries.
The situation is so bad that the New York Times once wrote: Corruption can no longer be described as a cancer on the system: it is the system.
Corruption takes the form of the demanding and offering of bribes, nepotism, position buying and illegal land transfers.
David Cameron's blunder came as he was talking to the Queen and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (centre) at an event in Buckingham Palace to mark the monarch's 90th birthday
The Queen had invited all parliamentary leaders to mark her 90th birthday celebrations at Buckingham Palace today but Jeremy Corbyn was absent due to a family funeral
Policemen are accused of turning a blind eye to or even colluding with criminals and insurgents in smuggling or kidnapping for ransom. One academic has written: Police officers extort goods from shopkeepers, levy taxes on vehicles at highway checkpoints, and impose fines on individuals unable to produce proper identification documents.
A UN survey in 2012 found that 50 per cent of Afghans had been forced to pay bribes for government services as high as 70 per cent in some parts of country. Money has been demanded by teachers, customs officials, judges and prosecutors.
Corruption in Afghanistan goes right the way to the top with former President Hamid Karzai himself apparently among the beneficiaries. The Kabul Bank corruption scandal saw members of his family and others accused of spending the banks money to fuel their lavish lifestyles. The bank also had favourable loans worth millions of dollars to Karzai and his brother.
A Pentagon report warned: Corruption directly threatens the viability and legitimacy of the Afghan state. But the situation has got worse since the US-led invasion of the country, with many citizens looking back to the days of the Taliban, who cracked down on it.
Yet Britain still gave 198 million to Afghanistan in 2014. Millions has been spent in a bid to crack down on the opium and heroin trade, but despite all the efforts the countrys poppy harvest is now the highest ever.
Last month it was reported that two schools in Helmand province, which were refurbished using British aid money, are now being used as bases for the Afghan army.
Billions of dollars of foreign aid have been siphoned off by political elites linked to former Afghan president Hamid Karzai. Experts believe much may also have ended up in the hands of the Taliban.
DfID says none of the money goes to the government and is only handed to local charities, with robust checks in place.
It's not the first time! David Cameron's greatest hits in front of an open mic include gaffes about the Queen, Alex Salmond and even Yorkshire
David Cameron has been caught out showing off near recording microphones before - most famously claiming the Queen 'purred' over the Scottish referendum result.
The Prime Minister was bragging to then New York mayor Michael Bloomberg about the vote against independence.
He said: 'The definition of relief is being the prime minister of the United Kingdom and ringing the Queen and saying: ''It's alright, it's OK.'' That was something. She purred down the line.'
David Cameron, pictured in New York with Michael Bloomberg at the scene of another embarrassing gaffe, has a long record of getting caught out by open microphones
Mr Cameron was forced to admit he was 'embarrassed and sorry' for the serious breach of protocol in September 2014.
During last year's election campaign, Mr Cameron was caught again making an off colour joke - this time suggesting former SNP leader Alex Salmond was a pickpocket.
At the end of an interview with ITV's This Morning, presenter Phillip Schofield introduced the next item about a professional thief.
But Mr Cameron's microphone was still live and he was heard to say: 'Is that Alex Salmond?'
In yet another embarrassing gaffe in September last year, Mr Cameron found himself in hot water after being recorded claiming people in Yorkshire all hate each other.
During a visit to Leeds, the Prime Minister was recorded by the BBC quipping: 'We just thought people in Yorkshire hated everyone else, we didn't realise they all hated each other.'
Convicted: Rena Griffiths, 58, from Greater Manchester, fraudulently claimed 14,000 in benefits after hiding her property portfolio
A sun-loving benefits cheat was caught after investigators discovered she secretly owned a Spanish Villa named after herself and had 130,000 in assets.
Rena Griffiths, 58, from Greater Manchester, said she was unfit to work and had no assets apart from her own home so was able to pocket 14,000 in handouts.
But Bury Magistrates' Court heard she actually owns four properties - three in the UK and one in Spain - including 'Villa Rena' in Pizarra, near Malaga.
On her Facebook page a tanned Mrs Griffiths describes her property as 'my little bit of Spanish paradise'.
Griffith's wealth was exposed when a whistleblower contacted the Department for Work and Pensions.
The mother-of-one admitted five counts of benefit fraud last week.
Griffiths avoided jail after magistrates gave her a 12-week suspended sentence and told her she must repay the 14,000 plus 85 court costs.
Her life abroad was flaunted online.
Her last Facebook post in the weeks before her sentencing is taken from her Spanish villa showing her mint plant and bottle of Mojito cocktail.
Days earlier she posted a picture taken from her sun-drenched Spanish villa's patio, this time showing a relaxing glass of Champagne with a strawberry on top.
Last month she also posted an airport photo taken at 5am showing a glass of gin and tonic, with the words: 'Bon Voyage!'
Between October 2010 and April 2013, she claimed employment support allowance, jobseekers' allowance and council tax benefit because she was unfit to work.
Caught: Griffiths owns four properties including 'Villa Rena' in Pizarra, near Malaga, pictured, which she named after herself
Good life: Benefits cheat Rena Griffiths poses on the terrace of her Spanish home, which she told Facebook friends is her 'little bit of Spanish paradise'
When claiming the benefits the grandmother, from Whitefield, in Greater Manchester, signed forms to say that she had no income, that she only had savings of less than 16,000 and that the only property she owned was the one she was living in.
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) received a tip-off that she was lying and launched an investigation.
The probe found that, at the time she was claiming three types benefits, Griffiths in fact held capital in excess of 130,000 and she also owned three other properties other than her own in Manchester- two in the UK and one in Spain.
However, the grandmother-of-three failed to declare all of these on her DWP benefits forms.
In all, she fraudulently claimed 12,243 from the DWP and 1,757, totalling 14,000 exactly, from Bury Council over the course of three-and-a-half years.
Magistrates told her the offences were 'serious because the figure of overpayment had been high' and she had committed it 'over a long period of time.'
After the hearing, a DWP spokesman said: 'Only a small minority of benefit claimants are dishonest.
'But cases like this show how we are rooting out the unscrupulous minority who are cheating the system and diverting taxpayers~ money from those who really need it.
'We are determined to find those we suspect of abusing the welfare system by following up on tip-offs, undertaking surveillance and working with local councils.
Police have arrested the fugitive boyfriend of a British mother-of-one who vanished more than six months ago from her home in Spain.
Simon Corner, wanted for questioning over the disappearance of Lisa Brown last November, was held on a European Arrest Warrant in the Danish capital Copenhagen.
Last night the 33-year-old was facing 'imminent' extradition to Spain after his return to Spain was approved.
Simon Corner (right), wanted for questioning over the disappearance of Lisa Brown (left) last November, was held on a European Arrest Warrant in the Danish capital Copenhagen
The 32-year-old, mother to a nine-year-old boy by a previous partner, vanished without trace from her home in Guadiaro near the upmarket port of Sotogrande on November 4, 2015.
Spanish authorities conducted searches of woodland and a river near expat Lisa's home after she disappeared.
Officials have made no official comment about the arrest, which happened on April 14 in an unnamed port in Copenhagen.
News of the detention can be revealed now for the first time following Corner's appearance in front of an extradition judge and his near-month in a jail in the Danish capital.
He will appear before an investigating judge in San Roque once he is returned to Spain and fingerprinted at a processing centre.
He is expected to be remanded in jail pending an ongoing court probe after being quizzed in the private hearing.
Corner was made a wanted man after snubbing Spanish police attempts to quiz him about Lisa's disappearance.
He vanished hours after being questioned by Civil Guard officers as a witness when she went missing and surfaced in the Far East before returning to Spain in January promising to meet police.
The 32-year-old, mother to a nine-year-old boy by a previous partner, vanished without trace from her home in Guadiaro near the upmarket port of Sotogrande (pictured) on November 4, 2015
A judge issued the arrest warrant after he failed to honour the pledge and left the country again.
It is not known when Corner reached Denmark.
It can also now be revealed that a second Briton has been arrested in the last few weeks by Civil Guard officers in connection with the investigation into Corner. He is on bail after appearing before a judge who ordered him to hand in his passport.
Investigators concluded Corner, originally from Liverpool, had left Spain again after surprising Lisa's family by jetting back to the Costa del Sol from Cambodia on January 19 to address 'unfounded allegations' linking him to her disappearance.
He has always protested his innocence.
Corner's Liverpool-based father Maurice claimed at the start of February his skipper son was 'at sea for a few days' but that was the last that was heard of him.
Guardia Civil officers based in Algeciras have made the Lisa Brown case their priority and spent weeks hunting Corner and following up leads on his whereabouts before applying for the arrest warrant.
Spanish officials have made no official comment about the arrest, which happened on April 14 in an unnamed port in Copenhagen (file picture)
He has not been formally charged with any crime, as is customary in Spain. It is understood he agreed to extradition from Denmark after appearing before a judge the day of his arrest.
News of the arrest will be welcomed by Lisa's family including her sister Helen, from Alexandria, Dumbartonshire.
They have campaigned tirelessly for information on Corner and made repeated appeals on Facebook for him to hand himself in.
Helen likened the expat, who has been accused of mistreating Lisa by friends, to a prawn recently on the Find Lisa Facebook page she helped set up which has nearly 27,000 members.
She wrote: 'Some people are like prawns. No guts, no spine and a head full of s**t.'
Lisa's nine-year-old son Marco has been looked after by his father Tony Tomillero at his home in La Linea opposite Gibraltar with the help of Lisa's relatives since she disappeared.
Lisa's family's West Dumbartonshire MP Martin Docherty urged the authorities to make Corner a wanted man before the arrest warrant was issued.
He said in February after raising the issue with David Cameron before a meeting with Europe Minister David Liidington: 'Spanish and wider European authorities must now take formal action to detain Mr Corner.
'I am hoping the Minister and Foreign and Commonwealth Office will be able to put pressure on the relevant authorities to act as a matter of urgency.
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Britains weather is split across the middle this week, with northern parts enjoying more sunshine while the South endures rain and thunderstorms.
Up to an inch of rain is forecast to fall across southern England today with forecasters warning of thundery showers and flooding into tomorrow.
And while the UK is still enjoying warm temperatures, with up to 25C in Scotland, it will be turning cooler by the weekend as air from the Arctic moves in.
Fields of gold: Striking rapeseed in fields surrounding Roseberry Topping pierces the blue sky near Great Ayton in North Yorkshire today
Hot in Scotland: Three actresses stroke Koby the chow chow as they take a break from rehearsals today in Greenock, Renfrewshire
Sunny: Rosa Chundoo, 19 months, enjoys an ice cream on Largs sea front in Ayrshire (left), where a man was seen walking his dog (right)
Wet: Commuters are caught in heavy rain showers as they make their way to work from Waterloo train station in London this morning
Excitement: Bird spotters near Land's End in Cornwall today after sightings of a Dalmatian Pelican in Britain for the first time in centuries
Miserable morning: Commuters walk in the rain as they cross London Bridge with Tower Bridge seen in the background today
While Scotland and northern England is enjoying warm, fine and dry weather today, there is widespread cloud and rain in the South.
Temperatures are still widely above average today, with highs in the late-teens or low 20s, even in cloudier southern parts.
Tonight will see rain move into parts of northern England, giving way to drier but cloudy and murky conditions in southern areas.
Tomorrow and Thursday should see temperatures slightly above average, before dipping on Friday to be much cooler and mostly around the mid-teens.
Wet weather is also expected in some areas of the South for the rest of the week, although this will be interspersed with sunny spells.
Warnings: A severe weather alert is in place for southern England today (left), while a rainfall graphic shows this afternoon's downpours
Warm: Today's temperatures (left) are still slightly above average for May (right) in southern England - and well above average in Scotland
Taking cover: People shelter under umbrellas by Tower Bridge on a wet day in London as rain hit the south of England
Umbrellas up: Wet weather in Cardiff today after the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning with up to an inch of rain expected
Showers: These two women made their way through Cardiff city centre this morning as South Wales was hit by rain
Pouring down: Rain hit the Covent Garden area of Central London today as pedestrians took cover under their umbrellas
Met Office forecaster Alex Burkill said: The weekend is looking mostly dry but cooler than the weekend just gone for most.
Temperatures [will be] around or a little below the average for the time of year. But it should still be pretty pleasant in the sunshine.
Britain had its warmest day since August on Sunday, hitting 27.1C, and bookmakers slashed the odds on 2016 being the hottest year on record.
You can tell by the way he's pointing authoritatively at the audience that this young man is a natural at chairing a political debate.
Indeed, you could say it's in the genes because this is Fred Dimbleby, the 18-year-old son of David, host of BBC's Question Time for more than 20 years.
Dimbleby Junior was in the hot seat at a version of the show put on at his 30,000-a-year school, Brighton College, in Sussex.
Fred Dimbleby, son of David Dimbleby and grandson of Richard Dimbleby, followed in his father's footsteps
Fred is the son of David Dimbleby, pictured, the long-time host of the BBC current affairs show Question Time
He hosted a debate of Britain's membership of the EU at his school, Brighton College, earlier this week
By all accounts he proved himself as rightful heir to the broadcasting dynasty, which also includes his uncle Jonathan, who presents Radio 4's Any Questions? and grandfather Richard Dimbleby, a celebrated BBC correspondent who died from cancer in 1965.
Fred, who is studying for A-levels in politics and government, history, and religious studies, was in charge of a debate on Brexit.
He didn't have an easy job of keeping the panel in check, which featured outspoken Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg in the leave corner and former MP turned newspaper columnist Matthew Parris arguing that Britain should remain in Europe.
After the event at the top independent school on Monday evening, which was attended by his proud father and mother Belinda Giles, Fred said: 'I was pretty nervous before the debate started and both Mr Rees-Mogg and Mr Parris are very eloquent speakers and very experienced at this sort of event.
'I didn't want to make a hash of it. But once it got going I absolutely loved it.'
As for following in Dad's footsteps, he isn't quite so sure, revealing his heart lies in the world of digital journalism and podcasts, rather than traditional television news.
He hosted Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg (left) and political commentator Matthew Parris (right) for the debate
He said he was nervous at first due to the large crowd of teachers and fellow student but enjoyed the debate
Fred, who has been offered a place at Keble College, Oxford, to read history, said: 'I would love to make a career in political journalism but I am not quite sure whether I would like to go into TV journalism. I'm more into podcasting which is big in the US but hasn't crossed over here as much yet.'
And what did the panellists make of Dimbleby Junior's first foray into the world of politics? 'Fred did a great job and I think his dad was very proud of him,' Mr Rees-Mogg was heard telling a member of the audience.
Mr Parris confided afterwards: 'I think the sixth-formers were more impressive than some of the people on the actual Question Time.'
The teenager comes from a long line of illustrious journalists.
The family owned the Richmond and Twickenham Times from 1896 until 2001. Fred's grandfather Richard met his wife Dilys when they were both trainee reporters on the title.
He made his name as a correspondent for the BBC during the Second World War, when he reported on the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
He went on to host Panorama and like his son today, was commentator for major public occasions, including the Queen's coronation in 1953 and the funeral of Winston Churchill in 1965.
His uncle is journalist Jonathan Dimbleby and his grandfather is Richard Dimbleby, a celebrated war reporter
As well as hosting Question Time, Fred's father David, 77, has covered all general elections for the BBC since 1979.
He started his career as a BBC News reporter in the 1960s, eventually succeeding his father as presenter of Panorama in 1974.
His younger brother Jonathan has presented Any Questions? since 1987, and has fronted general elections for ITV.
Billionaire Facebook board member Peter Thiel will be one of Donald Trump's delegates in California.
Thiel, cofounder of PayPal who famously expanded Facebook out of Harvard's campus, has previously endorsed Ron Paul's presidential campaign and Ted Cruz's senate campaign.
He even invested $2 million in Carly Fiorina's Super PAC last year.
But on Monday it emerged he is now backing The Donald.
He is listed as a delegate for the GOP frontrunner in the state's 12th congressional district in San Francisco.
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A rarity in Silicon Valley: Peter Thiel, billionaire co-founder of PayPal, is one of the few tech leaders to have publicly endorsed Donald Trump. He is listed as one of the mogul's delegates in San Francisco, California
The ballot for the primary, being held on June 7, was released on Monday.
It is an almost unheard of move within Silicon Valley, where tech leaders have lashed out at the real estate mogul's policies.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg made a thinly-veiled dig at Trump's plans to build a wall on the Mexican border in his latest key note speech.
Marc Andreessen, another Facebook board member, dedicates lengthy Twitter tirades to Trump.
And former PayPal staffer Keith Rabois branded Trump an 'opportunistic liar'.
But Thiel is a keen political player, lending swathes of his $2.7 billion fortune to Republican causes.
He also has a penchant for controversy.
The entrepreneur made headlines in 2011 after offering 24 teenagers $100,000 each to skip university.
At the time he said: 'Turning people into debt slaves when they're college students is really not how we end up building a better society.'
So he set up the '20 under 20' fellowship, which would fund young people to work on their own company - provided they dropped out of education.
A year later, however, he started teaching a computer science class at Stanford University.
Trump has been the target of many tech leaders' tirades in Silicon Valley
He also funneled $1.25 million into plans to build a floating libertarian colony.
The Seasteading Institute aspires to build a space in international waters, freeing dwellers to live by libertarian ideals.
It is set to be built on oil-rig-like platforms anchored in areas free of regulation, laws, and moral conventions.
Cruz and his running mate Fiorina dropped out of the race last month, before Trump's only other opponent John Kasich also quit his campaign.
Staff from a Domino's Pizza in Oregon saved a their Number 1 customer's life after realizing he hadn't ordered a pizza in 11 days.
Employees at the Salem shop became worried after Kirk Alexander - a 47-year-old who has been a regular customer for seven years - hadn't called in to the store in nearly two weeks, so they sent a delivery driver to his home to check up on him.
Tracey Hamblen, an employee, knocked on Alexander's door on Sunday, just after midnight, but he didn't respond. She could see lights and a television on inside.
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Sarah Fuller, a general manager at a Domino's Pizza in Salem, Oregon, says her staff helped save well-known customer Kirk Alexander's life after becoming worried that he hadn't ordered from the store in 11 days
A delivery driver was sent to Alexander's home (pictured) for a wellness check just after midnight on Sunday, and after he didn't answer the door, she called 911. Marion County sheriff's deputies found Alexander suffering medical problems that could have ended his life
Video courtesy KATU
Hamblen tried to call the customer, but it went straight to voicemail.
After not hearing from Alexander, Hamblen called 911, while Jenny Seiber, a Domino's assistant manager, called authorities' non-emergency line, according to Oregon Live.
Marion County sheriff's deputies arrived and heard a man calling for help from inside the home.
They found Alexander suffering medical problems that could have ended his life, Marion County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt Chris Baldridge said.
He was taken to the hospital and was in stable condition as of Monday morning, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
The office would not reveal what medical problems Alexander was experiencing, but said he suffers from severe health problems.
Paramedics told KOIN that Alexander was on the ground of his home when they arrived, and that they believed he had a stroke. It is unknown when he suffered the medical problems.
Seiber said that Alexander is a very well-known customer, but he doesn't have a regular order - he'll order anything from pasta or pizza to sandwiches or wings.
'It's never the same thing every time,' she said.
She added that Alexander is quiet, but friendly and nice, saying employees at the restaurant were 'worried a little bit' after not hearing from him for 11 days.
Staff said Alexander is a very well-known customer at the restaurant (pictured), but he doesn't have a regular order - he'll order anything from pasta or pizza to sandwiches or wings
General manager Sarah Fuller told KOIN that Alexander has been ordering from the restaurant since 2009.
'He orders every day, every other day,' Fuller said. 'His order pops up on the screen because he orders online. So we see it come across the screen and we're like, "Oh, Kirk's order".'
She added that Alexander is 'just an important customer that's part of our family here at Domino's.
'He orders all the time, so we know him. I think we were just doing our job checking in on someone we know who orders a lot. We felt like we needed to do something.'
Jenny Fouracre, director of public relations at Domino's headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, told the Statesman Journal that the store's efforts were consistent with the company's customer service standards.
She said: 'We are proud of our team members who took the initiative to reach out and help a regular customer who was in distress.
'There are thousands of Dominos stores across the country, but every store is really a part of their neighborhood, delivering to people in their homes, which means we often get to know our customers well.
'We have many stories of how our stores have helped regular customers in ways that are big and small over the years, which is a level of customer service and commitment to our communities that we hope everyone will emulate.'
Fuller told the Statesman Journal that she agreed with Fouracre's statement.
'We're like a family here, and we were glad we were able to do something to help,' she said. 'We hope he's able to fully recover from this.'
An Arkansas teenager pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he robbed and killed the couple who raised him as their grandson, sidestepping a possible life term in prison.
Justin Staton, who is now 15 years old, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and other charges related to the 2015 shooting deaths of Robert and Patricia Cogdell, who were both 66 years old. Faulkner County Circuit Court Judge Troy Braswell accepted the change of plea and the agreement for Staton to testify against the other teens charged in the shootings, including Hunter Drexler.
Staton teared up as Braswell sentenced him to 35 years in prison. He had faced up to life in prison for the charges.
Justin Staton, left, who is now 15 years old, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and other charges related to the 2015 shooting deaths of Robert and Patricia Cogdell, who were both 66 years old, right
Faulkner County Circuit Court Judge Troy Braswell accepted the change of plea and the agreement for Staton to testify against the other teens charged in the shootings, including Hunter Drexler (pictured)
The Cogdells weren't Staton's biological grandparents, but they raised the boy even after discovering via genetic testing in 2008 that their son, Robert Shane Cogdell, was not Staton's father.
'I hope every day for the rest of your life, you think about them,' Braswell told Staton. 'Because they loved you and took care of you. ... and the thanks you gave them was murder.'
Drexler, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, has pleaded not guilty to two charges each of capital murder, aggravated robbery, theft of property obtained by threat of serious physical injury and abuse of a corpse.
Prosecutors said Staton agreed to give them access to his iPod and to text messages between him and Drexler that would show Drexler's role in planning and acting out the killings. Prosecutors had asked for help from the FBI to gain access to the iPod and an iPhone belonging to Drexler.
Deputy Prosecutor Hugh Finkelstein said prosecutors have looked at the information on Staton's iPod, but would not comment on the content. He said the office has not been able to access Drexler's iPhone yet.
Prosecutors allege the pair robbed and shot the Cogdells at their Conway home, about 30 miles north of Little Rock, then dumped their bodies in a wooded area nearby. Two other teens, Connor Atchley and Anastasia Roberts, both 17, were charged as adults with first-degree murder and theft by receiving.
Prosecutors allege all four were present for the killings and that the three boys came up with the plan to kill the Cogdells while they were in a juvenile detention center together.
Finkelstein read a summary of the events that Staton had agreed to plead guilty to. He said the guns were brought to the house by Drexler, both Drexler and Staton were armed during the encounter and that both the teens helped move the bodies to the tree line behind the house with Staton using a front loader.
Finkelstein said Drexler had cut Robert Cogdell's pockets and taken about $3,000 in cash as well as credit cards, some of which he used to purchase a burner phone with prepaid minutes. He said when Staton was arrested at his mother's house he had Robert Cogdell's blood on his shirt and shoes.
Prosecutors allege Staton and Drexler pair robbed and shot the Cogdells at their Conway home, about 30 miles north of Little Rock, then dumped their bodies in a wooded area nearby
Two other teens, Connor Atchley and Anastasia Roberts, both 17, were charged as adults with first-degree murder and theft by receiving
While on the stand, Staton struggled to hold back tears as he gave simple 'yes sir' and 'no sir' answers to the judge's questions. He declined to give a statement after entering his plea.
The 35-year sentence for first-degree murder will run concurrently with a 35-year sentence for aggravated robbery, a 20-year sentence for theft, and a 10-year sentence for abuse of a corpse.
Khan is planning to visit US soon 'in case Donald Trump wins'
Khan: 'This isn't about me, it's about everyone who shares my background'
Trump said he will allow 'exceptions' to his ban on Muslims entering the US
London's new Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan today accused Donald Trump of making both the UK and the US 'less safe' because of his 'ignorant view of Islam'.
The astonishing attack came despite the Republican presidential candidate offering to exempt Mr Khan from his plan to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
After Mr Khan was elected the first Muslim mayor of a major European capital last week, Mr Trump insisted he was 'happy' to see him win because he can 'lead by example'.
And he revealed he will allow 'exceptions' to his controversial plans to bar all non-American Muslims from entering the US, which he first announced last December in the aftermath of the terror attacks in San Bernardino, California.
But today Mr Khan emphatically rejected Mr Trump's apparent attempts to mend fences with London's Muslim community, telling the Republican: 'This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world'.
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Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump (left) has said that London's new mayor Sadiq Khan (right) will be exempt from his ban on Muslims
Sadiq Khan (pictured yesterday) became became the first Muslim mayor of any major European capital last week. This morning he rejected Trump's apparent attempt to mend fences
Mr Khan said his call to ban Muslims entering the US 'risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists.'
He added: 'Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong.'
Yesterday the newly-elected London Mayor said he was planning to visit the US before this year's presidential elections in November 'in case Donald Trump wins.'
But Trump, asked whether his proposal to ban Muslims would affect Mr Khan, said: 'There will always be exceptions'.
In an interview with the New York Times he said he was happy to see Khan - the son of a Pakistani migrant bus driver - become the first Muslim mayor of a western capital because he can 'lead by example'.
'I think if he does a great job, it will really you lead by example, always lead by example,' Trump added. 'If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing.'
Mr Khan (pictured today) met with Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and went for a walk around London's St Pancras Station
Khan (pictured today) accused Trump of making both the UK and the US 'less safe' because of his 'ignorant view of Islam'
Raise a glass: Mr Khan (pictured today with Ms Hidalgo) said Trump's call to ban Muslims entering the US 'risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremist
Trump's pledge to ban Muslims from entering the US triggered a huge petition in Britain calling on the Government to ban him from entering the country.
More than half a million people in the UK backed the move, prompting MPs to debate the proposal in Parliament, but the Government said Britain should instead invite him to visit so the whole country could 'unite against him'.
The Republican caused particular fury in London last year when he claimed parts of London were 'so radicalised' by Muslim extremists that police were 'afraid for their own lives'.
Despite Trump offering him an exception to his ban on Muslims, Khan took aim at the Republican this morning.
'Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe - it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists,' he said.
'This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world.
'Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong.'
After Sadiq Khan was voted in as the first Muslim mayor of London last week, the presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump (pictured) announced he will allow 'exceptions' to his plans for a ban on Muslims and insisted he was 'happy' to see him win
Sadiq Khan, who became the first Muslim mayor of any major European capital, immediately rejected Trump's apparent attempt to mend fences
Trump caused particular fury in London last year when he claimed parts of London were 'so radicalised' by Muslim extremists that police were 'afraid for their own lives', and Khan (pictured today) took aim
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton welcomed Khan's election as London Mayor on Saturday, tweeting: 'Son of a Pakistani bus driver, champion of workers' rights and human rights, and now Mayor of London.'
Trump has come under heavy criticism for his stance on Muslims which critics have called discriminatory and racist.
But rather than back down from his inflammatory claims, last week Trump doubled down on his call to ban non-American Muslims from entering the United States - even if it causes problems going forward in the general election.
'They're destroying Europe, I'm not going to let that happen to the United States,' Trump said this morning during an interview on Morning Joe.
Last week his team demanded the British Prime Minister David Cameron apologise for saying Trump was 'divisive, stupid and wrong' to suggest banning Muslims from entering the US - comments he made when the billionaire was still seen as an outsider in the Republican race.
But Downing Street responded by saying Mr Cameron had 'not intention of withdrawing' the comments.
While he may be an 'exception' to the ban, Khan said yesterday that he is planning to visit the US before this year's presidential elections in November 'in case Donald Trump wins.'
Trump's pledge to ban Muslims from entering the US prompted a huge petition (pictured) in Britain calling on the Government to ban him from entering the country
Last week Donald Trump's team demanded the British Prime Minister David Cameron (pictured yesterday) apologise for saying Trump was 'divisive, stupid and wrong' to suggest banning Muslims from entering the US - comments he made when the billionaire was still seen as an outsider in the Republican race but Downing Street said Mr Cameron had 'no intention of withdrawing' the remarks
Khan insisted the issue is not just about him but his friends, family and everyone who comes from a background similar to his own
In an interview with Time magazine, before Trump's announcement today, he said: 'If Donald Trump becomes the president I'll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can't engage with American mayors and swap ideas.'
He has previously expressed admiration for mayors Bill de Blasio in New York and Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, both Democrats, and said he hoped to meet them both.
Khan criticized his rival in the bid to become the next mayor, Conservative party member Zac Goldsmith, for attempting to link him with extremism.
The day after winning the election he wrote a newspaper article directly attacking Prime Minister David Cameron for backing the campaign and accused him of using tactics 'straight out of the Donald Trump playbook' for focussing on his Muslim faith.
'Conservative [party] tacticians thought those sort of tactics would win London and they were wrong,' Khan said. 'I'm confident that Donald Trump's approach to politics won't win in America.'
Khan claimed that the Conservative campaign had tried to divide the capital's ethnic communities against each other in the campaign for City Hall instead of focussing on policies.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton welcomed Khan's election as London Mayor on Saturday, tweeting: 'Son of a Pakistani bus driver, champion of workers' rights and human rights, and now Mayor of London.'
Trump first announced his controversial plans to bar all non-American Muslims from entering the United States in the aftermath of the San Bernardino terror attacks last December
While he may be an 'exception' to the ban, Khan (pictured on his first day as Mayor of London yesterday) said today that he is planning to visit the US before this year's presidential elections in November 'in case Donald Trump wins'
Trump became presumptive GOP nominee last week after his chief rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, threw in the towel after a disappointing showing in Indiana. Ohio Gov. John Kasich suspended his campaign the following day.
Generally, in politics, the nominee will shed off some of his positions that are more in line with the party's base in order to be palatable to the general public.
But on the Muslim ban, which is likely Trump's most controversial position, he's not budging.
'I don't care if it hurts me,' he told Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. 'I'm doing the right thing.'
'I've been guided by common sense, by what's right,' he continued.
'We have to be careful. We're allowing thousands of people to come into our country,' he said. 'Thousands and thousands of people being placed all over the country that, frankly, nobody knows who they are.'
'We don't know what we're doing,' he added.
Trump originally pulled out the idea in the aftermath of the San Bernardino terror attacks in which two ISIS sympathizers gunned down 14 at an office holiday celebration.
Khan (pictured today) previously criticized his rival in the bid to become the next mayor, Conservative party member Zac Goldsmith, for attempting to link him with extremism
While he may be an 'exception' to the ban, Khan (pictured right with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, left) said today that he is planning to visit the US before this year's presidential elections in November 'in case Donald Trump wins'
'Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on,' a statement from the Trump campaign read.
Trump later clarified that he meant Muslims who weren't citizens of the United States.
Even though Trump was criticized by many Republicans, including rivals like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney, he stood firm.
While Clinton is not yet her party's presumptive nominee, the former secretary of state's campaign already bashed Trump today on his support of the Muslim ban.
'Trump is going to be the Republican nominee,' said a fundraising letter signed by Clinton's deputy communications director Christina Reynolds.
A Virgin Mary statue in Fresno, California, has reportedly been 'crying' for more than a year.
Maria Cardenas told KFSN it began 1.5 years ago at the time of her cousin Jessie Lopez's murder.
Cardenas told the TV station the statue -- which was given a decade ago to her as a Mother's Day present -- goes without crying for periods of time.
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A Virgin Mary statue in Fresno, California, has reportedly been 'crying' for more than a year
Maria Cardenas told KFSN it began 1.5 years ago at the time of her cousin Jessie Lopez's murder
Cardenas (pictured) has said that the statue -- which was given a decade ago to her as a Mother's Day present -- goes without crying for periods of time
She keeps the statue's tears in a glass, KFSN reported.
Cardenas's family considers the crying statue a 'miracle,' according to the ABC affiliate.
The TV station also said it witnessed a tear, reporting that 'It was oily and smelled like roses.'
Richard Quintana lives nearby and came to look at the statue, telling KFSN: 'That's amazing.
'It takes the words out of my mouth -- like wow.
'I'm so amazed.'
Cardenas also keeps the statue's tears in a glass
KFSN said it witnessed a tear, reporting that 'It was oily and smelled like roses'
It's not the first time oil has been linked to the Virgin Mary.
In 2014, a Virgin Mary statue in Tarshiha, Israel, was apparently crying oil tears, DailyMail.com reported at the time.
A different statue of the religious figure belonging to a Griffith, Indiana, Catholic church apparently had 'a tear-stained cheek' in 2014, DailyMail.com reported.
The Rev. Theodore Mens said at the time: 'There must be a natural explanation the cold, the melting of the snow.
'Whenever we see something, we always look for a natural reason first.'
The Huffington Post reported that surface condensation and manipulation by people are among the theories for why statues seem to cry.
A 'tear' is seen on the chin of the Virgin Mary statue in Fresno, California
Candles and flowers - along with a sign that reads 'Please don't touch my face' - are seen near the statue
Two workers were rescued from a scaffold that dangled about 17 stories above street level in New York City on Tuesday.
The Fire Department of New York said the men became trapped on the slanting scaffold between the 16th and 17th floor at about 9.50 am in lower Manhattan.
One rescuer rappelled on the side of the building with a rope, and the workers made it safely into the building through a broken window approximately 40 minutes later.
Two workers were rescued from a dangling scaffold about 17 stories above street level in New York City on Tuesday
The FDNY said the men became trapped on the slanting scaffold between the 16th and 17th floor at about 9.50 am in lower Manhattan
The FDNY initially reported the men were stuck 27 stories above street level.
Witness Gary Rivera said that the scaffold was 'sideways' as the workers held on for their lives during the rescue.
'I saw the scaffold and it was sideways,' Rivera told CBS New York. 'They were rappelling downstairs and they broke the windows and got the guys out.'
The workers were rushed to the hospital, though neither appeared to be seriously injured.
The building on which the incident occurred is owned by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, according to NBC News.
Just before noon, after the men had been rescued, the scaffolding was leveled.
The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident.
A mother whose former boyfriend recently accused her of accidentally causing a 2011 fire that killed her three young children and parents has spoken out saying she 'feels sorry for him'.
Michael Borcina told attorneys during a lawsuit deposition that he lied to police about how the deadly blaze was sparked because he wanted to protect Madonna Badger.
For years, Borcina had taken the blame, telling investigators he had moved a bag of ashes from a recently-lit fire into the mudroom, starting the fire that killed seven-year-old twins Grace and Sarah Badger, nine-year-old Lily Badger, and their maternal grandparents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson.
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Madonna Badger (left and right), a mother whose former boyfriend accused her of accidentally causing a 2011 fire that killed her three young children and parents has spoken out saying she 'feels sorry for him'
Michael Borcina (right), who took the blame for accidentally starting a 2011 Christmas Day house fire in Connecticut that killed his girlfriend Madonna Badger's (left) three children and her parents now says it was the mother who started it. The pair are pictured arriving for the funeral of the three children in January 2012
The deadly blaze in Stamford killed seven-year-old twins Sarah and Grace Badger (pictured right), and nine-year-old Lily (left)
But speaking to the NBC's Today program Tuesday, Badger simply said: 'I feel sorry for him. I feel incredibly sad for him.'
She declined to comment further. Both Badger and the father of her children have outstanding lawsuits against the city of Stamford.
Borcina previously agreed to pay $5 million to settle a separate suit filed by the children's father, but documents suggest he has since changed his story.
The pair have since split, with Badger marrying long-time friend Bill Duke in 2014, even though she struggled for a long time to come to terms with the death of her young children.
Borcina said in the deposition he hasn't spoken to Badger since six months after the fire.
According to the filings, seen by the Hartford Courant, he said he fabricated the tale as he wanted to 'spare her from carrying the burden that maybe she had done something to hurt her family.'
Borcina and Badger, who were dating at the time, escaped the fire in Stamford.
The deposition is part of one of several lawsuits filed by the children's father, Matthew Badger.
Badger's claims against several subcontractors and their insurance carriers remain active, and the deposition was part of those lawsuits. Matthew Badger and Madonna Badger also still have separate lawsuits pending against the city.
Neither he nor Madonna Badger immediately returned calls Monday seeking comment.
Authorities said the fire began after Borcina left a cardboard box of fireplace ashes, which were still smoldering, in the property's mudroom. The building was torn down a day after the blaze ripped through it.
Borcina, who was renovating the $1.7 million Victorian home, was accused in the lawsuit of contributing with other defendants to make the house a 'firetrap,' including failing to install a smoke detection system during the construction.
A state prosecutor concluded in 2012 that no criminal charges should be filed.
Madonna Badger has said that Borcina ran his hands over the ashes to make sure they were out before putting the bag in the bin in the mudroom, just before they went to sleep after wrapping presents early on Christmas morning.
Madonna Badger, an advertising executive in New York, is also suing the city, alleging Stamford officials intentionally destroyed evidence when they demolished Badger's home without notice shortly after the fire. City officials denied that.
Borcina had initially told authorities he put ashes from a recently-lit fire inside a mudroom within the $1.7million Victorian mansion. But comments in recent depositions appear to show he has changed his story (The waterfront house is pictured the day of the fire)
The girls (left) pictured with their maternal grandparents, Lomar and Pauline Johnson, who also died in the house fire
In the aftermath, the parents struggled with their incomprehensible loss.
Matthew Badger set up a charity named the Lily Sarah Grace Fund to raise money for arts projects in schools, as his three girls had been dyslexic and loved art.
In an interview in October 2014 with Oprah Winfrey, the then 50-year-old Madonna Badger described her horror on Christmas morning three years ago when she woke up to thick smoke in the house and despite her desperate attempts, was not able to save any of her children.
In the aftermath of the blaze, it was revealed that Mr Borcino was leading two of the girls out of the house when both bolted back into the flames to their deaths.
After an investigation, Connecticut officials ruled the house had caught fire after Mr Borcino swept up embers in one of the home's fireplaces and placed them while they were still smoldering in the mud room.
The grieving mother told Oprah that she doesn't believe that's what started the fire - since she saw a nearby electrical box spew sparks in the middle of the fire.
'Something really major happened,' Badger said. 'I don't know what happened but I think someone does.
'I think there's got to be someone out there who knows what happened...and my prayer is that they are going to come forth and tell the truth.'
Mr Badger received a $5million settlement from Borcina in December 2014. In the aftermath of their deaths, he set up a charity named the Lily Sarah Grace Fund to raise money for arts projects in schools, as his three girls had been dyslexic and loved art
Cary Atkins, 29, (pictured) who wrote off his boss's 200,000 Lamborghini after taking cocaine was today banned from driving
A car dealership worker who wrote off his boss's 200,000 Lamborghini after taking cocaine was today banned from driving.
Cary Atkins, 29, smashed the purple, limited edition Murcielago supercar into a set of railings in Chelmsford, Essex, shortly before the vehicle erupted into a fireball.
Today, Atkins, from Romford, London, admitted driving a motor vehicle with a proportion of a specified controlled drug above the specified limit when he appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.
The court heard how Atkins was three times over the limit for cocaine when his blood was tested following his arrest at the scene on March 5.
Representing himself in court, Atkins said: 'I accept the charges. The night before I had a heavy night. I don't usually do it, I've got a job in the car industry.
'I think I must have put my foot down too hard on the pedal and I lost control.
'I use the car to pick up my daughter every weekend. I was under the assumption I was under the limit. I'm sorry.'
Atkins was found to have 158 microgrammes per one litre of benzoylecgonine, a derivative of cocaine, in his blood. The limit is 50 microgrammes.
The court heard he had been driving through Chelmsford when he lost control of the 205mph company car, which he was fully insured to drive.
'An on duty officer in full uniform was called to reports of a single vehicle collision between a purple Lamborghini Murcielago and some railings on the other side of the road,' the prosecutor said.
'The fire service and police attended. The vehicle caught alight. He was tested for alcohol but tested negative. He did, however, test positive for cocaine.
'He was arrested and taken to Chelmsford police station, where he consented to a blood sample, which confirmed the initial test.'
Atkins said he manoeuvred the car to the side of the road after noticing the vehicle was on fire.
The magistrates were shown a letter from his boss, although its contents were not read aloud in court.
But it was confirmed the vehicle, which can accelerate from 0-60 in under four seconds, was a company car and Atkins was fully covered to drive it. It is not known whether he is still employed by the dealership.
Atkins smashed the purple, limited edition Murcielago supercar into a set of railings in Chelmsford, Essex, shortly before the vehicle erupted into a fireball
Passing motorist George Brewster, from Ingatestone, Essex, managed to capture some close-up pictures of the burning Lamborghini, in the moments after the crash
Atkins said: 'I think I must have put my foot down too hard on the pedal and I lost control.' (Stock image of a Murcielago)
Passing motorist George Brewster, from Ingatestone, Essex, managed to capture some close-up pictures of the burning Lamborghini in the moments after the crash.
He said: 'I couldn't believe how much heat I could feel inside my own car as I drove past, the heat was immense, even with my windows fully closed.
'After I'd driven past I was just hoping the paint hadn't melted on my Focus ST.
'There were only two men there on the other side of the road to the inferno, watching it burn.
Syrian refugees are being shot, killed and brutally beaten by Turkish officials as they try to cross the borders, a human rights organisation reports.
Video footage shows the bodies of several dead Syrians, allegedly shot dead by border guards while trying to flee their home country.
At least five Syrian refugees have been killed by Turkish border guards - including one child - and 14 people have been seriously injured over the past two months, Human Rights Watch reports.
Killings: At least five Syrian refugees have reportedly been killed by Turkish border guards - including one child - in March and April, according to Human Rights Watch
Ankara says it keeps an 'open door' policy for those fleeing the five-year conflict, however, for the past year, only those requiring emergency medical treatment not available on the Syrian side have been able to cross legally, while others rely on expensive smugglers to help them into Turkey.
'While senior Turkish officials claim they are welcoming Syrian refugees with open borders and open arms, their border guards are killing and beating them,' said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at Human Rights Watch.
'Firing at traumatized men, women, and children fleeing fighting and indiscriminate warfare is truly appalling,'
Human Rights Watch has released video footage showing the extent of the injuries Syrian refugees have suffered at the hands of the Turkish boarder guards, including distressing images of people shot and killed.
A man can be heard describing how his sister and cousin 'Abdallah', whose body is seen in the video, were shot and killed.
Horrible: A man named Badri shows his extensive injuries, allegedly inflicted by border guards last month
Beaten: A Syrian refugee named as Burhan has severe bruising and red marks all over his body, which it is claimed has come from a beating by border guards
Stopped: A woman tells the camera how she and her family had been shot at by Turkish guards
'On Sunday, April 17, a smuggler took us at about 5 p.m. towards the border wall. Suddenly, when we were about 500 meters from the wall, we heard automatic weapons fired from the direction of the wall and bullets landed all around us.
'The women started screaming and the children started crying, but the shooting continued. We all threw ourselves onto the ground, covering the children.
'I was lying close to my sister and my cousin, and the bullets hit them while we were lying down. They stopped screaming and shouting. I knew right away they had been killed.
'A bullet also hit my right hand. My other cousin was also injured in his right hand. They also shot and injured his 9-year-old daughter in both her legs and his 5-year-old son in his right leg. I saw it happen.'
He then described how he and other family members risked their lives to recover the bodies, only being able to escape a hail of bullets when local villagers told Turkish police to stop shooting.
In seven incidents investigated by Human Rights Watch between March and April 17, Turkish border guards reportedly show and killed three Syrian asylum seekers - one man, one woman, and a 15-year-old boy - shot dead one smuggler and beat another smuggler to death.
Human Rights Watch has released video footage showing the extent of the injuries Syrian refugees have suffered at the hands of the Turkish boarder guards, including distressing images of people shot and killed
They also shot and injured eight asylum seekers, including three children, aged three, five and nine; and severely assaulted six asylum seekers.
Human Rights Watch is now urging the Turkish government to investigate the allegations of killing and violence by border guards, and accusations that Syrian refugees are not allowed to enter the country.
In response to the Human Rights Watch report, a senior Turkish presidency official said the authenticity of the video could not be verified.
Earlier this year, Turkey and Europe agreed on a plan to send back migrants and asylum seekers to Turkey from the Greek Islands, with Brussels committing six billion euros to help support refugees in Turkey.
The legality of the deal, aimed to stem the flow of migrants to European shores, hinges on Turkey being a safe country of asylum, which rights groups and NGOs have said was not the case.
Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at HRW said:
American military aircraft and drones will be fitted with laser weapons that will be able to incinerate targets will be operational within the next decade.
Experts working at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have been working on so-called death ray weapons in the laboratory for a number of years.
However, these weapons, which use intense light and heat to destroy their targets, are now being tested in the field.
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US Air Force chiefs want to fit the laser death ray to the C-130, artists impress, by early in the next decade
Eventually, scientists want to install laser devices on smaller aircraft and even unmanned drones
Scientists have been working on a method of reducing the size of the weapons without diminishing their power.
Air Force Chief Scientist Dr Greg Zacharias told Scout.com: 'The promise of directed energy is that electricity is cheap. Plus, you get the speed of light working for you so incoming missiles are easier to shoot at.'
An early version of the system was used at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
According to Zacharias, technicians want to be able to increase the power of the weapons from 10-kilowatts to 100kilowatts.
He said the system needs to be able to track a fast-moving target before opening fire.
Zacharias said 'The other part is all the component technology. You are going to give up fuel or some armaments. It is not just getting enough power on board it is getting the aiming technology. Its dealing with turbulent air flow on a high-speed platform,.
The systems will be first fitted to large transport jets such as the C-17 and the C-130.
Once the weapons are miniaturised, they will be fitted to fighter aircraft such as the F-15, F-16 and the F-35.
The weapons are currently being tested at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, pictured
Zacharias said laser weapons could prove very effective in an anti-insurgency campaign against a group such as ISIS.
He believes laser weapons could be more accurate and produce far less collateral damage than a traditional high explosive.
He said: 'You might want to put lasers on board so you have a distributed package when you have a bunch of different platforms carrying different parts - of weapons, sensors and even fuel in one very expensive fighter package. It is like having distributed satellite. You could have distributed fighter packages as well.'
According to DARPA, the threats faced by US forces are becoming increasingly dangerous..
A statement on their website claims: ' Laser weapon systems provide additional capability for offensive missions as welladding precise targeting with low probability of collateral damage. For consideration as a weapon system on todays air assets though, these laser weapon systems must be lighter and more compact than the state-of-the-art has produced.'
Antoinette Brown, 52, died after being mauled by six dogs loose in her South Dallas neighborhood
A grandmother in Dallas who was viciously attacked by a pack of loose dogs died a week after the incident that left muscles and tendons on her body exposed.
Antoinette Brown was left in a medically induced coma after six dogs mauled the 52-year-old woman in her South Dallas neighborhood in the early morning hours on May 2.
She died Monday evening after being taken off life support at Baylor Medical Center.
Neighbors called police to say a woman was 'screaming for help because she was being attacked,' Fox 4 reported.
The Army veteran was found with more than 100 bites across her body in an empty lot, as the dogs had already fled from the scene, CBS Dallas reported.
Her neighbor, Jackie Humphrey, told Fox 4 that she called 911 when she found Brown severely injured.
'One of her legs looked like a shark had taken a bite out of it,' Humphrey told Fox 4.
Humphrey said that she tried to have Dallas Animal Services capture the same dogs a year ago after she claims one killed her Chihuahua.
She explained to Fox 4 that when she called 911 about Brown's attack, police told her to call 311 about the dogs being loose.
Humphrey claims that she was told by an official that no one would come to the neighborhood for 72 hours.
'I said, 'Evidently, y'all are not communicating or something,' Humphrey told Fox 4.
Brown was left in a medically induced coma after six dogs mauled the 52-year-old woman in South Dallas neighborhood in the early morning hours on May 2. Pictured above are loose dogs in the neighborhood
The Army veteran was found with more than 100 bites across her body in an empty lot (pictured), as the dogs had already fled from the scene
Other neighbors claim that the aggressive dogs would roam the neighborhood frequently after getting out through holes in fences.
Now, city officials plan to revisit the policies on loose dogs after Brown's tragic death.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings stated that Dallas Animal Services has 'to do a better job picking up stray dogs.'
'The priority has not been high enough, obviously,' Rawlings said. 'Progress is great, but we were in a deep hole and we have a long ways to go.'
He added that when someone is injured by an animal that the city's animal services needs to be contacted as soon as it happens.
Video Courtesy KDFW
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings (above) stated that Dallas Animal Services has 'to do a better job picking up stray dogs'
According to Fox 4, the director of animal services created a plan to hire nine more employees eight months ago and five of the positions were empty for a year.
Humphrey believes that had Dallas Animal Services listened to the complaints from the neighborhood a year ago, Brown would still be alive.
'It seems like to me they don't care,' she told Fox 4. 'They really don't care.'
The case is still under investigation and no charges have been filed.
Authorities believe that they have identified the owner of the loose dogs who attacked Brown.
The dogs were captured days later following the horrific attack.
Storming the Lindt Cafe in the Sydney siege was an 'option of last resort' because of how 'messy' it would get, an inquest has heard.
Rushing in to the Martin Place cafe would be a 'brutal' use of force, the superintendent who was in charge of the forward command for much of the first day in December 2014 said on Tuesday.
Two entries were considered - a carefully planned and timed Deliberate Action (DA), and an Emergency Action (EA) triggered by the death or serious injury of hostages.
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Man Haron Monis (pictured) detained 18 people for more than 16 hours on December 14, 2014 at the Lindt Cafe in Sydney's Martin Place
The officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the inquest he had 'significant concerns' about a deliberate entry because, despite the planning, it was not necessarily safer than an emergency-triggered response.
'[An EA is] messy, it's brutal and it's an option of last resort,' he said.
But a deliberate action wasn't a surgical, soft approach.
'It is still a very confrontational, brutal, loud, overwhelming use of force to neutralise the threat,' he said.
Rushing in to the Martin Place cafe would be a 'brutal' use of force, the superintendent who was in charge of the forward command for much of the first day in December 2014 said on Tuesday (CCTV of officers storming the building 2.13am pictured)
Lindt Cafe, where Man Monis took 18 people hostage in the Sydney siege in December 2014
Lone gunman Man Haron Monis detained 18 people in the Lindt Cafe on December 15, 2014, holding them hostage for more than 16 hours.
The officer also said that, even in a deliberate entry, if it wasn't properly executed Monis could still have detonated an explosive device, risking the lives of the hostages and the police who went in.
Protruding wires from a backpack carried by Monis, suspected to be a bomb, were later revealed to be fake.
In the end an EA brought the siege to end.
A hostage runs towards a police officer outside Lindt Cafe to escape, December 2014
Police were forced to act when Monis fatally shot cafe manager Tori Johnson at point blank range at 2.13am on December 16.
Barrister Katrina Dawson was killed when she was hit by a fragment of a police bullet as they stormed inside.
Monis was also killed.
The superintendent also suggested the NSW Police Force needed to fill gaps in its access to technology during situations like the siege, after counsel assisting, Jeremy Gormley, SC, likened their practices to turning up 'with a minibus and a radio'.
The officer suggested the force look into technology used by the Australian Defence Force, which could be set up at a forward command in minutes.
Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson (above, left) was executed by gunman Man Monis at 2.13am, after which police stormed the cafe shooting dead Monis and the finding the barely breathing form of Katrina Dawson (above, right) who could not be revived
Five police officers face misconduct charges after they allegedly used an official helicopter to spy on a woman sunbathing naked and couples having sex.
Matthew Loosemore, Matthew Lucas, Adrian Pogmore, Malcolm Reeves and Lee Walls appeared in court today to face a series of charges.
The men are accused of using the thermal imaging camera to watch members of the public without their consent between 2007 and 2012.
Charged: Adrian Pogmore, left, and Matthew Lucas, right, are among five police officers accused of misusing a force helicopter
Equipment: The men allegedly used a helicopter's camera to film a naked woman and couples having sex (file photo)
All five men are or used to be employed by scandal-hit South Yorkshire Police, which is under fire over its handling of the Hillsborough disaster and Rotherham sex abuse ring.
The officers denied a total of 10 charges against them during a short hearing at Sheffield magistrates' court.
Loosemore, 44, from Doncaster, faces one charge of wilful misconduct in a public office related to observing and filming person performing sexual acts.
Lucas, 41, from Sheffield, denies three counts of wilful misconduct relating to watching and filming naked people without their consent and observing and recording people performing sexual acts.
Pogmore, 50, from Rotherham, faces four counts of misconduct relating to watching and filming naked people without their consent and observing and recording people performing sexual acts.
Accused: Lee Walls, left, and Malcolm Reeves, right, deny all the charges against them
Court: Matthew Loosemore leaving Sheffield magistrates' court after today's misconduct hearing
Reeves, 63, of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, denies two charges of watching and filming naked people without their consent.
Walls, 46, of Sheffield faces one charge relating to watching and filming a naked woman without her knowledge or consent.
The case will next been heard at Sheffield Crown Court on June 7.
The five men were all granted unconditional bail until the next hearing by District Judge Naomi Redhouse.
Kyleigh Miles (pictured), 17, made an online threat to blow up her school because she was being bullied
A Michigan high school student made an online threat to blow up her school because she was being bullied.
Kyleigh Miles, 17, said she was going to 'blow Grandville up' in an online post last month, according to KHOU 11.
She was referring to Grandville High School, where she said she was being bullied, according to an interview with police.
Miles appeared in court on Monday for a probable cause hearing on a charge of making a false report or threat of terrorism.
'I'm mad. I'm gonna blow Grandville up,' she tweeted last month.
Grandville school officials contacted police on April 28 after being alerted of a threat was made against the high school via social media.
A search of the school was conducted but no explosives were found.
Grand Rapids Police Department used a bomb-sniffing dog with to check the student's vehicle, which also had no device, according to MLive.
Superintendent Roger Bearup said at the time no students at the high school were ever in danger.
He said Miles was not on the premises when an administrator was shown the tweet by another student.
'I'm mad. I'm gonna blow Grandville up,' Miles (pictured) tweeted. A search of the school was conducted but no explosives were found. Miles also admitted to making an April 19 post that read: 'Someone blow Grandville school up please n thank you'
Sgt Renee Veldman wrote in a probable cause affidavit that Miles made the threat because 'she was being bullied and felt like no one was doing anything about it'.
Veldman also wrote that Miles said she 'hates that school'.
Miles also admitted to making an April 19 post that read: 'Someone blow Grandville school up please n thank you,' according to the news station.
She was arrested on April 28 and released the next day after posting 10 per cent of a $30,000 bond, according to KHOU.
False reports or threats of terrorism is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Miles is prohibited from having any contact with Grandville Public Schools.
Investigators are still trying to figure what went wrong on the ride
Investigators are still trying to figure what went wrong on the ride
She remains in critical condition and doctors say she may never see again
She remains in critical condition and doctors say she may never see again
The 11-year-old girl had her scalp torn off while riding a ride at a Cinco de Mayo festival in Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday
The 11-year-old girl had her scalp torn off while riding a ride at a Cinco de Mayo festival in Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday
The parents of the 11-year-old girl who was scalped while riding a carnival ride at a Cinco de Mayo festival in Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday say she may never see again.
In an emotional press conference on Sunday, the parents of Elizabeth Gilreath say their daughter is still in critical condition, recovering from surgery and is only communicating through hand squeezes right now.
The girl, who goes by the nickname Lulu, was riding a spinning ride called the King's Crown with cousins on Saturday when her long red hair somehow got caught and was ripped from the top of her head.
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The parents of Elizabeth 'Lulu' Gilreath, held a press conference on Sunday, saying that their daughter may never see again. (Left, father Timothy Gilreath. Right, mother Virginia Cooksey)
Doctors hope that Lulu's eyelids will heal and that her hair will grow back, but they aren't optimistic about her vision yet.
'They don't even know if the muscles will work and my daughter will be able to see again. That is our baby,' the girl's father, Timothy Gilreath said, according to WOWT.
Lulu's mother, Virginia Cooksey, showed pictures of her daughter after surgery and teared up as she recalled how much her daughter loved her long red hair.
'This is one of her favorite things. She loves her hair,' Cooksey said.
On a GoFundMe page to raise money for her hospital bills, the girl's family say they are not sure about whether her scalp will heal either.
'(At) this point we are not sure if her scalp will die or stay alive,' the page says. 'If it does die Lulu will not be able to grow her own hair.'
While the parents were emotional at the press conference, they said they have been staying strong around their daughter.
'I can't let my daughter see it. I have to stay strong,' Gilreath said.
Meanwhile, witnesses have spoken out about the torturous accident.
The 11-year-old remains in critical condition at the hospital after the Cinco de Mayo festival accident
Gilreath was videotaped by her friend right before her scalp was ripped off by the King's Crown ride she was on at the Cinco de Mayo festival in Omaha
According to witnesses, the ride had just started when the girl's red curls were caught in a mechanism, and she began screaming.
'There's nothing we could do and so I stood up and I was like yelling, I was like, "Stop the ride. Stop the freaking ride," said Elizabeth's friend, Aushanay Allen, who took video of her pal just before her horrifying ordeal.
Surveillance video of the park show's the ride's conductor running off to get help, but one mom who was standing nearby says the ride was still moving despite the girl's screams.
'It was still spinning,' Jolene Cisneros told the outlet. 'I had to stop it with my hands and turn it to the point where it was to the platform. I was like, "you're going to be okay" and she's just like, "where's my pretty hair?'''
Cisneros says that Elizabeth was bleeding and then lost consciousness. The horrified mom said she thought the little girl might die right in front of her.
'It went on for 5-10 minutes everybody told me while it ripped and pulled my daughter around,' Gilreath said. 'She was tortured.'
A mother who stopped the ride says that Elizabeth, known as Lulu, asked 'Where's my pretty hair?' before she fell unconscious on the ride
The ride (above) spins around and it's unclear how the girl's hair could have been caught in it - the ride is now shut down while the carnival investigates
Courtesy WOWT
A crowd gathered at the horrific scene as the little girl lay bleeding and unconscious on the floor of the ride
Elizabeth suffered a fractured skull and is in Nebraska Medicine hospital, according to KETV.
On Facebook, Cooksey posted photos of her gravely injured daughter, nicknamed Lulu, asking for prayers. 'Lulu is such an amazing and out going little girl she has to make it through this, she wants to be a senator when she grows up. She loves to read and learn. She loves her family dearly. Please family and friends keep Lulu in your thoughts and prays on this Mother's Day. No mother should have to go threw what I'm going through.'
She added that she wanted the man who refused to stop the ride to be punished, but it's unclear exactly what happened or whom she is referring to. 'She fell on a carnival ride yesterday, told the guy to stop and he ignored and her scalp got ripped off,' she wrote.
One of the mother's Facebook friends said that Elizabeth's scalp had to be reattached.
'It's scary, because if you have little kids,' another eyewitness, Jessica Contreres, told the outlet. 'I mean what's the possibility of that happening to a kid that you know or a family member or something.'
The rides are furnished by Thomas Shows. Spokesperson Katie Weddleton said: 'Safety is our top priority - one hundred percent,' according to WOWT.
However, Lulu's parents say they have not been contacted by the company.
The devastated fiancee of the groom-to-be who was shot dead in New Orleans during the couple's trip to find a wedding venue sobbed as she said she wants to find the person who ruined her life.
Thomas Rolfes, 25, of St. Louis, arrived in the city on Friday night to find the perfect spot to marry Elizabeth Fried, who is from Boston, next year.
The construction engineer arrived before his fiancee and went out to a bar with some friends but in the early hours of Saturday morning, his body was found near a convenience store.
Police believe the motive for the shooting was a robbery and released a surveillance video of Rolfes buying two bottles of water at the store in a bid to find the assailant.
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Elizabeth Fried (pictured) sobbed as she said she wants to find the person who ruined her life after her fiance Thomas Rolfes was shot dead in New Orleans during the couple's trip to find a wedding venue
Police have released the last video of victim buying water at a gas station conveniuence store in an attempt to find mystery assailant
On Monday, Fried described how her search for a dream wedding venue had become a nightmare.
'Saturday morning, my life was ruined,' she told WWL-TV through tears. 'I want to find out who did this, who ruined my life.'
They had met while studying at Tulane University in New Orleans so for the newly-engaged couple, it was the perfect city to be married in.
Now, Fried says she is unlikely to ever return.
'We met at Tulane and spent four amazing years in this city together,' she said.
'This was my dream city. Now, it's my worst nightmare. I don't think I'll ever come back.'
They had met while studying at Tulane University in New Orleans so for the newly-engaged couple (pictured), it was the perfect city to be married in
'This was my dream city. Now, it's my worst nightmare. I don't think I'll ever come back,' Fried said
His mother also described her devastation at losing her eldest son.
'It is the worst nightmare,' Julie Rolfes told WDSU. 'He was here to start the next chapter of his life.
'He was meeting his fiancee here to visit venues for their wedding. It was the next chapter; our firstborn son marrying a beautiful girl.'
The victim's brother, Ron 'Tripp' Rolfes added that their family wants to find the killer of their loved one, who they believe was mugged.
Rolfes flew to New Orleans from St. Louis on Friday night and had arranged to meet his fiancee.
She landed in the city two hours later to discover he'd gone out to meet friends, and decided to stay in the hotel room, not knowing she would never see him alive again.
He went to Ms Mae's, a popular 24-hour-bar located at the corner of Napoleon Avenue and Magazine Street, but it is not clear what happened next.
Rolfes was found dead at around 4.30pm at the corner of Amelia Street and South Claiborne Avenue around two miles from the bar he went to with friends.
Thomas Rolfes (pictured with fiancee Liz Fried) had gone to New Orleans on Friday to plan his upcoming wedding but he was found shot in the chest at 4.30am on Saturday
An hour before he was found dead, Rolfes (pictured) was at a Delta Fuel gas station store on Clairborne Avenue a few blocks away
The New Orleans Police Department said he had been shot in the chest and died at the scene.
An hour earlier, he was caught on CCTV at a Delta Fuel gas station store on Clairborne Avenue a few blocks away.
Police said his phone, which had run out of power at about 1:30am, was still on him when his body was found, but his wallet was missing.
He didn't own a car, so how and why he went to the gas station is unknown.
'The big unknown is what happened in that hour, and how he even got there in the first place,' Fried told The Advocate. 'So I want to make sure his story gets out. We need to catch the person who did this.'
New Orleans Police Chief Michael Harrison held a news conference on Monday, where he said investigators believe robbery was the motive.
He said injuries on Rolfes' hands indicated there may have been a struggle.
Former Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Rolfes had worked in his 2012 campaign and called the death 'a senseless and tragic loss'
Meanwhile, former Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Rolfes had worked in his 2012 campaign and called the death 'a senseless and tragic loss.'
'Heartbreaking to hear that Thomas Rolfes was killed this weekend while in New Orleans looking for a wedding venue with his sweetheart, a fellow Tulane graduate,' Romney wrote on Facebook Monday afternoon.
'A senseless and tragic loss. Thomas was a highly valued member of our 2012 campaign team. His warm smile and engaging personality lifted our spirits.
'His commitment and dedication to our effort made him an invaluable part of the campaign. Ann and I send our love and prayers to his family and fiancee.'
Rishi Sunak delivered the stark message after being confirmed as the next PM when his sole remaining rival Penny Mordaunt failed to make the threshold of 100 nominations needed to trigger a run-off. Speaking to a camera at Conservative HQ, Mr Sunak said the UK is a 'great country' and vowed to work 'day in and day out', but pointed to serious economic problems. Earlier, the new premier received a rapturous reception when he made a 10-minute private speech to MPs at Parliament, telling his troops that Mr Johnson, Ms Mordaunt and Ms Truss were 'all good Conservative colleagues and friends', adding: 'We're united behind the policy and now cannot afford the indulgence of division over personality. According to one MP present he said: 'We have one chance. It is unite or die.' It marks a spectacular political revival for Mr Sunak, just seven weeks after he was soundly defeated by Liz Truss in the struggle to succeed Mr Johnson. But after her extraordinary 44-day implosion, he now faces one of the toughest in-trays for any PM with the public finances in chaos and the worst of the cost-of-living to come. Mr Sunak is expected to be formally installed as premier by King Charles tomorrow.
A woman has been charged with murder over her alleged role in a six hour siege that left one man dead and his two brothers with gunshot wounds.
Police arrested the 31 year-old-owner of Inline National Signage following an extensive investigation into the siege which saw heavily armed police swarming the factory unit on March 7.
The accused was arrested at Campbelltown Police Station and charged with one count of murder and one count of being an accessory after the fact to murder in relation to the shooting, reports 9 News.
Michael Bassal, 43, was killed and his two brothers were injured during the six-hour siege in Ingleburn in March (pictured)
The woman was refused bail to appear in Campbelltown Local Court on Wednesday.
Police were called to her Ingleburn company following reports Wayne Williams, 33, was armed with a long-arm firearm and holding three men hostage.
Michael Bassal, 43, was killed when Williams opened fired and one of his brothers was seriously injured, while the other escaped with superficial wounds.
The brothers had gone to the factory to complain about a sign they had ordered, before the argument became heated and a gun was produced,The Daily Telegraph reported.
Williams, who is believed to be a member of the Finks bikie gang, was involved in a business dispute with the three men,The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Williams is believed to have shot himself sometime before police stormed the building just after 5 pm.
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A woman has been charged with murder being an accessory after the fact to murder over her alleged role in a shooting
CCTV in the hopes of finding the culprits
This is the awful moment a 150-year-old statue was 'beheaded' by thugs, sparking fury among angry residents.
The figure, which is believed to be of 15th century printer William Caxton, was split in two during the early hours of Easter Saturday.
But today, as part of a criminal investigation into the incident, Hertfordshire Police released CCTV of the 'barbaric' act to try and help catch the culprits.
Loitering suspiciously: This is the awful moment a 150-year-old statue was 'beheaded' by thugs, sparking fury among angry residents
Attacking: The figure, which is believed to be of 15th century printer William Caxton, was split in two during the early hours of Easter Saturday
As seen in the footage, two people can be spotted loitering close to the statue before making repeated attempts to move it.
After pushing it backwards then forwards they dislodge the head before it tumbles forward on to the pavement.
They appear to rip the statue in two using only the power of their arms and hands.
PC Paul Scott of Herts Police, said: 'I would like to speak to the two people pictured as part of my inquiries.
'I appreciate the CCTV image is not of the best quality but it could be someone recognises these people and could help to identify them.
'A few cars pass the scene during the incident and I would also appeal to those drivers to contact me in case they can assist with the investigation.'
The limestone model has stood outside antique shop Beckwith and Son in Hertford, Hertfordshire, for almost 50 years.
Vandals: But today, as part of a criminal investigation into the incident, Hertfordshire Police released CCTV of the 'barbaric' act to try and help catch the culprits
Decapitating: Two people can be spotted loitering close to the statue before making repeated attempts to move it. After pushing it backwards then forwards they dislodge the head and it falls to the pavement
Amy Jayne Partner, 20, found the separated sculpture while on her way to work at 6am on Saturday 26 March.
She said: 'It's outside a little antique shop and it's been there for years before my parents were even born.
'Everyone around here knows it as an old land mark and I was just so shocked to see it on the floor, some people are so careless.'
Gordon Gray, owner of Beckwith and Son, said the statue would cost hundreds to repair and that it is not the first time it has been damaged.
Mr Gray, 73, who retired earlier this year after working at the shop for 47 years so he said it was a bit of a symbolic way for his days to come to an end.
Mr Gray said: 'It's a shame. Somebody got hold of it at around 3am and tried to wrench it from the wall and the stone snapped across the middle.
'They then pushed the head onto the ground which I managed to move in the morning.'
Mr Gray bought the sculpture in 1970 and it originally came from London.
He added: 'We hope to get it repaired but then there is always the temptation for someone to do it again.
'It's such a landmark in town.'
Vandals: Amy Jayne Partner found the sculpture while on her way to work at 6am on Saturday 26 March. She said: 'It's outside a little antique shop and it's been there for years before my parents were even born
Hundreds of residents in the community took to Facebook to voice their anger and even compared the destruction to when Isis fighters destroyed artefacts in the Middle East.
Jennifer Cheong posted: 'No different to the Taliban destroying Babylonian artifacts and statues that have stood for a millennium or more. Sad indeed.'
Commenting on Facebook, Emma Williams said: 'That's made me feel sad... there is no hope for my daughters generation with the world as it is.'
Tracey Jane Marsh added: 'I don't understand the mentality of these idiots. What possible pleasure can someone get from this mindless act of vandalism.
'I hope they are caught and dealt with accordingly. Not just a slapped wrist!!'
Facebook page 'Spotted in Hertford' also stumped up a 150 reward for any information which leads to the arrest of the culprit.
Others offered blue tac to attach the stone sculpture back together and another joked whether artist Banksy was behind the bludgeoning.
Shocking: Hundreds of residents in the community took to Facebook to voice their anger and even compared the destruction to when Isis fighters destroyed artefacts in the Middle East
Five men have been arrested after a far-fetched plan to get from Melbourne to Syria to join ISIS, which involved sailing from Queensland to Indonesia in a tinnie boat, was foiled.
Australian Federal Police arrested the group of men on Tuesday during the first leg of their trip, which saw them drive from Melbourne to Cairns with a small tin boat attached to their car.
The group, all aged under 30, had then planned to leave by sea from far-north Queensland before arriving in Indonesia and fleeing to Syria, The Courier Mail reported.
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Five men have been arrested after police foiled their plan to travel overseas in a tin boat to fight ISIS (stock image)
They group had planned on leaving from far-north Queensland by boat bound for Indonesia before fleeing to Syria (file photo)
All men were reportedly known to police, and no charges has been laid as of Tuesday night, with the boat and car both impounded.
AFP and local police arrested the men after reportedly fearing the men would not successfully make the voyage.
'As this activity remains ongoing, further comment will be provided when it is appropriate to do so,' an AFP spokeswoman told the publication.
The grieving mother of Paul Gascoigne's nephew has revealed her son begged to be sectioned five weeks before he died as he battled mental health demons.
Anna-Maria Kerrigan, of Gateshead, said like her famous brother, her 22-year-old son Jay suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, first triggered when he was bullied at 13-years-old at school.
Until the age of 16, Jay was given regular, specialist help by children's mental health services.
The mother of Paul Gascoigne's nephew Jay (pictured on holiday with his sister Harley in Portugal in 2013) has revealed her son begged to be sectioned five weeks before he died as he battled mental health demons
Tragic: Anna-Maria Kerrigan, of Gateshead, said like her famous brother, her 22-year-old son Jay suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Pictured are the final photos of Jay taken over the last few months
But as soon as he was transferred to adult care, she says he was pushed from pillar to post and for the past two years, until he was found dead on April 30, he slipped into decline, as the system repeatedly failed him.
'For years I feared I'd get a knock on the door about Paul, but never, in my deepest, darkest nightmares did I think I'd get a call to tell me I'd lost my son,' Anna-Maria said.
'Jay, his sister Harley, his stepdad Michael and I have begged for years for Jay to get the correct help that he needed but he was let down, time and time again by the services.
'He was passed around like a number and not at all treated like a young man in desperate need.
'He didn't deserve to die. He needed help.'
Anna-Maria also spoke out for the first time since her loss to hit out at 'cruel and untruthful' reports that her son was a 'druggie'.
'I've been so torn, as while some people might condemn me for deciding to speak out so soon, I can't let Jay go to his grave labelled a druggie,' she said.
'Everybody that met our Jay knew he was the most polite, well-mannered, talented, beautiful, yet tortured soul.
'I'm doing this, and I think it's disgusting that I feel compelled to speak out when I haven't even buried my son yet, because I have to tell all the people who never met him that my son wasn't found in a crack house with a heroin needle in his arm.
Until the age of 16, Jay was given regular, specialist help by children's mental health services, his mother (pictured) said. But as soon as he was transferred to adult care, she says he was pushed from pillar to post
'He wasn't a druggie, he was suffering from mental health issues so I'm doing this for Jay and the other sons and daughters who can't get the help they need.'
Born prematurely, Jay had a happy childhood, surrounded by the close-knit Gascoigne family who all live on the same estate in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
'Jay's father John walked out on us when he was six, which impacted enormously on him and his sister Harley, but my family rallied round,' Anna-Maria said.
'While his uncle Paul was loved by most, unfortunately a few were not fans and as a small 12-year-old, Jay was bullied at school beyond words. Just a week after he started senior school, one even broke his arm.
'He developed anorexia and would not eat and drink and shortly after he developed OCD, along with depression, anxiety and self harming.'.
Anna-Maria said like her famous brother (pictured in 1990), her 22-year-old son Jay suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
At 13-years-old he was taken into a residential children's unit for mental health illnesses, and became the youngest child in his country to be given Prozac, which caused seizures.
Anna-Maria said: 'As everyone knows, Paul has had a well documented battle with mental health and OCD. At the time a psychiatrist said it could be a hereditary thing. But with support we thought Jay would eventually come through the worst.'
Once he reached 16, considered an adult, the support offered as a child stopped.
'Jay got through college and he was so ambitious. They always said Paul was the talented one, but Jay had an equally amazing gift for writing poetry, lyrics and songs which he played on his guitar.
'But by the age of 17, his OCD and depression really took hold and the help just wasn't there that he'd had as a child,' said Anna-Maria, who married Mencap support worker Michael, 42, in 2008.
Jay's OCD triggered a devastating condition of Intrusive Thoughts, she explained, adding: 'It wasn't that everything has to be neat and tidy, these intrusive thoughts meant he believed he couldn't blink, or even go to get a glass or water without being wracked with a fear something terrible would happen.
'He couldn't function without these destructive thoughts tormenting him and he couldn't escape from them. It left him anguished and anxious it caused him pain as it was like a constant, mental torture that impacted on every part of his life.'
Over the past two years Jay's mental health went into decline.
When he started an apprenticeship for environmental charity Groundwork in November, sitting opposite his mother, everyone hoped it would mark a turning point.
'We prayed he'd find a focus away from his OCD, and there were good months and bad months but in November he was in hospital, then in December and January he had further hospital admissions, including when he self harmed, causing a massive infection throughout his body that affected his heart and other organs.
'By then, he'd started taking prescription painkillers as they would give him some peace from his mental pain and physical pain, in addition to antidepressants for his depression. There was also suspicions he had Bipolar, which would have meant he was on the wrong medication, but it was never explored further, so he never received help for that,' Anna-Maria said.
Over the past two years Jay's mental health went into decline. He is pictured aged 13 with his stepfather
In March Jay was admitted to hospital for the final time after his mental health declined further and he collapsed.
'It was his fourth admission in five months and when the mental health team came down Jay said he knew he needed help, both with his mental health issues and to also withdraw him from prescription pain killers.
'He begged: "Please, please section me, I'm not getting the help I need". They said: "You are not appropriate, you need detox for the use of prescription drugs. Then we took him to the drug and alcohol services and they said there's a 10 day programme and at the end of the period, he would be fine and they told him to come in on Monday.
'Jay felt so positive for the first time in about two years, so much so he went to the appointment by himself for the first time ever, to start what we thought was a 10 day medically supervised programme.
'But they just gave him paracetamol, something for nausea and something for stomach cramps and sent him away. They said he didn't need a detox because he was not an addict. Yet the mental health services said he was inappropriate for help as he needed a detox from prescription painkillers. This was 10 days before he died.
Born prematurely, Jay had a happy childhood, surrounded by the close-knit Gascoigne family who all live on the same estate in Gateshead
'So yet again he was let down by the system. He fell straight through the cracks. Instead of working together to save my son they just passed him around.'
Anna-Maria spent much of the day with Jay on Friday April 29 when he had to go for a Personal Independence Payment assessment, which had continued alongside his apprenticeship wages.
She said: 'The assessment was intense. Jay talked about his pain and mental health issues and how it affected his life. He'd had so many doctors and crisis team people over the years and to go over it all over again knowing at the end of it he wasn't getting any help hit him hard.
'He said to the medical assessor: "I'm fractured". All she was there to do was to write a note to send to the DWP. She wasn't going to give him any support or help - but he wanted them to know how much pain he was in.
'Afterwards I was going to get him a pair of new trainers for our holiday to New York, which coincided with my 50th birthday but he said: "You know my size mam" and told me he wanted to go and see his girlfriend Jade.
'So I bought them some food from Greggs and said: "I'll see you later" in the middle of the busy shopping centre. There was people buzzing all around us, then there was a split second pause where we just looked at each other, before he came over to me, put his arms round me, kissed me and said: "I love you". Thank God I heard those words for the last time.
'Later, I phoned him up at his girlfriend's, saying: "Do you both want to come over?" He said: "Jade's at work I'll just wait for her to come home". When I put the phone down I thought he was OK...'
In fact, when Jade came home she found Jay unconscious in her flat and she performed CPR until the paramedics and police arrived.
'There was nothing they could do to save him,' Anna-Maria said.
'My son wasn't found in a crack den with a heroin needle sticking in his arm. My son was madly and deeply in love with his beautiful girlfriend and she madly and deeply loved him too.
'He'd told her as she'd left hours earlier: "I love you. The adventures we'll go on when I get better". So he didn't want to die. Yet because he didn't get help, he did die, alone in her flat.'
A celebration of Jay Gascoigne's life will be held this Wednesday, the same day of the week he was born, followed by a private crematorium service for family and close friends. He is pictured with Harley in 2008
Jade's mother called Anna-Maria shortly after midnight on Saturday April 30 to break the terrible news.
'We didn't know at that point he'd already gone, but I jumped out of bed sobbing I had a sixth sense and somehow I just knew.
'Harley came downstairs we drove to the foyer where Jade's flat is. The policeman came to get me and I said: "Is he alive?"
'When he didn't answer he confirmed my worst fears. I just rang my mam, my sister and sister in law.
'When we finally saw my son laying so still and lifeless, my legs just went and I fell to the floor. Harley threw herself on top of him saying: "wake up Jay" and I crawled across the floor to get to him and I couldn't let him go.'
Anna-Maria marked her 50th birthday on Friday, a week after her son's death, by opening her cards and presents beside him, as he lay in a guitar shaped casket, wearing his grandfather's shoes
On the day of his death, a letter arrived from mental health services at the family home, inviting him to an assessment.
'I just felt anger, that it was too little too late, he's been having assessments since he was 13 years old,' she said.
'We don't get the coroners report back for 10 weeks but I suspect he accidentally took too many pain killers. All I can think is this could have been prevented if it's possible to feel more pain I do because I know he didn't need to die.'
Anna-Maria marked her 50th birthday on Friday, a week after her son's death, by opening her cards and presents beside him, as he lay in a guitar shaped casket, wearing his beloved grandfather's shoes.
She also wears a gold locket containing his hair next to her heart, bought by his Aunty Lindsay, after he died. A Mother's Day card which says; 'I love you forever', also sits untouched on the mantlepiece.
She said: 'Jay was born days before his loving grandmother's 50th birthday and he died days before mine.
'We were all looking forward to flying to New York as a family to mark my birthday and his sister Harley's 21st birthday, which is later this week, but instead I went to my son's funeral parlour to open my cards and presents so we could all be together.
'My brother Carl, his wife Jane and their children Lauren and Joe nominated a star in his name and gave me the certificate for my birthday I know he would have loved that.
'He was a diamond and we've chosen the Pink Floyd song Shine On you Crazy Diamond for his service of celebration he wasn't a conformist, he was special, he was all about peace and love. All I can say is he will be shining down on us, and I want people to remember the good times, before his illness.'
A celebration of Jay Lennon Kerrigan Gascoigne's life will be held this Wednesday, the same day of the week he was born, followed by a private crematorium service for family and close friends.
'I can't bring back my son, but I hope by speaking out, that something can be done to help all the other young people who fall through the cracks, who fight and beg and become just a number,' she said. 'Like my Jay, they deserve more than that.'
Ashley Hautzenrader has been charged with child endangerment after trying to flush her newborn down a toilet before leaving the baby in the trash
A 22-year-old woman who tried to flush her newborn down a toilet before leaving the baby for dead in a hospital trash can has been charged with child endangerment, authorities said.
Ashley Hautzenrader entered a bathroom at the John Colloton Pavillion at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City at around 9.30pm on Sunday.
She delivered a baby into the toilet, University of Iowa police said.
Hautzenrader then tried to flush the baby down the toilet then put the child in a pillowcase and left it a trash can.
But a hospital employee found the newborn alive a short while later. However, the baby's current condition is unknown.
Hautzenrader, of Davenport, Iowa, admitted to police officers that she left the child in the trash because she thought it was dead.
After giving birth in the restroom and putting her child in the trash, Hautzenrader reportedly cleaned up and left the scene.
When police officers found her, she told them that she had believed the baby was stillborn because the child did not cry, according to the criminal complaint.
She also claimed to have not realized she was pregnant when she entered the restroom.
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Hautzenrader's Facebook page show her cuddling her daughter (above), who was born sometime in 2014. In numerous pictures, the child has a breathing tube attached to her nose and a tracheotomy
But a hospital worker discovered the child alive 'shortly after delivery,' UIHC spokesman Tom Moore told the Iowa City Press-Citizen.
However, citing federal patient privacy laws, Moore refused to elaborate further about the case, including the baby's gender.
Hautzenrader works at Toys R Us, according to her Facebook page.
Online court records show an order from May 2015 after Hautzenrader petitioned for paternity and child support for a baby girl she previously gave birth to, WHO-TV reports.
Her daughter, believed to have been born sometime in 2014, suffers from health issues.
A hospital employee found Hautzenrader's newborn alive on Sunday, but the baby's condition is unknown. Pictured left, the 22-year-old cuddles her toddler daughter, and right, the 220-year-old in costume
Hautzenrader (above) was arrested and held in the Johnson County Jail until her release on Tuesday
Several pictures, spanning from November 2014 until recently, on Hautzenrader's Facebook page show her cuddling the girl, who has a breathing tube attached to her nose and a tracheotomy.
Hautzenrader was arrested and held in the Johnson County Jail until her release on Tuesday morning, according to the station.
She has been charged with child endangerment - and faces up to two years in prison if convicted of the aggravated misdemeanor.
Court records don't list the name of an attorney who could comment on her behalf.
THE SAFE HAVEN ACT IN IOWA Iowa has a Safe Haven Law that allows parents to leave a newborn baby up to 14 days old at a hospital or health care facility with no questions asked. The Safe Haven Act, a law enacted in 2002, allows parents - or another person who has the parent's authorization - to leave an infant without fear of prosecution for abandonment, according to the Iowa Department of Human Services. Under the law, the parent cannot be required to provide identifying information. A Safe Haven is an institutional health facility - such as a hospital or health care facility. At least 20 children have been declared safe havens since the Iowa law was enacted in 2002, the department said. All states have Safe Haven laws, although provisions differ.
Sanders told his audience that he was 'in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination'
It took nearly two hours for the race to be called for the Vermont senator, who claimed victory almost
Bernie Sanders told an audience in Salem, Oregon he was in it to win it after besting his rival, Hillary Clinton, in the West Virginia primary.
'Let me be as clear as I can be,' he told the crowd. 'We are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination.'
'Now we will fully acknowledge we are good at arithmetic that we have an uphill climb ahead of us, but we are used to fighting uphill climbs,' Sanders said of the increasingly difficult delegate math.
As soon as West Virginia's polls closed, Sanders seized on an NBC News projection that said he'd won the state and sent out a celebratory email to his supporters.
It took another two hours, however, for the other networks to rubber stamp the results, calling the race for the underdog who was widely predicted to win the only Democratic race.
With 95 per cent of the vote in, Sanders won comfortably, 51 per cent to 36 per cent.
Sanders had moved his campaign to next week's Oregon battleground, where he touted his West Virginia victory by boasting that Clinton had won the Appalachian state by 40 points back in 2008.
'I think it will be a double-digit victory,' he told the screaming crowd.
By the time 80 percent was in, Sanders was up by 15 points.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders celebrated his West Virginia victory by vowing to stay in the race against Hillary Clinton and promising that Donald Trump would be beat in the fall
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The Democratic candidate gave his West Virginia victory speech in Salem, Oregon - where voters head to the polls next week - and vowed to press on, while attacking Donald Trump
The Vermont senator went through his usual routine of bringing up general election polls, where he performs better than Clinton against the Republicans' presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
Trump, he told his supporters, is one area where he and Clinton definitely agree.
'We must defeat Donald Trump,' he proclaimed.
Sanders then turned his ire to the billionaire, who Clinton has also spent most of her time taking shots at as well.
'Now Donald Trump is not going to become president for a number of reasons,' Sanders began.
'And the major reason is the American people understand that we cannot have a president who has insulted Latinos and Mexicans. Who has insulted Muslims. Who everyday has insulted women in one way or another. Who has insulted veterans like John McCain and others,' Sanders ticked off.
Sanders admitted that his campaign still face an uphill battle, but was confident they could take it down to the wire against Hillary
Sanders then mentioned how Trump had 'insulted African-Americans in a very profound way.'
'People sometimes forget that before Mr. Trump was running for president he was one of the leaders of the so-called "birther" movement,' Sanders said.
'And that movement was a very ugly effort to de-legitimize the presidency of the first African-American president in our history,' Sanders noted.
Trump, Sanders echoed, will not be president because 'because the American people understand that our strength is in our diversity.'
'That we are a great nation because we are black and white and Latino and Asian-American and native American,' Sanders said.
'We are a great nation because we are gay and we are straight,' he continued.
'We are a great nation because we are women and men,' he went on.
Hillary Clinton (pictured on Tuesday) was beaten in West Virginia, after putting her foot in her mouth in March and insulting coal miners
She is still ahead in the delegate count, but will need victories in the remaining states to cement her position ahead of the convention
One third of Democratic voters in West Virginia are threatening to vote across the aisle during the general election if Hillary Clinton is their party's nominee
And using the billionaire's name similarity to how Clinton's has said, 'love trumps hate,' Sanders finger-wagged the Republican once again.
'And the American people understand that bringing us together always trumps dividing us up,' he said.
Exit polling had favored the underdog candidate in the state where Clinton had to apologize last week for putting her foot in her mouth while talking about the coal industry earlier in the race.
Three in 10 West Virginians said they lived in a house with a coal miner. And nine in 10 voters were white. The stats bode well for Sanders, whose message has resonated with white, working class voters.
While not much opinion polling had been conducted in the Appalachian State before today, the Real Clear Politics average put Sanders ahead by six points over his Democratic rival, which suggests an easy win tonight.
The state's open primary set up that allows independents to vote also helped Sanders. A third of West Virginians who cast ballots in the Democratic primary today put themselves in that category, according to ABC News' exit polling numbers.
In a twist from previous evenings, it was Clinton who spoke first tonight, holding a rally in Louisville, Kentucky, at the Slugger Hall of Fame that ended before polls closed throughout the state.
She took a single shot at Sanders, over the differences they have regarding their college tuition plans, and spent much of the rest of her time sticking it to Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Former coal miner Bo Copley's (left) confrontation with Hillary Clinton (right) made national news when he asked her how she could say that she wanted to put 'coal miners and coal companies out of business'
This election has the 'highest stakes than we've seen in a long time' with Trump on the GOP ticket, she told her audience, which howled in turn at the mention of the real estate mogul who has become Democrats' version of the boogeyman.
'That's why it's important we have a big vote next Tuesday,' Clinton said, referring to the state's upcoming primary election, 'because we've gotta keep winning to go all the way to November to win the general election.'
Exit polling suggests Clinton may have a problem there. A third of voters in West Virginia who cast a Democratic ballot today said they'd rather see Trump as president than Clinton. Roughly the same number said they'd back Trump over Sanders.
He was set to speak on the West Coast at rally kicking off at 10 pm Eastern, hours after the race was supposed to be called for him in West Virginia.
The U.S. senator lags Clinton in votes nationally, and has little chance of beating her out for the nomination, but he's set to outperform her in this month's contests, including the one in West Virginia today.
Clinton's downward spiral in the coal-fired state dates back to March, when she talked up renewable energy while proclaiming that she would 'put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.'
That didn't sit well with many West Virginians, where coal mining is still one of the most significant trades in the state.
Last Monday, she met Bo Copley, a former coal company employee, who held her feet to the fire at a roundtable discussion that candidate was hosting over the comments she had made.
'How you can say you are going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs and then come in here and tell us how you are going to be our friends?' Copley asked the likely Democratic nominee, according to CNN.
Answering an emotional Copley, Clinton classified her remarks as a 'misstatement.'
'I don't know how to explain it other then what I said was totally out of context for what I mean because I have been talking about helping coal country for a very long time,' Clinton replied.
The candidate has suggested 'revitalizing' coal country by using $30 billion to retrain former miners.
The investment would also protect miners' health and pension benefits, as companies go out of business.
She's also said she will invest in clean coal technology.
'It was a misstatement because what I was saying is the way things are going now, they will continue to lose jobs,' Clinton continued.
'It didn't mean that we are going to do it,' she added. 'What I said is that is going to happen unless we take action to help and prevent it.'
She also said in West Virginia that day that she was advised to skip over the state and head straight to California, the biggest delegate prize left on the board, where voters don't head to the polls until June 7.
But, she said, 'I still want to compete in West Virginia.'
'I'm here because I want you to know whether people vote for me or not, whether they yell at me or not, it's not going to affect what I can do to help, because I feel like that's a moral obligation,' Clinton said.
But then, seeing the writing on the wall, Clinton headed off to California, a state she does need to win to finish off Sanders.
Meanwhile, two weeks ago when Sanders was slapped with losses out of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut, which made his road to the nomination nearly impassable, he was already working a crowd in the college town of Huntington, West Virginia, home of Marshall University.
While Sanders, like Clinton, has talked openly about getting the country away from fossil fuels, his economic message of fairness resonated with West Virginia's white working class voters.
'It is not the coal miners' fault in terms of what's happening in this world,' Sanders said last Thursday during a visit to the state, according to the New York Times.
Sanders has pledged even more money $41 billion to turn West Virginia, and the rest of coal country, around.
'We have a moral responsibility to help working families in the fossil fuel industry find new jobs,' Sanders said when the plan was released in December.
Joshua Walmsley used 30 different names and made a series of false boasts to woo women
A conman who duped single mothers by saying he was a scuba-diving bodyguard of Princess Diana and an ex-SAS Michelin-starred chef has been ordered by a judge to use his real name, even in conversations.
Joshua Walmsley, a jobless ex-con on the Sex Offender Register, used 30 different names and made a series of false boasts to woo women.
The 39-year-old claimed he was a former bodyguard who helped Princess Diana inspect the minefields of Angola during her famous visit to the civil war ravaged region in 1997.
He also said he was a former Royal Marine Commando, served in the SAS, was a deep sea diver, spoke six languages, and had up to six university degrees.
He even claimed to have a Michelin star for his gourmet cooking and said he was due to become the next Dean of Blackburn Cathedral in Lancashire.
A string of lonely hearts women were taken in by Walmsley's patter and had affairs with him and gave him money.
He was found out after one of the women discovered a blog created by previous victims of Walmsley who told how he used his tall tales to charm them into bed.
It emerged he had used a false CV to get an interview and work trial as a chef in the kitchen of a luxury hotel and spa but he was unmasked as a fraud when it was discovered he couldn't even bake a tray of brownies.
Today at Burnley Crown Court, Walmsley - who used different names to avoid being tracked on internet search engines - was issued with the ban on using any aliases for the next three years after admitted fraud offences involving two women.
The three year Prohibited Activity Requirement - under the terms of a community order - bans Walmsley from changing his name by deed poll and undergoing any other name on any media including Facebook and dating websites.
He must also use his own name during conversations with other people and will have to complete 80 hours unpaid work.
The Judge Mr Recorder Nick Clarke QC told Walmsley: 'You are an individual who has engaged in relationships with women but who has lied about who you are to avoid them finding out about your history.
He claimed he was a Michelin-starred chef and shared pictures of him in chef's garb with the unsuspecting women - but a judge said in court that he couldn't even make a plate of brownies
'The women you approached were overwhelmed by your charms and succumbed to your manner and you were always very forward with them.
'You pretended you had been a bodyguard, medic, engineer, deep sea diver and been in the special forces. You claimed to have guided Princess Diana over a mine field.
'You said you spoke six languages and had four degrees much of that was obtained through your military service.
'When people questioned what you were saying you had an answer for everything. You suggested you had run a Michelin star restaurant but you couldn't even make a tray of brownies or produce a simple sauce.
'Should you make a fresh start, you must do it honestly and openly without lying about your past history and name. You are prohibited of telling anybody your name is anything other than Joshua Walmsley.'
The court heard the first victim, a single mother of one, met Walmsley in September last year at Blackburn Cathedral where he falsely claimed he was called Joshua Faulkner and was to become the next Dean.
'He was using a Canadian accent and much of his back story related to his family in Canada,' said Francis McEntee, prosecuting.
He also said he was a former Royal Marine Commando, served in the SAS, was a deep sea diver, spoke six languages, and had up to six university degrees
'She was embarrassed to admit she was overwhelmed and described him as being charismatic and she thought she had nothing to lose.
'He told her he had lived in Germany for the past ten years and said he was originally from Vancouver - but when she started to chat to him about Vancouver she noticed that he immediately changed the subject.
'She described him as a nice guy but said that within five or ten minutes he leaned in for a kiss which took her off guard.
'He told her he had been in the marines and the special forces, a medic in the army, an engineer, a deep sea diver and a chef. He even went so far as to say that she could trust him because he had been the person to take a Princess Diana across a minefield.
'He said he could speak six languages, had four degrees whilst in the military. She did question these claims but she says he 'had an answer for everything'.
'She described the defendant as being extremely persuasive. She let him use her car to go to job interviews but he started to drain the petrol and not replace it.
'He obtained parking tickets on the vehicle which she was required to pay. Four weeks after meeting him she gave him money for haircuts, taxis, food and even gave him money for his rent.
The 39-year-old claimed he was a former bodyguard who helped Princess Diana (pictured) inspect the minefields of Angola during her famous visit to the civil war ravaged region in 1997
'She did check his details on google using Joshua Faulkner and was finding nothing that concerned her. She was told he had a Michelin restaurant in Canada and then she said things were not adding up but admits that she was still drawn in.'
Walmsley began staying at the woman's house but she became suspicious when she took him to a job interview and noticed his name on the CV was Joshua Walmsley.
A further search on Google under than name revealed he was a convicted sex offender.
But by then Walmsley had already met the second unsuspecting victim - a single mother of three - on a dating website claiming he was a qualified chef, served in the marines and had six college degrees.
They went for a day at the seaside where she paid for their lunch and travel he stayed over at her house for sex but she later found out the truth about him when a friend noticed a blog about Walmsley.
Walmsley, of Blackburn, admitted failing to comply with Sex Offender Register rules, fraudulently attempting to obtain employment and unrelated offence of shoplifting.
Thirteen U.S. soldiers were arrested over the weekend after getting into a bar fight at a club in Italy.
The Italian newspaper Il Giornale di Vicenza reports that the fight started inside LIV, a disco in Bassano del Grappa, when a soldier was slashed on the arm by another man.
The fight then moved outside with some 40 people - including American soldiers and a group of Senegalese men - clashing with knives and broken bottles for weapons.
Thirteen U.S. soldiers were arrested in Italy early Sunday morning after getting into a fight outside of a nightclub. The soldiers pictured entering court after their arrest
The soldiers were released pending their next court appearance, which is scheduled for Thursday
The massive brawl left four soldiers and two of the African men hospitalized for the injuries.
Meanwhile 13 soldiers were arrested by the Italian police, in addition to three of the Senegalese men.
Italian Carabinieri Lt. Col. Martino Salvo said it wasn't clear what provoked the initial attack. The Italian police are investigating the case.
All of the men arrested in the fight are from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is stationed at the joint Italian-American military base Caserma Ederle in Vincenza.
The fight started early Sunday morning when a soldier was slashed inside LIV, a nightclub in Bassano del Grappa (pictured above)
Four Americans and two men of African origin were hospitalized in the massive brawl. Above, a view inside the nightclub
All of the soldiers involved in the incident are stationed at Caserma Ederle, a joint Italian-American military base in Vincenza, Italy (pictured above)
An Italian court this week said the soldiers had been freed pending further court proceedings, while the soldier who was slashed faces a criminal complaint.
Video recorded by Il Giornale shows the soldiers walking into Italian court flanked by military police soldiers in their initial court appearance.
They are set to return to court on Thursday for another hearing.
A restaurant in Atlanta packed full of Mother's Day diners suddenly broke out in a mass brawl on Sunday, with customers going head-to-head with staff.
The violent fight occurred inside Kiku Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar in Camp Creek Marketplace.
A young girl who was eating at the restaurant with her father managed to take video from the scene, showing plates and trays - along with fists - being thrown around the eatery.
Violent: Video taken inside the restaurant shows staff going head-to-head with a group of customers. Seen here, an employee goes to throw a trolley amidst the fight
The violent fight occurred inside Kiku Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar in Camp Creek Marketplace
At one point during the shocking video, an employee comes from the kitchen carrying a pile of trays and throws out into the restaurant
The 14-year-old girl who filmed the incident, Sailyn Barlow, told Channel 2 Action News: 'Im actually thinking its very good stuff. Im thinking, Wow, Im going to have a lot of views on this if I post it. Wow, I cant believe this is actually happening. And wow, I hope I dont get hit with something.'
According to the police report of the brawl, a busboy, Demonte Harrison, was cleaning tables when a female customer accused him for smiling at her.
He told the woman that smiling was part of his job.
A male customer then jumped in and punched Harrison, the report said.
Three other men are also said to have joined the fight.
Police say the fight started when a female customer took issue with a busboy smiling at her. It is unclear of the woman pictured here - who features prominently in the video - is the one at the center of the fight
Restaurant owner Charlie Son said his employees then tried to help Harrison fight off the men.
No one was seriously injured during the incident, but Son estimated he lost about $5,000 in business after people got up and left during the brawl.
Son said that he sent Harrison home after the fight.
'He's very upset ... he cannot speak,' Son said.
Son added that the people who started the fight left without paying their check.
The fight footage quickly went viral this week after being posted to Instagram.
Emma Watson has been named in the Panama Papers scandal after her links to an offshore company were revealed in a leak of documents
Emma Watson set up an offshore company named in the Panama Papers and used it to buy a 2.8million London home, it was claimed last night.
The Harry Potter star, who earned 20million playing Hermione Granger in the series of blockbuster films, purchased the property through Falling Leaves Ltd, a company based in the British Virgin Islands.
Through money invested in the company, 26-year-old Miss Watson was able to buy a three-bedroom mews property in the capital in 2013, The Times reported.
Owning property through an offshore company is not illegal and does offer privacy advantages since the buyers name does not appear on publicly available Land Registry documents.
However, it can also offer beneficial tax arrangements.
A spokesman confirmed the actress, who has been a target for stalkers, had set up an offshore company but insisted it was to protect her anonymity and personal safety and said she received no tax or financial advantage as a result.
He told The Spectator magazine: Emma (like many high profile individuals) set up an offshore company for the sole purpose of protecting her anonymity and safety. UK companies are required to publicly publish details of their shareholders and therefore do not give her the necessary anonymity required to protect her personal safety, which has been jeopardised in the past owing to such information being publicly available.
Offshore companies do not publish these shareholder details. Emma receives absolutely no tax or monetary advantages from this offshore company whatsoever only privacy.
The firm, set up in 2013, was named in a database of 200,000 shell companies and trusts, held in more than 20 tax havens around the world, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The latest files to be released contain basic corporate information about companies, trusts and foundations set up in 21 jurisdictions including Hong Kong and the U.S. state of Nevada.
Much of the data came from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which set up many of the companies including the offshore company run by the Prime Ministers late father Ian Cameron.
It is not illegal to hold money offshore but the revelations have proved embarrassing for David Cameron because of his campaign for greater transparency over tax havens.
Users can search the data and see the networks involving the offshore companies, including - where available - Mossack Fonseca's internal records of the true owners.
It doesn't include the full cache of data commonly known as the Panama Papers, since the database will exclude information and documents on bank accounts, phone numbers and emails.
The latest data to be leaked in connection with the Panama Papers scandal will reveal the names and details of thousands of offshore companies in searchable online databases. Pictured: Law firm Mossack Foneca
The ICIJ said it was putting the information online 'in the public interest' as 'a careful release of basic corporate information' as it builds on an earlier database of offshore entities.
Setting up an offshore company is not by itself illegal or evidence of illegal conduct, and Mossack Fonseca said it observed rules requiring it to identify its clients.
But anti-poverty campaigners say shell companies can be used by the wealthy and powerful to shield money from taxation, or to launder the gains from bribery, embezzlement and other forms of corruption.
The Group of 20 most powerful economies has agreed that individual governments should make sure authorities can tell who really owns companies, but implementation in national law has lagged.
The data cache, first leaked to Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, showed offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders.
Reports based on the documents quickly led to the resignation of Iceland's Prime Minister David Gunnlaugson after it was revealed he and his wife had set up a company in the British Virgin Islands that had holdings in Iceland's failed banks.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had campaigned for financial transparency, faced questions about shares he once held in an offshore trust set up by his father.
The ICIJ reported that associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin moved some $2 billion through such companies. Putin's spokesman dismissed the report.
Ted Cruz is holding off on giving his support to Donald Trump and is even floating the possibility of restarting his 'suspended' presidential campaign if his chances somehow improve.
'We launched this campaign intending to win. The reason we suspended our campaign was that with the Indiana loss, I felt there was no path to victory,' Cruz told talk host Glenn Beck, who was a big supporter on the campaign trail.
'If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly,' Cruz added.
Think it over? Cruz (pictured back in Washington D.C. on Tuesday) could restart his suspended campaign at any time
The Texas Senator said if a new 'path to victory' opened up, his campaign would 'respond accordingly'
However unlikely the possibility, the line drew immediate attention in a campaign cycle that has featured all kinds of bizarre twists and turns.
But Cruz said of his prospects during the interview: 'I don't think that's very likely.'
Cruz has the ability to jump back in the race, having only 'suspended' his campaign, and having gotten himself on the ballot in upcoming states.
After Trump won a blowout in Indiana, the real estate mogul's path to getting the needed 1,237 delegates eased considerably.
Trump build up a substantial lead in delegates before Cruz quit the race after losing Indiana
Cruz made his comments as top Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have held off giving their support to Trump, while other Republicans are skipping the GOP convention or withholding their support.
'This is a choice every voter is going to have to make. I would note, it's not a choice we as voters have to make today,' Cruz said.
On Monday night, Cruz participated in a conference call with some of his top supporters, where there was talk of being a force at the convention this summer but not about somehow trying to salvage Cruz's campaign effort.
'They made a point of saying, 'This is not something nefarious we're plotting at the convention,'' Rep. Ken Buck told Politico. 'The Cruz team really just wants to make sure the platform reflects conservative values so that conservatives are excited about turning out this November and in the future.'
Crus is considered to be interested in keeping his political options alive for a possible run in 2020.
He quit the race after going all out to win Indiana and getting routed by Trump. Just hours before exiting the race, he delivered an extended rant against Trump, who he slammed Trump as 'utterly amoral' and a 'pathological liar' who wasn't a true conservative.
A British mother being held in an Iranian jail may be allowed to see her 22-month-old daughter for the first time in 38 days following a plea from her husband.
Charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has dual British-Iranian nationality, was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at the Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran while waiting to fly home.
The 37-year-old had been in the country to visit family and was separated from her daughter Gabriella before being held in Kerman Province, around 600 miles south of the capital Tehran.
Charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, pictured with her husband Richard, was detained without charge for five weeks and separated from her 22-month-old daughter
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who lives in West Hampstead, London, had not been able to call her British husband, Richard Ratcliffe, while The Red Cross were not able to make contact.
Her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella Ratcliffe, who only has British citizenship, had her passport confiscated, her family say, and is stranded in Iran with her grandparents.
Mr Ratcliffe, 41, said he has been advised not to travel to Iran and does not have a visa.
He called Iran's actions 'outrageous and arbitrary' and set up a petition to encourage the UK government to 'do what it can to Free Nazanin'.
Today he said an Iranian official contacted his wife's family to tell them they could visit her, and her parents and Gabriella flew to Kerman last night in the hope a meeting will go ahead.
'It is not yet confirmed that they will actually get to meet her. They have been promised a visit on Wednesday by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.'
Her parents told him Gabriella and one other relative, most likely Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's mother, would be allowed to see her but that the meeting was not assured.
He said: 'It doesn't change anything else but if Nazanin was able to see Gabriella that would just be huge. After what would be 38 days by then, that would be a wonderful moment.
Charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was at the airport preparing to fly home to Britain after a holiday visiting her family when she was detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who currently works as a project manager for the Thomson-Reuters Foundation, has now been in solitary confinement
'So we hope that it does actually happen and the promise is kept.'
Mr Ratcliffe believes his wife, a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation who came to the UK in 2007, has been interrogated and held in solitary confinement during her captivity, which Iranian authorities say is over a serious issue of 'national security'.
He also believes she has been coerced into signing a confession, but to what he does not know, and there have been no charges.
Mr Ratcliffe has called his wife's detention 'cruel and crazy' but said: 'One of the key demands I have is that she see her family and I am glad that that looks like it is going to happen.
'I am glad that there is a chance that this visit will happen and I am grateful to everyone that has been involved in allowing it and making it happen.'
He has also has begged the Government to intervene.
Mr Ratcliffe, 41, called Iran's actions 'outrageous and arbitrary' and set up a petition to encourage the UK government to 'do what it can to Free Nazanin'
Mr Ratcliffe said an Iranian official contacted his wife's family to tell them they could visit Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and her parents and Gabriella flew to Kerman last night in the hope a meeting will go ahead
A petition that has attracted more than 60,000 supporters will be delivered to Prime Minister David Cameron and Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mr Ratcliffe said: 'Thank you to everyone who has signed the Change.org petition, thank to everyone that has been tweeting and raising Nazanin's case.
'We are overwhelmed by the number of people who have shown their solidarity and their care.'
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who studied English literature at university, moved to the UK to do her Masters in Communications management.
She met her husband when they were students in 2007 and they married in Winchester in 2009.
Mr Ratcliffe said his family had decided to go public after 36 days against the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 'in the hope that with others and with public pressure that might change.'
'Nazanin is a kind, caring and sociable person, who would do anything for her family,' he said.
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The streets of Cannes are usually lined with stars. This year, they will also lined with hundreds of soldiers, police and security agents as the city braces itself against any potential terror attack.
Cannes is on high alert as the first of the world's A-list stars descend on the city for the world-famous 12-day film festival.
And the city authorities are taking no risks. Last month elite police forces staged a simulated terror attack at the Palais des Festivals, the venue for the main screenings.
Meanwhile, air and sea exclusion zones have also been declared, as well as a ban on drones, and Lisnard has said random searches will be conducted in the streets of Cannes.
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High alert: Cannes has drafted in hundreds of extra security guards, soldiers and police officers to guard the city during the festival
Fearful: The whole of France has been on high alert since the November terror attacks in Paris, which left 130 dead
Prepared: ast month elite police forces staged a simulated terror attack at the Palais des Festivals, the venue for the main screenings
A-list: George Clooney and his wife Amal Alamuddin arrive at the Eden Roc Hotel in Cap d'Antibes ahead of the start of the festival
Gamour: Clooney appears in the film Money Monster, a thriller which is debuting at Cannes this week
Stars: Some of Hollywood's biggest names started to arrive today, including Eva Longoria (left) and Jessica Chastain (right)
But mayor David Lisnard dismissed concerns that the tight security will throw a wet blanket over the parties, glitter and glamour of the event, which runs from Wednesday until May 22, and attracts some of the world's brightest stars to the South of France each year.
'Do you think an attack brings merriment? We have succeeded in preserving the festival atmosphere. The public will be at the foot of the (red-carpeted) steps. All the parties will be authorised but security must be taken care of,' he said.
The extra measures have been put in place following the Paris terror attacks, which left 130 people dead in November. France has been in a state of emergency ever since.
Speaking today, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the festival was at high risk of attack, but they had put in place some 400 security agents guarding the Palais des Festivals alone, not to mention hundreds of extra police officers and security forces ready to act if needed.
Cannes already has 500 CCTV cameras, making it the most closely monitored town in France. This is not the first time organisers have been on high alert: in 1978, French authorities thwarted an attack on the film festival when they discovered a bomb on the Palais des Festivals stage.
'As we are about to open this festival and as I come here tocheck the security protocol, we are ... facing a risk that ishigher than ever,' Cazeneuve said.
'Against an enemy who is determined to strike at anytime, we must be extremely vigilant at all times.'
Sparkle: Mayor David Lisnard dismissed concerns that the tight security will throw a wet blanket over the glitz and glamour of the event
Every possible measure: air and sea exclusion zones have also been declared, as well as a ban on drones over the French city
Popularity: Some 45,000 people are expected to visit the event over the next 10 days. Pictured: Vanessa Paradis, a jury member, arrives at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hotel Martinez on Tuesday evening
Some 45,000 people are expected to visit the event over the next 10 days, with nearly 90 feature films set to be shown in this year's official selection, 21 of which are in the running for the Palme d'Or.
But hundreds more are showing in the film market and in the Director's Fortnight and Critics' Week sections.
Hollywood stars like Blake Lively, Jessica Chastain, Eva Longoria and Kirsten Dunst have already been spotted arriving. French actress Vanessa Paradis, Johnny Depp's ex-wife, and Susan Sarandon were pictured arriving at their hotels.
In the port, crew members scrubbed the sleek yachts where many of the festival's parties take place.
artist Brian Whiteley, 33 as person who placed tombstone in Central Park in March
The artist behind the Donald Trump tombstone that was placed in Central Park nearly two months ago has been identified.
Police were able to trace the 420-pound chunk of granite to Brooklyn artist Brian A Whiteley, 33, after identifying where it was made, according to the New York Times.
The tombstone appeared to be engraved with Trump's name and underneath an epitaph: 'Made America Hate Again', a wry take on his campaign slogan: 'Make America Great Again'.
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The artist behind the fake Donald Trump tombstone (pictured) that was placed in Central Park nearly two months ago has been identified
Police were able to trace the 420-pound chunk of granite to Brooklyn artist Brian A Whiteley (left), 33, after identifying where it was made. The tombstone bearing Trump's name mysteriously appeared in the park on March 27 before being taken away by parks department workers
It was also engraved with a decorative cross and the billionaire businessman's birth-date - 1946, although stopped short of adding his death year.
The tombstone mysteriously appeared in the park on March 27 before being taken away by parks department workers.
Police tracked the stone to monument dealer, Frank Cassara, 70, who gave them the customer's name and security camera footage showing him loading it into a truck.
Cassara and his son, Michael, told The Times that they had made the stone for a young man that Cassara called a 'hipster'.
Police were able to track the stone to Supreme Memorials after Gothamist published an interview with an anonymous artist claiming responsibility for placing the headstone, according to The Times.
The pictures showed a store's chipped tile floor, which led police to check what stores in the city make headstones.
Frank Cassara and his son, Michael, said they had made the stone for a young man that Cassara called a 'hipster' at their shop Supreme Memorials (pictured)
The police visited the man, identified as Whiteley (pictured) on Monday after they were able to match his name to the purchase of the truck and dolly used to transport the tombstone
Officers told The Times that police showed Cassara the pictures, and he admitted making the stone, at the specifications of a customer months earlier.
Cassara said because usual strange requests, he didn't flinch when he heard the name the man wanted on the stone.
He told The Times: 'I deal with a lot of these artists; I make a lot of crazy things.'
Cassara was not charged with any crime.
The police visited the man, identified as Whiteley on Monday after they were able to match his name to the purchase of the truck and dolly used to transport the tombstone
He was not charged with a crime.
In a March 30 interview with the then unnamed artist, he told the Times he was trying to remind the Republican presidential front-runner 'what kind of legacy he was leaving behind'.
Wearing big hair, loads of makeup and high heels, small-town drag queen Ambrosia Starling is the new worst nightmare of suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.
Moore has called out Starling twice by name in recent days while defending himself against allegations of violating judicial canons with his opposition to same-sex marriage.
During a news conference and in a written statement, Moore cited the cross-dressing entertainer as a reason he's at risk of losing his job for the second time since 2003.
That's fine with Starling, who helped lead an anti-Moore rally on the steps of the Alabama Supreme Court building in January.
Opponents that day filled out more than 40 complaints against Moore, who already was the subject of other complaints and now faces removal from office if convicted of violating judicial ethics.
Having an impact: Ambrosia Starling has spent months protesting against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who is now charged with violating judicial canons by pushing anti-same-sex marriage proposals
'If it takes a drag queen to remind you that liberty and justice is for all, here I am,' Starling said Tuesday between sips of coffee.
Moore contends the effort to oust him is unfounded and politically motivated.
Born and raised in the southeast Alabama city of Dothan, Starling is a gay man who dresses up like a woman to perform drag shows. Most days, the 43-year-old Starling dresses like a male and goes to a regular job, referring to himself as 'he.'
But the entertainer prefers the pronoun 'she' when dressed as Ambrosia Starling, a stage name for drag shows.
Fearful of losing his day job or endangering others in a Deep South state where many gays still fear violence or discrimination, Starling agreed to an interview on the condition that only the stage name was used.
'I have a 71-year-old mother who lives with me that I have to worry about,' Starling said. 'Her well-being and safety is No. 1 for me.'
Starling wore her drag outfit to that demonstration against Moore outside the Supreme Court five months ago.
In a long blue dress and light-colored coat, Starling referred to Moore as a bigot and asked crowd members to submit complaints against Moore to the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission, which accused the Republican Moore of wrongdoing on Friday, resulting in his suspension.
The complaint filed by the Judicial Inquiry Commission accuses Moore of willfully failing to respect the authority of federal court decisions that cleared the way for gay marriage, which Moore opposes on the basis of faith and the law.
Roy Moore, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, is accused of failing to respect federal court rulings that cleared the way for gay marriage. He has hit out at Starling for protests that have led to his suspension
He issued an administrative order to state probate judges in January that said state laws against gay marriage remained in place months after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized gay marriage nationwide.
An attorney for Moore, Mat Staver, said Moore issued the order because probate judges were asking questions about how to proceed.
Staver said Moore will file a response within 30 days asking the Alabama Court of the Judiciary to dismiss charges against him.
Moore has been tossed once before from the office of chief justice.
Thirteen years ago he refused to abide by a federal judge's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument Moore had erected in the rotunda of the state judicial building, resulting in judicial ethics charges and his removal by the Court of Judiciary.
During a news conference last week in that same rotunda, Moore said Starling and similar people would have been classified as having a 'mental disorder' just a few years ago.
Moore also accused Starling of performing a 'mock wedding' in violation of a state court order against same-sex marriage, a claim Starling dismissed as untrue.
Describing himself as a churchgoing Christian who lives a normal life when not dressed in drag, Starling said he doesn't mind being singled out by Moore.
Many more lesbians, gays, bi-sexual and transgender people also oppose Moore's tactics, Starling said, it's just that not everyone can speak out.
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An enormous civilian parade comprised of hundreds of thousands of North Koreans took to the streets to celebrate the country's newly completed ruling-party congress.
The vast parade at the Kim Il Sung Square in the capital Pyongyang, featured everything from floats bearing patriotic slogans to marchers with pompoms.
A large flag reading: 'Long Live the 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea,' was also on display while leader Kim Jong Un presided over the parade and waved to the crowds.
Celebrations continued into the evening with a torchlight parade and mass dance party breaking out.
For the eyes of the world: One man is seen walking towards thousands of people holding torches in the air following the party congress at the Kim Il Sung Square in the capital Pyongyang
Closure: Performers take part in a torchlight parade on Kim Il-Sung square during festivities marking the end of the 7th Workers Party Congress
Into the night: Thousands of North Korean youths march through Kim Il Sung Square holding torches as darkness descends on the captial
Songs of praise: The North Koreans, who were seen dancing in the parade, sang and held candles to their leader later on in the evening
Elated: The vast parade in the capital Pyongyang featured everything from floats bearing patriotic slogans to marchers with pompoms
Party: The civilian parade comprised hundreds of thousands of North Koreans who took to the streets to celebrate the congress
All together now: The celebrations continued into the evening with a torchlight parade and mass dance party as thousands took part
Power: Party leader Kim Jong Un presided over the vast parade and waved at the many citizens below following the four-day congress
The four-day congress, which concluded yesterday, was the authoritarian country's first since 1980, before Kim was even born.
The body of more than 3,400 delegates endorsed his nuclear and economic policies, promoted his favoured officials and gave him a new title of party chairman.
In his decision to call a congress, Kim demonstrated what may be a leadership style more like that of his charismatic grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung.
Kim Il Sung worked through party organs more than Kim Jong Il, who never called a congress and preferred using his own network of trusted individuals to get things done.
The congress promised economic improvements to boost the nation's standard of living.
It also touted Kim's successes on the nuclear front, despite the increasing weight of international sanctions over the North's development of nuclear weapons.
Mostly, however, the congress put Kim front and centre in the eyes of the people and the party as the country's sole leader.
Fireworks explode over participants during the mass dance in the capital's main ceremonial square as they hold their hands to the sky
The look of love: People react as they see North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waving at them during the mass rally and parade
Party time: The four-day congress, which concluded yesterday, was the authoritarian country's first since 1980, before Kim was even born
For the crowds: Talented acrobats participate in a mass dance performance in the capital's main ceremonial square during the parade
On the up: Delegates endorsed Kim's nuclear and economic policies, promoted his favoured officials and gave him a new title
Delight: The congress, which was followed by the parade, promised economic improvements to boost the nation's standard of living
His new title of chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea was announced while a small group of foreign media watched the congress in the ornate April 25 House of Culture.
It was the only time any of the more than 100 foreign journalists invited were allowed to view the proceedings.
As a military band in full uniform played the welcoming song used whenever North Korea's leader enters a public place, Kim confidently strode onto the stage.
His presence generated a long and loud standing ovation from the several thousand delegates in attendance. In unison they shouted, 'Mansae! Mansae!' wishing Kim long life.
He and other senior party members took their seats, filling several rows on a stage, below portraits of Kim Il Sung and father Kim Jong Il.
Kim Yong Nam, the head of North Korea's parliament, stood to read a roster of top party positions - calling Kim Jong Un chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea for the first time.
Under the spotlight: North Korea put on a show for the small amount of journalists who were invited to witness the congress and parade
In unison: Thousands of people who took part in the parade, who were all dressed the same, held candles in the air
Quite the display: A large flag reading: 'Long Live the 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea,' was also on display during the parade
The congress touted Kim's successes on the nuclear front, despite international sanctions over the North's development of weapons
Emotional: A woman is pictured with tears in her eyes while holding two candles during the parade, which continued into the evening
Show of force: Many parade participants carry the national flag of North Korea as they march on the Kim Il Sung Square today
Kim had already been head of the party, but with the title of first secretary.
His predecessors keep their posthumous titles. Kim Jong Il remains 'eternal general secretary' and Kim Il Sung is still 'eternal president.'
Kim also filled two vacancies on the powerful Presidium of the party's central committee, bringing more people into his inner circle.
Premier Pak Pong Ju was named to the Presidium and senior party official Choe Ryong Hae, who was once considered Kim Jong Un's No. 2, regained a seat that he had lost.
He is believed to have been briefly banished to a rural collective farm last year for re-education.
Other members are Kim Jong Un himself; Kim Yong Nam, who as parliament leader is the country's nominal head of state; and Hwang Pyong So, the top political officer of the Korean People's Army.
North Korean youths march with torches held aloft as the massive civilian parade featuring floats and flags went into the night
Some of the people can be seen smiling while taking part in the parade while others are photographed looking slightly more serious
All round success: The congress put Kim front and centre in the eyes of the people and the party as the country's sole leader
Kim's new title of chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea was announced while a small group of foreign media watched the congress
In sync: Hundreds of thousands of people are pictured standing in straight lines during the mass dance in the capital's main square
Joy: Kim's presence in the ornate April 25 House of Culture, during the congress, generated a standing ovation from the thousands of delegates in attendance
Kim Yong Nam, 88, stayed on despite speculation from North Korea-watchers that he might lose his position because of his age.
North Korean officials kept foreign media busy with trips around Pyongyang to show them places the government wanted them to see.
North Korea on Monday expelled BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, who was not among the journalists covering the congress.
He had covered an earlier trip of Nobel laureates and had been scheduled to leave Friday. Instead, he was stopped at the airport, detained and questioned.
O Ryong Il, secretary-general of the North's National Peace Committee, said the journalist's news coverage distorted facts and 'spoke ill of the system and the leadership of the country.'
A sea of light: A photographer captures a blur of candle light and the sheer amount of North Korean participants at the parade
Flower power: Earlier in the day people carried bouquets as part of the formal coronation for the country's supreme leader
Status: During the congress Kim Yong Nam, the head of North Korea's parliament, stood to read a roster of top party positions and called Kim Jong Un chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea for the first time
On the beat: Thousands of parade participants beat drums as they march on the Kim Il Sung Square during the massive celebration
A sea of colour: Citizens pose for a picture while holding balloons and flowers during the mass parade that followed the party congress
Hands in the air: North Koreans wave flower bouquets and balloons during the mass parade, which continued into the evening
He said Wingfield-Hayes wrote an apology, was expelled Monday and would never be admitted into the country again.
Wingfield-Hayes, producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard were detained Friday and left Monday on a flight to Beijing.
'We are very disappointed that our reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and his team have been deported from North Korea after the government took offence at material he had filed,' the BBC said in a statement.
'Four BBC staff, who were invited to cover the Workers Party Congress, remain in North Korea and we expect them to be allowed to continue their reporting.'
The BBC was among the media organizations allowed into the congress Monday.
Position of power: The North Korean leader is accompanied by high party and military officials as he presides over a mass rally
The view from the top: Military officers attend the torchlight parade on Kim Il-Sung square and watch the festivities taking place
Show of strength: North Korean parade participants wave decorative bouquets of flowers and carry their country's national flag as they march with different types of models of missiles at the Kim Il Sung Square
The calm before the storm: Participants are pictured getting ready for the mass dance in the capital's main ceremonial square
Show of pride: The ruling Workers' Party flag was held aloft by parade participants following the first congress in the country since 1980
Senior Senate Republican Orrin Hatch says he's 'disappointed' with Republicans who won't back Trump but still defends Bushes for defecting
Other GOPers say they'll back Trump but can't bring themselves to say his name
Says he doesn't plan to spend six months 'taking shots' at Trump
Florida Senator Marco Rubio made his return to the political stage at a D.C. speech where he warned he still has 'differences' with Trump and that Trump needs to address.
'As I've said before, my policy differences and reservations about Donald's campaign are well-established,' Rubio said after a speech to the Hudson Institute.
'I've said them often, and I stand by those. Those remain, and I hope they'll be addressed but those remain,' Rubio continued.
Rubio spoke a day after he released a post on Facebook where he said he wouldn't be Trump's vice presidential running mate.
Rubio says he still has 'reservations' but doesn't plan to take repeated 'pot shots' at Trump
Trump countered hours later with a mocking swipe on Twitter. 'It is only the people that were never asked to be VP that tell the press that they will not take the position.'
Rubio, who went hard after Trump late in his failed primary effort, insisted he doesn't plan to be his main critic.
'That said, I don't view myself as a guy who's going to sit here for the next six months taking shots at him. People know where I stand. They know how I feel. They know what our differences are,' Rubio added.
Rubio said Friday he didn't want to be considered as Trump's vice president
Congressional Republicans remain deeply divided over how to handle Trump, a candidate who seized the party's nomination without embracing many of its core tenets and with only a single endorsement from inside the Senate.
Arizona GOP Senator Jeff Flake told reporters he was 'disappointed' with Trump's statements on entitlement reforms and taking a discount on U.S. debts held overseas. Like home-state Sen. John McCain, he's skipping the GOP convention.
'I've got other things to do,' he said. Asked by DailyMail.com exactly what, he replied, 'Hey, travel around the state. Sen. McCain has a race. I'll be helping him as well.'
Trump went after people like Rubio who turned down the VP job without getting asked
Asked by DailyMail.com whether he backed Trump, Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, who defeated a Tea Party primary challenge in 2014, replied tersely, 'I'm for the nominee.'
Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said Tuesday, 'I'm saying I'm going to back the nominee of the party. I've been out of this race the entire time and will continue to stay out of the race.'
Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah said he is 'disappointed' that President George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are skipping the convention, after Trump repeatedly taunted primary rival former Florida governor Jeb Bush.
'Staying away is just electing Hillary Clinton,' Hatch said. 'And I don't think they want to do that. You got to take a stand on these things. No matter who you get, they're not perfect. To demand that somebody has to be perfect is a pretty big demand,' the most senior Republican in the Senate added.
Hatch continued: 'I do not find a great deal of fault with the Bushes because Donald treated some of the Bushes not as well as he should have, we'll put it that way. Look the Bushes are the best peole I know. But I'm disappointed. I think they've got to get involved too.'
Even as some of his colleagues sprinted into elevators to avoid facing the press Tuesday, Senator Jeff Sessions attempted to explain Trump's rise.
The Justice Department will not seek the death penalty against Ahmed Abu Khattala (pictured), the Libyan man charged in the Benghazi attacks
The Justice Department will not seek the death penalty against the Libyan militant charged in the Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans, federal officials have announced.
Ahmed Abu Khattala has been awaiting trial in federal court in Washington in connection with the September 2012 violence at a diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
His attorneys had been imploring the Justice Department to remove the death penalty as a possibility if Khattala is ultimately convicted at trial.
On Tuesday, the department revealed its decision in a court filing that provided no explanation.
Khattala, 43, is the first militant to be prosecuted for the Benghazi violence.
He was captured in June 2014 by U.S. special forces before being brought to the United States aboard a Navy ship to face trial.
Prosecutors have described him as a ringleader of the attacks, which quickly emerged as a political flashpoint and became the topic of congressional hearings involving Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the rampage.
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Khattala is the first person charged in the violence at a diplomatic compound in Libya that killed four Americans. Pictured, the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is seen in flames on September 11, 2012
He initially was charged with conspiracy to provide support to terrorists and multiple other counts that make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
Among other charges, he is accused of providing material support to terrorists, malicious destruction of property and attempted murder of an officer and employee of the U.S.
Prosecutors say the attack was aimed at murdering American personnel and plundering maps, documents and other property from the post.
The 18-count indictment arises from a burst of violence that began the night of September 11, 2012, at a State Department diplomatic compound.
U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed, along with Sean Patrick Smith, a State Department information management officer.
In the first burst of violence on the night of September 11, prosecutors allege, Abu Khattala drove to the diplomatic mission with other militants and a group of about 20 breached the main gate and later launched an attack with assault rifles, grenades and other weapons.
WHAT HAPPENED IN BENGHAZI? U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed, along with Sean Patrick Smith, a State Department information management officer, in the initial attack CIA security contractors Tyrone Woods (left) and Glen Doherty (right) died there while defending a CIA annex from the rooftop The attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in the Mediterranean port city in Libya occurred on Sept. 11, 2012 the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The attack came in three waves, spread over eight hours at two locations. A few attackers scaled the wall of the diplomatic post after dark and opened a gate, allowing dozens of armed men inside. They set the building on fire. Ambassador Chris Stevens and Sean Smith, a State Department communications specialist, were overcome by choking smoke in a safe room, and later died. Hours later, a nearby CIA annex was attacked twice. CIA security contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty died there while defending the annex from the rooftop. A team of six security officials summoned from Tripoli and a Libyan military unit helped evacuate the remaining U.S. personnel. They were taken to an airport and flown out of Benghazi. The attacks have been the subject of numerous congressional investigations.
That initial attack killed Stevens and Smith and set the mission ablaze.
Prosecutors say Khattala "supervised the plunder" of sensitive information from that building, then returned to a camp in Benghazi where a large group began assembling for an attack on a second building known as the annex.
The attack on that facility, including a precision mortar barrage, resulted in the deaths of security officers Tyrone Snowden Woods and Glen Anthony Doherty, authorities say.
But defense lawyers have argued for Khattala to be returned to Libya as a sanction for what they call their client's illegal capture and interrogation, which took place aboard a Navy ship that brought him to the U.S.
The US sailed a warship close to a disputed South China Sea reef that Beijing has built up into an artificial island, officials said.
Guided missile destroyer, USS William P Lawrence, traveled within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef on Tuesday, US Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said.
The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertakento 'challenge excessive maritime claims' by China, Taiwan, andVietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in theSouth China Sea, Urban said.
Guided missile destroyer, USS William P Lawrence (pictured), traveled within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef on Tuesday (file photo)
China scrambled fighter jets after the ship sailed too close to the reef. The country's Defense Ministry said two fighter jets were scrambled and three warships shadowed the US ship, telling it to leave. The Fiery Cross Reef (pictured) located in the South China Sea, in the western part of the Spratly Islands group (file photo)
'These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent withinternational law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Conventionin that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that theUnited States and all states are entitled to exercise,' Urbansaid in an emailed statement.
China scrambledfighter jets after the ship sailed too close to the reef. The country's Defense Ministry said two fighter jets were scrambled and three warships shadowed the US ship, telling it to leave.
Both countries have traded accusations ofmilitarizing the South China Sea as China undertakes large-scaleland reclamation and construction on disputed features while theUS has increased its patrols and exercises.
Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-meter(10,000-foot) runway which the US worries China willuse to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense ofweaker rivals.
The US patrol 'again proves that China's construction ofdefensive facilities on the relevant reefs in the Nansha Islandsis completely reasonable and totally necessary', it said, usingChina's name for the Spratly Islands where much of itsreclamation work is taking place.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the US shipillegally entered Chinese waters.
'This action by the US side threatened China's sovereigntyand security interests, endangered the staff and facilities onthe reef, and damaged regional peace and stability,' he told adaily news briefing.
US Secretary of State John Kerry waved aside a question asto whether the US aimed to send a message ahead of a visitto Asia by President Barack Obama this month.
'This is not a pointed strategy calculated to do anythingexcept keep a regular process of freedom of navigationoperations underway,' he told reporters in London.
US Secretary of State John Kerry (pictured) waved aside a question as to whether the US aimed to send a message ahead of a visit to Asia by President Barack Obama this month. He said it wasn't 'a pointed strategy calculated to do anything except keep a regular process of freedom of navigation operations underway'
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims
US naval officials believe China has plans to start reclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal, which sits further north of the Spratlys within the Philippines-claimed 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines,Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it hasno plans to deploy military aircraft in the Spratly Islandsafter China used a military plane to evacuate sick workers fromFiery Cross.
'Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be thefuture hub of Chinese military operations in the South ChinaSea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including itslarge and deep port and 3,000-meter runway,' said Ian Storey, aSouth China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof IshakInstitute.
'The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of US determination ahead of President Obama's trip to Vietnam.'
Speaking in Vietnam, Daniel Russel, assistant secretary ofstate for East Asia and the Pacific, said freedom of navigationoperations were important for smaller nations.
'If the world's most powerful navy cannot sail whereinternational law permits, then what happens to the ships ofnavy of smaller countries?' Russel told reporters before news ofthe operation was made public.
China has reacted with anger to previous U.S. freedom ofnavigation operations, including the overflight of fighterplanes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month, and whenlong-range US bombers flew near Chinese facilities underconstruction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November.
US naval officials believe China has plans to startreclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal,which sits further north of the Spratlys within thePhilippines-claimed 200-nautical-mile (370-km) exclusiveeconomic zone.
Tough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who looks set tobecome president of the Philippines after an election on Monday,has proposed multilateral talks on the South China Sea.
The slick clip also reveals some of the state-of-the-art cars which will be featured
The wait before Top Gear is back on TV is almost up, and this latest action-packed trailer shows the new crew will be up to many of the crazy stunts the programme is famous for.
Yet the trailer, uploaded to the Top Gear YouTube page, is receiving mixed responses from viewers.
The newly released extended footage shows the team racing around in super-cars with mounted guns, challenging a fighter jet to a race, and even the stars trundling along in some decorated Reliant Rialtos.
Action-packed: The new extended Top Gear trailer shows that the team will be up to much of the same stunts
The slick clip reveals the crew will attempt many of the innovative challenges that the show is famous for
The slick clip also reveals an array of state-of-the-art cars which will be reviewed, including The Aston Martin Vulcan, the new Audi R8 and Ferrari's F12 tdf.
But viewers are still caught up on whether they are happy to see the popular show in the hands of new hosts including Matt LeBlanc and Chris Evans.
Underneath the video Patrick Carta wrote: 'Maybe it will be a great car show, but it will not be Top Gear.'
While RevieWorld posted: 'Why are they even bothering with this show now? The hosts were the only reason it was so successful and so much fun, nobody gives a s*** anymore.'
But J Hughes disagreed: 'Here come the dislikes, from people who need to grow up. It looks great. BBC knows how to film a car show well. If you don't like the hosts, don't watch it, no ones forcing you.'
Many of the comments appear to back up Chris Evan's recent claims that 'people have written off Top Gear before it has even hit the air'.
In one stunning shot a bike leaps over Matt Le Blanc's dune buggy driving across the Moroccan desert
Wacky racing: Blue and yellow Chevrolets race past the camera with mounted guns attached to their roofs
Celebrity guests: F1 star Jenson Button is pictured in the passenger seat of a classic car next to Chris Evans
The star, speaking to Event Magazine, added: 'You can't lose if it looks like you're on to a total loser from the outside.
'Nothing I can do about that other than prove them wrong or confirm that they're right. But I know what's in the can.'
The new trailer certainly shows that viewers will be in for some action-packed episodes.
Stunning scenery: The trailer also shows a glimpse of some of the beautifully composed shots of landscape
The clip also reveals an array of state-of-the-art cars which will be reviewed, including The Aston Martin Vulcan, the new Audi R8 and Ferrari's F12 tdf
In one frame Chris is seen racing along with F1 driver Jenson Button in the passenger seat.
In another co-star Matt LeBlanc speeds along in a Reliant Rialto decorated in the colours of the American Flag.
Blue and yellow Chevrolets then race by with mounted guns attached to their roofs.
In one scene Matt LeBlanc speeds along in a Reliant Rialto decorated in the colours of the American Flag
The Stig is back! Although the old presenters will be gone, the familiar face, or helmet, of the Stig will return
Despite the exciting trailer the response has so far been mixed with many unable to bring themselves to embrace the new presenters
New presenters: Chris Harris pictured behind the wheel, previously he worked as a journalist for motoring magazines
German professional motor racing driver Sabine Schmitz will also help out with some presenting duties
In less than a day the trailer has been viewed 30,000 times, but there is already more than twice as many dislikes than likes.
Earlier this year the filming of the series came under controversy when scenes of cars 'donutting' near the Cenotaph were released.
Peruvian activist and and actor Richard Torres got married to a tree for the third time Sunday.
The environmentalist wed Mexico's famous 1,000-year-old Arbol del Tule, or Tule Tree during a traditional Inca ceremony replete with incense, grains and conch shells.
But while the ceremony flummoxed many of the locals, Torres tied to the knot as part of the 'Marry a tree, save your oxygen' project, designed to stop deforestation around the world.
The ritual began Sunday morning with dozens of environmentalists and locals from Oaxaca town of Santa Maria del Tule.
Peruvian activist and and actor Richard Torres (pictured) got married to a tree for the third time Sunday. He married Mexico's famous 1,000-year-old Arbol del Tule, or Tule Tree (pictured behind)
He married the tree during a traditional Inca ceremony replete with incense, grains and conch shells
Torres (center) tied to the knot as part of the 'Marry a tree, save your oxygen' project, designed to stop deforestation around the world
Torres even stole a kiss from his new tree 'bride', which, at 140 feet, has the largest diameter trunk in the world.
The Johnny Depp lookalike used the opportunity to raise awareness of the cause and said at the ceremony: 'Stop the hand that cuts down trees.
'I condemn this genocide and ask the president of Mexico to halt the destruction'
He added that the Mexican capital 'finds itself in its greatest environmental crisis, for which I ask my Mexican brothers to plant a tree and care for the water and the mountains, because this earth belongs to everyone.'
The Peruvian actor was born in the Amazon region and said that according to Greenpeace close to five million acres of woodland have been clear cut in Latin America.
Torres, who was decked out in sky blue tie with white tails, added: 'Some very important Mexicans have joined this campaign. Famous actresses like Thalia and Lucia Mendez are supporting the project.'
He plans to continue his mission to other southern Mexican states like Chiapas and Guerrero, where he knows 'a lot of blood has been spilled' and aims to bring a message of peace.
This is the third tree Torres has 'married' a tree.
In December 2013, he married a tree in Buenos Aires, Argentina and in November 2014 he married a tree in the national park of Colombia's capital Bogota.
Torres was also arrested in 2012 for staging a nude protest against the removal of trees in a Peruvian park.
This is the third tree Torres has 'married' a tree. In November 2014 he married a tree in the national park of Colombia's capital Bogota (pictured)
Ted Cruz gave no indication he is ready to endorse Donald Trump as he returned to the Senate for the first time since losing the GOP presidential nomination to the real estate mogul, and hinted the media may have to wait a bit longer to see him back in a race.
'I appreciate the eagerness and excitement of all the folks in the media to see me back in the ring. But you may have to wait a little bit longer,' Cruz said when asked about his own cryptic statement early Tuesday that seemed to raise the possibility he might restart his campaign if he won the state of Nebraska.
'Listen we have suspended the campaign,' the Texas senator told a pack of reporters outside his ornate Senate office, after spending more than a year mostly on the campaign trail.
'Weve suspended the campaign because I can see no viable path to victory. Of course if that changed we would reconsider things. But lets be clear were not gonna win Nebraska today. There should be no mystery no excitement in that.'
Seeking cloture: Cruz meets the press outside his Senate office after a hard-fought campaign
Cruz faced a swarm of reporters, but wouldn't give ground on whether he'll back Trump
Cruz said the election was 'in the hands of the voters. If circumstances change we will always assess changed circumstances.'
It was the most extensive statement Cruz made since delivering a withering indictment of Trump the day of his Indiana loss, when he called the presumptive nominee a 'pathological liar" who is 'amoral.'
'Its great to be back in the welcoming embrace of Washington,' quipped Cruz, who regularly railed against the media and D.C. on the campaign trail.
On a day when numerous fellow Senate Republicans at least said they would back 'the nominee,' Cruz made no promises to back the man who defeated him after ripping him as 'Lyin' Ted.'
'We suspended our campaign one week ago today,' said Cruz. 'There are two and a half months until the Republican Convention, six months until the general election. There will be plenty of time for voters to make the determination who they are going to support.'
'What I am interested in supporting are free market principles and the constitutional liberties of Americans,' he said.
Pressed on whether he would encourage his supporters to back Trump, Cruz said: 'We just had a long drawn out battle ... It will be incumbent on the candidates in this race to make the case to the people that they will fight for them.'
With two years left in his term, Cruz said the 'movement continues,' and vowed to continue fighting for the principles of his campaign. Cruz got his start after alienating many of his colleagues during the 2013 government shutdown.
'The people who I am fighting for are single moms and young people and Hispanics and African Americans. Its the truck drivers and the welders and the coal minders. Its the farmers and ranchers. Its the people whove been left behind,' said Cruz.
Cruz held a conference call with supporters Monday where backers spoke about how to influence that party platform at the convention, Politico reported.
Earlier Tuesday, Cruz got political D.C. talking when he told Glenn Beck's radio show: 'We launched this campaign intending to win. The reason we suspended our campaign was that with the Indiana loss, I felt there was no path to victory.'
'If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly,' Cruz said.
Cruz seemed to grow emotional when asked if his loss was humbling.
'I am certainly disappointed with the outcome that I disappointed so many millions of grassroots activists across this country,' he said.
The vice president gave Hillary Clinton the Biden bump today, saying during an interview he believes she'll prevail over Democratic rival Bernie Sanders and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
'I feel confident that Hillary will be the nominee, and I feel confident shell be the next president,' Joe Biden told Good Morning America's Robin Roberts.
ABC News released the exclusive clip of Biden discussing the presidential race this afternoon. The full interview airs tomorrow at 7am on the network.
'I feel confident that Hillary will be the nominee, and I feel confident shell be the next president,' Joe Biden told Good Morning America's Robin Roberts, speaking about Hillary Clinton
ABC News released the exclusive clip of Biden discussing the presidential race this afternoon. The full interview airs tomorrow at 7am on the network
Clinton is far ahead of Sanders in votes and pledged delegates and is the predicted winner of the Democratic race.
Sanders is looking to finish strong and is refusing to drop out of the race until every state has had its say.
He's expected to win a contest today in West Virginia, and several others in May leading up to the big finish on June 7 when California and New Jersey vote. The District of Columbia voters after that on June 14 but it won't be relevant to Sanders' chances if he doesn't wipe the floor with Clinton the week before.
President Barack Obama has stayed out of the fight, even as he acknowledged last week that the math speaks for itself.
Biden plainly stated today what the president did not: the White House and other party officials expect that the winner will be Clinton.
And with Donald Trump as the GOP nominee, they circling the wagons and preparing for the general election even though the Democratic primary is still in motion.
The vice president didn't endorse the former secretary of state today, and its possible he voted for Sanders.
'I voted,' he coyly told a reporter who asked last month whom he marked on his Delaware absentee ballot.
At that time Sanders still had a plausible shot at winning the pledged delegate race. With wins in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware that day, he could have pulled within range of Clinton.
He went one for five that day, however, and analysts subsequently wrote him off.
The vice president was believed to have voted for Sanders after suggesting in an interview published the week before that he preferred the Vermont legislator's style of politics to Clinton's.
He'd previously defended him on the topic of economic inequality, as well, raising the possibility that he secretly was siding not with the secretary but with the senator.
But the arrow he shot at Sanders today came off as a not-so-subtle suggestion that his old Senate colleague should give it up so that Democrats can focus on the general election.
A Liberty University student who was exploring nature trails with a group of friends was found dead in a small body of water.
Jonathan Veldhuyzen, 20, was hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia with his roommate Joseph McGowan, McGowan's wife Emily, their infant daughter and friend Alex Wright on Sunday.
As the group wandered the Fallingwater Cascades National Scenic Trail, Veldhuyzen ran ahead to scout out the pathway.
When they got to the bottom of the trail, the friends set up a hammock and started taking pictures.
Jonathan Veldhuyzen (pictured), 20, a student at Liberty University, died while hiking on a trail in the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia
Veldhuyzen was hiking with his roommate Joseph McGowan, who took this picture of the 20-year-old on Sunday before he died
After about 20 minutes they noticed Velhuyzen hadn't returned.
'It must have been 20 minutes since we had seen him, and we weren't really thinking about it.
'Right below us, in the shallow pool of about two and a half feet of water, he was facedown there,' McGowan told the News & Advance.
Bedford Fire Captain Matt Scott said the department received a report at 6.36pm that a person possibly drowned at the site.
'While we were en route up there, we were informed the subject had fallen into a body of water and they had pulled the subject out and were performing CPR on him at the scene,' Scott said.
The Blue Ridge Parkway, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is known for its scenic beauty and nature trails
Veldhuyzen and McGown, along with McGown's wife emily and their daughter and another friend were hiking the Fallingwater Cascades National Scenic Trail (pictured)
He said the victim was dead when crews arrived.
The McGowns and Wright said they are still reeling from the death of the friend they described as quirky and loving.
'You see him walk off well and alive, and the next time you see him We realized almost immediately it wasn't going to have a good ending,' McGown said.
Emily McGown is amendment that Veldhuyzen didn't deviate from the trail and the accident was a freak occurrence.
'He wasnt trespassing. He wasnt doing anything reckless or taking any risks. He just slipped and fell. It really was in the saddest way an accident.
'I guess it was just his time to go and were just sad to see him go,' she said.
A woman has died after falling 20 metres down a waterfall in the NSW Blue Mountains.
Cheng Shi Min, 29, suffered severe head and chest injuries when she slipped while walking on a track near Wentworth Falls with three others on Tuesday afternoon.
She was taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition but died early on Wednesday.
Cheng Shi Min, 29, has died after suffering severe head and chest injuries when she slipped while walking on a track near Wentworth Falls in the NSW Blue Mountains with three others on Tuesday afternoon
A NSW Police spokesperson said it took rescuers more than six hours to carry Ms Min to safety on a stretcher through the rugged terrain.
Strong winds prevented a helicopter from airlifting her from the scene, forcing rescuers to walk her out on a stretcher, treating her on the way.
Ms Min, who is from Singapore, was walking the Valley of Waters track at Empress Falls with her boyfriend, father and family friend when she fell feet first down the waterfall, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Her boyfriend, Henry Yendle, rushed down to see her lying face first in a shallow pool of water.
It took rescuers more than six hours to carry Ms Min to safety on a stretcher through the rugged terrain after she fells 20 metres while walking the Valley of Waters track at Empress Falls
Ms Min, who is from Singapore, was walking the Valley of Waters track at Empress Falls with her boyfriend, father and family friend when she fell feet first down the waterfall
'I ran down and yelled for them to call an ambulance, before jumping in the water, I just wanted to get her head out of the water,' Mr Yendle told the newspaper.
'I couldn't pull her onto the ledge, so her dad and a German couple helped to get her out.'
The Valley of Waters area has been the site of several accidents, including fatalities.
In 2008 a woman died after she fell while walking the Valley of Waters track and in 2013 British tourist Josh Furber fell 300 feet to his death at the nearby Wentworth Falls.
A former US Marine is suing Iran over claims he was brutally tortured during the four years he was held captive in a Tehran prison.
Amir Hekmati, from Michigan, was arrested in August 2011 while in Iran to visit his dying grandmother, and was accused of being a spy for the CIA.
He was put in prison for the next four years, where he claims he was tortured, drugged, kept in solitary confinement for a year in a tiny three foot cell and even at one point falsely told his own mother had died.
The former Marine, who was finally released from the nightmarish ordeal last January in a high profile prisoner swap, has now filed a lawsuit in a Washington DC federal court suing the Middle Eastern country for the torture he suffered.
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Amir Hekmati, pictured on his return home after four years in an Iranian prison, is suing Iran over claims he was brutally tortured
It also claims he was tricked into giving a false confession, on the promise he would be freed.
'During those [first] months, and during the entirety of his four and a half years in captivity, Mr. Hekmati suffered prolonged and continuous physical abuse at the hands of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence,' the lawsuit, seen by ABC News, states.
'The torture that Mr. Hekmati endured included being whipped at the bottom of his feet, struck by an electrical Taser to his kidney area, forced to stay in stress positions for hours at a time, and hit with batons.'
The suit also alleges that Hekmati was given addictive drugs, such as lithium, which were then suddenly taken away to induce withdrawal symptoms, while he was kept awake at night by guards throwing water in the cell and leaving the bright lights on 24 hours a day.
Four months after his arrest, Hekmati says the Iranian spies and Tehran prison guards changed tactics and transported him out of prison to a hotel.
Great feeling: He was reunited with his family in Germany after his horrifying ordeal (pictured left-to right are his brother-in-law Dr. Ramy Kurdi , sister Sarah Hekmati, Congressman Kildee, Amir and sister Leila Hekmati)
Powerful: Hekmati (pictured enjoying his freedom shortly after his release in January) was arrested in August 2011 while in Iran to visit his dying grandmother, and was accused of being a spy for the CIA
There he was given clothing, food and cigarettes and told he would be released if he agreed to 'confess' that he worked for the CIA for a training video for the Iranian Intelligence Ministry.'
If he refused, he would be returned to his cell in solitary confinement, the suit alleges.
But his Iranian captors had lied. Once Hekmati, who had already suffered months of abuse, agreed, then video was broadcast on national television. It was the first timer his family had seen him since August.
His family have described some of the horrific conditions that Hekmati suffered during his time in Iran's Evin prison.
His sister told Bloomberg View last May that his torture was 'both physical and psychological.'
'Amir's feet were beaten with cables,' she said. 'His kidneys were shocked with a Taser.
'He was drugged by his interrogators, who then forced him to suffer through withdrawal. Amir was also kept in solitary confinement for months on end and held in a cell so small for the first year of his imprisonment that he could not fully extend his legs.
'He was allowed to walk outside his cell once a week.'
His sister also claimed: 'His jailers took advantage of this and falsely told him his mother had been killed in a car accident.'
She said she had gotten this information from relatives who visited Hekmati and brief phone conversations they were allowed to have, which lasted five minutes.
He was put in Elvin Prison (pictured) in Tehran for the next four years, where he claims he was tortured, drugged, kept in solitary confinement for a year and even at one point falsely told his own mother had died
The former Marine, who was finally released from the nightmarish ordeal last January in a high profile prisoner swap (pictured) has now filed a lawsuit in a Washington DC federal court suing the Middle Eastern country for the torture he suffered
His family also claim he endured 'mental torture' and was 'constantly shackled' while he awaited trial on false charges.
Following his 'confession', Hekmati was eventually convicted of collaborating with the American government and sentenced to death.
However, his death sentence was later overturned.
After four years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement and living in terrible conditions, he was finally released from jail and was allowed to return home to the United States as part of a prisoner swap.
In exchange for four Iranian-American dual nationals, some of whom had been held for years, and a fifth American, Washington granted clemency to seven Iranians and withdrew arrest warrants for 14 others.
Speaking after his emotional homecoming, he told his family and assembled media at Flint's Bishop international airport that he was: 'Happy to be home. It's been a very long road. It's been a very long journey, and unfortunately many people have traveled this road with me.'
He added that he was 'healthy, tall and with my head held high.'
Asked about the way he had been treated in prison, Hekmati simply replied: 'Well, it wasn't good.'
He said that one of the ways he had managed to stay strong during the four years was thinking of his comrades.
Hekmati told reporters; 'I didn't want to let my fellow Marines down and the reputation of the Marine Corps, so I tried my best to keep my head up and withstand all the pressures that were put upon me, some of which were very inhumane and unjust
Hekmati, 32, is a former Marine from Michigan who was released from an Iranian prison earlier this week
During his four years in jail, Hekmati's rallied round him and begged the Iranian government to grant his release (pictured is his niece)
Hekmati went on to say during his press conference, held in Germany: 'Hearing about some of my fellow Marines supporting me really gave me the strength to put up with over four years of some very difficult times that me and my family went through.'
The 32-year-old admitted that he began to get nervous before boarding the plane to leave Iran, noting: 'I was worried that maybe the Iranian side was going to make new demands at the last minute or that the deal wasn't going to work out, so up until the last second we were all worried and concerned.'
He also said that his release from prison was like being 'born again' and that he and the three other prisoners celebrated as soon as they left Iranian airspace.
'That's when we knew we were leaving,' said Hekmati.
'As soon as we got out of Iranian air space, champagne bottles were popped.'
After arriving back on American soil, Hekmati said he felt 'blessed' that the government had done so much for him, adding he was hoping to put his horrifying past behind him.
But his lawsuit states that he has been struggling to deal with the horrific ordeal which has left him suffering 'prost-traumatic stress disorder and other lasting psychological damage from his captivity and torture.'
Hekmati is seeking damages from Iran. His attorney, Scott Gilbert, admitted that he did not expect officials from Iran to attend the trial but was 'absolutely confident' he could prevail and win a default judgment for his client.
Before Ted Cruz asked Carly Fiorina to be his running mate in a last ditch effort to upend Donald Trump's runaway campaign there were reports that Cruz's people had talked to Sen. Marco Rubio's people about the gig, only to be rebuffed.
Today, during Rubio's first television interview since leaving the presidential campaign, he called that story 'largely inaccurate' and suggested that it belittled Fiorina and all the work that she had done.
'Look, I don't know who put that out there, I talked to Ted the day after the Florida primary when I had dropped out,' Rubio told CNN's Jake Tapper. 'He didn't say a word about VP or anything of that nature.'
'I also, quite frankly, think it's an unfortunate story given Carly Fiorina worked really hard for his campaign,' Rubio continued. 'And the story kind of implies that she wasn't their first choice.'
'I think that's unfair to her,' he added.
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Florida Sen. Marco Rubio sat down with CNN's Jake Tapper for his first interview since leaving the presidential race on March 15, after losing his home state primary
Marco Rubio (right) addressed a number of rumors about the vice presidential slot, telling Jake Tapper (left) that Ted Cruz never asked him and he never tried to get on Donald Trump's ticket
Fiorina, who was the only female Republican to run in the overly-crowded field, was added to the ticket just a week before Cruz was forced to drop out, after last Tuesday's disappointing showing in Indiana, where the Texan was walloped by Trump.
Rubio suggested that no configuration of running mates would have held Trump back.
'I'm not sure that, after a certain point in this campaign, anything would have stopped him,' Rubio said of the brash billionaire, who he has said he will support, but has not fully endorsed.
'I don't think you win by doing those sorts of things,' Rubio said of joining forces with another candidate in order to pull away support from the frontrunner.
This week Rubio also took himself out of Trump's veepstakes, writing a Facebook post Monday that said, 'I have never sought, will not seek and do not want to be considered for Vice President.'
Rubio cited his continued reservations about Trump's policy prescriptions and his overall campaign.
'And again, to be frank, I've never had those conversations with anybody from his campaign, so I'm not saying that anybody's offered it to me or suggested it to me,' Rubio reiterated on CNN.
'I'm just saying to you that he would be best served by someone who more fully embraces the things that he stands for and that's certainly not me,' Rubio added.
Tapper said today, however, that Trump's people said advisers to Rubio were actually working behind-the-scenes to get the retiring Florida senator onto the presidential ticket.
'Well, that would be impossible,' Rubio replied. 'Cause I don't really have very many advisers ... our campaign is no longer running. Unless they've been talking to my wife, who's my critical adviser these days.'
Sen. Marco Rubio left the door open to attending the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July, noting a lot of his own supporters would still be there
Throughout the rest of the interview, Rubio repeated again and again that he would honor his pledge as a presidential candidate and 'support the Republican nominee,' without expressly saying that he supported Donald Trump by name.
Tapper asked the Florida senator what it would take him to get there.
'Let's begin with the premise that this has been a very unusual election cycle like anything we've seen before, so I don't know if there's a well established road map in terms of how to do that,' Rubio said, explaining that he thought 'significant' public policy differences would remain between he and Trump.
'But I do think it's smart that he's coming to D.C., that he's meeting with the members of our party,' Rubio continued. 'I think that's part of the process and we'll see where we are in two months, in three months, in four months.'
In two months, however, comes the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and Tapper wanted to know if Rubio saw himself playing a part.
'I haven't made a decision yet,' the former candidate said, noting that many of his supporters will still be there.
Before Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich had dropped out, Rubio had petitioned all the states where he had won delegates and asked them if he could hold onto them through the first vote, as a way for the anti-Trump types to withhold delegate support and rob Trump of a victory on the first ballot.
Had the convention gone to a second ballot, Trump's prospects of winning the nomination would have been diminished.
'It wouldn't be because of Donald Trump or in spite of Donald Trump,' Rubio said of his convention attendance, noting that he was open to going.
Rubio said his best bet to help the Republicans might be to help with down ballot races.
'Again, it might make sense to go to the convention, but I haven't made that decision,' he said. 'Probably should, their airlines are filling up,' he added with a smile.
Moving into November, Tapper asked Rubio how he planned to vote.
'Well, as I said, I'm going to support the Republican nominee,' he said again, and again didn't use Trump's name.
'I intend to support the Republican nominee,' he repeated. And more quietly said, 'and I think that includes the entire process.'
The lines at New York area airports are so long that management is considering replacing the TSA with private security companies.
John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports along with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey wrote a letter this month complaining to TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger about the lengthy wait times.
'We can no longer tolerate the continuing inadequacy of the TSA passenger services,' said the letter.
Speed things up: John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia (pictured in files photo) and Newark airports wrote a letter this month complaining to TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger about the lengthy wait times
'The patience of the flying public has reached a breaking point...we can no longer tolerate the continuing inadequacy of TSA passenger screening services,' the letter continues, according to CBS.
There were reportedly 253 wait times of over 20 minutes between March 15 to April 15, the Port Authority told ABC. That's 82 per cent longer than the times were last year.
The TSA responded by saying they realize that travelers are getting fed up but that their main concern is safety.
'TSA's primary focus is the current threat environment, as the American transportation system remains a high value target for terrorists,' a TSA spokesperson told ABC.
'We're working very hard to dramatically improve our ability to move people through... training more people than we've ever trained before on a weekly basis... but the travel volumes that we're seeing are still going to make airports crowded at peak periods this summer,' TSA administrator Peter Neffenger said.
The TSA claims they are using canines to help with customer screenings and are also asking Congress to approve overtime pay for staff. They also say passengers have the option of
Despite the TSA's security concerns, travelers are missing flights because of the wait times and they aren't happy about it.
'Because the lines are so long, I missed my flight, so they put me on the next flight,' flyer Sarai Chicas said.
The Port Authority says that to decrease wait times they may hire outside security companies, something which is already underway in Seattle.
'We're looking at all the options, including, we're going to investigate what it would take to privatize. We're looking at other airports that have privatized,' said Seattle-Tacoma International Airport director Lance Lyttle.
A doctor who treated Prince twice in the weeks before his death and prescribed him drugs just one day before he was found unresponsive inside an elevator in his Paisley Park home is being interview by authorities.
Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg, a family practitioner, saw Prince on April 7 and April 20, and was actually at the singer's home when he was found unresponsive, having come to drop off the results of some tests according to a search warrant.
Dr. Schulenberg told authorities on the scene that he had written multiple prescriptions for Prince to fill at a nearby Walgreens, where the singer had been seen multiple times in the days before his death.
Now police are looking to obtain Prince's records from North Memorial Clinic in Minnetonka where Dr. Schulenberg is employed, though he reportedly left the facility in the past few days for unknown reasons.
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Investigators in Minnesota are revisiting Prince's (right in 2014) Paisley Park estate more than two weeks after the star's death after his doctor Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg (left) was identified in a warrant
Investigation: A Carver County sheriff's vehicle enters through the gates of Prince's Paisley Park home and studio in Minnesota on Tuesday
The vehicles then moved through the gates and went around to the door of Paisley Park. A siren briefly sounded, and then the cars disappeared from view
Meanwhile, investigators in Minnesota are revisiting the singer's Paisley Park estate to search for more possible evidence that might explain the singer's sudden and mysterious death.
A Carver County sheriff's vehicle entered through the gates of the Paisley Park estate Tuesday afternoon, followed by about a dozen unmarked vehicles.
Officials at the scene would not respond to questions about what they were doing there.
Carver County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Jason Kamerud later said by phone that investigators are 'being thorough.'
A man wearing a sheriff's department badge got out of an unmarked vehicles and yelled, 'Open the gates!' to the private security company inside. The vehicles then moved through the gates and went around to the door of Paisley Park. A siren briefly sounded, and then the cars disappeared from view.
Prince, 57, died April 21 at his Paisley Park home (pictured) and studio in suburban Minneapolis. Autopsy results are pending
Star: Authorities revisited the scene amid news that Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg was being questioned by the authorities
Prince, 57, died April 21 at his Paisley Park home and studio in suburban Minneapolis. Autopsy results are pending.
A law enforcement official has told The Associated Press that investigators are looking into whether Prince died from an overdose and whether a doctor was prescribing him drugs in the weeks before he was found dead at his home in suburban Minneapolis.
The law enforcement official has been briefed on the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Carver County Deputy Sheriff Jason Kamerud said the warrant was supposed to have been filed under seal and he had contacted a court administrator to ensure that it was sealed. He said he could not comment on its contents.
The day before Prince died, his representatives reached out to a California doctor who specializes in addiction treatment to arrange a meeting, a Minneapolis lawyer for the doctor said last week.
Attorney William Mauzy said Dr. Howard Kornfeld had never met or spoken to Prince before Prince's representatives contacted him on April 20 with the musician's knowledge.
Mauzy said Kornfeld wasn't able to travel immediately to Minnesota, so he arranged for his son Andrew to go instead.
Addiction treatment: Dr. Howard Kornfeld (left) reportedly sent his son Andrew (right) to help treat the singer for addiction. When he got there, he found Prince in an elevator, unresponsive, and it was he who called 911
Andrew Kornfeld took a late flight on April 20 so he could be at Prince's Paisley Park studio complex the next morning. When he got there, he was one of three people to find Prince in an elevator, unresponsive, and it was he who called 911.
Mauzy said Andrew was carrying a small amount of buprenorphine, which Howard says on his website is a treatment option for patients with addiction issues that offers pain relief with less possibility of overdose and addiction.
When asked by reporters about the legality of his carrying buprenorphine, Mauzy declined to answer. But he said he believes Minnesota law would protect Andrew from any potential charges related to Prince's death.
Under the law, a person who seeks medical assistance for someone who is overdosing on drugs may not be prosecuted for possessing or sharing controlled substances, under certain circumstances.
Howard runs Recovery Without Walls in Mill Valley, California. His website describes the practice as 'specializing in innovative, evidence-based medical treatment for chronic pain and drug and alcohol addiction.'
Around 15 students in China have been diagnosed with severe poisoning from formaldehyde which was reportedly traced back to their school's dormitory.
The students all attended Xinaailixiang School in Da'an City, northeast China's Jilin province and had been developing coughs, nausea and eye congestion, reports Huanqiu, affiliated with the People's Daily Online.
Images of the students' ailments were posted to China's Twitter-like Weibo on May 9.
Sick: The pupils claim they have been poisoned by high levels of formaldehyde used in the dormitory
Horrifying: The images of the students and their ailments was posted to China's Twitter-like Weibo
The students were taken to No 1 Clinical Hospital of Bethune in Changchun where they were diagnosed with severe formaldehyde poisoning.
Formaldehyde can lead to irritation of the nose,mouth and throat. Exposure of the eyes to the substance causes immediate stinging and burning while high concentrations of formaldehyde may cause burns to the cornea.
It also causes chest or abdominal pain, sickness and diarrhoea.
The images of the students and their ailments were posted to a social media account under the name of Zhuiyixun on May 9.
It's claimed that these illnesses were caused by newly built dormitory rooms and recently bought desks which were found to contain formaldehyde.
The post also claimed that the victims' parents had asked for help from relevant governmental departments.
Yesterday afternoon the Weibo account of the Central Committee of the Comminist Youth League posted a message pledging to investigate the facts and offer legal support to students.
Not long after, the local Communist Youth League authority followed say that young people's health is their first priority and noted that the local government is taking actions to kick start an investigation.
All 15 students are currently receiving treatment for their ailments.
Scans: They were taken to No 1 Clinical Hospital of Bethune where they were diagnosed with severe poisoning
A glass window fell from a brand new skyscraper in Shanghai, China, yesterday, injuring a man on the pavement below.
The pane of glass, which dropped from the 76th floor of Shanghai Tower, landed in the middle of the street, and its debris hit a pedestrian in the ankle, according to People's Daily Online.
The 127-storey structure, the second tallest completed building in the world, started operating some of its facilities at a soft opening on April 27.
Panic: A pane of glass yesterday fell from the 76th floor of Shanghai Tower, the tallest building in China
Shattered: The glass landed in the middle of Dongtai Road, a busy street in Shanghai's financial district
Injured: A man (pictured) was injured by the debris of the glass as he was fetching stuff from the boot of his car
According to the report, the incident occurred at around 11am on Dongtai Road in Shanghai's Lujiazui Financial District.
The pane of glass measured about 7.8 feet long and 6.8 feet wide.
An unnamed man, who was fetching stuff from the boot of his car at the time, was hit by pieces of the broken glass.
He was immediately taken to the hospital.
A statement released by Shanghai Tower to the media yesterday confirmed the accident.
According to the statement, workers were replacing the glass on the building that had been previously damaged.
The statement continued saying: 'We will take further measures to prevent similar accidents in the future.'
Further details are still being investigated by the building's management.
MailOnline has contacted the operator of Shanghai Tower and is awaiting a reply.
SHANGHAI TOWER: THE LOFTY WONDER OF CHINA'S EXCITING METROPOLIS Shanghai Tower, located at the Lujiazui Financial and Trade Zone on the east bank of Huangpu River, is the latest addition to the city's striking skyline. Its two neighbours are the 1,614-foot-tall Shanghai World Financial Centre, completed in 2008, and the 1,378-foot-tall Jin Mao Tower completed in 1999. Together the gravity-defying trio formed the most iconic visual to define modern Shanghai, the fast-growing metropolis with more than 22 million residents. The tower, which is about 700 feet shorter than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is due to break several world records. It will contain Chinese-run J Hotel, billed as the world's highest hotel, between the 84th and 110th floors. It will also offer the longest single elevator journey in the world, which will transport visitors from the ground floor to the observation deck on the 119th floor in 55 seconds, according to the People's Daily Online.
Missing window: Building operator said at the time workers were replacing the glass that had been damaged
Work underway: The management is still investigating the cause of the accident which injured one pedestrian
Striking skyscrapers: Shanghai Tower (right) is the latest addition to Shanghai's renowned skyline in Pudong
After eight years of construction, the 2,073-foot-tall Shanghai Tower, nicknamed the 'thermos flask', will contain an observation deck along with luxury hotels, offices and shops.
Its five-storey-tall surrounding building as well as the basement opened to the public last month.
The observation decks, occupying 118-126 stories, are set to open within this year, according to a statement released by the Shanghai Municipal Government.
Authorities are yet to announce when the rest of the building will open to the public.
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One brave street vendor drew the attentions of a large crowd at a local seafood festival by using his bare hands to cook a famous Chinese staple.
The master cook wowed assembled tourists at the first crayfish festival in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, north China, according to People's Daily Online.
With a six-foot-wide wok in front of him, Tang Chenggang tossed hundreds of crayfish into the air, showing unique skills and drawing coos from the crowd.
Delicous produce: The master cook wowed assembled tourists at the first crayfish festival in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, north China
Quite amazing: Tang Chenggang tossed hundreds of crayfish into the air, showing unique skills with a 6ft-wide wok in front of him
Hot stuff: Festival goers showed their appreciation for his ability to touch the fish and the boiling oil without any visible injuries caused
Festival goers cheered and took videos as Tang showed his unburnt yet smoking hands to the group at the local national park.
He told assembled reporters at the festival: 'The oil is not too hot. It's about 110-120 degrees', allowing him to perform his remarkable feat.
Afterwards, hundreds of tourists had the opportunity to taste the fish he had cooked and many took the chance hungrily.
Finger licking: Crayfish is a widely-eaten dish in China and the popularity of the seafood spread across the country during the late 1990s
Impressive: Tang showed his unburnt hands to the crowd to demonstrate the fact that he was unharmed after handling the hot produce
Tucking in: Afterwards, hundreds of tourists had the opportunity to taste the fish he had cooked and many took the chance hungrily
The event was organised to encourage the public to lend support to locally-grown seafood and generally endorse produce and agriculture in the area.
Crayfish is a widely-eaten and famous dish in China and the popularity of the seafood spread across the country during the late 1990s.
Nowadays, the word 'thing' is given to any object not important enough to have a name, but the meaning of the word for the Vikings could not be more different.
In the 8th century, a thing was an important meeting, essentially a kind of Norse parliament, where people would gather to settle disputes, decide laws and make other decisions.
Now archaeologists believe they have discovered one of the sites where these meetings happened, on the island of Bute in Scotland.
In the 8th century, a 'thing' was an important meeting, essentially a kind of Norse parliament, where people would gather to settle disputes, decide laws and make other decisions. Archaeologists believe they have discovered one of the sites where these meetings happened in Scotland. A 'thing' from 193 is illustrated
Findings presented at the Scottish Place-Name Society annual conference this week suggested an area on Bute (pictured) is likely to have been the site of one of these 'things' in the 8th and 9th centuries
Cnoc An Rath has been listed as an important archaeological monument since the 1950s, but the significance of the area has been unclear for decades.
A painting showing a romanticised view of the 11th century Viking parliament in session
Some had suggested it could have been a prehistoric or medieval farm site.
But new findings, presented at the Scottish Place-Name Society annual conference this week, revealed it is likely to have been an important assembly places.
'Although the excavations revealed the site had been heavily disturbed in the 19th century, the results of the carbon dating programme have allowed us to understand that human activity was occurring at the site between the 8th and late 9th century,' archaeologist Dr Paul Duffy, who runs Brandanii Archaeology and Heritage Consultancy told MailOnline.
He said this was 'a time we know historically marks the very end of the Dalriadic power in the area and the start of the period when Vikings were active on Bute and around the Argyll coast'
A series of excavations revealed samples of a preserved surface which, when analysed through radio-carbon dating, correspond to the time when Vikings were active around the Argyll coast.
'The dates strengthen the hypothesis developed through the place name evidence that the original name for the site indicates a "ting" or "thing" site, in other words a Viking assembly place,' Dr Duffy told MailOnline.
WHAT'S IN A NAME? Gilbert Markus, a Celtic and Gaelic researcher at Glasgow University who carried out the study of place-names on Bute, said the name Cnoc an Rath Gaelic for hill of the fort may be recent. He identified nearby medieval farm names dating back to the 14th century, which are thought to have included the Norse word 'thing'. 'That suggested to me there might be a "thing" in the area,' he said. 'The most obvious site for that is the mound just below the farm, which is now called Cnoc An Rath.' Dr Barbara Crawford from St Andrews University had previously suggested it could be a 'thing' site based on geographical location. She said the new research on dates added to 'evidence building up' that it was a thing site. 'This is how historians have to go about studying these Norse settlements areas in this period, because the historical evidence is so thin and in many areas it just doesn't exist at all in the Viking period,' Dr Crawford said. 'One has to use place-names and archaeology and general geographical settlement principles to build up the pattern of what the Viking settlement might have been like.' Cnoc An Rath, Bute (pictured) has been listed as an important archaeological monument since the 1950s, but the significance of the area has been unclear for decades. Some had suggested it could have been a prehistoric or a medieval farm site
Now archaeologists think they have discovered one of the sites where Norse assemblies happened, on the island of Bute in Scotland (pictured). A series of excavations revealed samples of a preserved surface which, when analysed through radio-carbon dating, correspond to the time when Vikings were active on the coast
WHO WAS KETILL FLATNOSE? Ketill Bjornsson, nicknamed Flatnose, was a Norse King of the Isles of the 9th century. He moved from Norway to the Hebrides sometime in the 9th century. There he went into Ireland, the British Isles, and back into Norway, something the Norwegians would later punish him for. Ketil Flatnose, showing the power of his office to the King of Sweden at Gamla Uppsala, 1018
'Combined with other evidence proposed by academic examination of historical documents, this may have significant impact on understandings of what was happening on Bute at the time, and the role of the island in the wider Viking world in the 9th century.'
The dates identified corresponded with the end of the period of the kingdom of Dalriada and the start of Viking settlement on Bute.
Duffy said Bute has been suggested as a possible location for the headquarters of the Gall-Gaidheil, or 'Foreign Gaels'.
These Norse-Gael people dominated much of the Irish Sea region, including western Scotland, for a part of the middle Ages and are believed to have offered support to various high Kings of Ireland in battles.
According to the Scottish Herald, Dr Duffy said at the conference: 'We have got a very unusual and definite historical evidence which puts Bute in the Gall-Gaidheil territory, and possibly quite an important place in the Gall-Gaidheil territory.
'What we have now is another brick in the evidential wall which suggests there is an assembly site on Bute.'
He also raised the possibility the leader of the Gall-Gaidheil at that time, Ketill Flatnose, could be linked to the site.
Means that sometime during its evolution, the plant swapped its defensive gene activation pattern into one it can use on the offensive
common plant defence systems, which typically protect plants from being eaten are also used by Venus flytraps for insect feeding
They know the difference between a potential meal and false alarm and can even count the number of unfortunate flies on their jaw-like leaves.
Now scientists have unravelled how the Venus flytrap plant became a predator, instead of prey.
They believe the answer lies in the carnivorous plant's ability to turn the evolutionary tables and exploit plant defences to catch dinner.
Scientists have unravelled how the Venus flytrap (pictured) plant became a predator, instead of prey. They claim the answer lies in the carnivorous plant's ability to turn the evolutionary tables and exploit plant defensives to catch dinner
Earlier this year, scientists at the University of Wurzburg in Germany revealed the fearsome plant is able to count the number of times something touches its hair-lined leaves, so that it begins excreting digestive enzymes upon the fifth stimulus.
HOW VENUS FLYTRAPS CATCH FLIES Venus flytraps recognise their prey using touch-sensitive trigger hairs located on the trap's inner surface. When stimulated, these hairs generate an electric signal that is transmitted to the plant. After the first stimulus, the trap remembers the signal but does not close, but after the second stimulus, the trap snaps shut. Prey that is captured will repeatedly activate the trigger hairs leading to repetitive electrical signals 'remembered' by the plant.
The same group has now characterised the Venus flytrap's gene expression during hunting to discover that common plant defence systems, which typically protect plants from being eaten, are also used by Venus flytraps for insect feeding.
This means that sometime during its evolution, the plant swapped its defensive gene activation pattern into one it can use on the offensive.
Scientists looked at its genes before and during feeding and compared them to other plant tissues, in the study published in Genome Research.
They discovered unstimulated traps have gene expression patterns that largely resemble that of a leaf base - supporting the common assumption traps are modified leaves.
However, the glands inside the trap, which promote insect digestion, more closely resemble the expression pattern of roots, a tissue heavily involved in nutrient uptake.
The study compared genetic changes during insect capture and digestion with a non-carnivorous plant Arabidopsis or thanecress (stock image)
The researchers found that after the leaves were stimulated at least twice, the plant amplified its production of chitinase, an enzyme that digests chitin in insect exoskeletons.
'Contact with chitin normally means danger for a plant - that insects will eat the plant,' Rainer Hedrich from the University of Wurzburg explained.
They compared genetic changes during insect capture and digestion with a non-carnivorous plant - Arabidopsis or thanecress.
They found that both plants produce a defensive hormone called jasmonate, but while the thanecress makes jasmonate in response to injury from the bite of an insect the Venus flytrap does so when its hairs detect prey.
'In the Venus flytrap, these defensive processes have been reprogrammed during evolution. The plant now uses them to eat insects,' Dr Hedrich said.
The hormone serves different purposes for carnivorous and non-carnivorous plants.
While for the thanecress it makes leaves harder to digest, in a bid to deter predators, it kicks off the digestive process for Venus flytraps.
The experts also found Venus flytraps express receptor-like-kinases (RLKs), which are used in chemical sensing in non-carnivorous plants, suggesting Venus flytraps may be able to detect chemical changes related to prey capture, in addition to touch sensitivity.
A bipedal robot has proven it doesn't need humans to help it maneuver uneven terrain or obstacles.
Named MARLO, the machine has shown it can walk down steep slopes, through a thin layer of snow, and over uneven and unstable ground.
The robot's feedback algorithms could be used to help program other two-legged robots as well as help prosthetic legs gain similar abilities.
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Dubbed MARLO, the cyborg is controlled with algorithms that allows the main controller to handle the forward and backward motion and the second to focus on side-to-side balance. This is the team's first robot that walk in all directions, which they believe can be used to help teach prosthetics to learn similar abilities
HOW DOES MARLO WORK? Marlo is controlled with algorithms that enables the main controller to handle the forward and backward motion and the second to focus on side-to-side balance. Using an Xbox controller, researchers move MARLO to quickly walking in any direction, but the robot decides how to move over the terrain in front of it. A library of 15 gaits to handle a range of walking speeds and ground heights was also created for this project and helps with energy efficiency. It's movements work smoothly as long as MARLO does not make quick turns or sideways movements, but the team is working on integrating the algorithm further to reach more agility.
'The robot has no feeling in her tiny feet, but she senses the angles of her jointsfor instance, her knee angles, hip angles and the rotation angle of her torso,' said Jessy Grizzle, professor of electrical engineering and computer science and of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan.
'It's like walking blindfolded and on stilts.'
Prior to MARLO, Grizzle and her team developed MABEL that was attached to a boom for sideways stability, but could only walk back and forth.
'The method could help many researchers speed up the process of achieving stable walking on their robots,' said Xingye (Dennis) Da, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering, who designed the control algorithm.
There are two controllers involved with the movements of MARLO: one handles the forward and backward motion and balance, and the other focuses on side-to-side balance.
Using an Xbox controller, researchers move MARLO to quickly walking in any direction, but the robot makes the decision on how to handle the terrain and obstacles in front of it. The cyborg has shown the success of the algorithm by walking through snow, down a hill and on an uneven path of plywood squares
Using an Xbox controller, researchers move MARLO, but the robot makes the decision on how to handle the terrain and obstacles in front of it.
A library of 15 gaits, different manners of walking, to handle a range of walking speeds and ground heights was also created for this project and helps with energy efficiency.
Each one is designed to make MARLO move as natural as possible.
Although this bipedal robot has impressed its creators, there are limitations that come with most technology.
It's movements work smoothly as long as MARLO does not make quick turns or sideways movements, but the team is working on integrating the algorithm further to reach more agility.
The team is developing a 3D controller that has an optimal speed, allowing it to return and slow down or speed up depending on the terrain.
Brent Griffin, a doctoral student in charge of this project, conducted computer simulations that tested the controller against a range of different terrain and obstacles to show the robot can walk over a range of 'real-world conditions'.
A library of 15 gaits, different manners of walking, to handle a range of walking speeds and ground heights was also created for this project and helps with energy efficiency. Each one is designed to make MARLO move as natural as possible
Although this bipedal robot has impressed its creators, there are limitations that come with most technology. It's movements work smoothly as long as MARLO does not make quick turns or sideways movements, but the team is working on integrating the algorithm further to reach more agility
MARLO showed its skills by stepping over an uneven path of plywood and hundreds of steps on pavement outside.
The team believes its gait using this algorithm is more advanced than any other bipedal robot, as it is able to blend the library with its surrounding environment.
'We are able to design full 3D walking gaits using a mathematical model of the robot and then apply them directly to MARLO,' Griffin said.
The team is developing a 3D controller that has an optimal speed, allowing it to return and slow down or speed up depending on the terrain. Brent Griffin conducted computer simulations that tested the controller against a range of different terrain and obstacles to show the robot can walk over a range of 'real-world conditions'
The codes that Grizzle's team used to make MARLO walk on flat ground serve as the building block for algorithms developed in other labs for different kinds of robots. A researcher at the University of Texas-Dallas, used the algorithm to power a prosthetic that moved naturally on a treadmill when used by the amputee
MARLO showed its skills by stepping over an uneven path of plywood and hundreds of steps on pavement outside. The team believes its gait using this algorithm is more advanced than any other bipedal robot. Over the summer, the team will merge two control algorithms into one 'super-algorithm'
'Because the implementation works without any robot-specific modifications, it is generalizable to other walking robots.'
Over the summer, the team plans to merge the two control algorithms into one 'super-algorithm' that can support more natural movements.
The codes that Grizzle's team used to make MARLO walk on flat ground serve as the building block for algorithms developed in other labs for different kinds of robots.
They may have lived some 1,700 years ago, but the ancient Maya had an incredible knowledge of celestial bodies, which they believed influenced everything from harvest to death.
Now a 15-year-old boy has studied astronomical charts devised by these ancient Mexican people, as well as satellite photos, to pinpoint the location of a forgotten Mayan city.
William Gadoury, from Quebec has named the 'lost city' in the Yucatan jungle K'aak Chi, or Mouth of Fire.
William Gadoury, from Quebec has named the 'lost city' in the Yucatan jungle K'aak Chi, or Mouth of Fire. This satellite photograph shows the outline of a structure that may be a pyramid
Satellite images suggest the lost city could be among the largest built by the ancient civilisation, which thrived between 300 and 700 AD.
Wondering why the ancient people built their cities far away from rivers and in inhospitable mountains prompted the teenager to look to the sky for answers, because the Mayans worshiped the stars.
Gadoury came up with a theory the Maya built their cities so they lined up with star constellations.
The teenager analysed 23 Mayan constellations to realise if he connected them, the 142 stars corresponded to the position of 177 Mayan cities.
Teenager William Gadoury (pictured) discovered the missing Mayan city using a theory he developed himself. He cameup with the idea that the Maya built their cities so they lined up with star constellations
The teenager used satellite images from the Canadian Space Agency and Google Earth to search the dense jungle for any signs of buildings - possible evidence is shown above
HOW DID HE MAKE THE FIND? William Gadoury became interested in the Maya after he read about their calendar announcing the end of the world in 2012. He found 22 constellations in a Maya Codex Madrid and connected the stars in them to create a kind of map. He was able to overlay this on satellite images from Google Earth, to find the stars correspond to the locations of cities. In all, 142 stars to 117 correspond Mayan cities and the brightest stars indicate the largest cities.
Incredibly, the brightest of the stars match up with the largest cities.
I was really surprised and excited when I realised that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched the largest Maya cities. He told The Journal of Montreal.
He is said to be the first to make the connection, which could lead to further finds.
It was in the 23rd constellation, containing three stars, that he found two matching cities on the map, suggesting one has not yet been re-discovered.
To investigate further, he used satellite images from the Canadian Space Agency and Google Earth to search the dense jungle for any signs of buildings.
Armand La Rocque, from the University of New Brunswick believes one of the images shows network of streets leading to a large square, which may be a pyramid. The Kukulcan temple at Chichen Itza is shown
Gadoury named the new city in southern Mexico as Fire Mouth or La Bouche de Feu in French. It may be among the five biggest Mayan cities known to archaeologists eager to shed light on the ancient civilsation
THE ANCIENT MAYA AND THE STARS Mayan civilisation thrived for more than 2,000 years with its heyday being 300 to 900 AD. During that time, the ancient people built incredible cities using advanced machinery and gained an understanding of astronomy, as well as developing advanced agricultural methods and accurate calendars. The Maya believed the cosmos shaped their everyday lives and they used astrological cycles to tell when to plant crops and set their calendars. It's therefore likely the Maya may have chosen to locate their cities in line with the stars. It's already known that the pyramid at Chichen Itza was built according to the suns location during the spring and autumn equinoxes. When the sun sets on these two days, the pyramid casts a shadow on itself that aligns with a carving of the head of the Mayan serpent god, History.com reported. The shadow makes the serpent's body so that as the sun sets, the terrifying god appears to slide towards the earth.
The photographs revealed linear features that stuck out, Daniel De Lisle, from the Canadian Space Agency told The Independent.
There are linear features that would suggest there is something underneath that big canopy, he said.
Armand La Rocque, from the University of New Brunswick believes one of the images shows network of streets leading to a large square, which may be a pyramid.
A square is not natural, it is mostly artificial and can hardly be attributed to natural phenomena, he said.
Its possible 30 buildings accompany an impressive pyramid at the site.
If true, the lost city would be one of the five largest known to archaeologists, built by the Mayans.
Mr de Lisle told The Journal of Montreal: 'What is fascinating about the project of William, is the depth of his research.
'Linking the position of stars and the location of a lost city and the use of satellite images on a tiny territory to identify the remains buried under dense vegetation, is quite exceptional.'
Dr la Rocque thinks William Gadourys technique could lead archaeologists to pinpointing the location of more possible lost Mayan metropolises.
The teenager would like to see the Mayans Mouth of Fire for himself and as yet, no-one has ventured into the jungle to confirm his find.
Gadourys discovery will be presented at Brazil's International Science fair in 2017 and published in a journal.
Most of us have struggled to prise the lid off a jar of jam or been frustrated by the tricky safety caps on bottles of pills, but now there is robotic help at hand - literally.
Engineers have developed a machine with two highly dexterous arms that are capable of unscrewing even the trickiest of lids.
The talents of the RE2 Robotics High Dexterous Manipulation System extend even to tying knots, opening zips, making balloon animals and cutting snowflakes out of folded paper.
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A pair of robotic arms developed by engineers at RE2 Robotics is so dexterous it can unscrew the lids of jars (pictured) and even use a pair of scissors to cut out shapes from folded paper. The company has just delivered one of its Highly Dexterous Manipulation Systems to the US Army for testing
Yet despite its handiness around the home, the robot is additionally capable of lifting three times its own weight, and the company behind it said it could be used to dismantle unexploded bombs.
RE2, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said it has delivered one of its systems to the US Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Centre.
WANT TO STOP ROBOTS? GIVE THEM AN IKEA CHAIR TO ASSEMBLE While there are many who fear robots are on the verge of stealing our jobs and taking over the world, it seems they have a weak spot flat-packed furniture. Much like stairs posed a problem for the Daleks in Doctor Who, the Achilles Heel of modern robots appears to be IKEA furniture. Now a group of engineers has set itself a goal of developing a robot capable of undertaking this baffling task - by getting one to assemble a chair from the Swedish furniture store. Resesarchers from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, are using two arms equipped with grippers to assemble Ikea chair. Yet despite being some of the most advanced robotic equipment around, assembling a full chair still seemed beyond the robot. The furthest the scientists managed to get is to insert a piece of doweling into the end of one of the legs - something that takes the technology a minute and a half to achieve. The same task would take the average homeowner seconds when they are assembling their own chairs.
The robot can be controlled either semi-autonomously, by following a series of set commands or with a remote controlled 'imitator' that causes it to mimic the actions of a human operator.
RE2 said the humanoid arms could be used in a range of settings including the military, manufacturing, healthcare and the home.
Jorgen Pedersen, president and chief executive of RE2, said it expected the Army to use it for disposing of unexploded ordinance.
But as the arms can be attached to almost any platform, it could ultimately lead to robots that are able to help out around the house, much like the Wonderbot in the cartoon Robots.
He said: 'The direct benefit of the HDMS technology to Army personnel is significantly increased performance and capability over currently fielded manipulators for both tele-operated and semi-autonomous use on mobile robot platforms.
'These manipulation improvements directly correlate to a reduction in time-on-target and overall mission time, resulting in increased safety for all mission personnel.'
The Highly Dexterous Manipulation system uses two arms that can be moved independently and have up to 16 degrees of freedom.
Weighing 33lbs (15kg), it is capable of lifting more than 100lbs (45kg).
Demonstrations of the technology show the robot being able to remove shapes from a series of pegs and place them back on other pegs.
The robot is able to remove fiddly caps from pill bottles (pictured). While it may initially be used to help bomb disposal teams, it could also find use in healthcare and even domestic settings
The robot is also capable of unscrewing lids, lifting objects, tying knots in ropes, creating balloon animals (pictured) and making daisy chains with fiddly plastic cable ties
The robot is also capable of unscrewing lids, lifting objects, tying knots in ropes, creating balloon animals and making daisy chains with fiddly plastic cable ties.
In one scenario, RE2 envisages the robot opening a zipped shut-bag and carefully removing the items inside.
Another video also shows the robotic arms cutting folded paper with scissors before opening it out to reveal a snowflake pattern.
In a final flourish, the robot then pins its piece of paper artwork to a fridge door.
Trying to have a conversation with someone using a hands-free while driving can often have its difficulties.
Whether it's the noise of busy traffic, muffling wind outside or just sounds from the car, talking during a journey can often be disrupted by invasive noises.
And then there is the stigma of wearing a Bluetooth headset in public to contend with.
To solve both these problems, an inventor has designed a pair of earphones with a microphone fitted inside.
Whether it's the noise of busy traffic, muffling wind outside or just sounds from the car, talking on the go can often be disrupted by invasive noises. But an inventor has come up with a way to overcome this problem, by placing a microphone inside a pair of earphones called RippleBuds (pictured)
Electronic engineer Dusik Shin, from South Korea, was so sick of his hands-free calls being ruined by noisy surroundings and muffled by wind, he set about creating a solution.
'Because I travel often, I tend to find myself on the phone in noisy places,' Mr Shin said.
HOW THE RIPPLEBUDS WORK Mr Shin's breakthrough came when he discovered when people speak, a small amount of sound is emitted through the ear canal. By placing a microphone in the ear, RippleBuds technology reduces ambient noise by about 30 decibels, allowing the user's voice to be heard clearly even when they are in an extremely noisy environment. 'With RippleBuds, you can talk on the phone in a normal voice even while riding a motorcycle or attending a rock music concert, as well as control your connected home and car devices using voice commands,' inventor Dusik Shin said.
'This used to make my conversations very difficult, both socially and for my business - I even lost a customer once on a loud train because he simply couldnt hear me.'
His breakthrough came when he discovered when people speak, a small amount of sound is emitted through the ear canal.
'While at an exhibition in Japan some fifteen years ago, I accidentally discovered a small portion of the voice comes out of the ear when we speak,' he explained.
'Not only that, but placing a microphone in the ear effectively eliminates all sound besides the voice.'
He found by placing a microscopic microphone inside the ear canal he could block out all exterior sound - and after ten years of research and development he has now brought his innovative product to market.
Mr Shin found by placing a microscopic microphone inside the ear canal he could block out all exterior sound. Now, after ten years of research and development, he has brought his product to market
The wireless gadget, called Ripplebuds (pictured), can be paired with the user's phone or tablet to make high-quality calls or to listen to music. Because the microphone is unimpaired by other sounds it makes it more compatible with voice-activated commands and makes calling people on the move easier
The wireless gadget, called Ripplebuds, can be paired with the user's phone or tablet to make high-quality calls or to listen to music.
Because the microphone is unimpaired by other sounds it makes it more compatible with voice-activated commands and makes calling people on the move easier.
Mr Shin launched a campaign on crowdsourcing website Kickstarter to raise $50,000 (around 35,000) and it has since secured over $750,000, or 520,000, in donations.
On another crowdfunding website, Indiegogo, the Ripplebuds have raised almost $845,000 (around 585,000).
Ripplebuds are set to ship in September and will be available to buy for $129 (89) for the mono version or $179 (125) for the stereo model on Kickstarter. On Indiegogo the stereo model is $129 and mono is $99 (68). They have a Bluetooth range of 30ft (9 metres) and boast up to five hours of talk time on a single charge
'This is a welcome departure from the traditional headsets that tend to transmit background noise, thus making phone conversations in public difficult and unreliable,' Mr Shin said. 'Tiny and powerful, RippleBuds will ultimately replace those traditional, pesky headsets which have a tendency to dangle in front of one's face'
Ripplebuds are expected to ship in September this year and will be available to buy for $129 (89) for the mono version, with just one earphone, or $179 (125) for the stereo model which comes with two earphones, on Kickstarter.
On Indiegogo the stereo model is $129 and mono is $99 (68).
They have a Bluetooth range of 30ft (9 metres) and boast up to five hours of talk time on a single charge.
'This is a welcome departure from the traditional headsets which tend to transmit background noise, thus making phone conversations in public places difficult and unreliable,' Mr Shin said.
These days, many an argument over trivial questions such as the year a celebrity died or when an historical event happened can be settled with a quick Google search.
But search engines could soon be used to settle more complex arguments, involving serious political debate.
A group of researchers in Germany is looking into ways to use search engines to shed light on the most complex political discussions.
In just seconds, digital systems should be able to evaluate millions of documents, such as online discussions on controversial topics like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Journalists or survey researchers could then draw on this new information, the researchers said
Called the 'Robust Argumentation Machines' project, it has been set up by Bielefeld University in Germany.
The aim of the project is to find a search engine that will be used to analyse, for instance, how groups such as PEGIDA, the far right, anti-Islamic movement, or anti-globalisation activists, argue in online discussions.
'Discussions on the internet are hard to analyse, whether it is controversy over the trade agreement TTIP (Transatlantic Treaty and Investment Partnership between Europe and the United States), or the debate on refugees,' the project coordinators said.
The coordinators are currently working on a nationwide call for proposals in which researchers are invited to apply with their project ideas.
From this search, up to 15 project proposals will be approved.
The aim of the new project is to find a search engine that will be used to analyse how groups such as Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (Pegida) argue in online discussions. Lutz Bachmann, chairman of PEGIDA is shown during the weekly protests on Easter Monday at a rally in April 2015 in Dresden
'We want to lay the foundation for a new technology that will evaluate digital texts in an automated way, recognise and summarize argumentative structures, and sum up the various pro and con arguments from a discussion at a glance,' said Professor Philipp Cimiano, head of the Semantic Computing Group.
HOW THE ENGINE MIGHT WORK The group said political researchers, for instance, could use this new generation of systems to analyse what people on think and say about a topic. In the current debate on refugees, the so-called 'closing of the Balkan route' is put forth by many as the method of choice for dealing with the situation, the group explained. The new systems would not just be able to track how widespread support of this 'solution' is, but also identify the opposing arguments made against it. 'In principle, these systems could also show which arguments are being repeated, and which new arguments are being introduced into the discussion,' said Professor Philipp Cimiano.
His team specialises in the research and development of methods that can extract and summarise the 'meaning' from unstructured data, particularly digital texts.
For years, industry has been working on systems that automatically comb through and evaluate large volumes of data.
'The problem here is that it is still unclear where these systems are getting their information, or what their suggestions are based on,' said Professor Cimiano.
'Our systems should go beyond what previous projects have done before.'
The systems will be designed to analyse unstructured documents, from which they will extract argumentative contexts and make them understandable.
From this, they will give recommendations for action and provide reasoning for their suggestions, pointing out sources and further information.
'Ratio' will run from 2017 to 2023, and 2 million (1.58/$2.27 million) will be made available each year for research funding, for a total of 12 million (9.45/$13.65 million) for the entire duration of the project.
One example of how a system could be developed is to give advice to doctors, according to Professor Cimiano. The system could scan millions of medical articles on clinical presentation of disease and therapies, and the doctor can ask the digital advisor a question. Stock picture of doctor shown
'For us, the goal is to bring transparency to big data analysis,' said Professor Cimiano. 'We are working on intelligent advisory systems that ultimately allow users make their own decisions.'
On top of politics, the systems are also expected to help support experts from different professional fields in making decisions, for instance in finance, medicine, technical documentation or sociology.
One example of how a system could be developed is to give advice to doctors, according to Professor Cimiano.
The Kepler telescope has discovered 1,284 new exoplanets, doubling the number of known alien worlds.
Nearly 550 of the new planets could be rocky planets like Earth, and nine of these are in their habitable zone - meaning they could host life.
'This gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star much like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth,' said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at Nasa.
The announcement was made today at an eagerly awaited Nasa press conference.
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Kepler has discovered 1,284 new exoplanets, doubling the number of known alien worlds. 'This gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star much like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth,' said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at Nasa. This artist's concept depicts select planetary discoveries made to date
WHAT HAS BEEN FOUND? For 1,284 of the candidates, the probability of being a planet is greater than 99 percent Nearly 550 could be rocky planets like Earth, based on their size. Nine of these orbit in their sun's habitable zone, which is the distance from a star where orbiting planets can have surface temperatures that allow liquid water to pool. With the addition of these nine, 21 exoplanets now are known to be members of this exclusive group. An additional 1,327 candidates are more likely than not to be actual planets, but they do not meet the 99 percent threshold and will require additional study. The remaining 707 are more likely to be some other astrophysical phenomena. This analysis also validated 984 candidates previously verified by other techniques.
Dr Natalie Batalha said the calculations so far suggested there could be tens of billions of habitable planets in the Milky Way.
'If you ask yourself where is the next habitable planet likely to be, it's within about 11 light-years, which is very close,' she told the BBC.
Analysis was performed on the Kepler space telescope's July 2015 planet candidate catalog, which identified 4,302 potential planets.
For 1,284 of the candidates, the probability of being a planet is greater than 99 percent the minimum required to earn the status of 'planet.'
An additional 1,327 candidates are more likely than not to be actual planets, but they do not meet the 99 percent threshold.
The remaining 707 are more likely to be some other astrophysical phenomena. This analysis also validated 984 candidates previously verified by other techniques.
'Before the Kepler space telescope launched, we did not know whether exoplanets were rare or common in the galaxy,' said Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at Nasa Headquarters
'Thanks to Kepler and the research community, we now know there could be more planets than stars'
The histogram shows the number of planet discoveries by year for more than the past two decades of the exoplanet search. The blue bar shows previous non-Kepler planet discoveries, the light blue bar shows previous Kepler planet discoveries, the orange bar displays the 1,284 new validated planets
Kepler captures the discrete signals of distant planets decreases in brightness that occur when planets pass in front of, or transit, their stars much like yesterday's Mercury transit of our sun.
Since the discovery of the first planets outside our solar system more than two decades ago, researchers have resorted to a laborious, one-by-one process of verifying suspected planets.
This latest announcement, however, is based on a statistical analysis method that can be applied to many planet candidates simultaneously.
HOW WERE THE PLANETS FOUND BY KEPLER? When a planet passes in front of a star as viewed from Earth, the event is called a 'transit'. On Earth, we can observe an occasional Venus or Mercury transit. These events are seen as a small black dot creeping across the SunVenus or Mercury blocks sunlight as the planet moves between the Sun and us. Kepler finds planets by looking for tiny dips in the brightness of a star when a planet crosses in front of it. Once detected, the planet's orbital size can be calculated from mass of the star and the period, or how long it takes the planet to orbit once around the star. The size of the planet is found from how much the brightness of the star drops and the size of the star. From the orbital size and the temperature of the star, the planet's characteristic temperature can be calculated. From this the question of whether or not the planet is habitable can be answered.
Timothy Morton, associate research scholar at Princeton University in New Jersey and lead author of the scientific paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, used a new technique to find to planets.
He assigned each Kepler candidate a planet-hood probability percentage the first such automated computation on this scale.
Previous techniques focused only on sub-groups within the greater list of planet candidates identified by Kepler.
'Planet candidates can be thought of like bread crumbs,' said Morton.
Kepler's candidates require verification to tell if they are actual planets and not another object, such as a small star, mimicking a planet
Launched in March 2009, Kepler is the first Nasa mission to find potentially habitable Earth-size planets. For four years, Kepler monitored 150,000 stars in a single patch of sky, measuring the tiny, telltale dip in the brightness of a star that can be produced by a transiting planet
Since Kepler launched in 2009, 21 planets less than twice the size of Earth have been discovered in the habitable zones of their stars. The orange spheres represent the nine newly validated planets announcement on May 10, 2016. The blue disks represent the 12 previous known planets
'If you drop a few large crumbs on the floor, you can pick them up one by one. But, if you spill a whole bag of tiny crumbs, you're going to need a broom. This statistical analysis is our broom.'
In the newly-validated batch of planets, nearly 550 could be rocky planets like Earth, based on their size.
Nine of these orbit in their sun's habitable zone, which is the distance from a star where orbiting planets can have surface temperatures that allow liquid water to pool.
With the addition of these nine, 21 exoplanets now are known to be members of this exclusive group.
'They say not to count our chickens before they're hatched, but that's exactly what these results allow us to do based on probabilities that each egg (candidate) will hatch into a chick (bona fide planet),' said Natalie Batalha, co-author of the paper and the Kepler mission scientist at Nasa's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field.
Since the discovery of the first planets outside our solar system more than two decades ago, researchers have resorted to a laborious, one-by-one process of verifying suspected planets. These follow-up observations are often time and resource intensive
The histogram shows the number of planets by size for all known exoplanets. The blue bars on the histogram represent all previously verified exoplanets by size. The orange bars on the histogram represent Kepler's 1,284 newly validated planets announcement on May 10, 2016
'This work will help Kepler reach its full potential by yielding a deeper understanding of the number of stars that harbor potentially habitable, Earth-size planets - a number that's needed to design future missions to search for habitable environments and living worlds.'
Of the nearly 5,000 total planet candidates found to date, more than 3,200 now have been verified, and 2,325 of these were discovered by Kepler.
Launched in March 2009, Kepler is the first Nasa mission to find potentially habitable Earth-size planets.
For four years, Kepler monitored 150,000 stars in a single patch of sky, measuring the tiny, telltale dip in the brightness of a star that can be produced by a transiting planet.
Kepler completed its prime mission in 2012, and collected data for an additional year in an extended mission.
In 2018, Nasa's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite will use the same method to monitor 200,000 bright nearby stars and search for planets, focusing on Earth and Super-Earth-sized.
The Arc of Discovery artistic concept features NASA's astrophysics missions searching for signs of life beyond Earth
Kepler candidate planets (orange) are smaller and orbit fainter stars than transiting planets detected by ground-based observatories (blue).
KEPLER'S HISTORY OF PROBLEMS In 2012, Kepler lost use of the first of two failed gyroscopic reaction wheels. Four wheels are used point the telescope in a specific direction, according to NASA, and in May of the following year, the second wheel broke. After months of work, engineers were unable to restore them. The Kepler telescope was reborn in 2014 as 'K2' with a clever strategy of pointing the telescope in the plane of Earth's orbit, the ecliptic, to stabilize the spacecraft. The probe has been mining the cosmos for planets by searching for eclipses or 'transits,' as planets pass in front of their host stars and periodically block some of the starlight.
Last month, Nasa managed to bring its Kepler back online after losing touch with it.
Ground controllers discovered the problem right before they were going to point Kepler toward the center of the Milky Way as part of a new kind of planetary survey.
'Mission operations engineers have successfully recovered the Kepler spacecraft from Emergency Mode (EM),' the space agency said at the time.
'The mission has cancelled the spacecraft emergency, returning the Deep Space Network ground communications to normal scheduling.'
The Emergency Mode began approximately 14 hours before the planned maneuver to orient the spacecraft toward the center of the Milky Way for Campaign 9.
The team therefore ruled out the maneuver and the reaction wheels as possible causes of the EM event.
The vast 75 million-mile distance between Kepler and Earth make it all the harder to fix.
'Even at the speed of light, it takes 13 minutes for a signal to travel to the spacecraft and back,' mission manager Charlie Sobeck said in a weekend web update from Nasa's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.
In 2012, Kepler lost use of the first of two failed gyroscopic reaction wheels.
Four wheels are used point the telescope in a specific direction, according to Nasa, and in May of the following year, the second wheel broke.
After months of work, engineers were unable to restore them.
The Kepler telescope was reborn in 2014 as 'K2' with a clever strategy of pointing the telescope in the plane of Earth's orbit, the ecliptic, to stabilize the spacecraft.
Kepler was pointed at the patch of sky near the Lyra and Cygnus constellations. The yellow portion represents Kepler's field-of-view
The pie chart illustrates the results of a statistical analysis performed on 4,302 potential planets from the Kepler mission's July 2015 planet candidate catalog. For 1,284 of the candidates (orange), the probability of being a planet is greater than 99 percent the minimum required to earn the status of 'planet.' An additional 1,327 candidates (dark grey) are more likely than not to be actual planets
Kepler was on its way to join ground observatories in surveying millions of stars in the heart of our galaxy. Pictured above is an undated artist's concept provided by Nasa shows the Keplar spacecraft moving in space
In the original Kepler mission, the telescope identified more than 4,600 candidate worlds and 1,918 confirmed planets. And, a handful of these planets share striking similarities with Earth. Closeness in size and stellar radiation levels has astronomers wondering if Kepler-438b, Kepler-442b, and Kepler 452-b, might be habitabl
The treasured spacecraft (pictured) has been responsible for detecting nearly 5,000 planets outside our solar system. This is the latest crisis of several in the life of Kepler. Launched in 2009, the spacecraft completed its primary mission in 2012
The last Ice Age made much of the globe uninhabitable, but there were oases - or refugia - where populations managed to survive.
By studying a rare DNA lineage, researchers have discovered that one of these shelters existed in what is now Southern Arabia.
The findings prove humans were in Southern Arabia 10,000 years earlier than first thought.
A group from the University of Huddersfield has found humans were in Southern Arabia 10,000 years earlier than first thought. Purple region shows density of population in Arabia and Hook of Africa 29,000 years ago
A group from the University of Huddersfield, specialising in the analysis of human DNA, found new evidence there was one or more of these shelters in what is now Southern Arabia.
South Arabia is a historical region consisting of the southern region of the Arabian Peninsula, mainly centered in what is now the Republic of Yemen.
The researchers studied a rare mitochondrial DNA lineage named R0a, which, uniquely, is most frequent in Arabia and the Horn of Africa.
HOW THE DISCOVERY HAPPENED Researchers studied a rare mitochondrial DNA lineage named R0a, which, uniquely, is most frequent in Arabia and the Horn of Africa. Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mothers to their children. They found 20,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, also known as the Pleistocene glaciation, people clustered in the South Arabia region. Then around 15,000 years ago, after the Ice Age had receded, the people in this refugium disappeared. They populated Arabia and the Horn of Africa, and may have also ventured further afield according to the researchers.
Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mothers to their children.
'We basically collected a group of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that shared some specific mutations, thus belonging to the same haplogroup,' lead researcher Dr Francesca Gandini told MailOnline.
'We completely sequenced these mtDNAs, looked at their geographic origin and applied the so called molecular clock to calculate when these haplogroup originated.
'The results allowed us to hypothesize that the first members of this lineage, called R0a, were already present in Southern Arabia before the last Ice Age, and thus they probably survived during the Glacial Maximum in one or more oases, or refugia.'
They found 20,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age also known as the Pleistocene glaciation, people clustered in the region.
After this, around 15,000 years ago when the Ice Age had receded, the people in this refugium disappeared.
They populated Arabia and the Horn of Africa, and may have also ventured further afield according to the researchers.
Dr Gandini and her co-researchers found the lineage is more ancient than previously thought and it has a deeper presence in Arabia than was earlier believed.
If the people survived the Ice Age in the region, it means there was a refugium there during the Pleistocene period, which spanned the Ice Age.
The group sought refuge on the Red Sea plains, in the region of Tihamah (pictured), in Southern Arabia before spreading across the Middle East to the Horn of Africa, coloured in red in map shown
It had been previously believed people did not settle in large numbers in Arabia until the development of agriculture, around 10 to 11,000 years ago.
The researchers added there is evidence for the movement of people in the R0a group through the Middle East and into Europe.
They said there might also have been a trading network and a 'gene flow' from Arabia into the territories that are now Iran, Pakistan and India.
The last Ice Age made much of the globe uninhabitable, but there were oases - or refugia - where populations managed to survive. Still from A documentary describing how people survived the Ice Age is shown
Around 15,000 years ago, after the Ice Age had receded, the people in the refugium disappeared. They populated Arabia and the Horn of Africa (pictured 10,000 years ago, left and 4,000 years ago, right) and may have also ventured further afield according to the researchers
Archaeological studies previously found modern humans swept into Europe 45,000 years ago.
This ultimately led to the demise of the Neanderthals, despite the fact some modern humans interbred with these cousins.
During the Ice Age that ended 12,000 years ago, with its peak between 25,000 and 19,000 years ago when the melt started, glaciers covered Scandinavia and northern Europe all the way to northern France.
As the ice sheets retreated at the end of the last Ice Age, the region was repopulated.
Research published last week revealed the most detailed genetic analysis of Upper Paleolithic Europeans to date and discovered a major new lineage of early modern humans.
Professor David Reich and his colleagues from Harvard University analysed genome-wide data from 51 modern humans who lived between 45,000 and 7,000 years ago to study this repopulation.
Remains found from this period include three 31,000-year-old skulls from Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic, the lower jaw of the 19,000-year-old 'Red Lady of El Miron Cave' and the skull of a 14,000-year-old individual discovered at the Villabruna in northeastern Italy, among others.
The genetic data shows, beginning 37,000 years ago, all Europeans come from a single founding population that persisted through the Ice Age.
The founding population has deep branches in different parts of Europe, one of which is represented by a specimen from Belgium.
In fact, present-day Europeans can trace their ancestry back to this group of humans who lived in northwest Europe 35,000 years ago.
DNA REVEALS ALL EUROPEANS ARE RELATED TO A GROUP FROM BELGIUM Researchers carrying out the most detailed genetic analysis of Upper Paleolithic Europeans to date discovered a major new lineage of early modern humans Modern humans arrived in Europe 45,000 years ago but little is known about how they spread across the continent before the introduction of farming. Research published last week revealed the most detailed genetic analysis of Upper Paleolithic Europeans to date have discovered a major new lineage of early modern humans. This group, which lived in the northwest 35,000 years ago, directly contributed to the ancestry of present-day Europeans and is believed to have been formed of the 'founding fathers' of Europe. David Reich and his colleagues from Harvard University analysed genome-wide data from 51 modern humans who lived between 45,000 and 7,000 years ago to study this repopulation. Remains found from this period include three 31,000-year-old skulls from Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic, the lower jaw of the 19,000-year-old 'Red Lady of El Miron Cave' and the skull of a 14,000-year-old individual discovered at the Villabruna in northeastern Italy, among others. The genetic data shows, beginning 37,000 years ago, all Europeans come from a single founding population that persisted through the Ice Age. The founding population has deep branches in different parts of Europe, one of which is represented by a specimen from Belgium. In fact, present-day Europeans can trace their ancestry back to this group of humans who lived in northwest Europe 35,000 years ago.
Researchers from Harvard University analysed genome-wide data from 51 modern humans who lived between 45,000 and 7,000 years ago. The location and age of these humans is shown. Each bar corresponds to an individual, the colour represents the genetically defined cluster, and the height is proportional to age
The study, published in Nature last week, also detected some mixture with Neanderthals, around 45,000 years ago, as modern humans spread across Europe.
The prehistoric human populations contained three to six per cent of Neanderthal DNA, but today most humans only have about two per cent.
TRACING EUROPEAN ANCESTRY The genetic data shows, beginning 37,000 years ago, all Europeans come from a single population that persisted through the Ice Age. The founding population has deep branches in different parts of Europe, one of which is represented by a specimen from Belgium. In fact, present-day Europeans can trace their ancestry back to this group of humans who lived in northwest Europe 35,000 years ago. However, this founding population, which was part of the Aurignacian culture, became displaced when another group of early humans arrived on the scene in many parts of Europe 33,000 years ago. This group was made up of members of a different culture known as the Gravettian. Around 19,000 years ago, a population related to the Aurignacian culture re-expanded across Europe. It is thought these people went on to repopulate Europe after ice sheets retreated. Based on the earliest sample in which this ancestry is observed, it is plausible this population expanded from the southwest - present-day Spain - after the Ice Age peaked.
'Neanderthal DNA is slightly toxic to modern humans' and this study provides evidence that natural selection is removing Neanderthal ancestry,' Professor Reich added.
Ancient specimens are frequently contaminated with microbial DNA, as well as DNA from archaeologists or lab technicians who have handled the specimens.
To solve this problem scientists used a technique called in-solution hybrid capture enrichment.
They used about 1.2 million 52-base-pair DNA sequences corresponding to positions in the human genome that they were interested in as bait to target specific segments of DNA.
After they washed the ancient DNA over the 1.2 million probe sequences, the researchers sequenced the ancient DNA that was captured by the probes.
Prior to the Harvard Medical School study there were only four samples of prehistoric European modern humans 45,000 to 7,000 years old for which genomic data were available.
This made it difficult to understand how human populations migrated or evolved during this period.
Using a new technique, more samples could be assessed.
Professor Reich continued: 'Trying to represent this vast period of European history with just four samples is like trying to summarise a movie with four still images.
'With 51 samples, everything changes; we can follow the narrative arc; we get a vivid sense of the dynamic changes over time.
'And what we see is a population history that is no less complicated than that in the last 7,000 years, with multiple episodes of population replacement and immigration on a vast and dramatic scale, at a time when the climate was changing dramatically.'
The earliest axe to be found with a handle may have been created in Australia by the continent's first colonists almost 50,000 years ago.
Stone hand axes have been dated to over 3 million years, but the Australian find is the earliest axe to have had a fully formed handle.
Fragments of the axe were unearthed from a cave in Windjana Gorge National Park in Western Australia more than 20 years ago, but have only now been recognised for their significance.
Australian researchers have uncovered what they claim to be the world's oldest axe. The flake of sharpened stone (pictured without its handle) may date back up to 49,000 years ago and shows that early Aboriginal people were far more technically advanced than previously thought
WHAT IS A HAFTED AXE? A hafted axe is an axe with a handle attached. The latest reports suggests the technology was developed in Australia after people arrived around 50,000 years ago.
Archaeologist Professor Sue O'Connor of the Australian National University said the axe - which was found without its handle - dates to between 46,000 and 49,000 years ago, shortly after people first arrived in Australia.
This would make it at least 11,000 years older than the previous record holder, an axe found in Japan.
What makes the new findings so significant is that throughout the rest of the world, hafted axes do not appear until just 10,000 years ago.
The evidence suggests the technology was invented in Australia, and not imported when the first people arrived about 50,000 years ago.
'We know that they didn't have axes where they came from. There are no axes in the islands to the north,' said Professor O'Connor. 'They arrived in Australia and innovated.'
The axe fragments measure just a few millimetres yet reveal a wealth of information about the distant past.
They were first discovered by Professor O'Connor in the early 1990s, from a large rock shelter known as Carpenter's Gap 1.
The axe fragments (pictured) were unearthed in Kimberley, Western Australia in the 1990s. But new analysis has revelead its significance, showing it is made of fine-grained basalt rock which was shaped by grinding it against much softer rocks, such as sandstone, giving it its edge and polished finish
Stone tools first emerged more than 3 million years ago, but analysis of the hafted axe head may be the earliest example of the technology ever being used. Researchers say that other regions don't show evidence of this type of tool use until around 10,000 years ago. Pictured are examples of full axe heads examples
OLDEST HAFTED AXE POINTS TO ABORIGINE ORIGINS The axe fragment was unearthed in Kimberley, Western Australia in 1990s in Windjana Gorge National Park. New analysis of the fragment show it is made of fine-grained basalt rock which was shaped by grinding it against much softer rocks, such as sandstone, giving it its edge and polished finish. Researchers believe it would have been used as a tool to cut down trees and sharpen wooden spear heads. While the earliest stone tools emerged 3.4 million years ago, ground-edged tools such as the axe, emerged much later. According to the Australian researchers, their fragment could be between 46,000 and 49,000 years old. The team says that evidence of this type of hafted stone axe didn't emerge in other parts of the world until as recently as around 10,000 years ago. The axe fragment was unearthed in Kimberley, Western Australia in 1990s. Researchers believe the fragment may be significantly older than the earliest axe found in Japan, which coincides with aborigines first arriving on the Australian continent
The flakes were analysed by Professor Peter Hiscock from the University of Sydney.
'The question of when axes were invented has been pursued for decades, since archaeologists discovered that in Australia axes were older than in many other places.
'Now we have a discovery that appears to answer the question,' said Professor Hiscock.
The latest analysis of fragments revealed the axe is made of basalt that has been shaped and polished by grinding it against a softer rock like sandstone.
Researchers Tim Maloney and Sue O'Connor (pictured left and right with examples of early axe technology) led the latest analysis of the axe fragments. They believe the technology may have been invented in Australia after the first people arrived on the continent
Pictured is a complete axe head, an example of early stone age tools. Such tools would have been fundamental to life of first Australian settlers, but the advanced hafted axe technology hints that these early Aboriginal peoples were more advanced than previously thought
The archaeologists said the axe would have been used for a variety of tasks including making spears and chopping down trees.
It seems the inventors did not export their new hafted axe technology. Although humans spread across Australia, axes were only made in the tropical north.
Carpenter's Gap 1, where the fragments were found, is a site of great archaeological importance in Australia.
The large limestone rock shelter is believed to have been almost continuously occupied since the first humans arrived around 50,000 years ago.
Excavations have revealed fragments of marine shells and shell beads, which must have been transported at least 100 km (60 miles) from the sea.
The roof and walls of the shelter are covered in pictographs and motifs including animal tracks, made using red, yellow, brown, and white ochre and charcoal.
Professor O'Connor led an expedition to excavate parts of the cave in 1993 and 1994, finding the stone fragments that have now been recognised as the world's oldest hafted axe.
The study says this may explain support for Tea Party and Donald Trump
This is leading some to support movements that would 'restore' position
Many white Americans now believe that their hierarchical standing is being threatened by minority groups, leading them to support political forces that would help restore the status of whiteness, a new study claims.
Through a series of online experiments, a Stanford University sociologist found that heightened levels of racial resentment were tied to greater support for the Tea Party in white participants.
The study suggests that the perceived decline of whiteness prompts some to align with platforms that condemn minority groups and they say this mindset may be at play in the rise of Donald Trump.
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Through a series of online experiments, a Stanford University sociologist found that heightened levels of racial resentment were tied to greater support for the Tea Party. Pictured above, protesters gather to oppose the arrival of buses carrying undocumented migrants in 2014
WHAT IS THE TEA PARTY? The Tea Party is an American political movement that emerged in 2009. It is known for its conservative viewpoints and its role in the Republican Party. The Tea Party generally opposes excessive taxation and government intervention. It is also known to support stronger restrictions on immigration, cuts to welfare, and opposes government-sponsored universal healthcare.
According to Stanford professor of sociology Robb Willer, this trend began with the election of President Obama in 2008 and grew through the Great Recession, along with the rising political influence of minorities in America.
The team, which also included Matthew Feinberg of the University of Toronto and Rachel Wetts of the University of California, Berkeley, conducted five survey-based online experiments involving 1,329 participants.
In the first, white participants were shown altered photos of President Obama.
Those who viewed an artificially darkened picture of Obama were more likely to express their support for the Tea Party, at 22 percent, compared with those who were shown a lightened photo, at just 12 percent.
In another set of studies, white participants were either told that white share of the total U.S. population was decreasing, or that whites average income was declining in comparison to other ethnic groups.
Both groups showed greater support for the Tea Party, which the researchers say is partly explained by increased racial resentment.
This was also seen when the researchers emphasized the declining portion of whites in America.
The study suggests that the perceived decline of whiteness prompts some to align with platforms that condemn minority groups and they say this mindset may be at play in the rise of Donald Trump. Researchers conducted five survey-based online experiments involving 1,329 participants
In the last experiment, the researchers found that the participants reported stronger support for the Tea Party when they emphasized aspects of the platform that could have racial implications, including opposition to immigration and welfare, over libertarian ones, like government spending.
The researchers say this is the first study to demonstrate the link between Tea Party support and racial resentment.
WHAT THE STUDY CLAIMS Since the election of President Obama in 2008, followed by the Great Recession and the rising political influence of minorities in America, some white Americans feel their racial standing is threatened, the researchers say. Together these factors could be viewed as a collective threat to the status of whiteness in the U.S., which provided fertile ground for the rise of a social movement that promoted a return to the way things used to be in America, including a set of policies that could restore whites position on top in the racial status hierarchy, Willer said. The study suggests that this perceived decline of whiteness prompts some to align with platforms that condemn minority groups, including the Tea Party and likely even Donald Trump. These groups advocate restrictions on immigration, opposition to Obama, militant positions toward Muslim nations, and other policies which the researchers say would help to 'restore the standing of whites in America.'
Past work finds that economic downturns can exacerbate racial resentment by giving whites the sense that they have a shrinking piece of a shrinking pie, Willer said.
This, combined with the election of a non-white president and other factors in recent years, are leading some white Americans to feel more threatened, the researcher explains.
Together these factors could be viewed as a collective threat to the status of whiteness in the U.S., which provided fertile ground for the rise of a social movement that promoted a return to the way things used to be in America, including a set of policies that could restore whites position on top in the racial status hierarchy, Willer said.
And, the findings dont just apply to the Tea Party; the researcher explains that the growing trend is likely playing a role in the growing support for Donald Trump as a presidential candidate.
Donald Trumps candidacy pulls support from much of the same base that the Tea Party did and has,' Willer said.
According to Willer, the findings suggest the threats to racial status have caused some to turn to support for the Tea Party, and likely Trump, based on their advocacy of certain policies, including restrictions on immigration, opposition to Obama, militant positions toward Muslim nations. Tea Party demonstrators pictured
'And there is good reason to think that many of the same psychological forces propelling Tea Party support also propel support for Trumps candidacy. Indeed, Trumps statements probably go further in criticizing minority groups than the Tea Party did.'
What was largely implicit in the case of the Tea Party has become more explicit in the case of Trumps candidacy Willer said.
According to Willer, the findings suggest the threats to racial status have caused some to turn to support for the Tea Party, and likely Trump, based on their advocacy of certain policies, including restrictions on immigration, opposition to Obama, militant positions toward Muslim nations.
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Mercury grabbed the world's attention yesterday during its seven and a half hour journey across the face of the sun.
This rare astronomical phenomenon, called the 'Transit of Mercury', only occurs 13 or 14 times every century, and the next time we will be able to see it is in 2019.
For those who missed the show, Nasa and Esa have released two stunning timelapse videos of the event, showing the transit in all its glory.
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Mercury grabbed the world's attention yesterday during its seven and a half hour journey across the face of the sun. Now Nasa has released a stunning timelapse of the event. Mercury is the tiny black dot that begins center left and travels right
'As the smallest planet in the solar system crossed the face of the sun on Monday 9 May, one of Esa's smallest satellites was watching,' the European Space Agency wrote.
'Proba-2, smaller than a cubic metre, monitors the sun from Earth orbit with an extreme ultraviolet telescope called Swap.
'It was able to spot Mercury's transit of the sun as a small black disk roughly four pixels in diameter.'
Nasa's video, meanwhile, shows several different views from the Solar Dynamics Observatory was launched in 2010 to study the suns solar atmosphere.
It studies the sun in a number of different wavelengths, which Nasa has included in the timelapse.
Different wavelengths convey information about the components of the sun's surface and atmosphere, so scientists use them to paint a full picture of our constantly changing and varying star.
Yellow light, for example, generally emanates from material of about 10,000 degrees F (5700 degrees C), which represents the surface of the sun.
Extreme ultraviolet light of 94 Angstroms, which is typically colorized in green in SDO images, comes from atoms that are about 11 million degrees F (6,300,000 degrees C) and is a good wavelength for looking at solar flares, which can reach such high temperatures.
Nasa's video shows several different views from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. It studies the sun in a different wavelengths which convey information about various components of the sun's surface and atmosphere. Yellow light, for example, emanates from material of about 10,000 degrees F (5700 degrees C), which represents the surface of the sun. Mercury can be seen circled in red on the right panel
Mercury appears as a black shadow passing across the edge of the sun's corona in this stunning image released by Nasa. The full transit across the sun took less than eight hours to complete
This rare astronomical phenomenon is called the Transit of Mercury, and only occurs 13 or 14 times every century. It offers an extraordinary chance to look at the smallest planet in our solar system. This shot was captured by Terry Harris from Fery Meadows, Peterborough
Mercury is seen in silhouette, lower center of image, as it transits across the face of the sun as viewed from Boyertown, Pennsylvania
In the left-hand image, taken using a telescope in Germany, Mercury is shown on the left-hand edge of the sun. The right-hand image, taken as the transit occurred over Pennsylvania, is bottom left. The location of the planet varies depending on the timezone as the sun's angle and orbit is different, and it appears in a different portion of the sky
On the right an American flag is silhouetted as the planet Mercury is seen, lower left quadrant, transiting across the face of the sun in Las Vegas. On the left the top of the Stratosphere tower in Las Vegas is silhouetted as the Mercury is seen, lower left quadrant
Skywatchers were warned against looking at Mercury with with the naked eye or binoculars, but astronomy groups worldwide offered the chance view it through telescopes.
Images from around the world show Mercury as a tiny black circle slowly moving across the sun's giant yellow disc.
Although Mercury - which is the planet closest to the sun - passes between the Earth and the sun every 116 days, it normally does so at the wrong angle for us to see it.
In essence, the sun was being eclipsed, although only very partially, as the diameter of Mercury is 158 times smaller than that of the Sun. Which is why it shows up as nothing more than a black pinprick.
The first person to predict the Transit of Mercury was the renowned German astronomer, Johannes Kepler, who informed the world that it would take place on November 7, 1631. Unfortunately, Kepler died in 1630, and so he was never able to witness it.
The first person to see the planet pass in front of the sun in that 1631 transit was instead a French astronomer called Pierre Gassendi, from his observatory in Paris.
Gassendi almost missed the event because the sun was obscured by mist and clouds. However, at around 9 o'clock that morning they cleared and he saw it. The next transit would not be seen for another 20 years.
Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, observing transits of Mercury - and indeed transits of Venus was vital in measuring the distance between the Earth and the sun, and also in establishing the size of the sun itself.
A jet airliner leaves a vapor trail as the planet Mercury is seen, lower left quadrant, transiting across the face of the sun in Las Vegas
An image taken with special foil mounted to the front of a 700-mm tele lens shows the planet Mercury as a tiny black spot (bottom centre) on the sun and the silhouette of a plane with its contrails passing, exhaust as seen from Frankfurt/Oder, Germany
The planet Mercury is seen in silhouette, lower left, as it transits across the face of the sun from Nasa Headquarters in Washington, DC
Mark Duwe from Flamsteed Astronomy Society looks through a telescope at Mercury moving across the face of the sun at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich
The first part of the transit was captured in this video clip from Nasa, showing the inner most planet passing in front of its parent star
This shot, captured by amateur astronomer Christopher Kennedy, shows Mercury as a small black dot on the very edge of the sun on the left-hand side. The space enthusiast tweeted: 'We certainly have contact'
Mercury is seen towards the right-hand side of the sun, almost in line with the sunspot to the slight left of centre, in this image captured by Queen Mary University London observatory at 13:58 BST
The next time we will just about be able to see it is in 2019, but the next really clearly visible transit for in Britain will not happen until 7 May 2049
The mathematics is somewhat tricky, but the same sorts of measurements are used by astronomers today.
During the last Transit of Mercury in 2006, scientists from Brazil, California and Hawaii measured the size of the sun with immense accuracy by establishing precisely how long the planet - which travels at 30 miles a second - took to pass across it.
The team established that the sun's diameter is 865,374 miles, compared to the Earth's 7,918 miles.
THE BEST LOCATIONS TO HAVE SEEN MERCURY'S TRANSIT ACROSS THE SUN London Transit begins: 12:12 BST Mercury reaches sun's centre: 15:56 BST Transit ends: 19:40 BST Paris Transit begins: 13:12 CEST Mercury reaches sun's centre: 16:56 CEST Transit ends: 20:40 CEST Madrid Transit begins: 13:12 CEST Mercury reaches sun's centre: 16:56 CEST Transit ends: 20:40 CEST New York City Transit begins: 07:13 EDT Mercury reaches sun's centre: 10:58 EDT Transit ends: 14:41 EDT Rio de Janeiro Transit begins: 08:13 BRST Mercury reaches sun's centre: 11:58 BRST Transit ends: 15:42 BRST Buenos Aires Transit begins: 08:13 ART Mercury reaches sun's centre: 11:58 ART Transit ends: 15:42 ART Casablanca Transit begins: 12:12 BST Mercury reaches sun's centre: 15:56 BST Transit ends: 19:40 BST Ottawa Transit begins: 07:13 EDT Mercury reaches sun's centre: 10:58 EDT Transit ends: 14:41 EDT Oslo Transit begins: 13:12 CEST Mercury reaches sun's centre: 16:56 CEST Transit ends: 20:40 CEST Reykjavik Transit begins: 11:12 CEST Mercury reaches sun's centre: 14:56 CEST Transit ends: 18:40 CEST The event will also be streamed at Space Answers. More details about the transit are available from Nasa Advertisement
People gathered at The Royal Astronomical Society in London to watch the transit of Mercury across the sun, safely observing the event using telescopes with solar filters as well as casting shadows on paper using a pair of binoculars (pictured right)
The main bodies of the solar system, the sun, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, from left in foreground, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, from left in background. The Moon, the Earth's natural satellite, is seen at right in foreground, as the relative size of the orbits of the planets is not respected
Stunning images captured by a Nasa probe show the reflective properties of the planet, with darker regions showing lower rate of reflectance (pictured)
Sumitra Sri Bhashyam from Flamsteed Astronomy Society looks through protective glasses at Mercury moving across the face of the sun at the Royal Observatory
As Mercury is a relatively small planet, with a diameter of just 3,032 miles, it shows up as a very tiny speck against the surface of the massive sun.
Indeed, when Gassendi first saw the 1631 transit, he thought that the speck was merely a sunspot - a dark irregular patch on the sun's surface - because astronomers in the 17th century reckoned that Mercury was ten times larger than it is.
It was only when the 'sunspot' appeared to move that he realised that he was looking at Mercury just as Kepler had predicted.
It's important to remember that the Transit of Mercury is not as spectacular as when the sun is eclipsed or partially eclipsed by the Moon, as happened over the UK in March last year.
Surface details of Mercury have been captured by a handful of probes, revealing the pits and blemishes on the planet's surface, including the 'magic eye' (pictured)
Nasa scientists have combined data from the Messenger probe to create the first topographical map of Mercury, showing the highs and lows of the closest planet to the sun
You wouldn't normally expect to see a dog, cat or tortoise sitting across the plane aisle from you on a flight - but two airlines made that scenario entirely possible as they broke the rules in light of exceptional circumstances.
Over the past week, thousands of residents have been forced to flee Fort McMurray in Canada as wildfires ravage the region.
And in order to make the evacuation process more bearable for pet owners, carriers WestJet and Canadian North have allowed passengers to bring their canine, feline and even reptile friends, into the main plane cabin with them.
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Zumba instructor Amanda Weger, was able to transport her two dogs Tucker (on the floor) and Bailey (on the seat) in the cabin and uploaded a photo of the pooches getting to grips with the seating arrangement
Typically animals being transported on planes have to be placed in the cargo hold area, but many owners were unable to return home to pack the cages required for this.
Instead customers have relished the opportunity to have their pets travel with them and have been sharing images on social media of their favourite creatures lying in the aisles or occupying vacant seats.
WestJet pilot Keith Mann told Toronto Star: 'We're all animal lovers here. We knew it was important for owners to re-connect with them,' Mann said, referring to others who had been separated from their pets.
'It's definitely unusual to carry pets in the cabin, but due to the unusual circumstances we were able to bend the rules to accommodate these animals,' a spokesperson from Canadian North told Huffington Post Canada.
The decision was met with praise on social media sites, as images of pets in the cabin areas started popping up all over the internet.
Zumba instructor Amanda Weger, was able to transport her two dogs Tucker and Bailey on a Sunjet flight, operated by WestJet and Suncor Energy, and uploaded a photo of the pooches getting to grips with the seating arrangement.
Weger told MailOnline Travel: 'When we arrived to the runway there were no more kennels left for them so there was no choice but to bring them aboard.
'Once the plane filled up they panicked but we got here safe and sound, that's all that matters.'
Canadian North Airlines posted this image on Twitter of a dog they let ride in the cabin during the evacuation
A flight attendant uploaded this image of Canadian North Airlines' 'smallest passenger yet', showing a tortoise experiencing life in the cabin
Twitter user @January82, who was allowed to bring her four-legged friends on a flight with her, tweeted her appreciation.
She wrote: 'After having the dogs on my lap w/ amazing @CanadianNorth I'm not sure how them, or me, will go back to kennels under the seat.'
Many of evacuees, are being flown to either Calgary or Edmonton and the Canadian North website says that they have operated extra flights to help the large number of evacuees.
The website says: 'We are proud to do all we can to serve those in need, and will work hard until this crisis subsides, with the safety of our passengers and crew members always our number one priority.'
Fire officials have begun assessing the damage in Fort McMurray, after a raging fire blasted through the Alberta, Canada city and reduced at lease two of its neighborhood to ashes. Pictured on Monday, crews working in the Waterways neighborhood
Meanwhile in the Fort McMurray area, gas has been turned off, the power grid is damaged and water is undrinkable.
More than 250 power company workers are trying to restore the grid and assess the gas infrastructure.
It remains unclear when residents will be able to return to Fort McMurray,The Atlantic reported, and education officials have told parents who had to leave the town to register their children in other schools.
More than 40 journalists were also allowed into Fort McMurray on a bus escorted by police and witnessed the damage on Monday, as Allen referred to the blaze as 'a beast'. Pictured on Monday, burned out buildings seen during the media tour
This week 252 passengers on the Fred Olsen ship Balmoral are believed to have been struck down by norovirus.
Almost a third of the 919 passengers on board suffered diarrhoea and vomiting after the outbreak on the luxury cruise between Southampton and the US.
But what precautions can holidaymakers take to avoid catching the contagious virus? And if it has been contracted, what's the fastest way to recover? MailOnline Travel talked to Boots UK pharmacist Tom Kallis and two doctors to find out the best way to keep norovirus at bay.
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This week 252 passengers on the Fred Olsen ship Balmoral are believed to have been struck down by norovirus (pictured)
Wash your hands after using the toilet
Norovirus outbreaks happen when lots of people are in a small area, including places such as nursing homes, restaurants, hotels, hospitals and cruise ships.
The virus can survive outside the body for two days, that's why it is essential that hands are washed after every visit to the lavatory.
Soap and water is an effective way of keeping the virus at bay and should always be used after a visit to the loo
WHAT IS NOROVIRUS? Norovirus is the collective name given to a highly contagious group of viruses which cause vomiting and diarrhoea, particularly during the winter months. Indeed, norovirus is sometimes called winter vomiting bug, as outbreaks peak from October to March.
'There's no excuse not to wash your hands after touching something others may have touched,' said 26-year-old Kallis, from Plymouth.
'And it goes without saying that after going to the toilet, this should be done at all times.'
You can catch norovirus if small particles of vomit or excrement from an infected person get into your mouth.
So it's worth remembering that if someone leaves the toilet without washing their hands, you can catch it just from opening the door to leave.
Use your own towel
The virus can be spread easily through towels, so using your own on a cruise ship or in a hotel will reduce your chances of catching it.
Kallis said: 'Using the same towel to dry your hands or face may seem a natural thing to do, but this is an easy way the virus can be passed on.
'Just as you'd have your own bedding, you should have your own towel too. This goes with after using the toilet too, don't share other people's towels.
'And obviously make sure the towels are washed regularly.'
Using your own towel will help stop the virus spreading, while right, a buffet is the ideal place for the infection to breed
NOROVIRUS - LESSONS MUST BE LEARNT Frank Brehany, Consumer Director of HolidayTravelWatch, told MailOnline: 'I am concerned to hear that the Balmoral Cruise ship has apparently been struck by the so-called norovirus infection. 'Reports suggest that a large number of passengers have been affected along with some crew. All too often cruise passengers dismiss incidents like this on the basis that 'it is just one of those things'. 'A reported incident like this raises questions over the quality of hygiene and indeed how the diagnosis of norovirus has been arrived at. 'I would strongly urge any passengers affected by illness on this ship obtain an independent stool sample test at their earliest opportunity and whatever they do, not to accept anything on-board as 'compensation' for their experience without seeking independent advice. 'The fact that the CDC are now involved is reassuring but action must be taken to ensure that this ship undergoes a thorough deep cleanse to prevent further infection.'
Boots UK pharmacist Tom Kallis spoke to MailOnline to give his top tips for avoiding norovirus
Be hungry for food knowledge
Many cruise ships, hotels and resorts have meal-time buffets - a breeding ground for the norovirus bug.
It can spread through the food and utensils, which are used by multiple people.
'At a buffet it's really difficult to be in control - you don't know how and where much of the food has been prepared and many people are using the same equipment,' said Kallis.
'Pre-packed food is always better, or if you can, being able to see the preparation element of the food is the best way to avoid catching norovirus at meal times.
'But the best way would be to prepare your own food if possible.'
Carry a hand sanitiser
In a packed environment such as a cruise ship, there won't be many places that haven't been touched multiple times by different people.
So carrying a hand sanitiser is a good way to ward off norovirus.
'Again, this comes down to hand hygiene, and being aware of the environment you are in and having that bit of control,' said Kallis.
'While nothing is better than soap and water, if you're are out and about, it's definitely a good idea to use a hand sanitiser.'
And Dr Lisa Ackerley added: 'Although it is impossible to remain completely germ-free at all times, there are times when hand cleanliness is critical, and there are ways to ensure you can protect yourself, even when on the go.
'Washing hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds is recommended and in addition, using hand gels with anti viral and anti bacterial properties.'
Take yourself away from the source
If one person comes into contact with norovirus, the chances of it spreading through a resort or cruise ship are high.
And if that person is a family member or friend, you are in the danger zone.
'We would obviously want to take care of our friends and family, try and help them get better, but sometimes you have to let them see it out,' said Kallis.
'The best thing to do would be to request having a separate cabin or room, so you can take yourself away from the virus.
'But if you have to share the room, follow the hand hygiene rules, and try and keep your distance - it is such a contagious virus.'
And if you're unlucky enough to have contracted norovirus...
'The bug can last between 48 and 72 hours, but the timespan, as well as how seriously people can be affected varies,' added Kallis.
'Symptoms include upset stomach, nausea, vomiting, and people can develop a fever.
'There will also be de-hydration, so it is vital to try and drink as much liquid as you can.'
Kallis adds that sufferers should not force themselves to eat, but instead try and drink juices that contain vitamins and minerals to aid recovery.
Dr Roger Henderson added: 'It is dehydration rather than the virus itself that can be particularly dangerous, especially with the young and elderly, as this can cause loss of both water and essential minerals.
'An oral rehydration sachet is recommended to help the body replace the sugar, salt and minerals lost to dehydration and to help speed up the recovery process.'
And the key treatment directed by all the experts? Rest.
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Goats framed by the sunset, a grazing bison and the Milky Way dazzling the Badlands of South Dakota.
These breathtaking images are the prize-winning entries of a photographic competition run to capture the spellbinding beauty of America's National Parks.
Over 15,000 entries were submitted to the fifth Share the Experience Contest last year, with both travellers and amateur photographers sharing their favourite images from the 400 parks in the National Park system.
First place of $10,000 (6,922) was awarded to Yang Lu, for a sunset shot at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah. This was followed by Koustubh Kulkarni's picture taken at 49 Palms Trail at Joshua Tree National Park in California, in second place.
America's National Park Service is currently in its centennial year and to celebrate is offering 16 days of free entry in 2016, the next dates being August 25 - 28.
Here are the winning photographs that seek to inspire travellers to take advantage of the parks' stunning landscapes.
Grand Prize Winner: First place of $10,000 (6,922) was awarded to Yang Lu for this sunset shot at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah
Second Place Winner: This picture of Big Horn sheep was taken by Koustubh Kulkarni on the 49 Palms trail at Joshua Tree National Park, with the setting sun casting beautiful hues of orange, yellow, pink and blue over the flock
Fan Favourite Winner: Matthew Sorum submitted this image of a large bison grazing in Yellowstone National Park. It was highly commended
Scenic, Seasons & Landscapes Winner: An image of hoodoos - thin spires of rock - in the Ah-she-sle-pah Wilderness Study Area
These submissions of people enjoying the national parks both won awards in the contest. Pictured left is the Adventure Winner, of a kayaker coming under an arch in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Pictured right are two kids relaxing at Maho Bay in Virgin Islands National Park, which was the Every Kid in a Park Winner
Night Skies Winner: This captivating image by Erik Fremstad was taken in the Badlands National Park and shows the rocky landscape illuminated by the Milky Way
Wildlife Winner: While many of the images focused on the vastness of the parks, this close-up image of two iron cross blister beetles at Saguaro National Park took the wildlife prize
Fan Favourite Winner: Another popular image was this stark picture of Mt. Whitney in Inyo National Forest. It was taken by Heather Martin, who had attempted Whitney summit over the Memorial Day weekend, but due to heavy snow was unable to complete the trip
Historical & Cultural Winner: David Regala, who took this picture on the Cedar Mesa plateau, said that 'during a single season, and at a particular time of day, refracted sunlight funnels into this Anasazi alcove conjuring an ephemeral glow'
Eva Mendes stepped out on Sunday after secretly welcoming her second child with Ryan Gosling.
The 42-year-old headed for lunch on Mother's Day, a day before news broke that she had given birth on April 29.
Eva and Ryan were spotted taking their eldest daughter Esmeralda to lunch, although there were no signs of baby Amada.
New mom: Eva Mendes stepped out in Los Angeles on Sunday after secretly welcoming her second child
Keeping the birth a secret: The actress gave birth to daughter Amada Lee on April 29, it was revealed on Monday
Despite the sleepless nights that come with a newborn baby, Eva looked fantastic for the outing.
The actress was clad in a maroon coat over a navy dress, and was carrying a red diaper bag.
The mother-of-two looked effortlessly beautiful. Her long, brown locks were pulled back in a high bun, shades concealing her face.
Meanwhile, Ryan, 35, was seen placing his one-year-old daughter, dressed in a pair of overalls, into his vehicle.
Sad news: This sighting also comes just two weeks after the beauty revealed her brother Carlos Mendez had died after a long battle with cancer
Family time: Eva and boyfriend Ryan Gosling enjoyed a lunch date with daughter Esmeralda Amada, aged one, in Los Angeles on Mother's Day
Attentive daddy: Ryan placed his one-year-old daughter, dressed in a pair of overalls, into his vehicle
The handsome Notebook star wore a red, blue and grey jacket over a torn, white T-shirt.
He added a pair of jeans, black shoes, shades and a silver watch.
On April 14, it was claimed that the couple were expecting their second child, and Eva secretly gave birth in Santa Monica two weeks later.
Much like with Esmeralda, the star kept both the pregnancy and birth of her second child under wraps.
Casually styled: The handsome Notebook star wore a red, blue and grey jacket over a torn, white T-shirt
Dad for a second time: On April 14, news broke that Ryan and Eva were expecting their second child
Keeping mum: Much like with Esmeralda, the stars kept both the pregnancy and birth of their second child under wraps
Amada is the name of Eva's grandmother, and means 'beloved' in Spanish. It's also the name of the character the actress played in the 2007 movie We Own The Night.
Amada's birth came two weeks after Mendes' brother Carlos tragically passed away at the age of 53 following a battle with cancer.
The actress' older sibling died on April 17, according to social media updates from family members.
No news: Ryan stayed mum about the reported birth of his second child with Eva Mendes when he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday night
All business: The intensely private actor was in fine form during his interview with Jimmy, but stayed focused on promoting his new movie The Nice Guys
Proud dad: The Notebook star Ryan recently told the Canadian edition of Hello! magazine that his family is his 'biggest investment'
Three weeks ago, the mother-of-one and partner of Gosling posted a touching photo of Carlos as they attended an event together. The caption was simply a single heart.
Her other brother Juan Carlo Mendez - Eva had changed her name from Mendez to Mendes when she started acting - posted a moving tribute on Instagram: 'With absolute pain and sadness in my heart this is the hardest thing I've ever had to go through in my life and as I'm writing this I'm still in disbelief.
'My brother has passed away peacefully this morning. I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for those who have prayed and have kept my brother in your thoughts and who wished him to get better.
'He fought with all his might and power and gave cancer one hell of a fight. He leaves behind behind a 13 year old and a 5 year old. I love you my brother may god bless you and I'll see you once again.'
It seemed likely that the pair were an item when she asked him to join her band, Juliette And The Licks, on tour last month.
Now actress-turned-musician Juliette Lewis and her drummer beau, Rage Against The Machine's Brad Wilk, have been spotted holding hands after having breakfast together at Le Pain Quotidien in West Hollywood on Monday.
The 42-year-old and the rocker, who is 47, looked completely at ease in each other's company as they strolled along.
Confirming the rumours: Juliette Lewis and former Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk were spotted holding hands after having breakfast together at Le Pain Quotidien in West Hollywood on Monday
They were both casually dressed on the overcast morning with Juliette in a heavy black jacket over a zip-up sweater, jeans and blue sneakers.
She pulled a dark blue beanie over her long brunette hair and slung a red handbag across her body.
Brad wore a black bomber jacket over a blue sweater, faded black jeans and black sneakers. His short dark hair was swept back from his face and he also sported a small beard and moustache.
The Secrets And Lies star was spotted with Brad in April in New York City.
Delicious leftovers: The 47-year-old rocker, who recently joined her band, Juliette And The Licks, was a complete gent, holding the 42-year-old's red handbag and a box of goodies as they left the cafe
Holding on: The couple put on their PDA after being spotted together in New York last month although at the time it wasn't clear whether they were just good friends
At the time it wasn't known if they were dating or just friends even though a music source told the New York Post's Page Six: 'They are a thing.'
But Juliette has been posting an increasing number of Instagram snaps of the two of them looking ever more loved up over the last month.
Since then, Brad has travelled around Europe playing the drums with Juliet And The Licks.
Deep in conversation: Even when Juliette let go of her beau's hand to better express something she was saying, he lovingly placed his hand on her back
Piling on the PDAs: Brad put his hand around Juliette's waist as they continued on their way
On Saturday, Juliette posted a selfie of them taken by Brad in a mirror on a door showing them sitting next to a wall covered in tour posters, possibly in Zurich, Switzerland, where the band was playing.
And she shared a sweet story of how they almost met 22 years earlier.
'My baby was in a band that had a song in a movie I did in 1994 called NBK [Natural Born Killers],' she wrote in the caption. 'It was their first song they ever put in a movie. He was 24. I was 19. He went to a screening but I wasn't there.
'Here we are 20+ yrs later playing music together and creating a future. That's wild unpredictable life stuff right there... Or fate? @bradwilk.'
Putting it out there: She declared her love for all to see on stage when she wore a black T-shirt with 'I heart Brad Wilk' in bright red with the drummer playing behind her at the band's gig in Liverpool, England, on Monday
Sweet selfie: On Saturday the brunette posted this selfie taken by Brad showing their reflection in a mirror and shared an amazing story of how they almost met 22 years earlier
And she declared her love for all to see on stage when she wore a black T-shirt with 'I heart Brad Wilk' in bright red with the drummer playing behind her at the band's gig in Liverpool, England, on Monday.
Juliette And The Licks will be back on tour in Europe next month and in the meantime, the actress isn't ignoring her screen career.
Aside from ABC's drama series Secrets And Lies, she will next be seen on the big screen in Nerve, co-starring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco, due out on September 16.
Getting closer: On Wednesday she shared this photo as they snuggled in the back of a cab. Juliette captioned it, 'Heading to #Soundcheck #Heaven . #London you are so sunshiney and beautiful! #JLtour' with heart emojis
Nicole Trunfio became a mother in January last year when she welcomed her firsttborn old son, Zion.
And to celebrate her second Mother's Day with her little boy, the Australian model shared a sweet tribute to him on Instagram.
The 30-year-old penned in part of her post: 'My dear son. How blessed I am to have a child as magical as you?'
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Sweet: To celebrate her second Mother's Day with her little boy Zion, Australian supermodel Nicole Trunfio shared a sweet tribute to him to Instagram
'How honored I am you chose me, how inspired I am by your spirit and intellect, how joyful you make me with your humour, how thankful I am that your father gave you to me, how humbled I am to be your mother,' she continued.
'Motherhood is the most profound thing to experience as a women, I cherish every moment.
'I hope I can guide you and teach you everything you desire and give you the tools to have a wonderful long life. I love you young little #Zion #mothersday.'
Proud mother: The star is seen here doting on her son Zion
Motherhood: The brunette became a mother in January last year
In the sweet snap, Nicole wears jeans with a fluffy jacket and a floppy maroon hat.
Zion is dressed in a black jumper with grey stars and the pair stare at a lemur as it sits on a branch in an enclosure.
The same day, the Perth-born beauty and mother of one shared a sweet video of her baby boy walking on a footpath excited at a airplane fly in the sky.
Adorable! The same day, the brunette beauty and mother of one shared a sweet video of her baby boy walking on a footpath and getting excited when he see's a airplane fly in the sky
Nicole - who hails from Western Australia - shares Zion with her new husband, musician Gary Clark Jr.
The couple wed three weeks ago in California, in the US, where they are now based.
For the nuptials, Nicole stunned in a white Steven Khalil wedding dress and had celebrity guests in attendance, including Australian models Gemma Ward and Jessica Gomes.
Family: Nicole - who hails from Western Australia - shares Zion with her new husband, musician Gary Clark Jr
She hasn't been shy when it comes to discussing the intimate details of her relationship.
And Sam Frost, 27, has revealed something else her boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek might not be too happy about.
On Monday, she told Popsugar that he regularly steals her beauty products.
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Sharing is caring: Sam Frost, 27, has revealed that her boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek regularly uses her beauty products
The Bachelorette star explained: 'He uses all my face moisturisers all the time, and he uses my hair products too - he'll hate me for saying that!'
She added: 'Ive always got so many products in my cupboard, so hell go through and ask, "what can I use?" And then I go, "thats good for your skin, thats good for you hair," and hell be like, "great!"'
The brunette beauty has become a regular fixture on red carpet events since sky rocketing to fame on the reality television show.
Sam now has a team of professionals including makeup artists and hairdressers, but she's confident in her own skills, telling Popsugar: 'If Im doing it myself, maybe half an hour? Im pretty quick!'
Inquisitive: The 27-year-old explained that Sasha often asks her which of her beauty products he can use, and what they're good for
Dapper duo: Sam and Sasha attended their very first TV Week Logie Awards together on Sunday, and the beauty looked delighted to have her hunky beau on her arm
On Sunday night, Sam and Sasha attended their first TV Week Logie Awards together and the beauty looked delighted to have her hunky beau on her arm.
The radio presenter wore a billowing polka-dot gown by Steven Khalil that featured a plunging neckline.
Her hunky construction manager looked dapper in a stylish black tuxedo and looked very at home at the star studded event.
'Anxious': The reality star said she questioned whether she 'fitted in' at the awards ceremony
Happy: Sam and Sasha split their time between her home in Sydney and his home on the South Coast, but the distance doesn't appear to bother the loved- up pair
Sam took to Instagram on Monday to gush over her beau in a sweet tribute, thanking him for 'calming her nerves'.
'There were times during the night where I felt awkward, anxious and out of place,' she wrote in the caption of a snap, taken of her and her beau on the red carpet.
'But he just held my hand, made me laugh and made me feel like I was the most beautiful woman in the world,' she added.
Since finding love on the reality show, Sam and Sasha's relationship has gone from strength to strength, with the smitten pair regularly sharing cute photos of each other to social media.
It was announced that Brody Jenner proposed to his girlfriend Kaitlynn Carter last week.
And the huge sparkler the 32-year-old reality star presented to his fiancee was revealed in an Instagram post by the jeweler, Adam Campbell.
'I couldn't be happier for you both and was honored to play a small part in your story,' the Los Angeles-based designer captioned the stunning image.
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'I couldn't be happier for you both': The huge engagement ring that Brody Jenner presented to fiancee Kaitlynn Carter was posted in a closeup view by his jewelry designer, Adam Campbell on Instagram on Friday
The massive bauble features a remarkable oval-shaped solitaire with a four prong setting on a classic band, presumable white gold or platinum.
He added: 'HUGE congratulations to my dear friends @brodyjenner and @kaitlynn_carter on their engagement this week in Bali! Here's to many years of wedded bliss. Love you both! #engaged.'
Brody and Kaitlynn, 28 - who have been dating for two years - got engaged on Wednesday when he popped the question while on vacation in Indonesia.
'I got engaged to my lover and my best friend': Brody Jenner, 32, proposed to his girlfriend Kaitlynn Carter, 28, last week while on vacation in Indonesia
Family holiday: The couple were joined on holiday by Brody's mom, Linda Thompson, 65, who congratulated the pair with her own Instagram post
The couple were joined on holiday by Brody's mom, Linda Thompson, who congratulated the pair with her own Instagram post.
'If we look happy it's because we are! CONGRATULATIONS to @brodyjenner & @kaitlynn_carter who got ENGAGED in Nihiwatu! #Family #Love,' the 65-year-old ageless beauty wrote.
Brody is also the son of Caitlyn Jenner, 66, who has yet to congratulate the couple publicly on social media but the marriage will ironically add one more Kaitlynn Jenner to the family.
'If we look happy it's because we are!' Brody's mom captioned an Instagram snapshot after the exciting engagement news was announced
When the former The Hills vet announced the exciting news of his engagement he shared a sweet snapshot of Kaitlynn kissing him on the cheek.
He captioned the image: 'On May 4th 2016 I got engaged to my lover and my best friend @kaitlynn_carter.'
'I couldn't be more in love with this woman and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with her,' he gushed.
His bride-to-be posted the same photo and wrote: 'This trip has been memorable for many reasons happiest girl in the world!!!
Pamela Anderson ditched her usual shoulder-length hair extensions and rocked a white Hamel pencil dress for a new spread shot by Katie Thompson and produced by Biel Parklee.
However, the 48-year-old PETA pin-up kept her signature tweezed brows, dark liner, and false lashes applied by longtime make-up artist Alexis Vogel.
The Playboy Playmate got frank about the subject of ageing as well as regretting her surgically-enhanced 34DD assets.
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Natural look: Pamela Anderson ditched her usual shoulder-length hair extensions and rocked a white Hamel pencil dress for a new spread shot by Katie Thompson and produced by Biel Parklee
'Getting older isnt the end. I know I have so much to look forward to': However, the 48-year-old PETA pin-up kept her signature tweezed brows, dark liner, and false lashes applied by longtime make-up artist Alexis Vogel
'Not that we need to point it out': The Playboy Playmate got frank about the subject of ageing as well as regretting her surgically-enhanced 34DD assets
'Not that we need to point it out,' Pammie told W Magazine, motioning to her chest. At this, Vogel interrupts: 'Let's just say that at some point, we all realize that less is more!'
The What Do Men Do 2 actress said, 'I actually like ageing. I have great older female role models in my life, including my amazing mom, who have glitz, glamour, and all sorts of fun. Getting older isnt the end. I know I have so much to look forward to.'
It's been a year since Anderson's on/off divorce from third husband, professional gambler Rick Salomon, was finalised.
'I look back at pictures of myself when I was in this awful relationship, and I looked 20 years older,' Pamela - whose Hepatitis C was cured November 6 - admitted.
'When I was in this awful relationship, I looked 20 years older': It's been a year since Anderson's on/off divorce from third husband, professional gambler Rick Salomon, was finalised (pictured in 2015)
Pamela - whose Hepatitis C was cured November 6 - admitted: 'I remember looking in the mirror during filming and saying, "Who is this person? How did I let myself get to this place?"' (pictured in 2014)
'I know it sounds like a cliche, but happiness has a lot to do with beauty. Calm, peacefulness and not-constant stress are very, very important to feeling beautiful and confident. And that comes across whether you're wearing makeup or not. I remember looking in the mirror during filming and saying, "Who is this person? How did I let myself get to this place?"'
The evergreen Canadian-American continued: 'At a certain age, you can find yourself at a loss. Your children are grown. You may have gone through a divorce. Youre trying to find meaning. What's your purpose now? You've raised your kids, and now they think you're a little crazy, because you're trying to do all these self-help things.
'You become distant from everybody. You're searching for answers. If I do all these things to look younger - the creams, the classes, the supplements, the procedures - I'll be more accepted by my kids, my friends, men. You're dealing with so much loss at this age. It seems like everything is behind us, so what's next? We took a lot of things for granted - youth, beauty. But now what?'
'This is the first time I've ever been in a serious role': The Raw author braved not wearing mascara playing burnt-out AuraCycle instructor Jackie in the 11-minute sci-fi short film Connected
The evergreen Canadian-American pointed out: 'It speaks specifically to women and beauty, and how after a certain age, they are just kind of discarded'
The Raw author braved not wearing mascara playing burnt-out AuraCycle instructor Jackie in the 11-minute sci-fi short film Connected.
'This is the first time I've ever been in a serious role. I've done Baywatch, and other things on TV that I could do with my eyes closed - run around in a bikini, et cetera. But it was fun to play a really dramatic character.'
'It speaks specifically to women and beauty, and how after a certain age, they are just kind of discarded,' Pamela pointed out.
The former sex tape star asked her sons - Brandon, 19, and Dylan, 18, with ex-husband #1 Tommy Lee - for permission before posing for her 15th Playboy cover this past January.
'I did ask my kids': The former sex tape star asked her sons - Brandon, 19, and Dylan, 18, with ex-husband #1 Tommy Lee - for permission before posing for her 15th Playboy cover this past January
Anderson revealed on Friday's episode of The View: 'They said, "You have to do it. It's the last one!" They're very different than me. They're actually very logical and they think properly. I go really with my gut, so when they say something they mean it. They're very smart'
'I did ask my kids. They said, "You have to do it. It's the last one!"' Anderson revealed on Friday's episode of The View.
'They're very different than me. They're actually very logical and they think properly. I go really with my gut, so when they say something they mean it. They're very smart.'
The animal rights activist and David Hasselhoff will both return to Baywatch for Seth Gordon's 2017 big-screen reboot of their NBC TV series starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Zac Efron.
Melissa George was dressed to impress when she arrived at the AOL Build Speaker Series in New York on Monday.
The Australian actress and mother of two looked casual chic in a stylish white blazer as she promoted her new show Heartbeat.
The 39-year-old attended the event posing for cameras in cropped jeans and two toned heels.
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Looking quite all white! Australian actress Melissa George was dressed casually yet still impressed when she arrived at the AOL Build Speaker Series in New York on Monday to promote new show Heartbeat
Teaming the blazer with a white silk shirt, she had the top tucked into her high-waisted jeans.
She wore her hair over her shoulders in loose tousled curls and applied simple make-up including dewy foundation, rosy blush, mascara and a soft pink lip.
Stylish: The mother of two looked fresh and chic in a white blazer and cropped jeans
Simple and stunning: She had her hair out and over her shoulders in loose tousled curls and wore simple make-up including dewy foundation, rosy blush, mascara and a soft pink lip
In character: Melissa is seen her in doctor's get-up on the show
On the day, she sat down for a chat about the series and enjoyed a laugh.
She was also seen signing a wall covered in other celebrity signatures and scrawling her name in permanent marker.
After signing the wall, the former Home and Away star then cheekily kissed the wall.
The Perth native in recent weeks has been busy promoting her new drama series Heartbeat, where she stars as heart surgeon Dr Alex Panttiere.
Last month, Melissa enjoyed a trip back to her native Australia for the show.
She had to stop filming the first season of the show when she fell pregnant with her second child, son Solal Blanc, six months.
The star also shares son Raphael Blanc, two, with her husband, French businessman Jean-David Blanc.
Doing her thing! On the day, she sat down for a chat about the series and enjoyed a laugh
Another day in the life of a celebrity! She was also seen signing a wall - that was already full of other celebrity's signatures - bending down to write her name in permanent marker
For extra good luck? After signing the wall, the former Home and Away star then cheekily kissed the wall
She admitted that she used to play truant and bunk off school.
But Stacey Solomon couldn't keep away from the books on Monday as she arrived for the launch of her friend, Lady Victoria Hervey's new novel at The Goring Hotel in London.
The 26-year-old put on a very leggy display for the occasion as she stepped out in a tiny pink satin dress that was delicately trimmed with fur.
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Pretty in pink! Stacey Solomon couldn't keep away from the books on Monday as she arrived for the launch of her friend, Lady Victoria Hervey's new novel in London
And she covered up from the suddenly chilly weather in a matching three-quarter length jacket, that she rolled up at the sleeves.
Stacey made sure all of her ensemble was fully coordinated with a pair of peep-toe nude heels that accentuated her already perfect pins.
She also added a touch of sparkle to her look with a small silver pendant that hung gracefully over her decolletage.
Bookworm: The 26-year-old (pictured with Lady Victoria Hervey) put on a very leggy display for the occasion as she stepped out in a pink satin dress that was lined with a delicate trim of fur
Prepared for all occasions: Stacey covered up from the suddenly chilly weather in a matching three-quarter length jacket, that she rolled up at the sleeves
Match made in heaven! Stacey made sure all of her ensemble was fully coordinated with a pair of peep-toe nude heels that accentuated her already perfect pins
The former X-Factor star also showcased he vibrant new red locks for the event, which she styled in loose beachy waves that flowed elegantly down past her chest.
But she maintained her high-glamour look with perfectly contoured makeup, a nude lipstick and impressively preened brows.
Meanwhile, Lady Victoria looked a vision in gold as she wore a lemon mini dress that was embellished with delicate flower detailing.
Diamond girl: Stacey added a touch of sparkle to her look with a small silver pendant that hung gracefully over her decolletage
Popular: A number of stars turned up in support of the book launch (l-r: Lizzie Cundy, Stacey Solomon, JB Gillwith and Lady Victoria Hervey)
And she styled her golden tresses in a fashioned half-up do the cascaded into curls over her shoulder.
The author went all out on the jewelry front with diamond earrings, a large cuff and a ring so large it almost completely covered her knuckle.
She also off-set her sun kissed glow with eye-popping lashes and a delicate pink lip.
Let me take a selfie: Stacey, JB Gill and Lady Victoria posed for a group shot at the event
Big names: Stacey was also joined at the book launch by names such as Victoria Grant, Tamara Beckworth and Tim Vincent
Stacey was also joined at the book launch by names such as Victoria Grant, Tamara Beckworth and Tim Vincent.
Lady Victoria Hervey's mother, Yvonne, the Marchioness of Bristol, was also present.
The socialite was promoting her book, 'Lady In Waiting', the first title in the 'Wristband Diaries' series.
Wave-ing goodbye to blonde: The former X-Factor star also showcased he vibrant new red locks for the event, which she styled in loose beachy waves that flowed elegantly down past her chest
Proud parents: Lady Victoria Hervey's mother, Yvonne, the Marchioness of Bristol (pictured), was also present
Motherly love: The socialite was promoting her book, 'Lady In Waiting', the first title in the 'Wristband Diaries' series
Lady Victoria is known for being a model, socialite and aristocrat but she has now been signed on a three book deal with publishers, Totally Entwined.
Speaking to The Bookseller, she said: 'I'm really excited to see my characters and story come to life.
New leaf? Lady Victoria (pictured with Daniel Lismore) is known for being a model, socialite and aristocrat but she has now been signed on a three book deal with publishers, Totally Entwined
Unique styles: Lizzie Cunday (left) and Victoria Grant (right) both wore eye-catching outfits to the book launch
Time for a tipple: Lizzie Cundy enjoyed a glass of champagne with Tim Vincent as they supported pal, Lady Victoria
'It's been a dream for as long as I can remember.
'I hope the readers will enjoy it as much I have writing it and for those who can relate to it or just use it as a guide book to growing up.'
Just 24 hours after leaving the Baftas empty-handed, actress Sheridan Smith dramatically pulled out of last nights production of her West End show Funny Girl.
Yesterday morning, the Savoy Theatre informed ticket-holders that due to the indisposition of Sheridan Smith the role of Fanny Brice would be played by Natasha J Barnes at tonights performance.
The news was met with disappointment from many who had paid to see the 34-year-old actress, while others mocked the star for being unwell the night after an awards ceremony.
Sheridan Smith looked disappointed when she lost out at the BAFTAs with viewers calling her expression 'priceless', and 24 hours later she dramatically pulled out of the production of her West End show Funny Girl
Smiths no-show comes less than two weeks after a performance of the musical was cancelled early on in the first act after technical difficulties. However several members of the audience claimed instead that Smith had been drunk on stage.
According to sources, an executive from theatre group ATG, which owns The Savoy, has been drafted in specifically to assess Smith before each show.
On Sunday night Smith was caught on camera looking noticeably disappointed when her BBC adaptation The C Word failed to win the Bafta award for Best Single Drama.
Viewers took to Twitter to poke fun at her, and to ask whether Sheridan could look more p***ed off if she tried when BBC3 drama Dont Take My Baby picked up the gong instead.
The stars disappointment was seen again when she lost out on the Leading Actress gong to Suranne Jones.
To add insult to injury, the evenings host Graham Norton also made a dig at the actress, referencing the cancelled performance of Funny Girl last month.
Sheridan quickly arranged herself, smiling and clapping the actors who took the Best Single Drama award
Viewers called Sheridan 'fake' for her reaction which changed dramatically when she noticed cameras on her
He joked: Lets get things started because the sooner we get started, the sooner we can have a couple of drinks, or as they say in theatrical circles, a couple of glasses of technical difficulties.
Yesterday Smith hit back at critics who commented on her losers face. When will u stop bullying? she tweeted.
During Funny Girls previous run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, she pulled out of the final week when her father was diagnosed with cancer. At the time, she attacked producers for trying to pressure her to perform in her emotional state, and tweeted: They dont give a f*** about my dad.
Smiths agent declined to comment.
Just 24 hours after leaving the BAFTAs empty-handed, actress Sheridan Smith dramatically pulled out of last nights production of her West End show Funny Girl (pictured above in character as Fanny Brice)
Anne Boleyn WILL return, hints Wolf Hall director
The execution of Anne Boleyn, played by a steely Claire Foy, provided an emotional high point in the Bafta-winning Wolf Hall.
But the beheading of Henry VIIIs wife will be no barrier to Foy making a stunning return when the BBC adapts the long-awaited third novel in Hilary Mantels Thomas Cromwell trilogy.
Mantel has shared drafts of The Mirror And The Light with director Peter Kosminsky and is writing episodically rather than chronologically, paving the way for Boleyn to return from the grave. It isnt a safe assumption that Anne wont appear in the third Wolf Hall, Kosminsky says, with a wink. Im just going to leave it at that.
Given his apocalyptic warning that a withered BBC would not be able to mount the Tudor drama following John Whittingdales overhaul of the Corporation, perhaps Mantel should speed the novel to its conclusion.
Crime pays for star Tom
Tom Hardy plays Alfie Solomons in Peaky Blinders
Charismatic Tom Hardy is making a fortune in real life that his violent Peaky Blinders character, the gangster Alfie Solomons, could only dream about.
The 38-year-old Londoner who also played both Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie in the film Legend, has banked almost 3 million, new figures reveal.
He has amassed 2.9 million a rise of 1.6 million on the previous year, according to the latest accounts for his company, 33 1/3RD Ltd.
The accounts give no clue as to how much money Hardy, who married actress Charlotte Riley after meeting her on the set of ITV drama Wuthering Heights, paid himself.
However, they disclose that he had to pay creditors 112,600, which left his business with a profit of more than 2.8 million.
You cant accuse film star Ewan McGregor of lacking confidence. I dont have sleepless nights, he says.
Im not an actor who goes home at the end of the day thinking s***, s***, I should have done it like this.
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes have secretly welcomed their second child together.
According to a birth certificate obtained by TMZ, the 42-year-old actress gave birth to a baby daughter in Los Angeles on April 29.
And the couple picked a familiar name for their little girl, calling her Amada Lee.
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Baby joy!: Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling (pictured in 2012) secretly welcomed a second daughter on April 29
The two stars' eldest child, who was born in September 2014, is named Esmeralda Amada.
Amada Lee was born at 8.03am in Santa Monica at Providence St. John's Health Center, according to the birth certificate.
It was only reported two weeks before she welcomed Amada that Eva was expecting another baby with 35-year-old Ryan.
New mom: Eva, 42, was spotted out on Mother's Day with her family on Sunday, although there was no sign of new arrival Amada Lee Gosling
Us Weekly revealing on April 14 that Eva was pregnant again, with a source claiming she had been trying to conceal a baby bump during an LA photo shoot in February.
Much like with Esmeralda, the star kept both the pregnancy and birth of her second child under wraps.
Amada is the name of Eva's grandmother, and means 'beloved' in Spanish. It's also the name of the character the actress played in the 2007 movie We Own The Night.
Hands on dad: Ryan, 35, was seen carrying little Esmeralda, who was born in September 2014
Eva and Ryan were pictured taking little Esmeralda out for a Mother's Day lunch on Sunday, although there was no sign of baby Amada.
The little one's birth came less than two weeks after the tragic death of the Hitch star's older brother Carlos following a long battle with cancer.
Ryan made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday night but wasn't asked - and didn't talk about - the arrival of his second child.
Instead he focused on promoting his new movie, the comedy The Nice Guys.
No news: Ryan stayed mum about the reported birth of his second child with Eva Mendes when he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday night
Good sport: The intensely private actor was in fine form during his interview with Jimmy
Can take a joke: The Canadian also joined in a sketch with Will Ferrell that poked fun at his new big screen comedy
Ryan said in a recent interview with the Canadian edition of Hello! magazine that his family is his 'biggest investment'.
He shared: 'I'm with the person I'm supposed to be with - I'm not looking for anything else beyond Eva - and I feel very lucky that we have a beautiful, healthy daughter, who is an angel. That's investment enough for me.'
Parents again: The happy couple, pictured in 2012, have been dating since 2011 after meeting on set of The Place Beyond The Pines
When asked how he fares as a dad, Ryan said: 'You'd have to ask my girlfriend really - all I can say is that it's important for me to be there for my daughter and that I want to be there too, because it's so fun.'
'Being a dad isn't rocket science - I can handle it,' he added.
Eva and Ryan have been dating since September 2011, after meeting on set of their movie The Place Beyond The Pines.
Familiar: Amada is the name of Eva's grandmother, and means 'beloved' in Spanish. It's also the name of the character the actress played in the 2007 movie We Own The Night
He may be just 13-years-old, but Pia Miller's eldest son Isiah Powell was lucky enough to be called upon to chaperone his famous mother to the TV Week Logies in Melbourne on Sunday.
And on Tuesday, the Home And Away star shared a sweet snap of the pair as they primped and preened themselves in their hotel bathroom ahead of the annual event.
In the image, the 32-year-old actress is seen applying lipstick to her pout in the mirror as she stands alongside Isiah who is adjusting his smart tuxedo suit.
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'Last minute touch ups with my little gentleman': On Tuesday Pia Miller shared a sweet snap with eldest son Isiah Powell as they readied themselves ahead of the TV Week Logies in Melbourne on Sunday
The sultry mother-of-two - who separated from ex-AFL star Brad Miller last year - was an arresting sight in a black off-the-shoulder bandeau dress by Australian designer Steven Khalil.
The Chilean-born model had her hair out and over her shoulders in loose tousled curls and her make-up was kept simple, with foundation, lip gloss and eyeliner.
Isiah - Pia's first child from a teenage relationship - looked dapper in smart tuxedo suit by Calibre complete with crisp white shirt and bow-tie which he readjusted in the mirror.
'Last minute touch ups with my lil [sic] gentleman @izzypowell13,' she captioned the sweet snap, adding the hashtag 'son love.'
Quite a couple: The 32-year-old actress was an arresting sight in a black off-the-shoulder bandeau dress by Australian designer Steven Khalil
Looking good: Isiah looked dapper in smart tuxedo suit by Calibre complete with crisp white shirt and bow-tie
With Mother's Day in full swing it seemed appropriate that the teenager would chaperone Pia to the annual event - a fact she confirmed in an accompanying caption on the night.
'When you have a gorgeous #Logies2016 date @izzypowell13,' she wrote by way of tribute to her offspring.
Adding the hashtags: 'Son love,' and 'mothers day.'
The actress - best known for her role as police officer Katrina Chapman in Home And Away - appeared in high spirits at the event, smiling and waving as she posed alongside Isiah for snaps.
'When you have a gorgeous date': With Mother's Day in full swing it seemed appropriate that the teenager would chaperone Pia to the annual event
Camera ready: Pia had her hair out and over her shoulders in loose tousled curls
In October Pia and her husband of 10 years, former AFL player Brad Miller announced their separation.
Announcing their split in a joint statement Pia and Brad, who share a son Lennox, 11, said: 'We have shared ten wonderful years together.
'We will always be supportive of one another. We are, and always will be, a family.'
She has since relished in spending time with her two sons in Sydney while filming scenes for Home and Away.
Meanwhile Brad revealed plans to relocate from Melbourne to Sydney to allow the couple to 'continue to co-parent the children together'.
Pia has since moved on from the relationship and is now dating Tysone Mullane.
Splitsville: In October Pia and her husband of 10 years, former AFL player Brad Miller announced their separation
Doting: Pia and Brad share a son Lennox, 11
Motherly love: Isiah is Pia's first child from a teenage relationship
Following all of the Logies festivities across the weekend, Julia Morris made a stylish exit.
The I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! Australia co-host was seen leaving Crown hotel in Melbourne on Monday in a grey coat with a faux fur trim.
With her chocolate locks still sleek and shiny from the awards show the night before, the 48-year-old looked fresh as a daisy, chic in head-to-toe black underneath.
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Stylish exit! Julia Morris was seen leaving Crown hotel in Melbourne on Monday in a grey coat with a faux fur trim over her all-black ensemble
In the lobby of the hotel, the TV personality was spotted with her coat draped over her arm, as she carried a number of bags in her clasp.
While Julia's husband, Dan Thomas, dutifully carried a back-pack, shoe box and her all important dress bag.
Waving goodbye to friends and colleagues in the atrium, the starlet popped her coat over black leather-look trousers, black blouse and suede loafers.
And the brunette beauty also added over-sized glasses to complete her ensemble, giving her a geek chic look.
Holding the bags: Julia's husband, Dan Thomas, dutifully carried a back-pack, shoe box and her all important dress bag, while the popular personality carried her coat and a bag
Faux fur: The brunette added some over-sized glasses for a geek chic look with her stylish coat
Au revoir! The 48-year-old looked fresh as a daisy post Logies, with her chocolate locks still sleek and shiny from the awards show the night before
The TV presenter wore the same outfit earlier in the morning to the Channel Nine post-Logies recovery brunch.
The popular personality, who also stars on House Husbands was seen sipping on a large glass of water as she waved and greeted her peers.
And Julia appeared to still be in high spirits after she put on a raucous show at the Logie Awards on Sunday night.
Morning! Julia was still in high spirits as she attended a Post Logies brunch in Melbourne on Monday morning, following her raucous appearance at the show the night before
Encore! The actress did an encore performance of Bonnie Tyler's 'I Need A Hero', which Julia originally sang on New Faces in 1985, after social media demand
The actress did an encore performance of Bonnie Tyler's 'I Need A Hero', which Julia originally sang on New Faces in 1985, after social media requests for the routine.
A presenter on the evening, Julia also fell flat on her face while presenting an award as part of a routine.
It was a dream of hers to correct her asymmetrical 'wonky' chest, and last year reality star Skye Wheatley jetted off to Thailand with the hope of boosting her breast and her confidence.
But now the 22-year-old ex Big Brother star says she wishes she never had the corrective procedure, which has left her with 'a double bubble' in the right breast and collapsed self confidence.
The former barista from the Gold Coast told Daily Mail Australia: 'I'll never be able to get my t*ts out with a boy again...I've got less self confidence than ever.
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Regrets: Reality star Skye Wheatley says she wishes she never had corrective surgery in Thailand after she was left with 'double bubble' in the right breast and collapsed self confidence
Post surgery: The right breast (left) has been left with a double bubble beneath, she says
'My boobs are still wonky but where before my left one was bigger, this time it's my right.'
Sounding a warning note to young girls lured by promise of cheap plastic surgery abroad, she went on: 'Don't, it's not worth it, stay in Australia.'
She explained: 'If something goes wrong you have to pay for another flight to more costs to get it fixed. Do your research, I wish I had done mine better.
'I want my old boobs back as it will cost to much to fix and will be so much hassle than if I had got them done in Australia.'
Pre surgery: The right breast (left) was smaller A-cup and two sizes smaller than her left C-cup
Before: The bubbly blonde says she would urge young women not to opt for surgery abroad without due consideration of the risks. Pictured before, left, and after, right
Thailand: Skye woke up after the procedure and complained of puckering in the crease below the right breast
'The company I had them done with says I'll need to pay again and I just don't have the money.'
Skye, who found fame as the bubbly blonde on Big Brother 2014, underwent surgery in Bangkok, courtesy of an Australia-wide medical travel agency, after years of feeling deflated with an A-cup right breast that was two sizes smaller than her C-cup left.
She had hoped the augmentation would fix her asymmetrical breasts but while she woke up the following day with D-cups she complained of puckering in the crease below the right breast.
Convalescing: Despite the pain she was in, she insisted at the time she was largely happy with the work done
Covered up is OK: Ex Big Brother star says she feels better when dressed but insists she will never get naked with a boyfriend again
Skye spent time convalescing at the city's Grande Centre Point Ploenchit hotel and the following afternoon, propped up against pillows and with drains attached to her bandaged chest, declared: 'Hello my lovely Bangkok babies!'
Despite the pain she was in, she insisted she was largely happy with the work done and couldn't wait to get the bandages off.
'When I finally got the bandages off I gasped at the lump and was told it would go away in a month and to massage the area,' she says.
'Double bubble': The garrulous reality star says she has lost confidence since undergoing a breast augmentation
Skye insists she listened to surgeons and wore the bandages for the required twelves weeks, although the medical travel agency refutes this.
And she now says she plans to remove the implants altogether.
'I did exactly what they told me to do and I did massage and wear the compression bra,' she insists.
'I can't ever get my boobs out again and this double bubble has damaged my self esteem even more.
'What I had before was better even though I used to complain.
Delighted: After surgery she humorously declared: 'Hello my lovely Bangkok babies!'
'I might look fine in a bikini and clothes but without them, trust me, I don't feel, or look, it.'
A spokeswoman for the medical travel agency insisted Skye did not follow surgeon's guidelines strictly and failed to keep the compression bandages on for the entire twelve weeks.
'We have never had word from Miss Wheatley that her surgery was unsuccessful.
'We only know that she did not follow her surgeon's guidelines in regards to compression garments and massage.
'We know from seeing Miss Wheatley on social media that she removed the bandages several weeks after surgery.
'From her many images on her Instagram account that showed her breasts, we were under the impression that she was happy with her surgery.'
Bubbly: The blonde bombshell rose to fame on reality show Big Brother 2014
She's the Australian model who is now the face of Guess across the US.
And it's not hard to see why, as Simone Holtznagel shared a flawless shot to social media on Tuesday from a recent photoshoot for the brand.
The 22-year-old is seen posing on the side of a sofa, leaning forward in just a bra, showing off generous amounts of cleavage.
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Blonde bombshell! Simone Holtznagel shared a flawless shot from a recent photo shoot for Guess to social media on Tuesday
The blonde bombshell's locks are coiffed in large barrel curls, cascading over her face and shoulders in an old Hollywood glamour style.
Wearing heavy make-up in the black-and-white image, the stunner's natural beauty still shines despite her thick liquid eyeliner and fake lashes.
Simone's pout is partially open and she accentuates her lips with a darker liner to her lipstick.
Captioning the shot, the Playboy model told her almost 70,000 followers: 'I literally want to stay in bed all day'.
Simone accompanied this with 'I love this, thank you guys', before the beauty tagged Guess creator Paul Marciano, hairstylist Esther Vasquez and photographer Tatiana Gerusova for Guess.
The shoot appears to have taken place earlier in the year, with Tatiana also sharing a shot from the same time.
Reunited: The Australia's Next Top Model star posted a selfie with Montana Cox last week, after the pair went out to dinner together while the starlet was back in Australia
In the second shot, Simone has one arm up with her hand lifting her hair from the roots at the back of her crown.
The front on shot shows off the black and white checked bra she is modelling, which has been paired with black high-waisted underwear for a distinctly Fifties feel.
Simone, who found her fame after placing third on Australia's Next Top Model in 2011, has been back in Australia recently.
The model has been posting a series of images out and about in Sydney over the past week while catching up with her famous friends, including Montana Cox.
'There's a switch; if you throw it, half the people on Earth will die. But if you don't, in 100 years the human race will be extinct.'
That's the impossible dilemma posed to Robert Langdon in the first trailer for Inferno.
The film sees Tom Hanks once again reprise his role as the world famous symbologist from the Dan Brown series of books.
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Catch 22: First trailer for Inferno sees Tom Hanks' Robert Langdon face a nightmare dilemma
Directed by Ron Howard, Inferno finds Landon once again the subject of a manhunt, as he races across Europe on a trail of clues connected to the great Italian poet Dante.
The trailer opens as the book does: with Bertrand Zobrist - played by Ben Foster - apparently falling to his death above the streets of Florence.
'I left you a path - the hardest one yet,' his sinister voice whispers. 'Only you can finish it. You are humanity's final hope.'
After waking up in an Italian hospital with retrograde amnesia, Langdon is assisted by a doctor named Sienna Brooks, played by Felicity Jones.
Peace out: The trailer opens as the book does: with Bertrand Zobrist - played by Ben Foster - apparently falling to his death above the streets of Florence
Remember him? After waking up in an Italian hospital with retrograde amnesia, Langdon is assisted by a doctor named Sienna Brooks, played by Felicity Jones
In trouble: Directed by Ron Howard, Inferno finds Landon once again the subject of a manhunt
Careful now: The brief trailer appears to show two separate gravity-related deaths
The pair are shown studying one of the primary clues in the story - and altered version of Botticelli's famous painting of Dante's Inferno.
'Dante defined our modern conception of hell 700 years ago,' Langdon muses. 'Why Dante? Why this map of hell?'
He discovers that a plague has been created, aimed at solving the conundrum posed at the start of the trailer
Bella: Stunning Venice is the setting for much of the story
Like a map out of hell: The pair are shown studying one of the primary clues in the story - and altered version of Botticelli's famous painting of Dante's Inferno
Puzzle: 'Dante defined our modern conception of hell 700 years ago,' Langdon muses. 'Why Dante? Why this map of hell?'
Death mask: The symbologist must race across Europe on a trail of clues connected to the great Italian poet
'Without professor Langdon - no one can find the virus,' warns 'The Provost' (Irrfan Khan) as nightmare imagery of the plague taking effect closes the clip.
This will be the third film in the series, following The Da Vinci Code and Angels And Demons; Brown's other Langdon novel - the Washington set The Lost Symbol - was skipped over by the filmmakers.
Inferno sweeps into theatres on October 14 in the UK and October 28 in the US.
Uh-oh: 'Without professor Langdon - no one can find the virus,' 'The Provost' (Irrfan Khan) warns in the clip
Trilogy: This will be the third film in the series, following The Da Vinci Code and Angels And Demons; Brown's other Langdon novel - the Washington set The Lost Symbol - was skipped over by the filmmakers
Most people are happy to clamber into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt for a dash to the nearest cafe.
But Vanessa Hudgens opted for a far more chic ensemble when she made a desperate dash to a coffee shop on a sunny spring day in Los Angeles on Monday.
The High School Musical star was drawing more than her fair share of stares thanks to her shimmering green dress as she sauntered out of a bustling barista in the trendy West Hollywood area.
Making them green with envy: Vanessa Hudgens looked in fine form as she went on a coffee run in Los Angeles on Monday
The 27-year-old looked in fine form indeed as she sauntered around around in her slinky silk jade dress, which she twinned with a tan jacket and matching boots.
The Spring Breakers favourite rounded off her look with a pair of oversized rose-tinted sunglasses, while her glossy, voluminous hair blew in the wind.
Vanessa has just opened up about her father Greg's recent death, saying learning of his stage four cancer diagnosis was like a 'punch in the stomach'.
She was left heartbroken he passed away due to the disease at the age of just 65 in January.
Because she's worth it: Her glossy, voluminous locks shone in the sun as she enjoyed the fresh air
Java script: No doubt Vanessa could hardly wait to get home and pore over potential projects while supping her iced coffee
Spring coffee breaker: She had dressed to impress despite the prosaic nature of her outing
She admitted she found it hard to believe when she learned of his diagnosis just five months earlier, telling E: 'It felt like it was some mean joke. It was shocking.
'I had never dealt with cancer personally and to hear that word, it was just like a punch in the stomach.
'You think you're going to make it through, you're there with them every step of the way, holding their hand, wanting it to be OK.
'You always think that you're going to make it through and you're going to overcome it, but sometimes that doesn't happen. Cancer is very aggressive and it doesn't take pity on anyone or anything.'
Greg passed away the night before her performance as Rizzo in Grease: Live on Fox, on January 31. She continued with the show, winning praise for her emotional performance and the show was dedicated to his memory.
Rose-tinted spectacles: She rounded off her arresting look with these oversized sunglasses
And off she goes: The actress was a woman on a mission as she headed back to her vehicle
She was filmed getting wild on the dance floor after the Logies on Sunday, flailing her arms wildly and doing the robot.
But now Sylvia Jeffreys is claiming that she wasn't quite the party animal that she appeared to be in the video of her dancing that was aired on The Today Show on Monday morning.
'It's a shame I had to pull the pin early,' the 30-year-old told the Daily Telegraph, adding that she didn't even attend the official after party despite being filmed there.
'It's a shame I had to pull the pin early:' Sylvia Jeffreys told the Daily Telegraph she didn't stay out late after the Logies despite being filmed dancing up a storm at the after party
While Sylvia insists that she had a quiet one at the awards ceremony, the footage of her running wild on the dance floor at Melbourne's Crown Casino tells a different story.
Her arms flailing as she moved, Jeffreys was one of the first to start grooving once the formal part of the evening ended and later declared she was out 'all night.'
In a mid-dance floor interview, she draped her arm around a reporter while jumping up and down and raising the roof with her hand.
Letting loose! The Today Show presenter did the robot on the dance floor at the after party
Huh? The 30-year-old claimed that she didn't even attend the official after party despite being filmed there
'If she's out all night, I guess I'm out all night!' Sylvia shouted that she would say until one of her friends left
Clearly having more than enough fun, she said she would stay out with with one of her friends until she disappears 'so if she's out all night, I guess I'm out all night'.
However, in the blonde beauty's defence, she did look remarkably fresh-faced as she made her way through the airport the next morning.
Appearing to have had a full night's sleep, the TV presenter was glowing as she sauntered through the terminal with a beaming smile on her face.
Fresh as a daisy! The blonde beauty may have had an earlier night than it appeared from the wild after party video, considering her fresh, glowing appearance at the airport the next morning
The stunner looked radiant and perfectly put together in a white top and flowing knee-length grey jacket.
Her Instagram page also shows no trace of her untamed display after the Logies, with Sylvia opting to share images of the glamorous red carpet, the ceremony, and the plane ride home.
The award-winning journalist was one of the best dressed celebrities at the event, showcasing her enviable physique in an custom emerald green Rebecca Vallance evening gown.
She is known for her generosity.
And as Oprah Winfrey attended the Robin Hood Foundation's benefit in New York on Monday she was justly rewarded - with a kiss from Usher.
The 62-year-old was seen enjoying a playful chat with the Good Kisser crooner as they posed for snaps at the event.
You deserve it! Oprah Winfrey attended the Robin Hood Foundation's benefit in New York on Monday she was justly rewarded - with a kiss from Usher
The wealthy television personality wore a tight black top and pretty skirt as she sported dark framed glasses.
Usher, 37, meanwhile, sported a dark suede letterman jacket and gold chain as he posed with Zac Brown at the party.
Meanwhile, Oprah is expanding her participation in HBO's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to an on-screen role.
Cute: The 62-year-old was seen enjoying a playful chat with the Good Kisser crooner as they posed for snaps at the event
The wealthy television personality wore a tight black top and pretty skirt as she sported dark framed glasses
The cable channel said Monday that Winfrey will star in the TV movie that she's been shepherding as an executive producer.
The film is based on Rebecca Skloot's nonfiction book of the same name. It details the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cancerous cells became the source of medical breakthroughs.
The story will be told from the perspective of Lacks' daughter, Deborah, to be played by Winfrey.
Veteran Broadway director-producer George C. Wolfe will direct the HBO project from his screenplay.
Filming is scheduled to begin this summer, with an air date yet to be announced.
Kate Moss kept it simple and stylish for an event in Toronto, Canada, on Monday.
The 42-year-old star attended the Saks Fifth Avenue launch of Decorte Beauty - the cosmetics range she is fronting - and proved a great advert for the brand as she showed off her youthful complexion.
Kate wore a black wrap dress with gold detail on the shoulders which flattered her slender figure.
Elegant look: Kate Moss looked simply stylish at the Saks Fifth Avenue launch of Decorte Beauty in Toronto, Canada on Monday night
She teamed it with sheer tights and patent black Mary Jane's with a small heel.
The mother-of-one wore her lightened locks loose and natural in a centre parting.
The Croydon-born star signed on with Japanese cosmetics giant KOSE to represent Cosme Decorte range last year.
Demure: The 42-year-old star teamed the dress with sheer tights and patent shoes with a small heel
Luxury brand: The Croydon-born signed on to represent Japanese cosmetics giant KOSE's Cosme Decorte range last year
The high-tech skincare brand is known for their innovative moisturizers, essences, and serums.
In a July press release, Kate said: 'I love Decorte. The products are amazing. I just tried the intensive moisturizer its incredible. I really want it to come to Europe.'
Meanwhile Kate snubbed the Met Gala last week to enjoy dinner with her boyfriend Nikolai Von Bismarck.
A walking advert! Kate showed off her glowing complexion with barely any makeup at the event
Kate seemed to make a further departure from her fashion roots last month, when she ditched the modelling agency that scouted her 28 years ago.
The '90s supermodel icon was discovered at the age of 14 by Storm Model Management's founder Sarah Doukas.
She's favoured a more low-key lifestyle since her separation from Jamie Hince, which she's still yet to confirm.
VIPs: The supermodel posed alongside Decorte Beauty president Kazutoshi Kobayashi (left) and Saks Regional VP of Canada Stephane Ledoux (right)
She's come a long way since starring in hit NBC series, Ugly Betty.
And there's no way anyone could call her anything but beautiful in real life, both inside and out.
America Ferrera was honored for her work as an activist on Monday night in Los Angeles by the Global Women's Rights Awards.
Stunning: America Ferrera was honored for her work as an activist on Monday night in Los Angeles by the Global Women's Rights Awards
The 32-year-old was recognized for her work to empower the Latin community in the United States.
The event was co-chaired by Jay Leno and his wife Mavis.
Fellow honorees on Monday were Mayor Karen Weaver, Flint Michigan, and Amy Brenneman for standing up for abortion rights.
Making a difference: The 32-year-old was recognized for her work to empower the Latin community in the United States
Passionate: The star gave a heartfelt speech
Amy wore a chic pantsuit with flared trousers and a V-neck top.
While attendee Kate Walsh wore a plunging blue dress to the high powered event.
Meanwhile, America has a new project that just debuted for streaming on Netflix.
Fellow honorees on Monday were Mayor Karen Weaver, Flint Michigan, and Amy Brenneman (pictured) for standing up for abortion rights
The event was co-chaired by Jay Leno and his wife Mavis
Special Correspondents is based on the 2009 French film of the same name. It was adapted by Ricky Gervais who also directed and starred in the satirical comedy.
He plays a pretentious radio journalist with Eric Bana as his ineffectual technician who botch an assignment in South America, and decide to fabricate an on-the-scene story while hiding out in a New York City apartment.
Styiish: While attendee Kate Walsh wore a plunging blue dress to the high powered event
The scheme spirals out of control when their escalating story becomes a national headline.
The movie also stars Vera Farmiga, Kelly Macdonald and Benjamin Bratt.
Special Correspondents hit Netflix on April 29.
She's a self-professed feminist and proud supporter of the 'Free the Nipple' campaign.
And on Tuesday, Caitlin Stasey decided to exercise her right to freely express herself as she boldly posed topless on Instagram - ignoring the social media platform's 'no nipple policy' when it comes to women's breasts.
In the image, posted to her 146,000 followers, the 26-year-old actress pulled her pink top up to reveal her uncensored chest for all to see.
Free the nipple! Caitlin Stasey flashed her chest on Instagram on Wednesday
The photo was taken outdoors against a natural backdrop of an earthy, sun-kissed desert landscape.
'God's Country,' wrote the social justice advocate next to the spirited picture.
The former Neighbours actress recently celebrated her 26th birthday.
Last week, she took to her social media sites to share a series of snaps from what appeared to be a surprise birthday party thrown by her loved ones.
Surprise! The former Neighbours star shared a series of snaps from what appeared to be a surprise 26th birthday party thrown by her loved ones, last week
The first snap, which was simply captioned with the word surprise, showed the starlet beam with delight as she was handed a large bouquet of flowers.
She later followed the post with another picture of herself blowing some candles on a birthday cake.
Earlier on in that week, Caitlin shared a childhood throwback photograph of herself from an old school year book - taken over a decade ago.
Sweet treat: The actress later followed the post with another picture of herself blowing some candles off a birthday cake
Fly since '02 AND they spelled my name wrong, she wrote alongside the nostalgic image.
The former soap star - who is in a relationship with fellow actor Lucas Neff - is the picture of sweetness in the archive school portrait which sees her smile beautifully.
Although there's no denying Caitlin's blossomed into a beautiful young woman since then, it seems her cherubic good looks has remained.
Fly since '02': Earlier on in the week, Caitlin shared a childhood throwback photograph of herself from an old school year book taken over a decade ago
Meanwhile, at the start of the year, the Australian beauty strongly hinted that she had tied the knot with Raising Hope actor Lucas, 30.
In January, she posted several images which show the Chicago native carrying her over the threshold and the pair punching the pair with glee.
Their close pal, actor Echo Kellum, took to Twitter to congratulate them, writing: 'Congrats to Lucas Neff and Caitlin Stasey on their marriage! They are the cutest!!! Proud to be y'all friend!'
Caitlin and Lucus have yet to address their rumoured marriage.
Ryan Gosling wasn't asked and didn't mention having a secret second child on Monday during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The 35-year-old actor was on the chat show promoting his new comedy The Nice Guys co-starring Russell Crowe.
Jimmy asked Ryan if they called their mutual friend Don Rickles as he turned 90 on Sunday.
No news: Ryan Gosling stayed mum about the reported birth of his second child with Eva Mendes when he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday night
Ryan said he didn't have his phone number but said the comedian was a 'lovely man' who sent his daughter Esmeralda Amada a gift certificate to Toys R Us after she was born in September 2014.
The Big Short actor said the legendary comic included a note that read: 'Don't worry, you'll get another job. Kids are expensive.'
It was reported by TMZ on Monday that Ryan and his 42-year-old girlfriend Eva Mendes secretly welcomed their second child together last month.
Promotional duties: Instead, the actor, 35, focused on talking about his new movie The Nice Guys
Catching up: Ryan and the late night host also chatted about their mutual friend, comic Don Rickles who celebrated his 90th birthday on Sunday
Lovely man: Rickles, shown with Jimmy in September 2015, sent Ryan's first daughter Esmeralda a present when she was born in September 2014. It's reported that Ryan and Eva welcomed a second daughter in April
A birth certificate showed the actress gave birth to a baby daughter in Los Angeles on April 29.
The couple picked a familiar name for their new addition calling her Amada Lee.
She was born at 8.03 a.m. in Santa Monica, California, at Providence St. John's Health Center, according to the birth certificate.
Ryan otherwise was fairly candid on the chat show as he admitted that it was the first time wearing his too tight grey suit.
Busy new dad: The Canadian star has been on a whirlwind publicity tour for his new big screen comedy in which he stars with Russell Crowe
Form fitting! The actor confided that it was the first time that he wore his tight grey suit
Good sport: The intensely private actor was in fine form during his interview with Jimmy
Happiness again! The couple welcomed another child two weeks ago in secret (pictured in 2013)
He also joined Will Ferrell in a skit in which they played the Knife Guys trying to sell knives on the side of the stage.
Will and Ryan complained when Jimmy interrupted them that he was ruining their show.
They both jokingly stormed off after flipping off the chat show host.
Knife sale: Will Ferrell was joined by Ryan as they tried to sell knives on the show
Took offense: Ryan and Will flipped off Jimmy as they left
Instead of a showing a clip from his new comedy The Nice Guys, Ryan acted out a scene with a woman in the audience portraying Russell's character.
The audience member named Karen raised her arms when she got to sit on top of Ryan.
The Nice Guys opens on May 20.
Role play: Ryan and Jimmy recruited an audience member to act out a clip from his new movie The Nice Guys
Funny: The audience member named Karen acted out Russell Crowe's part in the clip
Sheridan Smith has now pulled out of her West End show for the second night in a row amid fears for her health after her father was diagnosed with cancer.
She first pulled out of the West End performance of Funny Girl last night, just 24 hours after partying at the Bafta awards, flirting with recently single rapper Professor Green.
Smith is currently dealing with her father's cancer diagnosis and she yesterday hit out at a critic during a Twitter meltdown, telling her: 'Come say your s*** to my face, see what happens'.
The cancellations are said to be due to ill health but it comes less than two weeks after a performance was cancelled half way due to 'technical difficulties', but fans said she appeared drunk.
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Sheridan Smith (left) cancelled a performance of Funny Girl less than 24 hours after partying with stars after the Baftas including Professor Green (pictured together) due to health concerns
Smith (pictured in Funny Girl) has now withdrawn from the second night of the show, increasing concerns over her health after she said she was distraught following her father Colin's cancer diagnosis
The cancellation comes as she struggles to deal with her father Colin's cancer diagnosis, and she hit out at critics on Twitter, telling one: 'Come say your s*** to my face & lets see what happens'
Yesterday, the Savoy Theatre informed fans that Smith was ill and the lead would be played by her understudy, Natasha Barnes, just weeks after another performance was cancelled midway through
The first performance of as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (pictured) was cancelled midway through, with bosses citing 'technical difficulties' as the reason
Yesterday she appeared to blame the press for her cancellations, saying she is 'not strong enough', which is believed to be a reference to her father's cancer diagnosis
And on Sunday, Baftas host Graham Norton publicly mocked her, joking that they could have a few drinks, 'or as we call it in the industry, a couple of glasses of technical difficulties'.
Yesterday, she appeared to blame the press for her cancellations, writing on Twitter: 'Well done press! You let down me, the cast and everyone who paid to see me'.
The tweet finished with message: 'Sorry, sorry, I'm not strong enough'.
Fans have expressed their disappointment, with one, David Arnold, tweeting her personally, saying: 'Sorry you have got too big for your boots'.
One couple, who did not wish to be named, said they were 'disappointed' that they wouldn't be seeing Sheridan perform, especially after travelling from the West Midlands.
They said: 'Had we known, we might not have travelled all this way to see the show, but we will still enjoy it.
'We had sort of guessed from reading the papers this morning that she might not play the role, but it's still disappointing.'
The 34-year-old Cilla star has now hit out on Twitter against her critics, saying 'couldn't give a f***, they're vultures', referring to the press.
She even threatened one person, saying: 'Come say your s*** to my face and see what happens'.
Smith has openly admitted to being distraught after her father's diagnosis in March, after which she pulled out of a performance at the Mernier Chocolate Factory.
Smith openly hit out at show bosses by tweeting to the official Twitter page for the production, alleging they were breaking their contract by pressurising her to return to the stage.
She attacked producers for trying to 'pressure' her to perform in her emotional state, and tweeted: 'They don't give a f*** about my dad,' after she pulled out, just three hours before curtain call.
Sheridan Smith looked disappointed when she lost out at the Baftas with viewers calling her expression 'priceless', and 24 hours later she dramatically pulled out of the production of her West End show Funny Girl
In a tweet that has since been deleted, Sheridan wrote: 'covering your asses! No contract signed Sonia, Sarah camlett or presuming we 'desperately' need u? Either way.See u in court.'
Another performance was then cancelled midway at the Savoy, with bosses citing technical difficulties, although fans said she appeared drunk on stage and was slurring her words.
She denied claims she was drunk on Twitter as fans voiced their disappointment, with many paying more than 100 a ticket. But moments later she made her account private.
According to sources, an executive from theatre group ATG, which owns The Savoy, has now been drafted in specifically to assess 34-year-old Smith before each show.
Yesterday morning, the Savoy Theatre informed ticket-holders that 'due to the indisposition of Sheridan Smith the role of Fanny Brice would be played by Natasha J Barnes'.
Many fans who had paid to see the star, considered one of the best British actors of her generation, were disappointed, although some praised the performance of understudy Natasha Barnes.
Sheridan quickly arranged herself, smiling and clapping the actors who took the Best Single Drama award
Viewers pointed out Sheridan's reaction which changed dramatically when she noticed cameras on her
James Levey wrote: 'Our disappointment was blown away by your amazing performance Natasha Barnes as Fanny tonight! You absolutely nailed it!'
Sally wrote: 'Natasha Barnes & the cast were flawless tonight, laughed out loud and THAT voice. Incredible.'
On Sunday night at the Baftas, Smith was caught on camera looking noticeably disappointed when her BBC adaptation The C Word failed to win the award for Best Single Drama.
Viewers took to Twitter to poke fun at her, and to ask whether Sheridan could 'look more p***ed off if she tried' when BBC3 drama Don't Take My Baby picked up the gong instead.
The star's disappointment was seen again when she lost out on the Leading Actress gong to Suranne Jones.
To add insult to injury, the evening's host Graham Norton also made a dig at the actress, referencing the cancelled performance of Funny Girl last month.
Natasha Barnes impressed fans who had been disappointed that Sheridan Smith had cancelled
Natasha Barnes poses with co-star Darius Campbell (left) and fans (right) after the performance last night
He joked: 'Let's get things started because the sooner we get started, the sooner we can have a couple of drinks, or as they say in theatrical circles, a couple of glasses of technical difficulties.'
Yesterday Smith hit back at critics who commented on her 'loser's face'. 'When will u stop bullying?' she tweeted.
After the event, she was seen partying with a number of potential suitors, and allegedly told friends she had been flirting with The Night Manager star Tom Hiddleston, reports The Sun.
She was pictured with Professor Green, who recently split with Made In Chelsea personality Millie Mackintosh, and Muskateers actor Luke Pasqualino.
It follows a string of failed romances and over the last six month after, in October, she announced on Twitter that she was single again after reports she seeing The Enemy bassist Andy Hopkins.
Her dazzling career has spanned over five decades.
So Jodie Foster is no stranger to the fame game and knows how to dress to impress - as illustrated during an appearance on Live! with Kelly and Michael in New York on Monday.
The 53-year-old looked simply sensational in a form-fitting blue dress, which perfectly showed off her phenomenal figure.
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Bold in blue: Jodie Foster is no stranger to the fame game and knows how to dress to impress - as illustrated during an appearance on Live! with Kelly and Michael in New York on Monday
Jodie, who launched her acting career at the tender age of three, is currently blazing the promotional trail with her latest directorial pursuit Money Monster.
Looking stunning and graceful, her tight cobalt blue dress featured a square neck with a slight split at the cleavage.
Tumbling to below knee-length in hemline, Jodie gave a hint of toned calf which was accentuated by her graceful grey heels.
Completing the demure look was a black handbag placed over her shoulder which she later shed as she signed autographs for vying admirers outside the studio.
Meeting her people: The 53-year-old looked simply sensational in a form-fitting blue dress, which perfectly showed off her phenomenal figure
Stunner: Jodie, who launched her acting career at the tender age of three, is currently blazing the promotional trail with her latest directorial pursuit Money Monster
Her hair was styled into a perfectly coiffed blonde blowdry in which she had a sweeping side fringe while the ends curled into her jawline.
She kept her make-up elegant and sophisticated, not overdoing her cosmetic regime hence avoiding aging her striking complexion.
The night before her chat show appearance, Jodie appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for a game of Egg Russian Roulette.
Stylish: Her hair was styled into a perfectly coiffed blonde blowdry in which she had a sweeping side fringe while the ends curled into her jawline
The hilarious game consists of choosing from a dozen eggs, four raw eggs and eight hard boiled eggs and having them smashed on your head, after which the person who smashes two raw eggs loses.
Jodie was thrilled to play the somewhat gross game, saying: 'Thats the one I chose to do and thats the one Ive been dying to do.'
The energetic actress went first and gleefully smashed a raw egg onto her head after which Jimmy did the same and smashed a raw egg on his head.
Messy work! The hilarious game consists of choosing from a dozen eggs, four raw eggs and eight hard boiled eggs and having them smashed on your head, after which the person who smashes two raw eggs loses
Uh-oh! With the two tied one to one, they went through a number hard boiled eggs. Soon however, Fallons luck ran out and he ended the show with yoke on his face
The veteran Hollywood is currently celebrating over 50 years in the movie business, having shifted her focus from acting to directing from 2010.
Speaking with News Corp in an interview published on Thursday, the 53-year-old reflected on her long-running career in film.
She said: 'That's a long time.The greatest thing about that is that I got to work in the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s and the 2010s, and each one of those eras in some ways has been more interesting than the next.'
She's no stranger to dressing in character given her career in acting.
And Vanessa Hudgens once again decided to raid her dressing up box as she dressed in some period attire when visiting the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale, California, alongside with her family and friends on Monday.
The 27-year-old actress abided by the event's dress code as she sauntered around the park in a frock that was fitting with the Renaissance theme, joined by her sister Stella, mother Gina and close friend and actress Kim Hidalgo.
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Turning back the clock: Vanessa Hudgens decided to raid her dressing up box as she dressed in some period attire when visiting the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale, California, alongside with her family and friends on Monday
The Spring Breakers star looked a vision in a billowing cream frock which boasted puffball sleeves and a pretty three-tier skirt, which was beautified with ornate lace detailing.
The screen siren brought the gypsy-style dress to life with a theatrical corset that was adorned with a rose motif and possessed fringed embellishments in an array of vibrant colours.
While the look was far from understated, Vanessa didn't scrimp on accessories as her fingers were adorned with a myriad of rings and her essentials were carried in a heavily fringed handbag.
Girls' day out: The Spring Breakers star certainly made the effort as she sauntered around the event in a frock that was fitting with the theme, joined by her sister Stella (C), mother Gina and actress Kim Hidalgo (R)
Her lengthy brunette locks cascaded around her face in perfect curls, atop of which was a pretty pink floral garland.
Vanessa certainly seemed to enjoy her day out, as she later posted a picture from her day out on Instagram and gushingly captioned the snap: 'I want to live at the ren faire '.
The image depicted the High School Musical beauty stood alongside her family, who also looked the part in gypsy inspired Renaissance looks.
Dressed the part: The screen siren brought her gypsy-style dress to life with a theatrical corset that was adorned with a rose motif and possessed fringed embellishments in an array of vibrant colours
Having a blast! Vanessa certainly seemed to enjoy her day out, as she later posted a picture from her day out on Instagram and gushingly captioned the snap: 'I want to live at the ren faire '.
But Vanessa wasn't the only celebrity who turned back the clock and immerse themselves in a historical day out as Katy Perry was also spotted at the park.
Unlike Vanessa, the California Gurl shunned dressing up for the occasion, though that didn't seem to hinder her fun as she rode the attractions and let her hair down,
Begun in 1963 in Agoura, near Malibu, to create 'living history' for school children and their families, the Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire has grown into an annual interactive playground and gallery for over 200,000 participants and guests.
They're expecting their first child in a matter of weeks.
And ahead of the life changing arrival, Nicky Hilton and her husband James Rothschild enjoyed a very glam date night on Monday.
The couple hit the Fashion Institute of Technology Gala in Manhattan which honoured their designer friend Dennis Basso.
Expecting: Nicky Hilton, who is expecting the couple's first child, and her husband James Rothschild enjoyed a very glam date night on Monday
Nicky, 32, looked incredible in a gorgeous beaded gown from Basso.
The pregnant star showed off her bump in the beautiful strapless number which was adorned with delicate chiffon and bejeweled flowers.
The mum-to-be swept her blonde locks up into an elegant do and finished her look off with statement drop earrings and a pop of colour with her pink lips.
Big noght out: The couple hit the Fashion Institute of Technology Gala in Manhattan which honoured their designer friend Dennis Basso
James meanwhile was dapper in a classic tux and bow tie as the couple joined Nicky's sister Paris and brother Barron at the gala.
The family were honouring New York designer Basso, who received an award at The Plaza Hotel's Grand Ballroom.
Nicky announced in January that she was expecting her first child with husband James, who she met at the wedding of Petra Ecclestone, now Stunt.
Good looking pair: The pregnant star showed off her bump in the beautiful strapless number which was adorned with delicate chiffon and bejeweled flowers
Blonde socialites: Nicky's sister Paris joined the couple at the event, looking stunning in her own beautiful Basso gown
Matching: The sisters both wowed in delicately embellished dresses for the fashion gala
The pair wed in a lavish ceremony at the Orangery at Kensington Palace in London last July.
'Nicky is very excited to become a mom,' a source told People of their pregnancy news. 'Shes feeling great. Theyve just begun telling close friends and family. Nicky and James are over the moon!'
The mum to be has previously gushed to BELLA magazine about the moment she first met James: 'We met the old-fashioned way at a wedding which I thought was sweet.'
'He just came up to me and approached me after the reception. I was living in LA at the time, and he was in London it was very long-distance. We really enjoyed each other and just made it work,' she said.
Great genes! The Hilton siblings - (L-R) Paris, Barron Hilton, and Nicky - posed for a stunning snapshot at the star-studded event
They've been married for 15 years.
But Eric Clapton, 70, and his stunning wife Melia, 39, looked as happy as ever as they made the most of the sunny London weather by enjoying a lunch date with friends.
The couple, parents of three children, stopped by one of their favourite capital restaurants.
Sunshine of your Love: Eric Clapton, 70, and his stunning wife Melia, 39, looked as happy as ever as they made the most of the sunny London weather by enjoying a lunch date with friends
Eric dressed for the changing weather in a waterproof jacket teamed with a dapper hat and chinos.
His wife matched the rocker's low key look with a pair of dark jeans and a green parka.
The couple were seen meeting with their friends, including author Rokelle Lerner, a world renowned writer and pioneer in the development of cutting edge treatment for alcoholism
Date day: The couple, who have been married 15 years, looked affectionate as they headed to a London restaurant
Keeping things casual: Eric dressed for the changing weather in a waterproof jacket teamed with a dapper hat and chinos
Rokelle has written a new book called 'INKspirations for Recovery', which Eric was seen flicking through over lunch.
She also works as a Senior Clinical Advisor for Crossroads Centre Antigua which is an international alcohol and drug treatment centre founded by Eric in the West Indies.
Eric and Melia married in a low-key church ceremony in January 2002, with the couple parents to three daughters: Julie Rose (born June 2001), Ella May (born 2003) and Sophie Belle (born 2005).
Matching style: His wife matched the rocker's low key look with a pair of dark jeans and a green parka
Out and about: The couple, parents to three daughters, looked in good spirits
Coming soon: The musician is busy preparing for the release of his 23rd studio album, I Still Do on May 20
New music: The LP features new original tunes as well as covers of classics by the likes of Bob Dylan and Robert Johnson
The musician is busy preparing for the release of his 23rd studio album, I Still Do on May 20
The LP features new original tunes as well as covers of classics by the likes of Bob Dylan and Robert Johnson.
Speaking to Rolling Stone this week, Eric explained that the album's title comes from something his aunt said to him before she died.
When the guitarist thanked her for putting up with him when he was a 'difficult boy,' she replied, 'I like you, and I still do.'
Pals: The couple were seen meeting with their friends, including author Rokelle Lerner, a world renowned pioneer in the development of cutting edge treatment for alcoholism, who works at Eric's treatment centre
She was one of the biggest pin-ups of the 70s, event winning the heart of The Beatles' Ringo Starr.
And Barbara Bach appeared to have defied the years as she cut a youthful figure when out shopping in London on Monday.
The one-time Bond girl, now 68, proved the years have been no match for her as she enjoyed some retail therapy and indulged in a spot of shopping at Stella McCartney's swish boutique in Knightsbridge.
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Timeless beauty: Barbara Bach appeared to have defied the years as she cut a youthful figure when out shopping in London on Monday
Barbara, who played Roger Moore's object of affection in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me, looked in sprightly spirits as she left the high-fashion store, which looked to be a success as her entourage headed to her car with a number of bags from the designer.
She broke up the muted style with a grey scarf that was emblazoned with an ornate floral motif.
The former model slipped her feet into stylish chunky, tasseled loafers, while toting her essentials in a black handbag that was rendered in a texture that resembled that of bubble wrap.
Aging well: Now, 68, the wife of Ringo Starr didn't look worlds away from her former Bond girl days
Chic: Barbara looked in sprightly spirits as she left the high-fashion, though her trip didn't appear to be successful as she headed back to her chauffeured Mercedes empty-handed
The American actress and her Liverpudlian husband Ringo live are based on the outskirts of London and have resided in the UK together since 1980, after meeting on the set of movie Caveman.
Instantly falling in love with one another, they married on April 27, 1981, just a few weeks after the film was released.
The loved-up twosome have been near inseparable ever since and Barbara has accompanied The Beatles star on a number of his tours and has even appeared in some of his music videos and featured in his songs.
Still going strong: Barbara has been married to The Beatles' Ringo Starr since 1981
Shopping success: Barbara's entourage headed to her car with a number of bags from the designer
Fashionista: Barbara broke up the muted style with a grey scarf that was emblazoned with an ornate floral motif
Long-time loves: The American actress and her Liverpudlian husband Ringo live are based on the outskirts of London and have resided in the UK together since 1980, after meeting on the set of movie Caveman
The couple have never welcomed any children together, though each have children from previous marriages.
Barbara shares daughter Francesca , 47, and son Gianni, 44, with ex-husband and Italian industrialist Augusto Gregorini, who she divorced in 1978 after 10 years of marriage.
Meanwhile, Ringo has three children with ex-wife Maureen Cox, Zak, 50, Jason, 48, and Lee, 45.
Back to black: The former model slipped her feet into stylish chunky, tasseled loafers, while toting her essentials in a black handbag that was rendered in a texture that resembled that of bubble wrap
Her viral social media campaign to land a Gold Logies nomination was nothing less than an absolute success.
But Lee Lin Chin is in no rush to relaunch the Twitter pleas after losing the coveted television award to Waleed Aly on Sunday night.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, comedian Chris Leben, who is the mastermind behind her social media campaign, said SBS newsreader Lee Lin will probably score a Gold Logie nomination next year without the viral tweets.
Team effort: Australian comedian Chris Leben who is also a writer for The Feed on SBS2, helps formulate newsreader Lee Lin Chin's hilariously entertaining tweets and says she won't need another campaign in 2017
'We just finished the 2016 one, we're all tired,' he said. 'We're not even thinking about that yet.'
He added: 'I'm not even sure we'd need to do one. Lee Lin's fans will come out in droves next year and crown their rightful queen'.
Back in May last year following the 2015 Logie Awards, a tweet on Lee Lin's account read: 'Just decided to win the gold next year, I deserve it #TVWEEKLogies'.
And after her nomination was announced last month, a new tweet was published reading: 'Waking up a gold Logie nominee just feels better you know? #tvweeklogies'.
See Logies 2016 updates as Comedian behind Lee Lin Chin's Twitter campaign speaks out
Taking to Twitter the same day, Chris wrote on his own social media account: 'The #tvweeklogies campaign I ran seems to have worked. @LeeLinChinSBS is nominated for best presenter and gold. TAKE THAT HIGH SCHOOL!'.
Lee Lin was up for the Gold gong this year alongside The Project's Carrie Bickmore and Waleed Aly, as well as The Block host Scott Cam, Family Feud's Grant Denyer, and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries actress Essie Davis.
Ultimately 37-year-old Waleed claimed victory on the night.
Reflecting on the success of Lee Lin's Twitter campaign, Chris told Daily Mail Australia he was feeling 'fantastic' with the outcome, even though the SBS star didn't actually win.
Winners are grinners: The Project host Waleed Aly took out the prestigious television award on Sunday
Popular: Lee Lin's strong social media presence has certainly not gone unnoticed, with a recent Logies campaign fuelled by Chris helping her score a nomination for the coveted Gold award
Support: Lee Lin Chin, known for her humor online, took a more serious not when she congratulated Waleed
Feisty: However she did also tell him she would 'bathe in your blood'
'She's the first SBS personality in our 38-year history to be nominated for the gold.
'Sure, I would have liked her to win but the goal was always just a nomination. We're like Donald Trump in that way.'
Comedian Chris, who is a writer for SBS program The Feed, workshops the social media posts with the SBS World News presenter, and posts them on her behalf as she apparently doesn't own a mobile phone.
'It's a collaboration more than anything,' Chris told Daily Mail Australia last month.
Goals: Back in May last year following the 2015 Logie Awards, a tweet on Lee Lin's account announced her mission to be nominated and win a Gold Logie the following year
Success: After Lee Lin's Gold Logie nomination was announced last month, Chris posted this proud tweet
'Lee Lin doesn't own a mobile phone so I do post the tweets but we work on them together. Sometimes she'll come to me with an idea, sometimes I'll come to her with one and we'll workshop it,' he explained.
'It's a team effort. The account is managed by The Feed and run by myself and Lee Lin. She's in on the joke and loves to play with it.'
Lee Lin, who has been presenting with SBS World News since 1992, also embraces her comedic side when appearing on news and current affairs program The Feed airing on SBS2.
Veteran journalist: Lee Lin has been presenting with SBS World News since 1992, also embraces her comedic side when appearing on news and current affairs program The Feed airing on SBS2
The Feed: Chris told Daily Mail Australia that SBS2 program The Feed helps manage Lee Lin's Twitter account
Public support: The Gold Logies campaign certainly generated plenty of support from viewers over the past few months
And she is now starring in new SBS comedy called The Weekend Shift.
'All I'll say is it's funny and Lee Lin is at her absolute best,' Chris hinted of what fans can expect from the Gold Logie nominee's performance.
'She's never done a better performance or been funnier.'
Great achievement: She is the first SBS personality to be nominated for a Gold Logie
Putting it out there: Chris told Daily Mail Australia, 'Lee Lin doesn't own a mobile phone so I do post the tweets but we work on them together'
She has a reputation for being one of the most beautiful women of all time.
And Sophia Loren looked just as glamorous as ever when she enjoyed a girls' day out with her sister Anna Scicolone in Rome on Tuesday.
The 81-year-old actress looked to be sharing a deep conversation with her sister as they sauntered toward their car after sharing some quality time.
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Girls' day out: Sophia Loren looked just as glamorous as ever when she enjoyed a girls' day out with her sister Anna Scicolone in Rome on Tuesday
The legendary film star was clad in a casual yet chic look in a billowing grey knit that was paired with coordinating grey slacks.
Sophia paired the look with a beige tweed jacket that featured a contrasting denim fabric that was frayed at the hem.
Injecting her look with a seriously glamorous touch, she sported black heeled boots which were emblazoned with diamantes and a heavily sequinned handbag that boasted a gold chain strap.
Still stylish: The legendary film star was clad in a casual yet chic look for her visit as she sauntered outside of the building in a billowing grey knit that was paired with coordinating grey slacks
Her auburn locks were styled in voluminous curls around her face, her sister Anna, who was formerly married to jazz pianist Romano Mussolini, sporting an equally glamorous red hairstyle.
In March, the actress spoke to W Magazine about her never-fading good looks, saying: I look very well. I look fantastic. Im laughing, but everybody says so. Everybody says so! Sometimes I dont believe them anymore, but they are very convincing.'
Despite being a pin-up since the early '50s, Sophia said she is still happy to hear compliments, though refuses to accept being told she is 'perfect'.
'[Beauty is] not even perfection. It's something that comes from inside. I felt quite unique. I was not beautiful in the sense, like, [a] doll. I've never been like [that],' she said.
Red heads: Her auburn locks were styled in voluminous curls around her face, her sister Anna sporting an equally glamorous red hairstyle
In September 2014, in honor of her 80th birthday, Sophia starred in a glamorous Dolce & Gabanna lipstick campaign, having a new shade of red named after her Sophia Loren N1, a limited-edition color that sold for $37.
Speaking at the time, they said: 'Sophia Loren N1 is our way of saying, "Thank you, Sophia!"' the designers, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, said at the time. '"Thank you for [your] beauty, thank you for being a world favorite, thank you for being an icon of the big screen and of Italian beauty."
'Sophia Loren N1 is our way of saying, "Thank you, Sophia!"' the designers, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, said at the time. 'Thank you for [your] beauty, thank you for being a world favorite, thank you for being an icon of the big screen and of Italian beauty.'
'She has been a constant source of inspiration for us and today we celebrate her with the gift of her very own lipstick.'
He joined her on the Good Morning Britain sofa as a permanent fixture in November.
And it seems that Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid's working relationship has left quite the lasting impression on the stars - who likened their double act to an 'arranged marriage' on Tuesday.
Heading to a sofa not so far away from their own studio, the Breakfast show duo appeared alongside each other on ITV's Lorraine for a brief chat about their on-screen chemistry.
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A match made in heaven? it seems that Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid's working relationship has left quite the lasting impression on the stars - who likened their double act to an 'arranged marriage' on Tuesday
Piers, who had originally gone onto the show to promote his forth-coming documentary Killer Women, was surprised by his co-star, 45 - who appeared on set as part of a pre-arranged prank.
Taking the sudden appearance of his co-anchor, the MailOnline's Editor-at-Large, 51, took the prank in his stride and welcomed her to the interview in his usual effervescent and cheery manner.
Quizzing the duo on how their partnership on the sofa is working, Piers joked that it was just like being married.
He joked: 'Its like having an arranged marriage - you get put next to this person and we didnt really know each other at all and then suddenly they say,"Right youre going to spending three days a week, total of 9/10 hours in close proximity".
A show-stealing style? Susanna, 45, let Piers do most of the talking - letting her outfit speak for itself, with the GMB host's seasonal style stealing the limelight
Original prankster: Heading to a sofa not so far away from their own studio, the Breakfast show duo appeared alongside each other on ITV's Lorraine for a brief chat about their on-screen chemistry
'I dont even spend that much time next to my wife and then suddenly youve got to get on with each other.'
However Piers gave a little insight into the pair's well-natured jousting, when he said that Susanna still has mixed emotions over her co-star, quipping: 'Of course half of Susanna, I think, quite likes me and then the other half thinks Im Hannibal Lecter!'
And while Piers' patter certainly stole the airtime on the segment, it was Susanna who made sure the limelight stayed firmly on her with her fashionable wardrobe.
Happy to see you! Taking the sudden appearance of his co-anchor, the MailOnline's Editor-at-Large, 51, took the prank in his stride and welcomed her to the interview in his usual effervescent and cheery manner
Happy families? Piers joked their co-anchorship has been like an arranged marriage, saying: 'Its like having an arranged marriage - you get put next to this person and we didnt really know each other at all'
Opting for a floral-print midi dress in muted tones, the TV favourite ensured that she was seasonally on-trend, whilst she was also able to flaunt her fantastic figure - thanks to the garment's fitted design.
She teamed the dress with a pair of colourful hot pink heels which complemented her vibrant shade of lipstick.
Susanna wore her long lustrous locks in an off-centre parting, letting her chestnut tresses tumble down around her shoulders in bouncing waves.
They spent the last few days in London attending the BAFTA Television Awards and promoting their new film Trolls.
And on Tuesday, it was on to Germany for Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake as they attended a photocall for the animated movie.
The 30-year-old actress showed off her slim figure in a black suede waistcoat-style dress as she joined her co-star in front of Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate.
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On the promo trail: Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake attend a photocall for the animated movie Trolls in Berlin on Tuesday
He's behind you! Justin and Anna have just arrived in Germany after spending the weekend in London
The Oscar-nominated star completed her look with a pair of high-heeled black strappy sandals and a simple box clutch.
Meanwhile, Justin, 35, was going for a preppy look in beige chinos, blue shirt and bomber jacket.
The pair are promoting the new Dreamworks animation Trolls, which tells the story of troll Princess Poppy (Anna) and Branch (Justin), who journey 'far beyond the only world they have ever known'.
Fairytale ending? The pair stood beside a tourist horse and carriage
Nice hair! Justin seemed amused by a member of the public who wore a pink troll hair wig
Other famous names to voice the characters include Gwen Stefani, James Corden, Russell Brand, John Cleese, Jeffrey Tambor and Zooey Deschanel.
The film has also provided an opportunity for Justin to release a long-awaited new single for its soundtrack.
Justin thrilled fans when he debuted his track Can't Stop The Feeling on YouTube on Friday night.
He went on to confirm he was working on a new album - a follow-up to 2013's The 20/20 Experience.
Long wait: The actors were joined by producer Jeffrey Katzenberg as they promoted the movie, not due for release until later this year
The pair are promoting the new Dreamworks animation Trolls, which tells the story of troll Princess Poppy (Anna) and Branch (Justin)
He told Carson Daly on his 97.1 Amp Radio on Friday: I don't know exactly when I'm going to put it out, but yeah, I'm definitely working on a new album.
'I think where I grew up in America has a lot of influence. Growing up in Tennessee - very central of the country - Memphis is known as being the birthplace of rock and roll, but also the home of the blues, but Nashville's right down the street so there's a lot of country music.'
Trolls is due for release in the UK on 21 October and in the US on 4 November 2016.
Belting out a song: The film has also provided an opportunity for Justin to release a long-awaited new single for its soundtrack
She prides herself on being a self-proclaimed 'fashionable foodie'.
Yet Ferne McCann appeared to struggle with her gastronomic skills during a turn on Monday night's episode of Rylan Clarke's new Channel 5 chat show Up Late With Rylan.
The 26-year-old former TOWIE star starred in a hilarious skit in which she stood in front of a side in a skimpy camisole before attempting to flick a piece of cake in her face.
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Cake in the face! Ferne McCann appeared to struggle with her gastronomic skills during a turn on Monday night's episode of Rylan Clark's new Channel 5 chat show Up Late With Rylan
Ferne was seen staring at a cupcake teetering on a spoon placed on a counter and in a daring move she attempts to flick the food into her mouth.
Suffering a spectacular fail, the Essex-born beauty entirely missed her mouth causing the cake to go all over her face in a hilarious clip.
Despite winding up with cake on her face she looked incredibly stylish in a slinky black camisole layered over a cornflower blue lace bra which was nearly entirely visible.
She added a thin black choker to give a stylish edge while her blonde tresses were styled into coiffed curls tumbling around her shoulders.
Oh no! Ferne was seen staring at a cupcake teetering on a spoon placed on a counter and in a daring move she attempts to flick the food into her mouth
Cheeky: Despite winding up with cake on her face she looked incredibly stylish in a slinky black camisole layered over a cornflower blue lace bra which was nearly entirely visible
Other stars on Monday night's show included Charlotte Crosby, who discussed her various tattoos: 'Ive got my ex boyfriends initial, Ive still got it and hes got a new girlfriend.'
Fellow guest Keith Lemon said of Charlotte: 'All you are doing is getting drunk on the telly'.
Britains Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon also discussed the idea of her band Mis-Teeq reforming - a widely-discussed topic: 'We are getting together for a catch up, well see, there seems to be a lot of love there for us.'
Wake and cake: Suffering a spectacular fail, the Essex-born beauty entirely missed her mouth causing the cake to go all over her face in a hilarious clip
Fashionable foodie: She added a thin black choker to give a stylish edge while her blonde tresses were styled into coiffed curls tumbling around her shoulders
Doing her thing: Just one day after the hilarious show aired Ferne was back at work acting as showbiz correspondent on This Morning
Just one day after the hilarious show aired Ferne was back at work acting as showbiz correspondent on This Morning.
She went for a less sexy look this time as she sported a boho inspired ensemble comprising of a billowing blue blouse with bell sleeves.
A unique pair of denim flared culottes which skimmed below her knee in length while she added height to her frame with a pair of nude heeled sandals.
Feeling blue: She went for a less sexy look this time as she sported a boho inspired ensemble comprising of a billowing blue blouse with bell sleeves
She earned global fame playing the title character in 2010 fantasy blockbuster Alice In Wonderland.
And Mia Wasikowska was certainly a wonder to behold as she stepped out in England to promote sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass this week.
The Canberra-born actress dazzled in a navy blue dress as she arrived at British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) headquarters in London on Tuesday.
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Aussie beauty: Mia Wasikowska was certainly a wonder to behold as she stepped out in England to promote fantasy sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass
She appeared in thoroughly good spirits despite the miserable British weather, signing autographs for fans who had waited in the rain.
The 26-year-old dressed to impress in a sleeveless button-up frock and rounded off her style with a pair of simple black high heels.
Meanwhile, the Australian star displayed her striking natural beauty with minimal makeup, as her short blonde hair flicked about in the wind.
Braving the British weather: The Canberra-born actress dazzled in a navy blue dress as she arrived at BBC headquarters in London on Tuesday
Breezy in blue: The In Treatment star displayed her striking natural beauty with minimal makeup, as her short blonde hair flicked about in the wind
She is currently on the promotional trail for Alice Through Looking Glass, having played the lead role in Tim Burton's original fairy tale fantasy.
Her co-star Johnny Depp is also busy plugging the film in London, having previously suffered a humiliating run-in with Australia's agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce.
Last month, the 52-year-old recorded an apology video with girlfriend Amber Heard after failing to declare their two Yorkshire terriers properly when entering Australia last year.
Making a return: Mia is reprising her role in the Lewis Carroll-inspired fantasy Alice Through the Looking Glass
Making an entrance: The 26-year-old dressed to impress in a sleeveless button-up frock and rounded off her style with a pair of simple black high heels
Loyal fans: Mia appeared in thoroughly good spirits despite the miserable British weather, signing autographs for fans who had waited in the rain
A repeat performance: Mia is currently on the promotional trail for Alice Through Looking Glass, having previously played the lead role in Tim Burton's original fairy tale fantasy
Meanwhile, Amber received a one-month good behavior bond sentence but the incident will not go on record.
But during a news conference in the UK this week, Johnny seemed to poke fun at the recent incident Down Under.
'I really would like to apologise for not smuggling my dogs into England because it would have been a bad thing to do,' he quipped.
On the campaign trail: This week, Mia Wasikowska was photographed with A-list co-star Johnny Depp at an Alice Through The Looking Glass photo-call in London, following Depp's recent incident Down Under
A Sydney worker has claimed radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands left him 'shaken and stranded' after their cars collided in Prince Albert Road on Tuesday.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Steve Taylor was preparing to make a left-hand turn when an Audi allegedly overtook him on the inside and at speed.
Taylor's Mazda truck was apparently rendered undriveable when the right hand of the KIIS FM host's black sedan apparently clipped his front left wheel, the newspaper reports.
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Fender bender: Sydney worker claims radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands rendered his car 'undriveable'
Taylor said Sandilands, 44, attempted to argue who was at fault: 'I said I had my left one on its still on you can see it and he said "Well Ive got a dashcam and can prove it".'
The King of Australian radio was also said to have reluctantly given his insurance details, only to 'hurry off' once he had.
Sandilands' manager Andrew Hawkins described the incident to Daily Mail Australia as a 'fender bender'.
'No one was injured, no traffic infringements were made,' he said.
Hawkins insisted that Kyle was not on his telephone and that his client 'did get out of the car to exchange info, and to take photos'.
'We trust the insurance companies for the respective parties will sort the rest,' he added.
Unhappy: The King of Australian radio was also said to have reluctantly given his insurance details, only to 'hurry off' once he had
'No one was injured': Sandilands' management told The Daily Telegraph that the incident wasn't serious
In 2015, Sandilands arrived into the studio to admit he has been pulled over by police on his way into the office for speeding.
He told his colleague Jacke O Henderson and their listeners that he had been accused of driving '84 in a 60-zone'.
He said: 'I thought "Nah, that is highly unlikely with the weather and everything",' Sandilands said before asking the policeman 'can you show me the radar?'
'Can you show me the radar?' Sandilands suggested he'd initially laughed off the matter
Much to the surprise of the disc jockey, the officer answered, 'I didn't get you on the radar'.
Laughing off the matter, Sandilands admitted he took his time to get his license out, knowing the officer was getting wet while he stood in the rain waiting.
But the moment was soon taken away from Sandilands when the officer informed him that his $600,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe was in fact unregistered.
He's practically a household name with an Oscar and numerous hit projects under his belt.
But, while reflecting on channeling his fame towards the greater good, Matt Damon, 45, told the June/July Philanthropy issue of Town & Country that the transition from relative unknown to celebrity was 'surreal.'
'It's surreal to suddenly wake up to one day and have a larger sphere of influence than you ever anticipated. You genuinely want to do good in the world, but you're going to make a lot of missteps,' he said.
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'It's surreal': Matt Damon spoke with the June/July issue of Town & Country about how unreal the transition to celebrity was for him, and how he's learned to channel that fame towards the greater good
The actor is no stranger to improving the lives of others, as he took service trips as a teen with his mother to Mexico and Guatemala.
But Matt says that in the early days of his fame, he grappled with finding himself attached to causes he was no expert in.
'People started asking me to come to this gala or that. And then I would find my name associated with things that I didnt know anything about.
'I didn't want to be somebody at whom people rolled their eyes, thinking, "What is he doing, getting into the middle of this kind of stuff?"
Zeroing in: The Good Will Hunting actor described how in his early days of fame, he found that his name was being 'associated with things that I didnt know anything about'
Eventually, once Matt found a sense of steadiness in his life, the actor zeroed in on the cause of clean water, co-founding with engineer Gary White the nonprofit Water.org.
The nonprofit helps provide safe water and sanitation to people around the world.
Matt, who stars on the cover of Town & Country, said that he has found the issue to be a non-partisan one, but he did endorse presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
'She understands it from a number of different anglesas a national security issue, as a human rights issue, and, obviously, its impact on women and girls.
Passionate: The 45-year-old's passion for improving lives led him to co-found the Water.org with engineer Gary White
'This is not a partisan issue, which is one really good thing about it. We've talked in equal parts to Republican and Democratic senators and congressmen,' he added.
Aside from working bringing clean water to people all around the world, Matt has been busy with his movie career.
He will return to the big screen in Jason Bourne, the fifth installment of the Bourne film franchise.
The film, which has a July 29 release date, will mark the first time Matt has starred in a Bourne movie since 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum.
Back in business: Jason Bourne, which has a July 29 release date, will mark the first time Matt has starred in a Bourne movie since 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum
It comes after the lightly regarded spin-off picture The Bourne Legacy, which starred former makeup artist Jeremy Renner as a relatively generic super agent.
The new Bourne film, which is directed by Paul Greengrass, sees Damon star alongside fellow A-listers Julia Stiles, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel and Tommy Lee Jones.
There's nothing easy about flying long-haul with children.
But Gisele Bundchen knew just how to keep daughter Vivian entertained on their grueling flight back to her homeland of Brasil.
The model mother gave her three-year-old a cuddly toy unicorn to occupy her, which judging from the youngster's matching shirt was the perfect choice.
Could she be any sweeter? Gisele's daughter Vivian carries a unicorn as the pair jet off on a mother-daughter trip to Brasil on Tuesday
The two looked excited to start their mother-daughter trip as they arrived in Guarulhos Airport in Sao Paulo.
Gisele wore a striped grey and white long sleeve top, with a pair of artfully ripped jeans - perfect for keeping warm on the air conditioned aircraft.
She carried a black pillow under her arm, for catching some shut-eye on the 14 hour journey.
Vacation time: The two looked excited to start their mother-daughter trip as they arrived in Guarulhos Airport in Sao Paulo
The 35-year-old, who hails from the South American country, obviously has no intention of staying away from her native country despite the worries over the Zika virus outbreak.
She has myriad business interests in the country, along with plenty of family ties.
And with the country hosting this summer's Olympics, Gisele is sure to want to join in on the fun.
Jet set style: Gisele wore a striped grey and white long sleeve top, with a pair of artfully ripped jeans - perfect for keeping warm on the air conditioned aircraft
Not seen on the trip was Gisele's husband Tom Brady, who perhaps remained at home in Boston with their six-year-old school-age son Benjamin.
The family spent Mother's Day together, before Gisele and Vivian headed off on their trip.
On the day Gisele shared a flashback image from her Brazilian childhood, showing the model and her five sisters surrounding their mother.
'I want to honor and thank my mom and all the mothers for the love, dedication, patience and for the lessons only a mother can teach,' she wrote.
Her first feature film is due to hit screens across the world in a matter of mere weeks.
And it looks like Lily-Rose Depp's performance in Yoga Hosers is set top be an outright sass-fest, as the 16-year-old model and actress throws out one-liners and surly stares like there's not tomorrow.
Starring alongside Harley Quinn Smith as a disgruntled teenage shop girl in a small Canadian town, Johnny Depp's eldest child has to contend with the perils of party invites from the local hottie and a hellish dose of ancient evil.
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A sassy display: It looks like Lily-Rose Depp's performance in Yoga Hosers is set top be an outright sass-fest, as the 16-year-old model and actress throws out one-liners and surly stares like there's not tomorrow
The new clip from the film, directed by Jay and Silent Bob star Kevin Smith, sees Lily in her role as one of the 'Two Colleens' - Colleen Collette.
Obsorbed in her phone, and with too much at stake to come across as 'basic', the scene opens with Lily showing off her comic skills; moodily playing off Harley Quinn Smith's exuberant Colleen McKenzie.
With the duo stood behind the counter at the local convenience store, teenage angst strikes as Hunter Calloway (Austin Butler) strides in and the struggle to play it cool with him begins.
Teenage kicks: Starring alongside Harley Quinn Smith as a disgruntled teenage shop girl in a small Canadian town, Lily has to contend with the perils of party invites from the local heart throb and a hellish dose of ancient evil
Showing Smith's trademark use of socially-relevant humour and wit, the clip features cut-away's introducing the heartthrob to the viewers alongside with his party-hard side-kick, Gordon Greenleaf.
And while it may seem that store life is distinctly unglamorous, the 'Colleen coalition' gets their greatest gift when Hunter invites them along to his Friday night party.
It seems like everything is about to work out for the duo, with the charming senior extending them a personal invite, as well as an exchange of number... but with it being a Kevin Smith film the odds on a smooth ride are slim to non.
Hes' the man! The new clip from the film, directed by Jay and Silent Bob star Kevin Smith, sees Lily in her role as one of the 'Two Colleens' - Colleen Collette - as they encounter love-interest, Hunter Calloway
#Hottie: Showing Smith's trademark use of socially-relevant humour and wit, the clip features cut-away's introducing the heartthrob to the viewers alongside with his party-hard side-kick, Gordon Greenleaf
Paying homage to his own early acting career, as the near mute Silent Bob in Mall Rats and Clerks, the film centres around the absurd happening in the most mundane and ordinary situations.
And while Lily-Rose may be making a name for herself on the catwalk, the face of Chanel eyewear is kitted out in the less than glamorous red and yellow EH-2-ZED store smock.
Though the clip gives little away as to what's in store for the two girls, with Johnny Depp's eccentric detective character firmly out of view - as is Haley Joel Osment's equally strange, Adrien Arcand.
Having had a brief initial release at the Sundance Festival in January, Kevin Smith's follow up to Tush - and his second feature in the True North series - will hit screens on general release in July.
The film also stars Haley Quinn, 16 - Kevin's daughter - and a host of other famous faces including Adam Brody and Justin Long.
Netflix released a new trailer for season four of Orange Is The New Black on Tuesday and it promises a tension-filled plot with plenty of changes for the women inside.
As the video clip begins, Taylor Schilling who plays Piper is seen nervously standing in the exercise yard.
'I've been in Litchfield for a while now,' she says in voiceover, 'and I have started to feel unsafe lately.'
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Feeling unsafe: Taylor Schilling's Piper faces tough days ahead according to the newly released trailer for Orange Is The new Black season four
Settling scores: A grim-faced Piper is confronted in the exercise yard by Maria (Jessica Pimentel) who threatens to take her down
She's confronted by fellow inmate Maria who tells her: 'I am going to bury you!'
The set up for season four of the award-winning series is that Litchfield is now a for-profit prison and has 100 new inmates and a bunch of new guards.
With that come new rules and it seems that the simmering feuds and intense relationships are about to come to an explosive head.
All change: In season four of the Netflix original series, Litchfield Correctional Facility has become a for-profit prison and there are new rules in place
Crowded: There are also 100 new women on the cell block adding to the existing tensions
Explosive situation: Animosity between factions is on the rise
As standoffs play out along religious and along racial lines,Lea Delaria as Big Boo, now a series regular, is shown saying: 'I do not like where this is headed.'
'Everybody getting on each other's nerves, s***'s gonna get stirred,' observes Samira Wiley's Poussey Washington.
And then the trailer shows a SWAT team arriving at the prison and heavily armed officers running into the facility.
Nervous: Lea DeLaria's Big Boo, promoted this season to a series regular, can read the warning signs and is fearful of what is coming down the pipeline
Emergency: A SWAT truck is seen driving up to the prison and heavily armed officers leaping out
What's going on? Sophia, played by Laverne Cox, is glimpsed still in solitary confinement
The clip also reveals that Laverne Cox's Sophia is still confined in solitary, while Uzo Adubas Crazy Eyes is glimpsed lying injured in a hospital bed.
As the action flashes by, and the trailer comes to a close, Pennsatucky, played by Taryn Manning, is seen with a look of heartbreak on her face.
'Do you know the difference between pain and suffering?' she asks. 'Pain is always there. But suffering is a choice.'
Distress: An anguished Taryn Manning, as Pennsatucky, asks: 'Do you know the difference between pain and suffering?'
'Suffering is a choice': There's clearly heartbreak ahead for some of the women in season four
OITNB being a dramedy, there are still flashes of humor in store for season four.
Taystee, played by Danielle Brooks, has a new job as prison secretary - but is struggling o master the art of patching phone calls through to prison boss Joe Caputo (Nick Sandow).
Kate Mulgrew continues to delight as Red.
'Can you keep a secret?' an unidentified inmate is heard asking her.
'I love secrets,' she replies.
In the know: In more light-hearted moments, the clip for the dramedy shows Kate Mulgrew's Red relishing the prospect of getting in on a secret
Moving on up: Taystee, played by Danielle Brooks, has a new job as prison secretary - if she can just work out how to operate the phone system correctly
Celebrity inmate: Newcomer Blair Brown plays Judy, a celebrity chef, who has her own perspective on life that she brings with her to Litchfield
Among the new women behind bars is Judy, played by newcomer Blair Brown.
She's a celebrity chef and she's soon sharing her thoughts on the world with her cellmates.
'People are always trying to desexualize women my age, and I just wont allow it,' she tells Poussey while dressed in a white bathrobe and smoking a cigarette over breakfast.
Orange Is the New Black Season four premieres on Netflix on June 17.
Standing alone: Piper reveals that she's turned the whole prison against her
Nail-biting: It seems that the simmering feuds and intense relationships are about to come to an explosive head
She's a major player in the fashion industry.
And Victoria Beckham, 42, stepped away from her eponymous London store on Monday to attend a celebration of her new Estee Lauder make-up collection at the Arts Club in Mayfair.
The designer was typically stylish in one of her own 950 black and white striped knitted tops, black trousers and matching high heels as she headed out into the sunshine.
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Fashion queen: Victoria Beckham, 42, stepped away from her eponymous London store on Monday to attend a celebration of her new Estee Lauder make-up collection at the Arts Club in Mayfair
The mother-of-four wore her trademark oversized shades to cover her eyes and styled her hair in a messy bun.
As she raised her hand to adjust her glasses she displayed a huge sparkling rock and a bold red manicure.
Victoria emanated a healthy bronze glow and gave her lips a generous slick of gloss. She accessorised with a chunky gold bracelet and her phone case had a personalised VB case.
Walking tall: As she sauntered along the street, Victoria cut a svelte figure
Ready to party: Victoria looked relaxed with her hand tucked in her pocket and her phone in her opposite hand
Strutting her stuff: The singer-come-designer had no problems strolling in her teetering heels
A time to celebrate: Victoria was no doubt thrilled to finally celebrate all of her efforts coming to fruition
The star looked in fine spirits as she left the shop surrounded by her entourage, and her arms appeared toned in the short-sleeved garment.
Victoria announced last month that she was teaming up with Estee Lauder to create a limited edition make-up collection.
The former Spice Girl already sells bags, sunglasses and clothes through her eponymous range, as well as fragrances with her husband David.
What furry noses you have! Victoria also posed for some fun snaps with Brooklyn
Looking good: The designer was typically stylish in one of her own 950 black and white striped knitted tops, black trousers and matching high heels as she headed out into the sunshine
Typically stylish: The mother-of-four wore her trademark oversized shades to cover her eyes and styled her hair in a messy bun
Sparkler: As she raised her hand to adjust her glasses she displayed a huge sparkling rock and a bold red manicure
Glamorous: Victoria emanated a healthy bronze glow and gave her lips a generous slick of gloss
She gushed at the time: 'I am thrilled to be launching this limited-edition make-up collection with Estee Lauder.
'The whole process has been both inspiring and eye-opening - from going back and revisiting the Estee Lauder archives through to working on the product with the Estee team, this feels like the perfect make-up partnership for me and my brand.'
The former Spice Girl has been preparing her shop for a preview of her new collaboration.
In shape: The star looked in fine spirits as she left the shop surrounded by her entourage, her arms looked toned in the short-sleeved garment
Personal touch: She accessorised with a chunky gold bracelet and her phone case had a personalised VB case
New opportunity: Victoria announced last month that she was teaming up with Estee Lauder to create a limited edition make-up collection
Branching out: The former Spice Girl already sells bags, sunglasses and clothes through her eponymous range, as well as fragrances with her husband David
Delighted: Victoria has previously spoken of how thrilled she was to work with the Estee team
And the importance of the job did not stop her from having a little fun with the task at hand - and the 10.4M followers of her Instagram account.
Victoria posed up a storm beside some of the mannequins at her Mayfair store, striking a defiant pose on the steps of her boutique against a backdrop of shop dummies.
She wrote: 'Fun day in my shop today presenting my collaboration with @esteelauder #VBxEsteeLauder #VBDoverSt #VBHongKong X #girlsgirl x VB.
'Victoria Beckham and Estee Lauder X It's AMAZING ladies!! My dream come true!!!! Can't wait to share it with u all! @esteelauder #VBxEsteeLauder #vbdoverst #vbhongkong X VB #girlsgirl.'
Sun's out, guns out: It was the perfect day for a stroll as the temperature stayed high and the sun shone brightly
Work hard, play hard: Victoria has always put maximum effort into her brand and it was only right she celebrated her latest success
Hotline bling: Victoria's stunning jewellery glistened in the sun as she held up her phone
Hot! The star was co-ordinated throughout her entire ensemble, with even her phone case black and white
The handover: Victoria passed her phone to a member of her team
Krysten Ritter sure didn't look lonely on her jaunt to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico over the weekend.
The 34-year-old Jessica Jones star had one of her pretty female pals by her side as she took in the warm climate and sandy beaches.
The two were also side-by-side as they cooled off in a swimming pool at the Villa La Estania Resort & Spa.
Making a point: Krysten Ritter sure didn't look lonely on her jaunt to Mexico over the weekend. The Jessica Jones star had one of her pretty female pals by her side
In the swim: Over the weekend the two were side by side as they cooled off in a swimming pool
While the actress had on a polka dot bikini top, her pal wore basic black.
The ladies looked to be in good spirits as they stayed in the water long enough to get their hair wet.
Ritter kept her sunglasses on the entire time.
Matchy: While the actress had on a polka dot bikini top, her pal wore basic black
Shady ladies: The lookers cooled off in a corner of the pool where the sun didn't shine
Looking back: The girlfriends showed off their fit backsides as they looked out
The 34-year-old Jessica Jones' star proved all that combat action and hard work has paid off as she showed off her incredible figure.
The raven haired actress paraded her toned and fit physique in a mismatched bikini.
She wore a pair of black bikini bottoms and an off the shoulder black and white polka dot bikini top as she strolled along the exotic beach.
The two piece perfectly accentuated her toned figure as she sipped on a fruity cocktail with her friend.
She enjoys her day job: Krysten said her character is 'very cool there are so many layers for me to play as an actor'
Girls holiday! The 34-year-old Jessica Jones actress took some time out of her busy schedule to soak up the sun
Legs for days: The actress showed off her slender physique and endless legs in her little two-piece
The duo were seen sunbathing on the remote beach as they lay there relaxing with their exotic drinks.
Krysten changed into a different bikini later in the day as she was seen sporting a skimpy red two-piece.
The crimson bikini perfectly complimented her alabaster skin.
Down time: Krysten no doubt was excited to have some time off from her action packed superhero show
Happy hour! The duo were seen sunbathing on the remote beach as they lay there relaxing with their exotic drinks
Krysten plays Jessica in Jessica Jones - a superhero who decides to reboot her life by becoming a private investigator.
Krysten along with Melissa Rosenberg, the series creator of Jessica Jones, recently discussed the critically acclaimed Netflix show.
The series, which follows the troubled and complex superhero Jessica Jones, has been renewed for a second season due to such high ratings.
I'm ready for my close up: The Marvel actress looked camera ready as she strolled along the beach
In her element: The raven haired beauty looked over the moon to be enjoying some down time
Teeny tiny polka dot bikini! The raven haired actress paraded her toned and fit physique in a mismatched bikini
When discussing her character with Deadline, Krysten revealed: 'I never played her like a superhero'.
She said that if her character dominated someone physically it was more because her character is: 'so strong inside'.
She went on to say that Jessica was a very diverse character which made it more fun to play: 'Shes very cool there are so many layers for me to play as an actor'.
The fact that this is Marvels first female superheroic lead who has to overcome all these problems makes it that much more interesting.
However, Krysten stressed that gender wasn't necessarily the point here: 'It didnt feel I was approaching it as a female character It was really about building a character, not being defined by her gender but informed by it'.
Crimson delight! She later changed into another bikini which complimented her alabaster skin
At least one half of the famous duo is in town.
Susan Sarandon, who played Louise in the now iconic 1991 film Thelma & Louise, arrived on the French riviera for the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday.
The 69-year-old, who looked years younger than her age, is due to get an award with her co-star Geena Davis, 59, who played Thelma in director Ridley Scott's cult classic.
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Smile and wave: Susan Sarandon made quite an impression when she turned up at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Cannes in a sheer black and white blouse that showed off her ample bust on Tuesday
The film, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, first screened at Cannes in 1991.
Geena is yet to be seen on the Croisette but Susan made quite an impression when she turned up at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in a sheer black and white blouse that showed off her ample bust.
She teamed it with black skinny leg trousers, emphasizing her flat tummy and long legs, plus black sneakers.
The stunning red-head pulled her tresses away from her face, revealing her porcelain skin.
See Cannes Film Festival 2016 updates as Susan Sarandon stuns in a sheer blouse
She's still got it: The 69-year-old, who looked years younger than her age, is at the Cannes Film Festival to receive an award with her Thelma & Louise co-star Geena Davis
Susan didn't appear to be wearing much in the way of make-up beyond red lipstick and she protected her eyes from the glare with a pair of white-rimmed shades.
She slung a black leather rucksack-style bag over her shoulder and smiled and waved as she walked into her hotel.
Susan and Geena are due to receive the festival's Women In Motion award at the Presidential Dinner on Sunday.
Looking good: The star teamed her sheer top, which clearly showed her bra, with black skinny leg trousers that made the most of her flat stomache
Taking things in her stride: The celebrity accessorised with a black leather handbag that hung off her shoulder
The Academy Award-winning actresses are being feted for their contributions to the movie industry and womens causes as part of a program that aims to support female professionals in the film business.
Geena is founder and chair of the non-profit Geena Davis Institute On Gender In Media, which researches the imbalance of female characters on-screen and behind the camera.
On Sunday she wrapped her 2nd Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas, championing women and diverse Voices in media.
Women's rights actiists: Susan and Geena, 59, pictured at the Bentonville Film Festival she founded in Arkansas on Thursday, are being honoured for their contributions to the movie industry and womens causes
Susan is a human rights activist involved with various non-profits and organizations worldwide.
This is the second edition of the prize, which was given to Jane Fonda and producer Megan Ellison last year.
Meanwhile, Woody Allen's film Cafe Society will open the festival on Wednesday.
She's got a real knack for dressing flawlessly in styles from throughout the past 50 or so years.
And for Kate Moss on Tuesday, it was all about the 1960s as she stepped out at Saks Fifth Avenue in Toronto, Canada, as cosmetics brand Cosme Decorte held an official welcome party for her.
The 42-year-old British fashion icon put on a very leggy display as she teamed a thigh-grazing black and white printed mini dress with sheer tights.
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Feeling the 1960s vibe: Kate Moss stepped out at Saks Fifth Avenue in Toronto, Canada, as cosmetics brand Cosme Decorte held an official welcome party for her on Tuesday
The tiny garment skimmed over her slender 5ft 7in frame, disregarding the inward shape of her waistline and flipping out slightly into the briefest of A-line hems.
The shift dress included a classic retro high neckline and long sleeves, with swirly black and white patterns all over the slinky fabric.
And, surprisingly for a pair of tights, they drew far more attention to her perfect slim pins than if she was bare-legged, the very low denier working wonders for her stems.
She's got the legs for it! The 42-year-old British fashion icon put on a very leggy display as she teamed a thigh-grazing black and white printed mini dress with sheer tights
Working it: The tiny garment skimmed over her slender 5ft 7in frame, disregarding the inward shape of her waistline and flipping out slightly into the briefest of A-line hems
Groovy, baby! The shift dress included a classic retro high neckline and long sleeves, with swirly black and white patterns all over the slinky fabric
Keeping it cool, she teamed her monochrome ensemble with a pair of flat patent Mary-Jane shoes, the supermodel clearly feeling no need to elevate her height for the afternoon's launch.
Her glossy blonde mane was worn loose and in slight waves, tumbling over her shoulders, and she wore just a touch of natural make-up to highlight her catwalk-ready looks.
Kate looked in bubbly spirits as she was guided through the mall, down an escalator and through to the store, where she signed a guest book.
Crossing those runway-ready legs! Her sheer tights drew far more attention to her perfect slim pins than if she was bare-legged, the very low denier working wonders for her stems
Flawless: Kate looked as stunning as ever with her golden mane blown out into a loose, wavy style for the cosmetic's brand event
Shady lady: During her walk through Saks, Kate donned a pair of sunglasses
Waiting around? At one point during her work duties, Kate seemed a tad bored
The Croydon-born star signed on with Japanese cosmetics giant KOSE to represent Cosme Decorte range last year, and on Monday she attended the store's official launch in the Canadian city.
The high-tech skincare brand is known for their innovative moisturizers, essences, and serums.
In a July press release, Kate said: 'I love Decorte. The products are amazing. I just tried the intensive moisturizer its incredible. I really want it to come to Europe.'
Doing her bit: The Croydon-born star signed on with Japanese cosmetics giant KOSE to represent Cosme Decorte range last year
And... smile! While signing a book, Kate flashed a small smile for the cameras
With the big man: Kate was joined by President of Decorte Beauty Kazutoshi Kobayashi for the event
No letting go! While addressing the assembled guests at the Toronto Saks Fifth Avenue store, Kate refused to let go of her handbag
Meanwhile Kate snubbed the Met Gala last week to enjoy dinner with her boyfriend Nikolai Von Bismarck.
Kate seemed to make a further departure from her fashion roots last month, when she ditched the modelling agency that scouted her 28 years ago.
The '90s supermodel icon was discovered at the age of 14 by Storm Model Management's founder Sarah Doukas.
She's favoured a more low-key lifestyle since her separation from Jamie Hince, which she's still yet to confirm.
Sofia Vergara flew down to her home country of Colombia last Friday to attend a family wedding and shoot a beer commercial.
But things got a little too close for comfort for the 43-year-old Modern Family star while hitting up a local hotspot in Cartagena during a night on the town on Monday.
Sofia appeared to be getting jostled in the heavily packed nightclub because of the volume of people that were there but, like the gregarious lady that she is, the stunner took it all in stride.
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Too close for comfort? Sofia Vergara got caught up in the crowd while hitting up a nightclub in Cartagena, Colombia
The brunette beauty appeared to be rubbing more shoulders than usual as she inched her way through the crowd and possibly to a clearer space.
However, the rest of Sofia's getaway seemed to be rolling along splendidly for the star judging by the vivid and happy photos she's been posting to Instagram.
Sofia was a gorgeous guest at her cousin Alejandro Vergara's wedding at the Hotel Santa Clara in Cartagena where she poured her curvaceous figure into a strapless royal-blue floor-length gown.
That doesn't look too fun: The 43-year-old Modern Family star appeared to be caught up in the crowd
Need some air? Sofia was pictured moving slowly through the crowd of clubgoers
Outta here: The star - who managed to exit the club with her entourage - took it all in stride
A heavy necklace dressed up her decolletage while her heavy brown locks were cascading over her shoulders.
Sofia appeared to have made the trip without her husband Joe Manganiello, but her 23-year-old son Manolo did accompany her.
The actress couldn't contain her happiness as she shared a series of snaps from the wedding reception where huge bouquets of white flowers could be seen and wall sconces bathed the room in an amber glow.
Wedding day: Sofia dazzled in a dark blue strapless dress at the wedding of her cousin Alejandro Vergara
With the bride: The smiling star was proud to pose with Natalia the bride
Family matters: The mother-of-one was accompanied on the trip by her 23-year-old son Manolo, right
'Natalia and @amvergarad wedding weekeend,' Sofia captioned a snap of her with the happy couple ahead of the festivity.
On Monday, Sofia participated in a photo shoot to promote Cerveza Aguila, one of Colombia's major beer brands.
Sofia, who is the company's new spokesperson, shared plenty of pictures from the set that saw her sampling the brew along with delicious-looking cuisine.
'Calles de Cartagena': Sofia had a smiling good time as she hit up the streets of Cartagena with son Manolo
Work or play? The Colombian beauty looked gorgeous sipping a cool beverage during a photo shoot to promote Cerveza Aguila beer in this picture posted to her Instagram on Monday
In one photo, Sofia was seen holding up the beer while dressed in a form-fitting, white gown with plunging neckline.
'Wearing this amazing @marthamedeirosreal dress on the set in Colmbia (sic),' the star shared.
The fun continued that night as Sofia hit the streets of Cartegena with son Manolo and friends.
'Calles de Cartagena,' Sofia wrote in the caption of one picture that showed her and Manolo posing sweetly together.
She's the reigning champion after beating out the competition to win the U.S. Dancing With The Stars trophy last year.
And now Bindi Irwin has returned to the television show in a different capacity.
Making an appearance on the show on Tuesday night, the 17-year-old helped host Tom Bergeron throw to a commercial break.
Bindi's back in the ballroom! Bindi Irwin returned to Dancing with the Stars in the U.S. on Tuesday and co-hosted the show with Tom Bergeron
'I'm teaching Bindi hosting. Do you want to take us to commercial?' Tom said before handing the microphone to the wildlife conservationist.
'Absolutely!' The vivacious star said as enthusiastic fans cheered in the audience.
Bindi's mother Terri was also in the background to support the star.
Fan favourite: Bindi's mother Terri was in the background cheering along with all her adoring fans during the segment
The brunette star wore a black dress with a statement necklace for her return to the show and her hair was worn out in loose waves.
After the program, Bindi took to Instagram to share an image of herself with Tom on the show.
'Missed my other family @dancingabc! Tonight was spectacular and @tombergeron love you so much, it was great to be back in the ballroom,' Bindi wrote alongside the snapshot.
'Missed my other family': The reigning champion, 17, shared a photo and message on her Instagram page following her return to the show
Bindi's post was flooded with comments from adoring fans, praising the star and suggesting that her hosting gig become a permanent one.
'I only watched it cause I herd you were going to be there,' one fan wrote.
Another fan commented: 'OMG you would be a great co-host Bindi.'
Meanwhile, other fans even suggested that the Sunshine Coast teen replace the show's current co-host Erin Andrews.
Popular: Following Bindi's appearance on the show on Tuesday, fans took to social media to praise the 17-year-old and lobby for her to be a permanent co-host
'You killed it! You need to replace Andrews!' the fan commented.
Bindi's appearance on the show follows reports she is struggling to deal with family in-fighting as the rift continues between her mother Terri, her grandfather Bob Irwin and brother-in-law Frank Muscillo.
According to New Idea magazine, the 17-year-old has been left 'heartbroken' following her uncle's alleged dismal from Australia Zoo and is now stuck in the middle of a ever-increasing family feud.
Rift: Recent reports suggest Bindi Irwin is struggling to deal with family in-fighting after mother Terri continues to widen the rift between the late Crocodile Hunter's father Bob Irwin and brother-in-law Frank Muscillo
The weekly magazine also reports that the US Dancing With The Stars winner is trying to play peacemaker between the two sides but is torn and doesn't want to turn her back on Terri, who has been her pillar of strength since Steve's sudden death in 2006.
'She is very close to her mum, but as she gets older she has questions and she wants to honour her late father's memory by being more involved with his family here in Australia.'
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Australia Zoo for comment in relation to this report.
The story comes after reports Steve's brother-in-law Frank was 'marched off the premises at Australia Zoo' following a fight with widow Terri last month.
Paris Hilton arrived back in Los Angeles on Tuesday after attending the FIT's Gala on Monday night in NYC with her sister Nicky and brother Barron.
The hotel heiress, 35, looked runway ready in her red, black and white geometric dress. She teamed her outfit with a pair of black tights, chic black ankle boots, a pair of large sunglasses and a fedora hat.
This sighting comes after she revealed the sex of her sister Nicky's baby.
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Fresh as a daisy: Paris Hilton arrives back in Los Angeles on Tuesday at LAX airport after attending the FIT's Gala on Monday night with her sister Nicky and brother Barron
The reality star looked fresh as a daisy despite partying with her siblings at the Gala the night before.
The blonde heiress looked in high spirits as she strutted around outside the airport.
Her appearance comes after she let it slip what the sex of her sister's baby is.
Despite Nicky and her husband James Rothschild remaining silent on their baby's gender, Paris Hilton took it upon herself to reveal what the expectant parents will be having.
Happy traveller: The blonde heiress looked in high spirits as she strutted around outside the airport
Runway ready: The reality star looked catwalk ready in her red, black and white geometric dress
Paris Hilton told Us Weekly that her younger sister Nicky will be welcoming a baby girl to the family this summer.
She told them at FITs Annual Gala at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on Monday: 'Im so excited for the baby. Shes going to be such a beautiful little girl, and I cant wait to meet her.'
The reality star also revealed how the pair have been preparing for their first child together.
She said: 'Theyve been getting the nursery ready so Ive been going to all the baby stores.'
Ready for my close up: The blonde heiress looked in high spirits as she strutted around outside the airport
And it seems as though the heiress is ready to spoil her little niece:
'Now that I know its a girl, its getting easier to buy things for her. I love all the dresses I got her. There are so many beautiful dresses and little princess outfits. So I cant wait to see her in them.'
Paris went on to explain just how excited she was about welcoming the little one into the world: 'Im just excited to meet her! And just do aunt things.'
Stealing their thunder: Paris Hilton told Us Weekly that her younger sister Nicky will be welcoming a baby girl to the family this summer
Ready to spoil her niece: Paris said: 'Now that I know its a girl, its getting easier to buy things for her. I love all the dresses I got her. There are so many beautiful dresses and little princess outfits'
This is all a new experience for her and something which she can't wait to explore: 'Ive never been an aunt so itll be something very new for me, and I love babies so I cant wait just to see her.'
Paris was then asked what the little girl might be called: 'My favorite name for a baby is London, but thats for my baby! For her, I dont know. I cant really think of a name.'
It seems Nicky has found out of the sex of the baby just in time for her baby shower, which will take place next week in L.A.
She is always dressed to impress at red carpet events.
And Kimberley Garner did not disappoint at the Alice Through The Looking Glass premiere in London on Tuesday evening.
The former Made In Chelsea star flashed the flesh in a sexy ensemble as she hit the blue carpet alongside cast and crew in Leicester Square.
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Simply bra-vellous: Kimberley Garner did not disappoint at the Alice Through The Looking Glass premiere in London on Tuesday evening
The 26-year-old braved the drizzle in a black lace bustier bra which she team with black trousers and a matching blazer.
She added height to her ensemble with black stiletto heels while she accessorised with an on trend choker.
Her blonde locks were styled into a face-framing up-do while she completed her look with natural make-up and a white manicure.
Strike a pose: The former Made In Chelsea star flashed the flesh in a sexy ensemble as she hit the blue carpet alongside cast and crew in Leicester Square
All smiles: The 26-year-old braved the drizzle in a black lace bustier bra which she team with black trousers and a matching blazer
Taking to Instagram to show off her look, she wrote: Speediest change #KL office to #aliceinwonderland #alicethroughthelookingglass @disney full outfit @laperlalingerie.
Tim Burton's new film is the sequel to 2010's Alice In Wonderland, based on the book by Lewis Carroll.
Having returned from sailing the high seas, Alice mysteriously finds a magic looking glass and soon finds herself back in the dream-like world of Underland.
Practised pose: She added height to her ensemble with black stiletto heels while she accessorised with an on trend choker
Blonde beauty: Her blonde locks were styled into a face-framing up-do while she completed her look with natural make-up and a white manicure
Other actors present at the event, include Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska and Ed Speelers.
Former reality TV star Kimberley recently reunited with her mother in London after an extended stint in the States.
Geraldine came out to stay with her daughter in LA 12 weeks ago and they had been sharing a Stateside lifestyle ever since.
Hot stuff: Taking to Instagram to show off her look, she wrote, Speediest change #KL office to #aliceinwonderland #alicethroughthelookingglass @disney full outfit @laperlalingerie
She is one of Australias most loved models with an endless array of clothing at her disposal.
So its no wonder Andreja Pejic worked an off-duty chic look to perfection as she stepped out in New York City with a male companion on Tuesday afternoon.
Cutting a relaxed and content figure, the transgender model was hard to miss in a striking black furry overcoat during the casual stroll through the sprawling metropolis.
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City girl! Andreja Pejic worked an off-duty chic look to perfection as she stepped out in New York City with a male companion on Tuesday afternoon
She teamed the glamorous garment with some on-trend flared denim jeans and plain white sneakers, while keeping her accessorises to a minimum for the otherwise low-key outing.
Scraping her sleek blonde tresses away from her face, the 24-year-old stripped back the glamour by opting to go makeup-free.
The fashion star kept her hands in her pockets, while she happily chatted away with her friend during her day off from work.
Low-key stroll: Cutting a relaxed and content figure, the transgender model was hard to miss in a striking black furry overcoat, which was teamed with flared jeans and white trainers
Born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Andreja and her family immigrated to Melbourne as political refugees when she was eight years old in 2000.
She was scouted at age 16 while working at McDonald's and began making a name for herself as an androgynous model, showcasing both male and female designs.
In 2014, Andreja made the transition to female and has since become the first transgender model to front a cosmetics campaign. Her debut as the face of Make Up Forever was unveiled in July 2015.
Model star! In 2014, Andreja made the transition to female and has since become the first transgender model to front a cosmetics campaign. Her debut as the face of Make Up Forever was unveiled in July 2015
In February last year, she made her triumphant debut on the catwalk as a woman following a year spent undergoing a series of gender reassignment procedures.
Speaking to Vogue about her decision to transition, the Melbourne-raised beauty revealed that she had been advised not to undergo the surgery because it would transform her from an interesting enigma into just another pretty girl.
There was definitely a lot of, "Oh, youre going to lose whats special about you. Youre not going to be interesting anymore. There are loads of pretty girls out there,"' she explained, before adding: 'It is about showing that this is not just a gimmick.'
Kunduz report shows US troops' continued Afghan combat
They were shot at "tens upon tens of thousands" of times, took part in multiple firefights -- and escaped death thanks only to an "absolute miracle."
Testimony in a recently declassified military report provides a glimpse into the role of US troops in Afghanistan, where despite an official end to their combat mission, they ended up in a fierce battle against a resurgent Taliban.
The accounts are detailed in a probe into the failings that led to the US air strike on a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz that killed 42 people.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) staff stand outside the damaged MSF hospital in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, in November 2015 Najim Rahim (AFP/File)
The document primarily describes events around the October 3 disaster, but it also highlights broader frustrations with the "political expedience" of US policy and problems dogging local Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, who assumed responsibility for their country's security in 2015.
Since the Afghans took over, US troop numbers have dipped to 9,800, and are currently set to fall to 5,500 next year, though Afghan forces are struggling and that number could change based on recommendations from the new US commander, General John Nicholson.
President Barack Obama was elected on a pledge to end US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has stressed remaining troops are no longer in combat roles. He has also ruled out a "boots-on-the-ground" combat deployment to Syria.
Officially, US troops remain in an advisory capacity to support and train local partners.
"They're performing a challenging, difficult responsibility that oftentimes can put them in harm's way," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Monday.
"We are asking a lot of US forces right now."
- Taliban takeover of Kunduz -
When the Taliban briefly captured Kunduz in late September, Afghan forces were in disarray and US Green Beret special operations troops ended up helping with the combat over several grueling days.
"There was a level of sophistication and coordination that none of us had ever come up against," one servicemember, whose name was redacted, said in a sworn statement.
"There numerous -- now confirmed -- reports of significant foreign involvement from several different countries. Ten upon tens upon tens of thousands of rounds were fired against us during our effort to retake the city.
"How no one was killed, or even wounded, is an absolute miracle."
He goes on to lambast the "moral cowardice" and "profound lack of strategy" in Afghanistan, saying his unit asked commanders three times for clarification about their role.
"Sadly, the only sounds audible were the sounds of crickets... though those were hard to hear over the gunfire," the soldier wrote.
"'How far do you want to go?' is not a proper response to 'How far do you want us to go?'"
On October 3, 2015, US special forces were deployed to Kunduz alongside Afghan forces in order to recapture the northern city from the Taliban, who had overrun it in one of their dramatic successes of the war.
At the time of the attack on the hospital, a joint US and Afghan force had been engaged in a fierce street battle for four days and was tired and running low on supplies.
Coming under fire once again, the troops called for air support from an AC-130 gunship, a powerful war plane based on the airframe of a transport aircraft but equipped with cannons and a howitzer.
In what the US military has called a series of mistakes during a frenetic battle, the crew misidentified what they thought was a Taliban-occupied building, instead striking the MSF hospital and civilians outside it.
The crew will not face war crimes charges, their commander announced April 29, though 16 personnel found to have failed in their duties will face administrative suspensions or reprimands.
Special operations troops have recently seen increasing combat in Iraq too. A Navy SEAL was killed near Mosul last week during an unexpected firefight with the Islamic State group.
US soldiers stand next a military vehicle as they arrive at the site of a suicide car bomb attack which targeted a compound for foreign contractors near the international airport in Kabul, on January 4, 2016 Wakil Kohsar (AFP/File)
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) staff walk through the rubble in the damaged MSF hospital in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, in November 2015 Najim Rahim (AFP/File)
China's President Xi Jinping congratulates North Korea's Kim
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message to North Korea's Kim Jong-Un, congratulating him on his election as ruling party chairman at a congress at which Beijing -- Pyongyang's closest ally -- was notably absent.
In his message, Xi described ties with North Korea as a "precious asset" that was personally "cultivated by the leaders of the elder generation" the North's official KCNA news agency said Tuesday.
North Korea wrapped up its first ruling party congress in 36 years on Monday, appointing Kim party chairman and formally endorsing his legacy "byungjin" doctrine of parallel economic and nuclear development.
Attendees cheer the arrival of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 7th Workers Party Congress at the April 25 Palace in Pyongyang, on May 9, 2016 Antoine Demaison (AFP)
The fact that there was no Chinese representation at the once-in-a-generation gathering was viewed as a sign of fraying ties between the two traditional allies.
A large Chinese delegation had attended the last Workers' Party congress in 1980, headed by Li Xiannian, later China's official head of state.
Beijing has been a key diplomatic protector of North Korea, providing an economic lifeline that has allowed it to ride out waves of international sanctions.
But the relationship between the two nations, once said to be as close as lips and teeth, has become increasingly strained as China's patience with the North's refusal to rein in its nuclear weapons ambitions has worn increasingly thin.
China approved the latest raft of UN sanctions -- the toughest to date -- that were imposed after the North's January nuclear test, and there are signs that it is implementing the measures.
But China is wary of pushing the North too far, fearing a regime collapse that could create a refugee crisis on its border and swing the regional balance of power towards the United States.
"The Chinese party and government attach great importance to the Sino-DPRK relations," Xi said in his message. "We will make efforts together with the DPRK side to bring happiness to the two countries and their peoples."
DPRK is the official abbreviation for North Korea.
Ferguson, Missouri gets black police chief after Michael Brown case
An African American officer took the helm of the police department in Ferguson, Missouri, less than two years after police there killed unarmed black teen Michael Brown.
Brown's 2014 death sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests, and ignited a national debate about race relations and law enforcement in the United States.
Ferguson was required to reform its police department and courts after federal investigators found a widespread pattern of racial discrimination and multiple violations of citizens' constitutional rights in the St Louis, Missouri suburb.
Police stand guard on the anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown in August 2015 in Ferguson, Missouri Scott Olson (Getty/AFP/File)
Delrish Moss, a veteran of the Miami police seen as an expert in community policing, was brought in to try to restore the community's confidence in the authorities.
Moss, 51, pledged to bring more diversity to the department, which is majority white in a city where two thirds of residents are African American.
Prior to its reforms, a federal investigation found that police officers in the city of 21,000 "routinely" pulled over motorists without reasonable suspicion, carried out arrests without probable cause and used "unreasonable force."
Florida pharmacies taking orders from crisis-hit Venezuela
The phone rings off the hook these days at some pharmacies in Florida and the calls are long-distance: from Venezuelans desperate for everything from diapers to cancer medication.
Venezuela, though sitting atop the world's largest proven oil reserves, is enduring an acute economic crisis due in part to the global drop in crude prices and just about everything is in short supply, including medicine.
So people are phoning in prescriptions to a handful of pharmacies in south Florida that are willing to help, although a shortage of dollars in Venezuela means most of the orders cannot be filled: Venezuelans cannot pay for the medicine with local currency, just greenbacks, which they do not have.
One pharmacy has set up a phone line just to take calls from Venezuela, said Walter Cohen, head of international sales for Locatel Diego Urdaneta (AFP)
Still, the pharmacies are doing what they can.
The flood of calls is so great that one pharmacy set up a phone line just to take calls from Venezuela, said Walter Cohen, head of international sales for Locatel, a Venezuelan pharmacy chain that has two outlets in south Florida.
In the five years that these pharmacies have been accepting prescriptions from abroad and offering to send medicine to Venezuela "the increase has been exponential," Cohen said.
Every week the pharmacy receives about 1,000 orders for things such as medicine, vitamins and even medical equipment.
Besides Locatel, some other pharmacies, courier services and civil society organizations have stepped up to try to make it easier to send medicine to the hard-pressed people of Venezuela.
The opposition in Venezuela has gone so far as to say the country is suffering a full-blown humanitarian crisis.
But the leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro defends itself by blaming the crisis on what it says are conservative business interests maneuvering to topple him.
And as that fight grinds on, pharmacy telephones in Florida ring and ring and ring.
- Basic stuff -
"We receive countless calls at the pharmacy, each with a different story, people asking for such little things as anti-inflammatories, catheters, basic things that people simply cannot get a hold of," said Miguel Gonzalez, one of the owners of Pharm Aid, in the town of Pembroke Pines.
The medicines most commonly requested are for chronic diseases such as high blood pressure or diabetes, or to battle cancer. But Venezuelans also call in for birth control pills and even diapers, pharmacy employees said.
This is happening because Florida law allows pharmacies to accept medical prescriptions from abroad. The actual paperwork is usually sent by fax.
If the medicine requested is not available in the United States, the Venezuela-friendly pharmacies are good at suggesting alternatives or medicines with the same active ingredient as in the ones being ordered.
But payment is indeed a problem. The pharmacies only accept dollars, and they are hard to come by in Venezuela because of strict currency controls.
"We pay our suppliers in dollars, we sell for dollars. We have no other way to do it," said Cohen, who is Venezuelan himself. His company works with private foundations to try to make medicine more affordable for people back home.
Because of the currency pitfall only about 10 percent of the orders received are actually filled, Cohen said. So this kind of business "is not really economically viable for us."
But the cases that do work out are a source of true satisfaction for the pharmacy. "People call us to say 'thank you, you saved us. Those calls are what make all of this worthwhile and possible," said Cohen.
Pharm Aid often waives shipping costs when the medicine is expensive, said Freddy Abreu, another owner of the pharmacy.
- Family support -
Venezuelans are also relying on relatives in south Florida, where Venezuelan emigrants tend to settle.
"Here is where I buy my mother's medicine for high blood pressure," Venezuelan Oralia Martinez said while shopping at Locatel. She arrived in Florida a year ago on a student visa, and sends medicine home to her 72-year-old mother and other relatives.
Courier companies that send things from Florida to Venezuela report that more and more they are sending packages with medicine.
Because of Venezuela's economic crisis -- in which goods in short supply include essentials such as toilet paper and soap, besides food -- one of the couriers, Terra Overseas, does not charge for shipping medicine.
"At first we sent a lot of appliances, a lot of clothing. But now with the crisis in Venezuela we mainly send medicine and basic necessities, such as food and soap," said Lady Guillen-Rivera, vice president of Terra Overseas.
It is based in Doral, near Miami and with a large Venezuelan community.
Since the company stopped charging for shipping medication, orders have skyrocketed and its employees are working overtime.
"We have family there and every day we hear about the hardships they are enduring. So it is no longer a matter of doing business. It is not about money, but rather we need to help," said Guillen-Rivera.
Locatel is one of the pharmacies in Florida that accepts prescriptions from doctors in Venezuela and ships medicines to the South American country Diego Urdaneta (AFP)
Massive tornadoes rip across Oklahoma, at least two killed
Several massive tornadoes churned above Oklahoma on Monday, killing at least two people, with hail as big as grapefruit hitting the US state, the authorities and US media said.
The storms began forming in southern parts of the state in the afternoon, local media reported, with the first confirmed twister hitting near Elmore City, in rural Garvin County.
"Strong winds and hail as large as grapefruits were reported," a News9 television broadcast said. "It was nearly a mile wide."
Strong winds and hail as big as grapefruit were reported as several huge tornados hit Oklahoma on May 9, 2016 Josh Edelson (AFP)
Roofs were ripped off homes, and an empty bus was blasted upward and left dangling in a tree, the channel reported.
A second confirmed tornado then ripped across the southwestern town of Ninnekah, just an hour after the first.
Videos posted on social media showed large, dark cloud funnels moving quickly across the landscape.
A 76-year-old man was killed when a tornado hit his home, CBS news reported Garvin County Sheriff Larry Rhodes as saying.
Another man was reported killed in the nearby town of Connerville.
Aerial video taken along the storm paths by local media showed houses ripped apart by the tornadoes, as well as trees uprooted and mobile homes toppled.
Another storm later produced a third tornado and there were reports of smaller twisters along with golf ball-sized hail that damaged houses and other buildings.
Local television stations reported many people were unaccounted for.
A tornado also touched down in central Iowa, the National Weather Service reported, saying there were no immediate reports of damage. Another twister hit near the state of Nebraska, it said.
The storms are expected to move into the Ohio and Tennessee valleys on Tuesday, forecasters said.
Another storm system may sweep across northern Texas to Missouri on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas.
Vehicles stop on the side of a road as a tornado tears through a residential area south of Wynnewood, Oklahoma on May 9, 2016 Josh Edelson (AFP)
Five things we learned from North Korea's party congress
North Korea has wrapped up its first ruling party congress in nearly four decades.
Here are five things we learned from the four-day gathering of the isolated, nuclear-armed state's top decision-making body.
THE PARTY'S BACK
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) presides the 7th Workers Party Congress at the April 25 Palace in Pyongyang, on May 9, 2016 Antoine Demaison (AFP)
The congress sealed the political comeback of the Workers' Party of Korea which had been forced to cede decision-making influence to the military during the rule of late leader Kim Jong-Il from 1994-2011.
Kim's "songun," or military-first policy shifted the power the party had enjoyed during the rule of his father Kim Il-Sung to the generals. He never convened a single party congress during his 17 years in charge.
Since current leader Kim Jong-Un took over following his father's death in 2011, the party has regained lost ground, as he replaced scores of powerful military commanders and forged alliances with influential party officials.
The congress reasserted the party leadership as the top decision-making body, its supremacy supported by the election of Kim Jong-Un as party chairman.
NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAMME IN HIGH GEAR
Just in case anyone still had the slightest doubt, the congress underlined that North Korea intends to push full steam ahead with its nuclear weapons programme in defiance of UN sanctions and near universal condemnation.
Kim Jong-Un praised the "magnificent and exhilarating sound" of the North's last nuclear test in January, and delegates adopted Kim's report calling for an improved and expanded nuclear arsenal.
Kim's promises to pursue a policy of non-proliferation -- North Korea withdrew from the global Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2003 -- and to push for global denuclearisation were largely dismissed as token nods to his insistence that North Korea was a "responsible" nuclear weapons state.
While the congress was a comeback for the party, Kim went to great lengths to stress the prime role of the nuclear-armed military in guaranteeing the country's survival.
TITLES MATTER
If being supreme leader of a one-party state wasn't enough, Kim Jong-Un was formally elected to the position of Workers' Party chairman by the congress delegates.
The post adds to Kim's already impressive list of high-ranking titles, including chairman of the central military commission, chairman of the national defence commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army.
But titles are important in North Korea and the party chairmanship carries a strong symbolic resonance as it was last held by Kim's grandfather, the country's revered founder leader Kim Il-Sung.
Kim Jong-Un has played up his physical likeness to his grandfather, and the post of chairman suggests he wants to rule like him as well.
MAN WITH A PLAN
Kim Jong-Un unveiled a five-year economic plan, the first such document for decades.
Few details of the plan were provided, beyond a general ambition to boost output and efficiency across every key economic sector.
But the fact that it was presented by Kim was seen as significant, with the young leader assuming personal responsibility for an economy that had been driven into the ground by his father.
In his very first public address, at a military parade in April 2012, Kim had said he was determined that North Koreans would "never have to tighten their belts again".
The need to raise living standards has been a constant refrain of his annual New Year addresses, although analysts note that, so far, they have been largely devoid of any specific policy initiatives.
FOREIGN MEDIA CONTROL
North Korea tightly controls reporting in the country and is second from last (after Eritrea) on the World Press Freedom Index.
Around 130 foreign reporters were invited to cover the congress, but were only given access to the actual event on the very last day -- for five minutes.
For the rest of the time they were carefully martialed by groups of minders, with all movement outside their island hotel subject to tight restrictions.
Dusty journal detailing Napoleonic wars found in Australia
A handwritten journal has been found in the depths of a small Australian bookshop detailing what experts believe are battle plans from the Napoleonic wars.
The diary of British Lieutenant-Colonel John Squire, who served with the Duke of Wellington, was discovered among a pile of books in a cupboard at Cracked and Spineless New and Used Books in the Tasmanian capital Hobart.
Dated 1811, the leather volume appears to detail a period from May to June that year of a war that pitted the French against an array of European powers, focusing on The Siege of Badajoz in Spain.
'Cracked and Spineless New and Used Books' bookshop owners Richard Sprent and Mike Gray show the diary of British Lieutenant-Colonel John Squire, who served with the Duke of Wellington -, - (Cracked and Spineless New and Used Books/AFP)
Bookshop co-owner Richard Sprent said the previous owner, who is dead, toured Tasmania acquiring hundreds of thousands of books and it could have been among his dusty collection for years.
"We have spent the last couple of years slowly working through them all," he told AFP Tuesday, adding that the journal came to light this month with interest exploding after he posted it on Facebook.
"A quick Google was enough to work out that this guy was a pretty big deal and we had something quite important.
"From what I can gather, it details the Siege of Badajoz. Since Squire was also a Royal Engineer, he would have been important in this campaign -- and there are even original drawings contained in here."
Sprent has contacted the Imperial War Museum in London and in the meantime said one person has offered him Aus$10,000 (US$7,300) for the journal.
Gavin Daly, senior European history lecturer at the University of Tasmania, went to see the book as soon as he heard about it and said it was "certainly not a copy".
"It seems to be genuine. There is no reason why it wouldn't be," he said.
"It's highly technical, with detail about wind direction and the sieges of Badajoz, which he was part of."
Daly added that Squire was no ordinary engineer and was well known in London circles, having played a part in moving the Elgin Marbles, a collection of classical Greek sculptures, to Britain.
He was also present in Egypt when the Rosetta Stone was passed to British forces, he added.
Squire died in 1812 from fever on the battlefield and it was not clear how his diary ended up in Tasmania.
But many British soldiers at the time moved to colonial Australia to take up land grants in what was then known as Van Diemen's Land, and one of them may have brought it with him.
"It's a great mystery and difficult to say how it ended up here," Daly said.
The diary of British Lieutenant-Colonel John Squire, who served with the Duke of Wellington, discovered among a pile of books in a cupboard at Cracked and Spineless New and Used Books, in the Tasmanian capital Hobart - (Cracked and Spineless New and Used Books/AFP)
Obama to talk trade, rights in Vietnam, 'no decision' yet on arms
Trade, security and human rights will top the agenda when US President Barack Obama visits Vietnam later this month, a State Department official said Tuesday, adding there was "no decision" yet on lifting an arms embargo to its former wartime foe.
The visit comes as Obama tries to seal his flagship "pivot" to Asia, hoping to bolster Washington's influence in a region where China's growing clout has rattled many neighbours.
Speculation has swirled that the centrepiece of the visit, the exact dates for which have yet to be confirmed by the White House, could be the complete rollback of a decades-old US arms embargo on Vietnam.
US President Barack Obama will visit Vietnam later in May 2016 Yuri Cortez (AFP/File)
Washington partially lifted a 40-year ban on arms sales to Vietnam in 2014, but Hanoi is desperate for modern military hardware as a reward for joining trade pacts with the US and as it looks to confront Beijing's militarisation of the disputed South China Sea.
But US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel on Tuesday said the move was far from settled, linking the rights environment in authoritarian Vietnam to any arms deal.
"No decision has been made," on dropping the embargo, Russel said during a visit to Hanoi to pave the way for the president.
"One of the important factors that would make a lift of the ban possible would be continued forward momentum in meeting universal human rights standards and progress in important legal reforms."
Vietnam still ruthlessly cracks down on protests, jails dissidents and bans trade unions.
A group of dissidents met Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski in Hanoi on Tuesday, but authorities stopped some from attending, activists said.
One of the dissidents -- the pop singer Mai Khoi, who was recently disqualified from standing in national elections alongside dozens of other activists -- called on Obama to push for further reform.
"I hope before signing anything with the Vietnamese authorities, the president will create some pressure so that the Vietnamese administration can change," she told AFP.
- Contested seas -
Vietnam is also locked in a bitter struggle with Beijing for control of areas of the South China Sea.
Hanoi accuses Beijing of militarising disputed reefs and atolls and is desperate to bolster its naval power to deter its giant neighbour.
The contested seas are good fishing grounds, a major international shipping route and are believed to contain significant oil and gas reserves.
Washington views the South China Sea as a key trade route and Obama's administration has cosied up to many of China's rival claimants -- including Vietnam.
While the US insists it does not take sides on ownership of the waters, Obama is making several hugely symbolic visits to Southeast Asia in the twilight of his presidency.
Trade will also loom large during Obama's visit, Russel added, focusing on implementing the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement between the US and Asian countries.
Once ratified by the 12 participating countries, its backers say the deal will slash tariffs and trade barriers for an enormous 40 percent of the global economy and establish the largest free trade area in the world.
Relations between Vietnam and the US have improved markedly in the last two decades.
In 2000, Bill Clinton became the first sitting president to visit the former wartime foe since the end of hostilities in 1975.
George W. Bush visited during a regional summit in 2006 but his trip was noticeably more low key than his predecessor.
Hanoi is desperate for modern military hardware as a reward for joining trade pacts with the United States Hoang Dinh Nam (AFP/File)
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel speaks during a press conference in Hanoi on May 10, 2016 Hoang Dinh Nam (AFP)
Duterte claims Philippine presidency, vows crime crackdown
Incendiary Philippine politician Rodrigo Duterte vowed Tuesday a relentless crackdown on crime after securing a landslide presidential victory built on foul-mouthed populist tirades that exposed deep voter anger at the establishment.
The 71-year-old firebrand's main rivals conceded defeat after an unofficial tally showed Duterte had an insurmountable lead in Monday's election of 6.1 million votes, a result that added to howls across the globe for strong, populist leaders.
Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, captivated Filipinos with vows of brutal but quick solutions to crime and poverty, while offering himself as a decisive strongman capable of resolving a host of other deeply entrenched problems in society.
Rodrigo Duterte has captivated Filipinos with vows of brutal but quick solutions to crime and poverty Noel Celis (AFP)
"It's with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people," Duterte told AFP in Davao early on Tuesday morning as the results came in.
"I feel a sense of gratitude to the Filipino people."
In other comments to reporters who had converged on Davao, Duterte offered an olive branch to his rivals following a deeply divisive campaign that had seen President Benigno Aquino brand him a dictator in the making who would bring terror to the nation.
"I want to reach out my hand and let us begin the healing now," said Duterte, whose campaigning style and ability to upend conventional political wisdom have drawn comparisons with US Republican Donald Trump.
However Duterte vowed to push through on the central plank of his campaign platform -- ending crime across the nation within six months and eliminating corruption.
On the campaign trail he had enraged critics but hypnotised fans with profanity-laced promises to kill tens of thousands of criminals, forget human rights laws and pardon himself for mass murder.
- 'Kill threats' -
While avoiding such extreme inflammatory remarks, Duterte said a law-and-order crackdown that particularly targeted drugs would be one of his top priorities when he became president, and he was prepared to kill.
"I will do it (fight drugs), even if they say I am an executioner," said Duterte, who rights groups accuse of running vigilante death squads in Davao that have killed more than 1,000 people.
"Look what I did to Davao. I will not let down the people."
One of his Davao rules, night-time curfews for minors, would be imposed nationwide while a ban on the serving of alcohol after midnight would also be considered, his spokesman Peter Lavina said Tuesday.
Duterte, who on the campaign trail boasted of being behind the death squads, also had a warning for corrupt police.
"If you are a policeman and stick to your racket, choose: either you kill me or I kill you," he said.
The election commission was not expected to officially proclaim Duterte as the winner of Monday's vote for more than a week.
However it had authorised the PPCRV, a Catholic Church-run poll monitor, to tally the votes, and they showed on Tuesday evening with about 94 percent of the total counted that Duterte could not lose.
- Gutter talk -
Duterte had 38.60 percent of the vote, with administration candidate Mar Roxas on 23.42 percent and Senator Grace Poe in third with 21.65 percent, according to PPCRV.
In the Philippines, a winner is decided simply by whoever gets the most votes. The next president will be sworn in on June 30.
Poe, the adopted daughter of movie stars, conceded just after midnight on Tuesday, and Roxas followed just after lunch.
"It is clear Mayor Duterte will be the next president," Roxas told supporters. "I wish you success."
Duterte had during the campaign dominated local media coverage and generated international headlines with relentless gutter talk, including branding the pope a "son of a whore".
He also boasted repeatedly about his Viagra-fuelled affairs.
Duterte caused further disgust in international diplomatic circles with a joke that he wanted to rape a "beautiful" Australian missionary who was killed in a 1989 Philippine prison riot.
Duterte was enraged by the reaction to the rape comments, which included criticism from the US and Australian ambassadors, insisting they were taken out of context.
He said Tuesday it would be up to them to repair relations with him, while also indicating he was prepared to hold direct talks with Beijing over a highly sensitive territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
Analysts said Duterte was expected to moderate his inflammatory comments and he was unlikely to orchestrate his promised massive killing spree against suspected criminals.
"Extrajudicial killings and forgetting human rights, he cannot do that because it will create more instability and chaos, which is what he wants to prevent," Earl Parreno, an analyst from the Manila-based Institute for Political and Economic Reform, told AFP.
"During the campaign he was stage acting, he was exaggerating to get across a message."
Graphic showing preliminary results in the Philippine presidential election -, - (AFP Graphic)
Geraldine Roman has become the first transgender politician to be win a congressional seat in the Philippines Ted Aljibe (AFP)
Philippine presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe conceded as the ongoing tally placed her third with 21,87%, in Manila, on May 9, 2016 Mohd Rasfan (AFP)
Philippine presidential candidate Mar Roxas finished second with 23.42 percent of the vote Ted Aljibe (AFP/File)
NOEL CELIS (AFP)
US and Afghan forces free kidnapped son of ex-Pakistan PM
US and Afghan forces freed the kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister during a counter-terrorism mission in eastern Afghanistan, NATO said Tuesday, three years after he was kidnapped in a hail of bullets.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, was rescued in the Giyan district of Paktika province "by US Special Operations Forces and Afghan commandos in a partnered raid," NATO said in the statement from Kabul.
The Afghan presidency said the raid targeted an Al-Qaeda cell, and that Gilani had been sent to the Pakistani embassy in Kabul.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of former Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, pictured in Multan, Pakistan, in May 2013
The Afghan ambassador to Islamabad, Omar Zakhilwal, told AFP that Gilani was in good health.
"He is fine, he can walk, he can talk," Zakhilwal said, adding that he expected the former hostage to return to Pakistan late Tuesday or Wednesday.
Yousaf Raza Gilani broke the news to a cheering crowd at a political rally in Pakistan-held Kashmir Tuesday.
"This rally has proved fortunate for me," he said.
"When I was about to board the helicopter (to come), I received the information that my son Ali Haider Gilani, who was kidnapped three years ago, has been recovered."
Hundreds of people converged on the family's home in Multan in central Punjab province as the news broke, dancing to drumbeats and passing around sweets in celebration.
Some also hugged and presented flowers to Ali Haider's brother, Abdul Qadir Gilani, who told media he was "so happy today that I can't explain it in words".
"He is still in Afghanistan and soon he will be among us," he said of his brother.
"God has accepted somebody's prayer. The prayer of those who love us," a third brother, Ali Musa Gilani, told media.
NATO said the raid was carried out under Operation Freedom's Sentinel, the US mission focusing on counter-terrorism as well as training, advising and assisting Afghan troops.
"Four enemy combatants were killed as a result of the operation," it said.
The Pentagon was tight-lipped about events leading up to the raid, but said it occurred after US and Afghan forces had "identified terrorist activity."
"There were terrorists where they struck and conducted this raid, and during that activity they were able to rescue Mr Gilani," US Central Command spokesman Colonel Pat Ryder said.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said Gilani would go home after receiving a medical evaluation, and he heralded the raid as evidence of progress by Afghanistan's struggling security services.
"This raid demonstrates the growing capabilities and effectiveness of the Afghan security forces and is an excellent example of the strong security and intelligence partnership between Afghan and US forces," Carter said.
- 'Welcome back' -
Gilani was kidnapped by militants in the outskirts of Multan on May 9, 2013, just two days before a bitterly contested national election in which he was campaigning.
Gunmen on a motorbike opened fire before abducting him in a black Honda car. His secretary and a bodyguard were killed, and four people wounded.
In May last year, he was able to phone his father to tell him he was well.
The ex-premier's family is one of the most powerful in Multan and a key clan in the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which lost the 2013 election.
Gilani's recovery comes two months after the kidnapped son of another Pakistani politician was also freed.
Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjabi governor Salman Taseer, spent five years in militant captivity before his abrupt release in March.
"Welcome back @haidergilani," Shahbaz Taseer tweeted Tuesday, adding an image of the Pakistani flag.
Gilani senior was prime minister from March 2008 until he was sacked and indicted by the Supreme Court in April 2012 for refusing to re-open corruption cases against the then-president.
He complained after the kidnapping that his family was not given security, despite being threatened.
Yousaf Raza Gilani was prime minister of Pakistan from 2008 until 2012 Paul J. Richards (AFP/File)
Supporters of former Pakistani premier Yousuf Raza Gilani exchange sweets after his son Ali Haider Gilani was freed, outside his residence in Multan on May 10, 2016 SS Mirza (AFP)
Afghanistan AFP (AFP)
David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, quit UK politics to take up the post of President of the International Rescue Committee
David Miliband's International Rescue Committee charity is being investigated in the US over allegations it was overpaying Turkish companies for basic goods.
The US Government has suspended access to tens of millions of dollars in aid funding to Syria over the claims about 14 different organisations and individuals.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said it had 'established grounds' to justify the suspensions.
It warned there was 'a network of commercial vendors, NGO employees, and others who have colluded to engage in bid-rigging and multiple bribery and kickback schemes related to contracts to deliver humanitarian aid in Syria'.
It said: 'As a result of the suspensions, these parties are no longer able to receive US government awards.'
USAID did not name the charities involved but it emerged today the list includes the International Rescue Committee alongside the International Medical Corps (IMC) and the Irish charity Goal.
Mr Miliband, the former foreign secretary, quit UK politics to become president of the International Rescue Committee in 2013.
All the allegations relate to NGOs systematically overpaying for goods in Turkey. Examples included blankets and other basic materials for Syrians, humanitarian sources said.
A senior USAID official, speaking anonymously, said among the largest problems was product substitution with Turkish private companies selling goods to NGOs at inflated prices and then providing vastly cheaper quality goods and pocketing the difference.
The official said: 'What became clear in the course of this investigation was this was a pretty sophisticated operation.'
Mr Miliband's charity has reportedly had a number of its aid schemes suspended as a result of the investigation.
A spokesman for the International Rescue Committee told The Times: 'We are fully engaged and working with USAID on this issue.'
International Medical Corps is among the largest providers of medical aid to Syrians, both inside the country and to refugees in neighbouring countries.
The NGO has said more than six million patients have been treated in the past five years in the 430 health facilities it supports.
IMC confirmed its USAID-funded procurements in Turkey had been temporarily suspended and that it had fired a number of staff over alleged malpractice.
Syrian men ride a motorbike past destroyed buildings in a rebel-held area of Aleppo
IMC's Chief Compliance Officer Ambassador William Garvelink said: 'International Medical Corps has been actively cooperating with the USAID Inspector General, and we have also mounted our own internal investigation.
'We have a zero-tolerance policy for fraud and corruption and have fired staff members who were suspected of involvement.'
The suspension has left the organisation with a huge funding shortage, with around a third of its more than 2,000 personnel working on aid for Syria being made redundant.
The Irish charity Goal confirmed to the Irish newspaper The Journal last month parts of its program had been suspended.
The knock-on effect for some of the world's neediest people has been significant.
A major Syrian charity, which provides medical care to thousands of Syrians, received huge proportions of its funding from the IMC and the IRC, though there has been no allegation against it directly.
Speaking on condition the charity not be identified, a spokesman said it had been unable to buy medicines and other vital goods with US funding since January.
The suspensions are temporary, and provided USAID is given assurances of new safeguards funding will resume.
The United Nations has asked for more than $7 billion to fund its Syria aid programs for 2016.
Indonesian teens jailed for brutal murder, gang rape
Seven Indonesian teenagers were jailed Tuesday for the brutal murder and gang rape of a 14-year-old girl that sparked a national debate on sexual violence.
They were among a gang who set upon the schoolgirl while she was on her way home in a small village on the western island of Sumatra.
Her battered body was found three days later in woods, tied up and naked, and 12 people were arrested over the attack.
Indonesian police escort the seven teenage suspects into the courthouse in Curup, Bengkulu province, on May 10, 2016 Diva Marha (AFP)
On Tuesday seven attackers, aged 16 and 17, were found guilty at a court in the Curup district of Sumatra and sentenced to 10 years in jail each.
"This is in line with our demands," said Eko Hening Wardhono, an official from the attorney-general's office, adding that police were still investigating the other five.
A further two suspects are still on the run.
The crime took place in early April but it only caught the attention of the nation a month later, as reports of the incident went viral on social media and tens of thousands signed online petitions.
The case led activists to call for harsher punishments for sex attackers and sparked protests in the capital Jakarta. It also prompted President Joko Widodo to call for better protection for women.
It has drawn comparisons with the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012, which sparked mass protests and led to an overhaul of India's rape laws.
Activist Rita Pranawati, from government-backed rights group the Indonesian Child Protection Commission, welcomed Tuesday's jail terms but said more needed to be done to tackle the root causes of sexual violence.
"Cases like this happen due to various reasons, from parenting problems, to bad education and drinking problems," she said.
Sexual violence against women is rampant in Indonesia, according to the National Commission on Violence Against Women.
US weighs remaining Myanmar sanctions under Suu Kyi administration
Washington's new ambassador to Myanmar on Tuesday said remaining sanctions had taken an "unintended" toll on the nation's delicate economic development, as the US re-evaluates its embargoes on the former pariah state.
Myanmar's stunning transition from decades of repressive junta rule to a civilian-led government steered by Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy party was accompanied by the lifting of most Western embargoes.
The United States rolled back many of its sanctions to reward reforms since 2011, but kept a clutch of blacklists targeting junta-era cronies and their sprawling business interests as it seeks to push further changes.
US ambassador Scot Marciel discusses US-Myanmar relations during a press conference in Yangon, on May 10, 2016 Romeo Gacad (AFP/File)
"We recognise that even these limited, targeted sanctions occasionally have unintended effects on the broader economy," ambassador Scot Marciel said at a press conference in Yangon.
"Now in the aftermath of the transition to the new elected government we are again reviewing our sanctions," he said, adding that he could not yet say what the result of next week's review would be.
Washington is likely to maintain the backbone of its sanction powers in a nation where the military continues to wield huge political and economic power, despite Suu Kyi's November election win.
Marciel said Washington would maintain focus on improving Myanmar's human rights situation, as well as amending the country's junta-drafted constitution, which ringfences the army's continued clout and bars Suu Kyi from becoming president.
But he anticipated a "different conversation" under the new administration, steered by Suu Kyi from her role as state counsellor.
In December the US temporarily eased restrictions on Myanmar's ports to unclog trade into the fast-developing country.
The move freed businesses to import and export through the main Yangon port terminal, which is run by Asia World, one of the country's largest blacklisted conglomerates.
Marciel declined to be drawn on recent reports that Suu Kyi, in her role as foreign minister, had indicated that the US should refrain from using the term "Rohingya" to apply to the persecuted Muslim minority in western Myanmar.
Buddhist nationalists staged a protest outside the embassy last month against its use of the word.
Marciel said that communities around the world "get to choose what they want to be called".
"That's a fundamental international practice and we respect that," Marciel said, without using the term Rohingya.
Suu Kyi has long faced criticism over her reticence to speak out more strongly in support of the Rohingya.
They face restrictions on access to health, employment and education in Rakhine state, where tens of thousands remain trapped in grim displacement camps following waves of deadly communal violence in 2012.
Rohingya are labelled "Bengali" by hardline Buddhists and many officials, who brand them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh even though many can trace their ancestry back generations.
The deputy director general of Myanmar's foreign ministry, Kyaw Moe Tun, told AFP that while Suu Kyi had not given Marciel a formal instruction in a recent meeting, talks had touched on "how to handle the current situation wisely".
Aung San Suu Kyi has faced criticism over her reticence to speak out more strongly in support of the Rohingya minority in western Myanmar
The United Nations have described the Rohingya as one of the world's most persecuted minorities Soe Than Win (AFP/File)
US President Barack Obama embraces Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi during a 2014 state visit to Yangon Mandel Ngan (AFP/File)
Iran equipped with Russian missile system: defence minister
Iran's army is now equipped with a Russian air defence system after a long and controversial delivery process, Defence Minister General Hossein Dehghan was quoted as saying Tuesday.
"I inform our people that... we are in possession of the strategic S-300 system" and that it "serves our air force's counterattack command," Dehghan said, according to ISNA news agency.
Parts of the system, including missile tubes and radar equipment, were displayed on April 17 during a military parade in southern Tehran.
The US and Israel have criticised Russia for selling its S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran Costas Metaxakis (AFP/File)
The United States and Israel have criticised Russia for the sale of the S-300 system to the Islamic republic.
Tehran says it is needed to strengthen its air defence against possible attacks, including on its nuclear facilities.
Iran and Russia originally signed a contract for its delivery in 2007, but in 2010 Moscow suspended the sale after the UN Security Council issued a resolution against Iran's nuclear programme.
In 2015, shortly before the conclusion of an international agreement on Tehran's nuclear programme, Moscow re-authorised the delivery.
The two countries are also in talks for delivery to Iran of Sukhoi SU-30 fighter jets, a deal also criticised by Washington.
Dehghan also announced that Iran will start manufacturing this year an air defence system, Bavar 373, "capable of destroying cruise missiles, drones, combat aircraft and ballistic missiles."
Nigeria oil output hits 22-year low on renewed unrest
Nigeria's oil output has slumped to a 22-year low, figures showed on Tuesday, because of pipeline sabotage and increasing unrest that has seen major companies evacuate staff.
Data compiled by Bloomberg indicated that output in Africa's biggest oil producer has fallen below 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first time since 1994.
Rebels seeking a fairer share of revenue for locals in the oil-rich southern delta are increasingly targeting facilities, posing a fresh security challenge for President Muhammadu Buhari.
Thick black smoke billows from a chimney at the Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited, in Nigeria's Rivers State Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP/File)
The attacks have sparked fears of a repeat of violence and kidnappings that plagued the region in the 2000s and saw Nigeria's output cut by a third, slashing government revenue.
It also risks hitting crude supplies at a time when Nigeria's oil-dependent economy is facing a slump because of the fall in global prices.
Nigeria's military described the attacks as "economic terrorism" and vowed to employ "all available means within its rules of engagement to crush any individual or group" responsible.
To compound matters, long queues formed at petrol stations again this week, exacerbating a fuel shortage, after speculation government subsidies that keep pump prices low would be shelved.
- Rebel attacks -
Last week, rebels from the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) group claimed responsibility for an attack on the Okan offshore facility operated by US oil major Chevron.
The company said on Saturday some 35,000 bpd of crude was lost, although some estimates have put the loss higher.
At the weekend, Anglo-Dutch giant Shell evacuated most of its staff from its Eja production facility near the Bonga field.
Local media said 98 personnel were airlifted to safety by helicopter, leaving a skeleton staff protected by the military. Shell's Nigerian subsidiary did not confirm the operation.
But it said in a statement it was continuing to monitor the security situation and was "taking all possible steps to ensure the safety of staff and contractors".
Dirk Steffen, of the Denmark-based Risk Intelligence consultancy firm, told AFP the evacuation was a "precautionary" step because of threats from the NDA.
Steffen, the head of maritime security for the firm, said the NDA issued new threats on May 5 after claiming responsibility for the Chevron attacks.
"This time they specifically name the facilities they would be targeting... I assume this is also what prompted Shell to take precautionary measures," he wrote in an email.
In February, Shell declared "force majeure" after an attack on a pipeline feeding the Forcados terminal, which typically exports about 200,000 barrels a day. It is expected to resume in June.
- Driving factors -
Consultants BMI Research said the renewed unrest in the key region was "a worrying development as it demonstrates the increasing sphere of assets that are under risk".
"Shell's much larger Bonga field sits next door to the Eja facility and often exports over 200,000 bpd, highlighting much greater production risks than were previously anticipated."
BMI said production disruption in the delta has historically been onshore and was a major factor driving Shell's divestment of onshore assets and switch in focus to offshore blocks.
"The most recent attacks offshore are a new safety concern for those companies which once again find themselves vulnerable to supply disruptions," it added.
The renewed violence comes after Buhari -- facing Islamist militants Boko Haram in the northeast -- began a crackdown on endemic corruption in the sector and rampant oil theft.
The government has also said it would wind up an amnesty programme, which was introduced in 2009 and saw thousands of rebels swap violence for monthly training and education stipends.
The upsurge in attacks since January has also been linked to multi-million-dollar corruption charges brought against Government Ekpemupolo, a former rebel leader nicknamed Tompolo.
He is accused of defrauding the government of some $225 million. The NDA is thought to contain his supporters although he has denied any links to the group.
There were fresh queues at petrol stations around Nigeria this week following speculation the government was to withdraw fuel subsidies that keep prices low at the pump Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP)
Global populism wave hits Philippines as Duterte elected
The election of Rodrigo Duterte as Philippine president marks the latest victory for populist politics, as voters around the world reward candiates offering simple solutions to complex problems.
In a country beset by crime, poverty and corruption, Duterte promised voters a raft of quick fixes that many analysts believe will remain empty promises. One of his main campaign pledges was to completely eradicate crime within six months.
Foul-mouthed tirades have only added to the appeal of his plug-and-play solutions for a broken economy and a bankrupt society, echoing in some ways the simplistic sloganeering of presidential hopeful Donald Trump in the United States.
Rodrigo Duterte secured a landslide presidential victory in the Philippines built on foul-mouthed populist tirades Noel Celis (AFP/File)
In Europe, iconoclast politicians revel in anti-immigrant rhetoric, capitalising on voters' disquiet over rising unemployment and an elite they think is out of touch.
"People want some kind of change. They want to break from the past. They are exasperated, aggravated," said Earl Parreno of the Manila-based Institute for Political and Economic Reform.
"They want someone like Duterte who promises everything will be solved in three to six months."
Duterte's victory over establishment candidate Mar Roxas was founded on simplistic brutality.
The 71-year-old vowed he would end crime by ordering security forces to kill tens of thousands of suspected criminals, then pardon himself if he was found guilty of mass murder.
Despite six years of stable economic growth under President Benigno Aquino, one in four Filipinos still lives on less than $1.30 a day and a devastating rich-poor divide has worsened.
"People want change. They are happy to take risks to get this change," said Parreno.
"Whether the change is better or worse, that's not the issue. They want a new platform, even if they don't know what is next."
- Colourful -
Even in a country that has a track record of controversial presidents -- dictators and movie stars jostle in the pages of recent history books -- Duterte's hustings have been colourful affairs.
Supporters have delighted in their candidate's willingness to shoot from the hip, like when he called the pope a "son of a whore" and made jokes about raping an Australian missionary.
His coarse ascent mirrors that of Trump, the presumptive presidential candidate for the Republican Party.
The real estate mogul has similarly shown willingness to offend, luxuriating in name-calling at rallies that have at times teetered on the hysterical.
Trump -- who, like Duterte, has drawn comparisons with Adolf Hitler -- is regularly accused of demagoguery, the populism-plus-one of a politician who plays to the baying mob.
"Demagogues do not reassure the electorate with a rational assessment of risk as mainstream politicians tend to do," says Richard Ashby Wilson, professor of anthropology and law at the University of Connecticut.
"Instead, they play up existing threats, embrace a narrative of victimhood and sow despair," he wrote on theconversation.com earlier this year.
While Duterte has focused on criminals, Trump has trained his fire on Muslims and Mexicans.
He has threatened to build a wall along the southern US border to keep out immigrants -- Mexicans are "rapists" in Trump's world -- and says he will ban all non-American Muslims entering the United States in his bid to combat the perceived threat of terrorism.
This scapegoating of minorities finds a less extreme form in Europe, a continent staggering under the weight of its worst migrant crisis since World War II.
Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Marine Le Pen in France and Nigel Farage in Britain have all enjoyed electoral success to one degree or another, espousing anti-immigrant nationalisms that until a few years ago seemed consigned to Europe's past.
- Cookie-cutter politicians -
For Francisco Magno, president of the Philippine Political Science Association, the intolerance of modern day populists is magnified by social media.
The short soundbites and use of imagery favoured on the medium "is used to emphasise some kind of purity. It makes things black and white: strong and weak, purity vs. inclusiveness," he told AFP in Manila.
That also translates to the stump; Trump and Duterte make speeches filled with incomplete sentences and unfiltered thoughts that quickly segue from one topic to another, both claiming simply to be telling it like it is.
Ian McAllister, a political scientist at the Australian National University, said this reflected voters' widespread disillusionment with cookie-cutter candidates.
"We have increasingly seen over the last 10 to 15 years the rise of what are popularly known as anti-politician politicians -- people who speak their mind," he said.
While Duterte may have triumphed in Monday's poll, pundits expect Trump will come unstuck in November's US general election, losing to his Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton.
But even if he were to win, Trump, like Duterte, would likely be tamed by the political system he is fighting against, says Simon Tormey at the University of Sydney.
"It's often like walking through treacle being in government. They get all the populist energy beaten out of them as they are trampled on by vested interests and the flood of political bureaucacy," he said.
"There are no real examples anywhere of a populist politican making any radical change from within. Either their behaviour changes or they are booted out."
Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has shaken up US politics with his controversial campaign Scott Olson (Getty/AFP/File)
Rodrigo Duterte pledged to completely eradicate crime within six months
Japan train staff berated for snoozing and reading on duty
A dozing train driver and a comic-book reading conductor have been berated by Japan's biggest rail operator, media reports said Tuesday, with the firm vowing to crack down on sloppy staff behaviour.
East Japan Railway carried out an internal probe which found, among other things, that one employee had driven a train through 16 stations in Tokyo earlier this year while feeling sleepy, Japan's public broadcaster said NHK said.
In another incident the firm discovered that a 57-year-old male conductor on duty was "intermittently" reading a comic book last month on the Yokohama line, southwest of Tokyo, NHK and Tokyo Broadcasting System said.
East Japan Railway has vowed to crack down on sloppy staff behaviour Toru Yamanaka (AFP/File)
Another on-the-job conductor, aged 53, was also found reading a book in Kofu, west of the capital, they said.
"I sincerely apologise as the acts could lead to distrust and fears among passengers," company president Tetsuro Tomita said, according to NHK.
Tomita added the firm would strictly reprimand staff for violating company rules.
Obama to make historic visit to Hiroshima
Barack Obama will this month become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, but the White House is scotching talk of an apology for the devastating 1945 nuclear bombing of the city.
Obama, accompanied by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will make the deeply symbolic visit on May 27, after attending a G7 summit in south-central Japan, his spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday.
The White House described the trip as an effort to highlight the US "commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."
The Atomic Bomb Dome was the only structure not obliterated in the Hiroshima bombing and serves as a memorial to the 140,000 victims of the 1945 attack at the end of WWII Kazuhiro Nogi (AFP/File)
On August 6, 1945, the US dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing around 140,000 people, including those who survived the explosion itself but died soon after from severe radiation exposure.
Three days later, the US military dropped a plutonium bomb on the port city of Nagasaki, killing some 74,000 people.
The announcement comes after months of speculation in the US and Japan that the president, a Nobel peace laureate, would pay a visit to the city.
The bombings remain controversial in the United States and around the world.
Opinion is sharply divided on whether president Harry Truman's decision ended the brutality of World War II and avoided a bloody US invasion of Japan, or whether dropping nuclear weapons on a civilian area constitutes a war crime.
A Pew poll last year showed 56 percent of Americans think the bombing was justified, while 14 percent of Japanese do. In both countries, approval of Truman's order has waned dramatically over the years.
The White House has expressed understanding at the dilemma Truman faced.
"I think what the president would say is that it's hard to put yourself in that position from the outside," Earnest said.
"I think what the president does appreciate is that President Truman made this decision for the right reasons. President Truman was focused on the national security interests of the United States... on bringing an end to a terrible war. And President Truman made this decision fully mindful of the likely human toll."
"I think it's hard to look back and second-guess it too much."
- No apology -
In Hiroshima, Obama will visit the once ruined city's Peace Memorial Park "where he will share his reflections on the significance of the site and the events that occurred there," said senior Obama foreign policy advisor Ben Rhodes.
Last month, Secretary of State John Kerry became the highest-ranking US political figure to visit Hiroshima.
Kerry said he was "deeply moved" by the experience and called a museum at the site a "gut-wrenching display that tugs at all your sensibilities as a human being."
"Everyone should visit Hiroshima, and everyone means everyone," he added, fueling speculation that Obama would follow.
Abe welcomed the White House announcement, saying: "We want to make this visit an opportunity for both Japan and the US to mourn all the victims."
"It is significant for him to send a message of his determination for a nuclear-free world. For a US president, it was a big decision," he said.
Japan has long urged world leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to see the horrors of the atomic bombings and join efforts to eradicate nuclear arms.
A UN spokesman said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "very much welcomes" Obama's decision and expressed hope that the visit will highlight the need to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all.
But some have been concerned that Obama's visit would be seen as an apology for events of seven decades ago.
The move is likely to rile Obama's opponents and some in the military, whose predecessors carried out presidential orders to drop the bombs.
The visit will come at a particularly sensitive time. This December marks the 75th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, in Obama's home state of Hawaii.
But the White House was eager to stress that Obama's visit is not an apology.
"He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future," said Rhodes.
The visit is likely to have regional reverberations, at a time when North Korea, a short distance away, is aggressively pursuing its nuclear and ballistic missiles development program.
At a four-day Communist Party confab that ended on Monday, Pyongyang's enigmatic leaders vowed to continue building weapons systems that have already prompted deep international sanctions and isolation.
Japan's neighbors in China and South Korea will also be watching the visit closely, always eager to make sure that their once hyper-aggressive foe is not allowed to play the role of a World War II victim.
Before his visit to Japan, Obama will head to Vietnam for talks on advancing cooperation on trade, security and human rights, the White House said.
US President Barack Obama will make an historic visit to Hiroshima on May 27 Saul Loeb (AFP/File)
US Secretary of State John Kerry (centre) laid a wreath to the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing on a visit to Hiroshima on April 11, 2016 Toshifumi Kitamura (AFP/File)
Barack Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima Jewel Samad (AFP/File)
FBI suspects insiders in $81 mn Bangladesh central bank theft
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation suspects the computer hacking theft of $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank was in part an inside job, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Quoting sources familiar with the matter, the Journal said FBI agents investigating the case "have found evidence pointing to at least one bank employee acting as an accomplice."
But it added that "a handful of others" may have also aided the hackers in breaking into the computers of Bangladesh Bank.
The computer hacking theft of $81 million from Bangladesh's central bank is suspected to be in part an inside job Munir Uz Zaman (AFP/File)
The spectacular cyber-theft has embarrassed the government in Dhaka, triggered outrage in the impoverished country and raised alarm over the security of the global infrastructure linking central banks.
Hackers fabricated official electronic transfer orders to move the money from Bangladesh Bank's account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February and send it to accounts in the Philippines, where it then disappeared, in part through the Philippines casino industry.
But the New York branch of the US central bank blocked most of the bogus transfer orders it received, preventing the theft from skyrocketing to $1 billion.
The involvement of the New York Fed has brought the FBI into the case, but the Fed is not being viewed as blameworthy.
Separately, the global financial transfers network SWIFT on Monday rejected reported accusations by Bangladesh police and bank officials that it was to blame for low security protections.
"SWIFT was not responsible for any of the issues cited by the officials, or party to the related decisions," it said in a statement.
"As a SWIFT user like any other, Bangladesh Bank is responsible for the security of its own systems interfacing with the SWIFT network and their related environment -- starting with basic password protection practices -- in much the same way as they are responsible for their other internal security considerations."
Representatives of Bangladesh Bank, the New York Fed and SWIFT met Tuesday in Basel on the issue.
In a joint statement, they said they had exchanged information about "the cyber and physical vulnerabilities illustrated by this event."
Saudi Aramco to expand as oil demand grows: president
State oil giant Saudi Aramco, which could soon become the world's largest listed company, will keep expanding despite low crude prices, its president said on Tuesday.
"Saudi Aramco will continue to expand," Amin al-Nasser told reporters during a tour of the company's headquarters on Saudi Arabia's Gulf coast in Dhahran, where it drilled its first test well in 1935.
Even though the current situation "is challenging, it is an excellent opportunity for growth", said Nasser, as the industry worldwide reels from the collapse in oil prices.
Saudi Arabia produced about 10.1 million barrels of oil per day in March, according to OPEC
As part of the Saudi Vision 2030 plan unveiled last month, the OPEC kingpin announced it will sell less than five percent of Aramco in what officials say will be the world's largest ever initial public offering.
Proceeds from the sale will contribute to creating the biggest government investment fund in the world, with a value of $2 trillion, whose profits can provide an alternative to plunging oil revenues.
"We are still doing a lot of analysis" related to commercial and legal issues and "the options available for us in terms of listing", whether in the kingdom or internationally, Nasser said, adding that this "will take time".
A public listing by Saudi Aramco would make it the first flotation of a major state-owned oil firm in the Gulf.
The company is seen as having a key role in Riyadh's ambitious Vision 2030 plan to diversify its economy, and King Salman on Saturday chose longtime Aramco chairman Khaled al-Falih to head a new super ministry of energy, industry and mineral resources.
- New maritime complex -
Now, with oil demand "increasing", Nasser said Saudi Aramco "will meet the call", noting that the company which has a monopoly on the kingdom's production pumped an average of 10.2 million barrels per day (bpd) last year.
Production at Shaybah oilfield is increasing, he said. "We are putting 250,000 barrels (per day) on stream" at the field in the east.
Bloomberg News reported last month that Aramco will complete an expansion of the Shaybah field by the end of May, allowing the world's largest exporter to maintain total capacity at 12 million bpd.
The move will see Shaybah's capacity rise to one million bpd from 750,000.
Nasser said he expected a balance in supply and demand in world markets "toward the end of the year, (or the) first quarter next year".
"There will be a requirement for major producers" to increase output in line with "the prospect of additional demand", he said.
Asked what concern he had about a return of US shale to the market as prices near $50 a barrel, he said that "of course" as the price rises, additional production will come on stream, either conventional or not.
"But it will take time," he said.
Globally, Saudi Aramco is seeking new joint ventures abroad, said Nasser, naming Indonesia, Vietnam, India and China.
Asked to elaborate, he said: "Right now we're looking at refining, integrated petrochemicals."
Aramco has meanwhile begun work on a "world class" maritime complex which would conservatively create 80,000 direct and indirect jobs and have a $17-billion impact on gross domestic product.
The complex in Ras al-Khair -- on the eastern coast -- would provide engineering, manufacturing and repair services for offshore rigs, commercial vessels and offshore service vessels.
It will be fully operational by 2021, Nasser said.
The company which has its own entrepreneurship centre also wants to create 200 small and medium-sized enterprises as part of the Vision 2030.
"This is a very important programme," Nasser said.
"There will be major expansions in all aspects of Saudi Aramco," he told reporters.
OPEC oil production 2015
Yemen warring parties agree on prisoner swap
Yemen's government and Iran-backed rebels agreed Tuesday to free half of the prisoners and detainees held by both sides, in the first breakthrough in peace talks that began last month.
Officials from the two delegations told AFP that a working group formed by the UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, had reached an agreement to release the prisoners and detainees within 20 days.
The government's official news agency Saba also confirmed the deal, citing the official delegation.
The UN estimates the Yemen conflict has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March 2015 Mohammed Huwais (AFP/File)
The UN envoy said the two sides were expected to finalise the agreement on Wednesday.
"They agreed in principle to explore a proposal to release 50 percent of all detainees held by each side ahead of the holy (Muslim fasting) month of Ramadan and eventually release all detainees," said Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
"They agreed to continue discussions in the next session scheduled for May 11," he said in a statement.
The issue was discussed as part of confidence-building measures.
There has been mounting international pressure to end the Yemen conflict, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.
"It was agreed during the meeting to release 50 percent of the prisoners and detainees within the next 20 days," said Mane al-Matari, media adviser to Yemen's foreign minister who heads the government delegation.
A source close to the Huthi rebel delegation also said an agreement had been reached, describing it as "an exchange of prisoners".
The two sides would meet again on Wednesday to finalise the mechanism on how and when the exchange will take place, Matari said.
Matari estimated that their number is in the "thousands", but the rebel source said there may be only hundreds of prisoners involved.
Following a two-day interruption, the two delegations resumed face-to-face talks on Monday after mediation efforts and an appeal by the UN envoy.
Two other working groups, spanning military, security and political issues, also discussed on Tuesday more complicated issues.
Those issues include implementing a UN Security Council resolution which orders the Huthis to pull out of territory they occupied in a 2014 offensive and surrender heavy arms they captured.
- Constructive Discussion -
Ould Cheikh Ahhmed described the discussion as "constructive" as "common grounds" emerged but acknowldged differences were still substantial.
"We acknowledge that the differences remain substantial and we continue to work hard to bridge the gap between the two parties," he said.
The rebels demanded the formation of a consensus transitional government to handle other issues and the delegation of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi insisted he is the legitimate head of state, sources close to the talks said.
The Yemen conflict pits the pro-Iranian Huthis and their allies loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh against forces fighting to defend Hadi's internationally recognised government, supported by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.
Pro-government forces pushed the rebels out of five southern provinces last year with air and ground support from the coalition.
But the Huthis continue to control the capital Sanaa as well as large parts of the country's north and west, and the Saudi-led coalition has drawn strong criticism over heavy civilian casualties.
Hours after the talks resumed on Monday, Saudi air defences intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen, the coalition said.
Before that, coalition aircraft hit a military base captured by rebels north of Sanaa, killing at least 11, a military official said.
Coalition spokesman Ahmed Assiri told Egyptian Dream television late Monday that if Kuwait peace talks fail "we will storm the capital Sanaa and decide the battle in Yemen," by military means.
The talks follow two failed peace attempts in June and December last year in Switzerland.
The Huthis exchanged prisoners with Saudi Arabia in March after unprecedented talks mediated by tribes along the frontier, where dozens have been killed in cross-border shelling.
UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, speaks during a press conference in Kuwait City on April 26, 2016 Yasser al-Zayyat (AFP/File)
British PM calls Nigeria, Afghanistan 'fantastically corrupt'
British Prime Minister David Cameron called Nigeria and Afghanistan "possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world" in inadvertently public remarks Tuesday, but hailed their leaders' planned attendance at an anti-corruption summit in London.
He was caught on camera making the remarks to Queen Elizabeth II and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at an event at Buckingham Palace.
"We've got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain," Cameron said, referring to the anti-corruption summit he is hosting on Thursday.
Prime Minister David Cameron named what he sees as "possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world" in a conversation with the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury Paul Hackett (Pool/AFP)
"Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world," he said.
Welby, who worked as an oil executive in West Africa before joining the church and who has also undertaken conflict resolution work in Nigeria, noted that "this particular president is actually not corrupt".
"He's really trying," Cameron agreed, and the queen noted to Welby: "He is trying, isn't he?"
It was not clear to whom they were referring, but Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani are both due to attend the summit.
In a statement, the Buhari's spokesman Garba Shehu said the comments were "embarrassing".
"This is embarrassing to us, to say the least, given the good work that the President is doing. The eyes of the world are on what is happening here," Shehu said in remarks released on social media.
"The Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria. Things are changing with corruption and everything else."
Buhari has embarked on a widespread anti-corruption campaign since taking office one year ago, and is due to give a speech on the issue in London on Wednesday.
In Afghanistan, Ghani also made a promise to rein in runaway corruption when he was elected in 2014.
- Signal of change -
Cobus de Swardt, managing director of global advocacy group Transparency International, said: "There is no doubt that historically, Nigeria and Afghanistan have had very high levels of corruption, and that continues to this day.
"But the leaders of those countries have sent strong signals that they want things to change, and the London Anti-Corruption Summit creates an opportunity for all the countries present to sign up to a new era."
Conversations between the prime minister and the queen are normally confidential, and Cameron had to apologise after revealing the monarch "purred" when she was told Scotland had voted against independence in 2014.
On Tuesday, a Downing Street spokeswoman said it would not comment on a private conversation, but noted that both Buhari and Ghani "have acknowledged the scale of the corruption challenge they face in their countries".
She revealed that in a collection of essays to be published at the summit, Ghani writes that Afghanistan is "one of the most corrupt countries on Earth".
Buhari, for his part, writes that corruption became a "way of life" under "supposedly accountable democratic governments", the spokeswoman said.
'A lot left to do' for Assad's forces in Syria, says Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said there remained "a lot left to do" for the forces of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad despite Russian firepower hitting over 30,000 targets in the war-torn country.
The Kremlin strongman also admitted that the Russian operation in Syria has exposed unspecified "problems" for Moscow's military that need to be probed.
"Since the start of the operation the Russian airforce has carried out over 10,000 sorties against international terrorist infrastructure in Syria and conducted a large number of strikes, with over 30,000 targets hit," Putin told a meeting of military chiefs and weapons manufacturers.
A poster in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, captured from Islamic State militants by Russian-backed Syrian forces, bears a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin Louai Beshara (AFP/File)
Putin insisted that Moscow's strikes against the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front had been "precise, powerful and effective" but also said "the situation there is complicated and there is still a lot left to do for the Syrian army".
He conceded that the "operation in Syria has exhibited certain problems, insufficiencies" for Moscow's military without giving any further details.
"The most thorough investigation must be carried out into every problematic issue," Putin said.
Russia has been carrying out a bombing campaign in Syria in support of Assad's forces since September but has been accused by the West of targeting moderate regime opponents and hitting civilians.
Moscow is currently spearheading a diplomatic push alongside the United States to resolve the conflict and Putin once again highlighted that Moscow is interested in a political solution to the war.
Government forces and rebels in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo agreed Monday to extend their truce for a second time, the army said, as the US and Russia vowed to "redouble" efforts to end the five-year conflict.
The two powers also agreed to try to extend a February 27 ceasefire across the whole of the country.
Two US states vote as poll hints at tough Clinton-Trump duel
West Virginians and Nebraskans voted in presidential primaries Tuesday amid lingering Republican concerns about presumptive nominee Donald Trump, as a new poll showed the billionaire running neck-and-neck with Hillary Clinton in three key battleground states.
Clinton still has active competition for the Democratic nomination despite her virtually insurmountable lead in the delegate count, and rival Bernie Sanders was looking for a big win in West Virginia.
Trump is now alone in his quest for the Republican nomination, his last two rivals -- Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich -- having dropped out after the New York real estate tycoon's blowout victory in Indiana last week.
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks on May 5, 2016 in Charleston, West Virginia Mark Lyons (Getty/AFP/File)
A Quinnipiac University poll out Tuesday showed Trump closing in on Clinton's lead in two major battleground states -- Florida and Pennsylvania -- and overtaking her in swing state Ohio.
No candidate has won the presidential election without taking at least two of those three states.
Six months out from election day, the races in those three crucial states "are too close to call," said Peter Brown, the poll's assistant director.
With Republican concern about their nominee sizzling, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seized on the polls as a sign that Trump, whom the Republican leader has endorsed, will mount a strong challenge against Clinton.
"It's a long time 'til November, but the early indications are that our nominee is likely to be very competitive," McConnell told reporters.
- Unyielding Sanders -
Quinnipiac's poll also found that Sanders, a democratic socialist who commands an enthusiastic following on the left, would do better against Trump than Clinton in all three states if he were the Democratic nominee.
The 74-year-old Vermont senator, who defeated Clinton in Indiana, has mounted an unyielding come-from-behind challenge that has exposed weaknesses in the former secretary of state's campaign.
Although almost certain to win the Democratic nomination -- she is only about 160 delegates short of that goal -- Clinton's ability to excite young and white working-class Democrats going into the general election has been put in doubt by Sanders's primary successes.
In West Virginia, a coal-mining state in Appalachia, Clinton shot herself in the foot in March by telling voters in neighboring Ohio she would slash mining jobs and put coal companies "out of business."
She later apologized and suggested her remarks were misunderstood, but in a state where livelihoods have hinged on coal for generations, many are unconvinced.
Recent polls show Sanders with as much as a six-point lead over the 68-year-old former first lady among Democrats in the state, where 29 delegates are up for grabs.
Polls close in West Virginia at 7:30 pm (2330 GMT) and in Nebraska, which holds a Republican primary, at 8:00 pm (0100). The Democrats caucused there on March 5, and Sanders won.
- Trump challenges -
While Clinton still has Sanders to worry about, Trump faces a rebellion within the Republican leadership over the insulting tone and shifting substance of his candidacy.
House speaker Paul Ryan last week announced he was "not ready" to support Trump, a rare rebuke that put the power struggles within the Republican Party on very public display.
But Ryan and other Republican congressional leaders were due to huddle with Trump on Thursday in Washington, in a highly anticipated series of meetings that could help gauge GOP support for the real estate tycoon.
McConnell said he expected "a cordial meeting to discuss the way forward."
On Tuesday, Cruz said Republican voters need not make a choice yet about Trump -- and even suggested he could jumpstart his campaign if he somehow won Nebraska.
His White House quest could resume "if there is a path to victory," Cruz said on conservative radio host Glenn Beck's program.
The Republican establishment is still reeling from Trump's hostile takeover of the party, aghast at positions he's taken on trade, foreign policy and taxes that fly in the face of conservative dictums.
But Trump has shown no sign of backing down, and some Republicans have warned the "never Trump" movement to ease their opposition.
"I think a better place to be is to chill, and just let the campaign evolve a little bit and see where the candidate ends up," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker, who acknowledged he has discussed foreign policy positions with Trump staff.
"I think the party needs to come together," added Senator John McCain, the GOP's 2008 presidential nominee.
Trump has said he would need between $1-2 billion for the campaign ahead, and will seek to raise it from donors rather than to self-finance as he has up to now.
A Quinnipiac University poll showed Donald Trump rapidly closing in on Hillary Clinton's lead in two major battleground states -- Florida and Pennsylvania Justin Sullivan (Getty/AFP/File)
US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, pictured on May 9, 2016, has mounted an unyielding come-from-behind challenge that has exposed weaknesses in the former secretary of state's campaign Jewel Samad (AFP/File)
Jordan to buy US-made TOW missiles: company
Jordan has signed a contract to buy TOW anti-tank missiles from US firm Raytheon, the company said in a statement issued Tuesday at the SOFEX arms fair for special forces.
Raytheon said the contract was signed between the Jordanian army and the US defence department, without specifying the contract's amount or the number of missiles involved.
It said Raytheon would begin deliveries "this year".
King Abdullah II of Jordan (2ndR), Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur (R), Military Adviser and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff General Mishal al-Zaben attend the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference in Amman on May 10, 2016 Khalil Mazraawi (AFP)
The Arizona-based arms giant has already delivered "more than 690,000 TOW missiles to US and allied warfighters", the statement said.
The TOW -- tube-launched, optically tracked, wireless-guided -- missile has been used in Syria by mainstream rebel forces since 2014 and played a key role in battles against regime forces in the centre and northwest of the country.
Washington gives Jordan aid of more than a billion dollars a year, about half of which is military.
Jordan is home to 630,000 registered Syrian refugees, but Amman says the true number of Syrians in the country is closer to 1.4 million.
SOFEX -- the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference -- was founded by Jordan's King Abdullah II in 1996 and is held every two years.
More than 380 companies from 37 countries are taking part in the current SOFEX in Amman, the organisers say.
Washington's ambassador to Amman, Alice Wells, told AFP that 69 US companies were taking part, and hailed the "solid partnership" between the United States and Jordan.
13 bodies found in Mozambique rebel region: police
Mozambique police confirmed Tuesday that 13 bodies had been found in the restive centre of the country where security forces have clashed with rebels from the Renamo group in recent months.
The bodies were reported by local journalists last week while investigating allegations of a separate mass grave containing 120 corpses in the same area.
"The 13 bodies were buried on Saturday near the place where they were found," Armando Mude, police spokesman for Manica province, told AFP.
Police patrol on November 16, 2013 in the central port city of Beira, Mozambique Maria Celeste Mac'Arthur (AFP/File)
"Due to their advanced state of decomposition, it was not possible to determine whether the bodies had bullet marks or not."
The victims appeared to have been killed more than 45 days ago, he said.
Human Rights Watch last week called for a "credible and transparent" investigation into the reported mass grave of 120 bodies.
According to some farmers, villagers were killed by government troops who are battling the Renamo insurgents.
Renamo fought a 16-year war against the Frelimo-led government that ended in 1992 before it became the largest opposition party.
The Mozambican Human Rights League (LDH) on Tuesday called for a United Nations-led investigation into the alleged killings.
At least 83 summary executions have been reported since the start of the year, LDH president Alice Mabota told reporters in Maputo.
"It is time that the authorities officially acknowledge that the clashes between security forces and Renamo armed men are not isolated... but that we are facing a civil war," she said.
Netanyahu says he threatened force in 2011 Cairo embassy siege
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he threatened to send troops into Cairo in 2011 to evacuate staff trapped in Israel's embassy during a mob rampage though the building.
"Here, several years ago, in the situation room of the ministry of foreign affairs, we dealt with a siege that grew ever tighter around our people in the Israeli embassy in Cairo," he told an annual memorial ceremony for ministry staff killed on duty overseas.
"A wild mob came to slaughter our people and that night we worked with all the tools at our disposal, including threats to extract them using the Israel Defence Forces, which finally tipped the scale," his office quoted him as saying in statements issued in Hebrew and English.
In the September 2011 siege, protesters attacked the Israeli embassy offices in central Cairo, forcing the evacuation of all staff Mohamed Hossam (AFP/File)
It later issued what it called a "clarification" saying that the premier's remarks did not mean he was speaking of unilateral action.
"In the circumstances referred to, the intention was to act in coordination, with the Egyptians, not unilaterally," it said.
"We are happy that there was no need for this and we thank the Egyptian army which dealt with the crisis in a responsible manner and brought about a solution to the problem."
In the September 2011 siege, protesters attacked the Israeli embassy offices in central Cairo, forcing the evacuation of all staff.
Crowds smashed through an external security wall, tossed embassy papers from balconies and tore down the Israeli flag.
After several hours, Egyptian commandos rescued six Israeli security guards stuck inside the embassy building.
It was the worst such incident since Israel set up its mission in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state, in 1979.
Suicide blast kills at least 10 in eastern Afghanistan
A suicide car bomber detonated outside the home of an anti-Taliban fighter in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar Tuesday, killing at least ten people and wounding 23 more, local officials said.
The bomber "detonated his explosives-laden car outside the house of a local 'uprising' commander this evening", said Nangarhar police chief Zrawar Zahed, referring to Afghan villagers who take up arms against the Taliban with the government's backing.
A spokesman for the Nangarhar governor confirmed the attack in Nazyan district, and said 10 "civilians" had been killed with 23 wounded.
Afghan security personnel retaliate against Taliban insurgents during an anti-Taliban operation in the eastern Nangarhar province on September 25, 2014 Noorullah Shirzada (AFP/File)
Zahed said Malek Dehqan, the target of the attack, was among the wounded.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Taliban are active in Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital.
Freed Spanish journalist feared being sold to IS in Syria
One of three Spanish journalists released after nearly a year held hostage in Syria by an Al Qaeda-linked group said Tuesday he feared being sold to the Islamic State group, which regularly kills captives.
"You don't know what they want to do or how long it will last. If they are going to kill you, release you or sell you to another terrorist group," Angel Sastre said in an interview with online newspaper El Espanol.
"The simple idea that they could sell me to Daesh terrified me," he added, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
A photo released by Presidencia del Gobierno, taken on May 8, 2016, shows Spanish journalists Angel Sastre (3L), Jose Manuel Lopez (2L) and Antonio Pampliega (R) at Torrejon military airport in Madrid Diego Crespo (Presidencia del Gobierno/AFP/File)
Sastre, 35, was kidnapped along with two other Spanish freelance journalists on July 13, 2015 in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo by the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate.
The three experienced conflict zone reporters were flown to Madrid on Sunday on a Spanish defence ministry jet sent to Turkey to bring them back.
Sastre, 35, said he was allowed to watch the news by his hostage takers after his fourth month in captivity.
"With CNN or the BBC, we learned how the war was going on around us, because Syria was in the headlines almost every day. It was like living inside a bubble inside the conflict," he said.
"I will not return to Syria, at least not for the moment. It is impossible to work there now. Kidnapping is no longer a weapon of war, it is a profitable business," he added.
"You can't trust anyone and anyone may sell you. The translator, the driver, the fruit salesman... it is not safe to work there."
The Spanish government has not disclosed any information about how it won the men's freedom
The Islamic State group, Al-Nusra's rival, has executed many of its hostages.
In August 2014 it murdered US journalist James Foley, who was taken hostage in northern Syria in 2012.
The following month, the group killed fellow US journalist Steven Sotloff.
In 2015, militants from the group beheaded Japanese war correspondent Kenji Goto.
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in 2015 ranked Syria as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists along with Iraq.
It says 139 journalists died in Syria, where various armed factions have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's regime and each other since 2011.
Top 10 hedge fund honchos netted $10 bn in 2015
Ten top US hedge fund honchos collectively made over $10 billion personally in 2015 after racking up huge profits in extremely volatile markets that left rivals in the red, according to a report Tuesday.
Tied for the top spot with $1.7 billion in income for just one year were Citadel's Kenneth Griffin and Renaissance Technologies' James Simons, according to the annual hedge fund "rich list" published by Alpha Magazine.
Three other hedge fund gurus also banked more than $1 billion apiece: Bridgewater Associates' Raymond Dalio and Appaloosa Management's David Tepper, each with $1.4 billion, and Millennium Management's Israel Englander, with $1.15 billion.
James Simons, director of Renaissance Technologies, pictured on November 13, 2008, made $1.7 billion in income for just one year, according to the annual hedge fund "rich list" published by Alpha Magazine Tim Sloan (AFP/File)
The article pointed out some prominent no-shows on this year's list, including John Paulson of Paulson & Co., Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors and Daniel Loeb of Third Point. Funds of all three finished 2015 in the red, Alpha said.
Others missing from the top 10 were Nelson Peltz and Bill Ackman.
The median take for the list of top 25 hedge fund earners was $275 million, the lowest level in five years.
US beer icon Budweiser to rename itself 'America', for a while
Not content with being the most popular beer brand in the United States, Budweiser is going a step further, renaming itself "America".
In an unabashed paean to patriotism during the election year, bottles and cans of Bud will sport "America" on the front together with popular national slogans "to inspire drinkers to celebrate America and Budweiser's shared values of freedom and authenticity," the brewer said.
It won't be a permanent move: the rebranding will span the presidential election campaign, starting on May 23 and running to the national vote on November 8.
Bottles and cans of Budweiser will display the word "America" on the front along with popular national slogans, the brewer said Karen Bleier (AFP/File)
It is an adventurous move for one of the world's most recognizable brands, owned by the Belgium-based global beer giant AB InBev.
But Budweiser and other US brewers have never shied from wrapping themselves in the US flag.
Saudi gives Spanish firms more time to finish high-speed railway
Saudi Arabia has given a Spanish consortium charged with building a high-speed railway linking Mecca and Medina an extra 14 months to complete the project, Spain's government said Tuesday.
Public Works Minister Ana Pastor announced the extension of the deadline to complete the railway, which has run into technical difficulties, during a visit to a public works project in eastern Spain, a spokesman for her ministry said.
She also said Saudi Arabia, which is facing a budget squeeze due to low oil prices, had agreed to settle its arrears in payments to the consortium "as soon as possible", the spokesman added.
Saudi Arabia in 2011 awarded a contract to a consortium of 12 Spanish companies and two Saudi firms for a project which aims to improve transport connections between Mecca and Medina Pedro Armestre (AFP/File)
Spanish firms that are part of the consortium had complained of delays of several months in getting payment.
The high-speed railway linking Mecca and Medina was due to be completed in January 2017.
The extension will push the opening of the railways to the first quarter of 2018, said a spokesman for Spanish state-run train operator Renfe, one of the leading firms in the consortium.
Renfe head Pablo Vasquez, who also heads the consortium, recently returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia in 2011 awarded the contract worth 6.7 billion euros ($7.6 billion) to the consortium of 12 Spanish companies and two Saudi firms for the project which aims to improve transport connections between Islam's holiest cities during the annual hajj pilgrimage.
The contract -- one of the biggest Spanish firms have ever undertaken abroad -- is for laying the 444 kilometres (275 miles) of track between Mecca and Medina as well as maintaining the line for 12 years.
But the project has run into challenges that have added to its costs, leading to disagreements among members of the consortium over who is responsible for resolving them.
The rail line crosses the Arabian Desert, where sandstorms are frequent and large dunes can suddenly form, which has added to the challenge of completing the project.
Former US Marine sues Iran over 'torture' while held captive
A former US Marine who was accused by Iran of spying and held for 4.5 years is suing Tehran over the "prolonged and continuous physical abuse" he endured while detained.
According to a lawsuit filed in Washington on Monday, Amir Hekmati, a US-Iranian dual national from Michigan, was subjected to a slew of physical and psychological abuse while jailed in the notorious Evin Prison.
Hekmati was freed in a prisoner swap in January in which he and three other Iranian-American dual nationals, plus another American, were traded after Washington granted clemency to seven Iranians and withdrew arrest warrants for 14 others.
Amir Hekmati, pictured on January 20, 2016, was subjected to a slew of physical and psychological abuse while jailed in the notorious Evin Prison, according to a lawsuit Sarah Rice (Getty/AFP/File)
During his lengthy ordeal, Hekmati was "whipped at the bottom of his feet, struck by an electrical Taser to his kidney area, forced to stay in stress positions for hours at a time, and hit with batons," the lawsuit states.
The former Marine had been visiting relatives in Tehran in August 2011 when he was nabbed by Iranian officials.
He ultimately was forced to confess to being a CIA spy and sentenced to death, though the sentence was later reduced to 10 years in prison.
Aside from physical abuse, prison guards threw water on Hekmati's cell floor to prevent him sleeping, kept the light on and forced him to take lithium and other "addictive pills," only to stop these to trigger withdrawals, the lawsuit states.
"Iran's treatment of Amir Hekmati was utterly contemptible," his attorney, Scott Gilbert, said in a statement.
"Amir was arrested on phony charges, thrown into brutal solitary confinement in one of the world's most inhumane prisons, and then subjected to prolonged physical and psychological abuse."
Hekmati, who is unemployed and "suffering the financial effects of being robbed of four and a half years of income," is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Hekmati served in the US Marines from 2001 to 2005 as an infantry rifleman and translator.
Bangladesh has executed the leader of the country's largest Islamist party for war crimes committed during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, 73, had been trying to appeal his 2014 death sentence for crimes including including genocide, rape and torture, but his final appeal was dismissed this week.
The leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party was hanged at a prison in the capital Dhaka at midnight, the country's Law and Justice minister said today.
Executed: Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party in Bangladesh, pictured in 2014, was hanged on at a prison in the capital Dhaka for war crimes committed in the 1971 independence war
He was executed just days after his final appeal to overturn his death sentence was dismissed by the Bangladesh high court.
The 73-year-old leader was hanged just before midnight (6pm GMT) after he refused to seek mercy from the country's president, Law and Justice minister Anisul Huq said.
Nizami, the top leader of Jamaat-e-Islami until his hanging, never denied his opposition to the former East Pakistan's breakaway from the regime in Islamabad which triggered a nine-month war of secession in 1971.
But during his trial in Dhaka in 2014, Nizami insisted his opposition was only ideological in his role as head of Jamaat's now defunct student wing and he played no part in any mass murders.
The prosecution painted a different picture of a bloodthirsty zealot who turned the youth wing into a de facto death squad which assassinated professors, writers and journalists.
Celebrations: Protesters cheer in the wake of the execution of Nizami at Dhaka Central Jail in the early hours of Wednesday
People shout slogans and slap with their shoes a picture of Motiur Rahman Nizami to celebrate the execution
Chaos: Hundreds of people had gathered outside the jail to await the news that the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party had been executed for his crimes
The other side: People stage protest against the execution as they wait for the ambulance, carrying the dead body of Nizami
Bangladeshi activists shout slogans outside Dhaka's central jail on May 10, 2016, where convicted Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami was being held
'When it was clear that Pakistan was losing the war, as the chief commander of Al Badr he ordered a hit-list based on which top intellectuals were abducted and killed,' prosecutor Mohammad Ali told AFP.
The aim was to render the fledgling nation 'intellectually crippled', he added.
His execution has sparked fears it could trigger a fresh wave of violence in the majority Sunni Muslim country, which is reeling after a string of killings of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities by suspected Islamist militants.
In 2013 the convictions of Jamaat officials for war crimes triggered the country's deadliest violence in decades.
Around 500 people were killed, mainly in clashes between Islamists and police, and thousands were arrested.
Nizami is the fifth and highest-ranked opposition leader - and the fourth from Jamaat - to have been executed since December 2013 for war crimes despite global criticism of their trials.
'We've been waiting for this day,' Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters, adding that people 'will remember this day forever'.
Hours before the hanging, family members of Nizami met him for the last time at the Dhaka Central Jail, as hundreds of police and elite security forces cordoned off the British colonial-era prison.
Security has been stepped up in the capital and in Nizami's home district of Pabna in the country's west, with magistrates being deployed to hand down instant prison terms to any law-breakers.
'If anyone tries to commit sabotage, our security forces are ready to identify them and take proper measures,' Khan told reporters.
Since last month an atheist student, two gay rights activists, a liberal professor, a Hindu tailor who allegedly made derogatory comments against the Prophet Mohammed and a Sufi Muslim leader have been hacked to death in Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi security personnel cordon an ambulance leaving central jail, carrying the body of Jamaat-e-Islami party chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, after he was executed in Dhaka
Bangladeshi security personnel stand guard outside a jail in Dhaka ahead of the execution
Jamaat called a nationwide strike for Thursday in protest against the execution, saying the charges against Nizami, a former government minister, were false and aimed at eliminating the leadership of the party.
'Nizami has been deprived of justice. He's a victim of political vengeance,' the party's acting leader Maqbul Ahmad said in a statement posted on Jamaat's website.
But the execution was cheered by secular protesters, hundreds of whom gathered outside the jail and at a square in central Dhaka to celebrate what they called 'a historic moment'.
Nizami took over as party leader in 2000 and played a key role in the victory of an Islamist-allied government in the 2001 general election. He was made a key minister in the Islamist-allied cabinet of 2001-6.
The 1971 conflict, one of the bloodiest in world history, led to the creation of an independent Bangladesh from what was then East Pakistan.
Prosecutors said Nizami was responsible for setting up the pro-Pakistani Al-Badr militia, which killed top writers, doctors and journalists in the most gruesome chapter of the war.
Their bodies were found blindfolded with their hands tied and dumped in a marsh at the outskirts of the capital.
The trial heard Nizami ordered the killings, designed to 'intellectually cripple' the fledgling nation.
He was convicted in October 2014 by the International Crimes Tribunal, which was established in 2010 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government and has sentenced more than a dozen opposition leaders for war crimes.
Rights groups say the trials fell short of global standards and lack international oversight, while the government says they are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict.
Amnesty International had called for an immediate halt to Nizami's execution, citing concerns over the fairness of the trials.
Israel bars Palestinians over public holiday: army
Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza will be barred from entering Israel from early Wednesday as it mourns its fallen and celebrates its 68th anniversary, the army said.
Crossing points will be sealed from 1:00 am on Wednesday (2200 GMT Tuesday) until midnight (2100 GMT) on Thursday, it said in a statement.
The borders are often closed on security grounds on Israeli public holidays, for fear of militant attacks as large numbers of civilians congregate.
An honour guard of Israeli soldiers march with their rifles as the national flag is lowered to half mast at the start of Remembrance Day, in Jerusalem's Old City on May 10, 2016 Gali Tibbon (AFP)
The Jewish state on Tuesday evening began observing its annual day of remembrance for fallen troops and slain civilians.
At sunset on Wednesday, solemn gatherings at military cemeteries and war memorials give way to public performances, street parties and general merrymaking until Thursday evening, marking 68 years since the declaration of the Israeli state in 1948.
The date is marked according to the Jewish calendar and falls on May 11-12 this year.
Nizami: Bangladeshi Islamist who ordered war-time killings
As a cabinet minister, Motiur Rahman Nizami used to be chauffeured around Bangladesh with the green and red national flag fluttering proudly from the bonnet of his official limousine.
But according to witnesses at his war crimes trial, the future leader of Bangladesh's main Islamist party spent his student days running a killing machine which murdered anyone who agitated for independence.
"When he became a cabinet minister, it was one of the most shameful moments in our history," Imran Sarker, one of Bangladesh's most widely-read secular bloggers, said after Nizami's execution Tuesday.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, the top leader of Jamaat-e-Islami until his hanging, never denied his opposition to the former East Pakistan's breakaway from the regime in Islamabad which triggered a nine-month war of secession in 1971
"He used to fly the flag and yet he and his party not only opposed Bangladesh's independence but he was the chief orchestrator of the murders of the country's finest intellectuals."
Nizami, the top leader of Jamaat-e-Islami until his hanging, never denied his opposition to the former East Pakistan's breakaway from the regime in Islamabad which triggered a nine-month war of secession in 1971.
But during his trial in Dhaka in 2014, Nizami insisted his opposition was only ideological in his role as head of Jamaat's now defunct student wing and he played no part in any mass murders.
The prosecution painted a different picture of a bloodthirsty zealot who turned the youth wing into a de facto death squad which assassinated professors, writers and journalists.
"When it was clear that Pakistan was losing the war, as the chief commander of Al Badr he ordered a hit-list based on which top intellectuals were abducted and killed," prosecutor Mohammad Ali told AFP.
The aim was to render the fledgling nation "intellectually crippled", he added.
Like many prominent figures allied to the regime in Islamabad, Nizami kept a low-profile in the immediate post-war period, fearing revenge.
But after the assassination of independence hero Sheikh Mujib -- the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina -- Jamaat was taken off the banned list in 1979 and Nizami emerged as one of its key lieutenants.
He played a central role in its rebranding as a democratic party which eschewed violence and a formidable new student wing was created on his watch.
After years as the party's second-in-command, he took the helm in 2000 and made Jamaat a close partner of the centre-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
The alliance secured a landslide election victory the following year, with BNP leader Khaleda Zia replacing her arch rival Hasina as premier.
It was the first time Jamaat had been given a role in governing a nation which it had tried to smother at birth. Nizami served both as industry minister and agriculture minister from 2001-06.
But the seeds of his downfall were sown in 2004 when police accidentally seized a weapons consignment being smuggled into the country that was destined for a rebel outfit in neighbouring India's northeast.
When Hasina was voted back to power in 2009, her administration filed charges against Nizami for abetting smuggling on the grounds that the weapons were being unloaded at a jetty run by his ministry.
He was subsequently sentenced to death in a verdict supporters said was a sop to Bangladesh's powerful neighbour which is close to Hasina's Awami League party.
While on death row in the smuggling case, Nizami became one of around a dozen senior figures from Jamaat and BNP to be charged over their role in the 1971 conflict which was one of the bloodiest in the post-colonial era.
Jamaat said the prosecutions were part of a government witch-hunt aimed at neutering the opposition.
With most of its leaders either having been executed, jailed or on the run, Jamaat -- which is now banned from standing in elections -- has struggled to bring supporters onto the streets in the last three years.
Rights groups criticised the trials for lacking international oversight but the government insists they were fair and necessary to bring justice to the families of people killed during the war.
According to Hasina's government, three million people died in the conflict although independent monitors say the real figure was far lower.
Bangladeshi activists shout slogans outside Dhaka's central jail on May 10, 2016, where convicted Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami was being held ahead of his hanging
OAS chief defends Venezuelan lawmakers against treason charges
The head of the Organization of American States on Tuesday defended Venezuelan opposition lawmakers who have been accused of treason for asking the regional body to help overcome a political crisis in their homeland.
Six members of the opposition-controlled National Assembly met with OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro two weeks ago in Washington.
They asked the Uruguayan diplomat to facilitate a dialogue and observe a process initiated by the National Assembly to hold a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro.
The head of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro, pictured on April 12, 2016, is considering convening a debate within the OAS on the state of democracy within Venezuela Marvin Recinos (AFP/File)
On the lawmakers' return to Venezuela, ruling party legislators filed a complaint with the country's attorney general, accusing four lawmakers, including three of those who went to the OAS, of "treason against the fatherland."
In a statement, Almagro expressed concern that the lawmakers had been targeted "for visiting me and informing me of the situation in their country and reminding (us) of the commitments that governs all of us in the hemisphere."
He recalled that promoting democracy is a right under the Inter-American Democratic Charter, a binding agreement by the OAS's 34 member states aimed at upholding democratic institutions in the Americas.
"Nobody who acts responsibly in that direction can be a traitor to his country," Almagro said, noting that the visiting lawmakers were "elected by the people of their country."
His statement followed a heated special session of the OAS's permanent council last week in which Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez accused Almagro of siding with the opposition and the United States to invoke the charter and intervene in its affairs.
Almagro is considering convening a debate within the OAS on the state of democracy in Venezuela.
He said the Inter-American Democratic Charter does not seek to impose sanctions.
"Possible sanctions are the last resort," Almagro said.
"My duty as secretary general is to guard the fulfillment of the inter-American norms that our countries have agreed to and are an obligation for all of us," he said in the statement.
"Anyone who asks for help, good offices or diplomatic efforts to that end can not and should not be considered a traitor."
Five questions as Bangladesh hangs top Islamist leader
Bangladesh Tuesday executed the chief of its main Islamist party for atrocities committed during the country's 1971 independence war with Pakistan.
Motiur Rahman Nizami was hanged at a Dhaka prison after he refused to appeal for clemency against the death sentence handed down following his conviction for war crimes.
The 73-year-old's death will exacerbate tensions in the Muslim-majority country after a string of killings of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities by suspected Islamist militants.
Bangladeshi security personnel stand guard outside a jail in Dhaka on May 10, 2016, where comvicted Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami was being held ahead of his hanging
- Who was Nizami? -
Nizami was chief of Jamaat-e-Islami which counts hundreds of thousands of Muslims as members.
After years of serving as the party's second in command, he took the helm in 2000 and made Jamaat a close partner of the centre-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
The alliance secured a landslide victory in elections the following year, and Jamaat was given a role in governing the nation.
Nizami served both as industry and agriculture minister from 2001-06, before the alliance lost office to bitter rival Sheikh Hasina's secular party.
In 2010, he was arrested and charged for his bloody role in opposing Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971 -- almost four decades earlier.
During his subsequent trial for war crimes, he was accused of spending his student days running a killing machine which murdered anyone who agitated for independence.
- Why was he executed now? -
After coming to power in 2009, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina set up the International Crimes Tribunal to try Jamaat and other opposition leaders for their roles during the nine-month war.
Rights groups say the tribunal's trials fall short of global standards and lack international oversight, while Hasina's secular government says they are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict.
Nizami faced 16 charges of murder, rape and other crimes and was convicted in 2014.
After a failed appeal against his death sentence, Nizami filed a last-ditch plea with the Supreme Court which last week upheld his execution order.
Nizami refused to seek the president's clemency -- his only chance to escape the gallows but which would require him to admit his guilt -- paving the way for his hanging.
- What was Nizami convicted of? -
Nizami insisted that his opposition to Bangladesh's breakaway from Pakistan was only ideological, during his role as head of Jamaat's now defunct student wing.
But during his trial, prosecutors accused Nizami of being a bloodthirsty zealot who turned the youth wing into a de-facto death squad which assassinated professors, writers and journalists in one of the most gruesome chapters of the war.
Victims' bodies were found blindfolded with their hands tied and dumped in a marsh on the outskirts of the capital.
The tribunal has convicted Nizami and about a dozen other opposition leaders of war crimes.
- What's the likely reaction? -
Jamaat says the tribunal's trials are politically motivated, part of a government conspiracy to eliminate the party's leadership.
Convictions of other Jamaat leaders in 2013 triggered clashes between protesting Islamists and police that left at least 500 people dead, in the worst political violence since the country's independence.
But a fresh wave of bloodshed after Nizami's execution is unlikely.
A major government crackdown after the 2013 violence saw tens of thousands of Jamaat supporters arrested. Dozens were allegedly abducted by security officers and later found dead, according to the opposition.
The crackdown severely weakened Jamaat, whose entire current leadership are in hiding or have fled abroad.
When Jamaat's second in command was hanged last November following his conviction for war crimes, few party cadres took to the streets.
Jamaat called a day of prayer and a nationwide strike following the Supreme Court's rejection last week of Nizami's appeal. But the strike passed off peacefully.
Experts warn, however, that the crackdown has also radicalised some of Hasina's most hardline opponents, resulting in the string of recent murders of secular bloggers and liberal activists.
- Who's next on the list? -
Nizami is the fourth Jamaat leader and the fifth opposition leader hanged since the tribunal was set up.
At least four other Jamaat leaders have been tried and convicted of war crimes. Among them is Jamaat's key financier Mir Quashem Ali who has already lost an appeal against his death sentence.
He could be hanged within months if he loses his final appeal, while the Supreme Court is still hearing the other leaders' pleas.
American jailed for 15 years for trying to join IS
A 24-year-old Jordanian-American was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday after acknowledging he tried to join the Islamic State group.
Alaa Saadeh, of New Jersey, was arrested in June of last year and pleaded guilty on October 29.
The specific charge was conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist group.
A Syrian soldier sets fire to an Islamic State (IS) group flag, a jihadist group for which a Jordanian-American US citizen was sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to provide material support Joseph Eid (AFP/File)
Saadeh was accused of having planned to join the Islamic State group and of helping his younger brother Nader leave the United States to join the jihadist group in Syria in May 2015.
"Saadeh didn't just plan to join ISIL, he facilitated his brothers overseas travel and deliberately took steps to conceal the scheme from law enforcement, said US Attorney Paul Fishman of the District of New Jersey.
ISIL is an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.
The brothers were to have embraced extremist Islam some time after 2013.
Their parents were expelled from the United States several years ago after an unspecified conviction.
IS cuts regime supply route to Syria's ancient Palmyra
The Islamic State group on Tuesday cut a key supply route between Syria's Homs and the world heritage site of Palmyra just months after the army recaptured the ancient city, a monitor said.
IS "was able to cut the supply road between Homs and Palmyra near the Tayfur military airport after an attack launched from the east of Homs", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Both cities are controlled by the regime after troops recaptured Palmyra -- a UNESCO world heritage site -- from the jihadist group in late March, backed by Russian air strikes.
Syrian soldiers walk in a residential neighbourhood of Palmyra on March 31, 2016 Joseph Eid (AFP/File)
Cutting the road "came as part of IS's biggest assault since the army recaptured Palmyra with Russian support" on March 27, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
"Violent clashes between regime forces and Daesh are ongoing," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist group.
"Daesh surrounds Palmyra from all angles except in the southwest", Abdel Rahman said, adding the closest IS was to the city was 10 kilometres.
IS and the regime both control parts of the area between Homs and Palmyra.
The road IS cut is "the main road between Homs and Palmyra but not the only one as there are other side roads" between both cities, Abdel Rahman said.
Syria's civil war has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions since it started with anti-regime protests in 2011.
Russian bid to blacklist Syrian rebel groups blocked at UN
Britain, France, the United States and Ukraine on Tuesday blocked a Russian request to add two Syrian rebel groups to a UN terror blacklist and sideline them from the Syrian peace process, diplomats said.
Russia had requested that Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) and Ahrar al-Sham be added to the sanctions list for their ties to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Adding names to the UN sanctions list requires a consensus decision from the 15-member council and after objections were raised by the four countries, Russia's request was rejected.
Fighters from Jaish al-Islam hold a position in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern edges of the capital, on April 10, 2016 Amer Almohibany (AFP)
"Russia publicly attempting to designate groups that are parties to the cessation of hostilities could have damaging consequences to the cessation just as we are trying to de-escalate the situation on the ground," said a spokesperson for the US mission to the United Nations.
"Now is not the time to shift course, but rather double-down on our efforts toward a reduction in violence."
Jaish al-Islam is a member of the Higher Negotiations Committee (HNC) that is taking part in negotiations in Geneva to end the five-year war in Syria.
The Saudi-backed rebel group is the most important in Damascus province.
Ahrar al-Sham is among the most powerful Islamist rebel groups in Syria.
Financed by Turkey and Gulf states, it has fought alongside the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, around Aleppo and in neighboring Idlib province.
The dispute over the sanctions list came amid word from Moscow Tuesday that the 17-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) would meet in Vienna on May 17 to try to get peace efforts back on track.
An attempt last year by the ISSG to come up with a single list of "terrorist" groups in Syria fell apart after scores of names were submitted from all sides.
A Security Council diplomat, who spoke on condition he not be named, said blacklisting the two groups would be "seriously counter-productive, damaging both efforts to maintain the cessation of hostilities and resume peace negotiations in Geneva."
He argued that isolating them from the mainstream opposition would result in a more hardline stance and drive them away from the search for a political settlement.
"It would provide a pretext for yet more moderate areas to come under target," he said.
French PM to visit Israel in bid to relaunch peace process
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories this month in a bid to relaunch the peace process following the worst flare-up of violence in the Gaza Strip for two years, his office said Tuesday.
His visit, from May 21-24, comes as France seeks to engineer a peace deal based on a two-state solution.
It will happen ahead of a May 30 meeting which France is organising for ministers from 20 countries to try and relaunch the Israel-Palestinian peace process.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories from May 21-24 Dominique Faget (AFP)
That proposed meeting has been welcomed by the Palestinians, who have suspended a planned UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements to focus on the bid.
But Israel has consistently argued that peace can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the two sides, rather than international forums.
French Foreign Minister Marc Ayrault has said the aim of the meeting is to prepare an international summit in the second half of 2016, which would include the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
The trip to Israel will also be a chance for Valls to smooth over a row over a recent UNESCO resolution, backed by France, which spoke of "Occupied Palestine".
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attacked the "absurd" resolution which also condemned "Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims' access to their Holy Site Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif", failing to mention the site's Jewish name of the Temple Mount.
Valls will meet Netanyahu on May 23.
He will arrive in Israel the previous day and also plans to meet President Reuven Rivlin, former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres and opposition leader Isaac Herzog.
Closed Central America borders won't stop us, say US-bound Cubans
Cubans eager to reach the United States will keep leaving the island despite a decision by several Central American countries to close their borders to them, some Cubans in Panama told AFP on Tuesday.
Panama this week became the latest country in the region to slam shut its door to Cubans without visas, following the same policy implemented first by Nicaragua in November then by Costa Rica in December.
The decisions have had a domino effect. As a backlog of Cubans formed in one country, unable to cross to the next, frantic efforts were made to fly them out, then shut the borders so no more came in.
Panama is currently overseeing daily flights to northern Mexico carrying nearly 4,000 Cubans who had become stranded on its territory over the past four months Rodrigo Arangua (AFP)
Panama is currently overseeing daily flights to northern Mexico carrying nearly 4,000 Cubans who had become stranded on its territory over the past four months.
"I'm sure that they will keep coming," one Cuban, Guillermo Rolando, told AFP before boarding a plane to Mexico with 200 others.
- Leaving dire conditions -
Cubans are worried that the United States -- which in 2015 restored diplomatic ties with Cuba and plans to resume commercial flights to the Communist-run island -- could soon end its Cold War policy of automatically welcoming them at its land borders.
They also know that Central America's borders are porous frontiers of jungle and corruption.
And so the migrants say the exodus will continue.
After US President Barack Obama's landmark visit to Cuba in March, "the people have lost their fear" of leaving, Rolando said.
"The bad thing is they have to put their lives in the hands of 'coyotes'," or people smugglers.
The conditions many are leaving behind are dire: a monthly state salary of just $20, and few prospects to carve out better lives under a regime that has accepted detente with the US but little social change.
Kendry Portal, another Cuban taking the flight, criticized the border closures.
"This step will cause human lives to be lost because those who want to leave will do so, whether the borders are closed or not," he said.
Costa Rica and Panama are calling for a regional solution to the flow of Cuban migrants, and have lashed out at the US policy of accepting them, saying it acts as a magnet.
US officials, however, say there are no plans to change the welcome for Cubans, even as the obstacles in Latin America against the Cubans accumulate.
- The 'American dream' -
Over the past decade, many flew to Ecuador to begin their overland trek through Colombia, then Panama and the rest of Central America, to Mexico and its border with the US.
But Ecuador in December suddenly dropped its visa-free entry policy for Cubans, who then switched their attention to Guyana, from where they crossed to Venezuela and then Colombia and Central America.
"The journey is not easy. But we are going to come no matter what, even if we have to hide," another Cuban, Maikel Basurto, said.
Each Cuban migrant spends around $10,000 for the odyssey, including the fees paid to human traffickers. These amounts have increased because of the need now to slog through remote jungle and marshes to avoid border guards.
"We left Cuba with one aim: to make the American dream happen," said Magda Lopez, a 33-year-old Cuban who worked as an economist and who wants to get to the midwestern US state of Nebraska.
"There are thousands of us who want to leave," she said. "All of Cuba is doing badly."
A group of Cuban migrants wait to depart from Panama City to Ciudad Juarez, in northern Mexico along the US border on May 10, 2016 Rodrigo Arangua (AFP)
Costa Rica and Panama are calling for a regional solution to the flow of Cuban migrants, and have lashed out at the US policy of accepting them, saying it acts as a magnet Rodrigo Arangua (AFP)
Ted Cruz rules out third-party presidential bid
Defeated Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Tuesday ruled out a third-party run against presumptive nominee Donald Trump, acknowledging disappointment about his loss and refusing to say whether he could back the celebrity billionaire.
"I have no interest" in mounting a rival bid in the general election, the senator from Texas told a crush of reporters as he returned to the US Senate for the first time since his year-long White House run came to an end last week.
He said the frustration with the establishment in the 2016 election cycle "should be a wake-up call to Washington DC."
Ted Cruz (pictured) has refused to say whether he would endorse Trump or encourage his supporters to do so Brendan Smialowski (AFP)
Cruz suspended his campaign one week ago when Trump won Indiana, pushing Ohio Governor John Kasich out of the race and leaving the New York real estate mogul the all-but-certain nominee.
Earlier in the day, Cruz teased that he might jump back into the race should he win Nebraska's primary Tuesday, but he essentially put that to rest later in Washington.
"Let's be clear, we're not going to win Nebraska," he said.
"We've withdrawn from the campaign and it's in the hands of the voters."
With Republican concern swirling about the abrasive presumptive nominee and the shifting substance of his candidacy, several party grandees have refused to endorse Trump.
Others have called for a more conservative candidate to go up against Trump and his likely Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton.
Cruz refused to say whether he would endorse Trump or encourage his supporters to do so.
"There will be plenty of time for voters to make the determination of who they're going to support," Cruz said.
"It will be incumbent on the candidates in this race to make the case to the people that they will fight for them."
Cruz said he was "privileged and humbled" to have mounted his campaign, and that as a senator he will continue to promote the conservative movement.
"The American people are fed up with the disasters of the Obama-Clinton economy, and this movement will continue," he said.
Two female US Marines assigned to infantry
The US Marine Corps is assigning two women to frontline infantry roles, a first for the armed service under new Pentagon rules opening all combat jobs to women.
In a statement Tuesday, the Marine Corps said it had granted requests from two enlisted women to transfer into "ground combat arms specialties." One will become a machinegunner, the other a rifleman.
"Requests like these help the Marine Corps to continue the implementation of gender integration throughout all Military Occupational Specialties," the Marines said.
In a statement, the US Marine Corps said it had granted requests from two enlisted women to transfer into "ground combat arms specialties" Paul J. Richards (AFP/File)
President Barack Obama's administration decided in 2013 that all combat positions should be open to women by 2016, including the infantry and special operations forces.
The Marines had requested some exemptions, but these were overruled by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.
It will take some time before the two Marines are placed in their new roles, as a female "leadership cadre" needs to be established in their units at least three months beforehand.
Although women warriors have frequently found themselves in combat situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, they had previously been barred from joining frontline combat roles.
Tribune adopts shareholder rights plan to fend off Gannett
NEW YORK (AP) Fending off an unsolicited takeover by the owner of USA Today, Chicago's Tribune Publishing has adopted a shareholder rights plan, better known as "poison pill."
Gannett offered to buy Tribune Publishing last month for more than $388 million. Tribune rejected the offer last week, saying the price was too low. The company owns the Los Angeles Time, Chicago Tribune and a number of other newspapers.
The plan announced Monday allows existing shareholders to buy preferred stock if a person or group acquires at least 20 percent of its shares.
FILE - In this Monday, April 25, 2016, file photo, Chicago Tribune and other newspapers are displayed at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. In an attempt to fend off a takeover by USA Today owner Gannett, Tribune Publishing said Monday, May 9, 2016, that it adopted a one-year shareholder rights plan. Tribunes shareholder rights plan allows existing shareholders to buy preferred stock if a person or group acquires at least 20 percent of its stock. In response, Gannett said in a statement that it was unfortunate that Tribune wont negotiate a deal. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)
Gannett called the defensive maneuver "unfortunate."
"Tribune is putting up another roadblock to prevent its stockholders from realizing compelling, immediate and certain cash value for their investment," Gannett said.
Gannett's takeover bid came after a shake-up at Tribune. In February, Chicago investor Michael W. Ferro Jr. gave Tribune a $44.4 million cash infusion through his company Merrick Media. Ferro was later named as non-executive chairman of the newspaper publisher. Weeks later, the company ousted its CEO and named Justin Dearborn to that key job.
Shares of Tribune Publishing Co. slipped 5 cents to $11.56 in afternoon trading. Shares of Gannett Co., based in McLean, Virginia, fell 22 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $15.91.
AP Interview: Michael Brown's mom's book recalls death, life
ST. LOUIS (AP) Lezley McSpadden was taking a cigarette break from her grocery store job when a friend called to say someone had been shot in the street near Canfield Green Apartments in Ferguson.
Within minutes, her cellphone rang again. It was a family member declaring the victim was McSpadden's 18-year-old son, Michael Brown. The shooter was a police officer.
The next moments that sultry August day grew more and more intense as McSpadden's co-worker drove her to the scene in the St. Louis suburb where she quickly spotted clothing that matched her son's: a yellow sock on a leg the sheet hadn't covered and a red St. Louis Cardinals cap on the ground.
In this April 27, 2016, photo, Lezley McSpadden poses for a portrait in St. Louis. McSpadden was sitting in her car on a smoke break from her grocery store job on Aug. 9, 2014, when a friend told her someone had been shot near Canfield Apartments in Ferguson, Mo. After that her life crumbled learning her son, 18-year-old son Michael Brown, had been shot and killed by a police officer. McSpadden recounts what happened that fateful day two summers ago in her autobiography, "Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil," set to be released Tuesday, May 10, 2016, and co-written by Lyah Beth LeFlore. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
McSpadden recounts what happened that fateful day two summers ago in her autobiography, "Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil," set to be released Tuesday and co-written by Lyah Beth LeFlore.
The book chronicles McSpadden's life growing up in tough St. Louis neighborhoods, her experiences raising Brown, the devastation his shooting brought, and her push to honor his memory. Brown's death became a catalyst in the national Black Lives Matter movement.
McSpadden, 36, said in an interview with The Associated Press that she wants readers to know "what a sweet person he was and how gentle he was and that he always tried to do the right thing."
"I also want people to know that before this happened we were just regular people, ordinary people that sent their kids to school, went to work, and fried fish on Fridays and barbecued on Saturday," she said.
Michael Brown and a friend were walking on Aug. 9, 2014, when Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson told them to get out of the street. Wilson realized Brown fit the description of a suspect in a store theft that occurred moments earlier. Heated words turned into a scuffle between Brown and Wilson, who was still inside his squad car.
The two separated, but Wilson has said the 6-foot-5, nearly 300-pound Brown moved menacingly toward him once he was out of the police vehicle and that he shot him in self-defense.
The shooting of a young, unarmed black man by a white officer angered people in the neighborhood, and the crowd at the scene became more infuriated when Brown's body lay in the street for four hours in the summer heat. The initial unrest lasted for days and turned violent at times.
More protests gripped Ferguson after a St. Louis County grand jury declined to charge Wilson. The U.S. Justice Department also cleared him. He resigned in November 2014.
The family's wrongful death lawsuit is still making its way through court. McSpadden said she had hoped Wilson would apologize, but he never did.
McSpadden has spoken before a United Nations committee at a human rights conference in Switzerland, appeared at presidential campaign events for Hillary Clinton and been featured in a Beyonce video with Trayvon Martin's mother and others holding photos of their slain loved ones.
"I just don't look at myself as being an activist or any of those things people try to label me as," McSpadden said. "I've always just wanted to be treated fair and equal, and that's what I'm fighting for for my son right now."
She was 16 when she gave birth to Brown. She said the happy, chunky child with a winning smile rarely got into trouble.
In her book, McSpadden recalls her fourth-grader son being invited to read his Martin Luther King Jr. essay to the school board. Besides writing, he also liked to figure out how things were put together. Once she found a high school-aged Michael taking a computer apart and reassembling it.
The summer of 2014, Brown was staying with McSpadden's mother at Canfield Green Apartments. When McSpadden got the call about a shooting near the complex, she became worried. She said the second call left her gasping for air.
"Nette Pooh, the police just shot Mike Mike," McSpadden recalled her sister saying, using both her and her son's nicknames.
McSpadden ran inside the grocery store where she worked, screaming: "I need to get to my son! The police just shot my son!"
The co-worker who drove her from the suburb of Clayton to Ferguson weaved through a maze of police cars and officers as they reached the scene.
"I caught a glimpse of a blood-covered white sheet laying over the form of a motionless body stretched out on the ground and screamed, throwing my arms into the air, "Naw, naw, naw, that ain't my child! It can't be!" McSpadden writes in her book.
She demanded to know which officer shot her son.
"I wasn't in denial. I was in shock. I was in panic mode," McSpadden told the AP. "I needed to know and I wanted to see for my own self, and they wouldn't let me see and they wouldn't tell me anything."
She said she and one officer argued, trading profanities.
"He put his middle finger up and he put it in my face and he took an assault rifle and he posed with it," McSpadden said, her anger and sadness still apparent.
In this April 27, 2016, photo, Lezley McSpadden speaks during an interview in St. Louis. McSpadden was sitting in her car on a smoke break from her grocery store job on Aug. 9, 2014, when a friend told her someone had been shot near Canfield Apartments in Ferguson, Mo. After that her life crumbled learning her son, 18-year-old son Michael Brown, had been shot and killed by a police officer. McSpadden recounts what happened that fateful day two summers ago in her autobiography, "Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil," set to be released Tuesday, May 10, 2016, and co-written by Lyah Beth LeFlore. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
In this April 27, 2016, photo, Lezley McSpadden poses for a portrait in St. Louis. McSpadden was sitting in her car on a smoke break from her grocery store job on Aug. 9, 2014, when a friend told her someone had been shot near Canfield Apartments in Ferguson, Mo. After that her life crumbled learning her son, 18-year-old son Michael Brown, had been shot and killed by a police officer. McSpadden recounts what happened that fateful day two summers ago in her autobiography, "Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil," set to be released Tuesday, May 10, 2016, and co-written by Lyah Beth LeFlore. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
In this April 27, 2016, photo, Lezley McSpadden poses for a portrait in St. Louis. McSpadden was sitting in her car on a smoke break from her grocery store job on Aug. 9, 2014, when a friend told her someone had been shot near Canfield Apartments in Ferguson, Mo. After that her life crumbled learning her son, 18-year-old son Michael Brown, had been shot and killed by a police officer. McSpadden recounts what happened that fateful day two summers ago in her autobiography, "Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil," set to be released Tuesday, May 10, 2016, and co-written by Lyah Beth LeFlore. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
In this April 27, 2016, photo, Lezley McSpadden poses for a portrait in St. Louis. McSpadden was sitting in her car on a smoke break from her grocery store job on Aug. 9, 2014, when a friend told her someone had been shot near Canfield Apartments in Ferguson, Mo. After that her life crumbled learning her son, 18-year-old son Michael Brown, had been shot and killed by a police officer. McSpadden recounts what happened that fateful day two summers ago in her autobiography, "Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil," set to be released Tuesday, May 10, 2016, and co-written by Lyah Beth LeFlore. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Alberta premier says oil city saved from worst of wildfire
FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (AP) At least two neighborhoods in this oil sands city were scenes of utter devastation with incinerated homes leveled to the ground from a wildfire that Fort McMurray's fire chief called a "beast ... a fire like I've never seen in my life."
But the wider picture was more optimistic as Fire Chief Darby Allen said 85 percent of Canada's main oil sands city remains intact, including the downtown district. Alberta's premier declared the city had been saved, adding that officials hope to provide a schedule within two weeks for thousands of evacuated residents to begin returning to their homes.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said about 2,400 homes and buildings were destroyed in the city, but firefighters managed to save 25,000 others, including the hospital, municipal buildings and every functioning school.
A burned out car and houses are viewed in the Beacon Hill neighborhood during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
"This city was surrounded by an ocean of fire only a few days ago but Fort McMurray and the surrounding communities have been saved and they will be rebuilt," Notley said.
Notley got her first direct look at the devastation in Fort McMurray on Monday after cold temperatures and light rain had stabilized the massive wildfire to a point where officials could begin planning to get thousands of evacuated residents back.
The break in the weather left officials optimistic they've reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. The temperature dipped to 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) on Monday following a week where the region had unseasonably warm temperatures.
Notley flew in Monday morning to meet with local officials and took a ground tour of the town before holding a news conference at the emergency center.
"I was very much struck by the devastation of the fire. It was really quite overwhelming in some spots," Notley said. "But I will also say that I was struck by the proximity of that devastation to neighborhoods that were untouched."
More than 40 journalists were allowed into Fort McMurray on a bus escorted by police. The forest surrounding the road into town was still smoldering and there were abandoned cars. Only the sign remained at a Super 8 Motel and Denny's restaurant on the edge of town.
The Beacon Hill neighborhood was a scene of utter devastation with homes burned to their foundations.
Allen said at one point the fire jumped across a road in Beacon Hill that is 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 meters) wide.
"It jumped that without thinking about it. This was a beast. It was an animal. It was a fire like I've never seen in my life," he said on the media bus.
In the early stages of the fire he feared that as much as half the city could burn down
"I just want to let the people know that we're in pretty good shape," he said. "Typical of the damaged areas you'll see structures that are completely gone and structures that are intact."
Allen said at one point the fire raced down a hill to the corner of a bank, but firefighters were able to halt the encroaching flames at the bank. Had they failed to stop it there, the fire would have destroyed the downtown district, he said.
But other neighborhoods were not spared. In the Abasand district, townhouses were completely destroyed, and charred children's bikes could be seen in backyards. A parking facility was burned to the ground.
More than 88,000 people have left Fort McMurray since the fire broke out last Tuesday in the heart of Canada's oil sands region. The bulk of the city's evacuees moved south after Tuesday's mandatory evacuation order, but 25,000 evacuees moved north and were housed in camps normally used for oil sands workers until they also could be evacuated south.
Gas has been turned off, the power grid is damaged and water is undrinkable in Fort McMurray. More than 250 power company workers are trying to restore the grid and assess the gas infrastructure.
"We are now turning our minds more and more to the recovery effort," Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said.
"This is going to be a long term endeavor because at the moment there is no power and gas, no palatable water supply. There's dangerous hazardous material all over the place. It's going to take a very careful, thoughtful effort to get that community back in a livable condition," Goodale said.
Notley said the fire still continues to grow outside the city and now is about 787 square miles (2,020 square kilometers) in size.
No deaths or injuries have been reported from the fire itself. But the fire has forced as much as a third of Canada's oil output offline and was expected to impact an economy already hurt by the fall in oil prices.
"We're just beginning to become aware of the economic impacts," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
Alberta's oil sands have the third-largest reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Its workers largely live in Fort McMurray, a former frontier outpost-turned-city whose residents mostly come from elsewhere in Canada.
Officials said the fire didn't' reach the Suncor or Syncrude oil sands facilities north of Fort McMurray, and that the oil mines to the north are not threatened. Notley said there will be a meeting Tuesday with the energy industry to discuss the state of the facilities and the impact on operations.
Suncor said late Sunday it is beginning to implement its plan for a return to operations. Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimated the wildfire has reduced Canada's oil sands production by a million barrels per day, but said in a note the lack of damage to the oil mines could allow for a fast ramp up in production. They noted the complete evacuation of personnel and of the city could point to a more gradual recovery.
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Gillies reported from Toronto.
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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of a neighborhood name in Fort McMurray to 'Abasand' instead of 'Abesand.'
Burned out buildings are viewed in Fort McMurray, Alberta, during a media tour of the fire-damaged city Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
A burned out car and the remains of a house are viewed in the Beacon Hill neighborhood during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Fort McMurray, Alberta, fire chief Darby Allen speaks to members of the media at a fire station in Fort McMurray, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Rachel La Corte/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, center left, shakes hands with fire chief Darby Allen at the Fort McMurray, Alberta, fire department in Fort McMurray, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Ptarmigan Court Trailer Park is viewed during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Houses are seen burned down in the Abasands neighborhood during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Canada, Monday, May 9, 2016. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Flames flare up from hotspots from a wildfire along a highway to Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, Sunday, May 8, 2016. Officials said Sunday they reached a turning point in fighting an enormous wildfire, hoping to get a "death grip'" on the blaze that devastated Canada's oil sands town of Fort McMurray amid cooler temperatures and light rain. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley speaks to members of the media at a fire station in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Rachel La Corte/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
A view of the burned out Super 8 motel is shown during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Alta. on Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they've reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP)
Bebie Hortaleza, who has opened up her home for Fort McMurray wildfire evacuees, sings at the Word of Faith Family Church in Lac la Biche, Canada, Sunday, May 8, 2016. (Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
A burned out truck rests in the Beacon Hill neighborhood during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
A burned out pickup truck and house are viewed in the Beacon Hill neighborhood during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
A burned out truck rests in the Beacon Hill neighborhood during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
A burned out pickup truck and a barbecue are viewed in the Beacon Hill neighborhood during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Burned ground surrounds a sign welcoming visitors to Fort McMurray during a media tour of the fire-damaged Alberta city on Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they've reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP)
A burned out structure is viewed in the Abasands neighbourhood during a media tour of the fire-damaged city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
A burned vehicle rests in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Fort McMurray, Alberta, during a media tour of the fire-damaged city on Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Electrical crews work amid burned out buildings in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Fort McMurray, Alberta, during a media tour of the fire-damaged city on Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
10 Things to Know for Tuesday - 10 May 2016
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:
1. JUSTICE DEPT., N. CAROLINA SUE EACH OTHER OVER TRANSGENDER LAWS
Billions in federal aid for the state is at stake as the governor refuses to back away from the law requiring transgender people to use public restrooms and showers corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate.
Burned bicycles rest amongst debris in the Abasands neighborhood in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
2. 'A FIRE LIKE I'VE NEVER SEEN IN MY LIFE'
That's how Fire Chief Darby Allen describes the devastation from a wildfire that burned 2,400 homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta.
3. WHY OBAMA ADVISER'S COMMENTS SPARK OUTRAGE
In a New York Times Magazine article, Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes boasts of creating an "echo chamber" of support for the Iran nuclear deal.
4. WHO SAYS HE RECEIVED A CALLING TO HELP FERGUSON
Delrish Moss, the new Ferguson, Mo., police chief, said he was driven to help turn around a department that's come under intense scrutiny since the 2014 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.
5. VIOLENT STORMS RAKE PLAINS
Tornadoes kill two men in Oklahoma, while severe weather also threatens portions of Nebraska and Iowa.
6. $429.6M POWERBALL WINNER STILL HASN'T COME FORWARD
The winning ticket was bought from a 7-Eleven in a residential neighborhood in Trenton, N.J., lottery officials say.
7. 'PANAMA PAPERS' DATABASE GOES LIVE
Investigative journalists publish the names of thousands of offshore companies in a massive trove of data on the finances of the rich and powerful.
8. WHAT A SOUTH DAKOTA TRIBE WANTS BACK
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe seeks repatriation of the remains of at least 10 Native American children who died at a federal boarding school.
9. IN RUSH TO BUY SUVs, SMALL-CAR DEALS ABOUND
Automakers are resorting to discounts and sweetened lease deals to move compact autos languishing on lots.
10. DERBY WINNER NYQUIST ARRIVES AT PIMLICO
The unbeaten colt will run in the Preakness May 21 in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Monday, May 9, 2016. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory's administration sued the federal government Monday in a fight for a state law that limits protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Authorities seek men over damaging Death Valley binge
AMARGOSA VALLEY, Nev. (AP) Authorities on Monday were searching for three men who went on a drunken binge in an environmentally fragile area of Death Valley National Park, leaving behind beer cans, shotgun shells, vomit, underwear and possibly killing one of the rarest fishes on earth.
The men climbed a fence guarding Devils Hole, a detached area of the park located in southwestern Nevada, around 7:30 p.m. on April 30, according to the National Park Service.
They fired at least 10 rounds from a shotgun, shooting the locks off of two gates and hitting a motion sensor and several signs. They also left beer cans and vomit, and one man waded into Devils Hole, leaving his boxer shorts in the water, the Park Service said.
In this still image taken from security video on Saturday, April 30, 2016 and released by the National Park Service, three men inside the perimeter fence at the edge of Devils Hole in Death Valley National Park, Nev. Authorities on Monday were searching for the three men who went on a drunken binge in an environmentally fragile area of Death Valley National Park, leaving behind beer cans, shotgun shells, vomit, underwear and possibly killing one of the rarest fishes on earth, a Devils Hole pupfish. (National Park Service via AP)
Devils Hole is a cavern pool fed by a hot spring and is the only natural home of the tiny Devils Hole pupfish. The iridescent blue fish is considered critically endangered. Only around 115 currently live in Devils Hole, which is more than 500 feet deep in parts but less than 2 feet deep where the fish feed.
The pupfish was at the center of a 1976 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that barred groundwater pumping for agricultural use near the site because of its impact on Devils Hole.
On Monday, one of the pupfish was found dead, the Park Service said. It will be examined to determine whether the actions of the men killed it.
Video recorded the men climbing a fence and driving away in what appeared to be a modified blue Yamaha Rhino off-road vehicle. The Park Service is offering a $5,000 reward leading to the men's arrest and conviction. The Center for Biological Diversity is adding another $10,000 to the pot.
"Devil's Hole pupfish have been teetering on the brink of extinction for years. The last thing they need are these idiots running amok in the last place on Earth where they still survive," said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist with the conservation group.
50 world leaders and 110 countries expected at UN aid summit
UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United Nations says 50 world leaders are among representatives of 110 countries expected at the first U.N. humanitarian summit later this month, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Summit spokesman Herve Verhoosel said in a statement late Monday that 50 other countries have expressed interest in participating in the May 23-24 conference in Istanbul.
The figures represent an increase from the 45 world leaders and 80 governments announced as attending earlier this month.
A focus of the summit is closing the gap between funds required and donations to help the needy. Last year, the gap was a record $9.3 billion to assist 120 million people.
State Dept. says it has no emails from ex-Clinton staffer
WASHINGTON (AP) The State Department can find no emails to or from a former Hillary Clinton aide who worked for the agency and also managed Clinton's private computer server while she served as secretary of state, the government told a Republican party group in a court filing made public Monday. The agency insisted later that some messages to and from the ex-aide were recovered and turned over in other inquiries.
The government's revelation in U.S. District Court in Washington came in answer to a lawsuit by the Republican National Committee. The committee had sued over its public records request for all work-related emails sent to or received by Clinton's former aide, Bryan Pagliano, between 2009 and 2013, the years of Clinton's tenure. The lawsuit also pressed for other State Department records from the Clinton era.
The RNC's filing said lawyers for the agency had informed them in discussions that "the State Department has represented that no responsive records exist" for any Pagliano emails. Pagliano was hired at the agency after reportedly setting up Clinton's server in 2009, but the lack of any official State Department emails raises the question whether he limited his email traffic using a private account, much like Clinton did during her four years as secretary, or whether his government emails were deleted.
A State Department official said Monday that the agency possessed emails from Pagliano from the period after Clinton's term had ended, when he continued to work as a technology contractor. Agency spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau then added Monday evening that some Pagliano emails dating from Clinton's tenure had been recovered from agency officials' files and turned over to other organizations, including Senate investigators.
"We have previously produced through FOIA and to Congress emails sent and received by Mr. Pagliano during Secretary Clinton's tenure," Trudeau said in a public statement. At least one email, which was sent in November 2012 to Clinton from Pagliano but possibly from his private email address was released as part of 30,000 Clinton emails made public by the agency over the past year.
A spokesman for the RNC said the organization stood by its description of the discussions with lawyers for the State Department. The group said in its filing that "the State Department has represented that no responsive records exist."
Raj Shah, the RNC spokesman, added, "It's hard to believe that an IT staffer who set up Hillary Clinton's reckless email server never sent or received a single work-related email in the four years he worked at the State Department." Clinton's campaign officials declined to comment in response to questions from The Associated Press.
Trudeau said the State Department is working with Congress and several public records requesters to provide relevant material. She also said agency officials continue to search for "Mr. Pagliano's emails, which the department may have otherwise retained." Trudeau also said the department would respond further to the RNC in court.
State Department officials told Senate investigators last year they could not find a file containing Pagliano's work emails during Clinton's tenure, an assertion first reported by Politico.
Pagliano has been offered immunity by the Justice Department in its continuing investigation into Clinton's server and emails and whether the setup violated national security laws. Pagliano's lawyer, Mark MacDougall, declined to comment.
The one email sent by Pagliano that surfaced among Clinton's 30,000 emails was sent to Clinton was a November 2012 birthday greeting. He wished her "Happy Birthday Madam Secretary. To many more!"
Pagliano's email address was censored, unlike numerous official State Department addresses that are listed in Clinton's emails suggesting he may have sent the message from a private address.
Clinton did not reply directly to Pagliano. Instead, she sent a copy of an email to an aide with the instruction "Pls respond."
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Actor optimistic about possible extradition of 'El Chapo'
MEXICO CITY (AP) For the actor holding the rights to make a movie about Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the latest step toward his eventual extradition to the U.S. is a welcome turn.
"Today's news that El Chapo may be extradited to the United States is good news in that it will allow my team greater access to him in order to tell a full and accurate picture of his unbelievable life and work," Kate del Castillo said through her publicist Monday.
Her comment came after Mexican judicial authorities said a judge ruled that legal requirements had been met for sending Guzman to the U.S. to face drug charges. The country's Foreign Relations Department must still approve extradition, and Guzman's lawyers can appeal.
Del Castillo arranged actor Sean Penn's interview with Guzman in October while the leader of the Sinaloa cartel was on the lam after his second escape from prison. Del Castillo has said she was able to do so because of a relationship that developed around Guzman's interest in having a film made about his life.
Mexican authorities have said they are investigating whether Del Castillo received any money from Guzman. She denies that happened.
Del Castillo's optimism that Guzman would be more accessible in the U.S. after extradition could be misplaced.
"I think that her statement is wishful thinking," said David S. Weinstein, a former prosecutor who oversaw the narcotics division at the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.
"She will have little to no access to him prior to his trial or the resolution of all the cases for which he is extradited to the U.S. to stand trial," Weinstein said.
After a conviction, Del Castillo would have to request an interview through the Bureau of Prisons. With such high-profile inmates, such requests are not routinely granted.
Guzman's lawyers have confirmed that Del Castillo has the rights to make a movie about the drug lord's life.
On Monday, notary public Gabriel Ezeta said he was the one who issued the document in which Guzman gave permission to Del Castillo and two others to use his name. The document was issued in January 2015 and signed by Guzman inside the Altiplano maximum-security prison from which the drug boss escaped through a tunnel the following July.
Ezeta said he charged 7,000 pesos (about $392) for the service. He did not identify the other two people to whom Guzman gave permission, but said they were from Argentina and Spain.
He also declined to show a copy of the document because it is private, but said it granted all rights to Guzman's story.
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Annulment in Brazil impeachment drama is reversed
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) The rollercoaster ride that is the impeachment drive against President Dilma Rousseff took another hairpin turn Tuesday after the acting speaker of Congress' lower house reversed his own decision that would have plunged the process into uncertainty.
The turnaround by Waldir Maranhao put the impeachment process back on track a day after he sparked chaos and sowed further discord among Brazil's fractious political class by annulling an April 17 vote by the Chamber of Deputies for impeachment. The move had put in doubt a crucial vote on the matter scheduled in the Senate for Wednesday.
Debate broke out over the legality of the move, and the head of the Senate declared he intended to ignore Maranhao's annulment and move ahead with the process.
People protest next to large inflatable doll of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff wearing a presidential sash with the words "Goodbye dear" and "Mother of Big Oil" written in Portuguese, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, May 9, 2016. Brazil's Senate leader Renan Calheiros said on Monday the Senate will vote as scheduled on a motion to open an impeachment trial against President Dilma Rousseff, despite a sudden lower house about-face. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
But late Monday, just over 12 hours after the initial announcement, Maranhao went back on his decision after heavy pressure from opposition members. By Tuesday afternoon, the acting speaker was fighting to stay on his interim post after threats of members of party leaders, including his Progressive Party. They pledged to remove Maranhao from office despite his decision to reverse his annulment.
Little-known Maranhao took over the reins in the Chamber of Deputies after Speaker Eduardo Cunha, who was the driving force behind the impeachment effort, was suspended over corruption and obstruction of justice allegations against him.
Maranhao's change of heart cleared the way to restore Wednesday's vote in the Senate on whether to accept the impeachment case against Rousseff and put her on trial for allegedly breaking fiscal rules in her management of the national budget. If a simple majority of the country's 81 senators decides in favor, Rousseff will be suspended and Vice President Michel Temer will take over until a trial is conducted.
Maranhao had argued that the lower house vote last month was riddled with irregularities, including party leaders telling members how to vote. The acting speaker had voted against impeachment.
Speaking at a gathering Tuesday evening, Rousseff said she had no intention of stepping down, and expected to serve her term through 2018.
"I'm not tired of fighting. I'm tired of the disloyalty and traitors," she said.
The Senate voted 74-0 Tuesday evening to strip one of Rousseff's biggest foes, Sen. Delcidio do Amaral, of his seat. Amaral, a former leading member of the governing Worker's Party, was detained last year on allegations of obstructing the wide-ranging investigation of corruption at Brazil's state-run oil giant, Petrobras. He was released in February after striking a plea deal in which he made incendiary allegations against Rousseff, her predecessor and other prominent public figures across the political spectrum. She has denied any wrongdoing.
Rousseff's supporters displayed their frustration with rallies Tuesday in cities in more than a dozen states. Protesters occupied roads and highways, blocked university entrances and burned tires.
In Vitoria, about 310 miles (500 kilometers) northeast of Rio de Janeiro, one protester kicked and swung punches at three local journalists, who were treated for minor injuries. The attacks were caught on camera by Globo news. Police broke up crowds with tear gas and said the man had been identified and would be arrested.
In a last-ditch attempt to stop the process, the government appealed to the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the highest court, on the grounds that last month's vote in the Chamber of Deputies was riddled with irregularities. While the possibility of court intervention was possible, by the full court or even an individual justice, so far the court has mostly steered clear of direct involvement in the acceptance phase of the impeachment process.
Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States, visited Brazilian Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski to express concerns with the process.
Lewandowski replied that the country's top court has so far ruled on the formalities of the proceedings, not on its merits.
"It would be premature (for the Supreme Court) to make any declarations at this moment," Lewandowski was quoted as saying on the court's website.
The political fight comes as Brazil is grappling with its worst recession in decades, a continuing corruption probe that already has ensnared top politicians and prominent businessmen, and an outbreak of the Zika virus. At the same time, the country's showcase city, Rio de Janeiro, is gearing up to host the Olympics in August.
Rousseff is battling impeachment over allegations that her government violated fiscal rules, in what critics say was a bid to artificially bolster the country's flagging economy. Rousseff has said that prior presidents used such fiscal maneuvers and that the impeachment effort amounts to a "coup" aimed at removing her and her left-leaning Workers' Party, which has governed the country for 13 years.
Rousseff's once-overwhelming public support has eroded with the onslaught of bad news, with her approval ratings dipping into the single digits in recent months. While polls have suggested broad public support for her impeachment, they have also pointed to widespread worry about who might replace her.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff sits as a supporter displays a sign that says in Portuguese: "Get out Temer," referring to her vice president, during a ceremony where she announced the opening of new federal universities at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, May 9, 2016. On Monday the acting speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress annulled last month's vote on Rousseff's impeachment, delaying and complicating the process that was widely expected to see her suspended later this week. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff's cheek is covered with a kiss, given to her as she entered an event where she announced the opening of new federal universities at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, May 9, 2016. The acting speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress on Monday annulled last month's vote on impeachment, delaying and complicating the process that was widely expected to see Rousseff suspended later this week. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff speaks during a ceremony that announced the opening of new federal universities at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, May 9, 2016. The acting speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress on Monday annulled last month's vote on impeachment, delaying and complicating the process that was widely expected to see Rousseff suspended later this week. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
A presidential palace guard stands in front of a banner that reads in Portuguese: "Wake up Brazil. Coup," placed by supporters of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, May 9, 2016. The acting speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress on Monday annulled last month's vote on Rousseff's impeachment, delaying and complicating the process that was widely expected to see her suspended later this week. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
The acting speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress Waldir Maranhao speaks about the impeachment process against Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, at the Chamber of Deputies, in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, May 9, 2016. Maranhao annulled last month's vote on impeachment, delaying and complicating the process that was widely expected to see Rousseff suspended later this week. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
US actress, an ex-refugee, sets out to help Syrian migrants
Milana Vayntrub plays giddy and goofy roles, but she was fidgety and troubled as she tried to relax on a recent vacation in Greece.
The actress best known for her role as the chirpy, blue-shirted "Lily" in a popular series of AT&T commercials was a toddler when her parents fled Uzbekistan as refugees in 1989. How was she supposed to just sit on the beach, she wondered, when migrants fleeing Syria were coming ashore a few miles away?
"It felt a little ridiculous that I could do something but would choose not to," she said.
FILE - In this April 11, 2015 file photo, Milana Vayntrub arrives at the TV Land Awards at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, Calif. The actress best known for her role as "Lily" in a series of AT&T commercials was a toddler when her parents fled Uzbekistan as refugees in 1989. Using the hashtag #CantDoNothing, the Los Angeles-based actress since has founded a movement encouraging people to donate their time, money or voices to aid the refugees. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP, File)
Vayntrub, 29, deliberately missed her flight home so she could wrap refugee babies in blankets and make sandwiches for the new arrivals. Later, back in Los Angeles, she founded CantDoNothing.org, a nonprofit with a simple mission: Encourage people around the planet to do something anything to help.
"I'm asking everyone to find simple ways to share your time, your money, your voice to make a difference. Helping can be a lot of things," Vayntrub told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Her initiative, shared under the hashtag #CantDoNothing, has unleashed a buzz on social media, with people from around the planet sharing photos and videos of their acts of kindness and solidarity.
It's also highlighted Vayntrub's own harrowing journey from oppression to opportunity nearly three decades ago, and her emergence as a sort of accidental activist.
Although she's most recognizable for her advertising work as a quirky AT&T salesperson, she's gained a following for comedy films including "Junk" and "L!fe Happens," as well as Netflix's "Love," HBO's "Silicon Valley," Yahoo's "Other Space," and her YouTube channel, "LivePrudeGirls."
She's had to adapt her stand-up routine, though, since returning from Greece.
"All my life kvetches sounded so petty," she said. "Here, what's going on with the refugees doesn't really pop up in my feed. It's not in my daily life. But when you travel, you see it."
Using her iPhone, Vayntrub made a short video about her vacation-turned-mission. It shows dozens of bright orange life jackets littering the beaches of the Greek island of Lesbos, where refugees from Syria continue to make the perilous sea crossing to reach Europe.
From a distance, the jackets "look like a field of poppies a beautiful nature scene. Then you get closer and realize the humanity," she said. "That was the first real shock."
The video also shows Vayntrub greeting boats carrying refugees from Turkey as they come ashore. The U.N. refugee agency says more than 1 million people crossed the Mediterranean in 2015, most in unseaworthy boats, and nearly 200,000 have made the crossing so far this year.
Vayntrub was only 2 when her parents left their home in the former Soviet Union, so she has no memories of her own flight to an eventual new life in southern California. "But I do remember feeling like an outsider that everyone's from here, and I'm not," she said.
Providing the refugees with food, shelter and medical attention is critical. But Vayntrub who's planning to visit a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan next month also worries about the lack of educational and cultural opportunities for young migrants.
"I'm haunted by who these kids will be in 20 years with no exposure to literature or musical instruments. What kind of adult does that breed?" she said.
Responses to the #CantDoNothing movement have been varied and spirited. A YMCA in Richmond, Virginia, collected new and used baby carriers to send overseas. A school in Santa Monica, California, held a stuffed animal drive. A poet in Ontario, Canada, wrote free verse about the refugees' plight.
"I'm a much more grateful person now," Vayntrub said. "We're so lucky to take being alive for granted."
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Online: http://cantdonothing.org
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Follow Bill Kole on Twitter at https://twitter.com/billkole.
Basquiat sets artist record at Christie's sale at $57.3M
NEW YORK (AP) A monumental self-portrait by Jean-Michael Basquiat set a world auction record for the artist at $57.3 million Tuesday evening at a Christie's contemporary art sale.
Basquiat's self-portrait, "Untitled, 1982," portrays the young artist as a fiery, demonic figure. The canvas, which features splashes of explosive colors, has appeared in every major Basquiat retrospective. It was created just six years before Basquiat died of a drug overdose at age 27.
The sale exceeded the auction record for the artist, which previously had been $48.8 million. The painting had a pre-sale estimate of $40 million.
FILE - In this April 29, 2016, file photo, a visitor inspects "Untitled" by Jean-Michel Basquiat on display during the press preview of "Bound to Fail" at Christie's auction house in New York. A large blue and green painting by Mark Rothko and the monumental self-portrait by Jean-Michel Basquiat are among the major highlights of Christie's contemporary art sale Tuesday, May 10. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Other top lots included a large blue and green painting by Mark Rothko, an important work by the abstract expressionist artist Clyfford Still and a group of nine sculptures by Alexander Calder that were inspired by his visit to India in 1955.
Rothko's "No. 17" brought in $32.6 million, falling between the estimated sale price of $30 million to $40 million. The oil painting's two large color panes, one electric blue, the other dark green and separated by a horizontal azure blue bar, has an extensive exhibition history.
It was created in 1957 and included in a Rothko retrospective that traveled across Europe between 1961 and 1963. When the exhibition opened at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, it was the first time that much of the British public encountered the American artist's work.
Brett Gorvy, international head of Christie's contemporary art, said it was a seminal exhibition that positioned Rothko as a leading figure of the Abstract Expressionist movement.
The artist, who died in 1970, has huge global appeal. His "Orange, Red, Yellow," which sold for $86.8 million in 2012, holds the auction record for the artist.
Rothko painted "No. 17" during a brief period when he was using lighter coloration and just months before he began work on his famous, darker and intense, Seagram Murals series that he later donated to the Tate museum in London.
The work was acquired by an Italian collector following the retrospective and remained unseen by the public until 2001 when it appeared at another major Rothko exhibition in Basel, Switzerland. A short time later it was purchased by another collector who is sold it Tuesday.
Calder's group of hanging and standing mobiles brought in more than $28 million. "Sumac 17," a hanging mobile constructed of sheet metal, wire, rod and paint sold for $5.8 million. The works, coming to auction for the first time, were created during a three-week trip that Calder took to India at the invitation of the Sarabhai family. Two of the family members founded the Calico Museum of Textiles and the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India.
The auction record for a Calder mobile is $25.9 million.
One of the few remaining Still paintings in private hands, "PH-234, 1948," sold for $28.2 million. The current auction record for the artist is $61.6 million.
Dominated by a deep blue color and featuring expressive brushwork, it was included in a major retrospective of the abstract expressionist's work at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., in 2001. In nearly 60 years, the painting has had only two owners, Christie's said.
Most of Still's works are in collections and museums, including at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado.
Prom photo captures tornado _ from a safe distance
WRAY, Colo. (AP) Teens in the small Colorado plains community of Wray were getting ready to head to the prom when a powerful tornado clouded the picture.
The twister with winds up to 130 mph tore a path across the landscape about three miles away as seemingly everyone stopped to watch and take photos Saturday.
Clint Marintzer said his wife, Heidi, took pictures of their daughter Ali with her date Charlie Bator as the menacing tornado formed a backdrop, though a safe distance away. The image spread rapidly on social media.
In this Saturday, May 7, 2016, photograph provided courtesy of Heidi Marintzer and taken with a mobile phone, Charlie Bator, left, and Ali Jolie Marintzer pose for a photograph before going to prom at the local high school as a tornado skips across the farmland behind the couple near Wray, Colo. A string of tornadoes bedeviled the small farming communities along the Colorado/Nebraska border Saturday as a spring storm swept across the Mid-Plains. (Photo Courtesy of Heidi Marintzer via AP)
The prom was briefly delayed to make sure everyone was safe.
It was the most powerful of four twisters that developed in the area about 100 miles east of Denver. There was some damage to three homes and two businesses outside of town.
The next day, Marintzer says residents pitched in to clean up tornado debris.
Prosecutors mull charges in Kansas officer's shooting death
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A man suspected of gunning down a police detective in Kansas was charged Tuesday with shooting and wounding a woman in a botched carjacking in Missouri moments before he was shot by police and captured.
Prosecutors in Kansas' Wyandotte County were weighing charges against Curtis Ayers in the shooting death of Brad Lancaster, a 39-year-old detective who was killed while responding to a report of a suspicious person near a casino. Chris Schneider, a spokesman for the Wyandotte County prosecutor, said charges in Lancaster's death would be announced Wednesday.
The intentional killing of a police officer carries a possible death sentence in Kansas.
This undated image provided by the Kansas City Police Department shows Brad Lancaster. The police detective was fatally shot Monday, May 9, 2016, while investigating reports of a suspicious person near a racetrack in Kansas City, Kan. He died after undergoing surgery, his department said in a statement. (Kansas City Police Department via AP)
In Missouri, Jackson County prosecutors charged Ayers with first-degree assault, resisting arrest, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and three counts of armed criminal action. Prosecutors requested a $250,000 cash bond for the 28-year-old Tonganoxie, Kansas, man, who police said was hospitalized in stable condition.
Court documents included with the charges allege that Ayers, when ultimately cornered by police after Lancaster's death, shot and wounded a woman during an attempted carjacking and fired at another motorist before being shot by an officer.
Ayers served prison time in Kansas in recent years for convictions involving child abandonment, fleeing or trying to elude law enforcers, and interference with a law enforcement officer, online Kansas Department of Corrections records show. Court records say he also was charged in North Carolina with offenses including misdemeanor theft, possession of stolen goods and burglarizing vehicles.
Lancaster was shot Monday afternoon near the Kansas Speedway racetrack in Kansas City, Kansas, police said. Lancaster, an Air Force veteran and married father of two daughters, died three hours later after undergoing surgery, his department said.
Ayers was arrested after he crashed a car into a concrete bridge support during a police chase and tried to hijack a woman's vehicle, authorities say. Tuesday's court filings allege Ayers fired twice at the woman's car, wounding her, before shooting once at another vehicle.
The wounded motorist's injuries weren't considered life-threatening, and she was in stable condition Tuesday, police said.
Kansas City, Kansas, police spokesman Patrick McCallop said Ayers was believed to have frequented the Hollywood Casino and he's not sure what prompted someone there to report him as acting suspiciously.
"From what I heard, it's not like he lost money" at the casino that day, McCallop said. "I'm not sure if (the casino) just felt something different about him" and felt compelled to report it.
Casino spokeswoman Karen Bailey Chapman said the call to police about the allegedly suspicious-looking person came from a Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission officer there. A message left Tuesday with the commission's spokesman, Fred Waller, was not immediately returned.
Police said the assailant shot Lancaster and fled in Lancaster's unmarked car. He later hijacked a vehicle with two children inside before abandoning that in nearby Basehor, Kansas, leaving the children unharmed, police said. He then commandeered a third vehicle that crashed moments before Ayers' capture.
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Associated Press researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report.
A Kansas City, Kan., police officer takes photos a car in Kansas City, Kan., that is believed to be connected to the shooting of a police detective near the Kansas Speedway on Monday, May 9, 2016. A Kansas City, Kan., police detective helping respond to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack was fatally shot Monday. (Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Authorities talk at the scene after a police detective was shot near the Kansas Speedway on Monday, May 9, 2016, in Kansas City, Kan. A Kansas City, Kan., police detective helping respond to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack was fatally shot Monday. (Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Authorities talk after they closed both directions of Bannister Road along with both directions of Highway 71 in their investigation of a carjacking and shooting suspect arrest Monday, May 9, 2016, in Kansas City, Mo. A Kansas City, Kan., police detective helping respond to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack was fatally shot Monday, and a parolee sought for questioning in that and an ensuing string of reported carjackings was wounded after a shootout with police in neighboring Missouri. (David Eulitt /The Kansas City Star via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Ex-N. Korea army head, who Seoul said was executed, is alive
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) A former North Korean military chief who Seoul had said was executed is actually alive and in possession of several new senior-level posts, the North's state media said Tuesday.
The news on Ri Yong Gil marks yet another blunder for South Korean intelligence officials, who have often gotten information wrong in tracking developments with their rival. It also points to the difficulties that even professional spies have in figuring out what's going on in one of the world's most closed governments.
Ri, who was considered one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's most trusted aides, missed two key national meetings in February. Seoul intelligence officials later said that Kim had him executed for corruption and other charges.
FILE - In this May 22, 2013, file photo, Ri Yong Gil, then North Korean military chief, poses for a photo before leaving Pyongyang Airport, North Korea, for China. Ri who Seoul had said was executed is actually alive and in possession of several new senior-level jobs, the Norths state media said Tuesday, May 10, 2016. The news on Ri marks yet another blunder for South Korean intelligence officials, who have often gotten information wrong in tracking developments with their rival. It also points to the difficulties that even professional spies have in figuring out whats going on in one of the worlds most closed governments. (AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon, File)
Kim has reportedly overseen a series of killings, purges and dismissals since he took power in late 2011, part of what foreign experts call an attempt to tighten his grip on power.
The South's report on Ri's execution seemed to be bolstered later in February when Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency confirmed Ri had lost his job by describing someone else as chief of the North Korean military's general staff.
He hadn't appeared anywhere in KCNA, the North's main media outlet for foreign audiences, until the report Tuesday that a person with the same name as Ri was among those awarded important positions during the just concluded Workers' Party congress in Pyongyang. The congress, the first in 36 years, ended Monday with announcements of personnel and organizational changes.
According to KCNA dispatches, Ri got three posts member of the party's Central Committee, alternate member of the committee's powerful Political Bureau, and member of the party's Central Military Commission.
Seoul's Unification Ministry said Tuesday that it confirmed Ri is back after analyzing North Korean state media photos and video of the party congress.
South Korean media said that Seoul intelligence authorities were responsible for the initial reports on Ri's execution. But the National Intelligence Service South Korea's main spy agency tried to distance itself from the misstep, saying it never disclosed any information on Ri.
Monitoring developments among the North's ruling elite is very hard for outsiders; the country keeps strict tabs on visitors and its own state-run press acts as a disseminator of government propaganda. South Korea, which runs several intelligence organizations mainly tasked with spying on the North, has a mixed record.
Earlier this year, South Korean intelligence and defense officials faced criticism for failing to see in advance that North Korea had been preparing for its fourth nuclear test.
The NIS also failed to learn of the 2011 death of Kim Jong Il, the dictator father of Kim Jong Un, before Pyongyang's state TV announced it. In 2013, it saved its face by releasing its finding that Kim's powerful uncle Jang Song Thaek was purged, days before North Korea announced his execution.
The rival Koreas have shared the world's most heavily fortified border since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and they bar ordinary citizens from exchanging phone calls, letters and emails without special permission.
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Texas lawmakers champion local control, to a point
DALLAS (AP) Texas leaders have sued the federal government dozens of times, costing millions of dollars, for what they contend are policies that infringe on local control and states' rights.
But when cities across Texas have attempted to pass laws on issues from fracking bans to regulating ride-hailing companies, state lawmakers time and again have moved to quash those efforts, particularly when it's believed they may hamper the state's business climate.
This week, lawmakers took aim at Austin voters who decided Saturday against overturning city requirements that include fingerprint-based background checks for ride-hailing drivers. As a result, both Uber and Lyft suspended their Austin operations Monday.
Republican state Sen. Charles Schwertner said in a statement that ride-hailing companies "can no longer operate effectively through a patchwork of inconsistent and anti-competitive regulations."
"As a state with a long tradition of supporting the free market, Texas should not accept transparent, union-driven efforts to create new barriers to entry for the sole purpose of stifling innovation and eliminating competition," said Schwertner, who pledged to bring legislation meant to legalize ride-hailing services statewide. Iowa on Monday adopted such a measure.
Gov. Greg Abbott used a similar argument last year in responding to a ban on hydraulic fracturing passed by voters in the North Texas town of Denton. The Republican signed a law barring local ordinances that prevent fracking and other oil and natural gas activities harmful to the environment unless they are deemed commercially reasonable. He said at the time that he was protecting private property rights from the "heavy hand of local regulation."
Abbott and some state lawmakers have criticized other municipal measures, too, such as small towns adopting sex-offender residency restrictions, Dallas' efforts to ban plastic bags and a Houston anti-discrimination measure.
"Legally, they can do this to us, but the question is, should they?" asked Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League.
Criticism of overreach by the federal government could hold true for state government, Sandlin said. "You've got larger governments micromanaging what we're doing locally."
Sandlin said he doesn't agree with those who contend that it's not viable to have a "patchwork of regulation." There are some cities, for instance, that may be comfortable with urban oil development, but there are others that aren't.
"Government closest to the people tends to be the most responsive," he said.
The tendency of state lawmakers to slap down local laws goes beyond Texas.
The Arkansas Legislature has enacted a law aimed at preventing cities and counties from passing anti-discrimination measures that include sexual orientation or gender identity. And North Carolina is embroiled in a legal battle with the U.S. Department of Justice after state lawmakers essentially blocked a Charlotte ordinance by requiring transgender people to use the public restroom corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate.
Don Huffines, a Republican Texas senator from Dallas, has criticized Austin for adopting the ride-hailing regulations, saying in a statement that "mob rule must not undermine the free market, or Texans' right to earn an honest living."
"The Legislature has an obligation to uphold economic liberty whenever it is impeded, be it by the ballot box or executive action from a local elected body," he said. "When local governments target professions be it oil and gas, ridesharing, or any other segment of the economy the Legislature must act to uphold economic liberty."
Denton city councilor Kevin Roden said he often hears others echo Huffines' argument.
"There's this distinction between local control and the state's role to protect liberty," said Roden, who supported the fracking ban in his city.
But issues like ride-hailing can't be fit into a one-size-fits-all government package, he said.
"Every city is going to have a different set of circumstances on the ground to determine what their set of regulations should be," Roden said.
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After 2012 stunner, ex-con makes another White House run
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) As Donald Trump, Hillary and Bill Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigned in West Virginia this month before thousands of voters, ex-convict Keith Judd slipped into the state unnoticed.
There were no campaign rallies. No preplanned speeches. No organized public events. Just a chance for the Democratic presidential candidate who received 41 percent of the vote in the state's 2012 primary against President Barack Obama to drive around and see it for himself.
He never got to West Virginia four years ago, because he was in prison.
FILE- In this undated photo provided by Keith Judd shows Judd. When Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton battle it out in West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary, they'll have to get past ex-convict Keith Judd. Judd was in a Texas prison when he got 41 percent of the vote against President Barack Obama in West Virginia's 2012 Democratic primary. Now the 57-year-old Judd is a free man. He's running again in West Virginia on Tuesday, May 10, 2016, against Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. (Keith Judd via AP, File)
This time Judd drove nearly 1,400 miles from his hometown of Midland, Texas, and spent a week visiting towns such as Charleston, Beckley, Huntington, Logan, Parkersburg and Williamson before heading back on Sunday, two days before West Virginia's presidential primary.
"I wanted the people to get to know who I was," he said.
That wasn't the case in 2012, when most West Virginia voters had no clue. But they were determined to rebuke Obama, whose clean air regulations remain deeply unpopular in the coal-producing state. So 73,138 of them voted for Judd.
"You really don't expect to get that many votes when you're sitting in a prison cell," Judd said.
Now, after 15 years in prison for threatening and trying to extort his wife in divorce proceedings and for a parole violation, Judd, 57, is a free man. And he is improvising another run for president. His old campaign photo, which looks more like a police mug shot, still shows him with a bushy dark mullet on his website, "Keith Judd for President of USA 2016."
In person, Judd has gone gray, his hair in front is shorter and he wears a suit and tie. He's taking this race seriously enough to have gotten onto primary ballots in Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Texas and more, failing to muster even 1 percent of the vote anywhere.
"I don't know what to expect" from West Virginia voters, Judd said. "It's hard for me to figure out what they're going to do."
After West Virginians vote Tuesday, there's the California primary, the last one where his name appears.
With coal's future looking grimmer than ever, the potential looms for another protest vote in West Virginia because the state's primaries are open, enabling independents to vote either for Republicans or Democrats.
Hillary Clinton trounced Obama in the state in 2008, but has since broadly endorsed the federal government's clean air policies, and now trails Trump and Sanders in polls.
It didn't help when she said recently that "we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business we're going to make clear that we don't want to forget those people." Many West Virginians, already feeling abandoned, focused on the first part of her comment.
Judd, who accuses Obama of waging a war on coal, said he got permission from his probation officer to campaign in West Virginia and "bring some other issues into the national spotlight."
Judd's incarceration prevented him from touring four years ago, when Obama won only 59 percent of the vote and lost to Judd in 10 of West Virginia's 55 counties. Incumbent presidents rarely face a serious primary challenge when seeking re-election, especially from an unknown. But the party denied Judd a pledged delegate at the 2012 convention because he hadn't filed some paperwork.
"What's different this time is, a majority of West Virginians are familiar with Judd," political scientist and historian Robert Rupp said with a chuckle. "Obama's not on the ballot, Judd is known and we have a very spirited campaign between two formidable candidates, Sanders and Clinton."
Rupp, a professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College, also notes that Judd was the only other candidate on the state's Democratic primary ballot when Obama was running for re-election. There are six names to choose from this time, including a West Virginia lawyer, a California businessman and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who dropped out months ago.
"We will look back at Judd's showing in the 2012 primary as an aberration," Rupp said.
Judd has had political aspirations for decades. In the 1990s, he ran for mayor of Albuquerque and governor of New Mexico. Since 1996, he's managed to get on presidential ballots.
His 1999 conviction, he says on his website, involved false allegations. He was released in June 2013, then returned to prison five months later for violating parole. Out of prison and on supervised release since October 2014, he now shares a home in Midland with several of his hotel co-workers, and he volunteers in his local Baptist church.
In the coal county of Mingo, where Judd got 60 percent of the vote last time, Ashley Kominar of Kermit said she simply dislikes Obama, and didn't know when she voted for Judd that he was doing time in Texas.
Lynch: NC transgender law part of civil rights struggle
WASHINGTON (AP) In suing her home state for discriminating against transgender people, Attorney General Loretta Lynch invoked the defining civil rights struggles of the last century and made clear that the federal government sees its dispute with North Carolina as about far more than bathrooms and showers.
Lynch, a native North Carolinian and the first black woman to run the Justice Department, elevated the profile of her agency's clash with North Carolina over its new bathroom law by placing it in the context of America's Jim Crow era when signs above water fountains and restaurants fostered race discrimination as well as more recent efforts to deny gay couples the right to marry.
"Instead of turning away from our neighbors, friends and colleagues, let us instead learn from our history and avoid repeating the mistakes of our past," Lynch directly addressed North Carolina residents during her news conference Monday announcing the lawsuit. "Let us reflect on the obvious but neglected lesson that state-sanctioned discrimination never looks good and never works in hindsight."
Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Monday, May 9, 2016. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory's administration sued the federal government Monday in a fight for a state law that limits protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Her remarks, in unusually forceful and personal language, came as North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory refused to back down over the state law requiring transgender people to use the public restroom corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate. The Justice Department says the measure violates civil rights laws and seeks a court order to block it.
Lynch's announcement and her reassurance to the transgender community that "we see you" brought tears to the eyes of Stephen Wiseman, a 37-year-old social worker and transgender man in Asheville. Wiseman praised Lynch for giving "historical examples that people can relate to."
He said it was a historic moment to have the attorney general stand behind a podium and offer transgender people such affirmation.
"That sort of acknowledgment and validation is huge when the other side is saying: 'you're nobody. You're making all this up,'" he said.
Billions of dollars in aid for North Carolina are up in the air, and there's the potential for a landmark decision regarding the reach of the nation's civil rights laws.
A judge could hear arguments in the competing cases within weeks as North Carolina seeks to stop the government from temporarily blocking the law or stripping away funding. And appeals to higher courts are likely, said Rena Lindevaldsen, a Liberty University law professor specializing in family and constitutional law.
"This seems like the kind of thing that's on track for the Supreme Court," Lindevaldsen said.
Monday's actions carry immediate practical impact, moving the debate into the courtroom and potentially putting on notice other states that in recent months have proposed similar laws limiting protections for gay, bisexual and transgender people.
In addition, the U.S. Education Department and other federal agencies could ultimately try to cut off money to North Carolina to force compliance.
The measure took effect in March, passed to override a Charlotte ordinance allowing transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to their chosen gender identity.
Since then, the state has been riven by business cancellations and boycotts from music stars such as Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam. Nearly 200 corporate leaders from across the country, including Charlotte-based Bank of America, have urged the measure's repeal. Contentious debate about the law has divided not only North Carolina residents but also public officials; state attorney general Roy Cooper, a Democrat running against McCrory for governor, has refused to defend it.
The Justice Department last week gave McCrory until Monday to say he would refuse to enforce the law. Instead, he doubled down by suing the federal government for a "baseless and blatant overreach" and later criticized Lynch for language he said was divisive.
"This is not a North Carolina issue. It is now a national issue," said McCrory, a Republican up for re-election in November.
The state university system risks losing more than $1.4 billion in federal funds. An additional $800 million in federally backed loans for students who attend the public universities could also be at risk.
Lynch sought to frame the lawsuit as part of a broader conversation about civil rights and equality. She likened her agency's involvement in the North Carolina law to the shifting expansion of civil rights that scrapped legal racial segregation and prohibitions against gay marriage.
"This is about the dignity and the respect that we accord our fellow citizens," Lynch said. "It's about the founding ideals that have led this country, haltingly but inexorably in the direction of fairness, inclusion and equality for all Americans."
Mara Keisling, the director of the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, said the "silver lining to this very dark cloud" is that the dialogue is "turning into one of the most important educational moments we've ever had."
"All they had to do was just leave us out of their political machinations. We didn't do anything to anybody," Keisling said, referring to North Carolina elected officials. "Trans people in North Carolina were just happily going about their business."
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Drew reported from Raleigh.
Rights group claims Turkish border guards killed 5 refugees
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) A rights advocacy group claimed Tuesday that Turkish border guards have in the past two months killed five Syrians who were trying to cross into Turkey, and called on the country to investigate the reported use of excessive force by soldiers.
In a statement, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused border guards of shooting and beating asylum-seekers and at least one smuggler. It said that five refugees including a child were killed and 14 others were wounded in March and April.
A Turkish Interior Ministry official denied that the incidents cited by Human Rights Watch had occurred and insisted that the country, which is home to 2.7 million Syrian refugees, does not shoot at asylum-seekers. The official cannot be named because of regulations that bar civil servants from speaking to journalists without prior authorization.
Human Rights Watch also urged Turkey to reopen its border to all Syrian asylum-seekers, saying Turkish border guards blocked thousands of fleeing displaced Syrians after their camps near the Turkish border had been attacked on April 13 and 15.
The report could not independently be verified by The Associated Press.
Turkey maintains that it has an open-door policy toward migrants, although new arrivals are rare.
Key Republicans swing behind Trump; he takes 2 primaries
WASHINGTON (AP) Key Senate Republicans voiced optimism Tuesday about Donald Trump's presidential prospects in November, the clearest signal yet to the GOP rank and file to unite behind him and turn their energy against Democrat Hillary Clinton. But it was uncertain whether the doubters could be quieted.
Trump added two more primaries to his column, taking West Virginia and Nebraska. Clinton lost West Virginia to Sen. Bernie Sanders, who refuses to bow out as Trump's GOP foes have, but that hardly dented her huge Democratic delegate lead. Clinton won in Nebraska, but those delegates had already been allocated in an earlier caucus won by Sanders.
The presidential race was on lawmakers' minds on Capitol Hill, too.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., with, from left, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
"We have a nominee, it looks like he may well be very competitive, and we want to win the White House," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters. He also said, "We know that Hillary Clinton will be four more years of Barack Obama. I think that's going to in the end be enough to unify Republicans across the country."
Still, doubt and angst over Trump remained palpable as GOP lawmakers returned from a weeklong recess that saw him effectively clinch the presidential nomination. For some, the question of whether they were backing their party's standard-bearer a no-brainer in a normal election year proved too much to answer.
"We're not doing any Trump questions today," an aide to Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois told a crowd of reporters as Kirk, one of the most endangered Senate Republicans, sped into a meeting.
Another Republican who's up for re-election, Tim Scott of South Carolina, offered his support, but like others managed to sound grudging and backhanded in the process. "I'm supporting the Republican candidate, and it happens to be Donald Trump," he said.
A third, Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, deflected questions about whether he would back Trump, saying he's focused only on securing another six-year Senate term.
"The only thing I can do is get re-elected so we have a Republican majority in the Senate," Isakson said. "I will support the Republican ticket and I'm endorsing me for my Senate seat."
The comments reflected ongoing divisions in a party still reeling over Trump's success in locking up the nomination and pushing his two remaining rivals from the race last week. McConnell and others have decided that the best approach is to get behind Trump. But especially in light of House Speaker Paul Ryan's surprise decision to withhold his support, unity is elusive for now.
That could start to change Thursday, when Ryan, McConnell and other congressional Republicans meet with Trump, who himself has downplayed the meeting and suggested he can win the election unity or no.
Ryan defended his stance anew Tuesday, insisting that he was just being honest in saying Trump had more work to do to show he could unify the party after alienating numerous voters including women, Hispanics and many conservatives.
"It is going to take more than a week to unify this party," Ryan said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal broadcast online. "If we just pretend to unify without unifying, then we'll only be at half-strength, and it won't be good for us in the fall."
But some Republicans argued that Ryan himself was making it harder to unify by essentially giving other Republicans cover to refuse to get behind Trump.
"I didn't really appreciate his comments," said Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma. "They have to establish a workable relationship, and I think they will, but that's not a good way to start."
Yet after a bruising primary season others were not yet ready to move on. GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Trump's leading opponent before he dropped out last week, made clear he was in no hurry to endorse the mogul and reality TV star who defeated him.
"The voters in the primary seem to have made a choice and we'll see what happens as the months go forward," Cruz told conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck.
Cruz went so far as to leave open the possibility of restarting his campaign if he should score a surprise win in Nebraska, while making clear he didn't anticipate that outcome.
"The reason we suspended the race last week is with Indiana's loss I didn't see a viable path to victory. If that changes we will certainly respond accordingly," Cruz said.
Another of Trump's vanquished opponents, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, said at the Hudson Institute: "He's the nominee of the Republican Party, or presumptive nominee via the voters. I respect that and accept it, but that's not going to change the reservations I have about his campaign or about some of the policies he's established."
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, who heads Senate GOP re-election efforts, said "actually I feel pretty good" about prospects to hang onto control of the Senate.
"It seems to me after every presidential primary there's a coming together, and I expect that will happen," Wicker said.
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Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, Richard Lardner and Andrew Taylor contributed.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower in New York, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
2 former Rwandan mayors stand trial in France over genocide
PARIS (AP) Two former Rwandan mayors went on trial Tuesday in Paris for allegedly inciting and taking a leading part in the mass killing of ethnic Tutsis during the first days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Tite Barahirwa, 64, and Octavien Ngenzi, 58, are both accused of genocide and crimes against humanity over the massacre of some 2,000 Tutsis who had sought refuge in a church in the eastern town of Kabarondo.
The men, who deny any involvement in the murders, face up to life in prison if convicted.
More than 100 victims, relatives and witnesses, some of whom traveled from Rwanda, are expected to testify during the eight-week Paris trial. Unusually, it is being recorded for historical purposes.
This trial is the second held in France for suspected perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, under a special U.N.-approved law allowing France universal jurisdiction for related crimes. The law came after years of efforts for justice by activist groups who say France close to the Hutu leadership of Rwanda at the time turned a blind eye to the slaughter and allowed perpetrators to live in France unpunished.
Some 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were killed by Hutu extremists during the three months of the Rwandan genocide in spring 1994, according to U.N. figures.
Barahirwa and Ngenzi were arrested separately in French territory a few years ago and have been held in custody since then.
The first attacks against ethnic Tutsis by rival Hutus in the Kabarondo sector started the day after then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana died when his plane was shot down on April 6, 1994. In the following days, a growing number of Tutsis and some Hutus sought refuge in the town church and some 3,500 were inside the day before it was attacked.
On the morning of April 13, Barahirwa allegedly held a meeting in a nearby soccer stadium where local armed Hutus were ordered to "chase and kill ethnic Tutsis" throughout the town and especially at the church, except Tutsi women married to Hutu men, according to witnesses quoted in court documents.
Shortly after the meeting, a few hundred militiamen armed with machetes, spears, arrows and bows, bludgeons and studded clubs attacked the church. Then Rwandan armed forces arrived and used more powerful weapons against the people inside: mortars, bombs, grenades.
"Shells were entering the church through the windows and roof, digging holes in the ground. Some people had their limbs torn apart," witness Jovithe Ryaka told investigators. "People were falling again and again," another witness, Jean-Bosco Muberuka, was quoted as saying in court documents.
Once the church door was smashed open, militiamen and soldiers entered the church to finish the wounded off with machetes and clubs and take those still alive outside. Witnesses said Barahirwa and Ngenzi were present at that time, conducting an "ethnic selection" of the survivors, executing those identified as Tutsis. Barahirwa is accused of killing some of them himself.
Barahirwa and Ngenzi are both accused of "taking part in a widespread and systematic practice of summary executions, inspired by political, philosophical, racial or religious reasons and organized in execution of a concerted plan against a civilian population group, in this case the civilian Tutsi population."
Jury selection resumes in burning suspect's Louisiana trial
MONROE, La. (AP) A man accused of burning a teen to death in Mississippi goes on trial Thursday in another case in Louisiana, where he is charged with using the debit card of a woman who was stabbed to death.
Ouachita Parish Assistant District Attorney Neal Johnson said six jurors and two alternates were selected Tuesday in the trial of Quinton Tellis. In Louisiana, he's charged with using the credit card of Meing-Chen Hsiao, who was later found dead. Tellis isn't charged with killing Hsiao, though police have called him a suspect. Instead, the 27-year-old is charged with three counts of unauthorized use of an access card and one count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
Hsiao was found stabbed to death in August in her Monroe apartment. The Taiwanese woman had recently graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe,
State District Judge Larry Jefferson ruled Monday that prosecutors can discuss Hsiao's death in connection with Tellis' alleged use of the debit card. But Jefferson said prosecutors can't call the death a murder in front of jurors.
A cousin of Tellis' wife testified Monday, without jurors present, that when Tellis was asked how he obtained the debit card, he said he'd stabbed someone multiple times.
Police found security camera recordings of Tellis and Hsiao together at a Wal-Mart, where Tellis said he was buying pain pills using Hsiao's prescription. Police also say Tellis admitted using the debit card multiple times after Hsiao's death, and his image was captured on security cameras.
If convicted in Louisiana, Tellis could face a life sentence without parole as a habitual offender because of previous felony convictions in Mississippi.
Tellis was also indicted for capital murder in the 2014 burning death of northern Mississippi teenager Jessica Chambers.
He had been released from prison in October 2014, two months before Chambers was killed.
She was found on fire on a rural road in Courtland in December 2014, next to her car, also burning. She died hours later, burned over 98 percent of her body.
Authorities haven't discussed a motive or the relationship between Tellis and Chambers, except to say they knew one another and were introduced by friends.
US-Afghan raid rescues abducted son of former Pakistan PM
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) U.S. and Afghan forces conducting a raid Tuesday against Islamic militants unexpectedly found and rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister who had been abducted three years ago, officials said.
Ali Haider Gilani, believed to be about 30, was discovered in good health during the raid near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan. The operation killed four of the extremists, the officials said.
Gilani is the son of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who celebrated the rescue with his family. His secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People's Party's led several major offensives against Islamic militants.
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, center, being greeted by supporters at outside his residence in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. A joint raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Tuesday rescued his son who was held captive for three years by Islamic militants, officials said. Ali Haider Gilani was found during the raid near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, according to a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar told Pakistan's foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, about the raid in a telephone call, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said.
Gilani was being taken to the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul, although officials there said he had not yet arrived, according to Zafar Hashemi, a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
The raid took place in the Gayan district of Paktika province, Hashemi told The Associated Press.
It was conducted under the authority of the U.S. anti-terrorist mission in Afghanistan, Operation Freedom's Sentinel, according to the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
"Four enemy combatants were killed as a result of the operation. No other injuries or damage was observed or reported," the U.S. statement said. The counterterrorism mission was "planned and launched after evidence of terrorist activity was confirmed," it added.
A spokesman for Afghanistan's National Security Council, Tawad Ghorzang, told reporters in Kabul that the rescue took place during an ongoing operation against al-Qaida and other militants.
The operation was not specifically seeking Gilani, but came across him as it was being carried out, Ghorzang said. Gilani was in good health and "will soon be handed through diplomatic channels to Pakistan," he added.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said Gilani was flown by helicopter to Bagram Air Field, 45 kilometers (about 30 miles) from Kabul, where he underwent medical checks.
"We think he is in good health," he said.
The purpose of the operation "was to go after al-Qaida-related targets in the area, and there was an indication that there may have been a hostage being held with them," Cleveland said. "So it was a nice surprise to get that."
Gilani had been held in a compound occupied in the Gayan district by al-Qaida operatives, he said, though the "rescue happened outside the compound."
"He (Gilani) was the sole noncombatant. He didn't fight back, so we picked him up," he said. U.S. forces would return Gilani to Pakistan once medical checks and other procedures at Bagram were completed, he said.
The Pakistani government was expected to send a plane to Kabul to collect him, Cleveland added.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter praised the rescue.
"This raid demonstrates the growing capabilities and effectiveness of the Afghan security forces and is an excellent example of the strong security and intelligence partnership between Afghan and U.S. forces," Carter said in a statement. "Working alongside our Afghan partners, we will continue to make it clear that there is no safe haven for terrorists in Afghanistan."
The elder Gilani, who served as prime minister from 2008 to 2012, said last year that the kidnappers demanded the release of several al-Qaida prisoners in exchange for his son. He also said that the captors had let his son talk to him by phone for eight minutes, and that he was being held somewhere in Afghanistan.
Gunmen kidnapped the younger Gilani in May 2013, several days before the general elections in his central Pakistani hometown of Multan. There was no claim of responsibility for the abduction, but suspicion immediately fell on the Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban fought the state for over a decade, killing tens of thousands of people in a bid to install their own harsh Islamic system.
Ghorzang said the U.S.-Afghan raid targeted al-Qaida and other militants. The fact that Gilani was found inside Afghanistan quite far from where he was abducted in Pakistan indicated he might have changed hands between militant groups.
The former captive's brother, Abdul Qadi Gilani, praised Afghan authorities and Pakistan army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif for the rescue, adding that Sharif had called their father about it.
A jubilant elder Gilani was seen on Pakistani TV attending an election rally after hearing the news.
"This is a very good day for me," the father said.
"I am very happy and I have no words to express my joy," added the brother, Abdul Qadir Gilani.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed pleasure over the rescue, while the current leader of the People's Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said on Twitter the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad had called the elder Gilani to tell him about his son.
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Shahzad reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, and Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to show that the elder Gilani served as prime minister from 2008 to 2012, not 2013.
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, center, is greeted by supporters upon arrival at his residence in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. A joint raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Tuesday his son who was held captive for three years by Islamic militants, officials said. Ali Haider Gilani was found during the raid near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, according to a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
People watch news about the release of Ali Haider Gilani at a shop in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. A joint raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Tuesday rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister from a three-year-long Taliban captivity in Afghanistan, officials said. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, center, is greeted by supporters upon arrival at his residence in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. A joint raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Tuesday rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister who was held captive for three years by Islamic militants, officials said. Ali Haider Gilani was found during the raid near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, according to a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, center, is greeted by supporters upon arrival at his residence in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. A joint raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Tuesday rescued his son who was held captive for three years by Islamic militants, officials said. Ali Haider Gilani was found during the raid near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, according to a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Jamal Uddin, 6, celebrates the release of his father Ali Haider Gilani in Lahore, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. A joint raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Tuesday rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister who was held captive for three years by Islamic militants, officials said. Gilani was found during the raid near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, according to a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani talks to media outside his residence in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. A joint raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Tuesday rescued his son who was held captive for three years by Islamic militants, officials said. Ali Haider Gilani was found during the raid near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, according to a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
People watch news about the release of Ali Haider Gilani at a shop in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. A joint raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Tuesday rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister from a three-year-long Taliban captivity in Afghanistan, officials said. Headline reads "Ali Haider Gilani is released after three years from Afghanistan's province Ghazni. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)
Pakistani officials look for evidence at a site of explosion in Quetta, Pakistan, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. A provincial official says a bomb has exploded in the parking area of a state-run university in southwestern Pakistan, killing police officers and wounding many. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)
FILE - In this Thursday, May 9, 2013 file photo, People comfort Musa Gilani, right, the brother of Ali Haider Gilani who was kidnapped in Multan, Pakistan. A joint raid by U.S. and Afghan forces on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister from a three-year Taliban captivity in Afghanistan, Pakistan's foreign ministry said. (AP Photo/Zeeshan Hussain, File)
Jordan official: Extremism a result of no Palestinian state
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Palestinian statehood is the most important issue now facing the world and that it fuels extremism gripping the Mideast, Jordan's foreign minister said Tuesday.
Nasser Judeh made the comment at the Arab Media Forum in Dubai.
Palestinian cause represents the essence of the conflicts and crises in the region," he said.
An Emirati television anchor and his guest prepare for a program at the Arab Media Forum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Jordan's foreign minister is saying that Palestinian statehood is the most important issue now facing the world and fuels the extremism gripping the Mideast. Nasser Judeh made the comment Tuesday at the Arab Media Forum, an event taking place in Dubai, the commercial hub of the United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
He added that "every day of delay where the international community does not exert pressure toward reaching a fair and just settlement of the Palestinian cause will lead to another day of darkness where the forces of extremism and terrorism can act. Then humanity as a whole will pay the price."
Peace talks between Israel and Palestinian authorities on a two-state solution have stalled. Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Judeh's remarks.
Man dead after Florida deputy opens fire during traffic stop
OCALA, Fla. (AP) Officials in Florida are investigating the death of a man after a deputy opened fire during a traffic stop in Marion County.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office tells news outlets the incident occurred Monday after an unidentified female deputy pulled over the suspect, 59-year-old Joseph Napoli, who was wanted in connection with a case deputies were working.
After pulling the suspect over, the deputy exited her patrol car and began to approach Napoli's vehicle. She says she noticed that Napoli had a handgun, which he raised as she approached him. The deputy then fired her weapon.
Napoli died at the scene. The sheriff's office says it's believed he simultaneously shot his gun as well. Officials don't know if the wound was self-inflicted.
The deputy wasn't injured and has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.
3 killed, 45 wounded in Turkey car bombing blamed on Kurds
ISTANBUL (AP) A car bomb on Tuesday struck a police vehicle that was carrying officers escorting seven recently detained Kurdish militants in the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, killing three people and wounding 45 others, officials said.
No group had claimed responsibility for the attack in Diyarbakir's Baglar neighborhood, but the state-run Anadolu Agency said it was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as the bus was passing by.
The police vehicle was transporting nine police officers taking the seven suspected PKK militants for medical checks. The three victims were seriously wounded in the attack and later died in hospital, the Diyarbakir governor's office said in a statement.
Security officers and medics work at the explosion site after a car bomb struck a bus in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Turkey's state-run news agency says a car bomb attack targeting a bus carrying police officers in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir has killed at least three people. Anadolu Agency says at least 22 other people were wounded in the attack in Diyarbakir's Baglar neighborhood. The agency says the attack was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.(AP Photo/Mahmut Bozarslan)
It wasn't immediately clear if the dead included any of the PKK suspects or police officers.
A total of 12 police officers and 33 civilians were wounded in the attack, including people who were passing by or sitting at a nearby open-air cafe, the statement said.
The seven PKK suspects inside the vehicle were detained for allegedly seizing a factory in Diyarbakir, the governor's office said, without providing details.
Kurdish rebels have been targeting police and military targets since July, when a fragile peace process collapsed.
Earlier Tuesday, two police officers were killed while attempting to defuse a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Van, Anadolu said.
The agency also blamed those deaths on the PKK. Ankara and its allies consider the group a terrorist organization, and Anadolu said air-backed operations were underway to hunt down Kurdish rebels in Van.
The PKK, which wants greater autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives.
PKK-linked rebels have staged multiple bomb attacks against Turkish police and troops, which in turn have carried out tank-backed security operations in flashpoint areas.
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Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara.
ALTERNATIVE CROP OF ANK102 - A security officer works at the explosion site after a car bomb struck a bus carrying Turkish police officers in the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, wounding at least 12 people, the state-run news agency reported. The Anadolu Agency said the attack in Diyarbakir's troubled Baglar neighborhood was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as the bus was passing by. (AP Photo)
Security officers secure the area after a car bomb struck a bus in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Turkey's state-run news agency says a car bomb attack targeting a bus carrying police officers in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir has killed a number of people. Anadolu Agency says many other people were wounded in the attack in Diyarbakir's Baglar neighborhood. The agency says the attack was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.(AP Photo/Mahmut Bozarslan)
Security officers secure the area after a car bomb struck a bus in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Turkey's state-run news agency says a car bomb attack targeting a bus carrying police officers in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir has killed a number of people. Anadolu Agency says many other people were wounded in the attack in Diyarbakir's Baglar neighborhood. The agency says the attack was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.(AP Photo/Mahmut Bozarslan)
Security officers and medics work at the explosion site after a car bomb struck a bus in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Turkey's state-run news agency says a car bomb attack targeting a bus carrying police officers in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir has killed at least three people. Anadolu Agency says at least 22 other people were wounded in the attack in Diyarbakir's Baglar neighborhood. The agency says the attack was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. (AP Photo/Mahmut Bozarslan)
Security officers and medics work at the explosion site after a car bomb struck a bus carrying Turkish police officers in the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, wounding at least 12 people, the state-run news agency reported. The Anadolu Agency said the attack in Diyarbakir's troubled Baglar neighborhood was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as the bus was passing by. (AP Photo)
A security officer works at the explosion site after a car bomb struck a bus carrying Turkish police officers in the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, wounding at least 12 people, the state-run news agency reported. The Anadolu Agency said the attack in Diyarbakir's troubled Baglar neighborhood was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as the bus was passing by. (AP Photo)
China hopes for progress with new Philippine government
BEIJING (AP) China said Tuesday that it hopes to work with the Philippines' new government to resolve territorial disputes in the South China Sea, but insisted the onus is on Manila to lower tensions.
Beijing hopes the Philippines will "meet China halfway, taking concrete measures to properly deal with the disputes so as to put the ties of the two countries back on the track of sound development," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily news briefing.
Lu said that while the two countries have a traditional friendship, bilateral relations have been "hit by major setbacks in recent years, due to reasons known to all" a reference to moves by the Philippines to assert its claims and activities by the U.S. challenging China's actions.
Front-running presidential candidate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte smiles during a news conference shortly after voting in a polling precinct at Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School, Matina district, his hometown in Davao city, southern Philippines Monday, May 9, 2016. Duterte was the last to vote among five presidential hopefuls. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
Beijing and Manila have for years accused one another of infringing on each other's territory in the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety.
Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has said he would negotiate directly with China on the dispute, aligning with China's stance, as reiterated by Lu, that disputes "should be properly settled by countries directly concerned through negotiation and consultation while respecting the historical facts and international law."
However, Duterte has also said that if negotiations fail, he would sail to one of China's newly built artificial islands and plant the Philippine flag on it.
Duterte's election should be good news for Beijing, which is known to disdain outgoing Philippine President Benigno Aquino III over his legal challenges to China's sovereignty claims and moves to strengthen security cooperation with the U.S., a key treaty ally of Manila.
Although he has not articulated an overall foreign policy, Duterte has described himself as a socialist wary of the U.S.-Philippine security alliance. He has worried members of the armed forces by saying that communist rebels could play a role in his government.
Lu, meanwhile, criticized the U.S. Navy's latest sail-by to challenge what it considers China's excessive claims that its man-made islands enjoy the legal rights of natural islands, and to combat what it considers attempts by China to reduce the Navy's ability to freely travel within the South China Sea and in its airspace.
The destroyer USS William P. Lawrence passed within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) of Fiery Cross Reef on Tuesday, the limit of what international law regards as an island's territorial sea, according to U.S. media reports. Lu said Chinese authorities monitored, followed and issued warnings to the ship.
The Latest: Hungary allows tougher asylum-seeker conditions
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) The Latest on the flow of migrants into Europe (all times local):
8 p.m.
Hungary's parliament has approved tougher conditions for asylum seekers, including cutting allowed stays at reception centers from 60 days to 30 days and gradually reducing their social benefits and subsidies.
An Afghan migrant walks between tents at the old baseball venue of the former Helliniko Olympic complex, which is used as a shelter for almost 1,000 people in southern Athens, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. About 54,000 refugees and other migrants stuck in Greece since the Balkan migration route was shut down in late March. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Human rights groups say the changes authorized Tuesday by lawmakers are meant to discourage refugees from seeking asylum in Hungary.
Julia Ivan, a lawyer with the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, says Hungary is "forcing refugees into increasingly worse and unpleasant situations."
According to the Office of Immigration and Nationality, 197 people were granted asylum or some other sort of international protection in January-April.
Some earlier proposals which, for example, would have given those in asylum detention centers as much space as inmates in prison, weren't included in the current modifications.
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5:55 p.m.
Estonian border officials say they have detained seven Iranian migrants who managed to cross the Narva River separating Russia and Estonia in an inflatable boat.
Spokeswoman Kerttu Krall said Tuesday that six of the migrants two men, two women and two children were caught in the early hours of Saturday immediately after they had landed on the shores of Estonia.
A 23-year-old man managed to escape but was caught Saturday evening at the harbor of Tallinn, where he had hitchhiked with the apparent intention of catching a ferry to neighboring Nordic countries.
Officials said it was the third illegal crossing on the Estonia-Russia border this year. A total of 23 illegal crossings were recorded in 2015, down from 31 incidents in 2014.
The Narva River is on average only 300 meters (1,000 feet) wide and not heavily guarded by Russians or Estonians at some points, making crossing possible though not easy even by swimming.
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5:10 p.m.
Danish officials have rescued four men who tried to reach Sweden from Denmark after their boat sank in the sea between the two countries.
Police spokesman Henrik Moeller Jakobsen said Tuesday a helicopter picked up one man off the Danish island of Saltholm, and flew him to an intensive care unit. His condition was not immediately known.
The others were rescued from the shallow waters off another Danish island and were in a good condition.
Moeller Jakobsen said the men had set off Monday "somewhere along the coast."
He said two of them were Moroccans, but didn't further identify the men.
It was the first known incident where migrants try to reach Sweden by sailing on their own. Police say more than two dozen migrants have attempted to walk on the bridge and tunnel connecting the two countries.
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3:10 p.m.
The European Union says it is moving ahead with plans to allow Turkish citizens to travel to Europe without visas despite President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's stated refusal to change Turkey's anti-terror laws.
The EU says Turkey must narrow its definition of "terrorist" and "terrorist act" to secure a visa waiver. The EU is concerned that journalists and political dissenters are targeted.
European Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein said Tuesday that "we have the word of the Turkish government and we will continue working with the Turkish government."
The Commission has not received official word from Ankara that visa talks have ended.
The waiver is an incentive along with up to 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) and fast-track EU membership talks for Turkey to stop migrants leaving for Europe.
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3:05 p.m.
The United Nations refugee agency is urging authorities in Slovakia to investigate an incident in which a woman was shot when border guards fired at a car carrying migrants.
Budapest-based UNHCR regional spokesman Babar Baloch said that an inquiry is needed to "ensure accountability," adding that the 26-year-old Syrian woman is out of danger but still in intensive care.
In Monday's incident, Slovak police wanted to stop suspicious four cars and opened fire when one driver tried to flee.
Slovak state television reported that 11 migrants and six smugglers had been detained and all would be expelled.
Baloch said Tuesday that countries' border management had to be consistent with obligations to protect asylum-seekers and that more "legal pathways" were needed in Europe so refugees can avoid smugglers.
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2:55 p.m.
Germany's interior minister says his country will extend border controls that it launched in September after the European Commission gave its clearance for the move.
Thomas de Maiziere said in Berlin Tuesday that German federal police will continue with the checks in the absence of effective controls on the European Union's external borders.
The EU's executive Commission said last week that it would activate a provision allowing for another six months of border controls in some member countries.
Germany registered nearly 1.1 million people as asylum-seekers last year. The number of newcomers has diminished vastly since the closure of the Balkan route used by many refugees and other migrants fewer than 16,000 people were registered in April but officials are wary of a possible further influx via Italy.
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2:45 p.m.
The head of Austria's centrist party is indirectly warning its government coalition partner that whomever they choose as the next prospective chancellor has to continue supporting the government's restrictive migrant policies.
Reinhold Mitterlehner spoke Tuesday, a day after the resignation of Werner Faymann as chancellor and head of the Social Democrats. Mitterlehner is acting chancellor, at least until the other party picks a replacement for Faymann.
Faymann resigned in part over mounting opposition within his party to his swing from an open door policy for refugees to one of the most restrictive regimes within the EU.
Noting that the restrictions were decided on jointly by both parties, Mitterlehner says that his People's Party wants "to follow through with our route in the refugee policy continuously and consequently."
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12:50 p.m.
Greek riot police have fired tear gas to stop a fight involving up to 300 refugees and other migrants at a sprawling tent city on the country's northern border with Macedonia.
Police say it was unclear why fighting broke out Tuesday between Syrian Arabs and ethnic Kurds armed with stones, sticks and metal bars at Idomeni. At least one man was injured, and no arrests were reported.
The camp is home to about 10,000 people thwarted from reaching Europe's prosperous heartland by a series of Balkan border closures this year.
Greek authorities have been trying for months, with little success, to persuade migrants at Idomeni to move to other organized camps.
About 54,000 refugees and other migrants are stuck in Greece, through which more than a million people passed since early 2015.
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12:25 p.m.
Hungary's parliament has endorsed a government-proposed referendum on the European Union's plan to resettle refugees within the bloc according to a quota system.
The resolution, which can be appealed at the Constitutional Court, was approved 136-5 with support from lawmakers of the governing Fidesz party, its Christian Democratic coalition partners and the far-right Jobbik party.
The referendum valid if turnout is above 50 percent is expected to held by October and cost up to 5 billion forints ($18 million).
The referendum question is: "Do you want the European Union to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of parliament?"
Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who rejects taking in migrants, says voting "no" in the referendum will be "in favor of Hungary's independence."
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10:45 a.m.
Human Rights Watch says Turkish border guards are continuing to shoot and beat Syrian refugees trying to cross into Turkey and is calling on the country to investigate abuses.
The advocacy group said in a statement Tuesday Turkish border guards in March and April used excessive force against Syrians and a smuggler trying to reach Turkey, killing five people, including a child and injuring 14 others.
The group also urged Turkey to reopen its border to Syrians.
Turkey, home to 2.7 million Syrian refugees, rejects claims that its border guards shoot at refugees and says it has an open-door policy toward migrants, although new arrivals are rare.
Human Rights Watch researcher Gerry Simpson said: "Firing at traumatized men, women, and children fleeing fighting and indiscriminate warfare is truly appalling."
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The item timed at 12:50 p.m. has been corrected to show that the fight was between Syrian Arabs and ethnic Kurds, following new information from the police.
A woman hold a cooking pot as she prepares food near a makeshift fire in a railway repairs shed where people have set up their tents at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, on Monday, May 9, 2016. About 54,000 refugees and migrants are currently stranded in Greece as 10,000 are camped in Idomeni, after the European Union and Turkey reached a deal designed to stem the flow of refugees into Europes prosperous heartland. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A little Afghan girl fills with a feeding bottle from at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, on Monday, May 9, 2016. About 54,000 refugees and migrants are currently stranded in Greece as 10,000 are camped in Idomeni, after the European Union and Turkey reached a deal designed to stem the flow of refugees into Europes prosperous heartland. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A Kurdish woman cooks on a makeshift fire at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, Monday, May 9, 2016. About 54,000 refugees and migrants are currently stranded in Greece as 10,000 are camped in Idomeni, after the European Union and Turkey reached a deal designed to stem the flow of refugees into Europes prosperous heartland. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Attorney: man charged in Jewish center plot mentally ill
MIAMI (AP) A man charged in an undercover FBI operation with plotting to bomb a synagogue and Jewish school in South Florida during the recent Passover observance suffers from long-term mental illness and is no terrorist, his attorney said Tuesday.
Lawyer Joaquin Padilla said at a bail hearing that James Medina of Hollywood had been involuntarily committed by his family for psychiatric treatment on at least two occasions and that family members believe his unspecified illness dates to childhood.
"He has had mental health issues for a long time," Padilla said. "This is not a homegrown terrorist."
Still, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton agreed with prosecutors that Medina, 40, should not be released on bail because he is a danger to the community and at risk of fleeing. Medina faces life in prison if convicted of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
According to the FBI, Medina first told an informant he wanted to attack the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center using an AK-47-style weapon. It was the informant who suggested the idea of a bomb, FBI agent David Clancy testified at the hearing.
"We instructed the source to tell Mr. Medina he can get various things including an explosive device," Clancy testified.
Medina was arrested last month after accepting the dummy bomb from the informant. When the investigation began, Clancy added, Medina was living with two other men one of whom possessed an AK-47 rifle.
Simonton noted that if the FBI had not substituted the bomb idea for the gun, Medina might have carried out his original plan.
"It is certainly a horrific thought," she said.
Padilla said Medina who also goes by James Muhammad converted to Islam four or five years ago after getting divorced. Prosecutors noted that he has numerous arrests over the years, including for assault, stalking and armed robbery.
Clancy said that after his arrest, Medina explained to the agents why he wanted to target Jews and the Aventura center in his planned attack.
"Mr. Medina believes the Jews are the cause of the present state of the world and all the wars," the agent said.
On FBI recordings, Medina is quoted as saying he would credit his attack to the Islamic State terror group and even made up leaflets to that effect that he planned to leave at the Jewish center. Clancy, however, testified that it was the FBI informant who first brought up the Islamic State and other terror organizations. None had a link to Medina.
Still, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Anton said Medina rejected numerous opportunities to back out of the plot, even when told he would likely kill women and children at the synagogue.
"This is a defendant who wanted to terrorize a temple," Anton said. "This is a very violent individual with intense hatred for the Jews and intent on causing mass casualties."
Medina is scheduled to enter a formal plea to the charge next week. A trial date has not been set.
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London mayor slams Trump's 'ignorant' view of Islam
LONDON (AP) London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Tuesday slammed Donald Trump's "ignorant" view of Islam, after the Republican presidential contender suggested Khan could be exempted from a proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Last year Trump proposed "a total and complete" ban on foreign Muslims entering the U.S. "until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."
Asked how that policy would affect London's first Muslim mayor, Trump told The New York Times that "there will always be exceptions."
Newly elected London's mayor Sadiq Khan, center, is greeted by well wishers outside City Hall in London, on his first day as mayor, Monday May 9, 2016. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT
But Khan said "this isn't just about me it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world."
"Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists," Khan said in a statement.
Khan, the London-born son of Pakistani immigrants, was elected last week by a wide margin after a campaign that saw his Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith accuse him of having shared platforms with Islamic extremists.
Khan, a former human rights lawyer and Labour Party lawmaker, accused Goldsmith of trying to frighten and divide voters in a multicultural city of 8.6 million people more than 1 million of them Muslims.
In his victory speech, Khan said the result marked the triumph of "hope over fear and unity over division."
The mayor said Tuesday that Trump and people who agree with him "think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong."
Trump said he was "happy to see" Khan's election and hoped "he does a good job."
The mayor declined to lend Trump his support.
"I'll be backing the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who I suspect it will be and I hope that she trounces him," Khan told the BBC.
Newly elected London's mayor Sadiq Khan waves to well wishers outside City Hall in London, on his first day as mayor, Monday May 9, 2016. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT
Struggles for Lumber Liquidators continue into a new year
TOANO, Va. (AP) Losses worsened at Lumber Liquidators during the first three months of its fiscal year and sales declined for a fifth straight quarter as the flooring company spent heavily to put behind it damaging reports of potentially dangerous and illegal products from China.
Its stock fell almost 8 percent.
In a tentative agreement, the company, through its insurers, will contribute $26 million to a settlement fund to resolve a related class action. Lumber Liquidators will also contribute a million of its shares to the fund.
FILE - In this March 12, 2015, file photo, a man walks past a Lumber Liquidators store in Philadelphia. Lumber Liquidators reports financial results on Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
That follows an announcement last month that the Toano, Virginia, company would pay $2.5 million to settle allegations that some of its products violated California's air-safety standards. Last year, it paid $13.2 million in fines and pleaded guilty to environmental crimes for importing China-made flooring that contained timber illegally logged in eastern Russia.
Lumber Liquidators has been in damage-control mode and attempting to repair its image since a February 2015 airing of CBS news show "60 Minutes," which revealed that some of the chain's Chinese-made laminate flooring contained high levels of the carcinogen formaldehyde.
For the period ended March 31, Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. lost $32.4 million, or $1.20 per share, for the period ended March 31. A year earlier it lost $7.8 million, or 29 cents per share.
The outsized losses far exceeded those projected by Wall Street, which had forecast per-share losses of 27 cents, according to analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.
Its stock tumbled $1.06 to close Tuesday at $12.39. In the past year, the company's stock has plunged 56 percent.
Selling, general and administrative expenses increased to $117.2 million from $97.7 million. This is mostly due to an approximately $16 million charge related to its consolidated securities class action matter.
Revenue dropped to $233.5 million from $260 million. That's below the $239.2 million in revenue that analysts polled by Zacks predicted.
Sales at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer's health, tumbled 13.9 percent.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on LL at http://www.zacks.com/ap/LL
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Activists: New airstrikes in northern Syria kill at least 10
BEIRUT (AP) Two airstrikes struck a northwestern Syrian town Tuesday, killing at least 10 people, wounding many others and knocking out the dome of a mosque, opposition activists said.
The air raids on the town of Binnish in the northwestern province of Idlib came hours after a fragile and limited cease-fire in the nearby city of Aleppo and its surrounding countryside was extended for the third time, for another 48 hours starting at 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll is expected to rise as some of the wounded are in critical condition. The Local Coordination Committees said some of the wounded have not been identified.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, attend the meeting with officials in the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Putin praised the performance of Russian weapons in Syria and said that they will be further improved based on the Syrian experience. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
A Facebook page known as the Coordinators of the Revolution in the city of Binnish posted the photo of a wounded child with blood stains on his face, saying he was referred to the intensive care unit in the town of Bab al-Hawa near the border with Turkey. The posting said the child will be referred to a hospital in Turkey and added that he has no adult to accompany him asking any relatives who identify the boy to come forward.
Another photo posted on the Facebook page showed at least three dead bodies in dark blue bags placed on a pavement.
"Most of the 10 people killed were passersby," said Muayad Zurayk, an opposition activist based in the nearby Jabal al-Zawiya region. "The situation is appalling in this region because of daily massacres."
The LCC said the warplanes were Syrian while the Observatory said it wasn't clear if they were Syrian or Russian.
The Observatory said those killed included a local rebel commander of a faction linked to the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham militia. The militia is part of the Jaish al-Fatah coalition, made up of several groups including al-Qaida's branch in Syria known as the Nusra Front, and other jihadi militias.
Binnish, a Jaish al-Fatah stronghold, is in Idlib province, which borders Turkey.
Jaish al-Fatah, or Army of Conquest, last week launched a wide offensive near Aleppo, capturing the village of Khan Touman and killing dozens of fighters including 13 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
The extremist Nusra Front and its more powerful rival the Islamic State group, are not included in the cease-fire agreement that was brokered by Russia and the U.S.
Just hours before the government announced the cease-fire, the United Sates said that a new agreement with Russia would replace localized, piecemeal cease-fires in Syria with a revived, nationwide truce. It was not clear if other announcements regarding cease-fires in the rest of the country would follow.
The Observatory also reported that IS launched an offensive in the northeastern province of Hassakeh where the extremists have lost large swaths of territory in the past few months in battles with predominantly Kurdish fighters.
It said the attack near the former-IS stronghold of Shaddadeh began with two suicide attacks that targeted the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces.
US sticking with calling Myanmar minority 'Rohingya'
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) Myanmar and the United States appeared to agree to disagree Tuesday on what to call the Southeast Asian nation's beleaguered Muslim minority that Washington and most of the world know as Rohingya.
Many Buddhists inside Myanmar prefer to call them "Bengalis," arguing that the 1 million or so members of the minority are mostly illegal immigrants and not a native ethnic group. In fact, the families of many Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations.
U.S. Ambassador Scot Marciel said the U.S. calls communities by the name they themselves prefer.
U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel addresses the audience during his first public speech as the ambassador to Myanmar in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Marciel spoke on U.S.- Myanmar relations to an audience including journalists, educators, youth leaders and members of think-tanks. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
"The normal U.S. practice and the normal international practice is that communities anywhere have the right, or have the ability to decide what they are going to be called. And normally when that happens, we would call them what they asked to be called. It's not a political decision, it's just a normal practice."
Because Myanmar does not officially recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group, it denies most of them citizenship and basic rights. Conflict over land and resources in the western state of Rakhine, where most of the estimated 1 million Rohingya live, caused deadly violence between Buddhists and Muslims which later spread to other parts of the country. More than 100,000 Rohingya were forced to flee their homes and now live in poor conditions in decrepit camps.
Marciel declined to say whether, as reported, the country's foreign minister and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi had personally asked him not to use the term. "I prefer not to publicly talk about private diplomatic conversations," he said.
Suu Kyi, who won international admiration and a Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent struggle for democracy during Myanmar's years of military rule, has in recent years disappointed many former fans by failing to speak on behalf of the Rohingya. Despite international expressions of concern, Myanmar's previous military-backed government, which handed over power this year to Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, did nothing to ease the Rohingya's plight.
Myanmar foreign ministry official Aye Aye Soe acknowledged Tuesday that her office had asked Marciel not to use the term "Rohingya." She said Marciel has the right to call the minority whatever he likes, but calling them Rohingya could enflame communal tensions.
"Yes, it is true that we told Ambassador Scot Marciel when he came to (Myanmar's capital) Naypyitaw not to use the term 'Rohingya' because it is not supportive in solving the problem that is happening in Rakhine state," said Aye Aye Soe, deputy director general of the ministry's political department . "And it can even worsen the situation there."
"This is his right to say or call whatever he wants, but this is not leading to a solution of the problems," she said. "People are just fighting over this term instead of solving the problem. This can make things difficult for the two communities in Rakhine to gain trust again."
A nationalist movement spearheaded by Buddhist monks has gained political influence by stirring up prejudice against Rohingya and Muslims in general.
Last month Buddhist monks joined several hundred protesters outside the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar to demand it stop using the term "Rohingya." The embassy had used the word earlier in a statement of concern about their situation after dozens died when a boat they were on capsized.
U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel addresses the audience during his first public speech as the ambassador in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Marciel spoke on U.S.- Myanmar relations to an audience including journalists, educators, youth leaders and members of think-tanks. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel listens to a question from the audience after giving his first speech as the ambassador in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Marciel spoke on U.S.- Myanmar relations to an audience including journalists, educators, youth leaders and members of think-tanks. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
8 injured when JetBlue flight from San Juan hits turbulence
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) Officials say at least eight passengers were injured when a JetBlue flight experienced turbulence while flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico; to Orlando, Florida.
JetBlue spokesman Doug McGraw tells Orlando station WESH (http://bit.ly/1NpdPnD ) that medical personnel met the flight when it arrived at Orlando International Airport at 8:52 p.m. Monday.
He says eight people were taken to a hospital for further evaluation.
No further details were immediately available.
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The Latest: Public funeral set for slain Kansas detective
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) The Latest on the fatal shooting of a police detective in Kansas City, Kansas (all times local):
6 p.m.
The Kansas City, Kansas, police detective killed in a confrontation on Monday will be honored with a public funeral.
A Kansas City, Kan., police officer takes photos a car in Kansas City, Kan., that is believed to be connected to the shooting of a police detective near the Kansas Speedway on Monday, May 9, 2016. A Kansas City, Kan., police detective helping respond to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack was fatally shot Monday. (Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
The funeral for Detective Brad Lancaster will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Children's Mercy Park, home of the Sporting Kansas City soccer team, in Kansas City, Kansas.
A visitation is scheduled at 4 p.m. Friday at Trinity Community Church in Kansas City, Kansas.
Lancaster died Monday after being shot while trying to stop a suspect who was fleeing from officers near the Kansas Speedway.
The 39-year-old Lancaster is survived by a wife and two children.
A suspect, 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, was arrested after he was shot in a confrontation with Kansas City, Missouri, officers hours after Lancaster was shot.
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5 p.m.
The Wyandotte County district attorney plans to file charges Wednesday against the man suspected of killing a Kansas City, Kansas, police detective.
District Attorney Jerome Gorman has scheduled a noon news conference to announce charges against 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, of Tonganoxie, Kansas.
Ayers is suspected in Monday's killing of Detective Brad Lancaster, who died at a hospital after being shot during a confrontation near a racetrack in Kansas City, Kansas.
Ayers was later arrested in Kansas City, Missouri, after being shot by officers there. He was in stable condition Tuesday.
He was charged Tuesday in Jackson County, Missouri, with seven counts arising from his confrontation with Missouri officers.
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3 p.m.
A parolee suspected of gunning down a Kansas City, Kansas, police detective has been charged in Missouri with felonies linked to gun-related crimes he allegedly committed before he was shot by police and arrested.
Prosecutors in Jackson County charged 28-year-old Curtis Ayers with first-degree assault, resisting arrest, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, and three counts of armed criminal action.
Ayers was hospitalized Tuesday in stable condition.
Prosecutors in Kansas' Wyandotte County still were weighing charges against Ayers in connection with Monday's shooting death of Brad Lancaster.
Court documents included with Tuesday's charges allege Ayers, when cornered by police, shot and wounded a woman during an attempted carjacking and fired at another motorist.
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10:05 a.m.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is ordering flags in Wyandotte County to be lowered to half-staff in memory of a slain police detective.
Brownback directed the county's flags lowered Tuesday through sundown Wednesday in 39-year-old Brad Lancaster's honor.
Police say Lancaster died at a hospital Monday about three hours after being shot near a racetrack in Kansas City, Kansas.
A suspect, 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, has been arrested. Ayers was shot by police during an attempted carjacking. He is in stable condition Tuesday at a hospital.
The local Fraternal Order of Police says a candlelight vigil in Lancaster's memory is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall in Kansas City, Kansas.
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9:40 a.m.
Kansas' top law enforcement official says the state mourns the "senseless" shooting death of a Kansas City police detective.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a statement Tuesday that he extends his prayers to the family of 39-year-old Brad Lancaster's family and to Lancaster's former colleagues.
Police say Lancaster died at a hospital Monday about three hours after being shot while responding to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack.
A suspect, 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, was arrested after being shot by police during an attempted carjacking after he crashed another car. He was in stable condition Tuesday at a hospital.
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8:45 a.m.
Police say a suspect in the shooting death of a police detective in Kansas City, Kansas, remains hospitalized after officers shot and wounded him during his capture.
Kansas City, Missouri, police spokeswoman Amber Thomas-Hickerson says 28-year-old Curtis Ayers is in stable condition at an unspecified hospital.
Thomas-Hickerson says a woman who police say was shot by Ayers as he tried to hijack her car also is in stable condition with injuries not considered life-threatening.
Police say 39-year-old Brad Lancaster died at a hospital Monday about three hours after being shot while helping respond to a report of a suspicious person near a racetrack.
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7 a.m.
The police chief in Kansas City, Kansas, is expressing gratitude for the outpouring of support after a detective was fatally shot.
Chief Terry Zeigler said in a Tweet early Tuesday that he is thankful for the prayers for the family of 39-year-old Brad Lancaster and his department.
Lancaster was shot at least twice about 12:30 p.m. Monday while responding to a report of a suspicious person near the Kansas Speedway. Police said in a statement that he died at a hospital.
Police say the shooter fled in the detective's car, then carjacked a vehicle with two children inside before abandoning that vehicle, leaving the kids unharmed. A suspect has been taken into custody in Kansas City, Missouri.
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1:10 a.m.
Police say a Kansas City, Kansas, detective was shot and killed, and a man who'd been sought for questioning in that incident was later wounded and arrested after a shootout with police in neighboring Missouri.
Police say the detective was shot at least twice about 12:30 p.m. Monday while helping respond to a report of a suspicious person near the Kansas Speedway. Police said in a statement that he later died at a hospital. His name wasn't released.
Police say the shooter fled in the detective's car, then carjacked a vehicle with two children inside before abandoning that vehicle, leaving the kids unharmed.
Police sought 28-year-old Curtis Ayers for questioning in the shooting. He ultimately was taken into custody in Kansas City, Missouri, when he crashed his car after exchanging gunfire with officers.
The Latest: Sanders vows to keep fight for nomination alive
WASHINGTON (AP) The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times local):
1:15 a.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is celebrating his primary win in West Virginia, telling a rally in Salem, Oregon that "we have an uphill climb ahead of us but we are used to fighting uphill climbs."
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., poses for a photo with Natalie Higley at a campaign rally, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, in Stockton, Calif. Higley says she is a delegate to the Democratic Convention and plans to vote for Sanders.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Sanders said to loud cheers Tuesday evening that a host of polls, both nationally and in various states, shows he'd do better than Hillary Clinton in a fall election campaign against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The Vermont senator declared that "we are going to fight for every last vote" and will take his campaign to the party's convention in Philadelphia in July.
Sanders is netting five delegates more than Clinton after winning West Virginia.
With 29 delegates at stake Tuesday, Sanders gained at least 16 delegates while Clinton picked up at least 11. Two delegates remain to be allocated, pending final vote tallies. Based on primaries and caucuses to date, Clinton has 1,716 delegates to Sanders' 1,430.
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10:14 p.m.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump calls it a "great honor" to win primary elections in West Virginia and Nebraska.
The billionaire businessman says in a statement after Tuesday's elections that his time campaigning in both states was a wonderful and "enlightening" experience.
Trump says, "I learned a lot, and that knowledge will be put to good use towards the creation of businesses, jobs and the strengthening and revival of their economies."
Trump says he plans to return to both states soon, and win them in the general election this November.
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9:49 p.m.
Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic presidential primary in Nebraska, but it's a victory for the Democratic front-runner that won't get her any closer to clinching her party's nomination.
That's because Nebraska allocated all 25 of its delegates to this summer's Democratic National Convention in a caucus held on March 5 that was won by the Vermont senator.
He took home 15 delegates from that caucus, while Clinton won 10.
Earlier Tuesday, Sanders won the Democratic primary in West Virginia.
But even with that win, he's far behind Clinton in the all-important delegate count.
When including the party officials known as superdelegates who can back any candidate, Clinton has 2,238 delegates or 94 percent of the 2,383 needed to win. Sanders has 1,468.
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9:24 p.m.
Bernie Sanders has added another state to his tally against Hillary Clinton with a win in West Virginia, but it's a victory that will do little to slow his rival's steady march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton entered the night fewer than 200 delegates shy of the 2,383 she needs to secure the nomination. To win it, she needs just 17 percent of the delegates at stake in the remaining contests.
That means she could lose all the states left to vote by a landslide and still emerge as the nominee, so long as all of her supporters among the party insiders known as superdelegates continue to back her.
Clinton has already largely shifted her focus to the general election and the presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump.
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9:06 p.m.
Donald Trump has picked up all 36 delegates available in Nebraska's Republican presidential primary, giving him 89 percent of the delegates needed to win the GOP's nomination for president.
Trump is the only candidate left in the race and is the party's presumptive nominee, although other candidates were still listed on the ballot in Tuesday's primary elections in Nebraska and West Virginia.
The billionaire businessman won at least three delegates in West Virginia. The other 31 delegates in West Virginia are elected directly by voters. Their names appear on the ballot, along with the presidential candidate they support.
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9 p.m.
Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in Nebraska, a second victory in Tuesday's elections for the presumptive GOP nominee.
Among his backers in the state was Don Fricke, a 76-year-old dentist from Lincoln. He says he voted for Trump because the billionaire businessman is a political outsider.
Fricke says he wants a candidate who will work to lower taxes and defend the country by strengthening the military, and he sees those qualities in Trump.
He adds that he thinks Trump has "a very good chance" against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election. Fricke says of Clinton, "Hillary's got too much baggage."
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8:02 p.m.
Donald Trump's victory in West Virginia means he will get at least three delegates.
The 31 other delegates in West Virginia are elected directly by voters. Their names appear on the ballot, along with the presidential candidate they support.
Republican voters are also going to the polls in Nebraska on Tuesday. Nebraska will award all 36 of its delegates to the statewide winner.
With 1,071 delegates, Trump has 87 percent of the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination for president. With no major rivals left in the race, he is already the party's presumptive nominee.
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7:48 p.m.
Donald Trump's campaign says a computer problem resulted in a prominent white nationalist being included on a list of his potential California delegates.
The campaign says the name has been withdrawn and a corrected list resubmitted to state officials.
Trump's California director, Tim Clark, says in a statement Tuesday that a "database error" was at fault.
The campaign says potential delegate William Johnson had been rejected and removed from the campaign's list in February.
Johnson's appearance on the list was first reported by Mother Jones magazine.
Johnson is a Trump supporter who tells The Associated Press that he received an email from Clark earlier Tuesday informing him that his name had been "erroneously listed" as a delegate.
In California, Republican candidates pick potential delegates to the GOP's summer convention. They are selected based on the outcome of voting in the state's June 7 primary.
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7:30 p.m.
Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary in West Virginia, adding to his claim on the GOP's nomination.
The billionaire businessman became the party's presumptive nominee after his victory last week in Indiana, which led his last remaining rivals to drop out of the race.
Anne Ashley is a 66-year-old substitute teacher's aide from Scott Depot, West Virginia. She and her husband Jim say they were supporters of one of those former rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
On Tuesday, they voted for Trump.
Anne Ashley says she thinks Trump is "becoming more aware of the gravity of becoming president and becoming more composed."
Jim Ashley says now that Trump is the presumptive nominee, it's time for him to unify the Republican Party and to bring other candidates that ran against him into the fold. He says Trump "thinks 'I can do it on my own,' but he's wrong."
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6:41 p.m.
Hillary Clinton predicts Republicans will "throw everything including the kitchen sink at me" in the general election, but the Democratic front-runner has a message for them.
She says, "They've done it for 25 years and I'm still standing."
Clinton says at a campaign event in Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday that she looks forward to debating presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Clinton is urging Kentucky voters to "have a big vote" next week in the state's presidential primary to help her campaign "get ready to go all the way to November."
Clinton was rallying supporters in Louisville shortly before the polls were closing in West Virginia's primary. She made no mention of the West Virginia race, where she faces Democratic rival Bernie Sanders.
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5:50 p.m.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to appear later this week at a fundraiser for Republicans on Long Island.
Trump is headlining the Nassau County Republican Committee's annual "Patriots Reception" on Wednesday. Tickets to the event are $200 each.
The fundraiser was scheduled before Trump took control of the nomination process with a win last week in Indiana.
It comes amid negotiations between the celebrity businessman and the Republican National Committee about fundraising for the general election.
To this point, Trump has self-funded much of his campaign. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he's leaning against accepting public financing of his campaign.
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5:27 p.m.
Many West Virginians voting in the state's presidential primary say they see the economy as the top issue facing the country, and they think trade is costing America jobs.
More than half of West Virginia Republicans and nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters casting ballots on Tuesday say the economy is the top issue facing the country.
That's according to early findings from exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research.
In the West Virginia Democratic primary, 7 in 10 say they're very worried about the economy and another 2 in 10 say they're somewhat worried.
Majorities of voters in both primaries say trade with other countries mostly takes jobs from American workers.
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5:12 p.m.
West Virginia is holding a Democratic primary election on Tuesday, but a significant portion of voters choosing between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders say they don't identify as Democrats.
About 4 in 10 voters in the state's Democratic primary say they consider themselves to be an independent or Republican. That's according to early findings from exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research.
Among those voting in West Virginia's Democratic primary, about a third say they would support presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump over either Clinton or Sanders in November's general election.
An additional 2 in 10 say they wouldn't vote for Trump, Clinton or Sanders this fall.
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5:05 p.m.
GOP runner-up Ted Cruz has returned to the Senate, promising to roll up his sleeves and take on "the issues that were the heart of our presidential campaign."
What the Texas Republican is yet unwilling to promise is an endorsement of presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
Asked about endorsing Trump, Cruz said: "What I am interested in supporting are free-market principles and the constitutional liberties of America."
Cruz addressed a media throng outside his Senate office Tuesday afternoon before being greeted by an ovation from his staff.
He is widely unpopular among his Senate colleagues. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked whether he's going to be working more closely with Cruz than he has in the past. McConnell replied, I'm happy to have him back and you ought to ask him that."
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4:40 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump would lead a "race to the bottom" on the economy, to the detriment of working families.
Clinton knocked Trump at a Tuesday campaign event in Louisville, Kentucky, saying that Trump has argued Americans are being paid too much and has talked about getting rid of the federal minimum wage.
The Democratic presidential candidate says Trump would leave the minimum wage "to the mercy of Republican governors."
Clinton made no mention of Democratic rival Bernie Sanders hours before polls close in West Virginia's Democratic primary.
She says with Trump, "you would see a race to the bottom across our country with working families paying the price."
The former secretary of state outlined steps during her visit to Kentucky to help workers pay for child care.
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4:25 p.m.
Donald Trump says he's narrowed his list of potential running mates to "five or six people," all with deep political resumes.
In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said he has not ruled out New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie a former rival who has embraced the billionaire's campaign with gusto.
Trump says said he's prioritizing political experience, because he wants a vice president to help him "with legislation, getting things through" Washington if he wins the White House.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer are among the Republicans who have suggested they would be open to joining Trump on the GOP ticket.
Others have ruled out being considered, including Trump's former primary rival, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
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4 p.m.
Vice President Joe Biden is predicting that Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic Party's nomination and says he feels confident that she'll be the next president.
Biden's remarks come in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" that will be broadcast later Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
Biden's comments go further than President Barack Obama has in predicting the outcome of the Democratic primary. Obama has offered no predictions and says that the process should be allowed to play itself out.
Clinton is engaged in a tougher-than-expected primary with Sen. Bernie Sanders, though she is nearing winning the total number of delegates needed to secure the nomination.
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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a rally at Louisville Slugger Field's Hall of Fame Pavilion in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Mary Ann Herring works on her ballot at a polling station at Christ the King Church in Omaha, Neb., Tuesday, May 10, 2016, during the Nebraska primary election. With Nebraska's Democrats having already caucused in March, the state's Republicans went to the polls on Tuesday with their party's presidential nomination all but sewn up by businessman Donald Trump, who has seen the last of his rivals bow out of the race. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivers remarks at Family Health Centers in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Voters enter their polling place at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in the West Side neighborhood of Charleston, W.Va., Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Many residents of the state headed to the polls on primary Election Day after others cast a record number of early votes, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant announced Monday. (Chris Dorst/Gazette-Mail via AP)
Former Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks to reporters as he returns to the Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
When Megyn Kelly sits down with Donald Trump for her prime-time special on Fox, the host hopes to call a truce to the war waged by the presumptive Republican nominee since he began slamming her after last August's Republican debate.
Being targeted by Trump has helped raise her profile and boost her star power, 'but none of that takes into consideration the downside of being in Trump's crosshairs,' she said during a recent interview.
'It's been a year of security guards and closed blinds. I hope this interview will be a chance to clear the air in front of the American public, to get it over with, then move on.'
Detente began last month when Kelly had a private one-on-one with Trump.
'I was a little nervous to go into Trump Tower that day, because I didn't know what to expect. But from the moment I entered his office, he could not have been nicer.
'I won't say it wasn't awkward, but there was nothing acrimonious between us. It felt like a journalist talking to the candidate about the race.
'We did not touch on anything about us. We did not touch the dustup. I asked him for an interview.He said he'd think it over.'
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Big day: Megyn Kelly (above last week) spoke about her upcoming May 19 special Megyn kelly Presents in a new interview
Truce: Kelly revealed that Donald Trump (above onSaturday) 'could not have been nicer' when she met him in Trump Tower last month to ask him to go on the show
Kelly said she's excited to be venturing from the harder-edged format of The Kelly File on Fox News, where she has reigned since 2013.
Airing May 17 at 8pm Megyn Kelly Presents is produced by veteran Barbara Walters collaborator Bill Geddie, with Walters' Most Fascinating People specials as its model.
'I'm not Barbara,' said Kelly, 'but this is an opportunity to have a different kind of conversation than I'm used to.'
Those conversations will include actor Michael Douglas, a cancer survivor whose health has been an object of concern in recent media reports.
'He's looking good,' reported Kelly of the Oscar-winning actor.
She will also talk with Robert Shapiro, famously part of O.J. Simpson's defense team for his murder trial.
'I was in law school when that case was being tried, and I was riveted,' said Kelly, who practiced law before getting into TV.
'It's not that I think O.J. Simpson is innocent. But it was great lawyering by Shapiro. To me, he's a rock star.'
Also on tap: Laverne Cox, the transgender activist and actress who appears on Netflix's drama series Orange is the New Black and who, said Kelly, 'puts a human face on a group of people who are still maligned, in many parts of the country, with impunity.'
But the main event will be Kelly's meeting with Trump, whose tirades against her have included a sneering reference on CNN to her menstrual cycle and tweets dismissing her as 'lightweight' and 'second-rate.'
Speaking with a reporter recently in her cozy Fox News office, she declined to share details of the interview, but took pains to say she isn't seeking a rematch.
'I understand that this is not a presidential debate. This is an interview,' she said, then smiled.
'Let me put it this way: I have nothing to prove. I think the American people know I can be plenty tough on any political candidate, and this is not going to be about proving anything to anybody.'
She added; 'I had wanted to reach out to Trump since August, but I kept waiting for him to not be angry. I didn't think he'd say yes, and I didn't think it would be a good interview, if he was still angry.
'And just when I would think he was past it, he would start up again. Then in April, there was a two-week lull, so I reached out.
'I am looking to move beyond the acrimony on his end,' she said.
'It has never been on my end.'
Blunt: Kelly said of her interview with Trump; ''I won't say it wasn't awkward, but there was nothing acrimonious between us'
Moving on: Kelly also hinted at possibly wanting to leave Fox News when her contract is up
This new TV venture airing on a new network, Fox, serves as a reminder that Kelly is no stranger to new challenges. Is the time nearing when she might hanker for a challenge that takes her beyond the Fox orbit?
She is a blend of glamour and gravitas perhaps unmatched by any other TV newswoman today, with a Vanity Fair cover and a show that ranks second in all cable news, behind only Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor with an average audience of 2.5 million viewers.
She could expect a warm welcome by either of the cable-news networks trailing Fox News, or by most any other TV news outlet.
Her contract reportedly is up in mid-2017.
'I'm very happy with Fox,' she said. '[Fox News Chairman and CEO] Roger [Ailes] has taken very good care of me for 12 years.
So I think it would be tough to leave him. But having said that, I don't know what the future will bring. It's a fickle business and anything can happen.'
In the more immediate future, Kelly is keen to do a follow-up Fox special, she's writing a book due out this fall, and stays busy with The Kelly File, where, she says, she feels a higher calling than the cage-match style of much of cable-news talk.
'I want ideas to be exchanged and fleshed out,' she explained before voicing an idyllic mission statement:
'We want to present cool water. What I've told my team many times is: I want the show to feel like cool water on a hot brain, a pleasant news-consumption experience.'
Having said that, she realized she was overdue to get ready for that night's show.
'They won't put me on TV like this,' she said of her off-camera look on this day, boots, jeans and a tuxedo jacket over a white T-shirt.
Putin says new Russian weapons turned tide in Syria
MOSCOW (AP) Russia's new weapons have proven their worth in Syria, helping turn the tide of the war, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.
Speaking at a meeting with military officials, Putin said that Russian warplanes have flown more than 10,000 combat missions since the air campaign began on Sept. 30. He said they struck more than 30,000 targets, including 200 oil facilities, allowing the Syrian military to drive militants from 500 towns and villages.
Russia has for the first time tested in combat its new air- and sea-launched cruise missiles to hit targets in Syria. Putin said the military performed a total of 115 launches of the long-range cruise missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, attend the meeting with officials in the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Putin praised the performance of Russian weapons in Syria and said that they will be further improved based on the Syrian experience. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
"The efficiency and high quality of Russian weapons have been clearly shown in Syria," Putin said. "The strikes from the air and from the sea on the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist groups have been precise and powerful. They have allowed us to achieve a turning point in the fight against the militants, although we realize that the situation there is difficult and there is still a lot for the Syrian army to do."
The Russian military pulled out some of its warplanes from Syria in March but has continued to strike the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front.
A Russian- and U.S.-brokered cease-fire that began on Feb. 27 has helped reduce hostilities, although fighting has continued in some areas. On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced a new U.S.-Russia agreement to reinstate an enduring nationwide truce.
Putin on Tuesday voiced hope that a Russian-U.S. dialogue on Syria will help achieve positive results. "The most important thing is to create conditions for a political settlement in the country," he said.
Former Clinton aide Blumenthal now Lincoln biographer
NEW YORK (AP) Before Sidney Blumenthal was a White House aide and confidant of Bill and Hillary Clinton, before he was a journalist for The New Yorker and The Washington Post and author of the influential political book "The Permanent Campaign," he was a boy in Chicago mesmerized by the story of Abraham Lincoln.
"I've always been fixated on Lincoln," the 67-year-old Blumenthal told The Associated Press during a recent interview at the offices of Simon & Schuster. He recalled a childhood trip to visit Lincoln landmarks in Springfield, Illinois, the sense of immediacy from the Old State Capitol and the reconstruction of the village of New Salem.
"It had a profound effect on me," he said.
FILE - In this June 16, 2012, file photo, Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidant to former President Bill Clinton and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington to face questions from the Republican-led House panel investigating the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Blumenthal has published, "A Self-Made Man," the first of four planned volumes on Abraham Lincoln. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
The mountain of Lincoln books has grown taller with this week's publication of "A Self-Made Man: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849," the first of four planned volumes on the 16th president. More than 500 pages long, "A Self-Made Man" follows Lincoln's story and the politics of the country from his birth in 1809 through the completion of his one term as a congressman, in 1849. The next installments, which Blumenthal has mostly completed, are scheduled to come out in each of the following three years.
The question for Blumenthal, for any new Lincoln author, is what he can add to the writings of David Herbert Donald, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Burlingame, Harold Holzer and so many others. Blumenthal's credentials stem from his own background: a reporter's instincts for uncovering news, a political obsessive's immersion in history and, through his time in the Clinton White House, firsthand knowledge of how the presidency works.
"American politics is very real to me. It's very palpable. It's something I can feel and touch," he says. "It's my experience, has been my experience since I was a boy."
Nearly a decade in the making, Blumenthal's book arrives with blurbs from such top Lincoln and Civil War scholars as Holzer and James McPherson and favorable early reviews from Kirkus and other publications. Sean Wilentz, the Princeton University professor and prize-winning historian, is a longtime friend who read early drafts of his Lincoln series. He said that two qualities stood out.
"First, Sid understands, as few if any professional historians ever have, the inner workings of American politics, at every level and in all of their aspects and, with all of their flaws, he respects them," Wilentz told the AP.
"Second, Sid uses his skills as a shoe-leather reporter to track down leads and unravel important stories that previous writers have either slighted, ignored, or misunderstood not easy to do on the most written-about figure in all of American history."
Blumenthal writes about Lincoln's deep and personal hatred of slavery "I used to be a slave," Lincoln would recall of his father's renting him out as a laborer. He dissents from a popular interpretation of Lincoln's first major public speech, the so-called Lyceum Address in Springfield in 1838. Delivered soon after a jury had acquitted the leader of a mob that murdered the abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy, the address was a plea for reason and the rule of law that featured a widely cited passage:
"Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction ..."
The critic Edmund Wilson was among those who perceived the speech as an unconscious prophecy of Lincoln's own rise. But Blumenthal, drawing upon documents and the scholarship of Burlingame among others, sees it as directed against a fellow Illinois politician who became his longtime rival, Stephen A. Douglas.
"It's a brilliant idea on Wilson's part, but it's a myth," he says. "Lincoln speaks against mob violence, and talks about at length that the United States will never face an external threat that could end our democracy. ... The greatest threat comes from within, from this kind of trampling of the rule of law and especially through the incitement of mobs and violence."
Like Donald Trump, the Republican presumptive nominee?
"One wonders what Lincoln would make of a Trump rally, in light of the Lyceum address," Blumenthal said.
His years with the Clintons inform his Lincoln books, but might also distract from them. Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo, in a review for the Washington Monthly, praised "A Self-Made Man" as a "great book," but also noted Blumenthal's well-publicized history: The "onetime tiger of the Clinton administration," notably during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, who went on to advise Hillary Clinton during her 2008 candidacy and become a paid consultant for the Clinton Foundation.
More recently, Blumenthal was a target of the Republican-led congressional investigation into the killings at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, when Clinton was secretary of state. Blumenthal testified in a closed session last June and his name was cited prominently during Hillary Clinton's televised appearance in October, the questions focused on the dozens of emails she received from her friend.
Before one break in testimony, the committee chair, Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, warned: "If you think we've heard about Sidney Blumenthal, wait for the next round."
Blumenthal, who has no formal role in Clinton's current campaign, told the AP during his interview that he had "always called for the release of my deposition before the Benghazi committee, from the second I stepped out of that room. I testified for 9 and a half hours. I answered every question."
Gay man settles with Catholic school that pulled job offer
BOSTON (AP) A Boston man who had a job offer from an all-girls Catholic high school rescinded after administrators learned that he was in a same-sex marriage has settled a lawsuit with the school.
The Boston Globe reports (http://bit.ly/1ZzOTuA ) 45-year-old Matthew Barrett's confidential settlement with Fontbonne Academy comes nearly five months after a Massachusetts judge found the Milton school had discriminated against Barrett.
Fontbonne Academy officials pulled their offer of a food service position to Barrett in 2013 after he listed his husband as an emergency contact.
Ben Klein, Barrett's attorney, says the settlement means that the December Superior Court ruling against the school will stand, establishing a legal precedent that employers have no religious justification for discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.
Fontbonne released a statement saying it "expresses deep gratitude to Mr. Barrett for his willingness to come together with us in a spirit of conciliation."
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Greek markets buoyed as Europe weighs debt-easing measures
ATHENS, Greece (AP) Greek government borrowing rates dropped to their lowest level in nearly six months as investors welcomed the start of talks between Athens and bailout creditors on how to lighten the country's massive debt load.
The yield on Greece's 10-year bonds dipped to 7.69 percent, the lowest so far this year and around the level when Greece received its first bailout in 2010. Shares on the Athens Stock Exchange closed up 3.2 percent Tuesday amid gains across Europe.
Eurozone finance ministers formally launched debt relief talks with Greece on Monday after the country's parliament approved another major package of austerity measures.
Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras smiles during his government cabinet meeting in Athens, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. European finance ministers on Monday debated for the first time measures to ease Greece's massive debt burden amid concern the International Monetary Fund might withdraw from the bailout talks. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
In Brussels, Commission spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt said the European Union's executive branch would offer to help the debt talks and conclude a long-delayed review of Greece's bailout program. That review is needed for Greece to get the next batch of its bailout loans.
"Greece is turning the page and leaving six years of darkness behind it," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a televised address to his cabinet. "At last, a light has appeared for growth."
But the creditors' willingness to ease bailout repayment terms came at a heavy price.
Tsipras' left-wing government is committed to imposing higher taxes on the country's battered work force, which has endured years of cuts and is still outnumbered by pensioners and the unemployed.
Greece's debt is expected to peak this year at above 180 percent of annual economic output.
The latest austerity measures triggered a three-day general strike last week that included large protests and brief but violent clashes with riot police.
Amid growing public discontent, Tsipras has lost his lead to the opposition conservatives in opinion polls. Still, his government passed a painful package of reforms over the weekend in parliament with no dissenting votes from the ruling party and its coalition partners.
"Having passed the crucial income tax and pension reforms ... Greece now needs to legislate the remaining third of the upfront package already agreed with the lenders," Teneo Intelligence analyst Wolf Piccoli said.
"The required next steps are politically doable."
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Online: Eurogroup statement on Greece: http://ow.ly/nDkz3004R1K
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Cook reported from Brussels. Follow Gatopoulos at http://www.twitter.com/dgatopoulos
Greece's Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos attends a government cabinet meeting in Athens, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. European finance ministers on Monday debated for the first time measures to ease Greece's massive debt burden amid concern the International Monetary Fund might withdraw from the bailout talks. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
A woman exits the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple on the Athenian Acropolis, on Monday, May 9, 2016. European finance ministers are trying to break a deadlock over whether to provide Greece with the next batch of bailout loans, which it needs to avoid bankruptcy this year, and forgive some of its debts. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
People sit in a cafe in Athens, on Monday, May 9, 2016. European finance ministers are trying to break a deadlock over whether to provide Greece with the next batch of bailout loans, which it needs to avoid bankruptcy this year, and forgive some of its debts. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Shoppers are reflected in the mirror of an antique shop in Athens, on Monday, May 9, 2016. European finance ministers are trying to break a deadlock over whether to provide Greece with the next batch of bailout loans, which it needs to avoid bankruptcy this year, and forgive some of its debts. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Jon Stewart labels Donald Trump a 'man-baby'
CHICAGO (AP) Jon Stewart has been on the sidelines for one of the wildest campaign seasons in memory. But he's weighing in with a new dig at old foe Donald Trump, labeling the presumptive Republican presidential nominee a "man-baby."
The comments came in a Monday taping of a podcast with President Barack Obama's former aide, David Axelrod, at the University of Chicago.
Stewart joked that Trump has the "physical countenance of a man and a baby's temperament and hands," adding that as a "man-baby," he isn't sure Trump is eligible to run for president.
FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015, file photo, comedian Jon Stewart performs at the 9th Annual Stand Up For Heroes event, in New York. During a taping of a podcast with President Barack Obama's former aide on Monday, May 9, 2016, Stewart described presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as a "man-baby."(Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP, File)
The former "Daily Show" host also took a swipe at likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, describing her as "a very bright woman without the courage of her convictions."
Kenya: Wife accused of helping anthrax plot appears in court
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) The wife accused of assisting her medic husband to plot a biological attack in Kenya and assisting in recruiting for the Islamic State group has been extradited from Uganda and appeared in a Nairobi court Tuesday.
Nuseiba Mohammed Haji, a medical student in Uganda and wife of medical intern Mohammed Ali Abdi, is alleged to have been an accomplice in a foiled plan to launch an anthrax attack in Kenya by a cell of extremist medics linked to the Islamic State group, according to police. Abdi was arrested on April 29 and a court granted police 30 days to hold him for investigations.
Haji appeared in court as police asked for permission to keep her in their custody for an additional 30 days for investigations. Magistrate Martha Mutuku will rule on the police application on May 16.
Nuseiba Mohammed Haji talks to her lawyer, Kioko Kilukumi, left, at the Kenya Milimani Law Courts, in Nairobi, Tuesday May 10, 2016. The wife of a Kenyan medic police accuse of plotting a biological attack has been extradited to Kenya from Uganda. Police allege Nuseiba Mohammed Haji, a medical student in Uganda and wife to medical intern Mohammed Ali Abdi, is an accomplice in a foiled plan to launch an anthrax attack in Kenya late April, by a cell of extremist medics. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)
Police say two of Ali's alleged accomplices, Ahmed Hish and Farah Dagane, both medical interns in the western Kenyan town of Kitale, have gone into hiding.
Human rights activists however say the disappearance of the two medics and a third missing pharmacist fall into the pattern of extra-judicial executions and forced disappearances carried out by the police on suspects they are unable to prosecute because insufficient evidence.
Kenya police have been accused by international, local, the government funded human right groups and opposition leaders carrying out extra-judicial executions on hundreds of suspects found murdered or who have disappeared without a trace.
Kenya is struggling to battle the Islamic State group's recruitment of some of the country's youths. At least 20 Kenyan young people have travelled to Libya to join the extremist group, according to police.
Germany to press for progress on elections at Ukraine talks
BERLIN (AP) Germany is putting forward a proposal for holding local elections in eastern Ukraine, with the aim of moving toward a deal before the European Union's sanctions against Russia expire at the end of July.
Diplomats from Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France are discussing the plan in Berlin ahead of a meeting of the country's foreign ministers on Wednesday.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Tuesday progress on implementing a cease-fire agreement forged in Minsk last year "is a snail that's moving forward by the millimeter, at best."
Steinmeier says the Minsk process can't continue indefinitely, and "we need not just a clear pledge from the conflict parties tomorrow in Berlin but above all success in the implementation."
Kerry: Businesses using US sanctions as excuse to avoid Iran
LONDON (AP) Businesses around the world are using the United States as an excuse to avoid doing business with Iran, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday as he declared the Islamic Republic "open for business" for European banks.
Kerry, ahead of a meeting on Iran with European bankers, said it was unfair and inaccurate for businesses to blame U.S. sanctions for their decision to stay away. He said the U.S. had an obligation to live up to the nuclear deal with Iran by clarifying what's now permitted as a result of that accord.
"If they don't want to do business or they don't see a good business deal, they shouldn't say, 'Oh, we can't do it because of the United States,'" Kerry told reporters in London. "We sometimes get used as an excuse in this process."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to journalists before a meeting with French Foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, in Paris, Monday, May 9, 2016. Kerry has arrived in Paris for talks on the conflict in Syria. Representatives of Britain, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey and the EU have also been invited in Paris Monday for a meeting in the presence of the Riad Hijab, head of the Western-backed Syrian opposition coalition, in an effort to relaunch the Syrian peace process.(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
The top U.S. diplomat's comments came as the U.S. works to address Iran's complaints that it hasn't received the sanctions relief it was promised in exchange for rolling back its nuclear program. Under the deal, broad U.S. sanctions on Iran's economy were removed, clearing the way for foreign companies to do business with most Iranian companies.
Yet some specific Iranian entities, including companies associated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard, are still off-limits under sanctions punishing Iran for other behavior. And the U.S. maintains a prohibition on Iran accessing the American financial system or directly conducting transactions in U.S. dollars, fueling confusion and practical impediments given that international transactions routinely cross through the U.S. banking system.
"It's just not as complicated as some people think," said Kerry, who planned to discuss the concerns Thursday with top European bankers in the U.K. He said banks in Europe were free to open accounts for Iran, fund programs and lend money. "That's absolutely open for business as long as it's not a designated entity, period. Very simple."
Asian and European government and companies, primarily banks, have sought written clarification about what current U.S. laws and financial regulations allow. Essentially, they want a promise that the U.S. will not prosecute or punish them for transactions involving Iran a step the U.S. has so far been reluctant to take.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials have suggested that some foreign companies have other reasons for avoiding Iran, including the country's antiquated financial system that fails to meet modern international standards, as well as Iranian support for terrorism and human rights violations.
Yet foreign companies have cited legitimate concerns about potential punishment from the U.S. if they violate the remaining sanctions. In 2014, before the nuclear deal, French bank BNP Paribas agreed to pay almost $9 billion in penalties and plead guilty to processing transactions for clients in Iran and other U.S.-sanctioned nations.
What's more, foreign companies are unsure whether President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran will survive. Although the Democratic candidates for president support the deal, Republicans have lambasted it and threatened to slap back sanctions after Obama leaves office.
"I just don't believe that a new president, regardless, is going to suddenly say, 'Let's go have a war in the Middle East and give up the restraint on a nuclear weapon,'" Kerry said, reprising Obama's argument that opponents of the nuclear deal are by default advocating war with Iran.
Still, the Obama administration's efforts to provide assurances about doing business with Iran have stoked outrage from Republicans and some Democratic opponents of the deal, who argue the U.S. should not be advocating economically for a country still designated by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terrorism. In recent weeks, top officials from the Treasury Department and the State Department have fanned out across the globe to explain to foreign countries and companies what's permissible under the deal.
Kerry said that as the chief architect of the sanctions and key player in brokering the deal, the U.S. had an obligation to carry out the agreement dutifully.
"Iran has a right to the benefits of the agreement they signed up to," Kerry said. "If people by confusion or misinterpretation or in some cases disinformation are being misled, it's appropriate for us to try to clarify that."
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AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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White House sends high-court pick's questionnaire to Senate
WASHINGTON (AP) Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland detailed his most significant cases in thousands of pages of documents submitted to Congress Tuesday, including his role as a federal prosecutor in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case and the prosecution of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.
The lengthy questionnaire isn't likely to sway many minds in Congress, where Republicans have insisted on delaying the Supreme Court fight until after the presidential election. But the White House still had Garland fill out a questionnaire, and the committee posted the document online, as is routine with nominations.
Garland is currently the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Garland's account of his most significant opinions as a judge includes one that upheld a ban on campaign contributions from federal contractors. Another affirmed the application of the Endangered Species Act to a commercial real estate project that threatened a protected toad. Two others sided with people mounting job discrimination lawsuits.
FILE- In this April 28, 2016, file photo, Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court meets with Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., on Capitol Hill in Washington. Garland will submit a questionnaire detailing his credentials and experience to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, May 10, taking another step in the White Houses push to break the Senate blockade on his nomination. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
In his long career on the bench and as a Justice Department official before that, Garland developed a reputation for being pro-prosecutor and pro-government.
But in his listing of significant opinions, he includes one case in which he voted to throw out a criminal conviction for a drug trafficking conspiracy, a second dissenting opinion in which he would have allowed lawsuits to continue against private contractors over allegations of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and a third that sided with a Uighur detainee at Guantanamo Bay who challenged his status as an "enemy combatant."
He also cites his role as a federal prosecutor Oklahoma City bombing and Unabomber cases as a lawyer before becoming a judge, noting that both were convicted. McVeigh was executed, while Kaczynski was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
In the thousands of pages of documents, he also lists details of his work experience, his biographical background, his memberships and associations, his most significant cases, pro bono work and financial information.
Garland's submission was missing forms typically included to provide a more detailed description of his net worth. The White House said it would provide that information if the Senate Judiciary Committee requested it.
Garland reported that he was first called by the White House about the Supreme Court vacancy on Feb. 29 16 days after Justice Antonin Scalia's death. He said he was interviewed by President Barack Obama on March 9, a week before Obama announced his nomination.
The White House said the questionnaire is intended to present "an exhaustive picture" of Garland's service on the bench and of his "impeccable credentials."
The questionnaire is a standard early step in the vetting of any judicial nominee. The lengthy survey typically is drafted by the committee, completed by the nominee, and then reviewed and made public by the committee in advance of committee hearings. In this case, the Senate Judiciary Committee didn't send a questionnaire to Garland because Republicans said they have no intention of acting on his nomination. So the White House had Garland fill out what it described as a standard form and sent it, unsolicited, to the committee.
So in Garland's atypical nomination, the questionnaire has become another tool in the White House pressure campaign. Senate Republicans have maintained that the next president should choose the Scalia's replacement.
Shortly after the questionnaire was posted online, Senate Democrats used it to call once more on Republicans to hold hearings and vote. In a news conference, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee warned Republicans that presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump could pick the next justice.
Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin joked that Trump might bring television personality Judge Judy out of retirement. "I don't want to make light of the situation because it's extremely serious," Durbin said. "But imagining Donald Trump picking a Supreme Court justice is something I never thought would cross my mind."
Garland has been meeting privately with senators on so-called courtesy visits and conducted some prep sessions with the White House.
He was scheduled to meet Tuesday with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, the White House said.
"We expect that upon receiving the questionnaire, Senate Judiciary Committee members will do their jobs by reviewing the information, scheduling a hearing so that the American people can hear directly from Chief Judge Garland as he answers questions under oath, and giving him a fair up or down vote," Hoffine said.
Garland plans to continue his meetings with lawmakers this week. Garland is slated to meet Wednesday with Democratic Sens. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Tom Carper of Delaware, then Thursday with Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the White House said.
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Mixture of loss, hope for Canadian town hit by wildfire
FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (AP) Charred bicycles lean on a fence in front of incinerated townhomes. Just across the street, a school and playground are untouched.
Across this Canadian oil sand town, the contrast is repeated: neighborhoods that burned to their foundations, while other neighborhoods, strip malls, car dealerships, schools and hospitals are still standing.
Nearly a week after people started evacuating Fort McMurray as a massive wildfire surrounded them, more than 40 journalists were allowed into the city Monday on a bus escorted by police, as the forest surrounding the road into town still smoldered.
Bicycles lean against a fence in front of burned townhouses in Fort McMurray, Alberta, following a massive wildfire, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte)
The first neighborhood seen, Beacon Hill, was an example of the worst a fire can do.
At one lot, a barbecue sat in the driveway, a few feet away from a charred pickup truck, its wheels melted into the ground, the debris surrounding them the scattered components of what was once a house.
Lot by lot the scene was repeated: homes burned to their foundation and reduced to rubble.
A short drive away, nearly an entire trailer park community burned to the ground, the exception a single line of homes in the last row.
Fort McMurray Fire Chief Darby Allen said that he knew residents were likely watching media reports to find out the status of their neighborhoods. He briefly choked up while saying he wanted them to know that emergency responders "gave their all."
"We did our very best," he said.
Even with all of the personal loss, nearly 90 percent of the city is still standing, including the downtown district. Allen said that the fire got as close as the corner of a bank, but firefighters were able to fight back the flames. If that had not been successful, he said, downtown would have been lost.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Tuesday that the massive oil sands mines north of Fort McMurray have not been damaged. She said most of the oil sands industry has stopped production and will only start back up when it is "absolutely safe" but that should happen soon.
She met Tuesday in Edmonton, Alberta, with oil sands industry officials to discuss the impact of the wildfire.
After touring Fort McMurray on Monday, Notley said about 2,400 homes and buildings were destroyed in the city, but firefighters managed to save 25,000 others, including the hospital, municipal buildings and every functioning school.
Fort McMurray "is a home you are going to return to," she promised residents at a news conference Monday.
Those 80,000 residents are scattered throughout the province, some staying at evacuation centers, others with family and friends.
Randy MacKenzie was filling up his gas tank at Wandering River Monday night, heading south to Redwater, Alberta, with eight dogs in kennels in his truck and an attached trailer.
MacKenzie, who owns a boarding kennel in Fort McMurray, fled during the evacuation last week with 56 dogs that were at the kennel at the time the mandatory evacuation order came down. He had friends in a safe area keep his four dogs.
On Monday, he was allowed back in to pick up his dogs as well as other dogs that belonged to friends.
Though his boarding kennel was in an area that was saved by firefighters, his home was in Beacon Hill.
MacKenzie hasn't been back to the neighborhood, which is still under the mandatory evacuation order, but he knows what he'll find when officials allow residents to return.
"I know my house is gone," he said.
Dave Cramm, a 38 year-old welder, said he doesn't understand why he can't go home because it appears that his house in the Timberlea neighborhood was untouched. Cramm worries that if people are kept out of the city for too long, especially if they know their homes are undamaged, things could get tense.
"It's going to create hostility," said Cramm, who on Tuesday was smoking outside a reception center in Lac La Biche, Alberta, about a three-hour drive south of Fort McMurray.
"You got people here getting stressed out."
Bobby Leftakis, 46, lives in a trailer surrounding a lake in Fort McMurray, and said he doesn't know how his home fared. He saw pictures of another trailer park that had been leveled except for a row that was spared the flames, and knows the fire could just as easily have taken his place, though he remains hopeful. He said he knows there was some fire in his development.
Leftakis and several friends who evacuated together are staying at a lodge near the evacuation center in Lac La Biche. They all watched the news reports of Monday's tour of Fort McMurray.
"This disaster is surreal," he said. "You can't believe it."
Leftakis, a scaffolder for Suncor, said he and his friends have many unanswered questions after watching the news reports from Fort McMurray.
"Do we have a house? Do our friends have their house? When are we going back?" he asked.
Leftakis recalled his daunting evacuation, saying that he drove near the badly hit Beacon Hill neighborhood as it was consumed by flames.
"I was praying 'Am I going to make it'? You could feel the heat in the car," he said.
When he later saw video from the neighborhood he last saw burning, he was not surprised by the result.
"We were expecting the devastation," he said. "We thought it was going to be worse, to be honest with you."
Fort McMurray, Alberta, fire chief Darby Allen speaks to members of the media at a fire station in Fort McMurray, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte)
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley speaks to members of the media at a fire station in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte)
Destroyed townhouses in the Abasand neighborhood of Fort McMurray, Alberta, are viewed after a massive wildfire, Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte)
Destroyed property in Fort McMurray, Alberta, is viewed Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte)
A destroyed trailer park in Fort McMurray, Alberta, is viewed Monday, May 9, 2016. A break in the weather has officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte)
The Latest: Lawyer: Theater couldn't have stopped gunman
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) The Latest on a lawsuit against the owner of a Colorado movie theater where 12 were killed (all times local):
11:30 a.m.
An attorney for the owner of the Colorado theater where James Holmes opened fire says the gunman was a heavily armed "mad genius" determined to kill and couldn't have been stopped.
FILE - In this Friday, July 20, 2012, file photo, candles sit illuminated along the sidewalk in front of a makeshift memorial for the victims of a mass shooting at the Century 16 theatre east of the Aurora Mall in Aurora, Colo. In all, 12 died people and 70 were injured during an assault at the theatre at a July 20, 2012 midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight." On Monday, May 9, 2016, 28 victims' families will argue in a civil trial that Century Theatres should be held accountable for not doing more to prevent the bloody rampage. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)
Lawyer Kevin Taylor said in opening arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit against Cinemark that the company couldn't have known the risk of a mass shooting.
He disputed victims' allegations that the theater chain's lax security allowed for the July 2012 shooting that killed 12 in suburban Denver. He says Cinemark's procedures were in line with industry standards.
Taylor says crime was falling nationwide and that Aurora was named one of Forbes' top 10 safest cities around the time of the shooting, which happened at the premiere of a Batman movie.
He says opening nights are known to draw well-behaved crowds, and the theater had never before seen major problems during a premiere.
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10:20 a.m.
Attorneys for victims of the Colorado movie theater shooting say widespread security failures allowed for the attack that killed 12.
Lawyer Marc Bern says the suburban Denver theater should have had armed guards during the packed midnight premiere of a Batman movie, where at least 1,000 people were expected. He made his opening statement Tuesday in a lawsuit against theater owner Cinemark.
Bern says the theater also lacked silent alarms that would have sounded before gunman James Holmes slipped into the crowded theater and opened fire.
Among other problems, Bern says Holmes cased the theater months before the shooting and chose it because of its lax security.
Twenty-eight victims are suing the Texas-based theater chain in state court in Centennial, alleging it should have foreseen the July 2012 shooting.
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9:35 a.m.
Opening statements are underway in a civil trial over whether the company that owns a Colorado movie theater should have done more to prevent a 2012 shooting there.
Attorneys were making their case Tuesday morning before six jurors and two alternates begin hearing testimony in the case against Cinemark. Jurors will be asked to decide whether, in an age of mass shootings, the company should have foreseen the shooting that left 12 dead and more than 70 others injured.
Twenty-eight victims and their families are suing the theater company in state court. Their lawsuit says Cinemark should have had silent alarms and armed guards at the packed midnight premiere of a Batman film, where James Holmes launched his attack.
Holmes was sentenced last year to life in prison
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4:05 a.m.
Opening statements are set to begin in a civil trial over whether the company that owns a Colorado movie theater should have done more to prevent a 2012 shooting there.
Attorneys will deliver their statements Tuesday morning before six jurors and two alternates begin hearing testimony in the case against Cinemark. Jurors will be asked to decide whether, in an age of mass shootings, the company should have foreseen the shooting that left 12 dead and more than 70 others injured.
Twenty-eight victims and their families are suing the theater company in state court. Their lawsuit says Cinemark should have had silent alarms and armed guards at the packed midnight premiere of a Batman film, where James Holmes launched his attack.
Holmes was sentenced last year to life in prison.
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Autistic student 'humiliated' at prom after sister barred
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) An autistic student left his high school prom in tears Saturday because officials insisted that his date his 24-year-old sister was too old to enter.
The two were unaware of a rule that students could not bring dates who are older than 20, said their father, Tone Whisenhunt. He said an exception should have been made for his special-needs son, who wanted his older sister by his side to protect him from bullying at Montgomery Central High School in Tennessee.
"Your kids have one prom and he didn't even get to go to it," Whisenhunt told WSMV-TV (http://bit.ly/1QWPKiJ). "That's what upsets me the most."
The school's principal, Christy Houston, told Jayce Whisenhunt he could stay, but said his sister, Jessica Helling, would not be allowed to enter, according to Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools spokeswoman Elise Shelton.
The situation caught school administrators by surprise, as the siblings had not signed up to attend the event, Shelton said.
"If there had been a request for an exception to the rules, we certainly would have entertained that and worked with the family, but at no time was there a request," Shelton said.
The community wants to turn their outrage into something positive, family friend Michelle Gordon said. They're raising funds now for an all-ages prom for the siblings and their supporters next month at the same location.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than $1,300 had been raised online.
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Equine tail-hacking cases rising in Michigan, motive unclear
KENOCKEE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) Reports of equine tail-hacking cases are on the rise in Michigan and though authorities are asking people to be on the lookout for perpetrators, it remains unclear if the motivation behind targeting horses and ponies is for play or profit.
At least six tail-hacking cases have been reported to Michigan police during the last month, including the most recent last Thursday that involved two miniature ponies in Port Huron, about 60 miles northeast of Detroit. Last month, police in the Detroit suburb of Trenton said three ponies and a horse that gives rides to children had their tails cut off. Similar incidents also have been reported elsewhere in the U.S.
But while tail-hacking cases in southeast Michigan are growing, and now expanding beyond the suburban Detroit area to areas where horse farms are more prevalent, the identities of the tail hackers and their motivations remain unclear. Some possible motives include: A market exists for fake tails for horse shows that are braided into a horse's tail to make it appear longer. They can cost several hundred dollars. Also, hair from horse tails can be sold for arts and crafts projects or other uses.
This May 9, 2016 photo, shows Samson, a miniature pony in Kenockee Township, Mich., with his tail cutoff. Two miniature horses were found by their owners Thursday, May 5, 2016 with the hair on their tails hacked off. (Liz Shepard/The Times Herald via AP) NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT
Kathie Simasko told the Times Herald of Port Huron (http://bwne.ws/27a4qXJ) that she was shocked when she found her ponies' tails cut off last Thursday at her property in St. Clair County's Kenockee Township. The Michigan State Police are investigating the incident, and Simasko urged any other horse owners to report related incidents.
"I just sat here for probably five minutes and was just like, 'What the heck?'" Simasko said, noting there was hair on a portion of the pasture fence, looking as if the ponies had been pressed up against it. She said her horses, named Samson and Levi, are "going to be miserable" this summer because it will be harder for them to swat away flies and insects.
Simasko said she is glad that her miniature horses weren't further harmed or let loose. Her four horses on the back of the property did not appear to have been touched.
In Trenton, Nicole West, the owner of the three ponies and a horse that last month also their tails cut off, said it would take at least a year for the tails to fully grow back.
Meanwhile, in St. Clair County, Sheriff Tim Donnellon wants people to "be vigilant," especially in rural areas where horse farms are common.
"If somebody sees something or hears something, call 911 and we'll have the closest available car respond and hopefully we can catch these folks," Donnellon said.
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Information from: Times Herald, http://www.thetimesherald.com
UN calls on Kenya to reconsider closing refugee camps
UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United Nations is calling on Kenya to reconsider its decision to close two refugee camps that have been home to hundreds of thousands of people for nearly a quarter century.
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that the U.N. is calling on Kenya's government to avoid any action that is at odds with its international obligations.
The Kenyan government announced Friday it would close the camps, including one of the world's largest, due to a lack of security and economic challenges.
Dujarric added that "any such decision should not be taken in haste when you're talking about the lives of 600,000 people."
US seeks 50 years in prison for Vietnamese man in bomb plot
NEW YORK (AP) A Vietnamese man accused of plotting with an al-Qaida offshoot to bomb London's Heathrow Airport in a suicide attack should get 50 years in prison, prosecutors said in papers submitted Tuesday to a sentencing judge.
Minh Quang Pham, 33, faces sentencing May 16 after pleading guilty to terrorism charges in January. Pham, extradited from England, admitted supporting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based branch of the organization once headed by Osama bin Laden.
The Heathrow plot was never carried out. Pham was arrested at the airport when he returned in July 2011 from a six-month trip to Yemen, where he used his college degrees in graphic design and animation to edit videos and photos for propaganda in Inspire magazine, prosecutors said.
In urging a long sentence, the government said Pham's intellect, cleverness and ability to recruit like-minded individuals will still be valued by terrorists.
"Indeed, the fact of his conviction and imprisonment likely will serve in many respects to bolster Pham's bona fides as a recruiter of others to wage violent jihad," prosecutors said.
In her presentence submission, Pham attorney Bobbi Sternheim said her client has denounced terrorism, never intended to commit violence and shouldn't serve over 30 years in prison, especially since solitary confinement will result in hopelessness and despair.
"Pham was directed byothers,had no specific missionand took no substantive terrorist actions, violent or otherwise," she wrote.
Prosecutors urged Judge Allison J. Nathan to "reject Pham's self-serving, unsworn, and unsubstantiated statements submitted in an 11th-hour effort to mitigate the seriousness of his actions."
The government noted that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted in the April 2013 attack near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, told the FBI that he and his brother learned how to create their pressure-cooker bombs from Inspire magazine.
Prosecutors said al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has called on followers to attack civilians and has taken credit for coordinating attacks overseas, including the January 2015 Paris massacre at the French publication Charlie Hebdo. A dozen people died.
Prosecutors said Pham also received instruction and direction in Yemen from U.S.-born, extremist Islamic preacher and al-Qaida leader Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone attack in Yemen in September 2011.
Sanders' West Virginia win makes up little ground on Clinton
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) White House dreams fading, Bernie Sanders added another state to his tally against Hillary Clinton with a win in West Virginia on Tuesday a victory that will do little to slow the former secretary of state's steady march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.
Meanwhile, Republican Donald Trump also won there and in Nebraska, a week after he cleared the field of his remaining rivals. They were not victories likely to heal the party's wounds, as some GOP leaders continue to hold off offering their endorsement of the party's presumptive nominee.
The result in the West Virginia Democratic primary underscored the awkward position Clinton and the party's establishment face as they attempt to turn their focus to the general election. Sanders has won 19 states to Clinton's 23, but she is 94 percent of the way to winning the nomination just 144 delegates short of the 2,383 required.
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a campaign rally, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, in Stockton, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
That means she could lose all the states left to vote by a landslide and still emerge as the nominee, so long as all her supporters among the party insiders known as superdelegates continue to back her.
Clinton needs to win just 14 percent of the delegates and uncommitted superdelegates at stake in the remaining contests, and she remains on track to capture the nomination in early June.
Still, Sanders is vowing to fight on. He campaigned in Oregon and California on Tuesday and his victory in West Virginia highlighted anew Clinton's struggles to win over white men and independents weaknesses Trump wants to exploit in the fall campaign.
"Let me be as clear as I can be, we are in the campaign to win the Democratic nomination," Sanders said at a campaign event in Salem, Oregon. "We are going to fight for every last vote."
Among those voting in the West Virginia Democratic primary, about a third said they would support Trump over either Clinton or Sanders in November. An additional 2 in 10 said they wouldn't vote for either candidate. But 4 in 10 also said they consider themselves to be independents or Republicans, and not Democrats, according to exit polls.
While Sanders is still attracting thousands to rallies, his campaign has grown harder as Clinton closes in on the nomination. His fundraising has fallen off and so, too, has his advertising, with only about $525,000 in ads planned for California and $63,000 each in West Virginia and Oregon, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media's CMAG.
That's a significant decline from the wall-to-wall advertising campaign he ran earlier in the primary, during which his $74 million in ads outspent Clinton by $14 million.
Edward Milam, of Cross Lanes, West Virginia, is a self-described socialist who gave money to the Sanders campaign but his vote Tuesday to Clinton.
"After about six-seven months of debating and watching, I think Hillary has a lot more to offer than Bernie internationally," the 68-year-old retiree said. "I think she handles herself well. I've known about her for 30 years, just like everybody else has. I don't think there will be any surprises."
Even as the primaries continue, Clinton has largely shifted her focus to the general election. On Monday, she courted suburban women in Virginia and on Tuesday, in Lexington, Kentucky, she released a proposal to ensure families don't spend more than 10 percent of their income on child care.
"I don't care about what he says about me," she said of Trump in Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday night. "But I do resent what he says about other people, other successful women, women who have worked hard, women who have done their part."
Clinton's campaign hopes suburban women, turned off by Trump's bombastic rhetoric, could be a key source of support for her in the fall.
But she's also trying to stop Sanders from gaining the psychological advantage of a series of wins this month. Her team went up with a $160,000 ad buy in Kentucky on Tuesday, a modest effort aimed at cutting into Sanders' support before the state's primary in a week.
Clinton also won a primary election Tuesday in Nebraska, although the party allocated all of its delegates to the summer nominating convention at a caucus won in March by Sanders.
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Lerer reported from Washington. Associated Press writers John Raby in West Virginia and Josh Funk and Grant Schulte in Nebraska contributed to this report.
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Follow Lisa Lerer and Ken Thomas on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/llerer and http://twitter.com/kthomasdc
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks with young parents during a roundtable discussion at the Family Care Center in Lexington, Ky., Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wave signs before a campaign rally, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, in Stockton, Calif.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks with young parents during a roundtable discussion at the Family Care Center in Lexington, Ky., Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Cannes, on high alert, tries to balance security, festivity
CANNES, France (AP) Coming six months after the Paris attacks in November, the 69th Cannes Film Festival has elevated security measures, swarming the French Riviera resort town with an increased police presence. But particular care has been made, festival organizers say, to preserving the spirit of the annual cinema celebration.
Bomb sweeps and bag checks have been stepped up. A dramatic, unnerving drill was held last month in which mock gunmen stormed the festival's palace hub. And festival president Pierre Lescure has said that about 500 highly-trained security agents will be on guard around Cannes' red-carpeted headquarters, the Palais des Festivals. That's in addition to around 200 police and extensive surveillance cameras throughout Cannes.
But the festival, which opens Wednesday, has also sought to counter the heightened state by continuing with business as usual. The party will most definitely go on.
A police officer patrols in front of the entrance of the Festival Palace in Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. The festival runs from May 11 to May 22. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
"The atmosphere is good," festival director Thierry Fremaux said in an interview Tuesday. "Cannes is a celebration of life, of cinema."
"These films have a big fighting spirit," he added. "This is also what makes Cannes and we still want to show that."
Perhaps signaling that maintaining such a balance will have its difficulties, moments after Fremaux spoke, alarms rang out inside the Palais, forcing an evacuation.
But on the eve of Wednesday's opening festivities including a new "welcome party" for festivalgoers on the beach beefed up security was far from omnipresent. The most striking change, as many noted, weren't security agents but a wardrobe change for the ubiquitous festival ushers. To glowing reviews from critics, their traditionally beige suits have been replaced with blue ones.
"The French public statement was very clear, is very clear," Fremaux said. "The festival is as usual, the same way as usual, so everything will be fine."
That was consistent with earlier statements made by Lescure, who pledged that "the maximum" has been done to balance security and ensure "that the festival remains a place of freedom."
Others have emphasized that Cannes, the world's pre-eminent film festival, must be diligently guarded.
"We must keep in mind as we prepare to open this festival that we are faced with a risk which has never been as high, and faced with an enemy determined to strike us at any moment," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Monday in Cannes.
"We must demonstrate extreme vigilance at all times," he said.
Security was also increased last year following the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January 2015. But after 130 were killed in the Paris attacks, France remains in a state of emergency.
"Cannes must be protected not because of the cocktail parties, but because it is a professional event of a high level which brings honor to France," Mayor David Lisnard said.
Traditions rigorously guide Cannes, which runs through May 22, culminating with the presentation of the Palme d'Or. Onlookers will be paying close attention to see if the customary pageantry of the festival red carpet changes even slightly.
Kicking off the festival Wednesday will be Woody Allen's 1930s Hollywood comedy "Cafe Society." On tap are films from Steven Spielberg ("The BFG"), Jodie Foster ("Money Monster"), Pedro Almodovar ("Julieta") and Jim Jarmusch ("Paterson"). Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Kristen Stewart and Russell Crowe are among the stars expected to attend.
Outside the Palais on Tuesday, festivalgoers voiced support for any necessary security measures.
"We can't stop doing things just because there is potential danger," said Cecil Brown of Paris. "We will just continue."
Robert Willington of Cannes asked, "What, we should stop having concerts and playing music and enjoying ourselves and doing what we love? I don't think so."
Wayne Reilly, from Indiana, also said he was undeterred.
"I'm willing to put up with more security, that's OK," said Reilly. "I'd prefer not, but it's all right so we can keep doing these things. But I'm not going to let what they are doing stop me. It's too beautiful here to miss it."
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Associated Press journalists Zara Eldridge and Adam Egan contributed to this report.
GOP fractures ruin Reagan Day fundraiser in Tennessee
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Reagan Day fundraisers have been a staple of GOP politics ever since the Great Communicator made a point of promoting the 11th Commandment thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. But in the conservative suburbs east of Nashville, the event has become too poisonous to be held this year.
According to party emails obtained by The Associated Press, three leading Tennessee Republicans refused to speak at the June fundraiser if their rivals were given the same opportunity, forcing the Wilson County Republicans to call off the event altogether.
The flap suggests just how fractured the GOP has become this election year, as Donald Trump and tea party supporters continue shaking up what's left of the Republican establishment. It also suggests what hardball tactics may come in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Bill Haslam in 2018.
FILE- In this Aug. 2, 2012, file photo, U.S. Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., attends a victory party in Hendersonville, Tenn., after 6th District Republican primary win. A Wilson County Reagan Day fundraiser has been canceled over disagreements about which candidates will be allowed to speak at the event. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)
The head of the county party has no comment on why the party canceled the event. But a flurry of correspondence obtained by the AP suggests that organizers couldn't get the three candidates to share a stage.
The event was to be held on June 7 in the district of U.S. Rep. Diane Black, who faces a tea-party rival, former state Rep. Joe Carr, in Tennessee's congressional primary this August. Black also is a top contender for governor, and will likely face state Sen. Mark Green, an Army veteran who has been speaking at other Reagan Day events around the state.
According to an emailed summary prepared by Wilson County GOP Chairman Tom Hoffman for fellow party organizers, Green refused to appear if Black was allowed to speak, and Carr then said he wouldn't speak either if Green didn't take the stage.
The event was being put together by Justin Hayes, a Carr spokesman and co-chairman of the Wilson County for Donald Trump campaign committee.
According Hoffman's message, Hayes suggested that the event feature Carr and Green and no one else. The state GOP then intervened saying that party rules require all candidates to be allowed to address the crowd to avoid the appearance of taking sides in a race, meaning that Black could not be have been excluded if Carr was speaking.
Executive committee member Jennifer Winfree wanted organizers to confirm Green's refusal, calling it "troubling and baffling that a well-respected doctor and seated senator would be this obstinate."
Hoffman responded that he hadn't spoken to Green directly, but that Hayes "verbally represented" Green's position to him and others. The party then voted to cancel the event.
Hayes declined to comment to the AP, but the Carr campaign later called for a debate between Carr and Black.
Black, for her part, tweeted her regrets after the event was canceled, saying she had been eager to hear from the "tough guy" Green.
In an AP interview, Green denied that he had refused to appear alongside Black or anyone else.
"I don't know who's saying that I didn't want to be on stage with her, but that's just ludicrous," he said. "I relish the opportunity to speak with a person that I might be contending against in the future."
"She has every right to be on stage, and I would never suggest otherwise," he said. "It would be such a high-schoolish thing to do."
Former radio talk show host Steve Gill, who helped Carr publicize his campaign launch in April, had agreed to host the fundraiser. He said he was told Black was to blame for the cancellation.
"It seems to me the elbows are coming out early," Gill said, and that's OK with him. "You cannot be tepid and timid."
"If Donald Trump teaches us nothing it is that in this climate right now, you've got to play in bold strokes, you can't paint in pastel. Anybody who isn't playing bold now is losing out," he said.
Four female Frontier pilots allege that they have been discriminated against for being pregnant and trying to breastfeed their children, according to claims filed by their lawyers.
The women say Frontier Airlines fails to offer either paid maternity leave or job reassignment for pregnant pilots and does not provide a convenient, private place for pumping milk at work.
The four pilots say that constitutes unequal treatment on the basis of sex and has resulted in women suffering financial harm, pain and illness. One said that she was disciplined for leaving the cockpit to pump and said 'we should not have to choose between breastfeeding and our jobs'.
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Four women pilots who fly for Frontier want the airline to change policies on maternity leave and make it easier for new mothers to pump breast milk once they have returned to work
The women say Frontier Airlines fails to offer either paid maternity leave or job reassignment for pregnant pilots and does not provide a convenient, private place for pumping milk at work
Pilot Shannon Kiedrowski said: 'No woman should have to go through what we went through.'
She added in a blog post: 'If Frontier and other commercial airlines want to attract and maintain the most qualified workforce, they are going to have to take a hard look at whether their policies meet the needs of new parents. We should not have to choose between our jobs and breastfeeding our children.
'Rather than support me, company management questioned my parenting choices as well as my commitment to my career. They even questioned why I didnt switch to formula.'
Denver-based Frontier said it complies with federal and state laws and with its agreement with its pilots association.
A spokesperson said: 'The duties of a commercial airline pilot present unique circumstances. We have made good-faith efforts to identify and provide rooms and other secure locations for use by breast-feeding pilots during their duty travel.'
The American Civil Liberties Union said it had filed discrimination claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of Kiedrowski, a Frontier employee since 2002; Brandy Beck, who joined Frontier in 2003; and Erin Zielinski and Randi Freyer, who have worked for the airline since 2013.
In documents filed with the EEOC Monday, the women described their struggles to get Frontier to provide places for them to pump breast milk during work days that can last more than 12 hours and include flights of up to five hours on schedules lasting up to five days.
Frontier has designated a room for breast milk pumping at its hub at Denver International Airport, but the pilots said it was not always convenient to their gates and that such rooms were not always available at other airports.
Kiedrowski told the EEOC she has pumped in an aeroplane restroom. On one occasion, she said she was given a written reprimand and told leaving the flight deck to pump raised safety issues.
Jeff Nowak, a Chicago attorney who has represented employers in such cases, said the EEOC has said employers must accommodate 'lactation issues' as they would any employee's medical needs.
He said the Denver airport room provided for pumping might be considered adequate accommodation.
Nowak is not involved in the Frontier case,
The pilots also described to the EEOC failed attempts to get assignments outside the cockpit that would have let them work longer and continue earning while pregnant. Frontier, they said, requires pregnant pilots to go on maternity leave following the 32nd week of pregnancy.
Phoebe Taubman, senior staff attorney with the advocacy group A Better Balance, said that such forced leave policies are not uncommon and stem from concern about an employee going into labour while on the job.
Tony nominee Jennifer Simard gets some love online
NEW YORK (AP) Fans of a Broadway nun have turned to a higher power to get her some recognition the Internet.
A Facebook and Twitter push to get Tony Award-nominee Jennifer Simard to perform at the Tony Awards next month has gained steam, attracting such celebrities as Audra McDonald, Vanessa Williams, Wayne Brady, Laura Benanti, Will Swenson and Carolee Carmello.
They want CBS to let Simard show off why she earned her nomination playing a nun with a gambling habit in the goofy musical "Disaster!" despite the show's closing over the weekend.
FILE - In this May 4, 2016 file photo, Jennifer Simard attends the 2016 Tony Awards "Meet the Nominees" press junket at the Paramount Hotel in New York. Fans of the Broadway nun have turned to a higher power to get her some recognition - the internet. A Twitter push to get Tony Award-nominee Simard to perform at the Tony Awards next month has gained steam, attracting such celebrities as Audra McDonald, Vanessa Williams, Wayne Brady, Laura Benanti, Will Swenson and Carolee Carmello. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
"I truly am humbled by it. It's unbelievable to me," Simard told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "From the bottom of my heart, it's such an honor to be loved and respected by your peers. I cannot believe it."
It may be an uphill climb since the telecast usually reserves songs only for each of its best musical and best revival nominees. But exceptions have been made, including last year when "Finding Neverland," which earned no nominations, got a coveted slot.
A representative for the Tony telecast said producers had no comment Tuesday about the show's lineup.
In "Disaster!" a spoof of 1970s disaster films like "Earthquake" and "The Poseidon Adventure" by Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick Simard played Sister Mary Downy, singing Gloria Gaynor's "Never Can Say Goodbye" to a slot machine like a former lover. She co-starred alongside Roger Bart, Faith Prince, Adam Pascal and Kerry Butler.
The online push started when Simard's friend and theater blogger Andrew Briedis watched a livestream of the last performance of "Disaster!" and tweeted that CBS should cut a commercial in order to feature Simard. He created the (hashtag)PutSimardOn and it caught fire.
"When 'Disaster!' opened, she was the person on the poster that people might not have known, and when it closed, she was the one that nobody could forget," he wrote.
A humble Simard only caught wind of the effort after saying goodbye to the show she calls the "greatest artistic pleasure of my life to date." She wants to thank all the people who support her but is much too modest to campaign to be on the telecast.
"I would be honored to perform but I'm just so touched. That's all. At the end of the day, I can't believe it," she said.
Simard is a veteran actress who has appeared on Broadway in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," ''Shrek the Musical" and "Sister Act." She started playing the nun role in "Disaster!" off-Broadway in 2013.
Since the show closed, she's shopped for dresses to wear for award events and hopes to treat her husband to nice dinners to thank him for all the sacrifices spouses of Broadway performers make.
On June 12, she will compete in the best featured actress category against Danielle Brooks of "The Color Purple," Renee Elise Goldsberry of "Hamilton," Jane Krakowski from "She Loves Me" and Adrienne Warren in "Shuffle Along."
Even though her show has closed, Simard found the bright side. "This is such a full season and that's the real winner here," she said. "Broadway's thriving, right? I think you have to be happy for your friends."
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It's not just Alberta: Warming-fueled fires are increasing
WASHINGTON (AP) Alberta's unusually early and large fire is just the latest of many gargantuan fires on an Earth that's grown hotter with more extreme weather.
Earlier this year, large wildfires hit spots on opposite ends of the world Tasmania and Oklahoma-Kansas. Last year, Alaska and California pushed the U.S. to a record 10 million acres burned. Massive fires hit Siberia, Mongolia and China last year and Brazil's fire season has increased by a month over the past three decades.
It got so bad that in 2009, Australia added a bright red "catastrophic" to its fire warning index.
FILE - In this May 7, 2016 file photo, a wildfire burns south of Fort McMurray, Alberta. A dry and blistering hot northern Alberta is burning and doing so unusually early in the year, but thats only the latest of many gargantuan fires on an Earth thats grown hotter with more extreme weather. (Jonathan Hayward /The Canadian Press via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT
"The warmer it is, the more fires we get," said Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at the University of Alberta.
Last week, temperatures pushed past 90 degrees Fahrenheit (mid 30s Celsius) in Alberta, which is unusual for May in northern Canada.
It's not quite so simple though. Many factors contribute to the complex increase in big fires, Flannigan and several experts said. They include climate change, the way people use land and firefighting methods that leave more fuel trees and brush to burn.
But the temperature one stands out, Flannigan said.
"The Alberta wildfires are an excellent example of what we're seeing more and more of: warming means snow melts earlier, soils and vegetation dries out earlier, and the fire season starts earlier. It's a train wreck," University of Arizona climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck wrote in an email.
Worldwide, the length of Earth's fire season increased nearly 19 percent from 1979 to 2013, according to a study by Mark Cochrane, a professor of fire ecology at South Dakota State University.
Fires had steadily been increasing, but then in the late 1990s and early 2000s, "we've suddenly been hit with lots of these large fires we can't control," Cochrane said.
In terms of acreage burned, the worldwide total may be dropping because of better firefighting, but in North America and Siberia "fires have grown quite a bit due to warming," Columbia University climate and ecology scientist Park Williams wrote in an email. "My estimate is that global warming has been responsible for about half of this increase."
For the entire U.S., the 10-year average number of acres burned in wildfires has more than doubled from about 3 million acres in the mid-1980s to 7 million acres now, according to an analysis of government data by The Associated Press.
Twelve years before the Fort McMurray fire set northern Alberta ablaze, a study by Flannigan and University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver found that "human-induced climate change has had a detectable influence" on a dramatic increase in wildfires in Canada. Flannigan said the area burned in Canada has doubled since the 1970s "and we think that's due to climate change."
"Globally we are seeing more fires, bigger fires, more severe fires," said Kevin Ryan, a retired U.S. Forest Service scientist who is now a fire consultant, with a recent stint in Indonesia, where fires were big last year.
Fires in some places, such as Indonesia and Canada, are bad when there's an El Nino a warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather worldwide because it triggers drought in those regions, Ryan said. In Indonesia, changes in land use are a bigger factor than climate, Ryan said.
But elsewhere, it's temperature and moisture, too much of one and not enough of the other, scientists said. As the air warms, it gets "more efficient at sucking the moisture out of the fuels" which makes them more prone to burn, Flannigan said. Then add in lightning. A study found that lightning increases 12 percent with every degree Celsius and that can trigger more fires. Flannigan said there's evidence of fire-triggered clouds in Alberta causing at least two more fires because of lightning.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences earlier this year in a study determined that "climate warming has resulted in longer fire seasons." But other factors, such as the way fires are fought and land use, make it difficult to scientifically attribute individual fires and regional fires to climate change, the report and other scientists said.
"This is absolutely a harbinger of things to come," said Canadian climate scientist Weaver, now a Green party legislator in the British Columbia parliament.
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Online:
U.S. fire statistics: https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_statistics.html
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Follow Seth Borenstein at http://twitter.com/borenbears and his work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/seth-borenstein
FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2015, file photo, a firefighter turns his head from flames of the Butte Fire burning near San Andreas, Calif. A dry and blistering hot northern Alberta is burning and doing so unusually early in the year, but thats only the latest of many gargantuan fires on an Earth thats grown hotter with more extreme weather. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
Bolivia to investigate companies linked to Panama Papers
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) Bolivia's Congress will investigate 95 offshore companies with Bolivian links that were listed in the leaked "Panama Papers" documents, officials said Tuesday.
The companies were identified Monday when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists posted names of offshore companies and other financial data contained in documents that originated with a Panama law firm that specializes in setting up such accounts. The documents themselves were not posted.
Bolivian Vice President and Congress leader Alvaro Garcia said the scandal involves businessmen of "suspicious origins." He said he would request the creation of a special legislative commission to probe their role in the offshore accounts.
The tax agency will also investigate possible economic damage against the Bolivian state.
Bundy sues judge in Nevada standoff case, wants her removed
LAS VEGAS (AP) Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is suing the federal judge handling his criminal case stemming from an armed standoff with government agents, with a complaint that accuses President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and one of Reid's sons of plotting to steal Bundy's property.
Bundy lawyer Joel Hansen handed a copy of the lawsuit to U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in open court in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and he told her that because she's a named defendant, she should remove herself from Bundy's case.
The judge responded that case law doesn't let a defendant create such a scenario.
Carol Bundy, left, wife of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, speaks with Joel Hansen, center, attorney for Cliven Bundy, and Larry Klayman outside of the federal courthouse, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, in Las Vegas. Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is suing the federal judge handling his criminal case with a complaint that accuses President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and one of Reid's sons of plotting to steal his property. (AP Photo/John Locher)
But Navarro invited Hansen to try to identify whether her work as a prosecutor in the Clark County district attorney's office before she was nominated to the federal bench created for her a conflict in the Bundy case. She set a May 25 date to rule whether she'll step aside.
Hansen said that Navarro is beholden to Reid because the then-Senate Democratic majority leader recommended her for the judgeship. Obama nominated her, and she was confirmed by the Senate on a 98-0 vote in May 2010.
Hansen complained also that Navarro won't let outspoken conservative attorney Larry Klayman represent Bundy in Nevada until disciplinary proceedings against Klayman are resolved in Washington, D.C.
The filing of the lawsuit came during a detention hearing at which Hansen, with Klayman in the audience, argued that Bundy's constitutional rights are being violated and that charges against the 70-year-old cattleman should be dismissed.
The judge said she'll decide that question if she remains on the case.
Bundy and 18 other defendants have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, obstruction, weapon, threats and assault charges that could get each the equivalent of life in prison for the tense gunpoint standoff in April 2014 near Bundy's ranch outside Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
In court, Hansen accused Reid of tainting public opinion against Bundy by branding him a domestic terrorist after the April 2014 standoff, which Hansen alleged followed a Reid order for the federal Bureau of Land Management to round up Bundy cattle from the scenic Gold Butte area near Bundy's ranch in Bunkerville.
Reid owns property nearby, Hansen said, on which he wants Chinese interests to build a solar power plant. Hansen alleged that Reid's son, attorney Rory Reid, is negotiating that deal. Rory Reid declined to comment about the lawsuit.
In a statement, Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman dismissed the lawsuit as "baseless and absurd," and repeated the "domestic terrorist" label.
"Bundy, his sons and their believers have endangered the lives of federal officers, have defaced and damaged public lands and squandered public resources for their own benefit," the statement said. "They are deadly and dangerous and will be brought to justice."
Officials at the White House didn't immediately respond to messages.
Federal prosecutor Steven Myhre dismissed as "outrageous, irrelevant and offensive" the idea that there was "some grand conspiracy by political leaders to take over the land."
FILE - This April 2, 2015 file photo Freedom Watch attorney Larry Klayman speaks to reporters outside the Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington. Klayman says he'll file a lawsuit Tuesday, May 10, 2016 alleging that Cliven Bundy's constitutional rights are being violated, and the 70-year-old cattleman should be released from federal custody. Klayman and Bundy's lawyer, Joel Hansen, want the court to dismiss the indictment against Bundy and 18 other defendants in an armed April 2014 confrontation with government officers. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik,File)
Carol Bundy, left, wife of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, speaks with Joel Hansen, center, attorney for Cliven Bundy, and Larry Klayman outside of the federal courthouse Tuesday, May 10, 2016, in Las Vegas. Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is suing the federal judge handling his criminal case with a complaint that accuses President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and one of Reid's sons of plotting to steal his property. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Carol Bundy, right, wife of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, embraces a woman outside of the federal courthouse, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, in Las Vegas. Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is suing the federal judge handling his criminal case with a complaint that accuses President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and one of Reid's sons of plotting to steal his property.(AP Photo/John Locher)
Donald Trump, the Republicans' presumptive presidential nominee, says he's narrowed his list of potential running mates to 'five or six people,' all with deep political resumes.
He says he has not ruled out New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former rival who has embraced the billionaire's campaign with gusto.
'I have a list of people that I would like,' Trump said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.
NOT READY: Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has narrowed his list of potential running mates to 'five or six people,' but won't decide until the Republican National Convention in July
STILL IN THE MIX: Trump last week tapped New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former rival turned endorser, to lead his 'transition' team, but said that doesn't rule him out as a potential vice-presidnetial pick
The real estate mogul and former reality television star said he's giving special weight to political experience because he wants a vice president who can help him 'with legislation, getting things through' Washington if he wins the White House.
'We don't need another business person,' said Trump, who touts himself as one of the best in that category.
He also said choosing a person who's previously held elected office would help with the process of looking into the person's background, in part because that person already would have been checked out by voters, the news media and to some extent the government.
'For the most part, they've been vetted over the last 20 years,' he said.
If he selects a military or business person, he said, 'the vetting is a whole different story. Whereas the politicians are, generally speaking, pretty well vetted.'
Trump would not reveal the full list of possible running mates, but said his decision this week to appoint Christie to head his White House transition team did not mean the New Jersey governor was out of consideration.
'No, not at all,' he said.
GOING CONVENTIONAL: Trump said he was likely to pick a 'political' person whom the media and voters have already vetted
NOT QUITTING HIS DAY JOB: The Republican presidential front-runner spoke to the Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower in New York City
Trump's vice presidential pick could be crucial to easing the concerns of Republicans who worry about their presumptive nominee's lack of political experience, as well as his temperament to serve as commander in chief.
Tapping a political insider would also be a way for Trump to signal a willingness to work with the party establishment he has thoroughly bashed throughout the primary.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer are among the Republicans who have suggested they would be open to joining Trump on the GOP ticket. Others, including Trump's former primary rival Marco Rubio, have ruled out being considered.
'I have never sought, will not seek and do not want to be considered for vice president,' the Florida senator wrote in a Facebook post Monday.
Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has been chosen to run the vetting effort 'with a group' that includes former rival Ben Carson and Trump himself, he said.
'Honestly, we're all running it. It's very much a group effort,' said Trump, adding that he's in no rush to announce his pick.
The Latest: Trump leans against public financing of campaign
NEW YORK (AP) The Latest on AP's interview with presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump (all times local):
5 p.m.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump says he's leaning against accepting public financing for his general election campaign.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower in New York, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
That's an option that would save him the arduous task of raising vast sums of money to pay for his campaign, but also would put strict limits on what he can spend.
In a Tuesday interview with The Associated Press, Trump says he doesn't like the idea of taking taxpayer money to run a campaign and says he thinks it's inappropriate.
Major party presidential nominees may elect to receive a lump sum of roughly $94 million to pay for a general-election campaign. Doing so means they cannot raise any additional money and agree to a spending limit.
That would also foreclose the billionaire's ability to give his campaign a significant amount of his own money.
Trump says he doesn't know how much his general-election campaign will cost, but expects to spend "a lot of money."
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4:25 p.m.
Donald Trump says he's narrowed his list of potential running mates to "five or six people," all with deep political resumes.
In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said he has not ruled out New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie a former rival who has embraced the billionaire's campaign with gusto.
Trump says said he's prioritizing political experience, because he wants a vice president to help him "with legislation, getting things through" Washington if he wins the White House.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer are among the Republicans who have suggested they would be open to joining Trump on the GOP ticket.
Others have ruled out being considered, including Trump's former primary rival, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Police seek 5 black youths after Jewish school bus blaze
NEW YORK (AP) Police on Tuesday were looking for five black youths seen on video torching a Jewish school bus in a neighborhood marred by race riots in the 1990s.
An 11-year-old boy already was arrested and charged as a juvenile with arson and criminal mischief in the Sunday evening blaze, which was being investigated as a possible hate crime. Surveillance video shows a group of boys running off the bus as it catches on fire, police said.
The bus belonged to the Bnos Chomesh Academy, a girls' high school in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood, where tensions between the Jewish and black communities living side by side spurred riots in 1991. Police Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said a group of six youths took flat cardboard boxes on the unlocked bus and set them on fire on the seats.
"It was purposefully done with prior planning," Boyce said. "Clearly this was a religious school bus. Anyone in the community knows that."
It was the third incident being investigated by police as a possible hate crime during the past week in the neighborhood. On Friday, a bus driver for a different Jewish school said his side mirror was pelted with a brick and smashed by someone.
The day before, a man dressed in religious Jewish clothing said he was harassed by a 13-year-old boy who shot rubber bands at him, police said. The man said he ran after and caught the boy, who punched him the face. Police said the man held the boy until they arrived. The boy was arrested on an assault charge and was being treated as a juvenile.
In the bus fire and in the assault, the suspects are black. The bus driver whose window was smashed said he didn't see the attacker.
Boyce said the incidents in Crown Heights are "troubling."
"We're hoping to get out in front of it and make these arrests and close these things out," he said.
AP Interview: Donald Trump says he's narrowed VP shortlist
NEW YORK (AP) Donald Trump, the Republicans' presumptive presidential nominee, says he's narrowed his list of potential running mates to "five or six people," all with deep political resumes.
He says he has not ruled out New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former rival who has embraced the billionaire's campaign with gusto.
"I have a list of people that I would like," Trump said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower, Tuesday, May 10, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
The real estate mogul and former reality television star said he's giving special weight to political experience because he wants a vice president who can help him "with legislation, getting things through" Washington if he wins the White House.
"We don't need another business person," said Trump, who touts himself as one of the best in that category.
He also said choosing a person who's previously held elected office would help with the process of looking into the person's background, in part because that person already would have been checked out by voters, the news media and to some extent the government.
"For the most part, they've been vetted over the last 20 years," he said.
If he selects a military or business person, he said, "the vetting is a whole different story. Whereas the politicians are, generally speaking, pretty well vetted."
Trump would not reveal the full list of possible running mates, but said his decision this week to appoint Christie to head his White House transition team did not mean the New Jersey governor was out of consideration.
"No, not at all," he said.
Trump's vice presidential pick could be crucial to easing the concerns of Republicans who worry about their presumptive nominee's lack of political experience, as well as his temperament to serve as commander in chief. Tapping a political insider would also be a way for Trump to signal a willingness to work with the party establishment he has thoroughly bashed throughout the primary.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer are among the Republicans who have suggested they would be open to joining Trump on the GOP ticket. Others, including Trump's former primary rival Marco Rubio, have ruled out being considered.
"I have never sought, will not seek and do not want to be considered for vice president," Rubio wrote in a Facebook post Monday.
Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has been chosen to run the vetting effort "with a group" that includes former rival Ben Carson and Trump himself, the candidate said.
"Honestly, we're all running it. It's very much a group effort," said Trump, adding that he's in no rush to announce his pick.
"I do think I don't want to make a decision until the actual convention. Not even before it. I mean, until it," he said.
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Follow Julie Pace and Jill Colvin on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jpacedc and http://twitter.com/colvinj
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower in New York, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Trump leaning against public financing for his campaign
NEW YORK (AP) Donald Trump says he's leaning against accepting public financing for his general election campaign an option that would have saved him the arduous task of raising the vast sums he will need but also would have put strict limits on what he could spend.
"I think I've ruled it out," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said in a Tuesday interview with The Associated Press.
"I don't like the idea of taking taxpayer money to run a campaign," he added. "I think it's inappropriate."
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower in New York, Tuesday, May 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Trump has largely self-financed his primary campaign, spending what he estimates to be $45-$50 million dollars so far, supplemented by contributions from supporters.
Trump, his aides and Republican officials have been huddling in New York and Washington in recent days hashing out details of how they'll run his general election campaign, including various fundraising options, after he suddenly became his party's presumptive nominee last week.
While Trump has discussed investing significant sums of his personal fortune to help elect fellow Republicans to Congress, he had previously left the door open to paying for his own campaign using the public financing system, which provides major party presidential nominees a lump sum grant of roughly $94.14 million in the general election. But by accepting the grant, a candidate may not raise any additional funds and is severely limited in how much of his own money he can give or lend to his campaign.
It would have been highly unusual for Trump to accept the grant. President Barack Obama effectively ended the practice of candidates taking general election public financing in 2008, when he chose not to accept it. His Republican rival John McCain took the grant that year and was swamped by the Obama campaign's spending.
Trump has previously said that he expects the general election campaign to cost more than of $1 billion, but would not say Tuesday how much of his money he's planning to spend on this next phase.
"I have no idea what it's going to cost," he said of the general election. "But I'll be spending a lot."
Money for the public financing of campaigns is collected through a voluntary $3 checkoffs on taxpayers' returns. The checkoffs do not affect how much money a taxpayer owes.
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AP writer Julie Bykowicz contributed to this report from Washington
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Leader: New Yucca Mountain report ignores impact on tribe
LAS VEGAS (AP) A Native American tribal leader said Tuesday that federal regulators failed to consider people living in the Death Valley area in a key environmental report about the likelihood of underground water contamination from a proposed radioactive waste dump in the Nevada desert.
"We are real. We are here," Timbisha Shoshone Chairman George Gholson complained to the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects in Las Vegas, a state agency also critical of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission report.
"We can't pick up our reservation and move it," Gholson said. "We would end up with a contaminated reservation."
FILE - This April 9, 2015, file photo shows the south portal of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump near Mercury, Nev. A state official says a new report on Tuesday, May 10, 2016, by federal regulators points to new problems if the U.S. government restarts stalled plans to build a national nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
Gholson said a 301-page environmental study completed last week by NRC staff fails to show tribal areas on the map.
About 50 people live in a tribal village in Death Valley National Park in California, southwest along the normally dry Amargosa River from the proposed Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.
A commission spokesman didn't immediately respond to messages.
Nevada state and local officials called the latest report so technically and legally flawed that a commission go-ahead for the long-stalled repository project wouldn't stand up to a court challenge under the National Environmental Policy Act.
"There is a populated area down-gradient from Yucca Mountain," said Robert Halstead, chief of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects and the top state official working to oppose the project.
In addition to the Shoshone, Halstead referred to some 1,400 people living in unincorporated Amargosa Valley, a farming area about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"NRC staff has now validated what we've said all along," Halstead said. "Eventually, Yucca Mountain will contaminate groundwater in Amargosa Valley all the way down to Death Valley."
The NRC projects the risk of contamination over the next million years as small. A report released in August said someone drinking 2 liters of groundwater a day would accumulate less radiation than from natural and background sources.
But the reports acknowledge that radioactivity would seep with water from tunnels that would be drilled and filled with some 77,000 tons of the nation's spent nuclear reactor fuel.
Halstead called the publication of the final environmental document a milestone toward a final decision about whether Yucca Mountain will ever be built.
Studies started in 1982 on what was expected to be a remote place in an arid desert where spent nuclear fuel currently being stored at more than 100 commercial, industrial and military reactors around the country could safely and finally be entombed.
But engineers found water in the rock of the ancient volcanic ridge where a test tunnel was drilled, and plans were added to include the installation of bulky titanium drip shields for the hot radioactive material.
Congress approved the site in 2002, over the state's objection. But work stopped in 2010 after President Barack Obama was elected, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada became Democratic majority leader, and funding was shut off.
A legal challenge from states where radioactive waste is stored led a federal appeals court in 2013 to order the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to either approve or reject an Energy Department repository license application.
Officials say licensing hearings would cost millions of dollars and could take several years.
FILE - This April 9, 2015, file photo, shows the interior of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump near Mercury, Nev. A state official says a new report on Tuesday, May 10, 2016, by federal regulators points to new problems if the U.S. government restarts stalled plans to build a national nuclear waste dump in the Nevada desert. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
Exit poll: Independents propel Sanders in West Virginia
WASHINGTON (AP) Independents and younger voters propelled Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to a victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the West Virginia Democratic primary Tuesday night.
In a state where a significant portion of Democratic primary voters said they were not Democrats, Sanders was supported by nearly 6 in 10 self-described independents.
On the GOP side, presumptive nominee Donald Trump steamrolled through the West Virginia and Nebraska primaries, victories boosted by majorities of Republican voters who say they're optimistic or excited about the possibility of a Trump presidency.
Voters enter their polling place at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in the West Side neighborhood of Charleston, W.Va., Tuesday, May 10, 2016. Many residents of the state headed to the polls on primary Election Day after others cast a record number of early votes, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant announced Monday. (Chris Dorst/Gazette-Mail via AP)
In Nebraska's Republican primary, the overwhelmingly majority say their party is divided and a significant portion of them don't see that as changing by November.
Those are among the findings from exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research.
Other highlights from the exit polls:
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TRUMP'S BASE
Most West Virginia Republicans feel good about the possibility of a Trump presidency.
More than 7 in 10 say they're excited or optimistic about what he would do, and about 8 in 10 West Virginia Republicans say they would vote for Trump in a general election matchup against Clinton.
About 6 in 10 GOP voters in the state say it's very likely the billionaire would beat Clinton in West Virginia in the general election. About a quarter say it's somewhat likely.
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DEMOCRATS IN NAME ONLY
A third of West Virginia Democratic primary voters say they identify as independents, and nearly 6 in 10 of those voters supported Sanders.
Overall, less than 6 in 10 of those voting in that state's Democratic primary say they're Democrats.
The exit polls also illuminated another bloc of voters: those who voted for Sanders on Tuesday but would abandon him if he faced Trump in November.
About a third of West Virginia Democratic primary voters would choose Trump in general election matchups with either Sanders or Clinton.
Of those who would choose Trump in the general election, the majority voted for Sanders on Tuesday.
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ECONOMIC WORRIES
In West Virginia, voters from both parties in Tuesday's presidential primary are united on two things: They see the economy as the top issue facing the country, and they think trade is taking American jobs.
More than half of voters in both West Virginia primaries say the economy is the top issue facing the country. About 6 in 10 voters in the Democratic primary say they're very worried about the economy and 3 in 10 say they're somewhat worried.
About two-thirds of the state's Republican primary voters and more than half of Democratic primary voters say trade with other countries mostly takes jobs from American workers.
In Nebraska, half of Republican primary voters say trade takes jobs, while about a third say it creates them.
Just 3 in 10 Nebraska GOP voters say the economy is the top issue facing the country. Another 3 in 10 say government spending, 2 in 10 say terrorism and less than 2 in 10 say immigration.
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PARTY DIVIDE
Most West Virginia Republicans see their party as divided, but few think it will remain that way in November. Only 1 in 10 think their party is united now, but more than half think it will unite by November. More than 3 in 10 think it will remain divided.
In Nebraska, hardly any GOP primary voters think their party is united, and they're less optimistic than West Virginians about that changing.
More than 9 in 10 Nebraska Republican primary voters say their party is divided, and more than 4 in 10 say it will remain that way through the general election. Just under half of the state's GOP primary voters think their party will unite by November.
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The surveys were conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research as voters left their polling places at 25 randomly selected sites in West Virginia and 20 in Nebraska.
Preliminary results include interviews with 763 Democratic primary voters and 712 Republican primary voters in West Virginia, and with 1,079 Republican primary voters in Nebraska. The results among all those voting in each contest have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points in West Virginia and plus or minus 4 percentage points in Nebraska.
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Associated Press writer Emily Swanson contributed to this report.
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El Salvador reiterates opposition to gang dialogue
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) A spokesman for El Salvador President Salvador Sanchez Ceren says he has no plans to fire his interior secretary following the release of an audio recording of the then legislator meeting with gang leaders.
The recording from 2014 was published by online news site El Faro days after federal prosecutors had 18 people arrested for allegedly participating in a negotiated truce with the gangs in 2012.
Presidential spokesman Eugenio Chicas said Tuesday that Interior Minister Aristides Valencia was not part of the current government at the time of the recorded conversation. He reiterated the government's position of not negotiating with gangs.
The recording suggests that as a lawmaker for the governing party, Valencia spoke with gangs about getting their electoral support.
Sadiq Khan attacks Donald Trump's 'ignorant' view of Islam
New London mayor Sadiq Khan has hit out at Donald Trump's "ignorant" view of Islam after the US presidential hopeful suggested he would exempt him from his proposed ban on Muslims entering America.
Mr Trump, who is widely expected to be confirmed as the Republican candidate for the presidency, appeared to extend an olive branch to Mr Khan when he welcomed his election as the first Muslim mayor of a major European capital.
Asked by the New York Times how his proposed ban on Muslims would apply to Mr Khan, Mr Trump said: "There will always be exceptions."
Sadiq Khan, left, has criticised Donald Trump's "ignorant" views on Muslims
But the offer was brusquely brushed aside by Mr Khan who warned that the billionaire businessman's outspoken views on Islam risked endangering people on both sides of the Atlantic.
"Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both of our countries less safe - it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of extremists," he said.
"This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world," he said.
"Donald Trump and those around him think that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong."
Earlier Mr Khan had warned that if he wanted to meet his counterparts in New York and Chicago, he would have to go before the presidential inauguration in January in case Mr Trump succeeded in gaining the White House.
"I want to go to America to meet with and engage with American mayors.
"If Donald Trump becomes the president I'll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can't engage with American mayors and swap ideas," he told Time magazine.
However Mr Trump, who has been seeking to soften his image since all but clinching the Republican nomination, insisted that he welcomed Mr Khan's election.
"I was happy to see that. I think it's a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because, frankly, that would be very, very good," he said.
"Because I think if he does a great job, it will really - you lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job, and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing."
During the mayoral election Mr Khan repeatedly attacked his Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith for adopting Trump-like tactics, accusing him of running a campaign based on fear and division.
A Downing Street spokesman said that David Cameron had "made it very clear he doesn't agree with Donald Trump's comments about banning Muslims from the US".
Mr Cameron previously described Mr Trump's suggestion of a "shutdown" on Muslims entering the US as "divisive, stupid and wrong".
The Number 10 spokesman said: "The PM is proud of representing a country which is one of the most successful multi-racial, multi-faith, multi-ethnic countries anywhere in the world."
The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo said Mr Trump is "very stupid" while on a visit to London to meet Mr Khan.
She was scathing about the Republican presidential hopeful's policy of banning all Muslims from the US - but making an exception for Mr Khan.
She said: "Donald Trump is stupid, he is very stupid."
She said people of all religions, including Catholics and Muslims, do not agree with Mr Trump, adding: "Mr Trump is so stupid, my God, my God."
Asked if he would visit the US if Mr Trump did manage to enforce the policy, Mr Khan dodged the question.
Speaking to French and British reporters on a cramped platform at St Pancras International, where he warmly greeted the Paris mayor, he said: "Can I say it's an honour to have Anne here in London.
"What's really important is the similarities Paris and London have - they are the most diverse cities in the world.
"This is an example of the best of our cities - men, women, Muslims, Christians, mayors working together to work for our cities.
"Solving the housing crisis, fixing the air quality, addressing the challenges of integration and making sure our cities are safe.
"Our message to Donald Trump is this is how you work together. This is the best of humanity, this is the best of the West."
He added: "You can be a Parisian mayor and a London mayor and work closely together.
"I hope Donald Trump looks at the lessons that London sent last Thursday and recognises that it's possible to be Western and Muslim and to be friends with a mayor of Paris as well."
The two politicians stressed that they have more than just politics in common - both their mothers were dressmakers.
Speaking about how he hopes to work with his Parisian counterpart, Mr Khan said he "saw with horror" the terrorist attacks on the French capital.
He said the two mayors will work together to improve the security of the two cities.
'Takeaway delivery driver' shot dead in car in Belfast
A man in his 50s has been shot dead in Belfast, police said.
The victim, who has not been identified, was in a car in Lady Street in the west of the city when he was gunned down on Monday evening.
According to reports the man was a takeaway delivery driver on the way to an address in the residential street when he was shot.
Witnesses are asked to contact the PSNI on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111
It is understood to have been the third shooting in Belfast in 24 hours, following separate incidents earlier on Monday when two men were injured.
Sinn Fein MP Paul Maskey condemned the killing "unreservedly".
He said: "There can be no place in our society for such actions.
"Those behind this incident have nothing to offer the community and need to stop these futile actions immediately.
"I would appeal for anyone with information on this shooting to bring it forward to the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland)."
A PSNI spokeswoman said officers were called to the scene of the "terrible crime" shortly before 10.20pm.
Detective Superintendent Kevin Geddes said: "The victim was shot inside a car and was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead a short time later.
"We are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information about this terrible crime to get in touch with us."
Jamie Vardy cites mid-season break as key factor in Leicester title triumph
Jamie Vardy believes Claudio Ranieri's decision to give his Leicester players a week off in February was key to their title victory.
England striker Vardy and the Foxes are 10 points clear at the top of the Barclays Premier League having wrapped up the title last week.
They lifted the trophy on Saturday, after Vardy's brace helped them beat Everton 3-1, and go to Chelsea in Sunday's season finale.
Jamie Vardy, left, believes Claudio Ranieri's decision to give his Leicester players a week off in February was key to their Premier League title triumph
The Foxes were given a break by Ranieri after they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Tottenham and Vardy feels the Italian's decision gave them a crucial advantage over their rivals.
"It worked out perfectly. No-one was going to go on a seven-day bender. It was there to relax with family and that's all we did until we got back to training," said Vardy, speaking at the launch of his V9 Academy to help non-league players earn professional contracts.
"We'd been knocked out of the FA Cup, the gaffer gave us a week off to completely forget about everything and recharge the batteries.
"We all ventured off, quite a few of us went to Dubai together as a team, and I think that moment, for him to even think about doing that, showed what he'd thought of us as a team and how much work we'd already put in, so to get those batteries recharged for that week and come back fighting stronger was a massive part.
"It was a great idea. I remember sitting on a sun lounger and in the same hotel, Sunderland were there running up and down the beach doing fitness.
"For me to be relaxing while they're doing the training was quite nice."
Vardy also responded to claims, from Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino and striker Harry Kane, teams tried harder against title rivals Spurs than they did against Leicester.
He said: "I can't see any team doing that, to be honest with you. I don't think anyone would like to just turn up and be rolled over to let someone else win, I don't think that is inside anyone.
"It wouldn't look good on the club if they were doing that and I'm sure the fans wouldn't like it. So I can't see that being true whatsoever."
Vardy also signed a new deal until 2019 in February and dismissed any suggestions he would leave the King Power Stadium this summer.
Greater Manchester Police boss apologises for Allahu Akbar shout during exercise
A police chief has apologised after his force was accused of "stereotyping" Muslims during a staged terrorist attack.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) came under fire following a mock terrorist operation at Manchester's Trafford Centre which saw a fake suicide bomber shouting "Allahu Akbar" immediately before detonating a bomb.
The overnight operation had been testing the anti-terror police's response to a Paris or Brussels-type attack on civilians but was criticised after footage showed one actor repeatedly shout the religious phrase meaning "God is great".
A person playing the role of suicide bomber detonates an explosive during an exercise at the Intu Trafford Centre in Manchester
Critics said that it linked terrorism with Islam and called for an explanation from GMP.
The Assistant Chief Constable of GMP Garry Shewan issued an apology, calling it "unacceptable" to use the phrase - and apologised for any offence caused.
In the statement on Twitter, Mr Shewan said that the exercise had been based on an attack by an extremist Daesh-style organisation.
He said: "On reflection we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam. We recognise and apologise for the offence that this has caused."
Vice-chairman of the British Muslim Heritage Centre in Manchester, Saima Alvi, said that it had "reinforced stereotypes" but added that it was time to move forward and accept the force's apology.
Speaking on behalf of the organisation Mrs Alvi said: "They have clearly made a mistake that shouldn't have happened but as a community we would accept that apology. We know they are very supportive of the Muslim community.
"The whole exercise was excellent, very much needed and any community would support safeguarding us as citizens.
"All I can think is very poor training. It was clearly an error, my point would be - why did that error happen, why was it overlooked, we are talking about GMP here. It shows the lack of sensitivity and lack of training."
But she said it could still have a detrimental impact on the Muslim community.
"Obviously for us as a community the repercussions of that are totally reinforcing stereotypes - extremism, terrorist attacks could come from any community. All it does is reinforce the stereotype.
"It could actually have an impact on Muslim's every day life because it is such a commonly used word, it's a word we use in every single prayer."
The exercise came under fire soon after footage emerged with one Twitter user, Siema Iqbal, asking the force to provide an explanation as to why the terrorist was Muslim.
In response Dr Erinma Bell MBE, a peace activist who fought to rid the streets of Manchester of gun crime, tweeted back: "Good question. We need to move away from stereotypes if we want to achieve real learning. A terrorist can be any one."
It also received a backlash from Greater Manchester's Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd, who said it could "undermine" community relations, adding the choice of words "didn't add anything to the event, but has the potential to undermine the great community relations we have in Greater Manchester".
He said that the operation had been "marred" by the "ill-judged, unnecessary and unacceptable decision by organisers" to shout the phrase.
Police had said they had wanted to make the "attack" at one of the UK's largest shopping centres as realistic as possible in order to test how the emergency services would respond to developing terrorist attacks.
Codenamed Exercise Winchester Accord - it had involved anti-terror police from the North West Counter Terrorism Unit armed with machine guns and around 800 people, including volunteers and fire and ambulance service personnel taking part in the different scenarios.
Mr Shewan added: "The scenario for this exercise is based on a suicide attack by an extremist Daesh-style organisation and the scenario writers have centred the circumstances around previous similar attacks of this nature, mirroring details of past events to make the situation as real life as possible for all of those involved."
It was the fourth major exercise in recent months, coming after previous ones in London, Glasgow and Essex.
The current UK terror threat level is described as severe, meaning an attack is highly likely, according to the security services.
A spokeswoman for the Muslim Council of Britain also commended GMP's apology, adding that terrorists must not be allowed to "hijack" the phrase.
She said: "We welcome and commend the Greater Manchester Police for recognising the problem and for apologising.
"Our effort to train and fight against terrorism should not be hampered by perpetuating stereotypes against Muslims. The Arabic phrase for God is Great is a perfectly noble term and we must not allow the terrorists to hijack it."
Police joined forces with other agencies for the simulated terror attack
The exercise aimed to test the emergency response to a major incident
One person played the role of a suicide bomber
An armed police officer during the exercise
People playing the role of injured shoppers
An 'injured' man reacts during the staged anti-terror exercise
Brexit battle turns bitter as Alan Johnson calls Leave supporters 'extremists'
Bitter personal exchanges dominated the Brexit battle as Labour's former home secretary Alan Johnson was accused of demeaning the campaign by calling the Leave side "unbalanced extremists".
Tory ex-cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith reacted angrily to the intervention after Mr Johnson insisted Leave supporters were not rational.
Launching Labour's pro-EU battle bus tour, Mr Johnson said the "extremist" tag was not incendiary but accurate, because those who wanted Britain to withdraw believed everything about Brussels was bad.
Alan Johnson said it is 'an extreme view that there is absolutely nothing good about the EU at all'
"It's an extreme view that there is absolutely nothing good about the EU at all.
"It's extreme - not to take the view that we ought to leave - but the view that you cannot find anything good to say about an institution that has done many good things, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, is admired in terms of its role in keeping the peace on our continent, you can find nothing good to say about it whatsoever.
"It is like if I was to come in here and say we ought to leave Nato, and here's all the reasons, and Nato has done nothing good, I would be classified as an extremist.
"We can all find things that are wrong with the European Union, but they can't find anything that's right - and that suggests a kind of, a certain mentality, that is not rational, and not balanced," Mr Johnson said.
Mr Duncan Smith hit back by accusing the Labour former cabinet member of engaging in "threats" and being "ridiculous".
"I don't know in what world it is extreme to want to have your democracy back, power over what you do, control over your laws and the power to make decisions about your people, elected by British people and rejected by British people when you get it wrong.
"If someone wants to tell me that's an extreme position, then I want to know what defines that.
"It is not extreme to want democratic government in your country, to be responsible to the electorate and to make the laws that best help them rather than have 60% of those laws made in Brussels.
"Those people in Remain really need to stop throwing threats and ridiculous terms like that around. It just demeans them, and it demeans the debate," Mr Duncan Smith said.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also used the launch to insist he was fully behind the Remain campaign despite his own "many criticisms" of the EU.
"I've made many, many criticisms of the European Union; I still make those criticisms," Mr Corbyn said as he insisted he backed the Remain stance in order to defend workers' rights and the environment.
"We see it as an act of solidarity with people who think like us across Europe; going it alone won't help them, and won't help us," Mr Corbyn said as he dismissed claims immigration was having a negative impact on wages and public services.
The Labour leader also said he was opposed to the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal being negotiated between the EU and the US, and pledged to stop it.
Mr Johnson also disputed Leave claims that the UK sends 350 million a week to Brussels, but warned that even if that same amount was redirected to the NHS it would be a "drop in the ocean".
"We spend 2.65 billion a week on the NHS - it's a drop in the ocean," Mr Johnson said.
Vote Leave chair Gisela Stuart said: " The Remain campaign wants the elites to have more power and money, and not to give back control to the British people.
"Patients struggling to get care on the NHS will rightly think that they are completely out of touch when they claim that 350 million - enough to build a new hospital every week - is just a drop in the ocean."
Search for mother and children missing since 'violent' husband released on bail
A search is under way for a mother and her two young children who vanished on the day that her husband was released on bail accused of violence.
Sumon Costa, 36, from Forest Gate, east London, was freed at Snaresbrook Crown Court on May 3 facing a charge of wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm on his wife Survoi.
The 25-year-old mother and her two children Scarlett, seven, and Scarleon, three, have not been seen since that day at their home in Green Street, Forest Gate.
Police officers are said to be concerned for the family's safety and wellbeing
They were reported missing two days later by social services.
Mr Costa has not been reported missing but is wanted for allegedly breaching his bail conditions.
He was charged on March 27 and was remanded in custody until May 3, when he was released.
Police are investigating whether the family have left the country to travel to France, but say there is so far no evidence to suggest that this has happened.
Officers are said to be "concerned for their safety and well-being".
Prosecutors handed police file on allegations against Sir Cliff Richard
Prosecutors are considering whether to bring charges against veteran entertainer Sir Cliff Richard over alleged historical sex abuse.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that it will "carefully consider" the file of evidence passed on by South Yorkshire Police to see if there is a realistic prospect of conviction.
The 75-year-old entertainer, who denies any wrongdoing, has seen his Berkshire home raided and has spoken to police twice as part of their investigation.
Sir Cliff Richard denies wrongdoing
A CPS spokesman said: "We have received a full file of evidence from South Yorkshire Police. We will now carefully consider its contents in line with the Code for Crown Prosecutors, in order to establish whether there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction, and whether it is in the public interest to do so."
A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Police said: "Investigation files relating to allegations of non-recent sexual abuse involving a 75-year-old man have been handed over to the CPS.
"The CPS will now consider the matter and South Yorkshire Police awaits their decision."
Sir Cliff was interviewed under caution in 2014 by detectives investigating a claim of a sex crime involving a young boy in the 1980s, but was not arrested or charged.
He was questioned again last year.
Controversy erupted when the raid on his home in Berkshire in August 2014 was broadcast on live TV after an agreement was forged between the BBC and South Yorkshire Police.
A report commissioned by the county's former police and crime commissioner later found that the move "certainly interfered with his privacy and may well have caused unnecessary distress".
Last year the star's representatives attacked the Home Affairs Select Committee for publishing a letter from Chief Constable David Crompton that revealed the police investigation had increased "significantly" in size and involved more than one allegation.
Sir Cliff's lawyers claimed the disclosure caused him a "further round of unnecessary and extremely damaging media coverage".
Bakers were not being forced to do anything against their beliefs, court told
The Christian owners of a bakery who refused to make a cake with a pro-gay marriage message were not being forced to do anything against their beliefs, an Equality Commission lawyer has said.
Robin Allen QC said many businesses printed messages they did not associate with, citing the example of posters made by candidates fighting last week's Assembly election, and said the Ashers Baking Company in Belfast could decide whether or not to include its logo on its products.
The McArthur family, who run Ashers, are seeking to overturn a court judgment which found they acted unlawfully by declining the order placed by LGBT activist Gareth Lee in 2014 based on their religious conviction that the slogan was sinful.
Daniel and Amy McArthur, of Ashers Baking Company, arrive at the Court of Appeal in Belfast
Attorney general John Larkin QC has been granted permission to take part after arguing that sexual orientation regulations in Northern Ireland discriminate against those like the McArthurs who hold religious or political beliefs.
Mr Allen, for the commission, said: "Mr Lee was not asking them to promote anything and in the offering themselves they did not consider themselves to be promoting when they had the icing done on the cake."
He told Belfast's Court of Appeal a flier advertising the service and the fashion in which the order was taken was evidence that it was not a forced act.
"It is no more forced speech than any of the delivery merchants or the post office or any of the companies that printed the numerous hoardings around Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland for the Assembly elections this week."
The terms and conditions imposed by Ashers did rule out pornographic or blasphemous messages and one of the judges hearing the appeal, Lord Justice Reg Weir, questioned whether the McArthur family may have interpreted the phrase Support Gay Marriage as blasphemy.
The issue has not been raised by counsel for Ashers.
Ashers' owners were ordered to pay 500 damages after a county court judge ruled they directly discriminated against Mr Lee in refusing to make him a cake featuring Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie with the phrase Support Gay Marriage for a private function marking International Day Against Homophobia two years ago.
Mr Larkin said the argument centred on expression.
"I say very clearly, if it was a case where Mr Lee had been refused some of Ashers' excellent chocolate eclairs because he was gay or perceived to be gay I would be standing on the other side of the court.
"But it's not about that, it's about expression and whether it's lawful under Northern Ireland constitutional law for Ashers to be forced ... to articulate or express or say a political message which is at variance with their political views and in particular their religious views."
He claimed part of the original judgment was wrong.
"It is clear the county court judge has given a greater legal value to the right to express a view supportive of gay marriage than the defendant's wish not to be compelled to express that sentiment and that is simply a failure (involving constitutional law)."
Mr Lee, a member of the LGBT advocacy group Queer Space, paid the 36.50 in full at Ashers' Belfast city centre branch, but received a phone call two days later and was told the company could not fulfil his order.
Mr Larkin claimed Ashers were the parties to the case who had been directly discriminated against.
Jurgen Klopp refuses to set title target but is pleased with Liverpool progress
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp insists he has no timetable to make the club league champions again but is confident if they maintain their current progress they will be on track.
Wednesday's visit of Chelsea, the deposed Barclays Premier League title holders, pits two sides who would have expected to be challenging for the top this year but are instead in eighth and ninth respectively.
The German promised when he arrived in mid-October that he would win titles at Anfield but has set himself no time-limits on that and his only requirement is the team keeps on improving.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has not set himself a timetable to bring success back to the club.
"I'm not too interested in when Chelsea can next win the title and I have no idea when we can but I promise we will try everything to build on the base of this season," said Klopp, who is preparing for his 50th match in charge.
"We can get sixth position, it isn't the biggest success in the history of Liverpool, but everyone interested in Liverpool can see the good signs and we will build on it.
"We have to improve and I am sure we will. A lot of things need to be perfect for a really good season.
"I'm really looking forward to next season, to pre-season, but this season we are still looking for what we can get."
Klopp has one eye already on next season and plans are well under way for that but he brushed aside suggestions he would be having a clear-out in the summer to prepare for it.
And he dismissed the latest speculation linking Christian Benteke with a 25million move to West Ham.
"I read transfer rumours in October. We work the whole day and of course we work on the squad for next year," he added.
"Of course we think about transfers, we think about everything, but a lot of rumours are really far away from the actual thing.
"It is really funny when you are involved. Sometimes I've never heard of the player who has been linked with Liverpool."
Klopp stressed performances in the match against Chelsea would have no bearing on his thinking about who should stay or remain but he is likely to bring back the majority of players who featured last week in the Europa League semi-final win over Villarreal and were rested at the weekend.
It is then a balancing act for their final league match at West Brom on Sunday before the Europa League final against Sevilla next Wednesday.
"We had a few changes in the last game and most of the players who play tomorrow will be in good physical shape after a normal week Thursday to Wednesday," he said.
"I've learned to rotate; I'm not the world champion at this but I'm not too bad, and we will be ready 100 per cent for the final.
"We cannot wait for the final because then you will not be in the best shape.
"Sevilla changed 11 positions in their last game. They are already preparing for the final but we cannot do this because we are not in a fixed position [in the league].
"I would prefer if Thursday next week, we have won two games against Chelsea and West Brom and we are heading back to Liverpool with the cup - that would be all we want but it doesn't work like this.
"If we lose the two next games I will go to Basle still confident we can win this game.
"There is no fixed rule which says if you win your last two games you will win your final."
Klopp has been boosted by captain Jordan Henderson's return to outdoor training after a knee ligament injury last month.
It will be a race for him to be fit for the Europa League final but the German is adamant he will be fine for Euro 2016 with England.
"It is really good news on Hendo. We had to rest him with his injury for a long time and he could not do a lot," he said.
"We tried everything to avoid surgery and the surgeon has said it is not necessary. Yesterday he trained, not with the team, and it looks good. It was only passing and running but it's looking good step-by-step.
Labour bid for police and criminal justice reforms after Hillsborough verdict
Labour want to "rebalance" the police and criminal justice system in the wake of the Hillsborough inquests and put more power in the hands of ordinary people to get justice.
A proposed package of reforms includes providing parity of funding for legal representation to bereaved families and seeking a Government commitment to the second stage of the Leveson Inquiry - examining the relationship between the police and the press.
The move comes ahead of Hillsborough Family Support Group chairwoman Margaret Aspinall addressing Parliament on Wednesday.
Hillsborough Family Support Group chairwoman Margaret Aspinall will address Parliament about her experience of the police and the criminal justice system
She will talk about her personal experience of the police and the criminal justice system over the last 27 years.
Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said: "The 27-year struggle of the Hillsborough families exposes just how the odds are often stacked against ordinary families in their quest for truth about the loss of loved ones, with too much power in the hands of the authorities.
"Hillsborough must mark a moment of real change - when Parliament resolves to rebalance the police and criminal justice system and put more power in the hands of ordinary people to get justice.
"Never again should any bereaved families have to fight like the Hillsborough families have had to fight.
"I am seeking to build on the cross-party spirit that led to the Hillsborough verdict to make major changes to how our policing and criminal justice system works.
"We must call time on the uneven playing field at inquests where public bodies spend public money like water on hiring the best lawyers when ordinary families have to scratch around for whatever they can get.
"Public money should be spent on helping us get to the truth, not on protecting the public sector."
Labour will table the amendments to the Policing and Crime Bill, which returns to the Commons next month.
The amendments will also propose that there should be no time limit on the period after leaving the force that a retired officer can be investigated for misconduct, and a ban on unattributable briefings to the media by police about investigations.
Mr Burnham added: "There should be an end to the scandal where police officers can retire on full pensions and, by so doing, evade misconduct proceedings.
"There should be no time limit on police officers who have done wrong being held to account - and this change should be applied retrospectively.
"Those found to have acted wrongly should face reductions in their pensions and be forced to repay any compensation payments they may have received.
"We need to consider new rules to stop unattributable briefings by the police to the press. If the information being provided is the official view of the force then they should be prepared to stand by it.
"After the Hillsborough verdict, Parliament has an unprecedented moment where it can act to rebalance the country in favour of ordinary families.
"I am reaching out across party political lines and calling on MPs on all sides to make Hillsborough a watershed moment for justice in Britain."
Australia says talks on fate of PNG asylum seekers could take months
By Colin Packham
SYDNEY, May 9 (Reuters) - The fate of nearly 900 men held in an Australian detention centre in Papua New Guinea is unlikely to be determined for several months, Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said on Monday.
That timetable could put the politically sensitive decision beyond a federal election on July 2, although Australia's tough immigration policy is expected to be a feature of one of the longest poll campaigns in the country's history.
The PNG government said two weeks ago it planned to close the detention centre on Manus Island after the Pacific island nation's Supreme Court ruled it was unlawful, a decision that threatens to undermine Australia's closed door asylum policy. Each country has argued that the other is responsible for the fate of the men.
While the numbers of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia are small in comparison with the floods in Europe, the issue has been a major feature of recent political campaigns with the ruling conservative government coming to power in 2013 on a promise to "stop the boats".
The Manus Island detainees are a headache Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull can ill afford as opinion polls show his Liberal-led Coalition government running neck-and-neck with the centre-left Labor opposition.
Dutton described talks between the two nations in PNG last week as "constructive", but when pressed on a timetable by reporters he said a resolution would likely take "a couple of months".
"We will have what I think will be detailed and long-run discussions with Papua New Guinea," he told reporters, saying that Australia had made it clear the detained men, from countries including Iran, Syria and Afghanistan, would not be settled in Australia.
Legal action, however, may speed up the timetable, with lawyers for the detainees already going through the courts to seek their immediate release and transfer to Australia.
Under Australia's hard-line immigration policy, asylum seekers intercepted trying to reach the country by boat after paying people smugglers are sent for processing to a camp in Manus Island in Papua New Guinea or to Nauru. In an attempt to dissuade others from making the risky journey by boat, they are never eligible for resettlement in Australia even if deemed to be genuine asylum seekers.
Swiss finmin says extra $3.1 bln in spending cuts needed -paper
ZURICH, May 9 (Reuters) - Switzerland must cut an additional 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.1 billion) from budgets in 2018 and 2019, Finance Minister Ueli Maurer was quoted saying on Monday.
"The situation is strained," he said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung. "At the end of May we will present a stabilisation programme. Beyond that, it needs new savings programmes in 2018 and 2019 each of around 1.5 billion francs."
Cuts could come in budgets for foreign relations, the army, agriculture and, to some extent, education, the paper quoted Maurer, who has been in his current role since January, as saying.
In January, the Swiss government projected rising structural budget deficits through 2019 due to infrastructure spending, corporate tax and pension reforms and rising numbers of asylum requests.
The shortfalls were expected even after the government last year decided to slash spending by up to 2 billion francs to help offset sharply lower revenue projections as the strong franc hit the export-dependent economy.
Public spending in Switzerland is kept in check by a "debt brake", enacted in 2003, which forces the government to link spending with revenues and build up surpluses when economic growth is strong.
($1 = 0.9710 Swiss francs)
Belgium calls up army to cover prison guard strike over budget cuts
BRUSSELS, May 9 (Reuters) - Belgium has called up the military to assist in prisons where guards have been on strike for two weeks over what they say is dangerously low staffing due to budget cuts.
Six platoons of 30 soldiers have been mobilised to help police and the Red Cross who are currently at work in prisons in Brussels and the French-speaking region of Wallonia, where prison officers are striking.
Both the military and police are already stretched, with increased patrols particularly in Brussels, where suicide bombers killed 32 people at the airport and on the metro on March 22.
The justice ministry said that some of the mobilised soldiers had been deployed at the three largest prisons - two in Brussels and one near the city of Liege.
Conditions in the prisons have worsened and some inmates are not receiving certain basic rights such as showers, three meals a day, family visits and access to lawyers.
Unions have said low staffing has limited access to courses and other activities that can help reduce violence and prevent prisoners from reoffending.
Philippines' Duterte calls for summit to solve South China Sea spat
By Neil Jerome Morales
DAVAO, Philippines, May 9 (Reuters) - The presumptive winner of the Philippine election on Monday said that if he became president he would settle rows over the South China Sea with multilateral talks that would include allies the United States, Japan and Australia as well as claimant nations.
Rodrigo Duterte, the tough-talking mayor of Davao City, said China should respect the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone granted to coastal states under international law and should team up with the Philippines to jointly exploit offshore oil and gas.
"I would say to China, 'do not claim anything here and I will not insist also that it is ours'. But then I will just keep (turn) a blind eye," he told reporters, as results of an unofficial vote count came in showing him winning a hefty 40 percent of the votes.
"If you want joint ventures, fine, we can get the gas and the oil," he said. "I believe in sharing."
Tensions between the Philippines and China have risen as an international tribunal in the Hague prepares to deliver a ruling in the next few months in a case lodged by Manila in 2013 that could undermine Beijing's claims to 90 percent of the South China Sea. China has rejected the court's authority.
Duterte, 71, has puzzled diplomats with what has so far been a contradictory position on how he would deal with China's assertiveness and a blockade by its coastguard of waters and islands claimed by the Philippines.
During one presidential debate he said he would call for dialogue with Beijing, but moments later added he would ride a jet ski to disputed Spratly islands occupied by China and plant a Philippine flag there.
But on Monday he said that talks were needed between claimant countries - the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and China - plus big powers like the United States, Australia and Japan.
"They would want a multilateral roundtable discussion, probably this year," he said of Western countries.
"I do not think anyone is interested in going to war. Although we are allies with America, we will agree to, say, multilateral participation."
Spain's Ferrovial eyes exit from Mexico airport plan with ICA-sources
By Alexandra Alper
MEXICO CITY, May 9 (Reuters) - Spanish construction firm Ferrovial is weighing canceling its plans to bid jointly with cash-strapped local builder ICA for a contract to build a $3.5 billion terminal building for Mexico City's new airport, people familiar with the matter said.
The Spanish builder is weighing an exit from a "memorandum of understanding" with Empresas ICA SAB de CV, two sources said, as the troubled Mexican firm struggles under 67.617 billion pesos ($3.74 billion) in debt.
The joint bid memorandum was signed by both companies in Madrid in July 2015, one of the sources said.
Taiwan enters South China Sea legal fray, as group seeks to sway international court
By Greg Torode and J.R. Wu
HONG KONG/TAIPEI, May 10 (Reuters) - A Taiwanese group has intervened in the Philippines' international court case against China's claims in the South China Sea, pressing Taipei's position that Taiwan is entitled to a swathe of the disputed waterway as an economic zone.
The unusual submission has emerged just as judges at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague are poised to rule on the Philippines' landmark case, brought under the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The move could delay the judges' ruling, now expected within two months, and potentially complicates worsening territorial disputes roiling across the vital trade route.
Last month, the judges allowed written evidence from the government-linked Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law, even though Taiwan is neither a member of the United Nations, nor a signatory to UNCLOS, legal and diplomatic sources told Reuters.
As well as reviewing several hundred pages of evidence from Taiwan, the judges have also sought further information from the Philippines and China, legal sources close to the case say.
Manila is challenging the legality of China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, in part by arguing that no reefs, atolls or islets in the Spratly archipelago can legally be considered an island, and therefore holds no rights to an 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusive economic zone.
Taiwan's single holding of Itu Aba is the biggest feature in the Spratlys and the one some analysts believe has the strongest claim to island status and an economic zone. The Spratlys are also claimed by China, Vietnam and Malaysia while Brunei claims nearby waters.
Taiwanese officials have bristled at Philippines' earlier evidence that Itu Aba is a "rock" that cannot support natural human habitation, so has no claims on either island-status, or an EEZ.
Citing various government reports and statements as evidence, the society's submission to the court states "it is clear that Taiping Island (Itu Aba) is an island which can sustain human habitation and economic life of its own under....UNCLOS."
Court officials have yet to respond to written questions from Reuters and the Philippines foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"PROTECT ANCESTRAL PROPERTY"
The Taiwanese move comes amid rising tensions, with Beijing and Washington accusing each other militarising the area as China builds facilities on its recent reef reclamations and the U.S. increases patrols, exercises and overflights.
Reiterating Beijing's non-acceptance of the case, China's Foreign Ministry said the Philippines was using the case to negate China's territorial sovereignty.
"Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait all have a responsibility to jointly protect the ancestral property of the Chinese people," the ministry said in a faxed reply to Reuters.
While the society is technically operating as a private body, it has close ties to Taipei, including President Ma Ying-jeou, who once headed the institution and still remains on the board.
Ma staged a high-profile visit to Itu Aba in late January - one of several events orchestrated by Taiwan to push its claimed status as an island.
A spokesman for Ma told Reuters the submission was not made on behalf of the Taiwan government, but its findings were consistent with Taipei's official stance.
While the society's arguments might aid China's position, Beijing is likely to be wary of any move by the judges to bolster Taiwan's standing in the international community, analysts said.
Chinese officials have repeatedly challenged the court's jurisdiction and the rights of the Philippines to bring the case, refusing to participate.
Beijing has ignored invitations from the court to provide its own submission, but the judges have taken into account Chinese public statements, according to court releases.
Taiwan, regarded by Beijing as a breakaway province, was not invited to participate in any way. Vietnam has provided a submission in support of Philippines' arguments that the court has jurisdiction.
Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, said it was significant the judges' had consented to review Taiwan's arguments.
"It demonstrates that the judges are striving to be impartial, and that they have been at pains to take into account the views of all the concerned parties, even China, which has refused to participate, and Taiwan, which isn't a member of the UN," he said.
While China won't like the court giving Taiwan "international space", on this issue "Beijing may decide to look the other way", he said.
Honduras suspects first case of microcephaly in pregnant Zika patient
TEGUCIGALPA, May 9 (Reuters) - The Central American nation of Honduras "strongly suspects" it has detected its first case of an unborn child with microcephaly in a pregnant woman infected with the Zika virus, the country's deputy health minister Francis Contreras said on Monday.
The mother is five months pregnant, and Contreras warned it would not be certain her child had developed microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies, until she gave birth.
"We strongly suspect that we could be facing a case of microcephaly," Contreras told local radio.
U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly. The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.
The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last autumn in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,100 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.
Zika is carried by mosquitoes, which transmit the virus to humans. A small number of cases of sexual transmission have been reported in the United States and elsewhere. A case of suspected transmission through a blood transfusion in Brazil have raised questions about other ways that Zika may spread.
The Zika outbreak is affecting large parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, with Brazil the hardest hit so far.
Honduras is the Central American country with the highest number of Zika cases, with 19,000 infections, and 238 pregnant women infected. So far, it has detected 78 Guillain-Barre cases.
UN humanitarian summit must tackle abuse of laws of war - UK MPs
By Megan Rowling
BARCELONA, May 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The world's first summit on humanitarian reform this month should set in motion global political action to tackle violations of the laws of war aimed at protecting civilians, a UK parliamentary committee said on Tuesday.
In the run-up to the conference in Istanbul on May 23-24, aid agencies and U.N. officials have decried abuses of international humanitarian law (IHL), especially attacks on hospitals in conflict zones and the bombing of a refugee camp in Syria last week.
British MP Stephen Twigg, who chairs the International Development Committee, said upholding IHL "is essential to delivering aid".
"Using their presence at this summit, we urge the UK government to press all actors on the global stage to bolster international humanitarian law," he said, as the cross-party committee issued a report outlining its priorities for the summit.
Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres, which saw 75 hospitals it managed or supported bombed last year, has pulled out of the summit, saying it will not hold states to account for their role in conflicts, nor pressure them to abide by the rules of war.
The UK parliamentary committee said the summit should reinvigorate and accelerate negotiations for an intergovernmental mechanism to strengthen compliance with IHL.
The International Committee of the Red Cross proposed such a mechanism last year, but some states rejected it.
Political commitments on IHL made at the meeting should be "truly universal, and not limited to a few parties", the report added.
And states with weaker institutions should be helped to investigate and prosecute allegations of IHL violations, it said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed establishing a "watchdog" to track, collect data and report on trends of IHL violations, among other measures, it noted.
In written evidence to the inquiry, Britain's Department for International Development said: "This will be a challenging area to make immediate progress, but we cannot afford to stand by while violations of International Humanitarian Law continue."
MP Twigg, of Britain's opposition Labour Party, said much consultation had taken place ahead of the summit.
"There is recognition that the players involved need to get better at meeting the needs of people affected by conflict and disaster. But there is a distinct lack of agreement on what the priorities should be," he said in a statement.
The committee put forward five other key areas where it hopes to see concrete results, including reforms to bridge the divide between emergency relief and development aid, and more emphasis on preventing and resolving crises, from early warning systems to analysis of political risks in fragile states.
It also called for efforts to address the "unintended consequences" of counter-terrorism legislation, which can have a chilling effect on humanitarian response. The British government should explore "reasonable exceptions" for humanitarian activities, as exist in jurisdictions like Australia, it added.
The report urged British Prime Minister David Cameron to go to the summit. "As such a large donor, a signal of high-level UK support is vital to a strong summit outcome and thus a more effective delivery of UK humanitarian assistance," it said.
China's Xi congratulates North Korea's Kim on party promotion
SEOUL, May 10 (Reuters) - The president of China, which has grown increasingly frustrated over North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons, sent a congratulatory message to the North's leader Kim Jong Un on his promotion to chairman of the country's ruling party, North Korean state media said on Tuesday.
The 33-year-old Kim, the third-generation leader of isolated North Korea, added the title of chairman of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) on Monday, the closing day of the country's first ruling party congress in 36 years.
"I wish the Korean people fresh success in carrying out the cause of socialism under the leadership of the WPK headed by Chairman Kim Jong Un," Chinese President Xi Jinping told Kim, according to North Korea's state KCNA news agency.
"We will make efforts together with the DPRK side to bring happiness to the two countries and their peoples and contribute to peace, stability and development in this region by steadily developing the Sino-DPRK friendship and cooperation," Xi said.
DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
China, North Korea's chief ally and main trading partner, backed tough United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea in March following the North's fourth nuclear test, in January.
Venezuela extends two-day workweek for state employees to save energy
CARACAS, May 9 (Reuters) - Venezuela's socialist government has extended a two-day workweek for public sector employees for another two weeks because of a drought that has sapped hydroelectric power generation in the OPEC country.
The South American country's 2.8 million employees already have Fridays off during April and May. President Nicolas Maduro in late April gave them Wednesdays and Thursdays off too, and canceled school on Fridays.
Maduro's rivals have called the shortened workweek foolhardy, arguing that sending employees home will not solve the power crunch and halting activity will merely worsen Venezuela's deepening recession.
But the ruling Socialist Party said on Monday the measures would last until at least May 27.
"The Bolivarian government has decided to extend the special policy of non-working days," Aragua state Governor Tareck El Aissami said in a speech on state television from the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas.
"These measures are due to insufficient rains. The rains were very light, and the situation at Guri remains critical," he said.
Drought has reduced water levels at Venezuela's main dam and hydroelectric plant in Guri, which covers about two-thirds of the country's energy needs, to near-critical levels.
Water shortages and electricity cuts have added to the hardships of Venezuela's 30 million people, already enduring a brutal economic slowdown, shortages of basics from milk to medicines, soaring prices and long lines at shops.
Officials have blamed the El Nino weather phenomenon for Venezuela's electricity woes and said they have avoided painful measures such as hiking hugely-subsidized energy bills to protect the poor.
But critics say the blame lies with inadequate government investment, corruption, inefficiency and a failure to diversify energy sources.
Maduro has changed the clocks so there is half an hour more daylight in the evening, while also urging women to reduce use of appliances like hair dryers and ordering malls to provide their own power generators.
The opposition, which won control of the National Assembly in a December election, is pursuing a multi-pronged approach to remove Maduro from office this year.
Ex-Minnesota college professor fined $500,000 for smuggling ivory
May 9 (Reuters) - A former Minnesota philosophy professor was fined $500,000 on Monday for smuggling elephant ivory and illegally exporting rhinoceros horns from the United States to China, prosecutors said.
Yiwei Zheng, 43, a former St. Cloud State University professor, was also sentenced to three years' probation and 150 hours of community service by U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim in Minneapolis, prosecutors said.
The fine is to be paid to the Lacey Act Reward Fund, which is used by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reward those who provide information about wildlife crimes and to care for animals held as evidence in ongoing probes.
Zheng's attorney, Timothy Webb, said the sentence, under which his client also will spend six weekends in jail, was fair.
His employment with St. Cloud State University ended in March, said Adam Hammer, a spokesman for the school.
Zheng A Chinese-American also known as Steve Zheng, pleaded guilty in January to smuggling ivory from the United States to China in April 2011 and exporting rhino horns in July 2010, in violation of the endangered species act.
"This defendant helped to sustain this illegal market for years, engaging in more than 300 sales and earning more than $1 million," Assistant United States Attorney Laura Provinzino said in a statement. "His profit was earned at the expense of these threatened and endangered species."
Zheng operated an online business called Crouching Dragon Antiques in which some of the objects sold were made with ivory and rhino horn, prosecutors said.
The illegal items Zheng smuggled into and out of the United States were worth as much as $1.5 million, prosecutors said.
Rhino horn sells at prices higher than gold in places such as Vietnam, where a belief with no basis in science has recently emerged 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.
There is an arc of illegal animal slaughter on the continent from South Sudan, where conservationists say elephants are being slain by both government forces and rebels, to South Africa.
Philippines' election victor Duterte plans government overhaul
By Neil Jerome Morales
DAVAO, Philippines, May 10 (Reuters) - The Philippines' president-elect, rough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, announced plans on Tuesday for an overhaul of the country's system of government that would devolve power from "imperial Manila" to long-neglected provinces.
Duterte's win in Monday's poll has not been confirmed, but an unofficial count of votes by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed he had a huge lead over his two closest rivals, both of whom conceded defeat.
By Tuesday afternoon, the ballot count showed Duterte had almost 39 percent of votes cast. He was more than 6 million votes ahead of the second-placed candidate with 92 percent of votes counted from an electorate of 54 million.
It is not clear when Duterte's victory will be officially declared but he is expected to take office on June 30.
Votes were also cast on Monday for vice-president. One day on, counting showed the outgoing administration's candidate, Maria Leonor Robredo, ahead of the son and namesake of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Duterte's spokesman, Peter Lavina, told a news conference that the new president would seek a national consensus for a revision of the constitution which would switch from a unitary form of government to a parliamentary and federal model.
The proposal to devolve power from Manila fits with Duterte's challenge as a political outsider to the country's establishment, which he has slammed as self-serving and corrupt.
"The powerful elites in Manila who will be affected by this system will definitely oppose this proposal," said Earl Parreno, an analyst at the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms.
Duterte's spokesman said he would also seek peace agreements with rebel groups in the south of the archipelago, where the outgoing government has been using force to quell militancy.
The 71-year-old's truculent defiance of political tradition has drawn comparisons with U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, as have his references to his libido.
That tapped into popular disgust with the ruling class over its failure to reduce poverty and inequality despite several years of robust economic growth.
SOUTH CHINA SEA TALKS
Duterte's vows to restore law and order also resonated with voters. But his incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the country's authoritarian past.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Daniel Russel told reporters in Vietnam that Washington respected the choice of the Philippine people and "will gladly work with the leader that they select".
Duterte made a succession of winding, bellicose and at-times comical remarks late on Monday as the votes were being counted, venting over corruption and bad governance and telling anecdotes from his 22 years as mayor of Davao city.
Wearing a casual checked shirt and slouched in a chair, he said corrupt officials should "retire or die" and reiterated his support for police to use deadly force against criminals.
"I'll behave if I become president," he said, adding that he would not make state visits to countries with cold weather.
In an early indication of his unorthodoxy, Duterte told reporters on Monday that if he became president he would seek multilateral talks to resolve disputes over the South China Sea.
The outgoing administration of President Benigno Aquino has asked a court of arbitration in The Hague to recognise its right to exploit waters in the South China Sea, a case it hoped could bolster claims by other countries against China in the resource-rich waters.
Duterte said negotiations should include Japan, Australia and the United States, which is traditionally the region's dominant security player and contests China's development of islands and rocky outcrops in the sea.
The influential Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times, said that Beijing would not be naive enough to believe that a new president would bring a solution to the South China Sea disputes.
"Only time will tell how far the new leader, be it Duterte or not, will go toward restoring the bilateral relationship."
FIGHTING THE ESTABLISHMENT
Duterte's entertaining and profanity-loaded speeches have shed little light on his policies beyond going after gangsters and drug pushers.
He has been vague on what he would do to spur an economy that has averaged growth at around 6 percent under Aquino.
Duterte said on Monday he had been criticised for not discussing policy but would "hire the best economic minds".
One of his advisers told Reuters spending on education would be lifted to benefit "disadvantaged regions" and rural development will be prioritised to spread wealth more evenly across the country.
"Everything seems to be in imperial Manila," said Ernesto Pernia, professor emeritus of economics at the University of the Philippines. "He wants to give more attention to the lagging, the backward regions."
Pernia said the pursuit of tax evaders and corrupt officials should bolster government revenues to fund extra spending.
Reuters Health News Summary
Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
Honduras suspects first case of microcephaly in pregnant Zika patient
The Central American nation of Honduras "strongly suspects" it has detected its first case of an unborn child with microcephaly in a pregnant woman infected with the Zika virus, the country's deputy health minister Francis Contreras said on Monday. The mother is five months pregnant, and Contreras warned it would not be certain her child had developed microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies, until she gave birth.
Baidu CEO tells staff to put values before profit after cancer death scandal
Baidu Inc's CEO has called on employees to put values before profit in response to a scandal around the death of a student who underwent an experimental cancer treatment he found on the company's search website. Before his death, student Wei Zexi, 21, criticized the military-run hospital that provided the failed treatment for misleading claims about its effectiveness and accused Baidu, which controls 80 percent of the Chinese search market, of promoting false medical information.
Quarter of passengers on British cruise ship fall sick with norovirus
A stomach bug causing vomiting and diarrhea has spread to more than a quarter of the 919 passengers aboard a British cruise ship, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said, as the ship docked in Maine over the weekend. It also said eight of the 520 crew on the Balmoral, operated by Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, had also fallen ill with the bug, identified as a norovirus.
NewLink shares tumble as pancreatic cancer therapy fails
Shares of NewLink Genetics Corp plunged 37 percent in extended trading on Monday after the drug maker said its experimental pancreatic cancer immunotherapy did not help patients live longer in a late-stage trial. The company was testing its drug, algenpantucel-L, in combination with standard-of-care therapy, against standard treatment alone, in 722 patients with surgically removed cancer.
Inefficient prescribing costs billions of healthcare dollars
In the U.S. between 2010 and 2012, nearly $73 billion was spent on brand name medications instead of less expensive alternatives, according to a new study. A large portion of that was spent by patients, the researchers found.
India's ITC resumes cigarette production with larger health warnings
India's biggest cigarette maker, ITC Ltd, said on Monday it had resumed production in phases, complying with new rules on pictorial warnings from the federal government. The company had shut its plants from May 4 as it worked to get much larger health warnings on cigarette packs, even as a court hears objections to the new rules.
White House: Puerto Rico debt crisis could hamper Zika response
The White House said on Monday it was concerned the debt crisis confronting Puerto Rico could hamper its ability to deal with the potential public health crisis caused by the spread of the Zika virus, which has sickened nearly people 700 on the island. "Given the fact that there are reported cases of the Zika virus in Puerto Rico, this seems like a pretty bad time for investments in Puerto Rico's public health system to be cut," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a news briefing.
UPS-backed Rwandan blood deliveries show drones' promise, hurdles
International delivery company UPS is backing a start-up using drones in Rwanda to transport life-saving blood supplies and vaccines, underlining the wide potential for the unmanned aircraft and helping bring package delivery by drone to U.S. consumers a step closer. U.S. companies are keen to use drones to cut delivery times and costs but hurdles range from smoothing communication between the autonomous robots and airplanes in America's crowded airspace to ensuring battery safety and longevity.
E-cigarette poisonings on rise in young kids
Electronic cigarettes are sickening a growing number of young kids, usually because children drink the liquid nicotine that's used in the devices, a U.S. study of poison center calls suggests. Often, children aren't seriously harmed, but several have had severe complications like comas and seizures and one child died from liquid nicotine poisoning.
Swaddling tied to increased risk of SIDS
Restrained copper is the sensible commodity in China: Russell
By Clyde Russell
LAUNCESTON, Australia, May 10 (Reuters) - Copper is probably the best reality check right now for China's commodity markets, with the industrial metal showing why the recent surge in commodity prices was unjustified, but also why a collapse is not warranted.
China's imports of unwrought copper fell sharply in April to 450,000 tonnes, down 21.1 percent from March's 570,000 tonnes, and only up a modest 4.7 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to customs data.
It wasn't just refined metal that showed a marked pullback from March's exuberance, with imports of ores and concentrates slipping 8 percent in April from the prior month to 1.26 million tonnes.
There are some fundamental factors that help explain the drop in April's copper imports, such as the closing of the arbitrage window between London and Shanghai prices and bulging domestic inventories.
Copper in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) hit a record high of 394,777 tonnes in the week to March 18, more than double the 177,854 tonnes at the start of 2016.
This means inventories were rising rapidly at the time when traders would have been placing orders for copper for April delivery.
Inventories have since dropped to 313,168 tonnes in SHFE warehouses, although traders and market participants say the amount of copper in bonded warehouses has risen to the highest so far this year.
Overall, the picture that emerges is one of plentiful inventories in China, with both bonded and unbonded warehouses holding stocks that are elevated in terms of recent history.
The surplus of copper in storage is probably enough of an argument as to why imports will start to tail off in coming months, but the other is the state of demand.
If there was a justification for the rapid price gains in commodities on China's exchanges in recent months, it was that demand will pick up as the authorities encouraged spending on infrastructure and construction, as well as tentative signs of a recovery in manufacturing.
The rapid gains were seen most in steel and iron ore, with the benchmark SHFE rebar contract jumping 57 percent from the end of last year to its closing peak on April 21, while Dalian iron ore futures surged 65 percent to their record high on April 25.
Both steel and iron ore have since retreated sharply, as the exchanges acted to calm speculation by increasing transaction costs and margins, and perhaps as investors realised that hot money flows had stretched valuations too high.
COPPER MISSED COMMODITY PARTY
Copper didn't quite join in the commodity party in China, with SHFE benchmark copper rising a much more modest 4.3 percent from the end of 2015 to the peak so far this year on April 25.
It has since retreated and is now down 2.4 percent from the start of 2016, underperforming its London equivalent, which is virtually flat for the year.
What this shows is that copper has behaved in a far more level-headed manner than some of the other commodities, responding with modest price gains to some better news on demand expectations, but retreating when these were called into question.
China's Purchasing Managers' Index has given some hope to copper, entering positive territory in March for the first time since July last year.
However, April's reading, while still just in positive territory, was weaker than March's, underscoring that China's vast manufacturing sector is still far from being in robust health.
Copper is in some ways a microcosm of China's economy, with some positive news largely being outweighed by a host of ongoing negatives.
While increased stimulus spending will boost demand, at least in the short term, the tepid global economic outlook and problems with overcapacity in many sectors mean copper is pricing correctly, with no reason for a strong rally, but equally not much justification for a collapse.
Poland - Factors to Watch May 10
Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Tuesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours):
PEKAO
Poland's second biggest lender and UniCredit unit reported on Tuesday an 8 percent fall in its first quarter net profit year-on-year to 573 million zlotys ($147.31 million), as the newly-imposed bank tax ate into profits.
ING SLASKI
Poland's No.5 lender and ING Groep unit reported on Tuesday a flat net profit of 259 million zlotys in year-on-year terms, despite bank tax.
RATING
Poland's Ministry of Justice has proposed changes in the National Council of the Judiciary that may become another factor negatively affecting the country's rating, Puls Biznesu daily said quoting the draft law.
PKO BP
Poland's largest lender plans to put more focus on digital growth in its new strategy until 2020, which it wants to announce next month, daily Rzeczpospolita quoted CEO Zbigniew Jagiello as saying.
LPP
Poland's largest clothes retailer plans to expand its foothold in Germany with new shops in Berlin, Cologne, Munich and Hanover, daily Rzeczpoposlita quoted LPP's deputy chief Slawomir Laboda as saying.
****Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.****
Hungary, Factors to watch, May 10
BUDAPEST, May 10 (Reuters) - Following is a list of events in Hungary and the region, as well as news stories and press reports which may influence financial markets.
(For any queries: Budapest editorial +36 1 327 4745)
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN HUNGARY (ALL TIMES GMT)
BUDAPEST - April inflation (0700)
BUDAPEST - Cbank non-rate meeting (1200)
BUDAPEST - 3-month T-bill auction (0930)
IN THE REGION
CZECH - CEZ Q1 results (0600)
BULGARIA - Industry output, March (0800)
IN THE NEWS REUTERS
Convergence between eastern and western Europe fraying as EBRD leaders meet
Twenty-five years after the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was set up to integrate ex-Soviet bloc states into the world economy, the EBRD is finding its core region pulled apart by a wave of anti-establishment, anti-migrant sentiment.
Slovak customs officers shoot and injure Syrian migrant woman
Slovak customs officers injured a Syrian woman on Monday when they shot at a car carrying migrants from Hungary into Slovakia, authorities said.
Hungary posts HUF 19.1 bln April budget deficit
Hungary posted a budget deficit of 19.1 billion forints ($69.14 million) in April, after a 140.8 billion forint shortfall in March, the Economy Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Nearly half of Europeans in poll want own votes on EU, like UK
Nearly half of voters in eight big European Union countries want to be able to vote on whether to remain members of the bloc, just as Britons will in a referendum next month, according to an opinion poll published on Monday.
Richter's rise helps Hungarian stocks shine, forint falls
China scrambles fighters as U.S. sails warship near Chinese-claimed reef
By Michael Martina, Greg Torode and Ben Blanchard
BEIJING/HONG KONG, May 10 (Reuters) - China scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday as a U.S. navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, a patrol China denounced as an illegal threat to peace which only went to show its defence installations in the area were necessary.
Guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence travelled within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said.
The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to "challenge excessive maritime claims" by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea, Urban said.
"These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise," Urban said in an emailed statement.
China and the United States have traded accusations of militarising the South China Sea as China undertakes large-scale land reclamation and construction on disputed features while the United States has increased its patrols and exercises.
Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway which the United States worries China will use to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.
China's Defence Ministry said two fighter jets were scrambled and three warships shadowed the U.S. ship, telling it to leave.
The U.S. patrol "again proves that China's construction of defensive facilities on the relevant reefs in the Nansha Islands is completely reasonable and totally necessary", it said, using China's name for the Spratly Islands where much of its reclamation work is taking place.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the U.S. ship illegally entered Chinese waters.
"This action by the U.S. side threatened China's sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability," he told a daily news briefing.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waved aside a question as to whether the U.S. aim was to send a message ahead of a visit to Asia by President Barack Obama this month.
"This is not a pointed strategy calculated to do anything except keep a regular process of freedom of navigation operations underway," he told reporters in London.
SENSITIVE AREA
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the Spratly Islands after China used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from Fiery Cross.
"Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be the future hub of Chinese military operations in the South China Sea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including its large and deep port and 3,000-metre runway," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
"The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of U.S. determination ahead of President Obama's trip to Vietnam."
Speaking in Vietnam, Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said freedom of navigation operations were important for smaller nations.
"If the world's most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships of navy of smaller countries?" Russel told reporters before news of the operation was made public.
China has reacted with anger to previous U.S. freedom of navigation operations, including the overflight of fighter planes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month, and when long-range U.S. bombers flew near Chinese facilities under construction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November.
U.S. naval officials believe China has plans to start reclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal, which sits further north of the Spratlys within the Philippines-claimed 200-nautical-mile (370-km) exclusive economic zone.
Tough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who looks set to become president of the Philippines after an election on Monday, has proposed multilateral talks on the South China Sea.
A Chinese diplomat warned last week that criticism of China over the South China Sea would rebound like a coiled spring.
German industry output falls sharply in March, but exports rise
BERLIN, May 10 (Reuters) - German industrial output fell more than expected in March, but exports posed a surprisingly strong increase, data showed on Tuesday, pointing to a mixed performance by Europe's largest economy at the end of an overall solid first quarter.
Industrial output fell by 1.3 percent, the strongest monthly decline since August 2014, data from the Economy Ministry showed. The figure came in below the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll for a 0.2 percent fall.
In the first quarter overall, industrial output rose by 1.8 percent on the quarter, the ministry said, adding that construction and capital goods posed the strong hikes.
"The industrial sector has overcome its foreign trade related weak phase of the second half of 2015," the Economy Ministry said. "The economic trend in the industrial sector is currently pointing upward."
Separate data from the Federal Statistics Office showed that seasonally adjusted exports rose by 1.9 percent in March while imports were down by 2.3 percent, widening the trade surplus to 23.6 billion euros.
Thailand's Central sells stake in Big C to finance Vietnam deal - sources
By Manunphattr Dhanananphorn and Khettiya Jittapong
BANGKOK, May 10 (Reuters) - Thailand's Central Group has sold out of domestic retail firm Big C Supercenter Pcl , accepting a tender offer from rival TCC Group in a deal that will help Central purchase a Vietnamese supermarket chain, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Central Group, Thailand's biggest retailer led by tycoon Tos Chirathivat, is expected to gain at least 50 billion baht ($1.4 billion) from the sale of its 25 percent holding, said one person close to the sale process.
The deal stems from a decision by French retail group Casino to sell its Thai and Vietnam units this year in an effort to cut debt. Both businesses encompass hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores.
Central Group, which had a pre-existing stake in Big C Supercenter, lost out to TCC's flagship retail unit Berli Jucker in the battle to gain control of the Thai unit. But it emerged the winner for the Vietnam unit, called Big C Vietnam, agreeing to pay 920 million euros ($1.1 billion).
The people declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to media. Central Group did not respond to a request for comment.
Obama weighs historic decision on whether to lift Vietnam arms ban
By David Brunnstrom, Lesley Wroughton and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is considering whether to lift a three-decade-old arms embargo on Vietnam, U.S. officials say, as he weighs calls to forge closer military ties with Hanoi against concerns over its poor human rights record.
The debate within the U.S. administration is coming to a head amid preparations for Obama's trip to Vietnam this month to bolster ties between Washington and Hanoi, former wartime enemies who are increasingly partners against China's growing territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea.
The full removal of the embargo - something Vietnam has long sought - would sweep away one of the last major vestiges of the Vietnam War era and advance the normalization of relations begun 21 years ago. It would also likely anger Beijing, which condemned Obama's partial lifting of the arms ban in 2014 as an interference in the region's balance of power.
On one side of the internal debate, some White House and State Department aides say it would be premature to completely end restrictions on lethal military assistance before Vietnam's communist government has made more progress on human rights.
They are at odds with other officials, including many at the Pentagon, who argue bolstering Vietnam's ability to counter a rising China should take priority, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
Boosting the security of allies and partners has been a major thrust of Obama's strategic "pivot" toward the Asia-Pacific region, a centerpiece of his foreign policy.
Even as Vietnam seeks warmer relations with the United States, though, U.S. officials are mindful that suspicions linger among Communist Party conservatives that Washington wants to undermine their country's one-party system.
One major factor in Obama's decision will be whether Vietnam will move forward on major U.S. defense deals, a potential boon for American jobs that could soften congressional opposition to lifting the weapons ban, according to one source close to White House policymaking.
There have been questions about whether Vietnam, which has relied mostly on Russian weapons suppliers since the Cold War, is ready to start buying U.S.-made systems. Diplomats have seen increasing signs that Hanoi is seeking ties with U.S. defense contractors but Washington wants tangible commitments, according to the source.
Vietnam is big buyer of weapons from Russia, its Cold War-era patron, including Kilo-class submarines and corvettes. It could look to the United States for items such as P-3 surveillance planes and missiles to beef up its naval forces and coastal defenses.
At the Pentagon, the prevailing view appears to be more in line with Defense Secretary Ash Carter's congressional testimony late last month that he would support lifting restrictions on the sale of U.S. weapons to Vietnam.
That comment raised eyebrows at the White House, where officials said Obama had yet to rule on the issue.
Obama's final decision could hinge on whatever recommendations come from ongoing visits to Vietnam by Tom Malinowski, the administration's top human rights envoy, and Daniel Russel, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific.
Speaking in Hanoi on Tuesday, Russel said the embargo lifting was still "under periodic review" and would be looked at seriously, although he made it clear Vietnam's commitment to human rights would be central to any decision.
"One of the important factors that would make a lift of the ban possible would be to continue forward momentum in meeting universal human rights standards and progress in important legal reform," Russel told reporters.
Malinowski is not scheduled to speak to media during his trip.
It was not clear whether Obama was leaning for or against ending the embargo ahead of his trip, which will make him the third consecutive U.S. president to visit Vietnam.
Obama eased the ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam in October 2014, allowing shipments of defensive maritime equipment to help Hanoi build up its deterrent to China's pursuit of its claims in the South China Sea, which conflict with those of its neighbors such as Vietnam and U.S. ally the Philippines.
"UNDESERVED AT THIS TIME"
John Sifton, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said lifting the arms ban would be "undeserved at this time." The group, in an April 27 letter sent to Obama, described the Vietnamese government as "among the most repressive in the world."
While a number of U.S. lawmakers favor closer military ties with Vietnam because of shared concerns about China, others have deep misgivings.
Democratic U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez, a member of the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam who also has a large Vietnamese-American voting bloc in her California district, said lifting the embargo would be "giving a free pass to a government that continually harasses, detains and imprisons its citizens."
Obama has the power to bypass Congress to lift the embargo. But his administration would hope for support from Republican U.S. Senator John McCain, a decorated former prisoner of war in North Vietnam who backed the 2014 partial lifting.
Some U.S. officials see signs that Vietnam is starting to pay attention to human rights criticism. But concerns remain over the government's heavy-handedness toward political opponents and treatment of workers and there is worry that Washington will lose some leverage if it gives up the arms embargo without securing concessions for reforms.
One senior U.S. official suggested that it might be best for now to "set the issue of the lethal weapons ban aside."
"These things do take time," the official said. But others said the door should remain open to lifting the embargo as preparations proceed for Obama's visit.
Slovakia - Factors To Watch on 10
BRATISLAVA, May 10 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Slovak financial markets on Tuesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Slovak Republic: GMT + 2 hours) =========================ECONOMIC DATA======================== Real-time economic data releases.................. Summary of economic data and forecasts......... Recently released economic data................ Previous stories on Slovak data.......... **For a schedule of corporate and economic events: http://emea1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/Apps/CountryWeb/#/1C/events-overview ========================EVENTS=============================== BRATISLAVA - Volkswagen's Slovak car plant will release 2015 results and outlook for this year. Related stories: =========================NEWS=============================== IMMIGRATION: Slovak customs officers injured a Syrian woman on Monday when they shot at a car carrying migrants from Hungary into Slovakia, authorities said. Story: Related stories: TRADE BALANCE: Slovakia's trade balance showed a lower-than-expected surplus of 308.0 million euros ($351.06 million) in March after a revised 435.3 million euro surplus in February, data from the country's statistics office showed on Monday. Story: Related stories: For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX Main currency report TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets News editor of the day: Jan Lopatka on +420 224 190 474 E-mail: prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com ($1 = 0.8759 euros)
Kidnapped son of Pakistan's ex-prime minister is freed
ISLAMABAD, May 10 (Reuters) - The kidnapped son of Pakistan's former prime minister has been freed three years after gunmen abducted him, his party's chairman said on Tuesday.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of ex-premier Yusuf Raza Gilani, "has been recovered in a successful operation. Alhamdulillah (thanks be to God)", Pakistan People's Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto tweeted on his official account.
Pakistan's foreign office later released a statement confirming Ali Haider Gilani's release.
Greek bond yields drop, stocks hit 2016 peak after debt relief offer
By John Geddie
LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Greece's long-term government borrowing costs fell below 8 percent for the first time in more than six months and stocks soared to the year's high on Tuesday after euro zone finance ministers offered debt relief to the country from 2018.
Ten-year yields dropped more than 60 basis points to as low as 7.83 percent, while a surge in bank stocks drove Athens' main bourse up 3 percent to the highest level seen in 2016.
In what appears to be a compromise between Germany, which does not believe Greece needs additional debt relief, and the International Monetary Fund, which insists it is necessary, the offer is conditional on Athens delivering on all reforms agreed under its latest bailout.
The details will be fleshed out by deputy finance ministers by May 24.
In a statement by the Eurogroup after a meeting on Monday, ministers said they also expect a deal within days on Greek contingency reforms - actions that would only kick in if Athens veered off its promised fiscal path - paving the way for the disbursement of new loans to Greece.
"At the very least it appears the gap between the IMF and the Germans appears to be narrowing and that has been very well received by investors," Nick Stamenkovic, bond strategist at RIA Capital Markets said.
The rally in Greek bonds initially pulled other peripheral euro zone bonds in its wake. But by the close, Portuguese , Spanish and Italian 10-year yields were 1-2 basis points higher.
Benchmark German yields dipped 1 bps to 0.12 percent and within sight of one-year lows hit last month at 0.075 percent.
Two-year Greek yields dropped 150 bps to a two-month low of 7.89 percent, while Greek stocks, driven by a near 8 percent surge in bank shares, outperformed all other euro zone equities.
A document prepared by the European Stability Mechanism, and seen by Reuters on Monday, shows there are serious concerns about the long-term sustainability of Greek debt.
In the main scenario outlined by the document, the euro zone would need to extend maturities of Greek debt and cap annual interest payments. Other possible measures include the euro zone's bailout fund buying out Greece's expensive loans from the IMF, or returning profits generated by the European Central Bank on its Greek bond holdings to Athens.
Based on the ESM document, euro zone deputy finance ministers will work on various debt relief steps for Greece over the next two weeks and present their findings to their bosses on May 24.
However, some strategists are unconvinced a deal can be easily reached, and there remains a niggling concern that talks could push into June or July when Greece has a number of large debt repayments.
US, Afghan forces free kidnapped son of Pakistani ex-premier
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik
ISLAMABAD, May 10 (Reuters) - The kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister has been rescued in Afghanistan in a joint operation by Afghan and U.S. forces, three years after gunmen abducted him in his Pakistani home town, officials said on Tuesday.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of ex-premier Yusuf Raza Gilani, "has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and U.S. security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan", the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.
It added that he would be transferred to Pakistan after a medical check-up.
In a separate statement, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office said Afghan security forces defeated an al Qaeda cell in a joint operation with international forces, and suggested that the discovery of Gilani may have been accidental.
"During this anti-insurgency operation, Ali Haider Gilani ... was identified at the site of the operation, and was freed from terrorists," it said.
According to Ghani's office, the raid occurred in neighbouring Paktika province, which also borders Pakistan's restive tribal areas.
U.S. forces in Afghanistan confirmed Gilani had been rescued in a joint raid with Afghan commandos in the Gayan district of Paktika, according to a statement released on Tuesday.
Four enemy combatants were killed during the operation, which involved U.S. special forces and was carried out under the "Freedom's Sentinel" counter-terrorism mandate.
"When we first heard the news, we didn't believe it and only believed it once the foreign office confirmed it," Ali Musa Gilani, Ali Haider's brother, told Pakistan's Geo TV.
"Right now, we don't have any plans to celebrate. We are just waiting to see his face."
Ali Haider was abducted outside an office of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in his home town of Multan, in southern Punjab province, two days before Pakistan's landmark May 11, 2013 general election.
His father, a veteran PPP member, was prime minister from 2008 to 2012, when he was removed from office by the Supreme Court over contempt of court charges related to his refusal to reopen corruption cases against then-president Asif Ali Zardari.
A smiling Yusuf Raza Gilani was seen hand-in-hand with PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at an election rally in Pakistan-administered Kashmir shortly after news of the release broke.
He briefly thanked supporters for their prayers and good wishes during his speech to the crowd.
Ali Haider's was not the only high-profile abduction in Pakistan in recent years.
Say goodbye to OPEC, Russia's Sechin says
By Vladimir Soldatkin
MOSCOW, May 10 (Reuters) - Internal differences are killing OPEC and its ability to influence the markets has all but evaporated, top Russian oil executive Igor Sechin told Reuters in some of his harshest remarks ever about the oil cartel.
Russia, which has been hit hard by the oil price collapse, was flirting with the idea of cooperating with OPEC in recent months until tensions between OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Iran ruined a global deal to freeze output.
Sechin - one of the closest allies of President Vladimir Putin - was the only Russian official to consistently oppose the deal with OPEC even after the Kremlin effectively endorsed the plan.
Now that his gloomy predictions about talking to OPEC have come to pass, Sechin feels vindicated and wants to help Russia avoid similar embarrassment in future.
"At the moment a number of objective factors exclude the possibility for any cartels to dictate their will to the market. ... As for OPEC, it has practically stopped existing as a united organisation."
"The company (Rosneft) was sceptical from the very beginning about the possibility of reaching any sort of joint agreement with OPEC's involvement in current conditions," said Sechin, in comments over the weekend which were embargoed until Tuesday.
"Just to remind you, the only one question with which we responded to those who were interested to know our position: 'Who should we agree with, and how?' The development of the situation has clearly shown we were right."
Sechin's comments about the end of the era when OPEC could influence prices chime with those of Saudi Arabia's newly appointed energy minister Khaled al-Falih.
Falih, who took over on Saturday from long-serving Ali al-Naimi, has been very vocal in the past year about his views that the oil market needs to rebalance through low prices and that the Saudis have the resources to wait.
Falih's ultimate boss, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who oversees Saudi oil policies, has also signalled that the world is moving to a new era where supply and demand rather than OPEC will determine prices.
Sechin, who was born in 1960 - the same year as Falih - is also calling on Russia to abandon any hope that prices can be fixed by anything other than market rebalancing.
Acting Austrian chancellor does not rule out snap election
VIENNA, May 10 (Reuters) - Austria's acting Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner did not rule out snap elections being called after Werner Faymann stepped down as head of the government, but he said he expected to reach agreement in coalition talks with the Social Democrats.
Mitterlehner, a conservative, outlined principles that he wanted to be part of any agreement on cooperation with the person the Social Democrats' would propose as chancellor, including continuing current immigration policy.
"I assume that we have already found a common line and that we will stick to it," Mitterlehner told a news conference after a weekly cabinet meeting.
PRESS DIGEST - RUSSIA - May 10
MOSCOW, May 10 (Reuters) - The following are some of the leading stories in Russia's newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
VEDOMOSTI
www.vedomosti.ru
- Russia needs to achieve annual GDP growth of 4 percent in the medium term, the paper writes.
- Russia ranked first in the 2016 Crony-capitalism Index, the daily reports.
- The number of Russians using only plastic cards instead of cash grew by some 15 percent in 2015, the daily reports citing MasterCard data.
- The Russian Defence Ministry on Sunday said the number of Syrian cities who had agreed to the regime of ceasefire rose to 95, the paper reports.
- Russian media fail to criticize governors in Russia's regions, the paper writes citing a recent study by former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin's Committee on Civil Initiatives.
KOMMERSANT
www.kommersant.ru
- Russia's Economy Ministry published an updated macroeconomic forecast for 2016-2019. The ministry plans to curb the growth in salaries in 2016-2017 to achieve 4.5 percent GDP growth by 2019, the paper writes.
- The incomes of Russian regional governors have not suffered despite the crisis, the paper reports.
- Russia's tourism regulator may cancel visas for groups of tourists from India, Iran and Vietnam. Russia hopes to increase the number of foreign tourists by 50 percent, the daily says.
RBK
www.rbcdaily.ru
German court rejects Erdogan bid for injunction against media CEO
BERLIN, May 10 (Reuters) - A German court on Tuesday rejected a request by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for a preliminary injunction preventing the head of German publisher Axel Springer repeating a derogatory term.
Erdogan's lawyer, Ralf Hoecker, told Reuters Erdogan had sought the injunction after Chief Executive Mathias Doepfner's public support for a controversial poem read out by comedian Jan Boehmermann on German television in March.
But the court said in a statement it had rejected it on the basis of "the defendant's right to free expression of opinion".
Erdogan is known for his sensitivity to criticism and Turkish prosecutors have opened over 1,800 cases against people for insulting him since he became president in 2014. That sensitivity has also made itself felt on the international stage, raising tensions with Germany at a time when the two countries are grappling with a huge influx of Syrian refugees.
Erdogan's office was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters. The Turkish leader has repeatedly said his opponents are free to criticise him but that those who stray into insult will face legal action.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has drawn heavy criticism for allowing German prosecutors to pursue a case against Boehmermann at Erdogan's behest.
APPEAL IN OFFING
Under Germany's criminal code, insults against foreign leaders are not allowed but the government can decide whether to authorise prosecutors to go ahead.
In the poem, Boehmermann suggested Erdogan hits girls, watches child pornography and engages in bestiality.
Doepfner expressed solidarity with Boehmermann in an open letter published in German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in April, saying he had laughed out loud over the poem and "wholeheartedly" supported what the comedian had said.
If the court in Cologne had agreed to grant the injunction, Doepfner would have been banned from repeating a sexually crude term to describe Erdogan that was first used by Boehmermann and subsequently quoted by the Axel Springer chief.
The court said its decision did not address the legality of the Boehmermann poem, which is still under investigation.
A spokeswoman for Springer said Doepfner had simply "wanted to defend the freedom of art and satire in his open letter".
Hoecker had told Reuters earlier that he expected the Cologne district court to reject the injunction, and would recommend Erdogan appeal to a higher court. It was not immediately clear when a follow-on lawsuit could be filed.
Hoecker's law firm said on Monday it had won a preliminary injunction against German director and producer Uwe Boll, who in a video posted online, defended Boehmermann's poem and said Erdogan should be shot.
India's JSW Steel bids for Tata UK assets - sources
By Promit Mukherjee and Krishna N. Das
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, May 10 (Reuters) - India's JSW Steel Ltd has bid for the British operations of Tata Steel Ltd , two sources with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed, worrying bankers about its high debt levels and pulling down JSW shares on Tuesday.
JSW Steel, controlled by acquisitive billionaire Sajjan Jindal, wants to become the world's third-largest steel company and the bid for the Tata assets is in-line with that goal, said a source close to the company.
Financial Times first reported JSW's bid, after Tata said on Monday that seven expressions of interest for its British assets had been taken to the next stage of the sale process it began last month. Tata did not name the bidders, but metals group Liberty House and a buyout team called Excalibur confirmed submitting expressions of interest.
Mumbai-based JSW Steel unsuccessfully bid in 2014 to buy some assets from Italy's second-largest steelmaker, Lucchini, to enter the European market. In 2010, it bought out Indian company Ispat Steel, more than a decade after JSW emerged from near-bankruptcy.
JSW Steel Joint Managing Director, Seshagiri Rao, and Tata Steel head spokesman, Chanakya Choudhury, did not respond to requests for comment.
JSW Group, with interests in steel, power, cement and ports, had a gross debt of around 400 billion rupees ($6 billion) as of April, making it one of India's most indebted conglomerates.
Rao told Reuters last month that although the group was growth-hungry, it would not let its financial stability suffer.
Infrastructure bankers in Mumbai say, however, that they are uncomfortable with the JSW Group's debt, and they think the company is only testing the waters with the Tata bid.
One potential deal-killer is the big pension liabilities of the Port Talbot steel mill in Wales that JSW Steel might have to shoulder, said the bankers who did not want to be named.
The bankers also said that a bargain deal might help JSW Steel turn around Tata's money-losing UK business given their record of making steel efficiently and profitably in India without having any raw material security.
JSW Steel's shares, which have risen a quarter so far this year, fell more than 3 percent on Tuesday to their lowest in a month. The wider Mumbai market was up slightly.
Talks to repair Israeli-Turkish ties must await new government - envoy
By Ayla Jean Yackley
ISTANBUL, May 10 (Reuters) - Long-running efforts to fully restore Israeli-Turkish ties strained after an Israeli raid of a Turkish boat in 2010 must now await the formation of a new government in Ankara, Israel's top diplomat in Turkey said.
Turkey downgraded diplomatic relations and ejected Israel's ambassador in 2011, a year after Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, part of a humanitarian aid convoy trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, and killed 10 Turks.
Israel is currently represented by Shai Cohen, its consul-general in Istanbul.
The two sides have signalled for months a deal is imminent, including compensation for the Mavi Marmara victims and an easing of the Gaza blockade.
Israeli officials said a deal was reached in December, and President Tayyip Erdogan said in March he expected positive results soon, raising hopes an agreement was imminent.
The next meeting "will have to wait until the composition of the new Turkish government on May 22," Cohen told reporters late on Monday. "I believe it will take another round or two in order to conclude the deal ... Most of the issues between Israel and Turkey are already, to a certain extent, clear."
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will step down on May 22 after a rift with Erdogan. Forming a new government could delay both domestic and foreign policy initiatives.
SYRIA AS IMPETUS
NATO member Turkey and Israel cooperated militarily beginning in the 1990s, a relationship seen as vital to Middle East stability by the United States but viewed warily by Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party, in power since 2002.
The impetus behind fixing the relationship now is security, especially with Islamic State and other jihadists in control of swathes of Syria, which Israel and Turkey both border, Cohen said. However, restoring military ties will take time, he added.
Another factor is natural gas. Energy-poor Turkey wants to pipe product from Israel's offshore Leviathan field, estimated to hold 500 billion cubic metres, for domestic use and export.
"Everyone is looking forward to see how Israel can export to Turkey, and through Turkey to the West, natural gas," he said.
Cohen ruled out lifting the sea blockade on Gaza in place since 2007, calling it a "non-issue," even though Erdogan has repeatedly made it a condition for restoring relations.
Talks instead focus on how Turkey can bring its goods overland to rebuild Gaza, whose infrastructure has been battered by the blockade and Israeli incursions. About half of building goods in Gaza are from Turkey, and this could be increased in line with Israel's capacity to monitor shipments, Cohen said.
Israel wants to ensure that Turkish supplies do not amount to cooperation with Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
Israel accuses Turkey of hosting a Hamas command centre and wants Ankara to bar leaders of the Islamist group. Erdogan met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Istanbul as recently as December.
Qatar to nominate a woman to VW supervisory board -sources
By Jan Schwartz and Andreas Cremer
HAMBURG/BERLIN, May 10 (Reuters) - Volkswagen investor Qatar will nominate a woman to represent the emirate on the carmaker's supervisory board, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Qatar will send a woman, most likely to replace Hussain Ali Al-Abdulla, Minister of State and board member of Qatar Investment Authority, one of the sources close to VW's supervisory board said.
Tired of waiting, Greece's migrants turn to business to survive
By Lefteris Papadimas
IDOMENI, Greece, May 10 (Reuters) - Within sight of a razor wire fence guarded by Macedonian police, 35-year-old Iraqi migrant Saima Hodep rolls dough with an old steel water pipe outside her tent, in preparation for customers for her unleavened bread.
Saima is one of a small but growing number of migrants eking out a living on the Greek side of the Macedonian border, where about 10,000 people have set up Europe's biggest refugee camp and are showing signs of settling in for the long term.
She sells about 100 pieces of bread a day at the Idomeni camp, which has no running water but at least eight barbers.
"My parents didn't have any choice when we ran out of money a few weeks ago. They had to do something to make money," said Saima's 17-year-old daughter Saven.
The makeshift camp, home mostly to Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, sprang up four months ago. At the time, huge numbers were making their way to northern Europe in the hope of gaining asylum in countries such as Germany, but border shutdowns in the Balkans stranded thousands in Greece.
They refuse to move, despite being tear-gassed by Macedonian police, and appeals by Greek authorities to move to organised camps deeper inside the country.
Today, the Idomeni camp has three improvised mosques, a kindergarten and a school, as well as at least four makers of falafel - the ground spiced chickpea patty of the Middle East -who supplement food provided by non governmental organisations.
FACILITIES LACKING
Migrants tents are haphazardly placed, jostling for space in the meadow outside Idomeni village. Basic facilities are scarce; there are chemical toilets, but they stink and often overflow.
Yannis Mouzalas, Greece's migration minister, said last week that conditions at the camp were an "affront which should stop". Yet Greece, unlike France which tore down part of an unofficial camp known as "The Jungle" at Calais, goes for the softly-softly approach with the Idomeni migrants.
"We will step up the dialogue," Mouzalas told the semi-official Athens News Agency.
Raied Anbtauy, a 44-year-old from Aleppo, has been stranded in Idomeni for three months, separated from his family who had already reached Germany.
For the past 10 days, he has been making falafel to survive, cooking them in a small hut tied together with blankets. "I ran out of money and I needed to do something," he told Reuters.
Another, Ridwan Kiko, 29, a Palestinian who lived in Damascus, said he is forced to sell fruit and vegetables that he buys from Greek Roma to survive and get medicines for his mother, a diabetic who needs insulin.
"The life here is so terrible, we don't have clean water, we don't have money, the food is not good and is not enough for everyone."
Budding enterprise was probably born of the realisation that the border would stay shut, said Marco Buono, head of UNHCR's field office in Idomeni.
"The shops started at the end of March... There are people with skills that want to be useful to their community and to their family and at the same time make some money," he told Reuters.
Despite the repeated appeals by Greek authorities, most refugees and migrants at Idomeni are refusing to budge.
Dozens of Dutch tax officers investigating Panama leads
AMSTERDAM, May 10 (Reuters) - Several dozen tax officers in the Netherlands have started chasing leads on possible tax evasion after 250 Dutch offshore entities were named in the Panama Papers leaks, an official said on Tuesday.
Data analysts and a special unit that investigates tax structures are looking into possible Dutch links to the clients of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, Adriaan Ros, spokesman for the Dutch tax authority, said.
"If there has been fraud, then of course we will act," Ros said. "The process of sifting through all this information is going to take months rather than weeks."
The findings are due to be presented to parliament in a public report.
Gunmen kill five security personnel in Nigerian Delta, oil companies evacuate staff
By Tife Owolabi
YENAGOA, Nigeria, May 10 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed two policemen in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta as they slept in a security post on Monday evening and three soldiers were killed in a second attack, police and the army said.
The raids took place a day after five police officers were shot dead in the same region.
Recent violence has raised concern that militants might resume an insurgency that has been quiet for the past several years. A labour union on Tuesday called for the evacuation of oil workers from the region.
The army said it would use "all available means and measures" to crush militants attacking oil facilities, saying: "They will stand to regret the consequences of their actions."
The two policemen, who were asleep on guard duty, were killed in Delta's Rivers state, a police spokesman. The soldiers died in an attack in Bayelsa state, the army said.
Last week, a group known as Niger Delta Avengers attacked a Chevron facility in the Delta after claiming a strike in February against a Shell pipeline, which shut down the 250,000 barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal. The violence has pushed Nigeria's crude output near to a 22-year low.
"Best thing for any reasonable company to do is evacuate its workforce," said Cogent Ojobor, chairman of the Warri branch of the Nupeng oil labour union.
Chika Onuegbu, chairman of the trade union in Rivers state, said Chevron had evacuated some staff from the Delta following a similar move by Shell.
"There is high alert around various installation around the Niger Delta due to recent attacks," Onuegbu said. "Those evacuated are where their platforms have been attacked but others are working."
Ikeja Electricity, Nigeria's biggest power firm, said it expected extended outages after the attack on Chevron hit gas supplies needed to generate electricity.
Delta residents have long demanded a greater share of oil revenues. Crude oil sales account for about 70 percent of national income in Nigeria but there has been little development in the region.
President Muhammadu Buhari has extended an amnesty agreement signed with militants in 2009 to end their campaign to blow up pipelines, but has upset them by ending generous pipeline protection contracts.
The incidents are a further challenge for a government faced with an insurgency by the Islamist militant Boko Haram group in the northeast, and clashes between armed nomadic herdsmen and local people over land use in various parts of Nigeria.
Banks in Hungary consider sale of non-performing mortgages - sources
By Gergely Szakacs
BUDAPEST, May 10 (Reuters) - Major banks in Hungary are considering the sale of their non-performing mortgages, financial sector sources told Reuters, as market appetite for such products grows due to the end of a foreclosure moratorium and a surge in real estate prices.
Hungary's high rate of non-performing loans, built up during the financial crisis, is a "significant risk" to the banking system, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in its country update last Friday.
Two financial sector sources familiar with the plans said the Hungarian unit of Austrian Erste Group Bank and Italian UniCredit were among those considering the sale of some of their mortgages to private investors.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the portfolios could be worth about 250 million euros ($284.35 million) to 300 million euros each, adding that plans were in the early stages and any sale could take place in the second half of the year.
"The foreclosure moratorium has been scrapped, the legal structure has been arranged, the banks have created the required provisions and the real estate market is in an enormous upswing, above the pre-crisis levels of 2008," one of the sources said.
"Anyone not considering selling off their non-performing loans right now is just not thinking, period."
Press officials for Erste Bank and UniCredit declined to comment when asked about the plans.
One source said smaller British funds, some specialised central European investors and a couple of domestic players were potentially interested buyers.
Erste, one of Hungary's top retail banks, had a non-performing loan rate of 18.1 percent in the local retail segment at the end of last year.
UniCredit's bad retail loan rate stood at about 19 to 20 percent at the end of 2014 according to the latest annual report available on its website.
In March the central bank advised lenders to try to work with delinquent borrowers, suggesting the possible restructuring of their loans or a joint sale of their property, before banks opt for foreclosure or the sale of any portfolios.
But it added any sale of such mortgages, affecting about 130,000 borrowers in total, could free up cash and other resources for lending.
Uzbekistan investigates GM joint venture over Russian debt
TASHKENT, May 10 (Reuters) - Authorities in Uzbekistan are investigating GM Uzbekistan, a venture part-owned by U.S. carmaker General Motors, over losses incurred by its Russian business, an executive at the Russian unit told Reuters on Tuesday.
"The company (GM Uzbekistan) is being investigated because the Russian distributor was unable to repay its debt," said Yelena Kuznetsova, director of marketing at the Russian representative office for Ravon, GM Uzbekistan's brand aimed specifically at the Russian market.
Kuznetsova said the Russian distributor had failed to pay GM Uzbekistan by the March deadline for cars shipped to Russia last year, because it had absorbed losses from the rouble's sharp depreciation over the last two years and could no longer obtain credit from banks.
The rouble has lost more than half of its value against the dollar since late 2014 as the price of oil, a key Russian export, plunged.
Kuznetsova did not say how big the debt was and could not confirm a report saying Tokhirjon Jalilov, former chief executive of GM Uzbekistan, had been arrested as part of the probe.
Uzbek news website UzMetronom, which carried the report this month, is privately-owned and Uzbek official media have said nothing about the investigation or arrest.
GM Uzbekistan said Jalilov left the company last month but declined to comment on the investigation. Uzbekistan's prosecutor general's office and the National Security Service said they were not involved, while the Interior Ministry declined to comment. Jalilov could not be reached for comment.
Detroit-based General Motors also declined to comment on the investigation. The U.S. firm has a 25 percent stake in GM Uzbekistan which it obtained as a result of its the acquisition of South Korea's Daewoo Motor Co.
Germany Steinmeier says ball in Turkey's court on EU migrants deal
BERLIN, May 12 (Reuters) - It is up to Turkey to fulfill the 72 criteria that the European Union has set out if it wants the bloc to grant it visa-free travel, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday.
Earlier, Ankara's minister for EU affairs said Turkey believed it had fulfilled all the criteria, adding that it was unacceptable if the deal was postponed unfairly.
But Steinmeier, speaking at a conference on Europe in the German foreign ministry, said Turkey must change anti-terror statutes which could give rise to the pursuit of journalists.
Brazil's Rousseff takes impeachment fight to Supreme Court as Senate poised to oust her
By Silvio Cascione and Leonardo Goy
BRASILIA, May 10 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff took her battle to survive impeachment to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, in a last-ditch attempt to stay in office a day before the Senate is expected to vote to try her for breaking budget laws.
Attorney General Eduardo Cardozo, the government's top lawyer, asked the Supreme Court to annul impeachment proceedings, his office said.
Earlier in the day, the acting speaker of the lower house of Congress withdrew his controversial decision to annul last month's impeachment vote in the chamber. That meant Cardozo's appeal to the highest court may be the president's best hope of stopping the process from moving forward.
Speaker Eduardo Maranhao withdrew his surprise decision on Tuesday, following complaints that it was illegal, clearing the way for a Senate vote on Wednesday to go ahead as planned.
If a simple majority agrees to put her on trial, Rousseff will be suspended from office on Thursday, leaving Vice President Michel Temer in power for up to six months during her trial.
If Rousseff were convicted and removed definitively, Temer would stay in the post until elections in 2018.
With the prospect looming of an end to 13 years of rule by Rousseff's leftist Workers Party (PT), anti-impeachment protesters blocked roads with burning tires in demonstrations in Sao Paulo, the capital Brasilia and other cities, snarling morning traffic.
The PT and labor unions have called for a national strike to resist what they call a "coup" against democracy.
"President Dilma is determined to defend the Constitution because she was elected by the people and she will appeal to the Senate, the Supreme Court and Brazilian society," Labor Minister Miguel Rossetto told reporters.
The legality of Rousseff's imminent removal from office was questioned by the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, who said he would seek the legal opinion of the Inter-American Human Rights Court.
Maranhao's surprise decision on Monday threw Brazilian markets into disarray and threatened to drag out a painful political crisis with a constitutional standoff that could have ended up at the Supreme Court.
Brazil's currency, the real, strengthened 1 percent and the benchmark Bovespa stock index rose 2 percent - reflecting investor hopes that a more market-friendly government will soon take over the recession-hit country under Temer, who is forming a cabinet with pro-business figures.
In a statement to the Senate, Maranhao did not cite any reason for backtracking on his decision to annul due to "procedural flaws" the lower house's April 17 vote. The vote had overwhelmingly recommended that the Senate try Rousseff.
Maranhao, a little known politician before taking over last week after the removal of Eduardo Cunha for obstruction of a corruption investigation, faces expulsion from his center-right Progressive Party, which supports Rousseff's impeachment.
Senate President Renan Calheiros said Monday that Maranhao was "playing with democracy" and vowed the Senate would press ahead with Wednesday's vote. It is expected to take place at about 8 p.m. (2300 GMT) at the end of an all-day session of speeches.
Rousseff's opponents have more than the 41 votes needed to launch her trial in the upper chamber, and they are confident they can muster two-thirds of the 81 senators, or 54, to unseat the unpopular president at the end of a trial that can last up to six months.
TEMER MAY TAKE OVER ON THURSDAY
If she loses Wednesday's vote, Rousseff will be served notice by the Senate on Thursday, at which point the suspended president must vacate the presidential palace. She can continue to live in the presidential residence during the trial.
Temer would step in as interim president as soon as she is given notice.
The impeachment process comes as Brazil is mired in its worst recession since the 1930s and shaken by the country's biggest ever corruption scandal - which have paralyzed Rousseff's second-term administration.
Rousseff has steadfastly denied committing any impeachable crime and has vowed to fight impeachment by all means legally possible. She has dismissed calls for her resignation.
The impeachment process is unfolding as investigators pursue a separate, long-running probe into a vast kickback scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras.
"Operation Carwash" has ensnared dozens of top politicians and jailed chief executives from Brazil's biggest construction firms for paying billions in bribes to lock up bloated building contracts.
The political crisis has hit at a time when Brazil would want to be shining on the world stage, as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.
South Africa targets 80 percent mobile broadband coverage by 2019
By Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN, May 10 (Reuters) - South Africa aims to double its mobile broadband coverage to 80 percent of the population by 2019, the telecoms minister said on Tuesday, adding that the government wanted to reduce the high cost of communications.
According to a World Bank report released in February, South Africans paid around $14.10 for one gigabyte of data, the fourth highest out of 17 African countries, compared to lowest-rated Cameroon, where the same bundle cost around $2.10.
Siyabonga Cwele, the telecoms minister, said that a new telecoms policy to be finalised in the next few months would aim to boost competition and increase growth in the industry.
"It will reduce barriers to entry by moving away from monopolistic infrastructure based competition, to open access broadband networks," Cwele told parliament.
Major telecoms firms in South Africa include the continent's top mobile phone operator MTN, Vodacom and unlisted Cell C. The five main firms in the wireless broadband market account for more than 70 percent of the market.
A new policy on spectrum would help consumers by increasing choice and reducing Internet costs, Cwele said.
South Africa is rolling out free Wifi services across the country and it would could cost around 67 billion rand ($4.4 billion) to connect the entire country with broadband, he said.
POST OFFICE NEEDS CASH
Cwele is also responsible for the cash-strapped state-owned South African Post Office (Sapo) which he said urgently required 3.7 billion rand.
"I am confident that the CEO will soon finalise a domestic syndicated loan facility towards the required funding," he said.
Sapo is focused on financial services and trying to develop e-commerce.
Sapo's CEO Mark Barnes told reporters the firm had 1.8 billion rand of indications of interest out of the 2.7 billion rand of new debt, but no deal had been signed yet.
"I would expect we are weeks away (from signing a deal)," Barnes said.
In April, Barnes told Reuters in an interview that he expected the company to return to profit in 2018.
Workers at Sapo staged a two-day strike on Thursday and Friday over wages dating back to 2014. The workers have since suspended the industrial action and given the company more time to meet their demands.
Party rises at Kim's North Korea congress, but little sign of reform
By James Pearson and Tony Munroe
PYONGYANG/SEOUL, May 10 (Reuters) - In a tailored Western suit, 33-year-old North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a rare congress of the ruling Workers' Party that cemented his control over the isolated country but lacked the introduction of major reforms.
Still, the first Workers' Party congress since 1980 signalled a restoration of the role of the party in a country where the military held primacy under his father, Kim Jong Il, said experts on the country's opaque leadership.
The four-day event that ended on Monday included Kim addressing the 3,467 delegates for more than three hours at a stretch. The meeting underlined a stability of leadership that is likely to mean fewer of the purges and executions that marked Kim's early years of rule following the death of his father in 2011.
While a greater role for the party might help improve strained relations with ally China, analysts said, rival South Korea and the United States are less likely to be impressed, as North Korea also called during the congress for expansion of its nuclear arsenal, for what it said are defensive purposes.
Some party cadres had expected Kim to announce Chinese- or Vietnamese-style reforms at the congress, according to the Seoul-based Daily NK, a website run by North Korean defectors with sources inside the country, and were disappointed when Kim's speech, aired by state TV on Sunday, mainly returned to old themes with vaguely communicated policy.
The congress did not, for example, formally recognise the growing role of a grey market in one of the world's most state-controlled economies.
But Michael Madden, a U.S.-based expert on the North Korean leadership, said it was significant that Kim had put forward a five-year economic plan.
"There's going to be a gripe that there's no policy meat, that he didn't sit there and give everybody a technocratic speech about policy, but a party congress is not the forum to do that," he said.
The power of the military expanded during Kim Jong Il's 17-year tenure, which did not include a party congress.
Madden said that the number of military people with key roles in power organisations had been reduced. "We are definitely seeing a drawing-down of the military's political influence in North Korea's political culture," he said.
Military-themed slogans, a staple of state propaganda, were less visible during the party congress, held in the capital Pyongyang. Instead, propaganda signs were overwhelmingly focused on the Workers' Party.
Changes in party posts announced at the congress were not as dramatic as some analysts had anticipated. Some North Korea-watchers had expected more prominence for younger party officials.
"The scale of generational change was surprisingly not big, which shows how stable Kim Jong Un's regime is," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute near Seoul.
OVERSEAS AUDIENCE?
The party congress may also have created an opening for mending ties with neighbour China, which has grown frustrated with the North's pursuit of nuclear weapons and backed tough U.N. sanctions to punish Pyongyang.
"China thought the military-first political system was not a normal one. It looks similar to martial law," said Lee Min-yong, a North Korea expert at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country holds its own Communist Party congress every five years, sent a letter of congratulations to Kim on his elevation to party chairman.
"Holding the party congress means we are going back to the original socialist system. I think in Kim Jong Un's mind, he wanted to get along with China," Lee said.
South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said the third-generation leader offered no new strategy at the event.
"The Kim Jong Un regime is focused on solidifying his power structure and securing its nuclear status," he told parliament on Tuesday.
South Korea had warned that the isolated North could conduct a fifth nuclear test in conjunction with the congress.
Kim cut a modern figure during the congress in tortoise-shell glasses and a dark suit with grey necktie, a departure from the drab jacket buttoned to the neck favoured by North Korean leaders, or the jumpsuits worn by his late father.
Kim's grandfather, founding leader Kim Il Sung, also switched between Western suits and the North Korean-style "peoples' suit."
ECB asks euro zone banks to detail Brexit plans
By Arno Schuetze
FRANKFURT, May 10 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has asked large euro zone banks to detail how they are preparing for a British exit from the EU, including how they would deal with the shock to markets and any changes they would have to make to their business models.
The ECB, which supervises the 129 euro zone banks it deems most systemically important, has sent letters to banks with a large exposure to Britain, according to several people familiar with the matter.
The watchdog is taking stock of what specific exposure banks have to Britain and what contingency plans they have drawn up to prepare for all possible scenarios.
"ECB Banking Supervision is engaging with the relevant banks to ensure they are adequately assessing the risks and are prepared for all possible outcomes," an ECB spokesman said.
Britain is the world's fifth-biggest economy, and the EU's second largest. Many euro zone banks have large operations in London, home to the world's biggest foreign exchange market and a major global investment banking hub.
A source at a large German bank said the ECB had asked about its exposure to sterling, as well as its wider exposure to Britain in its fixed income, equities and loans portfolios.
"They also questioned us about how a Brexit may affect our business model," the person said.
The source added that his bank saw only negligible Brexit-related impact and had so far taken no specific action beyond making sure trading desks would be able to handle the high volatility expected on June 24 - the day after Britain's referendum on EU membership.
HEDGING
The ECB is able to be more open in asking banks about preparations for a possible Brexit than it could be on the prospect of Greece leaving the euro zone, given Britain is not a member of that bloc.
During the Greek debt crisis the central bank played down having a contingency plan for a 'Grexit', mindful of the political implications this would have on the currency union.
Ralph Hamers, chief executive of Dutch lender ING said on Tuesday that the ECB had been in touch with his bank over the Brexit issue.
He said a British exit would not necessarily lead to a review of its London-based financial markets and structured finance business - although if it caused other banks to move some trade out of Britain, ING might have to follow.
"But if the larger banks in the markets would move and with that the flow in the markets would move, we would move as well, clearly," he said during a results news conference.
People involved in Brexit preparations at some other German banks said issues like export-import financing and loans to British companies or German firms with a large UK business were also part of the discussions with the ECB.
Car bomb hits police vehicle in Turkish city of Diyarbakir, 13 wounded - officials
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, May 10 (Reuters) - A car bomb struck an armoured police vehicle on Tuesday in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir, located in the mainly Kurdish southeast, wounding 13 people, security officials said.
A Reuters witness heard a large explosion in the city centre, followed by the wail of ambulance sirens after the attack. Parts of Diyarbakir have seen intense security operations since a three-decade conflict between the state and Kurdish militants reignited in July 2015.
Italy arrests 3 in probe into suspected planned attacks in Rome, London
BARI, Italy, May 10 (Reuters) - Italian police on Tuesday arrested three people as part of an investigation into a militant cell suspected of planning attacks in Rome and London, authorities said on Tuesday.
The cell had been established in Puglia, in southeastern Italy, "to carry out violent attacks with the purpose of international terrorism, in Italy and abroad", the arrest warrant read.
Two Afghan citizens, one suspected of international terrorism and the other of aiding illegal immigration, were arrested, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said in a statement.
A third man, a Pakistani also suspected of aiding illegal immigration, was detained in Milan later in the day, a police source said.
Police confiscated the suspects' phones, on which they found footage of presumed targets including airports, ports, shopping centres and hotels in Rome, London and Bari, the main city in Puglia, the arrest warrant said. Investigators also found recordings of prayers and images of weapons and mutilated U.S. soldiers.
Italy has not suffered deadly Islamist attacks like those in France and Belgium, but a number of people have been arrested on suspicion of planning assaults.
In all, the warrant calls for the arrests of five people. They are all officially resident near Bari but two are currently in Afghanistan, the source said.
Three of the suspects are accused of international terrorism and two of aiding illegal immigration.
Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe said at a news conference that there was "absolutely no indication of an imminent attack in Italy", but prosecutor Elisabetta Pugliese said at the same conference that the investigation was "worrying".
The group based in Bari is suspected of acting as a local unit or providing logistical support to an international organisation linked to Islamic State, investigators wrote in the arrest order.
French government to impose labour reform by decree in face of rebellion
By Michel Rose and Ingrid Melander
PARIS, May 10 (Reuters) - Unable to put down a rebellion within their own ruling party, French President Francois Hollande and his Socialist government on Tuesday opted to force unpopular labour market reforms through the lower house of parliament without a vote.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced the move after the collapse of talks with rebel Socialist lawmakers over the bill, which seeks to make hiring and firing easier. It follows weeks of trade union and student-led street protests.
"It is my duty to move forward and make sure this text is adopted," Valls told parliament after an emergency cabinet meeting.
"I won't apologise for this: this bill is good for businesses and it is good for workers," he said, as opponents of the bill booed and fellow ministers applauded in support.
The decision to invoke special constitutional powers underlines the deep rifts running through the ruling Socialist Party a year ahead of presidential elections and Hollande's own weakness ahead of declaring whether he will run for re-election.
"It's a heavy-handed way of using the constitution to prevent the nation's representatives from having their say," Laurent Baumel, a rebel Socialist lawmaker told reporters, calling the decision "anti-democratic".
Hollande's move not to compromise with his own legislators sends a signal to international investors and ratings agencies, who have for years pressed for more pro-market reforms in the euro zone's second largest economy.
But it also exposes France's most unpopular leader in recent memory to a vote of confidence, quickly called by opposition conservatives.
A no confidence vote by lawmakers in the lower chamber on Thursday would dissolve Valls' government. However, despite the divide within the party, the government is expected to survive.
Lawmakers to the left of the Socialist Party said they would try to gather enough signatures to put forward their own no-confidence motion.
The option to push legislation through by decree is made possible by a rarely used clause in France's constitution - known as 49.3 - which underlines the strong powers wielded by the executive under France's presidential system.
It is the second time in as many years Hollande and Valls have used the clause, having last year rammed a law through parliament which loosened up Sunday trading rules and regulations in the transport and legal sectors.
France has some of the most protective labour regulations in the euro zone. The government says the proposed legislation will encourage companies to hire and bring down a jobless rate that is stuck above 10 percent.
Although Valls diluted parts of the labour bill in March, the bill retains measures giving more flexibility to employers to agree in-house deals with employees on working time.
It also offers companies less restrictive conditions for layoffs made for economic reasons.
Hollande has said he will only run for a second term if he succeeds in creating jobs. Government opponents said Hollande's time was up.
"We are witnessing the slow but certain demise of the government," conservative lawmaker Eric Ciotti told reporters.
Zambia police arrest four suspects for ritual murders that sparked riots
LUSAKA, May 10 (Reuters) - Zambia police said on Tuesday four suspects have been arrested in connection with a string of grisly ritual murders in the southern African nation's capital that triggered anti-foreign riots targeting mostly Rwandan migrants in April.
The arrested suspects are two army soldiers, a civilian employee of the Zambian Air Force and a traditional doctor, police said. They were to appear in court Tuesday afternoon charged with seven counts of murder.
"All the murders which the accused have been charged with were committed in a similar manner by crushing the left side of the head, removing body parts and later dumping the deceased near their homes," police said in a statement.
Police said in April that the victims had ears, hearts and genitals removed, raising suspicion of ritual killings.
Human body parts are sometimes used in traditional remedies and concoctions in southern Africa. The practice is linked to witchcraft beliefs.
Canadian oil production trickles back as wildfire threat eases
By Liz Hampton and Nia Williams
EDMONTON, Alberta, May 10 (Reuters) - Oil sands companies around the Canadian energy center of Fort McMurray began to restart operations on Tuesday after an out-of-control wildfire forced a week-long shutdown.
Top provincial and industry officials said production in much of the region should ramp up soon. Facilities north of Fort McMurray that had been shuttered largely because of heavy smoke rather than fire were seen as likely to come back on line in a matter of days in many cases.
While the fire continued to grow on Tuesday, officials said it was moving to the south and east, away from the area's largest oil production facilities and into sparsely populated areas. A handful of smaller facilities remained under fire threat, however, and some could not yet be reached for damage assessments.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc became the first company to resume its operation in the center of Canada's oil sands region. Enbridge Inc began inspecting its facilities and prepared to restart operations shuttered during the blaze.
"While thousands of lives will never be the same, we can take small steps to getting back the rhythm of northeast Alberta," Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told reporters after meeting with executives from companies including Suncor Energy Inc, ConocoPhillips Canada and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
"For many in Fort McMurray, that means rolling up the sleeves, and returning to work doing what they love, which is working in the energy sector," she said in Edmonton.
Steve Williams, chief executive of Suncor, said the industry has plenty of housing available at project sites north of the city. Despite last week's mass evacuation, gathering a sufficient workforce would not be a barrier to restarting operations.
"We have a huge capability for moving significant numbers of people," Williams said at the press conference. "In that sort of 48-72 hour period immediately following the evacuation ... we were able to evacuate significantly more than 20,000 people."
The meeting came a day after Notley led an inspection tour of Fort McMurray, which found that the town was less damaged than initially feared with about 90 percent of its buildings surviving the blaze.
But its 88,000 residents, who last week were hurriedly evacuated as far away as the provincial capital Edmonton, 380 km (235 miles) to the south, will not be able to return to their homes for weeks.
Energy industry officials have been grappling with transportation problems for staff because the specialists who run the oil production sites were also among the residents displaced by the blaze.
Shell said it will fly staff in and out of the region, while Imperial Oil Ltd said its Kearl oil sands mining project will remain shut until the company worked out the logistics of moving people and materials to and from the remote site.
But Notley said some movement of goods and materials by road through Fort McMurray had resumed earlier on Tuesday.
Syncrude restarted power generation at its oil sands mine in Aurora, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Fort McMurray, as it began planning to resume operations, a spokeswoman said.
Cenovus Energy Inc said that it would start bringing non-essential staff back to work at its Christina Lake oil sands operation on Thursday, a week after it evacuated all but essential staff under the looming threat of the fire.
TOWN STILL SMOLDERING
The blaze grew moderately on Tuesday to 229,000 hectares (560,000 acres) and spread east through terrain with no communities. It merged with another fire burning near Campbell Lake, some 50 km (30 miles) east of Fort McMurray.
One area remaining under threat was Hangingstone, about 60 km (36 miles) south of Fort McMurray, and home to at least two smaller facilities run by Athabasca Oil Co. and Japan Canada Oil Sands Ltd. Both are shut, but between them account for only about 17,000 barrels per day of output, a fraction of the roughly 1 million barrels a day that has been lost to the fire, half of Canada's daily production.
Notley said she believed facilities at Hangingstone were intact, but the area was not yet accessible due to the fire threat.
The largest-producing oil projects in the Fort McMurray area are about 20 km (12 miles) north of the town and not in the fire's current path. Suncor's Williams said those facilities had not incurred damage and were closed due to smoke, not fire.
He said Suncor would not suffer any material losses from the blaze.
The inspection of Fort McMurray revealed blocks of homes reduced to blackened foundations, front steps and metal barbecues. Notley said 2,400 structures had burned within the city while almost 25,000 were saved.
Officials warned it was not safe for residents to return to the town, with parts still smoldering and large areas without power, water and gas. Notley said repair crews will need weeks to make the city safe.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons he would go to Fort McMurray on Friday. Canada's labor minister told reporters on Tuesday that the federal government would ensure that people put out of work by the blaze receive unemployment payments.
Canadian crude prices slipped on Tuesday, trading below the U.S. crude benchmark, as signs of resuming production eased supply concerns.
Nearly all of Fort McMurray's residents escaped the fire safely, although two teenagers died in a car crash during the evacuation.
Clinton loses to Sanders in coal state of West Virginia
By Amanda Becker and Jonathan Allen
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton on Tuesday in West Virginia's primary, winning over voters deeply skeptical about the economy and signaling the difficulty Clinton may have in industrial states in the general election.
The loss slows Clinton's march to the nomination, but she is still heavily favored to become the Democratic candidate in the Nov. 8 election.
In a November match-up with Donald Trump, Clinton will need to win over working-class voters in the U.S. Rust Belt, which includes key states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Trump, 69, won contests in West Virginia and Nebraska handily on Tuesday. The presumptive Republican nominee is set to meet with party leaders in the U.S. Congress on Thursday, including U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan.
After Ryan said last week that he was not yet ready to endorse Trump, Trump said on Sunday that he would have to decide whether he still wanted Ryan to preside over the party's July convention.
Trump said in a Fox interview on Tuesday night that he would like Ryan to chair the convention as planned. "He's a very good man, he wants what's good for the party," the New York billionaire said.
Trump has zeroed in on Clinton's protracted battle with Sanders, a 74-year-old U.S. senator from Vermont. He has taunted Clinton in recent days by saying she "can't close the deal" by beating Sanders, her only rival for the Democratic Party's nomination since Feb. 1.
Clinton, 68, has said she will ignore Trump's personal insults, including his repeated use of his new nickname for her, "Crooked Hillary," and instead will criticize his policy pronouncements.
TOP CONCERNS: ECONOMY AND JOBS
Deep concerns about the economy underscored West Virginia's Democratic primary. Roughly six in 10 voters said they were very worried about the direction of the U.S. economy in the next few years. The same proportion cited the economy and jobs was their most important voting issue, according to a preliminary ABC News exit poll.
A remark Clinton made at an Ohio town hall in March that the country would "put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business" at an Ohio town hall in a comment may have hurt her with voters in coal-mining states such as West Virginia.
During Clinton's visit to West Virginia and Ohio last week she repeatedly apologized to displaced coal and steel workers for her comment, which she said had been taken out of context, and discussed her plan to help retrain coal workers for clean energy jobs.
To secure the Democratic nomination, a candidate needs 2,383 delegates. Going into West Virginia, Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state, had 2,228 delegates, including 523 so-called superdelegates, elite party members who are free to support any candidate. Sanders had 1,454 delegates, including 39 superdelegates. Another 29 delegates will be apportioned based on West Virginia's results.
Clinton and Sanders will compete in another primary contest on May 17. Both candidates are also looking ahead to the June 7 contests, the last in the long nominating season, in which nearly 700 delegates are at stake, including 475 in California, where Sanders is now focusing his efforts.
Sanders has vowed to take his campaign all the way to the Democrats' July 25-28 convention in Philadelphia, and wants a say in shaping the party's platform.
Sanders has repeatedly told supporters at packed rallies that most opinion polls indicate he would beat Trump in a general election match-up by a larger margin than polls show Clinton defeating Trump.
Trump, shifting into general election mode, has already begun to consider running mates. He told Fox on Tuesday night that he has narrowed his list to five people.
He did not rule out picking New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former rival who ended his presidential bid in February. Christie, who endorsed Trump and then campaigned for him, on Monday was named to head Trump's White House transition team.
Germany expanding military ranks to counter Islamist, cyber threats
BERLIN, May 10 (Reuters) - Germany plans to add 7,000 military jobs and 4,400 civilians to its armed forces over the next seven years to help tackle demands such as cybersecurity and the fight against Islamic State, its defence minister said on Tuesday.
Ursula von der Leyen said the move marked the first increase in the size of the German military since the end of the Cold War and was part of a broader campaign that has revamped the way the military buys equipment and prepares its budgets.
"A quarter century of a shrinking military is over. It is time for the German armed forces to grow," she told reporters.
Germany's armed forces totalled 800,000 military and civilian personnel at the time of German unification in 1990, but since have shrunk to a target of 185,000 troops and 56,000 civilians, according to German government officials.
They said the goal now was to get away from the strict ceilings used in the past and move toward a more dynamic annual review of personnel needs.
Officials said a recent comprehensive review had shown that the German military needed 14,300 additional troops to cope with new missions. These include the at-sea rescue of refugees, operations in support of a U.S.-led air strike campaign against Islamic State insurgents in Iraq and Syria, and backing operations against other Islamist militants in Mali.
Of those, 5,000 would be filled through changes in existing personnel, with 7,000 to be added in new posts and the extension of existing contracts.
Current plans would leave about 2,300 of the required military positions vacant, although that estimate could be adjusted next year, officials said.
Two policemen killed in Nigeria's Delta region - police
YENAGOA, Nigeria, May 10 (Reuters) - Unknown gunmen killed two Nigerian policemen in the oil-producing Niger Delta, a police spokesman said on Tuesday, a day after five officers were shot dead in the restive region.
"The policemen were asleep and killed by some callous assailants," said a spokesman for police in Rivers state in the Delta.
South Africa approves SABMiller, Coke bottling deal with conditions
By Nqobile Dludla
JOHANNESBURG, May 10 (Reuters) - South Africa's Competition Tribunal on Tuesday conditionally approved a SABMiller and Coca-Cola deal to combine their African soft drink operations into what would be the continent's biggest Coke drinks bottler.
In a bid to fast-track the antitrust probe, SABMiller and Coca-Cola struck a deal with the South African government earlier this month that included an 800 million rand ($53 million) investment to support small businesses and a three-year freeze on layoffs.
The Competition Tribunal said the deal can go ahead subject to several conditions. These include the enlarged group limiting job cuts to 250, providing business skills to 25,000 black retailers and ensuring it purchases cans, glass, sugar, fruits and crates from local suppliers.
The Coca-Cola Beverages Africa merger parties welcomed the Competition Tribunal's approval saying in a statement they expect the transaction to complete as soon as practicable.
"Today's announcement ensures that the creation of Coca-Cola's largest bottling partner in Africa will strengthen our business while also closely aligning with the South African government's national imperatives for social and economic development," Coca-Cola Chief Operating Officer James Quincey said.
"This agreement marks the latest important step in that journey."
Brewer SABMiller, which is in the process of being taken over by Anheuser-Busch InBev, agreed in November 2014 to team up with Coke and the South African owners of local bottler Coca-Cola Sabco to create Coca-Cola Beverages Africa.
Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, which will account for 40 percent of all Coke volumes sold in Africa, will be headquartered in South Africa, its largest market. It will have annual sales of $2.9 billion and operations in 12 markets across Southern and East Africa.
"Given the scope and reach of the new company, and its commitment to being headquartered in South Africa, the merger helps position the country as the undisputed economic gateway to Africa," Gutsche Family Investments chairman Phil Gutsche said.
The bottling deal was given a preliminary approval in December by South Africa's Competition Commission. The green light from the Tribunal removes the final hurdle in a drawn-out antitrust investigation.
South Africa has a history of taking its time over approving deals, partly because regulators have a public interest mandate to safeguard jobs in addition to ensuring there is competition.
The South African Competition Commission investigates deals for any antitrust issues and recommends remedies to the Competition Tribunal, which makes a final ruling.
Upon completion of the all-equity deal, Coke will own 11.3 percent of the venture, the Gutsche family that owns Coke Sabco 31.7 percent and SABMiller 57 percent.
Britain's FTSE 100 lifted by easyJet and Capita gains
By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Alistair Smout
LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Britain's leading stock index rose on Tuesday, lifted by gains for shares in budget airline easyJet and support services group Capita.
Capita rose 5.3 percent, making it the top FTSE 100 gainer, after the company expressed increasing confidence over its 2016 prospects. The stock had hit its lowest levels in two years earlier in the week.
"After such a good start some are understandably asking whether the company is staying cautious at this early stage," said Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.
"Potential for expectations to be beaten and guidance raised as the year progresses may have presented an opportunity to buy in around the lows."
Shares in easyJet gained 2.7 percent. Even though the airline reported a half-year loss, traders and analysts were reassured by its assertion that it was on track to meet market expectations for full-year results, and were encouraged by its plans to boost its dividend payout ratio.
"The dividend payout ratio has been lifted from 40 percent of post-tax income to 50 percent, reflecting strong cash flows," Cantor Fitzgerald analysts wrote.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.7 percent at 6,156.65 points by the close.
The FTSE 100 has lost 1.4 percent this year and is 13.6 percent below a record high reached in April 2015, with concerns about a China-led global economic slowdown having hit world stock markets.
Traders expressed caution over the FTSE's prospects before a June 23 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, although many still expect "Yes" voters to prevail.
"I foresee the FTSE making a small recovery to 6,500 when the Brexit vote is finally put to bed and we stay with the EU," InterTrader chief market strategist Steve Ruffley said.
ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon (see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development). In a real-time, multimedia format from 0600 London time through the 1630 closing bell, it will include the best of our market reporting, Stocks Buzz service, Eikon graphics, Reuters pictures, eye-catching research and market zeitgeist. Breaking news and dramatic market moves will continue to be alerted to all clients and we will continue to provide a short opening story and comprehensive closing reports.
If you have any thoughts, suggestions or feedback on this, please email mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com.
South Africa seeks price cut for Roche's Herceptin cancer drug
CAPE TOWN, May 10 (Reuters) - South Africa is in talks with Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche to reduce the price of its breast cancer drug Herceptin, which currently costs 500,000 rand ($33,000) a year to treat one person and is unaffordable to most women, the health minister said on Tuesday.
Africa's most industrialised country has a history of pushing to cut the prices of vital medicines, including winning concessions from big pharmaceutical firms to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) used to control the HIV virus.
Recently the government started free vaccinations of young girls against the sexually acquired human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes about 70 percent of cervical cancers. It had previously negotiated a lower fee with manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline.
"I met the CEO in April and told him women won't be able to afford this. Let's talk, maybe something can come out of this," minister Aaron Motsoaledi told reporters on Tuesday.
Roche said it shared the concerns about access to innovative medicines and improving healthcare in South Africa.
"We are at an advanced stage of finalising discussions with the South African department of health to improve equitable access to Herceptin in the public sector," said spokeswoman, Ulrike Engels-Lange in a statement.
Earlier Motsoaledi told the South African parliament that prices for medicines to treat non-communicable diseases such as cancer and drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) were on the rise.
"Just as the price of ARVs were unaffordable then, cancer drugs are devilishly unaffordable today. If no drastic action is taken today, we are going to be counting body bags like we are at war," Motsoaledi said.
Vaccines put brakes on yellow fever outbreaks, more may pop up - WHO
By Tom Miles
GENEVA, May 10 (Reuters) - A major yellow fever outbreak in Angola and two smaller flare-ups in Uganda and Congo are largely under control but countries have been warned to be vigilant in case the disease pops up elsewhere, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
Yellow fever is hard to spot early on and spreads quickly in towns, transmitted by the same mosquito that carries the Zika virus, which bites in the daytime and has flourished during the abnormal El Nino weather of the past year caused by the warming of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America.
"What we hope is that El Nino will not be faster than we are," said Sylvie Briand, head of WHO's department of pandemic and epidemic diseases.
"We are concerned for other countries that have high densities of mosquitoes."
Until the development of the highly effective vaccine, yellow fever changed history, Briand said, with outbreaks delaying construction of the Panama Canal and encouraging Napoleon to give up territorial ambitions in North America.
In Angola's capital Luanda, the first cases were at a roadside restaurant six months ago, when a group of friends fell ill with suspected food poisoning and several died. Only when the restaurant owner died was the alarm raised.
Angola has had 2,267 suspected cases and 293 deaths. Of the cases, 696 have been confirmed, including 445 from Luanda province. Democratic Republic of Congo has had 41 confirmed cases, almost all of them imported from Angola, but the outbreak was discovered early and should be stopped quickly, Briand said.
Uganda, which has seven confirmed cases in rural areas, was also well set up to tackle such outbreaks, she said.
Luanda's population is now almost completely vaccinated, but it used up the world's entire emergency stockpile of vaccines, and the slow vaccination campaign allowed the virus to spread to other provinces.
"The vaccine supply, which is usually sufficient, may become stretched if we have more outbreaks in the coming months," Briand said.
An early risk is Angola's population of foreign oil workers, who are in danger of taking the disease home with them.
Portugal and China, which both have strong links to Angola, have both taken the right steps to protect themselves, Briand said.
But many countries in Africa do not have vaccination coverage for children, and Nigeria, which suffered thousands of yellow fever deaths in a multi-year outbreak in the 1980s, was still "definitely a country at risk", Briand said.
Israeli-Turkish reconciliation makes progress, more talks needed -envoy
By Ayla Jean Yackley
ISTANBUL, May 10 (Reuters) - Long-running efforts to fully restore Israeli-Turkish relations have made good progress but need a few more rounds of negotiations, though a political shift in Turkey should not affect the process, Israel's top diplomat in the country said.
The impetus behind fixing a relationship badly damaged by a clash over Gaza in 2010 is now security, especially with Islamic State and other jihadists holding swathes of Syria, which Israel and Turkey both border, said Israeli consul-general Shai Cohen.
But restoring military cooperation will take time, he added, without elaborating.
Ankara downgraded diplomatic ties and ejected Israel's ambassador in 2011, a year after Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, a ship in an aid flotilla trying to break Israel's blockade of the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip, and killed 10 Turks aboard. Israel is currently represented in Turkey by Cohen.
The two sides have signalled for months they are on the cusp of a deal that is expected to include compensation for the Mavi Marmara victims and an easing of the Gaza blockade.
Israeli officials said a deal was reached in December, and President Tayyip Erdogan said in March he expected positive results soon, raising hopes an agreement was imminent.
"The reconciliation process between Israel and Turkey has reached an advanced momentum. We hope the reconciliation process won't be affected by the political shift in Turkey," Cohen said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said last week that he would step down on May 22, following an increasingly public rift with Erdogan. Forming a new government could delay both domestic and foreign policy initiatives.
The next meeting between Israeli and Turkish negotiators will have to await the composition of Turkey's next government on May 22, Cohen told reporters late on Monday.
"I believe it will take another round or two in order to conclude the deal ... Most of the issues between Israel and Turkey are already, to a certain extent, clear."
SYRIA AS IMPETUS
NATO member Turkey and Israel cooperated militarily beginning in the 1990s, a relationship seen as vital to Middle East stability by the United States but viewed warily by Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party, in power since 2002.
Apart from a joint interest in neutralising Islamist militants in Syria, another impetus for Israel and Turkey to mend relations is natural gas. Energy-poor Turkey wants to pipe gas out of Israel's offshore Leviathan field, estimated to hold 500 billion cubic metres, for domestic use and export.
"Everyone is looking forward to see how Israel can export to Turkey, and through Turkey to the West, natural gas," Cohen said.
He ruled out Israel lifting its blockade on Gaza in place since 2007, when Palestinian Hamas militants seized control of the enclave, calling it a "non-issue," even though Erdogan has repeatedly made it a condition for restoring relations.
Talks instead were focusing on how Turkey can bring goods overland to rebuild Gaza, whose infrastructure has been battered by the blockade and Israeli incursions. About half of building goods in Gaza are from Turkey, and this could be increased in line with Israel's capacity to monitor shipments, Cohen said.
Israel wants to ensure that Turkish supplies for Gaza do not amount to cooperation with Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and European Union.
Caught in the act: Thai university uncovers high-tech student cheats
BANGKOK, May 10 (Reuters) - A university in Thailand has caught a group of students using smart watches and cameras concealed in glasses to cheat during entrance exams, forcing the cancellation of the tests for others.
Rangsit University rector Arthit Ourairat shared pictures of the gadgets on his Facebook page and said the school had cancelled the relevant medical school entrance exams held on May 7 and 8.
Local media cited officials saying three students had been blacklisted by the university following the elaborate scam, which involved proxies filming the exam papers with the concealed camera in their glasses.
Officials say they left the three-hour test after 45 minutes and sent the exam questions to an unnamed team in a different location, who then passed on the answers to the students still in the room via the smart watches.
"They answered all the questions then sent text messages to those students who wanted to be in the medical department," Rangsit University's Deputy Director Nares Pantaratorn told Thai television on Monday.
The university has rescheduled the exams for May 31-June 1.
Netanyahu says he threatened raid to rescue Israelis from Cairo embassy in 2011
By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM, May 10 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday backtracked from remarks in which he said he had threatened to send commandos to Cairo in 2011 to rescue Israeli security staff besieged by demonstrators who had stormed Israel's embassy.
Netanyahu clarified Israel had not intended to mount an operation on its own, but only in coordination with Egyptian authorities.
"The intention was for a coordinated, not a one-sided action. We are pleased that there was no need for this and thank the Egyptian army, which handled the crisis in a responsible manner and brought about a solution to the problem," a statement from Netanyahu's office said.
Demonstrators stormed the embassy, in the heart of Cairo, on Sept. 9, 2011, in protest at the killing of five Egyptian security guards by Israeli soldiers pursuing Islamist militants who had ambushed and killed eight Israelis along the border.
According to Netanyahu's original account earlier on Tuesday at a ceremony in the Foreign Ministry to mark the country's annual memorial day, his threat galvanised the Egyptians to send in forces and rescue the six.
"A wild mob ... came to slaughter our people, and that evening we used all the tools at our disposal, including a threat of an Israeli military rescue operation - something that ultimately was the deciding factor and brought the Egyptian forces (to the scene)," he said.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said the ministry "had no knowledge of any internal Israeli discussion of such kind at the time".
He added that Egypt's government "bears the responsibility of providing protection to any foreign diplomatic mission on Egyptian soil according to its international obligations ... and continues to do so".
Netanyahu made no specific reference in his original comments about U.S. intervention in helping resolve the crisis and his telephone call at the time with President Barack Obama, and the involvement of other top U.S. officials.
Unilever to invest $50 mln in tea factory in Rwanda
KIGALI, May 10 (Reuters) - Unilever Plc's < Rwandan subsidiary plans to invest up to $50 million to set up a tea processing factory, develop two tea estates and support small-scale producers in the African country, it said on Tuesday.
Anglo-Dutch consumer goods maker Unilever, which owns the Lipton tea brand, set up a subsidiary in Rwanda in 2014.
Unilever Rwanda said in a statement that the investment would involve developing 4,000 acres of tea plantations and aimed to create 2,000 jobs.
Tea is one of Rwanda's main agricultural exports besides coffee.
Tony Nsanganira, Rwandan state minister for agriculture, told Reuters separately that the factory should be completed within five years and would have an annual production capacity of 6,000 tonnes of tea.
New Panama leaks show offshore firm linked to associate of Ukraine's Poroshenko
By Natalia Zinets
KIEV, May 10 (Reuters) - A deputy director of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's confectionery empire is a beneficiary of a company registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), according to new information from the leaked "Panama Papers".
The link to Sergei Zaitsev is potentially embarrassing for Poroshenko because he said in April he wanted to pass a law requiring Ukrainians to disclose all their offshore holdings in an attempt to force them to pay tax in their home country.
Serhiy Leshchenko, a prominent lawmaker in Poroshenko's faction, told Reuters on Tuesday that a special investigative commission should be set up to probe Poroshenko's business dealings as a result of the latest allegations.
A spokeswoman for Roshen, Poroshenko's confectionery business, declined to comment. She also said Zaitsev was absent and could not comment.
According to a database of documents from the Panama Papers made public on Monday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Zaitsev is a beneficiary of Intraco Management Ltd, registered in the British-ruled tax haven.
Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Zaitsev as saying on Tuesday that he was associated with Intraco, and that its main activity was arranging and servicing charter flights.
The address given for Zaitsev in the database is identical to the business address of at least three other companies owned by Poroshenko, according to the Ukrainian state registry.
Poroshenko, one of Ukraine's richest businessmen, was propelled to power by a popular revolt in 2014, and needs to convince Kiev's Western backers that he is serious about improving governance and rooting out entrenched corruption to secure continued financial backing.
Poroshenko's press service told Reuters via email on Tuesday that the president had no connection to Intraco.
"We can state that Petro Poroshenko has no relation to the company mentioned by you, and therefore he didn't receive any financial benefits from it," it said.
"The owner of the company Intraco is Sergei Zaitsev. It's his business - as he said in a public statement," the service said, referring to Zaitsev's comments in the Interfax-Ukraine report.
BLIND TRUST
The ICIJ alleged in April that Poroshenko had set up an offshore firm, Prime Asset Partners, to avoid tax in August 2014 during a peak in fighting between Kiev's forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Poroshenko denied wrongdoing. He said the offshore company had been set up to help him move his business assets to a blind trust. While campaigning for office, Poroshenko had promised to sell his business assets.
In the database, Zaitsev is named as "Sergev Zuitstv". Dmytro Gnap, who is a journalist affiliated to the ICIJ and has seen the original company documents, told Reuters by phone on Tuesday that this was a transcription error by the database administrator, and that the original documents showed the beneficiary as "Sergei Zaitsev".
The "Panama Papers" comprise four decades of documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that specialises in setting up offshore companies.
Intraco has already featured in allegations about Poroshenko's circle.
Last year, the former head of Ukraine's security service, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, accused Ihor Kononenko, a close ally of the Ukrainian president, of using the BVI-registered firm to launder money.
Nalyvaichenko made the allegations in parliament last year in Kononenko's presence, and has repeated them several times since.
According to statements of money transfers involving Intraco, copies of which have been seen by Reuters, the firm made rental payments on a property on behalf of Kononenko's daughter.
Kononenko has denied wrongdoing or any association with Intraco, and cast doubt on the authenticity of the documents presented by Nalyvaichenko.
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Kononenko said he had met Zaitsev from time to time, but had no current business dealings with him.
Kononenko said he had paid for his daughter's schooling and accommodation in Switzerland out of his own pocket and not via any company, including Intraco.
North Carolina transgender battle could expand civil rights law
By Daniel Trotta and Daniel Wiessner
May 10 (Reuters) - The legal battle over transgender rights between the state of North Carolina and the U.S. government has moved the country closer to settling one of the last frontiers in civil rights law.
At issue is whether transgender people deserve the same federal protections that have been extended to groups such as blacks and religious minorities.
Backers of the North Carolina law, which requires people to use public bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity, say it will protect women and girls from predators. Transgender advocates say that claim is unfounded and ignores a modern understanding of people who identify with a gender other than the one assigned at birth.
The next step is likely to be a federal judge's decision on whether to impose an injunction, or temporary ruling, to void the North Carolina law pending a trial. Regardless of how a judge might rule on an injunction, the case stands to add to a growing body of legal decisions that have tended to side in favor of transgender rights but not enough to dissuade states like North Carolina.
A handful of U.S. states and cities have attempted to enact measures affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, but North Carolina is the first state to focus on transgender people's use of public bathrooms.
"This is absolutely a critical moment in terms of the focus and the answers that will come through these cases about the established scope of protections for transgender people," said Jennifer Levi, a lawyer with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders.
The North Carolina law is the subject of four lawsuits in federal court, two on each side.
The U.S. Justice Department and an advocacy group, the American Civil Liberties Union, have each sought to strike it down, saying the law violates the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which jolted a divided nation into applying full rights to African-Americans a century after the abolition of slavery.
North Carolina's governor and legislature both sued on Monday to protect their law, saying the Justice Department was trying to strike down a "common sense privacy policy" meant to protect the state's public employees. State officials also said if the Obama administration wants protections for transgender people, it should appeal to Congress to amend existing laws.
GENDER AND LAW
At least two provisions of federal law ban discrimination on the basis of sex -- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which covers and employment, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The issue before the courts is whether "sex" also applies to gender identity. The Obama administration has taken a firm stance that transgender people are protected, a point that Attorney General Loretta Lynch emphasized on Monday.
"The entire Obama administration wants you to know that we see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward," Lynch told transgender people in remarks at a news conference.
Lynch also threatened to withhold federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina while the legal case proceeds.
North Carolina stands to lose $4.8 billion in funds, mainly educational grants, if it does not back down from the law, according to an analysis by lawyers at the University of California, Los Angeles Law School.
Unless North Carolina backs down, any ruling by a trial judge would likely be challenged and end up in a Virginia-based federal appeals court that only weeks ago issued an important ruling in favor of transgender rights.
That court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, said a transgender teen from Virginia could sue his high school for being barred from using the boy's bathroom. The court noted that federal education officials have interpreted Title IX to apply to transgender people but did not directly rule on the issue.
So far, only one appeals court has explicitly ruled that the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination against transgender people, in a 2005 case brought by a police officer. At least five other appeals courts have suggested that they agreed, some in cases involving other federal discrimination laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court could help settle the matter, but experts said it was unlikely to take up any precedent-setting case any time soon.
An unexpected gloom has descended nowadays over the Maharashtra BJP headquarters at Nariman Point in Mumbai, in spite of the party being in power in the state after a gap of 15 years. The regular workers at the party office are discussing its war room more than the political developments.
The war room, at the centre of the dejection, anger and sense of alienation among the workers, is a brainchild of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and state party chief Raosaheb Danve. Workers feel that the war room has been created as a parallel unit to the party organisation that could mar the partys prospects because the workers are neglected while running the parallel system.
The war room, situated at the plush Walkeshwar area around 3km from Nariman Point, has been given the task of handling the governments publicity, partys makeover and relations with public and the press. Led by a new entrant in the party, Shweta Shalini, an information technology professional, the war room will also work to add more names to Fadnavis' friend list.
Shweta Shalini.
The first major tussle between the war room employees and the party workers was visible last month when Danve organised a mass wedding of 5,000 all-religion couples in his home district of Jalna, making a statement that the event would help the needy in the drought situation. The task of inviting members of the press was assigned to the war room. However, they only asked the workers at the headquarters to provide numbers of the journalists.
The war room is full of professionals who are paid at least Rs 3 lakh each month as remuneration, a worker points out. The party is spending on them for dominating us who are working since so many years without expecting any perks because we are committed to its ideology and organisation.
His frustration is a result of the partys many false promises to the workers. Danve had promised that any worker who would bring in at least 200 new members to the party would be appointed as a special executive officer (SEO) under the government scheme. Not a single SEO has been appointed yet. A SEO does not have any power except attesting the documents. The SEOs post is more decorative now after Modiji introduced the self-attestation system but an SEO still gets respect in the society, another worker says.
BJP workers are disappointed with Maharashtra's "war room" developments.
The BJP workers have not been appointed as members of some of the local level government-sponsored units such as mohalla committees, which works to maintain communal harmony in selected areas.
On the contrary, Shweta Shalini is trying her best to impress Fadnavis. She came up with publishing a booklet, which states that Fadnavis popularity in the state is at par with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The booklet also says that 40 per cent people who were attracted towards the BJP in 2013-14 were Modi supporters. The percentage has come down to 25 per cent in 2016. At the same time, the percentage of Fadnavis supporters has gone up to 25 per cent. She has concluded that 45 per cent people came close to BJP in 2013-14 because of party workers. However, in 2016, only 15 per cent workers influenced people to get attracted towards the party.
Shalini claims that she means to say that people are coming close to the BJP not only because of the workers but also because the party is in power at the Centre as well as in the state. This conclusion has rubbed salt on the workers wounds.
A recent think tank initiative to gather together several former high commissioners of Pakistan to India and Indian high commissioners to Pakistan to reflect on bilateral relations and dialogue resumption was certainly a novel move, but not necessarily a promising one.
Complexities
High commissioners, whether Indian or Pakistani, are essentially policy implementers and not policymakers, even though functionally they do contribute to governmental policymaking through reports and recommendations.
In Pakistan's case, leave alone the diplomats, even the country's civilian government does not fully control policymaking towards India. It is the military establishment that finally decides.
The elected government may take some initiatives in public interest - as in the case of trade - and also do some manoeuvring against the hold of the military over the India policy, but is often thwarted by the armed forces and the ISI through political and media proxies.
The religious groups are also a factor in shaping policies towards India, especially as it is religion that still divorces Pakistan from India.
More pertinently, Pakistani diplomats are traditionally hawkish towards India. They spend their diplomatic careers confronting India, denigrating its democracy and secularism, castigating it on human rights issues, incessantly venting their country's obsession over Kashmir, accusing India of the same misdeeds that Pakistan is charged with, including terrorism.
Some Pakistani high commissioners in New Delhi have done India-baiting, presumably to please the country's military establishment. In contrast, Indian high commissioners neither get direction from nor are prone to curry favour with the India's military establishment. They actually get rewarded by Delhi for softness on Pakistan, for advocating dialogue and more engagement and for proposing concessions for lofty reasons.
If they want India to be less narrow-minded than Pakistan, to behave as a bigger power, to listen to the voice of the civil society and human right activists in Pakistan, they are favourably viewed for their constructive thinking.
The Pakistani diplomats are always on the offensive, denouncing India's supposed hegemonic ambitions and the threat India poses to Pakistan's existence. In India, hawks on Pakistan are seen as obstructive.
Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. (PTI)
Pakistani diplomats, even in Track-II talks, adhere to Pakistan's well-defined Indian agenda and maintain focus on Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, water, nuclear parity, etc, while downplaying terrorism, accusing India of not responding to Pakistan's peaceful overtures, of making no concessions in return for Pakistan's willingness to engage in a dialogue with India.
Manmohan Singh's interview with India Today in February is important for understanding why the meeting of the retired high commissioners in Delhi, who called on the former PM, is unpromising.
While admitting that Pakistan did not keep its promises on terror, Singh nevertheless justifies the necessity to engage Pakistan on the ground that we can choose our friends but not our neighbours.
Why India alone should be moved by this logic and not Pakistan remains unexplained.
Sensitivity
He approves of Pakistan talking to the Hurriyat as part of handling the relationship with J&K with sensitivity. On the Mumbai terror attacks, his claim of success in putting international pressure on Pakistan to bring the perpetrators to book flies in the face of facts. He accepts Pakistan's nuclear blackmail in admitting that India cannot punish Pakistan for its terror acts against us as it is a nuclear power.
His remarks on the back-channel talks cause concern. He confirmed that substantial progress was made but the Mumbai massacre interrupted the process.
His view was that as borders cannot be redrawn, other solutions have to be found that satisfy the people of J&K as well as India and Pakistan is seriously problematic. In J&K, no border, only a Line of Control (LoC), exists.
Talking of "borders" implies ceding our claim on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) without parliamentary authority. The former PM also talks of making the LoC irrelevant by allowing the people of J&K on both sides to trade and move around freely, together deal with common areas like rivers and environmental concerns and resolve common problems through a consultative mechanism in which both sides are represented.
Dialogue
This position ignores the increasing religious radicalisation in Pakistan, the existence of jihadi groups on its soil, Pakistan's refusal to give Most Favoured Nation status to India and allow free movement across Wagah, the Chinese presence in PoK and so on.
It would be logical if before opening up conflict-ridden J&K we focused on making the actual borders between India and Pakistan, stretching from Jammu to Gujarat, irrelevant, with free movement of people and trade and joint consultative mechanisms to deal with common problems.
The lack of linkage between far-reaching steps in J&K and the rest of the India-Pakistan equation is glaring. Singh's view that a solution has to be found that satisfies three parties - India, Pakistan and the people of J&K - makes the people of Kashmir a third party, contrary to our established position, besides being aligned with the US line.
It is with such accommodative and defensive political thinking that the back-channel talks were conducted by India. How robust is our position today is unclear.
Pakistan has reverted to seeking self-determination in Kashmir in accordance with UN resolutions, as reiterated by the Pakistan foreign secretary in Delhi recently. Other than the Pakistanis prodding our susceptible side to resume dialogue on Pakistan's terms, one wonders what the high commissioners meeting could have produced.
Charlottesville High School sophomore Lucas Higgins is still reeling from a recent trip to Philadelphia that was the culmination of a yearlong effort that could soon benefit local families and individuals who are struggling to put food on the table.
A little more than a year after his older brother and father spurred his interest in finance and asset management, Higgins and a team of CHS students placed fourth in an international competition where their knowledge of sound investment strategy and financial markets was scrutinized by industry experts.
The fresh victory and impending arrival of summer vacation would be enough for many students to step back and bask in the glory, but theres more work to be done. The student team and its associated high school club have plans to accomplish much more.
After formally organizing the CHS Student Investment Group earlier this school year, the club has created a student-run nonprofit endowment, known as the CHS Student Endowment Fund, thats raised nearly $19,000, according to school division spokeswoman Beth Cheuk.
I was learning all about investments by myself, said Higgins, a varsity athlete and CHS student newspaper editor. I thought I would then make a club and help the community.
Higgins said the club can benefit far more than just its members and the school.
We want to fight childhood hunger. Weve been reaching out to local organizations that address that issue. Right now, were trying to identify where our endowment fund can make the biggest impact, he said.
When youre in the position to give back to a community that youve been taking from, why wouldnt you? Right now, I can give back while learning and helping others learn. Really, its a win-win-win for everybody.
Higgins said a seed was planted during a family vacation his freshmen year. He said a discussion about stocks and hedge funds between his older brother and father John Higgins, of the financial services firm Morgan Stanley piqued his interest.
They spoke with passion and were so into [the discussion], Higgins said. I was curious about what they were saying and what they were talking about. I didnt really understand what they were saying, but it sounded so cool and complex.
Since then, he said hes been actively reading market analyses and learning from his father, who operates the Higgins Group on behalf of Morgan Stanley as a wealth management and financial adviser.
The student group formed in September. Higgins initially had trouble finding a faculty member to sponsor the club, but found a willing partner in his Chinese-language teacher, Daniel Stolkowski.
Im technically the sponsor of the club, Stolkowski said. But I have to say, its completely student-run. Im so impressed with the initiative and excellence that these students demonstrated.
Higgins rallied friends and other students to participate by stressing the importance of financial literacy, encouraging his peers to join the investment club so they can learn how to cultivate personal wealth responsibly and effectively.
I will say, as someone who has known Lucas for quite a while, he is not a quiet kid, Cheuk said. When he wants to get a message out, hes going to get it out.
The team earned recognition earlier this year at a statewide competition at the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce, where it came in third place in the 2016 Enactus High School Case Competition, a local business-centric challenge hosted by a UVa club that focuses on community outreach and entrepreneurship.
Higgins said that experience prepared the group for the competitive business-like atmosphere of the international competition that the CHS team participated in last month.
Sponsored by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Aberdeen Asset Management a global investment management group that oversees assets worth more than $420.9 billion, according to its website the team was invited to the finals of an exclusive competition that weeded out nearly 600 other teams from around the world.
Tasked with creating a 15-page report on the philosophy and process the team used to invest a faux grant of $100,000, the team impressed judges in a final round that included 14 other student teams from places such as California and China.
When asked about the report they produced over the course of three months, Higgins uses four-letter acronyms, industry jargon and trade terms with the cool confidence and familiarity of a seasoned Wall Street investor.
Although they placed fourth in the competition based on criteria that evaluate a teams presentation, articulation, investment philosophy and creativity, according to Higgins at least one of the four judges sought to crown the Charlottesville team as the winner.
In addition to Higgins, the teams members are Caroline Clark, Thomas Inigo, Maggie Randle and William Werner.
Higgins said he expects the team will continue to prepare for competitions such as those at Wharton and UVa. What happens next with the clubs endowment, which some local individuals and businesses already have donated to, is just as much of a priority.
Cheuk said the school division has received calls from community stakeholders who are interested in the club and the endowment.
John Bowman, a managing director of the CFA Institute, said the club team members are being offered a scholarship to the organizations Claritas program.
At CFA Institute, we understand the competitive nature of the investment profession, Bowman said. To be acknowledged globally in this field is a remarkable achievement, and one that reflects the high educational standards that we believe are critical for a sustainable investment management profession. As an organization that was founded in Charlottesville, it makes us especially proud that the team from Charlottesville High School represented our community and this industry in such a distinguished manner.
We believe they have bright futures ahead of them.
Both Cheuk and Higgins said theres an opportunity for the club to create a legacy at the school.
Im hoping that when I graduate, someone can take my place and continue to grow the endowment, he said. Its not that difficult to run. We have an investment policy statement that spells out how you invest and how to draw down from it.
I think its definitely something we can maintain and continue to grow.
Parents in the small crowd, mostly women, raised issues such as the costs of child care in Loudoun, a county that is growing exponentially and does not have all-day kindergarten throughout the county.
Its clear that there are so many challenges facing young families today that we have got to come to grips with and we have got to work together to try to find the best menu of options, Clinton said.
There still is a challenge with equal pay for women, which is real, not made up, Clinton said. She also cited concerns about unpredictable work schedules, and the burden of student debt.
She said she wants a more cohesive, and frankly welcoming set of expectations and supports for families in todays world.
Clinton said she is evaluating how to structure paid family leave without burdening small businesses. She said community college should be free and that students should be able to attend public colleges without going into debt to pay for tuition.
A woman who is U.S. Navy veteran with a bachelors degree told Clinton that she served in the mid-1990s and does not qualify for the post-9/11 GI Bill. She said she would like to get assistance to pursue a law degree.
In Northern Virginia, a bachelors degree is like a high school diploma, she said. Clinton said she would look into what options are available.
Clinton said she supports President Barack Obamas efforts to give deferred status for qualifying undocumented immigrants. She said she backs comprehensive immigration reform. Meantime, she said she favors allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition.
The road that Hillary Clinton hopes to take to the White House travels right through suburban Virginia and places like it: diverse, moderate and burgeoning with young families.
At one point Clinton said she takes political blowback on the equal pay issue, alluding to the late-April accusation by Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, that she is playing the gender card.
The fact is that its a real problem and we cant let it go, Clinton said. We have to be tenacious about it.
Clinton held the discussion at the Mug-N-Muffin, a shop at the Stone Ridge Village Center. Loudoun is a key swing county, where Obama topped Republican Mitt Romney by about 7,100 votes in 2012.
Clinton led Trump in Northern Virginia by 52 percent to 29 percent in an April 7 poll released by Christopher Newport University. That was the same margin by which Clinton led Trump among women statewide, according to the survey.
With the Democratic primary going down to the wire Governor McAuliffes number one priority, Hillary Clinton, is in the commonwealth trying to connect with voters, John Whitbeck, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, said in a statement.
LONDON - England - John Longworth, Chairman of the Vote Leave Business Council, responded to the publication of the Institute of Directors' and British Chambers of Commerce's membership surveys on the EU
Business opinion is split over the EU, yet this survey shows that businesses are rejecting the remain campaigns main tactic of talking down Britain and its dynamic economy. Despite the claims of the pro-EU camp to the contrary, business is not fearful of the referendum or the result. This is because they know it is safer to take back control and spend our money on our priorities.
If we want British business to prosper in the long-term then the only option is to Vote Leave on 23 June. The survey shows that a majority of those businesses which represent the vast bulk of our economy those who do business in the UK and those that export outside of the EU- want to leave the European Union.
BCC members who do not export or export outside the EU support leaving the EU.
By 46.4% to 42.8%, BCC members who do not export would vote to leave the EU.
90% of businesses do not export. In 2014, just 10.8% businesses exported at all, of which a smaller proportion still exported to the EU only.
50.1% to 46.7%, BCC members which export to the rest of the world only would vote to leave the EU.
52.2% to 35.9%, BCC members consider that leaving the EU would have a positive impact (15.9%) or no impact (36.3%) on their overall growth strategy as opposed to a negative impact.
The BCC survey contradicts the Chancellors campaign to do down the British economy.
The BCC states that the referendum is having no effect on the real economy or giving rise to uncertainty: The majority of business leaders report that the referendum has had no impact to date on various aspects of their business, from orders and sales (71.3%), recruitment (87.1%), and investment (79.6%), to total costs (80.3%). This positive data contradicts what the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has claimed that the threat of leaving the EU is weighing on our economy. Investments and building are being delayed.
A majority of IoD members think the UK could succeed outside the EU.
A majority of IoD members (50%) agree that the UK could make an economic success of leaving the EU. Just 34% disagreed with this proposition.
47% of IoD members consider that leaving the EU would neither have a very significant impact on their business (29%) or no significant impact at all (18%).
46% to 26%, IoD members agree that leaving the EU would have a positive rather than a negative impact on social and employment legislation.
51% to 38%, IoD members consider that leaving the EU would either have a positive impact (19%) or no impact (32%) on research and innovation rather than a negative impact.
IoD members consider the unreformed EU is on a path of economic decline and is too focused on internal debates.
74% to 13%, IoD members consider that the unreformed EU is on a path of economic decline.
75% to 13%, IoD members consider that the EU is too focused on internal debates and trying to impose top-down solutions.
These surveys headline voting intention figures cannot be relied upon as evidence of the views of British companies. Weighted business polling shows companies are hostile to the single market.
42% of respondents to the IoD survey exported services to the EU and 21% exported goods to the EU.
67.5% of respondents to the BCC survey (1,506 out of 2,231) were exporters.
In 2014, just 10.8% businesses exported at all, of which a smaller proportion still exported to the EU only .
The IoD survey was also not weighted to reflect the characteristics of the UKs business population, such as the respondents turnover and number of employees. In 2015, 99.9% of British companies were SMEs, who were responsible for 60% of employment.
Weighted business polling shows that by 74% to 22%, SMEs believe the UK Government, not the EU, should be in charge of trade negotiations and that by 69% to 25%, SMEs think that the UK can trade and cooperate with the EU without giving away permanent control, rejecting the suggestion that the single market is good for jobs and living standards.
LONDON - England - The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today released UK trade statistics for March 2016 showing the UK is more likely than ever to get a free trade deal with the EU on Brexit.
Commenting on todays release of the UK trade statistics for March 2016 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott said:
The EU is not working. The eurozone is collapsing, millions of people are unemployed and Europes economies are massively under performing. That means that European countries are buying less from us than ever before as we trade more with the rest of the world.
If we Vote Leave we will be able to take back control of our trade and do deals with growing economies rather than being shackled to the failing economies of Europe.
We will also be able to take back control of the 350 million we send to Brussels every week. After we Vote Leave we will be able to spend that money on our priorities like the NHS rather than bailing out failing economies in the eurozone.
The statistics show the UK is more likely than ever to get a free trade deal.
The UK experienced a record trade deficit in goods with the EU, meaning it is more likely than ever that the UK will strike a free trade agreement. The ONS states that: Between Quarter 4 (October to December) 2015 and Quarter 1 (January to March) 2016, the UKs trade in goods deficit with the EU widened by 0.7 billion to 23.9 billion the widest on record.
In March 2016, the UK recorded an 8.1 billion trade deficit in goods with the EU.
The statistics show that the EU is becoming a progressively less important market for the UK. Barely two-fifths of British exports are sold to the single market. It is safer to take back control of the power to strike our own trade agreements.
The figure show that the proportion of the UKs exports of goods and services sold to the EU has decreased from 54.3% in 2000 to 43.7% in 2015. As the ONS notes, The share of exports has fallen by more than 10 percentage points over the last 15 years.
The 43.7% figure is likely too high due to the Rotterdam effect, where exports from the UK to ports in Belgium and Holland are immediately re-exported to the rest of the world, which the ONS says is estimated at around 2 percentage points. This means that barely two-fifths of British exports are now sold to the EU.
Leading pro-EU campaigners have admitted the UK will get a free trade deal if we take back control.
David Cameron, Prime Minister and leader of the pro-EU campaign has admitted: If we were outside the EU altogether, wed still be trading with all these European countries, of course we would Of course the trading would go on Theres a lot of scaremongering on all sides of this debate. Of course the trading would go on.
The UKs former Ambassador to the EU and leading supporter of the pro-EU campaign, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, has admitted: there is no doubt that the UK could secure a free trade agreement with the EU. That is not an issue.
The Chairman of the BSE campaign, Lord Rose of Monewden, has said: My argument, simplistically as a businessman, would be: would you alienate your biggest customer No, you would not; you would put your arm round the customer who is your biggest customer and say, Thank you very much indeed. We love your trade and want to continue with it
Even the pro-EU CBI has said: the UK is highly likely to secure a Free Trade Agreement with the EU, and such an agreement would be likely to be negotiated at an extremely high level of ambition relative to other FTAs [free trade agreements].
The pro-EU Centre for European Reform has accepted that, given the importance of the UK market to the eurozone, the UK would probably have little difficulty in negotiating an FTA.
The Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, has admitted that a free trade agreement in goods would be relatively simple to negotiate.
There are things, however, that can and should be done very quickly after 23 June to protect national security and save money. We can amend the ECA: To exempt the intelligence agencies from EU law , immediately improving national security. For example, the European Courts upcoming ruling on the UKs surveillance regime, held back until after the referendum, will have no impact on the security services powers to protect us.
To end the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights to the UK . We were originally promised it would have no legal effect in Britain then the ECJ made clear it does have effect. David Cameron promised a complete opt out from the Charter. This never happened and the problem of the Charter is un-addressed in the Governments recent deal.
To allow the deportation of EU citizens whose presence is not conducive to the public good , enabling us to remove violent criminals, rapists and terrorist sympathisers, such as convicted murderers or Abu Hamzas daughter-in-law, regardless of what the European Court says.
To exempt the Armed Forces from the scope of EU law , preventing the risk of the European Court using the Charter to take control of the military.
To end multi-billion tax refunds to big business under EU law, protecting our public services by saving between 7.2 billion and 42.9 billion (270 and 1,589 per household respectively) by 2020-21.
Michael Gove MP has given a comprehensive judicial and security related plan on Brexit:
The European Court has consistently come down in favour of big businesses not the British people costing us billions. Very soon after a leave vote we will be able to legislate to ensure that EU judges are not able to meddle in our tax affairs again which will save British taxpayers from tens of billions of pounds worth of liabilities.
I think we would all prefer it if that money is spent on schools and hospitals rather than filling the coffers of multinational corporations.
It is dangerous for the European Courts to have a say over our intelligence services and to rule on what data we can share with our allies like the US and Australia. Our intelligence network with the Five Eyes is the cornerstone of our fight against the global terror threat.
The EU is jealous of this arrangement and many would like EU structures to replace our international networks. The Home Secretary is currently trying to stop EU judges from meddling in these networks but the court case will not be decided until after the referendum. That is something that people need to be aware of before they vote.
If you vote remain, the EU courts will interfere more with our intelligence agencies, preventing them from fighting effectively against ISIS this makes us less safe.
If we Vote Leave, we take back control and stop EU judges from meddling in our affairs. I agreed with the Prime Minister when he set out his vision for getting a permanent opt out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Sadly, the deal did not touch this area and the Charter is being used more and more by EU judges to interfere with how we keep people in the UK safe.
EU judges are stopping us from deporting dangerous criminals and terrorist suspects. This makes us less safe thats why we should take back control.
A vote to remain in the EU is a vote for the permanent supremacy of EU law and of the European Court. If we Vote Leave on 23 June, by contrast, we take back control.
The referendum will be followed by negotiations with the other 27 EU member states, following which the UK will strike a new deal with the EU based on free trade and friendly cooperation. The European Communities Act 1972 will be repealed. The supremacy of EU law and the jurisdiction of the European Court over the UK will come to an end. At all stages, the UK will be in control of the timetable.
A vote to leave the EU on 23 June will give the UK additional options on 24 June. EU law only has effect in the UK by virtue of the European Communities Act 1972. This means we can amend that Act immediately after the poll to end some of the most damaging aspects of EU membership.
Although there is the theoretical possibility of infraction proceedings from the European Commission, this prospect is wholly unreal if the British people vote to reject the supremacy of the European Court, and the areas touched on are ones that will not form part of a future UK-EU Treaty.
Taking these five measures (above) will not affect the ability of the UK to negotiate a free trade deal with the EU, which will contain none of these damaging features of the UKs present relationship. Nor can it be objected that such a course would be inconsistent with the UKs international obligations.
The UK has failed to end its prohibition on all prisoners voting in all elections over a decade after the Strasbourg Court ruled this was inconsistent with the UKs obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. Nothing of any consequence has happened since. The European Court itself often ignores the EU Treaties and/or international law. It can hardly complain if the UK takes a robust attitude to restoring democratic control in preparation for leaving the EU.
We can exempt the intelligence agencies from EU law
The powers of the UKs intelligence agencies are currently being challenged before the European Court. The UKs surveillance regime has already been struck down because of EU law. In July 2015, the Divisional Court in London annulled the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 on the ground it was inconsistent with the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
In November 2015, the Court of Appeal referred the UKs surveillance regime to the European Court for a decision as to whether it will be allowed. Lord Justice Lloyd Jones made clear that the European Courts decisions will remain central to the validity of all future legislation enacted by the Member States in this field (R (Davis) v Secretary of State for the Home Department.
The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has described the UKs legislation as crucial to fighting crime, protecting children, and combating terrorism. She argued that without the legislation, we run the risk that murderers will not be caught, terrorist plots will go undetected, drug traffickers will go unchallenged, child abusers will not be stopped, and slave drivers will continue their appalling trade in human beings.
The European Court heard the case on 12 April, but will not issue a decision until after the referendum. If we vote remain, there will be nothing to deter the European Court from taking total control of security. This could mean the end of the Five Eyes Agreement, on which British security has depended since the war, due to the European Courts hostility to trans-Atlantic information sharing.
If we Vote Leave, we take back control. We can amend the European Communities Act 1972 immediately to protect from the European Court the UKs intelligence agencies and other powers needed to maintain national security.
We can disapply the Charter of Fundamental Rights
The UK was initially promised an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Government Ministers once claimed it would have the same legal status as the Beano or the Sun. When the Charter was given legal effect by the Lisbon Treaty, the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, told the House of Commons Liaison Committee that we will not accept a treaty that allows the Charter of Fundamental Rights to change UK law in any way. He also told the House of Commons that: it is absolutely clear that we have an opt-out from the charter.
The European Court has ruled the UKs opt out is worthless, stating the relevant Protocol does not intend to exempt the United Kingdom from the obligation to comply with the provisions of the Charter or to prevent a [UK] court from ensuring compliance with those provisions. The UK Supreme Court has confirmed the Charter thus has direct effect in national law.
If we vote remain, the European Court will continue to take more and more power using the Charter. It has already used the Charter to increase the price of insurance for women, to extend prisoner voting rights, to create the right to be forgotten, and to stop the UK from halting abuse of the European Arrest Warrant by foreign prosecutors. The European Court will progressively take more control every year using the Charter.
If we Vote Leave, we take back control. We can amend the European Communities Act 1972 to provide that the Charter has no effect in the law of any part of the United Kingdom and that no court has jurisdiction to review Acts of Parliament for compatibility with the Charter. This will give effect to what the Prime Minister previously demanded. In 2009, he called for a complete opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights and in February, he said the Charter should not be in force in Britain.
We can exclude persons whose presence is not conducive to the public good
At present, the Home Secretary has the power to deport foreign nationals from the UK if she considers that it would be conducive to the public good. In addition, UK law provides that a person who is (a) convicted of a serious crime and sentenced to imprisonment or (b) is sentenced to more than twelve months imprisonment, is subject to automatic deportation . This has no application where deportation would breach rights of the foreign criminal under the EU treaties.
At present, the circumstances in which we can exclude or remove foreign criminals and those whose presence is not conducive to the public good are significantly constrained by EU law. We cannot remove EU citizens on the basis of their criminal convictions or on grounds of punishment, public revulsion or deterrence. This means we cannot remove violent killers, such as Theresa Rafacz, who killed her husband, including by kicking him in the face with a shod foot while he lay on the ground defenceless and drunk, in an act the trial judge described as involving gratuitous violence.
We are also constrained from removing terrorist sympathisers, as demonstrated by the Governments flagging attempts to deport Chaymae Smak. Smak, a Moroccan national, was convicted of conveying a SIM card into prison for her father-in-law, convicted terrorist Abu Hamza al-Masri, and sentenced to twelve months imprisonment. The Secretary of State decided to deport her. On 4 February 2016, Advocate General Professor Maciej Szpunar delivered an opinion stating that it was, in principle, contrary to the EU Treaties to deport Smak because she had a child who was a British citizen.
If we Vote Leave, we take back control. We can amend the European Communities Act 1972 to provide that the Home Secretary can remove all foreign nationals on the ground their presence would not be conducive to the public good and that all foreign nationals sentenced to more than a years imprisonment are subject to automatic deportation. We will not be bound by whatever the European Court decides about Abu Hamzas daughter-in-law.
We can exempt the armed forces from EU law
It is the policy of the UK Government that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) should not apply to British soldiers on the battlefield. In October 2014, the Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, said: We do not need new European law hamstringing our Armed Forces in very dangerous situations. Otherwise we will end up with every platoon taking a legal adviser out on patrol. The next Conservative government will limit the reach of human rights cases to the UK, so that British Armed Forces overseas are not subject to persistent human rights claims that undermine their ability to do their job.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has extended the ECHR to the battlefield. In July 2011, it ruled that the ECHR applied when the UK was in military control of a territory overseas. The UK was found to have breached the ECHR by failing to conduct a proper investigation into the deaths of Iraqi civilians killed by British soldiers during operations in Iraq.
The decision to extend the ECHR to the battlefield was in conflict with two decisions of the UKs highest courts in 2007 and 2010. In 2015, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, said he had significant reservations in respect of the correctness of the decision extending the ECHR to the battlefield. Nonetheless, in June 2013, the UK Supreme Court ruled it had to follow the decision of the Strasbourg Court that the ECHR applied to the armed forces on active service overseas, reversing its previous rulings. These decisions could mean the UK has to pay out hundreds of millions in damages to enemy combatants.
Perverse consequences for the armed forces have followed. This has been demonstrated in recent litigation where the Government claimed that it had been placed in a catch-22 position. On the one hand, if it failed to release detained enemy combatants after five days, the detention became unlawful under the ECHR. On the other hand, if it released the combatants to the Afghan authorities, it faced claims that it had breached the ECHR by exposing them to a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment. The case is currently before the Supreme Court.
If we vote remain, there is nothing to stop the European Court of Justice using the EUs Charter of Fundamental Rights to extend its control to the British military. The former Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC, has admitted this is a real possibility, stating that if the UK decided not to implement any judgements of the Strasbourg Court, the ECJ will expand its jurisprudence the judgements against the United Kingdom will then have direct effect here. As Mr Justice Mostyn has said, that much wider Charter of Rights would remain part of our domestic law even if the Human Rights Act were repealed.
The ECJ has already used the Charter to exert its control of our intelligence services and who we can deport, often using the ECHR as part of its justification and reasoning. There is no reason to think it will not do the same with the armed forces. There is no appeal from the ECJ. The only way we can ensure the ECJ does not interfere with our Armed Forces is to Vote Leave and take back control.
We can amend the European Communities Act 1972 to ensure that the European Court exercises no jurisdiction over armed forces.
We can stop big businesses claiming multi-billion tax refunds using EU law
Rulings of the European Court have exposed the taxpayer to massive liabilities for tax refunds to big businesses. The OBR now forecasts that HMRC will pay out 7.3 billion from 2016-2017 to 2020-2021, an average of 270.43 per household. If HMRC also loses every case currently pending (a further 35.6 billion), the UK will be forced to pay out 42.9 billion, the equivalent of 1,589 per household.
The UK has tried to block these payouts before but its tax legislation has been overruled by the European Court. If we vote remain, the European Court will continue to take control over our tax system and require multi-billion payouts to the multinational businesses.
Britain on Brexit will be secure, we will have control over our own laws, we will be able to conduct our business and save money needlessly being sent to Brussels. Every year Britain sends 19.1 billion to Brussels without any recompense.
Voting Leave on June 23 is the only valid, secure option for Britain.
Be brave. Engage broadly. Work boldly.
These were some of the big themes that flowed through the remarks at the official launch of Dalhousies MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance, which attracted nearly 500 guests many of them prominent political and policy leaders to the Marion McCain Arts and Social Sciences Building Monday morning.
The event, which was free and open to the public, celebrated the legacy of the institutes namesake, the Honourable Allan J. MacEachen, and featured a panel discussion on the future of public policy. It concluded with a talk featuring the Honourable Jean Chretien, former prime minister of Canada, and the Honourable Bob Rae, former Ontario premier and prominent member of parliament.
The nationally focused, non-partisan, interdisciplinary MacEachen Institute supports progressive public policy development and citizen engagement. Formed through a grant of funds from the For the Public Good Trust 2011 to honour the legacy of Mr. MacEachen and advance his interest in progressive public policy, the Institute will harness the strengths of experts in Dalhousies Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences and Management and the Schulich School of Law, as well as the Office of the Vice-President, Research and broader communities beyond Dalhousie and across Canada.
Learn more: MacEachen Instutite for Public Policy and Governance
Celebration and consideration
Attending the landmark event were community members, Dalhousie alumni, and invited guests and media. Well-known faces in the audience included former Halifax NDP MP Megan Leslie (who will chair the institutes External Advisory Council), current President of the Treasury Board Scott Brison, former Liberal MP and Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, the Honourable Lena Diab (MLA Halifax Armdale), former Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter, and Acadia University President and Vice-Chancellor Ray Ivany.
After opening remarks from Dals Vice-President Research Martha Crago, the institutes scholarly director, Kevin Quigley, moderated a panel on the future of public policy featuring Kim Brooks (Schulich School of Law Associate Professor and former dean), Andy Fillmore (Liberal MP for Halifax), Pamela Palmater (Mikmaq lawyer and associate professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University) and David Morgan (Trudeau and Vanier Scholar and PhD candidate with Dalhousies Department of Political Science).
The panelists discussed four pressing topics: the challenges that political parties face today; what the Syrian refugee experience adds to Atlantic Canada; how to balance short- and long-term infrastructure needs; and how a policy institute based at Dalhousie can best have regional, national and international impact.
Following the panel was an engaging discussion between Chretien and Rae, who spoke about Allan MacEachens contributions to Canadian public policy. (MacEachen, who is 94, was unable to travel to Halifax for the event.) Chretien first met MacEachen in 1963 and spoke about his long-time colleague during the early days of their political careers.
He was an extremely nice but demanding guyhe would tell you if you werent doing a job well," said Chretien. "He was a good example to me because of the public policies he developed. He was Mr. Cape Breton and always preoccupied by the needs of the people, both in his riding and in the rest of Canada.
A bold beginning
MacEachen Institute will look at progressive ways to tackle public policy and governance issues through research and open discussion with a variety of informed players. It hopes to serve as the go-to destination for rich and robust public-policy debate, discussion and research whether it be provincially, regionally or nationally, or whether by scholars, students and/or community members.
When Dr. Quigley asked what the institute should aim to accomplish in its first few years, Palmater (who also sits on its External Advisory Council) replied: We have a real and historic opportunity to do things differentlyto be like Star Trek and go boldly where other institutes arent willing to go. Lets be brave and engage people on the ground, like the Inuit in the North who can tell you firsthand whats happening with climate change. Lets think about policy ideas and innovations that will impact everyones well-being. If we do that, we can take policy-making to a new level.
Left to right: Kevin Quigley, David Morgan, Martha Crago, Pamela Palmater, Jean Chretien, Kim Brooks, Bob Rae, Richard Florizone.
Learn more: MacEachen Instutite for Public Policy and Governance
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Child sex assaults are devastating for the victims, and with as many as 85 percent of such crimes going unreported, tools are needed to treat potential abusers.
Stockholm, Sweden: "No one would choose this, it's obvious," said Anders who has unwanted sexual thoughts about children.
He is at the forefront of a unique scientific study underway in Sweden to see if drugs can prevent paedophiles from acting on their urges.
Anders, who agreed to be interviewed using a pseudonym, says he has never abused children but sought help because he knew his sexual fantasies were "not normal". He hopes the ground-breaking trial will halt his "improper" urges.
At Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, patients like Anders who have sought help for paedophile fantasies, but have not acted on them, are being given a drug normally used to treat advanced prostate cancer to determine if it reduces the risk of them sexually abusing a child.
"The goal is to establish a preventive treatment programme for men with paedophiliac disorder that is both effective and tolerable so that we can prevent child sexual abuse from happening in the first place," said psychiatrist and lead researcher Christoffer Rahm.
Various types of chemical castration are used around the world on paedophiles convicted of actual sex offences, but the treatment is not used preventively.
"What we introduce with this study is a way of shifting perspective from being reactive to proactive," Rahm said.
Clinical studies on paedophiles are also rare, because of ethical issues and difficulties gathering data. Conducting research where patients risk harming a third party requires special cooperation with legal and child welfare experts, Rahm said.
'Determine the risk'
In the clinical trial, half of the 60 subjects receive an injection of the drug Degarelix and the other half get a "dummy" drug, or placebo.
Subjects who receive Degarelix will have non-detectable levels of testosterone after three days, an effect that lasts about three months.
Testosterone is involved in several of the most important risk factors for committing child sex abuse, including high sexual arousal, diminished self-control and low empathy, Rahm said.
Anders does not know if he has received the real drug or the placebo, and will only find out when the study is completed in two to three years.
"I have noticed that my sex drive has been sinking lately but I don't know if it's attributable to the medicine," Anders says.
Subjects will also undergo brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) while they are looking at computer-generated pictures of partially-clothed people of all ages, to see how different areas of their brains react.
"We're trying to establish objective markers to determine the risk of the patient actually committing child sexual abuse," brain scan expert Benny Liberg said.
He described the three regions that were activated on Anders' brain scan during the experiment: that responsible for controlling sensory perception; the region that monitors one's own body; and that which inhibits unwanted behaviour responses.
"This is the type of behaviour we're very much trying to affect with the pharmaceutical intervention," Liberg said.
'Such a stigma'
Using the drugs together with the brain scans and patient counselling, Rahm and Liberg hope they have devised a formula that will enable scientists to accurately assess the risk of a patient sexually abusing a child. But the drug alone will not be a miracle cure.
During the three-month period with low testosterone levels, "you can start up more long-term treatments, such as social interventions and psychotherapy," Rahm said.
Volunteers for the study have been recruited from Karolinska University Hospital's treatment programme for unwanted sexual behaviour, and from a national helpline.
Child sex assaults are devastating for the victims, and with as many as 85 percent of such crimes going unreported, tools are needed to treat potential abusers, said Stefan Arver, the head of Karolinska Institute's Centre for Andrology and Sexual Medicine.
He estimates that about five percent of the population "entertain thoughts and fantasies involving children in a sexual context," though very few ever act on them.
Around 80 percent of those who seek treatment in Stockholm were exposed to physical or psychological trauma in childhood.
Anders started having his unwanted thoughts when he was 15 and he said it took a long time to muster the courage to get help.
"I realised almost two years ago that I needed to take care of this in some way. But there's such a stigma, you're afraid of being reported," he said.
"The stigma prevents people from seeking help, which could be destructive in the long term."
They used to work for Flipkart in Nellore and identified some loopholes.
Warangal: Warangal police on Monday arrested four gangsters who duped Flipkart and recovered stolen goods and cash worth Rs 13,60,000. One laptop, 21 mobile phones worth Rs 7.10 lakh and Rs 6.50 lakh were recovered.
The four gang members, G. Srinivasulu Reddy, M.D. Fajluddin, J. Ashok Kumar, and Sayyad Jaleel belong to Nellore. They used to work for Flipkart in Nellore and identified some loopholes.
The gang used to create fake profiles and order items. Later, they would ask for replacement of the product saying that it is faulty. During this process they change the original product and return a fake one.
One of the gangsters registered himself as an assistant professor of Kakatiya University, ordered a product and duped Flipkart. Flipkart filed a complaint at the KU police station. A team lead by crime ACP K. Eshwar Rao nabbed all the four.
Youth held for cheating
A man was arrested by the Chandrayanagutta police on Monday for writing the exam for his friend. Police said that as Shivshankar had backlogs and could not clear them his friend Linga tried to write the exam for him.
Shivshankar Patalay, 26, did engineering at the NRI Engineering College in Kandukur but had backlogs in the final year. As he was not able to clear it he requested his friend Dharavath Linga, a final year engineering student of Gurunanak Engineering College, to write the examination for him.
On Monday, Linga came to the examination centre at Aurora Engineering College to take examination. Invigilators found him while checking hall tickets, SI M. Srinivas Rao, said. A case of cheating was registered against Linga and he was produced before court. A hunt is on to nab Shivshankar.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Left on Tuesday mounted attack on Chief Minister Oommen Chandy accusing him of creating Congress-BJP nexus in the state for the forthcoming Assembly polls. The Left led by Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan accused Chandy of laying a fertile ground for the growth of BJP-RSS in the state with the help of BDJS.
The veteran leader said Chandy was working like a Sangh Parivar pracharak and he had now created a middleman like Vellapally Natesan to help the BJP.
We saw the test dose in Aruvikkara by poll last year. Chandy is trying to repeat the same experiment across the state in the forthcoming polls. The middle man, Vellapally, has already announced publicly that it would be good for BJP if UDF came to power, he added.
Achuthanandan said Oommen Chandy was running around like an oracle and blurting out something against BJP. "But whom are you trying to fool? People are watching your antics gleefully. In short you are acting like a black magician, trying to set off BJP ghost in the state. But people are the real magicians and they will shoo away the BJP, the opposition leader said.
The Left leaders also slammed the chief minister for his delayed response to Prime Minister Narendra Modis statement that the condition of children in tribal areas was worse than Somalia. They said it was strange that Chandy woke up more than 48 hours after the prime minister made the statement.
Meanwhile, Achuthanandan alleged that the Congress had become a recruiting agency of the BJP. Many top leaders of the Congress including chief ministers, union ministers, MLAs are now with the BJP.
Achuthanandan listed the names of leaders including former chief ministers Gegong Apang, Vijay Bahuguna, Jagadambika Pal, Giridhar Gamang, deputy chief minister of Gujarat Narhari Amin, former union ministers op leaders like Rao Inderjit Singh, Birender Singh, Najma Hepatullah and MP Purandeshwari who left the Congress and crossed over to the BJP fold.
McKinney was immediately taken into custody and was interrogated. (Photo: Facebook)
Las Vegas: In a horrifying incident, a woman has been accused of groping a fellow female passenger's breasts and genitals without her consent on an Alaska Airlines flight to Oregon.
According to a report in the UK Mirror, the accused had taken a flight from Las Vegas and was flying to her home in Portland, Oregon when she committed the crime.
Identified as Heidi McKinney, 26, the accused was arrested after the crew members alerted the officials.
Heidi McKinney who has been accused of groping a female on a flight. (Photo: Facebook)
McKinney was immediately taken into custody and interrogated. In her statement to the police, the victim said that the contact was not consensual.
The abuser pleaded guilty to groping the woman and was charged with third-degree sexual abuse and has been sent to the Multnomah County jail.
McKinney's bail has been set at USD 2,500 and the date for trial of her case has not yet been disclosed.
Abu Dhabi: An Emirati court on Monday ordered a self-proclaimed local leader of the Islamic State group jailed for life for plotting a series of attacks, media reported.
The court in Abu Dhabi convicted Emirati Mohammed al-Hashemi, 34, of plotting attacks on the city's Formula 1 circuit and its branch of Swedish furniture chain Ikea, as well as planning to assassinate an unspecified Emirati leader, daily The National reported.
Hashemi's wife, also an Emirati, was executed in July for the jihadist-inspired December 2014 murder of an American school teacher in an Abu Dhabi shopping mall, one month after her husband's arrest.
The National quoted a witness as telling the court that Hashemi had "appointed himself" an "emir" of the jihadist group and had also, according to prosecution documents, donated some 80,000 dirhams (USD 21,800) to Al-Qaeda.
With his wife, he had "planned terrorist attacks in the country in retaliation for the UAE's stance against ISIL," the newspaper quoted prosecutors as saying, using another name for IS.
The United Arab Emirates is a member of the US-led coalition that has been bombing IS since mid-2014 in parts of Syria and Iraq under its control.
The couple had performed a "symbolic ceremony to pledge allegiance" to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a witness said, according to the daily.
International media are not allowed access such trials.
Hamza bin Laden (pictured in 2001), son of al-Qaeda's late founder Osama bin Laden, has urged jihadists in Syria to unite in an audio message posted online. (Photo: AFP)
Dubai: The son of al Qaedas late founder Osama bin Laden has urged jihadists in Syria to unite, claiming that the fight in the war-torn country paves the way to liberating Palestine.
The Islamic umma (nation) should focus on jihad in Al-Sham (Syria) ... and unite the ranks of mujahedeen there, said 23-year-old Hamza in an audio message posted online.
There is no longer an excuse for those who insist on division and disputes now that the whole world has mobilised against Muslims, he said.
His undated message comes after al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri also urged jihadists in Syria to unite, despite his continued rejection of the rival Islamic State (IS) group and its proclaimed caliphate.
The matter of unity today is one of life and death, Zawahiri said in an audio message posted online on Saturday.
Either you unite to live as Muslims with dignity, or you bicker and separate and so are eaten one by one, he added, according to SITE Intelligence monitoring group.
Read: Unite or die: al-Qaeda chiefs message for jihadist fighters in Syria
Al-Qaedas Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front is a rival of IS, which is an al-Qaeda offshoot whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014 declared an Islamic caliphate across territory seized in Iraq and Syria.
Ladens son said Syria is the best battlefield leading to liberating Al-Quds, the Arabic name for Jerusalem.
The road to liberating Palestine is today much shorter compared to before the blessed Syrian revolution, he said.
US intelligence officials have said that Hamza was the favourite son of the 9/11 mastermind who had been grooming him to take over as al-Qaedas leader.
A 22-year-old man was crushed to death by a speeding water tanker near Delhi-Gurgaon border on MG Road on Monday. A mob beat up the errant driver and tried to set the vehicle ablaze.
Deepak Kumar, a resident of Paramhans Vihar in Sarita Vihar, was on his way to office when the incident occurred at around 6 am. The accident was witnessed by Deepaks younger brother Pawan, a police officer said.
Pawan told police that Deepak had dropped him near Arjangarh on his scooty. Soon after this, Pawan noticed the speeding water tanker hitting Deepaks scooty from behind.
Deepak was taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre with a severe head injury which proved fatal with doctors pronouncing him dead on admission, the officer added. Pawan told police that Deepak was also dragged under the water tanker for around 20 metres.
The errant driver tried to flee from the spot, but was chased down by Pawan after taking lift from a motorcyclist. The bus driver, Kali Charan, was thrashed by locals before being handed over to police.
Angered over Deepaks death, several persons gathered at the spot and pelted stones at the water tanker. The mob also tried to set it ablaze which led to traffic snarl in the area.
A case under sections 279 (rash driving) and 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered.
In a separate incident, two persons were killed after their motorcycle was hit by an unidentified vehicle at north Delhis Civil Lines on Sunday.
Babu and Suman were returning home after visiting Babus father Raghu Nausale admitted at Sant Parmanand Hospital following a minor accident.
They were rushed to Sushruta Trauma Centre, where Babu was declared brought dead while Suman succumbed to his injuries, another police officer said.
The city BJP unit on Monday staged a protest at Delhi Jal Board offices including its headquarter, Varunalaya in Jhandewalan, against the AAP governments suppression of the alleged Rs 400 crore tanker scam that took place during the government of former chief minister Sheila Dikshit.
The Delhi BJP unit said it will present the letter written by Water Minister Kapil Mishra on August 28 highlighting the scam before Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and demand an inquiry and arrest of culprits.
Water Minister Kapil Mishra took a dig at BJP saying that there were hardly any people at their demonstration.
Gud that Delhi BJP protested against Modis ACB for doing nothing on Sheila Govt. cases. Sad tht there were hardly any ppl in their protest, Mishra tweeted.
Delhi BJP Pradesh President Satish Upadhyay, Member of Parliaments and other senior leaders staged a protest outside DJB office at around 10.30 am.
Why is Arvind Kejriwal silent over the Rs 400 crore DJB scam that took place under Sheila government? The Chief Minister owes an explanation to the people of Delhi that why isnt he doing anything on the very scam which was revealed by his minister Kapil Mishra in August, 2015, Upadhahy said.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has said as US President he would make an exception for London's first Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan in his proposed temporary ban on the entry of Muslims to the US and hoped that the Labour leader would set an example.
"I was happy to see that. I think it's a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because frankly that would be very, very good," Trump told The New York Times when asked about the election of Khan as the new London mayor.
Khan, who has been critical of Trump's policies, had earlier said he would not be able to travel to the US if the 69-year-old tycoon was elected as the president of the US.
But Trump stated otherwise, when asked about it.
"There will always be exceptions," he said.
"Because I think if he does a great job, it will really -- you lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing," Trump said.
On Sunday, Pakistani-origin Khan had accused British Prime Minister David Cameron's ruling Conservative party of using "fear and innuendo" in a bid to turn religious and ethnic groups against each other during the mayoral campaign and said the tactics were straight out of the "Donald Trump playbook".
"They used fear and innuendo to try to turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other -- something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook. Londoners deserved better and I hope it's something the Conservative party will never try to repeat," the Labour leader had said.
Sacked Chief Minister Harish Rawat today appeared to have clinched the numbers in the floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly with 33 of the 61 MLAs said to have voted for him.
With nine disqualified Congress MLAs kept away, Congress MLA Rita Arya claimed that 33 MLAs voted for Rawat while BJP MLAs conceded that their side got only 28 in a House with an effective strength of 61.
"The cloud of uncertainty hovering over Uttarakhand will disappear tomorrow," an elated Rawat said after the voting in assembly.
Under the Supreme Court-monitored proceedings, the result of the vote will be given to the court tomorrow morning in a sealed envelope.
Both sides claimed that one MLA from each side had cross voted.
Independent MLA Harish Chandra Durgapal claimed that all six PDF (two BSP, 1 UKD and three Independents) members have voted for Rawat. BJP's Bhimlal Arya's vote also went to Congress. Likewise, Rekha Arya of Congress voted for the rival side, he said.
Ganesh Joshi of BJP claimed that it was a victory for BJP constitutionally because nine MLAs of Congress had voted for the BJP in the past and now one more MLA has voted for BJP. Everyone saw how Congress tried to buy votes with money and "that is why we were left behind in numbers in the Assembly," he said.
Principal Secretary (Legislative Assembly and Parliamentary Affairs) of Uttarakhand government oversaw the conduct of the floor test for which President's Rule was kept in abeyance for two-and-a-half hours from 10:30 AM.
Ahead of the floor test, Rawat sporting a 'tilak' on his forehead had exuded confidence that he would comfortably win the trust vote.
"The people are with us. The Gods Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath -- all are with us. We are all together, the people who are supporting us, we have their blessings.PDF, BSP, UKD.BJP can claim anything they want, winner will be Uttarakhand," he said outside the Assembly.
Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Bhatt had said he was confident that the MLAs will listen to the voice of their conscience.
"On March 18 when the trouble erupted in the House, some members joined hands with us hearing the voice of their conscience. Today also some MLAs will pay heed to the voice of their conscience and join us," he said.
Congress leader Ambika Soni had said, "We have the numbers and will win the floor test without any difficulty."
She also alleged that huge amounts had been offered by the opposite side to lure legislators "on our side".
The trust vote comes a day after the High Court yesterday dismissed the petition of nine Congress MLAs challenging their disqualification and the Supreme Court refusing to give any relief to them.
BJP MLAs, who were the first to come out of the assembly premises which was out of bounds for the media, said they could bag 28 votes.
The legislative exercise was conducted for nearly an hour with heavy deployment of security personnel around the Assembly and people other than members of the House and its employees not allowed into its precincts.
The entire media was kept waiting outside the gates of the Assembly.
Nainital MLA Sarita Arya said, "The floor test was conducted strictly as directed by the Supreme Court. I have shared only our victory in the floor test with the media from whom nothing can be hidden."
Soon after the BJP members left one after another including Ajay Bhatt, Yatishwaranand, Bishan Singh Chufal, Tirath Singh Rawat, Pushkar Dhami and Dilip Singh Rawat,
President's Rule was lifted for two hours to allow the exercise to take place in the state assembly which was under suspended animation ever since the state was brought under central rule on March 27.
The trust vote comes a day after the High Court yesterday dismissed the petition of nine Congress MLAs challenging their disqualification and the Supreme Court refusing to give any relief to them.
A man killed one person and wounded three others in a knife attack at a German railway station today that prosecutors said had "an apparent Islamist motive."
Police said the man had slashed four people around 5am at the station in the town of Grafing east of Munich.
A spokesman for the prosecutor's office later said one man had died from wounds suffered in the attack.
He said the 27-year-old "assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motive -- apparently an Islamist motive," said the spokesman.
"We are still determining what the exact remarks were."
Local media reported that witnesses had said the young man had yelled "Allahu akbar" ("God is greatest") during the attack.
The police spokesman said "a political background cannot be ruled out," adding that the man arrested was "not very cooperative".
Last August, two German-speaking jihadists claiming to belong to the Islamic State jihadist group threatened Germany with attacks in an online execution video, urging their "brothers and sisters" in Germany and Austria to commit attacks against "unbelievers" at home.
A case was registered today against actor-turned politician R Sarathkumar, who is contesting the May 16 Tamil Nadu assembly polls in alliance with AIADMK, in connection with the seizure of Rs nine lakh cash from his car last week in violation of election rules.
The case was registered at Arumuganeri police station, Special Tahsildar P Vallikannu said.
The seizure was made on May 7 by an Election Flying Squad while on a vehicle check at Nallur Vilakku in the district. The amount was later deposited in the treasury.
Sarathkumar, chief of All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi, is the lone candidate of the party and is contesting from Tiruchendur constituency in the district on AIADMK symbol.
The case was registered against him under IPC section 171H (illegal payments in connection with an election) as he could not produce documents for carrying the cash, Vallikannu said.
The son of Pakistan's ex-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was today rescued from the clutches of Taliban in a joint operation by the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, three years after he was abducted from his hometown in Pakistan's Punjab province.
Ali Haider Gilani "has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan," Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement.
Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar informed Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, about the news in a telephone call, it said.
"Ali Haider Geelani's transfer to Pakistan is being arranged following required medical check-up," it said.
Today's development comes two months after the kidnapped son of slain Punjabi governor Salman Taseer was rescued by Pakistani forces in an operation near Quetta.
The news of the rescue of Haider, believed to be in his 30s, was broken by Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Twitter.
"(former) PM Gilani received a call from ambassador of Afghanistan. His son Ali Haider Gilani has been recovered in a successful operation," Bilawal said.
Haider, whose father's secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has led several major offensives against militants, was kidnapped by gunmen in Multan in 2013 just two days before the May 11 general elections in which he was contesting.
He was leaving a street corner meeting outside the house of a supporter in Farrukh Town in his hometown of Multan in southern Afghanistan when the gunmen killed his two associates and abducted him.
"Haider was in the custody of Al-Qaeda. He has been recovered during an operation of special forces," reports here quoted an Afghan ambassador as saying.
He said Haider is in good health and he will be sent home through a special plane.
"Foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz has told me about the recovery of my brother," Abdul Qadir Gilani said.
"My whole family and I are extremely happy to hear good news of safe recovery of Haider," he said.
A large number of PPP workers gathered outside the residence of Gilani in Multan to celebrate Haider's release.
The former premier had last year said that the abductors had contacted him and demanded ransom for his release. In a video message last year, Haider said the kidnappers were initially demanding Rs 2 billion for his release but later they had reduced the ransom amount to Rs 500 million.
His father had said he was ready to pay the ransom amount.
Shahbaz Taseer, who was abducted in August, 2011 some seven months after his father was killed by his own police guard Mumtaz Qadri, was recovered from Balochistan's Kuchlak area after nearly five years. Qadri was hanged a couple of months ago at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi after President Mamnoom Hussain rejected his mercy plea.
China will introduce a blacklist system to name and shame errant tourists who deface Mt Everest and other historic scenic spots in Tibet with graffiti and doodles.
"Starting this year, we will set up a blacklist system to punish badly-behaved tourists, such as those who leave graffiti. The blacklist will be made public through media outlets," said Gu Chunlei, deputy head of the tourism bureau of Tibet's Tingri county.
Condemning tourists who doodled on the tablets, he said they have now "lost their beauty."
The busy tourist season on Mt Everest, known in Tibet as Mt Qomolangma, begins every May with an influx of tourists arriving at the Base Camp.
The total number of trips to the Base Camp topped 40,000 in 2015 and an average of 550 trips were made every day during the busy season, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Tourism is booming in Tibet as over 4.3 million tourists mostly Chinese visited the Himalayan region in the first eight months of 2015 raking up a revenue of USD 3 billion.
Some of the visitors have left tablets at the camp and a viewing platform at the entrance of Jiawula Pass covered with doodles, Gu said.
The Everest Base Camp is located 5,200 metres above sea level and allows climbers and tourists to rest. Online photos showed one tablet covered with doodles, mostly signatures.
One piece of graffiti, right in the middle of a tablet, read "tonight we hunt tigers" next to a drawing of a tiger claw, state-run Global Times reported.
"We will separately set up tablets for graffiti to meet the tourists' demand," Gu said.
A British Airways A380 Superjumbo with a stunning square-shaped tyre has landed at London's Heathrow airport, baffling aviation experts.
The deflated tyre with a square shape was part of the landing gear on the flight BA-32 arriving from Hong Kong on Friday.
The Airbus A380-800 was climbing out of Hong Kong close to reaching the top of climb when the crew received a tyre pressure indication, Aviation Herald reported.
The crew decided to continue the 13-hour flight to London and requested a tow tug to be available for landing in case the aircraft would not be able to taxi on its own.
"The aircraft landed safely on Heathrow's runway 09L and taxied to the gate," the report said.
A British Airways spokeswoman said the plane landed "normally" with one of its 18 tyres deflated, adding: "The A380, in common with other large commercial aircraft, is designed to be perfectly safe when landing with a deflated tyre."
The crew was left puzzled when an inspection found that the right outboard body tyre had deflated on four corners, rather than just at the bottom, as is usual.
A Civil Aviation Authority spokesman said he had not seen anything like the tyre before.
Aviation experts, commenting on the photograph square- shaped tyre of the A380, said they are stunned by it.
One serving airline captain said the tyre probably detached from the wheel on landing when the brakes were applied, but stressed that the aircraft was never in danger.
He added: "The tyres are pressurised to around seven times that of a car tyre. Once depressurised the tyre will have 'flatted' while the a/c was braking and once it did so it would then rotate through 90 degrees to another part of the tyre and then do it again - hence the four flats you see.
"Is it dangerous? No. To lose one is no big deal," the captain was quoted as saying by The Sun.
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner. It is the world's largest passenger airliner that provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in an all-economy class configuration.
The Bihar police today said that Rakesh Ranjan Yadav, the son of ruling JD(U) MLC Manorama Devi who allegedly shot dead a 20-year-old youth for overtaking his vehicle, will be subjected to a speedy trial.
"SSP Gaya has been directed to conduct a speedy trial in the case. The investigation is still on and it will be completed within three weeks and charge-sheet will be filed within a month," Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Sunil Kumar told reporters here.
The main accused Rakesh Ranjan Yadav alias Rocky Yadav was arrested in the wee hours today with a pistol used in the crime, the ADGP said, adding 19 cartridges had also been seized from the accused.
Aditya Sachdeva was shot dead allegedly by Rocky Yadav for overtaking his vehicle near the police lines in Gaya district on Saturday night.
When pointed out that Yadav denied opening fire, the ADGP said, "No accused confesses that he has committed crime. Let him say whatever he is saying. He will get opportunity during trial."
"So far as police are concerned, we have enough evidence to prove his guilt in the case. We have circumstantial evidence, scientific evidence, weapon and vehicle used in the crime, statements of witnesses under 164 of CrPC," he said hours after the Gaya police nabbed the accused.
Stating that two accused persons- Rocky's father Bindi Yadav and bodyguard Rajesh Kumar- have already been arrested, Kumar said that efforts are on to nab another accomplice Tany Yadav, who was present in the SUV and is absconding.
A forensic science laboratory team has been sent to Gaya from Patna to collect scientific evidence such as finger prints and ballistic evidence which would be helpful in proving the case, he said.
Rocky would be produced before an appropriate court within 24 hours, the ADGP said, adding that the police would seek remand of Rocky for further interrogation.
Asked from where did Rocky get the arms license, the ADGP replied that he had got the license from Vasant Kunj, Delhi.
A police team from Gaya has been to Delhi to inquire about whether license was genuine or fake, whether license was acquired on Delhi's residence or whether it has been acquired on the basis of forged documents, he said.
Kumar said a case had been lodged against Bindi Yadav in the murder case.
"Further action will be taken in this regard after recording the statements of other family members and staff who reside at the house," he said.
The ADGP pointed out that the bodyguard, Rajesh Kumar, was given to the JD-U MLC Manorama Devi, but he was with Rocky Yadav at the time of the incident.
Barack Obama will make a historic visit to Hiroshima this month to "highlight his continued commitment" to nuclear disarmament, becoming the first sitting US president to tour the site where America first dropped an atomic bomb in 1945, killing an estimated 140,000 people.
The White House today said that Obama, who has been often accused by critics of making an "apology tour" to the Middle East and Europe during the first year of his presidency for the misdeeds of the Bush administration, will visit Hiroshima when he travels to Japan and Vietnam from May 21 to 28.
"The President will make a historic visit to Hiroshima with Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said in a blog post that "in making this visit, the President will shine a spotlight on the tremendous and devastating human toll of war."
Rhodes said that Obama, a Nobel laureate, will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, a once-ruined site at the centre of the city dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombing, on May 27 where he will share his reflections on the significance of the site the events that occurred there.
But he reaffirmed that the US president is unlikely to seek apology for that chapter in the American history.
"He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward- looking vision focused on our shared future," Rhodes wrote.
The symbolic visit would come after months of debate and speculation. Obama will be joined with Prime Minister Abe, who is hosting the G-7 summit in Ise-Shima later this month.
In April, secretary of state John Kerry visited the city, where 140,000 people died after the bombing on August 6, 1945, including those who died from severe radiation exposure.
After a second bombing of Nagasaki - the World War II ended. But opinions remain divided whether their use ended the brutality of the war and avoided a US invasion of Japan.
Rhodes said Obama's visit will reaffirm US' long-standing commitment and the President's personal commitment to pursue peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.
"As the President has said, the United States has a special responsibility to continue to lead in pursuit of that objective as we are the only nation to have used a nuclear weapon," he said.
"That commitment has guided our efforts to promote non-proliferation and nuclear security a theme at the heart of four Nuclear Security Summits that the President hosted and to take concrete steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our security and in the policies of other global powers," Rhodes said.
This would be particularly sensitive for Obama's visit. This December marks the 75th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, in Obama's home state of Hawaii.
A fake suicide bomber repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" before acting out an explosion during a counter-terror drill at one of the UK's largest shopping centres in Manchester, inviting criticism from the community members for the use of "stereotypes" for the exercise.
The mock bomber dressed in black walked in and shouted at the crowd at Manchester's Trafford Centre overnight as hundreds of people ran screaming and hid in shops and restaurants.
The bomber playing the part of a terrorist repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) before acting out the explosion that rocked the food hall, the Independent reported.
Community groups and activists condemned the use of "stereotypes" for the exercise, with some raising concerns it would fuel anti-Muslim prejudice, the paper said.
Greater Manchester Police's Assistant Chief Constable Gary Shewan later apologised for any offence caused, it said.
"The scenario for this exercise is based on a suicide attack by an extremist Daesh (ISIS) style organisation and the scenario writers have centred the circumstances around previous similar attacks of this nature, mirroring details of past events to make the situation as real life as possible for all those involved," he said in a statement.
"However, on reflection we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam.
"We recognise and apologise for the offence that this has caused," he was quoted as saying by the paper.
Dr Erinma Bell, who was made an MBE for her anti-gun campaign work in Manchester, was among those criticising the decision.
"We need to move away from stereotypes if we want to achieve real learning," she wrote on Twitter. "A terrorist can be anyone."
Anti-Islamophobia group the Community Safety Forum called the use of the phrase "Allahu Akbar" offensive and said it was not necessary to make the scenario real, the paper reported.
"This sort of thing panders to stereotypes and further divides us," a spokesperson added. "It will increase anti-Muslim hate crime."
Police stressed that there was no specific threat to the Trafford Centre, which is the second-largest in the UK.
The exercise, codenamed Exercise Winchester Accord, was planned in December and is part of a national programme, coming after previous drills in London, Glasgow and Essex, the paper added.
India and the US will hold a 2-day bilateral consultation from Wednesday, at the WTO over the US move to impose a high fees on temporary working visas.
The higher fees will have a negative impact on Indian service suppliers, particularly from information technology companies.
India hopes that the US will constructively engage with India to address its concerns regarding the recent US measures which impair the ability of both US-based Indian companies and Indian professionals to supply services in the US. The H-1B and L-1 categories of non-immigrants, for which there has been a significant fee hike, the Commerce Ministry said.
India believes that the visa hike is inconsistent with a number of provisions of WTO GATS (General Agreement on Trade and Services). In March, New Delhi had also filed a complaint against the US decision to impose high fees on temporary working visas.
The US fee hike measures for the H-1B and L-1 categories are not only adversely affecting the competitiveness of Indias services industry engaged in the US market, but also creating uncertainties for Indian service suppliers. They also run counter to the basic principles of a transparent and predictable trading environment, which lies at the very heart of the WTO agreements, the ministry said in a statement.
In December last year, US President Barack Obama had signed a law, which doubled the supplemental visa fee for H-1B and L-1 visas for 10 years for companies employing 50 or more employees in the US, 50% of which are on these visas.
With this legislation in place, 50:50 companies would now need to pay an enhanced fee of $4,500 for each L-1 visa and $4000 for each H-1B visa as against $2,250 and $2,000 paid earlier.
Just when it seemed that Nepal had finally ended decades of turmoil by enacting a new Constitution and forming a coalition government, political instability has erupted again. Its government was on the brink of collapse last week, when the Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoists (UCPN-M), on the urging of the opposition Nepali Congress, threatened to withdraw support to the government. It appears that the NC promised to support a UCPN-M led government if the latter agreed to topple the ruling coalition led by the Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML). Accordingly, UCPN-M chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who has been eyeing the prime ministers seat, warned Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli that the Maoists were withdrawing support to his government as it had failed to make progress on the constitutional amendment process and the post-earthquake reconstruction in the country. However, Dahal did a U-turn after doing a deal with the CPN-UML under which Oli has pledged to speed up reconstruction, address Madhesi demands and grant clemency to Maoist fighters among other things. The deal has given Olis government a fresh lease of life.
A section of Nepalis are accusing India of plotting with the Nepali Congress to oust Oli. They allege that Olis pursuit of an independent foreign policy and its growing proximity to China riled India, prompting it to attempt regime change in Kathmandu. Thecancellation of the Nepali President Bidhya Devi Bhandaris visit to India and Kathmandus reported recall of its envoy in Delhi, Ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyaya, have further fuelled such speculation. Nepals deputy prime minister and foreign minister Kamal Thapa
has however dismissed as baseless reports of the envoys recall. Whether or not India is behind the current upheaval in Nepal, it is evident that the perception of India as a perpetual meddler in Nepals politics remains strong. It has its roots in the groundswell of anti-India sentiment in the country. More political jockeying, horse-trading and deal making is likely in Nepal in the coming weeks and months. India must keep a low profile and avoid giving Nepal gratuitous advice or ideas. The political quagmire in Nepal is of its politicians making and India will do well to avoid getting its hands mired in that mess.
Prime Minister Oli is running on borrowed time as Dahal can be expected to renew his ouster warning in a couple of months. Oli escaped ouster by the skin of his teeth this time; he may not be as lucky next time. He will need to deliver on his pledges.
In a major breakthrough, City Police have arrested the prime accused in the murder of history-sheeter Devendra alias Devu.
Pawan Kumar, 24, a resident of (Vinayaka Nagar) Paduvarahalli is the accused. He was produced before a court on Tuesday and remanded in police custody for 12 days.
During interrogation, Pawan has revealed that he, along with his accomplices, had hatched a plot to eliminate Devu owing to old enmity. Both the victim and accused belong to the same locality.
The investigators are hopeful of nabbing his accomplices, as efforts are underway to collate information about them.
A gang of around eight to 10 persons had hacked Devu to death near a Mari Temple at Paduvarahalli, in the early hours of May 5.Devu was talking with his friends, when he was caught unawares by armed assailants around 7.10 am. The gang executed its plans in a jiffy after coming and speeding off in a jeep that was later identified as that of Armuda make.
The police personnel, who were following the leads gathered from eye-witnesses, succeeded in tracing the four-wheeler at a mango grove near Naganahalli, on the outskirts of Mysuru on May 7 itself, two days after the murder.
The investigators started looking for its owner, and hence Pawan Kumar was arrested. The police team, led by ACP (N R Sub-division) Umesh G Shet, including Jayalakashmipuram Police Inspector Thimmegowda nabbed the accused.
A study centre on poet Lakshmeesha should be set up at the home town of the poet at Devanoor. There is a plan to convert the village into a literary and cultural centre, said president of district Kannada Sahitya Parishat Kundoor Ashok.
Speaking to mediapersons on Tuesday, he said that a consultative meeting will be held at Devanoor on May 14. As promised during the Kannada Sahitya Parishat election, efforts will be made to develop Devanoor, Ambale, the birth place of A R Krishnashastri and Gadduge of Akkanagamma.
Kadur taluk Kannada Sahitya Parishat president Ravi Prakash said that a building (bhavana) should be set up in the name of port Lakshmeesha in Kadur. Lakshmeeshas work Jaimini Bharatha should be simplified from Halegannada, he added.
Homage programme
A programme to pay homage to Lakshmeesha will be held on May 14 and Kannada Development Authority Chairman Dr L Hanumanthaiah will take part in the programme, he informed.
He said that a unique programme,Sahitya Nadige Shaale Kadege will be held at Kadur taluk. The programme aims to introduce Halegannada in every school. To increase the literary activities in rural areas, Sahitya Parishat Nadige Graameena kadege will be organised, he added.
An alert has been sounded on the borders of Kodagu district after the outbreak of bird flu (H5N1) in a privately-owned poultry farm in Bidar district.
Three check posts have been opened on the Karnataka-Kerala border and the officials of the Department of Animal Husbandry are on high alert on the movement of lorries laden with poultry.
Staff members
The Department has opened check posts at Karikeri in Madikeri, Kutta and Makutta in Virajpet. Each check post has a senior veterinary doctor, a veterinary inspector and a D-grade employee to inspect the lorries transporting poultry.
The precautionary measures have been taken following the outbreak of bird flu in Kerala. A rapid response team has been constituted in the district. The Department has been directed to form three teams in Madikeri, and four teams each in Somwarpet and Virajpet. The teams, in turn, have been directed to identify whether there are any infected poultry birds in the district, to undertake vaccination and also to give priority to cleanliness.
No infection
No birds in the poultry farms in the district have been affected. The Department has taken precautionary measures. The district does not have poultry farms with more than thousand birds in them, Animal Husbandry Department Deputy Director Dr C Nagaraj told Deccan Herald.
There is no history of outbreak of bird flu in the district. The people need not worry. In spite of it, check posts have been opened. The department has proposed to set up a permanent check posts at a cost of Rs 10 lakh in border areas, he said.
The poultry lorries from Kerala are not entering the district through border villages. The restriction which was imposed long back will continue now as well, the deputy director said.
Alert in sanctuary
There are large numbers of birds found in coffee estates and hillocks in the district. If any bird was found dead unnaturally near the lakes and inside forest, the public should inform the veterinary doctors. The Department has decided to collect samples of migratory birds with the help of the Forest Department from the Talacauvery sanctuary. The collected sample will be sent to Bengaluru to testing, he assured.
In spite of the bird flu scare, the chicken stalls in the district have not yet reported any decline in business. The broiler chicken was sold at Rs 150 a kg while an egg is sold at Rs 4. The price of the chicken has not reduced either.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is scheduled to visit Delhi on Wednesday to hold a meeting with a forum of Congress MPs from Karnataka.
The chief minister will discuss about various issues related to the development of the MPs' constituencies. The forum, which was formed recently with Bengaluru Rural MP D K Suresh as its convener, had urged the chief minister to take up problems related to the development of their constituencies with the concerned Union ministers, sources in the chief minister's office said.
Besides, Siddaramaiah is planning to meet the Congress high command during his two day visit. However, the party sources said, neither party President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi had given him an appointment. Though the chief minister has stated that the reshuffle will be done by this month end, the party high command has not shown the green signal for it yet.
This apart, many Congress party workers, on Tuesday, met Siddaramaiah at his home office Krishna and took exception to his decision to extend by three months the term of heads of various boards and corporations. The Chief Minister told them that he has done it as per the high command's direction and that he has nothing to do with it.
In what could be a case of serious medical negligence, parents of a 3-year-old boy have claimed that their child contracted HIV infection after blood transfusion at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).
The incident came to light on Tuesday after the medical college authorities admitted that the child, who underwent a plastic surgery for burn injuries at GMCH, might have been transfused contaminated blood having HIV virus.
The state-run GMCH is the most-equipped government medical facility in North-East India. The couple claimed that the boy was given multiple blood transfusions during several surgeries last year to treat his burn injuries.
Both me and my wife are HIV-negative. So how can the boy get HIV? Last year, we got him admitted to the hospital where he was given blood for some operations. We got blood from the GMCH blood bank only, the parents told reporters at the medical college premises on Tuesday.
We came to know about the HIV infection on March 30 during routine blood tests at the GMCH. However, doctors treating him advised us not to tell this to anyone. So we kept silent. They assured us of free treatment for the boy but nothing was done, the mother said.
The authorities at the medical college have been in a state of tizzy ever since the case came to light.
We have formed a 5-member committee to look into all aspects of the boys treatment and will try to find out if there was any lacuna on GMCHs part, GMCH superintendent A K Bezbaruah said.
The boy was admitted in the GMCH on April 15 last year with 40% burn injuries. About a dozen surgeries were done on him. He was discharged on October 3 last year. After the child started showing symptoms very proximate to AIDS, he was re-admitted on March 29 last. Since then the boy has been on Anti-Retroviral Therapy.
The case has raised alarm across the state and rekindled the horrific memories of 2013 when 4 people tested HIV-positive after blood transfusion at a government hospital in the state.
The Centre on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to conduct the single common entrance test for admission to undergraduate medical and dental courses in vernacular languages as well.
Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar submitted before a bench presided over by Justice Anil R Dave that students, who studied in vernacular medium, will suffer, if the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) was not held in the languages in which they studied till class XII level.
The court had on Monday ruled that only NEET would enable students to admission to MBBS and BDS courses in medical colleges across the country. Around 6.5 lakh students took up the NEET-I test held on May 1.
The Centre submitted that NEET should also be conducted in Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Bengali and Urdu, apart from Hindi and English, to enable students to perform up to their optimum level. The bench led by Justice Dave said the matter would be considered.
Notably, the court has not prohibited the CBSE, the examination conducting body, to consider the issue of preparing question paper in vernacular languages. The previous NEET held in 2013 had provisions for students to take examination in vernacular languages.
Meanwhile, the Medical Council of India also mentioned before the court seeking modification of the Constitution bench decision for setting up an oversight committee headed by former Chief Justice of India Justice R M Lodha over the regulatory body.
The Indian Army has reversed its age-old practice of killing dogs and horses, if they are unfit for the service for 1 month.
A new policy that envisages proper arrangement for old animals suitable rehabilitation till they die naturally is under the defence ministrys consideration, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Last year, the Indian Army came under criticism from animal welfare activists after the force admitted that it killed the unfit animals.
Army horses and dogs are evaluated for their fitness with respect to the performance of duties. Animals which are considered unfit for one month active service are disposed of by humane euthanasia, the force stated responding to a right to information query.
This triggered angry reactions from animal welfare activists, compelling Parrikar to take note of the archaic practice.
The policy regarding rehabilitation of unfit Indian Army animals has been revised and necessary instructions have been issued to Army headquarters regarding immediate cessation of further destruction of old and worn out animals, Parrikar said in a written response.
Euthanasia would be allowed only for animals suffering from incurable diseases, injuries and terminal diseases, but even those animals are to be dealt with as per the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
The defence ministry has also appraised the Delhi High Court about the proposal to do away with euthanasia of old and worn out army animals and their suitable rehabilitation till they eventually pass away. The High Court is hearing two petitions on this issue.
Army animals are being trained at Remount Veterinary Corps, Meerut and National Training Centre for Dogs and Animals, Chandigarh before they are absorbed into the Army.
Among the dogs, the Army generally uses Labradors, German Shepherds and Belgian Shepherds, depending on the altitudes and weather. Their tasks range from patrolling to bomb detection.
The Gaya police on Tuesday arrested Rocky Yadav, son of Janata Dal (United) MLC Manorma Devi, from Bodh Gaya in connection with the killing of Class XII student Aditya Sachdeva in a road rage attack.
Rocky was hiding in his father Bindi Yadavs mixer plant in Bodh Gaya. The police have also recovered the foreign-made pistol used in the crime.
The Gaya police arrested Rocky in the early hours of Tuesday, i.e at 2 am today, from Bodh Gaya where he was hiding at a business unit of his father, Senior SP of Gaya Garima Mallik said.
Rocky has confessed to his crime, she added even as he denied his role in the killing.
I did not fire at all. I was in Delhi. I have come here at the behest of my mother, who told me to surrender before the police in the case in which I have been named accused, said Rocky when the police produced him before the media in Gaya.
Rocky may have been arrested, but he will be out of jail in 6-month time. The only way to deliver us justice is to hang him at the earliest for killing my son, said Shyam Sachdeva, Gaya-based businessman.
Hang Rocky before my sons Class XIIth result is out, added Adityas mother Chanda Sachdeva. Aditya was shot dead by prime suspect Rocky for overtaking his SUV on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, ADG (Headquarters) Sunil Kumar assured speedy trial in the case. The probe into the road rage incident would be over within three weeks and the chargesheet filed in a month, the ADG said. Meanwhile, the JD (U) has suspended Manorma Devi from the party.
Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education, Kimmane Ratnakar, said the SSLC and II PUC results would be announced before May 25.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Ratnakar, however, did not specify the exact date of the announcement of the results. He said the SSLC results would be announced first, closely followed by the II PUC results.
He said there had been a loss of 28 days due to the conduct of re-examination following the Chemistry question paper leak and evaluation boycott by lecturers. However, the same had been made up by deploying 7,000 additional personnel for evaluation-related work.
Kimmane said the Criminal Investigation Department, which has been investigating the Chemistry paper leak, had not been asked to submit an interim report.
However, the investigation was in full swing. The kingpin behind the racket, Shivakumaraiah, had remained tight-lipped during interrogation, he said.
Asked whether any action would be taken on students who had procured the leaked Chemistry paper, the minister said the results of all the students would be announced. The investigating agency will be monitoring the marks scored by them. It is for the police to decide the step of action, he said.
He said it was ethically wrong on the part of the lecturers to strike work during the examination and evaluation time.
Act to be amended
Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane said the Karnataka Education Act 1983 would be amended to ensure seven years rigorous imprisonment to those who involve themselves in question paper leak. Examination malpractice will also be made a non-bailable offence, he said.
The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) on Tuesday took out a mock funeral of its buses that were burnt during the garment workers protest in April.
This was part of the KSRTCs two-day campaign Its My Bus to create awareness among people not to vandalise public property during protests. The burnt buses were displayed at Majestic and other major bus stations.
After inaugurating the campaign at the Majestic bus station, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said the state-owned buses were becoming vulnerable to vandalism as they are easy targets of mobs.
Vandalising public property is not the solution to the problems. Instead, the public should choose non-violent methods, he said.
Rajender Kumar Kataria, KSRTC Managing Director, said it had become routine for mobs to damage government buses which were purchased from taxpayers money.
We lost Rs 10-15 crore due to damage to the buses. When I visited the Peenya depot soon after the protest, I decided to do something to prevent such damages in the future.
He said he hoped the initiative would become a talking point and help prevent future damages to public property. Artist Badal Nanjundaswamy painted an undamaged bus as part of the campaign.
The culling of the chickens infected with H5N1 virus (Avian Influenza) at a private farm situated on the National Highway - 9 near Molkera village in Humnabad taluk, began late on Tuesday noon.
The blood and other samples of the chickens collected by the Animal Husbandry department and sent to the Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal, have confirmed the chickens being infected with the H5N1 virus.
Officials of Animal Husbandry department and the district administration have taken up joint operations to cull the chicken. At least 10 pits have been dug up at various spots on the 14 acres of the farm. These pits are 30 feet in length, six feet wide and six feet deep. The preliminary work for culling began on Monday itself.
At least 1.5 lakh chickens which are said to be infected, will be culled, loaded in bags and dumped into the pits which will be sealed with lime stone to prevent further infection, an official supervising the operation, informed. The government had released funds for culling and sterilising the farm. The expenses involved in the operations would run into more than Rs 50 lakh.
Total 250 personnel from the Veterinary department have been engaged in the task. As many as 50 teams, comprising five members in each team, have been formed and each team is being led by a veterinarian, two D group staff and two veterinary assistants.
The teams have been adequately trained and a health check-up of the members prior to the operation, has been conducted. The village has received 2,000 Personal Protection Kits for the team members who have also been given Tamiflu as a precautionary measure to safeguard themselves from infections, the official said.
The district administration has banned the sale and transport of chicken within the radius of one km where the farm is situated. Teams have also been deputed at the check posts on the borders of Maharashtra and Telanganna to monitor the entry of unauthorised persons.
The operation is being supervised by the Animal Husbandry department joint director, S S Jambgi. Besides, a team of the central officials attached to the community medicine, visited Molkera and the surrounding villages to create an awareness among the people on bird flu. The residents were educated on the precautionary measures required to be taken and also about the symptoms of the disease.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed diesel taxis to ply in the National Capital Region, but only till the expiry of their permit.
Relaxing the ban imposed on non-CNG run taxis since May 1, a 3-judge bench presided by Chief Justice T S Thakur said that no new diesel taxis would be registered.The registration of all city taxis shall be permitted only if the vehicles operated on dual-fuel (CNG/petrol), the court said.
Underscoring that all diesel taxis would be phased out from the National Capital Region, including Noida and Gurgaon, the court also allowed existing All India Tourist Permit diesel taxis to operate in New Delhi till the expiry of their permit.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Tuesday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the latters remarks during an election rally that likened Kerala to Somalia.
In a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister, Chandy said the statements were far from truth and unbecoming of a prime minister.
Chandys response came in the wake of Modis statement during election campaigning in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, wherein he said that based on 2015 reports, the tribal children were looking for food from garbage dumps in Peravoor in Kannur district.
The chief minister, in his letter, quoted police reports that the children were in the habit of visiting waste treatment plants to pick up scrap they would sell to buy food from hotels. The childrens parents were agricultural labourers and the families did not face difficulties in having food, he mentioned in the letter.
Pointing at Keralas above-national average economic growth and rates of human resource development, Chandy sought some political decency from the prime minister and requested him to withdraw the statement. You have said so, in spite of facilities at your disposal to check the veracity of reports on such incidents, Chandy said.
The chief minister questioned Modis charges that political violence and murders in Kerala were not being probed efficiently.
He also took on the prime minister over the latters comment that speaking about solar energy in Kerala was risky, a veiled reference to the solar scam which continues to rock the Congress-led state government. Chandy reiterated that the state did not lose money in the scam and it involved financial fraud committed on private parties.
The high office of the prime minister has been graced by stalwarts from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Dr Manmohan Singh. And with a great deal of regret, let me point out that they never attempted anything that brought disrepute to the office of the prime minister like you have done, Chandy said.
The BJP has already conceded defeat in the Uttarakhand floor test even as the results will be out only on Wednesday.
The party reportedly got 28 votes in the reduced Assembly strength of 62 while the Congress managed to get 33 votes, 27 from its own MLAs and remaining from BSP (2), Independents (2) and Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (1). The 9 disqualified rebel Congress MLAs were not allowed to vote by the Supreme Court.
After the floor test in Dehradun, BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi, who was arrested in an assault case that lead to death of horse Shaktiman, said the party has won in principle but lost in number game.
We did not use money power. Had we done that even we would have got numbers, Joshi told reporters. He charged that Congress got votes due to money power.
BJP general secretary Kailash Viyayvargiya, however, said that, Congress lost one of their MLAs today, BJP has only gained. Congress MLA Rekha Arya reached Uttarakhand Assembly with BJP MLAs and voted against Rawat government.
BJP sources said that they were banking on Rekha to bring along with her a few more MLAs, but it did not materialised. The floor test, said BJP leaders, is not just a psychological victory for Congress, but also raises questions over party chief Amit Shahs plans in states controlled by Congress and discourage the BJP from invoking Article 356 which it did in Arunachal Pradesh.
BJP leaders privately said that it was wrong strategy to have taken upon itself to settle internal squabble of Congress in the hilly state and that too closer to Assembly polls.
The move has given an upper hand to former chief minister Harish Rawat, who will return to power if he emerges victorious on Wednesday, before the polls, said a BJP leader.
But, some others are seeing a silver lining in the political crisis. A senior state leader said the BSP supporting Congress in the trust vote had given the BJP opportunity to encash it in UP Assembly polls due next year.
The message which has gone to UP is that both Congress and BSP are one which would give advantage to ruling Samajwadi Party which can spin it to get minority votes in its favour.
Ousted Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Tuesday smelt victory in the Supreme Court-monitored Assembly floor test.
Nearly 33 MLAs appeared to have voted in Rawats favour and the BJP seems to have managed only 28 in a House with an effective strength of 62.
Though the results of the floor test remain sealed in an envelope and will be announced by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the Congress leaders were all smiles with Sonia Gandhi declaring it to be a victory of democracy.
It is a victory of democracy, Sonia told reporters at the Parliament House. The news of the successful floor test reached Sonia in the Lok Sabha when Congress members were protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modis remarks against her at a rally in Kerala.
In Dehradun, the tone of Rawats address to Congress workers, gathered at the party office, was that of a victory speech. But he stopped short of letting out the numbers taking the plea that it was the prerogative of the Supreme Court.
He thanked the Supreme Court for ordering a floor test in the state Assembly and expressed his gratitude to all MLAs who supported him.
The floor test had many firsts to its credit. It was the first instance when a Supreme Court-appointed observer, and not the Speaker, who conducted the floor test. The test was conducted by show of hands and not through secret ballot.
At around 10.30 am, Presidents Rule imposed since March 27 was kept in abeyance for two-and-a-half hours to facilitate the floor test. Principal Secretary (Legislative Assembly & Parliamentary Affairs) oversaw the process that lasted for almost an hour. After the floor test, Uttarakhand slipped back into Presidents Rule.
With the support of six MLAs of the Progressive Democratic Front, including two of the BSP, the Congress claimed it got 33 votes, while the BJP conceded it could manage only 28, equal to its numbers in the House. All the 62 MLAs were present in the House and the Speaker did not exercise his vote.
The floor test witnessed some dramatic moments as Congress MLA Rekha Arya, who had gone incommunicado, was escorted to the Assembly by BJP leader Ajay Bhatt. Earlier, the Congress had succeeded in weaning away a BJP rebel Bhim Lal Arya.
A police constable who went missing from the city has been arrested by the Mangaluru police in connection with a chain-snatching case and is in jail.
According to police, Sandesh a constable at the Mahalakshmi Layout station, went missing in April.
After her attempts to search Sandesh didnt yield any results, his wife Pavitra, a government employee, went to the station to find out if he was regular for duty. She was told that Sandesh was not coming for work. The police failed to trace him as his mobile phone was switched off.
Pavitra then filed a missing complaint with the Rajagopalanagar police on May 5. The complaint stated that Sandesh had gone missing on April 11.
A few days ago, Pavitra got a call from a mobile phone number and the person on the phone told her not to think about her husband and forget him. She went to the police and told them about the call. The police started tracking the number and it was found that the call was made from the Mangaluru jail. It was found that he was arrested by the Barke police in a chain-snatching case.
When Deccan Herald contacted the Mangaluru police, they said that, on April 12, Sandesh went to the house of Malini, 57. On the pretext of asking for water, he snatched her gold chain and fled. The victim fell down and sustained a fracture in the leg. Malini lodged a complaint with the Barke police. On April 14, he was arrested from the KSRTC bus stand in Mangaluru.
A senior police officer in Mangaluru, said, He claimed that he was a labourer from Chamarajanagar district and had committed petty theft for a living. He was remanded in judicial custody.
After a few days, we received information from our counterparts in Bengaluru. We cross-checked and found that he was a police constable.
When asked why he committed the crime, he said that he was depressed as he was deep in debt. He came to Mangaluru to commit suicide, but ended up committing the crime, the officer said.
The public can now WhatsApp senior police officers on any issue related to policing. Designated mobile numbers have been provided to officials for the purpose. The new numbers have become operational from Tuesday.
There are 10 Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) in as many divisions in the city. The city police control room has also been given a dedicated WhatsApp.
Complaints on the control room phone will be transferred to the concerned zonal DCP for action. There already exist informal groups of inspectors with Residents Welfare Associations, shopkeepers, social activists and others in their jurisdictional limits.
This was done after we found that more number of people are using WhatsApp. It is an effort to bridge the gap between the police and the public. The new numbers will help in quick action, said an officer. These new numbers will be used for only WhatsApp and no text messages or calls will be entertained.
The numbers will be displayed on the nameboard in front of every police station, along with the city police Twitter handle id and the official email id, he said.
Instant response
The Bengaluru city police, who gained immense popularity when the official Twitter and Facebook pages were launched, hope to get an instant response on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp messages will be checked by the DCPs and they will direct the personnel concerned to visit the spot or attend to the complaint. The police will respond to the complainant with a message. It is an easy process for the people as there is no need for them visit the station, unless the nature of the complaint is serious, said another senior police officer.
The state government, in association with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), has decided to construct multi-storey parking facilities near select Namma Metro stations.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Bengaluru Development Minister K J George said, the BMRCL will be conducting a study on the traffic flow and parking requirements before deciding on stations.
While the East-West corridor of the Namma Metro has received good response from the people, there have been complaints about lack of sufficient parking space near the stations on the stretch.
George said he was aware of the problem and had spoken to BMRCL Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola in this regard. Once approved, the facility can come up in 15 months.
The minister said he had suggested that underground chiller plant at Cubbon Park Station near Minsk Square be shifted to the ground level and the space can be utilised for mechanised lift operated parking.
He said government was keen on developing monorail so that it can act as a feeder service to Namma Metro, especially at Byappanahalli and Nagasandra. A Mala-ysian firm has evinced interest in the same.
As a short-term measure Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation is operating buses as feeder service, he added.
Members of the Banashankari 6th Stage Residents Welfare Association held a protest on Tuesday outside the Lingadheeranahalli garbage-processing plant set up by the BBMP.
Hundreds of residents took part in the protest. They demanded that the Palike shut down the plant as it is affecting their health and posing threat to the flora and fauna of BM Kaval reserve forest and Turahalli minor forest.
Manjunatha M K, a resident, said, The plant is functioning for the past five months. The Palike constructed the plant without consulting us and BDA allotted land for it. Besides the mosquito menace and the stench, the groundwater and the Somapura lake are getting polluted due to the flow of leachate into the lake and the roadside drains.
The protestors said that the foul smell from the plant spreads up to 3 km. Spraying of insecticides to curb the mosquito menace has not been taken up till date. Every day about 25 trucks, each truck carrying eight tonnes of garbage from south zone, enter the plant.
Devaraj, a resident of Metkalpalya near the plant, said that he and his children were unable to eat peacefully due to the stench and mosquitoes. He said that if the problem continued, he would shift to another locality. T S Mahesh, president of the Association, said that they had earlier filed a case with the National Green Tribunal, Chennai, against the Palike for not informing them about the project.
High Court stay
The case was moved to the Karnataka High Court and we got a stay. Now, the stay order has been vacated. We had submitted a petition against the BBMP last year and held a protest in June. But till date, there is no response. We will continue to fight as the plant is affecting 25,000 houses and eight villages, he said.
Sarfaraz Khan, BBMP Joint Commissioner for Health and Solid Waste Management, visited the spot and assured the residents that he would discuss the problem with Bengaluru Development Minister K J George and Palike commissioner Manjunatha Prasad.
He told Deccan Herald, The plant operators are not doing a good job of maintaining the plant. I will discuss the problem with higher authorities and take appropriate steps.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) A wolverine that was shot and killed by a western North Dakota rancher spent time during its life in at least two western states.
The wolverine killed last month when it was harassing livestock in McKenzie County was the first confirmed in North Dakota in more than a century. The last one was during the fur-trading era of the mid-1800s, according to North Dakotas Game and Fish Department.
The wolverine was a male that was 8 or 9 years old. A radio tracking device that was installed in the animals abdomen in 2008 in Wyoming when it was captured south of Yellowstone National Park showed the wolverines last known location was in Colorado in 2012. The devices battery likely gave out after that.
That little critters put on a lot of miles, State Wildlife Chief Jeb Williams told The Bismarck Tribune.
The closest population of wolverines is in the mountains of neighboring Montana and the forests of northern Canada. Male wolverines are known to travel great distances in search of habitat, food or other wolverines, according to Game and Fish. There is no evidence to suggest a population of wolverines in North Dakota, furbearer biologist Stephanie Tucker told the Tribune.
The rancher who killed the wolverine acted within the law, which allows state residents to kill wild furbearers to protect livestock or crops, Game and Fish said. Bears are the only exception.
The wolverine will be mounted and displayed in a furbearer exhibit at Game and Fish headquarters in Bismarck.
The district attorney for Las Animas and Huerfano counties, who was disciplined for mishandling more than a dozen criminal cases, now faces a new set of allegations that he failed to disclose evidence and properly train his staff.
Third Judicial District Attorney Frank Ruybalid may be suspended from practicing law for six months after he and attorneys in his office allegedly violated the rules of evidence in at least three cases since January 2015, according to motions filed in the case. Ruybalids failure to train and supervise his staff has led to violations of the Victims Rights Act and weak charging decisions in at least one case involving sexual abuse against a child.
But Ruybalid said critics do not understand how limited resources affect his office. Including Ruybalid, who was first elected in 2008, the office has three attorneys to cover four courts in two counties that span more than 6,000 miles in southern Colorado.
After years of litigation over violations that Ruybalid says are common in criminal cases, the district attorney now wonders if he has become an easy target for defense attorneys and judges.
There was no intention to hide anything, Ruybalid said.
In 2013, the Colorado Attorney Regulation Counsel filed a lengthy complaint against Ruybalid, claiming he and his staff blatantly disobeyed court orders and intentionally violated state rules in 16 criminal cases.
The majority of those cases which alleged crimes such as second-degree murder, child abuse and assault never went to trial. Prosecutors dismissed the cases after rule violations were discovered.
Ruybalid admitted to mishandling evidence in those cases and accepted a plea agreement in January 2015. As part of the agreement, he will be monitored during a 23-month probation period.
If Ruybalid violates any rules or his attorneys break any rules due to lack of training, Ruybalid may face a six-month suspension.
In a motion filed in February, the regulations counsel claims that Ruybalid and his attorneys violated evidence rules as early as May 2015.
A judge dismissed a felony criminal mischief case in November because Ruy balid failed to provide evidence including witnesses statements and photographs to defense attorneys until two days before a hearing.
In his order, Chief District Court Judge Claude Appel wrote that despite Mr. Ruybalid being on probation with the Office of Attorney Regulation, and despite numerous sanctions the courts in this district have imposed, he continues to engage in a pattern of willful misconduct.
Defense attorneys do not contact the district attorneys office if they are missing evidence, Ruybalid said.
But Ruybalids failure to train and supervise his staff led to multiple violations in other cases, according to a motion.
In July, a lawyer from the Colorado Attorney Generals office was sent to monitor Ruybalid and his team. During his review, the attorney found that a senior prosecutor in the office filed charges in a child sex assault case that were too lenient, according to a letter sent by the AGs office.
The prosecutor, who has since left the office, did not meet with the victim before the preliminary hearing and did not properly consult with the victim before offering a plea agreement.
Ruybalid said the AGs letter does not represent all the facts of the case and is inaccurate in describing the victims involvement.
As part the plea agreement, attorney Terry Ruckriegle was assigned to monitor Ruybalid eight to 32 hours a month. He was also tasked with overseeing an audit of Ruybalids office.
An April 18 report found that Ruybalid had made little to no progress on problems identified by Ruckriegle.
It took Ruybalid seven months to work through stacks of police reports and requests on his desk. Ruybalid has not implemented systems to help track cases when they are filed or establish a policy for handling law enforcement requests.
The systemic problems in Ruybalids office are so severe that it is unrealistic if not plainly impossible to accomplish these responsibilities in the time allotted, Ruckriegle wrote.
William Lucero, the Colorado Supreme Courts presiding disciplinary judge, has scheduled a two-day hearing in June and will ultimately decide whether Ruybalid will be suspended.
Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or @jsteffendp
Lisa Phillips son was playing with his two best friends young brothers who lived nearby along the Little Thompson River when he went running home for help.
Daniel Foreman, 7, and Paul Foreman, 10, had fallen into the strong currents, he screamed to her on Sunday afternoon. Down below, Phillips saw the boys father struggling to keep the pair above the frigid rivers surface and move them ashore.
Phillips said she jumped in as well, but by the time she reached the boys, it was clearly too late. Firefighters arrived soon after and began CPR.
They tried everything, she told The Denver Post on Monday. There was nothing they could do.
The Larimer County coroners office said the two boys drowned after being swept into the Little Thompson in the small community of Pinewood Springs. Their deaths have been ruled an accident.
Phillips said Daniel and Paul were very close to each other and loved Legos, video games and their pet rabbit.
Its shocking and devastating, she said. My son lost his best friends right in front of him.
It remained a mystery Monday how the two boys fell into the river while their fathers back was turned and while playing in an area they knew well. Phillips said the boys were battling with water guns but not being careless around the Little Thompson, with its well-documented dangers.
David Moore, spokesman for the county sheriffs office, which is investigating the case, said an update Monday wasnt available.
Area residents said the boys were near a popular, high-risk swimming spot in the river called the tubs when they got caught in the swift flow.
The tubs features granite cliffs that form a waterfall and gushing currents that cut a series of deep pools where people swim. The area is open only to community members and is heavily marked with signs barring outsiders.
There were not lots of witnesses, said Andrew Lucas, assistant chief of the Pinewood Springs Fire Protection District, who responded to the scene. It was lightly populated, and the calls came in once there was realization the boys were in the river and being swept downstream. Neighbors in the area were contacted by a witness or two who asked them to call 911.
The first report came in to emergency dispatchers about 12:20 p.m. Phillips said she made that call.
Lucas said the initial response was chaotic because of spotty cellphone reception and the dearth of information initially provided to first responders.
Emergency dispatch archives on Broadcastify.com show first responders needed help being directed to the scene. Some apparently came from as far as Longmont, about 20 miles away.
Crews initially thought they were responding to a swift-water rescue situation, the archives indicate.
It appears there is somebody out of the water and they are doing CPR on them! a Pinewood Springs firefighter called into his radio with a shaken voice.
The boys were unresponsive when first responders reached them. Efforts to resuscitate Daniel and Paul were unsuccessful.
Theres some speculation about whether one went in first and then the other, Lucas said. We dont really know.
Denver7 reported the boys grandfather, Paul Joseph Foreman, told the station that Daniel and Pauls father had trouble getting out of the water himself after jumping in to rescue his children.
A neighbor said he saw the father huddled on the Little Thompsons banks, draped in what appeared to be a blanket, as emergency crews worked around him.
The brothers home was a few hundred yards from where they were found in the river, neighbors said.
The Little Thompson was running strong Sunday when the boys fell in but not nearly at its peak snowmelt runoff strength.
There have been accidents at the tubs in the past, and signs warn visitors of dangerous conditions.
Pinewood Springs, between Lyons and Estes Park on U.S. 36, is trying to come to grips with the Mothers Day tragedy. Friends and neighbors were gathering Monday night at the firehouse.
Theres lots of efforts to try to deal with the ramifications for not only the family, but also the community and the first responders involved, Lucas said.
A GoFundMe account gofundme.com/Foremanfamily has been created to help the boys family with funeral expenses and other costs.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or @JesseAPaul
Staff writer Bruce Finley contributed to this report.
The Colorado Authors League honored 13 state writers at its May 6 awards banquet.
Margaret Coel of Boulder won this years Lifetime Achievement Award. Coel is a former CAL president and a New York Times best-selling author. She created the Wind River Series of mysteries set on Wyomings Wind River Reservation.
One of the dozen category winners was Lois Beebe Hayna, still writing at 103. Hayna won for her poetry collection, Moon-Hung Midnights.
Hayna, a former Colorado Springs resident living in Michigan, also won in that category last year. She received CALs Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
This was the 68th year for the contest honoring Colorado writers.
Other winners include:
Single Poem: Gunnamatta Park, by Dan Guenther.
Mainstream Fiction: Contrition, by Maura Weiler.
Genre Fiction: Murder on the Tracks, by Bruce Mot.
Short Fiction: Knife River Flint, from the collection, Tesserae: A Mosaic of Story, by Sharon Cairns Mann.
General Non-Fiction: Prophets and Moguls, Rangers and Rogues, Bison and Bear, by Heather Hansen
Creative Non-Fiction: Flying with El Condor, by Carolyn Evans Campbell.
Feature Articles: A New Breed of Therapy, by Jen Reeder
Essays: After Charleston, by Patricia Raybon
Childrens Books: The Mermaids Gift, by Claudia Cangilla McAdam.
Young Adult Books: War Bonds: Remembering One Small Town in America During World War II, by Beverly Jones
Blog: Between Urban and Wild, by Andrea M. Jones.
William Porter: 303-954-1877, wporter@denverpost.com or @williamporterdp
An Aurora police officer shot a man Monday after following him into Denver near a cluster of motels along East Colfax Avenue, shutting down traffic on the busy thoroughfare and causing tension in the ethnically diverse neighborhood.
Denver police deputy chief Matt Murray said the incident began with a shooting at 1:39 p.m. in the 1900 block of Akron Street in Aurora.
Aurora officers determined someone connected to that shooting was near the intersection of East Colfax Avenue and Wabash Street in Denver, which is less than a mile from the shooting scene in Aurora.
A short foot chase began. The unidentified Aurora officer fired his gun, striking the suspect, Murray said.
The suspect was taken to a hospital and listed in critical condition, Murray said. No officers were injured.
Aurora police had notified Denver when they crossed jurisdictions, Murray said.
Murray said it was unknown whether the man was armed.
However, Arika Graham, who was outside the Sand & Sage Motel, where the shooting happened, said she saw the man pull a gun while running. He dropped the gun and was shot, she said.
I dont know if he was pulling it out to throw it away or pulling it out to use it, Graham said.
Afterward, a black pistol was lying in the motels courtyard. Police tape surrounded the motel, and tape was strung across the door of one room at the motel.
Crystal McCoy, a spokeswoman for the Aurora Police Department, said no one was killed or injured in the Akron Street shooting.
People in the neighborhood near the Denver motel were visibly upset over another police shooting.
Some cried. Some yelled and swore at the police and media. Protesters arrived with posters and stood on a corner across from the motel as onlookers drove slowly by the scene.
Claudine McCullough held her 3-year-old grandsons hand as she prayed for the shooting victim and his family while standing on a corner near the motel.
I know the pain, McCullough said.
Carmella Yelverton shed tears as she questioned whether the shooting was necessary.
Im asking every Aurora, Denver every police officer to stop and think before you shoot, Yelverton said.
Mondays shooting was the fourth involving a police officer this year in Denver.
In April, a Denver police SWAT officer shot and killed 40-year-old Dion Damon near Civic Center. Police were serving a warrant on a bank robbery charge to Damon, who was not armed.
In 2015, 13 people were shot by police in Denver; six died.
Mondays shooting will be investigated by Denver police, and it will be up to District Attorney Mitch Morrissey to decide whether criminal charges should be brought against the officer.
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or @Noelle_Phillips
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock has appointed community development consultant Anna Jones, who ran unsuccessfully for the City Council last year, to head the North Denver Cornerstone Collaborative.
Since 2013, the NDCC office has coordinated a half-dozen city initiatives in north Denver surrounding the reconstruction of Interstate 70, transit station development, redevelopment along Brighton Boulevard, planning for South Platte River revitalization in River North, neighborhood plans for Globeville and Elyria-Swansea, and the $1.1 billion National Western Center redevelopment project. This year, Hancock spun off the National Western project into a separate office led by former NDCC executive director Kelly Leid.
Anna and the team will take the next steps to realize positive change in these neighborhoods in close collaboration with the residents who live there, Hancock said in a news release announcing the appointment Monday. I believe we can create a brighter future for the residents and businesses in these neighborhoods, and I have every bit of confidence that Anna and the team will deliver on that vision.
Her salary will be $135,000, a mayoral spokeswoman said.
When Jones starts May 23, she and her deputy directors longtime deputy Todd Wenskoski and Christopher Pacheco, who is leaving his position as a public works senior engineer and project manager face plenty of challenges. Among them is continued skepticism from some residents of those areas that the city can balance developer and neighborhood interests. Many also strongly oppose the states I-70 project, which the Hancock administration has supported.
Jones, a senior vice president at Progressive Urban Management Associates, gained prominence last year when she advanced to a runoff against Wayne New for the open District 10 council seat in central Denver. New defeated her in a close race that prominently featured debate over development.
She previously served in an appointed seat on the Denver Planning Board.
Jon Murray: 303-954-1405, jmurray@denverpost.com or @JonMurray
Ryan Fraziers effort to stay in contention for the Republican primary for U.S. Senate continued late Monday night, when he filed a petition to the Colorado Supreme Court over the states ruling that he had not collected enough valid signatures to qualify.
In late April, Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams decided that contenders Robert Blaha and Frazier didnt submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the June 28 Republican primary.
The candidates took their case to court, but a judges ruling left them just shy of making the ballot. Less than a day later, District Court Judge Elizabeth Starrs issued an amended ruling that gave Blaha enough signatures to secure his spot on the ballot.
Frazier was left to appeal his case to the Supreme Court, which he did just before the deadline Monday.
The secretary of state decided that a staffer for Frazier had his voter registration canceled after failing to list an apartment number, invalidating some signatures. Others were tossed because registered voters had moved and did not update their addresses, Frazier said.
Due to advances in election administration technology, the Secretary now has more tools available to determine whether individuals are, in fact, voters, the petition stated. At the same time, voter laws have changed, allowing voters to remain registered voters even when their information is not updated in the voter file.
Frazier believes he is about 73 signatures short of the 18,000 he turned in and is confident the Supreme Court will overturn the previous ruling.
We know we have more than enough, Frazier told The Denver Post on Monday before the petition was filed. We are going to request the review by the high court and pray for relief.
Protecting against fraud is a legitimate and important government interest, but to be narrowly tailored to address the interest, the Secretary must produce evidence of such fraud and how the restriction will help to advance that interest, the appeal petition said. The Secretary did not do so.
Aside from Blaha, the Republican candidates for the primary include Darryl Glenn, Jack Graham and Jon Keyser. The primary winner will take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in November.
Specialist insurer Hiscox increased its gross written premiums by 10% in local currency to 640.5m in its first quarter, it reported on Tuesday.
The FTSE 250 firm said the strong performance came from almost all market segments, with the business continuing to benefit from a long-standing strategy of balance and diversity.
Hiscox Retails gross written premiums grew 9.7% during the period, with the US market the outstanding performer at 30.1% growth in local currency.
The UK grew 5.8% and Europe 4.9%, while Special Risks and DirectAsia were the losers within the retail branch, with gross written premiums declining 12.1% and 5.1% respectively.
Investment in brand and infrastructure are driving growth in Hiscox Retail gross written premiums, the groups board said in a statement.
Hiscox Re also reached into the double digits during the quarter, with 16.2% growth, while the Hiscox London Market saw gross written premiums improve 5.3% at local currency.
The board said Hiscox Re was continuing to grow its casualty and specialty businesses including cyber, terrorism and business written on behalf of Kiskadee Investment Managers, while new teams and product lines blew steam into the Hiscox London Market.
"We've had a very good start to the year, said Hiscox CEO Bronek Masojada.
Our retail businesses continue to do well, growing in both broker and direct-to-consumer channels.
We are navigating more difficult markets in bigger ticket lines; retreating where competition is eroding margins and growing where we see opportunity, Masojada explained.
The FTSE 100 was trading in the green on Tuesday afternoon, as investors digested news of the trade deficit narrowing and rewarded big miners.
Outsourcing group Capita was among the top risers, after it reaffirmed its confidence of achieving 4% organic sales growth in 2016 despite having secured less than half the amount of contracts as at the same time last year.
The company had secured 458m aggregate major contracts and acquired four businesses so far, against 1.2bn secured and seven businesses acquired last May.
Its board put the drop down to some contract decisions taking a little longer than expected, with the bid pipeline standing at 4.7bn on 25 February.
"Whilst some of these contract decisions are taking a little longer than expected to come through, we expect a flow of bid outcomes over the rest of this year and the prospect list of opportunities behind our pipeline remains strong."
Capital expenditure at Capita is expected to be lower than last year, and the annualised net debt-to-EBITDA ratio is forecast to be in the range of 2 to 2.5 in 2016, against 2.5 in 2015.
Low-cost carrier easyJet was also among the risers, despite missing expectations and swinging to a loss before tax of 24m for the six months to 31 March, against a profit of 7m a year earlier.
Terrorism was blamed on a downturn in the general travel market in easyJets Europe and Mediterranean markets in the last six months, though currency had a more profound effect on the numbers - at constant currency it made a profit before tax of 5m.
The consensus estimate before the result was for a 26m profit before tax, although Numis did warn at the weekend that it expected a loss from easyJet after the France, Egypt and Belgium terror attacks.
Fellow operator in the international travel market, TUI, was also on the up ahead of its results on Wednesday. It is expected to maintain revenue of around 3.6bn with higher earnings despite the terror-related downturn.
Big miners filled out the top risers, with Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto all sporting gains, as the plunge in iron ore price seen on Monday looked to be abating.
Comex copper futures were also creeping up to be just in the green.
House builders were a theme of the fallers, with Taylor Wimpey, Berkeley Group and Barratt Developments all losing out as Brexit fears continued.
At lunchtime, former Cabinet Office chief economist Jonathan Portes warned in a paper for the National Institute of Economic and Social Research that if a full 50% cut on migration was achieved, it would lead to a 2p increase in income tax.
The companies were also still reeling from news on Monday that house price growth was cooling, as the new buy-to-let stamp duty rules took hold.
The fall in retail sales reported by the British Retail Consortium and KPMG - where like-for-like sales slipped 0.9% in April compared to the same month last year - were hurting retail-focused Intu Properties, while investors were seemingly displeased by plans revealed by Associated British Foods to sell its Chinese sugar business for as much as 700m.
Commercial broadcaster ITV was also being punished ahead of results later this week, with investors fearing the worst over television advertising revenue.
HSBC last week forecast advertising revenue growth would be flat at the group, with group revenue growth of 8% largely driven by ITV Studios. Analysts there said Brexit risks appeared to be piling uncertainty onto advertisers.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Anglo American (AAL) 596.60p 6.63%
Capita (CPI) 1,075.00p 4.98%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 491.45p 2.95%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 965.50p 2.66%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,064.00p 2.60%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 813.40p 2.53%
Barclays (BARC) 162.45p 2.52%
GKN (GKN) 280.60p 2.48%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,504.00p 2.31%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,006.50p 2.14%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 179.70p -2.34%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 2,933.00p -1.71%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 3,117.00p -1.61%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 8,945.00p -1.54%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,825.00p -1.46%
Intu Properties (INTU) 296.00p -1.00%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 2,566.00p -0.74%
ITV (ITV) 219.00p -0.73%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,158.00p -0.60%
Carnival (CCL) 3,513.00p -0.51%
Jake Wagner says he 'had no other choice' but to kill Hanna Rhoden
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BEIJING (AP) Rescuers on Sunday searched for 33 construction workers missing in a landslide at the site of a hydropower project following days of heavy rain in southern China. Eight other workers were pulled out alive, officials and state-run media reported.
Rocks and mud with a volume of 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet) buried an office building and the workers' living area at the site in mountainous Taining county in Fujian province around 5 a.m. Sunday, according to a website run by the county's Communist Party's publicity department.
. . .
$700M coal terminal is denied by the Corps
The Corps' Seattle district said impacts from the trestle and three-vessel wharf would interfere with the Lummi Tribe's treaty rights to fish.
By PHUONG LE
Associated Press
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday denied a permit to a $700 million project to build the nation's largest coal-export terminal in northwest Washington state, handing a striking victory to the Lummi tribe which argued the project would violate its treaty-protected fishing rights.
The decision ends the federal environmental review of a deep-water port that would have handled up to 54 million metric tons of dry bulk commodities, mostly coal, at Cherry Point. The venture between SSA Marine and Cloud Peak Energy proposed receiving coal by train from Montana and Wyoming for export to Asia.
Col. John Buck, commander of the corps' Seattle district, said the project can't be permitted because the impacts from the trestle and three-vessel wharf would interfere with the tribe's treaty rights to fish in its traditional areas.
The corps may not permit a project that abrogates treaty rights, Buck said.
The Lummi Nation said the Corps honored its treaty with the U.S. and recognized that the project would hurt the tribe's fishing rights.
It's great news for the Lummi, a great win for treaty rights and Indian country, said Tim Ballew, chairman of the tribe with more than 5,000 members and one of the largest tribal fishing fleets in the country. The record established, and everybody knew, this project would have negative impacts to treaty fishing rights.
Like many tribes, the Lummi signed a treaty with the U.S. in 1855 in which it ceded its land but reserved the right to hunt and fish in usual and accustomed areas.
Project developers said Monday that they are considering all alternatives.
This is an inconceivable decision, Bob Watters, president of Pacific International Terminal, LLC, said in a statement. Looking at the set of facts in the administrative summary, it's quite obvious this is a political decision and not fact based.
Project developers had argued that the most productive fishing for the tribe does not occur near the wharf and that the tribe didn't provide real evidence that they fished or crabbed a lot in the area, about 100 miles north of Seattle.
But the Corps said the tribe showed evidence that members fish near the proposed dock and did so regularly. The agency said the pier itself would impact the tribe's fishing rights, and that measures proposed by developers wouldn't minimize those effects. At a minimum, 122 acres of the tribe's fishing grounds would be impacted.
Opponents had criticized the project over concerns about air and water pollution, coal dust, train traffic and carbon emissions from burning coal, while supporters touted good-paying jobs and tax revenue.
We're totally at a crossroad and the Northwest stood up and said we're not going to allow this to happen in our own backyard, said Beth Doglio, co-chair of Power Past Coal, a coalition of more than 100 groups opposed to coal exports.
She said continuing to build new fossil fuel infrastructure and helping coal be burned overseas while climate change is raging is not the direction the region should be headed.
Meanwhile, Montana U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke and the Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Exports, a trade group, criticized the Corps for issuing a decision before the environmental analysis was complete.
Zinke said in a statement the project is incredibly important to Montana, the Crow, and even to the blue collar workers in Washington State because it is literally the gateway to economic prosperity and rising out of poverty.
The Crow Nation of Montana has an option for ownership in the new terminal.
Last month, project developers asked state and federal regulators to temporarily halt an environmental review that began in 2013, while the Corps heard the Lummi's request. Buck said the corps' decision puts an end to that federal environmental analysis. Developers could appeal the decision by suing in federal court.
Quite possibly there's a long road ahead of us, but our priority is always to protect Cherry Point, Ballew added.
Malaysia's Tenaga to buy 30% energy assets of debt-laden GMR
Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Malaysia's largest electricity utility and one of Southeast Asia's largest power companies, is picking up 30-per cent stake in some of the energy assets of debt-laden GMR Energy for nearly Rs2,000 crore ($300 million)
Tenaga is acquiring 30-per cent stake in select generation assets of GMR Infra's subsidiary, GMR Energy Ltd (GEL) through its wholly owned subsidiary, Power and Energy International (Mauritius) Ltd, in a cash transaction worth $300 million.
Under the deal, Tenaga will hold 30 per cent stake in GMR Energy's total capacity of 4,600 MW, which includes 2,300 MW of operational capacity and rest is under development.
The operational capacity consists of 1,650 MW of coal-based generation assets and 623 MW of gas-based plants. The deal will cover all the under-development projects, dominated by hydro power capacity including two plants in Nepal.
GMR Energy has kept over 2,000 MW generating capacity outside the purview of this deal. The assets include recently commissioned coal-based plant in Chhattisgarh with a capacity of 1,370 MW and fuel-starved gas-based plant at Rajamundhry in Andhra Pradesh with a capacity of 768 MW. GEL operates nearly 6,500 MW of capacity, which includes 4,200 MW operational capacity.
The proceeds from the stake sale would be used for repayment of corporate debt, the GMR Infra said, adding that the asset sale would help the company to reduce it corporate debt to Rs4,300 crore from the current Rs6,300 crore.
''This would lead to a reduction in GMR Infra's consolidated corporate debt and will result in a stronger balance sheet,'' GMR stated in a release.
''We will use the entire proceed towards debt reduction which will allow us to save nearly Rs250 crore in interest payment annually,'' GBS Raju, chairman, GEL said in a conference call.
GMR Infra, which operates in verticals such as energy, roads, airports, etc, had reported consolidated debt of Rs47,738 crore at the end of March 2015.
In March, GMR Infrastructure had agreed to sell a 51-per cent equity stake in its 99-km highway project in Karnataka to its joint venture partners for Rs85 crore. Before that, in December, it had raised $300 million by issuing 60-year foreign currency convertible bonds to Kuwait Investment Authority.
The debt is spread across various special purpose vehicles across various verticals the company operates in. GMR said it is now in a position to service the debt in the various SPVs and will now be able to reduce it at the corporate level also.
GMR Infrastructure is among the 10 most heavily indebted firms in India and has so far sold assets worth about Rs11,000 crore between 2012 and end of last fiscal, as per a Credit Suisse report.
''The assets that are part of the deal have long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) and stable cash flows while the other assets are yet to be operationally stable,'' Raju said. He added that the agreement accords the first right to Tenaga to invest in the remaining assets of GEL within a period of five years.
Tenaga, a $10-billion company, was established in 1990 as a public company. It has operations across the value chain in the power sector, including generation, transmission and distribution in Malaysia.
Failte Ireland has welcomed the opening of the newly refurbished Fanad Head lighthouse as a vital contribution to the success of the Wild Atlantic Way and a boost for tourism in the north-west.
The lighthouses redevelopment was partly funded by 300,000 in Failte Ireland funding due to its status as a designated signature discovery point along the Wild Atlantic Way and its potential to truly showcase wild Atlantic moments and stories.
The lighthouse will offer visitors breath-taking and memorable experiences, telling the remarkable story of the sea, lighthouses past and present and the maritime and seafaring history of Ireland.
Speaking at an official ceremony on Friday to open the newly refurbished lighthouse, Failte Ireland CEO, Shaun Quinn said he believed the Wild Atlantic Way would be a game changer for north Mayo, Sligo and Donegal.
Mr Quinn pointed out that the project was a perfect fit for the Wild Atlantic Way and tied in with Failte Irelands plans to develop Donegal tourism, complementing as it does the tourism authoritys recent 3m investment in Sliabh Liag. The development at Fanad Head will also sit alongside Failte Irelands plans to substantially enhance nearby Malin Head. As an initial step, the tourism authority recently announced funding of 396,000 to Donegal County Council to develop visitor facilities at Malin Head which will significantly enhance the visitor experience at that site.
Mr Quinn emphasised: We want Donegal and the north west in particular to benefit from the Wild Atlantic Way. Along the southern part of the coastal route, most of those parts have traditionally thrived on tourism and the Wild Atlantic Way will grow their numbers. However, north of Galway particularly through north Mayo, Sligo and up to Donegal we believe that the Wild Atlantic Way will be a game changer and provide the boost to local economies and local employment that this part of Ireland sorely needs.
However, for that to happen, we need more overseas visitors. And, for visitors, we need good compelling reasons for them to visit. Investment in Sliabh Liag, Malin Head and Fanad Head Lighthouse is designed to provide just that."
Happy to invest in project
Referring to the specific project at Fanad Lighthouse he said they were very happy to support the project: We, in Failte Ireland, were more than happy to invest in the refurbishment of the lighthouse. While the scenery of the Wild Atlantic Way can speak for itself, we are anxious for communities along the western seaboard to tell their stories and attract visitors and to persuade them to spend more time and money in places such as Fanad.
Restoration Work
The restoration works include an interpretation area in the lighthouse to give visitors the history of the lighthouse, the Fanad story, as well as the stories of marine life and nearby shipwrecks.
A permanent exhibition will include; lighthouse keepers records/log books; semaphore flags; replacement lights and old light systems; historical maps; stories and anecdotes from Fanad Head. Furthermore, on a more practical note, a new visitor facility added to the lighthouse will allow for greater numbers of visitors, providing as it does a reception and display area, an exhibition area and other services.
Overlooking Malin Head, the most northerly point in Ireland, Fanad Head lighthouse, which is still in operation, will mark its 200th anniversary in 2017. The lighthouse will also feature in the Commissioners of Irish Lights Shine a Light on Summer Festival which takes place this weekend and which also received funding from Failte Ireland.
The Standards in Public Office (SIPO) Commission hearing into alleged duplication of expenses claims by Senator Brian O Domhnaill opened in Dublin.
The complaint against Mr O Domhnaill relates to alleged duplication of expense claims when he was a member of both Udaras na Gaeltachta and Donegal County Council.
They relate to the period before he became a senator in 2007.
Senior counsel representing SIPO, Mr Luan OBraonain said the Commission needed to decide whether this was done inadvertently, neglectfully, recklessly or done with intent based on the Commission's findings.
Mr. O'Braonain outlined how it was alleged that O'Domhnaill had breached regulations on three occasions; March, April, May 2006.
Giving evidence in Irish O Domhnaill said he had only ever acted in an honest manner and was focused at all times on the welfare of his constituents.
The hearing was adjourned pending legal submissions being furnished to the relevant legal teams and the commission on June 20th.
Justice Daniel O'Keefe thanked the legal teams adding that he hoped that there would be no reason to reconvene.
The hearing came to a close at 6pm.
More in the Donegal Democrat on Thursday.
Pictured: Senator Brian ODomhnaill.
Halloween creatures owls, crows and bats all live at Crossroads, and that makes us very happy, for these scary animals make a positive contribution to the habitats of the preserve. We don't even mind black cats, IF they are kept indoors. Feral and outdoor cats are exceedingly harmful to wildlife ... and that's not a superstition! But to tamp down superstitions, we at Crossroads will spend the week demystifying Halloween creatures.
On October 28, 2022, at 6 p.m. will be our Evening with Owls. The Open Door Bird Sanctuary will be at Crossroads, offering a one-hour presentation followed by the opportunity to meet and greet live birds. Learn all about owls and the other incredible birds in the care of the Sanctuary!
Down through the centuries, in many cultures throughout the world, owls have been associated with evil and death. Truth is, owls probably are not smart enough to be evil. But researchers agree that owls are about as dim as the nighttime forests in which they hunt.
Owls don't need to be smart. They have everything else going for them. They are muscular. They fly silently. Their huge eyes enable them to see in the dark. Their beaks and talons are strong and wickedly sharp. But their sensitive ears are what make owls extraordinary hunters.
Most people assume that the plumicorns (a.k.a. "horns) of an owl are its ears. Not so.
The actual ears lie under feathers on the sides of the head, and they aren't symmetrical. Because one ear is higher than the other and the ears are unequal in size, sound is different from different directions, helping owls locate prey, which they do almost unfailingly, even in total darkness.
Owls do not smell their prey. As with most birds, the sense of smell is insignificant, if it exists are all. Great Horned Owls frequently prey on skunks. Enough said.
But well-developed intelligence? Researchers have observed owls beating their wings on bushes to try to flush out little birds. Is this learned behavior? Is it problem-solving?
Maybe.
For the most part, owls do not have a lot of problems to solve. They appropriate abandoned nests of other birds, so they don't need building skills. They are stealthy by nature, and they pounce on and usually catch anything they hear, so they don't need hunting techniques.
In spite of ghost stories, legends of American First People, and superstitions from Europe and India, hooting owls do not foretell impending death, although their nocturnal calls are spooky. We hear them now and then this time of year, but we will regularly hear those eerie calls at Crossroads in January or February.
In contrast to owls, crows are noisy all year round and they are amazingly intelligent. They can learn. They can remember. They can solve problems. They can even identify individual humans. And they detest owls, though whether this is innate or learned behavior is not clear.
Those curious about crows will want to attend the Crossroads Book Club on Wednesday, October 26, at 10:00 a.m. This month, the book Crow Planet, Essential Wisdom for the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt will explore the fascinating world of these remarkable birds. The program is free and open to all, whether or not they have read the book.
So bring the family to our program on owls, learn about crows at the Crossroads Book Club, or learn about bats at our pre-school Junior Nature Club on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. or our Family Science Saturday program at 2:00 p.m. Costumes are encouraged but not required at Junior Nature Club and Science Saturday, and adult visitors are welcome.
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Joe Bates rounds up the news and events for the TFWA Asia Pacific exhibition in Singapore
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THIS YEARS TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference, to be held in Singapore this month from May 8-12 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, comes at an unsettling time for the Asian duty free liquor business. While continued passenger growth, airport infrastructure investment and rising retail standards all suggest the regions long-term future is good, the Chinese anti-corruption programme and the wider slowdown in the countrys economy are causes for immediate concern.
This more sombre industry mood is reflected in the theme of this years event: Navigating Through Change. In a change from the format of previous years, the conference will start with two plenary sessions in the morning, followed by three simultaneous themed industry workshops in the afternoon.
The first plenary session will commence with TFWA president Erik Juul Mortensens customary look at the regional duty free business in statistical terms and will address its main challenges and opportunities at a time of much geopolitical, economic and generational change.
Former Singaporean ambassador to the US and current dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Kishore Mahbubani is one of the keynote speakers in the first plenary session. He will look at the current political and economic challenges facing Asia Pacific.
The second speaker, futurist Mike Walsh, investigates how the duty free industry can adapt and survive in an era of constant change.
FUTURE AMBITIONS
The second plenary session will feature Philippe Schaus, CEO of Asias largest duty free retailer, DFS Group, talking about his companys plans for the future, while Jack MacGowan, CEO of Irish travel retail ARI, and Kevin Chiang, president of Taiwans leading travel retailer Ever Rich Corporation will both outline their regional ambitions.
Finally, after a networking lunch, the three afternoon workshops will focus on the millennial travellers, the growing downtown duty free sector in Asia, and the various legislative challenges facing the regional travel retail business.
The shows packed social calendar remains largely the same as in previous years: a number of sporting events will be held on Sunday May 8, as will the shows Welcome Cocktail at the famous Raffles Hotel. A concluding Singapore Swing party will be held on Sentosa Islands Mambo Beach on Wednesday May 11.
More than 2,600 visitors attended the show last year and more than 60 wine, beer and spirit exhibitors have stands at this years exhibition.
Among the new or returning exhibitors this year are Nemiroff vodka, Cognac Prunier, Chopin vodka, Prince Hubert de Polignac cognac, Vana Tallinn liqueur, French wine merchant Peuch et Besse and Chinese spirits producer Wuliangye Group.
Show organiser TFWA has developed a number of digital services for visitors to the show, including a dedicated mobile phone app, touch-screen kiosks at the Marina Bay Sands to aid navigation, and an online product showcase detailing product launches.
TFWA is also offering a personalised appointment service for exhibiting brand owners and retailers to meet senior executives from Asian airports, airlines, cruise lines and ferry operators.
For more detail on these services and all aspects of the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference head to tfwa.com.
There is a strong local tradition that Edward Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce, was crowned King of all Ireland somewhere in the Dundalk area seven hundred years ago this month, on May 1, 1316. Whether or not this true is very much open to debate and the whole idea has been debunked recently by Dundalk man Professor Sean Duffy of Trinity College who claims that, if Edward Bruce was ever proclaimed a king must have happened shortly after he landed with an invasion force near Carrickfergus in May of the previous year 1315.
The tradition is that he was crowned at a hill called Knocknameelan and held court in a castle in the Castletown area for over a year, up until the time of his death at the Battle of Faughart in October 1318.
The Old Dundalk Society put so much belief in the story that, when they were erecting a number of historical blue plaques around the town over a decade ago, they put one on the side of a house at the junction of Park Street, Earl Street and Francis Street (which can be still seen), stating that he was crowned king here in 1816. This seems to have been based on the evidence that there once was an old fortified house on the site known as Moritimer's Castle which had originally been called the King's Castle. Now this, clearly cannot be true as this fortification was not built until more than two hundred years after Bruce's sack of the town in late June of 1315. Bruce certainly did not hang around the area either, as he was too busy campaigning around Ireland for the next three years, a fact which is well documented.
Whatever the truth of the old tradition, it seems that somebody still believes it as, when I was out at Faughart Graveyard recently, I noticed that some person or person had put flowers on Edward Bruce's supposed grave beside the ruined church. An irony is that the flowers were plastic, which I doubt would have really pleased Bruce. There was also a sprig of heather, which is more in keeping with the Scottish origins of the Earl of Carrick, the title that Edward Bruce really held. There was also a bowl of pink coloured stones but one can only guess what they had to do with the old Scottish warrior.
It was probably very doubtful that the remains of Edward Bruce are actually buried here. The records that exist seem to indicate that, after the Battle of Faughart, his body cut up and displayed in several different places, including Dundalk, and his head sent to the English King, Edward II, as proof that he was really dead. It would be a mistake, however, to completely dismiss the old traditions as, often, they are the only records we had of events so long ago!
Another old local tradition is that, the night before the Battle of Faughart, Edward's army was encamped at McArdle's Field at Lower Faughart. This name relates to the McArdle family who lived in Faughart House for over 100 years. Before that, the field and house belonged to the Macneil family, of whom the great railway engineer Sir John Macneil was the most distinguished member.
Sir John was born at the now named Mount Oliver House at Ballymascanlon but he probably also lived later at Faughart House and had his own railway halt nearby at Mountpleasent. Sir John contributed greatly to the prosperity of Dundalk and its surroundings because of the employment and industry the railway system brought to the area in the nineteenth century.
Many were hoping that one of the new roundabouts that were constructed by the Louth Council Council in the area in recent years, with the coming of the M1 motorway, would have been named after John Macneil, but, in spite of petitions to this effects, it seem that none of the members of that august body were sufficiently interested in the suggestion!
Interestingly, one of these roundabouts was named after a ghost of a man who was related to Sir John, Torquill Macneil, at 'The Major's Hollow'. The reasons given for the Major's hauntings of the area are not very laudable! Strangely enough this roundabout has been the scene of a number of fatal road traffic accidents, even before it was made into a roundabout! Maybe this was the revenge of the Major,who died in exile in Canada, for all the bad things that were said about him! Or was it the ghost of his horse that objected to modern traffic?
All is not lost, however, for the memory of the achievements of Sir John Macneil, which include the construction of the Navvy Bank in the 1840s. The Dundalk Railway Heritage Society are hoping to erect a plaque to his memory at Jocelyn Street, where Sir John lived for a time when his other great works, the Boyne and Tullymore the railway viaducts were being constructed in the 1850s.
Now in their 22nd year of continued recognition and support of business women in Australia, 2016 marks the launch of a new category to recognise business women in Asia. Entries for the Telstra Business Womens Awards are now open.
The new Telstra Business Woman in Asia Award will be the sixth Awards category, alongside Entrepreneur, For Purpose and Social Enterprise, Public Sector and Academia, Corporate and Private, and the Young Business Womens Award.
Kate McKenzie, Telstra Chief Operations Officer and Telstra Business Womens Awards Ambassador, said the new category is a reflection of Telstras growing presence in the Asia-Pacific region and will provide finalists and winners from Australia and across the Asian region the opportunity to expand their networks and build valuable relationships.
The Asia-Pacific region is an economic powerhouse and presents great growth opportunities for Australian businesses. In addition to celebrating brilliant women, this new Award will offer our Awards Alumni the opportunity to foster valuable connections with business women in Asia and develop a greater understanding of how they are succeeding in this dynamic environment.
The 2015 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year, Captain Mona Shindy, said the Awards provide an opportunity for nominees to reflect on their achievements, set bold goals for greater success and join a vibrant Alumni community of like-minded women.
The Awards bring together a diverse range of talented and accomplished women from across many fields. It continues to be a privilege for me to be among such a superb group of supportive, highly-driven, wise and inspirational women, Captain Shindy said.
With the new Telstra Business Woman in Asia Award, the Australian Alumni will also have the opportunity to be enriched by the know-how of exceptional women who have achieved success in the fast growing Asian region.
To be eligible for the Telstra Business Woman in Asia Award, nominees must work in the corporate or private sectors and reside in Asia. The presentation of the Award will take place at the National Awards dinner in Melbourne in November.
Entries for the 2016 Telstra Business Womens Awards close at midnight AEDT on Monday 20th June 2016.
Nominations for the Telstra Business Womens Awards are open at https://www.telstrabusinesswomensawards.com/nominate/
The Turnbull government has been cautious in making changes to parental leave. The previous Abbott government had a generous package in planning, but that was shelved, and with Turnbull at the helm, the LNP has put on hold further proposed changes to the parental leave scheme that were aimed to address double dipping, where a mother receives benefits from both government and employer.
After the disaster that was former PM Abbotts attempt to execute on his plan for parental leave, it remains to be seen whether the now-hot minefield will become an election issue this time around. It should for all the rhetoric there has been very little actually done in parental leave over the last term of government, and there does need to be a concentrated effort in making it more fair and better balanced in order to encourage parents to be both able to bond with their child while ease back into the workplace.
However, as well-intentioned as some of the attempts to address or improve parental leave in Australia have been, both sides of politics should be looking at it differently to how they are currently. Currently, there is too little attention paid to the idea of paternity leave in Australia.
In many European nations, such as in the UK and Scandinavia, there is a conscious effort to normalise the conversation around parental leave so that it applies to both men and women equally. In Australia, there is an intense resistance to the idea of any paternity leave that might affect the entitlements of the mother. For example, to split the weeks of paternity leave between both partners, so that the father can spend time at home with the child as the mother gets back to work is not something that is generally regarded favourably on an individual, workplace, or cultural level. The expectation is that men return to work quickly, and women take the time to bond with the baby.
This then affects the mothers career, as the expectation is that she will spend a significant amount of time at home with the child to the detriment to her career.
Additionally, men that earn more than their spouses (and pay gap statistics suggest this is still the typical environment), and many proposed parental leave structures provide a flat rate of pay for both men and women. Under these circumstances, many men will not be able to afford to take paternity leave, as the drop in pay would be more significant than what the mother would experience.
With an election coming, there is a good opportunity to look at the way that parental leave is handled in Australia, and we believe that the both sides of politics should consider these three key areas in order to create a more robust and ultimately more beneficial parental leave system for us all.
Men and women should have equal opportunities to spend time at home. Its easier said than done, for the aforementioned reasons, but a robust parental leave system should provide men the opportunity to take parental leave equal to that of the mother, and this should be done without social of financial consequence.
The ability for men to take parental leave should be part of the return-to-work strategy for women. If men are able to take parental leave without adverse consequence, then women can be afforded a more nuanced return to work process, designed to get them working again sooner, without the stress of also being the full-time primary carer.
Paternity leave needs to be properly funded. If there is financial disadvantage to the father taking paternity leave instead of the mother, then most fathers will not take advantage of paternity leave.
Its important that fathers have the opportunity to bond with their baby, and one of the best ways of achieving that would be for the Australian government to take a proactive stance on enabling fair and equitable paternity leave.
About the author
Fiona Hitchiner, director, SeventeenHundred
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A 17-year-old resident of Wyndham Lawn was charged Wednesday with attempted assault and harassment following an incident at the facility.According to New York State Police, the teen had chased down another student and punched the student in the back of the head, causing a minor injury.The teen, who was not identified by police, was issued a ticket to return to the Town of Lockport Court in May.
State Board of Education President John Austin, photo by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog
In December of last year, Rick Joseph, the 2015 Michigan Teacher of the Year and self-described former homophobe, approached State Board of Education president John Austin asking if hed be interested in developing guidelines for Michigan school administrators when it comes to making the school environment safe and welcoming for LGBTQ students. Thats currently not the case in far too many places as the facts show:
8.4% of Michigan students report as lesbian, gay or bisexual.
12% of LGB students did not go to school in the past year, because they felt unsafe-twice the rate of heterosexual students
46% of LGB students had grades that consisted mostly of Cs, Ds and Fs-twice the rate of heterosexual students
29% have attempted suicide in the last year-4.5 times the rate of non-LGB students
For transgender students, its even worse and they face levels of violence and intimidation that surpass any other group.
Austin agreed to champion the development of a guidance document to be used by schools as they prepare their own policies and procedures relating to LGBTQ students. A work group was formed and a draft guidance document was prepared. On February 23rd of this year, the draft guidance was posted for discussion at March 8 meeting, and beginning of public comment and the legislature was advised.
The move set off a firestorm as anti-LGBTQ groups and individuals swarmed the internet and media sites raising unwarranted fears of little girls being attacked in washrooms and locker rooms by boys pretending to be girls. This stems from a section of the proposed guidance document titled Guidance to Support Transgender and Gender Nonconforming (GNC) Students pertaining to restroom and locker room use:
4) Restrooms. Students should be allowed to use the restroom in accordance with their gender identity. Alternative and non-stigmatizing options, such as an all-gender or singleuser restroom (e.g., staff bathroom or nurses office), should be made available to students who request them, but not presented as the only option. Any student who has a need or desire for increased privacy, regardless of underlying reasons, has the right to access a single-user restroom. 5) Locker Rooms or Changing Facilities. A student should not be required to use a locker room that is incongruent with their gender identity. Locker room usage should be determined on a case-by-case basis, using the guiding principles of safety and honoring the students gender identity and expression. Some options include: 1) an adjusted changing schedule; 2) use of a private area in the facility (e.g., nearby restroom stall with a door, an area separated by a curtain, a physical education instructors office in the locker room); and 3) use of a nearby private area (e.g., restroom, nurses office). Any student who has a need or desire for increased privacy, regardless of the underlying reasons, may request the options listed above.
Two weeks after the document was posted online, Republican Board of Education member Eileen Weiser emailed State Superintendent Brian Whiston and Board President John Austin objecting to the guidance being taken up and criticizing some of the language.
As comments for and against the guidance document were being collected, anti-LGBTQ forces went into action. An atrocious Detroit News op-ed by Republican water-carrier Ingrid Jacques suggested that Austin was giving special favors to LGBTQ students. (Apparently in Jacques world of bigotry, being free from intimidation and fear is a special favor that LGBTQ kids dont deserve.)
Even Tucker Carlsons national conservative blog The Daily Caller got in on the action, spreading misinformation and panic among the anti-LGBTQ community. John Austin wants to allow all students, regardless of parental or doctoral input, to choose their gender, name, pronouns, and bathrooms!, they exclaimed.
Tea party and other anti-Common Core groups sent out action alerts encouraging their members to flood the public comment site with anti-LGBTQ talking points. Robocalls were made and postcards sent, all repeating the same misinformation and inflammatory talking points.
In late March, Austin and Whiston agreed to extend the deadline for comments to allow as many people as possible to weigh in. Despite their transparency and very public deliberations, they were absurdly accused of doing it quietly and in secret, raising the bigot angst factor in the process.
Reports filtered up to Austin that Eileen Weisers husband, Ron Weiser, the former Chair of the Michigan Republican Party and a big dollar donor to conservative and Republican candidates and groups, was threatening to withhold donations from legislators who failed to oppose the guidance document. Although the Weisers both denied this, less than a week later House Republicans slashed funding for the State Board of Education in their budget legislation
The Michigan Department of Education has generated a GOP backlash and complaints of social engineering by recommending that public schools adopt transgender-friendly policies but refrain from unilaterally telling parents if students identify with a gender they didnt have at birth. A House appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday stripped from a budget bill all travel and per-diem funding for the Democrat-dominated State Board of Education, a move the Republican chairman called a message to members who will consider the draft recommendation on May 10. The amendment, approved in a party-line vote.
Then, a couple of weeks later, legislation was introduced by Republicans to eliminate the State Board of Education completely and to eliminate the state superintendent position, as well. Sen. Tom Casperson has promised to introduce legislation similar to North Carolinas so-called bathroom bill that would force students to use the restroom conforming to their gender at birth.
These are all pretty over-the-top responses to a guidance (not a law or a rule) that would allow students to pee in the restroom corresponding to the gender they identify with.
Finally, The Daily Caller as well as Michigan resident John Howting filed FOIA requests on Austins emails, a fishing expedition trying to somehow prove that this very public and well-documented process was somehow going on behind closed doors. You may recall Howting from the 2014 election cycle where he trained Republican staffers on how to infiltrate Democratic events and record them with super secret spy glasses.
You can read Austins response to these ridiculous FOIA requests HERE.
All of this looks very much like a bigoted response to a very reasonable proposal. But its much more than that, actually. People like me frequently say that Republicans control every aspect of government in Michigan. However, thats not entirely true. The one place where Democrats still maintain a majority is the State Board of Education. And that is at the core of this entire tempest in a piss pot. Republicans cannot stand the fact that they dont control this group and are using the LGBTQ guidance as a smokescreen for their efforts to either take control or eliminate it entirely.
You can be very sure that when Republicans passed the law preventing straight-ticket ballots in Michigan, this was one of the reasons they did it: straight-ticket voting helps Democrats in less-known races like the State Board of Education and University Boards of Regents and Trustees.
Board of Education member Eileen Weisers husband Ron has gave over $300,000 to conservative and Republican candidates and groups between 2013 and 2015. While he may deny hes using his money as a way to strongarm Republicans, others dispute that claim and he has the financial clout to back up such threats.
Sen. Caspersons yet-to-be-introduced bathroom bill will cause the same type economic hardship for the Michigan as it has for North Carolina and will very likely result in a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice. Its also being spit on by the leaders of a number of major Michigan corporations. In other words, its not going anywhere and he knows it.
The fact is Republicans are exploiting anti-LGBTQ bigots and their unreasonable fears about trans kids using what they see as the wrong bathroom to help them destroy the last vestige of Democratic Party control. Sadly, using this sort of bigoted attack has worked in other places around the country. Its the main reason why I and others were against an LGBTQ civil rights ordinance being put on the ballot. We still have a lot of educating to do and, until weve done that, anti-LGBTQ bigots will continue to use this issue to gain political power even in areas that seem unrelated.
The Board of Education is taking comments through tomorrow, May 11th. Be sure to weigh in HERE.
But also be sure to understand what this phony issue is all about. Its not about keeping trans kids from peeing in one bathroom or another. Its about taking away power from the Democrats in Michigan.
Make no mistake about that.
Ill finish with the amazing words of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch yesterday when she announced that the Justice Department is suing the state of North Carolina against their discriminatory bathroom bill:
[T]his is not a time to act out of fear. This is a time to summon our national virtues of inclusivity, diversity, compassion and open-mindedness. What we must not do what we must never do is turn on our neighbors, our family members, our fellow Americans, for something they cannot control, and deny what makes them human. This is why none of us can stand by when a state enters the business of legislating identity and insists that a person pretend to be something they are not, or invents a problem that doesnt exist as a pretext for discrimination and harassment. Let me speak now to the people of the great state, the beautiful state, my state of North Carolina. Youve been told that this law protects vulnerable populations from harm but that just is not the case. Instead, what this law does is inflict further indignity on a population that has already suffered far more than its fair share. This law provides no benefit to society all it does is harm innocent Americans. Instead of turning away from our neighbors, our friends, our colleagues, let us instead learn from our history and avoid repeating the mistakes of our past. Let us reflect on the obvious but often neglected lesson that state-sanctioned discrimination never looks good in hindsight. It was not so very long ago that states, including North Carolina, had signs above restrooms, water fountains and on public accommodations keeping people out based upon a distinction without a difference. We have moved beyond those dark days, but not without a tremendous amount of pain and suffering and an ongoing fight to keep moving forward. Let us write a different story this time. Let us not act out of fear and misunderstanding, but out of the values of inclusion, diversity and regard for all that make our country great. Let me also speak directly to the transgender community itself. Some of you have lived freely for decades. Others of you are still wondering how you can possibly live the lives that you were born to lead. But no matter how isolated, no matter how afraid, and no matter how alone you may feel today, know this: the Department of Justice and the entire Obama Administration wants you to know that we see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward. And please know that history is on your side. This country was founded on a promise of equal rights for all, and we have always managed to move closer to that ideal, little by little, one day at a time. It may not be easy but well get there together.
Watch the full statement here:
Amazon has entered a 10-year lease agreement with Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, the aircraft company announced last week. Under the agreement, Amazon has the right to buy up to 30 percent of Atlas Air.
Amazon will lease a fleet of 20 Boeing 767-300 converted freighters including crew, maintenance and insurance for seven years, with extensions to 10 years. Amazon also will dry lease from Atlas Airs Titan Aviation unit for 10 years. The dry lease operation calls for Atlas Air to provide the aircraft but no crew.
The lease terms are set to begin in the second half of 2016.
We are excited to welcome a great provider, Atlas Air, to support package delivery to the rapidly growing number of Prime members who love ultra-fast delivery, great prices and vast selection from Amazon, said Dave Clark, senior vice president of worldwide operations at Amazon.
The planes will be used to supplement and secure additional capacity to support one- and two-day delivery for Prime members, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Cheeseman said.
Amazon uses a variety of distribution partners and will continue to do so, she told the E-Commerce Times.
Investment Option
Under the agreement, Atlas Air granted Amazon warrants to buy up to 20 percent of its common shares at a price of US$37.50 per share for a period of five years. Vesting is subject to the commencement of operations of the 767 aircraft as well as other conditions.
It granted Amazon another 10 percent of common stock at the same price over a period of seven years. Vesting in this case will be tied to payments Amazon makes in connection with the business.
Cost and Distribution
Amazon, which relies heavily on on-time delivery to grow its customer base, has faced bottlenecks during recent holiday shopping seasons, when it was dependent on its relationship with the U.S. Postal Service and UPS, each of which had to ship packages for millions of other customers at the same time.
Amazon has a unique position, said Wayne Plucker, aerospace and defense director at Frost & Sullivan. Their business is more about shipping cost and timeliness than almost any other business. Yet in many senses, they are at the mercy of the shippers.
Amazon can continue to play the various shipping partners off one another, but there are limits to that strategy, he told the E-Commerce Times. Every time the company renegotiates a deal, its faced with limited options.
Amazon in March entered an agreement withAir Transport Services Group that called for the leasing of 20 Boeing 767 freighters. Amazon also got warrants to buy up to 19.9 percent of the companys common stock over a five-year period at $9.73 a share.
Im rather amazed at how aggressive Amazon is about building its long-haul distribution network, especially with fairly expensive planes, said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research.
However, as long as Amazon can utilize the resources, this should reduce their transportation costs over time and continue to make Amazon even more profitable, he told the E-Commerce Times.
Airline Acquisition
Atlas Air has been in a growth mode to compete more effectively in the package delivery space. It completed the $110 million acquisition of Southern Air Holdings last month a move that gives Atlas an additional fleet of 777 and 737 aircraft.
Southern Air is the parent of Worldwide Air Logistics Group, which includes Southern Air and Florida West International Airways.
(Photo: Peter Williams / WCC)Pope Tawadros II, patriarch of the See of St. Mark and leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church visited to the World Council of Churches on Sept. 1 2014.
Pope Francis has sent a message to another pope, Tawadros II to mark the "day of friendship" between Catholics and the Coptic Orthodox, noting that churches face current challenges, particularly in the Middle East, where Christians continue to face daily persecution.
"Though we are still journeying towards the day when we will gather as one at the same eucharistic table, we are able even now to make visible the communion uniting us," Pope Francis said in his May 10 letter to Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
May 10 marks the anniversary of the first meeting between Pope Paul VI, the Bishop of Rome, and the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, which took place 43 years ago.
In 2016, on the Day of Friendship between Copts and Catholics, Pope Francis wrote to Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark, to commemorate the occasion.
Like the Bishop of Rome, the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria is known as "Pope" to his followers.
The Coptic Orthdox Church is an Oriental Orthodox Church and is a member of the World Council of Churches that brings together more than 550 million mainly, Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant Christians.
Pope Francis' message marked the third anniversary of his meeting with Tawadros in Rome; the day has become an annual celebration of fraternal love between the Catholic and Coptic Orthodox Churches.
"Copts and Catholics can witness together to important values such as the holiness and dignity of every human life, the sanctity of marriage and family life, and respect for the creation entrusted to us by God," Pope Francis wrote.
By learning to "bear each other's burdens and to exchange the rich patrimony of our respective traditions," he continued, "then we will see more clearly that what unites us is greater than what divides us."
The Coptic Orthodox Church is an Oriental Orthodox Church and is a member of the World Council of Churches that brings together more than 550 million Christians from mainly Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant traditions.
The Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC, but it cooperates with it in many areas and serves on its Faith and Order Commission.
The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the largest Christian Church in Egypt and Northeast Africa.
"As we continue our earthly pilgrimage, if we learn to bear each other as burdens and to exchange the rich patrimony of our respective traditions, then we will see more clearly that what unites us is greater than what divides us," said Francis in his letter.
(Photo: Peter Kenny / Ecumenical News)The the flags of the Holy See and the State of Palestine fly outside the Palais des Nations at the United Nations in Geneva for the first time on Sept. 13, 2015.
For the first time the flags of the Holy See and the State of Palestine are flying outside the Flag Alley at the Palais des Nations outside the United Nations in Geneva.
They were raised Oct. 13 at a joint flag raising ceremony at which the Director-General of the United Nations at Geneva Michael Moeller said that "we must never lose faith.
"As his Holiness the Pope emphasized at the General Assembly this year, the contemporary world is experiencing a growing and steady social fragmentation. Restoring confidence in one and another should be a priority for all of us. "
The ceremony followed a resolution which the General Assembly passed on 10 September 2015, allowing to raise the flags of non-member observer States at the United Nations.
The flag of the Holy See was raised by the United Nation for the first time on Sept. 25, to coincide with the arrival of Pope Francis to the U.N. headquarters in New York.
When Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas delivered his remarks to the General Assembly's General Debate, the Palestinian flag was raised for the first time on 30 September 2015.
The representative of the Holy See, Monsignor Richard Gyhra, said that "with the many crisis facing the international community today, the role of the United Nations becomes ever more crucial.
"We all feel the responsibility to contribute to the important service the UN renders to the human family in the search for peace and pursued development as a benefit to all people in respect of their conscience and identity.
"As all the flags wave together, may they signify that a convergence of efforts on the part of all the countries of the world will succeed in bringing about the end of conflicts and other causes of senseless suffering."
The Holy See and the State of Palestine are currently the two non-member observer States at the United Nations.
The Holy See became a Permanent Observer State at the United Nationz on April 6, 1964. The State of Palestine became a Permanent Observer State on Nov. 29, 2012.
Palestine's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Riad Malki, said he was grateful for "the overwhelming support, the vote and the resolution to raise the flag received underscored one more time the support of the international community to the cause of peace and with it human rights for all.
"We are grateful to all those states that have stood by this initiative and supported it by voting in favour of raising the flag," said Malki.
The U.N. General Assembly passed a motion in September to raise the Palestinian and Vatican flags. Israel voted against the motion, along with the United States and six other countries. Forty-five countries also abstained.
The other six countries that voted against the move were: Australia, Canada, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and Tuvalu.
(Photo: REUTERS / Mussa Qawasma)An Israeli army soldier shoots tear gas at Palestinian stone throwers near the house of Palestinian woman Amal Taqatqa, south of the West Bank city Bethlehem December 1, 2014. Amal Taqatqa stabbed an Israeli in the occupied West Bank on Monday and was then shot and wounded by security forces, the military and police said. Violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories has risen in the past months. Attacks carried out by Palestinians have killed 11 Israelis. Twelve Palestinians have been killed, including several of the assailants.
The World Council of Churches is praying this week with Jews and Muslims that there be no hostilities among neighbors in Israel and Palestine at a time of heightened tension between them.
"It is our sincere desire and prayer, shared with many Jews and Muslims, that there should be no hostilities among neighbours in Israel and Palestine, and beyond, in the whole Middle East region," said the World Council of Churches general secretary, Rev.Olav Fykse Tveit.
He said in this his message for the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel, from September 21 to 27 that the theme this year is, "God has broken down the dividing walls."
The call for the prayers come at a time of rising hosilities between Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land.
Israeli forces shot a female Palestinian attacker after she attempted to stab a soldier at a West Bank checkpoint on Sept. 22, the military said, as tensions continued to simmer ahead of this week's major Jewish and Muslim holidays, The Associated Press reported.
The latest tensions have boiled over around Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, a holy site for both Judaism and Islam.
"We pray and work for the peace desperately needed by both Palestinians and Israelis," said Tveit.
A recent survey conducted in the West Bank and Gaza shows that 51 per cent of Palestinians oppose the two-State solution, Reuters news agency reported.
More than half of all Palestinians no longer support a two-State solution to the conflict with Israel, a survey released Sept. 21showed, rejecting the goal that has underpinned four decades of international diplomacy.
The poll was carried out by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, a leading research group in the Palestinian territories that found only 48 per cent of Palestinians support as two-State solution.
In his message, Tveit brings to the attention the hard reality of the Palestinians, especially the Christians, suffering from the impact of a wall separating them from Israel.
Tviet said that on Sept. 26 Christians will gather at Beir Ouna in the Cremisan Valley, a land close to Bethlehem.
"This gathering of faithful Christians will take place under the eye of Israeli security forces there to protect the equipment being used to remove centuries-old olive trees from land owned by Palestinian Christians to make way for the latest segment of Israel's separation barrier."
"This strategic, nonviolent witness is intended to confront not only those individual soldiers and police but the unjust structures and systems supporting Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land."
Tveit noted, "The global church effort to promote awareness and advocacy informed by the perspectives of Christians in Palestine and Israel is growing."
(Photo: Peter Kenny / Ecumenical News)Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches preaches at the (Lutheran) Church of the Holy Redeemer in Jerusalem on Feb. 10, 2016.
The World Council of Churches has called on Israel to apologize after it said its delegates to a conference on climate change were treated with "excessive," "unreasonable," "aggression and intimidation."
The WCC said in a May 9 statement it, "strongly protests the excessive, unreasonable and wholly unwarranted treatment by the Israeli authorities."
It was meted out to "representatives of WCC member churches and staff traveling to engage in discussions on climate change and environmental stewardship."
They were there at the invitation of churches that are members of the WCC in the region and the council was hosting them.
The WCC said that last week, participants from 13 different countries arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport for a planned meeting in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem were subjected to the ordeal.
The gathering was to be for of the WCC's Working Group on Climate Change and it encountered a level of aggression and intimidation from the Israeli authorities unprecedented in the WCC's experience.
"Several participants - both WCC staff and representatives of member churches and its ecumenical partners - were detained in prison-like conditions for up to three days, before being deported to their countries of origin," said Tveit.
"Others were ultimately admitted to Israel after exceptionally long and confrontational interrogation."
He said, "All reported aggressive, accusatory and abusive questioning, threats and intimidation above and beyond what the WCC is prepared to consider tolerable," he said.
The WCC statement said its main concern continues to be for the people of the region facing violence, insecurity and denial of their human rights on a daily basis, for the fulfilment of the long-delayed two-State solution.
It is also concerned for a future of peaceful coexistence between the communities of the region.
"But the WCC finds it deeply regrettable and symptomatic of the current situation that the Israeli authorities behaved in this manner toward church people from around the world who came to Israel in a spirit of ecumenical solidarity to address shared challenges in responding to global climate change."
In February Israel's government had expressed its displeasure to the WCC about its Lenten water justice campaign, refuting its assertions on Palestine, and the U.S.-based conservative Gatestone Institute had sprung to Israel's defense.
"World Council of Churches demonizes Israel again," Gatestone railed in a headline on Feb. 23. Two day later Gatestone fulminated again in another article headlined: "World Council of Churches starts seven weeks of brainwashing."
"The aim of the water campaign clearly appears to spring from an unjust and unsubstantiated discrimination against the State of Israel, as propagated in the Kairos Palestine statement," opined the Gatestone piece.
After Gatestone's attacks on the Geneva-based WCC, the council invited institute representatives in an open letter to meet in Geneva or New York City to discuss the details of Seven Weeks for Water and other work of the WCC.
"As God stands by the oppressed and marginalized, the WCC seeks with its member churches to stand by such people, wherever they are, or whatever their faith tradition might be," the WCC letter stated.
The Labor Party has revealed a seat-by-seat breakdown of how its $4.5bn pledge to the nations schools will be allocated throughout 2018-19.The extra money will be raised as part of Labors promise to fund the final two years of the needs-based Gonski funding model by increasing the tax on tobacco from next year.The state that would receive the most funding is NSW, which Labor has promised $1.4bn. The other big winners include Victorian schools, which would be allocated $815m, followed by Queensland, which would receive $725m.Properly funding our schools is critical to making sure every young person has the skills they need to get a good job and contribute to society, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and education spokeswoman Kate Ellis said in a joint statement on Tuesday.However, the Federal Government has dismissed Labor's plan as an unfunded promise that will not necessarily improve student results.The Coalitions additional funding would be tied to a series of changes aimed at lifting students results.In last Tuesdays Budget, Federal Treasurer, Scott Morrison, said the Federal Government would put aside $1.2bn for schools between 2018 and 2020, including $118.2m to support students with a disability.The Australian Education Union (AEU) has cautioned that this amount falls well short of the funds needed to adequately support up to 100,000 children with a disability.A report by the Productivity Commission found 190,887 students with disability received funding support however, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show there are 290,000 children with a disability.
Under the now-replaced No Child Left Behind Act, the Colorado education department pumped in millions of state and federal dollars to improve the Pueblo public schools, almost half of which the state deems failing.
The test scores barely budged over the past several years.
So when a handful of department officials trooped down to this southeastern part of the state last week to ask community members what changes to the states accountability system theyd like to see under NCLBs replacement, the Every Student Succeeds Act, district Superintendent Constance A. Jones was ready for her turn at the microphone.
I see this as a golden opportunity to rethink our entire accountability system, she said. Speaking from a torn-out sheet of notebook paper, Jones cited a long list of complaints: The department has become too heavy-handed. Its labeling of schools is demoralizing. Its standards are inconsistent.
This is a taste of what state education officials nationwide may hear this spring as they ask parents, teachers, district leaders, and lawmakers to help them design their revamped accountability plans under ESSA, which eventually will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Education.
ESSA, the latest version of the nations main K-12 law, gives states much more authority to design their own school-accountability and teacher-evaluation systems, among other policies. To do thatand to avoid blind-siding local officials and community residents state education departments are convening task forces, conducting online surveys, and holding town hall meetings, sometimes in far-flung corners of their states.
From the front end, departments need to be clear about their intentions, said Chris Minnich, the executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, which has released a white paper to help departments frame discussion points and strategize ways to engage hard-to-reach groups, such as low-income and minority parents.
The broadness of this conversation is critical, he said. The more transparent we can be about the decisionmaking process, the better.
Lessons From Common Core
Its not easy. The education debate has been especially volatile in recent years, with teachers unions at loggerheads with administrators over evaluations, and parents frustrated about what they see as too much testing.
State departments are still dealing with the political backlash from the Common Core State Standards, which teachers and parents complained their states had adopted and put into effect without enough discussion with them.
Without community input, it just makes it incredibly hard to get any implementation with fidelity, said Kathy Cox, a former state superintendent of Georgia and the CEO of the U.S. Education Delivery Institute, which consults with education departments. Even if people dont always agree with what the state policy or what the decision is, if they feel like theyve been well informed and that theres been a very good reflective process on why a decision is being made, people will come around.
This month alone, education officials of states such as Kentucky, Oregon, and Pennsylvania are holding ESSA town hall meetings.
Were going to task thousands of people to help us develop this plan, said Stephen Pruitt, the education commissioner of Kentucky, who just wrapped up a statewide tour. I want as many people getting their eyes on our ESSA plan as possible.
Getting Buy-In
The risks of failing to get buy-in from the public are high, as illustrated by Colorados experience with the common-core rollout. Last year, more than 65,000 students opted out of the states exams to protest the standards and what many in the public perceived as overtesting.
It was a nightmare, said Martha Nogare, the principal of Pueblo West High School, who spent the last two months meeting with parents to explain what the common core is and how the aligned tests can be beneficial. While more than 150 of her schools students opted out of the tests last year, just a dozen opted out this year, a sharp drop she attributes to the local outreach effort.
The state didnt do its part in communicating to parents what in the world is common core, Nogare said. They were just saying its a good thing, so there was this mystery around the whole thing.
From the district level on up, Colorado education officials are viewing ESSA as a chance for a new start with greater partnership and communication.
ESSA puts the onus back on states to say, What are you going to do to help these districts, these schools? said Richard Crandall, the Colorado commissioner of education. The listening tour is us saying, Hey, guys, we have some flexibility and a lot of responsibility. Lets do this together. This is not going to be a top-down decision. What in the areas of accountability and turnaround would you like to see? Lets have a conversation.
After the state department devises its accountability plan in the fall, officials will likely revisit cities to get further feedback. The governor and state lawmakers will also get a chance to look the plan over.
The states teachers union, school boards association, and administrators organization also are planning a summit in June to gather more opinions and ideas.
Drawing a Crowd
In preparation for their seven-city listening tour, which wraps up next month, state education officials placed ads in local newspapers, posted fliers on community boards, and sent emails to parents online discussion groups.
The first two sessions took place in Pueblo on May 4 at the citys history museum, one in the afternoon and another in the evening. The audience, around 80 people between the two meetings, was made up mostly of administrators and teachers. Only two parents were registered.
The school district for four years straight has languished at the bottom of the Colorados accountability system, designed five years ago as part of a federal waiver to the state that eased provisions of the No Child Left Behind law. A multimillion-dollar effort to bring in consultants to help the district improve schools didnt bring much success, and morale sank, administrators here say. Compounding the districts academic problems are a drug epidemic and a high unemployment rate.
A more recent effort to give schools additional flexibility, under state laws, to provide tutoring, extra hours of instruction, and more professional development has shown promising results, and Pueblos superintendent plans to ask the state to expand those efforts this summer.
Seizing an Opportunity
For many educators in the district, the Every Student Succeeds Act is an opportunity to reconfigure the way struggling schools are labeled and supported by the state.
We have to look at the core values of this state and really look at a more comprehensive system, said Jones, the Pueblo superintendent. Once we settle on a plan, its going to be difficult to modify it.
Over chocolate cupcakes, sugar cookies, and pepperoni pizza at the meeting, Patrick Chapman, the executive director of the state education departments federal-programs unit, described the elements of ESSA using a PowerPoint presentation.
The state is bound by its own statutes when it comes to standards, the amount of testing schools can conduct, and courses that must be offered, Chapman said. But ESSA gives the state flexibility to determine how to distribute some federal money and come up with new ways to evaluate schools, he said, and local districts can devise their own ways to turn around schools.
In small-group discussions, department officials took notes as administrators and teachers discussed the citys long list of problems.
Among the complaints: that federal money was being distributed haphazardly and unevenly; that intervention efforts didnt include local input; and that the accountability system didnt consider the role poverty played in the district.
I think theyve listened. I dont think their actions reflect that, though, said Suzanne Ethredge, president of the Pueblo Education Association, about the department. The teachers union is affiliated with the National Education Association.
Crandall, the state schools chief, who didnt attend the Pueblo event, said state officials are open to hearing other ideas on how to intervene in the worst-performing districts.
Everybody has a strong opinion about education and what they want, said Crandall. The ideas are as diverse as the stars in the sky.
When people come across Michelle-Thuy Ngoc Duongs name, they often see a stumbling block bound to trip up their tongues.
The 17-year-old sees a bridge.
A bridge spanning her parents journey from Vietnam to the United States.
A bridge connecting the U.S.-born teen to Vietnamese culture.
A bridge to understanding.
My name is where I come from, Michelle-Thuy Ngoc said. Its a reminder of hope.
A junior at Downtown College Prep Alum Rock High School, a San Jose, Calif.-based charter school, Michelle-Thuy Ngoc (Michelle knock twee) is among the students backing My Name, My Identity, a national campaign that places a premium on pronouncing students names correctly and valuing diversity.
The campaigna partnership between the National Association for Bilingual Education , the Santa Clara, Calif., County Office of Education, and the California Association for Bilingual Educationfocuses on the fact that a name is more than just a name: Its one of the first things children recognize, one of the first words they learn to say, its how the world identifies them.
For students, especially the children of immigrants or those who are English-language learners, a teacher who knows their name and can pronounce it correctly signals respect and marks a critical step in helping them adjust to school.
But for many ELLs, a mispronounced name is often the first of many slights they experience in classrooms; theyre already unlikely to see educators who are like them, teachers who speak their language, or a curriculum that reflects their culture.
If theyre encountering teachers who are not taking the time to learn their name or dont validate who they are, it starts to create this wall, said Rita (ree-the) Kohli , an assistant professor in the graduate school of education at the University of California, Riverside.
It can also hinder academic progress.
A divide already exists between many English-learners and immigrant students and their native-English speaking peers. Despite a national increase in the overall graduation rate, the dropout rate for foreign-born and immigrant students remains above 30 percent, three times that of U.S.-born white students.
Before transitioning into K-12 administration, Santa Clara County Superintendent Jon Gundry taught middle and high school English-as-a-second-language classes for 16 years. Many of his students were newcomer English-learners and he made it a priority to learn the proper pronunciation of each students name on the first day of class.
I was their first connection to a new culture, a new country, Gundry said. As a teacher, I felt that if I didnt make an effort to pronounce their name correctly, it showed I didnt care about who they were.
Rendered Invisible
Effort is the biggest obstacle to learning how to correctly pronounce a persons name; teachers have to want to do it, said Jennifer Gonzalez, a former teacher and author of the education blog Cult of Pedagogy. To even suggest that a childs name is difficult to pronounce is problematic, she said.
Even the word difficult is a pretty loaded word, Gonzalez said. Its only difficult because its culturally different.
As a kindergarten student in 1950s Brooklyn, Carmen Farina, a native-Spanish speaker, had a teacher who marked her absent every day for weeks because she didnt raise her hand during roll call. The teacher assumed Farina was being defiant, but the future New York City schools chancellor never heard her name called; the teacher had repeatedly failed to pronounce it correctly, including rolling the rs.
Mispronouncing a students name essentially renders that student invisible, Farina said during a keynote address at the National Association for Bilingual Education annual conference in March.
Kohli produced a study with Daniel Solorzano , a professor of education and Chicano studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, on microaggressions, the subtle slights that are painfully obvious and hurtful to the person receiving them, but unintended and unnoticed by the person saying them. The work, Teachers Please Learn Our Names! Racial Microaggressions and the K-12 Classroom, is littered with stories of students who endured shame, anxiety, or embarrassment, and sometimes a mix of all three, when their names were called in class.
Theres the tale of a Portland, Ore.-area student with a traditional Chinese name who had her name garbled by a vice principal during an honors ceremony. Set to present the student with an award, the principal laughed at his mistake, drawing chuckles from the audience.
To avoid embarrassment, the student slumped in her seat, refusing to rise to receive the prestigious award. She later skipped her graduation.
The mispronunciation wasnt an isolated event. Having endured years of slights, she felt the need to become invisible long before the principals laughter marked the tipping point.
The woman, who went on to become an educator, changed her first name to Anita.
If someone mispronounces your name once as a high school student, you might correct them, said Kohli, whose parents immigrated to the United States from India. But if this has been your entire existence in education, what do you do?
Kohlis own brother had a teacher mispronounce his traditional South Asian name, Sharad (shu-rudth) as Sharub during a 9th grade class. The teacher and the students decided it was easier to call him Shrub, and it stuck for the rest of high school. The nickname forced him to check part of his identity at the door.
Michelle-Thuy Ngoc didnt always embrace her full name, figuring that it would make other people uncomfortable. For years, she ignored the Vietnamese half of her first name, simply going by Michelle. The order in which Vietnamese names are spoken differs from English.
I came to accept [my full name] over time, she said.
Building Bridges
If students have teachers who share their cultural backgrounds, theyre more likely to hear their names pronounced correctly. But while the diversity of the nations public school student body has exploded in the last few decades, the number of African-American, Latino, and Asian teachers hasnt kept pace.
Gonzalez, a former teacher in school districts in Kentucky and Maryland, said she often observed a these people attitude from her mostly white female colleagues.
They approached it like Its your fault for having a weird name, Gonzalez said.
To some degree, Gonzalez understands the struggle students face. She grew up with a Russian surname, Yurkosky, that befuddled teachers and classmates. She said it rhymes with her-pots-ski, minus the t sound in pots.
But I did not experience all the other stuff and other ways that a person can feel discriminated against, said Gonzalez, who is white.
Kohli, a former Oakland Unified School District teacher, recommends that K-12 educators identify and expand their cultural limits and recognize the influence they wield over a students sense of self. While frustration or confusion may seem like a natural response when a teacher faces an unfamiliar name, it can leave a lasting impact on the way that child sees themselves and their culture, the studys authors argue.
Butchered names are not just a problem for English-learners and immigrants; students from a number of cultural backgrounds have their names garbled or ridiculed. Hawaiian and African-American students, with names that link to their ancestry, also shared stories of how constant mispronunciations made them feel uncomfortable with their names.
Mocking Names?
In an extreme case, a teacher in Wayne Township, N.J. lost her tenure status and job in 2015 for mocking a students name on Facebook. Several letters in the students name spelled out a profane word, legal documents show.
More often, the mocking is more direct and reflexive: laughing off pronunciation, asking the student to take on a nickname, or making a spectacle of their name, Kohli said.
It matters what you do when youre in front of a child and struggling with their name, Kohli said. Is it framed as my inability to say someones name or is it framed as the student doing something to make your life more difficult?
Michelle-Thuy Ngoc attends Downtown College Prep , a 210-student high school that primarily serves first generation, low-income Latino students.
Were taking the time to understand each persons story, said assistant principal Moises Buhain. Its as simple as starting with a name.
As part of a social media campaign, the My Name, My Identity initiative is seeking name stories with the #mynamemyid hashtag. The push is personal for Yee Wan , the national associations president and the director of multilingual education services for the Santa Clara County, Calif., office of education.
Wan came to the United States as an adolescent English-learner, and almost immediately faced pressure from instructors to adopt an American name to replace her given name, which means warm friendship in Cantonese.
Gundry and Wan developed My Name My Identity after hearing a principal share a story about his effort to build connections with English-language learners in school, then feeling the push fall flat when he mispronounced the students names at graduation.
As educators, we have the power to bring awareness to valuing diversity ... so that all of our students will feel included, Wan said.
Digital learning tools that fit well within existing classrooms and dont disrupt the educational status quo tend to be the most widely adopted, despite their limited impact on student learning, an analysis of ed-tech products designed for higher education concludes.
Experts say that pattern is also reflected in K-12, raising tough questions about whether many ed-tech vendors emphasis on quickly bringing their products to scale is actually hampering the larger goal of improving schools.
There is a lot of research showing that more comprehensive technology interventions tend to have more positive results in both sectors, said Barbara Means, the director of the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International, the nonprofit research center that conducted the new analysis. To create an education technology tool that can have an impact, but also be adopted in many classrooms, requires thinking about supports for teachers, resources for instruction, and rethinking the way time is used within schools.
Those conclusions are drawn from a fresh analysis of data SRI gleaned while evaluating the effectiveness and growth curves of 29 digital learning tools funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2010. The products included complete online courses, peer-support platforms, and predictive analytics tools. Most had no statistically significant impact on student outcomes. But the number of users that each product attracted varied widely, from as few as 181 to as many as 130,000.
The SRI researchers found some evidence that when it comes to ed tech, effectiveness and scale may actually be inversely related: The more effective the tool, the smaller the scale at which it was adopted, and vice versa.
They also identified three common factors among those products that scaled most rapidly: a promise of cost savings for schools, no requirements for face-to-face training, and an ability to be easily integrated into existing teaching and learning practices.
Digital Learning Tools
Those traits reflect the dominant Silicon Valley business approach of seeking to quickly gain as many users as possiblea strategy that Means described as particularly ill-suited for schools.
Equating usage with value is fine for a consumer product that users are spending their own time on, Means said. But students are not volunteers, and were devoting instructional time to products when we dont know whether they work or not.
Less Disruption, Greater Traction
The digital learning tools analyzed by SRI were awarded Next Generation Learning Challenge grants by the Gates Foundation in 2010. The foundation also funded SRI as an independent contractor to track and evaluate the products progress over the following two years. (The Gates Foundation also helps support Education Weeks coverage of the implementation of college- and career-ready standards and the use of personalized learning.)
In 2012, SRI prepared an internal report for the foundation and for EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit that promotes technology use in higher education and hosted the learning-challenge grant competition.
More recently, the researchers revisited the data to examine the relationship between scale and impact. The resulting paper was presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association in Washington last month.
Andrew Calkins, the deputy director of the Next Generation Learning Challenge, said he took SRIs findings to heart. Beginning around 2013, Calkins said, his group switched its focus from supporting ed-tech tools to funding schools and universities willing to embrace new organizational models and new approaches to teaching and learning.
Practitioners [in traditional schools] find it easier to adopt technology tools that readily fit within their existing models, Calkins said. Thats why tools and platforms that demand a lesser degree of disruption might have found greater purchase in the marketplace.
SRI classified the ed-tech tools it studied into five categories:
Whole-course models, such as a new way of teaching developmental mathematics;
Supplemental resources, such as tech-based science units;
Supports for course redesign, such as efforts to train faculty members;
Learning analytics and early-warning systems, such as tools to flag students at risk of failing a course; and
Supports for peer learning, such as a platform for student-led study groups.
Some of the products sought to achieve scale through a top-down strategy dependent on institutional commitments. Others used a retail approach, going directly to university instructors or students.
The tools impacts on student learning were generally measured using a comparison group, based on the outcome measures (such as assessments, course grades, and course completions) determined most suitable and feasible by the researchers.
On average, SRI found, the products that involved whole-course redesign and required institutional buy-in were the most effective.
The biggest impact, for example, was made by U-Pace, a self-paced introductory psychology course developed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The course involved online lessons, embedded quizzes, and a host of supports for faculty members (such as an online training module and templates for providing feedback).
A similar dynamic is at work in K-12, where effective technology implementations often look quite different from successful consumer-product rollouts, said Jean Hammond, a co-founder and partner at LearnLaunch, a Boston-based nonprofit that invests in and supports ed-tech companies.
Theyre doing organizational-behavior change, Hammond said of the best school-technology initiatives, rather than just asking if people like [the technology] and use it.
In the years since the original SRI study was conducted, the K-12 market has evolved considerably, said Sara Allan, the deputy director of K-12 programs at the Gates Foundation.
There has also been a general shift away from the kind of comprehensive, all-in-one solution that the SRI researchers found to be most effective. Only a few large, more established companies have the resources and capacity to develop such products, then wait out K-12 schools glacial purchasing cycles. And some of the higher-profile initiatives, such as the complete K-12 digital curriculum that Pearson sold to the Los Angeles Unified district, turned into major flops.
The result, Allan said, is that educators increasingly look to curate a variety of technology products and services from multiple sources.
Challenges for Developers
On the K-12 side, that presents numerous challenges: Can the various tools and platforms talk to each other? Do they reflect the same pedagogical philosophies? How do you ensure consistency from classroom to classroom and school to school?
Fail to resolve those questions, and schools end up with a hodgepodge in which the effectiveness of any one tool is limited by the confusion in the broader ecosystem.
That means new challenges for developers and vendors, too.
For one, it can be quite complicated to measure an individual tools impact on learning amid such a complex environment.
Many startup companies also struggle to find traction beyond an initial group of highly motivated early adopters, said Hammond of LearnLaunch.
The companies that are often most successful in this new landscape, said Allan of the Gates Foundation, are those that start by going directly to a relatively small cadre of educators; use those relationships to gather feedback, improve their products, and demonstrate demand and effectiveness; and then work with institutional leaders to make sure their tools are also integrated into districts systemwide instructional models and purchasing plans.
Such a strategy reflects both business and academic realities, Allan said: Companies need to be able to quickly show investors that their products are being used, then follow that up by rapidly showing evidence of positive impact.
Its a tension that Means of SRI hopes both schools and vendors come to grips with soon. The key, she said, is recognizing that any new technology needs to come wrapped in a host of supports if its going to make a deep, lasting difference inside schools.
Just because a ton of people use YouTube to learn all kinds of things doesnt mean we should base all 7th grade life-sciences courses on online videos, Means said. Someone could probably use YouTube to create a great course, but it would take a lot of work to make it fit the needs of teachers and students.
News Details
Chip makers to spend less on capital equipment in 2016, according to Gartner
Date: 10-05-16
Gartner finds semiconductor chipmakers are not spending in the year 2016 as much as they spend in the year 2015, due to the weaker chip market. The reasons according to Gartner are excess inventory and weak market demand in key chip markets such as personal computer, tablet and mobile in 2016. Gartner forecasts semiconductor capital equipment spending to drop by 2 percent in 2016, to $62.8 billion. "While the first quarter 2016 forecast has improved from a projected decline of 4.7 percent in the previous quarter's forecast, the 2 percent decline in the market for 2016 is still bleak," said David Christensen, senior research analyst at Gartner. "Excess inventory and weak demand for PCs, tablets, and mobile products continue to plague the semiconductor industry, resulting in a slow growth rate that began in late 2015 and is continuing into 2016." Table 1 Worldwide Semiconductor Capital Spending and Equipment Spending Forecast, 2015-2018 (Millions of Dollars)
"The slowdown in the devices market has driven semiconductor producers to be conservative with their capital spending plans," said Mr. Christensen. "This year, leading semiconductor manufacturers are responding to anticipated weak demand from semiconductors and preparing for new growth in leading-edge technologies in 2017." The China's progress in the semiconductor manufacturing in the year 2015 is defined as "aggressive" by Gartner researchers. Supported by the Chinese government, companies based out of China trying their level best to acquire well-established semiconductor companies. Year 2015 is also witnessed lot of consolidation and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. Gartner says China's aggressive movement in the semiconductor industry and other factors can affect the competitive landscape of global semiconductor manufacturing in the next few years, as China is now a major market for semiconductor usage and manufacturing. Gartner sees the market to return to growth in 2017. "Increased demand for 10 nanometer (nm) and 3D NAND process development in memory and logic/foundry will drive overall spending to grow 4.4 percent in 2017." quoted in the release by Gartner.
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.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) today signed a EUR 15 million financing agreement with Creta Farms SA, marking the first EIB transaction in Greece that benefits from the support of the EU budget guarantee under the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the financing arm of the Investment Plan for Europe.
I am delighted to be here in Greece to sign this EUR 15 million transaction with Creta Farms. Funding for this innovative company is the latest step under the Investment Plan for Europe in Greece, in line with the EIB Groups strong track record of supporting the Greek economy over many years. The EU Bank will continue to support key investments in Greece that will promote growth and help create quality new jobs, both under the Investment Plan for Europe and through its other financial instruments, said EIB Vice President Jonathan Taylor.
Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said: Today is a very important day for Greece under the Investment Plan for Europe: the first EIB project to be financed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is being signed. Creta Farms will use the new finance to invest in RDI and grow their innovative, agri-food business. I hope many more Greek companies in food, industry and tourism will soon benefit from the Investment Plan. I encourage companies in Greece to make use of the expertise at the EIB which has established an expanded team in Greece, as well as the European Investment Advisory Hub.
The Creta Farms financing signed today is a EUR 15 million loan with a tenor of five years. The terms of the financing have been tailored to best fit the company's growth plans. In a real sense the EIB, with the support of EFSI, is 'banking on' the company's growth. The company's strategy involves the development of new product lines in the cold cut meat and dairy food industry. The investment to be financed will improve the companys competitiveness, both domestically and in export markets. This will help to create more than 100 quality new jobs in Greece.
Commenting on the agreement, Emmanouil Domazakis, President of Creta Farms, said: We are investing in innovation and international expansion. Todays agreement is an endorsement of the actions that the company has made in recent years. We are leaders once more, the first Greek company to be included in the Investment Plan for Europe. It is an honour for us that the European Investment Bank, an internationally recognised institution, stands beside us on the implementation of our Plan for Research and Innovation, in the development of know-how and in the expansion of our products in international markets.
Konstantinos Domazakis, Vice-President of Creta Farms, stated: In the past we had referred to our focus on research development and innovation. We had also referred to the swift development on the international environment. Today everything we had foreseen is verified. The biggest investment institution in Europe shows its trust in us, recognising the prospects of our company in the coming years. We will continue to invest in innovation. In the coming years, our company will present many, important things in Greece and abroad.
EIB Vice President Jonathan Taylor added: The EIB is proud of its record of supporting the Greek economy. Last year, for example, we signed some EUR 1.35 billion of loans in Greece, supporting investments by the public and private sectors. The EU Bank is the sole International Financial Institution to have been consistently active in this country throughout the crisis. But we have recognised that in these exceptional times, the Bank needs to do even more. This is why we decided to re-double our efforts to meet the needs of the corporate sector in Greece. We have done this by strengthening our team here on the ground in Athens.
Since 2008, the EIB Group provided over EUR 12 billion in loans and guarantees in Greece. Outstanding EIB loans total around EUR 18 billion, approximately 10% of the countrys GDP.
Little Davette, now 2 and still a bit small for her age, spent the the first two months of her life in a hospital with a rare set of birth defects that, among other things, caused her to be born without thumbs.
Since then, more than a dozen specialists have been contacted and she's undergone 10 surgeries, most recently the first of two hand reconstructive surgeries at a Utah children's hospital to reposition and reform her index fingers to function as thumbs.
"It's amazing," said Tosha Vavak, Davette's legal guardian. "It looks fantastic. Unless youre really looking at it, you wouldnt really know that she has four fingers and that one of them used to be a forefinger and not a thumb."
Now the adopted daughter of Tosha and Jon Vavak of Columbus, Davette was born in Wolf Point with VACTERL association, which stands for vertebral abnormalities, anal atresia, cardiac defects, tracheal-esophageal abnormalities, renal and radial abnormalities, and limb abnormalities.
The exact cause of VACTERL isn't known, and an estimated 1 in 40,000 infants are born with it. The defects show up in a wide variety of ways, and babies diagnosed with it usually show at least three of the abnormalities or anomalies.
In addition to being born without thumbs, Davette has a cleft palate, gastrointestinal problems, hip dysplasia, heart and lung problems, and a number of other issues.
"She has a very complex medical condition that affects multiple organ systems or structures in her body," said Dr. Janis Langohr, Davette's pediatrician at St. Vincent Healthcare. "Despite this, she's a very bright and intelligent little girl."
Not long after she was born, Davette was taken to Benefis Health System in Great Falls for advanced care and then flown to a children's hospital in Seattle for surgery.
The Vavaks initially served as foster parents for Davette beginning when she was just a few months old before becoming her legal guardians a little later.
She's had about 10 surgeries to address different issues caused by VACTERL and the Vaveks have been working with a host of medical professionals since they brought her into their Columbus home.
"We had at one point 13 different specialists," Tosha Vavak said. That includes a gastroenterologist, a heart specialist, a physical and occupational therapist, a pediatrician, a rheumatologist and a plastic surgeon for the cleft palate.
Recently, the family began working to get Davette in with a specialist to perform a complex surgery to reconstruct her hands to allow for better usage.
Langohr has been helping St. Vincent in talks to form a formal relationship with Intermountain Primary Childrens Hospital and University of Utah Health Care, both in Salt Lake City, to provide pediatric subspecialty health care services.
While the groups will formally introduce the partnership Tuesday afternoon, Davette and the Vavaks benefited from that fledgling relationship and quickly had an appointment set up.
They'd been looking at other centers, but didn't feel they were the right fit. That changed upon meeting Dr. Douglas Hutchinson, a hand surgeon at Primary Children's, during a November 2015 consultation.
"Spending 20 minutes with Dr. Hutchinson, he had me laughing and so comfortable to the point where I set up her surgery date right then and there," Vavak said.
In January, Davette went in for surgery on her right hand. Despite a few complications what was supposed to be a three-hour procedure stretched out to more than nine Hutchinson and the staff kept the family updated every hour or so until they figured out the issue and finished the surgery.
"He wouldnt give up," Vavak said. "He wracked his brain. He knew we were stressing out. It was amazing. It made you feel like he really cared about your child."
Langohr said it was evident from the moment the family returned that they were happy with the results and, after another similar surgery for her left hand, the hope is that she won't need many more surgeries, thanks in part to the successful efforts at the Utah hospital.
"The family, they just love this child and want the very very best for her," she said. "They made the trip and had just a wonderful experience. (Primary Children's) just wrapped their arms around this little girl in many, many ways."
Today, Davette is starting to get some feeling in her hand and maintains what her family says is a plucky, happy-go-luck attitude.
Doctors said that she'd be able to begin moving the the areas that were reconstructed after a few months, and she's been on schedule with that and no longer has to wear a cast.
"She doesn't seem to be in any pain and cosmetically it looks great," Vavak said. "You've never seen a cuter 2-year-old. Ever. She is full of energy and just has the best spirit about her. She's always happy."
The Vavaks have about a dozen children in their home two biological, Davette, four adopted and about a half-dozen foster children and Davette has made an impression on all of them, Tosha Vavak said.
"With all of her stuff, you would think she would be a super fussy little, but she's just not," she said. "She's pretty much defied all of the odds against her and she's got a smile that's just contagious. We have 12 kids in our home right now and she has got every one of her brothers and sisters wrapped around her little finger, and her mom and dad."
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.
12:27, 24 OCT 2022
February 24, 2022, the day of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, will go down as a tragic date not only for the Ukrainian people, but also for the whole civilised world.
BOZEMAN Getting medical care for women, especially relating to pregnancy and childbirth, could be tough in Montana's early days.
That message was a theme of a Montana medical history conference that focused largely on childbirth and illegal abortions in the late 1800s and early 1900s a time when Montana women faced limited resources, social stigmas and rural isolation.
"What did women get? I would say whatever they could find," said Jennifer Hill, a researcher of reproductive history and women in the American West who presented at the conference.
Featuring presentations by researchers and a state senator, the 16th annual Medical History of the West conference, held at the Museum of the Rockies, also served as a tribute to Dr. Volney Steele, a longtime Bozeman physician who helped establish and fund the conference and died in December 2015.
Health and childbirth
Childbirth and pregnancy in Montana, Wyoming and the Dakota territories from 1860 to 1930 were defined by a changing health care system, rugged climate and accessibility, or lack thereof, of services.
"Given what they were dealing with, women who were pregnant at this time absolutely were not getting much medical care," Hill said.
Much of the population lived in rural areas where services, supplies and health care professionals were limited, if available at all.
It was also a time when almost all births happened at home and childbirth was almost a social event, with family and friends, in addition to a midwife or doctor if available, gathering to help if they could.
About 99 percent of the births in 1900 happened at home. Most people didn't think of hospitals as places for childbirth, "they thought of them as places to go be sick and die," Hill said.
"Unfortunately, death was the frequent result, both for mother and babies," she said. "The results from all of those conditions conspired to make birth very, very difficult in this region."
From 1911 to 1919, Montana had the highest maternal death rate of any reporting state in the nation, with about 1,000 women, in addition to 7,888 infants, dying over that time.
While about a quarter of expectant mothers left the state to give birth in areas with more resources, about half of the births that did happen in state were with the help of a midwife. An estimated 35 percent were aided by a physician, while 15 percent happened with just the woman's husband present, and 1 to 3 percent occurred with the mother alone.
Illegal abortion
Sen. Diane Sands, D-Missoula, spoke about illegal abortions in Montana from 1880 to 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the practice with its Roe v. Wade decision.
While illegal, abortions were also fairly common in territorial Montana and well into the 20th century.
"It has gone on throughout human history," said Sands, a women's rights activist who served as director of the Montana Women's History Project.
Citing the examinations of every death record she could find for adult women who died over that time in Montana, court records and coroner's reports along with interviews with abortionists, other medical professionals and women she said options for women seeking abortions were limited.
Those choices included keeping the baby, self-induced abortions that were often dangerous and sometimes fatal, or finding an abortionist.
Sands shared the experiences of one woman she interviewed who said she was 16 years old in the 1960s when she got pregnant and sought an abortion. She ended up in the filthy backroom of an alcoholic physician's office above a drugstore in Shelby.
The girl became frightened at the dingy conditions. When the doctor threatened violence if she screamed from the pain, she left. The girl eventually put the baby up for adoption.
Sands contrasted that with the story of an obstetrician in Miles City who performed hundreds of abortions and was well-known and respected across the state as a physician. That woman, she said, was competent and took steps to ensure abortions were done as safely as possible.
"You have a continuous line of abortionists who are practicing in Montana," Sands said, noting that their competency varied greatly.
Sands read the names of more than 50 women, ranging from teenagers to women nearly in their 40s, who likely died from or during illegal abortions. Most of the deaths came before World War II, after which the use of antibiotics spread, and Sands said most of them were preventable.
"These women died," she said. "Let's not do that again."
The practice was also something medical practitioners didn't talk much about publicly, even though they knew it was happening and was sometimes necessary, Sands said.
She interviewed one physician who sat on the Montana Board of Medical Examiners who said it wasn't discussed there "because we considered it a necessity in the community."
"They made a choice to limit their number of offspring, and women still do that today," Sands said. " ... Women will choose abortions. They have since the very beginning of time."
Frontier physician
Moving away from women's health topics but still speaking to the difficulty early Montanans faced in getting health care, historian Todd Savitt used a batch of recently discovered letters to Dr. Charles McNulty of Virginia City to detail medicine and patient problems in the late 1800s.
"It gives some insight into what medical practice would've been like," Savitt said.
The 60 to 70 letters detail patients' requests of McNulty, who practiced in Montana until his death in 1904, while providing insight into the challenges physicians faced serving rural areas.
Practicing out of Virginia City, McNulty also served the surrounding area in a then-remote and isolated part of Montana that included the communities of Ennis, Norris and Sheridan.
He often received requests for help via mail and, if he traveled, took a horse and buggy to visit.
The letters cover a wide range of patient issues from jaundice to serious head wounds, from general illnesses to a man requesting "sex pills" and discreetness.
"Think about Dr. McNulty's challenge, or any other doctor at that time, receiving patient request by mail," Savitt said.
To figure out the urgency of a request and a course of action, he had to decipher the patient's request, interpret their descriptions and symptoms and didn't have the luxury of immediate follow up questions or a physical examination.
He also had to balance those factors with the amount of time it might take to make a house call to a community or ranch miles away.
However, people also contacted McNulty as a last resort when other options didn't yield results.
"People did a lot of self-care, out of necessity in rural Montana," Savitt said. "They took care of themselves as much as they could because they had to."
Tribute
The conference was funded by support from the Volney Steele Endowment fund with the Montana State University Foundation.
Steele was a retired longtime Bozeman physician, originally from Arkansas, who set up the endowment in an effort to help WWAMI medical education students at Montana State University more than a dozen attended the 2016 conference learn about the state's medical history.
He passed away on Dec. 23, 2015, and the conference also served as a farewell and tribute to him, with colleagues and family sharing remembrances at the end of the day.
Retired history professor and longtime friend Pierce Mullen said Steele helped to establish the conference through WWAMI with Montana medical students in mind.
"Dr. Steele firmly believed that by studying the past of your profession ... it would encourage you, help you, support you and teach you," he said.
He went on to describe Steele as " a wonderful man" who, as the son of a physician, understood how working in medicine can work its way through generations of families and believed that everybody deserved the best a physician had to offer.
A Dec. 31 obituary in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle said Steele, a World War II veteran, moved to Bozeman in the late 1950s and spent the rest of his career practicing there, retiring in 1986 after more than 40 years as a physician.
About 10 people spoke about Steele's legacy and impact, including a number of medical professionals. Almost all of them mentioned his influence on people and medicine in the Bozeman area.
"He had wise words spoken with Arkansas eloquence," said Dr. Robert Flaherty, who worked with Steele over the years in Bozeman.
British Major unveils stamps to mark 300 years of Royal Artillery
Six stamps have been launched by the Isle of Man Post Office to celebrate 300 years of the Royal Artillery.
They were unveiled by Major Kate Philp - a 'gunner' and the first British servicewoman to receive an operational injury that resulted in amputation.
She joined the British Army in 2002 and was deployed to Iraq twice - her visit to the Island coincided with that of the Captain General's Baton as part of its global circumnavigation.
The Isle of Man branch of the Royal Artillery is one of the largest - Kate says she's "immensely honoured" to be able to represent the organisation:
Media
Kate Philip
Suspended sentence for letter writer who threatened Minister
Exerts of the letters which were sent by Mr Corran
A Douglas man who sent poison pen letters to the Treasury Minister threatening to "knife his wife" has been handed a restraining order.
63-year-old John Corran was also given a three month suspended prison sentence at Douglas Courthouse this morning.
He'd previously pleaded guilty to penning two anonymous letters to Eddie Teare between November 2014 and December 2015 - his conduct, he accepted, caused fear of violence.
Corran - who was caught when police matched his DNA to the profile recovered from the envelopes he'd used - told officers he'd sent the letters to "put the frighteners" on the MHK.
Sentencing him Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes said whilst there were no "physical face to face threats" his actions had "undoubtedly" caused fear - adding the offence was "serious".
Corran, who was described in court as a 'vulnerable adult', nodded his head in agreement as she told him "you now appreciate what you did was wrong".
She told him the restraining order was "proportionate and necessary" to offer "adequate protection" to Mr Teare - she also ordered Corran to pay prosecution costs of 125.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is holding public meetings in several Bighorn Basin towns to discuss herd management objectives.
The meeting will focus on the Beartooth Mountain goat (Hunt Areas 1,3), Badger Basin antelope (Hunt Area 80), Bighorn antelope (Hunt Area 79), Medicine Lodge elk (Hunt Areas 41,45), South Bighorns elk (Hunt Areas 33,34,47,48,49,120), and Shoshone River mule deer (Hunt Areas 121-123) herds within the Cody region.
Tim Woolley, wildlife management coordinator, said the meetings will provide an opportunity for hunters, landowners and other interested parties to provide input on the management of the herds.
Although Game and Fish review big game herd unit objectives every year when hunting seasons are set, herd objectives are evaluated in five-year intervals.
The meetings will begin at 6 p.m. with a short presentation on the history and status of each herd unit followed by a question and answer session and public comment period.
The meetings will be held on the following dates:
May 18 Worland, Washakie County Fairgrounds, Medicine Lodge elk, South Bighorns elk, Bighorn antelope.
May 19 Powell, Bighorn Federal Bank, Beartooth Mountain goat, Badger Basin antelope, Shoshone River mule deer.
May 23 Greybull, Greybull Town Hall, Medicine Lodge elk, Bighorn antelope.
May 24 Cody, Big Horn Federal Bank, Beartooth Mountain goat, Badger Basin antelope, Shoshone River mule deer.
May 25 Lovell, Lovell Fire Hall, Bighorn antelope, Shoshone River mule deer, Badger Basin antelope.
Redwillow Horsecapture remained hospitalized Monday morning after a Friday assault on the Rims left her with a concussion and a fractured jaw.
Billings police are investigating the attack against the 17-year-old, who was taken to St. Vincent Healthcare at about 9 a.m. Saturday. According to Billings police Lt. Casey Hafner, the attack was Friday at about 10 p.m.
Billings police have submitted the case to the Yellowstone County Attorneys office for a possible arrest warrant.
Horsecapture, a junior at Billings Senior High School, lives with her grandparents, Daniel and Lorna Knowshisgun, who said the attack has left their granddaughter not only damaged physically, but mentally.
Its still hard to talk about, Daniel Knowshisgun said. It was just so unnecessary.
Knowshisgun said his granddaughter reported to police she was on the Rims Friday when she got concerned one of her friends had gone missing. It is unclear what happened next, but Horsecapture said she remembered being hit in the face by a man she didn't know and kicked multiple times after she fell to the ground.
Knowshisgun said doctors had to screw a plate into her jaw and wire it shut. The plate will have to stay in for at least half a year.
Horsecapture has struggled in the past with scoliosis, but Lorna Knowshisgun said her back had straightened to the point that it was hardly noticeable. Now, she is worried the teenager may have more back issues.
Horsecapture's family said she loves to work out at Yellowstone Fitness and is considering careers in the military and medical field, Daniel Knowshisgun said. Her grandparents said she is just a good, good, good girl as well as outgoing and kind to her family with a real big heart. Her family has stayed with her at the hospital while she recovered, including her older brother Cameron Evans, mother Daylight Horsecapture and aunt Danielle Knowshisgun.
The grandparents said they wanted to call attention to Horsecaptures attack, which they said is just one example of a growing problem of brutal attacks against women in the Yellowstone County community.
Just an almost nonchalant attitude toward women getting brutalized by men, Daniel Knowshisgun said.
Aggravated assaults against women reported to the Yellowstone County Sheriffs office, Laurel police and the Billings Police Department, have gone from 130 in 2010 to 216 in 2015, according to the Montana Board of Crime Control statistics. Reports to Billings Police Department alone went from 119 in 2010 to 184 in 2015.
Yellowstone County Chief Deputy County Attorney Juli Pierce said her office has noticed an overall increase in crime across the board.
Daniel Knowshisgun said Horsecapture was set to be released from the hospital late Monday. He said her teachers at Billings Senior High School dont expect her back to school this week.
West Virginians and Nebraska Republicans are heading to the polls today to vote for their presidential candidate of choice - here's how you can watch the results as they come in live.
Many will be watching the results of the Democratic primary in West Virginia today to see if Hillary Clinton extends her lead or Bernie Sanders makes this a true fight. Sanders is favored to win the primary by prediction experts FiveThirtyEight, which is expecting a narrow victory for the Vermont senator.
Polling has been all over the place for West Virginia since August, with one poll having Sanders way ahead by double digits, another having Clinton ahead by double digits and most showing a narrow win for Sanders. Such polling has been slightly off at times on the Democratic side (in Michigan and Indiana) so it's possible that Clinton could eek out a win here, but you should probably put your money on Sanders to claim a second consecutive victory overall.
Meanwhile, the Republican race has completely died down, with Donald Trump officially the presumptive nominee. Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out after a devastating loss in Indiana, leaving Trump as the only major Republican nominee left in the race. Of course, primaries will still continue in West Virginia, Nebraska and all future state primaries, but turnout will likely be lower now that Trump has sewn up the nomination.
As always, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC will be devoting wall-to-wall coverage of the primary results during primetime TV. West Virginia polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET, which means you will start hearing results shortly afterwards.
If you want to watch CNN live online, go to their site here.
If you wish to watch Fox News live, go to their site here.
And to watch MSNBC live, go to their site here.
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Attorney General Tim Fox has announced the opening of the state crime laboratorys new satellite facility in Billings.
The Billings satellite crime lab will have its grand opening Thursday. The Montana Department of Justice has leased a space in the Billings Clinic Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism Center. Fox as well as local officials and legislators will tour the new facility after a 1 p.m. news conference.
The 2015 Legislature approved establishing a satellite forensic science laboratory to provide limited services, specifically toxicology testing, to Montana's most populous county, Yellowstone, and the surrounding area. The lab was set up in an effort to reduce the number of backlogged cases at the Missoula crime lab and cut travel time for evidence transportation.
The Legislature authorized the DOJ to spend as much as $310,000 to secure a two-year lease and $476,000 to pay employees, with anything left over going into the DOJ's general fund. The money wasn't budgeted during the Legislature and will come out of the DOJ's budget, which it will ask the 2017 Legislature to supplement.
A semi-truck driver was charged Monday with three felonies for raping a 9-year-old while she rode with through several states.
John Jaycob Fishbaugh, 56, appeared before Yellowstone County Justice of the Peace David Carter and was charged with sexual intercourse without consent, sexual abuse of children and sexual assault, all felonies.
Carter held Fishbaugh in lieu of a $100,000 bond, required he be placed on GPS monitoring prior to his release and ordered him to have no contact with the victim or her family.
According to charging documents, Fishbaugh took the 9-year-old girl on a cross-country trip in August 2015 and forced her to perform sex acts on him. He also forced her to sleep naked with him and shower with him, according to charging documents.
Fishbaugh and the girl made stops in Washington, Missoula County, Oregon and Yellowstone County.
Fishbaugh denied the allegations to law enforcement.
Archaeologists from the Australian National University have unearthed fragments from the edge of the world's oldest-known axe, found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia
Archaeologists from The Australian National University (ANU) have unearthed fragments from the edge of the world's oldest-known axe, found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Lead archeologist Professor Sue O'Connor said the axe dates back between 46,000 and 49,000 years, around the time people first arrived on the continent.
"This is the earliest evidence of hafted axes in the world. Nowhere else in the world do you get axes at this date," said Professor O'Connor from the ANU School of Culture, History and Language.
"In Japan such axes appear about 35,000 years ago. But in most countries in the world they arrive with agriculture after 10,000 years ago."
Professor O'Connor said this discovery showed early Aboriginal technology was not as simple as has been previously suggested.
A hafted axe is an axe with a handle attached.
"Australian stone artefacts have often been characterised as being simple. But clearly that's not the case when you have these hafted axes earlier in Australia than anywhere else in the world," she said.
Professor O'Connor said evidence suggests the technology was developed in Australia after people arrived around 50,000 years ago.
"We know that they didn't have axes where they came from. There's no axes in the islands to our north. They arrived in Australia and innovated axes," she said.
Once unearthed, the flakes were then analysed by Professor Peter Hiscock from the University of Sydney.
"Since there are no known axes in Southeast Asia during the Ice Age, this discovery shows us that when humans arrived in Australia they began to experiment with new technologies, inventing ways to exploit the resources they encountered," Professor Hiscock said.
"The question of when axes were invented has been pursued for decades, since archaeologists discovered that in Australia axes were older than in many other places. Now we have a discovery that appears to answer the question," Professor Hiscock said.
Professor Hiscock said although humans spread across Australia, axe technology did not spread with them.
"Axes were only made in the tropical north. These differences between northern Australia, where axes were always used, and southern Australia, where they were not, originated around the time of colonisation and persisted until the last few thousand years when axes began to be made in most southern parts of mainland Australia," Professor Hiscock said
The axe fragment was initially excavated in the early 1990s by Professor O'Connor at Carpenter's Gap 1, a large rock shelter in Windjana Gorge National Park in the Kimberley region of WA.
New studies of the fragment have revealed that it comes from an axe made of basalt that had been shaped and polished by grinding it against a softer rock like sandstone.
This type of axe would have been very useful for a variety of tasks including making spears and chopping down or taking the bark off trees.
This work resulted from an Australian Research Council Linkage grant awarded to Professor O'Connor and Professor Jane Balme of The University of Western Australia.
An article on the discovery has been published in in the journal Australian Archaeology.
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FOR INTERVIEW:
Professor Sue O'Connor
School of Culture, History and Language
T: 02 6125 2245
M: 0439 422 543
E: sue.oconnor@anu.edu.au
Images and video are available here - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f8n0api6bbbzoq0/AABKR_nWeccQQYzcBr0xfSyna?dl=0
For media assistance, contact Aaron Walker from ANU media on 0418 307 213 or 02 6125 7979.
Australian scientists will be field testing their ground-breaking breath markers for malaria, thanks to a $1.4 million research grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Over the next 18 months, a CSIRO research team will be leading collaborative validation trials in locations with high malaria incidence including Malawi, Bangladesh, Sabah province in Malaysia and Sudan.
This next stage of development follows on from the exciting discovery last year by scientists at the CSIRO, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and the Australian National University, where the research identified distinctive chemicals that can be detected in the breath of patients infected with malaria.
"Our initial research really opened our eyes to the potential for a new test, because the chemicals that we found in the breath of patients could be detected at the very early stages of infection," Research Group Leader at CSIRO Dr Stephen Trowell said.
"Thanks to this new funding from the Gates Foundation, we can now test the accuracy and effectiveness of the breath markers under real world conditions.
"If this phase of the research pans out, we intend to move onto developing a simple, painless and cheap breath test to help identify asymptomatic carriers of the malaria parasite.
"This would enable better targeting of treatments to stop transmission of the disease."
The current research trial will bring together expertise across a range of scientific and medical disciplines, along with extensive knowledge of the unique challenges faced in specific geographical zones.
The main collaborators are CSIRO, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Menzies School of Health Research (with their collaborators in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Sudan) and Washington University in St. Louis, USA (with their collaborators in Malawi).
The validation trials involve asking people with suspected malaria to provide a breath sample, in addition to normal testing and treatment that they receive at health clinics.
Some 'control' patients who are not suspected to have malaria will also be asked to donate a breath sample for comparison.
All the chemicals present in the breath will be stabilised in special sample tubes and transported to Canberra or St. Louis for chemical and statistical analysis.
Emerging mosquito borne diseases such as the Zika virus are in the news a lot these days, but malaria continues to make hundreds of millions of people sick and accounts for up to half a million fatalities each year.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is continuing to invest in new interventions including highly sensitive diagnostic tools, the development of a simple breath test for malaria could play a significant role in future disease eradication campaigns.
This grant follows recent investment by the foundation in CSIRO research for the development of high yielding sorghum and cowpea hybrids, and improved productivity of rice and sorghum in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
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New generation of biofuel crops could yield 13 times more biodiesel per acre than soybeans
Imagine--instead of acres of oil wells on barren land--endless fields of towering green sugarcane, with each stalk producing renewable and sustainable biofuel.
The University of Illinois and the University of Florida have been awarded a third round of funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to realize ultra-productive biofuel crops.
ARPA-E supports initial research for high-potential, high-impact energy technologies to show proof of concept prior to private-sector investment. ARPA-E grants are extremely competitive, and it is rare to receive additional funding, called "plus-up funds," and even rarer to earn a second round of plus-up funding.
Nearly $300,000 of plus-up funds will sustain the research project called Plants Engineered To Replace Oil in Sugarcane and Sweet Sorghum (PETROSS) for another year while it seeks additional investors and commercial partners.
"Our research project is on a trajectory to produce sugarcane that could give the U.S. an inexhaustible and environmentally friendly oil supply that could satisfy one quarter of the nation's fuel and provide a renewable source of jet fuel," said Project Director Stephen Long, Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at Illinois. "These crops could be grown in areas of the Southeast that can no longer produce food crops, giving the region a much needed economic boost."
PETROSS is engineering sugarcane and sorghum to produce 20% oil, which equates to 13 times more biodiesel (and six time more profit) per acre than an acre of soybeans. Naturally these crops produce just 0.05% oil, which is not enough to convert to biodiesel. PETROSS has now produced a cane that accumulates 13% oil by dry weight. With just 5% oil that can be turned into biodiesel, PETROSS sugarcane is 4.5 times more profitable than soybeans per acre.
With ARPA-E's additional funding, the project will continue work to increase yields and to improve cold tolerance to expand the growing region of sugarcane, which is currently limited to small regions in Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
To increase yields, PETROSS is improving photosynthesis, which turns the sun's energy into biomass for biofuel production; an improvement in photosynthesis directly correlates with an increase in yield. PETROSS has developed a plant that is 20% more efficient (producing 20% more biomass) under normal conditions. Under cooler conditions, PETROSS cane is nearly 50% more efficient.
ARPA-E's funding will support a techno-economic analysis of converting the PETROSS oil into jet fuel, another year of field trials in Florida, phenotyping of DNA assembled by PETROSS, phenotyping of PETROSS sugarcane, and an evaluation of PETROSS sugarcane by Syngenta.
Illinois is leading the project at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology; the partner institutions include the University of Florida, Brookhaven National University, and the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
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For additional information, including opportunities to partner with PETROSS, please visit petross.illinois.edu.
CLEVELAND--The Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence at Case Western Reserve University has selected Peter Eigen, founder of Transparency International and pioneer of the global fight against corruption, for the 2016 Inamori Ethics Prize.
Case Western Reserve has awarded the Inamori Ethics Prize annually since 2008 to honor an individual for significant and lasting contributions to ethical leadership on the global stage.
Eigen has developed and led groundbreaking initiatives to improve governance and raise awareness of the devastating effects of corruption on economic growth, social welfare and justice.
Eigen, a lawyer by training, has worked in economic development for several decades. He has seen how abuses of power can undermine the public's trust and cost people their freedom, health, money and, sometimes, their lives.
Following positions with the World Bank in Latin America and Africa, Eigen founded Transparency International (TI) in 1993. With chapters in more than 100 nations, TI has become the leading non-governmental organization promoting transparency and accountability in development.
TI collaborates with governments, businesses and citizens to stop the abuse of power, bribery and secret deals. The organization's impact spans the public sector and industries ranging from finance to oil to sport.
The Inamori Center presents the Inamori Ethics Prize Ceremony as part of its mission to foster ethical leadership. Eigen is scheduled to receive the award and present a lecture Sept. 8 in the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at The Temple-Tifereth Israel at Case Western Reserve.
The following day, Sept. 9, he will participate in a panel discussion on his work for the Inamori Ethics Prize Academic Symposium in Severance Hall. Other panelists are Brian Gran, associate professor of sociology at Case Western Reserve, and Katherine Marshall, senior fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and Professor of the Practice of Development, Conflict and Religion in the School of Foreign Service.
The Inamori Center was endowed by a generous gift from Kazuo Inamori, who established Kyocera Corp. and is a global telecommunications leader and founder of the Inamori Foundation that presents the annual Kyoto Prize in Kyoto, Japan.
"Peter Eigen and Transparency International have been strategic, tenacious and effective in their global efforts to curb corruption, expose abuses of power and teach people how to build and sustain more ethical organizations," notes Inamori Center Director Shannon E. French. "We are excited to bring Peter to Cleveland to honor and learn from his important work."
In particular, TI has spurred national elections won and lost on tackling corruption as well as the prosecution of corrupt leaders and seizures of their illicitly gained riches. It also has helped to establish international anti-corruption conventions and hold companies responsible for their behavior both at home and abroad.
TI likewise has spotlighted injustice through its annual Corruption Perceptions Index, which uses expert opinion to measure public sector corruption worldwide. The 2015 index, for example, found that more than 6 billion people live in a country with a serious corruption problem. In addition, TI has promoted openness and accountability through resources such as its Bribe Payers Index, Global Corruption Barometer and Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres that aid people reporting corruption.
In addition to chairing TI for 12 years and now leading its advisory council, Eigen advised the governments of Botswana and Namibia to strengthen the legal framework for mining investments. He also has served as chairman and special representative of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which advocates for the disclosure of payments in the energy and mining sectors.
Eigen has contributed expertise as a board member with a wide range of organizations advancing sustainable development, including Kofi Annan's Africa Progress Panel. Along with his board service, Eigen is honorary professor at the Freie Universitat Berlin and has taught at several other institutions including the Harvard Kennedy School and Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
The Federal Republic of Germany awarded Eigen its grand cross of merit in 2013 in recognition of his efforts to combat corruption. In 2007, Eigen was honored with the Gustav Heinemann Citizen Award. He also received the Readers Digest "European of the Year 2004" award and an honorary doctorate from the Open University in the United Kingdom.
Previous Inamori Ethics Prize winners were: Martha C. Nussbaum, celebrated philosopher and groundbreaking scholar at the University of Chicago, 2015; Denis Mukwege, physician and human rights activist from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2014; Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, 2013; David Suzuki, environmentalist and broadcaster, 2012; Beatrice Mtetwa, a human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe, 2011; Stan Brock, founder of Remote Area Medical, 2010; Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights and Ireland's first woman president, 2009; Francis S. Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project and director of the National Institutes of Health, 2008.
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Case Western Reserve University is one of the country's leading private research institutions. Located in Cleveland, we offer a unique combination of forward-thinking educational opportunities in an inspiring cultural setting. Our leading-edge faculty engage in teaching and research in a collaborative, hands-on environment. Our nationally recognized programs include arts and sciences, dental medicine, engineering, law, management, medicine, nursing and social work. About 4,900 undergraduate and 5,900 graduate students comprise our student body. Visit case.edu to see how Case Western Reserve thinks beyond the possible.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have engineered a strain of bacteria that enables a "one-pot" method for producing advanced biofuels from a slurry of pre-treated plant material.
The Escherichia coli (E. coli) is able to tolerate the liquid salt used to break apart plant biomass into sugary polymers. Because the salt solvent, known as ionic liquids, interferes with later stages in biofuels production, it needs to be removed before proceeding, a process that takes time and money. Developing ionic-liquid-tolerant bacteria eliminates the need to wash away the residual ionic liquid.
The achievement, described in a study to be published Tuesday, May 10, in the journal Green Chemistry, is a critical step in making biofuels a viable competitor to fossil fuels because it helps streamline the production process.
"Being able to put everything together at one point, walk away, come back, and then get your fuel, is a necessary step in moving forward with a biofuel economy," said study principal investigator Aindrila Mukhopadhyay, vice president of the Fuels Synthesis Division at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a DOE Bioenergy Research Center at Berkeley Lab. "The E. coli we've developed gets us closer to that goal. It is like a chassis that we build other things onto, like the chassis of a car. It can be used to integrate multiple recent technologies to convert a renewable carbon source like switchgrass to an advanced jet fuel."
Breaking down the biofuel production process
The basic steps of biofuel production start with deconstructing, or taking apart, the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin that are bound together in the complex plant structure. Enzymes are then added to release the sugars from that gooey mixture of cellulose and hemicellulose, a step called saccharification. Bacteria can then take that sugar and churn out the desired biofuel. The multiple steps are all done in separate pots.
Researchers at JBEI pioneered the use of ionic liquids, salts that are liquid at room temperature, to tackle the deconstruction of plant material because of the efficiency with which the solvent works. But what makes ionic liquids great for deconstruction also makes it harmful for the downstream enzymes and bacteria used in biofuel production.
Previous studies have found ways to address these challenges. In 2012, JBEI researchers, including Blake Simmons, a co-author on this new study, had discovered a suite of saccharification enzymes that were tolerant to ionic liquids.
Marijke Frederix, this recent study's first author and a postdoctoral researcher in Mukhopadhyay's lab, established that an amino acid mutation in the gene rcdA, which helps regulate various genes, leads to an E. coli strain that is highly tolerant to ionic liquids, providing an important piece to the puzzle. They used this strain as the foundation to build on earlier work - including the ionic-liquid-tolerant enzymes - and take the steps further to the one-pot biofuel finishing line.
Putting the pieces together
They proceeded to test the E. coli strain using ionic-liquid pretreated switchgrass provided by the DOE's Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Demonstration Unit (ABPDU), a biofuels facility at Berkeley Lab launched in 2011 to accelerate the commercialization of biofuels.
"Armed with the rcdA variant, we were able to engineer a strain of E. coli that could not only tolerate ionic liquid, but that could also produce ionic-liquid-tolerant enzymes that chew up the cellulose, make sugars, eat it and make biofuels," said Frederix. "E. coli remains the workhorse microbial host in synthetic biology, and in our study, using the ionic-liquid-tolerant E. coli strain, we can combine many earlier discoveries to create an advanced biofuel in a single pot."
While ethanol may be one of the more common products to emerge from this process, researchers have looked to more advanced biofuels that can pack more energy punch. In this case, they used production pathways also developed at JBEI previously, and produced d-limonene, a precursor to jet fuel.
"Ultimately, we at JBEI hope to develop processes that are robust and simple where one can directly convert any renewable plant material to a final fuel in a single pot," said Mukhopadhyay. "This study puts us one step closer to this moonshot."
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The research was supported by DOE's Office of Science. The ABPDU is funded by the Bio-Energy Technologies Office within DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
JBEI is one of three Bioenergy Research Centers established by the DOE's Office of Science in 2007. It is a scientific partnership led by Berkeley Lab and includes the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. DOE's Bioenergy Research Centers support multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams pursuing the fundamental scientific breakthroughs needed to make production of cellulosic biofuels, or biofuels from nonfood plant fiber, cost-effective on a national scale.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the Unites States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit the Office of Science website at science.energy.gov.
HANOVER, N.H. - An international group of mathematicians at Dartmouth College and other institutions have released a new online resource that provides detailed maps of previously uncharted mathematical terrain.
Images and an animated graphic are available at http://aimath.org/aimnews/lmfdb/images/
The "L-functions and Modular Forms Database," or LMFDB, is an intricate catalog of mathematical objects that maps out the connections between them. Both beautiful and functional like an atlas, the LMFDB reveals deep relationships in the abstract universe and provides a guide to previously uncharted territory that underlies current research in several branches of physics, computer science, and mathematics. This coordinated effort is part of a massive collaboration of researchers around the globe, and includes developing new algorithms and performing large calculations on an extensive network of computers.
The scale of the computational effort that went into creating the LMFDB is staggering: a total of nearly 1,000 years of computer time spent on calculations by multiple teams of researchers.
"Our project is akin to the first periodic table of elements," says LMFDB project member John Voight, an associate professor of mathematics at Dartmouth. "We have found enough of the building blocks that we can see the overall structure and begin to glimpse the underlying relationships. The LMFDB provides a coherent picture of a vast web of interconnections in clear, explicit and navigable terms. The worlds being explored are ones of particular interest: they cross a wide variety of domains, guided by a network of conjectures at the cutting edge of mathematical research."
One of the great triumphs in mathematics of the late 20th century was achieved by British number theorist Andrew Wiles in his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, a famous proposition by Pierre de Fermat that went unproven for more than 300 years despite the efforts of generations of mathematicians. The proof has been the subject of several documentaries and it earned Wiles the Abel Prize earlier this year. The essence of Wiles' proof was establishing a long conjectured relationship between two mathematical worlds: elliptic curves and modular forms. Elliptic curves arise naturally in many parts of mathematics and can be described by a simple cubic equation; they also form the basis of cryptographic protocols used by most of the major internet companies, including Google, Facebook and Amazon. Modular forms are more mysterious objects: complex functions with an almost unbelievable degree of symmetry. Elliptic curves and modular forms are connected via their L-functions. The remarkable relationship between elliptic curves and modular forms established by Wiles is made fully explicit in the LMFDB, where one can travel from one world to another with the click of a mouse and view the L-functions that connect the two worlds.
The LMFDB tabulates data which has been produced over many decades, and which is now available in one place in a unified format. The scale of the computational effort involved in the LMFDB is staggering: hundreds of years of computing time were involved in compiling the database along with thousands of hours of human effort. The application of large-scale cloud computing to research in pure mathematics is just one of the ways in which the project is pushing forward the frontier of mathematics to discover uncharted mathematical worlds.
"Experiments are at the heart of mathematical research. In the face of extraordinary complexity, underlying structure often emerges only after studying thousands of examples," says Edgar Costa, a LMFDB contributor and postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth. "The LMFDB provides a common location for all of this data to be shared, allowing us to discover connections between our observations."
Many of these calculations are so intricate that only a handful of experts can do them, and some computations are so big that it makes sense to only do them once. The LMFDB provides a sophisticated web interface that allows both experts and amateurs to easily navigate its contents. Each object has a "home page" and links to related objects, or "friends." The LMFDB also includes an integrated knowledge database that explains its contents and the mathematics behind it.
"We are mapping the mathematics of the 21st century," says LMFDB project member Brian Conrey, director of the American Institute of Mathematics. "The LMFDB is both an educational resource and a research tool which will become indispensable for future exploration."
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There will be several simultaneous events May 10, 2016 in North America and Europe to celebrate the launch of the LMFDB, including public presentations and lectures at Dartmouth, the American Institute for Mathematics in San Jose, Calif., and the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Dartmouth will host two lectures from 2:30pm-5pm May 10, 2016 in 006 Kemeny Hall. Details are available at http://math.dartmouth.edu/.
The LMFDB project was supported by Dartmouth's Neukom Institute for Computational Science, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the American Institute of Mathematics, the EU 2020 Horizon Open DreamKit Project and the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics.
Dartmouth Associate Professor John Voight is available to comment at john.voight@dartmouth.edu.
Broadcast studios: Dartmouth has TV and radio studios available for interviews. For more information, visit: http://communications.dartmouth.edu/media/broadcast-studios
A significant number of publications are devoted to results of investigations aimed at the development of methods of laser ablation for varicose veins. This is due to the fact that this method is an effective and minimally invasive technique for the treatment of varicose.
However, this kind of therapy is associated with significant collateral damage because of the high output power of the laser. Therefore, it is an important question in vein surgery to optimize the laser characteristics for ablation.
To realize a process of endovenous laser ablation (EVLA), it is necessary to expose the laser radiation upon a region of the vessel so that it receives sufficient energy to cause thermal damage. On one hand, the value of this energy should provide coagulation of vein, and on the other, it should be optimized so that the structure of the surrounding healthy tissues has received a minimum degree of damage.
This original study conducted by researchers from Ogarev Mordovia State University and Kazan Federal University presents the results of experiments on endovenous laser ablation of varicose veins in vitro using laser radiation of a solid-state laser and identifying the role a carbonized layer of blood in these experiments.
An experimental series with saline solution and red blood cell (RBC) suspension in the venous lumen was performed to identify the impact of a heated carbonized layer precipitated on the fiber end face versus the efficiency of EVLA. Results of these experiments confirmed that the presence of a heated carbonized layer on the fiber end face increases the efficiency of EVLA.
Further experiments are planned for process optimization. For instance, it is planned to use radial emitting fibers since this technique can minimize a possibility of vein perforations. Also, modification of the experimental device without placement of vein into a glass tube will allow to approach experimental conditions to real.
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Contract grant sponsors the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (the project part of the State Assignment in the sphere of scientific activities no 3.384.2014/? and State Assignment no. 0708 0210059 611); the subsidy of the Russian Government (agreement no. 02.A03.21.0002) to support the Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University among World's Leading Academic Centers.
An international group of mathematicians at MIT and other institutions has released a new online resource that provides detailed maps of previously uncharted mathematical terrain.
The "L-functions and Modular Forms Database," or LMFDB, is a detailed atlas of mathematical objects that maps out the connections between them. The LMFDB exposes deep relationships and provides a guide to previously uncharted territory that underlies current research in several branches of physics, computer science, and mathematics. This coordinated effort is part of a massive collaboration of researchers around the globe.
The scale the computational effort that went into creating the LMFDB is staggering: Multiple teams of researchers spent a total of nearly 1,000 years of computer time on calculations. One recent computation by Principal Research Scientist Andrew Sutherland at MIT used more than 72,000 cores of Google's Compute Engine to complete in one weekend a tabulation that would have taken more than a century on a single computer. As noted by Sutherland, "Computations in number theory are often amenable to massive parallelization, and this allows us to scale them to the cloud." Some of these calculations are so intricate that only a handful of experts know how to do them, and some are so big that it makes sense to run them only once, and then share the verified results.
Large-scale cloud computing is just one of the ways in which the project is changing the way mathematics research is done. The LMFDB provides a sophisticated Web interface that allows both experts and amateurs to easily navigate its contents. Each object has a "homepage" and links to related objects, or "friends." The LMFDB also includes an integrated knowledge database that explains its contents and the mathematics behind it. "We are mapping the mathematics of the 21st century," says project member Brian Conrey, director of the American Institute of Mathematics. "The LMFDB is both an educational resource and a research tool, one that will become indispensable for future exploration."
Prime numbers have fascinated mathematicians throughout the ages. The distribution of primes is believed to be random, but proving this remains beyond the grasp of mathematicians to date. Under the Riemann hypothesis, the distribution of primes is intimately related to the Riemann zeta function, which is the simplest example of an L-function. The LMFDB contains more than 20 million L-functions, each of which has an analogous Riemann hypothesis that is believed to govern the distribution of a wide range of more exotic mathematical objects. Patterns found in the study of these L-functions also arise in complex quantum systems, and there is a conjectured connection to quantum physics.
One of the great triumphs in mathematics of the late 20th century was Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, a proposition by Pierre de Fermat that went unproven for more than 300 years despite the efforts of generations of mathematicians. The key to Wiles' proof was establishing a long-conjectured relationship between two mathematical worlds: elliptic curves and modular forms. Elliptic curves arise naturally in many parts of mathematics and can be described by a simple cubic equation; they form the basis of cryptographic protocols used by most of the major Internet companies, including Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Modular forms are more mysterious objects: complex functions with an almost unbelievable degree of symmetry. Elliptic curves and modular forms are connected via their L-functions. The remarkable relationship between elliptic curves and modular forms is made fully explicit in the LMFDB, where users can travel from one world to another with the click of a mouse and view the L-functions that connect the two worlds.
The connections exploited by Wiles are just a small part of the Langlands program, a vast web of conjectures proposed by Robert Langlands in the late 1960s that has been called the Rosetta Stone of mathematics. The Langlands program is enormous in scope but vague in some of its details; it serves as a framework for the millions of connections now cataloged by the LMFDB. The exact nature of these connections is the subject of a great deal of current research that will be accelerated by the LMFDB.
Several simultaneous events on May 10 in North America and Europe will celebrate the launch of the LMFDB, including public presentations and lectures at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; the American Institute for Mathematics in San Jose, California; and the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.
The LMFDB project is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the American Institute of Mathematics, the EU 2020 Horizon Open DreamKit Project, and the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics, and involves researchers from Arizona State University, Dartmouth College, Duquesne University, Oregon State University, the University of California at San Diego, the University of Bristol, the University of Warwick, the University of Washington, the University of Waterloo, and other institutions.
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HELENA Portions of Montana's campaign finance law are so vague and broad that the state regulator can enforce the law against groups he dislikes, while ignoring similar allegations against groups he supports, a nonprofit organization trying to strike down the law plans to argue in court Tuesday.
Attorneys for Montanans for Community Development will ask U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen during a hearing in Missoula to rule without a trial that the state's rules governing campaigns are unconstitutional.
Attorneys for the state also are asking Christensen to rule in their favor without a trial. They argue that Montana's campaign finance laws are constitutionally sound and there is no selective enforcement by the commissioner's office.
MCD is a "social welfare" organization not required to disclose donors or spending to the commissioner of political practices. The group argues it will be forced to register and make those disclosures as an organization that expressly advocates for or against the election of candidates, while it is simply wants to distribute ads about issues that mention certain candidates.
The organization's lawsuit is one of at least two constitutional challenges to Montana's new campaign finance law that requires more disclosure and more frequent reporting from groups that spend money to influence elections. A third lawsuit seeks to strike down Montana's limits on contributions to candidates by individuals and groups before the June 7 primary elections.
The state's rules contain circular and unconstitutionally vague and overly broad definitions for terms such as "expenditures," "contributions" and "political committees," the organization's attorney, Anita Milanovich, wrote in a summary of the group's argument. The imprecise language not only makes issue-advocacy groups subject to reporting, but it allows for mischief and discrimination by the commissioner of political practices in selectively enforcing the rules, she wrote.
The current commissioner, Jonathan Motl, has prosecuted conservative candidates and organizations for coordination, while dismissing similar allegations against more moderate candidates, she wrote.
The Supreme Court has confirmed that disclosure requirements do not block free speech, and that the state has an interest in providing its citizens with information about the groups and individuals who spend money in elections, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Cochenour wrote.
There is no evidence supporting the allegations MCD makes against Motl, he added.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Only about 65 percent of homicides in the United States are solved - down 15 percent from the mid-1970s - but a new study led by a Michigan State University criminologist examines how some police departments are getting it right.
Departments that clear at least 80 percent of homicides tend to work closely with the community and other agencies such as the FBI and DEA. They adopt modern advances such as digital forensics and crime analysis. And they embrace the changing role of the homicide investigator - from one who dug for information by "beating the pavement" in the past to one who manages a wealth of information from a network of people and online sources presently.
Bottom line: There is no silver bullet to reversing the steady decline in the homicide clearance rate, said lead author David Carter, MSU professor of criminal justice.
"The challenge is not simply to apply a new technology or implement a promising practice," Carter said. "Instead, we need to re-examine the role of the homicide investigator and the way they conduct homicide investigations. This includes changing some long-held homicide investigation policies that have been thought of as the Holy Grail."
The research project, which lasted four years, was funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and published in the May issue of the journal Homicide Studies.
Carter and colleague Jeremy Carter, assistant professor at Indiana University and an MSU graduate, studied metro areas that had at least 24 homicides and a clearance rate of 80 percent or better in 2011: Baltimore; Denver; Houston; Jacksonville, Florida; Richmond, Virginia; Sacramento, California; and San Diego.
The urban communities range in size from about 200,000 people (Richmond) to 2.1 million (Houston). Houston had the most homicide investigators, with 130, while Sacramento had the fewest, with nine. Homicide clearance rates ranged from 80 percent in Denver to 100 percent in San Diego.
These successful departments had a number of strategic similarities, including:
Assigning full homicide squads both during the day and evening, which led to faster response times.
Developing community trust, which is particularly important during interviews in the first 48 hours after a homicide.
Providing officers basic investigative tools and resources, including cell phone, camera, digital recorder, laptop computer and a take-home department car on days when the investigator was on-call.
A team approach also fueled better results. Successful homicide units worked with various external and internal departments, such as the gang unit during a gang-related homicide. In addition, patrol officers were trained to handle some investigative duties until detectives arrived. This runs in contrast to police departments that treat their patrol officers as simply "place holders" at a homicide scene.
"In successful agencies, patrol officers are viewed as partners in the investigation," David Carter said.
Ultimately, he added, successful investigation can prevent future homicides.
"Effective investigations can eliminate repeat offenders and reduce the number of retaliation homicides," the study says. "Although not the direct goal of homicide investigators, prevention can be an important artifact of a substantively strong investigation."
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Bullying is a serious public health problem, with significant short- and long-term psychological consequences for both the targets and perpetrators of such behavior, and requires a commitment to developing preventive and interventional policies and practices that could make a tangible difference in the lives of many children, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The programs that appear most effective are those that promote a positive school environment and combine social and emotional skill-building for all students, with targeted interventions for those at greatest risk for being involved in bullying. There is emerging research that widely used zero-tolerance policies -- those that impose automatic suspension or expulsion of students from school after one bullying incident -- are not effective at curbing bullying or making schools safer and should be discontinued. Instead, resources should be directed to evidence-based policies and programs for bullying prevention in the United States.
Until recently, most bullying typically occurred at school or other places where children play or congregate, but an abundance of new technologies has led to cyberbullying, through chat rooms, social media, and other forms of digital communication. Although it is difficult to determine the extent of bullying due to definitional and measurement inconsistencies, bullying likely affects between 18 percent and 31 percent of children and youth, and the prevalence of cyberbullying ranges from 7 percent to 15 percent. Estimates are even higher for subgroups who are particularly vulnerable, such as individuals who have disabilities, are obese, or are LGBT. In addition, children with fewer same-ethnicity peers at school appear to be at greater risk for being targets of bullying.
Adolescents who are bullied experience a range of physical problems, including sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal concerns, and headaches. Although the full consequences of bullying on the brain are not yet understood entirely, there are changes in the stress response systems associated with being bullied that increase the risk of mental health problems, including cognitive function and self-regulation of emotions. Being bullied during childhood and adolescence has been linked to psychological effects such as depression, anxiety, and alcohol and drug abuse into adulthood.
Youth who bully others are more likely to be depressed, engage in high-risk activities such as theft and vandalism, and have adverse outcomes later in life compared with those who do not bully, the report says. In addition, individuals who bully others and are themselves bullied appear to be at greatest risk for poor psychological and social outcomes. Children involved in bullying as perpetrators, targets, or both are also significantly more likely to contemplate or attempt suicide. However, there is not enough evidence to conclude that bullying is a causal factor in youth suicides. The committee that conducted the study and wrote the report also examined the relationship between bullying and school shootings, concluding that the data are unclear on the role of bullying as a precipitating cause of these shootings.
Zero-tolerance policies may lead to underreporting of bullying incidents because the consequence is perceived as too harsh, the committee found. The effects of school-based programs that involve all students regardless of their risk for bullying or being bullied -- such as counselors or teachers presenting strategies for responding to bullying -- appear to be relatively modest. Multi-component programs that combine elements of these programs along with more targeted interventions for youth at risk of bullying or being bullied -- for example, teaching more intensive social-emotional skills or de-escalation approaches -- appear to be most effective at reducing bullying.
Families play a critical role in bullying prevention by providing emotional support to encourage disclosure of bullying incidents and by fostering coping skills in their children, the report says. However, the role of peers in bullying prevention as bystanders and as intervention program leaders needs further research to determine the extent to which peer-led programs are effective.
Laws and policies have the potential to strengthen state and local efforts to prevent, identify, and respond to bullying, the report says. Over the past 15 years, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have adopted or revised laws to address bullying, and all except Alaska include cyberbullying in their statutes. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, the state attorneys general, and local education agencies should partner with researchers to collect data on an ongoing basis on the efficacy and implementation of anti-bullying laws and policies, in order to guide legislators who may amend existing laws or create new ones.
Given the varying use of the terms "bullying" and "peer victimization" in research and practice, for this report, the committee used the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition: Bullying is any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youths who are not siblings or current dating partners that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated, and bullying may inflict harm or distress on the targeted youth including physical, psychological, social, or educational harm. The departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, Agriculture, and Defense, and the Federal Trade Commission, which are engaged in the Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention (FPBP) interagency group, should foster use of a consistent definition of bullying, the report says.
The committee also recommended federal agencies work with relevant stakeholders to sponsor the development, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based programs to address bullying behavior and bullying prevention training for professionals and volunteers who work directly with children and adolescents on a regular basis. In addition, social media companies should partner with the FPBP Steering Committee to adopt, implement, and evaluate on an ongoing basis policies and programs for preventing, identifying, and responding to bullying on their platforms and should publish their anti-bullying policies on their websites.
The agencies engaged in the FPBP interagency group should gather longitudinal surveillance data on the prevalence of all forms of bullying, including physical, verbal, relational, property, cyber, and bias-based bullying, and the numbers of individuals involved in bullying, including targets, perpetrators, and bystanders, in order to have more uniform and accurate estimates of prevalence.
"Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents, but it has lasting negative consequences and cannot simply be ignored," said committee chair Frederick Rivara, Seattle Children's Hospital Guild Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research and professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of Washington. "This is a pivotal time for bullying prevention, and while there is not a quick fix or one-size-fits-all solution, the evidence clearly supports preventive and interventional policy and practice."
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The study was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Highmark Foundation, National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Semi J. and Ruth W. Begun Foundation, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 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. The Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit national-academies.org. A committee roster follows.
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#ScienceonBullyingDana Korsen, Media OfficerRebecca Ray, Media AssistantOffice of News and Public Information202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu Follow us on Twitter at @theNASEM
Copies of Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice are available from the National Academies Press on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu/ScienceonBullying 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
Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and EducationandHealth and Medicine Division
Board on Children, Youth, and Families and Committee on Law and Justice
Committee on the Biological and Psychosocial Effects of Peer Victimization:
Lessons for Bullying Prevention
Frederick P. Rivara* (chair)
Seattle Children's Guild Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research, and
Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology
University of Washington and Seattle Children's
Seattle
Angela Frederick Amar
Associate Dean
Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
Emory University
Atlanta
Catherine P. Bradshaw
Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development
Curry School of Education
University of Virginia
Charlottesville
Daniel Flannery
Professor and Director
Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education
Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland
Sandra H. Graham
Presidential Chair in Education and Diversity
Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
University of California
Los Angeles
Mark L. Hatzenbuehler
Associate Professor
Center for the Study of Social Inequalities and Health
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
New York City
Matthew G. Masiello
Chief Medical Officer
The Children's Institute of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
Megan A. Moreno
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
University of Washington and Seattle Children's
Seattle
Regina M. Sullivan
Professor
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
New York University School of Medicine
New York City
Jonathan Todres
Associate Professor of Law
Georgia State University College of Law
Atlanta
Tracy Vaillancourt
Professor and Canada Research Chair
Children's Mental Health and Violence Prevention
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
STAFF
Suzanne Le Menestrel
Staff Officer
*Member, National Academy of Medicine
The New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), an NJIT corporation that applies the intellectual and technological resources of the state's science and technology university to challenges identified by industry partners, has joined MetroLab Network, a network of 35 city-university partnerships focused on bringing data, analytics and innovation to local government. Members of the network research, develop, and deploy technologies and policy approaches to address challenges facing the nation's urban areas. MetroLab Network was launched by 21 founding city-university pairings in September 2015 at the White House as part of the Obama Administration's Smart Cities Initiative.
MetroLab Network's city-university partnerships are relationships in which the university serves as a research and development arm, and the city serves as a test-bed for technologies and policies. Faculty members and students gain access to real-world laboratories to develop and test tools and programs that utilize information technology, data analytics, sensing and more. Cities benefit from their technical expertise, leading to solutions that reduce the cost of infrastructure and services, make cities more sustainable and resilient, and improve citizens' quality of life.
MetroLab Network members are working on more than 100 "research, development and deployment" projects with broad impact on areas such as improving transportation and water systems, reducing the energy footprint in cities, advancing health and public safety goals, and many more.
MetroLab Network connects these city-university partnerships via a national, collaborative platform that will facilitate the sharing of information and the scaling of technology and solutions across the country.
"We're excited about joining MetroLab because we've been seeking partners in our efforts to have Newark become one of the most technologically sophisticated cities in America," said Joel S. Bloom, president of NJIT. "NJII, our faculty and our students are ready to launch these pilot projects that will improve lives and help others see Newark as the great urban center that we experience daily. In so doing, our students will have even more venues for innovation and entrepreneurship."
By becoming members of MetroLab Network, the City of Newark, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and its corporation, NJII, have signed a memorandum of understanding and agreed to work together on research and development projects that will yield meaningful innovation resulting in an improved city. The projects involve elements of Newark's infrastructure such as; transportation, utilities and public safety.
"We are delighted to have been picked for the White House's MetroLab program with our partner, NJIT. We are working closely with NJIT to make Newark a leader in 21st century smart technology. Together we are creating Newark 3.0, a city where tech companies will want to test and deploy their new ideas, locate their offices, and participate in the economic and technological renaissance of our communities," said Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka.
From May 9-11, representatives from Newark and NJII will be participating in MetroLab Network's Spring Summit, hosted by the City of San Diego and the University of California, San Diego with support from Clean Tech San Diego.
"We are thrilled to welcome Newark and NJII to our network," said Ben Levine, Interim Director of MetroLab Network. "Their participation will help drive progress in the cities and regions that are addressing similar issues across the country. Furthermore, their collaboration with our extensive national network of cities and universities will accelerate progress in Newark on many of its priorities."
MetroLab Network is supported by a $1 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as a research enterprise that uses data and information technologies to better understand how cities work and to improve the urban condition. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the fiduciary of MetroLab Network during its incubation period.
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About NJII
The New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) is an NJIT corporation that applies the intellectual and technological resources of the state's science and technology university to challenges identified by industry partners. Through its Innovation Labs (iLabs), NJII brings NJIT expertise to key economic sectors, including healthcare delivery systems, bio-pharmaceutical production, civil infrastructure, defense and homeland security, and financial services.
In a study published today in the journal PeerJ, scientists from the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) and the National Geographic Society revealed that the northern Galapagos islands of Darwin and Wolf are home to the largest shark biomass reported to date (12.4 tons per hectare).
Worldwide, overfishing has reduced the biomass of most sharks and other large predatory fishes by more than 90 percent -- even in remote areas. The findings detailed by CDRS and National Geographic Society researchers in PeerJ are significant because the presence of these top predators indicates a healthy marine ecosystem. Moreover, the data amassed over two years of rigorous research will add to a growing body of literature about the role of top predators in marine ecosystems.
"The islands of Darwin and Wolf are jewels in the crown of the Galapagos because of the sheer abundance of sharks and other top predators," said Pelayo Salinas de Leon, the paper's lead author and senior marine ecologist at CDRS.
Despite the large shark biomass, the abundance of reef fishes in this area has been severely reduced because of excessive fishing. The area was not fully protected from fishing until the Ecuadorian government announced the creation of a marine sanctuary around Darwin and Wolf in March 2016. Given how important the Galapagos are to Ecuador's tourism industry and to the well-being of these top predators, the paper's authors urge strong enforcement of the new marine sanctuary.
"Charles Darwin made the Galapagos Islands famous, but for the underwater world to be so full of life is something he probably never imagined," said Enric Sala, National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence and leader of the Society's Pristine Seas project.
The National Geographic Society conducted a Pristine Seas expedition in the Galapagos Marine Reserve in December 2015. Led by Sala, the Pristine Seas team of international scientists and filmmakers, in collaboration with the Galapagos National Park and CDRS, surveyed and documented the waters around the islands, with a focus on the deep and offshore environments. The expedition, made possible in part by a grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, helped inform the government's decision to create the new sanctuary around Darwin and Wolf.
The shark biomass research team collected data using stereo-video surveys at seven sites in collaboration with the Galapagos National Park Directorate. The quantitative surveys recorded at Darwin and Wolf are considerably larger than those reported at Costa Rica's Cocos Island National Park and the Chagos Marine Reserve in the Indian Ocean, home to the world's next largest shark biomasses.
According to the CDRS and National Geographic Society scientists: "The study published today adds to the growing body of literature highlighting the ecological uniqueness and the irreplaceable value of Darwin and Wolf -- not only for Ecuador but for the world."
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Images:
For more photos and video related to the National Geographic Society/Galapagos Shark Biomass announcement, visit: http://bit.ly/pristine_seas_shark_paper or contact pelayo.salinas@fcdarwin.org.ec
PDF of this Press Release: http://static.peerj.com/pressReleases/2016/Press-Release-deLeon.pdf (for Immediate Release)
Link to the Published Version of the article (quote this link in your story): https://peerj.com/articles/1911 - your readers will be able to freely access this article at this URL.
Citation to the article: Salinas de Leon P, Acuta-Marrero D, Rastoin E, Friedlander AM, Donovan MK, Sala E. (2016) Largest global shark biomass found in the northern Galapagos Islands of Darwin and Wolf. PeerJ 4:e1911 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1911
About the Charles Darwin Foundation
The Charles Darwin Foundation's mission is to provide knowledge and assistance through scientific research and complementary action to ensure the conservation of the environment and biodiversity in the Galapagos Archipelago. For more information, visit http://www.darwinfoundation.org.
About the National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society is a global nonprofit organization driven by a passionate belief in the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to change the world. The Society funds hundreds of research and conservation projects around the globe each year and works to inspire, illuminate and teach through scientific expeditions, award-winning journalism and education initiatives. The National Geographic Society's Pristine Seas project seeks to help protect the last wild places in the ocean. The project's partners include Blancpain and Davidoff Cool Water, among others. For more information, visit http://www.nationalgeographic.org.
About PeerJ
PeerJ is an Open Access publisher of peer reviewed articles, which offers researchers a lifetime publication plan, for a single low price, providing them with the ability to openly publish all future articles for free. PeerJ is based in San Francisco, CA and London, UK and can be accessed at https://peerj.com/. PeerJ's mission is to help the world efficiently publish its knowledge.
All works published in PeerJ are Open Access and published using a Creative Commons license (CC-BY 4.0). Everything is immediately available--to read, download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise use--without cost to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors and source are properly attributed.
PeerJ has an Editorial Board of over 1,200 respected academics, including 5 Nobel Laureates. PeerJ was the recipient of the 2013 ALPSP Award for Publishing Innovation.
PeerJ Media Resources (including logos) can be found at: https://peerj.com/about/press/
Claire Gwatkin Jones
National Geographic Society
(202) 857-7756
cgjones@ngs.org
For PeerJ:
email: press@peerj.com , https://peerj.com/about/press/
Note: If you would like to join the PeerJ Press Release list, visit: http://bit.ly/PressList
Abstract (from the article)
Overfishing has dramatically depleted sharks and other large predatory fishes worldwide except for a few remote and/or well-protected areas. The islands of Darwin and Wolf in the far north of the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) are known for their large shark abundance, making them a global scuba diving and conservation hotspot. Here we report quantitative estimates of fish abundance at Darwin and Wolf over two consecutive years using stereo-video surveys, which reveal the largest reef fish biomass ever reported (17.5 t ha^?1 on average), consisting largely of sharks. Despite this, the abundance of reef fishes around the GMR, such as groupers, has been severely reduced because of unsustainable fishing practices. Although Darwin and Wolf are within the GMR, they were not fully protected from fishing until March 2016. Given the ecological value and the economic importance of Darwin and Wolf for the dive tourism industry, the current protection should ensure the long-term conservation of this hotspot of unique global value.
Photosynthetic bacteria that have lived on Earth for 2.7 billion years are the source of a new and valuable biological regulatory tool being developed by Rice University bioengineers.
Synechocystis bacteria produce a protein pathway that senses the presence of UV-violet light and activates a motor protein that moves the single-cell organism into safer surroundings.
The pathway responds quickly to UV-violet light, a narrow band in the spectrum that includes long ultraviolet and short violet wavelengths, and is blind to all others. That makes it a perfect addition to the growing optogenetic suite of reversible photoreceptors being developed by researchers in the lab of Rice synthetic biologist Jeffrey Tabor. Tabor and graduate student Prabha Ramakrishnan co-authored a new paper about this research in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Synthetic Biology.
"The human eye can see colors that go all the way from violet to red," Ramakrishnan said. "It turns out that marine algae - especially the bacteria these sensors come from - have evolved to see these and other colors as well."
Optogenetics is a fairly new discipline in which light-activated, genetically encoded photoreceptors are used to sense or control molecular biological processes like the expression of desired proteins. Because light is easy to direct and control, photoreceptors are simpler to use than tools that respond to chemical prompts.
The Rice researchers turned the photosynthetic bacterial proteins into photoreversible, transcriptional regulators and installed them in Escherichia coli bacterial for lab testing. They reported exploiting them to program gene-expression signals "with high predictability."
The protein pathway known as UirS-UirR is the only optogenetic tool that responds exclusively to UV-violet light and gives biologists the ability to program circuits with light-activated proteins that won't interfere with each other, Tabor said. "Biological systems are regulated by numerous interacting genes, and multiple optogenetic tools that don't optically cross-react are needed to study these networks," he said.
The photoreversible pathway can be turned on by exposure to ultraviolet light and turned off by exposure to green light, or vice versa, depending on how the circuit is designed. Tabor expects they will be useful tools for scientists who design metabolic pathways for drug manufacture and biological sensors.
The new sensors offer speed and versatility in circuit design. "We found that light sensors developed by others take more than two hours to switch on or off, and respond to a broad range of wavelengths," Tabor said. "These aspects are not ideal for studying and controlling bacterial processes."
By contrast, the UV-violet sensor can be switched on or off in 10 minutes, Ramakrishnan said. "That's good because producing proteins or controlling a biological process can be expensive for cells. Producing something that's neither necessary for the cell nor to the product you're trying to synthesize is wasteful."
"Our photoreversible tools allow gene expression to be tuned to different levels more precisely, like a good dimmer switch," Tabor added. "They allow gene expression to be changed to a new level more quickly than a nonphotoreversible tool. All of these features are beneficial for using the tool to study native bacterial gene networks or for industrial applications."
Because the UV-violet sensor responds to such a narrow wavelength of light - from 380 to 420 nanometers - there's no crosstalk with the red and green photoreversible tools already developed by the lab. "When these are put together in a single system, the fact that they don't interact with each other at all and turn on and off rapidly is going to be very useful," Ramakrishnan said.
This could allow for "just-in-time" manufacturing on the cellular level. "There's been theoretical work that shows that you can model the dynamics and get higher yields of your product by using this approach," she said. "You turn a process on only when you need it and turn it off once you're done.
"That's where we see a lot of industrial potential for this type of technology," she said, "especially for drug design or for producing any sort of plastic intermediate, for example, that requires several different enzymes to make it."
Ramakrishnan said she looks forward to seeing how other labs use the discovery. "Jeff understands the power of developing reliable tools," she said. "We try to give biologists and scientists well-engineered, well-characterized tools. We want other people to use this."
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The National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and the Welch Foundation supported the research.
Read the abstract at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acssynbio.6b00068
This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2016/05/10/photosynthetic-bacteria-give-biologists-a-cool-new-tool/
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Related Materials:
Tabor Lab: http://www.taborlab.rice.edu
Rice University Department of Bioengineering: http://bioe.rice.edu
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,910 undergraduates and 2,809 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for best quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.
The Western Antarctic sector of the Southern Ocean is the regular feeding ground of a large number of fin and humpback whales of the Southern Hemisphere. Around 5,000 fin whales likely migrate to its ice-free waters during summer, along with at least 3,000 humpback whales. These estimates follow a ship-based helicopter survey of whales in Antarctic waters. A net trawl survey for krill* was also conducted to see if the distribution of these whales and specific krill species are connected. The study was led by Helena Herr of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover in Germany, and is published in a special issue on "Antarctic Peninsula Shelf Biology" in Springer's journal Polar Biology.
Herr's team produced distribution maps that predict the densities in which humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) likely occur in the Bransfield Strait and Drake Passage. It was found that the two whale species do not share the same habitat or feeding grounds around the West Antarctic Peninsula. An estimated 3,024 humpback whales frequented the coastal parts of the Bransfield Strait in summer 2013, while at least 4,898 endangered fin whales were found along the shelf edge in the Drake Passage.
The krill survey shows that Euphausia superba is the most widely distributed and abundant source of food available to whales in the area. The krill type Euphausia crystallorophias occurs sporadically in smaller numbers near the coast, and Thysanoessa macrura generally beyond the shelf edge.
The relationship between whales and the krill they feed on is not a simple one. At the time of the survey, fin whales fed in an area dominated by Thysanoessa macrura. They are also known to feed on Euphausia superba. Fin whales therefore seem to opportunistically feed on whatever prey aggregates around the shelf edge.
There isn't a clear relationship between humpback whales and the presence of a particular krill species either. The whales seemed to be located in all areas of the Bransfield Strait regardless of how much krill was available. Humpback whales did however tend to occur in sectors with at least a medium concentration of Euphausia superba. Humpback whales seem to have adopted migration patterns and foraging strategies that lead them to areas likely to provide, on average, sufficient amounts of prey.
"In the light of increasing effort by the commercial krill fishery and climate change-related effects on krill biomass, dedicated surveys that target both krill and their main predators, such as baleen whales, need to be undertaken concurrently. This is to monitor and ensure that habitats in the Southern Ocean will continue to support a humpback whale population that has just touched pre-exploitation numbers," says Herr.
Efforts should also be strengthened to investigate the ecology and feeding strategies of endangered Southern Hemisphere fin whales, since little is known about their connection to and dependency on local prey stocks.
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* Krill are small crustaceans that feed on plankton. They are the main prey of baleen whales, which lack teeth, but have baleen to filter krill out of seawater.
Reference: Herr, H. et al. (2016). Horizontal niche partitioning of humpback and fin whales around the West Antarctic Peninsula: evidence from a concurrent whale and krill survey, Polar Biology, DOI 10.1007/s00300-016-1927-9
In a study appearing in the May 10, 2016 issue of JAMA, Brge G. Nordestgaard, M.D., D.M.Sc., of Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark and colleagues examined whether the body mass index (BMI) value that is associated with the lowest all-cause mortality has increased in the general population over a period of 3 decades.
Previous findings indicate that while average BMI has increased over time in most countries, the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors may be decreasing among obese individuals. Thus, the BMI associated with lowest all-cause mortality may have changed over time. This study included three groups from the same general population enrolled at different times: the Copenhagen City Heart Study in 1976-1978 (n = 13,704) and 1991-1994 (n = 9,482) and the Copenhagen General Population Study in 2003-2013 (n = 97,362). All participants were followed up from inclusion in the studies to November 2014, emigration, or death, whichever came first.
The researchers found that the BMI value associated with the lowest all-cause mortality has increased by 3.3 over 3 decades from 1976-1978 to 2003-2013, from 23.7 to 27. In addition, the risk for all-cause mortality that was associated with BMI of 30 or greater vs BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 decreased from an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.3 to 1.0 over this 30-year period. "These latter findings were robust in analyses stratified by age, sex, smoking status, and history of cardiovascular disease or cancer."
The authors write that an interesting finding in this study is that the optimal BMI in relation to mortality is placed in the overweight category in the most recent 2003-2013 cohort. "This finding was consistent in both the whole population sample (optimal BMI, 27), and in a subgroup of never-smokers without history of cardiovascular disease or cancer (optimal BMI, 26.1). If this finding is confirmed in other studies, it would indicate a need to revise the WHO categories presently used to define overweight, which are based on data from before the 1990s."
Regarding the increase in the BMI value associated with the lowest all-cause mortality, the researchers write that "further investigation is needed to understand the reason for this change and its implications."
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(doi:10.1001/jama.2016.4666; this study is available pre-embargo at the For The Media website.)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
New research shows that more migraines could be safely treated with drugs that are known to constrict blood vessels.
(ABINGTON, PA) - About 38 million Americans suffer from migraines in the United States, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. The most commonly used and effective classes of medication, triptans and DHE (Dihydroergotamine), however, have a black box warning for two subtypes of migraine because of risk of stroke. Now researchers at Abington-Jefferson Health have shown that patients who were given the drugs off-label had no stroke or other cardiovascular side-effects from taking the drugs.
Not only does the study suggest these drugs are safe for this subset of migraine patients, it could also have implications for the nearly 10 million migraine sufferers who experience auras - a disturbance in vision, touch, speech, thinking, or strength that usually precedes a migraine headache.
"There are not enough medicines out there to appropriately manage migraine headaches," says senior author Brad Klein, M.D., Medical Director of the Headache Center at Abington Hospital-Jefferson Health. "At a time in history when an unprecedented number of people are getting hooked on narcotic opiates by way of prescribed medications - as is the case with migraine sufferers as well - we owe it to ourselves as physicians to try medications that could work without the risk of addiction," says Klein. The study was published in the journal Headache.
Migraines are thought to cause pain because they cause a swelling of the blood vessels feeding the brain. However, two subtypes of migraines, basilar and hemiplegic, are thought to cause pain by doing the opposite - constricting rather than swelling the blood vessels of the brain. Triptans and DHE are both thought to relieve migraine, in part, by constricting blood vessels. Early on, drug developers worried that adding more constriction to basilar and hemiplegic migraines could put these patients at greater risk of stroke, so these patients were excluded from the initial studies. "As a result," says Klein, "no one ever actually showed that these drugs were dangerous - they were just assumed to be dangerous based on their mechanism of action. And recent research suggests that the auras are not due to blood vessel constriction."
To determine whether there was any increased risk of stroke in basilar and hemiplegic patients taking triptans or DHE, Klein and researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston did a retrospective analysis, collecting data from four headache centers around the country. They searched for patients who had symptoms pointing to a basilar or hemiplegic migraine diagnosis and also received either a triptan or DHE treatment. Of the 80 patients they identified, they saw no cases of stroke or heart attack during the period of routine follow up, over several months.
Although others had studied this effect before, this research had the largest patient cohort to date, and was also one of the first to examine patients treated with DHE.
Migraines can be very complex to diagnose and there are few certified headache specialists in the United States - only 500 for the 38 million sufferers, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. "Because auras are associated with basilar and hemiplegic migraine, many physicians refuse to give these drugs to any patients experiencing an aura out of a false sense of precaution," says Dr. Klein. Instead migraine sufferers may be given other, less effective drugs such as opioid narcotics.
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The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Article reference: P.G. Paul et al., "A retrospective analysis of triptan and dhe use for basilar and hemiplegic migraine," Headache, DOI: 10.1111/head.12804, 2016.
For more information, contact Edyta Zielinska, 215-955-5291, edyta.zielinska@jefferson.edu.
About Jefferson
Our newly formed organization, Jefferson, encompasses Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, representing our academic and clinical entities. Together, the people of Jefferson, 19,000 strong, provide the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients, educate the health professionals of tomorrow, and discover new treatments and therapies that will define the future of health care.
Jefferson Health comprises five hospitals, 17 outpatient and urgent care locations, as well as physician practices and everywhere we deliver care throughout the city and suburbs across Philadelphia, Montgomery and Bucks Counties in Pa., and Camden County in New Jersey. Together, these facilities serve nearly 73,000 inpatients, 239,000 emergency patients and 1.7 million outpatient visits annually. Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is the largest freestanding academic medical center in Philadelphia. Abington Hospital is the largest community teaching hospital in Montgomery or Bucks counties. Other hospitals include Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience in Center City Philadelphia; Methodist Hospital in South Philadelphia; and Abington-Lansdale Hospital in Hatfield Township.
Thomas Jefferson University enrolls more than 3,800 future physicians, scientists, nurses and healthcare professionals in the Sidney Kimmel Medical College (SKMC), Jefferson Colleges of Biomedical Sciences, Health Professions, Nursing, Pharmacy, Population Health and is home of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.
For more information and a complete listing of Jefferson services and locations, visit http://www.jefferson.edu.
PKC alpha is required for pathological consequences of amyloid beta plaques; mutations that enhance its activity found in patients with the disease
In Alzheimer's disease, plaques of amyloid beta protein accumulate in the brain, damaging connections between neurons. Now, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School have found that the enzyme Protein Kinase C (PKC) alpha is necessary for amyloid beta to damage neuronal connections. They also identified genetic variations that enhance PKC alpha activity in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
The study, published May 10 in Science Signaling, may present a new therapeutic target for the disease.
"Until recently, it was thought that PKC helped cells survive, and that too much PKC activity led to cancer. Based on that assumption, many companies tested PKC inhibitors as drugs to treat cancer, but they didn't work," said co-senior author Alexandra Newton, PhD, professor of pharmacology at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
"Instead, we recently found that the opposite is true. PKC serves as the brakes to cell growth and survival, so cancer cells benefit when PKC is inactivated. Now, our latest study reveals that too much PKC activity is also bad, driving neurodegeneration. This means that drugs that failed in clinical trials for cancer may provide a new therapeutic opportunity for Alzheimer's disease."
The study was a three-way collaboration between experts in PKC (Newton), neuroscience (Roberto Malinow, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Neurosciences and Neurobiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine), and genomics (Rudolph Tanzi, PhD, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School).
Malinow's team found that when mice are missing the PKC alpha gene, neurons functioned normally, even when amyloid beta was present. Then, when they restored PKC alpha, amyloid beta once again impaired neuronal function. In other words, amyloid beta doesn't inhibit brain function unless PKC alpha is active.
Enter the Tanzi team, which has a database of genetic information for 1,345 people in 410 families with late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Tanzi and team use this database to look for rare variants -- genetic mutations found only in family members with the disease. Here, the team found three variants in one form of the PKC enzyme, PKC alpha that were associated with the disease in five families.
The researchers replicated these three PKC alpha gene variants in laboratory cell lines. In each instance, PKC alpha activity was increased.
While this study surfaced only five families with these rare mutations in the PKC alpha gene, there are many ways to influence PKC alpha's activity, Newton said. She believes there could be many other inherited genetic variations that indirectly boost or inhibit PKC activity, and therefore also influence a person's likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease.
"Next we want to identify more molecules participating in the pathophysiology," said Malinow. "The more steps in the mechanism we can understand, the more therapeutic targets we'll find for Alzheimer's disease."
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Co-authors of this study also include: Stephanie Alfonso, Julia A. Callender, Corina E. Antal, UC San Diego; Basavaraj Hooli, Kristina Mullin, Harvard Medical School; Mathew A. Sherman, Sylvain E. Lesne, University of Minnesota; and Michael Leitges, University of Oslo.
This research was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (grants GM43154, MH060009, AG032132, GM007752, DGE1144086) and Cure Alzheimer's Fund (grant 2015-3999).
CINCINNATI--Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy are presenting collaborative research on the use of mathematical methods for understanding the transportation of chemical compounds in biological tissues, like the skin.
This could lead to better ways of testing cosmetic or consumer products without harming humans or animals.
The research, led by Gerald Kasting, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the college, will be presented at the 8th annual meeting of the International Society of Porous Media (Interpore) on Wednesday, May 11, at the Hilton Netherland Plaza hotel in downtown Cincinnati. The meeting is co-sponsored by academic institutions and industrial corporations including the Procter & Gamble Company.
Interpore is a non-profit scientific society established in 2008 to advance and disseminate knowledge for the understanding, description and modeling of natural and industrial porous media systems.
Kasting, who is collaborating with Arne Naegel and Gabriel Wittum from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, for this research, says mathematical modeling allows scientists to test chemical compounds virtually, in place of human or animal testing.
"A lot of people have models, but we have predictive models," Kasting says of developing mathematical equations to determine whether a chemical compound will penetrate skin or induce allergy based on the results of prior compounds. "Instead of doing testing on 30,000 compounds, we are able to test a subset of say 200 and make predictions about the other 29,800 based on the subset."
These predictions, he says, are essential to manufacturing in global chemical, cosmetic and personal care industries impacted by REACH, a European regulatory guideline that aims to improve the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the properties of chemical substances.
"In order to produce globally, companies need to meet and adhere to the most stringent guidelines. Potentially troublesome ingredients such as fragrances and preservatives are widely used in the cosmetic and personal care industry, so manufacturers are very interested in ways to improve testing," he says.
Kasting's research is funded by Cefic, a Brussels-based chemical consortium.
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After 24 years, Bill Kennedy will retire from his post as a Yellowstone County Commissioner effective Aug. 1 to become president of the Montana State University Billings Foundation.
Kennedy announced the move at a news conference on Tuesday at the foundation's headquarters.
As I said in the past, Yellowstone County has been my family for many years, he said. And in the future, all these people will come together to become the Montana State University Billings family.
Kennedy will take over after former foundation president, Chuck Wendt, resigned his post in December after just 22 months. Wendt replaced longtime president Marilynn Miller, who retired in 2013.
Kennedy was chosen from a field of 27 candidates from across the country, said Shannon Behounek, director of annual giving and publications for the foundation. A committee began interviewing candidates in March.
The MSUB Foundation is the main fundraising and scholarship arm of the university, controlling more than $26 million in assets, according to public tax documents. That includes nearly $22 million in endowments.
The private, nonprofit organization has a 26-member board of trustees. It plans to give $1.6 million in scholarships over the next year.
The organization's revenue, including endowment, have increased steadily over the years. In 2000, the foundation had $7.9 million in net assets. Annual scholarship payouts have increased alongside revenue.
The main item on the foundation's agenda will be the Yellowstone Hall project, which is the expansion and renovation of the current sciences building. The university needs to raise $5 million to receive $10 million from the Montana Legislature to pay for the building.
The MSUB Foundation has about $1.5 million toward its goal. With Kennedy at the helm, the organization plans to make the endeavor more visible.
"We feel like we're going into more of a public campaign," said Bobby Anner-Hughes, chair of the foundation's Board of Trustees.
Kennedy said that the building will help boost science programs at the university, which provides internships and job placements across a broad group of regional industries.
He would have been up for re-election on the county commission in 2018. Kennedy, commission chairman, is the lone Democrat.
To replace the vacancy, Montana law says that the county central committee of the party, Democrat in Kennedy's case, shall submit to the remaining commissioners three names of people who have lived in the unrepresented district for at least two years immediately before the vacancy.
The remaining commissioners appoint one of the three candidates to fill the vacancy.
Whenever, the remaining commissioners are unable "to elect an appointee" from the submitted list, they shall request a second list of three names from the central committee and make a selection from names on both lists, the law said.
Whoever is appointed to fill his seat would serve the remainder of his term.
Kennedy represents District 3, which is the northwestern part of the county.
He said that he wants to stay on the commission to assist in the budget process. He remarked on the MetraPark and the Yellowstone National Cemetery as his top achievements as commissioner.
He plans to take his position as foundation president after Aug. 1. The previous president made a salary of $122,333. He earns $89,450 as commissioner.
Kennedy, who graduated from MSUB in 1985, said he looks forward to the job.
"What an excellent team," he said. "We're going to have a lot of fun here."
The safety of a controversial clot-busting drug has been investigated by researchers, who have shown a modified dosage can reduce serious bleeding in the brain and improve survival rates.
It is hoped the findings from the trial of more than 3,000 patients in 100 hospitals worldwide could change the way the most common form of stroke is treated globally.
Intravenous rtPA (or alteplase) is given to people suffering acute ischaemic stroke and works by breaking up clots blocking the flow of blood to the brain.
However, it can cause serious bleeding in the brain in around five per cent of cases, with many of these proving fatal.
The study was conducted by teams at the George Institute for Global Health, and the University of Leicester's Department of Cardiovascular Sciences. The UK arm of the trial was funded by the Stroke Association.
National Coordinator of the study in the UK, Professor Tom Robinson of the University said: "This trial was a randomised controlled trial, which is the gold standard for determining whether a medicine actually has the desired effect.
"The results provide important information when discussing clot-busting treatment with patients and their families.
"Most patients who have a major stroke want to know they will survive but without being seriously dependent on their family. We have shown this to be the case with the lower dose of the drug.
"Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the UK and the leading cause of adult neurological disability. There are over 150,000 strokes each year in the UK, one in four of whom are in people of working age.
"Currently, approximately 11 per cent of stroke patients receive thrombolysis treatment for stroke in the UK."
Professor Craig Anderson, Lead Author of the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, said: "At the moment you could have a stroke but end up dying from a bleed in the brain. It's largely unpredictable as to who will respond and who is at risk with rtPA.
"What we have shown is that if we reduce the dose level, we maintain most of the clot busting benefits of the higher dose but with significantly less major bleeds and improved survival rates. On a global scale, this approach could save the lives of many tens of thousands of people.
"There is a trade off with the lower dose in regards to recovery of functioning, but being alive is surely preferable to most patients than suffering an early death."
Dr Dale Webb, Director of Research and Information at the Stroke Association, said: "We've known for a while that giving stroke patients alteplase carries the risk of bleeding in the brain which can be fatal.
"However, an independent review in the UK concluded last year that the benefits outweigh the risks. This new study will be welcome news for clinicians and patients, because it suggests that we can reduce the risk of bleeding with a lower dose of alteplase, whilst retaining most of its benefit."
These differing effects meant that the trial was unable to show conclusively that the low dose was as effective as standard dose rtPA in terms of survivors being free of any disability.
rtPA is used to dissolve clots that block a blood vessel in a patient's brain within the first few hours after the onset of stroke symptoms.
Yet, because many people with stroke arrive at hospital after this crucial time window, only around five per cent of eligible people currently receive this therapy in most countries.
Concerns over the risks of bleeding on the brain associated with rtPA have prompted independent reviews of the research evidence in Australia and the UK.
Professor Tom Robinson is also from the NIHR Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit.
KEY FINDINGS
Compared to standard dose (0.9mg/kg body weight), the lower dose (0.6mg/kg) of rtPA reduced rates of serious bleeding in the brain, known as intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), by two thirds.
After 90 days, 8.5 per cent of patients had died after receiving low dose rtPA, compared to 10.3 per cent who received the standard dose.
The survival benefit was offset by a slight rise in the amount of people suffering residual disability. For every 1000 patients treated, low dose rtPA, compared to the standard dose, 41 more people had physical disabilities, such as needing help dressing or walking, but 19 fewer people died.
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Notes to editors:
An audio interview with Professor Tom Robinson is available here (to be set live once embargo lifts): https://soundcloud.com/university-of-leicester/could-a-controversial-stroke-drug-save-lives
The audio interview can be sent to journalists in advance of the embargo lifting via WeTransfer. Email Peter Thorley pt91@le.ac.uk to request a copy of the audio.
For further details, to arrange an interview or more photographs, email oliver.jelley@ojpr.co.uk or Fiona.bailey@ojpr.co.uk or call or 01604 882342.
Please note Professor Robinson is away at an academic conference but will pick up emails on tgr2@leicester.ac.uk
The George Institute for Global Health
The George Institute for Global Health is improving the lives of millions of people worldwide through innovative health research. Working across a broad health landscape, the Institute conducts clinical, population and health system research aimed at changing health practice and policy worldwide. The Institute has a global network of medical and health experts working together to address the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Established in Australia and affiliated with The University of Sydney, the Institute today also has offices in China, India and the United Kingdom, and is also affiliated with Peking University Health Science Centre, the University of Hyderabad and the University of Oxford. The Institute has been ranked among the top 10 global institutes for impact for the last several years.
Facebook at thegeorgeinstitute Twitter @georgeinstitute Web georgeinstitute.org.au
The Stroke Association
A stroke is a brain attack which happens when the blood supply to the brain is cut off, caused by a clot or bleeding in the brain. There are around 152,000 strokes in the UK every year and it is the leading cause of complex disability. There are around 1.2 million people in the UK living with the effects of stroke.
The Stroke Association is a charity. We believe in life after stroke and together we can conquer stroke. We work directly with stroke survivors and their families and carers, with health and social care professionals and with scientists and researchers. We campaign to improve stroke care and support people to make the best recovery they can. We fund research to develop new treatments and ways of preventing stroke. The Stroke Helpline (0303 303 3100) provides information and support on stroke. More information can found at http://www.stroke.org.uk
The NIHR Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit
The NIHR Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit is funded by the NIHR. The Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit at Glenfield Hospital aims to improve the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. The unit provides state-of-the-art facilities, equipment and staff to assist researchers in their complex projects. It is one of 20 units around England funded by the NIHR. It is a partnership between the University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. The Unit's director is Professor Sir Nilesh Samani and the manager is Dr Martin Batty. http://www.le.ac.uk/bru
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
The NIHR is funded by the Department of Health to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. The NIHR is the research arm of the NHS. Since its establishment in April 2006, the NIHR has transformed research in the NHS. It has increased the volume of applied health research for the benefit of patients and the public, driven faster translation of basic science discoveries into tangible benefits for patients and the economy, and developed and supported the people who conduct and contribute to applied health research. The NIHR plays a key role in the Government's strategy for economic growth, attracting investment by the life-sciences industries through its world-class infrastructure for health research. Together, the NIHR people, programmes, centres of excellence and systems represent the most integrated health research system in the world. For further information, visit http://www.nihr.ac.uk. Twitter: @LeicesterBRU
For more than 50 years, scientists have known of the existence of "jumping genes," strands of DNA material that can move from one location in the genome to another.
Now, for the first time, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) have demonstrated conclusively that one of these jumping genes appears to play a key role in the generation of cancer. The study was published today in the journal Genome Research. It is the first study to ever elucidate this process.
"This is really a new way to understand how tumors grow," said the study's senior author, Scott E. Devine, PhD, associate professor of medicine at UM SOM. "We think it could explain a lot about the mutation process that underlies at least some cancers."
Jumping genes are also known as transposable elements. Dr. Devine and his colleagues focused on one of these elements known as LINE-1, or L1. Until about 25 years ago, researchers thought that L1 had no effect on the genome. But since then, several studies have found that it is active in both the brain and in the body. One study, for example, has found that it plays a role in some cases of hemophilia.
In recent years, scientists have found associations between L1 and cancer. But no study had found a clear link. Devine and his colleagues suspected that L1 might trigger cancer by causing mutations in other genes that suppress cancer. They focused on a tumor suppressor gene known as APC. This gene is mutated in about 85 percent of colon cancer cases.
The researchers screened tumors from 10 patients, looking for L1 insertions at the APC gene. In one patient, they found evidence of this insertion. They further investigated samples from this patient, and found more evidence that L1 had played a role. In all, they found 27 L1 insertions in the tumor - insertions that were not found in surrounding healthy tissue. They also found evidence that L1 was responsible for inactivating the APC gene. Such silencing may allow tumors to grow unimpeded, Devine says.
Devine notes that the patient whose tumor showed evidence of L1 involvement had a strong family history of cancer. It may be that certain groups or families are more prone to L1-related cancers, he says.
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The research also included UM SOM researchers Emma Scott and Eugene Gardner, as well as scientists from Emory University in Atlanta.
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. http://medschool.umaryland.edu/
Induced pluripotent stem cells hold promise for regenerative medicine because they can, in theory, turn into any type of tissue and because they are made from a patient's own adult cells, guaranteeing compatibility. However, the technique that turns adult cells into these iPS cells is not foolproof; after reverting to their pluripotent state, these cells don't always correctly differentiate back into adult cells.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have now discovered one of the reasons why: the reversion process does not always fully capture the way a cell's genome is folded up inside its nucleus. This folding configuration directly influences gene expression and therefore the functionality of the cell.
The new study shows that current techniques might not produce iPS cells that are equivalent to the pluripotent stem cells found in embryos, as some clones retain folding patterns that partially resemble those found in the adult cells from which they are made.
Led by Jennifer Phillips-Cremins, assistant professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science's Department of Bioengineering, and Jonathan Beagan, a graduate student in her lab, the study, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, also suggests ways of minimizing these folding errors.
Though techniques for reverting adult cells into iPS cells have existed for a decade and avoid the issues surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells that have stymied research into regenerative medicine, clinical investigations of these cells have been cautious and slow. IPS cells can fail to correctly differentiate into the desired tissue. Moreover, there are also concerns that the resulting tissue could have unforeseen genetic abnormalities or could become cancerous.
Even outside the clinical applications, many researchers are interested in iPS cells as a way of generating a "disease in a dish." Rather than taking a tissue sample from a patient with a genetic disorder, which is especially challenging when the affected organ is the brain, researchers could use iPS cells derived from that patient's skin cells to grow model organs as needed. Observing the development of those tissues could provide clues to the progression of the disease, as well as serve as ideal test-beds for treatments not yet approved for use in humans.
In both clinical and research applications, however, the traits that allow for the generation of "high quality" iPS cells capable of correctly differentiating into the desired tissue with no genetic abnormalities is unclear.
"We know there is a link between the topology of the genome and gene expression," Phillips-Cremins said, "so this motivated us to explore how the genetic material is reconfigured in three dimensions inside the nucleus during the reprogramming of mature brain cells to pluripotency. We found evidence for sophisticated configurations that differ in important ways between iPS cells and embryonic stem cells."
Phillips-Cremins' area of research is "3-D epigenetics," or the way that the folding of DNA influences gene expression. Classic epigenetic marks are chemical modifications on top of the DNA sequence that provide an additional layer of information on top of the long sequence of base-pair letters. Looking at these marks in a linear fashion does not reveal the whole picture, however, as genome folding can bring two disparate regions of the DNA into spatial and functional contact.
By applying experimental and computational techniques that the Cremins lab has developed, her group was able to identify folding patterns in iPS cells that had previously been unseen.
"Previous methods provided data analogous to an old television, with large, black-and-white pixels," Phillips-Cremins said. "One could generate a blurry image and tell there was a person on the screen, but it would be difficult to parse finer-scale facial features. We employed methods to create high-resolution maps of genome folding, so we could distinguish detailed topological features and evaluate their similarities and differences among traditional embryonic stem cells, iPS cells and mature, differentiated cells."
The approach Beagan used to create the high-resolution maps involves fixing the DNA such that its 3-D folding patterns are preserved prior to sequencing. Sections of the linear genetic sequence that are separated by marked distances but are spatially adjacent when the DNA is folded are chemically glued together. As a result, two distant parts of the linear sequence will end up in the same string of hybrid DNA and will thus be detected together when the DNA is sequenced.
Analyzing these hybrid pieces provides information that allows the researchers to infer which DNA segments are adjacent to each other in the genome's folded state. Critically, the Cremins lab's approach targets only specific sites in the genome, which allows high-resolution analysis across these regions to be much more easily achievable than with alternative genome-wide approaches. The maps reported by the Penn Engineering lab are the highest-resolution maps of genome folding to date in iPS cells.
Phillips-Cremins and her computational team can plot the sequencing data in heat maps, thereby providing a picture of the DNA segments that are spatially adjacent to each other in the 3-D nucleus of stem cells.
"Each of the pixels on our heat maps," Beagan said, "is a representation of the frequency that any two given segments in the genome interact. You can represent the contact frequency numbers as colors and the entire region of DNA as a heat map. You end up seeing intriguing patterns of high and low intensity, and from these patterns one can infer the folding configurations of the genome."
The Penn researchers targeted several locations along the genome to perform their computational analyses, comparing the iPS cells to the cells from which they were generated and to the embryonic stem cells they ideally should perfectly replicate.
They found that traditional embryonic stem cells and mature, differentiated brain cells had strikingly different genome folding patterns. Surprisingly, however, the genetic material from iPS cells did not fold in a manner that perfectly resembled traditional embryonic stem cells but instead exhibited traces of the 3-D configurations of the brain cells from which they were derived.
"We found marked differences among the heatmaps we generated for each cell type," Beagan said. "Our observations are important because they suggest that, if we can push the 3-D genome conformation of cells that we are turning into iPS cells to be closer to that of embryonic stem cells, then we can possibly generate iPS cells that match gold-standard pluripotent stem cells more rapidly and efficiently."
Importantly, the researchers also found they could make iPS cells with more accurate folding configurations by changing the medium in which they are grown. This result provides a window of insight into possible ways that researchers and clinicians could better engineer iPS cells for experiments and treatments. The Phillips-Cremins lab already has experiments underway to engineer 3-D genome folding in stem cells to control gene expression on demand.
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The research was supported by The New York Stem Cell Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the NIH Director's New Innovator Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (1DP2MH11024701) and a 4D Nucleome Common Fund grant (1U01HL12999801).
Other researchers contributing to the study include Phillips-Cremins lab members Thomas G. Gilgenast, Jesi Kim, Zachary Plona, Heidi Norton and Gui Hu; Sarah Hsu and Emily Shields of Penn's Perelman School of Medicine epigenetics program; biologists Xiaowen Lyu and Victor G. Corces of Emory University; Effie Apostolou and Konrad Hochedlinger of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Center for Regenerative Medicine; and Job Dekker, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher. Apostolou is now affiliated with the Meyer Cancer Center and Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Australian archaeologists have discovered a piece of the world's oldest axe in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia.
The axe fragment is about the size of a thumbnail and dates back to a Stone Age period of 45,000 to 49,000 years ago - at, or very soon after, the time humans arrived on the continent, and more than ten millennia earlier than any previous ground-edge axe discoveries.
The University of Sydney's Professor Peter Hiscock is the lead and corresponding author of a new analysis of the fragment published in the journal Australian Archaeology. He said the axe revealed that the first Australians were technological innovators.
"Since there are no known axes in Southeast Asia during the Ice Age, this discovery shows us that when humans arrived in Australia they began to experiment with new technologies, inventing ways to exploit the resources they encountered in the new Australian landscape," he said.
The axe fragment was initially excavated in the early 1990s by lead archaeologist Professor Sue O'Connor from the Australian National University (ANU)among a sequence of food scraps, tools, artwork and other artifacts from Carpenter's Gap, a large rock shelter known to be one of the first sites occupied by modern humans.
"Nowhere else in the world do you get axes at this date. In Japan such axes appear about 35,000 years ago. But in most countries in the world they arrive with agriculture after 10,000 years ago," Professor O'Connor said.
In 2014, as further study was being carried out on the objects dug out of the site, Professor Hiscock's team discovered a small fragment of a polished axe, recovered from the oldest levels of the site.
New studies of the fragment have revealed that it comes from an axe that had been shaped from basalt then polished by grinding it on another rock until it was very smooth.
The fragment came from the polished edge when it was later re-sharpened. The team believes the axe was most likely carried away to be used elsewhere, leaving the fragment behind.
"Polished stone axes were crucial tools in hunter-gatherer societies and were once the defining characteristic of the Neolithic phase of human life. But when were axes invented? This question has been pursued for decades, since archaeologists discovered that in Australia axes were older than in many other places. Now we have a discovery that appears to answer the question," said Professor Hiscock.
Professor O'Connor said evidence suggests the technology was developed in Australia after people arrived around 50,000 years ago. "We know that they didn't have axes where they came from. There are no axes in the islands to our north. They arrived in Australia and innovated axes," she said.
Professor Hiscock said the ground-edge axe technology specifically arose as the dispersing humans adapted to their new regional landscapes.
"Although humans spread across Australia, axe technology did not spread with them. Axes were only made in the tropical north, perhaps suggesting two different colonizing groups or that the technology was abandoned as people spread into desert and sub-topical woodlands," he said.
"These differences between northern Australia, where axes were always used, and southern Australia, where they were not, originated around the time of colonization and persisted until the last few thousand years when axes began to be made in most southern parts of mainland Australia."
The team's latest discoveries are published in this month's issue of the journal Australian Archaeology.
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Some adults learn a second language better than others, and their secret may involve the rhythms of activity in their brains.
New findings by scientists at the University of Washington demonstrate that a five-minute measurement of resting-state brain activity predicted how quickly adults learned a second language.
The study, published in the June-July issue of the journal Brain and Language, is the first to use patterns of resting-state brain rhythms to predict subsequent language learning rate.
"We've found that a characteristic of a person's brain at rest predicted 60 percent of the variability in their ability to learn a second language in adulthood," said lead author Chantel Prat, a faculty researcher at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences and a UW associate professor of psychology.
At the beginning of the experiment, volunteers -- 19 adults aged 18 to 31 years with no previous experience learning French -- sat with their eyes closed for five minutes while wearing a commercially available EEG (electroencephalogram) headset. The headset measured naturally occurring patterns of brain activity.
The participants came to the lab twice a week for eight weeks for 30-minute French lessons delivered through an immersive, virtual reality computer program. The U.S. Office of Naval Research -- who funded the current study -- also funded the development of the language training program.
The program, called Operational Language and Cultural Training System (OLCTS), aims to get military personnel functionally proficient in a foreign language with 20 hours of training. The self-paced program guides users through a series of scenes and stories. A voice-recognition component enables users to check their pronunciation.
Watch a video demonstration of the language software: https://youtu.be/piA6dMkBroQ
To ensure participants were paying attention, the researchers used periodic quizzes that required a minimum score before proceeding to the next lesson. The quizzes also served as a measure for how quickly each participant moved through the curriculum.
At the end of the eight-week language program, participants completed a proficiency test covering however many lessons they had finished. The fastest person learned twice as quickly but just as well as the slower learners.
The recordings from the EEG headsets revealed that patterns of brain activity related to language processes were linked the most strongly to the participants' rate of learning.
So, should people who don't have this biological predisposition not even try to learn a new language? Prat says no, for two reasons.
"First, our results show that 60 percent of the variability in second language learning was related to this brain pattern -- that leaves plenty of opportunity for important variables like motivation to influence learning," Prat said.
Second, Prat said it's possible to change resting-state brain activity using neurofeedback training -- something that she's studying now in her lab. Neurofeedback is a sort of brain training regimen, through which individuals can strengthen the brain activity patterns linked to better cognitive abilities.
"We're looking at properties of brain function that are related to being ready to learn well. Our goal is to use this research in combination with technologies such as neurofeedback training to help everyone perform at their best," she said.
Ultimately, neurofeedback training could help people who want to learn a second language but lack the desirable brain patterns. They'd do brain training exercises first, and then do the language program.
"By studying individual differences in the brain, we're figuring out key constraints on learning and information processing, in hopes of developing ways to improve language learning, and eventually, learning more generally," Prat said.
###
Co-authors of the study are Brianna Yamasaki, Reina Kluender and Andrea Stocco -- all at UW.
For more information, contact Prat at 206-685-8610 or csprat@uw.edu.
The study is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X15300833
Heres a segment of HBOs Last Week Tonight with British comedian John Oliver that satirizes the shortcomings of science studies and science coverage in the media. Its smart and funny, like everything he does, though not family friendly; there are the multiple required off-color gross-out moments. In case you are bothered by that sort of thing, be warned.
He hits some rich targets but theres a curioussafeness about the satirizing. Roasting other subjects and individuals, Oliver goes for the jugular. Not so when it comes to scientists, despite shots at p-hacking, baseless extrapolations from mice to men, and absurdly overblown or misrepresented studies.
In fact, at least as it comes across to me, behind the jabs is a defensiveness in relation to the unsullied virtue of the maiden goddess, Science. Hes angrier, in a comic way, with media airheads and their abuse of the work of good and serious scientists than he is at scientists and others who abuse science, and the publics trust, by practicing scientism. In fact, of the latter the habit of giving science as the answer to every question Im not sure he offers evidence of being aware.
Now a satirical take that looked deeply at some of the unexamined prejudices in, say, evolutionary biology that we consider here would be pretty outrageous. Seeing the voraciously well informed John Oliver apply his wit to that would be priceless. Maybe too serious to be funny, though.
Ive been writing (here and here) about a newly published law review article by Casey Luskin, Darwins Poisoned Tree: Atheistic Advocacy and the Constitutionality of Teaching Evolution in Public Schools. Luskin examines the way courts have struck down the teaching of alternatives to evolution due to historical associations with religion, even as they ignore anti-religious historical associations with Darwinism. He argues that religious associations of scientific views on origins should not be constitutionally fatal, but rather should be considered an incidental effect.
Luskin proposes a sound method for evaluating the constitutionality of teaching origins science. Lets consider that method now. He notes:
Unfortunately, courts often apply a double standard when assessing the constitutionality of teaching non-evolutionary viewpoints of biological origins by taking criteria considered only applicable to secondary effects and treating those criteria as if they indicate primary effects. In such cases, courts ignore the scientific content of the non-evolutionary viewpoint and convert the (a) religious motives of proponents; (b) religious views of proponents; (c) religious implications of the concept; or (d) other religious associations (whether via people or groups, like fundamentalist Christians) connected to advocacy of that viewpoint, into primary effects. Thus, when non-evolutionary viewpoints are found to have a close historical relationship to religious advocacy, courts claim that there is a primary effect that advances religion, and the teaching of the viewpoint is ruled unconstitutional. But given that evolution is commonly found in close association with anti-religious advocacy, courts that will apply the law fairly and eschew double standards have two choices: (1) Declare the teaching of evolution unconstitutional. (2) Recognize that (a)-(d) represent secondary or incidental effects and thus are irrelevant to determining if a concept is constitutional for teaching in science classrooms. This applies whether the concept is the scientific theory evolution, or some non-evolutionary scientific viewpoint.
Under a fair analysis, associations between evolution and anti-religious advocacy could create a public perception of government preference for non-religion, and cause some religious people to feel like political outsiders. Hence, the double standard: evolution is not subjected to a critical analysis of historical religious or anti-religious associations, while non-evolutionary theories are removed from classrooms on that basis.
What is the solution? Luskin is very clear: It is not choice 1, i.e., removing evolution from schools. Luskin (like Discovery Institute) vigorously opposes having evolution declared unconstitutional or removing it from the classroom. Shall we say this a third time? Fine, lest anyone misunderstand:
[T]he solution is not to declare evolution unconstitutional, as that would overturn decades of legal precedent holding that teaching evolution is legal and harm student learning. [T]eaching evolution is good pedagogy because neo-Darwinism has been tremendously influential in modern biology. Excluding a scientific viewpoint from classrooms simply because of the religious (or anti-religious) advocacy of its proponents is not only bad law, it would harm science education.
Luskin anticipates that some critics might try to misrepresent his viewpoint. However, the goal of the article is simply to encourage reform in legal tests used to analyze the constitutionality of teaching viewpoints on origins. In fact, Luskin argues that the legal tests he is advocating are the best way to save evolution from being declared unconstitutional under current misguided law. Because critics habitually distort, he emphasizes the need for clarity:
Preemptive Clarification Many have tried to equate the teaching of evolution with advocating atheism or secular humanism in attempts to bar evolution from the classroom Having evolution declared unconstitutional to teach in public schools is neither my desire nor the necessary result of my argument. Though I am a scientific skeptic of neo-Darwinian evolution, I firmly believe that it can be formulated as a scientific theory and that teaching evolution in public school science classrooms should remain constitutional. Unlike some critics of evolution, I do not believe evolution is a religion. Additionally, from the outset I must recognize that many religious persons, indeed many devout Christians who are scientists, claim to find no conflict between evolution and their religious views. Though a huge proportion of Darwinians are atheists or secular humanists, many are not. Therefore, I am not arguing that all evolutionary scientists are atheists who preach an anti-religious message, nor am I arguing that acceptance of neo-Darwinian theory mandates belief in atheism or abandonment of traditional theism. My purpose in this present article is not to enter the debate about the correct relationship between neo-Darwinian evolution and religion. Rather, this article aims to review how leading advocates of evolution have promoted their views alongside anti-religious activism in a way which, under current legal tests, could be perceived as inhibiting, denigrating, or actively opposing religion, and endorsing anti-religious viewpoints. Any fair analysis must conclude that under current law, the anti-religious activities and rhetoric associated with the advocacy of evolution threatens the teaching of evolution in public schools. The [ultimate] problem, however, is not with the scientific theory of evolution or the activities and activism of its advocates, but rather with the current legal tests that are used to assess whether a concept is constitutional to teach in public schools. My aim is to expose a deficiency in some current legal tests that could disbar the teaching of evolution and propose new tests whereby the teaching of evolution in public schools can be safely justified. Many might wish to dismiss the anti-religious activism associated with the advocacy of evolution as constitutionally irrelevant. However, pro-religious activism associated with opposition to evolution has long been cited to prevent public schools from teaching non-evolutionary views. If evolution is associated with anti-religious activism, this must factor into constitutional analyses. Jurists who appreciate that justice is blind and that the law must be applied fairly will agree that current legal tests striking down such non-evolutionary views could similarly jeopardize the teaching of evolution.
He summarizes his argument:
If the public is aware of the close historical association between the advocacy of evolution and anti-religious activism, then the teaching of evolution may make many religious Americans feel like political outsiders. Despite the fact that many scientific organizations and some influential religious organizations officially support compatibility between evolution and religion, widely known anti-religious activism associated with evolution could also poison the tree from which evolution-education falls. The past ten years have seen the rise of a vocal group of new atheists who vehemently maintain that evolution refutes religious belief. But the arguments of new atheists are hardly new such arguments have been widespread and widely known throughout society since the time of Darwin. Given such an historical association between evolution and anti-religious activism, current tests for assessing the constitutionality of teaching theories of biological origins, when applied fairly, could conceivably render the teaching of evolution unconstitutional. There are good reasons to expect that such an unwanted outcome can be avoided. Science stands or falls on the evidence. Evolution is a legitimate scientific theory that public schools should be able to teach. The personal religious (or anti-religious) beliefs, motives, affiliations, and even activism of evolutionary scientists do not determine whether their views about evolution are scientific, or scientifically correct. In keeping with this principle, some legal tests for interpreting the Establishment Clause avoid committing the genetic fallacy, and appreciate that historical connections between a particular viewpoint and religious (or anti-religious) advocacy are secondary to determining whether that viewpoint actually is scientific. Legitimate scientific theories like evolution should not be disbarred from science classrooms simply because of the religious (or anti-religious) views and activism of their proponents. Therefore, in order to preserve the teaching of evolution, it may be necessary to revise legal tests that are applied to assess the constitutionality of teaching biological origins. To put it bluntly, if evolution is to continue to be taught in public schools, courts must abandon inquiries which look at the historical associations between a viewpoint on origins and religion (or non-religion).
Thankfully, there are good legal bases for abandoning such tests. Legal tests that scrutinize the historical associations of scientific theories with religion or non-religion are flawed because they dont ask whether the primary effect of teaching a viewpoint on origins is to advance scientific knowledge. Rather, historical associations with religion should be considered an incidental effect of teaching a scientific theory. An incidental effect is a byproduct of the statute, but does not affect constitutionality. Luskin further describes whats meant by an incidental effect:
State action that results in an indirect or secondary benefit (or harm) to religion is thus not unconstitutional. In Agostini v. Felton, the Court added that it is not the magnitude of the benefit that matters; the question is whether the effects/benefits of a policy provided are direct or merely a consequence of implementing a religiously neutral or secular principle. Such reasoning has been used to uphold many programs which may have resulted in incidental benefits to religion but were implemented generally without regard to the sectarian-nonsectarian, or public-nonpublic nature of the institution benefited under criteria that are in no way skewed towards religion. [Luskin quotes Witters v. Washington Dept of Servs. for the Blind.]
Indeed, some courts have already applied such reasoning in contexts relating to origins science. In Crowley v. Smithsonian Institution, a federal district court found thatthat evolutionary exhibits at the Smithsonian had not established secular humanism because the impact [on religion] is at most incidental to the primary effect of presenting a body of scientific knowledge.'
Luskin concludes by asking, if his preferred approach for testing constitutionality were to be more widely adopted, what would the implications be for teaching intelligent design? Like Discovery Institute, Mr. Luskin opposes mandating ID in public school curricula. But he is here addressing a different question. Instead of discounting intelligent design simply because of its supposed historical associations with religion, Luskin argues, jurists would be forced to examine the constitutionality of teaching ID. He concludes:
As discussed, courts must not strike down the teaching of evolution, and thus option (2) is the only viable solution for preserving the integrity of science education. Yet this option implies that courts can no longer objectively consider historical associations of non-evolutionary viewpoints with religious activism when assessing the constitutionality of teaching non-evolutionary scientific viewpoints. Indeed, such an approach would defeat common arguments against the constitutionality of teaching intelligent design in public schools.
Luskin seeks to restore consistency to the law while saving evolution from a little-recognized trap. Since historical associations with religion have been a primary legal argument against teaching intelligent design, his approach, if accepted, would seem to clear the way for recognizing the constitutionality of teaching ID in public schools.
Before critics rush in to claim Luskin is saying something hes not, let us recapitulate. His article is not arguing that evolution should be unconstitutional to teach in public schools or that it should not be taught. Quite the contrary, hes arguing that current legal tests are flawed precisely because, if they were applied fairly, they would prevent schools from teaching scientific theories like evolution.
Moreover, the argument of his article says nothing about the wisdom or advisability of teaching ID, but simply about its constitutionality. In education as in many other areas of life, something can be legal without necessarily being a good idea (see our Science Education Policy). Indeed, many bad ideas are perfectly legal. Those are different things, lets not forget.
Image credit: eurobanks stock.adobe.com.
Outside magazine's Best Town Ever contest is down to the final eight, and Billings has made the cut.
Outside's criteria? "Places with great access to trails and public lands, thriving restaurants and neighborhoods, and, of course, a good beer scene."
Billings made the list when Outside editors asked the magazine's Instagram followers to nominate their favorite towns. They chose Billings; Imperial Beach, Calif.; Mammoth Lakes, Calif.; and Grand Marais, Minn.
The Magic City has so far beat out Livingston; Leavenworth, Wash.; and Boise, Idaho.
Here's how to vote for Billings: Click here and scroll down to the "vote here" section. The contest is organized by type of town river, culture, beach and mountain.
First you will need Educational Credential Evaluation (like from WES).
Secondly, the next step will be determined by the province you are moving to.
Come see Bernie Sanders on Wednesday in Billings, and vote for him on/before June 7!
Bernie is the only candidate we can trust to protect Montana from three disastrous corporate-written/rigged trade treaties: Transpacific Partnership, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and Trade in Service Agreement each worse than NAFTA!
Montana is in the cross hairs of greedy multinational corporations who want to swoop in to pillage our massive natural resources. Under the Transpacific Partnership, every inch of Montana would be vulnerable. Any laws the corporations deem barriers to trade (i.e. Save Our Smith river from mining, protected lands, Buy Montana, labor protections), could result in Montana being sued for future profit losses. (Learn more at Expose the TPP, Flush the TPP and #StopTPP.)
Secretary Clinton was an architect and major marketer of the TPP, calling it the gold standard 45 times. The president of the National Chamber of Commerce, the Kochs and other TPP pushers seem confident Hillary would pass these deals, no matter what she claims now.
Please watch Youve Been Trumped on YouTube.
Then, rally with Bernie on May 11 at the Metra Montana Pavilion (doors open at 5 p.m.) Remember (via Facebook and gmail): Montana Women Love Bernie Sanders!
Shannon Kennedy-Kahler
Billings
Gardiners population of less than 900 will swell considerably this summer when a crowd gathers to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service on Aug. 25.
Were setting the stage for the second century, said Bill Berg, a Gardiner resident and businessman involved in the celebration.
The town that sits tight on Yellowstone National Parks northern border is even being gussied up for the affair, part of a $16.5 million project to turn the stone Roosevelt Arch into a pedestrian-only area, create more parking for visitors and build a visitor center. The arch gets its name from former President Theodore Roosevelt who dedicated the structure in 1903.
Last year was a whole lot of digging and disruption, Berg said. Phase One will be wrapped up by Aug. 25.
That includes the installation of a small stage in Arch Park where musicians Emmylou Harris and John Prine are scheduled to give a free concert on Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. Berg predicts attendance at the event will top 5,000. The concert will be streamed live online to widen its reach.
This very special event will kick off the second century for the National Park Service, highlight the importance of public/private partnerships, and recognize the completion of the Gardiner Gateway Project Phase One, said Dan Wenk, Yellowstone National Park superintendent, in a press release.
The concert will also include Leyla McCalla, the childrens chorus The Singing Angels from Cleveland, Ohio, and Teddy Roosevelt reenactor, Joe Wiegand, with more performances and details to be announced. Local, state, and national dignitaries will also speak at the event.
The venue is limited so were trying to manage expectations while doing the best to have a meaningful event, Berg said.
Theres more news coming, too, he added, although Berg declined to give any hints. Last year, however, he made it clear that hed like President Barack Obama to attend the festivities, but wouldnt confirm that was the next announcement.
All of the work is a considerable upgrade from the access available when Yellowstone was named the first national park in 1872. Back then only a trail suitable for saddle and pack trains ... provided some visitors and supplies access to the Mammoth Hot Springs area from Gardiner, according to the environmental assessment completed for the work. In 1884, Army Corp of Engineers Lt. Dan Kingman constructed a new (and the current) alignment between the town of Gardiner and the park headquarters at Mammoth Hot Springs. But it was not until the construction of the Roosevelt Arch in 1903 that the road was constructed from the vicinity of the current North Entrance Station to the Roosevelt Arch.
Because traffic into the park was originally routed through the Roosevelt Arch, a hairpin curve drivers had to negotiate on Park Street in Gardiner to drive through the arch meant traffic would often get backed up as tourists stopped to take photographs. With the redesign, that wont be a problem.
Last year, almost 65,000 vehicles passed through the North Entrance at Gardiner just in July, the busiest month of a year that set a new record high for visitation more than 4 million tourists. Many predict that if gas prices remain low and with all of the interest in Yellowstone generated by the Park Service centennial, that visitation could be even higher this year.
Advance tickets for the concert are required. Tickets are free, but limited. The first tickets were released on May 15. Additional ticket releases will occur on June 15 and July 15 at https://www.ticketriver.com/event/19359.
No alcohol, coolers, umbrellas, or dogs will be allowed at the celebration. For more information, visit https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/evening-arch.htm.
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Mario Hernandez is still at his job until June 30, and his replacement still is being sought, but the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation president drew a distinguished audience Monday to mark his 26 years in the post.
About 200 people, nearly all of them city business leaders, gathered at La Cantera Hill Country Resort to say goodbye to Hernandez, who announced his retirement last November.
I want to thank you for letting me have the best economic development job in the country, Hernandez said, sparking a standing ovation.
None of the luncheon speakers provided an update to the audience about the search for Hernandez successor. But before the event, Wayne Peacock, a USAA executive who is the foundations chairman, said the national search for a new foundation president is still in the stage of interviewing first-round candidates.
Peacock declined to say how many candidates were seeking the position or to give a date when a successor would be announced. But he said the number will be reduced to two or three finalists for the next round of interviews.
Were working as diligently as possible, Peacock said. Im committed to getting the right leader, as opposed to going fast.
The foundation has worked to attract business investments and jobs to the city since 1974, when it was started by the late USAA Chairman Robert McDermott. Hernandez has headed the organizations staff for more than half of the foundations existence, building up statistics along the way.
Several speakers highlighted the accomplishments. Since Hernandez rose to president in 1990, after joining the foundation staff in 1984, the organization has recruited or helped expand 422 companies, creating 97,124 jobs, according to foundation records.
The University of Texas at San Antonios Institute for Economic Development calculated that during the last 10 years, the business investments secured with the help of the foundation led to a ripple effect of $15.8 billion and a decades combined payroll of $4.1 billion.
Among the list of companies that have expanded to or relocated operations to San Antonio since 1990 include Toyota Motor Corp., Medtronic, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., Accenture, Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Texas Cryptologic Center, Citigroup Inc., the Capital Group, Johnson Controls and Boeing Co.
It would be easy to cite Toyota as the crowning jewel of my career, and it was, Hernandez said. But seeing the change in the community and what the jobs have meant to individuals and their families was a tremendous reward.
Hernandez recalled being asked in the mid-1990s to visit a Sears catalog center, which had opened with the foundations help, to see a puppet show put on by employees depicting the facilitys story. The employees who put on the show later spoke with Hernandez, he said, about what their jobs meant to them. Many had been on welfare and hadnt been able to find a job otherwise.
Thats what economic development means at the individual and family level, Hernandez said.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff talked about Hernandezs legacy.
Wolff recalled that the 2002-03 process that brought a Toyota assembly plant to San Antonio also changed the way that Texas as a whole pursued business investments. During Toyotas site-selection process, Texas could only offer job-training assistance; but after landing the Toyota plant, the Texas Legislature started a cash incentive program called the Texas Enterprise Fund.
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In 2010, Hernandez guided the foundation through a transition of becoming funded by the city of San Antonio and Bexar County in addition to its previous source of funding, private-sector companies and utility donations, Wolff recalled. The city and county funding contracts called for another fundamental change, adding retention and expansion of existing San Antonio companies to its role of recruiting outside companies to relocate or expand to the city.
That was not an easy thing to do, Wolff said of the 2010 changes, but its been a great success.
Written tributes from Gov. Greg Abbott and Mayor Ivy Taylor, who did not attend, were read to the luncheon audience. Other speakers included former foundation Chairmen Palmer Moe, Joe McKinney and Steve Waters, along with Carlton Schwab, CEO and president of the statewide Texas Economic Development Council based in Austin.
This city will have a hard time finding someone who will build a record as good as Mario Hernandez did, City Councilman Joe Krier said after the event. We should not assume someone will step into the job with 26 years of wisdom and experience.
dhendricks@express-news.net
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H-E-B customers in most of San Antonio finally will be able to get their groceries delivered to their homes.
The San Antonio-based grocery chain is partnering with mobile apps Instacart and Shipt to begin grocery deliveries in the Alamo City starting this month, H-E-B announced. The company has been expanding its online presence over the last few years since November, it has made 50,000 products available on its website for shipment in Texas and to 48 other states and U.S. military bases worldwide.
Instacart will launch in San Antonio on Thursday while Shipt will start on May 25, according to H-E-B. The companies use employees and independent contractors to buy and deliver groceries requested by users on their smartphones or Internet browsers. Instacart began delivering H-E-B groceries in Austin and Houston in 2014.
San Antonio has a lot of the right demographics for this kind of service, including its relatively young population, said Bill Smith, founder and CEO of Shipt. Weve also had a lot of demand there.
Shipts coverage area will span downtown and most near-downtown neighborhoods, as well as nearly all of the North Side. Smith said the coverage is based on demand and will likely expand. Instacart will offer service to large swaths of the central North Side and the Northeast Side, but not in downtown or farther south.
Users of Instacart will be able to order alcoholic beverages for delivery, spokeswoman Camille Swope said in an email. Smith said alcoholic beverages wont be available on Shipt while the company examines state regulations.
Partnerships with companies like Shipt and Instacart allow us to offer a shopping experience to fit the needs of our customers looking for time-saving solutions, Greg Souquette, senior vice president and general manager of San Antonio operations at H-E-B, said in a news release.
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Along with H-E-B, Instacart will make deliveries of items from Costco, Whole Foods Market, Total Wine & More and Specs Wine, Spirits and Finer Foods. Both companies will deliver from H-E-Bs Central Market stores.
H-E-Bs chief rival, Walmart, has also been expanding its online presence in San Antonio. Last fall, it began a service that allows customers to place orders online and have them delivered to their cars at some local stores.
Last year, H-E-B retooled its website for online shopping and created its own app, which allows customers to make shopping lists and locate items in stores.
rwebner@express-news.net
@rwebner
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H-E-B drastically grew its e-commerce operation Thursday, making 50,000 products available on its website for shipment in Texas and to 46 other states and U.S. military bases worldwide.
The expansion marks H-E-Bs entry into the online shipping business. Previously, customers in most areas only could buy items online for pickup at stores participating in an online ordering program. They also offered home delivery from some of its pharmacies.
The products available for shipment include H-E-B brands such as its chips, salsas and sodas, as well as items ranging from flat-screen televisions to the Monopoly board game and Snuggle laundry detergent. Customers can order Texas brands that were available before only in H-E-B stores, such as Whataburgers line of products and Franklin Barbecue Sauce. Perishable foods arent available.
Weve been receiving calls for decades from Texans around the country who miss their favorite foods from home, Martin Otto, the companys chief financial officer and chief merchant, said in a news release. Now, even if you move outside of Texas, youll still have a neighborhood H-E-B just a click away.
H-E-B fans greeted the news on Facebook after the company posted a photograph of members of the military opening a package of its products. The company made shipments to military bases in honor of Veterans Day.
This is great news. We have a group of misplaced Texans here in Georgia and we always send shopping lists with whoever visits Texas, said Facebook user Meriah Wail. On the upside we are just two months from moving back to Texas and I'm moving into HEB when I get there.
The service isnt available in California, Alaska and Hawaii except for military bases in those states according to the release. Alaska and Hawaii arent part of the service because theyre outside the continental U.S., while California has really specific laws regarding the shipment of food, H-E-B spokeswoman Dya Campos said.
Customer orders are delivered using standard shipping, with fees averaging $5 to $10 per order, according to the news release. Prices are the same as in H-E-B stores, the release says, but minimum orders are required for some products.
H-E-B is no stranger to e-commerce. Last year, it began delivering groceries in the Austin and Houston areas through Instacart, a website and mobile app. It retooled its website for online shopping this spring and created its own app, which allows customers to make shopping lists and locate items in stores.
The company offers deliveries from in-store pharmacies at about 100 of its stores in San Antonio and South Texas, and allows customers to order deli items and custom-designed floral arrangements online for pickup at some stores.
Amazon and Walmart the other giants in the San Antonio retail scene also expanded their local e-commerce operations lately. Walmart announced last month it will allow customers to place orders online and have them delivered to their cars outside five local stores, four of which are across from competing H-E-B stores.
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Amazon is bringing its Prime Now one-hour delivery service to San Antonio, and its building a 193,265-square-foot facility on the West Side to cut delivery times. Its working on a fulfillment center in San Marcos. It already has a fulfillment center in Schertz.
David Livingston, a supermarket analyst with DJL Research, said many regional grocery chains offer something similar to the expanded online service H-E-B announced Thursday.
Its not a profit center for them, he said. "Its something for the convenience of the customer."
rwebner@express-news.net
@rwebner
Express-News archives contributed to this report.
Mexican drug cartels operating in the U.S. have a problem: getting the profits home. Sometimes they try sending cash through banks, but thats grown difficult as the government forces financial institutions to beef up anti-money-laundering efforts. So at least one international organization reportedly moved its money on a river of molten gold.
The Sinaloa cartel, once led by serial prison escapee Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, used some of its proceeds from selling drugs in the U.S. to buy gold in pawn shops, according to allegations in court records. It shipped more than $98 million in gold to a Florida company that had it melted down and sold for cash. Then the cartel used fake invoices to justify sending the proceeds to a company in Mexico.
Court documents, plus interviews with people familiar with the alleged scheme, paint an unusually detailed picture of how gold can be used to hide an illicit money transfer.
If I had a lot of money to launder, I would choose gold, says John Cassara, a former U.S. Treasury special agent and author of books on money laundering. There really isnt anything else like it out there.
Some of the factors making it an attractive option are: Once its melted down, the commoditys origins are difficult to trace; it can quickly be converted to cash; and many of the companies that deal in gold arent held to the same compliance standards as banks.
Part of the suspected money laundering operation is laid out in documents from a federal court case in Chicago. People including alleged Sinaloa member Carlos Parra-Pedroza, whos among those facing charges, are accused of arranging for couriers to collect drug proceeds and then buy up gold bars and scrap pieces from jewelry stores and businesses in the Chicago area.
Parra-Pedroza has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney didnt respond to requests for comment. According to the Chicago documents, members of the group shipped the gold via FedEx to an unnamed company in Florida to be melted down for cash.
Between 2011 and 2014, the Chicago complaint says, the company allegedly took in hundreds of boxes sent from the cartel, which used aliases such as Chicago Gold or Shopping Silver. The Florida company collected a commission of 1 percent, then forwarded the remaining money to a company in Mexico owned by Parra-Pedroza and called De Mexico British Metal, court documents allege. The records also say falsified paperwork made it look as though De Mexico British Metal sold the gold to the unnamed Florida company, helping to make the transactions appear legitimate.
That unnamed company, say two people familiar with the matter, was Natalie Jewelry, which was the subject of a separate case in federal court in Florida. The trail that led U.S. authorities to the company began with a modest question, says one of the people who knows the case.
Lou Bock, a retired agent for the Department of Homeland Security, says U.S. Customs records posed a conundrum: Theres just way too much gold going through Miami, he says. He prodded his former agency to look into the uptick, which was suspicious, he believed, because virtually no jewelry is made in Miami.
In January 2014, based on Customs reports showing discrepancies between the volume and value of gold processed by the company, federal agents converged on Natalie Jewelrys office in an industrial park just north of Miami. They seized cash and hundreds of kilograms of gold and silver. The agents had uncovered a tax-evasion scheme, according to two of the sources. Natalie Jewelrys records revealed money-laundering links to drug rings including the Sinaloa cartel, the people say.
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Natalie Jewelry owners Jed and Natalie Ladin had set up an office for their company in Mexico City, court documents in the Florida case show. Natalie Jewelry would actually sell the gold it received to other companies, known as refineries. Refiners collect their own commission when they melt down scrap gold, then send proceeds back to the gold trader.
The Ladins pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money on behalf of a separate Mexican drug dealer. They havent been charged with laundering funds for the Sinaloa cartel. Jed, who was sentenced to three years in prison, declined to be interviewed. Natalie was sentenced to time served and supervised release; she also declined an interview request, through her lawyer.
There was a bizarre incident during the Miami bust. With cars flashing blue lights and a SWAT team in front of the warehouse, a black sedan pulled up. A man got out, popped the trunk, pulled out a briefcase, and walked toward Natalie Jewelrys door, a person who was at the scene says.
I just need to drop off this gold and get a receipt, the man was heard to say. I need a receipt. The man walked into the Natalie Jewelry office and dropped off the briefcase, which was full of gold. If he was a cartel courier, his insistence on documentation may be understandable: On surreptitious recordings, Parra-Pedroza described one courier who admitted losing money, after claiming it was seized by authorities. I think they even cut his fingers off, he said.
The man in Florida left with his receipt.
Sumner Redstone won his fight to be rid of a former girlfriend as a Los Angeles probate judge threw out her lawsuit alleging the 92-year-old media billionaire was mentally incompetent.
The ruling ends the case on the second day of a trial but may not avoid a further public airing of the infighting among the Redstone family, some of his former girlfriends, and the nurses who take care of the former Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. chairman. Within minutes of Mondays ruling, Redstones former lover sued Redstones daughter, Shari, her two sons and members of his household staff over claims they interfered with her expected inheritance.
The trial opened Friday with Redstones videotaped testimony in which he used expletives to describe his ex-girlfriend, Manuela Herzer, and said he wanted her out of his life. While the recording confirmed Redstone was in frail health and required help speaking, his wish for Herzer to have no role in his health care decisions was clear.
Redstones testimony has ultimately defeated her case, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Cowan said Monday in his ruling. Though Herzer may have believed that Redstone would not be able to say anything, or be able to understand the questions, he did both.
Cowan said there were no legal grounds for him not to follow his stated wishes.
Herzer made her next step in the fight clear with her new lawsuit in Los Angeles state court. Redstone cut Herzer out of his will last year when he also removed her as his health care agent, the person to make decisions for him when he is no longer able. Herzer seeks at least $70 million in her lawsuit.
The abrupt end of the trial lessens the chance that trustees of Redstones estate will step in for the time being. He owns majority voting rights through National Amusements Inc. and were he declared incompetent by the judge, that could have set in motion a chain of events that would shift control of that company to seven trustees, among them Shari Redstone and Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman.
Ms. Herzer bet wrong when she assumed that Mr. Redstones difficulty communicating would result in her reinstatement in his life and fortune, Robert N. Klieger, one of Redstones lawyers, said in a statement.
Redstone will seek to recover money that he lavished on Herzer and another ex-girlfriend. Klieger said. Mr. Redstone is looking forward to liberating the $150 million in gifts to Ms. Herzer and her friend, he said.
Pierce ODonnell, Herzers lawyer, said he will appeal Mondays decision.
Herzer filed a petition in November to have Redstone declared incompetent and have her reinstated as his health care proxy. Redstones lawyers accused her of being more concerned about being removed from his will, which would have left her $50 million and his Los Angeles mansion in the Beverly Park neighborhood valued at $20 million.
Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Herzer, who describes herself as Redstones longtime friend, companion and caretaker, had lived with him since April 2013, together with then-girlfriend Sydney Holland. Herzer dated Redstone from 1999 to 2001, according to her petition. Redstones mental health declined rapidly after he broke off with Holland in August, according to Herzer.
Trial witnesses would have included Dauman, who was named Redstones health care agent in October, and Shari Redstone, with whom the media mogul has had a rocky relationship. This year, she replaced Dauman as her fathers health care agent.
Herzer claimed Redstone was being manipulated by the people around him when he kicked her out and that he had become a prisoner in his own home. She said Redstone had become a living ghost.
Shari Redstone countered that her fathers health has improved since Herzer was out of his life. Keryn Redstone, the daughter of Redstones estranged son Brent, joined in the case to support Herzer, arguing that the tempestuous and difficult relationship between her grandfather and her aunt necessitated that he be put under court protection.
I am grateful to the court for putting an end to this long ordeal, Shari Redstone said in a statement. I am so happy for my father that he can now live his life in peace, surrounded by his friends and family.
Sarah Jacobson, 33, tried for years to find a partner so she wouldnt die alone, my body devoured by my pet cat.
At 28, Hillary Kline was feeling like an old maid.
But at some point, both decided that they preferred being single.
Have a problem with that? They dont. They are part of an emerging demographic of women happily pursuing the solo life into their late 20s and mid-30s and loving it.
Its a far cry from prior decades, when marriage bought women a pass from one family home to another. Vows were a ticket to economic stability not easily attained by an untethered woman, and above all, it was what society demanded.
Even as feminism took root, women were largely expected to jump into a lifelong contract with someone of the opposite sex while still in the throes of youth. If they didnt, they were ridiculed, called spinsters, or made to feel as if their time was running out. (Remember the offensive trope in the 1980s that women over 40 are more likely to be killed by terrorists than get hitched?)
Young women today are reclaiming singlehood as a point of pride, not shame. They are marrying later or not at all. And they are doing it in shocking numbers, changing the course of modern dating and relationships.
More Information By the numbers Median age at first marriage: 1960: Women, 20.3; men, 22.8 2015: Women, 27.1; men, 29.2 U.S. women ages 25 to 34, never married: 2005: 33.6 percent 2014: 46.3 percent See More Collapse
The speed at which the change is happening is remarkable, said Susan Brower, Minnesotas state demographer.
The road to remaining single differs for everyone. Some women, faced with all the opportunities once withheld from their mothers and grandmothers, fall in love with their careers first. In an era where women can own property, launch businesses, even have children without relying on a man, some see dating and marriage as unnecessary.
Some are casualties of modern digital romance, which offers more brief encounters than lifelong bonds. Some see the high divorce rate as a warning sign. Some just arent interested. Thats not to say they wont be one day, but they are perfectly happy taking the tortoises pace in the race to the altar.
I pretty much accept that Im going to be a late bloomer in life, said Kline, a public relations specialist from Minnetonka, Minnesota. I want to travel, I want to one day live overseas and I cant really do that if Im married and tied down and having kids and all that jazz.
Kline tried dating but found that her ambition limited her pool of candidates. Men have called her intimidating, focused, put together. Shell take those as compliments. Im just surrounding myself with things I enjoy, she said. Its not a death sentence.
A seismic shift
The recent demographic shift has been monumental.
Ten years ago, one in three women ages 25 to 34 had never been married. Today, its more like half. And while it was expected in 1960 that women got married around age 20, today most women wait another seven years before saying I do.
That gives them nearly a decade more independence than their mothers had. (The median age of first marriage for men has also risen recently, but men have always been more likely than women to remain unmarried.)
Its the world that unmarried suffragist Susan B. Anthony foretold in 1877 when she spoke of an impending epoch of single women forged by true gender equality.
Higher educational attainment, economic concerns and increased acceptability of cohabitation and childbearing outside of marriage have all been contributing factors for womens rising marriage delay, said Brower, the state demographer. Those trends are pretty powerful and theyre at work.
Plus, Americans attitude toward marriage is ambivalent. According to a Pew study, 46 percent of Americans say its better for society if marriage and children are a priority; 50 percent say society is just as well off without such a priority. There is a mixed assessment of marriage as an ideal, Brower said.
But society hasnt totally caught up with all the women who choose to be single at least not yet.
A lot of forces conspire, often unconsciously, to tell people who are unmarried that aspiring to marriage is the solution to making them unlonely, said Rebecca Traister, a journalist whose provocative new book, All the Single Ladies, looks at the rise of unmarried women in the United States.
Still, Traister said there is pushback against negative stereotypes that have long plagued unmarried women.
Indeed, the idea of spinsterhood is being reclaimed in popular culture as the ranks of single women have risen to rival those who have tied the knot. In her 2015 book Spinster: Making a Life of Ones Own, Kate Bolick refers to her attraction to solitude as her spinster wish. Empowering listicles, like 31 Famous Unmarried People Who Prove That Being Single Is Badass, regularly make the rounds on social media.
As (being single) becomes more of a mass behavior, all the messages in the world cant undo something that is becoming the norm to exist independently socially, economically and sexually, to not be tethered to a spouse, Traister said. Its altering our perception of what adulthood means.
Alone, not lonely
Jacobson is among the growing number of women who would rather take her chances on happiness without the old ball and chain weighing her down.
She spent her 20s and early 30s trying desperately, she says to find a soulmate. Inevitably, every relationship wound up disappointing her. There were too many expectations, too many commitments.
Its when the relationships start becoming more serious and encroach on my personal life that I start getting really irritated and really frustrated, she said. It took me a while to realize I dont want to share my life with another person. I want to be a part of other peoples lives, but I dont want to be the main focus. Friends and family, she says, are enough.
I had to come to the conclusion that its OK to be that selfish.
Figuring that out wasnt easy. Jacobson, a transit control dispatcher from north Minneapolis, grew up believing in the fairy tale wedding and a marriage like her parents, who are going on 40 years together. That typical dream women are supposed to have faded away very, very slowly, she said, and at some points, it was difficult to get rid of.
Going solo is something many people still dont understand. Once, when an unmarried colleague in his 50s referred to himself a bachelor, Jacobson replied that she is a bachelor, too. No, he told her, you cant be a bachelor.
Still, she considers herself lucky to have come of age when attitudes about marriage are changing. Were she born decades ago, I would either have to be a nun, a spinster, or perhaps an abolitionist, she said. I dont know if I would ever have come to this conclusion living outside of this age.
CieJay Hanson, a 31-year-old single mother from Plymouth, Minnesota, says it took her last relationship with a verbally abusive boyfriend to make her see the light and stop pining for a partner. At my age, Im just not going to settle in the hopes of working towards changing someone, she said. And Im not going to change me now.
Previously, she described herself as a serial monogamist. She wanted to marry her high school boyfriend, then her college boyfriend, and get a house in the suburbs. Instead, she lives in the suburbs with her parents.
Hanson still dates, but shes done making plans for the future.
If I get married, awesome, she said. If I dont awesome.
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Mark Eads was days away from taking over as superintendent of the Southside Independent School District when he learned the Texas Education Agency had opened an accreditation investigation into the small, struggling district on the southern edge of Bexar County.
When Eads heard of the investigation, he said he swallowed hard but didnt rethink his job offer.
The next option is to cooperate with them and make sure that we provide them all the information they need, Eads said. Then theyll do their determination, the outcome of it, and well move forward.
Eads, 54, began his tenure as superintendent Monday five years to the day after his first day as superintendent of San Marcos Consolidated ISD, where he made a name for himself two years ago as a finalist for Texas superintendent of the year.
Eads said he was well aware of the controversies dogging Southside ISD in the past several years, but wanted the job in spite of them, or perhaps even because of them. He is the first person in his family to earn a college degree and said his familys missionary work has inspired him to work in underserved communities.
Our community does not have the image it deserves, he said. Our kids are great kids and conflict that theyve faced for several years is not fair to them, and I plan on changing that.
Eads wants to start by filling critical, long-vacant positions, such as principal of the districts only comprehensive high school and two assistant superintendents: one for curriculum and instruction, the other for finance and operations.
At least one of the complaints that prompted the TEAs investigation concerned allegations of nepotism and cronyism in hiring, and retaliation in firing, blamed on the school board. Eads said he noticed a large influx of hires in the past two years and he plans to assess those positions based on whether they benefit students. He agreed with independent auditors that more systems need to be put in place to govern hiring, and the district needs to ensure the procedures that exist are followed.
Part of Eads plan involves attracting more businesses to improve the rural districts image. He wants to continue the previous administrations push for an H-E-B within Southsides borders, as well as a bank and a big, nice sit-down restaurant.
The districts fifth-grade reading and math scores on Texas standardized test, released last month, were the lowest in Bexar County. Eads said the district has a high mobility rate and he wants to implement a curriculum thats consistent across all elementary schools so students dont fall behind when they move. He also thinks more stable district leadership will have a positive effect on test scores.
Eads is Southsides sixth superintendent or interim superintendent in three years. In that time period, the boards relationships with its many superintendents have been a source of controversy. Eads, however, said trustees assured him autonomy to make positive changes.
They have told me they are ready for me to take control of the district, he said.
The board of trustees unanimously approved his three-year contract Monday morning, with trustee Manuel Sandoval absent, although Sandoval voted with other trustees last month to name Eads the lone finalist. Eads will make more than $237,000 per year in salary and benefits.
Eads grew up in the Corpus Christi area, the son of a minister who moved the family often. Eads said he lived in 19 homes and went to school in five different districts. He married his high school sweetheart and they have three grown children.
He worked in finance until the economic crisis in 1989, when he became a classroom teacher in Alice. He then came back to Corpus Christi as a teacher and assistant principal before moving to Medina ISD as a principal. After that, he trained principals for two years in San Antonio at the Region 20 education service center. He became director of human resources and public information officer in Medina Valley ISD before heading to Snyder ISD in West Texas for his first superintendency, which he held for fewer than three years because his father became ill. Looking for a superintendency closer to his family, he landed in San Marcos.
Eads has a masters degree in education from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
The president of the San Marcos CISD board of trustees told the Austin American-Statesman last fall that Eads and the board had a strained relationship, but board members also credited him with getting a bond passed, improving graduation rates and building relationships with the community and Texas State University.
Eads said he intends to stay in Southside ISD until he retires.
Im here to stay, he said. The staff knows that and the students know that.
When Eads met fifth- and sixth-graders Tuesday morning, one boy bluntly asked, Who are you?
Eads replied, I work for you.
You work for me? the boy asked, incredulous.
Yeah, you and 5,600 other kids are my bosses, he said, earning a chorus of laughs with his subsequent clarification: You just cant tell me what to do.
amalik@express-news.net
Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN
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A judge set a $250,000 bail Monday for a San Antonio attorney accused of coercing clients into having sex with him in exchange for money or legal services and videotaping the encounters.
Prosecutors had sought a $500,000 bail for Mark H. Benavides, 46, who had been free since his arrest in November, when bail was set at $15,000. A Bexar County grand jury indicted him in April on 35 counts of sexual assault and compelling prostitution, both second-degree felonies, involving nine alleged victims.
Prosecutor Meredith Chacon told state District Judge Dick Alcala on Monday that the grand jury recommended the higher bail amount after hearing that the evidence against Benavides included more than 250 sex videos.
They found it appropriate, so we stand by that recommendation, Chacon told the judge.
Benavides attorney, Monica Guerrero, argued that the panel had not heard all of the evidence and that Benavides would not be a flight risk because he has strong family ties in San Antonio.
He has a wife, kids, and has no passport, Guerrero told the judge.
After setting bail, Alcala told Benavides that he has to wear a GPS monitor whenever he is outside of his home, and can only leave home for employment purposes. He also is to have no contact with his accusers.
Benavides had sex with women he represented in criminal cases, according to an arrest warrant affidavit following an investigation by the Bexar County District Attorney's Office and the San Antonio Police Department. The encounters happened at motels, his law office and a conference room at the Bexar County Courthouse, the document stated.
The indictment covers offense dates that range from 2009 to 2015. Several women had claimed that Benavides had coerced them into performing sex acts and that he videotaped them. After his arrest, more women came forward, the DA's office has said.
Benavides declined comment Monday through his attorney. A pre-trial hearing is set for June 6.
If convicted, Benavides faces up to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine for each count.
ezavala@express-news.net
Twitter: @elizabeth2863
MISSOULA In an order issued Monday denying Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst's request that retired District Court Judge Ed McLean make an immediate ruling on whether to dismiss the case against Cody Marble, McLean wrote that he will not be rushed in reviewing the matter.
"This Court would point out to the Missoula County Attorney that nowhere in its research could it find that it was to be a rubber stamp to the wishes of the prosecutor," he wrote.
Marble was originally sent to prison in 2002 for raping a 13-year-old boy while they were in custody at the Missoula County jail. Last summer, the Montana Supreme Court remanded the case back to Missoula County District, asking it to re-examine a decision to deny Marble a new trial.
In April, Pabst filed a motion to dismiss the underlying case against Marble. Judge McLean released him from custody on April 21 but has not made a decision on the motion to dismiss, instead inviting former county attorney Fred Van Valkenburg to weigh in on the matter by appearing as an amicus curiae, or friend of the court. McLean cited a need to grant him "courtesy and common decency" for characterizations Pabst made of Van Valkenburg in her original motion.
Pabst's filing in the case included part of a deposition between Van Valkenburg and Marble's now-deceased victim Robert Thomas after Thomas recanted the story of his rape. Thomas had been given limited immunity during the deposition, and while statements he made during the hearing couldn't be used against him, he could be charged with perjury for recanting his story.
"And I would advise you that if in fact I am able to establish sufficient evidence outside of what you say in this deposition, that you lied during that trial on the substance of the issue, and that is whether or not Cody Marble raped you, that I would in fact prosecute you for perjury for your actions in lying at that trial," Van Valkenburg told Thomas, according to the record.
Thomas then recanted his recantation and reverted to the story that he had been raped by Marble.
On May 3, Pabst filed a motion asking McLean to make an immediate ruling without Van Valkenburg's input, arguing that allowing his comments regarding a criminal case would be an "unprecedented position" and that failing to grant her request for dismissal violated the separation of powers under both the federal and state constitutions.
In his order on Monday, McLean denied the request and added that Pabst's original motion to dismiss was 27 pages long, violating a court rule that limited such documents to a maximum of 20 pages.
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A man who confessed to killing his 2-month-old son sought to retract his confession for the second time Monday, saying he earlier took the blame for his sons death because he didnt want to live after losing him.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Arjunkumar Dipak Rana gave investigators with the San Antonio Police Department a detailed account of how he killed the baby in the early morning hours of March 24 at the apartment he shared with the childs mother in the 3200 block of Northwest Loop 410.
He told investigators that he took the baby into a bathroom, placed his thumbs over the childs neck and tilted his head forward to cut off his breathing.
The affidavit said Rana described how the baby struggled slightly before he became still, and how he listened to his chest to make sure he wasnt breathing. Answering a call for an unresponsive baby, emergency responders took Alexander to Methodist Childrens Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
But in an interview Monday at the Bexar County Jail, where he is being held on a charge of capital murder-child under 10, Rana said his confession was a lie.
I didnt kill my son, he said, sitting hunched on a steel stool behind a thick wall of glass.
This is not the first time Rana has sought to retract his confession, made about a week after Alexanders death. When he was arrested last Wednesday, he told reporters that hed lied. By then, the Bexar County Medical Examiner had ruled the babys death a homicide caused by asphyxia by neck compression.
Taking slow, deliberate breaths, Rana said Monday that after his sons death, he wanted to die. He said he confessed to Alexanders death because he hoped his statement would result in the death penalty.
I just wanted the death penalty. I just wanted to die, Rana said. I had no reason for living at the time. My son was gone.
The confession had come six days after his sons death, according to the affidavit, when police were called to Ranas apartment for a disturbance.
Me and my wife got into an argument about financial issues, he said Monday about that day, adding that he had been laid off and struggling to pay bills. It was hard on both of us. I told her I just snapped and I just said Im just gonna call the police and just tell them I just killed Alex.
Rana said he hurried to the back bathroom, locked the door, and made the report. He confessed to the dispatcher who answered his 911 call.
He said Monday that between the time he called 911 and the time officers arrived, he had the opportunity to think up a story, something believable.
According to the affidavit, he told police that he was angry because he had to go to work the morning of March 24, and his wife would not get up to soothe the baby. He said then that he was confessing because he felt extremely guilty for causing the childs death.
Fighting back tears Monday, he said he regretted ever saying that he killed Alex.
All I did by saying that was just insult his life, he said. I dont know what happens next.
Rana, held in lieu of $500,000 bail, has declined a court-appointed attorney, according to court officials. A capital murder charge carries a possible punishment of life in prison or death.
He was a joy in my life. I loved him, Rana said of his son. I was just the happiest man that there could be. I felt like the king of the jungle and he was my prince. I just hope they realize that I wasnt mentally there at the time when I said what I said.
Staff Writer Elizabeth Zavala contributed to this report.
mdwilson@express-news.net
An on-again, off-again bitter doctrinal row over the United Methodist Churchs ban on ordaining gay clergy and performing same-sex weddings is expected to burst into life this week as the nations largest mainstream Protestant denomination convenes its 2016 General Conference.
International delegates to the 10-day Portland, Oregon, convention will consider more than 100 petitions related to human sexuality.
The quadrennial convention, which begins today, comes just one day after 111 previously closeted homosexual clergy issued an open love letter to delegates bemoaning the churchs stances on sexuality spelled out in its governing Book of Discipline.
Along with the Catholic and Southern Baptist churches, the United Methodist Church cites biblical justification for barring ordination of homosexuals and prohibiting clergy from officiating at same-sex weddings.
Methodist traditionalists will seek to repulse attempts to modify the church rules and hinted that the denomination might fracture over same-sex issues.
Among Protestant denominations, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran and Presbyterian USA churches have moved to ordain homosexual clergy and sanction same-sex marriages. In some cases, individual congregations have opted not to follow the national lead, while others have left their mother denominations.
Days before the meeting was to begin, UMC ordained ministry boards in the churchs Baltimore-Washington and New York conferences urged their peers to join them in no longer asking ministerial candidates about their sexual orientation. On Thursday, the Pacific Northwest ministry voted to affirm that people of all sexual orientations and gender identities can meet standards for fitness, readiness and effectiveness in the ministry.
Drawing 864 delegates from around the world, the Portland conference will consider more than 1,000 petitions on topics ranging from pushing for citizenship for migrants to dropping investments in fossil fuel companies and those which profit from Israels occupation of Palestinian lands.
But the topic of homosexual clergy and same-sex weddings promises to be the most divisive and has dogged conferences for decades.
At the 1996 General Conference in Denver, 15 UMC bishops urged the church to change its stance on homosexuality. In 2000 in Cleveland, protesters were arrested after blocking convention center exits.
Four years later, in Pittsburgh, hundreds of same-sex advocates paraded though the convention hall, beating a drum and lighting a rainbow-hued candle. In the last international meeting, held in 2012 in Tampa, Florida, protesters wearing multicolored clothing occupied a delegates-only area and began to sing.
The Rev. Jay Brown, pastor of St. Marks United Methodist Church in San Antonio, compared the divide over the LGBT ministry issue to the Civil War, in which Methodists in Northern states supported abolition and those in the South did not.
Brown said the same kind of dynamic is going on today with regard to the sexual orientation of Methodist ministers. He said St. Marks isnt involved in the Portland gathering, but if he were a delegate hed vote in favor of LGBT ordination.
There are a lot of LGBT people who clearly have a demonstrable faith, who have a desire to serve God and who would love to be ordained as a United Methodist pastor, Brown said.
Matt Berryman, executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network, a pro-gay advocacy group, on Monday said he is optimistic the Portland conference will bring unprecedented change.
Were seeing every indication that the system of oppression is beginning to be dismantled, he said. Should delegates retain the Book of Disciplines language regarding same-sex issues, he said, they will face widespread disobedience.
Methodist traditionalists associated with the Renewal and Reform Coalition previously have threatened to leave the church because of what they consider lax enforcement of rules.
Coalition Coordinator Thomas Lambrecht, of The Woodlands, said the denominations current rules reflect biblical teaching on marriage and sexuality and underlie our theology in terms of portraying the image of God through male and female marriage.
To publicly disobey those teachings is a threat to the unity of the church and a threat to our covenant relationship to one another, he said. We are very concerned about making it possible to hold people accountable for breaching of church disciplines. The goal is not to evict people from the church, but to restore unity around the covenants we have promised to uphold.
Lambrecht said his group will seek sanctions against clergy who officiate at same-sex weddings. The first offense would result in a one-year suspension without pay; the second, loss of ministerial credentials.
On the eve of the first international church conference since the U.S. Supreme Court legitimized same-sex marriage last year, Lambrecht acknowledged that traditionalists are out of step with secular society. But, he said, throughout our churchs history, we have been at odds with societys values. It is imperative that we proclaim Christian values and live those out and help society move in a more positive direction.
While growing internationally, the United Methodist Church consistently has lost members in the United States. The American church now claims about 7.3 million members.
In their open letter to the Portland conference, homosexual clergy told delegates that while the church has embraced them as clergy, you have not always remained faithful to us.
While some of us have been lucky to serve in places where we could serve honestly and openly, there are others in places more hostile, who continue to serve faithfully even at tremendous cost to themselves, their families, and, yes, even the communities they serve, who do not receive the fullness of their pastors gifts because a core part must remain hidden, they wrote.
Broaching the possibility that by proclaiming homosexuality they might leave the church, they asserted that young gays and lesbians will continue to experience a call to the ministry. You cannot legislate against Gods call, they wrote.
Staff Writer Elaine Ayala contributed to this report.
allan.turner@chron.com
AUSTIN Underscoring the growing political obsession of top state officials over where transgender Texans use the restroom, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday called for the ouster of the Fort Worth school superintendent over a new policy allowing students to use whichever potty they feel most comfortable with.
The unusual step of a state official injecting himself into a local issue came hours after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton publicly applauded North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory's announcement that his state is suing the U.S. Department of Justice to leave intact a controversial new law requiring people to use the public restroom based on their sex at birth.
The superintendent, Kent Paredes Scribner, has lost his focus and thereby his ability to lead the Fort Worth ISD. He has placed his own personal political agenda ahead of the more than 86,000 students attending 146 schools in the district by unilaterally adopting Transgender Student Guidelines, Patrick said in a statement.
Without any discussion with parents, board members, principals, and other community leaders, Dr. Scribner's unilateral action underscores this lack of fitness to hold his position as superintendent, it said.
Every parent, especially those of young girls, should be outraged, Patrick continued. I call upon the parents within the Fort Worth ISD to take immediate steps to repeal this stealthy scheme and remove Dr. Scribner from his post.
Scribner was not immediately available for comment. Patrick's comments came after he said recently he would support a so-called bathroom bill like the one recently adopted in North Carolina. He said the issue is one of safety.
The Fort Worth guidelines mandate that students have access to restrooms consistent with the gender identity that each student consistently and uniformly asserts, and requires accommodations in locker rooms, as well.
The policy requires school officials to offer transgender students access to a single-stall restroom or the opportunity to use a restroom when no other students are present, if they or other students are uncomfortable with them using a regular restroom.
Earlier in the day, Paxton issued a statement hailing North Carolina's decision to sue the federal government over its restroom-policy law. Transgender advocates immediately blasted his position as continuing extremism.
When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling on marriage equality, the attorney general instructed county clerks throughout the state to disregard the federal law. ... Now, the attorney general wishes to bring North Carolina's problems, boycotts and codified discrimination to Texas, said Steve Rudner, board chairman of Equality Texas. Paxton is on the wrong side of the law again and wasting taxpayer dollars to further his own extremist agenda.
A state the size of Texas cannot afford the economic losses currently being endured by North Carolina while the state steadfastly clings to a law demonizing the entire LGBT community, Rudner said.
AUSTIN Gov. Greg Abbott would gain significant new power under a lawmakers long-shot proposal that would allow him to appoint key state officials who are currently elected to oversee the oil and gas industry, agriculture, state lands and the Alamo.
The proposal being developed by Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, would move Texas partly toward the cabinet-style rule common among other states and the federal government.
Its scope includes the posts held by Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and Land Commissioner George P. Bush, whose family includes two presidents.
It would face a beyond-uphill battle in the next legislative session, given its proposed shift in power to the governor, its effect on ambitious politicians options and a likely pushback from lobbyists and others who work comfortably in the current system.
But Larson said he would just work through it and see what realities come into play.
If we really want fundamental change in government, youre going to have to change the architecture, said Larson, citing a drumbeat for change at a time when voters have rebelled against politics as usual. You have to capitalize on the political environment and people wanting more accountability in these areas.
Besides the agriculture and land commissioners, Larsons idea would affect the three members of the oil-and-gas regulating Railroad Commission, replacing them with an appointed energy secretary. All are Larsons fellow Republicans, as are all but one of Texas current statewide officeholders.
The land commissioners post would be the most difficult to change because its required in the Texas Constitution. It would require two-thirds legislative support and a statewide vote of the people to make it appointed or kill it and parcel out its duties to other agencies. Among duties, the land commissioner manages state lands and operates the Alamo.
Larsons idea got pushback from Miller, a colorful figure whose social media posts have included an apparent suggestion to bomb the Muslim World and who is being investigated over accusations that he spent state money for two personal trips. Miller reimbursed the state for his travel from campaign funds and has denied wrongdoing.
While Representative Larsons proposal may have merits, they are outweighed by the importance of allowing the people to vote to choose who represents them in our states two largest industries, Miller said in a statement. If we have learned anything from this election, it is that the people are sick and tired of being disenfranchised from their government. Taking away their right to vote for and choose their state officials will fuel voter anger, not reduce it. I trust the people of Texas to make these important decisions.
While acknowledging the Miller headlines have been a distraction, Larson said his proposal isnt aimed at particular people. He said its meant to make government more accountable and efficient by vesting responsibility for sometimes little-known offices with the governor, who would be responsible for appointing people with expertise and for their results.
I have got confidence that Governor Abbott could develop policies that would be consistent with whats good for Texas if some of these programs were put under his guidance, Larson said.
Larson said his proposal also would address the politics engendered when the lower-level offices are used as stepping stones. Weve had folks run for all of those offices, and as soon as they are elected they start looking for the next position, Larson said.
Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, predicted Larsons proposals would face stiff headwinds in the Legislature, with opposition from both sides of the aisle.
In the climate that both parties are seeing in this presidential year, I dont think anybodys going to salute the flag of getting rid of elected representation, he said.
Criticism already is coming from Democrats, who have long struggled to regain a real foothold in Texas statewide office in Texas.
Texas is exceptional. Power is vested in our voters, not a single executive.Lets be clear. The only reason it is even a proposal is because Yosemite Sid is an embarrassment. But the cure to terrible Republican representation is stronger voter turnout, not to tear apart Texas, said Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party.
Railroad Commission spokespeople didnt return requests for comment. Republican consultant Jordan Berry, working for former lawmaker Wayne Christians Railroad Commission bid, said, I think voters can best determine who should work for them.
Land Commissioner Bush spokeswoman Brittany Eck said, We dont have any comment on legislation we havent seen.
There was no comment from House Speaker Joe Straus, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick or Abbott. Larson said he had a good meeting with Abbotts staff to present his idea.
There is precedent for eliminating a constitutional office in Texas. Voters in 1995 decided to abolish the state treasurers office.
Rice University political scientist Mark P. Jones said Texas fragments the executive branch more than is the case in most other states. The Larson reform, he said, would allow voters to hold the governor accountable in a way they may not hold lesser-known officials.
There is an analysis of the Texas executive branch that it is too fragmented and that leads to a lack of coordination as well as a relatively limited level of transparency and accountability, Jones said. If you dont know who the railroad commissioners are, and you dont know what the Railroad Commission does, then its pretty difficult to hold it accountable for its actions.
Jones agreed, however, that the idea is relatively unlikely to gain traction.
pfikac@express-news.net
Twitter: @pfikac
As winter gave way to spring and the 2016 presidential primaries steadily ticked off, Americas tea party movement had every reason to believe that fortune was in its corner.
The once-unimaginable dream of getting its anointed champion into the White House just might with a little last-minute luck come true.
All Ted Cruz had to do was win in Indiana, friendly territory. His supporters back home in Texas, ever enthusiastic, already were making plans for a convention fight that could change the course of history.
Less than a week later, Cruz is off the stage, his campaign suspended. His tea party faithful across the state are stunned and uncertain of the next step. Donald Trumps blowout win in the Hoosier State spurred talk of third-party runs and internal revolt, though in truth, the shock has not worn off enough for them to think clearly.
I dont know what the answer is right now its too soon, said Maggie Wright, a tea party leader from North Texas who became a Cruz backer when he was not well known and running for the U.S. Senate in 2010. Were kind of in limbo.
Cruzs unlikely Indiana denouement gave front-runner Trump a clear path to the GOP nomination, suggesting that there is no way to stop him from amassing the 1,237 convention delegates needed for a first-ballot nomination. But supporters such as Wright have said they will try to be elected as delegates to that national convention in Cleveland in hopes of continuing the battle in an intramural arena.
We are not giving up, said Wright, who spent 51 days in Iowa in the run-up to that states caucus gathering, where Cruz prevailed. We dont know what is going to happen in Cleveland. I am praying there is still a way.
If nothing else, the tea party faithful are that filled with faith. Not just in Cruz but in the holiness of a cause based on constitutionally limited government and lower taxation.
What started in anger and frustration seven years ago already has changed the face of politics. But its adherents say they are sick that Cruz likely wont get the chance to pit his true conservative values against Hillary Clinton in November, a contest they are convinced he would have won.
Early media reports that the tea party movement might support an independent bid for the White House was just talk, movement leaders say, but they agree that there is no enthusiasm for Trump among those who paved the way for the raft of outsiders who have ousted longtime establishment Republicans around the country.
I dont think they will work for (Trump), said Ray Myers, head of the tea party in Kaufman County. Were going to support the nominee, but we are going to go to the convention and have a heck of a floor fight for Ted.
Should they fail, Myers said, they will come home and concentrate on down-ballot races, urging people to ignore the name at the top and just vote straight-ticket. Despite their dismay that Cruz was unable to stem Trumps rise, they would not support any sort of parachute candidate offered by Republican leaders as a last-ditch alternative at the national convention, Myers said.
Ted was more presidential from the get-go, and he still is, he said. Trump is an anomaly. He just showed up and said Im the guy. And as it turned out, he was. His message resonated.
Cruzs strategy of using tea party support to stay in the race as other candidates fell, gaining victories where he could, especially in states that awarded more delegates through caucuses and grass-roots selection processes, was going according to plan. What neither he nor anyone else counted on was Trumps continuing popular surge.
The Cruz camp had figured that once the field was down to two or three, he would prevail on the strength of his intellect and his unique blend of constitutional expertise and Christian rectitude. That so many fellow senators and party stalwarts in Washington dislike him was seen by supporters as a badge of honor that would help, not hurt, in a contested convention.
But the supposed cap on Trumps potential with voters proved illusory. Cruzs tea party backers, especially in Texas, say Trump succeeded by simply stealing part of his message, albeit in a shallow and sometimes crude way. They dont believe that people involved with the movement found Trump appealing, but they concede that some sympathizers felt otherwise.
Some expert political observers agree.
He channels one of the motivational tools of the tea party-type candidate: displeasure if not disgust with the establishment candidate, their rage against the machine or anger with the system, or politics as usual said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. Trump was able to capture that share of the voting public that was voting for a person or for anti rhetoric, rather than for policy and principles.
While Cruz unquestionably was the tea party favorite among the dozen-plus GOP presidential hopefuls, opinion polls showed that for voters self-identifying as tea partiers, the preference was not so clear. A March 9 poll from Florida, for example, gave Trump a 48-40 edge over Cruz among tea party voters. In Ohio, Cruz maintained an edge in one poll, but only 38-33.
Trump actively courted well-known tea party activists, continuing a dalliance that started when he was considering a run for the presidency in 2012. He attended the South Carolina tea party convention in January 2015 and spent time with key activists, two of whom were involved in his campaign.
He pursued tea party support in New Hampshire, Michigan, Nevada and elsewhere, picking up converts here and there. He even managed to get the endorsement of Sarah Palin.
Cruzs beliefs may mirror those of the tea party perfectly on an ideological basis, but Trump succeeded in tapping into frustration and disappointment at a gut level. That emotional attraction may have overshadowed Trumps deviation from tea party orthodoxy, including past support for government bailouts.
What galls those in the Texas movement, whose recent successes include Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton, is what they see as Trumps conservative facade. Many think hes a wolf in sheeps clothing, not a Republican at all a conservative of convenience.
Beyond that, they mourn what they see as opportunity lost. Cruz was poised to take advantage of a field with no clear favorite and a likely Democratic opponent with high negatives. But it didnt happen.
There is real disappointment on the part of the tea party that is committed to deep principles, said Jim Lennon, one of the founders of the Kingwood Tea Party. The emotional ties and philosophical ties to Cruz and his vision for America, his belief that principles are laid down in the Constitution for running a fair America that wont stop.
Lennon, like many tea partiers, considers Trump a con man who stepped in at an opportunistic moment to take advantage of all the work done by the movement to till the earth and sow the seed.
Now what?
Cruz is still young. So is the movement that brought him to the public eye. The revolution that tea partiers are fighting is still in its early days. Back to work.
Tea parties in the state that have been successful in getting people elected, they are part of the political process, Lennon said. That wont change.
Meanwhile, until the GOP nominating process is completed, they will pray for a miracle.
mike.tolson@chron.com
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A growing population, a limited supply of domiciles and low mortgage rates keep pushing up home prices in San Antonio, but at a slower rate than in recent years.
The median sales price for a home in the San Antonio metro area grew to $195,500 in the first quarter of this year, a 5.8 percent increase from the year before, according to a study by the National Association of Realtors. Thats below the 9.1 percent growth rate for first quarter 2015 and 8 percent in 2014.
The slower pace of price growth could be a relief for aspiring homeowners. Prices have increased almost every month for the last couple years, raising concerns about whether San Antonios reputation as an affordable city is at risk. The median home price broke $200,000 for the first time in May of last year, peaking at $202,500, according to data from the San Antonio Board of Realtors.
Were slowing down a little bit, said Jim Gaines, chief economist at the Texas A&M University Real Estate Center. Sustaining the high growth rates is difficult and to some extent not really desirable because it plays havoc with affordable housing even 5.8 percent is above normal.
In large part, the rising prices in San Antonio are a side effect of the sizzling local housing market. This year is on track to be another record one for local home sales, challenging last years high of 27,154 homes sold.
Homebuyers also are benefiting from low mortgage rates. The national average for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.61 percent Thursday, down from 3.8 percent in 2015 and 4.21 percent in 2014, according to Freddie Mac.
Another factor is pent-up demand from the housing crisis, when potential homebuyers delayed their plans because of the lousy economy. Now that the lingering demand has had time to dissipate, the rate of price increases is slowing down, SABOR Chairman Bob Jacobs said.
We have pent-up demand (nationally), and that carries over to San Antonio, Jacobs said. As the pent-up demand slows slightly, youre going to slow the value increase.
Jacobs said he considers a 3 to 6 percent growth rate in median sales prices to be healthy.
The local trend of price growth is similar to that of the nation as a whole. The U.S. median sales price in the first quarter rose by 6.3 percent, to $217,600, a slowdown from 7.4 percent in first quarter 2015 and 8.6 percent in 2014.
The growth in sales prices also slackened for the metro areas of Austin, Dallas and Houston especially Houston, which has been hit hard by the oil industry slump. The median price in Houston rose to $208,000 in the first quarter, a 3.8 percent increase. Thats a little below the norm for Houston, Gaines said, and a stark decline from the metro areas 8.5 percent rate in 2015 and 12.8 percent in 2014.
What the rest of this year holds for Houston is a little problematic, Gaines said, due to the areas minimal job growth.
In the Austin metro area, the median sales price rose by 7.9 percent, to $269,700, and in Dallas, by 9.1 percent to $210,100.
Nationwide, existing single-family homes and condos sold at a rate of 5.29 million a year in the first quarter, an increase of 4.8 percent from first quarter 2015. Home sales were somewhat subdued by rising prices and imbalances between supply and demand, said Lawrence Yun, the associations chief economist, in a news release.
As a result, the path to homeownership so far this year remains strenuous for a segment of prospective buyers, he said.
Housing supply in the San Antonio area has been restricted for the last few years. The inventory measured by the average time it takes for a home on the market to be sold if no new homes are listed was at 3.8 months in March, well below the six months that indicates a balance between buyers and sellers. In December and January, the local market hit a record low of 3.5 months of inventory.
The two most expensive housing markets in the first quarter were both in Silicon Valley: the San Jose, California, metro area, with a median price of $970,000; and San Francisco, with $770,300. The lowest-priced market was the Cumberland, Maryland, metro area, with a $67,400 median price.
rwebner@express-news.net
@rwebner
LANDER, Wyo. Ann Swift stood at the edge of a newly formed series of rapids and watched as her husband, Casey, loaded a canoe with meat from the couple's freezer.
She was clad in a blue rain jacket and rain boots, too afraid to brave the muddy waters of the Little Pogo Agie River separating her from husband and home. The two-story residence had miraculously avoided a harsher fate. Next door, the powerful waters had moved a foundation.
But a woven wire fence, jammed with mud and debris, created a barrier around the Swifts' home, leaving the water lapping near the porch.
"He gave the the thumbs up, so I know it's OK," she said, expressing hope that no water had seeped inside.
The skies cleared Monday in Fremont County, revealing a world of saturated pastures riven by newly carved river channels, debris and bewildered-looking cattle. The 4 inches of rain that fell here over a 48-period turned the region's patchwork of bubbling creeks into a network of raging rivers.
Many residents spoke of flooded basements and near misses. The Lander Valley Animal Hospital moved 10 dogs from its boarding house, where sandbags had been placed by the doors. The waters had receded by Monday, preventing serious damage and allowing business to resume.
Next door at the Evangelical Free Church, the actions of a quick-thinking churchgoer were credited with saving the church's new addition. The congregant, Jerry Olson, brought in earth-moving equipment and, with the help of other churchgoers, built a series of berms, shepherding the normally placid Baldwin Creek back to its channel.
"That building could have been the poster child for this flood if not for his actions," said Matt Whitman, who battled waters at the church and his home Saturday.
But others were not so lucky. The Little Pogo Agie had yet to return to its banks by Monday morning. Water lapped at the side of two homes off Lyons Valley Road.
The Swifts, who have a 3-month-old son, were taking the crisis day by day. The couple are staying with friends but dreading the call to the insurance company. They do not have flood insurance.
"We don't know what we're dealing with yet," Ann said, as she watched water formed swirling channels around her home.
The Red Cross plans to establish a resource center for flooding victims at the Fremont County Fairgrounds in Riverton. The fairgrounds are located at 1010 Fairgrounds Dr.
The center will open starting Tuesday, according to the Red Cross. It will be open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Friday. In its online announcement, the organization specified that only people with flood damage to their homes should visit the resource center for help.
An evacuation center was set up at the fairgrounds for flood victims on Sunday. Lucas Murphy, a disaster program specialist with the Red Cross, said roughly 20 peopled used the center. He said he doesn't expect another evacuation center to be needed.
Areas of Fremont County received around 5 inches of rain over the weekend. The Little Wind River reached its third-highest crest on record Sunday evening. The river is now receding, but the Fremont County Sheriff's Office has asked people to stay away from the river.
In southeast Wyoming, the Laramie River has risen above flood stage in Goshen County, causing minor flooding in the Fort Laramie area.
Flooding also occurred along streams and creeks in Platte County and in the Casper area.
CASPER, Wyo. It could be years before legal issues surrounding the Cole Creek fire are settled, recently filed court records suggest.
Evansville property owners who suffered damage in the October fire have until 2017 to file a governmental claim part of the process for receiving compensation for losses that resulted from the blaze.
Casper attorney Craig Silva, who is representing the city, is asking the court to delay legal proceedings concerning liability for the fire until the statute of limitations to file a claim has run out. This would ensure all property owners have a chance to claim fire damage.
The Cole Creek Fire destroyed 14 homes and burned more than 10,000 acres. No one was hurt in the fire, but countless pets and livestock were lost.
The state fire marshal concluded the wildfire began when sparks from a wood chipper at the municipal landfill ignited a large slash pile on Oct. 10. The report did not delve into whether the fire was the result of negligence or simply an accident, or if it was the citys fault at all.
Some residents whose property was damaged in the October fire have already filed claims. Losses from the fire are in the millions, but the citys liability is capped at $500,000 under the states Governmental Claims Act.
The city has turned over the claims to its insurer, the Wyoming Association of Risk Management, a self-insurance pool of Wyoming communities and counties.
The court action, which was filed by Silva on April 22 in Natrona County District Court, is called an interpleader action. Silva is asking a judge to determine liability for the fire and then decide which property owners should receive compensation and how much.
The city of Casper is named as the plaintiff in the case. About two dozen property owners are listed as defendants. District Judge Catherine Wilking is the assigned judge.
In the court document, Silva states some property owners have already been paid by their individual insurance companies. He asks that those who have not been paid by their insurance companies be given priority for compensation once liability is determined.
Silva also wants the court to allow the city to fix a damaged grinder at the landfill and put it back into use. He said the grinder has not been fixed because it needed to be available for inspection. But since no replacement grinder has been made available for use at the dump, it must be fixed and put back into service, Silva states.
On May 9, President Obama signed the National Bison Legacy Act, naming bison as the first official national mammal.
Once roaming from the Appalachian Mountains westward to Nevada in prehistoric times, as well as south into Mexico and north into Alaska, bison almost became extinct as the U.S. expanded west and the animal was heavily hunted.
According to the National Bison Association, there are about 400,000 bison roaming North America today on pastures and rangelands, after being reduced to fewer than 1,000 by the early 1900s. The U.S. Department of the Interior explains that today, bison can be found in all states on wildlife reservations, Native American lands, national parks and private land.
You can read more bison facts on the DOI blog.
More about bison:
(Updated at 3:30 p.m., May 10.)
COLUMBUS The Ohio Farm Bureau Federations newest executive is no stranger to Ohio agriculture, nor the Farm Bureau structure.
Adam Sharp, who was named executive vice president of OFBF May 10, has been part of Farm Bureau for about as long as he can remember.
He grew up on his familys dairy and crop farm, in Fairfield County, and was active in 4-H and FFA, prior to graduating from Ohio State in 1994, with a degree in ag communications, and a minor in international economic and social development.
He held various leadership positions at Farm Bureau, starting in 2004. Currently, he serves as vice president of public policy, in which he oversees state and federal government relations; legislative and regulatory affairs; legal, animal and food issues; grassroots policy development and the organizations Agriculture for Good Government Political Action Committee.
Sharp succeeds John C. Jack Fisher, who has served as executive vice president since 1996. Last October, Fisher made public his intention to retire from the organization. Fishers compensation package was about $316,000 in 2014, according to public IRS records.
State and federal
Sharps knowledge of farm policy goes beyond state lines. Before joining OFBF, he held various policy and government relations roles with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the American Farm Bureau Federation. He also served as a teaching assistant for the Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and as a radio producer for Agri-Broadcasting Network (ABN).
He was appointed executive VP by the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation Board of Trustees, and will take office July 18. The search committee was chaired by OFBF President Frank Burkett III, a Stark County dairy farmer.
Sharp said his dedication toward the organization and its members is what inspired him to apply.
I believe in who we are and what we do, he said. I just have a profound dedication for this organization.
Burkett said he has known Sharp for at least the last twelve years, and is confident in the knowledge and experience Sharp has acquired.
It was a clear, easy decision, Burkett said. Adam just demonstrated his passion and his commitment.
Burkett added that Sharp is one of the nations foremost policy experts in agriculture and will bring a lot of excitement to the organization.
Many Farm Bureau members, and lawmakers, have met Sharp on the annual Ohio county presidents trip to Washington, D.C., or while testifying at the Ohio Statehouse. Hes helped organize the county presidents trip for the past several years, working with Washington lawmakers and federal agencies, to meet with Ohio farmers.
Many mentors
Sharp credits a multitude of mentors who helped get him to where hes at, including his father and farmer, the late Don Sharp Jr., his high school ag teacher, Chuck Miller, professors at OSU, and his former bosses at the American Farm Bureau and U.S. EPA.
As executive vice president, Sharp will serve as the chief executive of OFBF and lead efforts to advance its mission to forge a partnership between farmers and consumers.
Focus areas
He said his main focus will be on membership and serving members, various state issues, and ensuring we have the best farm economy we can continue to have in the state of Ohio.
Today, Sharp owns and operates part of the family farm where he grew up, along with his brothers. He and his wife, Lisa, have two children and reside in Amanda.
His appointment was the culmination of an 11-month search process led by a 10-member OFBF committee in partnership with executive search firm, BeecherHill.
Ohio Farm Bureau includes about 200,000 members and was formed in 1919. Its main offices are located in Columbus.
The Ulster Farmers Union used a meeting with the EU farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, to stress that the entire farming industry is still facing deep financial problems.
The union has stressed radical thinking by Brussels is needed to ensure agriculture continues to deliver for rural areas and the wider economy in Northern Ireland.
The commissioner met the UFU as part of a planned visit to present the facts on EU membership to farmers in advance of the June referendum.
While the UFU is not taking a position on this, it took the opportunity to warn the commissioner that farmers votes should not be taken for granted.
"A key issue for us will be assurances that the EU is still committed to the European Investment Bank (EIB) becoming involved in tackling the short term cash flow crisis and longer term funding of farm borrowings," said UFU president, Barclay Bell.
Hogan visits NI to discuss UK Referendum on EU Membership
The UFU has been pressing this issue with the Commission and in meetings with senior EIB officials. The union has said it wants evidence that this is "still on track".
Also on the agenda for the meeting in Warrenpoint were export market developments: "not least because the Russian market, which is particularly hitting the pig industry is still closed," the UFU said.
Ways to create opportunities for young people to enter and develop within the farming industry and the EU designation criteria for areas of natural constraint were mentioned in the meeting.
"The over bureaucratic EU requirements associated with greening which NI readily satisfies, and negotiations on EU trade agreements with other trading blocks with Mercosur and beef access being a particularly critical issue," the UFU said.
"We were pleased the Commission increased the dairy intervention ceiling but we need assurances from Phil Hogan that the EU accepts there are still major problems in the dairy sector.
"We are keen to know his latest thinking on longer term strategies to make volatility less of an issue for dairy farmers," said Mr Bell.
He added that the EU also needed to show its commitment to greater fairness along the food supply chain, so that farmers did not suffer from being the weakest players.
"If Europe is to get farmer's backing for the EU then it needs to do so by clearly showing that it understands the issues undermining agriculture, and has the ideas needed to make the CAP and other parts of EU policy deliver better for farmers in Northern Ireland," said Mr Bell.
EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, has today announced that beef will not be part of the current Mercosur trade deal negotiations.
The news follows todays meeting between the Commissioner and NFU Cymru, which was held on Glamorgan NFU Cymru Chairman, Abi Readers mixed family farm, in the Vale of Glamorgan.
A trade deal with the Mercosur bloc would have seen 78,000 tonnes of non-tariff beef imported into the EU, from countries such as Argentina and Brazil.
Trade blocs in Latin America
At the meeting, Commissioner Hogan said that South American beef would be off the menu and would be withdrawn from the current negotiations with the Mercosur trading bloc.
In recent months, farming unions across the UK have been lobbying the Commission directly on this issue with the NFU team in Brussels, highlighting the potential damaging impact that this deal could have on specialist beef production in Wales.
Undermining high local meat standards with imports
NFU Cymru President, Stephen James said: "Todays announcement from Commissioner Hogan is reassuring for the Welsh beef sector.
"NFU Cymru has had major concerns with regard to the impact that nearly 80,000 tonnes of additional non-tariff beef would have on beef prices across the EU.
"In Wales we pride ourselves on the production of high quality beef produced to world leading standards and we were concerned that this was going to be undermined by a flood of imports that may not have been produced to the same standards."
Further discussions during the meeting included the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and NFU Cymru members highlighted the need for CAP simplification to remain at the top of the Commissioners agenda.
Rob Reader, who farms in partnership with Abi, presented to Mr Hogan the hundreds of pages of guidance associated with the 2016 Single Application Form (SAF), as an example of the complication and bureaucracy that needs to be tackled.
Mr Hogan said his desire is to help people comply with the regulations not catch them out.
NFU Cymru Milk Board Chairman, Aled Jones, highlighted the cash flow crisis that has engulfed the dairy industry in Wales.
He urged the Commissioner to consider further how the European Investment Bank (EIB) could be employed to ensure that farmers could continue to invest in their businesses at this difficult time.
The Commissioner recognised the horrors that the dairy industry is currently experiencing and stated that he felt that the EIB, working with High Street banks, could have a role to play in helping to provide low cost loans to help farmers restructure their business, in particular those who do not have a strong asset base.
Stephen James concluded by thanking the Commissioner for taking the time to visit Wales and listening to the concerns of Welsh farmers, he said: "This is the second time in under a year that the Commissioner has visited Wales.
"We welcome the level of engagement that we have with the Commissioner and his team, both through his visits to Wales and the willingness to meet with us regularly in Brussels.
"The Commissioner has fully recognised the market difficulties we face at present and he has shown today with his statement on the Mercosur trade deal, he is willing to take action to support the best interests of our farmers."
The cleanup of Highway 85 from Bowman to Williston generated 1,800 bags of litter filled by hundreds of volunteers and taken to area landfills.
The cleanup was delayed by spring rain, but when the skies cleared last week, volunteers went out in force, said project coordinator Cal Klewin, director of the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway Association. The association is rebranding the Highway 85 corridor in the Great Plains.
The State Department of Transportation district workers picked up the filled bags and kept track of the number filled within each highway district area. The totals along the 169-mile stretch of highway were Belfield, 420; Williston, 340; Watford City, 920; and Bowman, 120.
It was a great effort, Klewin said.
The volunteers represented Williston, Bowman, Bowman County, Belfield, Watford City, North Dakota Petroleum Council, North Dakota League of Cities, Vision West, North Dakota Motor Carriers, North Dakota Association of General Contractors, Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, North Dakota Association of Oil and Gas Producing Counties, North Dakota Tourism Department, McKenzie County Tourism and Western Dakota Lions Clubs.
DOTs district engineer Larry Gangl said the oil patch highway needed some special attention because of the large traffic volume and the amount of debris that blows off trucks.
Farmers are being urged to remain vigilant as fraudulent scams continue to target the farming community.
With basic payments on going and farmers amidst a busy time, the message remains clear remain vigilant and do not give out your bank details over the phone or online.
Farmers have been in touch with Unions to report calls from fraudsters in recent days.
For example, in the Lothians and Borders area in Scotland, fraudsters have been claiming to be from Royal Bank of Scotland and stating the farmer had fraudulent activity on their account.
On one occasion the call even appeared to come from a genuine Royal Bank of Scotland number. When asked by the farmer to confirm their name and local branch, the caller became abusive and hung up. The farmer has since checked with his bank and they have confirmed this is indeed a scam.
Police Scotland has been made aware of the calls, as has the banking provider, and the advice is never to engage with this type of call.
NFU Scotlands Finance Director Colin Gordon said: "This is such a busy time of year for agricultural transactions that farmers could be easily caught out by alarming calls from people claiming to represent their banks fraud department. Do not fall for this.
"We know that if this is happening in one region it is only a matter of time before other areas are targeted and experience has shown that these tend not to be isolated incidents.
"Your bank will never phone or email you and ask for your online password information or any password using your online banking token or card and reader.
"They will never ask you to make a payment over the phone by using your online account.
"If you receive a call claiming to be from your bank and they suggest that you call them back, ensure you use a different phone as the caller may still be on the line without you knowing."
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) must keep its commitment to paying 90% of farmers their full Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) entitlements by December 2016 after failing to meet its payout targets this year, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said in its report on Common Agricultural Policy.
New CAP rules this year meant the agency's performance in paying applicants quickly dropped from the 97% achieved in December 2014 to around 51% in December this year.
Around 90% of farmers have now received their payments, but the delay has created cash flow problems and confusion for many.
Farmers 'are struggling with cash flow'
Sleaford and North Hykeham MP Stephen Phillips highlighted a case of one of his constituents, Mrs Musson, who had her payment delayed and had further difficulties contacting the Rural Payments Agency.
"The response I had from the RPA was that the payment would come 'in due course' and that my constituent should call the agency for hardship assistance, yet this is precisely what she had been unable to do."
Truss responded that it had been the first year of implementation of the new common agricultural policy.
"All payments need to be made within the payment window between December and June, and all payments will be made within that window," she said.
"I appreciate that farmers are struggling with cash flow because of this years low commodity prices, which is why we have put in place bridging payments for those final few farmers who have not yet received payments.
"All that data are now on the system, so 2016 will be much more straightforward and we should be able to pay farmers much earlier in the payment window."
The Committee said the RPA should consider part-payments in complicated cases if necessary to avoid further hardship.
They also urged Defra to continue working with the EU to reduce the amount of 'disallowance penalties' that are charged as a result of payment errors. The UK has paid more than 642 million in disallowance over the past 10 years in effect, fines for wrongly apply the CAP rules.
'Extreme hardship'
"Farmers face extreme hardship as prices for produce are low," said Chair Neil Parish, MP.
"Many producers rely on CAP payments to pay their bills so it is unacceptable that farmers are left uncertain over when their payments will arrive.
"The RPA did decide to make bridging payments to unpaid farmers in April, which were welcome, but it is disappointing that it took so long for them to be issued."
Mr Parish also highlighted confusion over communications from the RPA about payments and the length of delays: "Many farmers have struggled to work out what their entitlements are under the new CAP system, and it has been difficult for them to clarify their numbers with the RPA.
"As the RPA now has to take applications for next year at the same time as paying the remaining 2015 claims, it needs to make sure that next year's process is set up to provide good customer service for farmers, and to minimise the fines that will be charged by the EU for any errors in the payment processing.
"We expect a return to 2014's performance levels of 90% payments made by the end of December this year."
IT problems
The Rural Payments Agency has come under repeated criticism from House of Commons Select Committees over the past year for failures in its CAP-D IT project to automate payments of CAP money to farmers and rural businesses.
Due to problems with the RPA's IT system, some farmers have waited over 16 months between payments that should come yearly, and coupled with low farmgate prices for produce this has caused significant hardship for many farmers and farming groups.
The application window for 2016 payments is due to close before the RPA expects to have made all of the payments for 2015, and it is important that claims are made and paid accurately to avoid hefty disallowance fines from the EU.
The Committee held oral evidence sessions with the Chief Executive of the RPA, Mr Mark Grimshaw, and with the Minister for Food, Farming and the Marine Environment, in March 2016.
With only 4 per cent of farmers having access to superfast broadband, the roll-out of complete mobile networks and affordable reliable superfast broadband to rural areas "must now be prioritised by Government."
"Both are essential to run safe and efficient farms, to comply with regulation, to promote farm diversification and for rural communities to enjoy family life.
"The Government need to put in place the funding, the legislation and business support to allow this to happen," the NFU have said.
These are the findings of the NFU in its new report Farm Broadband & Mobile Networks which is launched to MPs in London today and which picks up on the results from a comprehensive NFU survey of farmers and growers.
Farming underwrites the food and drink industry and is worth 103 million to the UK economy each year.
The NFU is concerned about the Governments broadband delivery programme, worth 1.7billion, which will leave an estimated 1.2 million premises without superfast broadband.
This is the equivalent to 5% of all premises, the majority of which will be farm businesses and rural communities.
At best, farmers within this last 5% could be offered far lower speeds of 10 megabits per second by 2020, whilst other industries and urban areas receive superfast speeds of 30Mbps or ultrafast speeds of 100Mbps plus.
'Barriers to growth should be removed'
NFU Vice President Guy Smith said: "If our industry is to meet any of the ambitions of the long awaited Government 25 Year Food & Farming Plan, it will be essential for barriers to growth to be removed.
"Poor access to broadband and mobile networks is one such significant barrier and the current situation is neither sustainable nor acceptable.
"The Government is asking farmers to run their businesses in conditions that put them at an immediate disadvantage.
"We have heard of farmers waiting 15 hours to download a Countryside Stewardship guidance booklet, farmers cant comply with increasingly online only regulation and arent able to contact their customers.
"Farmers cant harness the brilliant range of agri-technology which relies on a reliable internet connection.
"To increase productivity you need superfast broadband, to get out of the farm office and into the field.
"Well over half of our members have diversified their farm businesses with the aim of supporting the wider rural economy, but they simply wont be able to support this wider economy if they cant offer high-speed broadband.
"This is tantamount to failure to provide the infrastructure that our industry desperately needs to flourish and compete in increasingly globalised markets."
Countryside Alliance Head of Policy Sarah Lee said: "We welcome the announcement but must still point out that the improvement figure will only extend to 95% of areas.
"While this is good news, we cannot have a 95% service for 100% need.
"There must also be a clear commitment and delivery of broadband to those households and businesses in rural areas who are in the final 5% that wont be covered by this investment.
"If we want the countryside to compete economically and socially then we need assurances and urgent action so that hard working rural businesses and families are not disadvantaged."
With the global population estimated to be over 7 billion, the importance of food and farming has never been greater.
That is the message that will be promoted throughout the annual Essex Schools Food and Farming Day hosted at Writtle College, in conjunction with Essex Agriculture Society and Essex County Council.
Now in its 9th year, more than 60 schools from across Essex will be attending this years Food and Farming day on Wednesday 8th June to discover where their food comes from and the importance of creating a sustainable future for our planet.
Agricultural-specialists Writtle College will play host to more than 3,000 primary schoolchildren as they all aim to learn more about food, farming and the countryside.
For many school children, it will be their first experience of farm life, giving them an opportunity to see livestock up close, hear the thunderous roar of a combine harvester and taste farm produce after learning of its journey from field to fork.
From tractors to sausage-making, to turkey-rearing, and lots of food tasting, the event will feature five zones where the children can find out more about how food is produced, take part in activities and watch demonstrations.
Vital educators do their part to teach children farming
Rosemary Padfield, chair of the events steering group, said: "Every year, this event becomes more and more important as future generations need to be provided with a sound understanding of the food chain.
"The level of interest in the event is always great as schools recognise the role the day plays in allowing young children to interact with food and farming in a fun way.
"Industry leaders say it is vital that educators do their part in ensuring youngsters understand and appreciate how agriculture works.
"I am so proud that fellow farmers and allied industries rally around us to help with this day volunteering to either exhibit or act as a steward to help the children make the best of their visit.
"They are all so passionate about our industry that they are keen to help the children learn and think about the environment they live in, encouraging them to ask questions about what they see.
"We need to inspire the next generation of farmers, and those working in our allied industries I cannot think of a better way to encourage this!"
Hard work farmers do to put food on our plates
Karen Watson, Essex Agricultural Society, Organiser and School Liaison Officer, said: "We aim to improve children's understanding of where their food comes from, and the hard work farmers do to put food on all our plates.
"These children are our future consumers and countryside users and it is important to explain to them how and why we, as farmers, go about looking after the Essex countryside so that it is productive, bio-diverse and beautiful.
"We hope they all leave with a greater appreciation for the great outdoors, gaining an understanding of the importance of farming, both in supplying food and protecting wildlife within its natural habitat."
Writtle College Principal Dr Stephen Waite added: "Every year, it impresses me more and more how engaged and excited the future generation is about food and farming.
"We obviously hope a lot of these school children will end up wanting to pursue a career in the land-based sector and we would be delighted to see them return to study with us in years to come."
EU biggest customer of Scottish red meat as trade rebounds to 80m
"The big story is, as an independent National, I will be able to cross the floor in areas that I believe are in the best interests of my electorate and that's something neither of the major parties will allow their people to do," he said.
"Superannuation is a big bug bear for me as a BAS agent, I want everyone to pay on time as that's a target point for the ATO and if you can't pay it on time and you can't pay your suppliers on time everyone gets angry.
The sheep industry project led by DAFWA and funded by Royalties for Regions is focused on turning this around through the development of dedicated value chains and the adoption of new business models with a clear focus on growing the industry.
She said it was worth noting that in the absence of any Australian livestock, Saudi Arabia is importing 8m head annually from markets such as the Sudan, but has indicated strong interest in a sizeable intake of Australian livestock annually.
"In many cases customers are not able to get the same level of performance that they can get in the cities but also they don't have choice and on many occasions they can only access one service provider," he said.
Bragg soldiers say barracks they're being relocated to also have mold
Some Smoke Bomb Hill soldiers say barracks they're being relocated to are just as bad as the ones that were deemed substandard.
Missouri Slope Areawide United Way may take over Saxvik Elementary next year when the building no longer operates as a school.
Superintendent Tamara Uselman on Monday told the Bismarck School Board that the nonprofit is interested in turning the school into a family success center, which would offer services such as after-school care, preschool, day care, family programs and job training.
Board members gave permission to administrators to explore the matter with United Way, which could lease, lease-to-buy or purchase the building outright from Bismarck Public Schools.
Thats the kind of positive use that I think really enhances the neighborhood and provides services to that community, said School Board President Lawrence King.
United Way already has a relationship with Saxvik, sending volunteers into classrooms to help with math and reading and mentor students, according to the school district.
Uselman said a number of entities have approached her about using part of the building, but no one other than United Way has expressed an interest in the entire facility.
King said all options are still on the table, and the board is willing to consider other proposals for Saxvik.
The school board voted April 25 to close the school, citing dwindling enrollment, cost savings and concern over whether the aging facility provides an equitable educational experience for students.
Saxviks students will be bused to nearby schools in the fall.
Schools to get five portable classrooms
More classes in Bismarck schools will take place in portables next year.
The Bismarck School Board on Monday authorized moving five portables from Hughes Educational Center to several schools to accommodate growing enrollment.
The portables most recently were used for Legacy High School classes at Hughes before the new building opened last fall. They currently sit empty.
One portable will go to Sunrise Elementary, two to Highland Acres Elementary and two to Century High School.
Moving the portables will cost $50,000, which the school board approved Monday.
King said the school district has an obligation to the city to move the portables, which were fenced in this school year to open West Avenue D to traffic.
A California man bankrolling a national effort to expand the rights of crime victims and enshrine them in state constitutions has given more than $1 million to the North Dakota effort, supporters said Tuesday before turning in more than 44,000 signatures to get the measure on the November ballot.
Organizers of Marsys Law for North Dakota need Secretary of State Al Jaeger to verify at least 26,904 signatures for the measure to land on the Nov. 8 ballot. They said they gathered signatures from across the state using 15 unpaid volunteers and 30 hired petition circulators who were paid a total of $218,750.
The campaigns sole contributor is California businessman Henry Nicholas, whose sister, Marsy Nicholas, was stalked and killed by her ex-boyfriend in 1983. Their mother was confronted by the accused killer in a grocery store a week later, not realizing hed been released on bail.
Nicholas has contributed $1,052,666 to the North Dakota effort, of which $404,569 has been spent, according to figures provided by organizers Tuesday. The next campaign disclosure statements are due Friday.
Sponsoring committee chairwoman Kathleen Wrigley said the proposed constitutional protections mimic existing ones under state law.
Marsys Law for North Dakota cannot, does not and will not ever diminish the rights of the accused criminal defendants, said Wrigley, wife of Lt. Gov. Drew Wrigley.
Both the North Dakota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the North Dakota States Attorneys Association oppose the measure, saying existing protections adopted by lawmakers in 1987 and updated repeatedly since then are working and can be improved through the Legislature if needed.
Aaron Birst, executive director of the States Attorneys Association, said 70 of the groups 130 members attended its winter meeting in January, and everybody was vehemently opposed to it.
There was nothing the supporters said that caused that group to say this needs to be implemented, he said.
The measure would strengthen victims rights as listed in current state law and add them to the state constitution, including the rights to be free from intimidation, to be heard in court proceedings and to be promptly notified when a defendant is released or escapes from custody.
California and Illinois currently have versions of Marsys Law in place, and Nicholas is also pushing for it in Hawaii, Nevada, South Dakota, Kentucky, Georgia and Montana, where it qualified for the November ballot last week.
Jaeger has until June 14 to decide whether the signatures are sufficient.
Up until recently, I was a serving police detective.
After nine years of working in the police, I gave up my job to become a full time author. My job has given me a rich tapestry of memories to work from, and I've certainly met lots of interesting characters over the years.
Caroline Mitchell
My family and I were victims of paranormal attack.
Writing a book of my true life encounters with the unknown is what actually got me into writing in the first place. Had my husband not nagged me into telling our story, I don't think I would have got into writing in the first place.
I had an exorcism performed in my home.
It had to be approved by the Vatican in Rome. Sounds crazy, right? It took us over a year to gain approval, as although blessings are often conducted, exorcisms are very rare and only used in the most serious of cases. Over thirty people, many of them police officers, witnessed paranormal occurrences in our home. Looking back now, it feels like we were on the set of a horror movie.
I'm a believer in the law of attraction.
After our experiences, I found comfort in positive thinking. My friend gave me a copy of the movie 'The Secret' and I haven't looked back since. I managed to turn what was a pretty horrifying experience into something positive. I also left a job I was unhappy with to work full time as an author, and I've attracted some fantastic people into my life. I also love Buddhism and meditation, when I get the opportunity.
When I was little I wanted to be a vet
I was always bringing home strays. I grew up with a deep love for horses, and used to go joy riding on the neighbour's donkey when nobody was looking! Hey, I grew up in Ireland, it's what we did for fun back then. Thankfully Neddy was quite happy to be bribed into a leisurely stroll in return for a few carrots.
Character is everything
I spend more time developing the characters than the plot in my books. They have to be living breathing people in my mind, before I can move on with the story. I recently finished writing a psychological thriller. The antagonist, named Solomon, was such a dark character, I found it very hard to get him out of my head when I finished. My thrillers revolve around ordinary every day people, and I usually elicit sympathy for my protagonists before I turn them into monsters.
I have a soft spot
OK I admit it, I have a soft spot! All my books feature a little sex or romance, although it doesn't always end well. It's part of every day life. I enjoy writing about relationships, although that's as far as it goes. I won't be producing anything pink and fluffy anytime soon!
I have an even softer spot
Do I have to admit this? It's going to ruin my street cred! I'm not one for jewellery or expensive designer clothes. But I love gadgets, and adore teddies. My husband bought me a Charlie Bear for Christmas and he sits with me in my writing room. My next purchase is going to be an Alpaca bear. They're so soft and cuddly and ... *Ahem. There. I've said it. We must never speak of this again.
I hate mustard.
I mean hate it. I can't have it on the kitchen table. The smell makes me retch. I think I have a weird phobia that has not been invented yet. Mustard is my kryptonite. Keep that stuff away from me!
I get frightened by my own books
I'm a night owl, and often work into the wee hours. I like to write to music, usually a Hans Zimmer playlist, like Batman or Inception. One night I was in bed, writing on my Macbook as my husband snored softly beside me. The lights were off, my headphones on. I got to a particularly creepy scene in my book Time to Die, featuring serial killer the raven. The music went quiet, the raven loomed near. Then bang! The music thundered in my ears in a crescendo. I literally jumped out of my skin. Woke up hubby, almost sent my Macbook crashing to the floor. (Thankfully a one handed grab saved the day.) Nowadays I work in my writing room, with my Macbook safely placed on a table.
Several years after his last adventure, retired fortune hunter Nathan Drake is back. Forced back into the world of thieves, Drake embarks on his greatest adventure in a globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure. Every treasure has its cost and this adventure will test Drake's physical limits, his resolve, and ultimately what he's willing to sacrifice to save the ones he loves.
Credit: Sony/Naughty Dog
To celebrate the release today (May 10) of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Nathan Drake has created his very own travel guide...
Amazon Rainforest (Uncharted 1)
What you need to know: In the first instalment of Uncharted Drake's fortune, Nathan Drake & Elena Fisher escape from the fortress in a jeep, pursued by Eddy Raja's pirates in a car chase that takes them across the island. After evading the last of the pirates, Elena almost drives the jeep over the edge of a cliff, and it is left hanging over the edge. As Nate attempts to drive it back up, Eddy arrives and tells them to get out and give him the map. Nate reverses the jeep, backing it off the cliff and into the water below.
Nathan Drake's Travel Advice: When traveling through the Amazon Rainforest searching for hidden treasure it's probably a good idea to take someone you trust. Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan travelled through the jungle together in search of El Dorado, also known as The Golden Man is a large sarcophagus weighing over 500 pounds. El Dorado was hidden in the remote Amazon temple, but once Drake found El Dorado things turned nasty. Top tip to any traveller - keep your eyes on the prize at all times.
Istanbul Palace Museum (Uncharted 2)
What you need to know: The Istanbul Palace Museum is a large historical museum located along the Bosporus, in Istanbul, Turkey. The museum holds a wide variety of historical artefacts and antiquities and is frequently broken into by thieves and rogue fortune hunters. Ever since a particular intense break-in, the museum staff increased the security patrols and installed alarms throughout the various gates to help aid in capturing would-be burglars such as Nathan Drake.
Nathan Drake's Travel Advice: If you get the chance to visit The Istanbul Palace Museum then do it. The museum holds a wide variety of historical artefacts and antiquities, however thieves and rouge fortune hunters are frequently breaking in. Nathan Drake's favourite exhibition is Marco Polo, which holds an immense collection of various treasures from Marco Polo's journeys in the Far East.
Yemen (Uncharted 3)
What you need to know: Nathan Drake is always looking for clues, and in Uncharted 3 Drake's Deception, Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan visit Yemen. In ancient times Yemen was known as Arabia Felix, Latin for happy or fortunate. Today, Yemen doesn't have much fortunate but it acquired the name because its high mountains attracted rain, making it more fertile than most of the Arabian peninsula.
Nathan Drake's Travel Advice: The Yemeni city is full of buildings and markets that were built over three thousand years ago, so if you like shopping then this a great spot. In modern times, the police force is very prevalent on the streets, so be carefully and try not to look to suspicious in front of the police.
London (Uncharted 3)
What you need to know: London is one of the greatest cities in the world, but it can also be rather dangerous for someone like Nathan Drake. With so much to see and do in the capital it's probably a good idea to use the underground. London's tourist attractions are a must for any visitor, places like London Eye, Tower Bridge, and Buckingham Palace are highly recommended. In chapter 5 Drake discovers a secret entrance which leads to a leads to a makeshift tunnel which turns out to be a Underground train station from Victorian times.
Nathan Drake's Travel Advice: From the grimy backstreets of London through to the underground, you just can't beat being in London, especially when you're on the run. Nathan Drake travelled to London with a couple of friends, he and his crew had a blast. Drake managed to break into a warehouse and find a makeshift tunnel. Top tip when trying to escape from the bad guys - head to Victorian train station and find the secret door.
Madagascar (Uncharted 4)
Forests Of Madagascar: What you need to know:. Madagascar, an island country in the Indian Ocean off the south eastern coast of Africa, has one of the most diverse collections of plant and animal life on Earth. Even though Madagascar's rain forest receives more than 100 inches of rain annually, Nathan Drake , his brother Sam, and trusted mentor Sully are still heading to Madagascar for the lost treasure of the infamous pirate Henry Avery. Their journey takes them to an expansive valley that surrounds a volcano.
Nathan Drake's Travel Advice: When touring Madagascar make sure you carry a good old fashion map. GPS trackers and satellite phones don't stand a chance out here, so make sure you brush up on your map reading skills. Luckily you don't have worry about exploding volcanos, but be warned there's quite a few unsavoury characters wondering around in Madagascar so stay alert.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is out now.
An Eagles of Death Metal fan had their ear bitten off by an audience member at their concert.
Eagles of Death Metal star Jesse Hughes
The 'I Want You So Hard' hitmakers - which includes Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme - were performing at the Opera House in Toronto on Saturday night (07.05.16) when the bloody incident occurred.
An anonymous Universal Music employee wrote to local broadcaster Alan Cross recalling the incident and explained how one man literally bit off another's body part and they had to pick it up off the ground just in case it could be mended.
The note published on Alan's blog www.ajournalofmusicalthings.com, read: "Some guys just got into a fight in front of us and the one guy but off the other guys ears.
"I am not joking. It was the most f***ed up thing I have ever seen. We had to get security to pick up his earn in case they can fix it.
"Just sharing because it happened right where we were standing."
Athena Ellinas-Towers, the general manager of the Opera House, claims one man was arrested on the scene.
She told website Aux.tv: "I didn't witness anything, but there was a confrontation between two individuals."
She also said that a gig-goer found the ear and gave it to a venue staff member, who "put it on ice" before medical staff arrived.
She added: "This is a first, let's say. I didn't actually believe it when someone came up to me and told me what happened. It's just bizarre."
Toronto police have since confirmed the incident and that one man was charged with aggravated assault, while the victim was rushed to hospital, according to Toronto's CBC News.
A representative for the heavy metal band are yet to comment on the incident.
Grammy Award winning artist Ziggy Marley will be releasing his self-titled sixth studio album later this month, after recording and producing the record in Los Angeles.
Ziggy Marley
Marking his first new release in two years, the material on the new LP is "all connected, and it opened up the scope", according to Ziggy himself.
As a continuation of the ideology and philosophy presented on 2014 record 'Fly Rasta', he explains: "I learned so much during that process. Now, I'm taking this mindset and fulfilling a larger dream. I learned how to be more free and not to hesitate when it comes to exploring musical ideas. There's a big difference lyrically.
"With my new record, I wanted to address my feelings about what's happening outside of myself and in the world, how I see what I see, and solutions I have in mind. It's very confident and direct. My fingerprint is on it more deeply. The world needs this message."
Chatting more about the album, he adds: "This album is about the struggles of humanity. I'm not singing about my own struggle but that of the human family - which I feel a strong connection to. I found myself emotionally and consciously affected by the plight of our species in general. We're all family. We can't let ego be the driver; truth has to be the driver. We have to help each other."
Two tracks from the album were recently premiered on a new episode of CBS hit series Hawaii 5-0, whilst Ziggy also made his acting debut in the same episode in the recurring role of character Bones.
'Ziggy Marley' is officially released on May 20 via Tuff Gong Worldwide.
by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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Graham Norton will urge the nation to "raise a glass" to Sir Terry Wogan during the Eurovision song contest.
Graham Norton
The 53-year-old presenter took over from the late broadcaster as commentator on the show after 35 years in 2009 and will be remembering the advice his friend - who passed away in January following a "short but brave" battle with cancer - gave him when handing over the microphone.
He said: "I'll be raising a glass of wine to Sir Terry on song number nine. That was his advice to me when I took over from him - don't open the bottle until song nine. I will be able encouraging everyone to raise a glass too.
"Terry elevated Eurovision into the thing it is now and it is such a great gig to get. I'm personally indebted to him for what he did to the role."
Graham is still stunned to have landed the job and can't see himself wanting to leave.
He said: "It's one of the things I never thought I would ever get to do. And what's great is I get to sit in Stockholm commentating on it when I would be at home watching it anyway... By the time Terry had finished, you could see he'd had enough. But I'm still madly in love with Eurovision at the moment."
Last year, Australia became the first non-European nation to take part in the competition to mark its 60th birthday, and Graham isn't happy they have been invited back again this year.
Asked what he'd like to change, he told OK! magazine: "Get rid of Australia! I really don't understand it. They aren't in Europe. Australia is on the other side of the world."
EastEnders legend Grant Mitchell is back in Walford next week, as Ross Kemp returns to the Square for some action-packed drama ahead of Barbara Windsor bowing out of the soap forever with her character Peggy Mitchell's death.
Credit: BBC
Back to London from Portugal, Grant will be bumping into some familiar faces during his time back on the East End, and he ends up frustrating his mother Peggy when he and Phil decide to join forces to take care of her.
Credit: BBC
In April, Kemp teased his forthcoming appearance on the soap by posting a picture straight from the set next to the Albert Square sign:
He also posted a glimpse of his script and a picture which showed him rehearsing lines, telling fans that he would have to get used to 5am starts once again.
To see all 35 first look pictures from some of Grant's first new scenes in the soap, check out the gallery below:
by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk
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Uganda's Southern Range Textiles Limited, which bought Nyanza Textile Industries Limited (NYTIL), has said it has started importing cotton from Tanzania because local production is not enough to meet its requirement.William Okello, logistics manager of Southern Range Textiles, told journalists during the installation of new machines at the factory recently, that Uganda's cotton production which originally stood at 100,000 bales per annum, has plunged to 80,000 bales while the demand for cotton has shot up to 150,000 bales per year.
Uganda's Southern Range Textiles Limited, which bought Nyanza Textile Industries Limited (NYTIL), has said it has started importing cotton from Tanzania because local production is not enough to meet its requirement. William Okello, logistics manager of Southern Range Textiles, told journalists during the installation of new machines at the factory#
Uganda used to be a cotton exporter but the situation has now changed.Most of the areas which grew cotton in the east, north and south western Uganda, are now growing SimSim, sun flower, cassava and rice and this has reduced cotton production, he said now they only have Kasese and Tanzania as sources of cotton.Okello urged the Cotton Development Authority to encourage farmers to resume growing the crop. He said a host of factors have combined to deter farmers from cultivating cotton.It is labour intensive, costs of inputs such as pesticides and fertilisers are too expensive and yet the equipment we are commissioning today is meant to meet the national demand for fabrics, he said. (SH)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk India
Mayer & Cie, Albstadt based knitting machine manufacturers order entry in 2quarter of 2016 has reached the highest in around 30 years. The company expects to manufacture about 1,500 machines majorly for international customers by the years end. China, followed by India and Turkey are by far the largest markets.
Looking at our order entry since 1 January 2016, the current level is one that we last reached in the boom years at the end of the 1990s, said Wolfgang Muller, sales director at Mayer & Cie.
There is a definite trend toward high quality machines. It was already apparent at the 2015 international textile machinery fair in Milan and it runs across the entire market from Bangladesh to the United States. And the high quality segment, such as double jersey or jacquard machines, has always been our strong point, added Muller.
Mayer & Cie, Albstadt based knitting machine manufacturer's order entry in 2nd quarter of 2016 has reached the highest in around 30 years. The company expects to manufacture about 1,500 machines majorly for international customers by the year's end. China, followed by India and Turkey are by far the largest markets. Looking at our order entry since #
Along with the increasing importance of quality more is being produced in the traditional textile markets, which is where Mayer & Cie is very well established, Muller explained.
In 2015 the company has sold around 1,300 machines most of them were high quality jacquard and double jersey machines. China accounted the highest orders followed by India and Turkey. More distant regions with a long textile industry tradition especially Central and South America had also been placing more orders.
That is remarkable in as much as labour costs have risen significantly there. Ready-made goods in China are on the decline once more, but fabric manufacture is a different story, Muller concluded. (NA)
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
Supporters of a proposed crime victims rights constitutional measure say a vigorous effort by volunteers was key in gathering petition signatures that will be turned in today.
Marsys Law for North Dakota spokeswoman Marsha Lembke said the group began ramping up signature-gathering efforts in mid-March.
We were over 40,000 the last I knew. Its North Dakotas time to take care of our victims, Lembke said.
Group members will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. today in Memorial Hall prior to delivering their petitions to the secretary of states office.
Being a constitutional measure, 26,904 legitimate signatures are required to be turned in by July 11 for inclusion on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The proposed constitutional amendment is inspired by Marsys Law, a victims bill of rights law first passed in California in 2008. Supporters have said criminals rights are outlined in the constitution but victims rights are only in statute, adding that victims should be on the same level.
The North Dakota language includes provisions allowing for notification of hearings in the judicial process and notification if the accused person escapes custody. It also calls for taking victims and their familys welfare into consideration when setting bail for criminals.
Lembke said some of the petition circulators were paid but didnt have an exact number on how many.
Efforts to pass Marsys Law came following the death of Marsalee Marsy Nicholas, who was stalked and killed by her ex-boyfriend in California in 1983. Nicholas brother was the main proponent of the law.
Three other measures, all statutory initiated measures requiring 13,452 signatures by July 11, are still being circulated.
Medical marijuana
A group looking to put a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot has gathered about two-thirds of the necessary signatures.
Were hovering right around 9,000 signatures. Wed like to get about another 6,000. Weve got a little bit of work to do, North Dakota Committee for Medical Marijuana chairman Riley Ray Morgan, adding response to petition circulators has been mixed so far but he expects the group to meet its target.
Morgan said he also anticipates opposition from law enforcement once the issue makes it on the ballot.
If passed, the measure would allow people to have up to 3 ounces of medical marijuana for treatment of nearly a dozen medical conditions. Facilities for medical marijuana distribution would be licensed by the state Health Department and operated by nonprofit organizations. Those more than 40 miles from a licensed facility would be able to grow as many as eight marijuana plants in an enclosed facility after providing notification to law enforcement.
Marijuana legalization
A second marijuana measure is being circulated, this one for its legalization.
Committee chairman Eric Olson said the group has gathered more than 7,500 signatures and would like to get as close to 20,000 as possible.
I dont expect public opposition until we have ballot access, Olson said.
Group members are looking 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.
Tobacco tax
Kristie Wolff, with the American Lung Association in North Dakota, said the Raise It for Health North Dakota group expects to have updated signature numbers later this week.
The measure would increase the tobacco tax for cigarettes in North Dakota from 44 cents per pack to $2.20. Taxes on liquid nicotine products would be increased from 28 percent of the wholesale purchase price to 56 percent.
Current allocations of tobacco tax dollars going to the state general fund and to cities would be held harmless.
New tax revenues created through the measure, estimated at about $100 million per biennium, would be split between health-related programs in the states Community Health Trust Fund as well as a newly created Veterans Tobacco Tax Trust Fund.
For more information on ballot measures, visit www.sos.nd.gov.
The Fijian Government will continue its work to expand public access to wireless broadband internet. This announcement was made by Attorney-General and Minister of Communications Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum following a meeting with Digicel Board Chairman Denis OBrien.
The AG emphasised the need for more expansive and robust telecommunications infrastructure to meet the increased demands from consumers for both greater wireless internet access and faster download speeds.
Smart phones are becoming more prevalent throughout the country and that can mean faster and better access to information for the Fijian people. However, that is only possible if our telecommunications capabilities grow at a commensurate rate and we look forward to working with Digicel to make that happen, he said.
The AG and Mr. OBrien went on to discuss specific areas of future development in Fijis telecommunications sector.
Digicel acknowledged their strong relationship with Government since their arrival to Fiji in 2008 and the AG thanked Digicel for their continued work in bringing high-quality mobile network services to Fiji.
The Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts Hon. Mahendra Reddys recent tour to Taveuni indicates the Ministrys proactive plans in restoring an improvement in teaching and learning in rural schools.
This was highlighted by the deputy secretary for Education, Timoci Bure, who accompanied the Minister to the island of Taveuni.
The Hon. Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts, Deputy Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education, the Director of Secondary Education, the Principal Education Officer Primary Education and the Education Officer Public Relations with the Ministers Office were part of the delegation now spearheading a thorough vetting of improvements before recommending schools to have a fully funded revamped infrastructure by donor countries who have chosen to adopt repairs for rural or damaged schools by TC Winston.
President of the Rotary Club of Taveuni, Geoffrey Amos said, I am indeed happy with Dr Mahendra Reddys action. I have heard the Minister is here for the second round of visit. I believe Minister Reddy has now seen the worst left behind by TC Winston and I hope that Government ensures money spent on rebuilding schools be worth the value of the infrastructural materials purchased for the rehabilitation works. School buildings must meet the required building standards that can withstand natural disasters.
Schools visited by Minister Reddy included Bucalevu Secondary School, Salialevu Primary School, Navakawau Primary School, Vuna District School, South Taveuni Primary and Secondary Schools and Holy Cross Secondary School.
Strange! Isn't it? But Daisy Shah actually does not want her good friend Salman Khan to tie the knot with the Romanian beauty.
When Daisy Shah was asked at an awards function on May 9th by Indian Express about Salman's rumoured impending marriage to Iulia Vantur, she said, "I am against marriage. So I wouldn't want my friends to get married as well."
Click On VIEW PHOTOS To See Some Candid Pics Of Salman & Daisy
Also the actress denied the reports about tiff between her and Iula Vantur, "This nothing but hearsay. There is absolutely no truth to it."
Coming back to Salman Khan's marriage, very recently a blind item in Mumbai Mirror stated that he is getting married to Iulia by the end of this year. ''So the not-young and single superstar may well be married by the year's end.''
''The forever bachelor has decided that nuff's nuff. We hear his current girlfriend, a foreigner, may soon end up being the most powerful woman in the film biz. Not an enviable spot we assure you, for it isn't her love that will make him pop a ring. Rather it's his ailing mum, who wants to see her baby boy well taken care of. Oh, the more things change.'
Salman Khan and Iulia Vantur met during the shooting of Jai Ho. Soon after their meeting the two started to date each other.
But many recent reports say that Iulia Vantur does not like Salman Khan's closeness with his actress friends Daisy Shah and Katrina Kaif. Well, we don't really blame Iulia for this!
Entering Duddells, a Cantonese restaurant based on the top two levels of Shanghai Tang Mansion in Hong Kong, is like being welcomed into the eccentric home of a reputable art collector.
Patrons get to sample dim sum or popular local dishes deemed worthy of two Michelin stars, while gazing at the new art exhibitions regularly featured on both levels.
We dont sell art directly to patrons, but we do introduce people to the galleries of participating curators, Shormi Ahmed, head of art for Duddells, told FinanceAsia. Level three displays 19th and 20th century Chinese ink and brush art from the M.K. Lau collection, while level four has contemporary shows.
The 11th contemporary exhibition, running until June 21, features New York-born South Korean artist Margaret Lee in Duddells x DMA: Concentrations HK, curated by Gabriel Ritter from the Dallas (Texas) Museum of Art. It is the first overseas project of the series of Concentrations from the DMA, which provides a platform for international emerging and underrepresented artists.
Lees work includes an intriguing shower fixture with a porcelain sink with a bowl containing a white ceramic, halved Napa cabbage and an Asian eggplant, along with two painterly photographs that explore those images. She intends these works to suggest object and gesture as embodiments of desire.
'Concentrations'
Asians have owned gesture for centuries, the history of calligraphy and ink, relating to the body/movement of the body, Lee told FinanceAsia. Is Asian gesture ever held to the same critical acclaim as western gesture - though the ideas behind, say apex, might not be so dissimilar to western gestural painting? I want to neutralise hierarchies.
She noted that the art form of abstract expressionism is often tied to masculinity. The shower and sink in Lees exhibit echo Duchamps Fountain, which scandalised Paris in 1917. Yet Lees objects and the images suggest a fluidity of gender not present in art until more modern times.
Located on the staircase to the fourth floor, these works precede a series of drawings in the salon that echo the showerhead theme, drawn in the artists hotel room.
Meanwhile a number of Lees photographs are based in the library. These include a portrait of George Washington, a Judd chair and a mysterious building. Each echo Abstract Expressionism but with a feminist twist.
Daniel Ng, who left China Merchants Securities (HK) last October, has returned to Bank of China International to head its investment banking division, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Ng joined China's oldest investment bank last month to replace the already-departed Li Xin, who had previously overseen investment banking at BOCI. Ng will continue to be based in Hong Kong, both people said.
A spokesperson for BOCI confirmed that Ng had joined the bank but declined to offer more details about his position.
According to a fourth banking source, Li is set to join Everbright Securities International, a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Everbright Securities. Prior to his stint at BOCI, which began in 2011, Li worked at the risk management department of Bank of China in Beijing, the person said.
BOCI, one of China's biggest investment banks, is currently led by its first female chief executive Li Tong, a so-called princeling and daughter of Li Changchun, the countrys former propaganda chief.
Since taking the helm in 2012, the bank under Li has performed strongly in debt capital markets and expanded its role as a manager of initial public offerings and advisor on mergers and acquisitions, including China Minmetals $7 billion acquisition of the Las Bambas copper mine in 2014.
In June 2015, BOCI lead-managed parent Bank of Chinas $4 billion Silk Road bond issuance, the worlds first multi-billion four-currency bond, to help fund the countrys grand development blueprint for regional infrastructure.
The combined investment banking revenues of BOCI and BOC place it eighth in Asia (ex-Japan) so far this year -- ahead of Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank but behind Citic Securities and GF Securities, according to data provider Dealogic. At $74 million, the revenues generated by the two give it a 2.5% share of the region's investment banking market, the data shows.
Ngs BOCI hire comes after he quit CMS (HK) in October 2015. Ng had been at the brokerage arm of the state-owned conglomerate China Merchants Group since 2012 and was most recently head of its investment banking and deputy CEO.
Prior to that Ng worked at BOCI from 2004, rising to vice chairman of investment banking. He has also held positions at Schroders, Bear Stearns, and Standard Chartered and sat on the listing committee of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing from 2009 to 2015.
He holds a master in law from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Rochester. He attended Indiana University as an undergraduate.
Additional reporting by Danny Leung
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/09/16 -- Boughton Law was proud to participate in the Great Vancouver Shoreline Cleanup for the fourth year in a row on Saturday. A team of 25 people comprised of staff, lawyers, and their families from the Vancouver-based law firm gathered at Spanish Banks to do their part in cleaning up Vancouver's shores.
Originating in 1994, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup empowers thousands of Canadians to combat coastline litter by participating in organized cleanups every year. This program is jointly led by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Vancouver Aquarium and operates in partnership with the Keep Vancouver Spectacular initiative, all of which share the goal of encouraging Canadians to do their part in rehabilitating beach areas through cleanups. The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup also collaborates with international organizations such as the International Coastal Cleanup and the Trash Free Seas Alliance, making it one of the largest direct action environmental programs in Canada as well as the third largest clean-up in the world.
As a uniquely West Coast firm, Boughton Law is eager to do their part in preserving the region's shorelines and has participated in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup since 2013. Equipped with garbage pickers and bags, the Boughton Law team helped in collecting cigarette butts, food wrappers, plastic bottles and many other pieces of garbage, all of which threaten the lives of wildlife and reduce the water quality. In 2015, the collective efforts of cleanups across Canada resulted in 15,776 bags filled, totally nearly 176,000 kgs of garbage removed.
"All of us at Boughton Law understand the importance of coming together to get our hands dirty and give back to our community," said Jordan Dixon, Chief Financial and Operating Officer at Boughton Law. "Our involvement in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is one way we contribute to improving the community in which we live and play."
For more information on the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, please visit www.shorelinecleanup.ca. To learn more about Boughton Law, please click here.
About Boughton Law
Boughton Law is a Vancouver-based, premier law firm servicing organizations and individuals for business, dispute resolution, personal and public sector related legal matters. Boughton Law offers a full range of legal services regionally through its downtown Vancouver office, and beyond the borders of British Columbia through an affiliation with Meritas, an international network of mid-size independent law firms. Bound by innovation, not tradition, Boughton Law continues to redefine the way it practices law. www.boughtonlaw.com.
Contacts:
Media Inquiries:
Alison Gallagher
Talk Shop Media
604.738.2220
alison@talkshopmedia.com
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/09/16 -- Entree Gold Inc. (TSX: ETG)(NYSE MKT: EGI)(FRANKFURT: EKA) ("Entree" or the "Company") has today filed its interim operational and financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. All numbers are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.
COMPANY DEVELOPMENTS
Notice to Proceed Approval for Underground Development at Oyu Tolgoi
On May 5/6, 2016, formal 'notice to proceed' approval was given for the next stage of development of the world-class Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia by the boards of Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. ("Turquoise Hill"), Rio Tinto and Entree's joint venture partner, Oyu Tolgoi LLC ("OTLLC"). Turquoise Hill announced that this was the final requirement for the re-start of underground development of the first lift of the Hugo North block cave ("Lift 1"), including Lift 1 of the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi joint venture's Hugo North Extension deposit.
OTLLC is targeting underground construction to begin in mid-2016.
Expenditures Reduced
Q1 2016 exploration and general and administration expenditures of approximately $498,000 and $605,000, respectively were reduced by 74% and 36% compared to the same quarter in 2015 as a result of the Company's objective to reduce expenditures which commenced in the second half of 2015.
Sandstorm Equity Participation and Funding Agreement Amendment
The Company entered into an agreement with Sandstorm Gold Ltd. to amend the Equity Participation and Funding Agreement dated February 14, 2013 (the "2013 Agreement"). The agreement to amend resulted in a 17% reduction in the metal credits that Entree is required to sell and deliver to Sandstorm under the 2013 Agreement. In return, Entree refunded a portion of the original $40 million deposit by paying $5.5 million in cash and issuing $1.3 million of common shares of the Company.
OUTLOOK AND STRATEGY
Entree is primarily focused on advancing its principal properties in Mongolia and Nevada. In addition, Entree is engaged in evaluating acquisition opportunities which are complementary to its existing projects in mining friendly jurisdictions. The commodities Entree is most likely to pursue include copper, gold and molybdenum and other base metals. Entree will consider both small and large projects if they demonstrate potential to add shareholder value in the short to medium term.
The Company expects to spend between $3 million and $3.7 million for the 2016 year, which is discussed below.
Corporate
Entree has not generated any revenue from operations since its incorporation and Entree anticipates that it will continue to incur operating expenses without revenues until (i) the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi joint venture property in Mongolia is brought into production; (ii) it builds and operates a mine on one or more of its other mineral properties; or (iii) it completes a value accretive sale transaction on one or more of its current or future assets.
The Company has focused, and will continue to focus its efforts on conserving cash reserves. Recent efforts include adjustments to operations including rationalizing land holdings in Mongolia, reducing staff levels in each of Mongolia, Canada and the United States as well as reducing certain other overhead expenditures. The Company anticipates regular course corporate expenditures, including general and administrative, legal and filing related fees, and corporate overhead costs to be in the range of $1.8 million to $2.1 million for the 2016 year.
Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property
Entree has a 20% carried interest in two of the Oyu Tolgoi project deposits - the Hugo North Extension copper-gold deposit and the Heruga copper-gold-molybdenum deposit (the "Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property"). These deposits are the northern-most and southern-most, respectively, in the 12 kilometre-long Oyu Tolgoi series of deposits. The resources at Hugo North Extension include a Probable reserve, which is included in Lift 1 of underground mine development. A second lift for the Oyu Tolgoi underground block cave operation, including additional resources from Hugo North Extension, has been proposed but has not yet been modeled within the existing mine plan.
In Q1 2016, the Company remained focused on engagement with partners and other local Mongolian stakeholders, and on completing an updated technical report for the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property.
OTLLC is currently targeting underground construction to begin in mid-2016. This follows the $4.4 billion finance facility (with provision for up to $6 billion) that was signed by OTLLC in December 2015 for underground mine development at the Oyu Tolgoi project, including Lift 1 of the Hugo North Extension deposit. Formal 'notice to proceed' approval from the boards of Turquoise Hill, Rio Tinto and OTLLC was received and announced on May 5/6, 2016. All necessary permits have been granted. Turquoise Hill announced that the updated Oyu Tolgoi Feasibility Study was completed and it expects to release a technical report in the second half of 2016.
Exploration and development of the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property is under the control of Rio Tinto on behalf of manager OTLLC. The 2016 exploration program and budget for the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property has been prepared by OTLLC. OTLLC's exploration strategy is focused on developing a project pipeline in areas that can impact the current development of the Oyu Tolgoi deposits, seeking low-cost development options and continuing assessment of legacy datasets to enable future discoveries. Castle Rock on the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property is one of the identified priority targets that will be the focus of the future exploration program.
Under the terms of the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV, Entree elected to have OTLLC debt finance Entree's share of costs on the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi JV Property, with interest accruing at OTLLC's actual cost of capital or prime plus 2%, whichever is less, at the date of the advance. As at March 31, 2016, the total amount that OTLLC has contributed to costs on the Company's behalf, including interest, was $6.9 million.
The Company estimates direct expenditures of between $400,000 and $550,000 for the 2016 year to be spent on internal technical review, legal costs and general administration in Mongolia.
Ann Mason Project
With the completion of the 2015 exploration, baseline environmental and metallurgy programs and the release of an updated PEA on its 100% owned Ann Mason Project in Nevada, the Company has taken a decision to reduce expenditures at Ann Mason while it considers the most appropriate path to maximize shareholder value from the project going forward which may include the introduction of a strategic development partner. The Company estimates expenditures including claim filing fees and site maintenance will be between $700,000 and $850,000 for the 2016 year.
Other Properties
All of the Company's other assets have been placed in care and maintenance while management evaluates the best alternatives for each asset in the future. Expenditures for 2016 are expected to be limited to license fees and local administration costs.
The Company estimates expenditures of between $150,000 and $200,000 for the 2016 year.
FIRST QUARTER 2016 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tabled amounts below in USD 000's Q1 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exploration $ (498) General and administration (605) Depreciation (9) Foreign exchange (loss) gain (434) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Loss from operations (1,546) Interest expense and equity investee loss (86) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net loss (1,632) Foreign currency translation adjustment 1,399 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comprehensive loss $ (233) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash outflow from operating activities before changes in working capital $ (887) Decrease in receivables, prepaids and other assets 55 Decrease in payables (916) Refund payment to Sandstorm (5,500) Cash receipts from stock option exercises 11 Cash payments to acquire equipment, net (3) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cash balance at March 31, 2016 $ 15,546 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Company's Interim Financial Statements and accompanying management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 and its Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015 are available on the Company website at www.entreegold.com, SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov.
QUALIFIED PERSON
Robert Cinits, P.Geo., Entree's Vice President, Corporate Development, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has approved the technical information in this release.
ABOUT ENTREE GOLD INC.
Entree Gold Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration company balancing opportunity and risk with key assets in Mongolia and Nevada. As a joint venture partner with a carried interest on a portion of the Oyu Tolgoi mining project in Mongolia, Entree has a unique opportunity to participate in one of the world's largest copper-gold projects managed by one of the premier mining companies - Rio Tinto. Oyu Tolgoi, with its series of deposits containing copper, gold and molybdenum, has been under exploration and development since the late 1990s. Additionally, Entree has also been advancing its Ann Mason Project in one of the world's most favourable mining jurisdictions, Nevada. The Ann Mason Project hosts the Ann Mason copper-molybdenum deposit as well as the Blue Hill copper deposit within the rejuvenated Yerington copper camp.
Sandstorm Gold, Rio Tinto and Turquoise Hill Resources are major shareholders of Entree, holding approximately 15%, 11% and 9% of issued and outstanding shares, respectively.
This News Release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to anticipated expenditures, budgets and ongoing efforts to conserve cash; construction and continued development of the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine; plans for future exploration and/or development programs and budgets; anticipated business activities; corporate strategies; requirements for additional capital; uses of funds; proposed acquisitions and dispositions of assets; and future financial performance.
In certain cases, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budgeted", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". While the Company has based these forward-looking statements on its expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee of Entree's future performance and are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies, local and global economic conditions, legal proceedings and negotiations and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the status of the Company's relationship and interaction with the Government of Mongolia, OTLLC, Rio Tinto and Turquoise Hill. With respect to the construction and continued development of the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine, important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information include, amongst others, the approval of the updated Oyu Tolgoi Feasibility Study by OTLLC and its shareholders; the timing and cost of the construction and expansion of mining and processing facilities; the timing and availability of a long term power source for the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine; the timing to satisfy all conditions precedent to the first drawdown of project financing; the impact of the delay in the funding and development of the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine; delays, and the costs which would result from delays, in the development of the underground mine; and production estimates and the anticipated yearly production of copper, gold and silver at the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine.
Other uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by forward-looking statements and information include, amongst others, whether the size, grade and continuity of deposits and resource and reserve estimates have been interpreted correctly from exploration results; whether the results of preliminary test work are indicative of what the results of future test work will be; fluctuations in commodity prices and demand; changing foreign exchange rates; actions by Rio Tinto, Turquoise Hill and/or OTLLC and by government authorities including the Government of Mongolia; the availability of funding on reasonable terms; the impact of changes in interpretation to or changes in enforcement of, laws, regulations and government practices, including laws, regulations and government practices with respect to mining, foreign investment, royalties and taxation; the terms and timing of obtaining necessary environmental and other government approvals, consents and permits; the availability and cost of necessary items such as power, water, skilled labour, transportation and appropriate smelting and refining arrangements; and misjudgements in the course of preparing forward-looking statements. In addition, there are also known and unknown risk factors which may cause the actual results, performances or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to international operations, including legal and political risk in Mongolia; risks associated with changes in the attitudes of governments to foreign investment; risks associated with the conduct of joint ventures; discrepancies between actual and anticipated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries; global financial conditions; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; inability to upgrade Inferred mineral resources to Indicated or Measured mineral resources; inability to convert mineral resources to mineral reserves; conclusions of economic evaluations; future prices of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining government approvals, permits or licences or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities; environmental risks; title disputes; limitations on insurance coverage; as well as those factors described in the Company's most recently filed Management's Discussion and Analysis and in the Company's Annual Information Form for the financial year ended December 31, 2015, dated March 30, 2016 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com.
Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws.
Contacts:
Entree Gold Inc.
Monica Hamm
Manager Investor Relations
604-687-4777 or Toll Free: 866-368-7330
604-687-4770 (FAX)
mhamm@entreegold.com
www.entreegold.com
ROME (dpa-AFX) - Dean Foods Co. (DF) announced that it has agreed to acquire the manufacturing and retail ice cream business from an affiliate of Friendly's Ice Cream, LLC , a leading ice cream and dining brand in the Northeast U.S., for $155 million in cash.
Friendly's Ice Cream, with $166 million in net sales in 2015, is an iconic brand that produces popular packaged ice cream and other frozen dessert products, including single-serve sundae cups, novelty items, cakes and rolls. Friendly's distributes these products in over 8,000 retail outlets. Founded in 1935, the brand has a rich heritage and a long history of delighting consumers.
The acquisition of Friendly's Ice Cream is expected to be immediately accretive to margins and earnings, and Dean Foods expects that the acquisition will add approximately $0.06 earnings per share accretion in 2016. At closing, Dean Foods intends to fund the transaction with cash on hand and our existing revolving facilities.
In addition to acquiring Friendly's manufacturing and retail ice cream business, Dean Foods will acquire the Friendly's trademark as well as all intellectual property associated with the ice cream business. Friendly's Restaurants, a leading family-dining restaurant chain with over 260 locations in the U.S., will continue to be owned and operated by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc. and will license use of the Friendly's trademark under a license agreement entered into as part of the transaction.
The transaction is expected to close late in the second quarter of 2016, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Following the close of the transaction, Friendly's Ice Cream will continue to operate out of its facility in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and the senior management team of Friendly's Ice Cream will continue to lead the business.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Tata Steel Europe has announced that seven expressions of interest submitted for Tata Steel's UK business have been immediately taken forward to the next stage of the sale process. In addition, Tata Steel Europe clarified outstanding points with a number of other parties who have submitted an expression of interest. The remaining parties who submitted expressions of interest have been informed that their expressions would not be taken forward currently. As previously announced it is Tata Steel Europe's primary intention to assess expressions of interest for the whole of Tata Steel's UK business. The seven expressions of interest being immediately taken forward are on this basis. Expressions of interest for parts of the UK business are not being taken forward at this point. In the next phase of the sales process the progressing interested parties will be given access to further business information and management team presentations in order for them to rapidly progress their interest to a binding stage. 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.
Montana finally has a plan for transitioning severely disabled adults into community care and out of an institution long plagued with abuse and neglect.
A year ago, lawmakers and Gov. Steve Bullock agreed that residents of the Montana Developmental Center at Boulder should be transitioned to community care and that MDC should be closed.
At the most recent meeting of the MDC Transition Advisory Council, state budget director Dan Villa presented a plan for carrying out the new law. The law aims to protect the rights of people with disabilities, rights that already are guaranteed in the Americans with Disabilities Act and affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
When Senate Bill 411 was passed last spring, about half of the 50 residents at MDC already were on waiting lists to be moved to community homes. However, there werent community homes for them. Montana paid for placements for less disabled persons and it funded MDC where annual spending equaled about $275,000 per person. There was no community step-down alternative for these folks, some of whom are both developmentally disabled and mentally ill. A few also have history of violent behavior.
As of April 25, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services had agreed upon cost and service plans for 34 MDC residents with one of three private nonprofit care providers: AWARE, Benchmark and Quality of Life Concepts. As of April 25, eight of those individuals already had been transitioned to community homes and 13 more were expected to transition this month.
Nobody is saying this community care will be cheap. These individuals require 24/7 care. But consider that the state has been spending about $275,000 per person to provide a year of institutional care that violates their right to live in the least restrictive environment.
The MDC advisory council was informed that the state has paid transition stipends totaling $1.26 million to the providers who have agreed to care for 34 residents. The providers get to keep the stipends if they care for these individuals for 12 months. The care providers also will receive Medicaid reimbursement with the federal government paying most of that cost.
DPHHS plans to propose changes in the Medicaid rate structure for clients who would have been served by MDC. The proposed changes are expected to be the subject of public hearings this fall, and then would need approval of the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to take effect.
The plan also calls for:
Opening up to eight four-person community group homes. The rationale is that the state would have to serve individuals who cant be served by private providers in the future.
Maintaining a 12-person unit at Boulder for individuals who require temporary security that cant be provided in the community.
The state-run group homes and 12-person Boulder unit would require legislative approval, as would other points in the transition plan that propose compensation for the city of Boulder.
The reason for this transition isnt to help or hurt Boulder. Nor is it to create or preserve jobs. This transition is about upholding the rights of disabled Montanans.
Our position is that institutions are not a way to care for people, said Joel Peden, who lobbies for the states four private, nonprofit independent living centers. Other states have figured out how to do that. Were not breaking new ground.
Charlie Briggs, who serves on the board of Disability Rights Montana and represents that advocacy group on the MDC advisory council, said many important details must still be worked out over time. But he is pleased that the state has a plan and that it was endorsed by the council at its meeting last week.
Lawmakers got it right when they declared in Senate Bill 411: It is the intent of the legislature to provide services to individuals with developmental disabilities in the community, as established in (state law), and to close the Montana developmental center.
Now the executive branch must carry out that noble directive.
Billings (Mont.) Gazette
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The New Zealand dollar drifted lower against its key counterparts in Asian deals on Tuesday, as New Zealand's Finance Minister Bill English said that he expects the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to impose tighter controls to dampen lending growth in the Auckland housing market, which could be announced in its financial stability report due Wednesday.
English indicated that the RBNZ is considering a third round of tighter Loan to Value Ratio, or LVR, controls in response to another resurgence in the Auckland housing market.
'The bank has signaled pretty clearly that it takes the issue quite seriously and they've got a range of tools and they're likely to want to use them,' English told reporters.
Oil prices fell, amid a higher U.S. dollar and on speculation that Canada's oil sands will be spared from approaching wildfires.
Data from Statistics New Zealand showed that New Zealand's credit card spending rose a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent on month in April.
That follows the 0.4 percent increase in March.
The kiwi was weaker against most major rivals on Monday. It dropped 1 percent against the greenback, 0.9 percent against the euro and 0.4 percent against the aussie for the day.
In Asian deals, the kiwi dropped to a 5-day low of 1.0864 against the aussie, near 3-month low of 1.6906 against the euro and a 1-1/2-month low of 0.6733 against the greenback, down from yesterday's closing values of 1.0804, 1.6810 and 0.6767, respectively. The kiwi is seen finding support around 1.095 against the aussie, 0.70 against the euro and 0.65 against the greenback.
Retreating from an early high of 73.47 against the Japanese yen, the kiwi edged down to a 2-day low of 73.00. On the downside, 72.00 is likely seen as the next support level for the kiwi.
Looking ahead, Swiss jobless rate for April and German industrial production and trade data for March are due in the pre-European session.
At 4:30 am ET, U.K. trade data for March is set for release.
U.S. wholesale sales for March will be out in the New York session.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Product photos are available at http://bit.ly/1qao6sy
Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. is recalling Ajinomoto brand Yakitori Chicken with Japanese-Style Fried Rice from the marketplace due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Consumers should not consume the recalled product described below.
The recalled product has been sold by Costco warehouse locations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
In addition, Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. has indicated that some Costco warehouse locations did provide free food samples of the recalled product in recent months.
Recalled product
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brand Product Size UPC Codes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ajinomoto Yakitori 1.53 kg 0 71757 05642 8 BB/MA 16 JL 01 to Chicken with 17 MA 07 inclusive Japanese-Style Fried Rice ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
What you should do
If you think you became sick from eating a recalled product, call your doctor.
Check to see if you have recalled product in your home. Recalled product should be thrown out or returned to the store where it was purchased.
Food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick. Symptoms can include vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache and neck stiffness. Pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk. Although infected pregnant women may experience only mild, flu-like symptoms, the infection can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn or even stillbirth. In severe cases of illness, people may die.
- 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
Background
This recall was triggered by a recall in another country. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (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 reported illnesses in Canada associated with the consumption of this product, however, there have been reported illnesses in the United States linked to consuming products manufactured or processed by CRF Frozen Foods, the manufacturer of one of the ingredients.
More information
- Ajinomoto Windsor Inc.: Customer Affairs Hotline at 1-855-742-5011, Monday through Sunday, 7:00 am to 5:00 pm (PDT).
- CFIA: www.inspection.gc.ca/contactus
Contacts:
Media enquiries
CFIA Media Relations
613-773-6600
Positive early efficacy results from Phase IIA spinal fusion and osteoporosis studies
Addition of new sites in ongoing Phase III osteonecrosis trial
Osteonecrosis Phase IIB data to be presented at the upcoming EULAR conference
EUR 30.4 million cash position at the end Q1 2016
Regulatory News:
BONE THERAPEUTICS (Brussels:BOTHE) (Paris:BOTHE) (Euronext Brussels and Paris: BOTHE), the bone cell therapy company addressing high unmet medical needs in the field of bone fracture repair, fracture prevention and spinal fusion, today provides operational and financial update for the first quarter of 2016. The Company also provides an update on positive momentum of its ongoing Phase III osteonecrosis trial with PREOB,its autologous osteoblastic cell product, extending recruitment at a number of new trial sites.
Enrico Bastianelli, Chief Executive Officer of Bone Therapeutics, commented: "The first quarter of 2016 has seen continued momentum for Bone Therapeutics across our pipeline of products, PREOB and ALLOB, as we build upon a strong year of trading in 2015.
"So far this year, we have already communicated positive efficacy results from our spinal fusion and osteoporosis trials. In particular, we announced positive 12-month efficacy results from the first cohort of patients treated with PREOB in the Phase IIA severe osteoporosis trial. In addition, we made progress in the landmark Phase III studies with PREOB, accelerating recruitment in the osteonecrosis study with the addition of new sites and the submission to Israel.
"We have continued to focus on tight cash management, which remains in line with expectations, whilst maximising the potential of our bone cell therapy product portfolio and look forward to reporting on efficacy results in our delayed-union fracture and spinal fusion trials."
Business highlights
Extension of the delayed-union program for ALLOB into multiple delayed-union fractures to evaluate safety and efficacy of higher doses of ALLOB
into multiple delayed-union fractures to evaluate safety and efficacy of higher doses of ALLOB Positive efficacy results from the PREOB Phase IIA trial in severe osteoporosis on the first patient cohort, showing that a single administration of PREOB had sustained beneficial effects on pain and bone turnover markers.
Phase IIA trial in severe osteoporosis on the first patient cohort, showing that a single administration of PREOB had sustained beneficial effects on pain and bone turnover markers. Successful fusion in the first patient of the ALLOB Phase IIA spinal fusion trial, with substantial pain relief as early as six months after treatment.
Post-period highlights
Recruitment of the ALLOB Phase IIA study in spinal fusion completed, and trial extension to respond to high clinical demand and to study the early onset of the spinal fusion process.
Phase IIA study in spinal fusion completed, and trial extension to respond to high clinical demand and to study the early onset of the spinal fusion process. Four more sites approved in the ongoing PREOB Phase III osteonecrosis trial since the IPO, and submission in Israel for four additional sites.
Phase III osteonecrosis trial since the IPO, and submission in Israel for four additional sites. Presentation of the 36-month efficacy and safety data of the PREOB Phase IIB trial in osteonecrosis at the upcoming EULAR (Annual European Congress of Rheumatology) conference in London on 8-11 June.
Phase IIB trial in osteonecrosis at the upcoming EULAR (Annual European Congress of Rheumatology) conference in London on 8-11 June. Validation and extension of patent portfolio, with sixteen awards, notices of allowance or positive opinions received mainly for PREOB and ALLOB-related patents and two additional patents filed since the IPO.
Financial highlights
Cash used in operating activities amounts to EUR 2.9 million for the first three months of 2016, compared to EUR 2.7 million for the first three months of 2015 (excluding IPO expenses paid in Q1 2015).
Operating loss amounts to EUR 2.4 million compared to EUR 2.8 million for the same period last year (including EUR 1.1 million of IPO costs).
Cash at the end of March 2016 amounts to EUR 30.4 million.
Outlook
In line with the strategy outlined at the time of the Company's IPO, the Company will continue its promising Phase II proof-of-concept trials with ALLOB and plans to communicate on important efficacy results for the first eight patients in the Phase I/IIA ALLOB delayed-union trial during the first half of 2016, as well as efficacy results for the first four patients in the Phase IIA ALLOB spinal fusion trial.
Preparations are in progress to initiate Bone Therapeutics' first clinical trial in the US.
Good cash management will remain a key priority for the Company, with a strong focus on net cash burn. The Company maintains its guidance, given at the time of the IPO that it has sufficient cash to carry out its strategic objectives until the end of 2017.
About Bone Therapeutics
Bone Therapeutics is a leading biotechnology company specializing in the development of cell therapy products intended for bone fracture repair and fracture prevention. The current standard-of-care in this field involves major surgeries and long recovery periods. To overcome these problems, Bone Therapeutics is developing a range of innovative regenerative products containing osteoblastic/bone-forming cells, administrable via a minimally invasive percutaneous technique; a unique proposition in the market.
PREOB, Bone Therapeutics' autologous bone cell product, is currently in pivotal Phase IIB/III clinical studies for two indications: osteonecrosis and non-union fractures, and in Phase II for severe osteoporosis. ALLOB, its allogeneic "off-the-shelf" bone cell product, is in Phase II for the treatment of delayed-union fractures and lumbar fusion for degenerative disease of the spine, including a minimally invasive therapy for failed spinal fusions. The Company also runs preclinical research programs and develops novel product candidates.
Founded in 2006, Bone Therapeutics is headquartered in Gosselies (South of Brussels, Belgium). Bone Therapeutics' regenerative products are manufactured to the highest GMP standards and are protected by a rich IP estate covering 11 patent families. Further information is available at: www.bonetherapeutics.com.
Certain statements, beliefs and opinions in this press release are forward-looking, which reflect the Company or, as appropriate, the Company directors' current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. A multitude of factors including, but not limited to, changes in demand, competition and technology, can cause actual events, performance or results to differ significantly from any anticipated development. Forward looking statements contained in this press release regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. As a result, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any update or revisions to any forward-looking statements in this press release as a result of any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based. Neither the Company nor its advisers or representatives nor any of its subsidiary undertakings or any such person's officers or employees guarantees that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does either accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or the actual occurrence of the forecasted developments. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160509006621/en/
Contacts:
For further information, please contact:
Bone Therapeutics SA
Enrico Bastianelli, Chief Executive Officer
Wim Goemaere, Chief Financial Officer
+32 (0)2 529 59 90
investorrelations@bonetherapeutics.com
or
For Belgium and International Media Enquiries:
Consilium Strategic Communications
Amber Fennell, Jessica Hodgson and Hendrik Thys, +44 (0) 20 3709 5701
bonetherapeutics@consilium-comms.com
or
For French Media and Investor Enquiries:
NewCap Investor Relations Financial Communications
Pierre Laurent, Louis-Victor Delouvrier and Nicolas Merigeau, 33 (0)1 44 71 94 94
bone@newcap.eu
- Life science expertise and innovations for simplified, dynamic and precise live cell analysis
DARMSTADT, Germany, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Merck, a leading science and technology company, will exhibit a new range of products and solutions at Analytica 2016, the international trade fair for laboratory technology, analysis and biotechnology, held May 10-13 in Munich, Germany.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160506/364647
Innovations that enable faster, easier and more reliable research, including the CellASIC' ONIX 2 Microfluidic Platform, a tool for live cell analysis are among Merck's products on display at booth A1408.
"Merck's new products exemplify our commitment to developing solutions that solve difficult challenges for our customers," said Udit Batra, Member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. "Merck has a proven track record in life science and continues to innovate with our new CellASIC' Platform."
The CellASIC' Platform allows researchers to monitor responses to perfusion, temperature and gas environment changes in live cells and track individual cell responses over time for truly dynamic cellular analysis. It also offers constant, stable imaging conditions while maintaining the health of cells, and combines the highest precision controls, superior functionality and simplest user interface for a unique live cell analysis experience.
Merck will also showcase the following innovations at the show:
Amicon Stirred Cells - New ultrafiltration devices compatible with large-volume samples and offer easier set-up, more secure assembly, better device integrity and compatibility with more membranes.
New ultrafiltration devices compatible with large-volume samples and offer easier set-up, more secure assembly, better device integrity and compatibility with more membranes. Samplicity G2 Filtration System - A new technology that provides a convenient, high throughput alternative to syringe-tip filters for chromatography sample prep.
A new technology that provides a convenient, high throughput alternative to syringe-tip filters for chromatography sample prep. Spectroquant Prove Spectrophotometers - New class of spectrophotometers which allow simplified, durable and secure analysis of waste water, drinking water, beverages and process water.
All Merck news releases are distributed by email at the same time they become available on the Merck website. Please go to www.merckgroup.com/subscribe to register online, change your selection or discontinue this service.
About Merck
Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 50,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life - from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2015, Merck generated sales of 12.85 billion in 66 countries.
Founded in 1668, Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck, Darmstadt, Germany holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.
Net sales increased by 6 percent to MSEK 1,386.3 (1,309.6), and by 8 percent at constant exchange rates. Net sales rose by 6 percent in Sweden, while net sales in local currency decreased by 6 percent in Denmark and increased by 32 percent in Norway. The increase in Norway was due to a recovery of the market and new customer contracts.
Adjusted operating income* increased by 1 percent to MSEK 68.3 (67.6), corresponding to a margin of 4.9 (5.2) percent.
Income for the period amounted to MSEK 42.4 (41.6) and earnings per share were SEK 0.71 (0.69).
Adjusted operating cash flow* amounted to MSEK 36.7 (100.3).
At the end of the quarter, a majority shareholding was acquired in Sdams ko Fjerkrslagteri ApS, a Danish producer of organic and free-range chicken with annual sales of approximately MDKK 18.
Regulatory News:
MSEK Q1 2016 Q1 2015 Change LTM 2015 Net sales 1,386.3 1,309.6 6% 5,499.7 5,422.9 Operating income 67.2 67.6 -1% 259.0 259.5 Income for the period 42.4 41.6 2% 164.7 163.9 EPS, SEK 0.71 0.69 3% 2.75 2.73 Adjusted EBITDA* 115.1 114.0 1% 478.4 477.4 Adjusted operating income* 68.3 67.6 1% 292.2 291.5 Adjusted operating margin* 4.9% 5.2% 5.3% 5.4% Adjusted income for the period* 43.3 41.6 4% 190.4 188.7 Adjusted EPS*, SEK 0.73 0.69 5% 3.18 3.15 Adjusted operating cash flow* 36.7 100.3 -63% 260.4 324.1
*) Adjusted for non-comparable items in Q1 2016 of MSEK -1.1 (-) in EBITDA and operating income and MSEK -0.9 (-) in income for the period, for LTM of MSEK -33.1 in EBITDA and operating income and MSEK -25.7 in income for the period, and for the full year 2015 of MSEK -32.0 in EBITDA and operating income and MSEK -24.8 in income for the period. See page 3.
CEO Statement
The year has started with strong growth in net sales driven by continued good demand in Sweden and a recovery of the market in Norway. In Norway, we also benefitted from new customer contracts. We had a particularly strong development in chilled products with a growth of 16 percent at constant exchange rates. The adjusted operating margin was somewhat lower than last year due to the consolidation of the Finnish operation, which was effective as of the second quarter last year. The adjusted margin for comparable units improved to 5.7 percent.
The Swedish operation showed a continued positive trend in both net sales and adjusted operating income with a higher margin. This was achieved through product innovation, an improved product mix and efficiency gains in production. Our newly introduced products sold well including the ready-to-eat Minutkyckling products that are produced in the new processing section in the Valla facility. We also launched the first chicken bacon on the Nordic market. Chicken bacon contains substantially less fat than traditional bacon and still has great taste. As a result of the cancellation of the acquisition of Lagerbergs in Sweden and the need for further capacity to meet the demand in the Swedish market, we have signed a long-term lease contract for an industrial facility close to Kristianstad in the south of Sweden. We are now evaluating to invest in this facility to reach an annual capacity of 20 million chickens in the first phase.
The market in Denmark continued to be very competitive with price pressure both locally and on exports. Net sales and the adjusted operating income for the Danish operation declined, and the margin was lower than last year. At the end of the quarter, we acquired a majority shareholding in Sdams ko Fjerkrslagteri in Denmark, a producer of organic and free-range chicken with annual sales of approximately MDKK 18. The acquisition is in line with our strategy to broaden the product portfolio and expand our presence in the premium segment of the Danish market.
Net sales for the Norwegian operation increased substantially as a result of strong growth in market demand compared to a weak first quarter last year. The retail market for chilled chicken products grew by approximately 22 percent in value in the quarter. We also benefitted from increased volumes to Coop Norway and the start of deliveries to Norgesgruppen. Adjusted operating income rose substantially, although from a low level, and the margin improved.
As expected, capacity utilization in the Finnish facility was low in the quarter. We have signed additional contracts for the supply of birds and will be able to increase volumes during 2016.
To summarize, we continued to deliver on our strategy, i.e. to achieve organic growth in line with our vision to inspire the Nordic consumers to eat chicken once more per week, to improve operational efficiency and to strengthen the Group through acquisitions.
Leif Bergvall Hansen
Managing Director and CEO
Financial calendar
Interim report for the second quarter 2016: 24 August 2016
Interim report for the third quarter 2016: 3 November 2016
This interim report comprises information which Scandi Standard is required to disclose under the Securities Markets Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. It was released for publication at 07:30 CET on 10 may 2016.
This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160509006816/en/
Contacts:
For Scandi Standard:
Leif Bergvall Hansen, +45 22 10 05 44
Chief Executive Officer
or
Tobias Wastensson, +46 10 456 14 86
Head of Group Finance
or
Patrik Linzenbold, +46 708 25 26 30
Investor Relations
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs releases Swiss jobless rate for April at 1:45 am ET Tuesday. The jobless rate is seen at 3.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, in line with last month. Ahead of the data, the franc traded mixed against its major counterparts. While the franc held steady against the yen, it dropped against the rest of major currencies. The franc was worth 0.9722 against the greenback, 111.93 against the yen, 1.4001 against the pound and 1.1058 against the euro as of 1:40 am ET. 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.
AIM: MARL Suite 102, 3 Eden Street 10 May 2016 North Sydney, NSW 2060 Australia
THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.
Share Issuance Update
Mariana Resources Ltd ('Mariana' or the 'Company'), the AIM listed exploration and development company with projects in Turkey and South America, announces following the closing of the private placement for 330,000,001 ordinary shares in the Company (the 'Shares') (as announced on 4 May 2016), it is expected that: * 292,000,001 Shares of the 330,000,001 Shares will commence trading on AIM on or around Thursday, 12 May 2016; and * the remaining 38,000,000 Shares will commence trading on AIM on or around Friday, 13 May 2016.
**ENDS**
For further information please visit website at www.marianaresources.com or contact the following.
In Australia:
Glen Parsons (CEO) Mariana Resources Ltd +61 2 9437 4588
Eric Roth (COO) Mariana Resources Ltd +56 9 8818 1243
Rob Adamson RFC Ambrian Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0041
Will Souter RFC Ambrian Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0050
In U.K.
Oliver Stansfield Brandon Hill Capital (UK Broker) +44 20 3463 5061
Jonathan Evans Brandon Hill Capital (UK Broker) +44 20 3463 5016
Camilla Horsfall Blytheweigh (Financial PR) +44 20 7138 3224
Megan Ray Blytheweigh (Financial PR) +44 20 7138 3203
About Mariana Resources Mariana Resources Ltd is an AIM quoted exploration and development company with an extensive portfolio of gold, silver and copper projects in South America and Turkey. Mariana's most advanced asset is the Hot Maden gold-copper project in north east Turkey, which is a joint venture with its Turkish JV partner Lidya (30% Mariana and 70% Lidya). A maiden mineral resource estimate of 2.03 Moz gold Equivalent (Indicated Category) and 0.97 Moz gold Equivalent (Inferred Category) (100% basis) was reported for Hot Maden on August 18, 2015. Elsewhere in Turkey, Mariana holds a 100% interest in the Ergama gold-copper project. In Suriname, Mariana has a direct holding of 10.2% of the Nassau Gold project.) The Nassau Gold Project is a 28,000 Ha exploration concession located approximately 125 km south east of the capital Paramaribo and immediately adjacent to Newmont Mining's 4.2Moz gold Merian project. In southern Argentina, the Company's core gold-silver projects are Las Calandrias (100%), Sierra Blanca (100%), Los Cisnes (100%), Bozal (100%). These projects are part of a 160,000+ Ha land package in the Deseado Massif epithermal gold-silver district in mining-friendly Santa Cruz Province. Mariana acquired 100% interests in the Dona Ines gold-silver and Exploradora East copper prospects in northern Chile through the Aegean Metals Group transaction which closed in January, 2015, with Mariana exploration now being funded by Asset Chile through the provision of $1.65m for a total 50% interest. In Peru, Mariana is focusing on acquiring new opportunities which complement its current portfolio.
Safe Harbour This press release contains certain statements which may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as at the date of this press release and include, without limitation, statements regarding discussions of future plans, the realization, cost, timing and extent of mineral resource estimates, estimated future exploration expenditures, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, success of exploration activities, permitting time lines, and requirements for additional capital. The words 'plans', 'expects', 'budget', 'scheduled', 'estimate', 'forecasts', 'intend', 'anticipate', 'believe', 'may', 'will', or similar expressions or variations of such words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: the effects of general economic conditions; the price of gold, silver and copper; misjudgements in the course of preparing forward-looking statements; risks associated with international operations; the need for additional financing; risks inherent in exploration results; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters; currency and commodity price fluctuations; title matters; environmental liability claims; unanticipated operational risks; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or in the completion of development or construction activities; political risk; and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's annual financial statements for the most recently completed financial year which is available on the Company's website at www.marianaresources.com . Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions and have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward- looking statements. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
This announcement is distributed by GlobeNewswire on behalf of GlobeNewswire clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: (i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and (ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Mariana Resources Ltd via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2011012]
B12GJ72R25
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
TOKYO, May 10, 2016 - (ACN Newswire) - Showa Denko K.K. ("SDK"; TSE:4004) today announced its 2016 first quarter financial results.- Financial Results (Summary):www.sdk.co.jp/assets/files/english/ir/library/pdf_yoyaku/summary2016-1q.pdf- Financial Statements:www.sdk.co.jp/assets/files/english/ir/library/pdf_tanshin/fs2016-1q.pdfAbout Showa Denko K.K.Showa Denko K.K. ("SDK"; TSE:4004,US:SHWDF) is a major manufacturer and marketer of chemical products serving a wide range of fields ranging from heavy industry to the electronic and computer industries. The Petrochemicals Sector provides cracker products such as ethylene and propylene, the Chemicals Sector provides industrial and high-performance gasses and chemicals and high-purity gases and chemicals for the semiconductor industry, and the Inorganics Sector provides ceramics products such as alumina, abrasive, refractory and graphite electrodes and fine carbon products. Today, the Aluminum Sector provides aluminum materials and high-value-added fabricated aluminum, the Electronics Sector provides HD media, compound semiconductors such as ultra high-bright LEDs and rare earth magnetic alloys, and the Advanced Battery Materials Department (ABM) provides lithium-ion battery components. For more information, please visit www.sdk.co.jp/english/.Source: Showa Denko K.K.Contact:Copyright 2016 ACN 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.
Regulatory News:
Sales in the Swedish ICA (STO:ICA) stores decreased by 0.8% in April 2016 compared with the corresponding month last year. Sales in like-for-like stores decreased by 1.1%.
Apr-16 January April 2016 Store sales, excl. VAT SEKm Change all Change SEKm Change Change stores like-for-like all stores like-for-like Maxi ICA Stormarknad 2,707 -0.40% -1.40% 10,734 4.80% 3.50% ICA Kvantum 2,186 -1.00% -1.20% 8,650 3.60% 3.30% ICA Supermarket 2,682 -1.10% -1.10% 10,700 2.50% 2.50% ICA Nara 1,317 -0.40% -0.20% 5,205 3.10% 3.50% Total 8,893 -0.80% -1.10% 35,289 3.50% 3.20%
In April 2016, sales in the Swedish ICA stores totalled SEK 8,893 million excluding VAT, which is a decrease of 0.8% compared with the same month in the previous year. Sales in January-April 2016 amounted to SEK 35,289 million, an increase of 3.5% compared with the previous year.
ICA Gruppen estimates the calendar effect for April to be -2.5%.
At 30 April 2016, the number of ICA stores in Sweden was 1,301. Store sales for May will be published on 9 June 2016 at 08.45 CET.
To see all publication dates in 2016, please visit ICA Gruppen's website http://www.icagruppen.se/en/investors/calendar.
ICA Gruppen discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 08:45 CET on Tuesday, 10 May, 2016.
ICA Gruppen AB (publ) is a leading retail company with a focus on food and health. The Group includes ICA Sweden and Rimi Baltic which mainly conduct grocery retail, ICA Real Estate which owns and manages properties, ICA Bank which offers financial services and Apotek Hjartat which conducts pharmacy operations. The Group also includes the companies Hemtex and inkClub. For more information see icagruppen.se
This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160509006835/en/
Contacts:
ICA Gruppen
Press service
Telephone number: +46 10 422 52 52
BANGKOK, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Singha Park, a social enterprise project of Thailand's Singha Corp., is supporting an exhibition of metal sculptures by Thai artist Banjerd Lekkong at the prestigious Agora Gallery, as part of a project to help Thai artists gain recognition in New York.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160509/364966
The exhibition "Metamorphosis: Banjerd Lekkong a Solo Exhibition" will open on May 20, 2016 and run until June 9, 2016. It will be the first solo exhibition by a Thai artist at Agora Gallery, a contemporary fine art gallery located in the heart of New York's famous Chelsea art district.
"Singha recognizes the value of Banjerd's work", says Singha Park Managing Director Pongrat Luangthamrongcharoen. "We are excited about this partnership and we plan to do this yearly. Our goal is to introduce outstanding Thai artists to the global art scene."
Established in 1933, Singha Corp, Thailand's first and largest beer maker, has been an ardent supporter of the arts and artists for a number of years through awards and grants. Its sponsorship of this exhibition entails funding the transport of the heavy works of art to New York.
This exhibition marks the start of a program to conduct an annual search for new Thai talents. Under the "Thai Art on the World Stage with Singha Park" project, Singha is working with Agora Gallery to give outstanding Thai artists the opportunity to enter the global art market by exhibiting in New York.
This year's artist Banjerd Lekkong, produces very unique metal sculptures. Born in Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand's northeastern region, Banjerd now resides in in Bangkok. He was initially trained as an architect and has also worked as an interior designer. His intricate and lively compositions, all unique pieces, often represent Hindu gods, such as Ganesha, and mythical figures which are integral parts of the culture of the dominantly Buddhist Thailand.
"We are delighted with Banjerd's unique iron and steel sculpture", says Angela Di Bello, director of Agora Gallery. "I feel that his original stylistic expression with a focus on billowing lines that express strength, movement and emotional tenor will resonate well with our audience."
Metamorphosis: Banjerd Lekkong a Solo Exhibition
May 20 - June 9, 2016 with a reception to be held on May 26 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Agora Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, New York, NY
For additional information please contact: www.facebook.com/SinghaparkChiangrai and http://www.agora-gallery.com/
CONTACT: Mr. Trachoo Kanchanasatitya, +662-6592000
MILAN, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
Publishers can launch and scale multi-device digital publishing with In5 integration
Paperlit, the digital publishing solution for magazine publishers and brands, announced today the ability to input HPUB format directly to Paperlit, streamlining multi-device publishing for customers using Adobe InDesign to create digital publications. Visit: http://paperlit.com/
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160122/325063LOGO )
"Publishers choose Paperlit to meet the demands of a rapidly growing digital publishing industry," said Paperlit CEO & President, Luca Filigheddu. "By including HPUB support, we're helping those publishers using InDesign to streamline the publishing process by quickly repurposing HPUB, or HTML5, files into multi-device newsstand apps, without the need for additional coding or expensive software."
The company is also expanding service via a new API integration with In5, an InDesign plug-in developed by Ajar Productions, that converts InDesign files to HTML5. The In5 integration, available this summer, will allow publishers to export Paperlit-ready HPUB files directly to the digital publishing solution, while maintaining layouts and interactivity, including Folio overlays and animation.
Paperlit's partnership with the California-based software company simplifies digital publishing and mobile app development by providing an easier workflow for distributing interactive digital content across the web, or as iOS and Android mobile apps.
HPUB is the latest supported format, along with .folio and PDF input, that the company has unveiled to ease the distribution of next-generation digital magazines.
About Paperlit
Paperlit is a digital publishing platform that enables magazine publishers and brands to easily create and distribute interactive digital publications with a branded mobile app. Used by over 150 publishers in 20+ countries, Paperlit is a cost-effective solution for building digital editions that can be distributed on the web, the App Store and Google Play.
Founded in Menlo Park, California in 2009, and based in Europe, Paperlit is used by clients in the UK, Europe, US and Canada, including Conde Nast, Aston Martin, Vanity Fair, Boat International and Fine Cooking. For more information:http://www.paperlit.com
About Ajar Productions
Ajar Productions is a software company that provides tools for designers and animators., including In5, an InDesign plug-in that converts your designs to HTML5 in an easy to use and easy to distribute format, maintaining layouts and interactivity, including Folio overlays and animation. In5 works on all major versions of Adobe InDesign, including CS4, CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 including CS4, CS5, CS5.5 and CS6.
MUNICH, Germany, 2016-05-10 09:00 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CAST, the global leader in software analysis and measurement, today announced its engagement with Generali Deutschland Informatik Services GmbH (GDIS), the IT provider of Generali in Germany, the second-largest primary insurance group in the German market. The engagement will address the need to automate the process of analysing its software quality.With over 750 employees, turning over around 325 million, GDIS is one of the leading developers of IT systems in Germany. Core competencies in the stable and cost-effective operation of a multi-platform infrastructure and the development of efficient and innovative IT applications emphasises the importance of software quality.Having already used manual Function Point Analysis, a standard measure estimating the effort required to produce specific software quality, GDIS decided to scale up the program using an automated solution. GDIS has started to implement CAST's Application Intelligence Platform (AIP) in order to achieve an unrivalled level of risk adjusted productivity measurement that covers their seven most important applications, with about 250 software developers."By implementing CAST's Application Intelligence Platform (AIP) we found a unique solution to monitor the quality and outcome (quantity) of our most important business systems. Using OMG's 'Automated Function Points' (AFP) standard gives us a clearer insight on IT development productivity, and a more complete view of cost and quality. This will support us to deliver even better quality applications, faster, and at lower cost, enabling us to improve customer satisfaction, flexibility and time-to-market," said Joachim Schwartz, head of Architecture and Test Management, at GDIS.Commenting on the new engagement, Gregg Blatt, EVP of Field Operations at CAST, adds: "Working with one of the leading IT providers in Germany allows for this level of IT intelligence to be an advantage amongst the competition. Utilising CAST AIP to measure the productivity of its core applications results in an improved level of IT performance, which in turn will result in a more reliable and efficient IT service offered to its customers."About Generali Deutschland Informatik Services GmbH Generali Deutschland Informatik Services GmbH (GDIS) is the IT provider of Generali in Germany, the second-largest primary insurance group in the German market. GDIS ensure the IT services of all group companies at the locations Aachen and Hamburg. GDIS solutions involve more than 40,000 people daily, and their IT products, IT structures and IT services make trendsetting, future-orientated innovations in the insurance market possible.About CAST CAST is the world leader in software analysis and measurement, with unique technology resulting from $130 million in R&D investment. More than 250 companies across all industry sectors and geographies rely on CAST to prevent business disruption while reducing hard IT costs and software risk. Founded in 1990, CAST is listed on Euronext (CAS) and serves IT intensive enterprises worldwide with offices in North America, Europe and India.For more information about CAST: Web: http://www.castsoftware.com Blog: http://blog.castsoftware.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/onqualityPR Contact: Britney Schaeffer communications@castsoftware.com 212-871-8361
Regulatory News:
IFS (STO:IFSA)(STO:IFSB) Applications 9 and IFS Managed Cloud on Microsoft Azure to support Affinity Flying Training Services managing aircraft maintenance for pilot training as part of wider 1.1 billion UK Ministry of Defence investment into modernization of Fixed Wing military flight training
IFS (http://www4.ifsworld.com/l/5332/2015-08-10/2qts7r), the global enterprise applications company, announces that Affinity Flying Training Services (http://www.affinityfts.co.uk/) has chosen IFS Applications 9 (http://www.ifsworld.com/en/solutions/ifs-applications/ifs-applications-9/) and IFS Managed Cloud (http://www.ifsworld.com/en/solutions/ifs-applications/cloud-erp/) as one integrated solution for aircraft maintenance and ERP. The agreement with IFS, including licenses, is valued at approximately 1.2 million for the first six years of the 18-year contract.
Affinity Flying Services Limited secured a GBP500 million (USD721 million) contract in February to provide the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and its Ascent Flight Training partner with the aircraft for the Fixed-Wing portion of the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS) program.
Affinity, an Elbit Systems and Kellogg Brown Root joint venture, will replace legacy MOD fleets with 38 modern training aircraft as well as simulators and classroom learning for aircrew across the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, and Army Air Corps. The contract includes the designing, delivering, and managing of the fixed-wing training service until 2033 and is expected to provide around 200 new jobs across training bases in the UK.
As part of this, IFS Applications 9 and the IFS Managed Cloud solution will provide Affinity with maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and ERP software for the business as an end-to-end solution-supporting aircraft operations and maintenance, supply chain, HR, and finance. Affinity will provide a fixed-wing training aircraft and maintenance to support UK Fixed Wing military flying training to deliver an optimized training service and ensure availability of Grob G 120TP 'Prefect', Beechcraft 'Texan' T-6C and the Embraer 'Phenom' 100 training aircraft.
"Affinity plays a key part in the seamless progression of military personnel through fixed wing flying training and, with the help of IFS, will help support a more modern and efficient training pipeline for UK aircraft pilots," Ian Chalmers, Managing Director at Affinity Flying Training Services said. "The IFS solution is a perfect fit for us as it provides an agile and responsive system to better ensure the maintenance and availability of our aircraft for the duration of our partnership with Ascent and the MOD, as well as supporting the running of our JV business."
IFS aerospace and defense industry director Graham Grose said, "We are delighted to have been selected to be part of this important 500 million MOD and Ascent Flight Training investment (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/11-billion-investment-by-mod-in-future-military-flying-training) for fixed-wing training. The solution provides Affinity with a powerful and easily deployed service to streamline the maintenance process of aircraft and to focus on training the future generation of military aircraft pilots. By using the solution, Affinity can maintain the aircraft and prepare future UK aircrew for duty, as well as making sure strict airworthiness and safety standards are met alongside the running of the business from day to day with traditional finance, HR and procurement."
About Affinity
Affinity supports UK military air capability by playing a key part in the seamless progression of pilots through flight training. Under a landmark partnering programme with Ascent and the Ministry of Defence, Affinity supplies and supports three fleets of aircraft within the UK Military Flight Training System (UKMFTS). We support a training pipeline that is more modern, effective and efficient. As a result, UK military aircrew will be better prepared for duty. Through technical advancement and commercial innovation, we deliver aircraft to match the training needs of the next generation on the frontline. www.affinityfts.co.uk/.
About IFS
IFS (http://www.ifsworld.com/en/) is a globally recognized leader in developing and delivering enterprise software for enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM) and enterprise service management (ESM). IFS brings customers in targeted sectors closer to their business, helps them be more agile and enables them to profit from change. IFS is a public company (XSTO: IFS) founded in 1983 and currently has over 2,800 employees. IFS supports more than 1 million users worldwide from its network of local offices and through a growing ecosystem of partners. For more information visit: www.ifsworld.com.
Follow us on Twitter: @ifsworld (http://twitter.com/ifsworld)
Visit the IFS Blog on technology, innovation and creativity: http://blog.ifsworld.com/
IFS discloses the information herein pursuant to the Financial Instruments Act (1991:980) and/or the Securities Markets Act (2007:528). The information was submitted for publication on May 10, 2016, at 9 a.m. CEST.
This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510005691/en/
Contacts:
IFS
Anders Lundin
Corporate Communications.
Telephone: 46 8 58 78 45 00
press@ifsworld.com
NUREMBERG, GERMANY -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Ziehm Imaging has redesigned its proven mobile C-arm Ziehm 8000 combining excellent mobility with increased image quality to ideally address the needs of today's clinical environments. C-arms are widely-spread in operating rooms around the world. New minimally-invasive operation techniques require an optimal intraoperative imaging quality. Equipped with a 27" flat-screen with superior detail resolution thanks to the new 1kx1k imaging chain, the Ziehm 8000 is particularly suited for applications in orthopedics, pain management, traumatology and urology.
"The Ziehm 8000 has been the perfect choice for surgeons that need a small and compact unit, optimal maneuverability and excellent image quality in the OR for years," comments Martin Tornvik, Vice President Sales & Marketing at Ziehm Imaging. "The new design and technology ideally support the needs of the emerging healthcare markets where pure workhorse performance and reliability count. Every detail of the Ziehm 8000 -- from increased imaging technology to intuitive operation -- reflects our in-depth understanding of today's hospital environment at an affordable price level."
Unrivaled mobility with optimal image quality
The mobile C-arm features reliable mobile imaging technology with a 27" splitscreen monitor. The new 1kx1k imaging chain provides clear, high-contrast images. The simple user interface, together with the high level of automation, allows surgeons to fully concentrate on the procedure, while the Ziehm 8000's application software manages all imaging parameters and patient data.
Apart from high-quality archiving and networking features, further software features include post-processing functions, such as edge enhancement and advanced "Metal" and "Soft" programs to avoid image flaring. In addition, anatomical programs provide top-quality images while significantly reducing dose. The ergonomic color-coded handles enable straight-forward communication in the OR.
The compact footprint, reduced weight and large C-arm opening make the Ziehm 8000 the perfect choice for intraoperative imaging. The excellent mobility of both C-arm and lightweight monitor cart ensure easy maneuverability. Effortless movements and the unique single-lever rear-wheel steering enable precise positioning anywhere around the OR table.
About Ziehm Imaging
Founded in 1972, Ziehm Imaging has stood for the development, manufacturing and worldwide marketing of mobile X-ray-based imaging solutions for more than 40 years. Employing more than 400 people worldwide, the company is the recognized innovation leader in the mobile C-arm industry and a market leader in Germany and other European countries. The Nuremberg-based manufacturer has received several awards for its ground-breaking technologies and achievements, including the Frost & Sullivan Award (various years), the iF Design Award 2011, the Top100 award for innovative mid-size companies 2012, the Stevie Awards 2013, 2014 and 2015, the German Stevie Award and the IAIR Global Awards 2014 as "Best Company for Innovation & Leadership". For more information, please visit: www.ziehm.com.
Press contact:
Ziehm Imaging
Martin Ringholz
Director Global Marketing
martin.ringholz@ziehm-eu.com
Tel: +49 911 2172 0
www.ziehm.com
STOCK EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT
For Immediate Release 10 May, 2016
WisdomTree Issuer PLC (the 'Fund')
Re: Changes to the Fund
The Directors of the Fund wish to announce the following changes to the Fund, the changes are to become effective on or about 24 May, 2016 (the 'Effective Date').
Changes to the Dividend Policy in the Prospectus for the Fund:
From the Effective Date to reflect:
1. Dividends shall be payable to shareholders in the currency of denomination of a sub-fund's distributing share class, rather than in the base currency of the relevant sub-fund as is currently provided for in the Prospectus; and
2. Distributions of income in cash will be wired to the bank account designated by a shareholder in its participant agreement with the Fund or as designated in a shareholder's arrangement with a recognised clearing system designated by the Irish Revenue Commissioners.
Changes to the Dividend Declaration Frequency of Certain sub-funds of the Fund:
From the Effective Date:
1. The supplements for WisdomTree Japan Equity UCITS ETF, WisdomTree Germany Equity UCITS ETF, WisdomTree Europe Equity UCITS ETF, WisdomTree Emerging Asia Equity Income UCITS ETF, WisdomTree UK Equity Income UCITS ETF, WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income UCITS ETF, WisdomTree Emerging Markets SmallCap Dividend UCITS ETF, WisdomTree Europe Equity Income UCITS ETF and WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend UCITS ETF will be amended to reflect that dividends will now normally be declared semi-annually in June and December of each year, rather than quarterly as is currently provided for in the supplements for these sub-funds; and
2. The supplement for WisdomTree ISEQ 20 UCITS ETF will be amended to reflect that dividends will now normally be declared annually in December of each year, rather than semi-annually as is currently provided for in the supplement for this sub-fund.
Changes to the Names of Certain Indices:
From the Effective Date:
1. In respect of WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income UCITS ETF, the sub- fund's benchmark index will be renamed the 'Emerging Markets High Dividend Index'; and
2. In respect of the WisdomTree Europe Equity Income UCITS ETF, WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend UCITS ETF, WisdomTree Europe Equity UCITS ETF and WisdomTree UK Equity Income UCITS ETF, the name of the reference parent index, to which the sub-funds' benchmark indices refer, will be renamed the 'WisdomTree International Equity Index'.
Enquiries to;
WisdomTree Europe Ltd Ignatius Faissal +44 20 3824 6024
Davy David Ryan +353 1 614 8933
This announcement is distributed by GlobeNewswire on behalf of GlobeNewswire clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: (i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and (ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: WisdomTree Issuer PLC via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2011072]
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MILAN, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
New solution allows mobile virtual network operators to quickly and easily introduce new services in a matter of days, instead of weeks or months
Italtel, a leading telecommunications company in Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), managed services and All-IP communication, has had its "Full MVNO in a Box" solution recognized at MVNO World Congress 2016, collecting second place in the prestigious "Best MVNO Vendor Solution" category at the show's awards.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130429/612742 )
The award - presented during the 15th annual meeting in Amsterdam - acknowledges the solution's successful deployment to several European mobile virtual operators, defining and implementing their new virtualized Mobile Packet Core Networks.
"Full MVNO in a Box" is a fully virtualized, scalable and cost-effective solution, which enables both data and VoLTE/VoWi-Fi services by providing a comprehensive package of products and professional services to support the evolution towards a full MVNO architecture at a competitive price.
With Italtel's approach, MVNOs can benefit from a fully virtualized and Network Functions Virtualization(NFV) ready solution, able to expand or contract resources as needed and smoothly growth CAPEX and OPEX according to customer requirements. Having an autonomous system that provides independence from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) guarantees MVNOs flexibility in introducing value added services, while operational challenges associated with integrating multiple vendors and their products into a single mobile ecosystem are removed.
"In a highly competitive market characterized by eroding profits and margins, evolving towards a full MVNO business model offers an MVNO numerous advantages and restores the balance of its relationship with MNOs," said Stefano Pileri, CEO at Italtel. "However, the cost of implementing the infrastructure can be prohibitive. With Full MVNO in a Box, companies can do it in a way which is cost-effective and flexible to their requirements."
"To have the role of Full MVNO in a Box recognized at such a prestigious event illustrates the impact it can have once deployed." said Pileri.
The MVNO World Congress is the most important annual event for MVNOs where the major players in this market can meet and develop business partnerships. It's defined as a sort of perfect medium for all decision makers, buyers and sellers active in the MVNO market.
For more information about Italtel, please visit http://www.italtel.com/en/
Italtel Group
Italtel designs, develops, implements solutions for NGN and NGS; Professional Services dedicated to the design and maintenance of networks; IT System Integration Services; Network Integration and migration activities. Italtel counts among its customers more than 40 of the world's top TLC Operators and SPs. In Italy Italtel is also reference partner of Enterprises and Public Sector for the deployment of IP Next-Generation Networks and for the development of multimedia convergent services for their customers. Italtel is present in 25 countries including France, UK, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Poland, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Argentina, Brazil. http://www.italtel.com.
VALLEY COTTAGE, New York, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
India coronary stents market, valued at US$ 481 Mn in 2015, is expected to reach US$ 531 Mn in revenues by 2016-end, according to a new research report by Future Market Insights. The report titled, "Coronary Stents Market: India Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026" projects the market to increase at 14% CAGR through 2026 and surpass US$ 1.8 Bn in revenues.
Demand for coronary stents is expected to be driven by government initiatives to offer better healthcare amenities. Capping of coronary stents prices, increase in geriatric population, and increasing number of PCI procedure to treat CHD are other key factors anticipated to fuel demand for coronary stents during the forecast period.
Easing of norms such as exemptions in direct taxes, while allowing 100 percent FDI in medical devices segment under the automatic route is expected to encourage entry of foreign players in the healthcare sector in the near future.
Request a Sample Report: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-in-1485
Increasing prevalence of diabetes is high among the ageing population in the country. In 2014, 43.2% of the sampled population in the country was aware about diabetes and related treatment options. Over the last few years, number of PCI procedures have increased in India due to increase in prevalence of CHD.
India coronary stents market is segmented on the basis of product type, raw material and end-use.
On the basis of product type, the market has been segmented into Drug Eluting Stent (DES), Bare Metal Stent (BMS) and Bioresorbable Vascular Stent (BVS). Drug Eluting Stent segment is expected to register impressive CAGR of 14.0% during the forecast period.
Free Analysis by End User: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/india-coronary-stent-market
On the basis of raw material, the market is segmented into cobalt-chromium, stainless steel, platinum-chromium, nickel-titanium and polymer. Currently, demand for cobalt-chromium is the highest, followed by platinum-chromium.
On the basis of end use, India coronary stents market is segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centres and cardiac catheterization laboratories. By end use, hospitals segment is expected to witness fastest growth during the forecast period.
Request for TOC: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-in-1485
The key players profiled in FMI's report include Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic, Inc., Biosensors Inc., and Boston Scientific Inc. The report also identifies company-specific strategies related to product development, market consolidation initiatives and analysis of their specific strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
FMI Latest Insights:
Europe Viscosupplementation Market: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/europe-viscosupplementation-market
http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/europe-viscosupplementation-market Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Market: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/electronic-medical-records-market
http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/electronic-medical-records-market Peptide Therapeutics Market:http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/peptide-therapeutics-market
About Us:
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 and an aerial view of the competitive framework and future market trends.
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Press Release: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/press-release
GE Healthcare delivers world's first modular manufacturing solution based on single-use bioprocessing technology in just 18 months
JHL Biotech (JHL), a biopharmaceutical company,opened the world's first KUBio biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility with single-use bioprocessing technology at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Wuhan, China today.
This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510005741/en/
JHL Biotech opens innovative biosimilars manufacturing facility in China (Photo: Business Wire)
JHL will use the KUBio manufacturing solution delivered by GE Healthcare to manufacture biosimilars1 and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for late-stage clinical trials and commercial supply. The facility will also provide process development and manufacturing services for JHL's global customer base.
JHL and GE Healthcare partnered to complete the construction of the facility in just 18 months using GE's KUBio manufacturing solution. KUBio is a prefabricated cGMP-compliant facility and process solution designed for scalable and cost-efficient manufacturing.
The biosimilars market is expected to grow significantly in China, reaching approximately USD 350 million in 2019, up from USD 44 million in 20092. Local manufacturing in China is a more affordable way to provide modern therapies for deadly diseases like cancer, which is the leading cause of death in China. In 2015, approximately 4.3 million new cancer cases were reported3 in the country. China's State Council's 10-year action plan "Made in China 2025" recognizes biological medicines and medical devices as one of its key industrial focus areas4
Racho Jordanov, CEO and co-founder of JHL Biotech commented, "JHL Biotech's mission is to make quality medicines affordable to more people, and we believe one of the greatest areas of need is in Asia. It was important to us to establish our scale-up manufacturing capacity in Asia with a manufacturing facility in China capable of producing biologics to a world-class standard. JHL's new facility in Wuhan has the same standardized GE FlexFactoryTM technology as our existing site in Taiwan, which allowed us to quickly scale up to a capacity of 2,000 litres. JHL Biotech now has the largest volume of single-use cell culture capacity in Asia with the opening of our new facility in Wuhan."
"GE Healthcare's expertise in project management and delivery has been key in completing the factory in just 18 months, exceeding our demanding timelines and enabling us to accelerate our plans to produce next-generation biotherapeutics locally."
Advances in diagnostics are leading to an improved capability for biopharmaceuticals to precisely and effectively address challenging diseases. Of the top 10 therapeutics on the market today, seven are biopharmaceuticals5. Their complex nature demands expertly developed processes to ensure efficient manufacture.
John Flannery, President and CEO, GE Healthcare commented, "We have been working closely with our customers and observing market needs carefully and, as a result, have created an innovative solution improving access to biopharmaceuticals all over the world. We are providing a complete manufacturing solution faster than anyone else, which means that JHL is able to enter the market with high-quality pharmaceuticals responding to a real market need in record time."
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com
About JHL Biotech
JHL Biotech Inc. (Stock Code: 6540.TWO) is a biopharmaceutical startup founded by a group of industry veterans with deep experience in pharmaceutical development and operations. JHL is backed by premier financial firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Sequoia Capital, Biomark Capital, Milestone Capital, Fidelity, and the China Development Industrial Bank. JHL Biotech's mission is to provide the world with low-cost medicines of exceptional quality. JHL is focused on research and development of new protein-based therapies and biosimilars.
JHL Biotech has two world-class facilities built in accordance with United States, European Union, and ICH cGMP regulations and standards. The JHL Center of Excellence in Taiwan does biosimilar pre-clinical and early-clinical phase R&D work. JHL's facility in Wuhan, China will do commercial-scale manufacturing of biologic therapies. This infrastructure gives JHL the unique ability to manufacture its own product and execute contract orders for select clients.
For more information, please visit www.jhlbiotech.com.
__________________________________ 1 FDA, 2015: Biosimilars are a type of biological product that are licensed (approved) by regulatory authorities because they are highly similar to an already-approved biological product, known as the biological reference product (reference product), and have been shown to have no clinically meaningful differences from the reference product. 2 Frost Sullivan, Jan 2014: "Analysis of the Global Biosimilars Market" 3 American Cancer Society, 2016: Cancer in China 4 China Daily, 2015: 'Made in China 2025' plan unveiled 5 GEN, 2015: The Top 25 Best-Selling Drugs of 2014 (a subscription required)
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510005741/en/
Contacts:
GE Healthcare
Saara Nordenstrom, +46 7386 81286
Communications
saara.nordenstrom@ge.com
or
JHL Biotech, Inc.
Max Chan, +886-(0)3-658-3899
Chief Financial Officer
mchan@jhlbiotech.com
RTX reaches milestone in revenue of DKK 100 million in the quarterThe Supervisory Board of RTX A/S has today considered and adopted the Group's interim report for the second quarter of the 2015/16 financial year (covering the period 01.01.2016 - 31.03.2016).Summary of the second quarter of the financial year 2015/16 for the RTX Group-- Net revenue amounted to DKK 102.6 million in the second quarter of the 2015/16 financial year corresponding to a revenue increase of 11.7% compared to last year's net revenue of DKK 91.9 million. Growth over the quarter was positively affected by the favourable exchange rate for USD. At the same time Growth was negatively affected by the ceased income from leaseholders, as the premises in Nrresundby was sold. Adjusted for the mentioned effects, revenue Growth was 8%. Revenue apportioned across RTX's business units is as follows: -- Business Communications (previously ProTelecom) rose by DKK 7.7 million corresponding to an increase of 12.2%. -- Design Services increased revenue by DKK 4.0 million corresponding to an increase of 14.0%. -- The Group's gross profit increased from DKK 50.7 million to DKK 61.6 million and as a consequence of the revenue mix, the Group's gross margin increased from 55.1% to 60.1%. -- Capacity costs were affected by increased external lease costs as a consequence of the sale of the premises in Nrresundby (see announcement 76/2015) and increased staff costs as a consequence of the higher level of activity. -- Operating profit (EBIT) totalled DKK 21.8 million compared to DKK 14.4 million last year corresponding to a growth of 51%. -- The Group's cash flow from operating activities for the second quarter was DKK 17.2 million compared to DKK 20.7 million for the same period last year. -- As previously communicated (see announcement no. 76/2015) RTX entered an agreement concerning the sale of the company's premises in Nrresundby. The deal brought in a value on a par with the book value of DKK 71.5 million, and in this connection the mortgage debt has been settled. Overall, this has affected the cash flows in the quarter positively. -- The development in the second quarter confirms the newly raised expectations (see announcement no. 26/2016 of 20 April 2016) in which RTX expects revenue in the range of DKK 385-400 million and EBIT in the range of DKK 60-67 million and an EBITDA in the range of DKK 64-71 million.Summary of the first six months of 2015/16 for the RTX Group-- Net revenue amounted to DKK 194.5 million in the first six months of 2015/16 equivalent to an increase of 15.3% compared to last year's revenue of DKK 168.6 million. Adjusted for the exchange rate and lease income effects, the growth in revenue was 7.4%. Revenue apportioned across RTX's business units is as follows: -- Business Communications (previously ProTelecom) rose by DKK 17.6 million corresponding to an increase of 15.5%. -- Design Services increased revenue by DKK 9.0 million corresponding to an increase of 17.0%. -- The Group's gross profit increased from DKK 95.4 million to DKK 115.8 million and as a consequence of the revenue mix, the Group's gross margin increased from 56.6% to 59.6%. -- Capacity costs were affected by increased staff costs and higher lease costs. -- Operating profit (EBIT) totalled DKK 33.9 million compared to DKK 25.6 million last year corresponding to a growth of 32%. -- The Group's cash flow from operating activities for the first six months was DKK 19.9 million compared to DKK 26.4 million for the same period last year.RTX A/SPeter Thostrup Chairman ActingJacob Vittrup CEOOn Thursday, 12 May 2016 at 10 am, RTX will hold a meeting for investors and analysts at ABG Sundal Collier, Forbindelsesvej 12, 2100 Copenhagen. At this meeting, the Company's management will comment on the Group's interim report for the second quarter of 2015/16. To register for the meeting, please email rind.danielsson@abgsc.dk.Attachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=570954
FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The following investment banks issued recommendations on U.K. stocks this morning as follows: Analyst recommendations in the dpa-AFX International ProFeed on 10.05.2016 - 11.00 am - BERENBERG RAISES PEARSON PRICE TARGET TO 730 (620) PENCE - 'SELL' - GOLDMAN RAISES JD WETHERSPOON PRICE TARGET TO 555 (550) PENCE - 'SELL' - LIBERUM CUTS COBHAM PRICE TARGET TO 204 (270) PENCE - 'BUY' - UBS CUTS SKY PLC PRICE TARGET TO 1300 (1350) PENCE - 'BUY' - UBS RAISES ZOOPLA PROPERTY PRICE TARGET TO 315 (260) PENCE - 'NEUTRAL' - TRADERS: CITIGROUP RAISES FOXTONS TO 'NEUTRAL' ('SELL') dpa-AFX Wirtschaftsnachrichten GmbH assumes no liability for the correctness of this information.
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.
BSD Crown Ltd. (LSE: BSD)
(the "Company")
Company Update
Ramat Gan, May 10, 2016
Further to the Company's announcements dated December 29, 2015, March 8, 2016 and April 17, 2016 with respect to motion submitted to the Economic Department of the Tel-Aviv District Court (the "Court") against Israel 18 and BGI's directors, the Company has received the following additional information from BGI:
BGI's controlling shareholder, Israel 18, entered into a settlement agreement (the "Settlement") on May 5, 2016 with Mr.Naftali Shani and Arnon Gicelter, Adv. (the "Trustee") , which was authorised by the Court, and which provides that Israel 18 will pay to the Trustee, on behalf of Mr. Naftali Shani, US$2M (the "Initial Settlement Payment") within 60 days of the date of the Settlement (the "Initial Settlement Period"), with a balancing payment (the "Final Settlement Period") of approximately US$7.7M (which also includes accrued interest payable on the outstanding amounts) to be paid within 90 days of the date of the Settlement (the "Final Settlement Period").
To the extent that Israel 18 does not make the Initial Settlement Payment within the Initial Settlement Period, Adv. Yossef Shem-Tov, a representative of BGI (and the Company) will be required to sell such number of shares in BGI so as to make the Initial Settlement Payment within 45 days of the expiry of the Initial Settlement Period. To the extent that Israel 18 does not make the Final Settlement Payment within the Final Settlement Period, Adv. Yossef Shem-Tov will be required to sell such number of shares in BGI so as to make the Final Settlement Payment within 45 days of the expiry of the Final Settlement Period.
Finally, and to the extent that the amount(s) that could be raised by the sale of such shares in BGI would not raise sufficient funds so as to make the Initial Settlement Payment and the Final Settlement Payment within the relevant settlement periods, Adv. Yossef Shem-Tov shall not be permitted to sell such shares and, instead, the Trustee will transfer the shares it holds in BGI to Mr. Naftali Shani.
As at the date of this announcement, the Trustee holds in trust for Mr Naftali Shani, to the best of BGI's knowledge, 24,909,603 shares of BGI (representing approximately 67.7 per cent. of the issued share capital of BGI) (the "Shares") owned by Israel 18.
The Settlement further stated that the Trustee will withdraw his request to convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of the Company in order to remove the directors of the Company (other than Mr. Zvi Shur) and replace such directors with nominees of the Trustee, further details of which were set out in the Company's announcement of March 1, 2016.
Enquiries: Yossi Schneorson, CEO: yossi@bsd-c.com
OXFORD, England, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
P2i, the world leader in liquid repellent nano-coating technology, announced today the intention of its CEO, Carl D Francis, to step down at the end of 2016.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150929/271990LOGO )
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160510/365624 )
P2i specialises in super thin hydrophobic coatings, predominantly for the consumer electronics industry. A spin-out from the UK Ministry of Defence, the Company boasts a number of global, high profile smartphone brands as its customers. Francis, 56, joined P2i in 2008; since that time, the Company has developed and defined the concept of protecting consumer electronics.
Francis said "I am really proud of what we have built at P2i. Cutting edge technology, supportive investors, and a great and passionate team underpins our success. We have changed the face of the smartphone industry, having earlier this year exceeded 100 million smartphones protected by our technology. However, after eight years at the helm, I believe the business would be best served by some new blood at the top, and I'll be rooting for a new CEO to take P2i to the next level."
P2i Chairman Nigel Young said, "Carl has been the driving force in moving P2i from a pre-revenue tech start up to the dominant global force in functional nano-coatings today. He will continue to lead P2i until he steps down at the end of the year, but this early notice allows for a thorough recruitment process to be concluded. We anticipate a professional and well managed transition in the second half of 2016."
Francis will continue to serve the Company in an advisory role following the transition to a new Chief Executive.
Editor's Note - About P2i
P2i is the global leader in liquid-repellent nano-coatings, helping companies around the world give their products improved protection against damaging elements such as water, oil, sweat and mud.
With a focus on the consumer electronics industry, P2i technology makes devices water resistant, improving their reliability and allowing them to survive liquid exposure in everyday accidents. Using a patented pulsed plasma process, P2i's technology coats objects with an invisible protective coating that is 1/1000th the thickness of a human hair.
Headquartered near Oxford in England, P2i's market-leading technology is protected by multiple patents. The company works directly with the world's leading OEMs to integrate their nano-coating technology into existing manufacturing lines.
P2i has about 100 employees and three laboratory facilities in the UK, USA and China to support its continuous development work. The company has hundreds of its nano-coating systems for high-volume processing now deployed within its customers' manufacturing facilities around the globe, including factories in Brazil, Argentina, China, Korea, India, Japan, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, the USA and Mexico.
See http://www.P2i.com for more information.
Media contact:
Carlene Whitehead
marketing@p2i.com
+44-(0)1235-833-100
DUISBURG (dpa-AFX) - Shares of ThyssenKrupp AG (TYEKF.PK) declined around 6 percent in the morning trading in Germany after the steel giant reported weak net sales and orders in its second quarter and trimmed its earnings forecast for fiscal 2016. Net profit, however, climbed from last year.
The company attributed the decline in orders and sales partly to lower volumes but mainly to the sharp price falls at the materials businesses.
For the second quarter, net income attributable to shareholders was 61 million euros, 26 percent higher than 48 million euros last year. Earnings per share came to 0.11 euro, 19 percent higher than 0.09 euro a year ago.
Earnings before tax climbed 144 percent to 151 million euros, and EBIT grew 41 percent to 281 million euros. Meanwhile, adjusted EBIT fell 20 percent to 326 million euros.
All capital goods businesses generated higher earnings both on a cumulative basis. However, this positive performance was not enough to fully offset the weakness of the material businesses in the reporting period, the company noted.
Net sales were down 10 percent to 9.85 billion euros from prior year's 11 billion euros. On a comparable basis, i.e. excluding currency and portfolio effects, sales declined 8 percent.
The Group's order intake decreased 13 percent to 9.03 billion euros. On a comparable basis, order intake fell 10 percent.
Looking ahead, Thyssenkrupp now expects fiscal 2016 net income to come in at the prior-year level and to achieve full year adjusted EBIT of at least 1.4 billion euros. The company said its efficiency program impact will contribute 850 million euros to this.
The company previously expected net income to increase significantly from last year's 268 million euros, and adjusted EBIT between 1.6 billion euros and 1.9 billion euros, compared to last year's 1.68 billion euros.
Due to the price recovery and cost-reduction measures, the materials businesses will achieve significant improvements in the second half of the fiscal year - provided the Brazilian real remains largely stable, the company said.
In Germany, ThyssenKrupp shares were trading at 17.35 euros, down 5.50 percent.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Elektrenai, Lithuania, 2016-05-10 12:30 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB (registered office address - Elektrines st. 21, Elektrenai, Lithuania, legal entity's code - 302648707).The deadline for minority shareholders of the former LIETUVOS ELEKTRINE, AB to take the advantage of a possibility to redeem the shares expired yesterday. The money for the redeemable shares will be paid to the shareholders within May.The shares of the former LIETUVOS ELEKTRINE, AB offered for redemption are equated at a set ratio to the shares of the currently operating energy producer Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB.Based on the data available today, more than 1000 minority shareholders, who entered into share purchase and sale agreements with the purchasing company Lietuvos energija, UAB, have already taken the advantage of the possibility to sell their shares. SEB Bank, AB implementing the process of share redemption has reported that the data of even more than one hundred more shareholders, who have submitted their documents within the last days before the deadline, are in the process of verification. The final numbers of the share sellers and the shares sold, which will be owned by Lietuvos Energija, UAB in consequence of the redemption, will be reported separately.The money for the redeemable shares will be transferred to the bank accounts indicated by the shareholders not later than within 30 calendar days from the expiry of the deadline for document submission. Lietuvos Energija, UAB is seeking to settle with the shareholders in the shortest possible period, thus it is planned that the money for the redeemable shares will reach all shareholders having entered into the agreements even in May.1.37 shares of the currently operating company Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB is given for one share of LIETUVOS ELEKTRINE, AB. The fixed price of 1.2959 Euro is paid per redeemable ordinary registered share of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB.In accordance with the new version of the Law on Personal Income Tax with effect from 1 January 2016, the shareholders having taken the advantage of this redemption will be obliged to calculate, declare and pay the personal income tax (15 per cent) themselves when filing tax declarations for 2016.Those, who have failed to make use of their right to sell their shares on this specific redemption or submit the necessary documents for the redemption of shares, will have no more opportunity to take the advantage of selling their shares on this price and will continue to be the shareholders of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB, and will be able to trade their shares on the exchange.Please be reminded that only those shares, which were held under the right of ownership by minority shareholders no later than since 5 August 2008 and which during the reorganisation of LIETUVOS ELEKTRINE, AB on 5 August 2011 were converted into the shares of the current Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB, are subject to this redemption. Shares transferred to third parties are not redeemable. The shares, which were transferred to third parties between 5 August 2008 and the day of redemption of the shares, but were re-acquired by shareholders during this time period, are not redeemable as well. Should it be impossible to determine, which shares of the same type and without individual features were transferred before the moment of redemption, the earliest acquired shares shall be deemed to have been transferred.Valentas Neviera, Head of Corporate Communication Division, tel. +370 670 25997, e-mail. valentas.neviera@le.lt
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, and James Simons, founder and chairman of Renaissance Technologies, tie for the No. 1 spot in the 15th anniversary edition of the Rich List, Institutional Investor's Alpha's annual ranking of the world's top-earning hedge fund managers. Griffin has made 14 appearances on the Rich List, while Simons has been in the ranking all 15 years, the only manager to do so. They each raked in $1.7 billion in 2015.
The top 25 managers on this year's Rich List earned a combined $13 billion last year, up more than 10 percent from the previous year. This is despite the fact that roughly half of all hedge funds lost money last year. To qualify for this year's ranking, a manager needed to have earned at least $135 million -- the lowest annual minimum since 2011, when it took just $100 million to make the cut.
To calculate an individual's earnings, Alpha counts gains on individuals' capital in their funds, as well as their share of the fees. Perhaps this is why five managers on this year's list qualified even though at least one of their funds lost money in 2015. Only individuals at firms that manage money for outside clients are eligible for the Rich List.
Griffin and Simons are followed closely by Raymond Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, who earned $1.4 billion in 2015 and has appeared on the Rich List for 13 straight years. Bridgewater is the largest hedge fund firm in the world, with $104 billion in hedge fund assets at the start of 2016. Appaloosa Management founder and president David Tepper more than tripled his personal earnings from the previous year, to $1.4 billion, tying him with serial top earner Dalio on this year's Rich List. Rounding out the top five is Millennium Management's Israel (Izzy) Englander, with $1.15 billion. This is the first time Englander's annual earnings have reached 10 figures. In 2015 both of Millennium's multistrategy funds posted 12.5 percent gains.
This year about half of the 25 highest-earning hedge fund managers used computer-generated investment strategies to produce their investment gains. Six of the 25 managers are new to the ranking, including Two Sigma's John Overdeck and David Siegel, whose firm profited handsomely last year from computer-driven strategies.
Over the 15 years of the Rich List, hedge fund managers on the ranking have made a total of $192.5 billion.
Many familiar names from the ranking failed to qualify this year because they lost money in 2015. They include Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors, James Dinan of York Capital Management, Daniel Loeb of Third Point and John Paulson of Paulson & Co.
The full 2016 Rich List, manager profiles, a ranking of the all-time top hedge fund earners and more can be viewed at http://www.institutionalinvestorsalpha.com/HedgeFundRichList.html.
The 2016 Rich List - Top Ten
1. Kenneth Griffin (Citadel) $1.7 billion 1. James Simons (Renaissance Technologies) $1.7 billion 3. Raymond Dalio (Bridgewater Associates) $1.4 billion 3. David Tepper (Appaloosa Management) $1.4 billion 5. Israel (Izzy) Englander (Millennium Management) $1.15 billion 6. David Shaw (D.E. Shaw Group) $750 million 7. John Overdeck (Two Sigma) $500 million 7. David Siegel (Two Sigma) $500 million 9. O. Andreas Halvorsen (Viking Global Investors) $370 million 10. Joseph Edelman (Perceptive Advisors) $300 million 10. Christopher Hohn (TCI Fund Management) $300 million
About Institutional Investor's Alpha
Institutional Investor's Alpha is a leading provider of news, analysis and rankings for the hedge fund industry, delivering the most insightful, entertaining and authoritative published content about hedge funds online and in print. Alpha is a publication of Institutional Investor, a respected financial publishing and information company for nearly 50 years. Visit www.institutionalinvestorsalpha.com for more information.
Contact:
Michael Peltz
Editor, Institutional Investor
212-224-3152
mpeltz@institutionalinvestor.com
DENVER, CO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Two Rivers Water and Farming Company (Two Rivers) (OTCQB: TURV) announced today the Company has completed a settlement agreement with the State of Colorado for the development of the Cucharas dam and reservoir.
Under the terms of the settlement, Two Rivers would temporarily lower the existing dam structure and build a new, more stable permanent dam. As part of the settlement discussions, Two Rivers discussed with the State the possibility of utilizing the Two Rivers' Huerfano Cucharas Irrigation Company's (HCIC) reservoir and canal system, including the Orlando reservoir and canal, to cooperate with other water users in the creation of a new basin wide augmentation plan. Two Rivers owns 95% of HCIC and 100% of the Orlando reservoir and canal.
John McKowen, CEO of Two Rivers, said, "The State and Division Engineers were very helpful in developing a common sense plan for rebuilding the Cucharas dam. The plan will insure the public's safety and increase the water efficiency inside the entire Huerfano River basin. The plan will enable us to restore the economic value of our HCIC assets and provide useful storage space for Huerfano and Pueblo County water administrators."
About Two Rivers
Two Rivers assembles its water assets by acquiring irrigated farmland with senior water rights. Two Rivers current farm operations convert feed crop farmland into fruit and vegetable crop production in Pueblo County Colorado. In December 2012, Colorado legalized the personal use and cultivation of marijuana. As a result, Two Rivers is providing greenhouses and processing facilities for licensed marijuana growers in Colorado on land with water rights not used for fruit and vegetable crop production.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements that 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, including the inherent uncertainties associated with developing and acquiring land and water resources. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and Two Rivers nor assumes any 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.
Contact:
John McKowen
Wayne Harding
Two Rivers Water & Farming Company
(303) 222-1000
Email: info@2riverswater.com
BONSALL, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 --MARIJUANA COMPANY OF AMERICA ("MCOA" or the "Company") (OTC PINK: MCOA), an innovative cannabis marketing and distribution company, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Cannabis Career Institute ("CCI") to develop a comprehensive library of cannabis and hemp education curriculum online that will be distributed through the Club Harmoneous Success Education Platform.
CCI is one of the oldest and most established cannabis education institutions in the industry. CCI management, staff and network of connections collectively possess the significant industry knowledge and experience that MCOA and Club Harmoneous require to effectively educate patient members on the usage of cannabis as a healthy alternative, as well as on the myriad of business opportunities available in this rapidly emerging industry.
We are in the very early stages of the next major economic revolution. In this shift away from a toxic economy to a sustainable economy, cannabis and hemp are a focal point and education is key. Over the next decade many of the toxic jobs and careers we know today will become obsolete. A significant portion of the workforce will need to be retrained for the new sustainable economy job opportunities that are becoming available. CCI, MCOA and Club Harmoneous will help fill the gap by helping to train employees that will be needed as this new emerging industry continues to rapidly expand.
"With the upcoming changes in California law, people will need something to help with transition," said CCI CEO, Bob Calkin. "We are excited that MCOA has developed this new platform so collectives can convert their members into a down-line that offers a passive income while offering non-exclusivity. It's an innovative way to re-invent the collective/cooperative model. We also recognize the need to train and educate the millions of adults worldwide that are seeking job opportunities in the cannabis industry or treat their various health issues."
CCI and MCOA will jointly develop a suite of online cannabis education curriculum that will extend CCI's successful brick and mortar classes to a much larger demographic of consumers online, both nationally and internationally. This online platform will give consumers who are unable to attend brick and mortar classes the opportunity to participate remotely at their own pace, from anywhere in the world.
The online curriculum being developed will range from entry level topics, such as a general introduction to the cannabis industry, to more in-depth, focused classes on cultivation, dispensary management, edibles, extraction, manufacturing, distribution, compliance, marketing and much more.
"We are privileged to have access to the extensive knowledge and experience that the CCI team offers. We look forward to working closely with them to provide comprehensive cannabis education to Club Harmoneous members," said Mr. Steinberg, MCOA President.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
"Donald Steinberg"
Donald Steinberg
President & CEO
888-777-4362
www.MarijuanaCompanyofAmerica.com
About Marijuana Company of America Inc.
Marijuana Company of America ("MCOA") is a publicly traded company headquartered in Southern California. MCOA will distribute marijuana and products related to marijuana as well as CBD and hemp, using a variety of marketing approaches to distribute on a global basis.
About Club Harmoneous
Club Harmoneous (The Club) delivers all of the benefits of cannabis to its members harmoneously. The Club provides a wide range of cannabis products to its members, medicinal, adult use or healthy foods, body care and cosmetics. The Club products are top quality and offered to members at competitive prices with the convenience of home delivery.
Through MCOA's Managed Services, the Company offers Marketing Services designed to increase membership. This is done through an affiliate referral program where members refer new member patients and earn discounts and income from their referrals. The Club Harmoneous Network Affiliate Program breaks down all of the barriers to entry and opens up the industry to individuals who might not find opportunity elsewhere. For a nominal fee, The Club provides training and a platform for those seeking an opportunity to build their own home based cannabis business. For more information go to: http://www.Harmoneous.com.
About Cannabis Career Institute Inc.
Cannabis Career Institute is an innovator in the field of marijuana schools. Established in March of 2009, following on the heels of, and continuing the tradition of, Oaksterdam University, the oldest and most successful marijuana school in the world. With more of a focus on business technique, Cannabis Career Institute, has set the trend by creating a step-by-step method of doing business in the marijuana industry. The guidelines for how to create, brand and market a collective are all presented, along with business management strategies to establish a realistic timeline and budget. The goal of CCI is empower the students by giving them the information they need to succeed in the world of cannabis. Whether they want to start their own medical marijuana delivery service, their own medical marijuana dispensary, their own medical marijuana edibles operation, their own medical marijuana grow-room or even their own medical marijuana school. The additional value of working with CCI is the ancillary benefits such as staffing, mentoring, connections in the industry and the continuing education required to launch a successful business in this rapidly emerging industry. For more information go to: www.cannabiscareerinstitute.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Marijuana Company of America, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein.
LEGAL DISCLOSURE
Marijuana Company of America Inc. will provide management services that assist legal businesses to cultivate, sell, and distribute hemp and marijuana based products within the legal guidelines of individual states and international markets.
For more information, please visit the company's website at: www.MarijuanaCompanyofAmerica.com
Investor Relations
888-777-4362
ir@mcoa.club
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Plandai Biotechnology, Inc. (OTCQB: PLPL) ("Plandai" or "the Company"), producer of the highly bioavailable Phytofare catechin complex, today announced VitaminExpress, a highly successful health supplement company based in the European Union, is set to release a new product this month, with Phytofare Catechin Complex as the main ingredient, which will be incorporated into their current product line. Vitamin Express has shipped an astounding 5 million products over the previous 20 years, with customers throughout Western and Eastern Europe.
VitaminExpress added the following statement, "After learning about the impressive bioavailability study results of Phytofare we immediately decided to incorporate this unique Green Tea Extract into our line of high quality supplements. Our customers appreciate the fact that we are always searching the globe to find natural, effective ingredients for our products. Therefore we are truly thrilled to be able to offer the very best Green Tea Extract available with our new product Green Tea Royal, containing Phytofare."
Callum Cottrell-Duffield, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Plandai, stated, "We are happy to have our product in the hands of such a great company and look forward to a long relationship. Adding Vitamin Express to our customer base increases our overall presence in the marketplace as more and more supplement manufacturers understand the need to deliver bioavailable ingredients to consumers. Phytofare alone is clinically proven to provide the entire phytonutrient complex, which is then present in the bloodstream at therapeutic levels for an unprecedented 24 hours."
In discussing the company's sales strategy, Mr. Cottrell-Duffield added, "Thus far we have employed a dual approach, working directly with large customers when feasible while also cultivating relationships with both distributors and contract manufacturers. As a supplement ingredient, the potential applications and products are limitless, making our approach the best for capturing market share at an accelerated rate. Large manufacturers understandably have a long buy cycle as any new ingredient must first undergo rigorous in-house testing. Once a positive decision is made, the customer must then re-design packaging and obtain any necessary approvals. We've found that customers like to gauge consumer reaction before placing large orders, but every month our sales have continued to climb as new customers join us and existing customers re-order at larger quantities. With Phytofare now fairly well entrenched in both Africa and Europe, we look to expand sales into North America and Australia in the coming months."
For more information about Vitamin Express, visit their website at https://www.vitaminexpress.org
About Plandai Biotechnology, Inc.
Plandai Biotechnology, Inc. and its subsidiaries develop highly phyto-available extracts. Plandai Biotechnology controls every aspect of the process, from growing the raw materials on its farms in South Africa, to producing its proprietary Phytofare extracts in-house, allowing the Company to guarantee the continuity of supply as well as quality control throughout the entire process. Targeted industries for the Company's products include beverage, cosmeceutical, wellness, nutriceutical, anti-aging, and pharmaceutical. For more information, please visit http://www.plandaibiotech.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, we can give no assurance or guarantee that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of words like "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend," or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to: adverse economic conditions, competition, adverse federal, state and local government regulation, international governmental regulation, inadequate capital, inability to carry out research, development and commercialization plans, loss or retirement of key executives and other specific risks. To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions, goals, future financial conditions, events conditioned on stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. Readers are advised to review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that can be accessed over the Internet at the SEC's website located at http://www.sec.gov.
Contact:
Hannah Merrill
(917) 900-9829
TORONTO, ON --(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - KoreConX was selected as one of only 30 companies that will present to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, Securities Exchanges Commission, FINRA, Members of Congress, US Treasury, IRS, SBA, Chamber of Commerce (US and Hispanic), US State Department, World Bank, IDB, and MIF.
The event was created to commemorate the four-year anniversary of the signing of the JOBS Act, as well as the introduction of -- Title III crowdfunding, by event partners CFIRA, Crowdfund Capital Advisors, and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.
KoreConX will be joined by partners iDisclose and EarlyIQ and equity crowdfunding industry heavy hitters in presenting their solution.
"Trust and transparency is essential for a healthy equity crowdfunding ecosystem, and companies like KoreConX make it easy for companies and equity crowdfunding portals alike." Sherwood Neiss, Partner, Crowd Capital Ventures.
"Our time is now at KoreConX. This is the time for 'crowd diligence', and KoreConX solves the many issues regulators and business leaders are concerned with. We're very honored to have been selected and to demonstrate KoreConX in English and Spanish. We're working to help companies and regulators work together to benefit alternative finance as a whole," said Oscar A Jofre Founder, President/CEO of KoreConX.
What KoreConX Provides
KoreConX provides the infrastructure and eco-system for companies to efficiently manage their business while maintaining proper governance, transparency and compliance. The highly secure platform provides a suite of tools and services that centralizes and streamlines governance functions, ensuring that corporate information is always up to date while helping companies from start to finish during the process of Pre-During-Post regulated crowdfunding transactions.
Companies can use the KoreConX platform to organize and share their company information with portal operators, through a single point of entry, allowing them to comprehensively manage their equity raise without leaving the platform. Once the capital raising round is complete, KoreConX helps companies manage and communicate with their shareholders, practicing good governance as they grow.
Press Assets and Product Images: http://bit.ly/20gExC7
About KoreConX
KoreConX is a free all-in-one solution that helps companies navigate the process of raising equity capital, and simplifies shareholder communications to reduce risk. The KoreConX eco-system empowers stakeholders (regulated crowdfunding portals, shareholders, board directors, CEO, CFO, corporate secretary, lawyers, auditors, investor relations, members and 3rd party providers) to manage corporate information from a Single Point of Entry within a secure, hosted application that results in efficient and transparent corporate governance. More information is available at www.KoreConX.com.
Darcy Brooks
Director Communications
KoreConX
Email contact
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a collaborative open source project developing a common, Linux-based software stack for the connected car, today announced that Movimento, Oracle, Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc., Texas Instruments, UIEvolution and VeriSilicon have joined Automotive Grade Linux. Additionally, it was announced that Movimento, UIEvolution and VeriSilicon have also joined The Linux Foundation.
"AGL has seen tremendous growth over the past year as demand for connected car technology and infotainment are rapidly increasing," said Dan Cauchy, General Manager of Automotive at The Linux Foundation. "Our membership base is not only growing rapidly, but it is also diversifying across various business interests, from semiconductors and in-vehicle software to IoT and connected cloud services. This is a clear indication that the connected car revolution has broad implications across many industry verticals."
Automotive Grade Linux recently hosted its All Member Meeting in Tokyo, Japan. The meeting brought together engineers, developers and business leaders from 39 member companies to share information, collaborate further on AGL open source technology and expand the ecosystem.
Earlier this year at CES 2016, AGL announced a new AGL Unified Code Base (UCB) distribution built specifically for the automotive industry. This new Linux distribution is built from the ground up to address automotive specific applications and is in a unique position to become the de facto standard for the industry. Ideal for deploying navigation, communications, safety, security and infotainment functionality, the AGL UCB distribution is supported by a broad community of participants from the automotive, communications and semiconductor industries, as well as individual developers.
About the new members
Movimento Group
Devoted to developing advanced technologies that help realize The Software-Defined Car', Movimento Group utilizes its decade long history as a leader in automotive reflash services and its innovations in over-the-air (OTA) software. The company's car manufacturer customers include GM, FCA and Volvo plus a wide range of Tier-1 suppliers including ZF, Bosch, Denso, Panasonic, Continental, Delphi, Visteon, Magna and others.
"Movimento brings cutting-edge Silicon Valley technology to the automotive industry as we enable the era of the Software-Defined Car," said Mahbubul Alam, CTO and CMO at Movimento Group. "Our strategic partnership with Automotive Grade Linux will speed up innovation and allow us to broaden the automotive ecosystem."
Oracle
Oracle solutions help 20 of the top 20 global automotive OEMs and suppliers to accelerate innovation and time to market, which can lead to increased sales and enduring brand loyalty.
"Oracle is pleased to join the Automotive Grade Linux project," said Jim Wright, Chief Architect for Open Source Policy and Strategy, Oracle. "Oracle works closely with customers in the automotive sector. The open, standards-based approach of AGL can enhance our ability to timely deliver solutions to a community we are deeply invested in."
Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc.
Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. (QuIC), a subsidiary of Qualcomm Technologies Inc. (QTI), is focused on enabling and optimizing open source software for use with technology such as Qualcomm Technologies' robust and scalable automotive portfolio, with integrated and discrete solutions ranging from telematics and connectivity to graphics and multimedia, machine intelligence and sensor fusion for ADAS applications, GNSS location technologies, V2X communications and wireless electric vehicle charging technology.
"The automotive industry is enjoying an unprecedented rate of innovation, fueled by a large number of connectivity and compute technologies coming together into the car," said Nakul Duggal, Vice President, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Automotive Grade Linux will help car manufacturers take advantage of these technologies, accelerating the development of the cutting-edge, in-car experiences drivers demand today."
Texas Instruments (TI)
TI's state-of-the-art semiconductor products allow manufacturers and system suppliers to deliver world-class features to the automotive market. The company's extensive automotive portfolio includes power management, interface and analog signal chain solutions, along with DLP displays, ADAS and infotainment processors, Hercules' TMS570 safety microcontrollers and wireless connectivity solutions. TI offers SafeTI' ICs designed to facilitate OEMs' compliance with the requirements of ISO 26262, as well as parts specifically designated as compliant with the AEC-Q100 and TS16949 standards, all with excellent product documentation.
"By deploying the Automotive Grade Linux project, we are enhancing the scalability of our infotainment portfolio and enabling our customers to accelerate their deployment of highly-innovative applications to create a more enjoyable and safer driving experience in the next-generation connected car," said Curt Moore, Automotive Processors general manager, TI.
UIEvolution
UIEvolution was founded in 2000 with the mission of creating immersive experiences that inform, entertain and engage. UIEvolution works across automotive, hospitality and retail sectors. Within the automotive space, UIEvolution provides a complete, connected car solution that integrates connectivity, data and applications enabling automakers to deliver customized, cross-screen and cross-platform experiences that personalize the in-car experience for their customers.
"We are pleased to join Automotive Grade Linux," said Koji Hosaka, President of UIEvolution Japan & GM of the Automotive business unit. "We look forward to integrating with Linux to continue our commitment to open source computing, and build the next generation of automotive technology experiences for automakers and customers that prioritize the user's experience."
VeriSilicon Holdings
VeriSilicon is a Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaS') company that provides IP-centric, platform based custom silicon solutions and end-to-end semiconductor turnkey services for a wide range of applications across a wide variety of end markets including mobile internet devices, datacenters, the Internet of Things (IoT), wearable electronics, smart homes, and automotive.
"Embracing open source and working with Automotive Grade Linux will help us further expand our solutions for automotive which are widely adopted in production and next generation automotive Instrument Cluster, ADAS and Infotainment platforms," said Wei-Jin Dai, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Intellectual Property Division, and Chief Strategy Officer at VeriSilicon Holdings. "We applaud the momentum the AGL community has generated by bringing together the leading automotive OEMs and the supply chain to develop automotive solutions that improve functional safety, enhance security, shorten product development cycles and enhance quality across the automotive supply chain."
Thirty new companies have joined AGL in the past year, bringing the member total to more than 70. Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota are among the first carmakers to participate in the AGL collaborative project. Other members include Aisin AW, Codethink, DENSO, Fujitsu Ten, HARMAN, Intel, Mitsubishi Electric, NTT DATA MSE, Panasonic, Pioneer, Renesas Electronics, Wind River and many others.
About Automotive Grade Linux (AGL)
Automotive Grade Linux is a collaborative open source project that aims to accelerate the development and adoption of a fully open software stack for the connected car. Leveraging the power and strength of Linux at its core, AGL is uniting automakers and technology companies to develop a common platform that offers OEMs complete control of the user experience so the industry can rapidly innovate where it counts. The AGL platform is available to all, and anyone can participate in its development. Learn more: https://www.automotivelinux.org/.
Automotive Grade Linux is a Collaborative Project at The Linux Foundation. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. www.linuxfoundation.org
About The Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world's top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and commercial adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.
Additional Resources
Developer Resources
About the AGL Community
Participating in Automotive Grade Linux
Media Inquiries
Emily Olin
Automotive Grade Linux
eolin@linuxfoundation.org
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site will host its ninth annual spring photography workshop from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the visitor center a half-mile north of Stanton.
Brian Kerns, professional Web developer, graphic designer and photographer, will lead the workshop, focusing on technical aspects of digital photography, composition and metaphor in imagery.
The workshop is free. All ages and all camera styles are welcome. Participants should meet at the visitor center and be prepared for a field excursion in the park and surrounding areas, wearing hiking shoes and outerwear for spring weather. Bring a sack lunch or dine at the local cafe.
Group interaction will be encouraged with sharing and discussion of images taken during the workshop.
For information, call Knife River at 745-3300.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Dairy producer Dean Foods Co. (DF) reported a profit for the first-quarter 2016, compared to a loss in the prior year. Adjusted earnings per share topped analysts' expectations, while quarterly sales missed their estimates.
Chief Executive Officer Gregg Tanner said, 'Our Q1 performance marks a strong start to 2016. Solid execution across all functions led to continued improvement in our financial and operational performance from Q4 to Q1. We continue to execute our agenda at high levels across the entire team.'
For the second quarter, with expected volume declines in the low single digits, slightly decreasing raw milk costs, and taking normal seasonality into account, the company expects adjusted earnings to be between $0.32 and $0.40 per share. Analysts project second-quarter earnings of $0.35 per share.
Net income for the first-quarter was $39.20 million or $0.43 per share, compared to a loss of $73.74 million or $0.78 per share in the prior year.
Adjusted income for the quarter was $41.84 million, or $0.45 per share, compared to $22.31 million or $0.24 per share in the previous year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $0.38 per share for the first-quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Net sales for the quarter dropped to $1.88 billion from $2.05 billion in the prior year. Wall Street expected revenues of $1.89 billion for the quarter.
Total volume across all products was 641 million gallons for the first quarter of 2016, a 3.2% decline compared to total volume of 662 million gallons in the first quarter of 2015. For the second quarter 2016, as compared to the prior year period, the Company expects total volumes to decline in the low single digits.
The Company's Board of Directors approved an increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.09, a 29% increase versus the $0.07 dividend paid since the institution of the Company's dividend in the first quarter 2014.
DF closed Monday trading at $18.21, up $0.14 or 0.77 percent.
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PUNE, India, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
The report "Pressure Vessel Market by End-User Industry (Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Power, & Others), by Type (Boilers, Nuclear Reactors, Separators, & Others), by Material (Steel Alloys, Other Alloys, & Composites), & by Region (Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and South America) - Global Forecast to 2021" published by MarketsandMarkets, The market is expected to reach USD 184.87 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 5.38% from 2016 to 2021.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )
Browse 73 market data Tables and 51 Figures spread through 150 Pages and in-depth TOC on"Pressure Vessel Market"
http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/pressure-vessel-market-116301805.html
Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.
This growth is attributed to growing demand for electricity and power generation capacity additions. Increasing upstream & downstream activities in the oil & gas industry is the major factor expected to drive the Pressure Vessel Market.
Chemicals end-user industry to register the highest growth
The chemicals industry requires pressure vessels to store industrial liquids and other materials that are required in the production of their final products; sometimes they are also used to store the final product until shipped. Additionally, the chemicals industry utilizes pressure vessels to convert raw materials by mixing, blending, and heating to produce the final product. The chemicals segment is projected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. This growth is attributed to increased annual production growth in the global chemicals industry. This in turn would require deployment of pressure vessels.
Boilers segment within the Pressure Vessel Market is expected to lead the market
Boilers are primarily employed in power plants for generating high pressure steam to produce electricity. It is estimated to be the largest segment, by type, for the Pressure Vessel Market in 2016. Increasing demand for electricity in Asia-Pacific requires integrated equipment for power generation, which in turn, is likely to drive the Pressure Vessel Market. With majority of applications in power generation, this segment has a prospective market in Asia-Pacific.
Make an Enquiry: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=116301805
Asia-Pacific is the largest market for pressure vessel
Asia-Pacific is the largest Pressure Vessel Market. China and India are the largest markets in the region, due to increasing demand for electricity and power generation capacity additions. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest rate from 2016 to 2021. Countries such as South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia also have high-growth prospects in the Asia-Pacific Pressure Vessel Market. Increasing focus on renewable power generation and modernization of existing power infrastructure is likely to further boost the demand for pressure vessels in the Asian region.
To provide an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, the report includes profiles of some of the leading players in the Pressure Vessel Market, namely, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (Japan), Babcock and Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (U.S.), Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction (South Korea), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (India), and Larsen & Toubro Limited (India). These companies have been the most active in terms of strategic developments from January 2014 to April 2016. Most of these market players are present in Asia-Pacific and the U.S. and have been actively participating in competitive developments.
Browse Related Reports:
Cryogenic Equipment Market by Application (Energy & Power, Chemicals, Metallurgy, Electronics and Shipbuilding), Cryogen Gases (Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon and LNG), & by Product Type (Tank, Valve, Vaporizer & Pump) - Global Trend & Forecast to 2019
http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cryogenic-equipment-market-735.html
Power Plant Boiler Market by Type (Pulverized Fuel, Circulation Fluidized Bed, Others), by Technology (Subcritical, Supercritical, Ultra-supercritical), by Fuel Type (Coal, Gas, Oil, and Others), & Region - Global Trends & Forecast to 2021
http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/advanced-utility-boilers-market-117514945.html
About MarketsandMarkets
MarketsandMarkets is the 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 a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.
M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.
We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.
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Markets and Markets
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MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Orbite Technologies Inc. (TSX: ORT)(OTCQX: EORBF) ("Orbite" or the "Company") today announced that it will hold a conference call to discuss its fiscal 2016 first quarter results on Friday, May 13, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. (EDT). Participants will be able to dial in or listen to the call via webcast. The call will be hosted by Glenn Kelly, President and CEO, and Jacques Bedard, Vice President Finance & CFO. The Company expects to report its financial results for the first quarter on Friday, May 13, 2016 before markets open.
The call will be held in English. The Q&A session will be in English and French.
CONFERENCE CALL DETAILS:
Date: May 13, 2016 Time: 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Dial in number: +1 888 231-8191 +1 647 427-7450 Webcast: http://bit.ly/23pyOIT Taped replay: +1 855 859-2056 +1 514 807-9274 +1 416 849-0833 Encore password: 6414681 Available until: 12:00 midnight (EDT), Friday, May 20 2016
About Orbite
Orbite Technologies Inc. is a Canadian cleantech company whose innovative and proprietary processes are expected to produce alumina and other high-value products, such as rare earth and rare metal oxides, at one of the lowest costs in the industry, and in a sustainable fashion, using feedstocks that include aluminous clay, kaolin, nepheline, bauxite, red mud, fly ash as well as serpentine residues from chrysotile processing sites. Orbite is currently in the process of finalizing its first commercial high-purity alumina (HPA) production plant in Cap-Chat, Quebec and has completed the basic engineering for a proposed smelter-grade alumina (SGA) production plant, which would use clay mined from its Grande-Vallee deposit. The Company's portfolio contains 16 intellectual property families, including 32 patents and 101 pending patent applications in 11 different countries and regions. The first intellectual property family is patented in Canada, USA, Australia, China, Japan and Russia. The Company also operates a state of the art technology development center in Laval, Quebec, where its technologies are developed and validated.
Contacts:
NATIONAL Equicom
Marc Lakmaaker
External Investor Relations Consultant
416-848-1397
mlakmaaker@national.ca
For Media Inquiries:
NATIONAL Equicom
Scott Anderson
External Media Relations Consultant
416-586-1954
sanderson@national.ca
BOUCHERVILLE, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- On Tuesday May 10, 2016, RONA inc. (TSX: RON)(TSX: RON.PR.A)(TSX: RON.PR.B) will disclose its first quarter financial results. The financial results will be made public in a press release that will be issued on the newswire. The Press Release and the Management Discussion & Analysis will be posted on the RONA website at the address www.rona.ca.
About RONA
RONA inc. is a major Canadian retailer and distributor of hardware, building materials and home renovation products. The Corporation operates a network of close to 500 corporate and independent affiliate dealer stores in a number of complementary formats. With its nine distribution centres, RONA serves its network of stores and several independent dealers operating under other banners, including Ace, for which RONA owns the licensing rights and is the exclusive distributor in Canada. With more than 17,000 employees in corporate stores and more than 5,000 employees in the stores of its independent affiliate dealers, the Corporation generates annual consolidated sales of $4.2 billion. For more information, visit www.rona.ca.
Contacts:
Media
Valerie Gonzalo
Media Relations
514-626-6976
media@rona.ca
Financial Community
Stephane Milot
Vice President - Development, Real Estate
and Investor Relations
514-599-5951
stephane.milot@rona.ca
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Noranda Income Fund (TSX: NIF.UN) announced that it will hold a conference call to discuss Q1 2016 results on May 17 at 8:30 a.m. ET. Eva Carissimi, President and CEO, and Michael Boone, CFO, of Noranda Income Fund's manager, will host the call. The Fund expects to release its first quarter results on Monday, May 16, 2016 after market close.
The Fund also announced that it will hold its annual general meeting on Tuesday, May 17, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. ET.
First Quarter 2016 Results Conference Call: When: May 17, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. E.T Dial in number: 647-788-4919 or Toll-free North American number: 1-877-291-4570
To access the webcast and view the slide presentation from the Noranda Income Fund website: http://www.norandaincomefund.com/investor/conference.html or click on this link: http://www.gowebcasting.com/7541.
Conference Call Replay: Dial in number: 416-621-4642 or Toll-free North American number: 1-800-585-8367
The conference ID is 3433172 and you will be prompted to provide your name and company.
The recording will be available until midnight on May 31, 2016.
Annual General Meeting: When: May 17, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. E.T Location: Inverness Room at the St. Andrew's Club, 150 King Street West, 27th floor, Toronto, Ontario
To access the webcast and view the slide presentation from the Noranda Income Fund website: http://norandaincomefund.com/investor/presentations.html or click on this link: http://www.gowebcasting.com/7542.
Further information about Noranda Income Fund can be found at www.norandaincomefund.com.
Contacts:
Michael Boone
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer,
Canadian Electrolytic Zinc Limited
Noranda Income Fund's Manager
416-775-1561
info@norandaincomefund.com
EUREKA, MO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Dr. Jack Griffin, a dentist in Eureka, is dedicated to helping his patients achieve and maintain a smile that exudes beauty and confidence. In the past, patients with crooked teeth and other orthodontic concerns often needed to rely on bulky metal braces, wires, and rubber bands to improve the appearance of their smile. Today, there are a number of advanced alternatives that can correct common orthodontic issues without many of the drawbacks associated with traditional braces, and Dr. Griffin says Invisalign is one of the most popular options. Invisalign's system of clear plastic aligners allows Dr. Griffin to help patients more discreetly move their teeth into a more desirable position. He notes that Invisalign has ultimately made it possible for many individuals to feel more confident in their appearance during the process of straightening their teeth.
Dr. Griffin says the custom-designed, removable plastic aligners utilized in the Invisalign treatment process can address misaligned and crowded teeth, gaps and spaces between the teeth, overbite or underbite, and other orthodontic concerns. In addition to the cosmetic benefits of Invisalign, the Eureka and St. Louis area cosmetic dentist says that the function and health of the mouth and bite can also be improved with Invisalign. During the treatment, patients wear a set of the aligners for about two weeks, and then switch that set out for the next in the series. Each set is slightly modified from the one that came before it, which is how Invisalign is able to gradually reposition the teeth. While the aligners can be removed for eating, drinking, and oral hygiene routines, Dr. Griffin notes that patients should wear them at least 22 hours each day in order to ensure optimal results. He says that, for many individuals, the best results from Invisalign can be attained in less time when compared with traditional braces.
While not all patients will be candidates for Invisalign, Dr. Griffin reveals that many individuals can benefit from the procedure. In terms of the cost of Invisalign, he explains that the overall price varies according to each patient's unique needs and goals, the complexity of the orthodontic issues that are being addressed, and other factors. With that in mind, Dr. Griffin says many dental insurance policies that include coverage for orthodontics often have coverage for Invisalign. Plus, he notes, a comprehensive array of financing and payment options available at his practice, Eureka Smile Center, can also be helpful for patients trying to bring the cost of treatment into their budget.
Ultimately, Dr. Griffin says, Invisalign has given many individuals the opportunity to straighten their teeth, correct bite issues, and renew the appearance of their smile without worrying about the aesthetic implications of more traditional orthodontic treatment.
About Jack Griffin, DMD
After earning his dental degree from the Southern Illinois University dental school, Dr. Jack Griffin completed his residency in general dentistry at the University of Louisville. He then began his Eureka practice in 1988. Along with his colleague, Dr. Eric Klumb, Dr. Griffin offers a comprehensive range of general, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry procedures at Eureka Smile Center. Dr. Griffin is a member of the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, the American Orthodontic Society, and the American Society for Dental Esthetics, among other dental organizations. In addition, he is a Diplomat of the American Board of Aesthetic Dentistry and holds Mastership status in the Academy of General Dentistry. Dr. Griffin is available for interview upon request.
For more information, visit eurekasmile.com or facebook.com/EurekaSmileCenter.
To view the original source of this press release, click here:
https://www.eurekasmile.com/news-room/st-louis-and-eureka-area-dentist-discusses-invisalign-clear-teeth-aligners
Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3004675
Eureka Smile Center
18 Hilltop Village Center Dr.
Eureka, MO 63025
636-938-6241
Rosemont Media
(858) 200-0044
www.rosemontmedia.com
PALO ALTO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Simplee, the financial technology leader for healthcare, today announced $20 million in a Series C funding round led by Social Capital, with participation from existing investors 83North and Heritage Group, and new investor American Express Ventures. Simplee is part of the growing fintech movement in healthcare and the $330 billion in annual out of pocket medical spend, a total that eclipses online retail spending.
"Many components of our healthcare system are ripe for transformation by technology-minded companies, and payments represents one of the biggest near-term opportunities," said Ted Maidenberg, co-founder and partner at Social Capital. "Patient payments are largely broken, and we're excited to expand our investment in Simplee as they bridge the consumer experience gap and set a new bar for how patients engage and pay in healthcare."
"The patient financial experience is proving a brand differentiation source for healthcare providers in the rising consumer battle for patients," said Simplee CEO and co-founder Tomer Shoval. "We are thrilled to have support of investors like Social Capital and American Express Ventures as well as returning investors 83North and Heritage Group as we define the financial technology future of healthcare."
The Simplee Financial Engagement software platform is healthcare's first patient engagement solution unifying hospital and physician estimates, statements, payments, and credit. Since launching its enterprise platform in 2013, Simplee now works with nearly 900 hospitals and physician groups, and 5 million patients across the US representing over $1 billion in annual payments.
"Simplee has developed a smart technology platform that reduces the friction in healthcare payments, an increasingly complex ecosystem to navigate," said Harshul Sanghi, Managing Partner, American Express Ventures. "We're pleased to invest in solutions that provide a more seamless experience for patients and providers alike."
The nation's leading health systems and community hospitals use Simplee to transform their patient financial experience, achieving higher patient satisfaction, greater payment success, and lower costs. On average, Simplee customers achieve net promoter scores 4x the healthcare norm for billing and payment experience, a 50% higher adoption of digital engagement benefiting revenue cycle and marketing initiatives, and a 3x return on investment driven by lower costs and higher net collections.
About Simplee
Simplee is transforming the patient financial experience. The Simplee Financial Engagement software platform is the world's first single enterprise solution for patient engagement, billing, estimates, payment, point-of-service, and financing. With Simplee, healthcare providers get award-winning technology (Fierce Healthcare, Webby, and more) that creates a payment experience patients and staff love, driving satisfaction, payments, and more. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., Simplee is founded and led by eCommerce veterans, and its investors include Social Capital, 83North, Heritage Group, and American Express Ventures. For more information on Simplee, visit simplee.com or follow @SimpleePay.
Press Contact
Michael Azzano
Cosmo PR for Simplee
+1 (415) 596-1978
michael@cosmo-pr.com
DALLAS, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Lincoln Property Company, the second largest multifamily manager in the United States, hosted its first corporate awards ceremony honoring regional employees for performance in 2015. Held at Lincoln's Leadership Summit in Nashville, TN on April 20th, designations were extremely selective with only one award recipient per category.
"These deserving Lincoln employees went above and beyond in 2015, exemplifying sound leadership, unparalleled industry expertise and an unwavering commitment to serve," said Scott Wilder, Executive Vice President for the company. "It was an honor in and of itself to present awards to these team members -- I couldn't be more proud."
2015 Summit Award recipients are listed below.
AVP of the Year: Matt Webb - Midwest Region, Promoted to Vice President of Operations, March 2016
Regional Property Manager of the Year: Lynn Heath - Southwest Region, Promoted to AVP, July 2015
Regional Maintenance Director of the Year: Joe Medearis - Southwest Region
Regional Marketing Director of the Year: Laurie Frias - Southwest Region
Regional Director of Learning and Talent Development of the Year: Debbie Jones - Southwest Region
Rookie of the Year: Tom Gibbons, Regional Property Manager - West Coast Region, Promoted to Senior RPM, December 2015
Spirit of Lincoln: Doug Taylor, Regional Property Manager - Southeast Region, Promoted to AVP, March 2016
Lincoln to the Core: Bill Biles, Regional Property Manager - Mid-Atlantic Region
Community of the Year: Infinity Harbor Point, Stamford, CT - Northeast Region
About Lincoln Property Company
Lincoln Property Company was founded in 1965 as a builder and operator of high-quality residential communities. In the early 1970s, Lincoln expanded its product mix to include commercial, build-to-suit, office, hotel, industrial, and other mixed-use assets. In 1972, Lincoln took this expertise within the United States to Western Europe and the Middle East.
In 2001, Lincoln joined forces with the U.S. Department of Defense to renovate and redevelop family housing at selected bases for the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Army. Through innovative management, property rehabilitation and award-winning new construction designs, Lincoln is now one of the largest operators of military housing in the country. Lincoln continued its growth in 2013 with the acquisition of Grand Campus Living, increasing the depth of knowledge in the rental housing sector for the firm.
Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Lincoln focuses on real estate investment, construction and development, in addition to property management. Their national reputation has enabled Lincoln to attract a large client base of owners and investors who count on their ability to deliver quality results and continually serve as a market leader.
For more information about Lincoln Property Company, please visit http://www.lincolnapts.com/management-services or visit http://www.lincolnapts.com/regions/ for apartment listings in your area.
Follow Lincoln Property Company on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to hear about all the new deals to help you look forward to moving into your new home!
Media Contact:
Sheri Sandefur Killingsworth
Vice President
Marketing & Communications
214-740-3300
Email Contact
CREVE COEUR (dpa-AFX) - Monsanto Co. (MON) said that it continues to execute on key milestones within its core business in fiscal year 2016. Through new corn hybrid portfolio introductions across key corn growing regions, as well as at least seven different late stage technologies that have licensing and launch opportunities in the near term, Monsanto's largest crop platform remains strong.
During the Wells Fargo 2016 Industrials and Chemicals Conference today in New York, Monsanto Company's vice president and chief commercial officer Mike Frank will highlight the company's core growth drivers and integrated platform opportunities.
Frank will note that Monsanto continues to expect to hold or grow corn share in the United States in 2016, with the company's year one to year three hybrids continuing to track at 50 percent to 60 percent of its portfolio.
SmartStax corn remains roughly at the same percentage of the portfolio mix as last year. In Brazil, the company grew share in the first season of the year and its VT Triple PRO product is expected to be on approximately two million acres across both seasons with strong grower interest and adoption. In Argentina, the company's corn share remains above 50 percent in a region where acres declined significantly versus the prior year. Across Europe and South Africa, the company also continues to expect to hold or grow share in a region of declining corn acres.
Within soybeans, the company continues to build on the strong grower adoption of Intacta RR2 PRO soybeans in South America as the company remains on track to reach 35 million acres in fiscal year 2016 on the way to its full 100 million acre opportunity.
Demand for Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans also remains strong as the company continues to await the European Union stack trait approval, which is in the final, administrative stage of approval and is expected to be completed in the near future. The company continues to regularly and transparently communicate throughout the value chain on the status of Roundup Ready 2 XtendT approvals.
Given the European Union approval delay, Monsanto now expects to be on less than two million acres in its first year of launch in the United States. However, given the strong grower demand for the technology, the company still expects to be on two-thirds of the U.S. soybean acres by 2019 and has plans in place to be on 15 million U.S. soybean acres in fiscal year 2017, assuming timely receipt of the remaining regulatory approvals.
Monsanto also continues to make strong progress across its Climate FieldView platform as it is now on track to deliver its target of paid services on more than 12 million acres as grower interest and adoption of the new platform continues to grow.
Frank will highlight that continued progress on these key milestones in fiscal year 2016 is expected to set up a runway of growth beginning in fiscal year 2017.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Ultra Electronics Holdings plc (ULE) and Sparton Corporation (NYSE:SPA) announce the award of subcontracts valued at $101.1 million to their ERAPSCO joint venture, for the manufacture of sonobuoys for the United States Navy. The award is a GFY16 ERAPSCO Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract release for sonobuoy requirements under ERAPSCO's five year contract. ERAPSCO will provide production subcontracts in the amount of $46.8 million and $54.3 million to Ultra Electronics USSI and Sparton De Leon Springs, LLC respectively. Production will take place at Ultra Electronics USSI's Columbia City, IN facility and Sparton's De Leon Springs, FL facility and is expected to be completed by September 2017.
"I am pleased that we have secured this important contract that will continue to provide critical sensor capabilities to the US Navy. This contract is a reflection of the increased focus on anti-submarine warfare and the U.S. Navy's commitment to providing key technology for this important mission," stated Rakesh Sharma, Chief Executive of Ultra Electronics.
Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Sparton Corporation, Joseph Hartnett, elaborated by stating, "We are grateful for the confidence the U.S. Navy has demonstrated in Sparton by awarding this contract. We remain committed to delivering high performance product solutions to enable their success in undersea warfare missions today and in the future."
Further information about Ultra:
Ultra Electronics is a group of businesses which manage a portfolio of specialist capabilities, generating highly differentiated solutions and products in the defence aerospace, security cyber, transport and energy markets by applying electronic and software technologies in demanding and critical environments to meet customer needs.
Ultra has world-leading positions in many of its specialist capabilities and, as an independent, non-threatening partner, is able to support all of the main prime contractors in its sectors. As a result of such positioning, Ultra's systems, equipment or services are often mission or safety-critical to the successful operation of the platform to which they contribute. In turn, this mission-criticality secures Ultra's positions for the long term which underpins the superior financial performance of the Group.
Ultra offers support to its customers through the design, delivery and support phases of a programme. Ultra businesses have a high degree of operational autonomy where the local management teams are empowered to devise and implement competitive strategies that reflect their expertise in their specific niches. The Group has a small head office and executive team that provide to the individual businesses the same agile, responsive support that they provide to customers as well as formulating Ultra's overarching, corporate strategy.
Across the Group's three divisions, Ultra operates in the following eight market segments:
Aerospace
Communications
C2ISR
Infrastructure
Land
Maritime
Nuclear
Underwater Warfare
About Sparton Corporation
Sparton Corporation (NYSE:SPA), now in its 116th year, is a provider of complex and sophisticated electromechanical devices with capabilities that include concept development, industrial design, design and manufacturing engineering, production, distribution, field service and refurbishment. The primary markets served are Medical Biotechnology, Military Aerospace and Industrial Commercial. Headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois, Sparton currently has thirteen manufacturing locations and engineering design centers worldwide. Sparton's Web site may be accessed at www.sparton.com.
Safe Harbor and Fair Disclosure Statement
Certain statements described in this press release are forward-looking statements within the scope of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). Forward-looking statements may be identified by the words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "plan," "estimate," "will" or "intend" and similar words or expressions. These forward-looking statements reflect Sparton's current views with respect to future events and are based on currently available financial, economic and competitive data and its current business plans. Actual results could vary materially depending on risks and uncertainties that may affect Sparton's operations, markets, prices and other factors. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, Sparton's financial performance and the implementations and results of its ongoing strategic initiatives. For a more detailed discussion of these and other risk factors, see Part I, Item 1A, Risk Factors and Part II, Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, in Sparton's Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2015, and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Sparton undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510005242/en/
Contacts:
Investors:
Institutional Marketing Services (IMS)
John Nesbett/Jennifer Belodeau, 203-972-9200
jnesbett@institutionalms.com
or
Sparton Corporation
Joseph McCormack, 847-762-5812
jmccormack@sparton.com
MELBOURNE (dpa-AFX) - Andrew Mackenzie, chief executive of BHP Billiton Plc. (BHP.AX, BLT.L, BBL, BHP), while speaking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Conference on Tuesday said the company is focused on value creation and growing cash returns to shareholders. He noted that BHP will not wait for recovery of prices. Mackenzie said that the company remain confident in the long term outlook for commodities. He has outlined five areas for value creation. It will improve productivity and and expects $2.6 billion gains by end of 2017. It expects fall in unit costs. BHP has plans to invest and to raise copper production by more than 10 percent. It will maximize the value of high quality share assets in a disciplined manner and will increase exploration activities. Mackenzie said, 'We have the financial strength and the flexibility to pursue a diverse range of opportunities and grow value per share at all points in the cycle, and we have a clear and simple strategy in place to deliver that growth.' 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.
BOSTON, MA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- InspireMD, Inc. (NYSE MKT: NSPR) ("InspireMD" or the "Company"), a leader in embolic prevention systems (EPS), neurovascular devices and thrombus management technologies, today announced its financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016.
During the first quarter, InspireMD announced initiatives to support ongoing commercial operations and development programs. Key activities include announced:
Completed private placement and public offering;
Strengthened Board of Directors with appointment of Isaac Blech as Vice Chairman; and
Continued operational and financial alignment, with ongoing implementation of a comprehensive cash management program.
Sol Barer, Chairman of the Board of InspireMD, commented, "In line with our focused execution of our strategy, a key priority is our ongoing management transition plan with attention on our European commercial and development activities. These efforts were aided by our recent capital raise and addition to the board. We look for timely and continuous updates as we execute on our plans."
Dr. Barer continued, "We remain pleased with consistent, positive feedback with our CGuard commercial activities, noting progress with our early efforts to drive market traction. We look forward to continued clinical presentations of CGuard patient evaluations at relevant medical industry conferences, including the investigator-led PARADIGM-101 at the Late-Breaking Clinical Trial session at EuroPCR on May 17th."
Recent Operating Highlights:
COMMERCIAL
Continued focus on expanding European commercial activities in new geographies.
Successful CGuard commercial efforts across distributor network, particularly in select European regions, such as Italy.
REGULATORY / CLINICAL / PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
CGuard evaluation on 101 consecutive all comer patients in PARADIGM-101 or PARADIGM-EXTEND study selected for Late-Breaking Clinical Trial presentation at EuroPCR conference from May 17-20, 2016 in Paris, France.
FINANCIAL
Comprehensive and active cash management program, including a March 16th, 2016 pricing of an underwritten public offering of 1,900,000 shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase up to 950,000 shares of common stock and a concurrent private placement of 1,033,051shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase up to 516,526 shares of common stock to certain of the Company's directors.
Continued implementation of cost containment activities while supporting key development programs.
Quarter Ended March 31, 2016 Financial Results
Revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 increased $0.1 million to $0.6 million compared to $0.5 million during the same period in 2015. The increase was predominantly driven by sales of $0.3 million of CGuard EPS, our carotid product. This increase, however, was partially offset by an expected decline in sales of MGuard Prime EPS associated with the trend of doctors increasingly using drug eluting stents rather than bare metal stents in STEMI.
The Company's gross profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 was $66,000 compared to a gross loss of $37,000 for the same period in 2015. This increase in gross profit was largely attributable to the increase in product revenues and a decrease of write-offs of MGuard Prime EPS inventory offset by expenses related to the underutilization of our manufacturing resources.
Total operating expenses for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 were $2.5 million, a decrease of 49.5% compared to $4.9 million for the same period in 2015. This decrease was primarily due to a reduction of compensation related expenses, restructuring and impairment costs and other savings associated with our ongoing cost reduction plan.
The loss from operations for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 was $2.4 million, a decrease of 51.2% compared to a loss of $4.9 million for the same period in 2015.
Financial expenses for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 were $0.2 million, a decrease of 27.8% compared to the same period in 2015. This decrease was primarily due to a reduction in interest expense of our outstanding loan.
The net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 totaled $2.6 million, or $0.32 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $5.2 million, or $1.04 per basic and diluted share, in the same period in 2015.
Non-GAAP net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 was $1.9 million, or $0.23 per basic and diluted share, a decrease of 51.6% compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $3.8 million, or $0.77 per basic and diluted share, for the same period in 2015. The non-GAAP net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 primarily excludes $0.7 million of share-based compensation. The non-GAAP net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 primarily excludes $1.0 million of share-based compensation and $0.3 million of expense related to an impairment of a royalties buyout asset.
Cash and Cash Equivalents
As of March 31, 2016, cash and cash equivalents were $2.0 million, compared to $3.3 million as of December 31, 2015.
No Conference Call Scheduled
The Company is not hosting a conference call to discuss first quarter March 31, 2016 results. Additional updates will be provided as they become available.
About PARADIGM
PARADIGM is an investigator-initiated Prospective evaluation of All-comer peRcutaneous cArotiD revascularization In symptomatic and increased-risk asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis, using CGuard Mesh-covered embolic prevention stent system. At EuroPCR 2015, Dr. Musialek summarized the results of his PARADIGM evaluation of 71 CGuard procedures in unselected all-comer patients: 1) stent system success and procedure success rate of 100%; 2) periprocedural complications of 0%, and remained at 0% at 30 days; and 3) no MACNE occurred periprocedurally or at 30 days, by operator-independent neurologist and non-invasive cardiologist evaluation.
About InspireMD, Inc.
InspireMD seeks to utilize its proprietary MGuard with MicroNet technology to make its products the industry standard for embolic protection and to provide a superior solution to the key clinical issues of current stenting in patients with a high risk of distal embolization, no reflow and major adverse cardiac events.
InspireMD intends to pursue applications of this MicroNet technology in coronary, carotid (CGuard), neurovascular, and peripheral artery procedures. InspireMD's common stock is quoted on the NYSE MKT under the ticker symbol NSPR.
Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements may be preceded by the words "intends," "may," "will," "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "projects," "predicts," "estimates," "aims," "believes," "hopes," "potential" or similar words. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on certain assumptions and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, and cannot be predicted or quantified and consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with (i) market acceptance of our existing and new products, (ii) negative clinical trial results or lengthy product delays in key markets, (iii) an inability to secure regulatory approvals for the sale of our products, (iv) intense competition in the medical device industry from much larger, multinational companies, (v) product liability claims, (vi) product malfunctions, (vii) our limited manufacturing capabilities and reliance on subcontractors for assistance, (viii) insufficient or inadequate reimbursement by governmental and other third party payers for our products, (ix) our efforts to successfully obtain and maintain intellectual property protection covering our products, which may not be successful, (x) legislative or regulatory reform of the healthcare system in both the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions, (xi) our reliance on single suppliers for certain product components, (xii) the fact that we will need to raise additional capital to meet our business requirements in the future and that such capital raising may be costly, dilutive or difficult to obtain and (xiii) the fact that we conduct business in multiple foreign jurisdictions, exposing us to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, logistical and communications challenges, burdens and costs of compliance with foreign laws and political and economic instability in each jurisdiction. More detailed information about the Company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward looking statements is set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC's web site at http://www.sec.gov. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (1) (U.S. dollars in thousands, except per share data) Three months ended March 31, ------------------------ 2016 2015 ----------- ----------- Revenues $ 563 $ 477 Cost of revenues 497 514 ----------- ----------- Gross Profit (Loss) 66 (37) ----------- ----------- Operating Expenses: Research and development 478 1,352 Selling and marketing 386 1,017 General and administrative 1,589 1,970 Restructuring and impairment - 514 ----------- ----------- Total operating expenses 2,453 4,853 ----------- ----------- Loss from operations (2,387) (4,890) Financial expenses 221 306 ----------- ----------- Loss before tax expenses (2,608) (5,196) Tax expenses 1 16 ----------- ----------- Net Loss $ (2,609) $ (5,212) =========== =========== Net loss per share - basic and diluted $ (0.32) $ (1.04) =========== =========== Weighted average number of shares of common stock used in computing net loss per share - basic and diluted 8,042,082 4,991,519 =========== =========== RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP NET LOSS (2) (U.S. dollars in thousands, except per share data) Three months ended March 31, ------------------------ 2016 2015 ----------- ----------- GAAP Net Loss $ (2,609) $ (5,212) ----------- ----------- Non-GAAP Adjustments: Share-based compensation expenses 741 1,029 Impairment of royalties buyout - 316 Royalties buyout amortization 12 36 Total Non-GAAP Adjustments 934 1,381 ----------- ----------- Non-GAAP Net Loss $ (1,856) $ (3,831) =========== =========== Non-GAAP net loss per share - basic and diluted $ (0.23) $ (0.77) Weighted average number of shares of common stock used in computing net loss per share - basic and diluted 8,042,082 4,991,519 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (3) (U.S. dollars in thousands) ASSETS March 31, December 31, 2016 2015 -------------- -------------- Current Assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,999 $ 3,257 Accounts receivable: Trade, net 546 405 Other 204 142 Prepaid expenses 62 75 Inventory 511 753 -------------- -------------- Total current assets 3,322 4,632 -------------- -------------- Non-current assets: Property, plant and equipment, net 436 472 Funds in respect of employee rights upon retirement 411 502 Royalties buyout 75 87 -------------- -------------- Total non-current assets 922 1,061 -------------- -------------- Total assets $ 4,244 $ 5,693 ============== ============== LIABILITIES (NET OF CAPITAL DEFICIENCY) March 31, December 31, 2016 2015 -------------- -------------- Current liabilities: Accounts payable and accruals: Trade $ 453 $ 512 Other 2,139 2,006 Advanced payment from customers 169 167 Current maturity of loan 4,294 4,149 -------------- -------------- Total current liabilities 7,055 6,834 -------------- -------------- Long-term liabilities: Liability for employees rights upon retirement 584 706 Long-term loan - 1,099 -------------- -------------- Total long-term liabilities 584 1,805 -------------- -------------- Total liabilities 7,639 8,639 -------------- -------------- Equity: Common stock, par value $0.0001 per share; 50,000,000 shares authorized; 7,676,074 and 4,136,890 shares issued and outstanding at December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively 1 1 Additional paid-in capital 122,209 120,049 Accumulated deficit (125,605) (122,996) -------------- -------------- Total capital deficiency (3,395) (2,946) -------------- -------------- Total liabilities net of capital deficiency $ 4,244 $ 5,693 ============== ==============
(1) All 2016 financial information is derived from the Company's 2016 unaudited financial statements, as disclosed in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all 2015 financial information is derived from the Company's 2015 unaudited financial statements, as disclosed in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
(2) Our non-GAAP net loss is presented as management uses this supplemental non-GAAP financial measure to evaluate performance period over period, analyze the underlying trends in our business, and establish operational goals and forecasts that are used in allocating resources. We believe by presenting this additional measurement, we are providing investors with greater transparency to the information used by our management for our financial and operational decision-making, as well as allowing investors to see our results "through the eyes" of management. We further believe that providing this information assists our investors in understanding our operating performance and the methodology used by management to evaluate and measure such performance.
(3) All March 31, 2016 financial information is derived from the Company's 2016 unaudited financial statements, as disclosed in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All December 31, 2015 financial information is derived from the Company's 2015 audited financial statements as disclosed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, for the twelve months ended December 31, 2015 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Investor Contacts:
InspireMD, Inc.
Craig Shore
Chief Financial Officer
Phone: 1-888-776-6804 FREE
Email: craigs@inspiremd.com
PCG Advisory
Vivian Cervantes
Investor Relations
Phone: (212) 554-5482
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Leucadia National Corp. (LUK) announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ITG Investment Research, LLC from Investment Technology Group for $12 million. Upon completion of the deal, ITG Investment Research will operate as M Science. Michael Marrale, will serve as CEO of M Science. ITG said it does not expect to book a material gain or loss from this transaction after related costs and taxes and the write-down of the remaining intangibles associated with ITG Investment Research. ITG also announced it plans to take a restructuring charge of approximately $1.6 million to reduce the headcount within its U.S. high-touch sales trading operation as a result of the sale. ITG expects to realize cost savings of approximately $3 million annually as a result of the deal. 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.
Bankers Petroleum receives certain regulatory approvals for proposed acquisition by Geo-Jade
CALGARY, May 10, 2016 /CNW/ - Bankers Petroleum Ltd. ("Bankers") (TSX: BNK, AIM: BNK) is pleased to announce that the proposed corporate transaction (the "Arrangement") has received the necessary approvals from the Albanian Competition Authority, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM) through the Shanghai Free Trade Zone Management Committee.
Both parties continue to pursue the outstanding regulatory approvals pursuant to the Investment Canada Act (Canada) and the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). Bankers will host its special meeting of shareholders (the "Special Meeting") on May 31, 2016, seeking Shareholder approval for the Arrangement. If approved at the Special Meeting, closing of the Arrangement remains on track to occur in June 2016, following which Bankers' common shares will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") and the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
Special Meeting of Shareholders
Bankers' shareholders of record as of April 19, 2016, are entitled to vote at the Special Meeting. The Arrangement must be approved by the holders of not less than 66..."% of the Bankers common shares present in person or represented by proxy at the Special Meeting. Shareholders are encouraged to read the Management Information Circular prepared in connection with the Arrangement as it provides important information about Bankers and the Arrangement. The Management Information Circular and related proxy materials are available on SEDAR and Bankers' website (http://www.bankerspetroleum.com/).
The Special Meeting will be held at The Metropolitan Centre (Strand/Tivoli Rm), 333 4th Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta on Tuesday, May 31, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. (Calgary time). Bankers will provide further information with respect to the timing of closing of the Arrangement and the delisting of Bankers common shares from the TSX and AIM as updates become available.
Benefits of the Arrangement include:
Cash price of C$2.20 per Bankers common share
Bankers debt will be handled separately by the purchasing Company and will not affect the stated purchase price of $2.20 per Bankers common share
The Arrangement is an opportunity for shareholders to crystalize value representing a premium of 98% over Bankers' closing share price on the TSX of C$1.11 on March 18, 2016, and 109% over the 30-trading day volume weighted average trading price of Bankers common shares of C$1.05 per share ending on March 18, 2016
The Arrangement has received the unanimous approval of the Board of Directors of Bankers, who have recommended that shareholders vote in favor of it, and carries the full support of Bankers' management team
Shareholders who have questions regarding the Arrangement or require assistance with voting may contact the Proxy Solicitation Agent below:
Laurel Hill Advisory Group
Toll Free: 1-877-452-7184
International: +1 416-304-0211 outside Canada and the US
By Email: assistance@laurelhill.com
-----------
About Bankers Petroleum Ltd.
Bankers Petroleum Ltd. is a Canadian-based oil and gas exploration and production company focused on developing large oil and gas reserves in Albania and Eastern Europe. In Albania, Bankers operates and has the full rights to develop the Patos-Marinza heavy oilfield, has a 100% interest in the KuAova oilfield, and a 100% interest in Exploration Block "F". In 2015 Bankers acquired an 85% interest in the rights to explore the PAspAkladAny Block concession within the Pannonian Basin located in north eastern Hungary. The Bankers Shares are traded on the TSX and the AIM Market in London, England under the stock symbol BNK.
Caution Regarding Forward-looking Information
Certain information set forth in this press release, including information and statements which may contain words such as "could", "plans", "intends" "should", "anticipate", "expects", "will", "propose", "opportunity", "future", "continue", and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding: the proposed Arrangement and the anticipated timing of closing, the timing of receipt of required regulatory approvals, the timing of the Special Meeting and the treatment of Bankers debt. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond Bankers' control. Completion of the Arrangement is subject to a number of conditions, including receipt of the approval's required by the Investment Canada Act (Canada) and approvals required by the People's Republic of China and the competition authority of Albania, and other conditions which are typical for transactions of this nature. Failure to satisfy any of these conditions, the emergence of a superior proposal or the failure to obtain approval of Bankers' shareholders may result in the termination of the Arrangement Agreement. The foregoing list is not exhaustive. Additional information on these and other risks that could affect completion of the Arrangement is set forth in the information circular in respect of the Special Meeting, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The actual results, performance or achievement of Bankers could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that Bankers will derive therefrom. Bankers disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.
David French, President and Chief Executive Officer, (403) 513-6930; Doug Urch, Executive VP, Finance and Chief Financial Officer, (403) 513-2691; Laura Bechtel, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Specialist, (403) 513-3428; Email: investorrelations@bankerspetroleum.com, Website: www.bankerspetroleum.com; AIM NOMAD: Canaccord Genuity Limited, Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor, +44 0 207 523 8000, AIM BROKER AND FINANCIAL ADVISOR: FirstEnergy Capital LLP, Hugh Sanderson / David van Erp, +44 0 207 448 0200
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A U.S.-led coalition airstrike May 6 targeted and killed Abu Wahib, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's military emir for Iraq's Anbar province, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said Monday. The spokesman said Wahib is a former member of al-Qaida in Iraq and has been seen in ISIL execution videos. That strike also killed three other ISIL jihadists, Cook said. 'Abu Wahib's death is another blow to ISIL's leadership that will further degrade its ability to operate, especially in Anbar province,' according to him. ISIL leadership has been hit hard by coalition efforts, Cook said. 'This is another example of that,' he added. 'It is dangerous to be an ISIL leader in Iraq and Syria these days, and for good reason we want to apply pressure [on] ISIL on as many fronts as possible. Taking out leadership targets is one way to do that.' Cook noted Anbar province is a critically important area in the fight against ISIL, and the death of Wahib will harm ISIL's ability to conduct operations in the region. The spokesman noted that taking out leadership is part of what he called 'a multipronged effort' to apply pressure on as many fronts to ISIL as possible, 'and for ISIL leaders to be very worried about their next step.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Genius Properties Ltd. ("Genius" or the "Corporation") (CSE: GNI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Neil D. Novak and Denis Simard as directors of the Corporation.
Neil D. Novak B.Sc., P. Geo.
Neil's career has spanned nearly 4 decades in the mining industry, he graduated from University of Waterloo in 1977 with a B.Sc. (Earth Sciences). Neil has worked as an exploration geologist throughout much of Canada, Africa, Europe, South America, the Caribbean, China, and Russia; but Northern Ontario was his main area of exploration focus. Upon graduating in 1977, Neil started his career as an exploration geologist searching for Uranium in the Otish area of Northern Quebec. In the early 1980's he headed up a gold exploration project in the Abitibi Greenstone belt east of Timmins and north of Kirkland Lake, then in 1983 - 92, Neil headed up several small exploration teams in the SW extension of the Abitibi region in the Gogama area of Ontario, and was on the initial discovery/delineation team for the Jack Rabbit Gold deposit in Chester Township, while doing so he also dabbled in exploration in the western portion of the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario looking for nickel/copper and gold. In the early 1990's, Neil was involved in the formation of Spider Resources Inc., helping it become a public company in early 1993. Neil was initially an exploration consultant to Spider then by the mid 1990's he became an active board member and Vice President Exploration. in the late 1990's and through to 2003, Neil led the exploration team that was responsible for several kimberlite discoveries in Ontario, Quebec and Brazil, while doing so he attracted the attention of De Beers as a JV partner in 2002. It is Neil's exploration expertise that convinced De Beers to expand their search for kimberlites further west of the Victor cluster of kimberlites in the James Bay Lowlands area of Northern Ontario, De Beers did so in joint venture with Spider. This JV ultimately discovered the McFaulds #1 VMS deposit. As a result of this discovery in 2003, Neil was appointed COO for Spider and eventually appointed as President and CEO two years later. Neil as President/CEO for Spider went on to explore the newly identified mineral rich McFaulds Lake area through an exploration service corporation Billiken Management Services Inc., that Neil was Founder, Co-Owner and President of. From 2003 onwards, Neil headed up the discovery teams for Spiders' McFaulds VMS Deposits (Cu,Zn,Au,Ag), Billiken was primary consultant (Neil was a director and officer of Noront Resources Ltd.) for Noronts' MMS Eagle Deposit (Ni,Cu,Pt,Pd) as well as Noronts' Blackbird Chromite (Cr, Pt, Pd) deposits, as well as Spiders' Big Daddy Chromite deposit (Cr, Pt, Pd). Collectively these discoveries were dubbed the Ring of Fire Deposits. For his success in mineral exploration, Neil was recognized by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and his piers, and was co-recipient of the coveted Bill Dennis Prospector of the Year Award for 2010 for his work in the discovery of the Ring of Fire Exploration Camp.
In May 2010, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., a large American mining company launched a hostile takeover bid of Spider, that targeted the exploration assets (Big Daddy Chrome Deposit). After three months of hostile battle, that prompted a competing takeover offer between KWG Resources Inc. and Cliffs, Cliffs eventually made a $125 million all cash offer to the shareholders of Spider that was not matched by KWG, Spider's "White Knight", as KWG was offering shares of KWG to the shareholders of Spider and to match the offer of Cliffs, KWG needed to issue well in excess of 100% of the current number of shares that were already issued in their treasury. This would have given Spider shareholders control over the White Knight, KWG opted not to match the Cliff's all cash offer. Spider's major shareholders at the time agreed to the cash offer, followed by the agreement of the BOD and management of Spider, as well as a majority of shareholders. By November 2010, approximately 99% of shareholders accepted the cash offer and Spider filed to become a private, wholly owned subsidiary of Cliffs. Neil continued on as President / CEO of Spider during the transition of Spider from a public company to a private company, then resigned at the end of 2010. Neil was then hired by Cliffs as a consultant to help monetize the non-core assets that Cliffs acquired in the takeover of Spider and other companies for an initial six month period. During this consulting period, Neil was asked to monetize value for various projects that Cliffs held, and opted to purchase one of the Spider projects. This project was an initial acquisition needed to create the formation of a new private company. Over the course of 2011, Neil acquired two additional exploration projects for the private company, Black Widow Resources Inc. that was headed up and funded by him, along with two other founding partners. By the end of 2012, the initial funds raised in the private company were spent and there was sufficient asset base to go public with and Initial Public Offering, this was launched in November 2012 and concluded in early April 2013. Black Widow commenced trading on the TSX.V on April 4, 2013, Neil is the current President and CEO of Black Widow.
Neil's long career in the junior resource sector as an exploration geologist and consultant, has made him a desirable candidate for various public company boards. He has been on the Board of Directors of Noront Resources Ltd. (was also VP Exploration for Noront), Simberi Mining Corporation, Cadillac Ventures Inc. and Renforth Resources Inc. Neil remains as a director of Cadillac Ventures Inc., and is also President/CEO and director of a public exploration company Black Widow Resources Inc. Neil continues to own and manage a private family owned geological consulting company Nominex Ltd.
Denis Simard
Denis has almost 35 years of experience in the field of aviation and management of aircraft operations, which makes him an experienced expert recognized nationwide. He has quickly worked his way up by acquiring a vast experience as a pilot but also in the fields management, safety and business development. More recently, Denis has held the positions of Vice President Operations & Marketing, Executive Director, and senior executive in one of the largest helicopter company in Canada. During all of these years, he has played an important role in business development both in Canada and internationally (Haiti, West Africa, Russia, Cuba and Chili). Denis has a thorough knowledge of the economic and regional issues concerning Canadian commercial aviation including mining sectors. From the beginning of his career he has been involved during the last 35 years with mining exploration companies across Canada. He is also acting as an independent administrator on a Junior public traded company and one private company. President of Sim Management since October 2015 Denis is still active with the helicopter and mining industry as a consultant.
About Genius Properties
Genius is one Canadian mineral exploration company focused on developing projects with some of the world's most critical metals and minerals, Genius have team and potential to discover new world-class deposits. Also, Genius is the ideal partner for exploration companies and capital pool companies looking for a qualifying transaction and projects of merit.
Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Genius Properties Ltd.
Stephane Leblanc
President and CEO
(418) 717-2553
slconcept@hotmail.com
www.geniusproperties.ca
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, OR SOUTH AFRICA OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO DISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT OR ANY COPY OF IT. PLEASE SEE THE IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE END OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.
GCP Student Living plc
(the "Company", together with its subsidiaries, the "Group")
Proposed Placing
GCP Student Living plc, the UK's first REIT focused on student residential assets, today announces a non-pre-emptive placing of ordinary shares ("Placing Shares") in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Placing Programme set out in the prospectus issued on 29 April 2016 (the "Prospectus").
Placing highlights:
The Placing price will be 136.10 pence per ordinary share, which represents a discount to the closing mid price per ordinary share on 9 May 2016 of 136.75 pence, and a premium to the Company's unaudited ex-income EPRA net asset value per ordinary share as at 31 March 2016 of 134.06 pence. The issuance costs of this Placing will be covered by this premium.
A non-pre-emptive placing targeting gross proceeds in excess of 50 million to acquire an attractive investment opportunity in the immediate short term and in respect of which the Company is in advanced negotiations.
The Investment Manager, Gravis Capital Partners LLP, is currently negotiating and conducting due diligence on assets located in a number of locations, including London, and subject to the outcome of such negotiations and due diligence the Company may target gross proceeds of up to approximately 88 million, through the issuance of up to 65 million ordinary shares, representing the maximum number of shares allowed under the Placing Programme.
The Investment Manager believes the investment opportunities under negotiation will benefit from attractive and sustainable rental growth underpinned by supportive supply/demand characteristics.
Background and benefits of the Placing and Placing Programme
The Company was admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange (Specialist Fund Segment) on 20 May 2013 with an investment remit to focus on owning, leasing and licensing student residential accommodation and teaching facilities to a diversified portfolio of direct let tenants and HEIs.
As at 31 March 2016, the Group's property portfolio comprised six assets (c. 2,000 modern studios and beds) with a combined valuation of 420.3 million. The 31 March 2016 unaudited ex-income EPRA NAV per ordinary share was 134.06 pence.
The Company, through its Investment Manager, continues to see high quality opportunities in the student residential accommodation market which it believes are strongly positioned to benefit from the core supply/demand imbalance characteristics which the Company seeks to identify in potential investments.
In particular, the Company is in advanced negotiations in relation to a modern student residential accommodation asset comprising 530 modern studios and beds located in a city centre position in close proximity to a globally recognised UK university with high numbers of international students. The asset benefits from a long-term nominations agreement with the university which guarantees underlying rental income.
Furthermore, on 14 April 2016 the Group entered into a conditional agreement to acquire a high specification, purpose-built, private student accommodation residence adjacent to Royal Holloway, University of London. The property is expected to be completed for the 2017/18 academic year providing approximately 170 beds. It is in the same locality as the Company's existing 'The Pad' asset.
The Investment Manager is currently negotiating and conducting due diligence on assets located in a number of locations, including London, totalling c.1,700 beds and which it believes will benefit from attractive and sustainable rental growth underpinned by supportive supply/demand characteristics. The Board of the Company believe that the Placing and the Placing Programme will have the following benefits for Shareholders:
as the Company is actively considering a number of specific investment opportunities, the Placing will assist in matching the capital requirements of the Company to the investment opportunities identified;
the Placing Programme will allow the Company to raise additional capital promptly, enabling it to take advantage of current and future investment opportunities, thereby further diversifying its investment portfolio;
an increase in the market capitalisation of the Company will help to make the Company attractive to a wider investor base;
it is expected that the secondary market liquidity in the ordinary shares will be further enhanced as a result of a larger and more diversified shareholder base.The Placing Programme will partially satisfy market demand for shares from time to time and may improve liquidity in the market for ordinary shares; and
the Company's fixed running costs will be spread across a wider shareholder base, thereby reducing its on-going charges ratio.
Further details of the Placing
The Company is proposing to issue in excess of approximately 37 million Placing Shares at a price of 136.10 pence per share to raise gross proceeds in excess of 50 million. Subject to the outcome of negotiations in respect of other investment opportunities, the Company may issue up to 65 million Placing Shares to raise gross proceeds of approximately 88 million.
In the event that the number of applications exceeds the number of available Placing Shares, it will be necessary to scale back applications under the Placing. In such event Placing Shares will be allocated at the discretion of the Board. The Board is mindful of the support it has received from existing shareholders and will have regard for their existing shareholdings when determining the final allocations.
The Placing is being made pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Placing Programme set out in Part 9 of the Prospectus.
Subject to the terms and conditions set out in the Prospectus, investors are invited to apply for Placing Shares by contacting their usual contact at Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited.
The Placing is expected to close at 1.00 pm (London time) on 19 May 2016, but may close earlier (or later) at the absolute discretion of the Company, in consultation with Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited.
The Placing is not being underwritten.
Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange for the Placing Shares issued pursuant to the Placing to be admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange (Specialist Fund Segment) ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission will become effective and that unconditional dealings in the Placing Shares will commence at 8.00 a.m. (London time) on or around 24 May 2016.
The Placing Shares, when issued, will rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares, ranking in full for all dividends or other distributions declared after Admission and in all other respects. For the avoidance of doubt, subscribers for Placing Shares pursuant to the Placing will not be entitled to the dividend of 1.41 pence per ordinary share in respect of the quarterly period ended 31 March 2016 announced on 27 April 2016.
The Placing Shares will be issued in registered form and may be held in uncertificated form. The Placing Shares allocated will be issued to Placees through the CREST system unless otherwise stated. The Placing Shares will be eligible for settlement through CREST with effect from Admission.
Further details of the Placing and the Placing Programme are set out in the Prospectus.
Expected timetable
Placingopens 10 May2016 Latesttimeanddateforreceiptofcommitmentsunder the Placing 1:00p.m. on19 May2016 Results of Placing announced and trade date 20 May2016 AdmissionanddealingsinPlacing Sharescommence 8.00 a.m. on24 May2016
The dates and times specified above are subject to change without notice. References to times are to London times. Any changes to the expected timetable will be notified by the Company through a Regulatory Information Service.
Dealing codes Ticker DIGS ISIN for the Placing Shares GB00B8460Z43 SEDOL for the Placing Shares B8460Z4
Capitalised terms used but not defined in this announcement will have the same meaning as set out in the Prospectus. An electronic copy of the Prospectus is available at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/nsm and on the Company's website at www.gcpuk.com/gcp-student-living-plc/investor-relations/publications/all.
For further information, please contact
Gravis Capital Partners LLP +44 20 7518 1490
Tom Ward tom.ward@gcpuk.com Nick Barker nick.barker@gcpuk.com Dion Di Miceli dion.dimiceli@gcpuk.com Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited Neil Winward neil.winward@stifel.com +44 20 7710 7600 Mark Young mark.young@stifel.com +44 20 7710 7600 Tom Yeadon tom.yeadon@stifel.com +44 20 7710 7600 Buchanan Charles Ryland charlesr@buchanan.uk.com +44 20 7466 5000 Vicky Watkins victoriaw@buchanan.uk.com
Important Information
The content of this announcement has been prepared by, and is the sole responsibility of, GCP Student Living plc.
The information contained in this announcement is given at the date of its publication (unless otherwise marked) and is subject to updating, revision and amendment from time to time. Neither the content of the Company's website nor any website accessible by hyperlinks to the Company's website is incorporated in, or forms part of, this announcement. The distribution of this announcement and any other documentation associated with the Placing into jurisdictions other than the United Kingdom may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession these documents come should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws or regulations of any such jurisdiction. In particular, such documents should not be distributed, forwarded to or transmitted, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, in, into or from the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan or the Republic of South Africa or any other jurisdiction where to do so may constitute a violation of the securities laws or regulations of any such jurisdiction.
The Placing Shares have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") or the US Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended and may not be offered or sold directly or indirectly in or into the United States or to or for the account or benefit of any US Person (within the meaning of Regulation S under the Securities Act).
There will be no public offer of the Placing Shares in the United States. The Placing Shares are being offered and sold outside the US in reliance on Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Placing Shares have not been approved or disapproved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, any state securities commission in the US or any other US regulatory authority, nor have any of the foregoing authorities passed upon or endorsed the merits of the offering of the Placing Shares or the accuracy or adequacy of this announcement. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offence in the US.
The Placing Shares have not been registered under the applicable securities laws of Australia, Canada, Japan or South Africa and, subject to certain exceptions, may not be offered or sold within Australia, Canada, Japan or South Africa or to any national, resident or citizen of Australia, Canada, Japan or South Africa.
This announcement does not constitute a prospectus relating to the Company and does not constitute, or form part of, any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for, any shares in the Company in any jurisdiction nor shall it, or any part of it, or the fact of its distribution, form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with or act as any inducement to enter into, any contract therefor. Recipients of this announcement are reminded that applications for Placing Shares may be made solely on the basis of the information contained in the Prospectus.
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, is acting only for the Company in connection with the matters described in this announcement and is not acting for or advising any other person, or treating any other person as its client, in relation thereto and will not be responsible for providing the regulatory protection afforded to clients of Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited or advice to any other person in relation to the matters contained herein.
FCA-authorised firms conducting designated investment business with retail customers under COB Rules are reminded that securities admitted to trading on the Specialist Fund Segment will be securities that may have characteristics such as: (i) variable levels of secondary market liquidity; (ii) sophisticated corporate structures; (iii) highly leveraged structures; and (iv) sophisticated investment propositions with concentrated risks and are therefore intended for institutional, professional and highly knowledgeable investors. The Company and its advisers not subject to the COB Rules are responsible for compliance with equivalent conduct of business or point of sale rules in the jurisdiction in which they are based or in which they are marketing the securities concerned (if applicable).
None of the Company, Gravis Capital Partners LLP or Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited, or any of their respective affiliates, accepts any responsibility or liability whatsoever for or makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to this announcement, including the truth, accuracy or completeness of the information in this announcement (or whether any information has been omitted from the announcement) or for any loss howsoever arising from any use of the announcement or its contents. The Company, Gravis Capital Partners LLP and Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited, and their respective affiliates, accordingly disclaim all and any liability whether arising in tort, contract or otherwise which they might otherwise have in respect of this announcement or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith.
DUBLIN, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
Oil prices rose on Tuesday after wildfire knocked out vast amounts of crude production in Canada. With facilities expected to be shut down for several weeks, it is estimated that some 2.5 million barrels of daily production have been taken off the market. This will alleviate some concerns over a market already brimming with record levels of stored supplies.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160330/349511LOGO )
According to a report on the global outlook of the oil and gas industry, the decline in oil prices is causing hardship for exploration companies. On the equipment side, all suppliers are under pressure to reduce costs; the oilfield service companies that enjoyed high margins in the recent boom are particularly impacted. There is a shift taking place as emerging markets become the focal point for the global refining industry.
News also broke today that Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips and other companies had relinquished 2.2 million acres of drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea. After spending an estimated $2.5 billion on drilling rights in the U.S. Arctic waters, the companies are pulling out because crude oil prices have fallen to less than half of their June 2014 levels.
Growing energy demand coupled with maturing onshore oilfields is leading to a requirement for new oil and gas discoveries, according to a report on the drilling services market. The U.S. Arctic waters is estimated to hold 27 billion barrels of oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, but energy companies have been unable to tap these resources. It looks bleak for the market, with the U.S. Interior Department cancelling upcoming lease sales last year.
For further information on this topic, and a full list of all related documentation, please visit the Oil section at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/rm/OKPL.
About Research and Markets
Research and Markets is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-10/big-oil-abandons-2-5-billion-in-u-s-arctic-drilling-rights
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CLEVELAND, OH--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - You know that feeling: you finish a good book and you just have to talk about it with someone. It's one of the reasons why Book Clubs have become extremely popular. Now, as eBooks are available from public libraries, readers are joining the next chapter of Book Clubs, Digital Book Clubs to discuss the next great read. Public libraries across the country are hosting and promoting a digital version of a local Book Club with simultaneous access to eBooks and audiobooks, enabling dozens of "city read" and "one-book, one community" programs.
According to BookBrowse, 22 percent of readers belong to at least one digital Book Club with friends and family (Book Clubs in the USA, July 2015). OverDrive is maximizing the scalability of digital by supporting citywide and global digital book clubs through public libraries. New York Public Library is using their eBook collection for the Gracie Book Club where First Lady Chirlane McCray will collaborate with authors to select six books to read and discuss with fellow New Yorkers over the next year. The first book, Bright Lines (Penguin Random House) will be discussed by the city of New York on Tuesday, May 17 th . The Gracie Book Club was launched earlier this year to begin a citywide conversation on the diverse experiences of New York City's many communities as depicted through the lens of literature.
Last month, OverDrive helped Cityread London (UK) go digital by working with Canongate to offer Ten Days in eBook format to participating libraries in London for the April 2016 program. Additionally, OverDrive works with publishers and thousands of libraries and schools three times a year for Big Library Read, a global Digital Book Club that connects millions of readers around the world with the same eBook from their local library. These programs have reached thousands in the communities they serve and have increased visibility, reach and engagement for the selected digital book.
Publishers are capitalizing on this growing trend by working with libraries to put authors' works in the hands of more readers -- digitally. To enable the discovery and readership of popular content and maximize the number of readers served, libraries are taking advantage of publishers' flexible digital access models on the OverDrive platform, such as per-unit or simultaneous use to support community reading programs.
Digital Book Clubs offer a powerful marketing opportunity for authors and publishers. Promoting an eBook or audiobook to traditional Book Clubs puts that book in the hands of new readers and helps publishers and authors engage and cultivate loyalty among a base of readers. Public libraries across the globe have built engaging campaigns to promote these successful Digital Book Clubs, including dedicated websites, organized group discussions and even special author appearances, which are helping publishers and authors expand discovery and reach and engage more readers.
About OverDrive
OverDrive is the leading digital distribution platform, supplying the industry's largest catalog of eBooks, audiobooks, streaming video and periodicals to 34,000 libraries, schools and retailers worldwide. We support all major computers and devices, including iOS, Android', Chromebook' and Kindle (U.S. only). OverDrive delivers all digital media on a single platform, and offers innovations such as OverDrive Read, the breakthrough EPUB and HTML5 browser-based reading experience, and Read-Along eBooks. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA and is owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten. For more information, visit www.overdrive.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and our blog.
Contact:
David Burleigh
Director of Marketing & Communications
dburleigh@overdrive.com
216-573-6886 ext. 218
SAO PAULO, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
CNOGA Medical Ltd., today announced that they received an approval for sale in Brazil of their TensorTip' COG' non-invasive combo Glucometer devices from the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA - Agencia Nacional de Vigilancia Sanitaria)). This is the first Non-invasive Glucometer to be approved by ANVISA. The CNOGA TensorTip' COG device uses a real-time color image sensor and unique algorithms to accurately measure Glucose levels from the patient's fingertip blood capillaries without a lancet prick, drawing blood or feeling pain, and can be measured as frequently as required with no ongoing consumable costs.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160510/365711 )
CNOGA Medical Ltd. is expecting to launch the TensorTip' devices during Hospitilar exhibition, in Sao Paulo, May 2016.
Dr. Yosef Segman, Founder and CEO of CNOGA states: "Securing ANVISA approval in Brazil is a significant milestone towards achieving our long term global expansion goals."
Dr. Segman added: "Brazil is a rapidly growing, dynamic market for innovative non-invasive medical devices for e-health monitoring. This major milestone represents a substantial growth opportunity for CNOGA with expected commercial agreements in BRAZIL valued at tens of millions ofdollars in the upcoming years. Recently, CNOGA established a diversified presence in Brazil with a CNOGA HQ in Sao Paulo" concluded Dr. Segman.
The COG is the latest addition to the portfolio of CNOGA products approved by ANVISA, thus creating the most comprehensive product-line available today in Brazil, enabling state-of-the-art E-health services to be offered to the public and significantly changing the life of diabetics, as well as other chronic patients.
About CNOGA Products
TensorTip' Combo Glucometer (COG) is a revolutionary, painless, non-invasive approach to glucose measurement, enabling diabetics to monitor their glucose levels many times per day, everywhere, and with no prick and no blood! This device is individually calibrated for each patient and is designed for everyday use.
About CNOGA Medical Ltd.:
CNOGA Medical Ltd., a privately held international company, with offices in Israel, China, Germany & Brazil, was founded in 2004 by Dr. Yosef Segman, a technology innovator and entrepreneur. Dr. Segman has led the product development from the early stages through a strategic partnership with Texas Instruments Inc., to commercialization. The company Medical Advisor is Prof. Dr. Uriel Trahtemberg, MD/PhD Hadassah Ein-Kerem Hospital.
Press Contacts:
Mr. Ziv Gilboa
ziv@cnoga.com
http://www.CNOGA.com
+55-11993640505
The National Science Foundation has awarded $50,000 to a University of North Dakota researcher who will take the summer to study whether parasitic worms found in blood accelerate the transmission of Zika virus.
Jeff Vaughan, a biology professor at UND, was awarded the grant Monday and will use the federal funds to jump-start a one-year project studying mosquitoes, the virus and a type of parasitic worms.
Zika is spread through infected mosquitoes, aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus, which arent found in North Dakota. The virus has been linked to microcephaly, a birth defect that causes babies to have smaller than normal heads and can cause incomplete brain development.
No local mosquito-borne Zika virus disease cases have been reported in the U.S., but there have been travel-associated cases.
As of May 4, the CDC recorded 472 cases of travel-associated Zika virus in the United States. Last month, the North Dakota Department of Health announced a pregnant woman from North Dakota was infected with the virus after traveling to Puerto Rico.
Vaughan applied for the grant in April after the National Science Foundation called for rapid turnaround proposals, he said. One came across his desk that caught his interest and was centered around research hes been doing for a number of years on a group of parasitic worms, or larval nematodes called microfilariae.
These worms dont cause any disease at all and are largely asymptomatic, he said. And, as it turns out, theres a high percentage of people who have these worms in Brazil and areas like Central America, where there have been Zika outbreaks.
The justification for looking at this is the prevalence of these worms can be pretty high in areas of tropical America where the Zika (is), he said.
With the grant, Vaughan said he'll determine whether the parasitic worms can accelerate or facilitate the virus growth in the mosquito.
Vaughan said hell hire two undergraduates students to work with him on the project over the summer, during which he hopes to make major progress because he teaches in the fall. They will also work with a collaborator in Trinidad who will supply the parasitic worms.
Vaughans research team will use mosquitoes they have currently in their lab, combine Zika virus and the worms, and then feed it to mosquitoes and see what happens, he said.
Its a simple little test, with or without (the worms) whats the difference? he said.
Vaughan and his researchers will also have a control group of mosquitoes without the worms and just the virus.
Although the worms are treatable, no one treats them now because they dont make people sick, he said.
But if you know that these worms are contributing disproportionately to transmission of Zika, then maybe itd be worth treating these worm infections, he said. Get rid of the worms and slow down the infection of Zika.
If the answer is no, the worms dont make any difference, then thats probably good in a broader sense. But if the answer is yes, well then its probably good for me because then Ill get more money to explore it.
"The research we see at UND is a positive step in the right direction that may help find new ways to slow the transmission of this virus, and these funds will help in that effort," said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in a press release.
Heitkamp and a group of U.S. senators are also pressing Congress to approve $1.9 billion in emergency funding so local communities can implement a strong defense to prevent the spread of the Zika virus ahead of the summer months when mosquitoes are more rampant.
We have already begun to see the effects of the Zika virus, and it is imperative that we invest in research that will help us better understand and combat this disease, Sen. John Hoeven said. The University of North Dakota is a world-class research institution, and funding will support the study of Zika transmission, which could help us to slow it down."
The Boston Calling Block Party Series.
An essential part of Boston's "Summer in the City" vibe, the parties are produced by Crash Line Productions, the same team behind the immensely popular, twice-yearly Boston Calling Music Festival. Kicking off this week and running through mid-September, the festivities are held in Dewey Square Park every Thursday from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. The parties are free and open to anyone 21 years of age or older.
CHEN PR joins fellow co-sponsors The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, Shock Top, Wicked Wines, RadioBDC and the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District (BID) to give local artists opportunities to showcase their musical talents to hundreds of fans, complemented by drinks, fun and games.
"The Block Parties have become a summertime tradition for local residents and people visiting the city," said Crash Line Productions CEO Brian Appel. "CHEN PR's support helps us attract the thriving tech community and we're happy to have the agency return as a sponsor for the block parties."
"Our firm moved into Downtown Crossing three years ago and we're thrilled to be a part of this rapidly expanding neighborhood filled with innovative companies and incredible people," said CHEN PR Co-founder and President Chris Carleton. "CHEN PR's involvement with the Boston Calling Block Parties gives us the best of both worlds -- we're able to support the community and local musicians, while hanging out with fun crowds that embody Boston's community spirit."
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LAS VEGAS, NV -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Cushman & Wakefield/Commerce today announced it has brokered a land transaction in North Las Vegas on behalf of Faraday Future for the site of a $1 billion electric vehicle plant.
The visionary startup Faraday Future broke ground on April 13 and will soon begin construction of a 3 million square foot factory situated on 940 acres of land. This factory is expected to create approximately 4,500 for the state.
"Following an exhaustive site selection process that spanned multiple states and even portions of Mexico, Faraday Future landed on North Las Vegas," said Amy Ogden, director -- industrial/investments with the Las Vegas office of Cushman & Wakefield/Commerce. "The company will use the facility to manufacturer its premium electric vehicles, which will include body assembly, paint operations, powertrain and battery pack assembly, and final vehicle assembly. Faraday will bring thousands of jobs to the area with the facility serving as a center of industry for years to come. Southern Nevada stands to benefit for decades."
True to its eco-centric brand, the company will leverage a combination of wind, solar and geo-thermal energies to help foster clean energy goals. It will also use high quality and environmentally friendly construction practices, procedures and materials in the construction process to exceed industry standards.
"This transaction was extremely complicated and spanned an entire year," said Danielle Steffen, director -- industrial/investments with the Las Vegas office of Cushman & Wakefield/Commerce. "One of the most challenging aspects was finding and assembling the large amount of acreage Faraday Future needed. The North Las Vegas area they were interested in consisted of a septic treatment facility and multiple medical marijuana parcels. We negotiated the purchase of all parcels from the previous owners, as well as found new properties for those displaced companies to continue their business. Although challenging, it has been one of the most fascinating projects I have worked on."
The new facility will be located at the Apex Industrial Park, which is 20 minutes north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15.
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About Cushman & Wakefield/Commerce
Cushman & Wakefield/Commerce operates the Cushman & Wakefield business in Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Washington. The firm partners with its sister company Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq to provide innovative commercial real estate solutions to occupier and investor clients, offering transaction services, capital markets services, occupier and investor services, and real estate advisory. Together the firms manage 52 million sq. ft. of retail, industrial, and office assets, have transaction revenues of more than $2 billion, and employ more than 750 professionals. Learn more at www.comre.com.
About Cushman & Wakefield
Cushman & Wakefield is a leading global real estate services firm that helps clients transform the way people work, shop, and live. The firm's 43,000 employees in more than 60 countries provide deep local and global insights that create significant value for occupiers and investors around the world. Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest commercial real estate services firms with revenue of $5 billion across core services of agency leasing, asset services, capital markets, facility services (C&W Services), global occupier services, investment & asset management (DTZ Investors), project & development services, tenant representation, and valuation & advisory. To learn more, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com or follow @CushWake on Twitter.
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BOSTON, MA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- In the face of the real and perceived risks emanating from climate change, smart institutional investors should consider taking five steps both to defend against long-term market risks and to look for attractive investment opportunities in emerging sectors and technologies, according to global investment advisor Cambridge Associates.
"While one might categorize climate change as a 'tail risk' -- a low-probability event with large magnitude consequences -- it is probably more appropriate to categorize it as a series of events with uncertain timing and magnitude of consequences," says Liqian Ma, a managing director at Cambridge Associates and author of the report, "Risks and Opportunities From the Changing Climate: Playbook for the Truly Long-Term Investor."
Given this unique risk management challenge, long-term investors would benefit from recognizing and integrating climate change as a real economic factor in positioning portfolios for the future. Doing this, Ma says, translates into five tactics:
1. Playing Defense Against Ecological Risks. Investors should ask their managers to take the ecological risks of climate change -- more frequent and/or severe weather events -- into account. The belief here is that the ecological effects of climate change may impair real property and infrastructure assets, disrupt supply chains, impact fiscal and geopolitical stability in certain regions, and increase societal risk aversion more broadly. For investors, engaging with managers is critical to better understand, and eventually manage these risks in portfolios.
2. Monitoring Global Policy Risks. Policy changes -- human responses to the expected effect of climate change -- may occur regardless of the scale of ecological change. For example, President Obama recently signed the Paris Agreement, along with 170 other countries, on Earth Day. The carbon emissions reductions agreed to in Paris last year may have long-term effects on some high-carbon assets and sectors. To lessen the effects of these policies, as well as others that may occur in the future, investors should look for managers with deep, real-time understanding of regulatory dynamics. Some investors are also allocating to low-carbon index funds, which exclude companies with the dirtiest carbon footprints, or seeking out active managers that integrate environmental metrics into their strategies to mitigate regulatory and policy impacts.
3. Identifying Compelling, Climate Change-Driven Opportunities. Institutions may seek out emerging sectors -- in areas like renewable infrastructure, clean transportation, smart energy, energy efficiency in buildings, and efficiency in water and agriculture -- that will allow businesses and individuals to use resources more efficiently and at lower costs, and may present attractive opportunities for investors. "A changing climate carries immense potential risks for investors and society. But we believe that the more challenging the problem, the greater the opportunity set for innovation, solutions and, potentially, attractive investment returns," says Ma.
4. Recognizing that Resource Efficiency Sectors and Managers are Evolving. Many investors were burned by clean tech investing in the 2000s, but those memories belie strong recent performance from some underlying subsectors. For example, investments in Smart Grid technology have produced a 25.9% gross internal rate of return (IRR) according to the Cambridge Associates Clean Tech Company Performance Benchmark as of September 30, 2015. Though some investors may justifiably be wary of clean tech because of the broad sector's challenging historical experience, investors should remember that the sector is continuously evolving and many managers and entrepreneurs are adapting their strategies accordingly.
5. Playing Both Offense and Defense. Institutions and families with a long-term time horizon will need to play both offense and defense to most effectively navigate the impacts of climate change. Managing risks and capitalizing on opportunities associated with climate change will not be easy, but forward-thinking investors are already developing playbooks for effective portfolio construction, and integrating them into a strategy that aligns with their missions and values.
Long-term institutional investors should stay abreast of the continued evolutions in both risk factors and opportunity sets involving climate change. Jessica Matthews, head of Cambridge's Mission-Related Investing Practice and a contributor to the report, said that the moment had passed when investors had the luxury of whether or not to take account of climate change. "That particular train has left the station," she says. "It's no longer a question of 'whether' to respond to the risks but 'how.'"
For more information, or to speak with Liqian Ma or Jessica Matthews, please contact Eric Mosher, Sommerfield Communications, Inc., at +1 (212) 255-8386 / Eric@sommerfield.com.
This press release is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investment advice. Any references to specific investments are for illustrative purposes only. With regard to any references to securities indices, such indices are unmanaged and are not subject to fees and expenses typically associated with managed accounts or investment funds. Investments cannot be made directly in an index. The information herein does not constitute a personal recommendation or take into account the particular investment objectives, financial situations, or needs of individual clients. This release is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security in any jurisdiction. Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.
Copyright Cambridge Associates LLC 2016. All rights reserved.
About Cambridge Associates
Founded in 1973, Cambridge Associates is a provider of independent investment advice and research to institutional investors and private clients worldwide. Today the firm serves over 1,000 global investors and delivers a range of services, including investment advisory, outsourced investment solutions, research and tools (Research Navigator and Benchmark Calculator), and performance monitoring, across asset classes. Cambridge Associates has more than 1,200 employees serving its client base globally and maintains offices in Arlington, VA; Boston; Dallas; Menlo Park, CA, San Francisco, CA; London; Singapore; Sydney; and Beijing. Cambridge Associates consists of five global investment consulting affiliates that are all under common ownership and control. For more information about Cambridge Associates, please visit www.cambridgeassociates.com.
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PUNE, India, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
The report "Homogenizers Market by Type (Ultrasonic, Pressure, Mechanical), by Valve Technology (Single-valve Assembly, Two-valve Assembly), by Application (Food & Dairy, Cosmetics, Pharmaceuticals, Chemical Processing, Biotechnology), by Geography - Forecast to 2021" published by MarketsandMarkets. The market for homogenizers is projected to grow from USD 1.53 Billion in 2016 to USD 1.94 Billion by 2021, at an estimated CAGR of 4.92%.
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Browse 321 market data Tables and 68 Figures spread through 319 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Homogenizers Market"
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This growth is due to the increasing demand from various end user industries such as food & dairy, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, biotechnologies, and chemical industries. Food manufacturers are incorporating homogenization techniques in their product manufacturing process as homogenizers provide several advantages such as offering new categories of products and making better use of existing products. It also helps in reducing the microbiological activity and increasing the shelf life of a product, which is a major factor driving the growth of the Homogenizers Market.
Pressure homogenizers segment is projected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period
Pressure homogenizers such as high-, mid-, and low-pressure are widely used for emulsifying pharmaceutical and food & dairy products. The growing dairy industry provides huge opportunities for the growth of mid-pressure homogenizers, which is estimated to grow at the highest rate among all pressure homogenizers. The ultrasonic homogenizers segment is estimated to account for the largest share in 2021. It provides a wide range of operational parameters, which helps in very gentle processing. It is used in dispersion and emulsification of various products such as solids, semi solids, powders & tablets, cosmetics, and proteins.
Food & dairy sector contributes maximum market share to the Homogenizers Market
The food & dairy sector is estimated to account for the largest share in 2021, mainly because of changing consumer lifestyles and growing consumption of food products. Homogenizers help in manufacturing food & beverage products that are rich in nutrients and also reduce Trans fats and sugar content. The growing dairy industry also provides an opportunity to the market to grow further, especially in the emerging Asia-Pacific and Latin American regions.
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Asia-Pacific to play a key role in the market for homogenizers
On the basis of key regions, the global Homogenizers Market is segmented into North America, Northern Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the largest share among all the regions in 2015. This is mainly due to the increasing demand for homogenizers in China and India, coupled with the growing food & beverage and dairy industries in these countries. Rising income and consumption level would also lead to the growth of the Homogenizers Market in this region.
The scope of the report covers detailed information regarding the major factors influencing the growth of the Homogenizers Market such as drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. A detailed analysis of the key industry players has been conducted to provide insights into their business overview, products & services, key strategies, new product & technology launches, mergers & acquisitions, partnerships, agreements, joint ventures, and recent developments associated with the market for homogenizers.
The key players in the Homogenizers Market are Krones AG (Germany), GEA Group (Germany), SPX Corporation (U.S.), Sonic Corporation (U.S.), Avestin Inc. (Canada), Bertoli s.r.l (Italy), FBF Italia s.r.l (Italy), Netzsch Group [Erich NETZSCH GmbH & Co. Holding KG] (Germany), PHD Technology International LLC (U.S.), Microfluidics International Corporation (U.S.), Ekato Holding GmbH (Germany), Alitec (Brazil), Simes SA (Argentina), Goma Engineering Pvt. Ltd. (India), Milkotek-Hommak (Turkey), BOS Homogenizers B.V. (The Netherlands), Silverson Machines Inc. (U.K.), and Frymakoruma GmbH (Germany).
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PHOENIX, AZ -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) is a common condition that can cause jaw pain and other widespread dental problems. Dr. Arthur Chal, a dentist in Phoenix, explains that TMD is a complex concern, and that the underlying causes should be identified and addressed to effectively treat it. To accomplish this goal, he recommends using the true medical model of diagnosis, which includes a meticulous analysis of the soft and hard tissues of the mouth and collaboration with a team of experts.
To achieve a comprehensive, definitive TMD diagnosis, Dr. Chal says a patient's jaw should be evaluated using state-of-the-art imaging technology such as CAT scans and MRIs. Additionally, he indicates that a team of medical and dental experts should work together to identify problems and develop a customized, patient-centered treatment plan. Furthermore, an extensive analysis of a patient's bite pattern (occlusion) on a dental articulator is crucial. Dr. Chal has completed extensive training in TMD, and he says he collaborates with physicians, oral pathologists, and radiologists to arrive at a precise analysis before recommending a course of action. Without a true medical model, he indicates that underlying concerns may go unrecognized and continue to generate damage and discomfort.
Dr. Chal says that TMD can be the result of dental problems as well as the agent of them. One commonly overlooked cause of TMD is poor reconstructive dental work, and he says patients may inadvertently receive low-quality materials and/or inadequate treatment that are designed save money in the short term. However, Dr. Chal explains that this approach could lead to or worsen TMD symptoms and generate serious damage over time, which could be expensive to address. He encourages patients to focus on the dental professional's experience rather than on procedure cost to help achieve the best care.
The Phoenix dentist, who has also experienced TMD as a patient, encourages individuals with jaw pain to consult with an extensively credentialed dentist about their concerns. With a proper diagnosis obtained using the true medical model, he says long-lasting, effective TMD treatment can be achieved.
About Arthur Chal, DDS, FICOI, FAGD, AAACD
Dr. Arthur Chal is a practicing dentist in the Phoenix area. He is a Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (FICOI), a Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry (FAGD), and a Past President and Accredited Member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AAACD). Additionally, Dr. Chal has completed extensive training in temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) and works with a highly accomplished team of dental experts. A graduate of Northwestern University, he received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Chal completed his hospital residency at Great Lakes Naval Hospital near Chicago. Dr. Chal is available for interview upon request.
For more information about Dr. Chal and his practice, please visit chaldentistry.com.
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https://www.chaldentistry.com/practice-news/phoenix-dentist-discusses-importance-of-identifying-cause-of-tmj-pain
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MALAGA, Spain, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
UNWTO Invites the World to Visit Egypt
The Egyptian Minister of Tourism, His Excellency Yehia Rashed, today welcomed the UNWTO's call for the lifting of any unnecessary bans on travel for tourists.
The UNWTO comments were made at the start of the UNWTO Executive Council meeting in Malaga Spain. This meeting marks the start of Egypt and Minister Yehia Rashed chairing the Executive Council of the UNWTO for the next 12 months and the session focused on the issue of security and tourism.
In today's session the UNWTO also invited the world to visit Egypt and to be positive and optimistic about global tourism, especially in countries such as Egypt. The UNWTO called on the world to work to defeat terrorism so that tourism can develop. It also said that the global tourism movement is a cornerstone for both international economic and human development.
Responding to the UNWTO comments, the Egyptian Minister of Tourism, Yehia Rashed warmly welcomed the comments. He said:
"I fully support the UNWTO's positive message today that all unnecessary bans on travel and tourism should be lifted. Egypt has taken significant positive steps in addressing security issues and the UNWTO's support is to be warmly welcomed. I call upon all those countries who currently possess flight restrictions to consider the UNWTO's request positively.
"The support of such an influential United Nations body inviting the world to Egypt marks the start of a great opportunity for Egyptian tourism. With Egypt chairing the UNWTO Executive Council for the next 12 months I look forward to many more positive developments."
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Allen Dickey, Shareholder at Polsinelli, an Am Law 100 firm with a strong and growing real estate practice in New York, will chair the 7th Real Estate Mezzanine Financing Summit on May 11, 2016 at the Princeton Club of New York.
In addition to giving the conference's opening and closing remarks, Dickey will conduct the Keynote Interview with Bruce Batkin, CEO & Co-Founder of Terra Capital Partners, on "The Real Estate Cycle and Responses to the Downturn" at 9:15 a.m.
Dickey's practice focuses primarily on the real estate industry. Before becoming a lawyer, he was a commercial real estate broker. Dickey's experience includes working with lenders, developers, investors and business owners on all aspects of real estate transactions. He's based in Polsinelli's Dallas office.
The 7th Real Estate Mezzanine Financing Summit is hosted by iGlobal Forum, a provider of exclusive networking events for top-level executives including CEOs, senior managers, entrepreneurs and representatives from non-profit and government organizations.
About Polsinelli:
Polsinelli is an Am Law 100 firm with more than 800 attorneys in 19 offices, serving corporations, institutions, and entrepreneurs nationally. Ranked in the top five percent of law firms for client service*, the firm has risen more than 100 spots in Am Law's annual firm ranking over the past six years. Polsinelli attorneys provide practical legal counsel infused with business insight, and focus on health care, financial services, real estate, intellectual property, mid-market corporate, and business litigation. Polsinelli attorneys have depth of experience in 100 service areas and 70 industries. The firm can be found online at www.polsinelli.com. Polsinelli PC. In California, Polsinelli LLP.
* 2016 BTI Client Service A-Team Report
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Polsinelli
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Email Contact
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Adam Friedman Associates
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Availability of documentation for the Shareholders' Meeting
Regulatory News:
The Shareholders of the Company are invited to participate in the Combined Shareholders' Meeting of Ipsen SA to be held on Tuesday 31 May 2016 at 3 pm (Paris time) at La Maison des Arts et Metiers (salon La Rochefoucauld), 9 bis avenue d'Iena, 75116 Paris, France.
The preliminary notice of meeting containing the agenda and the proposed resolutions has been published in the Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires (BALO) dated 13 April 2016 and is available on Ipsen's website at the following address: www.ipsen.com.
Documents and information relating to this Meeting will be made available to shareholders under the conditions provided for by legal and regulatory provisions in force.
In accordance with applicable regulatory provisions:
Registered shareholders can, until the fifth day (inclusive) before the Meeting, request from the Company supply of the said documents, including at their request, by way of an electronic mail. For holders of bearer shares, the exercise of this right is subject to the presentation of a certificate of attendance in the bearer share accounts kept by the empowered intermediary;
All shareholders can consult these documents at the Company's headquarters.
About Ipsen
Ipsen is a global specialty-driven biotechnological group with total sales exceeding 1.4 billion in 2015. Ipsen sells more than 20 drugs in more than 115 countries, with a direct commercial presence in more than 30 countries. Ipsen's ambition is to become a leader in specialty healthcare solutions for targeted debilitating diseases. Its fields of expertise cover oncology, neurosciences and endocrinology (adult pediatric). Ipsen's commitment to oncology is exemplified through its growing portfolio of key therapies improving the care of patients suffering from prostate cancer, bladder cancer and neuro-endocrine tumors. Ipsen also has a significant presence in primary care. Moreover, the Group has an active policy of partnerships. Ipsen's R&D is focused on its innovative and differentiated technological platforms, peptides and toxins, located in the heart of the leading biotechnological and life sciences hubs (Les Ulis/Paris-Saclay, France; Slough/Oxford, UK; Cambridge, US). In 2015, R&D expenditure totaled close to 193 million. The Group has more than 4,600 employees worldwide. Ipsen's shares are traded on segment A of Euronext Paris (stock code: IPN, ISIN code: FR0010259150) and eligible to the "Service de Reglement Differe" ("SRD"). The Group is part of the SBF 120 index. Ipsen has implemented a Sponsored Level I American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program, which trade on the over-the-counter market in the United States under the symbol IPSEY. For more information on Ipsen, visit www.ipsen.com.
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Stephane Durant des Aulnois, Tel.: +33 (0)1 58 33 60 09
Fax: +33 (0)1 58 33 50 63
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Corporate External Communication
Email :brigitte.le.guennec@ipsen.com
VANCOUVER, BC -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Pure Energy Minerals Limited (TSX VENTURE: PE) (FRANKFURT: A111EG) (OTCQB: HMGLF) (the "Company" or "Pure Energy") announces the results of well sampling from the phase 2 drill program at its Clayton Valley South ("CVS") Lithium Brine Project, located near Silver Peak, Nevada (the "Project"). The phase 2 drill program consisted of three wells: CV-4, CV-5, and CV-6, which were major step outs to the south, extending up to 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) beyond the previous limit of drilling. The technical team designed these wells to target lower grade brines of the southern resource area from approximately 150 to 500 metres (500 to 1600 feet) below surface. The results from wells CV-4, 5, and 6 included no significant lithium values, but the data indicate the presence of an active geothermal system that may have a significant impact on fluid compositions in portions of the southern resource area.
Phase 3 drilling continues, as Harris Exploration Drilling has advanced CV-3 to approximately 427 metres (1,400 feet) below surface. The new well was collared approximately 200 metres (660 feet) east-southeast of CV-1; it will serve the dual purpose of a deep exploration well and a monitoring well for future pumping tests. The drillers are using rotary coring techniques to take CV-3 towards a target depth of 490 metres (1,600 feet) below surface, and there are sufficient supplies on site to advance the well deeper if conditions permit. Core recovery has been excellent ( > 95%) so far, recovering multiple representative sections of core from various aquifers for testing of physical and hydrogeological properties at accredited laboratories.
Patrick Highsmith, Pure Energy Minerals CEO commented, "We now have a better understanding of the basin geology, and the geothermal system we encountered with this drilling in the southern resource area is a complexity. Drilling continues in the northern resource area and the results so far are encouraging. Subject to the completion of our ongoing drill program and updated mineral resource, we anticipate the southern resource area to contract, but due to the low-grade assumptions in that area, it should have a positive impact on the average grade of the estimated inferred resource. If that is the case, we believe higher average grades will bode well for the potential processing economics in the future."
Mr. Highsmith continued with regards to the recent favorable sampling results from the northern resource area and the encouraging geology from CV-3, "We remain actively focused on definition and potential extension of the northern resource area, particularly to deeper levels, as it has markedly higher lithium grades than the south. The robust grade and saturated thickness of the brines in CV-1 combined with the progress so far in CV-3 are encouraging developments. We look forward to reporting news from the upcoming deeper holes. We are also proceeding with the mini-pilot plant and pumping tests, which are expected to commence shortly."
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS FROM PHASE 2 SAMPLING
As previously reported (See Company news release dated April 14, 2016), the Pure Energy technical team developed a new sampling methodology for application in the complex geology of Clayton Valley. The phase 2 sampling data supported the viability of these techniques, as field duplicates performed very well and better geological interpretations are possible from the new data. The re-sampling results from CV-1 (northern resource area) and CV-2 (southern resource area) were consistent with previous sampling (within the normal variation of field sampling and analytical methodologies), but the thickness of the aquifers and consistency of the brine is now much better understood. In both cases, the data are consistent with the inferred resource reported in the NI 43-101 report entitled "Inferred Resource Estimate for Lithium, Clayton Valley South Project" dated July 17, 2015 (the "Inferred Resource Report") and filed on the Company's SEDAR profile.
Wells CV-4, CV-5 and CV-6 were drilled and sampled in order to test the possible extent of lower grade brines inferred to be present at shallower levels further south in the basin. The technical team developed this interpretation based on data collected by previous drilling, surface geology, and seismic reflection surveys. The stratigraphic interpretation from the seismic data of relatively flat lying fluvial to lacustrine sediments, punctuated by volcanic ash layers, has been confirmed with this drilling. However, the downhole temperature, conductivity, and chemical data from the phase 2 program reveal some complexities that affect the interpretation of the southern resource area.
The temperature data reveal a significant reservoir of warm groundwater in CV-4, 5, and 6, reaching maximum temperatures of approximately 35 degrees Celsius. In places, there are abrupt changes in temperature that correlate with changes in conductivity (salinity). Such data may indicate intercalated aquifers of differing solid and brine composition. CV-5 includes an upper zone of cooler fluid that contains anomalous (but not significant) lithium content, while the deeper, warmer fluids are nearly barren of lithium. The interpretation of these data is an ongoing process that will guide follow-up drilling in the southern resource area.
Pure Energy geologists conducted limited carbon dioxide ("CO2") sampling of the well bores at Clayton Valley, and the preliminary results indicate that a geothermal system may be active in or near some of the southern wells.
Drill cuttings and core returns from CV-4, CV-5 and CV-6 yielded geological materials that are consistent with brine-bearing aquifers elsewhere beneath Pure Energy's CVS Project. These formations include intervals of volcanic ash, tuff, and laminated reduced silts and clays. It is therefore likely that the southern resource area has a similar depositional history to lithium-rich areas farther north. However, the fluid data strongly suggest that, at shallower levels, this section of the property is being heavily influenced by a source of hotter, lower density water with low lithium contents and a different geochemical signature. The source of this warmer, less-mineralized water is not well understood at present, as the seismic data did not highlight any significant intra-basin faulting or obvious pathway for migration.
The seismic and gravity data at CVS indicate that the basin extends to depths of 1,500 metres (4,900 feet) or more in the southern portion of the property. Nothing in the data from CV-4, CV-5, or CV-6 eliminates the prospectivity of the southern basin at depth. In fact, saline brines are higher density than fresh or brackish water and therefore tend to sink. Since the Company believes that the source of the lithium in the Clayton Valley brines is a large scale geological feature, Pure Energy will likely return to test the deep potential in the southern resource area after better defining the higher-grade northern resource area with the phase 3 drilling now underway.
DISCUSSION OF GEOLOGY AND PRELIMINARY INDICATIONS FROM PHASE 3 DRILLING
By contrast to the southern area, CV-3 has yielded some positive preliminary indications in the northern resource area. The core drilling has penetrated several saturated ash and tuff layers deeper in the basin than previously observed. These alternating sequences of volcanic ash/tuff with sandy and silty units are typical of the aquifers reported to host productive brine zones at the nearby Silver Peak lithium brine mine.
Figure 1 shows some of the ash layers (paler white and buff zones), lacustrine silts (green/grey sections) and steep fractured zones that have been drilled in CV-3 on the Clayton Valley South lithium brine project.
Following the completion of CV-3, the Company is planning two additional wells in the northern resource areas as part of the phase 3 drill program. Drillers will most likely employ mud rotary techniques in these wells targeting depths in excess of 500 metres. The Company will incorporate completed results from the phase 2 and phase 3 drill programs in an updated mineral resource for the Project during summer.
TELECONFERENCE WITH COMPANY MANAGEMENT
Pure Energy Minerals will host a conference call on Wednesday, May 11, 2016, at 3:00pm Eastern Daylight Time to discuss these results and upcoming activities.
The conference call is open to any investor or stakeholder, including shareholders, broker-dealers and other securities professionals. Management will accept questions by e-mail; to submit one or more questions, please email your question to: CEO@pureenergyminerals.com with the words "Investor Question for Conference Call" in the subject line before 9:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Wednesday May 11, 2016. Pure Energy management will endeavour to address as many questions as possible in the thirty-minute time period allocated to the call. A recording of the call will be available for review at the Company's website shortly after the call.
To participate in the call, please use the following login Web link or telephone number:
Join the call via the Web at: http://pureenergyminerals.enterthemeeting.com/m/ZCGTC4BQ
Dial-In Number: (949) 229-4400; Participant Code: 3682314#
Participants are requested to call in at least 10-minutes before the call to ensure timely participation.
Quality Assurance and Quality Control
Analytical data reported in this news release were generated by Western Environmental Testing Laboratory ("WETLAB") of Sparks, Nevada. WETLAB is accredited by the Nevada State Division of Environmental Protection for determination of lithium, magnesium, and other elements in non-potable water by method EPA 200.7. The lab employs its own quality assurance program to ensure accuracy and precision of its data.
ALS Minerals in Vancouver, British Columbia provided systematic blind and independent check analyses on the lithium and other analytes in the phase 2 sampling program at Clayton Valley South. ALS Minerals Vancouver operates an industry leading quality management system and is accredited under ISO 17025 for provision of mineral analysis.
Consistent with industry best practice, Pure Energy inserts additional blind quality control samples with every batch of samples. The data described herein have satisfied the Company's quality criteria for release.
Patrick Highsmith, Certified Professional Geologist (AIPG CPG # 11702), is a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, and has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Highsmith is not independent of the Company as he is an officer and director.
About Pure Energy Minerals Ltd.
Pure Energy is a lithium-brine resource developer that is driven to become the lowest-cost lithium supplier for the burgeoning North American lithium battery industry. Pure Energy is currently focused on the development of our prospective CVS Lithium Brine Project, which has the following key attributes:
A large land position with excellent existing infrastructure in a first-class mining jurisdiction: Approximately 9,324 acres in three main claim groups in the southern half of Clayton Valley, Esmeralda County, Nevada.
Adjacent to the only producing lithium operation in the United States (Albemarle's Silver Peak lithium brine mine).
An inferred mineral resource of 816,000 metric tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE), reported in accordance with NI 43-101.
Metallurgical and process studies underway to better understand the feasibility and economics of using modern environmentally-responsible processing technology to convert the CVS brines into high purity lithium products for new energy storage uses.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
"Patrick Highsmith"
Chief Executive Officer
Forward Looking Statements: The information in this news release contains forward looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated or anticipated future results, achievements or position expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements. Such forward looking statements are based upon the Company's reasonable expectations and business plan at the date hereof, which are subject to change depending on economic, political and competitive circumstances and contingencies. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets and the demand for and price of commodities, particularly lithium, unanticipated expenses in exploration programs, technical difficulties in connection with exploration and development activities, technological challenges with the extraction and processing of lithium brines, the speculative nature of mineral exploration, volatile microcap equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry, including environmental requirements. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding future exploration programs, operation plans, geological interpretations, mineral tenure issues and mineral recovery processes. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release
Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3005444
CONTACT:
Pure Energy Minerals Limited
(www.pureenergyminerals.com)
Email: info@pureenergyminerals.com
Telephone - 604 608 6611, ext 5
TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - US President Barack Obama will make a historic visit to Hiroshima during the second leg of his week-long tour covering Vietnam and Japan.
Obama will be the first serving US president to travel to the Japanese city since it was hit by a nuclear bomb in 1945.
Obama's visit will be at the fag end of his two-nation tour that begins on May 21.
The US President will visit Hiroshima with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons, the White House said in a statement.
This will be his tenth trip to Asia. This trip will highlight the President's ongoing commitment to the U.S. Rebalance to Asia and the Pacific, designed to increase U.S. diplomatic, economic, and security engagement with the countries and peoples of the region.
The President will first visit Vietnam, where he will hold official meetings with Vietnam's leadership to discuss ways for the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership to advance cooperation across a wide range of areas, including economic, people-to-people, security, human rights, and global and regional issues. In Hanoi, the President will deliver a speech on U.S.-Vietnam relations. During meetings and events in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the President will discuss the importance of approving the Trans-Pacific Partnership this year. The President also will meet with members of civil society, the Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative, entrepreneurs, and the business community.
In Japan, Obama will participate in his final G-7 Summit in Ise-Shima.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - EY has recently announced that CEO Tyler Moeller and CTO Joshua Walsky of Broadway Technology, a leader in high-performance fintech solutions for top-tier global banks and hedge funds, are finalists for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016 Award in the Central Texas region. The awards program, which is celebrating its 30 th year, recognizes entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Joshua and Tyler were selected as finalists by a panel of independent judges. Award winners will be announced at a special gala event on Thursday, June 9 at the JW Marriott Austin.
Chief Executive Officer Tyler Moeller said, "We are honored to be named to this prestigious list of entrepreneurs. When Joshua and I started Broadway, we set out to build the ideal company that we would want to work for ourselves, with an exceptional team that fosters collaboration, builds transformational software, and is relentlessly dedicated to making our customers successful. These principles are core to us and are the reason Broadway has grown into a top player in our space."
Chief Technology Officer Joshua Walsky said, "Tyler and I are proud to be recognized as EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016 finalists. We share this accolade with the entire team at Broadway, who for over 12 years has been delivering the industry's most advanced fintech solutions and has grown our core technology, the TOC' into a robust enterprise platform unlike any other."
Now in its 30th year, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year program has expanded to recognize business leaders in more than 145 cities in more than 60 countries throughout the world.
Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year National program. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced at the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards gala in Palm Springs, California, on November 19, 2016. The awards are the culminating event of the EY Strategic Growth Forum, the nation's most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies.
Sponsors
Founded and produced by EY, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored by SAP America, Merrill Corporation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
In Central Texas, sponsors also include BBVA Compass, ADP, Aventine Hill, Andrews Kurth, Bridgepoint Consulting, Austin Business Journal and San Antonio Business Journal.
About EY Entrepreneur Of The Year
EY Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 145 cities in more than 60 countries.
About EY's Strategic Growth Markets practice
EY's Strategic Growth Markets (SGM) practice guides leading high-growth companies. Our multidisciplinary teams of elite professionals provide perspective and advice to help our clients accelerate market leadership. SGM delivers assurance, tax, transactions and advisory services to thousands of companies spanning all industries. EY is the undisputed leader in taking companies public, advising key government agencies on the issues impacting high-growth companies and convening the experts who shape the business climate. For more information, please visit us at ey.com/us/strategicgrowthmarkets, or follow news on Twitter @EY_Growth.
About EY
EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.
EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.
About Broadway Technology
Broadway Technology is a leading provider of high-performance fintech solutions and technology infrastructure to top global banks and hedge funds. Founded in 2003, Broadway has employees worldwide with offices in New York, London, Austin, and Waterloo. To learn more about Broadway, visit us at: www.broadwaytechnology.com, or contact us at: info@broadwaytechnology.com / tel: 646.912.6450.
Broadway Technology is a trademark of Broadway Technology LLC. Other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyright 2016 Broadway Technology LLC. All rights reserved.
Contact:
Jonathan Fieldman
Company: Broadway Technology
Tel: 646.912.6450
Email: jfieldman@broadwaytechnology.com
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Precipitate Gold Corporation (the "Company" or "Precipitate" or "PRG") (TSX VENTURE: PRG) is pleased to announce results of the early 2016 property wide regional exploration program on its Juan de Herrera project within the Tireo Gold Trend in the Western Dominican Republic.
The property wide regional-scale exploration program has identified five (5) new early-stage geochemically anomalous zones hosted within favourable Tireo volcanic lithologies (see map here). The new target areas extend, and are within two loosely recognized regional mineral prospect trends that bisect the contiguous Precipitate and GoldQuest Mining Corp. landholdings. These laterally extensive mineral prospect trends which extend over a distance exceeding 28 kilometres have a northwest-southeast orientation, following regional rock stratigraphy and major structures.
All new geochemical anomalies identified by Precipitate in this program are favourably positioned proximal to previously identified geophysical anomalies/trends and within the desirable volcanic host rocks. The Company plans to complete follow-up programs of more detailed geochemical surveying over these new targets in the coming weeks, with a specific initial focus applied to the 'South East' Zone, which measures 1.4 kilometres in length and possesses similar geochemical and geophysical characteristics to those identified at the Company's Ginger Ridge Zone.
Regional Program Highlights:
-- Five new multi-element soil geochemical anomalies, one measuring up to 1.4 kilometres long; -- Total of 1,409 soil (ridge/spur and gridded), 121 rock, and 14 stream sediment samples analyzed; -- Individual rock sample assaying up to 7.7 g/t gold; -- Individual soil sample assaying up to 490 ppb gold; -- All new anomalous areas underlain by Tireo volcanic rocks and generally coincident with discreet magnetic geophysical high or low signatures; and -- Refined location of the major regional sediment and Tireo volcanic thrust contact.
Precipitate's President & CEO, Jeffrey Wilson stated, "Our exploration team, led by VP Exploration, Michael Moore, successfully achieved its objective in identifying multiple new anomalously mineralized zones with similar characteristics to those found at other known zones throughout the Tireo belt. Having applied the intelligence gained from the data collaboration with GoldQuest Mining Corp., PRG's field crew was able to expedite the exploration of new areas by targeting zones with known desirable characteristics (geophysical, geochemical, and geological). With this initial property-wide assessment now completed and new prospective targets identified, we're keen to focus on systematically advancing these new priority targets. As such, we will continue our field work in an effort to efficiently advance one or more of these new target areas to a drill stage, as an augment to future drilling at Ginger Ridge."
Preliminary Geochemical Anomalous Area Summary Features
South East
The South East Zone is located 6 kilometres southeast of Precipitate's Ginger Ridge Zone, within an apparent regional mineral prospect trend which also includes the new JT Zone and GoldQuest's Loma Viejo Pedro prospect (an estimated distance exceeding 18 kilometres). Initial observations at the South East Zone indicate many similarities to the Ginger Ridge Zone, such as intermediate volcanic host rocks, underlain by strong linear magnetic high geophysical signature, nearby rhyolitic rocks and a linear multi-element soil geochemical anomaly. The zone's gold-soil-anomaly measures an estimated 1,400 metres ('m') long by up to 200m wide, with a coincident and broader copper-in-soil anomaly measuring about 3,400m by up to 800m. The soil geochemical anomaly is open to the northwest. Observed mineralization and alteration includes local native copper and malachite, variably disseminated pyrite, quartz veining and silica flooding, with a rock sample highlight of 0.34 grams per tonne ('g/t') gold. A quartz + hematite breccia zone has been mapped over a lengthy northwest trend exceeding 1.5 kilometres in length.
Jengibre South
The Jengibre South Zone is located between the South East zone and GoldQuest's Jengibre prospect. Soil sampling shows a cluster of gold and other pathfinder element anomalies over an estimated 1,300m x 600m area. This geochemically anomalous area is underlain by volcanic host rocks and a discreet magnetic geophysical low signature. The Jengibre South Zone has yielded a highlight rock sample result of 5.2 g/t gold.
Melchor
Recent sampling at the Melchor Zone focused on an area located approximately 0.5 to 1.0km east and downslope of the earlier 2012-13 ridgetop exploration work. Current soil sampling has identified two separated but proximal gold-in-soil anomalies measuring approximately 100m by 500m and 250m by 500m. Both anomalies are open to the north and south, dominantly underlain by intermediate volcanic rocks and are separated by a large rhyolitic to dacitic (siliceous) rocks. Recent sampling at the Melchor Zone has yielded a highlight rock sample result of 7.7 g/t gold; earlier 2012 rock sampling on the Melchor ridge top reported a highlight rock sample result of 6.3 g/t gold (see the Company's news release dated January 21, 2013).
Peak
The Peak Zone is located 4.5 kilometres east of the South East Zone and appears to be within the mineral prospect trend that includes GoldQuest's Jengibre, Toribo and Mineros Ridge prospects (an approximate lateral distance of over 24 kilometres). Preliminary soil sample coverage for this area is relatively sparse, having demarked a loose gold-in-soil trend measuring an estimated 3,900m, that is underlain by mixed intermediate volcanic rock and a moderate magnetic geophysical low signature. Rhyolitic lithologies are reported about 300m off the Company property border to the north of the Peak Zone. Highlight sampling results include soil up to 490 ppb gold and rock up to 0.76 g/t gold.
JT
The JT Zone is located 11 kilometres northwest of the Company's Ginger Ridge Zone, where gridded soil sampling has identified a modest gold-in-soil anomaly measuring an estimated 200m x 350m that is open to south. The soil anomaly is underlain by rhyolite and siliceous dacite host rocks which have a local moderate high magnetic geophysical signature. Highlight sampling results include soil up to 417 ppb gold and rock up to 3.7 g/t gold.
The 2016 regional program soil geochemical anomalies are defined as exceeding the 70th percentile statistical threshold limit for each respective zone, while rock and stream sediment samples are defined as exceeding the 70th percentile statistical threshold limit of the entire Company project analytical result database.
Rock, soil and stream sediment samples were bagged, sealed and delivered directly to the Bureau Veritas preparation facility in Maimon Dominican Republic where they were dried, crushed (or sieved in the case of soils and stream sediments) and pulped. Sample pulps were then delivered to Bureau Veritas facilities in Vancouver BC Canada (an ISO 9001 accredited facility) for analyses. Rock samples were crushed to with greater than or equal to70% passing 2mm and split using a riffle splitter (prep code PRP70-250). An approximately 250 gram sub-sample split was pulverized to minus 200 mesh (74u). A 15 gram sub-split from the resulting pulp was then subjected to aqua regia digestion and multi-element ICP-MS analysis (code AQ201). Select rocks, with elevated gold values were subjected fire assay (ICP-ES finish) for gold analysis (30 g pulp) (code FA430).
This news release has been reviewed and Michael Moore, Vice President, Exploration of Precipitate Gold Corporation, the Qualified Person for the technical information in this news release under NI 43-101 standards.
About Precipitate Gold:
Precipitate Gold Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on exploring and advancing its mineral property interests in the Tireo Gold Trend of the Dominican Republic. The Company also maintains assets in northern British Columbia and southeast Yukon Territory and is actively evaluating additional high-impact property acquisitions with the potential to expand the Company's portfolio and increase shareholder value.
Additional information can be viewed at the Company's website www.precipitategold.com.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Precipitate Gold Corp.,
Jeffrey Wilson, President & CEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This press release may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "proposed", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. This forward-looking information reflects Precipitate Gold Corp.'s ("Precipitate" or the "Company") current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Company and on assumptions it believes are reasonable. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Precipitate to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the exploration concessions may not be granted on terms acceptable to the Company, or at all; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the concessions acquired by the Company may not have attributes similar to those of surrounding properties; delay or failure to receive governmental or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation affecting mining; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. Although Precipitate has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Precipitate does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Contacts:
Precipitate Gold Corp.
604-558-0335 or Toll Free: 855-558-0335
investor@precipitategold.com
www.precipitategold.com
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Prism Resources Inc. ("Prism" or the "Company") (NEX: PRS.H) announces a non-brokered private placement (the "Financing"), pursuant to which the Company will issue a minimum of 10,000,000 units (the "Units") consisting of one common share and one half of one common share purchase warrant at a price of $0.10 per Unit to raise gross proceeds of approximately $1 million. There is no maximum number of Units proposed to be distributed. Each warrant will have an exercise price of $0.13 per common share and will be exercisable for a period of three years.
The Company may pay finder's fees in cash and in units consisting of one common share and one common share purchase warrant to certain qualified finders as determined by management in compliance with policies of the NEX board of the TSX Venture Exchange.
Assuming the minimum of $1 million is raised pursuant to the Financing, approximately 80% of proceeds will be used to finance the exploration of the Company's Huampar Project in Peru, with the remaining 20% being used for working capital of the Company. If proceeds in excess of the minimum $1 million are raised, the proceeds of the Financing being used for general working capital requirements of Prism will increase proportionally.
There is no material fact or material change related to Prism that has not been generally disclosed.
The Financing remains subject to exchange approval.
About Prism
Prism Resources Inc. is a junior exploration corporation listed on the NEX board of the TSX Venture Exchange. Its focus is on earning its 70% interest in the Cerro Oro Project in Colombia and completing the acquisition of the Huampar Project in Peru.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF PRISM
Robert (Bob) Baxter
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
U.S. investors are cautioned that mineral deposits on adjacent properties are not indicative of mineral deposits on our properties. We advise U.S. investors that the SEC's mining guidelines strictly prohibit information of this type in documents filed with the SEC. This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: the actual results of current exploration activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans to continue to be refined; possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing; and fluctuations in metal prices. There may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.
Contacts:
Prism Resources Inc.
Robert (Bob) Baxter
+1-778-928-1864
bbaxter@prismresourcesinc.com
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Global Equity International, Inc. (OTCQB: GEQU) and its fully-owned subsidiary Global Equity Partners Plc. ("GEP" - www.gepartnersplc.com), a specialist consultancy firm with offices located in Dubai and London, are pleased to announce that GEP have continued our ongoing and successful relationship with Mr. John Vakis, the CEO of both Majestic Wealth Limited and an already existing client, VT Hydrocarbons Limited, a company with whom we are currently closing circa US$90 million of pre-IPO capital funding.
Majestic Wealth Ltd. has secured a luxury resort development project in Cyprus. The project benefits from approved planning permits and licensing, construction is already underway, and consists of three hundred luxury villas, a five star luxury hotel and amenities. Also, Majestic Wealth Ltd. has secured an additional beach resort, again with planning and construction underway, for a five star four hundred-suite luxury hotel in Paphos, a coastal resort and town on the Island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean. Paphos is European City of Culture 2017.
As a result of this engagement with Majestic Wealth Ltd., our subsidiary, Global Equity Partners Plc., subsequently partnered up with The Billbarter Group (https://www.billbarter.com/), in particular, with Billbarter Hungaria Zrt., and agreed to share the contractually agreed cash success commissions on a 50/50 basis. The Billbarter Group had revenues, last year, amounting to 74 Million Euros. The company is a fully integrated business that started in Eastern Europe, Hungary, and then expanded to Slovakia, Serbia and Romania. The Billbarter Group currently has more than 25,000 business clients and handles circa Eight Billion Euros worth of projects.
Partick Dolan, Managing Director of Global Equity International Inc. said, "The country of Cyprus has an advanced high income economy and is a member of the European Union and Eurozone. Cyprus is an extremely popular holiday destination for European, Russian, Chinese and Arab tourists and has a thriving banking industry. The Resort infrastructure and six show villas have already been constructed, and the Majestic Wealth management are already in advanced negotiations with two highly recognised and globally renowned luxury hotel groups to manage the resorts on long term contracts. We, Global Equity Partners, are delighted to be retained to assist in sourcing and raising the required capital in order to complete the construction of these significant resorts and hotels in one of Europe's most popular tourist destinations."
John Vakis, CEO of Majestic Wealth Limited said, "I am delighted to be able to continue and expand my working relationship with Global Equity Partners Plc., especially after having proven their capacity to source and introduce VT Hydrocarbons to capital funding. I look forward to continued success with GEP's management. The Luxury Cyprus Resort Projects, in particular, are pivotal for the Cypriot tourism industry and will contribute significantly to the high end tourist market in Cyprus."
About Global Equity International Inc. & Global Equity Partners Plc.
Global Equity International Inc., through its wholly-owned subsidiary Global Equity Partners Plc., advises worldwide business leaders with their most critical decisions and opportunities pertaining to growth, capital needs, structure and the development of a global presence. With offices in Dubai and London, Global Equity has developed significant relationships in the US, UK, Central Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia to assist clients in realizing their full value and potential by bringing them to external capital and resources that place an emphasis on collaborative thinking. Furthermore, because Global Equity has offices in key financial centres of the world, they are able to introduce their clients to a unique opportunity of listing their shares on any one of the many stock exchanges worldwide. Global Equity International Inc., through its wholly-owned subsidiary Global Equity Partners Plc., holds significant long-term equity positions in the companies that it represents.
Safe Harbour Statement
This press release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements related to anticipated revenues, expenses, earnings, operating cash flows, the outlook for markets and the demand for products. Forward-looking statements are no guarantees of future performance and are inherently subject to uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Such statements are based upon, among other things, assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management, including management's own knowledge and assessment of the Company's industry and competition. The Company refers interested persons to its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other SEC filings for a description of additional uncertainties and factors, which may affect forward-looking statements. The company assumes no duty to update its forward-looking statements.
Mr. Patrick V. Dolan
Managing Director of Global Equity International Inc.
Tel. (UK) + (44) 7917 838762
Email: patrick@gepartnersplc.com
Mr. Enzo Taddei
Director & CFO of Global Equity International Inc.
Tel. (US) 321 200 0142
Email: enzo@gepartnersplc.com
Mr. John Vakis
CEO of Majestic Wealth Ltd.
Tel. (UK) + (44) 7586 737000
Mr. Thomas Stonewell
International Relations Director of The Billbarter Group.
Tel. (UK) + (44) 207 193 8128
Email: thomas.stonewell@billbarter.com
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - A military dog has saved the lives British troops from an attack by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq. A team of British special forces were returning after training Peshmerga fighters last month when they were trapped by a group of 50 ISIS fighters on the Kurdish border. The convoy of four vehicles was hit by a homemade bomb. When the British forces attempted to move out, ISIL fighters attacked them from behind. A US soldier traveling with the convoy let the heroic Alsatian dog off the leash. The angry dog ran snarling towards the ISIL fighters. The first jihadi was bitten on the neck and face. The dog then slashed at the second fighter's arm and leg. The two ISIL fighters ran away in terror after being savaged by the Alsatian. The dog escaped the battle unhurt and has been hailed a hero by troops after saving the British team's lives, British media reported. It is thought that this is the first time that an attack dog has been used to directly save soldiers' lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, the reports said. 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.
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Russia Cardiac Assist Devices Market Outlook to 2021" report to their offering.
The new report, Russia Cardiac Assist Devices Market Outlook to 2021, provides key market data on the Russia Cardiac Assist Devices market. The report provides value, in millions of US dollars, volume (in units) and average price data (in US dollars), within market segments Intra-Aortic Balloon Pumps and Total Artificial Heart and Ventricular Assist Devices.
The report also provides company shares and distribution shares data for the market category, and global corporate-level profiles of the key market participants. Based on the availability of data for the particular category and country, information related to pipeline products, news and deals is available in the report.
Key Topics Covered:
Annualized market revenues (USD million), volume (units) and average selling price ($) data for each of the market categories. Data is provided from 2007 to 2014 and forecast to 2021.
2014 company shares and distribution shares data for Cardiac Assist Devices market.
Global corporate-level profiles of key companies operating within the Russia Cardiac Assist Devices market.
Key players covered include Thoratec Corporation, Maquet Holding B.V. Co. KG., HeartWare International, Inc., Teleflex Incorporated and Others.
Reasons to Buy:
Develop business strategies by identifying the key market segments poised for strong growth in the future.
Develop market-entry and market expansion strategies.
Design competition strategies by identifying who-stands-where in the market.
Develop investment strategies by identifying the key market segments expected to register strong growth in the near future.
Companies Mentioned:
Maquet Holding B.V. Co. KG.
HeartWare International, Inc.
Teleflex Incorporated
Thoratec Corporation
SynCardia Systems, Inc.
Report Structure:
1.1 List of Tables
1.2 List of Figures
2 Introduction
3 Cardiac Assist Devices Market, Russia
4 Overview of Key Companies in Russia, Cardiac Assist Devices Market
5 Cardiac Assist Devices Market Pipeline Products
6 Appendix
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/d83p3g/russia_cardiac
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510006479/en/
Contacts:
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
Sector: Cardiovascular Devices
CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Enbridge Inc. (TSX: ENB) (NYSE: ENB) announced today crews have been inspecting facilities and pipelines in the Fort McMurray region. As fires retreat in some areas, Enbridge workers have been able to conduct field assessments of several of its sites.
Inspections of the Athabasca and Cheecham terminal facilities indicate they have been largely unaffected by the fires. Below-ground pipelines along the rights-of-way are typically protected from fire; some above-ground facilities on the rights-of-way have incurred limited damage.
Enbridge is currently finalizing plans to repair and restart its system and working to assess available utility power supply needed to safely return to service.
"Our thoughts remain with the people of Fort McMurray and surrounding area during this difficult time. We're grateful for the exceptional efforts of firefighters and first responders in containing the wildfires, as well as for the tremendous show of support from across the province and the country for those impacted by the fires and evacuation," said Al Monaco, President and CEO.
"Our first priority remains the safety of our people and the community. These are difficult circumstances; however, we have a well-trained and experienced team that has developed a detailed logistical plan to enable the safe restart of our pipelines and terminals. We're working collaboratively with our customers, provincial and local governments and the regulator to return our pipelines to service as soon as we are safely able to do so."
As of May 10, the Enbridge Cheecham facility remains closed. As a result, all Enbridge pipelines in and out of Cheecham Terminal continue to be isolated and shut down. Limited volumes are currently flowing on Line 19, initiating out of the Kirby Lake facility. Athabasca Terminal continues to operate with a minimum staff complement.
Further updates will be provided at www.enbridge.com
About Enbridge Inc.
Enbridge Inc., a Canadian company, exists to fuel people's quality of life, and has done so for more than 65 years. A North American leader in delivering energy, Enbridge has been ranked on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations index for the past seven years. Enbridge operates the world's longest crude oil and liquids transportation system across Canada and the U.S., and has a significant and growing involvement in natural gas gathering, transmission and midstream business, as well as an increasing involvement in power transmission. Enbridge owns and operates Canada's largest natural gas distribution company, serving residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State. Enbridge has interests in nearly 2,000 megawatts of net renewable and alternative generating capacity, and continues to expand into wind, solar and geothermal power. Enbridge employs nearly 11,000 people, primarily in Canada and the U.S., and is ranked as one of Canada's Top Employers for 2016. Enbridge's common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol ENB. For more information, visit www.enbridge.com.
Contacts:
Media
Graham White
(403) 508-6563 or Toll Free: 1-888-992-0997
graham.white@enbridge.com
Investment Community
Adam McKnight
(403) 266-7922
adam.mcknight@enbridge.com
TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - President Barack Obama will make an historic visit to Hiroshima during an upcoming trip to Japan, the White House announced on Tuesday.
Obama will be the first sitting U.S. President to visit Hiroshima, the city where America dropped the first atomic bomb during World War II. Secretary of State John Kerry became the highest ranking U.S. official to visit Hiroshima last month.
The White House said Obama will visit the site with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.
In a post on Medium, White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said Obama will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb and will instead offer a forward-looking vision focused on the countries' shared future.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed at least 129,000 people but are credited with helping to hasten the end of the war. The two bombings thus far remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.
Obama's visit to Hiroshima will come as he travels to Vietnam and Japan from May 21st through 28th, on what will be his tenth trip to Asia.
The White House said the President will first visit Vietnam, where he will meet with Vietnamese leaders to discuss ways for the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership to advance cooperation across a wide range of areas.
In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Obama will also discuss the importance of approving the Trans-Pacific Partnership and meet with members of civil society, the Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative, entrepreneurs, and the business community.
The president will subsequently travel to Japan, where he will participate in his final G-7 Summit in Ise-Shima.
The White House said the gathering will enable G-7 leaders to advance common interests across the full range of economic and security priorities and to address pressing global challenges.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Cypress Development Corp. (TSX VENTURE: CYP) (OTCBB: CYDVF) (FRANKFURT: C1Z1) ("Cypress" or the "Company") is pleased to announce, further to its news release April 5th and May 3rd, the Company has received additional assays from Cypress' ongoing Phase 2 exploration program at its Clayton Valley Lithium Project in Esmeralda County, Nevada.
Cypress Clayton Valley Lithium Project, Nevada location map: http://www.cypressdevelopmentcorp.com/i/maps/CYP-Clayton-topo-satalite-small.jpg
Cypress' Clayton Valley Lithium Project is located in the heart of the Clayton Valley lithium brine exploration area of Esmeralda County, Nevada. The Company's 1520 acre Clayton Valley Project is located within one half mile of lithium brine wells belonging to the Albemarle Silver Peak Mine and the property shares its western boundary with Pure Energy's Clayton Valley South project.
Cypress Clayton Valley Lithium Project, Nevada claims map: http://www.cypressdevelopmentcorp.com/i/maps/Clayton-Test-Wells-Plan-Map.jpg
The Albemarle Silver Peak mine is the only operating brine based lithium mine in North America with lithium concentration in production brines reported to average 160 ppm lithium (160 mg/litre) (Garrett Report, 2004).
Cypress 2016 Phase 2 Clayton Valley Project Exploration Results:
Assays reported by Cypress to date show a continuously mineralized volume of lithium in claystones at surface on extensive portions of Cypress' Clayton Valley property. The compiled results of three sampling events show 2 kilometers of north-south strike of outcropping claystones that assay approximately 1,100 ppm lithium on average and include a 1.0 kilometer strike length zone that averages 1350 ppm Li.
The strong lithium mineralization is contained within calcareous evaporite rocks, dominantly carbonate rich lake-bed claystones with minor interbedded volcanic ash units. This rock section represents uplifted portions of the stratigraphy within which the lithium brines of the basin are produced.
Limited sampling of volcanic ash units by Cypress has occurred, sample #123238 (reported here) is an unconsolidated, biotite rich volcanic ash that has assayed 710 ppm lithium. Lithium mineralization within this ash unit is highly encouraging as it suggests that the lithium mineralization so far defined at surface has invaded all lithologic units found to date in the western portion of the property.
Other ash units show clear west dipping structure of 10 to 20 degrees (local exposures of much steeper dips have been seen). As a consequence of the rock package being tilted, the surface sampling is exploring a considerable thickness of the exposed basin fill evaporates and interbedded ash tuffs. Detailed mapping is planned for the next several weeks as part of the Phase 2 program.
Cypress Clayton Valley 2016 Phase 2 lithium sampling sites map, Nevada:http://www.cypressdevelopmentcorp.com/i/maps/CYP-Clayton-Phase-2.jpg
The table below shows newly received lithium assays from the ongoing 2016 Phase 2 surface sampling program. These samples were collected from the northwest portion of the Cypress' Clayton Valley property. Due to space constraints, only lithium assays are being show. A more complete data set containing the assays of typical evaporite sequence minerals will be added to the website shortly.
---------------------------------------------------------- Sample ID Li ppm Sample ID Li ppm Sample ID Li ppm ---------------------------------------------------------- 123208 1910 123219 770 123230 1240 ---------------------------------------------------------- 123209 1170 123220 1610 123231 QA/QC Blank ---------------------------------------------------------- 123210 1790 123221 1210 123232 1190 ---------------------------------------------------------- 123211 1000 123222 850 123233 1330 ---------------------------------------------------------- 123212 860 123223 900 123234 1510 ---------------------------------------------------------- 123213 900 123224 1430 123235 2600 ---------------------------------------------------------- 123214 1460 123225 1260 123236 2250 ---------------------------------------------------------- 123215 1230 123226 2020 123237 QA/QC Blank ---------------------------------------------------------- 123216 970 123227 2120 123238 710 ---------------------------------------------------------- 123217 1270 123228 950 123239 1010 ---------------------------------------------------------- 123218 1060 123229 1320 123240 1100 ----------------------------------------------------------
(i)NOTE: (Li=Lithium, ppm=parts per million, 1 ppm=1 milligram per litre)
Lithium Leachability Study:
A number of Phase 2 sample pulps are being re-assayed by ALS Chemex by both a deionized water leach and a weak Aqua Regia leach to provide further data on potential large-scale extraction methods of lithium from the mineralized claystones.
Cypress is further moving forward at this time with mineral Identification (ID) by X Ray Diffraction (XRD) and has started a bench scale study of additional very dilute acid leaching methods in an advancing effort to develop a low cost lithium extraction method for the strongly lithium mineralized, outcropping calcareous evaporates (claystones) on the property.
Planned Phase 3 Dill Program:
Cypress has filed a Notice of Intent permit with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Nevada for a planned Phase 3 drilling program. Cypress' Phase 3 program will target lithium brines within the targeted Main Ash Aquifer and will also include the drilling of shallow auger holes to provide initial subsurface data and assays under wide areas of lithium rich claystones discovered in the 2016 Phase 1 and Phase 2 sampling programs. The auger holes are planned to test the depth of lithium mineralization in claystones and will be sampled on composite 5 foot intervals.
Cypress Clayton Valley Project proposed drill hole and auger hole map:http://www.cypressdevelopmentcorp.com/i/maps/CYP-Clayton-Drill-Plan-Map-small-apr16.jpg
The surface sampling and reconnaissance geologic results received by Cypress to date are viewed as being highly encouraging for the presence of lithium rich brines within the subsurface aquifers below the mineralized claystone. In Cypress' view, lithium rich brines are likely to be found below the water table below the mineralized outcrops and may be especially well developed along the arcuate fault zones where fracturing will have increased the permeability of the rock section.
Clayton Valley is located within the Basin and Range Province in southern Nevada and is an internally drained, fault bounded and closed basin. Basin-filling strata compose the aquifer system which hosts and produces the lithium-rich brines.
Quality Control and Quality Assurance
All samples were assayed by ALS Chemex using a four acid digestion / ICP-Mass Spec method. Blind sample blanks are being inserted into the sample sequences at a rate of approximately 1 per 20 samples.
Robert Marvin, P.Geo, Exploration Manager for Cypress Development Corp. is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has approved of the technical information in this release.
About Cypress Development Corp.:
Cypress Development Corp. is a publicly traded lithium and zinc-silver exploration company developing projects in Nevada, U.S.A.
Cypress Development Corp. has approx. 24.1 million shares issued and outstanding.
To find out more about Cypress Development Corp. (TSX VENTURE: CYP), visit our website at www.cypressdevelopmentcorp.com.
CYPRESS DEVELOPMENT CORP.
DONALD C. HUSTON, President
NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although management believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, include market prices, exploration and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information.
Contacts:
Cypress Development Corp.
Don Huston
President
604-687-3376 or Toll Free: 800-567-8181
604-687-3119 (FAX)
Cypress Development Corp.
Don Myers
Director
604-687-3376 or Toll Free: 800-567-8181
604-687-3119 (FAX)
info@cypressdevelopmentcorp.com
www.cypressdevelopmentcorp.com
ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - Hatch Medical, L.L.C., a medical device incubator and technology brokerage firm, announced today that it has recently entered into an agreement with inventor and CEO, Ed Winters, Ph.D. and his company, WinMed to broker the sale or license of its patented, FDA-cleared VariSoft' steerable guide wire products.
It has been estimated that the global market for guide wires is projected to exceed over USD $2.19 billion by the year 2020. Increasing world populations, together with the growing prevalence of diseases is likely to drive this demand, along with technological innovations that have led to product enhancements such as tip design, retention and flexibility. Demand for guide wires was 16.7 million units in 2013 and is projected to reach 25.6 million units growing at 6.4% CAGR from 2014 to 2020.
WinMed's VariSoft ' Guide Wire System provides the torqueability, trackability and tactile responsiveness needed to navigate through the most tortuous vasculature for reaching lesions quickly and safely, and then may be dynamically transformed by the user in vivo to perform as an exceptional crossing wire. Two unique components of the VariSoft Guidewire System include a flexible, soft-tipped torqueable stainless steel coil wire with a low profile that tapers from 0.014" to 0.010" and a Dual Action Steering Handle which provides dynamic, in vivo transformation of tip shape, support, stiffness and provides greater total torque.
"The VariSoft' wire is an amazing technology that will change the way clinicians approach complex vascular disease. Not only will the VariSoft' reduce procedural costs through a reduction in wire exchanges, it will likely enable access to lesions otherwise thought improbable," commented Paul Gianneschi, Managing Principal at Hatch Medical, L.L.C.
Ed Winters, Ph.D., inventor and CEO of WinMed, added, "We are very excited to have the expertise of Hatch Medical on our side, and look forward to identifying a partner that is committed to the commercialization of this remarkable technology and our mutual success."
WinMed and the VariSoft' guide wire are available for acquisition or license through an exclusive agreement with Hatch Medical. For additional information on this, or other Hatch Medical, L.L.C. products and services, e-mail the company at info@hatchmedical.com. This release and additional news about Hatch Medical can be obtained by visiting the company's web site at: http://www.hatchmedical.com.
Contact:
Paul Gianneschi
Managing Principal
770-476-9940
or
Steve Hvozda
Principal
949-388-9335
This information is such that Inwido AB (publ) is obliged to publish in accordance with the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication on Tuesday, 10 May 2016, at 18:00 p.m.
Regulatory News:
Inwido (STO:INWI)
The Annual General Meeting ("AGM") of Inwido AB was held earlier today, Tuesday May 10, 2016, at Malmo Borshus. At the meeting, CEO Hakan Jeppsson accounted for his view of the operating year 2015. He emphazised the fact that 2015 was Inwidos best year to date, and that the company will continue on the stated plan with a predominance of sales in consumer-driven channels, the continuous work of reviewing the operational structure and to work with both organic and acquisition-based growth.
Hakan Jeppsson comments:
"The agreements we have signed to acquire Outrup in Denmark and Lampolux in Finland fit into our strategy well. They are two excellent, profitable companies with skilful management that are strong in sales channels and markets that we focus on".
"After a strong end to 2015, the first quarter has been volatile and a few business areas reported somewhat lower results than the year before. However it is pleasing to note that we've begun 2016 with stable profitability, an increase of almost 30 percent compared to last year".
Further, the following principal resolutions were passed:
Election of Board of Directors and Auditor
Arne Frank, Benny Ernstson, Eva S. Halen, Sisse Fjelsted Rasmussen and Anders Wassberg were re-elected as Board members. Leif Johansson and Henrik Lundh had declined re-election. Arne Frank was re-elected as Chairman of the Board. Thomas Forslund, KPMG, was elected as new auditor and Linda Bengtsson, KPMG, was re-elected as deputy auditor.
Fees
It was resolved that the fees to the Board of Directors should be SEK 215,000 to each Board member not employed by the company and SEK 440,000 to the Chairman of the Board. It was further resolved that the fee to members of the Audit Committee should be SEK 50,000, to the Chairman of the Audit Committee should be SEK 100,000 and to the members and the Chairman of the Remuneration Committee should be SEK 25,000, respectively.
Dividend
The AGM resolved in accordance with the proposal from the Board and the CEO on dividend amounting to SEK 2.50 per share. The record date for the dividend shall be Thursday May 12, 2016, thus dividend is expected to be paid by Euroclear Sweden AB starting Tuesday May 17, 2016.
Guidelines for remuneration to senior executives
In accordance with the proposal by the Board, the AGM resolved upon guidelines for remuneration to senior executives principally entailing the following. The total remuneration and the terms and conditions for the senior executives should correspond to relevant market conditions and will include fixed salary, variable remuneration, pension benefits, other benefits as well as conditions for termination. The variable remuneration is to be based on the outcome of predetermined objectives. The variable cash remuneration is to be limited to 50% of the fixed annual salary. Variable remuneration may also be paid in the form of long-term incentive programs. Pension benefits must be premium-based. The Board of Directors may derogate from these guidelines in certain cases if there are special reasons for doing so.
Establishment of a long-term incentive program
In accordance with the proposal from the Board, the AGM resolved to adopt a long-term incentive program consisting of two parts: an issue of convertible bonds with the opportunity for all employees to participate and an issue of subscription warrants to approximately 50 of the company's senior executives and so-called Senior Leaders.
The convertible loan shall amount to a maximum nominal value of SEK 40,000,000 or, when applying the established conversion price, the amount corresponding to a maximum increase of the share capital by SEK 1,200,000. The convertible bonds carry interest, are issued to its nominal amount which corresponds to the market value, and shall be convertible into new shares from and including 1 August 2019 up to and including 15 September 2019. All employees shall be entitled to subscribe in accordance with the principles set forth in the Board's proposal. The conversion price is SEK 130.3.
The issue of subscription warrants entails a maximum of 500,000 subscription warrants to be issued to Inwido's wholly owned subsidiary Inwido Europe AB, for further transfer to the company's senior executives and Senior Leaders. Transfer shall be at market value at the time of transfer, and allotment shall be made in accordance with the principles set out in the Board's proposal. Subscription of shares by exercise of the subscription warrants shall take place during the period from and including 1 August 2019 up to and including 15 September 2019. The subscription price per share shall correspond to the conversion price for the convertibles of SEK 130.3.
About Inwido
Inwido is Europe's largest supplier of windows and doors. The company has operations in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Estionia, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland and the UK, as well as exports to a large number of other countries. The Group markets some 20 strong local brands including Elitfonster, SnickarPer, Hajom, Hemmafonster, Outline, Tiivi, Pihla, Diplomat and Sokolka. Inwido has approximately 3,400 employees and generated sales of slightly more than SEK 5.2 billion in 2015. The Group's headquarters are located in Malmo, Sweden. For further information, please visit www.inwido.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/20160510006496/en/
Contacts:
Inwido AB
Hakan Jeppsson
President and CEO
Tel.: 46 (0)10-451 45 51
46 (0)70-550 15 17
or
Peter Welin
CFO
Tel.: 46 (0)10-451 45 52
46 (0)703 24 31 90
E-mail: peter.welin@inwido.com
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Grande West Transportation Group Inc. (TSX VENTURE: BUS) ("Grande West" or the "Company"), a manufacturer of medium-duty mid-sized transit buses for sale in the United States and Canada, announced today that BC Transit awarded Grande West a contract for up to 112 medium-duty Vicinity buses.
The 5 year contract value if fully exercised is estimated at over $35 million CAD. The initial order is firm for a total of 41 Vicinity buses valued at approximately $13 million. The contract has options for an additional 71 units and also allows for quantities to be increased during the 5 year term. The initial order will replace older vehicles in BC Transit's current fleet with new fuel efficient cleaner burning diesel Vicinity buses. Optional orders may also include the new 35' Vicinity bus model and compressed natural gas powered buses.
All 41 buses are expected to be delivered in fiscal 2017.
From small towns to large urban centres, BC Transit connects over 50 million customers in communities across the province every year, with its fleet of over 1,000 buses.
"We are extremely proud of this important award from one of Canada's largest and most respected transit systems," said William Trainer, Grande West President and CEO. "This order comes after Grande West received its first order from BC Transit in 2012 for 15 Vicinity buses and their solid performance record". The Vicinity buses were engineered here in British Columbia and are a great fit for the diverse operating conditions across British Columbia."
This order reinforces Grande West' strong momentum and growing market share in Canada and provides a solid base for continued expansion in the USA market.
About Grande West Transportation Group
Grande West is a Canadian bus manufacturer who designed, engineered and manufactures Vicinity buses. With little competition in the "mid-size" bus range, Grande West has set itself apart from others with the Vicinity bus - a medium duty mid-size, true community transit bus now in operation in many municipalities across Canada.
The Vicinity is designed with affordability, accessibility and global responsibility in mind. It costs significantly less than a regular 40 foot transit bus, burns less fuel and emits less harmful emissions. It is a Smart Choice for Right Sizing your transit fleet.
Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including without limitation, statements regarding the use of proceeds from the Private Placement, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Grande West's expectations include uncertainties relating to the receipt of final approval from the TSX-V; and other risk and uncertainties disclosed in Grande West's reports and documents filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. Grande West's forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made. Grande West assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.
Contacts:
Grande West Transportation
Dan Courtney
1-604-607-4000
dcourtney@grandewest.com
www.grandewest.com
The Howard Group
Jeff Walker
1-888-221-0915
jeff@howardgroupinc.com
www.howardgroupinc.com
Paradox Public Relations
Carl Desjardins
1-866-460-0408
carldesjardins@paradox-pr.ca
www.paradox-pr.ca
Conference call and webcast scheduled for Wednesday, May 11th at 15:00 CET/9:00 EDT
European Medicines Agency (EMA) review of Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for GRASPA for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is ongoing
Solid cash position of 40.6 million at quarter-end
Regulatory News:
ERYTECH Pharma (Paris:ERYP) (ADR:EYRYY) (Euronext Paris: ERYP), the French biopharmaceutical company developing 'tumor starvation' treatments for acute leukemia and other oncology indications with unmet medical needs, today provided a business update and reported financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2016.
First Quarter and Recent Business Highlights
The Company's MAA for GRASPA to treat patients with relapsed and refractory ALL, submitted in September 2015, is currently under review by the EMA's Commission for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP). In January 2016, ERYTECH received the Day 120 List of Outstanding Issues (LOI) from CHMP. The Company has requested and has received a three-month extension to answer the questions. ERYTECH currently expects to be in position to receive an opinion from the CHMP regarding the approvability of GRASPA towards the end of 2016/early 2017.
The original enrollment objective of 90 patients in the Company's pancreatic cancer Phase 2 study has been reached. ERYTECH has elected to continue patient recruitment with a goal of increasing the statistical power of the study and better evaluating the treatment in subgroups. Enrollment is on track for reporting of primary data by end of 2016.
More than 90% of patients are enrolled in the Phase 2 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) study to date. Enrollment is on track for reporting of primary data mid-2017.
Received Notice of Allowance from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for patent covering utilization of ERYCAPS technology platform in development of cancer immunotherapy products.
Findings from two preclinical studies were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2016 Annual Meeting. The first poster discussed ERY-ADI, arginine-deiminase loaded in erythrocytes, one of ERYTECH's new product candidates for L-arginine deprivation therapy in cancers. A second poster presented the Company's immunotherapy platform, using red blood cells as a tumor antigen delivery system to target antigen-presenting cells in the spleen.
First Quarter Financial Highlights
ERYTECH ended the first quarter of 2016 with a cash balance of 40.6 million, compared to 45.6 million at the end of 2015. The net use of cash for operating and investing activities amounted to 5.1 million for the quarter, compared to 3.0 million during the first quarter of last year. The cash utilization in the first quarter of 2016 was in line with the Company's expectations and consistent with its strategy, which, in 2016, remains focused on the clinical development of its innovative treatments for acute leukemia and other oncology indications in Europe and the United States.
Gil Beyen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ERYTECH, commented "During the first quarter, we made continued progress in the ongoing clinical development of GRASPA in the treatment of ALL, AML and pancreatic cancer, while further advancing our preclinical pipeline. We believe that 2016 will be a significant year for ERYTECH, as we progress toward our first European product approval, expect results of our Phase 2 study of GRASPA in pancreatic cancer and initiate new clinical trials and preclinical studies of product candidates utilizing our proprietary ERYCAPS technology. We are well positioned to execute on our development strategy."
Next financial updates:
Financial highlights for the 2nd quarter of 2016: September 6, 2016 (after market close), followed by a conference call and webcast on September 7, 2016 (15:00 CET/9:00 ET)
Upcoming participations at investor conferences:
French Financial Analyst Association (SFAF) Bio Day, May 17, Paris
France Biotech Life Sciences Day, June 6, San Francisco
BIO 2016, June 6-9, San Francisco
Jefferies Healthcare Conference, June 7-10, New York City
As a reminder, ERYTECH management will hold a conference call and webcast on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 at 15:00 CET 9:00 EDT to review the Q1 2016 operational and financial highlights. Gil Beyen, Chairman and CEO, Eric Soyer, CFO and COO, and Iman El-Hariry, CMO, will deliver a brief presentation, followed by a Q&A session.
Investors and analysts wishing to participate can access the call via the following teleconferencing numbers:
USA: +1 877-887-4163 United Kingdom: +44 2030432440 Switzerland: +41 225809022 Germany: +49 69222229031 France: +33 172001510 Belgium: +32 24029640 Sweden: +46 850334664 Finland: +358 942599700 Netherlands: +31 107138194
Confirmation Code: 97907300#
A live webcast of the call will be available online via the following link: https://www.anywhereconference.com/?UserAudioMode=DATA&Name=&Conference=135301147&PIN=97907300
Following the live webcast, a telephonic replay will be available for 90 days. To listen to the replay, please dial:
USA: +1-877-642-3018
United Kingdom: +44 20 33 79 94 60
France: +33 1 72 00 15 00
Confirmation Code: 301147#
Additionally, an archive of the webcast will be available on the "Webcast" section of the Company's investor relations site at www.erytech.com
About ERYTECH and ERY-ASP (GRASPA): www.erytech.com
Founded in Lyon, France in 2004, ERYTECH is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies for rare forms of cancer and orphan diseases. Leveraging its proprietary ERYCAPS platform, which uses a novel technology to encapsulate therapeutic drug substances inside red blood cells, ERYTECH has developed a pipeline of product candidates targeting markets with high unmet medical needs. ERYTECH's initial focus is on the treatment of blood cancers, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), by depriving tumors of nutrients necessary for their survival. ERYTECH has recently filed for European Marketing Authorization for its lead product candidate, ERY-ASP, also known under the trade name GRASPA, following positive efficacy and safety results from its completed Phase 2/3 pivotal clinical trial in Europe in children and adults with relapsed or refractory ALL. ERYTECH also has an ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial of ERY-ASP in the United States in adults with newly diagnosed ALL, and a Phase 2b clinical trial in Europe in elderly patients with newly diagnosed AML, each in combination with chemotherapy.
ERY-ASP consists of an enzyme, L-asparaginase, encapsulated inside donor-derived red blood cells. L-asparaginase depletes asparagine, a naturally occurring amino acid essential for the survival and proliferation of cancer cells, from circulating blood plasma.
Every year over 50,000 patients in Europe and the United States are diagnosed with ALL or AML. For about 80% of these patients, mainly adults and relapsing patients, current forms of L-asparaginase cannot be used due to their toxicity or as a result of allergic reactions. ERYTECH believes that the safety and efficacy profile of ERY-ASP/GRASPA, as observed in its Phase 2/3 pivotal clinical trial, offers an attractive alternative option for the treatment of leukemia patients.
ERYTECH believes that ERY-ASP has the potential as a treatment approach in solid tumors and is conducting a Phase 2 clinical trial in Europe in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. In addition to its current product candidates that focus on using encapsulated enzymes to induce tumor starvation, ERYTECH is exploring the use of its platform for developing cancer vaccines and enzyme replacement therapies.
The EMA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have granted orphan drug designations for ERY-ASP/GRASPA for the treatment of ALL, AML and pancreatic cancer. ERYTECH produces ERY-ASP at its own GMP-approved and operational manufacturing site in Lyon (France), and at a site for clinical production in Philadelphia (USA). ERYTECH has entered into licensing and distribution partnership agreements for ERY-ASP for ALL and AML in Europe with Orphan Europe (Recordati Group), and for ALL in Israel with TEVA, which will market the product under the GRASPA brand name.
ERYTECH is listed on Euronext regulated market in Paris (ISIN code: FR0011471135, ticker: ERYP) and is part of the CAC Healthcare, CAC Pharma Bio, CAC Mid Small, CAC All Tradable, EnterNext PEA-PME 150 and Next Biotech indexes. ERYTECH is also listed in the U.S. under an ADR level 1 program (OTC, ticker EYRYY).
Forward-looking information
This document may contain forward-looking statements and estimates with respect to the financial position, results of operations, business strategy, plans, objectives and anticipated future performance of ERYTECH and of the market in which it operates. Certain of these statements, forecasts and estimates can be recognized by the use of words such as, without limitation, "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "plans", "seeks", "estimates", "may", "will" and "continue" and similar expressions. They include all matters that are not historical facts. Such statements, forecasts and estimates are based on various assumptions and assessments of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which were deemed reasonable when made but may or may not prove to be correct. Actual events are difficult to predict and may depend upon factors that are beyond ERYTECH's control. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline product candidates that the candidates will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. Therefore, actual results may turn out to be materially different from the anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements, forecasts and estimates. Documents filed by ERYTECH Pharma with the French Autorite des Marches Financiers (www.amf-france.org), also available on ERYTECH's website (www.erytech.com) describe such risks and uncertainties. Given these uncertainties, no representations are made as to the accuracy or fairness of such forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates only speak as of the date of the publication of this document. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements. ERYTECH disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statement, forecast or estimates to reflect any change in ERYTECH's expectations with regard thereto, or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement, forecast or estimate is based, except to the extent required by law.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510006533/en/
Contacts:
ERYTECH
Gil Beyen
Chairman and CEO
Eric Soyer
CFO and COO
+33 4 78 74 44 38
investors@erytech.com
or
The Ruth Group
Investor relations
Lee Roth, +1-646-536-7012
lroth@theruthgroup.com
or
Media relations
Kirsten Thomas, +1-508-280-6592
kthomas@theruthgroup.com
or
NewCap
Investor relations
Julien Perez
Media relations
Nicolas Merigeau
+33 1 44 71 98 52
erytech@newcap.eu
TOKYO, May 10, 2016 - (JCN Newswire) - NEC Corporation and Netcracker Technology announced today that they have participated in a trial with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) to contribute to their NetroSphere concept.NTT's NetroSphere concept is designed to transform carrier networks from static, single-service networks powered by purpose-built hardware to a dynamic, flexible assembly of smaller, modular components. This enables telecommunications service providers to deliver a diverse range of services to a wide variety of end users, on demand and at low cost.The trial incorporated numerous components, including a modular-based virtualized network, virtualized servers, orchestrators and controllers. As part of this trial, NEC and Netcracker provided their globally proven NFV Orchestrator."We are excited to work with NTT in showcasing how the market's shift into the virtualized and open world is feasible when management and orchestration capabilities are front and center," said Atsuo Kawamura, Senior Vice President at NEC Corporation. "With the appropriate solutions in place, service providers can become more flexible, making it easier to meet the rapidly changing requirements of their customers and the industry."About NEC CorporationNEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. By providing a combination of products and solutions that cross utilize the company's experience and global resources, NEC's advanced technologies meet the complex and ever-changing needs of its customers. NEC brings more than 100 years of expertise in technological innovation to empower people, businesses and society. For more information, visit NEC at http://www.nec.com.Based on its Mid-term Management Plan 2015, the NEC Group globally provides "Solutions for Society" that promote the safety, security, efficiency and equality of society. Under the company's corporate message of "Orchestrating a brighter world," NEC aims to help solve a wide range of challenging issues and to create new social value for the changing world of tomorrow. For more information, please visit http://www.nec.com/en/global/about/solutionsforsociety/message.html.Source: NEC CorporationContact: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.
NEWTON, MA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- The nation's leading event focusing exclusively on sensors and sensor-integrated systems, Sensors Expo & Conference (Sensors16) today unveiled the two industry heavyweights who will keynote the 2016 event. Dr. Ken Gabriel, widely regarded as the founder of the Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) industry, will kick off the event on Wednesday, June 22nd; Ray Zinn, author of "Tough Things First" and Silicon Valley's longest serving CEO, will give his keynote address on Thursday, June 23rd. As the industry's premier event, the 2016 Sensors Expo & Conference will bring together the foremost thought leaders and innovators to discuss the latest developments in sensing technologies and outline opportunities for the future. To learn more or to register, please visit sensorsexpo.com.
Keynote speaker: Dr. Ken Gabriel
A veteran technologist with a distinguished track record of success across the public and private sectors, Dr. Ken Gabriel is credited with creating the MEMS industry through his role as co-founder of Akustica, a fabless semiconductor company that commercialized MEMS audio devices and sensors. In addition, Gabriel currently serves as Deputy Director of the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) Group at Google and is the CEO of Draper Laboratory. He has also held the role of Deputy Director, and then Acting Director, of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the Department of Defense where he led an agency with an annual budget of $3 billion that is charged with managing the Department's portfolio of its most cutting edge projects to both create and avoid technology surprise.
During his keynote Gabriel will leverage his vast experience to address how sensors are the unsung heroes of technology. To most consumers sensors are all part of a bigger package. To stand out you need to understand how consumers rely on the sensors you produce and then produce sensors that make devices stand out. Tools exist for you to understand how you can differentiate your products. Be more than a feature, be the discriminator for devices.
Keynote session details: June 22nd at 9:00 a.m., "Are Your Sensors a Feature or a Discriminator?"
Keynote speaker: Ray Zinn
With more than 50 years in the business, and as the 37 year-long CEO of Micrel, Ray Zinn personally created much of Silicon Valley history. His role in the semiconductor industry and the spirit of innovation in Silicon Valley has given him clear insight into what comes next. During his keynote, Zinn will articulate how doing the "Though Things First" has driven him, his company, and the industry forward. He'll describe how the semiconductor business cycle -- which thrives on innovations, adoption, growth, and consolidation -- explains the industry's current consolidations frenzy, and how China's role plays into today and the future. Zinn ties this together to show how the next business and customer adoption cycles will drive both sensor technology and IoT. Following the Thursday keynote session, Zinn will also be on hand to sign copies of his book at the Sensors Live Theater.
Keynote session details: June 23rd at 9:00 a.m., "The Future Through the Past: A Silicon Valley Legend Predicts the Future of Silicon, China and IoT"
"The semiconductor industry has spawned the electronics revolution over the past 50 years. The Internet, home electronics, mobile communications, personal computing, just to name a few, would not be possible without semiconductors," commented Zinn. "I am excited to join the Sensors forum and share my experienced in the industry."
"We are thrilled to bring the world-class insight and knowledge of MEMS innovator, Dr. Ken Gabriel, and legendary Silicon Valley Executive, Ray Zinn, to our community of Sensors attendees," said Mat Dirjish, Executive Editor, Sensors Magazine. "By combining their respective acumen on the industry with our session focus on real-world applications of sensor technology, we can provide both the thought provoking industry commentary and practical content necessary to succeed in the evolving sensor ecosystem."
Hosted in San Jose, California, the three day event will take place June 21-23 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA, with a Pre-Conference Symposia on Tuesday, June 21st. New this year, the event will feature expanded tracks for both IoT and Flexibles & Wearables, hands-on sessions and workshops, as well as a Startup Venture Forum and Pavilion. Exhibitor sign up is available by contacting Cal Groton or Joe Zuccerella and to stay updated on the latest show developments by following us on social media channels Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
About Sensors Expo & Conference
Sensors Expo & Conference is widely known as one of the world's largest and most important gatherings of engineers and scientists involved in the development and deployment of sensor systems. For more information, visit www.sensorsexpo.com (Sensors16). Sensors Expo & Conference is produced and managed by Questex LLC, a global, diversified business-to-business integrated media and information provider, headquartered in Newton, MA.
For further information, contact:
Charlene Soucy
Marketing Director
617-219-8372
Email Contact
Sarah Murray
Attune Communications
781-378-2674
Email Contact
NICE, FRANCE--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) -TM FORUM LIVE! -- TM Forum, the global industry association for digital business, today celebrates at TM Forum Live! 2016 the exemplary achievements of its members. Bharti Airtel, Bristol Is Open, Indra Sistemas, Netcracker, Royal KPN, Salesforce, and Telefonica have been recognized for their leadership and commitment to developing digital business best practices and standards, and through TM Forum's collaboration platform, ultimately benefit all Forum members and the marketplace as a whole.
This year's Digital World Awards attracted over 50 nominees from a diverse range of industries. The winners were recognized last night at the TM Forum Live! Gala Dinner, sponsored by Huawei, at the Palais de la Mediterranee in Nice, France, and were also honored during the event's opening keynote session today.
Judged by an impartial and independent panel, the 2016 Digital World Award categories and winners are:
Digital Service Innovator of the Year Award
This award recognizes the company or organization that has made the most significant and innovative contribution to advancing the 'Smart' revolution in society.
TELEFONICA - O2 Drive
O2 Drive aims to disrupt the UK's car insurance market by using customers' data to help them get a better quote, based on factors like how long they've been an O2 customer, their payment history and the device they use. In an industry that suffers from poor customer satisfaction, O2 Drive strives to reimagine the industry by improving the end-to-end digital customer experience.
Smart Service Provider - Business Transformation of the Year Award
This award recognizes the communications, digital infrastructure or media service provider that has made the most significant strides in transforming to a low cost, agile and customer-centric operating model.
ROYAL KPN N.V. - Transforming into a next generation Telco
This Dutch integrated ICT service provider underwent a digital, customer-centric transformation and implemented a low-cost, agile operating model. Combining TM Forum's Business Process Framework with its own customer journeys resulted in a Net Promoter Score rise of +9 for consumers and cost savings of EUR280 million by the end of 2015.
Smart City Innovator of the Year Award
This award recognizes the most innovative service breakthrough, focused on creating a positive impact on the lives of citizens, the cost of delivering services within a city and the applicability of the innovation to other cities around the world.
BRISTOL IS OPEN - Bristol Is Open Smart City Initiative
Bristol Is Open manages a software-defined, digital research infrastructure across the city, offering ultra-fast connectivity to its R&D partners, including Rolls Royce and NEC Corporation. The first application of the network, the Data Dome, provides computing power for visualizing complex experiments. Another project, the IoT Mesh network, provides a test bed for developers of IoT applications, ranging from smart rubbish bins to connected streetlamps and beyond.
Outstanding Contribution to Enabling Improved Customer Centricity Award
This award recognizes the company that has made an outstanding and innovative contribution to significantly improving customer centricity -- including improved customer service, experience or satisfaction -- through innovative customer- or data-centric technologies or services.
SALESFORCE - Salesforce Customer-Centric Platform of Engagement
The platform has helped a range of companies become more customer-centric and reimagine customer engagement across a broad range of business functions, channels and devices. A number of leading multi-play operators have embraced the Salesforce platform for end-to-end omnichannel customer experience to meet and exceed the increasing customer demand for simple and seamless experiences with their operators.
Outstanding Contribution to Enabling Improved Business Agility
This award recognizes the company that has made an outstanding and innovative contribution to significantly improving the business agility of its customers (measured in terms of improved time-to-market, ability to rapidly respond to market demand or opportunity, etc.).
NETCRACKER TECHNOLOGY - Netcracker Helps Leading Logistics Company Become the World's Largest Supply Chain
One of the world's largest logistics companies wanted to become the world's largest supply chain -- a difficult task given the company's traditional operational methods and processes. This company brought in Netcracker as a partner to help it transform its business and operations in order to reach its goals.
Outstanding Contribution to Improved Business Agility Award - Communications Industry
This award recognizes the company that has made an outstanding and innovative contribution to significantly improving the business agility of its customers (measured in terms of improved time-to-market, ability to rapidly respond to market demand or opportunity, etc.).
BHARTI AIRTEL LTD - Execution @ Speed of Thought
The company has built a series of digital business capabilities including segmented and contextual offers for customers, creating significant business and revenue opportunities; mobile applications for retailers to provide them with real-time data to improve customer support and NPS; and applications for the sales force to measure and improve performance.
Open Digital Ecosystem Platform of the Year Award
The digital business revolution is driving the growth of complex business-to-business (B2B) relationships trading across a complex 'value fabric' of relationships. To support such digital ecosystems, sophisticated platforms for digital business are emerging. This award is given to the company that is shaping the market, and in particular, driving open approaches to the emergence of digital ecosystems.
INDRA SISTEMAS S.A. - FEEP IoT Platform Sofia2
The company has built an open ecosystem to foster collaboration and support smart solutions with enterprise-class features such as IoT interoperability, real-time big data analytics, cloud deployment, horizontal scalability and a free experimental environment for developers -- Sofia2 CloudLab. These capabilities enable smart digital solutions across many verticals, such as smart cities, smart home, smart building and smart health.
"Congratulations to the 2016 Digital World Award winners," said Peter Sany, president & CEO, TM Forum. "As agile operations, customer centricity, the Internet of Everything and embracing open digital ecosystems have become integral to successfully competing in today's digital world, our Digital World Awards highlight the vital role that the Forum plays in connecting our members to collaboratively co-create, innovate and grow. The 2016 winners represent the best of the best when it comes to commitment, not only to TM Forum and our broader member community via participation in our collaboration programs, but to companies across a wide range of industries who need to operate and compete effectively across an ever-changing landscape of complex digital ecosystems."
The 51 nominees and 32 finalists in TM Forum's Digital World Awards 2016 were judged by an impartial and independent panel of leading industry experts and analysts, including Dr. Anastassia Lauterbach, CEO and founder, Lauterbach Consulting & Venturing GmbH; Chris Lewis, Managing Director and Telecoms Industry Analyst, Lewis Insight; Joachim Horn, CTO and Information Advisor (CTIA), PLDT/Smart Group; Keith Willetts, founder and former chairman & CEO, TM Forum; and Radhika Venkatraman, Sr. VP and CIO, Verizon. The judging panel was led by Chairman Steffen Roehn, Founder and CEO, Roehn Management Consulting GmbH and former group chief information officer, Deutsche Telekom.
Get in on all of the exciting TM Forum Live! news and buzz by visiting and bookmarking www.tmforumlive.org for real-time conference updates. Event action can also be followed on TM Forum Inform and on Twitter, using the hashtag: TMFLive. Case studies and video interviews of the winners will be available on TM Forum Inform in the coming days.
About TM Forum
TM Forum is the global industry association for digital business, connecting talented individuals, leading companies, and diverse ecosystems to accelerate our members' successful digital business transformation. The collective experience and interests of our member community -- comprised of tens-of-thousands of professionals within 900+ market-leading global enterprises, service providers and technology suppliers that together account for trillions of dollars in annual revenues -- drives everything we do, from thought-provoking research and publications, to practical guidance, collaboration programs, tools and best practices, hands-on events, and training for business and IT leaders.
Through three key programs -- Agile Business and IT, Open Digital Ecosystem, and Customer Centricity -- we provide an open platform for our members to connect and collaborate with individuals and groups from around the world to solve key challenges and rapidly innovate to deliver and monetize new services, improve business agility, partner for success, reduce cost and risk, and enhance customer value and loyalty. To accelerate your R&D and join our digital journey as a valued member and collaborator, please visit www.tmforum.org.
Press Contact
Hanah Johnson
March Communications
tmforum@marchpr.com
+1 617 960 9875
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- NewCastle Gold Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: NCA) (the "Company" or "NewCastle") is pleased to announce that it has completed its non-brokered offering with Franco-Nevada Corporation ("Franco-Nevada") for 3,636,364 subscription receipts of NewCastle (each, a "Subscription Receipt") at a price of $0.32 per Subscription Receipt for proceeds of approximately C$1.2 million (the "Placement"). Each Subscription Receipt will, immediately upon the completion of certain conditions, without payment of any additional consideration or taking of further action, entitle Franco-Nevada to receive one unit of NewCastle (each, a "Unit"). Each Unit consists of one common share of NewCastle and one half of one common share purchase warrant of NewCastle, where each whole common share purchase warrant is exercisable by Franco-Nevada to acquire one common share at a price of $0.64 until May 9, 2021. The Subscription Receipts and Units are subject to a hold period that expires September 7, 2016.
About NewCastle
NewCastle has 100% of the right, title and beneficial interest in and to the Castle Mountain Venture, a California general partnership, which owns the Castle Mountain property (the "Project") in San Bernardino County, California. The Castle Mountain heap leach gold mine produced over one million ounces of gold from 1992 to 2001, when mining was suspended due to low gold prices. The Mine and Reclamation Plan, under which the mine operated, was authorized by the County of San Bernardino as the Lead Agency and remains in effect. Water for the drill programs was accessed from existing patented wells on the Project.
An updated NI 43-101 resource for the project was announced December 2, 2015 which includes Measured Mineral Resources of 17.4 million tonnes grading 0.86 g/t gold containing 0.48 million gold ounces, Indicated Mineral Resources of 202.5 million tonnes grading 0.57 g/t gold containing 3.71 million gold ounces along with Inferred Mineral Resources of 40.8 million tonnes grading 0.58 g/t gold and containing 0.76 million gold ounces. The Project hosts a disseminated low sulphidation epithermal system. Gold is primarily hosted by late-stage rhyolite volcanic units within zones of silicification and brecciation associated with northeast-southwest trending/southeast dipping fault structures which are interpreted to have developed within a collapsed caldera environment. Eleven gold domains are represented by both steep and shallow-dipping orientations.
Ian R. Cunningham-Dunlop, P. Eng., the Company's Vice President Exploration, is the designated Qualified Person for this news release within the meaning of NI 43-101. He has reviewed and verified that the technical information contained in this release is accurate and has approved of the written disclosure of the same.
Cautionary Note Concerning Estimates of Inferred and Indicated Resources
This news release uses the terms "Inferred Resources" and "Indicated Resources", which have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred and/or Indicated Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of Inferred Resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. NewCastle advises U.S. investors that while this term is recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize it. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an Inferred and Indicated resource exists, or is economically or legally minable.
Contacts:
NewCastle Gold Ltd.
Marty Tunney
416-572-0151
mtunney@newcastlegold.ca
Regulatory News:
Press Release Paris, May 10, 2016
Not for distribution directly or indirectly in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or Japan.
The distribution of this document in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this document comes are required to inform themselves about it and to observe any such restrictions.
This document does not constitute an offer, or an invitation to apply for, or an offer or invitation to purchase or subscribe for any securities either in the United States or in any other jurisdiction which may be subject to restrictions. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States unless they are registered or exempt from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The Bonds have not been and will not be registered under the U.S Securities Act.
Amount: EUR 600 million
Final maturity: May 18, 2026
Settlement: May 17, 2016
Format: Fixed Rate Notes
Coupon: 1.50%
Reoffer price: 99.871%
Margin over reference swap mid-rate: +100 basis points
ISIN Code: FR0013172939
Pernod Ricard (Paris:RI), whose long-term senior debt is rated Baa3 by Moody's and BBB- by Standard Poor's, today set the terms of its new bond issue denominated in Euro.
The transaction was well received by the market, enabling the Group to benefit from a 1.50% coupon being the lowest ever of any of the Group's bond issuances.
The net proceeds of the issue will be used in particular to pay down bond debt, thus extending the maturity profile of the Group's debt.
Placement was made across a range of qualified investors, principally in Germany and France.
An application has been made for the bonds to be admitted to trading on Euronext Paris.
BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole CIB, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A., CM-CIC Market Solutions, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Rabobank, Societe Generale Corporate Investment Banking were the joint bookrunners of this bond issue.
About Pernod Ricard
Pernod Ricard is the world's n2 in wines and spirits with consolidated Sales of 8,558 million in 2014/15. Created in 1975 by the merger of Ricard and Pernod, the Group has undergone sustained development, based on both organic growth and acquisitions: Seagram (2001), Allied Domecq (2005) and Vin&Sprit (2008). Pernod Ricard holds one of the most prestigious brand portfolios in the sector: Absolut Vodka, Ricard pastis, Ballantine's, Chivas Regal, Royal Salute and The Glenlivet Scotch whiskies, Jameson Irish whiskey, Martell cognac, Havana Club rum, Beefeater gin, Kahlua and Malibu liqueurs, Mumm and Perrier- Jouet champagnes, as well Jacob's Creek, Brancott Estate, Campo Viejo, Graffigna and Kenwood wines. Pernod Ricard employs a workforce of approximately 18,000 people and operates through a decentralised organisation, with 6 "Brand Companies" and 85 "Market Companies" established in each key market. Pernod Ricard is strongly committed to a sustainable development policy and encourages responsible consumption. Pernod Ricard's strategy and ambition are based on 3 key values that guide its expansion: entrepreneurial spirit, mutual trust and a strong sense of ethics.
Pernod Ricard is listed on Euronext (Ticker: RI; ISIN code: FR0000120693) and is part of the CAC 40 index.
Disclaimer
NO COMMUNICATION AND NO INFORMATION IN RESPECT OF THE OFFERING BY PERNOD RICARD OF THE BONDS MAY BE DISTRIBUTED TO THE PUBLIC IN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE A REGISTRATION OR APPROVAL IS REQUIRED. NO STEPS HAVE BEEN OR WILL BE TAKEN IN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE SUCH STEPS WOULD BE REQUIRED. THE OFFERING AND/OR SUBSCRIPTION OF THE BONDS ARE SUBJECT TO SPECIFIC LEGAL OR REGULATORY RESTRICTIONS IN CERTAIN JURISDICTIONS. PERNOD RICARD TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY VIOLATION OF ANY SUCH RESTRICTIONS BY ANY PERSON.
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT, AND SHALL NOT, IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES CONSTITUTE A PUBLIC OFFERING NOR AN INVITATION TO THE PUBLIC IN CONNECTION WITH ANY OFFER.
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT A PROSPECTUS WITHIN THE MEANING OF DIRECTIVE 2003/71/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF NOVEMBER 4TH, 2003 (AS IMPLEMENTED IN EACH MEMBER STATE OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA, THE "PROSPECTUS DIRECTIVE").
WITH RESPECT TO THE MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA, WHICH HAVE IMPLEMENTED THE PROSPECTUS DIRECTIVE (EACH, A "RELEVANT MEMBER STATE"), NO ACTION HAS BEEN UNDERTAKEN OR WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO MAKE AN OFFER TO THE PUBLIC OF THE BONDS REQUIRING A PUBLICATION OF A PROSPECTUS IN NY RELEVANT MEMBER STATE. AS A RESULT, THE BONDS MAY ONLY BE OFFERED IN RELEVANT MEMBER STATES:
(A) TO QUALIFIED INVESTORS (AS DEFINED BY THE PROSPECTUS DIRECTIVE, AND INCLUDING THE AMENDMENT TO DIRECTIVE 2010/73/EU AS FAR AS THIS AMENDMENT HAS BEEN ADOPTED BY THE RELEVANT MEMBER STATE); OR
(B) IN ANY OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES, NOT REQUIRING PERNOD RICARD TO PUBLISH A PROSPECTUS AS PROVIDED UNDER ARTICLE 3(2) OF THE PROSPECTUS DIRECTIVE.
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL, OR A SOLICITATION OF OFFERS TO PURCHASE OR SUBSCRIBE FOR SECURITIES IN THE UNITED STATES. THE SECURITIES REFERRED TO HEREIN HAVE NOT BEEN AND WILL NOT BE REGISTERED UNDER THE U.S. SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED (THE "SECURITIES ACT") AND MAY NOT BE OFFERED OR SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO OR FOR THE ACCOUNT OR BENEFIT OF U.S. PERSONS (AS DEFINED IN REGULATION S UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT) ABSENT REGISTRATION OR AN APPLICABLE EXEMPTION FROM THE REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT. THIS NOTICE IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO RULE 135C UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160510006652/en/
Contacts:
Contacts Pernod Ricard
Julia Massies, +33 (0)1 41 00 41 71
VP, Financial Communication Investor Relations
or
Sylvie Machenaud, +33 (0)1 41 00 42 74
Director External Communications
or
Emmanuel Vouin, +33 (0)1 41 00 44 04
Press Relations Manager
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Despite suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination last week, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Tex., won't rule out jumping back into the race. In an interview with supporter Glenn Beck on Tuesday, Cruz suggested he might restart his campaign if a viable path to victory emerges. Cruz was asked if he would consider getting back in the race if he wins the Nebraska primary on Tuesday but said his 'assumption is that that will not happen.' However, he added, 'The reason we suspended the race last week was that with Indiana's loss I didn't see a viable path to victory. If that changes we will certainly respond accordingly.' The Texas Senator also declined to say whether he would support former rival and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. 'This is a choice every voter is going to have to make and I would note it's not a choice we as the voters have to make today,' Cruz said. The remarks echo those of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who recently said he was 'not ready' to support Trump but later suggested he could come around to back the real estate tycoon. Cruz suspended his campaign last week after losing the Indiana primary, which was seen as a must-win to prevent Trump from having a clear path to securing the nomination. (Photo Credit: Michael Vadon) 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.
Alabama Quality Assurance Foundation, a Birmingham, Alabama,-based private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health and health care in Alabama, is entering into a strategic alliance with Information and Quality Healthcare, based in Ridgeland, Miss.
AQAF and IQH will operate under a newly formed management company, Quality Partners Management Services Inc.
AQAF has provided health-care quality improvement and utilization review services in Alabama for more than 40 years. AQAF works with Alabama health-care providers, health systems and health plans to ensure that patients receive safe, cost-effective and evidence-based care that meets the highest professional standards.
IQH, an independent, Mississippi not-for-profit corporation based in Ridgeland, has worked to improve the health of patients through quality improvement and tobacco cessation services for more than 40 years. IQH is dedicated to continuing its work with health care providers and patients to achieve better patient care and better health in its communities.
"We're excited about this opportunity to combine IQH's and AQAF's strengths and resources to better serve the providers and patients in Mississippi and Alabama," said AQAF CEO D. Wesley Smith MD.
Under a contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, both AQAF and IQH are members of the atom Alliance, a Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) that serves Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee.
"This new alliance offers the opportunity for effectively building on the strengths and experiences of both AQAF and IQH," said Becky Roberson, IQH chief executive officer. "We are very pleased to be part of it. Our decades of experience working to improve healthcare will serve us well in continuing our relationships with healthcare providers, patients and partners."
AQAF and IQH will continue to provide services to their clients in their respective states. Quality Partners Management Services, Inc., which will be based in Birmingham, will provide administrative support to both organizations.
The AQAF, IQH alliance goes into effect July 1.
For more information about AQAF, visit www.aqaf.com. For more information about IQH, visit www.iqh.org.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Republicans remain resistant to considering Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court, but that didn't stop the federal appeals court judge from submitting his completed questionnaire to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Submission of the questionnaire typically does not attract many headlines, but Democrats have sought to draw attention to the event due to Republican intransigence on the issue. Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has steadfastly refused to hold hearings on Garland's nomination to fill the current vacancy on the Supreme Court. Grassley and most other Republican lawmakers have argued that the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia should be filled by the next president. The White House said Garland's questionnaire, which spans 141 pages, presents a comprehensive picture of his distinguished career and underscore his impeccable credentials as a nominee to the Supreme Court. The questionnaire includes information on Garland's employment, honors and awards, published writings, litigated cases, judicial opinions, and speeches and interviews. In a blog post, White House Counsel Neil Eggleston described the questionnaire as 'an exhaustive presentation of Chief Judge Garland's record that makes clear why the Senate should hold a hearing and ultimately confirm him to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court.' 'With more federal judicial experience than any other Supreme Court nominee in history and a long record of public service, we expect the Senate will give Chief Judge Garland the same fair consideration as prior nominees,' Eggleston wrote. 'The American people and the integrity of our judicial system deserve nothing less.' Garland's questionnaire, which includes the ten most significant legal opinions he has written, is available from the Judiciary Committee. 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.
FRESNO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- N.M Management Associates is Fresno's breakthrough marketing firm, acquiring multiple million dollar accounts within the first five months of business. Recently released projections depict a bright future for the company moving into the end of the second quarter.
Led by President Noel Mendoza, N.M Management Associates is creating unparalleled career opportunities for job seekers in the local area. Representing two of the largest brands in the nation with a third on the horizon projected to roll out in the next few weeks, Noel continues to seek up-and-coming talent to join his team of competitive entrepreneurs.
"We were able to exceed expectations within the first four months of business," Noel says. "Going above and beyond for our clients has opened the door for us to expand into a third campaign within record time." In order to keep up with the expansion goals of their clients, the company developed management-training positions to catapult the growth of both the company and their associates.
Through the management-training positions, N.M.M.A offers a fully paid training program in which associates learn marketing and sales strategies, team leadership and business practices from some of the greatest minds in the industry. "We are built on the foundation of 'people helping people.' With a completely transparent business model, the developmental process within N.M Management Associates thrives on team work and friendly competition."
Because of their revolutionary business practices, recently release projections put the N.M Management Associates team at five locations nation wide by the end of the year. Noel holds weekly meetings with the associates to align expansion goals and ensure productivity continues to climb. He admits, "With the demand so high on the West Coast, we have our sights set on crossing state lines into Oregon and Washington as well as furthering the footprint in California."
Just as the projections were released, Noel announced the 2016 national destination conference location. This October, the conference will be hosted by the clients at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Noel and the N.M Management Associates team hope to capture the spotlight and receive one of the most sought after awards given by the clients each year for outstanding production.
The excitement continues to buzz in the Fresno office as the team strives to achieve their goals in record time. For more information on career opportunities offered by N.M Management Associates, visit www.NMManagementInc.com.
CONTACT:
Human Resource Department
N.M Management Associates
1941 North Gateway BLVD.
STE 101
Fresno, California
93723
559-900-5271
www.NMManagementInc.com
Email Contact
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Route1 Inc. (TSX VENTURE: ROI) (the Company or Route1), a leading provider of secure access technologies for the mobile workspace to protect businesses and government agencies, today announced that it has been invited to present at the Drexel Hamilton Micro-Cap Investor Forum, which will be held on Thursday, May 12, 2016 at the Drexel Hamilton New York headquarters, located at 77 Water Street, New York, NY.
Tony Busseri, CEO, and Brian Brunetti, President, Route1 Inc. will be presenting at 8:30am EDT and will also be hosting one-on-one meetings with investors throughout the day. Please contact your Drexel Hamilton representative or the Company if you wish to schedule a meeting.
About Route1, Inc.
Route1 enables the mobile workspace without compromising on security. Its flagship technology MobiKEY uniquely combines secure mobile access, with high assurance identity validation and plug-and-play usability. Remote and mobile workers are able to securely and cost-effectively access their workspace from any device without exposing the organization to the risk of data spillage or malware propagation. MobiKEY customers include Fortune 500 enterprises as well as the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy and the Government of Canada. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Route1 is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange.
For more information, visit www.route1.com.
This news release, required by applicable Canadian laws, does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Route1 Inc., 2016. All rights reserved. Route1, Route 1, the Route1 and shield design Logo, MobiDESK, Mobi, Route1 MobiVDI, Route1 MobiDESK, Route1 MobiBOOK, Route1 MobiKEY, Route1 MobiNET, IBAD, MobiVDI, MobiNET, DEFIMNET, Powered by MobiNET, Route1 Mobi, Route1 MobiLINK, TruOFFICE, MobiLINK, EnterpriseLIVE, PurLINK, TruCOMMAND, MobiMICRO and MobiKEY are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Route1 Inc. in the United States and/or Canada. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
The DEFIMNET and MobiNET platforms, the MobiKEY, MobiKEY Classic, MobiKEY Classic 2, MobiKEY Classic 3, MobiKEY Fusion, MobiKEY Fusion2, and MobiKEY Fusion3 devices, and MobiLINK are protected by U.S. Patents 7,814,216, 7,739,726, 9,059,962, 9,059,997 and 9,319,385, Canadian Patent 2,578,053, and other patents pending. The MobiKEY Classic 2 and MobiKEY Classic 3 devices are also protected by U.S. Patents 6,748,541 and 6,763,399, and European Patent 1001329 of Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. and used under license. Other patents are registered or pending in various countries around the world.
Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
Contacts:
Route1 Inc.
Tony Busseri
CEO
+1 416 814-2635
tony.busseri@route1.com
www.route1.com
Skype: Route1CEO
Twitter: @Route1CEO
Facebook: Route1 Inc.
Last Wednesday, heads of state from at least eight Caribbean nations met with the head of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), presidents of two regional development banks and the head of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to sign a memorandum of understanding which includes activities to support renewable energy and energy efficiency. The MOU, which was signed by representatives of the U.S. DOE, CARICOM, the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will provide a "framework for cooperation to promote programs and activities that transform the energy sector in the Caribbean". This includes technical assistance and programs to promote knowledge exchanges and capacity building. GTM Research Senior Solar Analyst Mohit Anand notes that this cooperation between the various parties is still in the early stages. "What stands between this MOU turning into an agreement - that is a political question," Anand told pv magazine. "Because the DOE stands behind this MOU this is a stronger than usual push behind it. And IDB is the leading development bank in Latin America. So these ...
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- ImageWare Systems, Inc. (ImageWare or IWS) (OTCQB: IWSY), a leader in mobile and cloud-based, multi-modal biometric identity management solutions, has issued financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016, as well as a corporate update to highlight the company's progress since its last quarterly update on March 16, 2016.
Operational Highlights
Teamed up with TransUnion to launch an enterprise-ready, turn-key biometric authentication offering on the Amazon Web Service cloud. Companies of all sizes will be able to integrate the SaaS product into nearly any existing security solution.
Entered into a contract with FEMSA to provide the IWS CloudID multi-modal biometric authentication system to improve their overall employee-level security, specifically identity, credential and access control management.
Joined Amazon Web Services Partner Network as a technology partner, providing GoMobile Interactive cloud service to GoVerifyID mobile app users by leveraging the global scale, reliability and security of Amazon Web Services.
Awarded three patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for technology used in the IWS Biometric Engine. These patents bring ImageWare's total patent count to 19.
Management Commentary
"Since our last corporate update less than two months ago, we continued to forge strategic partnerships with companies that we believe will help commercialize our technology," said Jim Miller, ImageWare's chairman and CEO. "Today, we officially teamed up with TransUnion to integrate GoVerifyID with the debut of their ID vetting product, ID Manager. Two things make our joint product unique. First, we are targeting small-to-medium sized businesses, which employ the majority of our population, yet have not been the target audience for many of our partners to date. Second, thanks to the ID Manager product, our 'pay-as-you-go, scale-as-you need' offering will allow quick deployment and no upfront infrastructure setup costs, reducing two significant barriers to entry.
"In addition to other recently formed partnerships, we made great progress in the sales process of GoVerifyID with Aruba's ClearPass Policy Manager. Aruba's internal salesforce as well as over 60 resellers are currently being educated about the product. We have been busy collaborating with their team to co-write content for sales webcasts and other selling materials, and have setup a joint server in the cloud for customers interested in a demo.
"To our knowledge, this is the first time a network company has elected to use biometrics for security purposes, reflecting the strength of our biometric technology. With a total end user population of approximately 65 million, Aruba also represents one of the larger populations of users to be targeted for conversion from PINs and passwords to biometrics. As we look ahead, we believe this will more often become the case with other companies, and Aruba provides ImageWare a true signature reference account for our commercialization strategy."
First Quarter 2016 Financial Results
Total revenues in the first quarter of 2016 were essentially unchanged at $1.0 million compared to the first quarter of 2015. An increase in services revenue due to the completion of certain identity management projects offset a reduction of software revenue from identification projects.
Gross margin in the first quarter of 2016 was 73.3% compared to 71.1% in the first quarter of 2015. The increase was primarily due to relatively lower cost of sales associated with the increase in service revenues.
Net loss in the first quarter of 2016 was essentially flat compared to the same year-ago quarter at $2.3 million or $(0.03) per basic share.
At March 31, 2016, cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.1 million compared to $3.4 million at December 31, 2015. The company continues to carry no debt and has full availability on its $5.5 million line of credit.
Conference Call
ImageWare will hold a conference call today at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time (2:00 p.m. Pacific time) to discuss its first quarter 2016 results. The company's Chairman and CEO Jim Miller and CFO Wayne Wetherell will host the conference call, followed by a question and answer period.
Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Time: 5:00 p.m. Eastern time (2:00 p.m. Pacific time)
Toll-free dial-in number: 1-888-208-1815
International dial-in number: 1-719-457-0349
Conference ID: 4667811
Please call the conference telephone number 5-10 minutes prior to the start time. An operator will register your name and organization. If you have any difficulty connecting with the conference call, please contact Liolios Group at 1-949-574-3860.
The conference call will be broadcast live and available for replay at
http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=119507 and via ImageWare's investor relations section at www.iwsinc.com.
A replay of the conference call will be available after 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on the same day through June 10, 2016.
Toll-free replay number: 1-877-870-5176
International replay number: 1-858-384-5517
Replay ID: 4667811
About ImageWare Systems, Inc.
ImageWare Systems, Inc. (OTCQB: IWSY) is a leading developer of mobile and cloud-based identity management solutions, providing biometric, secure credential and law enforcement technologies. Scalable for worldwide deployment, ImageWare's biometric product line includes a multi-biometric engine that is hardware and algorithm independent, enabling the enrollment and management of unlimited population sizes. ImageWare's identification products are used to manage and issue secure credentials, including national IDs, passports, driver's licenses, smart cards and access control credentials. ImageWare's digital booking products provide law enforcement with integrated mug shot, fingerprint livescan and investigative capabilities. ImageWare is headquartered in San Diego, CA, with offices in Portland, OR, Washington, D.C., and Ottawa, Ontario. For more information on ImageWare Systems, Inc., please visit www.iwsinc.com.
Forward Looking Statements
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "if," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to ImageWare Systems, Inc. ("ImageWare") are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. ImageWare may from time to time update these publicly announced projections, but it is not obligated to do so. Any projections of future results of operations should not be construed in any manner as a guarantee that such results will in fact occur. These projections are subject to change and could differ materially from final reported results. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, see "Risk Factors" in ImageWare's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 and its other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities 3 Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS --------------------------- March 31, December 31, 2016 2015 ------------- ------------- Assets: Cash $ 1,095 $ 3,352 Accounts receivable, net 376 349 Inventories 44 46 Other current assets 115 69 Property and equipment, net 151 162 Other assets 85 98 Intangible assets, net 115 117 Goodwill 3,416 3,416 ------------- ------------- Total Assets $ 5,397 $ 7,609 ============= ============= Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity: Current liabilities $ 2,153 $ 2,406 Convertible line of credit to related party net of discount - - Pension obligation 1,597 1,511 Shareholders' equity 1,647 3,692 ------------- ------------- Total Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity $ 5,397 $ 7,609 ============= ============= SELECTED COMPARATIVE FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS In thousands, except share and per share amounts ------------------------ Three Months Ended March 31, ------------------------ 2016 2015 ----------- ----------- Revenues Product $ 403 $ 378 Maintenance 640 613 ----------- ----------- Total Revenues 1,043 991 Cost of Revenue Product 74 74 Maintenance 205 212 ----------- ----------- Gross Profit 764 705 73% 71% Operating Expenses General & administrative 1,006 916 Sales and marketing 673 650 Research and development 1,314 1,033 Depreciation and amortization 35 42 ----------- ----------- Total Operating Expenses 3,028 2,641 ----------- ----------- Loss from operations (2,264) (1,936) Interest (income) expense, net 11 437 Other (income) expense, net (1) (46) ----------- ----------- Income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes (2,274) (2,327) Income taxes 3 3 ----------- ----------- Income (loss) from continuing operations (2,277) (2,330) Net income (loss) $ (2,277) $ (2,330) Preferred dividends (348) (204) ----------- ----------- Net income (loss) available to common shareholders $ (2,625) $ (2,534) =========== =========== Per share data - basic Net income (loss) from continuing operations $ (0.03) $ (0.03) Preferred dividends - - ----------- ----------- Basic income (loss) per share available to common shareholders $ (0.03) $ (0.03) =========== =========== Basic weighted-average common shares 94,073,367 93,315,640
Investor Relations:
Liolios
Cody Slach
Tel 1-949-574-3860
Email Contact
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
The Government of Canada is committed to strengthening the middle class and growing the economy.
Today, President of the Treasury Board Scott Brison tabled the 2016-17 Supplementary Estimates (A), seeking Parliament's approval of important investments in Canadians and their communities. For the first time, this document compares funding announced in this year's Budget with funding requested through this year's Estimates. This reconciliation will make it easier for Parliament to track government spending and hold the Government to account.The Government is also making progress in better aligning the Budget and Estimates processes so that Parliament can approve funding in a more timely manner. This year's Supplementary Estimates (A) include funding for 33 items announced in this year's Budget, compared with only 11 in 2015 and 6 in 2014.
Quick Facts
-- Infrastructure spending accounts for about 56% of the total Supplementary Estimates (A) spending, or $3.9 billion. -- The 2016-17 Supplementary Estimates (A) outline $7.0 billion in planned budgetary expenditures. Of this total, $5.9 billion is to implement 33 initiatives announced in Budget 2016. -- A Supply Bill seeking Parliament's approval to spend funds in line with these Supplementary Estimates will be tabled by June. -- On February 23, the Government tabled the 2016-17 Main Estimates outlining $250.1 billion in planned budgetary expenditures for the fiscal year.
Quotes
"The Government is raising the bar once more on openness, transparency, and accountability. We set a precedent in this year's Supplementary Estimates (A) by including funding for 33 items announced in this year's Budget to help middle class families. But this is just the beginning; I look forward to working with all parliamentarians to better align the Budget and Estimates processes so that Canadians can more easily track how the Government spends their money."
- The Honourable Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board
Associated Links
2016-17 Supplementary Estimates (A)
Supplementary Estimates Additional Information:
-- Allocations from Treasury Board Central Votes -- Transfers Between Organizations -- Budgetary Expenditures by Standard Object -- Statutory Forecasts -- Estimates by Strategic Outcome and Program -- Budget 2016 Infrastructure Spending (ii)new(ii)
TBS InfoBase
Follow us on Twitter: @TBS_Canada.
Contacts:
Jean-Luc Ferland
Press Secretary
Office of the President of the Treasury Board
613-369-3163
Media Relations
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
613-369-9400
media@tbs-sct.gc.ca
TTY (telecommunications device for the hearing impaired)
613-369-9371
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 10, 2016) - NEOTECK SOLUTIONS INC. (TSXV: NEO.H) (the "Company" or "Neoteck") is pleased to announce that the Canadian Securities Exchange has accepted the listing of the common shares of the Company under the name "Hello Pal International Inc." The Company's common shares will commence trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol "HP" on May 13, 2016.
Private Placement Financing
The Company also announces that it has increased its previously announced private placement financing from 11,666,667 post-consolidation common shares of the Company to 12,000,000 post-consolidation common shares of the Company at a price of $0.15 per post-consolidation common share of the Company for gross proceeds of $1,800,000 (the "Financing").
A portion of the Financing will be completed in accordance with the exemption set out in B.C. Instrument 45-536 - Exemptions from prospectus requirement for certain distributions through an investment dealer.
Assuming that the Financing is fully subscribed, the Company plans to allocate the gross proceeds of the Financing as follows: (i) $500,000 for enhancement of the HPI Platform, (ii) $200,000 for marketing and user acquisitions, (iii) $600,000 for general and administrative expenses, and (iv) $500,000 for working capital purposes.
There is no material fact or material change about the Company that has not been generally disclosed.
Subject to CSE approval, finder's fees may be payable in connection with the Financing.
The Company will issue a detailed news release on its acquisition of the HPI Platform prior to commencement of trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange.
About Hello Pal International, Inc. and the HPI Platform
Hello Pal International, Inc. ("HPI") was incorporated under the laws of the British Virgin Islands and it maintains its principal head office located in Road Town, Tortola, BVI. The HPI Platform is a proprietary and open social exchange language and learning mobile application and network (i.e., a full mobile language exchange) for use in a whole host of applications - including for language learning and socialization. The HPI Platform has been designed from the ground up to be easy to use and enables users' the freedom to speak in their own language regardless of the other person's language they are speaking to. The Hello Pal application was launched on the Google Play Store in May 2015 and iOS App Store November 2015. It is anticipated to be launched on the Windows platform in 2016.
KL Wong is the Chief Executive Officer, director and controlling shareholder of HPI.
About Neoteck
Neoteck is a company incorporated under the laws of British Columbia and has been actively seeking out a business for its future operations. Neoteck is listed for trading on the TSXV under the symbol "NEO.H".
For further information please contact:
Neoteck Solutions Inc.
Gunther Roehlig, CEO
(604) 683-0911
Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. Neoteck cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Neoteck's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Neoteck's ability to complete the proposed Transaction; and other risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Neoteck undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.
Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, the Listing on the CSE, De-Listing from the TSXV and Neoteck Shareholder Approval. 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 or the CSE Form 2A - Listing Statement 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 Neoteck should be considered highly speculative.
The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.
A halt in trading shall remain in place until the De-Listing of Neoteck's Shares from the TSX Venture Exchange.
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.
SINGAPORE -- 11 MAY 2016, UNITED STATES--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - STATS ChipPAC Pte. Ltd. ("STATS ChipPAC" or the "Company"), a leading provider of advanced semiconductor packaging and test services, announced today that it has shipped over one billion fan-out wafer level packages (FOWLP), also known in the industry as embedded Wafer Level Ball Grid Array (eWLB). FOWLP or eWLB is an advanced packaging technology platform that provides ultra-high density interconnection, superior electrical performance and the ability to integrate multiple heterogeneous dies in a cost effective, low-profile semiconductor package.
As the industry was beginning to learn about eWLB in 2008, STATS ChipPAC immediately recognized the significant potential, value and scalability of eWLB and designated it as a key technology for the company. Within a year, STATS ChipPAC had ramped eWLB to high volume production and was driving a number of technology and manufacturing initiatives in this new packaging approach. STATS ChipPAC has led the industry in eWLB manufacturing capabilities, capacity and technology innovations, particularly in 2.5D and 3D package designs. STATS ChipPAC became the first company in the semiconductor industry to implement significantly larger than 300mm eWLB wafer manufacturing capabilities and has a strong portfolio of innovative eWLB packages, including small die, large die, multi-die, multi-layer, Package-on-Package (PoP) and System-in-Package (SiP) architectures.
"We differentiated STATS ChipPAC by our unwavering commitment to eWLB technology over the years, beginning with our vision of how this scalable packaging platform can be leveraged to drive performance and size advantages for our customers' applications. Over the years we have made significant capital investments and process enhancements to fulfill our vision and raise the bar on manufacturing efficiency and productivity in the industry, adding further value for our customers," said Dr. Han Byung Joon, President and Chief Executive Officer, STATS ChipPAC. "Although we have achieved multiple milestones with eWLB through the years, shipping over one billion eWLB packages is a testament to the ever expanding customer adoption in the industry and success which we knew was possible with this game changing technology."
The exceptional success of eWLB in the mobile market, particularly in baseband processors, connectivity devices, Codec devices, RF transceivers and power management integrated circuits (PMICs), is a reflection of the ongoing pressure semiconductor companies face in cost effectively achieving higher input/output (I/O), higher bandwidths and lower power consumption in the smallest possible form factor. STATS ChipPAC has driven a number of eWLB technology achievements such as dense vertical interconnections as high as 500 - 1,000 I/O, very fine line width and spacing down to 2um/2um and ultra thin package profiles below 0.3mm (including solderball) for single packages and below 0.6mm for a stacked PoP with proven warpage control.
With the ability to partition silicon and embed passive devices and vertical interconnects (known as eBar) into a design, eWLB is a powerful integration technology for 2.5D and 3D PoP or SiP solutions for a wide range of new and emerging applications. The compelling performance, size and cost advantages of eWLB are accelerating the adoption of this advanced technology into new markets such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable electronics, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and automotive applications. Examples of new eWLB applications are Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in automobiles and bio-processors in the wearables market.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this release, including statements regarding the Company's expectations and intentions relating to the issue of the New Notes and use of proceeds thereof, are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in this release. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, general business and economic conditions and the state of the semiconductor industry; prevailing market conditions; demand for end-use applications products such as communications equipment, consumer and multi-applications and personal computers; decisions by customers to discontinue outsourcing of test and packaging services; level of competition; our reliance on a small group of principal customers; our continued success in technological innovations; pricing pressures, including declines in average selling prices; intellectual property rights disputes and litigation; our ability to control operating expenses; our substantial level of indebtedness and access to credit markets; potential impairment charges; availability of financing; changes in our product mix; our capacity utilization; delays in acquiring or installing new equipment; limitations imposed by our financing arrangements which may limit our ability to maintain and grow our business; returns from research and development investments; changes in customer order patterns; customer credit risks; disruption of our operations; shortages in supply of key components and disruption in supply chain; disruption of our operations and other difficulties related to the relocation of our China operations; loss of directors, key management or other personnel; defects or malfunctions in our testing equipment or packages; rescheduling or cancelling of customer orders; adverse tax and other financial consequences if the taxing authorities do not agree with our interpretation of the applicable tax laws; our ability to develop and protect our intellectual property; changes in environmental laws and regulations; exchange rate fluctuations; regulatory approvals for further investments in our subsidiaries; beneficial ownership of our ordinary shares by Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. ("JCET") which may have conflicting interests with other holders of our securities; our inability to capture all or any of the benefits from acquisitions and investments in other companies and businesses or from the acquisition of us by JCET; loss of customers or failure to compete effectively with our former Taiwan subsidiaries which we have recently divested; labor union problems in South Korea; uncertainties of conducting business in China and changes in laws, currency policy and political instability in other countries in Asia; and natural calamities and disasters, including outbreaks of epidemics and communicable diseases. STATS ChipPAC does not intend, and does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. References to "$" are to the lawful currency of the United States of America.
About STATS ChipPAC Pte. Ltd.
STATS ChipPAC Pte. Ltd. is a leading service provider of semiconductor packaging design, assembly, test and distribution solutions in diverse end market applications including communications, digital consumer and computing. With global headquarters in Singapore, STATS ChipPAC has design, research and development, manufacturing or customer support offices throughout Asia, the United States and Europe. STATS ChipPAC is a business unit of Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. (JCET), a publicly-traded company on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Further information is available at www.statschippac.com or www.cj-elec.com. Information contained in this website does not constitute a part of this release.
Investor Relations Contact:
Low Yen Ling
Director, Corporate Finance
Tel: (65) 6824 7788
Fax: (65) 6720 7826
Email contact
Media Contact:
Lisa Lavin
Deputy Director, Marketing Communications
Tel: (208) 867-9859
Email contact
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- SALAZAR RESOURCES LIMITED (TSX VENTURE: SRL) (FRANKFURT: CCG) (the "Company") -- Mr. Fredy Salazar, President and CEO, announces the resignation of Mr. Graeme Robinson as director of the Company effective immediately.
The Board acknowledges Mr. Robinson's efforts and thanks him for his commitment and dedication throughout the years. On behalf of the Company, we wish Mr. Robinson the best in his future endeavours.
About Salazar Resources Limited
Salazar Resources Ltd. is a publicly-listed (TSX VENTURE: SRL) (FRANKFURT: CCG) mineral resource company engaged in the exploration and development of new highly-prospective areas in Ecuador. Led by a senior Ecuadorian management team and most notably by its namesake Fredy Salazar, this team has been instrumental in other major discoveries throughout Ecuador. Being based in Ecuador, thus having thorough knowledge of local human and environmental issues, gives the company a strategic advantage, enabling it to complete exploration at a rapid pace. With an excellent property portfolio (3 projects- 42,900 hectares), good geopolitical positioning and a number of strategic corporate and financial partnerships, Salazar has positioned itself to be a strategic player in Ecuador and throughout South America.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF SALAZAR RESOURCES LIMITED
Fredy Salazar, President & CEO
Salazar Resources Limited
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information herein includes, but is not limited to, statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including such things as the successful completion of the Royalty Sale. Such forward-looking information is based on a number of material factors and assumptions, including that the parties will be able to negotiate a definitive agreement in respect of the Royalty Sale, and that the Company will be able to satisfy the conditions precedent to closing of such transaction. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. A description of assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in the Company's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Contacts:
Salazar Resources Ltd.
ir@salazarresources.com
www.salazarresources.com
Press ReleaseReykjanesbr, May 10, 2016HS Orka hf announces Consolidated Condensed Interim Financial Statements for the three months ended March 31, 2016Consolidated Condensed Interim Financial Statements for the three months ended March 31, 2016 of HS Orka hf. (the "Company") were approved at a Board of Directors meeting on 10 May 2016. The financial statements of HS Orka hf. are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union and are stated in ISK. The financial statements can be found on the Company's website: http://www.hsorka.isCompany profit for the period was ISK 465 million (Q1 2015: loss of ISK 321 million) and operating revenue was ISK 1,863 million (Q1 2015 ISK 2,076 million). The reduction in revenues is largely due to decreases in generation, aluminum prices and sales to fish smelters due to a poor fishing season.Net finance income was ISK 189 million (Q1 2015: expense ISK 1,018 million). Net exchange rate differences were positive of ISK 82 million (Q1 2015 negative of ISK 388 million) and changes in fair value of embedded derivatives resulted in a gain of ISK 195 million (Q1 2015: loss of ISK 604 million).A total comprehensive profit of ISK 450 million was recorded in the period against a loss of ISK 374 million in the first quarter of 2015.The Company's equity ratio is 60.2% compared to 58.6% at year-end 2015.Further information can be provided by Asgeir Margeirsson, Managing Director of HS Orka hf., tel. 520 9300 / 855 9301.Attachment:https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=571084
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.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/10/16 -- Anfield Nickel Corp. ("Anfield") (TSX VENTURE: ANF) is pleased to announce that it plans to conduct a non-brokered private placement of up to 30,487,804 common shares in the capital of Anfield (the "Shares") at a price of CDN $0.82 per Share to raise gross proceeds of up to approximately CDN $25 million (the "Private Placement").
Anfield also announced today that it has changed its name to "Anfield Gold Corp." The name change will become effective at the opening of market on May 11, 2016.
Anfield is also pleased to announce that John Murphy has joined Anfield's board. "We are excited that John has joined the board. His extensive finance and mining experience will be invaluable as we build Anfield into a mid-tier gold producer," stated Marshall Koval, Chairman of the Board.
Mr. Murphy currently serves as a Director of Claude Resources Inc. He recently retired from Raymond James Ltd. after more than 21 years with the organization. Most recently he served as Managing Director, Investment Banking, Co-Head Mining and Metals. Prior to joining Raymond James, John worked for more than six years at Swiss Bank Corporation in its corporate lending, restructuring and risk advisory activities. During his career, he has been directly involved in numerous financial advisory assignments and financing transactions in a variety of sectors. John has a degree in economics from the University of British Columbia and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Mr. Murphy will be replacing Lyle Braaten on Anfield's board, who is being appointed as Anfield's Vice President, Legal. Marshall Koval has also been appointed as Anfield's Chairman.
The net proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to pay amounts owing to Reinarda Mineracao Ltda ("RML"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Troy Resources Limited, pursuant to the agreement dated August 23, 2015 between RML and Magellan Minerals Ltd. ("Magellan") as amended on December 14, 2015 and March 1, 2016, pursuant to which RML agreed to sell to Magellan a gold processing plant, associated equipment and mining fleet at the Andorinhas mine for total consideration of US $4.5 million (of which US $1,505,000 has been paid). Anfield acquired 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Magellan on May 6, 2016.
The remainder of the net proceeds of the Private Placement will be used for the repayment of Anfield debt, including debt incurred as a result of Anfield's acquisition of Magellan, costs associated with completing a feasibility study on Anfield's Coringa project, costs associated with the development of Anfield's Coringa project, and general working capital purposes.
Certain insiders of Anfield will be participating in the Private Placement. The Private Placement is exempt from the formal valuation and majority of the minority requirements applicable to related party transactions as set out in National Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Securityholders in Special Transactions as the aggregate fair market value of the Shares to be purchased by insiders pursuant to the Private Placement is less than 25% of Anfield's market capitalization.
The Private Placement is subject to regulatory approval, and all Shares issued in connection with the Private Placement will be subject to a four-month and one day hold period under applicable securities laws.
Anfield Nickel Corp.
Marshall Koval, President & CEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
The foregoing information contains forward-looking statements regarding Anfield's future plans. In making the forward-looking statements in this release, Anfield has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on information currently available to Anfield as well as Anfield's current beliefs and assumptions made by Anfield, including Mr. Murphy's contributions to Anfield, Anfield becoming a mid-tier gold producer, Anfield being able to obtain regulatory approval of the Private Placement, that Anfield is able to complete the Private Placement, that certain insiders of Anfield will participate in the Private Placement, and Anfield's anticipated uses of the proceeds of the Private Placement. Although Anfield considers these beliefs and assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include, among others, risks associated with the business of Anfield, risks related to reliance on technical information provided by Magellan as related to the Coringa project; risks relating to exploration and potential development of Magellan's projects; risks related to obtaining the permits and approvals necessary to develop and commission the Coringa gold project on terms that are acceptable to Anfield;
risks related to Anfield identifying suitable acquisition targets; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; the supply and demand for labour and other project inputs; prices for commodities to be produced and changes in commodity prices; changes in interest and currency exchange rates; risks relating to inaccurate geological and engineering assumptions (including with respect to the tonnage, grade and recoverability of reserves and resources); risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters); risks relating to adverse weather conditions; political risk and social unrest; changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets; that the Private Placement will not be completed; that Anfield will be unable to obtain or will experience delays in obtaining any required regulatory approvals for the Private Placement; and changes to business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally. Although Anfield has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Anfield does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Contacts:
Anfield Nickel Corp.
Martin Rip
604-646-1884
604-687-7041 (FAX)
BigCommerce, an Austin, Texas-based ecommerce platform for brands, closed a $30m funding round.
The round was led by GGV Capital with participation from existing investors General Catalyst, Revolution Growth, SoftBank Capital, Tenaya, Split Rock, Telstra Ventures and American Express Ventures, as well as Stephan Schambach, founder and former chairman of Demandware. In conjunction with the funding, Managing partner at GGV Capital Jeff Richards will join BigCommerces board of directors.
The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand in the mid-market.
Led by Brent Bellm, CEO, BigCommerce provides thousands of mid-market merchants with a SaaS platform to run an online business and a marketplace that allows more than 1,000 partners to offer their software and services.
Following the Zing acquisition in April 2015, the company has integrated its point of sale, multichannel and payment technology with popular commerce partners including Square, eBay, Facebook and Pinterest, and shipped 130 new features to customers.
Merchants using the platform include Dorco, Gibson, Martha Stewart, Saint Heron, Toyota and Travelpro.
The company also has offices in San Francisco and Sydney.
FinSMEs
10/05/2016
Caution: Spoilers ahead
Lets get the good stuff out of the way: the action in Captain America: Civil War is a notch above anything weve seen so far.
Action sequences really work when they have an emotional graph of their own, and at least two sequences in Civil War can boast of having that; a beautiful chase sequence which ends with Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes fighting it out in and around a helicopter, and a gigantic clash, perhaps *the* civil war itself, at the airport. The Russo brothers outdo their gritty, immersive action in The Winter Soldier to give us a big, fun film.
The problem begins when the film is hailed as the best superhero movie ever and suchlike; because if you look at it, it isnt even the best Captain America film to come out so far.
Captain America: The First Avenger was an understated, un-flashy film, but one that triumphs because of the World War II period texture it achieves, a terrifying villain in Hugo Weavings Red Skull, and the good, old-fashioned American patriotism it resorts to (without having it explode in your face like Donald Trumps bigotry).
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, its greatest victory was the character of the Winter Solider itself, a cold-hearted villain who you root for because you sense a conflict between heart and mind, set in the world of modern day espionage and terror.
In fact, the Winter Soldier happens to be the most intriguing character in Civil War as well, because you now see that his past isnt only linked to Captain Americas past, but also to Tony Starks. And Sebastian Stan nails the balance between being a good guy at heart, whos teetering on the edge of losing his mind and turning into an amoral HYDRA assassin.
Meanwhile, the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are hardly known to be substance-heavy, but even in that context, Civil War is a film that is genuinely devoid of heft.
Take the manner in which Tony Stark chooses to take a side in an international plan to regulate the Avengers; not just a classic case of white mans guilt, but an elaborately set up trigger knowledge of the death of a black American teenager in Sokovia, a kid with a heart of gold, because he was in Sokovia building sustainable homes for the poor. (Because, you know, the death of a normal teenager who prefers to spend his free time on Candy Crush, just doesnt cut it.)
Of course, Tony Stark doesnt think twice before enlisting another teenager in a war between enhanced individuals. (Spider-ling does make a bit of an impact though, and Marisa Tomei as the new age Aunt May, or simply May, is a bit of a casting coup.)
Then, of course, there is the true conflict at the heart of Civil War, the actual antagonist of the film Daniel Bruhls Helmut Zemo. The character is an intriguing one, no doubt. But the level of war in the MCU has escalated. As Vision puts it, since 2008 when Iron Man came before the world, the number of enhanced individuals has increased, and so have events of a potentially world-ending nature.
In such a world, despite his motivations being an assortment of grays and not coated in all-black, MCUs Zemo just doesnt seem fit enough to be a villain.
Where and how an ordinary Sokovian covert agent manages the resources to fox the worlds best law enforcement agencies and the worlds mightiest superheroes is a question that we arent allowed to ask of this film, because, hey, Marvel. (The same questions were rightfully asked of Gauravs international escapades in Fan, but thats okay.)
And ultimately, all that planning, so much dependence on variables beyond his control, such large-scale destruction, all for what? So Zemo could show Tony Stark a quarter-century old video. (If only we had an online platform where we could upload and stream videos worldwide for free. Hmmm.)
The point is, Civil War is a fun film that fits well into the larger universe and sets things up nicely for future films, but it uses its slickness and pace to mask its lack of a truly thrilling plot.
It doesnt have Joss Whedons signature touch that both Avengers films had. Compare the emotional undercurrent for Tony Stark when Agent Coulson dies in The Avengers to that moment in Civil War when he feels that he may have lost his best bud Rhodey, and the importance of the Whedon touch becomes clear. Both Avengers films were filled with such moments, and the mammoth ensemble casts were much better managed.
The world has become a dumber place since The Avengers came out in 2012, and our response to Civil War proves that.
Weve grown to like our films bloated and mindless these days - a clear symptom of our decreasing attention spans and affinity towards appearance more than substance. Captain America: Civil War entertains, no doubt; but lets not set our standards at this film. Youd much rather watch something else on a lonely, dark night.
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) of late seems to be enjoying feverish and unproductive activities. On 10 February it made amendments to withdrawal rules that forbade employees resigning or retiring before the age of 58 from withdrawing the employers share of accumulation till the employee attained the age of 58.
After a couple of deferments, now the EPFO is dithering on the issue, and may well drop the amendment thus restoring status quo i.e. even if you resign at the age of 35, you will get every rupee in your PF account provided you had completed 5 years of completed service with one or more employers and remained unemployed for 60 days from the date of resignation.
The Finance Minister Jaitley had to look sheepish when faced with relentless pressure from unions he had to backtrack on his proposal to tax 60 percent of the withdrawals.
To be sure, this proposal didnt emanate from the EPFO but definitely related to it.
And now comes the worst bloomer one can think of -- EPFO would kindly use its good offices to hand over the monthly provident fund contributions of an employee seeking low cost housing home loan from a banking or housing finance institution.
The labor ministry, under whose jurisdiction comes the EPFO, should have known more than anyone else that this simply cannot be done because the PF law clearly bars an employees provident fund accumulations to be attached, not even under a courts order aka garnishee order.
The same prohibition applies to recurring attachments, so to speak, which securing an EMI with monthly PF contributions amounts to.
The idea behind the age-old and time-tested legal bar is provident fund belongs as much to the family as the employee himself and the family should not suffer the consequences of an employees wayward ways. It is shocking that the EPFO did not get its proposal to attach monthly contributions vetted by the law ministry before going public. Perhaps, the Labor Minister Bangaru Dattatreya cannot resist limelight whatever be the cause and cost! And our supine bureaucracy is more to blame. It must have watched the ministers gaffe while laughing up its sleeves!
Let us forget for a while this legal bar against attachment of employees provident fund and let us examine the issue purely on merits. Does a home loan provider, be it a public sector bank or a housing finance company, needs to be pampered like this? The answer is an emphatic no because the default rate is the least in home loan finance.
The beauty of home loan both for the lender and the borrower is normally the value of the property itself is enough to address the concerns of the lender and to this extent the borrower is also spared the burden of having to find other collaterals. Of course in a falling real estate market, the lender runs a risk of inadequate realizations from the mortgage asset should the borrower default.
Indeed this is what happened in the USA in 2008, triggering a financial crisis of trans-continental proportions and implications. But that was an exception. In any case the home loan financier is shrewd enough to cover his ground. Why should the EPFO offer its services where it is simply not required? Secondly, what is the guarantee that the EMI and monthly PF contributions would match? Suppose the monthly employee contribution is Rs 1,800 and employers Rs 600 (Rs 1,200 goes to pension fund), the total attachment possible is Rs 2,400. What if the EMI is Rs 5,000?
And for the intermediation services provided, there would be costs. EPFO already incurs losses by paying more than the market rate of interest to employees. This would therefore be one more needless burden. Instead, it would do well to carry forward the UAN online facility more fully.
For example, every employee now can apply for UAN by going into the EPFO portal and watch his balance on a monthly basis besides being empowered to print his own passbook. Like internet banking, it affords the members a sense of empowerment and freedom from getting a new account each time s/he changes jobs.
UAN is portable across the employment career of an employee. It must allow online withdrawal as well. Of course there has been a proposal but it has been hanging fire for long. Such issues that ease up doing business with EPFO must be addressed.
New Delhi: India on Tuesday ruled out setting up trading centres along its border with China in Arunachal Pradesh, saying such an initiative could be taken only when Beijing agrees to it.
"China has to agree. We can't force anyone. There has to be mutual consent, then only 'border haats' can be set up," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said in Lok Sabha during the Question Hour.
Rijiju's statement came when Congress MP from Arunachal Pradesh Ninong Ering asked why India can't set up 'border haats' along the Sino-Indian border in the state.
The Minister said without cooperation from the other country, no trade can take place in any 'border haat'.
Currently, India has a border trading post with China at Nathu La in Sikkim.
Rijiju said India and Bangladesh have agreed to set up six more 'border haats' soon for promotion of trade along the international borders.
At present, four 'border haats' two in Meghalaya and two in Tripura are functional along Indo-Bangladesh border and four new 'border haats' two in Tripura and four in Meghalaya will be set up soon.
"The establishment of 'border haats' is expected to promote the well being of the people in areas across the borders of the two countries, which in turn will maintain peace and tranquility in the border regions," he said.
Replying to a supplementary question, Rijiju said the Home Ministry facilitates safety and security of border areas so that proper trading could take place between the people of both the nations.
"We are not here to do business but to ensure safety and security of the people and ensure that proper trade could take place in border haats," he said.
The Minister said during two years of the Modi government, various efforts have been taken for promotion of trade along the international borders.
"But we are not satisfied with whatever we have done so far and want to do more. We are committed to do more," he said.
Rijiju said government has adopted multi-pronged strategy to secure effective management of Indian borders, curb insurgency as well as to maintain peace and security in the border regions.
Adequate steps are taken to curb human trafficking like issuing advisories to state governments and sensitizing law enforcement agencies, he said.
What next for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after its scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday over the latters alleged fake degrees?
After levelling allegations against the PM of having fake graduation and post graduation degrees and claiming there were serious discrepancies in the mark sheets, the AAP has decided to take the episode head on and keep the heat on till it reaches a conclusion.
Claiming that there are several discrepancies in Modis BA and MA degrees and the mark sheets have been forged, which were shown to media in a press conference by BJP president Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday, the party has decided to visit Delhi University on Tuesday to inspect the documents itself.
According to the plan, a group of AAP leaders will meet Delhi Universitys Central Public information Officer (CPIO) at 11 am on Tuesday to inspect and verify the claim made by the BJP leaders regarding PMs BA degree. The party has also asked Shah and Jaitley to accompany them, and jointly verify the claim.
Well go to Delhi University and meet the CPIO today at 11 am to inspect documents related to PM Narendra Modis BA degree. We have also requested Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley to join us, AAP Delhi secretary, Dilip Pandey told Firstpost.
Its not about whether the PM should be a graduate or post graduate we never raised this issue and its neither important that the PM must be a graduate or post graduate. Our contention is that a person in the post of prime minister shouldnt make false claims related to his educational qualifications by producing fake certificates. He shouldnt tell lie to the nation. Its a criminal breach of trust, he said.
Monday witnessed political firestorm over Modis educational qualifications as both BJP and AAP camps held press conferences and blamed one another. While, the BJP strongly defended the PM by showing copies of his degrees and mark sheets, the AAP lashed out by claiming the documents as fake.
The AAP is not apologetic for levelling strong charges against the PM, even after proofs were shown to public through media. Instead, the party said that it has every right to verify Modis claim related to his educational background, especially after the Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked both Delhi University (DU) and Gujarat University to search and provide information to Kejriwal on degrees earned by the PM.
The CIC has already asked DU and Gujarat University to provide information on PMs degrees. It has also directed the Prime Ministers Office to provide specific number and year of the degrees, so that it can be located and verified. Thats why were going to DU, said Pandey.
Does the AAP plan to go to Gujarat University to verify Modis post graduation degrees?
No, not right now. First we want to verify whether the graduation degree (BA), which the PM has claimed to have earned from DU is true or not. If its false, theres no question of verifying post graduation (MA) degree. The matter ends there itself, added Pandey.
Considering the Assembly polls in Punjab and Goa are scheduled next year, the AAP wants to have a pan-India branding and nothing can be better than taking up issues related to corruption. And, what could be better if PMs name is involved in it? Any action will hog media limelight.
AAPs political principle is broad-based on fighting out corruption from the existing system. Our electoral victory in Delhi is a result of it and people see AAP as a party that wont compromise on corruption issues. Its we who expelled a minister and an MLA on charges of having fake degree and corruption. BJP doesnt have the courage to do it. In Punjab, people have accepted us as they consider AAP a viable alternative to the present government and can root out corruption from the state, a senior AAP leader said.
Similarly, in the case of Modis degrees, we wanted to know the truth and wrote to CIC. Now, the onus is on Modi to prove that the claim made by him is true. Since, the CIC has asked the DU to provide information on Modis BA degree, we have every right to verify it as an appellant. We know well that this fight against the PM is extremely difficult and dangerous, but well take this issue to its logical conclusion. Since Modi is the PM, he cant be let-off by making false claims, the leader remarked.
The CICs instruction followed after Kejriwal wrote to the commission demanding disclosure of PMs educational qualifications.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has booked a Home Ministry official on charges of corruption. According to media reports, Anand Joshi was until recently working in the Foreigners Division of the ministry, giving him access to files related to the foreign-funded non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The Indian Express reported that the official has been accused of favouring or harassing those NGOs which received funds from foreign countries.
Joshi, who held the rank of Under Secretary, also allegedly stole documents related to noted activist Teesta Setalvad's NGO, Sabrang Trust.
It is a serious offence and we are looking at something more than a suspension, The Hindu quoted a top government official as saying.
The registration of Sabrang Trust under the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA) was suspended in September 2015 and was due to be cancelled in March this year, The Times of India reported.
The accused is said to have stolen the documents between the months of December and January. The crime came to light wehen the process of cancelling the NGO's registration began, the report further stated.
"The said officer had allegedly demanded and obtained illegal gratification from some of these organisations, which were laundered through various immovable assets as well as certain private companies. Searches were conducted at four locations in the residential and office premises of accused and others. Cash of Rs 7.5 lakh and certain incriminating documents including files pertaining to the MHA and the Ministry of I & B were recovered from the premises of the said officer. The documents are being scrutinised, The Indian Express quoted the CBI's statement.
However, the accused has not yet been suspended. An Under Secretary is not allowed to take files home. Only those in the rank of a Joint Secretary and above are allowed to do that, The Hindu reported.
Teesta Setalvad is known for her crusade against former Gujarat CM and current PM Narendra Modi for his alleged role in the 2002 riots.
Hyderabad: A court on Tuesday convicted eight members of the notorious 'snake gang' in connection with disrobing of a young woman in July 2014 and a range of other criminal offences, including dacoity.
Prime accused Faisal Dayani, a gym instructor, and six of the gang's members, who would threaten their victims with snakes, were convicted under IPC Section 452 (house-trespass), 395 (dacoity), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 354B (assault or use of criminal force to any woman with the intention of disrobing).
The eight accused was convicted only under IPC Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property). The ninth accused, booked only under IPC Section 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property), was acquitted, the prosecution said.
The quantum of punishment would be pronounced tomorrow by the Ranga Reddy district court, Public Prosecutor Ponnam Devaraju Goud said.
The seven convicts, who were also booked for gangrape, were acquitted of the charge, Goud said.
In August 2014, Pahadishareef Police arrested members of the gang, including Dayani, after an 18-year-old girl alleged she was sexually assaulted by them at a farmhouse in Shaheen Nagar here on 31 July 2014.
The gang members had entered the farmhouse to commit a robbery. They forced the victim to strip by threatening to set a snake on her and then allegedly raped her in front of her fiance, police had earlier said.
However, the charge of gangrape was not proved against the accused as the victim did not state this allegation before the court during the trial, Goud said.
"The sections under which the accused have been convicted attracts minimum of 10 years of imprisonment and maximum life imprisonment. We have sought maximum punishment," Devaraju added.
The gang members used snakes to scare women and sexually assault them. Some of them were also involved in land grabbing, acting as arbitrator between disputing parties, and other offences, police had said.
Jammu: The only "realistic solution" to the Kashmir dispute is "autonomy" to its areas administered by India as well as Pakistan, former chief minister Farooq Abdullah said on Monday.
"Autonomy to both sides of Jammu and Kashmir is the only viable and realistic solution to nearly seven decade problem that has cast dark shadows over the generations," he said while addressing National Conference workers in Budhal area of Rajouri district on Monday.
"We owe peace and a dignified life to posterity, and that can be achieved only by converting the present dividing line between the two neighbouring countries into line of peace," he said.
Abdullah said hostilities of past nearly seventy years had "retarded" the growth of people on both sides of the Line of Control and time has come when India and Pakistan should take a bold initiative by calling a spade a spade.
"Denial of autonomy has brought Jammu and Kashmir to present morass, which if ignored anymore can prove detrimental to larger interests of the state.
"The resolution passed by the Legislative Assembly over a decade and half ago, was reflective of the urges and aspirations of the regions and sub-regions of the state," he said.
He referred to the wars of the past and continued border skirmishes, saying these have only added to the miseries of people of Kashmir, who have faced the brunt of turmoil during the past two-and-half decades.
"The soft borders would open up vistas of economic opportunities besides enabling hassle free exchange of people, which in turn will be a major dividend to peace and tranquillity in the region," the National Conference President said, and hoped good sense would prevail upon all stakeholders.
Abdullah also spoke about the "fall-out of divisive policies being pursued by the present dispensation at the Centre" and said politics of hate and intolerance is against the very idea of India.
He said the country was abode of people belonging to different faiths and they cannot be brought eye-ball to eye-ball for furthering any "definite political agenda".
Referring to the implementation of National Food Security Act, the former Chief Minister said this has harmed the interest of poor rationees in the state and deprived many of much-needed food support.
He said the National Conference-led government did not implement the Act because of its "anti-poor" nature.
He sought immediate rollback of the NFSA and release of rations to consumers on previous scale.
Mumbai: More than a Hiroshima or Nagasaki- type atom bomb today, security agencies worry about the use of a 'dirty bomb', especially by terrorists. So how dangerous is a 'dirty bomb' or an explosive-laced with radioactive material?
On the eve of the anniversary of the Pokhran explosions, KS Pradeepkumar, head of emergency preparedness for India's main nuclear laboratory Bhabha Atomic Research Center, busts some of the commonly held myths about dirty bombs and says India is well prepared to detect such devices, thanks to a countrywide network.
Excerpts from an interview.
These days there is a lot of fear of something called a 'dirty-bomb'. What is a dirty bomb?
Dirty means it is dirty, that is it will not really harm you but it makes you uncomfortable. See it is like getting dirt on your dress that does not mean you are going to die or that your health is in trouble but definitely, you have to go and change your dress. Same way, a dirty bomb, which normally like any other explosive has some effect, but since it is integrated with radioactive material and after an explosion that radioactivity could spread out.
Therefore, there is a chance of contamination on your body, even contamination on your dress,
so definitely it calls for a decontamination of the people who are nearby. It also calls for a decontamination of the area.
Therefore, it is not in terms of a casualty or a serious injury we are worried about a dirty bomb, or what is called a radiological dispersal device. The concern is about the fear it may inject into the people because very large number of people will believe that they are all affected because they are all contaminated. It causes disruption.
But what are the materials, which can be used to make a dirty bomb?
First of all a dirty bomb has never been used anywhere in the world. Nevertheless, it is mentioned that there were attempts made where people have tried to make one using radioactive Cesium-137 and explosives like RDX. It has never been used in India.
What is feared is that since the use of radioactive sources and radioisotopes is increasing in a very significant way world over. Moreover, in some places the security of sources is not fully ensured. Hence, there are cases of lost sources, misplaced sources etc.
These orphan sources can get into the hands of the bad-boys. It is believed that they can integrate these with explosives, and they can use it. However, it has never been used.
But is it not dangerous to handle radioactive sources?
It is indeed so it is also a big challenge for those bad people who could try to assemble such devices, that is one of the reasons why assembling them has not been successful. Compared to the conventional explosives, whoever tries to integrate radioactive sources like Cesium-137 or Cobalt-60, they are all high-energy gamma emitters.
Therefore, during the assembly itself, even if one spends more than few minutes, the bad boys will get very high radiation exposure and will fall sick.
So you are saying that if a terrorist has to use it, then the likelihood of the terrorist himself being exposed to such serious doses of radiation is high. Is that what you are saying?
Yes, unless, until they manage it with many remote controlled mechanisms, and if it is not shielded, they themselves would be subjected to high radiation field. Not only will they get affected, the pain will be extremely severe, so keeping it a secret will be very difficult from the
neighbors.
Unlike conventional explosives transporting dirty bombs is very difficult. Escaping detection is almost impossible since transport of radioactive material is very difficult.
Either it requires extremely large quantity of shielding like say by using hundreds of kilograms of lead. In that case, the person will be moving about in a suspicious way, since it is hard to carry so much weight, or it will be a group of people. If enough shielding is not there, even the vehicle he is using, co-passengers, driver, they will all start getting a radiation exposure syndrome or acute radiation syndrome.
Therefore, world over it is considered very difficult to assemble it, as the terrorists are likely to be harmed more. However, much more challenges are on people like security agencies who would have to respond and take care of the public.
In India, do we have the capability to detect hidden dirty bombs?
BARC has developed many systems. We have developed many systems like aerial gamma spectrometry systems, which can be used for searching such types of sources. It can be detected easily by BARC's equipment, even if it is shielded or kept hidden inside some building.
There are some stories going around which say that if an explosive device like a dirty bomb is exploded let's say, in the heart of Delhi then all of Connaught Place will be obliterated and radiation will spread up to the Parliament Building, and all around several kilometers would get affected. In your assessment in the worst-case scenario what would be the situation?
Let me explain, the word 'affected' has to be used very carefully. See, we have highly sensitive radiation monitors. With this, even extremely small quantity of radioactivity can be detected. See for example, let me take the Fukushima accident, people detected extremely small doses
of radioactivity as far away as in Europe and USA, and people started predicting everybody will be affected and there will be cancer.
It was wrong, okay, so what I want to tell is the radioactivity in the environment was extremely small, nevertheless, the scientists could detect it. Same way, if there is an explosion of a dirty bomb, what you have called it; there can be presence of radioactivity slightly above the natural background, even in 3-4 kilometers because it can be transported by the wind.
Nevertheless, if you ask me the question, even that radiation level will not be even one thousandth of the radiation level of what you are having in the high background dose area of Kerala where people are living for many-many generations.
So I will not like to use the word, people will be 'affected', but definitely nearby area may be around 30-50 meters from where a dirty bomb is exploded it can have high level of contamination, beyond that there can be a cigar shaped area where spread of contamination will take place.
That also may be 80 meters or slightly more than that, but it all depends upon what is the source you are using. I can tell you, more than 1.5 kilometer one need not bother at all. Again, I am telling, it may be possible to detect even up to 3 kilometer etc but that is not a concern.
So, in case of a dirty bomb, what I understand is that the possibility of people dying is because of the thermal part of the bomb, and not because of the radiation. Is that what you are suggesting?
Yes, I think I have to make it very specific, when you talk of a 'dirty bomb'; we are talking about an explosive mixed with a radioactive material. When we use the word radiological dispersal device, it is of two types. One is a dirty bomb, where there is an explosive involved. Another is just a dispersal of the radioactive powder in the public domain. However, in any case, if we are talking about a dirty bomb, it will have the same effect like any other explosive, blast effect, thermal effect, etc and added to it there will be a radioactive fallout.
What I want to tell is, any death or serious injury to the people will be limited due to the blast and thermal effect because of the explosive power. Radioactive fallout and radiation exposure is not going to cause serious health effects.
So the people dying of radiation exposure are unlikely.
It is unlikely. Today, there are many myths around a dirty bomb. Not only about dirty bomb, you talk about radiation, there are myths. 30-40 years back, even to take an X-ray people were scared, but today the awareness has come to the level that people are asking for an X-ray.
Incidentally, in India no one has ever died due to a high radiation dose at any of the facilities run by the Department of Atomic Energy.
Do you suspect that a dirty bomb would ever be used in India; people have an anxiety about it?
The threat does exist since radioactive sources do get lost and misplaced but assembling a pile with a gigantic radiation dose is very very difficult. Moreover, at the same time, I would like to underline the fact that making a dirty bomb and using it is a big challenge. Since first, it will harm those who try to assemble such a device.
Jaipur: Opposing the move to omit references to first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru from a Class VII textbook in Rajasthan, the state unit of Congress on Tuesday held a demonstration here with Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Sachin Pilot saying that it reflected the "mental bankruptcy" of the Raje government.
Pilot, who led the protest at the civil lines railway crossing, accused the state government of working in a "vindictive manner" by "deliberately" eliminating the names and contribution of big leaders.
"BJP has shown its mental bankruptcy by deliberately eliminating references to Jawaharlal Nehru, who was not only the first Prime Minister of India but also a visionary and world leader. The ruling party is trying to remove his contribution from the history books but he rules in the heart of the people," Pilot said at the demonstration.
He demanded that the government should include the reference to Nehru in the textbook before the session begins.
"Nehru introduced Panchayti Raj system, he implemented the principles of diplomacy and foreign policy, which show the way to the present policy and he not only played an important role in getting India independence but also contributed in the freedom struggle of other countries," he said.
PCC Vice-President Archana Sharma said, "The mindset and the approach of the BJP government are seen by this act. They are taking the politics to a lower level. The government can change textbooks but not the history. This is what the Raje government is doing in the state," she said.
Nehru's contributions have been dropped from two chapters on freedom movement and India after independence of the revised Social Science textbook for Class VIII in Rajasthan, which has been dubbed as a "shameless act" of the Raje government.
In the demonstration, Deputy Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly Ramesh Meena, former union minister Namonarain Meena, Senior Vice President of PCC Master Bhanwar Lal Meghwal, Jaipur District Congress president Pratap Singh, former MP Mahesh Joshi and others participated.
CK Janu, a firebrand leader from the Adiya tribe of Wayanad, dropped a bombshell on April 8. She announced she is contesting the Kerala elections from Sulthan Bathery constituency (in Wayanad district) as a candidate of the newly formed Janathipathya Rashtriya Sabha with support from the NDA.
Janu shot to fame with long struggles for land under the aegis of the Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha, a congregation of landless SC, ST and Dalits, in 2001, 2003 and again in 2014. Both the Left Democratic Front and United Democratic Front governments have consistently dragged their feet in fulfilling their promises to the Adivasis and Dalits in Kerala. Janus shift comes in this backdrop.
However, her decision has split activists and writers in the state down the middle.
While one section argues that by going with the BJP she has ditched the long secular struggle waged by the Adivasis and other minorities against the Hindutva agenda, the other section believes the move is a political one and hopes that she will realise her mistake and return to the secular fold soon.
Janu has done many political experiments in the past. She has negotiated with the LDF, the UDF and also tried finding a place in a third front. Her present decision is an extension of that. If she has turned to the BJP now, it is because we have failed her. Moreover, there is no point in thinking that Janu should always be part of an agitation. So we need not pillory her for the decision she has taken. Nonetheless, I am personally saddened, says K Rekharaj, activist and writer who has been part of the various agitations led by Janu.
Meanwhile, Sunny M Kapikkad, another activist and writer, said the BJP is trying to make the most of the gap created by the Left and Right in Kerala. BJP has been looking for ways to come clean after the Rohit Vemula issue. By going along with the party, Janu has come as a savior for it at this juncture, he said.
Janu, however, feels she can make a difference by engaging with the BJP. In interviews, she has time and again iterated that she is not ready for any compromise on minority issues.
Edited excerpts of an interview with Janu:
Why have you decided to go with the BJP/NDA now?
When you look at the history of Kerala politics, you will see the state has never been ruled by a single party but by only coalitions - left and right. And it is clear that both these fronts have always ignored those in the lowest strata of the society, those living in utter misery - be them the Dalits or Adivasis.
Till date, there has not been any agenda to address the issues these sections face. In the last 60 years, when both these fronts ruled Kerala one after the other, they have never devised a strategy for the Adivasis, Dalits and the landless labourers to bring them into the political mainstream. This is a fact.
It was the Left that should have addressed them. But take a look at their organisational structure right from the branch level to the Politburo. You will never see a Dalit or an Adivasi in any of the posts. So clearly, people from the lowest strata have no place anywhere.
It is in this backdrop that, as a Third Front, the BJP/NDA has said that they are ready to consider the Adivasis and Dalits as a coalition partner. The LDF has not considered this section of society as even human beings. So the decision by the BJP/NDA to consider the Adivasis and Dalits as political allies is a positive move and a good one at that.
In Kerala, there are 4.5 lakh Adivasis. They can never be a party of their own. The only way out is to be part of a Front or coalition. Moreover, if the life of the landless Adivasis, Dalits and labourers has to move ahead at least by an inch, they have to get political power. That is what I have learnt from the last 24 years of my struggles.
I started my public work only to bring about a change in the lives of the Adivasis and Dalits. So I should accept whatever way that opens up before me. This is a political decision I have taken. It is not like what everybody is speaking about. And it is not about my personal image or fame.
What is the issue that you are raising in this election?
Until now I have been working for a community. But when it comes to an election, I have to consider everybody's problems. So it is about what is required for the development of Sultan Bathery constituency. I cannot discriminate between Adivasi, Dalit, Christian or Muslim. There are many things to be done here.
When it comes to the Adivasis, they are living in really miserable conditions, without even basic facilities. Eight to 10 families live in a small tent made of plastic tarpaulin. If one of them builds a house with the governments help, the others will have to leave. It will make them homeless. So nobody does that. This needs to change. We need to bring about changes in the farm sector to address the problems of the farmers. A permanent solution to the problem of the human-wildlife conflict has to be found out.
While travelling through some areas of Wayanad, such as Mullenkolly, I found the major issue is that of scarcity of Clean drinking water . Then there is climate change-related issues and decline in the agriculture sector. What is your stance on these issues? Are they an election issue at all?
They should be. Every time there are changes in a human being's life, nature also gets affected. Our life is entering a dangerous phase. Unless we take steps to protect our streams, springs and rivers, there will not be a solution to the water crisis that we face today. Consider paddy cultivation. A paddy field is not just a provider of food. When we cultivate paddy for six months, the field also transforms into a water resource for the adjoining regions. We will have to devise a strategy to encourage such cultivation.
What, according to you, are the solutions?
We should not destroy the traditional mode of cultivation, the streams, springs and rivers in the region. We should bring back farmers to paddy cultivation. But then there is a problem - the farmers who engage in paddy cultivation are not making any profits. The government should give them financial support. What is needed is an agriculture package to support them - a Wayanad package. That is the only way to address the water scarcity in the region.
What is your stand on PESA? (Panchayats (Extension of Scheduled Areas Act 1996). The Act gives power to panchayats to decide how the natural resources under them should be used.)
There is no compromise on PESA. It should be implemented at the earliest. It should be passed in favour of Adivasis. That will also help battle climate change. Once the Adivasis get the right to decide what the land should be used for, they will be able to start doing farming in their own way. That is the right way to deal with climate change. That is why I said the government should devise a Wayanad package and support such farmers. That will definitely help battle climate change.
The BJP's development agenda goes against the point you are making. The NDA has a thrust on mining. More forest land is being given for this purpose. Isn't this an irony?
What I feel is if there are more people to raise the issue with the BJP and put pressure on them, their development agenda could be changed. There is nobody to do this now.
So are you going to take this up with the party?
I will try my level best.
I am Rocky. The surname does not matter, nor does the name; the power I wield does. Rocky could be any brat from any family anywhere in India with parents who have muscles to flaunt and strong political connections.
In Bihar, someone like me and his friends are supposed to have killed a bright young man for overtaking their vehicle. Now, I dont understand what the hullabaloo over it is all about. I would take offence if someone overtakes my car. Perhaps I would take out a gun or a knife to show him his place. Do I sound arrogant?
Yes, I do. I am arrogant. Let there be no confusion about it. We are a rare breed. How many people in the country have the influence we enjoy? I have the power, reflected as it might be. And whats power if its not flaunted? Its like money. If you have a lot of money you need to show it off to impress people. Otherwise, they tend to treat you as their equal. This is obviously intolerable. The rich and the powerful have been doing it since ages. Believe me, it has social acceptance too. Whoever moves up in life makes it a point to show others as inferior. In case of the Bihar guy, how did you expect him to behave when his father is some kind of a don with immense local clout and mother is a lawmaker of the ruling party?
That is the precise reason we jump the queue, break speed limits, jump the red light and demand special treatment everywhere, be it schools, colleges and even hospitals. We expect the police not to arrest us and even when they do, treat us differently from ordinary people. We expect the same treatment from bureaucrats as our parents or powerful kin do. We know the laws of the land are for the masses, not for us. When we go to courts we want judges to be respectful to us too.
Hating me already? Please go ahead. Thats the only thing you can do, and it does not bother me a bit. I am Rocky and I am not supposed to be loved by you. Many of you have been on social media to pour scorn on the likes of us. Anonymity gives you the illusion of power. The real world is different.
Have you heard of this 20-year-old woman is Uttar Pradesh who alleged that she was kidnapped and raped by the son of a politician? Foolish woman was jailed thrice and she finally died of injuries when the police was trying to arrest her yet again. You would not have missed this news report on the son of Andhra minister outraging the modesty of a woman.
There is a Rocky in all such incidents across the country. And you dont even know about our activities that never come into public knowledge.
What do you think will happen in the Aditya Sachdeva murder case? Well, wait for a few months. Dont feign surprise when all the killers walk free or serve minor sentences.
Power also means the capacity to influence the system in your favour. It is possible witnesses would fail to turn up or turn hostile and evidence would be manipulated. Can you ensure that the killer gets punished? No. But we can ensure we remain free. That is power.
Hate me some more. We are criminals, if not by actions then by temperament. We are arrogant. But you cannot touch us.
Dharmapuri (TN): Even as the Election Commission is trying hard to ensure 100 per cent polling, ultra-Left outfits in West Tamil Nadu are engaged in a serious drive, asking people to shun the polls in villages of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts.
"Solution through election is a mirage, rally around us for people's true democratic revolution," say wall posters with deep red coloured letters against a milk white background.
These have been put up by separate ultra-Left outfits working in specific areas like agriculture and labour welfare.
The outfits include Vivasayigal Viduthalai Munnani (Farmers' Liberation Front) and Puthiya Jananayaga Thozhilalar Munnani (New Democratic Labourers Front). They are part of a larger group of separate organisations drawing inspiration from the political philosophies of Lenin and Mao Zedong.
A poster put up by the labour front hails the recent violent protests against Provident Fund withdrawal norms in Bengaluru and asks the working classes to "learn lessons" from it. Commemorating May Day, the outfit placed and garlanded a portrait of Communist leader Lenin in Pennagram town's main bus terminus and vowed to wipe out the tears of labourers.
The content of such publicity material is highly critical of the ruling regimes both at the Centre and at the State. The posters list out livelihood issues faced by people and menace of corruption and tell them that elections which is hailed as a predominant feature of democracy is not truly so.
It asks them to rally around to put in place a true democracy. The wall posters could be seen in little towns and villages in Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri Districts.
When asked, P Gopinath, Area-Secretary of Farmers Liberation Front at nearby Pennagram said, "What you call as the institution of democracy has now fully turned against the common people and hence it has lost its locus standi to govern through arrangements like elections."
"This system of election is out and out designed to loot and oppress the people," he told PTI adding "elections are suicidal."
Asked what constituted democracy according to his outfit, he said real power should be with the people. For example they should have power to recall an MLA if he does not perform.
He said his organisation was working towards true empowerment of farmers and other sections of the people.
Citing the GAIL pipeline project, he sought to know if farmers' interests was not public interest.?
He said efforts to lay pipelines even by "compromising" the interests of farmers who feed the people "cannot be true democracy."
Washington: Barack Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit atomic bomb-struck Hiroshima during a trip to Japan later this month, the White House said Tuesday.
"The president will make an historic visit to Hiroshima with Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," said spokesman Josh Earnest.
The announcement comes after months of rumors in the US and Japan that the president, a Nobel peace laureate, would make a visit to the city devastated in the final days of World War II.
Obama will visit central Japan in late May for a Group of Seven summit. Before that, he will head to Vietnam, the White House said.
Last month, Secretary of State John Kerry became the highest ranking US political figure to visit Hiroshima.
He said he was "deeply moved" by the experience and a "gut-wrenching display that tugs at all your sensibilities as a human being."
"Everyone should visit Hiroshima, and everyone means everyone," he added, fueling speculation that Obama would go.
Japan has long urged world leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to see the horrors of the atomic bombings and join efforts to eradicate nuclear arms.
But a presidential visit could rile Obama's opponents and some in the military whose predecessors carried out presidential orders to drop the bombs.
The visit would come at a particularly sensitive time. This December marks the 75th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, in Obama's home state of Hawaii.
On 6 August, 1945, the US dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing around 140,000 people, including those who survived the explosion itself but died soon after from severe radiation exposure.
Three days later, the US military dropped a plutonium bomb on the port city of Nagasaki, killing some 74,000 people.
The bombings are controversial in the United States, where opinion remains divided over whether their use in the closing days of World War II was justified.
Last week, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that Obama did not believe the United States owes Japan an apology for that military action.
London: Kuwaiti-born Ali Alosaimi trained on a Merchant Navy course in Britain before allegedly fleeing to join Islamic State, leading to concerns his knowledge could be used to attack shipping.
Defence experts, according to the RT online, claimed the 28-year-olds knowledge and training could make him a threat to Britain.
Alosaimi enrolled on a three-year course at a marine college in South Shields in 2011, although it was not known whether he completed his studies.
Former Navy chief Admiral Lord West told the Daily Mail: This suddenly raises the specter of IS damaging shipping. Someone with his knowledge opens up a whole new area where terrorism can take place.
Alosaimi joined IS after being radicalized by videos of Syrian troops bombing civilians. His details came to light in a cache of document leaked to the Mail, revealing he had previously worked for a Kuwaiti shipping company.
It was feared, but not confirmed, that he had access to information about vessels chartered to the Ministry of Defence.
IS appears determined to attack Britain's military infrastructure, be that at sea or online.
On 3 May, an online offshoot of IS calling itself the Islamic State Hacking Division issued threats after publishing a hit list of targets, including details of 75 US Air Force personnel.
According to a Sunday Times report, hackers said they would disclose secret intelligence from an alleged source working in the MoD.
In our next leak, we may even disclose secret intelligence the Islamic State has just received from a source the brothers in the UK have spent some time acquiring from the Ministry of Defence in London as we slowly and secretly infiltrate England and the USA online and off, the collective wrote.
New York: The US election is proof that the 3.2 million Indians in America are becoming more vocal in the American conversation about politics. They are attracting the attention of both Republicans and Democrats because of their tendency to register in high numbers and actually vote on Election Day.
Unlike black and Latino voters, Indians don't have a long history with either party, but many Indians especially professionals traditionally support the Democrats. According to political pundits, Asian Americans, dominated by large numbers of Indian and Chinese people, are the quintessential swing vote. They form about 6 percent of the US population, according to the Census Bureau.
Mira Kamdar, a fellow at the World Policy Institute, and author of "Planet India" said that with growing numbers, clout and self-confidence, the Indian American community was coming into its own as a political force. She said they enjoyed "disproportionate influence" in getting their voice heard as Indian Americans were significant donors to campaign war chests.
"There are a host of issues that differentiate along party lines. You have a lot of Indian American small business owners. They would tend to support Republican policies like lower taxes. On the other hand, you have a lot of Indian Americans who are concerned about immigration issues. They would more naturally fall on the Democratic side," said Kamdar.
Hillary's Hillblazers and Diehards
Minority communities which include Indians, Chinese, Koreans and Japanese have been key voting blocs for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, helping her rack up strong wins over Bernie Sanders, the US senator from Vermont who is her main rival for the Democratic nomination to the 8 November presidential election.
Bill and Hillary Clinton wrapped up an extended weekend-long campaign swing through California on Saturday, to drum up support ahead of the June 7 primary. They courted Asian Americans who make up about 15 percent of the population of California.
It is profoundly important to me and to Hillary that she receive overwhelming support in the primary from the Asian-American community, Bill Clinton said. Id also like to say that this community above all should be leading the US to an integrated, shared future, where we accept our diversity and embrace it as a strength.
In a veiled dig at Trump, Bill Clinton said that Hillary has vociferously opposed this effort in our country to demonize Muslim Americans.
"Even if Trump and other Republican candidates say they are only after Muslims, which is bad enough, a lot of people who are brown are going to be misidentified as Muslims," Clinton supporter and author Sujata Massey told US media.
"I have Indian American children and they are frequently called Muslims by other students, and they are not," said Massey.
Bernie supporters have lauded the breadth of his ideas, but Clinton diehards rooting for "Madame President" call her more pragmatic, experienced, intelligent and electable in the fall.
"Hillary Clinton is a seasoned foreign policy professional. This is someone who is knowledgeable about the world who can reason rather than Trump who is a demagogue," said South Asia expert Sumit Ganguly, who holds the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, at Indiana University, in Bloomington.
"Hillary Clinton for the world would mean an emphasis on free trade. It would probably mean an interventionist U.S foreign policy, an activist American foreign policy," added Ganguly.
As the former secretary of state, Clinton's signature initiative become known as the Obama administrations pivot to Asia. While the U.S was bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, China had the headroom to expand its influence in the region with allies like North Korea, Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Rising China spurred Clinton to consolidate Americas ties with regional powers like India, Japan, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines in a policy pivot towards Asia.
There were many reasons Clinton was missed by India as she made room for Senator John Kerry to replace her as secretary of state for President Obamas second term, not the least because she maturely accepted that India and the US will not see eye-to-eye on all issues, nor will their interests always concur. Yet, she was a good friend to India and ensured the relationship was not cantankerous.
According to Indian diplomats, Clinton understood the glue that bound India and Iran which other Washington elites found so hard to fathom. She tamped down concern in Washington about Indias oil trade with Iran. Her efforts ensured India was exempted from financial sanctions in 2012 along with six other countries. Instead of being an alarmist she saw Indias traditional ties with Iran as part of Indias smart eco-diplomacy.
In percentage terms, 43 percent of Asian Americans support Clinton, 28 percent Trump, 7 percent Sanders with 22 percent undecided, according to political pundits who base their findings on telephone surveys.
"Donald Trump is the ugly face of America, which the world doesn't want to see," said Indian American investor and philanthropist Frank Islam who is on Clinton's "Hillblazer List," a who's who of big donors.
There are at least 10 prominent Indians on Clinton's "Hillblazer List" supporters from Wall Street to Hollywood who have raised at least $100,000 for her campaign by hosting events.
Planet Trump
Donald Trump's ascent to the top of the Republican Party, which was capped last week with Ted Cruz's devastating loss in the Indiana primary, happened so fast that even the billionaire's supporters were surprised. Trump, who is building his presidential bid around his business acumen and knowledge of the economy has found a pocket of support among Indian American entrepreneurs and Hindu groups.
Trump's credibility as a businessman has persuaded many Indian American voters that he knows enough about government to fix it. For as many as 40 percent of Americans, work now means a series of part-time, on-call and contract jobs. Life has work instability at its core and Trump is luring voters with promises to restore the American Dream.
"Some voters are put off by Trump's brash style, but he understands that there is a collapse of the blue collar economy," said motel owner Yashwant Patel, who is a member of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA).
The AAHOA draws its membership mainly from Indian-Americans and has 8,000 members who together own 22,000 hotels and motels in the US worth $50 billion. Thirty-five years after the arrival in the US of the first Indian motel keepers, almost all with roots in Gujarat, Indians now own 60 percent of budget properties. By employing family members and doing most chores themselves, Indian motel keepers have been able to expand.
"Hillary and Sanders are tax-and-spend Democrats whose policies will hurt us. Business is already down," added Patel who is also an adviser to the New Jersey Federation of Indian Associations which draws its base from store operators. "South Asian small entrepreneurs are voting for Trump," he added.
Trump has argued that while he supports across-the-board tax cuts, he would likely bargain away cuts for top earners during negotiations with Congress.
A pro-Trump Hindu group has taken their campaign for the real estate mogul to a different level. They have created posters depicting Trump in a fashion synonymic with Hindu deities Brahma, the creator, and Vishnu, the protector. With the hashtag #HindusforTrump, they have been promoting the Republican candidate on Twitter under their handle @USAHindus4Trump.
Sanders gets the Young Vote
A number of young Indian Americans bordering on cynical about politics have flocked to Sanders' campaign. Sanders has beat Clinton among young people, white voters, political independents and people who most value honesty in a candidate.
I think Sanders is very relatable and I just agree with his progressive ideas, said Neena Mallick, a 19-year-old student in Indiana, who cast her first ballot for the Vermont senator last Tuesday.
Sanders is poised for additional wins in a string of primaries in Nebraska, West Virginia, Oregon and Kentucky. "The prospect of more Sanders victories echoes the 2008 Democratic primary, where Clinton won several contests late in the calendar but was unable to catch then-Senator Barack Obama, who built an early lead," reported "The Wall Street Journal."
Clinton leads Sanders in the delegate race 1,701 to 1,411 and is generally expected to be the Democrat nominee in the general election. She needs to take just 17 percent of the remaining delegates to win the nomination, according to CBS News.
Islamabad: Former Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's kidnapped son was on Tuesday recovered from Afghanistan in a joint operation carried out by the US and Afghan forces, three years after he was abducted by suspected Taliban militants.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of ex-premier Gilani, has been recovered from Afghanistan's Ghazni province, Pakistan's Foreign Office said in a statement.
"The Afghan National Security Adviser, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, in a telephone call to the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, informed that Ali Haider Gilani son of Yusuf Raza Gilani...has been recovered on Tuesday in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni," the statement said.
Ali's transfer to Pakistan is being arranged following a required medical check-up, it said.
Ali's recovery from Afghanistan was also announced by Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Twitter. Former premier Gilani received a call from the ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan, informing him that Ali was recovered in a successful operation in Afghanistan, Bilawal said.
PM @YR_Gillani received call from ambassador of Afghanistan.His son @haidergilani has been recovered in a successful operation.Alhamdulillah BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) May 10, 2016
Ali was kidnapped by gunmen in Multan on 9 May, 2013. He was abducted when he was leaving a street corner meeting outside the house of a supporter in Multan's Farrukh Town. His two associates were killed during the kidnapping.
At the time of the abduction, Ali was contesting for the general election from a constituency in Multan.
Ali's rescue comes over two months after the recovery of Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, who was found by security and intelligence forces from Balochistan's Kuchlak area nearly five years after his abduction in 2011.
Shahbaz was kidnapped from Lahore on 26 August, 2011, near his company's head office in Gulberg area.
How far will you go to save yourself from a country ruled by Donald Trump?
Well, a website called Maple Match is based on the assumption that the answer to the above question is 'very, very far'.
The website aims to find Canadian partners for Americans to date so that they can move out of the US just in case Donald Trump becomes the President one day.
"Maple Match makes it easy for Americans to find the ideal Canadian partner to save them from the unfathomable horror of a Trump presidency," says the website.
When you click on the 'Get me on the waitlist' option, a form pops up asking you for the usual details like name and age.
The hilarious part, however, is that while most websites have a 'submit' option at the end of the form, Maple Match replaced the 'Submit' button with the 'Save me from this madness' button.
Canadians: 1, Trump: 0.
Pyongyang: North Korea kicked off a massive parade in the centre of Pyongyang on 10 May to celebrate a just-concluded ruling party congress that was seen as a formal coronation for supreme leader Kim Jong-un.
Kim presided over the event from a viewing platform overlooking the giant Kim Il-Sung square in the heart of the capital, which hundreds of thousands of participants turned into a sea of pink by waving floral bouquets over their heads as the young leader arrived.
Nuclear-armed North Korea regularly holds mass military parades to celebrate key dates and show off its latest military hardware, including long-range ballistic missiles that are still under development.
The events were a civilian affair, but the giant floats that moved under the viewing platform carried military themes, showing cardboard mock-ups of missiles and space-launch vehicles.
North Korea followed its last nuclear test in January with a satellite launch that was widely condemned as a disguised ballistic missile test.
The country's nominal head of state, Kim Yong-Nam, addressed the parade before it began, praising Kim Jong-un and congratulating him on his election the day before as chairman of the Workers' party of Korea.
"The election... showed the absolute trust... of our military and people in the great leader Kim Jong-un," Kim said.
He called on the entire country to "single-mindedly and faithfully carry through the ideology and guidance of dear leader Kim Jong-un".
The four-day party congress, which ended on Monday, marked the first such gathering of the party's top decision-making
body in more than 35 years.
The event gave the 33-year-old Kim, who came to power following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in 2011, a podium to secure his status as supreme leader and rightful inheritor of the one-party state founded by his grandfather, Kim Il-Sung.
The congress formally endorsed Kim Jong-un's legacy "byungjin" doctrine of building an effective nuclear arsenal in tandem with economic development.
The parade saw wave after wave of massed marchers, waving pink paper flowers, balloons of various colours and red party flags, and chanting "Mansei (Long Live)!" in unison.
Some carried giant banners reading "Mansei for comrade Kim Jong-un, the top leader of our party and people!," and "Glory to our beloved leader!"
United Nations: Pakistan has criticised the demand made by India along with other G4 countries of adding more permanent seats to the UN Security Council, saying it was based on "poor logic" and reflected the "self-serving national ambition" of a few.
Pakistan's envoy to the UN, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, at the informal meeting of the General Assembly on Inter-Governmental Negotiations on Security Council reform, said the objective of the Council's expansion should be to respond to the concerns and "aspirations of all, not just a few."
A statement issued by the Pakistan mission here claimed that Lodhi last week "exposed" the G-4 position on Security Council expansion.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, speaking on behalf of the G4 nations Brazil, Germany, India and Japan had said at the meeting that the problem of "imbalance of influence" in the Council cannot be corrected if only non-permanent members are added to the powerful UN body.
The statement by the Pakistan mission said Lodhi "exposed the poor logic of India and its allies" by saying that the G4 formula of adding more permanent seats "reflected the self-serving national ambition of a few at the expense of the world body's wider membership."
"To propose allocation of 4-6 seats permanently to that many countries, while handing over only 4-5 seats to the rest of the membership is not only poor mathematics but also poor logic and even poorer rationale for a just and meaningful reform," Lodhi was quoted as saying by the statement.
India had said at the meeting that the problem lies in the "imbalance of influence" within the Security Council between the permanent and non-permanent members and expanding members only in the non-permanent category is not going to solve the problem.
Opposing the proposal that sought expansion in permanent membership, Lodhi argued that this runs contrary to the principles that all member states agree on to make the Council "more representative, democratic, accountable, transparent and effective".
She stressed that only additional electable seats, on the basis of periodic elections and fixed rotation, would allow equal, fair and increased opportunity to all states to aspire for Security Council's membership.
Davao: Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte is willing to talk with China over a highly sensitive territorial dispute in the South China Sea, his spokesman said Tuesday, in a significant reversal of the incumbent's stance.
Duterte, who won Monday's election in a landslide, is also willing to form partnerships with China to extract gas and oil deposits that are believed to be in the sea, as well as explore joint fishing management systems, Peter Lavina said.
"This is the difference between the current and the Duterte administrations, the mayor is open to bilateral talks with China," Lavina told reporters in Davao, the major southern city that Duterte has ruled as mayor for most of the past two decades.
China and the Philippines, under President Benigno Aquino, have endured steadily worsening relations in recent years as they sparred over joint claims to parts of the South China Sea, one of the world's most strategically important waterways.
China claims nearly all of the sea, even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations.
To enforce its claims, China has built contested reefs into artificial islands, some topped with military-capable airstrips.
China also in 2012 took control of Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing area within the Philippines' economic exclusive zone.
The Philippines, with a tiny military compared with China, has responded by signing a new defence pact with the United States and filing a legal challenge with a United Nations tribunal asking it to rule the Chinese claims to most of the sea are invalid.
It has also sought to raise the issue at multilateral events such as summits of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
China has reacted furiously to Aquino's tactics, demanding that the Philippines negotiate directly but also insisting that it will never give up any of the territory.
Aquino has refused to hold direct talks, fearing the better resourced and more powerful China would have an advantage. He has also said there is no point in talking with China if it insists there is nothing to negotiate.
Lavina said Duterte would continue with the UN case. A verdict is expected soon after Duterte is sworn into office on June 30.
He also sought to downplay a Duterte comment on the campaign trail that he would use a jet ski to reach a disputed island occupied by China to stake the Philippine claim.
"He jokingly said that if we win that case and China will not respect, he will use a jet ski," Lavina said.
Washington: A top Islamic State leader, along with three other jihadists from the terror group, has been killed in a US-led military strike, the Pentagon has said.
Abu Wahib, the Islamic State chief in Iraq's Anbar province, was killed in a 6 May airstrike, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters at a news conference.
"On May 6th, a coalition air strike targeted Abu Wahib, ISIL's military emir for Anbar Province and a former member of al-Qaeda in Iraq who has appeared in ISIL execution videos," he said.
"That strike near Rutbah was successful, killing Abu Wahib and three other ISIL jihadists. Abu Wahib's death is another blow to ISIL's leadership that will further degrade its ability to operate, especially in Anbar Province," Cook said.
Responding to a question, Cook, while referring to ISIS as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), said it is fair to say that leadership of the group has been hit hard by coalition efforts and this is another example of that.
"It is dangerous to be an ISIL leader in Iraq and Syria these days, and for good reason we want to apply pressure ISIL on as many fronts as possible. And taking out leadership targets is one way to do that," he said.
"We've been very successful and this is another example of that. Anbar Province is an area critically important to the fight against ISIL, and the fact that we've not taken out the military emir of Anbar Province is going to harm ISIL's ability to conduct operations there," Cook said.
"Is taking out leadership alone sufficient in this fight? Absolutely not. But it is one part of a multi-pronged effort to apply pressure on as many fronts to ISIL and for ISIL leaders to be very worried about their next step," he added.
Washington/London: Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has said Londons new mayor Sadiq Khan could be an exception to his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. Khan has rejected Trump's offer.
Khan, a Muslim, was elected to run the British capital last week. On Monday, Trump said he was happy to see that Khan was voted in, according to the New York Times.
Asked about how his proposed ban would affect Khan, 45, who is also a member of Britains Parliament, Trump said: There will always be exceptions, the Times reported.
I think if he does a great job, it will really - you lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing, Trump was quoted as saying.
However, Khan rejected Trump's offer on Tuesday.
"This isnt just about me - its about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world, Khan said.
Donald Trumps ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe - it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists. Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong, The Guardian quoted him as saying.
Trump's "ignorant" views of Islam "could make both our countries less safe," Khan added.
Trump called for the ban in December after Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, killed 14 people in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. The Islamic State said the two were its followers.
In an interview with Time, Sadiq Khan said he would like to go to the United States to meet with American mayors.
If Donald Trump becomes the president Ill be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I cant engage with American mayors and swap ideas, he said. He said he planned to visit the United States before January in case Trump wins the presidential race.
The United Nations on Monday proposed that its member countries create and agree upon a system to share responsibility more fairly for the hundreds of millions of refugees and migrants around the world.
The global compact would be accompanied by a UN-led campaign to combat the xenophobia and racism that have tainted discussions of the refugees and migrants, UN officials said at a briefing to release a report on the global migration.
The UN estimates there are 20 million refugees worldwide and another 40 million people displaced inside their own countries. Of the refugees, 86 percent live in developing countries, often near the countries they came from, it says.
Added to those figures are 244 million migrants who live and work in countries where they were not born, it says.
The campaign would attempt to counter an increasingly negative attitude and tone in debates over how to deal with the crisis, the UN said.
"I am concerned at the increasing trend of member states to erect fences and walls," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the report.
"Xenophobic and racist responses to refugees and migrants seem to be reaching new levels of stridency, frequency and public acceptance."
The proposals come ahead of a summit meeting planned at the UN in September to address the global refugee crisis.
The UN-led campaign will promote such steps as more direct, personal contact between refugees, migrants and people in their host countries, said Karen AbuZayd, UN special adviser on the summit.
Also, nations will be called upon to develop plans for including refugees and migrants in education, language and skills training and employment opportunities.
The global compact would require nations to share responsibility in a variety of ways so that a few nations do not shoulder much of the burden while others do far less, the UN said.
It might include resettlement policies, financing arrangements, aid to host countries and technical assistance, AbuZayd said.
"States will share responsibility for refugees more fairly. Host countries will receive immediate support for their development needs. International migration will be governed better," she said.
Amnesty International called the plan a potential "game changer", but said its success depends upon nations agreeing on a permanent system for sharing responsibility.
"World leaders cannot go on lurching from crisis to crisis, haggling over numbers and fiddling while parts of the world burn," Amnesty said.
Citing "refugees in shaky boats, trapped at border fences or crammed into overcrowded camps where hopes and dreams wither", it said: "Too often, these scenes of despair are borne not just from war and persecution but also of bad, callous policies."
Facilitating safe migration is included among the Sustainable Development Goals, a blueprint of plans for nations to fight poverty, promote equality and slow climate change by 2030. U.N. member nations signed the goals last fall.
Washington: Softening his stance against Donald Trump, US House Speaker Paul Ryan has indicated that he may back the presumptive Republican presidential nominee after getting to know him better.
"He (Trump) is the nominee. I'll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention," Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an interview on Monday.
Ryan, 46, is scheduled to meet Trump on Thursday.
This would be the first meeting between the two leaders after Trump emerged as the Republican presumptive nominee for the November election.
Last week, Ryan, the country's top Republican, told CNN that was not ready to back Trump. "I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now," Ryan had said.
During his stay in Washington, Trump would also meet other senior Republican leaders in the Congress.
In an interview to his hometown newspaper, Ryan said he never said that he will not support Trump.
"I never said never. I just said (not) at this point. I wish I had more time to get to know him before this happened. We just didn't. I just want to get to know the guy. We just don't know each other," Ryan said, adding that he wants to know Trump.
"I want to have a straight conversation with Donald Trump on behalf of the party (and) myself, too. Let me say this, the man deserves a ton of credit for an amazing achievement, which is to bring millions of people into this party and to have a very impressive victory. At the same time, we want to make sure we don't pretend we're unified and then go into the fall at half strength," Ryan said.
He also refuted reports that he had presidential ambitions.
"I would not have become speaker of the House if I had 2020 aspirations. If I really wanted to run for president, I could have run in 2012 and 2016. The speaker is not exactly a good steppingstone for president. I think people who know me know that is not my aspiration," he said.
"I want to help unify our party so that we're at full strength, so that we can defeat Hillary Clinton. I believe between now and July we will be able to figure out how to unify our party," Ryan added.
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Katie McGinty Pat Toomey
U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty (D) and incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey (R).
(PennLive file photos)
Good Tuesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
We begin this Tuesday morning in much the same way we did on Monday, with more news out of Pennsylvania's closely watched United States Senate race.
This morning, we find Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey and Democratic challenger Katie McGinty in Philadelphia, where they were trading shots over new Mayor Jim Kenney's decision to make his town a sancutary city for undocumented immigrants.
As our friends at The Associated Press report, Toomey criticized the policy (a criticism we share) and slammed McGinty for supporting what he described as a "dangerous and extreme practice."
McGinty, as you might imagine, fired back, accusing Toomey of "making the 'immigration crisis' worse by opposing comprehensive immigration legislation and embracing Donald Trump's "hateful" policies," The AP reported.
Toomey's campaign has released a radio ad criticizing McGinty on the issue. It also points out he shares the same position as President Barack Obama (who endorsed McGinty in last months' Democratic primary).
So, y'know, take that.
Kenney has said "sanctuary cities are possibly safer than those that do cooperate with immigration authorities," The AP reported.
Even still, a Republican state lawmaker from northeastern Philadelphia has introduced legislation to ban the city's policy.
The rest of the day's news starts now.
A Westmoreland County teen implicated in a stabbing rampage will be tried as an adult, The Tribune-Review reports.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were in West Virginia on Monday, where each courted coal miners, The Post-Gazette reports.
So former
Gov. Ed Rendell
took to Facebook on Monday, where he tried to clarify his remarks about Bernie Sanders' supporters. We are not sure it worked (via
PhillyMag
):
Regarding my interview this past Sunday with John Catsimatidis, I did not say Sanders supporters better behave... Posted by Ed Rendell on Monday, May 9, 2016
Former Rendell aide John Estey will plead guilty today to a single count of wire fraud, The Associated Press reports (via WITF-FM).
And in Atlantic City later on Monday, Bernie Sanders railed against 'casino greed,' NewsWorks/WHYY-FM reports.
Legislation that would alter seniority-based layoffs in schools is headed to Gov. Tom Wolf's desk, The AP reports (via The Morning Call).
Stateline.org looks at the student debt crisis at community colleges.
Evangelicals are raising hell over Donald Trump's Veep search, Politico reports.
Political strategist Stuart Rothenberg looks at HRC's 'decided advantage' as the primary season heads into the home stretch (Roll Call).
What Goes On.
12:30 pm., Main Rotunda: Sen. Sean Wiley holds an event on Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
1 p.m., Main Rotunda: The Pa. Nurses Alliance talks about safe staffing levels.
What Goes On (Nakedly Political Edition).
8 a.m.: Breakfast for Sen. Art Haywood
8 a.m.: Breakfast for Sen. Elder Vogel
6 p.m.: Reception for Rep. Barry Jozwiak
Ride the circuit, and give at the max, and today will run you a mere $4,000.
You Say It's Your Birthday Dept.
Best wishes go out to the boss this morning: PennLive/Patriot-News Veep of Content, Cate Barron, celebrates another year. Congratulations.
Heavy Rotation.
Here's one from a bunch of plucky underdogs. These kids have a way with a tune - they might go someplace someday:
And now you're up to date. See you all back here in a bit.
It looks like Apple is the next international smartphone maker that will Make in India. The companys manufacturer Foxconn is close to signing a deal with Indian government to set up a manufacturing plant for iPhones in the country.
According to a latest report from Economic Times, the manufacturing plant which will be worth a whopping $10 billion will be set up in Maharashtra. Apple and Foxconn are said to have selected 1,200 acres of land for the plant in Maharashtra after considering a few other Indian states. The report further stated after signing the deal, it will take about 18 months to get the plant operational.
The latest news comes an year after Foxconn had said that it was looking to set up a unit in India to make iPhone and iPads. Moreover, Foxconn is reportedly looking to build 10 to 12 facilities in the country by 2020. India is an important market for Apple and the company is aggressively entering the country. It is close to getting DIPP approval for opening single brand retail stores in India and recently the DIPP panel has recommended to exempt Apple from 30% sourcing condition for retail stores. Last month, it was reported that Apple is evaluating investment options in the country.
Just yesterday, Apple appointed Sanjay Kaul as head for Indian operations and earlier this year, the company merged its product division and split the business into two in order to align it with the retail strategy. Apple recently became the fastest growing smartphone vendor in India in Q1, 2016, according to Canalys report. The company recorded 56% growth in iPhone sales YoY in India in FY Q2 2016. Earlier this month government of India has rejected Apples request to sell refurbished iPhones in the country.
source
Google has launched RailWire free WiFi service across five more railway stations in India. The service under which Indian Railways, RailTel and Google provide free WiFi to passengers has now expanded to Ujjain, Jaipur, Patna, Guwahati and Allahabad railway stations.
To access the internet with RailWire, you need to connect to RailWire network from your WiFi settings, go to railwire.co.in from your browser, enter your mobile number in the WiFi login screen and request for OTP SMS. Once you have received the 4-digit OTP code, enter it in the login screen and press Done. You will see a checkmark and will be connected.
Last week, the RailWire service was launched in Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh), Kachiguda (Telangana) & Raipur (Chhattisgarh). RailWire free WiFi is now available at 15 stations across the country, with Mumbai Central being the first. The service will be further expanded to Dadar, Bandra Terminus , Churchgate, Thane, Kalyan, Panvel, Vashi, Kurla, Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus, Borivali and a few others. Google already said that 100 stations will get free WiFi by the end of 2016, connecting more than 10 million people who pass through every day. The project will be eventually rolled out to cover 400 train stations across India.
Google India Head of Access Programs Gulzar Azad said,
Were seeing incredible usage of the Wi-Fi service across the stations and over 2.5 lakhs users are using the service every week, demonstrating more than 2x growth in less than a month. Backed by this response, Railtel and the Ministry of Railways has decided to extend the project to cover key suburban stations in Mumbai as well. The service is now live across 15 stations covering key corners of the country from Pune to Guwahati, and from Ernakulam to Jaipur . Our roll out schedule is on track and we are confident of providing the service across 100 stations in India by end of this year.
[Update] Google has announced that more than 3 lakh people are now using this high-speed Wi-Fi each week.
source
HTC has announced financial results for Q1 2016. The Taiwanese smartphone maker has recorded $454 million (NT$14.8 billion) in revenue, down 64% as it was $1.3 billion (NT$41.52 billion) in Q1 2015.
Operating loss for the quarter stands at $150 million (NT$4.8 billion) compared to a profit of $11.6 million (NT$360 million) for the same period last year. Profits were NT $1.8 billion (U.S. $60 million), down from NT $8.2 billion (U.S. $250 million).
Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC said,
The media and consumer buzz around HTC, including for the keenly-awaited launches of the flagship smartphone and Vive virtual reality system, clearly demonstrate our leadership in innovation and have provided a great boost to the HTC brand. We have been working hard to lay the groundwork over the past year, streamlining processes and optimizing resources to enable us to develop the best products in the most effective way.
HTC recently released its Vive VR headset along with a new flagship phone, the HTC 10. Both of these devices were not included in this quarter hence, we can expect a stronger growth from HTC next quarter. he company has been struggling in the highly competitive smartphone market as it is facing tough competition from the likes of Apple and Samsung along with a number of Chinese handset makers.
source
At an event in New-Delhi, Samsung introduced new devices to the very popular Samsung J series. Of these, the smaller one is the Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016). The device combines the high end design that takes cues from the A series with performance that is well, more befitting the price point. We spent some time with the devices and heres what we thought.
Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) specifications
5.2-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD Super AMOLED display
1.2GHz Quad-Core 64-bit Snapdragon 410 processor with Adreno 306 GPU
2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 128GB with microSD
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
Dual SIM
13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/1.9 aperture
5MP front-facing camera with LED flash, 120-degree wide-angle lens
Dimensions: 145.8 x 72.3 x 8.1mm; Weight: 159g
4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS
3100mAh battery
The display on the Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) is a 5.2 inch HD Super AMOLED panel. Owing to the nature of the screen, the display is bright, vibrant and has fantastic viewing angles. Below the screen youll find a center button flanked by capacitive keys on either side. Unfortunately theres no fingerprint scanner hidden under that button. Up at the top is a 5MP front facing camera with an accompanying single LED flash.
Moving to the right side of the device, you spot a power button while on the left lies the volume rocker. The buttons offer good tactile feedback and are easy to reach out even when in the pocket. The top of the phone doesnt have any port as the headphone jack has ben moved to the lower half wherein youll also find a USB port for charging and data transfer.
Turning the phone over you can spot the usual Samsung branding towards the center accompanied by a 4G logo at the bottom to denote that this device is capable of high speed data transfers. The phone is of course a Dual SIM device. Up above is the rear facing 13MP camera with a LED flash over on the right. A loud speaker is placed to the left of the camera. Under the backcover lies a 3100mAh battery.
Powered by a Snapdragon 410 processor clocked at 1.2Ghz, the Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) chugs along at a decent clip. We didnt get too much time with the handset so it would be unfair to give a conclusion at this point. That said,the Snapdragon 410 is a fairly robust processor and is known to be a decent performer so we dont see any issues on that front. The 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage on the other hand are a bit disappointing and heavy multitasking could prove to be an issue. More on that in our full review though.
Priced at 13,990, the Galaxy J5 (2016) might sound like an expensive proposition given the myriad Chinese and Indian competitors that offer better specifications at similar or even lower price points. What you trade off in terms of power, you make up in the form of a better and wider support network and offline availability. Your choice will really come down to whats more important for you. As for us? Well wait for the full review to give a verdict on the Samsung Galaxy J5. The phone is exclusively available from Flipkart.
India shipped a total of 52.6 million handsets in Q1 CY 2016, against 55.4 million in 1Q CY 2015, registering a decline of 4% YoY, according to CMRs India Mobile Handset Report. The QoQ decline was 12.8%.
Indian smartphone brands contributed at an all-time high of 45%, up 7% compared to 4Q15. However, the highlight of this quarter was that smartphones made in India contributed 67% of total sales. The contribution of Chinese and Global brands has though declined QoQ by few percentage points. The report further identified that average selling prices for smartphones were going up as it was Rs 12,285 in 4Q15 against Rs 10,364 in the first quarter of 2015.
Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst CMRs Telecom Practice said,
We saw for the first time, price band of Rs 10,000 15,000 contributing the maximum (22%) towards the Smartphone shipments. Usually, the prime contributor used to be the price bracket of Rs 6,000 8,000. This increase has been primarily due to introduction of shipments by LeEco and launch of new handsets / significant increase in shipments from Lenovo, Oppo, LG, Panasonic, Micromax, Intex, LYF (RJio) and Vivo in Rs 10,000 15,000 price bands. Some of the Smartphones that have done exceptionally well in this price band include Lenovos K4 Note, LeEcos Le 1S, Micromaxs Canvas Mega 4G, Huaweis Honor 5X and Intexs Aqua Freedom.
Faisal further stated that among the handsets produced out of India, 66 per cent of the smartphones and 60 per cent of the 4G smartphones were manufactured in India itself. Samsung, Micromax and Intex were the top three smartphone vendors with 28%, 16% and 12% market share respectively.
Worldwide PC shipments that comprises of desktops, notebooks, two-in-ones and tablets hit 101 million units in Q1 2016, according to latest report from Canalys. PC shipments volumes fell by 13% year-on-year to their lowest point since Q2 2011.
The report stated that all PC categories in Asia Pacific continued to show weakness, affected by improving quality and falling prices in the smartphone market. In low-income markets, notebooks and tablets are no longer must-have products and multiple device ownership is becoming less common. PC shipments in Asia Pacific and Greater China dipped 14% as the Chinese market saw its third consecutive quarter of double-digit declines.
Giving insights about vendors, the report said Apple continued to lead the market into the first quarter of 2016 with shipments of just over 14 million units, despite falling 17%. Lenovo shipped about 25,000 units less than Apple, as its decline moved into double digits on the back of weakening sales in Greater China. Besides 2-in-1 devices, which grew just over 13%, shipments were weak across all categories, as vendors struggle with declines in global PC demand. Tablets continue to be the worst affected category, with shipments falling around 15% to just under 39 million units.
The tablet market in the US was aided by shipments of large screen detachable tablets such as the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro 4. Shipments of 2-in-1 devices and detachable tablets are expected to continue to do well in the US and will grow in high income markets. The research firm predicts that new form factors will trigger an increase in PC ASPs, benefiting 2-in-1 and tablet categories at the expense of notebooks.
Tim Coulling, Canalys Senior Analyst said,
The global PC market had a bad start to 2016 and it is difficult to see any bright spots for vendors in the coming quarters. The tablet boom has faded in the distance and the market is fully mature. Global shipments declines are expected to continue unless vendors bring transformational innovation to the market. Apple and Microsoft are propping up shipments in established markets with their detachables, but price points make them less affordable in low-income countries. Although other vendors are coming to market with cheaper alternatives, they are unlikely to have a big impact on volumes in the short term. The number of people looking to buy their first PC is at an all-time low and 2016 is likely to bring yet more turmoil to global PC vendors.
As part of the Galaxy J series of phones, Samsung introduced two new devices at an event in Delhi. While the Samsung Galaxy J5 marks the lower end of the spectrum, the Galaxy J7 is the larger of the two. Like the J5, the J7 too focusses on premium build quality and design. In turn, the internal specifications arent particularly cutting edge. We spent some time with the handset and this is what we thought.
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016) specifications
5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD Super AMOLED display
1.6GHz Octa-Core Exynos 7870 processor
2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 128GB with microSD
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
Dual SIM
13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/1.9 aperture
5MP front-facing camera with LED flash, 120-degree wide-angle lens
Dimensions: 151.7 x 76 x 7.8mm; Weight: 170g
4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS
3300mAh battery
Compared to the Galaxy J5, the J7 is a much larger phone but then thats a given due to the 5.5 inch display. Once again, the design is fairly reminiscent of the A series of phones by Samsung and for that matter countless other Samsung devices. Below the display is a single hardware button with two capacitive keys on either side. The hardware button acts as the home key but unlike most of its contemporaries, it lacks a fingerprint scanner in it.
A metallic frame runs around the handset and feels great to hold in the hand. The ergonomics on the Samsung Galaxy J7 are entirely on point and so is the tactile feedback of the volume rockers. There are small design flourishes all around and all in all, the Galaxy J7 is a pretty decent looking phone.
Theres not much going on at the back of the phone other than prominent 4G branding proclaiming that this device supports high speed data networks. The J7 is a dual SIM phone as well. In terms of internals, theres 2GB of RAM accompanying the 1.6Ghz Octa Core Exynos 7870 processor which kept things moving around nice and smooth in our brief amount of time with it. Of course, well know more once weve got our full review ready. In built storage on the phone is 16GB and this is expandable by up to 128GB. A 3300 mAh battery has also been provided which should ensure a day or more of usage time from the Galaxy J7.
Priced at Rs. 15,990; the Samsung Galaxy J7 is a visually appealing device that is a decent performer to boot. It might not win benchmarks scores against its competitors but it cant be denied that Samsung has nailed it on the design front and theres also the wider support network that is appealing to many. Got questions about the Samsung Galaxy J7? Let us know in the comments below, well have a review up for you soon.
Xiaomi has announced iHealth 2, a new Blood Pressure monitor and the successor of the first iHealth device that was introduced back in 2014. It has a 4.3-inch color screen, uses WiFi Direct to connect to Android devices, automatically detects high and low blood pressure and also has voice broadcast that automatically reads out the results. It offers real time pulse results and heart rate changes.
It also shows indoor and outdoor temperature, shows time, comes with Skin-friendly nylon cuff making the measurement process more comfortable and get more accurate data. It can show weekly and monthy data chart and can store up to 2000 readings without syncing with the phone. Once synced, the app lets you share data with others easily.
It also has a built-in 2200mAh battery so that it can be carried around easily. The Xiaomi iHealth 2 is priced at 399 yuan (US$ 61 / Rs. 4080 approx.) and is available for purchase from mi.com in China.
At the Mi Max launch event CEO Lei Jun showed off the Mi Band 2 and its touch screen function briefly. He said that he has been using it for 20 days on a single charge,still 36% of charge is left. This states that the Mi Band 2 will have a good battery life even though it has a touch screen. It also has a hardware button. As we already know, the Mi Band 2 is delayed for a month due to production issues, so we can expect it to be announced next month.
Source 1,2
As expected, a weak economy in parts of Latin America has hit operations of Copa Holdings S.A. (CPA -0.96%) early in 2016, although conditions haven't been as bad as expected. Earnings reported after the market closed on Thursday showed falling airline ticket prices that are offsetting an increase in capacity and falling fuel costs. And that's leading to a big drop in revenue and underlying earnings. Here's what you need to know.
Copa Holdings results: The raw numbers
Metric Q1 2016 Actuals Q1 2015 Actuals Growth (YOY) Sales $557.1 million $631.9 million (11.8%) Net income $115.5 million $113.2 million 2% Adjusted EPS $2.74 $2.57 6.8%
What happened with Copa Holdings this quarter?
The figures above show a solid improvement in the bottom line, despite a drop in revenue. But that doesn't tell the whole story.
Excluding special items, adjusted net income fell 31.1% to $69.9 million, or $1.66 per share, as revenue fell faster than costs. The one-time items were an unrealized gain on fuel hedges and a gain on the devaluation of the Venezuelan bolivar.
What's really key is the operating metrics Copa Holdings reports each quarter, and they show the weakness in pricing.
Passenger traffic, measured by miles traveled, grew 3.6% as capacity increased 2.4% in the quarter.
Yield per passenger mile fell 15.4% to 12.5 cents in the quarter and revenue per available seat mile fell 13.9% to 10.0 cents.
On the cost side, operating cost per seat mile fell 10.4% to 8.3 cents on the back of a 27.2% decline in average cost per gallon of fuel.
In the recently filed 2015 20-F, the annual report foreign companies file with the SEC, Copa Holdings took a $430.2 million loss on currency translation for its Venezuelan bolivar cash balance.
Despite the weakness in results, Copa Holdings declared a dividend of $0.51 per share payable June 15, 2016, to shareholders of record on May 31, 2016.
What management had to say
It doesn't look like the Latin American economy is going to grow much -- if at all -- in 2016, and that will likely keep a cap on airline ticket prices. As a result, we can probably expect that results won't improve much as the year goes on. The good news is that low oil prices are keeping a cap on costs, and that shows no sign of slowing down.
Looking forward
Until the macroeconomic environment improves for Copa Holdings, I don't think we'll see much of a jump in earnings. But net income is high enough to maintain the current $2.04-per-share annual dividend rate, and that'll help keep the stock from falling too far.
What's worth watching going forward is whether or not management can cut operating costs to align more with its new pricing structure. There's only so much you can cut out of an airline's cost structure, but any bit that can be cut will add leverage to the bottom line when the airline market improves. The challenge for Copa Holdings is that we don't know quite when that will be.
Nearly everyone pays taxes, but few people know everything there is to know about the tax system. In the thousands of pages that make up the federal tax code, you'll find plenty of secret and little-known provisions with big implications. Below, you'll find some facts from Motley Fool contributors that you probably didn't know about and might find interesting.
Dan Caplinger
Despite the many court cases that have gone against them, many taxpayers claim that they don't owe any taxes by making bogus arguments about the constitutionality of the income tax system. Tax evaders will appeal to their First Amendment right to religious objection, their Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination, and even the 13th Amendment prohibition against involuntary servitude. Some say the 16th Amendment's specific language permitting an income tax is invalid because it was arguably not ratified properly by the requisite number of states, while others assert their immunity to federal income tax on the grounds that they aren't asking any privileges or benefits from the federal government.
All of these constitutional arguments have been repeatedly rejected by court cases throughout the history of the income tax system, and the IRS warns that using such objections won't exempt you from interest, penalties, and other provisions that apply to those who fail to pay their income tax in a proper and timely fashion. Even worse, some disreputable organizations offer to protect unsuspecting taxpayers from the IRS using these methods, thereby getting their clients in trouble. It's important not to believe these claims and simply accept that you have to pay your taxes.
Todd Campbell
Although all workers pay Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, many of us don't fully understand how they relate to those social programs. Taxes paid under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, or FICA, are used to pay Social Security and Medicare. Specifically, employees and employers each pay 6.2% of your wages to fund Social Security. Another 2.9% tax is split equally between employees and employers to pay for Medicare.
Unfortunately, as members of the giant baby boomer generation retire in droves, benefit payouts are outstripping the tax revenue brought in via payroll taxes. As a result, the combined 12.4% in Social Security tax has fallen short of funding 100% of Social Security's outlays since 2010.
Currently, the 12.4% tax only applies on income of up to $118,500. However, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have suggested raising the income cap, meaning that higher-income earners would pay higher payroll taxes -- perhaps much higher.
That's already happening with Medicare. Most Americans only pay 1.45% of the 2.9% Medicare tax, while people who earn more than $200,000 pay an additional 0.9% Medicare tax surcharge.
Selena Maranjian
One tax concept that many people don't grasp is that the tax bracket you're in doesn't reflect your overall tax rate. For 2015 and 2016 tax years, there are seven tax brackets: 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%, and 39.6%. If you're a single filer who earns $95,000 in 2016, that puts you in the 28% bracket -- but that does not mean you'll be paying 28% of $95,000, or $23,750, in taxes. Instead, different segments of your income will be taxed at 10%, 15%, 25%, and 28%; only your income above $91,150 will be taxed at 28%.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities offers a nice example of this, featuring a family of four with an income of $110,000. Their first $18,500 will be taxed at 10%, their next $56,450 will be taxed at 15%, and their last $6,500 will be taxed at 25%. Fully $28,600 of their income will not be taxed at all, due to exemptions and deductions. When you add up all the tax they owe, it ends up being just 9% of their income. That's referred to as their "effective" tax rate.
Here's another example: The Obamas had an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $436,065 in 2015, landing them in the 35% tax bracket. But their effective tax rate was 18.7%. Again, that's because their income up to $151,200 was taxed no more than 25%, while another big chunk faced the 33% rate. The couple donated more than $64,000 to charity -- nearly 15% of their income -- which helped reduce their taxable income, too.
Go ahead and check out which tax bracket you're in, but don't assume that you're really paying that much overall. Most mid-range earners have an effective tax rate in the teens.
What: Shares of Boston Scientific Corporation (BSX 1.01%), an interventional medical device specialist, popped 15.5% in April, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. A strong first-quarter earnings and improved outlook provided the boost.
So what: The company is off to a roaring start this year. Total first-quarter revenue was 13% higher, and when excluding the impact of a recent acquisition, organic revenue grew 8% compared with the same period last year.
Four of the company's seven business segments grew revenue by double digits, leading to a 24% gain in operating profit.
A more optimistic outlook for the rest of the year is what excited the market the most. The company boosted annual revenue growth guidance from between 4% and 7% over 2015 to between 6% and 8%, excluding the recent addition of the male urology portfolio it just bought from Endo International for about $1.6 billion.
Management also expects its adjusted operating margin to widen an extra 0.5% to 24.5%, which sounds awfully good for a company with operations that have ended most of the past 10 years in the red on a GAAP basis.
Now what: Competition in the medical-device business is intense, and size confers an advantage. With about $7.7 billion in trailing-12-month revenue, Boston Scientific isn't a small fry, but compared with a giant like Medtronic, it's struggling just to keep its head above water.
If Abbott can complete its announced acquisition of Boston Scientific's competitor St. Jude Medical, it will have another device juggernaut with more than $25 billion in annual revenue to contend with.
Boston Scientific has slowly been returning to top-line growth through acquisition -- which entails a great deal of execution risk. A few wrong moves, and this company could find itself in some trouble.
If you strip away the $12.5 billion in goodwill and other intangible assets from Boston Scientific's balance sheet, its tangible asset value of less than $5.2 billion is a bit less than the $5.4 billion in long-term debt it's carrying. If that doesn't send a chill down your spine, I don't know what will.
If you're committed to holding shares of this device maker, I'd recommend focusing on management's adjusted figures.
Otherwise, you might notice you're stuck with a growth stock that isn't growing.
Tobacco stocks continue to be popular despite prevailing anti-smoking sentiment. Shares of top names in the sector like Altria (MO 2.09%) and Philip Morris International (PM 0.79%) keep finding their way into many institutional and personal portfolios.
That's because the business in general is highly profitable and typically generous with dividends. If you're interested in the sector, you may want to look into a new stock that's about to hit the exchange in an IPO: Turning Point Brands. Here's a brief look at the company.
Smoke (or chew) 'em if you got 'em
Turning Point is a manufacturer of what it calls "other tobacco products." This generally refers to goods that aren't whole cigarettes or cigars. The company's offerings include the Zig-Zag brand of cigarette papers and cigar wraps, chewing tobacco (Turning Point owns five brands, most notably Stoker's and Beech-Nut), and items for vapor smoking.
It's got strong market positions in several of those goods. According to the company, as of this past February it controlled around 80% of the market for cigar wraps with Zig-Zag, and 30% of that for cigarette papers. Meanwhile, Stoker's was the top discount chewing tobacco brand on the market, holding a 16% overall share.
It's not hard to find packs of Zig-Zags or containers of Stoker's. Turning Point ships to over 900 direct wholesalers, and its products end up in around 200,000 retail locations in North America. As a result, it's got a chunky top line. That metric, however, isn't moving where investors might like. Last year, it booked $197 million in net sales, down from over $200 million of 2014.
That's not unusual in the tobacco industry -- Philip Morris International's sales have been slipping over the past few years, while Altria's revenue growth hasn't exactly been on fire lately (excuse the pun).
At least, like Philip Morris, Altria, and other name tobacconists, Turning Point is in the black on the bottom line. It flipped to a profit to the tune of $9 million last year, after two years of losses.
Aside from product selection, what sets Turning Point apart -- and not in a good way -- is its indebtedness. At the end of 2015, the company was burdened with nearly $300 million in total notes payable and long-term debt, a figure that well exceeded its annual sales, and positively dwarfed its cash position, which was less than $5 million.
Although the big sector players also borrow aplenty, their amounts are comparatively more manageable. At the same time, Altria had just under $13 billion in long-term debt, against nearly $19 billion in revenue and $2.4 billion in cash. Those numbers for Philip Morris were $25 billion, $27 billion, and $3.4 billion, respectively.
A compelling investment?
After it begins trading, Turning Point will be a unique stock in terms of its product mix. I'm not sure that necessarily warrants a buy on the shares, however.
That high level of indebtedness concerns me, as does the fact that the company doesn't intend to pay a dividend -- one of the more appealing aspects of the top tobacco stocks on the market (both Altria and Philip Morris pay distributions at above-average yields).
And given that Turning Point hasn't delivered exceptional fundamentals, and the current sentiment in this country isn't in favor of its products, I don't see the company as a compelling investment.
The company's IPO is slated to take place on Wednesday. The stock will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TPB. At a price of $13 to $15 apiece, 5.4 million shares will be floated in the offering. The joint book-running managers of the offering are Cowen Group's Cowen and Company, and FBR.
You can see the quality of all the installations wherever you look, said Whiting in the Azerbaijan capital. My next trip to Baku will be at the beginning of June and Im expecting to be able to say it will be ready then.
During his visit, Whiting - joined by the tracks famed architect Hermann Tilke - covered all aspects of F1 racing's newest street circuit, including the paddock and pit lane, located right in front of Bakus imposing Government Building, as well as what is set to become the venues trademark image - the 7.6 metre narrow, uphill, winding sequence (Turns 8 to 11) past the citys Old Town walls.
Whitings inspection also took in the dual carriageway section of the circuit, as well as the main straight along Bakus picturesque seaside boulevard, where cars are expected to hit speeds of up to 340 km/h as they race towards the finish line.
It will be a fascinating F1 race, he added. Turns 8 to12 will probably be the most interesting, but so will the run from Turn 12 to 15, where the approach to Turn 15 in particular will be quite spectacular. The very long run from Turn 16 to 20, which is going to be flat out, will also be amazing to watch!
If I had to compare one circuit to this one, it would be Singapore, but the speed here will be much higher!
The 2016 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe takes place on June 17-19 and tickets are available through the F1.com Ticket Store.
While Puerto Rico missed its most recent bond payment on May 1, the United States is trying to find a solution to the problem before its next scheduled payment in July.
In an exclusive interview with the FOX Business Network, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told Peter Barnes the best answer to the crisis is restructuring the nations debt.
Here in Puerto Rico youd have restructuring combined with an oversight board to make sure that the fiscal problems are solved today, tomorrow and in the future, Lew explained. I think that is so profoundly the right solution and it is so much the opposite of a bailout that its important to make the point and to make it clearly.
Lew stressed that taxpayer money would not go toward restructuring, and that Congress is working on legislation to help move the process forward.
I believe were making progress, he said. I think weve made very good progress. Were not quite there yet, theres more work to be done.
The treasury secretary added: Theres urgency because the kind of chaos that comes from missing July payments will take this to a new level of crisis. Were at a level of crisis, but that crisis will keep escalating until Congress acts. And the time to act is now.
With Americans growing more concerned about the threat of terrorism, retired FBI agent John Iannarelli offers his take on what people should watch for and how they can better protect themselves.
There is a number of things the public can look for. So much information has been put out there: If you see something, say something. But nobodys really telling us what to look for, Iannarelli told the FOX Business Networks Maria Bartiromo.
Iannarelli used the recent knife attack at a railway station near Munich, Germany as an example.
What Ive tried to do based on my law enforcement career is look at some of the things that law enforcement just accepts in general; things that law enforcement sees, but passing that information onto the general public. For example, like today, was this individual at the German train station just wandering around the area aimlessly before the attack occurred? Things that would seem out of place that might draw your attention and youd want to notify law enforcement about, said Iannarelli.
NYSE CEO Dick Grasso asked Iannarelli what the public should do if confronted with a situation like the attack in Germany.
Although Iannarelli says that preventing incidents is optimal and every person and situation is different, I always recommend, if you have the option to flee, that should be your first choice. If you cant flee, then perhaps you are going to hide if the situation presents itself, such as if a terrorist wanders into a building. And then finally, of course if you have no choice, you cant depend upon the mercy of a terrorist, you are going to have to fight back. But you are not going to fight back to try and win the fight. You would fight back long enough so that you could then flee, Iannarelli said.
On Americans doubts or concerns about speaking up about a potential threat, Iannarelli said, We had an interesting situation the other day where a woman was on an airplane, noticed something she thought was unusual and that she reported to the airplane personnel about taking action. It turned out to be a fairly benign situation, but the reality is, the worst case scenario in that situation, there was a minor delay for the flight, said Iannarelli.
But FNC contributor Meghan McCain raised concerns of a potential backlash over Americans alerting authorities, such as the allegations of Islamophobia when a Texas high school student was arrested for taking apart and rebuilding a clock.
Whats interesting with clock boy and other situations like that, I never once heard any words regarding race, ethnicity, what country they were originally from. I heard about the facts of the situation. In my book I use the word profile, but I never once refer to it in any sense other than profiling physical activities a person is engaged in and thats what were focusing on, Iannarelli said.
Wine drinkers can sip slowly thanks to a new hi-tech bottle that keeps the beverage fresh for up to 30 days.
The Kuvee bottle lets you put in any of these capsules and pour it, CEO and co-founder Vijay Manwani told the FOX Business Networks Maria Bartiromo.
You dont have to argue about drinking red or white on any night, you can have both of them.
Manwani discussed how the wine is kept so fresh.
There is a lining on the inside; As you pour the wine, the lining collapses on the wine and you never see oxidation.
Manwani then explained how the idea for Kuvee came about.
Im not a wine snob, Im a wine geek. What that means is Ive been collecting wine forever but Ive also been a student of wine forever. And three years ago, I was taking a course and I was tasting a lot of wines blind and I was really frustrated by how quickly it would spoil. I realized if I could build a system where people could drink many wines on the same night with friends and compare notes that would be the fastest way to learn about wine. That was the inspiration for Kuvee, Manwani said.
After that, he sought out funding and got the project off the ground.
We went out and raised roughly $6 million and the project has been on for roughly two years, said Manwani.
But it doesnt end there; The system is also Wi-Fi connected.
There is a benefit for the consumer that they can drink wine by the glass and theres a benefit for the winemaker or the winery where they can tell a better story because its a better marketing platform, Manwani said.
The information collected by the bottles could be valuable for the winemakers as well.
They are starved for consumption data. They dont have an understanding of the customer. So this is bringing them actually up to the Internet age where they can market to the customers better if they had a better understanding of what they were consuming, said Manwani.
On the decision to price the product at $199, Manwani said, We did some quantitative analysis on what pricing would be affordable. We were told to keep it under $200, Manwani continued, for people who have household incomes of about $100K to $125K, that would be a good price for them.
Manwani also explained the differences in how red and white wines change once they are opened.
I think red wine has more complexity, so it shows change faster and evolution faster, but it doesnt necessarily spoil faster. When you put any wine in the fridge it keeps better. So, if you put your red wine in the fridge it will keep better. People dont keep it [red] in the fridge because it takes longer to come to drinking temperature, Manwani said.
Say youre a Silicon Valley unicorn with a gazillion dollar valuation, more money in the bank than Warren Buffett, and venture capitalists eating out of your hand (or hoof, I guess) just to get in on the next mega-round of funding. What do you have to fear?
Wait, that was last year, when money was literally growing on the trees lining Sandhill Road in Menlo Park, Calif., aka VC central. Maybe cash wasnt literally growing on trees, but you know what I mean. In any case, that was before the fall.
Ever since global venture capital funding fell off a cliff late last year, tech startups have plenty to be afraid of, whether theyre $1 billion mythical beasts with horns growing out of their foreheads or not.
VCs regaining their sanity
Taking a quiet drive through downtown Mountain View last week, I could swear I heard a barely audible hissing sound, like air being gently let out of a balloon. Sure enough, it was the overinflated private equity bubble finally releasing some pressure, losing altitude and sailing back down to Earth.
One by one, its slowly beginning to dawn on VCs that their wild ride on the backs of the legendary white creatures is coming to an abrupt end and the specter of real repercussions for bad business decisions has indeed returned to the Valley.
On his Above the Crowd blog, Benchmarks Bill Gurley provided a masterful recap of all thats transpired, lo these many months since he first sounded the alarm that all is not well in the land. The well-respected VC shared his unique brand of sage advice with everyone in the entrepreneur venture capital ecosystem.
The reason we are all in this mess is because of the excessive amounts of capital that have poured into the VC-backed startup market, the oracle of Menlo Park wrote. The healthiest thing that could possibly happen is a dramatic increase in the real cost of capital and a return to an appreciation for sound business execution.
Investigative journalists
It was interesting to see Gurley refer to WSJ Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter John Carreyrous brilliant takedown of Theranos as the seminal bubble-popping event of 2015. That was indeed a wakeup call for the mainstream tech media, who were as mesmerized by founder Elizabeth Holmes Steve Jobs-like reality distortion field as investors who bought into the technology sight unseen.
Then again, not everyone got the call. In an interview yesterday morning, I watched legendary VC Tim Draper stand firmly behind Holmes, despite news that federal regulators may ban her from the laboratory testing industry and revoke the license of Theranos California lab amid concerns over the efficacy of the companys proprietary finger-stick technology.
Draper was the first investor and a family friend of Holmes, but still; this is not an app or a gadget. It might be a good idea to step away from the Kool-Aid when lives are at stake.
In an era of over-the-top media hype for entrepreneurs and their startups, its comforting to know that a single investigative journalist had the courage to take on an iconic wunderkind, her $9 billion unicorn and a team of high-priced lawyers to save who knows how many patients from potentially inaccurate blood test readings.
Government regulators
Uber and Lyft (valued at $51 billion and $5.5 billion, respectively) shut down their ride-sharing services in Austin, Tex. over a city council ruling requiring fingerprint-based background checks for drivers, something taxi companies routinely do. This isnt the first time Uber has used such a tactic to bring local officials to the negotiating table over regulations it believes are onerous.
Not to draw an equivalence between transportation and healthcare, but the famously secretive Theranos long avoided biomedical peer-review and investor scrutiny of its claims under the pretext of needing to protect its proprietary technology. And it fought to pass legislation in Arizona so individuals could obtain blood tests without a doctors prescription.
Were seeing more and more of this as disruptive innovation clashes with age-old industries, especially regulated ones. Never mind that entrepreneurial zeal can all too easily override common sense.
The growth imperative
High-flying HR software startup Zenefits ousted founding CEO Parker Conrad when it was discovered that employees were skirting state licensing requirements and selling medical insurance policies to businesses.
Perhaps the greatest threat to unicorns is the common dogma that growth trumps everything. That they need to scale as rapidly as possible to justify lofty valuations, even when that means breaking the rules and burning cash at a torrid clip. But then, that was yesterdays wisdom, before the fall.
Today, entrepreneurs would be well advised to follow Gurleys sage advice, Buckle down and do whatever it takes to get cash-flow positive with your current cash balance, he writes. Achieving profitability is the most liberating action a startup can accomplish.
Image source: Wayfair.com
You've got to give it to the short-sellers. They have a pretty solid case.
Wayfair -- an e-commerce player focused on selling furniture and interior designs -- doesn't look like a great buy on the surface. The company has yet to turn a profit as a publicly traded entity; shares trade for 89 times free cash flow. And there's a goliath that already owns the e-commerce world in Amazon.com.
But despite all that -- and with 45% of the company's float sold short-- Wayfair saw its stock climb 10% following its earnings release on Monday. Considering that the company posted a wider loss than last year, and came in well behind analyst expectations for profitability, it's worth digging into what got everyone so excited.
Revenue is poppingFor whatever reason, there are simply some companies that Wall Street is willing to be patient with. Signs of profitability remain elusive, and free cash flow dipped by over $50 million from the same time last year, but the revenue growth at Wayfair has the market convinced that this will be a long-term winner.
Here are a few highlightsfrom the quarter:
Overall revenue was up 76% to $747 million.
Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) revenue -- the lion's share of the company's revenue -- was up 93% to $712 million.
Total active DTC customers grew 69% from the same time last year.
Net revenue per active customer was up 13.3% to $392.
Add all of these pieces together and you can see why Wall Street was excited. Virtually every important category saw impressive growth. Perhaps most important of these are total DTC and per-customer revenue growth, which have seen an impressive acceleration of growth since the company went public in 2014.
Create column charts
Not only is Wayfair growing its customer base, but each existing customer is buying more, and the pace of that growth is speeding up. That's no easy task, and it helps explain why the stock is trading for the premium it is.
Spending ramps up as wellAs you might have guessed, while revenue growth was impressive, there were mammoth increases in spending by management. Consider:
Advertising costs grew 69% and ate up over half of all gross profits.
Operations, technology, and G&A costs grew 77% and ate up another third of gross profits.
CEO and co-founder Niraj Shah pointed out that such investments were necessary and paying off, noting that the company took, "about 40% of the U.S. online dollar growth in our categories [home dcor and furniture] in the last twelve months." In other words, of every $100 of furniture purchasing that's moved online, Wayfair has captured $40 of those dollars.
That's a big deal, because the amount of home goods bought online has tons of room for growth.
Image source: Wayfair.
It helps explain why Shah and the company's shareholders are so willing to spend money hand over fist right now in order to grab an outsized piece of market share for the future.
According to the company's own data, the increase in advertising has led to a sextupling in brand awareness in just four short years.
Image source: Wayfair.
Looking aheadWhile domestic revenue growth has been nothing short of amazing, one story for investors to watch is the company's attempt at becoming a global brand. As Shah put it: "Our focus in 2015 and 2016 has been on developing additional European supply relationships to broaden and deepen the product catalog and building out the logistics infrastructure in carrier relationships to ensure a great delivery experience for customers."
Though its still very small, Shah noted that UK DTC revenue grew by 200% during the first quarter and that the opportunity in Western Europe is comparable to the United States.
On a shorter time horizon, the company expects DTC revenue to grow between 65% and 70% -- which is particularly impressive since it is comparing to a 2015 second quarter that saw DTC revenue grow by 81%. That would mean that over two years, DTC revenue roughly tripled.
While investors should keep an eye on rising costs, the real story will be Wayfair's ability to continue grabbing market share in the highly fragmented e-commerce furniture industry.
The article Wayfair Inc Proves Bears Wrong Yet Again originally appeared on Fool.com.
Brian Stoffel owns shares of Amazon.com and Wayfair. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon.com. The Motley Fool recommends Wayfair. 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.
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Image source: Bristol-Myers Squibb.
What: Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), one of the largest pharmaceutical giants in the U.S., vaulted higher by 13% in April and touched a 17-year high, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The primary reason behind Bristol-Myers' big month was the release of better-than-expected first-quarter results and the utter dominance of its cancer immunotherapy wonder drug, Opdivo.
Image source: Bristol-Myers Squibb.
So what: For the first quarter, Bristol-Myers reported $4.39 billion in revenue, a 9% increase from the prior-year quarter, driven by a whopping $704 million in Opdivo sales. Eliquis, which is a blockbuster blood thinner co-developed with Pfizer, was also a solid performer with $734 million in sales. Sales would have grown by 34% on a currency adjusted basis had Abilify sales not fallen by 94% due to an expiring patent and the introduction of generic competition, and Bristol-Myers not lost its North American rights to Erbitux in a deal restructuring with Eli Lilly. Erbitux contributed $165 million in sales in Q1 2015.
Adjusted profits for the quarter improved modestly to $0.74 in EPS from $0.71 in the prior-year period. Comparatively, Wall Street was looking for just $0.65 in EPS and $120 million less in total sales. Furthermore, Bristol-Myers updated its full-year guidance, boosting its EPS range to $2.50-$2.60 from a prior forecast of $2.30-$2.40. However, it also reduced its worldwide revenue forecast from mid-single-digit percentage growth to low-single-digit percentage growth.
Now what: It's safe to say that Bristol-Myers Squibb is no longer as inexpensive as it used to be. Shares are now trading at 22 times forward earnings, which is certainly aggressive relative to its peers.
However, Bristol-Myers Squibb has Opdivo to thank for its recent success, and chances are that the Opdivo train hasn't left the station yet. Already approved to treat advanced melanoma, second-line advanced renal cell carcinoma, and second-line advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), Opdivo is being studied in dozens of additional monotherapy and combination trials for solid tumors. Given its incredible efficacy in boosting the immune system of cancer patients, chances are Opdivo's label will continue to expand.
Opdivo is also running circles around its primary rival Keytruda from Merck . Keytruda sales totaled $249 million in Q1, which is nothing to sneeze at. But considering that Keytruda was the first approved PD1-inhibiting drug, Opdivo's ascent is all the more amazing. The primary difference between the two appears to be Opdivo's wide-open indication in second-line NSCLC compared to Keytruda, which is only approved to treat patients with high PD-L1 expressing tumors. Don't get me wrong, both Merck's Keytruda and Bristol-Myers' Opdivo have excellent futures as cancer treatments, but Opdivo is far and away the leader here.
As long as Bristol-Myers can continue to grow its immunotherapy franchise along with Eliquis and Orencia, it could command a premium price to its peers, or it may even draw the attention of a larger suitor (ahem, Pfizer) eager to boost its languishing growth.
The article 1 Wonder Drug Sends Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Rocketing 13% Higher in April originally appeared on Fool.com.
Sean Williamshas no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen nameTMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle@TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: Baidu.
It's going to be hard forBaidu to keep making as much money as it used to from its search engine's healthcare advertisers. Chinese regulators are cracking down on the platform after a Chinese university student died late last month after seeking cancer treatment from an advertiser on Baidu's search engine, and obviously it didn't end well.
The university student took to social media in his final days, calling out the Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Corps for making false medical claims. He also took Baidu to task for the promotion of those allegedly misleading claims. The complaints went viral, and now the country is doing something about it.
Representatives from three regulatory agencies -- the Cyberspace Administration of China, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, and the National Health and Family Planning Commission-- met with China's leading search engine to discuss the situation. They are ordering Baidu to make sure that healthcare ads don't make up more than 30% of a query results page. The more problematic stipulation is that the regulators want Baidu to base the positioning of the ads on more than merely the highest bidder. They want the dot-com giant to modify the existing auction-based paid search platform when it comes to healthcare-related advertisers, considering the credibility and reputation of the listed sponsors. It also wants Baidu to do a better job of distinguishing paid from organic search results, including the singling out of associated risks.
Regulators also want Baidu to stop providing online marketing services to medical organizations if they can't furnish requisite qualifications from the appropriate regulatory authorities.
Baidu responded this morning, agreeing to incorporate the requests by the end of this month. It's also setting aside some money to compensate its users who have been harmed or will be harmed by the misleading marketing information that appears on its search engine.
This is a pretty big deal. Analysts believe that as much as 30% of its paid search revenue is coming from medical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare-related advertisers.
The stock only surrendered 3% of its value yesterday following the regulatory news, but the shares are down 13% this month since the initial story broke. In short, the carnage was largely baked into the price ahead of the regulatory agencies deciding on what to do here.
Bulls want to party like it's 2008If Baidu catching regulatory grief over its marketing practices concerning medical advertisers sounds familiar it's because it got called outin late 2008. That proved to be an opportunistic time to buy into Baidu. The stock has been one of the market's biggest winners, soaring 16-fold since bottoming out in late 2008.
The requirements will sting. Baidu will initially make less on its search queries, and setting aside more than $150 million to cover any claims isn't chump change. However, these hoops and new exposure to liabilities will also make it that much harder for a rival search engine -- much less a foreign platform -- to eat into Baidu's dominant market share.
Baidu is doing the right thing. It's quickly owning up to its shortcomings, something that will cost it financially for now but will keep its fan base loyal. We may have to wait until the third quarter to see the full impact of the move since these initiatives will kick in two-thirds of the way through the current quarter. However, Baidu has history on its side. It rights its wrongs, and investors get rewarded along the way.
The article Baidu Will Overcome Its Latest Crisis originally appeared on Fool.com.
Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Baidu. 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: Juno Therapeutics.
Within the first four weeks of 2016, Juno Therapeutics had shed over 40% of its market value. Since then, though, shares of the biotech have staged a nice comeback. While Juno's stock is still down around 13% year to date, the situation looks much better now than it did in early February.
Juno announced its first-quarter results after the market closed on Monday. Did those results make a difference for the biotech's rebound? Here are the highlights.
Juno results: The raw numbers
Metric Q1 2016 Actuals Q1 2015 Actuals Growth (Year Over Year) Sales $9.8 million -- -- Net loss from continuing operations ($71.1 million) ($65.0 million) (9.5%) Net loss per share ($0.72) ($0.79) 8.9%
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
What happened with Juno this quarter?Nearly all of Juno's revenue in the first quarter came from two big drugmakers. Juno recognized $3.8 million in revenue from its collaboration with Celgene . Novartis gave Juno $5.8 million as a milestone paymentfor product candidates involved in patent litigation that was settled in April 2015.
Juno's net loss worsened in the first quarter compared with the prior-year period as expenses increased across the board. A significant part of the biotech's research and development expense increase stemmed from milestone payments to Opus Bio in connection with Juno's JCAR018. Net loss per share improved versus the first quarter of 2015, however, because of an increased number of shares.
Probably the most important financial metric for Juno was its cash position, which remained very positive. Juno reported cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securitiesof $1.13 billion as of the end of first quarter. Celgene's purchase of another $47 million worth of Juno's stock helped keep the cash position higher than it would have been otherwise.
Other highlights from Juno's first quarter included:
Acquiring of AbVitro, a company with anext-generation single-cell sequencing platform that supplements Juno's development program. Juno and Celgene also agreed in principle to allow Celgene to license and have options on potential product rights to some of the acquired technology.
Beginning clinical manufacturing of JCAR015 for a phase 2 clinical study.
Reaching two clinical milestones in a phase 1 study ofJCAR018 in treatingrelapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
What management had to sayHans Bishop, Juno's president and CEO, highlighted his company's CD19 candidates and the relationship with Celgene:
Looking forwardFor full-year 2016, Juno expects its cash burn to be between $220 million and $250 million. The biotech is in solid shape to fund this rate of cash burn for several years to come.
Investors will want to pay the most attention to Juno's CD19 program. In April, Celgene exercised its option to develop and market candidates from the program outside the U.S. and China. That shows that the big biotech likes what it has seen with the CD19 drugs in Juno's pipeline.
JCAR015 is the most advanced candidate in the CD19 program. The drug is in a phase 2 clinical study targetingpotential treatment for relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Juno is optimistic that the drug could win FDA approval by 2017.
The article Big Drugmakers Were Key to Juno Therapeutics' Q1 Performance originally appeared on Fool.com.
Keith Speights owns shares of Celgene. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Celgene. The Motley Fool recommends Juno Therapeutics. 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: Liberty Global.
Liberty Global PLC reported earnings after the market closed on Monday, and within that report were the figures for Liberty LiLAC Group , the Latin America arm of the company. At a time when much of Latin America is experiencing turmoil, it looks like Chile and Puerto Rico, where Liberty LiLAC focuses its business, have been adopting the company's products at a fast pace. Here are the numbers you need to know.
Liberty LiLAC Group results: The raw numbers
Metric Q1 2016 Actuals Q1 2015 Actuals Growth (YoY) Revenue $303.9 million $287.8 million 5.6% Operating cash flow $123.1 million $109.5 million 12.4% Free cash flow $19.9 million ($25.7 million) n/a
Data source: Company earnings report.
What happened with Liberty LiLAC Group this quarter?
Puerto Rico and Chile continue to be growth markets, but that doesn't mean they aren't highly competitive for Liberty LiLAC Group. Here are a few operating highlights to show where the business is headed.
For the quarter, there were 1.7 million unique customers in Chile and Puerto Rico with 3.5 million subscriptions. That was up 21,000 RGUs (revenue-generating units) in the quarter.
Video, broadband, and telephony continue to grow for LiLac Group. Year over year, the number of video customers rose 5.2% to 1.29 million, broadband grew 15.3% to 1.35 million, and telephony grew 0.9% to 876,200 in the quarter.
Mobile subscriptions were flat at 132,000. One thousand postpaid additions were offset by the loss of 1,000 prepaid customers. Chile, in particular, has been a very competitive market for mobile.
Currency continues to be a challenge for LiLAC Group. The fall of the Chilean peso against the U.S. dollar was negative 12%, so the rebased growth of 6% for the unit overcame those headwinds.
What management had to say
Superior broadband speeds are attracting customers, and you can see above that the segment is growing very rapidly for Liberty LiLAC Group. Currency headwinds will continue to be a challenge, but as long as the number of subscribers is growing and the company can spread infrastructure costs over a larger base, the business is well-positioned.
Management also said they were evaluating distributing the 67% inter-group interest Liberty Global PLC has in LiLAC tracking stock, so that will be worth watching. It probably wouldn't have a big impact on operations, but could give the company more independence.
Looking forward
Management reiterated its guidance for 5% to 7% rebased operating cash flow growth for the full year, excluding the cable and wireless business. That's slower than its growth in the first quarter, but strong nonetheless.
The key area to watch for the remainder of the year is whether or not broadband momentum continues, because gains there help draw both video and telephony customers to the company, and build long-term relationships. That's what will drive future growth, and right now, it doesn't look like growth will stop in 2016.
The article Broadband Adoption Drives Liberty LiLAC Group's Growth originally appeared on Fool.com.
Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Liberty LiLAC Group. 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.
Frontier had a respectable first quarter of 2016, gaining some broadband customers while dropping a few video subscribers. It lost $186 million on $1.35 billion in sales, but that was due to interest expenses and costs related to its $10.54 billion purchase of Verizon'swireline business in California, Texas, and Florida.
That purchase -- which closed on April 1 -- was the real story of the quarter and the highlight of the company's call with investors after it released earnings. CEO Dan McCarthy made the Verizon purchase, which gives Frontier 3.7 million new voice connections, 2.2 million added broadband connections, and 1.2 million more pay-television customers, the focus of the call and his remarks in the earnings release.
That's a restrained way for the CEO to say his company has gone all-in buying these properties from Verizon, and now it needs to make them pay off.
So far, mostly so goodMcCarthy talked during the earnings call about the actual switch of the subscribers from Verizon to Frontier. Called a "flash cut," the CEO explained that it was the "largest and most complex flash cut that has ever been executed in our industry," according to the calltranscript. He added that it was "very successful," and noted that his company used its previous experience with "cutovers" to "strengthen [their] processes and minimize service interruption."
Of course, moving millions of customers to a new system presents major challenges, and this move was not entirely without its problems. But McCarthy said issues related to the changeover affected less than 1% of customers. He comments on how Frontier addressed these challenges on the call.
He noted that doing that did result in some delays in responding to customers, which subsequently resulted in "some negative publicity in the market."
The CEO sees big thingsIn addition to adding customers by purchasing these territories, McCarthy sees big opportunities to grow what his company has bought, and aspires to increase business in all Frontier's markets.
That expansion fits into the company's overall plan to upgrade its video offering and expand its reach. Currently, the company can only offer pay television to slightly over 30% of the 14.5 million customers in its current footprint. McCarthy expects to grow that to over 50% by the end of 2016. "We believe that the expanded reach of our video capability will help us attract new customers to Frontier for both video and broadband service," he said.
It's a bright, but risky pathFrontier has an opportunity to grow, but it has not proven its ability to do that. The company struggled when it first entered the Connecticut market by buying AT&T's wireline business, and its growth numbers have been tepid overall. Frontier did add almost 25,000 broadband customers in Q1, but it lost 5,800 video customers, which follows the slow bleed pattern that has been evident in recent quarters.
Buying the Verizon properties creates a big opportunity for Frontier, but to make its investment pay off, it will have to at least hold onto those customers, if not grow its user base. The relatively smooth technical transition suggests that the company has learned from its past, but avoiding growing pains when doubling in size will present a big challenge.
Frontier now has what it promised investors -- a bigger subscriber base to spread out costs and create more opportunity for growth -- now it just has to deliver. There's reason to believe that's what will happen, and McCarthy has given shareholders cause to be confident.
The article Frontier Communications Corp: Forget Q1 -- It's All About the Future originally appeared on Fool.com.
Daniel Kline has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Verizon Communications. 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.
Shares of Gap Inc slumped 13 percent to a more than four-year low on Tuesday after fewer shoppers visiting the company's stores in the key spring season resulted in a steep decline in comparable-store sales.
The 47-year old company has struggled in the past few quarters as a series of fashion misses turned off shoppers amid increasing competition from retailers such as H&M, Forever 21 and Inditex's Zara.
Gap Chief Executive Art Peck, who took the helm last year, had repeatedly asked Wall Street for patience, promising that the company's spring season - which he dubbed the "no excuses moment" - would witness a revival in the apparel retailer's fortunes.
Overall sales at established stores fell 5 percent in the quarter ended April 30. Analysts on average had expected a decline of 2.6 percent, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.
San Francisco-based Gap on Monday also gave a grim estimate for its first-quarter profit. The company is expected to report results for the quarter on May 19.
Gap's shares were down 12.5 percent at $19.09 in morning trading. The stock is now trading at levels last seen in early 2012, when Gap emerged from a largely successful turnaround under former CEO Glenn Murphy.
"GPS expected the spring collection to be a turning point, but we believe structural challenges continue to eclipse any product and design enhancement," Credit Suisse analyst Christian Buss said in a note.
Buss, who has an "underperform" rating on the stock, cut his price target to $27 from $21.
"We expect earnings to remain under pressure until the company makes clear advances toward enhancing supply chain capabilities and addressing fundamental pricing issues."
Gap, like other traditional apparel chains, are grappling with a drop in mall traffic as more people shop online. As well, a growing trend called 'fast-fashion' - stores producing cheaper versions of runway trends within weeks - has eaten into their market shares.
(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh)
Image source: Fool Flickr.
Warren Buffett's masterpiece -- insurance titan and mega-conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway -- reported first-quarter financial results on May 6. Here are some of the key takeaways.
Insurance operationsUnderwriting profits fell 56% to $213 million in the first quarter, as solid results at Geico were more than offset by losses in Berkshire's reinsurance business. Geico wrote 11.5% more in premiums compared with the year-ago period, and the crown jewel of Berkshire's insurance subsidiaries delivered $264 million in pre-tax underwriting gains, a 65% year-over-year improvement. However, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group delivered a loss of $79 million versus a gain of $459 million in Q1 2015. And insurance segment profits were further dinged by losses related to hail storms in Texas.
Railroad, utilities, and energyBerkshire's Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad business also reported sharply lower profits driven by falling demand for the transport of coal and crude-oil-related products. Shipping volume fell 5.5%, which contributed to a 15% decrease in revenue, to $4.8 billion, and a 25% decline in pre-tax earnings to $1.3 billion.
Unfortunately, these trends may persist for some time, with low oil prices and the shift in electricity generation toward natural gas and away from coal likely to negatively affect volumes in the quarters ahead.
"Railroad earnings are down significantly and railroad car loadings throughout the industry," said Buffett during Berkshire's annual meeting. "All of the major railroads were down significantly in the first quarter and probably will continue to be down -- almost certainly will continue to be down -- the balance of the year."
One area where Berkshire did see rising profits is in its utilities and energy segment, although the increase was mostly due to lower interest and tax expenses. Net earnings in this segment increased to $441 million from $421 million in the year-ago quarter, as Berkshire continues to invest heavily in alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power generation.
Manufacturing, service, and retailingProfits also rose in Berkshire's broadest business segment, with manufacturing, service, and retailing net earnings increasing 13% to $1.3 billion.
Berkshire's manufacturing revenue jumped 19% to $10.6 billion, boosted by the company's recent acquisitions of battery maker Duracell and aerospace parts company Precision Castparts.
Yet service pre-tax profits decreased 23% to $225 million, primarily because of an 8% decline in revenue for NetJets, Berkshire's aircraft fractional ownership business. And retailing earnings increased 6% to 99 million, aided by the purchase of Berkshire's auto dealership business.
Putting it all togetherAll told, Berkshire's company-wide revenue increased 8% to $52.4 billion in the first quarter, while operating earnings declined 12% to $3.7 billion. And Berkshire's net earnings, which are affected by the company's volatile investment income, rose 8% to $5.6 billion.
Berkshire ended the quarter with approximately $89 billion in insurance float -- essentially, the cash the insurer collects upfront when premiums are paid, but that it doesn't have to pay out until claims are made in the future. Berkshire gets to invest this float -- and keep the profits.
In that regard, Berkshire's public stock portfolio was valued at $106.42 billion as of March 31, approximately 60% of which was concentrated in four companies: Wells Fargo, with a stake valued at $24.2 billion; International Business Machines, valued at $12.3 billion; Coca-Colavalued at $18.6 billion; and American Expressvalued at $9.3 billion. Of note is Berkshire's position in IBM, which produced an unrealized loss of about $1.5 billion as of March 31. Yet Berkshire said in its 10-Q that it has no plans to sell its stake in IBM and believes its holdings will recover in value over time.
Finally, book value -- Buffett's preferred performance metric that provides a measure of net worth by subtracting Berkshire's liabilities from its assets -- rose 1.2% since the end of 2015 to $157,369 per Class A equivalent share. That places Berkshire Hathaway's stock at about 1.36 times book value -- not far from the 1.2 times book that Buffett identified as the price at which he himself would repurchase shares.
The article Hail and Rail Dent Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Earnings originally appeared on Fool.com.
Joe Tenebruso has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Berkshire Hathaway, Coca-Cola, and Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool has the following options: short May 2016 $52 puts on Wells Fargo. 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.
Source: Brookfield Infrastructure Partners.
Long-term investors know that after a strong rally as we've had over the past few months, higher valuations can result in future under under performance.
BIP Total Return Price data by YCharts
The same is truewith utility stocks such as Brookfield Infrastructure Partners , National Grid plc , Exelon , Dominion Resources , and Sempra Energy .
However, only some of these utilities have enjoyed strong price appreciation during this rally. So does this mean Dominion Resources and National Grid are likely to outperform theirhigher-flyingpeers? Not necessarily. In fact, even though its price rocketed skyward over the past two months, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is the one for high-yield investors to consider over its rivals. Here's why.
Brookfield Infrastructure offers something its competitors lackLong-term dividend sustainability is usually the most important factor to high-yield investors, and diversification of cash flows is a great way to enhance payout security.
All of Brookfield Infrastructure's competitors have at least some diversification baked into their business models. For example, National Grid owns a dominant position in both natural gas and electricity in its native UK, as well as an electric distribution network in New England.
The combination of natural gas and electric distribution is also a common characteristic for Sempra Energy, Exelon, and Dominion Resources.
Exelon also boasts power diversification through its low-carbon fleet of hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, and growing solar and wind businesses. And like National Grid, Sempra Energy has cross-national diversification thanks to its Mexico energy generation and distribution segment. However, none of these utilities can hold a candle to the kind of global, multi-industry diversification Brookfield boasts.
Source: Brookfield Infrastructure Partners presentation.
However,diversification is just one reason Brookfield is such an attractive long-term investment. Unlike its larger competitors, Brookfield Infrastructure isn't just a high-yield stock; it's also a dividend growth standout.
Superiorpayout growth usually results in better long-term returns
BIP Total Return Price data by YCharts
Over the past eight years, Brookfield Infrastructure and Sempra Energy have crushed their competitors when it comes to dividend growth. Yet Brookfield Infrastructure Partners still returned stronger total returns thanks to its much higher yield of 5.3%, compared to Sempra's 2.9%.
While past performance isno guarantee that Brookfield will continueoutperforming competitors and the market in the future, there are several reasonsI believe this superior payout trend will continue.
For one thing, Brookfield Infrastructure has access to much better growth opportunities than its rivals, who operate in much more mature and developed markets.
In addition, when it comes to free cash flow, the thing that ultimately pays for dividends, Brookfield Infrastructure proves far superior to these other four utilities. In fact, here are their free cash flow margins (operating profits minus capital expenditures on maintenance and growth as a percentage of annual revenue). Note that Brookfield's equivalent metric is called adjusted funds from operations.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners: 36.2%
National Grid: 5.9%
Exelon: 0%
Sempra Energy: -7.6%
Dominion Resources: -9.4%
While Dominion Resources, Sempra Energy, and Exelon didn't generate positive free cash flow in 2015, that doesn't necessarily mean their dividends are unsustainable. It's merely a reflection that each utility invested a greater than average amount into capital projects in 2015.
However, the preceding comparison makes it clear that Brookfield Infrastructure is a free cash flow machine, which bodes well for investors, given management's11% to 13% payout growth forecastfor 2016, with 9% growth projectedin 2017 and 2018.
Superior profitabilityshows strong management discipline
Utility WACC ROIC Net ROIC Brookfield Infrastructure Partners 5.75% 11.04% 5.29% National Grid 4.15% 8.72% 4.57% Dominion Resources 2.93% 6.07% 3.14% Sempra Energy 5.19% 5.59% 0.40% Exelon 2.47% 6.85% 4.38%
Source: GuruFocus.
Despite having the highest weighted average cost of capital, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a higher net return on invested capital (ROIC-WACC) than its peers.
That means that whether obtaining growth capital from debt or equity markets, Brookfield's management, thanks to its disciplined approach to buying quality assets at highly attractive prices, is able to put investor capital to work more profitably than other, larger utilities.
That'slargely thanks to the superb experience of its management team, provided by its sponsor,Brookfield Asset Management, one of the world's premier managers of infrastructure and utility assets.
Brookfield Asset Management has over 100 years of global experience, providing Brookfield Infrastructure with some trulyremarkable investment opportunities. For example, the utility is currentlyconsidering additionalBrazilian and other South American assets, which are going for fire-sale prices thanks to the region's recession, a result of thecommodity price collapse.
Risks to watch forGlobal diversification that provides superior growth markets across various fast-growing industries can also act as a double-edged sword.
For instance, because it operates across five continents, Brookfield's cash flows are exposed to the vagaries of changing exchange rates. In addition, the same economic challenges that allow it to invest new capital so profitably in somedepressed regionsalso means that a small percentage of cash flows fromthose areas notprotected by long-term contracted prices or volume commitments mightding short-term AFFO.
Bottom lineI'm not saying that these other utilities aren't worth owning in your diversified high-yield portfolio. However, because of its superior profitability, vastglobal diversification,and faster probable long-term payout growth, Brookfield Infrastructure deserves to be on every high-yield investor's radar, despite the recent price rally.
The article High-Yield Dividends: Which of These 5 Utilities Is Still Worth Buying Today? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Adam Galas has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Dominion Resources, and National Grid. 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.
Ford's Kuga is the European version of the Escape, made in Valencia, Spain. Like the Escape, the Kuga is a strong seller and a biggenerator of profits. Image source: Ford MotorCompany.
Ford trounced Wall Street's expectations with a fat $2.5 billion net profit in the first quarter, more than double its year-ago result. Not surprisingly, strong truck and SUV sales in North America played a big part in the increase.
But somewhat more surprisingly, so did Europe. Ford lost billions in Europe between 2011 and 2014 before rebounding to a modest $259 million profit last year. But it has already beaten that 2015 result in 2016: Ford's European unit made $434 million in the first quarter, a huge improvement over the $42 million loss it posted in the first quarter of 2015.
How'd that happen?
Ford is gaining market share in a growing European market The simple answer is that Ford put itself in position to boost its market share in Europe, and it's taking advantage as the overall industry is growing. That sales growth, combined with improvements in costs, was the difference between a loss and a solid profit.
This slide from Ford's earnings presentation gives the overall picture. Compared to a year ago, the jumps in wholesales and market share don't look all that big -- but they were enough.
Image source: Ford Motor Company.
"Revenue as reported was flat, but it was actually up 6% at constant exchange," Ford CFO Bob Shanks said during the company's earnings presentation. "We had higher [market] share in an industry that was growing."
Shanks noted that Ford's market-share gains were particularly strong in Italy, Germany, and Russia and were driven primarily by increased sales of SUVs and commercial vehicles. (Just as in the U.S., commercial-vehicle sales are a key part of Ford's business in Europe, where its Transit van lineup is very popular.)
Here's a closer look at how those factors translated into a $476 million increase in pre-tax earnings from a year ago.
Image source: Ford Motor Company.
"The improvement of nearly half a billion dollars came from everything," Shanks said. Talking about the "mix" of more-profitable versus less-profitable products, he noted, "Mix was favorable to the tune -- within that $106 million that's shown on the slide -- to the tune of about $300 million that was both product mix from [new products added in the last couple of years] as well as series mix and options."
In other words, Ford didn't just sell more vehicles, it sold more of its most profitable vehicles -- SUVs loaded with options, for instance.
Shanks also noted that Ford's team in Europe was able to bring down costs year over year. "And even though it's not shown on the slide, even though the Russian market continues to be very challenging, [Ford's business in] Russia improved on a year-over-year basis as well."
Alan Mulally's European turnaround plan has worked out well for FordWhat we're now seeing from Ford in Europe is the fruit of a turnaround plan it first announced back in 2012. That plan called for some factory closings, a bunch of new products, and a series of moves intended to strengthen the Ford brand's retail presence and profitability.
That plan has worked about as well as then-CEO Alan Mulally could have hoped. Ford's costs in Europe are now under good control, and Ford recently announced some moves to reduce costs still further. The new products turned out to include more of Ford's popular crossover SUVs, which are doing well as European customers (like their American counterparts) increasingly trade in sedans for fuel-efficient SUVs. And those moves to strengthen the brand included adding more premium trim lines to Ford's European models, which have helped boost per-sale profits.
It's always nice when a company's turnaround plan results in an actual turnaround. While CEO Mark Fields and Ford Europe chief Jim Farley would love to boost Ford Europe's profit margin still higher than the 6.3% it managed in the first quarter, it's hard to argue with the dramatic year-over-year change we've seen so far.
The article How Ford Turned a Loss Into a Big Profit in Europe originally appeared on Fool.com.
John Rosevear owns shares of Ford. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ford. 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: InvenSense.
InvenSense released fiscal fourth-quarter 2016 results Monday after the bell. And with shares of the motion sensor specialist down more than 7% in after-hours trading as of this writing, it's apparent the market isn't swayed by what appears at first glance to be a solid performance.
But that disappointment isn't entirely unmerited. Before we get there, however, let's take a closer look at how InvenSense closed its latest fiscal year.
Quarterly revenue fell 19.9% year over year, to $79.5 million. That's slightly below the midpoint of InvenSense's guidance for revenue in the range of $77 million to $83 million, but almost exactly inline with Wall Street's expectations. Meanwhile, adjusted gross margin climbed by one percentage point, to 45%, or to the high end of InvenSense's 44% to 45% guidance range.
Based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), that translated to a net loss of $22.9 million, or $0.25 per share, below guidance for a GAAP net loss per share of $0.09 to $0.11. But on an adjusted (non-GAAP) basis, net income was $1.5 million, or $0.02 per share, at the high end of InvenSense's guidance for breakeven results to earnings of $0.02 per share. During the subsequent conference call, management explained the wider $0.27-per-share difference between GAAP and non-GAAP earnings consisted partly of $0.13 per share related to normal recurring items like stock-based compensation and amortization of intangibles. But adding to that was a $0.14-per-share impact from income taxes resulting from increasing their valuation allowance reserves during the quarter.
InvenSense CEO Behrooz Abdi called it a "solid quarter, capping off a productive year for InvenSense." He elaborated:
In short -- and keeping in mind the market primarily looks at adjusted earnings and revenue -- InvenSense effectively delivered as promised, continuing to diversify its revenue streams as last quarter's prediction of a softening mobile market came to fruition.
To be sure, this decline is evident in InvenSense's segment breakdown. Smartphones and tablets comprised around 54% of revenue in fiscal Q4, down from 65% last quarter. Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) was 14% this quarter, roughly flat from fiscal Q3. And all other segments -- or the "Other Bucket," as management often refers to products including Internet of Things solutions -- represented 32% of total sales, up from 21% last quarter.
There also remained just two customers who individually accounted for at least 10% of total revenue during the quarter, with one accounting for 39% and the other accounting for 34%. These figures almost certainly describe sales to Apple and Samsung , respectively. On a geographic basis, U.S.-based clients drove 43% of total revenue during the quarter (down from 51% last quarter), while Korea was 11% (down from 16%), China was 32% (up from 22%), Japan was roughly flat sequentially at 5%, Taiwan increased from 4% to 6%, and the rest-of-world segment was 3% (up from 2%).
Of course, that would have been all well and good, as to this point InvenSense's results contained little in the way of surprises. During the subsequent call, however, management also offered a discouraging peek at the coming quarter.
For its fiscal first-quarter 2016, InvenSense anticipates revenue of $58 million to $62 million, adjusted gross margin of 45% to 46%, and an adjusted net loss per share between $0.05 to $0.06. On a GAAP basis, InvenSense's per-share net loss should be between $0.13 and $0.15. By contrast -- and with the caveat that we don't lend much credence to Wall Street's near-term demands -- analysts' consensus estimates predicted InvenSense would achieve quarterly adjusted net income of $0.05 per share on significantly higher revenue of $85.4 million.
So why the massive gap between InvenSense's reality and Wall Street's projections? According to Abdi during the call, "[T]he overall mobile market has softened significantly in the past several months and is expected to continue to experience weakness in the coming quarters. We expect to see similar relative weakness in our revenue from mobile customers, and are planning our business accordingly."
To be fair, that's not to say InvenSense will be losing market share in the meantime. Rather, only that sustained weakness in the mobile market overall will hurt its business in the short term. That said, InvenSense continues to make admirable progress with its diversification efforts, particularly with Internet of Things products under the "Other Bucket" section.
"On a fundamental level," Abdi added, "we have taken significant steps in our transformation from a mobile-concentrated single product company toward a broad-based multi-sensor solution company."
For now, however, InvenSense's continued (over)reliance on smartphones and tablets will make it undeniably difficult for IoT and other supplemental solutions to pick up the slack. So while InvenSense's long-term growth story appears to remain firmly intact, it's unsurprising to see the market stepping back from its shares today.
The article InvenSense, Inc. Delivers as Promised Amid Mobile Weakness originally appeared on Fool.com.
Steve Symington owns shares of Apple and InvenSense. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and InvenSense. 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.
The National Federation of Independent Businesss (NFIB) gauge of small business optimism showed improvement in April, but the firms leader said new regulations concerning overtime rules might put that positive feeling on ice.
I was talking to one of my members yesterday in Pennsylvania. He had done the math, and he told me that [the rules] are going to completely wipe out his profit, Juanita Duggan, NFIB president and CEO told FOX Business Networks Neil Cavuto on Tuesday.
The new rules, a final set of which are expected to be announced by the Department of Labor later this week, are the answer to a long-awaited overhaul of overtime pay regulations in the United States. In the current business environment, the nations employers are only required to pay overtime to an employee who works more than 40 hours in a work week and earns less than $23,660 in a single year.
However, the new rules under President Barack Obama, would expand those guidelines and allow employees making as much as $50,440 in a year to become eligible for overtime wages. The president said the expansion would benefit as many as five million workers in the first year of the new rules alone.
But critics of the presidents plan say the widened guidelines would hurt small businesses, and put more pressure on the retail sector.
Duggan argued that its a no-win policy for Americas smaller businesses and business owners.
People who were previously upwardly mobile within small businesses are now going to become hourly wage earners, and they wont be on the management track, she said. I think its going to be really bad for workers.
She said combined with a slew of other regulations in the pipeline concerning American business, including efforts to mandate a higher minimum wage a discussion thats routinely discussed on the 2016 campaign trail as well as paid leave regulations and higher health care costs, small business will bear the brunt of the pain.
They dont have armies of lobbyists, lawyers and compliance officers to help them with this kind of compliancetheyre very pessimistic. Our optimism index is now at very low levels. Were looking at levels that were during the 1990s recession. Clearly small business has not shared in the recovery, she said.
Indeed the NFIBs small business optimism gauge rose to 93.6 in April from a reading of 92.6 in March. The number of firms with intentions to hire rose to 11% from 9%, while the number of businesses raising net compensation rose to 24% form 22%.
Analysts at Barclays said in a note Tuesday the trend for small business optimism, despite the monthly rise, has been a lower trajectory since the start of 2015, and they attribute it largely to a divergence between selling prices and labor costs.
Weak output prices have not prevented firms from raising worker compensation, which has given way to a dynamic that is negative for profit margins, the analysts note read.
However, they said as the headwinds subside, those businesses should find it easier to raise prices that are more in line with their costs in an effort to preserve profitability.
Duggan said, though, more regulation on American businesses wont help their efforts to attract talent, and hold onto their profit margins. Instead, she said it will continue to sock small businesses. She pointed to policies from Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who she said appears to be more pro-businesses than any other candidate remaining in the field.
Some of the top-line things [Trump] has discussed are things that have been the NFIBs position for years, she said pointing to his opposition of the Affordable Care Act, one of President Obamas hallmark pieces of legislation.
He has said hes not a fan of Obamacare, and NFIB was the organization that tried to overturn Obamacare in the Supreme Court. We remain opposed to itthese are not growth policies for small business, she said.
GM showing off Buick vehicles in China. Image source: General Motors.
China, already the world's largest automotive market, is somewhat like the old Wild West. That's not to say the market is "anything goes" and lawless, but rather that nobody's quite sure what's going to happen on multiple fronts.
That's the opposite of mature markets, where it's essentially set in stone that European luxury manufacturers and Germany's Volkswagensell extremely well in Europe. Japanese automakers enjoy nearly nonexistent foreign auto competition in their homeland, and Detroit's automakers -- Ford Motor Company, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles -- have crushed the competition in the U.S. when it comes to highly profitable SUVs and full-size trucks.
In China, however, GM and Volkswagen are perennially the top two foreign automakers by a landslide, but the rest gets interesting. Japanese automakers often deal with on-again, off-again tensions with the Chinese consumer. Ford is battling to gain ground after entering the market years late, and FCA is wondering how its Jeep brand wasn't first in line to take advantage of China's surging SUV sales. In addition to all of that, Chinese automakers are making their best effort to battle the global powerhouses on their own turf, and there's that little issue of extreme pollution forcing the government to accelerate plans for the country's future with electric vehicles.
It'll be an interesting ride, and here are two of the intriguing topics to keep an eye on.
Jeep's cashing in It's fair to say Ford dropped the ball in regard to getting into China fast enough. But if that's true, it's also fair to say FCA didn't even see the ball thrown its way. Fortunately for FCA investors, it's trying to cash in by building Jeeps in China. Starting last October, FCA's Jeep began building the Cherokee in China, which will allow the company to hold down its sticker prices to make Jeep vehicles more competitive with improving Chinese-branded vehicles and locally produced foreign SUVs. That's because producing the vehicles in China enables automakers to avoid China's stiff 25% tariff on imports.
There's no question it was a good move for Jeep to begin production in China, and the result has already had an impact. Last year, Jeep's sales in China fell 28% to just under 64,000 units, but that quickly changed once the Cherokee started rolling out. Now, through the first quarter, Jeep deliveries have flip-flopped and moved 29% higher to 33,413 units, compared with the prior year's time frame. Just for context, in regard to how far Jeep has to go, Ford has already topped 100,000 SUV sales in china, through April.
Jeep's Renegade will hit the roads in China soon. Image source: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
Chances are that sales pace accelerates even further as Jeep began producing the smaller Renegade crossover last month at a new assembly plant in Guangzhou. By the end of the year it also plans to add a new C-segment crossover to the production plans. While China's total vehicle sales are expected to slow to the middle single digits annually, you can expect Jeep to power FCA's sales in the country to double-digit increases over the next couple of years.
The battle heats up Meanwhile, the battle between Volkswagen and General Motors is getting kicked up a notch. Volkswagen has held a solid edge in terms of sales in China over the past two to three decades, but GM managed to take the top spot last year on the back of its successful and rapidly expanding SUV portfolio and Baojun value brand.
Zeroing in on the latter of those two factors, GM's Baojun brand launched with a handful of low-priced multipurpose vehicles (MPVs), crossovers, and sedans, which has been a smart move. That said, VW isn't going to sit idly and watch GM run away with the sales crown for the foreseeable future.
Volkswagen, which was slower to react to the surge in SUV popularity in China, plans to introduce a slew of crossovers and entry-level cars to help battle Detroit's largest automaker in the region. The plan calls for VW to introduce 10 SUVs and crossovers by 2020, along with 15 EVs and plug-in hybrids, across multiple brands. It will be extremely interesting if Volkswagen sticks to its guns, because the plan will cost a hefty 4 billion euros in 2016 alone, at a time when its diesel emissions scandal is costing the company a pretty penny.
Of course, GM has a plan of its own. Between now and 2020, GM and its joint ventures are going to roll out more than 60 new and refreshed models in China, including 13 in 2016. Roughly 40% of the new vehicles GM aims to launch over the next five years are SUVs and MPVs. The next few years will be a battle of two heavyweights aiming for the sales crown in China.
Any concerns? Naturally, all of this potential growth doesn't come without risk. Consider that China is expected to assemble about 25.3 million units in 2016 but will have nearly 12.5 million units in unused production capacity, according to PwC Autofacts. That's below the ideal production capacity level investors would like to see in mature markets -- consider the U.S. is running above 90% currently, according to IHS Automotive -- and it could spell significant trouble for automakers' profitability if there were a sudden slowdown in China's vehicle sales.
But what else would we expect for the auto industry's modern-day Wild West?
The article Two Key Developments From the Auto Industry's Wild West: China originally appeared on Fool.com.
Daniel Miller owns shares of General Motors. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
What: Shares of PDL BioPharma , a company that specializes in purchasing patents and royalty interests on branded therapeutics, rocketed higher by 13% in April based on data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
So what: Although PDL BioPharma didn't have any discernible news events that directly drove its share price higher in April, two factors likely played a role. First, there was the general outperformance of the downtrodden biotech sector. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF rallied by a low double-digit percentage during April, boosting traditional drug developers as well as royalty asset holders like PDL BioPharma.
In addition, as of mid-April, PDL BioPharma had 13.3 million shares held by short-sellers, or traders who are betting on PDL's stock price to fall. This represents about 9% of PDL BioPharma's float, and based on its average volume of 2.3 million shares, it could take more than a week for pessimists to theoretically exit their positions if the average volume were maintained. It's my presumption that the rapid rise in biotech stocks during April may have triggered a small bout of short covering that further buoyed PDL's stock.
Now what: Regardless of the forces that were behind PDL BioPharma's rebound in April, the likelihood of its rally being sustained appears to be slim to none.
Image source: PDL BioPharma.
The advantage of PDL BioPharma's business model is that there's little overhead beyond acquiring royalty assets and patents. Since there's no traditional research and development involved, PDL's expenses are much lower than those of its peers, meaning it doesn't need a lot of revenue to turn a profit.
On the downside, patents on branded drugs only have a finite life span, and PDL's important Queen patents, which generated royalties on a number of blockbuster oncology drugs, expired in late 2014. After benefiting from the sale of stockpiled therapies in 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, PDL is being exposed in Q2 2016 and beyond to a world without Queen patent revenue, and it isn't pretty. Revenue is expected to plummet by 68% in 2016 and by another 64% next year. In total, the $590 million PDL recorded in 2015 revenue could be whittled down to less than $70 million by fiscal 2017. By a similar token, PDL's $2.04 in EPS in fiscal 2015 is projected to turn into just a $0.06-per-share profit in 2017.
Even more damaging, PDL BioPharma's loss of its Queen patents forced the company (with good reason) to slash its dividend by 67% to $0.05 per quarter. PDL's yield had far exceeded 10% at one point, and income investors were drawn in like ducks to water. PDL's board has made it clear that its dividend is reviewed on a quarterly basis, meaning it's quite possible that its quarterly payout might disappear entirely later this year.
Until PDL finds a way to replace its substantial loss of revenue, I would suggest keeping your distance.
The article Why PDL BioPharma, Inc.'s 13% Rally in April Probably Isn't Sustainable originally appeared on Fool.com.
Sean Williamshas no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen nameTMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle@TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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What: Shares of Williams Companies rose 20% last month after rising energy prices and several updates in its drama-filled merger with Energy Transfer Equity-- a merger which is now in serious doubt -- catalyzed gains.
So what: In early April, the company announced it was suing Energy Transfer Equity and its CEO, Kelcy Warren, over the issuance of convertible preferred units, which Williams Companies opposed. The move was seen as essential for Energy Transfer Equity to protect its ability to come up with $6 billion in cash needed to close the proposed merger with Williams Companies, but the latter saw it as a "malicious" move that protected holders of the new units, who could elect to forgo distributions for up to 36 months, while leaving others exposed to the risk of distribution cuts. Especially suspicious, in the eyes of Williams Companies, is that Kelcy Warren received half of the new units.
In mid-April, a court ruled that the company's lawsuit against Energy Transfer Equity could be expedited, which meant that any potential merger would have been closer to being completed. The news sent shares higher through the end of the month.
Now what: Rumors are swirling this week that the maligned merger will be called off. If Williams Companies is the instigator, it will be on the hook for a $1.48 billion payment to Energy Transfer Equity, while if the reverse is true, Williams Companies gets nothing in return, outside of any potential lawsuit settlements, which could take years to determine. Given the recent turn of events, it may be best for investors to wait until the dust settles before interpreting rising energy prices as a reason to buy shares.
The article Why Williams Companies Gained 20% in April (Though It May Not Last) originally appeared on Fool.com.
Maxx Chatsko 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.
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UPDATED
The Every Student Succeeds Act wasnt just about accountability, testing, and standards. It also made some big changes for a long overlooked group of students: those in foster care.
Weve already told you that the law calls for states to break out student-outcome data (i.e. test scores and graduation rates) for foster care students. Thats a big deal.
But it also seeks to help keep foster care students in their school of origin if the district and child welfare agencies think it will benefit the student.
The rationale is basically this: Foster care students are coping with a lot very significant change and turmoil, so if it would help them out academicallynot to mention economically and sociallyto have some stability in their school situation, they should get it.
This brings up a couple of big questions:
First off, what exactly is a school of origin? The law doesnt define this, so it seems to be up to states and districts to figure out exactly what ESSA means here.
Second, if theres an additional cost for transportation, who pays it?
Heres what the law says: The district should pay the cost if, a) the district is going to be reimbursed by a child welfare agency, b) if the district is okay with paying the whole transportation cost alone, or c) if the district and the child welfare agency are going to split the cost.
Its not completely clear from the law, though, what is supposed to happen, if a district doesnt agree to cover transportation costs, or if the child welfare agency isnt willing to cover them, or if the two cant figure out a good way to split the costs.
And, naturally, different advocacy organizations have different interpretations.
For instance, the Council of the Great City Schools argued in comments submitted on ESSA back in January that unless districts decide to step up on their own, or comes to an accord with child welfare agencies, they arent on the hook for transportation costs. Without such an agreement, the [district] does not have transportation responsibilities beyond what is required under state and local law and [district] policies, the group wrote back in January.
But a group of child welfare advocates sees the issue somewhat differently. They want the department to make it clearpreferably in regulationsthat school districts need to look beyond just a single child welfare agency in trying to find partners who might share the funding load, according to ESSA comments submitted by more than 50 organizations back in January , including the Childrens Defense Fund, the NAACP, and the Juvenile Law Center.
Whats more, they want regulations to clarify that once a best interest determination is made by a child welfare agency or court after consultation with [districts], that [districts] are obligated to ensure school stability or immediate enrollment for the student, the groups wrote. In other words, they really want child welfare agencies to put their heads down and make this work.
It seems unlikely that the Education Department is going to clear up those issues through regulation. So far, the department has announced that it plans to regulate on accountability, supplement-not-supplant, and the Innovative Assessment Pilot. (Testing was also on the agencys to-do list, but a committee of negotiators took care of the bulk of that work already .) But the department could decide to clear it up through guidanceso stay tuned.
In fact a group of influential senators, including Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash. and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Matthews Burwell last week, asking them to provide guidance on this issue. Specifically, the senators want the departments to help school districts and child welfare organizations collaborate to meet the needs of kids in foster care by providing technical assistance and shining a spotlight on communities where the collaboration has been successful. You can read the letter here .
For more on how ESSA handles children in foster care, check out this great explainer from AASA, the School Superintendents Association, and the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.
And if youre just interested in learning more about foster kids in general, check out this video on kids transitioning out of foster care.
Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
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The Australian mother who made headlines after naturally conceiving and giving birth to healthy quintuplets in January has released the first professional shots of the babies, and her family is fundraising to purchase a van so they may travel together.
Images posted on Kimberly Tuccis Facebook blog Surprised by Five include pictures of the babies Tiffany, Penelope, Beatrix, Allie and Keith in a basket, snuggled in multi-colored blankets while cuddling with their mother, and lying together against a gray carpet.
Tuccis grandmother, Denise Waddell, set up a GoFundMe page less than a month ago to raise money for a van so the family would no longer have to travel in three separate cars. As of Tuesday morning, it had raised nearly $33,000 of its $40,000 goal.
Erin Hoskins, of Erin Elizabeth Photography, took Tuccis maternity photos, which were set on a western Australian beach and went viral in January. In the snapshots, Tucci dons neutral-colored, flowing gowns as she stands in the sand with waves crashing nearby, while touching her pregnant belly.
Throughout her pregnancy, Tucci blogged on Facebook. She gave birth to her babies Jan. 28, 2015, just shy of 30 weeks.
I was very lucky to have an amazing medical team supporting me, she wrote on Facebook on Jan. 29, 2015. Thank you for giving me an exceptional birth!
She and her husband, Vaughn, share two daughters and live in Warnbro, Australia. They had been trying for a third child, a boy, when they learned they had conceived five children: four girls and one boy. They have told media they did not use IVF, which can increase the chances of multiple births. Doctors estimate naturally conceiving quintuplets that is, without IVF or fertility drugs happens only about one in 55 million times.
Wadell wrote on GoFundMe that Tucci and her husband are desperate for any financial assistance, as they must rent the home they own because they cant afford to buy one, and that they are aiming to buy an LDV G10, the cheapest car in Australia thats big enough to fit their family.
The reality is they are a long way from being in a position to buy this car and pay for the extra child seat anchor points that will need to be fitted, she wrote on GoFundMe. The family will be eternally grateful for any support you can give them.
Previous studies have linked regular, long-term use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) to an increased risk of dementia, cardiovascular disease and renal failure, but until now, scientists havent known exactly why. Results published Tuesday in the journal Circulation Research signal a plausible answer, researchers say: Vascular cells chronically exposed in vitro to PPIs led to a buildup of cellular garbage in cellular linings, thus accelerating blood vessel aging.
Im perplexed that the pharmaceutical industry didnt run across this first, senior study author John P. Cooke, chair of cardiovascular disease research at the Houston Methodist Research Institute, told FoxNews.com. This is something that should have been apparent a long time ago and should have been investigated.
An estimated one in 14 Americans uses an over-the-counter PPI like omeprazole, sold as Prilosec, to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), also called heartburn or acid reflux. Considered the most effective treatment for GERD, PPIs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use four weeks at a time, but research suggests up to 70 percent of PPI use may be inappropriate.
Cooke helped author research in 2013 that suggested PPIs decrease nitric oxide in endothelial cells, which line blood cells in the body an effect that can have an adverse impact on cardiovascular health. He also worked on a 2015 study that linked regular, long-term PPI use to a 20 percent increased risk of heart attack among a database of 3 million patients.
We now have a plausible mechanism that unifies how PPIs are associated with heart attack, vascular dementia and renal failure, said Cooke, who is also director of the Center for Cardiovascular Regeneration at the Houston Methodist Research Institute.
For his latest study, Cooke and his colleagues exposed endothelial cells over weeks roughly equal to months or years in a clinical model to the PPI esomeprazole, or Nexium, as well as another PPI that isnt commercially available, and to an H2 blocker, another type of medication for GERD.
The vascular cells chronically exposed to PPIs had a fried egg look, Cooke said.
That was not expected, and then we thought, What could be causing them to age faster if thats the case? he said.
Cooke and his team proved that was the case by using a stain called beta-gal to expose markers for aging. Next, it occurred to them that vascular cells have tiny organelles inside called lysosomes, which act like garbage disposals, or stomachs. Its well known that if lysosomes are impaired, garbage accumulates and aging accelerates.
Researchers found that while the H2 blockers had no effect on vascular aging, chronic use of the PPIs indeed impaired the lysosomes, preventing them from generating acid.
We also saw the telomeres shortening theyre on the tips of chromosomes and like our biological clock, Cooke added. Those vascular cells couldnt proliferate or divide as well, and thats necessary for repairing a wound in the vessel.
Previous research has associated free radical generation and telomere shortening with expedited cell aging. Free radical accumulation in particular can trigger oxidative damage, an effect linked with age-related chronic conditions such as neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimers disease, as well as cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Nick Leeper, associate professor and chief of vascular
medicine at Stanford University, was not involved in the current study but called the new findings provocative.Medicine at Stanford University
I think that this is yet another piece of data which all points to a potential risk that should be studied in a prospective, randomized fashion, Leeper, who worked with Cooke on the 2015 study linking PPIs to an increased heart attack risk, told FoxNews.com. I think its important to note, as the authors point out, that these medicines are frequently used for much longer than the approved indication and are also available over the counter. And so I think that, given this pattern of potential harm thats been seen in this series of studies described here, that regulators should consider whether additional prospective studies are necessary.
Cooke said a prospective, randomized trial is the next step for researchers, as the main limitation of his teams new study is that, although its model is clinically relevant, it was conducted in vitro.
However, he thinks his teams findings warrant action among regulators and doctors.
Im not saying these drugs should be pulled off the market theyre safe and effective as approved by the FDA, Cooke said, but I do think its time to reconsider their use over the counter and re-educate ourselves.
So far in this campaign season, Americans have heard about building a wall on the Southern border, banning Muslims from America, changing foreign policy strategy in the Middle East, stopping illegal immigrationand how big Donald Trumps hands are. Yet they havent heard much serious discussion about meaningful entitlement reform. It may not bet be the most exciting topic, but its on a short list of the most important.
The United States spent $888 billion on Social Security and $546 billion on Medicare in 2015. Health-care costs are skyrocketing. Were seeing double-digit insurance-premium hikes, with the expectation that they will only get worse unless we seriously overhaul the Affordable Care Act.
Against this backdrop, its remarkable that we barely hear any specifics on these issues, beyond an acknowledgement of rising costs. The story is much more complicated than the cost problemand it isnt all bad news, either. Aspects of our health care and entitlement system actually work quite well; others, not so much. But in a political season, whats working gets lumped in with what isnt, as candidates paint with a broad brush.
Take ObamaCare, the costs of which continue to rise. New estimates from the Congressional Budget Office project that the program will cost the federal government $110 billion in 2016.
Even so, one thing thats clear about ObamaCare: repeal is a dead letter, and it should be. The program is in place now, and our task should be how to make it work better. GOP presidential candidate John Kasich has been honest enough to acknowledge this. Over 20 million Americans are now insured because of ObamaCarethats a real achievement, but its one that we could make more cost-effective. How? For starters, by allowing the purchase of health insurance across state lines, which would dramatically cut costs for millions of Americans. We should also consider insurance subsidies with fixed credits that Americans can use as they see fitwhether on insurance premiums or health services.
Medicare is another area where we hear a lot about costs and not enough about what works and whats worth protecting. Most Democrats certainly recognize that the program is a lifeline for seniors, but we also hear that we need to cut or even phase out Medicare to get the federal debt under control. But health care for the elderly isnt a bargaining chip. And, critically, every candidate has ignored how well this program actually worksespecially Medicare Part D (prescription drug coverage).
Just last week, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommended that lawmakers strip key patient protections and coverage benefits from Medicare Part D. The commission wants to phase out mandated manufacturer discounts, which would lead to an increase in out-of-pocket expenses; require low-income beneficiaries to purchase off-brand medicines; and remove critical provisions for Part D beneficiaries living with mental illness or those who recently underwent an organ transplant. Yet this is a program with a better than 85 percent approval rating and actually saves money according to the CBO, why would MedPAC want to tamper with it?
The same question applies to the massive cuts proposed to Social Security. Its as if Republicans dont realize that Americans paid into this program over their working lives. I happen to believe that we do need to consider raising the age at which recipients can claim benefits. But we should also look at returning Social Security to its original and most practical objective: preventing poverty among seniors. We can reduce benefits for higher earners by reshaping the program so that higher-earning seniors would continue to receive benefits that they paid for with decades of taxes, but the system would be reoriented toward benefiting those who need support the most. For example, we could reduce benefits for the highest earning 25 percent or even 50 percent, which research shows would alleviate up to 33 percent of the Social Security funding gap.
Theres important work to be done in improving the delivery of entitlement programs and health care more generally in America. Voters are missing an opportunity, however, when candidates wont talk seriously about entitlementsincluding the parts that work wellduring a crucial presidential campaign. As the campaign season winds on, voters in upcoming primary states should insist that candidate address these issues.
President Obama will become the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima when he travels to Japan later this month to attend the G7 summit. While its unlikely hell apologize for the decision to drop an atomic bomb on the city in 1945 (nor should he), he will certainly be mending fences. The Japanese today are appropriately dismayed and anxious at what theyre hearing from Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Among the many odd pronouncements made by Trump during the presidential campaign this year is this often-repeated reference to Japan: Theyre killing us! Hes saying Japans economic success comes at Americas expense.
Far from killing us, Japan is making key investments in our economy. Japanese auto and truck manufacturing in the United States supports nearly 1.5 million American jobs. Overall, in 2015, the Japanese invested $44 billion here. Thats more than Japan put into all of Asia or Europe. Japans total direct investment in the U.S. amounts to more than $400 billion, or nearly four times its investment in China.
Japan is not killing us. To the contrary, were killing Japan, our staunchest ally in Asia. We arent pushing hard enough for an important regional trade deal, were taking too casual an attitude toward Chinas aggressive behavior, and were declining to extinguish the flames of a regional controversy more than 70 years old.
Many Japanese are disappointed by the unfulfilled promise of President Obamas pivot to Asia, a rebalancing meant to recognize that most of the economic and political history of this century will be written on that continent. A key piece of the new policy, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, is in jeopardy. The TPP trade deal has come under attack from the major U.S. presidential candidates not just Trump and Bernie Sanders but even Hillary Clinton. And the U.S. hasnt answered Chinas provocative actions over disputed islands in the South China Sea forcefully enough.
Theres another area where the U.S. can show solidarity with Japan at a critical time. The issue is the comfort women, mainly Koreans, who were abused during World War II. Under a 1965 agreement, Japan paid $800 million in grants and soft loans to South Korea as compensation for colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. South Korea agreed never to make further compensation demands, according to a UPI report in 2005, on the basis of documents that had just been declassified. The funds from Japan were used by South Korea for economic development rather than for paying victims.
In late December, South Korea and Japan reached an agreement that attempts to resolve the comfort women dispute. Japan supplied $8 million in government funds to support women who were used for sex by Japanese soldiers, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued an apology. Japan has given South Koreans money and apologies before, but the issue hasnt died. Prime Minister Abe went much farther than his predecessors, but many South Koreans still arent satisfied.
The story of the comfort women has often been distorted by Japans former adversaries in the war, and exploited for political purposes. A 2013 book by an academic, Park Yu-ha, challenged what she called the common knowledge about the abuse. The backlash was fierce. In an appalling assault on freedom of speech, a court ordered the book censored in 34 sections, Park was put on trial for criminal defamation charges, and there are moves to fire her from her professorship at Sejong University in Seoul.
In her book, said the New York Times, she emphasized that it was profiteering Korean collaborators, as well as private Japanese recruiters, who forced or lured women into the comfort stations, where life included both rape and prostitution. There is no evidence, she wrote, that the Japanese government was officially involved in, and therefore legally responsible for, coercing Korean women.
Other historians have drawn similar conclusions. Prostitution and war have long gone hand in hand. In fact, in 2014, a group of South Korean women sued their own government claiming that it trained them and worked with pimps to run a sex trade for American soldiers in the 1960s and 1970s.
In addition, Vietnamese women are coming forward to say they were raped by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War, and a Change.org petition calling for an apology by South Koreas president, president, Park Geun-hye, has gathered more than 34,000 signatures. Former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman wrote on FoxNews.com last October that South Korean troops sexually assaulted thousands of young women, some as young as 13 and 14 years of age. Many of these women bore children as a result of these assaults. Today, between 5,000 and 30,000 children of mixed Korean-Vietnamese ancestry, called the Lai Dai Han, live at the margins of Vietnamese society.
Meanwhile, despite the whirling political animosity, Prime Minister Abe decided to try to put an end to the comfort women controversy, in part because animosity has spilled over into economic and security relations between the two countries. Between 2012 and 2014, trade between the nations dropped 17 percent; Japanese travel to South Korea fell by one-third. South Korea has leaned toward China on its South China Sea claims, to the dismay of Japan.
North Korea has tried to exploit the divisions between Japan and the South. After the agreement was reached in December, a pro-North Korean group in Japan said that there is no more humiliating diplomacy than to reach such a deal with Japan.
The U.S. played an important role in securing the comfort women agreement, but the administration needs to take a stronger stand in resolving a nasty spat thats been going on for three-quarters of a century. The economic and national-security stakes are too high for this battle over history to continue. Its killing us.
There is nothing funny about combat. Anyone who has ever been in the fight will tell you that war is not a joke or a subject for a punchline.
This was the case last week when the liberal media and several late night talk shows made light of an amendment I proposed to an annual defense bill to force a debate on the merits of integrating women in the infantry and special operations and therefore requiring they register for the draft. It was branded as a joke amendment, by one late night show host. Another called it a sarcastic exercise.
Clearly it struck a nerve.
Good, I say. It is about time that liberals take an interest in our military, even if for just a moment to defend the social experimentation that is being imposed on the services. In doing so, however, they egregiously misrepresented the basic substance of the argument on whether women should or should not be required to submit for draft registration.
Women have long been exempt from the draftand for right reason. In 1981, a challenge to the exception was heard by the Supreme Court, which determined that the practice of registering men only for the draft was constitutional. The rationale was that since women were excluded from ground combat, they should not have to register. Congress agreed and subsequently reaffirmed the exception.
More than 30 years later, the Obama administration turned things upside down when it demanded that women be integrated into all combat specialties, including infantry and special operations. The Marine Corps resisted, arguing that all specialties can be opened with the exception of the infantry, which is assigned the duty of finding and killing the enemy, often through close-quarter combat. The Marine Corps even produced an independent and peer-reviewed report to make their case. The report was ignored.
Not long after, during a Senate hearing in February, both the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Army Chief of Staff endorsed the idea of women registering for the draft. They conveyed a point similar to what the Supreme Court concluded decades earlier. If women are in fact integrated in combat roles, then they should eligible for the draft. The Secretaries of the Army and Navy said the issue should be discussed.
The time to have that discussion is now.
The services have already begun integration and it will take up to three years until it is final. Before Congress decides whether to permit full integration to go forward in this time, it must also consider every issuegood or badthat comes with the Obama Administrations desire to fully integrate infantry units and special operations.
Having served in ground combat as a Marine Corps officer, including a tour in Fallujah, Iraq, I am more than willing to be the person to force the conversation, because if I do not, who will? Will the late night talk shows do it? Not a chance. How about liberal talking heads in the media? Keep dreaming.
When I proposed my amendment, I even did so with the intention of voting against it. It passed by a vote of 32-30, with Democrats on the Armed Services Committee uniting in support. They are now on the record as upholding draft registration for womenI am not, along with 29 others who voted no.
Let me be clear: I dont support women in the infantry or special operations, nor do I support women registering for the draft.
One of my Democratic colleagues even referred to the amendment as a gotcha effort. That was hardly the case. The issue of integrating women in combat specialties is far too serious to ignore. So are the consequences of opening these specialties and the draft is one of those consequences--like it or not.
Liberals have even suggested there was some grand strategy in order and the amendment backfired. Not even close to true. The strategy, if one existed, was to force members to go on the record and state a position, rather than hide. In Congress, we are asked to make tough decisions all the time and we must embrace that responsibility. Though it is far from certain what will happens to the provision. In all likelihood, it will be removed from the bill through the floor process or during House-Senate negotiations.
Worth noting also, Representative Charlie Rangel once voted against legislation of his own that reinstated the draft during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His legislation was strongly opposed in a floor vote. To his credit, he succeeded in forcing a debate that was worth the time and attention of the American people.
It is a fact that women have been placed in combat situations through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but that is much different than serving in the infantry or with a special operations unitespecially in a conventional setting, which is unlike the counterinsurgency and counterterrorism missions of the last 15 years. Of course, there are surely some women that can meet or exceed the standards, though Congress will need to consider whether that should necessitate accommodating such a shift in military culture and mission effectiveness.
Something tells me that the late night hosts and liberal media pundits who have found humor in this issue have never served a day in their livesor even given the idea thought. The military is not for everyone. But they do a great disservice to all of our military men and women by trying to ignore the effects of the Obama Administrations decision making.
Count me as one Marine Corps veteran in Congress who wont let that happen.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Monday she could not make any prediction about the timing of a final resolution to the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
Asked at a news conference if the clock had run out against taking action against Clinton in light of the advanced election schedule, Lynch replied, "We do all our reviews, investigations of any matter carefully, thoroughly, and efficiently. And when the matter is ready for resolution, a recommendation will be made and we'll come to a decision at that time and I'm not able to give you a prediction. Sorry."
Lynch had called the press briefing to discuss a DOJ suit against North Carolina which the department brought quickly, in less than two months - over its transgender bathroom law. The state is also suing the DOJ over the issue.
The FBI's criminal investigation of Clinton's use of a private, unsecured server for government business began about a year ago and is now reported to be entering its final phase with interviews of her closest aides, including Huma Abedin and others.
Two emails from Abedin, and then State Department deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan, containing classified information kick-started the FBI probe, as first reported by Fox News. Since more than 2100 emails containing classified information were identified, as well as another 22 at the Top Secret level.
Last weekend, on CBS's Face the Nation, Clinton downplayed the FBI criminal probe, stating "I say what I've said now for many, many months. It's a security inquiry. I always took classified material seriously. There was never any material marked classified that was sent or received-- by me. And I-- look forward to this being wrapped up."
The non-disclosure agreements signed by Clinton in January 2009 when she became secretary of state explicitly say that classification is based on content, not whether it carries a secret or top secret marking.
"As used in this agreement, classified information is marked or unmarked, including oral communications..." the agreement said.
It is the responsibility of the security clearance holder, such as a secretary of state, to recognize classified information and report when it is outside secure channels.
Asked whether she had been contacted by the FBI, Clinton said, "No one has reached out to me yet, but last summer, I think last August, I made it clear I'm more than ready to talk to anybody, anytime. And I've encouraged-- all of-- you know, my-- assistants and-- to be-- very forthcoming."
However, her spokesman Brian Fallon said on CNN Friday that her lawyer, David Kendall, who handled the plea agreement for former CIA Director General David Petraeus was in constant contact with the Justice Department, leading critics to charge the campaign was splitting hairs.
"David Kendall is her top counsel and he has been in touch with the Justice Department throughout this review. We've always been very upfront about that," Fallon said in the CNN interview.
"She said no, because the honest answer is it hasn't happened yet," Fallon said. "But whenever they do, we'll be happy to accommodate that and make it happen."
Last week, Fox News was the first news organization to report that the Romanian Hacker Marcel Lazar, who goes by the moniker "Guccifer," claimed he easily compromised Clinton's personal server in 2013.
The FBI has not commented publicly on his extradition to the U.S. and any possible intersection with the Clinton email probe. But a review by Fox News found that convicted hackers are generally brought to the U.S. for trial when there is a significant financial fraud, or government computer networks were compromised, and neither was true in Guccifer's case.
Cyber security expert Morgan Wright said, If a little Romanian country boy can get into this, then it means that this thing could be gotten into by anybody.
While the hacker's claims could not be independently verified, three cyber security experts said they are plausible, and the 44-year old Romanian said he was eager to cooperate with US government authorities.
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox doubled down on his criticism of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a recent interview, comparing him to Latin American dictators and calling him a "hated gringo" while also giving him the middle finger.
Fox made the obscene gesture to Trump after appearing on the Kickass Politics podcast with host Ben Mathis. The interview was pre-recorded and released Tuesday.
"He is the ugly American," he told Mathis. He is the hated gringo because hes attacking all of us. Hes offending all of us.
The former president also reiterated his criticism of Trump's proposed border wall, while comparing him to Latin American dictators Hugo Chavez and Juan Peron.
"I'm not going to pay for that f***king wall," he said.
Fox also warned if Trump starts a trade war, that Mexico could retaliate by stopping or limiting money transfers and remittance for U.S. corporations and American tourists in the country. He added that some of Trump's proposals could add not just a trade war, but a full war.
"Dont play around with us, we can jump walls, we can swim rivers, and we can defend ourselves," he told Mathis.
Its being described as a civil war, a crisis, a meltdown, a total unraveling of the Republican Party.
The mainstream media are just devouring the feuding and finger-pointing between Donald Trump and the GOP establishment. Some, such as the Morning Joe crowd, are even saying that the billionaire could lose the election if he doesnt solve this problem in the next couple of weeks.
But let me offer a contrary theory: What if the press is overhyping this and its not that big a deal?
Things are messy right now, no question about it. The sniping going on between Trump and Paul Ryan hardly creates a picture of party unity. For Trump to float the idea of replacing the House speaker as the convention chairmanand for Ryan to say hed abide by Trumps requestshows theyre not just playing pattycake.
But what if Trump can do just fine this fall without the likes of Ryan on board?
That is probably a theoretical question. The Trump camp is confident that, sometime after they meet in Washington on Thursday, the congressman will come around and back Trump, however tepidly.
Trump and his deputies believe there was no way everyone in the party would be holding hands within days and find the civil war narrative way overblown. Other Republicans are backing the real estate mogul, with some names yet to be announced.
It's a healing process that will happen over time and frankly the media's expectations that the day after the Indiana primary and everybody got out of the race everything was going to come together in one moment, it was unrealistic, convention manager Paul Manafort said on Fox News Sunday.
The story is tailor-made for the press because every day that another Republican lawmaker or honcho says no way to Trump generates fresh national and local headlines. Now that Jeb Bush, George W. Bush and their dad have landed in the #NeverTrump camp, along with Lindsey Graham, others are piping up as well.
By the way, why doesnt the press mention that Jeb and Graham are breaking the pledge they took to support the Republican nominee? Had Trump broken the pledge he eventually signed, it would be the lead story for a week.
In cold, calculating terms, how many votes would Ryan actually affect? He was, after all, part of the losing Romney ticket four years ago.
Its not so much Ryan himself as the vision of Republicanism that he represents and that other House conservatives support. The speaker and the nominee have wide differences on immigration, trade policy and entitlement programs.
These can always be papered over, as politicians are wont to do, but there is no way that Trump can back down from his core positions without alienating the 10 million Republicans who voted for him. He is adjusting his rhetoric on taxing the rich and the minimum wage, but that is part of the pivot toward the center that most nominees make.
Besides, does anyone really buy the empty ritual when a Rick Perry, who called Trump a cancer on conservatism, or a Bobby Jindal, who called him a narcissist and an egomaniac, now says hes their man?
Jeb Bush did so poorly in the primaries, and Graham even worse, that Im not sure how much their support would mean. As for the two former presidents, Trump has run explicitly against Ws Iraq war and even brought up 9/11.
More important, Trump campaigned against the Bush brand of conservatism and the incompetent leaders of both parties. That proved a powerful outsider message in a year when so many Americans are disgusted by the political system.
Obviously, Trump cant win in November without attracting the votes of some Democrats and independents, and he cant win with a completely fractured party.
But as more Republicans face the prospect of a Hillary Clinton administration, they may come around to Trump and the current feuding could fade. If not, Donald Trump is in for a long six months.
The State Department told the Republican National Committee that it could not find any emails to or from Hillary Clinton's former IT specialist, who managed her private email server during her tenure as secretary of state before going on to work for the agency, according to a court filing made public Monday.
The government's revelation in U.S. District Court in Washington came in answer to a lawsuit by the Republican National Committee. The RNC had sued over its public records request for all work-related emails sent to or received by Clinton's former aide, Bryan Pagliano, between 2009 and 2013, the years of Clinton's tenure as America's top diplomat. The lawsuit also pressed for other State Department records from the Clinton era.
The RNC's filing said lawyers for the agency had informed them in discussions that "the State Department has represented that no responsive records exist" for any Pagliano emails. Pagliano was hired at the agency after reportedly setting up Clinton's server in 2009, but the lack of any official State Department emails raises the question whether he limited his email traffic using a private account, much like Clinton did during her four years as secretary, or whether his government emails were deleted.
A State Department official said Monday that the agency possessed emails from Pagliano from the period after Clinton's term had ended, when he continued to work as a technology contractor.
Agency spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau then added Monday evening that some Pagliano emails dating from Clinton's tenure had been recovered from agency officials' files and turned over to other organizations, including Senate investigators.
"We have previously produced through FOIA and to Congress emails sent and received by Mr. Pagliano during Secretary Clinton's tenure," Trudeau said in a public statement. At least one email, which was sent in November 2012 to Clinton from Pagliano -- but possibly from his private email address -- was released as part of 30,000 Clinton emails made public by the agency over the past year.
A spokesman for the RNC said the organization stood by its description of the discussions with lawyers for the State Department. The group said in its filing that "the State Department has represented that no responsive records exist."
Raj Shah, the RNC spokesman, added, "It's hard to believe that an IT staffer who set up Hillary Clinton's reckless email server never sent or received a single work-related email in the four years he worked at the State Department." Clinton's campaign officials declined to comment in response to questions from The Associated Press.
Trudeau said the State Department is working with Congress and several public records requesters to provide relevant material. She also said agency officials continue to search for "Mr. Pagliano's emails, which the department may have otherwise retained." Trudeau also said the department would respond further to the RNC in court.
State Department officials told Senate investigators last year they could not find a file containing Pagliano's work emails during Clinton's tenure, an assertion first reported by Politico.
Fox News reported in March that Pagliano has revealed several details about Clinton's personal email system to investigators, including who had access to it as well as when and what devices were used. An intelligence source close to the case told Fox News that Pagliano has been a "devastating witness" to Clinton.
The one email sent by Pagliano that surfaced among Clinton's 30,000 emails was sent to Clinton was a November 2012 birthday greeting. He wished her "Happy Birthday Madam Secretary. To many more!"
Pagliano's email address was censored, unlike numerous official State Department addresses that are listed in Clinton's emails -- suggesting he may have sent the message from a private address.
Clinton did not reply directly to Pagliano. Instead, she sent a copy of an email to an aide with the instruction "Pls respond."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
While the White House scrambles to contain the damage caused by one of President Obama's closest aides -- who boasted of manipulating social media, journalists and friendly interest groups to sell the Iran nuclear deal -- it now is facing new questions about a portion of missing tape in which a State Department official acknowledges misleading the press on the Iran negotiations.
Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes' comments to The New York Times Magazine have sparked outrage in Washington's political and policy circles, especially re-igniting the debate over whether the White House oversold the deal to curb Iran's nuclear program.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., issued a scathing statement Monday saying the article exposed how the White House manipulated and, in some cases, manufactured facts to sell the reckless Iran nuclear deal to the American people as a prelude to large-scale disengagement from the Middle East.
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse took to the Senate floor Monday to lambaste the spin.
Now, the administration is facing further questions over a block of missing tape from a 2013 State Department briefing where top spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked by Fox News about an earlier claim that no direct, secret talks were underway between the U.S. and Iran when, in fact, they were.
In that exchange, Psaki seemed to acknowledge misleading the press, saying: There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that.
The Psaki comments, and prior department remarks, would appear to conflict with a fresh claim by Rhodes that they confirmed publicly there were discreet channels of communication established with Iran in 2012.
That Psaki exchange, however, was missing from the departments official website and its YouTube channel. The department now says it cannot explain the deletion and is working to restore the material.
Rhodes, though, maintains they did not mislead the public over the Iran deal.
In the magazine profile, published last Sunday, Rhodes and his aides are quoted describing how they disseminated White House-generated talking points about the Iran deal to generate and manipulate the public dialogue.
"We created an echo chamber," Rhodes said. "They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say."
Rhodes sought to soften the remarks on the website Medium. In a post late Sunday, he wrote that he didn't try to dupe the press or spin Washington.
"It wasn't 'spin,' It's what we believed and continue to believe, and the hallmark of the entire campaign was to push out facts," Rhodes wrote. "These were complicated issues."
The Times piece, however, quotes Rhodes lamenting the ignorance of Washington reporters. ("They literally know nothing"), and describes Rhodes -- a former aspiring novelist -- as focused on crafting a storyline and dismissing facts that don't fit.
Rhodes also appears to try to keep secret news that Iran had seized 10 U.S. Navy sailors until after the president's State of the Union speech.
In his statement Monday, McCain, a long-time critic of the Iran pact, said the Times piece "provided a troubling glimpse of the White House spin machine that has put sustaining 'the narrative' above advancing the national interest."
White House spokesman Josh Earnest has said Rhodes' concern about the timing of the disclosure of seizure of the sailors in January was primarily about the sailors' safety not about concerns that the news would interfere with the president's speech. He said he was certain Rhodes would recast his description of the Washington press corps.
"I assure you that's not how it was intended, and based on that reaction I'm confident he would say it differently if given the chance," he said.
Fox News James Rosen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Efforts by K-12 schools to give every student a laptop computer increased student achievement and gave a modest boost to their 21st century skills, according to a first-of-its-kind meta-analysis of 15 years worth of research studies.
Its not like just providing a laptop to every student will automatically increase student achievement, but we find that its the first step, said Binbin Zheng , an assistant professor of counseling, educational psychology, and special education at Michigan State University.
Using statistical techniques to analyze already-completed studies, Zheng and her colleagues found that 1-to-1 laptop programs on average had a statistically significant positive impact on student test scores in English/language arts, writing, math and science. The limited number of rigorous quantitative studies available to analyze mean that those findings are not definitive, but they are clearly a good sign for 1-to-1 proponents and underscore the need for more study, Zheng said.
A further review of 86 additional papers by the researchers, meanwhile, found some modest evidence of other positive benefits associated with giving laptops to students, including increased student technology use; more student-centered and project-based instruction; greater student engagement; and better relationships between students and teachers.
The analysis focused solely on 1-to-1 laptop efforts. The researchers cautioned that their results are not generalizable to other devices such as tablets, desktop computers, and smartphones.
The new findings run counter to the skepticism about educational technology expressed by many researchers and practitioners. A raft of prior studies, for example, have shown that even when technology is present in classrooms, teachers are slow to transform their practice , instead using technology primarily to make administrative tasks and existing forms of instruction more efficient.
The new analysis has the potential to reshape the debate about ed-techs impact, said Elliot Soloway, a computer science professor at Michigan University who has spent decades studying classroom technology.
This is one of those definitive studies that comes along every 20 years, Soloway said. Schools are going to use [the findings] to justify the move to 1-to-1.
Rapid Growth of 1-to-1 Student Computing
One-to-one student computing was first introduced to K-12 schools in the United States in the late 1990s. In 2002, Maine became the first state to launch a statewide program.
The trend has since gathered steam : In 2013 and 2014 alone, schools purchased more than 23 million laptops, tablets, and Chromebooks for use by students and teachers in the classroom (and sometimes at home.)
Generally, the goal is to enable teachers and software to deliver more personalized content to students, to boost students technology skills, and to empower children to do more complex and creative work.
A handful of high-profile 1-to-1 disasters resulting from poor purchasing plans, bad planning, and a lack of clear academic vision have raised questions for schools about the wisdom of the approach, however.
And some research has been less than encouraging . A 2009 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics, for example, found that classroom technology was used for practice of basic skills far more often than for design and creation. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that countries where 15-year old students use computers most in the classroom scored the worst on international math and reading tests.
In an attempt to definitively determine the impact of K-12 1-to-1 initiatives, Zheng and her colleagues reviewed 96 journal articles and doctoral dissertations published between January 2001 and May 2015.
Just 10 of those studies met the researchers criteria for inclusion in the statistical meta-analysis of 1-to-1 laptop initiatives impact on student achievement, reflecting the still-very-limited research base on student computing initiatives.
A disproportionate amount of the research to date on this topic consists of small case studies in one or a handful of schools, Zheng and her colleagues wrote in their study, titled Learning in One-to-One Laptop Environments: A Meta-Analysis and Research Synthesis , published online earlier this year in the academic journal Review of Educational Research.
Still, there were enough historical findings to conclude that 1-to-1 laptop programs helped improve students academic achievement by an overall effect size of .16 standard deviationsa figure that Zheng said indicates statistical significance, but is noticeably less than the effect sizes of other established interventions, such as small class sizes or individual tutoring.
The researchers found the following effect sizes for specific subjects:
English/language arts, by .15 standard deviations
Writing, by .20 standard deviations
Math, by .17 standard deviations
Science, by .25 standard deviations.
Reading, by .12 standard deviations
The impact on students reading achievement was positive, but not statistically significant. Only two studies included science results that could be analyzed.
The results are small but noteworthy, Zheng said.
Measuring Impact Beyond Test Scores
The researchers also looked beyond test scores, reviewing 85 additional studies that did include an empirical examination of 1-to-1 laptop initiatives impact in K-12 schools, but did not include an experimental design and/or quantitative results.
Among the findings from that review:
A 1-to-1 laptop environment often led to increased frequency and breadth of student technology use, typically for writing, Internet research, note-taking, completing assignments, and reading.
Students used laptops extensively throughout the writing process, expanding the genres and formats of their work to include writing for email, chats, blogs, wikis, and the like.
Student-centered, individualized, and project-based learning appeared to increase in at least some instances of 1-to-1 laptop rollouts.
Student-teacher communications (via email and Google docs, for example) and parental involvement in their childrens school work increased in some instances.
Students expressed very positive attitudes about using laptops in the classroom, as findings consistently showed higher student engagement, motivation, and persistence when laptops were deployed to all students.
Students technology and problem-solving skills improved and their ownership of their own learning increased, according to some evidence.
There were mixed findings on whether 1-to-1 laptop programs helped overcome inequities among students and schools.
Those results should be interpreted with caution, the researchers said, because they tended to rely on observation, survey, and interview data.
There was a wide consensus in the studies we reviewed that use of laptops promotes 21st-century learning skills, the authors wrote. However, studies rarely attempted to operationalize and systematically measure the growth of 21st-century skills in laptop students compared with control students.
Leslie Wilson, the CEO of the One-to-One Institute, a nonprofit that consults with schools and districts, said she was thrilled to see the new research, though she cautioned that educational leaders shouldnt leap to conclude that going 1-to-1 is enough on its own to increase student achievement.
For such a program to be effective, she said, schools must focus on crafting comprehensive plans that cover everything from infrastructure to curriculum to pedagogy to professional development.
And the real benefits of giving every student an access to a computer, contended Soloway of the University of Michigan, come when school move from instructive to constructive learning, or from teaching kids to remember something to teaching them how to figure something out.
To best measure the extent to which that change is taking place, Zheng said, researchers and educators will have to look beyond standardized test scores.
Hopefully, she said, the new research will prompt further effort to develop assessments for students digital literacy skills, as well as their creativity, independence, and leadership.
Many of the benefits of 1-to-1 laptop programs are not detected by standardized tests, Zheng said. For the many programs whose purpose is to help students be a better 21st-century citizen, we need to develop and use corresponding measurements.
See also:
Beware of saying anything bad about Hillary Clinton online you may end up confronted by a multimillion-dollar super PAC working to shut you down on social media.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Correct the Record run by Clinton ally David Brock is spending a million dollars to challenge social media users tweeting and posting negative things about their candidate.
The plan is being put in place in part to address the enthusiasm gap between Clinton supporters and those backing rival Bernie Sanders known for their ability to dominate the social media space as well as the passionate supporters of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
The organization says the new team has already engaged with 5,000 Clinton critics.
According to Correct The Records website, the Barrier Breakers 2016 program will push back against attackers on social media platforms using a task force that includes former reporters, bloggers and PR specialists.
The Barrier Breakers 2016 digital task force will serve as a resource for supporters looking for positive content and push-back to share with their online progressive communities, as well as thanking prominent supporters and committed superdelegates on social media, the website says.
But critics claim Correct the Record has skirted laws barring super PACs from working with candidates by exploiting a loophole allowing coordination with purely digital campaigns. The move also has been criticized as a play to mimic the grassroots support behind Sanders.
That is what the Clinton campaign has always been about," Brian Donahue, chief executive of the consulting firm Craft Media/Digital, told The Times. "It runs the risk of being exactly what their opponents accuse them of being: a campaign that appears to be populist but is a smokescreen that is paid and brought to you by lifetime political operatives and high-level consultants.
A spokesperson for the super PAC told the Times the effort is only engaged in positive content, even when responding to offensive content, and is always identified as Correct the Record.
Click for more from the LA Times.
The Pentagon announced Tuesday that it had sent a warship near a disputed reef in the South China Sea, representing a new warning to China over Beijing's territorial claims in the region.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a senior defense official, reported that the USS William P. Lawrence, a guided-missile destroyer, navigated within 12 nautical miles of Fiery Cross reef, part of the Spratly chain of islands. The Defense Department, in a statement quoted by Reuters, said the operation was to "challenge excessive maritime claims of some claimants in the South China Sea".
The official told the Journal that the Lawrence took one pass past Fiery Cross Reef in a routine operation. It was not immediately clear whether Chinese military or civilian officials attempted to make contact with the ship.
There was no immediate comment from Beijing.
Tuesday marked the third time in less than a year the U.S. had conducted a so-called freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea.
Chinese officials have insisted that they have no plans to militarize the Spratly Islands. China President Xi Jianping made a pledge to that effect when he visited the White House in September.
However, China landed civilian jets on Fiery Cross reef in January to test a new 10,000 foot runway, a move seen as more evidence that Beijing is increasing its military presence in the region.
In February, Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told Congress that China was clearly militarizing its South China Sea claims, saying, "You would have to believe in a flat earth to think otherwise."
Though China's claims have drawn the most attention, the Journal reports that Tuesday's operation, known as an "innocent passage" was technically meant to counter ccompeting claims by Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.
In addition to the warship operations, the U.S. Air Force sent A-10 warthog attack planes close to Scarborough Shoal, a move which led Beijing to accuse the U.S. of inflaming tensions in the region.
The Pentagon is concerned about China's recent surveying of Scarborough Shoal, which sits just 150 miles west of the Philippines. That makes it the closest group of contested islands to any US ally.
Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, told a Council on Foreign Relations forum last week that the Navy's freedom of navigation operations sailing warships close to Chinese man-made islands are working. Their aim is to advocate for an international set of rules that ensures the free flow of goods and services in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, he said.
"They don't extend beyond that. There's just a pure advocacy for that system. So we design those very carefully. It's a policy decision that is made, interwoven with those other elements of power. So I think both aircraft, ships are ready to execute those as they fit into the plan," he said.
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.
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Buzz Cut:
W.Va. primary reveals deep divides for November
Hillary wont answer on Bubbas affairs
Trump team, RNC in takeover talks
What should we get to celebrate?
W.VA. PRIMARY REVEALS DEEP DIVIDES FOR NOVEMBER
Its primary day in the Mountain State. And while theres no suspense on the GOP side in West Virginia (and never really has been), the race stands to be much closer between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
Theres something instructive here about party unity. Few could have expected that on this date Clinton would still be slogging along against the quirkily quixotic campaign of her socialist rival while Trump would have already dispatched his last rival.
But todays vote tells us something about the general election, too. And conservatives silently (or not so silently) hoping and expecting Clinton will humiliate Trump in November ought to pay attention.
The truth that will be revealed today is that Clinton is in dire condition with white voters, particularly white men. Sanders hasnt been leading the polls in West Virginia because of his politics, in fact the opposite. He has been leading because there is a cultural revolt going on among working class white voters, especially men. And you would be hard pressed to find a purer core sample of working-class whites than West Virginia.
We see evidence of the same trend in new Quinnipiac University polls of voters in two of West Virginias neighboring states, Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well as the swing-state bonanza of Florida.
GOP standard bearer Donald Trump and Clinton are essentially tied in all three states, a big improvement on not just what Trumps foes expected but also where Mitt Romney began four years ago. Romney, for example, trailed President Obama by 8 points in the Pennsylvania Q poll at the start of May 2012. Trump trails Clinton by 1 point.
White people are proving costly in the literal sense for Clinton, too. Initially, Team Clinton said that April would be their last month of burning cash on primary races, but the campaign has now reportedly bought airtime in Kentucky ahead of their primary there next week.
The main reason is that white Democrats just wont give in. Thats partly about Clinton, but also a great deal about Trump, whose message is being turned daily more and more toward disaffected white men: trade, taxes, immigration, foreign policy and, now, what he describes as the victimization of men in modern America.
I mean. All of the men, were petrified to speak to women anymore. We may raise our voice, Trump told his supporters in Washington state over the weekend. You know what? The women get it better than we do folks. They get it better than we do. If she didnt play that card, she has nothing.
Not surprisingly, the divides on gender and ethnic lines in the Quinnipiac results are roughly the depth of the Marianas Trench: Clinton leads Trump by 19 points with women in Pennsylvania, but trails by 21 points among men. In Ohio, she leads by 7 points with women but is 15 points behind among men. In Florida its a perfectly symmetrical 13-point gap on each side.
Among non-white voters, it is even starker. Trump gets 33 percent of non-whites in Florida but just 14 percent in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The question for Trump is whether there are enough white men and in enough key states to pull out a victory. Probably not, especially given the struggles he will face in prosperous and diverse states in the southern tier like Georgia, Arizona and maybe even Texas. In those places a coalition of women and non-white voters ought to give Trump plenty of trouble.
In that version of this reboot of the Battle of the Sexes, Bobby Riggs loses again.
But these numbers suggest that this might not be the tidy sweep that Trumps foes right and left have hoped for. Team Clinton knows it, as her super PAC gets ready to open the bomb bay doors on Trump even earlier than expected.
Theres a point of instruction here for heartsick Republicans who wonder if the country might be better off with the Democrat this time around: theres a chance that you will be forced to make an affirmative choice rather than just watching it all burn.
If your opposition to Trump was rooted in his viability, Trump may, for a time at least, make you eat your words.
[Watch Fox: Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier bring you the latest results from tonights primary races starting at 6 p.m. ET]
WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE
Cyberhacking for ransom at medical facilities has been in the news a lot lately, but this issue isnt a new problem so much as an evolution. The Atlantic: The year was 1989, and the AIDS epidemic was in full swing. The number of reported AIDS cases had hit 100,000 for the first time. An evolutionary biologist named Joseph Popp came up with a computer-based questionnaire he said would help determine patients risk of contracting AIDS, and he distributed 20,000 copies of it to researchers in 90 countries. But the surveys on Popps floppy disks were a rusetheir computers became infected with what would come to be known as a digital version of the AIDS virusThe virus scrambled the contents of the victims computers and offered to unlock them only in return for a licensing fee. Soon, security researchers produced antidotes that would recover the files locked away by the virusThe biologist was soon arrested and charged with blackmail in the U.K.
Got a TIP from the RIGHT or the LEFT? Email FoxNewsFirst@FOXNEWS.COM
POLL CHECK
Real Clear Politics Averages
General Election: Clinton vs. Trump: Clinton +6.4 points
Generic Congressional Vote: Democrats +2.3
HILLARY WONT ANSWER ON BUBBAS AFFAIRS
LAT: Hillary Clinton refused on Tuesday to address Donald Trumps claims that she helped enable her husbands bad behavior with women. I have nothing to say about him and how hes running his campaign, she said to reporters who asked about Trump during a campaign stop at a Virginia coffeeshop. Trump raised the issue of Bill Clintons infidelities during a recent campaign rally in Oregon. She was a total enabler, Trump said. She would go after these women and destroy their lives.
TRUMP TEAM, RNC IN TAKEOVER TALKS
Politico: Donald Trumps campaign is hashing out details of an agreement with Republican Party leaders that could allow the presumptive GOP presidential nominee to raise six-figure checks for his campaign, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations have told POLITICO. The fundraising agreement was among the subjects discussed at a Monday meeting of top Republican National Committee officials, including Chairman Reince Priebus, and senior Trump aides, including campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, senior adviser Paul Manafort and political director Rick Wiley, according to the sources. The meeting was held at the RNCs Washington offices. The talks represent the first formal steps toward a merger between the official apparatus of the party and a candidate whom many party leaders scorned until recently, and about whom there remains deep leeriness in some Republican quarters.
RACE NOTES
Marco Rubio slammed the door hard on talk in Trumpghanistan that the Florida was seeking a spot as Trumps running mate - Red State
Trump praises Londons Muslim mayor, would make exception in travel ban - Reuters
Trumps self-funding comes to an end, turns to GOP for help - NYT
How Trump is running to Hillarys left - WaPo
Trump tries to woo Teamsters from Dems - WashEx
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will lead Trumps transition team - WSJ
Ben Carson running point for Trump ahead of Thursday meeting with Speaker Paul Ryan - WaPo
Trump will meet with other GOP leaders Thursday in Washington - WashEx
Jeffrey Frank pauses to consider what Jack Kemp means in Trumps new Republican Party - New Yorker
WITHIN EARSHOT
People said I want to go and buy debt and default on debt these people are crazy. This is the United States government. First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK? So theres never a default. Donald Trump in an interview with CNN
WHAT SHOULD WE GET TO CELEBRATE?
Oregonian: A Salem man whose life was likely saved by the thoughtful actions of Dominos pizza employees is the stores No. 1 customer, an assistant manager said. She said Dominos employees were concerned about Kirk Alexander, a regular customer whos been ordering from a Salem store for more than a decade, because they hadnt heard from him in 11 days. They sent a delivery driver to Alexanders home early Sunday morning, she said, and eventually decided to call 911. Marion County sheriffs deputies were dispatched to the home, heard a man calling for help and found Alexander suffering from medical problems that could have ended his life, said Lt. Chris Baldridge, sheriffs office spokesman. [The manager] said the loyal customer doesnt have a standard order: Hell get pasta, pizza, sandwiches and wings. The employees are happy Alexanders OK, she said
AND NOW A WORD FROM CHARLES
We heard [Donald Trump] say, yes, Im a conservative, but the party is not necessarily a conservative party. -- Charles Krauthammer on Special Report with Bret Baier
Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Sally Persons contributed to this report. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.
Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland detailed his most significant cases in thousands of pages of documents submitted to Congress Tuesday, including his role as a federal prosecutor in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case and the prosecution of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.
The lengthy questionnaire isn't likely to sway many minds in Congress, where Republicans have insisted on delaying the Supreme Court fight until after the presidential election. But the White House still had Garland fill out a questionnaire, and the committee posted the document online, as is routine with nominations.
Garland is currently the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Garland's account of his most significant opinions as a judge includes one that upheld a ban on campaign contributions from federal contractors. Another affirmed the application of the Endangered Species Act to a commercial real estate project that threatened a protected toad. Two others sided with people mounting job discrimination lawsuits.
In his long career on the bench and as a Justice Department official before that, Garland developed a reputation for being pro-prosecutor and pro-government.
But in his listing of significant opinions, he includes one case in which he voted to throw out a criminal conviction for a drug trafficking conspiracy, a second dissenting opinion in which he would have allowed lawsuits to continue against private contractors over allegations of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and a third that sided with a Uighur detainee at Guantanamo Bay who challenged his status as an "enemy combatant."
He also cites his role as a federal prosecutor Oklahoma City bombing and Unabomber cases as a lawyer before becoming a judge, noting that both were convicted. McVeigh was executed, while Kaczynski was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
In the thousands of pages of documents, he also lists details of his work experience, his biographical background, his memberships and associations, his most significant cases, pro bono work and financial information.
Garland reported that he was first called by the White House about the Supreme Court vacancy on Feb. 29 -- 16 days after Justice Antonin Scalia's death. He said he was interviewed by President Barack Obama on March 9, a week before Obama announced his nomination.
The White House said the questionnaire is intended to present "an exhaustive picture" of Garland's service on the bench and of his "impeccable credentials."
The questionnaire is a standard early step in the vetting of any judicial nominee. The lengthy survey typically is drafted by the committee, completed by the nominee, and then reviewed and made public by the committee in advance of committee hearings. In this case, the Senate Judiciary Committee didn't send a questionnaire to Garland because Republicans said they have no intention of acting on his nomination. So the White House had Garland fill out what it described as a standard form and sent it, unsolicited, to the committee.
So in Garland's atypical nomination, the questionnaire has become another tool in the White House pressure campaign. Senate Republicans have maintained that the next president should choose the Scalia's replacement.
Shortly after the questionnaire was posted online, Senate Democrats used it to call once more on Republicans to hold hearings and vote. In a news conference, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee warned Republicans that presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump could pick the next justice.
Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin joked that Trump might bring television personality Judge Judy out of retirement. "I don't want to make light of the situation because it's extremely serious," Durbin said. "But imagining Donald Trump picking a Supreme Court justice is something I never thought would cross my mind."
Garland has been meeting privately with senators on so-called courtesy visits and conducted some prep sessions with the White House.
He was scheduled to meet Tuesday with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, the White House said.
"We expect that upon receiving the questionnaire, Senate Judiciary Committee members will do their jobs by reviewing the information, scheduling a hearing so that the American people can hear directly from Chief Judge Garland as he answers questions under oath, and giving him a fair up or down vote," Hoffine said.
Garland plans to continue his meetings with lawmakers this week. Garland is slated to meet Wednesday with Democratic Sens. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Tom Carper of Delaware, then Thursday with Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the White House said.
A Wyoming man threatened with $16 million in fines over the building of a stock pond reached a settlement with the Environment Protection Agency, allowing him to keep the pond without a federal permit or hefty fine.
Andy Johnson, of Fort Bridger, Wyoming obtained a state permit before building the stock pond in 2012 on his sprawling nine-acre farm for a small herd of livestock.
Not long after contruction, the EPA threatened Johnson with civil and criminal penalties including the threat of a $37,500-a-day fine -- claiming he needed the agency's permission before building the 40-by-300 foot pond, which is filled by a natural stream.
"It was very threatening," Johnson, a professional welder and married father of four, said of the EPA's compliance order against him.
"I was shocked and devastated and I didnt know what to do," Johnson told FoxNews.com Tuesday. "Im sitting there thinking, 'Im the only provider for my whole family. How can I fight this?'"
On Monday, lawyers representing Johnson announced that the federal government agreed to resolve the case and a federal court has approved.
Under the settlement, Johnson's pond will remain and he won't pay any fines or concede any federal jurisdiction to regulate the pond. And the government won't pursue any further enforcement actions based on the pond's construction.
The only conditions, according to Johnson's lawyers, are that willow trees be planted around the pond and a partial fence installed to "control livestock."
"This is a victory for common sense and the environment, and it brings an end to all the uncertainty and fear that the Johnson family faced, said Jonathan Wood, a staff attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation who represented Andy Johnson in his court challenge to the EPA, and in negotiating the settlement.
"The EPA never identified any environmental problems with the pond," Wood told FoxNews.com. "In fact, it's been a boom for the environment."
An EPA spokesman was not immediately available for comment when contacted Tuesday. The government had said Johnson violated the Clean Water Act by building a dam on a creek without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers and claimed material from his pond was being discharged into other waterways.
As the EPA was demanding the pond be ripped out, Ray Kagel, a former federal regulator, claimed it was a benefit to the environment by creating wetlands, habitat for fish and wildlife -- and cleaned the water that passes through it.
Wood said Tuesday that the EPA has a "broad interpretation" of the Clean Water Act and noted that federal law clearly exempts stock ponds from the rules of the agency.
Under Supreme Court precedent, the federal government can regulate waters only if they have a "significant nexus" to navigable waters. Johnson's pond drains to a manmade irrigation ditch, where the water is used for agriculture, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation.
"The only thing he has to do is plant willows around the pond and put in a partial fence to control livestock," Wood said. "The irony of this case is the government has insisted all along this isnt a stock pond."
Over the last four years, the pond has served as a safe and easily accessible water supply for his angus steers and horses. It's also become a natural home for various fish -- including brook and brown trout -- and a regular stop for water fowl and moose.
Johnson said he hopes his legal case will give hope to others who might face similar battles in the future.
This is a huge victory for us as well as private property owners across the country, Johnson said.
The next family that finds itself in our situation, facing ominous threats from EPA, can take heart in knowing that many of these threats will not come to pass," he said. "If, like us, you stand up to the overreaching bureaucrats, they may very well back down."
Despite its rows and rows of chisel- and needle-like teeth, a newly described prehistoric marine reptile wasn't a fearsome predator but rather an herbivorous giant that acted like a lawnmower for the sea, a new study finds.
The crocodile-size reptile lived about 242 million years ago, during the Middle Triassic period. Researchers discovered the first specimen in 2014 in southern China, but because it was poorly preserved, they reported that it had a beak like a flamingo's.
Now, two newly discovered specimens show that the beast was far more bizarre: It sported a hammerhead-shaped snout that it likely used to graze on plants lining the ocean floor, the researchers said. It's also the earliest herbivorous marine reptile on record by about 8 million years, they said.
"I haven't seen anything like it before," said study co-researcher Olivier Rieppel, the Rowe family curator of evolutionary biology at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
Weird reptile
The reptile's name Atopodentatus unicus hints at its weird anatomy. In Latin, the genus and species names translate to "unique strangely toothed," the researchers said. The newly analyzed specimens show that the creature had a mouthful of chisel-shaped teeth one row on the upper jaw and two rows on the lower jaw.
"The remaining parts of the jaw [are filled with] densely packed needle-shaped teeth forming a mesh," the researchers wrote in the study, published online May 6 in the journal Science Advances. This mesh likely helped A. unicus collect plant material, much like a baleen whale catches krill, said Louis Jacobs, a vertebrate paleontologist at Southern Methodist University in Texas who was not involved in the study.
The chisel-like teeth probably acted as a rake and trimmer, helping A. unicus scrape and dislodge plants from the seafloor, Jacobs said. Next, the reptile likely sucked in a mouthful of water, letting bits of plants get stuck in the mesh formed by its thin, needle-like teeth, he said.
"Then, they squish the water out of their mouth, and those little teeth along the sides of the jaw and on the roof of the mouth strain out all of the plant bits," Jacobs told Live Science. "That's an amazing way to feed. I'd like to do that myself."
Rare beast
The two new specimens are teaching scientists about herbivorous marine reptiles, which are rare even today. One of the few modern herbivorous marine reptiles includes the marine iguana of the Galapagos, which swims around, plucking algae off of marine rocks for food, Jacobs said.
There are also a few herbivorous marine mammals, such as manatees and dugongs, and the extinct marine mammals known as the Desmostylians (which Jacobs helped describe in a 2015 study published in the journal Historical Biology.) But, in general, marine reptiles are omnivores or carnivores, such as most modern sea turtles and the extinct marine predators, the ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.
"[A. unicus] is so surprising because it is very rare, that anything besides fish living in water would be herbivorous," Jacobs told Live Science.
A. unicus also tells researchers about how life recovered after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction about 252 million years ago.
"The existence of specialized animals like Atopodentatus unicus shows us that life recovered and diversified more quickly than previously thought," Rieppel said in a statement. "And it's definitely a reptile that no one would have thought to exist. Look at it it's crazy!"
Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
On Saturday, a Star Alliance flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Billings, Montana, when one of the passengers onboard died.
According to the Billings Gazette, a female passenger from California was on a flight from Chicago to San Francisco when she suffered a medical emergency. The flight crew on the Star Alliance plane notified officials at Billings Logan International Airport at around 9:30 p.m. local time that the Boeing 737 would be making an emergency landing in Montana.
When the medical emergency occurred, the plane was above South Dakota and arrived in Billings about 30 minutes later. At the airport, emergency crews and paramedics prepared to assist with the situation.
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When the plane landed in Montana, paramedics boarded the aircraft and pronounced the woman dead at the scene. Billings airport supervisor Mike Glancy told the Billings Gazette that he did not know if the woman died during the flight or after it landed.
Once safely on the ground, the remaining passengers deplaned, and the aircraft was inspected and refueled by mechanics. After being cleared by airport personnel, the passengers were then allowed to re-enter the plane, and it departed for its destination in San Francisco at around midnight.
The plane landed safely in San Francisco at about 1:20 a.m. local time.
A female passenger says she was molested by another woman while flying from Las Vegas to Portland, Ore. on Sunday night.
According to The Smoking Gun, the alleged victim, whose name has not been released, was flying home on an Alaska Airlines flight when the incident occurred.
During the flight, the accuser told airline personnel that her breasts and genitals had been touched by passenger Heidi McKinney and that the alleged contact was not consensual.
Upon landing at Portland International Airport, the suspect was met by police, arrested, and taken into custody.
McKinney, who has previously been charged with drunk driving, reckless driving, and being a minor in possession of alcohol, was charged with third-degree sexual abuse and booked into the Multnomah County jail, where her bail was set at $2500.
According to Oregon law, the charge is a Class A misdemeanor. Today, state prosecutors announced that they will not pursue a criminal case against McKinney, but have referred the matter to the U.S. Attorneys Office to be prosecuted at the federal level.
Oklahoma's governor declared a state of emergency Tuesday evening for 15 counties that were affected by a mix of tornadoes, flooding and severe storms that caused two deaths and destroyed homes on Monday.
Gov. Mary Fallin's order will permit state agencies to make emergency purchases and acquisitions to expedite the delivery of resources to affected communities.
The counties included in the emergency declaration are: Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, Cleveland, Coal, Comanche, Garvin, Johnson, Kay, McCurtain, Murray, Noble, Payne, Stephens and Tillman.
Officials in Garvin County, south of Oklahoma City, said a man believed to be in his upper 70s died Monday when a tornado hit a home near Wynnewood. Just to the southeast, in Johnston County, the sheriff's office said a man was killed by a tornado near Connerville.
The Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management reported the storms destroyed a radio station building in Coal County and an undetermined number of homes in Murray, Garvin and Johnston counties. Murray County Emergency Management Director Gary Ligon said one person was injured.
Surveyors from the National Weather Service found damage consistent with an EF3 tornado in Garvin and Murray Counties.
An EF3 tornado carries wind speeds of 136-165 mph.
Forecasters had declared a "tornado emergency" for the communities of Roff, population 725, and Hickory, population 71, though both towns were spared major damage.
Dana Lance was driving through Roff on her way home from work Monday when the skies grew ominous, sirens wailed and forecasters on the radio told people to take cover. "I parked and went into the school, which has a safe room," Lance said. "There were kids and elderly people, dogs and cats, babies. It was like the whole town was there."
In Hugo, near the Red River, Charles Webb piled one of his dogs and one of his cats in the laundry room Monday and hunkered down as the storm came over his house, clipping trees and spinning up debris. Webb said he emerged from his home minutes later to see blue skies.
"We're real lucky, but we've been lucky for a lot of years, fortunately," Webb said Monday.
In the rolling hills between Oklahoma City and Dallas, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol closed Interstate 35 near Wynnewood for 15 minutes Monday so the storm could pass.
Jessica Randolph, a cashier at the Love's Travel Stop in Paul's Valley, Okla., said the tornado came so close that managers ordered employees and customers to take shelter.
"They put us in the showers," Randolph said. "I drove in when all of that was going on. All we had was pea-sized hail."
Despite the danger, Randolph said she has seen severe weather before and wasn't frightened by the experience.
"Not for me. I'm used to it," she said.
The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down in central Iowa, with no immediate reports of damage, and another hit near Nehawka, Neb., about 30 miles south of Omaha.
Sandy Weyers, the director of the Cass County (Neb.) Emergency Management office, said a homeowner didn't make it inside by the time the tornado arrived so he grabbed onto a tree and "rode it out." Weyers said the man suffered only cuts and scrapes, while the home was a total loss after the roof and four outer walls gave way.
Another storm system should bring storms to the area from north Texas to near St. Louis on Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Latest on the death of a St. Louis man and Tulane University graduate who was found dead shot to death in New Orleans (all times local):
4 p.m.
The New Orleans police chief says investigators believe robbery was a motive in the weekend shooting death of a St. Louis man visiting the city to plan his wedding.
Police Chief Michael Harrison held a news conference Monday to discuss the death of 25-year-old Thomas Rolfes, a Tulane University graduate who was in the city with his fiancee to choose a wedding venue. He said injuries on Rolfes' hands indicated there may have been a struggle. Rolfes' body was found about 4:30 a.m. Saturday near a convenience store where surveillance video showed him buying two bottles of water an hour before. He earlier had been with friends at a bar nearly two miles away.
In a Facebook posting, former Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Rolfes, whose fiancee is from Boston, had worked in his 2012 campaign. Romney called the death "a senseless and tragic loss." ___
8 a.m.
Police say that a man who was found shot to death in New Orleans over the weekend had come to the city to plan his wedding.
News outlets, quoting family members, are reporting that 25-year-old Thomas Rolfes was in New Orleans to find a venue for his wedding next year to Elizabeth Fried when his body was found early Saturday. The New Orleans Police Department said he had been shot in the chest and died at the scene.
The pair met at Tulane University, where both were students.
The victim's brother, Ron "Tripp" Rolfes, was quoted as saying that the family wants to find his killer and believe Thomas was mugged.
Black, Latino, and Native American males face a complex web of circumstances that can explain why they are overrepresented among students with low grades, low test scores, and disciplinary problems, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.
The paper, titled Aiming Higher Together, makes the case that boys and young men of color face a systemic predicament, beginning at birth, that places them at risk for underperformance in school and life, writes the reports author, Ronald Ferguson, the director of Harvards Achievement Gap Initiative and a national expert on improving learning opportunities for disadvantaged children.
Its like being ensnared in a web and you just cant quite get out of it, Ferguson said in an interview with Education Week. Its not that you cant escape. A young person with lots of family support, resources, and determination can avoid a lot of that ... but this is very structural and systemic.
While acknowledging that there have always been males of color who excel academically, Ferguson makes the case that black, Latino, and Native American students face political, sociological, psychological, and economic barriers to success that cut across socioeconomic status.
Chief among those barriers, according to Ferguson:
They arrive to kindergarten less prepared than white males.
Theyre at higher risk for out-of-school suspensions because of disparate discipline policies. Theyre often stuck in schools where access to orderly, well-functioning classrooms is scarce.
They interact with teachers and administrators who make judgments about them based on negative race and gender stereotypes.
They encounter peer pressure that leads them to misbehave and hold back from doing their best in class.
Combined, those factors create what Ferguson calls the predicament. Dismantling it will require an empathetic response in schools and an investment of public and private resources to create conditions in homes, schools, and communities that enable achievement rather than stifling it, he says.
This is not about blame, Ferguson said. The conversation we need to have is about the opportunities we have to help these young people reach their potential.
The Urban Institute commissioned the report to compliment work in support of President Barack Obamas My Brothers Keeper initiative, which he launched in 2014 to address the needs of nonwhite boys and young men.
Fergusons report aims to address pathways to achieve three goals of the initiative; that all children enter school ready to learn, that they read at grade level by 3rd grade, and that they graduate from high school.
The report recommends helping parents prepare children for formal schooling by focusing on their early cognitive development, training educators who work with males of color to recognize their biases and check them at the door, and mobilizing community support and resources behind efforts such as My Brothers Keeper to nurture the students.
In every interaction we have with boys and young men of color, we want to remove the counterproductive, less healthy aspects, Ferguson said.
That includes interaction with their peers. In surveys Ferguson conducted for the report, students self-reported that they often misbehave because they fear the social consequences of not fitting in. But when Ferguson asked what types of behaviors should be considered acceptable, the answers were much different.
Its as if theres a collective script, he said. Everybody is handed their part, and is responsible for learning it, even if they dont like it.
Graphic Credit: Urban Institute
2000784 Aiming Higher Together Strategizing Better Educational Outcomes for Boys and Young Men of Color by corey_c_mitchell
Authorities say a rescue team has found the body of an Arizona State University professor who had been reported missing from a northern Arizona campground.
BREAKING: Missing hiker and ASU professor Debra Schwartz found dead below rim of Oak Creek Canyon. pic.twitter.com/RiyUwQfn7I FOX 10 Phoenix (@FOX10Phoenix) May 8, 2016
Coconino County Sheriff's officials say in a news release the body of 59-year-old Debra Ann Schwartz was found about 11:10 a.m. Sunday in an unnamed slot canyon. She was about a half-mile from her camping spot in the Pine Flat Campground in Oak Creek Canyon.
The sheriff's office received a call from the campground about 9 a.m. Friday when Schwartz failed to check out as scheduled.
Search teams had to rappel to reach Schwartz's body. Sheriff's officials say she was found in extremely rough terrain.
A cause and manner of death have not been determined. Schwartz, of Tempe, taught English at ASU.
Click for more from Fox 10.
At least eight passengers were injured Monday when a JetBlue flight experienced turbulence while flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Orlando, Florida, officials said.
JetBlue spokesman Doug McGraw told WESH that medical personnel met the flight when it arrived at Orlando International Airport at 8:52 p.m.
He said eight people were taken to a hospital for further evaluation.
No further details were immediately available.
An Arkansas judge accused of carrying on inappropriate sexual relationships with defendants for the past three decades resigned Monday after being notified that sexually explicit photos had been recovered from his computer.
Fox 16 reported that part-time Cross County District Judge Joe Boeckmann's resignation was effective immediately. In his resignation letter, Boeckmann vowed that he would "never seek employment as a local, county or state employee or public servant in the State of Arkansas."
According to documents seen by Fox 16, the state's Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission had notified Boeckmann that its investigators had identified defendants among the young men photographed posing nude inside and outside his home. The documents also alleged that Boeckmann had paid some of the men while they were appearing on his district court docket.
Further, the documents said the photos also showed evidence that some of the men had been paddled. The commission had planned to file a subpoena asking Boeckmann to turn over the paddle.
"He's a criminal predator who used his judicial power to feed his corrupt desires. Every minute he served as a judge was an insult to the Arkansas Judiciary," David Sachar, the commission's executive director, told the Associated Press.
The former judge has not been charged with a crime, though Sachar said he had turned parts of the information over to the Arkansas State Police, a special state prosecutor and federal authorities. He said since part of the allegations stretched to when Boeckmann was a private attorney and a deputy prosecutor, the commission will contact the Arkansas Judiciary's Committee on Professional Conduct to investigate including allegations from at least one witness that Boeckmann tried to pay him not to speak with investigators.
Sachar said investigators also found hundreds of checks written from the judge's personal and professional accounts paying defense attorneys and court fines for defendants. He said the commission is considering whether to turn those records over to the Internal Revenue Service or the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.
The panel alleges Boeckmann showed preferential treatment to white men and allowed sentencing not recorded on court dockets, including performing the task of picking up trash at his home. He's accused of coercing some of the men into sexual acts ranging from spanking to masturbating on camera in return for paying their attorney fees or forgiving their fines.
One man, whose name was withheld, said Boeckmann handled his case involving a child custody allegation.
The man told the commission that Boeckmann drove him to the Cross County Courthouse, took him into a courtroom and told him to strip naked. The judge then handcuffed him and took pictures of him naked in various positions, the man said.
The commission launched a more than yearlong investigation after an Arkansas Department of Human Services investigator lodged a complaint that the judge had not recused himself from a case involving a woman who is related to a man with whom Boeckmann allegedly had a long-term intimate relationship.
The commission previously admonished Boeckmann for not recusing himself from hearing cases involving people he had a personal relationship with.
The Arkansas Supreme Court appointed a special judge in November to hear Boeckmann's cases in the Wynne division of Cross County, about 100 miles northeast of Arkansas, during the investigation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click for more from Fox16.com.
Daniel Torres is finally a citizen of the land he once served as a U.S. Marine while living a lie, and this time he has a chance to make things right.
Five years ago, Torres was ready to ship out to Afghanistan for his second tour when his military superiors learned hed lied about his immigration status in order to enlist. Instead of deploying, he was deported. The 30-year-old has been living in Mexico ever since, with a network of exiled U.S. veterans. But Torres, who told his story of banishment to FoxNews.com earlier this year, recently learned his status has been unexpectedly changed, to naturalized citizen.
It is all still very surreal for me, Torres, who came to America from Mexico with his family as a teen and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2007 using falsified documents, told FoxNews.com. I havent seen my family in five years, and now I will be able to spend the summer with them and see my Marines we definitely have to have a reunion for that.
Torres new standing came courtesy of a special provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows people who serve in the U.S military during a time of conflict and who deploy overseas to be entitled to citizenship regardless of legal status in the country or place of residence. Its exactly the kind of loophole Torres could find himself specializing in as a lawyer, the career he now hopes to fashion.
Torres long nightmare began in 2011, as he was preparing to go to Afghanistan. He lost his wallet, and in the process of trying to re-establish his credentials, his long-held secret unraveled. Born in Tijuana, he had come to the U.S. illegally as a child. When he had enlisted, he had done so with phony identification.
I just didnt want to be another Mexican living in the United States, Torres told FoxNews.com. I wanted to say I had contributed, that I had done something for the country.
He got an honorable discharge, but was no longer welcome in the military or the U.S. He tried to join the French Foreign Legion, but washed out due to an injury suffered in Iraq.
Unable to return to the U.S. due to his now red-flagged illegal immigrant status, Torres returned to his city of birth Tijuana. Once there, he relied on a network of former servicemen and women at the Deported Veterans House, a bunker founded in 2013 by deported veteran Hector Barajas. The nonprofit group offers legal and moral support as well as basic food and accommodation to deported veterans of all walks of life including non-citizens who served on the battlefields in Korea and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Mexico, Torres tried to stay positive and hold on to the dream of getting back to the U.S.
"I knew I had to pay the price for lying, what I did was wrong. But I had just hoped I wouldnt have to pay the price forever, Torres said. When I wanted to throw the towel in, I remembered that I was a Marine and Marines dont quit, he said. Once a Marine, always a Marine.
Red-flagged as an illegal immigrant and unwilling to sneak across the border, Torres embarked on a law degree at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California. Now in his last year, Torres plans to finish his degree and hopes to enroll in a Master's program in San Diego next year so he can practice law in both countries.
And while Torres can now legally move back and forth between the two countries, he said his job is far from complete until the hundreds of other deported veterans also get their citizenship and their VA benefits they are unable to access while banned from entering.
Im just one person, he said. I want to get everyone else home -- there are guys here that need medical help and need to see their children.
The Pentagon estimates that up to 65,000 non-citizens are currently serving, and a prominent incentive for joining is that fast-track to citizenship although it is not guaranteed. Barajas said many simply werent made aware of their rights and how to begin the process when they were active or after being discharged, and ran into trouble when it was too late.
Former Marine Dominic Certo, author of Gold in the Coffins, and an adviser to the veterans advocacy organization Operation Homefront, believes people who fight for the U.S. deserve to live here.
Anyone who has served our country and risked their lives or provided service for the citizens of this country as a veteran deserves amnesty -- especially when there are so many who have done nothing to earn citizenship or provide a military service to our country, Certo said.
A man who was shot and killed in an attempted robbery in New Orleans over the weekend had come to the city to plan his wedding, officials said Monday at a press conference.
Orleans Parish Coroner Jeffrey Rouse identified the man as 25-year-old Thomas Rolfes.
New Orleans Police Chief Michael Harrison said Rolfes had marks on his hands that would indicate a struggle, Fox 8 reported.
The 2011 Tulane University graduate had just flown into New Orleans late Friday night and went out with friends while his fiancee slept in their hotel room, according to Harrison. His body was found around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday at the intersection of Claiborne Avenue and Amelia Street.
Harrison said Monday that investigators are going through surveillance video, some of which shows Rolfes at a bar and then at a convenience store on Claiborne buying two bottles of water.
"We've spoken to his family, we've spoken to fiancee, and the fact that we know he bought two bottles of water raises more questions that our investigators are working very, very hard to answer," Harrison said.
Harrison didn't know if Rolfes was with another person at the time when he was at the convenience store.
Julie Rolfes, the mother of the shooting victim, told Fox 8 her son, originally from St. Louis, came back to New Orleans to pick a wedding venue after getting engaged about a month ago to Elizabeth Fried. The two met at Tulane University.
They had arrived on separate flights Friday night. She arrived late and had stayed at their hotel. Rolfes had gone out with friends.
"I didn't even get to see him," Fried said Sunday.
Ron Rolfes, Thomas' father, told NOLA.com his son's murder was "a horrible, horrible dream."
"We know it's reality; we're just trying to close the loop on that," he told the news outlet.
Former Republican presidential candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney called the fatal shooting of Rolfes "senseless" and "tragic in a statement Monday on his Facebook page.
Romney said the 25-year-old was a member of his 2012 campaign team, and had a warm smile and engaging personality.
Heartbreaking to hear that Thomas Rolfes was killed this weekend while in New Orleans looking for a wedding venue with his sweetheart, a fellow Tulane graduate, Romney said.
His commitment and dedication to our effort made him an invaluable part of the campaign, he added.
Police have not yet released a description of any suspects in the case, but are asking anyone with information about the case to call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click for more from Fox 8.
Click for more from NOLA.com.
A Las Vegas judge said she had no indication a domestic abuse defendant would kill his girlfriend and himself on Thursday when she declined to lock him up two days before.
Justice of the Peace Melanie Tobiasson hears hundreds of domestic violence cases each month, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. She has run such courts for nearly four years.
Theres no way to know which one, if any of them, are going to do this, she said.
But two days before Travis Spitlers deadly rampage outside his childrens day care, Christina Franklin told Tobiasson that Spitler, 40, had punched and kicked her in front of their children just after Christmas.
I hate you, he allegedly told her, calling her several profanities before adding, Im going to kill you.
Spitler was ultimately ordered to have no contact with Franklin, 27, and Tobiasson refused a prosecutors motion to revoke Spitlers bail.
Then, just hours after the hearing, Franklin called the prosecutor to say she saw Spitler near the day care. The prosecutor advised her to call police, but North Las Vegas police did not receive a call, the Review-Journal reported.
Spitler came back with a gun two days later, shooting and killing Franklin and shooting and injuring their 4-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter before turning the gun on himself. The childrens injuries were not life-threatening.
The preliminary investigation indicates the female victim was dropping off her two children, police said in a statement obtained by the Review-Journal. Moments later the father arrived at the same location, after which witnesses reported hearing what sounded like gunfire.
Tobiasson said shes received a barrage of threats since Spitlers attack. But Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said he doesnt blame the judge.
Im certainly not going to second guess or question Judge Tobiasson, Wolfson said. She made the rulings based on the information she had in front of her.
A prosecutor says a Pennsylvania man accused of escaping from a jail and killing a woman "can run" but "can't hide" from evidence in his trial.
Armstrong County Assistant District Attorney Katie Charlton made the remark Tuesday in opening statements at the trial of Robert Crissman Jr.
The 38-year-old defendant is accused of escaping from the Armstrong County jail on July 30 and killing 55-year-old Tammy Long, who lived nearby. Authorities say Crissman then stole Long's boyfriend's pickup truck. He was arrested the next day.
Defense attorney Charles Pascal urged the jury not to jump to conclusions before hearing the evidence.
Charlton says the evidence includes his missing shoelace around Long's neck and her blood on his clothes.
Crissman had been jailed on a parole violation for a drug conviction.
A man in New York City was shot and killed Monday night at his apartment, but was alive for long enough to tell his story to police, local media reported.
Rashaun Ahart, 35, said a stranger knocked on his Bronx apartment door and then began firing.
Ahart was pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest at St. Barnabas Hospital 40 minutes after being shot, NBC4 reported. Police found 14 shell casings at the scene.
Ahart has a criminal history, PIX11 reported, but officials have yet to identify a motive. Investigators said the shooting did not appear random.
No arrests have been made.
"Did you see her walk? Runway walk. My God is that good. I could watch that runway show."
That was Chris Matthews, the longtime anchor of MSNBC, talking about Melania Trump, who could be our next First Lady. Live. On air. That is, until Brian Williams, himself no stranger to a stupid comment, cut to a break.
Matthews should have known better, given he wears a lavalier microphone for a living. But Matthews' creepiness, and the public outcry that's ensued, is a reminder for everyone that someone, somewhere is listening. Your mic, as it were, is always on.
TV and radio interviews are obvious. When someone literally pins a microphone on your blouse or tie, somebody -- even if it's personnel in a control room -- is listening. Contol-room folks sometimes record and distribute live-mic gaffes or tirades simply to settle personal scores. Just ask Casey Kasem and Bill O'Reilly, if you don't mind an f-bomb or two in reply. The cameras don't have to be on for you to be exposed. That famous Naked Gun scene where Frank Drebin's bathroom experience was heard live at a press conference, happens all the time in television, though it isn't broadcasted live.
Even when your mic seems off, it's on. Bill Gates, the former CEO of Microsoft, gave an otherwise humdrum interview with Bloomberg Television reporter Dylan Ratigan back in 2000. After the cameras were off, Ratigan asked whether Gates would be willing to open-source the code for Windows product in order to settle the massive antitrust case the U.S. government brought agains the company. "Yes," Gates told Ratigan. "If that's all it took." It was an incredible admission, made in a moment Gates assumed wouldn't matter to the press since the cameras were off -- an admission Microsoft PR would spend a great deal of time and effort walking back.
Microphones are recording us almost every minute of every day, particularly in business. Conference calls are the most visible example. Most call software is imperfect in tracking who is monitoring, and almost all calls can be recorded. A few years back, the CEO of Encana, a Canadian natural gas company, was asked a pointed question on an investor conference call. After the answer, an Encana executive muttered, "f**king a**hole," for all the call to hear. Former Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry, in relating a scouting report of player Luol Deng, was recorded on a conference call saying Deng had "a little African in him. And I don't mean that in a bad way." The release of the recording led to Ferry's suspension and firing.
Related: How Not to Embarrass Yourself During a Skype Interview (Infographic)
But you don't even need a physical mic to have a figurative one ruin your day or career. People overhear you every day. Ask any judge and he'll tell you of an instance where he had to dismiss a juror or declare a mistrial because someone was overheard talking about a case in a cafeteria or a bar. Famously, in the lead-up to the D-Day invasion, Gen. Henry Jervis Friese Miller was overheard during a dinner complaining about logistics for the upcoming (and top secret) invasion. A lieutenant nearby heard the conversation and reported it. Miller was sent packing back to the U.S. and busted down to colonel, even though he was a close friend and West Point classmate of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower.
Social media has made the impact of overheard conversations worse, since people can hear something, then amplify it to their own audiences. Two developers at a conference in 2013 were overheard making jokes about "forking repo's" and "big dongles," which no doubt passes for coder humor but offended another attendee, who posted their faces on Twitter, leading to one losing his job.
And, you really can't trust anyone to keep what they hear to themselves. That seems especially true of spouses. One man was charged for insider trading after hearing his wife talk on the home phone during a meeting about a pending acquisition for her company. The husband of former Playboy CEO Christie Hefner was charged with trading five times on information he gleaned from his wife -- even after both she and Playboy's general counsel received assurances from him that he would keep everything confidential.
Related: Sometimes Hackers Just Want to Embarrass You
Related: Want to Avoid Embarrassing Social Media Mistakes? Don't Miss Our Live Hangout.
The fact is, business leaders have to show a healthy dose of discretion. For all the benefits of honest and authenticity, you're almost never going to get in trouble for what you don't say. It's when you say something that you shoudn't -- a racy remark, a dirty joke, a trade secret, and, more often than not, the unvarnished truth -- that you put your personal and professional reputation at risk. The saddest part of the current climate nowadays is that leaders face a host of people ready to pounce: disgruntled employees, aggressive competitors, regulators, rivals. People seem to take offense at everything, and even saying that hard work can lead to success can be viewed as a microaggresive insult. It only takes a momentary slip of the tongue to have people question your entire morale framework, and that can dent your ability to lead.
The good news is that, unlike Chris Matthews, most thinking people who walk upright in the world put their guard up when someone clips a microphone on them. That caution is a great defense instinct. But, sadly, you can't ever let down your guard -- not to a spouse, not to a business partner, and certainly not to the media. Your mic is always on, and it's ability to create noise in your life is more powerful than ever.
CORRECTED and UPDATED Charter, virtual, and alternative schools account for a disproportionate share of U.S. high schools with low graduation rates, according to a study released Monday. Even though they enroll only a small slice of students, they account for more than half of the U.S. high schools that graduate 67 percent or less of their students in four years.
Building a Grad Nation, the seventh in an annual series of reports on U.S. graduation rates, concluded that regular district high schools make up 41 percent of those that didnt surpass the 67-percent threshold in 2013-14. Charter, virtual, and alternative schoolsa small sector, representing only 14 percent of the countrys high schools and 8 percent of its high school studentsaccount for 52 percent of the schools that fell short of that mark. (The remaining 7 percent are vocational and special-education schools.)
The findings offer a challenge to a country thats renewing its focus on graduation rates through the newly revised Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Known now as the Every Student Succeeds Act, the law requires states to report four-year graduation rates for schools that enroll 100 students or more, and districts to provide research-based help for schools that graduate fewer than 67 percent in four years.
With that new law in mind, the organizations that issue the Grad Nation reports annuallyCivic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Americas Promise Allianceshifted their focus for this years report, from schools that enroll 300 or more students (about 13,400 schools) to those that enroll 100 or more (about 18,100 schools).
That change nearly tripled the scope of the study of schools with graduation rates of two-thirds or less: from 1,000 schools enrolling 924,000 students to 2,397 schools enrolling 1.23 million students. In a foreshadowing of the work that states face under ESSA, the Grad Nation researchers looked for patterns among the schools with low graduation rates. (Note: This paragraph reflects corrections made to the Grad Nation report.)
The contrast between regular district high schools, and alternative, virtual, and charter schools showed the starkest pattern. Here are the shares of U.S. high schools of each type, and their shares of schools with low graduation rates:
Regular high schools: 84 percent of U.S. high schools7 percent have graduation rates of 67 percent or less Alternative schools: 6 percent of U.S. high schools57 percent have graduation rates of 67 percent or less Charter schools: 8 percent of U.S. high schools30 percent have graduation rates of 67 percent or less Virtual schools: 1 percent of U.S. high schools87 percent have graduation rates of 67 percent or less
The Grad Nation researchers called attention to the preponderance of low-grad-rate schools among charter, alternative, and virtual schools in part because the numbers of those schools have been rising in the last 15 years. Additionally, they enroll large shares of low-income, black, and Hispanic students.
In many states, these various high school options have become popular pathways for students that have struggled to stay on track in traditional high schools, the study says. Therefore, it is critical that issues surrounding these schools be addressed.
The report also pinpoints a bigger problem with low-graduation-rate schools in some states than in others. In Alaska, New Mexico, and Florida, 30 percent or more of the high schools have graduation rates of 67 percent or lower.
Robert Balfanz, the-co-director of the Everyone Graduates Center, told reporters in a conference call that state variability is a key force in the national numbers of low-grad-rate schools. For instance, of all the low-grad-rate schools in Hawaii, 100 percent were charter schools. In Arizona, the number was 73 percent, and in Indiana, 60 percent. Half of the low-grad-rate schools in California were charters. Kentucky, Texas and Washington topped the list of states with particularly high shares of low-grad-rate schools that were alternative schools.
But in some states, the charter sector is helping solve the dropout crisis by running many schools with good graduation rates, Balfanz said. He pointed to New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Oklahoma as examples.
Nina Rees, the president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, welcomed the reports inquiry into graduation rates at different types of schools. But she took issue with its methodology, saying the charter sectors share of low-grad-rate schools looks worse than it is because researchers didnt adequately separate alternative schools from mainstream charters. She also pointed out that the study found that more than 4 in 10 charter schools are graduating more than 85 percent of their students.
Many celebrated last December when the nations high school graduation rate reached an all-time high of 82 percent for the class of 2014. But the milestone also sparked skepticism about whether states or districts were using shortcuts to boost their diploma numbers, by lowering academic expectations or changing the way they counted transfer students in each class cohort.
The Grad Nation researchers took on those questions, and concluded that there was little or no evidence that such practices were affecting state-level graduation rates. Further analysis would have to be done to make such conclusions at the district level, the report says. It did not examine schools increasing reliance on quick credit-recovery programs to improve graduation rates.
The Every Student Succeeds Act gives states much more autonomy than they had under the No Child Left Behind Act over the way they handle low-performing schools. With that in mind, the Grad Nation authors urged states to give graduation rates significant weight in the accountability systems, and to make sure that charter, virtual, and alternative schools, as well as traditional high schools, are monitored and provided solid help with low graduation rates.
They also urged states to report five- and six-year graduation rates, to capture a more accurate picture of diploma-earning. Many alternative schools, in particular, were created to serve students who struggled in traditional schools, and who might take longer to earn their diplomas, the report notes. Adding five-year graduation rates to the national picture would boost the rate by 3 percentage points, it says, and adding six-year rates would increase it by another point.
Photo: A high school graduate raises his diploma in celebration as he walks back to his seat during a commencement ceremony last June in Pittston, Pa. Andrew Krech/The Citizens Voice via AP-File
Presbyterian Church (USA) may have as many as one-in-five of its members considering an exit from the mainline denomination, according to a recently released report.
In advance of the PC(USA)'s 222nd General Assembly in June, the largest Presbyterian Church in the nation released a report analyzing the diverse perspectives of its membership.
Titled "When We Gather at the Table: A PC(USA) Snapshot," the report sought to examine the identity of the denomination through the lenses of its members.
"Across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), congregations, mid councils, and other interested
groups are discerning together who we are as a church and who God is calling us to be," stated the report.
"The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) has also engaged in this discussion as it sought to understand the current nature of our ecclesiology, the theology of church."
The report created four categories for the respondents: "Purposeful Progressives," "Disappointed and Discerning," "Family Facilitators," and "Rooted and Resolute."
Nineteen percent of respondents were "Disappointed and Discerning," which was identified as 76 percent conservative, 23 percent moderate/mixed, and 1 percent liberal.
"Though the name given to this segment might appear to be strong, it truly reflects how they feel: forsaken, abandoned, and for some, held hostage by their denomination," continued the report.
"They are the most displeased. This group includes those who either (1) do not like their PC(USA) affiliation but are stuck in the denomination for various reasons, or (2) are conflicted and thinking about leaving the denomination."
Carmen Fowler LaBerge, president of the theologically conservative Presbyterian Lay Committee, was one of the 3,000+ respondents.
In an interview with The Christian Post, LaBerge said that she considered herself part of the "Disappoined and Discerning" category until a recent decision to join another church.
"The study confirms that the issues dividing the PCUSA are theological. There is not a shared understanding of what it means to be theologically Reformed nor what it looks like to live, individually or institutionally, submitted to the authority of God as revealed in the Bible," said LaBerge.
Cameras on Monday captured a statue of the Virgin Mary appearing to weep at a home in California, with the owner calling it a miracle.
Maria Cardenas told KFSN she received the statue as a Mother's Day gift 10 years ago, but it didn't start to "cry" until her cousin was murdered about a year and a half ago.
Visitors have stopped by her home in Fresno to see it for themselves. She said her door was open to anyone.
Cardenas said she collected the "tears" in a glass. A reporter at the home said one tear appeared oily and smelled like roses.
Sometimes the statue's face would stay dry for weeks or months before starting to "weep" again, according to Cardenas.
"We've had priests come from all over to look at her, and all they say is that it's a miracle," a caretaker of the statue told the news station.
Both you and your grandma can invest in startups from her living room starting Monday, May 16.
Thats thanks to a rule change in the way crowdfunding works that, after years of wrangling, will finally go into effect.
The new rule should open a whole new market for investment capital for very small businesses and startups. Projects and ideas that otherwise would never be able to raise enough money to get going will have that opportunity, says Brandon Jenkins, COO of real estate equity crowdfunding platform Fundrise, in an email with Entrepreneur.
So whats changing? Equity crowdfunding, wherein an entrepreneur sells a piece of his or her company online in exchange for a cash investment, has historically only been an option for accredited investors in the U.S. An accredited investor meets certain wealth and asset requirements as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2012, contained a bevy of law changes all aimed at making it easier for small businesses to access capital. The equity crowdfunding provision, Title 3, was included in that law, but it took government regulators years to iron out the rules for how it should be implemented.
And now, as of Monday, May 16, anyone with the desire and cash can participate in equity crowdfunding.
Related: The SEC Just Approved Rules Opening Up Equity Crowdfunding to the General Public In a 3-1 Vote
How many Tesla car owners also own Tesla stock? How many Apple iPhone owners also own Apple Stock? Its very powerful for your community to feel like theyre part of the bigger picture and this is something that historically has been reserved for high net worths -- now that changes, says Vincent Bradley, the CEO and co-founder of equity crowdfunding platform FlashFunders.
The new genre of fundraising is a game changer for the startup community. Its also throwing wide open the doors of the old boys club that has thus far been restricted to an elite, connected, wealthy guest list, largely centralized in New York and Silicon Valley. But before you are off to the races, if you want to invest in startups with online equity crowdfunding, there are a few things that you need to know first.
1. You have to invest through an online platform.
Entrepreneurs cannot solicit investments from investors for their crowdfunding raise directly. Rather, investors must participate in an equity crowdfunding campaign through either a website or app of a broker-dealer or funding portal, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
That online platform, called a crowdfunding intermediary, has to be registered with the SEC and be a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, yet another federal regulatory body. To determine whether an online crowdfunding platform is properly registered, you can call FINRAs BrokerCheck hotline at 800-289-9999 or check the online BrokerCheck here.
2. You can make money. Really.
With more traditional crowdfunding such as the sort made popular by Kickstarter, campaign backers are rewarded with a tote bag, experience or other sort of token of appreciation in exchange for their money. With equity crowdfunding, investors have the potential to make a profit in exchange for the money they invest. Thats a pretty big deal.
Related: Starting May 16, Entrepreneurs Can Raise Money in a Whole New Way. Here's What You Need to Know.
While in the past, if you funded a concept like Oculus on Kickstarter, when they sold to Facebook for $2 billion, the funders got zero. With Title 3 of the JOBS Act being implemented, now everyday investors can profit from funding these product and business ideas, says Aaron McDaniel, the CEO of Access Investors Network, a mobile aggregator of hundreds of equity crowdfunding deals.
3. You cant invest your life savings.
The SEC has limited the amount that you can invest into an equity crowdfunding campaign. That is perhaps a bummer if your grandmother is convinced she has discovered the next Facebook, but its intended as a safeguard, preventing grandma from investing her life savings and the family home into a startup that is doomed to fail.
The amount that a nonprofessional, unaccredited investor can put into equity crowdfunded options depends on that persons net worth. Your net worth is equal to your assets, the money and things that you own, minus your liabilities, or debts. When you are calculating your net worth for equity crowdfunding, the value of your primary residence is not included in the calculation, according to the SEC.
Related: An Entrepreneur's Essential Guide to the New Wild West of Funding Opening on May 16
As an investor, you are allowed to invest up to the greater of either $2,000 or 5 percent of the lesser of your annual income or net worth during any rolling 12-month period if your net worth is less than $100,000. If, on the other hand, your annual income and your net worth are equal to or more than $100,000, then you can invest up to 10 percent of annual income or net worth, whichever is lesser, but not to exceed $100,000, in any rolling 12-month period.
4. You have to hold your investment for a year (most likely).
If you buy shares in a company through equity crowdfunding, it is very likely that you will have to hold onto those shares for a year. You can sell your shares earlier before a year is up if you are offloading them to either an accredited investor, a family member, back to the company itself or a few other extenuating circumstances detailed by the SEC.
5. You need to be willing to lose your money.
Investing in startups is a high-risk, high-reward game.
"The most important thing is for individuals to understand the risk associated with making these types of investments. Many new startups and businesses fail, says Fundrise's Jenkins. And the people that invest in them lose their money. That's just the nature of business, so investors need to understand that it is just as likely they will lose their money as they will make any."
To be sure, you can make oodles and oodles of money. But chances are much more likely that you will lose your money. And that risk is on you.
Related: What the U.S. Can Learn From the Netherlands About Equity Crowdfunding
Investors will need to understand that the funding portals are not permitted to perform due diligence on companies and cannot offer advice. Investors will need to be careful that they consider all factors and get the information they need before they invest, says Alex Castelli, a partner and the co-leader of the National Liquidity and Capital Formation Advisory Group at the law firm CohnReznick.
6. There are going to be a lot of startups that want your money.
When your grandma decides she wants to be an investor, she is going to become pretty popular. A lot of entrepreneurs will be at the ready to convince her that their startups are the next Facebook, Tesla and Apple rolled into one and multiplied. (Hint: Its not.)
Related: Only 1 in 3 Americans Have Heard of Equity Crowdfunding
It will be hard for investors to find and keep track of all these deals, says McDaniel of Access Investors Network. And grandmas inbox is likely to get overwhelmed. Most platforms share deals via email, and if investors sign up for a few platform, they should expect to receive tons of emails. (Remember all those Groupon, LivingSocial, BloomSpot emails we used to get a few years ago?)
That said, the research can pay off, says Howard Orloff, the co-founder of the Illinois-based investment platform VestLo. Sorting through offers will be both time-consuming and challenging," he says, "but ultimately has the potential to be very rewarding."
Her name was "Elvira," and her treachery cost several ISIS members their lives before the caliphate's spy hunters tracked her down and executed her, according to the latest issue of the Islamic States Russian-language online magazine.
The article in Istok, titled "Elvira Karaeva Agent of the Russian Special Services," focuses on a woman whom ISIS in the Caucasus accused of being an agent of the Russian intelligence services.
According to the piece, Karaeva worked as a spy for four years, during which she secretly passed along information on the jihadi groups in the Caucasus, including locations and photographs of ISIS fighters.
The article notes that although Karaeva was questioned by ISIS's "investigative authorities," she was able to convince them of her innocence. But when the terror network used a "cunning investigative maneuver," the woman confessed and was later executed by an ISIS member, according to the article.
"Elvira the apostate gave information to the Russian special services about our brothers and sisters waging jihad in the patch of Allah in the Caucasus Province," the article says.
"She shamelessly wormed her way into the confidence of true servants of Allah and then disclosed their location and contacts, thus making them easy prey for the henchmen of taghut," the piece continues. "Because of her contemptible actions and close contacts with the FSB [i.e. the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation], many of our brothers and sisters became martyrs."
The woman was summoned for questioning more than once by the "investigating authorities" of the Caliphate, the piece notes.
"But every time she invented stories, twisting the facts. In her conversation with the investigators, she often lied and distorted the true meaning of events. Although our brothers had many valid reasons to detain her, they released her every time, trusting her word," the article says.
The woman -- whose identity has not been confirmed by Russia -- provided the Kremlin with the location of safe houses, secret bases, and positions of ISIS members, according to the terror network.
The article claims the woman was caught on an audio recording speaking about her role with the Russian intelligence services. It also says she was married to a jihadist, named Abu Muslim, whom she killed by poisoning.
"In total, the investigators proved Elvira's involvement in the martyrdom of six brothers and one sister; they are: Shakhbiev Adam, Abu Muslim, Amriev Artur, Gochiaev Biaslan, Totorkulov Temurlan, Dlugoborskiy Valentin, and Urusova Marina," the article states. "It is a fact that many more true servants of Allah were injured by Elvira Karaeva's vile acts."
The fourth issue of Istok was released May 2 by ISIS's Al-Hayat Media Center and translated by MEMRIs newly-launched Russian Media Studies Project, which released excerpts of the article in English on Monday.
Ramzan Kadyrov, acting head of the Chechen Republic, has not commented on the claims by the terror group. Kadyrov, who is Muslim, has been ruthless in the fight against ISIS, claiming special forces from his republic are fighting in Syria and that he has created a spy network targeting ISIS. He told the Russia 1 channel in February that "the republic's best fighters" were helping the Russian air assault on Syria.
In December, ISIS released a video online purporting to show a Russian jihadist beheading another Russian man accused of espionage.
The first part of the video shows a confession from the alleged spy who identifies himself as Khasiev Magomid, 23, from the Chechen city of Grozny.
He recounts how he was recruited by the FSB, Russia's intelligence services, and how he assumed the alias of Haroon when he traveled to Syria. He adds how he was tasked with collecting information on ISIS fighters of Russian origin and especially those who wanted to return to the Caucasus region and Russia to carry out attacks.
The recent article in Istok is the first mention of a female spy sent by Russia to infiltrate the terror network.
The answers to an important spelling, punctuation and grammar test taken by some 600,000 British schoolchildren leaked online Monday as education officials blamed a "rogue marker" for the act.
It was the second time this year a nationwide test for primary school students leaked ahead of time, the BBC reported. Still, officials chose to go ahead with the spelling test on Tuesday. "Teachers and parents should have confidence in the test," British schools minister Nick Gibb said.
The test supplier, Pearson, mistakenly uploaded the answer key onto a password-protected website for test graders, Gibb added. Officials said nearly 100 people may have caught a glimpse of the answers in the 4 hours before they were removed. Government officials said they would investigate to find the person who triggered the leak.
The test was designed for children ages 10 and 11.
Critics said the leak was just the latest sign of problems in the British school testing system. A Labour Party source told The Guardian education officials were trying "to wriggle out of a very serious security breach."
Last month, officials scrapped a separate test for 7-year-olds after it emerged that some answers were available online for 3 months as part of practice material.
Pearson apologized for the latest blunder in a statement, part of which read, "We are conducting an investigation to make sure it cannot happen again."
One person was killed and three others were injured Tuesday morning when a knife-wielding man attacked people indiscriminately at a commuter rail station outside Munich, Germany.
The attack happened in Grafing, about 20 miles east of Munich, shortly before 5 a.m. (11 p.m. ET Monday). The Munich newspaper Merkur reported that the attacker, carrying a four-inch knife, stabbed one man on a train, a second man in the station forecourt and two other men who were passing by on bikes.
Investigators told the Suddeutsche Zeiting newspaper that witnesses had reported that the attacker had shouted "Allahu Akbar!", the Arabic phrase meaning "God is Great!" during the assault. Merkur reported that the suspect had yelled, "You infidels!", among other statements.
Despite reports of the man's shouts, German authorities reportedly said they did not have any evidence linking the man to ISIS. The man is believed to have mental health and drug problems.
Police spokesman Karl-Heinz Segerer said the assailant, who was arrested at the scene, "expressed political motivations" during the attack but didn't give details. Bavaria's top security official, Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, said officials also will look into whether the assailant was mentally disturbed.
Segerer said the suspect was a 27-year-old German national who does not live in Bavaria, the region where the attack took place. The broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk reported that the suspect had no prior criminal history.
At the scene, police forensic experts in white coveralls marked more than 40 bloody footprints -- some of them barefoot -- on the train platform with chalk numbers and collected evidence, including a cellphone that was pulled from the gap between the train and platform.
The Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that the victims were aged between 43 and 58 years old. The deceased victim was identified as a 50-year-old man from the town of Wasserburg, about 35 miles east of Munich.
"The idea that people enter [the station] on a beautiful morning ... and then become victims of a maniac is terrible," said Grafing mayor Angelika Obermayr. "I am most grateful for the police, doctors, paramedics and our firefighters who were quickly on the scene."
The main entrance to the station was closed while the investigation was ongoing and significant delays were expected. At least one platform was expected to be closed until midday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click for more from Suddeutsche Zeitung.
A 22-month-old is stranded in Iran after her charity worker mother was arrested when trying to leave the country and jailed without charge for about five weeks, The Sun reported.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, the childs mother, was reportedly held on an issue of national security and was apparently forced to sign a mystery confession.
The family has since reached out to British Prime Minister David Cameron's office as well as the Iranian government.
She is waking up in the middle of the night screaming and looking for mummy, her husband Richard told the paper. The child, Gabriella, is being cared for by her grandmother in the country.
It is now nearly two months since I saw or held my little girl, he said. I cannot get her back; her passport is confiscated, I have no visa, and I have been advised not to try and go to Iran.
The woman has been kept in solitary confinement since her arrest, reports say.
The Boko Haram terror group in Nigeria reportedly has chosen to offer cash loans in its effort to boost recruitment.
The Guardian reported Tuesday that the group has been facing a crackdown by government forces and started turning to the poor to provide intelligence. Boko Haram reportedly offers money along with the ability to work for Allah.
A fish trader identified as Ibrahim told the newspaper that members of the terror group offered him nearly $7,000 to join the group and provide intelligence on security forces in the area.
Immediately I knew that I had to accept the loans because they would kill me if I refused it, having heard what they do to people who refuse, Ibrahim said. He said the militants never told him when he'd have to repay the cash, but that it was illegal under Islamic law to charge interest.
The paper spoke to a United Nations security expert who said the group has been using the loan program for about four years after the military crackdown. The group also resorted to kidnappings and robberies to raise funding during that time.
Boko Haram aims to create an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria, Africas biggest oil producer, whose 170 million people are divided almost equally between Christians mainly in the south and Muslims in the north. Members of Boko Haram said they kidnapped hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls in April 2014, and the fate of many of those girls remained unclear.
Andrew Walker, a security expert, told the paper that the loan program may be effective as an immediate fix, but he questioned its long-term feasibility.
How much money are they giving out, how are they giving out, how are they getting it and how long can they keep it up?
A car bomb on Tuesday struck a police vehicle that was carrying officers escorting seven recently detained Kurdish militants in the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, killing three people and wounding 45 others, officials said.
No group had claimed responsibility for the attack in Diyarbakir's Baglar neighborhood, but the state-run Anadolu Agency said it was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as the bus was passing by.
The police vehicle was transporting nine police officers taking the seven suspected PKK militants for medical checks. The three victims were seriously wounded in the attack and later died in hospital, the Diyarbakir governor's office said in a statement.
It wasn't immediately clear if the dead included any of the PKK suspects or police officers.
A total of 12 police officers and 33 civilians were wounded in the attack, including people who were passing by or sitting at a nearby open-air cafe, the statement said.
The seven PKK suspects inside the vehicle were detained for allegedly seizing a factory in Diyarbakir, the governor's office said, without providing details.
Kurdish rebels have been targeting police and military targets since July, when a fragile peace process collapsed.
Earlier Tuesday, two police officers were killed while attempting to defuse a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Van, Anadolu said.
The agency also blamed those deaths on the PKK. Ankara and its allies consider the group a terrorist organization, and Anadolu said air-backed operations were underway to hunt down Kurdish rebels in Van.
The PKK, which wants greater autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives.
PKK-linked rebels have staged multiple bomb attacks against Turkish police and troops, which in turn have carried out tank-backed security operations in flashpoint areas.
Remember the famous 30 million word gap in language exposure between the children of professional families and those on welfare, and all its attendant problems in reading and attention? How could educators make up for the gap for a child with no exposure to language at all in the first year or two of life?
Thats the potential gap facing more than 1 in 500 children in the United States born each year deaf or hard of hearing if their parents do not sign to them, according to Gallaudet Universitys Visual Language and Visual Learning Center, or VL2. The center, one of the National Science Foundations Science of Learning Centers , launched its first knowledge festival on Monday night to bring together researchers working on ways to understand and build language development across multiple languages, including English, Chinese, and American Sign Language.
New neurological and longitudinal behavioral studies presented at the forum suggest visual and spoken languages are biologically equal in the brain, and early exposure can help support each other in students with deafness and normal hearing alike.
For example, Clifton Langdon, assistant professor and assistant director of the Brain and Language Laboratory for Neuroimaging, said they have found infants brains are most sensitive to sign language syllables that happen at about 1.5 hertz per second, roughly on par with the 1.5 syllables per second frequency that infants can parse out spoken language. That tells us the brain is not looking for particular signs or symbols of speech, but processing underlying patterns of language, Langdon said. Early exposure to this rhythmic patterning allows infants to begin to process language, he said. [CORRECTION: Langdon clarified the process of infants processing sound and visual syllables.]
Need for Visual, Spoken Language Exposure
Hearing loss is the most common congenital sensory problem in the country, and the National Academy of Pediatrics estimates that 98 percent of newborns receive a hearing test. But only about 1 in 4 with hearing loss are properly diagnosed and given services before they are 6 months old.
Children with normal hearing in even those in the most disadvantaged homes still were exposed to about 15 million words by age 3. But the overwhelming majority of children with hearing loss are born to hearing parents who do not sign and most do not begin to receive interventions until well over 1 year old, said Laura-Ann Petitto, scientific director and co-principal investigator of VL2. Even those who receive a cochlear implant generally are 18 months old or more before they begin to regularly hear and develop their first spoken words, because the device can take several months to fine-tune.
Brain systems are on different maturation timetables, and one of the most unforgiving is the system for language development, Petitto said. It peaks at age 3 ... and if the child doesnt experience exposure to the fundamental patterns of language in early life6 to 10 months oldyou are putting the child at severe risk of major language, reading, and even math delays later on.
That may explain why deaf children of parents who sign from birth perform significantly better in reading and attention outcomes than deaf children whose parents did not sign .
In a three-year longitudinal study of 3- to 5-year-old children who were deaf or hard of hearing across 20 states, VL2 co-principal investigator Thomas Allen found proficiency in ASL or fingerspelling both strongly predicted young students proficiency in English "Those who master one typically master the other, Allen said.
Further, young children with hearing loss met developmental milestones in signed languages in the same time periods as hearing children did on spoken languages: fingerbabbling at age 3 to 6 months, for example; using their simple sentences between age 1 and 2; and becoming proficient in signing by around age 3. Children with hearing loss who grew up in homes with significant signing and fingerspelling on average met those developmental benchmarks faster than those who grew up with no early signing. Their letter-word recognition abilities grew faster, too.
A few states have started to take visual languages into account when measuring early literacy. California will begin to require districts to include visual language ability when assessing their deaf students literacy, and a similar bill in Kansas is awaiting the governors signature.
Designing Literacy Supports for Vision and Speech
The Gallaudet researchers are developing new ways to use visual and spoken languages to support each other. For example, VL2s Motion Light Lab is developing a series of storybook apps (It has released five so far.) that allow children to read along with written text and a visual signer, and click on individual words to learn sign, written, and spoken vocabulary.
Melissa Malzkuhn, director of the Motion Light Lab, said teachers and parents can also download the tool used to generate the storybook apps to write and sign their own stories for children.
The group is also working to create nursery rhymes in sign language via computer-animated avatars. Those amazing rhythmic patterns are sometimes lost in the translation to ASL from English, Malzkuhn said. Were trying to recreate those patterns in ASL.
Photos: Top: Petitto, left, and Langdon cheer in American Sign Language during a presentation Monday on research breakthroughs on language development in children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Source: Sarah D. Sparks
Bottom: Young students who are deaf or hard of hearing can read along with The Little Airplane That Could, a story told in both written type, spoken English, and American Sign Language, via an app developed by Gallaudet University researchers.
Video: An excerpt from one of the labs motion-capture projects allows students to follow along with a nursery rhyme performed in ASL. Source: Gallaudet University
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Gap Inc. Reports April and First Quarter Sales Results
Company Sharpens Focus for Long-Term Growth
SAN FRANCISCO - May 09, 2016 - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) today announced April net sales were $1.12 billion for the four-week period ended April 30, 2016, compared with net sales of $1.21 billion for the four-week period ended May 2, 2015. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2016, Gap Inc.s net sales were $3.44 billion compared with $3.66 billion for the first quarter last year.
Gap Inc. also announced that it will take steps to better position the company for improved business performance and to build for the future. The company is identifying opportunities to streamline its operating model to be more efficient and flexible, while more fully exploiting its scale advantage. Additionally, the company is evaluating its Banana Republic and Old Navy fleets, primarily outside of North America, in order to sharpen its focus on geographies with the greatest potential. More details will be shared during the companys first quarter fiscal 2016 earnings announcement on May 19, 2016.
Our industry is evolving and we must transform at a faster pace, while focusing our energy on what matters most to our customers, said Art Peck, chief executive officer, Gap Inc. We are committed to better positioning the business to recapture market share in North America and to capitalizing on strategic international regions where there is a strong runway for growth.
April Comparable Sales Results
Gap Inc.s comparable sales for April 2016 were down 7 percent versus a 12 percent decrease last year. Comparable sales by global brand for April 2016 were as follows:
Gap Global: negative 4 percent versus negative 15 percent last year
negative 4 percent versus negative 15 percent last year Banana Republic Global: negative 7 percent versus negative 15 percent last year
negative 7 percent versus negative 15 percent last year Old Navy Global: negative 10 percent versus negative 6 percent last year
First Quarter Comparable Sales Results
Gap Inc.s comparable sales for the first quarter of fiscal year 2016 were down 5 percent versus a 4 percent decrease last year. Comparable sales by global brand for the first quarter were as follows:
Gap Global: negative 3 percent versus negative 10 percent last year
negative 3 percent versus negative 10 percent last year Banana Republic Global: negative 11 percent versus negative 8 percent last year
negative 11 percent versus negative 8 percent last year Old Navy Global: negative 6 percent versus positive 3 percent last year
First Quarter Guidance
The company expects diluted earnings per share for the first quarter of fiscal year 2016 to be in the range of $0.31 to $0.32.
As previously disclosed, gross margins were pressured as the company entered April with more inventory than planned as a result of weaker than expected traffic, which began in late March 2016 and continued into April.
The company also noted that the Sunday and Monday of the Memorial Day holiday falls in the fiscal month of June this year versus May last year. The company expects the later holiday timing to negatively impact May sales results and benefit June sales results.
Additional insight into Gap Inc.s sales performance is available by calling 1-800-GAP-NEWS (1-800-427-6397). International callers may call 706-902-4949. The recording will be available at approximately 1:15 p.m. Pacific Time on May 9, 2016 and available for replay until 1:15 p.m. Pacific Time on May 13, 2016.
First Quarter Earnings
Gap Inc. will release its first quarter earnings results via press release on May 19, 2016 at 1:15 p.m. Pacific Time. In addition, the company will host a summary of Gap Inc.s first quarter results during a live conference call and webcast on May 19, 2016 from approximately 1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Pacific Time. The conference call can be accessed by calling 1-855-5000-GPS or 1-855-500-0477 (participant passcode: 214046). International callers may dial 913-643-0954. The webcast can be accessed at www.gapinc.com.
May Sales
The company will report May sales at 1:15 p.m. Pacific Time on June 2, 2016.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release and related sales recording contain forward-looking statements within the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than those that are purely historical are forward-looking statements. Words such as "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "project," and similar expressions also identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding:
earnings per share for the first quarter of fiscal year 2016; and
the impact of the later Memorial Day holiday timing.
Because these forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, there are important factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, without limitation, the following:
the risk that additional information may arise during the companys close process or as a result of subsequent events that would require the company to make adjustments to its financial expectations;
the risk that the company will be unsuccessful in gauging apparel trends and changing consumer preferences?
the risk that changes in global economic conditions or consumer spending patterns could adversely impact the companys results of operations?
the highly competitive nature of the companys business in the United States and internationally?
the risk that if the company is unable to manage its inventory effectively, its gross margins will be adversely affected; and
the risk that comparable sales and margins will experience fluctuations.
Additional information regarding factors that could cause results to differ can be found in the companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2016, as well as the companys subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
These forward-looking statements are based on information as of May 9, 2016. The company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes make it clear that any projected results expressed or implied therein will not be realized.
About Gap Inc.
Gap Inc. is a leading global retailer offering clothing, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, and children under the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta, and Intermix brands. Fiscal year 2015 net sales were $15.8 billion. Gap Inc. products are available for purchase in more than 90 countries worldwide through about 3,300 company-operated stores, over 400 franchise stores, and e-commerce sites. For more information, please visit www.gapinc.com.
SOURCE Gap Inc.
Contacts:
Jack Calandra
Gap Inc.
Investor Relations
415-427-1726
Investor_relations@gap.com
Jennifer Poppers
Gap Inc.
Media Relations
415-427-1729
Press@gap.com
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La Madeleine Pledges to Raise Funds for 1.2 Million Meals to Fight Childhood Hunger with Childrens Hunger Fund
Launches May Hearts for Hope Campaign; Purchase a Heart-Shaped Cookie to Benefit Childrens Hunger Fund
May 10, 2016 // Franchising.com // DALLAS La Madeleine Country French Cafe, the Dallas-based bakery cafe brand with more than 80 locations nationwide, announced today its commitment to raising funds that will provide 1.2 million meals to children in need through Childrens Hunger Fund.
In May, la Madeleine will launch its heartfelt effort in tandem with Childrens Hunger Fund by raising $300,000 through its Hearts for Hope campaign at all participating cafes nationwide.
We are proud to partner with Childrens Hunger Fund as part of our commitment to make a difference and help in the fight to end childhood hunger, said John Cahill, president of la Madeleine Country French Cafe. Our dedication to fighting childhood hunger through our Hearts for Hope campaign and year-round initiatives with Childrens Hunger Fund is incredibly important to our la Madeleine family.
The special partnership between la Madeleine and Childrens Hunger Fund has grown closer with the opening of its first distribution center in Dallas. Members of la Madeleines corporate team were the first volunteers to work at the new facility, which marks the second distribution center for the organization in Texas.
La Madeleine is a special company and valued partner one that we feel shares our devotion to serving children in crisis, said Dave Phillips, president and founder of Childrens Hunger Fund, which has raised over $1 billion for food and other aid to more than 20 million children in the United States and worldwide.
From May 1 to 31, la Madeleine will donate $1 for every single legendary heart-shaped Linzer cookie or any other cookie purchased in cafe. Guests who donate $5 to the cause will receive a card with six offers for free la Madeleine favorites, worth over $20. The card includes a variety of offers ranging from a free loaf of bread or baguette to a free specialty croissant, cup of soupe, patisserie, and more. All proceeds, or 100 percent of every donation, will go directly to the Childrens Hunger Fund and each dollar donated will provide four meals for children in need.
Childrens Hunger Funds philanthropic partnership with la Madeleine gives loyal guests of the endearing bakery cafe brand a chance to make a direct and meaningful difference to children in need.
About la Madeleine Country French Cafe
Dallas-based la Madeleine Country French Cafe was established in 1983 by self-described French country boy Patrick Esquerre to fulfill his dream of bringing classic French country fare to America. Inspired by his mothers cooking, Patrick insisted on maintaining the integrity of French cuisine by using fresh ingredients and recipes that have been passed from one generation to the next.
From its signature fireplace to its crave-worthy food, la Madeleine offers a warm, welcoming atmosphere where guests are invited to come and stay in a casual, French home atmosphere. La Madeleines French-inspired fare served throughout the day during breakfast, lunch and dinner features handcrafted entrees, sandwiches, salades and soupes, as well as freshly-baked breads, artisan patisseries and several additional distinctive specialties. La Madeleines authenticity, innovation and fresh menu items differentiate the brand, creating widespread appeal.
A treasured part of many communities for more than 30 years, there are currently more than 80 cafes across Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. For more information on menu items, cafe locations and hours of operation, visit www.laMadeleine.com.
About Childrens Hunger Fund
Founded by Dave Phillips in 1991, Childrens Hunger Fund has served the needs of children for twenty-five years. The charity has distribution centers in Chicago, Dallas, San Antonio, and at its headquarters in Los Angeles. At each center, bulk food is packed by volunteers into Food Paks, a 20-pound box of nutritious food. Food Paks are distributed to millions of children and families in need throughout the U.S. and worldwide through a unique method, utilizing a Mercy Network of pastors and local churches in each region to deliver the Paks into the homes of the needy. For more information visit www.childrenshungerfund.org.
SOURCE la Madeleine Country French Cafe
Media Contact:
Katharine Nichols
All Points Public Relations
(847) 897-7495
knichols@allpointspr.com
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Marcos Pizza Goes Extra Step To Bring Business Opportunities To Veterans
New Vice President of Veterans Programs and Recruiting Will Build on Strong Foundation
May 10, 2016 // Franchising.com // Toledo, Ohio Noting the number of military veterans who prosper as franchisees in its growing franchise system of 700 stores, Marcos Pizza took the extra step to formalize a veteran recruitment arm and hired 20-year U.S. Army veteran Scott Quagliata to oversee the operation.
In the newly created role of Vice President of Veterans Program and Recruiting, Quagliata is tasked with attracting additional military veterans into the Marcos Pizza franchise system and helping set them up to thrive. The company has noted the strength and success of several veterans, such as Joe Walker, named Top Franchisee at Marcos last year. After four years serving on active duty in the U.S. Army, including tours in Iraq, Walker joined Marcos Pizza just five years ago and already owns a total of 16 locations, with an additional four locations in various stages of development. Because of stories like Walkers, Marcos Pizza used its top-grading hiring practices to onboard Quagliata and develop a veteran recruitment arm.
Having served in the Army with Walker, Quagliata first became interested in owning a Marcos Pizza franchise himself. While attending a Discovery Day to learn more about the brand, he was deemed a perfect fit by Marcos Pizza President & COO, Bryon Stephens, to join the franchise development team in the specific role of facilitating passionate disciplined veteran leaders into the Marcos Pizza management/ownership pipeline.
Coming from outside of the pizza world with a strong military background, Scott brings with him distinctive leadership skills that will take our recruitment efforts to new heights, Stephens said. He brings a personal connection that aligns with the Marcos commitment to the military community. He understands firsthand the transition of military veterans and the benefits of joining a proven franchise system.
As part of his new role, Quagliata will also work toward formalizing an apprenticeship program designed to create paths to business ownership for aspiring entrepreneurs who may not necessarily have the means to pursue their dreams through traditional channels. The program, to be announced later this year, will offer comprehensive training, mentorship and financing to qualified candidates, which include employees of Marcos Pizza stores.
Having transitioned from the military myself, I understand how to help our veterans enter back into the civilian workforce, said Quagliata. The upcoming apprenticeship program will create a phenomenal vehicle to help them do so.
Quagliatas appointment comes during a monumental growth year for Marcos Pizza. With plans to open 150 new stores this year, averaging at least one opening every three days, the company is on track to reach 1,000 locations by 2017. The development of the apprenticeship program serves as an innovative way to continue growth with a hard-working, dedicated, accountable team as Marcos Pizza expands its footprint nationwide.
About Marcos Pizza
Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Marcos Pizza is the fastest-growing pizza company in the United States (based on the number of stores signed into development since 2007). Marcos was founded in 1978 by Italian born, Pasquale (Pat) Giammarco and thrives by making Italian Pizza with fresh ingredients. The company has grown from its roots as a beloved Ohio brand to operate more than 700 stores in 35 states, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and India. To inquire about franchise opportunities with Marcos Pizza visit www.marcosfranchising.com.
SOURCE Marcos Pizza
Media Contact:
Mary Pattara
Fishman Public Relations
(O) 847.945.1300, ext. 262
mpattara@fishmanpr.com
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Senior Helpers Introduces First Ever In-Home Parkinson's Disease Care Program
Nation's Premier Senior Care Franchise Announces Specialized Training and Certification Program for In-Home Caregivers
BALTIMORE, Md. - May 10, 2016 // PRNewswire // - Senior Helpers, one of the nation's premier provider of personalized in-home senior care, announced today the launch of its Parkinson's Care Program, a specialized training and certification program created in conjunction with leading experts from the National Parkinson Foundation's Center of Excellence. Senior Helpers' new program is the first of its kind in the in-home senior care industry, designed to provide caregivers with the expert training and education necessary to create personalized care plans for individuals living with Parkinson's disease.
"Parkinson's disease is a chronic and progressive movement disorder that affects nearly one million people in the U.S. alone, and that number will likely increase due to the aging Baby Boomers population," said Chris Buitron, Senior Helpers vice president of marketing. "We are proud to be the first in our industry to provide specialized caregiver training in Alzheimer's, dementia, and now, Parkinson's disease care. Over the years, Senior Helpers has established itself as the best option for navigating the challenges of in-home senior care today, and this new program further underscores our commitment to offering skilled services while allowing our aging clients to maintain the best quality of life possible in the comfort of their own homes."
The Parkinson's Care Program is the second disease management training program developed and implemented by Senior Helpers, and joins the company's Senior Gems Alzheimer's and Dementia Training Program, which created the gold standard for excellence in personalized in-home senior care. Senior Helpers' new Parkinson's Care Program provides caregivers education on how Parkinson's disease advances and changes, and provides training to caregivers on how to handle the range of mobility and movement limitations those who live with Parkinson's disease experience. The training also provides education on specific motor and non-motor symptoms along with techniques and strategies for identifying and managing those symptoms. Additionally, the program includes home safety and fall prevention curriculum, providing the tools necessary to assess and improve a patient's living environment.
In addition to providing Parkinson specific in-home care, Senior Helpers supports those living with Parkinson's disease through a partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF). Senior Helpers serves as the exclusive in-home care sponsor of the Foundation's online caregiver resources and also provides a number of services to care facilities in local communities. Those services include continuing education and training for healthcare professionals, public seminars that help the community stay informed about Parkinson's disease, and staffing assistance for local facilities that require trained caregivers to assist residents who are living with Parkinson's disease.
For more information on Senior Helpers' Parkinson's Care Program, please visithttp://www.seniorhelpers.com.
About Senior Helpers
Senior Helpers is the nation's largest premier in-home senior care company in the U.S. with over 240 franchised businesses operating across the country. Founded in 2001 with a vision to help seniors who wish to remain in their homes despite age-related illnesses and mobility challenges, Senior Helpers has now cared for tens of thousands of seniors with a pledge to provide "care and comfort at a moment's notice." Senior Helpers offers a wide range of personal care and companion services, including trained Alzheimer's, dementia and Parkinson's care, to assist seniors who wish to live independently. Learn more by visiting http://www.seniorhelpers.com.
SOURCE Senior Helpers
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Wayback Burgers Turns Friday The 13th Into Luckiest Day Of The Year
Anyone Named Luck Receives Free Wayback Classic Cheeseburger on May 13th
May 10, 2016 // Franchising.com // CHESHIRE, CT To superstitious Americans, Friday the 13th is known as the unluckiest day of the year. People will be on guard to ensure that they dont break a mirror, spill the salt shaker, walk under a ladder or cross the path of a black cat. But Wayback Burgers, serving delicious, fresh, never frozen burgers, hand-dipped milkshakes and more amidst an atmosphere reminiscent of a hometown burger joint, wants to transform the famously unlucky day into the luckiest day of the year. To celebrate the newfound luck of Friday the 13th, burger lovers with any variation of Luck in their names, first, middle or last, will receive a FREE Wayback Classic cheeseburger.
According to Whitepages.com, there are approximately 6,859 people in the United States with the last name Luck and another 2,737 Lucky ducks, but that doesnt count all of the variations. As long as burger lovers have a little bit of luck in their name, they are welcome to chow down on a Wayback Classic two 100-percent fresh, never frozen beef patties, two slices of American cheese, topped Our Way with ketchup, mustard, onions, pickles and lettuce served on the house. This offer is valid at participating Wayback Burgers locations nationwide on Friday, May 13. Limit one per customer. Must present valid ID.
At Wayback Burgers, we understand the superstitious nature that surrounds Friday the 13th, so our team came up with a plan to turn this unlucky day into a lucky one, said John Eucalitto, President of Wayback Burgers. We welcome all guests lucky or not to join us for a burger on May 13, because any day we can bite into a great burger is a lucky day in our books.
Wayback Burgers is about serving delicious, fresh burgers and hand-dipped milkshakes amidst an atmosphere that hearkens back to a simpler place and time a time when customer service meant something and everyone felt the warmth of the community. Wayback Burgers offers burgers made from 100 percent fresh, never frozen ground beef, cooked to order, available as a single, classic double, triple and triple triple (nine) patty, and rich, thick milkshakes made the old-fashioned way by hand, using only fresh milk and hand-dipped ice cream. Going way beyond the burger, Wayback Burgers also offers crispy and grilled chicken sandwiches, veggie burgers, turkey burgers, fresh salads and delicious sides including fries, onion rings, homestyle chili and House-Made Chips.
For more information on Wayback Burgers, visit www.WaybackBurgers.com, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
About Wayback Burgers
Founded in 1991 in Newark, DE, Wayback Burgers is a Connecticut-based fast-casual franchise with a reputation for fresh burgers and thick, hand-dipped milkshakes, and currently operates in 26 states with over 100 locations nationally and internationally in Argentina and Saudi Arabia. Wayback Burgers, through its executed master franchise agreements, plans to open in 33 countries in the Middle East, Northern Africa, Argentina, Pakistan and Brunei, along with pending agreements for Mumbai, India.
SOURCE Wayback Burgers
Media Contact:
Jillian Verpent
Account Executive
D: 973/337.6395
M: 732/674.3814
jverpent@bmlpr.com
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Young Chefs Academy Signs Four Franchise Agreements
Nationally Acclaimed Kids Cooking School to Expand in Florida, Georgia, New York and Ottawa, Canada
May 10, 2016 // Franchising.com // WACO, Texas Young Chefs Academy, the countrys leading cooking school for children, which has captivated the creativity of children across the nation for more than a decade, today announced four new franchise agreements in Florida, Georgia, New York, and Ontario, Canada.
Young Chefs Academy has the ability to fully immerse itself into local communities around the world, said Julie Burleson, founder and CEO of Young Chefs Academy. We are delighted to welcome four new franchise ownership groups into our family and introduce our unique concept throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions and the Canadian province of Ontario.
The new franchise ownership groups include Khaled Nayed from Kanata, Ontario, a suburb of Ottawa; manager-turned-owner Lynlee Bradley from North Druid Hills, Georgia; Sebastian and Tina Latina from New City, New York; and Jessica Yuen from Orlando, Florida. Specific details on each locations opening will be announced at a later date.
This announcement comes amid a series of moves and key executive-level hires to strengthen the brands talented collection of leaders. Young Chefs Academy also recently unveiled its new training center and headquarters in Waco, which includes state-of-the-art kitchen and classroom space for training and education classes.
As we continue to expand our franchise system, we are taking every opportunity to strengthen our processes and procedures, said Burleson. With a strong team firmly in place and our beautiful new training facility, we are confident in our strategic growth plans and the educational opportunity we offer to students across the globe.
Children enrolled in Young Chefs Academy will have the opportunity to participate in educational classes, camps, special events and more. The curriculum at Young Chefs Academy is updated regularly with monthly themes and exciting new programs that emphasize building culinary skills. Events and classes are fueled by the mantra, mise en place, which translates to everything in its place.
Tailored for young children discovering the kitchen in a KinderCooks class, children in the Junior Chefs program and older students mastering concepts in the Senior Chefs group, there is a place and a lesson for every student to explore and grow through cooking. Each location also hosts birthdays and events for groups just looking for a taste of the Young Chefs Academy experience.
Young Chefs Academy students can also benefit from opportunities connected to influential media partners, such as Food Network Magazine. Young Chefs Academy has hosted nationally recognized programs in conjunction with these and other partners, reaching both kids and adults across the nation with cooking tips and events to bring families together in the kitchen.
For more information about Young Chefs Academy, visit www.youngchefsacademy.com.
About Young Chefs Academy
Founded in 2003, Young Chefs Academy is one part culinary adventure, one part culinary education, and its all for children. Here, learning invaluable life lessons (shhh... they dont even know its happening) occurs through a cooking curriculum that evokes curiosity, which provides children a pathway to personal discovery and creativity, all in a warm, welcoming and inspiring movement.
Young Chefs Academy provides driven entrepreneurs the opportunity to join a movement that is here to stay. Complete with a celebrated curriculum, extensive marketing, operations and real estate support, Young Chefs Academy is on a course for global expansion. Currently, the company has more than 20 locations open or in development throughout ten states.
For more information about Young Chefs Academy, visit www.youngchefsacademy.com. To inquire about franchising opportunities, visit www.franchise.youngchefsacademy.com.
SOURCE Young Chefs Academy
Media Contact:
Katharine Nichols
All Points Public Relations
(847) 897-7495
knichols@allpointspr.com
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CORRECTED HEADLINE
Last week, I wrote about how St. Louis parents in charter schools are fighting to keep tax revenue meant for school desegregation programs . Now, one suburban St. Louis parent is suing the school system, saying her son is being banned from a charter school under a desegregation agreement because he is black.
According to a story by Jim Salter in the Associated Press , parent LaShieka White claims that her 3rd-grade son, Edmund Lee, is being kicked out of Gateway Science Academy, a St. Louis charter school that he has attended since he was in kindergarten, now that the family has moved to the suburbs.
The 16-school-district desegregation program permits black students to attend mostly white schools in the suburbs. Suburban students also can attend city charter schools, but black students are forbidden.
We are long past the days when students can be turned away from school based on their race, White said at a news conference, according to the AP. Well, thats what I thought.
The lawsuit in U.S. District court was filed May 4 against the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corp., a nonprofit organization overseen by a board of superintendents from the districts involved in the desegregation program.
This particular students ineligibility is a straightforward application of how the program works and the rules that we must abide by, according to a statement from the corporation cited in the AP story.
White also has started a petition to ask Missouri state lawmakers to alter the desegregation plan.
Related story: In Charters, Using Weighted Lotteries for Diversity Hits Barriers
Contact Sarah Tully at stully@epe.org .
Follow @ParentAndPublic for the latest news on schools and parental involvement.
Dont miss another K-12 Parents and the Public post. Sign up here to get news alerts in your email inbox.
NEW YORKKrispy Kreme shareholders got a caffeine boost after coffee giant JAB Beech said Monday it is acquiring the doughnut chain.
The Luxembourg-based investment firm, which owns Keurig Green Mountain, Peets Coffee & Tea and Caribou Coffee, said it is taking the North Carolina doughnut company private in a deal worth about $1.35 billion.
Krispy Kremes stock jumped $4.07, or 24.1 percent, to $20.93 Monday.
The deal comes after JAB Holdings recently added to its coffee empire with the acquisition of Keurig, which makes single-cup coffee machines that sit on countertops. JAB Holdings, which is predominantly owned by the Reimann family in Europe, also has stakes in Jacobs Douwe Egberts, the company behind Gevalia, Tassio and other brands.
Outside of coffee, JAB Holding has stakes in bagel shop operator Einstein Noah, beauty products maker Coty and high-end shoe seller Jimmy Choo.
The companies said Krispy Kreme will continue to be independently operated from its headquarters in WinstonSalem, N.C. Krispy Kreme, which was founded in 1937, has more than 1,100 shops around the world, with about 300 of those in the U.S.
For its fiscal 2017, Krispy Kreme had said in March that it planned to open about 120 to 140 new international locations, in addition to about 30 new shops domestically.
Unlike its larger rival Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme still gets most of its business from doughnuts and other pastries, rather than coffee drinks and sandwiches. But Krispy Kreme has said that it wants to step up its beverage sales.
Peter Harf, a senior partner at JAB, said the acquisition is part of the firms strategy of investing in brands with significant growth prospects.
JAB Beech Inc. will pay $21 for each share of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. Thats about a 25 percent premium to the companys Friday closing price of $16.86.
Krispy Kremes board unanimously approved the transaction, which is targeted to close in the third quarter. The company said it will postpone its annual shareholders meeting, which was originally set for June 14.
DETROITLouis Cervi was looking to buy a small car for basic transportation with a monthly payment in the mid-$200 range.
After six months of looking, Cervi, 41, drove off a dealer lot north of Pittsburgh in a Ford Focus for $192 a month. The dealership even accepted his 2001 Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a failed transmission as a down payment on his lease.
I thought Id probably get something in the $240 (per month) range, Cervi says. It was the end of the month, so I think I got kind of lucky there. They were trying to meet a quota.
With many Americans rushing to buy trucks and SUVs, there are good deals to be had on cars, especially smaller models. In April, supplies of small cars on dealer lots grew to the highest level in seven years. Automakers are resorting to discounts and sweetened lease deals to move the metalespecially with models that havent been updated in a few years.
In the 12 months ended April 30, small-car sales fell more than 6 percent, according to Wards Automotive. At the same time, truck and SUV sales combined grew more than 10 percent. So far this year, about 54 percent of U.S. vehicle sales have been trucks and SUVs. Just two years ago, cars ruled the market at 51 percent. While trucks and SUVs are expected to help the industry set a new annual sales record above 17.5 million vehicles this year, some experts are predicting a continued slowdown in sales of cars.
There are a number of reasons for the shift. Gas prices are low. SUVs generally are smaller, lighter and more efficient than in the past. Older people like the higher seating position an SUV offers because its easier to get in and out, and people of all ages use the hatchback and ample storage space.
Consumers also are more confident in the economy, and willing to spend on pricier SUVs, says Eric Lyman, vice president of industry insights for the TrueCar.com auto pricing site.
Cervi wouldnt have been as fortunate if he was after a hot-selling SUV. A Toyota RAV4, for instance, can be leased for three years at $199 per month, but a buyer has to put down $1,999. That translates to another $56 per month. RAV4 sales rose 32 percent last month.
Falling car sales, along with faster updates of compact cars, will put pressure on companies with older vehicles to offer discounts, says Lyman.
Some automakers have updated small cars after a year to include new features or overcome shortcomings pointed out by customers, he says. Its going to become more cutthroat, Lyman said. It means if youre not keeping your vehicle up, youre at a competitive disadvantage.
Fords Focus hasnt been redesigned since the 2012 model year and has fallen behind newer products such as the Honda Civic and the redesigned Chevrolet Cruze. That means manufacturers with older cars like Ford and Fiat Chrysler cant charge as much as Honda or Chevy. Two weeks ago, Fiat Chrysler cut the price on some versions of its aging Dodge Dart, knocking $1,400 off the SXT model to $17,995. Dealers also are offering up to $2,750 cash back on some models.
Every car in the industry, as it ages, seeks to provide more value, said Tom Sacoman, director of the Dodge brand.
Without the all-new Civic, small car sales would have been abysmal. Through April, its sales are up 29 percent. As a result, Honda can get more for a lease than others. Its offering a 36-month Civic LX at $179 per monthbut you have to put down $1,999the equivalent of $56 per month to get it.
Richard Bazzy, who owns the dealership that leased Cervi his Focus, said Ford is supporting dealers by funding lease deals. He says small cars remain a huge market for him and other dealers even though sales have fallen. So far this year, people have bought nearly 1 million small cars in the U.S.
The 2016 Cruze is just hitting showrooms. General Motors recently held a driving session for reporters with comparable vehicles. The Cruze and Civic stood out with better handling and acceleration, quieter engines and the nicest interiors.
Despite the shift to SUVs, GM hopes to gain sales with the Cruze. The new car is up to 250 pounds lighter than the old one and has a new 1.4-liter turbocharged engine with stop-start technology. All Cruzes get at least 40 miles per gallon on the highway.
The compact segment still is the largest part of the market worldwide, said Chris Biggs, executive director of marketing for the Cruze. We think it will remain that way, he says. So the Cruze and the models remain just crucial to us.
Concordia-Chicago's Graduate Online Programs Receive Top Ten National Ranking
The Educational Technology and Instructional Design and Technology Graduate Online Programs offered by Concordia-Chicago have been nationally ranked as one of the top ten programs in the country
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Concordia University Chicago has been recognized by OnlineColleges.net for having one of the best online master's in educational technology degree programs in the country. Concordia-Chicago's MA in Educational Technology and the MS in Instructional Design and Technology ranked ninth nationally for 2016. Concordia-Chicago was the only university in Illinois and one of the few Midwest universities to receive a ranking in these areas of study.
Concordia-Chicago's MA in Educational Technology is designed to empower K-12 private and public educators to implement technology in the classroom to supplement and enhance teaching. The degree meets certification standards set forth by the International Society for Technology in Education and the Association for Educational Communication and Technology. As the field of educational technology experiences rapid growth, careers involving educational technology offer excellent career mobility.
The MS in Instructional Design and Technology program teaches methodology similar to the MA in Educational Technology, but prepares students to design and integrate technology in teaching environments beyond the traditional K-12 classroom including corporate, government and nonprofit organizations. Instructional design professionals holding master's degrees find career avenues in the academic, government, and profit and non-profit sectors.
Concordia-Chicago's highly respected and well-ranked programs offer a competitive advantage to those seeking career advancement in these disciplines. "We're training students to thrive in a fast-changing technological environment for social, distance and mobile learning media," said Chris Lilly, PhD, Chair of the Education Technology department. Industry analysts note that design and technology has changed dramatically over the last several years and will continue to grow and evolve with the rapid introduction and adoption of emerging technologies and new approaches to teaching and learning.
The OnlineColleges.net ranking of Concordia-Chicago's MA in Educational Technology and MS in Instructional Design and Technology is based on school information-- including graduation rate, tuition, and financial aid rate --sourced from the most recent information available in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), a resource maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics, as well as the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the College Board, Institution of Education Sciences, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Visit website to learn about Concordia-Chicago's highly-ranked online Master's programs. For information about the MA in Educational Technology, contact Sara O'Lena at solena@graduateprogram.org or (708) 957-5994. For information about the MS in Instructional Design and Technology. contact Tina Lilly at tina.lilly@cuchicago.edu or (708) 209-3134.
For more information about us, please visit https://gradschool.cuchicago.edu/
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Liberty VPS Announces Free Speech Web Hosting for Journalists
LibertyVPS is an offshore hosting company that pledges to uphold freedom of speech for its web hosting clients.
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Liberty VPS has just announced its iron clad promise to free speech and protected web hosting for journalists through Offshore hosting. The servers are hosted in the Netherlands, Amsterdam specifically. Offshore hosting isn't new, but the second layer of protection through Liberty VPS is the ability to pay through bitcoin, which is anonymous. The 3rd layer is privacy. The data is kept private, and is not able to get accessed through strong armed governments or corporations seeking to silence those who speak for the people. The three factors combined, both offshore hosting in free speech friendly Netherlands, decentralized bitcoin currency, and private signup gives true freedom of speech without the common fears of being prosecuted and shut down by those with a vested interest into silencing dissent, criticism, and the truth.
In a world where timing is everything, Liberty VPS offers an instant setup system, where the VPS is installed, setup and password emailed as soon as payment is received. Each one is delivered with one full gigabyte to ensure speed, including activities such as file sharing or streaming. The SolusVM control panel is installed as the industry standard for managing cpanel, which makes using the VPS easy for non-tech savy customers. The cutting edge side of the technology is KVM Virtualization, which uses dedicated resources, never crowdsourced or oversold. Bitcoin payment is processed through BitPay, and the company is featured on BitcoinTalk forums, where hundreds of clients have left glowing reviews, stating pricing, ease of use, and anonymity are perfect for journalist applications, as well as those keen on keeping their data secure and private away from client's native governments or businesses who would like to see them silenced or prosecuted. It's important to note the company does not condone, nor allow illegal activity such as malware, viruses, child endangerment, terrorism. A full list of terms of service can be found on the official website.
For more information about us, please visit https://libertyvps.net/
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Release ID: 114199
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Yours Developer Launches To Offer Agile App Development To Clients Throughout The UK
Yours Developer is a small but powerful app development agency capable of delivering outstanding results for incredible prices, and has launched a new website to promote their services online.
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Apps are now becoming ubiquitous on smartphones, and are now the primary ways in which many customers interact with the businesses they love. Using an App allows businesses and customers to contact one another directly, whether it be with promotions and special offers or to make orders for new purchases. As a result, many small businesses are seeking to utilize this power in developing their brand. Yours Developer is a brand new app development agency that is looking to help small businesses outpace the slow moving global juggernauts with agile app development.
The App developer London will provide a dedicated app development specialist to work with every client on every aspect of their app, taking the time to understand the business itself and how the app can best be put to work for both the business and its intended end users. The developers will then work rigorously to create a compelling experience that outperforms even the biggest brands in that industry.
They are able to do this because their small but perfectly formed team has a broad cross-section of business and IT skills together with expertise in design and consumer behavior, allowing them to iterate builds more quickly and seamlessly than much larger, more expensive agencies.
A spokesperson for Yours Developer explained, "Yours Developer is pleased to be able to be in a position to help small businesses, SME's and startups to make an explosive impact on the app market. We are the best mobile app developer for anyone who wants to see maximum return on investment for their app development fund, as we are able to produce extraordinary results within even conservative budgets. We are looking forward to demonstrating just how powerful our apps can be with our first clients already signing up, and hope many more will follow throughout the rest of 2016."
About Yours Developer: Yours Developer is a small but passionate App Development Company that can help you with any scale of app development project. New to the market but formed of a team with years of experience, they have served clients all around the world, offering digital solutions for modern business.
For more information about us, please visit http://yoursdeveloper.co.uk/
Contact Info:
Name: Olga Bolgurtseva
Email: info@yoursdeveloper.co.uk
Organization: Yours Developer in London
Phone: +442038087673
Source: http://marketersmedia.com/yours-developer-launches-to-offer-agile-app-development-to-clients-throughout-the-uk/114034
Release ID: 114034
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Advanced Medical Personnel Services Acquires Rise Medical Staffing
The acquisition will help Advanced Medical build up its nursing division as it expands across geographical lines, reports https://www.advanced-medical.net/.
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Advanced Medical Personnel Services, a staffing company that provides travel therapy positions around the country, has recently announced their acquisition of West Coast-based Rise Medical Staffing. This acquisition will allow Advanced Medical, which already has offices in Colorado and Florida, to expand its influence across geographical lines to Rise's current offices in Sacramento, California and Portland, Oregon. Advanced Medical Personnel Services is looking to create more positions for travel nurses in hospital settings, and it is expected that this acquisition will allow them to accomplish that goal.
Ryan Lantz, the Director of Public Relations at Advanced Medical, stated "This acquisition is so beneficial on every level. Like our team at Advanced, Rise Medical believes wholeheartedly in the values of technological innovation and building a progressive company culture. We want our company to grow while maintaining a spirit of excellence in our service to both our therapists and our clients. Because of Rise's commitment to financial growth and integrity and the shared values that we all have, we know that this merger was the best move to help us achieve those objectives."
Since 2003, Sacramento-based Rise Medical has been providing per diem, travel, and long-term positions for nurses in acute care settings both within the U.S. and abroad. As Advanced acquires Rise Medical, the Advanced Medical team has reported being impressed with the rapid growth Rise has achieved while never having compromised their excellence in financial and operational execution or the quality of the service they provide. Both companies expect that their shared values will make the integration process more smooth and the outcome extremely positive.
Lantz went on to say, "The team here at Advanced is definitely looking forward to the expansion of the company. Not only does it mean more opportunities for our travel nursing division, but there's so much to love about both Portland and Sacramento. When Rise joins forces with Advanced, we sincerely believe that the merger will be a win-win for everyone involved."
About Advanced Medical Personnel Services:
When Advanced Medical opened its doors in 1989, they kept one thing in mind: if they figure out what therapists need to be successful, their success will follow. It's been over 25 years and they are happy to be considered the premier travel therapy company, supporting an incredible nationwide network of talented Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, and Speech Language Therapists.
The Advanced Medical Team didn't get here by chance; they foster long-term partnerships with their clients and candidates and continue to energize the industry with programs like their ground-breaking New Grad program.
For more information about us, please visit https://www.advanced-medical.net/
Contact Info:
Name: Ryan Lantz
Organization: Advanced Medical Personnel Services
Phone: (888) 585-0455
Source: http://marketersmedia.com/advanced-medical-personnel-services-acquires-rise-medical-staffing/114303
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Merchant Bill Audit Company Issues Fraudulent Credit Card Technology Warning
Merchant bill processing company Electronic Processing Services has issued fraudulent card warning for companies who can't process smart card payments. To help these businesses out, they have solutions to solve the fraudulent card problem and they've launched products that can read all credit cards.
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A merchant bill audit company specializing in credit card business solutions has issued a warning to all businesses that deal with credit card purchases. Any company that doesn't currently accept credit cards with a smart embedded chip will be held liable if they accept a transaction with a fraudulent card, whereas before October 2015 the reverse was true. Due to this change Electronic Processing Services has announced they can help businesses with 2 different approaches to solving the fraudulent card issue. They can also help businesses set up to deal with all credit cards, and audit their merchant bill to see where they can save them money.
More information can be found on the official Electronic Processing Services website at: http://www.denverelectroprocess.com.
Businesses can get a free audit on their monthly bill for simply by entering their details on the Electronic Processing Services website. Users can write their message and upload their bill, and the staff will analyze the document and work out precisely where they can save the business some money. Each bill is different and there are no absolutes, but the staff will do their best to ensure each business can fine tune its services to improve their profit.
To help with those who don't currently deal with smart cards, and who may therefore be liable for fraudulent encounters, the site offers two different approaches to help them deal with credit cards and protect themselves in the process. The first option is called Rio, and is a state of the art business countertop system that can process all manner of different payments quickly and efficiently. It has a smart card reader that makes transactions very easy and uses a MIFARE technology system that has gift card support. Customers can also pay easily using cash.
Another option is the Verifone VX 520, which is a mobile money card reader that allows greater flexibility due to its size. With an online, ATM-style interface, it is designed to meet the needs of a mobile operator and offers easy, fast payment options. Both can help protect the owner against liability for fraudulent card transactions.
Businesses can also fax their monthly merchant bill to receive an audit on 1-866-222-3795 or call the 1-866-723-0080 with questions or to set up a merchant account.
For more information about us, please visit http://www.denverelectroprocess.com
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Best Affiliate Programs Launched New Information About Affiliate Marketing
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Molly is a woman who could be a mother, a sister or a daughter, but the drug called Molly is a femme fatale that kills indiscriminately. The drug is never prescribed, and the chemicals it contains alter the minds of users, often fatally.
Beginning with the synthesis of mescaline in 1897 in the laboratories at Leipzig University under the auspices of the father of modern psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, synthetic drugs were created and exported by mainstream scientists and psychiatrists with the help of the pharmaceutical industry.
Ecstasyalso known as Mollywas the first modern designer drug, hitting the streets in the early 1980s. Synthetic drugs, also called designer drugs, have since multiplied, and users across the country now feel their adverse effects.
Molly is the drug of choice at ravesall-night dance partiesthat bring in billions of dollars a year to festival producers around the world. Popular artists such as Miley Cyrus, Kanye West and Rihanna have openly promoted the drug.
Few users know who invented this drug that music stars celebrate. An ex-hippy in an underground lab? A Colombian drug cartel? No, its origin is even more sinister.
Chemically, Ecstasy is a combination of a hallucinogenic and an amphetamine, and it produces an effect similar to that produced by combining mescaline and speed.
Promoters of the drug claim that MDMA, the active ingredient, is relatively harmless. The facts, however, belie the claim.
The Centers for Disease Control published a report in June 2010 that said 18 individuals had been transported to emergency rooms in Los Angeles after consuming Ecstasy at a rave. A 24-year-old man attending a rave in Las Vegas died from taking Ecstasy, and five young people died in England after taking a version of Ecstasy, in 2015. According to the website, DrugRehab.us, Over Labor Day weekend 2013 several young people died after taking Molly at various concert venues, with one multi-day concert in New York shut down due to deaths. Nevertheless, rappers and rock stars continue to sing about the beauties of Molly. And young people continue to swallow whatever they are being told by their idols.
DanceSafe.org, which promotes safety within the electronic music community, blames the media. In the vast majority of cases of MDMA-related deaths, where no other drugs were found in the persons bloodstream, the deceased had taken a dose within the normal range for appropriate therapeutic or recreational use.
I had published information that ultimately led to human death. David Nichols,
professor of pharmacology
In-Hei Hahn, an emergency room physician, toxicologist and professor of medicine at Columbia University, stated in a report, The misconception that MDMA is a safe drug continues to be a major problem. Many of the myths concern the fact that it was once legal as a psychotherapeutic adjunct and that it has few adverse effects. As the potential for huge profits appeared, MDMA soon spread to a younger crowd and became prevalent in bars, clubs, and college campuses. In 1986, the Drug Enforcement Agency classified Ecstasy as a Schedule I drug, making it illegal.
In 2006, Dr. Rod Irvine of the University of Adelaide reported that Ecstasy taken on a few occasions could cause long-term brain damage, according to a media release from the University of Adelaide, in Australia.
Yet one Harvard psychiatrist, John Halpern, seemed to find the exact opposite. Ecstasy does not wreck the mind, said a headline in The Observer, in England in February 2011, quoting a study by Halpern. There is no evidence that Ecstasy causes brain damage, reported the newspaper.
What The Observer failed to point out is that Halpern is part of a clique of psychiatrists and neuroscientists that is lobbying to convince the Food and Drug Administration to legalize the use of Ecstasy.
MDMA was invented by the German drug firm Merck in 1912. The U.S. Army conducted tests with MDMA in 1953 on laboratory animals, the purpose of which remains classified.
Alexander Shulgin, a student of psychiatry and chemistry, is commonly credited with rediscovering Ecstasy in 1965. Shulgin gave Ecstasy to psychotherapist Leo Zeff, who used it on patients in therapy sessions. Zeff, in turn, introduced the drug to about 4,000 other therapists.
Illustration by Cody Blocker Origins In 1965, Alexander Shulgin unleashed a deadly beast on the world when he rediscovered MDMA, commonly called Ecstasy or Molly.
Shulgin published formulas for over 150 drugs on the Internet. A forward written by David Nichols, a pharmacology professor, states, Some day in the future, when it may again be acceptable to use chemical tools to explore the mind, this book will be a treasure house, a sort of sorcerers book of spells, to delight and to enchant the psychiatrist/shaman of tomorrow.
Shulgin wrote the forward to a self-published book by psychiatrist James Ketchum (Colonel, U.S. Army retired), called Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten, which describes experiments into chemical incapacitation that agents conducted on more than 6,000 volunteer soldiers. A year after the publication of the book, a group of the former volunteers filed suit against the U.S. government, essentially for violations of the Nuremberg Code, violation of informed consent and refusal to offer medical care for disabilities incurred from the chemical testing they endured. In January 2016, the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a summary judgment in favor of the Army veterans that required the U.S. Army to provide medical treatment for any disabilities, injuries or illnesses caused by their participation in the testing programs.
The drugs Ketchum experimented with in the Army included MDMA, pre-dating Shulgin and raising the question of where Shulgin got his idea from.
Nichols is now a chair in pharmacology at Purdue University. In 1993, he founded the Heffter Research Institute, and he continues to serve as its president.
The Heffter website states that it promotes research of the highest scientific quality with the classical hallucinogens and related compounds (sometimes called psychedelics) in order to contribute to a greater understanding of the mind leading to the improvement of the human condition, and to alleviate suffering.
Considering Nicholss close association with designer drugs, his change of heart in a Nature article seems curious.
In the article, Nichols laments the fact that MTA, one of the drugs that he published the formula for, was being produced in underground labs.
By 2002, six deaths had been associated with the use of MTA, he said. I was stunned. I had published information that ultimately led to human death.
This is a hymn about liberty, an optimistic paean to the advance of humanity
but first we must recall some setbacks in building a sane society.
During morning rush hour on March 22, 2016, deranged cowards bombed the Brussels airport and a subway station, killing at least 31 innocents. On November 13, 2015, terrorists in Paris murdered 130 people. The killers proclaimed their religion gave them an absolute duty to massacre non-believers. This group was an outgrowth of a tiny, very diseased strain of Islam whose earlier iterations included the September 11, 2001, obliteration of almost 3,000 lives.
On April 19, 1995, a terrorist blasted apart a government office building in Oklahoma City, slaughtering 168 people, including 19 children. An Islamophobic media expert pointed a finger at Muslims, proclaiming the blast showed a Middle Eastern trait. As it turned out, the bomber had been heavily influenced by Christian Identity, a repugnant and racist theology that has metastasized among far-right wingnuts.
In 2005, the Ku Klux Klan mastermind of the 1964 Mississippi Burning murders of three civil rights activists was finally brought to justice. The Klan organizer, dubbed Preacher, was an ordained Baptist minister. The Klanresponsible for thousands of lynchingsclaims to be a Christian organization.
Yes, lethal hatred often has a religious veneer. Some religions are despised; others feel they are superior. Christians kill Muslims, and vice versa. Type A Christians murder Type B Christians, ditto with rival Islamic sects. Christians and Muslims periodically savage Jews. Israelis and Palestinians have been at each others throats for seven decades. The eradication of pagan faiths in the Dark Ages, the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, the suppression of Native American religionsall are among thousands of stains on human history that have one element in common: religious bigotry.
Too often those clamoring for blood wield government as their deadliest weapon. Burning heretics often had more to do with controlling wealth and power than purifying theology. English Protestants and Catholics, each coveting the throne, piously massacred each other. The 1990s Balkan slaughterhouse was a three-way rampage involving two variants of Christianity and Islam. The almighty state became most depraved during the Nazis attempted erasure of Judaism. American slavery was often defendedand still is by someas good because victims were stripped of their own religions and forced to embrace Christianity, or else face death.
Religion is the first sense of community, Mr. Hubbard wrote in 1976. Where one can destroy or undermine religious institutions then the entire fabric of the society can be quickly subverted or brought to ruin.
The cynics response to the carnage? The last king should be strangled with the entrails of the last priest is an aphorism attributed to several wags, including Enlightenment writer Voltaire, philosopher Denis Diderot and French priest (and closet atheist) Jean Meslier.
Other Enlightenment figures brushed aside such glib denunciations of religion and government. These forward-thinking leaders contemplated a society where peace could flourish by disengaging religion from the state, by replacing bloodshed and animosity with tolerance and dialogue. Competition for spiritual beliefs could then move to the arena of minds and hearts, not guns and swords.
That incredibly radical idea was encoded in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Founding Fathers most potent thinkers were deists, not Christians. They believed a Supreme Being existed but that humanity was responsible for its own salvationor destruction. That thinking is close to the basic tenets of Scientology.
The antithesis of the First Amendment occurs when a U.S. official or politician proclaims that a particular religion should be sanctioned by government. In 2003, for example, a U.S. Army lieutenant general declared: My God is bigger than [the Muslim God], and were a Christian nation and the enemy is a guy named Satan. Not only was the general wrong in his comprehension of his nations founding document, but his opinion on militant religion parallels that expressed by murderous demagogues throughout the ages, including Osama bin Laden.
There are alternatives to doctrines of hatred and exclusion. All women and men have the innate right to explore their own spiritual paths, to express their own views on religion, politics or any other matter. No individual person or government or religion has the right to deter people from their beliefs. That was the message emblazoned in the First Amendment and trumpeted in documents such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the global dissemination of which is a major undertaking by the Church of Scientology.
With religious liberty, however, we enter the realm of conflicting freedoms. Is it OK to stridently defame a religion in the name of free speech? Should we be mute when self-appointed prophets or mullahs screech hatred and urge crusades or jihads?
Wise people temper language. The January 2015 attack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which killed 12 people, was an outrage to civilized society. But Catholicisms Pope Francis, dismayed at the crude caricatures of Islam in the publication, added context: One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other peoples faith, one cannot make fun of faith. There is a limit. Every religion has its dignity in freedom of expression, there are limits.
We reject the argument that government should impose limits to debating religion. But one need only look at the U.S. presidential race to see that racial and religious taunts have further coarsened an already divisive campaignand provoked violence.
Scientology has championed freedom of religion and speech since its founding in 1952 by L. Ron Hubbard. Like many new religions, Scientology faced attacks. It has weathered and defeated all attempts to destroy the religion. It is the sole surviving entity from one of Richard Nixons witch-hunt enemies lists. A criminal outfit within the Internal Revenue Service was trounced by the Church, part of a larger effort in which Scientology in 1993 triumphantly claimed recognition as a tax-exempt, fully qualified religion. Government officials and an angry, ineffectual newspaper in Clearwater, FloridaScientologys spiritual homein the 1980s legislatively attempted to ban Scientology; the Church prevailed, with federal courts striking down the ordinance as patently unconstitutional. The list goes on, and in every case the cause of religious freedom has been uplifted.
Nowhere has that been more evident than in two recent victories in Europe. In December 2013, the United Kingdoms Supreme Court struck down a law that prevented Scientologists from being married in a Church chapel. That law had reduced Scientologyand many other religionsto second-class status. But the Court rightly ruled that religious discrimination [is] unacceptable in todays society.
A more aggressive assault on liberty has been occurring in Belgium for 18 yearsallegations trumped up against Scientology. In March 2016, the case was totally dismissed. The chief judge cited raw bigotry as the only motivation for the litigation, stating: The defendants were prosecuted primarily because they were Scientologists, not because they had committed any wrongdoing.
The Church of Scientology is a stalwart defender of religious freedom. The very name of this magazine, Freedom, stems from Mr. Hubbards enduring efforts to bring liberty of thought and conscience to all mankind.
Religion is the first sense of community, Mr. Hubbard wrote in 1976. Where one can destroy or undermine religious institutions then the entire fabric of the society can be quickly subverted or brought to ruin.
In this issue, Freedoms writers deal with the enthrallment of people by so-called designer drugs. We show how Big Pharma has corrupted the media, enslaving millions via addictive medications. We also explore ways that homeless people can achieve the freedom of full members of society. Theres much more in this issue. But every word is about freedom.
The Editors
Photograph by Scientology Media Productions
Putting Faith in Herself Dianna Re
An eight-year addiction to heroin and painkillers had left Dianna Re with veins so scarred from shooting heroin that it was almost impossible to find them when she passed out and needed a blood transfusion. No longer able to afford her expensive drug habit, her withdrawal symptoms were severe.
Re asked her mother for money. Instead, her mother got her help.
When Re arrived at Narconon Louisiana New Life Retreat, a residential drug rehabilitation facility spread over 15 acres in Denham Springs, Louisiana, she was hurting, tired and agitated. But when she saw the propertys sprawling lawns and abundance of pine trees, oaks, magnolias and crepe myrtles, Re felt soothed. Then, a Labrador retriever ran up to greet her and she smiled.
The experience was different than the other treatment programs Re had attended, without success. This time it worked.
Re says the difference was that at New Life Retreat, one of 39 Narconon centers worldwide, no pharmaceuticals or replacement drugs like methadone were used to wean her off her drug of choice. Instead, Narconons unique drug-free approach to withdrawal kicked off her successful journey to recovery. It was also important to Re that the New Life staffas is the case at all Narconon facilitiesincluded people who themselves had struggled with drugs. People who have never been in an addicts shoes shouldnt try to tell them what to do, she says.
But Res favorite thing about Narconon is that, unlike other programs that failed to help her, students are urged to put their faith in themselves, because they have the power to remain drug-free. The first step in AA-type programs is believing that youre powerless to do anything about your addiction, said Re. I didnt feel powerless.
And she wasnt. Now 25 years old, Re broke free from her crippling drug dependency, successfully graduating from the Narconon program in 2012.
Narconon teaches people how to handle the way they process lifes pressures, says Tom Steiner, co-founder of New Life Retreat. Because people who use drugs tend to solve problems based on their past, they react to stress by getting loaded. Its important to break the cycle. At Narconon we do.
Living in the Present Jason Good
Photograph by Scientology Media Productions
Jason Good, a University of Miami psychology major with a cocaine habit, was on a binge at a Florida crack house in 2006 when a group of drug dealers held him hostage.
They took my car, my keys and belongings, Good recalls. I ran for my life and managed to call my parents.
He had already been to rehab six times. All they did was put me on psychotropic drugs and told me to pray that I dont use drugs again. I would use cocaine the day I left.
Then Good received treatment at a Narconon center in California, where he spent three months. He has been clean ever since, and with a decade drug-free, its easy for him to see why his earlier stints in rehab werent successful. My mind was so clouded from years of drug abuse that I didnt have the capacity to be honest and open, he says. How can you counsel somebody who isnt there?
The Objectives drills at Narconon helped Good to clear his head and be an active participant in his recovery. I was able to get myself unstuck from the past and be in the present, he says.
Before he underwent New Life Detoxification, Good explains, I used to think about cocaine all the time, but then slowly my cravings were gone. Narconon Life Skills Training made Good feel as though he were born again as an adult.
Today, Good is the director of marketing and promotion Narconon Suncoast in Clearwater, Florida.
Empowered to Change Derek Heiblim I had convinced myself of things that werent true.
Photograph by Scientology Media Productions
Derek Heiblim was 22 and a French-trained chef in one of New Jerseys finest restaurants when he began the Narconon program fresh from a psychiatric ward, where he had been confined for eight days.
He was, he recalls, really beat-upa damaged soul who had been using heroin and crack cocaine since he was 14. Heiblims drug habit seemed to defy logic. My family was awesome. I did well at school and never had a problem talking to girls, he says. But there was this loneliness in me and a voice in my head that kept saying my life had no ultimate purpose.
His addiction was bad enough that not being alive seemed like a good idea, Heiblim recalls. I had convinced myself of things that werent truethat my family hated me, that the world would be better off without me. The irrational thoughts were because of my drug use and my transgressionsI was buying drugs, dealing drugs, passing out in crack houses, and once spent 70 days in jail for possession.
Narconons Objectives helped Heiblim to turn a corner. The drills boosted his self-confidence so that he felt empowered to change. There have been times in my life when I told myself I should stop drugs because Im upsetting my mom or setting a bad example for my younger sister, Heiblim says. But before going through Objectives, I had never wanted to stop because I wanted to stop.
After graduating from the Narconon program in 2008, Heiblim joined the Narconon staff and has since been promoted to case supervisor.
Photograph by Win McNamee / Getty Images In Bed with Big Pharma Robert Califf, newly appointed commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
You never heard of Robert Califf? After all, hell have a lot to do with you living or dying, and who will profit from those events. Califf was approved in February to be the new commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has a long record of misdeeds and cronyism. A former FDA commissioner, Herbert Ley, said in 1969: People think the FDA is protecting themit isnt. And another FDA official, David Graham, said in 2005: FDA is inherently biased in favor of the pharmaceutical industry. It views its primary mission as approving as many drugs as it can, regardless of whether the drugs are safe or needed.
That brings us back to Califf, who while at Duke University received money from 23 Big Pharma outfits, and he has served as an official or director at Genentech and other companies. Califf has conceded that he has ties to more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies. Califf was a cheerleader for Vioxx, which was reported to have caused 50,000 heart attacks.
While at Duke, the research operations over which Califf presided resulted in major fraud.
Michael Carome, director of the health research group at Public Citizen, a consumer activist group in Washington, D.C., said: It would be dangerously naive to think he has not developed deeply ingrained attitudes that tilt in favor of the medical device and drug industries.
So feel safe, the FDAs Robert Califf is watching over you.
Freedom: Is the FDA a competent agency?
The FDA was a real disappointment in not seeming to appreciate the severity and extent of the tragedyand not being able to do something more definitive about limiting OxyContin. The FDA convened a hearing with its Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia, and Addiction Products [which regulates new drug applications] in 2010 to deal with the opioid problem. [The division] voted overwhelmingly that risk education should be mandatoryand the FDA turned around and ignored that. They made [it] voluntary and put the pharmaceutical industry in charge of it.
Is Purdue Pharma responsible for the Oxy epidemic?
Enormous promotion and marketing effected overboard prescribing and increased availability of a very potent, highly abusable opioid. That said, there are other factors. We live in a nation where prescription drugs of any stripe are available and theres a lot of prescription drug abuse.
Did Purdue Pharma and overprescribing doctors help create the countrys heroin epidemic?
Its not as simple [as that] because there are many factors in the mix. But certainly they played a role in creating the prescription opioid problem, and, tragically, that led to a much-increased heroin problem.
Oxfam has published an open letter signed by hundreds of respected economists, including Thomas Piketty, which describes tax havens as "serving no useful economic purpose."
The economists come from more than 30 countries, and include current Nobel laureate Angus Deaton. They come from all over the political spectrum, and have varying views on optimal taxation, but all agree that tax havens serve only to allow the very wealthy, and multinational corporations, to avoid paying their fair share.
They point out that tax havens aren't accidents: they are created by governments, especially governments from rich, populous countries like the USA and the UK. These governments have it in their power to shut them down. The Panama Papers' detailed account of the sleaze in the offshore finance world serves as a kind of evidentiary backdrop for their call.
They single out the UK especiallly, unsurprising, given the country's near-shore (Channel Island) and offshore (BVI) tax havens.
As the Panama Papers and other recent exposes have revealed, the secrecy provided by tax havens fuels corruption and undermines countries' ability to collect their fair share of taxes. While all countries are hit by tax dodging, poor countries are proportionately the biggest losers, missing out on at least $170bn of taxes annually as a result. As economists, we have very different views on the desirable levels of taxation, be they direct or indirect, personal or corporate. But we are agreed that territories allowing assets to be hidden in shell companies or which encourage profits to be booked by companies that do no business there, are distorting the working of the global economy. By hiding illicit activities and allowing rich individuals and multinational corporations to operate by different rules, they also threaten the rule of law that is a vital ingredient for economic success. To lift the veil of secrecy surrounding tax havens we need new global agreements on issues such as public country by country reporting, including for tax havens. Governments must also put their own houses in order by ensuring that all the territories, for which they are responsible, make publicly available information about the real "beneficial" owners of company and trusts. The UK, as host for this summit and as a country that has sovereignty over around a third of the world's tax havens, is uniquely placed to take a lead.
Tax havens 'serve no useful economic purpose': 300 economists tell world leaders
[Oxfam]
(via Beyond the Beyond)
Every school morning at 7:45, Michelle stood at the motel room window along Highway 192 in Osceola County and peeked through the heavy, worn drapes. She watched for a group of girls to walk by before she headed out alone to the bus stop. Michelle, a petite 13-year-old, was embarrassed and didnt want her classmates to know where she lived.
I feel sad, she said, referring to her living situation. I wish we could go home. Mom said wed be here for a week, but that was four months ago.
Michelle, her brother, Jason, and mother, Teresa, ended up at the motel after a divorce, and Teresa lost her production job during a regional economic downturn. After Teresa fell behind on the mortgage, the bank foreclosed. The last straw came when Teresa and her abusive alcoholic boyfriend got into an argument and someone called the police.
Photograph by Scientology Media Productions On the streets The homeless populations of Los Angeles and New York City have skyrocketed in the last couple of years, but innovative solutions such as Housing First are proving successful by offering the homeless safe, secure and affordable housing.
We got evicted, Michelle said, shrugging. Daddy couldnt take us either because he lost his job, too. He lives with Tonya, his girlfriend. She has issues with us moving in with them.
That morning, Michelle helped Jason, 7 years old, find clean clothes for school while her mother finished up an all-night shift at a nearby convenience store. She and her brother spend nights alone at the motel.
At least we have a suite here, she explained. We have a refrigerator, sink, three rooms and two doors in between. Our last place was a real divetoilet clogged up and there were drug addicts and creepers.
More than 5,000 homeless children currently live in Osceola County, Florida, which has one of the nations highest rates of homelessness. One of the key reasons for that is many people in the county who have full-time jobs cant save enough money to pay the upfront move-in costs for a decent apartment.
Americas homeless epidemic has many causes, mental health being foremost among them. The slide began in the 1980s, when more than 400,000 patients were released from mental hospitals into the streets without adequate help, medical follow-up or plans for where to go. Many were Vietnam War veterans who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and were unemployable and addicted to alcohol or drugs.
From 1981 to 1987, more than $153 billion was cut from social services safety net schemes such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments low-income housing, educational assistance and rehabilitation programs. As a result, homelessness doubled every few years. Yet the nation still doesnt have a coherent mental health policy. Mentally unstable people fill the nations jails and prisons or live on streets, often fending for themselves.
More than 663,000 Americans, one-tenth of whom are children, will bed down tonight somewhere other than a place they call home. According to biennial figures put out by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority last year, the number of homeless people occupying tents, vehicles and makeshift encampments jumped 85 percent in Los Angeles. The rise was fueled by the loss of cheap motel rooms and single-room apartments as areas such as Venice became gentrified. Homelessness, New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton was quoted as saying by The New York Times in November 2015, has exploded over the last two years.
Despite the bad news, however, some homelessness advocates and experts are upbeat for the first time in years because attempts to solve the crisis now have some momentum. New, innovative solutionssuch as Housing Firstare clocking up impressive successes by offering safe, secure and affordable housing for the homeless, while costing taxpayers one-third to one-half of current and less effective programs.
Though many people likely believe that the homeless are alcoholic, drug-abusing or mentally unstable men and women who loiter on sidewalks and panhandle, this perception, however accurate at times, unfairly maligns the many other people who also do not have permanent places to stay. Of the three primary categories of the homeless, the group defined above, the hardcore, is statistically the smallest group.
The chronic and mentally ill category of the homeless population represents only about 18 percent of the total number, but it takes up the majority of resources aimed at tackling homelessness.
In Transition Nearly 60 percent of homeless people in America are homeless for short periods of time and rarely access homeless services, and 10 percent of homeless are children.
The largest category of the homeless population is the transitional or situational homeless. This group accesses homeless services once or twice in their lifetimes and for short periodsfrom a few days to a few months. On any given day, it represents approximately 58 percent of all American homeless. We generally do not see these people because they mostly stay in the shadows, embarrassed about their predicaments and not wanting family, friends and associates to know they are receiving help. They are young, middle-aged and senior citizens, and their homelessness results mostly from economic downturns, poor and changing job markets, low and stagnating wages, high rents, the lack of affordable housing and temporary mental health or family problems.
Homeless families with children make up the third group. This is perhaps the most troubling category, representing about 20 percent of homeless people. For families such as Michelles in central Florida, the challenges are much different than those for the chronic homeless in urban areas such as New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
San Francisco, California
Get back! the disheveled, gaunt man shouted at a passer-by encroaching on his crook, an area created by a curve in the sidewalk, a handrail and the back wall of a public restroom. This is my place, mine!
Jonathan Maxwell, a permanent fixture on the streets wedged between the Financial and Castro districts, has been homeless ever since the U.S. Army discharged him 20 years ago for schizophrenia.
Homelessness is not a disease like cancer or Alzheimers where we dont yet have a cure. We have the cure for homelessnessits housing. Sam Tsemberis
Founder of Housing First
Maxwell and tens of thousands of others like him represent the most vexing and costly category of the homelessness equation: the long-term, drug and alcohol abusing, anti-social and mentally disabled individuals often unwilling to accept help. They disproportionately consume public resources, including 911 first-responder calls, ambulances, emergency room visits, rehabilitation, court appearances, not to mention jail cells.
One group of 37 hardcore homeless people in Osceola County, Florida, was arrested 1,250 times over 10 years, spending 61,815 days incarcerated and costing taxpayers more than $6 million for booking and jail costs and mental health care. In California, it costs more than $60,000 to provide services for a year to the average chronically homeless person.
A 2008 survey by the United States Conference of Mayors asked officials from 25 cities for the top three causes of homelessness. Substance abuse was the single largest cause for single adults. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than 80 percent have experienced long-term alcohol and/or drug problems.
To some people, Maxwell could be the poster boy for the homeless scourge that San Francisco is forced to endure. To others, he could be an example of a heartless nation that has turned its back on the weak, jobless, homeless and mentally ill.
Asked why he doesnt accept help, Maxwell responded, Im already dead. If they want me to get into that van over therehe motions toward the busy streetand be killed by the CIA well then, I wont do it.
Max was referring to people working for the homeless organization Housing First, a group that is changing the homeless landscape in America.
No one can make Maxwell accept help. He has the right to live his life on the streets. He has been offered help and housing many times, but his paranoia and mental illness preclude him from accepting.
Housing First
The organization most responsible for dramatically reducing chronic homelessness is Housing First, created by homeless counselor Sam Tsemberis. When introduced, it had many critics and skeptics, but within two years the program injected new energy and hope into a moribund process that did not include eliminating homelessness but only containing it.
One editorial writer described Housing First this way: It is so simple a child could grasp it, so cost-effective fiscal hawks could love it, and so socially progressive liberals could praise it.
Photograph by Scientology Media Productions Helping the Cause After seeing many of the same faces seek his services time and again, homeless counselor Sam Tsemberis started Housing First, helping to decrease homelessness dramatically.
Unlike traditional outreach programs that require alcoholics or drug addicts to beat their addictions before they move into residences, Housing First provides housing with no preconditions. The program finds the hardcore homeless and hands them keys to their new apartments. Residents are allowed to live as they choose, including drinking and doing drugs. The program has shown that giving people a home stabilizes them so they might address the problems created by their addictions, allowing them perhaps to kick those addictions.
Tsemberis came up with the idea for the program when he was working in New York City as a homeless counselor and kept seeing the same people over and over again. He questioned why the current system was failing and wondered what might work better. He kicked around ideas with another counselor and some friends who had formerly been homeless, then Tsemberis developed the program.
In 1997, he applied for and received a $500,000 federal grant, then bought and renovated an apartment complex. He found 139 chronically homeless people on the streets and offered them keys to their new apartments, no questions asked. Those who accepted were immediately housed and offered counseling, and their progress was tracked. Two years later, the retention rate was nearly 85 percent, more than 35 percentage points higher than the next best program. Equally as noteworthy, 30 percent of the participants had kicked their drug or alcohol addictions and were either working or looking for work.
The cost, however, was the most remarkable aspect of the program. Housing people and offering services to them costs nearly 60 percent less than continuing to provide services to them while theyre on the streets.
On his web page, Tsemberis wrote, Ironically, ending homelessness is actually cheaper than continuing to treat the problem. This not only benefits the people who are homeless; it is healing for the rest of us to live in a more compassionate and just nation. Homelessness is not a disease like cancer or Alzheimers where we dont yet have a cure. We have the cure for homelessnessits housing.
The Housing First model has revolutionized the way cities, states and the federal government view and approach the homeless problem. In state after state, Housing Firsts success stories grew. In Salt Lake City, for example, more than 2,000 chronically homeless people lived on the downtown streets in 2007. After Housing First joined forces with local homeless advocacy groups, and federal funding agencies helped purchase a large, sprawling, vacant motel, chronic homelessness there was essentially eradicated. Today, fewer than 200 chronically homeless people live on the street in Salt Lake City, and they are waiting for a new facility to be completed.
Although often lauded, Housing First is not without its critics. Ralph Nunez, president of The Institute of Children, Poverty and Homelessness based in NYC, believes Housing First does not go far enough. Without providing built-in services and support, the program is simply addressing the symptoms rather than the causes of homelessness, such as addiction, domestic violence and a lack of education or job opportunities, he said.
Debi Starnes, Ph.D., a long-time member of the Atlanta city council, said that housing alone wont change the behavior patterns, illnesses and disabilities that cause chronic homelessness, though housing combined with the full range of supportive services does work.
Housing First has certainly revitalized the fight to end homelessness in America, leading other new programs to take root and older ones to be reconfigured. In late 2015, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio released a $2.6 billion, 15-year plan to create 15,000 housing units that will include social services for veterans, mentally disabled people and others needing help, according to The New York Times.
Phoenix Arizona
Photograph by Scientology Media Productions Making Ends Meet Many homeless people who access state services sporadically at best may benefit from a federal plan aimed at creating 100,000 homes for the homeless over the next five years.
Carlos Youngs boss at McDonalds pegged the handsome young man as management material early on. The problem is, however, that Young, age 20, is homeless.
Its hard to stay positive, he admitted, standing behind the restaurant while on break. Young, like other transitional or situational homeless people who cant make ends meet because of low-wage jobs and high rents, struggles with self-esteem issues. Only losers end up homeless, he said.
Two months ago I had an apartment, and now Im homeless. This is the third time in the last year. Im like, totally giving up, he said.
When his parents divorced, he was angry and ended up estranged from both of them. The family home was sold, and because he had no marketable skills, when the bills piled up and his roommate decided to move home, Young had nowhere to go. He slept in his car, camped in the woods and stayed with friends. Then he ended up at the local homeless shelter.
Young was in luck that night, though. An old friend from high school, now a freshman at Arizona State, stopped by and offered Young a couch for the next few days while his parents were away.
For a young person, having an extended period of homelessness is really going to relegate them to a bleaker future. Beven Duffy
Director of HOPE (Housing Opportunity Partnership and Engagement)
Couch surfingcrashing at a friends or a relatives houseis classified as a kind of homelessness. It is how tens of thousands of situational homeless people manage to get by.
According to Beven Duffy, director of HOPE (Housing Opportunity Partnership and Engagement), For a young person, having an extended period of homelessness is really going to relegate them to a bleaker future.
A week later, Young wound up at Phoenixs Homeward Bound Resource Center downtown, which provides a safe place to sleep and resources like a dental and medical clinic. The staff helps people with job training and finding permanent affordable housing.
Across the country
Not-for-profit, faith-based and community organizations are collaborating with local, state and federal agencies to increase temporary housing and offer services such as food, clothing, bedding, toiletries, job training and educational counseling to people whose homelessness is situational or transitional.
In response to the homeless epidemic, in 2014 the federal government launched, Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Modeled in part on Housing First, the program is slated to create 100,000 homes for the homeless over the next five years. It increased U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments (HUDs) low-income housing budget by 12 percent over the previous year, and its goals include ending homelessness for veterans this year, ending chronic homelessness in 2017, and ending homelessness for youths and for families with children in 2020.
Working with private developers and other stakeholders, Opening Doors supports rental housing subsidies with federal, state, local and private resources. It is expanding the supply of affordable rental housing where needed, offering rental assistance and funding the National Housing Trust Fund. It encourages developers to build low-income housing by awarding low-income housing tax credits.
Osceola, Florida
It was a big day for Michelle. She, Jason and Teresa were moving into their new apartment, located in a modest, safe and quiet neighborhood outside of Celebration, Florida.
Michelle had another reason to be happy too. Straight As! she exclaimed proudly, adding: I am now on the honor roll! She held her arms out and turned in circles in her new living room.
I am so happy right now! We have a home! Mom got a good job with insurance, and we are all together.
To find housing for homeless families across the country will take many years and a lot of effort, but the process has begun. Today, homeless organizations, religious groups, philanthropic foundations, local and state governments, federal funding agencies and even corporate America are working together to address the problem.
In fact, a coalition of homeless resources including Westgate Resorts, a hotel and hospitality corporation, was responsible for helping Teresa find a good job and securing a new apartment for her and her family. This public and private partnership is one of the newest collaborations to join the homelessness battle.
In 2012, Mark Waltrip, Chief Operating Officer of Westgate Resorts in Orlando, became involved in the homeless family dilemma after learning how many homeless children were living in rundown motels along the Highway 192 corridor.
Acknowledging it has a vested interest in creating an attractive and safe environment for its clientele, Westgate initially helped a handful of homeless families find housing and jobs, but Waltrip saw the potential of what could be done.
We started meeting and aligning with other corporations, government agencies, faith-based organizations, nonprofits and individuals to coordinate the many resources that already exist, Waltrip said, adding: This effort has evolved into a private-public partnership called Hospitality Helps that is being spearheaded by the hospitality industry to help Central Florida families transition out of homelessness.
Evan Smith, project manager at the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness, echoed the view of a growing number of experts and activists: I do not believe there will ever be a day when no one in this country is homeless. But what I am confident will happen is that our response to the issue of homelessness will be so effective that any instance of housing instability will be rare, brief and one-time.
As for Michelle, it was precisely her homelessness that instilled in her a desire to be part of the solution.
I see homeless people so differently now, she said. Before I just thought they were ugly and stupid, but now I know that no one wants to be homelessthere are so many people who need help. When she goes to college, she added, she wants to be a counselor or someone who can help people in need.
Not exactly paradise
Throughout the city of Los Angeles, homeless people live in tents or makeshift encampments near parks, on freeway overpasses and underpasses and hundreds of out-of-the-way places. More than 25,000 people are estimated to be homeless in the city and more than 53,000 in Los Angeles County (up from 44,000 last year).
Americas second largest city is spending $100 million on the homeless problem in 2016. The citys administrative office, however, contends LA would need to spend nearly $2 billion over the next decade to lessen the problem significantly. The county is receiving an additional $84 million in federal grants to assist with homelessness.
Reverend Andrew Bales, chief executive of the Union Rescue Mission, thinks that a mix of strategies is needed to solve the problem. He cited data indicating it takes $40 million to build a 102-unit apartment complex for the homeless. Bales said LA could build two rescue missions with round-the-clock comprehensive care for 1,600 people for the same price.
We have created a disaster in LA. We put all of the services in one area, and now we have 4,000 people living on the sidewalk and streets of Skid Row, and the skyrocketing rents now in LA are causing many skid rows to break out all over town, Bales said.
Homelessness is an epidemic in LA. So we have a plan to regionalize services throughout LA County and try to end Skid Row as we know it, he said.
LAs homeless problem stands in stark contrast to New York City, where more money and legal actions have addressed the crisis. The day we announced $100 million, they announced $3 billion, Bales said. The biggest thing we need to change in LA is to change the heart of LA so that we just wont tolerate precious human beings dying on the streets.
Her own worst enemy
When Lois was in high school, her best friend jumped to her death off the Skyway Bridge in Florida. Then her successful businessman father died of a cocaine overdose. She then came home from school one afternoon to find her beloved mother hanging from a chandelier affixed to the high ceiling of their upper-crust family home. Lois and her brother ran away.
Five years later, her brother stopped talking to her and never would again, and Lois was featured on the Keith Olbermann show as the most arrested prostitute in America.
Totally estranged from her relatives and preyed upon by the denizens of the ghetto, she has been homeless on the streets of St. Petersburg for 13 years. Today she trades sex for motel rooms, cigarettes and pills. The local police bulletin board features the headshot of the 36-year-old lost soul.
Half of her adult life has been spent in jail or prison. She has called these home, and she kind of enjoys her staysshe receives three square meals, and all her friends are there.
A straight-A student with a high IQ who is hard to beat at Jeopardy, Lois is a voracious reader of any book she can find, yet she is both her ownand the communitysworst enemy: smart enough to know exactly what is going on, but unable to stop the spiraling trip to hell.
Freedom dispatched a team of reporters in 1989 to Mena, Arkansas, to investigate allegations of ongoing cocaine smuggling tied to the CIA. Adler Berriman Barry Seal, based in Mena, smuggled billions of dollars of cocaine into the U.S. His 1986 death in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, under a hail of bullets by a Colombian hit squad, did not end the CIA-connected enterprise, according to law enforcement sources. His murder was likely orchestrated to prevent Seal from talking about whatand whomhe knew.
Freedoms investigation drew interest from many quarters, including Terry Reed, a CIA asset and pilot who had flown with Seal. Retired U.S. Army Special Forces Col. William Wilson, authored two Freedom articles describing how beacons, under the aegis of CIA operative Edwin Wilson and others, guided scores of cocaine-laden aircraft on an unmolested trafficking route from Colombia into Manuel Noriegas Panama.
Compromised, a book co-authored by Reed and published in 1994, and Gary Webbs Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion, a 1996 series in The San Jose Mercury News that was later turned into a book, documented more of the subterranean underpinnings of the cocaine trade, pointing to a subject woefully under-reported or falsely portrayed by establishment media.
Throughout its history, Freedom has exposed the harmful and often deadly effectslong suppressed by the psychopharmaceutical establishmentthat mind-altering drugs wreak upon bodies and minds.
Children being given Ritalin or Dexedrine showed a considerable stunting of growth when compared to a group of similar children who were not given drugs, Freedom noted as early as 1972. Insomnia and other sleep disturbances occur in almost a third of the children with vomiting, headaches, abdominal pains, fainting, dizziness and nausea being frequent additional side effects.
The sweeping and even more severe consequences of mass drugging were put in perspective in Freedoms April 1985 interview with a former consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health, who noted: Psychiatry, with psychiatric drugs, has created the worst plague of brain damage in the history of the world.
In probing episodes of mass violence, Freedom found time and again a causal relationship with psychopharmaceuticals. In 1988, when Laurie Dann shot six children and an adult in Winnetka, Illinois, then killed herself, Freedom investigated and found that Danns condition had deteriorated after being prescribed the experimental antidepressant Anafranil, linked to violence, psychosis and suicide.
Later that year, Freedom interviewed James Wilson after he attacked a school in Greenwood, South Carolina, killing two 8-year-old girls and wounding seven children and two teachers. Wilson, then 19, told Freedom that since he was 14 he had been on psychiatric drugs, including Xanax and Valium. Freedom described a 1984 study that documented violent and hostile acts linked to Xanax in people who mostly had no prior history of such destructive behavior.
In the wake of Joseph Wesbeckers 1989 onslaught that claimed nine lives and wounded 14 others in a Kentucky printing facility, Freedom reported that Jefferson County Coroner Richard Greathouse had found Prozac in Wesbeckers blood. Prozac, in certain individuals, has caused a violent, hostile type of reaction, Greathouse said.
Many other drug-induced tragedies have since unfolded, including in Columbine High School, where 13 died and 23 others were wounded. In case after case, Freedom dug for what had been administered and what psychiatrist prescribed the killers.
Through the work of Citizens Commission on Human Rights, data regarding these adverse effects, supported by studies, were brought to the attention of legislative bodies and government regulatory agencies across the globe.
Antidepressant drugs now bear 134 drug agency warnings from 11 countries about risks including suicide, violence and psychosis. And antipsychotic drugs carry 72 warnings from eight nations for effects that include psychosis, stroke, heart problems and sudden death.
When Mario Chirinos was 15 years old, two of his male cousins visited his house in Maracaibo, a city in Venezuela near the Colombian border. They asked Chirinos for a screwdriver, which they used to rip open a large package, revealing a microwave oven stuffed with $100 bills. The young men thanked Chirinos, gave him a wad of the greenbacks, and left.
The cousins disappeared a few years later, never to be seen again. Unbeknownst to Chirinos and his family, they evidently worked for a major drug cartel and had become casualties of the regions notorious narcotics wars. I was stunned, recalled Chirinos, who had always dreamed of becoming a cop or a firefighter. I said to myself, How can I help?
It took Chirinos a decade to find an answer. During a 2007 visit to the Church of Scientology mission in his hometown, he attended a presentation on The Truth About Drugs, the worlds largest non-governmental, anti-drug information and prevention campaign. Later that year, as Venezuela convened its first National Congress of Drugs, Chirinos volunteered to head a national chapter called the Venezuela Foundation for a Drug-Free World, and implement The Truth About Drugs throughout the country.
Drug Awareness Mario Chirinos gives an anti-drug lecture to scouts of La Batalla de Carabobo, named after an 1821 battle that led to Venezuelas independence from Spanish rule.
Venezuela couldnt have found a better person to spread the message about drugs. It wasnt just that Chirinos had suffered a personal loss when his cousins disappeared. He had also worked as an event producer for Latin American superstarsa job that allowed him to see first-hand how deeply rooted illicit drugs are in Venezuela.
Chirinos began his campaign in 2008 by distributing The Truth About Drugs educational booklets and DVDs free of cost to youth in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods of his hometown, where drug dealers had laid siege to schoolyards and campuses. The campaign material conveyed the unvarnished truth about drugs. Chirinos also led a workshop in which students acted out real-life drug scenarios they might encounter, and were then invited to sign a pledge to live drug-free lives. The school principal was so impressed that he asked Chirinos to deliver the same lecture to every single class on campus.
Encouraged by the positive response, Chirinos began lecturing about drugs and conducting workshops in schools across Maracaibo and the surrounding state of Zulia. Chirinos then expanded his lectures into neighboring states.
According to Venezuelas National Anti-Drug Office drug usage in the schools where Chirinos brought The Truth About Drugs has fallen by an average of 40 percent since 2007. The Office issued a proclamation, stating: We recognize The Truth About Drugs for the decrease in drug use.
The key to Chirinos success isnt just his tireless activism but also his strategic campaigning. After introducing The Truth About Drugs program in Venezuelas primary schools, for example, he formed an alliance with the University of Belloso, one of the largest institutions of higher learning in Maracaibo. In 2014, Chirinos trained 250 students and 643 of the 1,200 professors at the university. They, in turn, went on to create their own anti-drug groups at other educational institutions.
Working with community groups is another important part of Chirinos campaign strategy. As he did with schools, Chirinos began small, reaching out to a single pastor at a Christian church in his hometown. At the pastors invitation, Chirinos delivered a Truth About Drugs lecture to more than 1,000 parishioners.
Combined Effort Venezuelas law enforcement officers in Mario Chirinos hometown of Maracaibo team up with Drug-Free World volunteers during a drug-prevention drive.
The response was so encouraging that the pastor asked Chirinos to train him and a team of church volunteers on the program. Before long, Chirinos had trained more than 50 different groups of Catholics, Adventists, Baptists and followers of other churches to deliver Truth About Drugs lectures. They call every week, requesting material, Chirinos said, referring to the church groups. They carry the Bible under their right arm and The Truth About Drugs booklets under the left arm. And thats amazing.
Realizing that despite his growing network of allies and partners, millions of Venezuelans had yet to be reached, Chirinos used his media connections from his days as an event producer to take the campaign to a national level, appearing on both local and national radio shows, where he talked about The Truth About Drugs campaign to an estimated 500,000 listeners. Chirinos also went on television. In one single appearance on NT 24 Hours, a national TV station, he brought his campaign message to an estimated 1.5 million viewers.
Altogether, Chirinos and other Truth About Drugs volunteers have appeared as guests on 42 television shows and 58 radio shows with an audience of nearly 4.5 million people. Some 450,000 students in more than 2,000 schools have come in contact with The Truth About Drugs campaign. Not surprisingly, these efforts have resulted in a deluge of inquiries and requests for Truth About Drugs seminars and lectures from all corners of Venezuela.
Chirinos has also expanded his Truth About Drugs crusade into the streets. Again, he started in his hometown. Over a three-month period, Chirinos gave Truth About Drug lectures and seminars to nearly 1,000 municipal police officers in Maracaibo. Subsequently, he delivered a series of educational lectures about drugs in the citys police academy.
As news about Chirinos campaign spread, he was invited to give a talk to a military battalion of 500 soldiers in Maracaibo. During the presentation, soldiers told Chirinos of rampant drug abuse within their own ranks. He learned that as many as seven out of ten soldiers were using drugs, including marijuana and cocaine.
In the Parish Mario Chirinos, executive director of the Venezuela Foundation for a Drug-Free World, interacts with children while lecturing at a parish of a local Catholic church.
Before long, the head of the local military base requested that Chirinos give lectures to personnel in all ten army divisions in the state of Zulia. Chirinos and his team educated more than 4,000 soldiers of the Venezuelan National Guard, army and military aviation about the effects of drug abuse.
Chirinos has also engaged the private sector. More than 135,000 executives and employees of corporate tech companies, banks and supermarket chains have heard his anti-drug message. About 30 companies have raised more than $2 million to sponsor The Truth About Drugs programs, while other companies have donated campaign materials such as banners, laptops and photo equipment.
Among the corporate sponsors is Digitel, one of Venezuelas leading mobile phone companies. In 2013, impressed by Chirinos accomplishments, Digitel donated $60,000 to a Drug-Free World campaign focused on a frontier area between Venezuela and Colombia that is home to many indigenous people as well as Colombians displaced by the conflict between their government and leftist guerrillas. The subhuman conditions in the region make it a breeding ground for drug trafficking and crime.
Perhaps the most far-reaching of Chirinos achievements is his appointment as an advisor to the Zulia State Legislative Assembly on issues pertaining to modifications in drug laws. Following a review of The Truth About Drugs campaign, the legislature approved a proposal by Chirinos to make it mandatory for schools in the state to use The Truth About Drugs curriculum as the basis of at least two hours per week of drug education. Subsequently, Venezuelas national government passed a law mandating drug education in schools throughout the nation.
Chirinos long-term goal is to reach a quarter of Venezuelas 31 million people with The Truth About Drugs campaign. Its a daunting task, but Chirinos is determined to achieve it. If we reach 7.5 million in this country, Chirinos said, we can drop the consumption of drugs.
Spreading Awareness Meghan Fialkoff helps a passer-by in Times Square sign a Youth Drug-Free World Pledge, while other activists distribute drug information.
MEGHAN FIALKOFF sees the growing drug problem in New York City from the battlefield perspective of a drug-educator in the metropolitan areas public schools.
Heroin and opiate use, said the Executive Director of Drug-Free World New York, has reached epidemic proportions that are affecting countless teens in the public school system.
Its a perspective informed by nine years of attempts to fill an educational void for many young people facing the troubling plague of drugs.
According to Fialkoff, Drug-Free Worlds approach to a seemingly insurmountable problem evolved gradually over the past nine years, one school, one student at a time.
Basically, we started reaching out to schools, she explained from her office in early March. In Brooklyn, it caught on like wildfire. So far, she added, the Drug-Free World New York has reached 2,200 schools with The Truth About Drugs, a prevention program developed and offered by its parent organization, Foundation for a Drug-Free World.
Thats a milestone, Fialkoff said, referring not just to the number of schools reached, but also to their receptiveness to the hard facts about drug abuse presented in The Truth About Drugs. Its not a sugar-coated program, she explained. Its really hard-hitting, so its good.
Drug abuse impact studies tell a staggering story. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that the economic cost of alcohol and drug abuse is more than $417 billion annually.
Drug-Free World has worked with the New York Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and many City Hall luminaries on drug-free programs.
Fialkoffs outreach efforts have prompted praise in New Yorks urban communities, particularly in many black, Latino and Asian neighborhoods. Tackling the drug problems there has become, she says, her mission in life.
To carry it out, she uses the materials of The Truth About Drugs program, which include a feature-length documentary, Public Service Announcements and informational booklets on the most commonly used drugs.
The videos explain the stories through the people who have had problems with drugs, Fialkoff said. There are booklets with images and anecdotes about the facts about drugs, she added. Now the kids can make their own educated decisions when theyre posed with the question whether to do drugs or not.
Fialkoff said Drug-Free World New York is carrying its successes outside U.S. borders, establishing a presence in North and South America.
Drug-Free World campaign in United Kingdom Drug-Free World campaign in Colombia Drug-Free World campaign in Germany Drug-Free World campaign in Russia Drug-Free World campaign in United States Drug-Free World campaign in Taiwan Drug-Free World campaign in Honduras Drug-Free World campaign in Puerto-Rico Drug-Free World campaign in South Africa Drug-Free World campaign in Canada Drug-Free World campaign in Venezuela Drug-Free World campaign in Mexico A Worldwide Campaign The Truth About Drugs campaign provides educational materials about drug abuse to people young and old in every country on Earth. Partnerships with law enforcement agencies and non-governmental organizations helped to spread the word, as do lectures and one-on-one distribution of the booklets.
The original New York Chapter has expanded, she said. We had Carlos Manuel Perez, who was on a diplomatic mission from the Dominican Republic, come to learn about the Drug-Free World program.
The Truth About Drugs activities in New York are financially supported by Scientologists and the New York Church of Scientology, where Drug-Free World New York recently held its first awards ceremony, honoring teachers, police officers and counselors.
Drug-Free World has won recognition from members of the City Council and the State Senate. Fialkoff has worked with several political figures in New York who support the program, including Assemblyman Felix Ortiz.
Drug-Free World has worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration and many City Hall luminaries on drug-free programs, Fialkoff said, adding that the organizations chapters around the world take different approaches to drug issues. Fialkoff has also worked closely with the New York Police Departments high-profile school liaison, Detective Patrick Blanc. Hes all over the media, receiving awards from the mayor [Bill de Blasio] and [New York Police Department] Commissioner William Bratton, she said. Fialkoff added that she met Blanc during a Drug-Free World event, where Miss New York 2015 Jamie Lynn Macchia, an anti-drug activist, was speaking. He loved it. We booked an event in Harlem, and his group, the Office of School Safety, participated.
Fialkoff is not alone in her message that drug abuse is best reversed through education and prevention programs like The Truth About Drugs.
New York State Sen. Terrence Murphy, co-chairman of the Joint Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction, also recognizes that small steps can make a big difference in drug reform, Fialkoff said.
After a series of task force hearings, it has been made abundantly clear that this epidemic has no boundaries, Murphy told the task force recently. Tackling the growing heroin and opioid crisis begins with properly funding prevention treatment and enforcement initiatives, the senator said. No amount is too small when it comes to saving lives.
Indeed, support for Drug-Free World is coming from different places, said Fialkoff, adding that the interest is motivated by concerns about drugs like OxyContin, which typically cause addicts to exhaust their prescription pipeline and turn to other drugs such as heroin.
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Between 120 and 150 IT workers will be fired from the McClatchy newspaper syndicate (Scramento Bee, Miami Herald, etc), after they have trained IT contractors from India's Wipro to do their jobs.
Some of the affected workers have filed for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which expands unemployment benefits to workers whose employers have offshored their jobs.
The move was announced in a remarkably (even by corporate America's standards) tone-deaf, jargon-laden, corpspeak letter circulated in the company, which referred, in its seventh paragraph, to firing the longterm employees as "a realignment of resources requiring a reduction in McClatchy technology staff," noting "this action is necessary for us to realize the benefits outlined above and help the company achieve its long-term goals."
The letter was signed by McClatchy CEO Patrick Talamantes, who earns $1.4m/year in total compensation for his work at McClatchy.
To date, the workers affected have not been able to find any McClatchy papers that have reported on the layoffs.
The letter received by McClatchy IT employees from CEO Talamantes begins by telling them the company is "pleased to unveil our new IT Transformational Program, a program designed to provide improved service to all technology users, accelerated development and delivery of technology solutions and products, variable demand-based technology resources and access to modern and cutting-edge skills and platforms." "As we embark on the implementation phase, there will be a realignment of resources requiring a reduction in McClatchy technology staff. While regrettable, this action is necessary for us to realize the benefits outlined above and help the company achieve its long-term goals. Employees impacted by this realignment will be contacted," wrote Talamantes.
Newspaper chain sending IT jobs overseas
[Patrick Thibodeau/Computerworld]
(via /.)
Though most of the world's largest narcotics gang's aircraft are a lot smaller than the Mexican flagship carrier's planes, the Sinaloa have flown at least one Boeing 727; the planes fly drugs, gang members and bales of cash.
The Mexican government has seized 599 Sinaloa planes, suggesting that the fleet is much bigger than that.
German-born pilot Jorge Gustavo Arevalo-Kessler pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge. A former Mexican Air Force fighter pilot, Arevalo-Kessler turned down a job offer with Etihad to fly for Sinaloa.
According to El Universal, if the Sinaloa Cartel's fleet was legal, "the cartel would also compete as the most lucrative airport company in the country, operating 4,771 clandestine airstrips between 500 meters and one kilometer long, nestled in the heart of the mountains in northern states." The Sinaloa Cartel is an international organization, but it is most heavily invested in northwestern Mexico centered around the state of Sinaloa where the cartel takes its name. According to the newspaper, the organization's airstrips are heavily concentrated in Sinaloa, with the greatest number in Baja California opposite the Californian border. But what Arevalo-Kessler's case shows is that the the Sinaloa Cartel does not have to be legal to compete with the world's airlines. A job offer from Emirates one of the world's best and career in the Mexican air force gave him rare opportunities to work in aviation. But he went to work for El Chapo.
The Sinaloa Cartel Has More Planes Than Mexico's Biggest Airline
[Robert Beckhusen/War is Boring]
(via Naked Capitalism)
(Image: AeroMexico Boeing 737-800(W) XA-AMJ, BriYYZ, CC-BY-SA)
Adviser network Tavistock has promised a return profit when it releases its full year results, reversing a 1.6m loss following its takeover of troubled rival Financial Ltd.
In a trading update published today (10 May), the company stated each of the groups operating businesses is now trading profitably.
The trading update refers to Tavistock Partners and Tavistock Financial, which provide compliance, administration and accounting services to the networks independent financial advisers, and Tavistock Wealth, which manages its investment proposition of in-house and external funds.
Tavistock reported a 1.6m loss for the six months to 30 September 2015, falling further into the red after a 172,000 full year loss in 2014.
The company blamed the slide on one-off restructuring costs resulting from its 2.7m acquisition of Standard Financial - parent of network Financial Ltd - last February.
Financial Ltd, which is in liquidation, would not be included among the Tavistocks profitable ongoing concerns.
Last month, FTAdviser revealed Tavistock is pursuing former appointed representatives of Financial Ltd for potentially millions of pounds in costs linked to unsuitable advice green-lit by the collapsed networks compliance team.
Earlier in April, Tavistock chief executive Brian Raven explained how his firm brokered a deal with the Financial Conduct Authority to rescue the failing advice network without taking on its liabilities.
A past business review into pension switching advice problems at Financial Ltd was ordered by the FCA in 2012.
Elsewhere in todays trading update, Tavistock stated it now operates an integrated, national business offering both financial advisory and investment management services, with 328 advisers and more than 70,000 clients around the UK.
Assets under influence are estimated to be 4bn and assets under management, on either a discretionary or advisory basis, exceed 430m. The statement added approximately 75 per cent of the groups net revenues are from recurring income.
Mr Raven said: We have made remarkable progress in the two short years since completing our initial transactions, and this would not have been possible without our exceptional management and staff.
With more than 9m of net assets, including cash resources of over 3m, we are well positioned to capitalise on the opportunities available to us. We look forward to the continuation of our rapid progress in the year ahead.
laura.miller@ft.com
Old Mutuals Richard Buxton said he is far more worried about the impact on global markets of the upcoming US presidential election, than the June referendum on whether Britain leaves the EU.
Speaking during a Morningstar investment conference today (10 May), the veteran fund manager and chief executive of Old Mutual Global Investors said he has no doubt Hilary Clinton will become the next US president.
But he still forecast bouts of fear from the public she might lose to impact global stocks.
Financial markets will really begin to panic in the run-up to the US election in November, he predicted, as the possibility Republican front runner Donald Trump could win begins to be taken more seriously.
Mr Buxton said, unlike the last 40 years in the UK, there is currently no one representing middle America politically, which he said makes the US election very dangerous and unpredictable. I am absolutely convinced we will not vote to leave.
The manager of the 2.3bn Old Mutual UK Alpha also said he is confident the UK will not vote for Brexit, because British voters are inherently conservative and do not want radical change unless the country is in absolute crisis.
There is no such sense of the UK being in a crisis, so the leap into the complete unknown relative to the certainty of better the devil you know, means I am absolutely convinced we will not vote to leave.
When asked how he thinks markets will react after the vote, Mr Buxton said there will be a sigh of relief if the UK votes no, and outflows in the UK equity sector might start to turnaround.
Hopefully people will start to recognise there are good things going on among UK companies, he said, adding he expects more British companies to come to market after the EU referendum.
Once the referendum is out the way, people will start to focus back on the fundamentals, he said, adding there are some really interesting investment opportunities available in the UK.
Buxtons UK Alpha fund is down 14.7 per cent over the last year, versus its Investment Association UK All Companies benchmark, which is down 6.4 per cent.
According to data from the IA, equity funds have seen outflows continually since the start of the year, reporting a fall of 459m in March, a 196m slide in February, and a fall of 68m in January.
Dan Farrow, director of SBN Wealth Management, agreed the US elections are a consideration, but disputed whether it was a major issue for advisers to worry about.
The presidential position is actually more a figurehead than a law and decision maker. If I were Richard Id be more worried about a Western world slowdown and the impact a withdrawal of QE could be having.
However, Whitechurch Financial Consultants head of research Ben Willis said he shares Mr Buxtons sentiment. Markets hate uncertainty, and so whilst the EU referendum is going to garner lots more headlines until 23 June, the bookmakers are still saying that it is 2-1 on that Britain votes to stay in.
Gross platform sales in the first quarter totalled 21.2bn, marginally more than sales in the final quarter of 2015 but down 7 per cent on the same period last year.
The latest Fundscape Platform Report revealed despite volatile markets and stock market growth of 1 per cent in the first three months of the year, platform assets under administration rose by 3 per cent - or 13bn - to 415bn.
But with China concerns and Brexit fears, the net sales on platforms total slipped below 10bn (9.4bn) for the first time since the third quarter of 2014.
The research - which covers 19 platforms and an estimated at 98 per cent of the market - showed just three platforms (Cofunds, Fidelity and Hargreaves Lansdown) have assets of more than 60bn.
Top platforms by assets in Q1 2016 (m) Cofunds (estimated) 80.0bn Fidelity 62.7bn Hargreaves Lansdown (estimated) 60.0bn Old Mutual 36.6bn
Between them, they account for just under half of total industry assets and this size guarantees them a place in the gross sales table.
For timing reasons, Hargreaves Lansdown and Cofunds report their figures a quarter in arrears, so data is estimated from the previous quarters data and historical trends.
However, being weighty is not a factor in the net sales table, where smaller platforms dominate, according to Fundscape.
Top platforms by net sales in Q1 2016 (m) Hargreaves Lansdown 1.2bn Standard Life 1.1bn Aegon 0.9bn Aviva 0.8bn
Standard Life was second overall, with an impressive rate of growth, thanks to working closely with advisers, combined with being able to leverage different parts of the value chain. More growth is on the cards with the acquisition of the Axa Elevate wrap, added the report.
Also in the news recently was Aegon - after acquiring BlackRocks DC business for its ARC platform - which Fundscape said had strong net sales partly due to the transfer of existing business onto the wrap.
Fundscape chief executive Bella Caridade-Ferreira commented that although the first quarter is traditionally the start of the Isa season, pension flows were four times stronger than Isa activity, continuing last years trend.
Gross Isa sales were down by 15 per cent and net by 40 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2015. In contrast, pension business maintained momentum with net flows up on the previous quarter and the same quarter in 2015.
Isa activity is likely to improve modestly in the second quarter, but concerns around Brexit will suppress demand, said Ms Caridade-Ferreira. Investment activity is likely to be muted until the second half of the year and even longer if the UK votes for a Brexit.
Graeme Mitchell, managing director at Galashiels-based Lowland Financial, suggested parallels with the Scottish Referendum, when investors were generally wary of any uncertainty and held off making decisions.
From an investment point of view, I think the grey vote (those with pensions and Isas) made a huge difference the Scottish Referendum, with a significant majority backing the status quo, so I suspect the EU vote could be similarly impacted.
A pioneering scheme piloted in Lancashire to tackle livestock rustling is to be rolled out nationally.
The Lancashire Livestock Theft Prevention Scheme has brought farmers, police, auctioneers, NFU and NFU Mutual together in a bid to tackle the theft of livestock and machinery in the county.
As part of the scheme, police officers have been trained to spot the signs of sheep theft and identify the owners of animals when suspicious vehicles are stopped.
See also: Jail for rustlers who stole more than 100 sheep
Ewe hostels
Under the scheme, a network of ewe hostels has been set up to house livestock identified as stolen until their rightful owners can be traced.
Instead of a handful of sheep, we are now seeing hundreds of sheep being stolen from farms Matthew Scott, chief claims manager, NFU Mutual
Following the success of the scheme in Lancashire, it was extended to parts of Yorkshire and Cumbria last year.
Now the scheme is ready to be rolled out to other parts of the country, according to Matthew Scott, chief claims manager at rural insurer NFU Mutual.
6m cost of livestock theft
Speaking at the 2016 National Rural Crime Seminar in Kettering, Northamptonshire, on Tuesday (10 May), Mr Scott said the theft of livestock is estimated to cost the industry more than 6m each year.
As well as the cost to farmers, livestock theft causes welfare issues for stolen animals, leaves farms in turmoil, with breeding programmes in tatters and production disrupted for years, he added.
However, Mr Scott said the Lancashire scheme was an example of excellent collaborative working within the whole community and it was now time to widen it to other counties.
He said: There is now the opportunity for this initiative to be utilised by other UK police forces that are experiencing livestock theft and need support to tackle this crime.
In Lancashire it has already resulted in two prosecutions with custodial sentences and a huge reduction in livestock thefts.
Mr Scott also warned farmers that since 2010 a trend was emerging of criminals stealing large numbers of livestock each time. Instead of a handful of sheep, we are now seeing hundreds of sheep being stolen from farms, he said.
Farmers in Northern Ireland have more to lose than most if the UK votes to leave the EU, and many will be forced out of business, EU farm commissioner Phil Hogan has warned.
Delivering the annual Gibson lecture at Queens University, Belfast, on Monday night (9 May), Mr Hogan said farm support in Northern Ireland was worth more than 2.3bn in the current financial period (2014-20).
See also: Analysis Agricultural trade in a post-Brexit world
To put that figure into perspective, annual payments from the EU account for 87% of annual farm incomes, compared to 53% in the UK as a whole, he said.
In other words, for every 10 sterling that Northern Irish farmers earn, the Common Agricultural Policy accounts for 8.70 of that total.
Were it not for European assistance, many farms would not only generate significant losses, but would struggle, and in many cases fail, to survive.
Were it not for European assistance, many farms would not only generate significant losses, but would struggle, and in many cases fail, to survive Phil Hogan, EU farm commissioner
That money benefited the whole agricultural sector, said Mr Hogan, supporting rural communities throughout the province.
But those payments would be in jeopardy if the UK left the EU, he added, pointing out it was Defras stated policy that direct payments should be eliminated by 2020.
Outside the EU, agricultural spending would be subject to the same annual review by the British treasury as any other department.
Can Northern Irelands farmers compete with the City of London, doctors, nurses and schools in such a review?
Trade fears
Mr Hogan also questioned the trade implications of Brexit for Northern Ireland, which was very much an export-oriented economy.
The EU was engaged in a range of trade initiatives, including with China, Japan and the US.
Any deals would contain strong protection for high-quality EU agricultural produce, he said, and would open up opportunities for export-minded farmers and agri-businesses.
Trade flow
But there were particular concerns for Northern Ireland if the UK did leave the EU, given the fact there were huge trade flows of goods and people between the province and the Republic of Ireland on a daily basis.
If any form of land border is re-introduced, how will this disrupt the substantial cross-border trade in agri-food products? Will Irish farmers lose tariff-free access to the UK market and vice versa?
There will be clear incentives to recreate the old channels of smuggling across the border, and the consequent increase in resources from both states to deal with the problem. I believe that it would be a retrograde step.
Ulster Farmers Union meeting
Mr Hogan also met representatives from the Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) on his trip to the province.
UFU president Barclay Bell insisted that the union was not advising its members on how to vote, but warned the commissioner that farmers votes should not be taken for granted.
A key issue for us will be assurances that the EU is still committed to the European Investment Bank becoming involved in tackling the short-term cashflow crisis and longer term funding of farm borrowings, he said.
If Europe is to get farmers backing, then it needs to do so by clearly showing that it understands the issues undermining agriculture, and has the ideas needed to make the CAP and other parts of EU policy deliver better for farmers in Northern Ireland.
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia was among the right people enshrined on the memorial wall on Saturday, Oct. 21.
The Corvallis School Board voted to hire the district's student services director as the interim superintendent for the 2016-17 school year at its meeting Monday night.
Ryan Noss, who began the administrative position before the start of this school year, will take over for the departing Erin Prince in July. The board plans to conduct a full search for a permanent replacement for Prince starting in January, and has not ruled out retaining Noss should he apply for the position. He also was a top candidate last year when the Philomath School District was searching for a replacement for its retiring superintendent.
Noss, who was assistant superintendent in the Lebanon School District from 2011 until he took the position at the Corvallis School District, said he and his family have lived in Corvallis for 14 years and he has two children at district schools.
"I'm honored by this opportunity and proud," he told the board after they voted unanimously to approve his contract, which includes a compensation package of $139,400.
School Board Chair Chris Rochester said the board met in executive session for seven hours Friday, mostly interviewing Noss and another internal candidate whom he did not name.
Rochester said the board pursued an aggressive timeline in hiring Prince's successor so that they could maximize the amount of time the successor gets to prepare for the position with Prince.
Noss said his priority coming into the position is continuing the board and Prince's work in areas like equity and developing best practices for teaching. He added that building community relationships and partnerships is a major priority for him.
He said the biggest challenge in the position will be communicating to the public about the importance of the district's levy, which is up for renewal in the November election.
June 7, 1922 April 14, 2016
Lyle Eugene Miller, 93, of Corvallis died peacefully April 14 surrounded by loving family and friends.
He was born to Byron and Mame Miller June 7, 1922. With his brother, Don, and sister Mildred the family worked a small farm outside Alma, Nebraska, until he joined the Army Air Force in 1945.
He married the love of his life, June Brady, on May 2, 1943, and spent 66 loving years together raising three children, Dale, Dudley and Joyce Miller, and caring for his nephews, Michael, David and Dennis, and nieces Kim and Marcia.
Affectionately known as Gramps to his grandchildren, Brady, Lauren, Michelle, Melissa and Amanda, he was openhearted, a caring gentle giant, patient teacher and a ready source of unending fun camping, bicycle riding, T-ball, tickles and laughter galore. An infectious friend to all, his happy banter will be remembered at camp fires, square dancing halls, Elks dinning and church gatherings. All of us were more alive from the joy of being with, in his words, this ol geezer.
A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at the First Christian Church in Corvallis. A committal service will follow at 3 p.m. at Oak Lawn Memorial Park in Corvallis with military honors by American Legion Post 10.
Please leave your memories and condolences for the family at www.mchenryfuneralhome.com.
This log includes incidents in which there might have been a public disturbance or a risk to the public. Information comes from the Corvallis Police Department, the Benton County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police. It does not include all calls for service. The status of incidents might change after further investigation. Locations are approximate. People arrested or suspected in crimes are considered innocent until proven otherwise.
Corvallis Police Department
SUNDAY, MAY 8
DUII: 9:34 p.m., Southwest Third Street and Southwest Western Boulevard. An officer arrested Kelsey Anne Murray, 19, for charges of DUII and reckless endangering. She reportedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.00 percent, but a drug recognition expert concluded she was under the influence of marijuana.
SATURDAY, MAY 7
SELLING TOBACCO TO A MINOR: 4:20 p.m., 111 N.W. 16th St. An officer cited Niutao Tiagogo Seau, 24, of Corvallis, a clerk at Bad Habits Smoke Shop, for a charge of selling tobacco to a minor after he allegedly sold a can of tobacco to a 16-year-old police cadet without asking for identification.
FRIDAY, MAY 6
METH: 4:20 a.m., 1500 S.W. Avery Park Lane. Officers contacted a Michael Brandon Leslie Cole, 20, of Corvallis, in a bathroom at Avery Park and searched his bag, reportedly with his consent, and found a spring-loaded knife in his bag and methamphetamine residue on a pipe in a nearby trash can. They arrested him and jail staff reportedly found methamphetamine on his person. He was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, supplying contraband drugs, possession of weapons by certain felons, and a probation violation.
Benton County Sheriffs Office
THURSDAY, MAY 5
DUII: 9:39 p.m., Fern Road and Powderhouse Road, Philomath. An officer arrested James Randall Dutson, 37, of Philomath, during a traffic stop. He allegedly refused to take a breath test and police obtained a warrant to collect a sample of his blood. He faces charges of DUII, reckless driving and refusing to take a breath test.
An honest essay has numerous characteristics: original thinking, a good structure, balanced arguments, and plenty more.
But one aspect often overlooked is that an honest essay should be interesting. It should spark the readers curiosity, keep them absorbed, make them want to stay reading and learn more. An uneventful article risks losing the readers attention; whether or not the points you create are excellent, a flat style, or poor handling of a dry subject material can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The matter is that a lot of students think that essays should be like this: they believe that a flat, dry style is suited to the needs of educational writing and dont even consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to search out the essay interesting. You might want to have online essay editor service to boost your confidence in writing with an error-free output. Academic writing doesnt need to be and shouldnt be bland. The excellent news is that there is much stuff you can do to create your essay more attractive, while youll be able only to do such a lot while remaining within the formal confines of educational writing. Lets study what theyre.
Have an interest in what youre writing about
Dont go overboard, but youll be able to let your passion for your subject show.
If theres one thing bound to inject interest into your writing, its being fascinated by what youre writing about. Passion for a subject matter comes across naturally in your essay, typically making it more lively and fascinating and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words within the same way that its easy to talk knowledgeably to someone about something you discover fascinating.
Include fascinating details
Another factor that may make an essay boring maybe a dry material. Some topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to form the article more interesting through your written style and by trying to seek out fascinating snippets of knowledge to incorporate, which will liven it up a small amount and make the data easier to relate to. A way of doing this with a dry subject is to create what youre talking about that seems relevant to the critical world, as this is often easier for the reader to relate to.
Emulate the fashion of writers you discover interesting
When you read lots, you subconsciously start emulating the fashion of the writers you have read. Reading benefits you a lot, as this exposes you to a spread of designs, and youll start to require the characteristics of these you discover interesting to read.
Borrow some creative writing techniques
Theres a limit to the quantity of actual story-telling youll do when youre writing an essay; in the end, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesnt, initially glance, feel considerably like story-telling. However, youll apply a number of the principles of story-telling to create your writing more interesting.
consider your own opinion
Take the time to figure out what its that you think instead of regurgitating the opinions of others.
Cut the waffle
Rambling on and on is dull and almost bound to lose the interest of your reader. Youre in danger of waffling if youre not completely clear about what you wish to mention or havent thought carefully about how youre visiting structure your argument. Doing all your research correctly and writing an essay plan before you begin will help prevent this problem.
Editing is a vital part of the essay-writing process, so edit the waffle once youve done a primary draft. Read through your essay objectively and eliminate the bits that arent relevant to the argument or labor the purpose.
employing a thesaurus isnt always a decent thing
Avoid using unfamiliar words in an essay; theres too great a likelihood that youre misusing them.
You may think that employing a thesaurus to seek out more complicated words will make your writing more exciting or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the incorrect effect.
Avoid repetitive phrasing
Please avoid using the identical phrase structure again and again: its a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a variety of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities and makes your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound, and complicated sentences to avoid your paper becoming predictable.
Use some figurative language
Using analogies with nature can often make concepts more accessible for readers to know.
As weve already seen, its easy to finish up rambling when youre explaining complex concepts mainly after you dont know it yourself. One way of forcing yourself to think about a couple of pictures, present it more simply and engagingly is to form figurative language. This implies explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy.
Employ rhetorical questions
Anticipate the questions your reader might ask.
One of the ways ancient orators held the eye of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by using the statement. A decent place to use a statement is at the top of a paragraph, to steer into the following one, or at the start of a replacement section to introduce a brand new area for exploration.
Proofread
Finally, you may write the top interesting essay an instructor has ever read. Still, youll undermine your good work if its plagued by errors, which distract the reader from the particular content and can probably annoy them.
Attack on 17-year-old : City attorney puts out reward for perpetrators
Bonn. A 17-year-old youth who suffered a savage beating remains in a coma while police search for his attackers.
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After the brutal attack on 17-year-old Niklas P. in Bad Godesberg early Saturday morning, police are searching feverishly for the perpetrators. On Tuesday, the Bonn City Attorneys Office put out a reward of 3,000 euro for anyone leading them to the attackers.
As reported, the youth from Rheinland-Pfalz was walking with friends to the Bad Godesberg train station at around 12:20 a.m. early Saturday morning when they came upon a group of young men near the Rheinallee bus stop. At the corner of Rheinallee and Rungsdorfer Strae, the group of at least four men said something to the teenagers and then slugged the 17-year-old so hard that he fell to the ground. They kept beating him even as he lay on the ground. His friends tried to help him but they were also attacked and lightly injured. Only when bystanders rushed to help the teenager did the attackers flee.
The 17-year-old boy had to be revived by paramedics and has been in a coma since then, his condition critical. A homicide unit is working on the case together with the Bonn City Attorney. In the coming days, police will go to the area where it happened and put out flyers with a description of the perpetrators.
Person 1:
-17-20 years-old
-1.8 - 1.85 meters tall
-brown skin
-stocky build
-black hair, shorter on the sides and longer on top
-black jacket
-jeans
-spoke German without an accent
Person 2:
-17-20 years-old
-dark black hair
-1.8 - 1.85 meters tall
-brown skin
-thin
-white jogging pants
-white pullover (Adidas or Nike)
-spoke German without an accent
Person 3:
-older than 18 years
-long hair, black and curly, shaved on the sides
-thin
-full beard
-black leather jacket
-jeans
-shorter than the others
Investigators are asking for help from the public. Who saw the attack? Who might have seen the attackers either before or after the beating took place? Who has information about the identity of the attackers? Police ask to call them at (0228) 1 50.
Asylum seekers : Deportations in NRW continue to climb
Dusseldorf More than 1,300 persons were deported in the first quarter of 2016.
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The number of deportations in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) continues to grow while a more efficient decision process quickens the pace. In the first three months of 2016, 1,324 asylum seekers were sent back to their home countries from NRW. The statistics were released by the Ministry of the Interior, law enforcement officials and churches.
In 2015, there were 4,395 deportations and in the previous year around 2,900. Interior Ministry department head, Burkhard Schneider says, We expect 2016 to be a difficult year and the number of deportations to rise. Most people are sent back to southeastern European countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.
The 19-year old Tom Holland has donned the red and blue spandex suit for his first ever outing as the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman/Peter Parker. In this movie, Tom Holland a.k.a Spiderman steals the show with an extended cameo appearance along with his brilliant sense of humour, resonating with his fans. As the film reaches its end, in the post credit scene, the teenage superhero will receive sort of ring from Tony that projects Spiderman logo onto the ceiling with red laser.
Anthony Mackie has done justice as Sam Wilson a.k.a Falcon in the Civil War. In this movie, Falcon uses mechanical wing to fly and also has limited telepathic and empathic control over the birds. However, in this movie, we didn't see any such power from Falcon controlling any birds. One of the notable gadget that he owns are the goggles that have heads up display, and a plate of small computer interface in the forearm. Besides all this, he got a 'Redwing Drone'that can track vehicles and give sonar readings along with delivering a bomb blast in a remote location.
Tony Stark Holoprojectors smartphones
Popularly called as Playboy, Business magnate, ingenious engineer and a philanthropist, Stark augment his suits with weapon and other technological gadgets. One of the most popular tech he owns is J.A.R.V.I.S (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System), one of the highely advanced computerized AI.
In this movie, Tony Stark a.k.a Iron Man owns a smartphone with holoprojector that can project 3D hologram from his device. Also, we have witnessed him doing expanding, contracting, and changing the size of the device. By the way, have any one of you noticed the device company he uses all the time? It's not Apple, Samsung, Sony! It's "VIVO".
Iron Man Dashboard suit
Top 10 Samsung Smartphones To Buy under EMI Offer Features oi -Harish
Samsung is a renown brand name in the smartphone segment. The company has an array of devices, catering to all segments of products. The company has a wide variety of devices for consumers, and brings several offers to attract it's buyers.
SEE ALSO: Buying Guide: Top 20 Best Smartphones To Buy in India This May 2016
The company has a big set of loyal fans, and many more take interest in purchasing it's products. For those who are interested in buying Samsung smartphone but don't want to spend the whole amount at one go, an easy option to go for is EMI option.
SEE ALSO: Top 40 Smartphones that got Launched in April 2016 in India
Today we bring to you a list of devices which are available under easy EMI scheme. The list includes top notch smartphones, even the latest Galaxy S7 series devices. Take a look at the best Samsung smartphones that you can buy on EMI.
Samsung Galaxy S7 (EMI starts from Rs. 2,371) Click Here To Buy
Key Features
5.1-inch Quad HD (25601440 pixels) 577 PPI Super AMOLED always-on, pressure sensitive display
Quad-Core Snapdragon 820 processor / Octa-Core Exynos 8 Octa 8890 (2.3GHz Quad + 1.6GHz Quad) processor
4GB LPDDR4 RAM
32/64GB internal memory
expandable memory up to 200GB with microSD
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
Hybrid SIM (nano + nano / microSD)
12MP rear camera with LED Flash, f/1.7 aperture, Smart OIS
5MP front-facing camera, f/1.7 aperture
Heart rate sensor, Fingerprint sensor, Barometer
IP68 ratings water and dust resistance
4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac
Bluetooth 4.2 LE
GPS with GLONASS, USB 2.0, NFC
3000mAh battery, Fast Charging both on wired and wireless (WPC and PMA) charging Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (EMI starts from Rs. 2,759) Click Here To Buy
Key Features
5.5-inch Quad HD (25601440 pixels) 534 PPI Super AMOLED always-on curved edge display
Quad-Core Snapdragon 820 processor
Octa-Core Exynos 8 Octa 8890 (2.3GHz Quad + 1.6GHz Quad) processor
Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
4GB LPDDR4 RAM
32/64GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 200GB with microSD
Hybrid SIM (nano + nano / microSD)
12MP rear camera with LED Flash, f/1.7 aperture, Smart OIS
5MP front-facing camera, f/1.7 aperture
Heart rate sensor, Fingerprint sensor, Barometer
IP68 ratings water and dust resistance
4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, GPS with GLONASS, USB 2.0, NFC
3600mAh battery, Fast Charging both on wired and wireless (WPC and PMA) charging Samsung Galaxy S6 (EMI starts from Rs. 1,644) Click Here To Buy
Key Features 5.1 inch 1440p SAMOLED Display
Exynos 7420 2.1/1.5GHz A57/A53
Android v5.0 (Lollipop) OS
2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Category 6 LTE) Network
16MP (5132 x 2988) Rear Facing w/ OIS, f/1.9, object tracking AF Camera
5MP Front Facing, f/1.9 Camera
3GB LPDDR4-1552, 32/64/128GB NAND Memory
2600 mAh, Li-ion Battery Samsung Galaxy Note 5 (EMI starts from Rs. 2,081) Click Here To Buy
Key Features A 5.7-inch Quad-HD (14402560 pixels) Super AMOLED display with a pixel density of roughly 515ppi
Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Touchwiz UI
a 64-bit octa-core Exynos 7420 SoC (4 cores Cortex-A57 clocked at 2.1GHz + 4 cores Cortex-A53 clocked at 1.5GHz)
16 Mega Pixel Auto Focus Rear Camera With Smart OIS
5 MP Front Camera
4GB of LPDDR4 RAM
4G LTE, NFC, MST, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi, GPS/ A-GPS
3000 MAh Battery Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (EMI starts from Rs. 1,984) Click Here To Buy
Key Features 5.1 inch 1440p SAMOLED Display
Exynos 7420 2.1/1.5GHz A57/A53
Android v5.0 (Lollipop) OS
2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Category 6 LTE) Network
16MP (5132 x 2988) Rear Facing w/ OIS, f/1.9, object tracking AF Camera
5MP Front Facing, f/1.9 Camera
3GB LPDDR4-1552, 32/64/128GB NAND Memory
2600 mAh, Li-ion Battery Samsung Galaxy J7 (EMI starts from Rs. 691) Click Here To Buy
Key Features 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS display
Android 5.1 (Lollipop)
Octa-Core (1.4GHz + 1GHz) Exynos processor
1.5GB RAM
16GB internal memory
expandable up to 128GB with microSD
Dual SIM
13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/1.9 aperture
5MP front-facing camera with LED flash, 120-degree wide-angle lens
4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS
3000mAh battery Samsung Galaxy On7 (EMI starts from Rs. 495) Click Here To Buy
Key Features 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display
1.2 GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916) processor with Adreno 306
1.5GB RAM
8GB internal memory
expandable up to 128GB with microSD
Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop)
Dual SIM
13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/2.1 aperture, 1080p video recording
5MP front-facing camera, f/2.2 aperture
4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS/ GLONASS
3000mAh battery Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) (EMI starts from Rs. 1,208) Click Here To Buy
Key Features
5.2-inchFHD (19201080) Super AMOLED display
Android 5.1 (Lollipop)
1.6GHz Octa Core processor
2GB RAM
16GB Internal Storage
expandable (up to 128GB) via micro SD slot
Dual SIM ( nano + nano)
13MP rear camera, OIS
5MP front camera
Fingerprint Scanner
4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth v 4.1, ANT+, USB 2.0, NFC (UICC, eSE)
2,900mAh battery, Fast Charging Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) (EMI starts from Rs. 1,450) Click Here To Buy
Key Features
5.5-inch FHD (19201080) Super AMOLED display
Android 5.1 (Lollipop)
1.6GHz Octa Core processor
3GB RAM
16GB Internal Storage
expandable upto 128GB via micro SD card
Dual SIM ( nano + nano)
13MP rear camera, OIS (F1.9)
5MP front camera (F1.9)
Fingerprint Scanner
4G LTE
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Key Features 5.7-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED display
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First flash sale for 'superphone' Le 1s Eco begins May 12 News oi -GizBot Bureau
The first flash sale for its supertainment-loaded device Le 1s Eco will begin at 2 p.m. on May 12, Chinese internet and technology conglomerate LeEco announced on Monday.
The Rs.9,999 device will come with a one-year free LeEco membership programme worth Rs.4,900 where the users will have access to a wide range of premium movies, live TV channels and songs.
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"We are working to make LeEco more valuable for the users by giving them LeEco membership along with 5TB of storage space in cloud network. They can now enjoy more than 2000 videos, over 100 TV channels and over 3.5 million songs," Atul Jain, chief operating officer (COO), smart electronics business, LeEco India, told IANS.
People who buy the device can avail of an additional 10 percent cashback on HDFC credit and debit cards. Le 1s Eco has received good response from users till date, securing 1,00,000 registrations on Flipkart in the first 24 hours. The device comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB ROM and a mirror-surfaced fingerprint scanner.
LeEco's content ecosystem is being offered with Eros Now and YuppTV through its platforms - Le Vidi and Live. The third premium content under the LeEco membership programme is called LeMusic. For this, LeEco has announced a partnership with Hungama Music, India's largest on-demand music destination.
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"With this blockbuster device, we live up to our promise of offering the best value, breakthrough technology and great features at a disruptive price," Jain added.
Source IANS
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Mobile phones don't increase brain cancer risk: study News oi -GizBot Bureau
There is no link between increasing mobile phone use and brain cancer, claims a new study that found no rise in tumours over 30 years in Australia despite widespread use of the devices.
Researchers from University of Sydney examined the association between age and gender-specific incidence rates of 19,858 men and 14,222 women diagnosed with brain cancer in Australia between 1982-2012, and national mobile phone usage data from 1987-2012.
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With extremely high proportions of the population having used mobile phones across some 20-plus years (from about 9 per cent in 1993 to about 90 per cent today), they found that age-adjusted brain cancer incidence rates (in those aged 20-84 years, per 100,000 people) had risen only slightly in males but were stable over 30 years in females.
There were significant increases in brain cancer incidence only in those aged 70 years or more, researchers said. But the increase in incidence in this age group began from 1982, before the introduction of mobile phones in 1987 and so could not be explained by it.
The most likely explanation of the rise in this older age group was improved diagnosis, they said. Researchers also compared the actual incidence of brain cancer over this time with the numbers of new cases of brain cancer that would be expected if the "mobile phones cause brain cancer" hypothesis was true.
The testing model assumed a ten-year lag period from mobile phone use commencement to evidence of a rise in brain cancer cases. The model assumed that mobile phones would cause a 50 per cent increase in incidence over the background incidence of brain cancer, researchers said.
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The expected number of cases in 2012 (had the phone hypothesis been true) was 1,866 cases, while the number recorded was 1,435, they said. "Mobile phones produce non-ionising radiation which is low energy, sufficient only to 'excite' the electrons enough to make them just heat up," said Simon Chapman from University of Sydney. The findings were published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology.
Source PTI
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Trademark case: Chinese court rules in Facebook's favour News oi -GizBot Bureau
In a signal that China may soften its stand against the social networking giant Facebook, the Beijing High Court has ruled in favour of the Cupertino-based company, saying that a Chinese company should not have been allowed to register the "face book" trademark back in 2014.
The Zhongshan Pearl River Drinks Factory in southern Guangdong province that had registered the brand name "face book," produces food products like potato chips and canned vegetables.
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"Under Chinese law, a multinational with a globally-recognised brand must prove that its trademark is also well known within China," the Financial Times reported on Monday. Along with other social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook is currently blocked to nearly 700 million internet users in China.
Although many people are using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access the site which allow them to circumvent the "Great Firewall". Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been trying to break the ice with China for years. He has met Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to the US last year.
The Facebook founder has met China's chief censor officer at his home in San Francisco and reportedly had a meeting with the head of the ruling Communist party's propaganda apparatus.
In March this year, Zuckerberg was seen jogging through Tiananmen Square with the famous gate to the Forbidden City imperial palace in the background. He was in Beijing to attend the China Development Forum 2016.
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Zuckerberg also met Alibaba Group Holdings's executive chairman Jack Ma and discussed about innovation during the visit. Ma said Zuckerberg respected Chinese culture, adding that oriental culture and western culture should learn from each other and work collaboratively for a better future.
Source IANS
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BSNL to sign 2G roaming pact with Jio, Vodafone this month News oi -GizBot Bureau
State-owned BSNL is in advanced talks with Reliance Jio and Vodafone for signing a 2G roaming agreement this month.
"We are in advanced stages for signing 2G intra-circle roaming agreement with Reliance Jio and Vodafone. I believe agreement with them should be signed this month," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava told PTI.
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Under the agreement, customers of Reliance Jio and Vodafone will get access to BSNL network where there is a coverage gap. The state-run firm has deep presence in rural areas as other companies have invested very conservatively due to low return on investments.
Once the agreement is finalised, BSNL customers will also have access to the networks of Reliance Jio and Vodafone. In terms of mobile base stations, BSNL stands second in the country. It has around 1.14 lakh and is in process of installing another 21,000 mobile towers.
"Soon, we will start signing 3G intra-circle roaming agreement with other players. We are working on rates for 3G roaming agreement. Being a government firm, we need to have uniform rate for all companies," Shrivastava said.
With the telecom ministry objecting to the 3G-ICR among the telecom operators mainly Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, these players acquired customers using each others network in telecom circles where they did not have 3G spectrum.
The telecom tribunal TDSAT upheld the agreement signed by the private telecom operators. Shrivastava said under 3G-ICR agreement, BSNL will follow law of the land. The public sector firm also held discussion with telecom major Bharti Airtel for spectrum sharing in two circles - Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
"We had discussion with Airtel for spectrum sharing in three circles - 1800, 900 and 2100 Mhz band. If talks are finalised, then we will liberalise spectrum in these circles," Shrivastava added. With liberalised spectrum, BSNL will be able to provide 4G service to its customers through the airwaves which it is currently using for 2G services.
When contacted, Airtel spokesperson said, "We have only held preliminary discussions with BSNL in the past and there is nothing ongoing or at an advanced stage.
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"Being a PSU, BSNL will always run a transparent process for spectrum sharing and the same will be open to all operators. As and when that were to happen, Airtel will examine and explore possibilities of cooperation." The spectrum sharing allows companies to share burden of government levies. It also helps increase wireless bandwidth capacity for providing good quality mobile services.
Source PTI
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Inherent Resolve Strikes Target ISIL in Syria, Iraq
From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release
SOUTHWEST ASIA, May 9, 2016 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Strikes in Syria
Ground-attack, attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted nine strikes in Syria:
-- Near Shadaddi, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Manbij, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Mara, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL mortar system, an ISIL vehicle bomb and an ISIL heavy machine gun.
-- Near Palmyra, two strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and three ISIL vehicles.
Strikes in Iraq
Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 16 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:
-- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL bunker.
-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike destroyed an ISIL weapons cache and an ISIL fuel cache.
-- Near Beiji, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Fallujah, five strikes struck five separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions, three ISIL weapons caches, 20 ISIL rockets, six ISIL rocket rails, an ISIL recoilless rifle, an ISIL vehicle bomb, an ISIL artillery piece, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL staging area and an ISIL front-end loader.
-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Hit, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Kisik, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL assembly area and an ISIL tunnel.
-- Near Mosul, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroying four ISIL rockets, six ISIL rocket rails and an ISIL vehicle and suppressing an ISIL mortar position.
-- Near Sultan Abdallah, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL assembly area and an ISIL mortar position.
Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.
Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
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Bulgaria, U.S. tanks strengthen regional defense in live-fire exercise
US Marine Corps News
By 2nd Lt. Kathleen OBrien | May 9, 2016
Forces from Bulgaria, Romania, France, Great Britain and the United States will conduct a multi-national exercise to improve collective defense in Eastern Europe.
U.S. Marines and sailors of the Combined Arms Company and Black Sea Rotational Force are scheduled to participate in Platinum Lion 16-3 at Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria, beginning May 9, 2016.
During the exercise, the Service members will conduct integrated platoon offensive operations, maneuver training, air assault training and mechanized integration aimed at collectively increasing combined arms skills, anti-armor tactics and other capabilities needed for combat.
The Bulgaria-based Combined Arms Company arrived in August 2015 to support NATO allies and partners in the region and to bolster multi-national exercises with mechanized capabilities. The CAC is a supplemental unit to the Black Sea Rotational Force, a semi-annual rotation of Marines and Sailors based in Romania to respond to a broad range of military operations in the U.S. European Command area of responsibility.
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Deputy Secretary General calls for efforts to strengthen non-proliferation regime
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
09 May. 2016
NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow opened the twelfth annual NATO Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Arms Control, Disarmament, and Non-proliferation in Ljubljana, Slovenia on Monday (9 May 2016). "With the breadth of challenges before us, it is essential that we work together to develop an ever stronger and more comprehensive approach to today's WMD and CBRN threats," he said.
"In recent years there have been many positive developments in the field of arms control and non-proliferation," Ambassador Vershbow said. He underlined the importance of the New START Treaty, which reduces the number of nuclear weapons and launchers the United States and Russia can deploy. He further highlighted the importance of last year's nuclear negotiations with Iran which led to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, calling this "a landmark agreement."
Ambassador Vershbow noted that the threat posed to NATO nations by the proliferation of ballistic missiles continues to increase. "Our ballistic missile defence is designed to defend our territory, our people and our forces against a range of threats from outside the Euro-Atlantic area, and is purely defensive," he said, adding: "NATO's missile defence is not directed against a specific country, and that includes Russia."
The Deputy Secretary General stressed that NATO is enhancing its preparedness to defend against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) attacks, including through the Joint CBRN Defence Centre of Excellence; the Combined Joint CBRN Defence Task Force; and the NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre. "One of the main things we can do is to improve coordination," he said; "that is why we work closely with our partners in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative." He added that NATO's Science for Peace and Security programme is helping facilitate CBRN first responder training with some southern partner nations.
Other conference participants include a number of senior officials including Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu, Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and Dr. Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).
While in Ljubljana, Deputy Secretary General met with the President of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, and with the State Secretary at the Slovenian Foreign Ministry, Darja Bavdaz Kuret.
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Arlington Completes Maiden Deployment
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS160509-07
Release Date: 5/9/2016 9:44:00 AM
By Mass Communications Specialist Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Stevie Tate, USS Arlington Public Affairs
NORFOLK (NNS) -- The amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD 24) returned to its homeport of Norfolk, May 3, following completion of the ship's historic maiden deployment.
During the seven-month deployment, the ship completed missions in both the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operations, supporting national security interests and maritime security operations.
"The Sailors and Marines of the Arlington team performed superbly on this historic deployment, which not only made a significant impact on regional stability in key maritime areas, but also contributed to global security through our presence and maritime interdiction operations," said Commanding Officer Capt. Sean Bailey. "Arlington's maiden deployment marks the opening chapter in what I'm positive will be a long and outstanding legacy of naval excellence. Each member of the crew should be justifiably proud of their personal contribution to the defense of our nation."
During the deployment, Arlington transited 36,740 nautical miles and conducted port visits in Lisbon, Portugal; Souda Bay, Greece; Eilate, Israel; Aqaba, Jordan; Bahrain; Kuwait; Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.; and Marseille, France.
Arlington also hosted a reception celebrating the 25th anniversary of Kuwait's liberation from the forces of Saddam Hussein.
"I feel like we accomplished so much as a crew," said Personnel Specialist 3rd Class Raul Florencio. "For my first deployment I had the chance to see so many new countries and witness extraordinary events right here on the ship. It has been an amazing journey and one I will never forget!"
Throughout the historic deployment, the ship qualified more than 150 personnel as enlisted surface warfare specialists, more than 60 information warfare specialists, and three surface warfare officers.
Arlington's maiden deployment was completed with a crew of largely junior Sailors on their first enlistment, along with a handful of plankowners that have been with Arlington since the ship began construction in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
"Being a plankowner and having the opportunity to complete the ship's first deployment has truly been an amazing part of my career," said Gunner's Mate 2nd Class Joshua Dean. "Watching as this ship has been built, the training of the crew, the completion of work-ups and now completing its first deployment, has truly been an incredible experience. I couldn't be prouder to be a plankowner and be part of this crew."
Many members of the crew beamed with pride over completion of this successful deployment as they reunited with their loved ones.
"Not many in this profession ever forget their first deployment, and even those with numerous deployments over long careers will have a very hard time forgetting this maiden deployment of Arlington," said Command Master Chief Brian MCDonough. "Every Sailor and Marine on the ship performed their duty to the utmost of their ability, with the skill, pride, and professionalism that we as Americans have come to expect of our military, and these are the only reasons why this ship has successfully completed her first deployment. I cannot be more proud of this crew and the families that support every Sailor and Marine on board. Welcome home Arlington!"
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Yemen peace in tatters as Saudi jets kill 13
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 11:31AM
At least 13 people, including five paramedics, are killed in a fresh Saudi airstrike in Yemen despite peace talks which a Houthi official says have little chance of success.
Mohammad Abdulsalam, who heads the Ansarullah delegation, said Saudi Arabia and its side in the peace talks underway in Kuwait are unwilling to make any concessions in order to form a new government.
The Houthis and their allies have demanded the formation of a consensus transitional government before forging ahead with other issues.
They have also demanded the withdrawal of a US force operating in the south of the country along with UAE troops.
On Friday, the US military for the first time publicly acknowledged that American troops are operating inside Yemen to help pro-Hadi forces and a Saudi offensive.
Abdulsalam accused Saudi Arabia and its mercenaries on the ground of forced deportation of Yemeni people from some southern provinces.
His remarks came after forces loyal to Yemen's former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi were said to have been arresting and evicting hundreds of civilians from the southern port city of Aden to the north.
Local officials said pro-Hadi secessionists were raiding shops, restaurants and homes, detaining more than 2,000 people whom they said posed a security threat.
Aden fell to pro-Hadi forces who were backed by Saudi air cover after fierce fighting with Houthi fighters in July 2015.
On Monday, UN envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed called on the warring parties in Yemen to "make concessions in order to strike a comprehensive peaceful solution" to the conflict.
All direct negotiations scheduled for Sunday were cancelled as Hadi's representatives pulled out of the talks.
"The participants in the Kuwait negotiations must reflect the aspirations of the Yemeni people. I am confident that Yemenis want an end to the conflict," Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement after separate meetings with delegations.
He said new talks were slated to take place on Monday, urging the two parties to cooperate further.
With pro-Hadi forces evicting people in Aden, Saudi warplanes targeted the al-Amaleqa camp in the Harf Sufyan district of Amran Province on Monday.
The air raid killed at least 13 people and left 15 others injured, Yemen's al-Masirah television reported.
The attack came a day after seven people were killed and 13 others injured after Saudi jets attacked the capital Sana'a, prompting Houthis to issue a strong protest to the UN envoy, according to a source close to the negotiations.
Yemeni delegates at the peace talks in Kuwait told Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah that repeated violations of the truce threaten the negotiations.
There has been mounting international pressure to end the Yemen conflict that has killed more than 9,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.
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US may lose large military base in British territory
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 8:23AM
The United States is about to lose one of its largest overseas military bases due to the approaching expiration of a lease contract on the British territory of Diego Garcia Island.
Diego Garcia is the largest of 60 small islands in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean and American forces have been using it since mid-1960s, under a lease that will expire December this year.
This is while the two sides have yet to decide on a possible 20-year extension.
London reportedly agreed in 1966 to exchange the island for an $11 million (7.65m) discount on buying Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
The secretive deal was inked by then British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and then US President Lyndon Johnson and both sides soon proceeded to forcefully remove the island's some 1,500 residents.
Between 1968 and 1973, American officials teamed up with their British colleagues to deport the island's native inhabitants, or Chagossians, carefully hiding their expulsion from the US Congress, the UK Parliament and the UN.
The residents are now seeking to return to their homeland, a process the KPMG audit company says would cost $95 million (66) million
During his recent visit to London, US President Barack Obama discussed the matter with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"The PM raised the issue of the British Indian Overseas Territory with the President in the context of the government's ongoing review of resettlement," the Daily Mail quoted a Downing Street spokesman as saying.
The Diego Garcia base, also known as Camp Justice, bears great strategic significance due to its geographic location. The Pentagon has been using the base to plan and direct military operations, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The camp is also believed to have been used by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a site for interrogating and torturing terror suspects.
Lawrence Wilkerson, a former US State Department official, has said that the island was used as a "transit location" for the agency to carry out interrogations and other "nefarious activities."
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Pro-Hadi forces arresting, expelling people from Aden
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 4:47AM
Forces loyal to Yemen's former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi have been arresting and evicting hundreds of civilians from the southern port city of Aden to the north, local officials say.
They said secessionists were raiding shops, restaurants and homes, detaining more than 2,000 people whom they said posed a security threat.
Aden fell to pro-Hadi forces who were backed by Saudi air cover after fierce fighting with Houthi fighters in July 2015.
Also Sunday, the Houthi movement accused Saudi Arabia of launching airstrikes that killed seven people, shaking a truce that has largely held through more than two weeks of UN-backed peace talks.
"The aggressor's planes bombed various districts in the Nehm district, leading to the death of seven martyrs and wounding three," the Houthis said in a statement.
On Saturday, Hadi's representatives pulled out of direct peace negotiations held in Kuwait with Houthis after "substantive issues" were discussed in three joint working groups formed under UN auspices.
The UN special envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed held then separate talks with the warring parties in a bid to break the impasse.
Each side accuses the other of not respecting the truce which has been constantly broken since it came into force on April 11.
In a statement on the sabanews website, a Houthi delegate said the three joint teams will resume work "after an agreement on the form of the state and the transitional authority."
Without such an agreement, the talks were "a waste of time" said the delegate, adding that Hadi's side was "an adversary and it is unacceptable that he embodies the state."
The Houthis and their allies have demanded the formation of a consensus transitional government before forging ahead with other issues.
They have also demanded the withdrawal of a US force operating in the south of the country along with UAE troops.
There has been mounting international pressure to end the Yemen conflict that has killed more than 9,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.
On Friday, the US military for the first time publicly acknowledged that American troops are operating inside Yemen to help pro-Hadi forces and a Saudi offensive.
Defense Department spokesman Navy captain Jeff Davis said that a "very small number" of military personnel has in recent weeks been working with "Arab Coalition" forces.
The Pentagon has stepped up airstrikes against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants in Yemen, Davis further said.
The US is also offering an array of assistance to Saudi Arabia and its allies in their attacks in Yemen, including air-to-air refueling capabilities, surveillance, planning, maritime security and medical help.
The US Navy also has several ships nearby, including an amphibious assault ship called the USS Boxer and two destroyers.
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Update: air strikes against Daesh
9 May 2016
British forces have continued to conduct air operations in the fight against Daesh
Latest update
- Wednesday 4 May A Reaper destroyed a truck bomb, whilst Typhoons and Tornados attacked a number of Daesh positions, including heavy weapons and a tunnel entrance, in western and northern Iraq.
- Thursday 5 May Tornados struck a terrorist group near Mosul, Typhoons hit a tunnel and a mortar team near Fallujah.
- Friday 6 May Tornados and Typhoons interdicted the movement of ammunition on the Euphrates, as well as striking mortars and heavy machine-guns around Mosul and Fallujah.
- Sunday 8 May Typhoons bombed rocket launchers and three stockpiles of weaponry south of Fallujah.
Detail
Royal Air Force aircraft have continued to fly daily reconnaissance missions over Syria and Iraq against the Daesh terrorist network, conducting a significant number of attacks whilst operating in close support of Iraqi ground forces.
On Wednesday 4 May, a Reaper identified a truck-bomb, concealed underneath a tarpaulin, next to a road in western Iraq. The crew checked that there were no civilians or friendly forces at immediate risk and used a Hellfire missile to score a direct hit on the vehicle, detonating the explosives safely. South of Fallujah, a pair of Typhoon FGR4s used a Paveway IV guided bomb to destroy a building where a group of extremists, armed with a heavy calibre automatic weapon. In the same area, a Tornado GR4 flight dropped four Paveways on a weapons stockpile, two Daesh-held buildings, and a tunnel entrance. RAF aircraft also supported Kurdish forces in the north of the country, where another Tornado flight bombed a group of Daesh fighters and a mortar team, the latter positioned in a small copse of trees.
On Thursday 5 May Tornados Missions in support of Iraqi and Kurdish operations demolished a terrorist position north-east of Mosul on around Mosul and Fallujah, while Typhoons bombed a tunnel and a mortar south-west of Fallujah.
On Friday 6 May, Daesh terrorists were spotted unloading rockets and mortar projectiles from a number of small boats and a barge on the Euphrates in Anbar province. A Tornado reconnaissance patrol, armed with Brimstone missiles, was first on the scene and prevented the initial load of weapons from being driven away, hitting the terrorists' truck with a Brimstone while they were still loading it. A Paveway-armed flight of Typhoons then arrived and used its bombs to destroy the weapons on the shore, and sink the barge. The same Typhoon flight also attacked a mortar position south-west of Fallujah. A second Tornado flight destroyed two heavy machine-gun positions on the north bank of the Euphrates, downstream from the recently liberated town of Hit. In northern Iraq, Typhoons struck another mortar, north-west of Mosul.
Typhoons were active south of Fallujah on Sunday 8 May, where a rocket launcher was identified in the open with three known caches of ammunition stored nearby. All four targets were struck with Paveway IV guided bombs and successfully destroyed.
Previous air strikes
1 April: Typhoons were active over western Iraq. A Daesh truck armed with an anti-aircraft gun was successfully bombed north-east of Ramadi and Paveways were used to destroy a fuel tanker converted into a truck bomb near Hit and a bunker west of Fallujah where terrorists had been spotted. In northern Iraq, a Tornado patrol employed Paveway IVs to destroy three Daesh buildings in the Mosul and Sinjar areas.
2 April: Coalition surveillance operations had identified Daesh extremists using a former Iraqi military ammunition depot near Qayyarah in northern Iraq. This intelligence indicated that the terrorists were manufacturing improvised explosive devices and other weaponry on the site. As part of a large coalition air strike on terrorist facilities in the area, four RAF Tornado GR4s were tasked with attacking 16 of these storage bunkers. Each aircraft dropped a salvo of four Paveways, and initial indications are that the strike was highly accurate and effective. An RAF Reaper was also active in the Qayyarah area, hunting a Daesh mortar team. The aircraft's crew were able successfully to locate the team, operating a truck-mounted mortar, concealed under trees on the western bank of the Tigris, and secured a direct hit with a Hellfire missile.
4 April: Typhoon FGR4s patrolled over Anbar province in western Iraq. East of Fallujah, the Typhoons struck two buildings occupied by Daesh fighters that had been identified by Iraqi ground forces with Paveway IV guided bombs. The aircraft then flew to the city of Hit, on the Euphrates river, where a coalition surveillance aircraft had spotted a large group of terrorists positioned in a line of trees on the edge of the town. These extremists were also struck using a Paveway IV.
Other RAF aircraft were active over northern Iraq; Tornado GR4s assisted Kurdish peshmerga engaged in a firefight north-west of Mosul, hitting their Daesh opponents with a Paveway, whilst Typhoons conducted a successful bombing attack on extremists mustering near Qayyarah.
5 April: A Typhoon flight operated over northern Iraq, using Paveways to attack three Daesh-held buildings north-east of Mosul, including a weapons store. They then used a further three Paveways to destroy three Daesh positions some miles south of Kirkuk, including a headquarters building and a base used by a mortar team.
6 April: A Typhoon flight tasked to provide close air support to the Iraqi security forces attacking Daesh strongholds in Hit. The Typhoons used Paveways to strike a total of seven targets identified by the aircraft themselves, the Iraqi forces and supporting surveillance aircraft. A rocket-propelled grenade team firing from a building were silenced in a precise strike which avoided causing damage to a nearby mosque. They also destroyed two heavy-machine guns; a third heavy machine-gun on the northern bank of the river; and a series of simultaneous attacks eliminated a fourth machine-gun position and two more groups of Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG)-armed terrorists. In northern Iraq, Tornado GR4s bombed a network of trenches near Qayyarah.
7 April: The Tornados were in action again over northern Iraq, where they used a Paveway to destroy a truck-bomb positioned ahead of Kurdish troops south of Kirkuk. They then destroyed a machine-gun position on the Little Zab River using a Brimstone missile. Near Qayyarah, a Typhoon flight supported Kurdish troops who had come under fire from a number of Daesh positions. Two terrorist-held buildings were destroyed, and a group of extremists caught manoeuvring in the open were also struck with a Paveway.
8 April: RAF Typhoon FGR4s patrolled the area around Hit. Coalition surveillance aircraft located a concealed improvised artillery piece known as a "hell cannon" which had opened fire on the Iraqi troops and was hidden under trees. Working closely with surveillance aircraft, the Typhoon flight was able to score a direct hit using a Paveway IV guided bomb.
9 April: A RAF Reaper remotely piloted aircraft was tasked to hunt for a Daesh mortar team operating in the Hit area. Intensive surveillance allowed the Reaper's crew to identify and track motorcycle-mounted terrorists who stopped to set up a mortar. They were struck by a Hellfire missile from the Reaper.
10 April: Two flights of Tornado GR4s operated over northern Iraq to support Kurdish ground forces. One flight working east of Mosul demolished a Daesh-held building, suspected to be a local headquarters, using Paveway bombs. The Tornados then hit a building being used to stockpile rockets with another Paveway and used a Brimstone missle to account for a set of rocket launch rails nearby. The second Tornado flight provided support to Kurdish troops near Qayyarah who were coming under fire from a sniper team they were successfully silenced by a further Paveway.
11 April: An RAF Typhoon mission destroyed a terrorist machine-gun team east of Mosul, then struck three Daesh positions east of Qayyarah.
12 April: A pair of Tornados bombed through thick cloud to hit two terrorist positions, including a rocket launching team, north of Mosul, and a Daesh mortar team near Qayyarah. In western Iraq, Typhoons supported the Iraqi counter-terrorist forces pushing into Hit, and used Paveways to strike two buildings held by Daesh rocket-propelled grenade and machine-gun teams.
13 April: RAF Typhoon FGR4s assisted in the destruction of one of the remaining terrorist strongpoints on the eastern outskirts of the town, striking, despite the very close proximity of the Iraqi forces, a Daesh machine-gun position with a Paveway IV guided bomb. When the Iraqi troops liberated the town's hospital, they found that it had been converted into a terrorist bomb-making factory, with a number of vehicles there, including an ambulance, converted into truck-bombs; fortunately, the speed of the Iraqi victory prevented these deadly booby-traps from being deployed. In northern Iraq, other Typhoons bombed terrorist rocket and mortar teams located some miles south-west of Sinjar, and in the Kisik area, which had opened fire on advancing Kurdish troops. West of Mosul, Tornado GR4s tracked an articulated lorry carrying a prepared car-bomb on its trailer; despite the lorry's speed, a direct hit was scored on the car-bomb using a Brimstone missile.
The Tornados then used Paveways to destroy two clusters of barges being used by the terrorists to move men and supplies across the Tigris.
14 April: Tornados patrolling over northern Iraq provided close air support to Kurdish forces in the areas south of Sinjar and Kisik. Successful Paveway attacks accounted for a Daesh mortar team and destroyed the entrance to a tunnel system where a number of terrorists were reported to be hiding. Near Qayyarah, Typhoons destroyed a Daesh-held building, again using a Paveway IV. In western Iraq, as the last Daesh fighters pulled out of Hit, a Tornado flight employed two Brimstone missiles to sink boats used by them to cross the Euphrates.
17 April: A Tornado armed reconnaissance patrol over northern Syria bombed a Daesh large calibre mortar position near Manbij. In northern Iraq, a Typhoon flight used a total of eight Paveways in a succession of successful strikes around Kisik, Mosul and south of Kirkuk, destroying a terrorist mortar team, four vehicles, and three Daesh-held buildings.
18 April: A Typhoon mission used Paveways to attack two mortar positions which had opened fire on Kurdish troops near Kisik, while a pair of Tornados conducted simultaneous attacks on three Daesh targets north-east of Mosul, hitting a bomb-making factory and two other terrorist-held buildings. In western Iraq, Typhoons dropped four Paveways to destroy ten rocket-launchers and a stockpile of ammunition positioned on the bank of the Euphrates.
19 April: In northern Iraq, Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s spotted a tractor pulling a large towed mortar near Barimah. A hit from a Brimstone missile brought the tractor to a halt, and a Paveway IV guided bomb then destroyed the mortar. Near Mosul, a pair of Typhoons accounted for two more mortars, hitting them with Paveways which also destroyed their stockpiled ammunition. In western Iraq, another Tornado mission assisted Iraqi forces, who had liberated the town of Hit the previous week, as they cleared terrorist positions across the Euphrates on the northern bank. The Tornados destroyed two machine-gun positions using Paveway IVs.
20 April: Typhoons, supported by an RAF Voyager refuelling tanker, provided close air support to Iraqi troops operating north and east of Fallujah. Two successful Paveway attacks hit a machine-gun team in a trench and a mortar in a covered firing position. In northern Iraq, Tornados used Paveway IVs again to attack two Daesh-held buildings near Qayyarah.
21 April: A Tornado mission saw the first use of the RAF's Enhanced Paveway III (EPWIII) against Daesh a guided bomb with a 2000lb deep penetration warhead. Our aircraft normally carry the smaller Paveway IV guided bombs and Brimstone missiles, which can be carried in larger numbers and are more useful for close air support missions. The EPW III has been held in reserve for use if needed against particularly challenging underground or hardened targets. The Tornados flew as part of a coalition air strike on a large complex of tunnels and bunkers dug into terraced hillsides above the Euphrates in western Iraq, successfully scoring direct hits with a pair of EPW IIIs on two entrances to the bunker network.
22 April: Two RAF Reapers operating over Syria conducted strikes. Near Abu Kamal, one Reaper provided surveillance support to a successful coalition attack on an improvised weapons factory, then used two of its own Hellfire missiles to demolish a nearby workshop used for constructing car-bombs. The second Reaper tracked a terrorist vehicle near Tabuqah, south-west of Raqqa, and destroyed it with a Hellfire.
In western Iraq, Typhoons continued to support Iraqi ground forces north of Fallujah, where they conducted four Paveway attacks against snipers, a bunker and an entrenched fighting position. Tornados patrolled south-west of Kirkuk, where two Paveways destroyed a bridge built by Daesh across a canal, and a communications post nearby.
24 April: Typhoons were again in action near Fallujah; one pair silenced a sniper position that was firing on Iraqi troops, while a second pair dropped three Paveways on a Daesh compound.
25 April: Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s patrolled over northern Iraq, supported by a Voyager refuelling tanker. The aircraft were alerted to a group of Daesh terrorists gathering in two buildings south-west of Kirkuk and struck both buildings with Paveway IV guided bombs.
26 April: The following day Tornado GR4s operated over northern Iraq and used a Brimstone missile to destroy a vehicle south-west of Mosul. Paveway-armed Typhoons were active over western Iraq, striking a group of terrorists engaged in combat with Iraqi ground forces north-east of Fallujah before proceeding to destroy the entrance to a bunker on the bank of the Euphrates.
27 April: A pair of Tornados used Paveway IVs to destroy a terrorist mortar team operating north of the town of Hit, as well as a truck-bomb concealed amidst trees nearby. Later in the day, Typhoons struck a machine-gun position in the same area and a Daesh tactical command post north of Fallujah. In northern Iraq, Typhoons conducted a series of strikes near Qayyarah, hitting one mortar and two rocket teams, plus another truck-bomb. Near Mosul, Tornados hit a mortar position with a Paveway IV.
28 April: Tornados continued their action over the north some distance to the south of Sinjar, striking a further mortar team as well as entrenchments that included the entrance to a tunnel system near Qayyarah. A second Tornado mission silenced a machine-gun position on a former industrial site east of Fallujah.
29 April: Tornados on a reconnaissance mission used two Brimstone missiles to destroy a T-55 tank and an armed truck despite the efforts by Daesh to conceal both in a palm grove south of Fallujah.
2 May: Typhoons provided further support to the Iraqi forces near Fallujah, striking a machine-gun team in a bunker and a 23mm anti-aircraft gun. In northern Iraq, Tornados used two Paveways to destroy a Daesh-held building and a nearby weapons store north of Mosul, then flew south to the Qayyarah region where Iraqi forces were engaged in a firefight with a group of terrorists manning a fortified position. Despite the close proximity of the friendly forces, very precise strikes with two Paveways and two Brimstones helped destroy the Daesh group.
3 May: An RAF Reaper remotely piloted aircraft conducting reconnaissance over the village of Batnay, north of Mosul. A truck-bomb was identified inside a compound and struck using a Hellfire missile, resulting in a very large explosion. The Reaper then provided targeting support to a successful strike by coalition fast jets against a group of Daesh fighters and their vehicle. Two Tornados were also tasked to operate over Batnay, and they successfully destroyed a further Daesh vehicle with a direct hit from a Brimstone. In western Iraq, Typhoons provided further close air support to Iraqi forces near Fallujah, striking a mortar team and their vehicle hidden under trees south of the city.
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Afghan Officials: Haqqani Network Controls Taliban Command
by Ayaz Gul May 09, 2016
Officials in Afghanistan say the State Department designated terrorist group, the al-Qaida linked Haqqani network, has effectively taken over battlefield command of the Taliban insurgency.
Haqqani militants allegedly operate from sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan and are known for staging high-profile suicide assaults on Afghan and international forces.
"The Taliban are currently being commanded by [the] Haqqani [network]. We believe Haqqani and al-Qaida are two different names for the same terrorist organization," Interior Ministry spokesman, Sediq Seddiqi, told reporters in Kabul. He said Afghan security forces military strategists are aware of the terrorist threat and dealing with all of them as a common enemy of Afghanistan.
U.S. and Afghan leaders have long alleged the Haqqani network has ties to Pakistani military-intelligence. The group has fought along side the Taliban in the 15-year Afghan conflict, but mostly operated independently, until last year when its fugitive chief Sirajuddin Haqqani was named deputy to Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.
Officials at NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan last week also warned of the Haqqani network, describing it as "the most lethal" and "most competent" terrorist organization in the area.
"Siraj Haqqani, has been named the number two for the Taliban. And we think that he is increasing really, his day-to-day role in terms of conducting Taliban military operations," says U.S. Army Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, deputy chief of staff for communications for NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.
"And we think that he is trying to exert more influence really, on the leadership with some of these shadow governors in some of these other places [in Afghanistan]," Cleveland noted. But he underscored concerns about the Haqqanis branching out from their traditional area and then focus on high profile attacks like the one that killed nearly 70 people in Kabul last month.
Tensions with Pakistan
The Haqqani network's growing role is likely to fuel Afghanistan's tensions with Pakistan. Kabul has consistently pressed Islamabad to crackdown on the group, claiming it has evidence showing Haqqanis were behind the April 19 deadly bombing in the Afghan capital.
Pakistani officials dismiss allegations the network is still operating from their territory. A senior foreign policy aide to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last week urged Afghans to share the evidence, saying Islamabad's probe into the violence has established it had nothing to do with it.
Despite emerging new security challenges, Afghan officials claim their forces have inflicted heavy casualties on the insurgents since the Taliban launched its so-called spring offensive last month.
Kabul's ambassador to Islamabad, Hazrat Omer Zakhilwal, tells VOA the battlefield successes have boosted moral of Afghan forces, which have received far less casualties than the previous fighting season.
"There were a lot of expectations within the Taliban and the supporters of the Taliban that their spring offensive would result in significant advancements for the Taliban and that there would be collapse of a few provinces by now," Zakhilwal said. "The complete opposite happened. The Taliban received and are still receiving tremendous casualties. They did not make any advancement. They are struggling right now with respective their spring offensive and objectives."
Afghan officials say U.S air support has been sought in certain cases, but foreign troops are not involved in ground combat.
Cleveland says about 75 percent of the Afghan Special Operation Forces missions are conducted independently, with no coalition assistance whatsoever.
"Out of that remaining 25 percent, a percentage of that, we're not going into the field with them, we're just essentially helping them with the planning and intelligence and advising and those types of things," he said.
Afghan forces
Independent Western security experts like Ted Callahan, who is based in northern Afghanistan, also agree with Kabul's assessment of the fighting.
Callahan says support from international forces has played a key role in operations Afghan National Defense and Security Forces have conducted, particularly in northern provinces, including Kunduz, which the Taliban had briefly overrun in 2015.
"I would say the mood of the local population is much more optimistic than we have seen for several months previously. But at the same time the question is how sustainable is this current model, because if you look it is really dependent on having international forces and their assets present," said Callahan.
Afghan forces have intensified counter-insurgency operations after the April 19 Kabul attack that officials blamed on the Haqqani network.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, has dismissed as propaganda claims the insurgent group has suffered massive casualties and failed to achieve its objectives.
"Our spring offensive is not a week long or a moth-long activity. It is a full one year operation and our mujahideen will prevail as they did last year," Mujahid asserted.
Analysts believe the intensifying Afghan conflict means further deterioration of the country's relations with Pakistan.
A four-nation process, involving the United States, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan, to promote talks with the Taliban as well as Kabul's normal ties to Islamabad are now "practically hostage" to Afghan expectations of a direct Pakistani action against the Haqqani network, says an Afghan presidential aid, speaking to VOA on condition of anonymity.
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UN Urges Kenya to Reconsider Plan to Close Refugee Camps
by VOA News May 09, 2016
The United Nations refugee agency is calling on Kenya to reconsider its plans to close the country's two main refugee camps, saying the move would have "devastating consequences" for hundreds of thousands of people.
UNHCR said in a statement Monday that it viewed the plans by Kenya's government with "profound concern." It urged the government to "avoid taking any action that might be at odds with its international obligations" and said the safety of hundreds of thousands of refugees hinges on Kenya's generosity.
Kenya announced Friday that it would close the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps "within the shortest time possible," citing security concerns, particularly from al-Shabab, a Somali-backed Islamist group that has carried out several mass attacks in Kenya. It said that hosting the refugees, who are mostly from Somalia, posed "immense security challenges."
The two-page statement stopped short of saying refugees would be expelled. However, it said the government has disbanded its Department of Refugee Affairs as a first step, and is working on a mechanism to close the camps.
Dadaab, in northeast Kenya, is considered the world's largest refugee camp and currently houses nearly 330,000 people, mostly Somalis. Kakuma, in northwestern Kenya, is home to another 55,000.
Kenya's government Friday acknowledged its decision will cause harm to the refugees and said the international community must take steps to minimize their pain and suffering.
The country hosts about 600,000 refugees in all. About three-fourths are from Somalia, with most of the others coming from South Sudan.
Kenya's government has threatened to close the refugee camps in the past, but never followed through.
Al-Shabab has carried out several major attacks on Kenyan territory, most notably the 2013 attack on Nairobi's Westgate Mall that killed 67 people and the 2015 attack on a college in the town of Garissa that killed 148.
Al-Shabab began launching attacks in Kenya after Kenyan troops entered Somalia to fight the militant group in 2011.
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Military Strikes Continue Against ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq
From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release
SOUTHWEST ASIA, May 10, 2016 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Strikes in Syria
Remotely piloted aircraft conducted two strikes in Syria:
-- Near Shadaddi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Ayn Isa, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL vehicles, an ISIL artillery piece and an ISIL fighting position.
Strikes in Iraq
Rocket artillery and bomber, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 27 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:
-- Near Baghdadi, three strikes destroyed an ISIL tactical unit, three ISIL mortar systems, an ISIL vehicle bomb and an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Huwayjah, four strikes struck an ISIL vehicle bomb factory, destroying an ISIL tunnel system, suppressing an ISIL mortar firing position and denying ISIL access to terrain.
-- Near Albu Hayat, two strikes destroyed an ISIL anti-air artillery piece, an ISIL staging area and an ISIL command-and-control node.
-- Near Bashir, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle bomb.
-- Near Fallujah, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike destroyed an ISIL mortar system.
-- Near Kisik, a strike suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.
-- Near Mosul, eight strikes struck six separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 22 ISIL assembly areas, four ISIL supply caches, two ISIL heavy machine guns, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL bulldozer, three ISIL rocket rails and an ISIL rocket position.
-- Near Qayyarah, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units, destroying two ISIL artillery pieces, an ISIL mortar system and an ISIL bulldozer and denying ISIL access to terrain.
-- Near Sinjar, two strikes destroyed two ISIL fighting positions and suppressed two ISIL mortar positions.
Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.
Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
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Yemen's Ansarullah rejects reports of prisoner swap deal
Iran Press TV
Tue May 10, 2016 3:27PM
A senior official from Yemen's Ansarullah movement has rejected reports of a major prisoner swap deal between warring parties during ongoing UN-brokered talks in Kuwait.
The denial came after some media reports said that Ansarullah representatives and delegates loyal to Saudi-backed resigned president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi had reached a preliminary agreement to release half of the prisoners held by both sides within 20 days.
Nasir Baqiz Quoz, a senior member of Ansarullah delegation, told Lebanon's al-Ahd news network that only some proposals about a prisoner swap were discussed at a meeting of the joint working group on detainees formed by UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
Mane al-Matari, who heads Hadi delegation to the talks, had earlier said, "It was agreed during the meeting to release 50 percent of the prisoners and detainees within the next 20 days."
Sources close to Hadi camp had said that the two sides will meet again on Wednesday to finalize the mechanism on how and when the exchange will take place.
Yemen's warring parties resumed face-to-face talks on Monday following a two-day interruption after an appeal by the UN envoy. The groups have discussed key issues on political and security matters and the release of detainees.
The peace talks on Yemen, which began on April 21 in Kuwait City, have failed to establish peace as delegations trade accusations of violation of ceasefire that took effect on April 11.
Houthi Ansarullah movement has accused Saudi Arabia and its mercenaries of constantly violating the truce agreement across the country.
Ansarullah spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam in a Twitter post on Thursday accused the Hadi camp of blocking UN-brokered Yemen peace talks in Kuwait.
Ansarullah leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi recently reiterated that a political solution to the Yemen conflict is close at hand, but the obstinacy of the invading countries is an impediment to that goal.
UN envoy to Yemen has called on the warring parties to "make concessions in order to strike a comprehensive peaceful solution" to the conflict.
Yemen has seen under almost daily military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015. More than 9,500 people have been killed in Saudi airstrikes during 13 months of Riyadh's military campaign against the impoverished Arab country.
There has been mounting international pressure to bring an end to the Saudi war in Yemen, which has killed more than 9,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.
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Obama weighing removal of Vietnam arms embargo
Iran Press TV
Tue May 10, 2016 6:4AM
US President Barack Obama is considering the removal of the decades-old American arms embargo against Vietnam, officials say, in a move that is likely to anger China.
Officials within the Obama administration are weighing the full removal of the sanctions that were imposed against Vietnam in 1984, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the discussions.
Some White House and State Department aides believe the complete removal of the bans would be premature at this stage, arguing that Vietnam's communist government needs to make more progress on human rights.
In contrast, officials at the Pentagon are eager to boost Vietnam's ability to counter a rising China, a strategy they say is more important than the issue of human rights.
The news comes amid preparations of Obama's historic visit to the country later this month in a bid to advance the normalization of relations between the two former wartime enemies.
Diplomatic ties between the US and Vietnam have been restored since 1995.
The two countries have significantly improved their ties over the past two decades, with annual, bilateral trade now standing at about $20 billion.
Vietnam has long sought the removal of the ban which are one of the last major vestiges of America's devastating Vietnam War that lasted from 1965 to 1973 and killed hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and 58,000 US soldiers.
The Obama administration partially lifted the arms embargo in 2014, allowing shipments of maritime military articles, including patrol boats and reconnaissance aircraft reach Vietnam to allegedly allow Hanoi build up a defense line in the South China Sea to counter Beijing's growing presence there.
China objected to the move, blasting it as interference in the region's balance of power.
China claims sovereignty over most of the disputed waters, which serve as a crossing for more than $5 trillion in maritime trade. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam also lay claim to some parts of the sea.
Aside from challenging China's sovereignty claims on a political he US has on numerous occasions sent warships near Chinese artificial islands in the South China Sea.
The latest instance of such measures occurred on Tuesday, when the USS William P. Lawrence navigated to within 12 nautical miles of a land feature in the sea known as Fiery Cross Reef.
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US, Somali Forces Raid Al-Shabab Base
by Harun Maruf May 10, 2016
U.S. and Somali special forces conducted a joint raid early Tuesday on an al-Shabab base, killing or capturing an unknown number of the extremist group's militants.
Somali security official Mohamed Nur Gabow told VOA Somali that U.S. forces played a "lead role" in the operation targeting al-Shabab officials.
Residents in the village of Toratorow, about 100 kilometers southwest of the Eastern African country's capital of Mogadishu, said soldiers dropped from helicopters on the village's outskirts and then went to their target on foot.
The troops met no resistance during the two-hour operation, Gabow said. He declined to specify how many militants were killed or taken into custody.
A U.S. official confirmed a joint operation took place but gave no specifics on the role of U.S. forces or any "battle damage assessment."
Al-Shabab's account
Al-Shabab said that the attack was carried out by about 10 U.S. soldiers and that its fighters repelled them. It said the troops wounded an elderly woman in the village.
On Tuesday morning, the militants turned off the village's phone network and ordered everyone to stay indoors, residents said.
The United States has trained a Somali government commando unit known as "Danab" or "Lightning" of about 500 soldiers who conduct special operations.
A similar joint U.S.-Somali operation took place in the nearby town of Awdhegle in March. The Pentagon said the United States played only a support role in that operation.
The Somali government has battled al-Shabab since the al-Qaida-linked militant group formed in 2006. The U.S. designated al-Shabab as a terrorist group in 2008 and has given the Somali government financial and military support to combat the group.
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US Warship Makes 'Freedom of Navigation' Tour in S. China Sea
by VOA News May 10, 2016
The U.S. Defense Department sent a navy warship to carry out a freedom of navigation operation in the disputed South China Sea Tuesday.
The USS William P. Lawrence sailed within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef to "challenge excessive maritime claims of some claimants in the South China Sea," department of defense spokesman Bill Urban said.
"These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise," Urban said in an emailed statement.
China responded with anger Tuesday morning, with foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang telling a daily news briefing that the ship entered Chinese waters illegally and that the move threatened peace and stability in the region.
China has built a 10,000-foot runway and other military facilities on the disputed island.
This operation marks the third time in less than a year that the U.S. has conducted what it calls a freedom of navigation operation to challenge controversial territorial claims that China has made over islands in the South China Sea.
Beijing rejects the operations and claims that the disputes have been exaggerated.
Although the United States is not a claimant to the sovereignty over disputed islands in the South China Sea, senior officials have been saying it is vital to U.S. interests that various claimants pursue their claims peacefully and in accordance with international laws.
$5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year through the South China Sea, the majority of which China claims. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have claims to parts of the sea.
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DRC's Katumbi: No Plans to Overthrow Kabila Government
by James Butty May 10, 2016
Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi has told Congolese prosecutors he has no plans to overthrow the government of President Joseph Kabila by use of force.
Katumbi, the former governor of the mineral-rich Katanga province, appeared before prosecutors Monday to answer government allegations he recruited foreign mercenaries.
Gama Mumba, one of the lawyers for Katumbi, said Katumbi told prosecutors he had asked a U.S.-based security company to send him an individual who would advise him on his security details since the government had withdrawn the Congolese security that had been assigned to him once he joined the opposition.
Did not know 'they' were Americans
But Mumba said Katumbi told prosecutors he did not know the individual sent by the U.S. security company had been a member of the U.S. military.
"The subject was about the recruitment of all the soldiers of American arms. The prosecutors asked Katumbi if he had he had recruited some soldiers of American army to protect him. And Katumbi said that he didn't know one of the people the American company sent him for advising him on security matter was a soldier," he said.
Government feared overthrow
Mumba said the government had been made to believe that Katumbi had been recruiting mercenaries to overthrow the government.
"For the government, the information they have received was that Mr. Katumbi was making a recruitment of foreign soldiers to organize something against the government. That was the information they put in the file of Katumbi. But when they asked him he said no," Mumba said.
Mumba says Congolese security refused to provide security for Katumbi because they were afraid of retribution from the government against anyone who helps the opposition.
"The first time he talked to the Congolese security companies, but all the companies were fearing to have problem with the government because Katumbi joined the opposition. So during this time, the government was fighting against people who are working in the opposition," he said.
DRC government is afraid of Katumbi
Mumba reiterated that the government made the allegations because Katumbi has declared his intention to challenge President Joseph Kabila in this year's election.
"I think the problem was about his intention to become a candidate for the presidential election. But I think now things are clear that he never thought about organizing something against the government," he said.
Mumba said a huge crowd of supporters accompanied Katumbi Monday to the prosecutor's office because they wanted to make sure the government did not jail their leader or take him to Kinshasa.
"The population came with Katumbi because the news the population received was that the government was going to send Katumbi to prison or to be transferred to Kinshasa. That was the reason the population came and surrounded the office of the prosecutor," Mumba said.
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AF Space Command leader releases strategic intent doc
By Air Force Space Command Public Affairs, / Published May 09, 2016
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFNS) -- The head of the Air Force Space Command revealed his updated Commander's Strategic Intent May 6. The strategic intent document serves as the overarching document guiding the command.
"The global expanse of our nation's international engagements increasingly demands that our Air Force provide Global Vigilance, Global Reach, and Global Power today and in the anticipated environment 20 years from now," said Gen. John Hyten. "More than ever, AFSPC is called upon to deliver agile, integrated, and resilient effects in, from, and through space and cyberspace that are critical to fulfilling these strategic demands."
The intent document outlines three primary priorities for the command -- win today's fight, prepare for tomorrow's fight, and take care of Airmen and their families.
Win today's fight
"Every U.S. military operation across the planet, from humanitarian operations to full spectrum combat depends upon integrated space and cyberspace effects to accomplish national objectives," Hyten said. "Space and cyberspace are perhaps the most inherently joint of all operational domains as all Services rely equally upon the effects delivered, in, from and through these domains."
According to the National Space Policy of the United States, "Space systems allow people and governments around the world to see with clarity, communicate with certainty, navigate with accuracy, and operate with assurance."
Hyten's strategic intent emphasizes the importance of delivering integrated multi-domain combat effects.
"The effects that AFSPC provides the joint force and the nation are not services," he said. "They are combat and combat support effects that open doors and neutralize threats.
"Our nation expects AFSPC to provide the space and cyberspace contributions necessary to achieve agile information superiority," he continued. "When we deliver actionable information on the battlefield faster than our adversaries, the joint force can outthink, out-decide and out-act the enemy."
Prepare for tomorrow's fight
As outlined in the intent, potential adversaries around the world are moving quickly, continuously adapting to counter America's capabilities and reduce the asymmetric advantage the nation's armed forces provide. Their vigor in pursuing advanced capabilities and their strategic goals continue to transform the dynamics of the nation's operating environments.
Recognizing this trend, President Barack Obama's National Space Policy makes clear the way ahead, stating "the United States will employ a variety of measures to help assure the use of space for all responsible parties, and, consistent with the inherent right of self-defense, deter others from interference and attack, defend our space systems and contribute to the defense of allied space systems, and, if deterrence fails, defeat efforts to attack them."
In implementing the policy, Hyten stresses, "No one wants a conflict that extends into space or cyberspace, but we must be prepared for when and if it does."
The Commander's Strategic Intent highlights the importance of multi-domain integration: the Air Force as a service is moving away from stove-piped, cross-domain solutions towards fully-integrated, multi-domain operations. Space and cyberspace assets will act in concert with assets from all domains to deliver combat effects.
"To preserve our domains and provide our contribution to agile information superiority, the command must organize, train, equip and operate for a fight that may extend into our operational environments," Hyten said. "We must take an enterprise view that raises us above employing our individual systems and platforms alone and unsupported.
"Secondly, we must embrace 'resilience capacity' as the measure that informs how we experiment, prototype, design, train, integrate, and fight as an enterprise," he continued. "An enterprise view and resilience capacity are the two critical concepts that inform how we fight through contested, degraded, and operationally limited environments to provide effects on the battlefield and respond to adversary actions on tactical timelines."
Take care of Airmen, families
Hyten also charged commanders with protection and care of the Air Force's greatest resource -- Airmen and their families -- saying, "Trust enables leaders to empower Airmen to innovate, act quickly and decisively, manage and take calculated risk, learn from mistakes and rapidly adapt to achieve our shared mission, vision, and intent."
The general urged the command to maintain the passion, innovation, integrity, and courage of its predecessors, calling Airmen to rededicate themselves to the profession of arms as they face new and dynamic challenges in both space and cyberspace, stressing that Airmen, not machines, deliver effects to execute the Air Force core missions of air and space superiority.
In addition, Hyten recognized the stressors placed on Air Force families such as war, deployments, and budget uncertainty, and charged commanders to develop and maintain a wingman culture that does a better job taking care of family members.
"To win today's fight, prepare for tomorrow's fight, and take care of our Airmen and our Families, AFSPC must increase our ability to operate effectively in contested, degraded, and operationally limited environments, and reconnect to our profession of arms," he said. "To do so, we must increase the resilience of our enterprise and our people in everything that we do. We must view ourselves first as warfighters and Airmen, and continue to move fast."
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Brazil House Speaker annuls Rousseff impeachment
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 5:26PM
The acting speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress has annulled last month's vote on impeachment, delaying the process against embattled President Dilma Rousseff.
Waldir Maranhao, who took on last week as Brazil's acting Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, issued the order on Monday, preventing the Senate from voting on the impeachment which was launched in April after endorsement by house members.
Maranhao said in his surprise order that a new vote should take place on whether to impeach Rousseff, adding that there were procedural flaws in the April 17 vote in the chamber that endorsed impeachment charges against Rousseff. The speaker said in his news release that the Senate should return the process to the lower house.
On Friday, a Senate Committee recommended before the vote, which had been planned for Wednesday, that Rousseff should be put on trial for breaking budget laws.
It was not clear whether the full chamber or Brazil's Supreme Court could overturn the shock order by Maranhao.
Markets, however, acted negatively to the news and fell sharply.
Rousseff reacted to the news, urging her supporters to cautiously "defend democracy."
"I don't know the consequences. Please be cautious," Rousseff said when she interrupted a speech and said she'd just got unconfirmed news of her impeachment hitting a roadblock.
Brazil has been the scene of a major political turmoil over the past months, with embattled Rousseff intensively fighting for her political survival against opposition congressmen, who aggressively seek her ouster, saying she illegally manipulated government budget accounts during her 2014 reelection battle. Rousseff has denied any wrongdoing and keeps calling the charges and the impeachment motion as an attempted coup against her legitimate government.
The order on Monday could prevent a major power vacuum in Brazil as Rousseff would face a suspension of up to six months if the impeachment had passed the Senate.
Maranhao became acting house speaker just last week, replacing Eduardo Cunha, the long-serving speaker and the architect of the controversial impeachment drive, who himself was forced by the Supreme Court to stand down over corruption charges.
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Military targets corruption by terminating commercial activities
People's Daily Online
By Zhao Lei (China Daily) 08:52, May 09, 2016
Termination of the Chinese military's commercial activities will strongly lessen incentives for military-related corruption while consolidating the PLA's combat capability, military experts said.
"Some commercial fields engaged in by the People's Liberation Army units are actually prone to corruption and other misconduct. The corruption case of Gu Junshan and those of other senior officers were closely connected to their involvement in businesses," said Senior Colonel Gong Fangbin, a political education researcher at PLA National Defense University, referring to Gu, former deputy head of the PLA's logistics authority, imprisoned in a embezzlement and bribery case.
"The military's involvement in the commercial sector has also aroused suspicion about whether it properly uses defense funds," he added. "Moreover, there have been concerns that the PLA would use its advantages in a race for profits and overpower civilian competitors."
The closure of the PLA's businesses would focus all of its concentration on honing combat readiness, he said.
On Saturday, the PLA and the Armed Police Force selected 17 units to be the first to close their commercial activities such as housing rentals, medical services and hospitality.
The move came after the death of Wei Zexi, a young university student who received experimental cancer treatment at a military hospital in Beijing, triggering a huge public outcry.
General Zhao Keshi, head of the Central Military Commission's Logistical Support Department, said on Saturday that the chosen units are tasked with exploring effective ways to shut down businesses.
In March, the Central Military Commission ordered the PLA and the APF to end all commercial activities within three years. It told units to stop signing new contracts and to negotiate with civilian clients to try to cancel existing ones.
Gong said commercial activities usually exist in military hospitals, performance groups and publishing houses, major targets of the ongoing troop cuts announced by President Xi Jinping in September.
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Commentary: Western speculation will never shake China's determination in the South China Sea
People's Daily Online
By Hua Yiwen (People's Daily Online) 10:47, May 09, 2016
In recent days, more than 10 countries have shown their support for China's proposition of peacefully resolving the South China Sea dispute through negotiations between the countries directly concerned.
The countries that have shown their solidarity with China include not only ASEAN members like Laos, Cambodia, Brunei and Myanmar, but also neighboring countries such as Russia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan, and even European and African countries such as Poland, Belarus and Gambia.
The statements from these countries are of special significance, coming as they do as the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague prepares to announce the result of the so-called "South China Sea arbitration" that was unilaterally filed by the Philippines.
After the Philippines filed the arbitration, the U.S., Japan and several other Western countries echoed their stance. U.S. government and media, in particular, have been making a big deal over the case, requesting that China adhere to the outcome. At one point, the U.S. government even claimed that the arbitration result would be legally binding for China.
Given that the arbitration was unilaterally submitted by the Philippines despite China's opposition, it constitutes a flagrant violation of the compulsory dispute settlement procedures under the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In addition, by requesting the arbitration, the Philippines is attempting to cover its illegal occupation of China's Nansha Islands and deprive China of its sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea.
In order to achieve this goal, the Philippines has drummed up sympathy from the international community by labeling itself as the weak victim to China's supposed "bully." At the same time, by vocally supporting the single-sided arbitration, the U.S. and Japan are interfering in regional affairs in the South China Sea for no valid reason. They are trying to defame China's image and suppress China's regional influence, all in pursuit of their own strategic interests.
In recent days, South China Sea buzzwords like "freedom of navigation," "militarization," "international law," "arbitration," "expansion" and "aggression" have been repeatedly mentioned by the Japanese and U.S. government and media. Both countries are attempting to make China the scapegoat for tension in the South China Sea. Of course, it is also an attempt by the U.S. to further its strategy of "Asia-Pacific Rebalance" by interfering in regional affairs.
The U.S. and Japan have never hidden their ultimate ambition when it comes to the South China Sea. Once the arbitration goes in favor of the Philippines, it's easy to imagine that these countries will jump on the opportunity to start another round of speculation.
The actions of the U.S. and Japan will not bring peace and stability to the South China Sea, but will only escalate the conflict, which harms regional cooperation. China will not accept or participate in the arbitration, and the result of the arbitration will never shake China's sovereignty. The Philippines will eventually have no choice but to return to equitable negotiation and dialogue.
The truth of the matter is, most ASEAN countries recognize the validity of China's stance, and disputes over the Nansha Islands should not affect the relationship between China and ASEAN member countries. Together, through dialogue and consultation between the parties directly concerned, China and the ASEAN countries are capable of safeguarding the security and stability of the region.
The nature of the South China Sea issue and the cooperation between China and ASEAN countries will never be changed by the opinions of the U.S. or other countries. Neither will those opinions deter China from maintaining sovereignty and stability in the South China Sea.
Confucius said: "Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors." China is a righteous country, and its stance on this issue will not change, no matter the tide of international opinion.
(The author is an expert on international affairs.)
This article was edited and translated from
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North Korea to expand economic, nuclear capabilities
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 6:34AM
North Korea has decided to simultaneously expand its nuclear weapons capability "in quality and quantity" and push forward economic development.
The decision was made during the third day of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) congress on Sunday.
Addressing thousands of delegates attending the meeting in the capital, Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un urged all the participants to press ahead with the "byungjin" policy of twin economic and nuclear development.
"We will consistently take hold on the strategic line of simultaneously pushing forward the economic construction and the building of nuclear force and boost self-defensive nuclear force both in quality and quantity as long as the imperialists persist in their nuclear threat and arbitrary practices," Kim said, in an apparent reference to the United States and its allies.
The congress endorsed Kim's "byungjin," as well as his strategy of using nukes only if the country's sovereignty is threatened by a nuclear power.
The congress, which opened on Friday, stressed that the nuclear weapons program will move forward as long as there are nuclear threats against the country.
North Korea accuses the US of plotting with its regional allies to topple the government in Pyongyang. The country describes its nuclear capabilities as a deterrent against hostile US policies.
The 7th party congress is the first of its kind in 36 years and also the first during Kim's, who came to power in late 2011 following the sudden death of his father Kim Jong-il.
Pyongyang declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and carried out four nuclear weapons tests in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2016.
South Korea, the North's immediate neighbor and traditional adversary, is concerned about the nuclear and missile activities of Pyongyang.
Relations between North and South Korea have been turbulent for years. Seoul and Pyongyang fought a war in the early 1950s, and have been at odds ever since.
Tensions have escalated further recently over joint military exercises by Washington and Seoul.
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North Korea Expels Foreign Journalists
by Brian Padden May 09, 2016
North Korea's treatment of international journalists in the country is undermining the carefully constructed image of the Kim Jong Un government being presented at the party congress, now under way in Pyongyang.
North Korea expelled a team of BBC journalists Monday, apparently because officials were unhappy with their reports.
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, BBC's Tokyo correspondent, along with producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard were detained Friday as they were about to leave North Korea. Wingfield-Hayes was interrogated for eight hours.
The BBC team was in North Korea ahead of the Workers Party Congress accompanying a delegation of Nobel prize laureates conducting a research trip.
The team also joined 130 invited foreign journalists to cover the beginning of North Korea's Workers' Party Congress, the biggest political convention held in North Korea in generations.
The journalists, however, have been kept far away from thousands of party officials gathered at the event and government minders have closely managed their movements.
Nuclear state
The party congress itself has tried to show unity and support for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's "Byongjin" policy of jointly pushing forward economic development and nuclear armament.
On Monday, the congress announced a new title for the North Korean leader, party chairman.
In his address to the congress over the weekend, Kim - dressed in a Western business suit - received extended applause for his speech, but analysts say he offered no serious proposals for reducing international tension over North Korea's nuclear program.
The United Nations imposed harsh new economic sanctions on North Korea in March for its last nuclear test and rocket launch earlier this year.
Kim declared his country a nuclear state, but said he would refrain from using nuclear weapons unless the North's sovereignty is violated. Kim also said he is willing to normalize ties with states that had been hostile towards it.
South Korea's Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun on Monday rejected Kim's position and outreach.
"It is a consistent position of us and the international community that we do not recognize North Korea as a nuclear state. Our government will continuously put forth efforts to make North Korea give up its nuclear power through strong sanctions and pressure," he said.
Bong Young-shik, a national security analyst with the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul is also dubious whether Kim Jong Un was actually making a serious proposal to engage in talks to reduce inter-Korean tensions.
"I think that proposal needs to be weighed to see if it carries any significance or is it just cover for the sake of proposing to the world that the North Korean regime might be interested in a reduction of tension," said Bong.
The international community, including North Korean allies China and Russia, want the Kim Jong Un government to return to talks to dismantle its nuclear program in return for economic assistance and security guarantees.
In his speech Kim Jong Un again refused to give up his nuclear program, but promised to "fulfill its obligation for non-proliferation and strive for global denuclearization."
Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University in Seoul said the North Korean leader made clear he is not willing to compromise.
"North Korea is trying to get a complete recognition as a nuclear state, and in this process, North Korea is also trying to approach the U.S. and international community on the nuclear issue," he said.
Economy
Kim's economic plan offered few specific details but praised the country's socialist system and promised greater agriculture yields, factory production and coal output.
South Korea's central bank said last year the North's economy grew by one percent in 2014.
Much of the North's economic activity, however, is happening in unofficial private markets that have been growing steadily in recent years.
Professor Andrei Lankov, a North Korea analyst with Kookmin University, said the fact the North Korean leader did not mention the privatization of the economy is itself a kind of tacit approval.
"It can be seen as a sign that he's going to continue with his current economic policy, which is essentially benign neglect of the fast-growing market forces within North Korea, and this is good," Lankov said.
The North's economy is expected to suffer under the new U.N. sanctions that restrict the country's lucrative mineral trade and bans most bank transactions.
The ruling party congress, in its fourth day, is the first to be held in 36 years and is happening amid speculation that North Korea will soon conduct its fifth nuclear test.
Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
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7th WPK Congress Calls for General Offensive toward Complete Victory of Socialism
Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)
Pyongyang, May 10 (KCNA) -- The Seventh Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea on Monday made an appeal to all the servicepersons, youths and other people of the country.
The appeal said that with the great victory of its 7th Congress the WPK clearly showed the whole world how it had performed tremendous feats for the country and the nation, the socialist revolution and the human cause of independence over the past 35 years when the history of human politics witnessed the most complicated and serious upheaval and confrontation and how the unity between the WPK and the people had been cemented on the basis of deep trust and sentiment in the manifold trial of history.
It stressed that the main idea of the decision made at the 7th Congress of the WPK is to arouse the entire party, the whole country, the entire army and all the people again to the struggle for winning the final victory in the building of a thriving socialist nation as soon as possible and thus make them wage a general offensive in the period up to the 8th Congress.
The 7th WPK Congress called upon all the servicepersons, youths and other people to launch a Mallima speed campaign of rapid progress and innovation for the implementation of its decision in every sector and unit, the appeal said, adding:
The entire party, the whole country and all the servicepersons and civilians should dash toward the high eminence of a thriving nation at the speed of Mallima.
Never tolerate but mercilessly squash any element contrary to the idea and intention of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un and any slightest act of breaking our single-minded unity and backbiting at our Party's policies.
Let us build an economic and highly-civilized power by dint of science and technology and thus make the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, our beloved motherland, the envy of the whole world.
Let us put the nation's industry and agriculture on a modern, scientific and IT basis our own way and at the earliest date with our technology, efforts and resources and thus raise the level of the national economy to that of the most developed countries under the banner of self-development-first principle for turning everything of the country into wealth of socialism hard to find in other parts of the world, making the latest science and technology our possessions and creating everything with our materials.
Let us turn our country into a matchless nuclear power by bolstering up the Juche-based nuclear force in quality and quantity to mercilessly stamp out the enemies challenging us, whether they are in sky or under ground or on the sea.
Let all the people implement more thoroughly and steadily the Party's line of simultaneously developing the two fronts, each holding arms in one hand and a hammer or a sickle in the other.
Let us raise the level of every factory and farm to that of the January 18 General Machinery Plant and the Jangchon Vegetable Co-op Farm and build every structure into such spectacular edifice as the Sci-Tech Complex and Mirae Scientists Street.
Let us create many famous works like "Echo of Mountain" representing the Mallima era along with a new legend of mountains of gold, fields of gold and sea of gold.
Our trustworthy members of the Workers' Party!
Take the lead in blazing a path, shoulder the heaviest load and stand in the van of a life-and-death struggle.
Every Party cell should become an advancing group, a death-defying corps and a beacon in the Mallima speed campaign.
The stalwart men and officers of the People's Army, the closest comrades-in-arms of the Party Central Committee!
Build up the powerful revolutionary Paektusan army into the strongest forces in the world to reliably defend the all-people struggle for implementing the decision of the 7th Party Congress with matchless arms.
The heroic Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il working class!
Display more highly and honorably the precious title given by the great Kim Jong Un era in the present Mallima speed campaign.
The youths, staunch fighters to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche!
Create in succession new legendary tales about the heroic youth by making the youthful vigor pervade the Mallima era and hang the doorplate of a thriving nation before anyone else.
The servicepersons, youths and other people intensely loyal to the Party!
Let us successfully complete the building of a thriving nation and proudly erect a Mallima statue of Juche Korea on behalf of the present generation.
Let us open the gate to national reunification with the victory in the Mallima speed campaign and hand down to posterity the great prosperous Korea where the entire nation enjoys happiness and wellbeing through generations.
Convinced that the patriotic devotion of all the servicepersons, youths and other people of the country full of awareness to greet all victories and glory together with the Party on the eternal path of following the Party defying any hardships and sacrifices will surely result in a new miracle of history, the 7th Party Congress ardently calls once again for winning a world-startling great victory in the Mallima speed campaign.
Make an all-out charge for the complete victory of socialism by launching the Mallima speed campaign! -0-
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Iran castigates US-Saudi propaganda campaign over missile capability
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Tehran, May 9, IRNA -- Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan on Monday castigated the propaganda campaign over Iranian missile capability and said that it has not carried ballistic missile test.
Dehqan blamed the US and Saudi governments for propaganda campaign against Iranian defense capacity and said that Iranian defense industry and missile capability are designed for the defense.
He made the remarks in response to news reports earlier today about testing a new ballistic missile by Iran.
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Iran test fires ballistic missile with range of 2.000 km
ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency
Mon 9 May 2016 - 13:56
TEHRAN (ISNA)- Iran recently test-fired a ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and accuracy of within eight meters, a senior Iranian military official said.
Iran's armed forces regularly conduct ballistic missile tests in a demonstration of the country's deterrent power.
Such tests have come under scrutiny by the West since a nuclear agreement with Tehran went into force in January.
"Today the deterrence power of the Islamic Republic of Iran is so considerable that the enemies do not dare to practice their threats against the country," Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi said.
He noted that in the past Iran did not dare to discuss repairing or changing military equipment, but now it test fires a missile with the range of 2.000 kilometers and accuracy of 8 meters.
Abdollahi also said Iran is capable of manufacturing torpedos moving underwater. The torpedos are moving underwater in ultra-sound move with combined fuel.
Russia and Iran are the only countries enjoying the know-how, he said.
The tests do not violate the nuclear agreement but Western powers have sought to pressure Iran into halting them.
The United States and several European powers have said the tests defy a UN Security Council resolution that calls on Iran not to test nuclear-capable missiles.
Tehran says it doesn't have any non-conventional weapons program and its missiles are not aimed at carrying nuclear warheads.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said missiles are key to the Islamic Republic's future.
"Those who say the future is in negotiations, not in missiles, are either ignorant or traitors," the Leader said in March.
"If the Islamic Republic seeks negotiations but has no defensive power, it would have to back down against threats from any weak country."
President Hassan Rouhani has also said Iran won't accept any limitations on its missile program and ordered an accelerated production of missiles in response to new US sanctions.
Ignoring the nuclear agreement, the US slapped new sanctions on two more Iranian groups in March for their alleged involvement in the country's ballistic missile program.
Washington is flaunting the sanctions threat under the argument that Iranian missiles could theoretically one day still carry nuclear warheads.
Iran has said it will never produce nuclear weapons because they are banned under a fatwa issued by the country's highest religious authority.
A Press TV survey has found that the United States is looking for a pretext to impose sanctions on Iran.
Some 58% of participants in the poll, carried out through April 3-May 7, thought the US is asking for fresh excuses to sanction Iran over its missile capabilities.
About 33% said Washington has been trying to make Iran's military vulnerable through targeting its missile program.
End Item
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No halt to Iran defensive bids, missile tests: Dehqan
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 4:15PM
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan says the Islamic Republic has never stopped undertaking defensive measures including missile tests.
"We have never pursued an invasive view and what we are doing is [based on] upgrading our country's defensive capability," Dehqan said on Monday.
He stressed that Iran's military doctrine is defensive and is aimed at ensuring the country's security.
"Security and development of the region are intertwined and our defense might guarantees this issue," the Iranian minister pointed out.
Dehqan further slammed propaganda campaign spearheaded by the US and Saudi Arabia against Iran's defense power and its missile tests.
"The Americans and the Saudis are trying to spread a climate of turmoil and tension in the region and have put so-called Iranophobia top on their agenda and attribute any event to this issue," he said.
He added that extra-regional powers that are present in the Middle East are justifying their presence by claiming that every development poses a threat to them.
Iran has never cast a covetous eye on any country and has even been instrumental in regional stability, he said, adding, "Those who are raising such issues are overlooking maneuvers [staged] by the US on a daily basis and Saudi Arabia's purchase of long-range missiles."
Dehqan further dismissed an earlier report that the country has recently test-fired a new ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers.
"We have had no missile test with a range published in media," the Iranian defense minister said.
Tasnim News Agency had earlier on Monday quoted Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi as saying that, "Two weeks ago, we tested a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and an error margin of eight meters."
Iran regularly conducts ballistic missile tests in a demonstration of the country's deterrent power. Tehran has repeatedly announced that such tests do not violate the last July's nuclear agreement between Iran and six global powers and are not in breach of a United Nations Security Council resolution, which endorsed the deal.
However, the United States and several European countries claim that the missile tests violate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Tehran and the P5+1 group Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany last year and the Security Council resolution. They have sought to pressure Iran into halting them.
The resolution 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.
Iran emphasized that its missiles serve defensive and deterrent purposes.
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Iran MPs urge end to JCPOA implementation
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 10:53AM
A group of Iranian lawmakers have called on President Hassan Rouhani to stop implementing a nuclear agreement if the US continues violating the accord and maintains its hostile policies.
As many as 102 legislators on Monday urged President Rouhani to set a deadline for reconsidering Iran's voluntary implementation of nuclear-related measures under the agreement.
They asked the government to resume all nuclear activities under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in case the US refuses to return some $2 billion recently taken away from frozen Iranian assets.
They accused the US administration of backpedaling on the June 2015 agreement, sabotaging the deal and blackmailing over the removal of sanctions.
The lawmakers asked the government to respond in kind, with regard to the seizure of Iran's frozen assets by the US.
On April 20, the US Supreme Court ruled that Iranian assets had to be turned over to the American families of the people killed in a 1983 bombing in Beirut and other attacks which Tehran says have nothing to do with it.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi- Ansari said Monday the results of legal investigations conducted by a special committee on the appropriation of Iranian assets have been presented to the country's Supreme National Security Council.
"The results of the committee's investigations have been presented to the president, and will be brought up today in the Supreme National Security Council," Jaberi- Ansari said during his weekly press briefing.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia plus Germany started to implement the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on January 16.
Iranian officials say the US has maintained its hostile policies toward Tehran despite the agreement.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said the US has resorted to "deception" over the nuclear deal. President Rouhani has warned that the US would have to face up to "all the consequences."
US and European businesses are reluctant to do trade with Iran over the fear of being penalized by Washington despite the nuclear agreement which requires countries to lift sanctions on Tehran.
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said last month that Iran had its "own means to make them regret" their actions, but he didn't elaborate.
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Iran test-fires long-range ballistic missile
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 7:35AM
Iran recently test-fired a ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and accuracy to within eight meters, a senior Iranian military official says quoted by the Tasnim news agency.
"Two weeks ago, we tested a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and an error margin of eight meters," Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi said on Monday.
Iran's armed forces regularly conduct ballistic missile tests in a demonstration of the country's deterrent power.
Such tests have come under scrutiny by the West since a nuclear agreement with Tehran went into force in January.
The tests do not violate the nuclear agreement but Western powers have sought to pressure Iran into halting them.
The United States and several European powers have said the tests defy a UN Security Council resolution that calls on Iran not to test nuclear-capable missiles.
Tehran says it doesn't have any non-conventional weapons program and its missiles are not aimed at carrying nuclear warheads.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said missiles are key to the Islamic Republic's future.
"Those who say the future is in negotiations, not in missiles, are either ignorant or traitors," the Leader said in March.
"If the Islamic Republic seeks negotiations but has no defensive power, it would have to back down against threats from any weak country."
President Hassan Rouhani has also said Iran won't accept any limitations on its missile program and ordered an accelerated production of missiles in response to new US sanctions.
Ignoring the nuclear agreement, the US slapped new sanctions on two more Iranian groups in March for their alleged involvement in the country's ballistic missile program.
Washington is flaunting the sanctions threat under the argument that Iranian missiles could theoretically one day still carry nuclear warheads.
Iran has said it will never produce nuclear weapons because they are banned under a fatwa issued by the country's highest religious authority.
A Press TV survey has found that the United States is looking for a pretext to impose sanctions on Iran.
Some 58% of participants in the poll, carried out through April 3-May 7, thought the US is asking for fresh excuses to sanction Iran over its missile capabilities.
About 33% said Washington has been trying to make Iran's military vulnerable through targeting its missile program.
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Iranian Minister Issues Vague Denial About Reported Missile Test
May 09, 2016
Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan has issued a vague denial after a media outlet close to the military said it had recently test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile.
Dehghan told the official IRNA news agency on May 9 that the military has not conducted a missile test "with the range that was published in the media," without elaborating.
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency earlier quoted General Ali Abdollahi, deputy chief of army headquarters, as saying that Iran had successfully tested a missile two weeks ago with a range of 2,000 kilometers.
The U.S. State Department said it could not confirm the report, but if true such a step would be provocative and destabilizing.
Iran's recent missiles tests have been heavily criticized by the United States and some European nations.
Iran has said its test-firings do not violate a UN Security Council resolution adopted after Tehran signed a nuclear deal with world powers that calls for Tehran not to launch any ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies that its missiles are designed to carry nuclear weapons.
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-ballistic- missile-tested-two-weeks/27723846.html
Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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DM denies ballistic missile test-fired
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Code: 82068030 (5324316) | Date: 10/05/2016 | Time: 00:39|
Tehran, May 10, IRNA -- Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan rejected reports by some media that Iran has test-fired long-range ballistic missile.
'We have not have missile test with the range as published in some media,' General Dehqan said.
He reiterated that the Americans and Saudi are trying to propagate the atmosphere of tension or they have put Iranophobia projects at the top of their agenda and to link anything that takes place related to this issue.
General Dehqan said that Iran's military doctrine is defense-oriented and anything that happens is related to this issue.
'We have never moved with an offensive outlook and whatever we do is aimed at boosting the country's defense capabilities.
He, meantime, underlined that development of Iran's missile program will never stop.
2050**2050
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Iran to drown US warships if threatened: IRGC
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Tue 10 May 2016 - 16:00
TEHRAN (ISNA)- A commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has warned that his forces would drown American warships should they pose the slightest territorial threat to the country.
"Wherever the Americans look in the Persian Gulf, they will see us," Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, commander of the IRGC Navy, said in remarks on state television on Monday night.
"They know that if they commit the slightest mistake, we will drown their vessels in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, or the Sea of Oman," he added.
The commander further highlighted the Navy's defense might, saying Iran's enemies are only aware of a small fraction of the country's military capabilities.
The IRGC has underground facilities housing surface-to-sea missiles and vessels, Fadavi noted.
The vessels would thus be headed to the sea from those facilities instead of jetties, which would lower their susceptibility to attacks, he said.
IRGC speedboats, he added, can travel as fast as up to 80 nautical miles per hour, more than double the speed of the fastest American ones.
"Today, there are around 60 foreign military vessels in the Persian Gulf, most of which belong to the US, France and Britain. The vessels are monitored by the IRGC every hour," said the official.
"The IRGC also enjoys intelligence superiority over their aerial capabilities. They themselves know that well."
Fadavi also criticized a recent resolution in US Congress against Iran's activity in the Persian Gulf, saying neither the US administration nor other international players are in the position to meddle in this issue.
Iran has in recent years conducted major military drills to enhance the defense capabilities of its armed forces and to test modern military tactics and state-of-the-art equipment.
Earlier this month, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei rebuffed the US government's demands that Iran not hold military drills in the Persian Gulf.
"The Persian Gulf coast and much of the coasts of the Sea of Oman belong to this powerful nation; therefore we have to be present in this region, (stage) maneuvers and show off our power," the Leader said.
In late January, the IRGC arrested 10 US Navy sailors after their boats reached three miles into the waters surrounding the Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.
The IRGC placed the forces into Iranian custody, but released them after Americans apologized for the incident.
End Item
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Iran refuses reports on missile launch with range announced by media
ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency
Tue 10 May 2016 - 09:30
TEHRAN (ISNA)- Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan said the country did have a missile test with the range announced by media.
"We have not had any stop in defense actions, including missile tests. We did not have a missile test with the range announced by media," he said.
He also continued that Iran's doctrine is of defense type when it comes to defense issue. "We have never followed aggressive approach and what we do is to improve our country's defense capability."
Iranian defense minister further noted that Iran's measure aim to provide security of the country. "Because Iran's defense power is cause of regional stability."
Dehghan further said that regional security and stability are intertwined, and Iran's defense capacity guarantees the issue.
End Item
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Baghdad Trying to Stagger Out of Political Crisis
by Sharon Behn May 10, 2016
Although protesters demanding political reform have retreated from Baghdad's streets, the underlying challenges to Iraq's leadership and stability is not over.
Negotiations between the country's highly polarized political factions have failed to produce solutions, and its parliament is now so fractured that it cannot even gather a quorum. Talks of replacing the government with a transitional cabinet are in the air.
"The country's political situation is an absolute mess," Iraq's former national security adviser and member of parliament, Mowaffak al-Rubaie told VOA.
The crisis came to a boil two weeks ago when protesters led by Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed into the parliament building in the capital's fortified International zone, demanding government reform.
Sadr's bullying power, backed by Iraqis fed up with a lack of basic services and massive corruption, shook the nation's already weak political leaders.
Stuck in place
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's attempts at a partial cabinet reorganization have failed to appease the political parties.
The resulting disarray has left the country split along Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish lines, each with its own array of squabbling political factions and armed and trained militia forces.
There is concern the chaos is distracting Iraqi leaders from the fight against Islamic State extremists.
One veteran political leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, told VOA the government had recalled some of its Iraqi army units from the frontline to protect the capital. He said some pro-Iran Shi'ite militias also had been pulled back in Baghdad.
Fearing what a total political collapse would do to the stability of the region, the United States, neighboring powers including Iran, and the United Nations are working behind the scenes to help negotiate a solution.
But Sunni lawmaker Shatha al-Obosi said there is only so much figures like U.N. special envoy to Iraq Jan Kubis could do.
"He can make progress, but only when we understand that the solution is in our hands, will Iraq reach the point that it can start fixing itself," Obosi said.
Jockeying for power
In the meantime, different groups are trying to fill the vacuum, jockeying for positions and power.
A group of former Saddam-era army generals is proposing a military takeover. The bloc wants to cut off Iran's strong influence in Iraq and establish a nationalist state, and says it is ready to work with Sadr, the Kurds and the United States to get there.
Other Sunnis are calling for a repeal of de-Baathification, and guarantees they can return to their traditionally Sunni cities after the eviction of Islamic State militants. They have also put forward the idea of an autonomous Sunni region in western Iraq.
The Kurds are saying the time is ripe for independence, and are holding back their lawmakers from parliament as a bargaining chip.
The Shi'ites want to keep the power they have gained since Saddam's fall. Concerned that Sadr's street movement could divide Shi'ites between pro-Iran and Iraqi nationalist factions, sources tell VOA that Tehran has ordered Sadr to stand down. But it is not known how compliant Sadr will remain.
"Things are at a breaking point. The situation is so bad, it demands change, but it appears the goodwill is not there," said Sara Allawi, who represents former vice president Ayad Allawi.
"What we have been calling for is [for a] transitional national salvation government not to exceed two years," Sara Allawi said. Allawi is a secular Shi'ite who has fought for Sunni rights in the past.
Larger problems loom
The idea of a transitional government, although not necessarily Allawi's version, is gaining traction among some groups, but it is unclear who would be able to lead it. Even if it digs itself out of the current political morass, Iraq faces even larger problems.
Slammed by the drop in oil prices and years of corruption, Iraq is facing an economic and social crisis. On top of that, it still has to cover the cost of the war against Islamic State extremists.
And soon it will also have to pay to rebuild the largely Sunni cities shattered by war and replete with IS-planted explosives. Until those cities are habitable there are more than three million displaced and impoverished Sunnis in the country who have nowhere to go. Another three million are expected to join that number when IS-held cities are liberated.
Unlike those Sunnis who fled the Islamic State onslaught, this second three million will most likely be seen as complicit with the extremists, brainwashed, and potentially radicalized.
Add to that the roughly 15,000 Sunni tribes people the United States is said to have armed and trained to fight IS, and Iraq will soon have more than six million homeless, disenfranchised, and increasingly frustrated Sunnis to deal with.
If left unattended or allowed to fester under the current economic and sectarian policies, these challenges could quickly push the country back into an even deeper and more destabilizing crisis.
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S. Korea never accept DPRK as nuclear-armed state: Seoul
People's Daily Online
(Xinhua) 15:51, May 09, 2016
SEOUL, May 9 -- South Koreaand the international community will never accept Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as a nuclear-armed state, Seoul's Ministry of National Defense said on Monday.
"It has been our and international community's consistent position that (we) will never accept the DPRK as a nuclear-armed state," spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said during a regular press briefing.
"The government will continue to make efforts to push the DPRK to give up its nuclear ambitions through strong sanctions and pressure," he added.
The ministry also rejected DPRK leader Kim Jong-un's proposal for bilateral military talks as "insincere," urging DPRK to stop its provocative behavior and choose the way toward its denuclearization.
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S.Korea rejects inter-Korean dialogue proposed by DPRK
People's Daily Online
(Xinhua) 09:46, May 09, 2016
SEOUL, May 8 -- South Korea on Sunday rejected the inter-Korean dialogue offer proposed by the leader of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-un saying that the proposal is merely a propaganda drive with no authenticity as DPRK continued to develop its nuclear program.
"The North's proposal is merely its propaganda drive with no sincerity as it speaks of inter-Korean dialogue while continuing to develop a nuclear arsenal," the unification ministry of South Korea said in a statement.
Kim Jong-un made the remarks in a report delivered at a national congress of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the first in 36 years.
"We see the need to have dialogue and talks between the two Koreas' military officials," kim said. "If military talks are held, they would help eliminate risks of conflict along the border and ease tension."
Seoul urged Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program saying the Korean Peninsula denuclearization is the premise of a peace talk of the two sides.
"South Korea and the international community have the same stance that North Korea should not be recognized as a nuclear-powered state," the unification ministry said.
At the party gathering, Kim emphasized that his country will not resort to nuclear weapons first unless its sovereignty is encroached upon by hostile forces with nuclear weapons.
He also stressed that the WPK has worked hard for the implementation of the strategy of pushing forward economic growth and nuclear development at the same time.
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Ceasefire in Aleppo extended for 48 hours: Syrian army
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 10:13PM
A fragile ceasefire in the northwestern Syrian city of Aleppo and its surroundings has been extended for another 48 hours, the Syrian army says.
"The extension of the 'regime of calm' in Aleppo and its countryside for a period of 48 hours will be from Tuesday 01:00 a.m. (2200 GMT on Monday) until midnight on Wednesday," the military said in a Monday statement.
The army announced on May 4 that a 48-hour ceasefire in Aleppo would go into effect at 01:00 a.m. on Thursday (2200 GMT on Wednesday). It was later extended for 72 hours.
Aleppo, war-hit Syria's second-largest city, has been divided between government forces in the west and militants in the east since 2012, a year after the conflict broke out in the country.
The extension of the Aleppo truce came hours after Russia and the United States agreed to extend a broader ceasefire, dubbed the "cessation of the hostilities" agreement, across the whole of the Arab country.
"We have decided to reconfirm our commitment to the CoH (cessation of hostilities) in Syria and to intensify efforts to ensure its nationwide implementation. We also intend to enhance efforts to promote humanitarian assistance to all people in need," said a joint US-Russian statement.
The truce, brokered by Moscow and Washington, went into effect on February 27 in a bid to facilitate negotiations between warring sides to the conflict. The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group and the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front are excluded from the ceasefire.
The truce is still officially in place in many parts of Syria despite surging violence in Aleppo, which has been a flashpoint over the past weeks.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has furthermore displaced over half of Syria's pre-war population of about 23 million.
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Russia, US pledge adherence to Syria truce
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 4:2PM
Russia and the United States have confirmed their commitment to an existing ceasefire in Syria and intend to intensify their efforts to ensure its implementation.
Moscow, which co-chairs the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) together with Washington, in a joint statement on Monday called on warring parties in Syria to "cease any indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including civilian infrastructure and medical facilities."
According to the statement, Moscow also pledged to work with the Syrian government "to minimize aviation operations over areas that are predominantly inhabited by civilians or parties to the cessation."
"As a result, we have decided to reconfirm our commitment to the CoH (cessation of hostilities) in Syria and to intensify efforts to ensure its nation-wide implementation. We also intend to enhance efforts to promote humanitarian assistance to all people in need in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254."
The statement added: "In order to maintain the effectiveness of the CoH, the co-chairs are committed to undertaking efforts to develop a shared understanding of the threat posed, and territory controlled, by ISIL [Daesh] and the Nusra Front, and to consider ways to deal decisively against the threat posed by ISIL (Daesh) and Nusra Front to Syria and international security."
The truce, brokered by Russia and the United States, went into effect late February in a bid to facilitate negotiations between warring sides to the conflict.
The Takfiri Daesh militants and al-Nusra Front are excluded from the "cessation of the hostilities" agreement reached in late February as an attempt for facilitating peace talks.
The truce is still officially in place in many parts of Syria despite surging violence in Aleppo, which has been a flashpoint over the past weeks.
The United States and Russia last week agreed on trying to cooperate with parties on the ground in Syria to extend a ceasefire to include the northern city.
The Syrian government has announced a regime of silence in the troubled city. The shaky ceasefire is part of international efforts to build on a wide-ranging ceasefire introduced in February.
On Monday, militants shelled the government-held neighborhood of Midan in Aleppo, killing a child. The shelling comes hours before a five-day ceasefire was to expire.
Aleppo has been divided between the government forces and militants since 2012, a year after the conflict broke out in the Arab country.
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has recently said that the Syria peace process have made more progress in the past few weeks than during the last five years.
A "framework acceptable to all" has been reached between the key players, including not only "the United States and Russia, but also Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia," he added during an interview with the Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung daily newspaper published on Saturday.
"Giving up and looking away is not an option," he said.
Since March 2011, the United States and its regional allies, in particular Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, have been conducting a proxy war against Syria.
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 pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond Syria's borders.
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Lawmaker Says Up To Six Iranian Personnel Captured In Syria
May 09, 2016
by Golnaz Esfandiari
A senior Iranian lawmaker says around six Iranian military personnel have been taken captive in Syria following May 6 clashes with Islamist insurgents that left 13 "military advisers" dead and more than a dozen injured.
The statement by Esmail Kowsari appears to be the first official confirmation by Tehran that its fighters have been taken prisoner in Syria.
Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah that carried out the attack on Khan Tuman, some 15 kilometers southwest of Aleppo, had previously posted photographs on social media purportedly showing Iran-backed forces that had been killed or taken captive in the village.
It was Iran's biggest loss of forces in a single day since the Islamic republic deployed military forces to bolster its regional ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Tehran claims it is providing Assad with military advisers.
"According to the latest figures I have, 13 Iranian defenders of the shrine were killed, 18 were wounded, and five to six Iranians were taken captive," lawmaker Kowsari said in a May 9 interview with the website Jamejamonline.ir.
"Defenders of the shrine" is a phrase used to describe Iranian and other Shi'ite forces, including Afghans who are reportedly trained and deployed in Syria by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Basij force.
Kowsari appeared to blame the United States for Iran's heavy casualties.
"As [Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] has repeatedly maintained, America cannot be trusted," he said.
Kowsari added: "On the one hand, America speaks of peace and a cease-fire. But in practice, it acts differently."
Another lawmaker, Mohammad Saleh Jokar, also confirmed that several Iranian security personnel were killed and captured in Khan Tuman, though he did not provide any numbers.
Jokar also blamed the United States.
"What happened in Khan Tuman in past days demonstrates that America cannot be trusted, as the cease-fire in that region had been established by the Americans," Jokar was quoted as saying by domestic media.
"The U.S. should be held accountable for what happened in Khan Tuman and explain why the cease-fire was violated," he said.
Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, warned that Iran will respond to the Khan Tuman incident along with its allies -- Russia, Syria, and the Lebanese militant group Hizballah.
Fighting in Aleppo has escalated despite a February "cessation of hostilities" agreement backed by the United States and Russia.
Earlier this week, Washington and Moscow said they had brokered a cease-fire between the Syrian government and rebels around the city of Aleppo.
The two former Cold War foes said in a May 9 joint statement that they have agreed to "redouble efforts" to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict and "intensify efforts" to ensure the nationwide implementation of the cease-fire.
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ syria-iranian-military- personnel-dead-captured/27724628.html
Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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U.S. Official On Syria
Special Briefing
U.S. Official
Via Teleconference
May 9, 2016
MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us on such short notice. We don't have a lot of time today, so I'm going to get straight to the point. Today we will have a background briefing and an update on Syria by [U.S. Official]. He is also engaged on the ceasefire task force and various aspects of the cessation of hostilities. From here on out he will be known as a U.S. official. That's a U.S. official. I want to reiterate that this call is on background.
With that, I'll turn it over to our U.S. official.
U.S. OFFICIAL: Hi, everyone. Nice talking to you. You have the statement in front of you so I'm not going to speak for long, but I would just highlight some main points. First is that the statement with Russia affirms our shared understanding of efforts to revitalize the nationwide cessation of hostilities in Syria, and that's opposed to reverting to local ceasefires. It also explains our commitment to making particularly intensive efforts in specific hot spot areas of Aleppo, Eastern Ghouta, and Latakia. It has a clear demand which Russia joins on parties to cease any indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including civilian infrastructure and medical facilities. It has a commitment for undertaking a joint assessment where such incidents are reported to have occurred with casualties, as well as to share that with the members of the task force and through the UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura to the UN Security Council.
There's also a commitment by Russia to work with the Syrian authorities to minimize aviation operations over areas that are predominantly inhabited by civilians or parties to the cessation. There's also a clear call on the parties for ensuring continuous delivery of humanitarian access including to besieged areas that haven't been reached yet, and those are specifically named, and for unconditional delivery without obstruction of medical personnel and equipment, having access to those areas as well.
So those are some highlights, but I'll stop there. I'm happy to take questions.
OPERATOR: Thank you very much. And ladies and gentlemen, if you do wish to queue up for a question you may press * followed by 1. You will hear a tone indicating that you have been placed in queue, and you may remove yourself from the queue at any time by pressing the # key. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before pressing the number. So again, for your questions you may place yourselves in queue by pressing * followed by 1, and please allow just a few moments as questioners do queue up.
All right, I'll take our first question in queue from Felicia Schwartz with The Wall Street Journal. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, thanks for doing this. On the part about Nusrah and seeking an understanding about where they are, is that different than is this a fresh or different effort than what you've been trying to do in the past?
And then the second question is the Aleppo ceasefire is going to expire at 5:00 today Eastern Time, so is there a reason that there wasn't a fresh commitment from U.S. and Russia to extend that ceasefire today? Thanks.
U.S. OFFICIAL: Sure, thanks. On the Nusrah piece there's an emphasis on it because both Nusrah and ISIL are, of course, excluded from the cessation of hostilities, but Nusrah is present in areas where they are proximate to civilians or and/or parties to the cessation. And over the last several weeks of the cessation the presence of Nusrah has been a complicating factor, and so we're making a fresh commitment to look at that in relation to the cessation of hostilities and try to come to a clearer shared understanding of where they're operating and what threat they pose to the cessation.
On Aleppo on the ideas that the particular special measures that we had in place for these specific areas or hot spots is making sure that it's understood they're folded in within a commitment to a renewal of the cessation nationwide. So the intention is for that very much to be extended.
OPERATOR: Thank you. The next question will come from Bill Faries with Bloomberg News. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, thanks again for having this. Could you can you give us can you say anything more about you said the intention is very much for this ceasefire to be extended in and around Aleppo. Is there going to be another time period set on that or and what has the status been, I guess, over the last 12 to 24 hours? Thank you.
U.S. OFFICIAL: There has been a reduction in violence in various parts of Aleppo. We've seen a decrease, although there are pockets where that has not been the case. There has been fighting in the southwest, for example, fairly intensive, although that fighting is involving Nusrah and other groups that are not party to the cessation. So fighting there shouldn't be seen as indicative of the cessation not being in effect or being extended in Aleppo. We are fully committed to its extension in Aleppo. Each side has communicated with commanders, saying that the other side is called upon to honor the cessation and that they should reciprocate.
So the cessation of hostilities is in effect in Aleppo, but there are periods pockets where there has been fighting, certainly in the last 12 to 24 hours. One would like to see a decrease there, but in the areas I just mentioned where Nusrah is operating we may not see that right away.
OPERATOR: All right, thank you. The next question will come from Curt Mills with U.S. News & World Report. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank you, thank you. So is it the U.S.'s current contention that there is currently a ceasefire in Aleppo, just to be clear?
U.S. OFFICIAL: Yes.
QUESTION: Thank you.
OPERATOR: Thank you very much. And next in queue is Rosiland Jordan with Al Jazeera English. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, thanks for the call. I want to go to the section of the statement that deals with the COH item number three: "The Russians will work with the Syrians to minimize aviation operations over areas that are currently inhabited by civilians." Does this mean that Russia has committed, one, to compelling the Assad government to stop airstrikes over areas such as large parts of Aleppo, and does that mean that the Russians themselves will not be carrying out airstrikes, as has been alleged by some in the opposition? Thanks.
U.S. OFFICIAL: So the language in that paragraph is "to work with the Syrian authorities to minimize aviation operations over areas that are predominantly inhabited by civilians or parties," so I think the words are carefully chosen. What we would like to see as a result of that work is a real reduction in Syrian authorities' or Syrian air force overflights of those areas. Even if they're not dropping ordnance, just the mere hovering of a helicopter overhead has had a particularly worrying effect for understandable reasons for civilians who have witnessed that over the last years of the conflict. So the commitment, however, is quite specifically related to the Syrian authorities.
As for Russia, they are a party to the cessation with respect to not striking parties to the cessation, and in the actual terms of the agreement it makes clear that neither Russian nor Syrian air forces should be striking either civilians targets or parties to the cessation.
OPERATOR: Thank you very much. The next question will come from Margaret Warner with PBS NewsHour. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, thanks for doing this. This is actually a follow-up to the question just asked. Obviously, the Russian Federation had made some commitments to you all to try to restrain the Syrian authorities from bombing, and the same for themselves. And so what is new about this? Are the Russians now more committed? Is this just kind of a shell game on their part? I mean, what makes you think this will work any better than before?
U.S. OFFICIAL: Well, I think that what it is a the commitment, as you say, has been there in effect since the cessation went into effect on the 27th of February as far as not striking parties to the cessation or civilians. I think we've raised serious concerns about the strains and the very real strains the cessation underwent and violations that we've seen in recent weeks, and so we believe that it was quite important to renew the commitment with a particularly intensive focus on areas or hot spots where we've seen more violence, Aleppo being among them.
Now, there is no prohibition on overflight or general air operations, so an undertaking on their part to work with minimizing air operations over these areas is an additional measure that, if implemented, would strengthen the COH. They are not restricted from striking Nusrah, but minimizing air operations even where Nusrah is present, if in an area that's predominantly inhabited by civilians or the parties to the cessation would help with implementation of the cessation more generally.
OPERATOR: Thank you. And next is Nike Chang with Voice of America. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. It's Pam Dockins, actually, with Voice of America. But a question about section four of the joint U.S.-Russian statement. Down in the bottom of that paragraph it says the U.S. is committed to intensifying its support and assistance to regional allies. Can you elaborate on that and indicate whether or not that indicates some type of new commitment or any additional material support to allies, and if so, what is that?
And then secondly, concerning the localized ceasefires such as the one in Aleppo and Latakia: Is there concern that at some point it's going to get overwhelming or too difficult to continue to try to maintain these 48, 72-hour ceasefires? The overall goal, of course, is the nationwide ceasefire, but as you look at these localized attempts, at what point does it become too cumbersome to try to keep up this pace?
U.S. OFFICIAL: So I'll take the last question first. The use of these 24, 48-hour periods in places like Latakia, Eastern Ghouta, and Aleppo were because the exchanges of fire on both sides had become quite intense, particularly in Latakia and Aleppo. And so it was a means by which to get local commanders to be assured of the other side's readiness to renew the implementation of the cessation. In Latakia I think we've seen the violence come down quite significantly through the result of those efforts, and therefore folding it into the normal order with the nationwide cessation makes eminent sense, and that's what we're doing with the other two areas as well. Aleppo, there is still work to be done to bring the violence down in pockets of the city, so in pockets of the in the environment, and so that's what we're working on now.
As concerns your first question, we're not right now announcing or indicating any fresh or additional specific measures, just a willingness at this stage to intensify efforts in that direction as needed.
OPERATOR: Thank you. Next question will come from Michele Kelemen with NPR. Please go ahead.
QUESTION: All right, thanks. I'm wondering about this question of Nusrah in the Aleppo area. Can you explain how the U.S.-Russian task force works? Are they actually looking at maps and deciding which group holds which block?
And then, secondly, do you have a shared understanding with the Russians as to the consequences for violations of the ceasefire?
U.S. OFFICIAL: Yeah, so I mean, we have had multiple conversations in various fora, both in Geneva and in the region and between our capitals, because we have multiple channels of communication to exchange information on our views on where Nusrah and the parties are located. The challenge is, of course, where Nusrah and parties to the cessation may be located quite closely together. And there our view is that while Nusrah is excluded from the cessation and therefore it is permissible to take action against them, you nonetheless are also required under the terms of the COH to ensure any action you take does not harm civilians or parties to the cessation, and that's where we believe additional work is needed to reach a shared understanding on how you honor that fully. And in some cases it's not simply a matter of having a general understanding, but you have to get more granular, and so we're making a commitment to try to deepen our understanding of that challenge. And it's different in different specific locations of the country, so there isn't a one approach that applies equally to all, because it depends on the disposition of forces on the ground in specific areas and also the extent to which areas are more densely populated versus more remote.
OPERATOR: Thank you very much. And we do have time for one final question. That will come from Lesley Wroughton with Reuters. Please go ahead.
QUESTION: Yeah, hi. It's got to do with the political process. How realistic is it that you can actually, as you say, redouble efforts to reach a political settlement when these sides are still in battle? And if you think that you do you think that you can realistically actually get the parties together this month, as suggested last week?
U.S. OFFICIAL: So our view is that the renewal of the cessation of hostilities coupled with humanitarian access indeed being allowed in the besieged and hard-to-reach areas and for the assistance to be continuous these things create a much better a far more conducive environment towards the parties being able to tackle very difficult political issues.
The statement points to the mediator's summary that was issued following the last round of talks between the 13th and the 27th of April, which in its annex listed many different issues that the parties need to tackle for the political transition to be viable. And it's important to note in there that among the things it covers are how is power to be exercised in practice by the transitional governance, including in relation to the presidency, executive powers, control over the government's own security institutions.
And so by making clear that these things are very much the subject of discussion, it certainly clarifies for those who were wondering, well, is this a real discussion on political transition, to make clear that the co-chairs' shared understanding as these things are front and center on the table for discussion. So to the extent that there was any lack of clarity among some of the parties as to what are the items that are meant to be discussed, having a list of issues spelled out as to what will inform the agenda for the talks going forward can help. But they're very, very difficult issues, to be certain. So the issues are difficult, and equally the cessation it's going to face when it went into effect, we knew that it would face setbacks and that it would take strenuous efforts to get it back on track. The same remains today. But the commitment that we have from both co-chairs is to work through those challenges indeed, to try to get it back on track.
OPERATOR: Thank you very much. At this time we'll turn the conference back over to our presenters for any closing comments.
MODERATOR: I just want to thank our U.S. official for taking time out today, and thank you all for calling in. This will conclude today's call.
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Syria: UN adviser on preventing genocide expresses outrage at ongoing civilian attacks
9 May 2016 The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, expressed his outrage today at the ongoing "indiscriminate and seemingly calculated" attacks against civilians and civilian objects in Syria.
In a note to correspondents, Mr. Dieng said that between 27 April and 5 May, there were at least six attacks on medical facilities by different parties to the conflict in the north-western governorate of Aleppo alone, marking the "deadliest" two weeks since the cessation of hostilities accord, which came into effect on 27 February.
"These attacks reflect the continued blatant disrespect of international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict, and may constitute war crimes," the Special Adviser stated. "The international community cannot allow the perpetrators of flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law to enjoy impunity."
Mr. Dieng emphasized that just a few days ago, in its Resolution 2286 on health care in armed conflict, the Security Council had reiterated the need for Member States to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and ensure that responsible parties are held to account.
"It is crucial that the Council consistently apply this principle," he stressed.
Specifically, Mr. Dieng noted that the attack against the Al Quds Hospital on 27 April reportedly killed 55 civilians, including the last paediatrician in the city, while on 5 May, an attack on the Kamouna Internally Displaced Persons camp in northern Idlib governorate killed at least 30 civilians.
"Member States have a duty not to fail the Syrian people yet again and to uphold their pledge to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing," the Special Adviser said.
In this respect, he said that the international community should "step up its commitment" to end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes in Syria and thus contribute to preventing new atrocities from being committed.
"For this reason, I strongly support the Secretary-General's repeated calls to the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court," Mr. Dieng said.
In a humanitarian update, a spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today noted that
on 4 and 8 May, two inter-agency convoys delivered critical life-saving assistance to 3,250 people in the hard-to-reach Syrian town of Qaratien in Rural Homs province, with food, water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, as well as other relief items.
On 6 May, an inter-agency convoy targeting 35,000 people in the hard-to-reach town of Bloudan, in rural Damascus, delivered essential relief items, including water and sanitation, health, hygiene and education supplies. This was the second of two convoys to the town, the first one of which was in mid-March.
Since the beginning of 2016, inter-agency operations have reached more than 780,000 civilians in need in besieged, hard-to-reach areas and across conflict lines. Many of these people have been reached more than once.
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Aleppo Cease-Fire Gains New Life
by Pamela Dockins May 09, 2016
The Syrian government has announced a 48-hour extension of a fragile localized cease-fire in Aleppo, where an uptick in fighting between the government and rebels has threatened a nationwide cessation of hostilities.
Syria's state news agency, SANA, said the military announced an extension of the localized truce that took effect Friday and was set to expire early Tuesday.
The U.S. and Russia helped negotiate similar localized cessations last month for Latakia and East Ghouta, as part of a bid to keep the February nationwide cessation of hostilities from unraveling.
Aleppo has been the scene of some of the worst fighting between the government and rebels in recent weeks. Since late April, nearly 300 civilians have been killed in the unrest, which has included airstrikes on hospitals.
U.S. officials say that while the overall goal is to get the nationwide cessation to hold in Syria, the incremental, localized truces can be beneficial.
"It is confidence building," said a senior State Department official Monday. "If you can get past that 48 [hours]. If you can get that 72 [hours]."
Word of the extension in Aleppo came hours after the U.S. and Russia said their combined effort to quell unrest in Syria has resulted in a significant decrease in fighting in some areas, but that challenges remain.
In a joint statement, the two countries said fighting between the Syrian regime and rebels has dropped significantly in North Latakia and East Ghouta.
"However, we also recognize the difficulties faced by the CoH [cessation of hostilities] in several areas of the country, especially in the recent period," the U.S. and Russia said.
In a background briefing Monday, a U.S. official said that in recent days, overall fighting dropped in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, but "there have been pockets where that is not the case."
The official said some of the unrest involved the al-Nusra Front, a terrorist group that is not part of the cessation.
The U.S. and Russia are co-chairs of a cease-fire task force that has been monitoring violations of the truce.
Also, Russia has been using its leverage with the Syrian regime, and the U.S. has been exerting pressure on the Syrian opposition to abide by the agreement.
Meeting, anti-corruption summit
The U.S. and Russian joint statement came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met in Paris with officials from France and several other countries that are part of the International Syria Support Group.
The 17-nation body has been backing a U.N.-facilitated effort for a political transition in Syria, a move that could ease the country's internal unrest and bolster the multi-national effort to fight Islamic State in Syria.
Kerry is on a four-day diplomatic mission to Europe that includes a stop in London, where he will participate in an anti-corruption summit.
The anti-corruption gathering Thursday is being hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron, and will be attended by heads of state from Afghanistan, Colombia and Nigeria, among others.
Cameron's summit is aimed at tackling global corruption, and comes just a few weeks after he was exposed in the leak of the so-called Panama Papers as having a stake in an offshore fund set up by his father. The British leader says he has done nothing wrong. The public will have access to the Panama Papers, which mention various world leaders and dignitaries, beginning Monday.
Cameron called corruption "the root of so many of the world's problems," and said it is "an enemy of progress."
"For too long there has been a taboo about tackling this issue head-on. The summit will change that. Together we will push the fight against corruption to the top of the international agenda where it belongs," he said.
Russia will be represented at the summit by Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg also will be in attendance.
While in Britain, Kerry also will meet with Oxford University students and give a speech at the Oxford Union.
VOA' Joshua Fatzick contributed to this report.
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10 killed during two days of clashes in southeast Turkey
Iran Press TV
Mon May 9, 2016 4:51PM
At least 10 people have been killed over two days of clashes between Turkish army and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in the country's volatile southeast.
On Monday, a Turkish soldier was reported killed in the southeastern town of Nusaybin, which is located at the Syrian border and placed under a round-the-clock curfew since mid-March.
According to Turkish military sources, nine PKK militants were also killed on Sunday in Nusaybin and the town of Sirnak.
Sources said fighting still continued in both southeastern towns throughout Monday.
Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southern border region in the past few months. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the positions of the group in northern Iraq and Syria.
The Turkish government has imposed curfew in the areas that have been targeted in the army's anti-PKK campaign.
Turkey's operations against the militant group came after last July bombing in the southern town of Suruc. Over 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.
After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the Turkish government of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, prompting the Turkish military operations.
The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey since 1984. The conflict has left more than 40,000 people dead.
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'Alarming' reports of major violations in south-east Turkey - UN rights chief
10 May 2016 The United Nations human rights chief today reported having received a succession of alarming reports about violations allegedly committed by Turkish military and security forces in south-east Turkey over the past few months, and urged the Turkish authorities to give independent investigators, including UN staff, unimpeded access to the area to verify the veracity of such reports.
"More and more information has been emerging from a variety of credible sources about the actions of security forces in the town of Cizre during the extended curfew there from mid-December until early March," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said in a press release.
He added that the picture that is emerging, although still sketchy, is "extremely alarming," and strongly condemned violence and other unlawful acts committed by the youth groups and other non-state agents, allegedly affiliated with the PKK , in Cizre and other areas.
"I regret any loss of life as a result of terrorist acts wherever they have occurred," Mr. Zeid said. "However, while Turkey has a duty to protect its population from acts of violence, it is essential that the authorities respect human rights at all times while undertaking security or counter-terrorism operations and international law prohibiting torture, extrajudicial killings, disproportionate use of lethal force and arbitrary detention must be observed."
The High Commissioner said he had received reports of unarmed civilians including women and children being deliberately shot by snipers, or by gunfire from tanks and other military vehicles.
"There also appears to have been massive, and seemingly highly disproportionate, destruction of property and key communal infrastructure including buildings hit by mortar or shellfire, and damage inflicted on the contents of individual apartments and houses taken over by security forces," he said. "There are also allegations of arbitrary arrests, and of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, as well as reports that in some situations ambulances and medical staff were prevented from reaching the wounded."
On top of all this, he noted that there has been huge displacement triggered by the curfews and by subsequent fighting, shelling, killings and arrests in many places in the south-east.
"Most disturbing of all," the High Commissioner said, "are the reports quoting witnesses and relatives in Cizre which suggest that more than 100 people were burned to death as they sheltered in three different basements that had been surrounded by security forces."
"All these allegations, including those levelled at the groups fighting against the security forces, are extremely serious and should be thoroughly investigated, but do not appear to have been so far," Zeid said. "The Turkish Government has not responded positively to requests by my Office and other parts of the United Nations to visit the region to collect information first-hand."
The UN Human Rights Chief noted that more information has emerged from Cizre compared to other districts, towns and villages in the south-east including Silopi, Nusaybin and the Sur district of Diyarbakyr, the main city in the region which were sealed off for weeks on end, and are still next to impossible to access, because of the heavy security presence.
"In 2016, to have such a lack of information about what is happening in such a large and geographically accessible area is both extraordinary and deeply worrying," Mr. Zeid said. "This black-out simply fuels suspicions about what has been going on. I therefore renew my call for access for UN staff and other impartial observers and investigators, including civil society organizations and journalists."
Noting alarm bells rung by other international human rights entities in recent weeks, Mr. Zeid called for a prompt investigation and prosecution of all those suspected of being involved in violations of the right to life, including extrajudicial killings and disproportional use of lethal force, and stressed that the judiciary should act independently from all other branches of the State, including the military and the Executive.
He also called on the Turkish authorities to allow the return of all those who have been forcibly displaced, and urged them to ensure that, in future, curfews are limited to the minimum duration necessary and with due concern for human rights obligations and humanitarian considerations.
The High Commissioner noted Turkey's continued engagement with UN human rights bodies, including the recent visit of UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; the recent review of the country's record by the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; and the ongoing review by the UN Committee against Torture which will issue its concluding observations on 13 May.
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A fire on Saturday night spawned substantial damage at Buca All Day Eatery and Grill in Oconomowoc. Ryan Billingham/Freeman Staff
Davenport Energy received the Danville-Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerces top honor Monday night.
Hundreds of people packed the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research for the chambers annual awards dinner, which recognized top teachers, student entrepreneurs, graduates of the Leadership Southside program and young professionals.
Davenport earned the Pinnacle Award for its outstanding achievements [which] serve as a model for success, according to John Daniel, chairman of the chamber.
Daniels talked about the companys long tenure in the community it is celebrating its 75th anniversary as well as its support of the community through donations to various initiatives, volunteerism and service on local, state and national boards.
Ben Davenport Jr., chairman of Davenport Energy, accepted the award, noting that his nephew company president and CEO Lewis Wall could not attend, earning some chuckles and applause when he said, Im so proud of my nephew, Lewis he has a bug and decided not to share it with us.
Davenport noted that many family-owned companies do not survive into the third generation, but said Wall has taken out company to the next plateau.
A group of 15 middle- and high-school students who won financial backing for their businesses through participation in the chambers Young Entrepreneurs Academy were also recognized.
Edward Blount, a junior at Dan River High School, was the top winner at the Zan Womack Investor Panel at Danville Community College in March a Shark Tank-like culmination to the YEA program.
Blount, who took home $1,193 in cash, said prior to the start of the award ceremony that his start-up company Your Local Mushrooms is in testing mode. His mushrooms are being grown hydroponically and will be gluten free.
Theyll be the first in the national grown this way, Blount said.
Blount said he expects to have some marketable mushrooms in about six weeks and has a customer lined up for them: The 616 Farm to Table restaurant in Danville. He said he plans to market all his mushrooms portobello, king trumpet and morels directly to restaurants.
Thirty-nine teachers from public and private schools in Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, North Carolina, were recognized as educators of the year for their respective schools, with three of those chosen for excellence in education awards, which include a cash award of $2,500. The winners were Amanda Craig at South Elementary School in Caswell County, North Carolina, Patricia Martin at Hargrave Military Academy and Jason Ince at Chatham High School.
Also honored at the dinner were 18 recent graduates of the Leadership Southside Program. They are Leslie Barksdale, Michelle Bridges, Dr. Jamie Daniel, Phillip Gardner, Neal Hardy-Meyer, Karen Harris, Nikki Harris, Mike Jefferson, Mary Jones, Bren LeCocq, Dana Mehalko, Bethany Osborne, Melissa Newton, Melany Stowe, Angela Turner, Anna Claire Turpin, Jessie Vernon and Christie Wall.
Six young professionals between the ages of 25 and 40 were honored for their outstanding professional and community contributions with the Young Professional PACE professional and community engagement awards.
Those winners were:
Missy Neff Gould, director of legislative affairs for the Nature Conservancy;
Shannon Hair, vice president of institutional advancement and development at Danville Community College;
Kenneth Lewis Jr., president and CEO of Extreme Events LLC;
Lori Merricks, director of marketing and communication for the Danville Regional Foundation;
Ashley Nauta, Virginia Cooperative Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources; and
Dr. Christopher Payne, of Danville Dental Associates.
Dr. Kedong Da, senior scientist at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, and research assistant Samantha Smith, recently met with nursery and orchard owner, Bennett Saunders, in Central Virginia.
Da and Saunders discussed the current Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services grant that the Institute is working with Saunders on to test the ability of fruit bagging methods, popular in Asian countries, to improve the fruit quality of Virginia-grown Asian pears. The Asian pear has rapidly increased its market share in the United States due to its attractive appearance and white, crisp, and sweet flesh. The potential exists to increase Virginia-grown Asian pear production and market share.
During the visit, Da obtained soil samples from the trees selected for the fruit bagging experiment to send off for nutrient analysis to the Virginia Tech Soil Testing Lab, an affiliate of the Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences and the Virginia Cooperative Extension. Understanding soil composition from a nutritional standpoint is a major consideration when cropping land.
Da hopes to obtain a soil profile of the macro- and micronutrients available to the trees. This profile will cumulate with the next growing seasons nutrient assay to compare yearly nutrient uptake to fruit yield (pound/acre).
Grant info
IALRs proposal Strengthen and Develop Asian Pear Market in Virginia will facilitate a two-year study (2016-17) of tree pruning methodology and fruit bagging technology in Virginia Asian pear orchards to improve Asian pear yield and quality, and to develop a standard Asian pear training, pruning, and bagging system for Virginia farmers. Two types of pears are grown in Virginia, European and Asian. The European pear is most commonly available in stores. The Asian pear has rapidly increased its market share in the United States due to its attractive appearance and white, crisp, and sweet flesh. The potential exists to increase Virginia-grown Asian pear production and market share.
According Da, farm size, soil type and climate differences have restricted technologies successfully applied in the Pacific Northwest of U.S. from being applied to Virginias small-medium sized farms; especially to Virginia organic farmers whose cultivation practice is quite different from commercial growers utilizing mechanical pruning and chemical thinning.
The grant proposal also includes funding to develop a Virginia Asian Pear Growers Association web site to promote the research and efforts of IALR and participating farms.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - Scorpio Gold Corp. ("Scorpio Gold" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:SGN) reports results from the 2016 exploration drilling program on the Defiance target at its 70% owned Mineral Ridge project, located in Nevada.
The Defiance target lies along trend of and ~200 meters southeast of the Custer deposit. Extensive road construction at the beginning of the year allowed for crossing the sizeable canyon that lies between the two areas and drilling on the Defiance target for the first time in 2016. Thirty-six holes were drilled on roughly 50 meter centers, defining the initial footprint of the Defiance mineralization over a ~200 x 300 meter area. Compared to Custer, the mineralization encountered thus far lies at greater depths and over narrower widths due to geological differences between the two deposits. Surface mapping is ongoing to enhance understanding of the geology in the Defiance target area.
Highlights from RC drilling in 2016 on the Defiance target include:
MR161939: 2.06 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold over 3.05 meters
MR161942: 6.45 g/t gold over 1.52 meters
MR161944: 2.47 g/t gold over 1.52 meters
MR161947: 2.33 g/t gold over 3.05 meters
MR161990: 2.47 g/t gold over 1.52 meters
MR161992: 3.57 g/t gold over 1.52 meters
MR161995: 2.16 g/t gold over 1.52 meters
MR162025: 2.47 g/t gold over 3.05 meters
MR162026: 9.84 g/t gold over 1.52 meters
A drill hole location map is available at: DH Plan
Table 1. Defiance Target Area - Significant Drill Results Hole Azm Dip From To Width From To Width Gold Gold No. (deg) (deg) (ft) (ft) (ft) (m) (m) (m) (OPT) (g/t) MR161939 0 -90 110 120 10 33.53 36.58 3.05 0.060 2.06 MR161940 0 -90 70 75 5 21.34 22.86 1.52 0.012 0.41 MR161941 0 -90 275 280 5 83.82 85.34 1.52 0.016 0.55 MR161942 0 -90 140 145 5 42.67 44.20 1.52 0.034 1.17 235 240 5 71.63 73.15 1.52 0.188 6.45 MR161944 0 -90 125 130 5 38.10 39.62 1.52 0.072 2.47 140 145 5 42.67 44.20 1.52 0.024 0.82 MR161946 0 -90 175 180 5 53.34 54.86 1.52 0.017 0.58 MR161947 0 -90 435 445 10 132.59 135.64 3.05 0.068 2.33 MR161948 0 -90 355 360 5 108.20 109.73 1.52 0.019 0.65 520 525 5 158.50 160.02 1.52 0.032 1.10 MR161949 0 -90 510 515 5 155.45 156.97 1.52 0.034 1.17 550 555 5 167.64 169.16 1.52 0.024 0.82 MR161988 0 -90 525 530 5 160.02 161.54 1.52 0.017 0.58 MR161989 0 -90 No Significant Results MR161990 0 -90 40 45 5 12.19 13.72 1.52 0.072 2.47 MR161991 0 -90 480 485 5 146.30 147.83 1.52 0.024 0.82 MR161992 0 -90 530 535 5 161.54 163.07 1.52 0.104 3.57 MR161993 0 -90 230 235 5 70.10 71.63 1.52 0.010 0.34 MR161994 0 -90 450 455 5 137.16 138.68 1.52 0.040 1.37 MR161995 0 -90 460 465 5 140.21 141.73 1.52 0.063 2.16 MR161996 0 -90 575 580 5 175.26 176.78 1.52 0.010 0.34 MR161997 0 -90 115 120 5 35.05 36.58 1.52 0.055 1.89 MR161998 0 -90 145 155 10 44.20 47.24 3.05 0.024 0.81 MR161999 0 -90 No Significant Results MR162000 0 -90 75 80 5 22.86 24.38 1.52 0.016 0.55 MR162001 0 -90 340 345 5 103.63 105.16 1.52 0.015 0.51 MR162025 304 -59 280 290 10 85.34 88.39 3.05 0.072 2.47 MR162026 335 -69 315 320 5 96.01 97.54 1.52 0.287 9.84 MR162027 268 -51 385 390 5 117.35 118.87 1.52 0.055 1.89 MR162028 0 -90 No Significant Results MR162029 0 -90 440 445 5 134.11 135.64 1.52 0.046 1.58 MR162031 0 -90 190 200 10 57.91 60.96 3.05 0.052 1.77 MR162036,038 304 -50 No Significant Results MR162039 288 -51 No Significant Results MR162040 196 -65 330 335 5 100.58 102.11 1.52 0.012 0.41 MR162041 243 -55 No Significant Results MR162042 202 -68 No Significant Results
All holes presented in Table 1 were completed by reverse circulation (RC) drilling. True width is estimated at 80-100% of downhole width. Scorpio Gold utilizes the analytical services of ALS Minerals (Reno, Nevada), an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (CAN-P-4E, CAN-P-1579) accredited testing laboratory, and Bureau Veritas (Reno, Nevada), an ISO 9001 certified testing laboratory. External check assays to verify lab accuracy are routinely completed. Further details are presented in the Company's quality assurance and quality control program for the Mineral Ridge project, available at: MR QAQC.
About Scorpio Gold
Scorpio Gold holds a 70% interest in the producing Mineral Ridge gold mining operation located in Esmeralda County, Nevada with joint venture partner Elevon, LLC (30%). Mineral Ridge is a conventional open pit mining and heap leach operation. The Mineral Ridge property is host to multiple gold-bearing structures, veins and lenses at exploration, development and production stages. Scorpio Gold also holds a 100% interest in the advanced exploration-stage Goldwedge property in Manhattan, Nevada, with a fully permitted underground mine and 400 ton per day mill facility. The Goldwedge mill facility has been placed on a care and maintenance basis and can be restarted immediately when needed.
Scorpio Gold's President & CEO, Peter J. Hawley, PGeo,, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the content of this release.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
SCORPIO GOLD CORPORATION
Peter J. Hawley, President & CEO
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.
The Company relies on litigation protection for forward-looking statements. This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and include, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's plans with respect to the exploration, development and exploitation of its Mineral Ridge project. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements, including risks involved in mineral exploration and development programs and those risk factors outlined in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis as filed on SEDAR. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) -
THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Ultra Lithium Inc. (TSX VENTURE:ULI)(FRANKFURT:QFB) ("Ultra Lithium" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has started drilling at its 100% owned South Big Smoky Valley brine lithium project in Nevada, USA. The contractor, Harris Exploration Drilling has mobilized to the property and started the first of the two holes of the Phase 1 exploratory drill program.
The purpose of this drill program is to test two of the several potential brine lithium targets identified in the Controlled Source Audio-Frequency Magneto-telluric (CSAMT) ground geophysical survey data interpretation report received in December 2015 (see Company's press release dated March 07, 2016). The Company's 2015 shallow subsurface sampling program also confirmed the presence of anomalous lithium values in sediments (see March 14, 2016 press release).
Dr. Weiguo Lang, CEO of Ultra Lithium, stated, "We are very excited about the commencement of the Phase 1 drill program to test two of the most prominent drill targets identified as a result of the Company's 2014 and 2015 exploration work."
The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed by Afzaal Pirzada, P.Geo., who is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia. Mr. Pirzada, who works as a consultant with the Company has supervised the preparation of this news release and approves the scientific and technical content. Mr. Pirzada is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
Kiki Smith, CFO
About Ultra Lithium Inc.
Ultra Lithium is an exploration and development company with a focus on the acquisition and development of lithium assets. The Company is currently focused on North American acquisitions and exploring its Big Smoky Valley Project located in Nevada, USA. The Big Smoky Valley project is in the vicinity of Abermarle's Silver Peak mine and only 310 kilometres from Tesla's upcoming Gigafactory.
View the Company's filings at www.SEDAR.com.
Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information
Some of the statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "intends", "is expected", "potential", "suggests" or variations of such words or phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements and information are not historical facts and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control. Actual results and developments are likely to differ, and may differ materially, from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by law.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - NewCastle Gold Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:NCA) (the "Company" or "NewCastle") is pleased to announce that it has completed its non-brokered offering with Franco-Nevada Corp. ("Franco-Nevada") for 3,636,364 subscription receipts of NewCastle (each, a "Subscription Receipt") at a price of $0.32 per Subscription Receipt for proceeds of approximately C$1.2 million (the "Placement"). Each Subscription Receipt will, immediately upon the completion of certain conditions, without payment of any additional consideration or taking of further action, entitle Franco-Nevada to receive one unit of NewCastle (each, a "Unit"). Each Unit consists of one common share of NewCastle and one half of one common share purchase warrant of NewCastle, where each whole common share purchase warrant is exercisable by Franco-Nevada to acquire one common share at a price of $0.64 until May 9, 2021. The Subscription Receipts and Units are subject to a hold period that expires September 7, 2016.
About NewCastle
NewCastle has 100% of the right, title and beneficial interest in and to the Castle Mountain Venture, a California general partnership, which owns the Castle Mountain property (the "Project") in San Bernardino County, California. The Castle Mountain heap leach gold mine produced over one million ounces of gold from 1992 to 2001, when mining was suspended due to low gold prices. The Mine and Reclamation Plan, under which the mine operated, was authorized by the County of San Bernardino as the Lead Agency and remains in effect. Water for the drill programs was accessed from existing patented wells on the Project.
An updated NI 43-101 resource for the project was announced December 2, 2015 which includes Measured Mineral Resources of 17.4 million tonnes grading 0.86 g/t gold containing 0.48 million gold ounces, Indicated Mineral Resources of 202.5 million tonnes grading 0.57 g/t gold containing 3.71 million gold ounces along with Inferred Mineral Resources of 40.8 million tonnes grading 0.58 g/t gold and containing 0.76 million gold ounces. The Project hosts a disseminated low sulphidation epithermal system. Gold is primarily hosted by late-stage rhyolite volcanic units within zones of silicification and brecciation associated with northeast-southwest trending/southeast dipping fault structures which are interpreted to have developed within a collapsed caldera environment. Eleven gold domains are represented by both steep and shallow-dipping orientations.
Ian R. Cunningham-Dunlop, P. Eng., the Company's Vice President Exploration, is the designated Qualified Person for this news release within the meaning of NI 43-101. He has reviewed and verified that the technical information contained in this release is accurate and has approved of the written disclosure of the same.
Cautionary Note Concerning Estimates of Inferred and Indicated Resources
This news release uses the terms "Inferred Resources" and "Indicated Resources", which have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred and/or Indicated Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of Inferred Resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. NewCastle advises U.S. investors that while this term is recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize it. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an Inferred and Indicated resource exists, or is economically or legally minable.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - North Arrow Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE: NAR) announces it has completed a spring exploration drilling program at the Redemption Diamond Project in the Northwest Territories. The property is located in the Lac de Gras region, approximately 32 km southwest of, and 47 km west of the Ekati and Diavik Diamond Mines, respectively.
A total of 1,577 m of drilling in 28 drill holes tested targets within the central part of the property near the up-ice termination of the South Coppermine kimberlite indicator mineral (KIM) train. Drilling consisted of ten diamond drill holes (951 m) and eighteen reverse circulation (RC) drill holes (626 m). The RC drilling was completed during the latter half of the program, using a light weight, reverse circulation drill rig that proved effective at rapidly evaluating a higher number of targets.
None of the drill holes definitively encountered a bedrock kimberlite source for the South Coppermine KIM train. The majority of geophysical targets were explained by intersections of granitoid intrusive units, particularly pegmatites, or by variable metasedimentary rocks. Follow-up plans for the property will be determined over the coming months. North Arrow is exploring the Redemption property under an option agreement with Arctic Star Exploration Corp. (TSX VENTURE: ADD), under which the Company can earn a 55% interest by incurring $5 million in exploration expenditures prior to July 1, 2017.
During the program North Arrow conducted a number of ground geophysical surveys, including surveys on several 100% owned mineral claims covering targets along trend from the Monument kimberlite cluster located to the east of Redemption. These surveys have confirmed a number of priority targets for future follow up, including exploration drilling.
At North Arrow's Pikoo Diamond Project, Saskatchewan, processing of microdiamond samples from kimberlite discoveries made during a March 2016 drilling program (North Arrow news release #16-05 dated April 4, 2016) is well underway and results will be reported when received.
About North Arrow Minerals
North Arrow is a Canadian based exploration company focused on the identification and evaluation of diamond exploration opportunities in Canada. North Arrow's management, board of directors and advisors have significant successful experience in the Canadian diamond industry. In addition to the Pikoo and Redemption Projects, North Arrow is also evaluating each of the Qilalugaq (NU), Lac de Gras (NWT), Mel (NU), Luxx (NU) and Timiskaming (ON/QC) Diamond Projects.
Qualified Person
Kenneth Armstrong, P.Geo. (ON), President and CEO of North Arrow and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.
North Arrow Minerals Inc.
/s/ "Kenneth A. Armstrong"
Kenneth Armstrong
President and CEO
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility
for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" including but not limited to statements with respect to North Arrow's plans, the estimation of a mineral resource and the success of exploration activities. Forward-looking statements, while based on management's best estimates and assumptions, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: risks related to the successful integration of acquisitions; risks related to general economic and market conditions; closing of financing; the timing and content of upcoming work programs; actual results of proposed exploration activities; possible variations in mineral resources or grade; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes, title disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry; changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, tax rules and regulations. Although North Arrow has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. North Arrow undertakes no obligation or responsibility to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
THUNDER BAY, ON, May 10, 2016 /CNW/ - Wolfden Resources Corp. (WLF-TSX-V) ("Wolfden" or the "Company") today announces that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") of up to 3,000,000 flow-through units (the "Flow-Through Units") at a price of $0.11 per Flow-Through Unit for gross proceeds of up to $330,000. Each Flow-Through Unit will consist of one common share of the Company that is a "flow-through share" within the meaning in the Income Tax Act (Canada) and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant a "Warrant"). Each such Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share of the Company at a price of $0.20 per common share for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering. In connection with the Offering, the Company may pay finders' fees to certain arm's length parties in accordance with the rules of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") in consideration for their efforts in introducing subscribers to the Company.
The securities to be issued under this Offering will be offered by way of private placement in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario and such other provinces or territories of Canada as may be determined by the Company, in each case, pursuant to applicable exemptions from the prospectus requirements under applicable securities laws. Securities issued under the Offering will be subject to a four-month hold period which will expire four months and one day from the date of closing of the Offering.
Closing of the Offering is anticipated to occur on or before May 31, 2016. The Offering is subject to acceptance by the TSXV and other customary conditions for a transaction of this nature.
The proceeds for the offering will be used for exploration on the Company's Clarence Stream gold project in New Brunswick and/or on Wolfden's other Canadian mineral exploration projects. The following mineral resource estimate1 for the Clarence Stream project with an effective date of December 2009 was previously disclosed by Wolfden in 20122.
Wolfden Resources Corp. Clarence Stream Project
Area Category Tonnes Gold Grade Contained Gold Uncut Au Uncut Au
(t) (g/t Au) (oz Au) (g/t) (oz) Proximal Indicated 636,000 6.71 137,000 9.28 190,000
Inferred 991,000 6.33 202,000 7.64 243,000
Anomaly-A Indicated 186,000 7.56 45,000 8.51 51,000
Inferred 235,000 6.38 48,000 9.22 70,000
Total Indicated 822,000 6.90 182,000 9.11 241,000
Inferred 1,226,000 6.34 250,000 7.95 313,000
Notes: CIM Definitions were followed for Mineral Resources. Mineral Resources were estimated using an average gold price of US$1,000/oz and assumed operating costs. Mineral Resources are based on a cut-off grade of 3.0 g/t Au. Wireframes at 3.0 g/t Au and a minimum thickness of two metres were used to constrain the grade interpolation. High gold grades were cut to 30 g/t Au prior to compositing. Uncut average grades are listed for comparative purposes only. Several blocks less than 3.0 g/t Au were included for continuity or to expand the lenses to the two metre minimum thickness.
ABOUT WOLFDEN RESOURCES:
Wolfden is a mineral exploration company that recently acquired the Rice Island and Nickel Island properties in Manitoba. Manitoba is ranked #6 in Canada and #19 in the world as the most favourable jurisdiction to conduct mining and exploration (Fraser Institute (2015-2016). The Company also holds a dominant, 24,000 hectare, land position in the heart of the Bathurst Mining Camp in New Brunswick and a 100% interest in the Clarence Stream gold-antimony property in southern New Brunswick that hosts a significant 43-101 mineral resource.
1See Technical Report on the Clarence Stream Gold Project, New Brunswick, Canada; NI-31-101 Report, Roscoe Postle Associates for Wolfden Resources Corp., March 16, 2012, a copy of which is available on SEDAR under Wolfden's profile.
2Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues. The quantity and grade of reported inferred mineral resources in this estimate are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred mineral resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured mineral resource category.
The technical information in this news release has been prepared and approved by Donald Hoy, P. Geo., President, CEO and a director of the Company and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.
This press release contains forward-looking information (within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation) that involves various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information includes the anticipated completion of the Offering, statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance of the Company, and include, without limitation, statements relating to plans and results of exploration and the magnitude and quality of the property. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and the Company's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information in this news release, including without limitation, the following risks and uncertainties; (i) risks inherent in the mining industry; (ii) regulatory and environmental risks; (iii) results of exploration activities and development of mineral properties; (iv) risks relating to the estimation of mineral resources; (v) stock market volatility and capital market fluctuations; and (vi) general market and industry conditions. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. This forward-looking information is based on estimates and opinions of management on the date hereof and is expressly qualified by this notice. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada at www.sedar.com. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such information unless required by applicable law.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has reviewed or accepts responsibility for the accuracy and adequacy of this news release.
SOURCE Wolfden Resources Corp.
Taxidermy is a feature at Blind Tiger. Photo: Bradley Kanaris
Taxidermy animals are part of the eclectic furnishings at Bulimba's cosy new dive bar, Blind Tiger, that takes its design cues from the prohibition era.
The name references the nickname given to the illegal drinking dens of the time that were disguised as "natural curiosity halls" where people could buy a ticket to ostensibly view exotic creatures, with the ticket price including a glass of whisky.
And yes, there is whisky on sale, 45 in fact, from all over the globe, thanks to bar manager and whisky appreciator Sam Tripet. There are also 16 types of rum and an imaginative cocktail list put together by bartender Jesse Stowers. On tap are half a dozen beers: a selection from Stone and Wood, Burleigh Brewing Co and local Brisbane brewers Green Beacon, and a house beer, in addition to a range of bottled beer and a clipped wine list.
A pair of pork sliders at Blind Tiger. Photo: Bradley Kanaris
Blind Tiger is the first hospitality venture for Robert Harding, who owns Moustachery Barbering in Teneriffe and Bulimba.
"We offer drinks with our cuts at the shop and customers always say if it was a bar, they'd be here all the time. So when the space next to the shop in Bulimba came up I jumped at it because there's really nothing else like it here," Harding says.
During the first week of trading the bar was at capacity, and Harding says he's looking at enlarging the 30-seater by taking a bit of space from the barber shop.
A Kentucky Bow Tie cocktail. Photo: Bradley Kanaris
A simple food offering includes a cheeseboard, potatoes with chorizo, grilled mushrooms with blue cheese, tacos and sliders. Heartier hotpots and stews will be served in winter.
First drinks are poured at 4pm and they'll wrap up sometime before midnight, depending on demand, Harding says.
Open daily 4pm-late.
1b/204 Oxford Street, Bulimba, facebook.com/Blindtigerbulimba
Baker's delight: Harry Morgan pulls bagels out of the oven at Smoking Gun Bagels.
Smoking Gun Bagels opens its doors this week in the site of the original Toby's Estate outlet on Cathedral Street in Woolloomooloo.
Owners Dave Young and Mark Treviranus flew out the head baker from St-Viateur in Montreal to school local bagel baker Harry Morgan on the art of the Montreal bagel. And the result? If they are sweeter, it could be the honey water in the "bagel kettle".
"There's also eggs and sugar in them," adds owner Dave Young. "They aren't easy to make, we've also had to work out the hot spots in the oven," he adds.
Smoking Gun bagels. Photo: Supplied
Chefs across town are already putting in wholesale orders.
There's also a little Aussie flavour at Smoking Gun, it's a menu designed by Oakridge Winery pastry chef Jo Barrett.
Open Mon-Fri 7am-3pm, Sat 8am-3pm, Sun 8am-noon.
129 Cathedral Street, Woolloomooloo, smokinggunbagels.co
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By Andrea K. Mcdaniels, The Baltimore Sun (TNS)
CTIA and the wireless industry defer to the scientific community when it comes to cellphones and health effects. The peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a public health risk for adults or children."
BALTIMOREDoctors and scientists from Harvard and Yale medical schools warned last week that pregnant mothers limit their unborn babies' exposure to potentially harmful radiation by keeping cellphones away from their tummies because of the possible effect on brain development.
The doctors offered the advice during the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in Baltimore where they also said parents should limit their children's use of cellphones, iPads and other wireless technology because it can cause behavioral and concentration problems.
There is little research on the effect of the microwave radiation and radio frequency radiation emitted by wireless devices on children, but the doctors said early studies provide enough evidence to suggest that parents should take caution.
The doctors' comments could stoke a longtime debate over the health dangers of cellphones, but the industry disputed their warning.
The CTIA, the association representing the U.S. wireless communications industry, including carriers, suppliers and manufacturers, cited a Food and Drug Administration statement that there is not enough evidence to show that cellphones can cause a health risk.
"CTIA and the wireless industry defer to the scientific community when it comes to cellphones and health effects," the group said in a statement. "The peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a public health risk for adults or children."
The group said that, in addition to the FDA, the World Health Organization, American Cancer Society and numerous other international and U.S. organizations and health experts, have said the scientific evidence shows no known health risk because of the radio frequency energy emitted by cellphones.
"The FCC has determined that all wireless phones legally sold in the United States are 'safe,'" the association said. "The FCC monitors scientific research on a regular basis, and its standard for RF exposure is based on recommended guidelines adopted by U.S. and international standard-setting bodies."
Still, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified both microwave radiation and radio frequency radiation as a "possible" human carcinogens, the researchers at Tuesday's conference said.
They also presented early research that they say may prove an even bigger correlation.
In one study, Dr. Hugh Taylor, chair of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale School of Medicine, put cellphones on the top of cages containing pregnant mice. He then studied the behavior of the offspring and found that they had decreased memory and were hyperactive.
"They weren't paying attention to their surroundings," Taylor said in a web call during Tuesday's conference. "They were very hyperactive. They were bouncing off the walls without a care in the world."
Dr. Martha Herbert, with Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, looked at the biological factors that can go wrong in autism and found a strong correction with the electromagnetic field of Wifi. The fields disturb calcium signaling in the brain, which is supposed to regulate the flow of information at the cell membrane going into the nucleus, she said in a phone interview after the her presentation.
"It can make the brain get too excited and irritated," Herbert said. "It is not inconceivable that it can cause (autism), but there are other factors that can play a role. It certainly can aggravate it."
In other research, brain models and computer simulations show that children absorb 10 times more microwave radiation than adults because a child's skull is thinner and smaller.
Parents should not panic over the research, said Dr. Stephen J. Thompson, medical director of the division of pediatric neurology at the University of Maryland Medical Center. But, he said, it also shouldn't be dismissed.
SHARE Ashley De La Cerda, MD, is a dermatologist at Shannon Clinic
Women's Health Week, which begins each year on Mother's Day, is an important time for women of all ages to take a step back and focus on their health. We want you to be healthy on the inside and the outside.
Knowing the signs of skin cancer can help you detect and prevent the deadly disease. There are important steps you can follow year-round to protect yourself and your family.
Look for changes that may signal cancer
Keep a close eye on your moles. This is important for women of all ages. If it's been a while since you've checked them thoroughly, it's time to take a look. The more familiar you are with your moles, the more likely you'll notice if they start to look different or if any new ones crop up. Use the assistance of a loved one, or the mirror, to check places you cannot see as easily, such as your back.
Nearly everyone has moles, and they're almost always harmless. Normal moles are usually oval or round, about 1/4 inch across, and the same color brown, tan or black all over.
Changes in a mole's size, shape or color are one of the main signs of melanoma. Left untreated, this aggressive type of skin cancer can spread to other parts of the body and the results can be fatal.
Think ugly
Potential signs of melanoma include moles that:
Look different from other moles (known as the ugly duckling sign)
Get bigger
Have unusual shapes; uneven edges; or shades of colors, including white, red or blue
Ooze, bleed or become scaly
Sores or bruises that won't heal or growths that feel itchy or tender can also signal melanoma.
If you have any of these signs, talk with your doctor. He or she will likely do a skin exam and may suggest a biopsy in which a small amount of suspect tissue is removed and examined under a microscope for cancer cells.
Take a pass on tanning beds
If you're tempted to try a tanning bed to get a golden glow, know this: Tanning indoors isn't any safer than tanning in the sun.
Just like the sun, tanning booths emit ultraviolet (UV) rays. Exposure to UV rays raises your risk of skin cancer, including melanoma. Research from the American Academy of Dermatology suggests tanning booths may be to blame for more than 400,000 cases of skin cancer every year in the U.S.
Exposure to tanning beds increases the risk of developing melanoma, especially in women age 45 and younger. Tanning booths are especially dangerous for young people and the rate of melanoma is higher among females age 15 to 29.
Any tan, unless it comes from a self-tanner, is a sign your skin has been damaged. Along with raising your risk of skin cancer, tanning also ages your skin prematurely and causes those wrinkles and dark spots we work so hard to get rid of later in life.
Be sun smart year-round
If you want that bronzed look, stick to a self-tanning spray or lotion. Always protect your skin with these three tips:
Be sun shy. If you can, stay inside or in the shade when the sun's rays are the strongest-between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Slather on sunscreen. Use one with an SPF of 30 or higher every day when you're outside, even on cloudy days. Use a generous amount, enough to fill a pingpong ball. And, reapply your sunscreen every two hours or after swimming or sweating. Also, look for makeup and beauty products that contain sunscreen.
Accessorize! This is something most women enjoy doing and it should be carried through to outdoor activities. Cover up with protective clothing-such as a wide-brimmed hat, a long-sleeved shirt and long pants before heading outside.
The AAD says women, and men, with a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer are at a higher risk for developing melanoma. This also puts women at risk for developing other cancers such as breast, kidney, lung and leukemia.
Fortunately, treatment is almost always effective when melanoma is found early. This is why it is important to take care of yourself on the outside and the inside and help educate your loved ones as well. Just remember it's not worth risking your life to have tan skin. If you have any questions or concerns, please consult your doctor or a dermatologist.
Ashley De La Cerda, MD, is a dermatologist at Shannon Clinic.
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By The Associated Press
Reports from American Airlines and United Airlines show that air travel demand is growing modestly and there aren't many empty seats, but average fares continue to decline.
New government figures show that while fares are coming down, airlines are keeping most of the savings from cheaper jet fuel.
The average domestic round-trip ticket in the third quarter was $372, down 6.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Separately, the department reported Tuesday that the price airlines paid for a gallon of fuel plunged 37 percent, to $1.46, between December 2014 and December 2015.
Airline executives say fares are based on supply and demand, not the cost of fuel, and the latest reports indicate that travel demand is holding up well.
However, American Airlines Group Inc. said Tuesday that it continued to expect a key revenue measure to fall by 6 percent to 8 percent in the first quarter.
That mirrored a report late Monday from United Continental Holdings Inc., which saw the same drop in the revenue figure. United said lower average prices and a downturn in travel among people affected by the oil industry slump contributed to the drop in revenue for every seat flown one mile.
Investors pay close attention to that revenue figure, which falls when airlines sell fewer seats or cut average fares. The figure dropped throughout 2015, and Delta Air Lines Inc. said last week that it fell by 3 percent in January, partly because the strong U.S. dollar hurt foreign sales.
Southwest expects first-quarter operating revenue per mile to be about flat with a year ago.
Southwest's traffic jumped 11 percent. Delta's January traffic rose nearly 4 percent, American saw a 1.6 percent uptick, and United said passengers flew about the same number of miles as they did a year earlier. All four filled a higher percentage of seats than they did in January 2015.
In afternoon trading, shares of American were up 75 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $$36.30; United was up 30 cents to $45.98; Delta rose 88 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $41.65; and Southwest rose 49 cents to $35.21.
Hayden Mahan via Associated Press A tornado is seen Monday near Wynnewood, Okla. A broad tornado capable of leaving "catastrophic" damage in its wake churned across the Oklahoma landscape Monday, prompting forecasters to declare a tornado emergency for two communities directly in its path.
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By Daniel C. Houston, Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY Tornadoes swept across portions of the Plains on Monday, killing two people in Oklahoma including an elderly man who was inside a home that was torn apart by one of the violent storms.
An emergency management director said a man believed to be in his upper 70s died when a tornado hit a home near Wynnewood, south of Oklahoma City. Authorities also confirmed the death of a man near the town of Connerville, Johnston County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Stacey Pulley said.
The storm was considered so violent that forecasters declared a "tornado emergency" for communities in the twister's path.
"You are in a life-threatening situation," forecasters declared while warning the communities of Roff, population 725, and Hickory, population 71, which were ultimately spared major damage. "Flying debris will be deadly to those caught without shelter."
Dana Lance was driving through the Pontotoc County community of Roff on her way home from work Monday when the skies grew ominous, and she heard tornado sirens and forecasters on the radio urging people in the area to take cover.
"I parked and went into the school, which has a safe room," Lance said. "There were kids and elderly people, dogs and cats, babies. It was like the whole town was there."
One person sustained minor injuries in Murray County, where the tornado moved slowly through a rural area on its path that would take it south of Roff, said Gary Ligon, Murray County's emergency management director.
Ligon said the injured person was taken to a hospital but the nature of the injury was not immediately known.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, warned that twisters as far north as Nebraska and Iowa could develop late Monday night.
The bad weather should settle in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys on Tuesday, forecasters said, while another storm system should bring bad weather to the area from north Texas to near St. Louis on Wednesday.
Monday's series of violent thunderstorms dropped tornadoes near Oklahoma City and in the rolling hills south of the city, destroying some homes and barns. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol closed Interstate 35 near Wynnewood for 15 minutes Monday so the storm could pass, temporarily shutting down the primary route between Oklahoma City and Dallas.
Clinton's well-heeled backers have opened a new frontier in digital campaigning.
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By Evan Halper, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)
WASHINGTON When the Internet's legions of Hillary hecklers steal away to chat rooms and Facebook pages to vent grievances about Clinton, express revulsion toward Clinton and launch attacks on Clinton, they now may find themselves in a surprising place confronted by a multimillion-dollar super PAC working with Clinton.
Hillary Clinton's well-heeled backers have opened a new frontier in digital campaigning, one that seems to have been inspired by some of the Internet's worst instincts. Correct the Record, a super PAC coordinating with Clinton's campaign, is spending about $1 million to find and confront social media users who post unflattering messages about the Democratic front-runner.
In effect, the effort aims to spend a large sum of money to increase the amount of trolling that already exists online.
The plan comes as Clinton operatives grapple with the reality that her supporters just aren't as engaged and aggressive online as are her detractors inside and outside the Democratic Party.
The lack of engagement is one of Clinton's bigger tactical vulnerabilities, particularly when compared with rivals such as Donald Trump, whose viral social media attacks are legion, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is backed by a passionate army of media-savvy millennials.
Some experts on digital campaigns think the idea of launching a paid army of "former reporters, bloggers, public affairs specialists, designers" and others to produce online counterattacks is unlikely to prove successful. Others, however, say Clinton has little choice but to try, given the ubiquity of online assaults and the difficulty of squelching even provably untrue narratives once they have taken hold.
At the same time, however, using a super PAC to create a counterweight to movements that have sprung up organically is another reflection of the campaign's awkwardness with engaging online, digital pros said.
"It is meant to appear to be coming organically from people and their social media networks in a groundswell of activism, when in fact it is highly paid and highly tactical," said Brian Donahue, chief executive of the consulting firm Craft Media/Digital.
"That is what the Clinton campaign has always been about," he said. "It runs the risk of being exactly what their opponents accuse them of being: a campaign that appears to be populist but is a smoke screen that is paid and brought to you by lifetime political operatives and high-level consultants."
The task force designed to stop the spread of online misinformation and misogyny is the brainchild of David Brock, a Clinton confidant who once made a career of spreading such misinformation and misogynistic attacks against her and Bill Clinton. His critics say he kept his taste for dirty tricks when he switched sides to become one of the Clintons' most valued operatives.
The mere mention of Correct the Record makes some critics seethe. Super PACs are typically prohibited from working in tandem with candidates, but Correct the Record is doing just that by exploiting a loophole in campaign finance law that it says permits such coordination with digital campaigns.
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By Staff Report
A Tom Green County Judge sentenced two people Monday, in separate cases, to 10 years probation for drug charges as part of plea agreements with the state.
Keith Raymond Holland, 23, appeared before 119th District Judge Ben Woodward to plead guilty to possession with intent to deliver between 1 and 4 grams of cocaine, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and fines up to $10,000.
Holland also pleaded guilty to burglary of a habitation, another second-degree felony.
Holland received 10 years in prison for each charge, but both sentence were probated 10 years.
On Aug. 7, a deputy constable searched an apartment in the 2500 block of Sweetbriar Drive under a court order by a Justice of the Peace, according to court documents, and found a pipe used for drugs, a backpack with a loaded handgun, 4.3 grams of cocaine, a scale and 35.4 grams of marijuana.
Records show Holland was arrested Aug. 7 and released Aug. 18.
On Nov. 15, Holland broke into the bedroom window of a residence in the 7500 block of Aspen Avenue and stole a gun, a bottle of medication and money, according to reports.
On Nov. 20 Holland admitted to police that he stole the items, according to court documents, and informed them he sold the handgun to a third party.
The probation sentences are to be served concurrently, and Holland will receive two 10-year prison sentences if he violates probation.
Later Monday, Tiffany Delores Holmes, 40, pleaded guilty to delivering between 4 and 200 grams of methamphetamine, a first- degree felony, punishable by five to 99 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.
Holmes received 10 years probation and was ordered to pay $2,680 in court fees and fines as part of the agreement.
On Jan. 16, Holmes was pulled over by police for failing to signal at a turn at South Bryant Boulevard and West Avenue U, according to court documents, which show Holmes did not provide identification and lied about her name.
Police later identified Holmes and found a package with 7.1 grams of methamphetamine inside her bra during a pat down, according to reports.
Police also found scales and plastic bags inside the car she was driving, according to court documents.
Holmes would be sentenced from five to 99 years in prison by a judge if she violates probation.
Bill Campbell (left) gave a guided tour to Roberto Lujan (center) and Xoxi Napiltzin, members of the Jumano Apache People of Texas, during a ceremony Sunday at the Paint Rock pictographs on the Fred and Kay Campbell ranch. An estimated 35 to 50 members of the tribe were on hand to see the ancient drawings as part of the weekendlong Lady in Blue Celebration.
SHARE Ancient drawings on rocks are seen at the Paint Rock pictographs at the Fred and Kay Campbell ranch during a ceremony celebrating the summer solstice. Brian Connelly/Standard-Times Sue Schneider (left) talks with Enrique Madrid, who is a member of the Jumano Apache People of Texas, during a ceremony Sunday in front of the Paint Rock pictographs on the Fred and Kay Campbell ranch . Brian Connelly/Standard-Times Roberto Lujan (left) and Xoxi Napiltzin of the Jumano Apache People of Texas look at the various Paint Rock pictographs at the Fred and Kay Campbell Ranch as part of a ceremony marking the summer solstice.
Visit to the rock drawings part of Lady in Blue events
By Laurel L. Scott
Lscott@Gosanangelo.Com / 659-8381
At 2:07 p.m. Sunday, the summer solstice arrived at the Kay and Fred Campbell ranch outside Paint Rock, according to a sun dagger piercing a pictograph turtle that could be as many as 1,000 years old.
About 100 people traveled to the ranch to greet the solstices arrival, many as part of the weekend-long Lady in Blue Celebration. Solstice is the day spring ends and summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere.
Two bison stood in the shade of a tree, watching the caravan of cars and trucks make its way down the dirt road across the ranch to a pasture below the pictographs.
Enrique Madrid, a tribal historian for the Jumano Apache People of Texas, came to see what could have been created by his people centuries ago. As many as 1,500 ancient drawings are spread along a half-mile stretch of limestone cliffs 70 feet tall, according to the Handbook of Texas Online.
When we saw the buffalo, we knew that was why we were here, then and now, Madrid said. We knew we were home.
A group of Jumano Apaches traveled from Redford, Marfa and El Paso to celebrate the legend of the Lady in Blue, a nun in Spain known as Maria of Agreda who is said to have appeared in the 1620s to Jumanos at their campsites along the Concho River and elsewhere, laying the groundwork for their conversion to Christianity.
Twelve-year-old Johaan Hernandez made the eight-hour drive from Redford with her aunt, Belen Hernandez, and a number of her cousins. It was her first opportunity to see the pictographs, but singing with Cindy Jordan on Saturday was more fun, she said, than standing in the midday heat Sunday. Jordan, who has recorded a CD with music inspired by the Lady in Blue legend, had invited Jumano Apache children to sing with her during an event at the San Angelo Museum of Art on Saturday.
But the pictographs were the draw for most of the people. Fred Campbell said Sunday they have opened the gates to the ranch twice a year for the winter and summer solstices since soon after Kay Campbell observed the sun dagger effect in 1996.
Curious about whether there was a significance to the pictographs, she had called upon the late R. Robert Robbins, a University of Texas astronomer who had done research in the field of archaeoastronomy. On the winter solstice in December 1996, Kay Campbell observed that a dagger of sunlight sliced through a pictograph at precisely local noon, according to Fred Campbell and the Texas Native Skies Web site.
The winter solstice is the dramatic one, Fred Campbell said. There are four synchronized paintings that the sun touches before the main event.
The pictographs have been known since at least the 1930s, according to the Handbook of Texas online, but it has been Kay and Fred Campbell who have worked to protect the artifacts from graffiti and other damage inflicted by the public. Their efforts are appreciated by members of the Concho Valley Archeological Society, who also came to the solstice event.
CVAS member Bill Yeates said he has been photographing the pictographs for 10 years.
Ive been up on the rocks to get close-ups. Some cant be seen from below, he said.
The archaeology fans speculated on the meanings of the drawings, many of which look surprisingly modern. A shield painted in red could also be campfire with people pictured around it. Another is known as running buffalo. And, of course, the turtles where the summer solstice and the winter solstice sun daggers strike may represent the slow passage of time.
The Campbells, meanwhile, asked the crowd not to climb the cliffs because they are an ideal home for another native, rattlesnakes.
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For the next six months we must watch the mortifying process of Republicans girding their loins to support Donald Trump's bid for the White House.
This is not just someone who has made inartful, irrational statements.
This is a man who has spouted nonsense, insulted three-fourths of the population, embarrassed himself by his lack of knowledge of foreign policy and economics, has quoted the National Enquirer, boasted unbearably, dissembled about almost everything and alarmed the world.
This is an arrogant, ill-mannered, graceless blowhard who has come to define words most of us know only from high school English: misogynist, xenophobe, chauvinist.
There's a 50-50 chance Trump could become the 45th president even though the wily New York real estate mogul is exceedingly unpopular among independents, women, Latinos and minorities.
A Hillary Clinton victory is not inevitable, and here's why:
It costs about $1 billion to get elected president. Even Trump does not have that kind of cash. (He's loaned himself about $36 million so far and expects to get it back from donations.) So he needs money to pursue this once-fantastical venture that could, heaven help us, become a sure thing in November.
The drumbeat has begun for Republicans to hold their noses and donate millions to Trump because the GOP faithful want to block a Clinton presidency more than they are afraid of what Trump will do to their fractured party.
There is also the matter of Republicans maintaining control of the House and the Senate. Because fewer American voters split their tickets, GOP leaders think that encouraging a Trump victory translates to millions of votes for Republicans down ticket. If conservatives stay home, chances for a Democratic takeover of the Senate (less likely for the House) improve.
Some Republicans will rationalize that even if they can't stand Trump, they'd rather he, not Clinton, nominate the next Supreme Court justice.
Many independents think Trump could not keep his promises to make Mexico pay billions for a wall, deny entry to America to Muslims (including legal U.S. citizens who go abroad), put women who have abortions in jail, tear up multination trade agreements, deploy nuclear weapons in Europe, start a war with China. So they will choose simply to ignore his most ridiculous assertions and hope he gets some sense.
Republicans who want to retake the White House simply will forget that Trump accused President Barack Obama of not being a legal citizen, said Ted Cruz's father helped assassinate President John F. Kennedy and said Clinton would not get more than 5 percent of the vote if she were a man." They won't care he said Mexico is deliberately sending criminals, drug dealers and rapists north.
Many voters now loath to vote for Trump will decide they dislike Clinton so much they'll shrug their shoulders over such Trump statements as, "The beauty of me is that I am very rich," that "my fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body," that "the point is, you can't be too greedy," that "my IQ is one of the highest and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure; it's not your fault."
Ha. Trump being Trump.
Some will vote for Trump because he is a rich celebrity, outrageous and entertaining. And, they'll figure, how could he be any worse than those clown politicians we have now?
Oh, he could. He would.
Some Americans are so frightened about their finances and the future that they figure a businessman must know how to fix the economy. But Trump buys and sells stuff with his name on it he doesn't create wealth. He is against a higher minimum wage. Stopping trade to punish rivals won't create high-paying American jobs. He has no serious plan to help the middle class.
It's painful to watch rational people rationalize jumping on the Trump bandwagon. They're certain to take a serious bruising when they inevitably fall off.
Ann McFeatters is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service. Contact her at amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.
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If indeed the road to hell is paved with good intentions, a good example is the philanthropic funding of education reform.
The latest victims of moneyed saviors are the students and families formerly served by the North Carolina New Schools Project, which had been started 13 years ago with a five-year, $11 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
It abruptly shut down in late April because of financial problems, according to the Raleigh News & Observer, which reported that the project was begun to restructure secondary education by creating smaller high schools. It had been sustained with private foundation grants and some federal and state money after the initial Gates Foundation contribution ended.
It's unclear what the fallout of this particular closure will be i.e. how teacher support and student achievement will be impacted but it's an example of how even well-meaning interventions from rich donors can end up backfiring on the people they are intended to help.
"Free money" for schools seems like a harmless, if not a totally wonderful, windfall especially for districts with high needs and poor funding. But such gifts rarely prompt the questions: What really happens when this money shows up, and who really benefits?
One in-depth case study, "The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools?" by Dale Russakoff, is required reading.
Released last fall, "The Prize" is a behind-the-scenes look at what happened after then-Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker, Gov. Chris Christie and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg collectively pledged $200 million in private donations to fix Newark's failing schools.
Spoiler alert: Five years later, the whole thing fell apart and everyone involved moved on to shinier objects to play with. Everyone except the schoolchildren and families of Newark, that is.
"The Prize" is, effectively, a handbook for what not to do if you have money to spend and the desire to "transform" a community's schools. Mainly: Don't swoop in from elsewhere with no knowledge of a community's residents, their past travails or their current desires for their kids' education, and start "reforming" with sticks rather than carrots.
To be sure, at the time that Zuckerberg et al. decided to save Newark's schools, the district was a textbook case of crumbling, failing schools that seemed to be in existence to serve the school's bureaucracy rather than the students.
Still, Russakoff's tense and highly detailed account of what happened illustrates how the lavish amounts of money actually let governments off the hook for ensuring sustainable resources to educate Newark's kids into the future. Plus, it starved neighborhood schools of funding in favor of installing charter schools that performed only marginally better than the local schools they replaced. All while alienating the parents and community members the "reformers" were parachuting in to help.
The best aspect of "The Prize" is that it lets no one off the hook not the spotlight-craving politicians, the pricey education-reform consultants, community members who cared more about saving school jobs than educating kids or, for that matter, the audiences who screamed with glee when Zuckerberg, Booker and Christie announced their Newark plans to Oprah Winfrey's adoring studio audience in 2010.
This high-visibility media hit was how most residents of Newark learned that their kids' schools were going to be improved by politically driven actors who set absurd expectations for improving academic outcomes in insanely short time frames without either the buy-in or consent of the families who would be affected by the sweeping changes.
The disgusting and shameful details of just how traumatized the community was by the poor economy and decades of neglect, how broken Newark schools were and how callously the implementation of harsh new initiatives was handled are far too numerous to list here.
But to give you a taste: The school superintendent appointed to enact the reforms threw a party to show donors how great everything was going and hired bodyguards to ensure that no angry parents or community members spoiled their fun.
Russakoff's book underscores that money isn't a silver bullet. And it makes those of us who deeply want public education to be better for low-income and minority children ask ourselves a series of important questions.
What do we mean when we say we want to "save" public education? Is "free" money for improving academic achievement really free? And, perhaps most important, what happens when philanthropists' attention to improving local education wanes?
Esther Cepeda is a Washington Post columnist. Contact her at estherjcepeda@washpost.com.
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The following editorial appeared in Friday's Seattle Times:
President Barack Obama's visit to Vietnam this month is an opportunity to remind that authoritarian nation's leaders of their obligations to respect basic human rights.
Vietnamese-Americans will be following the trip. Many of them fled communist rule themselves and remain concerned about the welfare of their loved ones in the homeland.
A recent crackdown on peaceful critics of Vietnam's one-party government casts doubt on the country's ability to adhere to the promises it made as one of 12 signatories to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
To be included in that international trade agreement last year, Vietnam agreed for the first time to allow the formation of labor unions and to follow higher environmental-conservation standards. Such promises supposedly marked the beginning of a new era of transparency and civil discourse.
For part of 2015, Vietnam reported a decline in arrests and prosecutions of political dissidents.
But the numbers have suddenly crept up. As of last December, the U.S. State Department estimated that the government was still holding 95 political prisoners. On its Vietnam Web page, Human Rights Watch warns the country's record "remains dire in all areas." Those who dare to question state media or discuss civil rights in the open are subject to intimidation and assault.
In the last week of March alone, Vietnam courts convicted seven bloggers and activists.
Blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh and his editorial assistant, Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, were sentenced to five and three years in prison, respectively, for "abusing democratic freedoms" by simply posting critical views of the government on their popular website.
Last December, lawyer Nguyen Van Dai was removed from his Hanoi home after teaching human-rights workshops. His family has not been allowed to visit him or get him an attorney.
Other activists have been beaten up by police and subject to arbitrary detention. More than a dozen others have died while in custody.
Before Vietnam and the U.S. get too chummy over trade deals and a mutual desire to contain China's rise, they must first confront Vietnam's systemic oppression against its own people. At every stop, Obama should not let his hosts forget that the international community is watching and waiting for real reforms.
Headlines surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have been pretty turbulent the past few weeks: UnitedHealthcare is leaving all but three states' insurance exchanges ; Humana is scaling back its coverage; and partially because of that reduced competition, premiums are likely to increase. States are probably going to be looking for ways to keep premium prices in check -- something California has done better than most.According to a recent study from the University of California, Berkeley, that's because the state has an active purchaser exchange, which means the state directly negotiates with insurance companies over everything from premiums and benefits to hospital networks. Some other state exchanges function as active purchasers -- Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont -- but California is especially stringent with insurance companies.Most states just make sure that insurers are following federal guidelines, and then they just set up a website and just let the companies compete, said Richard Scheffler, a co-author of the study and professor of health policy at UC Berkeley.Californias system is unique thanks to its rigorous vetting process for insurers that want to participate in its marketplace. At the onset of the ACA, the state hired a team to look over health plan proposals from insurance companies and excluded any that it deemed uncompetitive. Unlike in any other state, every plan in California has identical benefits, so enrollees are choosing a plan basically just for the network, said Shana Charles, faculty associate with UCLAs Center for Health Policy Research.Because the state chooses the plans, insurance companies are under pressure to offer lower rates.Its an example of good governance, said Charles. Government is taking a referee role and telling these insurance companies, This is the minimum standard, so show us what you've got.'And the state's work has paid off in the form of lower premiums.In 2014 and 2015, nonactive purchaser states saw premiums rise by as much as 20 percent. Even in New York, which is an active purchaser like California, areas of the state with less insurance competition saw premiums increase by 7 percent over the same time period. California premiums, however, increased by an average of just 4 percent. (Premiums did, however, increase in California regions with lesscompetition.)Health analysts are predicting another year of premium increases, thanks in part to growing monopolies in many parts of the country. But lack of competition wouldnt be a problem, says Scheffler, if more states adopted California's method of rigorous oversight and apples to apples plans.But increased competition only makes sense up to a point, say Scheffler and others. As the study noted, California rejected 20 insurers, selecting just 12 for its marketplace."Some experts believe that if a consumer has more than five or six options of something, they just get confused," said Scheffler. "And these are complicated plans, so why wouldnt you want to make it as easy as possible?"
Alaska's House of Representatives has filed an appeal in state Supreme Court to halt Medicaid expansion by Gov. Bill Walker's administration.The notice of appeal was filed Thursday afternoon in Anchorage."Given the magnitude of the issues our state is currently facing, we find this very disappointing," Walker wrote in an email.The Legislative Council, on behalf of the full Legislature, sued Walker's administration in August to stop him from unilaterally expanding the health care program for low-income Alaskans. The case was dismissed in Superior Court in March.Thursday's move bypasses a vote by the full House and Senate, which would have been necessary to continue the appeal by the Legislative Council.According to a legal opinion by legislative legal services director Doug Gardner, either the House or Senate could hold a vote to pursue the appeal. In that case, the body would substitute itself as the plaintiff and pay for the litigation from the presiding officer's budget.But the House has taken no such vote. House Majority Leader Charisse Millett said Friday she didn't know the appeal had been filed, though she was aware the deadline for advancing it to the Supreme Court was fast approaching. Final judgment against the Legislature in the Superior Court case was entered April 5."We've legally filed an appeal and that lawsuit is proceeding," said Jeremiah Campbell, deputy press secretary for the House Majority. Campbell said he also found out about the appeal "after the fact" and couldn't say who within the House had furthered the appeal. The appeal notice was signed by two of the Legislature's outside attorneys, Tim McKeever and Paul Clement.Millet and Campbell directed questions to Rep. Craig Johnson, R-Anchorage, another member of the House Republican leadership. But calls and emails to Johnson and House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, were not returned Friday afternoon.House Democrats said the appeal was wrong."The members of my coalition oppose this lawsuit and were never given the chance to vote on this matter," Minority Leader Chris Tuck said in a prepared statement. "Plain and simple, this is an abuse of power by the majority leadership in the House."In the Senate, Majority Leader John Coghill, R-North Pole, said support for an appeal has been "diminishing.""There's pragmatic things, like, we've got to get a budget out of here," Coghill said. The Senate was also "going to have to ask for more money. There was no real desire to do that," Coghill said.The Legislature authorized $450,000 to argue the case, enough to get it to the Supreme Court, but not to take it "to the finish line," Coghill said. Additional money to argue the case could come from a few places, Coghill said, such as the speaker's office, or the House's operating budget.Medicaid expansion took effect Aug. 31.
A Miami-Dade judge has ruled that Florida's death penalty is unconstitutional because jurors are not required to agree unanimously on execution, a decision certain to spur more legal wrangling over Florida's capital punishment system.Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch on Monday became the first state judge to rule on the constitutionality of Florida's revamped death-penalty sentencing law. Miami-Dade prosecutors immediately vowed to appeal.He issued the ruling in the case of Karon Gaiter, 37, who is awaiting trial for first-degree murder for fatally shooting a man seated in a car in North Miami-Dade in April 2012.Hirsch wrote that Florida's recently enacted "super majority" system -- 10 of 12 juror votes are needed to impose execution as punishment for murder -- goes against the long-time sanctity of unanimous verdicts in the U.S. justice system."A decedent cannot be more or less dead. An expectant mother cannot be more or less pregnant," Hirsch wrote. "And a jury cannot be more or less unanimous. Every verdict in every criminal case in Florida requires the concurrence, not of some, not of most, but of all jurors -- every single one of them."Hirsch's order comes as Florida's controversial death-penalty law remains very much in flux.In January, in the case of Timothy Lee Hurst, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the state's death sentencing system unconstitutional because it gave too little power to juries. For decades, jurors only issued majority recommendations, with judges ultimately imposing the death penalty.In the Hurst case, the high court heard arguments about the unanimity question but ultimately did not rule on the issue.Except for Alabama, Florida and Delaware, all other states that have the death penalty require a unanimous jury verdict to impose the death sentence. The issue has long rankled critics of Florida's death penalty.Last week, the Florida Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Hurst case, with opponents of the law arguing that all 390 Death Row inmates should get life sentences because they were sentenced under a flawed system.After the Hurst case was decided in January, Florida lawmakers were forced to fix the death-penalty sentencing scheme. Florida's new law requires juries to unanimously vote for every reason, known as aggravating factors, that a defendant might merit a death sentence. Whether to actually impose the death sentence requires 10 of 12 jurors."All of these changes inure to the benefit of the defendant," Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Penny Brill, head of the office's legal bureau, wrote in a motion in the Gaiter case earlier this year. "These requirements render Florida's system constitutional under the United States Supreme Court's precedents."But Hirsch, in his order, said the fixes don't matter."Arithmetically the difference between twelve and ten is slight," the judge wrote. "But the question before me is not a question of arithmetic. It is a question of constitutional law. It is a question of justice."The state's appeal could first go to Miami's Third District Court of Appeals. The case before Hirsch will almost certainly wind up before the Florida Supreme Court, said Stephen Harper, a former public defender and co-director of the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University's College of Law."I would say the broader issue is going to go back up to the U.S. Supreme Court," Harper said. "It has never ruled one way or another whether a jury would have to be unanimous in a death-penalty sentencing."Hirsch, the former president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a law school professor, is well-known in South Florida's criminal justice community. He authored a book on Florida criminal trial procedure.He is also no stranger to challenging seeming norms in Florida's criminal-justice system.In 2011, Hirsch was the only Miami-Dade judge who agreed with a federal judge that Florida's drug possession law was "draconian" because prosecutors don't have to prove that the accused actually knew of the illicit nature of the narcotics they were carrying. The Third DCA and the Florida Supreme Court eventually held the drug statute was lawful.In another high-profile case, Hirsch curtailed forensic evidence, not allowing a police fingerprint examiner to testify that he identified a conclusive "match" for a Miami man accused of two burglaries."We have become accustomed to, and accepting of, fingerprint testimony," Hirsch wrote. "Once upon a time, our forebears were accustomed to, and accepting of, the notion that the world was flat. That did not make it so."An appeals court later overturned Hirsch.Hirsch was elected to the circuit bench, unopposed, in May 2010. He issued his ruling in the Gaitor case three days after he retained his seat when no one filed to challenge him.As for Gaitor, he is accused of murdering Lorenzo Robinson on April 2, 2012 on the 2100 block of Northwest 47th Terrace. Police said he opened fire as Robinson sat in a car with Gaitor's ex-girlfriend.
Description
GIS 10 May 2016: You are a leader for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). You are one of the strongest and most developed economies in the African region, and of course, you are a global example of unity in diversity. You continue to show how to build a tolerant society where different races, ethnicities, religions and cultures coexist in peace and harmony. You are a leader for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). You are one of the strongest and most developed economies in the African region, and of course, you are a global example of unity in diversity. You continue to show how to build a tolerant society where different races, ethnicities, religions and cultures coexist in peace and harmony.
The above statement was made yesterday by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon at the University of Mauritius, Reduit, where he received the honourary degree of Doctor of Civil Law Honoris Causa.
The UN Secretary-General stressed that he was grateful for the honour bestowed upon him but above all, I see it as recognition of the work of the UN.
In todays world, no country is an island, he stated, adding that when we look to twenty-first century challenges, even Mauritius is not an island. We are tied together. People and policies are connected like never before and perhaps our greatest challenge is to see beyond the boundaries of geography, ethnicity, religion, race. And also beyond the traditional boundaries of policymaking that place education policy in one box, environment in another, health somewhere else he stressed.
He spoke about two essential ways that can help us look beyond divides and make the most of the twenty-first century. First, by truly advancing sustainable development, and second, by empowering women and young people, he said.
Mr Ban Ki-moon underlined that he made sustainable development the top priority of the UN. We desperately need to act together to build a sustainable future. Mauritius knows this well, he added.
According to him, SIDS are on the front lines of climate change and sea-level rise, and were sounding the alarm long before climate change was on the international agenda. He recalled that the first international blueprint of the twenty-first century addressing the needs of SIDS was developed right here and it was known throughout the world as the Mauritius Strategy.
The UN Secretary-General expressed his conviction in another essential key to making the most of the opportunities of the twenty-first century that is, empowering the worlds women and young people. He pointed out that half the worlds people are women and half are under 25 years of age. Furthermore, he urged leaders to put more women in decision-making roles, more women in the Cabinet, more women in Parliament, more women in business and academia.
Mr Ban Ki-moon saluted Mauritius efforts to put education first and make it a high priority. I was impressed to learn that not only is education free in your country, including at the university level, but so, too, is public transportation to school. I know what a difference this can make, he said.
You have so much to be proud of being from Mauritius, he stated, and urged Mauritians to look beyond to recognise there are no islands in the twenty-first century and to be a global citizen.
Description
GIS - 10 May, 2016: The Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, appealed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Mr Ban Ki-moon, to provide his support in addressing the difficulties faced by Middle Income Countries (MICs) in obtaining grants and concessional loans by traditional donors and financial institutions .
He was speaking yesterday during a joint press conference after a tete-a-tete with the Secretary-General of the UN at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis. He pointed out that in the wake of challenges faced by MICs, traditional donors and financial institutions consider us as being too rich for that kind of support. It is as if we are being penalised for our success and hard work, he added.
The Prime Minister further called upon the Secretary-General to devise a strategy for tailor-made support, other than grants and concessional loans for countries like Mauritius in line with his Vision 2030 whereby he has laid the path for development to propel the country as a high income economy. These include support to institutional building, capacity building, technology transfer, establishing regulatory frameworks for private sector as well as attraction of private investment.
Sir Anerood Jugnauth recalled that in the working session which preceded the press conference, various issues were discussed with the UN Secretary-General. They are namely: the specific challenges faced by Small Island Developing States (SIDS) on account of the inherent structural vulnerabilities whereby Mauritius has made a plea for the full implementation of the Barbados Program of Action, the Mauritius strategy for the further implementation of the Barbados Program of Action and the recently adopted SAMOA Pathway.
According to the Prime Minister these constitute the important blueprints for the development of SIDS. Other matters raised pertained to Climate change and Mauritius being among the first 15 countries which have ratified the Convention during the COP21 conference. He evoked the need for adequate financial support to enable the implementation of adaptation and mitigation measures against Climate Change, as well as our Intended Nationally Determined Contributions and for a more simplified procedures for SIDS to access funds under the Green Planet Fund.
Also on the agenda were the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, including Mauritius condemnation of violent extremism, piracy and maritime security among other international and regional matters.
For his part, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, highlighted the important leadership role played by Mauritius among SIDs as well as its contributions to many areas including Climate change, promoting Ocean Economy and sustainable development among others. He expressed his appreciation with regards to the achievement of Mauritius in the socio-economic development and in consolidating democracy as well as in meeting all the Millennium Development Goals set and for being the most competitive economy in the Sub-Saharan region.
Mr Ban Ki-moon, further underscored that Mauritius leadership role and impressive socio-economic performance will also be instrumental in promoting womens economic empowerment and in strengthening gender equality. He lauded Mauritius initiative in ratifying the Paris Agreement on Climate change for which he said the country will continue to play a leading role in its implementation.
He reiterated the UNs continuous and unflinching support to the countrys development strategy and concluded by commending Mauritius for taking a step forward in developing its Economic Vision 2030 while adding that the country has much to offer to the world in way of promoting peace, maintaining unity and solidarity while respecting the diversity of its people.
It will be recalled that it is the second time that Mauritius is hosting a sitting Secretary-General of the United Nations following the last visit in 2005 when the former Secretary-General Mr Kofi Anan attended the International Meeting on Small Islands Developing States held in Mauritius.
High-speed Internet
(TNS) -- In much of Hampton Roads, you can choose between Cox and Verizon FiOS for your TV-surfing needs.When a subscriber is unhappy with his service or the price of his cable bill, he can ask for a better deal or switch to the competitor. But in Norfolk, customers get only one choice for traditional cable Cox and lots of people are frustrated.For years, residents have asked why they cant get FiOS. The question is so common that its first on an FAQ on the citys website. The canned response: Its not for the citys lack of trying. Norfolk officials have invited Verizon, through meetings and letters, to enter into a franchise agreement to provide fiber cable for residents.Their latest inquiry was last week, when city public works and information technology staff spoke with Verizon representatives by phone. The company continues to refuse the offer, with Verizon spokesman John OMalley saying the company wont build out infrastructure in new markets.We made the decision a couple years ago that we were not going to expand FiOS beyond where we already had franchise agreements in place, he said.FiOS, which launched in 2004, was available in 18 million homes by 2010, when it largely completed its build-out phase. During that period, Verizon signed franchise agreements with other Hampton Roads cities Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Hampton, Newport News and Poquoson that allow the company to use public rights of way for its fiber-optics lines.Its unclear why, when the company was making franchise deals with other local governments in the region, Norfolk was left out.I really cant answer that, said Steven DeBerry, Norfolks chief information officer, who oversees telecommunications agreements with the city.That makes Cox Communications essentially the only game in town, despite its not having exclusive rights in Norfolk. The only other TV-watching choices are satellite dish and online-streaming services.For city leaders such as Councilman Tommy Smigiel, that doesnt sit well. At a City Council meeting April 26, he aired complaints about Coxs prices, saying the companys charges are out of control.Because there is no competition, I think they know they can get away with this, he said.Sarah Buck, a Cox spokeswoman, said in an email that the company does face stiff competition and works to develop the best value for its customers. Cox declined to provide subscriber numbers, saying the information is proprietary.Luring competitors to new markets has become more challenging these days because of behavioral shifts in the ways customers watch TV programming.Consumers, especially young people, are moving away from cable subscriptions. About 19 percent of those 45 and younger, and 31 percent of people between 26 and 35, use paid video-streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, as their main way of watching video, according to a 2015 Consumer Reports National Research Center survey.If service providers believe customers are abandoning cable for alternatives, they may direct money into other technologies.George Slover, senior policy counsel for the national Consumers Union, said customers have more leverage to negotiate prices and products in markets where they have choices. In the eyes of the Federal Communications Commission, though, Norfolk does have a competitive video market because of satellite dish services.Cable is one of the industries that is notorious for lacking in competition, and thats because of the way it grew up over the years, Slover said.Initially, some communities gave service providers exclusive franchises to operate their systems. Rather than expanding through competition, companies grew by joining forces and merging. That has led some companies to get comfortable resting on their monopolies, Slover said.Norfolks franchise agreement with Cox is up for renewal next February, DeBerry said. He declined to discuss any aspects of the deal the city might try to renegotiate.In the meantime, city officials are exploring other ways to improve telecommunications services for residents, namely with high-speed Internet. City Manager Marcus Jones wants to spend $4.1 million next year on building out the citys fiber network.During his fiscal 2017 budget presentation in April, Jones said the investment would be eight times the amount set aside last year for broadband. About $3.6 million of it would go toward infrastructure he believes will help Norfolk in future negotiations with Internet service providers. The remainder would go toward pilot projects to increase bandwidth in different areas.The city also will have another meeting with Verizon this month to discuss other ways they could work together, such as with small cells or 5G technology. Small cells, usually installed on utility poles, can boost network capacity over short ranges. The 5G service, or fifth-generation technology, might offer network connections at rates exponentially faster than 4G. The technology is still under development, with trials possibly starting next year.We made it known that we would like to partner with Verizon on any prototype efforts, DeBerry said.
Hundreds of thousands of users
(TNS) -- Israeli on-demand transportation startup Via announced Thursday it had raised $100 million in Series C funding. Operating in New York City and Chicago, Via enables tens of thousands of passengers each day to seamlessly share their ride with others headed the same way.Vias algorithms dynamically match passengers with available seats instead of entire vehicles, creating a highly affordable, convenient, and premium bus service, while keeping trip durations similar to a private taxi.The announcement marks the largest amount raised by an Israeli startup in 2016, despite the slowdown affecting the VC market. Globes spoke to Via cofounder and CTO Oren Shoval to find out more about the startup.: You cant argue with the data. The market is changing, but what helped us was our unique solution. We developed the ability to do something new entirely. And the potential of the transportation sector, which is ready for modern, smart technology, is immense. More than a few investors saw the potential and expressed a great deal of interest. There was a lot of intensive interest in recent months, and we think that comes down to our solution working very well in New York and Chicago.I agree, but everything comes down to results. I can tell you about our experience, not other companies; we have received clear feedback - that what we were doing was aimed at a market that is too big to even evaluate. When youre talking about urban transportation, you need to include infrastructure spending: say, the price of a light rail system or a subway. The amounts are immeasurable and it shows how big the market is and how big the challenge and we are one of the few companies in the world turning to this market and offering a revolutionary solution.True. Before we rolled out, we thought about where we should launch and we reached the conclusion New York was the right destination, for more than a few reasons. I think we made a good choice. New York is densely populated and has a lot of demand for transportation services, which offers many advantages for a solution like ours. I also think it speaks volumes if you make it in New York.Exactly. We really feel it. Starting out in other cities wouldnt have been the same. In the Western world, to succeed in New York, with the density of New York and with the unforgiving customers of New York - its something. If you provide subpar service, youre done. And the competition is rough, so succeeding there truly shows the capability of our service. And now were expanding to other cities.Thats an interesting question. I think were riding the wave of success and potential of introducing technology into the transportation sector. Up until a few years ago, it had no technology. It started with providing real time data on bus arrivals and recommended routes, but for the first time we are taking the idea and influencing the system.What I mean is that we arent merely showing you whats happening but were changing the system in real time: the taxis are changing their course in real time to adjust to your needs. And the success - not only of Uber but of a collection of companies worldwide which aim to bring you a taxi or car at the push of a buttion is being proven. We are talking about bringing you a bus or a shared taxi we see that as the next stage, and it has a bigger market than Uber. Our investors tell us: This is what public transportation should look like, and we believe them.In the world of entrepreneurship, you need to learn to live with uncertainty across the board. We are trying to do something entirely new, which leads to a lot of questions and uncertainty. But alongside that we have a ton of potential. Our investors are professionals; I know they considered it carefully and must have reached the conclusion that this is the right investment at the right time. Of course there are risks, but we are burning the candle on both ends to succeed.Five dollars with a ticket pass, a price thats close to a public transportation fare. Its $7, if you go for an individual ride, but prices are beginning to change a bit between New York and Chicago. Chicago is a bit cheaper in general. Our service is based on the fact the customer knows the price beforehand, and the price is low and expected just like public transportation.At this point, Shoval turns to the Israeli regulation. Another feature, which maybe should be adopted in Israel, is that in the US we received permission from the IRS to operate as a public transportation provider for tax purposes. It means any employee can use their pre-tax earnings for public transportation; the state exempts you from paying income tax on those expenses. And thats not true for private taxis. And the real significance, if you pay a marginal tax rate of 50% can happen in New York then youre actually paying $2.50 and not $5 per ride. It makes a difference, and the IRS permission shows the US authorities support Via.Its hard to explain just how much support were getting from the authorities. Everyone wants to support ride sharing, get cars off the road, and make as much use as possible of each private car.We provide rides to several thousand people every day. Overall, we have hundreds of thousands of users, with a significant portion using the service regularly almost daily. Our repeat service rate is good. We have more than 1,000 drivers registered to the platform, of which more than 500 are active any given day.Theyre essentially freelance drivers. We dont employ them, and they decide when to work. Each one has an iPad mini which runs our navigation software, and the drivers can log in and sign off as they wish.The bottom line: our efficiency. With such low prices, the only way to achieve a good business model is with high efficiency; we make money by utilizing every available seat in a vehicle.I cannot detail the business model with each driver. But I can say that we can clearly see that it works on a large scale; when there are many riders, we reach a high efficiency level and the system becomes profitable. When you go into a new city or new neighborhood and you dont have a significant market share, then it is hard to find people riding in the same direction and connecting them.But the moment the scale is large enough then the chance to find many people riding more or less in the same direction increases dramatically, and then it comes together. And we are seeing that happen; it is the catalyst for our fast growth and the confidence of our investors.
The public health crisis in Flint, Mich., is a man-made disaster. An unfortunately titled emergency manager appointed by the governor to oversee the citys finances made the decision to switch drinking water sources from Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money.The river water was highly corrosive, causing lead to leach into the drinking water. State and federal regulators were slow to respond to residents concerns and either minimized or ignored the lead problem for months.The people of Flint will be dealing with the repercussions for years. But if there is one potentially positive side effect of the situation, it could be that all the media attention shines a light on the larger water infrastructure problems the U.S. faces. Much of the nations water infrastructure is reaching the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) report card on U.S. infrastructure notes that there are more than 240,000 water main breaks in the country each year. That same report gave the nation an overall D grade for drinking water infrastructure.The fact is we have a $126 billion need, but only $42 billion in revenue coming in, said Greg DiLoreto, past president of the ASCE. It comes down to the fact that we have to invest more in the system if we want to continue to have a safe, reliable drinking water system. If we dont, were going to have a lot more Flint, Michigans.DiLoreto, former CEO of the Tualatin Valley Water District in Oregon, said that of course his utility colleagues first priority is to ensure safe drinking water, and whatever funding is left over is used for repair and replacement of pipes and that is where the shortfall is.How does this situation affect emergency managers? DiLoreto explained that water line systems are designed and sized primarily for fire flow. As these main breaks happen, sometimes there is just no water to an area, so now we have placed it at risk until we get it repaired, and the more of those breaks you have, the more potential risk you have, he said. When the main breaks, its not so much a health risk, but it is an inconvenience, he added, so people have to buy bottled water. In Flints case, that was a health risk, and they are drinking bottled water, which is much more expensive than the drinking water provided by the utility in the community.On Jan. 16, President Obama issued an emergency declaration that makes available federal aid for the drinking water crisis in Flint. In response, David LaFrance, CEO of the American Water Works Association, released a statement highlighting the AWWAs 2012 report, Buried No Longer, which estimated that repairing and expanding drinking water infrastructure in the United States will cost more than $1 trillion over 25 years, an expense that will be largely borne by water customers. The figure does not include the cost of removing lead service lines on private property.The experience of Flint underscores the importance of public communications about lead risks, LaFrance said. Water utility customers should know how to determine if they have lead service lines, the benefits of removing lead service lines, and the steps to protect themselves and their families from lead exposure.The water infrastructure situation in New York City illustrates the challenges many local governments face. With billions of dollars devoted to filtering the citys water and cleaning its harbor, less money has been available the last few years for maintenance of its water and sewage pipes. From 2001 to 2007, nearly 300 miles of sewers were constructed or reconstructed. But from 2008 to 2014, only 118 miles saw work, according to Adam Forman, senior researcher at the Center for an Urban Future, who has studied the citys water needs.The biggest issue with New York Citys water infrastructure is that a lot of money has gone into purifying the water that comes from our watershed disinfection plants to make sure our water is clean, he explained. Meeting these unfunded federal mandates means less money has gone into the citys water distribution system.We are seeing the effects of that underinvestment in our distribution system in the form of more water main breaks, Forman said. There were 513 water main breaks in 2014. The city also suffers from water main leakage, which might not turn off the water system in the way a main break does, but it leads to issues such as a water main leaking onto a gas main and electric lines, and that can cause disintegration of those pipes and lead to emergency situations.Up and down the East Coast, other municipalities face similar situations. Old cities have old infrastructure. That is not a big surprise, said Forman. But I think we are now seeing the effects of how vulnerable these old infrastructure systems are and how important it is to start replacing it at a much faster rate than we have been doing.There always seems to be money to build new highways, even new water mains, Forman added, yet funding has gone down considerably from federal sources for maintenance, and we are seeing the effects of that. The federal government is insisting on improvements to the system, but not actually helping with the funding.Coastal cities like New York also must deal with climate changes impact on sea-level rise and increased flooding, including damage to wastewater systems. A New York City Department of Design and Construction presentation noted that during Hurricane Sandy, 10 of its 14 wastewater plants experienced some flooding or process issues, and three lost the ability to treat wastewater for some duration of time. A citywide study found that all 14 treatment plants and 60 percent of pumping stations are at risk of flooding. In addition, the study determined that investing $315 million to $426 million in strategic fortification could safeguard $1.1 billion in vital infrastructure and save the city $2.5 billion in emergency response costs over the next 50 years.Could the Flint crisis mobilize efforts to increase water rates and find federal and state funds for investment? This is a great policy window for major reforms, major investments, said Forman. Flint brought peoples attention to the quality of our water supply and distribution system. Politicians are definitely trying to seize this opportunity. There was a rash of gas line explosions earlier in this decade and that led to an effort to replace older gas lines, and I think similarly now there is a lot of attention on water infrastructure, and hopefully that will spur similar investments.Sixty miles east of Flint, emergency management officials in St. Clair County, Mich., have dealt with water infrastructure issues by proactively developing plans for dealing with potential water outages. Across the border in Ontario sit some of the largest chemical complexes in North America. Any chemical spill could impact the drinking water taken from the St. Clair River, said Jeff Friedland, emergency manager for St. Clair County.A few years ago, a vessel reported to the Canadian Coast Guard that a large amount of chemicals was pouring into the St. Clair River. The city of Sarnia, Ontario, responded and found not chemicals, but stormwater runoff going over the sea wall, and the event was closed. But when Friedland came into work the next morning, he had 75 phone messages about it waiting for him. People were saying the water was not drinkable and the water plant was shut down, he said. What had happened was that social media had just exploded and we werent aggressively looking at social media. Now St. Clair County is working to develop digital volunteers to help get factual information out.As part of an all-hazards assessment, the countys vital infrastructure team conducts regular water user surveys, and has done several things to improve preparedness for an emergency impacting drinking water. We have the Everbridge mass notification system, and our partners in Lambton County in Ontario have the same system, Friedland said. The county is preparing to participate in CAUSE IV (Canada-U.S. Enhanced Resiliency Experiment) to improve information-sharing and situational awareness between the two countries. Our whole water distribution system is mapped out, he said. We are building a quick notification tool for critical users along the river.Does Friedland think the Flint situation will change anything? I hope so, he said. Before Flint, anytime you talked about a water crisis, people would say they were prepared. They had bottles of drinking water stored. But when you look at Flint, you see that it impacts cooking, bathing and simple things such as brushing your teeth. We are so accustomed to a storm coming through and dealing with power outages.Everyone is buying generators. They just dont get the concept that if you dont have water at all, the effects are huge. It is beyond the bottled drinking water.When it comes to making the case to people for increasing water bills to pay for infrastructure improvements, DiLoreto asks them to compare their drinking water bill with their cable bill or cellphone bill and ask which one you must have in life.The fact is we are underinvesting in all our infrastructure, and our infrastructure works together, he said. We are talking about drinking water, but without a reliable electricity system, it wont matter how great the wastewater or drinking water system is because they require electricity to work.
(TNS) -- A trio of law enforcement agencies wants to buy a small unmanned aircraft system, commonly known as a drone, to use for searches and other police work.Toledo police Chief George Kral, Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp, and Oregon police Chief Mike Navarre signed a memorandum of understanding in March. The three departments will split the $75,399 cost for the Lockheed Martin Indago sUAS. Toledo and Oregon police would each pay 45 percent, with the sheriffs office paying the remaining 10 percentChief Navarre has asked Oregon City Council for authorization to buy the drone. It was discussed Monday night at a public safety committee meeting, but no decisions were made on the purchase. The other entities would reimburse the city of Oregon. Toledo City Council and the Lucas County Commissioners have yet to discuss the matter.I think technology is the future, Chief Navarre said. These are going to be very commonplace in not just police departments, but fire departments also. The uses for unmanned aircraft in public safety are unlimited.He said the drone would assist in several instances, including barricade and hostage situations, fires, and search and rescue efforts, especially in the water. The three departments teaming up to buy the drone are responsible for more than 250 square miles of water between Maumee Bay and Lake Erie.It does from the sky in about 30 minutes what it would take a person on the ground six or seven hours to do, Mr. Navarre said.The model is built to military specifications and can fly in weather helicopters cant. The drones infrared technology would guide firefighters, allowing them to attack the hottest spots in blazes.Mr. Navarre said the process to obtain a certificate of authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration is under way. He also applied for a $100,000 state grant.Training for six officers from the three departments can begin when the FAA gives its final approval, which takes about 60 days from the time the application is sent.Mr. Kral said Toledos share is contingent upon Toledo City Councils approval and the passage of the citys capital improvement plan, but the police and fire departments are highly interested.Wed be remiss as police chiefs to not utilize technology when it becomes available, Mr. Kral said. And Im sure once we get some success stories, well find other innovative uses for them were not even considering right now.The Ottawa County Sheriffs Office has expressed interest in joining the consortium.
(TNS) -- The FBI says its decision not to share with a special government panel the technique used to open a San Bernadino, California, attackers locked Apple iPhone doesnt mean the agency will withhold it from local law enforcement officials in pending criminal cases.East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III has hopes of getting access to the technique to open the locked iPhone of slain Baton Rouge mother Brittney Mills.The special federal interagency panel, part of whats known as the Vulnerabilities Equities Process, reviews in secret whether software weaknesses that U.S. intelligence agencies find should be made public.The FBI decision April 27 not to share the technique with the panel has been interpreted by many as a sign the FBI does not want the method revealed publicly, as Apple could quickly find a patch to block it.But criminal defendants have bedrock Constitutional rights to see the evidence against them and confront their accusers at a public trial, so it hasnt been clear what the FBIs reluctance to share the information with the VEP panel means for local criminal prosecutions.Christopher Allen, an FBI spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the agency has not decided if and how it would share the method with local law enforcement officials who hope to use the technique on hundreds of locked cell phones.He said the FBI stands by its position in an April 1 letter sent to law enforcement around the country after the FBI announced it had accessed the San Bernardino attackers iPhone.Without directly saying the FBI would share the method, the statement said the FBI would do everything it could, consistent with our legal and policy constraints, to share its investigative tools.Allen said the statement about the VEP decision was a different matter from the FBIs considerations on sharing the technique with local law enforcement officials.Those are two separate issues completely, Allen said.Deemed by the FBI as homegrown U.S. extremists inspired by foreign terrorist groups, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, went on a shooting rampage in December in San Bernardino, killing 14 and injuring 22.The April 1 letter to local law enforcement and prior discussions with the FBI had already reinforced District Attorney Moores belief that his office would get help in opening Mills locked iPhone.Mills, 29, was eight-months-pregnant when she was gunned down at her front door April 24, 2015. Her unborn son, Brenton, was delivered but died later.Contacted on Friday, Moore said Allens statement that help for his office and others remains on the table comes as no surprise. The Mills case has received national attention as one of several criminal cases stymied by locked Apple iPhones that not even properly ordered court warrants can open.Moore said he believes his office will be among the first to get access when the method is made available.I think I will get it. Its just a matter of when, Moore said.FBI and Apple had been in a high-profile court battle over access to the San Bernardino attackers iPhone. The dispute pitted the protection of privacy rights in an increasingly wired society against the governments concerns over national security in the face of robust encryption that is widely available.The FBI wanted a federal court in California to order Apple to create a back-door way to get past the phones encryption. The agency had a warrant, but Apple said even it could not get through the pass codes in iPhones with more recent operating systems.Then U.S. attorneys told a federal judge in California March 28 that the FBI found another way into Farooks iPhone and didnt need Apples help.When the FBI announced it would not be sharing that technique with the VEP panel April 27, the agency said it bought the method from an outside party but did not obtain rights to the technical details and did not have enough information to meaningfully share for the VEP review.The Associated Press and other national news organizations have estimated the method cost more than $1 million based on indirect statements from FBI Director James Comey.The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, reported April 12 that the FBI paid a one-time fee to professional hackers for the technique.It allowed the agency to crack the iPhones four-digit pass code with whats known as brute force repeated guesses without triggering a security feature that would have erased the phones data after too many incorrect guesses were made.Allen, the FBI spokesman, did not dispute this account.Alex Abdo, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Unions Speech, Privacy and Technology Project in New York, said he finds it deeply troubling that the government can be willfully blind to the sources of its information.He said it would be a mistake to allow the government to keep criminal defendants in the dark and not allow them to test the reliability of the evidence against them.You cant meaningfully defend yourself unless you know what information the government is using to prosecute you with and how it got that information, Abdo said.Moore said he believes the constitutional protections afforded criminal defendants are likely to force the method into the open at some point. He said the FBI has to find a way to reconcile those rights with the desire to keep the technique secret.Allen said that issue is the very challenge that needs to be determined if were going to be able to share with state and local authorities.But Edward Richards, an LSU law professor who teaches a class on national security law, said he doubts the FBI will share the technique.He pointed out that while prosecutors in federal criminal cases have a number of options to keep national security secrets under wraps, federal prosecutors sometimes drop cases to keep important information from becoming public. And that is in U.S. District courts where federal prosecutors have a lot of control, Richards said.State criminal courts can be a different matter, he said, as local prosecutors might be reluctant to drop a controversial case to protect a federal interest.Theyre (federal authorities) certainly not going to want to risk this stuff coming out in a local criminal law case if it might compromise a national security issue, Richards said.Moore, though, said he believes there are ways to work through the issue. He noted, for example, that prosecutors allow defense attorneys to see images in a child pornography case but the attorneys must agree not to disclose them publicly.James Boren, a Baton Rouge criminal defense attorney, said the government routinely uses secret procedures, such as agreements protecting the identity of an informant, and speculated that something similar could be applied in this instance.The law has for decades accommodated some secret procedures by the government, Boren said. But what weve discovered, for example, in the secret procedures they used to prosecute terrorists, when you finally find out what secrets the prosecution had, they are violations of the law, and thats why they dont tell us about them.LSU law professor Richards and other observers speculated the FBI may have been required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the third party hired to provide the technique in the San Bernardino case.Riana Pfefferkorn, a cryptography fellow at Stanford Law Schools Center for Internet and Society, noted that the FBI signed similar agreements with a third party to use so-called Stingray technology, which, in effect, impersonates a cellphone tower to pick up phone calls.She said such third party outsourcing deals raise issues.You know it (outsourcing) might end up tying the governments hands when they obtain tools that will end up being potentially limited in their use to the extent that they are not able to meet federal or state court evidentiary standards for authenticating the tools and how they work, Pfefferkorn said.Follow David J. Mitchell on Twitter, @NewsieDave 2016 The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.Visit The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La. at www.theadvocate.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
In a lawsuit that could have taxing consequences nationwide, online retailers are suing South Dakota for trying to collect a sales tax from them. If the suit makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court -- as many believe it will -- governments would finally get an answer to their long-awaited question of whether they can collect a sales tax from online purchases.South Dakota lawmakers essentially provoked the suit by passing a law they knew would be challenged by retailers. The law allows the state to collect a sales tax on Internet purchases from remote retailers who have a so-called economic presence in the state. Retailers had to start complying with the law by May 1. It challenges a 1992 Supreme Court case that ruled states can only tax retailers who have a physical presence there.[Lawmakers] were intent on getting this to the U.S. Supreme Court, and we are obliging that intent, said Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice, a trade association promoting e-commerce and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against South Dakota.NetChoice and the American Catalog Mailers Association filed their lawsuit against the state two days before the law officially went into effect but after South Dakota had started issuing demand notices to retailers regarding tax collections. The day before the retailers filed suit, South Dakota itself announced it was suing four online retailers, including Overstock.com, to collect sales taxes from them.South Dakota may not be the only state that sees litigation on this issue. Putting the issue of taxing online sales before the courts is part of a new coordinated effort by state legislators across the country. All told, 34 bills in 22 states have been introduced this year that would let states collect sales taxes from remote retailers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). About a half-dozen of those bills have moved forward in some fashion.The lawsuit shouldnt have a chilling effect on other states considering similar legislation, said NCSL analyst Max Behlke. In fact, he expects it will encourage others to move forward. But given that South Dakotas legislation actually calls for an expedited process through the state courts, many expect it will provide a crucial first test case for the nation on the issue. Behlke said it's likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the case this year or next.The renewed push comes after more than a decade in which states have tried to get Congress to consider a national law that would require online retailers to remit a sales tax for purchases made in states where that retailer doesnt have a physical presence. Proposed federal legislation has taken various forms over the years but has never gained much traction, despite having bipartisan support. In 2013, states got a huge victory when the U.S. Senate passed the so-called Marketplace Fairness Act. But since then, the bill has languished in the House. By some estimates, states are collectively missing out on more than $23 billion annually in potential online sales tax revenue.NetChoice's DelBianco argues that requiring retailers to remit a sales tax wherever they make a sale would be overly cumbersome given that more than 10,000 jurisdictions across the country levy a sales tax. But NCSL's Behlke said that doesnt mean a retailer will have to comply with thousands of different taxing regulations. The real total is more like 22 different regulations. Thats because localities generally streamline their taxing definitions with their state, and about two dozen states have also streamlined their sales tax codes with each other. On top of that, he added, software is available to businesses to automate the sales tax collection process.Its a really hollow argument, said Behlke. Its a good tag line, but its just not true.If the Supreme Court does take up the case, there might already be one justice on the states side. Last year, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy invited a fresh challenge to the courts 1992 decision, Quill Corp. v. North Dakota. That decision revolved around the mail-order catalogue industry and was made years before e-commerce took off.A case questionable even when decided, Kennedy wrote, Quill now harms states to a degree far greater than could have been anticipated earlier.
Home Motorcycles & Bikes Top 10 Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers Of 2022 Reviews & Buying Guide Motorcycles & Bikes Top 10 Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers Of 2022 Reviews & Buying Guide
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Motorcycles are excellent vehicles for travel and adventure both on and off-road. It is an investment you need to keep safe from those who would love to take that treasure off your hands. Wheel-locking systems may not be enough for those with enough mechanical ability to hot-wire it, and in some cases, one or two people could simply load it onto a truck without unlocking anything.
You dont want to wait months for the police to try to get it back. You want to know where it is right now.
A GPS tracking system is the perfect security investment for your motorcycle, and we have reviews of the best motorcycle GPS trackers here for you.
Top 10 Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers You Should Buy Of 2022 Reviews
1 AMERICALOC GL300W Mini Portable Real-Time GPS Tracker. XW Series
Leta start with this Americaloc mini portable GPS tracker. This is a mid-range GPS tracker both regarding cost and ability. It comes in about the size of a heavy keychain, so if you are looking for something tiny, this is not it. It is detectable by someone who knew what they were looking for but depending on where you attached it to your motorcycle, it may take them a bit of time to identify it.
There are diverse opinions in the reviews about its battery life. It appears that it will last at least 3-4 days, but there are sometimes problems when recharging it. Make sure to follow the instruction guide that comes with this tracker.
You also need to recognize that this service is run by a tech that is not as widespread as most cellphone GPS trackers. While is advertises real-time the reality is that it updates once per minute, thirty, or ten seconds depending on your setting. This setting will affect battery life, and depending on where it is, the updates may not be entirely accurate. It is not a bad tracker, but you need to have realistic expectations for it.
Pros GPS Tracker for vehicles, people, assets
GPS Tracker for vehicles, people, assets This GPS tracker has the longest battery life version with extended multicarrier coverage. Battery life is measured in weeks.
This GPS tracker has the longest battery life version with extended multicarrier coverage. Battery life is measured in weeks. Alerts: movement, parked, speeding, device on/off, low battery, entering or leaving zones
Alerts: movement, parked, speeding, device on/off, low battery, entering or leaving zones Real-Time Tracking and 1 year of tracking history. Track from any computer, tablet or phone or just download our Android and iPhone APP.
Real-Time Tracking and 1 year of tracking history. Track from any computer, tablet or phone or just download our Android and iPhone APP. Works in the US, Canada, Europe and in almost every country in the world
Works in the US, Canada, Europe and in almost every country in the world 1-minute location updates while moving. Can be configured for location updates every 60, 30 or 10 seconds with no additional cost. Cons Slightly bigger than something described as mini.
Slightly bigger than something described as mini. Sometimes faces battery charging issues
Sometimes faces battery charging issues Behind cellphone GPS technology and occasionally is off a block or so in tracking
Behind cellphone GPS technology and occasionally is off a block or so in tracking No mobile app and website can be buggy
2 Spy Tec STI GL300 Mini Portable Real-Time Personal and Vehicle GPS Tracker
Spy Tecs GL300 GPS is about the same size as the Americaloc, but about half the price. As with most GPS devices, there is a monthly subscription fee that can quickly add up over time. In practice, this GPS seems to function a little more smoothly than others, with many short-term satisfied customers.
For this GPS to work well for you, you need three things. First, you need to be using it in an area covered by T-mobile, or else you may have accuracy problems. Second, you need to be able to recharge it every few days. Finally, this is a short-term solution. The charging cable seems to break down over months, not years, and the customer and tech service can be a pain to deal with. If you are looking for a long-term GPS, you may want to take a pass on Spy Tec.
Pros Perfect for tracking vehicles, people, or assets
Perfect for tracking vehicles, people, or assets Compact size can go anywhere
Compact size can go anywhere Tracks with Google Maps in real-time over the Internet
Tracks with Google Maps in real-time over the Internet Get text or email when a person leaves an area (geo-fencing) Cons Inconsistent customer service
Inconsistent customer service Works primarily in T-mobile coverage areas
Works primarily in T-mobile coverage areas Problems with charging cable
Problems with charging cable Short life span
3 Amcrest AM-GL300 V3 Portable Mini Real-Time GPS Tracker for Vehicles
Here is another low-end GPS tracker for your motorcycle. What makes this one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers is that it works with mobile apps from Google and Apple, so you can track your motorcycle from your phone and not just your computer or a webpage.
It comes with lots of tracking options as well. You can create zones and be alerted if your motorcycle moves outside of it. You can set speed alerts or other proximity alerts, which will be pushed to your phone via text and email. The Amcrest is a solid package for taking care of your needs, and there is no contract required to use it.
How you use it will determine the battery strength, and, like other devices in this low-cost range, the batteries are a weak point, particularly if not re-charged correctly. Also, it relies on 2G coverage and does not connect with all carriers. To get your moneys worth out of this motorcycle GPS tracker, make sure to inquire about coverage in your area and this tracker, and be sure to read the instructions about recharging your GPS.
Pros Works with apps from Google and Apple store
Works with apps from Google and Apple store This GPS device allows you to create zones that you specifically want to monitor, such as your home to you know when your loved one leaves or returns. Set maximum speed alerts and proximity alerts for your vehicles to suit your needs.
This GPS device allows you to create zones that you specifically want to monitor, such as your home to you know when your loved one leaves or returns. Set maximum speed alerts and proximity alerts for your vehicles to suit your needs. Receive text, push and email notifications straight to your personal device.
Receive text, push and email notifications straight to your personal device. Long-lasting Stay connected with a longer battery life of 10-14 days on a full charge.
Long-lasting Stay connected with a longer battery life of 10-14 days on a full charge. Access the reports from your GPS device from your PC, Mac or smartphone.
Access the reports from your GPS device from your PC, Mac or smartphone. No contract required Cons GPS Tracker is limited to 2G and will only work in areas where there is 2G coverage.
GPS Tracker is limited to 2G and will only work in areas where there is 2G coverage. Batteries can be faulty leading to short lifespan of the device
4 GPS Tracker Optimus 2.0
This low-end tracker has a better performance record than some of the others, making it one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers on the market. This GPS has a monthly subscription fee but no contract required and it comes with apps you can use to track your motorcycle from your phone. There is no limit to how much data you can save on the secure databases, and so will update you every 30 seconds while your motorcycle is moving, or you can upgrade it to update you every 10 seconds.
Fortunately, there are only two reported issues from the reviews of this GPS tracker. It is slightly larger than some of the other models, making it a bit more challenging to hide securely. It also sends out false reports occasionally if the cell service is interrupted.
Pros No Contract
No Contract Adjustable position report frequency from 30 Seconds while moving.
Adjustable position report frequency from 30 Seconds while moving. iPhone and Android App
iPhone and Android App Email and Text Message notifications for Movement, Speeding, Leaving or Entering Areas, etc.
Email and Text Message notifications for Movement, Speeding, Leaving or Entering Areas, etc. Unlimited Tracking Data Saved During Service
Unlimited Tracking Data Saved During Service SIM Card and Data Plan all Included
SIM Card and Data Plan all Included Easy to install and use Cons Will occasionally send out false reports if it loses cell service
Will occasionally send out false reports if it loses cell service Slightly larger than other models
Which of the best motorcycle GPS trackers have the best batteries?
5 Trackmate Mini 3G H GPS Tracker for Vehicles
Unlike the previous models of the best motorcycle GPS trackers, the Trackmate does not rely on a rechargeable lithium battery. Instead, it is hardwired directly into the motorcycle battery itself. This has the benefit of preventing the GPS from turning off when the battery dies at inopportune times.
The downside of this setup is that installation is more difficult, and while the device is easily concealable, it also has wires running between it and the battery. This connection can cause your motorcycle battery to run down if you do not monitor it closely, causing both the device and motorcycle to fail to operate.
This is a 3G tracker and has better accuracy than the previous 2G GPS trackers, making this one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers on the market.
Pros On/Off Detection, Speed Indicator, and Live Map Tracking.
On/Off Detection, Speed Indicator, and Live Map Tracking. Numerous alerts such as low-battery, tampering and towing. Historical location reports available.
Numerous alerts such as low-battery, tampering and towing. Historical location reports available. All-Weather Resistant and Waterproof.
All-Weather Resistant and Waterproof. STAY IN TUNE: Unique system Tracks via AT&T and T-Mobile networks, simultaneously.
STAY IN TUNE: Unique system Tracks via AT&T and T-Mobile networks, simultaneously. EASILY CONCEALABLE: 3.4 X 1.75 X 0.50 , 2oz. No visible external light. Cons Can drain the motorcycle battery
Can drain the motorcycle battery Challenging to install since it is hardwired to the motorcycle battery
6 MotoSafety Mwaas1P1 Wired 3G GPS Car Tracker
The MotoSafety Mwaas1P1 is another hardwired GPS tracker that you can use on your motorcycle. It also uses 3G service and, as long as you are in the United States, typically does an excellent job of tracking through mobile apps. It sends detailed reports, particularly useful for tracking teen drivers, such as speeding, hard braking, and curfew notices. You must subscribe to a monthly fee, but there are no contracts.
Overall, this is one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers. There are about 10% of customers though who encounter significant issues trying to get this GPS to function properly. Many of these are being used in cars, rather than motorcycles. However, since this GPS is hardwired into the vehicle system, the fault seems to be a compatibility issue, between the GPS and the vehicle. There are no reports of which vehicles are incompatible or why.
You take a small risk with this GPS that it may not be compatible with your motorcycle. Otherwise, this is one of the best motorcycle GPS trackers.
Pros Monitor driving activity using Google Maps.
Monitor driving activity using Google Maps. Use GPS to review driving routes, set geofences around key locations and know when the vehicle is in use after curfew.
Use GPS to review driving routes, set geofences around key locations and know when the vehicle is in use after curfew. No contracts or cancellation fees.
No contracts or cancellation fees. Track anywhere with free GPS tracking mobile apps with real-time email & text message alerts. Cons Has some issues updating consistently
Has some issues updating consistently Only works in the United States
7 ATian Vehicle Car personal GPS/GSM/GPRS/SMS Tracker
The ATian GPS Tracker is one of the less expensive of the best motorcycle GPS trackers available. It comes with both a Lithium-ion battery and power supply to be installed to the motorcycle battery. Be warned though, that it will drain both rather quickly if you use it continuously. The lithium-ion battery, for example, is only rated up to 29 hours of continuous use, meaning you have to recharge it daily.
This GPS is not waterproof so some kind of external cover may be necessary to keep it working correctly. It comes with a remote control though, to turn it on and off without getting on the motorcycle yourself.
The biggest challenge with this GPS is that they do not provide a SIM card in it. Being foreign made, they have adapted to the global cellular service challenge by forcing you to get your own SIM card for it. This means that, although there is only a minimal service fee for using this GPS, you have to pay a cell service company to use it. With the frequent false alerts reported in the reviews on this GPS, that cell service bill can cost you a pretty penny.
Pros Single Locating
Single Locating Auto track continuously
Auto track continuously Track with limited times upon time interval, Smart track upon time and distance interval
Track with limited times upon time interval, Smart track upon time and distance interval The tracker will update the positions automatically to web server once the vehicle changing driving direction over preset angle value to form a smooth trajectory consistent with the actual road, this function works only in GPRS /GSM mode Cons Drains motorcycle battery
Drains motorcycle battery May often send false alerts
May often send false alerts Requires a SIM card and the additional cost of that cellular service.
Looking for a higher end GPS for your motorcycle?
8 AES RGT90 GPS Tracker
The difference (besides the price) between the AES RGT90 and some of the other best motorcycle GPS trackers that operate with a lithium-ion battery, is that the folks over at AES implemented a sleep mode into their device. That saves you hours and hours of battery use wasted when your motorcycle is simply sitting in your garage. That is how they are able to get 90 days worth of use out of their battery.
The other reason that this GPS tracker costs so much is that it has the broadest range of the best motorcycle GPS trackers extending all through North America and over 100 other countries as well. By comparison, most other trackers have difficulty even covering the USA alone.
Pros Works Anywhere in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, plus over 100 other countries
Works Anywhere in the USA, Canada, and Mexico, plus over 100 other countries Internal battery Operates GPS tracker up to 90 days on a single charge. Recharges by Micro USB for better convenience. Charge using any USB Charger.
Internal battery Operates GPS tracker up to 90 days on a single charge. Recharges by Micro USB for better convenience. Charge using any USB Charger. Covert, Discrete, Waterproof Magnetic Case
Covert, Discrete, Waterproof Magnetic Case Goes to sleep when the vehicle is parked for 5 minutes or more. Displays the last location before going into Sleep Mode. Access anytime via text.
Goes to sleep when the vehicle is parked for 5 minutes or more. Displays the last location before going into Sleep Mode. Access anytime via text. Track on your phone or on the website. You can also receive GPS coordinates via SMS Text. Cons Phone app is not the easiest to use
Phone app is not the easiest to use Relies on magnetic attachment
What is the best reviewed of the best motorcycle GPS trackers?
9 Goome 3G/WCDMA/GSM/GPS GM36W
The Goome has the least amount of negative reviews of the best motorcycle GPS trackers on the market. It also has the fewest reviews in total, so take that with a grain of salt. Many of the reviews commented that they got more value than they expected from this GPS. It is easy to install and very accurate, and the company offers global service.
The only problem the reviews have reported is that the app associated with this tracker is in Chinese and can be difficult to navigate. Even so, most customers were able to use this GPS quite well directly through SMS communication between their phones and devices.
Pros Support 3G/WCDMA/GSM/ Network
Support 3G/WCDMA/GSM/ Network Waterproof features, level IP67 will prevent water damage the inter electric components.
Waterproof features, level IP67 will prevent water damage the inter electric components. Geo-fencing, playback history tracks, speeding alarm, low power &battery alerts, etc.
Geo-fencing, playback history tracks, speeding alarm, low power &battery alerts, etc. OTA Upgrade Program, Anti-theft
OTA Upgrade Program, Anti-theft One year free trial for North America customers Cons App is Chinese and hard to navigate
App is Chinese and hard to navigate Can be difficult to find to purchase
What is the least expensive best motorcycle GPS tracker on the market?
10 MOTOsafety OBD GPS Tracker Device
Here is the least expensive of the best motorcycle GPS trackers you can find. This GPS, like several of the others reviewed, was made with teen drivers in mind. It gives comprehensive reports on driving stats, but it is not meant to be long-lasting.
If you are looking for a short-term GPS tracker, and you are living in the US, this is an inexpensive option for you. If you are looking for a GPS for security reasons, you may want to see another option.
Pros Monitor driving activity using Google Maps.
Monitor driving activity using Google Maps. Get a complete driving report cards that score safe driving habits such as speeding, harsh braking, and rapid acceleration to improve driving habits.
Get a complete driving report cards that score safe driving habits such as speeding, harsh braking, and rapid acceleration to improve driving habits. 3G vehicle tracking coverage that updates every minute in the US, Canada, and Mexico
3G vehicle tracking coverage that updates every minute in the US, Canada, and Mexico Track anywhere with the free GPS tracking mobile apps and real-time email & text message alerts.
Track anywhere with the free GPS tracking mobile apps and real-time email & text message alerts. Use the GPS tracking to review reports such as driving routes, set geofences around key locations (school, home, or friends house) and know when the vehicle is in use after curfew. Cons Inconsistent updating
Inconsistent updating Only works in the US
So, how do these reviews line up?
Best Motorcycle GPS Trackers Buying Guide
Best Value
The MOTOSafety OBD GPS Tracker is the least expensive option if you are looking for a short-term tracker for your motorcycle. It is made for tracking the driving habits of teenage drivers.
The Trackmate is a more expensive device, but it has a lower monthly subscription cost and is hardwired into your motorcycle, so you dont have to worry about recharging the battery.
The ATian GPS tracker is inexpensive as well, but you may end up paying more for your SIM card (not included) usage.
Accuracy
The AES is the most expensive of the best motorcycle GPS trackers but can provide you with some of the best accuracy across the greatest number of countries. The ATian is one of the least expensive devices but can offer service in any country you can get a SIM card to use in it. The Goome GPS also provides excellent service if you can navigate the Chinese app or use SMS to connect to the device.
Durability
How long do the best motorcycle GPS trackers last?
The most durable of these trackers are the ones that are hardwired into your motorcycle battery. The lithium-ion battery is one of the earliest failing points on these devices, and if it doesnt have one, it lasts that much longer. You also want one that is waterproof, to prevent moisture from damaging the electronics.
The Trackmate is a great hardwired GPS that is recommended for motorcycles and is waterproof. It is one of the more durable of the best motorcycle GPS trackers.
There is one exception to the battery rule, and that is the AES RGT90 GPS tracker. This tracker, because of its sleep mode, causes less wear on the battery and ends up lasting much longer than any other GPS with a lithium-ion battery.
Conclusion You can get inexpensive GPS trackers if you are only interested in short-term use. If you want something to last longer, you need to spend a little more money. You also need to be able to install it to your motorcycle battery. It is also important to watch for the subscription costs. The device may be inexpensive, but most subscriptions are around $20 each month. Some may require cell phone contracts (although most do not). Also, the more expensive GPS trackers have better service (3G instead of 2G) and a much wider area of coverage. If youre looking for the best motorcycle GPS trackers, the reviews suggest checking out the AES RGT90 and the Trackmate Mini 3G H GPS Tracker.
Niki Lauda has played down mounting speculation he is in pole position to succeed Bernie Ecclestone.
It is claimed that Ferrari's Sergio Marchionne, backed by Mercedes chief Toto Wolff, is advocating that a group of three should take over from the 85-year-old F1 'supremo'.
"When I think about the sporting side, then for me Niki Lauda is one of the hottest candidates," Red Bull official Dr Helmut Marko told Tiroler Tageszeitung newspaper.
F1 legend and Mercedes team chairman Lauda, however, is not racing away with the job.
"If some people here believe that it is easy to replace him (Ecclestone), they are mistaken," the 67-year-old former triple world champion told Auto Motor und Sport.
"Bernie still has 15 per cent of the business and only he was able to get our engine parts through customs that fast in Russia," Lauda added.
Still, there is much discontent with the political situation in F1 at present but at least key chassis and engine rule changes have now been passed for 2017.
Fellow Mercedes chief Wolff argued against the change, but Lauda says it would have been wrong to delay the decision yet again.
"If we had postponed the decision again we would not have got a better outcome. It's a compromise," he insisted.
"Whether it fulfils expectations remains to be seen. You can never be satisfied with compromises but in the current balance of power, with everyone thinking only of themselves, it is the only possibility.
"So in these circumstances, it is the best possible solution. The cars will definitely be faster and more aggressive, and with the engine we have gained time with the hybrid technology.
"This is definitely better than going back to the old eight cylinders," Lauda said.
Lauda also backed the drivers' union GPDA that he once led, insisting those who actually sit in the cars have the right to a say.
"They are the main characters of the sport to it would be wrong to stop them from talking and having an opinion.
"Their last action," said Lauda, referring to the drivers' highly controversial letter, "should simply be seen as part of the show."
Finally, while he said he is no fan of covering the cockpits, Lauda accepts it is now inevitable that either the 'halo' or 'aeroscreen' concepts are on their way into F1.
"We can no longer explain this issue away," said Lauda. "It is true that the DNA of formula one is being disturbed, but we have seen accidents that would probably have been less serious if we had this protection.
"Now we need to find the best solution. I don't like the halo so the solution proposed by Red Bull looks like it is better," he added.
(GMM)
Paul Hembery said Pirelli will not be to blame if F1 races become more boring next season.
In a difficult political climate at present, F1 legend Niki Lauda said the new chassis and engine rules are the result of a "compromise" agreement.
"Whether it fulfils expectations remains to be seen," the Mercedes team chairman told Auto Motor und Sport.
Also uncertain is Sauber's veteran team manager Beat Zehnder, who said: "Will the 2017 regulations be better for the show? I don't know. I hope so.
"At the moment I have my doubts, although I hope that I'm wrong."
A big part of the 2017 package is the tyres, with Pirelli asked to supply not only bigger, wider and grippier tyres, but rubber that degrades less harshly.
"We are changing the design philosophy of the tyres," Pirelli's F1 chief Hembery confirmed to Russia's Championat.
"We will make them less sensitive to temperature, so there will be less degradation or performance drop.
"The drivers will be able to attack more rather than build a strategy to work with the tyres, as they do now," he said.
"At first we were asked to produce tyres for formula one that should be changed two or three times during a race, so I think in 2017 you will see a very different product from Pirelli.
"Only time will tell if the races are better or worse. Since we came into formula one, there has been more overtaking than ever, but from next year it will depend on the drivers and the cars.
"Don't blame us if the races are boring!" Briton Hembery exclaimed.
(GMM)
BJP Launches 'Social' Attack On Naidu!
Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu considers himself the most hi-tech leader.
His party is also very active on social media and whatever Naidu does, it is immediately reflected in social media network sites like Facebook and Twitter.
After the latest announcement made by the Centre that there is no question of granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh, the TDP cadre went hammer and tongs against the BJP and NDA ministers for backtracking on the special status promise.
Particularly, union minister Jayant Sinha, who had given written statement that special status to AP was not possible, was flooded with comments from the TDP cadre attacking him. The poor minister lamented for being attacked unnecessarily, since he had only reflected the NDA governments policy.
Now, the BJP cadre also launched counter-attack on the TDP in the same social media, accusing Naidu of instigating his people against the Centre.
Some of the posts are so nasty, alleging that Naidu had wasted Rs 4,000 crore of public money for his personal publicity.
They pointed out how Naidu had wasted money on his camp office and temporary residence in Vijayawada, private bus, repairs to his camp office and Secretariat chamber in Hyderabad, going on foreign tours on chartered flights, frequent shuttling between Hyderabad and Vijayawada in private choppers, bhoomi pooja for Amaravati etc., besides indulging in various corrupt deeds.
So, tit-for-tat!
Fact Sheet: Nothing But Hogwash
New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to TDP MP Avanthi Srinivas that there is no proposal to amend or modify the criteria for grant of special category status to states.
He further said the 14th Finance Commission has not recommended any change in criteria for grant of special category status.
The Centre of late has been talking of a special financial package for AP. But even here, there are absolutely no guarantees as can be evidenced by the following paragraph in Jayant Sinhas letter:
Any release of special assistance to AP under various provisions of Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014 will be based on the recommendations of the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog). But it is also based on the availability of resources with the union government within gross budgetary support.
What this means is that even if AP is given a special financial package, it would be only for those activities mentioned in the AP Re-Organization Act. And finally, the government can simply deny AP a single penny citing lack of availability of resources.
Why Is Jagan Silent On Modi?
One can understand the eagerness of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in exposing the double standards of Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with regard to denial of the special category status to the State by the Centre.
Jagan is rightly demanding the TDP president to get out of the NDA and ask his ministers in the Narendra Modi cabinet to resign from their posts immediately.
He is also right in questioning the inability of Naidu in securing funds, leave alone special status from the Centre. And he is also justified in alleging that Naidu has mortgaged the interests of the state for the sake of power and positions in the Centre.
Well, but what one failed to understand is that why Jagan has remained silent on the injustice meted out to the state by the Centre. So far, he has not made a single statement aggressively attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for backtracking on his statement on special status to AP, which he had made during the election rallies in 2014.
Jagan also did not utter a word against the Central BJP leaders like Arun Jaitely or Venkaiah Naidu for betraying Andhra Pradesh.
And that may create suspicion on Jagans intentions. It is better he takes up an agitation and attack both the TDP and the BJP for ditching the people of Andhra Pradesh.
The more aggressively he goes against Narendra Modi, the more political mileage Jagan will get. Otherwise, there is every possibility of people suspecting that Jagan may join NDA, the moment Naidu comes out of it.
GREENSBORO With their newest restaurant concept, the owners of Natty Greenes Pub & Brewing Co. wanted to go back in time.
Back to a time when your parents stopped by the corner market to pick up fresh meats and vegetables for dinner that night. And back to when you knew your neighborhood butcher and baker.
Kayne Fisher and Chris Lester are re-creating that experience with the Natty Greenes Kitchen & Market, coming to the Revolution Mill campus early next year.
You see a lot of restaurants nowadays trying to push the envelope and do new things, Fisher said during an event late Tuesday morning to announce the new restaurant. Well, we want to do some old things. We want to go backward, when things were simple and delicious. We want to be simply delicious.
Its a concept Fisher said he and Lester have spent as much time talking about as they did beer during their college days. The friends opened their South Elm Street brewery and pub in August 2004.
Nattys for months had been planning to relocate its brewing facility, which has outgrown its space on West Gate City Boulevard, to the Revolution Mill complex off Yanceyvillle Street. That will now come as part of a later phase of the companys expansion, Fisher said. The pub will remain open downtown.
Fisher said the new restaurant wont be white tablecloth, but it will present a different dining experience from what Nattys fans are used to at the pub. Itll be a steakhouse where diners can get a meal anywhere from $11 to $50. But itll also include a market where customers can buy locally sourced foods to cook at home. The restaurant will also include a takeout component.
Fisher said it will include three key features: a butcher, a baker and beer maker.
A full-time butcher will cut meats daily at a charcuterie station to be cooked in the restaurant and sold in the market. A baker will sell the restaurants breads and desserts.
And then the beer, well, weve got that taken care of already, Fisher said.
Fisher likened the restaurant expansion to other local restaurateurs, such as Kristina Fuller of Crafted and Nick Wilson of the 1618 brand. Fuller has restaurants dedicated to tacos and globally inspired street food. Wilson has three locations that include a restaurant with a mainstream menu, a seafood restaurant and a wine lounge.
This is just another phase in the brand evolution for us, Fisher said.
Revolution Mill, once part of the Cone Mills textile empire, is being redeveloped by Self-Help, a Durham-based nonprofit and community development lender. The campus, which is more than half a million square feet, is being renovated for office and business space, apartments and an events center.
Nattys will fit right in, according to Tucker Bartlett, executive vice president with Self-Help.
Its really going to bring activity to the campus, he said. We want this campus to be open to the entire community.
Fisher said he and Lester chose Revolution Mill because they wanted to be a part of the campuss rich history. Natty Greenes plans to bring its brewery to the complex during the second phase of its expansion. Fisher and Lester had been courted by several cities for its expansion, including Charlotte and Raleigh, but Fisher said they never wanted to leave Greensboro.
The Greensboro City Council in December unanimously approved a $387,500 incentive to Natty Greenes.
With everything else planned at Revolution Mill, Fisher hopes that the campus will be a destination spot for residents and visitors.
I think its going to be a city within a city, but its going to put our city on the map, and were really excited about that, he told guests at the mill on Tuesday.
The building slated for the restaurant, which will seat more than 250 people, is situated next to North Buffalo Creek. It was originally the mills carpentry shop, Bartlett said. It will be about 9,000 square feet and include a 3,200-square-foot mezzanine and 5,200-square-foot patio. Fisher said its going to take about $3 million to outfit the building. Self-Help, which is financing the improvements to the building, is leasing it to Natty Greenes.
WINSTON-SALEM Two students were hospitalized after a knife fight broke out in a middle school bathroom Monday.
The fight between two students happened in a women's restroom at Hanes on the Hill Middle School located at 2355 Pleasant Street in Winston-Salem, a news release from the Winston-Salem Police Department stated.
Police said other students were present when one of the individuals in the fight took out a small pocketknife, cutting and puncturing the other student.
Officers said school personnel broke up the fight and separated the students. A school resource officer was at the school when the fight occurred, but police said, was monitoring the bus lot as part of his daily duties.
Both students were transported to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center for non-life threatening injuries. Officers said both have been released.
The student with a knife, whose name is being withheld because he or she is a minor, is now in secure custody at a juvenile detention facility in Greensboro.
The other student was released to his or her parents with a petition pending for affray and disorderly conduct.
Allen Edmonds will bring its world-renowned mens footwear collection to Greenwich Avenue next month.
Slated for an opening on June 2, the company has manufactured premium mens shoes and accessories since its establishment in 1922, from oxford and derby shoes to loafers and slip-ons. Like its other retail locations, the Greenwich store will feature the brands custom-made dress and casual footwear, as well as belts, leather bags and briefcases, apparel and other accessories. The company prides itself on using high-quality leathers, such as calf skin and cordovan, combined with cork footbeds to create a comfortable and classic product.
Each of their products is handcrafted using a 212-step process in its Port Washington, Wis., factory, which differentiates their brand from competitors, said Ross Widmoyer, the vice president of retail stores at Allen Edmonds. The process starts when the design team looks for fine leathers across the globe. When the materials arrive to the factory, workers start the hands-on process of cutting, fitting and sewing the shoes.
After that, their team starts the lasting procedure, the technique that sets the final shape of the shoe. With 50,000 lasts, or molds as theyre commonly known, in 19 different shapes, their shoemakers are able to craft footwear to match the lengths, widths and contours of millions of feet.
From there, an operator joins the shoes upper portion to its insole through a labor-intensive and technical welting procedure. This is where they also apply a layer of shock-absorbent cork between outsole and insole, with the goal of providing comfort and cushioning. During the final stages of manufacturing, hand-finishing and polishing techniques are applied to the shoe to maintain the natural appearance of its leather and protect it from the elements. The shoe is then inspected for quality assurance and leaves the factory. This attention to detail is what makes the Allen Edmonds product unique, Widmoyer said.
Formerly the polo wear store Casablanca, the new store will reflect the historic character of the 1,300-square-foot space located at 113 Greenwich Ave. Allen Edmonds worked closely with an architectural firm to adapt its store concept to the existing aesthetic with its high ceilings, centered front door and wide entryway. They preserved the decorative tin ceiling and wood floors, but opened the storefront to feature a barrel vault entry above the main entrances door.
With Richards as the only local alternative for mens shoes, Widmoyer said the new store will bring expanded options in luxury menswear to the Avenue. The Greenwich store will help grow Allen Edmonds East Coast presence, as well as appeal to new audiences, as its second retail location in Connecticut, the other being in Westport.
The Allen Edmonds offering is a perfect fit for the fashion-forward Greenwich gentleman who is looking for dress shoes, apparel and accessories for the office and casual styles for the weekend, Widmoyer said.
Megan.Dalton@scni.com; 203-625-4411
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BRIDGEPORT It was really more of a love fest than a nominating convention, as Jim Himes took the stage at Roosevelt School to thundering applause Monday night, accepting the Democratic nomination for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives for the 4th Congressional District.
Meanwhile, in Naugatuck, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro accepted her 14th Democratic nomination for Congress representing Connecticuts 3rd District. And in Waterbury, 5th District incumbent Elizabeth Esty was nominated.
Although Bridgeport activist Charles Coviello earlier commented that nothing was a sure thing, in fact the renomination of Himes was, as it was clear there would be no Democratic challengers.
Hes doing a great job, Fairfield First Selectman Mike Tetreau said, to the applause that greeted Himes formal nomination. He really understands our struggles with Jim, its not about rhetoric, its about solutions.
The hundreds of delegates then rose to their feet as Himes took the microphone.
Thank you so much. As I look around the room, I am seeing people Ive worked with on the things we care about as Democrats, Himes began. You elected a historical president, Barack Obama, who assured us with three simple words, Yes, we can.
We have a stake in each others success, Himes said. Success always comes with support and encouragement from families and communities large and small.
He laid out some of the accomplishments of the president and Congress, but cautioned that much has to be done to preserve and maintain these accomplishments.
Too many Americans are still being left behind, he said.
Himes first assumed office in January 2009. The 4th District encompasses most of Fairfield County, including Bridgeport and Stamford.
Esty, in her speech after being nominated Monday night in Waterbury, referenced Donald Trump, among others.
The Republican Party, against all odds and the belief of many of us, is on the verge of nominating a man who parks his private jet at the Waterbury Oxford Airport and no, I am not talking about Mark Greenberg, Esty told a crowd of 250 supporters in Waterbury, referring to her wealthy GOP challenger two years ago. We will all need to do everything we can to unite behind our values because Donald Trump is doing everything he can to turn us against one another.
Staff writer Rob Ryser contributed to this report.
Welcome back. Photo: Courtesy of Hester Street Fair
Good news: One of New Yorks loveliest outdoor markets, the Hester Street Fair, kicks off its seventh season on May 14. This year, there are 60 different vendors, covering food, fashion, and design, and the new ones include En Japanese Brasserie (selling Japanese fried chicken), Scarrs Pizza, Spur Tree (Jamaican-Asian fusion), and Gordos Cantina (Mexican food). They join veterans like Lukes Lobster and Khao Man Gai.
The fair, located at the intersection of Essex and Hester, will operate every Saturday through October 29. Look out for some food-centric themed days as well, like a celebration of Jamaican Independence Day and, of course, the annual Grub Street Food Festival.
Over three months after launching in the US, the Honor 5X has landed in Canada, although with a different name: Huawei GR5. Local carrier Rogers has the device in stock, and is selling it for CAD 0 on a regular 2-year contract or CAD 375 outright.
The Honor 5X was first announced back in January at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Aside from the US and now Canada, the device is also available in Europe, where it landed shortly after its US launch.
Although the device currently runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box, it was recently announced that the handset will start getting the Marshmallow update soon.
Source (Rogers) | Via
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Samsung is getting ready to add a new member to its Galaxy Tab A family of slates in the near future. It will be called Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2016), and unsurprisingly you'll see it sporting a 10.1-inch touchscreen.
The Wi-Fi-only iteration of this device will bear the model number SM-T580, while the LTE-capable unit will be the SM-T585. In fact, we've seen the T585 in a benchmark back in March, which is how a few of its specs got made public. Now a new leak brings us official renders for the tablet, as well as a full picture of its innards.
The Tab A 10.1 will have 1,920x1,200 resolution, and an IPS panel. It will be powered by Samsung's Exynos 7870 chipset, coming with a 1.6 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU. This will be aided by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in (yet expandable) storage. There's an 8 MP camera on the back, and a 2 MP unit on the front. All the usual connectivity options are there, of course, and the T585 supports 300Mbps LTE.
The tablet has a 7,300 mAh battery and runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. It's 8.2mm thick and weighs 525g. It has two stereo speakers, but they're both placed on the same (bottom) side.
In Germany (and, we assume, the rest of the Eurozone countries too), the Wi-Fi-only T580 will be priced at 289. If you want the LTE-capable T585 model you'll need to shell out 349. The Wi-Fi-only iteration will be in stores in June, while the LTE-enabled one could be out in around a week or so - at least in Europe.
Source (in German)
Published on 2016/05/10 | Source
Behind-the-scenes images from Ku Hye-sun and Ahn Jae-hyun's wedding pictorial have been revealed through the official Instagram of fashion magazine Marie Claire on May 10th.
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The posting said, "Isn't this so sweet? The gorgeous soon-to-be married couple could not take their eyes off each other all throughout the pictorial shooting" The revealed photos show the couple hugging each other.
An associate with Ahn Jae-hyun's agency told Star Today on the phone, "Ahn Jae-hyun and Ku Hye-sun arrived at Jeju on the previous day and had a pictorial shoot with a magazine today" and "The wedding pictorial will be revealed later on".
Ku Hye-sun and Ahn Jae-hyun will tie the knot on May 21st, which is Married Couples' Day in Korea.
Prior to this event, Ahn Jae-hyun shared a video and a photo through his SNS account, which showed him proposing to Ku Hye-sun in front of his car filled with wild flowers.
Published on 2016/05/10 | Source
Lomon
Added young actors stills for the upcoming Korean movie "Horror Stories 3" (2015)
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Directed by Baek Seung-bin, Kim Gok, Kim Sun, Min Gyoo-dong
With Lim Seulong, Kyung Soo-jin, Park Jung-min, Hong Eun-hee, Cha Ji-yeon, Kim Jong-soo,...
Synopsis
"Horror Stories", 2012, was about the four horror stories told by a high school student girl who was kidnapped by a murderer, and 'Horror Stories 2', 2013, depicted horror about death and the world after death. "Horror Stories 3" plays a role as a bridge between the first and second sequels, thus talks about past, present as well as future. The story of the third sequel is delivered in a unique setting borrowing the scientific fiction genre.
'A Girl from Mars' by Min Gyoo-dong
A girl makes an emergency landing on a planet ruled by machines.
The girl starts revealing her horrible memories about mankind one by one, while she tries to explain to the machines the reasons why she had to leave the people on earth and ended up landing on this planet.
Story of the Past - The Horrible tale 'Fox Valley'
'Man is not the lord of creation. In fact, they are a parasite.
A scholar Saengwon (classics licentiate) Lee (Lim Seulong) who was heading to his hometown after he successfully finished his Civil Service examination. He is chased down by a gang of robbers all of sudden and finds himself in a remote village after he ran and ran to save his own life. He decides to stay one night at a house, where a mysterious woman and one elderly person reside. However, the place he ended up happens to be the Fox Valley, where people say no one could get out alive! Saengwon Lee is trying to escape the Fox Valley to save his life.
Story of the Present - The Horror story of instinct of speed 'Road Rage'
'Why kill people? I don't know'
Dong-geun (Park Jung-min) and Soo-jin (Kyung Soo-jin) were driving on a highway late at night. A strange freight truck appears in front of them. As the truck keeps passing their car and blocking them several times, Dong-geun gets angrier each time and tries to pass the truck by driving even more violently. However, the freight truck won't give up either and keeps following them, then threatens Dong-geun and Soo-jin. On a dark night, the horrible speed competition accompanied by rage begins!
Story of the future - The Horror story of Artificial Intelligence 'Ghost of Machine'
'We will be together, forever'
An artificial intelligence robot, Doon-ko makes the best friend for a young boy, Jin-goo in place of his mom Ye-seon (Hong Eun-hee). Jin-goo and Doon-ko have been together for ten years and promise to be with each other forever. However, one day Doo-ko develops errors and hurts Jin-goo. Jin-goo's mom Ye-seon gets rid of Doon-ko without telling her son and purchases a new robot. But the new robot also develops strange symptoms. And Doo-ko keeps appearing in front of Ye-seon and Jin-goo's eyes. The curse of a promise you can't keep; what will be the end of it?
Release date in Korea : 2016/06/02
Lee Jae-in
Kim Su-an
Harlow is a former New Town in Essex with a population of 86,000. Located in the upper Stort Valley, it was built in the decades after the Second World War to ease overcrowding and London and provide homes for people bombed out during the Blitz. It includes Britain's first pedestrian precinct and first modern residential tower block, The Lawn. Old Harlow, the historic part of the town, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. David and Victoria Beckham's former home, Rowneybury House, nicknamed 'Beckingham Palace', is nearby.
15:16, 24 OCT 2022
ontroversial review site which can sometimes cause headaches for HR professionals has named its new CHRO, appointing a 25-year industry veteran for the position.
Glassdoor is disrupting the employment space through greater workplace transparency, putting the power of information into the hands of employees, said Carmel Galvin, whos taken the reins.
Im thrilled to join a company focused on improving the world of work and the way in which employees and employers connect, she added.
San Francisco-based Galvin has previously worked in a number of senior HR positions including CHRO for Advent Software, VP of talent and culture for Deloitte, global HRD of Moodys KMV, and VP of HR for Barra Inc.
Im delighted to welcome Carmel Galvin as she brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm for this role, which is critical to helping Glassdoor scale our People operations globally and stay on the leading edge of talent acquisition, retention and employee satisfaction, said Glassdoor CEO and co-founder Robert Hohman.
HR is a vital function at any company and especially at Glassdoor as we have a deep appreciation for the importance and impact that professionals in this field can have in maintaining a great company culture and in supporting the growth of the business, he added.
Irish-born Galvin received her bachelors degree in political science and business from Trinity College Dublin and masters degree in Business Studies at the University College Dublins Smurfit School of Business.
Jose Rendolfo Seballos, 39, his wife Miriam Portillo, 40, and their six children live in the municipality of Copan, in western Honduras. The couple received the gift of a cow shortly after joining Heifer Hondurass Vida Cafe Project in December 2014.
I felt like it was a Christmas present, Jose said. I was very excited, because I wanted to start moving forward.
The couple previously owned cows, yet had to sell the animals to purchase land.
After Jose received livestock and fish training from Heifer, Vida Cafe Project gifted him 1,200 fingerlings, or baby fish. Through hard work and determination, he and his family bought another 1,800 fingerlings for a total of 3,000.
The opportunity to be part of the Vida Cafe Project has served as a catalyst for Jose and his family to start a thriving business and to enjoy healthier lives as a result.
Change lives in Honduras. Double your gift today!
The Seballos family owns two cows and two calves, which enables them to make as much as four pounds of curd daily. Two pounds are kept for their family, while the others are locally sold for $1.13 per pound. The family also sells whole milk for 45 cents per bottle. The family has sold 1,141 pounds of fish for $1,636.
Even though I owned fish before joining Vida Cafe Project, I feel the assistance given to us by the Heifer has been the best part, Jose said. We think this is a success. The organization is the best thing we can have to move forward, because one does not do it by oneself.
Through his participation in the Heifer project, Jose is able to stay in an organized group called the CAFEL Cooperative, which allows him to receive continuous training to improve his processes and yield a higher income.
The Seballos family is a living example of the saying Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
Post authored by Bianca Solorzano with Heifer Honduras.
Soini estimated in his speech to the Paasikivi Society on Monday that the United States has had no choice but to fortify its presence in Europe due to the recent actions of Russia and that the growing presence has contributed towards the objective of Finland to promote security and stability in the Baltic Sea Region.
Timo Soini (PS), the Minister for Foreign Affairs, reveals that he has made it a priority to foster the relations between Finland and the United States.
The United States' commitment to Europe is of particular significance to Finland, he stated.
It is good that ceremonial speeches draw attention to the fact that we are part of the West. It is symptomatic, however, that such reminders are necessary. An understanding of history and the nature of our society is lacking if our orientation to the West is not self-evident, continued Soini.
He also voiced his bemusement with the tendency to characterise Finland as a country between the the East and West.
The liturgies about our balancing act during the Cold War have taken on a life of their own. I am astonished that this remains obvious from the occasional remarks about our position between the East and West and the difficulties in recognising the importance of our relations with the United States, he said.
We should have the courage to state explicitly and out loud that good relations with the United States are very important to Finland. The United States is key for the security interests of Finland, regardless of whether one thinks about the broader concept of security or the more traditional concept of military security.
Soini assured that close relations with the United States do not contradict the attempts of Finland to maintain its relations with Russia.
Another key factor in the national security situation is Nato, according to Soini.
The security and standing of Finland depend even today largely but not exclusively on the commitment of the United States to security in Europe, the powers of Nato and stable policy-making by the alliance. This is true irrespective of the fact that we are not a member of Nato, said Soini.
Aleksi Teivainen HT
Photo: Heikki Saukkomaa Lehtikuva
Source: Uusi Suomi
Finnish Customs reminds in its press release that the 500 million euro decline in the monthly value of exports is partially attributable to the fact that the value of goods exported from the country peaked at 4.9 billion euros in March 2015.
Finland registered a year-on-year drop of ten per cent in the value of its exports in March, indicate preliminary data published by Finnish Customs.
Pasi Sorjonen, an economist at Nordea, similarly pointed out that the decline may seem pronounced in light of the rise in the value of exports one year earlier but also admitted to being disappointed with the magnitude of the fall. He had expected the value of exports to drop by 4.59.0 per cent.
Exports down by 10.1% in March. A bit worse than I dared imagine. The first quarter as a whole was a disappointment, he tweeted on Monday.
Sorjonen stated before the release of the preliminary data that not even a sharp drop in the value of exports would change his impression of export trends. Only a two-digit drop in the value of exports, he added, would be a cause for concern.
Finnish Customs reports that the value of exports decreased in all of the most important industrial sectors in March. The sharpest decline was recorded in the exports of chemical products, refined petroleum products and industrial equipment.
The data indicate that the value of exports from Finland to other member states of the European Union fell by 8 per cent and to non-member states by 13 per cent year-on-year in March. Exports to China and the United Kingdom decreased particularly, whereas exports to Russia decreased less than earlier this year.
The trade balance consequently showed a deficit of 265 million euros for March and a cumulative deficit of 810 million euros for the first three months of the year. The trade deficit in the first quarter of the year signals a increase of 30 million euros from the corresponding period last year.
Aleksi Teivainen HT
Photo: Markku Ulander Lehtikuva
Source: Uusi Suomi
A feared hitman suspected of being involved in three murders linked to the Hutch/Kinahan feud has been arrested over the murder of innocent taxi-driver Eddie Hutch Snr.
The north Dublin criminal, who is in his 30s, was detained by detectives investigating the fatal shooting of Hutch (59) at his home in Poplar Row, Ballybough, in Dublins north-inner city.
The gangster is regarded as one of the countrys most dangerous criminals and a number of armed gardai were needed to arrest him.
He is also a chief suspect in the murders of Noel Kingsize Duggan and Michael Barr, both of whom were aligned to associates of murdered Gary Hutch (28) and his uncle, Gerry The Monk Hutch.
The suspected hitman was previously closely associated with Kevin Ledwidge, a 27-year-old Finglas criminal shot dead in July 2007, and Finglas murderer David Cully (24), who was jailed for life in July for the gun murder of his uncle.
Terrified
Detectives from Mountjoy Garda Station arrested the suspect yesterday morning and are continuing to question him. He can be detained for up to seven days.
Last week, the Herald revealed how the gangster terrified gym staff when he demanded subscription refunds for four of his associates men who are either on-the-run or locked up.
Two months ago he was warned about an active threat against his life because of his suspected role in the murders, but he abused detectives when they issued him with the formal notice. Gardai suspect the hitman is working alongside a young criminal who is living in the north-inner city.
This individual, who had links to slain gangster Martin Marlo Hyland, is also suspected of involvement in three of the feud murders.
He has also been notified of threats against his life, but gardai suspect he remains involved in the feud.
Eddie Hutch, who is the brother of Gerry The Monk Hutch, was murdered on February 8, three days after gunmen stormed the Regency Hotel and gunned down David Byrne (33), a close associate of crime boss Daniel Kinahan (37).
Two of the killers are believed to have escaped in a car that was later found dumped on St Patricks Parade, in nearby Drumcondra. It was undamaged, but a can of petrol inside the vehicle indicated that the intention had been to destroy it.
The murder is being treated as a revenge attack for the killing of Crumlin native Byrne, considered one of the key lieutenants of the Kinahan cartel.
Gary Hutch (35) had been working on behalf of the Kinahan cartel before he fell out with them. He was murdered at an apartment complex in Mira de Flores in Spain last September. It is believed Hutch was killed for attempting to steal money from a north Dublin drug-dealer who was repaying a 1.5m debt to the gang.
Cigarette smuggler Noel Kingsize Duggan became the fourth feud victim when he was shot dead at his home in Ratoath, Co Meath on March 23.
Shot
Detectives believe Duggan was targeted by the Kinahan cartel due to his close relationship with Gerry Hutch.
A month later, on April 14, innocent father-of-three Martin ORourke (24) was shot dead in a case of mistaken identity.
It is believed that the intended target of the shooting on Sheriff Street was Keith Murtagh (32), a convicted armed robber. He fled to Britain following that murder.
Its believed Murtagh was targeted over his close ties with members of the Hutch gang.
The most recent feud victim was dissident republican Michael Mickey Barr (36), who was shot dead inside the Sunset House pub in Summerhill on April 25.
Last night, a number of armed garda checkpoints were in operation close to the scene where he was shot dead two weeks ago.
Barr was targeted after members of the Kinahan cartel suspected he supplied the AK-47s used in the Regency Hotel attack.
The Co Tyrone native was a close associate of Flat Cap, a criminal from the North suspected of being one of the shooters in the Regency attack.
Meanwhile, cartel leader Daniel Kinahan has been living in a number of lavish hotels in the Middle East after pulling back from the feud.
The gangs operations have been left in the control of a number of criminals closely associated with murdered gangster Byrne.
Four people were hospitalised after a crash in Bluebell
A woman is fighting for her life after an apparent hit-and-run incident in the capital.
The victim, in her mid-30s, was discovered at Lohunda Dale, Clonsilla, Dublin 15, at 3.40am on Sunday.
She was taken to James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown and later transferred to Beaumont Hospital. Her condition is described as critical. A garda spokesman said they are investigating the possibility that the woman may be the victim of a hit-and-run.
Identify
Investigators have established that she had taken a taxi from Harcourt Street to the Lohunda area and they are attempting to identify the driver.
Gardai are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information, particularly those who may have been in the Lohunda estate/Ongar Distributor Road area between 3.15am and 4.15am on Sunday, to contact them at Blanchardstown Garda Station on 01-6667000.
Separately, four people were hospitalised after a two-car collision during rush-hour in the capital.
Service to the Luas Red Line was also disrupted after a car overturned at the junction of the Naas Road and Kylemore Road, in Bluebell.
Emergency services confirmed that they were called to the scene of the collision shortly after 5pm yesterday.
Four people were subsequently rushed to hospital but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
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DMK president M Karunanidhi (93) said on Tuesday he will be the chief minister if his party wins the May 16 assembly election and forms government in Tamil Nadu and his son M K Stalin has to wait till nature does something to me.
Stalin himself doesnt want to become chief minister. He wants DMK president (Karunanidhi) to become chief minister. I have never lost (an election) since 1957. Therefore, if I win, it will be the sixth time (as chief minister), he told NDTV.
Responding to a question if he will pave the way for youngsters if DMK wins elections, Karunanidhi said that he will lead the government if his party is voted back to power and that DMK treasurer Stalin was among the first who wanted him to be the chief minister.
Asked what he had to say to those in the party who wanted Stalin to be given an opportunity (as chief minister), Karunanidhi quipped if he has to get a chance, (then) nature has to do something to me.
The issue of Karunanidhi passing the baton to a successor has been a subject of debate in the DMK.
Though Stalin has often been referred to as Karunanidhis political heir apparent, with the party patriarch himself dropping enough hints, he still has not been elevated to the top post. He was deputy chief minister in the previous DMK government.
Stalins elder brother MK Alagiri, who was expelled from DMK for anti-party activities, was also vying for the top post.
At the height of power tussle in DMKs first family, Alagiri had once remarked that the party was not a mutt where a senior pontiff could appoint a successor.
Actor Katrina Kaif has finally moved out of the house that she and former boyfriend, actor Ranbir Kapoor, had rented while they were dating. Right after the split four months back, Ranbir had moved out of the house , but Kat continued to stay.
Read: Sorry guys, but Katrina Kaif has not signed Aankhen 2
Katrina had stayed on after Ranbir packed his bags and left, perhaps in the hope that he would return. Also, the rent had been paid for the next six months, so it made sense to continue and stay there, rather than moving out immediately after he left. Although, she would keep shuttling between her earlier rented apartment on Waterfield Road and the Carter Road apartment. She had been hunting for another apartment in Bandra, now she has found it, DNA quoted a source as saying.
When not surprising his fans with his madcap, grungy act in Udta Punjab, Shahid Kapoor is busy pampering wife Mira. The Bollywood actor and his wife, who are expecting their first child, are over the moon. Shahid whisked Mira who is in reportedly in her second trimester -- off for a babymoon and the loved-up couple cut a pretty picture when they returned to Mumbai on Monday.
In pics: Mira and Shahid Kapoor return from babymoon
The actor announced his impeding fatherhood with this quotable quote, to a reporter, a few days back, Haan main baap banane wala hoon, tu kya kar lega? But on Monday when he had a quick question-answer session with his fans, he was far chummier.
When someone asked if they have decided on a name for the baby, Shahid replied, It is so difficult, suggestions welcome. And hows the state of mind of the parents-to-be? Shahid answered, Excited would be a huge understatement.
We bring you excerpts from the chat and dont miss out the fan who wants Shahid and Mira to be his parents!
Love the name btw I am good and so is Mira. Thank you. Excited would be a huge understatement. https://t.co/TrVlU1Uf95 Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor) May 9, 2016
It's so difficulttttttttt suggestions welcome https://t.co/XmPnLTMiY0 Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor) May 9, 2016
You want me to be your father ??? I don't know how to react https://t.co/epSkgNqAYl Shahid Kapoor (@shahidkapoor) May 9, 2016
One of Indias most respected filmmakers overseas, Anurag Kashyap is back with his latest psychological thriller, Raman Raghav 2.0. The trailer of the film starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vicky Kaushal is dark, gloomy and chilling.
The trailer opens with Nawazuddin, who plays a serial killer on the prowl, talking about his victims inside a police station. He gives the details of his murders and hints towards the absence of a pattern in his crimes.
Watch: Trailer of Raman Raghav 2.0 featuring Nawazuddin, Vicky Kaushal
Later, you meet a cop, Kaushal, who is disturbed in his personal life. Because of his sadism, his love life is heading nowhere, and then, he attracts the attention of Nawazuddin. A cat-and-mouse game begins at this juncture which can end either way.
The backdrop of metropolitan slums and low income group flats enhances the darkness of Kashyaps world. Jay Ozas mostly hand-held shots keep the audience engaged.
Read: Anurag Kashyaps Raman Raghav 2.0 to lead subcontinents show at Cannes
Read: Raman Raghav was so demanding, Nawazuddins wife complained to Anurag
Like the initial posters of the film, the trailer also sends shivers down the spine.
Raman Raghav is set to hit screens on June 24, 2016. Its world premiere will take place at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2016.
Follow @htshowbiz for more.
Good news for Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif fans as after much delay, the shooting of Morocco schedule of Jagga Jasoos has finally kicked off.
Movies director Anurag Basu recently tweeted a picture, showing Ranbir and Anurag dining with the crew members. He wrote, There is no love sincerer than the love of food - George Bernard Shaw. Films female lead Katrina was missing from the photos.
"There is no love sincerer than the love of food"- George Bernard Shaw pic.twitter.com/OrGomap6kT anurag basu (@basuanurag) May 9, 2016
According to NDTV report, Katrina is believed to have boarded a late night flight via London while Ranbir took off four hours earlier with a layover in Abu Dhabi. The two stars chose to travel separately. The crew has already flown in to Morocco. It will be a 10-day schedule and the films much-delayed shoot will finally be wrapped up, adds the source.
Read: Sorry guys, but Katrina Kaif has not signed Aankhen 2
A few days back, Katrina and Ranbir were spotted rehearsing for a dance sequence at a suburban Mumbai studio. The Morocco shoot is the last schedule of Jagga Jasoos, which will release in the second half of 2016.
Earlier, it was reported that the release date of the upcoming film has been postponed further with makers eyeing a September release.
Actor Taapsee Pannu, who will soon be seen in director Anirudh Roy Choudharys film, was surprised when she got to know that preparation for the project would include partying with her co-stars Kirti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang.
Explaining the reason behind it, a source from the sets of the film tells us, Kirti, Andrea and Taapsee play three best friends in the film. Anirudh wanted them to spend as much time as they can together so it would help them bond better.
Read: Cant do a woman-centric film, says actor Taapsee Pannu
Pannu had a great time with her co-stars.
We were hanging out together almost every day in Delhi. It was such a pleasant surprise when I got to know that I am expected to spend more time with them. Sometimes, even when one of us didnt have to shoot, we used to hang out together on the sets or go for lunch or dinners. It really brought us together and I, for sure, have really gotten close to Andrea and Kirti. It helped our on-screen chemistry. I would definitely be in touch with them after the shoot gets over too, she says.
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Vivek Oberoi, who has entertained audiences with his portrayal of gangsters in films, says he enjoys playing real life characters on screen. Gangster and real life characters always excites me as an actor, the Shootout At Lokhandwala star said in a statement.
Vivek is all set to portray the role of former underworld don Muthappa Rai in his forthcoming gangster drama Rai helmed by Ram Gopal Varma (RGV). To portray a larger-than-life character like Muthappa Rai on the big screen will be a challenging task. I am working hard towards it, the 39-year-old actor said.
Read: Are you ready for Ram Gopal Varma, Vivek Oberois Company 2?
Rai will go on floors this June and it will be shot in various locations including London, Dubai and India.
Vivek made his debut in Bollywood with underworld drama Company which was a huge hit.
Watch: Vivek Oberoi in a song from his debut film Company
He played Maya Dolas in Sanjay Guptas Shootout At Lokhandwala and returned for another such performance as gangster-turned-politician Pratap Ravi in RGVs Rakht Charitra.
Follow @htshowbiz for more.
Aiming to explore growth opportunities in Europe at a time when slowdown has made steel assets overseas cheaper, Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel has joined the race to bid for Tata Steels UK assets.
As part of the companys growth strategy, the company evaluates several opportunities, including the current opportunity of UK steel facilities. It is premature to add any further at this stage, one of the largest steelmakers in the country, JSW Steel, said in a statement.
Tata Steel on Monday said it has received seven expressions of interest from various companies, for its UK steel business, which is on sale to raise funds. The move will help the company reduce its debt of $13 billion taken to acquire the UK steel facilities in 2007.
People with knowledge of the development said the company will evaluate the situation and go in only if the acquisition makes good economic sense. They were referring to the possibility that Tata Steel UKs price may have been eroded given the ongoing slowdown in the European steel market, and also to the fact that the company has to buy iron ore, the main raw material for steel.
JSW Steel shares closed 2.92%, down on the BSE even as the benchmark Sensex rose by 83.67 points, or 0.3%.
The development raised concerns among investors.
I am surprised, as given the market conditions for steel in Europe, and also given that JSW Steel is bringing in additional 4 million tonnes into production in India, and is scouting for captive raw materials (iron ore) to feed that... I dont think its a good move, said an analyst with a large brokerage in Mumbai.
Interestingly, JSW Steel and Tata Steel will reportedly compete with each other to buy Essar Steel, a Mumbai-based steel company that is looking for strategic equity partners to raise funds for a debt restructuring exercise.
The JSW Group, which had recently agreed to acquire Naveen Jindal-led JSPLs power plant for about `4,000 crore, has debt of about Rs 40,000 crore.
Bankers view such aggressive plans with concern as they have been trying to reduce their exposure to various shaky sectors, including steel, which has also seen maximum defaults.
The balance sheet of JSW Steel is not exactly in the pink in order to justify such an acquisition, said CA and investor Nitin Khandkar. During the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the company ran losses of `913 crore on a consolidated basis, against net profit of `1,734 crore during the year-ago period. Its long-term issuer default rating (IDR), and senior unsecured rating was downgraded last month, by one notch from BB+ to BB.
Senior journalist Kumar Ketkar is very acerbic in his dismissal of the current dispensation in Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis knows only to hobnob with the bold and beautiful, he says, and attends just fashion shows and beauty pageants sponsored by creams and coloured cosmetics.
Ajit Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, on the other hand, wouldnt be seen dead at any of these events. He is quietly touring the drought prone areas of Maharashtra and staying connected with the people. So is Congress Ashok Chavan. These are the only two leaders visiting the distressed people in the rural areas.
Read | Drought sees rise in suicides in Maha
So when Fadnavis travelled to New Delhi last week to seek a `10,000 crore relief package for the state which has not yet been granted it was but natural that both Ajit and Chavan should dismiss this as mere theatrics and, even if the package was forthcoming, a case of too little too late.
I hate to admit this in view of Ajits previous fascination for urinating into dams to irrigate the fields he is today more connected with farmers and their distress, and they are looking up to him anxiously for solutions. The NCP and the Congress got majorly voted out of power because it was this section of people farmers along with OBCs who had been sick of the rural elite (synonymous with Marathas and the Pawars particularly), who had voted for Narendra Modi during the Lok Sabha elections. But now they are swinging back to them because in the last two years there is an understanding among the people that the current government has no measure of their distress, says professor Prakash Pawar of the Shivaji University at Kolhapur.
Read | Maha drought crisis: Fadnavis asks Centre for more funds
The Shiv Senas opposition to the BJP keeps it relevant among the urban masses but, says Ketkar, even that partys understanding of production and productivity is limited to the tertiary sector builders and real estate. That farmers in the hinterland are facing double jeopardy of drought and a beef ban escapes everybodys attention. The ban on cow slaughter may be disputed in various ways but it remains a fact that including bulls and male calves within its ambit has contributed to farmers distress in times such as these they were used to selling just one or two animals for `1 lakh or more and tiding the bad season. Now they have no water and no food for themselves let alone for animals, and these are being abandoned by the dozens.
Read | Shiv Sena backs PM, says country doesnt run on degrees
So it is not surprising that farmers, having heard of the `10,000 crore package, are demanding maintenance cost for each animal they are forced to keep on their farm. Else, they say, in a startling recall, they will do what Ajits uncle Sharad Pawar had advised them two decades back when the first Shiv Sena-BJP government had come to power in Maharashtra. Without such a drought in existence then, they had still not understood farmers distress and Pawar had given them the example of the useless bull. When he refuses to get up, you first kick him, then beat him with a kathi. Then you stick a pin into him. When he still refuses to work, you push a rope through his nose and drag him to the cattle market and sell him off.
An enraged chief minister Manohar Joshi had then responded, Send your cow to us and we will show you what our bull can really do.
The farmers had not taken Joshi up on his offer then. I do not think even Fadnavis has that luxury today.
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The nine rebel Congress legislators, whose demand for a vote on Money Bill led to imposition of Presidents rule in Uttarakhand, are expected to join the Bhartiya Janta Party after meeting in New Delhi this week.
Ninety-nine percent chances are that we will join BJPfinal decision will be taken soon after mutual consultation (with other disqualified legislators), said Harak Singh Rawat, who engineered the split along with former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna.
Harak, who has been in loggerheads with deposed chief minister Harish Rawat, said the voting inside the Uttarakhand assembly on Tuesday was on anticipated line.
Had the court permitted us to vote then it would have been altogether a different situation, Harak told HT over phone from New Delhi.
Parliament passed budget for Uttarakhand and this proves our stand that Appropriation Bill had not passed on March 18.
Besides Harak and Bahuguna, Shaila Rani Rawat, Shailendra Mohan Singhal, Umesh Sharma Kau, Pradeep Batra, Subodh Uniyal, Pranav Singh Champion and Amrita Rawat rebelled against Harish Rawat.
After several rounds of appeals and counter-appeals in courts, the nine rebels, disqualified by speaker Govind Kunjwal, were barred by the Supreme Court from voting in Tuesdays floor test.
Among the nine names, Harak Singh was elected on a BJP ticket in 1991 and was the youngest minister in the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh.
Amrita Rawat, whose husband Satpal Maharaj left the Congress in 2014 to join the BJP, is also okay with Haraks plan.
Subodh Uniyal, a close associate of Vijay Bahuguna, said they are considering options before making a final decision.
We will meet this week and decide whether launching a political outfit is doable or should we join (BJP), Uniyal told HT.
BJP sources said there was reservation among a section of leaders on welcoming the Congress rebels. Party general secretary Virender Bisht said central leadership will take a call on the issue.
The Delhi Police will set up a special unit to monitor those who follow websites that promote terror activities and put out literature to radicalise youth.
The social media monitoring unit and de-radicalisation centre will come up at Lodhi Colony office of the Special Cell -- Delhi Polices anti-terror wing -- by the end of June.
The unit will employ experts with experience in anti-terror operations and knowledge of internet outreach by various terrorist outfits. Officials said it will help police identify early those youth who have been or are in the process of being brainwashed by reading terror literature widely available on internet - specially social networking websites such as Facebook.
Once identified such youth would be brought back into the mainstream with the help of their family members, religious leaders, psychologists and experts.
Also read: We knew our boys will come back, say kin of freed youth
The de-radicalisation will be done in such a way that the persons job and education are not affected. It will be an year-long programme, said Arvind Deep, special commissioner of police (special cell) . He said the programme is the brainchild of Delhi Police commissioner Alok Verma who has directed his officers to make sure that no innocent person is booked on terror charges.
During some recent operations against suspected militants, the Delhi Police and other agencies have come across youths who were being radicalised over social media by members of various terrorist outfits. A few of them were arrested while some others were helped so that they could come out of the influence of terrorist literature and videos, said a police officer.
The move comes days after nine youths were detained for allegedly developing interest in the activities of Jaish-e-Mohammad under the influence of a terror module.
The Delhi government on Tuesday threatened to issue challans against the CEOs of app-based taxi aggregators Ola and Uber if the cabs continued to ply without licence.
The move came two days after an Ola driver was arrested for molesting a foreign national and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) blamed the Centre for it.
These two taxi aggregators are banned in Delhi but they continue to ply without licence.
The matter which is pending in court is related to CNG. But there are several other violations these companies are committingThe senior officials will have to come to court and then they will realise what drivers have to go through because of them, said a transport department official.
The government will request the court to issue summon to the CEOs even if they are based in other countries. We had a meeting with companies who have a licence and they have found several irregularities in the companies (Ola and Uber). They should first obtain licence from the government, he added.
The government is in the process of framing a policy for taxi aggregators so that Ola and Uber can apply for a licence under this category.
The companies do GPS metering, which is wrong as fare should be calculated by the meter installed in the cab. There have been occasions when GPS calculates extra fare, said Abhishek Sharma, chief operating officer of taxi aggregator Ridz.
The Delhi government is considering fixing a maximum limit of cabs they can operate but no decision has been taken yet. Several states tried to ban ride-hailing services or have them register as taxi operators but companies continue to claim that they are mere aggregators.
Read: Compliance to norms a must: RBIs message to Ola, Uber
In Mumbai, the regulations state that licensees should maintain a fleet of 1,000-4,000 taxis, a cap which may restrict the businesses from scaling up.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had earlier accused the Centre of not reining in app-based taxi services such as Ola and Uber, with party leader Ashutosh taking to Twitter to take on the cab aggregators.
AAP govt banned OLA/uber but HIGH COURT asked not to take coercive action against them. They are running illegally in Delhi, he tweeted.
Last March, the AAP government had asked the Centre to block the IP addresses of Ola and Uber so that their mobile apps become dysfunctional. The government also rejected their licence applications.
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The Delhi high court on Tuesday refused to stay the rustication order against JNU students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, over a controversial event held on the university campus earlier this year.
Justice Manmohan said he would have to first hear the response of the Jawaharlal Nehru University before passing any order on the duos plea challenging their rustication. It asked JNU to file its response along with all relevant documents, including the inquiry report.
Have to see the records to ascertain whether fair procedure was followed. You are pleading ignorance of all facts, so I have to see the record, Justice Manmohan said.
On the findings of a high-level inquiry committee (HLEC), the university on April 25 rusticated Khalid and Bhattacharya for one semester. Umar was slapped with a fine of `20,000, while the university barred Bhattacharya from the premises for five years starting July 25, 10 days after his rustication period ends.
Khalid and Bhattacharya are out on bail after being arrested on sedition charges following the February 9 event commemorating Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, where anti-national slogans were allegedly chanted.
Justice Manmohan also recorded the statement made by the varsitys lawyer that the deadline to deposit `20,000 fine for Umar will be extended till May 30, the next date of hearing.
Read: Umar Khalid taken to AIIMS, withdraws hunger strike
Advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for Umar, argued before the court that his client was in hiding from February 11 to February 21 as he feared for his life subsequent to the events of February 9 and that he was in jail from February 23 to March 18 after he had surrendered.
Sibal said the inquiry by the HLEC was carried out during this period.
The JNUs counsel, however, told the court that notices were sent thrice to Umars known addresses, including that of his father, but he never appeared before the committee. Khalid refused to accept the notices, the counsel added.
The court also refused Anirbans counsel plea for an interim relief saying the student was rusticated with immediate effect till July 15 and only has a small window of a week thereafter to submit his thesis, so he would be unable to consult his professors till July 15.
Sajid, one of the three alleged Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operatives arrested by Delhi Police special cell, was in touch with top JeM commanders based in Pakistan through Facebook, police have claimed.
Investigators said one of the JeM commanders, Rashid Awan, whom Sajid used to chat with on Facebook, is a close confidant of Qasim Jaan, a top JeM militant. Awan, whose name had surfaced during the Pathankot terror attack probe, was purportedly guiding the attackers over phone from Pakistan.
Police said Sajid was not associated with the Pathankot attack. The only link Sajid had is that he was in touch with one of the JeM militant in Qasims network, the police alleged.
Sajid allegedly put JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhars photograph as his profile picture and began searching material about jihad and Maulana Tarik Jameel, a Pakistani Islamic scholar, preacher, and public speaker.
Sajid soon started liking and sharing inflammatory remarks, pictures and videos shared on the social networking sites. It was then that his online activities attracted attention of Indian intelligence officials who put his account on surveillance, said the officer.
Also read: Delhi police to keep an eye on terror tentacles on social media
The officer said Sajid got a friend request message from Rashid Awan, who asked him why he had Masoods photo as the profile picture. Sajid told him that he was a follower of Masood and wanted to meet him. Awan befriended him and eventually radicalised him, the officer claimed.
According to investigators, Sajid had established contact with Talha Saif, younger brother of the JeM chief after he found his mobile number on one of the Facebook accounts in his friends list. Sajid, however, did not know that it was Saifs number. Influenced by the content, Sajid saved the number in his phone under Sajid Hussains name, police said.
Sajid sent a WhatsApp message on the number and received a response from the user three days later. During their chats, Sajid found that the person on the other side was Saif, the officer said.
Sajid told Saif to arrange a Pakistani visa for him. Saif kept deferring his request and asked Sajid to keep reading religious materials and work sincerely on jihad, he said.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has constituted a team of officials to resolve issues being raised by teachers and students who are on hunger strike.
The stir entered 12th day on Monday. The strike is in protest of the punishment given to the students after anti-national slogans were allegedly shouted at an event to mark the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Three students, including JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, had been arrested following the incident.
The university panel consists of two rectors, registrar, and the dean of students welfare.
The JNU administration has requested the students and teachers to end their hunger strike due to worsening weather conditions and deteriorating health of the students.
Umar Khalid, who was on a hunger strike for the past 11 days, was taken to AIIMS on Monday after his health deteriorated. He withdrew from the hunger strike.
Khalid, one of the three students arrested on charges of sedition, was rusticated by the university for one semester for his involvement in the February 9 event.
Umar was forced to discontinue the hunger strike due to failing health. He had severe cramps in the evening because of low sodium-potassium level in his blood following which he was taken to AIIMS post midnight for saline drips, JNU students union said in a statement.
Seven others, including Kanhaiya Kumar, had to discontinue the strike after their health worsened.
Twelve people are still on hunger strike.
In an appeal issued by the university it says, Solutions can be found only through peaceful dialogue and discussion and not through measures that can have long term impact on health and adversely affect the academic life on campus.
This is second such appeal issued by the university.
However, students say they will end their protest only after the punishment recommended by the high level enquiry committee is revoked.
As many as 17 students were punished for being part of the controversial event with rustication, monetary fines and orders to leave hostel.
He was not a passionate biker who would go for long expeditions every month. Nor was he part of any biker group that went on motorcycle tours frequently. He bought his first bike at the age of 22 when he was in his last year of graduation. However, by the time he turned 24, he had covered 50,338km on his motorcycle, a fete that can earn Krishanu Kona, a record for covering longest solo motorcycle journey in India. Currently, the record is held by Manigandan Manjunathan, who rode 38,239km.
Life was on the right track for Kona, a resident of Sheikh Sarai. After graduating from Delhi College for Arts and Commerce and he went for post graduation in International Marketing, Kona worked with a digital marketing company in Gurgaon. He was earning a decent salary. He was content.
One day he along with three of his friends decided to go on a long bike trip to Munsiyari in Uttarakhand. This was his first bike trip. Since it was getting dark and they still had around 150km to cover, they halted at named Raiagar, a small hamlet in Uttarakhand. The next morning in Raiagar, while sipping a cup of tea and enjoying the scenic beauty of Uttarakhand, I asked myself, What am I doing with my life?, he said.
I was born and brought up in Delhi and having lived all these years here I met the same kind of people and have not seen the diversity of India, he added. After coming to Delhi, the first thing he did was quit his six-month-old job. He was working as a sales manager and earning ` 30,000per month, good enough for a beginner.
Thereafter, riding his Bajaj Pulsar 200, Kona started his journey of 50,338km from CR Park in New Delhi. He halted at Chandigarh, his first stop, in August, 2015, and completed it last month. He covered a total of 25 states while travelling through places as diverse as Ladakh in the north, Kanyakumari in the south, the Rann of Kutch in the West, Cherrapunji in the northeast, Mountain Man Dashrath Manjhis village in Gehlaur hills, Bihar, and other places in between.
The most difficult part of the journey was travelling through mountainous areas it was raining heavily. But it was a thrilling exploration, he said. The route leading to Tawang that passes through Sela Pass is considered one of the highest motorable road in the world. I met several people on my way, who offered me their hospitality. I managed to go to their places. They were all very generous, he said.
It was a challenge to convince his parents and then to arrange finances for his travels. My mom agreed immediately. She told me she, too, wanted to
do something similar when she was young. But my dad was apprehensive, he said. After some persuasion, he, too, agreed. Ironically, when I was covering Andhra Pradesh, he also travelled with me on a hired bike for 13 days. He said that despite being from Andhra Pradesh he hadnt seen those parts of the state.
The initial plan was to travel 50,000km using public transport. But when Kona received financial assistance from a company, he decided to undertake the journey on his motorcycle, which began in August 2015. He called it his green dream challenge. There is a Facebook page with the same name that talks about his journey.
When I was in Sikkim, I met a biker from Pune on the way. We exchanged numbers and later when I was in Pune, I called him up and he made arrangements for my stay at his house, Kona said.
In West Bengal, a woman at a shanty helped him with food. When he tried to pay her, she said that her son too works in the city, maybe someone will help him too. People across India are the same. Despite their problems, they are loving and caring, he said. Kona has recorded his journey with a camera fitted to his helmet and has also marked the coordinates of the places he visited through his GPS device as a proof for entry to the Limca book of Records. Kona does not want to go back to his job. He wants to start a website on motorcycle tours or write a book on his travel experiences.
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Among the plush modern structures in Nizamuddin East, stands a 66-year-old house of Radhika Bijlani, one of the oldest residents here. Bijlani, 46, says six decades ago the area was surrounded by thick woods and the howling of wolves kept her awake at night. The colony, she says, was covered with kikar trees. We used to sleep on the terrace in those days, Bijlani recalls, describing the orange-black woodpeckers that used to live in the surrounding thicket.
Bijlanis family was among the refugees who were allocated residence in the then newly developed Nizamuddin East and West colonies. The family has retained the original look of the house when most other residents have opted for a redesign.
Today, Nizamuddin East has lush lawns, well-maintained roads and orderly parks. It has the majestic presence of Humayuns tomb to its north and the Khan-i-Khana tomb to its south. Both residents and government agencies are hand in hand in maintaining the look of the colony.
Nizamuddin over the years
The place got its name from the tomb of 14th-century Sufi saint Nizamuddin Aulia. The area was said to have been an agricultural land which was acquired by the British in 1911. It housed the viceroys staff quarters back then and was among the first regular colonies to be developed in the Capital. Built in British style, most houses had 15-foot courtyards which people now use for parking.
Nizamuddin East and West colonies were developed in the backdrop of Partition. The twin colonies are divided by the roaring traffic of Mathura Road. While the Partition rendered many homeless, several Muslim families sought refuge in Gayaspur, which is the present day Nizamuddin Basti. The construction of Ring Road changed the course of Yamuna river but some old residents remember it running along the colony while they walked to its shore.
While vacant plots were allotted in Nizamuddin East, quarters were given to refugee families in the West.
The area has it own share of tales and heritage. Most old residents recall Mehr Chand Khanna, the Union minister for rehabilitation in 1950s, dressed in his shorts to personally supervise the ploughing of fields and levelling of plots to be developed for the whos who from Pakistan seeking resettlement. Some residents say that the colony was built on a graveyard while others recall that the 1981 film Chashme Buddoor was shot here.
Earlier there was no segregation of parks. The roundabout used to be a bus stand where my mother would drop me off to school. We could hop from one house to another and there was a lot of camaraderie, said another Nizamuddin East resident.
Modern Day Nizamuddin
The modern day Nizamuddin is known for the railway station and residential colonies besides the majestic Humayuns tomb and Nizamuddin dargah. Nizamuddin East is also among the greenest and safest colonies of south Delhi.
Nizamuddin East has charmed numerous authors, artists, journalists and politicians over the years. Today the area is well-stocked with expatriates and corporate executives.
There is no demarcation between the basti and our colony. We used to feel proud of our colony because there was so much of open space. Now, there is so much congestion, said Arun Malhotra, a G-block resident of Nizamuddin West.
In the 1940s, the station was insignificant and only goods trains stopped there. Residents say that the first passenger train came here in 1973. Today, it is among the busiest of the five main stations in the Capital.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) asked the Art of Living Foundation head Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to reply to an application that said he called the tribunals orders politically motivated.
Environmentalists Manoj Misra and Anand Arya alleged in their applications that the spiritual leader said the order directing the foundation to pay `5 crore as environment compensation for holding a cultural festival on the banks of Yamuna was politically motivated.
A second application alleged the foundation members continued to pour bio enzymes in the river, despite orders against it.
A bench headed by NGT chairperson Swatanter Kumar asked Ravi Shankar and the foundation to file a reply within two weeks.
Read: NGT raps Art of Living for delay in venue handover
The foundation and its founder came into the spotlight earlier this year when a legal battle over a mega cultural festival that the foundation organised on the ecologically fragile banks of Yamuna ensued. The festival was held only after the Art of Living Foundation paid a partial environment compensation of `25 lakh on the orders of the tribunal.
The foundation was ordered to pay `5 crore before the festival on March 11, but they requested the tribunal to accept `25 lakh initially. The foundation is yet to pay the remaining amount.
During Tuesdays hearing, the lawyers for the applicants said that action should be taken against Ravi Shankar for scandalising the Tribunal.
The Art of Living Foundation, however, said that Ravi Shankar did not make any such statement.
The next date of hearing is May 25.
What is the Indian State afraid of? A lot it seems including longish kissing scenes in movies, historical scholarship and dissenting slogans at universities, judging from recent controversies. Civil society activists heading to academic conferences also appear to have become fearsome entities for the establishment. Gladson Dungdung, a writer and human rights campaigner from Jharkhand, was stopped this week at Delhi airport and prevented from travelling to the UK for a conference on environmental politics at the University of Sussex.
Read | Presumed guilty, until cleared by NDA: Indias new template on dissent
The sequence, in Mr Dungdungs narration, tells its own story. On hearing that Mr Dungdung was a researcher on human rights, the immigration officer left his seat and came back to tell the airline staff to offload the activists luggage. Mr Dungdung was informed that his passport is impounded. In fact his passport was impounded in October 2013 and restored in July 2014 and, according to the Ranchi passport office, there is no problem whatsoever with his passport as per its current records. Whether this is a problem of coordination between MHA and the MEA is unclear but clearly an official reflex about human rights activism has been instilled in the government machinery. Greenpeace campaigner Priya Pillai was also offloaded en route to a meeting with British parliamentarians in January 2015 but her travel ban was subsequently overturned by the Delhi High Court.
Read | Why Chhattisgarh is Indias hall of shame
The Centre and state governments have to seriously rethink their approach to dissenting voices. Impounding passports of activists is an old bureaucratic practice which serves very little purpose other than embarrassing governments. These are public relations disasters regimes can do without and it should not be any surprise if such instances make their way into international reporting on Indias human rights. That activists highlighting environmental concerns or protesting the displacement of people by industrialisation projects are treated on a par with armed insurgents is to betray contempt for deliberative democracy. On the contrary, activism often serves as a helpful warning mechanism about social tensions that are prompted by government action. The establishment need not always agree with contrarian views but using blunt instruments against activists is unfair, unproductive and politically risky.
Read | Activist Gladson Dungdungs passport impounded at Delhi airport
More than 94% students passed the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) or Class 10 examination conducted by Andhra Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (APBSE), the results of which were declared on Tuesday.
Minister for human resources development Ganta Srinivas Rao, who announced the results in Visakhapatnam, said out of the 6,52,374 students, who appeared in the exam, 94.52% passed. The success rate was 3% higher than the last year.
Rao said girls performed slightly with a pass percentage of 94.77, while 94.30% of the boys passed.
The minister added that out of 6.17 lakh regular students, 5.83 lakh qualified and out of total 35,000 private students, 19,605 passed.
Read more: Andhra releases EAMCETs engineering stream results, check it here
Among the districts, Kadapa recorded the highest pass percentage of 98.89. West Godavari stood second with 97.65%, East Godavari third with 97.57% and Chittoor had the lowest of 90.11%.
The APBSE declared the results of the examination, which was held in March, in record time. The SSC results were declared on May 20 last year.
Officials said early results will ensure that the advanced supplementary examination and admissions in Class 11 for the next academic year, which begins next month, will be conducted smoothly.
The supplementary examination will be held from June 16 to June 29.
The candidates can check their results on the website of APBSE.
Jammu and Kashmirs Athar Aamir ul Shafi Khan was ranked second in the 2015 national civil services exam. Khan had aspired for a top slot after becoming the youngest IAS officer from the state at the age of 22 last year.
Not satisfied with the 560 ranking in the 2014 exam conducted by the UPSC, he gave a shot at it again this year and achieved an almost improbable feat of cracking the demanding civil services test twice in a row.
Khan is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. He cracked the civil services exam at 22, the year he completed his BTech. Though a few offers from multinational companies came his way, he chose the IAS instead.
Read more | Civil services exams: Tina Dabi in first place, heres list of other toppers
From a modest village in South Kashmirs Anantnag district, Khan has the distinction of cracking all professional exams he took, whether it was the All-India Engineering Entrance Exam or the pre-medical entrance tests. Before IIT, he had joined a medical college for a while.
He spoke to Hindustan Times some time ago. Excerpts
What did it take to be an achiever?
The desire to do better in life, the will to work hard and the support of my parents have helped me achieve my aim. My father is a lecturer and my mother a homemaker. I am grateful to my teachers and friends for their guidance and support.
Who is your inspiration, and why?
My biggest inspiration is my grandfather. His hard work, passion and enthusiasm have been a great source of motivation for me.
Whats your next goal?
I will keep working hard and serve the country to the best of my ability as a civil servant. In the last year of my BTech, I was very clear that this is what I wanted to do. I would have been paid better in an MNC but money is the last motivation for me. The IAS comes with roles and responsibilities that can actually change the lives of people.
Why is it the best time to be young in India?
India today is an India of possibilities. Being young today means being a part of the huge transformation that this country is going through.
How can the youth be a change-maker?
The youth are the heart and soul of a nation. With their energy and vigour, they can act as catalysts of change and bring in a long-lasting transformation that has more impact.
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Tuesday was a special day in the Duhan household where the sister-brother duo of Shalini and Alekh cleared the UPSC exam.
While Shalini secured the 21st rank in her third attempt at cracking the prestigious entrance exam to countrys top administrative posts, her brother Alekh got 483rd position in the first go.
The duo hail from Shahrmalpur village in Panipat district and have been studying in Delhi for the exam.
While their mother, Sunita, is a government teacher at a primary school, their father, Sunil Singh, is with the Central Industrial Security Force.
Shalini started as an excise inspector by clearing the SSC in 2012. Once victorious, Shalini set her eyes on a newer, higher goal. Each year, Shalini improved her rank and is now sure of getting an IAS posting; she has already been selected for IRS and IPS.
Shalini progressed from the 190th rank in her first attempt to the 100th in the second.
The 25-year-old credited her achievement to her family. I wanted to show that a girl from middle class family of Haryana, which was known for its skewed sex ratio, can also make her family and state proud, if given the right atmosphere, Shalini told the Hindustan Times.
Her struggled inspired her brother Alekh to aspire high. We prepared together and my experience helped my brother clear the exam, Shalini said.
Shalini, helped me achieve the target We studied together and she helped me to prepare; no-doubt she gave me inspiration, he told HT.
Alekh added that though he has cleared the exam, he would write it again to improve his rank. , He, too, wants to be an IAS officer.
Both Shalini and Alekh are B Tech graduates.
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The Namesake actor and White House official in the Obama administration, Kal Penn, aspires to work with Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan.
Like every actor, I would also like to work with Amitabh Bachchan. I really like actors who have done really cool, off beat stuff, said Penn during a press conference in the national capital yesterday.
Actor Kal Penn during an interactive session followed by screening of "The Namesake in New Delhi. (IANS)
In the same breath, Kal praised Irrfan Khan, with whom he shared screen space in The Namesake, saying his silence speaks a lot in his movies.
I have watched some movies of Irrfan Khan, the way he uses his silence in his films is so amazing. He doesnt say anything but you know exactly what he meant, said the 39-year-old actor.
Watch The Namesakes trailer here
Speaking about his love for movies, Penn added that he looks up to Mira Nair, who directed him in The Namesake, Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington as his role models.
The Indian origin actor has recently wrapped shooting for Guneet Mongas upcoming project The Ashram.
Read: Obama nominates actor Kal Penn for art panel
Directed by Ben Rekhi, the film is an English-language spiritual fantasy thriller set in the mystical world of Himalayan yogis.
Watch a clip from Harold and Kumar
The Ashram also features Melissa Leo, Sam Keeley, Hera Hilmar and Radhika Apte.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
Kristen Stewart, who recently sparked dating rumours with Miley Cyrus former girlfriend Stella Maxwell, has opened up about her dating life.
In an interview to Variety, the 26-year-old actor said even when she used to date a guy, she never talked about her relationship and she feels the same way now, adding that she is not hiding any s#!t, E! Online reports.
Actresses Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart attend the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony honouring Foster with a star. (AFP)
Me not defining it right now is the whole basis of what Im about. If you dont get it, I dont have time for you, she said.
Read: Kristen Stewart to make directorial debut with short female-centric film
Adding to this, the Twilight actor said she doesnt mind if pictures of her get published as she wanted her young fans to see the reality themselves.
Thats really important to me, As much as I want to protect myself, its not about hiding. As soon as you start throwing up so many walls, you cannot see over them yourself, so you just start isolating in a way thats not honest. I definitely found where Im comfortable. I dont take credit for that, she said.
Read: Twilight star Kristen Stewart has found love with girlfriend: Mother
A few days ago, it was reported that Stewart, who previously dated her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, had split from her girlfriend Soko.
Kristen Stewart and girlfriend Soko are calling it quits: https://t.co/jy5qTMZ7D3 pic.twitter.com/jEgqEQ0yb4 Us Weekly (@usweekly) May 6, 2016
Read: Google me, Im not hiding: Kristen Stewart on her sexuality
Follow @htshowbiz for more
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders plan to visit Delhi University on Tuesday afternoon to verify Prime Minister Narendra Modis bachelors degree.
The controversy over PMs degree started after Gujarat University and Delhi University denied to reveal PMs degree in an RTI application. Following this Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had written to the Chief Information Commission (CIC) to issue an order to both universities to reveal PMs degree.
On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released PM Modis BA and MA degrees and criticised AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for bringing down the level of public discourse. According to the BJP, the PMs undergraduate degree is from Delhi Universitys School of Open Learning, then known as School of Correspondence and Continual Education. He completed his BA programme in 1978 and has a masters degree from Gujarat University.
Immediately after the degrees were released, AAP called them fake.
Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said Modis certificates were forged, citing what it said were glaring discrepancies in various details on the documents.
Nakal ke liye bhi akal ki jarurat hai (One needs brains even to copy), AAP leader Ashutosh said.
His name in the BA mark sheet is Narendra Kumar Damodardas Modi while in the masters degree it is Narendra Damoderdas Modi, he added.
Read more: BJP waves PM Modis university degrees, Kejriwal calls them fake
AAP leader Ashutosh, Raghav Chadha and Ashish Khetan are likely to visit the university campus again on Tuesday afternoon.
AAP leaders will go to DU VCs office to inspect documents related to PMs BA degree, said the party statement.
Read more: BJP writes to Kejriwal enclosing copies of Modis BA and MA degrees
They have also invited BJP President Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to accompany them.
The row over Modis certificate is the latest in a series of showdowns between Kejriwal and the BJP, a rivalry that has often played out bitterly between their supporters on social media. On Monday, Twitter lit up over the controversy, with many users sympathetic to Modi trending #kejriwalsaysorry.
A Kochi-bound Air India flight carrying more than 100 passengers from Delhi was forced to land at Bhopal airport on Tuesday morning after the crew suspected smoke on board.
However, inspections post the emergency stopover revealed it was a false alarm, airline sources told HT.
According to sources, the pilots decided to make an emergency landing at Bhopal after smoke detectors in the cockpit indicated smoke in the planes cargo hold.
While the AI spokesperson did not respond to HTs calls the airline published an update on its Twitter handle.
#AIUpdate Delhi-Cochin flt landed at Bhopal due to technical reasons. All pax are safe & have been taken care of. Air India (@airindiain) May 10, 2016
False alarms by aircraft smoke detectors are not new. A few years ago a Newark-bound AI flight was forced to turn back to Mumbai owing to a similar smoke warning. Inspections found pungent pickles in a passengers checked -in bags could have triggered the scare.
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The CBIs probe into the VVIP choppers deal has zeroed in on three firms allegedly involved in the bribe money trail and linked to UK-based AgustaWestlands middleman, Christian Michel.
One of the firms under the scanner, Media Exim Private Limited, was incorporated in India in 2005 and is being examined for its role in suspected transactions related to the bribe funds, said a CBI source. The firm allegedly received Rs 6.5 crore during 2005-07 from a Dubai-based firm controlled by Michel, Global Services, FZE, said the source.
The Dubai firm in turn has been accused of receiving payments from the choppers maker, AW Limited, and parts of them were routed to a third firm associated with Michel, Singapore-based Moorbank East India.
Michel is among three non-Indian middlemen accused by both the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI for receiving commissions of around Rs 360 crore from AW Ltd to bribe various persons who helped ink the deal.
India recently received from Italy a copy of a March 5, 2008, letter e-mailed by Michel to a then top official of AW Limited, allegedly recommending ways to conceal the commissions. In the email, Michel said that he had a group of companies providing promotional services for the UK firm that could be paid monthly in connection with the
signature of AWs first new major contract in India.
The email mentioned Media Exim and Moorbank, as a consultancy firm. The AW chopper was selected for the contract in April 2008.
The CBI on Tuesday questioned Media Exims director RK Nanda, who was formerly Michels alleged travel agent. Nandas firm, Supreme Airways, purchased tickets for
Michel during his numerous trips to India till 2012, said another agency source. Nandas firm allegedly received Rs 12 crore from Michels Dubai firm for buying tickets of influential Indians.
The firm ostensibly dealt in music CDs and jewellery, said the source. Nanda denied the allegations, said a source.
An ED probe document said the kickbacks received by Michel in his company Global Services, FZE, Dubai, in the guise of two agreements from Agusta Westland, were kickbacks. Investigators are verifying if funds received by Media Exim were invested in immovable properties and other valuables, whose re-sale proceeds went back to Michel.
The CBI on Tuesday also grilled three FIR-named accused, lawyer Gautam Khaitan, and businessmen Pratap Aggarwal and Praveen Bakshi.
A Class 9 student died on Sunday, allegedly after taking iron/folic acid supplement at a Delhi government school.
The parents of the girl, who died at Hindu Rao Hospital, claimed her health deteriorated after she was administered her weekly dose of iron supplement at her school in Wazirpur.
The girl had been given the tablets on May 4 along with other students, said Directorate of Education (DOE) officials. The next day the girl complained of stomach ache. Her mother was called and she was sent home as the school suspected she was having menstrual cramps.
The parents said they took their daughter to a local doctor where she was administered a saline drip. But when she was being administered glucose, her hands started swelling and she was referred to Hindu Rao hospital, where she died.
The Delhi government has ordered an inquiry into the death by the sub-divisional magistrate of Saraswati Vihar. The girl studied at Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Wazirpur, a government spokesperson said.
There might be some other reason behind her death. We will send someone to investigate what happened. These tablets are given every Wednesday to school children across Delhi and no adverse reaction has ever been reported, an official from the health department said.
Iron-folic acid tablets are considered to be extremely safe by doctors.
Iron and folic acid tablets do not cause any reaction, especially such severe reactions. The compounds naturally occur in many food items like spinach, apple, etc. It is given to children who are growing so that they do not get anaemia, said Dr SP Byotra, head of department of medicine at Sir Ganga Ram hospital. The medicine is routinely given to pregnant women too.
Adverse reactions of the deworming tablet, which is given once a year in February along with the iron-folic acid tablets, have been reported.
This year more than 180 children complained of uneasiness, nausea and abdominal pain from Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh on National Deworming Day.
As Uttarakhand Congress leaders claimed victory in Tuesdays trust vote, a confident opposition party thwarted the NDA governments attempt to pass the Uttarakhand budget in Rajya Sabha contending that the matter should be taken up after the Supreme Court order on the imposition of presidents rule in the state on Wednesday. An unrelenting opposition also refused to allow discussion and passage of the Finance Bill and forced adjournment of the House without any transaction of business post-lunch.
As the Upper House met after lunch recess, Congress MPs started disrupting the proceedings first demanding a discussion on the CAG report on Gujarat state power corporation (GSPC) that pointed out irregularities in the KG Basin gas project, and then opposing the government s move to pass the Uttarakhand state budget. Congress MPs shouted slogans accusing the NDA government of murdering democracy.
Amidst the din, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien tried to initiate discussion on Union Finance Bill but Congress leader Anand Sharma raised questions over the move to bring the Uttarakhand budget in the Supplementary list arguing that the state assembly had already passed it.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sought to persuade the opposition saying that the passing of the state budget on March 18 was highly contentious as the arithmetic was highly loaded against it. The order of appropriation has to be sanctioned by Parliament as all expenditure from April 1 has to be validated, said Jaitley. He emphasized that the bill has to be passed to provide sanction to all expenditure made since April 1 when the Presidents Rule was in force. Jaitley called the passing of the Uttarakhand appropriation bill as a Constitutional necessity.
Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma, however, said it was a constitutional impropriety to pass the Uttarakhand budget in Parliament when the state assembly had already passed it, referring to the Speakers decision before the Harish Rawat government was dismissed. It is not the responsibility of this House, Sharma added.
Amid pandemonium, the house had to be adjourned for 15 minutes. After it re-assembled, Congress MPs resumed their slogans. At that point of time, Samajwadi party MP Naresh Aggarwal and CPI(M) leader sitaram Yechury stepped in requesting deputy chairman PJ Kurien to adjourn the house and take up the discussion on the Appropriation and Finance bill on Wednesday when the house is in order. Requesting the chair to adjourn the house for the day, the opposition parties gave their words that they would cooperate in passing the bills on Wednesday. Kurien finally accepted their demand and adjourned the house for the day.
Congress president Sonia Gandhis rare emotional outburst on Monday has become the partys latest weapon to attack the BJP on social media.
The party started #LionessSonia on Twitter, the micro-blogging site, to cash on Gandhis poll speech in Kerala where she spoke about her life as an Indian. During a debate on calling attention motion on the VVIP chopper deal in the Lok Sabha last week, Congress partys chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia had described her as a sherni (lioness) of whom the BJP is scared.
I came here in 1968 as daughter-in law of late Indira Gandhi. I lived my whole life as an Indian. Till my last breath I will be here and my ashes will mingle with this land, she said in Thiruvananthapuram, accusing the RSS-BJP of hounding her for 48 years about her birth in Italy. On the verge of tears she started saying she has to say something personal than political.
As both supporters and baiters hit the #LionessSonia, it quickly became one of the top trending subjects in the micro-blogging site.
One of her supporters said, Elected MP, Party Prez, Chairperson UPA, NAC Abused as Remote Control?? Then WHAT is Unelected RSS ?
Lions dont lose sleep over the opinion of sheep. More power to you #LionessSonia, read another tweet.
Her critics also used the #LionessSonia to take potshots at the Congress and its president.
Yet another promoted trend. When will these parties learn these dont mean anything except bills from their agencies, tweeted
Days after Prime Minister Modi attacked her in his poll speech in Kerala, Gandhi turned the tables on the BJP from the same state during her poll campaign on Monday.
I know PM Modi is unable to understand my feelings. I dont know why hes resorting to underhand tricks. But I am sure people of this country will understand me, she said at an election rally, adding her 93-year-old mother and two sisters still live in Italy, in a candid speech.
Denying interim relief to JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, the Delhi high court on Tuesday refused to stay the rustication order passed by the university against them over a controversial event on Kashmir in the campus.
Justice Manmohan said he will not stay the order and issued notice to the Jawaharlal Nehru University, asking it to file its response along with all relevant documents, including the enquiry report.
I have to ask for records. I have to see whether fair procedure was followed. I have to look into the facts. The matter requires consideration and decision cant be taken overnight, said the judge posting the matter for May 30.
Khalid and Bhattacharya approached the court against the rustication order and Rs 20,000 fine imposed against Khalid. The university took the action on April 25 after a probe panel set up by the varsity administration found them guilty of misconduct and indiscipline.
The two students were found guilty of staging a protest demonstration under the pretext of holding a poetry reading, the chief proctor had said.
Counsel, appearing for both, told the court that they were rusticated without proper hearing and notices, arguing both were hiding for 10 days and thereafter surrendered and were sent to jail and how can an enquiry committee be set up behind their back.
On the other hand, counsel for JNU said that notices were served to them at their residential addresses and jail. After the counsel for Khalid raised objection on Rs.20,000 fine imposed on him, the university said it will extend the date of its payment till the next date of hearing.
The February 9 event led to the arrests of JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya on sedition charges after it was alleged that participants at the event shouted anti-national slogans. Delhi Police repeatedly claimed they had evidence against Kanhaiya Kumar and the other students but failed to produce it in court, leading to their release from jail on bail.
The use of Hindi in higher judiciary has not been made compulsory this far due to negative feedback from the Chief Justice of India, Union minister of state for home, Kiren Rijiju said on Tuesday.
Hindi is currently being used in the high courts of four states -- Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar -- Rijiju said in the Lok Sabha .
However, the use of Hindi in Supreme Court and other HCs has not been made compulsory due to negative feedback from the Chief Justice of India. The issue has not moved forward since then, he said during the Question Hour.
Read: Hindi not made national language due to political compulsions
Replying to a supplementary that Hindi is not used in the Patna HC, Rijiju said if that was the case, it was a serious matter and the MPs of the state should take up the issue with the governor and the chief minister of Bihar.
The minister added that the government is in favour of the promotion and expansion of Hindi and all other regional languages.
A disaster-like situation has gripped Bundelkhand, a parched region spanning UP and Madhya Pradesh, due to drought, with households battling hunger, cattle deaths and water scarcity, not-for-profit Swaraj Abhiyaan has said, citing a survey done by it.
The organisation, led by academic-activist Yogendra Yadav, said there were signs of a humanitarian crisis in a majority of the 122 villages. Alleging insufficient drought aid and mitigation, the NGO is fighting a public-interest case in Supreme Court, following which the top court had issued notices to the Centre.
Water shortage has been alarming in four large districts --Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Panna and Datia in Madhya Pradesh, Yadav said.
About 59% villages in UP reported having more than 10 families who do not manage two square meals a day. The corresponding number in MP was 35%. Reports of people resorting to begging for food or using poor quality foodgrain substitutes like fikar(wild grass seed), have also been received, Yadav said.
In this photograph taken on April 27, 2016, a cow stands in a dried up pond in Bangaye on the outskirts of Tikamgarh district in Madhya Pradesh. Tikamgarh is part of central India's parched Bundelkhand region -- consisting of 13 districts, half of which lie in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. (AFP)
Bundelkhand is a drought-prone impoverished region of 70,000 sqkm spanning 13 districts of UP and Madhya Pradesh. This is the third straight year of drought in the area.
Several villages are facing acute shortage of drinking water and a large number of cattle deaths have pushed people further into further poverty, Yadav said, alleging that authorities were not acting adequately. Yadav said 40% of the 43 villages toured in Madhya Pradesh had two or less hand pumps.
The organization claimed both state governments werent doing enough to ramp up the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Yadav said in the 79 villages in Uttar Pradesh surveyed, the situation was better compared to Madhya Pradesh.
An abysmally low 5% villages in MP reported ongoing employment work for job holders under MNREGS while the percentage was 29 in UP villages, Yadav said.
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India has emerged as the biggest renewable energy lab in the world and is at the threshold of dynamic growth in the deployment of smart grid technology, US envoy Richard Verma has said.
Verma, accompanied by other dignitaries,on Tuesday visited Tata Power Delhi Distributions Smart Grid Lab in Rohini and Tata Power DDLs grid connected 225 KW Solar Power Plant in the vicinity.
Today, India has emerged as the biggest renewable energy lab in the world and is at the threshold of dynamic growth in the deployment of smart grid technology and integration of renewable energy projects.
Its great to see how the US government, companies and Tata Power-DDL are collaborating toward the use of smart technology for the common good, Verma said.
Praveer Sinha, CEO and MD of Tata Power-DDL, said, I strongly believe that the Indo-US collaboration in the power sector especially related to new technology implementations can help India meet its rising energy demand.
Verma was accompanied by Kal Penn, Commissioner on the US Presidents Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and Hollywood Actor, Idris Diaz, Deputy Mission Director (A), USAID, and other senior officials from the US Embassy and the USAID.
Harish Rawat looked set to return as chief minister of Uttarakhand after his ruling Congress party said it had won a trust vote in the assembly on Tuesday.
The verdict, to be officially announced by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, could come as a blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) amid accusations that the party is trying to topple elected governments in opposition-ruled states. The result also cements Rawats position as the Congress partys undisputed leader in the state after years of infighting.
Both Congress and BJP leaders said Rawat managed 33 votes, two more than the 31 required in a house with an effective strength of 62. The BJP managed 28 votes, the same number of MLAs it has in the assembly.
Rawats government plunged into crisis after nine of his party MLAs sided with the BJP during a debate over the state budget in March. After several rounds of appeals and counter-appeals in courts, the nine were barred by the Supreme Court from voting in Tuesdays floor test.
Rawat, 68, who faced a huge challenge in keeping his flock together, did not comment on the outcome of the vote though other Congress leaders said the party has managed the requisite numbers.
Read: Is Uttarakhand moral, psychological victory for Congress over BJP?
(The) clouds of doubts that had been hovering over Uttarakhand for such a long time will soon clear and the system will again get back on the rails, said a beaming Rawat as he emerged from the assembly after the vote. The voting was completed in 50 minutes.
Rawat also took a veiled dig at the BJP saying it is also a defeat of those who wanted to grab power by hook or crook.
BJP leaders too conceded defeat but tried to put up a brave front.
Almost 33 votes went in favour of (the) confidence motion moved by Harish Rawat while 28 MLAs were against it, BJP MLA Rajesh Shukla said after the voting, held during a two-hour window when presidents rule was lifted following the apex courts ruling.
State BJP president Ajay Bhatt, who managed a smile, said the party fared far better than expected.
In New Delhi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi termed it a victory of democracy.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet, Uttarakhand floor test outcome is a huge setback to Modi Govt. Hope they will stop toppling Govts now (sic).
The Centre clamped Presidents rule in the state on March 27 citing breakdown in constitutional machinery, just a day before Rawat was to take a trust vote in the assembly.
Read: As it happened: Cong claims victory in Uttarakhand trust vote
On April 21, a division bench headed by then chief justice JM Joseph revoked Presidents rule and asked Rawat to seek a trust vote on April 29. The Centre challenged the HCs ruling in the top court which asked the deposed CM to prove his strength in the assembly on Tuesday.
BSP chief Mayawati handed Rawat an advantage on Tuesday morning by deciding to back the Congress. The BSP has two MLAs who are part of the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) that also includes three independent and a lone Uttarakhand Kranti Dal legislator.
The voting began amidst dramatic circumstances with a rebel BJP legislator Bhim Lal Arya switching sides while Congress MLA Rekha Arya appeared to have crossed over to the BJP. She entered the assembly with BJP MLAs flashing the victory sign.
Immediately after the vote, Congress leaders and workers celebrated at the Rajiv Bhawan, the partys state headquarters located in the heart of Dehradun.
Aap thoda rukiye, aaj yahan bhari jashn hoga (Wait a while, there will be big celebrations here), said Hazi Mohammad Akram, a Congress leader from Nainital. The celebrations began soon after.
Read: Trust vote: Cong win in Uttarakhand may halt BJPs annexation drive
(With inputs from HTC New Delhi)
Seventy-two-year old Daljinder Kaur delivered a healthy baby boy, Arman Singh, on April 19 this year 46 years after her marriage and about 20 years after her menopause.
Desperate to have a child, Kaurs wish could be fulfilled through the in-vitro fertilisation (IVF-test tube) technique, wherein the eggs and sperm are fertilised outside the womb, in a test tube.
Kaurs 79-year-old husband, Mohinder Singh Gill, had been travelling with her from Amritsar in Punjab to Hisar in Haryana since 2013 to ensure the success of the treatment.
After two failed IVF cycles, Kaur finally conceived in July last year. The woman came to me alone first in 2013, after reading about us in a paper, said Dr Anurag Bishnoi, embryologist and owner of the National Fertility and Test Tube Baby Centre in Hisar.
This is the second case at the centre where a 70-year-old woman has delivered successfully through IVF.
The first case was of 70-yearold Rajo Devi in 2006, who had given birth to a baby girl.
In 2008, a 66-year-old woman had given birth to triplets two boys and a girl, at the centre.
Our track record in handling IVF in older women has been fairly good, but not everyone is fit to conceive. In her case, she looked visibly frail too, so I had to refer her to a cardiologist to get clearance for the procedure and a battery of other tests to ascertain fitness levels, said Dr Bishnoi.
Luckily for her, Kaurs medical reports were normal and she was fit to conceive.
We started work within two months in 2013 but the first attempt failed, which is normal. After six months, another attempt was made and that also didnt succeed. Finally, the third attempt was successful, he said.
As for the cause of infertility, doctors say it was most likely due to tubal blocks.
Her fallopian tubes were blocked and no attempt was made to detect the cause when she was menstruating. The procedure could have worked better then had efforts been made, he said.
The husband blames it on a lack of awareness and a family feud that was on for years because of which they didn t get time to see a doctor. It was embarrassing to not be able to produce a child, no doubt, but we have been busy with litigation all our life and hardly had time to think it over, he said. After we got a little free a few years ago, we thought of trying for a baby. The newspaper article was spotted at an opportune moment, Id say, said Gill, a farmer and now a proud father.
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A Rajasthan education panel that triggered a raging controversy by chopping references to the countrys first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in textbooks will recommend correction of what it said was an oversight by the panel of writers.
The reduced content on Nehru was not intentional, Brajmohan Ramdev, the convener of the state panel that revises curriculum, said amid protests by the opposition Congress which has accused the BJP government of changing the curriculum under the influence of the RSS.
Ramdev, a retired official in the state education department, was one of the authors of the Class 8 social science text book that has emerged as a point of friction between the ruling BJP and the Congress.
Congress leaders and workers took to the streets to protest after the Rajasthan State Boards social science books reduced references to Nehru.
Ramdev said the coordinator of the committee Narayan Prajapat will write to the State Institute of Education Research and Training (SIERT) in
Udaipur that oversees the formation of curriculum and preparation of textbooks.
SIERT will be asked to either revise the text books and correct the references to Nehru or make the corrections in the next edition, Ramdev said.
Ramdev also said the new history textbooks will refer to Maharana Pratap as great. Ramdev evaded a reply on whether the new books would not refer to Akbar as great. The issue also echoed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday with Congress and CPI-M accusing the BJP of trying to distort history.
Government refutes allegations
The Government on Monday refuted allegations that attempts are being made to drop national leaders and Congress icons from textbooks for schools in several BJP-ruled states.
Responding to the charges levelled by the Congress in the Rajya Sabha that the BJP government is doctoring textbooks, minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: We want to assure that no icon is being removed or hidden. Those that had been removed are being added.
Congresss Rajeev Shukla said national leaders such as Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar and Maulana Azad are being dropped from textbooks and attempts are being made to whitewash history.
The Janata Dal (United) suspended legislator Manorama Devi on Tuesday after liquor bottles were found in her house and the government moved to arrest the legislative council member whose son is accused of killing a student.
Principal secretary of the excise department KK Pathak told HT that the MLC will be arrested because recovery of liquor bottles is punishable in Bihar a dry state with a jail term of up to 10 years and fines up to Rs 10 lakh.
Recovery of bottles from her residence is proof enough for legal action as per the new excise law. Her husband and son are already in jail, he said.
This came on a day Manorama Devis son Rakesh Ranjan alias Rocky was arrested for allegedly killing 18-year-old Aditya Sachdeva during a tiff about overtaking late Saturday night in Gaya.
JD (U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said the rule of law will always remain the USP of the party.
In this case, recovery of liquor bottles, as reported, is another thing that the government will hard to accept from a peoples representative house, he added.
Read: Bihar youngster shot dead after overtaking car of JD(U) leaders son
The suspension happened soon after chief minister Nitsh Kumar reached Patna from Dhanbad and indicates the JD(U) is aiming to blunt criticism of favouritism and shielding of the MLC in the controversial case.
The road rage incident has sparked protests in Bihar and embarrassed the government with opposition parties accusing Kumar of losing his grip on law and order.
Pathak said he directed police to include the MLC in the FIR or lodge a separate one. Sources said Pathak was monitoring the matter and called up several times to know if the MLCs name was included in the FIR.
I have asked for inclusion of MLCs name in the old FIR or lodging of a fresh one. When liquor has been recovered from her residence, how can she remain out of it, he added.
The police recovered liquor in raids at Manorama Devis Gaya residence in search of Rocky.
Following the seizure of the prohibited items, Gaya police instituted cases against Rocky and his father Bindi Yadav under the new excise act.
However, no case was initially filed against Manorama Devi, a matter that was raised by BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
A pistol recovered from Rocky. (Rajesh Kumar)
The Bihar government clamped a complete ban on the sale and consumption of liquor on April 5. Nearly 8,000 persons have been arrested in the pre-prohibition swoop and the first 35 days of total prohibition in the state.
Earlier in the day, police arrested 24-year-old Rocky around 4am from Bodh Gaya, where his father Bindi Yadav owns a dairy and an asphalt hot mix plant, Gaya district magistrate Kumar Ravi told HT.
Rocky has confessed to his crime. His statement corroborates those of the witnesses that it was a case of road rage, said Gaya senior superintendent of police Garima Malik.
But Rocky denied confessing to any crime. I was in Delhi. I came only because my mother called me. I did not fire or kill anyone, he told reporters.
The incident is a huge embarrassment for Kumar, who won a crushing victory in polls eight months ago but has since grappled with mounting crime and allegations of rape and murder against members of his party or coalition partners.
Sources said Rocky told police he intended to fire at a tyre of the Maruti Swift Dzire that Sachdeva and four friends were driving but accidentally shot through its rear windscreen.
Sachdeva and his friends allegedly ignored signals to let Rockys Range Rover overtake on a narrow road. This infuriated the MLCs son, who chased down the vehicle and despite pleas for mercy roughed up the driver of the Dzire.
It was when the five tried to escape that the MLCs son allegedly sprayed the car with bullets, one of which killed Sachdeva son of a prominent Gaya businessman.
Malik said police recovered the weapon an Italian-make Beretta pistol with a bullet used in the crime, as well as the firearms licence issued to Rocky.
Since Sunday, Kumar has appeared defensive, vowing to bring those found guilty to book. But he has said action will be taken against Devi if her culpability in the incident is established.
Read: Godfather: How Gaya road rage suspects dad muscled his way to top
Nidhi Chaphekar, a Jet Airways crew member who was injured in the Brussels airport bombings, has been discharged from a hospital in Mumbai.
Nidhi (42) was discharged from the Breach Candy hospital in south Mumbai on Monday. She has made significant recovery and has been asked to take rest, a Jet Airways official said on Tuesday.
Nidhi had arrived in the city on a Paris-Mumbai Jet Airways flight on May 6. Since then she was undergoing treatment at the hospital.
On March 22, three bombs went of -- two at the Brussels airport and one at the Mallbeek metro station -- leaving 35 people dead, including three suicide bombers.
She was on her way to board a Jet flight for Newark when the explosions took place.
Nidhi had suffered 15% burns and fractured an ankle.
A Kazakh national was found dead at a room of Nikunj Ashram in Vrindavan on Monday, police said.
Birzhan Umurzakov from Kazakhstan, who was on tourist Visa, hired a room in Nikunj Ashram under Vrindavan Police Station area last evening, police said.
On Monday morning, when he did not open the door, police was informed, following which they reached the spot and recovered the body from the room.
The Embassy of Kazakhstan has been informed and the body has been kept in the mortuary, they said.
A two-month-long political tussle between the Congress and the BJP for the reins of Uttarakhand might come to an end on Tuesday when ousted chief minister Harish Rawat faces a trust vote on the floor of the assembly.
Both BJP and Rawat say they have the legislators to reach the magic figure of 31 but the floor test is more than a simple numbers game.
A section of the BJP feels the party failed to sense the ramification of ousting the Rawat government when they backed nine rebel Congress legislators.
The assembly has been reduced to 62 members including one nominated member -- after the courts disqualified the nine rebels. The halfway-mark is 31. The Congress has 27 MLAs and the BJP 28, including one rebel legislator who might support Rawat.
Winning the trust vote will mean a larger-than-life image for the deposed CM who already projected himself as the only leader of the Congress in the hill state. His rivals such as Harak Singh Rawat and Vijay Bahuguna are rebel leaders who cannot vote.
But if he loses then BJP will get a chance to justify Presidents Rule in the state that was imposed on March 27, said political observer Prayag Pande.
For the BJP, Rawats win will be a blow to the NDA government. It will become difficult for the BJP to defend the imposition of Article 356 and a Rawat victory might also unite the Opposition at the national level.
The deposed CM made the political crisis as a battle between him and the BJP. He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah of destabilising a democratically elected government.
I am thankful that my name includes in the list of important people Rawat said recently after a CBI case was filed against him in connection with a sting video.
Two secret videos have shown Rawat in bad light, purportedly making deals to get support of rebels and own party MLAs. Rawat supporters feel negative publicity has dented image but voters will soon forget.
But this larger-than-image might boomerang on Rawat as his clean image has been dented by the stings and could hurt the Congress in the coming assembly polls next year. But BJP did not project anyone and could come out on top as it has at least five leaders to take on Rawat, including Bhagat Singh Koshyari and BC Khanduri.
For almost two months now, the Congress, rebels and BJP have played a hide and seek. The MLAs from all three groups went in hiding because of fear of poaching by rivals.
Our apprehensions have been proved by sting videos. Rawat has lost peoples faith says Virender Bisht, BJP general secretary (Uttarakhand).
The Supreme Courts decision last week to allow a trust vote by suspending Presidents rule for two hours triggered hectic political activity in the state.
The BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayavargia is camping in Dehradun to oversee the political management and the Congress sent leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Gulam Nabi Azad and state in-charge Ambika Soni for the crucial vote.
Before the duo arrived on Monday, Rawat alone handled the Congress affairs.
The political crisis in the state was triggered when the nine Congress rebels supported the BJP on March 18 during the passage of an appropriation bill.
The governor ordered a floor test but a day before the scheduled trust vote, the Centre imposed Presidents rule on March 27.
Rawat challenged the Presidents rule in the Uttarakhand high court, which on March 29 ordered trust vote two days later. But a division bench of the high court stayed the single bench ruling by justice U C Dhyani.
On April 21, the division bench headed by then chief justice J M Koseph revoked Presidents rule restoring Rawat as CM and asking him to seek trust vote on April 29.
The next day, Centre got a stay from the Supreme Court against the HC order giving Rawat a place in the history books as being helm of a state for shortest period --- less than 24 hours in which he held two Cabinet meetings and took 11 populist decisions.
Read | Here is all you wanted to know about the anti-defection law
Uttarakhand crisis: The 9 rebel Congress MLAs who have gone to SC
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The Congress claimed victory in Uttarakhand after a tight trust vote in the assembly on Tuesday though the official result will be declared only on Wednesday by the Supreme Court.
Sources said the Congress managed 33 votes, two more than the 31 required in a house with an effective strength of 62. The BJP is said to have managed 28, the number of MLAs it has in the assembly.
The top court which ordered the floor test to end the nearly two-month-long impasse in the hill state -- will take the final call after watching the video of the voting and examining the report of its observer Jaidev Singh. He is likely to submit the report to the court on Wednesday.
Sacked chief minister Harish Rawat facing a challenge to stay in power after nine of his MLAs rebelled in March refused to comment on the outcome of the vote though other Congress leaders said the party has managed the requisite numbers.
(The) clouds of uncertainty will vanish soon, Rawat said and thanked the top court which had ordered the trial of strength and also upheld the Uttarakhand high courts ruling barring the nine Congress rebels from voting.
The tone and tenor of BJP leaders also pointed to a Congress win.
We have won in principle. But we may be behind in the numbers game, BJP legislator Ganesh Joshi said after the voting, held during a two-hour window when presidents rule was lifted following the apex courts ruling.
A Congress victory will pave the way for the reinstatement of Rawats government in the hill state which was placed under presidents rule by the BJP-led Centre, sparking a controversy over alleged attempts to topple elected governments in opposition-ruled states.
Also read | As it happened: Uttrakhand floor test
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, one of the fiercest critics of the Narendra Modi-led government, was among the first to react.
Uttarakhand floor test outcome is a huge setback to Modi Govt. Hope they will stop toppling Govts now, he said in a tweet.
BSP chief Mayawati handed Rawat the advantage in the morning by deciding to back the Congress. The BSP has two MLAs who are part of the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) that also includes three independent and a lone Uttarakhand Kranti Dal legislator.
The voting began amidst dramatic circumstances with a rebel BJP legislator Bhim Lal Arya switching over to Congress side while Congress MLA Rekha Arya appeared to have crossed over to the BJP.
She entered the assembly with BJP MLAs waving the victory sign.
Before the voting, BJP leaders and legislators held a 10-minute long meeting and emerged shouting, Bharat mata ki jai ho. Party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said the BJP will win the floor test.
The Centre clamped Presidents rule on March 27, just a day before Rawat was to take a trust vote in the assembly.
Rawat challenged the Presidents rule in the Uttarakhand high court, which on March 29 ordered a trust vote two days later. But a division bench of the high court stayed the single bench ruling.
On April 21, the division bench headed by then chief justice JM Joseph revoked Presidents rule restoring Rawat as CM and asking him to seek trust vote on April 29.
The next day, Centre got a stay from the Supreme Court against the HC order giving Rawat a place in the history books as being helm of a state for shortest period less than 24 hours in which he held two Cabinet meetings and took 11 populist decisions.
Immediately after the trust vote, Congress leaders and workers celebrated at the Rajiv Bhawan, the partys state headquarters located in the heart of Dehradun.
Aap thoda rukiye, aaj yahan bhari jashn hoga (Wait a while, there will be big celebrations here), said Hazi Mohammad Akram, a Congress leader from Nainital.
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The crucial floor test to ascertain whether sacked chief minister Harish Rawat has the majority in the Uttarakhand Assembly concluded on Tuesday morning following Supreme Court directions with nine disqualified Congress MLAs being kept out of it.
Also Read | Congress claims victory, SC to declare result on Wednesday
Also Read | In pics: All eyes on Uttarakhand for Rawats crucial floor test
Here are the highlights of the days events related to trust vote in Uttarakhand assembly:
12:30pm: Harish Rawat on floor test
- Wont comment on what happened inside. Clouds of uncertainty will soon vanish.
- Hope clouds of uncertainty over state will disappear and things will be clearer tomorrow.
12:20pm:
- Harish Rawat said after floor test, I thank SC, democratic forces, people of Uttarakhand & gods. Uttarakhand will be victorious tomorrow.
12:15pm:
- Harish Rawat appears to have got majority in the Uttarakhand Assembly. BJP MLA says only 28 voted for them in the 61-member House.
12:10pm:
- BJP leader Ganesh Joshi said after floor test, BJP saidhantik roop se vijayi hui hai par aankdon ke khel mein hum reh gaye. (Principally BJP has won but on the number game party trailed).
12pm:
- BJP leader Teerath Singh Rawat said, The Supreme Court will open the sealed envelope tomorrow. Voting happened by the way of raising hands.
11:55am:
- BJP MLAs comes out of House. MLA Pushkar Dhami says voting completed on the trust
11am:
- Presidents rule temporarily lifted for two hours in Uttarakhand as proceedings for floor test begin in assembly.
10:50am:
- BSP chief Mayawati said, No deal with BJP, our party is supporting Congress in Uttarakhand trust vote.
- She also said, Our party will vote in favour of Congress in Uttarakhand, reports of deal with BJP are false.
10:45am:
- Congress MLA Rekha Arya reaches Uttarakhand assembly with BJP MLAs
10:20am:
- Harish Rawat reaches Uttarakhand Assembly ahead of the floor test.
(ANI Photo)
10am:
- Harish Rawat said ahead of trust vote, BJP ka kuch bhi daava ho, par Uttarakhand ki jeet hogi.
9:50am:
-Heavy security deployment outside Uttarakhand Assembly ahead of floor test.
Police personnel deployed outside the state assembly in Dehradun ahead of trust vote in House. (ANI Photo)
9:40am:
Bhagwan Kedarnath,Gangotri,Yamunotri, Badrinath;sab hamare saath hain. Janta janardhan hamare saath hai:Harish Rawat pic.twitter.com/TP3PdQG0bX ANI (@ANI_news) May 10, 2016
9:10am:
- Congress MLAs reach Dehradun ahead of floor test.
9am:
- Both BJP and sacked chief minister Rawat say they have the legislators to reach the magic figure of 31 but the floor test is more than a simple numbers game.
- A section of the BJP feels the party failed to sense the ramification of ousting the Rawat government when they backed nine rebel Congress legislators.
Scenario in House after SC order on Monday
The assembly has been reduced to 62 members including one nominated member after the courts disqualified the nine Congress rebel MLAs.
The halfway mark is 31. The Congress has 27 MLAs and the BJP 28, including one rebel legislator who might support Rawat.
Also Read | Full Coverage: Uttarakhand crisis
What it means for Harish Rawat
Winning the trust vote will mean a larger-than-life image for the deposed CM who already projected himself as the only leader of the Congress in the hill state. His rivals such as Harak Singh Rawat and Vijay Bahuguna are rebel leaders who cannot vote.
But if he loses then BJP will get a chance to justify Presidents rule in the state that was imposed on March 27, said political observer Prayag Pande.
What it means for BJP
For the BJP, Rawats win will be a blow to the NDA government. It will become difficult for the BJP to defend the imposition of Article 356 and a Rawat victory might also unite the Opposition at the national level.
The deposed CM made the political crisis as a battle between him and the BJP. He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah of destabilising a democratically elected government.
What is the crisis
The political crisis in the state was triggered when the nine Congress rebels supported the BJP on March 18 during the passage of an Appropriation Bill.
The governor ordered a floor test a day before the scheduled trust vote. The Centre imposed Presidents rule on March 27.
Rawat challenged the Presidents rule in the Uttarakhand high court, which on March 29 ordered trust vote two days later. But a division bench of the high court stayed the single bench ruling by justice UC Dhyani.
On April 21, the division bench headed by then chief justice JM Joseph revoked Presidents rule restoring Rawat as CM and asking him to seek trust vote on April 29.
Also Read | Congress, BJP spar over Presidents Rule in Uttarakhand
The next day, Centre got a stay from the Supreme Court against the HC order giving Rawat a place in the history books as being helm of a state for shortest period less than 24 hours in which he held two Cabinet meetings and took 11 populist decisions.
On Monday, the Supreme Court barred nine disqualified rebel Congress MLAs from participating in a trust vote in Uttarakhand, in what could boost sacked chief minister Harish Rawats chances of saving his government.
Also Read | As it happened: SC bars rebel MLAs from voting in Uttarakhand floor test
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Tension prevailed in Sundarbans in South 24 Parganas district after an angry mob pelted stones at a police station following the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl.
The enraged locals demanded that the accused be handed over to them.
The officer-in-charge of Basanti police station Koushik Kundu sustained injuries in the stone pelting incident, police said.
The nine-year-old had gone missing after she left her home at Kumirmari to buy grocery on Saturday evening. There was a thunderstorm and she did not return.
Her body was found rolled in a cloth later that night in a room in a youths home during a search by her family members.
Victims father lodged a complaint with the police accusing four persons the next day, police said.
Police on Monday arrested three of the accused - the youth, his father and his sister-in-law, while his mother, the fourth accused, is absconding.
Trouble erupted when the arrested were being taken to Alipore court in Kolkata. The mob gheraod the police station and started pelting stones at police officials. However, the police persuaded them to withdraw.
The three were produced before the court which remanded them to seven days in police custody.
Police registered a murder case against a BSP strongman and his son, who allegedly abducted and raped a young Dalit woman in 2014 and she died in a government hospital here on Monday.
The case was filed on Tuesday at Kamalgunj police station against Mahendra Katiyar who is set to contest the 2017 assembly polls on a BSP ticket from the Farrukhabad Sadar constituency and his son Gurdeep, the alleged rapist.
The Kamalgunj station house officer, Saligram Verma, and four policemen were named in the case too. Verma, a sub-inspector and four constables, including a policewoman, were suspended.
The police action came after the womans father, who worked at a brick kiln owned by Katiyar, threatened to stall her cremation unless a case was registered.
The circle officer of Amritpur will investigate the case. The investigating officer has been asked to look into the role of senior police officers, including the Farrukhabad SSP, said Kanpur zone IGP Zaki Ahmad, who will monitor the probe.
SSP Rajesh Krishna Srivastava denied any wrongdoing. I do not know Katiyar. Secondly, I was on leave that day when she was arrested, he said.
The BSP summoned leaders of its Farrukhabad unit to Lucknow, where party chief Mayawati sought a report on the incident.
Ironically, police had accused the 20-year-old woman of being a thief and a gangster when she sought justice. She was thrice put in jail and suffered fatal injuries when police arrested her a fourth time on April 29.
Read: Dalit woman who alleged rape by UP leaders son dies after fourth arrest
She had alleged that Gurdeep kidnapped her on December 1, 2014, and repeatedly raped her in captivity before she managed to escape two days later. The father accused police of shooing his daughter out when she sought to file a case against the politicians son.
Hours after she approached police, she was arrested and sent to prison on a complaint by Gurdeep that she had stolen two cellphones, a pistol and a wallet from him. She got bail in March 2015 but was arrested again. Police said she was a gangster.
In July that year, she was jailed a third time for intimidation and blackmail. Her trauma deepened when she was arrested a fourth time on April 29 this year for possessing charas, a narcotic, hours after meeting Kanpur DIG Neelabja Chowdhary for help.
It has been alleged that she was brutally tortured in police custody and admitted to Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital in Kanpur later. Doctors said her condition was grave as she had suffered serious brain injuries.
But police dismissed the allegation, saying she jumped out of a moving jeep to escape.
The woman was allegedly lured into a trap by a policewoman after she met the Kanpur DIG, assuring that her problems will be solved. She was picked up on her way to meet the policewoman, sources said.
The Congress on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi or his sister Priyanka Gandhi being projected as the chief ministerial candidate for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Party general secretary in-charge of the state, Madhusudan Mistry said he had no idea of any such thing taking place now or in future. I have no such information of either such demands or such discussions of their (Rahul and Priyanka) being given any such responsibility, he told reporters in Lucknow.
Stressing that he had neither heard of any discussions nor any such demands being made for the Gandhi siblings being made the face of the UP campaign, Mistry also said that the party will not have a pre-poll tie-up.
He also refused to give any conclusive answer to pointed queries of whether the party will ally with the Janata Dal-United. There are still many months for the state assembly polls and it would be premature to say anything as of now, he said.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has published a massive trove of Panama Papers information on detailed offshore holding of companies in various tax haven nations including thousands of documents related to India linking close to 2,000 individuals, entities and addresses from the country.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) publishes today (Monday) a searchable database that strips away the secrecy of nearly 214,000 offshore entities created in 21 jurisdictions, from Nevada to Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands.
The data, part of the Panama Papers investigation, is the largest ever release of information about offshore companies and the people behind them. This includes, when available, the names of the real owners of those opaque structures, the consortium said in its latest message.
A random check of the database for India displays about 22 offshore entities, 1,046 officers or individual links, 42 intermediaries and as many as 828 addresses within the country ranging from the tony and posh locations of metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to mofussil locations like that in Haryanas Sirsa, Bihars Muzaffarpur and Madhya Pradeshs Mandasaur and state capital Bhopal.
The global body that brought out the first edition of the Panama Papers, by way of secret offshore data sourced from a Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, said the information about a particular country could have duplicates as it reiterated that there are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts.
We do not intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly, the body said on its web portal as part of the disclaimer on the release of the offshore leaks database.
India, taking note of over 500 entities figuring during the release of the first set of names last month, had created a Multi-Agency Group (MAG) comprising officers from various central investigative agencies like the Income Tax department, FIU, RBI and Foreign Tax and Tax Research (FT and TR) under the Central Board of Direct Taxes apart from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money reviewing the probe in these cases.
Government has also said in the ongoing session of Parliament that the IT department has issued notices to a number of entities named in the list.
Indian investigators had said they will be looking into into as much fresh information that comes in this case including the latest revelations.
Read | Panama Papers: Why Indians named in list may get away with a small fine
While stating that the ICIJ was releasing these additional details on names and addresses in public interest, it added that the latest action was also an effort to find out whos behind almost 320,000 offshore companies and trusts from the Panama Papers and the offshore leaks investigations.
A cursory glance of the names and addresses put up on the website of the body not only shows, in a graphic detail, Indian names and addresses along with the identities of their holding company but also specifies the date of incorporation of the firm in some cases.
The group said the new data that ICIJ is now making public represents a fraction of the Panama Papers, a trove of more than 11.5 million leaked files from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the worlds top creators of hard-to-trace companies, trusts and foundations.
ICIJ is not publishing the totality of the leak, and it is not disclosing raw documents or personal information en masse. The database contains a great deal of information about company owners, proxies and intermediaries in secrecy jurisdictions, but it doesnt disclose bank accounts, email exchanges and financial transactions contained in the documents.
The leaked data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015, it said.
The Supreme Court on Monday had also sought response from the Centre on a plea seeking CBI inquiry against Indian offshore bank account holders named in the Panama papers.
Read | The Panama Papers: All about the biggest leak, people and what they did
A 22-year old woman was allegedly dragged out of her car, thrashed and threatened by a group of men in Pune for wearing a short dress and roaming around with men late at night.
The woman said in her complaint she was returning home with her friends from a dance practice session at around 5:30am on May 1 when they were followed by a group of men in another car on Lullanagar road.
While returning home, a car having a group of men followed us till our house and blocked our way. Later, they dragged me out of the car and thrashed me, the woman said in her complaint.
She said the men allegedly beat her up for wearing a short dress and roaming late with men. The five men reportedly came back minutes later and threatened her with dire consequences.
Police officials recorded the incident as a non-cognizable offence when the woman went to the Kondhwa police station for the first time. Following repeated requests and follow-ups, officials booked five men - Amit Mukhedkar, Shubham Gupta, Yogesh Chougula, Tushar Gidwani, Shravan Singhavi - on Sunday.
Later in the day, police arrested businessmen Mukhedkar and Gupta and Chougula, who works in a bank. Police have booked all the suspects under sections 354, 323, 504 and 34 of Indian Penal Code.
A departmental inquiry has been initiated against three policemen, including a sub-inspector, from the local police station for registering a non-cognizable offence instead of filing an FIR for the alleged molestation of the advertising professional.
The recent slide in Indo-Nepal ties was described as a bad dream on Tuesday by the outgoing Nepalese ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyay who emphasised that the two countries had to work towards repairing and mending the relationship.
Recalled by his government amid reports that he was colluding with India to topple the government of Prime Minister KP Oli, Upadhyay denied allegations and described his recall as a political decision attributable to destiny.
Upadhyay, a senior leader of Nepali Congress, who leaves for Kathmandu on Sunday after a brief tenure of over a year, said the visit of Nepals President Bhidya Devi Bhandari to India should not have been put off. She was due to visit this week but her government cancelled the trip amid the internal political turmoil in Nepal.
Speaking about the future of the bilateral ties, the Nepalese envoy said India should understand Nepals problems and issues. He said he would not like to apportion the blame for the current strains in ties but asserted that it takes two hands to clap.
Upadhyay, for whom foreign secretary S Jaishankar hosted a lunch on Tuesday, said there was anxiety on the Indian side regarding the current state of the relationship. Restoration of mutual trust was discussed at the lunch.
The past incidents should be forgotten as bad dreams and both sides should work towards repairing and mending the ties, Upadhyay told PTI.
Union social justice minister Thawar Chand Gehlot on Tuesday slammed the police and local administration for their alleged laxity in probing the rape and murder of a woman.
A 30-year-old Dailt law student was raped and murdered on April 28 in Perumbavoor, Ernakulam, Kerala. The incident sparked condemnation in the country with many drawing parallels with the 2012 Nirbhaya case in New Delhi.
In a report presented to parliament on Monday, Gehlot, who met the deceaseds family in Kerala, indicated that there is an attempt by the state administration to shield the perpetrator.
The FIR was registered a day after the crime was committed; rape charges where added much later, he said.
According to his enquiry, Gehlot said, the deceaseds mother complained to the police against the local MLA who used to harass her daughter, but then the police never took any action.
The SP also agreed that the deceased had complained but could not tell me why no action was taken. It has been more than 12 days and the accused has not been arrested, Gehlot said.
The minister added that the autopsy report states the incident happened between 1pm and 4pm but police reached around 10 pm.
Probe started with the murder charge; relevant sections of rape were added later. The postmortem report came after four days; evidence could have been lost in the meantime. Also, the SCST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was added after four five days. There have been serious irregularities, he said.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday blamed the Centre for the death of a journalist, who was electrocuted on Monday while trying to take photographs of the water train parked at Jhansi railway station.
According to reports, Indian Express photo journalist Ravi Kanojia had climbed atop the wagon of a water train to check the quality of water, but was electrocuted on the spot when he came in contact with the high voltage wire above.
Read: Photojournalist electrocuted while taking pictures of water train in UP
Yesterday, a journalist who came to click pictures of water train got electrocuted at the spot. The government of India is responsible for this.The Centres political drama in Uttar Pradesh is for everyone to see. A water train has been stationed in Jhansi for the past one week, SPs Chandrapal Singh said in the Rajya Sabha.
The 34-year-old photo journalist was on an assignment to cover the spat between the Centre and the Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh Government over the water crisis in Bundelkhand.
Meanwhile, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav expressed his condolences over the scribes death and announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh to the victims family.
Read: Akhilesh seeks Rs 11,000 cr from Centre to meet drought situation in UP
Read: Modi directs providing of immediate assistance to drought-hit UP
Earlier, the Centre had ordered the Indian Railways to send 10-wagon water train to Bundelkhand region to provide relief from drought-like situation. The state government, however, has said the situation in Bundelkhand is not as serious as in Maharashtras Latur and claimed that it had enough resources to tackle the crisis.
The UP government also reportedly said that they had instead requested the Centre to provide 10,000 empty road tankers.
The Supreme Court said on Monday diesel taxis with national permits could ply in Delhi until their permit expired but banned new registrations of such vehicles that provide pick-up and drop facilities in the Capital.
The order is a relief for commuters, who struggled with traffic snarls and protests after the top courts April 30 order that banned diesel taxis in Delhi to improve air quality forced over 50,000 All India Tourist Permit (AITP) cabs off city roads.
No new diesel taxis will be registered in Delhi. All registration of city taxis shall be permitted only if the vehicles operate on dual-fuel (CNG/Petrol), or purely CNG or petrol. We make it clear that no new diesel vehicles can be registered as city taxis, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur said.
The court said new AITP permits will be labelled AITP-N and will not be allowed to provide point-to-point services in the NCR. Existing AITPs will be called AITP-O for point-to-point services, such as the cabs used by BPO firms.
These taxis will have to follow government norms on safety, security and rate, the top court said. Safety and security is an important aspect as you must have seen in some of the recent incidents, the court said.
The decision will help the Rs 16.6 lakh crore business process outsourcing industry that has been crippled by the ban with thousands of employees unable to reach offices as most office cabs ran on diesel.
Industry body Nasscom approached the SC against the ban, saying it hurt the sector in the national capital region. Over half of the BPO industrys revenues come from the NCR, where 250,000 people are employed in the sector.
Nasscom contended if the ban continued for six to nine months, the industry faced a potential loss of $1 billion.
The April 30 order where the top court refused to extend the deadline for conversion of diesel cabs to CNG also affected cab aggregators Uber and Ola that have 13,000 diesel taxis between them.
The order forced almost 50,000 commercial passenger cars off the roads.
Besides Nasscom, the Delhi government and Centre approached the SC with the Centre saying such bans were affecting the Make In India policy.
Nasscom assured the bench it will not enter into any future transport contracts with tourist permit-holders, until they are CNG- compliant.
The court adjourned the matter to the first week of July when it will take up the issue of imposition of pollution cess on purchase of diesel cars.
The order came after senior advocate Harish Salve, assisting the court in the matter, suggested modification in the December 2015 order banning diesel cabs.
Salve told the court that relaxing the ban on AITP permit-holders will place 64,000 cabs at Nasscoms disposal. But the counsel said the Centre must change the rules to prohibit new AITP cabs from providing pick-up-and-drop service in the NCR.
Senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta, appearing for radio taxis, opposed any modification. He contended the AITP cabs were running illegally without complying with mandatory norms under the Delhi governments taxi-service scheme.
The bench agreed with Gupta and ordered that taxis must comply with regulations. The court also asked the Centre to ensure AITP taxis were used only for BPO employees.
Solicitor general Ranjit Kumar argued that NCR-specific rules would be difficult to formulate, as AITP rules were meant for the whole country.
Read | SC hits the brakes, diesel cabs off Delhi-NCR roads from Sunday
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At a time when Nepals Prime Minister KP Olis aides have accused India of seeking to topple his government, top Nepali political sources have claimed that China played an active role in ensuring the continuity of the Oli government.
Last Wednesday, Nepals Maoist leader Prachanda decided to withdraw support from the Oli-led government. On Thursday morning, he changed his mind and decided to stick to the left alliance. The two dominant allies in the current coalition are Olis Communist Party of Nepal (Unified-Marxist Leninist) and the Maoists.
What explains Prachandas about turn?
Multiple Nepali political sources have told Hindustan Times that behind the U-turn, among other internal factors, was Chinese advice. However, in an exclusive interview to HT, Prachanda denied Chinese influence on his decision and said, I had to rethink because of lack of internal preparations and the complex situation here.
Read: Nepal cancels presidents visit to India, recalls ambassador
Even as Chinese engagement with Nepal has steadily increased, political leaders claimed this is the first time in years Beijing has expressed a firm opinion on the domestic political situation.
Six key Nepali leaders involved in the power-sharing talks, in background interviews, traced Chinese role.
Over the last few weeks, as conversations around a change in government picked up, Chinese diplomats reached out to fringe parties supporting Oli. A key leader of one such party told HT, A Kathmandu-based Chinese diplomat came to us and asked us to continue supporting the government, and said that would be good for stability in Nepal.
On May 4, Prachanda declared there would now be a national unity government under his leadership. The NC backed Prachanda, and so did Madhesi parties. This would have reduced Oli to a minority.
Chinese officials in Kathmandu, sources say, spoke to Maoist vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha Prakash and key UML leader Bamdev Gautam, who acted as the intermediary between Oli and Prachanda.
One leader told HT that the same evening, two Chinese diplomats met Prachanda at the house of a businessman known to be close to PM Oli. But Prachanda denied this categorically and told HT, I can say with full authority that I did not meet any Chinese representative that night at any businessmans house.
The next morning, at 11 am, Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara who had played a key role in convincing Prachanda to withdraw support from the UML is understood to have met with Chinese diplomats.
He asked them, What is your objection if the government leadership moves from Oli to Prachanda? The Chinese officials said they would prefer the current left government. Mahara responded, Oli to Prachanda would mean shifting from the left to the left, not left to right. Prachanda would also be friendly and address Chinese core concerns. They listened but did not commit.
Another leader in touch with Chinese officials told HT that China was keen Oli survived because he had just returned from Beijing after signing key transit and connectivity agreements. They dont want a message to go out that if a Nepali PM signs a landmark deal with China, he will not survive in power in Kathmandu. There is also a possibility that President Xi Jinping visits Kathmandu on his way to the BRICS Summit in Goa in October, and the Chinese would prefer the current coalition to be in place till then.
At night on May 5, Oli and Prachanda signed a deal which included a provision that wartime cases would not be pursued against Maoists. Informally, Oli agreed to hand over power to Prachanda after the budget in Parliament.
Indian officials say they are closely assessing the situation. If it is true that China played such a role, it would mark an unprecedented level of interventionism in Nepali politics, a source told HT.
Read: Nepals sudden change in plans suggests bad blood with India
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When Uttarakhand MLAs cast their votes in the state assembly on Tuesday, the fate of deposed chief minister Harish Rawat wont be the only thing at stake.
The floor test will open another round of confrontations between the Congress and the Union government, accused of meddling in the affairs of non-BJP-ruled states, possibly setting the stage for the upcoming state assembly elections.
Read more: Litmus test for BJP, Cong as Rawat faces floor test in Uttarakhand
With less than a year to go for the polls, the BJP is keen on wresting power from the Congress in the hill state.
The dismissal of the Congress-led governments in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand has drawn considerable criticism, further uniting opposition parties in their quest to bring down a party thats desperate for an electoral victory after two consecutive losses in Delhi and Bihar.
If Rawat manages to pull off a win, it will embolden the Opposition at the Centre and further lower the morale of a vertically divided Uttarakhand BJP. Not everybody in the BJP was happy about the strategy adopted in the state. In fact, the act of luring rebel Congress MLAs most of whom do not enjoy a good reputation was questioned within party circles in hushed tones.
Read more: Here is all you wanted to know about the anti-defection law
However, if Rawat is defeated on the floor of the house, the BJP leadership can sweep all that under the rug. It will give the saffron party a big boost against the Congress, which was recovering under Rawat after Vijay Bahugunas controversy-ridden tenure.
A loss for Rawat will also act as a challenge to his leadership, a situation that will give the BJP an additional advantage ahead of the assembly elections. It will help the Union government justify the dismissal of the state government vindicating it on all counts.
Read more: Uttarakhand floor test: Supreme Courts order is unprecedented
Rawat sorely lacked the numbers to get the appropriation bill passed in the assembly on March 18. Nine rebel Congress MLAs and 27 BJP MLAs defeated it easily, spelling curtains for his government.
But today, nearly two months later, the numbers game has changed dramatically. The rebel MLAs have been barred from voting, and the BJP is clearly short of victory. Rawat may just hold the cards to victory, provided he succeeds in keeping his house in order.
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An anonymous death threat to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi triggered concern about his safety on Tuesday as a UPA-era move to upgrade his security was buried after the NDA came to power in 2014.
The Puducherry unit of the party received an unsigned letter, which says the 45-year-old Congress leader will be killed at an election meeting the way his father was assassinated in 1991.
Rahul Gandhi is protected by the special protection group(SPG) along with his mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The previous Congress-led UPA government had reportedly sought to raise his security detail to almost the level reserved for the prime minister. It was done after intelligence agencies moved a file for his security upgrade as Gandhi was travelling across the country during the 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign.
There are two levels of SPG protection, one for the PM and another for former PMs and their family members. When the UPA government was in its last months, the security establishment was asked to include Rahul Gandhi in the top tier, a senior official said.
But the ND A government never took it up, sources told HT.
It could not be verified why no decision was taken on that initiative. Home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi did not respond to text messages and phone calls. His predecessor Anil Goswami said: Look, I am not in office now (he was removed in February 2015). I dont remember anything.
A Congress delegation led by senior leaders Ahmed Patel and Motilal Vora asked home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday to beef up Gandhis security after the May 5 threat letter. Singh assured prompt action and security enhancement.
The partys Puducherry leader V Na ray ans amy received the letter, which says: Your party is responsible for closure of industries in Puducherry. We will attack you and your former Prime Ministers son and be blasted (sic) while attending a meeting.
Gandhis father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was killed by an LT TE suicide bomber during a public rally at Sriperumbudur near Chennai in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991.
In some recent security reviews, it was found that there were occasions when inadequate personnel were deployed for peripheral security during Rahul Gandhis public programmes. Instructions were then issued to make adequate arrangements, an official said.
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The AgustaWestland controversy seems to be showing no signs of dying down in Parliament, but barely 12 km away in a nondescript hangar of Delhis Palam airbase three new helicopters of the company stand grounded.
The helicopters, which were received by India before the Rs 3,727-crore contract was scrapped in January 2014, do not have the requisite political clearance to fly. While the first of these aircraft costing Rs 300 crore each joined the IAF fleet in December 2012, the third one was inducted in January 2013. None of them have been used for flying dignitaries yet.
India had signed a contract with UK-based AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Italian defence conglomerate Finmeccanica, for 12 AW-101 VVIP helicopters in February 2010. The deal was put on hold in February 2013, after two top Italian executives were arrested on graft charges and subsequently terminated in January 2014. The firm allegedly paid middlemen more than Rs 375 crore.
Read: Congress should wait for completion of AgustaWestland probe, says Naidu
The choppers were hit by a crisis of spares and after-sales support after the deal fell through. The Air Force currently flies VVIPS such as the President, Prime Minister and Vice President in modified Russian-origin Mi-17 helicopters.
The deal came back into the spotlight in early April, after an Italian court of appeals reversed a lower courts verdict clearing AgustaWestland officials. The higher court in Milan found former Finmeccanica chairman Giuseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland ex-CEO Bruno Spagnolini guilty of corruption, and awarded them jail terms.
The developments in Italy led to political fireworks in Parliament, with both the NDA regime and erstwhile Congress-led UPA government attacking each other for omissions and commissions.
The Congress in its defence said the UPA government paid Rs 1,586 crore to the UK-based firm but recovered Rs 2,062 crore, besides the three impounded helicopters worth Rs 900 crore.
The ban on consumption and sale of alcohol in Bihar has forced the second-oldest liquor unit of United Spirits in the country, located at Hathidah in Mokama some 60km west of the state capital to stop production.
The unit was established by Vittal Mallya, father of troubled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who now holds only 4% stake in United Spirits after its takeover by Diageo.
For the management, however, the state governments policies have rendered the unit unfavourable for production.
The Hathidah unit was fondly termed the golden bird of United Breweries Group by Mallya senior for its fine blend. This was due to the water quality that sent the McDowell brand soaring high on popularity charts, recalled Daljit Singh, a liquor trader.
It survived the impact of the first prohibition introduced in 1977. But the unit, which employs over 600 regular and contract employees, does not think it will be lucky again despite having a valid licence for production in 2016-17. The state governmentexpandedtheambitof the ban on country and spiced liquor fromApril1toincludeIndian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) on April 5.
A company executive said, What will we do with the licence whentheyhavecancelled19Cthe permit for supplying to the Bihar State Beverages Corporation?
The government assured us it would waive off export pass fee on IMFL. But it has allowed the concession for the export of extra neutral alcohol (ENA) and ethanol only. How can exports be a remunerative proposition if we have to pay export pass fee and import pass fee in respective states? he asked. Moreover, all neighbouring destinations have their own bottling or manufacturing units to cater to local demand, he added.
With an impending layoff, the employees union has stepped up its demand for favourable compensation package.
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Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu sought on Tuesday to revisit of the role of the speaker while testing the majority of a government and implementing provisions of anti-defection law as the Congress won the high-stakes trial of strength in the Uttarakhand assembly.
In the backdrop of what has happened in Uttarakhand, we have to revisit the speakers role vis-a-vis the issue of testing of majority and also in the implementation of anti- defection law, Naidu, also the Union parliamentary affairs minister said.
I want the debate to take place in this country, he said, adding there has to be a time limit set for deciding on cases of anti-defection law.
The senior BJP leader also suggested that all public representatives who decide to quit their party and join another should resign forthwith and may seek a fresh mandate.
The minister said, Any peoples representative, be it an MLA or MP, if he changes his party and switches over his loyalty, he should forthwith resign as per the spirit of the Constitution and re-contest.
He said if a public representative switches his loyalty to join another party, he should be disqualified immediately.
A number of Telugu Desam MLAs have joined TRS in Telangana and those of YSR (Congress) have joined Telugu Desam party in Andhra Pradesh without evoking any action under the anti-defection law.
Asked about the role of the Uttarakhand Speaker in disqualifying the nine rebel Congress MLAs, Naidu asked what remedy was there if the speaker of an assembly acts wrongly and not in conformity with laid constitutional provisions.
What alternative do you have. We have to revisit that and then take a call, he said.
To a question on the implications of the Harish Rawat government winning the floor test in voting on Tuesday, the minister said the Central government had done nothing wrong in imposing Presidents Rule in Uttarakhand after the breakdown of Constitution in the state.
The Congress won the high-stakes trial of strength in the Uttarakhand Assembly on Tuesday, in a clear setback to the Modi government that had dismissed the state government and imposed Presidents Rule on March 28.
The floor test was the culmination of a number of twists and turns in the political drama marked by court battles.
The result of Tuesdays floor test is expected to be formally announced on Wednesday after a video recording of the 90-minute proceedings of the assembly is presented in Supreme Court in a sealed envelope.
Hundreds of jubilant Congress leaders and workers in Dehradun congratulated each other and broke into song and dance minutes after the conclusion of the crucial trust vote in the Uttarakhand assembly on Tuesday.
The Congress claimed victory though the final results will be declared only on Wednesday by the Supreme Court.
The top court which ordered the floor test to end the nearly two-month-long impasse in the hill state will take the final call after watching the video of the voting and examining the report of its observer Jaidev Singh. He is likely to submit the report to the court on Wednesday.
Sources said the Congress managed 34 votes, two more than the 32 required in a house with an effective strength of 62.
Read | As it happened: Cong claims victory in Uttarakhand trust vote
Congress leaders were seen saying badhai ho or congratulations to each other as party workers from all the 13 districts of the state gathered at the Rajiv Bhawan, the state headquarters in the heart of Dehradun, on a hot May day. Women workers sang and shouted slogans like Congress Zindabad.
Aap thoda rukiye, aaj yahan bhari jashn hoga (Wait a while, there would be a big celebration here), a confident Hazi Mohammad Akram, chairperson of Ramnagar municipal board in Nainital district, said.
Rajani Rawat, a noted transgender leader of the Congress, was working on a plan to organise celebrations with members of the partys womens wing. We will sing and dance... The rebels have got what they deserved, she told Hindustan Times.
Senior party leader Suryakant Dhasmana said, Yahan Holi, Diwali dono manegi aaj (Party members will celebrate Holi and Diwali together today).
The workers broke into a loud cheer when Jot Singh Bisht, state Congress vice-president, announced that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati announced support to their party.
Its the victory of not just Congress, but also of truth and constitutional legacy, senior Congress corporator Jagdish Dhaman said.
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A floor test was conducted in the Uttarakhand assembly on Tuesday morning to determine if the sacked chief minister Harish Rawat still enjoyed the majority in the House following Supreme Courts directions last month.
Nine disqualified Congress MLAs were barred from the voting process following the SCs order on Monday.
Though the result of the trust vote will be declared by the apex court on Wednesday, the ruling Congress claimed victory and the tone and tenor of BJP leaders also pointed to a Congress win.
Heres is who said what after the floor test:
Harish Rawat, Congress: I thank SC, democratic forces, people of Uttarakhand and Gods. Uttarakhand will be victorious tomorrow; wont comment on what happened inside. Clouds of uncertainty will soon vanish.
Ganesh Joshi, BJP MLA: We have won in principle. But we may be behind in the numbers game.
Read | As it happened: Cong claims victory in Uttarakhand trust vote
Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi chief minister: Uttarakhand floor test outcome is a huge setback to Modi Govt. Hope they will stop toppling Govts now.
Uttarakhand floor test outcome is a huge setback to Modi Govt. Hope they will stop toppling Govts now Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 10, 2016
Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress: Democracy has won, it is because of Supreme Court that conducting floor test was made possible in Uttarakhand.
Indira Hridayesh, Congress: 33 members who were on our side cast their votes. Want to thank PDF,BSP,UKD.
33 members who were on our side cast their votes.Want to thank PDF,BSP,UKD: Indira Hridayesh,Cong after floor test pic.twitter.com/KuPwsZajcm ANI (@ANI_news) May 10, 2016
A win in the trust vote in the Uttarakhand assembly will be a moral and psychological victory for the Congress that cried foul after the imposition of Presidents rule in the hill state.
The Congress claimed victory over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttarakhand on Tuesday though the Supreme Court will formally announce the results of the floor test on Wednesday.
Uttarakhand was the second state after Arunachal Pradesh where Congress legislators revolted against their chief ministers. In both the states, the BJP had backed the rebels, fuelling allegations that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was making all-out attempts to destabilise the opposition-ruled states.
Opposition leaders saw developments in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand as part of the BJPs sinister plan to implement its agenda of Congress mukt Bharat (Congress-free India).
Manipur and Himachal Pradesh were the two other trouble spots for the Congress. While Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh is facing corruption charges, timely intervention by Congress president Sonia Gandhi saved Manipur from going the Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand way.
Read | How the day unfolded: 10 things to know about Uttarakhand floor test
Analysts primarily held central Congress leaders responsible for the growing dissidence in states, especially those ruled by it. They claim the situation was allowed to go out of hand in Arunachal Pradesh by V Narayanasamy and Ambika Soni, who look after the party affairs in the border state.
Similarly, party general secretary in-charge of Uttarakhand was said to have been informed of the rebels plan to join the BJP in ousting the Harish Rawat government but no counter measures were taken.
Congress leaders are hopeful that the defeat in Uttarakhand will force a change in the BJP strategy and compel the NDA government to abandon its evil plan of destabilising opposition-ruled states.
The results will certainly encourage the Congress managers and enable them to focus their attention in setting their house in order in other states where the party is battling mounting dissidence.
For now, Congress leaders are visibly upbeat over the informal outcome of the floor test in Uttarakhand.
Democracy wins in Uttarakhand. Defeat for conspirators. Truth always wins over muscle and money power, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted.
BJP must apologise to the nation, he demanded.
Read | Uttarakhand floor test: Who said what after the trust vote
Read | Trust vote: Cong win in Uttarakhand may halt BJPs annexation drive
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More than a Hiroshima or Nagasaki- type atom bomb today, security agencies worry about the use of a dirty bomb, especially by terrorists.
On the eve of the anniversary of the Pokhran explosions, K S Pradeepkumar, head of emergency preparedness for Indias main nuclear laboratory Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Mumbai, busts some of the commonly held myths about dirty bombs and says India is well prepared to detect such devices thanks to a countrywide network.
Excerpts from an interview.
Q: These days there is a lot of fear of something called a dirty-bomb. What is a dirty bomb?
A: Dirty means it is dirty, that is it will not really harm you but it makes you uncomfortable. See it is like getting dirt on your dress that does not mean you are going to die or that your health is in trouble but definitely, you have to go and change your dress.
Same way, a dirty bomb, which normally like any other explosive has some effect, but since it is integrated with radioactive material and after an explosion that radioactivity could spread out. Therefore, there is a chance of contamination on your body, even contamination on your dress, so definitely it calls for a decontamination of the people who are nearby. It also calls for a decontamination of the area.
Therefore, it is not in terms of a casualty or a serious injury we are worried about a dirty bomb, or what is called a radiological dispersal device. The concern is about the fear it may inject into the people because very large number of people will believe that they are all affected because they are all contaminated. It causes disruption.
Q: But what are the materials, which can be used to make a dirty bomb?
A: First of all a dirty bomb has never been used anywhere in the world. Nevertheless, it is mentioned that there were attempts made where people have tried to make one using radioactive Cesium-137 and explosives like RDX. It has never been used in India.
What is feared is that since the use of radioactive sources and radioisotopes is increasing in a very significant way world over. Moreover, in some places the security of sources is not fully ensured. Hence, there are cases of lost sources, misplaced sources etc.
These orphan sources can get into the hands of the bad-boys. It is believed that they can integrate these with explosives, and they can use it. However, it has never been used.
Q: But is it not dangerous to handle radioactive sources?
A: It is indeed so it is also a big challenge for those bad people who could try to assemble such devices, that is one of the reasons why assembling them has not been successful. Compared to the conventional explosives, whoever tries to integrate radioactive sources like Cesium-137 or Cobalt-60, they are all high-energy gamma emitters.
Therefore, during the assembly itself, even if one spends more than few minutes, the bad boys will get very high radiation exposure and will fall sick.
Q: So you are saying that if a terrorist has to use it, then the likelihood of the terrorist himself being exposed to such serious doses of radiation is high. Is that what you are saying?
A: Yes, unless, until they manage it with many remote controlled mechanisms, and if it is not shielded, they themselves would be subjected to high radiation field. Not only will they get affected, the pain will be extremely severe, so keeping it a secret will be very difficult from the neighbors.
Unlike conventional explosives transporting dirty bombs is very difficult. Escaping detection is almost impossible since transport of radioactive material is very difficult. Either it requires extremely large quantity of shielding like say by using hundreds of kilograms of lead.
In that case, the person will be moving about in a suspicious way, since it is hard to carry so much weight, or it will be a group of people. If enough shielding is not there, even the vehicle he is using, co-passengers, driver, they will all start getting a radiation exposure syndrome or acute radiation syndrome.
Therefore, world over it is considered very difficult to assemble it, as the terrorists are likely to be harmed more. However, much more challenges are on people like security agencies who would have to respond and take care of the public.
Q: In India, do we have the capability to detect hidden dirty bombs?
A: BARC has developed many systems. We have developed many systems like aerial gamma spectrometry systems, which can be used for searching such types of sources. It can be detected easily by BARCs equipment, even if it is shielded or kept hidden inside some building.
Q: There are some stories going around which say that if an explosive device like a dirty bomb is exploded lets say, in the heart of Delhi then all of Connaught Place will be obliterated and radiation will spread up to the Parliament Building, and all around several kilometers would get affected. In your assessment in the worst-case scenario what would be the situation?
A: Let me explain, the word affected has to be used very carefully. See, we have highly sensitive radiation monitors. With this, even extremely small quantity of radioactivity can be detected. See for example, let me take the Fukushima accident, people detected extremely small doses of radioactivity as far away as in Europe and USA, and people started predicting everybody will be affected and there will be cancer.
It was wrong, okay, so what I want to tell is the radioactivity in the environment was extremely small, nevertheless, the scientists could detect it. Same way, if there is an explosion of a dirty bomb, what you have called it; there can be presence of radioactivity slightly above the natural background, even in 3-4 kilometers because it can be transported by the wind.
Nevertheless, if you ask me the question, even that radiation level will not be even one thousandth of the radiation level of what you are having in the high background dose area of Kerala where people are living for many-many generations.
So I will not like to use the word, people will be affected, but definitely nearby area may be around 30-50 meters from where a dirty bomb is exploded it can have high level of contamination, beyond that there can be a cigar shaped area where spread of contamination will take place.
That also may be 80 meters or slightly more than that, but it all depends upon what is the source you are using. I can tell you, more than 1.5 kilometer one need not bother at all. Again, I am telling, it may be possible to detect even up to 3 kilometer etc but that is not a concern.
Q: So, in case of a dirty bomb, what I understand is that the possibility of people dying is because of the thermal part of the bomb, and not because of the radiation. Is that what you are suggesting?
A: Yes, I think I have to make it very specific, when you talk of a dirty bomb; we are talking about an explosive mixed with a radioactive material. When we use the word radiological dispersal device, it is of two types. One is a dirty bomb, where there is an explosive involved.
Another is just a dispersal of the radioactive powder in the public domain. However, in any case, if we are talking about a dirty bomb, it will have the same effect like any other explosive, blast effect, thermal effect, etc and added to it there will be a radioactive fallout.
What I want to tell is, any death or serious injury to the people will be limited due to the blast and thermal effect because of the explosive power. Radioactive fallout and radiation exposure is not going to cause serious health effects.
Q: So the people dying of radiation exposure are unlikely.
A: It is unlikely. Today, there are many myths around a dirty bomb. Not only about dirty bomb, you talk about radiation, there are myths. 30-40 years back, even to take an X-ray people were scared, but today the awareness has come to the level that people are asking for an X-ray. Incidentally, in India no one has ever died due to a high radiation dose at any of the facilities run by the Department of Atomic Energy.
Q: Do you suspect that a dirty bomb would ever be used in India; people have an anxiety about it?
A: The threat does exist since radioactive sources do get lost and misplaced but assembling a pile with a gigantic radiation dose is very very difficult. Moreover, at the same time, I would like to underline the fact that making a dirty bomb and using it is a big challenge. Since first, it will harm those who try to assemble such a device.
The Supreme Court has questioned the Bharatiya Janata party-led NDA government over the delay in appointing a Lokpal or an anti-corruption ombudsman despite notifying the law more than two years ago.
Are you facing any problem in appointing a Lokpal? a bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur on Monday asked the central governments counsel who sought time for a response.
Why havent you appointed anyone so far? Why is there this delay? If there is presidential assent to the law then what is holding you back? You cannot sit over it, the bench asked attorney general Mukul Rohatgi.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an NGO, Common Cause, that alleged the government was dragging its feet over the appointment.
Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who is representing the NGO, claimed the government had taken a stand that Lokpal cannot be appointed without a Leader of Opposition (LoP). Since there is no LoP in this Parliament, the government is withholding the appointment, which is very crucial to combat corruption, Bhushan told the bench.
At this, the court asked the government counsel: Ask the attorney general to appear. Let him come before us and spell out the obstruction. You must take some step and resolve the problem.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on July 19 and said the attorney general must inform it about the steps taken for the appointment of Lokpal and if there is any difficulty then the court should be apprised of it.
The top court had in 2014 declined to accept the Centres submission that countrys first Lokpal can be appointed without LoP being part of the appointing panel. A bench headed by then CJI RM Lodha said the Leader of Opposition also conveys the voice of the House and represents a view different from that of the government.
If there is no LoP, the decision would not be objective. Ultimately, a vacuum remains, he said.
The observation came after Rohatgi contended a vacancy in the selection panel for Lokpal did not invalidate the appointment.
The Lokpal law that technically came into force in January 2014 requires public servants to declare not only their assets and liabilities but also for their spouse. The information would be placed in public domain.
In the face of protests from government officials, the Narendra Modi government proposed to go back to the original rule that only placed immovable assets of officials in the public domain and referred it to a parliamentary committee.
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According to statistics, 15.2% of Indias population has no access to nutritious food and is facing a severe health crisis. In the face of this grave reality, there are some good Samaritans in Delhi who collect food and donate it among the needy. With various shelters across Delhi-NCR, these people are helping the poor , one healthy meal at a time.
The year was 2012 when Kuldip Nar decided to establish Indias first food bank. There are so many people in Delhi who have no access to nutritious food. The condition of the migrant population, unaided children and destitutes drove me to start the Delhi NCR Food Bank, he says. His organisation is in tie-ups with 21 NGOs that help distribute the food. We collect raw food, but if people have surplus cooked food, then they need to contact us in advance so that efficient distribution can be ensured, he adds.
Read: India wastes more farm food than China
Robin Hood is just not a fictional character and there is an army in the country, feeding the poor. Called the Robin Hood Army, they operate in 22 cities across the world.Their Delhi Chapter is headed by Chaitanya Puri who says, We have tied up with restaurants, some of which also cook fresh food for the drives. They have volunteers working in the four zones of Delhi. If you want to donate food, then you can contact us on Facebook and we will send a volunteer to collect that food, he adds.
Volunteers of the Robin Hood Army with the kids.
For Dr. Rajesh Kumar, co-founder of the Society for the Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM), the main aim is to facilitate hygienic conditions for people to eat food in. He says, We make sure that the children wash their hands and sit down before eating.We have over 50 shelters which are located in close proximity to the citys slums. This proximity prevents food from going bad and saves time. He adds, If you know that there will be leftover food after a party, then you must call us in advance so that effective collection and distribution can take place.
Anil Landge, who founded Mera Parivar that operates in Gurgaon feels that even if one family from one high-rise in Gurgaon can cook one extra meal a day, then the results will be phenomenal. He asks, How much does two chapattis or bowl of dal cost? They have 10 volunteers who distribute food across three feeding stations to children and the labour class. We request people to give fresh food so that the health of the recipients is not affected, he concludes.
Srishti, one of the core members of Feeding India says, We call our volunteers hunger heroes who are active in more than 20 cities. We distribute food among those who absolutely do not have access to it such as the aged, the orphans, the specially-abled and the homeless, she adds.
ACTION PLAN
* Give food that is fresh and fit for consumption.
* Contact the organisations well in advance so that efficient pickups can be arranged.
* Take charge and distribute surplus food at night shelters and slums if you cant find a volunteer.
* In your individual capacity, you can avoid a lot of food wastage. Donate whatever you wont eat the same day. Cook only as much as you will consume.
* Spread awareness
HELPLINE NUMBERS
* Robin Hood Army: 9717029621
* Delhi NCR Food Bank: 9810007524; 011 65422890
* SPYM: 9891268872; 011 26893872
* Mera Parivar: 0124 4111787
* Feeding India: 9871178810
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A victory for former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat in Tuesdays trust vote will not only lift the spirits of the beleaguered Congress but also discourage the BJP from subjecting non-NDA-ruled states to similar strategies in the future.
Such an eventuality, coming nearly two months after nine Congress legislators rebelled against the Rawat leadership in the house, may further unite non-BJP parties against the countrys ruling party. In the wake of losses in Delhi and Bihar, the BJP has been desperately looking for electoral gains in five states Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to disprove critics who claim that the Modi wave has lost momentum.
Read | Cong claims victory in Uttarakhand, SC to declare result tomorrow
Rawats possible win would weigh heavily on the BJP, even though state leaders claim a moral triumph and accuse the former chief minister of using money power, further emboldening Opposition parties to take on the Narendra Modi-led government. On the other hand, the morale of the vertically divided Uttarakhand BJP which was unable to draw maximum political mileage from the rebellion in the Congress would take a veritable hit.
Not everybody in the BJP was on the same page with regard to the strategy deployed in Uttarakhand. In fact, the act of luring rebel Congress MLAs most of whom do not enjoy a good reputation was widely questioned within party circles in hushed tones.
Sources said Rawat enjoyed the support of 27 Congress legislators, besides six PDF members and a rebel BJP MLA.
Read | As it happened: Cong claims victory in Uttarakhand trust vote
A win for Rawat will do the Congress considerable good, acting as a morale-booster against the BJP in the coming days. It may also portray the former chief ministers detractors as a power-hungry lot, and earn him some sympathy from the voting public.
The projected outcome of the floor test will also show how the Congress had exercised good sense in sticking by Rawat, unlike the BJP which juggled between Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Satpal Maharaj (who, incidentally, had crossed over from the Congress a few years ago). This created discord in party circles, especially among Koshyari loyalists.
Also Read | Uttarakhand floor test: Who said what after the trust vote
A loss for Rawat would have provided the BJP with an advantage ahead of the assembly elections, vindicating the imposition of Presidents rule in the state. The party also made a miscalculation in thinking that the deposed chief minister will not have the required numbers after nine rebel Congress MLAs were disqualified by speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal.
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In a state that witnesses at least half a dozen protests a day by various bodies, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is gearing up for the mother of all protests. Almost one lakh volunteers of the party from across the state have been asked to reach SAS Nagar on May 16 who will then march towards Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badals residence in Chandigarh.
The party is protesting against the alleged Rs 12,000-crore scam in the procurement of grain by state agencies, which subsequently led to delay in payments to farmers during procurement. Establishing a cause-and-effect relationship between the scam and farmer suicides, AAP leaders are hoping to bring the agrarian crisis in the state to the forefront of political discourses in the run-up to the polls through their protest.
Video: AAPs Nasha song on Punjab drug menace targets Badals
Since protest marches are banned in Chandigarh, an actual march from SAS Nagar to Chandigarh of AAP volunteers is not likely to happen. However, AAP leaders are gearing up for a showdown with Punjab Police in SAS Nagar when it stops them from entering Chandigarh. AAP leaders say they are ready to court arrest, face water cannons and do all that it takes to bring the plight of the Punjab farmers to the fore.
Other than using this opportunity to project themselves as the messiah of the farmers, AAP leaders also want to take the lead in the current battles of perception among political parties. The AAP had catapulted to the top slot following the Maghi mela rally of January 14. However, following the SYL controversy, the AAP was perceived to have dwindled in its supremacy. The AAP rally at Talwandi Sabo on April 14 also did not do much to boost the party back into the lead position. A lot thus depends on its May 16 show and party leaders are putting in their best to ensure a massive presence of the party in SAS Nagar.
Since May 6, party leaders are visiting various districts and addressing preparation meetings of volunteers. We have covered Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur and Khadoor Sahib. On Monday, we addressed party volunteers in Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala. The rest of the state, including Sangrur, Bathinda, Amritsar, Faridkot and Ferozepur, will be covered in the coming days, said Himmat Singh Shergill, the partys leader from SAS Nagar. State convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur, state incharge Sanjay Singh, and communication coordinator Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi are addressing these meetings.
Besides, the AAP is using the social media in a big way to mobilise supporters. WhatsApp is bustling with posters of Arvind Kejriwal exhorting Punjabis to take stock of the Rs 12,000 crore scam and reach Chandigarh on May 16 in large numbers. The AAPs Facebook page is updating photographs of the daily meetings. The partys national leaders are tweeting about the protest march.
AAP leaders claim that the volunteer meetings are getting an overwhelming response. Not a Jansabha, its a volunteers meet of Jalandhar zone. Will shake the roots of the Badals on 16th, Gajendra, a party supporter, tweeted with a picture of hundreds of AAP volunteers gathered in Jalandhar. Another picture of the volunteer meeting in Patiala on Monday uploaded by the party shows a huge gathering of people being addressed by Chhotepur. It is 45 degrees and despite the heat the number of people gathered in the meeting shows they are unhappy with other political parties in the state. Punjab is ready to take stock of Rs 12,000 crore on May 16, states the post with it.
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Residents on Monday blocked the Barnala-Mansa road at Dhaula village to press for their demand of upgrading Government High School, Dhaula, to senior secondary level. At least six protesters climbed atop a community water tank.
The police remained soft on protestors in the wake of the recent double suicide case at Jodhpur village in the district.
Even women and girls joined the protesters, braving the sweltering heat. The dharna was lifted in the evening after additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Amandeep Bansal assured the protesters of school upgrade without specifying any timeline.
The villagers, protesting under the banner Dhaula School Upgradaton Action Committee, had put banners announcing boycott of political parties till their demand was met with.
Action committee leader Beant Bajwa said, Many of the protesters climbed the water tank and were ready to immolate themselves. We are frustrated with the administrative machinery remaining non-responsive to our long-pending demand. The government is always ready to open liquor vends, but here we have to struggle to get a school upgraded.
Gursewak Dhaula, another protester, said, In case the government does not fulfill its promise to upgrade the school, we will resume our agitation.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Darbara Singh Guru said, The state government in the recent budget had earmarked a sum of Rs 225 crore for upgrading 800 schools in the state. This school will be upgraded along with other schools. It may take time but upgrade is certainly on our priority. I have also talked to education minister Daljeet Singh Cheema on the issue.
People are after getting credit and are unnecessarily politicising the matter. The upgrade is on the cards, said Guru.
Additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Amandeep Bansal said, The proposal for upgrading about 20 schools in the district has been under consideration with the DPI (secondary) and Dhaula school is one of them. We are hopeful that the proposal would go through before the month-end.
Barnala sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Amarveer Singh Sidhu said, We do not have the jurisdiction to do anything on the matter. But the proposal for upgrading the school is already under consideration and it takes time for finalisation.
Village sarpanch Ram Singh said, The school, opened about five decades back, has two sections in Class 10 and three sections in Class 9. Those passing matriculation go to Barnala, Rureke Kalan and Pakho to take admission in Class 11. We are worried about our girls. Our village population is approximately 18,000. The protest is purely a publicity stunt.
District education officer (secondary) Harkanwaljit Kaur said, The school fulfills all norms for upgrade. It has 602 students and there is no senior secondary school in the radius of 5 kilometeres. Today I had a meeting with the DPI (secondary) and he has assured upgrade this month. Classes for senior secondary will start this session.
DPI (Secondary), Balbir Singh Dhol said, We have received about 350 proposals for upgrading high schools to senior secondary level. The entire lot of proposal will be cleared in a few days. The Dhaula school fulfills all requirements for upgrade, said Dhol.
The much-awaited multi-level parking lot in Sector 17 was inaugurated by UT administrator Kaptan Singh Solanki here on Monday in the presence of member of Parliament Kirron Kher. The parking lot will be open from 8am on Tuesday.
With this, the administration has decided to shut two parking areas in the market, known as Sahib Singh and Empire Store lots.
After opening the parking lot, Solanki said, We dont want anyone to suffer losses due to this. In case anyone faces losses, we will review the decision of closing down the parking lots.
During the inauguration, e-rickshaws were also displayed, which the vehicle owners can use to reach the Plaza after parking their vehicles at the lot. The administration has hired eight e-rickshaws.
Traders not pleased
A meeting of prominent traders of Sector 17 took place to discuss the issue of closure of two parking lots. Traders said they were already facing losses due to the mall culture and the closure of parking lots
will add to their woes. President of Business Promotion Council, Sector 17, Neeraj Bajaj and co-ordinator of sectors traders association JPS Kalra claimed that traders boycotted the inauguration function.
Congress boycotts function
The Congress party boycotted the inaugural function against the shutting down of two parking lots. A spokesperson said the move will affect the trader community, which was not acceptable.
Kirron: Not shown 1st smart city proposal
Taking a dig at the UT administration, MP Kirron Kher said, Initial smart city proposal
mooted about six months back was not even shared with me before it was forwarded to the Centre. Kher, while addressing the audience and mediapersons at the opening of the parking, said, I am well aware of the recent proposal. The administration shared the proposal with me and it was detailed.
Two young men from Ludhiana bagged the 17th and 64th ranks in the civil services exam, results of which were out on Tuesday. Amit Pal Sharma, who bagged the 139th rank last year and got to 17th this time, is an MBBS doctor and currently an under-training officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) posted at Hyderabad. His brother Ajay Pal also has the MBBS degree and is an IPS officer currently posted in Uttar Pradesh.
Their father Amarjit Sharma, who retired as a Punjab government school teacher, said, Amit wanted to become an IAS officer and thus gave the exam again this year and excelled. He believed in self-study and used to work very hard. I am proud of both my sons.
Amit was in Ujjain on duty and was returning to Hyderabad when he got the news. He was thrilled,
he added. It was Amits third attempt. In his first attempt, he had been selected for allied services, but he took another shot at the exam to get to 139th. Amit completed his MBBS from Government Medical College, Patiala, and wanted to follow in his brothers footsteps.
Chartered accountant Ayush Sharma, 24, a resident of Kitchlu Nagar here, bagged the 64th rank. This was his first attempt. He did his graduation from Panjab University through correspondence.
Expelled Congress leader Jagmeet Singh Brar, who is a known detractor of chief of state unit Captain Amarinder Singh, on Tuesday said that popularity of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was surging and he could discuss the possibilities of joining the party after he gets an invitation from the leadership.
Brar, who was expelled from Congress last month, was in Ludhiana on Tuesday where he was asked about his prospects of joining AAP. He said he had toured 50 legislative assembly constituencies of Majha region during the past sometime where he found a massive wave of AAP.
I talked to a large number of people in these constituencies where I found a surging popularity of AAP. This means that AAP is growing in the state day by day said Brar.
Read: Expelled from Cong, Jagmeet Brar announces May 21 rally to hit back
He said, If I am invited by AAP, I would first talk and join the party only if they promise to fight against drugs and dynastic rule in Punjab.
Talking on Captain Amarinder Singh, Brar said that his visit to US has severely failed. While Amarinder rarely visits his parliamentary constituency (Amritsar), he was visiting foreign lands to woo NRIs but he has already failed in his attempt.
However, when contacted, AAPs organisation-building incharge Durgesh Pathak said about Brars AAP prospects: There has been no discussion on this at all in the party. He added, We are currently busy with our Punjab Dialogue programme series to build a solid manifesto.
Read: Congress leaders also involved in drug trade: Jagmeet Brar
Read: Following expulsion, what next for Jagmeet Brar?
Warming up to Akali Dal rebels Bains brothers, senior Congress leader Sunil Jakhar was in the city on Tuesday to express solidarity, a day after police resorted to cane charge on protesters led by them. One of the two brothers, Simarjit Bains, is still in police custody.
Independent MLAs Simarjit Bains from Atam Nagar and his brother Balwinder Bains from Ludhiana (south) constituencies had on Monday organised a protest against a cable network that turned violent and police canecharged the protesters. Several people were injured and many were detained.
Read: Protest over news channel blackout: MLA Bains, 15 supporters held in Ludhiana
Jakhar, along with Congress MLA Bharat Bhushan Ashu and district party chief Gurpreet Gogi, also went to Koomkalan police station to meet Simarjit, but they were not allowed to meet him.
The state government is brutally crushing voices of dissent. The SAD-BJP government doesnt mind using force against even the elected representatives, said Jakhar.
He said the way police handled the situation during the protest on Monday was appalling. There seems to be an undeclared emergency as people are being beaten up and thrown into jails if they raise their voice against injustice, Jakhar said.
Bains brothers in the recent past have intensified their activities against the state government by organising protests against sand mafia, illegal mining and alleged corruption in government departments.
Read: Protests, arrests: Ludhianas Bains brothers back with bang
When asked whether the Congress was sending feelers to Bains brothers to join the party, Jakhar said he was no authority to include anyone in the party fold and such decisions are taken by the high command only.
Bains brothers, who are SAD rebels, have a considerable following not only in the constituencies they represent but even outside. Both of them have been arrested at least five times in the past one year for one reason or the other. On Monday, nine sections of the penal code were slapped against those arrested on Monday, including Simarjit.
Congress MLA Bharat Bhushan Ashu said police in the state were there to establish the rule of the law and not to arrest people who raised voice against injustice.
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Arrested on Monday after a protest against the suspension of services of a Punjabi news channel by a cable network operator turned violent, independent MLA Simarjit Singh Bains, his son and his seven supporters were on Monday sent to Ludhiana central jail on 14-day judicial remand.
The police produced the legislator before the court of chief judicial magistrate Jaapinder Singh taking care to evade his supporters. The case is scheduled to be heard next on May 24.
Meanwhile, Bains counsel Jagmohan Singh Waraich moved bail pleas for him and his supporters that would be heard on Tuesday.
The MLAs supporters, who were huddled in the court complex raised slogans against the police and Punjab government as the cops brought the MLA and his supporters to the court amid heavy security arrangements. The supporters hurled abuses at the police for cane charging the protesters on Monday.
The women supporters accused the police of thrashing them brutally.
More than 500 supporters, including women, of Bains had gathered outside the Grand Walk Mall on Ferozepur road on Monday to protest against the Fastway cable network accusing it of suspending services of Zee Punjabi news channel.
The police had arrested Bains, his son Ajaybir Singh, and supporters Baldev Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Gurnam Singh alias Kaku, Arjun Singh Cheema, Kultej Singh and Ranjit Singh.
They were booked under sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 334 (voluntarily causing hurt on provocation), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) of the Indian Penal Code.
In the court on Tuesday, the police said they had nothing to recover from the accused and requested the court to send them to judicial custody, even as the defence counsel demanded to discharge his clients from the case, stating that the police case did not stand.
The counsel contended that Bains, along with his supporters, was protesting peacefully on the roadside, which was the fundamental right of every citizen. He added that the police had slammed Section 8 of the National Highway Act, which was not appropriate as his clients did not vandalise the national highway.
The MLAs elder brother Balwinder Singh Bains, who is also a legislator, said the SAD-BJP government wanted to suppress their voice by using force against them. We will never give up before the atrocities of the state government and will intensify the protest, he added.
Police stop media from entering open court
A day after an HT scribe was cane-charged by cops during the protest, the police team led by assistant commissioner of police (ACP, west) Rupinder Kaur Saran, stopped mediapersons from entering the open court before Bains was produced.
The public has the right to be admitted to an open court, unless the judge decides against it.
Read: Protests, arrests: Ludhianas Bains brothers back with bang
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Bragging about being power surplus has run Punjab scarce of 372 crore electricity units it wanted to purchase for summer.
Looking at the petition for these units that Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) had filed in March, Punjab State Power Regulatory Commission (PSERC) on Monday questioned it about three private-sector plants, Centres coal commitment, and other availability issues. The PSPCL wants to buy electricity on short-term basis for May 1 to September 30 through competitive bidding and open-tender process.
Even after claiming power-surplus status last financial year, it had purchased electricity to meet the rising demand in summer. This year again it went to the PSERC, which didnt take the corporations data on its face value; and confronted the PSPCL with its owns annual revenue requirement (ARR) petition in which the corporation had listed more foreign coal agreements and hydroelectricity, besides the commissioning of private plants, among its achievements.
Then the corporation was shown the paragraph in which it had claimed to be power deficient during peak-load hours in summer.
You have claimed that all three units of the Talwandi Sabo plant will be operational in the year 2016-17, which will require no short-term buying. You showed surpulus even in the petition for regulatory measures. Then you had a sudden change in situation within a month, which we dont understand, the regulator told the PSPCL.
Also read I HC drops contempt proceedings after officials promise to plant saplings
The PSERC asked the PSPCL why it was not running its plants on full capacity. As the corporation cited the shortage or banking of coal for summer, the regulator hit back by seeking stock-and-commitment figures from Coal India Limited, besides the plan for purchasing of coal from abroad, which the regulator has permitted already.
The corporation had to explain why against the publicised installed capacity of 496 megawatts, it had shown only 250 MW from renewable-energy sources in the petition. A stunned PSPCL reworked its petition, cut down its projected deficiency by two-third, and said it now needed only 114 crore units during peak load hours from June to September.
As the regulator came up with further queries based on the PSPCL data, the corporation came to agree that it needed no extra power in summer indeed. The regulator dismissed the petition with the observation that : In light of the PSPCL submission that revised availability leaves no gap between demand and supply, its prayer does not survive.
However, in case of exigency, the PSPCL may go for short-term buying in a judicious and economical manner and resort to demand-side management practices to maintain commercial viability.
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A day after Punjab Police conducted raids in jails across the state and recovered mobile phones and drugs, the state government on Monday suspended two deputy superintendent of police (DSP)- rank officers Kulwant Singh and Devinder Singh Randhawa for negligence.
Cops seize mobiles, drugs during raids at central jails
Additional director general of police (prisons) MK Tiwari said an inquiry has been initiated against Kulwant, deputy superintendent of the Amritsar central jail, and Randhawa, who is superintendent of Patti sub-jail. We will get report in seven days and stern action will be taken against those found guilty, he said.
Will turn Punjab jails into correction homes: Sukhbir
As many as 21 mobile phones, eight SIM cards, some adapters, 308 syringes and drug injections were seized from the Amritsar jail. Notably, notorious gangster Bhupinder Singh Sonu Kangla is also confined in this jail. A cash of Rs 14,000 was recovered from his possession. Twelve mobile phones and four SIM cards were recovered from Patti jail. Sources said the inmates had learnt about the raid a day in advance, due to which they had disposed of all objectionable material which may have included large quantity of drugs.
The alleged role of superintendent of this jail in leaking out information about the raid is being considered as the reason behind his suspension.
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Dhian Singh Mand, the interim jathedar of Akal Takht appointed by the radical Sarbat Khalsa, and his associates Mohkam Singh and Paramjit Singh Jejeani were released on bail from Nabha jail on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, in wake of the announcement by radical jathedars to visit Akal Takht, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and police on Tuesday beefed up security at the Golden Temple and its surrounding areas.
Mand and associates were arrested at the Shambu Barrier on Sunday night.
Read: Sikh radical leaders Mand, Mohkam arrested while entering Punjab
A Sikh activist climbs on water tank in protest against arrest of Dhian Singh Mand in Tarn Taran on Tuesday (HT Photo)
Since Tuesday morning, employees of SGPCs task force were deployed in large numbers at the Golden Temple. SGPC chief secretary Harcharan Singh, along with additional secretary Daljit Singh Bedi, were seen overseeing security arrangements made to prevent any activity by Sikh radicals. Policemen in civil dress were spotted inside the complex.
Supporters demand Mands release
Earlier in the day, supporters of Mand climbed up various mobile towers in Patiala district, demanding his release. To protest against Mands arrest, Amarjit Singh and Karamjit Singh climbed up the mobile tower at the BSNL office near the Kali temple in Patiala. Balbir Singh and Harvinder Singh Laddi climbed up the tower near the cremation ground near Samana bus stand.
Police rounded up Gurcharan Singh Waraich and Banarsi Singh at Patiala as they were threatening to commit suicide in case the state government did not release Mand and others. Police officials rushed to the spot and tried to reason with them saying they might submit a written demand.
SAD (Mann) district president, rural, Sarup Singh Sondha, alleged that the state government had arrested Mand and associates under a conspiracy. He alleged that the police did not allow supporters to drink water as they were protesting in the scorching heat.
In the evening, as the word about Mands release spread, protesters in Patiala climbed down the towers. After their release, Mand and associates went to Patiala to meet the protesters. DSP Harpal Singh said Mand and others visited the place where their supporters had climbed up the tower, but the police had already managed to bring them down.
Meanwhile, Nihangs Amrik Singh and Sukhbir Singh climbed a water tank at Sarja Mirja village, 20 km from Tarn Taran, and started a fast unto death in protest against the arrest. Police reached the village and asked the agitators to end their protest. They were demanding the release of the Sikh hardliners and arrest of those involved in incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib.
Bollywood actor Salman Khan, who is in Ludhiana for the shooting of his upcoming film Sultan, spent time with little fans and gifting them signed t-shirts on Sunday.
But, he was annoyed with fans, who disturbed the shooting in Doraha. They struck at the sets in an inebriated condition and disturbed the shooting, a film crew member said.
Opposite to Aamir Khan, who was also in Ludhiana for shooting of Dangal a few months back, Salman Khan is avoiding meeting fans.
On Sunday, commissioner of police Jatinder Singh Aulakh, deputy commissioner Ravi Bhagat, DCP Dhruman Nimbale and others went to the hotel, where Salman is staying.
Before they reached there, some fans entered the hotel and tried to meet him. This disturbed the Dabang and he denied meeting them. When the senior cop and his some friends went to meet the star, he denied to meet them too.
Meanwhile, some children turned up there, and Salman met them and had conversation with them. Krishnav Satija, a little fan, said, I asked Salman Khan about body building tips. I want to have muscles like Salman Khan.
His joy was boundless, as he said that Salman gifted him a t-shirt signed by him.
Member of the unit said, Our schedule is short and due to weather conditions, we have to conclude the movies shooting in time, otherwise Salman is very social and loves meeting fans.
Neeraj Satija, convener of the Confederation of Indian Industries Punjab, said, Salman Khan is very friendly.
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Dhian Singh Mand, the interim jathedar appointed by the organisers of Sarbat Khalsa at Chabba village near Amritsar in November last year, along with two of his associates, including Mohkam Singh and Paramjit Singh Jejeani, were taken into custody while entering Punjab from Shambu border by Patiala police on late Sunday night.
The arrested persons were booked under Sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC at the Shambu police station and were produced before the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Rajpura, from where they were sent to the judicial custody.
Jagtar Singh Hawara, a convict in the Beant Singh murder case, was elected as the jathedar of the Akal Takht, but due to his confinement, Mand was appointed as the acting jathedar till the release of Hawara. Dhian Singh was returning from Delhi after his religious visit to Takht Patna Sahib, Bihar and Takht Hazoor Sahib, Maharashtra with his associates. It is said they were heading towards Amritsar to pay homage at Darbar Sahib and Akal Takht Sahib. After their arrest from the border, the Shambu police immediately shifted them to Ghanour police station, from where they were produced before the court in the morning.
Mand, other appointed jatherdars and his associates were to begin Punjab tour from May 10, for their next announced Sarbat Khalsa gathering.
Read: Sikhs dont worship women, hence no Bharat Mata ki Jai: Simranjit Mann
A priest Ravi Pujari (33) of Kalka was arrested by the Panchkula police on Sunday in connection with a burglary. Chandigarh Police are linking Pujari with two high-profile burglaries in the city theft of valuables worth Rs 35-lakh from a Sector 18 house of an ex-bureaucrat and Rs 50-lakh jewellery from a businessmans house in Sector 36.
Ravi Pujari was said to be the caretaker and priest of a temple in Kalka.
Police claimed Pujari used to target big houses in the wee hours, at times even when the family members were inside. The Chandigarh Polices crime branch is planning to procure his production warrant with regard to the burglaries in the city and recovering the stolen articles. The crime branch had identified him and were looking for him.
How was he nabbed?
The Panchkula police were looking for him in connection with Rs 3-lakh burglary case registered at Sector 5 police station.
He was nabbed from Pinjore when he was on his way to Kalka. To avoid his arrest, Pujari reportedly tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself with a knife and had to be admitted to the Government Hospital, Panchkula.
Burglaries he is linked to
On February 18, a burglar made off with gold jewellery worth around Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh from a house in Sector 36 when the family was asleep. The burglar was caught committing the crime in the
CCTV camera installed in the house.
The house belonged to the owner of a pharmacy company that has its office in Sector 34. Police said the burglar entered the house at 4.05 am and decamped with 10 gold bangles, two diamond necklaces, seven gold necklaces, eight pairs of gold earrings, a pair of diamond earrings and Rs 1.5 lakh.
A woman was sleeping in the room when the theft took place. She even spotted the accused, but mistook him to be her domestic help. A case of theft was registered at Sector 36 police station.
On May 16, 2015, valuables worth Rs 35 lakh were stolen from the house of a retired bureaucrat couple.
The theft occured when the owners of the house, Sarwan Singh Bains, who retired as director (agriculture), Punjab, and his wife, also a retired IRS (Indian Revenue Service) officer, were out of station. Sarwans son and daughter-in-law, who is the daughter of the owner of Aroma Hotel in Sector 22, were sleeping on the first floor when the
theft took place on the ground floor. The thief was visible in the CCTV camera, but the footage was hazy. A case was registered at the Sector 19 police station.
If you are spending more time clicking away on that smartphone of yours at the cost of your partner, its time for a reality check.
Doctors from leading psychiatry institutes say smartphone addiction is hampering the married life of newly-wed couples in India and reducing sexual intimacy among partners as early as a month after marriage.
The Ranchi Institute of Neuro Psychiatry and Allied Sciences (RINPAS), popularly known as the Ranchi asylum, has treated at least seven such patients, who gave more time to their smartphones than their newly-wed spouses causing serious rifts in their relationship, in the past one year.
Read: It is not just you, even science wants you to have more sex
The Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) in Ranchi, one of the few centre-run psychiatry care units in India, also witnessed at least three such cases in the past six months.
In a majority of these cases, the partners lost interest in each other as they remained engrossed in their respective smartphones, either surfing the net or playing video games. Many complained that there was no sexual or emotional intimacy between the couple, creating distance and differences between the partners, Dr Neha Syed, associate professor of clinical psychology at CIP, said.
According to a report by Counterpoint Research released earlier this year, India is the second largest smartphone market in the world with 220 million active smartphone users.
Doctors from leading psychiatry institutes say smartphone addiction is hampering the married life of newly-wed couples in India and reducing sexual intimacy among partners as early as a month after marriage. (Shutterstock)
People are busy connecting more with the world around via social networks not only in metropolitan cities but also in semi-urban areas despite poor internet connectivity.
This overindulgence in the virtual world is taking people away from the real world and pushing them towards unstable mental health, fear doctors.
Dr Amool Ranjan, head of the clinical psychology department of RINPAS, said some of these couples living in the metros were unwilling to come out of their respective virtual worlds.
Read: What scares you more, driving or sex? Heres what most people said
Parents of two such couples contacted me in the past month or so seeking counselling for their children. The couples admitted the fact that they hardly interacted with each other and had become used to spending time with their respective gadgets, Ranjan said.
Rahul (name changed), a Ranchi man settled in Bengaluru, was addicted to chatting with strangers on dating websites. Three months after his marriage, his wife complained of his addiction to her in-laws and sought counselling for him.
Doctors from Ranchi referred him to a psychiatrist in his city. However, there was no update on his condition available with RINPAS.
If you are spending more time clicking away on that smartphone of yours at the cost of your partner, its time for a reality check. (Tumblr)
Some patients get so used to chatting on the internet that they fail to extract the same pleasure while talking to someone in person, Ranjan said referring to a case from Noida wherein the couple had accepted each others addiction to internet and phones and were living together.
Dr AK Nag, a senior professor at RINPAS, said such cases require special care since a majority of the addicted persons do not accept their condition. If a person fails to make eye contact while talking and keeps staring at his phone instead, he is probably addicted, said Nag.
For de-addiction, doctors use counselling sessions and therapies that are time-taking but effective. Patients are asked to spend time with their family and friends so that they realise there is a world outside their gadgets, say doctors.
We ask them to not use their phones for two hours in the first week, then gradually increase the time to four hours, six hours and finally 12 hours. During these hours, we ask the patients to go on an outing with their partners, Dr Syed said.
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A new Disney theme park hitting Shanghai in June, and TRON fans will be jealous when they see the new ride that is only being built in China.
The first video footage and images have hit the web for one of the most-anticipated thrill rides at Shanghai Disneyland: The TRON Lightcycle Power Run.
Read: Disneyland to bring Star Wars to life
A video uploaded on YouTube takes viewers on a virtual ride aboard the TRON thrill ride which recreates the Grid universe in a high-speed roller coaster that doubles as the Lightcycle.
Shanghai Disneyland hosted a soft opening over the weekend, with guests posting their experiences on Peter Pan and Pirates of the Caribbean rides. The park opens June 16.
Voters in West Virginia and Nebraska cast ballots in White House primaries Tuesday as a new poll showed presumptive nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump neck-and-neck in three key battleground states.
Clinton still has active competition for the Democratic nomination despite her virtually insurmountable lead in the delegate count, and rival Bernie Sanders was looking for a big win in West Virginia.
Trump is now alone in his quest for the Republican nomination, his last two rivals -- Texas senator Ted Cruz and Ohio governor John Kasich -- having dropped out after the New York billionaires blowout victory in Indiana last week.
A Quinnipiac University poll out Tuesday showed Trump rapidly closing in on Clintons lead in two major battleground states -- Florida and Pennsylvania -- and overtaking her in swing state Ohio.
No candidate has won the presidential election without taking at least two of those three states.
Six months from election day, the presidential races between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the three most crucial states -- Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania -- are too close to call, said Peter Brown, the polls assistant director.
Unyielding Sanders
The poll also found that Sanders, a democratic socialist who commands an enthusiastic following on the left, would do better against Trump than Clinton in all three states if he were the Democratic nominee.
The 74-year-old Vermont senator, who defeated Clinton in Indiana last week, has mounted an unyielding come-from-behind challenge that has exposed weaknesses in the former secretary of states campaign.
Although almost certain to win the Democratic nomination -- she is only 155 delegates short of that goal -- Clintons ability to excite young and white working class Democrats going into the general election has been put in doubt by Sanderss primary successes.
In West Virginia, a coal mining state in the heart of Appalachia, Clinton shot herself in the foot in March, telling voters in neighbouring Ohio: Were going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.
She later apologised and suggested her remarks were misunderstood but in a state where livelihoods have hinged on coal for generations, many are unconvinced.
Recent polls show Sanders with as much as a six-point lead over the 68-year-old former first lady among Democrats in the state, where 29 delegates are up for grabs.
Polls opened in West Virginia at 6:30am (1030 GMT) and close at 7:30pm (2330 GMT).
In Nebraska, polls opened in the Republican primary at 8:00am (1300 GMT) and close at 8:00pm. The Democrats caucused there on March 5, and Sanders won.
Trump challenges
While Clinton still has Sanders to worry about, Trump faces a rebellion within the Republican leadership over the insulting tone and shifting substance of his candidacy.
House speaker Paul Ryan in the past week announced he was not ready to support Trump, a rare rebuke that put the power struggles underway within the Republican party on public display.
In the same week, former presidents George HW Bush and George W Bush and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced they would not attend the partys nominating convention in Cleveland in July.
The Republican establishment is still reeling from Trumps hostile takeover of the party, aghast at positions hes taken on trade, foreign policy and taxes that fly in the face of conservative dictums.
But Trump has shown no sign of backing down, reportedly moving instead to assert control over the Republican National Committees fund-raising and political organising infrastructure.
According to The New York Times, Trump has said he may need as much as $1.5 billion for the campaign ahead, and will seek to raise it from donors rather than to self-finance as he has up to now.
Meanwhile, he has given New Jersey governor Chris Christie the task of planning a transition to a Trump administration, including searches for future cabinet secretaries.
Already on board the Trump train is former Texas governor Rick Perry, an early drop out from the Republican race who endorsed the 69-year-old real estate mogul last week.
I full well expect the Republican party to fall in behind Donald Trump to help him get elected, because again, the alternative here is very, very different, Perry said in an interview Tuesday with CNN.
US presidential candidate Donald Trump set off a cross-Atlantic spat on Monday by saying he will make an exception for Londons newly elected mayor Sadiq Khan to enter the US in view of his proposed ban on Muslims.
Khan rejected the offer outright, saying: This isnt just about me. Its about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world.
He had said in an earlier interview to TIME magazine he plans to visit the US before January, when a new president is traditionally sworn in, in case Donald Trump wins.
Khan, who belongs to the Labour Party, has been extremely critical of Trump and has pledged his support to Democrat Hillary Clinton. I hope she trounces him, he told BBC.
Read | Sadiq Khan sworn in as London mayor, talks of engaged administration
Trump set off worldwide outrage last December by proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US in the aftermath of the San Bernardino terrorist attack that claimed 14 lives.
He clarified later he would allow foreign Muslim leaders to visit, but has since stuck to the larger message behind the call, as he has tended to with all controversial remarks.
There will always be exceptions, Trump told The New York Times in an interview, when asked how his proposed ban would affect Londons new mayor.
I was happy to see that, Trump said about Khans victory. I think its a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because frankly that would be very, very good.
Asked why that would be good, Trump said: Because I think if he does a great job, it will really you lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing.
Read | London shows the way with Citizen Khan
Khan, the son of Pakistan immigrants who has been called the most powerful Muslim leader in the western world, is unlikely to find Trumps remarks anything but troublesome.
Donald Trumps ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe, Khan said in the BBC interview. It risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays in to the hands of extremists.
He added: Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam London has proved him wrong.
Khan has accused Conservatives of using tactics straight out of the Donald Trump playbook during the mayoral race.
They used fear and innuendo to try to turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other, he said. They tried to link him to extremists he had appeared with as a human rights lawyer.
The Indian subcontinent will get a fair share of attention at the 69th Cannes Film Festival that opens on May 11 with the gala screening of Woody Allens Cafe Society. And India will expectedly hog much of the regional limelight in Cannes with two entries - one documentary and a short fiction film - in the festivals official selection.
That apart, Anurag Kashyaps Raman Raghav 2.0, about a 1960s Mumbai serial killer played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is set to premiere in Directors Fortnight, a prestigious parallel section in which the Mumbai directors two-part Gangs of Wasseypur and Ugly bowed in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Nepal, too, will be showcased in the latest edition of the worlds premier film festival.
Read: Raging Bull Robert De Niro to be at Cannes with Hands of Stone
The festival on the French Riviera is known for attracting independent cinema heavy hitters as well as huge glamour wattage in the shape of Hollywood and European movie stars.
Kalimpong boy Saurav Rai, a student of Kolkatas Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI), will register his presence amid the glitz and glamour with his 28-minute Nepali-language diploma film Gudh (Nest).
Read: Charlize Theron to captivate Cannes all over again
Kalimpong boy Saurav Rai is a student of Kolkatas Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute. (Saurav.rai.94/Facebook)
Rais film is among 18 titles - 14 fiction and four animation - selected from 2,300 entries received from film academies across the world for the Cinefondation competition, now in its 19th year.
The film seeks to capture the vivid memories that I have of my growing up years, says 29-year-old Rai. The political turmoil in Darjeeling forms a minute backdrop. Gudh is 80 per cent reality and 20 per cent imagination, he says, adding that even what he has drawn from his imagination is very close to reality.
That this cathartic personal journey of mine has made it to Cannes is a dream come true, says the young filmmaker.
The Cinefondation selection will be judged by a five-member jury presided over by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase. Three prizes are up for grabs in the section and the award-winners will be announced on May 20.
The other Indian film in the Cannes official selection - Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiyas The Cinema Travellers, a documentary on Maharashtras travelling tent theatres - represents a journey of a completely different kind.
Read: Chandigarh directors short film Asmad makes it to Cannes
The Cinema Travellers is a documentary on Maharashtras travelling tent theatres. (thecinematravelers.com)
The 96-minute film, made over a period of eight years with the support of the India Foundation for the Arts, the Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University and Goethe-Institut India, is part of the festivals Cannes Classics section, which includes nine documentaries on cinema history.
Read: Asghar Farhadis The Salesman added to Cannes Competition
The Cinema Travellers documents the changes and challenges that the once-thriving tent cinemas face in the digital age.
Among the restored prints to be screened as part of Cannes Classics this year is the 1959 Pakistani film Jago Hua Savera (The Day Shall Dawn), the countrys first nomination for the best foreign language film Oscar.
Watch the Pakistani film Jago Hua Savera here:
Directed by Aaejay Kardar, Jago Hua Savera was the result of a rare collaboration among talents from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). Based on a story by Bengali writer Manik Bandopadhyay and scripted by Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the film focused on the lives of impoverished fishermen of East Pakistan. The female lead in Jago Hua Savera was played by Calcutta screen and stage actor Tripti Mitra.
In Cannes Critics Week, the Singaporean-French production A Yellow Bird, directed by debutant K Rajagopal and featuring Seema Biswas in a key role, homes in on the state of Indians in contemporary Singapore. As an Indian voice in Chinese-dominated Singapore, Rajagopal is seen as an authentic representative of minority aspirations.
A Yellow Bird tells the story of the struggles of an Indian man released from jail after an eight-year incarceration for contraband smuggling.
A Yellow Bird aims to examine the position of the Indian in contemporary Singaporean society. (The PR Factory)
A Yellow Bird aims to examine the position of the Indian in contemporary Singaporean society. The story stems from my own experiences as an Indian-Singaporean (in a society) where a sense of belonging to my birth nation is frequently questioned and tested, the director said.
In a significant breakthrough for Afghan cinema, Directors Fortnight will host the premiere of debutante Shahrbanoo Sadat. The 26-year-old Kabul-based directors first film Wolf and Sheep was developed in the Cannes Cinefondation Residence in 2010 and completed with Danish funding.
Watch the trailer of Wolf and Sheep here:
In the Cannes Atelier, a section that helps new projects get off the ground, the subcontinent will be represented by two proposed films - Aditya Vikram Senguptas Memories and My Mother (India) and Pooja Gurung and Bibhusan Basnets The Whole-timers (Nepal).
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Among the six Bengali short films that have been shortlisted for screening under short film corner at the Cannes Film Festival this year, is a Delhi University student Lubdhak Chatterjees film, In A Free State. The festival is scheduled from May 11 to 22 and Lubdhak is elated about his directorial being shortlisted at Cannes.
Read: Anurag Kashyaps Raman Raghav 2.0 to lead subcontinents show at Cannes
While making this short film, I never imagined that it would go that far. I sent my request on the official website of Cannes and surprisingly got shortlisted, an ecstatic Lubdhak told us.
The festival is scheduled from May 11 to 22 and Lubdhak is elated about his directorial being shortlisted at Cannes. A still from his short film.
The 25-year-old, Mtech from Delhi Technological University (DTU), was born in Kolkata. He first got involved with blogging and got intrigued by the world of motion picture. Filmmakers Satyajit Ray and Rituparno Ghosh have been a big influence on him.
For someone as naive as me, making a short film on my own was quite a struggle. Managing the expenses and deciding the shoot location was quite a task, but once you are determined, things fall into place, he says.
Read: Chandigarh directors short film Asmad makes it to Cannes
The 28-minute film is a story of an aspiring filmmaker and an artist who paints amputated figures. They embark on a journey to explore the true essence of freedom when their choices are antagonistic to popular social norms. Starring Nihal Parashar and Sunder Pal, is a short film which delineates the notion of freedom and its price.
Lubdhak further adds that he wanted to walk the red carpet at Cannes and experience the whole fiasco but due to his forthcoming exams and the expenses involved in travelling to the festival he wouldnt be attending it.
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A former North Korean military chief who Seoul had said was executed is actually alive and in possession of several new senior-level posts, the Norths state media said Tuesday.
The news on Ri Yong Gil marks yet another blunder for South Korean intelligence officials, who have often gotten information wrong in tracking developments with their rival. It also points to the difficulties that even professional spies have in figuring out whats going on in one of the worlds most closed governments.
Ri, who was considered one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns most trusted aides, missed two key national meetings in February. Seoul intelligence officials later said that Kim had him executed for corruption and other charges.
Kim has reportedly overseen a series of killings, purges and dismissals since he took power in late 2011, part of what foreign experts call an attempt to tighten his grip on power.
The Souths report on Ris execution seemed to be bolstered later in February when Pyongyangs official Korean Central News Agency confirmed Ri had lost his job by describing someone else as chief of the North Korean militarys general staff.
He hadnt appeared anywhere in KCNA, the Norths main media outlet for foreign audiences, until the report Tuesday that a person with the same name as Ri was among those awarded important positions during the just concluded Workers Party congress in Pyongyang. The congress, the first in 36 years, ended Monday with announcements of personnel and organizational changes.
According to KCNA dispatches, Ri got three posts - member of the partys central committee, alternate member of the committees powerful political bureau, and member of the partys central military commission.
Seouls unification ministry said Tuesday that it confirmed Ri is back after analysing North Korean state media photos and video of the party congress.
South Korean media said that Seoul intelligence authorities were responsible for the initial reports on Ris execution. But the National Intelligence Service - South Koreas main spy agency - tried to distance itself from the misstep, saying it never disclosed any information on Ri.
Monitoring developments among the Norths ruling elite is very hard for outsiders; the country keeps strict tabs on visitors and its own state-run press acts as a disseminator of government propaganda. South Korea, which runs several intelligence organisations mainly tasked with spying on the North, has a mixed record.
Earlier this year, South Korean intelligence and defense officials faced criticism for failing to see in advance that North Korea had been preparing for its fourth nuclear test.
The NIS also failed to learn of the 2011 death of Kim Jong Il, the dictator father of Kim Jong Un, before Pyongyangs state TV announced it. In 2013, it saved its face by releasing its finding that Kims powerful uncle Jang Song Thaek was purged, days before North Korea announced his execution.
The rival Koreas have shared the worlds most heavily fortified border since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and they bar ordinary citizens from exchanging phone calls, letters and emails without special permission.
Former premier Yousaf Raza Gilanis son, Ali Haider Gilani, was recovered in a joint operation by Afghan and US forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday, three years after he was abducted from Pakistans Punjab province.
Afghan officials said four men were killed during the raid that targeted an Al Qaeda cell. Ali, 30, was sent to the Pakistan embassy in Kabul and would be flown home on a special plane, they said.
The Afghan ambassador in Islamabad, Omar Zakhilwal, told the media Ali is well and will be repatriated to his family soon. Giving details of his telephone conversation with Yousaf Raza Gilani, the envoy wrote on Facebook: He was ecstatically delighted as expected and grateful of President Ashraf Ghanis personal attention to his sons safe release.
Pakistans foreign office said in a statement Ali was recovered in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni. Afghan National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar informed Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistani premiers advisor on foreign affairs, about the rescue.
Alis brother Abdul Qadir Gilani told the media he was so happy today that I cant explain it in words. Dozens of people of all ages gathered at the main junctions in Multan, waving Pakistan Peoples Party flags and distributing sweets. At the time of his abduction, Ali was contesting the general election from a constituency in Multan.
Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari tweeted about the recovery.
PM @YR_Gillani received call from ambassador of Afghanistan.His son @haidergilani has been recovered in a successful operation.Alhamdulillah BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) May 10, 2016
The former premier thanked the Afghan security forces for ensuring a happy ending to a dreadful family saga.
Addressing a rally at Bagh in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Yousaf Raza Gilani said, I received news of my sons recovery when I landed in Kashmir. However, instead of going back home to receive my son, I felt it was my duty to come here first and address the rally.
Ali was kidnapped by suspected Taliban fighters from a political rally in Multan on May 9, 2013, two days before the general election. Two workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party were killed by the militants.
Eight armed men travelling in a car and two motorcycles opened fire at a corner meeting in Multan. Witnesses said a bullet hit Ali and he was bleeding when the kidnappers dragged him into the car.
Subsequently, a top government official had said Ali was in the custody of a militant group that was not part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The official also said the group had demanded Rs2 billion as ransom and warned it would kill Ali if the demand was not met.
Ali was rescued two months after slain former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseers son Shahbaz Taseer was recovered in Balochistan, nearly five years after he was abducted from Lahore.
Read | Kidnapped son of assassinated Pak governor rescued after 5 years
Germany plans to add 7,000 military jobs and 4,400 civilians to its armed forces over the next seven years to help tackle demands such as cybersecurity and the fight against Islamic State, its defence minister said on Tuesday.
Ursula von der Leyen said the move marked the first increase in the size of the German military since the end of the Cold War and was part of a broader campaign that has revamped the way the military buys equipment and prepares its budgets.
A quarter century of a shrinking military is over. It is time for the German armed forces to grow, she told reporters.
Germanys armed forces totalled 800,000 military and civilian personnel at the time of German unification in 1990, but since have shrunk to a target of 185,000 troops and 56,000 civilians, according to German government officials.
They said the goal now was to get away from the strict ceilings used in the past and move toward a more dynamic annual review of personnel needs.
Officials said a recent comprehensive review had shown that the German military needed 14,300 additional troops to cope with new missions. These include the at-sea rescue of refugees, operations in support of a U.S.-led air strike campaign against Islamic State insurgents in Iraq and Syria, and backing operations against other Islamist militants in Mali.
Of those, 5,000 would be filled through changes in existing personnel, with 7,000 to be added in new posts and the extension of existing contracts.
Current plans would leave about 2,300 of the required military positions vacant, although that estimate could be adjusted next year, officials said.
A Jerusalem court convicted a 14-year-old Palestinian on Tuesday of the attempted murder of two Israelis in a knife attack last October that was one of the most high-profile of a recent wave of violence.
The Jerusalem District Court also found Ahmed Manasra guilty of inflicting severe injury in the attack he carried out at the age of 13 along with a 15-year-old cousin, officials said.
The two stabbed and seriously wounded a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy in the Jewish settlement neighbourhood of Pisgat Zeev in annexed east Jerusalem.
Hassan, the cousin, was shot dead by security forces, while Ahmed was hit by a car as they fled.
The trial was held behind closed doors because of Manasras age.
The Jerusalem district prosecutor stressed the fact the defendant is a minor does not change in the least the risk and danger his actions caused, the justice ministry said.
Manasra, an east Jerusalem resident, was the youngest Palestinian to be convicted by an Israeli civil court in the wave of violence that erupted last October.
A 12-year-old Palestinian girl from the West Bank, convicted of attempted murder by a military court as part of a plea bargain and sentenced to four months, was released from prison in April.
Manasras attorney Lea Tsemel told AFP that the evidence shows he did not want to kill at all and didnt murder anyone. He said he just wanted to scare Jews so theyd stop killing Palestinians.
Tsemel contrasted the attempted murder charges Manasra was convicted of with the manslaughter charge levelled against Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who is accused of shooting dead a wounded Palestinian assailant as he lay on the ground.
She accused the legal system of being dragged into discriminating between Jews and Arabs.
Manasras attack took place at the beginning of the a wave of Palestinian violence targeting Israeli civilians and security personnel, primarily in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Footage released by Israeli authorities in the wake of the attack purported to show the cousins -- knives in hand -- following the Israeli victims.
It also showed Ahmed in the aftermath of the attack lying bleeding on the ground while Israeli onlookers shout abuse.
It sparked a propaganda skirmish, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas claiming he had been executed while Israel scrambled to release video of him sitting up and eating in a Jerusalem hospital bed.
Since last October, 204 Palestinians and 28 Israelis have been killed in the violence, according to an AFP count.
Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.
Manasras sentencing will begin on July 11, a justice ministry spokeswoman said.
The district prosecutor said he would seek a severe sentence, within the law.
Two masked attackers stabbed two Israeli women taking a walk in a Jerusalem forest on Tuesday, police said, setting off a manhunt to capture the assailants.
Police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said five women were walking along a Jerusalem promenade near the Peace Forest when they were attacked from behind. Two of them, both said to be about 70 years of age, were stabbed and were taken to a hospital with moderate injuries.
After setting up checkpoints and searching an Arab area of east Jerusalem, police arrested two men, but they were released soon after.
Israel has seen nearly eight months of Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, but also shooting and vehicular assaults, that have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians have been killed during the same time, most of them said by Israel to have been attackers while the rest were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
In recent weeks, violence has also flared up on the Gaza border, with militants launching mortar rounds at Israel and Israeli aircraft and tanks responding. Israel has also discovered two underground tunnels stretching from the coastal territory into Israel and on Tuesday, the military said it has arrested a Hamas operative who has provided information about the Islamic militant groups tunnel network. Israel said it arrested another Hamas member last week who also had divulged details about the tunnels.
Israel and Hamas fought a 50-day war in 2014 that killed some 2,200 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them civilians. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and seven civilians were killed.
Toward the end of the 2014 war, Israel destroyed more than 30 tunnels that Hamas had dug under the border. Hamas militants had used the tunnels to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks.
The war left entire neighbourhoods in Gaza flattened, destroying 11,000 homes. Tens of thousands of people remain displaced.
In Gaza on Tuesday, Belgiums visiting Foreign Minister Didier Reynders called Gazas reconstruction too slow, urging Israel to allow in more construction materials. Israel says the flow of goods into Gaza has been increasing gradually since the war.
Reynders also urged Israel and the Palestinians to return to peace negotiations.
Also Tuesday, the Israeli military said that based on situation assessments, it would close the crossings out of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip until Thursday, barring Palestinians from entering Israel except for humanitarian cases. Israel is marking its Memorial Day and Independence Day during that period.
Authorities in Bangladesh have executed Motiur Rahman Nizami, the chief of Bangladeshs largest Islamist party, for his role in genocide and other serious crimes during the countrys independence war against Pakistan in 1971.
Minutes after Tuesday midnight, Bangladesh home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that Jamaat-e-Islami partys Nizami was hanged inside Dhaka central jail amid tight security at 12:10 am.
The execution came after the countrys Supreme Court upheld the death penalty ruling made against him by a special tribunal.
The 73-year-old is the fifth man to be hanged as three other senior colleagues from his Islamist party and another senior leader of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia had faced the gallows earlier.
Pakistani soldiers aided by local collaborators killed 3 million people, raped 200,000 women and forced some 10 million people flee the country during the nine months of war in then east Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
Sheikh Maruf Hasan, a deputy inspector general of police, told reporters a few minutes before Tuesday midnight that Nizamis body would be handed over to his family for burial in his ancestral home in northwestern Pabna district.
Earlier on Tuesday evening, Nizamis family members met him as he refused to seek presidential clemency, the last legal process a condemned man can seek.
A German national stabbed four passengers at a train station near Munich early on Tuesday, killing one man and injuring three, in an attack police said appeared to have an Islamist motive.
Witnesses said the assailant, a 27-year-old man, shouted Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest in Arabic), according to police.
The perpetrator made remarks during the attack which point to there being a political motive, Bavarian police said in a statement, adding he had been arrested and there were no further suspects.
A 50-year-old died of stab wounds in hospital shortly after the attack. The other stabbed men, aged between 43 and 58, sustained lighter injuries, police said.
The attack took place at about 5 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) at the train station at Grafing, a commuter town about 32 km (20 miles) southeast of the Bavarian capital in southern Germany.
Germany, which is playing a supporting role in the fight against Islamic State, has not suffered a major attack by Islamist militants on the scale of those that have hit neighbouring France and Belgium.
But ministers have repeatedly warned an attack is possible and German security services are on alert.
Over 800 home-grown radicals have left Germany to join jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq and about 260 have returned.
Germany has also been a transit country for militants who carried out attacks in Belgium this year and Paris last year. There are concerns that some of the more than 1 million migrants who arrived in the country last year have slipped off officials radar.
A federal judge has ruled the extradition of drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman to the US can move ahead, Mexicos Judicial Council said Monday, but the foreign relations department must still approve it and the defence can appeal.
The council, which oversees Mexicos federal judges and tribunals, said the judge, who was not identified, had agreed the legal requirements laid out in the extradition treaty between the two countries had been met.
The foreign relations department has 20 days to decide whether to approve Guzmans extradition.
Any extradition attempt can be delayed or stopped by a request to the court by attorneys for Guzman, the convicted leader of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at an unrelated news conference she was looking forward to an imminent resolution, but did not have a specific timeline.
Guzman was moved on Saturday from a prison outside Mexico City to one in Ciudad Juarez near the US border. Questions have arisen on both sides of the border about the decision to relocate the drug lord to a region that is one of his cartels strongholds.
A Mexican security official acknowledged on Sunday that the sudden transfer was to a less-secure prison.
The official said in general the Cefereso No 9 prison on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso in Texas, is not as impregnable as the maximum-security Altiplano facility near Mexico City where Guzman had been held. The official wasnt authorised to discuss the case publicly and agreed to do so only if not quoted by name.
The official said, however, that Guzman is being held in a maximum-security wing where the same protocols are being enforced as in Altiplano, including 24-hour monitoring via a camera in his cell. Altiplano is considered the countrys highest-security prison.
El Chapo first broke out of another prison in 2001 and spent more than a decade on the run, becoming one of the worlds most wanted fugitives. He was recaptured in 2014, but slipped out of Altiplano, which many previously had thought was unescapable, in July 2015 by fleeing through a sophisticated, mile-long tunnel that went up into the shower in his cell.
Mexican marines re-arrested him in the western state of Sinaloa in January, after he fled a safe house through a storm drain.
He was returned to Altiplano, where he was placed under constant observation from a ceiling camera with no blind spots, and the floors of top-security cells were reinforced with metal bars and a 16-inch layer of concrete.
Some Mexican media have speculated the weekend move was a prelude to imminent extradition to the US, where he faces drug charges in seven jurisdictions. But authorities denied that, and multiple analysts told The Associated Press that there was no sign of a link between the prison switch and extradition.
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Guzman was notified of the judges extradition decision on Sunday evening, a judicial authority official told the AP. The official was not authorised to be quoted by name.
A lawyer for the drug lord, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, told the AP that he would continue trying to block extradition. He said if the foreign department approves extradition, the defence will have 30 working days to seek a court order blocking the transport of his client to the US to be prosecuted on drug charges.
Rodriguez said he would seek to have Guzman returned to Altiplano prison, arguing his clients defence will suffer because his attorneys are based far away from where he is now held.
Also on Monday, actor Kate del Castillo, who wants to make a movie about Guzmans life and arranged for actor Sean Penn to interview the drug boss in October 2015, said she was pleased with the step toward extradition.
Todays news that El Chapo may be extradited to the United States is good news in that it will allow my team greater access to him in order to tell a full and accurate picture of his unbelievable life and work, Del Castillo said through her publicist.
It was not clear why Del Castillo thought the conditions of Guzmans potential imprisonment in the US would be more accessible than in Mexico.
Mexican authorities have said they are investigating whether Del Castillo received any money from Guzman. She has denied the suggestion.
Guzmans lawyers have said Del Castillo has the rights to make a film about Chapos life.
Barack Obama will become the first US President to visit Hiroshima in Japan later this month but he will not apologise for the United States dropping of an atomic bomb on the city at the end of World War Two, the White House said on Tuesday.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize early in his presidency in 2009 in part for making nuclear non proliferation a center piece of his agenda, Obama on May 27 will tour the site of the worlds first nuclear bombing with Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
With the end of his last term in office approaching in January, Obama will highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons, the White House said in a statement.
He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focussed on our shared future, Ben Rhodes, Obamas deputy national security adviser, wrote in a separate blog.
The visit comes as part of a May 21-28 swing through Asia, which will include a Group of Seven summit in Japan and his first trip to Vietnam. The Asia trip seeks to reinforce his geopolitical pivot towards the region, though friends and allies there have sometimes questioned Washingtons commitment.
The Hiroshima tour will symbolise a new level of reconciliation between former wartime enemies who are now close allies. It will also underscore Obamas efforts to improve US-Japan ties, marked by an Asia-Pacific trade pact as well as cooperation against Chinas pursuit of maritime claims and the nuclear threat from North Korea.
The Atomic Bomb Dome at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. (AFP File Photo)
On the final day of the summit in Japan, Obama and Abe will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park near the spot where a US warplane dropped an atomic bomb 71 years ago.
White House debate
The decision to go to Hiroshima was hotly debated within the White House. There were concerns a US presidential visit would be heavily criticised in the United States if it were seen as an apology.
The bomb dropped on August 6, 1945 killed thousands of people instantly and about 140,000 by the end of that year. Another was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, and Japan surrendered six days later.
The majority of Americans view the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as justified to end the war and save US lives. Most Japanese see it as unjustified.
Obamas press secretary Josh Earnest said it was an entirely legitimate line of inquiry for historians when asked why the White House had decided not to use his Hiroshima visit to issue an apology.
He told reporters that while Obama understands the United States bears a special responsibility as the only country to use nuclear weapons in wartime, the President will emphasise Washingtons responsibility to lead the world in an effort to eliminate them.
Abe, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, said he hoped to turn this into an opportunity for the US and Japan to together pay tribute to the memories of the victims of the nuclear bombing.
US secretary of state John Kerry puts his arm around Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida after they and fellow G7 foreign ministers laid wreaths at the cenotaph at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. (AP File Photo)
President Obama visiting Hiroshima and expressing towards the world the reality of the impact of nuclear radiation will contribute greatly to establishing a world without nuclear arms, Abe added.
Obamas visit will be a symbolic capstone for the nuclear disarmament agenda he laid out in a landmark speech in Prague in 2009. His aides tout last years Iran nuclear deal as a major piece of his foreign policy legacy.
But Obama has made only modest progress towards securing the worlds loose nuclear materials and there is no guarantee his White House successor will keep the issue a high priority.
Lisbeth Gronlund, co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists Global Security Program, said Obama must do more than give another beautiful speech and should announce concrete action on nuclear disarmament when he visits Hiroshima.
After US secretary of state John Kerry visited Hiroshima last month, survivors of the bombing and other residents said that if Obama visits, they hope for progress in ridding the world of nuclear weapons, rather than an apology.
A German man yelled infidel, you must die and Allahu akbar as he stabbed one person to death and wounded three others at a Bavarian train station Tuesday, but authorities said theyve found no links to any Islamic extremist network.
The 27-year-old, who had previously been in psychiatric care, made a rather confused impression as he was questioned by investigators, authorities said.
He had a 10-centimeter (4-inch) survival knife tucked into his belt when he was caught at about 5 a.m. near the scene of the attack by the Grafing Bahnhof station, near Munich, they said.
One man died in a hospital after the apparently random attack and three other men were being treated for their wounds.
The suspects name wasnt released in line with German privacy laws, but authorities said he is a German citizen with a traditional German name.
The man, a former carpenter who had been unemployed for two years, admitted to the crime, said Ken Heidenreich, spokesman for the Munich prosecutors office in charge of the case.
But Heidenreich said that there were questions about whether the man can be held criminally responsible and that authorities were evaluating whether he should be taken to a mental hospital.
Senior police official Lothar Koehler said the suspect told them he had been taking drugs, and that around the time of the attack he took his shoes off because he felt bugs on his feet that had caused blisters and were generating intense heat.
Koehler added it wasnt immediately clear whether the suspect was under the influence of drugs at the time of the attack, and authorities have found no record of any previous narcotics cases against him.
A woman reported hearing the words infidel, you must die as the attack began, and the suspect himself admitted yelling Allahu akbar, Arabic for God is great, senior police official Guenther Gietl said.
Koehler said it was difficult to get coherent, plausible and comprehensible information during questioning of the suspect.
Investigators said there were no indications that the man had any accomplices or an extremist background.
There are no indications from intelligence services so far that this person had any links in any form to Islamist or Salafist groups, people or organizations, Koehler said. We also have no indications that there was any radicalization or perhaps trigger for this act as a result of the consumption of (extremist) videos.
Koehler said investigators will follow up on statements the suspect made in questioning to determine whether he might have converted to Islam. But, he added, it has been difficult so far to get sensible statements out of him on this. And if he did, it must have been relatively recent.
He said the man underwent psychiatric care on Sunday night, though he didnt give details.
Authorities said the suspect lived near the central city of Giessen, in the state of Hesse. It wasnt clear why he traveled by train to Munich on Monday evening, but investigators said he may have had plans to go to either Austria or Portugal.
The man didnt have enough cash to pay for a hotel in Munich Monday night. He hung around the main station for a while, but told police that he had then felt unwell and boarded a train to Grafing, around 30 kilometers (nearly 20 miles) to the east. Surveillance camera footage showed that he was there about three hours before the attack, Koehler said.
The 56-year-old victim who died was attacked on or near the train, as was a second victim. The two others were attacked outside the station.
The names of the victims werent released. One of the survivors had serious injuries, though it wasnt clear whether they were life-threatening.
At the scene, police forensic experts marked dozens of bloody footprints some of them barefoot on the train platform with chalk numbers and collected evidence, including a cellphone.
Angelika Obermayr, the mayor of Grafing, which has about 13,500 residents, described it as an absolutely peaceful little Bavarian town.
Something like this is absolutely new and shakes people deeply otherwise, they only know this kind of thing from television, she said.
The attack comes at a sensitive time in Germany after the influx of around 1.1 million migrants last year and growing concerns about how the country will deal with them, particularly in Bavaria, their usual state of entry.
Germany so far has been spared the kind of multiple-victim Islamic extremist attacks other European countries have suffered.
Brussels Capital Region lawmaker Dr Manzoor Zahoor Ellahi has signed a petition extending his support in creating awareness regarding the proposed annexation of Gilgit Baltistan and the construction of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Ellahi, a Pakistani-born lawmaker and a member of the Socialist Party of Belgium (Parti Socialiste), also happens to be the doctor of Pakistani embassy in Brussels.
He signed the petition along with Motaher Chowdhury, the local councilor for Ixelles-Brussels.
The Europe-wide signature campaign is being organized by Junaid Qureshi, a Kashmiri writer, international human rights activist and a senior leader of the Jammu Kashmir Democratic Liberation Party (JKDLP).
In Brussels, the Signature Campaign was held on May 7 and 8.
The organizer for Overseas Affairs of United Kashmir Peoples National Party (UKPNP) based in Pakistani Administered Kashmir, Dr. Ishaq Khan, also visited the venue of the signature campaign to sign the petition and expressed his support.
We stand against all designs which divide our motherland further and we will not allow anyone to loot our resources. We stand against the division of Jammu and Kashmir, the proposed annexation of Gilgit Baltistan by Pakistan and the construction of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor which is being built without any say or consent from the people of Gilgit Baltistan, he said.
Meanwhile, Qureshi expressed his satisfaction regarding the progress of the Signature Campaign.
Hundreds of signatures were already collected in the first leg of the signature campaign in The Netherlands. Brussels, being the unofficial capital of Europe, seat of the European Parliament and home to other European institutions, proved to be a very successful city for our Campaign, he said.
He hoped to gather the same positive response from the public in Vienna, Geneva, Paris and various cities of UK.
Talking about the campaign, he said, More than three thousand pamphlets and flyers were distributed to the public and more than 500 signatures were collected in just 2 days. I am also very humbled by the visit and support of MP Manzoor Zahoor Ellahi and Councilor Motaher Chowdhury. It clearly shows that human rights issues stand above party politics or other sentimental alliances.
Expressing his delight over Ellahis support, Qureshi said, It is very encouraging to see that a Pakistani MP is supporting our efforts against the annexation of Gilgit Baltistan and the construction of CPEC. This should serve as a wake-up call to the Pakistani establishment and all other supporters of Pakistans duplicitous policy on Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistani police on Tuesday gunned down a tribesman at a hotel in Peshawar after he was reported to have fired aerial shots and also opened fire on security personnel.
The incident occurred at the Bangash Hotel in interior Peshawar city that falls under the jurisdiction of Shah Qabool Police Station.
Police received information that a tribesman was firing aerial shots. He was firing shots at short intervals from the ventilator of his hotel room.
Police rushed to the site and the tribesman, hailing from North Waziristan Agency, started firing on them to which the police party retaliated.
The tribesman was killed in the police firing. He was identified as Aayah Jan, a retired employee of Frontier Corps.
The police recovered a pistol from his hotel room.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) during search operation in Upper Dir district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa arrested three terrorists.
The arrested terrorists were involved in attacks on security forces since 2009-2011. The arrested terrorists were shifted to an undisclosed location for further interrogation, sources said
Geraldine Roman on Tuesday celebrated overcoming bigotry, hatred and discrimination as results showed she had become the first transgender politician to win a congressional seat in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.
After her victory in yesterdays election, Roman, 49, is being seen by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community as a source of hope in a country where Church influence means divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage are banned.
The politics of bigotry, hatred and discrimination did not triumph. What triumphed was the politics of love, acceptance and respect, Roman told AFP after her victory for a seat in Congress representing the farming province of Bataan just northwest of Manila.
Roman, a Catholic, said she was looking forward to becoming a lawmaker so she could respond to critics who dismissed her as a one-issue politician not to be taken seriously.
Im elated, very, very happy. Im also excited to work. I realise that the burden is bigger because the stereotype of people about the LGBT is we are frivolous, that we have nothing substantial to say, so I have to prove them wrong, she said.
Roman will be the highest-ranking openly LGBT politician in the Philippines, where other lawmakers have refused to come out for fear of losing support from the Catholic Church and other religious groups.
A political neophyte, Roman will succeed her mother as representative of Bataan, where her family has been a political force for three generations. Her mother had to stand down after serving the maximum number of three terms.
Romans father was a former congressman whose death in 2014 prompted her to consider continuing the family legacy.
Political families dominate Philippine politics, from the local to the national level, and belonging to such a dynasty was widely regarded as being crucial to Romans success.
Still the constituents of Bataan overwhelmingly endorsed Roman, with the vote count showing she had secured 62 percent support.
She is also a human being. We all have rights. Its not an issue to me that she is transgender, farmer Bern Salenga, 49, told AFP during a campaign sortie in Romans home town before the election.
Roman has been living as a woman for two decades, and proudly wore a pearl necklace and pink lipstick while campaigning.
She had a successful career as senior editor at the Spanish News Agency. She speaks Spanish, French and Italian and won a scholarship to study in Spain, where she met her partner of 18 years.
She underwent sex reassignment surgery, and legally changed her name and gender, in the 1990s - a recognition she wants other transgender people to have.
Canadas Sikh community once again came forward to help the victims of devastating fire that almost engulfed the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta.
Three truck loads of non perishable food items and grocery were flagged off to Fort McMurray from Surrey by the gurdwara leaders. The items were collected within 48 hours after an appeal was issued by community activists. The donation drive was launched by Avtar Singh of Akal Academy in partnership with various gurdwaras across Greater Vancouver. For the last two days, people could be seen delivering canned food to the Sikh temples.
Tony Singh outside his godown before three trucks were dispatched to Fort McMurray. (HT Photo)
It is believed that 90,000 people had to be evacuated from Fort McMurray after wildfire left thousands of buildings burnt. Bhupinder Gill, who lived in Fort McMurray and has now shifted to Edmonton, told HT that over 500 Indians, including Punjabis and Gujaratis, resided in the town. Gill has created a Facebbok page to help those affected.
According to Avtar Singh, the donation drive will continue until life in Fort McMurray is back to normal. Tochi Sandhu of Envision Financial, who was present when three trucks left for Fort McMurray, estimated that it might take years for the affected town to recover.
The whole country needs to get united. I am happy that Sikhs are doing this.
Devinder Singh Grewal of Gurdwara Dashmesh Darbar said for Sikhs all human beings are one and thats why it becomes morally important to help fellow human beings at the time of crisis. Tony Singh of Fruiticana, one of the biggest grocery chains, was the main contributor. The trucks were loaded at his godown. He thinks that these efforts might have to be continued for an indefinite period of time. Another drive is scheduled for the coming Saturday.
Others present on the occasion included prominent doctor and philanthropist Pargat Singh Bhurji, who had been to Nepal and Haiti in the past to help people affected by earthquakes.
One of three Spanish journalists released after nearly a year held hostage in Syria by an al Qaeda-linked group said on Tuesday that he feared being sold to the Islamic State group, which regularly kills captives.
You dont know what they want to do or how long it will last. If they are going to kill you, release you or sell you to another terrorist group, Angel Sastre said in an interview with online newspaper El Espanol.
The simple idea that they could sell me to Daesh terrified me, he added, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Sastre, 35, was kidnapped along with two other Spanish freelance journalists on July 13, 2015 in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo by the al Nusra Front, al Qaedas Syrian affiliate.
The three experienced conflict zone reporters were flown to Madrid on Sunday on a Spanish defence ministry jet sent to Turkey to bring them back.
Sastre, 35, said he was allowed to watch the news by his hostage takers after his fourth month in captivity.
With CNN or the BBC, we learned how the war was going on around us, because Syria was in the headlines almost every day. It was like living inside a bubble inside the conflict, he said.
I will not return to Syria, at least not for the moment. It is impossible to work there now. Kidnapping is no longer a weapon of war, it is a profitable business, he added.
You cant trust anyone and anyone may sell you. The translator, the driver, the fruit salesman... it is not safe to work there.
The Spanish government has not disclosed any information about how it won the mens freedom
The Islamic State group, al Nusras rival, has executed many of its hostages.
In August 2014 ,IS murdered US journalist James Foley, who was taken hostage in northern Syria in 2012.
The following month, the group killed fellow US journalist Steven Sotloff.
In 2015, militants from the group beheaded Japanese war correspondent Kenji Goto.
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in 2015 ranked Syria as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists along with Iraq.
It says 139 journalists died in Syria, where various armed factions have been battling President Bashar al-Assads regime and each other since 2011.
British police apologised on Tuesday after officers shouted the Arabic phrase Allahu akbar! during a terror training exercise in a shopping centre in northern England.
In video footage of the exercise broadcast on British television, a masked man dressed in black could be seen running into the complex in Manchester shouting the words before setting off a bomb and falling to the floor.
On reflection, we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam, said Garry Shewan, a senior officer at Greater Manchester Police.
In a statement, Shewan said the scenario had been based on a suicide attack by an extremist Daesh-style organisation -- Daesh being an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group -- but added: We recognise and apologise for the offence that this has caused.
The phrase is Arabic for God is greatest.
Tony Lloyd, mayor of Greater Manchester, said using the phrase was ill-judged, unnecessary and unacceptable.
It didnt add anything to the event, but has the potential to undermine the great community relations we have in Greater Manchester, he said.
The role play exercise on the outskirts of Manchester involved 800 people, including actors made up to resemble gunshot victims with horrific injuries.
Police said there was no specific threat in Manchester and that the exercise was devised in December a month after the Paris attacks which killed 130 people and were claimed by Islamic State jihadists.
Britains terror threat level remains at severe, which means the security services consider an attack to be highly likely.
A US warship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea on Tuesday, a US Department of Defense official said, prompting anger in Beijing which denounced the patrol as illegal and a threat to peace and stability.
Guided missile destroyer USS William P Lawrence travelled within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, defence department spokesman Bill Urban said.
The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to challenge excessive maritime claims by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea, he said.
These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise, Urban said in an emailed statement.
Beijing and Washington have traded accusations that the other is militarising the South China Sea as China undertakes large-scale land reclamations and construction on disputed features while the US has increased its patrols and exercises in the region.
Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-metre runway and Washington is concerned China will use it to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the US ship illegally entered Chinese waters and was tracked and warned. This action by the US side threatened Chinas sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability, he told a daily news briefing.
Sensitive area
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the disputed Spratly Islands after Beijing used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from Fiery Cross.
Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be the future hub of Chinese military operations in the South China Sea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including its large and deep port and 3000-metre runway, said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapores ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of US determination ahead of President Obamas trip to Vietnam later this month, Storey added.
Speaking in Hanoi ahead of Obamas visit, Daniel Russel, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said freedom of navigation operations were important for smaller nations.
If the worlds most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships of navy of smaller countries? Russel told reporters before news of the operation was made public.
If our warships cant exercise its legitimate rights under international law at sea, then what about the fishermen, what about the cargo ships? How will they prevent themselves from being blocked by stronger nations?
China has reacted with anger to previous US freedom of navigation operations, including the overflight of fighter planes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month, and when long-range U bombers flew near Chinese facilities under construction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November.
US naval officials believe China has plans to start reclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal, which sits further north of the Spratlys within the Philippines claimed 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
The move also comes as tough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte looks set to take the Philippines presidency. He has proposed multilateral talks on the South China Sea.
Sadiq Khan made history last week when he became the first Muslim mayor of London, and, by extension, the first Muslim mayor of any Western capital. Now it looks like he's making history again, this time as possibly the only Muslim to be exempt from Donald Trump's proposed Muslim ban.
However he doesn't seem to be too thrilled about the news, taking the chance on Tuesday to criticize Trump's stance on Islam, calling it "ignorant" while warning it has the potential to make the U.S. and UK "less safe."
"Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe - it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists," Khan said.
"This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world. Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong."
The comments came in response to statements made by Trump after he learned of Khan's win over Conservative Party candidate Zac Goldsmith in last week's mayoral election. He expressed happiness over the win, and when asked how Trump's proposed ban would affect Khan, Trump replied: "There will always be exceptions."
"I was happy to see that," he said, referring to Khan's win. "I think it's a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because frankly that would be very, very good."
The root of Khan's grievance with Trump is the Muslim ban that he proposed in December following the mass shooting at San Bernardino, Calif., that left 14 dead. The two perpetrators, Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, were allegedly members of ISIS.
Khan stated he would like to go to the United States to meet with American mayors to swap ideas, but he will aim to do so in January in case Trump wins the presidential race.
This isn't the first time Khan has addressed the "ignorant" rhetoric that Trump has utilized throughout his campaign. During the mayoral race, Goldsmith and Prime Minister David Cameron tried to link Khan with extremists.
"They (the Conservatives) used fear and innuendo to try to turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other - something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook," Khan said.
@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
At least two people were killed in Oklahoma Monday as tornadoes spawned by a strong series of storms hit the Great Plains, destroying homes, overturning vehicles and stripping the bark from trees.
The weather was so violent that forecasters declared a "tornado emergency" for communities in the path of one of the twisters. The Storm Prediction Center said more than 20 tornadoes were reported across five states.
"You are in a life-threatening situation," forecasters declared while warning the communities of Roff, population 725, and Hickory, population 71, which were ultimately spared major damage. "Flying debris will be deadly to those caught without shelter."
Other places weren't as lucky, however, and two people lost their lives as a result. One was an elderly man believed to be in his upper 70s from Garvin County. Officials said he died when a large, fast-moving tornado swept through the county and hit a home near Wynnewood. That storm, caught on video by several storm chasers, appeared white against the dark clouds of a supercell storm.
The tornado also trapped six people under debris south of Wynnewood, according to the National Weather Service, adding that multiple homes were destroyed between Elmore City and Interstate 35.
Meanwhile, according to the Johnston County Sheriff's Office, a second person was killed in another storm-related incident in the Connorville-Bromide area. Details about the incident weren't immediately available.
Oklahoma isn't the only place that was impacted by the tornado which was one of several spun off by the violent weather system. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center warned that more twisters could be spawned that will affect areas between eastern Oklahoma to central Arkansas.
A severe storm overturned and smashed at least one plane at the Salem Airport in Arkansas, located about 150 miles north of Little Rock.
Nebraska, on the other hand, had tornadoes which were accompanied by hail of up to 4.5 inches in diameter. Areas from eastern Texas to southeastern Kansas were forecast to receive hail larger than 2 inches in diameter.
The bad weather should settle in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys on Tuesday, forecasters said, while another storm system should bring storms to the area from north Texas to near St. Louis on Wednesday.
@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An Oregon woman was arrested on a sexual abuse charge at Portland International Airport after she allegedly touched another woman's breasts and genitals without her consent on a flight to Portland Sunday evening, according to a police report.
Police were called to the airport while Heidi McKinney, 26, was still onboard Alaska Airlines flight 621 which she and the victim were travelling in. The plane had left Las Vegas and after arriving at the airport at around 9:20 p.m., McKinney was taken into custody.
A Port of Portland police report indicates that McKinney fondled the woman as the aircraft travelled within Oregon airspace. After being groped by McKinney, she told airline personnel about the incident, who in turn contacted police, according to the report.
Authorities were waiting on the ground when the plane landed, and after interviewing the alleged victim who told them that she was touched without her consent, they arrested the Banks, Ore., native.
McKinney was booked in Multnomah County Jail, where her bail was set at $2,500, on misdemeanor third-degree sexual abuse. She later posted bail, and a "no complaint" disposition was filed Monday afternoon, according to the sheriff's office.
This isn't the first time McKinney has found herself on the wrong side of the law, according to court records. Her rap sheet shows that she has been previously charged with drunk driving, reckless driving and being a minor in possession of alcohol. With that in mind, it's possible alcohol was a factor in the alleged illegal contact, however the police report doesn't say anything that would suggest McKinney was intoxicated at the time of the incident.
According to her Facebook page, McKinney lives in Sherwood, a Portland suburb, and attended Portland Community College. Based on recent posts, McKinney is a "Game of Thrones" fan and supported Dr. Ben Carson's Republican presidential candidacy.
In the meantime, state prosecutors announced that they will no longer pursue the third-degree sexual abuse charge against McKinney. Instead, the case has been referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office for review. Under normal circumstances, federal prosecutors handle cases involving crimes alleged to have been committed onboard aircraft.
@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Persons with disabilities are often left out on most experiences, not to mention in the travel industry. As a strong crusader for people with disability, I cannot underrate the words of Scott Hamilton that "The only disability in life is a bad attitude".
Take my favorite accessible traveller Nick Vujicic for instance. While living a life without limits rather than one without limbs, he is an exemplary example of the fact that all it takes to enjoy travel is an adventurous soul and a positive mind. However, it is also true that a lot of travel enthusiasts with disabilities are mired by the sheer challenges of disabled travel, since not many accommodation facilities meet their distinct needs.
At Jovago, it's our delight to see everyone leave the comfort of their environs and see the rest of the exciting world. With some of these travel tips, persons with disabilities should confidently put a mark on their calendar for their next, or even first itinerary.
Plan, plan, plan!
Sounds like cliche right? But if you want to have stress free travel, be it for business or leisure, planning is always key. Know your destination of choice. Visit or contact your travel agent to inform you of hotels, houses, apartments or cottages providing facilities that aid your stay. Adequate information will not only ensure a seamless trip, but will also provide exigencies in case of unexpected miscarriage of plans.
Seek your doctor's counsel
Be kind enough to yourself to inform your medic of your travel plans. Being as specific as possible with her/him will enable your doctor to advise and give possible prescriptions to make your travel as comfy as you would be anticipating. Before leaving their office, make sure to take their contact details plus any other emergency information, which will come in handy in case you encounter any difficulties during your trip.
Have your first aid kit in place
Accidents are unsolicited, yet it's always prudent to be prepared for the unforeseen events. A doctor may take a while before coming to your assistance, thus your first aid kit is always a contingency plan. Besides the usual contents of the kit, the innards of your mobility aids may require repair once in awhile during your itinerary, therefore some spanners are absolutely necessary.
Be informed
Information is liberating and this is exactly what you need for your travel. With the growth of smartphones and easy accessibility of internet globally, all information is at your fingertips. If personalized gen is needed, contact organizations that support persons with disabilities such as the United Cultural Empowerment and Social Community Organization (UCESCO), Handicap International, Cheshire Disability Services etc. for further assistance.
Try not to travel alone
You have all logistics ready and are clued-up; it's now time to go. However, it would be nice if you gave it a thought to travel with company, be it a friend or a family member. It's not only going to make your trip more pleasurable; sharing all those mind-blowing moments with a loved one, but will also go a long way in ensuring you have a helping hand at any given time.
If it previously seemed so insurmountable to travel in your condition, I hope by now there's no doubt left that all you need is a positive mind; and with these travel tips, all am left to say is bon voyage.
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Announces location of first Holiday Inn Express Franchise Plus hotel In Shanghai
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) today announces the launch of a new franchise model for its Holiday Inn Express brand in China. The new model, called Franchise Plus, has been specifically tailored for the Chinese market and provides owners with all of the benefits of operating a franchise model, but with additional benefits and features from IHG's managed model.
This announcement comes as IHG signs its first Franchise Plus agreement with Shanghai Yaqi Business Hotel Co., Ltd., for a 260-room Holiday Inn Express hotel in the Hongqiao area of Shanghai. It also reflects the local dynamics of the China market, which has seen a rapid rise of the middle class in recent years, leading to significant demand for mid-scale hotels in Tier 1, 2, 3 and 4 cities.
Kenneth Macpherson, Chief Executive Officer of IHG in Greater China commented: "IHG has over 30 years' experience of operating in China and working closely with our hotel owners to deliver on our promise to create Great Hotels, Guest Love. We are also an innovative business with a deep understanding of our guests and their needs. The launch of Franchise Plus for our Holiday Inn Express brand is an important milestone for our business and for the accommodation landscape in China. With IHG's world-leading expertise in franchising and our more than three decades of operational excellence and knowledge of the Chinese market, we are confident that the new model will be an engine of growth for IHG and our business partners in the coming years."
Holiday Inn Express is one of the fastest growing mid-scale brands, which is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary year. There are over 2,400 Holiday Inn Express hotels globally and over 620 in the pipeline. Since its arrival in Greater China in 2004, Holiday Inn Express has quickly become a leader in the mid-scale segment by establishing a presence in more than 30 provinces and cities across the region with 66 opened hotels and another 67 in the pipeline.
As the first international hotel company to enter China in 1984, IHG continues to be a market leader in the region, operating 268 hotels across 100 cities, with another 212 in the pipeline.
Belly is known for his affiliation with The Weeknd, but recently added some distance to that affiliation when he inked a deal with Roc Nation. The rapper already has two highly underrated mixtapes to his name (among others), and hell be adding to that catalogue in the near future.
The Ottawa-born artist took to Instagram today to first unveil upcoming tour dates, and then later, new artwork for an upcoming project. He revealed the release date alongside the tracklist, so theres no mysteries here. The project is titled Another Day In Paradise, and it hits at the end of the month May 27th. Belly isnt playing any games with these features either, hes calling upon Travis Scott (to be completely transparent he is re-purposing Money Go from his last mixtape, which at the time had Travis uncredited however the two have also collabed on White Girls), Kehlani, Lil Wayne, Juicy J on the previously-released Zanzibar, Waka Flocka, B Real and more.
Take a look at the artwork above and the tracklist below.
Another Day In Paradise Tracklist
1. Its All Love Feat. Starrah
2. Money Go Feat. Travis Scott
3. Ballerina
4. Exotic Feat. Waka Flocka
5. You Feat. Kehlani
6. Another Day In Paradise
7. Favorite Color
8. God Bless
9. Barely Sober Feat. Lil Wayne
10. Amsterdam
11. Zanzibar Feat. Juicy J
12. Angels & Demons Feat. B-Real
Belly
Drake doesnt make marketing mistakes often, so when he posted and then deleted images of a new pair of OVO x Air Jordan sneakers were inclined to think its all part of the plan. After all, Views was able to move an impressive number of units despite a lukewarm reception by critics. Theres no doubt Drake can do the same for the new pair of Air Jordan 6 lows he unveiled last night.
The shoes are officially titled the OVO x Air Jordan 6 Hot 100s, presumably in honor of his spot at the top of the aforementioned chart. The makeup of the shoe is an all white upper, with only the Jumpman logo getting any color. The lace lock has the familiar Views text, as does the sole. Having the text underneath the icy sole is a pretty big flex since no Air Jordan 6 has ever had an end-to-end icy sole before. The selection of the shoe itself matches up with Torontos nickname of The Six.
Mentioned before, Drake deleted the photos soon after posting them. There is so far no word on whether these are planned for a public release, or if Drake was just showing off. Well keep you posted as more details become available.
Drake-Hot100s
The famous 8 Mile track is now immortalised as a piece of clothing
Eminem may not have the healthiest relationship with his own mother, but that hasn't stopped him from releasing a new t-shirt with an immortal line from his smash hit single 'Lose Yourself'.
"His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy/There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti." The words 'mom's spaghetti' have now been specially designed on a new t-shirt by the Detroit rapper.
The new clothing line has been available for pre-order for three days in preparation of Mother's Day in the United States. Order your Eminem tee for $30.
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Exactly a week ago, on May 3, the stock of Grow Condos Inc (OTCMKTS:GRWCD, GRWCD message board) soared to an intraday high of over $2.55 per share and a close at nearly $2.30. This pushed the market cap of the company to more than $50 million. In the world of pennystocks, and especially if the company in question is working in the legal marijuana and cannabis industry, it is far from a rare sight for the market valuation to blow out of proportions due to an exuberant amount of hype. GRWC, however, is among the most egregious examples of this.
In order to demonstrate just how ridiculous that market cap was let's take a quick look at the latest financial report filed by the company. It covers the quarter ended December 31, 2015, and contains the following:
$3,487 cash
$21,965 total current assets
$227 thousand total current liabilities
$23,783 total revenues
$116 thousand net loss
The balance sheet is nothing short of atrocious and it is no wonder that after reaching last week's highs GRWC has been rapidly retracing its steps down the chart. So far the company has registered four consecutive sessions in the red with yesterday's loss being particularly painful - in a single day the ticker saw nearly 25% of its value disappear. Currently the market price of the stock stands at $1.25. Despite the significant depreciation GRWC still have a market cap of more than $35 million. We will leave it up to you to decide if this is a more reasonable number.
It should be noted that back in April the company negotiated an investment agreement of up to $5 million with Tangiers Global LLC. It cannot be denied that GRWC were in a rather desperate need of fresh funds and that this deal will improve their financial state tremendously. Investors should remember, however, that according to the 8-K filing for the investment agreement the price of the shares being sold to Tangiers will feature a 17.5% discount.
When dealing with a pennystock company you should never base your decision on hype alone. Always take the necessary time to do thorough due diligence before putting any amount of money on the line.
Jolynn Johnston, a resident of Fort Bend County, was very specific when she paid $12,000 to the dating service It's Just Lunch. She wanted to meet physically active men about her age, 50, who didn't have facial hair, tattoos or children.
The service arranged six dates. Two of the men had tattoos and beards. Another wanted children. One was in a back brace.
Needless to say, Johnston was not happy, and she became one of the many dissatisfied customers who have sued It's Just Lunch, a national franchise with a location in Houston. More than 130,000 clients are part of a separate class-action lawsuit in federal court in New York, where It's Just Lunch recently agreed to a settlement valued at $65 million. As part of the settlement, most of the clients will receive vouchers for two free dates, each valued at about $450.
Johnston sued the Houston franchise in state district court in Fort Bend under the state deceptive trade practices act, claiming the matchmaker knew it could not deliver on its promise to find suitable partners. She is seeking a refund of her $12,000 fee along with $36,000 in damages.
She was asked to join the New York class-action suit, but opted against it. "We laughed," recalled Nancy Knox-Bierman, Johnston's lawyer, at the possibility of more excursions with poorly matched suitors.
Peter Shapiro, the lawyer representing It's Just Lunch in the New York class-action case, did not respond to requests for comment. Trevor Hall, owner of the Houston franchise of It's Just Lunch, declined to comment on the suit, citing client confidentiality, which prevents him from talking about customers.
"We have always maintained the highest level of integrity and honesty in how we serve our clients and have thousands upon thousands of very happy clients as a result," Hall said in a statement.
Johnston declined to be interviewed, her lawyer said. Johnston did not return a call seeking comment.
It's Just Lunch is based in Florida and bills itself as a personalized dating service that arranges lunch dates or after-work drinks in low-pressure settings. The company, which got its start in 1991, sells franchises across the country.
Johnston found out about It's Just Lunch from seeing an advertisement in an airline magazine, according to her lawyer. She signed up after visiting the company's Galleria-area office.
Johnston, who owns an accounting business, lost her longtime partner in a motor vehicle accident, according to her lawyer. A busy professional, she upgraded to the company's "Elite" service as a way to find suitable men more quickly.
"She didn't want to go on a million lousy dates," said Knox-Bierman. Johnston's experiences were not unique, according to the New York class-action suit. One It's Just Lunch member, a vegetarian, said she was paired with a pig farmer who described how he shoots his hogs behind the ear before slaughtering them, according to court documents. Another said she was paired with a man 6 inches shorter when she specifically said she wanted someone as tall as her.
Other dating companies have run into legal difficulties. One site was sued for failing to prevent its clients from using stock photos of more photogenic people as their profile pictures. Other users have complained the sites aren't vetted for felons.
Two years ago, the Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with a dating service that generated fake computer-generated profiles to lure users into buying memberships to meet the man or woman of their dreams. The British company paid $616,165 to settle the claim.
Diana Karni, a consumer rights lawyer in Houston, said disputes over dating services often turn on what exactly the companies are promising. Are they promising a pool of candidates who can meet a client's every criterion? Or, are they merely offering a pool of candidates in which clients might find a match?
"What if he has everything she wants but he's tattooed from head to toe?" said Karni, who represents consumers but is not familiar with the Johnston case. "At what point do they need to make a determination not to match them up for lunch?"
Emotion also comes into play, affecting the decisions of those looking for love, much as it can affect car buyers giddy over the latest model.
"They can't really read the fine print because they're reading it with rose-colored glasses," said Karni.
Documents in the class-action suit detailed some of the tactics that It's Just Lunch used to land clients. If one was reluctant, the salespeople were instructed to say they had two suitors in mind and ask when the new client might be available for an introduction, according to a tip sheet from "First Date University," the training program for It's Just Lunch franchises. The advice was on file as part of the New York case.
Employees were also instructed to emphasize the size of their database of potential matches. "Reach over and grab your big stack of contracts on the clipboard," according to the tip sheet.
Federal anti-discrimination measures prohibit employers and businesses from making hiring and public accommodation decisions based on race, sex, age, religion and national origin. Matchmaking service can't turn customers away based on age, sex, race, disability, religion and other protected factors, said Rick Anderson, trial lawyer with Roberts Markel Weinberg Butler Hailey in Houston.
But once they join, dating service members can state preferences based on those same protected factors, said Anderson, who represents companies sued over deceptive trade practices.
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Marianne Williamson was a teen attending Bellaire High School when she discovered a New Age bookstore in Rice Village. It became her sanctum, a refuge of sorts from the world.
It also was part of her introduction to Houston's blossoming spiritual community and one of the reasons she calls the city a hotbed for "seekers."
"It's not like I had to leave Houston to find any kind of spiritual sustenance," says the New York Times best-selling author, who will release her 13th spiritual self-help book, "Tears to Triumph: The Spiritual Journey From Suffering to Enlightenment" (HarperCollins), in June.
"I've been to two therapists in Houston during my adult years who were as formative as any other teachers in my life. So Houston continues to be rich in the area of spiritual pursuit from the Jung Center to some of the people at Rice University, University of Houston and the churches, synagogues and beyond. Houston is deep, rich soil for the seeker, and I'm grateful to be from here."
On Saturday, the Houston native will speak at the "Celebrate Your Life" conference at Unity Church. The two-day conference starts Friday and features Iyanla Vanzant, Bryant McGill, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Jean Houston, Anita Moorjani and others.
More Information 'Celebrate Your Life' conference When: 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday Where: Unity of Houston, 2929 Unity Drive Details: A spiritual master class features Marianne Williamson, Iyanla Vanzant, Bryant McGill, Michael Beckwith, Jean Houston, Anita Moorjani and others. For information and tickets, visit MishkaProductions.com or call 877-300-7352. See More Collapse
As one of the nation's most sought-after spiritual authors, speakers and gurus, Williamson has started a new chapter in her life by recently moving to New York, after living in Los Angeles since the 1980s. During her time in LA, she founded Project Angel Food, a program to provide food and spiritual comfort for homebound people with AIDS. She published six New York Times best-sellers. And in 2014, she ran for the 33rd District Congressional seat and came in fourth, with nearly 13 percent of the vote.
"Some places are your home. I was born and raised in Houston, and I have a connection to Houston that is unlike any other," she says on the phone from Los Angeles. "On the other hand, Los Angeles has been a real soul and spiritual place for me in my life and continues to be. I simply needed another chapter.
"There's a saying, 'Live in New York, but not so long you become hard,' and 'Live in Los Angeles, not so long you become soft.' I was becoming a little soft, and I needed a little change," she says.
The "Celebrate Your Life" conference, which is based in Phoenix and has been around for 21 years, is one of the major players in the growing community of motivational, spiritual and self-empowerment workshops, including Oprah Winfrey's "Life You Want Weekend," which was held at Toyota Center in 2014.
The popularity of these events isn't surprising, Williamson says.
"It's not just that you are taking a deeper look at the role of love and inspiration in your life. The fact that you are doing it in a room full of like-minded people, exponentially deepens the effect on your life. These conferences are like a battery charge. It's not just what happens when you're there but what happens when you leave, having been filled with ideas, experiences that hopefully will inspire you in the days and weeks and months after."
Williamson's book topics range from love to aging to weight loss. Her new book, "Tears to Triumph," tackles depression and the growing dependence on medication to treat it.
"Depression is a soul and spiritual disease," she says. "It is a crisis of the soul. It may or may not be a biological or medical condition. I'm not weighing in on that, but it is clearly a spiritual condition."
She says she offers a deeper conversation about the spiritual causes of depression, while providing spiritual solutions.
"We should address our psychic pain in the same way we address our physical pain: You don't just numb it. You find the cause and address it. Ultimately, the cause of so much sadness is the lack of love, compassion and lack of forgiveness, mercy and atonement."
Williamson also says meditation can be good medication if done properly.
"The truth is, even when people are depressed, there is some kind of internal chemical change. There is also a chemical change when people meditate. It's a very profound tool for opening the mind and opening the heart to a kind of spiritual intelligence that allows us to endure suffering but ultimately to transform it."
Williamson herself meditates using the "Course in Miracles" workbook lessons as her guide. She also practices transcendental meditation.
While there are many ways to meditate, she says, "all deep meditation is relaxation, but not all deep relaxation is meditation. There are many people who say they meditate but are only deeply relaxing."
Ultimately, she hopes her book offers insight to living a happier life.
"You don't find a happy life by ignoring your own pain. You don't find a happy life by ignoring the pain of others, either. You find a happy life by expanding to the point where you hold the appropriate grief for what is wrong and at the same time hold the appropriate power to evoke what is right," Williamson says.
"That is the power of the heart."
The founder and president of local nonprofit KidsRStrong2 stopped by a recent 288 Rotary Club meeting to encourage members to get involved in the fight against children's cancer.
Tomika Gamble, whose son Isaiah at the age of 9 is already a cancer survivor, has a passion for supporting children and families in need.
"Through my family's struggle and battle with cancer, it became my mission to ensure that my son's battle was not in vain. With that drive came KidsRStrong2," Gamble said.
For more information, visit www.kidsrstrong2.org
Mahjong benefits D'Feet Breast Cancer
With a nod to the Chinese New Year, Mahjong players are encouraged to wear red for the Celebration of Spring, benefiting D'Feet Breast Cancer Inc., 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. May 25 at Hotel Galvez, 2024 Seawall Blvd.
Tickets are $50. RSVP by May 10 to Nikki Greenlee, nikkigreenlee@gmail.com, or the D'Feet 24-hour hotline, 409-771-5574.
Contemporary center spotlights Texas artists
The Galveston Arts Center will present two solo exhibitions by Texas artists-"Vital Signs," by Margaret Smithers-Crump and "The Habit of Being II," by Mari Omori-now through May 22 at 2127 Strand St.
Visit www.galvestonartscenter.org for details.
288 regional group heads to Washington
Community officials and business leaders have their sights set on the nation's capital.
Representatives of the Greater 288 Regional Partnership will meet with elected officials and Congressional staff May 17-20 in Washington, D.C.
"This trip schedule will allow all attendees an excellent environment to reach out to congressional leaders to learn more about their agendas and communicate their concerns on transportation issues facing our region," Partnership Chairman Mark T. Ingram said. "With this trip we are paving the way to establish sound transportation priorities."
Visit www.greater288.org to learn more.
Synagogue welcomes folk dancers
Israeli folk dances are open to the public from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Mondays through May 23 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.
Civic group celebrates 61st anniversary
Texas Railroad Commissioner Christie Craddick will be the guest speaker at Galveston Republican Women's 61st anniversary event, 5 p.m. May 18 at Fisherman's Wharf, 2200 Harborside Drive.
Tickets are $35. RSVP by May 12 to Fran Card, pelicanway88@att.net or 409-632-0400.
Ballroom dance set for May 7 in League City
DanceSport Club's Denis Kojinov and Jeanette Chevalier will perform at a Let's Dance ballroom event, 7-10 p.m. May 7 at Hometown Heroes Park, 1001 E. League City Parkway.
Admission is $8. Contact Neva Schroder, 417-838-2204, with questions.
Dancers practice at Heroes Park
Dancers, from beginner to advanced, can practice at their own level of ability to a variety of music at Hump Day Dance Practice, 1-3:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoons at Hometown Heroes Park, 1001 E. League City Parkway.
The practice is free, but League City requires nonresidents to purchase an activity card. For details, call Neva Schroder, 832-864-2721.
Lakewood Yacht Club welcomes young sailors
Training is available at the Lakewood Yacht Club and kids throughout the Clear Lake area are ditching their cell phones for wetsuits and sailboats.
Directed by Olympic competitor Marek Valasek, the club's youth sailing program trains athletes age 6 and up in opti, laser and Olympic-grade 470 class. For information, contact Valasek, sailingdirector@lakewoodyachtclub.com.
Fishing tournament to fund scholarships
The Congregation B'nai Israel Saltwater Fishing Tournament will raise funds for youth programs, including scholarships to summer camp, June 5 at 3008 Ave. O in Galveston.
Entry forms are due May 20. Contact tournament director Steve Hoffman, 281-491-6565 or steve@hoffmanig.com, or visit www.cbigalveston.org for information.
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An on-again, off-again bitter doctrinal row over the United Methodist church's ban on ordaining gay clergy and performing same-sex weddings is expected to burst into life this week as the nation's largest mainstream Protestant denomination convenes its 2016 General Conference.
International delegates to the 10-day Portland, Ore., convention will consider more than 100 petitions related to human sexuality. The quadrennial convention, which begins Tuesday, comes just one day after 111 previously "closeted" homosexual clergy issued an open "love letter" to delegates bemoaning the church's stances on sexuality spelled out in its governing Book of Discipline.
Along with the Catholic and Southern Baptist churches, the United Methodist church cites biblical justification for barring ordination of homosexuals and prohibiting clergy from officiating at same-sex weddings.
Methodist traditionalists, including a group headquartered in The Woodlands, will seek to repulse attempts to modify the church rules, and hinted that the denomination might fracture over same-sex issues.
Days before the meeting was to begin, UMC ordained ministry boards in the church's Baltimore-Washington and New York conferences urged their peers to join them in no longer asking ministerial candidates about their sexual orientation. On Thursday, the Pacific Northwest ministry voted to affirm that "people of all sexual orientations and gender identities" can meet standards for "fitness, readiness and effectiveness in the ministry."
Paula Arnold, spokeswoman for the Houston-based Texas Annual Conference, comprised of 700 East Texas congregations, said Bishop Janice Huie will not be a voting delegate at the Portland conference. Huie, Arnold said, has been "very careful not to interject her opinion on this stuff."
"She represents a conference that is very divided on these issues," Arnold said, "and it's her job to represent everyone and work with everyone."
Arnold said 18 delegates, half of them clergy, half laymen, will represent the East Texas churches at the international session. The delegates will serve at-large, and were not elected based on a formal doctrinal position.
'Unprecedented change'
Drawing 864 delegates from around the world, the Portland conference will consider more than 1,000 petitions on topics ranging from pushing for citizenship for migrants to dropping investments in fossil fuel companies and those which "profit from Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands."
But the topic of homosexual clergy and same-sex weddings promises to be the most divisive and has dogged conferences for decades.
At the 1996 UMC general conference in Denver, 15 bishops urged the church to change its stance on homosexuality. In 2000 in Cleveland, protesters were arrested after blocking convention center exits.
Four years later in Pittsburgh, hundreds of same-sex advocates paraded though the convention hall, beating a drum and lighting a rainbow-hued candle. In the last international meeting, held in 2012 in Tampa, Fla., protesters wearing multi-colored clothing occupied a delegates-only area and began to sing.
Matt Berryman, executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network, a pro-gay advocacy group, Monday said he is optimistic the Portland conference will bring "unprecedented change."
"We're seeing every indication that the system of oppression is beginning to be dismantled," he said. Should delegates retain the Book of Discipline's language regarding same-sex issues, he said, they will face "widespread disobedience."
Among Protestant denominations, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran and Presbyterian USA churches have moved to ordain homosexual clergy and sanction same-sex marriages. In some cases, individual congregations have opted not to follow the national lead, while others have left their mother denominations.
'At odds with society'
Methodist traditionalists associated with the Renewal and Reform Coalition previously have threatened to leave the church because of what they consider a "lax" enforcement of rules.
Coalition Coordinator Thomas Lambrecht, of The Woodlands said the denomination's current rules "reflect biblical teaching on marriage and sexuality and underlie our theology in terms of portraying the image of God through male and female marriage."
"To publicly disobey those teachings is a threat to the unity of the church and a threat to our covenant relationship to one another," he continued. "We are very concerned about making it possible to hold people accountable for breaching of church disciplines. The goal is not to evict people from the church, but to restore unity around the covenants we have promised to uphold."
Lambrecht said his group will seek sanctions against clergy who officiate at same-sex weddings. The first offense would result in a one-year suspension without pay; the second, loss of ministerial credentials.
On the eve of the first international church conference since the U.S. Supreme Court legitimized same-sex marriage last year, Lambrecht acknowledged that traditionalists are out of step with secular society. But, he said, "throughout our church's history, we have been at odds with society's values. It is imperative that we proclaim Christian values and live those out and help society move in a more positive direction," he said.
Lambrecht admitted that the continuing conflict over homosexual issues could dissuade prospective members from joining the denomination and "sap energy and morale" from church leaders. While growing internationally, the Methodist Church consistently has lost members in the United States. The American church now claims about 7.3 million members.
'Tremendous cost'
In their open letter to the Portland conference, homosexual clergy told delegates that while the church has embraced them as clergy, "you have not always remained faithful to us."
"While some of us have been lucky to serve in places where we could serve honestly and openly, there are others in places more hostile, who continue to serve faithfully even at tremendous cost to themselves, their families, and, yes, even the communities they serve, who do not receive the fullness of their pastor's gifts because a core part must remain hidden," they wrote.
Broaching the possibility that - by proclaiming homosexuality - they might leave the church, they asserted that young gays and lesbians will continue to experience a call to the ministry. "You cannot legislate against God's call," they wrote.
A Reconciling Ministries Network spokeswoman said no Houston-area ministers were among the letter's signees.
Aiming to curb human trafficking in the Houston region, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced a multi-year plan Monday to increase awareness about labor and sex trafficking and improve victim identification.
Early steps include passage of an ordinance last December to make it easier for officers to inspect potentially illicit massage parlors, training restaurant inspectors to recognize the signs of trafficking and launching an informational media campaign.
Though the extent of the problem is vast and largely unknown, Houston is thought to have more victims of human trafficking than any city in the United States, according to the Polaris Project, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit.
"It is often said that Houston is the hub for sex trafficking. Let me just say, Houston will be the hub for the prevention and the elimination of sex trafficking. That's what we want to be known for," Turner said.
While the push comes as Houston prepares to host the Super Bowl in 2017, Turner emphasized that the campaign is not exclusively aimed at that event.
Polaris data shows 717 Houston trafficking cases were confirmed between December 2007 and June 2015, about three-quarters of which involved sex trafficking. The remaining cases involved labor trafficking, both labor and sex trafficking, or were unspecified.
That compares with 25,696 cases nationwide over the same period. Victims were overwhelmingly female, and those who reported more detailed information were roughly evenly split between foreign citizens and Americans, according to Polaris. About two-thirds were over 18, and one-third were minors.
The release of Houston's anti-trafficking plan follows a period of increased national attention on the problem. Congress passed legislation to protect trafficking victims in 2000, and federal funding to combat trafficking rose from $31.8 million in 2001 to $185.5 million in 2010.
Across Texas, several local, state and federal agencies have partnered to combat human trafficking. The Houston Human Trafficking Task Force, founded in 2004, is funded by the Department of Justice and includes representatives from the FBI, the Harris County Sheriff's Office, the Houston Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as other state and federal agencies. Between 2004 and 2013, the most recent information available, they recovered 242 human trafficking victims, 25 of whom were minors.
The city's new, community-oriented initiative would complement that existing task force by bringing additional city departments and private companies into the fold.
"What we want to do is make sure the community really understands what it is, from traveling sales crews to yard workers, not just sex trafficking," said Minal Patel Davis, the mayor's special adviser on human trafficking.
Awareness campaign
To that end, the city is slated to launch an awareness campaign in June, with ads to be placed on billboards and in print, among other mediums.
It also has collaborated with cab companies to educate drivers about human trafficking and recently began training health department staff to recognize the signs of trafficking and refer potential victims to the Department of Labor.
By August, food inspectors are set to begin distributing informational cards to employees at roughly 13,000 restaurants.
These and other efforts come in the wake of a law passed by City Council last December allowing officers to inspect any facility that advertises massage services, in addition to those already licensed under state law as massage parlors.
Commercial-front brothels such as massage parlors are the most common venue for sex trafficking, according to Polaris, followed by hotels and residential brothels.
More scrutiny
Houston Police Department spokesman Kese Smith said the agency inspected 11 massage facilities in the six months since the law was passed, compared with zero during the same period the year prior.
The City Attorney's office has closed one of those spas, and efforts are underway to close a second, Smith said.
Houston allocated roughly $214,000 this fiscal year to anti-trafficking efforts through the mayor's office, drawn from fees paid by area strip clubs, Davis said. About $50,000 of that was set aside for expenses.
The consulting company Deutser donated more than $125,000 to help develop the concept for the media campaign, Turner said, and the nonprofit United Against Human Trafficking is slated to pick up the tab for printing costs.
San Antonio-based anti-trafficking consultant Dottie Laster said the city's plan appears to be a step in the right direction.
"A well-directed media campaign can be effective. You've got to give them both parts: what to look for, and then what to do when you see it," Laster said.
The weather is getting worse, says one expert.
Torrential rains fall in the Houston area more often than they used to, according to an unpublished analysis from state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon.
Heavy precipitation of any particular magnitude are twice as likely to fall in the Bayou City today as they were in the early 20th Century. Downpours that struck every two years back then come every year on average now. Deluges that used to drop each 100, 500 or 1000 years should fall more frequently as well.
Nielsen-Gammon, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University who was appointed state climatologist by Gov. George W. Bush in 2000, reviewed data from rainfall gauges across the state, some with records dating to the late 19th Century. For Harris County, he drew from 17 gauges.
"We've confirmed that there's an overall increase in extreme rainfall in Texas over the past century," he said. "Specifically for Houston the increase has been particularly large."
RELATED: Is this the new normal?
That spells trouble for a city already plagued by crippling floods, where urban sprawl has overwhelmed the waterways that drain the city, and dense development has precluded their expansion.
Nielsen-Gammon's findings fall in line with a trend that was theorized decades ago and first emerged in scientific data near the turn of the 21st Century. Nielsen-Gammon said he took the first fine scale look at data across different parts of the state.
"He's probably spot on," said veteran Rice University climate scientist Ron Sass, when presented with a summary of Nielsen-Gammon's findings. "He's as close to the truth as I've seen."
An independent analysis of local rainfall data from the National Weather Service also confirmed the state climatologist's findings. Of the 100 rainiest days in Houston since 1890, as measured at multiple gauge sites, the wettest of the wet are skewed dramatically towards the last four decades.
The Houston area just had its wettest April on record, and some storm gauges during the Tax Day flood registered levels beyond what are expected once every century. But it was an exceptional season.
Texas rains in 2015 and 2016 got a boost from El Nino, a periodic global climate phenomenon that expectedly brings wetter-than-average weather to the Lone Star State. The current El Nino rivaled the strongest on record, which were observed in 1982-83 and again in 1997-98.
As the phenomenon subsides for now, Texas should get some respite from the torrential downpours.
In fact, Texas is likely headed for a period of drier weather, said Jake Crouch, a climate scientist with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association. El Nino's counterpart is expected to develop, and it typically brings with prolonged dry weather in Texas (and an active Atlantic hurricane season).
RELATED: La Nina could bring a hurricane-filled summer to Texas
Such has been the norm here through recent decades: a record drought in 1996 was washed away by a record El Nino in '97, and the La Nina that followed put the state back in drought.
A big drought in 2006 ended with one of the state's wettest years on record in 2007.
The state's recent scathing drought kicked off during La Nina with its driest year on record in 2011 and persisted painfully until El Nino made 2015 Texas' wettest year on record.
RELATED: A history of Texas droughts
"This trend doesn't mean we're going to see a steady increase in precipitation going forward," Crouch said. "The way we are receiving our precipitation is changing. We're seeing more of that precipitation fall in single events."
It shouldn't take anyone by surprise. Scientists in the 1970s calculated that intense rains would become more intense as a warming atmosphere evaporated more water and held it in the air. A federal report in 2009 presented the first data to demonstrate that the trend was manifesting.
Satellite data from NASA's Goddard Institute and other agencies show the global temperature average has increased by about one degree Fahrenheit since record keeping began in earnest around 1880. NASA data showed that 2014 had become the warmest year on record for Earth, only to be outdone by 2015.
"When the warmer air with more water vapor is in a meteorological situation producing rain, the rain tends to come in more extreme events, with heavier rains," said former NASA scientist James Hansen. "So the 'hundred-year-flood' now occurs more than once a century."
In places far from atmospheric vapor flows, the warmer air exacerbates drought, Hansen said.
RELATED: Study warns of mega drought to come
The increase in dramatic downpours was more than twice as pronounced in the Houston area as in most parts of Texas. In the surrounding counties of Brazoria, Fort Bend and Galveston, the frequency of torrential rainfall increased only minimally, or sometimes decreased. Nielson-Gammon called that discrepancy "probably random, but maybe not."
All experts queried expected the trend to continue, even as the region weathers wet and dry periods. When global patterns bring a wet spell back to Texas, it could be worse than the record breaking stretch since spring 2015.
Nielsen-Gammon said he is strongly considering developing his research into an academic paper.
FRANKFURT, Germany - A group of investigative journalists on Monday published the names of thousands of offshore companies at the heart of a massive trove of data on the finances of the rich and powerful that has become known as the Panama Papers.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists made data on 200,000 entities available on its website.
They contain basic corporate information about companies, trusts and foundations set up in 21 jurisdictions including Hong Kong and the U.S. state of Nevada. The data was obtained from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which said it was hacked.
Users can search the data and see the networks involving the offshore companies, including, where available, Mossack Fonseca's internal records of the true owners.
Information and documents on bank accounts, phone numbers and emails have been removed from the database.
Not a 'data dump'
Mossack Fonseca said last week it had sent a cease and desist letter to the ICIJ urging the organization not to publish the database, "taking into consideration that it is based on the theft of confidential information."
The ICIJ said it was putting the information online "in the public interest" as "a careful release of basic corporate information," not a "data dump," as it builds on an earlier database of offshore entities.
Setting up an offshore company is not by itself illegal or evidence of illegal conduct, and Mossack Fonseca said it observed rules requiring it to identify its clients.
The ICIJ prefaced the database release by noting that the appearance of particular persons and companies on the list doesn't imply wrongdoing.
But anti-poverty campaigners say shell companies can be used by the wealthy and powerful to shield money from taxation, or to launder the gains from bribery, embezzlement and other forms of corruption. The Group of 20 most powerful economies has agreed that individual governments should make sure authorities can tell who really owns legally registered companies, but implementation in national law has lagged.
Under the probe
The data cache, first leaked to Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, showed offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders. Sueddeutsche Zeitung says it was given the information by an anonymous source.
Reports based on the documents quickly led to the resignation of Iceland's Prime Minister David Gunnlaugson after it was revealed he and his wife had set up a company in the British Virgin Islands that had holdings in Iceland's failed banks. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had campaigned for financial transparency, faced questions about shares he once held in an offshore trust set up by his father. The ICIJ reported that associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin moved some $2 billion through such companies. Putin's spokesman dismissed the report.
The ICIJ said Monday that Mossack Fonseca had files on dozens of Americans who have faced accusations of civil or criminal financial misconduct. That was based on reporting credited to consortium partners McClatchy Newspapers, the Portland Business Journal and Fusion Investigates.
Its website reported that people who had set up offshore companies included people with publicly available records of their legal troubles. One was a financier sentenced in 2002 to prison for fraud. The firm also set up a company for six Americans later sued for running a Ponzi scheme, a type of financial fraud in which new money is used to pay off earlier investors until the scheme collapses.
The report said he leaked records that "suggest that Mossack Fonseca's high-volume business model made it difficult for it to keep track of its clients' backgrounds and activities."
The firm set up more than 100,000 offshore entities, such as trusts and shell companies, between 2005 and 2015, the report said.
PARIS - The United States tried Monday to move past localized, short-term cease-fires in Syria by announcing the restoration of an enduring, nationwide truce. Yet that new approach was immediately called into doubt as Syria's military extended only a local cease-fire, in the hard-hit area of Aleppo, by 48 hours.
The chaos surrounding the latest bout of diplomacy, with the U.S. and Syria offering what seemed like conflicting versions of events, underscored the profound difficulty in getting the warring parties to even agree on what they've agreed on, much less lay down arms for good. The announcements came as world leaders meeting in Paris struggled to get faltering Syria peace talks back on track.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, announcing a new U.S.-Russia agreement, said it would "reinstate a nationwide cessation of hostilities," diplomatic-speak for the collapsed cease-fire the U.S. and Russia brokered in February. He said Russia had also committed to limiting the Syrian government's ability to fly over civilian areas where President Bashar Assad's military has been accused of violating the cease-fire.
But Kerry cautioned that the agreement itself meant little if it was not backed up by the parties on the ground.
"These are words on a piece of paper. They are not actions," Kerry said after a meeting that included the head of the High Negotiations Committee, an umbrella group of Assad's Western-backed opponents. "It is going to be up to the commanders in the field and the interested parties - which includes us."
In Damascus, Syria's military said a five-day cease-fire in Aleppo and its rural areas, set to expire for midnight, would instead be extended two more days, raising the prospect that additional, piecemeal cease-fires would continue to be announced. Brutal violence in Aleppo has killed nearly 300 civilians in recent days, and airstrikes hit several areas there Monday.
The U.S. and Russia have been working to put the broader truce back together through a series of short-term cease-fires in cities where heavy violence has broken out, including Aleppo, Syria's largest city. The hope is that quelling the fighting, along with a renewed show of global support, will clear the way for the parties to resume the indirect, U.N.-led talks.
Yet enforcing any cease-fire has been made nearly impossible by an exception built into the original cease-fire: Attacks are still allowed against the Islamic State and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. Those groups are common enemies of the U.S., many of the opposition groups and Assad, but they are fighting in the same areas, making it difficult to distinguish which strikes violate the cease-fire and which ones don't. The confusion has fueled accusations that Syrian and Russian forces are using the Nusra Front as an excuse to ignore the cease-fire and bomb opposition-held areas.
In their statement, the U.S. and Russia committed to developing a "shared understanding" of where the Islamic State and the Nusra Front hold territory. Clarifying which areas are fair game and which are off limits is seen as a key step toward eventually reviving the peace talks.
Ahmed Saoud, a top commander of a U.S.-backed rebel faction from the Free Syrian Army, said his group supports restoring the nationwide cease-fire but cast doubt that Assad would respect it. He said his group and other FSA units were bombed Monday by Assad's warplanes in the northern Idlib province, near Aleppo, where the Nusra Front is also strong.
There could be no better match for this weeks Republican Party of Texas convention than some in the partys willingness eagerness, even to regulate bathroom use in public schools and other public places.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants it that way. Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Joe Straus have not been nearly as active on social media or sought the medias attention on an issue that has become nationalized at lightning speed. Whether or not you believe the government has any right to tell people where they can and cannot relieve themselves is now a sort of barometer for ones politics on everything.
To that end, Patrick and his cohort, who took down Houstons equal rights ordinance last year, have made the bathroom question part of a larger fight. After the backlash against a recent North Carolina law, which require people to use the public bathrooms that match the sex listed on their birth certificates, Patrick and Co. are eager as ever not to let the Tar Heel State get all the glory of a federal lawsuit.
Texas lawmakers are not able to act until they convene in Austin in January, when we have been promised some kind of North Carolina-style bill, so the next biggest stage for Texas Republicans will have to do for now. The state GOP convention, which begins Thursday, will give us a first look at what, exactly, the Republican grass roots here will expect next year from the right-wing state lawmakers they have endorsed and worked to elect.
Today, Patrick will set the tone when he arrives in Fort Worth to protest month-old guidelines on trans students bathroom use that were implemented by Fort Worth Superintendent Kent Scribner. The states No. 2, who called for Scribners resignation on Monday, said Scribner forced the new regulations on the school district without any opportunities for public comment from parents, principals or school board members.
After less than a year as superintendent, Dr. Scribner has lost his focus and thereby his ability to lead the Fort Worth ISD, Patrick said in a statement. He has placed his own personal political agenda ahead of the more than 86,000 students attending 146 schools in the district by unilaterally adopting Transgender Student Guidelines.
The policy, among other things, essentially allows transgender students in Fort Worth schools to use the bathroom they are most comfortable with. The Chronicles Mike Ward wrote that Patricks move (underscores) the growing political obsession among influential Republican leaders here to focus on curtailing the rights of transgender Texans.
That obsession will almost certainly lead to a federal civil rights lawsuit against whatever law Texas Republicans pass next session. If the next president is a Democrat, that is a certainty, and that could be case, too, if Republican Donald Trump wins the White House. Trump has signaled that he is not hung up on this issue the way his partys social conservatives are, and that, maybe above everything else, gives Republicans the worst kind of heartburn.
Chief among them is Ted Cruz. He didnt spend months and months campaigning for the Republican nomination, and accusing Trump of playing conservative voters for fools, to let Trump write a GOP platform at the convention this summer that is in any way compromising on the bathroom issue. Politico reported Tuesday morning that Cruz, on a call with supporters, personally asked them to keep up the fight in Cleveland, not for the nomination but for the platform. That includes precious spots on the platform and rules committees.
The Cruz team really just wants to make sure the platform reflects conservative values so that conservatives are excited about turning out this November and in the future, said Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican who plans to be a Cruz delegate at the convention.
A former Piney Township official will be sentenced July 19 on charges that he stole public funds through credit card transactions.
Roger L. Martin was charged originally in January 2013 with the theft of more than $25,000 and on eight counts of fraudulently use of a credit or debit device.
Martin entered the guilty plea Tuesday before Circuit Judge John Beger, who is overseeing the case that is being prosecuted by Missouri Attorney General Chris Kosters office.
A Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation alleged Martin used a fuel credit card without the knowledge of his fellow township members. Martin resigned his elected post in July 2012 after questions surfaced about the cards use.
Earlier, a second former township official, Jackie Cooper, was sentenced after authorities alleged he had participated in the scheme. In 2014, total restitution of almost $25,000 was ordered by a judge.
Martin remains free on bond.
A Wentzville man is safe after being the focus of a major manhunt last week at Golden Hills Trail Rides and Resort near Raymondville.
Texas County Sheriff James Sigman said his department was contacted Wednesday morning by relatives who expressed concern about 39-year-old Joshua Close. Sigman said the mans whereabouts was narrowed down to Golden Hills, and his car was found there early Wednesday afternoon.
A search party of more than 20 from several agencies were involved in the search effort, combing Golden Hills 5,000 acres and hundreds of miles of roads and trails on ATVs, in trucks and on foot. Assisting the TCSD were personnel from the U.S. Forest Service, Houston Rural, Raymondville and Cabool fire departments, and some of the mans friends and family.
Sigman said a Missouri State Highway Patrol helicopter had also been involved Wednesday afternoon.
Golden Hills owner Chuck Golden said Close showed up at the resorts office at about 2 p.m. Saturday, tired and dirty, but unharmed and in good shape. Golden said Close had headed west along a stream branch, but had become disoriented and lost, ending up a significant distance off the huge Golden Hills tract.
He hadnt shaved in days and I had to ask him if he was really Josh, Golden said. He was glad to be back; I thought the sheriff and all the other people involved did a good job.
Closes father, Edward Close, helped in the search effort. He is a Texas County native and is very familiar with the territory now occupied by Golden Hills.
href="/nz/companies/affco/148828">AFFCO has found itself on the receiving end of an ERA fine yet again after a string of systematic errors lead to one mans unjust dismissal.The meat processing company has been ordered to reinstate Dennis Harris, reimburse him three months pay for lost wages, and provide $7,500 as compensation for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings.Harris was fired from the Moerewa plant after a tenure of almost 35 years his dismissal came amid allegations that he wrote the word scab multiple times inside a fellow employees food locker.The Meat Workers Union-member denied writing the word and damaging the locker but was dismissed after an investigation by the company an investigation which the ERA has now said was tainted by systematic errors.The ERA found that the company had already formed a view that Harris was responsible for the vandalism and was not open to any other possibilities so failed to conduct a full investigation but the company has backed its initial decision.Mr Harris was guilty of confronting another staff member and calling him a scab for not striking, explained general manager Angry Leonard.He was also seen on video next to that persons locker, and it was later found that scab had been written on that locker, he continued. The plant manager at the time felt it was serious enough for dismissal, as we take the threat of intimidation in our plants seriously. Unfortunately the ERA felt otherwise.
ernational banking firm Lloyds Banking Group will soon become the first UK-owned employer to give its staff access to private gender reassignment surgery.By broadening its staff health insurance scheme, the bank will provide greater choice and quicker access to treatment for employees diagnosed with gender dysphoria the condition of experiencing distress at the sex or gender assigned at birth.Talking to the LGBT newsletter, Pink News, the bank estimated that around 830 UK employees dont see themselves as purely male or female. Initially, the firm expects 20 staff members to make use of this extended coverage.Lloyds estimates that around 0.025% of all staff would choose to undergo the surgery. This will be provided via Bupa to any permanent employee within the UK who is subscribed to the companys healthcare scheme.We want to be inclusive to all colleagues and we felt that our current healthcare provision was excluding certain conditions which were very important to people, particularly in the support for some of the mental health issues that colleagues suffer, Karin Cook, director of operations at Lloyds Banking Group told Pink News.Through the extended coverage offered, she said that staff will be able to access healthcare much quicker than they would on any other health provision. They could have a wait of up to 36 months [using another health provision] but through this private provision they will be able to do it an awful lot quicker.The move will provide support to a number of colleagues within the bank, Cook said, adding that it will also promote the Groups branding as an inclusive employer.I think things are evolving for our brand, but I genuinely feel that what we are doing externally, the signals we are sending, should start to attract more LGBT graduates, for example. We are looking at talent who genuinely want to work for us.While Lloyds Banking Group is the only UK-owned company to currently offer this healthcare service, others around the world have already taken this step. For instance, the US-based Bank of America Merrill Lynch also offers its staff access to gender reassignment surgery through its private health cover.
An Edmonton hotel gave a Fort McMurray boy a birthday to remember.
Maddox Nolin's family had a big party planned for his fifth birthday on Saturday.
"I had a bouncy castle planned for him and everything, and invited the whole class, all our neighbours, all our friends," his mom Corina Nolin told The Huffington Post Alberta.
Those plans changed when the family had to evacuate Fort McMurray last week as a massive wildfire swept toward the city.
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The Nolins fled to Edmonton, abandoning most of their personal belongings, as well as the plans for Maddox's party and all of his gifts.
"For days and days and days before the party he was counting down every single day. The day we left Fort McMurray, not once he mentioned his party. Not once."
Hotel jumps into action
Finning, Maddox's dad's company, put the family up at Edmonton's DoubleTree Hilton hotel.
Hotel workers leaped into action when she told them about Maddox's birthday party. They found a space for the party, baked a cake and put up decorations. They even gave Maddox a birthday card with a gift certificate for a toy store.
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Mom Corina caught Maddox's priceless reaction on video. (Watch the reveal in the video above!)
"He just could not believe this was happening, it was absolutely amazing," she said.
The Nolins were able to contact some of Maddox's friends who were also evacuated to Edmonton and brought them to the hotel.
"He just could not believe this was happening, it was absolutely amazing."
Even a few strangers showed up with gifts for the birthday boy.
Maddox's mom said the kindness she's received since the evacuation has absolutely blown her away.
"I never thought this was going to happen. I really thought hes not even going to have a birthday present," Nolin said. "We have received so much love from people we dont know."
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A Muslim high school student in California said she's "saddened, disgusted, hurt and embarrassed" after she was wrongly referred to as "Isis" in her yearbook.
Bayan Zehlif said she doubts that the name Isis Phillips showed up under her photo in the annual by accident.
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The school reached out to me and had the audacity to say that this was a typo," the Los Osos High School student wrote on Facebook Saturday. "I beg to differ, let's be real.
Trevor Santellan, a student who worked on the yearbook, said there was a student named Isis Phillips, but that she'd transferred from the school earlier in the year.
Santellan told The New York Daily News he thought that Zehlif overreacted.
"If anything, she's being racist against herself because she misinterpreted it and not us," he said.
On Friday, the yearbook team tweeted an apology, saying it should have checked each name more carefully.
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The principal also apologized on Twitter, saying the school would investigate the incident.
But school officials also told ABC7 that other students had their names mixed up in the yearbook.
School administrators met with the 17-year-old's parents on Monday, but the father told CBS 2 that his daughter won't go back to class until he knows more about what happened.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations wants a full investigation into the incident, according to ABC7. Zehlif herself spoke out Monday from the group's headquarters.
"For something like that to happen to me, and the name ISIS to be used for me knowing what it means for Muslims it really hurt," she said.
The school district told the outlet that all of the yearbooks will be reprinted. Students who don't return theirs won't be able to walk at graduation.
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You can see more on the story in the video above.
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Jian Ghomeshi won't face a second assault trial in June, sources confirmed Monday.
The former CBC host, who was acquitted of sexual assault and choking charges in March, is currently scheduled to appear in court for a new trial starting in June on a single count of sexual assault. A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Canadian Press the trial is set to be formally dismissed on Wednesday, after Ghomeshi signs a peace bond.
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Jian Ghomeshi leaves court with lawyer Marie Henein on Feb. 11, 2016. (Photo: Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Sources first confirmed to the National Post that the 48-year-old will appear at the Ontario Court of Justice to sign the peace bond, which can last as long as one year. Peace bonds are most commonly applied in domestic disputes, or cases where authorities feel obliged to respond to a complaint but may not be sure a criminal offence has occurred.
If Ghomeshi does sign a peace bond, he must remain on "good behaviour" and possibly maintain distance from the complainant. Ghomeshi will have no criminal record if he follows through on the terms.
The complainant in this second trial, whose identity is protected under a publication ban, worked with Ghomeshi at CBC. The charge relates to instances of alleged touching and sexual comments made in the workplace dating back to 2008, Maclean's reported.
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The Toronto Star suggested Monday that the former radio host may admit to some level of misconduct and make an apology before signing the peace bond. The newspaper said reports that Ghomeshi's second trial would be cancelled have been circulating since March.
With files from The Canadian Press
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A top Conservative isn't buying that U.S. President Barack Obama just decided to invite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's in-laws to break bread with them in Washington.
But Trudeau suggested in the House of Commons Tuesday that's exactly the kind of thing that happens when a prime minister has a good relationship with his U.S. counterpart.
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Trudeau has faced questions this week about the 44-person delegation that accompanied him to the historic state dinner at the White House in March, costing taxpayers at least $25,000. He told reporters that his mother, Margaret Trudeau, and his in-laws were "personally invited" by Obama.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proposes a toast to U.S. President Barack Obama during a state dinner Thursday, March 10, 2016 in Washington. (Photo: Paul Chiasson/CP)
Liberal party president Anna Gainey and top fundraiser Stephen Bronfman also attended the event, but the party told The Canadian Press that their expenses weren't covered by Canadian taxpayers.
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In question period, Tory House Leader Andrew Scheer wondered what the delegation revealed about Trudeau's priorities. While his in-laws and fundraisers accompanied him, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr who is tasked, in part, with making the case for building pipelines stayed home.
Trudeau shot back that, for 10 years, Tories hurt Canada-U.S. relations with a singular focus on the Keystone XL pipeline.
The PM added he was "touched" that Obama invited his mom and in-laws to be part of a "great meeting of two families."
"Mr. Speaker, nobody believes that President Obama, on his own, decided to invite the prime minister's in-laws." Andrew Scheer
Scheer rose from his chair with a big grin on his face.
"Mr. Speaker, nobody believes that President Obama, on his own, decided to invite the prime minister's in-laws," he said, sparking some laughter. "Nobody believes that President Obama, on his own, decided to invite Liberal party fundraisers."
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"Does the prime minister deny that it was his office that sent the White House the invitation list for this state dinner?" Scheer asked.
Trudeau suggested Obama went out of his way to ensure his extended family was there.
Margaret Trudeau, mother of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is applauded as she is introduced by U.S. President Barack Obama during a state dinner on March 10, 2016 in Washington. (Photo: Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)
"On top of the official delegation seats that we were allocated, the president and his office insisted that we add to it my mother and our in-laws because it emphasizes the relationship," he said. "These were extra seats that the president made available not in the official delegation that we provided."
Scheer then sarcastically asked if Trudeau was sure the White House didn't just drop Carr's place instead.
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Ambrose: 'I even got invited'
Tories also poked fun at Carr's expense back in March when he was left to mind the store as nine of his cabinet colleagues were south of the border.
"How important is energy to this government when the energy minister isn't even invited to go to Washington?" interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose asked in the House.
"I even got invited to go to Washington."
Obama toasted Margaret
But if Obama's toast to the prime minister that night is any indication, the president was indeed happy to see Margaret Trudeau. Obama sparked applause when he singled out the advocacy work Trudeau's mother has done on the issue of mental health.
"Justin, we also see Canada's spirit in your mother's brave advocacy for mental health care and I want to give a special welcome to Margaret Trudeau tonight," Obama said.
In his toast, Trudeau noted that his mother last attended a state dinner in 1977.
"It's incredibly touching to be able to be here not just as a couple, Sophie and I, but to have been able to bring our families down as well," Trudeau said at the time.
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With files from The Canadian Press
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An NDP MP warns the string of attempted suicides in a northern Ontario First Nation may be the tipping point for a new mental health crisis if the government fails to take timely action.
Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday, Charlie Angus said theres a sense of uncertainty in Attawapiskat over the future of its youth.
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Theres a lot of wonderful young people in the community who are trying to get on with their lives, but we have a number of very, very high risk children, the Timmins-James Bay MP said.
Theres a real concern there because we dont know whats going to happen with them.
Angus cancelled a trip to be part of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations in New York City. The NDP indigenous affairs critic said unresolved issues in Attawapiskat prompted him to visit the remote northern community with MPP Gilles Bisson instead.
NDP MP Charlie Angus speaks about the Attawapiskat First Nation in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 10, 2016. (Photo: Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
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He said he toured the local hospital and met wonderful young people who are trying to get on with their lives. He lambasted the federal government for failing to help children who are at severe risk.
A real concern that were hearing from some experts who are the ground there is we may not be at the end of the crisis, we may be at the beginning of a newer crisis, he said.
The kids cant wait another day, another week or another month until the government finds it convenient.
Tuesday is the deadline for the federal government to confirm whether or not it will implement Jordan's Principle a policy to ensure indigenous children have equal rights to healthcare.
Attawapiskat resources stretched thin
In April, police in Attawapiskat thwarted a suicide pact between 13 young people including a nine-year-old. The communitys emergency responders and mental health services were stretched so thin, half of the youths sat in jail while they waited for treatment.
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The spike in suicide attempts and ensuing national discussion prompted the federal government to send additional mental health workers to the reserve. But the community needs more than new temporary healthcare workers.
At the beginning of May, the First Nation saw nine more suicide attempts and overdoses, Chief Bruce Shisheesh reported.
There have been 9 attempted suicide/overdoses yesterday. Pray for Attawapiskat Chief Shisheesh (@BruceShisheesh) May 4, 2016
A matter of life and death
Last week, the chief wrote a letter to the prime minister who is also the minister of youth pleading for immediate action on a matter of life and death.
The community has continually asked provincial and federal governments for help to improve its inadequate medical and mental health resources to support the approximately 2,000 people who live in Attawapiskat.
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While the effort of your ministers is appreciated to date, it falls short of finding a permanent solution for our youth here in Attawapiskat, it read.
Time is our enemy, and we cannot afford to delay immediate action. Attawapiskat Chief Bruce Shisheesh
He called for an urgent meeting with Trudeau, Minister of Indigenous Affairs Carolyn Bennett, and Minister of Health Jane Philpott before the Assembly of First Nations annual general meeting in June.
Time is our enemy, and we cannot afford to delay immediate action, and we may have more of our youth die or attempt to end their precious lives.
The prime minister responded to Chief Shisheeshs words with a letter saying how agonized he is over the ongoing situation in the remote First Nations community.
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I am unhesitatingly willing to accept your offer to meet, Trudeau said.
The youth panel hold hands before a meeting in the northern Ontario First Nations reserve in Attawapiskat, Ont. on April 16, 2016 (Photo: Nathan Denette)
No official Attawapiskat visit yet
Trudeau has not yet visited Attawapiskat as prime minister. However, he did make a private visit to Shoal Lake 40, a First Nation on the Ontario-Manitoba border, last month to speak with elders and school children about life on the isolated island reserve.
Shoal Lake 40 has been under a boil-water advisory for nearly two decades.
In December, the prime minister repeated his Liberal government is committed to forging a renewed nation-to-nation relationship with the countrys aboriginal communities.
This is a responsibility I take seriously, and I have instructed my government to do the same, he said at an Assembly of First Nations address at the time.
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Highwaystarz-Photography via Getty Images Close Up Of Pregnant Woman Drinking Red Wine
It is often touted that drinking alcohol while pregnant has countless negative effects. Despite this, New York City bars can no longer refuse an expectant mom a drink thanks to new guidelines.
On Friday, the city's Human Rights Commission released new rules to protect pregnant moms from discrimination in the workplace and in public.
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"Judgments and stereotypes about how pregnant individuals should behave, their physical capabilities and what is or is not healthy for a fetus are pervasive in our society and cannot be used as pretext for unlawful discriminatory decisions in employment, housing, and public accommodations," the new terms read.
According to the Human Rights Commission, these new guidelines have been put in place to prevent pregnant women from being singled out.
The Associated Press notes that in the past, expectant moms have felt awkward asking for an alcoholic beverage, regardless of whether or not they were denied service. In fact, in one instance which is currently being investigated a pregnant woman was denied entry into a bar altogether.
Special Counsel Dana Sussman, of the Human Rights Commission, told CBS New York that her agency is also investigating a few cases.
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"You can see a slippery slope here," she said. "We're talking about women being able to make decisions for themselves."
While New York City bars and restaurants can no longer deny entry or alcoholic beverages to pregnant women, they are still required to post warnings about the effects of drinking on unborn fetuses.
Since the new guidelines were released last week, many people have taken to Twitter to share their views on the matter.
@nytimes Hmm there's a baby in there too..so I think a drinking decision should be made when she's only caring for her soul. Chance (@c2theb03) May 9, 2016
@NBCNews@NBCNewYork you shouldn't refuse service to anyone just because you think its wrong. Drink up pregnant ladies! William H Whitebread (@whitebreadsays) May 7, 2016
@NBCNews@NBCNewYork Well Thats stupid But seriously What bar tender with a conscious would serve a pregnant woman booze anyways? ThatOneCynicaljerk (@ThatCynicaljerk) May 7, 2016
Others also asked an important question: who will be held accountable if the woman's baby is born with birth defects due to drinking?
@NBCNews@NBCNewYork This is bullshit, because the same bartenders would be convicted if they served someone who then drank and drove! Tim X (@Tim_X_) May 7, 2016
@NBCNews@NBCNewYork It's just the beginning of a new rule which will unload responsibilities from the culprit to the bartender. Beware ! nothomb alexandre (@nothombalexan) May 7, 2016
Despite the debate over New York City's new guidelines, the American Academy of Pediatrics warns that women shouldn't drink during pregnancy. This is because alcohol consumption can lead to things like fetal alcohol syndrome, miscarriage, birth defects, brain damage and stillbirths.
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In Canada, bars and restaurants have the right to set any rules they want regarding alcohol, though many provinces have laws regarding signage about the risks that must be posted. However, denying a pregnant woman a drink infringes on her right to equal service and can result in a lawsuit.
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Its another girl for Ryan Gosling! The 35-year-old actor welcomed his second child with longtime girlfriend Eva Mendes on April 29 in California, TMZ reports. The couple named their baby girl Amada Lee Gosling.
The exciting baby news comes less than a month after a source confirmed to E! News that Mendes is pregnant. The birth of Amada means the couples 20-month-old daughter Esmeralda is now a big sister.
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If the name Amada sounds familiar, its likely because its the same moniker the couple chose for Esmeraldas middle name. In 2014, Mendes revealed that Amada was her grandmothers name and means beloved in Spanish.
The birth of the couples second child shouldnt come as a surprise. After all, Gosling and Mendes are known for being notoriously private. In fact, Mendes first pregnancy was also kept a secret for several months before it was confirmed to the public.
At the time, a source told People that Mendes just hasn't ever wanted anyone beyond her close friends and family knowing more than they had to. And Ryan is certainly private and always has been.
While its unlikely that well see photos of the newborn or her older sister Esmeralda, lets hope the couple isnt afraid to gush about their new roles as mom and dad.
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Congrats to Gosling, Mendes and their beautiful, growing family!
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A Quebec teens interest in ancient Mayans has led to an incredible discovery.
William Gadoury, 15, is credited with finding an ancient lost city in the Yucatan jungle in Mexico. Hes decided to name it Kaak Chi, which means Mouth of Fire, according to the Journal de Montreal.
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William Gadoury visited the Canadian Space Agency in 2014. (Photo: Canadian Space Agency/Facebook)
It began with his fascinatation with how the civilization that lived in Central America worshipped the stars. He was pleased to discover that the brightest stars in the constellations matched the biggest Mayan cities on the map.
I didnt understand why the Maya built their cities far away from rivers, in remote areas, or in the mountains, Gadoury told the newspaper in French.
Using satellite images and maps of the night sky, Gadoury discovered that if he projected the constellations onto a map, the stars perfectly lined up with 117 Mayan cities.
He noticed that a constellation made up of three stars only had two corresponding cities, reported The Independent, leading him to believe that there could be one that was hidden.
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With the help of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the 15-year-old was able to uncover an ancient, unknown city. The agency provided Gadoury with satellite images of the area where he believed the forgotten city was located.
Images of possible structures in forgotten city. (Photo: Canadian Space Agency)
By providing William some of these images, we were able to see some structures, and try to see that theres an elevation here maybe this could be a pyramid, the CSAs Daniel De Lisle explained in an interview on CBC Radio.
There are some structures that really are man-made, and really look linear, that should not have been there. But maybe because theyre there, theres an unknown city underneath.
Gadoury said it would be the "dream of a lifetime" to visit the ruins that he discovered.
Gadoury told Radio-Canada that one day he would like to be an archaeologist, astronomer or engineer.
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William Gadoury speaks about his discovery at the Canadian Space Agency in 2014. (Photo: Canadian Space Agency/Facebook)
UPDATE - May 11, 2016: Some experts are now voicing skepticism about the lost city.
David Stuart, an archaeologist and director of the Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote on his Facebook page that the man-made shape on the satellite image is most likely a cornfield.
The ancient Maya didnt plot their ancient cities according to constellations. Seeing such patterns is a Rorschach process, since sites are everywhere, and so are stars, he wrote.
Anthropologist and satellite imaging expert Thomas Garrison told Gizmodo he believes the cornfield has likely been fallow for 10 to 15 years.
Ammar Abdullah / Reuters Residents inspect a site damaged by an airstrike in Hafsarja, in the insurgent stronghold of Idlib province, Syria May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah
By Ben Ofori
This post is the first of a seven-part series on the themes of the High-Level Leaders' Roundtables at the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit, to be held May 23-24 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Going into the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in Istanbul, there are good reasons why conflict and violence remain high on the agenda, but these reasons are not new. Conflicts and violence exact a brutal toll on people and affected communities as tragic civilian deaths, injuries, rape and torture become a daily experience. Vital infrastructures like schools, health and water systems are destroyed, and children no longer in school become vulnerable to abuse and trafficking.
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Agriculture and food production ceases, food stocks are depleted and acute hunger and malnutrition take their toll. People flee their homes into neighbouring towns or countries and some brave treacherous seas in search of refuge as seen in the graphic imageries of Syrians fleeing to Europe. The list goes on. Essentially, as the UN Secretary General notes in his report for the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), "countries coming out of prolonged civil war are never the same, their social and political fabric [are] changed forever."
Changing complexity of today's conflicts
Today's violent conflicts are notable for their number and complexity. There were 11 major civil conflicts in 2014, up from four in 2007-2011. The sheer numbers of actors and their divergent interests further prolong and make it difficult to resolve conflicts. Cities and urban areas have become major theaters of war and transnational criminal and extremist groups thrive in conflict and fragile states, prolonging violence and frustrating state-building efforts. In effect, the prospects of negotiating peace have become more difficult.
Meanwhile, conflicts exact a heavy burden on the humanitarian response capacity and resources of the international community. Nearly two-thirds of UN peacekeepers and about 90 per cent of UN personnel on special political missions are assigned to countries with high-intensity conflicts. More than 80 per cent of humanitarian funds requested by the UN goes to address problems in conflict areas. These funds could have otherwise been applied to build capacity and strengthen institutions, educate children, enhance the livelihoods and incomes of women and families, improve health care and support smallholder agriculture in poorer countries, etc.
Conflict-related costs of response
Speaking of funds, today's conflicts along with natural disasters and changing climate renders insufficient what is otherwise an unprecedented level of humanitarian generosity. In 2014, the UN humanitarian agency raised US$ 24.5 billion for humanitarian action, up from US$ 2 billion in 2000. Regardless, the UN recorded its largest ever shortfall as only 62 per cent of needs identified were being addressed.
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In 2015, for example, 1.6 million Syrian refugees had their food rations cut and 750,000 of their children could not attend school. UN-run health care services shut down in several areas of Iraq leaving millions of internally displaced people without medical attention. Experts warn of potential further cuts ahead.
The cost implications of conflict-induced emergencies cannot be emphasized enough. Some estimates put the economic and financial costs at $14 trillion or 13.4 per cent of the global economy in 2014. If the current trends continue, some experts warn, the cost of humanitarian assistance will rise to about $50 billion and 62 per cent of the world's poor would be living in fragile and conflict-affected countries. This is why violent conflicts should be high on the agenda of the WHS in May.
Canada can lead by promoting human rights for all people (including women and minorities) and investing in good governance and institutional capacity building.
The elephant in the room
While humanitarian response and peacekeeping may ameliorate suffering and stabilize the situation in the near term, they cannot of themselves address the root causes of human suffering associated with conflicts. This could well be the elephant in the room at the WHS Roundtables in May. Experts agree that the way to prevent conflicts is to address their root causes using political solutions. Unfortunately, it seems easier to deliver humanitarian assistance than to invest in political solutions. Without the needed political and diplomatic efforts, humanitarians are left to shoulder a burden that properly belongs elsewhere.
Canada can seize on this opportunity on the global stage to provide leadership at the WHS Roundtable on conflict prevention. Canada can leverage its leadership in humanitarian response, peacekeeping and refugee resettlement to rally a coalition of donor countries around the cause of investing in conflict prevention. This includes taking decisive political leadership at the highest level and long-term investment in peaceful and inclusive societies. It demands building support for policies that uphold the humanity of others, invests in early risks monitoring and analysis, and encourages prompt early action when warning signs appear.
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Canada can lead by promoting human rights for all people (including women and minorities) and investing in good governance and institutional capacity building. The preamble of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) captures the global collective resolve to foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies free from fear and violence (also expressed in Goal 16). If the SDGs are to be realized at all, we must take investments in peace and conflict prevention more seriously.
Ben Ofori is Senior Policy Advisor at the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
This blog series on the World Humanitarian Summit was convened by the Canadian Council for International Co-operation. The views expressed in each blog are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the positions of CCIC, its members, or other participating organizations.
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Photo credit: Ricardo Mangual
You don't have to travel around the world to enjoy a tropical vacation, complete with umbrella-dressed drinks, cartoonish palm trees and salty, turquoise waters. The Florida Keys are just a short plane ride from numerous locations throughout Canada and the United States, yet they offer that far-away feeling many travelers are seeking. Even better, the Keys are known for offering a variety of budget-friendly accommodation options, uncrowded beaches, unbeatable happy hour specials and reasonably-priced eats.
If you're tired of paying too much to get away and relax, the sunny Florida Keys should be on your travel radar. The following are a few reasons why you should consider booking your affordable tropical getaway today.
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They're Easy to Get Around
Cruising along bridges and roadways surrounded by water for 107 miles may not sound easy, but you'll be amazed at how quickly a drive can fly by when you're amidst tropical, turquoise waters and swooping palm trees. It typically takes just 3 hours to drive the length of the Florida Keys at a relaxing pace, which also means that if you find a place you love, it's not difficult to go back and visit.
Mom-and-Pop Restaurants Are Still Alive
Photo credit: Sam Howzit
You don't have to spend an arm and a leg on every meal on your vacation to the Keys. In fact, the islands are loaded with rustic, mom-and-pop shops that have been around for decades. Whether you're seeking fresh-out-of-the-sea seafood or the best Cuban sandwich of your life, you'll find them away from the more expensive tourist traps.
Watersports Are Everywhere
The Florida Keys welcome you to pull up a beach chair and stay in it all day. However, not all travelers can soak in the sun for hours. Fortunately, the Keys offer water-based activities for everyone from fishermen to divers, snorkelers, paddle boarders, kayakers, swimmers and more. You don't have to be an expert to enjoy the tropical waters of the Keys, because there are plenty of tour and rental companies to help you discover the mangrove trails, reel in dinner or discover the area's colorful coral reefs.
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You'll Get That True Tropical Feel
Photo credit: Patrick Emerson
Let's face it. A warm-weather vacation just doesn't feel right without towering palm trees, turquoise waters and brightly-colored beach bars. You'll be happy to know that the Florida Keys have all of these and more. Whether you stop at northernmost Key Largo or venture all the way to Key West, you're guaranteed to find yourself sipping a tropical cocktail under a palm tree with your toes in the sand. In fact, the Bahia Honda State Park on Big Pine Key is known for being home to the most beautiful beach in the country.
You Can Still Learn Something
One of the best parts of visiting a new destination is discovering the history and culture that make it so special. The Florida Keys were discovered by Ponce de Leon and Antonio de Herrera on May 15, 1513. However, the islands were inhabited mostly by pirates until they were chased away by the U.S. Navy in 1822. Settlers followed shortly after, and a number of industries took root in the Keys, including shark processing (for shagreen leather), sponge harvesting, cigar making and more, to make Key West the wealthiest city in the country.
Despite later bankruptcy and the hardships of the Great Depression, much of Key West's thriving history can still be seen in the perfectly-restored homes and buildings. It's impossible not to feel transported back in time when walking the streets of Old Town Key West.
In the wake of one of the most devastating wildfires in North American history, Canadians have learned a few valuable lessons. First, we are great at pulling together and taking care of each other during a crisis. The spirit of generosity shown by Albertans and people across the country has been a testament to the spirit of Canada. Second, say what you will about our political leaders, but when something like this happens, they know how to put partisanship aside and work together instead of against each other.
And finally, social media once again proves itself to be the most poisoned medium in world history.
Face it folks, we've taken a wonderful invention and injected it with so much toxicity that one wonders how it has lasted this long. Facebook and Twitter have become virtual cage matches, and we are either engaged in the battle directly or enabling the blood sport by remaining in the audience while it happens.
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We have among us two groups who share the crown for the most heinous; the remarkably insensitive radicals on the far left and far right, giving each other digital kicks to the nuts and nipple twists when discussing any issue through social media. These two groups are a minority in numbers but are almost always front and centre due to the sheer volume of their contentiousness.
What caused the Fort McMurray fire? Karma.
Literally hundreds of tweets from the radical left cited karmic forces as the cause for the apocalyptic destruction of nearly 2000 homes and 200, 000 hectares of forest. You could almost imagine their snickering as they hit the Send button.
The Fort McMurray fire is only the latest issue to be poisoned by reactionary politics.
What should the NDP provincial government be doing to assist? It doesn't matter what they do, the fire is their fault to begin with.
Literally hundreds of tweets and Facebook posts from the radical right admonished the NDP government for allegedly ignoring the recommendations from the post mortem report after the Great Slave Lake fire in 2011. This astonishing claim ignores the fact that the Great Slave Lake fire was caused by arson but still managed to gain traction, mostly because it was trumpeted by Ezra Levant, possibly the nation's most infamous right wing zealot.
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Of course, the Fort McMurray fire is only the latest issue to be poisoned by reactionary politics, and it isn't even close to being the worst example. All things considered, despite the frantic screaming coming from both sides, the Fort Mac fire has been largely tempered by the rational middle. But the peripheral issue -- climate change -- remains one of the most toxic issues today, dictated by two separate yet equally vitriolic groups; the climate change alarmists and the climate change deniers. Social media serves as the arena where they battle in perpetuity for an omni-present audience who pays attention, argues, or hits the Like button.
So what is it about social media that fosters such a negative display of human behaviour? The answer might be a simple one; members of the fringe are more likely to comment relentlessly on issues that anger them the most, arguing with their ideological opposites and giving the appearance that the issue is dominated by those two opposing viewpoints.
Since most people are not politically active, many walk away from their digital devices feeling like radical opinions are actually part of the mainstream, like climate change being an elaborate hoax, or that the world will come to an end in their lifetime if we don't all stop eating meat tomorrow.
Our social media has been polarized, infecting how we communicate and eroding our collective perception of nearly every current event.
But the most glaring example of an issue dominated by radical lefties and bat shit righties; identity politics. Feminism, racial issues, LGBTQ issues, and class issues -- all of them completely dominated by irrational, knee-jerk reactionary know-it-alls who have tricked the semi-apathetic into thinking they are the only two opinions for every story.
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You either believe racism has ended, or that everything is drenched in racism.
You either believe feminism is a cancer on society, or that the invisible patriarch controls every corner of our lives.
You either believe university campuses are filled with troubled students who obviously require trigger warnings and safe spaces, or you believe students have been brainwashed by a secret society of gender studies professors.
You either believe that everyone has a little bit of gay in them, or that there is a gay agenda poisoning our school system.
You either believe the poor are lazy, ungrateful welfare bums, or that there is a cabal of Jewish bankers who control the entire planet.
Discourse has been hijacked by a special brand of lunatics, people who are seemingly normal in real life but spit venom in the online world.
Our social media has been polarized, infecting how we communicate and eroding our collective perception of nearly every current event. Recently, a close friend of mine made a conscious decision to get off Facebook. He's a smart guy, one of those salt-of-the-earth types who is hard not to like. After years of trying to bring a semblance of civility to threads about social issues or politics, and after watching his friends, myself included, get sucked into the vortex of cynical commentary, he threw in the towel. It's been almost six months since he has posted or commented on social media, and he says he has never felt better.
Discourse has been hijacked by a special brand of lunatics, people who are seemingly normal in real life but spit venom in the online world. Like comic book villains, they get caught up in their own drawn out monologues or zippy one-liners, both designed to stifle debate and destroy even the hint of a robust discussion, while feeding our minds a fool's gold hit of adrenaline.
But if the only staying power social media has is derived from our ability to be divisive, then perhaps those of us not on the fringe should do a better job shouting down the partisans. Or, better yet, maybe we should all just close our laptops, put our phones away, and talk directly to each other instead.
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Over the past few decades, children's health has arguably made some of the greatest gains. Infant mortality in most developed countries has fallen dramatically from an estimated 30 per cent to less than one per cent. Infectious diseases, the primary cause of infant mortality, have been addressed with better sanitation and water quality, and the development of vaccines and innovative new therapies. Parents need only consider penicillin or vaccines for polio, whooping cough, meningitis, and chicken pox to get a sense of the stress that parents would have had just a few decades ago.
Underpinning this success was scientific research that grew in sophistication in the first half of the 20th century. After the Second World War, the concept of randomized clinical trials became the gold standard for health research and the foundation of evidence-based care by all health care practitioners.
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A randomized clinical trial is a study in which people are allocated at random to receive one of several clinical interventions. One of these interventions is the standard of comparison or control. The control may be a standard practice, a placebo, or no intervention at all. These types of clinical trials seek to measure and compare the outcomes after the participants receive the interventions.
Clinical trials are essential to health care and there has been a concerted effort by the health research community to attract clinical trials to Canada. Countries strenuously compete for research investment and talent, and for years Canada saw its clinical trial activity decline. Innovative Medicines Canada -- my organization -- is a proud partner of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and HealthCareCAN in the Canadian Clinical Trials Coordinating Centre, which is implementing an action plan to reverse this trend and strengthen Canada's position as a global destination for clinical trials.
Pediatric health research and clinical trials pose an even greater challenge that extends across the globe. Our research systems have challenges replicating randomized clinical trial models for paediatric research, due to a number of factors. These include the ethical dimension of receiving consent and assent to include children in research and clinical trials. The infrequency of many childhood illnesses makes it difficult to find enough participants for a clinical trial. That is why multiple sites are needed across many jurisdictions which increase the administration and management burden to conduct a trial. Smaller trials also require specialized methodological and analytical expertise, which is a skill set that can be difficult to acquire.
There are also fewer paediatric researchers. Canada does have some excellent researchers across the country and, this week, the Parliament Health Research Caucus held a reception on Parliament Hill showcasing their work. The Toronto Sick Kids Hospital is participating in international research trials for pediatric cancers, leukemia and Blood Disorder, blood and marrow transplant. CHU Sainte-Justine/University of Montreal are participating in a global clinical trials to treat and improve the quality of life to the 20 per cent of children who do not respond to standard cancer treatments.
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Many of our companies work in this space or support paediatric research through organizations such as the Maternal Infant Child Youth Research Network (MICYRN). Between 2005 and 2009, over 300 clinical trials were conducted in Canada, with more than 50 per cent of those trials being run by members of Innovative Medicines Canada. Our own Health Research Foundation has also funded several studies in pediatric research -- focusing on issues such as obesity and mental health.
The Canadian Pediatric Society has consistently called for an integrated national research strategy for children that will help streamline clinical investigation processes, and attract clinical trials from around the world to make research opportunities available to Canadian children and researchers. Among its recommendations is for a national research network focused on the therapeutic needs of children, involving the private sector, governments and child health centres.
This initiative is gaining momentum. The Council of Academies has issued an Expert Panel report, chaired by Dr. Stuart MacLeod, from the University of British Columbia that contains a number of similar recommendations. A coalition of health organizations is also advocating for a Canadian pediatric clinical trials network under the name KIDSCan.
This initiative is inspired by the success of the United States, the EU, Japan and Australia who have undertaken national strategies and seen impressive results. In 2004, the UK founded the Medicines for Children Research Network with a modest investment of 11 million pounds -- and saw the number of trials increase from a handful in 2006 to 300 active trials annually. In 2010, in the United States, the National Institutes of Health awarded a $95-million contract to the Duke Clinical Institute to establish a Pediatric Trials Network. Working with its partners, it has created over 30 clinical research trials.
As one researcher recently told me, "Children are not mini-adults. They need a specific research strategy to help develop their treatments." Well said.
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Design Pics / Deddeda via Getty Images chesterman beach tofino vancouver island british columbia canada
Around Vancouver, we're blessed with beautiful mountains, beaches and a multitude of trails to trek. But when it comes to surfing, Tofino's where it's at.
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Getting there:
Travel west (and we mean really west) across the 49th northern parallel on a daylong journey for a road trip like no other. Start off in Vancouver and take the hour-and-a-half ferry trip from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo. Once in Nanaimo, the drive to Tofino is a beautiful three-hour journey through the mountains. Follow the signs for 4 West to Tofino.
Along the way, you'll cross a bridge similar to the love lock bridge in Paris, where lovers express their devotion to one another by attaching an engraved padlock to bridge railings. Who knew there were so many romantics along the Pacific Rim highway? www.tourismtofino.com
Stay:
If you're looking for a true escape, check out Pacific Sands Beach Resort for a relaxed and roomy atmosphere in a luxe beach house. Just steps from the sand on the shores of Cox Bay, the resort offers breathtaking ocean views in a forest of green. Complete with fully equipped, family-friendly kitchens and cosy fireplaces, this is the place to recharge and regain clarity from a busy week in the city.
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If you're feeling it, the resort offers bike rentals for a beachside ride or trip into town. 1421 Pacific Rim Highway, Tofino, BC, 250-725-3322, pacificsands.com
Surf:
Tofino is ideal for surfing aficionados but if you're a beginner, don't fret because Surf Sisters has you covered. The gear was brought to us at Pacific Sands and the lesson is right in Cox Bay, where the waves are at their highest (and greatest!) Don't worry about your post-surf swag (Surf Sisters swears the only things you need to worry about locals stealing are your tacos.)
If you're not into surfing, don't stress because Tofino offers many other activities including standup paddle boarding. Book a lesson with Tofino Paddle Surf and be one with the ocean. SUP is quite the workout as it promotes core strengthening along with a connection to nature. 625 Campbell, Tofino, BC, 250-725-4456, surfsister.com
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Savour:
If you're in the mood for some of the best locally grown produce and mouth-watering fresh seafood, this quaint surf town boasts quite the menu. Surfing works up quite the appetite, which is why taking the short but scenic drive along the Pacific Rim highway to Shelter restaurant was the perfect way to spend our Friday night. Shelter offers a sophisticated seasonal menu with one of the best views of Tofino. Try the Sakamoto Tuna Tataki for a refreshing appetizer, and opt for the pan-seared local wild salmon for your entree.
For a light breakfast, pick up some grocery basics and make use of that beautiful beach house kitchen, then eat on the porch while listening to the sound of the waves. You can't possibly leave Tofino without trying tacos at the original Tacofino so head there for lunch for some of the best fish tacos you've ever had. For dinner, refuel at Wolf in the Fog (Neil Patrick Harris was seen there the night we were there!) and opt for share plates, where the potato-crusted oysters are a crowd favorite (Neil ordered them, too!).
For a quick bite before catching the ferry, stop by SOBO for their to-die-for polenta fries and inari salmon pockets (nom nom!). 601 Campbell St, Tofino, BC, 250-725-3353, shelterrestaurant.com
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Sip:
Not only home to some real foodie joints, Tofino also offers a drink or two you must try. While out and about chatting with locals, we were convinced to try the Cedar Sour at Wolf in the Fog. This cocktail was made with cedar infused rye, lemon and a few other local ingredients which made us feel like we were truly living the island life. 150 4 St, Tofino, BC, 250-725-9653, wolfinthefog.com
Written by Jackie Marchildon
As rent prices continue to soar across Canada, here are a few ways you can take matters into your own hands and minimize your rent in the city -- legally.
1. Live in a 'unique' room*
Does your rental unit have a large storage room, closet or cupboard under the stairs? Could a person live in it? My sister lived in a big closet in my apartment for almost a year to save on rent. Sure it was tiny, but it fit a mattress and small side table, and for her birthday that year my roommate and I bought her a push lamp that hung on the wall. We split rent three ways (don't worry, my sister paid less than us) and this arrangement made living downtown more affordable for all of us.
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2. Move in with your significant other
What used to seem like a big commitment is now just a good idea financially. It's common sense -- splitting rent, utilities and general living costs between two people is better than paying it all as one. For some people, moving in with a boyfriend or girlfriend is a huge deal, but if you're not one of those people, why not take the leap and take advantage of the savings? Another option is to have your significant other move in with you and your roommates, or vice versa.
3. Turn a one-bedroom apartment into a two-bedroom apartment**
One of my best friends lived in a one-bedroom apartment with her friend for two years of university. One of them took the living room, and the other took the bedroom and they still retained a common area (the kitchen). I also lived in a duplex with three roommates and we turned the living room into a bedroom -- there was a door on it and plenty of leftover space in the house, so it just made sense.
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4. Rent out your parking spot or storage locker
If you're renting a condo unit with a parking spot that you don't need, why not rent it out? If you have more storage space than you can fill up, do the same. You will likely need to rent these areas out to tenants in your building to keep things secure and accessible, but the savings can really add up -- especially in a city like Toronto, where parking spots and storage spaces are hot commodities.
5. Rent out your room or unit on Airbnb
This is a tricky one. If you have permission to sublet your apartment, then legally speaking you can rent out your apartment on AirBnB. That said, it is illegal to sublet your place for an amount that is larger than what your landlord charges (unless you have an agreement with your landlord). Charging for a night here and there seems to fall into a legal grey zone -- technically you aren't charging more than your monthly rent (so it's legal) but someone, say your landlord, might argue that if you are posting your apartment on AirBnB with the possibility to make more than the month's rent, you are in violation of the Residencies Act. Another might argue that the AirBnB fee takes into consideration that you're not just renting out a space but also renting out the use of your furnishings, possessions, cable and Internet -- things the landlord does not provide.
6. Get invited to Bunz Housing Zone
Decent rental units and prices do still exist -- they are just hard to find. A friend of mine currently lives in a single-detached family home in Toronto and pays $1,500 for the full house. Most people pay that for a nice one bedroom. Units like this are not rental folklore tales, they are just often passed secretly along to friends and family. Bunz Housing Zone expands your list of friends and family and gives you the deets on rentals that aren't always listed.
7. Check out community housing options
Organizations like Toronto Community Housing have helpful options for low-income renters. Subsidized housing provides rent that is geared to income, and while it is hard to get and can have a long wait list, other options like Toronto's affordable rent units are a little more attainable. Especially in recent years, TCH has built some great buildings with beautiful units.
Unfortunately it doesn't seem like rent prices are expected to decrease anytime soon, but if you're in a bind and need a place in the city, these options can help!
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Disclaimers
*There are different rules for different municipalities.
According to the Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 629, Property Standards; 629-25. Occupancy standards:
A. A room designed and intended for use as a non-habitable area shall not be used as a habitable area.
B. No basement or cellar space shall be used as a dwelling unit or as a habitable room unless this use is otherwise permitted by law and complies with the other occupancy provisions in this chapter.
**Make sure there is nothing in your lease that limits the number of occupants allowed in your unit and check your municipal bylaws before creating a unique bedroom or adding an extra roommate.
According to the Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 629, Property Standards; 629-25. Occupancy standards:
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C. The maximum number of persons living in a habitable room shall not exceed one person for each nine square metres of habitable room floor area.
D. For the purposes of this section, the minimum height of a habitable room shall be 1.95 metres over at least 1/2 the floor area, and, for the purposes of Subsections E and F, any floor area under a ceiling that is less than 1.4 metres in height shall not be counted in computing the required minimum floor area of a room used for sleeping.
E. The minimum floor area of a room used by only one person for sleeping shall be six square metres with the room having a minimum dimension on one side of two metres.
F. The minimum floor area of a room used by two or more persons for sleeping shall be four square metres for each person so using the room.
Should your landlord claim an overcrowding issue, he/she can take it up with the Landlord and Tenant Board and you can be forced to reduce the number of persons occupying the unit.
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Read the original story at YPNextHome.ca.
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The five things you need to know on Tuesday May 10, 2016
1) TRUMP STUMPED
Can he travel to the US? Yes he Khan. Well, maybe. Donald Trump has executed his very first policy rethink of his entire US Presidential campaign, telling the New York Times that Sadiq Khan could be an exception to his proposed Muslim travel ban.
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Trump is perhaps realising that his bonkers plan is crashing into something called the real world. Of course, its far from certain that he wont just change his mind again. Soon after his mad idea was unleashed in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, he actually said that he could exempt sporting events from the travel restrictions.
Khan has now reacted. And hes managed to be both dignified and punchy: This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world.
But the billionaires magnanimity in agreeing that Khan wasnt after all a security risk because of his Islamic faith poses a problem for the Tories. Michael Fallon - and No10 yesterday - refused to say whether London was safe under the new Mayor. So the British Government is currently to the right Trump: not a great place to be.
Khan had already accused David Cameron, Zac Goldsmith and CCHQ of running a campaign that felt like something out of the Donald Trump playbook. Cameron and the new Mayor had a short phone conversation yesterday but Sadiq is still demanding the Tories say sorry for their tactics. Among his other words to the PLP last night (see below), the Mayor said: We cant let the Tories off the hook just because they lost. The Tory Party owes London an apology.
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Note that Boriss deputy mayor Stephen Greenhalgh told the Standard yesterday that Londoners had resoundingly rejected the idea of guilt by association. You have got to be judged on what you say personally, not whether you appear at a public meeting with other people whose views you may disagree with vehemently.
Theres a rumour in Tory circles that Goldsmith will make a public mea culpa sometime soon. But maybe its time the PM did one too, before it becomes the big issue of PMQs
2) JEZ BE FRIENDS
Last nights PLP was an emotional affair for many Labour MPs and they cheered to the rafters Sadiq Khans victory (he had a minute-long ovation), as well as wins for new MPs Gill Furniss and Chris Elmore, and Lord Bachs surprise win as Leicestershire PCC.
But Labour MPs say the tensions between Corbyn and Khan were not hard to pick up, and the Mayor rammed home his advantage with a warning that there is no such thing as glorious defeat and that the party cannot afford to miss any open goals (he seemed to be referring not just to PMQs sitters ballooned over the bar, but other self-inflicted wounds). Khan now carries the aura and authority that comes with his office, and his words werent lost on Team Corbyn.
The strange diplomatic dance between the pair of them was clear in the Mayoral campaign and it was odd that it took until 5pm until Monday for them to be photographed together (in what looked like Corbyn greeting a fellow left-of-centre party leader from another state). Im told that in fact Corbyn had gone to the Khan celebration party on Friday night, but thanks to the delays in the result had left by the 2am arrival of the new Mayor. There was also an open invitation to the Southwark Cathedral event on Saturday, but Corbyn had to head to Bristol to be with Marvin Rees.
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As for the PLP meeting, there were some grumbles about the election results, not least Peter Hain pointing out to Corbyn that Wales saw a far from a perfect night. Jess Phillips had a pop, and Wes Streeting raised concerns about the damage Ken Livingstone had done.
Yet what was notable to some was the way Corbyn handled the criticism and the lack of venom on the whole. Allies of the leader felt that the situation was a far cry from PLPs earlier this year, and that the mood has changed significantly.
Corbyns spin team were wise to put out before the event his own words of warning about divisions costing the party votes and how parading before the media was counter-productive. But Caroline Flint wasnt impressed at how John McDonnell had take to Twitter to attack her for saying the party should be doing more than hanging on to councils against an unpopular Tory government.
Harriet Harman told Today that the results overall were not nearly good enough.
3) COSY FAN MUTTI
IDS has let rip in the Sun against what he claims was David Camerons decision to cave in to Angela Merkel over his EU renegotiation. He says that the PM dumped his red line on an emergency brake on migration (rather than a brake on migrant benefits) after Mutti Merkel said it was unacceptable.
In his speech this morning, IDS will say just how the Brits are now just too cosy to Berlin at the expense of taking control of our own destiny: We have gone from wanting to lead in Europe to being on the end of a lead in Europe."
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The most startling bit of IDSs Sun claims is this: Cameron agreed to drop his centrepiece demand less than 24 hours before he planned to spell it out publicly for the first time. Its like they were sitting in a room, even when they were not there. There was a spare chair for them - called the German Chair, IDS says.
No10 says it does not recognise (always an interesting word) IDSs version of events. A source says: The Prime Minister made clear at the time that the government had looked at an emergency brake but he decided it was not the most effective way forward.
Jeremy Corbyn has just been launching Labour's In campaign today alongside Alan Johnson and Gloria De Piero.
BECAUSE YOUVE READ THIS FAR
Watch this hypnotic video of a marble run.
4) SITTING ON DEFENCE
Theres more heavy pounding by the Remain camp today of the Leavers position on defence. Six former Nato secretaries general have written to the Telegraph, warning that it "would be very troubling if the UK ended its membership of the European Union. The Times has a letter from US former Secretaries of State making similar warnings.
Boris's own speech yesterday was typical Boris, complete with a burst of Ode to Joy in German. But it was on the Q&A as usual that he seemed to drop the ball, suggesting the EU was to blame for the Ukraine crisis. All those 'Putin apologist claims rained down, but Boris and Vote Leave were furious at the counterspin.
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Meanwhile Theresa May is tooling up, as the Sun beautifully puts it, for a leadership bid, by hiring ex Sky man Joey Jones as her personal spokesman.
5) GAME OF DRONES
The Joint Committee on Human Rights has investigated the use of drones in the wake of an attack in Syria on Reyaad Khan, a British citizen and member of IS who was killed by an unmanned mission over Syria last August. And it doesnt make easy reading for Whitehall or ministers.
While accepting there were legal grounds for the strike on Khan, the JCHR called for the Government to set out a case on targeted killing airstrikes against terrorists who were not part of an ongoing war. The legal basis for this seems dubious at best. In normal times, backbencher Jeremy Corbyn would be on the warpathbut will he hold back today?
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The EU is increasingly surrounded by a moat of fire. War and instability reigns across Europe's borders from Libya to Syria to Ukraine. Yet it is telling that we call the ensuing problems a 'migrant crisis' as it infers that these problems are only important insofar as they affect us. As the new briefing from Global Justice Now spells out, the reality is that a new crisis of war and instability has augmented the existing crises of inequality and poverty in much of the world to produce increased migration. These issues are the real crisis, and there will be no solution to the migration crisis until they are dealt with.
Unfortunately, the powers that be across Europe are busy building new walls and borders instead of dealing with these root causes of the crisis. Last week, Austria, a country dangerously close to electing a far-right nationalist as its president, declared that it was imposing border controls at its frontier with Italy. This is just the latest blow in a series of severe setbacks to the EU core principle of free movement. Hungary, ironically the first country to cut down the Iron Curtain in 1989, became the first to build a high-security fence across its borders with Serbia and Croatia. The Channel ports of Dover and Calais have become home to more security infrastructure than you will see at any prison. And in a morally abhorrent quid pro quo with Turkey, the EU has agreed to turn a blind eye to a severe crackdown on free media and Kurdish rights activists in return for "help" in ensuring that people fleeing ISIS and the Assad regime are not able to seek refuge in Europe.
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These attempts at stopping migration will likely be in vein. They will succeed only in bolstering the momentum of the far-right and encouraging people to think that shutting the door, rather than dealing with the real problems, is the answer. But they will almost certainly lead to the deaths of thousands more people. According to the International Organisation for Migration, over 25,000 migrants have died in their attempt to reach or stay in Europe since 2000. On the current trajectory, this figure is set to get a lot worse.
It is true that problems as massive as the war and poverty are not going to be solved overnight. But countries like the UK can start by ensuring they aren't making the situation any worse. On inequality, the UK can stop advocating unfair trade deals that lock in policies that make inequality worse. On poverty, the UK could use aid money to promote successful models like the NHS instead of unproven private health and education schemes that would face uproar if implemented here. The conflict in Yemen is being exacerbated by UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia which is using UK arms to bomb the country. Ending arms sales to regimes with dubious human rights records would help ensure that there is a stronger incentive for peaceful solutions.
Ultimately, part of the answer may even lie in opening our borders, rather than hiding behind the walls of Fortress Europe. Remittances (money sent home by migrants) were worth $580 billion in 2014, a figure that dwarfs the combined aid budgets of every country in the world. Four out of five Haitians who have come out of poverty to earn more than $10 a day have done so by migrating. The evidence suggests that migration does more to help than hinder the causes of greater economic equality and poverty reduction.
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The moral justification for ever crueller immigration restrictions is collapsing. Quite apart from the deaths on the Mediterranean, there is a clear problem with demanding that people from the global south to do as we say and not as we do. Almost none of the people demanding less immigration are also demanding that they be stopped from travelling wherever they choose. They assume that they, as citizens of a rich country, should have the right to live and work wherever they like. But these same people would deny that right to people in other countries. This is not a morally consistent position. A right that is only enjoyed by the rich is no right at all. If British expats can live anywhere they like, it follows that someone fleeing the war in Syria should enjoy the same right. Anything else is unfair.
In 2012, when the Presidents of Colombia, Mexico and Guatemala called for the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs to be brought forward to 2016, there was a mood of great optimism. Hopes were high that this meeting would allow countries, currently bound by their obligations under the UN Drug Conventions, greater flexibility in dealing with their own drug policies. This was not to be.
Many held hopes that the UN would step back from the 'war on drugs' approach and rhetoric, which has dominated international policy and science since 1971. Instead the UN made only minor changes to the existing status quo. The focus remains on supply reduction and sending a message that 'drugs are bad'. This failure to change the core principles and formulate a new approach means that the almost insurmountable barriers to research will stay in place for the time being. Those hoping for a more evidenced-based approach have been left disappointed, despite growing evidence of the success of alternative approaches, such as in Portugal, Uruguay and elsewhere.
Governments of the world have failed to recognise that the UN Drug Conventions are no longer universally followed. Legal regulation of cannabis is happening in a number of countries, and Canada announced that they would legally regulate cannabis for non-medical use in 2017. The failure to address this shift, frequently referred to as "the elephant in the room" in side-events at UNGASS, risks rendering the UN increasingly insignificant as nation states take unilateral action.
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The Global Commission on Drug Policy were "profoundly disappointed" by the entire UNGASS process, a sentiment widely shared throughout civil society and progressive and moderate nations. More disappointing than the lack of substantial progress, and more significant than the minor changes in language, were the frankly absurd and continuously evolving measures that the UN security went to in order to prevent NGOs from accessing the debates. Hundreds of people who have devoted their lives to the improvement of drug policy, and who had spent large portions of already limited budgets to travel to UNGASS, were denied access and a chance to add their voice.
The debate that produced the outcome document was already long finished, in Vienna, before the UNGASS had even begun and was promptly signed and adopted by 'consensus' before we heard from dissenting voices such as President Morales of Bolivia, President Pena Nieto of Mexico, President Santos of Colombia as well as Ministers from Canada and the Czech Republic. With so many dissenting voices, one wonders whether there is any value in having a so-called consensus document.
The Outcome Document did achieve some degree of progress. States agreed that drug use is above all a health issue and that the proportionality principle should be used in sentencing. There were also some major failures; Indonesia led a group of countries including China, Singapore, Egypt, Pakistan and Iran in blocking a proposal calling for abolition of the death penalty for drug offences. A major driver for the lack of change was the ease with which regressive countries could block new language. This was exacerbated by the clandestine manner in which negotiations took place, behind closed doors in sessions to which UN accredited NGOs were denied entry.
The big questions went largely unaddressed. What can be done to reduce the harms associated with drug use without creating new problems? How can research help understand the problems better? What would an evidenced-based approach to drug policy look like? The new UNGASS 'consensus' document fails to respond to the many challenges to prohibition grounded in health, human rights and development impact. As was recently stated in the Lancet, prohibitionist policies:
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"are portrayed and defended vigorously by many policy makers as necessary to preserve public health and safety, and yet the evidence suggests that they have contributed directly and indirectly to lethal violence, communicable-disease transmission, discrimination, forced displacement, unnecessary physical pain, and the undermining of people's right to health."
The majority of the discussions at UNGASS are increasingly out of touch with reality. In a separate event in New York immediately preceding UNGASS, the Cannabis Science and Policy Summit, experts gathered from around the world to fiercely debate each other, but hardly anyone asked whether cannabis will be legalized; everyone talked about how. Meanwhile, even the progressive among those in the UN Headquarters continue to endorse the Outcome Document, which purports to be a consensus commitment of the international community to continue criminalizing the market and focusing on ineffective supply reduction measures.
The billions spent, and the many lives lost or ruined, in fighting the war on drugs have not brought success. Yet the international community has, as noted by Colombia's Justice Minister Yesid Reyes, resolved itself to insanity by continuing to do the same things and expect different results. A drug free world? We cannot hope to achieve such an aim and therefore should take a realist approach based on common sense and scientific evidence.
This is what Wilson Ayala Romero tells me when I ask him about his work:
"My colleague had a fall at work; she split her head open, hurt her arm and had to be taken away in an ambulance. Not once did our employer call her. She's been at home recuperating for the last 15 days and - of course - they haven't even paid her while she's been sick."
Another one of his anecdotes goes like this:
"A young man wanted to kill himself, throw himself out of a fourth floor window. Luckily, two of my workmates saw him and caught him - virtually by the hair on his head. Our company found out what had happened and, instead of calling my colleagues and saying, 'Thank you,' they just asked them to write a report - as if they had to account for a broken piece of furniture. As if it was nothing. There wasn't even a word of thanks."
Wilson is one of London's virtually invisible workers, the ones you rarely see because they work while you're asleep or out drinking. He's one of the people who sort out the daily mess that we leave behind; Wilson is a cleaner.
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(Above: Wilson Ayala Romero. Source: Wilson Ayala Romero)
Like a lot of cleaners, Wilson is an immigrant (in this case, from Ecuador). He works for one of the many companies that provide outsourced cleaning services to offices and institutions all over London. And like many immigrant workers who work through the night - largely alongside other immigrant workers - opportunities to learn English are limited. This obviously leaves Wilson and his workmates at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to defending themselves from abuses or other kinds of exploitation in the workplace.
And in the contract cleaning sector, these abuses are frequent. Wilson says:
"We've been abused, fired without warning, left unpaid. It's actually a problem throughout the whole cleaning sector. This is how they run things: you're working one day and the next they say to you 'Ok, we don't need you anymore.' They replace good workers with their own favourites, with no respect for contracts. As for the salary, I received my first pay packet 3 months after starting work! And what was their excuse? That the client hadn't paid them. 'We'll pay you next week,' they said. Then, the following week they said the same thing....this went on for three months. You can work 40, 50, 60 hours a week and they'll pay you for 15. It's just not right. We're here to work, to raise our families."
And on top of this kind of exploitation, many of these workers are also denied the work benefits that the rest of us take for granted: decent sick pay, holidays and pensions.
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Vulnerable because of both their limited English and ignorance of UK law, Wilson and his workmates found support in a small, relatively young union - the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB). Currently, Wilson is a union representative and Vice Chair of the University of London branch.
"The union has been our voice; it's helped us fight for our rights as workers," says Wilson. However, a major obstacle that they've encountered is the reluctance of their employer to recognise the union: "We've been having meetings with Ocean Integrated Services (Wilson's employer) since December to get them to officially recognise us." Despite agreeing to formally recognise the IWGB by the end of March 2016, Ocean has failed to do so.
For all workers, especially for vulnerable workers hindered by limited English, union recognition is a powerful tool for effective collective bargaining. Union recognition means that trained representatives negotiate on behalf of members in relation to wages and the terms and conditions of employment. Representatives of the union are also given time during their working hours to carry out union responsibilities; these can include training in employment law and health and safety, or just generally supporting individual members. Importantly, workers in unionised workplaces generally enjoy greater job security and higher wages.
Unsurprisingly, companies or institutions that aren't keen on being held to account are reluctant to recognise unions, and they're abetted in this by UK trade union legislation.
Take, for example, the University of London, where the IWGB has over 300 members. The university has still not recognised the IWGB, despite it being by far the biggest union presence on campus. This is because the university already recognises Unison and the University and College Union (the outsourced cleaning and services companies operating at the university recognise only Unison), and according to UK trade union law, if an organisation or company recognises one union, it cannot be compelled to recognise any others. Bizarrely, this means that a company can choose to recognise a union with only a handful of members and ignore one with 500.
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Frustrated and handicapped by the legislation, Wilson's plucky union has decided to try to change it by taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The union president, Dr. Jason Moyer-Lee explains:
"The European Convention of Human Rights says that the right to collective bargaining forms part of the Convention. Thus, our argument before the court is simply that UK law is incompatible with the Convention. And if we win this, the British government will just have to change the law. The application to the Court has already been made, but the process could take up to a few years. The next stage is for the British government to respond. Assuming that the UK does not agree with the IWGB's position, the case will then go before the court in Strasbourg."
The IWGB - represented at the ECHR by one of the UK's best known trade union barristers, John Hendy QC - has a remarkable track record of forcing change on the companies that employ its members. If it wins its ECHR case (and the union is optimistic) it will revolutionise the relationship between employers and unionised workers in the UK.
Wilson puts a human face on this is a grand, strategic ambition, reminding us of its basic, underlying motivation:
Healthcare has always been synonymous with innovation. From ground-breaking pharmaceutical treatments and surgical procedures, to cutting edge technology and software designed to prevent, diagnose and treat ill-health - the opportunity to create something that truly helps people is a driving force that has attracted leading thinkers, scientists and inventors - many of them here in the UK.
Just recently, for example, I read about the use of virtual and augmented reality for clinical training - software that enables medical personnel to 'travel' through the human body and carry out simulated surgical procedures to hone new techniques. Microsoft proposes using its HoloLens in a similar way. Elsewhere, in the States, one company is developing an artificial intelligence engine that could revolutionise radiology services by predicting disease in x Rays.
The frantic pace and array of healthcare innovation inspires, fascinates and bamboozles us in equal measure. We are excited yet often overwhelmed, wondering if "we could" is overtaking "we should" as the motivating factor.
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To anyone who finds themselves in this camp, my advice is simple. Strip back the tech-talk and science-speak and ask this simple question: will it help us avoid or better treat ill-health?
No matter what the innovation, this one question can cut through a wealth of distractions to its true worth. To demonstrate, let's return to two of my examples above.
Virtual reality surgical simulations. Though it feels like sci-fi, peel back the futuristic focus to question the patient benefit and it is clear that this is an innovation that could help improve surgical precision, inevitably resulting in better patient care.
AI radiology integrations? Go ahead, ask the question. The answer is clear: enhancing a predictive tool capable of identifying the early stages of disease or injury, and enabling that tool to 'learn' as is goes, will help thousands to avoid disease in the first place, or delay or even halt its progression.
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Another useful test bed for the 'simple question' theory is health apps.
Many people write off health apps as faddy and superfluous to 'real healthcare' - tools to fuel the 'worried well' or gimmicky developments that only really benefit fitness fanatics and health-kick hobbyists. It may be true in some cases, but in others, there is true benefit.
Take the new 'Share Your Record' service in Patient Access, a development that enables people to share their medical records via a time-limited secure web link or QR code.
To some, the words 'web link' and 'QR code' - phrases usually associated with consumer tech rather than healthcare - may prompt scepticism. So let's ask the question. Will it help patients avoid illness or receive better care?
Yes it will. As this story highlights, the service means that patients can securely share vital details from their GP record with, for example, A&E doctors, multi-disciplinary care teams, or even clinical teams abroad (in the case of medical emergencies). At the very least this helps guarantee consistent care - particularly for patients with long term conditions who may need to make numerous visits to different healthcare teams and individuals - but it is also a potential life saver in an emergency.
What about this: an app for Parkinson's sufferers that uses metronome soundwave therapy to 'cue' movement by effectively over-riding dysfunction in the brain. It is one of a number of mind-bending innovations to feature on this year's WIRED Health startup stage. It has attracted much attention from the tech sector and was supported by the Silicon Valley accelerator programme.
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It's also an innovation that helps those with this particularly cruel condition to improve mobility and therefore take better control of their own care. Mobile gadgetry these apps may be, but interrogating them with a simple question reveals their essential benefits.
The beauty of taking this approach to innovation is that as well as making the seemingly complex simple, it also reveals the real genius behind what seem straightforward ideas.
I came across a great example of this when reading about the winner of the Bay Area Global Health Innovation Challenge. University teams from around the world are invited to pitch low-cost "solutions designed to tackle major global health challenges". No mean feat.
Entries included a mapping app to prevent road traffic injuries, an RFID tracking device to improve immunization rates and an orthotic device that helps burn patients with hand injuries to gradually regain a full range of motion.
Impressive. But they didn't win. What did? Mealworms.
The winning team's idea was for mealworm farms to create protein-rich flour. In this case, the innovation couldn't really be simpler - tackling malnutrition by producing food. Does it help people avoid illness or receive better care? Certainly. It helps people avoid illness in many ways. As the judges pointed out, "the enterprise creates jobs, provides a healthy and sustainable protein alternative to livestock, and fuels the local economy". You can read more about this competition and the winning idea here.
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This year I gave up on myself.
My backbone broke under the weight of the intricate and deceptive facade I'd spent years perfecting.
A series of idealised thoughts and a startling confession later, I found myself in an emergency room on what would have been an otherwise uneventful Wednesday night.
"Do you need something to take the edge off? We've got [insert laundry list of pharmaceuticals here]."
...Not really? All I wanted was my freedom from these overwhelming feelings of despondency.
I was admitted that night and would wake in the morning to review my current emotional state.
"Why are you depressed? Did your boyfriend break up with you?....You're too pretty to be depressed."
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Just like that, another drop in a bucket filled to its brim following a lifetime of casual invalidations.
"Cheer up. You need to smile more. I just want you to be happy. You worry too much. Stop overthinking things. Calm down. You need to relax. You should try going to sleep earlier. You look skinny - you need to eat more. Just breathe. You need to live your life. Don't let life's horrors get you down. Just walk into a room and act like you own it. Have you tried exercise?" ... In other words: "your emotional breakdown is making me uncomfortable and I don't know how to talk to you about it so here is some oversimplified advice on how to fight your demons whom I'd rather not acknowledge directly."
I would have given up following my interactions during that hospital stint. I would have spent the ensuing months convinced this was all in my head. I would have repeated the vicious cycle I've found myself stuck in for the past decade. You see if you're told something often enough, you begin to believe it. Maybe I am too moody. Maybe I do need to learn how to be less sensitive. Maybe I really should learn to not let my emotions control my life the way they do. Maybe it really was my own fault that I wasn't able to have peace of mind and happiness. Maybe I am crazy?
Had it not been for my mother's concern and persistence, I wouldn't know what I know now. After numerous phone calls and a wonderful stroke of luck, I met with who is now my current Psychiatrist and it has made all the difference in my road to recovery.
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During our first consultation she began with a simple statement: "tell me about yourself." With that golden statement, she differentiated herself through sheer compassion and patience.
I told her everything.
I told her how I'd spent a lifetime intuitively knowing that there was something different about me. I told her how I'd studied Psychology at Uni to try to figure out what that difference was. I told her how I'd completed my studies at age 20 and then decided to ditch my comfort zone and move to Spain to teach English. I told her how I'd returned home early to spend time with my dying stepfather before moving back across the pond to do an academically rigorous Master's programme at the Uni of Leeds. I described the major depression I experienced whilst abroad and my difficulty keeping myself afloat through my intense feelings of grief. I told her how I often had overwhelming, reckless urges over which I felt I had no control. I mentioned my frighteningly dark lows characterised by intense desires to self-harm and self-medicate. I described the debilitating panic attacks that left me exhausted for hours following the indescribable feelings of suffocation. I told her how often I found myself obsessively worrying over situations and people over whom I had no control. I told her how despite struggling with all of this, I consistently positioned myself as a top-performing student with an enviable CV. I told her of the dizzying expansiveness of my dreams. I let her know that the only thing I feared in life, besides losing another emotional rock, was myself. I told her I was scared.
No sooner had I finished summarising my life did she come to her conclusion: "It sounds like you have Bipolar II Depression."
I answered a few questions, completed some questionnaires and discussed DSM-5 symptoms. The signs were as plain as day:
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My very own medley of cerebral deviations.
Was I shocked by my diagnosis? Not really. I first suspected I had Bipolar Disorder a few months ago whilst watching "What Happened, Miss Simone?" on Netflix. Throughout the documentation of each career high and personal low, I found myself connecting with her struggle in a way I hadn't previously felt or recognised. The intense bouts of creativity, the impassioned grandiosity, the occasional tendency to go off the deep end, I identified with it all. Despite the feeling of relief at having found the puzzle piece I'd felt I'd been missing, I was still incredibly nervous about what my diagnosis meant. While the current climate surrounding discussions on mental health and wellbeing has become increasingly beneficial to instances of anxiety and depression, it is significantly less favourable to mood disorders such as Bipolar II. Furthermore, we've grown so accustomed to ascribing a person's emotional wellbeing to character traits and situational factors that it has become the norm to view any deviations in emotional stability as personal shortcomings. What has resulted is the construction of an unnecessary and formidable barrier against the recognition and adequate treatment of very real and very serious illnesses. Recognising this, I've decided to reclaim my narrative. Rather than sit back and fade into the background, I've made the decision to proactively educate any and everyone around me who is willing to learn.
So what exactly is Bipolar Disorder and how does it feel?
Living with untreated Bipolar Disorder feels like you are permanently strapped onto the world's most expansive rollercoaster ride. At times it is exhilarating, most times it is dizzying, exhausting and quite scary. My hypomanic states are defined by this "catch-me-if-you-can" mentality in which I am equal parts beauty-queen, intellectual and globe-trotter. It is not uncommon for me to wake up feeling as if there is sunshine radiating from my pores as I bounce from activity to activity leaving a sparkle-filled rainbow in my wake. It is an incredible high... until it's not; until I find myself running ragged after a few weeks of non-stop insomnia and intensive productivity. What starts off feeling like an inspirational surge of intelligence and creativity eventually burns itself out into a bottomless crash wherein I spend the ensuing months in a depressive state so dark, I lose myself completely. During one particularly bad depressive episode in Leeds, I was unable to describe myself beyond my country of origin and programme of study and had to resort to post-it notes scattered throughout my room to remind myself of my redeeming qualities. I wouldn't wish these all-consuming feelings of dejection upon anyone. When you couple these mood swings with my experiences of anxiety and panic, what you get is a listless zombie who is unable fulfill simple daily tasks let alone complete any form of academic or professional work. What most people are unaware of it's not unusual for someone to have more than one co-occurring mental illnesses. In fact, it may be the norm. Recent studies found of those with a depressive disorder, 67% had a current and 75% had a lifetime comorbid anxiety disorder.
So why was it so important for me to share such a personal story? Mainly because there is an alarming mental health crisis that is running rampant on university campuses affecting students at all phases of their educational careers. This is what so many of us face are struggling with at an age when we are leaving our safety nets for the first times; when we're being subjected to the unprecedented social and academic pressures of university and young adult life; when we're finding our feet in an unstable job market; when our social support network is most influx; when we're generally coming to grips with our young adult identities. Due to the social stigma and hush hush nature of mental health discussions, nearly two-thirds of people with a known mental disorder never seek help from a health professional. What results is widespread and entirely preventable instances of self-medication, self-harm and suicidal ideations. If it wasn't clear to you before, I hope it is now. We NEED to be talking about this.
In the month following my diagnosis, I've found myself reflecting upon how my mental health has defined my life until this point. Generally speaking, there is this sense of wonder about how I managed to keep up the facade as long as I did. I have climbed mountains, crossed oceans and wooed large audiences all while holding my own against the 6th leading cause of disability; I am the strongest person I know. Through my numerous interactions with fellow recovery warriors, I've recognized this strength is not unique to me but is an inherent trait to the 450 million people around the world living with these "invisible illnesses."
If there is one thing I want my readers to take away from this post is the pressing need to do away with arbitrary and damaging label systems. It is imperative that we arm ourselves with the knowledge and understanding necessary to dismantle this one-dimensional dialogue that leads people to believe that situational factors and well-coiffed external appearances suggest immunity from the throes of mental illness. There is no such thing as being "too pretty to be depressed."
If you are reading this and can relate in any way to what I'm saying, I want you to know this: you are not alone. I see you. I hear you. I feel you. If you, like me, are on the path to recovery, I celebrate you. If you suspect you may be grappling with mental health issues, please don't attempt to fight it on your own! As is with any other illness, if left untreated for too long it can significantly impact your daily functioning and may eventually become life-threatening. Please seek help. I want and need you to know that while it is okay not to be okay, it is completely unacceptable to suffer alone in silence. You owe it to yourself to stop living in a nightmare and start living in the reality you deserve.
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More information and online support can be found at:
When I first started to put together The Indispensables series, I thought it would be difficult to decide which items to feature. But it turned out to be fairly simple. They're the pieces with fraying hems and cuffs that spend more time on the drying rack then in a draw.
The second spot in the series goes to the Breton Stripe - a term I'm using fairly loosely: short sleeves, long sleeves, boat neck, scoop neck, round neck, thick stripes, thin stripes, heavy or lightweight, none will be disqualified for being over or under striped. Horizontal stripes are the only deal breaker.
Originally seen as a symbol of women's liberation, it personifies summer uniform and below are eight examples of this indispensable item:
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Images courtesy of monbreton.com
A Breton post was pretty much cemented once I came across this British brand. Mon Breton simply offer one iconic product in varying weights and subtle colour variations. So what's so special, you might ask? You can customise.
How do you like your stripes in the morning?
'Mon Breton, My Way.' 'Made in France. Made Great in Britain.'
Image courtesy of sunspel.com
It was at Centre Commercial in Paris (brainchild of shoe brand Veja) that I first came across this heritage British brand. Based in Derbyshire and credited with making some of the first and finest T-shirts of the late 19th century, Sunspel advocate the human hand remaining 'just as important as cutting edge machinery'. You'll find this long staple cotton T-shirt in the men's section, increasingly my first point of call.
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Images courtesy of stalf.co.uk
STALF may be the smallest brand on the list, but with every piece designed and handmade in Lincolnshire they sure are mighty. While theirs may stray a little further from Breton tradition, using exclusively British made fabric, this one says relax.
Images courtesy of braintree.com
If you're looking for a more feminine take on a classic, this one made of 100% organic cotton is from another British brand, Braintree. Offering 'thoughtful clothing' that treads lightly on the environment, they have helpful tips on washing, how to avoid colour running as well as generally reducing our substantial impact on the world...
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Images courtesy of armorlux.com
Okay, time to be lured over the channel with this beauty from French brand Armor Lux. This classic tee is another style poached from the boys and it has some truly handsome qualities. Trust me, I've touched one. Their values? Quality, innovation and ethics. Sounds good to me...
Image courtesy of saint-james.co.uk
Head inland a little and you'll come across another staunch keeper of tradition. Straddling the borders of Normandy and Brittany time-honoured brand Saint James, recipient of the prized 'living heritage' award, has some seriously stripy savoir-faire. With up to 18 seamstresses lending their expertise to each garment, it's a keeper. Available in the UK from The Nautical Company
Images courtesy of howlin.eu
Looking for a more unconventional take on a classic? Belgian brand howlin' are serving up a stunner. Made in a towel fabric it's sure to keep out the English summer chill. Knitted and made in Belgium.
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Image courtesy of marimekko.com
Renowned the world over for their elegant and exemplary approach to pattern, when it comes to a classic, Marimekko keeps it clean and simple. Their brand values:
Living, not pretending
Fairness to everyone and everything
Common sense
Getting things done - together
Courage, even at the risk of failure
Joy
And they're hugely successful. Funny that.
Look out for The Indispensables #3 as we go right back to basics...
Lately, more and more discussions have been had around animals having complex, intelligent emotions and the implications of this. In fact, various researchers in animal welfare have been gently pushing this concept for many years now. From attesting that animals grieve to ravens potentially having theory of mind, animal sentience and the capacity for many species to be able to experience complex emotional intelligence is becoming increasingly accepted. With our current knowledge of how emotions are derived, this shouldn't come as a surprise. The ability to have a spectrum of emotions doesn't necessarily require a complex cognitive process, in fact all mammals share the same structures within the limbic system that are essential in the manifestation of emotions, and while birds have some structural differences, they are functionally the same.
Emotions are effectively our stabilises, directing us along a path that in the past ensured our survival. They have evolved to be more than that now; helping us and other animals have rich, deep and complex lives. From the perspective of animal welfare, we need to be recognising these emotional dimensions experienced by other nonhuman species and doing more to ensure the positive expression of emotions for those in our care. Like us, an animal's emotional capacity is greater than trying to avoid negative experiences. We should be trying to not only minimise these negative experiences, but provide for those rewarding behaviours that animals find emotionally positive too. It is simply not enough to just ensure animals have good physical health, are being kept in clean and safe environments and can carry out basic behaviours.
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Animals can experience positive emotions such as joy and happiness, just like humans (Photo (authors own): Moon bear at Animals Asia Sanctuary in Vietnam, Tam Dao)
However, if emotions are so important to animal welfare, why haven't we talked about them before? Our emotional capacity is linked to our sentience or consciousness and Charles Darwin actually wrote about animal consciousness in 1872 but for most of the 20th century we showed little inclination to scientifically explore the inner lives of animals. In fact, many researchers saw emotions as superfluous or irrelevant for humans too. More recently, while emotions have more readily been discussed, animal welfare scientists have tended to focus on the negative emotions as they can often provide the more measurable behaviours or indices. However by mitigating negative emotions that may result in a more neutral state of welfare, it does not necessarily create a positive state - a state that the animal itself will be actively seeking.
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But as we start considering the promotion of positive emotions more when talking about welfare, are we falling into a trap of applying our own perceptions of emotions on animals? Feelings, particularly positive ones are fairly inaccessible from a measurable and scientific perspective, and the anthropomorphism accusations start getting floated, putting even the most savvy of scientists on edge. Well, while a degree of anthropomorphism is required to talk about animal emotions, this is simply because we as humans, can only really think within in our own conceptual and subjective norms. The German biologist, Gordon Burghardt introduced the term "critical anthropomorphism" which essentially is using your own human intuition and understanding as a starting point for understanding animal cognition. So given the evidence, what we perceive as happiness in other species could in fact be exactly just that.
What then does this really mean for the animals we care for, and can we use it in our day-to-day management of them?
It can help us relate more easily to animals.
Objectively we know everyone around us has emotions, but to the self they are very subjective and in some cases feel relentless! While they are designed to ensure our survival, how they feel to the individual is very personal. We may have similar reactions to certain situations as a result of our basic emotions. However as individuals, how we feel on a day-to-day basis will differ from person to person depending on other experiences, both past and present. Understanding that "one size doesn't fit all' when it comes to experiencing both positive and negative emotions, can also help us understand and empathize with other non-human animal emotions and feelings. Empathy breeds compassion. To paraphrase, their lives matter to them as much as ours do to us. Appreciating that individual animals have preferences and complex emotional reactions can help us provide the most appropriate care that meets these animal's individual needs.
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Photo (authors own): Elephants enjoying rewarding behaviours such as playing and interacting with each other
We can identify better welfare measurements
Many animal welfare assessments are based on identifying negative welfare responses, such as elevated cortisol levels, aversion activities or abnormal behaviours. However through this approach we could be missing critical welfare indicators as well as potentially compromising an animal's welfare. While animal inspections or measures remain focused on the objective and physical parameters, the positive and rewarding behaviours that an animal may seek could get missed. Similar to humans, emotions in animals are used as motivators to seek out positive experiences. They are self-perpetuating and go hand in hand with behavioural needs that have evolved. Knowing this, if we have a comprehensive understanding of a species needs, we should be able to take more measures from positive, emotionally driven welfare indicators. While a captive animal may be provided with more than enough food so it is nutritionally sated, if you consequently remove the need to express the natural foraging or hunting behaviours that have evolved, you may compromise the animal's psychological well-being. From an evolutionary perspective these behaviours may be as complex, stimulating and possibly as rewarding as the food itself. In that case, measures and management of animal welfare should include the ability to mimic those rewarding behaviours and stimulate positive emotions.
We can start challenging current practices and legislation
When the military killed Reyad Kahn, and Rahul Amin and one other with a drone strike in Raqqa in Syria, in August last year, the Prime Minister reported it to parliament as a "new departure". And the Defence Secretary said the government would be prepared to use drones to target and kill individuals who they believed were a threat to us - even in countries where we are not at war.
The Government have a duty to protect the lives of its citizens including from terrorist attacks. But the state killing someone "in cold blood" in a country where we are not in armed conflict is a serious issue.
No-one wants the government to stand around wringing their hands and failing to protect us when a terrorist, operating from abroad, is organising to kill people. But neither must the government be trigger-happy. If they are carrying out a pre-planned killing they need to act within the law.
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So the Joint Committee on Human Rights recommends in our Report published today, that the government should be absolutely clear about the legal basis for their action and they must have independent scrutiny after our military kill someone in a country where we are not in "armed conflict".
When the government told us about the drone killing, they first said it was legal as it was in self-defence, to protect us from a terrorist attack. They then changed their argument and said it was legal because it was an overspill from our military action in Iraq which the House of Commons had voted to approve.
Our report urges the government to set out which legal framework they are operating under when they carry out a targeted killing. We support the rule of law which should apply to government as well as citizens. And we don't want to wait to find out whether it's legal or not when one of our military personnel find themselves worrying about being prosecuted for murder. (Murder is one of the only crimes where you can be prosecuted in this country even if the act took place abroad). The government owe it to our military personnel who are operating the remote controlled drones to be clear what the legal basis for the attack is.
And there needs to be proper scrutiny of every killing which the military carry out where we are not at war. When the police shoot someone here to prevent them killing people, it is automatically reported to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. That is not because it's assumed that they've done wrong but just in recognition that there needs to be proper scrutiny when the state takes a life. The same should happen if the life is taken in a country abroad where we are not at war. The Joint Committee on Human Rights suggests the Intelligence and Security Committee - who are MPs cleared by security checks to look at the most secret intelligence - should examine the intelligence and the operation of every killing by the military in an area where we are not at war.
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But we find ourselves today in a new situation for which our long established legal frameworks were not designed. The line between war in the traditional sense and countering the crime of terrorism has been blurred by two developments: rapid technological advance, including drone technology, has transformed the nature of the threat from terrorism and the capacity to counter it; and the nature of armed conflict has changed, with the steady rise of non-state armed groups such as ISIL/Da'esh with the intent and capability to carry out terrorist attacks globally and aspirations without territorial limit. We are not the only country in this situation. Far from it. So our government should take a lead in the Council of Europe and the UN to review whether the current legal framework should be updated to take account of the new circumstances in which the government needs to protect us and yet still remain within the law.
What should be done about prostitution? Robert Skidelsky, an economist, member of the House of Lords, and contributor to Project Syndicate, has answered that question unequivocally. In an article entitled the Economist's Concubine he concludes that prostitution should be completely decriminalised. The Labour Party, the Green Party and Amnesty International are of the same mind and their policies deploy the same rationale as Skidelsky. So, what is the rationale?
Skidelsky's argument follows a well-trodden path. In the UK, the law on prostitution is confused. Whilst prostitution is not illegal, some related activities are against the law, and prostitutes can be found guilty of criminal offences. The overwhelming evidence demonstrates that complete deregulation is the solution. In liberal democracies consenting adults should be able to buy and sell sex without state interference. Prostitution should be placed on a par with other forms of labour and understood as work. Strict health and safety regulations should be applied in order to safeguard sex-workers from client exploitation. Those who object to this approach, usually "feminists", are wrong-headed and their alternative remedies "too extreme".
Other critics of UK legislation are also concerned about the criminalisation of prostitutes. However the language of 'sex-work' obfuscates its realities. Prostitution is not equivalent to other forms of work. In selling her labour the woman becomes the commodity. Health and safety regulations which protect the worker, for example the worker at a supermarket till, are unenforceable since contravention is inherent in the use of the woman as a body. The acts perpetrated by johns (increasingly informed by pornography) would immediately be perceived as violence if carried out by the buyer of goods at the super-market check-out. Decriminalisation is a pimp's charter. Testament to this is the bargain-basement industrial-scale brothels which have sprung up in Germany and where women are used as a capital resource for efficient profit.
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The Nordic model is an alternative to deregulation. This strategy criminalises the john but not the prostituted woman. It has already been adopted by Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Canada and, most recently, by France. Overwhelming evidence demonstrates decriminalisation exacerbates violence and harm, whereas criminalization of the john reduces these by reducing demand. Most importantly, men's view of their own sex-entitlement is challenged. The prostituted woman is not left economically vulnerable. Exit programmes are set in place which include financial support and educational opportunities.
So, what does Skidelsky think of the Nordic Model? As an economist, he critiques it through an exploration of economic theory.
Skidelsky tells us that since the 1970s economics demonstrates humans apply economic calculation to every aspect of life, including marriage and "love". Prostitution is a distilled example of weighing up financial costs and benefits with regard to sex. The demands of "randy" men are linked with the supply of sex by economically disadvantaged women. The fit between men's demand and women's economic need is serendipitous. Although a "strong ethical argument" can be made against decriminalisation (he doesn't specify which one) it wouldn't be popular in our "liberal civilization". Consequently, although the economic view of human nature is "as constricted" as the feminist one, Skidelsky favours decriminalisation. He quaintly dismisses the claim that violence is inherent in prostitution on the basis he sees "no reason to believe this". Decriminalisation crucially relies on women's voluntary choice, and this must be respected in our civilised society. Ultimately all feminist arguments "based on notions of inequality and coercion are superficial".
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Hopefully Skidelsky is also cognisant of the critique of Economic Man which coincided with the theoretical turn described above. Before the 1970s economics worked with a model of the individual as a rational economic decision-maker. This model came under critical scrutiny from within economics itself, and also from sociology and philosophy. 'Economic Man' was exposed as a construct. Complete economic rationality is impossible in the traditional market place, in the bedroom and in all other domains. Decisions are informed by social class and gender, as well as by psychological and emotional factors. It is a pity Skidelsky didn't take heed of this more nuanced theory of economic behaviour. His ostensibly pragmatic, non-partisan, and neutral argument naturalises men's sex-demand, and leaves unexamined the social and psychological determinants of men and women's decision making. He recognises, "most prostitutes have chosen their work reluctantly, under pressure of need" but disavows inequality exists between the contracting parties. Why? The Nordic model challenges his own constricted model of human nature, Randy Man and Available Woman.
Advocates of the Nordic model point to the misapprehension of it by proponents of decriminalisation. Skidelsky's mode of argumentation can be seen as a classic example. He claims "feminists" don't acknowledge male prostitution and this fact undermines their argument. However advocates do recognise the existence of male prostitutes. The fact remains that buyers are almost exclusively men whether those prostituted are women, men or children. He also claims women's voluntary choice is viewed simplistically as coercion. In contrast, advocates argue that although coercion often happens, many women make voluntary economic choices to enter prostitution. The answer to prostitution does not reside in economics however but in resisting the normalisation of prostitution, and in dismantling the patriarchal attitudes of which prostitution and women's poverty are the effects.
I have been here before. It was half my lifetime ago, but I remember sitting in these very same chairs when I was 15-years-old, waiting to buy tickets for the ferry to spend a vacation on the Greek islands with my friends. Now, hundreds of people are waiting in the departure hall at gate E1 in Piraeus port. They have been waiting for weeks, for months, not to go on a holiday, but to find a safe place for themselves and their children.
About 2,500 people, most of them from Syria, have been holding out at the port ever since the border to Macedonia closed in the end of February. The port is a busy place. The big ferries are still leaving for the islands, trucks are roaming around, tourists are carrying their own tents and backpacks onto the ships to spend their holidays on the beautiful Greek islands - all between hundreds of refugees. One sleeps in a tent out of choice, the other one out of necessity. In the departure hall, people have set up what is left of their lives. On a few square metres, they have stacked the things they were able to take with them in a very orderly fashion, as if this was at least something over which they still had control. Little suitcases, backpacks, toys for children, photos.
Children are playing with balls and rope skipping while mothers are changing diapers of their little ones. A hand grabs mine and little five year old Salam drags me to the little mat her parents and siblings are living on. "I am really sorry", her mother apologizes. "She just likes to meet new people and to have a little bit of a change." Reem, 27 years old, has fled with Salam and five other children between the ages one and 13, plus her husband. They are from Aleppo, where her husband worked as a mason. As soon as I sit in their tiny, confined space Salam hands me a plastic fork with a peeled apple. "Do you want tea?" she cheerfully asks me, as if she was about to disappear in a fully equipped kitchen, but instead starts digging around in the few belongings that she and her family have in their six square metres of living space.
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Reem says that for the first few weeks on the run they played a game with their children, pretending, the struggles were all just part of a big adventure. "Children are very adaptable. But when your house is bombed, when you lose everything, how do you explain this? I just pretended this is all part of something very exciting to keep them happy." But her children, she says, were quickly starting to realise that it is not. "All of my children are sick. We have few bathrooms for hundreds of people here and only cold water. Some children here have scabies; I pray that mine will not be affected. We are sleeping on the ground and the conditions are really difficult."
In Piraeus Camp, there is no privacy, no safety, and only a little food handed out by volunteers. "We managed to stay together and all of us are still alive. That is the most important thing. But I can see how this takes a toll on all of us. I have not slept in years, and the past months I feel like I have become a shadow of myself", Reem says, while caressing her children and keeping up a show of cheer for her little ones. Her husband looks at her, very gently, takes her hand and tries to explain. "I think people in Europe just do not know our situation here. If they would they would come and help us. It is only a matter of time and things will be good again." Then, Walid says the same thing, over and over again, like a mantra, something that he really strongly wants to believe in himself. "We sold everything we ever owned to take our children into safety, out of the war in Aleppo. Where did we take them? How did we end up in such wretchedness just trying to keep our children out of danger?"
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Watching Reem and her husband try to entertain their children and make an insane and indefinite situation bearable leaves me feeling immensely frustrated. The family have tried to apply for relocation to go to Germany and can call a few hours every day via Skype to make an appointment. So far however, they have been unable to reach anyone. According to the EU, between 35,000 and 40,000 persons in Greece would be eligible for relocation and it has set a target to relocate at least 20,000 people by Mid-May. As of today only 876 persons have been relocated. With such a slow system, and many refugees like Reem being unable to even start the process, they are left stranded in limbo without the resources for even the basics of a dignified life. For the refugees here this waiting hall has turned into "a waiting hell", as some of them call it. "Waiting for us to finally be somewhere where we are safe, where we do not have to worry anymore, where there is no war", says Reem.
Iain Duncan Smith's line in his Brexit speech today was that the European Union is a 'force for social injustice'.
This might be a nice soundbite but it could not be more wrong.
The EU has done more for social justice and protection of workers than any Tory government ever has.
It is because of our membership of the EU that we have so many of the rights at work that we now take for granted.
The EU gives workers in this country a legal right to 28 days paid leave. It guarantees agency workers the same rights as permanent full-time workers. It guarantees mums and dads maternity and paternity leave. It guarantees workers anti-discrimination laws and equal pay. And it provides employees with rights if firms plan collective redundancies, go bust or are transferred to new ownership.
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All these things and more our membership of the EU has given us. In the words of Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the TUC and surely a better spokesperson for workers' rights and welfare than an ex Tory Minister, "the bulk of the rights at work that matter to us originated in Europe".
Iain Duncan Smith may present himself as an authority on social justice but his record in Government tells us otherwise.
It was his Government that gave us the Bedroom Tax which has caused three-quarters of those affected to cut back on food in order to pay for rent. It was his Government which also gave us 12billion cuts to the welfare budget, hitting the poor, the vulnerable and disabled people hard.
Today he complains that the EU was causing wages of British workers to be undercut, yet this is the same person who opposed the introduction of the National Minimum Wage calling it "the wrong way to go".
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It's the same Iain Duncan Smith who today worries for workers' rights and jobs yet in 1992 and again in 1997 campaigned to keep Britain out of the European Social Chapter which underpins many of the employment rights we so often take for granted.
No one should take Iain Duncan Smith's lectures on social justice seriously given his own record and lack of credibility.
The real risk is that if we leave the EU a future Tory Government would be free to launch the assault on rights at work they have long been campaigning for. So if its workers' rights, workers' wages, workers' holidays you are concerned about then vote to Remain In Europe on 23 June.
WELL, that's the election out of the way. It's interesting, because what was essentially quite a dull and uninspiring campaign (my personal highlight, for example, was Willie Rennie's encounter with the volcano slide) has certainly given us an awful lot to consider with it's conclusion.
Everyone is surprised that the SNP failed to win a majority in a system built to prevent a majority, the Greens didn't quite hit the double figure outcome that they expected, Scottish Labour has all but disintegrated, the radical left was vehemently rejected and the Tories are the second party. Yes, the Tories had a fantastic outcome - in Scotland.
In our first parliamentary election following the referendum, one thing is true: the political ethos of our country is dominated by independence, and will continue to be until it is achieved. We live in a pluralistic, post-political situation: the constitutional question will continue to act as the deciding factor for voters as they take to the polling stations for as long as Scotland remains part of the UK.
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So, perhaps as we move forward, we all have to accept this. For me, it seems that the Yes movement has become a little bit too inward and now exists within it's own little bubble, forgetting about the fact that there are still a considerable number of people out there who do not want to see an independent Scotland. That was emphasised very clearly by Friday morning. However, we also seem to have forgotten that there is a constituency of voters who can be convinced, voters who are looking for answers.
My own tuppence worth here is that I reckon we have to regenerate the Yes campaign, with all of its wonderful grassroots elements. I know that a few people have been hinting at this for quite a while, but it is now clearer than ever - if we don't want the Tories to continue generating the support of loose No voters who can otherwise be convinced; if we don't want a political system that is continually dominated by a single issue; if we don't want to see ineffective governance and constant rhetorical point scoring over the constitutional question, then we need to get back out onto the doorsteps.
We need to start canvassing again. We need to answer those questions that were left unanswered in 2014: the currency, the economy, the monarchy, the banking system, the oil.
Before I move on: for the sake of clarity and to avoid confusion, when I'm talking of 'the left' here, I don't mean the pseudo-left vision that many believe the SNP offers, rather - the actual left. The radicals. The socialists. The anti-capitalists.
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While many of these people have grouped within the SNP - and they do exist, particularly the young members - my reference starts and stops with those who chose to operate externally of the SNP's party structures.
I'd argue that the left has a particularly important role to play in a rejuvenated Yes movement. The SNP's hegemony within the parliamentary system cannot translate into the next referendum campaign. This is where the left has to decide which path it's going to walk down. It has to be acknowledged that this election was particularly worrying for the prospects of an electorally represented radical voice.
Now, it's not that Scotland isn't ready for the left, it's that Scotland doesn't want the left at the moment. It wants independence, or it doesn't - and, again, we have to recognise how a left insurgence should operate within that.
Consider this: even when all of the votes - from all of the socialist parties and from all of the regions - are accumulated in a national context: there's still only enough for one radical left MSP, or, at a push - two. Now, if that is not a very clear indication that the Scottish left's electoral quest is proving frivolous, then I don't know what is.
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Because, no, this election wasn't a victory. It doesn't matter how much you convince yourself that engaging with parliamentary electoralism is the best way forward in this current dichotomy of independence and unionism: as a still split, still fractured, still underground subset - and operating on it's current tactics - the left won't get anywhere.
Here's where I'll be controversial - bearing in mind, I could be wrong and I am certainly happy to have a chat about this - but I don't think that the left is going to find any parliamentary success until we are living in an independent Scotland.
I'm not suggesting that the left should give up on electoralism, but they certainly have to realise that we live within a particular hegemony that is hard to break, and is only likely to soften post-independence.
The left's strategy right now is patchy at best; throwing eggs at the SNP didn't work in this election and, like the Greens, they failed to capture and energise that constituency of disillusioned, disenfranchised voters who did not turn out last week - people who bought into Yes, but not into #sp16.
So where's the disconnect? I can only assume that it lies with the party political system. Yes managed to penetrate the layers of traditional partisan politics - it offered a vision, an idea: another politics was possible. Another Scotland was possible. This was undoubtedly the result of the Scottish left's role during the referendum campaign. Yet, this election did not harness that same hopeful energy - for many people, there was no real reason to vote.
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I'm writing this on my work break, and I have spent the entire afternoon talking to people about the election. I'll tell you one thing: I am surprised at the amount of young people in here who didn't bother voting. Yes voters, as well. The general theme seems to be: "I'd vote Yes again, but I didn't vote last week. What's going to change? They're all the same."
That is where the left failed in this election. Unfortunately, as much as I wish I could get behind a leftwing electoral mission, I'm not entirely convinced that the tactical strategy for the left at this moment involves Holyrood. Councils, yes. Europe? Maybe, but don't be too optimistic.
I'd suggest that radical activists lose sight, for now, of Holyrood - and spend the next few years investing energy in reinvigorating the Yes campaign. It worked wonders between 2012-2014, but I think most of us would generally agree that it kind of seems like the vibrancy of that time period has been hoovered up and diluted by the SNP, which isn't necessarily a roadblock, but it's something worth considering.
The left has to ditch the placards and pick up the clipboards. Spend time getting active within RIC again. Get teams of people back out on the streets and start canvassing. Did you vote Yes last time? What would you vote next time? What questions do you still have?
Start discussing the potential of an independent Scotland on the doorsteps, find out what the lay of the land is and convince those who did not buy into the idea before. Because, clearly, there are many who did not change their mind - and we forgot about those people.
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After 2014, we simply stopped talking about it - and the makeup of our current parliament is a result of that - if we don't want to see this repeated, then we have to start getting people on side.
Everyone is constantly floating the idea that as soon as Yes is consistently polling at around 65 per cent or so, then we should go for it again. How exactly do we plan to push the numbers up there and attract more support if we don't actively attempt to build it?
By all means build an electoral left at the same time - a force that is ready to strike at the right moment. Although, this requires serious organisation and a strong strategic outlook - something that I think has been lacking during this election, for various reasons.
Take some time to consider the best approach. If you're dead set on electoral representation before independence, then recognise that the tactical operations that were deployed this time around are perhaps not the best way to build a network of electoral support that captures the disenfranchised.
Honestly, though, I'd recommend getting straight back into the Yes frame of mind and pushing to get the constitutional question out of the way. Until then, the left will be hammered with each election - and, with every battering that they take at the ballot box, their credibility sinks.
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This revitalised Yes campaign, of course, involves the SNP too. It is quite encouraging to see Sturgeon talking about kick-starting something again, but we really need to be careful that a new campaign is not party aligned. If it had been left to the SNP the last time, I highly doubt that we'd have pulled 45 per cent of the vote.
We'd be looking at a form of neoliberal independence for the sake of it. We'd be pandering to big business and the rhetoric of social justice would be absent. So, there has to be a general consensus among Yes activists - both partisan and non-partisan - about which Scotland it is that we want to see.
We don't have to agree on everything, but the foundations have to be there - if we aren't sure of what an independent Scotland will look like, how can we convince others? The menu has to be different this time. As aforementioned, we have to address those unanswered questions from 2014. We need to have a more solid, robust and well thought out plan.
As for the next five years in Holyrood? Well, it's not too awful. I'd predict that the large Tory presence will push pretty much every other party in Holyrood a little bit further to the left.
The SNP will need to be careful not to be seen to be co-operating with, or agreeing with, the Tories. The Greens will play a considerably powerful role in holding the SNP to account on key issues such as fracking and land reform.
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It will be interesting to see if there will be a Green presence in the cabinet - I'd strongly expect that to be the case. As for Scottish Labour - they're faced with one very simple choice: get aboard the independence train, or hang up the red rosettes.
Since 2014, Scottish politics has been defined by unprecedented and unusual twists and turns. The outcome of this election was certainly no different. One thing is clear: we need an active, organised, left-infused Yes movement operating externally of parliamentary structures.
I'm firm in that we need to start talking about independence again, properly, if we ever want to see a new politics. Let's start having those conversations now.
The Government wants to upgrade the calibre of staff entering the Early Years profession.
So indeed does the sector, so what's the problem?
The issue is the entry qualification. The Government wants it to only be GCSEs at C or above in English and Maths.
Why is that a problem, I hear you ask? Doesn't everyone have this?
Well no, they don't. In London approximately only 40% of students have both. This leaves us with a dilemma;
What would you choose to do if you have GCSE's in grade C or above in English and Maths which allows you to attend a University?
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1. Sign up to work in childcare which remains for many a 'lower status' and lower paid career?
or
2. Go to University which may lead to a higher status and a higher paid career?
What have most students chosen done?
They have chosen to walk away from childcare with a catastrophic impact on the sector's recruitment. We have seen a 70% drop in entrants to Level 3 courses and a 96% drop in apprentices. This includes preventing some very able level 2 childcare practitioners with years of experience progressing in their career.
Why should we care?
We should care because the Government is also asking us to consider offering 30 Hours of 'funded' childcare to parents and continue to offer the 'funded' two year old offer to those two year old disadvantaged children. Guess what? We need staff to do this and they need to be committed, well paid and valued!
So is there an easy answer?
Yes and No. Good quality childcare makes a huge difference to all children, especially those from poor backgrounds. Good quality is driven by a number of things but having capable, knowledgeable staff is key. If we stick with the current status quo there is a higher risk that as the sector continues to fail to recruit enough staff, we will see a higher proportion of lower qualified staff with inverse implications on quality.
Can we therefore find another relevant entry mechanism as well as GCSEs?
Our suggestion is that we use Functional Skills as an alternative. Every other sector allows this alternative. So much so that functional skills currently represents 7% (over a million learners) of all regulated qualifications in England, only GCSE's have a larger percentage.
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What do parents think?
A new poll by independent polling company 'ComRes' reveals that more than 7 in 10 British parents agree that qualifications in English and Maths that equip learners with practical skills should also be accepted as an alternative to GCSE's for Level 3 early years educators.
A further 6 in 10 say the Government policy could exclude potential recruits who may be well-suited to the sector. 68% of parents agree that young people who want to complete an apprenticeship with an Early Years provider should be allowed to do so without GCSEs at C or higher in both English and Maths, provided they have equivalent qualifications in these subjects.
Will Functional Skills be good enough?
Are they a robust and vocational alternative to GCSEs ? Can we assure parents, the sector and the Government that students will demonstrate good enough literacy, language and maths to teach children? Employers have consistently shown their support (Stewart Segal from AELP quoted in TES 2014). This is generally because Functional Skills offer the opportunity for students to embed literacy and numeracy within their core qualification, enabling them to build confidence in their ability as well as developing the underpinning skills needed for both personal and professional life; what we often call "soft skills".
In 2014 the Ofqual Thematic Review suggested four areas of improvement to make the qualifications offered from all Awarding Bodies more robust, reliable and consistent. They are:
The quality of assessment materials
Reducing the risk of malpractice
Strengthen standard setting procedures
Evaluating better how far these qualifications are meeting user needs.
As a result, all awarding bodies have made changes to their assessments to make them more comparable. The trade- off is that the sector works with the Government and the awarding bodies to tighten the inspection and verification of those providers offering Functional Skills so that the consistency of the teaching and assessing of Functional Skills is equitable to the GCSEs.
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So, the sector asks Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education, to allow functional skills as an alternative to GCSE's. In the end, we all want the same thing; Good quality staff who appreciate their responsibility to help shape the early care and educational experiences of so many children.
Our small corner of the internet is nearly two years old.
Its beginnings were not particularly glamorous. It was an uncomfortably hot Thursday lunchtime in July and we had a few moments before returning to work. Bored and restless, we impulsively set up an Instagram account, decided on the catchy (yet on reflection, grammatically incorrect) name 'Twins That Travel', loaded up a photograph and headed back to the office.
Et voila: Twins That Travel was born.
Almost two years on and quite unexpectedly, TTT has become a central feature of our lives. What began as nothing more than a bored decision to set up an Instagram account, has become a source of growing opportunities, adventures and experiences.
In this time, we've learnt a few lessons about the 'travel blogging world'. Navigating this fickle and often competitive industry has been exciting, frustrating, often confusing, but always fun.
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And so in the spirit of nearly reaching the grand old age of two, we decided to compile a number of lessons we've learnt along the way.
1. Anyone can be a (travel) blogger
Once upon a time, everyone had a blog. Building on generation MySpace, people were blogging happily away without a care in the world. SEO, analytics, themes, social media counters, figures and collaborations, all meant very little. Instead, blogging was simply about enjoying writing; having a 'dear diary' moment; telling your story and connecting with others.
These days, blogging has become incredibly competitive. With the rise of 'super' bloggers, blogs have moved away from the private musings of angst-ridden teenagers and have instead become big brands. A hierarchy has been established and a gulf exists between those incredibly successful bloggers and well, the rest of us.
Yet don't be put off by this. If you travel, enjoy travel or just want to write about previous trips, then do it. You are just as much a travel blogger than anyone else.
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2. Content
It's been said a hundred times over: content is King. This is something we read time and time again when beginning the blog and it holds much truth. The more content you can get out there, the more people are likely to read your blog. It's the law of attraction.
This is something we experience firsthand. With busy day jobs outside of the blog, there can be a few weeks where our blog languishes, all alone in the World Wide Web. During this time, perhaps just one lone soul will browse our blog (Mum, is that you?), before drifting off again to some other content-crammed and fun blog. Sigh.
However, one thing we have learnt is that whilst content is King, that does not necessarily mean you must cram your blog full of mindless content fillers. Like a good magazine, your readers want one that is interesting and enjoyable to read, not one full of junk mail and rehashed articles.
3. Listography
Top of all content fillers is perhaps every bloggers' favourite: the 'list'. From your top 50 travel essentials, to top 10 things to see in Paris, there is a list for everything. Whilst these can be genuinely useful, often they can also be superficial; gleaned from a Google search and not very helpful to readers. We've compiled a few lists in our time, but try to and avoid throwing too many out there.
4. Find your voice
At the heart of every blog is your voice.
When I first began reading travel blogs, I was surprised by how similar the tone was amongst many of them. Many seemed to be 'voiceless' lists, offering deadpan recaps of where they visited and in what order. Whilst they were useful, they weren't necessarily interesting. What I was searching for, and have indeed found in many of my favourite bloggers, is instead a real, distinctive voice: a character behind the flashy website.
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5. Mix it up
Whilst we claim to be travel bloggers, we also ensure that every now and again, we go a little off-piste and write about something else. The reason behind this? It makes your blog personable.
Whilst it is lovely to read about people's adventures, luxury hotels and experience of flying first class with Emirates, it's also reassuring to know that behind it all is a real person. Some of our most popular blog posts have been on breakups, anxiety and the realities of being twin sisters (whilst my literary masterpiece on the Isle of Skye has gone largely unnoticed).
6. Fake it till you make it
Something that we learnt is that when you're starting out, the worst thing you can do is to sit anxiously waiting for that first email, inviting you on a press trip. It's unlikely to happen.
Instead, bite the bullet and get in contact with people. We began by simply putting together an introductory email that provided an overview of who we were; what are aims were as travel bloggers; our audience; our demographics and of course, those great buzzwords: our social media following. We then sent that out to everyone we could ever think of. Honestly. Nobody in the tourism industry was safe.
And you know what? People responded, positively. So, what have you got to lose?
It's one year since Liberia was first declared free of the Ebola virus. In Dolo's Town, one of the first places to be severely hit by Ebola, the news crews have gone home and people are trying to get used to a new normal.
For many, it's a way of life that they were not ready for. Tina Yarjay, 18, is looking after 11 children.
'I am a mother unprepared, because I have 11 children who I am currently caring for including my brothers and sisters. My parents home was incomplete prior to their death and now, it is rainy season and the rooms leak whist it rains. After my parents died, my siblings and I were neglected. Sometimes when we needed to buy food or other things our money was rejected.'
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She tells us that NGOs are helping, but that their support can never take the place of her parents.
Hundreds of people died in Dolo's Town, a relatively small community built in the largest rubber plantation in the world. When the disease first hit, the community thought it was just a bad spell of food poisoning. They never imagined that it was a vicious disease that would rip their town, and their country, apart.
Esther Brown, 49, contracted Ebola but survived it. Her husband and 42 members of her family were not so fortunate:
'I lost all of my people to one illness. I lost 42 persons in my family. Business is giving me a hard time. I'm suffering. Sometimes I have no food and I'm always unwell. My major problems are food, school, shelter. Sometimes I have no shoes, and I'm caring for fourteen children. Our house is falling down but I have no money to fix it.'
Liberia is currently in the midst of an economic downturn caused by Ebola, and many of the struggles are reflected in Dolo's Town. As the rubber price falls, Firestone has begun to lay off workers, many of whom are not from the county and are leaving the area, meaning fewer customers for those running businesses. The price of sugar has almost doubled in the last six years.
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The scars of Ebola are everywhere. But there is hope amongst the hardship.
The stigmatisation of anyone associated with the disease is now on the wane. People are starting to rebuild fractured lives, and the community is coming together once more.
Salomie Reeves, who lost her husband to the virus, says that time has played the most significant role in breaking down stigma:
"People mocked me. I cried, I was worried and stayed indoors. They said Ebola is in me too. People drove my children away. But time passes, they see my condition, I am not ill and they know Ebola is gone".
Naomi Wrehpue is an Ebola survivor. She contracted the virus after her husband spent time with his niece, who has the first victim in the town. 'The Ebola grabbed me. Since I came from the ETU [Ebola Treatment Unit], the pain has taken hold of my body. It gives me a hard time, but the community people take care of me. The only problem is I can't get well.'
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Naomi used to run a frozen goods business, but ongoing illness forced her to stop. Since she received a business grant from UK NGO Street Child, Naomi's new red oil business had quadrupled in size.
Image: Naomi at work in the market
Street Child has given 78 business grants in Dolo's Town and typically sees an 85 percent success rate in helping people to generate incomes large enough to support their families. This kind of support has been vital in helping people impacted by Ebola to build a future, especially for those who now find themselves caring for large numbers of children.
During Ebola, Cynthia Dorbor moved back to her mother's house to care for her when she was sick. Sadly her mother did not survive and Cynthia lost five close family members to Ebola in total.
Today, she is looking after her sister's three children - all orphaned by the disease.
With support from Street Child, Cynthia has taken over her mother's table at the market, selling wheat, rice and sugar. Since she received a grant in February 2016, the business has doubled in size. It was was bring-ing in $3 a day but is now making enough to ensure that she can save up to $35 a week.
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Ultimately, Cynthia's dream is to go back to school, and train to be a nurse. The business will eventually allow her to do that, but for now it will ensure that her nieces and nephews receive a full education.
Image: Cynthia, with her business
For Street Child, and other local charities, the work that began during Ebola is as important today. Without support, people like Cynthia would struggle to provide enough food for the children they're supporting, or to pay school fees.
Too many children affected by Ebola are now struggling to survive, and it's girls that are most likely to suf-fer from abuse. Girls have been forced out of school and into child labour and prostitution.
Mothers like Cynthia need to earn a decent living to enable children, especially girls, to stay in school and away from the dangers of the streets. Educating Dolo's Town girls will give the mothers of the future a better chance, making the prospect of the community's long term recovery much better.
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One year on from the end of Ebola, life in hot, dusty Dolo's Town is still fragile and hard. The legacy of this vicious disease will be felt for years to come. The pain and grief is still tangible, but there is a cautious optimism that, with the right investment and support, things are starting to look up.
Imagine in a job interview you're asked whether you're planning to stick with your husband, who is serving in the Armed Forces. Imagine as a child you're sent to a different school every 2 years. Imagine you can't get a mobile phone contract, or a loan for a washing machine, or pay for anything by instalments because you don't have a decent enough credit rating.
You don't have to imagine it - welcome to the world of the military family.
With the leaders of the free world (by which I mean Obama, Trudeau and Prince Harry) indulging in advanced YouTube banter around the forthcoming Invictus Games, quite rightly those current and former military personnel who've been wounded, injured or suffered ill health (WIS) are being acknowledged and acclaimed.
But who is standing alongside the other less visible but equally heroic figures, the families? Families of the vast majority who aren't WIS? We at Forces in Mind Trust have just funded the Centre of Social Justice (CSJ) to produce a report asking the question 'what more can be done to support military families, particularly as they transition from military into civilian lives?' The disappointing answer is really, quite a lot.
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We know for example that where a family has the non-serving spouse in employment, when that family's serving member leaves the Forces, he or she stands a much better chance of 'transitioning' into civilian life than someone whose spouse is unemployed. But finding employment as a military 'spouse' can be tough.
It's illegal to ask many things in job interviews, such as marital status or sexual preference - but it isn't illegal to ask whether your partner is in the military. CSJ found that some employers discriminate against military spouses, who they fear are likely to 'follow the flag'. How selfish of them to subordinate their career to serving their country.
We say - make the question illegal; although to be fair, many employers do support the Armed Forces, albeit through the pasty-faced company version of the Armed Forces Covenant (Google it), which certainly needs to be given far greater substance.
And education - my children had each attended 5 different primary schools before we gave them continuity at secondary level by finding a suitable boarding school. Add financial penury to the heartbreak of packing the most precious things in your life off to the care of a stranger many miles away, and even now (they're all thriving 20-somethings) I still can't quite believe we did it. But we did, and for my kids, and selfishly for my own career in the RAF, it was the right thing to do.
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This isn't about giving publically-subsidised access to posh private schools - the market is in any case moving in the opposite direction - but it is about offering all Service families the feasible option of providing continuity through boarding. Our solution is for the State schools sector to provide greater boarding capacity.
A final glimpse into the life of the military family about to set up on 'civvy street' is the difficulty faced by many in establishing credit worthiness, essential to so much nowadays, from a mortgage to a mobile phone. The peripatetic, sometimes non-UK based, life of the military simply doesn't fit into the standard profile. We need credit agencies to recognize the unique life of the military family, so that when that family does transition, it can do so with at least one small aspect being treated with understanding and empathy.
If we, the taxpayers, support the military family by making it more resilient, if we the public treat such families fairly, then society as a whole benefits. Reducing family breakdowns in the Armed Forces Community by just 20% would yield savings to the State (eg in tax, benefits, healthcare) of around 3 million each year.
So even if the moral argument for supporting the UK's Armed Forces families leaves you cold; and even if the societal benefit of tapping into this enriched source of humankind fails to excite you; you can at least look at the very simple economic calculus.
Do you know what it's like to come home from work and tell your wife and children you're going away for 6 months? How your stomach seems to rise up your throat, and your eyes well until they resemble a pair of goldfish bowls? To tell your children you're going to miss all of their next birthdays? And Christmas? And if the bad guys do get lucky, you might just not come back at all?
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I've done this, willingly, and more than once: but it's unbelievably tough. Yet I could never have done so without a strong and resilient wife and family, and they're the ones who really deserve the country's support. Treat them fairly: no more, no less.
I was listening to my favourite science podcast the other day when the topic turned to the EU referendum. I reached for fast forward, but it was actually refreshing to hear the subject debated by two scientists. Scientists who were just so, well, reasonable! Though representing opposite sides, they clearly respected each other, agreed with a lot of what each other said, and only based their statements on facts from peer-reviewed science. It made a pleasant change from the petty point-scoring of power playing politicians and the vox pop bleats from rent-a-rants on the street.
However, even the pro-Brexit voice willingly conceded that his fellow scientists are overwhelmingly in favour of staying in the EU. The House of Lords Science and Technology committee have been collecting reports from the scientific community since 2015, and report exactly this; to the extent that the committee really struggled to find pro-Brexit voices to provide balance in their debates. They concluded that what we contribute to the EU, and receive back for research, leaves us with a considerable net gain. There was a lot of talk of Horizon 2020, the EU's monumental scientific initiative with 80billion euros of funding available for research before... err, 2020. We have disproportionate impact and influence in European science policy, which we could lose if we leave.
So what about wildlife? The Greens are convinced Britain should remain in the EU for the sake of the environment. Former environment secretary Owen Paterson on the other hand is for Brexit. It struck me that I didn't know anything like enough about the issue, so I decided to contact my friends in conservation organisations, to find out what they think.
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My first port of call was Buglife, the first wildlife charity who'd have me as vice president way back in my Really Wild Show days. The real work at Buglife is done by stupefyingly intelligent entomologists, with a genuine passion for creepy crawlies. Their goal is to protect the small things that make the world go round, and to my eye they have always been apolitical. CEO Matt Shardlow had this to say:
"...the EU has benefited bugs in many ways and in our expert opinion continuing to work closely with other countries in the EU to fix environmental problems should bring more benefits to the continent's wildlife than the UK going it alone."
His colleague Paul Hetherington adds:
"While British politicians in Brussels have been introducing regulations that have transformed wildlife and environmental custodianship across Europe, back in Britain their counterparts and superiors have very largely not matched their zeal for a better future. The UK is also to be found blocking new EU efforts to improve air quality, ban harmful pesticides, introduce legislation to protect soils and confirm new measures to check that candidate pesticides do not harm bumblebees or solitary bees."
Buglife have done a thorough risk assessment of Brexit, which can be found online. But much of it rests on the fact that our fauna and flora here in the UK is essentially European. After all, many of our butterflies, dragonflies and bees travel to and from the continent, as do some of the diseases and pollutants that threaten them.
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And what about the birds? They are legendary in their wanton disregard for passports and national borders. Martin Harper, RSPB's Director of Conservation, said much the same:
"Given that nature knows no boundaries (for example birds migrate), the RSPB has always believed we need to act internationally especially as the threats (such as pollution) are often diffuse. Comprehensive international agreements for nature conservation and the environment are therefore essential."
OK so that one was quite careful. Less so was Graham Buckingham of Bite-Back Shark and Marine Conservation. Graham quit his job to set up the charity in his bedroom (for which he should surely get a Pride of Britain award?), and is currently battling to change the EU ruling that allows anyone entering Europe to import 20kg of shark fins for 'personal consumption'.
Graham said:
"As it stands, with support from three or four strong EU allies, the UK can spearhead a campaign that can change the law across all 28 member states. However, if the UK leaves the EU we will be forced to campaign in multiple countries to achieve the same result. A vote to leave the EU could set shark conservation initiatives back a decade."
Well, I didn't expect Graham to sit on the fence. Another shark saviour, Ali Hood (Director of Conservation for the Shark Trust) added:
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"Whilst Brexit would give the UK an independent voice in International fora, in the absence of the UK's influence within the EU, we could see the loss, or even reversal, of the EU's commitment to shark and ray management." Guy Stevens, Founder and Chief Executive of the Manta Trust agreed; "Brexit would disadvantage UK charities ability to raise funds in the EU and reduce conservation initiatives for sharks and rays in Europe".
Similar sentiments came from Richard Benwell of the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, who said:
"It's clear that no country can save nature alone. While it's not the only way to cooperate, the EU has been the foundation of UK conservation for so many years that Brexit would mean years of challenge and uncertainty for organisations like the WWT."
Well what about a much more domestic perspective? Conservation really has to begin on your own home patch, so my next call was to Estelle Bailey, who runs my local Wildlife Trust, another person I trust. One example of an issue that affects the counties I've lived in since birth, is that some heathland is protected under the Habitats Directive because they provide breeding territory for threatened species like the nightjar and Dartford warbler. If we leave the EU Local Councillors have already called for their protection to be downgraded, because it makes it more expensive to develop houses nearby. Estelle did however agree with my friends at the WWF, who mentioned that the EU has been far from perfect when it comes to farming policy, fisheries, flood protection and clean water. Both organisations agreed that either way there would be both benefits and challenges, though WWF sum up: "on balance, Britain's membership of the EU has delivered benefits for our environment."
My last email was to the organization I most recently became a patron of, the World Land Trust. Most of their work is in far-flung exotic jungles, so I was expecting a different perspective. I wasn't expecting them to put me straight in touch with Boris Johnson's dad Stanley! He's one of their vocal supporters, and believes his son has it wrong when it comes to the EU and the environment. Stanley states that: "As the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee inquiry points out... as members of the EU we can push for reforms that protect nature across borders. Leaving puts that at risk. It threatens air and water quality, risks removing safeguards for natural habitats, affects our ability to reduce our carbon footprint and much more." He goes on to say that the EU is in need of development and overhaul, but that to pull out completely would be hugely damaging.
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In the latest of a series of setbacks for Apple in China, a Beijing court has ruled against the global tech corporation in a trade mark battle with a Chinese company over the word "IPHONE", proving that even brand giants can be tripped up by trademarks.
Brand protection is a key consideration for today's successful businesses, and Apple is one example of a company that builds heavily on the value of its brand. From the launch of the first Macintosh computer in 1984, through the first generation iPod in 2001 and up to their most recent computers, phones and tablets, Apple's business has been founded on its marriage of technology with modern, distinctive branding. Apple is often held up as an example of branding done well, but even giants like Apple can still face problems.
One such issue has been in the news recently after Apple lost a trade mark dispute in China against Xintong Tiandi Technology (Xintong), a Chinese manufacturer of predominantly leather goods including handbags, wallets and mobile phone cases. A number of Xintong's goods were branded with the name "IPHONE", which Xintong trademarked in China in 2010 in respect of leather products.
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Apple had filed a Chinese trademark bid for the "IPHONE" name for electronic goods in 2002, but this was not approved until 2013. In the meantime, Apple iPhones were launched for sale in China in 2009 and, in 2012, Apple lodged an action against Xintong with the Chinese trade mark authority to try and secure Apple's rights to the "IPHONE" name. This action related specifically to the use of this mark in respect of leather goods and accessories (i.e. phone covers and cases), and Apple's right to use the mark in relation to its mobile devices was not under threat. Apple also filed a related lawsuit in a lower Beijing court.
Unfortunately for Apple, both of these actions failed based largely on the fact that Apple had not been the first to register the "IPHONE" mark in China in respect of leather goods.
Apple then appealed to the Beijing Municipal High People's Court (BMHPC), however that appeal also failed. In its ruling, the BMHPC noted that, for this action to succeed, Apple had to prove that they had a well-known brand presence in China before Xintong had filed its trademark application in 2007, and on the facts of the case Apple had failed to prove this. This is partly due to the fact that Apple's iPhone was not released for sale in China until 2009 despite being launched elsewhere in 2007, which indicates that having a globally famous brand is not enough to win this sort of trade mark dispute in China unless that fame is also recognised and reflected within China's borders.
Apple reportedly intends to request a retrial with the Supreme People's Court in an effort to protect its trade mark rights in China in relation to leather phone accessories. This isn't the first time Apple has faced trade mark issues in China; when it launched the iPad in 2012 it faced opposition to the name and, later that year, ultimately paid $60m to settle a dispute with Proview International and allow Apple to use the iPad name in China. Apple has also faced other issues in China recently, including rights issues around the content of its iTunes and iBooks stores and falls in revenue in the Chinese market, once the company's strongest growth area.
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This case is noteworthy for any business that relies on the value of its brand, especially those that trade internationally. Trade mark issues are not something many would expect to affect Apple, but this case demonstrates that even one of the biggest brands in the world can be plagued by competing trade mark registrations. The global intellectual property landscape can be tricky to navigate and protection for trade mark - and other intellectual property rights like patents, copyright and designs - can vary significantly between different countries.
Businesses that are considering launching new products or entering new markets should take expert advice on brand protection before doing so to ensure that they are in the best position to secure their brand going forwards. If Apple had registered "IPHONE" in China when they first announced the device in 2007, they may have found it easier to avoid this issue 9 years later.
Donald Trump is the GOPs presidential nominee and coastal elites havent been this freaked out since Oprah set up a non-cruelty free omelet station at the biennial Liberal Media Conspiracy conclave. Republicans facing tough reelection bids can suddenly relate to any teenager whos ever been dropped off a little too close to school by their parents. And reporters eagerly await the leak of Trumps VP shortlist. Its members will presumably be split into teams, provided $5,000 each to create a new dish for California Pizza Kitchen and ultimately judged by Trump and guest judge Donny Deutsch. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Wednesday, May 4th, 2016:
KASICH DROPS OUT - Kasich made the announcement during a press conference in Columbus, speaking in front of a backdrop that appeared to be ripped from a 1970s basement. He's looking forward to spending more time explaining things to his family.
OUR TRUMP VEEP SHORTLIST
- Dr. Zizmor
- "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis
- The exhumed and reanimated body of Don Zimmer
- Kevin James, in character as Paul Blart
- Andrew Dice Clay
- The person in your friend group who first purchased an Apple Watch
- A mudflap depicting a urinating Loony Toons character
- That "History of Dance" dude from YouTube
- Is Robert Evans alive?
- The guys from those "Don't Ride With THEM" posters in the baggage claim area at LaGuardia
- A Patek Philippe watch with googly eyes
- A cardboard cutout of Ed Koch
- Whoever invented car dealership airdancers
- A car dealership airdancer
- Jeff Sessions
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Here's a more serious list.
DEMOCRATS COULDN'T BE GIDDIER - Remember that early viral video of the kid opening up a Nintendo 64 on Christmas morning? Fuse that with those videos of dogs greeting returning service member owners and you get the idea. Edward-Isaac Dovere: "The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee started Wednesday morning pushing reporters in the states to chase senators on recess and ask them whether theyre ready to support Trump as the nominee, and if they want his nominee on the Court. Top Republicans, meanwhile, continue to find ways to avoid saying Trumps name. McConnells spokesman, Don Stewart, for example, responded to a question on Wednesday about whether the Senate majority leader was ready to back the billionaire by saying, 'He has long said that he'll support the nominee chosen by Republican voters. So I don't have a new position for you.'" [Politico]
The Clinton campaign is, needless to say, quite excited about all of this.
MCCONNELL NOT BUDGING ON GARLAND - This despite increasing anxiety in conservative spheres about the GOP's chances in November. Igor Bobic: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is continuing his no-holds-barred blockade of Merrick Garland, President Barack Obamas nominee to the Supreme Court, despite the risk that he may get a less palatable choice from presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, a spokesman for McConnell confirmed Wednesday. The conservative wing of the party, angry with Trumps record and principles, is up in arms at GOP officials for coming around to the brash businessman. Some elected officials and party members on Tuesday made clear they would rather disown the GOP one even burned his registration card than vote for the real estate tycoon." [HuffPost]
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We totally called this.
BUT IS IT GOOD FOR THE CRUZ? Transphobia edition. Amanda Terkel: "Megan Robertson was the type of voter Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was trying to win over in Indiana. Robertson supports Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) for president, but she also desperately wants to stop Donald Trump from winning the nomination. In a last-ditch effort to stop Trump, Cruz formed a non-aggression pact with Kasich designed to let the senator win Indiana so that Kasich could focus his resources on defeating the real estate mogul in New Mexico and Oregon. And in order to win Indiana, Cruz needed voters like Robertson to back him. And Robertson considered doing so until he launched a campaign going after lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights that immediately alienated her. 'I knew what he believed, but doing that ad took it to the next level,' Robertson, an Indiana GOP political consultant, said. 'I think thats probably how a lot of Kasich supporters felt. I think it hurt him.'" [HuffPost]
DELANEY DOWNER - President Barack Obama visited Flint, Michigan, on Wednesday and drank a glass of water to assure residents their taps are safe as long as they use filters. Flints drinking water has been contaminated with lead, a deadly neurotoxin, for two years thanks to the governments failure to treat the water correctly. Obama said he realized Flint residents were still suspicious, but emphasized that the Environmental Protection Agency has said filters can remove the lead.Reporters asked if a glass of water in front of Obama was from Flint, and he said it was before taking a sip. Generally, I havent been doing stunts, but here you go, he said, adding that he trusted the science saying the filters work and that the EPA deemed filtered water safe for everyone except pregnant women and children younger than 6. [HuffPost]
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WORLD ABSOLUTELY LOSING IT - Pathetic foreign reporters ignoring terrorists on their doorstep. Can't even speak English. Triste! Ishaan Tharoor: "After his decisive triumph over Sen. Ted Cruz in Indiana on Tuesday, Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee in this year's presidential election. And the rest of the world is aghast at the brash mogul's rise... 'So this Wednesday morning, Europe wakes up to Donald Trump across the Atlantic as the presumptive Republican nominee,' wrote the left-of-center French daily Liberation...Contemplating the 'craziest U.S. presidential election campaign' that awaits, Germany's conservative Die Welt declared 'the unthinkable has come to pass.' An article in the Hindu, a leading Indian daily, summed up what has come to pass: 'Entering politics 10 months ago, Mr. Trump, whose business practices may be questionable but has unbeatable showmanship, ran a campaign that upended the Republican Party and outraged the American liberal conscience in his march to victory.'" [WaPo]
This is really going to hurt Trump's chances in Youngstown: "David Cameron has 'no intention' of apologising to Donald Trump for calling him 'divisive, stupid and wrong', Downing Street has said. Trump all-but secured the Republican nomination for president on Tuesday after his main rival Ted Cruz dropped out of the race. Today, George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to Tump told The Times the prime minister should say sorry for his past criticisms. However a spokesperson for Cameron said today: 'The prime minister has no intention of withdrawing his comments.'" [HuffPost UK's Ned Simons]
Well, at least the world can take solace in this: "A majority of Donald Trump supporters believe man-made climate change is happening, despite the presidential candidates history of global warming denial, a poll released Wednesday found. The survey, conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, found that 56 percent of people supporting Trump in the 2016 race think global warming is real. Among John Kasich voters, that percentage jumps to 71, while only 36 percent of Ted Cruzs supporters believe in man-made climate change. (Kasich and Cruz both left the presidential race after Indianas primary.)" [HuffPost's Mollie Reilly]
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The worst predictions about Trump's candidacy.
BERNIE STILL DOING HIS THING - He'll make a great HUD secretary. Samantha Lachman: "Bernie Sanders victory in Indianas Democratic primary Tuesday demonstrates his popularity with voters hasnt faded, even as his path to the presidential nomination has narrowed. Sanders led front-runner Hillary Clinton by 6 points, with 68 percent of precincts reporting, when networks declared him the winner. Exit polls had Sanders winning by 12 points, but they were based solely on interviews with voters on Election Day. Clinton narrowed the gap somewhat by dominating among people who voted early...Sanders was scheduled to hold two rallies in Kentucky on Tuesday afternoon, as he looks ahead to the rest of this months contests. While the remaining primary contests, including upcoming Oregon and West Virginia, are favorable to him, he faces a steep climb to catch Clinton with delegates." [HuffPost]
American Bridge trolled Reince Priebus by sending him this Vine.
RICH GUY DOESN'T NEED MONEY - Michael Beckel: "Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz and his super PAC allies spent more than $10 per vote on advertising ahead of Indiana's primary Tuesday. And Donald Trump whose campaign spent about $1.50 per vote clobbered him anyway. In all, Cruz and two supportive super PACs the Club for Growth, an anti-tax organization that endorsed him, and Trusted Leadership PAC, a big-money vehicle designed to boost the U.S. senator from Texas spent more than $4 million on television and radio advertising in Indiana, according to data provided to the Center for Public Integrity by The Tracking Firm, a nonpartisan media tracking company headquartered in Washington, D.C." [CPI]
Larry Wilmore reflects: "From a pure comedic point of view, I know that I lost the room early."
VERY IMPORTANT CARL PALADINO UPDATE - "Things may be going well for Donald Trump these days, but theyre a bit rockier for one of his biggest backers, New York politician and real estate mogul Carl Paladino. Paladino nearly lost re-election to the Buffalo school board Tuesday, winning by just 107 votes out of the almost 3,000 cast. His opponent was an 18-year-old high school student who said he ran because it was time to bring some adult behavior to the board. 'Carl, youre the loser. Im not the loser,' Austin Harig said after the results came in, according to The Buffalo News. This wasnt about winning a seat. ... This was about kids in the district.'" [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a baby with a dog.
Alabama publication publishes list of 50 people to watch in local government and media. Every single person is white.
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COMFORT FOOD
- Video from a GoPro attached to a rocket
- An evolution flipbook.
- From February, Slate's "If Terrence Malick directed 'Zoolander.'"
TWITTERAMA
@ariannahuff: Imagine someone pushing JFK and birther conspiracies being given the FBI.
@mollyesque: Text from a Kasich staffer: Sucks to be a Republican."
@timothypmurphy: If you think the schadenfreude is bad now imagine what it'll be like when the Dem super-majority confirms Bill Ayers to the Supreme Court
Donald Trump and Paul Ryan engaged in some light rapprochement, thanks to Ryans brave stance of not wanting anything to do with the guy. North Carolina sued the federal government so its citizens will know what to expect when they purposefully gawk at each others genitals in bathrooms. And President Obama signed an executive order declaring the Bison to be Americas official mammal, this despite a vigorous astroturf campaign and several Bistro Bis fundraisers thrown by the Thinhorn sheep. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Monday, May 9th, 2016:
TRUMP AND RYAN PULLED AWAY FROM EACH OTHER, TOLD IT'S NOT WORTH IT, MAN, IT'S JUST NOT WORTH IT, BRO - That said, we would totally pay to watch Donald Trump and Paul Ryan literally fight. It could be held in the Izod section of Bloomingdales. Maggie Haberman and Jennifer Steinhauer: "Facing a steep challenge as he prepares to meet with Republican leaders about uniting their splintering party, Donald J. Trump on Monday struck a more conciliatory tone about House Speaker Paul D. Ryan. And Mr. Ryan appeared to reciprocate, saying he would step down from his position as chairman of the Republican National Convention in July if that is what the partys presumptive nominee requests...Also on Sunday, one of Mr. Trumps top supporters, the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, called for a primary challenge against Mr. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin. But by Monday, both Mr. Trump and Mr. Ryan appeared to be backing away slightly from confrontation. Mr. Trump disavowed any hand in Ms. Palins remarks in a morning interview on CNN with Chris Cuomo.For his part, Mr. Ryan told a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist, Christian Schneider, 'Ill do whatever he asks me to do,' referring to Mr. Trump. A spokesman for Mr. Ryan, Brendan Buck, said he understood Mr. Schneiders report to be accurate." [NYT]
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Marco Rubio wants everyone to know he doesn't want to be Donald Trump's running mate.
RELIGIOUS RIGHT IS HAVING A SAD - Loony Jesus thinks he's the son of God. Is betrayed by friend. Sad! Katie Zezima: "[C]onservatives whose voting decisions are guided by their Christian faith find themselves dismayed and adrift now that Trump has wrested control of the Republican Party Even progressive Christians evangelicals and Catholics, among others who dont necessarily vote Republican are alarmed that Trump is attracting many voters who call themselves religious. A coalition of nearly 60 Christian leaders many progressive and some conservative published an open letter last week asking voters of faith to reject Trump and his 'vulgar racial and religious demagoguery,' warning that the nation faces a moral threat from the candidate There is consternation about the hard line Trump takes on immigrants and about the morality of a thrice-married man who has long bragged about his sexual conquests. But another factor is at work as well: The traditional social and cultural positions that drive many religious conservative voters, including same-sex marriage and abortion, have been cast aside by a candidate who seems to have little interest in fighting the culture wars." [WaPo]
In the latest Candidate Confessional, Jason and Sam sit down with Sandra Fluke and talk sexism in politics.
A GLIMPSE INTO DONALD TRUMP'S AMERICA - Erik Wemple: "Julia Ioffe has filed a report with the D.C. police department over the anti-Semitic threats that she received many from apparent Trump supporters after writing a penetrating profile of Melania Trump in GQ. The alleged offense is listed as 'threat to kidnap or injure a person,' as outlined under the Code of the District of Columbia 22-1810. Said threats came through phone calls and email, notes the report. And the 'public narrative' section reads as follows: 'C-1 states that an unknown person sent her a caricature of a person being shot in the back of the head by another, among other harassing calls and disturbing emails depicting violent scenarios.'" [WaPo]
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DELANEY DOWNER - Famous actor Mark Ruffalo has a nonprofit called Water Defense that has been telling people in Flint, Michigan they could inhale aerosolized lead if they shower with unfiltered water, a concern not shared by any government agency, which have all said showering is fine. People in Flint have repeatedly voiced concerns about bathing with the water, which they've said causes rashes and hair loss. But Marc Edwards, the highly-respected civil engineer whose own testing of Flint's water helped expose the city's lead crisis last year, is calling Ruffalo's group out. "The individuals making these claims do not have expertise in potable water systems, epidemiology or toxicology, or for that matter any credentials that would qualify them to make statements about dangers of Flints current water supply from phosphate or aerosolized lead," Edwards said in a Saturday blog post. The item also said Water Defense hasn't responded to requests for supporting info. Water Defense hasn't responded yet to DDD's request for comment. [FlintWaterStudy.org]
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HOW OREOS EXPLAIN THE ELECTION - To our British readers, imagine if Walkers outsource their factories to France. Dave Jamieson: "Last year, Michael Smith learned that his middle-class factory job on Chicagos South Side was headed to Mexico. The news stunned Smith. After all, his factory made an iconic American product: the Oreo cookie. Soon, real estate mogul Donald Trump took an interest in Smiths plight. Every chance he had, the front-runner for the Republican nomination pilloried Mondelez, the snack conglomerate that produces Oreos, Ritz crackers and other treats, for its decision to offshore the 600 Chicago jobs. Trump vowed never to eat another Oreo again The term NAFTA is practically a slur among the Mondelez workers. The 1994 deal, signed by President Bill Clinton, loosened trade barriers between the U.S. and Mexico, enabling American companies to seek out cheaper labor south of the border, and produce cheaper goods for American consumers. Smith said that as much as he appreciated the visit from Hillary Clinton 'I thought it was a real class act on her part' -- NAFTA was very much on his mind. 'We were aware that it happened under her husbands administration,' he said." [HuffPost]
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Mitt Romney warned college grads about demagogues in a commencement address on Saturday, my friends.
N.C. SUES TO BE PREJUDICED ABOUT PEEING - Looking forward to a tied Supreme Court sending Pat McCrory's publicity stunt to its jurisprudential grave. Julia Harte: "North Carolina officials sued the U.S. Justice Department on Monday after the department challenged the states law on public restroom access for transgender people, accusing the agency of 'baseless and blatant overreach.' The departments top civil rights lawyer, Vanita Gupta, last week sent three letters to North Carolina officials, saying the law was a civil rights violation. It is the newest chapter of a fast-evolving fight over rights for transgender Americans. The law, which went into effect in March, requires transgender people to use public bathrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and the states secretary of public safety sued Gupta as well as U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch for their 'radical reinterpretation' of federal civil rights law in federal district court in North Carolina. Justice Department officials declined to comment on Monday. If the state does not pull back from implementing the first-of-its-kind statute on Monday, it could face a federal lawsuit, according to the Justice Department letters." [Reuters]
BACK ATCHA - Ryan Reilly: "The Obama administration on Monday filed a lawsuit against the state of North Carolina, alleging that a bill that blocks protections for transgender people violates federal law. The Justice Department said in a lawsuit that the so-called 'bathroom bill' 'stigmatizes and singles out transgender employees, results in their isolation and exclusion, and perpetuates a sense that they are not worthy of equal treatment and respect.' A persons external genitals, the feds said, are 'but one component of sex and not always determinative of a persons sex.' DOJs lawsuit highlights statements by North Carolina officials in support of the law, including a statement from Lt. Gov. Dan Forest (R), who has said that a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance in Charlotte 'would have given pedophiles, sex offenders, and perverts free rein to watch women, boys and girls undress and use the bathroom.'" [HuffPost]
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WASHINGTON STREET JUSTICE - Michael Calderone: "Two prominent foreign policy journalists are pushing back at The New York Times Magazine for what they described as a 'defamatory' characterization in a much-discussed article. The article, a nearly 10,000-word profile of Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, suggested that the Atlantics Jeffrey Goldberg and Al Monitors Laura Rozen helped retail the Obama administrations argument for a nuclear deal with Iran. Both Goldberg and Rozen described the description as false, even slanderous, and criticized the paper for failing to seek comment ahead of time. 'This is an unsupported, defamatory allegation that somehow slipped into The New York Times Magazine by a guy, it should be pointed out, who has had a grudge against me for several years,' Goldberg told HuffPost. (He later wrote of once accepting, then declining, a position at Tablet, where Samuels was a senior editor and Samuels wife is editor)." [NYT]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a canine zookeeper.
COMFORT FOOD
- 360-degree video from right near a tornado.
- One of the world's most dangerous bodies of water.
TWITTERAMA
@daveweigel: Is it time to ban special interests from the political lexicon? I mean, it means almost nothing yet everything.
@marinafang: Brian Williams on MSNBC just now: "John Kasich, if you're watching, please call into our control room."
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Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio dominated media coverage this afternoon, though their remarks could barely be heard over William Kristol's loud sobs. Corey Lewandowski will oversee Donald Trumps VP search with input from Ben Carson, meaning the leading contenders for the job are probably Turtle from Entourage and the Microsoft Paperclip. And Heidi Cruz said her husbands conservative mission will continue, much like the long effort to abolish slavery, which she said lasted 25 years. On our Cruz-centric fact checking scale, we give that statement four out of four cans of soup. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Tuesday, May 10th, 2016:
Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party for less than a week and already we have this.
BIDEN -- AND LET'S CALL IT WHAT IT IS -- ENDORSES HILLARY - Arlette Saenz: "Vice President Joe Biden today predicted that Hillary Clinton will be his party's presidential nominee, even though the Democratic primary is still underway. 'I feel confident that Hillary will be the nominee, and I feel confident shell be the next president,' Biden said in an exclusive interview with 'Good Morning America' co-anchor Robin Roberts. The vice presidents comments came during an interview with Roberts about his 'Cancer MoonShot' initiative...Biden, who decided against a 2016 run of his own, has refrained from endorsing Clinton or her Democratic opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, in this election, but his statement is the most direct acknowledgement from inside the White House that Clinton will clinch the nomination." [ABC News]
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LEWANDOWSKI HEADING UP TRUMP'S VEEP SEARCH - "But, Mr. Trump, Dan Smith . . . he'll . . . he'll . . . teach you guitar! Robert Costa: "Lewandowski, Trumps traveling confidant and campaign manager, will be in charge of the team that will survey and vet potential vice-presidential candidates for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, two top Republicans said...When asked how the post would affect Lewandowskis day-to-day activities, one of the Republicans said that Lewandowski will continue to serve as campaign manager and described the vice-presidential selection an addition to his portfolio...Lewandowskis role is unsurprising because he is close to Trump and managing the campaign. What is unusual is that the job of running the vice-presidential search is usually held by a lawyer who is trusted by the candidate...Trumps team of vice-presidential search advisers is expected to include retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a former GOP rival who has emerged in recent weeks as an influential Trump ally." [Washington Post]
HAD YOU HEARD THAT TRUMP IS BIG WITH RACISTS? "On Monday evening, California's secretary of state published a list of delegates chosen by the Trump campaign for the upcoming Republican presidential primary in the state. Trump's slate includes William Johnson, one of the country's most prominent white nationalists." [Mother Jones' Josh Harkinson]
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TRUMP STILL LOSING - But Quinnipiac is the Yale of the Greater New Haven metro area! Natalie Jackson: "Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton polls are taking center stage since he locked up the Republican nomination last week and the former Secretary of State is expected to get the Democratic nomination. In the first battleground state polls to come out since Trumps key victory in Indiana, Quinnipiac University shows the business mogul gaining ground on Clinton in Florida and Pennsylvania and beating the former secretary of state inalways-critical Ohio. But before you lose your mind over individual polls, heed our repeated warnings: Look at the polling averages and carefully consider the source. Quinnipiac polls have shown a consistent Republican lean in comparison to other polls so far this year. They struggled in the primaries, according to Bloombergs poll ratings. Their previous polls in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania leaned more toward Trump than other surveys. That said, some of the movement could be real. Trump as the presumptive nominee will unite some Republicans, even if many are still opposed to him. Clinton, meanwhile, is still in a primary fight with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)." [HuffPost]
Blame the intern: "Sen. Tom Cotton, R.-Ark., retweeted and then quickly deleted a call for a third-party alternative to presumptive Republican nominee in November. In a late night tweet, which was deleted only seconds after he sent it out, Cotton manually retweeted the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol, one of the prominent backers of a potential third party bid, saying there is a 'big opening for [a] new voice w[ith] real ideas]' in a potential race between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton." [Examiner]
TED CRUZ WILL HAUNT THIS CAMPAIGN - Ben Kamisar: "Ted Cruz floated the possibility of restarting his presidential campaign if he wins Nebraskas GOP primary on Tuesday and avoided saying whether he supports Donald Trump's bid for president. Cruz, who suspended his White House run last week, said he does not expect to win Nebraska's primary but is leaving the door open. 'We launched this campaign intending to win. The reason we suspended our campaign was that with the Indiana loss, I felt there was no path to victory,' he said Tuesday on conservative host Glenn Beck's radio program. 'If that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly.' Cruz demurred on supporting Trump..." [The Hill]
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Sam Stein and Igor Bobic report on anti-Trump forces working for a third party bid.
HEIDI CRUZ, ABOLITIONIST - Just when you were feeling sympathy for this person. Patrick Svitek: "Drawing a parallel between the long-term efforts of her husband's supporters and the fight to end slavery, Heidi Cruz said Tuesday that it took 'a lot longer than four years' for the latter fight to be successful. On a conference call with the campaign's National Prayer Team, Heidi Cruz portrayed Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, which ended a week ago, as one part of a broader journey similar to the abolition of slavery. 'I dont want you to feel like any of this was in vain,' Heidi Cruz said. 'I believe in the power of prayer. This doesnt always happen on the timing of man, and God does not work in four-year segments.' 'Be full of faith and so full of joy that this team was chosen to fight a long battle,' she continued. 'Think that slavery it took 25 years to defeat slavery. That is a lot longer than four years.'" [Texas Tribune]
JUDICIAL ELECTIONS ARE REALLY TERRIBLE THINGS - Not quite engagement photos terrible, but definitely a worse kind of terrible than, say, Yelp reviews terrible. Paul Blumenthal: "Spending to sway judicial elections has been increasing across the country for nearly two decades, but it soared after the Supreme Courts 2010 Citizens United decision, which served to legalize unlimited electoral spending by corporations, unions and individuals. The courts decision led to the overturning of Montanas Corrupt Practices Act, which banned direct and indirect corporate political spending in the state. The Montana law had been passed in 1912 after powerful mining corporations, like the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, essentially took over the states political institutions, particularly the judiciary...While the influx of money, particularly post-Citizens United, has had profound effects on all kinds of political campaigns, its particularly troubling in those judicial races." [HuffPost]
THUNE WANTS TO INVESTIGATE PRIVATE CORPORATION BECAUSE HE IS A TRUE CONSERVATIVE - Mollie Reilly: "Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) penned a letter to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday requesting information about how the company selects which news stories to feature in its trending news section, following a report alleging workers intentionally suppressed conservative news and viewpoints. On Monday, Gizmodo reported that, according to a former Facebook contractor, the sites news curators regularly prevented topics of particular interest to a conservative audience (such as the 2013 IRS scandal or the annual Conservative Political Action Conference) from appearing in the sites popular 'trending topics' section. The report also claims that curators were instructed to insert news stories into this feed even if they werent organically trending according to the sites algorithms...Thune hasnt always been on the side of legislating balance in the media. In 2007, the senator introduced a bill that sought to kill the Federal Communications Commissions Fairness Doctrine." [HuffPost]
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Fabulous Reid kicker: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was asked on Tuesday whether he thought it was appropriate for the Senate to investigate Facebook. Reid, who asked to have the question repeated twice, said he was unaware of the controversy. 'Ive never heard anything about this and, at this stage, dont care,' Reid said." [Ibid.]
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY LAYS THE HAMMER DOWN ON METRO - The ghost train epidemic must be stopped. Joan Lowy: "Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says he seriously considered ordering a shutdown of the entire Washington subway system last week and may still do that if local officials don't follow a Transportation Department safety directive. Foxx told reporters Tuesday that local officials have yet to identify the root cause of incidents involving electrical arcing, smoke and fire, and so have no plan for how to fix the problem. He says it is clear to DOT officials who watched a video of one recent incident that there is too much electrical power flowing through the subway system. Foxx calls a track maintenance schedule local officials unveiled Friday "ambitious," but says the plan still doesn't address the root cause of the incidents." [AP]
AMERICA, BRACE YOURSELF FOR PETTY MANHATTAN DISAGREEMENTS TO SEEP INTO OUR NEWS CYCLES (MORE THAN USUAL, THAT IS) - History buffs may recall that the Missouri Compromise centered on admission into Dalton. Alex Campbell: "The personal ties between Donald Trump and Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of CNN, extend beyond the reality TV hit they created together into a far more personal realm: the expensive Manhattan private school where they have both sent children, and where Zuckers wife was until recently a member of the board. Trumps foundation has contributed more than $150,000 over the past three years to the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, a nonprofit school on Manhattans Upper West Side also known as Columbia Prep. Caryn Zucker is listed as a board member for the school in tax documents covering July 2012 through June 2014. Zucker has drawn criticism inside and outside of CNN for the cable channels coverage of Trump, including charges that CNN has turned its platform over to a demagogue and hasnt been sufficiently skeptical of Trumps routine campaign falsehoods. Zucker has brushed off these charges, saying that its only natural for a political frontrunner to receive outsize attention. Neither party has referred publicly to this family connection." [BuzzFeed]
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BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here are a bunch of corgis on the beach.
IT'S WET, YO - Ugh, this swamp. Jason Samenow: "It has rained a lot lately. Thats clear to anyone living in this soggy, sun-deprived region. But you might be surprised to learn that the Washington area has never had more consecutive days with rain in its recorded history. Measurable rain (meaning at least 0.01 inches) has fallen in D.C. on a record 13 straight days, spanning April 27 and, today, May 9. This nearly two-week stretch breaks the previous record for the longest rain streak of 10 days from both July 1938 and August 1873. Records date to 1871." [WaPo]
COMFORT FOOD
- Animated rendering of 1999 Cher interview.
- Good sendup of YouTube top ten videos.
- Examining the racial politics of emojis.
TWITTERAMA
AnnieKNK: i wish i was dead
@recordedvoice: Say what you want, but Budweiser got at least 1 thing right: alcohol is the only thing that's gonna get us through this election
CNNyourmom: George W. Bush Is Still Your Mom
The candidate announced plans to fundraise, an uphill battle when $1.5 billion or so is required for a presidential race these days -- and he only has six months. And in convention intrigue, the Ted Cruz camp has indicated that he's not going to just hand over his delegates at the convention. [NYT]
The Obama administration has now sued North Carolina over its "bathroom bill," which it says stigmatizes and singles out transgender employees, results in their isolation and exclusion, and perpetuates a sense that they are not worthy of equal treatment and respect. And here's an explainer for both sides of the legal argument. [Ryan Reilly, HuffPost]
"The first salvo was a missile launch by the Chinese in 2007 that blew up a dead satellite and littered space with thousands of pieces of debris. But it was another Chinese launch three years ago that made the Pentagon really snap to attention, opening up the possibility that outer space would become a new front in modern warfare." [WaPo]
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From Libya to Yemen. [WSJ | Paywall]
Due to rising sea levels. [Chris D'Angelo, HuffPost]
A U.S. Navy warship sailed close to the disputed territory in the South China Sea, ruffling relations with the Chinese. [Reuters]
WHATS BREWING
The Academy Award winner added some more hardware to her collection with her engagement to longtime boyfriend Alex Greenwald. [HuffPost]
"Children can be tough negotiators, as parents know. And the stakes are high: the outcome of negotiations between parents and their children can affect a familys happiness and the childrens futures." [Aeon]
The bald eagle just got some competition. [HuffPost]
Lust, greed and sloth -- it's all there. [The Atlantic]
The drama is real in the first trailer for season two of "Unreal." [HuffPost]
We can fix that Harry, just give us a ring here at The Morning Email. [Vanity Fair]
For more from The Huffington Post, download our app for iOS or Android.
WHAT'S WORKING
"New Virginia Majority has registered over 550 ex-offenders since the governor signed his order, or a quarter of the roughly 2,100 ex-offenders who have registered statewide." [HuffPost]
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BEFORE YOU GO
~ A knife attack at a Munich train station has left one dead and three injured. The attacker reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great."
~ Kenya is about to shut down the world's largest refugee camp.
~ Is Facebook suppressing your news?
~ Congrats to Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes, who reportedly welcomed a second daughter!
~ If you are a Jelena shipper -- this video will break your heart.
~ What it looks like when Mercury crosses the sun for the first time in a decade.
~ It's now discriminatory to not serve pregnant women alcohol in New York City.
~ Of course Bernie Sanders helped a staffer propose.
~ Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you -- Google has been tinkering with black font on its search results pages. Everyone remain calm, this is not a drill.
~ And here's a bit of financial news to brighten your Tuesday: The top 25 hedge fund managers took home $12.94 billion this year.
Those of us who are not filthy rich but still enjoy long-term, international travel, have long relied on home exchanges. Leveraging your home (and car) can offset the otherwise prohibitive expenses of accommodations and transportation abroad. Our most recent home exchange involved a trade of houses and vehicles for two months with a Brazilian family much like our own (two kids under the age of ten).
The first time you prep for a home exchange, the to-do list is daunting. Obviously you'll be investing money and time in basic maintenance and repairs. Over time, it gets easier, and you figure out where that money and time is best spent. Here are ten tips for readying your home for your exchange partners.
Safety - This one should go without saying, but if there is something in your home that will jeopardize the safety of your guests, rectifying that situation should be at the top of the list. This can range from fixing loose boards on decking to cleaning out your dryer vents to removing weapons from the premises. Ask a friend or neighbor who is unfamiliar with your home to do a walk-through and help you identify issues you might be overlooking.
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Insurance - Contact your insurance agent and switch your homeowner's insurance policy to a temporary status that will protect you and your home in the event of damage. Let your agent know of your situation and plans; they should be able to point you in the right direction.
Vehicles - If you're doing a car exchange along with the home exchange, make sure your vehicle is clean, serviced, and has updated registration and insurance information in the glove box. Call your car insurance company and add your exchange partners' names to your policy for the duration of the swap. If you're not exchanging vehicles, make sure you take the necessary steps to keep your vehicle in good working order upon your return. Here's WikiHow's article on How to Store a Car.
Declutter - No one wants to be confronted with someone else's clutter. Box up as much as you can, including toiletries that you normally leave out, but that you might not take with you. You don't need to go so far as removing pictures from walls, but your exchange partners should arrive to find plenty of clean, free space to temporarily make their own.
Clean - Speaking of clean, this one is non-negotiable. Clean sheets on beds, emptied trash cans, and a fridge free of leftovers (though leaving condiments and staples for your guests is always appreciated). If you are not able to get your home in immaculate condition (because you're too busy planning your own trip), find a reputable company who understands the situation and can come in after your departure to get your home looking its best.
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Resources - In the weeks before your exchange, gather as much information as you can about your area. Visit your local tourist office and stock up on all of their free magazines, brochures, and area guides. Add a personal touch by making notes about some of your favorite restaurants, shops, and sights to see. Include other resources like medical facilities, parks, gyms, and libraries. It's a good idea to include web links and to email the information you've compiled to your exchange partners prior to the trip, so that they can do a little research ahead of time.
Contact Information - Included in the resources you provide should be contact information. Not just your own phone number and email, but the names and numbers of your trusted neighbors, your property manager, and emergency services (9-1-1 is a North American number, not an international one). Your designated property manager doesn't need to be a property manager by profession, but must be someone familiar with your home and responsible enough to handle any issues that may arise.
Bills - Get as many of your bills enrolled in an electronic bill pay system as possible. Put a hold on your mail delivery, or employ the kindness of a neighbor to handle it while you're away. In every exchange I've completed, utilities remain the responsibility of the homeowner, no matter the length of stay.
Honesty - Be completely up front with your exchange partners about any quirks your home might have, areas in town to stay away from, or any other concerns you'd have if you were visiting your home and city for the first time. You don't have to apologize for your home, but neither should you make it out to be something that it's not. Likewise, be honest about your own impending stay, how many people will be in the home if you're having guests visit you during the exchange, and for how long.
Welcome - What can you do to make your exchange partners feel welcome when they arrive at your home? Flowers? Gifts for the kids? A gift card to your favorite restaurant? We arrived in Londrina, Brazil to find that our exchange partners had dinner and a bottle of wine waiting for us. All we had to do was turn on the oven.
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You'll come up with a much longer list of items to be addressed prior to a home exchange, like the transferring of keys (usually via a neighbor when we do a simultaneous exchange), where to store important documents (safety deposit box), how to handle finances while you're gone (letting your credit card companies and banks know of your travel plans, researching the availability of cash machines in your destination city), and visits to a travel doctor (vaccinations, immunizations, and prescriptions), but the above will serve as a starting point and a rough guide for preparing your home. With a little bit of trust and adventurous spirit, you'll find that "home" extends far beyond your front door.
Would you like to get your business some all-important free press coverage? Have you tried to get into the press but not had much success so far? Here I spill the beans on journalists' top 5 pet hates when being pitched to...and what you can do to avoid making these mistakes when pitching to the press.
1.Never call up and say "Hello! Did you get my email?"
2.Don't be tempted to ask: "I emailed you last week, did you get it?"
3.Never write essays!
4.Avoid sending attachments and links
5.Don't send blanket emails and cut and paste the target journo's name
I will now go into more detail on the above points and give my ideas on how to avoid committing a 'journalist pet-hate crime'!
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1. Never call up and say "Hello! Did you get my email?"
Journalists are extremely busy. That's the nature of their business - they are the ones breaking and reporting the news.
The Oxford Dictionary definition for news is:
"Newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent events:
'I've got some good news for you' "
Journalists can receive up to 150+ unsolicited emails a day. At my PR Workshop event in London, industry expert, Harriet Minter of The Guardian told us that she receives 300+ emails a day, and these aren't even the emails to emails she has sent out. So can you imagine how frustrating it is for them to have someone call them and ask that?
I totally understand why we, the entrepreneur, the pitcher, want to ask that question, as our world revolves around OUR company and its success on being #VISIBLE but if all 300 people call up and ask if their email has been received it may be perceived as frustrating.
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Which leads me onto point No 2...
2. Don't be tempted to ask: "I emailed you last week, did you get it?"
Now you may realise why they don't like that question as much as the first.
So what is the solution?
In my experience the best ice breaker when calling a journalist is to ask them if they have time to speak. This shows that you class the journalist as a fellow human being, not a commodity who must read every email sent. They will either say '"No, sorry I am on deadline" to which you could ask when would be the best day and time to call, or you will have a little window to speak...
So in this window (of not being rebuffed), having a strong 8 word 'elevator pitch' will get you past the dreaded 30 seconds barrier of whether they want to hear more from you or not.
Don't forget to try and talk about something you may have in common with the journalist - this could make you memorable and make the conversation a little less uncomfortable!
3. Never write essays!
By now you will have gathered that the journalist is very pressed for time plus they have hundreds of emails to get through (if they have compelling subject boxes - but that's another newsletter altogether) so my advice is that you are:
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Succinct
To the point
Use bullet points!
Just do 3 bullet points for your pitch followed by a short paragraph. The use of correct statistics is always helpful.
4. Avoid sending attachments and links
Don't clog up the inboxes with heavy attachments that will invariably get blocked by the server. At the end of your email, you can say you have low resolution images you can send over.
Links to other sites tend to be a no-no as the busy journalist will not want to be diverted, so try to include all the key facts in the email. If you have to include a link, do, but take into account it may not get clicked on.
5. Don't send blanket emails and cut and paste the target journo's name
You may be running your PR campaign and have quite a few journalists on your hit list, but if you don't personalise your message, then you will come across as 'pitch-happy' and could run the risk of not being listened to or rather read as you are emailing!
So I recommend you research your target journalist, address them by their first name ie Hi Suzi....then mention that you have read their latest article, and tell them what resonated with you, then add your 3 bullet points as suggested above.
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Last week I kept waking up feeling heavy.
I'm not referring to the heavy from the unreasonable amount of carbs I indulged in recently. And seriously, it was an unreasonable amount. I have no self-control around a basket of warm, buttery rolls sitting on the table. It's a problem.
What I was feeling was the kind of heavy that I could literally feel in my chest. The kind that makes it hard to get a deep breath. The kind that kept waking me up from my sleep well before it was time for my alarm to sound for the day.
I laid in bed, in the dark and attempted to clear my mind. I tried to relax, but the heaviness in my chest was hard to ignore. I was dreading the day and consumed by it.
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I went to plan B, prayer, which should have been my plan A, but I'm too difficult a person to do things the easy way first. Plan B didn't really make me feel better either, to be honest.
I decided that there was no fix and that I would just do what I do best, ignore it and move on. So that's what I did.
My saving grace is 3:00pm. It's a time of stillness that comes after my day's obligations are winding down and just before the kids get out of school and we hit the ground running. From 3:00-3:45 I get the luxury of doing what I want. I usually spend it writing or reading. Sometimes watching reality shows (Naked & Afraid is quality programming).
On this particular day I picked up a book and read a few pages.
It was the story of Lazarus. He was a guy who lived near Jerusalem back in the bible days. His story was retold in the book of John. He and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, had seen Jesus perform miracles with their own eyes while he was in town. From their own eye witness accounts, they came to believe and have faith in everything Jesus said.
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So as the story goes, Lazarus became very sick. His sisters watched him as he became sicker and sicker until he was so sick that he was knocking on death's door.
The sisters had 2 choices.
They could go with the traditional medical practice of the day to cure their brother. That was a grim pick and probably included leeches or a homemade, bad-tasting herbal potion. People dropped like flies back in the bible days. It was before penicillin was invented so for all I know Lazarus may have been dying from an infected hair follicle or something of the nature.
The second option was to notify the miracle man named Jesus, who they knew could heal their brother just by speaking it so.
They chose option 2, Jesus. Good move.
The thing was that Jesus had left town. This was also during a time scholars refer to as B.I. (before iPhone) so Jesus wasn't exactly easy to reach. Still, Martha and Mary knew he was their best bet so they sent a message to him that simply said, "Lazarus is ill." Then they waited for three days for Jesus to come back, which he eventually did. By the time he got there Lazarus was already dead. The sisters took Jesus to their brother's tomb. Jesus, with a crowd watching, raised Lazarus from the dead and he walked out of the tomb.
Fortunately, there were tons of people there who witnessed this event. Their stories all matched up and confirmed that what the bible says happened that day, must have really happened. Thankful for all those eye witness accounts and fact checkers because this story would have been another one that would be hard to believe otherwise.
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The thing that stood out to me most in this story this time, which I have heard retold many times over the years, was the letter that Mary and Martha sent to Jesus.
It simply said, "Lazarus is ill."
That's it. Are you kidding me?
Here is the short version of what my note to Jesus would have looked like:
"Dear Jesus,
Lazarus, my brother as you may remember, is sick. I'm really worried if he doesn't get better soon he may even die. I know you can perform miracles and healing the sick seems to be your favorite so can I ask you to consider coming back and helping him? I know you just left town and it's so far out of your way, but please come back. I'll come up with the money to pay for the expenses incurred from turning your donkey back around. Please come back quickly because he doesn't have much time. He's getting sicker by the minute. You can find him here at our house when you get back. I drew a map on the back of this note to help you find us easier. Can you give me a sign that you are coming back so I won't worry? Please help Lazarus. My sister is freaking out too. Please, please hurry.
Love,
Amanda"
But all Mary and Martha's note said was, "Lazarus is ill."
It blows my mind.
Then to send that and wait 3 days without any word on if Jesus even got the message or not would have made me assume the worst. But Mary and Martha had faith that their "Lazarus is ill" message was sufficient.
Their short note implies that they must have trusted he knew better how to handle the situation than they did (gasp!). I wonder if they thought it was wasting sweet time writing more than necessary or maybe they thought it would just be overkill, but whatever the reason was their simple "Lazarus is ill" note had Jesus turning around and coming back to town to help them.
It makes me wonder if sometimes I feel like my prayers aren't favorably answered because Jesus didn't decide to answer them by following the instructions that I gave with my request.
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Had Mary and Martha told Jesus following their request that they needed him to come back that very day because they needed his help before their brother died they would have been really disappointed. They would have been at Lazarus' funeral feeling abandoned by Jesus when all the while he was on his way with full intention of healing their brother.
Their simple request/heart's desire/prayer/message was heard loud and clear from Jesus. He knew exactly the perfect time and how to respond. I bet he even was proud of how much faith it took to write such a short simple message under such dire circumstances.
This story suddenly had new and profound meaning to me.
And it changed me.
I want to be like them. Trusting, confident, full of faith. Keeping things simple.
As 3:45pm approached and my quiet time was about to be shifted over to the chaos I call "my life after school lets out" I tried praying like the way Mary and Martha would have done it.
"God,
I'm worried and feel heavy.
Help me.
Thank you so much.
Amen"
And with that I was off to pick up kids from after school activities and to argue with them over the music volume in the car. I could sense that my Mary-N-Martha-Prayer had as much significance and was a lot less stressful than my typical pray-with-instructions prayer I usually did.
I may be way off base, and lots of times I am, but I found last week that I prayed more. It felt less heavy to pray this new way.
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Did you hear that? It. Felt. Less. Heavy.
Which was my problem to begin with...heaviness.
So thanks girls (this is what I call Mary and Martha now...we are tight). Your faith changed me. Thanks for having it. Thanks for including what your message said as part of the story.
Congrats on your bro.
Follow Her On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/nogritnopearlblog/?ref=hl
The Syrian Virgin, by Zack Love, is a very interesting novel.
Equally a political and romantic thriller, at times a real page-turner, it gets you intimately involved in the dire situation in today's Syria as well as in the romantic entanglements of its mostly New-York based characters--whose entanglements just might determine the fate of that dire situation in Syria. Along the way it introduces a really important idea that somehow has not been part of the contemporary discussion, yet (as the character espousing it will quickly convince you) ought to be: the creation of a Christian state in the heart of the Middle East. And yes, this same character urges his incredulous Muslim and Arab followers to accept, the lone Jewish State in the world just might be the appropriate inspiration and model for that state, not to mention a key ally.
The novel opens in Syria, as a beautiful, young (and virginal) Syrian Christian teenager named Anissa just manages to escape the slaughter of her family at the hands of Islamist rebels. Her father's last words fixed in her head--his plea that she leave her family behind to get out and help her people by advancing herself--the young refugee makes her way to New York and wins a scholarship to Columbia University. There she meets Michael Kassab, a charismatic graduate student who is not only a Syrian Christian like her, but actively advocating for their oppressed and threatened people. It is his dream to create the Christian state mentioned above, and he works tirelessly toward that end. Not surprisingly, Anissa soon falls under his spell--and he under hers.
But not so fast, for there is also Julien Morales, brilliant Columbia professor of psychology and economics, wealthy-beyond-description manager of a top-tier hedge fund, and all around playboy who soon casts a competing spell over Anissa--and she upon him. Julien is a complicated fellow, with dark secrets in his past leaving him veering between hedonistic pursuits, existential despair, and glimmers of redemption. Despite having had more women than he can count or recount to his therapist he finds himself transfixed on the young, beautiful Syrian virgin who isn't merely his student but, it turns out, the very best student in his notoriously demanding class.
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Anissa is torn. Michael seems to be her soul-mate and is dedicated to the highest ideals, rescuing his people from murderous oppression and founding a safe haven state for them. But Julien is a genius, wealthy, powerful, whose attentions suggest there may be a high-salaried place for her at his hedge fund come summer. And then there are her people, her family, the dying Arab Christians left behind making last-ditch efforts to save themselves from the Islamist advance ...
And then there is a way they all come together for her.
Michael needs money, a lot of it, to bring supplies to those in emergency need, to begin organizing people toward the creation of the Christian state. (The famous quote from Herzl, founder of modern Zionism, readily comes to mind here even before Michael himself quotes it: "If you will it, it is no dream.") Julien has money, loads of it, more than he knows what to do with, and he has fallen under the spell of the brilliant beautiful Syrian virgin. And Anissa, pure unspoiled unblemished Anissa, has perhaps one thing that Julien ultimately wants, that he might be willing to pay dearly for ...
Instead of becoming a steamy potboiler, however, the novel's deepest and most gripping moments arise precisely here, toward the end, as Annisa wrestles with difficult questions, with "indecent proposals," that no 18-year old should have to wrestle with. Her duties to her family, her people; her father's last words; her traditional values, which include preserving her virginity for her future husband; her attraction to Michael, who just might be that future husband, and his ideals; but the need for money, not for herself but for the most noble of causes, to fulfill her duties to her people, to help create that dream of a Christian state, and there is Julien willing to part with enormous sums if she will just--
There is much of interest in The Syrian Virgin. Zack Love has a remarkable knack for interweaving bigger, deeper questions with more mundane ones, the world-changing political ideas with almost ordinary romantic dilemmas--or at least as ordinary as romantic dilemmas between such powerful and brilliant characters as these can be. You feel great sympathy for Anissa from the start as Love conveys with devastating power the terrifying tragedy which is contemporary Syria and leaves you gasping for air as Anissa escapes her family's deadly fate. With a tender touch Love has you rooting for her as she starts her new life, and you feel her rising energy as she settles into that new life. But then, of course, she cannot escape her past fully, and you feel the power of family and duty as Anissa's future choices all connect back to her past experiences. As her life intertwines with the competing forces of Michael and Julien, her romantic dilemmas become political, philosophical.
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This is no ordinary novel. As much about ideas as about passion, as insightful about the situation in the Middle East as about sexual dynamics, it offers something for everyone.
Right now, as a resident in Austin, Texas, I am unable to call an Uber or Lyft. As of 8 a.m. today, both companies have left the city of Austin with no public intention of ever coming back. The reason why the ridesharing companies left was because Proposition 1, a proposition that required a special election for the city of Austin on May 7, failed. The Daily Dot has had fantastic coverage on the issue, and summarizes it as follows:
Prop. 1 would have replaced an ordinance adopted in December that required TNCs to conduct fingerprint-based background checks. Both Uber and Lyft have argued in the past that their own background check systems are sufficient, and that fingerprinting is unnecessary and not as comprehensive.
Uber and Lyft reportedly spent an unprecedented $8.6 million on their Ridesharing Works campaign asking voters to vote for Prop 1.
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Given that Uber and Lyft are such recognizable as companies, have loyal users, and spent so much money on campaigning, how could they possibly have lost by almost 12 percent in this election?
You can break it down into two major points:
1. They spent too much money on advertising and their campaign was inauthentic.
2. Their target demographic of voters simply do not vote.
Advertising and Being Genuine
As a loyal Uber user since the black car service was available in Los Angeles, I'm a huge fan of the company and love the work that they do. However, they completely butchered the way that they presented their campaign to the City of Austin and came across as incredibly corporate, attempting to weasel their way into our city by not playing by our rules. And this is coming from someone who supports them, I can't imagine the worse insults heralded by their opponents.
I think the corporate takeover can best be described by the amount spent for both campaigns. As mentioned previously, Uber and Lyft reportedly spent $8.6 million on their campaign. However, the opposition spent closer to only $200,000. Uber and Lyft had the resources to call and text anyone who has used an Uber/Lyft enough in Austin to be considered a potential voter. And believe me, over 20 texts and 4 phone calls later, they definitely did not give up on that form of marketing. No matter how many times you hung up or told them you weren't able to vote (out-of-state student right here) they honestly didn't seem to care. They just kept going (and are currently being sued for it).
It got to the point where, even for me, I was inclined to vote against Uber/Lyft just because of how fed up I was with them bothering me. They really played up their "corporate" power, making opponents against them start asking for voters to "Stand Up for Austin" and telling them that we "Shouldn't Be Bullied". Uber/Lyft also had a ton of social media advertisements, a Snapchat filter, flyers I received in the mail, posters/signs everywhere, etc. It seemed like the companies were taking over our lives in Austin, which for the city known as being "weird" made a lot of residents freaked out. The whole foundation of Austin is resisting corporate rule and the status quo.
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Uber and Lyft also did hardly anything to convey why voters should vote for Prop 1 as well. In every advertisement I saw, the companies never explained how helpful Uber and Lyft can be for a city, how many people they employ, drunk driving statistics before/after their existence, etc. Uber and Lyft instead opted for a well-designed but incredibly broad campaign, never really going into details about any specific benefit.
Voter Turnout
Voter turnout for Prop 1 was at 17 percent, with Uber/Lyft losing the election by 12%. Given the number of voters who showed up at the polls, Uber/Lyft spent $223.15 for each vote that they received. The reason why voter turnout was so low as simply because one of Uber and Lyft's target markets, college students, really don't want to take the time to vote. I'll admit that people my age don't care enough to prevent something like this from occurring, instead opting to wait until what they like is taken away from them for them to complain. It's been fascinating seeing the backlash on social media following Prop 1's decision, especially given that it isn't statistically possible for all of the students complaining to have actually voted for the proposition.
Uber/Lyft offered free rides to polling stations, but with the election taking place on a Saturday after finals week for many students in Austin, students simply didn't want to take the time to actually go out and vote. Uber/Lyft should've spent more time educating students on how to vote early in order to increase turnout.
***
In short, Uber and Lyft lost on Proposition 1 because they spent too much money in an inauthentic way in an attempt to woo voters and spread the word. While their intentions may have been pure, the result came off as annoying and confusing to the general populace. Even though voting itself was the most important action for Uber/Lyft, the companies spent hardly any time informing busy students (through mediums that they use) how they could vote.
I have no doubt that Uber and Lyft will be back in Austin soon, but until then, the real "losers" in this situation are the thousands of full-time drivers in Austin who have just been put out of work with less than 48 hours' notice.
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At the turn of the century, I taught at a small college in a rural part of North Carolina. It was an election year, and when I went to vote at a firehouse in the middle of nowhere, two nice ladies working the polls doted sweetly on my young daughter while I examined the ballot.
As I tried to concentrate on candidates, the women asked me if I had found a church home, and invited me to visit theirs. Raised Baptist in this state, I am accustomed to God-talk in casual conversation, but their invitation caught me off guard. They pushed an upcoming revival, and told me that I didn't have to go to their church, as long as I went to church somewhere.
I was so addled, I'm still not sure for whom I voted that year.
The Southern part of the United States is a religious place. Though more varied than it was even a few years ago, most of that religion is of the Christian sort. If you live here, visited here, or read William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, or any other Southern author, you're already aware of that. We have atheists in the South, too, but we know deep down in our hearts that Jesus resides in theirs.
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In his seminal 1941 book, The Mind of the South, North Carolina newspaperman W. J. Cash wrote that during the World War I Progressive Era, "we discover the Southern ministers rising swiftly toward the zenith of their power." Cash noted the influence of clergy in the extension of laws curbing liquor and gambling, as well as blue laws restricting Sunday shopping. The power of the Southern minister has risen and fallen over the decades (e.g., Billy Graham and Martin Luther King, Jr.), but the present era finds a bounty of religion on both sides of social issues in the region, especially in the growing purple state of North Carolina.
The hot button topic of the moment is passage of N.C. House Bill 2, called the "bathroom law" since it requires transgender people to use public toilets that coincide with their birth gender. This moniker is deceptive, as the law also affects local municipalities' ability to raise wages, prohibits suing for discrimination in state courts, and provides no job protections for the LGBT community.
In headlines around the globe, HB2 is often referred to as the "bias law," which describes it rather accurately. Corporations and entertainers have condemned it, resulting in concert and convention cancellations, and several companies have put expansion plans on hold.
The law has its fans as well as its detractors. When the General Assembly convened on April 25 for the first day of the session, lawmakers saw dueling rallies -- both led by clergy -- outside of the state government complex.
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Opponents of HB2 heard fiery sermonizing from the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber III, president of the North Carolina N.A.A.C.P. In 2013, so-called Moral Monday protests led by Barber began in earnest. Each Monday that year and on many occasions since, the pastor led marches and rallies against policies enacted by the state's Republican majority, and sees HB2 as just one more harmful measure inflicted upon the disenfranchised.
Religious forces against HB2 tend to be diverse. According to a local television station, "Forty-five rabbis signed a letter expressing 'deep dismay' with House Bill 2, and all eight bishops of the United Methodist Church in North Carolina and four bishops of the Episcopal Church in the state issued similar letters in recent days."
The larger, pro-government rally on opening day 2016 was bolstered by Christian churches and schools that bused in supporters of HB2 from all over the state. Pledges were recited to the United States flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible.
Supporters see HB2 as a common sense law. "We happened to believe that we are correct," Jack Mashburn of the Christian Action League said. "And we are going to stand passionately for HB2. We are not going to be ill toward those who disagree. But we are not going to apologize either for the position that we are taking in support of HB2."
Flannery O'Connor once wrote, "... I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. The Southerner, who isn't convinced of it, is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God."
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A student at the University of California was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight and interrogated by the FBI because he spoke Arabic. The amount of repression I felt after reading this story and others similar is indescribable. I imagined myself in his place, not in my scariest nightmares have it crossed my mind that a day will come when speaking my mother tongue could mean that I will be humiliated and be considered a criminal. It is very scary how xenophobia developed so quickly and so badly.
It is true the Middle East is witnessing its worst phases in history and that many of the acts of terrorism nowadays are executed by some Arabs, but - and probably you heard that a lot - that doesn't mean people of the whole region are terrorists. But think about it, throughout history there has been many massacres by leaders and soldiers from different nationalities, but never ever their languages nor nationalities became targets of that kind of discrimination and hate crimes like the ones Arabs are facing now.
I cannot blame the woman who called on security after hearing someone speaking Arabic on the flight because that's a natural reaction of a person whose head is filled with false information about Arabs in general and whose fear is wrongly directed because of the manipulation of media. Many media outlets became the wood of the hate machine. Just take a look at the way they report on stories of terrorism, the difference they make in reporting a terror act done by a white male Vs the one carried out by any person from a different ethnicity, and how they paint people from the Middle East as demons not as human beings who suffer from terrorism more than any others. One of the most jaw-dropping acts of prejudice I have ever seen was when I read a story right after a terror incident has happened and the editors were quoting a witness who said he heard "someone speak Arabic" in the area as a telling evidence! For the love of God, what do they expect this to mean? That an Arab is definitely the terrorist here? Even if that turns out to be true afterwards, do you expect the terrorist to speak his mother tongue/or speak in the first place in the scene before exploding a bomb?
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Associating an entire language with such an evil act is wrong, illogical and discriminatory.
420 million people speak Arabic, which makes it the sixth most spoken language. Putting those millions in the same group with terrorists is inhumane Nazi-like bigotry. Instilling fear in those who speak Arabic in western countries is preventing them from exercising their own identity, a thing that could force many of them into closed isolated communities instead of opening up to others round them. If you think you are fighting terror by terrorizing innocent people, think again because what you will be doing is simply confirming the logic the bad guys are using to recruit the naive youth. When the basic human rights we claim to defend day and night become the first thing we ignore when it comes to people from certain ethnicities or religions, how does that make us any different from the very radical group we are fighting?
President Obama will visit Hiroshima, Japan after the conclusion of the G-7 Summit later this month.
There has been intense interest on both sides of the Pacific in the possibility of a presidential visit to Hiroshima -- the first by a sitting U.S. President -- so I wanted to share some details on what the purpose of the visit is, and what the President will do.
Given recent travel to Hiroshima by our Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and Secretary of State John Kerry, as well as the city's role in hosting the G-7 Ministerial in April, we believe that this is the appropriate moment for the President to visit this city and shrine.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy look out over the Ota River and city of Hiroshima, Japan, from atop the Hiroshima Castle on April 11, 2016, after they both attended the G7 Ministerial Meetings in the city.
So, on May 27, the President will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, a site at the center of the city dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombing, where he will share his reflections on the significance of the site and the events that occurred there. He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future. In making this visit, the President will shine a spotlight on the tremendous and devastating human toll of war.
In making this visit, the President will shine a spotlight on the tremendous and devastating human toll of war.
To be sure, the United States will be eternally proud of our civilian leaders and the men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II for their sacrifice at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world. Their cause was just, and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude, which the President will again commemorate shortly after the visit on Memorial Day. This visit will offer an opportunity to honor the memory of all innocents who were lost during the war.
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Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui shows U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault the Hiroshima Peace Memorial -- the remains of the former Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall in Hiroshima, Japan -- on April 11, 2016, as they visit the site memorializing the atomic bomb blast that ended the World War II Pacific campaign during a break in the G7 Ministerial Meetings in the city.
The President's time in Hiroshima also will reaffirm America's longstanding commitment -- and the President's personal commitment -- to pursue the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. As the President has said, the United States has a special responsibility to continue to lead in pursuit of that objective as we are the only nation to have used a nuclear weapon.
That commitment has guided our efforts to promote non-proliferation and nuclear security -- a theme at the heart of four Nuclear Security Summits that the President hosted -- and to take concrete steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our security and in the policies of other global powers.
Finally, the visit will also symbolize how far the United States and Japan have come in building a deep and abiding alliance based on mutual interests, shared values, and an enduring spirit of friendship between our peoples. The relationship we enjoy with Japan today was inconceivable at the conclusion of World War II, but today the United States and Japan cooperate on every major global issue.
The relationship we enjoy with Japan today was inconceivable at the conclusion of World War II, but today the United States and Japan cooperate on every major global issue.
This bond is rooted in common interests but also the understanding of our common humanity that developed after the war. We are proud of the role our military plays in Japan: defending our allies, ensuring regional peace and stability, and responding to humanitarian catastrophes. Yet our shared work is not yet finished. We will continue to strive together for a more peaceful world without nuclear weapons, while ensuring our shared security.
The President and his team will make this visit knowing that the open recognition of history is essential to understanding our shared past, the forces that shape the world we live in today, and the future that we seek for our children and grandchildren.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry looks at the Hiroshima Castle in Hiroshima, Japan, on April 11, 2016, during a walk after attending the G7 Ministerial Meetings in the city.
Every year is a good year to be politically informed, but 2016 is one particularly in need of enlightened citizens. As an election year with a lot seemingly at stake for both parties, debates, caucuses and primaries have torn through public consciousness like twisters through Kansas. And like tornadoes, candidates often leave more confusion and clarity in the wake of their movements.
Luckily, we've still over half a year until the general election: plenty of time to absorb more knowledge on the political issues of our time. I've had the pleasure of interviewing a variety of authors and political figures on Yahoo News Live, many of whom have published highly relevant books that add unique insight to the 2016 election.
While these books might not be the most obvious choices -- for those, pick up Hillary's Hard Choices or Trump's Art of the Deal -- all of them shed light unto the complexity and evolution of politics past and present to inform those of the future.
1. EJ Dionne, Why the Right Went Wrong
In February, I spoke with Washington Post columnist and author E.J. Dionne about his book Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism-From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond.
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"The [Republican] party has shed so many of its moderate voters," Dionne explained, as well as repelling some of the liberal voters it once had. This internal rift is in part due to the fact that, Dionne says, "Republican politicians have made a series of promises they have not been able to keep."
According to Dionne, the Tea Party and the right-wing rebellion we are witnessing during this election wasn't initially directed against President Obama; rather, it began as a rebellion against George Bush, as many in the end were not enthusiastic about the Iraq war.
As for Donald Trump, Dionne attests that Donald Trump's popularity "reflects the radicalism that the leadership of the party promoted and didn't expect to get out of hand this way." Why the Right Went Wrong is an essential read for those looking to understand how the conservative movement has become what it is today.
2. Robert Gates, A Passion for Leadership
Americans across the political spectrum today share a strong distrust of the government. Some say it's too large, too corrupt, too rich, too inefficient -- but Bob Gates, former Secretary of Defense, argues that with the right reform, big institutions can change to serve the people and regain trust.
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Gates' book, A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service, provides instruction on what smart and committed leadership should look like across the private and public sector. Having lead both the CIA and Department of Defense, Gates offers an inside look at how such institutions can be transformed.
From A Passion for Leaderships, readers may learn more about what it takes to be not just a leader, but an effective one that can bring about positive change. This is critical information that may ultimately inform readers' candidate choice.
3. Michael Hayden, Playing to the Edge
With political topics like terrorist attacks and mass surveillance bubbling up constantly in debates, everyone has an opinion on the limits and limitlessness of national security. General Michael Hayden's book Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in an Age of Terror draws from his experience as Director for both the NSA and CIA for a glimpse at the details behind national security decisions in the wake of 9/11.
"The theme of the book is that these are hard questions," General Hayden told me on Yahoo News Live, "and there are always shades of gray." Hayden's book reflects on the decision to go to war in Iraq based on "an incredible false level of certainty" that Saddam Hussein had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction. He also discusses NSA surveillance and the Snowden leak, which he considers "the greatest hemorrhage of American secrets in the history of the Republic."
Readers will be immersed in the depth and complexity of American intelligence in Playing to the Edge. As for the current election, Hayden worries that the rise of candidates like Trump and Sanders' reflect the "primal scream" of voters, and will not translate into good policy.
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4. Jane Mayer, Dark Money
Bestselling author Jane Mayer recently released a book called Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Righthttp://www.amazon.com/We-People-Modern-Day-Reshaped-Affirmed/dp/0307952045. The book details the rise of the Koch brothers and other millionaires and billionaires that heavily influence American politics.
"'Dark money' is a term that's used by political reporters," Mayer explained on Yahoo News Live. "It describes the money where you can't figure out who the donors are. It's mostly going into organizations that claim not to be political but which actually are extremely involved in politics."
The growth and audacity dark money, Mayer says, likely lead to the rise of Bernie Sanders and a Democratic push to limit campaign financing, which allows anonymous wealthy donors to dictate policy. Readers seeking to comprehend the invisible forces funding some of today's candidates can learn about how it works and why in Mayer's critically acclaimed book.
5. Juan Williams, We the People
Fox political correspondent and author Juan Williams, who I spoke with on Yahoo News Live on April 12th, recently published We the People: The Modern-Day Figures Who Have Reshaped and Affirmed the Founding Fathers' Vision of America. The book takes a look at a new generation of American Founders, who honor the original Founders' vision even while leading political revolutions that have reshaped the nation.
While men like Alexander Hamilton may have found the ideas of women in power and same-sex marriage abhorrent, they would be equally disdainful of America's enormous national army, mass surveillance, and demagoguery a la Donald Trump, Williams argues. Issues including immigration, trade, race, and income inequality all trace back to our Founders; Williams follows these important threads back to their origin in his book.
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Though not directly related to today's candidates, We the People digs into the conversations that cycle in and out for generations of politics. The book, Williams told me, is "an attempt to explain how we reshaped America within the confines of our constitution and our spirit."
BONUS: Ron Fournier, Love That Boy
An apolitical book with political undertones, Love That Boy: What Two Presidents, Eight Road Trips, and My Son Taught Me About a Parent's Expectations comes from veteran political author Ron Fournier. In the book, he explores the relationship between him and his high-functioning autistic son, Tyler.
Tyler's enthusiasm for presidential history led to a Presidential Library tour and introduction to two presidents, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Their conversations with the boy informed Fournier's own understanding of the compassionate side of our most recent presidents, which transcends party lines.
Fournier admits on Yahoo News Live that he believes that his son could run "intellectual circles" around Donald Trump. Even so, thanks to his observations of former presidents with his son, Fournier said that "voters need to remember that most of the people we have in these offices are in it for the right reason."
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JUNE 10: A United Airlines plane takes off from San Francisco International Airport on June 10, 2015 in San Francisco, California. The Environmental Protection Agency is taking the first steps to start the process of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from airplane exhaust. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
When 175 countries gathered at the UN in New York on Earth Day to sign the landmark Paris Agreement on Climate Change -- and set the record for most signatures collected on a major UN accord in a single day -- representatives from the world's shipping and aviation sectors were noticeably absent. Neither industry was explicitly referenced in the Paris Agreement nor in the pledges nations have made to date to tackle climate change yet international aviation and shipping each emit as much CO2 as the UK and Germany respectively. However, escaping mention in the Paris Agreement does not give these industries license to unravel its goals and yet, if left unmitigated, the fast growing emissions from these sectors will triple by 2050 undermining hard fought efforts in Paris to limit global warming to 2, let alone 1.5 degrees.
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Two specialised UN agencies, ICAO for aviation and IMO for shipping, were charged with limiting and reducing emissions from these sectors 18 years ago since countries used the cross-border nature of these operations to side step including them in their own emissions accounting. Eighteen years later precious little progress has been made and the IMO just turned in a weak performance at its first major test post-Paris, putting off a decision to even map out the sector's fair share of emissions reductions on the very same day that countries doubled down on their intention to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
The IMO will take the issue up again at its October meeting, meanwhile ICAO has a window of time in which it can outpace its sister agency, and it should. Neither organization wants the ignominious label of last to act and right now both organizations are neck and neck for last prize in the climate mitigation stakes.
If ICAO wants to outshine its laggard cousin it needs to step up its game. That's where FlightPath 1.5 comes in. FlightPath 1.5 is a global campaign comprised of leading environmental voices, urging the aviation sector to contribute its fair share to reach the world's 1.5-degree climate target.
ICAO did agree to a design standard for improving the CO2 efficiency of new aircraft earlier this year, but the standard is too weak to have any meaningful environmental impact. Both Boeing and Airbus, whose aircraft account for over 90 percent of all aviation CO2, stood right behind their respective governments to ensure the standard would not interfere with business as usual. That manoeuvre did not fast track ICAO towards climate champ status and leaves FlightPath 1.5 calling for greater action.
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However, ICAO will have another shot. The organization has promised to agree to a set of rules for offsetting global aviation emissions above 2020 levels from the sector at its tri-annual assembly this fall and it is meeting the week of May 9 to review and discuss an assembly draft resolution. If ICAO agrees to strong measures it will leave IMO in its dust. But currently there is no agreement on having mandatory rules governing the variable quality of carbon offsets to be used in the scheme and some ICAO countries seem intent on a divisive race to be exempted from the scheme. Many of these same countries are waging a similar race within the IMO effectively hamstringing the organization from even discussing what the Paris agreement might mean for shipping. Member states in both these organizations need to stop competing within themselves and realize that the real competition is to not be the last stick in the mud straining against the winds of change.
As time marches on, early action at ICAO and IMO becomes more urgent lest mitigation costs skyrocket and the public, the world and both industries eventually lose. The task for shipping is relatively straightforward; press on with measures to improve ship fuel efficiency and put in place a carbon pricing mechanism (market measure).
For ICAO there are a few more twists. Some mature, slow-growing airlines and their governments continue to try and rig the system by requiring developing country fast growing carriers to share the burden unequally. That will never work. ICAO's high level meeting next week is a last chance for a reality check. As things stand today, the outcome of ICAO's October Assembly risks adopting a seriously flawed agreement that will fail the environmental test.
High doses of political will all round are needed to bridge the gaps between developed and developing states. The underlying assumption at Paris is that those who have emitted more need to do more. But all have to contribute -- including the BRICS. Industry and Governments need to inject momentum into both processes. Agreement in Paris was only forged after key countries joined together in a coalition of high ambition. That coalition is missing at ICAO and IMO, but it has recently been hinted that it might step off the side lines soon. If it does it could change the field considerably.
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Right now the U.S. seems a reluctant player on shipping and Europe's ambition and early actions on aviation have been constantly frustrated by the U.S. and others. The U.S., Japan and Australia now need to come on board the IMO ship. And while the BRICS countries' calls for differentiated responsibilities in any global measures need to be heeded they shouldn't keep agreements perpetually stalled and short of being environmentally effective and inclusive. Whichever organization resolves its internal dynamics first will have a key advantage because the earlier the action the more achievable the objective. ICAO's May meetings are a ripe opportunity for it to gain ground and stake out a definitive lead over IMO: and like most races this is one where you don't want to be the last to cross the finish line.
In 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed Louisiana remained number 1, among the 50 states, with 38,030 in prison, a rate of 816 per 100,000 over 100 points ahead of next highest state Oklahoma. Because the US leads the world in incarcerating its people, this means Louisiana is number one in the world. Compare Louisiana's rate of 816 people per 100,000 with Russia's 492, China with 119, France with 100, and Germany with 78.
Louisiana first became number 1 in the nation in 2005 when it was imprisoning 36,083 people. Louisiana remained number 1, in 2010 with 35,207 in prison, an incarceration rate of 867 per 100,000 people, over 200 points head of the next highest state Mississippi.
It was not always so. In 1965, Louisiana ranked 13th nationally in putting its citizens in jail with a rate of 109 prisoners per 100,000 people. In 1978, Louisiana only held 7,291 people behind bars. By 1986, Louisiana was 5th highest in the nation in putting its own citizens in prison, with 14,580 behind bars, a rate of 322 per 100,000, according to the US Department of Justice. In 1990, Louisiana rose to 3rd highest in the nation, putting 18,599 behind bars, a rate of 427 per 100,000. In 2000, Louisiana moved to 2nd highest in the nation, imprisoning 35,047 behind bars, a rate of 801 per 100,000.
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The number of prisoners expanded nation-wide as a result of the "war on drugs" which was conducted in a racist way to target blacks. But in Louisiana, the prisons also backed up when the practice of releasing prisoners for good behavior after 10 years and 6 months of their life sentences was ended in the 1970s.
Louisiana has long been much more severe in sending black people to prison than whites, at least after black people were no longer slaves. In 1860, when the Civil War started, the population of the Louisiana penitentiary was two-thirds white. But by 1868, the population of Louisiana's penitentiary was two-thirds black.
Angola Penitentiary remains the largest maximum security prison in the United States. There are over 5000 prisoners at Angola alone. The average sentence for prisoners there is 93 years. About 95 percent of people serving time at Angola will die there under current laws.
It costs taxpayers an average of $23,000 a year for each inmate at Angola. Over 400 people, about 9 percent of those serving life in Louisiana, were convicted of non-violent offenses.
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There are an additional 69,000 people in Louisiana on probation and parole.
In addition to locking up the most, Louisiana has a long history of running abusive prisons. In 1835, Louisiana was described as having "the worst prison in the United States." In 1952, after dozens of Angola inmates slashed their heel tendons in protest of barbaric conditions, Colliers magazine called Angola "America's worst prison." In 1970, the American Bar Association said conditions at Angola were "medieval, squalid and horrifying." By 1975, conditions were so terrible, a Federal judge declared Angola a "state of emergency."
On May 19 in Paris on 32 Rue de Lille, the RCM Galerie will have a Vernissage, a private opening, of the show stopping kinetic art by the renown artist Ron Mallory. Perhaps I'm a bit biased in my enthusiasm because I'm the former Mrs. Ronald Mallory. In the early 70s when we were married, he was a struggling artist and I was a model. We traveled in a fast, frequently star-studded crowd. While we lunched with Princess Grace and Prince Rainier on Sam Spiegel's yacht and chacha'ed with the Shah of Iran in the King's Club in St. Moritz, I continued to be amazed and stunned by Ron's steadfast dedication to his art. He nobly has never allowed his gift of mingling with rich collectors to whom he sells his art or his jet-set-life-style cause him to sell out his values. It has been written that he is a latter -day Manet.
Today Ron Mallory lives in Mexico in the modest town of San Miguel de Allende where he creates before jetting to London, Paris and Milan to sell his art to collectors and international galleries. Recently the Whitney showed his work in their new museum in its retrospective which was a great honor for him. The Whitney is not the only museum enthusiastic about his work which is also in M.O.M.A., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian to name a few.
The greatest tragedy for Ron Mallory was when his magnificent mural of the Andrea Doria in the Windows of the World at the WTC was destroyed in 9/11. Devastated, he found it difficult to create again, but after playing classical music for hours on end, he was able to find the courage to return to his muse who called him through music. He thought about the success he had experienced and vowed he would enjoy this again. And he has.
Ron Mallory has exhibited among some of the most renowned artists of his time, such as Claus Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Irwin. These contemporary artists of the 60's & 70's, explored light and space through the "art of technology". Like them, Ron Mallory was drawn to the ever-lasting exploration of different elements. An architect by trade, later a painter, he experimented with textures until he finally discovered his medium; mercury. He has worked with this medium for over 30 years now, and continues to rediscover it time and time again, perfecting his technique.
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Ron Mallory's work can best be described as moving shapelessness in space and time. He creates with mercury "kinetic art"; the art that contains moving parts, generally powered by wind, a motor or an observer. Kinetic energy, in scientific terms, is the energy possessed by a body by virtue of its motion. Such is the work of Ron Mallory who has not only adapted procedures of the emerging New York minimalists, but he has taken these measures to different heights. They are works of exploration of randomness and chance rather than industrial works of calculation and precision.
In 1971, Ron Mallory and I fell out of romantic love when I met and became engaged to Claude Picasso, but I never fell out of love with Ron Mallory's work which outshines anything created by Claude Picasso, but comparing Ron Mallory to Pablo Picasso is a different matter. Though I am certain Pablo Picasso, whom I had the good fortune to meet, would be impressed by Ron Mallory's mercury masterpieces which move magnificently of their own accord.
This undated image taken from Twitter shows 16 black, female cadets in uniform with their fists raised while posing for a photograph at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. The U.S. Military Academy has launched an inquiry into the photo. The image has spurred questions about whether the gesture violates military restrictions on political activity. Spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Kasker said Saturday, May 7, 2016 that West Point is looking into whether any rules were broken. ( Photo take from Twitter via AP)
Last week, the Army launched an investigation after blogger John Burk, an Iraq veteran, posted a photograph on Facebook of 16 black women cadets at West Point posing for their "Old Corp" photo, a time-honored tradition in which modern senior cadets mimic the old-style, black-and-white photos of cadets long past.
Other than showing nearly every black woman in the graduating class (which, in itself, is sad and begs the question of whether the Academy should step up their "diversity outreach" efforts), nothing about it is remarkable. But Burk took issue with the "raised fist" gesture of the cadets, which he claims is meant to represent support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Nevermind the wealth of photographs that show white male cadets making the same gesture.
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Does this support #BlackLivesMatter?
Burk claims in his blog that the cadets are violating DoD Directive 1344.10, which, among other things, states that a member of the Armed Forces cannot "Display a partisan political sign, poster, banner, or similar device visible to the public at one's residence on a military installation, even if that residence is part of a privatized housing development."
He believes that this is an example of racism and implies it's anti-white. Why 16 black women would go through one of the most rigorous admissions processes in existence, spend four years at a mostly-male, mostly-white institution (spending every waking moment interacting mostly with white white men), and commit five years of their lives to more of the same after graduation (with the possibility of, you know, death) because they, apparently, "hate white people" is beyond me.
But there you have it. This former drill sergeant with a sizable following on Facebook who spends most of his time ranting about political correctness is, himself, hurt that any black woman in uniform would dare show confidence in her existence as a black woman.
As a white male who served in the military ... I can say, without a doubt, that nothing in this photo says "I hate white people."
Burk compares this gesture to a Nazi salute, which, I gotta say, is arguably the funniest violation of Godwin's Law I've seen in quite some time.
I'll admit that I can't be 100 percent certain that I know why every black woman in this picture has a raised fist. For some, it could be solidarity. For some, it could be an expression of pride in their blackness, a gesture of acknowledging how far African-Americans have come in this country despite the ludicrous barriers put in their way. For some, it could be a way of saying "Goddman, after four years, I'm finally taking this photo. The journey is almost complete." For some, it could be all of these things.
But as a white male who served in the military as an enlisted soldier and later attended West Point, I can say, without a doubt, that nothing in this photo says "I hate white people." Nothing about it is insulting or offensive to me.
Their "raised fist" gesture is about life. It's about celebration. It's about pride. It's about equality. It doesn't represent an ideology on anything other than marching toward a greater good.
The Nazi salute, on the other hand, is about an ideology of superiority, representative of some of the darkest moments of humanity. It's about death. It's about destruction. It is racism incarnate.
For Burk to compare the two is completely childish and stupid and reveals his own deep insecurities.
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To understand why these black women would feel the need to make such a gesture, it would be good to put their struggle in context. Traditionally, West Point is not a totally hospitable environment for women and people of color.
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In December, 2009, President Obama delivered a major speech on America's strategy in Afghanistan. The speech wasn't the kind of speech any given luminary makes at any given college. It wasn't even the kind of speech that a president makes in any given year. It was rare and bold and it would set the tone of American foreign policy in the coming decade, and this was all-too-obvious to everyone in American politics and media in the fall of 2009, let alone the cadets of West Point, where it was announced the speech would be delivered live to the entire Corps at Eisenhower Hall in primetime.
For a speech of this magnitude, one would expect a college campus to be excited and honored to play host. Even the students of an institution like West Point, which has so many famous visitors on an annual basis that the presence of a U.S. senator would scarcely draw attention, would look upon this occasion as a tremendous measure of respect by the President, a nod to how the policies he was set to lay out would directly impact the lives of West Point cadets and their families and most importantly: the Soldiers they were expected to lead after graduation.
Instead, the week prior to the speech saw the most passive-aggressive racism I have yet witnessed, not only from many of my classmates but the upperclass cadets who are charged with leading by example.
"What, you don't have to greet now that a black man is president?"
I vividly remember overhearing, on several occasions, cadets talk of wanting to get out of attending the speech (which was mandatory), not because it might be boring or a waste of time (a precious resource in the life of a cadet) but because they didn't want to listen to the President, who they felt was a communist, socialist, Nazi, terrorist-sympathizer, and yes, at least one time that week, I heard the n-word in reference to our Commander-in-Chief.
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There were small rumblings of "protesting" the speech by walking out, claims that they'd never salute him, etc.
No, this wasn't everyone, and perhaps a case can be made that most of the cadets that week didn't care one way or the other, but the racist reaction to the President was substantial. It wasn't a small thing.
***
In 1873, a young black man named Henry Ossian Flipper was accepted into West Point with the recommendation of Congressman James Freeman of Georgia. At the time, four other black men were at the Academy. When Flipper matriculated, he endured something far worse than the typical stress a plebe (that's Academy parlance for "freshman") encounters: the Corps of Cadets subjected him to four years of silent treatment. West Point can be a lonely place for anyone. Imagine having only a handful of folks with whom to interact.
He graduated as Lieutenant Flipper in 1877, the first black man to do so, and four years later, was court-martialed and dismissed from service after being framed with embezzling funds by a white commander. Despite the obviously racist nature of the incident and the community rallying around the young officer in a show of solidarity, the trial was swift and harsh.
After his unjust removal from the military, Flipper worked as a civil engineer and later served as an assistant to then-Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall. His request to serve in the Spanish-American War was rejected by Congress.
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In 1999, after decades of lobbying by his descendants, Pres. Clinton formally pardoned Flipper, and West Point unveiled a bust of his likeness at the Academy along with an annual award -- the Henry O. Flipper Award -- given out to a graduating cadet exhibits "leadership, self-discipline, and perseverance in the face of unusual difficulties."
The presentation of the award is accompanied by an annual dinner that is mandatory for all cadets. In my time there, although the vast majority of cadets looked upon the dinner with at least a tired indifference given to any event by exhausted students, I occasionally heard comments of resentment by white cadets along the lines of "there's no White History Month" or "white officers have been unjustly court-martialed; where's their namesake award?"
***
The election of Barack Obama in 2008 brought to the surface a kind of venom among millions of white Americans who could not stand seeing a black man lead the country. West Point was no different.
On the night of the election, after the result was announced at approximately 11 p.m. EST, numerous accounts tell of the loudspeaker at West Point's Central Area (the equivalent of a college quad area) blasting out the National Anthem of the Soviet Union, a sarcastic and blunt act of protest against Obama's election that many saw as overt racism. It is unknown to me if the cadets in charge of the loudspeaker at the time were punished.
In the following days, black cadets who were at the Academy at the time spoke of encounters with white cadets that could aptly be characterized as harassment.
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One such story comes from a friend of mine who was a plebe at the time. All plebes are required to greet upperclass cadets with a simple statement. Usually something like "Beat Navy, Sir/Ma'am!" The morning after the election, my friend passed a white cadet and forgot to greet him, which happens. Plebes fuck up. They forget things. Part of being a plebe is ironing out the wrinkles and getting disciplined.
The appropriate corrective action for the upperclassman would be to order the plebe to greet and if they were a particularly insufferable hard-ass, file a formal negative report. The latter, as you can imagine, is a rarity for such a small infraction.
There is a long history of racism against black cadets at West Point, both direct and implied.
Instead of reminding my friend of her duties as a plebe, the upperclassman said, "What, you don't have to greet now that a black man is president?" My friend, too stunned to respond, quickly greeted the upperclassman and went on her way.
Black cadets who were at West Point in the years after Obama's election have stories in this vein. Because nearly all of them are officers (the Class of 2009, for example, ended its service obligation in 2014 but many still continue to serve), the odds of you reading these stories in the first person aren't great.
But there is a long history of racism against black cadets at West Point, both direct and implied.
For example, display of the Confederate flag by members of the military in their barracks rooms has generated controversy for decades. Although there is no Army-wide or military-wide policy on their display for personal use, individual unit commanders can forbid it under Army Regulation 600-20. Last time I checked, West Point has such a policy in place.
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That doesn't always stop cadets from displaying them, even if discretely. Even at an institution as disciplined as West Point, some behavior goes unnoticed, sometimes because it's seen as unimportant in the scheme of things, sometimes because cadets in authority look the other way. But for black cadets who witness the rare Confederate flag on display, it can be uncomfortable, especially if the white cadet in question is in charge of them.
A few years ago, military leaders attempted to restrict the hairstyle choices of black women in order to streamline the overall regulations on grooming and personal appearance for all Soldiers. Although not intentionally racist, it was certainly tone-deaf and after months of debate, the Secretary of Defense authorized additional hairstyles that are used by black women serving, seen by some West Point cadets as an unfair bending of the rules.
Where this gets bad, however, are the comments that are made in lieu of such a decision. When it comes to issues of race and gender, West Point can be a lot like an online comments section. The insular nature of the Academy and its dominance by white men can create situations that are demeaning and/or insensitive to women and people of color.
It's not that any given white man at West Point is racist or sexist. In fact, most don't care or think about race or gender (although they definitely should as future leaders). They just want to get through those fours years and be on their way. But many, indeed, are hostile to women and people of color, even if to a small degree.
When it comes to issues of race and gender, West Point can be a lot like an online comments section.
The hair thing is only one aspect. A bigger issue is the recurring critique of so-called affirmative action policies that supposedly give spots at the Academy to less-qualifed women and people of color.
Spoiler alert: no such policies exist and women and people of color who matriculate to the Academy are as qualified as their white male counterparts (and in many cases, more qualified than them).
There are intense "diversity outreach" efforts by the Academy to get qualified women and people of color to apply because diversity makes an organization stronger, including the U.S. Army, but this has been mangled by some (and by "some," I mean insecure white males) to constitute an unfair advantage gained by non-white, non-male applicants to West Point.
This trope is trotted out on a regular basis by some white male cadets and is inflamed when a person of color or a woman bests them at a task or fails to meet standards. There's no winning.
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This dynamic is particularly hard for women of color at the Academy. Writer and activist K. Kylila Bullard writes of her experience at West Point as a black woman:
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I would like to believe that all are given a fair shot at life. I would like to say that when our founding fathers wrote "all men are created equal" in our Constitution, they meant it. I really would want to fall in love with this inclusive rhetoric of equal worth. But the truth and the sad reality is that in 2016, even after the life and death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., and after electing our first black president, there is still much work to do here in America. I am saddened that these strong 16 black women who have turned down top colleges to instead join the army, some deploying before even becoming a cadet at West Point, accepted an abnormal and regimented college experience in an effort to become the best leaders that they can for America's sons and daughter, are treated this way.
West Point graduate Mary Tobin writes:
I have men in my life, whom I call my brothers, and they are from all over of the world and they don't look like me. In fact, for some, I was literally the first black friend they had, because of where they grew up. I have women in my life, whom I call sisters, who didn't understand why my hair felt or looked the way it did. I have friends, white friends, who I consider to be my family, but developing that bond was not without its challenges. When you attend West Point as a black person, there is no possible way to hide among the sea of 4000 plus cadets... Our attrition rates are on par with the class at large, but can you imagine what it must feel like to live, train, study, eat, cry, laugh, struggle, and succeed in an environment where for 4 years, the majority of the people there don't look like you, it's hard for them to relate to you, they oftentimes don't understand you, and the only way to survive is to shrink your blackness or assimilate.
Of her experiences with racism at the Academy:
We don't talk about the microagressions that minority cadets experience every single day. We don't talk about how many times we have to let racial slurs or crass racial jokes roll off our backs because all we want to do is graduate. I don't talk about how as a black female leader within the Corps, I was told time and time again, that I was a good leader because I was "not like the rest of them." I don't talk about how when I served as the cadet responsible for managing the EO cases within the Corps (Respect Captain), I had to counsel white cadets who thought it was funny to dress up as KKK members and scare their black cadet roommate, who happened to be from the deep south. I cannot explain the nights I've cried with my black sisters and brothers, struggling to stay at West Point, because we were battling the psychology of being the "only one" or the pressures of being "the first one in our families to go to college" or feeling like you cannot keep up academically because you realized the disparity between your public school education and your peers private school education felt insurmountable. I would not be able to explain how it felt to be a double minority in a white male dominated institution that didn't even allow women to attend until 1976. And even now, I cannot explain what it feels like to stand with 15 of your [black sisters] out of a class of 1000, knowing that you did it.
***
So, no, I don't look at this photograph and see angry black women who hate their white peers or are violating Army regulations.
I do, however, see strong leaders who are aware of their place in not only the continuum of black cadets who have attended (and graduated) West Point but the overall Long Grey Line. They are proud of themselves and each other. They are proud to be Americans. They are proud to have overcome a hostile environment in an overall society that places a lower premium on the lives of black Americans.
They are proud, and I trust they'll carry that pride into their leadership of our young women and men in uniform.
Unless you're opposed to black women being proud (which would make you a racist, sexist asshole), what is so wrong with that?
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***
"One can only assume that, in your search for National Teacher of the Year, you are seeking 'more' - someone who represents the defining essence of inspiration."
This statement from Waterbury, Connecticut Superintendent of Schools Kathleen Ouellette perfectly captures what is so evident in 2016 National Teacher of the Year, Jahana Hayes. Hayes, a high school history teacher from Waterbury, is an inspiration - through her own life story, her dedication to her students and her faith in the teaching profession.
Hayes describes her upbringing as having been "surrounded by abject poverty, drugs and violence," - where "education was not seen as a pathway to success." Yet with the encouragement and support of her own teachers, Hayes became the first person in her family to graduate from college. She experienced firsthand the transformational impact teachers can have on the lives of their students.
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She chose to make teaching her profession so she could fill that same role in the lives of her students - helping guide them on their own pathway to success - not only academically, but as engaged members of society. In Hayes' words, "graduating students who demonstrate respect, responsibility, honesty, and integrity is as critically important as mastering content and demonstrating proficiency."
But what I find so inspirational is how Hayes connects herself within the teaching profession as a whole. When she speaks about the profession, Hayes speaks about the honor of being a teacher, the impact all teachers can have on the lives of others and why teachers should encourage more students to become educators.
While Hayes, who in late April was named 2016 National Teacher of the Year, and all State Teachers of the Year received well-deserved recognition during Teacher Appreciation Week, there are countless teachers across the country who are also an inspiration in their communities and who serve as a beacon of hope and opportunity for our students.
At the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), we know that having highly effective teachers is arguably the greatest investment in our students and their success. That's why we work to support and engage great educators. We support teachers in raising their voice and participating in policy conversations that impact the real work in classrooms.
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Through our Network for Transforming Educator Preparation, we are leading the way in improving educator preparation by engaging states to share best practices and craft plans that meet the needs of their teachers and students - setting teachers up for success on Day One.
States are creating innovative models for teaching and learning so teachers have the opportunity to assess their practice, build on their talents and grow as leaders in the classroom.
Great teaching inspires both in and outside of the classroom. It can lead students to uncover pathways that they might not have thought possible, or light a spark in each of us who observe the drive, compassion and ability of educators from coast to coast who are helping to shape the next generation.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory makes remarks concerning House Bill 2 while speaking during a government affairs conference in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, May 4, 2016. A North Carolina law limiting protections to LGBT people violates federal civil rights laws and can't be enforced, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday, putting the state on notice that it is in danger of being sued and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Almost every gay man has one. Gay women, too.
We all have someone who was our "first."
No! I'm not talking about that kind of first. I'm talking about a different first.
I'm talking about a more important kind of first. For many, it was the first person we truly trusted, the first person who made us feel comfortable, the first who made us feel truly safe.
I'm talking about the first person we came out to.
Kimberley Locke was my first.
Kim was a contestant with me on the second season of American Idol. The time in my life was both exciting and educational. I can see the irony now, but at that point in my life, while most of America watching at home believed they knew I was gay, I did not. I mean, I had thought about it. I had worried about it, but it wasn't until I was 24 that I admitted it to myself. The idea of admitting it to someone else seemed unfathomable and terrifying.
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That fear -- often irrational fear -- can do some awful things to a young, closeted LGBT person's self esteem and mental health. We see far too many take their lives, in fact, largely because of the fear of being rejected when they come out. That's why "the first" plays such an immeasurably important role in our lives. The first time is the hardest. The first time is the scariest. And, the first time, is life-alteringly consequential. You see, how "the first" reacts and responds will set the course for how, when and even if we tell anyone else. If "the first" responds with understanding and warmth and acceptance, then it cracks a hard shell and makes it just that much easier to be oneself and hopefully open up to others. Fortunately, that's how my first was. Kimberley was a strong and opinionated black woman, a black woman from the South, even. The fact that she accepted me without the slightest moment of hesitation -- was even excited for me -- immediately shaped the way I was able to tell other friends and love ones in the coming months and years. Had she been angry or incredulous, or worse yet, had she shunned me in some way, the result would have been devastating.
For some of us, we don't really choose "the first." The moment may choose itself when that person is someone you trust so deeply and genuinely. For others, the choice of who to come out to first is a thoughtful process. Deciding who you can speak to totally openly and without fear of retribution nor shaming is daunting. Even more importantly, it must be someone who's not going to run and tell everyone else like a town gossip. For that reason alone, a lot of teenagers and adults first come out to their school counselor or psychologist or a therapist of some kind. Individuals in those professions are not only legally and honor-bound to keep all things said to them in confidence, they are also professionally trained to hear a student or patient's deepest secrets and struggles, to help them heal the fear and pain and self doubt that comes with that, and to guide them wisely through a processes that will hopefully result in them feeling more comfortable with who they are. School counselors, psychologists and therapists are a good choice for "the first."
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Just... Not in Tennessee.
No. Not in Tennessee. If you're a young man or young woman struggling with their own sexual orientation or identity you no longer have the security of knowing that a school counselor or a therapist's office is a safe place for you.
After Gov. Bill Haslam signed HB 1840 (also known as the "Turn Away The Gays" bill) into law two weeks ago, now school counselors and therapists and psychologists all over Tennessee are legally allowed to worship and praise their Lord by rejecting His most vulnerable children. After all, that's what Jesus would do, right?
Every frightened teen or young adult in a Tennessee school must now feel just as worried about telling someone who was, before this ridiculous law, at least required to keep your secret and help you get past the first hurdle. Now, that school counselor can reject you and tell you they don't approve of you and you need to go talk to someone else. Man, that's gonna feel great to that frightened 14 year old. I'm sure that won't scar him for life -- insert sarcasm font.
Sane and reasonable people of the world: Don't worry. For now, any homophobic or closed minded counselors and psychologists are still required to keep these conversations in confidence.
Small-minded people of the world: Don't worry. At the rate these laws types of laws are passing in many states, it's only a matter of time before some backwoods genius introduces a bill requiring a school counselor to notify a student's parents if he/she comes out. (To be fair, Tennessee already tried this.)
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I'm sure you're sitting there thinking that I am just trying to divert your attention away from the anti-LGBT law that's getting so much national attention from my state of North Carolina. No, not entirely. I mean, I fully confess that the lawmakers and the situation in NC are a trainwreck. I also admit that, if they were giving out awards for "the decade's most ridiculous example of legislated hate" we in NC would be the odds on favorite to win! But, yes, I'm doing a little bit of diversion here. I mean North Carolina isn't the only state coming up with creative and unique ways to dehumanize and discriminate against an entire segment of the population. There are a half a dozen other states who have passed or are working on passing laws that allow their citizens to praise Jesus by treating His children like "the least of these"... and I don't want North Carolina to get all of the credit for being the best "Christians."
We mentioned Tennessee and their "Turn Away The Gays" bill. It's now officially law. Well done, y'all.
How about Mississippi? Here's a state that, with the nation's highest unemployment rate, the lowest graduation rate and the lowest median family income, realized that the best use of their legislative time was to pass and sign into law HB 1523, a law that not only protects school counselors from having to listen to those pesky "coming out" stories like in Tennessee, but it also ensures that any church or pastor has the legal right to refuse to marry a same sex couple or host a same sex wedding. It also gives all employers the religious freedom to fire any employee for being gay, and gives any landlord the right to evict you if you love someone of the same gender.
Of course, Mississippi already had laws that allowed churches and pastors to reject loving same sex couples. I guess the legislature and the governor just wanted to make another law about it to remind God that they were serving Him. The good news is, Mississippi's law doesn't go into effect until July 1, so if you've always wanted to be the kingpin over an all-heterosexual real estate empire, there's still time to go buy up property in Mississippi. I'm sure that's the type of economic development they were hoping for.
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Of course, let's not forget Kentucky, America's crown jewel of enlightenment. Kentucky may have the lowest percentage of high school graduates in the country, but there's no lack of creativity in this state. This is, after all, where a state senator has proposed a law that would pay any student $2,500 if they reported a transgender student using the "wrong" bathroom in school. It's not really clear whether this was just an incredibly stupid and hateful law or just a smart economic development initiative, but for a Republican to promote that type of government handout, he must really want to show God how much he is serving Him and His people.
There's more. Oh, there's more. I won't go into them now, but as a North Carolinian, I feel sort of guilty that our state and Governor Pat McCrory has taken all of the attention and spotlight for the "bathroom bill" in NC when so many other states and governors and legislators deserve "praise" too. And that's sort of my point.
You see, that's what they want anyway. Attention and praise. I don't really even believe that many of these states have enough legislators and governors who believe in such hateful lawmaking to pass such discriminatory laws based on their beliefs alone. I know that the citizens and voters of these states are consistently polled and report that they disagree with such stupid legislation. In fact, a poll held in my state right after the passing of HB2 showed that only 38% of North Carolinians approve of it and 57% believe that all or most of it should be repealed.
Yet, good ol' guv McCrory seems content to fight on to keep it in place.
How is it that so many voters are against these laws, yet so many legislators are for them? It's because voters don't choose their politicians anymore. Politicians choose their voters.
In NC, in each of the last two elections over 50% of voters voted for the Democratic candidates on the ballot. Yet, somehow, the 13 member NC congressional delegation is only 23% Democrat, the NC Senate is only 32% Democrat and the NC House is only 38% Democrat. If the General Assembly thinks this is appropriate, maybe they should be spending a bit more on education funding.
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They love it though. They've drawn their districts in NC and in Tennessee and in Mississippi, and Kentucky and dozens of other states to make sure that their party stays in power, they they keep their seats safe in an election... and, in turn, that they only have to pander to the most extreme of their voter base. That's why they aren't listening to the majority of voter opinion.
Plus, these gay-hating laws work, right? I mean, it worked for Bush in 2004. When Karl Rove and dozens of states made same sex marriage the issue du jour for that election, the staunch religious conservatives poured to the polls, en masse, and praised and gave honor to Jesus with their votes for the Republicans.
They made it an issue in 2014, as well. As U.S. Circuit Courts were striking down same-sex marriage bans left and right, the GOP made hay of it and rallied their supporters to the polls to stop Satan from stealing the soul of America. And it worked then too.
But, oh no! What now? The Supreme Court came down on the right side of history and they can't make political hay out of same-sex marriage anymore. What's a good political operative to do?
Well, North Carolina isn't the only state coming up with great ideas in an attempt to get their voter base to the polls. Mississippi is going to protect them from having to live next to homos.
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Tennessee is going to protect them from having to dishonor God by being caring and empathetic to a scared and vulnerable child. Kentucky has decided it might work to get voters to turn out in November if they just promise kids they'll give them money to buy a car if they'll just stake out the toilets in their schools all day. And North Carolina just wants to make you afraid that someone more fabulous than you might be taking a shit nearby.
Don't be fooled. They are all just political ploys. Desperate attempts to save their jobs by political theatre rather than by actually legislating anything that will really improve the lives of their constituents. When you're not really good at your job, it's a lot easier to rally people around a common group to hate.
But don't worry. Just like the Supreme Court shot down and took away their last bit of currency when it legalized marriage equality, the Courts will rule all of these pieces of crap unconstitutional, as well.
On May 13, the leaders of the Nordic countries will meet with President Obama in the White House. The Nordic countries have been a subject of debate in the presidential nomination campaigns, to the joy of some Americans and the skepticism of others. Some consider 'the Nordic Model' to be viable for American society, while others see it as radical and remote. However, many of the issues touched upon in the presidential nomination campaigns, and which will be discussed by President Obama and the Nordic leaders, are what we in the Nordic region regard as some of our core values.
On the agenda at the meeting are ways to counter terrorism, radicalization and violent extremism, how to protect the environment, how to cooperate and coordinate on Arctic issues, promotion of the Global Health Security Agenda, and overall sustainable development. Another pressing issue is how to address the migration and refugee crisis in a humane and compassionate way.
What do the Nordics have to offer on these issues?
The Nordic region comprises Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, along with the autonomous areas of the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Aaland. Geographically, the region borders Germany to the south, Russia to the east, and extends north into the Arctic, so we are literally on top of the world. However, we are on top of the world in other ways too.
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The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates that, in 2020, the top ten global skills will include complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, coordination with others, people management, and cognitive flexibility. Four Nordic countries are in the top ten of the Global Creativity Index. In the top-ten listing of countries with the best work-life balance, three are Nordic. Four of the top ten in the Global Gender Gap Index are Nordic countries. The World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders places four of the Nordic countries in the top ten. And finally, on the list of the world's most optimistic countries, i.e. those that think the world is, despite everything, getting better, we find four Nordic countries.
The fact is that the Nordic countries are consistently 'on top of the world' with regard to skills and competencies needed in the future. These virtues and skills are central to the Nordic way of thinking, and part of the success of the Nordic Model, a model that we want to share with the US.
What is the explanation for the high rankings?
The Nordic Council of Ministers, the official inter-governmental body for cooperation between the Nordic countries, has identified five core values to promote the Nordic region - openness, trust, creativity, sustainability and compassion. The Council has named the concept the 'Nordic Perspective'.
The core value I particularly want to highlight here is trust. In 2014, a comprehensive study of the Nordic countries ('The Nordic Model - challenged but capable of reform') concluded that, compared to people in other parts of the world, Nordic citizens show significantly higher levels of trust towards other people, politicians, the government, and the legal system. Trust is important in a modern society. Trust enables us to rely on each other. Trust knits communities together. Trust provides the basis for general economic productivity and growth.
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Over a long period, the Nordic governments have delivered relative economic equality, low levels of corruption, and a well-functioning public administration that enjoys the legitimacy of its citizens. These are some of the ingredients in the recipe for the Nordic Model.
The Nordic populations have some of the highest levels of education in the world, and there is strong Nordic commitment to collaborate on research with international partners on all of today's societal challenges. Nordic know-how has a potential that could be utilized much more in meeting global challenges that need joint solutions.
As a strong believer in the Nordic Perspective and Nordic cooperation, and international relations in general, I sincerely believe that there are a number of entry points for innovative cooperation between the US and the Nordics. This applies to all the issues that President Obama and the Nordic leaders will be discussing... and more. I also believe that the discussions will prove valuable in promoting and deepening an already well-established partnership.
Carrying bag after bag of purchases on Rodeo Drive may actually be fairly fashionable, but do the same in the night markets of Marrakesh and there is the argument you could be tempting the wrong kind of attention. But be it in Morocco or Missouri, street robbery can happen anywhere and deep-six any vacation equally. While there is no foolproof way of make oneself unassailable to sticky fingers, there is merit to the adage of making yourself so difficult to rob that it simply isn't worth the effort.
You wanna go to those night markets! You wanna buy stuff! And even if you are in the safest place there is, you still have the issue of carrying it all. Here is where backpacks come in.
Keep in mind I am not talking about a book-bag, the utilitarian and somewhat shapeless, bulky thing you had in high school, but rather a close cousin that makes travel a lot easier. Backpacks have more than one virtue over the other standbys: Adjust them correctly and a backpack fits snug to the body while at the same time being out of the way. Your arms are free, your shoulders are relatively free, and you don't have to worry about it falling off or flopping from side to side; once it is on, it is on. And speaking of shoulders, by going over both, a backpack's weight is more evenly distributed (ask a women what a heavy purse slung across her "purse shoulder" feels like). More often than not, backpacks also have more space to pack things and still be convenient to carry and move around in, and can even double as part of your carry-on, a method of luggage I prefer.
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And then there is the thievery issue: purses and satchels are easy to steal even if you are wearing them at the time. There are plenty of stories out there of both getting yanked off people either by some particularly fleet-footed thieves or more enterprising types that ply their work from the back of a motorbike. Sadly, most purses and satchels are not made with strength in mind. A good backpack, however, can take a few hard tugs and still come out none the worse for wear.
I asked around, did some research. A good travel backpack isn't going to be particularly couture; there will be no multitude of straps or attention-getting devices. It will be easy pack, easy to unpack, and not be murder on the shoulders or lower back. That actually narrows the field a lot:
Oakley
Say "Oakley" and you think sunglasses, but the company can dress you head to toe. And most of that can go into what is possibly the best-named backpack out there, the Kitchen Sink Backpack. Heavy-duty but with a cool "Star Trek" sleekness, this style-conscious option features a padded back and adjustable shoulder straps for comfort even with all-day wear, along with small side compartments for a hard-media player and a big inside one for a 17" laptop. Holding up to 34L, you can not only hit a few night markets, but probably a few department stores. Which leads to the metal clip technology as a theft-deterrent; this backpack hard to get into without the wearer knowing. And yes, it as a pocket for sunglasses (a few of which are made to take a few travel-related whacks and live to tell).
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Herschel Supply
A bit more low-key, the Iona Backpack is an unpretentious, straightforward carrier holding up to 24L and best for destinations where blending in as much as possible is on your to-do list. A cinch top closure keeps your valuables in and the outside world at bay, while the contoured shoulder straps and reinforced base come together to create something you can get on and off easily and which can take a few heavy items without much fuss. The rectangular shape is also a plus--you can easily stow it in an overhead luggage bin.
Patagonia
Rough-and-tumble types swear by this maker, and for good reason--Patagonia is made to last. But you do have to get specific, as there are backpacks for everyday situations, mountain climbing, wet environments, travel, and lots of other site- and use-specific needs. For travel, the 32L-capacity Black Hole is a good bet. Its waterproof construction make it a smart choice for outdoorsy destinations, and the folding lid makes this backpack a lot bigger than it seems. The zippers run the pack's full length; easy access is a plus on those annoying occasions when airport security demands you unpack your luggage for inspection.
And it is not just as a piece of luggage where a backpack shines. David Perry, a fellow travel blogger, prefers them to carry his camera equipment since walking around with a camera case screams "tourist," and because a camera case has to be one of the most awkward things you sling over your shoulder. Instead, the camera case is what goes into the suitcase, and once he is on-site, the backpack takes over. He prefers backpacks with at least two interior compartments; one for the camera, and one for whatever he buys along the way. Another carry-on traveler, he tells me that unless something can pull double-duty, he rarely travels with it.
Now that technology is so portable, a backpack easily takes the place of a computer carrier, which usually does not have much room for anything else other than a computer. As a "personal item" in addition to your carry-on, a backpack affords more space for more of whatever it is you need on a trip.
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Look at it this way: have a backpack on your back and it is is one less cross and one less monkey, two things no vacation needs.
Pope Francis last month traveled to the island of Lesbos in Greece, visited with Syrian refugees stranded there and then took a dozen of them with him to Rome.
This symbolic gesture was nice. He also, just the other day, lectured European leaders on their failure to take in refugees. He called recent migrants "new Europeans" and said they should be integrated on the continent.
The Lesbos event was marred by the Pope's failure to take back a single Christian refugee, even though at least one family was available and singled out for asylum by Vatican officials. The family said that they were informed they would be transported away by the Pope, but when the time came, they were rejected. Papal spokespeople said it was an unfortunate document snafu, though that's hard to believe that, on this highly organized visit and media spectacular, a bureaucratic detail got in the way.
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But let's take the Vatican's word for it. What is more telling is that Francis has made no such refugee-rescue gesture toward thousands of Iraqi Christians who languish in refugee camps in Kurdistan and who are readily available for migration. They fled their homes in Mosul and surrounding Iraqi towns under threats of the Islamic State almost two years ago.
Nor, in his speech to European leaders on May 6, did he make any appeal for them.
What makes the Iraqi Christian refugees different from others in Middle East war zones? They were forced to flee purely on the grounds that they were Christians, even though the fighting in Mosul and elsewhere in the surrounding area had stopped. They are not merely victims of a war crime, but a crime against humanity prohibited in wartime and peacetime. They clearly fit the universally accepted definition of refugees which includes people who can't go home because of persecution for religious beliefs.
Yet no one has lifted a finger to rescue these Iraqi Christian communities. This is odd, since the Pope himself fought hard to have a genocide designation applied to Middle Eastern Christians by both the United Nations and by the Obama Administration. The European Union has also affirmed that Middle East Christians face genocide.
Inaction speaks louder than words. President Obama effectively erased the category of religious persecution from American immigration law. Last November, he said the United States has no "religious test" for accepting refugees. He was dishonest to do so. Of course, we do. It is specifically written into US immigration statutes: a refugee is someone who has a "well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion."
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When in March, Obama's State Department said Christians face genocide, officials made clear that they would recommend doing nothing about it. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidates, has parroted Obama's line that, somehow, accepting Christians would be wrong.
The truth is Obama doesn't want to take them in, neither the Christians nor other deserving refugees, in any number for fear of igniting immigration controversy in the United States. The notion that refugee status would exclude Muslims or other religious groups is a canard (not to mention an incorrect reading of immigration law by Republicans). The US has accepted Muslims from Bosnia and Kosovo and Jews from the Soviet Union in the past.
But what about Pope Francis? At Easter, he asked everybody not to "forget the plight of persecuted Christians" in Iraq. That's all. No refugee status. Francis, too, seems to operate under the notion that if you speak up for Iraqi Christians, you are somehow biased and blind to the needs of others. That is not the case. Like several Iraqi minorities, including Yazidi communities expelled from homes near Mosul in 2014, Christians have suffered religious persecution for more than a decade. Iraqi Christians did not just flee bombs. They fled a new, radical fundamentalist regime that declared them a pariah community.
A young man walks in front of a row of abandoned houses in Detroit, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013. Four of President Barack Obama's top advisers will converge on Detroit Friday to meet privately with state and local leaders about ways the federal government can help the bankrupt city short of a bailout. The White House said Thursday that top economic adviser Gene Sperling will join U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan in the closed meeting. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
The proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) like to describe it as a free-trade deal for the 21st century. That might be a good sales pitch, but it's not accurate. The TPP has little to with reducing trade barriers, which in most cases were already low. The TPP can more accurately be described as a pinata, that is chock full of special deals for the corporate interests who negotiated it. It will likely do more to impede trade than promote it, and in the process it creates rules that potentially override democratic decision-making at all levels of government.
The connection between Silicon Valley and Detroit (sorry Detroiters) comes in Article 18.78, which requires countries to have laws allowing companies to protect trade secrets and imposing criminal penalties for violators. The language in this section is broad, but it can certainly be interpreted as implying that governments allow for the enforcement of "non-compete" agreements. Non-compete agreements prohibit employees from quitting their job and working for another company in the same industry for a substantial period of time.
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This is an important issue for tech companies. Many states allow for the enforcement of non-compete agreements, which companies often put in contracts both to limit their employees' mobility and also to try to impede competitors. Importantly, California does not. A recent study found that the difference between California's law and Michigan's law, which does enforce non-compete agreements, was an important factor in California's success in the technology sector. Unlike Michigan, it is easy for tech workers in California to quit their jobs and join a new company or start their own.
If it sounds strange that a 21st century trade deal would have language that could deny workers the ability to change jobs, then you weren't paying attention to how the TPP was negotiated. The Obama administration created 21 working groups to help draft the chapters dealing with specific areas. Each working group was dominated by representatives of the major corporations in the affected industries.
The tech industry undoubtedly had major input into the drafting of chapter 18. While it may be bad news for workers, the industry and the economy, the big tech companies are happy if they can keep workers from going to a competitor or starting their own company. In fact, many of the Silicon Valley giants actually joined together in an old-fashioned wage-fixing deal where they promised not to hire each other's workers.
This violates current law, and these companies had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties, but that is why we have trade deals like the TPP. When companies can't get the legislation they want through Congress or state and local governments, they do an end-run and try to advance their interests in a trade deal like the TPP. In addition to the fact that provisions of the TPP are harder to reverse than ordinary laws, corporate interests also get to impose them on the other countries in the deal.
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The restrictions on trade secrets are not the only anti-growth provisions in the TPP. The deal also requires stronger and longer copyright, patent, and related protections. These protections raise the price of the protected items in the same way that tariffs on imports raise prices. The big difference is that copyright and patent protection is typically equivalent to tariffs of several thousand percent, not the single digit tariffs on other items that are being reduced or eliminated in the TPP.
While most proponents of the TPP have opted not to look at the cost of these forms of protectionism it is likely to be substantial. The New Zealand government estimated that increasing the duration of copyright protection from 50 years to 70 years, as required by the TPP, would cost it 0.024 percent of its GDP annually, the equivalent of $4.3 billion annually in the United States.
This is the cost of just one small provision in a country that already has strong copyright protection. The costs would undoubtedly be much larger in countries like Malaysia and Vietnam, which don't currently have strong copyright protections.
The TPP also requires that countries have criminal penalties for copyright violations. At a time when there is a bipartisan consensus to reduce the size of the prison population, President Obama wants to throw people in jail for circulating unauthorized copies of Batman movies or Taylor Swift songs.
And of course, there are the provisions for the pharmaceutical industry that make patent and related protections stronger and longer. In the United States we spend more than $420 billion a year (@ 2.2 percent of GDP) for drugs that would likely sell for around $40 billion a year in a free market. The goal of the TPP is to make the other countries pay as much as we do, and to lock in place indefinitely high drug prices in the United States. In addition to slowing growth, these protections will also jeopardize public health.
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Washington DC, capital city of the United States. National Capitol building.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif. (L), and top Democrat Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.,converse, Washington, Jan. 7, 2016. (photo by Julian Pecquet)
The week, President Obama signed the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act (H.R. 1493/S. 1887) to close the U.S. market to plundered Syrian antiquities. Heroes for heritage, Representatives Eliot Engel and Edward Royce, proposed this legislation to comply with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2199. This binding resolution called for countries to cut off access for violent extremist organizations who use antiquities trafficking as a source of revenue. This action helps establish U.S. leadership in the global campaign to protect the heritage of historic civilizations. Yet there is still more to be done.
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In the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA), ISIL is assaulting the people and their heritage on a scale not seen since World War II. A raid last year on the compound of ISIL leader Abu Sayyaf confirmed how the terrorist organization has institutionalized the trafficking and destruction of antiquities through the creation of its own Ministry of Antiquities and the selling of permits to promote looting and illicit excavations.
These terrorists are making significant profits from this practice. Records seized showed sales worth $1.25 million in just a three month period or $5 million annualized. Counterterrorism experts state that the Paris terrorist attacks cost approximately $30,000 to finance. While not on the scale of oil revenues, clearly sales of these illicit treasures could still fund a significant number of terrorist attacks, especially with millions of sites accessible.
Cultural cleansing--the deliberate destruction of a targeted group and their heritage--is a harbinger of crimes against humanity. These terrorist acts--whether bombing ancient temples in Palmyra, plundering the Mosul Museum, or burning libraries with historic texts in Mali--land violent extremists on the front page of international newspapers and generate attention on social media. This violence strikes at the economy of the countries targeted, intimidates local populations, and eradicates our shared history.
Halting these cultural crimes requires a tough and coordinated international strategy, which the United States could use to strengthen its fight against violent extremism.
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It is for these reasons that the Antiquities Coalition, with our partners the Middle East Institute and the Asia Society, released the #CultureUnderThreat Task Force Report on April 13, 2015. The Report provides practical recommendations that the U.S. government can take--both on its own and in conjunction with the international community and the global art market. It calls for actions that will increase coordination between different government agencies, international organizations, art dealers, and auction houses and will--for the first time--institutionalize the approach to combating looting. While this report primarily focuses on the largest demand country, the United States, additional reports will follow for other important stakeholders, including source countries.
Our Task Force is comprised of experts across the heritage, legal, law enforcement, military, and national security communities. Its diverse group brought a holistic approach to defining a strategy given the established links between antiquities trafficking and heritage destruction with genocide, terrorism, transnational organized crime, and money laundering.
Leadership from the White House is essential for success; President Obama took an important step by signing H.R. 1493/S. 1887 into law, but should expand these efforts to protect our own market by using executive powers to block the import of conflict antiquities from countries such as Libya and Yemen, the next targets in the War of Destruction by ISIL. And by appointing a coordinator for this effort at the National Security Council.
Recently, the Department of State has stepped up its diplomatic efforts with countries in the MENA region on cultural heritage protection. Concerted and coordinated efforts by other executive agencies including the National Security Council, the Treasury Department, the Defense Department, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security is also needed to combat this threat to American and global security.
As the gatekeepers of the market for antiquities, museums, dealers, and auction houses have an essential role to play, as well. Above all, greater transparency and vigilance against forged documentation is needed in their dealings, especially from countries in crisis. Tougher regulations, which will restrict antiquities trafficking, will also prevent the US market being a source of financing. And they will protect responsible players in the art market from unknowingly dealing in illicit and fake antiquities.
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The report notes that the United Nations can also make a major impact in this fight by including heritage protection in its post-conflict planning, peacekeeping training, and mandates. It should also refer cultural crimes in Iraq and Syria to the International Criminal Court, allowing it to proceed with an investigation as a deterrent against future crimes. Full participation by the United States in UNESCO would also allow it to lead in developing solutions for countries desperate to protect their heritage.
A still from The Cinema Travelers by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya, screening as part of the Cannes Classics
The Festival de Cannes kicks off this week and for the first time in four years, I've made a conscious decision not to be there.
I know that for sure I won't miss the long lines to get into films I wish to watch with my lowly -- read: I'm not French and blog online -- press accreditation, the burly security guards who will certainly feel more justified to be so this year after the recent terrorist attacks (and more threats according to this piece and others) and the outrageous prices I end up paying for everything from accommodations to food and drinks. And don't even get me started on the con artists.
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Granted, Cannes has reluctantly started to step into the 21st Century this year, by sending out a regular email newsletter and promising to reconstruct their website by 2017, "to offer cinema professionals and moviegoers a brand new web environment that will reflect the latest graphical and ergonomic trends," according to their latest press release. But lets face it, while it is undoubtedly the biggest market in the world, this festival has been getting by on its reputation in the last few years, much more than by a renewed sense of adventurous programming and great pioneering choices.
That said, there are always reasons that tug at my heart whenever I miss anything that has to do with cinema. Apart from the opportunity of getting free daily Nespressos with my friends at the Palais de Festival, there are a couple of beautiful films, memorable venues and groundbreaking events that will make me wish I was there, on the Croisette, watching it all unfold as magic, right before my very eyes...
The Dubai International Film Festival goes to Cannes
For the past few years, the highlight of my Cannes experience has always been the Dubai International Film Festival luncheon at the Carlton, and their cocktail party at the UAE pavilion. Partly because I love Dubai so much, and in part due to the wonderful support the festival offers filmmakers in a region that needs their devotion to cinema so very much these days, DIFF can do no wrong by me. This year, once again they present "The Dubai Film Market Goes to Cannes" a program of four works-in-progress that, in their own words, "allows a platform for Arab talent but also offers an opportunity for international audiences to discover new and exciting stories emerging from one of the fastest growing film industries." Highest of my list of must-watch is Egyptian master filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah's latest, currently in post-production, titled Brooks, Meadows and Lovely Faces (pictured above). Why, you ask? Because no one understands women, cinematically, quite like Nasrallah does, and his story revolving around a family of cooks in Egypt is one I crave, deliciously, to watch.
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Mohamed Diab's film Clash slams into 'Un Certain Regard'
While on the subject of important cinema from the MENA region, the last time an Arab film was in the main line-up in Cannes it was in the historic days of Hany Abu Assad's Omar -- a film that left me emotionally devastated. But this year there is more Arab pride to be had, and with more meaning perhaps. Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab's Clash opens 'Un Certain Regard' and that's a big deal for a festival set in a country that is going through its hardest moments yet, when it comes to refugees, terrorist threats and hatred. It's simplistic how I'm putting it, I know but lets face it, hatred is so infectious and it's so difficult to remain positive during times when loved ones are killed and politicians use uncertainty to promote their agendas.
Diab's previous feature Cairo 678 is a personal favorite and his latest Clash, in the filmmaker's own words, "unfolds inside a prisoners transport vehicle, carrying detainees from all walks of life -- activists, Islamists and military supporters. In the course of a hellish day, they are forced to see one another beyond the stereotypes and discover each other's humanity." If I could say that one film is needed these days, it's one exactly like what Diab describes, plus the filmmaker deeply understands both sides of the debate. I'll post an exclusive interview with Mohamed Diab in the coming days.
Cinema for the people, by the people: The Cinema Travelers
One film to watch in the Cannes Classics line-up, one that cannot be missed, is The Cinema Travelers, a documentary by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya. If I begin to gush while describing this film, please forgive me. But it's seldom that a documentary is this spellbinding, this can't-move-from-my-seat-or-even-think-of-turning-my-eyes-away bewitching, all the while being so human and touching. The simple story of three men in India whose passion for the movies goes beyond common sense and overtakes their personal needs, left me in tears. You see, the seventh art to me is vital and I believe the stories told through it can change the world -- sometimes for the better, oftentimes for the worst. So, armed with a few background films that helped me to enjoy The Cinema Travelers even more -- including Dev Benegal's Road, Movie and the Keanu Reeves-produced Side by Side -- I cheered, laughed and cried alongside the village audiences featured in Abraham's and Madheshiya's film.
The Cinema Travelers is a masterpiece, a film from the heart and a testament to everything humanity should believe in wholeheartedly. Nice how that worked out, isn't it?!
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The DPA Gift Lounge at the Intercontinental Carlton
If the Palais de Festival is the cinematic heart of the Cannes film festival, the Carlton hotel is the social soul of the event. On their terrace, celebrities and mere mortals interact, while their suites house filmmakers, publicists and actors and their halls buzz with chance meetings and the occasional fan waiting for a glimpse of their favorite star. Personally though, the reason I go to the Carlton year after year though is a widely-known little giant secret that is housed upstairs, in a suite that has grown from a single room to three sprawling showrooms, where a girl can enjoy something that feels a lot like Christmas, in the middle of May! It's the DPA Gift Suite by Nathalie Dubois-Sissoko and this year, the place will be particularly special.
For starters, Nathalie lost her beloved brother in the November Paris attacks and dedicates this year's lounge to his memory, and the memory of so many other souls who shared his tragic destiny. By pairing up with the Life for Paris foundation, she's paying homage to a piece of our history, and her family's story that should have never been. And should never ever be repeated.
Then, changing the narrative a bit, Nathalie also hosts a few outstanding clients like Japanese brand conglomerate Zann Group, which will have its own showroom within the DPA Suite, to include everything from traditional kimonos to luxury handbags, from sake to pearls and yes, even ice cream. The DPA Gift Suite will feature Qatari fashion brand Sckali Design, Swiss watch and jewelry brand Charriol Geneve, Malaysia based designer and cool girl all around Farah Khan and of course, for a few chosen few, a trip to their Bali paradise offered by Alila Resorts (see below).
Because sometimes the best way to honor the past, is to look to the future. And the future should always include hope, and travel.
The American Pavilion, where tired journos go to refresh when on the Croisette
Last but not least, the one place that has represented solace for me during the hectic days of the Festival de Cannes is the American Pavilion. I'll miss eating a gourmet burger by the beach, recharging my computer while also recharging my own mental batteries, basking in the sun and watching the world go by. It's a true oasis in the chaos of the Croisette and I can say I owe the AmPav, as they are affectionately known, a lot of inspiration for some of my favorite blogs written while at past festivals. This year, with membership, they are also offering a free pair of sunglasses by Tura Sunwear and those will come in handy once the clouds have moved away (it's currently raining in Cannes) and they are replaced by the typical heat and sunshine. Oh, and the AmPav always features fun events and beautiful meet-ups which are at the heart and soul of this film festival.
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TIMES SQUARE, NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES - 2016/01/17: Demonstrators hold signs while participating in the Times Square rally. Nearly 1000 members of the Muslim-American community from New York, Illinois and Michigan rallied in Times Square against the Saudi Arabian government's recent execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 followers, the recent massacre in Zaria, Nigeria and the pending execution of Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzay. (Photo by Albin Lohr-Jones/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The message from the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Belgium is clear: Muslims must urgently promote a global grassroots movement to take Islam back from extremists who use a twisted interpretation of jihad to justify their violent ideology. And American Muslims should also demand an honest discussion about what causes terrorism in the first place.
The nature of our challenge was laid bare in a recent New York Times profile of Khalid Zerkani, a mentor to those behind the attacks, who spread "extremist ideas among naive, fragile and agitated youth." The Times described Zerkani as "the Santa Claus of jihad" who taught "Gangster Islam," dispensing gifts and cash to disaffected Muslim youth. Now, people who care about Islam must fight back.
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Everyone from governments to NGOs, interfaith groups and concerned Muslims must work together to build and fund a movement with two purposes -- describe and promote the true nature of Islam, and discredit the ideology of hate and violence preached by those who pervert the words of Islam to promote violence, killing and hatred.
Professor M. Steven Fish of University of California Berkley, author of the book Are Muslims Distinctive?, says Muslims should start by taking to the streets after terrorist attacks perpetrated by Muslim extremists and say, "Not in our name!" Fish says that by not taking a public stand against terrorism, Muslims have been their own worst enemy.
"The perception among the general public is that when Muslim terrorists do bad things that ordinary Muslims are not vocal enough condemning it," Fish says. "Muslims don't make enough noise against their own bad guys."
Distrust and Suspicion
Fish says perhaps Muslims don't protest because they fear Islamophobia but, he believes their inaction ironically stokes such distrust and suspicion.
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Some grassroots organizations are fighting the totalitarian message of extremists like Zerkani. One such group, FATE -- Families Against Terrorism and Extremism -- wants to stop the radicalization of youth and to fight against the ideology of ISIS, which it calls Daesh (an Arabic acronym for ISIS). The group is urging people to take to Twitter to declare #ENOUGH.
FATE's inaugural meeting in Paris in April had a strong message for ISIS - "It's time to stand up to Daesh and say we have had enough exploiting our children, murdering our brothers and sisters, and tearing apart our families. If you want to take action to make a world free of violent extremism, join the campaign!"
Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago Robert Pape studied the causes of suicide terrorism in his book, Dying to Win, and compiled a database of suicide attacks globally from the early 1980s to 2003. He found most attacks were secular and motivated by feelings of a lack of self-determination within the local community.
Pape believes that Muslims -- from the Council on American-Islamic Relations to community leaders -- do speak out after terrorist attacks and he applauds efforts by groups such as FATE. However, he says their voices are drowned out after a terrorist attack by more pressing aspects of the news narrative -- the stories of the victims, statements and reactions from the terrorists themselves and time devoted to provocative big-name commentators. In order for things to change, he says, Muslims should push for an honest discussion about the causes of terrorism.
Fraud, Mismanagement and ISIS
"Many terror attacks are in response to Western military intervention, which has done more to provoke attacks than prevent them," says Pape. "The war in Iraq is a case in point. It created the conditions for the rise of Al Qaeda in Iraq and ISIS, which is a direct descendant."
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Pape says even the U.S. inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction admitted that America's $60 billion rebuilding effort there achieved very little amid rampant fraud and mismanagement. The end result was a country where great portions of the economy are badly broken and its people unemployed and hopeless, making it a prime stomping ground for terrorist recruiters. "People blame America, and this is what we need to talk about," says Pape.
Pape agrees that regular Muslims can help improve Islam's image by engaging in interfaith efforts, politics, schools, the media, and in the workplace, but he says all that will be for nothing unless there is also a genuine debate about American foreign policy and its consequences.
"What we need are grassroots movements combined with an honest dialogue of the causes of terrorism, and this should be spearheaded by the American Muslim community," says Pape.
It's time to defend Islam by starting a multi-faceted grassroots movement to educate, build respect, strengthen interfaith connections and repudiate the rhetoric of ideologues who warp the Muslim faith and culture. Only then can we act as a community to push for a discussion about the causes of terrorism and how we can all act differently to prevent it.
Ehab Al Shihabi is an advisor to the Director General at Al Jazeera Media Network and an Edward R. Murrow Center Senior Fellow at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He writes about the media, the news industry and being Muslim in America. His opinions here are his and only his.
I come from a tradition of military service. My parents served full careers in the Navy. My grandfather served a career that included fighter missions during World War II; my grandmother served as a Navy nurse. I served four years as a naval officer, and my brother, Army Captain Nathan Smith, currently serves at command headquarters in Kuwait in the battle against the Islamic State. Military service is something that my family has never taken lightly.
Last week, Nathan sued President Obama, asking the federal courts to declare the war against ISIS illegal because Congress has failed to authorize it. He came to this decision only after intensive soul-searching and research, some of which I have been privy to over the past year. When Nathan got to Kuwait, it became clear to him within a few months that this was a very different situation than his previous deployment to Afghanistan in 2013. He began calling me when he could and was soon expressing serious concern over the level of escalation and the fact that there seemed to be no end in sight to mission creep. He increasingly began to reflect on the meaning of his officer's oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" -- an oath that did not demand obedience to the commander-in-chief, but to the Constitution.
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Our constitutional system of checks and balances safeguards the country against two evils -- military dictatorship on one hand, autocracy on the other. It establishes a symbiotic relationship in which both the military and the political system rely on one another to carry out a complementary set of responsibilities. Our elected politicians depend on the military to carry out the actions necessary to safeguard the country's interests. The military, in turn, depends on elected representatives to ensure their directed actions comply with the Constitution. Such is our democracy.
This system breaks down when the political system fails to carry out its responsibility concerning the military's mission. Our Constitution and the War Powers Act of 1973 make it quite clear that the President cannot deploy troops longer than 90 days without the authorization of Congress, no matter how morally justified the cause may be. We have now been fighting ISIS for almost two years, with no end in sight. The President's justification for this intervention is Congress' authorization for a war in Afghanistan in response to 9/11. But ISIS didn't exist at that time, and the current war is not in Afghanistan.
This puts conscientious military members in a very difficult situation: the President's order to fight an unauthorized war requires them to violate their oath to "support and uphold the Constitution," which by extension requires them to disobey orders that are unconstitutional. Herein lies the crux of Nathan's case.
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If our politicians believe the conflict against ISIS is important enough for people like Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler, Staff Sergeant Louis Cardin, and Petty Officer 1st Class Charlie Keating to die for, then it is time for them to step up to the plate and authorize the war. What it is not time to do is to expect military members to unquestioningly follow orders that violate their oath to the Constitution simply because the political process is difficult and unwieldy. Members of the military put their lives at risk every day to perform the missions handed to them by politicians. The least politicians can do is approve these missions as required by law.
But if it is Congress that must authorize the war, why is Nathan suing the President rather than Congress? After all, President Obama has proposed an updated AUMF that is specific to the current conflict; Congress failed to act upon it. The answer is simple: Nathan's orders do not come from Congress; they come from the President, his commander-in-chief. While it is good that the President has acknowledged the need for a new AUMF, the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution place the burden on him to get Congress to agree. By continuing to issue potentially unconstitutional orders to the military in the absence of an AUMF, President Obama is essentially passing the buck to conscientious military service members. Congress must also fulfill its obligations, however. If this suit causes members of Congress to finally take action in providing the military with a clear and updated AUMF for the current conflict, I know Nathan will consider his actions a success.
This is an issue that transcends partisan politics. If the President and Congress allow this situation to continue, they will be setting a very dangerous precedent. A few months back, Donald Trump was asked what he would do if the military refused to follow orders requiring them to torture or target civilians -- orders that are indisputably unlawful. His reply showed a frightening contempt for the responsibilities imposed by the military oath of office: "If I say do it, they're going to do it." This type of thinking -- that our uniformed service members are mindless automatons who are willing to carry out all presidential orders, regardless of legality -- could have devastating consequences when combined with unchecked executive war-making power. We cannot change the dangerous assumptions of presidential candidates. This case, however, challenges Americans to address something that is within our control: we should insist that our representatives stop punting a constitutional dilemma to our military members by putting a decisive halt to America's slide down the slippery slope of unilateral executive war-making.
Words matter, said poet Maya Angelou.
"They get on the walls. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, and your clothes, and finally in to you."
Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, wants to build a wall at Mexico's expense, which will probably never happen. And then he highlighted Hispanic felons, another example of unabashed racism.
And the Muslims? They need to be kept out of the country, penalized and scorned. And let's not forget his attempt to prove President Obama was born in Kenya and is probably a Muslim, an outright lie with a good dose of racism.
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To this day, some 59 percent of Trump's followers believe the birther story and also think Obama is a Muslim, according to Roll Call. Now he continues the falsehood by claiming Hillary Clinton first raised the issue.
What Trump has done is to bring prejudice into the mainstream and concoct conspiracy theories to justify it. Whereas there is enough bigotry in America anyway, his statements have made it legitimate to voice racism publicly.
So when crowds cheer at the rhetoric and cheer when an African-American is beat up, the prejudice is voiced without embarrassment.
Typical of foreign reaction to our presidential campaign. Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein of Jordan, the much admired United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, said recently: "Bigotry is not proof of strong leadership."
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Without mentioning Trump by name, he said plans to ban Muslims from travelling to the United States were "stupid and wrong."
Zeid spoke at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, the site of this year's Republican nominating convention. He studied in the United States and his family lives here.
Pope Francis joined the chorus of criticism that include the British and French prime ministers, the Turkish president and a Saudi prince, among others. The new Muslim mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, quipped that he would visit the United States while Obama was still in office.
There is a bigger, more disturbing truth here: that there is a constituency for this kind of politics in America. It is powerful, and it will continue to shape the country long after this particular news cycle and even this particular presidential election are over, wrote Amanda Taub on Vox.
But this does not mean that everyone is a racist. Many Trump followers are looking for jobs and perhaps a strong authoritarian leader. They have a, fear of change and a fear of jihadist threats since September 11, 2001 and the bombings in France and Belgium. The easy answer is to find scapegoats and Trump has given them a list to justify nativism.
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More disturbing than propagating propaganda (phony figures, for example, showing most whites are killed by blacks) is his denial that words have consequences. He insists he is not responsible for chaos and physical violence at his rallies.
by Christian Sarkar
John Ehrenreich is an American author, academic, and clinical psychologist who has published books on health policy, US social policy, and US history. He is the author of Third Wave Capitalism: How Money, Power, and the Pursuit of Self-Interest have Imperiled the American Dream (2016).
How did you come to write this book?
I was a 60s social activist. The book came out of some contradictory feelings I was having about the state of the country. There was a sense of nostalgia for some of the good things about the America I grew up in that have now disappeared, combined with a realistic view of how bad things were for many people in the 50s and 60s - for African Americans, for women, for gay and lesbian men and women, for the poor. And there was the realization that we were losing the gains we had made through the sacrifices of so many - students, civil rights and feminist activists, the protests. I wanted to make sense of what is happening now. I asked myself is there a coherent, underlying narrative that explains why our schools are failing, why the improvements in the state of black Americans have halted, why the increased maldistribution of wealth, why the failure to reduce poverty, etc. Was there a pattern to this decline? What was it? That was the starting point for this book.
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Let's look at a question you ask at the very beginning of your book: "How did we go from 'how lucky I am to be an American' to the 'American Dream is in trouble'?"
In many ways the United States of today is a far better country than that of the 50s and 60s. We are richer, healthier, better educated, and there certainly have been enormous gains for women, people of color, gay and lesbian and transsexual men and women. And yet despite the gains in wealth and well being, our faith in the American Dream seems long gone. Our politics are gridlocked and impotent in the face of a faltering economy, climate change, increasing income inequality, and racism. Our public schools, once the wonder of the world, seem to lag behind those of a dozen other, poorer countries. Our healthcare system is the most expensive, yet least accessible and one of the least effective in the industrialized world. Racial inequities persist. The poverty level is a third higher than in 1973 and the middle class has slipped backwards - losing the gains made in the past. We may have a black president, but incarceration of black men (mainly for non-violent drug offenses) is five time that for white men, and sixty years after Brown vs Board of Education, well over a third of black students nationwide attend a school with fewer than 10 percent white students. We have re-segregated our schools.
My book is about all this - the changes that are part of what I call "Third Wave Capitalism."
Third Wave Capitalism? What is that?
Historical turning points are not always clear-cut, but in general, we can see three clear phases in the history of American capitalism.
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The first phase - Industrial Capitalism - was the era of both small entrepreneurs and the robber barons and extended through most of the nineteenth century. It was a time when, the government's role in the economy was much less than now. This was a turbulent period for the United States, with widespread unrest, populist struggles, and battles between workers and their employers.
Then in the late 19th and early 20th century, we saw the emergence of Corporate Capitalism. Both government and corporations were forced to accommodate to some degree the needs of workers, farmers, and consumers. At the same time corporate leaders began to see the government as a mechanism that could directly serve their needs. The modern welfare state came into being, and business was increasingly regulated. Unions and other advocacy groups provided a counterbalance to the power of big business. There were big, industry-wide strikes that sometimes took on a "class struggle" tone, but after 1946, a general social compact emerged. Unions would accept the underlying class relationships of society, agree to long-term contracts that protected employers for the threat of frequent strikes, and give up the right to bargain over some issues, in exchange for employment stability, a steady increase in real wages, and health and pension benefits.
Since the 1970s, American capitalism has been evolving into a distinctive third phase - what I call "Third Wave Capitalism." This phase saw the dramatic growth of globalization - the rise of multinational corporations with global supply chains. Non-profit organizations became larger as well - now some 10% of the American population working for a non-profit - but the non-profits behave more and more like for-profit businesses. Technological innovation transformed the workplace - from materials to electronics and automation, changing the workplace yet again. Around 1972, we also see a decoupling of productivity and wages. While productivity kept rising, wages did not. This is also when the rise in CEO pay began its dizzying ascent. Inequality grew.
How does Third Wave Capitalism destroy the "commons"?
There is also an ideological shift. There is a decline in the belief that we can solve our problems collectively. The government's role in providing for the common welfare lost out to free-market ideology and a belief in unbridled individualism.
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Many social critics have documented a decades-long decline in the sense of community and a rise in rampant greed, litigiousness, consumerism, and belligerent egoism. Freedom seems to have become less about the absence of constraint than about freedom from obligations to one another.
The sense that individual problems and social issues are linked, the notion of public action for the public good has been lost, and in the case of conservatives, totally abandoned. For them government's not the solution, it's the problem. The gap in educational outcomes in poor neighborhoods is explained away with false characterizations about "grit" and character, instead of the impact of povery - both directly on students and on their schools. Poor people are blamed for their own misfortune. Media attention focuses on street crime, the federal deficit, and gun-rights, instead of the real issues.
In Third Wave Capitalism there is the tendency for rewards to go not to those who create wealth, but to those who succeed in using their power over government and private institutions to grab a greater share of the wealth that would have been produced otherwise. This is what some are calling the "rigged economy." Economists call it "rent-seeking."
One of the best examples you have about how an industry becomes a third-wave system is the Healthcare industry. What's really wrong with our Healthcare?
The health care industry has followed a pattern of transformation now becoming common in other industries, as well.
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In the 50s, a majority of decisions in the industry were made by individual doctors - who owned their own private practices. By the late 60s and early 70s, this had turned into a "medical-industrial complex., dominated not by the doctors but by giant "non-profit" hospitals, drug and medical equipment manufacturers, giant insurance companies, all more interested in "maximizing shareholder value" than in improving people's health. And the whole thing is heavily financed and subsidized by government.
The close relationships between the profit-driven pharma industry, the private health care organizations, and government policy dictated by lobbyists, together with systematic neglect of public health measures and of efforts to improve what are called the "social determinants of health" - housing, food adequacy, air and water pollution, waste disposal, and the like - have driven our effectiveness down and increased our costs. The result? The highest infant mortality rates in the industrialized world. A life expectancy several years less than in Japan and France. Mortality for women that has actually risen in 43% of our counties across the country. We still have 30 million people without healthcare insurance, despite Obamacare.
It is tempting to blame the overall poor performance of the US on aggregate measures of health status on the effect of poverty (though why that should count as an "excuse" I can't figure out). But even white, insured, college-educated, upper-income Americans have higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other problems than their counterparts abroad.
How is this possible? Third wave capitalism blames the victim for lack of discipline - for example, diabetes is viewed as the fault of the victim because he let himself get obese - while corporations that infuse our foods with unhealthy levels of salt and sugar and governments that tolerate sub-standard housing bear no blame.
You address poverty and racism and the retreat from social justice. Can you tell us what the impact of this has been on our economy and our society?
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Let's focus on structural racism. Black communities have historically received less investment and fewer services from local governments. Social services addressing the needs of many people I the black community have been cut back. Lack of medical facilities, inadequate public transportation, infrequent trash pickup - are all factors that turn minority communities into slums. School budgets based on neighborhood property taxes mean that the poor are penalized for being poor - receiving fewer resources for education. For three decades, the tobacco industry targeted black communities, with obvious effects on health. We have backed away from any serious effort to end residential segregation. As a result, we have re-segregated our schools across this country. Banks also deliberately targeted minority communities in the early 2000s for the sale of sub-prime mortgages. As a result, black homeowners were more likely to lose their homes during the housing bust of 2008. And employment discrimination is certainly not a thing of the past.
I already mentioned the incarceration rates for black men. Ideologically, our politicians (increasingly beholden to business interests) have backed away from programs to alleviate poverty, and have, in effect, criminalized poverty.
How is the professional, creative class under stress? What about the CEO class?
The CEOs have seen startling raises in their pay scale. In the mid 60s, the average CEO earned about 20 times what their employees earned. Now the ration is over 300 to 1. Meanwhile, professionals have lost ground. Writers, editors, teachers and professors, social workers, lawyers, even doctors have seen their autonomy undercut, their job security weakened, and their pay stagnating. The American Dream has slipped out of the grasp of most middle class families. unless we change tracks, our children are faced with a worse standard of living than their parents.
What must be done? How can we the people reverse this decline? Where do we start?
For starters, we have to challenge the dominant narratives we are being fed by virtually all Republicans and, unfortunately, by many Democrats. Conservatives insist that our most pressing problem is our unbalanced budget. Higher taxes would burden the "job creators," and would threaten our international competitiveness, so we simply cannot afford to expand or even maintain government programs. They also tell us that the idea that complex social issues can be solved by government action is foolish. And to conservatives, big government is the enemy of freedom and prosperity. They insist that it is not government but the free market that solves social problems, and the only legitimate goals of public policy is to promote growth and serve the needs of businesses.
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These narratives are all false.The same naysayers who tell us that government action is bad are happy to intervene on the behalf of their corporate sponsors - for bail-outs, exemptions, and tax loopholes. If taxes are raised to let Medicare subsidize an overly high salary of the CEO of a large hospital, or to permit a drug company to make outlandish large profits, or to let the Defense Department pay for $500 hammers, then yes, taxes are too high. But, if taxes are raised to provide you with drinkable water, or to protect you against the insecurity of unemployment, you have experienced a gain not suffered a loss. Despite the conservative refrain about Americans being overtaxed, taxes of the United States among the lowest in the world. As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once said, "Taxes are what we pay for living in civilized society."
But the Left also has myths that have to be challenged. If we believe that self-interest - economic self-interest and group self-interest - is all there is to politics, we are badly mistaken. People also seek safety and stability, a sense of empowerment, a faith that the community will help take care of them if you need help, a coherent narrative about their own experience and that of their community, a need to ward off feelings of envy and shame, something to believe in, a pride in tradition. The Left has let the Trumps of the world get away with seeming to champion those needs, and if we don't address those needs, I fear what is to come.
Change will happen when people demand it. We need to support the messy and unruly movements that bring about change. That is democracy.
Thanks John!
What do you think? Please tell us in the comments section below.
I'm Fred Raillard, CEO, Co-founder and Creative Chief Officer of FRED & FARID, a social, content, tech solutions for brands company based in Paris, Shanghai, Beijing and New York. In partnership with FRED & FARID, BFM Business launches #FredinChina, a social media podcast in "Chine Hebdo", the weekly radio broadcast of Mathieu Jolivet. #FredinChina is essential to know and understand the world's largest economy.
I fell in love with China, and live in Shanghai with my wife and sons since September 2012. With my teams at the FRED & FARID Shanghai agency we monitor, analyze and decrypt this ultra-connected China with nearly 800 million netizens by sharing what we see, hear and read on Weibo, WeChat, Huaban, Youku. I prepare this column with Jing Qian from FRED & FARID Shanghai.
Click here to listen to all the podcasts.
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The new TV series 'Ode to Joy' seduces Chinese millennials
This week's HotTopic is a TV series called 'Ode to Joy', which is about 5 young women living together in Shanghai. They are in fact all living on the same floor of a compound. The first woman has just returned from the US and is doing well in her job. The second is what we call here a 'second generation rich', meaning that her father is very rich. The three remaining girls live together in the same place, and come from various villages in China. The show is all about how they survive in Shanghai.
It's pretty successful in China, as most Chinese women can relate to one of those 5 girls. The show is also very accurate about the relationship between those different social classes. For example, you can see that the second generation rich woman is always thinking about how to party and what to buy, but also how to win the respect from her father which is easier said than done. You also discover that one of the poor girls only dates rich guys in Shanghai, because she is under a lot of pressure from her family to bring back money.
There were a lot of jokes on social media, and people made a parallel to the US TV series Friends. The joke was that when China tries to do a Friends type show, it turns into a drama and not a comedy! This is largely because of the big differences between the social classes in China.
At the end of the day, the TV series was followed by a lot of people and the official hash tag got 268 million media impressions.
A huge medical scandal shakes the giant Baidu
This week's HotBrand is Baidu, but again for the wrong reasons, as there is another scandal linked to the brand. A lot of people in China consider Baidu to be an evil company. There was a scandal earlier this year involving Baidu commercializing its disease-related forums to a laboratory.
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Now there is another scandal related to a young man who died from cancer. Before that, he went on Baidu's search engine to try and find something to cure his cancer. He found a hospital with a treatment, so with the help of his family as well as his personal savings, he gathered all the money to pay for this. He spent about 200,000 RMB for this treatment that did not work, and died shortly afterwards.
Unfortunately, this treatment was completely obsolete, and had been out of the market for a very long time. So people started to ask questions - for example, why when he went on the search engine, did he find that hospital proposing the treatment?
The answer is because they bought these keywords, and the whole scandal revolves around the idea of how it's possible to buy key words without any control!
So the netizens started to investigate this, and apparently 50% of the money made by Baidu's search engine comes from hospitals linked to a city called Putian in China. This is a huge organization that buys keywords related to anything that can happen to you health wise in China. So every time you have a health issue, and go on Baidu to search for your problem, you will have a good chance of ending up in one of their hospitals.
This is such a huge scandal that Beijing is forced to react, asking the CEO of Baidu to give more explanations regarding all of this. Everyone is still waiting for answers and consequences against Baidu and this network of hospitals in Putian.
The whole story made 620 million media impressions, and the stock market went down for Baidu!
A Chinese newspaper reveals the list of hospitals involved in the Baidugate on WeChat
This week's HotPost is related to the Baidu scandal, and the Putian network of hospitals. This time it's a website called iFeng.com which is a news website from Hong Kong, that reports on politics and the economy. Now, they released an interactive H5 (mobile site), where you can discover how many hospitals are liked to this Putian network in the city where you live.
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For example, people in Shanghai discovered that 38 hospitals are linked to Putian. Overall in China, more that 500 hospitals are linked to Putian in 115 cities. The H5 website was a big viral success, but also very scary as people realized just how huge this organization was, as well as the power and money behind it.
In 1970, the State of California originated the concept of "no-fault" divorce. The rationale behind the law was that there was no point in forcing people to stay in a marriage when they were not happy in it, and that requiring someone to prove legal grounds to dissolve the marriage was not serving any useful purpose. Historically, in order to obtain a divorce one had to prove the existence of legal grounds such as adultery. This often required additional expenses on behalf of the aggrieved party, only serving to make the divorce process more expensive and cumbersome than it already was. In the years leading up to the enactment of "no-fault" divorce, courts often granted divorces on bases that were easier to prove, the most common being "mental cruelty." In that situation, one spouse would testify that he or she was being subjected to mental stress as a result of the actions of the other spouse. Given that, and given that people simply did not want to be married, there seemed little reason to force them to stay in marriages when grounds could not be established. Over time, the "no-fault" movement expanded to other states, although interestingly it only reached the typically progressive state of New York in 2010.
Clients often ask the question as to whether there is any penalty for a spouse engaging in less than stellar behavior during the course of a marriage. The truth is that there is little in the way of compensation available in California to the spouse who is the victim of such conduct. In the case of an extramarital affair, the law allows that spouse to recover any financial expenditures paid on the paramour that ostensibly were expended without the consent of the unknowing spouse, but the amount of those expenses has to be established. In the case of a spouse engaging in financial misdealing that caused a loss to the community estate, we have statutory remedies for breaches of fiduciary obligations. Where a spouse engaged in acts of domestic violence, the law has presumptions against joint custody as the legislature deems domestic violence acts committed against a spouse to be harmful to children, whether the children are involved or not. In situations involving actual battery on a spouse, the family law act does not provide for any remedies that are capable of being ordered by a divorce court-although certainly acts that would impair a spouse's ability to work are considered when fashioning support orders. In those situations, there may be remedies available through separately filed civil actions. These remedies should be discussed with an attorney specializing in that type of work along with the client's family law counsel.
Donald Trump appears to have secured the Republican nomination. Hillary Clinton appears to have secured the Democratic nomination. Each has extremely high negative numbers, which means that they are each extraordinarily disliked by the public. That makes this an extraordinary campaign. Others may recall a prior presidential campaign where both candidates were so profoundly disliked, but I can't. This will be a campaign based on who is least despised, not who is most admired. The reason we are left with two despised candidates is simply this: our horrendous primary system and the caucuses. Before the 1970s, states would have conventions to choose the delegates to go to the national convention. In the 20th century, this system gave us Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. It also produced some duds, but this is still a pretty impressive list for a system that was considered utterly corrupt. In the 1970s, reformists created primaries or caucuses in almost every state. The party bosses were marginalized and the people put in charge. There was one enormous problem with this system. Most people didn't bother to vote in the primaries. They didn't bother for two reasons - one pedestrian and one profound. The profound reason was that our founders did not see political life as the center of American life. The family, churches, local government and, above all, business ranked well above Washington. Those priorities diffused to the public, most of whom are fairly indifferent about the president until a few weeks before the election. The founders never anticipated the primary system, nor a campaign beginning almost two years before the presidential election. American society is shaped away from national politics, and it shows in the turnout at elections. The pedestrian reason is that most of the primaries take place in the winter on a Tuesday, with breakfast and dinner needing to be prepared, children taken to school and music lessons, and the workday extending into the evening. This is going to depress voter turnout without recourse to the founders. So the people who vote in the primaries are those who care deeply about politics. From the beginning then, these were people who were not representative of most Americans, who didn't care all that much. Indifference is not a lever you can pull. In addition, since those who go to the poll care deeply, most of them are heavily ideological, again unrepresentative of the public. They will tend to vote for people based on their values, not their personalities, and therefore people who are remarkably disliked can win. The bosses are still there, but now are called campaign managers and communications directors. This was not what the advocates of primaries wanted. They expected the public to take control of the elections. But that's because they couldn't imagine that the public would not be excited about the opportunity. The advocates lived for this. Most voters were busy with other things, like their lives. The reformers' inability to grasp this fact created a system in which a relatively small number of people, who are inherently unrepresentative of the public, select the candidate based on ideology and effective organization. It is not obvious that the people elected since 1972 have been worse than those before, but at the very least I can assert with confidence that they haven't been better. The result of this year's primaries will be the nomination of two candidates with extraordinarily high negative ratings. Neither would have won if the electorate as a whole voted. The strange outcome this year is due to the primary system's basic fallacy: that it represents the public. Perhaps it should, but in fact it doesn't. Certainly, the oddity of two deeply disliked candidates winning could not have happened except for the primary system. This is a classic case of reforms meant to do good having unintended consequences. I would argue that judged by this outcome, and by the quality of pre-1972 presidents, the selection of the nomination by professional politicians was a better method than the selection by a small minority of the voting public. The founders understood that democracy has its limits, and that much of the political system ought to be managed by mediating systems - like the Electoral College. They understood that pure democracy needs to be mediated through expertise. Yes, they confused expertise with property, but the basic principle was not wrong. The state conventions were run by people who were painfully aware that they needed public support to hold their jobs and power. They believed in democracy out of the strongest motive - vulgar self-interest. As a result, they managed the convention, having very carefully determined what the public wanted, and more times than not produced a candidate vetted by the party boss to be supported by the public. The bosses wanted a winner. Or to put it in the reformer's language, the people controlled their actions. The idea of the bosses being simply dictatorial is nonsense. They couldn't survive that way. The primary system produced this outcome because most people don't vote in primaries. In some transcendental moral sense this may be wrong, but it is the reality, and the reformers had visions of banishing corruption from the system. Perhaps they did, but what they created was minority rule. It meant that candidates who are hated by the majority can get nominated. The problem with Trump and Clinton is that both are winning the nomination fair and square, yet the outcome is irrational. Two extremely unpopular people are competing for the presidency, because primaries were held, and most people stayed home. You might say that they deserved what they got, but that's why the founders made things more complicated than mere democracy. We may deserve this, but the republic doesn't.
Winona LaDuke's latest book reads like a prayer. These are holy words-- inspirational stories taken straight from the heart of indigenous communities throughout the world. The Winona LaDuke Chronicles: Stories From the Front Lines in the Battle for Environmental Justice is lyrical, instructional, and infused with wry humor when the weight of the message becomes unbearable. LaDuke provides a roadmap through tribal nations' belief systems; offering a spiritual compass and invaluable insight into the relationship of prophesy to the realities of climate change, economic collapse, food scarcity and basic human rights. As it happens, prophesy does come true and redemption is possible despite this encyclopedia of environmental and spiritual insults.
Are we hell-bent on embracing environmental calamity or is atonement and redemption possible through the lessons offered by indigenous belief systems? How fascinating to learn that corn has a history, that seeds have a profound spiritual meaning, and that plants have a sacred relationship with humans. Provide the environment in which food will flourish and there will be no need for genetic crop engineering.
LaDuke is one of the great overlooked orators of our time, and she brings this prowess to every page.
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Her standard biography is well known. A two time Green Party vice-presidential candidate, LaDuke has 40 years of activism behind her. A graduate of Harvard University, LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of Anishinaabeg. In the preface to Chronicles, she offers testimony to all that life teaches. As for those two losing vice-presidential campaigns, in the essay, "Recovering from the Drama of Elections," LaDuke calls out Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and offers valuable and obvious advice. "People want to be heard." American politics should be defined by diversity rather than establishment money and corporations afforded the status of personhood.
The metaphors of fire and resurrection infuse the story telling.
"I have now more winters behind me than before me. It has been a grand journey. I am grateful for the many miles, rivers, and places and people of beauty," LaDuke writes.
It was after the loss of her home to fire in the early days of a bleak 2008 winter; a loss that included books, a lifetime of memorabilia, and sacred objects, that the orator and writer temporarily lost her voice. LaDuke says she could not write, could not sleep and could barely speak. Memory became tenuous as she struggled with the even more profound losses of her father, the father of her children, and her sister. She equates the rock bottom feeling of PTSD with being "a casualty of the modern Indian Wars." She had lost her loves, her heart and some of her closest friends. But "after the burn" indigenous people know that the fields, the forests and the prairies rebound with new growth. LaDuke found this growth in the writing and the story telling. Now a self-described "modern day bard," she travels across the land, sharing stories from other lands and writing them down along the way.
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These are her chronicles, at once universal and very personal.
In these days of the great Canadian fire that has devastated Fort McMurray, it is a stunning coincidence that in the early pages of Chronicles, LaDuke tells the story of a 2014 meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu there. The town, which has endured much suffering in the current news cycles, is the booming center of the Alberta Tar Sands projects. It is also the ancestral home of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. Tutu was there to speak about climate change and global warming. Media coverage criticized Tutu as being misinformed. Tutu warned that pipelines and oil contribute to the devastation of First Nation lands and livelihood and that the resulting climate change would be devastating.
Scientists attribute the Alberta firestorms to climate change. A prophecy fulfilled?
The essay "My Recommended Daily Allowance of Radiation," slams the North Dakota Department of Health for approving the increase of radioactive materials scuttled in landfills by a factor of 10 or 1000 percent. (from 5 pico curies per liter to 50) It seems the fracking industry was dumping 27 tons a day at 47 pico curies per liter and the illegal dumping issue needed a quick fix. This all scary stuff and LaDuke lays out the rationale for avoiding radioactive materials, especially since not all of it was making it to the landfills. Radioactive filter socks were thrown in ditches and kids found them to be interesting toys.
In that characteristic flash of wry humor, LaDuke quotes a female representative from the North Dakota Oil and Gas Industry. "Nuclear radiation isn't so bad," the rep said. "It's not like Godzilla or anything. It's more like Norm from Cheers, just sitting at the bar."
"I want more of whatever psychedelic drug she's taking," LaDuke writes.
"In the Time of the Sacred Places" describes two paths to the future. One is scorched and one is green, and the Anishinaabeg would have to choose. (So do we all) Ancient teachings speak of a mandate to respect the sacred. In the millennia since the ancient prophecy, sacred Beings still emerge. LaDuke writes that they emerge in "lightning strikes at unexpected times, the seemingly endless fires of climate change, tornadoes that flatten" and floods.
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As the Haudenosaunee teaching says, "...Our future is seven generations past and present."
We must assume responsibility. LaDuke's fine book is our map.
By Dacher Keltner
Explore The Art & Science of Awe June 4 (live in Berkeley, CA, or via webcast). With awe researchers Dacher Keltner and Michelle "Lani" Shiota, Jason Silva of National Geographic's Brain Games, former US Poet Laureate Robert Hass, and experts, makers, and artists from the Exploratorium, the Sierra Club, the Bay Lights, NASA, UC Berkeley & more!
News stories and social media posts inundate us every day with tips for greater happiness, health, and general well-being. But who has the time to fit them into our already packed schedules?
Recently, though, my research has led me to believe that one simple prescription can have transformative effects: look for more daily experiences of awe. This doesn't require a trek to the mountains. What the science of awe is suggesting is that opportunities for awe surround us, and their benefits are profound.
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Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world. Early in human history, awe was reserved for feelings toward divine beings, like the spirits that Greek families believed were guarding over their fates.
In 1757, a revolution in our understanding of awe began thanks to Irish philosopher Edmund Burke. In A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Burke detailed how we feel the sublime (awe) not just during religious ritual or in communion with God, but in everyday perceptual experiences: hearing thunder, being moved by music, seeing repetitive patterns of light and dark. Awe was to be found in daily life.
Today when we study people's narratives of awe in my lab at UC Berkeley, we find evidence of awe in the quotidian. Yes, awe arises during the extraordinary: when viewing the Grand Canyon, touching the hand of a rock star like Iggy Pop, or experiencing the sacred during meditation or prayer. More frequently, though, people report feeling awe in response to more mundane things: when seeing the leaves of a Gingko tree change from green to yellow, in beholding the night sky when camping near a river, in seeing a stranger give their food to a homeless person, in seeing their child laugh just like their brother. My colleague Jonathan Haidt and I have argued that awe is elicited especially by nature, art, and impressive individuals or feats, including acts of great skill or virtue.
A new science is now asking "Why awe?" This is a question we can approach in two ways. First we can consider the long, evolutionary view: Why did awe became part of our species' emotional repertoire during seven million years of hominid evolution? A preliminary answer is that awe binds us to social collectives and enables us to act in more collaborative ways that enable strong groups, thus improving our odds for survival.
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For example, in one study from our Berkeley lab, my colleague Michelle Shiota had participants fill in the blank of the following phrase: " I AM ____." They did so 20 times, either while standing before an awe-inspiring replica of a T. rex skeleton in UC Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology or in the exact same place but oriented to look down a hallway, away from the T. rex. Those looking at the dinosaur were more likely to define their individual selves in collectivist terms--as a member of a culture, a species, a university, a moral cause. Awe embeds the individual self in a social identity.
Near Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology stands a grove of eucalyptus trees, the tallest in North America. When you gaze up at these trees, with their peeling bark and surrounding nimbus of grayish green light, goosebumps may ripple down your neck, a sure sign of awe. So in the spirit of Emerson and Muir--who found awe in nature and deepened our understanding of the sublime--my colleague Paul Piff staged a minor accident near that grove to see if awe would prompt greater kindness.
Participants first either looked up into the tall trees for one minute--long enough for them to report being filled with awe--or oriented 90 degrees away to look up at the facade of a large science building. They then encountered a person who stumbled, dropping a handful of pens into the dirt. Sure enough, the participants who had been gazing up at the awe-inspiring trees picked up more pens. Experiencing awe seemed to make them more inclined to help someone in need. They also reported feeling less entitled and self-important than the other study participants did.
In subsequent studies, we have found that awe--more so than emotions like pride or amusement--leads people to cooperate, share resources, and sacrifice for others, all of which are requirements for our collective life. And still other studies have explained the awe-altruism link: being in the presence of vast things calls forth a more modest, less narcissistic self, which enables greater kindness toward others.
A first answer, then, to the question of "Why awe?" is coming into focus. In the course of our evolution, we became a most social species. We defended ourselves, hunted, reproduced, raised vulnerable offspring, slept, fought, and played in social collectives. This shift to more collective living required a new balancing act between the gratification of self-interest and an orientation toward supporting the welfare of others. Experiencing awe might have helped us make this shift. Brief experiences of awe redefine the self in terms of the collective and orient our actions toward the interests of others.
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A second answer to the question of "Why awe?" is of the proximal kind: What does awe do for you in the present moment? And here, the science is proving to be clear: Momentary experiences of awe stimulate wonder and curiosity.
Parents have long known this. Sleep deprived they watch, on occasion awe-struck, as their four-year-old marvels at every object in the world, in a perpetual state of awe, peppering them with endless questions of "why?". Biographers routinely discover this in their studies of innovators. Awe drives people to paradigm-shifting discoveries and new technologies. Such was the case of Darwin, Muir, and Einstein. Our studies at Berkeley are finding that simply watching short videos of expansive images of the Earth leads people to come up with more original examples when asked to name items from a certain category (e.g., "furniture"), to find greater interest in abstract paintings, and to persist longer on difficult puzzles when compared with appropriate control conditions.
Awe also may be important for good health. The focus in our lab is on one branch of the immune system known as the cytokine system. Cytokines are chemical messengers that are often produced by cells in damaged tissue. Many cytokines elicit an inflammatory response, which is important for killing pathogens and healing wounds. Psychology is discovering that a hyperactive cytokine response, however, renders an individual chronically sick and vulnerable to disease, a process that may be involved in how poverty shortens lives. When Jennifer Stellar from our lab recently looked at the relationship between the cytokine system and various positive emotions, she found that of all the positive emotions, only awe predicted reduced levels of cytokines to a statistically significant degree. Though this is still quite speculative, it raises the possibility that some of the pernicious effects of poverty are due to awe deprivation.
One last study from our Berkeley lab speaks to the promise of daily awe. Amie Gordon gathered people's daily reports of awe for two weeks and found that it is surprisingly common in everyday living. Every third day, on average, people feel that they are in the presence of something vast that they do not immediately comprehend. For example, seeing gold and red autumn leaves pirouette to the ground in a light wind; being moved by someone who stands up to injustice; and hearing music on a street corner at 2 AM all elicited such a feeling. Intriguingly, each burst of daily awe predicted greater well-being and curiosity weeks later.
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These discoveries are being made at a time when, arguably, our culture is becoming more awe-deprived. Adults spend more and more time working and commuting and less time outdoors and with other people. So often our gaze is fixed on our smartphones rather than noticing the wonders and beauty of the natural world or witnessing acts of kindness, which also inspire awe. Attendance at arts events--live music, theater, museums and galleries--has dropped in recent years. This goes for children, too: Arts and music programs in schools are being dismantled; time spent outdoors and for unstructured exploration are being sacrificed for resume-building activities. At the same time, our culture has become more individualistic, more narcissistic, more materialistic, and less connected to others.
In the face of these big cultural trends, our own individual actions may seem meaningless. Yet the research on awe suggests that modest steps can have a major impact on our well-being. So don't underestimate the power of goosebumps--actively seek out the experiences that nurture your own hunger for awe, be it through appreciating the trees in your neighborhood, a complex piece of music, patterns of wind on water, the person who presses on against all odds, or the everyday nobility of others.
Take the time to pause and open your mind to those things which you do not fully understand. You will be the better for it -- and, as your feelings of awe ripple out through acts of kindness, so will the rest of us.
Learn more about the science of awe at The Art & Science of Awe, June 4 on the UC Berkeley campus or via webcast, featuring a keynote by Dacher Keltner.
Raul Castro, have you gone completely insane?
No, I'm not talking about the human rights abuses you continue inflicting on your country's residents even though, unlike your brother Fidel, you are warming to Western culture and the freedoms that go with it. Allowing an international rock band -- the Rolling Stones no less -- to play Cuba was a nice touch.
But letting an American cruise ship sail into Havana twice a month, as Carnival Cruise Lines' 704-passenger Adonia recently began doing, may be your biggest regret. Take it from someone who has sailed on dozens of cruises as both passenger and employee: American cruise ship passengers are not your ordinary tourists. Or human beings.
Maybe you've already seen them walking -- excuse me, waddling down the gangplank. They cannot briskly stroll into Havana, Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba, the Adonia's three ports of call, because, in one sitting, they have already consumed more food than your country's residents see in a month.
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Sure their travel wallets will be brimming with pesos, which should benefit Cuba's economy. The U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council even estimated that, if other cruise lines follow suit and begin similar voyages to Cuba, your country could reap $80 million tourism dollars a year!
But trust me, that figure is considerably inflated. Why? Because cruise ship passengers pay full price for only three things: snorkel trips, zip line rides and "pirate ship" excursions featuring rum punch that will cause them to regurgitate their last three meals. Good thing the nacho bar on Deck 11 is open 24 hours a day.
And when it comes to shopping, they will incessantly barter, even with residents who make $20 a month (the average salary in your country). They will threaten to walk away unless the proprietor of those hand-rolled cigars reduces his price. Don't believe me? I once saw a cruise passenger (instantly recognizable by the shopping sticker on her tank top and the striped beach towel courtesy of the ship), make an elderly Bahamian woman cry. The woman had just hand-assembled a hat made entirely of palm fronds, a skill no American has the patience to master. Ten dollars was her asking price. The passenger refused to pay more than $5. I believe the two eventually agreed upon $6, less than the cost of a cruise ship strawberry daiquiri, one of four the passenger no doubt slurped down after her shopping excursion.
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From what I hear, your country is rich in history. And I'm sure you are eager to show it off to the passengers via guided bus tours one can easily book at the ship's excursion desk. Just don't be too disappointed if that bus doesn't contain the rapt audience you had hoped for, as cruise ship passengers have the attention span of toddlers and most of their thought processes are focused on only one thing: where their next meal is coming from. You will have a much livelier audience if the bus includes snacks.
Cuban nightclubs packed with American cruise tourists? Highly unlikely, as exploring your country after 6 p.m. means a meal is being missed in the ship's main dining room. And once the passengers have stuffed themselves for the umpteenth time, kicking up their heels to a salsa band will be physically impossible. Instead they will remain aboard, watching college kids perform From Broadway to Beyonce! and listening to a comedian exclaim, "People ask the dumbest questions on cruises. I just heard a guy say, 'What time is the midnight buffet?'"
OK, Mr. Castro, maybe I'm generalizing. I'm sure there are plenty of well-mannered passengers mixed in with the cretins I just described. After all, reports have circulated that some Americans are packing basic necessities and randomly handing them out to Cubans on the street. Although your government probably frowns on this practice, even I would be willing to jump back on a cruise. Not so I could Instagram from a floating food pantry, but for the privilege of presenting a Cuban child with something as simple as a hair bow or matchbox car. My only issue is the cruise price. The web says Cuban cruises start at $2,320.
The personal ties between Donald Trump and Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of CNN, extend beyond the reality TV hit they created together into a far more personal realm: the expensive Manhattan private school where they have both sent children, and where Zucker's wife was until recently a member of the board.
Trump's foundation has contributed more than $150,000 over the past three years to the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, a nonprofit school on Manhattan's Upper West Side also known as Columbia Prep. Caryn Zucker is listed as a board member for the school in tax documents covering July 2012 through June 2014.
Zucker has drawn criticism inside and outside of CNN for the cable channel's coverage of Trump, including charges that CNN has turned its platform over to a demagogue and hasn't been sufficiently skeptical of Trump's routine campaign falsehoods. Zucker has brushed off these charges, saying that it's only natural for a political frontrunner to receive outsize attention. Neither party has referred publicly to this family connection.
In February 2015,
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It's that time of year again. Thousands of graduates will walk the stage at commencement, most wondering what they'll do with their lives. Meanwhile, most of their parents will dream of what they can do with the extra room in the house.
I kid, of course. Many parents dread the "empty nest" syndrome at first. Along the way, many people will tell you to enjoy this time of your life (which you should), and not worry about the future just yet.
But that's not necessarily the best course of action in my opinion. The best advice I can give is simple. Have passion, and plenty of patience, especially if your dream is to be a successful entrepreneur. The truth is, the path to becoming a successful entrepreneur won't be easy. If disciplined and stay with it though, you can literally change the world.
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It takes a great deal of patience and hard work. Don't expect anything to be handed to you along the way - that's the first lesson you should learn quickly. If you're willing to buckle down and if you want something bad enough, you can definitely make it happen.
"Opportunity is about seizing what's there," former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, once told the Class of 2014 at the University of Washington. "It's about having a point of view...it's also about patience and determination. Things will not necessarily come to you - poof! - immediately and overnight. You are going to have to be determined and long-term."
Every successful entrepreneur has had his or her fair share of ups and downs, including myself. Many experience crippling failure before finding fortune in what they're truly passionate about. In fact, as I've often noted, eight entrepreneurs out of every 10 fail right out the gate. But as I say to my own children, it's the strong that get up and try again.
Entrepreneurs face tough odds. Most times, the odds are stacked against us. We're told we'll never succeed because of market over-saturation, or that our ideas aren't strong enough, or no one is interested. It can be mind-numbingly frustrating.
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But the strong always figure out a way to survive - entrepreneurs don't give in to the pressure of potential failure. They just push forward. Successful people always find a way to get the job done, despite what others may say.
For example, as Entrepreneur.com reported recently, "Herb Kelleher cofounded Southwest Airlines on the crazy notion of using small regional airports and charging rock-bottom fares. Nobody thought he could pull it off. Today its market cap is bigger than United Continental and nearly as big as American and Delta.
"Coffee shops had always been the bottom of the restaurant food chain, so Howard Schultz's bosses at coffee roaster Starbucks balked at his idea for a chain of cafes serving espresso, as was the custom in Italy. So, he took a flying leap, bought the brand and the rest is history."
From my early days as a disc jockey, spinning records for parties, earning extra cash, to my days as a strategic capital and management advisor and investor in a variety of companies, I never expected to be handed anything along the way - and I wasn't.
I knew very well there are no shortcuts to anything in life that's worth having. Success comes from a desire to know where you've been, where you want to go, and your drive needed to get there. Many years of hard work and determination got me to the point where I am today.
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We all have something that makes us tick, makes us get out of bed in the morning to prove ourselves. As Elizabeth Holmes, who at 31 and the youngest self-made female billionaire told Pepperdine University in 2015, as quoted by Forbes: "When I first started our company, almost everyone I met told me there was no way I would succeed, and that I should go back to school. And as we began to succeed, the number of people who started attacking and tearing us down grew even greater. When it's hardest is when it matters most. Stay the course. In my own life, I've always believed those moments are inflection points: moments to own and find out who we really are."
Or, as Michael Bloomberg recently told the graduating class at the University of Michigan, "Those who promise you a free lunch will invariably eat you for breakfast..."
Here are some other key pieces of advice I often give to graduates, entrepreneurs, and those looking for new opportunity.
Always be willing to Learn
Continue your education in college, business school, graduate school, or take extra classes to help you excel in the industry of your choosing. The more you know, the better and more marketable you become over time. Once you stop learning, you stop growing. Above all else, education helps you seize opportunities you may have never known to exist.
Know how to deal with failure
For many entrepreneurs, failure comes with the territory. Learn from it.
Drew Houston, CEO of Dropbox was quoted as saying, "Don't worry about failure; you only have to be right once."
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And Bill Gates once said, "It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure."
Persistence Pays Off
As long as you have a passion for what you want to do, persistence always pays off. You will eventually get to where you want to go. Staying persistent is difficult for some because they are always seeking instant gratification.
Give Yourself a Break
Always remember to give yourself a break. Not everything has to be hard. Live life. Enjoy it.
As professionals in any field, a lot of us spend a considerable amount of time planning, travelling, and working only to realize weeks have gone by without any time for ourselves. For me, working in commercial real estate is an exciting venture. The deals, the global aspect of the business, the amount of money that I see flow through on a daily basis is invigorating. I wouldn't give it up for the world.
But even I know when it's time to just get away. As Entrepreneur Magazine recently pointed out, your brain can become clouded. "When you're buried in the emotional roller coaster that comes with entrepreneurship over long periods of time, it's only natural that a toll is going to be taken on your nerves. The likely result of this typical early stage lifecycle is that your stress levels will progressively elevate, creating tension in your environment that is so thick it could be cut with a knife."
The Philippines is a beautiful mass of contradictions. Crowded, dirty cities juxtapose pristine lagoons and empty beaches. Beautiful Catholic churches overlook controversial 'love hotels.' Vacationers in Boracay lounge in the sun while villages in the northeast islands are washed away by typhoons. There is no single word that can sum up the Philippines, but here are seven reason why you should definitely experience this spectacle of contrasts firsthand.
1. The incredible rice terraces in Luzon
Rice Drying in Batad, Ifugao
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that this island nation is all beaches and lagoons. There are incredible mountain regions throughout the islands. Northern Luzon boasts a UNESCO World Heritage Site: The Rice Terraces of Batad and Banaue. The terraced cliffs surrounding the towns will stagger the imagination, the traditional tribespeople are welcoming and friendly (and happily accept tips for photos), and the trekking is world-class. For a challenge, try to find your way to the Tappiyah Waterfall on your own. Figuring out the narrow pathway between flooded rice paddies makes for an exciting morning.
Traditional Ifugao tribeswomen pose with me
2. Volcano adventures
The Philippines is home to dozens of volcanoes, some that are very much active. When it's peaceful, you can attempt to summit moody Mount Mayon in Bicol, but a guide is required and tourists have died from unexpected mini-eruptions in the past. For more options (and a little bit safer ones), you can make your way to low-tourist Camiguin, in Northern Mindanao. This island boasts more volcanoes per square kilometer than any other island on earth, according to Lonely Planet. Hikers can climb the mountains one day, then soothe sore muscles in the many natural hot springs in the area the next.
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Mount Hibok Hibok, an active volcano on Camiguin Island
3. Swimming with Whale Sharks
Swimming with whale sharks in the Philippines
It tops many a bucket list, and it's an experience unlike any other. The most popular place to swim with whale sharks in the Philippines is in Donsol, in the south of Luzon island. Reports say that sightings are becoming more infrequent in this region as the climate and changes. Oslob, on the island of Cebu, has been promoting swims with these large and beautiful sharks, and sightings are virtually guaranteed. They have come under fire for disrupting natural feeding habits by feeding the sharks themselves, a no-no to animal-rights groups.
4. The wonderful, kind people
Politeness and respect run deep in Filipino culture, and it shows. Expect to be called "sir" or "ma'am" regularly, expect locals to bend over backward to help you, and expect plenty of great conversation with anyone brave enough to approach the foreigner. You'll get a little bit of the celebrity treatment as well, with sweet requests to be center-stage in photos. It is impossible to leave the Philippines without a deep affection for the people.
5. The best beaches on the planet
White Beach in Boracay at sunset
It's like something from a brochure: long stretches of white sand, unbelievably vivid turquoise water, palm trees swaying in a the light breeze, sailboats skimming over the flat sea... you'll think you've died and gone to a beach heaven. From Boracay to Puerto Galera to the deserted sands of Palawan, there's a beach for everyone somewhere in the 7,000+ islands of the Philippines. Remote and rustic Nacpan Beach outside of El Nido recently beat out luxe resort islands like Mykonos and the British Virgin Islands in CNN Travel's Reader's Choice for best beach in the world. Now that's saying something!
Nacpan Beach, El Nido. Completely Empty!
6. One word: Palawan
The Big Lagoon in El Nido, Palawan
The Westernmost island province in the Philippines, Palawan has been coming up big as a tourist destination in past 10 years. Perhaps that's because Palawan has a little bit of everything: Geological adventures exploring the massive underground river in Sabang, budget-friendly lazy beach towns in Port Barton and San Vicente, and the unreal lagoons and reefs in El Nido and Coron. It's a dive-lovers' paradise, a beach-lover's paradise, a kayak-lover's paradise, a sunset-lover's paradise... should we just call it all-around paradise? You could easily spend over two weeks just exploring the wonders of this island, let alone the other 7,106!
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Sunset at Marimegmeg Beach, El Nido, Palawan
7. You'll feel like a true traveler
You may find yourself in a packed bus station, the only person with light hair and eyes, standing head and shoulders over everyone else while curious locals check you out from the corner of their eyes. You may find out (the hard way, as I did) that functioning ATMs are a rarity outside of the biggest cities, and it may send you on an hours-long motorbike and jeepney quest for cash. You will find many people gasp when you admit that, yes, you are traveling alone. But there's something about missing that security of hordes of other Western travelers that makes you feel as if you are finally forging yourself as a bona-fide traveler, and not just a tourist.
Twin Lakes Lagoon in Coron, Busuanga
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That's what Abigail Disney says she learned while filming her documentary "The Armor of Light."
The film follows Evangelical pastor Rob Schenck as he searches for the courage to preach about the ungodly toll of gun violence in the U.S. in circles where the 2nd Amendment is considered holy. He reflects with the help of Lucy McBath, whose unarmed, teenaged black son was murdered by a white man with a gun for playing loud music at a gas station in Florida.
Rev. Schenck is a far-right anti-abortion activist who starts to question whether being pro-gun can logically coexist with being pro-life. Friends and colleagues warn him to keep his distance from this thorny issue. McBath, who is also a Christian, agrees to work with him as her devastating real-life experience propels her to fight for common sense gun legislation.
'The Armor of Light' follows them as they take a deeper look at the American gun culture, and as they cross polarized party lines to find common ground with one another toward a greater goal. You can watch the premiere of the documentary Tuesday, May 10 at 8:00PM on PBS.
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By Jerry Zezima
Whenever I attempt to do something I can't do -- sing, dance, perform surgery -- somebody tells me not to quit my day job. The only people who want me to quit are my bosses, who don't realize that the reason I have my day job is that I am spectacularly unqualified to do anything else.
Still, you never know when you will no longer be gainfully (or, in my case, ungainfully) employed. So, because I have had a fair career, I recently went to a career fair. It was held, perhaps not coincidentally, at the company where I work on Long Island, New York.
The first thing I found out, after stopping at a table sponsored by my company, is that I couldn't get a job with my company. That's because they were looking for someone to provide technical support.
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"Technically speaking, my 3-year-old granddaughter is more advanced than I am," I admitted, "which means she would have to support me."
"Can you do anything else?" asked Craig Brusseler, talent manager for operations.
"Aside from telling bad jokes, I have no talent," I said. "And hospital patients wouldn't trust me to do operations."
But Chrissy Huber, a sales recruiter, thought I had promise.
"You have a good personality," she noted, "so you could go door to door to convince people who have switched to another cable company to come back to us."
"What if somebody thought I was a scam artist and called the cops?" I wondered. "I don't want to go back to prison."
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Chrissy raised her eyebrows, extended her hand and said, "Good luck with your job search."
I had bad luck at the next table, which was sponsored by BMW.
"We are looking for technicians," said recruiter Stefan Schedel.
"I'd have an easier time transcribing the Dead Sea Scrolls than telling you what's going on under the hood of a car," I confessed.
"I'm afraid you're not the kind of person we're looking for," said Renai Ellison, another recruiter.
"Could I at least get a free car out of the deal?" I asked.
I didn't. But I did get a free tote bag. I dropped in the Cablevision Frisbee and the pen I got from my company.
Next I stopped at the Liberty Mutual table, where Maureen Baranello and Robert Moore were looking for someone to sell insurance.
"It involves outside referrals," Maureen said.
"I don't like working outside," I replied. "What if it rains?"
"Buy a raincoat and an umbrella," Robert suggested.
I told the two recruiters about the time I got into a car accident that was caused by a guy whose GPS told him to go the wrong way down a one-way street.
"Your company covered the damage," I said.
"You can tell that story to potential customers," said Maureen.
"Does the job include crunching numbers?" I inquired.
"Yes," Robert said. "Lots of them."
"I'll have to disqualify myself," I said. "One of the reasons I went into journalism is because I can't do math. I'd bankrupt your company in a week."
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I'd do the same to Bethpage Federal Credit Union, whose recruiter, Amanda Shatel, said I couldn't refinance my mortgage so I wouldn't have any more payments.
"I helped bail out the banks," I pointed out. "Would yours do the same for me?"
"Sorry," said Amanda, who gave me a free letter opener so I could open my mortgage statements.
I visited other tables -- including those sponsored by Riverhead Building Supply, where I got a paint stick and a rubber hammer; The Arbors, which runs assisted living communities, where I got another pen; and David Lerner Associates, an investment broker, where I got a handshake -- but nothing panned out.
"Did you go to the career fair?" one of my bosses asked when I returned to my desk.
"Yes," I said.
"How'd it go?" he wondered.
"Bad news," I said. "I'm not quitting my day job."
Stamford Advocate humor columnist Jerry Zezima is the author of three books. His latest is "Grandfather Knows Best." Visit his blog at www.jerryzezima.blogspot.com. Email: JerryZ111@optonline.net.
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 1: (AFP OUT) President Barack Obama arrives to speak during a closing session at the Nuclear Security Summit April 1, 2016 in Washington, D.C. After a spate of terrorist attacks from Europe to Africa, Obama is rallying international support during the summit for an effort to keep Islamic State and similar groups from obtaining nuclear material and other weapons of mass destruction. (Photo By Andrew Harrer/Pool/Getty Images)
President Obama entered office with a bold vision, determined to end the Cold War thinking that distorted our nuclear posture. He failed. He has a few more moves he could still make -- particularly with his speech in Hiroshima later this month -- but the next president will inherit a nuclear mess.
Obama had the right strategy. In his brilliant Prague speech, he identified our three greatest nuclear threats: nuclear terrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons to new states and the dangers from the world's existing nuclear arsenals. He detailed plans to reduce and eventually eliminate all three, understanding correctly that they all must be tackled at once or progress would be impossible on any.
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Progress Thwarting Nuclear Terror
Through his Nuclear Security Summits, Obama created an innovative new tool to raise the threat of nuclear terrorism to the highest level of global leadership and inspire scores of voluntary actions to reduce and secure nuclear materials. But it is, as The New York Times editorialized, "a job half done." Instead of securing all the material in four years as originally promised, after eight years we still have 1,800 tons of bomb-usable material stored in 24 countries, some of it guarded less securely than we guard our library books.
If a terrorist group could get their hands on just 100 pounds of enriched uranium, they could make a bomb that could destroy a major city. In October of last year, an AP investigation revealed that nuclear smugglers were trying to sell weapons grade uranium to ISIS. Smugglers were overheard on wiretaps as saying that they wanted to find an ISIS buyer because, "they will bomb the Americans."
More recently, we learned that extremists connected to the attacks in Paris and Belgium had also been videotaping a Belgian nuclear scientist, likely in the hopes of forcing "him to turn over radioactive material, possibly for use in a dirty bomb."
Obama got us moving in the right direction, but when you are fleeing a forest fire, it is not just a question of direction but also of speed. Can we get to safety before catastrophe engulfs us?
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Victory on Iran
His greatest success, by far, has been the agreement with seven nations that blocks Iran's path to a bomb. This is huge. There are only two nations in the world with nuclear programs that threatened to become new nuclear-armed states: Iran and North Korea. North Korea has already crossed the nuclear Rubicon and we must struggle to see if we can contain that threat and even push them back. Thanks to the Iran agreement however, Iran can now be taken off the list.
For this achievement alone, Obama should get an "A" on his non-proliferation efforts. He is the first president in 24 years not to have a new nuclear nation emerge on his watch.
Bill Clinton saw India and Pakistan explode into the nuclear club in 1998. George W. Bush watched as North Korea set off its first nuclear test in 2006. Barack Obama scratched Iran from contention. Through negotiations, he reduced its program to a fraction of its original size and shrink-wrapped it within the toughest inspection regime ever negotiated. It didn't cost us a dime. And nobody died. It is, by any measure, a major national security triumph.
Failure to Cut
Unfortunately Obama could not match these gains when it came to the dangers posed by the existing arsenals. The New START Treaty he negotiated with Russia kept alive the intricate inspection procedures previous presidents had created, so that each of the two nuclear superpowers could verify the step-by-step reduction process set in motion by Ronald Reagan and continued by every president since.
That's where the good news ends. The treaty made only modest reductions to each nation's nuclear arsenals. The United States and Russia account for almost 95 percent of all the nuclear weapons in the world, with about 7,000 each. The treaty was supposed to be a holding action, until the two could negotiate much deeper reductions. That step never came.
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The "Three R's" blocked the path: Republicans, Russians and Resistance.
First, the Republican Party leadership in Congress fought any attempt at reductions. Though many Republicans supported the treaty, including Colin Powell, George Shultz and Senator Richard Lugar, the entrenched leadership did not want to give a Democratic president a major victory, particularly in the election year of 2010. They politicized national security, putting the interest of the party over the interest of the nation. It took everything Obama had to finally get the treaty approved on the last day of the legislative session in December.
By then, the president's staff had seen more arms control then they wanted, and the administration turned its attention to other pressing issues. Plans to "immediately and aggressively" pursue Senate approval of the nuclear test ban treaty were shelved and never reconsidered. The Republicans had won.
Worse, when Russia's Vladimir Putin returned to power, Obama lost the negotiating partner he had had in President Medvedev. Putin linked any future negotiation to a host of other issues, including stopping the deployment of US anti-missile systems in eastern Europe, cuts in conventional forces and limits on long-range conventional strike systems the Russian claimed threatened their strategic nuclear forces. Negotiations never resumed.
Finally, he faced resistance from the nuclear industrial complex, including many of those he himself appointed to implement his policies. Those with a vested financial, organizational or political interest in the thousands of contracts, factories, bases and positions within what is now euphemistically call our "nuclear enterprise" will do anything they can to preserve those dollars, contracts and positions. Many of his appointees merely paid lip-service to the president's agenda, paying more attention to the demands of the services, or the contractors or their own careers. Our nuclear policy is now less determined by military necessity or strategic doctrine, than by self-interest.
It is difficult to find someone who supports keeping our obsolete Cold War arsenal that is not directly benefiting from, or beholden to, these weapons. In a very strange way, the machines we built are now controlling us.
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The Fourth Threat
To make matters worse, under Obama's watch these three "traditional" nuclear threats have been joined by a fourth: nuclear bankruptcy.
Obama pledged in Prague that as he reduced the role and number of nuclear weapons in U.S. policy, he would maintain a "safe, secure and reliable" arsenal. He increased spending on nuclear weapons, in part to make much needed repairs to a nuclear weapons complex neglected under the Bush administration and, in part, to win New START votes from key senators with nuclear bases and labs in their states.
As Obama's policy faltered, the nuclear contracts soared. The Pentagon has embarked on the greatest nuclear weapons spending spree in U.S. history. Over the next 30 years the Pentagon is planning to spend at least $1 trillion on new nuclear weapons. Every leg of the U.S. nuclear triad -- our fleet of nuclear bombers, ballistic missile submarines, and ICBMs -- will be completely replaced by a new generation of weapons that will last well into the later part of this century. It is a new nuclear nightmare.
What Should the Next President Do?
While most of us have forgotten that nuclear weapons still exist today, former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry warns that we "are on the brink of a new nuclear arms race" with all the perils, near-misses and terrors you thought ended with the Cold War. The war is over; the weapons live on.
The next president cannot make the mistake of believing that incremental change in our nuclear policies will be enough to avoid disaster. Or that appointing the same people who failed to make significant change under this administration, will somehow help solve the challenges of the next four years. There is serious work to be done.
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We need a new plan to accelerate the elimination of nuclear material. We need a new strategy for North Korea. But most of all, we need a new strategy for America. It starts with us. As long as we keep a stockpile of nuclear weapons far in excess of any conceivable need, how can we convince other nations to give up theirs?
The Joint Chiefs told President Obama that he could safely cut our existing nuclear arsenal and that we would have more than enough weapons to fulfill every military mission. It did not matter what the Russians did. If they cut or did not cut, honored the New START Treaty or cheated. We could still cut down to about 1000 to 1100 strategic weapons and still handle every contingency.
The next president should do that. Not just because it is sound strategic policy - but because it is essential financial policy too. We are going broke. We do not have enough money to pay for all the weapons the Pentagon ordered when they projected ever-rising defense budgets. "There's a reckoning coming here," warns Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. "Do we really need the nuclear power to destroy the world six, seven times?"
The Defense Department admits it does not have the money to pay for these plans. Referring to the massive "bow wave" of spending set to peak in the 2020s and 2030s, Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord said "I don't know of a good way for us to solve this issue."
In one of more cynical admissions by a trusted Obama advisor, Brian McKeon, the principal undersecretary of defense for policy, said last October, "We're looking at that big [nuclear] bow wave and wondering how the heck we're going to pay for it," And we're "probably thanking our stars we won't be here to have to answer the question," he added with a chuckle.
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He may think it's funny now, but the next president won't when the stuff hits the fan in 2017. One quick example: The new nuclear submarines the Navy wants will devour half of the Navy's shipbuilding budget in the next decade. According to the Congressional Research Service, to build 12 of these new subs, "the Navy would need to eliminate... a notional total of 32 other ships, including, notionally, 8 Virginia-class attack submarines, 8 destroyers and 16 other combatant ships."
These are ships we use every day around the world on real missions to deal with real threats. They launch strikes against ISIS, patrol the South China Sea, interdict pirates around the horn of Africa, guarantee the safety of international trade lanes, and provide disaster relief around the globe.
The conventional navy's mission is vital to international security and stability. It is foolish, and dangerous, to cut our conventional forces to pay for weapons built to fight a global thermonuclear war.
Bottom-Up
The next President could do a bottom-up review of our nuclear weapons needs. Don't ask the Pentagon managers of these programs what they can cut. You know the answer you will get. Take a blank slate and design the force we really need.
Do we truly need to spend $30 billion on a new, stealthy nuclear cruise missile to put on the new nuclear-armed stealth bomber?
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Do we truly need to keep 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles, whose chief value is to have the states that house them serve as targets to soak up so many of the enemy's nuclear warheads that it would "complicate an adversary's attack plans?" Do Montana and Wyoming and North Dakota really want to erect billboards welcoming visitors to "America's Nuclear Sponge?"
If President Trump, or Clinton, or Sanders put their trust in the existing bureaucracy, it will likely churn out the same Cold War nuclear gibberish. It will be up to outside experts, scientists, retired military and former diplomats to convince the new president to learn from Obama's successes and his failures.
Obama had the right vision, the right strategy. He just didn't have an operational plan to get it all done. It is not that hard, if you have the political will.
Over to you next POTUS.
For months -- years even -- a column has been gestating. A journal naming issue with a new editor-in-chief position -- more on this below -- brought the subject forward. Then came the whap to all of our faces of the British Medical Journal article reminder that medicine, in the USA, is the nation's third most powerful cause of death. The question: Is it smart for the integrative health and medicine movement to abandon the radicalism of calling for an "alternative medicine"?
The BMJ news of 250,000 deaths annually from medicine as routinely applied may be argument enough to call for some sort of "alternative."
The news will shock but not altogether surprise millions of human beings who as consumers and practitioners begin an exodus from fealty to regular medicine three decades ago. These people saw and felt the limits of the business of drugs first and surgeries after that characterized what was then only revving up to become the $3 trillion industry it is today. I was one of them who stepped away.
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The vast majority of us -- some 97% in surveys -- weren't saying good-bye to what is valuable in regular medicine. We weren't stupid. After extensive study following my 2008 throat cancer diagnosis, I took my course of 33 radiation treatments and my 3 Cisplatin treatments. I simply added a good deal of very useful complementary, supportive care -- pre, during and post -- that no one in the academic medical center where I got my treatment recommended.
No -- we sought and still seek alternatives to dehumanizing, production-centered, technology-oriented, natural process-denying, bulling disregard for the value of other professions and practices that an alternative "holistic" or "whole person" or "natural" or "mind-body" approach to what ailed us.
We want an alternative to an opioid strategy such as that propounded by the CDC and the Obama administration's 1.1-billion plan that denies the value of multiple non-pharmacologic, alternative and integrative approaches.
We want an alternative that says Never Only Opioids.
We want an alternative that says never only any long-term course of a drug known to have significant adverse consequences when used chronically if other approaches might limit the need or reduce the harm.
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We want an alternative that focuses on health, well-being and healing.
We want an alternative to decision processes that exclude entire licensed practitioner groups -- chiropractors, acupuncturists, integrative and naturopathic doctors, holistic nurses, massage and yoga therapists -- when it is clear that millions of citizens of the United States are benefiting from their services every single day. Right now. This moment. Not awaiting Big Brother's sanction.
We want an alternative to medical practice that starts with drugs and invasive measures and fails to put personal engagement, lifestyle choices, and determinants front and center. We want a therapeutic order such as that propounded by the naturopathic physicians and urged as "conservative care" by chiropractors and integrative medical doctors and others of those who provide "alternatives" to regular care.
We want an alternative to a self-justifying medical ethos that asserts that people don't want to change.
We want an alternative to the 5 minute or 15 minute office calls that drive physicians to prescribe drugs and flat-out deny the complexity of what got people in trouble in the first place, and the time needed to learn, and to unravel and resolve the issues.
We want an alternative to any medical doctors or other health professionals who lack a primary respect for the roles of nutrition, self-care, mindfulness, sleep, movement, environment, community and the actual science of supporting individuals to health.
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We want an alternative to a payment system that puts the workaday wizards of change agency with people's health processes at the bottom of the totem pole or, more likely, hatchets them off altogether.
We want an alternative to any major invasive procedure that does not include supportive preparation and post-event strategies to assist healing.
We want an alternative, as Group Health Research Institute senior investigator Dan Cherkin, PhD recently argued to a still dominant focus of resources on reductive biomedical research and practice.
We want an alternative to an industrial approach to payment and delivery that directly drives the morbidity and mortality reflected in those ugly data from the British Medical Journal. First, do no harm.
The movement from "alternative" to a new language of "complementary" and "integrative" when it arrived in the mid-1990s was partly what would, on the street, be called a "suck-up" gesture. I participated, and still do. We were trying to find a way to play inside the power-centers of the juggernauts, world views, and abiding priorities that daily generate the BMJ outcomes.
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"Complementary" I will always like. The word is a clinical expression of the move in health care for interprofessionalism and teams -- of practicing and learning with, from and about each other. Each complements the other. If you wonder to what extent this relationship-based approach is an "alternative," check out perspectives of leaders of this National Academy of Sciences initiative speaking of the "end of tinkering" and the need to "break the boxes" of present practices.
The reframing to "integrative" was tap-rooted in the work of medical doctors coming from the alternative and natural medicine traditions, like Andrew Weil, MD. They were beginning to engage the daunting political-economic-medical work of reforming academic medicine from the inside. Diplomacy was required. "Alternative medicine" was a bold challenge. "Integrative" was reassuring. Regular medicine is still the center. You are still in the driver's seat. The word has been a door-opener.
Yet these integrative medical doctor change agents in their self-definition call for a relationship centered system that is inclusive of all health professionals and disciplines, focused on health and healing. Would you say this is an "alternative" to what we have today?
"Integrative" has its value. But does it capture what is needed?
So, to the opportunity that provoked this column. I was asked a month ago, out of the blue, if I would like to become editor-in-chief of the first peer-reviewed, indexed journal in what is now the "integrative health and medicine" field. The journal was born 20 years ago when -- as my father would have put it -- "integrative medicine" was hardly a gleam in anyone's eye. The publication is the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
I was told that renaming is on the table. Do we keep the name as is? Do we add "integrative"? Do we, as a federal research agency and an academic collaborative have recently chosen, lose the "alternative"?
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Imagine relocating to a new country, not knowing anyone, not understanding the language, or having few resources. Now imagine starting a business under those circumstances.
Could you do it?
More and more women are launching their entrepreneurial dreams in the United States--some with the added hurdle of being an immigrant.
Negar Jahanbin was only four years old when her family came to the United States from Iran. She didn't know it as a young child, but she was learning some life lessons that would guide her into exciting directions as an adult.
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As a child watching her father start his own business, she learned some vital skills. "Coming to this country, you have no foundation to build on, so you have to have determination, commitment and a drive to succeed. I watched my family work hard to make it here, and it had a lasting effect on me," says Jahanbin.
Coming from a family of doctors, she volunteered in high school at the local hospital. She enjoyed cheering patients up and soon realized that was where she could use her desire to help people. After graduating from Villanova University, she honed her business skills while working for Johnson and Johnson, Inc.
Now 33 years old, Jahanbin is a successful franchise partner with SYNERGY HomeCare. For her, it's a marriage of all the things that are important to her. "I had always felt that I was called to be an entrepreneur. And I knew I cared deeply about helping people. So I just needed to find a way to combine the two and make a living. And now as a business owner, I love how I'm making a difference in my community whether it's providing care to a client or a job for someone who needs work," says Jahanbin.
Dzana Homan came to the U.S. well educated, but with only $1,200 in her pocket and absolutely no understanding of the English language. She took odd jobs to make money--including babysitting, playing music in a bar, and cleaning houses.
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Homan grew up in former communist Yugoslavia. At the time, she lived in an eclectic, multi-cultural city. It was a very competitive environment, and her parents encouraged her to get the best education possible. She studied both physics and piano in college and got a master's degree in physics at a university in Slovenia. After college, she took a detour back home to visit her parents and ended up stuck in a war zone for four and a half years during the Bosnian War.
With the city under siege, she spent time as a volunteer helping children in a nearby hospital. This fueled her passion for children's education. In 1995, she finally left Yugoslavia as a refugee and came as far west as she could--Los Angeles, California. Homan says, "I didn't speak English, had very little money, but eventually talked my way into graduate school in New Mexico to get my second master's degree in electrical engineering."
Homan became discouraged after graduate school and didn't know where to turn. Her mother suggested she start volunteering, so she walked into a small business called Futurekids in Manhattan Beach, California, and became a part-time robotics teacher. Within two months, she was the director of the learning center, and within a year, she was a partner and eventually became CEO.
After Futurekids, she spent time as CEO of Huntington Learning Center and COO of The Goddard School. During this period, she had gone to a rock show to see her friend's son perform. She thought it was going to be another typical children's recital but was amazed when the kids started playing. Her friend's son had only been in the program for eight weeks and was already rocking out on-stage. "It was unlike anything I have ever seen! I thought to myself, 'I have to run this program.' With music in my blood, this was the perfect opportunity for me to combine my love for teaching with my love for music," says Homan. At the time, there were no openings with School of Rock, but eventually, fate played out exactly as she desired. Homan is now the CEO of School of Rock.
Monica Nainsztein first came to the United States as a kid. The second time was after meeting a great guy online before Match.com and all the other online dating sites existed. "We connected, wanted to get married and move to the United States," says Nainsztein.
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Upon moving to the United States, she started her business now known as SpanishOne Plus. For Nainsztein, there was never a language barrier. She grew up in Argentina, Brazil, Israel and the United States. By age 10, she already had mastered five languages and began teaching her fifth language, English, in Argentina when she was 16.
"The language barrier luckily was never an obstacle for me; it was an asset because I started English as a second language in Argentina and it became my profession. I became an interpreter and then a translator--translating movies for Hollywood. I got to translate 007 The World Is Not Enough and The Motorcycle Diaries," says Nainsztein. Since then, SpanishOne Plus has gone on to become the preferred vendor of the California Chamber of Commerce along with working with Oxford University Press and the National Institute of Health.
Pum Lefebure grew up in Thailand and came to the United States as a foreign exchange student. She didn't speak the language, didn't understand the culture and was completely on her own. Learning took her twice as long as her classmates. Everything was a struggle for her to grasp. But Lefebure made it a point to work harder than everyone else. She learned to speak English by visually explaining concepts and directions without words. She also didn't rely on perfect translation across languages.
Lefebure carried that strong work ethic into her career--starting as an intern and working her way up to senior art director, managing a 50-plus creative team, and eventually starting her own business, Design Army.
"We started Design Army at our kitchen table, and it's grown to a top-tier branding firm, which gives me great pride," says Lefebure.
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Whether she's dreaming up hauntingly beautiful short films for the Washington Ballet, designing wildly witty Political Chocolate, or creating eye-popping visuals for the likes of The Academy Awards, Adobe, GE, Disney, Bloomingdale's, Ritz-Carlton, Smithsonian and Lucasfilm, Lefebure has become one of design's most influential craftswomen.
Entrepreneurs still experience the same growing pains whether they are immigrants or lifelong citizens. In 2014, Nainsztein considered shutting down her business. "I was having an identity crisis of what to do with my business and myself. It was a client that told me during an extraordinary mastermind session that the fall of my business was my own fault," she says.
It took that kick in the pants for her to realize that she had branded herself so well as Spanish One Translations that it actually hindered her growth. Everyone who knew her thought of her as the translator, which she thought was a brilliant strategy for her business. But she knew she had so much more to offer as a business owner.
"I'm so much more than just a beautiful face. I'm so much more than just translation. I'm an ideator. I'm a creator. I'm a brain. I'm a strategist," says Nainsztein.
Having those words come from somebody that she trusted meant so much to her, and it made her do a deep analysis. She says, "I changed my title on my business card to 'ideator.' I was no longer CEO. I was no longer president. I was no longer whatever cool title I had found for myself. I was an ideator. I was finally embracing what I was meant to be doing." Nainsztein also changed her business name to SpanishOne Plus to reflect the new direction of her business.
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That was 2014. Approximately eight months later, she landed a six-figure contract. It was her biggest contract with one client and involved translating all the common core math books from sixth to twelfth grade for a non-profit that distributes its books to 46 states and internationally.
While the challenges of immigration and settling into a new society can be daunting on their own, many women like Nainsztein, Jahanbin, Homan and Lefebure are opting to add entrepreneurship to the mix. And today, more and more women immigrants are finding entrepreneurial success in the United States, overcoming those barriers while making an impact in their new communities by providing services, leadership, and jobs.
About Julie Barnes
After nearly a year campaigning as a progressive Democrat for US Congress, two weeks ago today the voters of Maryland entrusted me with nearly 30,000 votes. But it was not enough to win in a nine-candidate primary race where the three front-runners, two men and myself, divided more than 100,000 votes. I am, of course, disappointed, especially because I feel a deep sense of obligation and gratitude to the people who believed in my campaign. Since Election Day, I've been focusing on the lessons I learned, and how to pay it forward.
Last week I had a chance to address 20 women leaders from all over the world who were convened by the U.S. State Department, Fortune, and Vital Voices, a non-profit that gives voice to women as agents of change in their countries. They came from Myanmar, Egypt, Russia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Vietnam. And like me, they are women struggling to make a difference in their communities, as entrepreneurs, political candidates, and heads of non-profits, and as women who face significant obstacles towards full equality. In responding to their questions about my career path and latest chapter as a candidate for political office, many of the thoughts that have been swirling in my conscious and unconscious mind crystalized.
First, I am proud of the reasons that compelled me to give up a rewarding corporate job with Marriott International, the world's largest hotel company, and run for public office last June. After 40 years in business and journalism, I wanted to serve my community and country, and because of my career success and savings, I was in a position to give up my salary to run full-time.
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As a working mother, global business executive, and citizen, I was frustrated by the partisan gridlock in Congress that was preventing our government from taking the necessary steps to address the growing economic insecurity among America's women and working families. I was passionate about raising the minimum wage, earned disproportionately by women and closing the pay gap between men and women's wages. I wanted to be a voice for safer communities through smart gun safety laws, and take action to combat climate change to protect our planet and protect our children's future.
I also believed that it was important for more women to run for office to address the gender gap in Congress, where fewer than one in five representatives are women. Only by getting off the sidelines will women change the dynamic and make sure their voices are added to the mix. These were issues that I could not address in my job at Marriott, even though my position had allowed me to have significant social impact by creating jobs in the global economy for women and disadvantaged youth, promoting opportunity and inclusion, particularly for women and the LGBTQ community, and addressing climate change through responsible business operations.
As with any new endeavor or job, there are some challenges you find easier than expected, and others more challenging. As a TV reporter for 25 years, I have become a quick study on a myriad of local and national issues, a good listener, and I was comfortable addressing crowds of strangers and skeptics. Speaking at 25 candidate forums and meeting thousands of voters at subway stops, shopping malls, and in people's living rooms was the easy part. More difficult was finding my own political voice.
As a local TV news reporter, I had always considered myself a story-teller, but also an advocate for smarter policies and programs in our community to improve education, combat crime, and confront other challenges. My job had allowed me to become deeply involved in community programs supporting disadvantaged women and children.
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That's not how the voters saw me, initially. I had to convince them that I was more than a narrator of the region's problems, I was committed to solutions, and had the vision and political skills to get it done. As a global business leader, I had enjoyed great success in my company and in the travel industry as an advocate for progressive policies around equality and diversity in the workplace, corporate social responsibility, and creating hospitality jobs that came with the expansion of global travel, from Haiti to Rwanda to India and the USA. In my campaign, I had to convince voters that those skills translated into the political realm and would make me an effective leader for Democratic values in a Republican-controlled Congress.
My business career had taught me to build teams, develop a plan to meet objectives, and be results-oriented, but the corporate culture also reinforced a certain anonymity. In many ways, it had taught me to sublimate my own voice. In the early days on the campaign trail, I found it hard to describe my experience at Marriott without saying "we," and I had to learn to express what "I" believed and would do. Similarly, my career as a journalist had trained me to hold back on partisan rhetoric, even on issues like marriage equality, reproductive rights, and immigration reform, where I had real passion. Over time, I learned to own my point of view, yield to my strong sense of purpose, and convince volunteers and voters alike that I had the knowledge, passion and commitment to be an agent of change on their behalf.
In the end, I found my voice, through practice and as I channeled the voice of the people who believed in me. Going forward, I remain committed to the 500 volunteers who knocked on doors and made phone calls on my behalf, to the donors in Maryland and across the country responsible for 10,000 contributions that helped fund my campaign, and the 30,000 voters who placed their hopes and trust in me. I pledge to use that voice to make my community and country stronger, whether it's around empowering women in our society, advocating for tougher gun safety laws, climate action, or supporting women candidates for office. And I haven't ruled out running again.
Winning isn't everything. Running itself is a victory, if finding one's voice can be used for the greater good.
Ever since the race for the Republican presidential nomination began, one thing in particular has been bugging me.
It's the statement that we need to "make America great again," which implies that America isn't great now but was at some unspecified time in the past.
Of course I know our country has problems -- huge problems. I'm not closing my eyes to unemployment, poverty, discrimination, crime, violence, addiction, and all of our other issues.
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But nostalgic rhetoric that refers to some undefined moment in our country's history does nothing less than negate the progress we've made since the birth of our nation 240 years ago; when the founding declaration that "all men are created equal" became a cornerstone upon which our nation was built.
Since those words were first written in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, countless courageous, determined people have advocated, marched, fought, sacrificed, and died to attain equality -- and give us all the freedoms we have today.
Just think about the very birth of our nation. In order to break free from British rule and unfair taxation practices, Americans with little to no military training were willing to take up arms and fight the highly trained, well-armed British forces. Historians estimate that over the course of the entire American Revolutionary War, 6,800 Americans lost their lives in combat and another 6,100 were wounded. Thanks to them, we ultimately won our independence.
Consider the struggle for the abolition of slavery. Think about the many slaves who led revolts against slaveholders while knowing their punishment would be brutal at best and deadly at worst. Think of Frederick Douglass, a former slave and prominent abolitionist, and people like Harriet Tubman, who helped slaves escape by way of the Underground Railroad. Lasting centuries, the road to freedom for all was long and difficult -- but successful. In 1865, slavery was officially abolished with the adoption of the 13th Amendment.
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Or think of the movement for women's suffrage. Strong leaders like Susan B. Anthony, who was arrested and tried for voting in 1872, led a decades-long struggle to gain voting rights. It wasn't until 1920, after tireless campaigning and picketing, that the 19th Amendment was adopted, stating that no citizen would be denied voting rights based on gender.
In 1941, the U.S. joined the Allies in the fight against Germany, Japan, and Italy in World War II. Like many other young men, my father, just 17 at the time, changed his birthday so he could enlist in the Navy and fight for freedom. And though he didn't come out of the war unscathed, he did come home again. But more than 400,000 U.S. servicemen gave their lives to liberate other countries and remove the threat to our own people from an enemy that was unlike anything the world had ever seen before.
Think of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Thousands upon thousands of people fought to end segregation and discrimination of African Americans. From Rosa Parks to Malcolm X to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the courageous people who dared to lead, who dared to speak out, who dared to stand up for their rights, initiated massive changes in our society. Two of those changes were a ban on discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin -- effectively ending segregation -- and the securing of equal voting rights.
Of course, as a bisexual man and LGBTQ advocate, I have to mention the fight for equal rights for our community. From the early days of the Stonewall riots in 1969 to the first Pride Marches in NYC; from the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness to the protection of gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation in hate crime laws; from the end of "Don't ask, don't tell" to the recognition of same-sex civil unions and marriages, prominent figures such as Harvey Milk, Bayard Rustin, Del Martin, Phyllis Lyon, Sylvia Rivera, Ellyn Ruthstrom, and Faith Cheltenham, as well as countless non-famous LGBTQ Americans and allies have dedicated their lives to our cause.
This is just a handful of the movements and people who have brought about positive change in our society. Still today, thousands upon thousands of Americans are fighting to achieve true equality, whether that's legislative, economic, societal, or all of the above. Many African Americans, Native Americans, and other minorities continue to face discrimination and are severely disadvantaged. More than 47 million Americans -- including 15.5 million children -- live in poverty. Women earn 21 percent less than men -- while doing the same work. The discussion surrounding the disrespectfully nicknamed "bathroom bill" illustrates the lack of acceptance and respect transgender and non-gender conforming people face. And there are many more individuals, groups, and communities fighting for their right to be recognized for who they truly are and have the same shot at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as everyone else.
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Yet while it's been a long, challenging road since the words "all men are created equal" were first written, the point is that here in the United States of America, we can stand up for our rights and we can bring about change. After all, we've been doing it for 240 years!
Thanks to those who went before us and those who continue to fight for equal rights today, we've become a diverse nation. And as more and more studies show, diversity is key to innovation and advancement. That's why I believe that regardless of who the Republican party names as its candidate, it would behoove that person to recognize the fact that stating we need to "make America great again" implies regressing to a society with fewer liberties and where equal rights were further away than they are now. Stigmatizing groups or communities will fracture our society and weaken our nation. Celebrating and promoting our diversity, in contrast, will make us stronger and more resilient.
If you'd rather go to the dentist than be forced to attend a job-networking event, this post is for you.
If you you'd rather visit the desert without a canteen of water than participate in the next industry conference in your field, this post is for you.
If you'd rather hang out in a cardboard box -- surely you see the emerging theme by now -- this post is for you.
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To extroverts and outgoing people this might sound overly dramatic, but to an introvert or a shy person, the mere thought of approaching strangers or engaging them in conversation is anxiety-inducing. Introversion and shyness appear similar, but they are two different personality traits.
In short, introverts typically do well in smaller, more intimate settings because they prefer to be alone, but they are good listeners.
Shyness refers more to how a person deals with others in unfamiliar situations; they have a hard time meeting new people and in most cases, it's fear-based.
Here's the thing--if you find it hard to engage and connect with business contacts in large groups, in person, or even online, that's OK. Networking isn't something all personalities are innately good at or comfortable doing. Yet with some practice and a few simple hacks, you can manage these situations with more ease and less worry.
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Keep these hacks in your back pocket for the next networking event you're dreading but know you have to tackle. Networking is fundamental to good business and marketing, so embrace it by finding what works for you.
1. Do your homework and plan ahead.
Shy people struggle with starting conversations with strangers, but planning ahead can help reduce your anxiety. As the event approaches, do your homework. Start by finding out who will be attending and look them up via social media (i.e., LinkedIn, Google, and Twitter). Learning more about the event and some of the other attendees or speakers beforehand can help you feel that you have some knowledge on which to base conversations.
2. Set goals and stick to them.
You did your research; now go into the situation with planned goals. If the event is offline, plan to hand out 50 business cards and talk to five people. If the event is online, set a goal to follow up with so many people with a phone call or email.
3. Bring your own swag.
When networking offline, consider ordering a bright or edgy business card for networking events that is different from your normal design. A signature piece of clothing or jewelry can also help forge good conversation, as well. Seattle entrepreneur Rand Fishkin, for example, is well known for founding the digital marketing brand Moz. However, he was first known by many as "that guy at the conferences with the bright yellow shoes." It sure made him memorable!
4. Focus on them, not you (at first).
A lot of introverts don't realize they're already great conversationalists; the thought of conversing with other people may make them so nervous they won't give themselves a chance. In conversation, listen, then ask questions to take the attention off of yourself and onto the other person. Don't feel that you have to fill every conversational void with babble about yourself. People love being asked questions and given a chance to share information.
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5. Use the buddy system.
It's always easier to make your way through a big crowd with at least one person you know and can turn to. If you don't have a co-worker you're especially friendly with, tag a friend along. Just don't exclusively talk to that person, or you'll miss out on making new connections.
6. Have a drink... the good kind.
Now, I'm not suggesting you get loaded at your next networking event, because that just wouldn't be good for anyone. But indulging in an alcoholic beverage at the onset of the event can simply make you feel a little less anxious. If you're at home and online networking, be sure not to overindulge! If having a drink isn't your thing, then what is? I've seen people use everything from chewing gum to herbal tea as ways of relaxing. What's your "thing"? We all have one; bring it with you (within reason, of course.)
7. Make a cheat sheet.
In the same way that some people use written affirmations on Post-Its where they'll see them often, you can use a cheat sheet of networking affirmations and prompts to keep these simple hacks top of mind.
Like anything, it's easy to commit to trying harder and making a change, but far more difficult to practice your new ways on a regular basis.
Happy networking!
Deepa Lakhani
Deepa Lakhani is a co-creator of the luxury accessories brand Deepa Gurnani, which launched back in 2006. Early on in her career, Deepa worked with prestigious designers such as Alexander McQueen, Ungaro and Fendi while studying at the renowned Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. Deepa then used the profound understanding of couture and quality she learned combined with her distinct style to create her own line of hand-embroidered and beaded accessories, each handcrafted in India.
How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
By making many mistakes! Each day is a new day to learn new things. The fact that I can say I made a mistake, is what makes me stronger and determined to learn form my mistakes and take my company to the next level.
How has your previous employment experience aided your tenure at Deepa Gurnani?
My previous employment experiences have actually given me the courage to start my own business. Working for large and small companies gave me the opportunity to experience challenges and the wisdom on how to tackle them.
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What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Deepa Gurnani?
Our brand is carried in the best stores around the world and we have worked with great people all over to make this happen. The company is not just about me. There would be no company if I did not have a great team that has really helped me reach where I am today. The challenge has always been to keep the momentum going. There are days where one feels it is too much to handle, but then you sit back, take a deep breath and reassure yourself that this too shall pass! (My daily mantra!)
What advice can you offer to women who want a career in your industry?
The industry is large enough for everyone to make it. Hard work does pay off. Keep that passion alive and there is no stopping you.
What is the most important lesson you've learned in your career to date?
Never burn any bridges! You never know who may come in handy. People need to realize this earlier on in their lives.
How do you maintain a work/life balance?
Yoga & Meditation are a big part of my life. The practice brings balance to my daily routine.
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What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
Personally, I feel women try hard to bring other women down in the workplace due to their own insecurities. We need to stand by each other and help one another to accomplish more in life.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
I have been blessed to have such great mentors in my life. The guidance that I have received in all aspects of my life has helped me get to where I am today. Everyone needs some guiding force in their lives to direct them to get on the right path. Life is all about making mistakes and learning from them. Taking risks are what I do best now!
Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
In the industry, I am a huge fan of Anna Wintour. She has taken fashion to many "next levels" and is a pioneer for us all in the industry. Outside of the the industry, I truly admire Malala Yousafzai as this young girl is an inspiration to us all. She teaches us to keep moving ahead and fight for the right thing!
This is an aphorism from the chapter The Virtuous, its German original sounds: "Ihre Kniee beten immer an, und ihre Hande sind Lobpreisungen der Tugend, aber ihr Herz weiss nichts davon"
"Their knees continually adore, and their hands are eulogies of virtue, but their heart knoweth naught thereof". Photo Credit: Lena Hades
-- "Their knees continually adore, and their hands are eulogies of virtue, but their heart knoweth naught thereof" (translated by Thomas Common). "Eulogy" means a laudatory formal speech or a piece of written work, praising a person, especially a person who has recently died.
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The German word "Lobpreisung" means "glorification". In this way, the aphorism could be translated so:"Their knees continually adore, and they raise their hands to glorify the virtue, but their heart knows nothing of it".
Let's talk about fanatics and fanaticism!
Being a fanatic means that you are a fan to the point that you are obsessed with the person you are a fan of and you might even try to hurt someone who is not a fan or is a fan of a rival. You might also try to hurt someone who is not a fan enough or someone who does not correspond to your conception of a fan - fanatics display little tolerance for contrary. Being in love with someone who doesn't love you back results in time wasting activities like a constant daydreaming. All fanatics think that they are in contact with those they love, and they believe in after-death contacts. Every fanatic considers real life dirty and of no importance, only the imaginary matters, the fanatic hates real life. Fanatics often prefer feeling to thinking. They despise this world and feel eager to trade it for "heaven", for "future". Sir Winston Churchill said that "a fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
The painting of the oil painting cycle Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Its title is long: "Their knees continually adore, and they raise their hands to glorify the virtue, but their heart knows nothing of it". It was created by me, Lena Hades, 20 years ago, in 1996. It was one from 30 oil paintings, devoted to "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Nietzsche.
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"Their knees continually adore, and their hands are eulogies of virtue, but their heart knoweth naught thereof" (detail). Photo Credit: Lena Hades
The central part of the painting represents Vladimir Lenin statue installed in Ulyanovsk, in 1940. This city, originally founded as Simbirsk (), is his birthplace, it was named Ulyanovsk because Vladimir Lenin's original name was Ulyanov. Some people believe that Lenin was one of the revolutionaries in human history who created the first socialist state based on Marx's theories.Let's look at the posthumous construction of the personality cult of Communist "secular saint" Lenin! Marx said that "religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions, it is the opium of the people". He viewed the institution of religion as an instrument utilized by the ruling elites to oppress the lower classes and to nourish them with an unrealistic optimism for the future. If you visit the Lenin Mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square where Lenin's chemically embalmed body has been been demonstrated for 91 years, following his death in 1924, you can understand the true meaning of the inscription on a Soviet propaganda poster "Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live" (words of the Russian Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky). Lenin's successor Joseph Stalin understood the need for a unifying force for the country that was lacking, he tried to preserve Lenin's body as a holy relic in hopes that the cult of Lenin would serve as this unifying force. The Lenin Mausoleum was also a main part in creating Moscow as the center of the Soviet state, and legitimating the autocracy of the Communist party, and Lenin himself became an immortal, supernatural figure of worship. Nevertheless, the holy relic of Lenin did not save the millions of Stalin's Purges victims... All Communist "secular saints" are pretty useless!
Joseph Stalin by Lena Hades. Photo Credit: Lena Hades
If you've ever been to Disney World you would agree that you try to make the most of your time at the parks while there.
Trying to get to any of the parks with young children can be quite a challenge, but we were determined to make it happen. Dottie was 7 years old at the time and our son was a few weeks shy of his third birthday.
On that morning, we got to the Animal Kingdom just a few minutes before the customary opening ceremony began. Even then the place was packed.
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We had to park our rental car a good ways away and take the little tram from our spot way back in the parking lot to the entrance. Yes, stroller, kiddos and all.
As soon as the shuttle stopped, we quickly got off, helped buckle our then soon-to-be-3-year-old in (or so we thought) and rushed to the entrance to walk through the stiles.
We were ready to spend an awesome morning at the park, despite the heat and the crowds.
It was going to be a great day...
until I leaned over to pull up the shades on the stroller to ask if my son was excited to see the Lion King show.
My son was missing!
Panic.
I turned around in horror and barely whispered out the words I thought I would never have to say to my husband... ever.
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"He's not in the stroller!"
In that split second of shock and disbelief, my husband just stared at me, I guess hoping I wasn't saying the words I really was, then quickly snapped out of the daze and bolted to the entrance to inform the park's authorities.
I can still feel that sick feeling in my stomach as I re-live those few moments of terror.
I tried to sound calm as I asked my daughter if she saw him get out of the stroller while we were in line with our tickets or whether he had said anything to her.
Poor baby was just as shocked and I could see fear written all over her face.
She said she heard him mumble something but didn't pay attention to what he said.
My insides wanted to scream. I knew I was panicking. I needed to calm down.
I couldn't move away, because I needed to stay with my daughter.
And then I saw him.
He was standing on top of a cement protrusion and was trying to peek over the crowds standing in line, waiting to get in.
My baby!
He was right there. Just a few steps away from us.
Safe!
I ran and grabbed him in my arms, smothered him with kisses. I then had to firmly ask him how he managed to climb out of the stroller and why he didn't tell us he was getting out.
According to him the harness belt wasn't snapped in tight enough when we placed him in, so it was easy for him to open the clasps.
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Relief... and what Disney did.
Now that we had found our little man, we needed to find Hubs and tell him he was safe. (And of all days the telecom signals were bad and we weren't able to call each other on our phones.) So while some kind visitors to the park agreed to keep our place in line, we ran to the front, found Hubs and shared what had happened.
Hubs immediately hurried over to the entrance and intimated the authorities who asked him to make sure it was him before they called off their search.
Yes, Disney authorities at Animal Kingdom had already begun searching for our son in that 5-7 minute time frame.
As soon as Hubs rushed to the front to tell them our soon-to-be-3-year-old was missing, they asked Hubs to show them a photograph of what he looked like and describe what he was wearing.
Thankfully Hubs had taken a photograph of the kids just seconds before getting onto the Animal Kingdom tram. Using the photograph they were able to accurately radio out his description with clear specifics and immediately locked down the gates and put out an alert.
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I'm so glad they proactively did what was necessary and had what was needed to do next in place.
Seeing it all play out made me find yet another reason to respect and love the way Disney operates.
They know how to do it right.
So yes, after all the hullabaloo, we quietly walked back to our place in line, walked into the park and had a wonderful day packed with memories.
And even though we had a fantastic, fun-filled day, nothing will ever erase those moments filled with fear and that sickening feeling of helpless panic that overtook us when we thought our preschooler had gone missing.
Thank God he was safe and yes, I'm so grateful Disney has a policy in place to handle the eventuality of a missing child.
It was a reminder to teach our kids what to do if they ever got separated from us in a public area, have them wear identity protect wrist-bands and yes, take photographs of them just before heading into a crowded area.
Have you ever had to go through a scary parent moment?
It is shocking to me, how many people in this country are falling for the bathroom hysteria being perpetuated by hate groups such as the Family Research Council and Liberty Council, as well as conservative politicians. This is not about bathrooms -- but lets talk about bathrooms.
I have known since I was four years old that I am transgender. I didn't always have the words for it -- but I knew. And I did my best, even as a small child, to be true to who I knew I was and to express the real me to the world. Because of this, I have had some horrible things said and done to me for most of my life -- including being harassed in public bathrooms and dressing rooms.
I was about 7 or 8 the first time I recall being made to feel uncomfortable in a bathroom at school. We had just come in from recess and I was in the girls bathroom, when several kids a couple years older than me started laughing at me and saying I looked like a boy. They asked me why I wasn't in the boys bathroom since I looked like a boy, and continued heckling me until a teacher came in to see what all the commotion was. We were all shooed out of the bathroom and when I told her what they had said to me, she laughed and simply told me to get back to the classroom. One of many times school officials would completely ignore bullying behavior and either smirk or laugh at me -- giving me the message loud and clear -- no one sees you and no one cares. I would continue to be picked on and laughed at every time I entered that bathroom, whenever other kids were in there.
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When I was 13, we moved to a small East Texas town where my Dad had grown up. My Mom thought I would do better in a small town, and be safer, since Houston schools were getting so rough. I was a target from day one. I was tall, with broad shoulders and short spiky hair. I dressed in a way that made me feel more comfortable in my own skin -- which made me stand out. I was laughed at, yelled at, pushed and shoved, and taunted on a daily basis. And one of the scariest places for me -- the girls bathroom and locker room. It was the 80s, and I remember the girls hanging out in the bathroom -- smoking cigarettes by an open window, and the smell of Aqua Net filling the room. My heart would race as I pushed the door open and tried to get into a stall as quickly as possible, hoping to go unnoticed. But that was never the case, and I would immediately be greeted with taunts like "get out of here dyke", "shouldn't you be in the other bathroom?" and "do you come in here to check us out freak?" I even had someone throw a cup of water on me over the top of the stall while everyone in there laughed hysterically. I tried desperately to avoid going to the bathroom at school -- so much so that chronic UTIs and bladder infections became a regular occurrence for me. And because we were mandated to "dress out" for P.E. class - I had to use the locker room to change into my P.E. clothes -- inviting even more bullying. I even had a male P.E. teacher jokingly tell me not to be checking out girls in the locker room. I started faking injuries and illness to avoid having to participate in P.E. I even went so far as to cause actual injuries to myself to avoid it.
When I was 24 years old, I was a student in a surgical technology program, and had just started the clinical portion of my classes. I was so excited to be one of only two students to be chosen to do clinical at St. Joseph in downtown Houston. It was the #1 spot to be picked for. About a month into my clinicals, on the very day I would find out that my Mother had succumbed to cancer, I was verbally assaulted by a nurse in the locker room. In front of a large number of other nurses and staff - I was told that I looked too masculine to be in there. She said that if I was going to use their locker room, I was going to need to start wearing makeup and earrings -- that I needed to do something to look more like a female so I wouldn't freak people out. I was humiliated and devastated -- and once again, it was made clear to me that I didn't belong.
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It would be about a year or two after that, that I would start using men's facilities. I hadn't yet started my transition, but just decided that it had to be a better option. The very first time I walked into the men's bathroom, at a movie theatre, and walked into a stall unnoticed, it was amazing. It was the first time I could recall not being stared at or verbally assaulted in a public bathroom. No one looked at me -- no one noticed me. From that point on, I would never use another women's bathroom.
Fast forward to now -- and these hate groups and politicians want you to fear me and people like me. They want to legally force me to use women's facilities. Not because they actually fear me -- or truly believe I am a danger to anyone -- but because they want me put in my place. This is simply a continuation of the bullying that LGBT people have had to endure for most of our lives. These are the schoolyard bullies that taunted us then, in positions of power now. They've found a way to continue their legacy of hatred and divisiveness and they're using their constituents to help them manifest their agenda. The people blindly supporting laws such as Pat McCrory's HB2, are the bystanders in the schoolyard who rally around the bully and get sucked in. They're jumping on the bandwagon because it's easier. Easier than speaking out against the popular opinion and challenging the bullies.
This isn't about public safety, or protecting anyone from transgender people. This is about trying to erase a group of people that aren't easily understood. And in addition to that, it's been a wildly successful smokescreen for the other things laws like HB2 accomplish. Things such as taking away employees right to sue for other forms of discrimination -- such as discrimination based on race, religion, age, military status, disability, pregnancy, etc. In addition to employment discrimination, it also makes it harder to get housing protections and protects the state from being forced to raise the minimum wage. HB2 also makes it much harder to file civil lawsuits. But the majority of people voting for and supporting bills like these don't realize the other insidious language hidden in them -- because they've been sold on the bathroom issue. They've been shown scary black and white commercials with a man following a little girl into a bathroom. They've been told that if these laws aren't passed, men will all of a sudden begin donning wigs and dresses to attack people in bathrooms. They've been told that their privacy is being taken away from them, and that they are in grave danger. It's worked beautifully so far and those politicians are laughing all the way to the bank. While they're getting you worked up over LGBT people, marriage and bathrooms they're gerrymandering at the state level to keep wages low, limit voter access, cut aid to the poorest among us, and lower taxes and increase benefits for the wealthy.
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ATLANTA, April 29, 2016 -- Bill Reeder was sitting at the authors' table signing copies of his new memoir when he overheard someone telling one of the other authors nearby that he had done 6 1/2 years in Vietnam, an implausible length of time for even the most gung-ho American troops. Reeder's attention perked up when he heard the man say his helicopter had been shot down in 1968 and he'd been held as a prisoner of war until 1973.
Reeder, the author of Through the Valley: My Captivity in Vietnam, wondered who at the huge Army Aviation trade show he was attending would claim to have been a Vietnam POW more than four decades ago. He looked up at the claimant standing a few feet away and almost shouted the word "Jim!" Their eyes locked; they stared in amazement, and both suddenly found themselves in a bear hug.
They had not set eyes on each other since Jim Pfister had walked out of their cell on March 5, 1973, in the first group of 591 POWs to be released after the signing of a peace accord in Paris that effectively ended U.S. participation in the Vietnam War.
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The two men instantly recognized each other as cellmates in North Vietnam's notorious prison derisively known to its American inmates as the "Hanoi Hilton." Private First Class James F. Pfister Jr. was a door gunner on an Army Huey helicopter that was shot down on January 5, 1968, in a hotly contested area the Americans called Happy Valley southwest of Da Nang in the northern region of South Vietnam. Pfister was captured and held for a time in a prison camp in the South, then moved to Hanoi, for the rest of the war.
Army Captain William Reeder Jr. arrived much later. After flying a twin-engine, fixed-wing reconnaissance plane on his first tour in Vietnam, Reeder switched to Cobra helicopter gunships. He had just been promoted to aircraft commander when his Cobra was shot down during a desperate attempt to rescue U.S. and indigenous troops from a beleaguered Special Forces camp in the Central Highlands in May 1972. Although he didn't know it at the time, his co-pilot/gunner was mortally wounded in the crash. Reeder suffered a broken back and other severe wounds in the shootdown but somehow managed to crawl away from the crash site and evade capture for three days before North Vietnamese troops caught him.
Gun Nation is abuzz with the publication of an article in the British Medical Journal which finds an alarmingly high rate of U.S. hospital deaths due to medical errors. Now why would the pro-gun noise machine care one way or the other about an article in a medical journal? Because it's been an article of faith amongst the gun faithful that physicians should stop wasting their time talking about gun violence when the number of people killed each year by firearms is just a fraction of the number who die due to medical mistakes. And since the BMJ article states that medical errors account for anywhere between 200,000 and 400,000 avoidable deaths each year, and annual gun homicides only count around 11,000, why can't doctors take care of really ill patients properly before they start making so much fuss about guns?
Marion Hammer, former NRA President whospearheaded Docs versus Glocks in Florida, says that docs should "do no harm" and keep their political opinions out of the examining room. And in pushing for the gag law, Hammer distributed a document that listed 'medical misadventures' as three times more likely to result in deaths than accidental shootings. Other sources, like media that promote natural healing, paint an even grimmer picture, with one exposeclaiming that guns kill 31,940 Americans each year (homicide/suicide/accidents) but the medical system accounts for783,936 deaths! By the way, this particular website also published a story that said the San Bernardino shootinghad all the "signs" of a staged government operation, and this story rolled out more than 31,000 times. Hmmmmm.
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The problem is that the British Medical Journal isn't an adjunct of the Area 51 gang, so when they publish something about morbidity from medical errors, it needs to be taken seriously, particularly if what they say ends up being injected one way or another into the gun violence debate. Now let me make it clear that I'm not a physician and I have no medical training of any kind. But I know how to read the King's English and I can figure out whether data in a peer-reviewed journal aligns with the facts and conclusions on which the article is based. In the case of the BMJ, I not only read the article detailing mortality rates from medical errors in U.S. hospitals, I also closely read the articles on which the BMJ article was based. Let's start first with the BMJ.
In 2013, 611,000 Americans died from heart disease, 585,000 died from cancer and 251,000 died from medical error, this last being the third most common cause of death. Since the medical profession doesn't actually have specific medical errors as coded events in the ICD-10 coding system used almost universally as the primary indicator of health, the figure noted above is a best-guess estimate based on specific studies of in-patient outcomes throughout the U.S. The most comprehensive study from Medicare records, gave the total mortality for doctor errors as slightly more than 195,000 per year from 2000 through 2002, of which 75% of all deaths were attributed to something known as 'failure to rescue,' which means a diagnostic error leading to improper (or no) treatment, leading to the patient's death.
But failure to rescue in a clinical context may have little, if anything to do with decisions made by physicians themselves. Many such deaths are attributable to mistakes in managing patient information, particularly for elderly patients who tend to suffer from multiple conditions requiring intensive and complicated care. A necessary treatment is omitted or delayed, vital signs begin to decompose, the patient is dying but his physician may be far removed from the scene.
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Eugene, Ore., Friday, May 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
It's official. I am no longer a Republican. I know, I know, no one really cares and my opinion doesn't matter. However, I thought maybe I could throw a life preserver to a ship that is quickly sinking.
What the hell is going on with the Republican Party?
Unfortunately, everyone recognizes there is a problem except the Republican Party, which makes it difficult for them to affect change within. The people who have taken the most notice are Donald Trump and his political advisors who have been able to exploit those faults all the way to the Republican presidential nomination. A feat The New York Times referred to as a "hostile takeover of one of America's two major political parties."
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Now, let me qualify myself before I move forward.
I have always identified myself as Republican despite growing up in a Democrat household. I can even remember in my earlier political years, sticking George W. Bush stickers on the bumper of my dad's truck (which didn't go over so well when I visited that weekend for dinner).
I identified with the Republican Party because of my beliefs. I have very Conservative views, yet I also hold true to many Liberal principles which I believe are good for everyone in the country. Call me a "leaner" or "moderate" and put me on whatever side of the aisle you want, but ask those who know me and Conservative is the term they will use.
Without getting into my specific views, I can also say that I have actually voted Democrat more than once, as the candidate at the time held closer to the will of the people than the Republican candidate.
Voter sentiment says it all.
If you have never believed in the anti-establishment movement, chances are you are now paying attention. People have always been dissatisfied with politics, but this time around it seems to have boiled over.
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Evidence? Let's take a look at New York.
The race in New York was expected to be close. The result was quite the opposite with Trump taking the state with 60% of the vote. According to a CNN exit poll, Trump won over the hearts of Republicans in the state who were quoted as saying the next president should be someone "outside the establishment."
Still don't believe the anti-establishment vote is making a difference? Let's look at Indiana.
The Republican Primary in the state of Indiana was close. So close in fact that Senator Ted Cruz and Governor John Kasich (the other Republican candidates), openly conspired against Trump in an attempt to have Cruz win the state. The anti-establishment vote voiced their opinion of the plot, resulting in Trump's landslide victory in Indiana.
The Republican Party still doesn't seem to get it.
After Trump became the presumable Republican Party nominee, we should have seem a rave of Republicans jumping on board to support him (slight pause for laughter). Didn't happen. In fact, they made it worse.
How bad did they make it? Well, let's go back to the beginning of the primaries. The Republican Party made it a point to browbeat Trump into an agreement that he would support the eventual Republican nominee. The thought was that Trump would be forced to support the nominee once the Republican Party had the candidate they wanted to be in the White House. Then the tides changed.
Trump became the presumptive nominee and all of a sudden the Republican Party forgot about the pledge. Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, comes out to say he is "not there yet" when asked if he supports Trump. What is even worse, Jeb Bush says straight out that he will not vote for him (despite Bush taking the same pledge as Trump to support the nominee).
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It seems like the anti-establishment movement is finally getting its point across.
Now if you are Democrat and don't believe in the anti-establishment movement, then please explain the rise of Bernie Sanders (can't wait for the comments on that one). It's happening on both sides of the aisle and Democrats need to be careful as well. What is going on in the Republican Party can very easily infect the Democratic Party as well.
Democrats and Republicans alike are sick of politicians going to Washington and representing their own interests. Or worse yet, doing what they think is best for voters as opposed to representing the people who elected them. This is where the "Trump Train" gets its fuel.
To those who are part of the Republican elite, here are a few points to keep in mind. These are the same points that are being echoed by those who united to elevate Trump:
1. Many (not all) voters are choosing Trump because you are telling them not to.
2. They will continue to vote for him as long as you continue to act like their choice doesn't matter and you will do what you want anyway.
3. The more the Republican Party leadership refuse to endorse him, the more people like me that are going to leave the party and either vote for Trump or the eventual Democrat nominee.
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I feel like the Republican Party has told me they don't care about my opinion and are going to do what they feel is best. That's not why I vote Republican! That's not true representation of the people! That's not American!
There you have it. The reason I am no longer a Republican.
In the end, the Republican Party still won't get it. If you don't believe me, see the comments on this post or on Twitter from the likely Republicans who will be bashing me for writing this article. Bear in mind that the comments will only go to prove my point about what's happening in the party.
Danielle Scott, Flickr
A new study is making the rounds which claims in its release's headline that people can't tell the difference between bourbon and rye. Some publications have run with that conclusion. But is that really what the research is saying?
The study, from Drexel University in Philadelphia, is not a test to see whether tasters can distinguish bourbon from rye. Its findings might lead us slightly in that direction, but what it's really looking at is something possibly even more interesting: how we taste whiskey in general.
There are several varieties of American whiskey, all made from the fermented and distilled "mash" of some kind of cereal grain. Whether we're talking bourbon, Tennessee whiskey, or rye, one main difference between American and other whiskeys (Scotch, Irish whiskey) is that we use our own endemic crop in the mash: corn. Corn isn't always the majority of all American whiskey mash--in fact, rye whiskey must be made from at least 51 percent rye--but almost always, corn is involved.
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With the cocktail resurgence of the past decade, Americans (everyone, really) are taking American whiskey much more seriously than ever before. Expertise can go deep, but if there's one thing everyone knows, it's that bourbon is generally sweet and caramel-y, and rye is usually dry and fiery.
This study had tasters smell, rather than taste, a variety of whiskeys: The researchers say this mirrors professional tasting methods, though the tasters involved in this study are not professionals and are probably not used to encountering whiskey through its smell. Regardless, the tasters--well, let's call them smellers--were asked to group whiskeys together based on how similar they smelled.
The researchers wanted to see if the smellers would naturally group bourbons with bourbons and ryes with ryes, indicating that there's a strong difference between the two. What they found, though, is that there are several other variables that proved more important. Smellers tended to group brands together, like all Jim Beam products, even if one was a bourbon and one a rye. Alcohol content was also found to be a major deciding factor.
What this study indicates is not that Americans are bad at drinking whiskey. It's more an indication that our groupings for bourbon versus rye are not necessarily the most helpful in conveying anything about the whiskey itself. After all, some bourbons have rye content very close to a rye whiskey; Jim Beam, for example, makes a "high rye" bourbon. And some ryes, like the High West Double Rye, have pretty high concentrations of corn (that one has 37 percent corn).
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On the plus side, being an entrepreneur allows me to do fun stuff like drive home to Brooklyn to spend time with my family whenever I please... exactly what I decided to do yesterday, leading to great times with the family on Mother's Day, as well as perhaps my most epic interview to date in which I learned things like deep dark family secrets, the fact that my Mom is aware of Beyonce's lemonade, and of course a healthy dose of ancient Yoruba wisdom & philosophy.
On the minus side, the combination of the driving, lack of sleep this weekend, and perhaps some other carelessness on my part seems to have me feeling a little under the weather right now.
But because I want to share this interview with you so badly, rather than delay it and try to write something witty myself, I am going to cheat and share just five of the many awesome reactions the video has been getting from friends on my personal Facebook page as well as the Daily Spark Entrepreneur community.
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We had a great time filming this. So grateful to be able to share with the world a glimpse of the wisdom and humor I am privileged to experience on a regular basis. Hope you enjoy!
"What an absolutely delightful, wisdom packed, inspiring, fun, and love-filled conversation. I cannot wait to listen to the next one, and the next one. Mom, you make us African Moms so proud of you!! Muoyo, thank you very much for this wonderful interview. As we say in Ghana, "Ayikoo!" Well done! :)"
"Awesome and loaded interview! Thanks for sharing!"
"This was the best thing I watched today!"
"The last answer was the BEST! Trusting you to know what you need to best connect to the essence of your true self... Muoyo your mom is awesome and in the few short minutes of listening to you speak my heart is filled with love and gratitude for the life she has lived and how she has shared it with those around her. Give her another hug for me please :)"
"This was great. Your mom is awesome. She should be a motivational speaker."
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Tempted to share another personal life video that people have really been enjoying, but perhaps we should save something for a later date :)
Muoyo Okome is the founder of Daily Spark Media & the Daily Spark Entrepreneur Community, a fast-growing online community dedicated to the empowerment, education & support of entrepreneurs. He has previously started, grown, and sold a mobile gaming company and runs several businesses in the mobile, online & e-commerce spaces.
A career-long technology professional and alumnus of the Princeton University (BA) and The Wharton School (MBA), his prior experience includes software engineering, consulting, and business management roles at companies such as Microsoft & IBM.
Anyone who thinks they're too far along on their career path, or that's it's too late in life for them to seize the opportunities of a skills-based career, should be inspired by others; including many retirees or late-career professionals who have decided to take their lives in new, more satisfying directions.
Ken Gilbert is one of them. By the time I met him, Ken was three decades into his career in high-tech sales and marketing and management consulting. At age 58, however, after many years of business travel, meetings and chasing corporate goals, he was ready for a change.
I thought about getting a master's degree and staying in the industry, but if I was going to invest in something, I wanted it to be in something I would enjoy and be able to do for the rest of my life.
Like many baby boomers, Ken didn't feel ready to retire, and didn't see why he couldn't extend his working career well beyond the traditional retirement age. And like many boomers, he also knew that if he wanted to live comfortably, he'd need to find a way to supplement his pensions and savings with a steady paycheck.
Resolving to strike out on a new path, Ken looked into a learning institution located just a few miles away from his New England home. Founded in 1881 as a social service organization primarily serving immigrants, the North Bennet Street School has a rich history of providing vocational and prevocational training. NBSS follows a philosophy that hands-on skills are a necessary complement to academic conceptual skills. Today you find students from all over the country in its educational programs in "bench skills" that few other institutions offer: cabinet and furniture making, preservation carpentry, locksmithing, jewelry making and repair, bookbinding, even piano technician.
Many graduates open craft-based businesses; others land prestigious and highly coveted positions in specialized fields. One preservation carpentry graduate, for example, launched his own custom home design company, while another, a bookbinding alumna, today is the rare book conservator for the Library of Congress. Yet another has become a luthier, getting very well paid to repair high-end violins and other stringed instruments. Visiting the school, you see the current students are not just young people starting their careers; many students are late-career professionals, like Ken. It makes sense; after all, people in their forties and fifties and later are often in a great position to use their world and life experience to head off in a new direction. In many cases their kids have left the nest, they've saved some money, their mortgages are paid down.
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After seeing the school, Ken knew instantly it was a perfect fit. He had the resources, the time, and the ability to go back to school and retrain as an artisan. Plus, working with his hands had always been one of his favorite pastimes -- particularly woodworking and renovating an eighteenth-century house he owned. Ken has always liked making things, and he was good at it. So after talking with the school and considering his options, Ken decided to enroll in a two-year bookbinding program.
During those two years, Ken developed what he described to me as the three artisan essentials: "head, heart, and hands." And so it was that upon graduating from the program in 2010, Ken found himself working full-time as a self-employed book conservator: making books from scratch, restoring old and rare books, repairing timeworn or damaged family heirloom volumes, and building leather-bound boxes in the shop he opened, Willow Bindery, in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Most of his customers today are book dealers and serious book collectors located all over the United States.
Ken Gilbert is engaged in a fulfilling occupation that he expects to continue for many more years. And he takes great satisfaction in what he does every day. "Restoring a cherished book, and then seeing the happy expression on the owner's face, is extremely gratifying."
FALLUJAH, IRAQ: An US soldier from 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, takes position on a bridge over a highway inspecting a plume of black smoke on the outskirts of the Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah, 50km west of Baghdad, 07 June 2004. It is unknown what caused the smoke. AFP PHOTO/Mauricio LIMA (Photo credit should read MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images)
Masters of Mankind (Part 2)
[This piece, the second of two parts, is excerpted from Noam Chomskys new book, Who Rules the World? (Metropolitan Books). Part 1 can be found by clicking here.]
In brief, the Global War on Terror sledgehammer strategy has spread jihadi terror from a tiny corner of Afghanistan to much of the world, from Africa through the Levant and South Asia to Southeast Asia. It has also incited attacks in Europe and the United States. The invasion of Iraq made a substantial contribution to this process, much as intelligence agencies had predicted. Terrorism specialists Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank estimate that the Iraq War generated a stunning sevenfold increase in the yearly rate of fatal jihadist attacks, amounting to literally hundreds of additional terrorist attacks and thousands of civilian lives lost; even when terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is excluded, fatal attacks in the rest of the world have increased by more than one-third. Other exercises have been similarly productive.
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A group of major human rights organizations -- Physicians for Social Responsibility (U.S.), Physicians for Global Survival (Canada), and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (Germany) -- conducted a study that sought "to provide as realistic an estimate as possible of the total body count in the three main war zones [Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan] during 12 years of war on terrorism,'" including an extensive review of the major studies and data published on the numbers of victims in these countries, along with additional information on military actions. Their "conservative estimate" is that these wars killed about 1.3 million people, a toll that "could also be in excess of 2 million." A database search by independent researcher David Peterson in the days following the publication of the report found virtually no mention of it. Who cares?
More generally, studies carried out by the Oslo Peace Research Institute show that two-thirds of the regions conflict fatalities were produced in originally internal disputes where outsiders imposed their solutions. In such conflicts, 98% of fatalities were produced only after outsiders had entered the domestic dispute with their military might. In Syria, the number of direct conflict fatalities more than tripled after the West initiated air strikes against the self-declared Islamic State and the CIA started its indirect military interference in the war -- interference which appears to have drawn the Russians in as advanced US antitank missiles were decimating the forces of their ally Bashar al-Assad. Early indications are that Russian bombing is having the usual consequences.
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The evidence reviewed by political scientist Timo Kivimaki indicates that the protection wars [fought by coalitions of the willing] have become the main source of violence in the world, occasionally contributing over 50% of total conflict fatalities. Furthermore, in many of these cases, including Syria, as he reviews, there were opportunities for diplomatic settlement that were ignored. That has also been true in other horrific situations, including the Balkans in the early 1990s, the first Gulf War, and of course the Indochina wars, the worst crime since World War II. In the case of Iraq the question does not even arise. There surely are some lessons here.
The general consequences of resorting to the sledgehammer against vulnerable societies comes as little surprise. William Polks careful study of insurgencies, Violent Politics, should be essential reading for those who want to understand todays conflicts, and surely for planners, assuming that they care about human consequences and not merely power and domination. Polk reveals a pattern that has been replicated over and over. The invaders -- perhaps professing the most benign motives -- are naturally disliked by the population, who disobey them, at first in small ways, eliciting a forceful response, which increases opposition and support for resistance. The cycle of violence escalates until the invaders withdraw -- or gain their ends by something that may approach genocide.
Playing by the Al-Qaeda Game Plan
Obamas global drone assassination campaign, a remarkable innovation in global terrorism, exhibits the same patterns. By most accounts, it is generating terrorists more rapidly than it is murdering those suspected of someday intending to harm us -- an impressive contribution by a constitutional lawyer on the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, which established the basis for the principle of presumption of innocence that is the foundation of civilized law.
Another characteristic feature of such interventions is the belief that the insurgency will be overcome by eliminating its leaders. But when such an effort succeeds, the reviled leader is regularly replaced by someone younger, more determined, more brutal, and more effective. Polk gives many examples. Military historian Andrew Cockburn has reviewed American campaigns to kill drug and then terror kingpins over a long period in his important study Kill Chain and found the same results. And one can expect with fair confidence that the pattern will continue.
No doubt right now U.S. strategists are seeking ways to murder the Caliph of the Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is a bitter rival of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The likely result of this achievement is forecast by the prominent terrorism scholar Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow at the U.S. Military Academys Combating Terrorism Center. He predicts that al-Baghdadis death would likely pave the way for a rapprochement [with al-Qaeda] producing a combined terrorist force unprecedented in scope, size, ambition and resources.
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Polk cites a treatise on warfare by Henry Jomini, influenced by Napoleons defeat at the hands of Spanish guerrillas, that became a textbook for generations of cadets at the West Point military academy. Jomini observed that such interventions by major powers typically result in wars of opinion, and nearly always national wars, if not at first then becoming so in the course of the struggle, by the dynamics that Polk describes. Jomini concludes that commanders of regular armies are ill-advised to engage in such wars because they will lose them, and even apparent successes will prove short-lived.
Careful studies of al-Qaeda and ISIS have shown that the United States and its allies are following their game plan with some precision. Their goal is to draw the West as deeply and actively as possible into the quagmire and to perpetually engage and enervate the United States and the West in a series of prolonged overseas ventures in which they will undermine their own societies, expend their resources, and increase the level of violence, setting off the dynamic that Polk reviews.
Scott Atran, one of the most insightful researchers on jihadi movements, calculates that the 9/11 attacks cost between $400,000 and $500,000 to execute, whereas the military and security response by the U.S. and its allies is in the order of 10 million times that figure. On a strictly cost-benefit basis, this violent movement has been wildly successful, beyond even Bin Ladens original imagination, and is increasingly so. Herein lies the full measure of jujitsu-style asymmetric warfare. After all, who could claim that we are better off than before, or that the overall danger is declining?
And if we continue to wield the sledgehammer, tacitly following the jihadi script, the likely effect is even more violent jihadism with broader appeal. The record, Atran advises, should inspire a radical change in our counter-strategies.
Al-Qaeda/ISIS are assisted by Americans who follow their directives: for example, Ted carpet-bomb em Cruz, a top Republican presidential candidate. Or, at the other end of the mainstream spectrum, the leading Middle East and international affairs columnist of the New York Times, Thomas Friedman, who in 2003 offered Washington advice on how to fight in Iraq on the Charlie Rose show: There was what I would call the terrorism bubble... And what we needed to do was to go over to that part of the world and burst that bubble. We needed to go over there basically, and, uh, take out a very big stick, right in the heart of that world, and burst that bubble. And there was only one way to do it... What they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house from Basra to Baghdad, and basically saying, which part of this sentence dont you understand? You dont think we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy were going to just let it go? Well, suck on this. Ok. That, Charlie, was what this war was about.
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Thatll show the ragheads.
Looking Forward
Atran and other close observers generally agree on the prescriptions. We should begin by recognizing what careful research has convincingly shown: those drawn to jihad are longing for something in their history, in their traditions, with their heroes and their morals; and the Islamic State, however brutal and repugnant to us and even to most in the Arab-Muslim world, is speaking directly to that... What inspires the most lethal assailants today is not so much the Quran but a thrilling cause and a call to action that promises glory and esteem in the eyes of friends. In fact, few of the jihadis have much of a background in Islamic texts or theology, if any.
The best strategy, Polk advises, would be a multinational, welfare-oriented and psychologically satisfying program... that would make the hatred ISIS relies upon less virulent. The elements have been identified for us: communal needs, compensation for previous transgressions, and calls for a new beginning. He adds, A carefully phrased apology for past transgressions would cost little and do much. Such a project could be carried out in refugee camps or in the hovels and grim housing projects of the Paris banlieues, where, Atran writes, his research team found fairly wide tolerance or support for ISISs values. And even more could be done by true dedication to diplomacy and negotiations instead of reflexive resort to violence.
Not least in significance would be an honorable response to the refugee crisis that was a long time in coming but surged to prominence in Europe in 2015. That would mean, at the very least, sharply increasing humanitarian relief to the camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey where miserable refugees from Syria barely survive. But the issues go well beyond, and provide a picture of the self-described enlightened states that is far from attractive and should be an incentive to action.
There are countries that generate refugees through massive violence, like the United States, secondarily Britain and France. Then there are countries that admit huge numbers of refugees, including those fleeing from Western violence, like Lebanon (easily the champion, per capita), Jordan, and Syria before it imploded, among others in the region. And partially overlapping, there are countries that both generate refugees and refuse to take them in, not only from the Middle East but also from the U.S. backyard south of the border. A strange picture, painful to contemplate.
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An honest picture would trace the generation of refugees much further back into history. Veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk reports that one of the first videos produced by ISIS showed a bulldozer pushing down a rampart of sand that had marked the border between Iraq and Syria. As the machine destroyed the dirt revetment, the camera panned down to a handwritten poster lying in the sand. End of Sykes-Picot, it said.
For the people of the region, the Sykes-Picot agreement is the very symbol of the cynicism and brutality of Western imperialism. Conspiring in secret during World War I, Britains Mark Sykes and Frances Francois Georges-Picot carved up the region into artificial states to satisfy their own imperial goals, with utter disdain for the interests of the people living there and in violation of the wartime promises issued to induce Arabs to join the Allied war effort. The agreement mirrored the practices of the European states that devastated Africa in a similar manner. It transformed what had been relatively quiet provinces of the Ottoman Empire into some of the least stable and most internationally explosive states in the world.
Repeated Western interventions since then in the Middle East and Africa have exacerbated the tensions, conflicts, and disruptions that have shattered the societies. The end result is a refugee crisis that the innocent West can scarcely endure. Germany has emerged as the conscience of Europe, at first (but no longer) admitting almost one million refugees -- in one of the richest countries in the world with a population of 80 million. In contrast, the poor country of Lebanon has absorbed an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, now a quarter of its population, on top of half a million Palestinian refugees registered with the U.N. refugee agency UNRWA, mostly victims of Israeli policies.
Europe is also groaning under the burden of refugees from the countries it has devastated in Africa -- not without U.S. aid, as Congolese and Angolans, among others, can testify. Europe is now seeking to bribe Turkey (with over two million Syrian refugees) to distance those fleeing the horrors of Syria from Europes borders, just as Obama is pressuring Mexico to keep U.S. borders free from miserable people seeking to escape the aftermath of Reagans GWOT along with those seeking to escape more recent disasters, including a military coup in Honduras that Obama almost alone legitimized, which created one of the worst horror chambers in the region.
Words can hardly capture the U.S. response to the Syrian refugee crisis, at least any words I can think of.
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Returning to the opening question Who rules the world? we might also want to pose another question: What principles and values rule the world? That question should be foremost in the minds of the citizens of the rich and powerful states, who enjoy an unusual legacy of freedom, privilege, and opportunity thanks to the struggles of those who came before them, and who now face fateful choices as to how to respond to challenges of great human import.
When I received the submission Little Bee by British author Chris Cleave in 2007 and read the first lines--"Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl. Everyone would be pleased to see me coming."--the world fell away.
Every reader knows the sensation of falling for a book. You're buoyed by voice, by character, by story. As an acquiring editor, it's my ideal, each time I open a submission, to check those boxes and be open to falling in love.
The arresting voice of the title character Little Bee, a sixteen-year-old Nigerian girl seeking political asylum in the United Kingdom, is the beating heart of this gorgeous novel, and its poetry and humor have an enveloping rhythm.
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Further down the first page, Little Bee says, "A pound coin can be serious too. It can disguise itself as power, or property, and there is nothing more serious when you are a girl who has neither." Here I felt a mix of near-deranged excitement (this could be IT!) and surrender: Tell me the story, Chris Cleave.
And what a story it is. The novel explores an essential question of humanity: How far would you go to help a suffering stranger?
Little Bee has spent two years in a detention center outside of London when she is released by error. She has no legal papers, but she does have the driver's license of a British man named Andrew O'Rourke, whom she met on a beach in Nigeria years earlier. When she knocks on Andrew's door, his widow answers.
Sarah O'Rourke is struggling to make sense of her husband's death, trying to comfort her five-year-old son Charlie, and attempting to keep her marital secrets hidden. Sarah is a fascinating character but by no means a given protector or safe haven for Little Bee.
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The novel toggles between Little Bee's and Sarah's deeply compelling first-person narratives. Let me pause here--Chris Cleave, a white British man, chose to write Little Bee from the perspectives of two women: an African refugee and a white middle-class British working mom.
It could have been hubristic. Instead, it is triumphant. These women are fully realized, disparate characters whom readers soon learn have a shared trauma. And between them is Charlie, an indomitable, fatherless five-year-old who refuses to remove his Batman costume and divides the world into "goodies" and "baddies." Charlie is vivid and unforgettable. His protection and succor become these women's shared purpose.
When I finished reading--an act requiring an inordinate amount of tissues--I knew I had to publish this novel. Little Bee had transported me, thrilled me artistically, moved me deeply, and made me think intensely about the lottery of my birth, and my responsibility thereafter.
Like the best literary fiction, Little Bee expands our powers of empathy, and our understanding of the world at large. It is relevant and perhaps even more resonant nearly a decade after I first read it, given Europe's current immigration crisis.
Little Bee became a #1 New York Times bestseller. It is one of my proudest career achievements to have shepherded this book into the world. I believe a book like this--one that you fall for, one that breaks your heart in the best possible way, one that poses a larger existential question--leaves a mark that stays with you long after you've turned the final page.
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Marysue Rucci is vice president and editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, where she oversees the fiction program and acquires a range of fiction and nonfiction. She is the proud editor of Little Bee, as well as Chris Cleave's forthcoming novel, Everyone Brave is Forgiven, published by Simon & Schuster.
Philadelphia is the only major city in 2016 that is still investing in a large fossil fuel project. As the Philadelphia Port Authority decides whether to build an oil port on the Delaware River, 300 Philadelphians took to the streets this past Saturday demanding the project not go through. The rally, where protesters demanded their #RightToBreathe, was the first U.S. protest as a part of an international wave of escalated actions to Break Free from Fossil Fuels.
Saturday's protest brought together community members from across Philadelphia and beyond. Buses came from North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, and even a from Pittsburgh. There were many of people from the neighborhoods closest to the refinery. Protesters held 100 6-foot high sunflowers, along with banners and signs, demanding clean air for our city. All gathered in the shadow of the largest oil refinery on the East Coast, operated by Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES).
Those in the fossil fuel industry like PES CEO Phil Rinaldi assert Philly is destined to become the dirty energy hub of the northeast. Unsurprisingly, Rinaldi believes the first step towards becoming an energy hub should be to expand PES's own oil refinery. PES's proposal for an oil port on the Delaware would increase the amount of oil processed in our city, and increase the amount of pollution dumped into our climate.
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Our city's future cannot be powered by the dirty energy economy. We know that the South Philadelphia oil refinery is responsible for two-thirds of air pollution in the city of Philadelphia. We know that almost a quarter of our kids have asthma, twice the national average. And we know that the refinery is situated in the middle of low income communities of color.
During the action, we heard personal testimonies from the refinery's neighbors about how many of them are sick or have loved ones who are sick due to poor air quality.
"I don't know if anybody out here has ever seen an asthma death. I remember my best friend called me, barely able to speak, gasping for air. He told me he couldn't breathe. He also had asthma. The next day my family called me, to tell me he died with his pump inhaler hand," said Action United Member Teresa Hill. She had lived in Southwest Philly, downwind of the refinery.
Some people were at their first protest, after seeing the effects of the refinery's pollution their entire lives.
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"I'm fighting for my grandkids and my great grandkids. And I'm here for my dead brother, and for the right to breathe. I've been in Philadelphia for 74 years. I always thought there was something wrong with this refinery. I could see the smoke every day and the smell -- the smell of the air." said Maxine McCleary, who lives near the South Philly refinery and is also a member of Action United.
After hearing these firsthand accounts, the crowd staged a sit-in. We blocked one of the truck entrances, and covered the refinery gates with sunflowers as a symbol of a better future. The #RightToBreathe movement stands for making a city a place where people live in healthy communities and work in a green economy that sustains people and planet.
People across Philadelphia came together in this movement -- called the "Right to Breathe Movement" -- because we believe it will take our whole city to stop large fossil fuel projects like fossil fuel expansion. While many of the activists putting their bodies on the line at the gates of the refinery were white activists from other parts of Philly, they chose to use their privilege to stand up for environmental justice.
Inspired by actions that had already taken place in Wales, the Philippines, and New Zealand, Philadelphia led the charge for the United States' Break Free movement. There are so many crucial struggles upcoming, including a mass action against fracked oil trains (known locally as "bomb trains") in Albany, NY and a mega march in downtown LA for a clean energy future.
In Philly and around the country the movement for climate justice is growing louder and growing stronger. We just planted the roots of resistance to fossil fuel growth here in Philadelphia. That means we will keep fighting for a green economy, clean air, and good jobs locally and around the world.
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For nearly 30 years, Carey Gillam has worked as a business reporter covering corporate America, the last 17 of those with Reuters, where she specialized in writing about food and agriculture. In that role, she gained a reputation for her in-depth skeptical eye on issues involving GMO (genetically modified organisms) crops and the pesticides used with them. Her award-winning coverage has taken her across the country, visiting farmers and ranchers and exploring the high-tech laboratories and corporate offices of some of the largest agribusinesses corporations in the world.
But in recent years, Gillam's work has turned "controversial" in the eyes of some. Operating through sometimes murky social media channels, these critics have targeted Gillam along with others who raise question about GMO food, the chemicals used on them, and the companies that sell both. In some cases, these critics have ties linking them to the agribusiness industry. As GMO labeling efforts have taken off across the country, and become the subject of debate this month in the U.S. Senate, these attacks heightened.
She recently left Reuters to work as research director for U.S. Right to Know, a small nonprofit funded largely by the Organic Consumers Association with the mission of bringing "truth and transparency" about food policy to consumers. Over the last year, U.S. Right to Know has been making waves in the media, filing Freedom of Information Act requests at universities that have exposed cozy ties between some seemingly independent scientists and the biotech industry. Stories based on USRTK's research have appeared on the front page of the New York Times, in the Boston Globe and at Bloomberg. In March, Chicago Public Radio reported on documents USRTK made public, regarding professor Bruce Chassy at the University of Illinois, who has been failing to disclose money he has received from Monsanto.
From her home in the key farm state of Kansas, Gillam spoke with me about her coverage of these hotly debated issues and how pressure from Monsanto has gotten much uglier in recent years. Our conversation follows, condensed and edited.
You've been covering agriculture for almost two decades. When did you first start to feel pressure from Monsanto when covering GMO crops?
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Pressure from Monsanto began when I first started covering them around 1999 or 2000, and it wasn't even GMO crops. At the time Monsanto was in transition from an industrial chemical company involved in litigation with PCBs to an agrichemical and biotech seed company. They had some GMO crops but they had only been out a few years. They also had the pesticide glyphosate or Roundup, and they were marketing bovine growth hormone for dairy cows. There were a lot of questions about a lot of this stuff.
Monsanto does what all companies do to reporters: They get angry; they call your boss; they ask for a retraction or a clarification. But they were more aggressive than most companies. They'd call me at home, because they had my cellphone, and accuse me of being biased. They wanted to know if I had organic milk in my refrigerator, for instance. [Laughs] What kind of food did I feed my children. It was always a little odd.
They were dubbed "Monsatan" by many back then. But things evolved as their communications team became more media savvy and began inviting people to their headquarters and working to burnish a more favorable image. Then around 2012, as GMO labeling of food was being considered in California they became much more strategic.
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The beginning of the real ugliness began with the GMO labeling movement, and the California vote. A leading industry representative told me they couldn't keep fighting state by state. They had to win the issue nationally. An industry coalition was formed; the website GMO Answers was put together with the help of Ketchum P.R. to refute concerns that were mounting around the country about GMOs.
You get a lot of these websites and bloggers attacking anyone who critiques GMO technology or products. There's one called Science 2.0 and there's the Genetic Literacy Project run by Jon Entine. Who are these people?
Well, you can look up Jon Entine, and 10 or 15 years ago, he had Monsanto as a client for his P.R. operation. He's been around. Then you've got Bruce Chassy, who is a professor from Illinois who runs a website called Academics Review. They purport to be independent.
It's interesting you bring up Academics Review. If anyone Googles your name, one of the first things that pops up is criticism of you by Academics Review.
US Right to Know sent a FOIA request to Chassy's university and my jaw dropped when I read the emails. He, Monsanto and a former P.R. executive for Monsanto emailed each other about setting up Academics Review, back in 2010. They wanted to set it up to criticize individuals and the P.R. guy gave Chassy a list of these people, as suggestions. They had the domain name of the website and released it to Chassy. A Monsanto executive even said in one of the emails that they didn't want anyone to know Monsanto was behind it. [Laughs]
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Academics Review even went after the New Yorker for their story about the industry assault on Tyrone Hayes at Berkeley. Anyways, Chicago Public Radio blew the lid off how the money from Monsanto to Bruce Chassy was being funneled through the university's foundation. Just follow the money.
That's interesting because Bruce Chassy has been quoted several times criticizing FOIA requests, sometimes claiming it's harassment against academics. Several times the reporter quoting him was Keith Kloor and it is never disclosed in those stories that Chassy is working for Monsanto. Keith Kloor has also written several times criticizing your reporting.
I don't know Keith Kloor and I've never met him, just like I've never met Jon Entine or Bruce Chassy. These people started coming out of the woodwork when the biotech industry was ramping up their P.R. effort a few years ago to defeat the state labeling initiatives. That's when the attacks and assaults started.
Someone, I can't even remember who, called for me to be removed from my beat. There's just been a lot of pressure. But when you pull back the curtain, you see that it's an intertwined group of individuals.
There's a funny incident where Keith Kloor wrote about giving a lecture at Harvard to a class run by Calestous Juma. During Juma's class, Kloor discussed the purported "false balance" in your reporting. The Boston Globe later wrote about emails released through FOIA showing that Juma wrote a policy paper in support of GMOs that failed to disclose his connection to Monsanto. Ironic, no?
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Right. [Laughs] I'm kind of impressed, because it's very strategic by Monsanto. Brilliant of them to try and control the narrative. This business about "false balance" started about two or three years ago when Monsanto started pushing reporters with the idea that the "science was settled." Reporters are supposed to say "the science on the safety of these products is settled." That's the line industry wants, and you can find that theme repeated in several media stories.
If a story I wrote did not toe the line for the biotech industry, that created a phone call or an email to me or my editor. So I had to be extremely careful about the accuracy of every word. They couldn't get at the facts, so they countered with this idea of "false balance." They couldn't say that things were wrong, so they would complain that I should not be presenting both sides.
In February I broke a story in Time that the FDA plans to start testing foods for residues of glyphosate pesticide - a straightforward news story that outlets around the world picked up. And I was attacked by pro-GMO forces for that. They don't want anything that puts a spotlight on these chemicals or crops.
Mark Lynas at the Cornell Alliance for Science tried out that "consensus on safety" talking point in the New York Times, and a scientist who worked on the Flavr Savr tomato dressed him down in a letter to the paper. She pointed out that GMO is only a technology and each product has to be evaluated on an individual basis. I find it shocking that Lynas would even try a line like that. The pharmaceutical industry would never try to hoodwink consumers by saying, "The consensus is that pharmaceuticals are safe!" People would ask, "Well, which pharmaceutical?"
Exactly. There are different products, with different uses and impacts. Take a look at glyphosate or Roundup, which is the pesticide used with some GMO crops, like corn. There are differing opinions in the scientific community on safety and environmental impacts. The World Health Organization, for instance, came out last year with a finding that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen.
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U.S. Right to Know has faced repeated criticism from the Union of Concerned Scientists for filing FOIA requests to learn about academics working with the biotech industry. They even advised your organization in an email, last February, that people should only ask about scientists' funding. You guys ignored this, and now we have emails showing that some of these scientists were helping Monsanto lobby against labeling laws, attack other scientists, and other forms of secret corporate advocacy. The list goes on.
You don't want to use this as a tool for harassment. And you want to be targeted in your approach. We don't post people's addresses or personal information. We use information that is relevant to public policy.
I think that people need to have transparency and know who is connected to whom and why certain things are being said. Then people can make up their own minds.
[Note to readers: after this interview was completed, the Boston Globe reported that the Union of Concerned Scientists is seeking to shield some scientists' information from public scrutiny.]
Along with Charles Seife at NYU, I wrote an article for a science journal about the importance of FOIA laws in protecting the public through transparency and by uncovering corrupt science. We were immediately attacked from all sides, including a co-founder of the science journal who tweeted that Seife is an "ass" and suggested that some reporters should have to disclose their emails. It was very surreal. The journal later retracted our article, but the New York Times followed up in a front page story making pretty much the same points we had. Why is there so much hostility from scientists on this?
I think this is embarrassing for some scientists. Kevin Folta at the University of Florida has accused my organization of trying to ruin his career, which we didn't. What got him in hot water and in the New York Times was the money that came from Monsanto. If there was nothing wrong with that, then why did the university decide to give that money away? We made the information public, the New York Times printed it and the public was appalled. If there's nothing there in the emails, then why are people shouting so loud?
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But it's not just scientists. A journalist for Forbes has mused whether FOIA requests to scientists are harmful to academic research. I was shocked reading this, thinking, "We now have journalists criticizing a tool used by journalists to uncover corruption?" Three days later, the Associated Press broke a story, with internal emails showing that Coca-Cola had some pretty significant influence on researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Kind of killed that argument.
This is the 50th year of FOIA, and it's through this tool that we learn and uncover information to help protect the public. Sometimes regulators and lobbyists don't want us to know what is happening behind the scenes, when they aren't putting the public interest first. You find out what is really happening through FOIA.
Jon Entine's Genetic Literacy Project and Bruce Chassy's Academic Review have been co-sponsoring conferences with universities and sponsor journalists to attend and be on panels. One reporter wrote about the ethics of this, and I contacted her. She pointed out that we only recently learned about Bruce Chassy's ties to Monsanto in the last month from FOIA. In retrospect, she says she probably shouldn't have attended.
Again, you gotta give it to Monsanto, because it's a brilliant move. If you're a young reporter, or if you're not experienced in covering this industry, you're not going to know that you're being fed information that isn't necessarily valid or balanced. How can you possibly know?
The only reason I know is because I've been around, pretty much since GMOs really started taking off. I've watched the spin evolve and how it is sometimes accepted and sometimes rejected. I've seen when products don't work, or farmers object and get squashed.
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It's the job of journalists to try to get beyond the spin. Some journalists are capable of this, but some aren't.
Your organization has also been repeatedly described as "anti-GMO."
We are not "anti-GMO." We are for transparency. My cupboards have several bags of Tostitos and Cheesepuffs and other foods that contain GMO ingredients. My kids love it. But there are concerns about these products and it's been my job to talk to informed scientists, regulators, farmers and the companies to explore this. I don't believe that GMOs are generally bad ... or good. Like any technology, there are risks that come with rewards.
Your organization is funded by the Organic Consumers Association, which has called for a moratorium on GMO crops.
We don't have a mandate to stay away from organic issues or to focus solely on GMO issues. We're also looking at the beverage industry and animal antibiotics. My understanding is that the Organic Consumers Association wants to help level the playing field, in terms of information.
We get calls every day with people asking questions. People care about the food they eat.
Do you think Monsanto has been effective in skewing the media?
We are on a multi-layered journey. On the Jewish holiday calendar, after leaving Egypt two weeks ago with all the attendant fear and drama of Passover we are moving steadily toward the holiday of Shavuot--on which we celebrate the revelation of the Torah--and thus toward Mt. Sinai. In the Torah reading cycle, this week's Torah portion, Kedoshim, gives us a small taste of what we might receive at Sinai: a fascinating mixture of laws, both ethical and ritual, with the explicit intention of helping us live holy lives.
The Torah seems to be very interested in one commandment in particular, so much so that this commandment is repeated three times in Kedoshim, which is only two chapters long. Is it the commandment about rising in the presence of our elders? Or about having honest weights and measures? Or about avoiding certain sexual relationships? No--the only commandment that is repeated three times in this portion prohibits consulting ghosts or familiar spirits (Leviticus 19:31, 20:6, 20:27).
Why would one consult a ghost? In both biblical and rabbinic sources, people consulted the dead based on the belief that the dead had access to knowledge that we do not have in life. For example, King Saul commanded a woman of Ein Dor, who was known for her ability to consult with ghosts, to bring up the spirit of the prophet Samuel to tell Saul what would happen in the next day's battle with the Philistines. Samuel told Saul that both he and his son Jonathan would die in that battle, which indeed came to pass (I Samuel 28). And in the Babylonian Talmud (Brachot 18b), there is a fascinating discussion about what the dead know, including the suffering of the living, the best time to plant crops, where money is hidden, and who will die next.
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Fascinating indeed. But for those of us modern Jews who have outgrown Ouija boards and who seek guidance on our own journey towards greater sanctity in our lives, how are we to understand this odd commandment that plays such a curiously repetitive role in the biblical passage that has come to be known as the Holiness Code?
One answer might come from noticing the similarity between the Hebrew words kadosh (holy) and hadash (new); the Hebrew differs by only one letter. There is a feeling of newness in the experience of holiness. The 18-century Hasidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev taught, in his lesson for Rosh Hashanah, that if we could only recognize that we are actually created anew with every breath we inhale, we would be able to serve our Creator with greater devotion. Things that are unchanging are lacking in delight.
When we are in a state of holiness, of connection with the Divine, it feels new and joyful, even if a given practice that helped us come into that state of holiness is ancient and well-rehearsed. But if we consult a "ghost" in our attempt to come closer to a holy life--if we rely on a well-worn practice that has no meaning for us, which is dead for us or to which we are dead--we are turning to something that may be comfortable, but is without any vitality of its own. There is no newness or delight. The answers it provides to questions of meaning are empty and not inspiring. They cannot help us imagine what might be. They can only tell us about the past, with all its missed opportunities.
And why should we avoid the "familiar spirits?" The Hebrew word is yid`onim, which the commentators understand to be the name of a bone through which a diviner speaks. But the word comes from the grammatical root yd`, meaning "to know" (hence the English translation of "familiar"), an important one for Jewish seekers. Its usual noun form, da'at, can mean "expanded awareness" or even "spiritual experience." We might interpret the word yid`onim, then, to mean something that appears to help expand our awareness but does so in a warped or distorted way. Perhaps we are being warned away from substances that might confuse us, or even qualities that seem righteous but which end up feeding our smaller selves and leading us away from true holiness.
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So now we can return to our thrice-mentioned commandment with fresh eyes. "Do not turn to ghosts and do not inquire of familiar spirits to be defiled by them; I am YHVH your God." In our journey towards living with greater holiness, keep seeking what is fresh and renewed; do not turn to the lifeless past for inspiration--yet insist on what is actual expanded awareness; do not allow yourself to settle for false spiritual expressions. YHVH is our God, ever becoming, ever flowing with holiness. When we truly know that, we too can be holy, and live holy lives.
Front-running presidential candidate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte clenches his fist prior to voting in a polling precinct at Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School at Matina district, his hometown in Davao city in southern Philippines Monday, May 9, 2016. Duterte was the last to vote among five presidential hopefuls. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
MANILA, Philippines -- On May 9, the Philippines elected its 16th president. With almost 90 percent of the votes unofficially counted, Rodrigo Duterte, Jr., the mayor of the southern town of Davao, won a convincing 38 percent, more than 15 percent over his closest rival.
Duterte will preside over the country's fate for the next six years. With a fragile democracy marked by a weak political party system, the country's political stability has to rely on the strength and popularity of the president. He will be the key policymaker, the chief executive enjoying vast powers and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces in charge of fighting off two existing internal rebellions, a handful of terrorist groups out to undermine the existing democratic order and undertake credible defense of the country's frontiers. He has to ensure continued economic growth and spread wealth to the people, especially among the quarter of the population living below the poverty line.
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There are new challenges such as climate change and adaptation, plunging oil prices and the peril to overseas Filipino workers, particularly those working in the Middle East, the continuing global financial crisis and China's incursions into the West Philippine Sea. Duterte will have to deal with them all.
A local tough among conventional candidates
Duterte has been likened to Donald Trump for his loud and fast mouth, crude jokes, sometimes shocking stands on issues and penchant for advocating legal shortcuts. He's a man after Dirty Harry's heart -- a leader who endeared himself to Davaoenos for a no-nonsense approach to peace and order. He reputedly cleansed the city of crime after the mysterious and controversial killing of more than 1,000 criminals. He promised to do the same throughout the land in under six months if he was elected. He thinks that the nation's problems can be reduced to a lack of political will by its leaders and that he will be the one to provide it if elected.
Duterte filed his candidacy after a bit of political drama by substituting for an erstwhile candidate of a party known by the acronym PDP-Laban. He relied on his credentials as the local executive of one of the more progressive cities in the south. Moreover, he brought into the fight his anti-crime reputation and the grievances of resource-rich but poor Mindanao against "imperial" Manila.
He won over a field of candidates as varied as can be assembled.
An attendee hands out placards before a campaign rally for Poe in Manila on May 7. (Taylor Weidman/Bloomberg via Getty Images
There is Senator Grace Poe, the adopted daughter of the late Fernando Poe, perhaps the most famous actor in Philippine cinema. The elder Poe died after losing in the controversial 2004 presidential election.
Then, there is former secretary of the interior and local government, Manuel Roxas II, a Wharton grad, investment technocrat and heir to a vast business and property empire. He is the grandson of President Manuel Roxas, the first president of an independent Philippine republic that rose from the ruins of World War II.
The country's political stability has to rely on the strength and popularity of the president.
The next candidate, Vice President Jejomar Binay, has been campaigning for the presidency since 2012. He was the former mayor of Makati. And lastly, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago was the presidential candidate in 1992 who still thinks that the proclaimed winner that year, President Fidel Ramos, cheated her of the presidency.
The stage was thus set for a campaign marked by fierce and often personal attacks by the candidates on each other.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino arrives at an ASEAN summit in Malaysia on November 21, 2015. (REUTERS/Olivia Harris)
Binay was accused of corruption in Makati and now faces an investigation. His family was accused of being a political dynasty.
Poe, an adopted foundling, was accused of being constitutionally unqualified to run because she is not a "natural-born Filipino" but an "American" who adopted American citizenship when she married her husband in the U.S. She is a dual citizen. She was also accused of failing the constitutional 10-year residency requirement. The supreme court came to her rescue and proclaimed her as qualified to run for the presidency. She was also criticized as a political neophyte.
Administration candidate Roxas was accused of bungling his assignments in government. He was blamed for bad airports, failing light railway systems, the horrendous Manila traffic, epic failures in providing car plates and driver licenses and crawling Internet speeds. He was also blamed for poor management of the Zamboanga rebel siege, for failures in handling disasters like the Haiyan super-typhoon relief and rehabilitation efforts and the rising drug and crime rates in urban centers.
Duterte is a man after Dirty Harry's heart.
Defensor Santiago was not paid much attention by other candidates, in deference perhaps to her health, her acerbic sharp tongue and low ratings in the surveys.
Duterte, who is ironically a lawyer by profession, was accused of extra-judicial killings in Davao City, associations with rebels of all varieties, corruption and ill-gotten wealth. The voters, however, loved him for his folksy manner, his rough and earthy jokes, his fierce attitude against crime and drugs and his penchant for quick solutions, often cutting through legal corners and bureaucratic tape.
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The Duterte Phenomenon
Duterte garnered the imagination of voters by promising quick fixes for the nation's problems. More than anything else, he became the anti-hero symbol of the people's frustration, disappointment and, to certain extent, desperation over the unconcern, failure and even arrogance towards the daily miseries of life by the nation's political elite, including the Benigno Aquino administration.
There is a perceived lack of political will to deal with problems like crime and drugs, poverty, corruption, high prices and job insecurity, and with failure to deliver on basic services like transportation, communications, health and education. The Aquino administration, in particular, was a disappointment to many for its failure to ensure inclusive growth and pursuing selective anti-corruption initiatives against political enemies only.
A major thoroughfare clogged with traffic in Manila on Jan. 11. (JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images)
In the 2016 elections, many of the voters felt that enough was enough. Most of them would cast their votes for change -- the more radical, the better. Duterte and Poe more accurately represented this turn in the mood of the people, replacing each other often at the top of survey ratings.
However, it was Duterte who rode on the crest of this protest vote. He started to run away from the others in the last weeks of April. The media started calling it the Duterte phenomenon.
People voted him into the presidency with undeniable enthusiasm.
His penchant for gutter language coupled with a big mouth nearly derailed his campaign. A video of him telling a "joke" about an Australian who was brutally raped and murdered in 1989 -- "[S]he was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste." -- went viral. The ensuing firestorm of condemnation from his opponents, women's groups, human rights activists, the church, the victim's family and the Australian and U.S. ambassadors put him on the defensive. His fitness for the presidency is suddenly in doubt among many voters.
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His opponents, sensing his weakness, pounced on him with new allegations of hidden wealth and psychotic behavior. Roxas appealed for the familiar continuity against Duterte's unfamiliar change.
Duterte holds the national flag as he addresses supporters during a rally on May 7. (MOHD RASFAN/AFP/Getty Images)
After a short period of stubbornness -- even denying at one point the apology given by his party -- he personally said sorry. Apparently, the Filipino voters forgave him. They voted him into the presidency with undeniable enthusiasm.
To be sure, the political elite will find it hard to accept an outsider -- and a local anti-hero at that. He will face more challenges from them during his administration. However, for better or for worse, he has been given by the voters the historic task to define a Filipino nation still in transition.
Earlier on WorldPost:
Over the last several weeks, we've had North Carolina's bathroom law debated and parsed in both our political and social discourse. Even within my own organization, National Action Network, on my national radio show and those that tweet/send me messages, people have been on both sides of this issue. Some that have worked with us on civil rights challenges are even arguing that this is a distortion of the Civil Rights Act. I have found myself debating many -- including allies -- because the concepts of civil rights and justice are for everyone, not just tailored to your particular group. The bottom line is, people have a right to live their lives even if it doesn't match what you think is correct. When we fight for civil rights, we must fight for equality for all; anything less is hypocrisy and an insult to the definition of justice itself.
On Monday, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch called North Carolina's transgender bathroom law "state-sponsored discrimination", and said that it is targeting a problem that doesn't exist. "This law provides no benefit to society, and all it does is harm innocent Americans," she said as the Justice Department is counter-suing North Carolina over this egregious bathroom law.
AG Lynch is absolutely correct. Supporters of the law are inventing a problem where none exists, and creating fear and hysteria in order to drum up support for their cause. And for people like North Carolina's Governor Pat McCrory to use this issue for political purposes: It is outrageous, vile and a sad testament to how low politicians will go to maintain power. If he thinks that this bathroom law will help him get re-elected this November, I urge all residents in North Carolina to send a clear message that it will have the opposite effect. You simply cannot trample on the civil rights of others because you think it's politically expedient -- that is not only morally reprehensible, but outrageously discriminatory.
It's easy to throw around statements, ideas and even laws like this one and make it appear as if it is somehow a good concept. But let's pause and remember that religion and religious grounds have been used against everyone from African Americans to a woman's right to choose and more. We cannot allow religion to be misused yet again in this day and age against the transgender community. The even larger issue is the fact that we cannot empower states to supersede federal laws against discrimination. AG Lynch was also spot on in reminding people of Jim Crow laws. Are we re-instituting state's rights, which was the basis of segregation in the first place? Where will it end?
I travel a lot around the country, from state-to-state, city-to-city, town-to-town. It's important to also keep in mind that this bathroom law is simply unenforceable. If I were to go to a public bathroom in an airport and someone suspects a person in the bathroom is transgender, who do they call to inspect that? We already know that we don't have enough TSA workers to cover security screening stops. Now we are going to get TSA to monitor bathrooms to make sure people enter the "correct" ones? Is this a realistic law, or just a wedge issue to draw out the votes of the far-right and evangelical with something that is not enforceable or realistic in the first place?
Don't be deceived by fear, or by talking points of those that care more about their own advancement as opposed to the equality of all of our citizens. Don't be deceived by people using religion to suppress the rights of others. And don't be deceived by an election year wedge issue and don't forfeit civil rights because of your personal beliefs and biases.
There is a lot more at stake here than meets the eye -- or the bathroom.
Whatever happened to Michigan ? All those television ads boasting pure Michigan, pure air, pure water, pure recreation, pure beauty. Whatever happened to social policy for this state ? The University of Michigan has had a prominent reputation as being a place for forward policy development, including having the top rated Social Work school in the country. Social Work - US News & World Report grad schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/...schools/...schools/social.
What ever happened to political leadership; where is Carl Levin, Jennifer Granholm ?
The tragedy that we have witnessed with both the toxic water disaster in Flint and the fiscal, educational crisis in Detroit is beyond imagination. The population of Detroit has precipitously declined.
A Declining Population In A Widespread City. Detroit's population is close to the same size now as it was in 1910, before the city's automotive boom began. The city's population peaked at 1.86 million in 1950. The 2012 U.S. Census showed the city with about 700,000 residents
A Declining Population In A Widespread City - In Photos: 10 Things To ...
www.forbes.com/.../a-declining-population-in-a-widespread-city-13/
Forbes
This decline is greater than the diaspora created by Hurricane Katrina (2005 ) in New Orleans, La. As of July 1, 2008, New Orleans had a population of 311,853, a decrease in population from the 445,000 residents of the city prior to Hurricane Katrina.[1] New Orleans diaspora - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_diaspora. The total population of New Orleans, La prior to the storm would have been at least 756,853.
The current estimated population for New Orleans ( Orleans parish ) ( 2015 ) is 389,617Total population by parish for the New Orleans metro | The Data Centerwww.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/population-by-parish/.
Certainly, the problems experienced by both Detroit and Flint have been fueled by changing economic and population demographics. There has been the decline of the auto industry and resulting loss of jobs. At the same time there has been a resurgence of entrepreneurial businesses in Detroit like the Shinola Watch company. Flint has also suffered the loss of jobs due to the closure of automobile plants. There has also been a massive migration of people out of the urban center to surrounding suburban comminutes thus further eroding the existing tax revenue.
What is alarming is the lack of attention being paid to these tragedies by the lawmakers in Lansing. Recently, Governor Rick Snyder did apologize to the people of Flint by saying " You didn't create this problem. Government failed you. " The Detroit News noted:
The crowd became angrier when Snyder said "we have a short-term water crisis." The switch to Flint River water began two years ago in April 2014, and the city switched back to the Detroit water system in October 2015, though officials tell residents not to the drink the water without a filter.
But Snyder continued that "we have a longer-term issue about building a stronger city of Flint." Crowd spanks 'sorry' Snyder for Flint water debacle The Detroit News - 2 days ago
Governor Snyder is minimizing the magnitude of this environmental calamity. The physical, neurological and psychological effects for the population of Flint, especially for the children, may not become fully known for decades. There will now have to be not only a great expenditure of money allocated for filters and removing corroded lead piping and installing new pipe, but there will also need to be a large mobilization of medical and mental health resources for Flint.
The Governor and the legislature in Lansing need to stop the grandstanding and finger-pointing, and deflection and really exhibit some meaningful leadership for the health and welfare of the citizens of Michigan.
The people of Flint and Detroit more than deserve it.
May it be so.
The first part is simple. Hillary Clinton got more votes.
3 million more popular votes, to be precise. This margin will not significantly change between now and the end of the primary season. Nor will her margin in pledged delegates, close to 300, awarded proportionally state-by-state. By the normal metrics of any primary contest, Bernie Sanders has lost.
Why? This, too, is not hard to answer. The more vexing and important question we will save for last: what should Sanders and his dedicated followers do in November and beyond.
But first, let's take stock of what Bernie Sanders has accomplished.
For openers, he transformed the political dialogue within the Democratic Party, pushing his agenda to the forefront of our larger discussion. The impetus was his unrelenting focus on two broad areas of national dysfunction -- the corrosive corruption of our campaign finance system, and the degree to which our politics abets, rather than ameliorates, the economic inequity and dislocation which is killing off our collective sense of opportunity and hope.
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Others have decried the barely veiled bribery which buys not just access, but outcomes. But only Sanders has done this with the clarity and ferocity that the issue deserves. The damage is not simply that money buys power, but that hanging out with wealthy donors distorts an officeholder's sense of the world.
This, no doubt, accounts for the power of Sanders' denunciation of Hillary Clinton's speaking fees. But that is simply emblematic of his larger and inarguable point: that our political process is slanted toward plutocracy.
Sanders' attack on income inequality has been equally telling. One can debate his prescriptions: reviving Glass-Steagall; opposing the TPP; an agenda which requires a dramatic raise in taxation and in the size of government. But he has relocated the discussion within the Democratic Party on his own turf, becoming the engine of a shift which has the potential to last beyond his candidacy. It is far more likely, now, that the plight of those left behind will be at the forefront of the Democrats' agenda.
His impact goes further still. By casting himself as a "democratic socialist," he has spurred Americans to consider anew how they view the role of government. He has made voters more class conscious, dispelling the myth of equal opportunity in an inequitable age. He has challenged the party to return to its roots as an advocate for the middle class, labor and the poor.
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He has separated the fear of globalization from xenophobia, denouncing trade deals while embracing immigration. He has rallied young people who want to rewrite the terms of the deal prior generations have handed them. He has won more states than most observers ever imagined he would, and he is going to the Democratic platform strongly positioned to call for change. And, remarkably, he has fought big money to a standstill by building a massive war chest from the modest donations of ordinary people inspired by his message.
But the very consistency of that message poses a conundrum -- while arousing deep passion and loyalty, he did not broaden his appeal to key constituencies within the Democratic Party.
In the end, he came up against a truism of electoral politics -- a following primarily composed of young people and white progressives, while substantial, does not in itself carry the party or the country. The difference between the Sanders and Obama challenges to Hillary Clinton is that Obama was able to take this base and add minorities which, demographically, have become even more critical to Democrats in the last eight years.
Passion is an important ingredient in political success. But a passionate voter still votes only once. Many Democratic voters decided that Clinton embodies the knowledge, experience and practical approach to making progress that they desire in a president. They may not turn out at rallies, but they get one vote too. It does not serve to condescend to them as docile, uninformed or lacking vision or convictions.
Passion is an important ingredient in political success. But a passionate voter still votes only once.
The danger here is that real differences between the candidates mutate, among disappointed voters, into bitterness which wrongly challenges the validity of the elections themselves. For the argument that the popular margin won by Clinton is owed to a rigged system does not withstand a considered analysis.
To start, the issues contested in these primaries were thoroughly aired. Granted, Debbie Wasserman Schultz put her thumb on the scales more than once, particularly with respect to debates. But, in the end, no observant voter could be left in doubt about what the candidates had to say.
Nor is it sufficient to complain that too many Southern primaries came too soon. The calendar preexisted Bernie Sanders -- far from a contrivance designed to derail his candidacy, the schedule has been like this for years. Granted that many of the Super Tuesday states are GOP bastions -- though it is well to remember that Florida and North Carolina are purple, and that Georgia may go there soon enough. But the same day Clinton won those states she also won Massachusetts, home of Elizabeth Warren.
Before one wishes for a different schedule, consider that the first two states helped jumpstart the Sanders campaign. Compared to the country as a whole, Iowa and New Hampshire have a disproportionately white populace, more fertile ground for Sanders. And the prevalence of caucuses early on, often a boon to Sanders, rewarded intensity over breadth of support, while making participation difficult for overworked and financially struggling people -- frequently minorities -who cannot afford the time.
Beyond this, the core of Clinton supporters in the South -- African Americans -- are part of a nationwide Democratic constituency critical to victory in November. So, too, are Latinos -- another group generally supportive of Hillary Clinton. No progressive, I am sure -- least of all Bernie Sanders -- would denigrate their role within the party.
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Nor, whatever the peculiarity of voting in places like New York, can it be fairly said that Clinton's victories emanated from a voting process which, though conducted state-by-state, was pervasively flawed -- let alone rigged across the country by malign forces in every state. There is no persuasive evidence that her 3 million vote margin in the popular vote does not, overall, reflect the preferences of voters. This preference, not arcane rules, accounts for her decisive edge in pledged delegates who, after all, are awarded proportionally -- if anything, this formula limited the impact of Clinton's success in garnering votes.
In explaining his shortfall, Sanders states that poor people vote in lesser numbers. But that fact, to the extent it is one, cannot be blamed on Hillary Clinton. And for whatever reason Clinton fared well in states with the largest income inequality.
Yet another problem for Sanders among Democrats was his relationship to the party -- specifically, that he has never been a member.
Certainly, that should not -- and did not -- preclude him from seeking the party's nomination. But political parties do not exist simply to conduct plebiscites. Their underlying purpose is to promote a sustained approach to governance which requires a cadre of people to keep the party machinery running. Most often, these are not cynical self-promoters, but committed folks who believe that their party 's general philosophy is best for society. Superdelegates are people, too.
Little wonder, then, that as a lifetime Democrat Clinton draws more support from loyal Democrats than Sanders. But the most committed Democrats care about winning -- had Sanders won more votes than Clinton, he would have garnered more superdelegates. And if the party simply eliminated all superdelegates, as many Sanders supporters would prefer, Clinton would have the clear majority of popular votes and pledged delegates.
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Ironically, Sanders' recent assertion that Clinton will not garner the majority of all delegates before the convention rests on the existence of superdelegates, whose numbers raise the mathematic ceiling for clinching the nomination. This is where his logic turns on itself -- one cannot complain about the existence of superdelegates, and then use their existence to claim that the convention will be contested. Indeed, if the party awarded superdelegates proportionally according to the state-by-state results, which Sanders seems to advocate, Clinton would maintain a comfortable majority of delegates.
Thus under any formulation, Clinton will have the clear majority of electoral votes and pledged delegates -- not to mention superdelegates. The only conceivable way she could lose is for superdelegates to ignore the electoral results, and move en masse to Bernie Sanders. It would hard to characterize that as either logical, or consistent with any version of democracy one can conjure. And it directly contradicts Sanders' call for allocating superdelegates according to the popular vote in each state.
Finally, some complain that all Democratic primaries should be open to all voters or, at least, to unaffiliated voters not connected to the party. Some primaries are. But the fact that all are not has nothing to do with Bernie Sanders, and everything to do with maintaining a philosophically coherent party -- including one that is not hijacked by candidates and voters who care nothing for its precepts.
Again, there is history here. A good way to render this more comprehensible is to invoke the name George Wallace, who sought the Democratic nomination in three different years -- 1964, 1972, and 1976 -- by attracting votes from racists of every political stripe, many of whom had no connection to the party. Wallace exemplifies why these rules exist in some Democratic primaries. Whether one agrees with them or not, they have a valid historic purpose, one which preceded this year's contest by decades.
But Sanders' defeat derives from more than demographics or electoral mechanics. Here, another paradox: the same proposals which created such excitement among some voters gave rise, among others, to doubts about their practicability or wisdom.
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First, practicability. With unavoidable candor, Sanders acknowledges that his agenda cannot be enacted as matters stand. The only hope, therefore, is a "political revolution" which utterly transforms our body politic.
One need not be a cowardly centrist to believe this a daunting longshot. For deplore it as we may, by its very structure under the Constitution -- embedded in the separation of powers -- our governmental institutions resist tectonic change. From FDR to LBJ to Barack Obama, change has come incrementally, not from transformational rhetoric alone, but from pragmatism and patience. And in recent times our political process has become far more vicious and resistant - not only polarized, but Darwinian.
The basic facts are captured by Norm Ornstein in The Atlantic. Even should the Democrats recapture a Senate majority in 2016, they won't elect enough senators to break a Republican filibuster. And there is simply no chance of flipping a sufficient number of the one-sided and gerrymandered districts to retake the House. In short, a President Sanders would face the same miserable situation -- a government hopelessly paralyzed by hostile parties -- that Obama faced after the 2010 elections.
And, as with Obama, the Republicans would obstruct him without cease. Ornstein describes the grim terrain:
Going over the heads of Congress has long been a staple of frustrated presidents, and it has almost never worked... And these days, with most congressional districts resembling homogenous echo chambers - national public opinion has limited bearing on congressional leaders. Talk radio, cable news, social media and blogs mean more. And none of these outlets would be swayed or intimidated to create some huge populist uprising that would force Congress to bring up, much less pass, a sweeping populist agenda.The more Sanders pushed, the more there would be a sharp and vicious counter-reaction which would further tribalize the country.
Here, again, Obama holds a lesson. The fight for the Affordable Care Act nearly hollowed out his presidency. Imagine, then, Sanders vainly trying to pass single-payer healthcare -- a proven non-starter in a polarized and divided government -- exhausting his political capital while destroying his effectiveness as president.
Prominent progressives have expressed these very concerns. Tom Hayden, a committed democratic activist since the 1960s, described in The Nation the agonizing reappraisal which caused him to switch from Sanders to Clinton. To Ornstein's list he adds this -- that the Republican attack machine, which left Sanders alone as long as he was damaging Clinton, was simply waiting to launch the same merciless assault that Clinton has endured for years, redefining him in highly negative terms for general election voters. This, I know for a fact, is true.
Sam Brown, an esteemed activist since the era of civil rights and Vietnam, underscores all this with a hardheaded look at the electoral math. The reality is this: the turnout for Sanders, well below that for Clinton, does not presage the political tidal wave required to swamp reality as we know it.
Countering these forces to enact the Sanders agenda would seem to require not only entirely different conditions, but a different system -- not to mention sheer political genius on a level unprecedented in any American president. Here, again, Sanders did not persuade enough voters that he could summon such a miracle.
To say that Sanders is a voice in the wilderness is not quite right -- he was an effective and innovative mayor of Burlington, and he has used the amendment process in Congress to some effect. But his reputation as a loner and political purist, reflected in his limited legislative achievements, ran counter to the hope that he could be a uniquely transformational president in such fractious times.
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After a quarter century of rising nastiness and paralysis, these concerns were not lost on Democratic voters. Whether one agrees or disagrees, they can hardly be blamed for not believing that the revolution Bernie Sanders says is necessary could, in fact, happen. Nor can they be faulted for believing that Hillary Clinton can more likely stave off the disaster of a President Trump, and then move the country as far toward progressivism as anyone can -- and away from the nativism, negativism and nihilism of the GOP.
As to substance, there was genuine doubt about the economic suppositions on which the Sanders agenda rests. That these fears were widely shared among the Democratic electorate is another reason Sanders fell short.
For many, the agenda itself is a stirring departure from the past. Breaking up the big banks. Free College. Health care for everyone, including undocumented immigrants. Mandating employers to provide new parents with three months family leave. These proposals, and others, address a deep and unmet longing for a fair and inclusive society.
But, for others of good faith, the prospective cost is sobering. The price tag on health care alone -- $1.4 trillion, more than the 1 trillion we pay out in Social Security checks every year -- left many wondering about both theory and practice. The argument that the plan can offset this with 1 trillion dollars in savings is, according to several experts, questionable without shortcutting medical procedures and services, as well as expenditures on new technology. God may not be in the details, but better health care is.
Overall, a number of analysts -- including left-of-center economists not affiliated with Clinton -- believed that the Sanders agenda, if ever enacted, would raise the size of the federal government and its spending by 40 percent. Aside from uncertainty about the economic impact of such a massive shift it is, politically, impossible.
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Nor are its underlying premises free from doubt. Among the bases for the Sanders agenda is economic growth of 5.3 percent. When Jeb Bush offered a plan assuming 4 percent growth, he was widely ridiculed on the left. While gentler about Sanders, progressive economists are no less dubious.
Asked about the Sanders projections, Dean Baker, who writes frequently for HuffPost, opined that getting much over 2 percent is hard to imagine. Similarly another regular, Jared Bernstein, described the assumptions behind the 5.3 percent figure as "wishful thinking." To a considerable extent, this same unease permeated the primary electorate.
Faced with Donald Trump there is little reason for lasting antagonism between people of goodwill who, in general, share much more philosophically than not.
Other proposals added to this disquiet. Take free college. Among Democrats, there is wide agreement that college should be free -- or, at least, very low in cost -- for those who lack the resources to pay their own way. This would have the salutary effect of creating opportunity for those who need it, while enriching our society with their talents.
But, many asked, why spend our tax dollars on kids whose family can afford their education? Why not spend the money on infrastructure, job retraining, relocation of displaced workers, or our fraying social safety net? These are valid questions. Many concluded that we need to attack specific problems with maximum resources, helping the people who need our help, rather than transforming higher education for those who don't.
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My point is this. Those who supported Clinton, and those who voted for Sanders, had valid reasons for doing so. Someone had to lose. But faced with Donald Trump there is little reason for lasting antagonism between people of goodwill who, in general, share much more philosophically than not.
So the question now is what Sanders and his most fervent supporters will do. And, as of now, there is reason to believe that many will refuse to support Clinton over Trump.
The evidence in cyberspace abounds, including on this website. I'm not impervious to reader comments, and I'm grateful for any statement of appreciation or goodwill. But I have noted that in the rare instances I've expressed some skepticism about any aspect of the Sanders campaign, angry readers surface to accuse me of being a shill for Hillary or, horror of horrors, a Republican.
No complaints -- and a modest price to pay for the privilege of writing for others. But this very passion reverberates in article after article, comment after comment, by those who say that they will never vote for Hillary Clinton -- a sentiment reflected in an estimate that 25 percent of Sanders voters are disinclined to support Clinton in November.
For some, it is Iraq; for others, speaking fees; for still others, the varied explanations for the email controversy. Many question Clinton's true feelings about free trade agreements. For a segment of Sanders supporters, it is all the above. A subsection goes even further -- that given Clinton's perceived closeness to Wall Street, there is no difference between her and the Republicans.
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I get this as a metaphor for the larger point that both parties are too enmeshed with the financial sector. It is particularly prevalent among those, including younger voters, who have no affiliation with the Democratic Party. But as a statement of fact it contravenes reality. The differences are too numerous, and far too critical, to ignore.
Here are a few. The Court. The environment. Reasonable regulation of Wall Street. Economic justice. Reproductive rights. Equal rights for minorities, women and gays. A sane and effective program to counter terrorism, including nuclear terrorism. Job retraining. Affordable college. Improving Obamacare. Preserving Medicare and Social Security. Combating the fallout of globalization. And on and on.
And yet one hears repeatedly the Susan Sarandon school of political analysis -- if Sanders voters abandon Clinton, and Trump wins, the revolution will come that much quicker.
How? She doesn't know. In what form? She doesn't say. At what cost? She has no idea.
The notion that Donald Trump would provoke just the kind of revolution Susan Sarandon wants is, in candor, hallucinatory. Far more likely Trump would drive us deeper into division, distrust and despair, a downward spiral from which there will be no common idea of how to escape. I'm reminded of one of the more chilling chapters from the Vietnam War -- when an American officer, having ordered his troops to decimate a hamlet and everyone in it, explained that "sometimes you have to destroy a village in order to save it."
No thanks. We should save the village by making it better for all who live there.
Here, a word about third parties as a medium of self-expression. Certainly, one can vote any way one likes. But all that voting for Ralph Nader helped buy us was eight years of Republican rule. Can anyone look back at those years and say that President Gore would have made no difference? Only Ralph Nader, which captures the problem nicely. This is not the year for progressives to walk away -- any more than 1968, when the disenchanted followers of Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy helped elect their polar opposite, Richard Nixon.
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Instead, the only realistic way for Bernie's legions to save the village is by continuing what they started. Keeping engaged with the Democratic Party -- which, however imperfect, is the only realistic vehicle for positive change. Fighting for a platform which embraces progressive goals. Supporting candidates who reflect their values. Pressing for changes in the nomination process. Making themselves ever more important within, and to, the party. Holding it to its promises. Combating Super PACs and strengthening the role of small donors. Accepting that, in politics, one never gets everything one wants. And never forfeiting their purchase on power in exchange for impotent anger.
Ahead of their highly anticipated meeting in Washington on Thursday, putative Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has called for the deportation of House Speaker Paul Ryan.
"Forget about him just resigning as chairman of the Republican Convention -- I want him out of the country," said Trump this morning. "And since we'll eventually be deporting eleven million other losers, I don't see why throwing in an extra one is such a big deal."
In a series of tweets at 3:00 a.m., Trump also called Ryan "a bad dude," "not nice," and "House Speaker Jerk Face." He also insinuated Ryan may have been involved in the assassination of President William McKinley and possibly faked the 1969 moon landing, noting, "If you listen closely, 'One giant leap for mankind' sounds a whole lot like Ryan."
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Trump also demanded that individual concrete walls be built around Lindsay Graham, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Jeb, George W., and George H.W. Bush, which each will be forced to pay.
Photo by Marilena Stavrakidis, Photographer
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is infested. 2,000 pigeons have come home to roost on a defunct aircraft carrier. This is Fly by Night, the newest project by Creative Time, a socially-engaged arts organization best known for the Tribute in Light, those ghostly beams that punch the sky over Manhattan every year in the week running up to September 11th.
Creative Time has a fondness for post-industrial settings. Only two years ago it retrofitted the soon-to-be demolished Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg with Kara Walker's magisterial, Marvelous Sugar Baby. Her 30-ton glistening, sugar-coated sphinx - fronted by a Mammy-face worthy of an Aunt Jemima bottle - pointedly reminded us all about the brutal underpinnings of the sugar cane trade. Domino Sugar's crystalline wealth was built on the bowed backs of slaves.
Surprisingly, Fly by Night, Creative Time's new project, seems to have little apparent political intent. This has nothing to do with Duke Riley, the artist they've chosen, or with his feathery medium. For his previous work with wings, the coyly-titled Trading with the Enemy, Riley trained dozens of pigeons to smuggle Cuban cigars from Havana to Key West Florida. Another dozen birds filmed the journey from low altitude, and thumbed their beaks at the high-tech surveillance meant to stop all this pirating.
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Photo by Marilena Stavrakidis, Photographer
This time around, Riley has supersized his cast to the thousands and tagged them with bright, LED lights. The setting is Brooklyn's Navy Yard - the former site of U.S. military glory, when battles were waged at sea, and America's empire was ironclad. Today, most New Yorkers would be hard pressed to locate the Navy Yard on a map; much less mentally associate it with homeland security. Riley's feathery pirates are roosting on none other than an antique warship. And that perhaps is the point - such martial swagger is archaic stuff. The pigeons have nothing to smuggle this time, except art itself. No rockets' red glare, no bombs bursting in air, only the hushed awwing of the enchanted crowds, and the flapping rustle of feathers lit up like stars wheeling high overhead.
From the Tribute in Light that reminded us that hope is anything but material, to Marvelous Sugar Baby, which rebuked the whitewashing of the past, Creative Time has masterfully restored social imperative to the realm of art. This time around, its curatorial statement has made some halfhearted asides towards gentrification and the dying art of the pigeon coop, but the gesture is both belated and unconvincing. Only the frantic semaphoring of Riley's crew, with their fast waving flags, give an indication that some message is being conveyed - but it is not one we can decipher.
It would be better to see Fly by Night as a summation of all Creative Time has done before -unearthing the past, raising accountability alongside the dead, birthing bright promise out of bitter ruin. These birds remind us all of that is whimsy; of that thing that "perches in soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all" ('Hope is the thing with Feathers' - Emily Dickinson).
Photo by Marilena Stavrakidis, Photographer
Ida Tin is the co-founder and CEO of Clue, the world's fastest growing period tracking and fertility app. Clue has more than four million active users in over 190 countries, and is one of the most popular apps in the "Health & Fitness" category in the United States, Germany, France, Mexico and many others. Women love and trust Clue because it is accurate, fast and easy to use.
Clue's mission is to empower people to be in charge of their lives while moving science and health research forward. A lifelong entrepreneur and a modern feminist, Ida is convinced that technology will profoundly change the future of family planning.
Before starting Clue, Ida led motorcycle tours around the world. She wrote a book about her travel adventures, "Direkts", that became a Danish bestseller and received rave reviews. Ida currently lives in Berlin with her partner Hans, who also co-founded Clue, and their two children.
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We had the opportunity to chat with Ida to understand her view of the world.
S: How did you learn all these languages?
I: I have travelled all my life since I was an infant, so English has always been there. In school i had French and Spanish, i then moved to Germany and learned the language here. My family is spread between Denmark and Norway, and there were Swedish people in my class at the KaosPilots, so I understand those languages too.
S: Tell us more about the motorcycle tours
I: As mentioned, I have travelled all over the world with my parents and older brother. We travelled by motorcycle so it runs in the family. So after graduating I had the idea to start a touring company together with my dad. I did it for five years and it was a lot of fun. We did all kind of tours around the world like off road in Mongolia, we did tours in Cuba where we shipped people's bikes over, we did women's only tours in the US, and many more. In the end I realized that I wanted to build a scalable business which the tours weren't.
S: What were your most formative / seminal experiences?
I: Seeing the world as a child, and being close to my parents and brother - I spent so much time with them, I think that is rare in most families - including my own now.
Your most influential book and why "Sex at Dawn" because it shows how the standard narrative of "woman wants security and men wants sex" is probably totally scientifically invalid and that women's sexuality was massively impacted (in a negative way) because we stopped being hunter gatherers and started being farmers.
S: Do you have any routines to be more {productive, healthy, energized etc} - life hacks, basically. If so, what, why?
I: I fall asleep putting kids to bed at 8pm most evenings and don't get up again. That means I am losing out on a lot of stuff, but I am normally really well tested and wake up by myself.
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S: What do people never ask you that you wish they did?
I: I think there is a lot of focus on what founders want to create and build, as there should be, but I think it is also relevant to ask what the price is they are willing to pay - privately, morally or in whatever dimension they feel they are paying a price. Right now there is a lot of hype about starting companies, which is fine (I want more people to feel they can make their ideas become real) - but i think we must also talk about the price. It's tough being a startup founder and I don't think all would enjoy it so we should paint a realistic picture of it. For me there are many things I enjoy doing which I don't have time for at this point in my life where all is focused around Clue and having small kids. I have accepted that, but that is the other side of the coin.
S: You're a guest speaker at a college graduation ceremony. What are the four things you'll tell your audience?
I: Go out and create the change you want to see and make your voice be heard. Especially women's. We need a paradigm shift in how we take care of this planet, and I do think having power being a more balanced between genders would help that.
As America and the world mourns the death of music icon Prince, there has been speculation that his death was the result an opioid overdose. Yet, the music icon was known for his healthy lifestyle and his rejection of the drug culture that has become a cliche when talking about rock stars. The death of Prince underscores the opioid abuse epidemic in America that is created by the over-prescribing of opioids to treat pain known by names like Percocet, OxyContin, Fentanyl and Vicodin.
Last year, American doctors prescribed enough opioids to give every American adult a one-month supply. 30 tablets that could lead to a dependence on a drug that is a stone's throw away from heroin, which is where some who become addicted to prescription opioids end their journey. Since 1999, the number of opioid prescriptions in the United States has quadrupled; in 2014, 18,893 people died from prescription opioid overdoses in the United States, another 10,574 from heroin overdoses, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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Who is bearing the cost of highly addictive opioids? Families from Maine to California, Washington to Florida. The scourge of over-prescribed opioids touches every demographic. The substance use treatment industry also is overwhelmed with the onslaught of opioid addicted patients who frequently relapse.
Joe Mantello
Photo: Brigitte Lacombe
Over the last twenty seasons, Joe Mantello has directed thirty plays and musicals (including Take Me Out, Assassins and Other Desert Cities). He currently has a nearly-unprecedented four shows on Broadway: the long-running Wicked plus The Humans, Blackbird, and Act of God (the latter three mounted within a five-month period). He is also an actor, featured in the original Broadway productions of Angels in America (as Louis Ironson) and The Normal Heart (as Ned Weeks).
PART 2: ON ANGELS, WICKED AND AWARDS
You have worked on some remarkable plays, including The Humans, Other Desert Cities and Take Me Out. When you first read a play like this, does it stand out as potentially important?
Joe Mantello: Well, there are some that I feel absolutely compelled to do. That I would--not to be dramatic--but I would die if I didn't do this play. The Humans was like that for me. I felt that it was an important play, and I had been a fan of Stephen Karam's play Sons of the Prophet. I guess the question is: Do you know when you're in the presence of great writing? And I think the answer is yes. On this one, and on some of them.
What about Angels in America?
Joe Mantello: I thought there was no question that it was a masterpiece when I read it. I sat there; I had two big black binders of both plays, and I mean--well, think back to it. There is just nothing like that play. And this was just me reading it, as a guy who was auditioning. To be inside of that play as it was emerging in the world--finally, after however many years Tony Kushner had worked on it--was a pretty remarkable experience. And I think what was really fascinating about it for the actors, or certainly for me, was that it wasn't a natural progression. I had worked a little bit off-Broadway at Circle Rep, but my career as an actor wasn't thriving. And so to go from that, to what was arguably the most important play of the last fifty years, was disorienting at first. I had no kind of concept of what that would be like, and so it was heady. But... I had the feeling after having done it--I did it for about a year and a half, including Los Angeles--I had this feeling that I didn't know if I would ever play a part that was that great again. So it kind of satisfied something in me of not needing to be an actor anymore, at the same time that I was starting to direct.
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When you appeared in Angels, were you already directing?
Joe Mantello: I was just starting to direct. I was a member of Circle Rep, I had done a little bit of directing there. I remember that I had a vacation from Angels, in which I remounted a play that I had done out of town called Three Hotels, that's how I spent my week vacation. That was very well received and ran quite a long time at Circle Rep, so as Angels was ending my directing was just starting to take off.
Did you always plan to become a director?
Joe Mantello: No, it was entirely because of Circle Rep. I was a member of the Lab there, which was kind of their second company, their younger company. It was run by a man called Michael Warren Powell, there was a group of about forty actors, writers and directors. We had a tiny Black Box space that maybe sat fifty or seventy-five people, and you would go to him and present a project that you wanted to do. You were given a budget of I think $150 and sent on your way. I had an unsatisfying acting experience in the Lab, so I thought I wanted to try directing.
Wicked opened in 2003, and there have been numerous cast changes and additional companies. Do you remain closely involved?
Joe Mantello: There's a different kind of challenge that emerges, which is that you want to maintain the quality of the show. There's a certain kind of process that you go through in mounting all of these companies, and putting in all of these replacements, in that you want it to feel organic to all of the actors. You want them to be able to put their own stamp on the role, and yet they have to exist within a structure that has been running, and which is going to keep running with or without them. And so finding that balance, of how you introduce actors into this gigantic machine that's been running for years, is kind of a complicated process. Because I don't believe that you should short circuit anybody's process--I mean, saying "start on nine, go over there"--and just give them the nuts and bolts of it. They have to find their way into it. I think that from day one, when it became clear that Wicked was going to have a life, that we have set a standard for ourselves that we are never going to shortchange the audience; that every person that we put into that musical is going to be held to the highest standards; and that nobody is going to be coasting. And that if you are planning to be coasting on this juggernaut, that you have to go. I've tried to instill a sense in everyone who works on it that we're incredibly fortunate, and our responsibility is to deliver the same show that we did originally.
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Can you keep track of all the productions while also directing other shows?
Joe Mantello: I have been involved in the launching of a lot of the companies, but there is an incredible team of people who do a wonderful job on a day-to-day basis. I've become like this godfather; I occasionally watch performances, give notes, talk about the inspiration for moments of the show. I kind of come in every once in a while and give an inspiring speech. There are people who really maintain the show. My Associate Director, Lisa Leguillou, is remarkable; flying around, visiting all the companies. She is truly the unsung hero of Wicked. She has been by my side from day one, and she is invaluable. I frankly don't know how she does it.
The Humans and Blackbirds are up for a combined nine Tony awards; and the cast of The Humans was named as the winner of a Special Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble. How do you feel about awards season?
Joe Mantello: As a director, you're incredibly proud when an individual steps up to the podium and is acknowledged for their work. But to have an entire company acknowledged, there is just no higher honor ever paid for that company or for the director, for that matter. Because backstage, your comrades--all of them--are acknowledged in this kind of amazing way; it's not like you have to go into the dressing room and shake someone's hand, and say congratulations to him or her. It's the group effort that is really important. It's actually thrilling, because mathematically speaking, acting awards can never be fair. Each person's contributions, large or small, can never really be fully acknowledged, and so certain people begin to emerge as the "face" of the company. And that can be complicated. It certainly was on Angels [in which four actors, including Mantello, were nominated]. It was a heady time, and so the idea of going through any awards situation--let alone being nominated or not nominated, was--well, I thought my head would explode. Now I'm a little more sanguine about it, I take it for what it's worth.
Reed Birney, Jayne Houdyshell, Cassie Beck,
Sarah Steele and Arian Moayed in The Humans.
Photo: Joan Marcus
Does it have an effect on a cast when some are nominated and others aren't?
North Carolina and the Department of Justice Face Off
You've heard about HB2, the transphobic law in North Carolina forcing trans citizens to use bathrooms they don't feel comfortable in and forcing them to experience discrimination and fear daily. Last week, the Department of Justice sued, clearly stating that HB2 breaks the law, specifically the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The state leadership of North Carolina had until yesterday to amend or remove the bill to avoid losing millions in federal funding.
Yesterday, the state leadership of North Carolina sued the Department of Justice.
As members of the LGBT community in our country, we need to stop this case in its tracks. HB2 cannot become a cancerous model that spreads throughout the country, or even one referenced abroad as a way to justify even more extreme forms of discrimination against the already marginalized LGBT community.
But what can we do to help, if we don't work in the homophobic governor's office or aren't elected members of a gerrymandered, socially-conservative legislature?
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The answer is to leverage technology... but how? Recently, Facebook and Twitter have lost their edge when it comes to social movements. The Arab Spring and Marriage Equality campaigns seem like distant memories of a time when social media could change the world. People, especially our nation's youth, aren't using the networks as frequently, and the companies are pressured to cram in more ads and make more money to satisfy their shareholders.
That got our team at HelpOutLGBT.org thinking. Where is everyone now? Snapchat.
Snapchat: From Sexting to Social Good
But isn't Snapchat just for sexting? It doesn't have to be. Recently, the Snapchat team revealed that they have more than 100,000,000 active users. Every single day. This is a platform with staying power!
Snapchat is ready to have a social impact like Facebook and Twitter before it. Currently custom filters are essentially native ads. But they had potential to be something greater.
That got us thinking. We created an anti-HB2 filter on Snapchat and launched it over the weekend to help the people of North Carolina fight the homophobic position of the State's leadership.
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Here's how we did it.
Anti-HB2 Filter at UNC Graduation
To our knowledge, this is the first instance of using Snapchat filters for social good. It's certainly the first Snapchat campaign fighting for the LGBT community.
After attempting to reach out to the Snapchat team through multiple channels (email, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.), we never heard back. Google has a non-profit advertising program that Snapchat could learn from in the future.
Undeterred, we moved forward buying ad space like any sponsor or company (mostly large corporations like Budweiser or Coca-Cola).
Initially, we'd hoped to cover the whole state, but after seeing the advertising bill (tens of thousands of dollars), we had to hone in on one place where we'd have the biggest impact.
That's when a lightbulb went off. UNC Chapel Hill is the flagship campus of North Carolina's education system. Yesterday was its graduation. Last week, we scrambled to design the filter and submit it for approval.
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We waited to see if it would get approved in time to meet the imminent deadline.
Cryptically, it was approved the day before the graduation. Just in time.
The anti-HB2 filter blanketed the stadium at UNC Chapel Hill for graduation yesterday. We recognize that a single Snapchat filter alone won't change the world, but we're proud to have launched one of the first instances of using it to galvanize social change.
Hopefully we can keep the conversation going and help others use Snapchat as a tool to affect change. Maybe they'll even invest to build a platform to facilitate that!
Snapchat, if you're listening, we'd love to help you keep fighting for the LGBT community. In North Carolina and beyond.
Here's one Snap from the graduation, using the filter:
Snapchat filter right now at Kenan Stadium during commencement #UNCgrad pic.twitter.com/p5T3hsXTwZ Anthony Ferrara (@AntPatFer) May 8, 2016
Snapchat reported that over 1,000 people at the UNC graduation viewed the filter. This may be the very first example of using Snapchat to fight for civil rights.
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It is the first Snapchat campaign for LGBT equality.
Remember: Homophobic Governor Does Not Make a Homophobic State
One important distinction for our community is not to lump everyone in North Carolina, a dynamic, tolerant state, in with their homophobic governor.
In fact, it was a pro-trans and LGBT effort in Charlotte, pushed forward by the Mayor Jennifer Roberts and an inspiring pro-LGBT pastor named Robin Tanner, that started everything.
By fighting for our rights, they pushed the bigoted legislature and governor to band together and do something that was unprecedented. Within one day, they had met to pass HB2. If only they were so concerned with employment, health care, or education for their electorate.
They chose the wrong issue to take such a strong stand on, with our country united against the governor and legislature.
It's easy to lump an entire state and their homophobic leadership. Many of us have, but shouldn't, make this mistake.
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The majority of the people in the State, including the students in the UNC system, don't support HB2. In fact, only 36% of North Carolina voters support HB2 and 53% believe HB2 hurts the state's national reputation.
One example is the hilarious Bette Midler (who rapidly recognized and corrected it, to her credit):
North Carolina lost the NCAA title. Guess they should have spent more time practicing, less time worrying about who's using which bathroom. Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) April 7, 2016
Oops, my bad! Sorry Tarheels, I shouldn't lump the kids @UNC with the knuckleheads in the State Legislature! Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) April 7, 2016
North Carolinians are, for the most part, Tolerant Allies
In fact, many places have welcoming policies. From national chains like Target to Weaver Street (aka "The Weave"), a local institution in Carrboro near Chapel Hill that I visited a few weeks ago with friends and family in North Carolina.
They Need Our Help! #RepealHB2
We need to stand with our allies and friends in North Carolina who advocate for #NoHateInMyState.
We need to empower them and lift up their voices to fight their governor, along with our nation's Department of Justice who has declared HB2 illegal, in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
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They need our help and love now more than ever.
Right now in our nation's capital, bureaucrats are pushing a new plan that would fundamentally change television and, more importantly, jeopardize your family's privacy. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Google want to attach a new all-in-one box to your TV set. The FCC believes this change will make the marketplace more competitive and allow third party companies -- like Google, Apple, and Amazon - to replace the current set-top boxes from your cable provider.
The new box would bundle your streaming options with your cable channels in one place. Proponents of this proposal claim it will lower costs for consumers. More options along with more convenience at a lower cost -- what's not to like? Well, there is a catch.
What the FCC and friends fail to point out is the host of privacy and Internet safety concerns this box would create for consumers. Specifically, this box would allow its makers to gather data about what you watch -- and what your family watches too.
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There are multiple problems with this new system. First, it will allow advertisers to target ads for very specific audiences -- and not the ads we're accustomed to seeing on highly regulated broadcast and cable channels. Instead, the FCC's Set-Top Box proposal would result in pushing the ads now on the internet onto your television -- where your family could suddenly be watching unregulated products that could come from anywhere in the world. According to polling from Digital Citizens Alliance, an Internet safety group focused on consumers' online safety, 73% of Americans are opposed to this type of advertising showing up on their television sets.
Next, the all-in-one box outlined in this proposal would give tech companies like Google an enormous amount of information about our children's activities and behavior - valuable information that these companies can then use to market and potentially make money off of ads. When it comes to kids, this type of data mining is controversial and has resulted in a significant amount of push back against Google, whose track record on this issue is less than stellar.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) -- a consumer advocacy group Google itself funded - filed a complaint with federal regulators about Google for "collecting and data mining school children's personal information, including their Internet searches."
In the complaint to the Federal Trade Commission, the EFF says "when students are logged in to their Google for Education accounts, student personal information in the form of data about their use of non-educational Google services is collected, maintained, and used by Google for its own benefit, unrelated to authorized educational or school purposes."
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Additionally, in 2014, a class action suit was filed against Google accusing the company of going over a "creepy line" by gathering information from Apps for Education users that, Education Week reported "could be used for such purposes as targeted advertising."
With Google's track record handling children's data in the past, it's questionable why Washington regulators are trusting them with the personal information of our families. It is imperative for you as parents, and your children, that the FCC take these Internet safety concerns seriously. Any plan that puts the privacy of consumers, especially children, at risk, should not be rushed through by Federal regulators.
If you are concerned about this proposal as I am, now is the time to make your voice heard. The FCC is now asking for public comments. We have a chance to make ourselves heard here, and if you want to comment you should let the FCC know by going to their website and letting them know before the deadline on May 23rd.
Takeaway tips:
This blog was originally published on WritingOurOwnNarratives.wordpress.com
Walking, breathing...walking faster, breathing harder, heart beating...change pace, go across the street, locate an open store, call a friend, grab your keys, walk faster, run, don't be afraid. These are the thoughts of a woman when walking the streets alone. No matter where the woman is-she must always pay attention to where she is, who she is with, who is around her, and control her every move.
But where does this all begin? Did it begin the first time you had to create a fake name when a man approached you in a way that he did not take kindly to your decline? My very first fake name was Ashley. I may have been around 12 years old and he followed me from the bus stop and chased after me in broad daylight. After catching up to me he told me he was in his 20s but did not bother to ask me my age. I lived 2 blocks from the bus stop but I walked block after block simply so this man would not know where I lived. I couldn't lead this man to my residence but I also could not tell him to simply to go away. Now, surprisingly, women encounter this on a daily basis-men following them, cat calling them, and ultimately making them feel like meat. The harassing moment while being chased and hearing "baby you fine, hey honey bun, look at them *insert body parts of your choosing*". If you don't believe me- take a look at this clip of a woman being cat called throughout New York.
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Now what prompted me to this blog is...on March 25th, I was heading to visit a friend in a nearby area. I came across a red light and a car pulled up next to me and I continued to sing Adele at the top of my lungs in my car at night- did I notice the man in the car staring at me? Of course I did, but him being in his car and me being in mine means he has no access to me right? I am safe. Until, I go to park my car several miles away from this stop light and a car has been slowly following me (first thought: it gots to be the feds, only they tail people waiting for you to speed), but to my surprise it was not the feds. My mother always told me to pay attention to your surroundings. Hear the footsteps behind you, look behind you every few feet, cross the street, never take the same path home everyday, switch up your schedule, be cautious, and run like a mad woman if you need to.
So I waited in the car, breathing- planning my escape plan, keys in the ignition, one hand on my wheel another hand ready to pump into drive and speed off. The car stops, headlights turn off, hazards come on and out comes a man- who boldly walks up to my car window to tell me he is sorry he followed me ( my first thoughts- I am sorry you followed me too) but I was so beautiful at this red light and he was trying to get my attention as he drove home from his job to Maryland that he simply had to see me. I said thank you- in an effort to be polite and to not upset or anger him but to hopefully appease him. What is a woman if we are not navigating the crooked room we stand in by trying to appease the men around us, letting them down easily, gently, with words that do not upset or anger them. The unfortunate part of being in a crooked room and navigating it is no matter how uncomfortable I am, no matter how much I try to understand the jagged edges, the tilted images, the painful view, I must still comfort those around me despite my discomfort.
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According to this room I must place you first and navigate me second because I am a woman, a Black woman trying to stand up straight in a never ending cycle of crookedness. This man has now blocked my way of egress, by blocking my car door, and I am looking around a very empty neighborhood hoping someone can see the concern in my eyes and see me...and save me. He asks for my phone number (approximately 9 times) and talked to me for about 15 minutes- asking me my name, where I am from, if I lived near by and to all these questions I had to lie. I had to lie because for every time I said no- the questions were simply repeated in the same way and more persistent. No was not the answer he wanted to hear and I was not prepared to know what too many "no"s would lead to. So I gave him my phone number- and yes I gave him the right phone number knowing that a persistent man who follows you for several miles would not take a fake number and walk away. (Thank you apple for allowing me to block people)
I am not saying that talking to a woman, asking her out, or approaching her is a bad thing. But what I do want to say is- women on a daily basis worry. We go to the bathroom in groups, we text our friends to say we made it home, we call on the phone to ignore all the men drooling at us, we keep our car keys in between our fingers in hopes of stabbing someone who gets to close. We are nervous about every man in front of us, behind us and next to us. We are in a hyper world of sensitivity to our environment because if we aren't it could be life, death, sexual assault, or just being called a bitch by some guy who couldn't get your number. But the next time someone says no...just take the no and say have a good day. No, will not kill your ego, or harm you in anyway. No is no, she is not interested. Respect women, protect women, love women, see women for women.
Welcome back to Doin' Work: Flash Interviews With Contemporary Photographers. This is a place for me to celebrate the photographers who inspire me, and present you with an easily digestible bite of their personalities and work.
This week's guest is Chris Verene. Verene has been photographing three generations of his family in the small midwestern community of Galesburg, Illinois, since 1986. Over the last thirty years he documented the daily lives of family and friends, producing a vast library of pictures -- though few people saw them until 1997, when he held his first New York exhibition.
Verene's documentary work has been published in two major books with Twin Palms Press, while his glamour photography and performance art series, "The Self-Esteem Salon," gained a national profile at the Whitney Biennial, and has been staged at diverse venues including Christie's Auction House and Socrates Sculpture Park. Verene is a professor of photography at the College of Staten Island, CUNY, and his work is in the permanent collections of The Whitney, The Met, The Jewish Museum, SFMoMA, LAMoCA, and has appeared in exhibitions worldwide.
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"Chris Verene in his Home Office," 1973. Image courtesy the artist
Where do you live and work and how does it inform your photography?
I live in New York City, the center of the whole photography world, and that's why I moved here in 1999. As a teacher at an urban public college, I teach students from all walks of life, many whom juggle jobs, children, and full-time college. These young students are so inspiring to me, and keep me grounded.
When and how did you get your start in photography?
I took a photography class in high school. I was fortunate to go to a public school that had a photography darkroom. I was already making a lot of photographs with my mom's camera, and the class made me feel like I could take it all much more seriously. I began documenting my family in rural Illinois in the late 1980s, and I'm still doing the same project today.
What compels you to pick up your camera?
I think I went through a period of discovery between 16 and 21 where EVERYTHING seemed like a reason to take a picture. I thought that things were more interesting once they'd been photographed. Today, I really only get out a camera to make my documentary work, my performance work, or when there is a special occasion at home.
If you had to explain your work to a child, how would you describe it?
I make pictures about family and friends, and tell stories about their lives, sometimes happy, sometimes sad.
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Do you make a living as a photographer? If yes, please explain how. If no, please tell me about your day job and how you balance photography with said job.
I don't make a living as a photographer these days, but there were times when I balanced freelance work and teaching work with selling pictures. Currently, my day job affords me academic breaks and summers off, and so I spend a lot of that time traveling to Illinois and other locations.
Show me the image you are best known for.
"My Cousin Candi's Wedding with her Two Favorite Customers from her Job at the Sirloin Stockade," 1992. From the book, Family, Twin Palms Publishers
What are you thoughts on it?
It's my cousin's wedding, with her two favorite customers from her waitressing job. Those two guys in the back came to the early senior dinner nearly every day at the restaurant, and they usually wore western wear. They told me later that if they had known the picture would be famous, they would have dressed in their "formal" western clothes, which I think were white cowboy dress suits. I think many people can relate to this picture because they are patriotic, they see the big flag, as the wedding reception is in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall. In a voyeuristic sense, people like to see what someone else's small-town wedding looks like, especially if they are from a different background than the bride and groom.
What, if anything, frustrates you about photography?
With today's technology, people are misled into the idea that what new photographs need is digital alteration to fix them, instead of just taking, and carefully choosing, better pictures in the first place.
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Describe your working process.
I go around and visit family and friends. I catch up on who's been born, or graduated, or who's engaged to whom, all of life's milestones. Sometimes we make pictures; mostly we just hang out. It's a small town, so almost anywhere I go people recognize me and my camera.
Describe the approach you take when establishing a relationship with a subject.
If I'm exhibiting pictures of someone in my "Family" documentary work, it's because they have been in my life for a really long time, and that person appreciates the photography, and wants to participate.
"Mercedes Will Soon Have A Sister," 2005. Image courtesy Postmasters Gallery, New York
Tell me about Cheri Nevers and how she influences your art.
Cheri Nevers is my alter-ego, and she was originally created in secret, so that I could make artwork under two identities, without the projects influencing each other. I was afraid to be "out" in the context of my strict documentary work, much of which was centered around my grandparents. I think I wanted to protect them from knowing about my other side, and so I gave her a different name. My friend, the late genius painter Todd Butler, made an elaborate anagram project to come up with a name, and Cheri Nevers was the winner. She represents the female side of me. In the mid-90s, I began making self-portraits in drag, and I made other work about human sexuality, glamour portraits, and other risque topics. Realizing these photographs as Cheri Nevers was the right step for me, and Cheri's work has continued in the form of The Self-Esteem Salon performances and portraits.
"Cheri on the Beach," 1994. Courtesy Postmasters Gallery, New York.
What do you think of the vast sea of online photography? What's your secret for standing out in this sea?
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The images that people scroll past quickly only give a very brief emotion -- they judge the image, give it a thumbs up, or ignore it. That experience is a very thin moment, and I don't think it has much lasting impact. Most people I talk with cannot clearly describe what they have recently read or pictures they have seen on social media -- it's a blurry memory at best.
Perhaps my photography does stand out in the "Ocean of Images," as super-curators Marconi and Bajac at MoMA called their recent swan song exhibition. If it stands out from the Ocean, it's because I have been doing the project for thirty years -- it has a dense and palatable documentary value that always attracts people -- it feels deeper and more engaging than the fleeting quick shots we are accustomed to seeing on social media.
"Dorothy Says When She Was A Little Girl, A Star Fell on Her," 1995. Image courtesy Postmasters Gallery, New York
What are you most proud of in terms of your work?
My grandmother, an original one-room schoolhouse teacher, told me that she really liked my work because, "You tell things plainly, nothing fancy. It's like Norman Rockwell." I think I'm proud to tell things as they are. My pictures are true, and not staged. Sometimes everyday moments are special, when you see them in the right way.
What are you doing when you're not making pictures?
I play drums for some great bands: The Rock*A*Teens, Bach on a Hook, and sometimes I play for my wife's projects, Ani Cordero.
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What do you think the future of photography might look like?
The future of photography will involve a lot of predictive apps that alter the image to look special, look better than real life, and will have a lot of built-in features that connect to current and legacy social media meta-data -- such as the GPS location of the picture and all your friends of friends who have been logged near that same GPS location, even 10-15 years before you made the picture -- as well as advertising components related to what's physically in the picture. The digital darkroom software, the "sharing" platforms, etc., will come at a price, the price of tracking and following your data. I imagine there will be free DSLR cameras with very high quality lenses and processing power that require only a Terms and Conditions agreement.
"At Amber's Cousin's House," 2012. From the series, "Family," Image courtesy Postmasters Gallery, New York
Name three contemporary photographers that blow your mind.
Contemporary is a tricky term in 2016. Right now, I'm blown away by LaToya Ruby Frazier, Stacy Kranitz and Daniel Arnold. Twenty years ago, and today, I'm blown away by Sally Mann.
What are you working on now?
I'm working on Home Movies, which will be a documentary feature film someday. It's basically all my people from the "Family" work talking in their own words about their lives, and sometimes talking to me about their ups and downs. It also shows my own photography in the movies to help explain the stories.
Do you prefer dogs or cats? Why?
Both.
One of my fans once said, "Most of Verene's work is just about people hugging their pets." I think this was partly to remark on my pictures being largely everyday occurrences, nothing fancy. Perhaps this is true, as I love animals, and anyone who is close with their pet is in a good emotional place to have their portrait made.
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The modern Athens tram was inaugurated in July 2004, a few weeks before the Athens Summer Olympics. It was a controversial project, because it took away parking spaces that were already sorely needed, split various neighborhoods in half, and did not improve the commuters' prospects in Athens and its suburbs. It is a very slow mode of transportation that is used by people with no time constraints. In short, it has been a failure.
At the same time, the Athens tram offers an excellent parallel to the current status of Greece's negotiations with its creditors, given the fruitless Eurogroup meeting of May 9, which resulted in yet another postponement of substantive decisions, due to the government's delaying tactics. Analysts and politicians have used various methods to explain and propagate their views--the latter certainly to promote their interests, the former sometimes honestly and sometimes to achieve expedient objectives. Yet the Athens tram offers an interesting metaphor to describe the Greek economy, explain why negotiations break down frequently, and distinguish between the feasible and the implausible.
Like the tram, the Greek economy was placed on pre-defined rails exactly 6 years ago, in May 2010, with a goal of reaching the end of the line in the shortest possible time. After that, perhaps operating as a trolley bus for a couple of years, and then as an urban bus for a few more, the Greek economy was expected to metamorphose to a car with ever-increasing speed and capabilities. But that hopeful trajectory never materialized, because most of the successive tram operators (i.e., the Greek governments) naively believed, to various degrees, that they had alternatives to the prescribed route. As a result, more often than not, they tried to change the route in the hope of reaching the end of the line sooner, which in fact further delayed progress significantly.
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The vision of a tram zooming efficiently through Athens like a silver bullet turned out to be an impossible dream. Every time the tram operators attempted to change the prescribed route, the tram would derail, get stuck at the point of derailment, and eventually have to start all over again on the same route from where it had left off. The net outcome? A waste of time and effort, compounded with frustration by the passengers (i.e., the Greek citizens) and the engineers (i.e., those who had constructed the route, originally called the Troika and more recently called the Institutions).
The frustration of the passengers was fully understandable, because after 40 years of a wild ride with fast cars and borrowed money, no tram operator ever explained that the days of fun parties were over and that the passengers would all have to squeeze in this slow mode of transportation for several years. In other words, the communication policies of the Greek governments from 2010 to 2014 were a colossal failure. As most observers of the Greek economy know by now, the government that was elected in January 2015 and re-elected in September 2015 has lost valuable time because, on its own initiative, it has halted the tram several times to renegotiate the route with the engineers, only to find out that the rails were impossible to move or readjust and that the tram would have to follow the originally established route. The passengers had been fooled several times into believing that a new tram operator would have been able to improve their deteriorating conditions. No one was able to explain that the color of the shirt of the operator (i.e. the political party in power) could not have made a difference, because after 40 years of living beyond its means, the Greek economy had to be put on a rail system to survive within the broader network of European railways, namely the Eurozone.
Why hasn't anybody with authority been able to explain what was the point reached by the Greek economy in 2009, why Greece reached that point, where does it want to go in the future, and what path does it have to follow to reach the new goals? After 6 years of following the Greek crisis closely, of which four in an official capacity, I have concluded that the true reason is not ideological. Regrettably, it is technocratic. Very few people within Greece understand the rigidities and distortions of the Greek economy, the nearly primitive state of its public administration, and the sorry state of its judicial system. And of those who understand, instinctively or by comparison to other European countries, even fewer (a handful, really) know how to achieve macroeconomic stabilization, which is a prerequisite for growth. Only a very small number of Greek economists, most of whom live abroad, are trained in applied macroeconomic policy and are familiar with the financial programming model, which is the basis of stabilization programs. The financial programming model is constructed on economic identities, which, unlike economic equations, are inviolable, because they constitute Economic Laws, like the Law of Gravity. Any attempt, deliberate or accidental, to violate economic identities leads to a brick wall. Advocates of "solutions" that violate economic identities have so far revealed only one truth: that such "pundits" are uneducated sciolists.
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Over the last 50 years African countries have lost about $1 trillion to illicit financial flows. This equates to around $50 billion a year and is equivalent to all the official development assistance received by the continent over the same period. It is enough to wipe out Africa's total external debt of around $250 billion and still leave $600 billion for poverty alleviation and economic growth.
Illicit financial flows involve money that is illegally earned, transferred, or utilised. The direct effects of illicit financial flows include lost investment in poverty reducing programmes such as health, education and job creation. The indirect effects include lower per capita investment and income. These effects are so detrimental that in July 2015 African nations offered to forego international aid in exchange for western countries agreeing to close tax loopholes and shut down tax havens.
But as significant as these statistics are, they do not capture the changing nature of Africa's illicit flows. Over the course of the last 50 years these have gradually evolved. They have become more complex.
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Centralised public sector corruption has transformed into decentralised private sector corruption. This change reflects Africa's developmental progress away from donor reliance to trade-led economic growth. African officials no longer primarily siphon off aid into foreign accounts. Instead they act as intermediaries and gatekeepers between access to resources and markets on the one side, and mostly private sector companies on the other.
The changing nature of illicit flows was well illustrated in the leaked Panama Papers. The documents offer a window into the activities of 128 current and former political leaders and officials, as well as criminals, terrorist organisations, corporations, billionaires and celebrities. The papers show that Mossack Fonseca, the law firm from which the 11 million documents were leaked, helped clients launder money dodge sanctions and evade tax using an array of mechanisms.
The main sources
Illicit financial flows typically arise from corruption, illegal exploitation, and tax evasion. Thus they are primarily a governance problem arising from weak institutions and inadequate regulatory infrastructure. These include limited access to legal and financial expertise and misaligned domestic tax and trade reporting policies with global requirements. They also include outdated information gathering and sharing mechanisms, and a lack of political will.
Calculating the proportion of illicit financial flows that comprise corruption is difficult. But they have been estimated at around 5% of such global illicit flows. Some believe the figure for Africa may be much higher as the 5% does not include the role of corrupt practises in facilitating the trade and tax-related forms of illicit flows.
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The Panama Papers also show that Mossack Fonseca facilitated the abusive system of transfer pricing. This entails the use of shell companies to move profits to low-tax or no-tax countries without leaving a paper trail. It also enabled trade misinvoicing. This involves under or overstating the price, quality or quantity of traded goods and services. Over the last 10 years African countries have lost between $242 billion and $407 billion from trade misinvoicing alone. This practice accounts for around 60% of illicit financial flows. About 35% arises from criminal activity.
This shows that commercial activities are the largest component of illicit flows from the continent. It is followed by organised crime and then public sector corruption.
Efforts to stop flows
The regulatory implications of the Panama Papers are still gaining traction. But Oxfam's Tatu Ilunga and Transparency International's Craig Fagan argue that the leaked documents highlight the need for an overhaul of the global tax system. Africa has two significant endeavours aimed at curbing illicit flows and recovering the money stolen from the continent.
the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows, led by Thabo Mbeki, and
the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by former UN general secretary Kofi Annan.
Both initiatives are still at the policy formulation phase.
But much more needs to be done. Closing tax havens and loopholes will significantly benefit Africa's economies. For example, South Africa was able to recover $2 billion in taxes after tax authorities uncovered a multinational company engaged in abusive transfer pricing.
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But there is also a need to deepen the anti-corruption and regulatory institutions. This will limit the capability of corrupt leaders and officials. Examples include the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative and the World Bank's Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Africa's democracies can be strengthened by entrenching transparency and accountability. As noted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, measures could include strengthening Article 22 of the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. It could also include a governance mechanism in the African Peer Review Mechanism. Combating Africa's illicit financial flows will require a much closer and more active continental and global partnership than has historically been the case.
Sean Gossel, Senior Lecturer, UCT Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
On July 27, 1919, Marcus Garvey, the African-American nationalist then nearing the height of his influence, rose to address a crowd of almost 6,000 people who had come to dedicate Liberty Hall, on Harlem's 138th Street, as the new headquarters of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
The UNIA, which Garvey had originally founded five years earlier in his native Jamaica, had grown rapidly since its relocation to the United States. By the early 1920s, it had chapters in more than 30 American cities and African-American supporters that historians believe numbered in the millions.
Yet the major focus of Garvey's speech on this particular occasion was not the African-American freedom struggle but the Irish one:
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The time has come for the Negro race to offer up its martyrs upon the altar of liberty even as the Irish has given a long list from Robert Emmet to Roger Casement.
Indeed, the very name of the building that Garvey dedicated, "Liberty Hall," reflected his admiration of this struggle. It was named after Dublin's Liberty Hall, the site from which the 1916 Easter Rising had been launched.
How did this veneration of Ireland's revolution in the U.S. come about?
The American connection
Over the last few months, the United States has been marking its connection to the Easter Rising of 100 years ago.
In a series of public celebrations, film screenings and academic symposia, we have learned about the many ways in which America influenced the events that took place in Dublin in Easter Week 1916.
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Irish immigrants and their descendants (our "exiled children in America," in the words of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic) played a leading part.
They supported revolutionary organizations and sent money back to those who were planning the rebellion. At a deeper level, the United States - with its own revolution against the British Empire and a Declaration of Independence that the Irish Proclamation resembled in striking ways - provided a source of inspiration for many of the Rising's leaders.
"No America. No Easter Rising," the distinguished Irish historian Joe Lee has stated. "Simple as that."
But the influences and inspiration worked in the other direction as well, especially in the tumultuous years following the Easter Rising.
How Irish republicanism inspired Americans
As I have documented in a recent book, in the five short years between 1916 and 1921, revolutionary Irish republicanism became a mass movement of breathtaking proportions in the United States.
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The Friends of Irish Freedom, formed in 1916 with the composer Victor Herbert at its helm, claimed nearly 300,000 members by 1919. Its later rival, the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, counted 700,000 members and had raised over US$10 million for the Irish republican movement by 1921.
Library of Congress
As one veteran of the cause recalled,
Sentiment in favor of the Irish Republic swept over this country so strongly that it was felt in every city and town in the nation. It permeated all walks of life.
So what were these "walks of life"?
One was the world of labor. This was hardly surprising given the concentration of Irish-Americans in working-class occupations and their prominent place in the leadership of many US trade unions - in fact, no less than a quarter of all prominent labor leaders between 1830 and 1970 were Irish immigrants or their descendants.
The Irish-American-dominated Chicago Federation of Labor was typical in denouncing "the domination of the Celtic people of Ireland by alien people and powers."
Labor leaders were already suspicious of the growing drumbeat of U.S. opinion favoring entry into World War I.
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Many of them believed that the so-called preparedness campaign was a smokescreen for a campaign against unions. The Easter Rising and its suppression only intensified their opposition to military intervention in support of Britain.
More surprising was the Easter Rising's impact on American feminism.
Impact on suffragists and African-Americans
Inspired by the Irish Proclamation's call for "equal rights and equal opportunities" and its endorsement of the principle of women's suffrage - a full four years before American women obtained the vote - American suffragists and feminists like Alice Paul and Jane Addams rallied to the Irish cause.
Library of Congress
Irish-American women filled halls across the country for the lecture tours of high-profile Irish republican activists like Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and the Countess Constance Markievicz.
Though the Irish Free State government that emerged in 1922 retreated from the promise of gender equality announced in the Proclamation, that promise had a significant impact in encouraging American women's support of the Irish revolution.
Most surprising of all in light of the deep currents of anti-black racism that ran through the history of the Irish in America was the enthusiasm of Marcus Garvey and other African-American protest leaders for the Irish cause.
Mark Gsthohl, CC BY-SA
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Hubert Harrison, the intellectual and activist sometimes described as "the father of Harlem radicalism," built on the work of the Irish political party, Sinn Fein, in his 1917 campaign to increase black electoral representation.
When he organized the secret African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption two years later, Cyril Briggs drew explicitly on the model of the secret Irish Republican Brotherhood, which had been at the center of the Easter Rising.
In February 1921, Briggs hailed "the Irish fight for liberty" as "the greatest epic of modern times and a sight to inspire to emulation all oppressed groups."
Briggs' words, like those of Marcus Garvey, point to the most far-reaching significance of the Easter Rising. It provided a deep source of inspiration to a range of other "oppressed groups," in America and beyond.
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By Charlene Allen and Michael Rowe
Eighteen-year-old Jamel was shot in the leg during a robbery attempt while walking down a main street in Harlem after he refused to give up his $800.00 leather coat to three armed gunmen. He had worked hard and saved for months to buy the coat, and he'd be called a punk if he went home without it, leading to further trouble. He rushed the gunman. One of them shot him in the leg, but he managed to get away as the men opened fire.
Later, as he was wheeled into Harlem Hospital on a gurney, a group of nurses prepped him while two police officers fired off questions about what had happened. Jamel refused to answer. Growing up in East Harlem, he distrusted the police. At the same time, he felt angry at them for failing to prevent him from being shot. He grew silent, sensing that the police were treating him as a perpetrator, not the victim. They seemed only interested in getting his statement, and Jamel even felt that his medical treatment was dependent on it. This made him angrier and less willing to talk. Finally, after encouragement from one of the nurses, who seemed genuinely concerned about his well-being, he gave the officers a statement. They took it and disappeared into the crowded hallway, never to be seen by Jamel again. Nobody asked Jamel how he was feeling emotionally, sought services for him to address his trauma, or offered him information about the investigation into his attackers.
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Jamel is a false name, but his story is real, and his experience mirrors those of so many young men of color, who are among the groups in our country most likely to be hurt by violence. They are also among the least likely to be helped in its aftermath. Jamel's case is not unique either in his experience of being shot, or the inadequate responses he received from the institutions and systems charged with his care. This disparity in services for young men of color is the product of many factors, including portrayals of black men in the media as perpetrators of violence rather than as victims, distrust in the justice system prevalent in many communities of color, and the broadly accepted normalization of the violence they suffer. As we turn our national attention to this crisis, it is critical to build the public and systemic support necessary to provide services that are consistent, reliable, and sustainable.
We have made great strides in accomplishing this with another area of victim services. In the 1980s, building infrastructure for healing that is geared toward specific communities became part of a national political conversation, led by activists working to end violence against women. A culture of silence that treated issues of domestic violence as "family affairs" was supported by often inadequate responses in the justice system for those victims who did come forward. Domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers existed, but as a primarily private and unconnected network, receiving little institutional support. As demand for improved responses to domestic and sexual violence grew, advocates understood that the stigma attached to victimization had to change in order for women to receive the quality and scale of support they needed and deserved.
Many joining the field in the mid-eighties found jobs not as counselors, but as lobbyists, organizers, and public advocates. This is because they understood that healing doesn't happen in a vacuum. To break the isolation, blame, and silencing that came with the victimization, they needed public and institutional partnerships to acknowledge and validate the need for healing, thereby undermining the stigma for individual victims. Though great progress has been made in bringing awareness to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, the fight is far from over--the recent attention to pervasive campus sexual assault reinforces the need for cultural and institutional change.
A new online and community-based resource for those working with young men of color, the HealingWorks Learning Collaborative, draws lessons from the veterans of the domestic violence and sexual assault movements as it seeks to build a field that will meet the needs of young men of color who are survivors. Made up of both organizations and individuals--including young men of color who have suffered trauma themselves--HealingWorks provides resources, tools, and community-building support to people working with these young survivors. HealingWorks members are small community-based groups that address trauma and violence in the context of other services, as well as larger victim service programs that want to work with young men of color. The Collaborative also works with individuals, like Jamel's nurses, who work in institutional settings. HealingWorks exists to help these organizations and individuals become far more than the sum of their parts.
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During his brief stay in the hospital, every doctor who tended to Jamel would inevitably scold him for not giving up his coat. They all hoped he had "learned his lesson," but no one addressed the fact that Jamel had witnessed murder, shootings, and assaults by the time he reached his teens. No one spoke of the shooting as the culmination of years of vicarious trauma and victimization, nor of the nightmares, hyper-vigilance, heightened aggression or fear that would plague him for years to come as a result of the shooting. As an adult, Jamel still remembers the police officers who seemed more interested in a statement than his care. He feels the cold stare of the doctors and their ill-timed advice. But he prefers to think about the nurses who saw a young man in need of healing and did their best to provide it.
The world is in the midst of a profound transformation -- unprecedented in scale, scope, and pace. Whilst it is becoming more globalized and interdependent, it is also burdened by growing geopolitical frictions, accelerated environmental degradation, and an erosion of confidence in the international system.
Ensuring stability and continued human progress under such conditions will require new global strategies and solutions, as well as more concerted, robust, and inclusive multilateralism. At the crux of this generational task must stand the United Nations.
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However, the UN's historic accomplishments are in danger of being overshadowed by a sense of stagnation, disillusion, and failure. There is mounting criticism that a status quo approach by the UN will make it unfit for purpose in the 21st century.
I believe that the next Secretary-General should stand at the forefront of common efforts to rejuvenate the Organization.
To that end, I put forth a detailed 80-page Policy Platform, containing 53 specific and concrete commitments that I am prepared to start implementing from Day One.
Achieving sustainable development and fighting climate change is an overarching challenge for humanity. This will necessitate a coordinated and solutions-driven global campaign guided by the United Nations. As Secretary-General, I would place this comprehensive undertaking at the very center of the Organization's endeavors, and direct the entire UN System to prioritize work on implementing the terms of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement.
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I believe that the UN has to modernize its approach to conflict prevention and peace operations. We need a new generation of UN stabilization missions that could be deployed wherever a need arose. As I have laid out in my Platform, such missions would have more robust rules of engagement and better equipment and combat logistics. I also presented key elements for a New Deal for African Peace Operations, as well as my readiness to start a dialogue on how to develop multilateral responses to non-conventional threats, such as those emanating from cyberspace.
As Secretary-General I would fervently champion human rights as a system-wide core UN purpose. More must be done to promote and protect human rights worldwide, which should begin by providing greater resources to the UN human rights machinery on a sustainable basis.
Irrespective of who becomes the next Secretary-General, I believe this election must be a turning point for the role of women in the UN. If given the opportunity to serve, I would appoint qualified women to 50 percent of UN Under-Secretary-General or equivalent positions from Day One. I would also strive to achieve gender parity throughout the UN System. Beyond expanding women's leadership and career opportunities inside the Organization, my policy proposals also target discrimination against women in all its forms. These include specific measures to address gender-based violence and securing women's rights to full participation in society.
It is painfully evident that the UN's current capacity to provide humanitarian relief, support, and assistance in the face of recent crises has proven to be inadequate. As Secretary-General, I would act decisively to mobilize sufficient resources on the part of the UN System to support affected populations around the world. But our duty does not end in providing them with food and shelter. We must also make sure their human dignity is preserved, and that they are given a decent chance to realize a promising future.
The beating heart of the UN System is its Secretariat. As the UN's chief administrative officer, I would dedicate myself to delivering better value for money to the Member States, cutting waste, eliminating redundancy, and ensuring greater coherence and quality in the delivery of global public goods. I would relentlessly fight corruption, fraud, and abuse; protect internal whistleblowers; strengthen the independence and operations of the Office of Internal Oversight Services; require financial disclosures for all applicable staff and nominees for high-level appointments; create an annual, unified, and transparent presentation of the UN budget; and try to develop a system-wide approach to procurement.
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I am seeking the privilege to serve as the ninth UN Secretary General guided by three overarching convictions: first, that ensuring more robust multilateralism represents the strongest safety-net against the global perils we face in our times; second, that a revitalized UN should be the centerpiece of global governance; and, third, that the UN's existing resources must be used more effectively so that the Organization can deliver the results demanded by its membership and the international community at large.
When I was a young man, I witnessed the consequences of the failure of diplomacy, the absence of the rule of law, and the surge of poverty. I fought for democracy, human rights, and reconciliation.
As Foreign Minister, I presided over the Council of Europe and was privileged to spearhead the efforts that led to a consensus in the OSCE, enabling my country to chair the world's largest regional organization in 2015. As President of the General Assembly, I launched the historic negotiations that led to the establishment of the 2030 Agenda, and facilitated the adoption of the breakthrough Arms Trade Treaty. I worked hard to bridge the divides between developed and developing, which enabled us to formalize UN-G20 cooperation.
The UN has to recapture the imagination of humanity. We must rejuvenate the Organization in order to ensure it remains the world's premier venue in which nations coalesce around a common agenda for global progress in the 21-century.
Early History
1322
Artificial insemination (referred to as AI until the 1980s) was first used successfully by the Arabs on mares.
1425-1474
Unofficial history claims that the first attempts to artificially inseminate a woman were done by Henry IV, nicknamed "The Impotent".
1784
The first artificial insemination in a dog was reported by the scientist Lazzaro Spallanzani (Italian physiologist,1729-1799). This insemination resulted in the birth of three puppies 62 days later.
1799
This method of conception was first attempted on a human being in the year 1799 by the English physician Dr. John Hunter.
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John Hunter (1728-93) was a brilliant Scottish surgeon known for pioneering research into venereal diseases, child development and the lymphatic system, among many other things. Although he liked to experiment on himself -- particularly unfortunate in regards to his research into syphilis and gonorrhea -- the official surgeon of England's King George III was also was known to instill within his patients an equal zeal for self-experimentation.
When a young married man, desperate to have a child with his wife, came to him in 1790 with a grim condition known as hypospadias, in which the urethra basically takes a wrong turn out the underside of the penis, Hunter developed a plan. He equipped his patient with a collection of large syringes and a prescription for frequent masturbation. He was to collect his semen and inject it into his wife's vagina. Tragically, the exact details of their bedroom antics are lost forever, but the fellow did reportedly follow doctor's orders over the course of two years. By most accounts, a single pregnancy resulted, and Dr. Hunter had proven the possibility of artificial insemination in humans. But it would be a while yet before any physician would formally take up the cause of assisted reproduction.
1866
The practice spread to the United States in 1866 when Dr. J. Marion Sims of North Carolina conducted a series of fifty-five inseminations with varying degrees of success.
1884
The earliest recorded AI in a medical institution took place at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia by Dr. William Pancoast. It was so secret that even the woman being inseminated wasn't told that the sperm was from a donor, not her husband. A fascinating story worth telling here:
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In 1884, Dr. William Pancoast of the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia went rogue and decided to have a little scientific fun with one of his patients, a Quaker woman who had long been unable to conceive. After many examinations, he decided that the fault in fact lay with her husband's low sperm count. The man, an elderly merchant many years older than his wife, was officially shooting blanks.
Rather than inform her and her husband of the sad state of affairs and move on from a point of full disclosure, Dr. Pancoast summoned the wife to one final "examination." As the woman lay unconscious and chloroformed on his table as six of Dr. Pancoast's students looked on, the good doctor injected into her cervix a large syringe full of semen - freshly donated by the student democratically deemed by the group to be the most handsome.
This unnamed woman delivered a healthy baby boy nine months later. Presumably, all were ecstatic. The only problem was that Dr. Pancoast never actually informed her about what he did to her on the table that fateful day. Whether it was to spare her the embarrassment of her husband's sterility, or whether it was simply to see if he could do it at all, Dr. Pancoast's experiment remained a secret success for 25 years.
It was only after Dr. Pancoast died -- a quarter-century after the successful insemination of his presumably pleased patient -- that the truth became known. In 1909, one of the students present that day, the suggestively named and incredibly handsome Dr. Addison Davis Hard, fessed up and published a letter in the journal Medical World containing all the dirty details. It is interesting to note that Dr. Pancoast did actually inform the woman's husband of what he had done, and that they had decided together to spare her the truth. In addition, before the letter was published, Dr. Hard took it upon himself to tell the by-then all-grown-up baby boy as well. Hopefully, his mother was not a subscriber of Medical World in her old age.
1890-1910
AI gained acceptance and popularity in Europe and Russia. In 1897 Dr. Heape, an outstanding reproductive biologist from Cambridge, reported the use of AI in rabbits, dogs and horses. And in 1899 the first attempts to develop practical methods for artificial insemination were described by Ilya Ivanovich Ivanoff (Russia, 1870-1932). Although Ivanoff studied artificial insemination in domestic farm animals, dogs, rabbits and poultry, he was the first to develop methods as we know today in human medicine.
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1894-1909
1n 1909, Dr. Hamilton claims to have used artificial insemination for fifteen years, "without a single failure".
1924-1928
In 1924, Rohleder in a survey; of the world's literature was able to find only 123 cases reported, whilst in 1928 Engleman, in a further survey was only able to increase this figure to 185, of which sixty-five had been successful.
1937
Hiihner, writing in 1937 claims to have begun extensive use of the practice in 1915.
1941
In the United States alone, AI resulted in ten thousand successful pregnancies. In England, the first publication of a modern account of what was then called 'Donor Insemination' (DI) was produced in the British Medical Journal. The doctor behind the research, Mary Barton, was vilified in the press and condemned worldwide. Dr. Mary Barton stated that over a period of five years about 300 children had been conceived as a result of artificial insemination.
1941
In 1941 it was reported that 9,489 women had been successfully impregnated, and that 97 per cent of the pregnancies had terminated successfully. These figures were compiled from a questionnaire sent to 30,000 doctors, of whom 7,643 replied, and of these 4,049 reported that they had carried out successful impregnations.
1940's and 1950's
AI was carried out discreetly by private medical practitioners. It was decided that it was best to leave unregulated (and remains so today). Parents were told to never tell anyone, not even the child. (This practice of secrecy continues on for decades, and is still recommended by some "experts", even today.)
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1951
Further evidence as to the extent of the practice in the United States is the statement made by Ploscowe to the effect that by I95I the number of children born as a result of artificial insemination had risen to 20,000.
1953
As a result of this research, the first successful human pregnancy with frozen spermatozoa was reported in 1953.
1955
A NY Post article in 1955 estimated the number of children conceived via AI to be 50,000, and growing by 6,000 per year.
1963
At the present time responsible estimates indicate the rate of one thousand to twelve hundred births per year, although higher estimates are offered.
More Recent History:
1970's
The sperm banking business becomes popular and commercialized.
1979
Of 711 physicians likely to perform artificial insemination by donor surveyed to determine their current practices, 471 responded, of whom 379 reported that they performed this procedure. They accounted for approximately 3576 births by this means in 1977. In addition to treating infertility, 26 per cent of these physicians used the procedure to prevent transmission of a genetic disease, and 10 per cent used if for single women. Donors of semen were primarily from universities, were only superficially screened for genetic diseases, and were then matched phenotypically to the recipient's husband. Most recipients were inseminated twice per cycle. Only 17 per cent of physicians used the same donor for a given recipient, and 32 per cent used multiple donors within a single cycle. Only 37 percent kept records on children, and only 30 per cent on donors. The identity of donors usually was carefully guarded to ensure privacy and to avoid legal complications.
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1987
The Office of Technology Assessment made visits to 3 sperm banks and 10 in vitro fertilization clinics.
A total of 1,558 questionnaires were completed and returned by the sampled physicians (a response rate of 61 percent), which included 37 physicians in the cross-sectional sample and 385 fertility society physicians regularly doing artificial insemination, i.e., seeing four or more insemination patients per year. An amended survey form was also sent to 30 U.S. commercial sperm banks identified by the American Association of Tissue Banks (MTB) and the American Fertility Society (AFS), and 15 of those forms were returned. The survey estimates that 172,000 women underwent artificial insemination in 1986-87, at an average cost of $953, resulting in 35,000 births from artificial insemination by husband (AIH), and 30,000 births from artificial insemination by donor (AID).
These incomplete numbers from 1986-1987 are still used today by the media and by industry experts. This has led many to the false conclusion that there is some entity requiring record keeping on the children born from egg and sperm donations. While SART insists that they have accurate numbers on the number of egg donor births, research finds that more than 40% of parents were never asked to report the birth of their child.
The often-cited figure of 30,000 births per year is based on an extrapolation from a very small number of voluntary survey responses. These figures are further confounded by a sharp decline of practitioners at that time, due in part to increased quarantine requirements (including restrictions against fresh semen) resulting from the circa 1984 discovery that semen could transmit the HIV virus.
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Prior to the AIDS crisis, donor insemination was likely much more prevalent in small clinics and doctor's offices in the absence of fresh semen restrictions. In the years following the OTA report, the prevalence of large sperm banks and increasing acceptance and popularity of the technology suggests figures have likely grown considerably. As a result, the OTA figures most certainly under-represent reality.
1953: First successful pregnancy using frozen sperm.
1977: First successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) pregnancy achieved (although no birth resulted.
1978: First baby born from IVF (Louise Brown, in England).
1981: First IVF baby born in the United States (Elizabeth Jordan Carr).
1983: First successful egg donation at UCLA.
1984: First baby born from a frozen embryo (Zoe Leyland, in Australia).
1990: First child born following pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).
1992: First successful pregnancy using intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
1996: A 63-year-old woman in California gives birth using a donated egg.
1997: First successful birth using frozen eggs.
1999: Natalie Brown, younger sister of Louise Brown, becomes the first IVF baby to naturally give birth to a child.
2003: A 65-year-old becomes the oldest known woman in the world to give birth using a donated egg.
Last summer in the New York Times I wrote about the importance of school meals for children victimized by the war in Syria. We can do so much more for them, as we did for children in Europe and Asia affected by World War II.
Lebanon is one of the main countries where Syrians have fled to during the last five years of civil war. But once the refugees arrive they face all kinds of challenges just to have the basics of food and shelter. They have little or no resources.
Education suffers because refugee children often don't get the chance to go to school. Sometimes they have to beg in the streets just to get food for their family. That is how they are forced to spend their day rather than in class learning.
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This is unacceptable and that is why school feeding programs are so important. The children need food and having the school as the distribution point gets them in class, safe and learning.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has just started school feeding in Lebanon for 10,000 children, including Syrian refugees. The WFP is the largest hunger relief organization and they have been leading the way feeding Syrian war victims.
School feeding being distributed to Syrian refugee children and Lebanese students. The World Food Programme needs to expand school feeding in Lebanon to reach more refugees. (photo credits: Dina El-Kassaby/WFP)
WFP Lebanon Country Director Dominik Heinrich, explains "By providing children with daily, nutritious meals at school, WFP can ensure improved nutritional intake for these children as well as encouraging their parents to send them to school regularly."
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Syrian refugee children now are assured of having a box of juice or milk, a nutritious snack and some fruit waiting for them at school every day. The Italian Development Cooperation is funding this initial school feeding in Lebanon.
What's important is that we don't stop at feeding just 10,000 children. We have to think big when it comes to expanding this school feeding.
When General Douglas MacArthur ordered school feeding for Japanese children after World War II, he expected big results. And millions of children were fed once the program got underway. We have to make sure all children receive school meals today.
Soha Moussa of WFP says, "In an ideal world, WFP would like to reach all children enrolled in public primary schools. However, in reality, WFP will only be able to expand to the extent that the resources and capacity allow."
School feeding for Syrian refugee children improves their class attendance and performance. A plan is needed to feed millions of refugee children school meals in the Middle East. (photo credit Dina El-Kassaby/WFP)
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The United States has the Food for Peace and the McGovern-Dole school lunch program that can fund school feeding in Lebanon. Congress has to give enough support.
The McGovern-Dole school lunch program is named after former senators and WWII vets George McGovern and Bob Dole. This program needs a big expansion and more emphasis by the President and the Congress.
We could use this program to issue special grants to feed children affected by war and drought. With conflict and displacement at a level unprecedented since WWII, we need to step up our response.
We could help the WFP expand and feed more Syrian children. There is also school feeding in Lebanon by Mercy Corps and Mary's Meals. Catholic Relief Services is feeding children daily meals in Lebanon via the Good Shepherd Sisters. These charities need support too.
The best thing someone can do is contact their elected officials and urge them to increase our hunger relief funding to meet the growing needs. With so many humanitarian emergencies ongoing at once have to meet the challenge like the Greatest Generation of WWII did.
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By Tania F. Cohen
The discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and 2014 war in Gaza was one of the most analyzed parts of the New York Democratic debate between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Although the subject's importance in American foreign policy and the uniqueness of Sanders' statements among American politicians make it newsworthy, it is more important because it highlights the oversimplification of the subject in media coverage and political rhetoric.
Too often, the conflict is reduced to a "war of perception" in which politicians, journalists, and activists present compelling evidence supporting their beliefs while omitting equally compelling evidence to the contrary. Simply put, reports and analyses of the conflict tend to be either staunchly pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. These dichotomized opinions are also reflected in the responses to Sanders' remarks, when the reality is probably closer to Harriet Sherwood's statement in The Guardian: "The truth is lost amid the propaganda battle being waged alongside the shells, bombs, guns and rockets. What is certain is that the picture is more complicated than either side claims."
Discussions regarding Israel's right to exist and defend itself, or Palestinians' human rights, should not be constrained by political polarization. Instead, politicians and the media should accurately portray the policies, intentions, and obligations of both Israelis and Palestinians.
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As Sanders said during the debate, "Israel has a right to defend itself, but long term there will never be peace ... unless the United States plays ... an even-handed role ... to bring people together and [recognize] the serious problems that exist among the Palestinian people." Indeed, Israel must be held accountable to its values as a democracy and refuge for Jews, and respect the dignity and rights of Palestinians. Likewise, it is vital to recognize the Palestinian government's faults, including corruption and failure to build the infrastructure necessary to function like a country worthy of recognition. Both groups must prioritize cross-cultural understanding.
Sanders' remarks also call attention to a reexamination of the 2014 war in Gaza. Tensions had been high earlier in 2014, and abductions and murders by Hamas fighters and Israeli extremists brought them to a boil that summer. Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on July 8, which consisted of both airstrikes and a ground invasion of Gaza. By August 27, 4,591 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel, and Israel had retaliated with 5,226 air strikes on Gaza. A November 2014 United Nations (UN) report describing the human costs of the war cited 1,523 Palestinian civilian casualties, and an earlier BBC article reported 2,104 total Palestinian casualties. Other articles cite similar statistics, though the final numbers are unclear. Israel suffered far fewer casualties; the same BBC article reported 72 Israeli deaths.
Israel experienced international criticism as a result of the vast difference in casualties, specifically regarding the number of Palestinian civilians killed during attacks on UN-run schools where they had sought shelter. The UN determined that the statistics represented "an unacceptably high ration" of civilian fatalities. However, it also found that the Hamas government in Gaza - whose charter makes clear that it is anti-Semitic and committed to the destruction of Israel - hid weapons in and near UN facilities multiple times. This practice is condemnable, but that does not abdicate Israel's responsibility to minimize civilian casualties. Ultimately, an Amnesty International report concluded that "both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, and likely war crimes, during the hostilities."
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Israel argues that the hidden weapons were intended to provoke attacks on locations with large civilian populations - the so-called "civilian shield" strategy. This reasoning is highly touted in right-leaning media, while left-leaning media emphasizes the responsibility to keep civilian casualties proportionate to the threat presented. More than likely, there is truth on both sides. Whether you believe Israel violated international law by attacking those sites or that the hidden weapons and danger presented by nearby Hamas fighters provided legal justification for the civilian casualties depends on your interpretation of the relevant clauses of the Geneva Conventions.
Discursive balance is crucial to understanding conflicts. Although a presidential debate is the last place one would expect to find a 'no spin zone,' we should note Bernie Sanders' remarks for their substance and for their inherent recognition that there are multiple sides to every story. They are a shining example of how we can stop treating the rhetoric around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as antithetical, and instead acknowledge the humanity and flaws on both sides.
ASSOCIATED PRESS Supporters of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), affiliated studentsa union of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) walk in a protest rally near Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India, Monday, May 9, 2016. (AP Photo/ Bikas Das)
A leader of the right-wing student organisation Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Suman Dutta, has alleged that women students in Jadavpur University (JU) "can't" be molested because they have no "shame".
These girls claim to be molested. Someone should tell them that only girls who have shame can be molested, he was quoted as saying in The Indian Express. "These girls kiss men openly. This is what they do all day."
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Dutta was speaking at a protest march on Monday, demanding action against the "anti-national" Left-aligned students in JU. Earlier, the two groups of students from ABVP and the Left wing had clashed on Friday inside the university campus over the screening of Vivek Agnihotri-directed film Buddha in a Traffic Jam. During the scuffle, some women students were allegedly molested.
Suman Dutta, however, claimed that these women of creating unnecessary drama. In fact, he even addressed the crowd in the protest march asking if they would "let their daughters and sisters kiss men in the open like these JU girls".
He added, sarcastically, that the Left-aligned students have taught men and women to love each other like brothers and sisters. They have also, preserved 'Bengal's culture', he mocked.
"Through the 'kissing' revolution, they have taught women to wear just underwear," he said.
"So undergarment-wearing comrade and kissing comrades, just want to ask you, if you are a father and a mother someday, and your daughter is kissing some other man in front of you, will you still say all of this?"
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Meanwhile, Subir Haldar, the ABVP West Bengal secretary, has threatened to "cut off" the legs of "anti-national" Left-aligned JU students if they dared to step out of campus.
"The Jadavpur University is becoming a hub of anti-national elements," Haldar told a protest rally outside JU campus on Monday. "If these anti-national Leftist students of JU try to step out of the campus we will cut off their legs."
The student organisation, affiliated to the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), had taken out a a protest march from Goalpark area to Jadavpur police station yesterday. They were earlier expected to march till the JU campus, but were stopped from entering the university grounds after the police put up barricades in the area.
Haldar later defended his statement, telling journalists that some JU students "cut up" India by raising anti-national slogans which are in favour of separatists. "Then why can't we say that we will take steps to stop such activities?" he told PTI.
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DIBYANGSHU SARKAR via Getty Images Villagers look on as a burnt-out passenger bus of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is towed away in Challakere village, Chitradurga district around 220 kms north of Bangalore on May 30, 2010. At least 30 people, including 10 children, were burnt alive when a bus bound for the southern Indian city of Bangalore ploughed into a roadblock and caught fire, police said. AFP PHOTO/Dibyangshu Sarkar (Photo credit should read DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images)
In a bid to demonstrate the repercussions of damaging public property, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will hold a 'dead' bus rally in Bengaluru.
According to a report in The New Indian Express, the KSRTC managing director Rajender Kumar Kataria came up with the idea of parading the buses that were burnt and damaged during public protests and outrages.
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"The Constitution that gives us the right to agitate also specifies our duty," said Kataria. "This bus is bought with public money. It is your bus, so we wanted people to remember this.
To make a strong statement, the damaged, burnt buses will be given an artistic touch by city artists and will carry banners such as, 'What was my fault,' and 'Why Was I Targeted?'
The buses will then be towed across the major roads in Bengaluru.
Kataria said that it was after the sudden strike by garment factory workers against the government that brought the traffic in Bengaluru to a standstill that motivated him for this project.
Deccan Herald reported that the KSRTC incurred a loss of about of 10-15 crore, when the public damaged 150 buses and burnt down eight.
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Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - MARCH 21: JNU studnet Umar Khalid during the protest against Jharkhand Government at JNU Campus on March 21, 2016 in New Delhi, India. Umar Khalid is accused of being one of the main organisers of the event to mark the anniversary of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, where anti-India slogans were raised. He and another JNU student Anirban surrendered on February 23. They were released on interim bail last week. (Photo by Ravi Choudhary/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to stay the rustication of Jawaharlal Nehru University students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. The duo, rusticated for allegedly shouting anti-national slogans on February 9 in a pro-Afzal Guru event, had approached the Delhi HC requesting a stay on the order.
The HC denied interim relief to the two JNU students and refused to stay their rustication order. The judge issued a notice to the university asking it to file its response along with all relevant documents, including the inquiry report.
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"I have to ask for records. I have to see whether fair procedure was followed. I have to look into the facts. The matter requires consideration and decision can't be taken overnight,"India Today reported quoting the judge.
In a separate incident, ten JNU professors emeritus, including noted historian Romila Thapar and academician Deepak Nayyar, have written to Varsity Vice Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar, alleging "clampdown" on free speech by imposing "severe" punishments on students in connection with the controversial February 9 event.
Noting that they are "disturbed" over the turn of events at JNU, the professors have also appealed to the VC to reconsider the administration's decision to punish students in connection with the event during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
"The current administration has clamped down on free discussion by imposing severe punishments of fines and rustication on those who organised a meeting on February 9.
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This despite the fact that they were arrested and sent to jail," the letter said.
"Now, an order has been issued prohibiting the entry of outsiders in the university premises. We request that the university administration reconsider both these decisions neither of which is required, and act according to the accepted norms of the JNU," it added.
Besides Thapar and Nayyar, the signatories to the letter are Namwar Singh, Amit Bhaduri, Sheila Bhalla, Anil Bhatti, Zoya Hassan, Utsa Patnaik, SD Muni and Prabhat Patnaik. There are 25 professors emeritus in JNU.
"The university has always been a space where we allowed free discussion on issues raised by students and faculty. In the course of such discussion whether in seminars or at other informal gatherings, speakers from both within the varsity and from outside were invited to participate," the letter said.
Meanwhile, the hunger strike by students against the punishment by the varsity in connection with the event entered 13th day today.
So far, ten students, including JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid, have withdrawn from the fast.
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The university had yesterday formed a four-member team to discuss the demands of the students.
The students union, however, is yet to take a decision whether to enter into negotiations with the administration or not.
Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested in February in a sedition case over the event and are out on bail now.
While Kanhaiya has been slapped with a penalty of Rs 10,000, Umar, Anirban and a Kashmiri student, Mujeeb Gatoo have been rusticated for varying durations.
Financial penalty has been imposed on 14 students. Hostel facilities of two students have been withdrawn and the university has declared the campus out of bounds for two former students.
(With PTI Inputs)
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Jenny Anderson via Getty Images NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 26: German Shepherd Nunzio attends the American Kennel Club Top Breeds of 2014 reveal at AKC Headquarters on February 26, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Jenny Anderson/WireImage)
LONDON -- A military dog has been hailed a hero after saving a team of British special forces from a group of 50 ISIS fighters who ambushed them in northern Iraq.
It is believed that the SAS soldiers were returning from a 10-day training programme for Peshmerga fighters.
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The Alsatian, thought to have been trained by the US Army, was travelling with the group of British soldiers in a convoy of four vehicles.
The unsuspecting troops were caught unawares when they were trapped by a group of jihadis last month on the Kurdish border.
The convoy was hit by a homemade bomb as around 50 ISIS fighters attacked.
When the British forces attempted to move out, jihadis attacked them from behind.
A US soldier travelling with the convoy let the heroic dog off the leash.
The angry dog ran snarling towards the ISIS fighters. The first jihadi was bitten on the neck and face. The dog then slashed at the second fighter's arm and leg.
The two ISIS fighters ran away in terror after being savaged by the Alsatian.
The dog escaped the battle unhurt and has been hailed a hero by troops after saving the British team's lives, British media reported.
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"When the dog was unleashed it went after the greatest threat without consideration for its own safety this is what they are trained to do," Daily Star Sunday quoted a source as saying.
"A snarling Alsatian running at you is very frightening and probably not something the jihadis had encountered. The dog did its job and returned to its handler with its tail wagging," the source said.
It is thought that this is the first time that an attack dog has been used to directly save soldiers' lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, the reports said.
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Universal History Archive via Getty Images Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, later Prime Minister of India, (left) with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 A 1948), the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)
NEW DELHI -- Jawaharlal Nehru may no longer have pride of place in the Class VIII history textbook in Rajasthan, but India's first Prime Minister features prominently in a Hindi-language textbook in neighboring Gujarat, which has him explaining the slogan "Bharat Mata Ki Jai."
The Bharatiya Janata Party is in power in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Another addition in Hindi textbooks for Class IX and XI in Gujarat is the song Manushya Tu Badaa Mahaan Hai which is a favorite on the campuses of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, The Indian Express reported today.
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The newspaper carried extracts from a chapter in the Class XI Second Language textbook, which has Nehru explaining the meaning of "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" to "uneducated" villagers.
In the chapter, Nehru says, Bharat Mata koi sundar, bebas, asahaay naari nahi hai jiske dharti tak latakne-wale lambe baal hon, jaisa aksar kalpit tasviron me dikhlaya jaata hai (Bharat Mata is not a beautiful, helpless, woman with long hair, like how she is generally depicted in photos).
Nitin Pethani, chairman of the Gujarat State School Textbook Board, told The Indian Express that changes in textbooks were aimed at instilling "the sentiments of nationalism among students."
"We have done this in a sharp, precise and effective manner through selection of literaturethat will arouse patriotism among the younger generation, which is gradually fading," he said.
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When The Indian Express reporter asked Pethani why these changes were being introduced in Hindi textbooks, Pethani replied, It is rare to see such patriotic feeling in Gujarati literature (when) compared to Hindi, which is our national language.
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Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - MAY 3: Winner of Best Actress award Kangana Ranaut after receiving award from President Pranab Mukherjee during the National Film Awards presentation ceremony at Vigyan Bhawan on May 3, 2016 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Ajay Aggarwal/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
There is no doubting the fact that Kangana Ranaut has been making great strides in her career. Earlier this week, the actress collected a National Award her third for her impressive double-role act in Aanand L Rais Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015), even while shes shooting a sweeping love story with Vishal Bhardwaj one of the best filmmakers working in Hindi cinema right now.
This, amidst a raging firestorm of a controversy, which has her entangled in an elaborate legal battle with Hrithik Roshan over a romantic relationship that crashed and burned. Some actually see this as a hallmark of a true diva: great films, prestigious awards, overzealous attention from the press, and a woeful love story.
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The next logical step to up her celebrity would be an Indo-French production that Kangana had signed up for in 2014, titled Divine Lovers, in which she would act opposite Irrfan Khan. Helmed by Sai Kabir, who had directed her in Revolver Rani (2014), the film was to mark Ranauts arrival in the European mainstream market. Quite a bold, experimental move when compared to two other leading ladies, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, who have chosen relatively safe Hollywood franchise films for their crossover debut.
Divine Lovers was a project commissioned by the French Film Commission. Its Chief Operation Officer Frank Priot, has been mentoring Kabir in getting the nuances of his script right in a manner that would appeal to French audiences.
She said she is eager to do films where shes the solo lead. If I have a script where that is the case, I will surely take it to her. Unfortunately, Divine Lovers isn't
So excited was Kangana for this unique crossover venture, that she had said in an official release, Divine Lovers will receive a mainstream cinema release in France. It will be Indias answer to edgy, love stories that world-cinema viewers enjoy. And that would probably have been the case since Leonard Glowinski, who has co-produced films like the Liam Neeson-starrer Unknown and the Oliver Stone-directed Alexander, was putting together this project too. (And still is.)
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However, according to a Bollywood Hungama report published on Tuesday, Ranaut has decided to opt out of the project. A source close to the development said that the film is a love story but centred more on Khan than her, which didnt go down too well with the Queen actress.
She made it clear that if shes not the 'hero' of the film, she doesnt want to do it, the person familiar with the details said. The team was quite taken aback as they had waited for her for over a year. She was busy and couldnt find time for a proper narration and when she did, she wasnt keen on doing the role as it didn't entirely revolve around her.
The makers then went scurrying for a replacement as they have to take the film into production over the next few months. They have now finalized Zareen Khan (Veer, Hate Story 3) for the role.
Confirming this, director Sai Kabir, in a telephonic conversation with HuffPost India, said, The character is that of a lower-class Muslim girl and I feel Zareen Khan will do a great job. After much delay, the film is finally on track.
When asked if Ranaut and he parted ways bitterly, he said, She said she is eager to do films where shes the solo lead. If I have a script where that is the case, I will surely take it to her. Unfortunately, Divine Lovers isn't.
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Kabir said he didn't want to mess with the script to satisfy an actor's demands. I didnt want to compromise on my vision. The script of Divine Lovers remains as it is. We go on floors soon.
A love story set against the backdrop of the India Shining myth and how it offers a false sense of hope, Divine Lovers will be shot in Mumbai, Agra and Aligarh, and is Kabir's ode to Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar (1963).
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Barcroft Media via Getty Images ASSAM, INDIA - SEPTEMBER 03: Wild elephants cross a road as they come out of the flood-hit Kaziranga National Park on September 03, 2015 in Assam, India.About 80 percent of the sanctuary is currently under flood waters caused by the overflowing Brahmaputra river. Forest authorities have strengthened security as poachers take advantage of the floods to hunt animals, particularly one-horned rhinos which, during the floods stray outside the park perimeterPHOTOGRAPH BY Anuwar Ali Hazarika / Barcroft Media (Photo credit should read Anuwar Ali Hazarika / Barcroft I via Getty Images)
In 10 out of Tamil Nadus 32 districts, one big issue is simply not on the poll agenda of any political party. Man-animal conflict, which has taken lives of both humans and wild animals, destroyed crops and livelihoods and put endangered species under threat this conflict is one that every political party wants to avoid making promises about.
Districts along the wild Western Ghats - Tirunelveli, Dindigul, Theni, Tirupur, Coimbatore, Nilgiris, Erode, Salem, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri line the boundaries of the contiguous elephant corridor into Kerala and Karnataka, as well as being home to tigers and leopards. There are 4 tiger reserves, 3 elephant reserves and 5 national parks in these areas. With rapid encroachment over many years into reserved forest land and poor will of successive governments in keeping encroachers out, man-animal conflict is on the rise.
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Residents of these areas are demanding to know how political leaders plan to tackle this boiling issue. This shows the ignorance of political parties regarding wildlife management, said K Kalidasan, founder of Osai, a non-profit that works in environment conservation.
In these districts too, as in most parts of the state, the battle is between the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and rival Dravidian party the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Candidates and leaders of both parties have been campaigning vigorously in these areas. Both parties have promised agricultural loan waivers for farmers as well as various other sops. But the key problem in this stretch remains unaddressed.
When we cultivate something, we are not able to take home the full produce, said Palanichamy, a farmer in a village called Thadaagam in Coimbatore district. As soon as we sow the seeds, peacocks come and eat them. Once the shoots come up, wild pigs come and dig them out, and when it is time for harvest a herd of elephants come and destroy everything. We can somehow manage the peacocks and the pigs but we cannot do anything against a herd of elephants, he agonised.
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Palanichamy also laments that the compensation provided by the government is just not enough to offset the loss of livelihood, especially when the elephants arrive. Coconut trees will give us produce for all our life time, he explained. In one second the elephants come and uproot and destroy these coconut trees. The government gives us a compensation of Rs 500 for every tree that has gone. The government has to find a permanent solution to this problem, he insisted.
According to data available with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, a large area of about 23,000 sq kms of forest cover is available in this region.
Thadaagam village in Coimbatore is a very important corridor, said D Rajan, an activist working in wildlife conservation. This is situated in a gap in the Western Ghats called the Palghat Pass. Most wild animals including elephants, go from the Tamil Nadu border to the Kerala forest region through this pass. Since the crops lure them, they come here, and now it has become a regular stop, he added.
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Rajan says that where elephants go, other herbivores usually follow. So when elephants come to the cultivated lands, they are followed by deer, gaur and wild boar. Due to this around 5000 acres of cultivated lands are destroyed every year, he said.
As a result, many farmers have left, not just their lands and villages, but the farming occupation itself, preferring to go instead to Kerala and other states to work as construction labourers. In villages at the foothills of the Ghats in Dindigul district, wild Indian Gaurs roam freely around villages like domestic cattle. Residents in the village of Mannavanur here say that these Gaurs are unafraid of humans. We can chase the elephants too away by bursting fire crackers but these wild Gaurs are not scared of anything.
Destruction of cultivated lands apart, human lives have been lost in plenty and the numbers are only escalating. When men try to chase these wild animals as they enter their cultivated lands, they are bound to lose their lives or get injured, said wildlife conservationist D Rajan. In a year on average, 60 to 70 lives are lost in this manner, according Forest Department records, he said.
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Loss of lives of endangered animal too has become a cause for alarm in these parts. Farmers have started seeing these wild animals as their enemies. They throw fire crackers at them, surround the land with high voltage fencing and even poison them, stated Rajan.
Several crores of rupees have been allocated in the state budget to deal with this man-animal conflict but experts say all measures have failed. And this is simply because political parties have not paid attention to the root cause of the trouble. The solar electric fencing which the government had installed is a total failure. So too is the trench plan. The government is not willing to do a detailed study to eradicate this problem. Man-animal conflict is a big problem and politicians are not making an effort to understand it, argued Kalidasan of NGO Osai.
Wildlife conservation is secondary to our state authorities, continued Kalidasan. We have ample water thanks to the Western Ghats, when the whole of northern India is facing severe drought. All the rivers which run through Tamil Nadu have their source in the Western Ghats. The government has to study why animals are moving out of the Ghats in search of food and reconstruct these forests. We have to see the problems in the forests as the problem of the entire state, he said.
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Nacho Doce / Reuters Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside talks during the worldwide presentation of the Moto G mobile phone in Sao Paulo November 13, 2013. The new Motorola phone, which is being aimed at consumers in developing markets like Brazil and India as well as budget-buyers in Western countries, is the second major new product that Motorola has developed since its acquisition by Internet company Google in 2012. REUTERS/Nacho Doce (BRAZIL - Tags: BUSINESS TELECOMS)
Motorola's popular G series is set to welcome its newest member, Moto G4, on 17 May in India.
Moto G3 had two variants launched separately named Moto G3 and Moto G3 turbo. However, a leak on Twitter suggests that two variants of G4 might launch at the same time. Some of the reports also suggest that Moto G4 will have a new fingerprint sensor on the front and NFC capabilities.
Moto 'G4' + G Plus: SD430, FHD, 3000mAh, 5MP FF, 13/16 (Plus) MP, screen size is off though, https://t.co/uOoQRK9VeDpic.twitter.com/hmvFrYg3n6 Roland Quandt (@rquandt) May 6, 2016
The phone will have better battery life and camera than its predecessor. It will have either 2 GB or 3 GB RAM based on the variants. It will also have cameras of 13 MP or 16 MP and storage of 16 or 32 GB internally. Users would be able to expand the memory by adding a microSD card.
The phone would have a 5.2-inch full HD display and a Qualcomm 430 processor. And it will have a battery capacity of 3000 mAh as per the reports. The price is yet to be announced.
Moto G has been the most successful product for Motorola over the years. But in the recent years due to the Chinese manufacturer's rise in India, it has faced some serious competition. This year it will be competing against the likes of Xiaomi Redmi note 3 and LeEco Le 1s.
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Michael Marquand via Getty Images Portrait of a cow against a blue sky in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Southeast Asia.
In Rajasthan's schools, students have a new chapter to study. Besides learning how to covert fractions to decimals and reproduction in plants, the students of class V are now going to be taught lessons from the Gau Mata.
According to a report in Times Of India, the Vasundhara Raje government, which has a ministry dedicated to cows has come up with an idea to train them young.
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The government schools have now revised their Hindi textbooks to include a chapter on cows, err...Gau Mata. In the chapter, Gau Mata 'writes' to the young kids, addressing them as 'my sons and daughters'.
"I give every individual strength, intelligence, long life, health, happiness and prosperity. Those who feel (my importance) consider me as their mother and I love them like my offspring," Gau Mata writes in her letter.
It also tells the students the benefits they can earn if they consider cow as their "mother".
And, what's a letter without illustration, right? So the chapter is filled with images of Hindu gods within a bigger picture of a cow to somewhat indicate that cow is the mother of all.
The letter from Gau Mata also lists her contribution to society. She produces "the elixir of life in the form of milk, butter and ghee." Her "urine and excreta produces medicines, fertilisers and pesticides" and she also "purifies environment by breathing."
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Rajasthan, the only state government in the country which has a ministry dedicated to cows, has been charting out plans to clamp down on cattle smuggling and starting a one-of-its-kind "sanctuary" for cows so that they can 'eat and live in peace'. The Ministry also plans to introduce a helpline number for cattle in distress.
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The trailer for Anurag Kashyap's Raman Raghav 2.0 was uploaded on Tuesday evening and, well, you probably shouldn't watch it if you have a legitimate fear of serial killers (yep, that exists).
The upcoming thriller, which also stars Vicky Kaushal and Sobhita Dhulipala, marks for Kashyap a return to his 'urban underbelly' roots after his last outing, the big-budget period drama Bombay Velvet (2015), crashed and burned both critically as well as commercially. Later this week, Raman Raghav 2.0 is slated to have its world premiere at the 69th Cannes International Film Festival under its Director's Fortnight section, in which two of Kashyap's previous films Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012) and Ugly (2014) have debuted in the past.
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Loosely inspired by the crimes of the serial killer Raman Raghav aka 'Psycho Raman', who committed a number of murders in Mumbai in the '60s, this thriller looks like an entrant in the classic cop-killer 'cat and mouse' genre, set in the present.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays a psychotic serial killer, whose eyes gleam like those of a fox, and if the trailer is anything to go by, it looks like yet another acting showcase for one of Hindi cinema's most popular character actors. Vicky Kaushal, who made an impressive debut with Masaan (2015) last year, plays a bit of a tired cliche: a cop weighed down by relationship and substance abuse issues.
Watch the full trailer below:
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ASSOCIATED PRESS Indiaas opposition Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, centre, leads other Congress party lawmakers during a protest in the parliament premises, in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015. Tuesdayas protest followed after the speaker of India's Parliament on Monday barred 25 opposition legislators from its sessions for the rest of the week for causing
"It is here in my country, India, that the blood of my loved ones is mingled. It is here that I will breathe my last and it is here my ashes will mingle with those of my loved ones," Congress president Sonia Gandhi said on Monday, looking visibly emotional.
Gandhi, who was speaking at an election rally in Thiruvananthapuram for the upcoming assembly polls in Kerala, said that she has always been shamed' by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other parties for her origins.
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In an emotion-choked voice, Gandhi on Monday described herself as the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi and reiterated that India was her country.
"Yes, I was born in Italy. But in 1968 I came to India as the daughter-in-law of (then prime minister) Indira Gandhi," Gandhi told the cheering crowd.
India is my home. It is here that I will breathe my last: Sonia Gandhi pic.twitter.com/Ren3WJnMC7 TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 9, 2016
The speech was clearly a response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments regarding her origins during his speeches and election meetings in Kerala.
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According to The Indian Express, Modi had said on Sunday: Do you have anyone you know in Italy? Do you have relatives in Italy? Have you been to Italy? Does anyone know you in Italy? Everyone knows who has an Italian connection.
Gandhi responded to PM Modi's comments by saying that she was proud of her origins. "I wish to say I am very proud of my parents who have been always honest. Yes, I have relatives in Italy, I have a 93-year-old mother and two sisters," she said.
Winding up her 15-minute speech, Gandhi added that the attacks were less political and more personal.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - MARCH 11: Union Minister for Water Resources, Harish Rawat during the ongoing parliament budget session on March 11, 2013 in New Delhi, India. (Photo By Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
The Congress party has reportedly won the high-stakes trial of strength in the Uttarakhand Assembly, in an apparent setback to the Modi government which had dismissed the state government and imposed President's Rule on March 28.
Although, the final results will be declared by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Harish Rawat came out and claimed they have the majority.
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Sources told NDTV that Rawat has the trust vote of 33 lawmakers as against the required 31, while BJP could gather only 28.
Hours after the supposed Congress win, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said BJP would "co-operate" and did not consider the development as a setback to the party.
"In a democracy, we have to accept that. It is on the floor of the House (trial of strength).. as per the decision of Supreme court, Uttarakhand assembly sat and (there is) majority for Congress, so we will co-operate," Gadkari said, answering questions in this regard at a meet-the-press programme here.
Gadkari also said he did not consider the development was a setback to his party. However, he said the problem in Uttarakhand was a result of internal problem of Congress.
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"Uttarakhand is not a problem between Congress and BJP.
That is the internal problem of Congress and for that they are blaming BJP," the Road Transport and National Highways Minister said.
Gadkari alleged that when Vijay Bahuguna was the Chief Minister, "the present Chief Minister created issues as he wanted to become Chief Minister. But when he became Chief Minister, ex-Chief Minister is creating problem for the Congress party."
"It is totally a Congress' internal problem. How you can make BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for it," he asked.
(With PTI Inputs)
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DA plans new diversion program for first-time felony drug possession
Change in law that allows Community Correction officers to oversee cases of those placed on diversion makes program possible.
Merchbar May Hot Music Merch Chart: Dave Matthews, Alabama Shakes, Foo Fighters, More
Dave Matthews Band fans are raising their DMB Flower Series Pint Glasses to celebrate DMBs 25th Anniversary. Cheers to Dave Matthews Band for 25 years of rock n roll magic and landing the number one merch item this month.
Alabama Shakes, a Merchbar favorite, is coming in strong with a close second place in our hot merch chart with the Alabama Shakes Flowers Flowy Tank. So get ready with some Alabama Shakes tees and hoodies, Alabama Shakes is currently on tour and dazzling the world with their blues rock sound.
Taking the number five place are The Rolling Stones with the Shepard Fairey 50th Lithograph. Just announcing their headlining appearance at Desert Trip Festival in Indio. This classic rock fest includes appearances by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and more. Planning on attending? Dont forget to pick up some The Rolling Stones t-shirts, or maybe get your very own Shepard Fairey 50th Lithograph!
Check out Merchbars Hot Merch Chart for the full May list of top 10 selling merch items! Ranging from our pop princess Ariana Grande to the Grateful Dead legend, Jerry Garcia and more!
1. Dave Matthews Band Flower Series Pint
2. Alabama Shakes Flowers Flowy Tank
3. Foo Fighters White and Navy Snapback Hat
4. Ariana Grande Ariana Strawberry Poster
5. The Rolling Stones Shepard Fairey 50th Lithograph
6. Jerry Garcia Ladies Henna Baseball T-Shirt
7. Odd Future Donut O Allover Button-Down Tee
8. The Weekend Xo Classic Logo Unisex Mesh Tank Top
9. Van Halen 1978 Logo Tee
10. Madonna Rebel Heart Program
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In 2015 there were 12 million subscribers to usage-based auto insurance products globally. Over the next 7 years the number is expected to surge to 142 million.A report from automotive analysts at IHS Inc. forecasts that usage-based insurance (UBI); which uses telematics to assess a drivers performance and risk using real-time data; will become more widespread, although business models are still being assessed.The current UBI landscape is in transition with robust expansion, said Stacey Oh, manager, automotive technology at IHS Automotive. New insurers are entering the market, new markets are being opened and new solutions are being launched.Currently, the use of UBI is strongest in the UK and Italy on a proportional basis but there are 5 million US subscribers, the largest number for one country. The US take-up of UBI is expected to see the strongest growth in the next year according to HIS estimates.China is also a market expected to see large growth in the sector with 15 million UBI subscribers expected in the next year.Manulife has announced that biometric testing, using samples including blood and urine, will no longer be required by most applicants for life insurance policies of up to $1 million.The Toronto-based insurer says that the new policy will apply to most eligible applicants aged 18 to 40 and that the move will simplify the process of applying for a life insurance policy as a visit to a paramedical will no longer be needed.Manulife becomes the first insurance company in Canada to raise the limit at which biometrics are required to a million. The industry standard for the past 20 years has been $250,000.The small town of Caryville in Washington County, Florida has shut down some of its public services following the cancellation of its insurance coverage.The towns council is not operating following an election on April 26; the town clerk has not shown up for work and the council offices are padlocked shut.The cancellation of the towns insurance policy by the Florida Municipal Insurance Trust is due to more than $6,000 in unpaid premiums for the first quarter according to newsherald.comWith no coverage for any of Caryvilles vehicles, property, workers compensation or general liability, the only solution was to cease services such as trash collection until the council can sort out its issues.A UK-based banking and insurance group is now including gender reassignment surgery as part of its health insurance plans for employees. Staff at Lloyds Banking Group including those of life insurer Scottish Widows will be covered under their health benefits. Lloyds is the first UK-based employer to offer the coverage.
These tools help amid ongoing market and legal challenges
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We work towards an equitable,
gender-just, self-reliant and
sustainable fisheries,
particularly in the small-scale,
artisanal sector
We work towards an equitable,
gender-just, self-reliant and
sustainable fisheries,
particularly in the small-scale,
artisanal sector
We work towards an equitable,
gender-just, self-reliant and
sustainable fisheries,
particularly in the small-scale,
artisanal sector
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IMF Survey : San Marino: In Search of New Routes of Growth
Financial sector downsizing and weak external demand harmed growth
Bank balance sheets under reparation, fiscal buffers to be rebuilt
IMF technical assistance key to ease capacity constraints
San Marino is looking to diversify its financial sector-oriented economy to turn a recovery from a six-year economic slump into sustained growth.
Economic Health Check
IMF Survey sat down with the outgoing and incoming San Marino mission chiefs, Alexander Tieman and Kazuko Shirono, to discuss the economic fortunes of the oldest constitutional republic in the world.
IMF Survey: What are some of the challenges of working on a small country?
Tieman: Working on a microstate like San Marino, with 32,000 inhabitants living on some 61 square kilometers, presents challenges but also opportunities. One of the issues, which we usually do not consider in other advanced economies, is capacity bottlenecks. Because of the small population, most government departments as well as the central bank are small by international standards. This implies that broad areas of work tend to land on the shoulders of just a few people, particularly now that the country is committed to follow wide-ranging international legislation and regulations. In addition, it can be really challenging to find people with a specific area of expertise.
On the bright side, the small size of the country makes a consensus-based decision-making process easier, which, in turn, allows for relatively fast policy implementation once decisions are made.
IMF Survey: How did San Marino fare during the global crisis and what are the issues left unresolved?
Shirono: San Marino has lost one-third of its output since the start of the global financial crisis, which is the largest output loss in Europe. The main cause was the sharp downsizing of San Marinos large financial sector, which came about in part due to a massive outflow of nonresident deposits. The other main source of the loss was weak external demand from trading partners in Europe. Although this year we see the economy bottoming out after six years of recession, the global financial crisis nevertheless left a number of challenges to handle. Dealing with nonperforming loans and repairing the balance sheets of banks are in progress. Fiscal buffers, which served San Marino well in the past, need to be rebuilt to strengthen the economy against future shocks. Importantly, San Marino also needs to diversify its economy so that growth relies less on the financial sector and more on industry and nonfinancial services.
IMF Survey: What has IMF technical assistance meant for the country?
Tieman: Technical assistance can be quite valuable, in particular where specific expertise is difficult to find locally. The IMF has helped with compiling balance of payment statistics, conducting a public expenditure review, and providing advice on bank regulation. In addition, there is an intensive background work with central bank staff on managing and resolving the large stock of nonperforming loans in the banking system. This work resulted in an analysis of both the economic and the legal aspects of the nonperforming loans, as well as concrete policy suggestions. We hold regular consultations with the authorities to follow up on progress in these subjects as well as to identify other areas of need for technical assistance.
IMF Survey: International cooperation appears exceptionally important for a small country like San Marino. Can you give some examples of key areas of collaboration?
Tieman: Indeed, deepening international cooperation has always been a priority for San Marino. That is especially true for the cooperation with Italy, a country with which the microstate shares a language and many cultural and business links. In fact, San Marino has recently concluded a bilateral economic cooperation agreement with Italy, and has set up a credit register to share credit information with international counterparts. San Marino has also revamped its anti-money laundering rules, and now fully complies with international norms.
But international cooperation goes beyond working with Italy. San Marino has concluded a monetary agreement with the European institutions, in which the parties agree that San Marino can use the Euro as its legal tender. And last year, San Marinotogether with Monaco and Andorrastarted negotiations on an association agreement with the European Union to guarantee the free movement of goods, capital, services, and people. Such agreements are essential for unobstructed international trade and they show the world that San Marino is a place where one can do business and invest confidently.
IMF Survey: You suggested that the country should find a new growth model. What would be its key ingredients?
Shirono: Structural reforms are important to support the authorities objective to broaden and diversify the economy. In particular, San Marino should continue to improve its business environment and liberalize its labor market. Such changes will help rebalance the economy toward nonfinancial services and industry. San Marino has already made some progress in these areas. For example, the government put in place a simple and fast online process to establish a business, and by doing so, it lifted the countrys ranking in the World Banks Doing Business index by 17 places. Some labor market policies have also been reformed to support business activities: for instance, the hiring of skilled nonresident workers for startups has become easier. The government also plans to increase its capital spending: this year it will embark on a project that upgrades basic tourism infrastructure, which is expected to attract further private investment to the sector.
The IMF team with country officials (from left to right): Hua Chai, Alessandro Giustiniani, Natalia Stetsenko, Julia Bersch, Minister of Finance and Budget Gian Carlo Capicchioni, Alexander Tieman, Her Excellency Captain Regent Lorella Stefanelli, His Excellency Captain Regent Nicola Renzi, Minister of Foreign Affairs Pasquale Valentini, Minister of Interior and Justice Gian Carlo Venturini, Marta Spinella (photo: courtesy of San Marino authorities)
U.S. Hails Entry into Force of Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material
Washington, DC - Yesterday, the global community took a significant step forward in protecting the worlds nuclear material and preventing nuclear terrorism with the entry into force of the 2005 Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM).
This Amendment strengthens the CPPNM by adding requirements for states party to the treaty to protect nuclear facilities and nuclear material in domestic use, storage, and transportnot just international transit. The Amendment also legally requires the 102 signatory states to maintain even stronger standards of nuclear security than did the original CPPNM.
Entry into force of the Amendment strengthens the global nuclear security architecture, which enables states to continue to safely and securely pursue peaceful uses of nuclear technology. We commend the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for its role as depositary for the Convention. We will continue to work with the IAEA to universalize the amended CPPNM, which now becomes known as the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities (CPP).
Energy Department Invests $14 Million to Increase Energy Efficiency of Nations Homes and Buildings
Washington, DC - As part of the Administrations effort to cut energy waste in the nations buildings and double energy productivity by 2030, the Energy Department today announced $14 million to dramatically increase the efficiency of our nations homes and buildings. These projects will cut energy costs for thousands of American families and businesses, while leading to greater demand for new building products and technologies, many of which can be produced in the U.S.
The small-medium commercial sector and homebuilding industry are critical to the American economy, but under-resourced when it comes to energy efficiency, said Kathleen Hogan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency. These efficiency solutions will allow us to build better, healthier homes and significantly improve our nations existing building stock, cutting energy bills for American consumers and businesses.
Through the Commercial Buildings Integration program, the Energy Department will make six awards for up to $8.4 million to nationally scale-up replicable, energy-efficient solutions for small and medium office buildings, apartments, stores, restaurants, and businesses. In 2015, commercial buildings used nearly 20 percent of the nations total energymore than half of which is consumed by small and medium buildings (under 100,000 square feet).
These new partners will implement deep retrofit and workforce training programs, spur adoption of advanced energy-efficient technologies, and initiate efficiency programs for small businesses in low-income communities. The projects will improve the efficiency of at least 2,600 buildings nationwide, leverage almost $17 million in partner resources, and create nearly 500 jobs.
The projects selected for funding are:
International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology (Lakewood, Colorado) will demonstrate a financially sustainable mechanism for retrofitting small apartment buildings that can be scaled nationally. This approach will cut energy use by 20-30 percent, reduce utility bills by $3,100 a year per building, and create 200 jobs.
City of Seattle (Seattle) will reduce the citys energy costs by $1.5 million annually by training local building operations professionals to more effectively tune up buildings to improve their efficiency.
Institute for Market Transformation (Washington, DC) will partner with local chambers of commerce to help small business landlords and tenants improve the energy efficiency of more than 400 leased buildings.
Association of Bay Area Governments (Oakland, California) will perform large-scale building energy modeling analysis in nine Bay Area counties to target small businesses that will achieve the most cost-effective, deep energy retrofits.
NextEnergy (Detroit) will spur the adoption of advanced lighting control solutions in small and medium commercial buildings. The group will train 100 contractors in simplified installation methods, develop a model for streamlined utility incentives, and educate consumers.
Lime Energy (Newark, New Jersey) will complete more than 1,000 retrofit projects in low-income communities in the Buffalo, Houston, Orlando, and Memphis areas. The results will create 60 jobs and generate $30 million in economic activity.
Under its Building America program, the Energy Department will make eight awards for up to $5.5 million for industry partners to create healthier, more comfortable homes that will save homeowners money on their utility bills. Partners will pilot several innovative approaches: low-cost construction methods; highly-efficient integrated heating, cooling, and ventilation systems; indoor air quality (IAQ) solutions for healthier homes; and software that will remotely identify homes that can benefit most from energy efficiency retrofits. They will also demonstrate zero energy-ready homes for the affordable housing market.
A major focus of the Building America program is cutting a homes heating and cooling costs. Typically, heating and cooling account for 40 percent of a homes energy consumptionthe largest single energy use and more than water heating, refrigeration, and lighting combined. In 2014, U.S. homeowners spent approximately $70 billion to heat their homes and $24 billion to cool them.
The following projects are selected for funding:
University of Minnesota: Twin Cities (Minneapolis) will demonstrate 15 zero energy- ready affordable homes with an innovative solid panel wall system that is more durable, 50 percent more energy efficient, and costs less to build than standard framing.
Newport Partners (Davidsonville, Maryland) will develop a quiet Smart Range Hood that is five times more efficient than todays ENERGY STAR models, captures nearly 100 percent of cooking pollutants, and is cost competitive with other kitchen range hoods currently on the market.
Building Science Corporation (Westford, Massachusetts) will study construction details for insulated roof assemblies that may substantially reduce attic condensation risk and construction costs, potentially reducing HVAC energy use by 10 percent or more in houses with HVAC and duct systems in the attic.
Fraunhofer USA, Inc. (Boston) will develop a software tool that automatically and remotely analyzes smart thermostat and interval meter data to identify household-specific retrofit opportunities that reduce heating energy consumption, potentially improving program effectiveness by 50 percent or more.
Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (Washington, DC) will demonstrate a ventilation integrated high-efficiency heat pump system that will provide balanced, distributed ventilation with heat recovery, reduce HVAC energy use by 400-800 kilowatts annually, and cost $1,000-$2,000 less than separate ducted systems.
Center for Energy and Environment (Minneapolis) will evaluate an envelope air sealing method that uses aerosol sealant and simultaneously measures, locates, and seals leaks, significantly improving quality control and reducing labor costs.
Home Innovation Research Labs, Inc. (Upper Marlboro, Maryland) will conduct comprehensive structural testing of window installation techniques for walls with continuous insulation to inform industry guidance, energy codes, and enable wider adoption of this highly-effective insulation solution.
Southface Energy Institute (Atlanta) will establish an IAQ scoring system for homes and assess the ability of a smart energy recovery ventilator to improve IAQ and comfort, while reducing the energy required for ventilation and dehumidification by 50 percent.
The Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy accelerates development and facilitates deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and market-based solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality. EERE supports innovative technologies that reduce both risk and costs of bringing energy-efficient building technologies online. Learn more about the Department's efforts to help homes and buildings save energy.
Secretary of State John Kerry's Meeting With Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir
Washington, DC - Secretary Kerry met today in Paris with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. They reviewed the strong and enduring relationship between their countries and discussed a broad range of regional issues, including Yemen, Syria, and Iran.
The two ministers exchanged views on the Yemeni peace talks being held in Kuwait, and the Secretary expressed the U.S. Government's appreciation for the key role Saudi Arabia continues to play in combating terrorism and AQAP in Yemen, in particular. Saudi leadership in making available an operations center and contributing the largest number of forces has been indispensable to recent successes, including most recently in al Mukallah.
Finally, they exchanged views regarding the fight against Daesh and the restoration of the cessation of hostilities in Syria in accordance with UNSC 2254. Secretary Kerry provided an update on recent discussions and the situation on the ground, and they both stressed the importance of all sides fully respecting the cessation of hostilities.
Under Secretary Shannon Travel to Iraq and Kuwait
Washington, DC - On May 8-9, Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon visited Baghdad for meetings with senior Iraqi government officials, including Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, as well as UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Iraq Jan Kubis. Under Secretary Shannon expressed the United States strong support for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and the Iraqi people.
In Basrah Ambassador Shannon met with Governor Majid al-Nasrawi to discuss the U.S.-Iraq strategic relationship, including U.S. assistance to Iraq in the fight against Daesh, and held discussions with other local leaders and members of civil society.
He will travel to Kuwait City, Kuwait on May 10 where he will meet with senior Kuwaiti officials to discuss a range of issues. He will also meet with the UN Special Envoy to Yemen and other officials to discuss the latest developments in Yemen and how to move the peace process forward.
There is an urgency and a demand for the new Centre for Gastroenterology in Cork to accommodate an increased volume of patients, as people in Cork are more likely to develop bowel cancer than in any other county in Ireland.
According to Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Mercy University Hospital Dr Martin Buckley, donations are needed to fund a new fluoroscopy x-ray unit, which will help reduce waiting times for those requiring treatment, and mean fewer patients having to travel to Dublin for procedures.
While we have the skills and the expertise to perform this treatment at the Mercy, we need critical investment for this equipment, which will make a significant impact on the cancer journey for those affected all over Munster, he added at the launch of a campaign to raise awareness for bowel cancer.
Some 500,000 is required to purchase a fluoroscopy x-ray unit for the centre, which will assist doctors in staging and treating patients with tumours in their oesophagus, stomach, bowel, pancreas and liver, allowing local endoscopic pain relief procedures in patients with advanced cancer. Fluoroscopy is the method that provides real-time x-ray imaging that is especially useful for guiding a variety of diagnostic and interventional procedures.
Dr Buckley continued: When a patients tumour is obstructing the bowel this causes severe discomfort and vomiting for the patient and can be extremely dangerous. The fluoroscopy machine will allow us to fix the blockage by inserting a stent, which acts like a little passageway to allow the organ to function properly again. This means patients are better prepared and able for surgery later on to remove the tumour.
For patients receiving palliative care for their cancer, this simple procedure can replace surgery altogether, avoiding surgery and a bag, and allowing the patient more time at home with friends and family.
For more information on Bowel Cancer Awareness and the work of the Mercy Hospital Foundation visit www.mercyfundraising.ie.
dara.gantly@imt.ie
Notice Asking Women Advocates Not to 'Arrange' Hair in Open Court in Pune Sparks Outrage
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So far, the buzziest film heading to Cannes film festival is one that no one there will see. John Malkovich wrote and stars in the movie, which Robert Rodriguez directed, and it'll make its way to the south of France in a vault, where it will stay or so the story goes until the year 2115, when the safe will open and our descendants will get their first look at the thing.
It's called 100 Years: The Movie You Will Never See, which is a fine title now but a bit of a misnomer for whatever future generations get to watch if, that is, they can figure out how to. In a teaser, we see Malkovich in white gloves, carefully placing a reel in a vault. That format could prove problematic 10 years from now, never mind 100.
Then again, said trailer looks more like an ad for Louis XIII cognac, which is a partner in the movie (it also takes 100 years to age the brandy).
Does the movie even exist? Malkovich started opening up about the "terrific, emotionally charged" film to People magazine in November, so maybe it does. "If you act in a play, you never see it," he said. "I've certainly acted in a lot of movies I've never seen and a number of them I wouldn't particularly be tempted to."
Other creatives may know the feeling, if the works below more or less shielded from public view are anything to go by.
Don's Plum
These days we take Leonardo DiCaprio seriously, because he's an Oscar-winning member of the Hollywood elite. Sure, he vapes and dates supermodels, but he's also practically killing himself for his art. That wasn't the case back in the mid-1990s when he was filming Don's Plum, a raunchy, Gen-X response to Diner. Taking place during a single night, DiCaprio and buddies Tobey Maguire, Kevin Connolly and others hang out at an LA dive chatting about masturbation and ridiculing anyone who wanders by.
DiCaprio apparently had second thoughts about the movie Dons Plum (Getty Images)
Most of the improvised dialogue made the guys look like the pervy man-children they were at the time, if the infamous 1998 New York Magazine profile of DiCaprio is to be believed. After the film was completed, Maguire and DiCaprio had second thoughts, so they managed to block the movie's release in the US and Canada. Still, it premiered abroad, so is no doubt findable with some internet sleuthing. And in January, one of the movie's producers, Dale Wheatley, posted the full movie to the website freedonsplum.com until DiCaprio and Maguire got wind of the development and the movie came down.
The Day the Clown Cried
If you think Don's Plum sounds bad, wait till you hear the premise for the 1972 disaster Jerry Lewis directed and headlined. The comedian played Helmut Doork, a German clown who's overheard by some Nazis denigrating Hitler. His punishment: go to Auschwitz and lighten the mood for the kids, then escort them into the gas chambers.
Comedian Harry Shearer, one of the few people who has seen the drama, told Spy magazine: "The movie is so drastically wrong, its pathos and comedy so wildly misplaced that you could not, in your fantasy, improve on what it really is. Oh my God! that's all you can say."
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Lewis realised his mistake and opted not to release it, though some making-of-the-movie footage ended up online a few years ago. The Day the Clown Cried won't always be un-viewable (even if it might always be unwatchable). The Library of Congress acquired the movie last year but agreed not to show it for at least 10 years.
Once Upon A Time In Shaolin
Rap collective the Wu-Tang Clan spent six years working on their latest album, but made only one copy. In 2015, the group auctioned it off to the highest bidder and made the buyer promise not to profit from it until 2103 though the person could let people hear it for free if he chose to.
The Wu-Tang Clans singular vision saw its ultimate expression with a one-copy album (Getty Images)
The winning $2m (1.4m) bid came from pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, better known for jacking up the price of a drug for Aids-related infections. During an interview with Bloomberg in December, Shkreli indicated that he bought the album so that he could get a chance to meet and hang out with famous people. He said he hadn't yet listened to the album, though he could be convinced to if "Taylor Swift wants to hear it or something like that". Of course, since then, Shkreli has had more pressing things to worry about, such as charges of securities fraud.
Basically, the good news is it might be possible to hear the music. The bad news is you'd have to hang out with Shkreli.
Anyone can read the writer's three-part memoir now, but the books were only authorised for release 100 years after Twain's death in 1910. Of course, the great self-promoter couldn't bear to keep it entirely under wraps, so some of the stories were published in North American Review even before Twain's death.
When the first volume was finally released, in 2010, not everyone thought it was worth the wait. Garrison Keillor wrote in the New York Times that the book was "a ragbag of scraps, some of interest, most of them not".
Mark Twain was uncharacteristically reticent about his memoir (Getty Images)
With the publication of the third volume last year, we at least got some indication why Twain wanted to wait so long: He spent time trashing Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Carnegie. Even so, the book was "of a piece with the other two", Dennis Drabelle wrote for The Washington Post, "rambling; charming; vitriolic; confessional (I am fond of pomp and display); shot through with wit, lyricism and regret".
Margaret Atwood (and others)
Atwood is also waiting a century to release a novel, and she's not alone. In 2114, the Future Library will be open for business, revealing never-before-read manuscripts from 100 writers. Each year between now and then, another author will contribute work. Atwood's agreement to be the inaugural donor must have given an eccentric idea some credibility, as Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell signed on to be the second annual contributor.
A really, really, really long piece of music
You can listen to Jem Finer's appropriately titled Longplayer now at a few listening posts around the globe, but you won't be able to hear all of it. That's because the piece is 1,000 years long, so it won't be available to download until the year 3000. The composition, performed using Tibetan singing bowls and gongs, started on 1 January 2000, and uses an algorithm to find new variations on a 20-minute theme. If that sounds intriguing, well, you've got plenty of timeMargaret Tawin to seek it out.
The Washington Post
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Only after the initial hype surrounding Star Wars: The Force Awakens wore off did people start deducing who the famous faces were beneath those stormtrooper helmets.
Most notably, James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, had a speaking cameo in the film, playing the trooper who gets Force mind-controlled by Rey.
Doing a similar cameo in Star Wars: Episode VIII will reportedly be Tom Hardy, star of last years Mad Max: Fury Road, Legend, and The Revenant.
According to Making Star Wars, a website dedicated to Star Wars rumours that previously accurately reported on Craigs cameo and the Han Solo twist a year before The Force Awakens' release, Hardy will have some lines in the film.
UPDATE: General Leia herself Carrie Fisher has added to the speculationby re-tweeting the Express's story 'confirming' Hardy will appear in the film.
The exact details they give contain some * plot spoilers * that you may not wish to read. If youre wanting to go into Star Wars 8 completely unspoilt then we recommend this piece on how Boba Fett was once intended to be the main villain in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
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Still here? If so, then the report states how Hardy will be a First Order stormtrooper who meets Finn who is on a secret mission, infiltrating the First Order dressed as a stormtrooper.
Once he spots John Boyega's character, Hardys surprised trooper slaps Finn on the ass having previously thought FN-2187 was dead. He starts to sarcastically congratulate Finn on the promotion to Resistance infiltrator and spy before - to Finns amazement - letting him go.
Initial thoughts are that an infiltration mission by Finn seems completely plausible. If the report is correct, it seems unlikely the slap on the ass will actually make the final film.
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The reason Hardys trooper may let the TR8R go is likely because of unease in the First Order ranks: theyve likely lost hope in their leader since the Resistance were able to blow up the Starkiller Base with relative ease in The Force Awakens.
Meanwhile, in other Star Wars news, Disney have found their young Han Solo in actor Alden Ehrenreich. Heres everything you need to know about the Hail, Cesar! actor.
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Over here in the UK, we often like to think were at the forefront of gender equality in the workplace. In the film industry, this certainly isnt true, as - in 2015 - only a fifth of all production personnel were female.
According to a study titled Calling the Shots: Women and Contemporary Film Culture, by the University of Southampton and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (via The Guardian), of those women just 1.5% were from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.
Women were most prominent in production roles, with 27% of producers being female. However, the report concluded that the vast majority of key production personnel in the UK film industry are still men.
This is a crucial piece of research laying bare the grotesque discrepancy between the sexes in the film industry, chief executive of Women in Film and Television, Kate Kinninmont, told Screen.
Equal numbers of men and women enter this industry but women are relentlessly squeezed out. Black and minority ethnic women have the hardest time of all. It is the film industry itself which suffers from this, with a narrowing of its vision and an impoverishment of its creativity.
Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did Show all 14 1 /14 Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 1. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Kicking us off is Phil Lord and Christopher Milles bizarre animated film about a scientist who creates a machine that transforms water into food. So far, not too crazy, but then the machine gets stuck in the sky and it starts raining food. Everything goes wrong and Flint Lockwood must save the day by flying up to the machine and kicking fried chicken butt. Yeah, a pretty crazy premise, but a fantastic film. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 2. Frank Michael Fassbender may be one of the most bankable stars of the moment - having starred in the likes of Steve Jobs, X-Men and Macbeth - but in 2014, instead of flaunting his face, producers decided to make him wear a weird papier-mache mask for the films near entirety. The plot sees Fassbenders titular character front a rock band, play SXSW and make likeable music. Its all just a bit strange. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 3. Groundhog Day Almost anything with Bill Murray in it is a win in my book, but when you say the premise of Ground Hog day out loud - a weatherman who must relive the same day over and over again - it sounds quite boring. What transpired was one of Murrays funniest films. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 4. Star Wars With Star Wars being so prevalent in pop-culture, its hard to imagine a time when no-one except George Lucas knew what a Lightsaber was. Producers must have been shocked when this young director came into the office trying to sell a script about Luke Skywalker, R2D2, Darth Vader, Chewbacca and Stormtroopers. Thankfully, they believed in his vision and now we have one of the best sci-fi sagas of all time. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 5. Incepetion A dream, within a dream, within a dream. Even those who watched Inception were left confused, let alone those who only heard what the film was about. Christopher Nolans final flick, however, was a masterclass in storytelling and one of the best films of the last ten years. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 6. Speed The high-concept Speed is quite ridiculous really. Keanu Reeves cant let a bus go below 50 miles per hour or it will blow up. Its quite amazing how Jan de Bont managed to make his debut 116 minutes long in the first place, let alone making it a decent film in the process. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 7. Edward Scissorhands Tim Burton is a director who could fill this entire list up. While he may have chosen to reboot numerous films in the past few years (Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the upcoming Dumbo 2) it was his original concepts that set him apart from everyone else. In Burtons head, the love story of a man with scissors for hands and a young woman made complete sense, while for everyone else - from just the premise - it seemed entirely weird. Luckily, he was given the opportunity to make the film and a cult classic was born, all while Johnny Depps ability to play the outsider was solidified. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 8. Mrs Doubtfire Post-Hook and Aladdin, Robin Williams was on a role. One of his standout performances was as Mrs. Doubtfire, the father-turned-drag-housekeeper. As a premise, dressing your lead male as a woman wasnt exactly new (see Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie), so the filmmakers ran the risk of it all seeming like an overdone joke. Luckily, Chris Columbus managed to pull off the ridiculous plot (how wouldnt the kids know its their father, really?) leading to one of the funniest films of the 90s. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 9. The Lobster Like Burton, most of Yorgos Lanthimoss films could probably feature on this page, but weve gone with The Lobster. The film tells of a hotel where residents must find a suitable partner within 45 days otherwise they will be turned into an animal. Try to run away and the other residents will hunt you down with tranquillisers. The result was one of the best love stories of 2015. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 10. Ant-Man Some comic book superheroes should not be adapted to the big screen (*cough* Howard the Duck *cough*). Ant-Man is not one of them. Against all the odds, Paul Rudd and Peyton Reed managed to make a compelling film about a man who could shrink down in size and control ants. Whats incredible is that - somehow - the film quickly became one of Marvels most beloved films. Of course, everyone knew Marvel could pull off weird, having knocked it out of the park with Guardians of the Galaxy the year before. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 11. Beetlejuice Two ghosts living in their old home want to scare away the alive people who now live there. Unfortunately, the new home-owners cant see them and so the ghosts have to call upon a deranged Michael Keaton to help them out. Add one of the strangest afterlife scenes in film history and youve got a brilliant film. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 12. Forrest Gump While not an obvious contender like Star Wars or Beetlejuice, when you think about it, Forrest Gump is a weird idea. A below-average intelligent man, sitting on a bench, waiting for a bus, telling strangers about all the famous moments in history where he observed/effected. Thanks to Tom Hanks, Gump was a magical film of love and hope, winning over the hearts of thousands and becoming an instant classic. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 13. The Lego Movie Another film from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, The Lego Movie shouldnt have worked. Making a beloved toy into a film; it was all just a bit silly. Thankfully, Chris Pratts turn as Emmett (and a catchy song in Everything is Awesome) the film was a huge hit with critics and fans alike, and now we have a cinematic universe of Lego movies to come. Awesome? Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 14. Im Not There Lets get Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw to all play Bob Dylan in a single film, Todd Haynes said. While you would think that would be overkill, the result was stunning, with Dylan himself eventually praising the film in 2012.
The report comes the day before the BFIs event Calling the Shots? Counting Women Filmmakers in British Cinema Today.
Recently, the Directors Guild of America chose the 80 best-directed films of the last 80 years, with only one film by a woman making the list.
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Jared Leto has spoken a lot about how he got into the role of The Joker for Suicide Squad.
Not only did he send a dead pig to fellow cast members, he also posted anal beads, used condoms, a dead rat (to Margot Robbie), was only called Mr. J on set, and met with real life killers to understand the characters mentality.
It turns out Leto wasnt just content with freaking out the other members of the cast; he took to the streets of New York to scare some unsuspecting civilians.
Suicide Squad - Blitz Trailer
I worked on the laugh walking around the streets of New York and Toronto, and I kinda would walk around the streets and see what laughs would get under peoples skin, he told CNBCs Squawk Box.
You know when you hear someone laugh at a restaurant? Its a little jarring. I tried them out. And I kind of got to a place where I would laugh and people are always turning around like, Who is this creepy guy behind me?'
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Imagine sitting in a restaurant and some random person just starts creepily laughing like a mad-man behind you. Probably a signal you should ask for the bill and get out of there.
In other Suicide Squad news, co-star Margot Robbie recently said, if they return for a second film, she would say no to wearing hot pants again.
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Sounding like the bastard-child of Bootsy Collins and System of a Down, maniacal, perpetually half-naked riff-lobbers Falls are about to release their latest EP, One Hundred Percent Strong, through Venn Records on 13th May. The EP is streaming in full below and includes an in-depth, erudite, track analysis by guitarist Phil Kelsall and bassist Ben Griffiths.
With vocals that flip-flop between harmonious Bee Gees-style vocal lines and wide-eyed, unhinged shrieks, Falls are an idiosyncratic proposition, bringing a touch of gaiety to the art of savage riffs. If Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Marvin the Martian ceased to be the Looney Toons and started writing loony tunes influenced equally by Mike Patton and Christina Aguilera, Falls would be the result.
Falls will be shaking their money makers at the following venues around the UK in May:
Thu 12th May Rewind, Wrexham
Fri 13th May Maguires, Liverpool
Sat 14th May The Frog & Fiddle, Cheltenham
Sun 15th May Fuel Rock Bar, Cardiff
Thurs 19th May Subside, Birmingham
Sun 29th May The Stag & Hounds, Bristol
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Get Well Soon
Lets start at the beginning. Because otherwise life is literally pointless and you may as well stick your head in a bin and douse yourself in petrol if you believe anything else.
Get Well Soon is called Get Well Soon because the idea of calling a song Get Well Soon made us all laugh. As with most of our songs its under three minutes long because we have the collective attention span of a four week old spaniel. We wanted it to sound like System of a Down werent fronted by Serj Tankian but instead by the Sugababes; the original line-up though not those pesky chancers who thought they were Sugababes but weren't anything close to being a bona fide Sugababe. Its an impossible dream. Dream big, achieve big.
Shady Nasty
This one takes its name from a bar and woman in Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia. So Ive been told. I mean, Ive not watched it. Have you? Ive heard its very good but I only watch Masterchef and Homes Under The Hammer. I cant handle strong narrative, Im just not developed enough as a human being yet.
Musically, the intention with this song was to make your bottom do a wiggle. I mean, thats always the intention with our song writing, but this was the SOLE intention of this one. What happened thereafter was that we went off on a horrible yet inevitable tangent and now its just one great big bag of riffs.
SWARM
So called because we thought the intro sounded like a swarm of actual bees. Which it sort of does. Great. Achievement unlocked. The rest of this song comes from an older tune we just couldnt shake from the set. There are some sing-y bits and some shout-y bits and some moshy-moshy bits and some shake-your-booty-until-the-world-implodes bits. And that will be our epitaph. Its interesting to point out that at one point in time this song was supposed to be titled Selleck-tricity, but, you know, no.
Death In Disco Shoes
This song is called Death In Disco Shoes because Phil (guitars) has an ex-girlfriend who used to refer to herself as this in the third-person. Lyrically, it has absolutely nothing to do with anything, ever. This song has also been kicking around our set for a long time but weve re-hashed it and added an enormous doom riff at the end, because we wanted to and its our band so ner-ner-ner we can do what we want and shut up Mum, music is a real job.
One Hundred Percent Strong is released on vinyl and digitally via Venn Records on 13th May. Falls start a UK tour in Wrexham on 12th May
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Russian President Vladimir Putins annual direct line conversation with the nation was still going strong when the joking began on social media. Question: Everyone has had to make cuts to their household budgets recently. What have you cut spending on? Putin: On you lot, wrote one Twitter user, in a parody of the Ppresidents apparent lack of empathy with millions of ordinary Russians who are suffering as a result of the countrys tanking economy.
Others posted doctored photographs of a young woman from the Siberian city of Omsk, who called into Aprils televised presidential Q&A session to quiz Putin on why the roads in her hometown were in such a pitiful condition. Shes having a tough time right now, went one Twitter meme, accompanied by a Photoshopped image of the woman being buried alive in hot asphalt.
Russians have always laughed at their leaders, from the luboks the colourful satirical prints or etchings sold at markets from the late 17th century on to the politically charged jokes whispered in kitchens across the Soviet Union. (Example: Would it be possible to introduce communism to the United States? Yes, but then where would we get our grain from?) Political humour continued unabated in post-Soviet Russia under President Boris Yeltsin only now, in the new spirit of openness, it was on prime-time TV.
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
But when Putin came to power in 2000, one of his first targets was an independent television channel called NTV. Renowned for its uncompromising coverage of the Chechen war, NTV also aired a popular political satire show called Kukly ("Puppets"). The programme, like Spitting Image, featured grotesque latex puppets of high-profile figures, including Russias new president. In Kuklys most infamous episode, broadcast in January 2000, Putin was depicted as an evil, infant gnome muttering the kind of earthy expressions that had built up his tough-guy persona. Putin was reportedly furious, and the removal of his puppet was one of the conditions required by Kremlin aides for the TV channels survival. NTV refused to comply, and within months, it was under state control. Putin jokes quickly vanished from Russias television screens.
Posters like this are mysteriously appearing across Moscow, only to be swiftly removed by authorities (Don't Spy On Us)
It wasnt until about a decade later, with the explosion of high-speed internet in Russias major cities, that political satire made a comeback. Anti-government humour was a linchpin of the online communities that emerged in Russia in the run-up to the disputed 2011 parliamentary elections, which sparked the biggest street protests of Putins long rule. One opposition Twitter account, @KermlinRussia, launched in 2010, has gained 1.5 million followers with its merciless mockery of Putin and other government officials. In reply to the accusation that there are no new faces in politics: Putin has had plastic surgery is a typical @KermlinRussia tweet.
But as the Kremlins clampdown on dissent has accelerated and traditional forms of protest have become more dangerous, political satire is moving into the streets. From Moscow to Siberia, Russias beleaguered opposition movement is fighting state oppression and censorship with a biting and often bleak humour.
In recent months, the opposition has taken to plastering bus-stop shelters in Moscow with sharply comical anti-government posters. The posters are quickly taken down, but images of them rapidly go viral on social media, spreading their messages far beyond the few hundred people who may have seen them in real life.
What Panama? read one such poster in early April, after the Panama Papers leaks had implicated a number of Putins close associates in a suspected $2bn (1.4bn) money-laundering scheme. Depicting Putin smoking a cigarette and wearing a white hat, a la Johnny Depp in the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the poster was a none-too-subtle dig at state medias near silence on the alleged plundering of Russias national wealth by Putins inner circle. It appeared just weeks after another much-discussed poster had greeted passers-by with an image of Stalins death mask and the provocative words That one died. This one will too. No one has taken responsibility for either poster.
Putins starring role in the Panama Papers has given satirists plenty of ammunition
These posters are one of the few remaining ways to publicly express discontent without getting immediately hauled off to jail, says Yevgeny Levkovich, an anti-Kremlin activist. Levkovich was involved in the creation of another poster that went up around Moscow on the eve of Putins annual news conference in December. A mock advertisement for a fictitious pop music concert starring Russias long-time leader, it featured a list of hits in reality a litany of Putins broken promises on the economy and social issues.
There is no legitimate parliament, no right to take to the streets and no independent courts. In these circumstances, laughter is the only means we have to highlight problems in our society, says Viktor Shenderovich, a well-known satirist and opposition activist. But satire alone cannot bring about regime change, and so this is a very bitter laughter.
Roman Roslovtsev is another Kremlin foe using elements of political satire to highlight injustice. In mid-April, I watched as he slipped on a rubber Putin mask and strode purposefully through the heart of historic Moscow. In his hands was a sign expressing his opposition to a new law that stipulates up to five years in jail for anyone repeatedly detained on protest-related charges.
As Roslovtsev approached Red Square, a smiling passer-by posed for a selfie with him, while other curious onlookers quizzed him on his motivations for this unusual show of dissent. It wasnt all smiles, though. Within minutes, two grim-faced police officers halted Roslovtsev, and after a brief document check, he was driven off to a nearby police station. This was the seventh time he had been arrested while demonstrating in a Putin mask in just six months.
A 'monstration' rally, at which the banners range from the surreal to the pointedly political
Im trying to prove how utterly absurd this new law is, Roslovtsev said after he was released pending a court appearance. It will be extremely embarrassing for the authorities if they have to imprison me for wearing a Putin mask in central Moscow. Indeed, perhaps wary of the adverse publicity that jailing Putin would bring, the authorities have so far merely charged Roslovtsev with a far less serious public order offence.
The humour isnt always overtly political. In Novosibirsk, in Siberia, Artyom Loskutov, an artist and opposition activist, has been staging so-called monstration rallies for over a decade. They involve up to 5,000 people, and participants at these parodies of protest dress up in strange costumes and hold up signs with such nonsensical slogans as Oatmeal is evil and There will be no carnival! Occasionally, however, the slogans have clearly been influenced by current events. In 2014, a large banner at the rally read, Hell is ours! a parody of the Crimea is ours! slogan that became popular among pro-Kremlin activists after Russias annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula. Some participants have simply held up mirrors to reflect what they say is the often bizarre reality of Putins Russia.
But the authorities dont appreciate the jokes. This celebration of the absurd has come under increasing pressure. Last year, Loskutov was briefly jailed after holding his monstration rally without official permission. This year, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a nationalist politician who often gives voice to the Kremlins opinions, accused participants of being part of a Western-funded plot to overthrow the government.
For some opposition figures, it is becoming harder and harder to find humour in modern-day Russia, especially after Putins war in Ukraine and the killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov just over a year ago. Its pretty difficult to joke when they have started to kill people, says Arseny Bobrovsky, one of the co-founders of the @KermlinRussia account. There are some things its almost impossible to laugh about.
Newsweek
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Long ago and very far away, Jeremy Isaacs, the launch chief executive of Channel 4, came to a Guardian morning conference and talked about the high art and high ambition his new strand of public service would deliver. Thered be inspiring drama in King Lears top class. Thered be fine music and deep debate, plus mirrors held up to everyday life untainted by the stain of Hollywood. There would also and I winced a little even then be no sport. This seemed television nonpareil. And Jeremy had one still better surprise up his sleeve.
Id sent Liz Forgan, our dynamic womens editor, along to interview the emerging Isaacs. Theyd got on so well that she came away with a good, informative article and, rather to my chagrin, a job offer to boot. Liz, whod arrived via the Tehran Journal, the Hampstead and Highgate Express and the London Evening Standard leader-writing room, thereupon departed to become a founding commissioning editor and then director of programmes at C4. That interview chance offer opened a whole new career. She went on to be head of network radio at the BBC, creating Five and making it live. She had the great good sense not to agree with John Birt when he shifted Radio 4s Today programme and much else to White City, and could smile when years later the caravan trooped back to Portland Place. She became Dame Liz, chair of English Heritage then chair of the Arts Council; she was also chair of the Scott Trust, which benignly superintends The Guardian.
Why so much Forgan back history here, you wonder? Because, for me, amid all the twists, turns and altered trajectories, it mirrors what happened to Channel 4 itself. Nothing, from those first founding days, was quite delivered as expected. "No sport!" turned out to mean many afternoons spent racing from Wincanton, supplemented by the Grand National and the Paralympic Games as well. We may talk about sacred missions and excellence, about artistic creativity and intellectual adventure: but the story of Channel 4 is far more of an exploration along a winding, rutted track.
It isnt the vision sketched out in that Guardian editors office as the Eighties began (with Mrs T ruling a baleful roost). It is Gogglebox and Alan Carr; it is Embarrassing Bodies and Come Dine With Me; it is Kirstie and Phil, conservatory makeovers and Grand Designs; its a ragbag collection of good things, different things, formulaic things but in no real sense things like they used to be or things as intended. But its also that uniquely British thing: a hodge podge that works, an institution you couldnt invent because, somehow, its just grown. Topsy TV. Which, in a curious way, is why its so important and so threatened as another Conservative Government seeks to tear up the roots of governance, structure and opportunity that first gave it life.
Nothing about C4 and its burgeoning offspring More4, E4, Film4 and the rest quite makes sense. But then the choice of chief executives and chairs doesnt make much sense either. Michael Grade succeeded Jeremy Isaacs: the bouncing, cheerful jack of all trades at the BBC and ITV served his time and saw the once-narrow vision broaden. Michael Jackson, the most feted TV executive of his generation, came next, before somehow disappearing amid canyons of American media. Then there was Mark Thompson, who came and went back to lead the BBC after a short exploratory while; followed by Andy Duncan, who marketed stuff for the corporation and wasnt really a much of a creative hand at all. So to David Abraham, the smart ex-ad man who whipped up Dave and other reheated channels (and doesnt mind taking an 800,000-plus salary if thats what public service provides).
The Dispatches broadcast on the Andrew Mitchell/Plebgate affair represents C4 at its formidable best (Channel 4/Dispatches)
Is there any binding link along this passing parade of TV wizards, marketing magicians and simple ad blokes? For a while you might have sensed a BBC testing academy, a chance to show what you could do and explore new ideas before you went on to claim corporation acclaim. Maybe, too, the likes of Lord Attenborough as chair staked out a patch of elevated influence. But then came right-wing entrepreneurs and former Treasury mandarins, succeeded today by a onetime travel-trade boss who specialises in selling things (such as C4). The Government of the day, through Ofcom nomination, finds it easy to set the mood and the direction while crying Look, no hands. Independence for C4 is a four-syllable word without great meaning: and, meanwhile, the route back to the BBC appears to have lapsed. Jay Hunt arrived as the creative brain after a very distinguished time at BBC1. In other eras, youd have expected her to return once the big jobs at Broadcasting House fell vacant. But no: Channel 4, in a way, is more isolated than ever before.
It depends on the commissioning structure that defines it. C4 buys what it needs from the indie sector. Theres no single button a director of programmes or departmental supremo can push. Youre dishing up a smorgasbord of this and that. Youre constructing a menu from whats seasonably available, not deciding what must be done. That automatically makes channel identity difficult going on diffuse. King Lear turned out to have a Big Brother. Countdown sits oddly alongside Noel Edmonds opening boxes that may or may not make you rich. Can anyone coming to E4 or More4 afresh truly tell where their target audiences lie?
Of course the crown jewels of C4, liberally feted in polite liberal society, trail prestige and branding in their wake. An hour of news at 7pm with Jon Snow and co is a good deed in a bad world. Dispatches at its often-formidable best recalls the dear, dead, shit-stirring days of World in Action. The channel can seem more serious about news in depth than any of its British competitors. It can also, on occasion, show Panorama a clean pair of heels. Theres an almost tabloid challenge to documentary film-makers: come in, and kick over a few tables. But look at the ad breaks amid so much really good stuff. Channel 4 News often barely seems to take a break and certainly raises scant reward. The money men want to flog their wares elsewhere. Branding is one thing: commerce, in this case, rather another.
The danger now a danger inherent in semi-demi privatisation with Channel 4 sold to some professional private company bent on turning consistent profits while (an HMG condition of sale) agreeing to keep the totems of public service in place is not that Snow, Matt Frei and Cathy Newman will be out of a job: theyll be a protected species, the symbol of continuing devotion to the founding precepts. No: the threat is very different. Its that the ragbag will be turned upside down; that the channel will become much more ruthlessly targeted, far keener on defining audience segments, far more anxious to hone an identity.
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Think ITV1 or Channel Five. The backroom boys there know what works. They rarely take a chance. If Morse is dead, call Lewis: when Lewis grows too old, summon young Endeavour. What goes around Downton Abbey or Mr Selfridge comes around. What fills the waking and dozing hours of Five NCIS meets CSI means proven, predictable trips to the LA studio well. Im a Big Brother Celebrity, Keep Me Warm in Here. No imagination or undue risks required.
Channel 4, to be sure, grinds out similar fodder year after year. Buying houses; choosing exotic villas in the sun; renovating either of the above; or going to Cornwall after all: you know which channel youre watching the moment you hit the remote. The long, long Saturdays of nothing happening and nobody trying except, perhaps, to win some bargain basement cookery competition seem bent on audience repulsion. And yet somewhere amongst the rags at the bottom of the bag youll find something unexpected: The Inbetweeners, Peep Show, The Good Wife, Shameless, Father Ted, Time Team and a Friday night documentary that makes your heart stop. Nobody says that films or bought-in series cant have subtitles: the iron rule that hobbled BBC2 for decades. Nobody seems to pencil out the gags on late game shows as too steamy for comfort. Whos really going lose their wick over C4 freewheeling? Even the Daily Mail cant raise much wrath these days.
Jon Snow collects the award for best news coverage on behalf of Channel 4 during the House of Fraser BAFTA TV Awards 2016 at the Royal Festival Hall in London (PA)
Of course C4 could raise more ad money if it really concentrated. Of course the slightly haphazard feeling, the schedule of the good-natured shrug, could be polished into more concentrated life. Of course the actual amount of time and effort spent on political thought and political discussion is pretty derisory one stream of public service nobody seems to get right. And of course see the breakthrough that Richard Klein in his time as controller of BBC4 made when he started buying Scandi thrillers and opened up the rich cupboard of European TV drama C4 can be a bit slow off the mark as well, launching its own European drama season a little on the late side.
Were not talking crown jewels here. Were often shambling around in search of a cutting edge. The most irritating experience on TV is stumbling on an old Grand Designs or Kirstie Allsopp and trying to puzzle out whether it was made in 2015 or 2005. Independent producers? You can have too much of a good thing, a mesh of formulas tying you down. Incisive schedule-making? Talk to some of those indie producers about the time it takes to get a commissioning decision.
Nothing in TV, as in life, is perfect. Channel 4 often falls very far short of perfection. But its absolutely not nurse, with something worse round the corner. Its a human institution in a digitally drowned age. It is always likely to stumble on something wonderful. You couldnt invent it because, in a sense, nobody did invent it. It is a training school for upwardly mobile TV executives and a refresher course for the jaded. It is a brilliant achievement and a continually missed opportunity. It could be in the vanguard of televisions move to conquer the web or it may not notice anythings happened until far too late.
The thesis in the trade is that not even Messrs Osborne or Whittingdale will privatise C4 successfully because the public service requirements will carve away at profit forecasts and desirability. In fact, I dont think thats such a problem: public service can be a few ticks in boxes Snow and Frei at 40 minutes, not 55 with much else seeping in around. The real test of survival is more important, and nebulous, than that.
Look, perversely perhaps, at the programme wealth of the Sky Arts channel. Its almost what Jeremy Isaacs promised for C4 long, long ago. Not surprising, perhaps: the chairman of Sky Arts is a fantastic old chap called Jeremy Isaacs, and hes an indefatigable champion of the good and the great. But what do you an ordinary Joe, not extraordinary Jeremy want to watch over supper on an average evening? A good bit of this and a great bit of that, a game with a laugh, a crude shock or two, and a shrewd slice of human experience: the kind of odd mix no Secretary of State shuffling his papers would prescribe. Only Channel 4 would have been imaginative enough, and free enough, to hire Liz Forgan on first acquaintance. Only C4 would have piled different talents and visions together with such insouciant abandon. Only C4 is shamblingly able to raise two fingers when an oppressive Government comes to call. An alternative definition of public service we all need.
So ask the question youll never find in one of Noel Edmondss boxes: who or what is Channel 4 for? Answer: its not for burning.
This is an edited extract from What Price Channel 4? (Abramis, 19.95), a collection of essays edited by John Mair, Fiona Chesterton, David Lloyd, Ian Reeves and Richard Tait. The book is published on 7 June, but is now available to Independent readers at a special price of 15. Email richard@arimapublishing.co.uk for details, putting Independent offer in the subject field
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The news that Bryan Cranston is producing and starring in a brand new anthology series is an exciting prospect, bolstered even further by the fact it'll be based on the works of sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick.
In a move that is sure to free up the slot left by the newly-departed Black Mirror - who left the shores of UK television for Netflix seas - Cranston's series will be a collaboration between Sony Pictures Television and Channel 4.
Electric Dreams: The World of Philip K. Dick will be a 10-parter based on the award-winning author's short story collection with each episode offering a unique standalone story.
The creative team behind the project are as impressive as you'd hope: executive producing and writing will be Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander) and Michael Dinner (Justified, Masters of Sex) while Breaking Bad actor Cranston will be on producing and acting duties.
Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Show all 14 1 /14 Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Transparent Amazon Studios' first big win, Transparent is Jill Soloway's acclaimed series following a family who discover that their father Mort (Jeffrey Tambor) is transgender. With two Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning seasons available to watch, a third is on the way. Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Bosch A police procedural series led by literary character Harry Bosch (created by Michael Connelly), this series stars Titus Welliver, Annie Wersching and The Wire alumni Jamie Hector and Lance Reddick. Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Hand of God Taking part in Amazon's trial which saw two dramas debut on the service with the intention of allowing subscribers to reveal which they'd prefer to continue, Hand of God has impressively been renewed for a second season. The show follows Ron Perlman's corrupt judge, Pernell Harris, who believes God wants him to take the path of vigilante justice after suffering a breakdown. Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Ripper Street It's not just Netflix that saves TV shows from suffering that untimely axe - Amazon Studios breathed new life into BBC series Ripepr Street when it failed to get renewed for a fourth series. Thanks to Amazon, fans can keep up with DIs Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) and Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn). Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching The Man in the High Castle With a ten-episode second season set to air this year, now's the time to catch up on the TV show set in an alternative history which saw a different outcome to WWII. Executive produced by Ridley Scott, the show stars Alexa Davalos and Rufus Sewell. Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Mozart in the Jungle Mozart in the Jungle demanded your attention after beating out comedy heavyweights to win big at this year's Golden Globes ceremony. Gael Garcia Bernal stars in the lead role as a conductor named Rodrigo in a series based on oboist Blair Tindall's memoir. Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Red Oaks This 80s-set comedy stars Craig Roberts as young tennis player David who works at the prestigious and exclusive Red Oaks Country Club during the summer between his sophomore and junior years of college. Dirty Dancing's Jennifer Grey and Richard Kind co-star. Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Sneaky Pete Seth Gordon - director of Horrible Bosses and the upcoming Baywatch film - directed the pilot episode of this crime drama which has been given a full season order. Giovanni Ribisi stars as Marius, a former criminal who assumes the identity of his cellmate Pete when he finishes his prison sentence. Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching One Mississippi Comedian Tig Notaro created this semi-autobiographical TV show which follows Notaro's return home after the death of her mother and her own cancer diagnosis. Juno's Diablo Cody co-writes while Louis CK executive produced the pilot. Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Crisis in Six Scenes The octogenarian is making his TV writing debut in a project he'll star in alongside Miley Cyrus and Elaine May. The show will be a standalone season taking place in the 1960s during turbulent times in the U.S. when a middle-class suburban family is visited by a guest who turns their household upside down. Getty Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Z: The Beginning of Everything Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) has created this adaptation that follows the life of Zelda Fitzgerald before she meets her future husband, novelist husband F. Scott. Christina Ricci, Gavin Stenhouse and David Strathairn star. Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Untitled Amazon motoring show Former Top Gear trio Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have been snapped up by Amazon Prime for a new still untitled series in a three-year deal. A release date is yet to be announced. Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching The Last Tycoon An adaptation of unfinished F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Love of the Last Tycoon has been passed from HBO to Amazon Studios with Matt Bomer and Lily Collins starring. Captain Phillips writer Billy Ray is on writing and directing duties for the series that follows an actor's rise to stardom in Hollywood. Getty Amazon Prime original TV shows you should be watching Jack Ryan Deadline confirmed that Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel) and Graham Roland are to work alongside Michael Bay to bring a new incarnation of CIA spy Jack Ryan - played by John Krasinski - to the small screen.
Dick is the famous writer of material that influenced high-profile film and television projects, including A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which was the basis behind Ridley Scott classic Blade Runner. Amazon Prime series The Man in the High Castle is also one of his stories.
Cranston said: "This is an electric dream come true. We are so thrilled to be able to explore and expand upon the evergreen themes found in the incredible work of this literary master."
The actor will next be seen in cartel thriller The Infiltrator and HBO film All the Way in which he reprises the role of President Lyndon B. Johnson for which he won a Tony award in 2014.
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The creator of Channel 4s cult hit Misfits is returning to E4 in the UK and heading to Netflix globally for a new six-part series starring Downton Abbeys Cara Theobald and Chewing Gums Susan Wokoma.
E4 and Urban Myth Films will team with the streaming service for Crazy Face, the synopsis for which is as follows (as per The Hollywood Reporter):
A funny and gripping entry about friendship, love and facing your demons, [Crazy Face] follows the angst and exorcisms of an unlikely duo of demon hunters (played byTheobold and Wokoma).
When people die most go quietly into the night. But some have unfinished business: scores to settle. These souls work through their issues by possessing the living. Most of the time they walk freely among us, unseen by all but a special few. Amy (Theobold) is one of those few. She works in a bowling alley and never imagined herself battling the legions of hell. Enter Raquel (Wokoma), armed with Wikipedia and a baton she bought on eBay, Raquel's a self-made demon hunter with a whole lot of baggage and an impressive lack of social skills.
Riann Steele (In the Flesh) also features as Amys best friend Suzanne, along with Lewis Reeves (Unforgotten), Arinze Kene (Youngers) and Tony Curran (Sons of Anarchy).
Crazy Face will be E4 exclusive in the UK - streaming globally on Netflix shortly after.
Netflix has been savvy in snapping up UK shows of late, recently striking a deal to get the BBCs Peaky Blinders a few weeks after its TV premiere.
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Eurovision is no longer just about the songs. Traffic lights are enjoying a taste of the limelight for the second year running, with Stockholms currently playing past Sweden winners for the enjoyment, and probable surprise of pedestrians.
The host city joined up with sound artists Max Bjorverud and Hakan Lidbo to revamp boring and dull places with a musical and interactive twist, Pink News reports.
Recommended Read more Our verdict on every song bidding for Eurovision glory
The ticker boxes that help visually-impaired people cross the road safely now also blast out Euphoria by 2012 victor Loreen when the light is red and the faster Heroes by last years winner Mans Zelmerlow to signal green.
Stockholms traffic light pimping is a bid to out-do 2015 host city Vienna. The Austrian capital installed gay-friendly lights that featured gay and lesbian couples holding hands beneath a heart symbol.
The lights were so popular that they have remained permanent in some areas of the city, despite the far-right Freedom Party criticising them as a misuse of public money to push the LGBT agenda.
Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Show all 43 1 /43 Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Cyprus: Minus One Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Albania: Eneda Tarifa Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Poland: Micha Szpak Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Lithuania: Donny Montell photo by Gediminas Zilinskas / www.zilinskas.net Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants San Marino: Serhat Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Romania: Ovidiu Anton Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Switzerland: Rykka Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Greece: Argo Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants The Netherlands: Douwe Bob Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Belgium: Laura Tesoro Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Austria: ZOE Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Germany: Jamie-Lee Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Denmark: Lighthouse X Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants United Kingdom: Joe and Jake Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Spain: Barei Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Iceland: Greta Salome Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Ireland: Nicky Byrne Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants France: Amir Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Italy: Francesca Michielin Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Australia: Dami Im Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Montenegro: Highway Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Serbia: ZAA Sanja Vucic Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Georgia: Nika Kocharov and Young Georgian Lolitaz Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Armenia: Iveta Mukuchyan Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Czech Republic: Gabriela Guncikova Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Moldova: Lidia Isac Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Bulgaria: Poli Genova Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Belarus: IVAN Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Ukraine: Jamala Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Azerbaijan: Samra Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Russia: Sergey Lazarev Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Malta: Ira Losco Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Latvia: Justs Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Hungary: Freddie Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Macedonia: Kaliopi Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Estonia: Juri Pootsmann Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Croatia: Nina Kraljic Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Bosnia & Herzegovina: Dalal & Deen feat. Ana Rucner and Jala Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Slovenia: ManuElla Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Finland: Sandhja Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Norway: Agnete Meet the Eurovision 2016 contestants Israel: Hovi Star
The first semi-final airs at 8pm on BBC Four tonight, hosted by Scott Mills and Mel Giedroyc. The UK will be represented by duo Joe and Jake, who have an automatic pass to the grand final on Saturday 14 May.
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Google appears to be testing out a new change for its search results page, probably the best-known site on the internet.
The company appears to be trialling black rather than blue links for its search pages. Though the change might appear small, it is a relatively radical one for a page that has looked largely the same since it began and only changes by tiny increments.
Like other previous changes, the new link colour appears just to be in testing for now. Google will presumably use the test to see whether people are more likely to click on black rather than blue links.
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
Usually, people who search on Google see the pages title in blue, which they can click on, alongside the URL in green and a description in black. But its that blue title that now appears to have changed colour.
The move has already received criticism from some users on Twitter who appear to be part of the experiment.
Small changes to Google's look tend to bring with them controversy last year it changed its logo and upset some users, despite the fact that the new look had been hiding in plain sight. Before that, in 2014, it had made a tiny change to the logo that still managed to upset some of those that saw it.
It wouldnt be the first time that Google has tried out subtle changes to the website. Around 2009, the company tested 41 different shades of blue links on its users a test that earned $200 million in extra revenue when it found the right colour.
It isnt clear exactly who the new link colour is rolling out to, and whether it is being targeted at specific users or particular search results.
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Self-harm is the single biggest cause of death of people aged 20-24 in the UK, research has found.
The major report by The Lancet Commission, documents health issues around the world to highlight growing trends and concerns relating to young people aged 10 to 24. The Commission has called for urgent action to address mental health in young people, calling the area a neglected yet pressing issue.
In 2013, 329 people aged 20-24 in the UK died from a self-harm related issue. This is a 47 per cent drop from 1990 when 626 people in this age group died as a result of self-harm.
The report has found mental health issues to be a major cause of ill health for young people around the world, with 10 per cent of young people around the world suffering from depression meaning the condition is the biggest cause of ill health in the age group internationally.
The reports authors cite a number of social factors as possibly placing growing pressure on young people: Adolescents and young adults, if given the opportunity, are curious, engaged, and innovative. They challenge the status quo, accelerate progress, and advance human potential. However, in many parts of the world, including high income countries, the lives and prospects of adolescents and young people have deteriorated in recent years.
Unemployment is high; social protection is eroding (for example, people younger than 25 years old in the UK were excluded from a recent increase in the minimum wage); and conflict, social exclusion, and alienation, across the Middle East especially, cause the death and displacement of many young people, and the radicalisation of some. For a safer and more secure future, we must pay much more urgent attention to the hopes and needs of young people and adolescents.
Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Show all 10 1 /10 Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 30 per cent of people deal with anxiety by talking to a friend or relative, or by going for a walk. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report Almost one in five people feel anxious all or a lot of the time. PA Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 22 per cent of women feel anxious a lot or all of the time, compared to 15 per cent of men. Roman Levin/Flickr Creative Commons Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 45 per cent of people who feel anxious in everyday life cite financial issues as their biggest cause of worry. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report And 26 per cent of people who feel anxious say fearing for the welfare of their children and loved ones leaves them burdened with worry. And 26 per cent of people say fearing for the welfare of their children and loved ones leaves them burdened with anxiety. Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report 27 per cent of people who suffer from anxiety say work issues, such as long hours, are the source of the problem. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report But 16 per cent use alcohol to cope, while 10 per cent turn to cigarettes in the face of anxiety. Unemployed people are more likely to resort to these harmful strategies: 27 per cent use alcohol and 23 per cent use cigarettes. AFP/Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report Only seven per cent of people who say they suffer from anxiety seek help from their GP. Getty Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report People are thought to be more anxious than they were five years ago. Alessandra/Flickr Creative Commons Mental Health Awareness: Facts and figures Mental Health Foundation: Living With Anxiety report The stresses of modern life are thought to have created "The Age of Anxiety". Getty
Previous research has suggested that one in 13 young people in the UK will deliberately self-injure themselves at some point in their youth, with varying degrees of severity of injury. However, it is feared the figure could be much higher in reality as stigma stops some young people from seeking help.
It is widely understood that girls are much more likely than boys to engage in self-harming behaviours, either because girls can be taught socially to view their bodies more negatively than boys, or because boys self-harming behaviour is less likely to be noticed by mental health professionals as it fits gendered stereotypes about boisterous behaviour.
Nick Harrop, from mental health charity YoungMinds, told The Independent: Some young people say that they self-harm as a result of feeling overwhelmed, stressed, numb or disconnected. Others say something in their environment makes them feel vulnerable. Everybodys experience is different. Most young people find that it helps to be able to talk to someone they trust about what they are going through.
If you are concerned that a child is self-harming, try to talk to them openly without being confrontational. Dont get angry or judgmental, but reassure them that youre on their side and want to help. Think about what the triggers are that might be causing them to feel distressed. And, if you can, seek professional support from a doctor or from a support service like the YoungMinds Parents helpline.
The Samaritans helpline can be contacted on 116 123 and YoungMinds can be contacted on 08088025544
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This summer you can sit by the pool, relax and knock back a few cans of America.
The beer, formerly known as Budweiser, has rebranded itself ahead of the summer Olympics and Novembers presidential election.
We thought nothing was more iconic than Budweiser and nothing was more iconic than America," Tosh Hall, creative director at JRK, told Fast Co Design.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant, filed the America label for approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, AdAge reports, and has received the go ahead for use on 12-ounce cans and bottles.
Budweiser
You have this wave of patriotism that is going to go up and down throughout the summertime," Anheuser-Busch InBev's Marketing VP Jorn Socquet previously told AdAge. "And we found with Budweiser such a beautiful angle to play on that sentiment.
The packaging will also feature the phrases: "Liberty and Justice for All," "Indivisible Since 1776," "Land of the Free," "Home of the Brave, and "From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters this land was made for you and me.
America will be available for purchase on May 23.
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Google and Amazon were quick to put drones to use delivering orders.
But new research suggests delivery is just one small way drones are going to replace humans. The tiny airborne vessels will soon clean windows on skyscrapers, verify insurance claims and spray pesticide on crops.
The global market for drones, valued at around $2 billion today, will replace up to $127 billion worth of business services and human labour over the next four years, according to a new research by consulting firm PwC.
Recommended Read more 11 ways drones are about to change the world
Drone technology could soon become part of our everyday lives, monitoring problems with crumbling infrastructure such as cracks in tarmac, bridges and houses and even repairing them as part of $45.2 billion of infrastructure work currently done by humans.
Construction companies, amid other things, will be able to attach 3D printers to drones to produce on site-replacement parts for damaged elements of houses or roads.
Drones will be able to perform most tasks at height, reducing the risk of death and injury and increasing efficiency.
In transport, one of the most promising uses of drones is predicted to be food delivery.
Providing products such as frozen food, ready-to-eat dishes or even daily groceries from large chains may become be the next big thing in the food and restaurant industries, analysts at PwC said.
Quartz
As soon as regulation permits, drones will be able to decrease the time it takes to deliver food, PwC said.
Google is for instance already trying to solve the problem of how to fly drones safely in yards without endangering pets or other potential obstacles.
In agriculture, drones will increasingly be used to gather and analyse data on crops quickly as well as to do precise spraying on plants.
Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed Show all 10 1 /10 Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed 1st Prize Winner: Fog in Germany by SkyPro Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed 2nd Prize Winner: Church of Paracatu by Alexandre Salem Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed 3rd Prize winner: Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia by Yuyusera Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed 4th Prize Winner: Wind Power near Berlin by King-Fisher Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed 5th Prize Winner: Energy Active Office Building, Genk, Belgium by Drone-Partner Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed 6th Prize Winner: Holbury, New Forest, UK by Mark Baker Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed 7th Prize Winner: Tiny island in the lake of Galve by Karolis Janulis Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed 8th Prize Winner: High Tide in La Jolla, California by Kdilliard Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed 9th Prize Winner: Dhaka, Bangladesh by Zayedh Dronestagram: Winning photos revealed 10th Prize Winner: Paracatu Cemiterio by Alexandre Salem
It is fascinating to see how the combination of drone technology with deep analytical capabilities is reshaping the business world, Piotr Romanowski, CEE advisory leader at PwC, said.
The key barrier is actually the lack of legislation regarding the use of drones, said Michal Mazur, head of drone powered solutions at PwC Poland.
Owners of drones in the US will soon have to register their machines with the US Department of Transportation, as the federal government attempts to regulate the devices more tightly.
Concerns over the use of drone around sensitive areas such as airports have also been raised after a British Airways pilot has revealed his flight was stuck by suspected drone as it came in to land at Heathrow airport.
Top drone markets by 2020 according to PwC
1. Infrastructure ($45.2 bn)
2. Agriculture ($32.4bn)
3. Transport ($13bn)
4. Security ($10bn)
5. Media and entertainment ($8.8 bn)
6. Insurance ($6.8 bn)
7. Telecoms ($6.3bn)
8. Mining ($4.4bn)
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Zach Schreiber, a hedge fund CEO, correctly predicted the oil price crash in 2014, reportedly earning $1bn (700,000) in profit for his firm.
Schreiber, who founded PointState Capital in 2010, set his sights on Saudi Arabia at a conference last week.
He predicted that the kingdom will be "structurally insolvent" within two or three years because of the pressure of keeping up with spending committments and cheap oil.
Recommended Read more One chart that shows which countries could run out of money in 5 years
Saudi has two to three years of runway before it hits a wall, Schreiber said at the 21st annual Sohn Investment Conference, according to CNN.
No wonder they're now issuing tons of debt."
People listen to Schreiber because of a prediction he made in 2014 that the oil price would crash. "If you're long, I feel sorry for you," he said two years ago when oil was trading at over $100 a barrel. Since then it lost almost 75 per cent of its value to trade at lows of $26 a barrel in February.
Schreiber's prediction is based at least in part on Saudi Arabia's oil-reliant economy. The kingdom has recently set out its plan to wean itself off oil by 2030 by growing non-oil income.
We have an addiction to oil. This is dangerous. It has delayed the development of other sectors, Prince Mohammed said in a televised interview with al-Arabiya news channel when he announced the plans.
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.
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.
The kingdom is now planning to sell shares in its state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, which is estimated to control 10 per cent of the world's oil output.
Schreiber is not sure that will help. If they sell the golden goose, how do they fund anything? It's insane. Saudi is mortgaging away its future to buy time, he said.
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Avocado has become a favourite food among wellness bloggers and a must-have ingredient in healthy recipes.
So its perhaps not surprising that Tesco has jumped on the trend by using avocados as a substitute for butter and margarine for the first time in Britain.
Tesco said the new dairy-free avocado spread costs 1.20 for a 250g pack and will be available in 400 outlets across the UK from Tuesday.
Recommended Read more Our growing appetite for avocados is endangering their existence
It claims the product, based on ripe frozen avocados, contains less saturated fat, calories and salt when compared to butter. The spread contains 533 calories per 100g.
Tescos own-brand reduced fat spread, Butter Me Up, is much cheaper at 89p for 500g and has a typical value of 414 calories per 100g.
Tescos avocado spread, suitable for vegan and vegetarians, does appear to have more nutrients ingredients such as avocado oil, vitamin A and D, Omega 3 and less than 1 per cent of salt. However, it also contains rapeseed oil and palm oil.
Most of the fat content in avocados is considered to be good fat which can help reduce cholesterol levels, with the fruit also said to lower the risk of heart disease and strokes.
Britains appetite for avocados has been growing over the recent years.
High demand from health-conscious consumers has led Peru to triple its avocado exports since 2010, with exports to the UK up 58 per cent over the past year.
According to The Grocer, suppliers of avocados have sent sales in the UK are up by as much as 25 per cent this year. Meanwhile, demand for avocados at Tesco has grown by 40 per cent making it one of the UKs fastest growing established fruit varieties.
Avocados have even inspired a hashtag, #avocadoobsession with accompanying Instagram photos depicting the latest recipes created by hipster followers of the avocado boom.
50 best foods for healthy living Show all 50 1 /50 50 best foods for healthy living 50 best foods for healthy living Digestion Live yoghurt - Many with digestive issues avoid dairy, but live yoghurt may be worth a shot, as it is full of gut-friendly bacteria. Because the lactose in live yoghurt is effectively broken down, it is gentler on the system than milk. Rex 50 best foods for healthy living Digestion Chia seeds - Just two tablespoons of chia seeds provide a third of your recommended daily intake of fibre. notahipster, Flickr 50 best foods for healthy living Digestion Sauerkraut - Fermented foods like sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) is packed with probiotics, aiding digestion. Qwerty Binary 50 best foods for healthy living Digestion Lentils - High in insoluble fibre, lentils are great for digestion, as well as being regarded as beneficial in alleviating irritable bowel syndrome and diverticulosis. Rex Features 50 best foods for healthy living Digestion Buckwheat - Despite the name, buckwheat is completely wheat and gluten free and a great, high fibre alternative to anyone with a wheat intolerance. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Immune system Oranges - Citrus fruits such as oranges are high in Vitamin C, which helps to prevent colds and infection. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Immune system Mushrooms - Shiitake mushrooms have been shown in studies to boost the production of white blood cells, thus improving the bodys ability to fight infection. powerplantop, Flickr 50 best foods for healthy living Immune system Clams - Contain zinc and selenium, which helps to slow the bodys immune response and control inflammation. 50 best foods for healthy living Immune system Garlic - Packed with antioxidants, garlic was used to fight gangrene in World War I, but more practically can help to keep colds at bay. It is also quite anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal, and used to treat everything from psoriasis to athletes foot. 50 best foods for healthy living Immune system Broccoli - One cup of broccoli provides you with almost 100% of your RDA of vitamin C, which is thought to stave off colds and other illnesses. It is also rich in vitamin A, K, folate and potassium. Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli contain a sulphurous compound that studies show can lower the risk of cancer. Getty 50 best foods for healthy living Skin, hair and nails Avocado - The good fats in avocado hydrate the skin, while omega 9 can help reduce redness. Avocado is also rich in vitamin E, which helps guard against sun damage and vitamin C, which helps produce elastin and collagen for skin firmness. Getty 50 best foods for healthy living Skin, hair and nails Sunflower seeds - a handful contains more than a third of your daily vitamin E needs. F Ceragioli via Wikimedia Commons 50 best foods for healthy living Skin, hair and nails Pumpkin - One of the richest sourcs of Vitamin A, which is essential for the formation of connective tissue, i.e. skin. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Skin, hair and nails Olive oil - The monounsaturated fatty acids in olive oil plump the skin for a more youthful look, plus antioxidant polyphenols may curb ageing free-radicals. SAIF DAHLAH/AFP/Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Skin, hair and nails Green tea - Polyphenols in green tea could help to offset sun damage. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Weight loss Cinnamon - This spice is a great additive for breakfasts and bakes if you are trying to cut sugar and sweeteners, and it is also thought to help balance blood sugar. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Weight loss Apples - Apples are high in pectin, a soluble fibre that helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Weight loss Eggs - One of the best sources of protein, eggs help to keep you energised and prevent unhealthy snacking, while providing a host of vitamins and minerals for general good health. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Weight loss Tuna- High in protein, low in saturated fat and rich in omega 3, tuna is a fantastic option for maintained weight loss. The omega 3 in oily fish improves the bodys response to insulin, lowering metabolism and helping to prevent the dreaded sugar spikes. Getty 50 best foods for healthy living Weight loss Oats - High in fibre for slow-release energy, oats also are thought to lower cholesterol. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Heart health Beetroot - This is a good source of iron and folic acid. It is also rich in nitrates, which help to reduce blood pressure. Raimond Spekking 50 best foods for healthy living Heart health Garlic - High in manganese, selenium and antioxidants, garlic is thought to help lower blood pressure and reduce cholesterol. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Heart health Asparagus - Rich in the amino acid asparagine, which serves as a natural diuretic and helps rid the body of excess salts. This is beneficial for people have high blood pressure or other heart-related diseases. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Heart health Salmon - Studies have found that eating oily fish such as salmon can lower blood pressure and reduce cholesterol. Rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Heart health Pomegranate - Rich in vitamins A, C and E, and high in fibre, pomegranates are thought to help protect against heart disease. A 2004 study showed evidence that daily consumption helped to alleviate narrowed arteries and reduce cholesterol. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Brain health Mackerel - Oily fish including mackerel is rich in Omega 3, which studies have suggested is linked to a reduced risk of dementia, schizophrenia and depression, as well as enhanced memory. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Brain health Hazelnuts - HIgh in Vitamin E, which studies say can help to prevent cognitive decline in older people. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Brain health Blueberries - low in calories and high in antioxidants, blueberries are regarded as a nutritional powerhouse. Some studies have found a link between blueberry consumption and improved spatial learning and memory. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Brain health Cacao - Contains phenylethylamine, which acts as a mild mood enhancer, and a 2009 study shows signs that it can help to reduce stress. However, adding sugar and milk to cacao to make your favourite chocolatey treat offsets any health benefits - try to keep it as close to its natural state as possible. Keith Welle via Wikimedia Commons 50 best foods for healthy living Brain health Pumpkin seeds - Just a handful of pumpkin seeds a day provide your total RDA of zinc, which is important for enhancing your memory. 50 best foods for healthy living Energy Sweet potatoes - Starchy veg like sweet potatoes are a great source of low-GI carbohydrates for slow-burn, long-lasting energy. Sweet potatoes are also rich in soluble fibre and vitamins A, C and B6. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Energy Beef - Low energy levels are often a sign of iron deficiency or anaemia. Lean cuts of beef are a good source of iron, as well as being a protein powerhouse to aid muscle development and stamina. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Energy Brown Rice - Complex carbohydrates like brown rice break down into energy-boosting sugars more slowly than white rice, meaning more energy for longer, and more balanced blood sugar levels - i.e. no nasty sugar crash within hours of eating. Arria Belli, Flickr 50 best foods for healthy living Energy Bananas - A great source of energy that keep sugar levels balanced, plus the sweet taste will help to satisfy cravings. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Energy Quinoa - This supergrain contains more protein than rice or any other grain, ideal for building muscle, along with being a nutrient-rich source of carbohydrates. AFP/ Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Bone health Sardines - Sunshine is the best source of bone-building Vitamin D, but if a British summer doesnt allow for that, sardines are a surprising source, as well as being rich in calcium. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Bone health Brussel sprouts - Just three-quarters of a cup of this divisive winter vegetable provides your RDA of vitamin K, which is essential in helping the absorption of calcium for healthy bones. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Bone health Chickpeas - High in protein and fibre, chickpeas are also packed with iron, phosphate, calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc and vitamin K, which contribute to building and maintaining strong bones. Scott Teresi, Flickr 50 best foods for healthy living Bone health Spinach - If dairy isnt your thing, spinach could be your saviour - a cup of cooked spinach contains a quarter of your calcium needs. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Bone health Almonds - Rich in potassium, which prevents the excretion of calcium in urine, as well as being rich in protein and other nutrients for maintaining bone health. M.Verkerk/J.J.G.Claessens/Creative Commons 50 best foods for healthy living Mens Health Prawns - Rich in zinc, which is essential for sperm quality and fertility. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Mens Health Tomatoes - high in lycopene, an antioxidant which, according to the World Cancer Research Fund, can help reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Strangely, cooked and tinned tomatoes are recommended, as the lycopene is more readily absorbed. PIERRE ANDRIEU/AFP/Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Mens Health Brazil nuts - High in selenium, which boosts the immune system and strengthens the thyroid gland. Quadell 50 best foods for healthy living Mens Health Cauliflower - Rich in vitamin C, potassium and boron, which is said to aid in increasing testosterone levels and muscle-building. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Mens Health Turkey - With obesity an escalating problem for men, turkey is a great swap for your morning bacon. HIgh in lean protein, it is full of B vitamins, which can aid in lowering cholesterol. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Womens Health Walnuts - These nuts contain antioxidants and phytosterols that may help reduce the risk of breast cancer. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Womens Health Green beans - Low in fat, bean are a great source of protein and fibre and can also help to guard against breast cancer and heart disease. Isoflavones in beans, chickpeas and lentils help with the regulation of hormones, easing PMS and menopause symptoms. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Womens Health Flax - One of the oldest sources of fibre in the world, flaxseed can ease digestion as well as providing omega 3 fatty acids. It is also thought to be of help with menopause, but some experts say it should be avoided if pregnant. Sanjay Acharya via Wikimedia Commons 50 best foods for healthy living Womens Health Cranberries - Rich in anthocyans, red berries such as cranberries help to play a role in cell repair and are thus thought to reduce cancer risk. Also high in vitamin C and folic acid, essential for women of childbearing age, and cranberry juice is a fantastic way to get rid of cystitis. Getty Images 50 best foods for healthy living Womens Health Tofu - A great source of phytoestrogens, which can help with the symptoms of menopause and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Getty Images
Pinterest recorded more than 500,000 avocado food ideas posted as pins, a visual bookmarks that helps people to find inspiration and save their ideas, in 2015.
The UK avocado market is now worth 150 million a year, more than the UK orange market, which is currently worth 126 million, according to the latest retail sales data by IRI, a market research company.
But our avocado obsession might have severe consequences, it takes 318l of water to produce 1lb of avocados. This means water is drawn away from more essential public uses and costs more for the farmers.
The amount of land used for avocado farming in Chile has increased eight-fold in 25 years and, as an article in Mother Jones magazine pointed out in October, the process is draining the groundwater and village wells.
In Mexico, the problem isn't so much water, but that most of the groves are within the state of Michoacan, which is largely controlled by the Caballeros Templarios cartel. Murder and extortion are so common in the industry that one security expert refers to them as blood avocados.
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Maybe he doesn't hit you, but he makes passive aggressive remarks and labels you as the crazy one for reacting to the bait.
Maybe he doesn't hit you, but he threatens suicide if you want to leave him.
Maybe he doesn't hit you, but he tells you that you are not allowed to go out wearing that skirt.
These and thousands of other forms of abuse have been listed on twitter under the hashtag #MaybeHeDoesntHitYou, as women have been sharing their experience and understanding of domestic abuse within relationships.
The subject of coercive control became a national talking point following the storyline of Helen and Rob on radio program The Archers, where Robs manipulation of Helen built up over hundreds of episodes and resulted in Helen stabbing him with a knife.
It became a criminal offence in December 2015 in England and Wales to carry out controlling or coercive behaviour in intimate or familial relationships, with a maximum imprisonment of five years.
The countries with anti-women laws Show all 5 1 /5 The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws
The UK government defines domestic violence as psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional abuse.
The conversation around what constitutes abuse started to trend on social media after an LGBT and womens rights activist in Wisconsin, Jerome Trammel, posed the question: should a woman get permission from her husband or boyfriend when she gets her hair cut? He said he wanted to show the responses to his female friend, who had been told she needed permission.
In the UK, according to a government Crime Survey for England and Wales, 1.3 million women and 600,000 men were estimated to have experienced domestic violence in 2014/2015.
In the US, every nine seconds a woman is assaulted or beaten by a partner or ex-partner.
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The people of Britain may take to the streets if the Government is "stupid" in its handling of the BBC's future, a senior peer has warned.
Lord Lester, who has set out plans to protect the broadcaster from ministerial interference, said he hopes a protest is not needed when Culture Secretary John Whittingdale publishes the White Paper on BBC Charter renewal - but added that it may happen "if necessary".
He is backed by One Foot In The Grave star Richard Wilson, who said he would happily join a march in support of the corporation.
Speaking at the start of a key week in the future of the publicly-funded broadcaster, the 79-year-old actor, who played Victor Meldrew, said: "I would march in the streets. I would. As long as they don't march too far.
"I would certainly march. I'd be happy to march."
He added: "I hope that, as the independent BBC campaign develops, the Government will be forced into one of their many, many U-turns. They're very good at them these days.
"I don't think they realise how strong the public feeling is for the BBC."
His comments came just hours after Wolf Hall actor Mark Rylance led a passionate defence of the BBC at the Bafta TV Awards, where big names from the small screen spoke up as the controversy over the Government's intentions for the corporation deepens.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill, the Liberal Democrat QC, has drafted the legislative proposal to guarantee the BBC's independence in the management of its own affairs.
He said: "At some point the public at large will have to join us in a great campaign to make the Government realise that the BBC is our treasure and we are not going to allow any Government and any politicians to spoil it."
Asked if he could see a scenario whereby members of the public stage a protest on the streets of Britain, he said: "I hope not. But if necessary we may have to put our bodies where the truth is."
He added: "I think it's a possibility if the Government are really stupid. But if the Government are not stupid then we won't have to march."
Shadow culture secretary Maria Eagle said Mr Whittingdale "seems determined to diminish" the corporation, adding that the Labour Party will oppose him "all the way".
The White Paper could reportedly be published as soon as Thursday and will set out a tougher new regime as part of a proposed deal to grant a new Royal Charter to safeguard the service for another 11 years.
Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the BBC as one of the "most recognised brands on the planet" during a speech at the British Museum - shortly before Lord Lester, Lord Fowler and Lord Alli set out their three tests for whether Mr Whittingdale has taken account of public concern.
Speaking at the event in Convocation Hall in Westminster, Lord Fowler said: "The Government should do nothing which compromises an independent BBC."
Lord Lester said: "Nothing should be done in the White Paper which affects the BBC funding from the licence fee."
And Lord Alli said: "Nothing should be done to dilute that core mission of educate, inform and entertain."
Reports suggest Mr Whittingdale plans to force the BBC to publish how much it pays top talent earning more than 150,000 and impose scheduling restrictions to stop it showing hit shows like Strictly Come Dancing at prime time, going head to head with commercial broadcasters.
The Observer reported that at least 20 Tories in the Commons and Lords are ready to oppose the White Paper and attempt to force the Government into another U-turn following climbdowns on forced academisation and admitting child refugees from Europe.
PA
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Its hard to believe that despite advocating herbal vaginal steaming and including a smoothie recipe containing an ingredient called sex dust, Goop - the lifestyle and wellness website and brainchild of Gwyneth Paltrow - has never before entered the realm of sex advice.
Until now.
The advice from the famed lifestyle site warns against condoms which contain dairy and advocates only using a lubricant which is edible instead of the more regular toxic kind.
The website spoke to a doctor from a womens clinic who advised that as most lubricants contain toxic parabens, the rule should be: When it comes to lube, if it is safe to eat, its generally safe to apply. They take that literally and recommend health fads such as coconut and almond oil, most commonly used in clean eating cooking and expensive hair products.
Recommended Read more Unusual advice from the eccentric lifestyle website Goop
If readers are struggling to find one, they are also selling a natural lubricating gel containing hibiscus, green tea extracts, and aloe vera.
Goop warns against condoms which contain dairy as apparently a milk derivative is sometimes used to treat the latex which condoms are made from.
Gwyneth Paltrow in quotes Show all 7 1 /7 Gwyneth Paltrow in quotes Gwyneth Paltrow in quotes On healthy eating 'I'd rather smoke crack than eat cheese from a can' Theo Wargo/Getty Images for NBC Gwyneth Paltrow in quotes On hitting 40 You can still find yourself at a party at 3am, but you also know enough about who you are and how that informs the choices you make. Steven Henry/Getty Images Gwyneth Paltrow in quotes On maintaining a close relationship with ex husband Chris Martin: Were still very much a family, even though we dont have a romantic relationship. Hes like my brother. Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images) Gwyneth Paltrow in quotes On her travel routine: When I land [from a flight] I try to find a sauna to sit in for 20 minutes to help me sweat out all the germs from the plane. Getty Images Gwyneth Paltrow in quotes On the Hollywood Gender Pay Gap: Your salary is a way to quantify what youre worth. If men are paid a lot more for doing the same thing, it feels shitty. Getty Gwyneth Paltrow in quotes On not caring what people think: I dont hold on to fear as much as I used to, because Ive learned a lot about genuinely not caring what strangers think about me. Its very liberating, Its very empowering. Getty Gwyneth Paltrow in quotes On the Met Gala (2013): Im never going again. It was so un-fun. It was boiling. It was too crowded. I did not enjoy it at all. Getty
Casein [milk derivative] is not toxic (so long as you dont have a dairy allergy), warns the publication.
The website concludes that yes, while the benefits of condoms including preventing unwanted pregnancies and stopping the transfer of sexually transmitted diseases far outweigh the supposed chemicals and toxins, those concerned should strive to find a vegan, paraben-free, glycerin-free, nonxynal-9-free, and benzocaine- and lidocaine-free condom, which were sure is readily available.
In terms of actual sex-guru style advice, another article Sexual Disconnection: How To Move Energy South advises a number of steps to bring more sexual pleasure into your life that includes connecting with our senses (eat or drink delicious foods and allow the experience to heighten your senses) and moving the body in non-linear ways.
Finally, the sex issue contains a list of Goops favourite sex toys, one of which is 24-karat and costs $15,000 (10,300).
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Egypts Antiquities Minister, Khaled el-Enany, has said more tests are needed to determine whether there is a secret chamber within King Tutankhamuns tomb that contains the remains of Queen Nefertiti.
He said the evidence that had been discovered so far did not justify drilling into the walls of the tomb to look for hidden chambers.
Experts have raised concerns over how the search for the tomb has been handled.
One, former Antiquities Minister, Dr Zahi Hawas, said the scientific methods used during the initial study - which was published in March - were not adequate.
He has repeatedly called for an independent, international scientific committee of archaeologists, radar experts and remote sensing experts to come in and supervise the work to uncover the tomb.
"The infra-red scan said we need to repeat it because we have something that we cannot be sure what it is exactly.
"There is a possibility that there is a cavity, after the latest scan.
"I hope we will find something... but, as a scientist, I need to be careful before announcing results."
Mr Anani was speaking at a conference in Cairo dedicated to the exploration of the boy emperors tomb - which is approximately 3,330 years old.
It comes just months after another former Antiquities Minister, Mamdouh el-Damaty, said there was "a 90 per cent chance the secret chambers do exist and contain organic material.
His announcement was part of a drive to boost tourism in the country.
Egyptian tourism has been dwindling after several years of political turmoil and high profile terror attacks - such as the downing of a Russian passenger jet shortly after it left Sharm el-Sheikh airport in October last year.
Queen Neferiti was the stepmother of King Tutankhamun and is one of the best known and most mysterious queens of the Ancient Egyptian era.
Tutankhamun and Nerferiti were part of a dynasty which ruled Egypt between the 16th and 13th century BC.
Tutankhamun inherited the throne as child from his father, Akhenaten, and ruled for approximately nine years before dying at around 18 years of age.
Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Show all 21 1 /21 Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Carter and a worker examine the solid gold innermost sarcophagus, October 1925. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Carter examines Tutankhamun's sarcophagus, October 1925. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Carter, Callender and two Egyptian workers carefully dismantle one of the golden shrines within the burial chamber, December 1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Carter, Mace and an Egyptian worker carefully roll up the linen pall covering the second shrine, 30th October 1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Inside the outermost shrine in the burial chamber, a huge linen pall with gold rosettes, reminiscent of the night sky, covers the smaller shrines within, December 1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Carter, Callende, and two workers remove the partition wall between the antechamber and the burial chamber, 2nd December 1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour A statue of Anubis on a shrine with pallbearers' poles in the treasury of the tomb, ca.1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Arthur Mace and Alfred Lucas work on a golden chariot from Tutankhamun's tomb outside the "laboratory" in the tomb of Sethos II, December 1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Howard Carter, Arthur Callender and an Egyptian worker wrap one of the sentinel statues for transport, 29th November 1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour In a "laboratory" set up in the tomb of Sethos II, conservators Arthur Mace and Alfred Lucas clean one of the sentinel statues from the antechamber, January 1924. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Ornately carved alabaster vases in the antechamber, December 1922. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Chests inside the treasury, ca.1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour A gilded bust of the Celestial Cow Mehet-Weret and chests sit in the treasury of the tomb, ca.1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Under the lion bed in the antechamber are several boxes and chests, and an ebony and ivory chair which Tutankhamun used as a child, December 1922. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour A gilded lion bed and inlaid clothes chest among other objects in the antechamber, December 1922. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour An assortment of model boats in the treasury of the tomb, ca. 1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour A gilded lion bed, clothes chest and other objects in the antechamber. The wall of the burial chamber is guarded by statues, december 1922. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour A ceremonial bed in the shape of the Celestial Cow, surrounded by provisions and other objects in the antechamber of the tomb, December 1922. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Howard Carter, Arthur Callender and an Egyptian worker open the doors of the innermost shrine and get their first look at Tutankhamun's sarcophagus, 4th January 1924. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Tutankhamun's burial mask, November 1925. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome Discovery of Tutankhamuns tomb - in colour Lord Carnarvon, financier of the excavation, reads on the veranda of Carter's house near the Valley of the Kings, ca.1923. Image courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, colourised by Dynamichrome
When his tomb was first discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter and Douglas Berry, it was left surprisingly intact and free from grave robbers.
This gave rise to the legend of the curse of King Tut, reportedly thought up by Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle, after nearly all the team involved in the excavation died shortly after the discovery.
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A wealthier population could mean the end of religion, according to evolutionary scientists.
The group of academics suggest the worlds major religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism, emerged as an evolutionary response to the differences in lifestyle between wealthy elites and other, poorer, communities.
Evolutionary psychologist Dr Nicolas Baumard said affluence and wealth caused humans to have a "slower" lifestyle, suggesting the wealthy elite 2,500 years ago would have been less sexually active, less aggressive and overall lead more laid-back lives.
Absolute affluence has predictable effects on human motivation and reward systems, Dr Baumard et al wrote in a study, moving individuals away from fast life strategies (resource acquisition and coercive interactions) and toward slow life strategies (self-control techniques and cooperative interactions.
The study says living a slow life put the elite at an evolutionary disadvantage, as they may have had fewer children, had less to eat (since they were less aggressive about acquiring food) and have reproduced later in life.
In order to offset this disadvantage, Dr Baumard believes the wealthy introduced moralising religions to the poor as a way to introduce them to slow-life strategies, therefore offsetting the evolutionary disadvantages the elite faced in being less motivated by acquisition, greed and procreation.
The study said religious practice itself had been around since before a clear divide in wealth emerged, but that it lacked the focus on morality and fulfilment that is found within worlds major religions today.
Religion is based on spiritual fulfilment, not material or physical fulfilment, according to Dr Baumard et al.
They wrote: To most people, believers and non-believers alike, it seems obvious that religion is on the side of the spiritual rather than the material world and that it fosters self-discipline and selflessness rather than license and gree."
The study said idea that true salvation could only be found in moral behaviour, not in having the most food or the most sex, may have served as a distraction to the non-elite, leading them towards slow life strategies.
But Dr Baumard said that, as affluence becomes more widespread, moralising religion could be on its way out.
He said living a slow lifestyle was becoming more common among the general population, with pepople motivated to cooperate with each other and focus on fulfilment in areas of life that are not just physical - which means there is less need for moralising religions to control the behaviour of a large poor population.
Writing in the New Scientist, Dr Baumard said: As more and more people become affluent and adopt a slow strategy, the need to morally condemn fast strategies decreases, and with it the benefit of holding religious beliefs that justify doing so.
If this is true, and our environment continues to improve, then like the Greco-Roman religions before them, Christianity and other moralising religions could eventually vanish.
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A leading anti-racism charity has rejected the dire claims made by the UKs former equalities chief Trevor Phillips that Britain is sleepwalking towards catastrophe over complacency about diversity, countering that his views are out of touch with what we see on the ground.
Mr Phillips, the former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, used his newly published essay Race and Faith: The Deafening Silence to paint a grim picture of future community tensions and conflicts in Britain unless a more muscular approach to integration is adopted in place of the existing laissez-faire attitude.
Mr Phillips wrote in his essay: "In my view, squeamishness about addressing diversity and its discontents risks allowing our country to sleepwalk to a catastrophe that will set community against community, endorse sexist aggression, suppress freedom of expression, reverse hard-won civil liberties, and undermine the liberal democracy that has served this country so well for so long.
"Worst of all it may destroy popular support for the values that have, in my opinion, characterised the greatest political advances in my lifetime: equality and solidarity."
He adds: "Any attempt to ask whether aspects of minority disadvantage may be self-inflicted is denounced as 'blaming the victim'. Instead, we prefer to answer any difficult questions by focusing on the historic prejudices of the dominant majority. In short, it's all about white racism.
"This stance just won't do any more. In fact, in today's superdiverse society, it is dangerously misguided."
But anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate has called Mr Phillips vision of diversity dire and called his clumsy, top-down prescriptions out of touch with the reality it sees on the UKs streets and within the communities it engages with.
The charity argues that its Fear and Hope 2016 report shows that young people are becoming increasingly tolerant about issues such as race and immigration, adding that in a study of over 5,000 people only eight per cent felt strongly hostile towards immigration down from 13 per cent five years ago.
A spokesperson for the charity said that it believes the majority of people want to solve the problems our society faces constructively and peacefully, and the Muslim community or rather, the Muslim communities are also evolving rapidly.
We work with Muslims across the country, including with many independent Muslim women. Even some conservative mosques are beginning to appoint women to management boards, and London now has a Muslim mayor so things are changing.
Corbyn reminds Cameron that "racism was endemic" in his Conservative party
The spokesperson added: Attention does need to be paid to extremists on all sides, and also to the plight of the white working class in de-industrialised areas, who are often abandoned to the likes to UKIP.
But the picture is by no means as grim as Phillips paints and his clumsy, top-down prescriptions seem out of touch with the reality we see on the ground."
Mr Phillips essay has been published by the right-wing think tank Civitas, in which he claims there is "no shortage of public condemnation of 'racism"', referring to complaints about discriminatory behaviour, the "alleged fear of backlash against Muslims after each terrorist incident", campaigns to remove symbols of colonialism, and social media campaigns against "supposedly offensive" language.
But these are not the issues that generate public unease, he claims. "Rather it is the appearance of non-English names above the shop-fronts in the high street; the odd decision to provide only halal meat in some schools; evidence of corruption in municipal politics dominated by one ethnic group or another," he writes.
Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Show all 12 1 /12 Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London Pegida UK protesters were met by counter-demonstrators from anti-fascist groups near Downing Street on 4 April Huge Campbell Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London Activists from the British off-shoot of the Pegida during a rally on Whitehall, London, on 4 April AFP/Getty Images Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London Police officers surround a Pegida UK rally on Whitehall on April 4, 2015 in London, England. Getty Images Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London Supporters of the British offshoot of the anti-Islamist movement Pegida hold a demonstration on Whitehall, London PA Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London Pegida UK supporters carried a banner picturing Winston Churchill with the slogan 'no surrender to terrorists' Hugo Campbell Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London A man believed to be a war veteran addresses the Pegida UK rally in London on 4 April AFP/Getty Images Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London Activists from the British off-shoot of the Pegida during a rally on Whitehall, London, on 4 April AFP/Getty Images Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London A man believed to be anti-Islamic German author Zahid Khan addresses the Pegida UK rally Getty Images Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London Police officers scuffle with anti-fascists on Whitehall during a rally by the British off-shoot of the Pegida movement in central London on April 4 AFP/Getty Images Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London Police officers hold anti fascist protesters back as a Pegida UK rally takes place on Whitehall on 4 April Getty Images Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London Police officers watch counter protesters on Whitehall during a rally by the British off-shoot of the Pegida movement in central London on April 4 AFP/Getty Images Pegida UK met by counter-demonstrators in London Pegida UK in London Counter-demonstrators meet Pegida UK in London on 4 April Getty Images
"Such headlines, frequently misreported, but often grounded in some real change, provoke muttering in the pub, or grumbling at the school gate. They become gathering straws in a stiffening breeze of nativist, anti-immigrant sentiment.
"And still, our political and media elites appear not to have scented this new wind. We maintain a polite silence masked by noisily debated public fictions such as 'multiculturalism' and 'community cohesion'.
"Rome may not yet be in flames, but I think I can smell the smouldering whilst we hum to the music of liberal self-delusion."
He observes that Britain is changing at "an extraordinary pace", adding: "We are now remaking our nation at speed."
Mr Phillips suggests a number of steps should be taken in the UK, including placing a duty on institutions to promote integration, ending the construction of production teams in factories by nationality and ensuring English is the standard working language.
He also believes that schools should be required to demonstrate they are making efforts to give their pupils a "real experience" of living in a diverse society - spelling an end to "the kind of ethnic takeover of state schools" seen in Birmingham during the "Trojan Horse" scandal, and that legal curbs on freedom of expression should be done away with and replaced with legislation ensuring only speech and gestures that directly encourage physical harm are restricted.
A Government spokesman said: "This Government is committed to creating an integrated society.
"The Prime Minister has commissioned a review to see what more we can do to create cohesive communities in England.
"The review will look at how we integrate all communities in Britain around a common set of values."
Additional reporting by PA
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Western Governments must urgently draw up a new international legal consensus on when it is acceptable for countries to take a life outside of war or face potential prosecution for murder, a committee of senior MPs are set to warn.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said that current rules of engagement were confused and confusing and recommended that the UK should take the lead in establishing internationally-recognised rules for when the use of deadly force should be authorised.
As the world faces the grey area between terrorism and war, there needs to be a new international consensus on when it is acceptable for a state to take a life outside of armed conflict, the committee concluded.
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The UK Government should lead in the establishment of that consensus and thereby ensure that states are able to take the action which is necessary to protect their citizens without breaching the rule of law.
It added that the Governments current policy may exposeministers to the risk of criminal prosecution for murder.
It said: "Clarification of the legal basis is essential in order for Parliamentand the public to be satisfied that the Government is complying with the rule of law and to provide absolute clarity for all those involved in the chain of command for such actions (intelligence personnel, armed forces, officials, Ministers et al) so they have a legal defence against any possible future criminal prosecution for murder from within or outside of the UK. The need for clarification is urgent in view of the increasing use of lethal force in Libya."
The recommendation comes following an investigation into a drone strike which killed British jihadi Reyaad Khan in August 2015. The committee concluded this attack was part of the armed conflict against IS in Iraq and Syria and therefore covered by the Law of War.
But chairwoman Harriet Harman said the Government had not been "crystal clear" about the legal basis for the killing of Khan in Syria and the committee raised wider concerns about the potential use of drones in other parts of the world where Isis is active.
"We find ourselves today in a new situation for which our long established legal frameworks were not designed, she said.
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 line between war in the traditional sense and countering the crime of terrorism has been blurred by two developments: rapid technological advance, including drone technology, has transformed the nature of the threat from terrorism and the capacity to counter it; and the nature of armed conflict has changed, with the steady rise of non-state armed groups such as Isil/Da'esh with the intent and capability to carry out terrorist attacks globally and aspirations without territorial limit.
"When dealing with an issue of such grave importance, taking a life in order to protect lives, the Government should have been crystal clear about the legal basis for this action from the outset. They were not. The statements of the Prime Minister, the Permanent Representative to the UN and the Defence Secretary in the aftermath of this military action were confused and confusing.
"When the government orders our military to take a life outside of armed conflict, there should be proper accountability. Those making and carrying out the order to take a life need to know that there will be independent scrutiny to ensure that the highest standards have been adhered to.
The MPs and peers said that "while international law permits the use of force in self-defence against an imminent attack, it does not extend more widely to authorise the use of force pre-emptively against a threat which is more remote, such as plans which have been merely discussed but which lack the necessary intent or capability to make them imminent".
They also suggested that human rights laws could apply if force was used outside a conflict zone, but stressed this would not necessarily prevent a strike taking place.
The European Convention on Human Rights "imposes a positive obligation on the State to protect life, including by taking effective preventive measures against a real and immediate risk to life from a terrorist attack".
The report called for more accountability and proposed giving the Intelligence and Security Committee a more prominent role in oversight.
Jennifer Gibson, a staff attorney at international human rights NGO Reprieve who gave evidence to the Committee, said: This report is a wake-up call. Not only does the committee raise troubling questions about whether the Government misunderstood the legal frameworks that apply, but it warns they may be at risk of prosecution for murder as a result.
The UKs silence in the face of repeated questioning by the committee only further reinforces the very real danger that the UK is following the US down the slippery slope of kill lists and targeted killings. This is alarming, given the CIAs secret drone war has killed hundreds of civilians and been described as a failed strategy by Obamas own former head of defence intelligence.
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Privacy campaigners have launched a poster campaign and petition against the Home Office's Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), the successor to the 'Snooper's Charter'.
The campaign set up by the Don't Spy On Us coalition, have made posters featuring photographs of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Xi Jingping.
Written over their portraits are the statements "Well done Britain! No-one monitors their people quite like you" and "A government that spies on its citizens. What's not to like?".
One of the anti-snooping posters using an image of Chinese Premier Xi Jingping (Dont Spy On Us) (Don't Spy On Us)
According to the campaign, the new government bill will allow police to read individuals' internet browsing history regardless of their innocence.
The group says police and intelligence agencies will be able to hack into smartphones and use their camera or microphone apps, while also getting the power to breaking into smart TVs, laptop or desktops.
The IPB would also make it illegal for people to tell a journalist they have been served with a surveillance warrant.
Eric King, director of Don't Spy On Us, said: "The UK government should be leading the way in guaranteeing safe and secure communications for everyone. Instead it is providing examples for dictators and across the world.
"When China introduced controversial sweeping surveillance powers just a few months ago its government claimed it was doing basically the same as what other major countries in the world do.
"Oppressive regimes are already following our lead."
Campaigners believe the bill will make it illegal to tell a journalist that youve been served with a surveillance warrant (Dont Spy On Us) (Don't Spy On Us)
A Home Office spokesman had said the bill had been scrutinised by three different parliamentary committees, a special committee from both houses.
These powers will be subject to "double-lock" approval system where the Secretary of State and a senior judge are required to sign them off, according to the Home Office.
He said: "The Government is committed to introducing legislation that protects both the privacy and the security of the public.
"With the exception of the retention of internet connection records, the Bill does not create any new powers. Rather it puts existing powers on a clear and transparent footing, and creates world-leading oversight arrangements.
"Enhanced safeguards, which are at the heart of the Bill, will ensure this legislation protects both privacy and security."
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Two Afghan men have been arrested in Southern Italy suspected of being members of an Isis-linked terror cell who allegedly were planning to attack London's Canary Wharf and hotels across the city.
Hakim Nasri, 23, has been arrested by authorities in the city of Bari on suspicion of international terrorism alongside Guilstan Ahmadzai, 29, who is being held on suspicion of aiding illegal immigration.
The two men were believed to be members of a five-person terror cell with links to Isis. The cell had allegedly been established in Puglia, in southeastern Italy, to carry out violent attacks with the purpose of international terrorism, in Italy and abroad, according to the arrest warrant.
Prosecutor Roberto Rossi said videos and photos were seized from the two suspects' phones showing landmarks in Rome, Paris and London.
He added: "It was clear these were not tourist images. They appear to have been scouting sensitive sites."
These potential targets in London included West India Quay, Sunborn Yacht hotel, South Quay footbridge and a Premier Inn hotel in Stratford near the Olympic Park and Westfield shopping centre. The suspects' alleged targets in Rome included the Colosseum and the Circuc Maximus.
Hakim Nasri, pictured, was arrested alongside Gulistan Ahmadzai, 29, in the southern Italian city of Bari (EPA)
Investigators said they also found pictures of mutilated US soldiers and prayers on their phones.
Another of the five suspects was said to have been arrested in Milan on Tuesday, while the other two are believed to be in Afghanistan, sources told Reuters. Three of the suspects are accused of international terrorism and two of aiding illegal immigration.
Authorities in Bari said in a statement: "The group carried out preliminary inspections of locations, taking photographs and videos, to prepare terrorist attacks."
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Police have apologised for making a fake Islamist suicide bomber use a "religious phrase" during a counter-terror exercise in Manchester.
The simulated attack started on Monday night, when a man dressed in black walked into the Trafford Centre and shouted at the crowd.
Moments later an explosion rocked the food hall and hundreds of volunteers, wearing ear defenders and safety glasses, dropped to the floor and ran into shops and cafes screaming.
Emergency services take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre, Manchester. Police later apologised for the use of an Islamic religious phrase (Getty) (Getty Images)
Many wore make-up to simulate serious injuries and others shouted for help in The Orient food court as the sound of gunfire rang out and armed officers moved in.
A man playing the part of a terrorist repeatedly shouted Allahu Akbar (God is great) before acting out the explosion.
Community groups and activists condemned the use of stereotypes for the exercise, with some raising concerns it would fuel anti-Muslim prejudice.
In response to criticism, Greater Manchester Polices assistant chief constable Gary Shewan said the decision was unacceptable and apologised for any offence caused.
In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre The emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre on 10 May, 2016 in Manchester, England. PA In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre Emergency forces and shoppers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre on 10 May, 2016 in Manchester, England. Getty Images In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre The emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre on 10 May, 2016 in Manchester, England. Getty Images In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre The emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre on 10 May, 2016 in Manchester, England. Getty Images In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre Emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre in Manchester on 10 May 2016. Getty Images In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre Emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre in Manchester on 10 May 2016. Getty Images In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre People playing the role of injured shoppers react during an exercise at the Intu Trafford Centre in Trafford, Manchester, on May 10, 2016. PA
The scenario for this exercise is based on a suicide attack by an extremist Daesh [Isis] style organisation and the scenario writers have centred the circumstances around previous similar attacks of this nature, mirroring details of past events to make the situation as real life as possible for all those involved, he said in a statement.
However, on reflection we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise with Islam.
We recognise and apologise for the offence that this has caused.
Dr Erinma Bell, who was made an MBE for her anti-gun campaign work in Manchester, was among those criticising the decision.
We need to move away from stereotypes if we want to achieve real learning, she tweeted. A terrorist can be anyone.
Anti-islamophobia group the Community Safety Forum called the use of the phrase Allahu Akbar offensive and said it was not necessary to make the scenario real.
Volunteers lay down during the false attack, which was criticised for increasing anti-Muslim hate crime (Getty) (Getty Images)
This sort of thing panders to stereotypes and further divides us, a spokesperson added. It will increase anti-Muslim hate crime.
But many Twitter users were defending the simulation, saying it was justified to imitate the events of the Brussels and Paris attacks.
Police stressed that there was no specific threat to the Trafford Centre, which is the second-largest in the UK.
The exercise, codenamed Exercise Winchester Accord, was planned in December and is part of a national programme, coming after previous drills in London, Glasgow and Essex.
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Police have simulated a terror attack at one of the UKs largest shopping centres as part of a counter-terror exercise.
A mock suicide bomber acted out an explosion at Manchesters Trafford Centre overnight as hundreds of people ran screaming and hid in shops and restaurants.
Around 800 people were involved in the exercise, which started at midnight, when a man dressed in black walked in and shouted at the crowd.
Emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre in Manchester on 10 May 2016. (Getty Images)
Moments later an explosion rocked the food hall and volunteers, wearing ear defenders and safety glasses, dropped to the floor.
Many wore make-up to simulate serious injuries and others screamed out for help in The Orient food court as the sound of gunfire rang out.
Armed officers then moved in, practicing tactics drawn up in the event of a Paris or Brussels-style attack.
Police stressed that there was no specific threat to the Trafford Centre, which is the second-largest in the UK.
In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Show all 7 1 /7 In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre The emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre on 10 May, 2016 in Manchester, England. PA In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre Emergency forces and shoppers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre on 10 May, 2016 in Manchester, England. Getty Images In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre The emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre on 10 May, 2016 in Manchester, England. Getty Images In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre The emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre on 10 May, 2016 in Manchester, England. Getty Images In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre Emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre in Manchester on 10 May 2016. Getty Images In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre Emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre in Manchester on 10 May 2016. Getty Images In pictures: Terror attack exercise in Manchester Counter-terror exercise at the Trafford Centre People playing the role of injured shoppers react during an exercise at the Intu Trafford Centre in Trafford, Manchester, on May 10, 2016. PA
Greater Manchester Police, the North West Counter Terrorism Unit and the North West Ambulance Service were all being tested, with no personnel being told precisely how the attack would unfold.
The Manchester Evening News reported that the SAS was also involved in the operation, which took place while the shopping centre was closed between midnight and 6am.
Greater Manchester Police had urged the public not to be alarmed by loud noises, while the Trafford Centres managers praised the emergency services' great work.
Assistant Chief Constable Rebekah Sutcliffe said agencies were testing their response to a major terrorist incident in a public place.
Our priority is to stop terrorists from planning and orchestrating attacks and with exercises like this, we can put our response to the test in a safe environment, so we are fully prepared for a time when it may be critical, she added.
The emergency services and volunteers take part in a simulated terror attack at the Trafford Centre on 10 May, 2016 in Manchester, England. (Getty Images)
I want to make it clear that this is not linked to any specific terror threat or attack, but is an opportunity for us to make sure we are in the best position possible, should a terrorist attack happen in the North West.
The drill was set to continue through Tuesday and Wednesday in locations in the region, including Red Bank Community Home, a disused young offenders' centre in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside.
The exercise, codenamed Exercise Winchester Accord, was planned in December and is part of a national programme, coming after previous drills in London, Glasgow and Essex.
The current UK terror threat level is rated as severe, meaning an attack is highly likely, according to the Home Offices classification system.
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The founder of one of the main groups campaigning to pull Britain out of the European Union has called for the NHS to be sold off to the private sector.
Campaigners from the Leave.EU group have claimed in public that if Britain pulled out of Europe, the money that currently goes to Brussels could be spent on our priorities such as the NHS.
But during a visit to the United States, Arron Banks, the co-founder of the group who has given millions of pounds to bankroll the campaign, admitted he was in favour of privatising the NHS entirely.
"If it were up to me, Id privatise the NHS, he said in comments reported by Bloomberg News.
Mr Banks also claimed his strategy to win the referendum campaign was to bore the electorate into submission in the hope that turnout was low which he believed would help the leave cause.
"If turnout is low, we win. If its high, we lose," Mr Banks said. "Our strategy is to bore the electorate into submission, and its working."
Mr Banks was in Washington speaking to more than a dozen policy experts at the Cato Institute, a think tank dedicated to limited government and free markets.
Controversially, Bloomberg reported that Mr Banks conceded there would be economic pain if the UK were to pull out of the EU. But he said it was a price worth paying for independence.
"Im a libertarian, he said.
The 10 happiest countries in Europe Show all 10 1 /10 The 10 happiest countries in Europe The 10 happiest countries in Europe Denmark Coulourful houses and boats seen in the Nyhavn district in Copenhagen The 10 happiest countries in Europe Switzerland The 10 happiest countries in Europe Iceland Iceland, Northern Lights The 10 happiest countries in Europe Norway Wheel deal: cycling in Norway Visit Norway The 10 happiest countries in Europe Finland Getty The 10 happiest countries in Europe The Netherlands The 10 happiest countries in Europe Sweden AFP The 10 happiest countries in Europe Austria Sean Gallup/Getty Images The 10 happiest countries in Europe Germany Getty Images The 10 happiest countries in Europe Belgium The city hall on Brussels' Grand Place is illuminated during a light show, December 30, 2015 Reuters
But Bloomberg said some of the people Mr Banks spoke to were unconvinced by his arguments.
"It was the most unimpressive and unconvincing argument for a political case Ive seen in years, said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration specialist at Cato. He appealed to every type of argument thats unconvincing: naked nationalism, nativism, anti-free-market, anti-capitalism ideas.
"There was a solid intellectual case to be made for Brexit, but that was not it."
The Wolverhampton Labour MP Emma Reynolds said Mr Banks was merely articulating what many other leave campaigners felt.
Arron Banks adds his name to the growing list of Outers like Nigel Farage and Vote Leave director, Matthew Elliot, who want to privatise the NHS and undermine our cherished national institution, she said.
The leave campaigns cannot be trusted with the NHS and these comments are further evidence that leaving the EU is a risk that we cannot afford to take.
A spokesman for Vote Leave which is the officially designated leave campaign said: We wish Arron Banks well but we disagree with him. We believe that we should spend the 350m we send to Brussels each week on our priorities such as the NHS.
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The long awaited Chilcot Inquiry will release its findings later this summer, the inquiry's chair Sir John Chilcot has announced.
Here's what we know about the inquiry and its forthcoming report.
When will the Chilcot Report be released?
Sir John Chilcot announced on Monday that the Iraq Inquirys report would be released on 6 July 2016.
That date is two weeks after the European Union referendum, which is to be held on 23 June.
Sir John said the date had been agreed to give the inquiry time to proof-read and print the report.
What is it about?
The inquiry was set up by Gordon Brown in 2009 with what Sir John described as a very broad terms of reference.
The report will examine the period from Summer 2001 to the end of July 2009 embracing the run-up to the conflict in Iraq, the military action and its aftermath.
Specifically, it the inquiry will try to analyse the way decisions were made and actions taken, to establish, as accurately as possible, what happened and to identify the lessons that can be learned.
How long is it?
2.6 million words, which makes it well over four times as long as War and Peace and over three times as long as long as the King James Bible.
Why has it taken so long?
There are a variety of reasons. Firstly, its a big job: the inquiry interviewed 150 witnesses across 130 sessions of oral evidence. It analysed 150,000 government documents. It was always going to take a long time.
There were also unforeseen setbacks and other delays. Sir Martin Gilbert, one of those on the core inquiry team, died in 2015.
The inquiry has also followed the Maxwellisation convention whereby any person to be criticised in it is given a fair opportunity to comment on a draft prior to publication.
In this case, those people took months or years to respond in full. We do not have full answers as to why they took so long.
The latest several-month delay to the inquiry was also that it had to be vetted by the security and intelligence services in order to ensure it wasnt leaking classified information.
Who is to be criticised in the report?
We dont know for sure. The Guardian newspaper reported in October 2015 that the net of criticism for the war would be cast far and wide.
The newspaper said Tony Blair knows full well he will be criticised in the report.
Separately, in August of last year, The Times newspaper reported that chief of defence staff Sir Nicholas Houghton is expected to be criticised.
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Nigeria's president has been left "deeply shocked and embarrassed" after David Cameron was caught on microphone describing the African country as "fantastically corrupt".
Speaking through his spokesman, President Muhammadu Buhari suggested Mr Cameron had been referring to Nigeria's past notoriety for corruption during the leadership of his predecessors.
The Prime Minister was caught on camera saying Nigeria and Afghanistan were "probably the two most corrupt countries" on the eve of a major corruption conference in London.
During the summit, Mr Buhari is due to give the keynote address entitled: "Why We Must Tackle Corruption Together".
Footage obtained by ITV News shows Mr Cameron chatting to a group including the Queen, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Commons Speaker John Bercow at an event to mark the Queen's 90th birthday.
He told the Queen: We had a very successful Cabinet meeting this morning to talk about our anti-corruption summit. Weve got the Nigerians actually weve got the leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain.
Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.
David Cameron with Muhammadu Buhari during a visit to the UK before his inauguration in 2015 (Getty Images)
The Most Rev Welby is heard trying to intervene, saying "this particular president" is not corrupt himself.
Mr Buhari proclaimed a "war against corruption" when he took power last year.
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
During the election campaign, he made the issue one of his key priorities saying: "If Nigeria doesn't kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria".
He has arrested many high-ranking members of the political elite on corruption charges - though many of them are from the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP), which was ousted from power after 15 years in charge.
Downing Street insisted Mr Buhari had previously acknowledged that corruption became "way of life" in Nigeria under "supposedly accountable democratic governments".
Afghanistan ranks at 166 out of 168 in Transparency International's 2015 corruption index but Nigeria is 30 points higher at 136.
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No guide to modern etiquette gives precise instructions on what to do when making small talk with the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury at the same time. We imagine if it did, it might suggest keeping it light, certainly non-controversial at least especially if there are TV cameras pointing straight at you and microphones hovering.
In the Prime Ministers defence, the stakes were high: that much is clear from the pictures. Anything too dull and you risk the archbish and her maj pretending to need the loo and never coming back, and thats going to leave you dragging the conversational nails down the blackboard with Grayling and Bercow, the toilet escape route firmly blocked by church and crown.
But those prospective awks will be as nothing when Afghanistans Ashraf Ghani and Nigerias Muhammadu Buhari arrive for the anti-corruption summit, the entire world having overheard them being the subject of Buckingham Palace based small talk about the two most corrupt countries in the world.
And not just corrupt fantastically corrupt. Weve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming, Cameron breezily informs the Archbishop. Fantastic. Not the most obvious corruption adverb, that.
Its all right, though, because, as Number 10 has pointed out, both men readily acknowledge the problem of corruption in their own countries. Which means that when, some time later in the week, the Nigerian President is inevitably caught on camera joking about just how much weight David Cameron has put on since the election, being merely factual, that will be fine too.
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Boris Johnson has accused the Remain campaign of smearing him after he was accused of being a Putin apologist.
Speaking at a Vote Leave event, the former Mayor of London suggested the EUs pretensions to be running a defence policy were partly to blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
He launched a personal attack on David Cameron following the Prime Ministers speech where he warned the continent was in danger of slipping into another war if Britain voted Leave on 23 June.
He said Mr Cameron had failed to win anything from his EU renegotiation and could not understand why he was not campaigning to leave.
Number 10 rejected Mr Johnsons comments a few hours later, saying Russia alone bears the responsibility for the Ukrainian crisis.
Ukraines economy and political systems are at breaking point after Russia invaded and seized control of the Crimea in 2014.
The restive province of Donetsk in the east of the country is still outside Kievs control and is believed to be being armed by Russian forces.
Rebels shot down the MH17 flight as it flew over Donetsk in July 2015, using what is believed to have been Russian made equipment, killing all 298 people on board.
UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 New Conservative Party leader and incoming prime minister Rishi Sunak waves as he leaves from Conservative Party Headquarters in central London having been announced as the winner of the Conservative Party leadership contest AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA 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
Sir Jack Straw, former Labour foreign secretary and key member of the Remain campaign, told the Daily Telegraph Mr Johnson has plumbed new depths and called him a Putin apologist.
Mr Johnson hit back saying Sir Jacks claims for the Remain campaign had shown the depths to which they will sink in smears against Brexiters, adding they were absolutely contemptible.
The Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP said he had repeatedly condemned the Russian attack on Ukraine and insisted his comments were not controversial as the EUs handling of the crisis was far from ideal.
Recommended Read more Cameron to invoke war dead as he argues for EU as guardian of peace
Mr Johnson was reacting to a speech given by Mr Cameron earlier on Monday where the referred to a serried row of white headstones in cemeteries for the British war dead across Europe.
Mr Cameron said throughout British history, whenever we turn our back on Europe, sooner or later we come to regret it.
Either we influence Europe, or it influences us, he said.
And if things go wrong in Europe, lets not pretend we can be immune from the consequences.
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Iain Duncan Smith has been accused of "lying" over claims that German Chancellor Angela Merkel vetoed a plan by David Cameron to restrict migrant workers coming to Britain as part of his EU renegotiation.
Elmar Brok, a German MEP and one of the senior negotiators during the talks, insisted that a ban on migrant workers had never been on the cards and Mr Duncan Smith was "lying to his own people".
"This, I think, is just not true", Mr Brok told the BBC radio 4s World at One.
"Britain got what is possible under these circumstances and that was a great success story.
"It is not easy to sell in countries like Poland and others that Britain got this special right and therefore Mr Duncan Smith is trying to explain to its people that Germany has a direct impact on British policy, that is just wrong. Mr Duncan Smith is lying to his own people."
Asked about The Sun's front page depicting Ms Merkel as a puppet-master controlling Mr Cameron, he replied: "This just a part of a dirty campaign and has nothing to do with reality."
His comments come after Mr Duncan Smith said Berlin exercised the "ultimate power" over what changes the Prime Minister sought from Brussels and was allowed to block the idea of a cap on foreign workers coming to the EU.
The ex-Tory leader, who quit as work and pensions secretary in March in protest at disability benefit cuts, accused Mr Cameron of being "compliant".
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.
In an interview with The Sun, he said a key demand was ditched, at the behest of Berlin, from the draft of a key speech by Mr Cameron just hours before it was due to be delivered.
"It's like they were sitting in a room, even when they were not there. There was a spare chair for them called the German chair. They have had a de facto veto over everything," he told the newspaper.
"I know that right up until the midnight hour, there was a strong line in there about restricting the flow of migrants from the European Union an emergency brake on overall migration.
"That was dropped, literally the night before. And it was dropped because the Germans said if that is in the speech, we will have to attack it."
He went on: "There is no question in my mind that keeping the Germans on side was the only thing that really mattered.
"We wanted to use the Germans to work the others in the room. They had the ultimate power over it."
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Germany had a secret veto over what David Cameron could demand as part of his renegotiation of Britains membership of the EU, a former Cabinet Minister claimed today.
Iain Duncan Smith, who resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary in March, alleged that a key speech by the Prime Minister in which he was due to demand restrictions on all EU migrants coming into the UK was partially dropped at the insistence of Germany.
And he even claimed there was an empty chair in Downing Street dubbed the German chair that symbolised their power in dictating the terms of any deal David Cameron would be able to negotiate.
Recommended Read more Boris just launched his most personal attack on Cameron yet
Delivering his harshest attack on Mr Cameron yet in the EU referendum fight Mr Duncan Smith told the Sun newspaper: Its like they were sitting in a room, even when they were not there.
There was a spare chair for them - called the German Chair.
They have had a de facto veto over everything.
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.
He said one of the most obvious episodes was just before Mr Cameron delivered a key speech to set out what he would demand from the EU as his price for backing a stay vote in November 2014.
I saw the draft, he said. I know that right up until the midnight hour, there was a strong line in there about restricting the flow of migrants from the European Union an emergency break on overall migration.
That was dropped, literally the night before.
And it was dropped because the Germans said if that is in the speech, we will have to attack it.
The whole thing was shown to them.
The Germans said from the outset, you are not getting border control. Full stop.
Mr Duncan Smith said Downing Street saw Berlins support as crucial to win a package from the other EU leaders that the PM could sell to the British people.
But that gave Germany huge power over it, he insisted.
There is no question in my mind that keeping the Germans on side was the only thing that really mattered, he said.
We wanted to use the Germans to work the others in the room. They had the ultimate power over it.
But the former Cabinet minister claimed the PMs Berlin strategy meant he was dictated to by a foreign power to suit its own interests rather than Britains.
We put ourselves in a compliant position to another country which doesnt have your best interests necessarily at heart."
Mr Duncan Smith is due to make a speech later today outlining why he believes Britain should leave the EU.
A Number 10 source said: The Prime Minister made clear at the time that the government had looked at an emergency brake but he decided it was not the most effective way forward.
That is why he decided to impose restrictions on benefits instead to end the something for nothing culture.
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The Government must urgently clarify the legal basis for its policy on launching drone strikes against Isis terrorists, a committee of senior parliamentarians has said.
The cross-party group of MPs and peers said despite the Government's insistence that it did not have a "targeted killing" policy, it was clear that the UK was prepared to use lethal force overseas for counter-terrorism purposes.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) accepted that the drone strike which killed British jihadi Reyaad Khan in August 2015 was part of the armed conflict against Isis in Iraq and Syria and therefore covered by the Law of War.
But chairwoman Harriet Harman said the Government had not been "crystal clear" about the legal basis for the killing of Khan in Syria and the committee raised wider concerns about the potential use of drones in other parts of the world where Isis - also known as Isil and Daesh - is active.
The Prime Minister said the strike against Khan was a "new departure" when he revealed details of the operation in September 2015, before MPs had voted on extending the fight against Isis into Syria.
But the JCHR said the UK Permanent Representative to the UN said the action had been taken in the collective self-defence of Iraq.
"That statement suggested that there had been no 'new departure' in UK policy, merely a conventional use of force abroad by the UK in an armed conflict in which the UK was already involved."
The committee continued: "We accept that the drone strike in Syria was part of that wider armed conflict in which the UK was already engaged, to which the Law of War applies, and that the Government therefore did not use lethal force outside of armed conflict when it targeted and killed Reyaad Khan on 21 August.
Joint Committee on Human Rights chairwoman Harriet Harman MP says the Government has not been cleared on its policy around drone strikes (Getty)
"However, our inquiry has also confirmed what the Prime Minister appeared to tell the House of Commons on 7 September: that it is the Government's policy to be willing to use lethal force abroad, outside of armed conflict (in Libya, for example), against individuals suspected of planning an imminent terrorist attack against the UK, as a last resort, when there is no other way of preventing the attack."
That position was "put beyond any doubt" by the permission given to the United States to use airbases in Britain to launch air strikes against an Isis camp in Libya, the committee said.
"Although the Government says that it does not have a 'targeted killing' policy, it is clear that it does have a policy to use lethal force abroad outside armed conflict for counter-terrorism purposes", the parliamentarians concluded.
The committee said "certain aspects of the Government's view of the legal basis for its policy require urgent clarification".
The MPs and peers said that "while international law permits the use of force in self-defence against an imminent attack, it does not extend more widely to authorise the use of force pre-emptively against a threat which is more remote, such as plans which have been merely discussed but which lack the necessary intent or capability to make them imminent".
They also suggested that human rights laws could apply if force was used outside a conflict zone, but stressed this would not necessarily prevent a strike taking place.
The European Convention on Human Rights "imposes a positive obligation on the State to protect life, including by taking effective preventive measures against a real and immediate risk to life from a terrorist attack".
The committee also called for the Government to set out its legal basis for assisting other nations, such as the US, in strikes against Isis.
The US takes the view that it is in a global armed conflict with Isis, so that the Law of War applies and lethal force can be used anywhere in the world.
Reyaad Khan, from Penarth, near Cardiff, was killed by a drone strike in August 2015
But Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told the committee the UK Government regards itself to be in armed conflict with Isis only in Iraq and Syria.
The report called for more accountability and proposed giving the Intelligence and Security Committee a more prominent role in oversight.
The committee also urged the Government to take the lead in developing an international consensus on the issue.
Labour MP Ms Harman said: "We find ourselves today in a new situation for which our long established legal frameworks were not designed.
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 line between war in the traditional sense and countering the crime of terrorism has been blurred by two developments: rapid technological advance, including drone technology, has transformed the nature of the threat from terrorism and the capacity to counter it; and the nature of armed conflict has changed, with the steady rise of non-state armed groups such as Isil/Da'esh with the intent and capability to carry out terrorist attacks globally and aspirations without territorial limit.
"When dealing with an issue of such grave importance, taking a life in order to protect lives, the Government should have been crystal clear about the legal basis for this action from the outset. They were not. The statements of the Prime Minister, the Permanent Representative to the UN and the Defence Secretary in the aftermath of this military action were confused and confusing.
"When the government orders our military to take a life outside of armed conflict, there should be proper accountability. Those making and carrying out the order to take a life need to know that there will be independent scrutiny to ensure that the highest standards have been adhered to.
"As the world faces the grey area between terrorism and war, there needs to be a new international consensus on when it is acceptable for a state to take a life outside of armed conflict. The UK Government should lead in the establishment of that consensus and thereby ensure that states are able to take the action which is necessary to protect their citizens without breaching the rule of law."
PA
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Labours first openly transgender candidate at the general election, Emily Brothers, has applied to be the partys contender in the upcoming Tooting by-election.
It comes as the newly elected London mayor, Sadiq Khan, resigned as an MP on Monday following his resounding win at City Hall. Labour has said the by-election is likely to be held on June 9 or June 16.
In a statement Ms Brothers said she would be honoured to represent the people of Tooting and pick up the baton from Sadiq Khans achievements. She ran unsuccessfully as Labours parliamentary candidate at the 2015 general election though, in the safe Conservative seat of Sutton and Cheam that is currently held by MP Paul Scully.
In an emotive 2014 interview with Pink News, Ms Brothers who lost her eyesight as a child to a condition called aniridia came out as transgender.
In an ideal world I wouldnt be speaking out about my past because its very private; however I recognise that as a politician the key thing is trust, she wrote at the time. We have a situation in Britain where politicians have been losing trust with people, and if Im not honest about my life experience people may be critical of me being secretive.
Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, said he was proud and hailed her as a courageous campaigner when she was selected as Labours candidate in 2015.
Ms Brothers added in her statement today: Im very worried by the impact Tory austerity is having on hard working families in Tooting, particularly those disadvantaged because of their disability or older age. I want change, to turn peoples anguish into aspiration, by contributing to Labours fight back.
I can make a difference - having a track record in campaigning for equality and with personal experience of disability and going through gender transition. That demonstrates resilience the kind of tenacity needed for this by-election challenge and then holding the Tory Government to account so all Tooting residents are safe, better off and their housing and travel is more affordable.
I want to reach out to everyone in Tooting, so we can build a better future together. That means focusing on improving peoples living standards, creating more opportunity in education and employment, providing effective public services and housing.
The former Respect MP George Galloway, who unsuccessfully ran for London mayor, told ITV News last month he planned to contest the seat.
Labour will select its candidate for the by-election on Saturday
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Harriet Harman today became the latest senior Labour figure to attack Jeremy Corbyn saying that the partys election results were "not nearly good enough".
The former deputy party leader urged Mr Corbyn to follow the example of Sadiq Khan, who "reached out beyond Labour's core base" to become Mayor of London.
Her comment came just hours after Mr Corbyn ordered his MPs to cut out public criticism of his leadership as he defended the party's recent performance at the ballot box at a meeting on last night.
"I think we are all very clear that, although we are one point ahead of the Tories in the share of the vote in the elections - compared to we were seven points behind last year in the general election - that is not nearly good enough," Ms Harman told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"Obviously we need to be doing better and Jeremy Corbyn said that himself at the PLP last night. We need to be doing better if we are going to be able to get into government and put our policies into action."
The Labour leader directly confronted unrest in the ranks fuelled by last week's election results when he addressed the weekly gathering of his MPs and peers at Westminster.
He conceded that the party was "not yet doing enough" to win back power in 2020 and acknowledged the need to broaden the appeal of his message - but insisted things were moving in the right direction.
Mr Khan, whose victory in the London mayoral contest provided the Opposition with an eye-catching result, was greeted with cheers as he arrived at the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) meeting.
He warned that Labour risked missing an "open goal" unless it showed itself to be "a credible government-in-waiting" which focused on the issues and rejected an "us and them approach".
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Sadiq Khan has criticised Donald Trump for suggesting he would exempt him from his proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the US, adding his comments play into the hands of extremists.
It comes after Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, said he was happy to see Londons new Muslim mayor elected, saying it could be "very, very good".
The billionaire property mogul caused international outrage when he called for the temporary ban after the November 2015 Paris attacks. David Cameron labelled the idea "stupid" and calls to ban Mr Trump from entering Britain were raised in Parliament after a petition attracted nearly 600,000 signatures.
This isnt just about me its about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world, Mr Khan said.
Donald Trumps ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of the extremists.
Donald Trump and those around him think that western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong.
10 of the scariest things Donald Trump has ever said
Asked by the New York Times how the ban would affect Londons new Muslim Mayor, Mr Trump said there would "always be exceptions".
After being declared winner of the mayoral race on Saturday, Mr Khan said he rejected the "politics of fear" as he promised to be a "Mayor for all Londoners".
Commenting on the election, Mr Trump said: "I was happy to see that. I think it's a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because frankly that would be very, very good."
Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Show all 5 1 /5 Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Tackle the housing crisis Khans key policy is an ambitious target to make 50 per cent of all new homes being genuinely affordable, and improving conditions for people renting Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Freeze transport fares Khan says he will freeze London transport fares for four years and introduce a one-hour bus Hopper ticket, paid for by making TfL more efficient and exploring new revenue-raising opportunities. He claims Londoners wont pay a penny more for their travel in 2020 than they do today Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Make London safer Resore neighbourhood policing, tackle gangs and knife crime, and a new plan to tackle the spread of extremism, and a review of the resourcing of our fire service Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Restore London's air quality Pedestrianise Oxford Street and prioritise measures to improve Londons air quality Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Make cycling and walking safer More segregated cycle routes with a promise to spend money improving dangerous junctions Getty Images
Asked to explain, he added: "Because I think if he does a great job, it will really you lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job, and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing."
Mr Khan told Time magazine earlier this week that he was confident Mr Trump's approach to politics would not prevail when America goes to the polls in November.
He warned: "I want to go to America to meet with and engage with American mayors. If Donald Trump becomes the president I'll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can't engage with American mayors and swap ideas."
Mr Khan led his Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith by a total of 315,529 votes when the second preference votes were counted and reallocated. He received 1,310,143 votes, higher than for any previous London Mayor.
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The Government has made no coherent attempt to understand how many more doctors, nurses and other NHS staff will be needed to deliver its flagship manifesto promise of a seven-day NHS, MPs have said.
In a highly critical report on NHS staffing levels, the influential Public Accounts Committee found that pressure on hospitals to save money was already leading to shortfalls on wards, and called for an urgent review of the size of the clinical workforce in England.
Despite committing to a 10bn funding increase for the NHS by 2020 money that must cover all the work the NHS does, at a time of ever-rising demand the Government had not made a separate costing for expanding services on Saturdays and Sundays, the report found.
Jeremy Hunt is determined to fulfill the Government's manifesto pledge of a 'truly seven day' NHS (PA)
The findings will be a blow to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has repeatedly asserted that the Government is delivering its manifesto pledge of a truly seven-day service. The Department of Health said the report had not properly taken account of increases in the NHS workforce since 2010.
But Meg Hillier, chair of the PAC, said there were serious flaws in the Governments approach to staffing the NHS and said that, without urgent action, the public would soon pay the price with higher waiting times and greater costs to taxpayers.
Taxpayers are being asked to accept uncosted plans for a seven-day NHS plans which therefore present a further serious risk to public money, she said. It beggars belief that such a major policy should be advanced with so flimsy a notion of how it will be funded namely, from money earmarked to cover all additional spending in the NHS to the end of the decade.
Taxpayers are entitled to ask questions about the financial security of the NHS and the level of service it is able to provide both now and in the future.
The report cited figures from a recent National Audit Office analysis that indicated that, in 2014, the NHS had a staffing shortfall of around 6 per cent the equivalent of around 50,000 clinical staff.
Hunt and other Tories told off by Speaker for 'fiddling' on their phones
It criticised the Department of Health for assuming that the 10bn pledge could cover everything, while warning that the simultaneous requirement on NHS England to cut 22bn from its budget by 2020 was leading to overly optimistic and aggressive rota planning in hospitals, which in turn was creating staffing shortages. The savings targets set by national bodies were unrealistic the report said.
The undersupply of staff would hit patient trust in the health service, it added, and could lead to longer waiting times and shortcomings in care quality.
Doctors striking outside St Thomas' Hospital in London (Getty Images)
Dr Mark Porter, chair of council at the British Medical Association, the union embroiled in a long-running dispute with the Government over the new junior doctor contract, said the situation was only set to get worse.
The BMA is clear that patients should have access to the same high quality of care, seven days a week, but if the Government wants more seven-day services, then it must finally answer the question asked by doctors, senior NHS leaders, medical royal colleges and now the Public Accounts Committee: how will it staff and fund them? he said.
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
Shadow Health Minister, Justin Madders, said: This devastating report from the Public Accounts Committee exposes the serious gaps in the Tory Governments approach to safe staffing in the NHS. Everybody would support the vision of a seven-day NHS, but David Camerons plans are simply not credible without the extra staff the NHS desperately needs.
A Department of Health spokesperson said there were clear plans to increase capacity in the future in order to deliver a safer, seven-day NHS.
Weve got more than 25,300 extra clinical staff caring for patients already since 2010, and because weve increased nurse training places by 15 per cent there are currently 50,000 nurses in training, the spokesperson said. By 2020, we expect to have 11,420 more doctors working in the NHS, coupled with 10,000 nursing, midwife and allied health professional training places through our reforms. By March next year, we will provide a quarter of the population with seven-day care.
The PAC report was published as two new studies cast doubt on the evidence for a weekend effect on hospital mortality. The papers, published in The Lancet, indicated that the any link between weekend staffing levels and mortality rates could be a major oversimplification, experts said.
The first paper, by researchers at the University of Birmingham, found no association between senior doctor staffing levels at the weekend and mortality rates. The second, led by Kings College London and University College London, found no weekend effect on survival for stroke care patients, but instead uncovered variations throughout the week.
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If theres one thing the liberal, cosmopolitan elite wont tolerate its a rubbish flag. For liberal, cosmopolitan types, having the right type of flag to wave off your front porch with nationalistic fervour is crucially important.
Polling data suggests that large swathes of the liberal cosmopolitan elite, from Emma Thompson all the way through to Yoko Ono, have lost sight of just how much they love waving flags, and so it was quite right of Boris Johnson to remind them exactly whats at stake by leaving the European Union.
Boris is sick of being portrayed as a small-minded xenophobe, he claimed, and so on Monday morning gave a speech billed as the liberal, metropolitan case for Brexit. This was to be the great appeal to the chin-stroking classes to come to the enlightened side of history and hang out with Nigel Farage and Donald Trump.
Recommended Read more Boris just launched his most personal attack on Cameron yet
If you walk around London today, you will notice that the 12 star flag of the EU is flying all over the place, he said, looking every bit as outraged anyone in his position might be able to pretend to be. That is because today is Schuman day. It is the birthday of the founder of the EU project, and the elites have decreed that it should be properly marked. Do we feel loyalty to that flag? Do our hearts pitter-patter as we watch it flutter over public buildings?
I think I speak for the whole liberal cosmopolitan community when I say, No it does not, Boris! No it does not!
If I may shoehorn in a personal anecdote, it is precisely as Benedict Cumberbatch told me when I happened to bump into him last week in Romford market, walking his bulldog in his little Union Jack bodywarmer, limping gingerly back from getting yet another St Georges Cross tattooed on his arse: I love the Common Fisheries Policy, he said. I love it! And subsidiarity is great, obviously, especially when first pillar legislation is repealed and replaced as secondary pillar. You only get that in the goold old EU. And who doesnt want to ban prawn cocktail crisps? Not me, and not Sir Ian McKellen either by the way.
But here's the problem. We just dont feel loyalty to the flag. Why is no one speaking up for the concerns of good, honest, flag waving cosmopolitan liberals like me?
Well now Boris is. And flags are important after all, especially as the Prime Minister thinks well probably all be going to war soon. It was, to borrow a phrase from our soon to be sworn enemies, a remarkable volte face. I am not saying for one moment that Britain couldnt survive outside the European Union, of course we could. We are a great country, David Cameron has said to virtually every office worker in the land at some point over the last three months. On Monday morning, in a speech at the British Museum, he didn't explicitly say we in fact couldn't survive outside the EU, but he did say we'd first have to fight a long and bloody war with at least Germany, and probably France too.
The serried rows of white headstones in lovingly-tended Commonwealth war cemeteries stand as silent testament to the price that this country has paid to help restore peace and order in Europe, he said, deftly adapting the op-ed he wrote for Barack Obama in the Telegraph two weeks ago so that only 90 per cent of it remained identical. Can we be so sure that peace and stability on our continent are assured beyond any shadow of doubt? Is that a risk worth taking?
If we get our flag back, hell yeah it is. Just point me and Yoko the way to the trenches.
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Finally, someone is speaking up for the little guy. No longer will this referendum be decided by five Nato secretary-generals, 100 business leaders, twenty former Masterchef finalists and one 1981 Ashes Headingley Test winning accidental dick-pic tweeter, because, at last, someones picking up the fight for the man in the street.
You know, the average Joe, the ordinary guy, The one you see every day, happily hobbling to the factory and back, clutching his Atos assessment, paying his tax on his unoccupied boxroom, working hard, getting on.
Well worry no longer, because IDS, Man of The People, Champion of The Poor, has got your back.
The EU, despite its grand early intentions, has become a friend of the haves rather than the have-nots, he said, in his speech at the Vote Leave HQ by Lambeth Bridge in London, right in the heart of the Westminster Bubble. Twenty-four hours earlier, this was where Boris Johnson had stood and made the liberal, cosmopolitan case for Brexit. Now, it was why those liberal, cosmopolitan types, with their corporate jobs and their homes that they own were all in hoc to the EU superstate.
The EU is working well for big banks, Mr Duncan Smith said. The bailouts being financed by extreme levels of austerity in countries like Greece have largely benefited financial institutions that lent irresponsibly before the crash.
Thats your simple, plain vanilla banker-bashing there. Always a winner. Nothing derivated, nothing securitised.
He carried on: The EU is also working for corporations that benefit from mass immigration... the big corporates with large lobbying operations in Brussels.
Its Coke and McDonalds, flooding the UK with Bulgarians, paying them sod all, taking British jobs and having their wages topped up by British taxpayers.
Nothing was sacred. The Olympics came in for a kicking next. Despite the all the statements about the Olympic Park helping British workers, we now know that nearly half of all the jobs on the site went to foreign nationals, he said.
Its potent stuff, all this. And effective too. Labours Frank Field was saying much the same on this same stage last week. That its more than OK to object to the pressure put on British wages by migrant labour. But IDS went further. This was not an appeal to those at the bottom to act in their interest and Vote Leave. This was an instruction to the rich to do their bit for social justice by voting out, whatever the cost.
And this takes me back to my central appeal to what I think are the best, compassionate instincts of the British people, he said. When you vote on 23 June, even if you believe what you are being told by those who want to remain in the EU; that you may have done OK from the EU think about the people who havent.
So there we have it. This is the kind of radical thinking that will be missed around the Cabinet table. Vote not for you, but for what you might do for your fellow man. Has anyone ever asked a Turkey to think of his civic responsibility for feeding the poor, when the big Christmas vote comes round each year? The results might be dramatic. Or they might not. Well see on 23 June.
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A large group of foreign and defence chiefs in the US and in Europe have warned that Brexit would leave the UK dangerously weakened and unable to rely on its special relationship with the US to regain power.
Five former Nato chiefs and 13 former US secretaries of state and defence are among those who have cautioned against leaving the EU, in letters to The Times and The Telegraph.
A roll call of chiefs from every White House administration from the past 40 years said the UKs place and influence in the world would be diminished and Europe would be dangerously weakened if people voted to leave on 23 June.
In a boost to the Remain campaign, the letter to The Times, which included signatures from former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, Ronald Reagan-era secretary of state George Shultz and ex-CIA chief Leon Panetta, has inflamed the debate around whether the UK would be more vulnerable inside or outside of Europe.
In The Telegraph, five former Nato chiefs including Lord Carrington, who served during World War II and is the last surviving member of the 1951-1955 government of Winston Churchill said Brexit would be very troubling.
They argued that the EU is a key partner and the two must work together to stave off instability in the region.
Their letter was also signed by former Spanish foreign minister Javier Solana, Tony Blairs former defence secretary Lord George Robertson, a previous Dutch foreign minister Jaap De Hoop and former Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Their letter reads: As former Secretaries General of Nato, we have followed the British EU debate carefully and with growing concern. Given the scale and range of challenges to peace and stability we collectively face, the Euro-Atlantic community needs an active and engaged United Kingdom.
The letter pointed to sanctions on Russia and Iran which have been led from within the EU by the UK."
At such a time of global instability, and when Nato is trying to reinforce its role in Eastern Europe, it would be very troubling if the UK ended its membership of the European Union.
The EU referendum debate has become increasingly focused on the military as Prime Minister David Cameron invoked a speech of Winston Churchill this week, claiming that leaving Europe could threaten war on the continent.
Former London mayor Boris Johnson attacked Mr Camerons comments, saying the EU had become a force for instability and alienation and that Nato had guaranteed peace in Europe.
He dismissed the claim that he was a Putin apologist for saying that the EU played a role in allowing the conflict in Ukraine to happen.
The Leave campaign has also been joined by Crispin Blunt, head of the Commons foreign affairs committee, who blamed British neuralgia for preventing good EU defence policy.
Meanwhile the US is seeking to bolster support for its Nato allies in Europe. Last month it sent two of the worlds most advanced warplanes to a Romanian airbase near Ukraine and then onto England in a show of defiance against Russia.
President Barack Obama also warned that UK-US trade could take 10 years to put into place after Brexit.
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A white South African judge has been criticised over a series of comments in which she purportedly claimed black men find gang-rape of a "baby, daughter and mother a pleasurable past time".
Mabel Jansen, a High Court Judge in the Pretoria, was speaking to social activist Gillian Schutte on Facebook discussing the treatment of women by black men.
Ms Schutte has only now publicly published the judge's comments from a 2015 conversation, provoking outrage across the country.
According to the post, the judge purportedly stated: "In their culture a woman is there to pleasure them. Period.
"I still have to meet a black girl who was not raped at about 12. I am dead serious.
"Murder is also is not a biggy. And gang rapes of baby, daughter and mother [are] a pleasurable pastime.
The High Court Judge has claimed the comments were taken "completely out of context", adding on Twitter: "What I stated confidentially to somebody in a position to help has been taken completely out of context and referred to specific court cases."
Ms Schutt has refuted this, saying the comments were part of a public Facebook debate.
The opposition Democratic Alliance party has described the comments "not only hurtful and demeaning but also undermined "the dignity of our people".
They have declared it will report the comments to the Judicial Services Commission to investigate if she has breached her judicial oath.
South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens Show all 10 1 /10 South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens 357763.bin BBC/Rankin Photography South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens 357764.bin BBC/Rankin Photography South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens 357771.bin BBC/Rankin Photography South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens 357772.bin BBC/Rankin Photography South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens 357770.bin BBC/Rankin Photography South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens 357769.bin BBC/Rankin Photography South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens 357766.bin BBC/Nontsikelelo Veleko (Lolo) South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens 357765.bin BBC/Rankin Photography South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens 357761.bin BBC/NEO H.G. RAMOSA /Bobson Studio South Africa in pictures: Rankin's view through a lens 357762.bin BBC/ Rankin Photography/Bobson Studio
The ruling African National Congress' women's league has questioned whether she could objectively preside over a rape case.
They added: "Her comments made on Facebook where she claims that the rape of young children is part of black culture, are purely racist and misrepresentation of facts about black culture."
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When former president George W Bush found out about the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers, he was visiting a primary school in Florida.
It was one of the worst days in recent American history, and one that came to define his time in office.
Following 11 September 2001, Mr Bush launched the war on terror and invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, vowing to hunt down those terrorist networks that had committed the attacks and killed more than 2,000 people.
The day has been captured in never seen before photographs by Eric Draper, Mr Bushs personal photographer, and were made available via a Freedom of Information Request by FRONTLINE.
In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 President Bush was visiting Emma E Brooker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida as news of the attack on the World Trade Center broke In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 The president and his staff, including Press Secretary Ari Fleischer (L) were then brought to a holding room at the school, where he prepared to address the nation In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 President Bush was then rushed onto Air Force One and was flown to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. He watched television coverage of the attacks from his office on the plane In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 President Bush talks on the telephone at the General Dougherty Conference Center at Barksdale Air Force Base In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 President Bush is seen with his senior adviser Karl Rove at Barksdale Air Force Base In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 The president with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card at Barksdale Air Force Base. Before leaving the base, the president held a press conference at which he said, Make no mistake: The United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 The president was consoled by Lt Col Cindy Wright of the White House Military Office aboard Air Force One. After leaving Louisiana, the president was flown to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska before he headed back to Washington In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 President Bush arrived at the White House Presidential Emergency Operations Center around 7 pm. Here he is shown with his wife, First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 At 8:30 pm, the president addressed the nation from the White House. In his speech, he set the tone for the wars to come in Afghanistan and Iraq In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 Ive directed the full resources for our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice, the president said. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbour them In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 The presidents speech on the teleprompter In pictures: President Bushs immediate response to 9/11 11 September 2001 Immediately following the speech, the president had a national security meeting with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and others
Capturing that story was difficult, Mr Draper told the website Storybench in a 2015 interview. I had to focus on being in the right place at the right time and push back the emotions that I was feeling to truly capture the story. Everyone did their job that day and I knew my job was to have a crystal clear focus to document what was in front of me, for others to place it into history.
The photos are courtesy of the George W Bush Presidential Library and Museum, and is the third batch of images to be released since the attacks.
It was during his visit to the Brooker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, when Mr Bush learnt of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
He and his staff, including press secretary Ari Fleischer, moved to another room in the school to watch footage of the planes hitting the towers and to prepare an address the nation.
Mr Bush then flew to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, before moving on to another air base in Nebraska.
Aboard the Air Force One plane, he was consoled by Lieutenant Colonel Cindy Wright of the White House Military Office.
Ive directed the full resources for our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice, the president said at 8.30pm from the White House. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbour them.
Later that evening, following a speech to the nation where he claimed that our fellow citizens our way of life our very freedom came under attack, he met with secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld, vice president Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House chief of staff Andrew Card, among others.
The shadow of 9/11 has loomed large over Mr Bushs presidential legacy.
9/11 helicopter footage released
A classified document recently threatened to reveal a network of people from Saudi Arabia that helped the bombers to get set up in the US, enrol in flight school and carry out the attacks.
The so-called "28 pages", so far only seen by several politicians and intelligence officers, has been locked away for 13 years.
President Obama is facing increasing pressure to declassify the report.
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An Arkansas judge accused of being a criminal predator has stepped down from the bench after allegations emerged that he used his position of power for three decades to sexually abuse young men who appeared in his courtroom.
Although the initial allegations were made public last year, Cross County District Judge Joe Boeckmann resigned on Monday after new accusations came to light. According to documents obtained by the Associated Press, Mr Boeckmann allegedly photographed and paddled men for lighter sentences - particularly those who could not afford the fines associated with their charges, or men who were afraid of losing their children or jobs.
One case alleges that Mr Boeckmann forced a man to strip naked, wear handcuffs, and pose for photographs.
He's a criminal predator who used his judicial power to feed his corrupt desires. Every minute he served as a judge was an insult to the Arkansas Judiciary, executive director of the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission (JDDC), David Sachar, told the AP. The JDDC had reportedly been investigating the judge, who does not yet face criminal charges.
In his resignation letter Mr Boeckmann did not admit to the allegations, but he said he would not serve in a public office again.
I further promise to never seek employment as a local, county, or state employee or public servant in the State of Arkansas, the letter said.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said that Mr Sachar and a panel of investigators expects to receive an excess of 3,400 more photographs very soon. At least 1,050 photographs had already been found by investigators on the judges computer. The JDDC said they are also issuing a subpoena for the paddle identified by witnesses as Mr Boeckmanns.
According to documents, the Mr Boeckmann favoured white men, and allegedly sentenced many to community service that he did not record on court dockets. These included various tasks, such as picking up garbage at his house, as well as numerous sexual acts. Some of these relationship, CBS says, lasted years - at least two reportedly lasted as many as five.
The JDDC listed 55 witnesses who will testify against Mr Boeckmann. At least 12 victims have been identified by investigators.
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With less than a year in office, President Barack Obama is continuing to make nothing less than history.
Two months after he became the first sitting US president in a century to visit Cuba, the White House has announced that he will visit Hiroshima, the first American leader to do so since the Japanese city was turned to rubble in 1945 by a US nuclear bomb.
Mr Obama and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make the May 27 visit to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement. It will be Mr Obama's fourth visit to Japan.
Mr Kerry wrote in the museum guestbook that it was a 'stark' reminder of the need to end the threat of nuclear war (AP)
When President Obama first visited Japan in November 2009, he said he hoped he would one day visit both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the United States dropped atomic bombs during the very final days of World War II.
The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world, and I would be honored to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point during my presidency, Mr Obama said at the time.
At least 140,000 people were killed, most of them civilians, when the city became synonymous with the first wartime use of a nuclear weapon on August 9 1945. Three days later, the US dropped a second atomic device on the city of Nagasaki and within a week Japan had surrendered to Allied forces.
Mr Obamas visit will follow that of Secretary of State John Kerry, who was among foreign ministers from G7 nations who took part in a ceremony at a peace park in the city in April. Britains Philip Hammond also took part in the event.
Mr Kerry said his visit had been a gut-wrenching reminder of the need to get rid of nuclear weapons.
It reminds everybody of the extraordinary complexity of choices in war and of what war does to people, to communities, to countries, to the world, he said.
Recommended US Secretary of State John Kerry will not apologise to Hiroshima victims 70 years after nuclear bomb
A White House advisor, Ben Rhodes, wrote on Tuesday that Mr Obama will reflect on took place in the city 70 years ago. He said he would not revisit the use of an atomic bomb but will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future.
"To be sure, the United States will be eternally proud of our civilian leaders and the men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II for their sacrifice at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world," he said. "Their cause was just, and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude, which the President will again commemorate shortly after the visit on Memorial Day. This visit will offer an opportunity to honor the memory of all innocents who were lost during the war."
The Associated Press said that the White House has ruled out the possibility that Obama will apologise for the bombing of Hiroshima.
On Tuesday, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, the Japanese Prime Minister said he hoped to turn "this into an opportunity for the US and Japan to together pay tribute to the memories of the victims of the nuclear bombing.
President Obama visiting Hiroshima and expressing toward the world the reality of the impact of nuclear radiation will contribute greatly to establishing a world without nuclear arms, he said, according to Reuters.
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Senators in Brazil have started a debate on whether to oust President Dilma Rousseff, a movement that has built up steam and turned into a referendum on her leadership amid several crises facing Latin America's largest nation.
If a simple majority of the 81 senators vote in favor, Ms Rousseff will be suspended from office and Vice President Michel Temer will take over for up to six months pending a decision on whether to remove her from office permanently.
Senate President Renan Calheiros has said he wants the vote to happen on Wednesday night.
The vote in the Senate will decide whether an impeachment case against Ms Rousseff is accepted, a move which would mean Ms Rousseff being put on trial for allegedly breaking fiscal rules in her management of the national budget.
If Ms Rousseff were convicted and removed definitively, Mr Temer would stay in the post until elections in 2018.
Ms Rousseff denies any wrongdoing and insists the impeachment amounts to a coup aimed at removing her left-leaning Workers' Party, in power for 13 years
The way was cleared for the session in the Senate after the acting speaker of the lower house of Brazil's Congress, Waldir Maranhao, reversed a controversial decision to annul another key vote in the impeachment process against Ms Rousseff. .
On Monday, Mr Maranhao orginially sought to annul a 367-137 vote, taken in the Chamber of Deputies in April, to oust Ms Rousseff, which sent the matter from the to the Senate for a possible trial.
Senate President Renan Calheiros said on Monday that Mr Maranhao was playing with democracy and vowed the Senate would press ahead with Wednesday's vote. It is expected to take place at the end of an all-day session of speeches.
Mr Marahnao's spokesman Marcos Alberto said on Tuesday that the acting speaker reversed the decision just over 12 hours after he had originally announced it.
Such reversals are a staple of Brazilian politics, and the impeachment drama has been filled with such dramatic turns.
Later on Tuesday Ms Rousseff took her battle to survive impeachment to the Supreme Court. Attorney General Eduardo Cardozo, the government's top lawyer, asked the Supreme Court to annul impeachment proceedings, his office said.
The impeachment proceedings come as Brazil is grappling with its worst recession in decades, a continuing corruption probe that already has embroiled top politicians and prominent businessmen, and an outbreak of the Zika virus. At the same time, the country's showcase city, Rio de Janeiro, is gearing up to host the Olympics in August.
Ms Rousseff's once-overwhelming public support has eroded with the onslaught of bad news, with her approval ratings dipping into the single digits in recent months. While polls have suggested broad public support for her impeachment, they have also pointed to widespread worry about who might replace her.
Mr Maranhao had argued that the lower house vote last month was riddled with irregularities, including party leaders telling members how to vote.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Maranhao said the vote was We are not, nor will we ever be, joking around with how we make democracy.
Ms Rousseff is battling impeachment over allegations that her government violated fiscal rules, in what critics say was a bid to artificially bolster the country's flagging economy. Ms Rousseff denies all allegations against her. She has previously said that prior presidents used such fiscal manoeuvres and that the impeachment effort amounts to a coup aimed at removing her and her left-leaning Workers' Party, which has governed the country for 13 years.
Ms Rousseff reacted cautiously to Mr Maranhao's initial announcement before it was reversed, suggesting it was not entirely clear what was happening.
We have a difficult fight ahead of us, she said at an event about education. She also called for caution, saying that we live in a time of cunning and wile.
Mr Maranhao took over the reins in the Chamber of Deputies after former Speaker Eduardo Cunha, who was the driving force behind the impeachment effort, was suspended over corruption and obstruction of justice allegations against him, something he denies.
The head of the Brazilian Order of Attorneys, Claudio Lamachia, said the organisation regards the decision with extreme worry.
This sort of action responds to the momentary interests of certain political groups but ignores legitimate decisions that have already been made, Mr Lamachia said.
AP; Reuters
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Marty Baron, my boss and the executive editor of The Washington Post, gave a commencement speech at Temple University over the weekend. It was on the fungible nature of truth in our modern world and how everyone is not, in fact, entitled to their own set of facts.
This line -- about the 2016 presidential race and politics more generally -- stood out to me:
What has taken hold is an alternate reality, a virtual reality, where lies are accepted as truth and where conspiracy theories take root in the fertile soil of falsehoods.
Yup.
People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Show all 8 1 /8 People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Miley Cyrus 'God he thinks he is the f***ing chosen one or some shit! Honestly f*** this sh*t I am moving if this is my president! I dont say things I dont mean!' Jemal Countess/Getty Images People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Whoopi Goldberg 'I dont think thats America. I dont want it to be America. Maybe its time for me to move you know' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Samuel L. Jackson 'If that mother**er becomes president, Im moving my black ass to South Africa' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Raven Symone 'My confession for this election is, if any Republican gets nominated, Im gonna move to Canada with my entire family. Is that bad? I already have my ticket. I literally bought my ticket, I swear' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Cher 'If he were to be elected, I'm moving to Jupiter' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Neve Campbell 'Im terrified. Its really scary. My biggest fear is that Trump will triumph. I cannot believe that he is still in the game ... [I'll] move back to Canada' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Jon Stewart 'I would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet, because clearly this planets gone bonkers' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Randy Blythe 'He could just be a clown. If he is the president, though, I am leaving America 'till he's gone'
One of the most frequent complaints I hear when people find out I am a political reporter is that "the media doesn't fact-check Donald Trump enough." To which I say BS. No one has been fact-checked more by "the media" -- including WaPo's own Fact Checker blog -- than Trump. No one has received more Four Pinocchios ratings -- denoting an outright falsehood -- than Trump. (Seventy percent of the two dozen or so Trump statements the Fact Checker has examined have been awarded Four Pinocchios.) And no one cares less about those three previous sentences than Trump and the legions of supporters who propelled him to the Republican presidential nomination.
Glenn Kessler, who runs the Fact Checker, wrote a piece about Trump's post-truth campaign over the weekend. Here's a key line:
Trump makes Four-Pinocchio statements over and over again, even though fact checkers have demonstrated them to be false. He appears to care little about the facts; his staff does not even bother to respond to fact-checking inquiries.
Kessler's piece and Baron's speech make the same point in different ways: Trump and his supporters are simply not interested in the facts. Their distrust of the "mainstream" media is such that anything the media calls a "fact" is assumed to be a lie. Up is down. The sky isn't blue if the media says it is. Journalists are corrupt and liberal; they couch their biases in "fact checking."
As I've noted to many people who have badgered me about the media not doing its duty in regards to Trump's decidedly casual relationship with fact: You are mistaking a lack of changed minds with a lack of fact checking. There has been a ton of the latter. It has produced almost none of the former. That is not a failure of fact checking. It is the death of the belief in fact.
Jon Stewart calls Trump a 'man-baby'
This, from Baron, captures the state of affairs nicely:
"Fact-checking by mainstream media organisations has no effect. We are objects of suspicion, accused of hiding facts. Seeing opportunity, politicians exploit these fabrications for their own ends, repeating them -- or staying silent when they know full well they are untrue."
The blame for our post-fact political world -- or maybe just our post-fact world -- lies in lots of places.
The fragmentation of the media over the past decade has spawned dozens of ideologically driven news sites, radio stations and cable TV outlets. That leads to a siloing effect in which a conservative only consumes information that affirms their point of view. Ditto a liberal. You can go through each day as a well(-ish)-informed person without ever hearing a sliver of news that contradicts what you already believe.
The movement toward self-sorting -- we increasingly live and work around those who think (and look) like us -- also plays a part. (If you have not read "The Big Sort," you need to do so immediately.)
Technological innovations -- YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook -- have enabled politicians to end-run all forms of media and tell their own stories to their supporters replete with their own "facts."
And then there is the remarkably cynical exploitation of all of these realities by politicians -- of which Trump is either the shining symbol or the notable nadir.
Willfully misrepresenting facts knowing that your audience will believe you no matter what anyone else tells them is a decidedly slippery slope. And a dangerous one. If you are willing to ignore facts about the "small" things, where do you draw the line on what you aren't willing to fib about?
Again, Baron: "We must ask ourselves: How can we have a functioning democracy when we cannot agree on the most basic facts?"
The answer is we can't. Period. And a post-truth campaign inevitably leads to a post-truth presidency. The implications of what we are witnessing in the everyday back and forth of this campaign are dire. And, for the life of me, I can't figure out when, if or how it will all end.
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A Florida man accidentally shot himself while cleaning his handgun, but only noticed two days later when he changed his shirt and discovered the bullet hole in his arm.
Michael Blevins, 37, checked himself into a hospital in Orange City, Florida on Saturday after finding entrance and exit wounds in his arm. According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Mr Blevins told police he had been cleaning his .22 calibre pistol last Thursday when he held the weapon to his chest to prevent his dog jumping up at it.
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As he stood up, his bad back gave out, he fell and hit his head on a glass coffee table. He heard a gunshot at the time, he said, but felt no pain perhaps because he was taking medication for his back pain. It was only on Saturday, as he changed from his long-sleeved black shirt into a light brown one, that he realised he had injured himself.
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One of the Baltimore police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died last year from injuries sustained in custody, has waived his right to a jury trial and will have his case heard by a judge alone.
Edward Nero is the second officer to stand trial for charges related to the death of Mr Gray, whose case was championed by Black Lives Matter campaigners and led to widespread unrest in the Maryland city. Judge Barry Williams granted his request for a so-called bench trial.
Mr Nero, 30, was one of three bicycle officers to arrest Mr Gray when he allegedly fled unprovoked. Mr Gray suffered a neck injury while being transported in a police van without a seatbelt. He died a week later, on 19 April 2015. Riots broke out on 27 April, the day of his funeral.
Police officers are known to request bench trials in the hope that judges will be more lenient than juries. Mr Nero and the other five officers facing charges related to Mr Grays death have tried to have their trials held elsewhere to escape the potential bias of a Baltimore court, given the overwhelming media coverage of the case and the citys majority black population.
Mr Nero and the other two bicycle officers have all pleaded not guilty to the same misdemeanour charges of second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. They are not charged in Mr Grays death.
The other three officers face charges including involuntary manslaughter and, in the case of the vans driver, Caesar Goodson, second-degree murder. The first trial in the case, of Officer William Porter, ended in December with a hung jury.
Mr Neros trial will begin on Thursday in Baltimore, and is expected to last at least six days.
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The mother of the unarmed black boy who was killed by a white police officer, sparking protests and exposing institutionalised racism within the police, is writing an autobiography to tell the "truth" about her son's death.
Lesley McSpadden was taking a cigarette break from her grocery store job in August 2014 when she got a call from a friend to say someone had been shot near her mothers apartment in Ferguson, Missouri.
Within minutes she found out the victim was her son. 18-year-old Michael Brown had been killed by 28-year-old white police officer Darren Wilson, and she has spent the last two years fighting for justice.
Her book, Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil: The Life, Legacy and Love of My Son Michael Brown, released on 10 May, is co-written by Lyah Beth LeFlore. It details Ms McSpaddens upbringing in tough St Louis neighbourhoods, her becoming a mother at 16 years old, her devastation at her sons death and how her push to honour his memory catapulted her sons death into becoming a catalyst for the national Black Lives Matter movement.
Ms McSpadden, 36, told the Associated Press that she wants readers to know what a sweet person he was and how gentle he was and that he always tried to do the right thing. She writes about her son reading out an essay on Martin Luther King at school and his hobby of fixing computers.
Mr Brown was leaving a store with his friend on 9 August 2014 when Mr Wilson pulled up in his police car and identified Mr Brown as a shoplifting suspect. They had a scuffle while Mr Wilson was still in the car.
Mr Wilson got out his car and said that Mr Brown charged towards him.
Chicago cop investigated after allegedly saying Michael Brown 'got what he had coming'
Details remain contested. Witnesses say the officer chased Mr Brown on foot and shot him after he put his hands up.
Mr Browns body lay in the summer heat for four hours after he was killed.
The shooting sparked massive unrest in the city and led to two investigations of the city's police department. The first African American police chief in Ferguson, Delrish Moss, was sworn in this week.
Ms McSpaddens wrongful death lawsuit is still making its way through court after the US Justice Department cleared Mr Wilson, who resigned in November 2014.
She said she and a police officer argued at the scene of her sons death in the street, and they swore at each other.
He put his middle finger up and he put it in my face and he took an assault rifle and he posed with it, Ms McSpadden said.
She has spoken at a United Nations committee in Switzerland, stood beside Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail and has featured in a Beyonce video with the mother of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager killed by a neighbourhood watch volunteer, holding photos of their sons.
In the book Ms McSpadden writes: "Never mind what you've heard or think you know about Michael Brown, or about me, for that matter. You don't know about Mike Mike. You don't know about me. Now, you might know something, some snippet, some half a moment in time, but you don't know my son's life and what it meant, and an eighteen-second video doesn't tell you anything about eighteen years."
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There is at least one cat alive today that was around for Ronald Reagans 1986 sweeping immigration reform, Michael Jacksons We Are The World, and David Bowies performance in The Labyrinth - and his name is Scooter.
Named the Oldest Living Cat by the Guinness Book of World Records, Scooter, 30, has lived a fruitful life in Mansfield, Texas, with his owner Gail Floyd. Ms Floyd has been with Scooter since his 26 March 1986 birth.
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Scooter has unlocked the secret to longevity by keeping active, Ms Floyd tells Guinness. He likes to see new places and he likes people, she said.
In his 30 years of life, Scooter has set foot in all but 5 US states - more than double the national average of 20 when the feline was two-years-old in 1988.
The senior feline had a bit of a scare in 2014 after he broke his leg in an accident, according to Ms Floyd. Still, Scooters veterinarian has the utmost confidence in the cat.
That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last Show all 10 1 /10 That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last (1) Press Image l For the LOL of Cats l Maru.jpg Mugumogu Courtesy of The Photographers Gallery, London That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last (2) Press Image l For the LOL of Cats l Michael Cross, Cooper Cat.jpg Michael Cross Courtesy of The Photographers Gallery, London That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last (3) Press Image l For the LOL of Cats l Cooper Cat.jpg Michael Cross Courtesy of The Owner & The Photographers' Gallery, London That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last (4) Press Images l For the LOL of Cats l Cooper Cat.jpg Michael Cross Courtesy of The Owner & The Photographers' Gallery, London That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last (5) Press Images l FOR THE LOL OF CATS l Nancy Bean Portrait.jpg Christian Allen Courtesy of The Photographers' Gallery, London That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last (6) Press Image l For the LOL of Cats l Nancy Bean Study 015.jpg Christian Allen Courtesy of The Owner The Photographers' Gallery, London That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last (7) Press Image l For the LOL of Cats l Nancy Bean Study 012.jpg Christian Allen Courtesy of The Owner The Photographers' Gallery, London That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last (8) Press Image l For the LOL of Cats l Cat #1681 Lily .jpg Kathy Bengston / infinitecat.com Courtesy of The Photographers' Gallery, London Image 9 That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last (9) Press Image l FOR THE LOL OF CATS l Stray Cat, Kabukicho, 2012 .jpg Toru Umeda Courtesy of The Artist & The Photographers' Gallery, London That Friday feline: Lolcats given cultural recognition at last (10) Press Image l FOR THE LOL OF CATS l Cat Scan, Schtob 2008.jpg Schotb Courtesy of The Photographers' Gallery, London
Scooter is quite an amazing cat, with a strong will to live, the doctor told Guinness.
Guinness Book of World Records
Before Scooter, the title of Oldest Living Cat belonged to Corduroy, a 26-year-old Maine Coon. To be named the oldest cat, however, does not necessarily require the death of the previous victor.
Their owners have to submit applications on behalf of their cat, a spokesperson for Guinness told The Independent. We find out after their owners apply for them; not necessarily after the previous one dies.
According to Guinness, the review process lasts about 12 weeks.
Still, Scooter may, in fact, be very old, but he does not hold the record for the Oldest Cat Ever. That title belongs to Creme Puff, an Austin, Texas, cat who lived for 38 years and 3 months.
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Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate, has narrowed the choice of running mate to just five or six people.
The New York tycoon said that all of those potential candidates had deep political experience and he said that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, the man he has named to head his transition team, has not been ruled out.
In an interview with the Associated Press, the 69-year-old said that was prioritising political experience, because he wanted a vice president to help him with legislation, getting things through Washington if he wins the White House.
Mr Trump and Mr Christie laughed as protestors were escorted out the hall (AP)
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, are among the Republicans who have suggested they would be open to joining Mr Trump on the ticket.
Others have ruled out being considered, including Mr Trumps former primary rival, Florida Senator Marco Rubio.
I stand by the things that I said during the campaign, the Florida senator told CNN, referring to his critics of Mr Trump.
But I'm not going to sit here right now and become his chief critic over the next six months, because he deserves the opportunity to go forward and make his argument and try to win.
As to backing Mr Trump, he added: I signed a pledge, put my name on it, and said I would support the Republican nominee and thats what I intend to do.
Key Senate Republicans voiced optimism Tuesday about Mr Trumps presidential prospects in November, signaling clearly to the rank and file to unite behind the bombastic billionaire and turn their energy toward battling Democrat Hillary Clinton.
We have a nominee, it looks like he may well be very competitive, and we want to win the White House, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
We know that Hillary Clinton will be four more years of Barack Obama. I think thats going to in the end be enough to unify Republicans across the country.
Among those being talked of as potential running mates, are Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, who was one of the first Republican office-holders to endorse Mr Trump, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, and Ohio Governor John Kasich, himself a 2016 presidential hopeful.
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A new poll has found that Donald Trump is less popular with the American public than head lice, but marginally preferred to haemorrhoids. Given the historic unpopularity of the presumptive Republican nominee for President who has a staggering 65 per cent average unfavourable rating, according to Real Clear Politics the survey by Public Policy Polling asked respondents to compare their opinion of Trump to other commonly disliked people and things.
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As many as 54 per cent thought more highly of head lice than they did of The Donald, who also proved to be less popular than traffic jams, hipsters, root canal surgery and Nickelback, the critically unloved Canadian rock band. To his credit, the race-baiting billionaire did beat cockroaches by 46 to 42 per cent, and haemorrhoids by 45 to 39 per cent. However, among women, Mr Trump even lost out to insects and anal discomfort. Thats right: American women would rather have piles than a Trump presidency.
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Marco Rubio says he has no plans to endorse Donald Trump or become his vice president.
The Florida senator took to Facebook on Monday night to admit that he still has reservations about Trump's campaign platform.
I have never sought, will not seek and do not want to be considered for Vice President, Rubio said.
This is the first time Rubio has explicitly denied speculaiton that he could be in the running for a position in Trump's presidency, should the presumptive Republican nominee win the general election come November. Rubio also said that he'd retain his focuse on his work in the senate, to help Republicans get elected across the ballot in Florida as well as the rest of the states.
"I will focus my attention on representing the people of Florida, retaining a conservative majority in the Senate and electing principled conservatives across the country."
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A new law in Utah is forcing abortion doctors to render their patients unconscious to ensure that the foetus does not feel pain.
The Protecting Unborn Children Amendment aims to eliminate or alleviate organic pain to the unborn child, arguing that a foetus can feel pain after 20 weeks a claim that is not backed up by science.
Republican Senator Curt Bramble told lawmakers he would ban abortions if he could, but the US Supreme Court has blocked this path.
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This will require that if we are going to take the life of an unborn child, he said, as reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, then anaesthesia would be required to protect the child from the infliction of pain at the time their life is forfeit.
The law does not require doctors to inform women of the risks and side effects of receiving an anaesthetic which, medical experts argue, their patients do not need.
Youre asking me to invent a procedure that doesnt have any research to back it up, Dr Leah Torres, who works at one of Utahs two licensed abortion clinics, told the New York Times. You want me to experiment on my patients.
Providers do already offer anaesthesia to patients seeking later term abortion, but it is not compulsory and doctors must inform women of the possible risks.
Dr Torres said there is no guidance in the new law on what kind of drug or how much should be administered to patients, as the law has been compiled by politicians and not medical experts.
Doctors are also required to tell patients that substantial medical evidence from studies concludes that an unborn child who is at least 20 weeks gestational age may be capable of experiencing pain during an abortion procedure.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that a foetus does not develop the ability to feel pain before 29 or 30 weeks.
Doctors say the law is not medically possible, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, yet if they refuse to follow the new law, doctors could face a third-degree felony.
At least 12 states have tried to ban abortion after 20 weeks altogether, and failed, as reported by Think Progress. However, the new law in Utah, the first of its kind in the US, might as well be a ban as it could deter doctors from performing the procedure altogether.
Imagine that I sit down with a patient and tell her what she can expect and how I'm going to take care of her, Dr Anne Davis, consulting medical director for Physicians for Reproductive Health, told CNN. And somehow I work in, 'Oh, by the way, the state has told me that I have to give this to you?' She asks, 'Why?' And I say, 'There's no benefit to you, but there will be additional risk.
A study by Rutgers University in February found that a third of women who get leaflets on abortion from the state are being misinformed. In North Carolina, women are told that foetus between 12 and 14 weeks have fully formed lips, noses and fingernails are starting to grow.
A March study discovered that 70 per cent of recently introduced state abortion restrictions are based on false information.
Arizona recently passed a law to require doctors to tell women that their abortion procedure might be reversible, which most doctors say is wrong. Arizona Planned Parenthood public policy director Jodi Liggett called the law dangerous and quite simply outrageous.
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It was Vinny Desautels mother who first told him about cancer.
His mother, Amanda Azevedo, a hair stylist, was helping cancer survivors get their hair ready for a gala and he wanted to help too. She told him he could grow out his hair, cut off the locks and donate them for wigs for youngsters who had lost their hair to the disease.
Now, two years after he began growing his hair - and enduring the slights and playground jibes of his schoolfriends - Vinny is himself confronting cancer.
Vinny Desautels before and after his hair was cut (Facebook)
The seven-year-old, from Roseville, California, and his family have been told he has an aggressive stage four form of the disease.
I want to help people so they dont have to go to the doctors to fight cancer, Vinny told the KTXL television channel, of his voluntary efforts.
During that time, he grew his hair out 13 inches, and when the time came for a haircut he mailed it off to a group that made wigs for children.
Basically what they found is that he has a significant growth on his hip and in the bone around the eye and behind the nose, and on the cheek on the right side, said Jason Desautels, Vinnys father.
Vinny and his parents are trying to be optimistic (GoFundMe)
The seven-year-old is optimistic and trying to make sense of the diagnosis.
Well the veins from my hip are traveling to another place right behind my eye and it`s making it squinty, Vinny said.
Since the diagnosis, the Desautels have taken the youngster for a series of tests. Doctors are reportedly almost certain that it is Ewings sarcoma, a rare form of the disease that manifests in the bone or soft tissue. A GoFundMe page has been established for his medical costs.
His family told US media that the boys right eye was now almost entirely shut and that they were preparing for an extended hospital stay; Vinny will begin chemotherapy treatment on Tuesday.
As long as were there with a smile, telling him hes going to be alright, he has the same attitude, said the boys father. Vinny is like us - an eternal optimist.
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The son of the former Pakistan prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has been freed from Taliban kidnappers by US and Afghan forces.
Ali Haider Gilani was abducted by unknown assailants on 9 May 2013 when eight armed men opened fire at a meeting in Farrukhabad and dragged Ali Haider into a car.
PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari confirmed the former premiers sons recovery. PM Yousuf Raza Gilani received a call from ambassador of Afghanistan.
"His son Haider Gilani has been recovered in a successful operation, the PPP chairman said on Twitter
Pakistan's foreign ministry said the Afghan National Security Adviser, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, told Pakistan's foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, in a telephone call that Ali Hiader Gilani was found on Tuesday and is safe.
Gilani, believed to be in his thirties, is the son of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani whose secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People's Party's led several major offensives against militants.
Last year, the elder Gilani said the kidnappers demanded the release of several al-Qaida prisoners in exchange for his son.
Gunmen kidnapped the younger Gilani in May 2013, several days before the general elections in Pakistan.
Additional reporting by agencies
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A 22-year-old woman in India was allegedly dragged out of a car and thrashed by a group of men for wearing a short dress and roaming around with men late at night.
The unnamed woman said she was travelling home from a dance lesson with friends at around 5:30am in the city of Pune, near Mumbai, when a group of men in another car began to follow them and hurl abuse at her.
She told local police: While returning home, a car containing a group of men followed us till our house and blocked our way. Later, they dragged me out of the car and thrashed me.
When one of her male friends attempted to intervene he was also hit.
She said the men targeted her because of what she was wearing and because she was with two men late at night.
They allegedly came back five minutes later to threaten her with dire consequences if she ever did it again, the Hindustan Times reported.
Police initially delayed filing her complaint and only began to investigate a week later.
Two men have been arrested so far and police are now looking for the others involved, according to the International Business Times.
Women in Kolkata stage peaceful protest outside the courthouse where three men are sentenced to death for gang-raping and murdering a 20-year-old woman
Three policemen are also being investigated for failing to file the report correctly.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Arvind Chaweria said the police were using a technique called burking - a practice where they file complaints late to manipulate crime figures.
The incident is just the latest in a long line of examples of violence against women in India.
India protests against sexual violence Show all 20 1 /20 India protests against sexual violence India protests against sexual violence April 2015 School girls wear black bands on their faces during a protest rally against the rape case of a 16-year-old girl at Dhupguri town in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal Reuters India protests against sexual violence March 2015 Students of Convent of Jesus and Mary School participate in a protest against the alleged gang rape of a nun in her 70s AP India protests against sexual violence March 2015 Official figures for the number of women raped in India are often disputed by Women's Rights experts who claim the numbers are far higher SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images India protests against sexual violence March 2015 Women protest after the horrific rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in India BBC India protests against sexual violence June 2014 Women in India protest against rape and other attacks on women and girls in the country AP India protests against sexual violence June 2014 Indian activists from the Social Unity Center of India (SUCI) shout slogans against the state government in protest against the gang rape and murder of two girls in the district of Badaun in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and recent rapes in the eastern state of West Bengal, in Kolkata AFP/Getty India protests against sexual violence June 2014 Supporters of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were protesting against the rape and hanging of two girls Reuters India protests against sexual violence May 2014 Members of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union shout slogans during a protest against a gang rape of two teenage girls in Katra village, outside the Uttar Pradesh state house, in New Delhi. A top government official said the northern Uttar Pradesh state has sacked two police officers who failed to respond to a complaint by the father of the two teenage girls who went missing and were later found gang raped and killed. The placard at right reads, "Punish the culprits of gang-rape and murder of two Dalit girls" AP Photo/Manish Swarup India protests against sexual violence January 2014 Student protesters outside a Suri hospital where a rape victim is being treated Andrew Buncombe India protests against sexual violence January 2014 West Bengal Women's Forum activists walk a protest rally against a rape case in Calcutta, eastern India. A young girl was gang-raped on October 25 and afterwards repeatedly threatened by the accused, following which the disturbed girl set herself on fire December 23. She was admitted to the hospital with 40 percent burns and finally succumbed to her burn injuries on 31 December EPA India protests against sexual violence August 2013 Republican Party of India supporters protest in Mumbai against the rape of a female photographer Reuters India protests against sexual violence May 2013 Indian demonstrators shout slogans at the police during a protest calling for better safety for women AFP/Getty Images India protests against sexual violence April 2013 An Indian woman holds a poster as she protests with others against how Indian authorities handle sex crimes near the Parliament in New Delhi, after a second suspect was arrested in the rape of a 5-year-old girl. Child rights activists say the rape of the girl is just the latest case in which Indian police failed to take urgent action on a report of a missing child. Three days after the attack, the girl was found alone in locked room in the same New Delhi building where her family lives AP India protests against sexual violence March 2013 Indians protests against all-too-common gang-rapes in their country Getty Images India protests against sexual violence January 2013 Indian students of various organisations hold placards as they shout slogans during a demonstration in Hyderabad Getty Images India protests against sexual violence January 2013 A protester chants slogans as she braces herself against the spray fired from police water canons during a protest against the Indian government's reaction to recent rape incidents in India, in front of India Gate on December 23, 2012 in New Delhi Getty Images India protests against sexual violence January 2013 Indian children paint messages during a gathering to mourn the death of the 23-year old rape victim. Her statement was used in the trial AP India protests against sexual violence January 2013 Indians hold a candlelight vigil in Delhi in memory of a gang-rape victim. Five men have been charged with murder AP India protests against sexual violence December 2012 Indian protesters are escorted by police as they demonstrate against the brutal gang-rape of a woman AP India protests against sexual violence December 2012 Indian protesters destroy a police van during a violent demonstration near the India Gate against a gang rape and brutal beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus AP
It comes as footage emerged of a 13-year-old being whipped by village elders who said she deserved to be punished for the crime of being raped by her father.
The plight of women in India came to international attention in 2012 when a young medical student called Jyoti Singh was gang raped, beaten and mutilated by a group of men while on a bus in New Delhi.
The international outcry lead the Indian government to fast-track the trials of the five men, who were given the death penalty, and one juvenile.
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Despite this, many women are blamed for being attacked, with claims they must have been behaving immodestly.
One of her attackers, Mukesh Singh, said her death was an accident but she was more to blame for it.
A decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night, he said. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boys and girls are not equal.
Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes.
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A female Muslim writer has hit back after her article on sex and religion was censored by a Pakistani newspaper.
The Karachi-based Express Tribune was due to run the sex-positive opinion piece entitled Sex talk for Muslim women, written by award-winning author, Mona Eltahawy. It first appeared in the New York Times, but the Pakistani newspaper was wary of running such a controversial article.
Pakistan is a highly conservative country and suffers deep-rooted problems with gender inequality and violence against women.
The article dealt with the suppression of female sexuality in religious cultures in the Middle East and elsewhere, and the lack of dialogue surrounding the issue. Ms Eltahawy was not aware of it being censored anywhere else.
I am not a cleric, and I am not here to argue over what religion says about sex, Ms Eltahawy wrote. I am an Egyptian, Muslim woman who waited until she was 29 to have sex and has been making up for lost time.
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
My upbringing and faith taught me that I should abstain until I married. I obeyed this until I could not find anyone I wanted to marry and grew impatient. I have come to regret that it took my younger self so long to rebel and experience something that gives me so much pleasure.
She cited numerous examples of other women feeling a similar way in other countries around the world.
However, the Express Tribune, which is partnered with the International New York Times, chose not to run the piece. Instead, the space it should have filled on the page was left blank, although the piece could be viewed online in Pakistan.
A senior source at the newspaper said the publication cant afford to publish such controversial articles about Islam, the Guardian reported. The offices of the liberal newspaper have previously been targeted by the Pakistani Taliban and the publication has self-censored on occasion in the past.
In response, Ms Eltahawy said the censorship was an example of how much of Pakistani society believes a woman who disobeys and who openly claims sexual liberation and pleasure is dangerous and must be silenced.
Ms Eltahawy defended her article, saying: Sex is happening, but shrouded in taboo and shame As women of colour and women of faith, we need to see women who look like us. Sex positivity isnt the domain just of white feminism.
She also referenced award-winning film director Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, whose 2012 documentary on acid attacks, Saving Face, won her international acclaim.
So many Pakistanis attacked her for making Pakistan look bad, Ms Eltahawy said, And not enough attacked what is actually making Pakistan look bad: men who are ready to kill women for daring to believe they have the right to consent and agency over their bodies.
In 2015, there were more than 1,000 honour crimes committed against women in Pakistan, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which also recorded the gang rapes, kidnapping, acid attacks, amputations, burnings and suicides of women.
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Rodrigo Duterte, the man known for joking about rape and pledging to kill criminal suspects, has been elected as president of the Philippines.
"Our people have spoken and their verdict is accepted and respected," outgoing President Benigno Aquino III's spokesman Sonny Coloma said in a statement. "The path of good governance ... is already established as all presidential candidates spoke out against corruption."
Mr Dutertes victory had been clear before the official result had been announced, with the 71-year-olds main rival, the former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, conceding defeat. "Digong, I wish you success," Roxas said at a news conference, using Duterte's nickname. "Your victory is the victory of our people and our country."
Mr Duterte, 71, said he will take up his new role with extreme humility, the BBC reported.
In the election for vice president, who is separately elected in the Philippines, the son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was trailing by a hair to a political neophyte, Rep. Leni Robredo, who is backed by the outgoing president.
The election has seen Mr Duterte thrust himself into national politics for the first time after 22 years as mayor of Davao, a city on the southern main island of Mindanao, before which he was known as a government prosecutor.
In those two jobs, Duterte gained notoriety by going after criminals, although he was accused of carrying out hundreds of extra-judicial killings. His past has earned him the nicknames of The Punisher and Duterte Harry, a reference to the Clint Eastwood movie character with little regard for rules, while his inflammable statements have caused many to term him The Donald Trump of the East.
Philippines polls: Rodrigo Duterte headed for victory
He has made speeches peppered with rape jokes and anecdotes about his Viagra-fuelled sexual escapades, and with undiplomatic remarks about Australia, the United States and China, all of which are key players in the countrys politics.
He once made a joke about wanting to have been the first person to have raped an Australian missionary who was gang raped and killed by inmates in a 1989 jail riot. When he was criticised by both the Australian and American ambassadors to the Philippines, he told them to shut up.
He said he would talk with China about territorial disputes in the South China Sea but if nothing happened, he would sail to an artificial island newly created by China and plant the Philippine flag there. China, he said, could shoot him and turn him into a national hero.
He has also threatened to form a one-man rule if legislators in the Congress oppose him, and on Monday, when he was asked to comment about his image as a mass-murder advocate, he replied: "I'm sure that there will be a resurrection one of these days." He did not elaborate further on the comment.
Additional reporting by AP
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A woman faces up to 15 years behind bars after she replied yeah to a private Facebook message.
Patnaree Chankij has been released on bail after being arrested under Thailands strict lese-majeste laws, which forbid any criticism real or perceived - of the monarchy.
But campaigners say the law is increasingly being used to stifle dissent and cited a increasing trend of the law being implemented extremely harshly.
Recommended Read more A man who changed the lives of hundreds faces years in Thai prison
The ruling military junta, known as the National Council for Peace and Order, insisted it had sufficient evidence Ms Patnaree was violating the lese-majeste rules, The Bangkok Post reported.
Ms Patnaree replied ja and hur similar to the acknowledgement yeah and an expression of sighing to a Facebook message deemed to be offensive to the royal family.
It was discovered by the police's Technology Crime Suppression Division, which reportedly screen-grabbed the messages between Ms Patnaree and another suspect, Burin Intin, 28, who has also been arrested.
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 content of the original message is unknown as it has not been repeated, to avoid the insult being uttered again.
Critics say the government is trying to intimidate Ms Patnaree and her son, Sirawith Seritiwat, a prominent student democracy activist who has frequently criticised the authorities.
The military has run the country since a coup in 2014 and martial law was only lifted last year.
Recommended Read more Anonymous launch retaliatory cyberattack against Thai police
A lawyer representing Ms Patnaree, Anon Numpa, wrote on social media that she had been charged because she had not responded or discouraged the sender for writing the offensive message.
"Someone sent you messages that may violate Article 112 [relating to insulting the royal family], and you saw them, yet did not stop or prevent them, is equal to you participating in the offence," the lawyer wrote. "Are we really going to walk this path?
Asia director of Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams, told the news agency: "Now they are targeting a dissident's mother as they try to gag his outspoken criticism. This is a new low even for a junta which has made abuses of human rights a daily occurrence."
Under the lese-majeste laws, Thai authorities have also investigated a man who insulted the Kings dog, a nurse who wore black around the time of the Kings birthday and people who ran a Facebook page deemed to be offensive to the Prime Minister.
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More than 500 French politicians and activists have called for an end to a conspiracy of silence about alleged sexual misbehaviour by politicians after a senior Green MP was accused of groping and harassing female colleagues
Denis Baupin, 53, denies the allegations but has resigned as vice-president [deputy speaker] of the National Assembly until investigations are carried out.
His wife, Emmanuelle Cosse, a former leader of the French Green party, now minister for housing, said on Tuesday that she had complete confidence in her husband.
These are extremely serious claims, which should be settled in court if they are true but also if they are not true, Ms Cosse said.
Mr Baupins lawyer said that the allegations, some of which date back 15 years, were mendacious, defamatory and baseless.
Four green female politicians, who made the claims, said they had spoken out because Mr Baupin had hypocritically joined a group of male politicians who spoke out against sexism in politics in March.
They said it was time finally to confront the sense of sexual impunity of some male politicians in France, which had persisted despite the series of scandals which engulfed the former IMF chief and French finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn from May 2011.
One of the accusers, Sandrine Rousseau, is the official spokeswoman for the French green party, Europe-Ecologie-les Verts (EELV).
She told the news website Mediapart and France Inter radio that Mr Baupin groped her during a party meeting near Paris in October 2011.
In the corridor outside the meeting hall, he came up to me. He pushed me up against the wall while holding my chest and tried to kiss me. I pushed him away violently.
Isabelle Attard, member of parliament for Calvados in Normandy, who left the EELV in 2013, said Mr Baupin had bombarded her with almost daily provocative, salacious text messages. Similar allegations were made by two other local, green politicians, Elen Debost, assistant mayor of Le Mans, and Annie Lahmer, a green councillor in the western Paris suburbs.
Ms Debost said she had received sexually suggestive text messages from Mr Baupin for several months despite making it clear to him that I was not interested.
A petition signed by 500 politicians and political activists, calling themselves, the End the Omerta Collective was published in the centre-left newspaper Liberation. The signatories, mostly women and mostly green or left wing, said it was time to end the conspiracy of silence which they claimed surrounded sexual harassment in French politics.
The petition condemned the absence of action by political parties and the difficulty that they have in even admitting that the problem exists although in hushed voices everyone speaks about it.
A similar petition was circulated by female journalists in France last May complaining about sexism and sexual harassment by male French politicians.
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A German restaurant has temporarily shut its doors over fears for its staff safety after receiving a barrage of threats over its Erdogan burger.
The owner of Urban Burgery in Cologne named a new creation after the Turkish President last month.
It advertised the item as tasty and juicynaturally, with goats cheese, in an allusion over a satirical poem by German comedian Jan Bohmermann.
It sparked a diplomatic row between Ankara and Berlin, resulting in Mr Bohmermann being prosecuted under a little-used German law forbidding insult to foreign heads of state.
Jorg Tiemann, the owner of Urban Burgery, told local media he wanted to set an example in solidarity with jailed Turkish journalists Can Dundar and Erdem Gul.
The Erdogan Burger proved a commercial hit and drew widespread support online, but also sparked a slew of insults and threats on the restaurants Facebook page.
Mr Tiemann told the Bild newspaper that four well-built men wearing dark clothes stood watching his staff through the window for 20 minutes on Thursday.
Shortly afterwards, a Facebook user called on people to join him paying the business a visit.
On Saturday, managers said Urban Burgery was forced to close until further notice, denouncing insults, lies and tirades.
Because of specific threats, especially an Erdogan supporters call to visit our business with others, we can no longer guarantee the safety of our employees, a statement said.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most controversial quotes Show all 8 1 /8 Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most controversial quotes Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most controversial quotes The Turkish President's craziest quotes Just a week before he was elected President, he called Erdogan Amberin Zaman, the Turkey correspondent for 'The Economist', a "shameless militant woman disguised under the name of a journalist" after she had asked an opposition leader whether "Muslim society is able to question" the authorities. "Know your place," Erdogan said. "They gave you a pen and you are writing a column in a newspaper. "And then they invite you to a TV channel owned by Dogan media group and you insult at a society of 99 per cent Muslims," he said he said according to Today's Zaman newspaper. Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most controversial quotes The Turkish President's craziest quotes Turkish people are pictured chanting slogans during an anti-government protest on Taksim square in Istanbul, on 29 June, 2013. The protests were sparked by brutal police action against a local conservation battle to save Istanbul's Gezi Park, and soon turned into nationwide demonstrations against the government. Amid the protests - the worst in Turkey for years - Erdogan accused demonstrators of being "arm-in-arm with terrorism," according to Reuters. "This is a protest organized by extremist elements. We will not give away anything to those who live arm-in-arm with terrorism," he said. GURCAN OZTURK/AFP/Getty Images Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most controversial quotes The Turkish President's craziest quotes During last years protests, activists used social media to organise and disseminate information. Several dozen tweeters were arrested following the protests, according to local media reports. Erdogan responded by calling the technology a "menace". "There is now a menace which is called Twitter," Erdogan said. "The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society," BBC New reported. Vladimir Astapkovich/RIA Novosti via Getty Images Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most controversial quotes The Turkish President's craziest quotes Not helping to allay accusations of authoritarianism, after Turkish police detained 49 people, including well-known business people and those close to the ruling party, Erdeogan ominously told reporter that Turkey "is not a banana republic" that can be affected by unnamed "operations", according to Today's Zaman newspaper. People who are backed by the media and certain funders cannot change this country," he said. "People backed by certain dark gangs both inside and outside Turkey cannot mess with the country's path. They cannot change conditions in Turkey. Turkey is not a country that anyone can launch an operation into. The [Turkish] nation will not allow that. The AK Party, which is governing this nation, will not allow this." Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most controversial quotes The Turkish President's craziest quotes Friends and relatives of the miners who died in an explosion at the Soma mine are pictured praying following the burial in Soma cemetery of the last body to be recovered from the mine in May 2014. At the time, the then-Prime Minister badly misjudged the Soma mining disaster, in which 301 workers died. He told the relatives of dead and dying miners that "these types of incidents are ordinary things", following allegations that the government had ignored safety concerns about the privately owned mine, the Guardian reported. In his defence, Erdogan recounted in a separate speech a list of mining disasters which occurred abroad, including a British disaster in 1862, and one in America "which has every kind of technology". Oli Scarff/Getty Images Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most controversial quotes The Turkish President's craziest quotes Palestinians pictured attending Friday noon prayers in a destroyed mosque that was hit by Israeli strikes, in Gaza City. As Prime Minister, Erdogan has condemned Israel, accusing it of deliberately killing Palestinian mothers and warned that the it would "drown in the blood it sheds." Speaking to thousands of supporters during a rally in Istanbul ahead of the 10 August election, Reuters reported him as saying: "Just like Hitler, who sought to establish a race free of all faults, Israel is chasing after the same target." "They kill women so that they will not give birth to Palestinians; they kill babies so that they won't grow up; they kill men so they can't defend their country ... They will drown in the blood they shed," he said. AP Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most controversial quotes The Turkish President's craziest quotes Amid the worst protests in Turkey for years which had spread across dozens of cities last June, Erdogan accused demonstrators of being "arm-in-arm with terrorism," according to Reuters. A demonstration to halt construction in a park in an Istanbul square grew into mass protests against a heavy-handed police crackdown and what opponents called Erdogan's authoritarian policies. "This is a protest organized by extremist elements," Erdogan said before departing on a trip to North Africa. "We will not give away anything to those who live arm-in-arm with terrorism," he said. Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most controversial quotes The Turkish President's craziest quotes In March 2014, Erdogan accused a 15-year-old boy who died from injuries sustained in last year's anti-government protests of being linked to terrorism. Berkin Elvan, who became a symbol of anti-government protests, had gone to pick up bread when he was hit with a teargas canister - sending him into a nine-month coma before he passed away. In a speech broadcast on state TV, Erdogan said of Berkin: "This kid with steel marbles in his pockets, with a slingshot in his hand, his face covered with a scarf, who had been taken up into terror organisations, was unfortunately subjected to pepper gas. How could the police determine how old that person was who had a scarf on his face and was hurling steel marbles with a slingshot in his hand? ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images
But one thing is certain: We will not be muzzled by the enemies of democracy, rule of law and civil liberties.
The restaurant remained closed on Monday, when owners announced their intention to increase security with high-definition CCTV cameras and other measures.
Managers are also planning a solidarity campaign for detained journalists in Turkey and to raise money for their families.
Meanwhile furore over the Bohmermann poem continues, with Mr Erdogans lawyers seeking a preliminary injunction against a German publishing executive over his support for the comedian.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has drawn heavy criticism over her decision to allow Mr Bohmermann to be prosecuted in what critics said violated freedom of speech.
The Turkish President is known for his sensitivity to criticism, with prosecutors opening more than 1,800 cases against people for alleged insults since he took office in 2014.
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A German man who killed one victim and injured three more in a stabbing attack at a railway station had no links to terror networks, authorities have said.
Lothar Kohler, from the Bavarian criminal investigation office, said there was no indication that the 27-year-old man had connections with any Islamist or Salafist groups or the scene in general.
That the attacker shouted Allahu Akbar has been confirmed by witnesses and also by the perpetrator himself, he told a press conference.
Munich knife attack
Survivors of the attack at Grafing station, near Munich, also reported the man shouting: You are infidels, you must die!
Mr Kohler said police were investigating whether the suspect was a Muslim convert following comments made in an interview, during which he admitted the attack.
Authorities did not confirm the full name of the suspect, who was arrested at the scene of the attack shortly after 5am local time (4am BST).
He has been named locally as Paul H and authorities confirmed he is a German citizen from Giessen, in the state of Hesse.
The man is a trained carpenter but has been unemployed for two years, according to investigators, who said he had recently undergone psychiatric treatment and was known to have taken an unspecified drug two days before the attack.
In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. AP In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack A policeman walks past flowers, placed at the stairs of a train station, following a knife attack in Grafing train station Reuters In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. AP In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. EPA In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. AP In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Two bicycles at the scene of a deadly knife attack at a railway station in Grafing, Bavaria, on 10 May 2016 EPA In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Secured by forensic specialists of the German police a bicycle lays on the floor at the crime scene after a deadly knife attack in Grafing Getty Images In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack A forensic expert of the police is seen working in front of a bistro near the train station in Grafing Getty Images In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack A police officer takes pictures at the train station after an attack in Munich. One person has been killed and several injured after suspected Islamist stabbed passers-by at a railway station in Grafing Reuters
It was unclear whether he was still under the influence of any substances.
Ken Heidenreich, from the prosecutors office, said officials are investigating potential charges of murder and attempted murder.
But he added that there were questions over whether the "confused" suspect could be held criminally responsible and said evaluations were underway over whether he should be taken to a psychiatric facility.
Officials said the suspect had arrived at Grafing station overnight, having been unable to afford a hotel in Munich, and launched his attack on the mornings first S-Bahn train toward the city centre.
A rucksack containing his passport, drivers licence, documents and shoes were found near the scene, said Gunther Gietl, the Vice President of Bavaria's police force.
Carrying a 10cm-long survival knife, the man attacked his first victim on the stationary train, before stabbing another man on a platform and targeting two cyclists on the station forecourt.
Two bicycles at the scene of a deadly knife attack at a railway station in Grafing, Bavaria, on 10 May 2016 (EPA)
He was barefoot at the time, and photos of the crime scene showed bloody footprints leading away from a train door and on to the platform where he continued the attack.
When asked why he was not wearing shoes, the suspect told police he felt bugs on his feet that had caused blisters and were generating intense heat".
A 56-year-old man died in hospital, while three other victims aged 43, 55 and 58 were wounded, one seriously.
Angelika Obermayr, the mayor of Grafing, told N-TV local people were in shock in the quiet little town.
Something like this is completely new and has shaken people deeply - it is something you only see on television, she added.
That it happened here is completely incomprehensible.
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One person has been killed and several injured in a knife attack by a suspected Islamist at a railway station near Munich.
The suspect reportedly shouted Allahu Akbar (God is great) as he started stabbing passers-by in the town of Grafing, to the south-east of the German city.
The attack took place at around 4.50am (3.50am BST) on Tuesday and the suspected perpetrator was arrested shortly afterwards.
Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. (AFP/Getty Images)
The suspect, a 27-year-old German man, has been named locally as Paul H, from Giessen in the state of Hesse.
Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian interior minister, said he had confessed to carrying out the atrocity.
He told the DPA news agency the suspect was not previously known to police for extremism but had psychological problems and drug issues.
A newspaper delivery worker was stabbed in the back during the "indiscriminate" assault, a firefighter told the Merkur newspaper.
The attack started on an S-Bahn train, where the first victim was injured, before the man stabbed another person inside the station and targeted two cyclists, witnesses told local media.
In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. AP In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack A policeman walks past flowers, placed at the stairs of a train station, following a knife attack in Grafing train station Reuters In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. AP In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. EPA In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Forensic investigators at the scene of a stabbing attack on a train at Grafing railway station near Munich, Germany, 10 May 2016. AP In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Two bicycles at the scene of a deadly knife attack at a railway station in Grafing, Bavaria, on 10 May 2016 EPA In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack Secured by forensic specialists of the German police a bicycle lays on the floor at the crime scene after a deadly knife attack in Grafing Getty Images In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack A forensic expert of the police is seen working in front of a bistro near the train station in Grafing Getty Images In pictures: Knife attack at German railway station Grafing attack A police officer takes pictures at the train station after an attack in Munich. One person has been killed and several injured after suspected Islamist stabbed passers-by at a railway station in Grafing Reuters
A spokesperson at the Bavarian state criminal investigation office told The Independent that a 56-year-old man was initially in a critical condition but died later in hospital.
Three other men aged 43, 55, and 58 were seriously injured, with one in a life-threatening condition.
A spokesperson for the state prosecutor's office confirmed that the attack was believed to have a political or "Islamist background" but could not give any further details.
Angelika Obermayr, the mayor of Grafing, told N-TV local people were in shock in the "quiet little town".
"Something like this is completely new and has shaken people deeply it is something you only see on television," she added.
"That it happened here is completely incomprehensible."
Two bicycles at the scene of a deadly knife attack at a railway station in Grafing, Bavaria, on 10 May 2016 (EPA)
Dr Rudiger Grube, the CEO of German railway company Deutsche Bahn, said the firm was dismayed and saddened and paid tribute to staff who intervened to stop the attacker as he tried to harm more people.
Our deepest sympathies go to the relatives of the victim and those injured in the attack.
My thanks go to our employees, who intervened courageously to prevent the perpetrator from carrying out further attacks.
German authorities increased the nationwide terror alert level following November's Paris attacks, increasing security at transport hubs, tourist attractions and major events.
A police officer takes pictures at the train station after an attack in Munich. One person has been killed and several injured after suspected Islamist stabbed passers-by at a railway station in Grafing (Reuters)
Two railway stations in Munich were evacuated temporarily on New Year's Eve in an alert over an alleged suicide bombing plot by Isis supporters.
More than 800 German jihadists are believed to have joined Isis and other terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria.
Isis has also issued propaganda directed at supporters in the country, including one video calling for them to travel to Syria or wage terror attacks at home.
A German-born militant who grew up in the UK appeared in the footage and spoke about the "staged" experience in an exclusive interview with The Independent.
The video showed a jihadist calling on supporters, in German, to pick up a big knife, go down to the streets and slaughter every infidel you encounter.
Authorities have not confirmed any link between the attack in Grafing and Isis.
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Dont go to the place where the bombing took place. Go to our tourist places, go to the nice refugee camp, the deputy governor of Gaziantep requested. Anyway, our security forces are extraordinarily effective, so the security situation is overall fine, despite what has happened.
Sitting at the Governors Palace, Halil Uyumaz was keen to stress how well Gaziantep was doing. And, indeed, the city and the surrounding region has grown and prospered since we journalists first began to pass through there on the way to cover the Syrian civil war.
The trappings of affluence have been acquired via funds from international aid and the arrival of the Ankara government thanks to Gazianteps strategic location just 30 miles from Syria. But that proximity has also brought deadly violence and refugees; the grim consequences of the bloody strife across the border.
A security officer stands guard as Angela Merkel, Donald Tusk and Ahmet Davutoglu visit a child protection centre on the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep (AFP/Getty Images)
A suicide bombing at Gazianteps heavily guarded central police station, two days before Mr Uyumaz spoke last week, claimed the lives of three policemen and injured 22 others. Two days later residents in the neighbouring town of Kilis took out a newspaper advertisement pleading to the Turkish authorities to provide better security against attacks from Syria. Rockets fall on our houses, shrapnel pieces rain on us, we are being killed in our homes, on the streets, it said. We are citizens of the Turkish Republic, we are not subtitles on a news programme.
Gaziantep and its hinterland is also the main area for the dispossessed around 2.7 million Syrians and 300,000 Iraqis that Turkey is hosting and, as such, has come under focus in relation to the European Union refugee agreement. Under the contentious deal, Turkey will take back all the refugees who cross the Aegean Sea to get into Greece, sending, in their place, others who agree to follow legal channels for the journey.
In return, the EU is giving Ankara billions of euros for refugee welfare, and is supposed to offer visa-free travel for Turkish nationals, as well as hastening the process of Turkey joining the EU.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (centre) and former Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu (left) talk with children at a Gaziantep refugee camp (AFP/Getty Images)
Two weeks ago German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, visited a refugee camp, Nizip, in Gaziantep. Ms Merkel praised Turkey for making the greatest contribution to refugees. Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish Prime Minister, who was accompanying them, made it clear what Ankara really expected of the EU: The issue of the visa waiver is vital for Turkey.
Since then Mr Davutoglu, who brokered the refugee deal with Ms Merkel, has been forced to resign by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has also refused to reform the countrys terrorism laws, one of the key EU stipulation for changing the visa regime. You go your way, well go ours, was the Presidents blunt message.
Recommended Read more We must guard against conflating refugees with terrorists
The Turks charge the West with ingratitude over its counter-terrorism role. We are the permanent borders of Nato, nobody seems to give us any credit for that, complained Murat Salim Esenli, under-secretary at the Turkish foreign ministry. We are fighting terrorists and this is protecting Europe as well as us.
But there have been accusations that, in the past, the Turks have helped Syrian Islamist rebels, sometimes by facilitating the transport of weapons funded by the Saudis and the Qataris, and this has been a factor in establishing the extremist presence in Gaziantep and other border areas.
Two prominent Turkish journalists, Can Dundar, the editor of the centre-left Cumhuriyet newspaper, and its Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul, have been jailed for five years for publishing a story about weapons, being sent to Syria by Turkish intelligence, being stopped by Turkish military and police. A gunman opened fire at a press conference being given by the journalists following their sentencing last week, injuring one of their colleagues.
People inspecting the remains of the bombed out car outside Gaziantep police station (Reuters)
The suicide bomber who carried out the attack on the Gaziantep police station was a Turkish member of Isis, Ismail Gunes, according to security forces who carried out 32 arrests following the blast. At the end of last week, the Turkish military announced that in two separate exchanges it had killed three Isis fighters and injured 11 others as they were trying to cross over from Syria, the latest in a rising series of clashes.
Syrian activists, who led the protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and had then been targeted by the hardline jihadists who had taken over the revolution, have discovered that fleeing Syria has not brought escape from its violence. Half a dozen of them have been murdered in Turkey by Isis.
The presence of extremists, Turkish and foreign intelligence agencies, and smugglers variously of people, arms, looted historical artefacts, and oil, have made the border towns a place of illicit opportunities and danger.
I first met Yassir al-Aboud when he was a rebel fighter in Aleppo four years ago fighting under a commander, Hajji Marea, a former honey-trader who became leader of the group Liwa al-Tawhid, and died two and half years ago in a Turkish hospital after being injured in a regime air strike in Syria.
Aboud, 36, came to Turkey after being wounded, leaving armed struggle behind because he was disillusioned by infighting among the rebel factions. There is good money being made here if one has the right connections, but one must be very careful, people may not be who they seem to be. There are so many Syrians here now it is not difficult for dangerous people, killers even, to move around. I am personally very careful, we have all got enemies, said Aboud at a cafe where the clientele were almost all Syrians.
Gaziantep is home to thousands of displaced Syrian children (Getty)
Most of the Syrians will stay here. Some have gone to Europe; that may become difficult for a while now, but, you know, these smugglers always find new routes. There are still lots of camps of course, but how long will they be kept open?
There are around 350,000 Syrians in Gaziantep: around 200,000 of them live outside the camps. Under Turkish law, Syrians cannot total more than 10 per cent of an employers workforce and finding employment is not easy. Abdulhamid Khoury, a friend of Aboud, looks after his family of six through casual building work and charity donations. I havent got connections like Yassir, so its hard work. There is nothing left over for extras, so its hard, but I dont want to stay in a camp, he said. We are more in control of our lives outside.
Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Show all 11 1 /11 Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkey's two million Syrian refugees There are already over 2.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, but their current camps can only hold 200,000 people ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkish citizens protest a new deal, also criticised by human rights activists, which will see refugees who arrived in Greece after March 20 be sent back to Turkey AP Photo/Emre Tazegu Turkey's two million Syrian refugees An estimated 80% of Syrian refugee children already in Turkey are unable to attend school BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Refugee children beg for water near the Turkey-Syria border. Turkey has been accused of illegally deporting asylum-seekers back to Syria BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees In Turkey, no-one from outside Europe is legally recognised as a refugee, meaning the 2016 deportations may not meet international legal standards for protecting vulnerable people BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees A refugee child cries as she is searched by police at the Syria-Turkey border, where 16 refugees (including three children) have been shot dead in the last four months BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Many refugees are living rough on the streets of cities such as Istanbul or Ankara (pictured) ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkish soldiers use water cannon on Syrian refugees BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Syrian refugees shelter from rain in the streets of Istanbul BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees A derelict building housing Syrian refugees in Istanbul Carl Court/Getty Images Turkey's two million Syrian refugees Turkey houses around half of all the refugees who have currently fled Syria Carl Court/Getty Images
One needs the permission of the authorities to go into the camps. I was taken to Nizip, the place where Ms Merkel and Mr Tusk were recent visitors, a complex projected by authorities as very much a showpiece. Comprised largely of containers, it appears to be well run, with schools, shops and basic medical facilities. Two families produced for interviews by officials maintained everything was excellent. They had no intention of going to Europe, they insisted, because things will not be so good there.
But away from the crowd, Hassan Ismail intimated his plans to go to Germany. I must keep trying for that. There is nothing left for my family to go back to in Syria, as you know, he said. We dont want our children growing up in camps, a generation growing up in camps. We dont want to end up like the Palestinians.
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Saudi women continue their campaign of demanding the right to drive cars in the kingdom.
Many women in Saudi Arabia took to social media to protest against the law that prohibits them from driving.
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Women who drive in Saudi Arabia are perceived to be crossing boundaries and going against the countrys traditions and customs.
#IWillDriveMyCarJune15, which has received around 1 million mentions, has been trending on Twitter with users discussing the possibility of allowing women to drive.
Some supporters of the campaign, like Sahar on Twitter, think the country has two options, either to permit us to drive or provide special discounted transportation for women.
On the other hand, many Saudi men used the hashtag to make fun of female drivers.
Joking about womens driving being reckless, Mishari posted: #IWillDriveMyCarJune15 Just make sure you wear your seatbelt.
Another male Twitter user said that women will be permitted to drive cars in the Saudi Kingdom, but only toy cars.
Other Saudi men supported the campaign, believing that it is a Saudi womans rights to be able to drive.
One user said: 199 countries dont have a problem with women driving cars, except one. This issue is too minor to be discussed, the country should allow and implement this, full stop.
Womens driving remains a controversial topic in Saudi Arabia.
A pan Arab channel called MBC had published a poll on Twitter using a hashtag asking followers if they support or oppose allowing women to drive.
The poll was later deleted after results showed more people voting against, at around 78 per cent.
Although it is widely known it is illegal for Saudi women to drive cars in the country, there is no official law which bans them. It is however the religious police that prevents women from driving.
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So ol Doc Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Ladens chief executive successor, has told the Syrian Jabhat al-Nusra that it can dissociate itself from Al-Qaeda. Good public relations: Nusra doesnt like the Isis caliphate very much, but as long as it remains a Qaeda clone, it cant get off Americas terrorist list and qualify to join the (non-existent) 70,000 Syrian moderates dreamed up by David Cameron and a lot of American television networks.
Qatar's relations with Nusra raises questions. It denies direct ties with the group, and yet six months ago the Qatari Al-Jazeera channel interviewed Nusras leader, Mohamed al-Jolani, who said that it had nothing against Christians, Alawites or Americans only that pesky president in Damascus whos got Hezbollah, Iran and Russia on his side.
Have no doubts about the Qatar link. Nusra boys have just released three Spanish journalists held in northern Syria for the past 10 months, after which the Qatari state news agency boasted that the Qatari authorities were involved in freeing them. You bet they were. Had the unlucky three fallen into the hands of those other morbid sons-of-the-desert, Isis (for whom many Saudis seem to have an unhappy affection), then the reporters would have had their throats cut on videotape against a soundtrack of yet more mushy "nasheed" music.
When a group of Christian nuns fell into Nusra hands in Syria in 2013, Qatar helped to bail them out via Lebanon at a reported price of more than $1m a nun and was duly thanked by the Lebanese security authorities. If readers are getting a little bit suspicious, perhaps wondering if the Qataris are trying to take over the armed Syrian opposition from Isis and its Saudi Salafist brothers, they may well be right.
But now the flip side of the story. Just a week ago, an essay appeared in Foreign Policy magazine, the bi-weekly co-founded by the late Samuel Huntington (of Clash of Civilisations infamy) and now owned by the Graham Holdings Company (which formerly owned the Washington Post). The author Charles Listers thesis, if such it can be called, is that al-Qaeda is trying to take total control of the Nusra and overshadow Isis to become the primary Islamist power in the region.
Nusra, according to Lister, is rebuilding a military coalition and plans to soon initiate major offensive operations south of Aleppo in order to spoil US and Russian efforts for a truce in the city. The best way of thwarting Al-Qaedas ambitions is to dramatically scale up assistance to vetted [sic] military and civil components [sic, again] of the mainstream opposition inside Syria, he writes. All this, of course, because weve so far given insufficient backing to those moderate elements of the opposition who cant compete with the battlefield power and capacity to control territory of Nusra.
So far, so good. Far from breaking free of al-Qaeda, Listers version of Nusra suggest that its been ever more deeply penetrated by al-Qaeda or Al-Qaeda Central, as he calls it to the point where Saif al-Adel, the most influential living al-Qaeda figure other than Zawahiri, has arrived in Syria. And Adel has done so almost certainly, as Lister adds reassuringly, with three other key al-Qaeda figures.
These guys are now supposedly discussing the setting up of yet another "emirate in Syrias Idlib province. But the recent cessation of hostilities catalyzed a dramatic re-empowerment of Syrias moderate protest movement and the revitalisation of the most [sic, yet again] moderate elements of the opposition which doesn't suit Nusra/Al Qaeda.
An anonymous Free Syrian Army (ie: moderate) commander is quoted by Lister as confirming that al-Qaeda forces represent everything we are opposed to, they are the same as the regime. But what can we do when our supposed friends abroad give us nothing to assert ourselves? What a broad spectrum of Syrias opposition need, therefore, is a substantial expansion of military, political and financial assistance.
These Free Syrian Army groups, Lister says, now number 50 phew! vetted by the CIA, all of which operate in coordination with locally legitimate [sic yet once more] civil, political and judicial bodies.
So who is the writer Charles Lister? Among his various academic duties, hes a senior consultant for the Shaikh Groups Track II Syria Initiative. The shaikh in question is not a Middle East potentate but Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Centre in Qatar and fellow at the Centre for Middle East Policy, formerly the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy (the Saban being Haim Saban, the American-Israeli film and television mogul who donated $13m to the centre and has given substantial funds to Hillary Clintons presidential campaign).
Nusra and allies make gains outside Aleppo
Lister, according to his various CVs, was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Centre and has helped negotiate a process of engagement with the leaderships of over 100 Syrian armed opposition groups. Which is an awful lot of rebels far more than the 70,000 conjured up by Dave Cameron.
So whats going on down in Doha? The Brookings Doha Centre belongs to the Brookings Institute and its co-chair is Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber bin Thani al-Thani, a member of the Qatari ruling family and former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Is the real debate, therefore far from being thrashed out in Idlib province really going on down in Qatar, whose present leadership has gone a long way to clean up Nusras reputation and to present it as the real moderate opposition which deserves all that CIA help?
A final point. Isis has been bloody quiet recently, in every sense of the word. No gory videos, no nasheed songs. Why? Because its losing ground to the Syrians and their allies? Because it lost Palmyra?
Or because its waiting to find out whether Nusra is going to be the darling of the Syrian opposition and thus America and Europe or targeted by all of us as an even more apocalyptic version of Isis?
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The announcement of the closure of the two largest refugee camps in Kenya, a temporary home to 600,000 people mostly of Somali origin, presents another refugee crisis for governments to solve, albeit one rather further from home than the destruction of the illegal camps housing Syrian and other migrants across the English Channel at Calais.
That should not mean it is another case of out of sight, out of mind. The fates of these unfortunate African refugees, who will now find themselves on the move yet again in their lengthy and futile attempt to find security, deserve our assistance just as much as those landing in Europe.
The pressing need to find a safe, stable place for those evicted is not the only similarity between the situation in Kenya and that on European soils. Writing in The Independent on the decision to shut the camps, Kenyan interior minister Karanja Kibicho said the sites had become hot houses for terrorist groups and must be closed to protect ordinary Kenyan citizens. Some of the largest terrorist attacks, such as the 2013 Westgate atrocity, have been planned and executed from Dadaab, he wrote. Our intelligence and security forces have known for a long time that these camps are a dire threat to our peoples security.
Similar language has been used to describe conditions within the camp known as the Jungle at Calais. Kevin Hurley, a Surrey police chief, has described the site as a hiding place for terrorists seeking to target the UK or Europe. If I were a returning jihadi I would smuggle myself into this group, he remarked.
There is, inevitably, a truth to both comments: refugee camps are often desperate places where, with their residents pushed to societys margins, extremist and even terrorist sympathies can flourish. But these camps are also home to families fleeing war and persecution, and to children caught up in conflicts of which they bear no responsibility yet much of the pain and suffering.
The rhetoric around terror and refugee camps helped the UK Government to defend the indefensible, in turning away Syrian child migrants who should be sheltered and protected by Britain. That decision has happily been reviewed.
Linking refugee status to terrorism is a dangerous and unfair linguistic shorthand which allows the government and citizens to brush over their responsibilities to the lost and the vulnerable. It must be resisted, and exposed wherever it still happens. Kenya may have valid reasons to close its two largest refugee camps; the spurious inference that the 600,000 desperate individuals who live in them are dangerous criminals is not one.
Joan Burton said it had been 'a great honour for me to serve as leader and deputy leader of the party'
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has praised Joan Burton for helping to rescue the economy as she resigned after less than two years as Labour leader.
The former tanaiste's move clears the way for her six Dail colleagues to vie for nominations for the job of resurrecting the party after its election annihilation.
The frontrunners are Alan Kelly, environment minister in the last coalition and the bookmakers' favourite, and Sean Sherlock, a former junior minister and a less divisive figure.
Ms Burton will remain in the job until her successor is appointed but refused to be drawn on her preferred candidate or whether she wanted to see an agreed leader.
"It's been a great honour for me to serve as leader and deputy leader of the party," she said.
Ms Burton said she stood by her decision to go into government in 2011, despite the hammering her party subsequently took in the February general election in which the party lost 30 of its 37 Dail seats.
She accepted not everyone has experienced the limited economic revival and said her party could not deliver quickly enough.
"We didn't do everything right but I believe we left Ireland a better place than we found it - the true test for any party in government," she said.
Mr Kenny thanked Ms Burton for her work over five years in coalition.
"During this time, she and her ministerial colleagues in the Labour Party played a major role in rescuing the Irish economy, which was on the brink of collapse when we entered government in 2011," he said.
"Many of the tough decisions that had to be taken to turn the country around were unpopular and politically difficult but Joan Burton and her colleagues were steadfast in doing what was right for the country."
Mr Kenny said Ms Burton spearheaded many welfare reforms to drive job creation and slash unemployment from more than 15% to 8.4% over the five years.
Ms Burton, TD for Dublin West, made her announcement after a meeting of Labour's parliamentary party in Leinster House.
Brendan Howlin, a party veteran and also a former minister, has expressed interest in the role but it is unlikely he will run for the job unless he seeks assurances that he will go unopposed.
Mr Kelly has never shied away from making clear his ambitions in the party.
Regardless of the outcome, the only job will be patient rebuilding of a support base which has been eroded by growing support for Sinn Fein and hard-left parties and anti-water charge campaigners.
Under Labour rules leadership candidates must be nominated and seconded by a TD, limiting the options for candidates.
The contest is expected to last several weeks and all party members will be eligible to vote.
Bookmakers Boylesports installed Tipperary TD Mr Kelly as the odds-on favourite for the leadership.
Ms Burton was first elected to the Dail in 1992 and lost her seat in 1997 only to regain it in 2002.
She took the last seat in the Dublin West constituency in the February election.
She was tanaiste from July 2014 and also served as minister for social protection and held two other junior ministries in her early career.
Ms Burton claimed Labour has a future in Irish politics and the hung Dail and minority government will make for more open and progressive debate.
Leo Varadkar, Ms Burton's successor in the Department of Social Protection, an openly gay minister and her constituency counterpart in Dublin West, said he was personally grateful for her leadership in the gay marriage referendum.
"She fought for equality in Ireland and against inequality in South Africa and around the world, not because it was popular but because she believed it," he said.
"Joan was a hard-working and reforming minister in social protection and has passed on a department transformed. She was a powerful advocate for social justice in the last government. I am privileged now to have the opportunity to build on her work in my new role."
Passengers and crew on a United Airlines flight were injured when a co-pilot twice put the plane into a dive
Seventeen passengers and crew were injured when a co-pilot on a transatlantic flight twice put the plane into a dive over fears it was going to stall.
The United Airlines jet was 80 miles south-west of Dublin on October 20 2013 when cockpit instruments gave the impression of low airspeed after flying through heavy turbulence.
The co-pilot pitched the nose of the Boeing 757 down twice, exceeding advised flight speeds.
Inspectors from the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport said any unrestrained people or belongings in the cabin were likely to have been thrown around by "rapid changes in G loads".
They found the misleading instrument readings may have been caused by icing of pitot probes which measure the actual speed of a plane.
It was one of the issues identified in the crash of the Air France Airbus A330 which went down in the Atlantic in a remote area off Brazil on June 1 2009 killing all 228 people, including three Irish doctors.
The AAIU report on the United Airlines incident also reported the co-pilot may have suffered startle effect - an uncontrollable fast pulse, muscle reflex and blood pressure in an unexpected event.
It said this may have followed the instruments indicating low speed as the plane came out of the turbulence.
Eight safety recommendations were issued by the AAIU including asking United Airlines to review some of its training and guidance for pilots.
After landing safely, eight passengers and two flight attendants, including one who cut their head, were treated in the airport for minor injuries.
Twelve days later a passenger contacted investigators and described being in a toilet at the back of the plane when it went into one of the dives.
He hit his head on the ceiling before falling and hitting a handrail on the back wall of the unit.
Another four passengers and two crew also reported being injured.
Inspections inside the plane showed a ceiling panel had been damaged and tea and coffee had been thrown around in the incident.
The seatbelt sign in the cabin had been on at the time as the plane was making its descent to Dublin Airport after flying from Newark.
The inquiry found the co-pilot twice pitched the nose of the jet into a dive and increased speed after reading his instruments.
The AAIU said control of the flight was handed over to the commander when the flight crew realised there was a problem with cockpit instruments.
There was no cockpit voice record of the incident available as it had been overwritten.
The AAIU said it accepted the co-pilot's word that he had unintentionally not pulled the correct circuit breakers to allow for the recordings to be recovered.
Units of Eirtech Aviation, the Shannon-based aircraft painting company, have concluded agreements with the Revenue Commissioners in relation to historical tax liabilities that have seen them hand over more than 2.7m to the authority.
Eirtech was acquired in 2014 by Los Angeles-based Vance Street Capital in a deal thought to be worth in the region of $50m (43m).
Eirtech Aviation Ltd has made a 1.1m payment to the Revenue in respect of its 2014 financial year, and 432,000 in respect of its 2013 financial year.
Eirtech Aviation (Dublin) Ltd made a 759,000 payment in respect of 2014 as a result of the agreement, and 496,000 in respect of 2013.
In the latest set of accounts for both firms just filed with the Companies Registration Office, Eirtech notes that it has secured the agreement with Revenue regarding the historical taxation liabilities "which were omitted in error from prior year financial statements".
Eirtech Aviation reported a profit of almost 1.5m for 2014. But the impact of the 1.1m adjustment slashed that to just 345,000.
The companies have also revealed that they're engaged in correspondence with the Revenue Commissioners with regard to a "technical interpretation of tax legislation".
"The directors are of the opinion that this matter is unlikely to result in a further liability to the company," it said.
Eirtech Aviation also paid a 1m dividend to shareholders in respect of its 2014 financial year, while Eirtech Aviation (Dublin), paid a 2m dividend. Accounts for that unit note that a fire that broke out at its hangar in Dublin last August cost the company about 417,000.
The company, which also refurbishes aircraft, has operations in Shannon, Dublin, Italy and the Czech Republic. Its clients include airlines such as Qatar Airways, Aer Lingus, Southwestern, Etihad and Alitalia.
Eirtech was 75pc owned by Niall Cunningham, who was chief executive of Eirtech, with the remainder owned by chief operating officer Peter Collins.
Vance Street Capital acquired Eirtech and integrated with its existing US aviation painting and refurbishment businesses, Leading Edge Aviation and Associated Painters. They have formed one group, called International Aerospace Coatings (IAC), of which Mr Cunningham is now CEO.
Eirtech did not respond to a query seeking comment.
What is the immediate future for rural broadband availability in farming areas like? Here are five warning signs that regional areas are about to enter an emergency phase of the country's broadband deficit.
1 Government promises are already up in smoke
Remember all the solemn promises over rural broadband action from independent TDs and opposition parties during government formation talks?
They have apparently disappeared: the deal struck between Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Independents has not reversed any of the recently announced delays to the National Broadband Plan, with completion now set for the delayed date of 2022.
The deal also confirms that no construction on the state-subsidised rural broadband network will begin for at least a year from now (summer of 2017).
Worse, the confirmed schedule means that almost half of rural homes and businesses to be reached won't see any start to their broadband rollout until 2019, three years from now.
In short, it's a huge let down - none of the deadlines and targets have changed.
On this schedule, over 100,000 homes and businesses look likely to wait for city-grade broadband until the next decade.
On the positive side, it's hard to see how pressure will not increase on government bodies and institutions before then.
To this end, the government has left itself some wriggle room with a vague promise to "work with local Councils to establish broadband taskforces to help facilitate the local roll out" of broadband in rural areas. If pressure continues to grow, that could mean expedited planning hearings.
2 Farmers are being relentlessly pushed online
Whether it's banking, managing orders or filing legally required documents, farmers are increasingly being pushed into internet processes to fulfil basic tasks.
"People living in rural communities urgently need proper broadband with local banks and post offices closing," said Seamus Sherlock, chairman of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (inset).
"The time is fast approaching when all farmers will be required to complete their [EU] Basic Payment Scheme applications online.
"When you don't have access to broadband, it will cause serious difficulties."
Macra president Sean Finan called on the government to prioritise broadband, as he pointed out at the Macra national AGM that the lack of investment in broadband infrastructure by successive governments has resulted in the "delay of economic recovery in rural areas".
3 Export potential for smaller agri-businesses is being hit hard
According to the latest European Union research on broadband's effects on local trade, Irish businesses thrive when they have proper broadband and fade away when they don't.
The European Commission's 'Digital Scorecard' found that small businesses in broadband-rich Irish cities are the most advanced in Europe for e-commerce and online trading. When surrounded by fibre, a full third of small Irish businesses - including farms - trade online in some way, which is twice the European average of 16pc.
Similarly, Irish small and medium sized businesses record 19pc of turnover from online trading activities, compared to an average of 9pc of turnover across the rest of the EU.
But just 8pc of rural Ireland is covered by fast broadband, a fraction of the European average of 25pc, making Ireland the most divided broadband country in Europe.
4 Even non-agri business lobbies say the lack of rural broadband is hurting the country
"Delivering the national broadband plan is a competitiveness issue," said a spokesman for Chambers Ireland, a national business organisation.
"Lack of broadband capacity in a region undermines the ability of regionally located Irish businesses to compete internationally and prevents workers living in rural areas being able to work remotely, very often a necessity in a modern enterprise."
5 The uncertainty about what happens next?
In the absence of any expedited progress on the National Broadband Plan, there are a handful of proposals that may yet see some light of day.
One of these is the idea that the state may look to release or build public assets that could facilitate access in the medium term.
This could be in the form of routes controlled by the National Roads Authority.
It could even come in what the minority government supporting Fianna Fail has previously mooted as a state-built mobile mast network that private operators could lease space off.
But nothing detailed on any of this has yet been formally tabled. The government is waiting to see how much rural areas will bear before actually expediting any new measures.
The next six months should prove to be a decisive period.
Masts, dongles and the sky your alternatives to broadband
Satellite broadband
What it is: Broadband using a satellite dish.
Pros: It works everywhere in the same way that satellite TV does. Just point it at the sky.
Cons: It has limited speeds (generally under 20Mbs), pricey set-up fees (200 plus) and very low monthly data caps (usually 10GB20GB). Normal data caps cost 80 upwards per month.
Fixed wireless broadband
What it is: An antenna is fixed on your roof, from where it connects to the nearest dedicated mast. Fixed wireless services are generally available within four to five miles of rural towns and sometimes beyond.
Pros: It reaches into parts of rural Ireland that have little or no adequate fixed line broadband options.
Cons: Its pricey and limited to very basic speeds. Fixed wireless services generally offer a fraction of the speeds available in cities: up to 8Mbs for 50 per month or more. They are also sometimes prone to weather-related outages.
4G mobile broadband
What it is: Broadband through your phone or a mobile dongle.
Pros: Expanding steadily throughout the country, unexpectedly present in some western and border county areas. Affordable (under 35 per month).
Cons: Very low monthly data allowances (as low as 5GB) compared to ordinary broadband services. Speeds can vary from day to day depending on weather and other users. Still non-existent in large areas.
A measure to incentivise Irish dairy farmers to produce less milk in a bid to control the market would be a "free gift" to our global competitors, a senior official has warned.
Brendan Gleeson, assistant secretary with the Agriculture Department, said a milk supply control mechanism similar to the measure championed by France would not make sense in the longer term.
Last month the European Commission introduced new rules allowing member states to introduce voluntary supply control measures on a temporary basis. The Department man believes there is "no prospect" of Irish co-ops going down this road and "if they do, there is no prospect of the State paying for it."
However, the ICMSA feels unprecedented action is needed and called for the introduction of a voluntary supply reduction scheme in Ireland and all EU member states as the best option to rebalance the market.
ICMSA president John Comer urged the new Agriculture Minister to bring in a scheme to pay at least 10c/l for every litre less a farmer produces in 2016 compared with 2015.
However, Mr Gleeson emphasised that the issue is complex, pointing out that 20 member states have increased production since the abolition of milk quotas, not just Ireland, which only accounts for 4pc of EU production.
"I see this as a matter for the industry itself to manage. This is a commercial exercise for processors," he told farmers and the agri-industry gathered at the joint IFA and FCStone risk management conference.
His robust rejection was echoed by Bernard Condon, director of dairy trading and ingredients with Ornua, as he pointed out that the French market is more or less self-contained, in contrast to Ireland's dependence on export markets.
Even if voluntary production limits were imposed here, it would not have an impact on global price, claimed Mr Condon.
Without impacting on overall supplies, Irish producers' problems would be compounded by not being able to offset low prices with volume, he added.
However, Mr Gleeson believes the Food Harvest 2020 target of a 50pc increase in production over 10 years will be met. "Though things have been difficult, farmers have been driving on and will drive on," he said.
THE developer of a controversial 20m aviation-fuel pipeline from Dublin Airport to Dublin Port must indemnify Dublin City Council against any environmental damage caused by accidents on the line.
It was one of 33 conditions laid down by An Bord Pleanala in granting planning permission for the 14km project.
Residents living along the route of the proposed line had raised concerns over its safety and possible environmental impact. The pipeline runs through Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council territory. Both councils granted permission for it to go ahead last year.
While the Fingal decision wasn't appealed to An Bord Pleanala, appeals were lodged against the decision of Dublin City Council by residents.
In its decision, the planning board laid down conditions to ensure the safety of the environment and the public. It said the pipe must be used for transporting jet A1 aviation fuel only and the developer must submit a "major accident prevention document" to the council.
The developer has also been directed to submit details of emergency response procedures and to lodge a deposit with the council to secure environmental restoration in the event of a leak of the pipeline .
The application for the plan said that it would provide "a sustainable and secure means of fuel supply" for the airport.
It said that the pipeline would be the safest way to transport aviation fuel.
Residents from Copeland Avenue, Clontarf, argued that as it was a residential street, it was not appropriate to route "a major piece of infrastructure" through the area. They said the line would introduce an ongoing threat of rupture, leakage and possible ignition for all those living along the route.
They also argued there was a history of damage to high-pressure fuel pipelines in the UK, in spite of safety regulation.
The scheme - a revived version of a plan first approved over a decade ago - would see the pipeline wind its way under heavily populated areas and some of the busiest roads in the country.
The two companies behind the plan - Portlaoise engineering firm Fingleton White, and Dublin-based Reynolds Logistics - point out that current fuel demand at Dublin Airport results in over 15,000 fuel tanker journeys a year being made between it and Dublin Port.
"It is estimated that some 200,000 litres of diesel fuel are used each year by the tankers transporting the fuel, which equates to an annual emission of 500 tonnes of CO2," they said.
People look at an electronic board showing the graph of the recent fluctuations of market indices at the floor of Brazil's BM&F Bovespa Stock Market in downtown Sao Paulo. Photo: Reuters
European shares rose yesterday, bouncing back after two weeks of losses and supported by gains in Germany and Greece, with the Athens market advancing on expectations of progress in tackling Greece's debt burden.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.5pc to 1,309.10 points, although it remains down 9pc so far in 2016.
Germany's DAX rose as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it had become slightly more optimistic regarding the German economy. The German government last month stuck to its forecast of 1.7pc growth for this year, despite a slowdown in emerging markets, with strong domestic demand replacing exports as the main pillar of Europe's largest economy.
Data yesterday also showed a rebound in German industrial orders. "The indices appear to be rising on the continued goodwill from a 10 month-high in German factory orders figure, and the increased hopes of avoiding a Greek calamity over the summer," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell. Greece's stock market rose 0.7pc, as Eurozone officials turned their attention to tackling Greece's huge debt repayments, with a view to a deal on May 24.
In Ireland, the ISEQ Overall Index climbed 1pc, or 60.32 points, to close at 6,099.22.
Shares in Bank of Ireland continued their decline, falling 2.5pc to 23 cent. State-owned AIB cut its variable interest mortgage rate by 0.25pc. Hotel group Dalata saw its shares rise 3.4pc to 4.50, while CRH added 1.8pc to 25.32. Insulation maker Kingspan gained 2.7pc to 23.28.
The UK's FTSE-100 dipped 0.18pc, while Germany's DAX gained 1.1pc. France's CAC-40 was 0.5pc higher. Mining and steel stocks slumped following disappointing data from China, a major metal consumer, with Anglo American and ArcelorMittal falling 13.8pc and 12.1pc respectively.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: 'If this permit is approved, it would open the door to the same model that decimated the US shipping industry.' (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
White House hopeful Bernie Sanders claims a planned Cork-Boston air service will herald tens of thousand of job losses in the US and Europe.
The Democratic Party contender wants to prevent Norwegian Airlines International (NAI) from launching the service to the US, claiming it would mark a "dangerous precedent".
US aviation unions claim Norwegian intends using Ireland as a flag of convenience to employ low-paid crew and undermining working conditions for cabin crew working for other transatlantic airlines.
Mr Sanders, who is trailing Hillary Clinton for the party's presidential nomination, has asked the US Department of Transportation not to grant a permit that would allow Norwegian Airlines International (NAI), a subsidiary of Norwegian Air Shuttle, to fly to the US from Ireland, or from other European cities.
"Granting such a permit would be a direct violation of the strong labour provisions included in the US/EU Open Skies agreement," Mr Sanders claimed. "Moreover, it would set a dangerous precedent that threatens the jobs of hundreds of thousands of flight attendants, mechanics, pilots, and other airline workers in our country and in Europe."
The candidate, known for his 'Feel the Bern' slogan, added: "We must do everything we can to prevent a global race to the bottom in the airline industry. If this permit is approved, it would open the door to the same 'flag of convenience' model that decimated US shipping."
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Whatsapp Norwegian Air International already has almost 40 aircraft registered in Ireland and plans to start flying from Cork to Boston this year, and to New York in 2017
NAI already has an Irish air operator's certificate, but has waited two years to secure its permit to fly to the US. The US Department of Transportation has delayed the permit in the face of strong opposition from aviation unions.
The unions claim that NAI will use its Irish unit to circumvent stringent labour laws and use cheap employees, including staff from Asia, to the detriment of US airlines.
NAI has consistently denied the claims. A spokesman for the airline said yesterday: "Some US politicians and unions are continuing to do everything they can to block the competition, preventing passengers' access to affordable airfares, and blocking the creation of new jobs and significant benefits to Ireland and the US."
"The fact remains that NAI is a recognised EU airline, with a Dublin headquarters, more than 35 aircraft registered in Ireland and a series of new routes from Ireland planned," the spokesman added.
"It is also a clear fact that Norwegian always follows labour laws in all the markets we operate, offering competitive wages and conditions. NAI does not have a single Asian-based crewmember or pilot."
The unexpected intervention by the veteran US politician comes just weeks after American transport officials said they intended to grant the necessary permit to NAI. Its parent firm, Norwegian Air Shuttle, already flies from the UK to the US.
NAI also plans to fly from Cork to New York next year. Mr Sanders's opposition comes before a looming May 16 deadline for making final submissions to the US Department of Transportation on NAI's plans to use Ireland as its base to fly to America.
Yesterday, Cork Airport managing director Niall McCarthy said the city has "so much to gain" from the planned transatlantic flights.
"We urgently seek the public's help and support to ensure the permit is approved and that the flights are secured once and for all," he said.
Ryanair has also lent its support to NAI, it has emerged. Michael O'Leary's airline told the US Department of Transportation that NAI's services will result in increased competition and consumer choice.
"NAI will deliver a fresh competitive dynamic on the transatlantic routes by offering choice, service improvements and lower fares to US and European consumers, creating jobs and delivering increased passenger volumes," Ryanair says.
Here are the main business stories from this morning's papers:
Irish Independent
* Dunnes Stores is intensifying its battle to squeeze Tesco into third place in the league of the nation's biggest grocery retailers.
If Dunnes succeeds in doing so this year, it would put Tesco in the unenviable position of having gone from number one in the Irish market to number three in the space of less than two years.
* Units of Eirtech Aviation, the Shannon-based aircraft painting company, have concluded agreements with the Revenue Commissioners in relation to historical tax liabilities that have seen them hand over more than 2.7m to the authority.
Eirtech was acquired in 2014 by Los Angeles-based Vance Street Capital in a deal thought to be worth in the region of $50m (43m).
* The pressure on banks to cut their variable rates has been ramped up after Fianna Fail resubmitted a bill to the Dail which would give powers to the Central Bank to enforce cuts in rates.
The move comes after AIB said it was reducing its variable rate for the fourth time in July.
The Irish Times
* The long-touted national broadband scheme may be facing further delays as its handling is moved from the communications portfolio following the formation of the new Government.
The scheme now falls under the control of the Department of Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht.
* The cost of renting in Ireland's cities has experienced another sharp rise over the last 12 months, according to new figures from property website, Daft.ie.
The highest increase recorded in the country was in Cork, where rents rents were up by 16pc, while rents in Galway jumped by 12.7pc.
* Around three quarters of senior businesspeople in the North said they will vote to remain within the EU according to a new survey by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce.
The results from the survey show a shift in opinion amongst businesses in the North, however the remain side is very much in the majority according to the chamber.
Irish Examiner
* Banks may have to outline more clearly how they deal with distressed borrowers and giver further detail on their mortgage loan books following the formation of the new Government.
According to a report in the Irish Examiner, further details on the deal struck between Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance could be released this week showing increased calls for transparency on banks' loan books.
* BT Ireland has laid blame at the feet of Eir for the delay in the National Broadband Plan as the communications firm is continually changing its plans.
According to a report in the Irish Examiner, BT Ireland managing director Shay Walsh said Eir's changing of its rollout terms has led to further delays in the implementation of the plan.
* PriceWaterhouseCoopers could incur a legal bill of up to 30m in defending a claim made against it over its auditing of Quinn Insurance.
The case brought against it includes a claim of 800m, which arises from Quinn Insurance being put into liquidation six years ago.
Pizza Hut will spend 50m on store expansion and new staff in the two islands. Photo: Bloomberg
Pizza Hut Delivery is to create 3,000 jobs in 200 new stores across the UK and Ireland over the next four years.
The firm did not give a breakdown of how many jobs would be based in Ireland and where it plans to open the new stores.
The chain is set to invest 40m (50.6m) into new outlets and new staff with a quarter of all openings assuming the Pizza Hut "Express" format.
The express format is a quick serve unit that offers smaller servings of pizza that can be eaten in or taken away.
Pizza Hut chief executive for the UK and Ireland Raphael Miolane said the company has built a firm foundation since opening its first delivery store 15 years ago.
"Our Pizza Hut Express portfolio will play an important role in this strategy, with at least 50 taking this format,
"We wouldn't be where we are today without our franchisees and we are looking forward to growing our existing relationships, whilst also developing new partnerships to achieve our ambitions," Mr Miolane said.
The expansion follows a similar scheme announced in 2012. The company invested 20m in its UK stores creating an extra 100 new outlets by 2014.
The food chain has more than 700 restaurants and takeaway units in the UK and Ireland and employs 8,000 people. Pizza Hut has been innovating on its product delivery outside of its brick and mortar restaurants.
The food chain, which is owned by Yum Brands, the world's largest restaurant company, is testing delivery tracking products that will give customers up to the minute updates on their food as well as being able to track their delivery driver to their door.
Pizza Hut's parent company Yum Brands also owns KFC and Taco Bell. The company is now looking to Australia as its hotbed of innovation.
That market is seen as an ideal test location for fast food firms due to its large population, mature fast food market, educated consumers as well as its isolation.
The Government has performed a U-turn to ease the burden on homeowners in mortgage arrears.
The new deal between Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Independents means those in mortgage default will be in a stronger position to challenge their bank.
The deal, details of which have been seen by the Irish Independent, will see stricken debtors having the option to appeal to an independent body if the bank rejects their proposal to restructure their repayments.
And vulture funds will be forced to have at least two solutions on offer for mortgage holders who are in arrears, under the new Programme for Government.
This will come about because the Central Bank's code of conduct on mortgage arrears is set to be put on a statutory footing.
The move will mean all lenders will have to provide at least two solutions to those in arrears. These are likely to be split mortgages and the mortgage-to-rent scheme.
The code would apply to banks and non-bank lenders. Some 47,000 mortgages are in the hands of non-bank lenders, often referred to as vulture funds. At the moment there is a question mark over the legal status of the code, especially as it does not apply to non-bank lenders.
David Hall, of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, who advised Independent TDs on the arrears crisis, said the new policies represented a radical departure from the approach of the last Government.
"The Government has done a U-turn on some policies that deal with those in debt and mortgage arrears," he said.
Among the other proposals on the mortgage arrears issue is the setting up of a new one-stop shop State agency to help those in debt, including small and medium enterprises' (SME) debt.
This will provide a range of services, including having a role in negotiating with creditors.
Already approved schemes - such as the new Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) dedicated mortgage arrears service and the provision of legal aid for distressed borrowers - will come under the new debt agency.
Limits
Courts hearing repossession, debt and insolvency cases will be centralised in Dublin to help people in debt, and people will be able to ask for their cases to be heard in private, it has emerged. Also, the monetary limits on deals that can be secured from the insolvency services are to be reviewed.
The Central Bank will be asked to hire consultants to investigate if the mortgage arrears figures it supplies are accurate.
Mr Hall said: "These policies represent a radical change... and coupled with other items to be considered, will help keep people in their homes.
"Vultures will have to think twice about purchasing home loans as they will be required to adhere to a code of conduct and unlike the current situation they will be required to offer specific solutions," he said.
Some 88,000 homeowners are in mortgage arrears, representing 12pc of home mortgages. A total of 120,739 accounts have been "restructured", according to the Central Bank.
Social media giant Facebook has denied allegations that it censored politically conservative stories from the trending topics on its site.
A report from Gizmodo, a design and technology blog, claim that former Facebook workers admitted that stories covered by conservative outlets that were popular enough to be picked up by Facebooks algorithm were excluded unless mainstream sites like the New York Times, the BBC, and CNN covered the same stories.
Vice President of Search at Facebook, Tom Stocky denied the allegations on his Facebook page. We take these reports extremely seriously, and have found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true, he said.
The workers also reportedly told Gizmodo that they were instructed to inject selected stories into the trending news module, even if they werent popular enough to warrant inclusion or trending.
There have been other anonymous allegations for instance that we artificially forced #BlackLivesMatter to trend. We looked into that charge and found that it is untrue. We do not insert stories artificially into trending topics, and do not instruct our reviewers to do so, said Stocky.
After the report on Gizmodo, editors of the conservative sites expressed their concern about being overlooked by Facebooks aggregators.
Breitbart Newss editor in chief, Alex Marlow, said the report confirmed what conservatives have long suspected: Facebooks trending news artificially mutes conservatives and amplifies progressives.
Paul Bedard, DC reporter for the Washington Examiner, also accused the social media network on his Twitter account of censoring conservatives.
Facebook is No. 1 driver of mobile readers to news sites. Impact obvious in censoring conservatives. https://t.co/hWm68stLwa via @DCExaminer Paul Bedard (@SecretsBedard) May 9, 2016
However after the claims, a story which might previously have been ignored was trending on Facebook. Under the headline Facebook Trending was a link to Gizmodos report on the allegations against Facebook.
Long-serving Intel workers have been given three weeks to decide whether to take a voluntary exit deal as part of a global cull of 12,000 jobs.
Sources revealed that staff with over 20 years' experience have been targeted in the workforce reduction and have been given until May 27 to decide whether to leave.
It is believed that Intel is seeking at least 400 departures from the workforce of 4,500 in plants in Leixlip, Shannon and Cork, due to declining demand for PCs as it shifts focus to cloud computing.
Sources said staff were told to access an online tool which allows them to work out how much of a redundancy package they are entitled to.
The voluntary sign-up period opened on May 5. They have been given until the May 27 deadline to click 'accept' on the 'selection tool'. Sources said staff with huge expertise based at the 350-acre campus in Leixlip had been selected for the programme, from process technicians and maintenance technicians to planning and yield engineers.
The chief criterion is their length of service, particularly if they have remained in the same position or grade for a long time.
Although the company did not specify how it selected those for the redundancy programme, staff said those with less than 20 years' experience were turned down when they applied.
Workers have been told that they can stay and continue working, but those 'on the list' fear they will be viewed as 'stagnant' and will be the first to go in the event of further cuts.
They also fear that the redundancy offer - worth five weeks' pay per year of service plus statutory, capped at two years pay - may be withdrawn.
"Whatever way they were selected, no one in Ireland had a say," said a source. "It came from the States.
"The new CEO let executives go last year and what he seems to want is young workers on lower wages pushing upwards for promotion constantly."
News of the redundancies has caused surprise in Ireland as the company has invested 3.6bn in the last five years upgrading the Leixlip plant, which is its biggest in Europe.
Niall Breslin will take tome out from his busy schedule for a worthy cause on Wednesday.
The Voice of Ireland star will be lending his support to a cause close to his heart as he helps launch a new book entitled See You in Two Minutes, Ma!
It was written by Linda Allen who lost her teenage son Darragh (15) to suicide, and Bressie will do the honours at the invitation-only event in the Central Hotel in Dublin.
The heartbroken mother said of the book: "An ultimately uplifting story in that it shows how survival of even the most heart-breaking tragedy can be made possible through the support of family, friends and strangers and through a loving and honest relationship.
"A series of incredible synchronicities and experiences bring me to look at the afterlife and how those who have left us may be closer than we think...
"The book explores the relationship of his local teenage friends left reeling in the wake of his choice and how music becomes a platform for them and me to meet and share our pain. The potential for the youth and their innate sensitivity what is often perhaps missed and needs to be cultivated.
"With Irish society in the grip of an epidemic of suicide, particularly among teenage boys, this in my opinion is a story that needs to be told.
"I would hope this story may bring solace and understanding to those left behind when loved ones move on no matter how they leave."
The mental health campaigner, who has had huge success with his website Lust for Life, will be speaking about his own experiences of battling anxiety as he unveils the new book.
Eurovision is back, a few weeks earlier than normal (my theory is that they want to get it out of the way before ISIS destroy the planet/humanity, but I have been wrong before).
Will you be watching? A hell of a lot of people will nearly 200 million saw last years final. Despite the annual, and ubiquitous, critical mauling, Eurovision is basically bullet-proof when it comes to audience figures.
For myself, some years I tune in, some years I dont bother. Most years I do the usual trick of switching on for the half-time act and voting. I can take or leave Eurovision, personally speaking.
But I am, on the whole, very much in favour of it, for many reasons. Its fun, its funny, its ridiculous and often totally surreal all very worthwhile things.
Also, its highly amusing to watch TV snobs get so irate about the contest, as if the fact that they watch serious documentaries or gloomy dramas or, shudder, listen to podcasts instead of Eurovision, makes them somehow better than all the plebs.
Hey pal, television dramas are not the new novel. Yeah? Youre still just staring passively at a screen, same as Eurovision viewers, not some intellectual powerhouse. If you really want to impress me, read the entire Proust. In French.
And what I really like about Eurovision is that it allows people to indulge in some harmless nationalistic fervour. People moan a lot about modern life, but I love the fact that the 21st century Europe version of jingoistic flag-waving is sending off Nicky Byrne and Marty Whelan to a daft talent contest, shouting at the screen, getting drunk and ranting on about block voting.
A hundred years ago the equivalent was sending off young men to kill and be killed in war. That had been the pattern for pretty much the entirety of history. The modern way is better.
Theres no harm in a bit of nationalism were all atavistic and tribal on some level; I imagine its genetically hardwired into us by now so long as its benign, silly, happy, ultimately meaningless and doesnt take itself too seriously. In other words, Eurovision.
Sport used to fulfil this function, but then people started taking it so bloody seriously Saipan, the Billy Roche controversy, that sort of thing which really sucked the life and fun out of it. Not to mind the administrative corruption, the individual degeneracy, or the fact that many sportspeople seem to be borderline morons who literally never say anything remotely interesting.
Which leaves us with things like an Irish Oscars win, or one of our writers on the Booker shortlist, or a compatriot making their mark abroad in some field or otheror Eurovision. We feel a vicarious pride when other Irish do well, and what harm? It might be dumb and illogical, but its clearly something we need psychologically, and it still beats mass slaughter.
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So wrap yourself up in the green flag for the next few days, have a bit of crack, sing along, get drunk, cringe, laugh, cry, laugh when youre supposed to be crying and vice-versa, tell the person next to you that Martys doing a fine job as usual, begrudgingly cheer on Nicky Byrne, try to work out the voting patterns before the Stockholm computer can do it, mutter about the interval act not being half as good as Riverdanceand dont forget to give out about that bloody block voting.
Maitre D' Mateo Saina during the filming of RTE's new show First Dates. Photo: Tony Gavin
First Dates Ireland's producer reveals how the team go about selecting the perfect match as they welcome applicants for the second series.
Every Thursday a quarter of a million people tune in to RTE to watch Irish singletons go on a blind date with the hopes of finding love...or at the very least, a bit of craic.
Producer Ger Philpott has described working on the show as "amazing".
"We've had a really good time. It's an absolute joy to work on," he told Newstalk Breakfast.
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He admitted that good dates don't happen by chance and the team put a lot of effort into setting applicants up with a suitable partner.
"We work very hard to match people."
He continued: "In the last series we had some ideal, cracking dates but we couldn't find suitable people for them to match so we spent a lot of time trying to match people's profiles, what they express about the kind of partner they would like to meet, and then we try our level best to actually find somebody that lives up to that."
The Coco TV producer admitted that sometimes it doesn't always go to plan because people aren't really honest with themselves about what they really want.
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Take, for example, Darryl and Amy from episode one. The pair appeared to be getting on well before the Kildare lad drop-kicked his visibly shocked date into the friendzone.
"Darryl and Amy were a match made in heaven," said Ger.
"They got on like a house on fire but in the end he decided that he didn't want to pursue matters.
"Sometimes you give people what they asked for and it turns out they don't actually want what they asked for, they want something completely different - you just go with the information people give you.
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"We spend a lot of time with people. Each date would have at least four hours one-on-one contact with a producer and we would then assess the people and they would progress through the system to the restaurant."
The First Dates boss also admitted that it came as a shock to the show's producers that Mark and Gemma from episode two had already been on a date together before.
"That was as much a shock to us as it was to viewers because we discovered it as the viewers did. We didn't know," he explained.
"We do a lot of background checks on people to see if they know each other, checking out social media profiles, and nothing came up to indicate that these two people would have met before at all. So we were really surprised.
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"But it was a very good date in the end and they had a really good time together."
The show is currently filmed in Dublin's Gibson Hotel with Mateo Saina and Alice Marr act as maitre d and head waitress.
It's become so popular that the show is accepting applicants for next season.
"Anybody can apply once they're over 18. We've had more than 3,000 applications over the weekend since it was announced on The Late Late Show on Friday night so there's a lot of interest out there," said Ger.
"Anybody can apply - gay, straight, tall, short, thin, fat, older, younger... you name it and we're happy to entertain their applications."
The TV producer said he believes the show is successful because it "has a heart".
"The reason why the show is so successful is that is has a heart, we genuinely do try to find love for people and I think that's what resonates with people.
"It's not exploitative reality TV. It's very respectful."
Those looking for love can fill out an application form on the Coco Television website.
Jason Donovan has led tributes to the "legendary" Reg Grundy, the producer behind the soap opera 'Neighbours', who has died at the age of 92.
Grundy, who also presented his country's version of 'Wheel Of Fortune', died in Bermuda, where he had lived with his wife Joy since 1982, the BBC said.
Donovan, who starred alongside Kylie Minogue in the Australian soap opera as the young couple Scott and Charlene Robinson, said he was "lucky" to have known the TV mogul.
He continued: "I was so sad to hear about the passing of Reg Grundy. I'm old enough to remember a time when the true pioneers of Australian television industry built it from nothing and gave opportunities to actors, directors and crew alike.
"Reg was one of these legendary founders and 'Neighbours' was one of the many products of his life's work. I was lucky to be a small part of his world. My thoughts go out to his family at this time."
Sydney native Grundy's shows were hits around the world and also included 'The Young Doctors' and 'Prisoner: Cell Block H'.
Two of his shows - 'Family Feud' and the 'Prisoner' remake 'Wentworth' - picked up gongs at the Logie Awards in Melbourne on Sunday, an awards show celebrating the best of Australian television.
Grundy was also inducted into the Logies' Hall of Fame in 1993. He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2008 for his outstanding contributions to the television industry and promotion of Australia overseas.
'Neighbours' executive producer Jason Herbison said: "Everyone at 'Neighbours' owes a huge debt to Reg Grundy.
"Quite simply, we wouldn't be here without him. He will be remembered as a pioneer of Australian television and a true gentleman."
Closing speeches have begun in the trial of four former bank executives accused of conspiring to defraud investors in 2008.
The four former executives from Anglo and Irish Life & Permanent (ILP) are on trial for allegedly conspiring to mislead investors by setting up a 7.2 billion circular transaction scheme to bolster Anglo's balance sheet.
John Bowe (52) from Glasnevin, Dublin, Willie McAteer (65) of Greenrath, Tipperary Town, Co. Tipperary, Denis Casey (56), from Raheny, Dublin, Peter Fitzpatrick (63) of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin have all pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to conspiring together and with others to mislead investors through financial transactions between March 1st and September 30th, 2008.
The trial began in January and has run for 70 days. This morning Una Ni Raifeartaigh SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, began outlining the State's case to the 13-strong-jury.
The jury will hear closing speeches from each of the defendant's lawyers. After hearing a charge on the law to be applied from Judge Martin Nolan 12 of the jurors will be selected to deliberate on the evidence.
Ms Ni Raifeartaigh has told the jurors that they are on the home stretch now and now it has been an extraordinary trial after hearing four months of banking evidence.
She told them that this case is a conspiracy to defraud case. Her speech is expected to be completed by the end of today's sitting.
Audrey Fitzpatrick alleged that she was injured when her foot went into an open shore on Lorcan Drive, Santry, Dublin on May 29, 2014.
The mother of slain Dean Fitzpatrick, killed in a knife incident involving his stepfather, Dave Mahon, today settled a 60,000 damages claim against Dublin City Council and Irish Water.
Audrey Fitzpatrick alleged in proceedings in the Circuit Civil Court today that she had been injured when her foot went into an open shore on Lorcan Drive, Santry, Dublin on May 29 2014.
Barrister Conor Kearney, who appeared with solicitor Sandra McAleer for Ms Fitzpatrick, told Judge Sinead Ni Chulachain that following talks the claim had settled and could be struck out with no further order. Details of the amount of the settlement were not disclosed in court.
Fitzpatrick, described as a home maker whose address was given as Lorcan Drive, Santry, Dublin, alleged that as she was walking on the public footpath on Lorcan Drive her left foot suddenly and without warning went into an open water shore causing her to fall heavily to the ground.
She claimed she injured her left knee which she had x-rayed at Beaumont Hospital. No bone injury had been detected apart from bruising and tenderness of the left patella area.
In her civil bill Fitzpatrick, who will celebrate her 48th birthday next Tuesday, May 17, stated that due to a liver condition she had been unable to take strong painkillers. Following the fall she complained of intermittent aching in her knee and had been unable to wear high heels.
She claimed she had suffered pain and distress and discomfort which had disrupted her social, domestic and recreational life.
A delivery man who drove his van for over 50 metres while a garda's arm was trapped in the driver's window has received a suspended sentence.
Danilo Rodriguez (44) of Kimmage Grove, Kimmage, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to Garda Niall Mulvaney at Westmoreland Street, Dublin on June 10, 2015.
The assault took place shortly after Gda Mulvaney, who was on traffic duty, directed Rodriguez to leave a bus lane. Rodriguez was unhappy with his interaction with the garda and drove back to get his garda ID number.
Garda Sergeant Anthony Collins told the court that Rodriguez stopped in the middle of traffic and Gda Mulvaney approached him to tell him to take his details and told him to turn off his engine.
Rodriguez ignored this direction and Gda Mulvaney formed the opinion that he was going to drive away. He reached in through the driver window to turn the engine off at the same time that Rodriguez went to close the electric window.
The garda's arm was trapped in the car and Rodriguez put the car into gear and drove 51 metres before stopping the car. The victim was pulled along and forced to run backwards with the car travelling at around 30 km/hr.
Sgt Collins told the injured garda suffered nerve damage and tendinitis, which was still causing him some pain. He was out of work for nine months.
He told Joe Barnes BL, prosecuting, that Gda Mulvaney was aware that a driving ban would deprive him of his livelihood and the victim didn't want this.
Mr Barnes said that it was at the discretion of the court. He said that the Director of Public Prosecutions was withdrawing a charge of dangerous driving because it came with a mandatory driving ban.
After suspending a two year prison sentence Judge Martin Nolan said he was very impressed with the attitude taken by Sgt Collins and Gda Mulvaney towards Rodriguez. He said they had dealt with him in a very fair manner and that the injured garda had shown good ill and no ill will towards Rodriguez.
He said that the proverbial red mist had descended on Rodriguez on the day and he behaved in a reprehensible manner.
He said Rodriguez was a very hard working man. He noted his early guilty plea and his sincere expressions of remorse.
Eoin Lawlor BL, defending, said that his client was born in Nicaragua and in his teenage years he was forced to take up arms against the Contras, a U.S. backed and funded right-wing rebel group fighting the socialist government there.
He came to Ireland in 1991 and learned English and had worked many jobs since then to support his family, counsel said. After he lost a good job during the economic downturn he set himself up as a fruit and veg delivery man.
A French woman who is wanted on child abduction charges but claims she came to Ireland to protect her autistic son has appeared before the High Court.
Last December the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was brought before the High Court and held in custody at the Dochas Centre in Dublin, on foot of a warrant issued by the French authorities seeking her extradition on child abduction charges in respect of her now 17 year old son.
The European Extradition Warrant seeking her surrender also alleges that the woman failed to obey a French courts order requiring her to deliver the boy to his father.
Last December the woman was granted bail by the High Court on conditions including that a surety of 75,000 be provided.
Today at a hearing before Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly, the High Court heard that the woman flew to Ireland with her son a day after she was due to hand him over to her ex-husband.
She feared if she had returned her son to his father, the boy could have ended up in a psychiatric institution and become institutionalised for life.
The woman previously said that international bodies including the United Nations have criticised the French governments policies on children with autism.
Today counsel for the Minister for Justice and Equality, Mr Vincent Heneghan BL, addressed the issue as to whether the warrant which was issued on October 5 2015 had a corresponding offence in Ireland.
Mr Heneghan told the court that the warrant related to two issues, the abduction of a minor and the failure to deliver a child.
He said child abduction in this jurisdiction applied to children under the age of 16 and seeing that this boy was over 16 years of age at the time, the equivalent offence was one of false imprisonment.
"The child has lived with his mother since he was four years of age.
There was a dispute between the parents on how to educate the child.
It is accepted this woman took her child to Ireland in September 2015.
The woman was arrested on December 17 2015. The offence of abducting your own child can exist and in this instance it goes beyond parental control. Its unnatural guardianship," he said.
Counsel said that there was no evidence presented to the court before today suggesting that the child came here on its own volition.
"The child was taken and that is where the offence of false imprisonment occurred. If the respondent is saying he came here by consent or by his own free will, they havent produced anything to say he is consenting or has the capacity to consent. A parent can indeed falsely imprison their own child and the offence takes place the moment a person is taken," said Mr Heneghan.
The court heard that an affidavit from the child's speech therapist "does not go near enough" to saying this person had the capacity to consent.
Mr Michael Lynn SC, defending, told the court that this warrant does not meet the offence of false imprisonment as there was nothing in the warrant that took away the personal liberty of the child.
"There is no suggestion in any way that the boy was being held against his will. It is not hinted in any way in the warrant that the boy did not want to accompany his mother. In my submission, false imprisonment is only understood as the restraining of someones liberty against their will, so consent is at the heart of it. The mother doesnt retain the child, she just doesn't pro-actively return the child," he said.
Counsel said that just because a parent does not bring a child to a particular time and place by an order, it does not mean they have falsely imprisoned the child.
Ms Justice Donnelly told the court there are a number of issues that have to be looked at including whether the child had consent to leave a country in defiance of a court order.
Addressing Mr Lynn, Ms Justice Donnelly said: "I accept your saying there cant be a false imprisonment as there would have to be a restriction on personal liberty but I'm saying where there is a court order for a child, does that trump anything else."
Mr Lynn then asked the judge to vary his client's bail conditions as she is signing on three times a week.
The judge reduced her bail conditions to sign on twice a week.
The next hearing date was set for June 2.
Siobhan Kelleher uses a walking stick as she arrives at Cork Criminal Court for the sentencing of her husband
A father of two has been jailed for eight years for a savage assault which left his wife with horrific injuries including a brain wound, a collapsed lung and a lacerated liver.
Anthony Kelleher (42) was convicted of assault causing serious harm to his wife, Siobhan (36), despite the fact the woman refused to give evidence at his Cork Circuit Criminal Court trial.
Judge Sean O'Donnabhain noted that Ms Kelleher had sustained such serious injuries she went into a coma - and then sustained a stroke.
"She suffered severe, permanent and life-changing injuries," he said.
"I acknowledge that the family situation is in ruins and will never be reconstructed. Extraordinary hardship has been visited on innocent children."
Judge O'Donnabhain acknowledged defence submissions that Kelleher was a hard-working man and had not seen his children since his conviction because he did not want to expose them to prison conditions.
Ms Kelleher had wept as her husband was taken into custody last February following the week-long trial.
She was placed in a medically induced coma on June 12, 2014, after being discovered by paramedics with serious injuries at her home at Raleigh North, Macroom, Co Cork.
Her husband had raised the alarm and insisted she had sustained a severe fall.
The trial heard that Ms Kelleher was in a critical condition by the time she arrived at Cork University Hospital (CUH).
She later suffered a stroke.
Anthony Kelleher had vehemently denied assaulting his wife of six years.
The couple had married in Cyprus in 2008.
However, he was unanimously convicted by a jury of nine men and three women after one hour and 15 minutes of deliberations.
The trial heard that Gardai received a complaint from the woman about her husband's behaviour.
She alleged that he came home "ranting and raving", dragged her out of bed and threw her down the stairs of the family home.
Det Garda Tom O'Sullivan confirmed he took a statement from Ms Kelleher on June 25 2014 as she recovered in hospital.
She said her spouse had been "cursing and blinding" at her about a call made to their home.
In the garda statement, she said: "I went to bed and covered my head. He pulled the blankets off me. I said 'sorry.' I put my hand up to my face to save my head. I didn't want bruises."
"He pulled me out of bed by the ponytail. There were clumps of hair. He threw me down the stairs and kicked me in the ass."
Kelleher vehemently denied ever striking his wife.
Sgt Marie Keating said she met Ms Kelleher by appointment in April 2015 and she expressed her wish to withdraw her earlier statement against her spouse.
Ms Kelleher told Sgt Keating that she had very little recollection of June 12 and said it was possible she fell while putting out the washing.
Ms Kelleher also told the garda that her husband was a "good father," "a good husband" and from a "respectable family".
During the trial, Ms Kelleher took to the witness stand but declined to answer questions from either the prosecution or the defence.
"I refuse to give any evidence, judge," she said.
A judge-led independent inquiry into allegations of wrongdoing by garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe found "not a scintilla of evidence" to support his claims of corruption against former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan.
The Commission of Investigation chaired by Mr Justice Kevin O'Higgins said Sgt McCabe's accusation was "unfounded and deeply hurtful" to Mr Callinan, who was forced to retire in 2014.
The commission's as-yet-unpublished report, some of which has been seen by the Irish Independent, also clears former justice minister Alan Shatter who, it said, had taken Sgt McCabe's complaints "very seriously".
Mr Shatter was forced to resign after he was accused in the Guerin Report of not heeding the whistleblower.
However, the O'Higgins Commission found that the former minister had very substantial personal concerns about the allegation and his subsequent actions were "entirely reasonable and appropriate".
The comprehensive report into the claims surrounding the standard of criminal investigations carried out in the Bailieboro Garda district in Co Cavan in 2007 and 2008 found no evidence to substantiate claims of any corruption by gardai serving there.
Sgt McCabe was commended as a man of integrity, a "dedicated and committed member" of An Garda Siochana who had acted out of "genuine and legitimate concerns" and had shown "courage" in performing a public service at considerable cost.
The report states that the whistleblower was never less than truthful, although he was prone to exaggeration on occasion, and concluded that he was due the gratitude of the public and the Garda organisation.
The commission upheld some of Sgt McCabe's complaints concerning serious flaws and failings in eight specific criminal investigations, including the case of Jerry McGrath, who murdered Sylvia Roche Kelly in Limerick in 2007.
The investigation identified serious deficiencies in the management of the Garda district, where inexperienced and probationer officers were left to investigate crimes without adequate supervision.
The victims of crime had not been "well served" by the force or the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) and much of the failings was down at "a human level and caused by poorly supervised individuals".
However, the reports says that some of his allegations were found to be "overstated", "exaggerated", "unfounded" and "withdrawn".
The commission also rejected allegations and complaints against a number of other senior officers. The report dismissed a total of 19 individual complaints against Chief Superintendent Michael Clancy, who had been the superintendent in charge of Bailieboro at the time of the allegations.
The remains of Olivia Dunne are brought to St Peter and Paul's Church, Balbriggan. Inset: Olivia with her husband Ciaran. Photo: Mark Condren
A man who killed a young mother and seriously injured her 15 week old child when he hit them with his car while in a micro-sleep has been jailed for two years.
Gardai believe Anthony Handley (64) drifted off momentarily before his off-road jeep veered from the road and hit the two victims near Balbriggan, Co Dublin. He had no alcohol or drugs in his system.
Judge Patrick McCartan refused a defence plea for a suspended sentence. He said Handley was a good man with a blameless record but that he should have been alert to the fact that he was becoming tired behind the wheel.
He said he was imposing the two year sentence to send out the clear message to the community that fatigue must be a phenomenon in the minds of all drivers. He also banned Handley from driving for ten years.
The judge said the offence was in no way in the same bracket as someone who had taken alcohol and drugs but that Handley's tiredness was an aggravating factor.
He said society was only now starting to realise the dangers of driving while tired and noted the recent Road Safety campaign to that effect.
I want to extend my deepest sympathies and condolences to Ciaran Dunne (the deceased's husband) and his extended family, Judge McCartan said. It is a monumental the loss suffered by his and her family. Nothing that this court can do today will even begin to address or put right this enormous tragedy.
Handley of Whitethorn Grove, Artane, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to dangerous driving causing the death of Olivia Dunne and serious bodily harm to Eabha Dunne in Balbriggan on January 17, 2014.
Olivia Dunne (31) was killed instantly by the impact. Eabha Dunne was thrown from her pram and landed underneath the jeep in her cot. The pram was completely destroyed.
She had multiple broken bones and would have died if she did not receive medical attention, the court heard. She was in a coma afterwards and continues to suffer the effects of her injuries.
A victim impact report was read into court on behalf of Ms Dunne's family which described them as living with a nightmare. Ms Dunne's husband of 18 months, Ciaran, said he was only alive today because Eabha survived.
If there had been two coffins that day it is guaranteed there would have been three, the statement read.
Ms Dunne's sister, Caroline Clinton, said Eabha had to be resuscitated by doctors and now walks with a limp. She has had several operations and will require further surgery on her leg.
She was expected not to survive, she beat the odds, she's our little miracle, Ms Clinton wrote.
She said Ciaran could not come to court today/yesterday (TUES) because he never wanted to see the man who took away his wife.
The anger and pain will always remain, Ms Clinton said. We will never come to terms with or forgive the devastating offence of Friday the 17th of January.
Sergeant Brian Kavanagh told Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, that Handley said he got four hour's sleep the night before which was not unusual for him. He had taken some anti-inflammatories for his arthritis but appeared alert and orientated after the crash, the garda said.
A motorist who was behind him said he saw Handley's jeep take off to the right like a rocket with no warning. He did not see any brake lights.
The jeep went into the ongoing traffic where another driver had to swerve to avoid it. It then hit the mother and daughter who were on the footpath before crashing into a fence.
Parents and children were coming out of a near-by creche at the time. One man found Eabha in her cot under the jeep. He moved her away when he noticed smoke coming from the vehicle.
Handley was dazed and in shock but uninjured. A witness said he asked one of them how was the chap I hit. He later said all he remembered was travelling along then a flash and bang and then the fence.
Investigators found no brake marks from the jeep at the scene. They concluded that Handley hadn't been distracted and didn't suffer from a medical condition which could have led to the crash. They said he must have entered a short sleep state before the crash. Handley accepted this was possible.
He wrote a letter of remorse shortly afterwards but the family did not want to receive it. He said he wished it was him who was killed that day instead of Ms Dunne.
Handley initially took a trial date while awaiting medical reports. He entered a guilty plea on the morning of his trial.
Judge McCartan said this late plea meant the vicims' family had to come to court many times before they knew there would be no trial
Defence counsel Colm O'Briain SC said Handley was deeply remorseful. He said Handley is a father of three and is a carer for his estranged wife who suffers from several health problems.
A father-of-three who told a garda he would have him shot like his deceased colleague Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe, has been jailed for 18 months.
John Joyce (24) of St Donagh's Road, Donaghmede, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court to threatening to kill Garda Adrian Cahill on November 27 2013. He has 78 previous convictions.
Garda Stephen Harte said the threat was made against Gda Cahill, when they were on patrol and they got a call about a man acting suspiciously in Donabate.
The gardai then tried to search Joyce and another man but Joyce refused and was arrested.
He was put in the back of the patrol car and became physically aggressive towards Gda Cahill, shouting at him that he would attack his wife and also have him "shot like his mate in Dundalk."
Gda Cahill took these threats very seriously. His ex-colleague Det Gda Donohoe was fatally gunned down while on escort duty at Bellurgan, Jenkinstown, Louth in January 2013 by an armed gang of five people.
"I will get you when you are not working and will shoot you. I have more guns than you," Joyce also shouted at the garda.
Ms Fiona Murphy BL, defending, said her client became very indignant when arrested.
"He was very angry and frustrated at the time. Mr Joyce acted appallingly and criminally but it was borne out of frustration. No efforts were made by Joyce since then in following the garda," she said.
Ms Murphy said her client wished to offer a full apology and he accepted he was in the wrong to threaten a garda.
"He never had any intention of carrying out the threat. He is acutely aware of the pain he has caused. He accepts it was an appalling choice of words, she said.
Judge Patrick McCartan said Gda Cahill was left in a situation where he had to be mindful of his own security.
"This arises out of anger on the part of the accused as Gda Cahill and his colleague were doing their job. If Mr Joyce had explained to the garda what he was doing, matters could have been resolved there and then," he said.
The judge said instead Joyce lost his temper and threatened a garda in "no uncertain terms, in a nasty way by making reference to a member of An Garda Siochana who lost his life in the same year."
He said Joyce's attitude was based on his "utter disregard" for members of the force.
An inquest into the death of a mother of three, who died nine days after undergoing a routine operation to remove varicose veins at a private hospital, has heard staff could not re-admit her as they were unable to contact her consultant, who was on holiday.
Karen McCabe (46), of Bewley Drive, Lucan, Dublin, underwent the procedure at the Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin on August 6, 2014. She died at Beaumont Hospital on August 15 after a blood clot, believed to have originated in her lower leg, travelled to her lungs.
An inquest at Dublin Coroner's Court heard yesterday that Mrs McCabe's vascular surgeon, Prof Austin Leahy, went on holiday to Kerry two days after carrying out the procedure and left specific instructions that he should be contacted via text message if he was needed.
However, network coverage in the area was unreliable, the court heard. Mrs McCabe contacted Bon Secours three days before her death complaining of pain in her knee. Senior House Officer (SHO) Dr Kingsley Opputeh wanted to admit her and carry out a scan, but only Prof Leahy could authorise her admission.
Prof Leahy noticed a missed call from a general Bons Secours number and did not reply because it was not a specific number, the court heard.
Bons Secours Hospital manager Mike Tonery confirmed it was hospital procedure that consultants must take responsibility for admitting patients but said "never again" would an SHO be prevented from admitting a patient because a consultant was not available.
A verdict of death by medical misadventure was returned.
In a statement, Mrs McCabe's family said they were comforted that new arrangements had been put in place at the hospital but added: "Nothing can bring (Karen) back."
A YOUNG woman said she was in fear of her former boyfriend after she claimed he poured a kettle of boiling sugared water over her in a fit of jealousy.
However, a Cork Circuit Criminal Court jury were unable to reach a verdict in the case of Michael Lynch (24) who vehemently denied assault causing harm to his then-girlfriend, Tara Byrd (25).
The jury of six men and six women deliberated for five hours over two days before informing Judge Gerard O'Brien they were unable to agree a majority verdict in the case.
Judge O'Brien discharged the jury.
He said they will now await instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) over the matter.
Mr Lynch had denied the assault which his pregnant girlfriend claimed occurred as she was watching an episode of the hit BBC soap opera, 'EastEnders' at their Old Youghal Road home in Cork.
He had also denied threatening to kill Ms Byrd who was four months pregnant at the time on July 21 2015.
Ms Byrd told the trial the defendant said he would kill her and bury her body in the woods if she ever cheated on him.
The court heard the couple had known each other since Ms Byrd was 19.
They began a relationship in March 2015.
They were only going out a short time when Ms Byrd became pregnant.
She told the trial Mr Lynch became very controlling of her movements and who she met.
On June 7, she said the defendant had warned her not to go to their local pub to meet friends.
The following month, they went camping outside the village of Crosshaven.
However, she said that Mr Lynch warned her not to look at a young man who happened to be in staying in the same area.
The defendant confronted his girlfriend about the same young man three days later on July 21.
Ms Byrd said she was watching 'Eastenders' at their Cork home when the defendant challenged her.
"He said he was going to boil a kettle of water with sugar in it and pour the sugared water on me," she said.
"He put the sugar in the kettle and he boiled it."
"Then he said that if I screamed, he would hit me over the head with an iron bar."
"I was wearing pyjama pants at the time."
"He threw the kettle over my left leg and I was in agony."
"But I did not scream. I was shaking with the agony. He told me to take off my clothes. He put cold water on it. I couldn't handle it because the pain was unreal."
Ms Byrd said the pain was so bad she was pleading with her boyfriend to allow her to attend hospital.
But she said he put a cotton T-shirt over her leg and kept putting cold water and ice over it.
"I was there all night in that constant agony. He told me that if he found me cheating he would kill me and bury me in the woods."
"I believed him because of what he was after doing to me."
She said she eventually attended a Cork hospital the following day and told staff the burn injuries were the result of an accident.
Ms Byrd said she had not told what really happened because she was in fear of Mr Lynch.
She claimed he had also made threats against her friends and family.
However, two days later she quit her home and sought assistance at Edel House in Cork.
Mr Lynch, in a subsequent garda interview, had insisted the incident was an accident.
He said brought his girlfriend for medical attention just 10 minutes after a half cup of boiling water had spilled on her at their home.
He had insisted the boiling water had accidentally fallen on her because a kettle was on "a bit of a slope" on a kitchen counter-top.
The defendant opted not to give evidence during the trial.
SEEKING an injunction requiring Facebook to remove one of its pages is like taking legal action against a brick wall holding up an advertising poster, the High Court heard.
Rossa Fanning BL, for Facebook, made the analogy when opposing an application by a company once run by businessman Sean Quinn for orders removing a Facebook page with alleged defamatory posts and identifying who is behind them.
"The application against Facebook is just wrong in law," Mr Fanning said.
"If somebody was putting up a film poster on a board, it would be like seeking an injunction against the wall", he said.
Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH), and its chief executive Liam McCaffrey, are seeking the orders against Facebook Ireland requiring the removal of the material put up by "Concerned Irish Citizens", a group which says it supports lawful efforts to get the Quinn family back in control of company operations.
QIL and Mr McCaffrey, was last Friday given permission to serve notice of its proceedings on Facebook and the matter returned to court today.
Michael Binchy BL, for the plaintiffs, said there was still defamatory material on the Facebook site.
Mr Fanning said Mr Binchy knew full well who the people posting this information was and it was part of a much broader dispute. Facebook should not be drawn into it, he said.
This was essentially a prior restraint application for which there was EU and national law saying it was impermissible, he said. There were
billions of Facebook postings and there was no way his client could possibly screen them all.
Mr Justice Paul Gilligan adjourned the matter until tomorrow for a date for the hearing of the injunction application to be fixed. He said a possible simple solution could be if Facebook was to tell the plaintiffs the identity of those posting the material.
The judge also commented he was aware there were "serious legal issues in the background".
CONSULTANTS at a private hospital must ensure adequate cover in their absence after a patient died nine days after surgery to remove varicose veins.
Karen McCabe (46) of Bewley Drive, Lucan, Co Dublin underwent radiofrequency oblation, a procedure to remove varicose veins at the Bons Secours Hospital in Dublin on August 6 2014.
Her vascular surgeon, Professor Austin Leahy went on a break to his Co Kerry holiday home two days later. On August 15, Ms McCabe died due to a blood clot in the lung believed to have originated in the lower leg.
An inquest into her death heard that she presented at Beaumont Hospital on August 14 and died the following morning. She had contacted the Bons Secours Hospital three days before her death complaining of pain in her knee and difficulty walking.
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A resumed inquest at Dublin Coroners Court heard from Bons Secours Senior House Officer (SHO) Dr Kingsley Opputeh wanted to admit the patient and carry out a scan on August 13, but only Prof Leahy could authorise Ms McCabes admittance to the Bons Secours. Prof Leahy had left specific instructions that he should be contacted via text message if he was needed but network coverage in the area was unreliable, the court heard.
He noticed a missed call from a general Bons Secours number and did not reply because it was not a specific number, the court heard.
Bons Secours Hospital Manager Mike Tonery confirmed it was hospital procedure that consultants must take responsibility for admitting patients but said never again would an SHO be prevented from admitting a patient because a consultant was not available. He said he had personally with the hospitals consultants to ensure adequate cover be organised where appropriate.
Never again will it happen that a patient wont be able to be admitted without a consultant, he said. Mr Tonery said under new measures introduced in the wake of Ms McCabes death, the SHOs first option was to contact the primary consultant, followed by the second consultant and failing that could refer patients to a recently opened medical assessment unit within the hospital that operates within office hours.
Out of hours, all other options exhausted, they should refer to Accident and Emergency at Beaumont, Mr Tonery said, adding that transport could be provided.
Barrister for the McCabe family, David Holland said if Dr Oputteh had been able to admit the patient, a scan could have been carried out and treatment such as clexane, a medication to treat Deep Vein Thrombosis in the legs, could have been administered.
Had Dr Oputteh been able to put his plan into effect an ultrasound would have been performed either that night or the following morning, Mr Holland said.
...That fact of (Dr Oputtehs) inability to put the plan into effect was at least part of the causative sequence that lead to Karen McCabes death, he said. Ms McCabe was given clexane at Beaumont Hospital, where she presented the day before her death.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell returned a verdict of medical misadventure and endorsed the new arrangements made at the Bons Secours in relation to attendance of patients at the hospital.
A statement from Karen McCabe's family was read by their solicitor Kathrina Bray after the inquest.
After 18 long and difficult months the family are comforted by the fact the coroner has returned a verdict of death by medical misadventure and that the coroner has identified a number of risk factors that lead to the unfortunate and untimely death of the late Karen McCabe.
"The family is comforted by the fact that learnings have occurred in the Bons Secours hospital and that new cover arrangements when consultants are unavailable have been put in place.
"Unfortunately for Karens family nothing can bring her back.
Geography is set to play a major role in Taoiseach Enda Kenny's appointment of junior ministers after nine of his senior posts went to TDs from Dublin and Cork.
Almost 20 Fine Gael TDs are understood to be in the running for positions but three of the 15 positions have already gone to Independents.
The Irish Independent understands three Ministers of State are set to be appointed to the Department of Health to help Simon Harris, including Finian McGrath, who has responsibility for disabilities.
At least one will also be assigned to the new Department of Regional Development and Rural Affairs, where Heather Humphreys is the senior minister.
Mr Kenny is expected to promote a number of female TDs, including Marcella Corcoran Kennedy and Helen McEntee - but backbenchers are privately warning he must not elevate first-time TDs "for gender reasons". Josepha Madigan has been tipped for a ministry despite being new to Leinster House.
Backbenchers say Mr Kenny must be extremely aware of the geographical split, with some "angry" that his Cabinet has nobody from west of Ireland, except Independent Denis Naughten.
The Taoiseach appointed seven ministers from Dublin, two from Cork and one each from Limerick, Laois, Wicklow and Monaghan.
"The whole area from Galway up to Donegal was ignored. It's not good enough," said one senior TD.
Four outgoing Ministers of State are still in the hunt for jobs and there is huge expectation on his backbenchers.
Dara Murphy (Cork), Michael Ring (Mayo), Joe McHugh (Donegal) and Damien English (Meath) will all be hopeful of retaining portfolios.
Sources say Mr Murphy and Mr McHugh may maintain their current positions as Minister for European Affairs and Minister for Gaeltacht Affairs respectively, as they only took office in 2014.
The Irish Independent understands Mr Ring is keen to remain in the Department of Sport where he has proven popular over the past five years.
"It's important to have a strong Fine Gael person in there now, given that Shane Ross is in the senior ministry," said a source.
Among other names seen as frontrunners for promotion are Eoghan Murphy (Dublin) and Sean Kyne (Galway) who were involved in government formation talks at various stages.
A number of rural Independents were particularly impressed with Mr Kyne's performance and he is a fluent Irish speaker, which may prove an advantage. Finance Minister Michael Noonan is thought to be backing Pat Breen from Clare for a move up the ranks, while Mr Kenny may also give a nod to John Deasy (Waterford) as a peace offering to the backbencher who has often been vocal in his criticism of the leadership.
David Stanton (Cork), Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick) and John Paul Phelan (Kilkenny) are all in the reckoning.
Kildare TD Martin Heydon is seen as having strong credentials for an agriculture post but ironically sources say his performance as an election poll topper bucking Fine Gael's national trend might go against him.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he was "appalled" by two TDs tossing a coin over who should hold a junior ministerial post first.
Independents Kevin 'Boxer' Moran and Sean Canny will split a junior ministerial portfolio on a job share basis. "The idea that an hour before the Dail is electing a Taoiseach and Government that there are people who are tossing up as to who will be minister for a year and who is going to become a minister for the following year is ludicrous," he said.
Labour Party Leader Joan Burton TD during a media brieifing at RHA Gallery, Dublin following a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party
Labour Party Leader Joan Burton TD during a media brieifing at RHA Gallery, Dublin following a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party
Joan Burton has confirmed that she is to step down as leader of the Labour Party.
The former Tanaiste told the partys six other TDs and four senators of her decision during a private meeting this afternoon.
She later addressed the media where she said she would take a back seat in the contest for her successor and will not endorse any candidate.
Like most of the party, I entered government with both hope and fear in my heart hope that with unyielding effort and sustained policy implementation we could turn things around; fear that the situation had already deteriorated to a point of no return, she said.
In the five years that followed, the Labour Party stood by the Republic, helping people back to work, safeguarding the social protection system against those who would have stripped it to the bone, building new schools across the country, and securing the funding for a new social housing programme while all the time dealing with the morass of failed banks and toxic banking debt.
Ms Burton described the election result as very disappointing because of the loss of so many outstanding public representatives but added that the fight-back has already begun.
She concluded that the new Labour leader must work to fulfil James Connollys vision for the Republic.
The former Tanaiste intends to take up a spokesperson portfolio once the new leader is selected, noting that she wants to contribute particularly to the debate around access to schools.
I will remain an active and committed member of the Dail and the Labour Party on behalf of the constituents who elected me, she said.
Afterwards deputy leader Alan Kelly described her as an incredible influence on the Labour Party.
Bookmakers have installed the Tipperary TD as the 4/6 favourite to take over, followed by Brendan Howlin at 1/2 and Sean Sherlock at 6/1.
Mr Kelly is to appear on the Late Late Show on Friday night.
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Speaking on Newstalks The Right Hook, Ms Burton borrowed a line from Frank Sinatra to describe how she was feeling after her resignation.
Regrets, Ive had a few, she told the programme.
But I also feel that there are a lot of achievements that I was happy to lead on that both myself and others brought to fruition.
Looking back on her two-year leadership, she said: We didnt do everything we wanted to do. There never seemed to be enough hours in the day to do it, but I think on certain things we left the country a better place and left people feeling a little bit better off.
She added: Im disappointed I wasnt able to do more.
With Labour in opposition, the Dublin West TD warned that there would be a much more conservative cast of mind in government.
You need a good mix, it cant be too right or too left. I think each side needs the other, she said.
You cant for instance say well do all these things and well pay for it by charging the ordinary Joe and Josephine loads more tax. You have to try and do it in a way that takes into account peoples circumstances right across the country.
Ms Burton has led the Labour Party for less than two years, having taken over after the local and European elections in July 2014.
The Dublin West TD hung onto her Dail seat in Februarys General Election but her party suffered a disastrous result, losing 30 seats compared with 2011.
Her decision to quit has been well-flagged in recent days although it is understood that she initially wanted to stay on as leader to help rebuild the party.
It is not yet clear whether the party will select a deputy leader, with one senior source telling independent that there may not be a need for one given the partys reduced presence in Leinster House.
Ms Burton was first elected to the Dail in 1992. She worked as Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs between 1995 and 1997.
She lost her seat in 1997 but returned five years later.
Having served as Labours spokesperson on finance she was appointed Minister for Social Protection in the Fine Gael-Labour coalition in 2011.
She took over Eamon Gilmore as leader in 2014 and also served as Tanaiste.
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Taoiseach Enda Kenny lead the tributes to the former Tanaiste this evening.
"On her retirement as Leader of the Labour Party, I thank Joan Burton for her work in government over the past five years, both as Tanaiste and as Minister for Social Protection," he said in a statement.
"During this time, she and her ministerial colleagues in the Labour Party played a major role in rescuing the Irish economy, which was on the brink of collapse when we entered government in 2011.
"Many of the tough decisions that had to be taken to turn the country around were unpopular and politically difficult but Joan Burton and her colleagues were steadfast in doing what was right for the country.
"In her role as minister, Joan Burton spearheaded many of the welfare reforms that helped the last government to surpass our job creation targets to the point where the unemployment rate has been reduced from over 15pc to 8.4pc.
"I would like to wish Joan Burton, her husband Pat and family every success and happiness in the future."
It has been a busy two years at the helm for former Tanaiste Joan Burton.
* Joan Burton defeated Alex White to take over from Eamon Gilmore as leader of the Labour Party in the summer of 2014.
* That November she was targeted by anti-water charge protesters in Jobstown, Co Dublin. Burton, then the Tanaiste, remained in her car for more than two hours.
* The Labour leader was at the forefront of the same-sex marriage campaign which led to victory for the 'Yes' side in May of last year. She said Ireland had become a "rainbow nation".
* Just months later, on New Year's Eve, she fell into flood waters while visiting victims of Storm Frank in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.
* Ms Burton hung on to her Dublin West seat against the odds in this year's general election. But it was a bitter-sweet win on a day that saw many of her colleagues lose theirs.
New Health Minister Simon Harris faced stiff criticism from hospital emergency consultants who condemned the new Programme for Government for producing a 'watered-down' plan to ease the trolley crisis. Photo: RollingNews.ie
The short-lived political honeymoon of new Health Minister Simon Harris is already over, after senior doctors described his new Government's response to the trolley crisis as "anaemic", claiming it could lead to 1,750 patient deaths.
Mr Harris, who crossed the threshold of the Department of Health to be briefed by officials for the first time yesterday, also came under fire from Fianna Fail, despite his appeal to take the "politics out of health".
He faced stiff criticism from hospital emergency consultants who condemned the new Programme for Government for producing a "watered-down" plan to ease the trolley crisis.
They are incensed that it proposes to take until 2021 before the vast majority of patients who are languishing on trolleys can wait less than six hours for a bed.
"Given the evidence that 300-350 patients die avoidably each year as a direct result of emergency department crowding, the current minimalist Programme for Government is likely to see a further 1,500- 1,750 members of the community die as a result of this inertia," they warned.
"This represents a significant and unacceptable watering down of the current standard," the doctors in the Association of Emergency Medicine said.
"One of the Government's first and most important tasks should be the need to invest in Ireland's creaking health service to ensure that the trolley crisis, which has been with us since 1997, is finally made a thing of the past.
"Sadly, the commitments in the new Programme for Government are rather minimalist and seem to represent steps backwards rather than forwards in the attempts to solve the problem."
They pointed out that in June 2012, former Fine Gael Health Minister Dr James Reilly committed his government to have 95pc of patients discharged or admitted to hospital within six hours of their registration.
Meanwhile, the hopes for all-party consensus on the direction the health service will take in the coming years was also delivered an early setback, after Fianna Fail health spokesman Deputy Billy Kelleher reiterated his party's opposition to plans to break up the HSE.
Fine Gael supports the dismantling of the HSE as part of its plan for universal health care.
Mr Reilly appointed the current Director General of the HSE Tony O'Brien in 2012 to begin the winding up of the HSE. The proposals to replace the HSE with a commission and set up hospital trusts is repeated in the Programme for Government agreed with Independent TDs.
However, Mr Kelleher, in an early signal of a bitter political divide on the health service, insisted: "Fianna Fail believes that health services should be organised and managed as a unitary national service that is strategically co-ordinated with a strong emphasis on integrated care.
"We believe the HSE should be improved, not broken up. The development and sustaining of integrated services on a national and regional basis needs a national structure."
The party continued to have "grave concerns" about Government plans for the creation of independent hospital trusts.
"I am very concerned as to what such a re-organisation might mean for services in hospitals such as Navan, South Tipperary General and Portiuncula. The services being provided in smaller hospitals will be at the mercy of larger hospitals and in an independent trust," Mr Kelleher added.
His injuries are said to be serious.
A man in his 30s was seriously injured in a stabbing incident in Portlaoise early this morning.
The man was discovered with an injury to his abdomen at around 4am on Coote Street, which is the street on which the man lived.
He was taken to Midland Regional Hospital but was later transferred to St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin.
A garda spokesperson said the man is in a critical condition.
"The scene is preserved and a technical examination will be carried out in the area," a garda spokesperson said.
Gardai wish to speak to anyone with information or anyone who was in the Coote Street area between 3.30am and 4.30am, is asked to contact Portlaoise Garda Station 057 - 8674100, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666111 or any Garda Station.
A hot food delivery driver targeted twice previously by dissident republicans was shot dead in his car last night.
The fatal shooting happened in the Divis area of west Belfast shortly before 10.30pm.
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It was reported by local people that the man was hit in the neck by his assailant.
He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, but did not survive despite efforts to save him.
He was targeted while sitting in his dark-coloured Ford Focus car in Lady Street after possibly being lured to the area by a bogus fast food delivery order.
The driver's seat and seatbelt were seen to be heavily bloodstained by witnesses.
The victim was named locally as Daniel Murray (54).
Police confirmed the death late last night.
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It was the third shooting in Belfast in the space of less than 24 hours.
Two other young men were wounded in the other two attacks.
West Belfast Sinn Fein MP Paul Maskey said his thoughts and sympathies were with the dead man's family.
He visited the scene, where police informed him the man had passed away.
He said: "This a sad night for Belfast and for society with a number of shootings across the city.
"There will be a family grieving tonight and my sympathies go out to them.
"These types of attacks serve no purpose and must stop."
Mr Murray was previously targeted in a gun attack almost exactly a year ago.
He was shot in the face by dissident republican vigilantes in 2015 near his north Belfast home.
Mr Murray, who was originally from the Turf Lodge area of west Belfast, said at the time he had been accused of being a drug dealer - which he denied - and would have to flee his home.
As he recovered from that shooting, he said the attack was an attempt to execute him.
"It was one face shot, one head shot. They didn't aim for anywhere else," he said.
"I've no idea why - there was no warning.
"I've been given a second chance and I want to find out why.
"They are accusing me of drug dealing and I want them to prove it.
"They've branded me a drug dealer - and I'm not." Mr Murray described the previous shooting in detail.
"They had a 9-mill gun. It was an execution (attempt) - they came straight in and 'bang'.
"They didn't hesitate, they didn't give any warnings. I turned around and the bullet went into my face.
"It hit my jaw, hit the bone and went right down and into my shoulder.
"I staggered when they shot me, I thought they had shot me in the throat at first and I could feel most of the pain in my shoulder. There was a lot of blood."
Mr Murray discharged himself early from hospital after surgery, saying he was going to contact the various paramilitary groups to ask why he was being targeted.
He had been wounded in a Continuity IRA gun attack before last year's murder attempt.
He claimed that was an extortion bid, and again denied he sold drugs. He challenged the paramilitaries to produce any evidence of criminal activity.
West Belfast SDLP MLA Alex Attwood condemned those behind all the shootings.
He said: "I am appalled by the events of the last 24 hours in areas of west and north Belfast.
"Those behind these deplorable shootings must be condemned outright by us all.
"We must demonstrate the same resolve we did in the past - resist those who carry out these atrocities, who use guns to reject Irish democracy and ignore the rule of law.
"I urge anyone with information about these shootings to share it with the police so those responsible can be taken off our streets."
Mr Murray leaves a partner and a young son behind.
His wife died of cancer several years ago.
An American tourist on his first visit to Ireland has spoken of the "traumatising" moment when he was mugged at knifepoint by two men in Dublins city centre.
Donnie travelled to Ireland from Chicago, and was staying in a hostel on Bachelors Walk on Sunday night when the incident occurred.
After grabbing a late dinner around the corner at Burger King on OConnell Street, Donnie headed back at 11.30pm.
I have an awful sense of direction, I get lost in my own apartment, so I stopped and asked this girl where the hostel was and if she could direct me there, he told RTE Radio Ones Liveline.
She said it was just right up the street, why dont you follow me? She was well-dressed, she didnt look like a street person or the type of person who would do something like this.
She said, we just make a right here. Two other guys had been walking with her, and as they took me to the corner, it all happened so fast.
They said give me all your money, and the guy behind me, I could see out of the corner of my eye, had a knife. I was frozen in terror, I didnt know what to do, I was gonna get knifed.
Donnie said he reached into his pocket and handed over his wallet, which contained just 20 in cash.
That made them very angry. They said, youve got more than that and they started punching me in the face, and one of them had me in a headlock and was choking me.
The thieves took his iPhone and immediately took off running. He described the whole incident as taking place within a matter of seconds, but that it left him feeling traumatised.
Standing in the alleyway just off Bachelors Walk, Donnie shouted for someone to call the police, but people told him I cant or Im busy, so he had to run into a supermarket, where a sales assistant contacted the Gardai.
That was kind of frightening, that people on the boardwalk didnt want to get involved. I was very surprised.
They broke one of my teeth in the back, and my lip was bleeding. The back of my head I got a big goose egg. The police took me back to my hostel and I started vomiting, so the next day they recommended that I go to the hospital. I have a concussion but no other serious injuries.
Donnie had been staying at the hostel for a couple of days, and said he felt completely safe in the area. He described himself as a perfect target for thieves preying on disoriented tourists.
When I described what the girl looked like, the Garda mentioned her by name. I guess this is her game, this is what she does.
She seemed nice as pie, thats what really caught me off guard. It taught me that you cant judge a book by its cover, Donnie added.
He explained that he planned to continue his travels in Cork, where his mother was born.
However, left without his credit cards and passport, Donnie said he may have to head home to Chicago within the next couple of days.
Calls flooded in from people all over the country offering accommodation and tours of his mothers native Cork, the Cliffs of Moher and even a trip to Liverpool.
Donnie said he was overwhelmed by the generosity of Irish people, and that he was delighted he wouldnt have to cut his trip short.
Pro-life groups have heavily criticised Sabina Higgins, the wife of President Michael D Higgins, for what they called her "hurtful" comments on abortion. Others, however, have supported her intervention in the debate.
The Irish Independent revealed yesterday that Ms Higgins told midwifery students she believed a pregnant woman being made to carry a pregnancy to full term in the case of a fatal foetal abnormality was "an outrage against women".
Although abortion in the case of a fatal foetal abnormality is not allowed under current laws, the issue is an area where many pro-choice campaigners want abortion to be permitted.
Ms Higgins has now come in for heavy criticism from a number of charities and pro-life groups, whilst a number of politicians and academics have rowed in behind her.
The charity Every Life Counts described the comments by the President's wife as "appalling" and an "outrage".
Spokeswoman Tracey Harkin said the group wanted Ms Higgins to withdraw her remarks.
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She added: "It is really appalling that in an age where we expect our commentators to be cognisant of harmful language and of the rights of people with disabilities, the President's wife has made these remarks.
"My own daughter, Kathleen Rose (9), is living with Trisomy 13, a condition described by campaigners as a 'fatal, foetal abnormality'. Does Ms Higgins think she has no right to life?"
The Pro-Life Campaign (PLC) has argued that Ms Higgins' comments were "calculated" and "inappropriate".
"Given Ms Higgins's position, it is wholly inappropriate for her to have intervened in this way in the abortion debate," said PLC spokeswoman Cora Sherlock.
"Ms Higgins has a responsibility to represent the views of more than just the abortion lobby. How are the heartbroken families of children who had life-limiting conditions and who only lived for a short while supposed to read her intervention?"
The Life Institute also believes that the intervention was an "abuse of privilege".
Spokeswoman Niamh Ui Bhriain said: "It seems that Ms Higgins is seizing the pulpit of the Presidential office to push her own agenda on the killing of unborn babies.
"This is unprecedented and has ensured that the office of President is now seen as part of an abortion campaign, a move which would be opposed by the majority of Irish people."
However, one of the country's leading lecturers in constitutional law has said that Ms Higgins is entitled to make such statements. University College Cork (UCC) lecturer Dr Conor O'Mahony said there were "no formal restrictions" in the Constitution regarding the conduct of the President's spouse.
Dr O'Mahony advised that restrictions were only imposed when the President made a formal address to either the Oireachtas or the nation on a matter of national importance, in which case the address must be approved by the Government.
"Beyond that, the Constitution places no restrictions on the President's public statements and says nothing at all about the President's spouse.
"It is custom and practice for Presidents to stay aloof from party politics and to avoid criticising Government policy," said Dr O'Mahony.
"However, it is not realistic to expect that no public statements may ever be made by members of the President's family expressing an opinion on any political matter.
"President Higgins's daughter Alice Mary Higgins has just been elected to the Seanad. She is obviously free to be overtly political in her work as a Senator."
Meanwhile, Independent MEP Nessa Childers has rowed in behind Ms Higgins, describing the criticism and backlash as "ridiculous".
She said: "Sabina has the right to express her opinion and we can either agree or disagree.
"People criticising Sabina Higgins are saying she could damage the office of the President, whereas the continuation of our abortion law and failure to repeal the 8th Amendment causes damage to actual people, not an office."
Ms Higgins made the unscripted remarks following a debate by midwifery students in Trinity College Dublin.
A spokesman for Aras an Uachtarain declined to comment on the issue last night.
Little Rolands was on holiday with his parents in their native Latvia when the accident happened.
An investigation has been launched in Latvia after a Co Donegal toddler drowned during a visit to his grandparents.
Little Rolands Letins (3) from Buncrana, Co Donegal, died in a drowning accident while he was on holiday with his parents in their native Latvia.
He was a pupil at Cockhill Community Pre-school , and staff have been left reeling at the news of his death.
It is understood the accident happened last week.
A spokesperson for the pre-school told independent.ie: We are deeply shocked and heartbroken at the tragic news.
She added: Roland was a delightful little boy, and it was a privilege to have him here with us.
The spokesperson passed on condolences to Rolands parents and family.
Rolands' parents Janeks Kuzelis and Dace Letina are currently in Latvia, where it is understood Rolands will be laid to rest.
One local said the family had been extremely excited about the trip home, and Dace hadn't visited home for a number of years.
"She was very excited and talking about it a lot. It was awful what happened."
Another local said: It was just very, very tragic, really shocking to hear what happened.
There arent too many Latvian families in Buncrana and theyre in Latvia so we have no communication at the moment.
The tragic news reached the village almost two months after five people were drowned at Buncrana Pier in March.
Sean McGrotty (46), his sons Mark (12) and Evan (8), his mother-in-law Ruth Daniels (57) and her 15-year-old daughter Jodie Lee, all died after the car they were in slid off the pier on March 20.
Two gangsters suspected of being involved in three murders linked to the Hutch/Kinahan feud have been arrested over the murder of innocent taxi-driver Eddie Hutch Snr.
One of the men, who is in his 30s, is regarded as one of the country's most dangerous criminals.
A number of gardai were required to arrest him yesterday morning for the murder of Eddie Hutch Snr (58) who was shot dead at his home in Poplar Row, Ballybough, in Dublin's north inner city on February 8.
He is also a chief suspect in the murders of Noel 'Kingsize' Duggan and Michael Barr, both of whom were aligned to associates of murdered Gary Hutch (28) and his uncle, Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch.
Last night, a number of armed garda checkpoints were in operation close to the scene where Michael Barr was killed.
The suspected hitman is believed to have been working alongside a young criminal, who is based in the north inner city.
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This man, who has close links to slain Dublin gang boss Martin 'Marlo' Hyland, was arrested last night by gardai in the north of the city.
He is also understood to have been involved in the murder of innocent mum-of-two Baiba Saulite (28) outside her home in Swords in November 2008.
He was detained at the Bridewell Garda Station last night, following his arrest in the north of the city at 9pm.
The older hitman was previously closely associated with Kevin Ledwidge, a 27-year-old Finglas criminal shot dead in July 2007, and Finglas murderer David Cully (24), who was jailed for life in July for the gun murder of his uncle.
Detectives from Mountjoy Garda Station arrested the older suspect yesterday evening and are continuing to question him. He can be detained for up to seven days.
The gangster previously terrified gym staff when he demanded subscription refunds for four of his associates who are either on the run or locked up.
He has been warned about an active threat against his life because of his suspected role in the murders, but still abused detectives when they issued him with the formal Garda Information Message (GIM) form two months ago.
The second suspected hitman has also been notified of threats against his life, but gardai suspect he remained involved in the feud until his arrest last night.
Eddie Hutch, who is the brother of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch, was murdered on February 8, three days after gunmen stormed the Regency Hotel and gunned down David Byrne (33), a close associate of crime boss Daniel Kinahan (37).
Two of the killers are believed to have escaped in a car that was later found dumped on St Patrick's Parade, in nearby Drumcondra.
The murder is being treated as a revenge attack for the killing of David Byrne, considered one of the key lieutenants of the Kinahan cartel.
Intensive farming and climate change will eradicate coffee beans by the end of the century, scientists have predicted.
A new report, which involved the collaboration of more than 80 scientists, warned that two thirds of the land currently used to produce coffee in Africa will be unviable by 2100.
New plantations will need to be established to prevent coffee production becoming a thing of the past, as environmentalists predict that drought will be the main factor affecting the worlds leading coffee producing countries such as Ethiopia and Brazil.
"The results show that coffee farming in Ethiopia is likely to be drastically affected by climate change, and that the impact will be location specific," the study says.
New coffee plantations established at higher altitudes could help continue coffee production into the next century.
Coffee isnt the only crop which scientists fear will be threatened and experts believe bananas, kidney beans and sweetcorn will be affected.
More than 143 million 60kg bags of coffee were produced globally in 2016, and countries including Canada, Japan and Norway had the highest demand.
A Dublin barber who has been growing his hair for two years will chop it all off this weekend for charity.
Robert Giffney, from HIM barber shop in Glasnevin, has been fundraising for the Irish Cancer Society and he plans to donate his chopped locks to the Rapunzel Foundation - a charity that provides wigs to children suffering from hair loss (alopaecia).
Mr Giffney (32) told independent.ie explained that he chose to fundraise for cancer research after his mum Gabriel died, aged just 49 from the disease.
"She died nine years ago in July from breast cancer. She had it for nine years and it came and went in that time.
"I have five brothers and two sisters. It affected us all very differently."
Mr Giffney, who opened his barber shop two years ago, explained that a number of their customers are also struggling with cancer and this inspired him to start the fundraiser.
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"We have a few men that come in that are going through cancer. One man in particular is terminal.
To see him come in, looking weaker each time, is heartbreaking.
He continued: Im not naive to think that we can solve cancer but we just want to do our own little bit.
They have already raised over 1,000 for the Irish Cancer Society.
Robert will be cutting his hair this Saturday from 6.30pm and the event will be live-streamed on Facebook and Snapchat
Dr Marty Holland, a retired lecturer from Mary Immaculate College will couch-surf from county to county in memory of his friends Michael and John who lost their battle with the disease.
An pensioner is to embark on a solo journey which will see him walk more than 4,000km around Irelands coast to raise vital funds for the Irish Cancer Society.
Dr Marty Holland, a retired lecturer from Mary Immaculate College will couch-surf from county to county in memory of his friends Michael and John who lost their battle with the disease.
Dad-of-three Marty will set off on his adventure, which will see him go anti-clockwise from Clare to cover the Munster and Leinster coasts. He will recommence his mission in April 2017 and walk along the coasts of Connaught and Ulster.
The sense of powerlessness that I felt when my friends Michael and John were dying from cancer has motivated me to get out there and do something positive to help combat cancer, said Marty, who is collecting donations for The Irish Cancer Society.
I see the benefits of on-going research in the growing number of those who have survived and recovered from cancer including my own sisters and a brother.
The former lecturer hopes that Irish people will be generous towards him along the way, as he feels the logistics of the 4000km walk will be the hardest thing to overcome.
"I am confident that people will be generous in their support for this worthy cause by way of financial donations, there are few out there whose lives have not been touched by cancer, but, to keep costs down, Ill also be dependent on peoples good will and generosity in offering me somewhere to put my head down for the night and in getting my rucksack transported from A to B."
To map Martys progress follow his blog totalcoastforcancer.wordpress.com or follow him on Twitter for updates @CoastForCancer
An analysis of $35 billion worth of travel transactions has seen Ireland named one of the world's hottest destinations to visit this summer.
Luxury travel network Virtuoso, which last summer named Ashford Castle as the world's best hotel, lists its 10 hottest destinations as follows:
Italy UK France Spain Netherlands Ireland Germany South Africa Greece Israel
The list comes after an analysis of travel-related transactions in North America ahead of summer 2016, Virtuoso says, and shows a 58pc increase in Irish bookings.
"Travellers visiting Ireland are flocking to Dublin and Galway in particular," it says, "along with County Laois in the centre of the country."
Laois is home to the 5-star Heritage Resort and Ballyfin, where Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are reported to have honeymooned in 2014.
Its another well-deserved accolade, which provides Tourism Ireland with a great hook to continue to promote the island of Ireland as a must visit destination for American and Canadian travellers," said Alison Metcalfe of Tourism Ireland.
2015 was Ireland's busiest ever year for inbound tourism, with first quarter results for 2016 showing North American visits up 24.5pc.
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Cork Airport is urging the public to register support for a US license for transatlantic routes before May 16.
The US Department of Transportation has tentatively approved Norwegian Air Internationals application to fly from Cork to Boston and New York.
US legacy airlines and aviation unions have strongly opposed the low-cost carrier, however. Last month, four US senators introduced a bipartisan bill in an effort to prevent the license on anti-competitive grounds.
"Between now and the deadline for submissions, May 16, we urgently seek the publics help and support to ensure the permit is approved and that the flights are secured once and for all," said Niall MacCarthy, the airport's Managing Director.
Cork is "within touching distance" of securing its first scheduled transatlantic flights to North America, it says. But opposition is fierce.
Public submissions can be made online here (click 'Comment now').
Norwegian's proposed routes have the support of the EU and Ryanair, among other heavy-hitters, and Taoiseach Enda Kenny discussed them with President Barack Obama on his Washington visit this St. Patrick's Day.
Opponents argue that Norwegian is using an Irish subsidiary and office to bypass EU regulations and reduce labour costs, threatening US jobs.
US Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has said granting the license "would set a dangerous precedent that threatens the jobs of hundreds of thousands of flight attendants, mechanics, pilots, and other airline workers in our country and in Europe."
Norwegian denies the claims, while Cork Airport claims attempts to prevent the new service would be a breach of the 'Open Skies' deal between the EU and US.
If a license is granted, Norwegian hopes to commence flights this August.
In Ireland, you are likely to find yourself paying some 2,500 more a year than your fellow eurozone members should you have a variable rate mortgage. Picture posed
John Steinbeck, in his Great Depression epic the 'Grapes of Wrath', wrote: "The bank - the monster has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size." Many Irish mortgage holders over the last number of years would probably share the 1962 Nobel Prizewinner's view, given the crushing burdens of their home loans. In Ireland, you are likely to find yourself paying some 2,500 more a year than your fellow eurozone members should you have a variable rate mortgage.
Michael Noonan has repeatedly threatened to take action but his words seem to merely bounce off the banks, reverberating in a brazen echo. But finally it would appear borrowers are about to get a well-deserved break. The trajectory of variable rates seems to be about to change. A combination of irresistible forces from competitors, as well as looming legislative changes, have turned the tables on the financial institutions, leaving them with little choice but to act. The AIB has turned the screw on its rivals with a fourth 0.25pc reduction in its variable rate in the past 18 months. The cuts come against the backdrop of a Fianna Fail bill aimed at turning the Central Bank into an enforcer on rate cuts. There was also good news for hard-pressed homeowners on another front: on the issue of mortgage arrears, the Government has performed a U-turn to ease the burden. Under a deal hatched between Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Independents, those in mortgage default will be able to challenge their bank. They will now be able to turn to an independent body should the bank reject genuine efforts to restructure their repayments.
They say to be able to do the right thing when no one is looking as opposed to doing it out of fear of consequences are two different things. Such fine moral arguments are best left to the philosophers - hard-pressed homeowners won't be looking this gift horse in the mouth.
Privilege of public office carries responsibilities
They say that power changes everything, but will it change the minds of super junior minister Finian McGrath or Waterford deputy John Halligan, both of whom have pledged not to pay their water bills?
Running with the hare and hunting with the hounds is not, alas, one of the many privileges that goes with being a member of government.
There are so many more pressing issues on the political agenda that neither man should allow the distraction of a controversy over the payment of the charge to become an issue. As the new Government Chief Whip, Regina Doherty, pointed out yesterday, they - the bills - won't "magically disappear".
Mr Halligan's defiance on the issue is disingenuous. All deputies have a responsibility to show a good example.
Apart from the fact that there is a legal obligation to pay, the moral case for doing so is also overwhelming. Our TDs do not have a right to pick and choose which laws they wish to respect and which they will flout.
A Government must have authority and if TDs decide that a particular law does not apply to them, what message are they sending out to the voters?
It has been said that death, taxes and childbirth never come at convenient times; they are inescapable facts of life, nonetheless, and elected representatives really should know better than to question them.
Is there a summer of discontent brewing between the government and An Garda Siochana? If their calls for talks about pay restoration aren't heeded that's what being threatened, according to Antoinette Cunningham, President of the AGSI.
Antoinette Cunningham has made history by becoming the first female president of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors and she is very clear about the task ahead
The first-ever female president of a garda union says gender does not play a role in achieving success in the force.
Antoinette Cunningham is set to lead the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) for the next five years.
In an exclusive interview, Ms Cunningham said her appointment was a proud achievement for her.
Its something that I treasure and I hope that I can successfully bring something to the role and I look forward to the challenge of the next three years, she said.
While she acknowledged that An Garda Siochana can be something of a mans world, she said she didnt believe that her gender played a role in her appointment.
Im not so sure you would be in the position just because of your gender, she said.
Its more to do with competence and the trust that people place in you rather than a gender-related issue, she added.
Challenges
A native of Limerick, Ms Cunningham said that she had aspired to join the gardai since she was around eight or nine years old.
I always wanted to be a guard, from a very young age, she said. I just identified this as the job for me.
Then when I found out a little more about it and the whole sense of working in communities, it really appealed to me.
Ms Cunningham was first stationed in Killarney, where she described her role in the small tourist town as more friendly policing.
However, she was soon moved to Limerick as the city found itself in the throes of gangland warfare.
I went to Roxboro Road at a time when gangland crime in Limerick had started to come to the fore and it was a very difficult place to work, she recalled.
Despite the challenges she and her team faced there, she had fond memories of her time in the station.
The funny thing about the guards is often the more difficult the place is to work, the more united the guards and the people are in there, she said. You all have a common purpose.
She is now in her 25th year of service and lives in Limerick with her 16-year-old son.
Ms Cunningham takes the lead at the AGSI as the force faces several problems in relation to resources, and disillusionment in the ranks.
Describing her work as an instructor at the Garda College in Templemore, she said the demographic of new recruits had changed massively in recent years bringing a whole new set of challenges for young gardai.
The profile of somebody starting in the guards is not a 19-year-old, fresh-faced man or woman from school, she said.
The average age is a 26-year-old, married with a young family and a mortgage and a mortgage that is from a Celtic tiger era, which is a huge repayment every month, she added.
But she was quick to add: Its still a career that people have a passion for and I admire that.
Because I work in the Garda College, I see first hand the enthusiasm with which these people come into the guards, she said.
They really do come in with such a high level of enthusiasm. They are undergoing a fantastic training programme now as student guards, she added.
Ms Cunningham also referred to the issue of garda resources, and how harsh cuts in recent years had adversely affected the publics experience of gardai.
When somebody picks up their phone and they ring a garda station, they expect a response, she continued. They dont expect a response in three or four hours time. When they get that level of response, there is a feeling of disappointment that response wasnt quicker or faster, she added.
She also pointed out that people may not realise there may be a several calls waiting to be answered when they ring their local station.
There could be 14 calls ahead of your call and you just may not have a significant amount of people, or sufficient people, to give the response that [gardai] would like to give, she added.
Ms Cunningham said she recognised that recruitment was continuing for gardai, as announced recently by justice minister Frances Fitzgerald (inset). However, she claimed that the current rate of 600 new gardai per year would mean the process of restoring could take years.
Align that with around 300 retirements and you can see how long it could take to potentially build it up, she said. At this pace, I think it could take years, she added.
Ms Cunningham also called for a deployment model for gardai, which would indicate how many employees would be needed in An Garda Siochana.
Pay Restoration
Can anybody go and tell us at this present time how many guards are needed to police Ireland? Nobody can, and weve asked that question on a number of occasions, she said.
Weve asked it at conference. Weve asked it to ministers. Weve asked it to the Commissioner, she added.
Weve asked various people, but we just dont get an answer.
She also highlighted the issue of garda pay, and stressed that members of the force were not looking for a pay increase.
We are looking to talk about restoring our pay, she said. Thats all we want, and [we] cant get there.
She also criticised the fact that there is no member of the gardai involved in negotiations on pay.
Would that be acceptable to any other group or organisation in this country? I dont believe it would, she said.
Ms Cunningham also pointed out that gardai had been promised a review of their salaries by Government three years ago.
However, she said there had been no meaningful discussion on that.
AGSI, along with the Garda Representative Association (GRA), have to go back to their members and say theres no prospect of getting back the money the almost 25pc of your pay that you lost.
We dont get down to government to talk about our own pay, she said.
A European decision three years ago said we should have that right. The Government has failed to implement that decision so far. That causes disillusionment.
Ms Cunningham said that her organisation has always looked for the support of the Commissioner (inset above) to highlight a lack of sufficient resources to run the organisation.
But she added that the focus was now on encouraging the new government to take action on the issue.
I would call on government to address the issue of the restoration of garda pay and the right to negotiate, she said. Please, let us talk about our own pay.
Principles
Asked if she would consider spending a few nights in prison to defend her unions principles, Ms Cunningham said: I can envisage myself going anywhere and having to do everything to have to represent the people that I represent.
Im quite happy to do all that I have to do to be the voice of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, she added.
Thats what Ive been elected to do, she continued.
She also said that she would always work within the framework of her unions National Executive and membership.
Therell be no solo runs here, she said.
Dunbar said: "I really don't know how people sustained themselves in real battles. Someone would just come along and slaughter you because you'd be too tired to lift a sword."
Adrian Dunbar has admitted he was left exhausted by the battle scenes on BBC Two drama The Hollow Crown.
The Irish actor plays Richard Plantaganet - who defeated the Lancastrian forces at St Albans in 1455 - in the adaptations of Shakespeare's history plays.
He told the Radio Times: "You've got the armour and everything on, and you think, 'This is going to be great.' Then they give you a sword, and you think, 'Ah, it's not too bad.'
"And after 10 minutes you're thinking, 'Please, I can't be doing this all day.'
"I mean, I really don't know how people sustained themselves in real battles.
"Someone would just come along and slaughter you because you'd be too tired to lift a sword."
Line Of Duty star Dunbar, 57, believes the series is well timed.
"It's got everything - battles, power being wrested from people, witchcraft - it's the proper Game Of Thrones," he said.
"I think there are a lot of young people, in particular, who watch Game Of Thrones, so these plays won't be as alien to them now as they might have been to audiences watching 30 or 40 years ago."
:: This week's Radio Times is on sale from Tuesday.
Actors (L-R) Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling attend "The Place Beyond The Pines" premiere during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival at Princess of Wales Theatre on September 7, 2012 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Sonia Recchia/Getty Images)
It's hard to keep a secret in Hollywood, but Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes are showing stars how it's done.
The famously private couple secretly welcomed their second daughter last month, while insiders were still trying to confirm whether or not she was pregnant. The Fast 8 actress Eva (42) gave birth to Amada Lee - a little sister to 20-month-old Esmeralda - in April.
Amada, which was Eva's grandmother's name and means "beloved" in Spanish was born on Friday, April 29 at 8:03am, PEOPLE confirmed. The new mother was pictured enjoying a family lunch in Los Angeles alongside her fiance Ryan (35).
"Shes never been happier," an insider told the magazine. "She and Ryan are just in awe of this beautiful person they created. Its a really special time for them."
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The source adds that while the Oscar-nominated actor is "certainly private", it's Eva's insistence they keep their family life under lock and key.
"[She] just hasnt ever wanted anyone beyond her close friends and family knowing more than they had to. And Ryan is certainly private and always has been."
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The couple first met in 2011 on the set of The Place Beyond The Pines and while they avoid joint red carpet appearances and prefer to keep their personal life out of the spotlight, Gosling gushed last year: "I know that Im with the person Im supposed to be with."
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Eva previously explained her eldest daughter's name, revealing both she and her beau are big fans of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, whose love interest is Esmerelda.
"We loved the name, the cartoon and the novel... and it just kind of kept coming back to us," Eva told the talk show host.
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"Its actually a very popular Latin name, so its easy for my father and certain family members that still dont speak English to pronounce. That was a good selling point."
Eva Mendes launches Estee Lauder New Dimension Skincare at Nordstrom Aventura on July 25, 2015 in Aventura, Florida. (Photo by John Parra/Getty Images for Estee Lauder)
Eva Mendes is mourning the death of her older brother, who has lost his battle with cancer.
Juan Carlos Mendez, 53, died on 17 April, almost two years after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014.
Eva's younger brother Carlo Mendez confirmed the sad news on Instagram, praising his brother who "fought with all his might and power and gave cancer one hell of a fight."
Juan Carlos, who leaves behind two children, ages five and 13, was remembered at a memorial on Tuesday (26Apr16) at the Church of the Recessional in Glendale, California.
A photo posted by Eva Mendes (@evamendes) on Apr 1, 2016 at 12:41pm PDT
Carlo shared his gratitude for the outpouring of support he and his family have received online, writing on Instagram: "I have no idea how to cope with him being gone but I want to thank you all who have reached out to me and believe me when I say your messages make me feel a little bit better. My life will never be the same without him. Thank you all."
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Juan Carlos' passing comes just weeks after Eva, who is reportedly pregnant with her second child with Ryan Gosling, shared her own touching photo with her ailing brother on the photo sharing app.
In the picture, taken at a Stands Up to Cancer benefit event in January, 2015, Eva has her arm around Juan Carlos. She simply captioned the sweet snap with a heart emoji.
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Earlier this year, the 2 Fast 2 Furious star even shared a throwback photo of her sibling, with a caption which read: "My brother Juan Carlos. Sending him so much love today as he continues his battle with cancer. I love you big brother."
Actors Mia Wasikowska and Johnny Depp arrive at the European Premiere of Alice Through the Looking Glass at a cinema in London, Britain, May 10, 2016
Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp thanked the London policemen who once arrested him as he arrived in the capital at the premiere of his latest film.
Depp (52) prompted screams from the crowd as he walked on to the red carpet for the screening of Alice Through the Looking Glass at the Odeon in Leicester Square.
He appeared without his wife Amber Heard, 30, but said he was grateful to her for "putting up with him".
He said: "I think everybody has a sense of themselves, we are all living our lives together and living closely with someone.
"I know I wouldn't be considered normal, I suppose, so I thank her for that. I thank my mum for that, I thank my father for that, for putting up with me.
"I also thank the London policemen when I was arrested here, they were very nice and gave me a cup of tea."
Depp was arrested in London in 1999 after a scuffle with photographers outside a restaurant and was later cautioned.
His wife Heard recently avoided jail in Australia after pleading guilty to providing a false immigration document amid allegations she smuggled the couple's dogs Pistol and Boo into the country.
The pair went on to record a bizarre video in which they apologised and spoke about how important it is to protect Australia's biodiversity.
In his new film, Depp returns to the role of the Mad Hatter after the huge success of Alice In Wonderland, which was directed by Tim Burton in 2010. Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and Sherlock star Andrew Scott join the all-star cast for the second outing, which was directed by James Bobin.
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Depp said: "It was a lot of fun to come back to the Mad Hatter, it was a gas to get back together with the cast and the addition of Sacha upped the stakes quite a lot. This particular film has a bit more of the Hatter's layers and things going on."
He added: "The first film was something very special in terms of Tim and I working together again. Bringing in James was brilliant because he has such a profound respect for the language that Tim created and stretched it into his own vision."
Cohen was joined by his wife Isla Fisher for his red carpet outing and joked about working with Depp saying: "We would do a few hours on the acting and then an hour of plotting how to get dogs in and out of countries so it became exhausting and really the film was secondary. In the end he was shipping about 300 dogs a day in and out of England."
Australian actress Mia Wasikowska resumes her role as Alice, who explores her feeling about the passage of time in the film.
Dressed in a blue custom Prada gown, she said: "The message in the film is really nice, that the best way to deal with time is to accept what happened in the past and not try and change it and move on freely into the future."
Aisling O'Loughlin at Dublin City Hall to celebrate the launch of New No7 Lift & Luminate Triple Action Serum. Picture: Kieran Harnett
Aisling O'Loughlin at the exclusive launch of Audrey a new exhibition at the Newbridge Silverware Museum of Style Icons. Photo: Kieran Harnett
Aisling O'Loughlin at the IFTAs and (inset) her third son
TV3 presenter Aisling O'Loughlin has welcomed her third son with partner Nicholas MacInnes.
The Xpose host (38) gave birth to the new arrival early this morning at Holles Street hospital and her proud fiance shared a snap of the newborn baby fresh from the hospital.
"Baby number five has just arrived and embracing life," the new father wrote. "All is good and beautiful."
The couple, who just celebrated their five-year anniversary, have two sons Louis (two) and Patrick (four) together. Aisling, who went on maternity leave from Ballymount early, said she couldn't wait to meet the new arrival and expand her family.
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"I cant wait to meet him. Its amazing thinking, Whos in there, what do you look like? You just dont know who youre making, she said.
"Its also nice to be finally on maternity leave and get some stuff done about the house and spend time with the boys before the new baby comes."
Aisling was scheduled for a C-section on May 11, but her son had other plans and arrived early - something she was prepared for as her sisters warned her.
"All my sisters are like, The third one never waits, but Im hoping to God it does, she said.
An actress holding the rights to make a movie about Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has welcomed the latest step towards his intended extradition to the US.
Kate del Castillo said: "Today's news that El Chapo may be extradited to the United States is good news in that it will allow my team greater access to him in order to tell a full and accurate picture of his unbelievable life and work."
Mexican judicial authorities said a judge had ruled that legal requirements had been met for sending Guzman to the US to face drug charges. The country's Foreign Relations Department must still approve extradition, and Guzman's lawyers can appeal.
Del Castillo arranged actor Sean Penn's interview with Guzman in October while the leader of the Sinaloa cartel was on the run after his second escape from prison. She has said she was able to do so because of a relationship that developed around Guzman's interest in having a film made about his life.
Mexican authorities have said they are investigating whether del Castillo received any money from Guzman. She denies that happened.
Her optimism that Guzman would be more accessible in the US after extradition could be misplaced.
"I think that her statement is wishful thinking," said David S Weinstein, a former prosecutor who oversaw the narcotics division at the prosecutor's office in Miami.
"She will have little to no access to him prior to his trial or the resolution of all the cases for which he is extradited to the US to stand trial."
After a conviction, del Castillo would have to request an interview through the Bureau of Prisons. With such high-profile inmates, such requests are not routinely granted.
Guzman's lawyers have confirmed that del Castillo has the rights to make a movie about his life.
On Monday, notary public Gabriel Ezeta said he was the one who issued the document in which Guzman gave permission to del Castillo and two others to use his name. The document was issued in January last year and signed by Guzman inside the Altiplano maximum-security prison from which he escaped through a tunnel the following July.
A Muslim high school student has been mistakenly identified in her Southern California yearbook as "Isis Phillips".
Bayan Zehlif said is hurt not only by the error, but by her classmates who condemned her for denouncing it.
The 17-year-old said at a news conference with Muslim community advocates on Monday that she found it "coincidental" that she was mistaken for a girl whose name is widely associated with a terror group.
"Seeing the yearbook really hurt, but seeing my classmates go against me like that hurt even more," she told reporters at the offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Anaheim, California.
Chaffey Joint Union High School District superintendent Mat Holton said in a statement that Zehlif was misidentified as another student with the first name of Isis.
The other student, who no longer attends Los Osos High School, was also misidentified in the yearbook on a facing page, Mr Holton said.
"The families of both students were immediately contacted and offered a sincere apology," and another apology was offered at a second meeting on Monday with himself and the school principal, Mr Holton added.
Yearbook distribution has been halted until the error is fixed, and those who have already received them have been asked to return them.
He said an investigation is being carried out.
"If it is found that a student acted irresponsibly and intentionally, administration will take appropriate actions," he said.
Zehlif said she did not personally know Isis Phillips, but she had heard that a girl with that name had attended the school in Rancho Cucamonga. The mix-up occurred on a candid photo, and her class photo lists her name correctly, she said.
Zehlif posted a photo on Facebook of herself in a hijab with the name "Isis Phillips" underneath it as it appears in the yearbook.
Zehlif is staying away from school for now out of fear of the backlash from some of her classmates, but hopes to attend graduation next week as some of her relatives have travelled from Jordan for the ceremony, she said.
NEW London Mayor Sadiq Khan has brushed aside Donald Trump's suggestion that he would exempt him from his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States.
The Republican presidential hopeful told the New York Times that he was happy to see Mr Khan elected, saying it could be "very, very good".
However the new mayor has hit back, warning that Mr Trump's "ignorant" view of Islam could make both Britain and the US less safe.
"This isn't just about me - it's about my friends, my family and everyone who comes from a background similar to mine, anywhere in the world," he said.
When asked by the New York Times how his proposed ban on Muslims would apply to Mr Khan, Mr Trump said: "There will always be exceptions."
Despite his outspoken views on Muslims, he insisted he was pleased to see Mr Khan elected as the capital's first Muslim mayor.
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"I was happy to see that. I think it's a very good thing, and I hope he does a very good job because, frankly, that would be very, very good."
"Because I think if he does a great job, it will really - you lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job, and frankly if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing."
However Mr Khan retorted: "Donald Trump's ignorant view of Islam could make both of our countries less safe - it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of extremists.
"Donald Trump and those around him think that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam - London has proved him wrong."
A TEAM of 10 British police officers has returned to the Greek island of Kos to carry out "house-to-house visits" in the search for missing Ben Needham.
Ben, from Sheffield, was 21 months old when he disappeared on July 24, 1991.
His mother Kerry has always maintained that her son, who would now be 26, is alive and was probably abducted.
South Yorkshire Police said officers travelled to Kos on Sunday and would hold a press conference today. A spokesman said the detectives would be "actively progressing lines of inquiry, distributing leaflets and posters and carrying out house-to-house visits in Iraklis in Kos, where Ben was last seen".
Detective Inspector Jon Cousins said: "The lives of Ben Needham's family were ripped apart when he disappeared more than 20 years ago and their determination to find him has not diminished. They are more desperate than ever to find answers about what happened to him.
"It is likely that someone out there knows what happened to him and we will be appealing to people in Kos who have information to come forward and tell us what they know."
The Canadian city ravaged by a massive wildfire has been reprieved after cold temperatures and light rain stabilised the blaze, officials said.
Fire Chief Darby Allen said 85% of Fort McMurray remains intact, including the city centre, and Alberta's premier Rachel Notley said officials hope to provide a schedule within two weeks for thousands of evacuated residents to return home.
Ms Notley said about 2,400 homes and buildings were destroyed in Canada's main oil sands city, but firefighters managed to save 25,000 others, including the hospital, municipal buildings and every functioning school.
"This city was surrounded by an ocean of fire only a few days ago but Fort McMurray and the surrounding communities have been saved and they will be rebuilt," she said.
Ms Notley got her first direct look at the devastation in Fort McMurray on Monday after cold temperatures and light rain stabilised the massive wildfire to a point where officials could begin planning to get thousands of evacuated residents back.
The break in the weather left officials optimistic they have reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. The temperature dipped to 7C on Monday after a week where the region had unseasonably warm temperatures.
Ms Notley flew in on Monday morning to meet local officials and took a ground tour of the town before holding a news conference at the emergency centre.
"I was very much struck by the devastation of the fire. It was really quite overwhelming in some spots," she said. "But I will also say that I was struck by the proximity of that devastation to neighbourhoods that were untouched."
More than 40 journalists were allowed into Fort McMurray on a bus escorted by police. The forest surrounding the road into town was still smouldering and there were abandoned cars.
The Beacon Hill neighbourhood was a scene of utter devastation with homes burned down to their foundations.
Mr Allen said of the fire: " This was a beast. It was an animal. It was a fire like I've never seen in my life."
In the early stages of the blaze he feared that as much as half the city could burn down
"I just want to let the people know that we're in pretty good shape," he said. "Typical of the damaged areas you'll see structures that are completely gone and structures that are intact."
Mr Allen said at one point the fire raced down a hill to the corner of a bank, but firefighters were able to halt the encroaching flames at the bank. Had they failed to stop it there, the fire would have destroyed the central business district, he said.
More than 88,000 people have left Fort McMurray since the fire broke out last Tuesday in the heart of Canada's oil sands region. The bulk of the city's evacuees moved south after Tuesday's mandatory evacuation order, but 25,000 moved north and were housed in camps normally used for oil sands workers until they also could be evacuated south.
Gas has been turned off, the power grid is damaged and water is undrinkable in Fort McMurray. More than 250 power company workers are trying to restore the grid and assess the gas infrastructure.
"We are now turning our minds more and more to the recovery effort," federal public safety minister Ralph Goodale said.
"This is going to be a long term endeavour because at the moment there is no power and gas, no palatable water supply. There's dangerous hazardous material all over the place. It's going to take a very careful, thoughtful effort to get that community back in a livable condition."
Ms Notley said the fire continues to grow outside the city and was about 787 square miles in size.
No deaths or injuries have been reported from the fire itself, but it has forced as much as a third of Canada's oil output offline and is expected to impact an economy already hurt by the fall in oil prices.
"We're just beginning to become aware of the economic impacts," prime minister Justin Trudeau said.
Alberta's oil sands have the third-largest reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Its workers largely live in Fort McMurray, a former frontier outpost-turned-city whose residents mostly come from elsewhere in Canada.
Police investigate the scene of a stabbing at a station in Grafing near Munich, Germany (AP)
Police investigators take notes at the site of a stabbing at a station in Grafing near Munich, Germany. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
A police officer places number plates next to bicycles near the scene of a stabbing at a station in Grafing near Munich, Germany. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)
Police say there is no evidence that a man suspected of stabbing four people at a station outside Munich had any accomplices or was part of an Islamic extremist network.
Senior police official Guenther Gietl said a woman reported hearing the words "infidel, you must die" at the time of the stabbing early on Tuesday.
However, police said there is no sign that he had any contact with Islamic extremist groups or any evidence of radicalisation.
And another senior police official, Lothar Koehler, said the suspect made a "rather confused impression" during questioning
Authorities also say they are doubtful as to whether the suspect can be held criminally responsible.
This suggests that the man may not be mentally fit to stand trial.
Prosecutor Ken Heidenreich said Tuesday that the man's statements do not fit together.
Officials say there appears to have been no particular reason for the man to choose the Grafing Bahnhof station as the location for his attack.
They say he caught a train there from Munich in the early hours of the morning.
The late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos' son, who is running for vice president, has called for a stop to an unofficial vote count that shows his rival has overtaken him.
Sen Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr's campaign said it sent an urgent request to the Commission on Elections to halt a tally released by an accredited citizen's group, saying the results showed "an alarming and suspicious trend" contrary to independent exit polls and the campaign's estimates, according to his adviser, Rep Jonathan dela Cruz.
If Mr Marcos wins, that would put him a step away from the presidency 30 years after his father was ousted by a public uprising amid plunder allegations and widespread human rights abuses.
His rival, Congresswoman Leni Robredo, was ahead by 200,000 votes, putting her half a percentage point ahead of Marcos as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the unofficial count. Earlier counts had Marcos in the lead.
Official results will not be released for at least another two weeks. The Philippines elects the president and vice president separately.
Ms Robredo, a lawyer for the poor and the widow of a well-loved politician, has denied cheating.
She thanked her supporters at a news conference, but said the count was not yet over. She asked all to remain calm and respect whatever results come out of what she said were clean and orderly elections.
She promised full support for Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who has cemented his lead in the Philippine presidential election, in case she wins.
The election commission has yet to formally receive Mr Marcos' request and the insinuations of irregularities are based on a partial and unofficial count, according to James Jimenez, a commission spokesman.
Christian Monsod, one of the framers of the country's 1987 constitution and former elections commission head, welcomed Ms Robredo's lead.
"We have a problem if Bongbong Marcos wins because there are still many cases against the Marcoses," he said, pointing out that the country has recovered only 3.7 billion US dollars (2.5bn) of the estimated 10 billion US dollars (7bn) the family allegedly stole from government coffers.
The Marcos family fled to Hawaii four days after massive street protests, where rosary-clutching nuns and ordinary citizens knelt before tanks and protesters stuck yellow flowers into the muzzles of assault rifles of pro-government troops. His father died in exile.
After his family's return to the country in 1991, Mr Marcos Jr became governor, congressman and in 2010 a senator.
President Benigno Aquino III, whose parents were democracy champions who helped topple the senior Marcos, also campaigned against Mr Marcos Jr, who has never clearly apologised for abuses of his father.
"If he couldn't even see what was wrong in what their family did, how can we expect that he won't repeat these?" Mr Aquino said during a ceremony in February commemorating the revolt's anniversary.
Bayan Zehlif, 17, speaks during a news conference in California after she was wrongly identified as "Isis Phillips" in her school yearbook (AP)
A Muslim high school student has been mistakenly identified in her Southern California yearbook as "Isis Phillips".
Bayan Zehlif said she is hurt not only by the error, but by her classmates who condemned her for denouncing it.
The 17-year-old said at a news conference with Muslim community advocates on Monday that she found it "coincidental" that she was mistaken for a girl whose name is widely associated with a terror group.
"Seeing the yearbook really hurt, but seeing my classmates go against me like that hurt even more," she told reporters at the offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Anaheim, California.
Chaffey Joint Union High School District superintendent Mat Holton said in a statement that Zehlif was misidentified as another student with the first name of Isis.
The other student, who no longer attends Los Osos High School, was also misidentified in the yearbook on a facing page, Mr Holton said.
"The families of both students were immediately contacted and offered a sincere apology," and another apology was offered at a second meeting on Monday with himself and the school principal, Mr Holton added.
Yearbook distribution has been halted until the error is fixed, and those who have already received them have been asked to return them.
He said an investigation is being carried out.
"If it is found that a student acted irresponsibly and intentionally, administration will take appropriate actions," he said.
Zehlif said she did not personally know Isis Phillips, but she had heard that a girl with that name had attended the school in Rancho Cucamonga. The mix-up occurred on a candid photo, and her class photo lists her name correctly, she said.
Zehlif posted a photo on Facebook of herself in a hijab with the name "Isis Phillips" underneath it as it appears in the yearbook.
Zehlif is staying away from school for now out of fear of the backlash from some of her classmates, but hopes to attend graduation next week as some of her relatives hvae travelled from Jordan for the ceremony, she said.
An Indian woman who gave birth for the first time at the age of 70 has said her life feels complete now.
Daljinder Kaur and her 79-year-old husband Mohinder Singh Gill welcomed their first child last month following two years of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.
The couple had travelled from their home in the northern city of Amritsar to the National Fertility and Test Tube centre in Haryana to receive the treatments.
They have been married for 46 years and said they had almost given up hope of having a child.
God heard our prayers. My life feels complete now. I am looking after the baby all by myself, I feel so full of energy. My husband is also very caring and helps me as much as he can, she told AFP.
When we saw the (IVF) advert, we thought we should also give it a try as I badly wanted to have a baby of my own.
As many people in India do not have birth certificates, Ms Kaur did not know her exact age, but placed it at 70 years old, while a statement from the fertility clinic said she was 72.
The baby, named Armaan, was conceived using the couples own egg and sperm and weighed just 44lbs when he was born on April 19. He is now healthy and hearty, the National Fertility and Test Tube centre said.
Mr Kaur owns a farm outside Amritsar, and said he was not concerned about the couple's age.
People say what will happen to the child once we die? But I have full faith in God. God is omnipotent and omnipresent, he will take care of everything, he said.
Dr Anurag Bishnoi, embryologist and owner of the fertility clinic, explained that he was initially sceptical about the procedure, until tests showed Ms Kaur was fit to conceive.
I first tried to avoid the case because she looked very frail. Then we made her undergo all the tests and once all the results were okay we went ahead, he said.
A similar case saw a 72-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh in India give birth to twins in 2008, also with the help of IVF.
A person playing the role of suicide bomber detonates an explosive during an exercise at the Intu Trafford Centre in Trafford, Manchester Credit: Sean Hansford / Manchester Evening News / Pool /PA Wire
People playing the role of injured shoppers react during an exercise at the Intu Trafford Centre in Trafford, Manchester Credit: Sean Hansford / Manchester Evening News / Pool /PA Wire
An armed police officer during an exercise at the Intu Trafford Centre in Trafford, Manchester Credit: Sean Hansford / Manchester Evening News / Pool /PA Wire
A person playing the role of suicide bomber detonates an explosive during an exercise at the Intu Trafford Centre in Trafford, Manchester Credit: Sean Hansford / Manchester Evening News / Pool /PA Wire
A police chief has apologised for featuring a fake suicide bomber shouting Allahu Akbar in a counter-terrorism training exercise.
As part of the drill, a mock terrorist detonated explosives and opened fire in the food court of the Trafford Centre in Manchester, one of the UKs biggest shopping centres, on Monday night.
More than 800 volunteers took part, with some covered in fake blood to act as the dead and wounded victims and others playing the terrorists attempting to gain control of the busy shopping centre.
The six-hour exercise, organised by the citys police force, aimed to test the emergency response to an extremist strike in the wake of the atrocities in Paris and Brussels.
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Along with the police, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, Merseyside Police and the North West Ambulance Service also took part in the staged exercise.
It is set to continue over the next two nights in separate unknown locations, to resemble the attacks in Paris last November that killed 137 people.
Before detonating the explosive device, one of the fake terrorists cried Allahu Akbar, which is Arabic for God is greatest.
People were quick to criticise the explicit association of terrorism with Islam on Twitter, claiming the depiction of the terrorist during the simulation represented a negative stereotype of Muslims.
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The assistant chief constable Garry Shewan of Greater Manchester police released a statement apologising for the act.
For the past 24 hours GMP, along with other agencies has been hosting a counter terrorism training exercise based at the Trafford Centre which began with a mock suicide bomber detonating a bomb outside the shopping centre.
It is necessary for agencies including the police to train and prepare using exercises such as this so that we would be in the best possible position to respond in the event that the unthinkable happened and an attack took place.
The scenario for this exercise is based on a suicide attack by extremist Daesh style organisation and the scenario writers have centred the circumstances around previous similar attacks of this nature, mirroring the details of past events to make the situation as real life as possible for all of those involved.
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However, on reflection we acknowledge that it was unacceptable to use this religious phrase immediately before the mock suicide bombing, which so vocally linked this exercise to Islam.
"We recognise and apologise for the offence this has caused," he said."
The drill is the latest in a series of exercises as part of a national programme that has been planned since December 2015.
Similar simulations took place in London, Glasgow and Essex in recent months.
Our priority is to stop terrorists from planning and orchestrating attacks and with exercises like this, we can put our response to the test in a safe environment, so we are fully prepared for a time when it be may critical, said Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Rebekah Sutcliffe.
President Barack Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, where the US dropped an atomic bomb during World War II.
President Obama will visit the site with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a previously scheduled trip to Japan, the White House announced.
The president intends to "highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons", White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
The president will not apologise for the bombing, the White House made clear. And Mr Abe said none was expected nor necessary, suggesting the visit itself would send a powerful message.
"The prime minister of the world's only nation to have suffered atomic attacks, and the leader of the world's only nation to have used the atomic weapons at war will together pay respects for the victims," Mr Abe told reporters.
"I believe that would be a way to respond to the victims of the atomic bombings and the survivors who are still in pain."
The president's visit has been widely anticipated since US Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to the Hiroshima memorial in April.
Mr Kerry toured the peace museum with other foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialised nations and participated in an annual memorial service just steps from the site's ground zero.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui praised President Obama's plan to visit as a "bold decision based on conscience and rationality", adding that he hopes the president will have a chance to hear the survivors' stories.
He also expressed hope the visit would be "a historic first step toward an international effort toward abolishing nuclear weapons, which is a wish of all mankind".
The US attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, in the final days of World War II, killed 140,000 people and badly burned many thousands more.
While it scarred a generation of Japanese, both physically and mentally, many Americans believe the bombing, along with another August 9 on the city of Nagasaki, hastened the end of the war and saved countless other lives. Japan announced it would surrender on August 15.
Diverging views about an act that forever changed war have made a visit from a sitting US president a delicate and arguably politically risky move.
Former President Jimmy Carter did visit, in 1984, three years after he left office.
It took 65 years for a US ambassador to attend the annual memorial service.
In the US, officials remain wary that a presidential visit could be perceived as an apology for an act believed to have saved American lives.
Sunao Tsuboi, 91, a survivor of the bombing and head of a survivors' group in the western Japanese city, welcomed the decision.
"The day has finally come," Mr Tsuboi told Japan's NHK national television.
"We are not asking for an apology," Mr Tsuboi said. "All we want is to see him lay flowers at the peace park and lower his head in silence. This would be a first step toward abolishing nuclear weapons."
Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue said he respected President Obama for what he saw as a tough decision.
"I expect that the president will send a powerful message, in his own words, toward achieving a world without nuclear weapons," Mr Taue said in a statement.
Kevin Martin, president of Peace Action, a US-based group, said President Obama should use the visit to announce specific steps to "bring the world closer to being free of nuclear weapons", such as reducing the number of nuclear warheads in reserve.
"Obama will look insincere if his words espouse ridding the world of nuclear weapons while at the same time his administration continues its plan to spend a trillion dollars over 30 years to upgrade nuclear weapons," Mr Martin said in a statement.
Early in his presidency, President Obama said he would be honoured to make the trip, and the White House has said it often considered a visit on previous trips to Asia. It has not explained why a visit there has never come together.
Asked last week whether the president believes an apology is warranted, Mr Earnest was direct: "No, he does not."
President Obama will be in Japan to attend the Group of 7 economic summit, part of a week-long Asia tour that will also include a stop in Vietnam.
Lawyers for victims of the Colorado movie theatre shooting say widespread security failures allowed for the attack that left 12 people dead
Lawyers for victims of the Colorado movie theatre shooting say widespread security failures allowed for the attack that left 12 people dead.
Lawyer Marc Bern said the Denver cinema should have had armed guards during the packed midnight premiere of a Batman movie, where at least 1,000 people were expected.
He made his opening statement in a lawsuit against theatre owner Cinemark.
Mr Bern says the cinema also lacked silent alarms that would have sounded before gunman James Holmes slipped into the crowded theatre and opened fire.
Among other problems, Mr Bern says Holmes surveyed the theatre months before the shooting and chose it because of its lax security.
Twenty-eight victims are suing the Texas-based cinema chain in state court in Centennial, alleging it should have foreseen the July 2012 shooting.
But a lawyer for the cinema owner described Holmes as a heavily armed "mad genius" determined to kill and said he could not have been stopped.
Kevin Taylor said the company could not have known the risk of a mass shooting.
He disputed victims' allegations that the chain's security allowed for the shooting and said Cinemark's procedures were in line with industry standards.
Mr Taylor said crime was falling nationwide and that Aurora was named one of Forbes Magazine's top 10 safest cities around the time of the shooting.
He said opening nights are known to draw well-behaved crowds, and the cinema had never before seen major problems during a premiere.
Two people have been killed by strong tornadoes that swept across portions of southern Oklahoma.
Emergency services said one twister hit the town of Wynnewood as a number of violent storms raked the Southern Plains and the Ozark mountains.
The emergency director in Garvin County, Bud Ramming, said a man believed to have been in his late 70s was found dead in a home.
Elsewhere, police in Johnston County said a man died near the town of Connerville.
Some of the weather was so bad that forecasters declared a tornado emergency for the towns of Roff and Hickory.
The tornado emergency notice said: "You are in a life-threatening situation. Flying debris will be deadly to those caught without shelter."
One person sustained minor injuries in Murray County, where the tornado moved slowly through a rural area on its path that would take it south of Roff, said Gary Ligon, Murray County's emergency management director.
He said the injured person was taken to hospital.
The Storm Prediction Centre in Norman, Oklahoma, warned that twisters as far north as Nebraska and Iowa could develop.
The bad weather should settle in the Ohio and Tennessee valleys on Tuesday, forecasters said, while another storm system should bring bad weather to the area from north Texas to near St Louis on Wednesday.
Monday's series of violent thunderstorms dropped tornadoes near Oklahoma City and in the rolling hills south of the city, destroying some homes and barns. Oklahoma Highway Patrol closed Interstate 35 near Wynnewood for 15 minutes so the storm could pass, temporarily shutting down the primary route between Oklahoma City and Dallas.
Meteorologists said twisters with wind speeds above 110mph were possible from eastern Oklahoma to central Arkansas. Hail 2in or more in diameter was possible from eastern Texas to south-eastern Kansas.
About 41 million people from Houston to Sioux City, Iowa, were at risk for some type of stormy weather.
People embrace Musa Gilani, right, the brother of Ali Haider Gilani who was kidnapped (AP)
A joint raid by US and Afghan forces has rescued the son of a former Pakistani prime minister from a three-year-long Taliban captivity in Afghanistan, Pakistan's foreign ministry said.
The Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar told Pakistan's foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, in a telephone call that Ali Hiader Gilani was found during the raid in Ghazni province and that arrangements were being made for his transfer to Pakistan, according to the statement from the Pakistani Foreign Office.
Mr Gilani, believed to be in his 30s, is the son of Pakistan's former PM Yusuf Raza Gilani - whose secular anti-Taliban Pakistan People's Party's led several major offensives against Islamic militants.
The elder Gilani, who served as prime minister from 2008 to 2012, said last year that the kidnappers demanded the release of several al Qaida prisoners in exchange for his son.
He also said that the captors had let his son talk to him by phone for eight minutes, and that he was being held somewhere in Afghanistan.
Gunmen kidnapped the younger Gilani in May 2013, several days before the general elections in his central Pakistani hometown of Multan.
There was no immediate comment from US or Afghan officials.
Abdul Qadi Gilani, a brother of the younger Gilani, praised Afghan authorities and Pakistan's army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif for his brother's successful recovery.
He said the army chief also called their father about the rescue. A jubilant elder Gulani was seen on Pakistani TV attending an election rally after hearing the news.
"This is a very good day for me," the father said as his other son, Abdul Qadir, told reporters in Multan that his brother will arrive from Afghanistan to Islamabad later on Tuesday.
"I am very happy and I have no words to express my joy," Abdul Qadir said.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued a statement expressing pleasure over the rescue while the current leader of the People's Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, announced on Twitter the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad first called the elder Gilani to tell him about his son.
The Pakistani Taliban have fought the state for over a decade, killing tens of thousands of people in a bid to install their own harsh Islamic system.
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Colonel Wendetta Williams received her commission through ROTC and graduated from Clemson University in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry. She also holds a Master of Arts in human resource development from Webster University. Her military education includes Chemical Officer Basic Course, Chemical Office Advanced Course, NBC Reconnaissance Course, Biological Detection Course, Combined Arms and Services Staff School, Intermediate Level Education, Joint Senior Leaders Course, Reserve Component National Security Issues Seminar, Defense Strategy Course, the Advanced Operations and Warfighting Course, the Army Inspector General School and the Army War College.
Prior to her current assignment, Col. Williams has served in a variety of command and staff positions on active duty and in the Army Reserves. Col. Williams served as the Battalion Assistant Operations Officer in the 1st Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Battalion, Squadron Chemical Officer in the 4th Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, NBC Reconnaissance Platoon Leader and Company Executive Officer in the 89th Chemical Company. She has also worked in the United States Army Chemical School as the Assistant Personnel Proponency Officer, served as the Brigade Personnel Officer and Commander, HHC, 3rd Chemical Brigade.
After departing active duty, Col. Williams joined the Army Reserves and assumed command of the 375th Chemical Company (Biological Detection). Following command Col. Williams was assigned as the Group Chemical Officer and Battle Major for the 917th Corps Support Group and deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After deployment, she served as the Assistant Operations Officer in the 6025th Garrison Support Unit. Col. Williams has served as the Battalion Operations Officer and Battalion Commander (interim) of the 4th Battalion (Chemical), 95th Regiment.
Col. Williams has also served as Course Manager for Reserve Component Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear School Captain Career Course at the Army Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear School. She has served as the Command Inspector General for the 102nd Training Division (Maneuver Support) TASS at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
Col. Williams last assignment was as the Battalion Commander, 1116th Mobilization Support Battalion.
Col. Williams' awards include Meritorious Service Medal (2 OLC), Army Commendation Medal (2 OLC), Army Achievement Medal, Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal with "M" Device, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and Army Service Ribbon.
Col. Williams works for the Department of the Army as an Operations Research Systems Analyst at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
Col. Williams is a honor graduate of Pendleton High School. Her father, Harold Williams is retired from the U.S. Navy and lives in San Diego, Calif. Her grandmother is the late Mary Williams Sales.
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By Mike Eads of the Independent Mail
CLEMSON Clemson Police Chief Jimmy Dixon told the city council Monday he would like to add more manpower in the coming budget year.
The council did the first of three planned work sessions to review the 2016-17 budget proposed by City Administrator Rick Cotton and his staff. The 250-page proposal lays out an $11 million budget for the new fiscal year, which starts July 1. The millage will remain at this year's level of 84.2, thanks to rising local sales tax revenues and millage values rising around $5,000 each to approximately $63,000 each. The city would have to draw $409,000 from the city's approximately $3.6 million general fund balance to cover its overhead and capital improvements.
Cotton and Dixon told the council that $314,000 of the $976,300 in capital improvements funds included in the budget proposal would pay for 10 new Ford Police Interceptors to turnover one-third of the police department's fleet next year. The chief added that he could use more patrol officers and another dispatcher, but that he understood that the city can only afford so much spending.
"It depends on how brave you all want to be," Dixon said. "I'm not naive I'm not expecting you all to approve this right now but I'm telling you, we're stretched."
Cotton added that the city's staffing needs extend beyond the police department. He said the fire department could use "four or five" new firefighters to staff the new east side station to be built and the public works department hasn't added new staff in 20 years. He also said the city also has employees who could use better pay.
"You should take care of your time before you start taking on more," Cotton said.
Those staffing demands aren't unique to the city of Clemson. Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper has said repeatedly over the last couple of years about his office's needs for more dispatchers, correctional officers and over 30 more deputies and investigators.
Clemson Mayor J.C. Cook asked if the city has gotten any reimbursements yet from for body camera purchases for its police officers. Dixon said Clemson was the one of the early applicants for state money the Legislature has approved for such purchases, but he is still waiting the funds.
"I don't know what's going with that now and I don't think they (state officials) know what's going on," Dixon told Cook. "At some point we're hoping to get some relief."
"We want to make sure that if it's (state reimbursement) out there that we take advantage of it," Cook said.
The city council has two more budget work sessions planned for later this month to go over the numbers proposed for each department. Budget votes should come in June ahead of the July 1 start to the 2016-17 fiscal year.
Follow Michael Eads on Twitter @MikeEads_AIM.
FILE PHOTO Charlie Pannell, an Army veteran from Anderson, was wounded in Iraq in 2008. He was found dead Sunday.
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By Nikie Mayo of the Independent Mail
Anderson Army veteran Charlie Pannell, who lost his left leg after being hurt in Iraq, died of complications related to his service injury, the Anderson County Coroner said Monday.
Pannell, 35, was found unresponsive Sunday morning by his wife, Bethany. She had just fed the couple's 8-month-old son, Garrett, before checking on her husband.
Coroner Greg Shore said an autopsy Monday revealed that Charlie Pannell had a partial bowel obstruction and that he aspirated in his sleep.
"This is all tied to his war injuries," Shore said. "It is just tragic and unexpected."
Pannell was a graduate of T.L. Hanna High School. He was injured by an explosion in Mosul in September 2008. Since then, the Independent Mail has chronicled volunteers' efforts to make his home more accessible and reported on Pannell's hopes to compete in the Paralympic Games.
Funeral arrangements had not been finalized as of Monday, according to a spokesman for McDougald Funeral Home in Anderson.
Pannell worked at Upstate Warrior Solution, a non-profit organization that acts a clearinghouse to help veterans get services and benefits. He was an outreach specialist and met with other veterans to help determine their needs, said Paul Howell, a spokesman for the organization.
"He truly did whatever he could to help others," Howell said. "We remain grateful for his service."
Charlie Hall, the organization's executive director, said Pannell volunteered there before joining the staff about two years ago.
"He used his own experiences and challenges to reach other veterans in his community in order to be a catalyst for their growth and development as members of this community," Hall said. "Charlie, his wife, Bethany, and their three children have been, and continue to be, a special part of the Upstate Warrior Solution team."
Pannell had undergone more than 100 surgeries since his injury, including a recent one to prepare him for a new prosthesis.
He was discharged from Greenville Hospital System on Saturday, just hours before his death.
Follow Nikie Mayo on Twitter @NikieMayo
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By Nikie Mayo of the Independent Mail
An Anderson County mother who successfully sued Fresh Start Community Development Corporation this week says she hopes state agencies will investigate the organization and its executive director, Erick Bradshaw.
Carole Harkness, the mother, says Bradshaw was responsible for a kids' camp that was advertised as offering Spanish, drama and "academic enrichment," but had none of those things. Harkness says the camp, offered in June at the Westside Community Center, left her two children unchallenged and bored.
An Anderson County magistrate ruled this week that Harkness deserves to get back the money she paid to send her son and daughter to camp.
Harkness says that Bradshaw's representation of the camp was "dishonest and misleading" and that, on the basis of her experience with him, she hopes the state agencies that fund his work will look a little deeper before giving him any more money. She has already sent a complaint to a state housing agency that funds some of Bradshaw's work to revamp rundown houses in Anderson.
Bradshaw says that Harkness' claims were intended to cost his organization major money, but have not. He says the reason Harkness had problems with his camp is that it was intended for families who are poorer than hers.
One of the camp's former leaders sided with Harkness this week, testifying that Bradshaw didn't have enough money to deliver what he promised at the camp.Anderson County Magistrate Jim Busby ruled in favor of Harkness in Summary Court this week, in part because Bradshaw did not appear. Busby ruled Tuesday that Harkness was entitled to $310 ? the $230 she paid to send her children to camp plus $80 in court costs. The judge dismissed a counterclaim that Bradshaw filed seeking $7,500. The executive director of Fresh Start claimed that Harkness' attempt to get her camp money back and her complaints made to state agencies had hurt his organization.
No one from Fresh Start Community Development Corporation attended the Tuesday hearing, and no lawyer represented the organization.
Bradshaw said Wednesday that he had no idea that he was supposed to be in court this week.
"Wow, I am not sure what we are supposed to do," he said. "We did not get notified. I don't know if we need to contact our attorney or what. We would have been there had we known. We won't be back in town until Monday."
Before Busby went forward with the hearing this week, he briefly left the bench and returned with paperwork that he checked to confirm the Bradshaw had received notice of the hearing.
Busby said in court that Bradshaw had received notice of the hearing and, because of that, he went forward with the proceedings.
Harkness testified that she took her children out of the camp in June because it was not challenging her children and they "just sat around."
Harkness and her daughter, Stephanie, said the camp's "enrichment activities" included a lesson on how to count money and some time set aside to write in a journal.
Samantha Harris, who had been a counselor at the camp, testified that the camp was not properly funded. Harris left her job at the camp after just a few days. She testified that Bradshaw said she wasn't doing enough in that position to make the camp good for the children. But Harris said she was doing what she could with a nearly nonexistent budget.
Bradshaw on Wednesday disputed claims that the camp was poorly run and said that if Harkness had kept her children in the program, they would been able to participate in Spanish, drama and other activities.
"She's just trying to hurt our organization," he said. "That's all."
Soon to be parents-Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput were recently snapped at the airport after they were coming back from a vacation. After them giving news about soon to be parents, that made headlines all over and fans went gaga over them. The couple was in Maldives for a vacation and now they have returned to Mumbai.
At the airport, Mira was spotted with a baby bump walking hand-in-hand with happy hubby Shahid. Shahid confirmed the news about Mira's pregnancy at the trailer launch of his upcoming film Udta Punjab`. He said, "Why are you asking ghuma firake (round about), ask directly. Yes...haan main baap banane wala hoon (yes, I am going to become a father)." It was then that fans were shocked and over excited about the news.
Sources say that, Mira is halfway through pregnancy and is already in her second trimester. Shahid married Mira on July 7 last year.
With less than six months to go until the opening of the 2016 World Energy Congress, which is taking place in Istanbul between 9th and 13th October, we are delighted to confirm that a broad range of partners from right across the energy spectrum have confirmed their exhibition space. These partners include Saudi Aramco, Sonatrach, ITER, Engie and Qatar Petroleum.
The World Energy Congress is regarded as the most influential and inclusive gathering of senior leaders from all segments of the energy community and is attracting speakers with global reputations from senior figures in politics, business and academia. To date 176 speakers have already been confirmed, including Fatih Birol (IEA), Bob Dudley (BP), Seung Hoon Lee (KOGAS), Kandeh Yumkella (SE4all), Strive Masiyiwa (Econet) and many more.
Hasan Murat Mercan, President of the Turkish Member Committee, World Energy Congress commented: We are delighted to have such a high calibre of organisations joining us as speakers and exhibitors. The Congress is an excellent platform for all companies and organisations in the sector to come together, network, share ideas and collaborate on the future challenges and opportunities.
Turkey is positioned at the crossroads of the most important energy markets at a time of profound global change in the energy debate, and it is an honour to host the 23rd World Energy Congress.
The early bird registration discount is available until 30th April. Click here to register.
For more information on the World Energy Congress and speakers, click here: http://www.wec2016istanbul.org.tr/.
Notes to Editors:
About the World Energy Congress
The triennial World Energy Congress has gained recognition since the its event in 1923 as the premier global forum for leaders and thinkers to debate solutions to energy issues. In addition to the discussions, the event provides an opportunity for executives to display their technologies and explore business opportunities.
For more information about the World Energy Congress 2016 and to register, visit: http://wec2016istanbul.org.tr/
Follow the Congress at @WECongress for regular updates.
About the World Energy Council
Founded in 1923, the World Energy Council is the only truly global and inclusive forum for thought-leadership and tangible engagement committed to our sustainable energy future. Our network of 93 national committees represents over 3000 member organisations including governments, industry and expert institutions. Our mission is to promote the sustainable supply and use of energy for the greatest benefit of all. The World Energy Congress is the world's premier energy gathering.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160412005116/en/
During an interview to the Economic Times, Sanjiv Mehta, managing director HUL, discussed the companys strategy to confront the weak demand that stems from sluggish customer sentiment.While speaking of the last quarters performance, Mehta said that the company has grown ahead of the market. He described the four-point agenda being followed by the company, which is consistency, profitability, competitiveness, and responsible growth. He noted that 6% underlying volume growth for the company of their size is satisfactory.With the commodity prices rising once again, Mehta stated that consumers and their needs are of primary focus to the company, and competitiveness follows in the pecking order. He elucidated that the company follows a strategic price point approach and targets to remain within it at all times. He went on to state that the company used different levels of its business in 2014 and that there is no one-to-one correlation between commodity prices and those of the companys product pricing.Mehta told ET that the company strongly believed in investing in market development as a tool to reverse slowdown, particularly in rural areas. He added that the companys method of floating trials and samplings has increased multifold over the past few years. The company has integrated sampling into science, deciding on various aspects such as brand, sampling, and location of sampling using the most sophisticated analytical tools. Having executed this strategy, the company is already seeing growth in nascent markets, which would soon flourish.Mehta held the belief untrue that the larger categories other than food are not growing. He stressed the fact that the personal products category has performed tremendously well. He highlighted the success story of Surf, a brand that has grown into Rs.3,000 crore business. Mehta feels that growth is underpinned by premiumisation. He said that the detergents and skin cleansing have high penetration ratio, headroom, which does not exist for food products.
China's exports and imports fell more than expected in April, reflecting weak demand at home and abroad, and denting hopes of a recovery in the world's second-largest economy.
Although China's exports contracted unexpectedly in April, the results were an improvement over the first quarter.
Exports declined by 1.8% year-over-year (YoY) in April in US dollar terms, reversing an increase of 11.5% in the previous month, the General Administration of Customs said on Sunday.
This fell short of a median forecast of flat growth in exports.
Economists attributed the March surge to a favorable comparison with year-ago distortions after the Lunar New Year holiday.
April imports fell by 10.9 per cent YoY, falling for the 18th consecutive month, suggesting that domestic demand remains weak despite a pick-up in infrastructure spending and record credit growth in the first quarter.
China had a trade surplus of US$45.56 billion in April, versus forecasts of US$40 billion. In March, the trade gap stood at US$29.86 billion.
China's exports to the US - the countrys top export market - fell 9.3 per cent in April YoY, while shipments to the EU - the second biggest market, rose by 3.2 per cent, the customs data showed.
Dalmia Cements Ltd on Monday withdrew a challenge to a conditional approval given by Indias anti-trust regulator to the proposed merger of cement makers Lafarge and Holcim in India. Ltd on Monday withdrew a challenge to a conditional approval given by Indias anti-trust regulator to the proposed merger of cement makers Lafarge and Holcim in India.
The Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT) accepted Dalmia Cements decision, paving the way for the sale of Lafarge Indias 11 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of cement capacity as part of the merger conditions approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
In view of the recent developments, amendment to the Mines & Minerals (Development and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2016, passed by both Houses of the Parliament regarding transfer of proposed licences, we would like to withdraw our plea, Ramji Srinivasan, a counsel for Dalmia Cement, informed the tribunal.
LafargeHolcim is happy Dalmia has withdrawn their appeal to the Competition Appellate Tribunal and look forward to completing the sale of Lafarge India expeditiously in accordance with the CCI order, a spokesperson for Lafarge India said.
Frances Lafarge and Holcim of Switzerland merged in July last year to form the worlds largest cement firm, LafargeHolcim.
In order to fulfill merger conditions, CCI had asked LafargeHolcim on 2nd February to sell some of its assets while approving its new disinvestment plan which included the sale of three cement plants and two grinding stations of Lafarge India with a total capacity of around 11 mtpa.
Following the CCI order, the company went ahead and invited bids for the sale.
Jet Airways, Indias premier international airline along with Eastern Bank Ltd announced the launch of the all new Jet Airways Eastern Bank Limited Visa Platinum Credit Card in Bangladesh. This card is Bangladeshs first airline co-brand credit card, and on card issuance, the cardholder is automatically enrolled into JetPrivilege, an internationally acclaimed loyalty and rewards programme and the frequent flyer programme of Jet Airways.
The Jet Airways EBL Visa Platinum credit card is tailored for meeting the travelling and lifestyle needs of frequent flyers and will allow them to accumulate JPMiles on their credit card spends, which can be later redeemed for free award tickets on Jet Airways, Etihad Airways and JetPrivileges 30+ airline programme partners.
The card will be offered on the Visa network platform allowing cardholders to access benefits and privileges across the world.
Few of the benefits the Jet Airways EBL Visa Platinum credit card offers to the cardholder are:
2,500 JPMiles on the first swipe of the card within 40 days of card activation
Potential of earning up to 5,000 JPMiles as Bonus in the first 3 months of card activation
Earn rate of 3 JPMiles on every BDT 200 spent on domestic transactions and 2 JPMiles on every $1 spent on international transactions
Complimentary Dhaka-Kolkata-Dhaka Jet Airways economy class ticket as an enrolment gift
5% discount on air tickets booked through www.jetairways.com/bd on flights originating in Bangladesh
Priority Check-in at select airports for all Jet Airways flights
Upto 60% discount on 125+ discount partners across Bangladesh
Free access to Eastern Bank Limited SKYLOUNGE at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport
Gaurang Shetty, Whole time Director, Jet Airways, said, The new Jet Airways Eastern Bank Co-Brand Credit Card is yet another step by Jet Airways towards creating a world class consumer experience with the launch of a product that appeals to the needs of the discerning frequent traveller. This joint initiative with Eastern Bank is another unique travel option aimed at making air travel more economical, and cost-effective for family travel. The new card brings together Eastern Banks expertise in credit cards and affluent banking with Jet Airways strength in service excellence with a wide network to provide customers with an innovative card that will reward them with benefits at home and when travelling abroad.
Manish Dureja, Managing Director, JetPrivilege Pvt. Ltd said, We are delighted to work in partnership with Eastern Bank Limited to launch Bangladeshs first travel co-brand credit card. Through this collaboration, we will be able to offer our JetPrivilege members based in Bangladesh, a credit card which will provide real value to their travel experiences. Harnessing the advantages of Jet Airways extensive network and Eastern Bank Limiteds financial expertise, JetPrivilege members in Bangladesh will now have access to an innovative product that will reward them with benefits at both home and when travelling abroad.
Eastern Bank is proud to be the first bank in Bangladesh to launch an airline co-brand credit card with Jet Airways, a renowned international airline. This partnership will offer our customers the benefits of being part of JetPrivilege, one of the most widely used loyalty and reward programs in South East Asia, said Ali Reza Iftekhar, Managing Director and CEO of the EBL Bank.
Mr. T.R. Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, Visa India and South Asia, said, We are proud to partner with Eastern Bank and Jet Airways to launch Bangladeshs first co-branded airline credit card. Visa, is the market leader in Bangladesh offering unparalleled benefits to its cardholders and it is our constant endeavour to enable migration from cash to electronic payment solutions, ensuring every transaction is faster, convenient and secure.
The Jet Airways EBL Visa Platinum credit card is another feather in our cap. This product will add significant value for both the cardholders and bank, said Nazeem A. Choudhury, head of consumer banking of EBL.
bollywoodlife
Expect some high octane chasing sequences between Ranveer Singh and Salman Khan, as the duo might just be the next ones to raise your heartbeats in the fourth installment of Dhoom. The biggest action franchise of the Yash Raj is set for a reboot of sorts. And going by reports in DNA, Ranveer-Salman will replace Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra, in what is being titled as Dhoom Reloaded: The Chase Continues.
"Aditya Chopra wants Dhoom Reloaded to be a film for the youth. Who better to play the dashing hero than Ranveer Singh, YRF's current blue-eyed boy? Talks are on for Salman Khan to play the negative role so if both get finalised, it will be Salman and Ranveer for India's most successful franchise."
rediff
We told you a while back that Salman had expressed desire to star in the latest Dhoom and talks were on with him to play the baddie. And if the makers agree to his conditions, this will be his first full-fledged negative role. And if things work out, stakes will run high making the cast an explosive combination. And considering Salman has so far never worked with any of the younger actors like Arjun Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan, his fans will surely look forward to his act with Ranveer.
apnatimepass
Sources say Dhoom reloaded will go on floors early next year and will be shot across exotic foreign locations. And well, we ever hear that Amitabh Bachchan will do a cameo in the upcoming one! Now, wouldn't that be a cherry on the cake?
"Vijay Krishna Acharya is expected to direct the fourth Dhoom sequel too (he had directed Dhoom: 3). A teaser poster was released in December last year. Amitabh Bachchan is also said to be part of Dhoom Reloaded, but the female lead hasn't been decided as yet."
The three Dhoom films have so far revolved around a crime-fighting team in pursuit of the villains played by John Abraham, Hrithik Roshan and Aamir Khan, respectively. But fans are way too excited to see Salman in that villainous avatar, a glimpse of which we saw in his film Kick. Salman will make the final call after the shoot of Sultan is over. Even Ranveer has his hands full with YRF's Befikre.
While we await a confirmation from the production house, check out this supercool Dhoom mashup.
With Kathmandu calling its ambassador to New Delhi back, the Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandari cancelling her visit to India and PM Modi dropping his plan to attend Budh Purnima in Lumbini-the Indo-Nepal relations have touched a new low as India stares at complete breakdown of ties with its Himalayan neighbour.
statetimes
After Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli accused India of conspiring to topple his government over the constitutional rights of Medhasis - people of Indian origin living in Nepal - this once close aide of India has gone belligerent and is likely to join the ranks of Pakistan, Maldives and China as a troubling neighbour for us.
Sher Bahadur Deuba, the pro-India Congress leaders attempt to exercise abortive coup over Oli government soon after he returned from India is just a flash point of the recent turmoil.
Rumours say that Deuba promised Nepali Congress support for a new coalition to be led by Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda provided the latter withdrew support for Olis government (which depends heavily on support from Maoists for survival.) Interestingly, a close aide to Prachanda, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, also visited New Delhi in April immediately after Deubas consultations with his Indian mentors.
Its not been too long when Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had addressed the Nepals parliament and had called for an unconditional friendship between the two neighbours. Last year too, India had employed all its resources of disaster management to rescue and resurrect the earthquake-torn Nepal.
reuters
The relationship between two countries has never been honky-dory as Nepal often accused India of bullying them like a Big Brother.
Since the arrival of Modi government in Centre, India and Nepal have been at loggerheads over a couple of issues including:
Earthquake:
After the Nepal earthquake last year, India employed all its resources to help the earthquake-torn country. But Nepalese objected against the presence of Indian media and called it Indias attempt to gain cheap publicity.
IndiaToday
The coverage of Indian media was called insensitive and intrusive and they along with search and rescue teams were asked to leave. New Delhi, however, kept its cool and didnt react to it. But it was a certain dent in the relations.
Madhesi uprising and blockade:
Before the relations could recover from Kathmandus mishandling of earthquake, the Madhesi uprising paved way for a political turmoil in the Himalayan country. Madhesi - the people of Indian-origin living in Southern Nepal protested against the new constitution adopted by the Constituent Assembly in September 2015. Madhesi and Tharus in particular refused to accept new constitution and alleged that it doesnt protect their rights in Nepal despite being 50 percent of Nepals population.
IndianExpress
Madhesis blocked all entry points from India to Nepal bringing the movement of goods to standstill. Nepal leadership blamed India for this development and accused Modi government of helping Madhesis.
Later, Oli agreed to amend the constitution. Consequently, in January three articles of the new Constitution Article 42, Article 84 and Article 286 were amended to facilitate greater representation in government bodies on the basis of the proportional inclusion of the Madhesis.
reuters
India welcomed this move and called for cementing the ties.
In last one decade, Nepal-India relations have seen many jolts and Nepal believes that if India keeps on bullying its tiny neighbour Nepal should look toward China for help and support. In fact in 2006, Nepal for the first time in history preferred China over India for buying oil.
These are a few major reasons why the relations between New Delhi and Kathmandu havent been cordial at times:
1. Big-brother attitude:
Nepali people feel that India holds a big-brother attitude towards Nepal and interferes in its internal affairs. Time and again, Nepal leadership has accused India of interfering in their internal matters.
This has been happening ever since independence and Nepal thinks that its not mandatory for Nepal to discuss every matter with India. Madhesi movement was just one such example Nepalese believe is the interference for India.
2. Unfair treaties:
According to Nepal people, there are several treaties between the two neighbours in which Nepal has been on the receiving side. This list includes 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Koshi and Mahakali water treaties, among others.
3. Mistreatment at border entry points:
Nepali migrant workers who work in India complain that officers of Indian border security force, Seema Suraksha Bal, mistreat them at border entry points.
4. Encroachment of border areas:
Complaints of encroachment of Nepali territory often create tension between these two countries. For instance, the Nepali side accuses India of encroaching key strategic areas like Kalapani and Lipulekh (also bordering China) which lie within the Nepali territory.
6. Influence of China:
In Nepal People feel that India keeps unnecessary concerns about Chinas increasing proximity with Nepal.
A majority of Nepalese think that no other nation can be as close with Nepal as India is because of many similarities between the two countries. People are unhappy about Indias inability to understand the difficult situation faced by Nepal even when it tries to maintain balance between the two big countries which surround it.
But despite tensions escalating between the two neighbours, the bus service between Delhi-Kathmandu is operational.
IndiaToday
To treat a child like a child while she/he seeks the help of law-enforcement authorities, the Chhattisgarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) has recommended that each district creates at least five 'child-friendly' police stations -- with a special corner for kids with cartoon characters painted on walls and a toy zone.
pressnews
Chhattisgarh is first state where SCPCR has taken such an initiative, and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights plans to replicate this in other states too.
This transformation has already started in districts including Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur, while Mahasamund has gone way ahead and made all police stations child-friendly.
Talking to TOI, SCPCR chairperson Shatabdi Pandey said, "Increasing number of cases related to violation of child rights, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) bring more and more kids in contact with the police. It's important to give the child a friendly environment so that she/he speaks freely, comfortably to the police. Easy communication instead of throwing harsh questions at them, is the key. During my visits I noticed that even senior officials lacked sensitivity towards children. Hence, we recommended to the state DGP to introduce at least five child-friendly police stations at each district."
cid.jhpolice
In Raipur, the five police stations that have been identified for turning 'child-friendly' are Amanaka, Pandri, Devendra Nagar, DD Nagar and Civil Lines. The special juvenile police unit will handle all cases related to children -- which comprises of a five-member team including women officers.
Pandey added that it also for the first time that the commission would assist police station financially for painting the walls, getting kiddie chairs, fun books etc. The officers have been provided special training, so that they talk gently and sensitively with kids. The child-friendly corners at police stations will have separate entrances and the officials would be in civil dress.
pbs.twimg
Talking from New Delhi, NCPCR member Yashwant Jain said that Chhattisgarh is the first state to take such an initiative under the recommendation of the SCPCR. He said that once all the child-friendly police stations are established, the team would visit and write to all states to replicate the idea.
Mahasamund superintendent of police Neha Champawat said that the local administration was doing a pilot project with Unicef to make the whole district child-friendly. "Many hidden crimes are happening across all districts which aren't reported. The child help desk at police stations is doing exceptionally well," she said.
India's second largest software exporter Infosys is putting its might behind some of the biggest futuristic bets that the company is making, such as its newest artificial intelligence platform MANA, and putting key leaders in charge of developing these products, amid a scramble to hire top talent from the world's biggest tech hub, the Silicon Valley.
poetsandquants
In an interview, Infosys' head of architecture and technology Navin Budhiraja said the company is looking to beef up its products and platform teams in the Valley and has also doubled the size of its special "supercoders" team, which is called the Expert Track programme, as it looks to generate more revenue from newer areas of technology, at a time when margins are rapidly eroding in traditional outsourcing businesses.
Infosys has also tasked leaders such as Samson David, who currently heads the company's cloud and infrastructure business, to head a unit called the Expert Services team, which will play a key role in the the development of newer software platforms such as Mana. "What I see going forward is MANA becoming the centerpiece of all of the automation work that we do," said Budhiraja in an interview.
resources.inbenta
"We want to bring AI to the enterprise to solve a set of issues that we see... MANA is a culmination of the work we're doing around the Big Data platform, around the Automation platform, around the knowledge platform."
As part of its work around Mana, which has been designed to automate routine maintenance tasks in outsourced software projects using AI and machine learning, Infosys is hiring more executives who have specialised in these futuristic areas. "We have teams in four broad areas one is the core product engineering team who actually works on the platforms (IAP, IIP, IKP); corresponding product management and product marketing teams; then there's something that we call the Expert Services team typically in a product company you would call them the professional services team.
The third layer is the actual account teams. And lastly, it is the sales team," explained Budhiraja. "The Expert Services team will be run by Samson David who also runs our infrastructure business.
jol.telecomitalia
He has been instrumental around running a lot of implementations around IAP. He will have the expert services team underneath him which will primarily based out of India," he added.
While Bangalore-based Infosys is looking to beef up its teams that focus on areas such as artificial intelligence, Budhiraja conceded that hiring people for such positions had not been easy because such skills are in short supply.
"We've hired a couple of people already, their focus is around AI and natural language processing. This is a hard skill to find," he said. "We are hiring key folks both in the US and India. We are also looking for talent in areas such as next-gen apps, apps that are self-healing, etc that's the kind of talent we are looking for. Also for product management and product marketing."
Going forward, Infosys also plans to double the strength of its "Expert Track" team, which consists of "supercoders" who the company feels are the creme-dela-creme of programming talent and are capable of solving any software-related problem.
While Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his conspiracy theory posse are still ranting about how India's Prime Minister didn't go to college, there's more to his degree than meets the eye. Most of us can afford not remembering a word of what they studied at university, but it seems Modi is forced to repeat history, or rather his Masters International Relations paper, for a few more years.
reuters
International Relations was where PM he scored the lowest (48/100), and and excelled in the 'Political Analysis' exam. Yet, Modi, with neither experience nor academic credentials in the field has taken a radical leap, and regular flight of faith - 2015 saw him on a whirlwind tour of 26 countries where he drummed up investment and support on issues as diverse as business, terrorism, and international cooperation.
Modi And Obama Among The World's Most Popular Leaders According To A New International Survey
reuters
Hes just completed a three-nation tour of Belgium, Saudi Arabia and the US. Even his first act as incumbent Prime Minister saw the debut of his intuitive international relations abilities - at his oath-taking ceremony he invited heads of all the SAARC countries for his oath-taking ceremony.
It's All Work And Little Sleep Aboard Modi's Air India One, No Alcohol Or Groupies Around!
reuters
Hes not following any textbook strategies laid out by his predecessors - from hugging US President Barack Obama, to telling Hugh Jackman May The Force Be With You in New York, amid a rockstar welcome from the NRI community, Modis forced the world to pay attention.
Modis marksheet
timesofindia
According to the records, Modi was an above average student, with a first class as a post-graduate student of political science. The official record of MA Part 1 external examination (July, 1981), issued by Gujarat University shows that Modi (seat number 4250) scored 237 out of 400 marks. He scored 61, 48, 60, and 68 marks, in Paper I, II, III and IV respectively, of MA-Part 1 that comprised 'Indian Politics', 'International Relations', 'Recent Political Thoughts' and 'Comparative Politics'.
In MA Part 2 Modi scored 262 out of 400 marks. In MA-Part 2 (April 1982), the PM scored 64, 62, 69 and 67 marks respectively in papers V, VI, VII and VIII namely 'European and Social Political Thoughts', 'Modern India', 'Political Analysis', and 'Concept Tools/Political, Psychological, Social'. The PM scored 499 out of 800 in the combined MA Part 1 and Part 2 papers, which earned him a first class.
After being on the run for two days, Bihar police have arrested Rocky Yadav, the son of ruling JDU MLC Manorama Devi. He is accused of killing a youth in a road rage incident in Gaya.
TOI
Yadav was arrested at around 3am from Bodh Gaya police station area, Senior Superintendent of Police Garima Mallik told PTI.
"In his statement, Rocky Yadav admitted committing the crime," Garima Mallik said.
Police claimed that the pistol used in the killing of Aditya Sachdeva has also been recovered from the accused.
Aditya Sachdeva, a class X student, was shot dead allegedly by Rocky Yadav for overtaking his SUV near police lines in Gaya district on Saturday night.
PTI
Besides Rocky's father Bindi Yadav, who is an RJD leader, a bodyguard of the MLC was arrested in this connection on Sunday.
India TV
Yadav is a postgraduate in political science from Delhi University and was reportedly preparing for civil services.
Just a couple of days after the controversy over the decision to remove the references to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru from Class VIII textbook in Rajasthan erupted, it has raised even more furore. This time with a 'Letter From A Cow'.
Pinterest
The letter has been included in the Hindi textbook for Class V. In it, the cow address the students as "my daughters and son" and has images of Hindu gods within a bigger picture of a cow, each signifying the benefits humans can earn if they consider cow as their "mother".
AFP
"I give every individual strength, intelligence, long life, health, happiness and prosperity. Those who feel (my importance) consider me as their mother and I love them like my offspring," the 'letter' reads.
It also lists cow's contribution to society, saying: "I produce the elixir of life in the form of milk, butter and ghee. My urine and excreta produces medicines, fertilisers and pesticides. My offspring, bullock, helps you in agriculture. I also purify environment by breathing."
AP
Rajasthan's Cow Minister Otaram Dewasi, (the only one of his kind in India) said the move will help towards creating awareness on the benefits of the cow.
Trimbadasji Zavar (62) remembers how much fun it used to be to visit lush green Sai village on weekends where a Kolhapur Type (KT) across the Manjra river held enough water for a 7km stretch.
themetrognome
"I could stay close to nature and see the river flow. It was a popular picnic spot and people would enjoy boat rides," Zavar, a farmer, said.
Bad monsoon years and drought has laid to waste the only tourist centre set up in 1993 near Sai barrage, recalled S R Deshmukh, the then chief of the municipal council. "Nobody even looks at it now," he added.
When groundwater levels fell and the river turned dry, it had a telling effect on Latur's water needs. Citizens, realising that a rejuvenated Manjra is their only hope, formed Jal Jagruti Abhiyan - Jal Yukta Latur. The idea is to have enough water for the city, a pattern other drought-hit places can emulate.
Till some years, the city was famous for its Latur pattern, a method of studies that helped students do well in state board exams. The effort to revive Manjra was steered by Mahadev Gomare and Makrand Jadhav, both followers of spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art Of Living (AOL), began in February 2013. Both convinced sarpanchs in Marathwada to attend a three-day camp in Bengaluru.
i.ytimg
Here, experts spoke to them about tackling water crises in their villages. The meeting didn't have the desired effect - there were conflicting voices and many doubted if the results would show. "We did not give up and decided to implement Guruji's concept in at least three villages," Gomare said. He now spends nearly 18 hours a day to ensure AOL's dream project in Latur comes true.
The project involves desilting 18km along the Sai barrage to increase its holding capacity to 18.5 million cubic metre. Latur requires 18.25 million cubic meter water per annum. Plans are to remove about 45 lakh cubic metre of silt. "In 2013, we succeeded in convincing people in three villages in Latur district to pool in money to carry out desilting work as well as construct low-cost Gabion structures to trap rain water,'' Gomare said.
This helped increase the water level in borewells and wells in surrounding villages and helped maintain the greenery. Gradually, more villages joined the movement. Though AOL funded a part of it, people contributed too. Thus, 50 smaller projects were completed through people's participation.
But a poor monsoon last year and a now-dry Manjra river have highlighted Latur for several wrong reasons.
static.panoramio
Villagers now know about AOL's initiatives and its simple methods to rejuvenate the parched region - desilting nullahs, gabion structures and arresting rain water in rivers and rivulets. They are chipping in, Jadhav said.
A meeting on April 3 discussed the situation and the negativity it was attracting. The efforts bore fruit. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar gave Rs 1 crore for the project while citizens contributed with funds and sought support for the Rs 8-crore project.
The campaigners roped in district collector Pandurang Pole to inaugurate the works on April 8. "We have already collected Rs 3 crore while hundreds of people have made a commitment - of contributing Rs 5 crore for the work," said Gomare.
Employees' unions and those working in hotels as waiters have contributed too, he said. Nearly half the silt dug up has been taken away by farmers from 25 villages with an average 3,000 population each. "Farmers are taking the silt for Rs 100 to Rs 200 per truck voluntarily to strengthen soil fertility and level their fields,'' Prakash Suryavanshi, sarpanch of Arajkheda village, said. The village is situated close to the barrage.
i.ytimg
Mohammad Sarfaraz Shaikh, senior geologist in Latur, countered fears that desilting may mess up the ecological balance. "Workers stop desilting as soon as the sand level shows up because sand holds the water. Silt formation may vary from place to place," he said.
Sachin Suryavanshi's village, Sai Arajkheda, is one of the 25 to benefit from the work. "Desilting will create enough space for water, and help increase the water table in our wells,'' he said
Gomare said they were creating three levels along the barrage where local species of trees will be planted. The first level will have cactus, the second will have bamboo trees while the third will have neem, mango, jamun and other fruit-bearing trees. Farmers from the 25 villages have agreed to provide the seeds and school children, farmers and activists will plant these trees, Gomare added.
Darshak Hathi from Mumbai, who liaisons with Latur's citizens, reveals that Guruji had made an unscheduled visit to Latur's drought-hit areas. During his tour, he visited the Manjra river rejuvenation project site. "Guruji urged farmers to have faith and not commit suicide," Hathi said .
It seems like BJP is unable to makeup their mind, when it comes to dealing with India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, especially in academics.
While Rajasthan State Education Board decided to remove references of him from the Class VIII textbooks, the story is a little different in Gujarat.
The state board is using Nehru's words to explain a much-debated topic these days the slogan 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai'.
The GSSTB book for class XI second language have a chapter on Nehru, from his autobiography, where he explains the idea of Bharat Mata to a group of farmers in Rohtak, Haryana.
It quotes Nehru as explaining to the farmers as "Bharat Mata is not a beautiful, helpless woman with long hair touching the ground, as is usually shown in imaginary pictures."
PTI
Nitin Pethani, chairman, Gujarat State School Textbook Board, told Indian Express that, This time we have made an attempt to instill the sentiments of nationalism among studentswe have done this in a sharp, precise and effective manner through selection of literature, that will arouse patriotism among the younger generation, which is gradually fading.
The textbook for class XI also has 'Kadam milakar chalna hoga', a poem by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
PTI
If that wasn't enough, Hindi textbooks for Class IX and XI will also have 'Manushya Tu Badaa Mahaan Hai' a song which is sung in RSS camps.
Instead of the emotional open letter rhetoric thats getting irritatingly popular with social cause jockeys these days, Ill just come out and say it:
I don't give a damn if Narendra Modi does not have a degree.
TOI
If that wasnt common sense enough, I have 80 more characters to sum up this rational in a tweet:
We don't have the time or bandwidth to accuse Modi of being a high-school pass.
Thats exactly 140 characters, or tweet-length; sadly, brevity isnt Indias strong suite. But first, lets play Kejriwals advocate
bccl
This is what Kejriwal wants everyone to believe - a 12th pass man with only the Sangh to his credential protested, much like JNU scholars Kanhaiya Kumar and gang are protesting now, against the Emergency that the erstwhile Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed.
Then, a 12th pass former chaiwalla somehow wrote a book ('Sangharsh ma Gujarat') describing the Emergency in vivid detail. Read more from this subtle Modi fan here.
Here are more stories that made our day
1. For Millennials, Canada And Germany Are The Best Countries In The World, India Ranked 23
VOX
Canada is the best country in the world, according to millennials. It is followed by Germany the No. 2 and the United Kingdom at No. 3 on Best Country based on overall performance.
The ranking was released by Washington based U.S. News & World Report, based on feedbacks from thousands of millennials (between the age group of 18-35) around the world, assessing a wide range of criteria, from dating culture to career development. Read more.
2. Here's How A Young Modi Went From Scoring Low On International Relations To India's Most Global PM
reuters
Despite getting the lowest marks in Masters International Relations paper, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proved himself on the global stage, drumming up investment and support on issues as diverse as business, terrorism, and international cooperation. Today, Modi ranks as one of the world's most popular leaders, and gets rockstar welcomes wherever he goes. Read more.
3. Sudden Rains Shower Marathwada, But There's No Still Escape From The Drought
AP
Parts of parched Marathwada, including Aurangabad city, witnessed heavy rain, thunder and lightning early on Monday morning. However, the rains did not fill up the Jayakwadi dam, the lifeline of Marathwada, which hit dead storage in mid-March. Read more here.
4. Neerja Bhanots Memory Dominates Lok Sabha As Members Unite To Pass Anti-Hijacking Bill
While passing the Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2014, which awards death penalty to hijackers, it was the memory of Neerja Bhanot, Pan Am flight attendant slain by terrorist hijackers in Karachi, that dominated Lok Sabha discourse. Bhanots brave sacrifice, whose memory was rekindled in the recent Sonam Kapoor starrer Neerja, was remembered by everyone, across party lines, including the Congress and TMC. Read more here.
5. This Is How Residents Of A Drought-Hit Latur Village Revived A Dead River
themetrognome
Trimbadasji Zavar (62) remembers how much fun it used to be to visit lush green Sai village on weekends where a Kolhapur Type (KT) across the Manjra river held enough water for a 7km stretch.
"I could stay close to nature and see the river flow. It was a popular picnic spot and people would enjoy boat rides," Zavar, a farmer, said. Read more here.
An Alsatian enlisted with the UK military saved the lives of his comrades from a group of 50 ISIS jihadists who ambushed them in Northern Iraq.
The British SAS troops were returning from a 10-day training exercise for Peshmerga fighters when the attacked happened. The Alsatian was also travelling with the soldiers in a convoy of four vehicles.
The troops were caught off-guard when a group of 50 militants ambushed them on the Kurdish border. The convoy was hit with a homemade bomb and as the soldiers tried to escape, they were trapped by the jihadists from behind.
Alamy
It was then when the dog's US Army handler unleashed him and set him free on the charging terrorists.
The Alsatian dog ran towards the attackers. He bit the first terrorist in the face and neck and slashed open the arm and leg of the second. The terrorists fled the scene and the SAS troops finally received back-up from US fighter jets.
Reuters
The Alsatian escaped unhurt and was hailed a hero by the British troops. According to a source who spoke to Daily Star Sunday,
"When the dog was unleashed it went after the greatest threat without consideration for its own safety - this is what they are trained to do. A snarling Alsatian running at you is very frightening and probably not something the terrorist had encountered. The dog did its job and returned to its handler with its tail wagging."
Vishavjit Singh, a Sikh American is a political cartoonist by profession.
But these he occasionally slips into a more recognisable character, 'Captain America'. But with a twist, the practicing Sikh transforms himself as 'Sikh Captain America', adding a turban to the costume of the original Captain America.
Red White And Beard
And these days he is taking on a formidable opponent, Republican Presidential candidate, Donald Trump.
Singh feels that Trump who claims he will make America great again is only fueling hatred through his controversial speeches.
"Donald Trump has certainly been a candidate whose words have been alarming for someone like me, who happens to be at the front lines of bigotry in post-9/11 America," Singh said.
Janm
The artist also creates cartoon campaigns, such as Send Sikh Note To Trump postcard campaign, in which he and some of his fans send Trump a postcard every day "with a message focused on processing our anger inspired by his jingoistic madness into small kernels of humor and compassion. He might be full of himself, overstuffed with his achievements with a towering skyscraper of an ego, but even deep inside him resides seeds of benevolence," Singh say.
Sikh24
He also draws sharp contrast between the Captain America character and Trump. "Captain America as a character would stand in complete opposition to Donald Trump and his candidacy," he said.
Sikh24
The artist, now in his 40s say his concept of Sikh Captain America' came from wanting a superhero who would fight intolerance which he experienced in the country, being deemed an 'outsider'.
"Some of my art is informed by my own experience on the streets of America and being targeted as an outsider, at times as a threat just based on my looks," Singh explained.
Who Rules the World?
American Power Under Challenge
Masters of Mankind (Part 1)
By Noam Chomsky [This piece, the first of two parts, is excerpted from Noam Chomskys new book, Who Rules the World? (Metropolitan Books). Part 2 will be posted on Tuesday morning.] May 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Tom Dispatch " - When we ask Who rules the world? we commonly adopt the standard convention that the actors in world affairs are states, primarily the great powers, and we consider their decisions and the relations among them. That is not wrong. But we would do well to keep in mind that this level of abstraction can also be highly misleading. States of course have complex internal structures, and the choices and decisions of the political leadership are heavily influenced by internal concentrations of power, while the general population is often marginalized. That is true even for the more democratic societies, and obviously for others. We cannot gain a realistic understanding of who rules the world while ignoring the masters of mankind, as Adam Smith called them: in his day, the merchants and manufacturers of England; in ours, multinational conglomerates, huge financial institutions, retail empires, and the like. Still following Smith, it is also wise to attend to the vile maxim to which the masters of mankind are dedicated: All for ourselves and nothing for other people -- a doctrine known otherwise as bitter and incessant class war, often one-sided, much to the detriment of the people of the home country and the world. In the contemporary global order, the institutions of the masters hold enormous power, not only in the international arena but also within their home states, on which they rely to protect their power and to provide economic support by a wide variety of means. When we consider the role of the masters of mankind, we turn to such state policy priorities of the moment as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the investor-rights agreements mislabeled free-trade agreements in propaganda and commentary. They are negotiated in secret, apart from the hundreds of corporate lawyers and lobbyists writing the crucial details. The intention is to have them adopted in good Stalinist style with fast track procedures designed to block discussion and allow only the choice of yes or no (hence yes). The designers regularly do quite well, not surprisingly. People are incidental, with the consequences one might anticipate. The Second Superpower The neoliberal programs of the past generation have concentrated wealth and power in far fewer hands while undermining functioning democracy, but they have aroused opposition as well, most prominently in Latin America but also in the centers of global power. The European Union (EU), one of the more promising developments of the post-World War II period, has been tottering because of the harsh effect of the policies of austerity during recession, condemned even by the economists of the International Monetary Fund (if not the IMFs political actors). Democracy has been undermined as decision making shifted to the Brussels bureaucracy, with the northern banks casting their shadow over their proceedings. Mainstream parties have been rapidly losing members to left and to right. The executive director of the Paris-based research group EuropaNova attributes the general disenchantment to a mood of angry impotence as the real power to shape events largely shifted from national political leaders [who, in principle at least, are subject to democratic politics] to the market, the institutions of the European Union and corporations, quite in accord with neoliberal doctrine. Very similar processes are under way in the United States, for somewhat similar reasons, a matter of significance and concern not just for the country but, because of U.S. power, for the world. The rising opposition to the neoliberal assault highlights another crucial aspect of the standard convention: it sets aside the public, which often fails to accept the approved role of spectators (rather than participants) assigned to it in liberal democratic theory. Such disobedience has always been of concern to the dominant classes. Just keeping to American history, George Washington regarded the common people who formed the militias that he was to command as an exceedingly dirty and nasty people [evincing] an unaccountable kind of stupidity in the lower class of these people. In Violent Politics, his masterful review of insurgencies from the American insurgency to contemporary Afghanistan and Iraq, William Polk concludes that General Washington was so anxious to sideline [the fighters he despised] that he came close to losing the Revolution. Indeed, he might have actually done so had France not massively intervened and saved the Revolution, which until then had been won by guerrillas -- whom we would now call terrorists -- while Washingtons British-style army was defeated time after time and almost lost the war. A common feature of successful insurgencies, Polk records, is that once popular support dissolves after victory, the leadership suppresses the dirty and nasty people who actually won the war with guerrilla tactics and terror, for fear that they might challenge class privilege. The elites contempt for the lower class of these people has taken various forms throughout the years. In recent times one expression of this contempt is the call for passivity and obedience (moderation in democracy) by liberal internationalists reacting to the dangerous democratizing effects of the popular movements of the 1960s. Sometimes states do choose to follow public opinion, eliciting much fury in centers of power. One dramatic case was in 2003, when the Bush administration called on Turkey to join its invasion of Iraq. Ninety-five percent of Turks opposed that course of action and, to the amazement and horror of Washington, the Turkish government adhered to their views. Turkey was bitterly condemned for this departure from responsible behavior. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, designated by the press as the idealist-in-chief of the administration, berated the Turkish military for permitting the malfeasance of the government and demanded an apology. Unperturbed by these and innumerable other illustrations of our fabled yearning for democracy, respectable commentary continued to laud President George W. Bush for his dedication to democracy promotion, or sometimes criticized him for his naivete in thinking that an outside power could impose its democratic yearnings on others. The Turkish public was not alone. Global opposition to U.S.-UK aggression was overwhelming. Support for Washingtons war plans scarcely reached 10% almost anywhere, according to international polls. Opposition sparked huge worldwide protests, in the United States as well, probably the first time in history that imperial aggression was strongly protested even before it was officially launched. On the front page of the New York Times, journalist Patrick Tyler reported that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion. Unprecedented protest in the United States was a manifestation of the opposition to aggression that began decades earlier in the condemnation of the U.S. wars in Indochina, reaching a scale that was substantial and influential, even if far too late. By 1967, when the antiwar movement was becoming a significant force, military historian and Vietnam specialist Bernard Fall warned that Vietnam as a cultural and historic entity... is threatened with extinction... [as] the countryside literally dies under the blows of the largest military machine ever unleashed on an area of this size. But the antiwar movement did become a force that could not be ignored. Nor could it be ignored when Ronald Reagan came into office determined to launch an assault on Central America. His administration mimicked closely the steps John F. Kennedy had taken 20 years earlier in launching the war against South Vietnam, but had to back off because of the kind of vigorous public protest that had been lacking in the early 1960s. The assault was awful enough. The victims have yet to recover. But what happened to South Vietnam and later all of Indochina, where the second superpower imposed its impediments only much later in the conflict, was incomparably worse. It is often argued that the enormous public opposition to the invasion of Iraq had no effect. That seems incorrect to me. Again, the invasion was horrifying enough, and its aftermath is utterly grotesque. Nevertheless, it could have been far worse. Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and the rest of Bushs top officials could never even contemplate the sort of measures that President Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson adopted 40 years earlier largely without protest. Western Power Under Pressure There is far more to say, of course, about the factors in determining state policy that are put to the side when we adopt the standard convention that states are the actors in international affairs. But with such nontrivial caveats as these, let us nevertheless adopt the convention, at least as a first approximation to reality. Then the question of who rules the world leads at once to such concerns as Chinas rise to power and its challenge to the United States and world order, the new cold war simmering in eastern Europe, the Global War on Terror, American hegemony and American decline, and a range of similar considerations. The challenges faced by Western power at the outset of 2016 are usefully summarized within the conventional framework by Gideon Rachman, chief foreign-affairs columnist for the London Financial Times. He begins by reviewing the Western picture of world order: Ever since the end of the Cold War, the overwhelming power of the U.S. military has been the central fact of international politics. This is particularly crucial in three regions: East Asia, where the U.S. Navy has become used to treating the Pacific as an American lake; Europe, where NATO -- meaning the United States, which accounts for a staggering three-quarters of NATOs military spending -- guarantees the territorial integrity of its member states; and the Middle East, where giant U.S. naval and air bases exist to reassure friends and to intimidate rivals. The problem of world order today, Rachman continues, is that these security orders are now under challenge in all three regions because of Russian intervention in Ukraine and Syria, and because of China turning its nearby seas from an American lake to clearly contested water. The fundamental question of international relations, then, is whether the United States should accept that other major powers should have some kind of zone of influence in their neighborhoods. Rachman thinks it should, for reasons of diffusion of economic power around the world -- combined with simple common sense. There are, to be sure, ways of looking at the world from different standpoints. But let us keep to these three regions, surely critically important ones. The Challenges Today: East Asia Beginning with the American lake, some eyebrows might be raised over the report in mid-December 2015 that an American B-52 bomber on a routine mission over the South China Sea unintentionally flew within two nautical miles of an artificial island built by China, senior defense officials said, exacerbating a hotly divisive issue for Washington and Beijing. Those familiar with the grim record of the 70 years of the nuclear weapons era will be all too aware that this is the kind of incident that has often come perilously close to igniting terminal nuclear war. One need not be a supporter of Chinas provocative and aggressive actions in the South China Sea to notice that the incident did not involve a Chinese nuclear-capable bomber in the Caribbean, or off the coast of California, where China has no pretensions of establishing a Chinese lake. Luckily for the world. Chinese leaders understand very well that their countrys maritime trade routes are ringed with hostile powers from Japan through the Malacca Straits and beyond, backed by overwhelming U.S. military force. Accordingly, China is proceeding to expand westward with extensive investments and careful moves toward integration. In part, these developments are within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which includes the Central Asian states and Russia, and soon India and Pakistan with Iran as one of the observers -- a status that was denied to the United States, which was also called on to close all military bases in the region. China is constructing a modernized version of the old silk roads, with the intent not only of integrating the region under Chinese influence, but also of reaching Europe and the Middle Eastern oil-producing regions. It is pouring huge sums into creating an integrated Asian energy and commercial system, with extensive high-speed rail lines and pipelines. One element of the program is a highway through some of the worlds tallest mountains to the new Chinese-developed port of Gwadar in Pakistan, which will protect oil shipments from potential U.S. interference. The program may also, China and Pakistan hope, spur industrial development in Pakistan, which the United States has not undertaken despite massive military aid, and might also provide an incentive for Pakistan to clamp down on domestic terrorism, a serious issue for China in western Xinjiang Province. Gwadar will be part of Chinas string of pearls, bases being constructed in the Indian Ocean for commercial purposes but potentially also for military use, with the expectation that China might someday be able to project power as far as the Persian Gulf for the first time in the modern era. All of these moves remain immune to Washingtons overwhelming military power, short of annihilation by nuclear war, which would destroy the United States as well. In 2015, China also established the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), with itself as the main shareholder. Fifty-six nations participated in the opening in Beijing in June, including U.S. allies Australia, Britain, and others which joined in defiance of Washingtons wishes. The United States and Japan were absent. Some analysts believe that the new bank might turn out to be a competitor to the Bretton Woods institutions (the IMF and the World Bank), in which the United States holds veto power. There are also some expectations that the SCO might eventually become a counterpart to NATO. The Challenges Today: Eastern Europe Turning to the second region, Eastern Europe, there is a crisis brewing at the NATO-Russian border. It is no small matter. In his illuminating and judicious scholarly study of the region, Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands, Richard Sakwa writes -- all too plausibly -- that the Russo-Georgian war of August 2008 was in effect the first of the wars to stop NATO enlargement; the Ukraine crisis of 2014 is the second. It is not clear whether humanity would survive a third. The West sees NATO enlargement as benign. Not surprisingly, Russia, along with much of the Global South, has a different opinion, as do some prominent Western voices. George Kennan warned early on that NATO enlargement is a tragic mistake, and he was joined by senior American statesmen in an open letter to the White House describing it as a policy error of historic proportions. The present crisis has its origins in 1991, with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. There were then two contrasting visions of a new security system and political economy in Eurasia. In Sakwas words, one vision was of a Wider Europe, with the EU at its heart but increasingly coterminous with the Euro-Atlantic security and political community; and on the other side there [was] the idea of Greater Europe, a vision of a continental Europe, stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok, that has multiple centers, including Brussels, Moscow and Ankara, but with a common purpose in overcoming the divisions that have traditionally plagued the continent. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was the major proponent of Greater Europe, a concept that also had European roots in Gaullism and other initiatives. However, as Russia collapsed under the devastating market reforms of the 1990s, the vision faded, only to be renewed as Russia began to recover and seek a place on the world stage under Vladimir Putin who, along with his associate Dmitry Medvedev, has repeatedly called for the geopolitical unification of all of Greater Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok, to create a genuine strategic partnership. These initiatives were greeted with polite contempt, Sakwa writes, regarded as little more than a cover for the establishment of a Greater Russia by stealth and an effort to drive a wedge between North America and Western Europe. Such concerns trace back to earlier Cold War fears that Europe might become a third force independent of both the great and minor superpowers and moving toward closer links to the latter (as can be seen in Willy Brandts Ostpolitik and other initiatives). The Western response to Russias collapse was triumphalist. It was hailed as signaling the end of history, the final victory of Western capitalist democracy, almost as if Russia were being instructed to revert to its pre-World War I status as a virtual economic colony of the West. NATO enlargement began at once, in violation of verbal assurances to Gorbachev that NATO forces would not move one inch to the east after he agreed that a unified Germany could become a NATO member -- a remarkable concession, in the light of history. That discussion kept to East Germany. The possibility that NATO might expand beyond Germany was not discussed with Gorbachev, even if privately considered. Soon, NATO did begin to move beyond, right to the borders of Russia. The general mission of NATO was officially changed to a mandate to protect crucial infrastructure of the global energy system, sea lanes and pipelines, giving it a global area of operations. Furthermore, under a crucial Western revision of the now widely heralded doctrine of responsibility to protect, sharply different from the official U.N. version, NATO may now also serve as an intervention force under U.S. command. Of particular concern to Russia are plans to expand NATO to Ukraine. These plans were articulated explicitly at the Bucharest NATO summit of April 2008, when Georgia and Ukraine were promised eventual membership in NATO. The wording was unambiguous: NATO welcomes Ukraines and Georgias Euro-Atlantic aspirations for membership in NATO. We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO. With the Orange Revolution victory of pro-Western candidates in Ukraine in 2004, State Department representative Daniel Fried rushed there and emphasized U.S. support for Ukraines NATO and Euro-Atlantic aspirations, as a WikiLeaks report revealed. Russias concerns are easily understandable. They are outlined by international relations scholar John Mearsheimer in the leading U.S. establishment journal, Foreign Affairs. He writes that the taproot of the current crisis [over Ukraine] is NATO expansion and Washingtons commitment to move Ukraine out of Moscows orbit and integrate it into the West, which Putin viewed as a direct threat to Russias core interests. Who can blame him? Mearsheimer asks, pointing out that Washington may not like Moscows position, but it should understand the logic behind it. That should not be too difficult. After all, as everyone knows, The United States does not tolerate distant great powers deploying military forces anywhere in the Western hemisphere, much less on its borders. In fact, the U.S. stand is far stronger. It does not tolerate what is officially called successful defiance of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which declared (but could not yet implement) U.S. control of the hemisphere. And a small country that carries out such successful defiance may be subjected to the terrors of the earth and a crushing embargo -- as happened to Cuba. We need not ask how the United States would have reacted had the countries of Latin America joined the Warsaw Pact, with plans for Mexico and Canada to join as well. The merest hint of the first tentative steps in that direction would have been terminated with extreme prejudice, to adopt CIA lingo. As in the case of China, one does not have to regard Putins moves and motives favorably to understand the logic behind them, nor to grasp the importance of understanding that logic instead of issuing imprecations against it. As in the case of China, a great deal is at stake, reaching as far -- literally -- as questions of survival. The Challenges Today: The Islamic World Let us turn to the third region of major concern, the (largely) Islamic world, also the scene of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) that George W. Bush declared in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attack. To be more accurate, re-declared. The GWOT was declared by the Reagan administration when it took office, with fevered rhetoric about a plague spread by depraved opponents of civilization itself (as Reagan put it) and a return to barbarism in the modern age (the words of George Shultz, his secretary of state). The original GWOT has been quietly removed from history. It very quickly turned into a murderous and destructive terrorist war afflicting Central America, southern Africa, and the Middle East, with grim repercussions to the present, even leading to condemnation of the United States by the World Court (which Washington dismissed). In any event, it is not the right story for history, so it is gone. The success of the Bush-Obama version of GWOT can readily be evaluated on direct inspection. When the war was declared, the terrorist targets were confined to a small corner of tribal Afghanistan. They were protected by Afghans, who mostly disliked or despised them, under the tribal code of hospitality -- which baffled Americans when poor peasants refused to turn over Osama bin Laden for the, to them, astronomical sum of $25 million. There are good reasons to believe that a well-constructed police action, or even serious diplomatic negotiations with the Taliban, might have placed those suspected of the 9/11 crimes in American hands for trial and sentencing. But such options were off the table. Instead, the reflexive choice was large-scale violence -- not with the goal of overthrowing the Taliban (that came later) but to make clear U.S. contempt for tentative Taliban offers of the possible extradition of bin Laden. How serious these offers were we do not know, since the possibility of exploring them was never entertained. Or perhaps the United States was just intent on trying to show its muscle, score a victory and scare everyone in the world. They dont care about the suffering of the Afghans or how many people we will lose. That was the judgment of the highly respected anti-Taliban leader Abdul Haq, one of the many oppositionists who condemned the American bombing campaign launched in October 2001 as "a big setback" for their efforts to overthrow the Taliban from within, a goal they considered within their reach. His judgment is confirmed by Richard A. Clarke, who was chairman of the Counterterrorism Security Group at the White House under President George W. Bush when the plans to attack Afghanistan were made. As Clarke describes the meeting, when informed that the attack would violate international law, "the President yelled in the narrow conference room, I dont care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass.'" The attack was also bitterly opposed by the major aid organizations working in Afghanistan, who warned that millions were on the verge of starvation and that the consequences might be horrendous. The consequences for poor Afghanistan years later need hardly be reviewed. The next target of the sledgehammer was Iraq. The U.S.-UK invasion, utterly without credible pretext, is the major crime of the twenty-first century. The invasion led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people in a country where the civilian society had already been devastated by American and British sanctions that were regarded as genocidal by the two distinguished international diplomats who administered them, and resigned in protest for this reason. The invasion also generated millions of refugees, largely destroyed the country, and instigated a sectarian conflict that is now tearing apart Iraq and the entire region. It is an astonishing fact about our intellectual and moral culture that in informed and enlightened circles it can be called, blandly, the liberation of Iraq. Pentagon and British Ministry of Defense polls found that only 3% of Iraqis regarded the U.S. security role in their neighborhood as legitimate, less than 1% believed that coalition (U.S.-UK) forces were good for their security, 80% opposed the presence of coalition forces in the country, and a majority supported attacks on coalition troops. Afghanistan has been destroyed beyond the possibility of reliable polling, but there are indications that something similar may be true there as well. Particularly in Iraq the United States suffered a severe defeat, abandoning its official war aims, and leaving the country under the influence of the sole victor, Iran. The sledgehammer was also wielded elsewhere, notably in Libya, where the three traditional imperial powers (Britain, France, and the United States) procured Security Council resolution 1973 and instantly violated it, becoming the air force of the rebels. The effect was to undercut the possibility of a peaceful, negotiated settlement; sharply increase casualties (by at least a factor of 10, according to political scientist Alan Kuperman); leave Libya in ruins, in the hands of warring militias; and, more recently, to provide the Islamic State with a base that it can use to spread terror beyond. Quite sensible diplomatic proposals by the African Union, accepted in principle by Libyas Muammar Qaddafi, were ignored by the imperial triumvirate, as Africa specialist Alex de Waal reviews. A huge flow of weapons and jihadis has spread terror and violence from West Africa (now the champion for terrorist murders) to the Levant, while the NATO attack also sent a flood of refugees from Africa to Europe. Yet another triumph of humanitarian intervention, and, as the long and often ghastly record reveals, not an unusual one, going back to its modern origins four centuries ago. Noam Chomsky is institute professor emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A TomDispatch regular, among his recent books are Hegemony or Survival and Failed States. This essay, the first of two parts, is excerpted from his new book, Who Rules the World? (Metropolitan Books, the American Empire Project, 2016). His website is www.chomsky.info. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook.
Home Sign up for our FREE Daily Email Newsletter Cuba Will Not Fall!
By Andre Vltchek May 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - I am not sure who has invented those rumors that Cuba is now facing a mortal danger, that it has lost its bearings, and that it could collapse at any moment, after just one lethal visit by US President Barack Obama. The rumors and speculations are snowballing, and in some circles of the North American and European Left, they are already being confused with reality. I know, admire and love Cuba. It is an exceptionally strong, determined and resilient nation. Reading all the alarming reports, I decided to return and to speak to the Cuban people directly. I visited Cuba again. This time in between my work in war-torn Middle East and South America, a continent suffering vicious assaults by toxic counter-revolutionary cliques loyal to Washington and Europe. This time I decided to drive, to visit remote villages and historic revolutionary sites, as well as the area surrounding the territory stolen from Cuba by Western imperialism Guantanamo Bay. I drove for over 1,000 kilometers, in the East and West of the country. I worked in Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Havana, Bay of Pigs, Playa Giron and in one of the most remote (and before the Revolution the poorest) areas of the country Cienaga de Zapata. I visited Prensa Latina and ICAIC in Havana, but this time my main goal was simply to listen to the Cuban people. Were they aware of that mortal danger coming from the North? Were they ready to forge compromises? Was their revolutionary spirit getting diluted? My conclusion is clear and decisive: No! Cuba is not falling. Cuban people know; they are well aware of what is most likely behind the sweet talk of the US President. They will not yield, and they will not betray the Revolution. The danger from the West is real; it is there. It is always there, as it is real. Coercions, tricks, Machiavellian politics all will be used in attempt to derail, even to destroy the Cuban Revolution. But do not think for one second that the Cuban people dont see what the Empire is trying to achieve. Cuba is standing, where it has been for decades. It is doing better than before. It is also stronger than ever. Im convinced that it is going to prevail. Before I continue, I have one suggestion to make to those who are thinking otherwise and who are genuinely worried: go to Cuba and help if you think that the country is now facing unprecedented danger. Travel there, talk to people, work, write, film, photograph. Support Cuba abroad. Buy its products, listen to its music, watch films, read books. Spend money there, instead of in Thailand, the Virgin Islands or Egypt, if you need some sun. Do something real, something concrete. Cuba is the most internationalist country on Earth. It has been showing solidarity with dozens of oppressed and needy countries. It has already done so much for the others the rest of the world. Now do something for Cuba, instead of prophesying its collapse! Do it if you worry about its future, and do it even if you dont. Santiago de Cuba is known to be a brave and strong-minded city. This is where the Cuban Revolution began on July 26, 1953. This is where a great poet, writer, and a national hero, Jose Marti is buried. And this is where, on January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro proclaimed the victory of the Revolution from a balcony in Santiagos city hall. Like Salvador Bahia in Brazil, Santiago de Cuba gave the world some of the finest musicians. Now, in legendary Casa de la Trova and in many other clubs, cabarets and music halls of the city, mixed couples of all races are dancing to the upbeat rhythms of son and salsa. In Cuba, racism is a foreign unknown factor. During my visit, on the second floor of Casa de la Trova, a young Chinese man was exchanging love notes with a black girl, while several local mixed couples were dancing cheek-to-cheek on an old parquet floor right in front of a brilliant, euphoric band. Here, no political correctness is needed. Nothing is forced. Racial and gender equality come naturally, instinctively, as a logical by-product of the Revolution. Countless Cuban people fought and died liberating African nations from Western imperialism. Thousands of Cuban doctors and teachers are still deployed in some of the poorest and remote parts of the world. Cuban Revolution fights for humanism. It struggles; it stands on the side of the oppressed, be they men, women or children. The color of the skin matters nothing. To all Cubans, one thing is clear: each person, each race deserves to live with dignity. This is my Communism. Cuba is my mother country. And that is why Western imperialism hates Cuba. That is why it is using its vitriolic propaganda to discredit the Cuban Revolution. That is why it tries to derail the country from the Communist course by all means at its disposal: through direct attacks, embargo, and now, through a new Machiavellian chapter of normalization. Ignacio Guerra Batancour, a mathematician from Santiago de Cuba is a determined supporter of the Revolution and the Cuban Communist system: Of course people are afraid of Obama and his motives for recently visiting Cuba. Did he come just in order to normalize relations between our two countries? I doubt it! But fortunately, Cuban people have plenty of revolutionary blood left circulating in their veins. And they are smart! Most of them dont want to become a colony again, and they dont want capitalism. Here we just want to improve our economic situation a little bit, but otherwise the great majority of people are happy with what they have. I am 64 years old He looks at most 50 I remember how things used to be before the Revolution. It was tough, humiliating We had to live with malnutrition, ignorance, and exploitation Things totally changed when Communism arrived. Now Im not rich either. Not at all! My wife and I have worked hard throughout our entire lives. She used to be a member of the international medical brigade. And all our family members got very good education. My wife is a doctor; our son is a neurosurgeon. We dont have much but we have enough; we have what we really need. And all of us are living meaningful lives. But now the United States will definitely try to destabilize Cuba Of course! We all know it. Those who say that they dont know are actually part of the plot against Communist Cuba. We see what the West is doing all over the world. But Cuba will not be allowed to fall. North Americans will try all sorts of tricks, but theyd never dare to invade. Because they still remember the Bay of Pigs and Playa Giron. This nation has great heart but it can also be tough. It has guts. It would not allow this system to disappear. I told him how much I love his country. He embraced me. Welcome! he said. Live healthy and long life! And come back to Santiago de Cuba, soon. Real friends are always welcomed. We will be waiting for you. Playa Giron Here, the West dared. And it lost, spectacularly. Entire nation mobilized. In just one decisive moment, this green, gentle island turned to a monolith, to concrete barrier. They didnt pass! The people whom they came to liberate stopped them. I travelled Playa Giron, driving for over 250 kilometers, from Havana; first on the impressive six-lane motorway, then on a two-lane road. I had been driven and I drove the 1952 Chevrolet, painstakingly restored, shiny and still a reliable friendly monster. Cuba was changing, impressively, and I saw it all around me. The terrible years of extreme sacrifice were over. There were now excellent roads all over the island, comfortable and clean rest stops and fuel stations. Look, orange farms! Dariel, my friend and a driver kept showing me. And here is one huge sugarcane plantation and corn Fields were well attended and villages along the road simple but clean and self sufficient, with medical posts, schools and all basic services. Cuba did not look rich, but it didnt look poor, either. And it looked much better than three years ago, when I last worked there. It was definitely not falling apart. It was not collapsing. It was growing, improving and evolving. Not to notice, to deny the progress would certainly require great anti-revolutionary self-discipline. At the small but very informative Museum of Giron, I saw images, maps and documents, explaining those brutal events of the US-orchestrated and sponsored invasion of April 1961, aimed at overthrowing the government of Fidel Castro. More than 1,500 Cuban exiles and mercenaries landed on two sites along the Bay of Pigs. For 72 hours, intense battles raged all over the area Cienaga de Zapata. Gusanos, invaders, were finally defeated. Now the road originating from the motorway and leading all the way to Playa Giron is lined with monuments to fallen Cuban men and women who defended their motherland against the mightiest imperialist country on earth. Countless powerful posters keep reminding the travellers: GIRON THE FIRST GREAT DEFEAT OF YANQUI IMPERIALISM IN LATIN AMERICA And of course: PATRIA O MUERTE! Fatherland or Death! I ask the curator of the museum whether the local people see this place as merely a historical site, or whether they realize that the same acts of terror performed by the West here are still taking place all over the world? She answers clearly: We are well aware what is happening in the world. We watch news, we watch TeleSur, and we discuss the events. What happened here is only one of the thousands of terrible crimes committed by imperialism. I look at the photos of destroyed civilian airports, of injured and killed Cuban people. There is a pair of shoes belonging to a lady who lost her life during the bombing of a passenger airport. In Western lexicon, this is called failed invasion. I call it terrorism. Then a mixed group of US and Canadian tourists arrived in a huge bus. Loud and disrespectful, they began taking selfies in front of the monuments and exhibited military hardware. There were no feelings showing on their faces no feelings and no regrets. I approached an elderly couple from Minnesota: Does this evoke anything in you? I asked. Well, there was a battle, right? a man replied, a big but empty grin decorating his face. Yes, there was a battle, I said and walked away. While I was in Cuba, Fidel Castro addressed his people during the closing of the 7th Party Congress: We all reach our turn, but the ideas of the Cuban communists will remain as proof that on this planet, working with fervor and dignity, can produce the material and cultural wealth that humans need, and we must fight relentlessly to obtain these. To our brothers in Latin America and the world we must convey that the Cuban people will overcome. This may be one of the last times that I speak in this room. I voted for all the candidates submitted for election by Congress and I appreciate the invitation and the honor of your listening to me. I congratulate you all, and firstly, companero Raul Castro for his magnificent effort. We will set forth on the march forward and we will perfect what we should perfect, with the utmost loyalty and united force, just as Marti, Maceo and Gomez, in an unstoppable march. *** In Cuba, everything from defending the country to preserving the environment is considered a revolutionary act. I drove through the impressive biosphere, Cienaga de Zapata, a world heritage site. In the afternoon, a huge army of colorful crabs began crossing the road. The entire area is pristine, un-commercialized. I murmur to my driver that the crabs are definitely benefiting from socialism, and so are mangroves, swamps and beaches. He agrees. In a deep village, Soplillar, I encounter a small museum and a beautiful library with an impressive collection of books. Tables and seats are handmade with love, and so are heartwarming toys. A man in charge of the place, Pedro Amaury Santos Llambio is a university professor, with passion for rural education. For several days a month he teaches at the university in the city, but the rest of time he takes care of the museum and the library, located some 5 kilometers from the coast of the Bay of Pigs. You would not believe it, but this huge area of Cienaga de Zapata used to have only four schools before the Revolution. Children used to suffer from malnutrition; there was hunger and misery everywhere. All that you see here now is a direct result of the Revolution. Comrade Pedro Amary is a self-declared bookworm. And he knows many revolutionaries from both Cuba and abroad. He has even met one of the daughters of Noam Chomsky. He is convinced that Cuba will not fall. He believes in socialism. He educates people, informs them, and discusses the world with them. He explains: Cuba is very strong. We have done everything with our own hands. I have many Europeans coming here. I dont know why how do they find me? This place is so far from any big city But they come: thinkers, writers, and journalists We talk. I am open with them. I say: all that you now have in Europe is due to the massacres and theft that you have been committing all over the world. I tell him that I recently gave a speech at the Italian Parliament, telling there, straight to their faces, basically the same thing. I also tell him that in the future, Id like to come back and spend some time here, talk to local people in the village, and to read from one of my books in this library. We shake hands; we embrace. I talk to a few more people in the village. Cuba is not going to disappear. I feel it. If in danger, we will fight for it. Observed from here, it is that simple! *** Briefly I worked in Havana. It is more complex than the provinces. I met painters, filmmakers, journalists, and owners of private restaurants. Their language was ornamental, words selected more carefully. There was more talk about peace and understanding. Some people in Havana dont care about politics, but most of them do. I understand why many foreigners, after visiting only Havana and maybe one or two touristy beaches, feel that Cuba is losing its revolutionary zeal. But even in Havana, service providers is one thing, and regular citizens quite another. And of course, the great Cuban intellectuals and artists are almost unanimously with the Revolution. But during this visit I decided not to spend too much time in the company of my revolutionary intellectual comrades. I wanted to hear from provincial capitals and the countryside. *** At the other end of the country, Comunidad Glorieta is just a few kilometers from Guantanamo Bay, right next to the border with the United States. I stop a young woman in the middle of the street. She is 28 years old, working in a video store. Her name is Yarai. It is a random choice. I ask her whether she knows what is happening behind the barbed wire, on the occupied territory? She knows. Is she afraid? Afraid? Of course not! I hope there would never be a war with gringos Of course we want that territory, that base, to be returned to Cuba. We dont like them to have it. But am I afraid? Not at all! Others in the village react in a similar way. I often use the word fear. I ask whether people are afraid. It is because many of my friends all over the world keep expressing their anxiety, saying that Cuba would not survive, that it could soon be swept away. Back in Guantanamo City I saw huge playgrounds full of children. It was Sunday and thousands of people were out, playing, promenading, and talking. Another beautiful Cuban historic city! I witnessed a relaxed, optimistic atmosphere. Here too, I spoke to people. Some were indignant about the base, some indifferent. But there was no fear, and absolute certainty that the Cuban political system will survive. Approaching Guantanamo, a huge poster declared: WELCOME TO GUANTANAMO! THE FIRST ANTI-IMPERIALIST LINE OF DEFENSE My local driver was paraphrasing Che. He used to be a schoolteacher. Now he was retired, but wanted to keep busy. When I told him that I am tired, he laughed: Che used to say that true revolutionaries have no right to get tired. All those who get tired have the right to be tired. But then, they have no right to call themselves true revolutionaries. This was Cuba. In that case lets stop for a quick coffee, I smiled. And lets keep working! Thats better! he roared, hitting me on the back. *** The base was suddenly there, in front of me, down below; huge, intrusive, disgusting, totally out of place; an illegally occupied Cuban territory; an imperialist stronghold. I made a grimace. A couple of Venezuelan travellers caught my facial expression. A girl said: Que mierda, no? What a shit! And I nodded. There was nothing else to add. She summarized it all fairly accurately. If Obama is truly serious about improving the relationship between the two countries, he should first return Guantanamo Base to Cuba, I said. All three of us just shrug our shoulders. Like: we know better. In Venezuela they definitely knew perfectly well what the Yankee imperialist doodle looks like. On the way there, our car was stopped at a checkpoint. Police in Cuba hardly stop cars, but here, near the border, things are always a little bit tense. The officer happened to be a young lady. How are you? I asked. Its like an oven here, she replied. So hot! Must be over 35C. She had ran out of cigarettes and was visibly tired. I had bought a pack of local smokes and a can of ice-cold soda at Loma Grande. Now, driving back towards Guantanamo city and Santiago de Cuba, I extended my hand and offered her both. For you, I said. You are trying to corrupt me, gorgeous! she was laughing her lungs out. She was openly flirting with me, in the most innocent and natural way. I knew that I had to respond, to return her compliment, somehow; otherwise she would get offended. This is how it was in Cuba. For a while I was searching for words. Western political correctness had made me clumsy. She had beautiful eyes, jet-black hair and a big gun hanging at her hip. The gringos would never manage to pass through this checkpoint, I said. Theyd freeze when confronted by your beauty. It was clumsy. I was out of practice, but it worked. She smiled happily. She hugged me, pressed her fragile body against mine for just a fraction of a moment, and then kissed me on my cheek. For a short moment both of us felt light, but all around us it was all damn serious, all real. Cuban tanks were just nearby, their cannons facing the base. There were bunkers and barbed wire clearly visible from where we stood. Yes, the first anti-imperialist line of defense. I was well aware that I was at the front, and on the correct side of the line. Ill now go, I said to the girl. I have to go. But Im always with your people. I thought that what I had just said was somehow out of place. It wasnt. She saluted me, her face suddenly serious. I saluted her back. Then I asked a few last questions: Are you concerned? I pointed towards the barbed wire. No. Not afraid of what may be behind Obamas visit? Not afraid that they will now try something else? Not scared that this time they may succeed, that they could finally manage to derail Cuban socialism? No, not afraid, she replied. Just that. Proud. Confident. A true Cuban! I got back into the car and in a few moments the checkpoint disappeared behind the curve. Diligently, I began cleaning my equipment as if it was an arsenal of weapons. I was wondering why I suddenly had a lump in my throat, and why my glasses got so foggy. So Cuba is not going to fall? No, Comrade, the driver replied. It cannot. It has no right to fall. We were speeding towards Santiago, Santiago de Cuba. Good. Then lets sing, I said in a hoarse voice. Lets sing now, damn it! Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: Exposing Lies Of The Empire and Fighting Against Western Imperialism .Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism . Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia: Indonesia The Archipelago of Fear . Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter . Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load. What's your response? - Scroll down to add / read comments Sign up for our FREE Daily Email Newsletter For Email Marketing you can trust Donate
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By Elizabeth Shockman
May 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Global Post " - It was 2:09 a.m. in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Oct. 3, 2015, when Lajos Jecs was woken from his sleep by a loud explosion. It was the first in a series of bombs a US plane was dropping on the hospital where he worked.
Jecs, a nurse from Hungary with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), had been living and working at the MSF trauma center in Kunduz for close to five months. The fighting around the health care facility had been growing worse in the past few days. It was so bad that Jecs and his international colleagues had been unable to leave the hospital compound. Theyd been sleeping in makeshift quarters in the hospitals safe room.
It was in the safe room, a building separated from the main hospital, that Jecs went to sleep at about 10 p.m. on Oct. 2. Four hours later, he was startled awake. He had heard bombs in Kunduz before, but never this close. The office was rattling and he could hear dirt and debris from the explosions hitting the walls. Jecs took shelter in his room and began trying to call his co-workers in the hospital. None of them picked up, except for one colleague who yelled for help before hanging up.
Some 20 to 30 minutes into the bombing Jecs heard a voice call his name from outside the safe room. When he opened the door he saw one of his Afghan colleagues standing there, covered in blood and with just one arm.
[Thats] when I realized actually that now we are really, really in danger, Jecs says. He pulled his colleague into the room and started wishing for the end to come quickly. Lets have one bomb here and just finish with it, he thought.
The bombing attack continued, but the safe house Jecs was in was never hit. When the explosions stopped, Jecs and his colleagues left the building. The sight they saw was terrifying: an orange sky, their hospital in flames, uprooted trees and debris scattered around the compound. Through shelled-out windows they saw patients burning in their beds and heard people screaming inside the hospital as they were burned alive. Two survivors they tried to help bled to death in front of them.
I remember that first when I saw the hospital burning, it was like, No. No. Its not possible [for this] to happen, Jecs says. This was just the last thing that I could think could happen to us. I mean because, of course we are in a war zone, fights are happening ... street fights. But to directly target a hospital? ... It was just so unreal.
MSF says 42 people were killed in the attack, including 14 MSF staff members. Dozens of others were injured.
Jecs says he immediately knew the bombing had been carried out by the United States.
Why? Because only they had this technology, Jecs says. He also recognized the sound of the plane that carried out the attack, and says he had heard it before.
The United States has since formally accepted responsibility for the bombing. Last week, the US Department of Defense released the results of an internal investigation into the incident.
The personnel involved did not know they were striking a medical facility, Army Gen. Joseph Votel told reporters on Friday. The intended target was an insurgent-controlled site, which was approximately 400 meters from the Doctors Without Borders trauma center. ... All members of both the ground force and the AC-130 aircrew were unaware that the aircraft was firing on a medical facility throughout the engagement. The investigation ultimately concluded that this tragic incident was caused by a combination of human errors, compounded by process and equipment failures.
The hospital bombing in Kunduz appears to be part of a disturbing trend. Last week a hospital in Aleppo, Syria, was bombed. No one has claimed responsibility, but only the Russians and the Syrian regime have aircraft in the area. Since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, Physicians for Human Rights has recorded the deaths of 730 medical workers in more than 360 attacks on 256 separate medical facilities.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday said similar attacks are being repeated in other conflict areas, including in Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen.
Such attacks must end, Ban Ki-moon said. When so-called surgical strikes end up hitting surgical wards, something is deeply wrong.
Doctors Without Borders says it is not satisfied with the internal US investigation into the Kunduz hospital bombing. On Friday the group released a statement calling for an independent investigation.
Jecs echoes his organizations demand for an independent inquiry.
Why does this happen? ... I mean, we can go to the moon but we cant track a sensitive coordinate? ... At least if you are going to have an independent investigation, it could answer a lot of questions, which would be really good for those who lost their loved ones, Jecs says. Its just unbelievable that this is happening now in 2016, that theyre systematically bombing hospitals and killing doctors or health workers. ... Its like there are no more rules in the war.
Jecs is disturbed by the trend in attacks on health workers, but hes not letting that keep him from continuing to work with Doctors Without Borders. Currently hes working with MSF to provide health care to refugees in Idomeni, Greece. He says he wants to go back to a war zone.
Propaganda Based On Partial Truth Why Middle Eastern Leaders Are Talking to Putin, Not Obama By Dennis Ross May 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Politico " - The United States has significantly more military capability in the Middle East today than RussiaAmerica has 35,000 troops and hundreds of aircraft; the Russians roughly 2,000 troops and, perhaps, 50 aircraftand yet Middle Eastern leaders are making pilgrimages to Moscow to see Vladimir Putin these days, not rushing to Washington. Two weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to see the Russian president, his second trip to Russia since last fall, and King Salman of Saudi Arabia is planning a trip soon. Egypts president and other Middle Eastern leaders have also made the trek to see Putin. Why is this happening, and why on my trips to the region am I hearing that Arabs and Israelis have pretty much given up on President Barack Obama? Because perceptions matter more than mere power: The Russians are seen as willing to use power to affect the balance of power in the region, and we are not. Putins decision to intervene militarily in Syria has secured President Bashar Assads position and dramatically reduced the isolation imposed on Russia after the seizure of Crimea and its continuing manipulation of the fighting in Ukraine. And Putins worldview is completely at odds with Obamas. Obama believes in the use of force only in circumstances where our security and homeland might be directly threatened. His mindset justifies pre-emptive action against terrorists and doing more to fight the Islamic State. But it frames U.S. interests and the use of force to support them in very narrow terms. It reflects the presidents reading of the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, and helps to explain why he has been so reluctant to do more in Syria at a time when the war has produced a humanitarian catastrophe, a refugee crisis that threatens the underpinnings of the European Union, and helped to give rise to Islamic State. And, it also explains why he thinks that Putin cannot gainand is losingas a result of his military intervention in Syria. But in the Middle East it is Putins views on the uses of coercion, including force to achieve political objectives, that appears to be the norm, not the exceptionand that is true for our friends as well as adversaries. The Saudis acted in Yemen in no small part because they feared the United States would impose no limits on Iranian expansion in the area, and they felt the need to draw their own lines. In the aftermath of the nuclear deal, Irans behavior in the region has been more aggressive, not less so, with regular Iranian forces joining the Revolutionary Guard now deployed to Syria, wider use of Shiite militias, arms smuggling into Bahrain and the eastern province of Saudi Arabia, and ballistic missile tests. Russias presence has not helped. The Russian military intervention turned the tide in Syria and, contrary to Obamas view, has put the Russians in a stronger position without imposing any meaningful costs on them. Not only are they not being penalized for their Syrian intervention, but the president himself is now calling Vladimir Putin and seeking his help to pressure Assadeffectively recognizing who has leverage. Middle Eastern leaders recognize it as well and realize they need to be talking to the Russians if they are to safeguard their interests. No doubt, it would be better if the rest of the world defined the nature of power the way Obama does. It would be better if, internationally, Putin were seen to be losing. But he is not. This does not mean that we are weak and Russia is strong. Objectively, Russia is declining economically and low oil prices spell increasing financial troublesa fact that may explain, at least in part, Putins desire to play up Russias role on the world stage and his exercise of power in the Middle East. But Obamas recent trip to Saudi Arabia did not alter the perception of American weakness and our reluctance to affect the balance of power in the region. The Arab Gulf states fear growing Iranian strength more than they fear the Islamic Stateand they are convinced that the administration is ready to acquiesce in Irans pursuit of regional hegemony. Immediately after the presidents meeting at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit, Abdulrahman al-Rashed, a journalist very well connected to Saudi leaders, wrote: Washington cannot open up doors to Iran allowing it to threaten regional countries while asking the afflicted countries to settle silently. As I hear on my visits to the region, Arabs and Israelis alike are looking to the next administration. They know the Russians are not a force for stability; they count on the United States to play that role. Ironically, because Obama has conveyed a reluctance to exercise American power in the region, many of our traditional partners in the area realize they may have to do more themselves. Thats not necessarily a bad thing unless it drives them to act in ways that might be counterproductive. For example, had the Saudis been more confident about our readiness to counter the Iranian-backed threats in the region, would they have chosen to go to war in Yemena costly war that not surprisingly is very difficult to win and that has imposed a terrible price? Obama has been right to believe that the regional parties must play a larger role in fighting the Islamic State. He has, unfortunately, been wrong to believe they would do so if they thought we failed to see the bigger threat they saw and they doubted our credibility. Indeed, so long as they question American reliability, there will be limits to how much they will expose themselveswhether in fighting the Islamic State, not responding to Russian entreaties, or even thinking about assuming a role of greater responsibility for Palestinian compromises on making peace with Israel. To take advantage of their recognition that they may need to run more risks and assume more responsibility in the region, they will want to know that Americas word is good and there will be no more red lines declared but unfulfilled; that we see the same threats they do; and that U.S. leaders understand that power affects the landscape in the region and will not hesitate to reassert it. Several steps would help convey such an impression: Toughen our declaratory policy toward Iran about the consequences of cheating on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to include blunt, explicit language on employing force, not sanctions, should the Iranians violate their commitment not to pursue or acquire a nuclear weapon; Launch contingency planning with GCC states and Israelwho themselves are now talkingto generate specific options for countering Irans growing use of Shiite militias to undermine regimes in the region. (A readiness to host quiet three-way discussions with Arab and Israeli military planners would signal we recognize the shared threat perceptions, the new strategic realities, and the potentially new means to counter both radical Shiite and Sunni threats.) Be prepared to arm the Sunni tribes in Iraq if Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi continues to be blocked from doing so by the Iranians and the leading militias; In Syria, make clear that if the Russians continue to back Assad and do not force him to accept the Vienna principles (a cease-fire, opening humanitarian corridors, negotiations and a political transition), they will leave us no choice but to work with our partners to develop safe havens with no-fly zones. Putin and Middle Eastern leaders understand the logic of coercion. It is time for us to reapply it.
Panama Papers Reveals: Saudi King Salman 8$ Million Support for Netanyahu
By Alalam May 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Alalam " - Isaac Herzog, member of the Knesset and Chairman of the Israeli Labor party, revealed that Saudi king Salman bin Abdulaziz financed the election campaign of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Arabic Almasdar news quoted from Panama Papers.
In March 2015, King Salman has deposited eighty million dollars to support Netanyahus campaign via a Syrian-Spanish person named Mohamed Eyad Kayali.
The money was deposited to a companys account in British Virgin Islands owned by Teddy Sagi, an Israeli billionaire and businessman, who has allocated the money to fund the campaign Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Herzog cited a leaked Panama Paper. Update : Boing Boing - Opposition Labour leader Isaac Herzog, identified in the original article as the source accusation denies having made the accusation; and called the websites claiming he did "unsane." It's hard to enumerate all the people to whom this would be politically significant: the Israeli opposition; leadership rivals from Benjamin Netanyahu's own party; Islamists who are at odds with wahabiism; fighters in Yemen and other territories where Saudi is fighting direct or proxy wars, and the citizens and elites of those countries. In March 2015, King Salman has deposited eighty million dollars to support Netanyahus campaign via a Syrian-Spanish person named Mohamed Eyad Kayali. The money was deposited to a companys account in British Virgin Islands owned by Teddy Sagi, an Israeli billionaire and businessman, who has allocated the money to fund the campaign Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Herzog cited a leaked Panama Paper. Panama Papers Data Leak : King of Saudi Arabia sponsored Netanyahus campaign [Zen Adra/Al Masdar News] (via Naked Capitalism) (Image: Flickr - Benjamin Netanyahu with Greek PM, Primeministergr, CC-BY-SA) Panama Papers: New Zealand is the go-to money launderer for crooked Latin Americans A joint report by RNZ, TVNZ and Nicky Hager accuses New Zealand of being at the heart of a gigantic money-laundering operation for the corrupt elites of Latin America. ====== Panama Papers whistleblower issues statement, naming and shaming failed states and institutions "John Doe," the mysterious whistleblower who released the largest-ever leak of confidential documents in world history -- papers from the Panamanian law firm Mossack-Fonseca, a key player in the offshore dark money industry -- has published their first-ever public statement. The first thing you'll notice in reading the 1,400 word manifesto is that Doe is eloquent. Like Snowden and a few others from the society of modern whistleblowing, Doe writes beautifully, passionately, and intelligently about their motives. They have clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the information they had access to, and what it meant for the world, and what it would mean for them to come forward with it, risking everything. Doe offers a general critique of secretive finance capitalism, and cites specifics from the Panama Papers showing that Mossack-Fonseca wasn't just involved in helping the wealthy avoid taxes and starve countries of the treasure they needed to provide the most basic services -- they also knowingly laundered money used by rich paedophiles to traffick in 13 year old sex slaves. Doe isn't content to discuss their general grievances with corruption: in laser-focused specific detail, they cite policies and actions from specific governments and politicians (the UK Conservative party, David Cameron, NZ Prime Minister John Key, a few others) and how their hypocrisy motivated them to act. He also discusses the role of whistleblowing in modern society. Running through the punishments visited upon leakers like Snowden (but also Luxleaks' Antoine Deltour and UBS leaker Bradley Birkenfeld), Doe says that they chose not to go public specifically because they believed that the same leaders who'd made the moral compromises that enabled the corruption of offshore finance were also committed to destroying the lives of those who came forward with information about the most urgent, terrible crimes. Doe cheers on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for refusing to share the raw Panama Papers with law enforcement, as is fitting for independent journalists, and goes on to offer to turn over those documents to law enforcement independently, but with the caveats about the risks to their own freedom. Doe also disavows being a spy of any kind, saying that they never worked or contracted for any spy agency or government. And while its one thing to extol the virtues of government transparency at summits and in sound bites, its quite another to actually implement it. It is an open secret that in the United States, elected representatives spend the majority of their time fundraising. Tax evasion cannot possibly be fixed while elected officials are pleading for money from the very elites who have the strongest incentives to avoid taxes relative to any other segment of the population. These unsavoury political practices have come full circle and they are irreconcilable. Reform of Americas broken campaign finance system cannot wait. Of course, those are hardly the only issues that need fixing. Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand has been curiously quiet about his countrys role in enabling the financial fraud Mecca that is the Cook Islands. In Britain, the Tories have been shameless about concealing their own practices involving offshore companies, while Jennifer Shasky Calvery, the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at the United States Treasury, just announced her resignation to work instead for HSBC, one of the most notorious banks on the planet (not coincidentally headquartered in London). And so the familiar swish of Americas revolving door echoes amidst deafening global silence from thousands of yet-to-be-discovered ultimate beneficial owners who are likely praying that her replacement is equally spineless. In the face of political cowardice, its tempting to yield to defeatism, to argue that the status quo remains fundamentally unchanged, while the Panama Papers are, if nothing else, a glaring symptom of our societys progressively diseased and decaying moral fabric. But the issue is finally on the table, and that change takes time is no surprise. For fifty years, executive, legislative, and judicial branches around the globe have utterly failed to address the metastasizing tax havens spotting Earths surface. Even today, Panama says it wants to be known for more than papers, but its government has conveniently examined only one of the horses on its offshore merry-go-round. Panama Papers Source Offers Documents To Governments, Hints At More To Come [John Doe/ICIJ] Search The Offshore Leaks Database
Find out whos behind almost 320,000 offshore companies and trusts from the Panama Papers and the Offshore Leaks investigations. https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/
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The New Normal: Cold War 2.0
By Pepe Escobar
May 09, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Sputnik " - We are all living in Hybrid War time. From R2P (responsibility to protect) to color revolutions, from currency attacks to stock market manipulations.
From judicial-financial-political-media enabled soft coups as in Brazil to support for moderate jihadis, multiple stages of Hybrid War now cross-pollinate and generate a vortex of new mutant viruses. Hybrid War, a Beltway concept, has even been turned upside down by the conceptualizers. NATO, affecting puzzlement at the very existence of the concept, interprets the Russian invasion of Ukraine as Hybrid War. That serves prime Hybrid War purveyors such as the RAND corporation to take it further, peddling war game scenarios of Russia being able to invade and conquer the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in less than 60 hours. And that, in turn, foments even more Western military hysteria, encapsulated by the new NATO commander, a.k.a. Dr. Strangelove; Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who made sure he would come up with a stage entrance worthy of his predecessor, Philip Breedlove/ Breedhate. Slightly amused at the whole conceptual circus, Russians respond with actions. Extra deployments in our Western borderlands? No problem; heres your asymmetrical answer. And say hello, soon, to our new toy: the S-500s. What Hillary wants The notion that Moscow would have any interest at all to capture Baltic states is ludicrous in itself. But with the evidence of direct occupation of Afghanistan (the Taliban will never quit) and R2P in Libya (a failed state devastated by militias) spelling miserable failure, NATO badly needs a success. Enter warmongering rhetoric and conceptual manipulation and this when its actually Washington that is deploying Hybrid War all across the chessboard. AP Photo/ Carolyn Kaster, File Reality occurs beyond NATOs looking glass. Russia is way ahead of the Pentagon/NATO in A2AD anti-access/area denial; Russian missiles and submarines may easily prevent NATO fighter jets from flying in Central Europe and NATO ships from patrolling the Baltic Sea. For the indispensable nation, that hurts so bad. Relentless rhetorical hysteria masks the real high-stakes game in play. And thats where US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton fits in. Throughout her campaign, Clinton has extolled a major strategic objective of our transatlantic alliance. The major strategic objective is none other than the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) a NATO-on-trade complementing political and military NATO. The fact that TTIP, after the latest Dutch leaks, now runs the risk of being mired in Walking Dead territory may be a temporary setback. The imperial project is clear; to configure NATO, which already mutated into a global Robocop (Afghanistan, Libya, Syria), into an integrated political-economic-commercial-military alliance. Always under Washingtons command, of course. And including key peripheral vassals/contributors, such as the Gulf petromonarchies and Israel. The imperial enemy, of course, would have to be the only authentic project available for the 21st century: Eurasia integration which ranges from the Chinese-led New Silk Roads to the Russia-led Eurasia Economic Union; BRICS integration, which includes their New Development Bank (NDB), in tandem with the Chinese Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB); a resurgent, still independent Iran Eurasia-connected; and all other independent poles among Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations. AFP 2016/ Thierry Charlier This is the ultimate, ongoing 21st confrontation that will keep generating multiple, localized hybrid warfare forms as it takes place not only across Eurasia but across the whole Global South. Its all interlocked from Maidan to the secret TTIP negotiations; from provoking China in the South China Sea to an oil price war and an attack on the ruble; from the NSA spying on Petrobras feeding a slow motion, legalistic regime change process in Brazil to an EU ravaged by twin plagues; a refugee crisis ultimately provoked by NATOs wars (and instrumentalized by Turkey) coupled with Salafi-jhadi terrorism also spawned by the same wars. Even with France and Germany still dithering as in paying too heavy a price for sanctions on Russia Washingtons project counts on a ravaged EU being a perpetual hostage of NATO. And ultimately, a hostage of NATO on trade because of those US geostrategic imperatives against Eurasia integration. This implies another necessity; the conceptual war its the evil Russians who are waging Hybrid War, not us! must be won at all costs, by instilling constant fear into the average EU citizen. In parallel, its also essential to put on a show; thus one of the most massive US-designed military operations on European soil since the end of the Cold War complete with Navy and Air Force displaying nuclear capability. This is the new normal; Cold War 2.0, 24/7.
Americas Two-Faced Policy on Iran
The Obama administration seeks to demonize Iran along with Russia and China while also demanding their help in areas of U.S. interest, an approach that is both disingenuous and dangerous, as British diplomat Alastair Crooke explains.
By Alastair Crooke May 10, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Consortium News " - In an article entitled Why America needs Iran in Iraq, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad argues that the chaos in Baghdad, culminating in the temporary occupation of the parliament by followers of Shiite Islamist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is undermining the war against the Islamic State; weakening Iraqs economy; and accelerating the countrys disintegration. Without cooperation between the United States, Iran and Iraqs top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Sistani, the crisis could very well lead to the collapse of the entire political system set up in Iraq during the temporary U.S. occupation To prevent this, Washington needs Tehrans help. And Iran should be as motivated to seek stability [in Iraq] as much as Washington, because Khalilzad asserts, Iran, currently is losing favour in Iraq. Putting aside the questionable implication that Iran might somehow, through co-operation with America, raise its standing amongst Iraqis, Khalilzads presumption that Iran should now attend to Americas needs in Iraq, coupled with Secretary of State John Kerrys insistence that Iran should help America to end the conflict in Syria too, throw into sharp relief the paradox inherent at the heart of U.S. diplomacy towards Iran, Russia (and China also). This approach has been dubbed the middle way by former special adviser to the Assistant Secretary of State, Jeremy Shapiro: the U.S. Administration has no desire for an all-out confrontation with these three states. They are militarily hard nuts, and there is not much appetite for yet more military confrontation amongst a weary and wary American public (to the continuing frustration of the neocons). More prosaically, the global financial system is now so brittle, so delicately poised, that it is not at all certain that the prospect of conflict would give the lift to Americas flagging economy that war generally is supposed to give. It might just snap the financial system, instead hence the Middle Way. Shapiro points out the obvious contradiction to this two-track approach: the U.S. no longer can ignore such powerful states. Its window of absolute, unchallenged, uni-polar power has passed. America needs the help of these states, but at the same time, it seeks precisely to counter these states potential to rival or limit American power in any way. And America simply ignores the core complaints that fuel the tensions between itself and these states. It simply declines to address them. Shapiro concludes that this foreign policy approach is unsustainable, and bound to fail: This dual-track approach, condemning Russia [or Iran] as an aggressor one day, [whilst] seeking to work with Moscow [or Tehran] the next would [ultimately] force ever-greater confrontation. The Middle Way In a sense, the U.S. approach towards Iran seems to be mirroring the so-called middle way policy which the U.S. Administration pursues towards Russia, whereby the putative reset with Russia was set aside (when President Vladimir Putin assumed the Presidency for the second time), and Obama rather than seek outright confrontation with Russia ruled that America however, would only co-operate with Russia when it suited it, but the U.S. would not deign to address Russias core issues of its outsider status in Europe, or its containment in Asia or its concerns about a global order that was being used to corner Russia and to crush dissenter states who refused to enter the global order on Americas terms alone. And Obama did little to drawback the NATO missile-march towards Russias borders (ostensibly, it may be recalled, to save Europe from Iranian missiles). Ostensibly, too, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) could have been Americas reset with Iran. Some, including a number of prominent Iranian politicians, thought it was. But National Security Advisor Susan Rice was very explicit to Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic that this was never intended: It is assumed, at least among his critics, that Obama sought the Iran deal because he has a vision of a historic American-Persian rapprochement. But his desire for the nuclear agreement was born of pessimism as much as it was of optimism. The Iran deal was never primarily about trying to open a new era of relations between the U.S. and Iran, Susan Rice told [Goldberg]. It was far more pragmatic and minimalist. The aim was very simply to make a dangerous country substantially less dangerous. No one had any expectation that Iran would be a more benign actor. And so, we see a similar pattern, the possibility of a real reset with Iran is pre-meditatively set aside (as per Rice), whilst the dual-track approach of condemning Iran for its ballistic missile tests (which have nothing to do with JCPOA), and its support for Hizbullah, are condemned one day, whilst Irans help in Iraq and Syria is being demanded on the next day. At the same time, Irans core dispute with the U.S. its complaints that exclusion from the international financial system is not being ameliorated as JCPOA was supposed so to do are not being addressed. Rather they are being met with a shrug that implies did they really expect anything else? Well, some (but by no means all) Iranian politicians had done just that: they had raised the Iranian publics expectations that all sanctions other than specific U.S. sanctions would be lifted. They rather bet their credibility on it, as it were, and may pay a political price eventually. And as NATO deploys a further 4,000 troops in the Baltic states and Poland, on Russias border, so too the U.S. Congress continues its figurative advance on Irans frontiers. Here is Irans (conservative) Keyhan newspaper: The draft of a new resolution has been presented to the US Congress in which Iran is accused of creating tension in the Persian Gulf, and the US Government has been urged to confront Iran and impose new sanctions against our country. Randy Forbes, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives, has drafted a resolution, which if passed by the Congress, condemns Irans military presence in the Persian Gulf as a provocation (emphasis added) Shapiros specific warning about the middle way approach was that political and bureaucratic factors on both sides would force ever-greater confrontation. But this is not the only risk, nor does it even constitute being the biggest risk (besides that of having undermined those in Iran and Russia who had put their hat in the ring of contemplating Entente with the United State). Americas Bad Faith Rather, it is by making this policy approach quite general to those states which have taken on themselves the burden of being the symbol for a non-Western, alternative vision (Russia, Iran and China, inter alia), that a perceived breach of the spirit of the JCPOA (at the least), will have wider repercussions. Russia and China both spent political capital in order to help persuade Iran to sign up to the JCPOA: Will they not wonder whether America is to be trusted? China has complicated negotiations in hand with America on trade and financial issues, whilst Russia has been trying to resolve ballistic missile, as well as Ukraine sanctions issues, with America. Is it not a straw in the wind for the consequences to this policy when a prominent Russian commentator, Fyodor Lukyanov, who is not at all hostile to rapprochement with the West, writes in End of the G8 Era that using Russias prospective inclusion in the G8 as an instrument of pressure on Russia is pointless?: The G8 reflected a certain period of history when Russia really wanted to be integrated into the so-called Extended West. Why it did not happen? Something went wrong? This is another topic. The most important thing is that it did not happen at all it seemed (in the 1990s) that this membership would not mean just participation in yet another club, but a strategic decision aimed at the future. However, the desirable future did not come, and probably wont come. It is obvious now, that the world does not develop in the direction of the Western model. So, now we have what we have, and there is no reason to restore the G8. May this general sentiment come to be reflected in Iran too, as the sanctions-lifting issue drags on? Did the U.S. then win one over Iran through the JCPOA accord as the shrugs of U.S. shoulders at Iranian complaints, might imply? Was Iran just naive? Did they really think that the U.S. was simply going to empower Iran financially? It is pretty clear that the Supreme Leader understood the situation precisely he had, after all some experience of U.S. non-compliance with agreements from the Lebanese hostage negotiations of the 1980s. But what has Iran lost by the JCPOA? A few Iranians may have had their fingers burned in the process, but Iran achieved three important things: the world now knows that it was not Iran that was the impediment to a nuclear deal; the deal has transformed Irans public image and created an opening with the rest of the world (including Europe); and it has, in the process, constructed and strengthened strategic political and economic ties with Russia and China. But most important of all, the rift within Iran that stemmed from the sense amongst some Iranian orientations, that President Ahmadinejads rhetoric was a principal obstacle to normalizing with the West, has been addressed: an Iranian government, with a Western-friendly face, has been given, and seen to have been given, the full chance to negotiate a solution to the nuclear issue. Whatever the final outcome, that boil has been lanced. No, the Iranian leadership has not been naive. Alastair Crooke is a British diplomat who was a senior figure in British intelligence and in European Union diplomacy. He is the founder and director of the Conflicts Forum, which advocates for engagement between political Islam and the West.
Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, and Governor Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State have declared their support for the establishment of a North-East Development Commission.
Mrs Buharis position was contained in a memorandum she submitted at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on IDPs, Refugees and North East Initiatives.
On his part, Gaidam, who was represented by his Commissioner for Education, Mohammed Lamin, advised that the commissions headquarters be cited in Damaturu, the Yobe state capital, which he said was more central for administrative purposes than Maiduguri.
The Odua Defenders Union, ODU, has described the threat by a new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, to attack Lagos State within a matter of days as an insult on the Yoruba race.
In a statement signed by its President-General, Rabak Anthony, the union warned against the dangers ahead if Ijaw militants were not stopped from carrying out their threat to attack Lagos or ant part of Yorubaland.
This threat that was published in all the media, both electronic and print, cannot be taken for granted. Therefore, the Yoruba are ready to make the first move against the Ijaws in Lagos before their brothers will storm Lagos.
We fought the Ijaws here in Lagos before because of this their arrogance and they know we are ready for them. They came here about five years ago also to attack the Atlas Cove where Naval officers guarding tank farms were killed.
So, we are not taking this threat without preparation. We are ready, let them make the move, the ODU warned.
Mr. Anthony said members of the ODU spread across the whole South-West and can deal with the militants threat.
He, however, asked the security agents to go after the Niger Delta Avengers because the Yoruba youths are prepared to face them and other Ijaws militants in Lagos.
Africas richest man and President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has announced a donation of N2 billion for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno State.
Dangote, who also pledged to feed IDPs throughout Ramadan (Muslim fast), made the disclosure in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
According to him, the N2bn will help eradicate hunger among the IDPs and assist the Borno State Government to focus on development projects.
The billionaire entrepreneur, who was received by Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, at the Maiduguri International Airport at 11:45am on Monday, visited the Dalori and Bakassi IDPs camps respectively.
Dangote noted that his Foundation had already spent N1.4bn in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
I am here to see the IDPs by myself. This is my first time to visit IDPs in Borno but I want to assure you that it will not be the last. We shall continue to work with the state government to make sure the IDP camps are hunger free, Dangote said.
The Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Umar ibn Garbai El-Kanemi, thanked Dangote for his support.
In his remarks, Gov. Shettima, who could not control his emotion, said today is not a day of long speeches but I pray that Almighty God will continue to bless you, thank you.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested a former Military Administrator of Akwa Ibom State, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga (rtd), for collecting about N450 million from the N23.29 billion ($115m) election bribery cash.
Nkanga, who is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was arrested in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital yesterday.
The former MILAD was said to have collected the money in two tranches from Saint-Anthony Ejiowu, a member of staff of Fidelity Bank in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Mr. Nkanga is said to be in the custody of the EFCC and will be charged to court soon.
A highly-placed source said : A former Military Administrator of Akwa Ibom State and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga (rtd) has been arrested by EFCC operatives for collecting a sum of N450,000,000 from the sleazy $115million deposited by former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison- Madueke with Fidelity Bank, Plc.
He was arrested in Port- Harcourt, Rivers State on Monday. Nkanga was alleged to have collected the money in two tranches, from a staff of Fidelity Bank in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State: Mr. Saint- Anthony Ejiowu.
The first tranch of the money, a sum of N350,000,000 (Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand Million Naira only) was collected on March 27, 2015 while the second tranche of N100,000,000 (One Hundred Million Naira only) was collected on March 31, 2015. Nkanga signed for the two tranches.
He is in the custody of the EFCC and would be charged to court soon.
The Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) has invited immediate past Minister of Education and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, leader in Kano State, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau for questioning over N950 million campaign funds.
Shekarau, EFCC sources said, was expected to be at the commission zonal headquarters in Kano by 10am today (Tuesday).
Shekarau was invited and is expected to come to the commissions office in Kano today, he had accepted that in his acknowledgement, the sources said.
Shekarau, a two-term governor of Kano State, was invited in connection with the N23bn campaign funds scandal perpetrated by immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, said the source.
EFCC sources alleged that the money was part of $115 million (N23bn) given by Alison-Madueke and shared among top PDP politicians in furtherance of the re-election campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The immediate past Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali, who was recently quizzed by the EFCC, was said to have indicted Shekarau in his statement explaining how he disbursed the N950m he allegedly collected from Mrs. Alison-Madueke.
Governor Ayo Fayose has again declared Fulani herdsmen persona non grata in Ekiti State just as he revealed that since advising people of the state to pour Gammalin 20 inside water the herdsmens cattle would drink from, 83 cows have died of poisoning.
Speaking yesterday night during his monthly media chat Meet Your Governor, Fayose vowed not to approve land for establishment of grazing reserves in the state.
He also declared that the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ali Modu Sheriff, will retain his position at the partys May 21 National Convention in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
He, however, vowed not to support Sheriff if the PDP boss plans to transmute himself to a presidential candidate in 2019.
Fayose, who wondered why herdsmen, who used to carry sticks, now brandish AK-47 assault rifles, chided President Muhammadu Buhari for his silence on the rampaging herdsmen.
The governor revealed that he rears cows in his hometown of Afao-Ekiti without constituting nuisance to the locals.
He used the opportunity to again advise residents to be ready to poison the cows.
The governor said: What I said was that we will now be more proactive, if you bring your cow to come and eat up my farmland, I will put Gammalin 20 inside the water they will drink from. That is what I will do to those destroying our communities and raping our wives.
I heard that 83 cows have been killed since I made the statement. If you come to Afao and eat up my palm tree, we have set traps for grass cutters and rodents and the trap will catch them.
There is no land for grazing in Ekiti State. Power to assign land belongs to the governor. Tell them that there is no land for grazing here because it is my right to sign the C of O (Certificate of Occupancy).
Speaking further on PDP politics, Fayose said: Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is the PDP chairman and he is going to continue in office.
If he gives me the VP slot, it is a good thing for Ekiti people even though, you cannot set out to say you want to be VP.
But you people should not worry yourself about 2019 because nobody knows who will be alive in 2019 but mentioning my name for VP is good for Ekiti.
I will not support Ali Modu Sheriff for President in 2019. I am qualified to be VP if it is the will of God. God is taking me to a higher place, how? I dont know.
When reminded by one of the panelists during the media chat that by the time he leaves office in October 2018 President Buhari would still be in office as president, Fayose declared that he was not afraid of what would happen to him.
Apparently piqued by the question, the governor replied the panelist: My brother, you are not a wise man by asking that question; anybody talking about what will happen in 2019 now is not a wise man.
Nobody knows that APC would become a ruling party in the last elections.
I am not afraid of anybody, you can charge me to court, they charged me to court, I won.
They harassed my wife and the court awarded damages against them, they charged our lawmakers to court, we won.
Do you want to tell me that because I am in opposition I should keep quiet? I am not afraid of them and I am not afraid of being detained.
I will continue to criticise them because it was God who brought me here.
Friends of Lekan Shonde, the man accused of allegedly killing his wife, Ronke, in a domestic violence dispute five days ago, has finally surrendered to the police.
This is just as friends of the suspect, who claimed to have known him for over 30 years, rallied round him, describing him as a non-violent and easy-going man who loved his late wife dearly.
Mr. Shonde, a dock worker, reportedly fled his Egbeda residence Friday morning after allegedly beating his wife to death on Thursday night. He allegedly also locked their two kids in the house with her body.
After speaking from hiding, where he claimed innocence of his wifes death and threatened to commit suicide, Shonde, who was said to have moved from Cotonou, Benin Republic to Badagry and Ondo State before he was finally convinced by his friends to return to Lagos on Sunday night.
It was gathered that Shondes friends took him to the office of the Commander of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Tunji Disu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), from where he was transferred to the police headquarters at Ikeja GRA.
It was also learnt that the police recovered the late Mrs. Shondes phone from her husband, who had earlier denied having the phone in his possession.
Although the police shielded Shonde from reporters, his friends, Sunday Nwobi and Gbenga Sholuki, who stood by him, described the suspect as non-violent, adding that he loved his wife so much that he allowed her to keep the familys account.
At the moment he has nothing because even the money he makes was kept in an account the wife has access to. Even the ATM card is with her. Everything was under her. Thats how much he loved her, they claimed.
According to Nwobi, the suspects friend for 33 years, they both attended Ikeja High School, but he was a class ahead of Shonde.
He has never been violent. I have known him for the past 33 years and I can tell you that he is a gentleman. He was in the same class with my immediate younger brother who has just returned from the United States because of this matter.
He attended Ikeja High School. I have been in touch with him since the ugly incident and he sent me over 70 messages threatening to commit suicide.
He told me he had quarreled with his wife on alleged infidelity. He said his wife confessed she has a man friend in her work place.
Lekan told me that he caught his wife talking to the man on phone and that she went to Abuja with her lover and they spent five days together.
As the wife was confessing and begging him, he said he pushed her aside and went into the room to sleep. That he didnt talk to her nor touch her because he was angry.
Since he usually left the house early (5am) for work every day and returns around 8pm, he said he left that day as usual and that their eight-year-old son was the one who bolted the door, while he used his own key to lock the gate as usual.
Lekan told me that he never knew anything has happened to his wife until he was called by his landlady on phone. That his landlady told him his wife had died and that he was a suspect. He said his landladys daughter also called him.
He was on his way to the house but different people called and told him to run because police were in his house and they were looking for him as the suspect. That was why he fled.
But as soon as he contacted me that same day, I kept telling him to come out. His aged father also told him to turn himself in and allow the law to run its course, he said.
Some of the text messages the suspect sent to Nwobi on May 7 read: I want to die. Please help me, I cant face the police or cell. They will kill me.
Other messages he sent to Nwobi, including that of May 9, thanked him for being a true friend.
Morning Senior Sunday, thanks for everything. I want to go to Alausa. You are the only one that advised me not to kill myself. I will respect you till I die, he said.
Sholuki, Executive Director, Campaign against Impunity and Domestic Violence, said he came out for Shonde because he believes in him.
He said: Even as we were coming to the police command, he has spoken with his mother-in-law to notify her that he has surrendered. The woman told him that he has done very well for her family and that though they were pained, they have forgiven him and he should not think of suicide again.
He also called his wifes lover and told him he hoped he was happy now that he has destroyed his home. The man begged for forgiveness.
When information came to us about what happened, we told him to come out for the law to take its course. We have known him for a long time and he is not a violent person.
We want justice. We are demanding a medical examination to ascertain what really happened. He is a family man. He cherishes his wife and says very pleasant things about her. All we want is justice. If scientific evidence proves he killed his wife, then, he should go in for it. But what we do not like is his being condemned even before autopsy result comes out.
A former Governor of Kano State, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, has said that the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali, begged him to share the N950 million received from ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, in his residence.
Shekarau, who spoke through his media aid, Malam Ghali Sadiq, said he did not see the money in question when it was brought to his residence.
Wali, who was recently quizzed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, with respect to the money, which is believed to have come from questionable sources and was allegedly meant to bribe election officials to manipulate the 2015 presidential election, reportedly indicted Shekarau, the immediate past Minister of Education, in his statement to the anti-graft agency.
Giving his version of events on how the money was shared, Shekarau said: Wali approached me on the day he collected the money and said because of security he wanted to share the N950m in my residence and I obliged.
He brought the money to my house around 2am. I was at my room upstairs when they came in and I remained there up till the time they finished the sharing. Wali and some other party members shared the money according to the directives given to them. So I did not even see the money with my eyes, he recalled.
The ex-Kano governor also acknowledged receiving EFCCs invitation, saying as a witness, he will go to the commission and narrate all he knew about the money.
Asked whether the ex-minister had collected his share out of the N950m, the media aide said Malam Shekarau did not tell me anything about that, all he said is that he will honor the EFCCs invitation.
Sadiq, however, said the former minister was in Lagos for another engagement but gave assurance that he will honour the EFCCs invitation.
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday in Katsina strongly reiterated his resolve to ensure that Nigeria remains one, no matter the level of agitation from any region or group to the contrary.
To underscore his resolve, the president said he was ready to defend the unity of Nigeria with his life.
Leader of the secessionist group, Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, is currently standing trial for treason at the Federal high court in Abuja.
The president noted with nostalgia that over two million Nigerians died during the civil war to ensure the unity of the country between 1967 and 1970, and those losses would never be in vain.
A few individuals who were not even born at the time of the war are now out agitating for secession. I fought in that war to unite Nigeria and there is no way I will allow such to happen while I am alive. I will not take it lightly with anybody agitating for self-secession. I am ready to die defending this country. I cannot fight for the unity of this country and somebody just comes out overnight and chases me out of it. That is not possible, said Buhari at the palace of the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmuminu Kabir Usman, as part of the activities of his official visit to the state.
He continued: In the civil war of over 30 months, with two million lives lost, I slept and crawled at yam farms. Many people died of hunger but recently a few individuals are calling for split. This war was fought to unite the country because as at then there was no oil. We fought for the nations indivisibility, so lets do it, the agitation is been taken too far, the damage done is too much and we will not take it anymore, he said.
Buhari said the past 16 years in the history of the country were not fully utilized, given the abundant resources, adding that people must exercise patience and bear with the present administration on the predicament of low financial resources accruing to the government.
He, however, added that leaders at all levels must work closely to see how to salvage the situation, noting that his administration would do its best to uphold the trust bestowed on it and all those who have questions to answer in the mismanagement of the country in the past would be made to account for their deeds.
Earlier, the Emir urged the president, an indigene of the state, not to relent in his effort to fix Nigeria, saying I have confidence that Nigeria will become a great country under your leadership.
Alhaji Usman said Nigerians had been clamouring for change for many years and now that the country has got someone who is willing to fix things right, Nigerians should not be in a hurry to feel the change overnight.
Nigerians should understand that it will take Buhari some years to fix this country. All he needs from Nigerians is prayer and patience, he said.
I want state categorically that the Katsina emirate council and the people of Katsina are solidly behind you. You success is ours and your failure is our failure. We will go to the extra mile to defend you, support you and promote your government, he said.
The Emir also accused the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan of abandoning the contract for dredging of River Niger noting: inland water way is the wealth of the nation and these people dont want it here.
Usman, who urged residents to intensify prayers for the president, said there are enemies within and outside.
We know there are saboteurs but we will finish them with prayers, the Emir said and requested for the renovation of dams in the state so as to boost irrigation farming and water supply.
Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday said until Nigeria embraces the culture of continuity, the country would continue to grope in the dark while laying the blame on the nations lopsided constitution.
The problem of Nigeria is not the constitution, Obasanjo argued adding there is no constitution that is perfect in as much as it is written by human beings.
The former president, who was the guest speaker yesterday at the third Covenant University International Conference on African Development Issues (ICADI), said there are certain things he would love to change if he had the opportunity to rewrite Nigerias constitution.
The conference was themed: Driving Inclusive and Sustainable Development in Africa: Models, Methods and Policies.
Mr. Obasanjo stressed that the major problem in Africa is leadership, noting that Nigeria is not an exception.
This is why I continue to say that if there is nothing we have got right since 56 years of our existence, then there is no need for our existence as Nigeria.
Obasanjo, whose lecture was titled: What is Right With Africa? identified Nigerian problems as leadership and corruption, saying that the administration of former President of Goodluck Jonathan was corrupt, and that the administration of his successor the late Umar Musa YarAdua, jettisoned his plan for continuity.
Obasanjo recalled that his successor, the late YarAdua, campaigned for continuity after him but when he won elections and was sworn in as president, he (YarAdua) jettisoned this and some of the things his (Obasanjo) administration put in place.
The former president also expressed concern over the profligacy displayed by the National Assembly with respect to the offensive amount spent on car purchase, wondering if this was constitutional.
The purchase of cars by the Nigerian senators is absolute nonsense, after being given money for cars and house allowances, yet they still appropriated special funds for car purchase.
Obasanjo also appealed to Nigerians to give President Muhammadu Buhari a benefit of the doubt, saying up till now, he only knows him as a principled man.
PMB served under me and I know him a little bit. He hasnt deviated from what I knew him for. Actually he is not a perfect man, indeed no leader can be perfect.
Buhari might not be grounded in both the economy and foreign affairs, he is doing well in fighting Boko Haram and in his anti-corruption crusade. I am very optimistic as far as Nigeria is concerned because we have somebody that will do it well as president, he said.
The keynote speaker, Prof. Joy Ogwu, who is Nigerias Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said Nigeria cannot have development in isolation of security, saying 85 per cent of the security agenda of the UN is on African countries.
Ogwu also said Africans owe themselves a duty to address their various developmental challenges.
The Director, Media and Publicity of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organization, PDPPCO, Femi Fani-Kayode, has been granted administrative bail by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He got bail following his questioning on Monday over the N2.5billion illegally withdrawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and paid into the accounts of six chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Goodluck Support Group (GSG).
Mr. Fani-Kayode got about N840 million from the slush funds allegedly used for the 2015 presidential campaign.
He denied any wrongdoing, saying the cash went into the campaign and he accounted for it all.
The former Minister of Aviation, who arrived at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja at about 9.30am in company of some aides, was taken into custody for questioning at the Operation Unit in the Tunde Idiagbon wing of the commission.
A source, who spoke in confidence, said Fani-Kayode gave information on his antecedents and how he came about the N840million.
After the preliminary interaction with the suspect, he was given an administrative bail. But he is yet to fulfill the required conditions, said the source.
Responding to a question, the source added: I think Fani-Kayode might be transferred subsequently to Lagos to join his colleagues who have been interrogated by our team.
He was granted an administrative bail but he has not been able to meet the conditions. We are hopeful that he will get the required sureties.
A breakdown of the N2.5 billion shows that Fani-Kayode got N840million; Goodluck Support Group N320million; Achike Udenwa and Viola Onwuliri N350million; Nenadi Usman N140million; Olu Falae N100m; Okey Ezenwa N100million and Goodluck Support Group N320 million.
Of the six people implicated in the scandal, three former public office holders have been questioned. They are Mrs Usman, a former Minister of Finance; Udenwa, a former governor, and Fani-Kayode, a former Aviation Minister.
EFCC detectives allegedly found that the N840million was paid in three tranches into Fani-Kayodes account.
A source said: The first tranche of payment involving N350million hit the account on February 19, 2015. Another N250milion was also paid into the account on February19, 2015 while N240million was similarly credited to the account a month later; precisely, March 19, 2015.
The balance on this account as at 31st December, 2015 was N189, 402.72.
Fani-Kayodes account remains frozen by the EFCC.
Brilliant Nigerian lady, Queenate Ibeto shared the stage with President Barack Obama at the Howard University graduation ceremony in the US last weekend. Queenate was selected by her school to welcome and address the class of 2016 and the Howard University Commencement Speaker, President Barack Obama. She was privileged to greet and hug Obama. More photos after the cut
Source:LIB
A Deltona man shot himself while cleaning a handgun but did not discover the bullet hole in his arm until three days later when he changed shirts, Volusia County sheriffs deputies said. Deputies were called to Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City on Saturday where Michael Blevins, 37, had checked himself after discovering the bullet wound, investigators said.
Blevins told deputies that on Thursday he was cleaning a .22 caliber pistol in the living room of his Whitewood Drive home, a report stated. Blevins could not be reached Monday as his voicemail was full. The Deltona resident told deputies he held the gun against his chest so his dog wouldnt jump up near it. But as Blevins stood up he felt a sharp pain, causing his back to give out, and he fell face down. Blevins said he heard a loud gunshot and then he hit his face against the edge of a glass coffee table, the report said.
Blevins said he did not feel any pain from the gunshot, possibly because of the medicine he takes for an old back injury, and only felt pain above his left eyebrow that got cut when he hit the table, deputies said. Blevins said he was wearing a black, long-sleeve shirt and did not notice the injury on his left arm as he went about his normal routine for the next two days.
It was not until the third day on Saturday when Blevins changed into a light brown shirt, which revealed the blood stains, deputies said. Blevins removed the shirt and noticed an entrance and exit wound on his arm that was barely bleeding at the time because the wound had cauterized, deputies said. Deputies accompanied Blevins to his home after he was discharged and, after examining the scene, determined Blevins accidentally shot himself, the report concluded.
NJ Online.
Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has assured that the 8th National Assembly, especially the House, would ensure the passage of Students Loan Bill to access higher education and give every student equal right to complete their education without financial hindrances.
According to him, education is a right and not a privilege and government should bring it to everybody in the country.
He added that the essence of establishing education bank was to enable indigent students have access to loan without interest, which would only be paid back after the student had graduated and started work.
Also speaking during an interactive session with student leaders of Nigerian universities, organised by the National Institute of Legislative Studies, NILS, in Abuja, Speaker of the House Yakubu Dogara enjoined the students and Nigerian youths not to despair or feel helpless, despondent or marginalised.
Populist mayor Rodrigo Duterte has claimed victory in the Philippine presidential elections, following the withdrawal of his opponents. Nicknamed the punisher, 71-year-old Duterte has promised a relentless crackdown on crime and the overhaul of the countrys constitution.
The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said that with 90 percent of the presidential ballots counted, Duterte had about 39 percent of the votes. The PPCRV is a Catholic Church-run monitor accredited by the government. Dutertes main rivals the ruling party candidate Mar Roxas and Senator Grace Poe both conceded defeat after polls showed the mayor heading for a resounding victory. Duterte said he accepted the mandate with extreme humility. Al Jazeeras Marga Ortigas, reporting from Manila, said many Filipinos had grown frustrated during six years under President Benigno Aquino.
They were years of broad economic growth but that prosperity didnt trickle down fast enough. Aquino and his administration were criticised as too elite, too impersonal, and out of touch, she said. Tapping into that sentiment, Duterte, mayor of the southern city of Davao, emerged as the frontrunner by brazenly defying political tradition, drawing comparisons to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the US.
He made some astonishing claims that in the first three to six months of office he is going to solve major problems, like crime and corruption, Richard Heydarian of De La Salle University told Al Jazeera. Of course no experts will agree with him.
A 25-year-old woman was crushed to death, yesterday, by a driver of a school bus along Arab Road, Kubwa, Abuja.
The deceased, identified as Ene Onoja, was said to be crossing the road around 8:00a.m. after praying in one of the churches in the area when the incident happened.
A witness said the bus carrying school pupils and heading towards Byazhin Junction when he knocked down the woman.
The woman did not see the bus because the driver took one-way and knocked her down, the witness said.
He said the deceased landed on top of the windscreen of the vehicle before falling on the ground. She sustained serious injuries on the head and other parts of her body.
City News learnt that the deceased died on the way to the Kubwa General Hospital, where she was later certified dead, while the driver was arrested by the police.
When contacted, the Kubwa Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Chief Superintendent Nuruddeen Sabo, said the the womans corpse was deposited at the hospitals morgue.
The driver would be charged to court for manslaughter after full investigation is carried out, he said.
Source:DailyTrust
The Metropolitan Police Service, London, UK, yesterday, told an Abuja High Court sitting at Gudu that the former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, who is now a serving senator, was still wanted in the United Kingdom over his alleged involvement in money laundering.
According to the Service, a 2004 warrant of arrest issued against Dariye, who represents Plateau Central, after he jumped bail in London and escaped to Nigeria to avoid prosecution, is still valid.
The detective that led a team of Met police officers that arrested Dariye on September 28, 2004, Mr. Peter Clerk, testified before the court yesterday as the ninth prosecution witness at the resumed hearing of a 23-count criminal charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, preferred against the former governor before the high court.
He said Dariyes arrest and subsequent detention was a fallout of an investigation into a credit card fraud involving one Christopher McQuiney, who he said was caught with 11,500 Pounds concealed in a briefcase. The witness told the court that McQuiney, who was arrested and taken to a police station in North East London, confessed that the money belonged to his boss, Dariye.
Clerk said he had also testified before an investigating committee in Jos, saying his evidence was what eventually led to Dariyes impeachment.
He said Dariye would be arrested anytime he visits UK. The former governor of Plateau State had pleaded not guilty to the charges proferred against him.
The South East Caucus of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has asked the Niger Delta Avengers to direct their grievances to former President Goodluck Jonathan rather than blaming President Muhammadu Buhari administration for the neglect of the region.
The caucus stated this in a statement by its spokesperson, Osita Okechukwu, on Monday.
The Avengers have claimed responsibility for the renewed bombings of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region, vowing to blow up all oil facilities in the region, including offshore platforms, if its 10-point demands are not met.
Among the demands by the Avengers is the unconditional release of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPoB) Mr Nnamdi Kanu and the immediate implementation of the report of the 2014 National Conference.
Reacting to the nefarious activities of the militant group, the APC caucus said Mr. Jonathan, who is an indigene of the oil-rich Niger Delta, failed to develop the region while in power for five years, wondering if members of the NDA were sleeping then.
May we honestly ask the Niger Delta Avengers, where they were, when our dear former president, His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, from 6 May, 2010 to 29 May, 2015 presided over Nigeria? the caucus said.
Were the Niger Delta Avengers in deep slumber when Jonathan, for good five years failed to Clean-Up the Niger Delta, failed to complete East-West road, failed to review Oil Blocks, failed to amend the Constitution to their taste, and failed to build the three Greenfield Refineries which he awarded?
In actual fact, if there is anything to avenge, or anybody to blame, the barb should be directed at ex-president Jonathan and cohorts who criminally neglected the Niger Delta and by extension Nigeria via unconscionable planlessness and squander-mania.
The caucus, therefore, appealed to the NDA to sheathe its sword and give Mr. Buhari more time to look into their demands.
It said it was making the appeal taking into cognizance the laudable projects the president had charted and lined up for the Niger Delta region, including the Clean-Up of Ogoniland, completion of East-West road and Calabar-Lagos Railway.
The caucus argued that no sane Nigerian would pray for the reoccurrence of the ugly incident of Odi in 1999, Zaki Biam in 2000 and Gbaramatu in 2009, which it said the NDA was consciously simulating.
It said, It is our candid view that bombing of Forcados pipeline, Bonga Oil field, Chevron trunk lines and other Oil and Gas installations will neither facilitate the implementation of 2014 National Conference Report, funding of the Amnesty Program, nor the Clean-Up of the Niger Delta region.
The caucus also said the escalation of bombings in the Niger Delta region was an ill-wind which would blow no one any good, not the least the good people of Niger Delta whom the Avengers claim to avenge their age long ills.
Accordingly, we plead with our brothers, the Niger Delta Avengers for Gods sake, to do a deep re-think and graciously allow peace to reign, for our collective national interest and indeed to save the Niger Delta from ruins, the caucus said.
Representatives of Britain, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey and the European Union are in Paris to try to relaunch the Syrian peace process. Mondays meeting of the Friends of Syria an international diplomatic group was to take place in the presence of Riad Hijab, head of the moderate Syrian opposition coalition.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, arrived in Paris for the talks and was to hold a meeting with his French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault. The US and Russia, who support rival sides in Syrias civil war, said they would work to revive a February cessation of hostilities agreement that reduced fighting in parts of the country for several weeks.
Against this backdrop of renewed diplomacy, Syrias state news agency SANA said, quoting the military high command, that a ceasefire in the embattled northern city of Aleppo would be extended by 48 hours beginning at 1am local time on Tuesday (22:00 GMT Monday). Al Jazeeras Jacky Rowland, reporting from Paris, said there are three key issues the Syrian opposition is looking to focus on.
The opposition wants the cessation of hostilities to take place across Syria and not be a local arrangement, she said. Humanitarian access needs to be provided, with various organisations trying to get food and medical help to people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas. There also needs to be discussion on people who have been captured during the fighting, according to the opposition.
On this day in 2015, Borno State Government evacuated first batch of one thousand and two hundred of its citizens sent out from Niger Republic. The citizens had gathered at a camp in Geidam town of Yobe State which has border between Nigeria and Diffa in Niger Republic
The 1,200 persons were amongst over 6,000 Nigerians repatriated from Niger after recent attacks by the dreaded Boko Haram sect. Authorities in the French speaking country were said to have asked the refugees to leave so they could carry out a military operation against insurgents in areas the refugees were staying.
Borno was said to have 2,400 citizens out of 6,000.
Government Ekpemupolo, militant leader better known as Tompolo, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to relax the pressure on him at the moment, saying he did not support former President Goodlcuk Jonathan in the presidential election because he hated his opponent.
Tompolo, who has been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said some anti-Ijaw elements around the president were misleading him.
Going down memory lane, the former commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), recalled his relationship with the late President Umaru Musa YarAdua.
I do not think it was criminal for me to openly support one of my own, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for the presidency in 2015, he wrote in an open letter.
I did so out of conviction not because I hate you or because you are a northerner. After all, most of my personal friends and acquaintances are from the north.
To cap it all, the memories of my robust relationship with your Katsina brother, the late President Umaru Musa YarAdua are still painfully fresh and reminiscent of brotherliness.
He advised the president to avoid treading a dangerous dimension by seeing Ijaw people as enemies.
Below is the letter:
His Excellency,
President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR,
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Aso Rock Presidential Villa,
Abuja.
Dear Mr President,
I once again, deem it pertinent to write Your Excellency since your assumption of office in May 2015. Mr President will recall that at my meeting with you sometimes last year, I gave my commitment and pledge to ensure sustainable peace and development in the oil rich Niger Delta region and Nigeria in general.
At the meeting which I interpreted to be an ample opportunity and a template for peaceful co existence in the country, I made it known to Your Excellency that my support for your government as well as my commitment to a peaceful and secure Niger Delta region is paramount. But I remember also that I gave a humble advice on the need for Mr President to be weary of political cum crisis merchants, particularly those who are members of your own party, the APC. That advice arose out of the fear that most people who are members of your party, especially from the Niger Delta region, who are very known to me, take solace in evolving and concocting crisis to leverage upon.
I left the meeting fulfilled for three reasons. It was not because I had met with a new man in charge but because I had an opportunity to air my views on the way forward. I had also successfully dispelled an unfounded perception that I do not want to see President you succeed having defeated my fellow Ijaw kinsman and close confidant. Thirdly, I did not use the opportunity of that auspicious meeting to arrogate to myself, as having the solutions to all the challenges facing the Niger Delta region.
This is worth emphasizing in the sense that aside me , there are several other dissatisfied, disenchanted, oppressed and agitated younger elements who still habour misdirected sentiments that I led a handful of ex agitators to surrender arms and embrace the Presidential Amnesty Programme in 2009, under late President Umaru Musa YarAdua, without immediately solving the myriad of problems facing our people. Little did such younger elements appreciate the fact that there can only be a process leading to the eventual succor for our people.
Nonetheless, I displayed an uncommon courage to ensure the sustenance of peace and relative security within the limits of my capacity and ability. Most Nigerians, if not all, are aware of the role I played in safeguarding and protecting crude oil and gas facilities during the last administration. I am sure even Mr President is aware of this development. As a patriotic Nigerian, I have never hidden my desire to do what is just in this regard even to the extent, that I have incurred the wrath of illegal bunkers and vandals.
Attempts To Demonize Me And Ethnicise Niger Delta Issues
Mr President Sir, even at the risk of being repetitive, kindly permit me to recall the various efforts I have made to exonerate myself from the perfidious moves by some elements within and outside the Niger Delta region to always implicate me on any flimsy opportunity.
To such persons, calling me, the man behind every bad thing has remained the only avenue and pedestal to get political patronages. Although so many instances abound, the recent spirited move to link me with the nascent Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), a group that has claimed responsibility for the various breaches on oil pipeline installations in the Niger Delta region.
To some around you, the only means of getting Your Excellencys attention is to wickedly attribute the activities of the said group to me simply because I have a running battle with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC). This is the height of desperation and hypocrisy on the part of such people.
For one, I have chosen to pursue my case with the EFCC to a logical conclusion because I am yet to be convinced that the purported case instituted against me does not have ethnic colouration masterminded by my traducers. Since the case is before a competent court of jurisdiction, I will refrain from making further comments on this.
However, it will be in the interest of this great nation if Mr President takes a painstaking study of certain political actors around him, most especially those from the Niger Delta region. I bear no grudge against any of such, but I am convinced beyond any doubt that they have taken solace in perpetual misdirection and mischief as far as my person is concerned.
I make bold to say that there are several APC elements within and around your government who see anything Ijaw as criminal and anti-Buhari. Unpretentiously too, certain non-Ijaw ethnic merchants cum bigots have expressedly displayed open hatred for Ijaws in the Niger Delta region. Such persons have almost succeeded in warping a governmental mindset against Ijaws, whether in or outside your government. Please Mr President, this is a very dangerous dimension that is avoidable by your government.
Just as your people supported you as of right, throughout the presidential campaigns, I do not think it was criminal for me to openly support one of my own, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for the presidency in 2015. I did so out of conviction not because I hate you or because you are a northerner. Afterall, most of my personal friends and aquaintances are from the north. To cap it all, the memories of my robust relationship with your Katsina brother, the late President Umaru Musa YarAdua are still painfully fresh and reminiscent of brotherliness.
In this regard, it is only appropriate to judge people not by what is reeled out to the corridor of powers by their traducers but by their deeds and activities. I do not think I have done anything to warrant this needless mental onslaught that has been visited on me since Your Excellencys assumption of power.
Finally, I am compelled to say that these ethno-political merchants are merely laying the foundation for an unavoidable crisis. They will be happy to see a ravaged Gbaramatu Kingdom and by extension, Ijawland under the pretext of looking for me. This is a very dangerous template such persons are laying and it is only good for Mr President to deploy the inner mind to stratify this unwholesome gimmick.
Once again, I thank Mr President for having the time to peruse this letter.
Thanks and as usual, accept the assurances of my highest compliments.
SIGNED
HIGH CHIEF GOVERNMENT EKPEMUPOLO (TOMPOLO)
The Ibe-ebidouwei of Iiaw Nation
Source: The Cable
Famous Yoruba Nollywood actress, Toyin Aimakhu has definitely made up her mind not to condone any more insults from fans on social media.
The embattled actress who trended for almost the wrong reasons for months now took to her Instagram page to share a video which she captioned iya yin ni baller
An angry fan, clearly dissatisfied at the view proceeded to call her Ashewo a derogatory word in Yoruba which translates to Prostitute.
Toyin wasnt having any of it as she replied him
See her reply below:
The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has called on the Federal Government to intervene in the sack of workers by some conglomerates, including Guinness, Cadbury, 7-Up and Coca Cola bottling companies.
The TUC President, Mr Bobbio Kaigama, who made the appeal at a news briefing, said other companies were Nigeria Breweries, Nestle Nigeria Plc as well as construction and oil and telecommunication companies.
Kaigama said thousands of workers from the companies had been thrown into the already saturated labour market.
As a centre, we have said no to anti-unionism, retrenchment, redundancies or other so-called downsizing or right sizing, outsourcing and all other forms of job related anomalies.
It is unfortunate that retrenchment is seen by employers as the only remedy when an organisation is going through difficult times, this is unacceptable.
We urge the government to save the jobs of Nigerian workers, he said.
The TUC president said that the unemployment rate in Nigeria was alarming, and called on the government to create decent jobs for the large unemployed youth.
The Federal Government should formulate and implement policies that would serve as catalyst for mass creation of decent jobs, both in the private and public sectors of the economy.
By job creation, we do not mean engaging graduates to sweep the streets or operate commercial bikes, alias Okada or Keke Marwa.
Rather, we expect the government to urgently create the necessary enabling environment by providing constant electricity, good roads, pipe-borne water, soft-loans, production -inducing tax regime, good learning environment, among others.
He said that unemployment in Nigeria was caused by neglect of the agriculture sector, government policy somersaults and insecurity.
Kaigama said that employment was one of the factors that determined the economic strength and growth of any country.
Unfortunately the oil and gas, steel, textile, construction and engineering, leather and footwear, maritime industries that are supposed to generate the needed jobs have suffered grave neglect from our leaders.
We must collectively resolve and endeavour to birth a renaissance in those sectors, he said.
Kaigama said a recent report by International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that 201 million people are unemployed globally and that the figure may rise to 219 million by 2019.
The report adds that the bulk of the unemployed may be from this part of the world unless the right thing is done to prevent it, he said.
The report adds that although Nigeria with an employment rate of 10.4 per cent at the end of 2015 has a better record among 66 countries, its situation is bad, Kaigama said.
Kaigama credits the report as describing Nigerias unemployment rate as worse than 111 countries, including 23 African countries, which have unemployment rates lower than 10.4 per cent.
He called for positive corrective steps to be taken in that direction. (NAN)
Microsoft has released its 12th cumulative update for Windows 10 version 1511, which is the latest mainstream version of Win10 and the version you're likely running (unless you're in the Insider program). Known as KB 3156421, the update appears (type winver in the Cortana search box) as Windows Version 1511 (OS build 10586.318). I prefer to call it Win 10.1.12.
I'm very happy to report two pieces of exceedingly good news.
First: There's a detailed changelog on the official Windows 10 update history site -- a much-needed improvement that started in February, and it's still going strong. If you're curious about what's changed, that's a good place to start. The usual admonition applies:
This update includes quality improvements and security fixes. No new operating system features are being introduced in this update.
The KB article lists the security part of the patch as usual. Win10 customers will get 11 security patches covering IE (corresponds to MS16-051), Edge (MS16-052), graphics component again (MS16-055), Windows Journal again (MS16-056), Windows shell (MS16-057), Windows kernel (MS16-060) and kernel mode drivers (MS16-062), Remote Procedure Calls (MS16-061), Schannel again (MS16-064), .Net Framework again again (MS16-065), and virtual secure mode (MS16-066). In addition, I see a separate download for Adobe Flash Player (MS16-064) on my machines.
Second: "Big gun" John Wink, a Microsoft engineer, has once again offered to help any and all with installation problems. His main Reddit thread is starting to fill up. This month, Wink has separate Reddit threads for performance problems after the cumulative update, and update fails and uninstalls -- the infamous infinitely repeating spinning blue dots. I note that Reddit regular jenmsft, also a Microsoft engineer, has chimed in. With luck, she'll help out with the cumulative update, too.
Spoiler alert: For slow computers, Wink recommends that you initially disable Cortana, then report back on Reddit. For failures and uninstalls, he'd like to see your CBS log, which I describe on page 3 of yesterday's story, "20 fixes for a Windows 10 update meltdown."
I haven't yet seen invitations from Wink to kvetch on the Microsoft Answers forum or on TechNet, but they may be coming, as they did last month. Wink's already tweeted an offer to answer cumulative update questions, but Twitter's a tough place to work through a recalcitrant update.
If you have a problem with installing the cumulative update, do yourself -- and all of us -- a favor, and sound off! Get thee to Reddit and describe the problem as best you can. But please keep a civil tongue. Wink didn't cause the problems. With a little luck, he and his cohorts may well solve them.
Limit Loss for Dec Cotton Barchart - 31 minutes ago Cotton continued to sell off into the new week, with December going home down a limit 3 cents. Dec did stay above the Friday low. The other front months closed 167 to 281 points weaker. USDAs weekly... CTZ22 : 76.13s (-3.79%) CTH23 : 75.74s (-3.58%) CTK23 : 75.55s (-3.33%)
Wheats Weaker Out of Weekend Barchart - 31 minutes ago The wheat market closed with Monday losses of +10 cents in the winter wheats. Front month MGE futures were down by 3 to 3 3/4 cents on the day. CBT prices dropped by 10 to 12 cents through the front months.... ZWZ22 : 838-6s (-1.41%) ZWH23 : 858-2s (-1.29%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.7336 (-1.52%) KEZ22 : 938-0s (-1.08%) KEPAWS.CM : 8.9620 (-1.06%) MWZ22 : 957-6s (-0.39%)
Hogs Close Steady on Monday Barchart - 31 minutes ago December lean hog futures dropped triple digits out of the weekend, but the other front months closed mixed and within a dime of UNCH. December hogs are now a $2.52 discount to the Feb contract. The USDA... HEZ22 : 87.925s (-1.35%) HEJ23 : 93.900s (+0.05%) KMZ22 : 97.750s (-0.26%)
Cattle Rally Continued Post CoF Barchart - 31 minutes ago The new week of cattle trading did little to stall the rally. December fats printed another new LoC high, now at $154.20, Feb also printed a new high, but the April and June contracts remained under their... LEV22 : 151.600s (+0.75%) LEZ22 : 154.125s (+1.12%) LEG23 : 156.975s (+0.93%) GFV22 : 175.675s (+0.23%) GFX22 : 179.150s (+0.45%)
Corn Futures Ended Red on Monday Barchart - 31 minutes ago Mondays corn trade pulled futures 1 1/2 to 2 3/4 cents lower. December had reached $6.77 1/4 on the low of the day, but went home 4 1/4 cents above it. NASS reported 97% of the corn crop was mature... ZCZ22 : 681-4s (-0.40%) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.7135 (-0.30%) ZCH23 : 687-6s (-0.40%) ZCK23 : 687-2s (-0.36%)
Soybean Prices Close Double Digits Lower Barchart - 31 minutes ago The new week of soybean trading starts with double digit losses in the front month contracts. November was down by the most after the options expiration on Friday, having settled 1.68% in the red. Meal... ZSX22 : 1372-0s (-1.68%) ZSPAUS.CM : 13.2708 (-1.72%) ZSF23 : 1381-2s (-1.66%) ZSH23 : 1389-2s (-1.59%)
Livestock Report Walsh Trading - 44 minutes ago Cattle Markets surge
RFD-TV Interview & Crop Progress Blue Line Futures - 1 hour ago Oliver Sloup was on RFD-TV this morning, sharing his thoughts on the early morning action in the grain markets. Will we ever break out of the range?
Teresa C. Younger, president and CEO, Ms. Foundation for Women
This is an exciting time for social change philanthropy, with different movements for equality joining forces in new ways. One recent example is Prosperity Togetherthe $100 million commitment by 28 womens funds and foundations, including the Ms. Foundation for Women, to improve economic security for low-income women and girls, including many of color. One of the key leaders of this historic commitment, announced by the Obama Administration in November of 2015, is Teresa C. Younger, president and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women.
A year ago in January, we came together, the Ms. Foundation and several other womens foundations, and said, we need to make sure the federal government has an understanding of what is happening on the ground for women, said Younger, in a recent interview with Inside Philanthropy. This meeting was one of the early seeds that led to the Prosperity Together initiative, with womens funds coming together around the shared goal of economic security.
Younger has a deep history as a leader for both gender equity and civil liberties movements. As the first woman and first African American to serve as the executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut, Younger quickly became a force to be reckoned with in her career.
A board member of the Womens Campaign School at Yale University, Younger is passionate about the need to get more women into elected and appointed government offices both in the U.S. and abroad. She is also a fierce defender of womens reproductive rights, serving on the National Advisory Board on Religious Restrictions on Care, where she works to ensure that hospitals provide all health services, including birth control, when mergers take place with religiously based health systems.
And another thing Younger is passionate about: corporations getting onboard faster, and stronger, with their work to improve gender equity. I think we have not fully begun to tap into the kinds of partnerships that are out there with corporations, said Younger. She referenced the growing body of research showing that gender equity is good for business performance, and argued that corporations are ripe for further cultivation.
"Almost every major corporation has some kind of womens affinity group that recognizes the needs of women in the workplace, and so we are going to continue to build partnerships with corporations to help them better understand and serve the needs of their women employees," said Younger.
She also described how the Ms. Foundation is using its influence on the investment side to talk to corporations about their gender equity strategies. We have been developing a stronger gender lens strategy around our endowment. We are looking at corporations that we own in the endowment and asking questions about how many women they have on their boards, in leadership, and how women are treated as employees."
Since taking office in June of 2014, Younger has literally been on a nonstop tour of the country, convening with women across government, business, and the nonprofit sector to learn about their needs. She has clocked some 53,000 miles in travel that is meant to reintroduce the Ms. Foundation to new communities, to listen to what's on their minds in order to build a better grantee strategy, and to cultivate stronger partnerships to advance gender equity.
When you look at the Ms. Foundations history, one thing we have always done is to listen to the community, said Younger.
The Ms. Foundation also seeks to leverage its influence on the gender equity front as a convener. We work very hard to conveneto be in spaces that bring people together who are looking at gender equity in innovative, holistic and intersectional ways.
With regard to womens safety, since its inception in 1973, the Ms. Foundation has played a key role in calling more attention to the issues of sexual assault and domestic violence. It has also done some of the breakthrough research on child sexual abuse prevention, including a $5 million research project from 2009 to 2012 called Child Sexual Abuse: A Social Justice Prevention Model.
Now, the foundation is reshaping its safety strategy. It hired Nakisha Lewis as senior strategist for safety, and she has been working to gather data and reformulate the approach. After a year of gathering information, the Ms. Foundation will move forward with a new safety strategy built on three key pillars: criminal justice, sexual violence, and state-sanctioned violence, viewing them through both a gender and race lens.
We are, of course, looking at sexual assault and domestic violence, but we are also looking at the issue of safety more holistically, asking questions like, what does it mean to really live safe as a womanwhether it is in your home, on the street, in school, in churches, said Younger. We are also looking at the idea of being safe to use your voice, being safe to go to school, being safe to be politically active in your community, and thats really a lot more in-depth and intersectional.
Another major focus for the Ms. Foundation in 2016 will be conducting interviews and surveying leaders of state-led strategies for women's economic empowerment, including grassroots organizations and public officials. The foundation will study legislative efforts underway and identifying emerging issues.
The Ms. Foundation will also invest in grassroots organizations in the American South in 2016, providing grants to Southern-based organizations fostering women's economic empowerment. All of this will culminate in the publication of a national blueprint for womens economic justice that will offer guidance around legislative issues that impact women economically.
To say there is a lot going on at the Ms. Foundation these days would be an understatement. Others in the field are excited about the pivotal role the Ms. Foundation is playing on several fronts. Marcia Cone, chief strategist for the Women's Funding Network, said about Younger: "She is a tireless advocate for public policy to advance women and girls. She knows the issues, she understands the systems changes needed to advance those issues, and now she has the ability to direct resources to make a huge impact across the country."
This is one effort to build collective power for gender equity that we'll be watching super-closely.
Every year, when Institutional Investor releases its Alpha list of the top paid hedge fund managers, its hard to fathom that some people actually have so much money.
This year is no exception. The two billionaires topping the list, Kenneth Griffin and Jim Simons, each earned $1.7 billion last year. Ray Dalio, who leads Bridgewater Associates, made $1.4 billion in 2015. (And we thought foundation presidents were overpaid!)
Now, if youre a regular reader of Inside Philanthropy, youll know that the three men I just mentioned are all major givers. Simons and Dalio have both signed the Giving Pledge, as has another winner on this years list, Christopher Hohn. Which means that a good chunk of their new earnings are destined for philanthropy.
(All links in this article are to past IP coverage. See all our profiles of Wall Street donors here.)
David Tepper, who tied Dalio as number three on the list, with a $1.4 billion payday, has not yet signed the Giving Pledge. But hes also an active philanthropist, and its hard to think of what else he might do with a fortune that now stands at over $10 billion, beyond giving much of it away. As a practical matter, thats too much money to pass on to heirs and few Wall Streeters relish the thought of the IRS grabbing a chunk in estate taxes. Importantly, the wealth of hedge funders isnt tied up in family companies, which is the case with mega-billionaires like the Waltons, Mars, or Kochs. That means this wealth can be easily converted for philanthropic use down the line without having to give up large ownership stakes in multi-generational business enterprises.
How rich will todays hedge funders ultimately become? Thats hard to say, and its even harder to know how their mega-philanthropy will unfold. But consider this: Just about every hedge fund billionaire on the Forbes 400 has doubled or tripled their net worth in the past decade. George Soros was worth $8.5 billion in 2006. Now hes worth $25 billion, according to Forbes. Jim Simons was worth $4 billion; now his fortune is over $15 billion. David Teppers wealth has rise from $1.4 billion to $11.4 billion. Ray Dalios worth has more than quadrupled since 2006, to over $15 billion. Steve Cohen has also quadrupled his net worth, despite a Federal investigation that closed his hedge fund.
Its worth noting something else that happened during the past decadenamely, the biggest stock market crash since 1929. Some hedge funders took major hits, but it didnt matter. Their losses were made up with later gains, which have continued at a steady pace since the recovery began.
Judging by the past, nearly all of todays hedge fund billionaires can expect to have much, much more money in a decade or two than is now the case. Even if most these guys did no better than the S&P historic average, theyd still double their wealth every decade or so.
Another thing is that hedge fund managers never really retire from making money. They may give up active oversight of their firms, but they typically leave their money invested in themmaking as much in their truly golden years as they did before. Soros and Simons are two great examples.
All this has big implications for philanthropy in the 21st century. Take Ray Dalio, who is 66. He and his wife Barbara have said they plan to give away most of their wealth, and have been ramping up their Dalio Foundation in recent years. But what does the long-term picture look like, here? Well, if Dalio doubled his wealth every 10 years, and then left the bulk of it to philanthropy in his 80s, we could be talking about a foundation with assets on par with the Gates Foundation (around $40 billion).
Or look at Soros. As Ive explained elsewhere, Soros has been funding his philanthropy on a pay-as-you-go basis, but the bulk of his fortune is ultimately expected to endow the Open Society Foundations. Its quite possible that if Soros lives for another decade and keeps his money invested, OSFs assets could also one day approach those of Gates. Certainly, OSF is on track to be a much bigger foundation than Ford.
Soros is a familiar figure in philanthropy, with an established set of interests. So is Jim Simons, whose fortune will likely expand the math and science funding of the Simons Foundation.
What will be really interesting, though, is the emergence of entirely new major funders with the resources to make a huge footprint in whatever area they choose to focus. Even a relatively low-profile hedge funder like David Shaw, also an active philanthropist, now has the wealth to establish a foundation larger than Rockefeller if he so chose. A decade from now, hell likely be rich enough to create a foundation on par with Ford.
Again, its impossible to say how the new mega-giving of todays hedge fund stars will unfold. Many may choose not to endow foundations at all, and who knows what issues will attract their money? Judging by recent giving, it will be all over the map.
The bigger picture, here, is that were living in extraordinary times when it comes to wealth creation at the very top of the income ladderand theres only one place a lot of that money is likely to go, which is philanthropy.
The latest compensation figures for top hedge funders should reinforce the point that inequality has become crazily obscene. Something needs to be done about this, startingin my opinionwith higher tax rates on capital gains.
But Id argue that the story of what ultimately happens to this wealth over the next centuryor the next few centuriesis the bigger, more important one in terms of grasping what the new Gilded Age means for humanity.
California is facing a crisis, and were not talking about the water shortage. Schools in the Golden State are in dire need of qualified math and science teachers to prepare students for jobs in ever-growing STEM fields. California ranks in the bottom third of all states in awarding bachelors degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. When the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology estimated that were falling woefully short of producing enough STEM professionals to maintain our countrys preeminence in science and tech, they werent being hyperbolic.
EnCorps was founded in 2007 by former Paramount Chair and CEO Sherry Lansing to attack this problem from a different angle. By helping mid-career or retired STEM workers transition into the classroom, the California-based nonprofit is giving experts a chance to get middle school and high school students excited about STEM learning. We wrote a few months ago about the Keck Foundations $250,000 grant to help EnCorps deepen its impact in California schools.
Recently, three more funders stepped up to support the nonprofits efforts to recruit and train new STEM experts seeking a second act as educators. The American Honda Foundation is committing $10,000 to fund scholarships for Career Technical Education (CTE) and single-subject teacher credential programs and the Cheryl Saban Self-Worth Foundation for Women and Girls is providing $77,000 in credential scholarships. The Boeing Foundation is providing support for professional development with a $40,000 grant. The money is available to people selected as EnCorps teachers and fellows.
Related: IP's Funding Guide for Science Education
Since Katherine Wilcox became executive director of EnCorps in 2014, the organization has fine tuned its methods to improve results. We switched to a true cohort model with increased emphasis on professional development to support the transition to teaching for STEM professionals, Wilcox told Inside Philanthropy. This resulted in a record-breaking year in the selection of 89 STEM professionals. Each one is an amazing individual!
EnCorps teachers have an average of 17 years of experience working in STEM fields, and 80 percent have earned a masters degree or Ph.D. In the first year of the program, participants receive mentorship and hands-on practice as volunteer tutors or guest teachers. During the first semester, they choose one of three tracks: CTE credential, which gets them into full-time teaching by the second year; single-subject credential, which takes 12 to 18 months; or STEMx tutor, which allows professionals to stay in their careers while volunteering.
Weve seen a trend in grants for STEM teacher development, especially in the past two years, and with good reason. Dow Chemical, Carnegie Corporation, and Motorola Solutions Foundation are just a few of the big names investing in this area. So long as funders are hot for teachers, grant applicants would be wise to think about how their proposals can incorporate educator training.
Related:
U.K. self-storage operator Lok'nStore Group PLC has purchased a property in Gillingham, Kent, England, on which it plans to build a new facility. The company will submit a planning application to city officials soon, according to the source. If approved, the facility would open in late 2017.
The 1-acre site is in the Gillingham Business Park, a self-contained, mixed-use property near London, the Channel Tunnel and the southeast coast ports of Dover and Folkestone. It comprises about 100 acres and more than 1.5 million square feet of industrial, leisure, office and retail space.
The acquisition is part of a 10 million investment that also includes a development site in Northamptonshire, England, the source reported.
These two excellent new locations show clear progress in delivering our strategy of developing landmark stores, said CEO Andrew Jacobs. Trading at our recently opened stores has been encouraging, and our strong balance sheet and flexible new banking facility give us the confidence that LoknStore can continue to deliver growing dividends for its investors from an increasing number of stores.
Lok'nStore recently reported a continued strong performance based on preliminary figures for the first half of its 2016 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31. The company reported a 5.4 percent increase in same-store self-storage revenue from the first half of 2015.
Founded in 1995, LoknStore builds, buys or leases large warehouses or industrial buildings and rents storage units to customers on a weekly basis. It operates 26 self-storage facilities and two records-storage locations in Southern England. The self-storage portfolio is comprised of 12 freehold or long-leasehold properties, eight leasehold sites and four locations under management. It owns 20 of its operating facilities.
Since arriving at the Wyoming Retirement System in late 2013, the CIO has worked to get the Equality States pension house in order.
Since the global financial crisis in 200809 ripped a big hole in the investment portfolios of public pension funds by an average of 19 percent there have been numerous and continuing reports of how these funds are going to ruin the U.S. economy and need to be replaced entirely by self-directed retirement plans. The main culprit in the funds woes in this scenario: Some of these funds do not currently have enough assets to cover future liabilities the deferred compensation payments due retirees. It was much more than the crisis that wrecked those funds, though.
A good part of the problem is because for years employers have not funded their plans properly, a practice that started in force with so-called contribution holidays during the bull market years of double-digit investment returns through the late 1990s. In some states, legislators even borrowed pension assets held in trust by their state, without replacing them, causing losses that are difficult to make up.
Today state pension funding ratios range from a low of 47.7 percent in Illinois to Wisconsins and South Dakotas 100 percent funding, not unexpected in states that have long made their promised pension contributions.
But how have smaller pension plans been fairing in states that dont grab frequent headlines? In each state, there are investment professionals who believe in the defined benefit system of providing retirement security and are working hard to ensure that state employees have their promised pension to retire on after a full career.
In late 2013, when Sam Masoudi took on the CIO role at the Wyoming Retirement System in Cheyenne, he was only the third person to hold that position and one of the only investment team members with previous manager selection experience. A Denver native, Masoudi had been living in New York since 1993, working in asset management until 2008, when he began working in the Darien, Connecticutbased office of the Tulane University endowment fund.
When he arrived in Cheyenne, Masoudi brought the investment team head count to four; the other three professionals had been in place only 18 months. There wasnt enough redundancy if someone left, says the CIO, who is about to make his second hire, another senior investment officer, which will raise the number to six. The 2017 budget includes lines for one more senior and a junior staff member, for a total of eight. Were thankful the governor and state legislature have been so supportive, says Masoudi, pointing to tight budget constraints in a state dependent on coal, oil and gas, which have been hit by prolonged price declines. As it gets harder and harder to make actuarial returns, governing bodies are realizing they need to have larger, more talented investment teams to build the more complex portfolios that are needed to increase the chances that well achieve the actuarial return.
Wyoming maintains a 7.75 percent discount rate, or actuarial rate, of return. That is average for U.S. state pension plans, down from 8 percent following the late-2000s financial crisis, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators in Lexington, Kentucky. To help get there, the once 30 percent allocation to fixed income was halved, whereas global equity weighs in at 55 percent, with an overweight to emerging markets. Private equity is 12 percent, marketable alternatives are 15.5 percent, and there is a 2.5 percent allocation to cash. NASRAs Public Fund Survey of 96 funds in fiscal year 2014 puts Wyoming above the 50 percent average in equities and the 17 percent allocation to private equity and hedge funds, and below the 23 percent average allocation in fixed income.
Masoudi, who has worked in real estate investment banking, private equity and investing a long-short equity hedge fund for Silver Peak Capital Management in New York, reports to a joint appropriations committee of the state legislature that meets only two months a year and has given the CIO delegated asset management authority. Of the nearly 585,000 state residents, a full 80,000, or 14.5 percent, are members or beneficiaries of the state pension plan. That is the highest number of noneducation state and local workers per capita, according to the 2011 U.S. Census survey, followed by Alaska and New York. Wyoming, known as the Equality State for being first to give women the vote, also has the smallest population of any state and is second-lowest in population density after Alaska.
Along with an investment portfolio that took a 35 percent hit during the financial crisis, Masoudi inherited an investment office that had been rocked by turnover and scandal. The systems first CIO, Trent May, was brought onboard in 2009 after former Wyoming governor Dave Freudenthal sought to improve investment results. Up until then, the assets were managed by a consultant and a deputy director with part-time duties.
May continued the governors drive to professionalize the investment office, hiring senior investment officer John Johnson, who replaced him as CIO in 2011. Then, after only 18 months onboard, in early 2013 Johnson was forced out when the Southern District of New York slapped him with four counts of insider trading for actions he took in 2008, before coming to Wyoming. (He was sentenced last April to supervised release and community service; May and Freudenthal were not involved.)
Masoudi, who is working with a 79 percent funding ratio, down from its 2009 peak of 87.5 percent, is dedicated to building back state employee assets in the now $7.3 billion fund. I love investing pension assets, he says, because you can focus on pure investing. That contrasts with fund management: I dont like the sales aspect and the incentives to grow at all costs.
This article is the first of a three-part series of profiles of heads of state retirement system investment offices.
Follow Frances Denmark on Twitter at @francesdenmark.
Get more on pensions.
The executive director and CIO of the Florida State Board of Administration has kept a tight lid on the funds all-in costs.
When Ashbel Williams Jr. returned for his second tour at the Florida State Board of Administration (SBA), in October 2008, as executive director and CIO, the Tallahassee-based system was already caught in the financial crisiss giant vortex. Working to save a system that had crashed to $85 billion in assets by March 2009 from $136.6 billion in June 2007, Williams had to tackle massive fallout from the credit crisis, which had decimated a $33 billion money market pool, and rebuild trust in the government agency, which oversees nearly 40 separate funds, including the fifth-largest public retirement system in the U.S.
Williams now 61 and a fifth-generation Floridian established an independent risk management and compliance unit to enhance SBA controls. He built up the alternative-investment portfolio, adding hedge funds and more than doubling private equity, and created a global equity portfolio. Last year the SBA conducted a Valuing the Vote study, analyzing the impact the agencys proxy voting decisions had on director elections.
Since 2012 the SBA has had the lowest all-in costs among its peers, according to Toronto-based consulting firm CEM Benchmarking. For the 12 months ended December 31, 2015, the now-$175 billion SBA had a return of 1.48 percent, versus a median performance of 0.54 percent for public funds with $5 billion-plus in assets in the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service.
Williams originally headed the SBA from 1991 to 1996 before moving to New York to work as CEO of Schroder Capital Management. The secret to his success at the SBA? The art is staying true to fiduciary principles, investing prudently and earning the trust of those many constituencies every day, he says.
Return to the 2016 U.S. Money Masters.
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After a long absence from the spotlight of global market sentiment, Greece has returned to investment risk narratives with a 3 percent increase for the benchmark Athens Stock Exchange index and a corresponding rally for the nations sovereign bonds. The market reaction follows the news that finance ministers from throughout the euro zone have reached out to the International Monetary Fund with a new bailout plan. IMF participation would provide political leverage for policymakers from EU nations that are more skeptical in providing an additional approval for austerity measures. After a meeting in Brussels yesterday, the conclusion reached by policymakers from both bodies was an acknowledgement that Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos statement that meeting existing austerity goals was correct but also demanding that tough measures for social spending be put in place.
Impeachment moves ahead in Brazil. In the latest dramatic event to unfold for the government of Brazil, lawmakers in the nations lower congressional house restarted an impeachment process to remove President Dilma Rousseff in a special overnight session. The move came after the leader of the lower house attempted to annual the April vote that put the impeachment process into motion. Protests in multiple cities in South Americas largest economy went on overnight.
Credit Suisse posts loss. Credit Suisse Group AG reported a loss today of more than $300 million for the first three months on 2016 as the Swiss lender continues to cut costs and refocus on wealth management. The reversal was more moderate than consensus analyst estimates and bank management indicated that it has achieved more than half of the overhead reduction on deck for 2016 by the end of the period. Capital markets, a division which prompted CEO Tidjane Thiam to pre-announce losses in March, reported setbacks in fixed income and equity trading.
China CPI weaker than forecast. At a 2.3 percent year-over-year expansion, Chinas National Bureau of Statistics released headline consumer price index levels that were more muted than expected despite a nearly 7.5 percent gain in food prices versus the same month in 2015. With nonfood prices up 1.1 percent for the period, concerns over internal demand in China continue to weigh on investor sentiment.
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With several of its existing funds solidly in the black this year, the quant giant has raised money for a new macro fund.
The massive wildfires that swept through Canadas energy hub of Fort McMurray left almost 90 percent of the city intact, including most of the downtown core, while completely leveling some neighborhoods.
This city was surrounded by an ocean of fire just a few days ago, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told reporters after a media tour of Fort McMurray Monday, providing the damage figure. The city has been saved.
About 88,000 residents were evacuated last week as the fire laid siege to the city, and oil-sands companies trimmed an estimated 1 million barrels a day of production, or about 40 percent of output. An evacuation order remains in place and the government hasnt said when the residents can return. Companies that took production offline including Suncor Energy Inc., Syncrude Canada Ltd. and ConocoPhillips are already making plans to bring workers back and restart operations as the fire has moved away from their sites.
Hot Spots
Notley said about 2,400 buildings were lost in the fire, while 25,000 were spared, including the airport, all schools, hospitals and water treatment facilities. The premier said she expects to have a plan to return residents to Fort McMurray over the next two weeks, cautioning that it remains a dangerous place. Some neighborhoods were completely destroyed by the wildfires, which began April 30.
There are smoldering hot spots everywhere, she said. This city is going to be made safe.
Cooler weather and favorable winds have eased the threat to Fort McMurray and to the oil-sands facilities that sit to the north and south of the city. Energy plants largely came out unscathed from the fires, except for minor damage at CNOOC Ltd.s Long Lake site operated by its unit Nexen. Operators including Suncor and Syncrude said they properly managed shutdowns that will allow them to optimally resume operations, pending the restart of pipelines in the region.
Trudeau Pledge
Suncor, Canadas biggest energy company, plans to begin flying workers back to its sites in the next couple of days and begin the process of restarting units by the end of the week, said two people familiar with operations, declining to be identified because the information isnt public. Notley said she plans to meet with industry leaders Tuesday to discuss their start-up plans.
About 24 fires were still burning in the province as of Tuesday morning, with the Fort McMurray blaze the only one thats out of control, Travis Fairweather, a forestry spokesman, said by phone.
The fire in the heart of the oil sands grew to 2,290 square kilometers (884 square miles) Tuesday when it linked up with a blaze set deliberately by fire fighters in the east. While cool weather and humidity is helping control the blaze, little rain is forecast. The wind is expected to shift in the next few days and blow smoke to west or southwest.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said he declined international offers of aid, such as firefighters or aircraft, saying Canada has all the equipment it needs as help arrives in Alberta from across the country. Canada will be a partner in how we rebuild Fort McMurray, Trudeau told reporters Monday in Ottawa. He plans to announce a visit to the city soon, he said.
Stomach Bug
The influx led to another problem a viral outbreak at Edmontons evacuee welcome center. About 40 to 50 cases of viral gastroenteritis were reported over the weekend in the center. Were seeing an increased number of cases of nausea and vomiting of people attending the reception center here, Christopher Sikora, Albertas medical officer of health for the Edmonton region, told reporters Monday, urging diligent hand-washing.
Oil Sands and the Environment: Quick Take
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.8 percent to $44.22 at 11:27 a.m. in New York.
The wildfires may lead to the greatest catastrophe ever in Canada, with insured losses of as much as C$7 billion, according to estimates Monday from National Bank of Canada. Intact Financial Corp., the countrys biggest insurer, may post insured losses of as much as C$1.1 billion ($850 million) from the wildfires, which could dent the Canadian economy harder than Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S., based on the relative sizes of the two economies.
Mining Projects
Once the fires are under control, mines could be back to normal production levels in about a week, Morgan Stanley said in an e-mailed research note on Monday. In-situ projects, which use steam to extract the oil, could take two or more weeks depending on the start-up method and pressure requirements, it said.
Syncrude Canada, a joint venture controlled by Suncor, shut down its Aurora mine and Mildred Lake operation about 40 kilometers north of the city and has evacuated about 1,200 workers. Syncrude has a capacity of 350,000 barrels of oil a day. Smoke reached Syncrudes Mildred Lake site Saturday, company spokesman Leithan Slade said in an e-mailed statement. We will bring operations back online only when it is safe to do so.
Suncor, Phillips 66 and Statoil ASA have declared force majeure a provision protecting companies from liability for contracts that go unfulfilled for reasons beyond their control on supplies from the region. Any restart will happen once its safe and when third-party pipelines are available, Suncor said.
Husky Energy Inc., controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, said Sunday it has completely shut its Sunrise facility, which has a capacity of 60,000 barrels a day and was producing about half that before the blaze began. Nexens operation, with a capacity of 92,000 barrels a day, was shut. The company didnt return requests for comment.
With assistance from Josh Wingrove.
Related:
Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Energy Oil Gas Canada
Oracle Corp. and Google are stepping before a jury a second time with potentially $9.3 billion on the line, and the prospect of profoundly changing how software is protected and licensed.
The World Series of intellectual property, as the judge who presided over the earlier trial dubbed it, was left at a stalemate four years ago with Googles Android trophy untarnished.
As the judge said then, there can be only one winner in the end. If that turns out to be Oracle, Google will have to pay fees for the operating system used in 80 percent of the worlds mobile devices.
The central question of the trial that started Monday in San Francisco federal court will be the same as in the last one: Did Google cheat by using part of Oracles Java programming language to develop Android without a license? Oracle, saying monetary damages alone wont compensate for its loss, also seeks a court order reasonably tailored to the case that it says would put an end to Googles infringement.
Repeat Witnesses
Several potential witnesses are repeats from the 2012 trial, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Safra Catz, who became the companys co-chief executive officer during the interlude. On Googles side, CEO Larry Page may be there with Chairman Eric Schmidt for the company now called Alphabet Inc.
A jury of eight women and two men was sworn in Monday and opening arguments are set for Tuesday.
This case has revived the possibility of using software copyright much more broadly than it had been used for the previous two decades,said Tyler Ochoa, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law who has followed the case closely since it was filed in 2010.
If Google wins, nothing much will change, Ochoa said, because software copyrights are limited in scope.
If Oracle wins, software copyrights become much more powerful and much more important than they have been since the 1990s, he said.
An Oracle victory would make it more likely other software companies will try to use copyright to sue competitors, he said.
Fools Errand
Even though Google came close to an outright win four years ago, its a fools errand to try to predict the outcome of the case with a new jury, Ochoa said.
Ochoa was one of 41 academics who agreed with Google that the code at issue didnt merit copyright protection and urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.
The high court declined last year to intervene, leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that the Java coding at issue is copyrightable and setting the stage for the new trial.
The case hinges on whether Google made fair use of 37 Java application programming interfaces, or APIs, when it developed Android. Javas APIs are critical shortcuts that allow developers to write programs that work across software platforms.
The 2012 jury concluded Google infringed Oracles copyrights, but was deadlocked on whether the use was justified under the legal doctrine of fair use. Jurors will again be asked to determine whether Googles use was permitted without Oracles consent. Google argues that was allowed, partly because it transformed the use of the code by adding something new rather than merely copying it.
Java Rights
Oracle didnt obtain the rights to Java until January 2010, when it acquired Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion, almost three years after Android was introduced.
Google has said it wasnt until May 2010, after a meeting with Ellison failed to produce a business relationship over Android, that Oracle began rattling its litigation saber.
The search engine giant will argue that it wrote original code to build Android. In a filing, Google said it used Suns free and open Java programming language, and copied only the labels attached to the 37 APIs.
Oracle will argue to the jury that Google made a business decision to copy thousands of lines of Oracles computer code, as well as the organization of Javas APIs.
When licensing negotiations broke down, Google faced a choice: It could forgo use of Java or it could copy Java without permission, an Oracle spokeswoman, Deborah Hellinger, said in a statement. It did the latter.
$22 Billion Profit
By Oracles reckoning, Android has generated revenue of $31 billion and $22 billion in profit, which a lawyer for the company said shows the extraordinary magnitude of commerciality in Googles infringement.
Both sides face risks in the new trial, according to Michael Risch, a law professor at Villanova University School of Law in Pennsylvania.
He said it will be tough for Google to establish that it made fair use of Oracles copyrights. But he voiced skepticism about Oracles attempt to link its damages claim to Android profits.
The money is only big if you follow Oracles view of the world, Risch said. Its not at all clear that the profits fall the way Oracle claims.
The case is Oracle America Inc. v. Google Inc., 10-cv-03561, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
Topics Google
Comcast Corp. paid $490 million this year to unwind obligations under life insurance policies tied to late founder Ralph Roberts and his wife Suzanne, a remnant of an era when generous executive perks received less investor scrutiny.
The payments, some of which the cable company expects to eventually recoup, are related to life insurance policies organized under a split-dollar arrangement once a common method employers used to help key executives get bigger death benefits. The policies went out of vogue because of their similarities to interest-free loans, which came under regulatory examination after scandals at Enron Corp. and Tyco International Ltd.
After the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act prohibited companies from extending credit to top bosses, Comcast ceased to pay premiums on Robertss policies and in 2004 handed the then-chairman of the boards executive and finance committee a $14.4 million stock award. It continued to grant Roberts special bonuses to cover his share of the deal until he died, regulatory filings show. In the six months following his death, the company paid Suzanne Roberts $30 million to cover the premiums and related tax costs.
Following Robertss death last year, Comcast concluded it was in its best interest to eliminate its obligations under the policies, since the annual premiums and tax costs would become significantly greater each year due to the age of Robertss wife, who was 94 at the time of an April 8 regulatory filing. Comcast paid $164 million to trusts established for Robertss beneficiaries to acquire the remaining policies that will lapse once his wife dies, according to the filing. It also made a one-time cash payment of $326 million to Suzanne Roberts to settle all future premium payments and taxes.
It seems like a tremendous amount of money, Parker Beauchamp, chief executive officer of insurance firm Inguard, said of the policies.
Estate Planning
For wealthy Americans, life insurance is a customary part of estate planning to help heirs avoid selling assets to pay estate taxes. In split-dollar arrangements, an employer and employee split the premium payments and then share the benefits. The employer usually has the right to reclaim the aggregate sum of its premiums once the insured person dies, making those payments resemble an interest-free loan.
Comcast will get much of the money back eventually. The company expects to receive about $215 million from the policies cash surrender value once they lapse, of which $51 million comes from premiums it has already paid in. It also anticipates that the purchase will generate about $121 million in tax benefits.
John Demming, a Comcast spokesman, declined to comment beyond the filings.
Ralph Roberts, who built Comcast into the largest U.S. cable-television operator, died last June at the age of 95. He co-founded American Cable Systems Inc. in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1963 as a 1,200-subscriber service, and later renamed it Comcast. He served as chairman for 18 years until 2002, when he became chairman of the boards executive and finance committee and his son, Brian, took over as chairman and CEO.
Comcast entered into the split-dollar arrangement with the elder Roberts in 1992. The deal required the company to pay its share of the premiums and also to pay Roberts a special bonus each year that would match his outlays for the policies and any taxes hed be due, effectively making Comcast cover the full cost of the arrangement.
Its very generous to also gross up a persons total compensation to cover the tax liability, said Joshua Husbands, a partner at Holland & Knight LLP. Theres nothing improper about it, but thats not a typical arrangement.
Brian Roberts had a similar insurance arrangement with a combined death benefit of $223 million. In 2009, following a shareholder proposal that raised concerns over Comcasts posthumous benefits so-called golden coffin arrangements the CEO voluntarily relieved the company from any future payments toward his policies. Roberts is one of several beneficiaries of the trusts that previously held his fathers policies.
While rare, some companies still have legacy split-dollar policies in place for executives. The heirs of Time Warner Inc.s CEO Jeff Bewkes will receive approximately $4.1 million from such a policy after he dies, according to a filing. Time Warner stopped paying premiums on the policy in 2003.
Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Topics Legislation
Fingerprinting drivers for ride-hailing companies must continue in Texas capital city after voters rejected a $9 million campaign by Uber and Lyft to overturn the safety measure.
Both Uber and Lyft threatened to leave Austin, which hosts major annual events such as the South by Southwest and Austin City Limits music festivals, on Monday after Saturdays defeat, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Lyft and Austin are a perfect match and we want to stay in the city, Lyft spokeswoman Chelsea Wilson said in a statement. Unfortunately, the rules passed by City Council dont allow true ridesharing to operate.
Voters decided to keep city rules that require ride-hailing company drivers to undergo fingerprint-based background checks by Feb. 1, 2017. Austin also prohibits drivers from stopping in traffic lanes for passenger drop-offs and pick-ups, includes requirements for identifying vehicles for hire and imposes data reporting on the ride-hailing companies.
The finger-printing question was the key fight in the campaign, and spurred the most expensive campaign in city history.
Austin appeared to be the chosen battleground for ride-hailing companies that are facing similar restrictions in major cities across the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Uber recently threatened to leave Houston, which requires drivers to be fingerprinted, drug-tested and undergo a physical before they can drive for the service.
Advocates for fingerprinting say its the best way to weed out drivers with criminal records. Ride-hailing companies have said their background checks suffice and that fingerprint databases can be out of date. Fingerprinting can also slow down the process of quickly adding new drivers.
Uber, I think, decided they were going to make Austin an example to the nation, said political consultant David Butts, who led the Austin campaign to defeat the repeal. And Austin made Uber an example to the nation.
Uber Austin general manager Chris Nakutis said the company was disappointed to be shutting down operations in Austin.
We hope the City Council will reconsider their ordinance so we can work together to make the streets of Austin a safer place for everyone, Nakutis said.
Ride-hailing companies may try to go around local governments if they can; in 2015, they pushed for a statewide ride-hailing regulation bill for Texas and could try again in 2017.
State Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Republican, announced Sunday he will file legislation to create statewide regulations of ride-hailing companies, which he considers an effective weapon against drunk driving.
The companies can no longer operate effectively through a patchwork of inconsistent and anti-competitive regulations, Schwertner said.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler, who had urged defeat of the ordinance repeal, said he hopes to get Uber and Lyft back to the citys negotiating table.
Were at a place right now where we welcome Uber and Lyft to stay in the community, and I hope that theyll continue to talk with me, Adler said Saturday night.
Related:
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Legislation Texas Personal Auto
A federal jury has convicted a north Florida doctor of 162 counts of health care fraud.
U.S. Attorney Christopher Canova said in a news release that 59-year-old Dr. Ona Colasante defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida through false billing schemes at two different businesses. Colasante was convicted May 2.
Canova says Colasante could be sentenced to 10 years on each of the 162 counts. Sentencing is scheduled for July 25.
Prosecutors say Colasante owned and operated the Hawthorne Medical Center from 1998 to 2009, and the Colasante Clinic in Gainesville from 2010 to 2013.
Prosecutors say Colasante billed insurance companies for counseling, treatment and training that never occurred and fraudulently billed for drugs.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Topics Florida Fraud
Accident Fund Insurance Company of America announced the appointment ofDan Hassenzahlto regional director, Southern region. In this role, Dan is responsible for underwriting and marketing in Tennessee,Mississippi,Arkansasand Georgia. Hassenzahl joined the company in 2005 as a claims examiner and in 2007 moved to Internal Audit. He became a business development consultant in 2009.
Hassenzahl earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration fromDavenport University. He holds the Certified Authority on Workers Compensation (CAWC) designation and is currently pursuing Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designations.
Accident Fund Insurance Company of America is a member of AF Group. All policies are underwritten by a licensed insurer subsidiary of AF Group.
Cigna Corp.s acquisition by health insurance rival Anthem Inc. may not be approved this year, Cigna said Friday in a regulatory filing.
Shares of both companies declined. An analyst said the delay could be a sign of trouble for the deal, which is one of two pending health insurance combinations being scrutinized by regulators who have expressed concern about further concentration of the health-care industry.
While the company continues to work toward achieving regulatory approval as quickly as possible and to target a closing date in the second half of 2016, the closing will ultimately be subject to the approval and timing of the regulators, Cigna said in its quarterly report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In light of the complexity of the regulatory process and the dynamic environment, it is possible that such approvals may not be obtained in 2016.
Joe Swedish, Anthems chief executive officer, said last week that he expected the acquisition of Cigna to be completed in the second half of this year. On Friday, Jill Becher, an Anthem spokeswoman, said the insurer continued to expect the transaction to be completed on that timeline.
Anthem agreed in July to buy Cigna in a cash-and-stock deal that valued Cigna at about $48 billion. The transaction, along with Aetna Inc.s pending acquisition of Humana Inc., would reduce the number of big U.S. health insurers to three from five.
The Anthem-Cigna merger requires approval from the Justice Departments antitrust division as well as state insurance regulators. In March, Bill Baer, now the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, called the Cigna deal and Aetnas deal for Humana transformational and said they required close scrutiny from the government.
Matt Asensio, a Cigna spokesman, declined to specify why the insurer cautioned that the deal may not happen this year.
This disclosure reflects our current understanding, based on the breadth and depth of the review and where we believe we are in the process now, Asensio said. We feel that its a dynamic environment, and theres a lot of complexity in the regulatory process, so its possible that the approvals may not be obtained in 2016.
Cigna said in the filing that Anthem may owe it a breakup fee of $1.85 billion if the transaction isnt completed by Jan. 31, 2017. That deadline can be pushed back to April 30, Cigna said.
Cigna fell 1.9 percent to $132.40 at 10:30 a.m. in New York, while Anthem declined less than 1 percent to $136.77.
Peter Costa, an analyst at Wells Fargo & Co., said Cignas disclosure indicates the deal could be delayed or not approved at all. The 10Q deal timing disclosure is a significant item that likely widens the spread, he wrote in a research note to clients.
Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Legislation
It turns out characters like Conan the Barbarian, the cyborg from Terminator and Dutch the protagonist in the original Predator movie, know a thing or two about risk.
Definitely the actor who portrayed them does.
Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday revisited a few of his more prolific characters and what it took the portray them for a group of insurance students and industry professionals as a Southern California university.
The former California governor also talked about the risks he took leaving his home country of Austria after a career as the worlds greatest body builder to try and make it big in Hollywood, and then his foray into politics.
His talk centered on risk was tailor-made for a conference titled Insurance Industry Trends 2020 and Beyond at Cal State University Fullerton. The event was staged by the administration and professors of the Center for Insurance Studies, which is part of the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at Cal State University Fullerton.
Schwarzenegger was joined by Robert Hartwig, an economist and president of the Insurance Information Institute, who made what was likely his final stop in the region as the face of the property/casualty insurance industry.
Schwarzenegger focused much of his talk on delivering a message to students in the audience: they should pursue their dreams instead of settling for a career they may not really want.
When he was first trying to break into acting in the 1970s, Schwarzeneggers brawny frame did not fit the star prototype in an era of rangier men like Al Pachino, and Woody Allen, who at the time was considered a sex symbol.
My agent said Dustin Hoffman is hot and he only weighs 150 pounds, Schwarzenegger said.
Driven by dreams first formed through viewing 8 mm films as a boy in his homeland, he ignored the advice of his agent and pursued numerous roles in films.
You cant be concerned about failure, he said.
Not of all of Schwarzeneggers films turned out to be blockbusters, such as the embarrassing 1970 dud Hercules in New York, which the former muscle-man didnt mind poking fun of.
It was a disaster, he said. It went into the toilet.
Following that failure he landed the role of Conan the Barbarian. The film of the same name was a resounding success in fact Schwarzenegger is set to appear in the yet-to-be-released Legend of Conan.
A lions share of his speech took on a get up, dont stay down theme, a mindset he said carried him from body building, to acting, to his time as the Governator.
As California governor from 2003 to 2011, the Republican was noted for his crusade against partisanship, particularly in a state dominated by Democrats.
Let me tell you, it is quite a surprise when you get in there and you see that everything is political, he said.
Schwarzenegger described fighting with both parties on topics like schools, infrastructure and the environment.
And those battles often made little sense to him.
There is no Democrat air or Republican air. The air is polluted, he said, backing up his anti-pollution stance with the World Health Organization statistic that 7 million people per year in the U.S. die as a result of air pollution exposure.
His topics, largely retrospective on the success he had during his years as governor, included political reform, such as fighting against gerrymandering as well as supporting open primaries, workers compensation reform, afterschool programs, equal education and climate change.
Despite his pro-business, conservative bent, Schwarzenegger has embraced a number of pro-environment movements, particularly climate change.
He was decidedly approving when asked about the Paris agreement hammered out by world leaders last year to battle climate change, called the COP21.
I think its good to have a goal, he said. Its a good agreement. Its not perfect by any means.
He again pointed to his time as California governor and noted that the state had early in the Millennium started being proactive on reducing greenhouse gases with an initiative that became law in 2006 after opponents battled it all the way up to the high court.
They told us they could not regulate our own air, Schwarzenegger said.
He scoffed at the oppositions argument at the time that greenhouse gas is not a pollutant.
Echoing an earlier comment, he put in: Seven million people die every year because of pollution.
He took time to answer a few questions from students and other members of the audience. One student asked him about his new role on NBCs Celebrity Apprentice, and if he would come up with a catch phrase like presidential hopeful and show predecessor Donald Trumps, Youre fired.
Youre terminated was one suggested move tie-in he may consider working into the show, the student said, to which Schwarzenegger offered another: Get to the chopper.
The famous line from Predator drew roaring laughter from an audience that had largely been quiet until that point.
Of Schwarzeneggers few regrets, one is that he is a foreign-born citizen and therefore constitutionally prohibited for attaining the nations highest office.
I do regret that I wasnt born in America, he said.
Hartwig Slides
The event was possibly the final chance for people in Southern California to hear from the man who has been the face of insurance industry since 2007. Hartwig in February announced he is leaving the helm of I.I.I this summer to join the faculty of the University of South Carolinas Darla Moore School of Business.
Hartwig travels throughout the U.S. sharing facts and figures on the insurance industry at a rapid pace, as he points audience members to a blur of overhead slides to back up his assertions.
Within an hour he covered a large array of topics: changing market dynamics; net premiums written across the U.S.; cyber insurance; the gig economy; workers compensation; disruptors; auto insurance; autonomous vehicles; and technology.
This is an industry going through a tremendous period of technological change, Hartwig said.
And with each of those changes, theres no shortage of people trying to write off the insurance industry, such as the lingering prediction from myriad worrywarts that autonomous vehicles will kill off auto insurance, he added.
Among his legion of slides was one showing that by 2035 its estimated that 25 percent of new vehicles coming off production lines will be fully autonomous.
He also noted that while Googles driverless car is making headlines, it couldnt make the short trip today from the train station to his home without ending up in a ditch.
We are a long way off on this stuff, he said.
Instead of succumbing to technology, the insurance industry has adapted by providing new products for ridesharing, property sharing and cyber-attacks, he added.
Hartwig also dismissed the notion that technology companies will supplant insurers and insurance agents with disruptive innovations like online insurance shopping portals and software-enhanced aggregators.
Theres a lot of Silicon Valley hype nowadays, Hartwig said.
The event also included a panel discussion with Chris Baggaley, senior vice president at the Automobile Club of Southern California, Ron Guerrier, chief information officer of Farmers Insurance Group, Mark Costa, senior vice president at Kaiser Permanente, and Joe Celentano, senior vice president at Pacific Life Insurance Co.
Proceeds went to benefit the centers insurance marketing entrepreneurship program endowment, which provides funding for students interested in careers on the sales side of risk management and insurance.
Related:
Topics California Pollution Market Education Universities
Brian Weaver, senior vice president of sales for Aegis Specialty, was given the Brokers Insurance Group Hall of Fame award on Saturday at the Riverside Convention Center in California.
BIG is an association that works with the independent broker/producers in the state.
Weavers insurance career dates back to the 1970s. In 1980 he was offered a position as the Southern California sales manager for The McGraw Group, setting up dealers to sell motorcycle insurance.
From 1980 through 2014 he helped grow the company, including building relationships with several of the manufacturers and lenders who were instrumental in financing motorcycles.
From the mid-1980s through the early 2000s, Weaver created a sales team, primarily in California, to strengthen the companys independent agent channel.
Later he would build a sales team that spanned several states across the country.
He was also instrumental in opening up and establishing relationships with captive insurance carriers in California and helping the company grow substantially.
Topics California Training Development
The global economy suffered the worst April natural disaster losses for five years, according to Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfields catastrophe model development team.
Earthquakes, convective storms and flooding contributed to the worldwide devastation, said Impact Forecasting, noting that a significant proportion of these catastrophe losses was uninsured.
The report, titled Global Catastrophe Recap April 2016, said that two major earthquakes struck southern Japan during the month, causing massive devastation and killing at least 66 people, with more than 4,000 others injured.
Total economic losses, including physical damage to residential and commercial structures, vehicles and infrastructure, and business interruption, are expected to exceed 1.12 trillion Japanese yen (USD10 billion), said the report.
The General Insurance Association of Japan reported that nearly 70,000 non-life claims had been filed, as total insured losses were expected to breach 225 billion Japanese yen ($2.0 billion), the report said.
Meanwhile, a major magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck Ecuadors northwest coast on April 16, killing at least 660 people and injuring more than 17,638 others. According to government figures, the total economic cost for the damage and reconstruction was expected to be above $3.0 billion.
Given low insurance penetration levels, the insured loss was set to be a fraction of the overall financial cost, the report said.
The global footprint of natural disaster losses in April was significant. Between major events such as the Kumamoto earthquake, the severe convective storms and flooding in the United States, and flooded agriculture in Argentina, economic and insured losses are poised to make this the costliest April since 2011, said Steve Bowen, Director at Impact Forecasting.
The large differential between the economic and insured losses is yet another reminder of how much opportunity exists for the insurance industry to help engage with governments, communities and businesses around the world to provide the risk expertise that can help mitigate the effects of natural disasters, he said.
Natural hazard events occurring elsewhere during April include:
Five outbreaks of severe convective storms affected the United States, causing total aggregated economic losses estimated to exceed $4.0 billion, and insurance losses beyond $3.0 billion.
Excessive rains led to considerable flooding across Argentina, with the provinces of Entre Rios, Corrientes, Santa Fe, Chaco, Formosa, and Santiago del Estero and Uruguay sustaining the worst damage. Total economic losses to agriculture alone were estimated at 18.6 billion Argentine pesos ($1.3 billion).
A prodigious U.S. rainfall event caused major flash flooding in the greater Houston metro region, resulting in total economic losses expected to exceed $1.0 billion.
Major flood events were recorded in Chile, China, Ecuador, Uruguay, Haiti, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Uganda, Angola, Somalia, Ethiopia, India, and Afghanistan.
The combination of heavy rainfall from two tropical disturbances and Tropical Cyclone Zena led to flooding across several islands of the Fiji archipelago, killing two people.
An unseasonably intense heatwave killed at least 300 people in India, with the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh noting temperatures above 44C (111F).
Source: Impact Forecasting
Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters USA Trends Profit Loss Flood Agribusiness Aon Earthquake
Drivers who worked for ride-hailing service Uber in California and Massachusetts over the past seven years would have been entitled to an estimated $730 million in expense reimbursements had they been employees rather than contractors, according to court documents made public on Monday.
The figure was calculated by attorneys for drivers in a class action against the company, based on a standard rate for mileage reimbursement set by the U.S. government, and on data provided by Uber. Uber disputes the idea that drivers would ever be entitled to that reimbursement rate.
Uber and smaller rival Lyft are attempting to settle legal actions by drivers who contend they should be classified as employees and therefore entitled to reimbursement for expenses, including gasoline and vehicle maintenance. Drivers currently pay those costs themselves.
The proposed Uber settlement would pay drivers up to $100 million. A San Francisco federal judge must decide whether that deal is fair, and the total potential damages at play in the lawsuit will likely bear on his analysis.
According to attorneys for the drivers, the total value of driver claims in the Uber case is $852 million, which includes a tips claim. Uber calculates the total value of plaintiff claims at $429 million.
The $100 million Uber settlement represents about 12 percent of potential $852 million in damages, or about 23 percent of $429 million.
Lyft had agreed to settle its class action for $12.25 million, but a separate federal judge rejected the deal because it represented only about 9 percent of the potential value of drivers claims.
While the deal does not elevate drivers to employees, attorneys for drivers have defended it, saying they faced significant risks had the case moved forward. They also say drivers who have worked several months could be entitled to thousands of dollars each under the settlement.
Beyond the money, Uber Technologies Inc. also agreed to a new policy governing driver termination, including an appeals process for drivers terminated by Uber. The privately held company will also clarify that drivers do not automatically receive gratuities from their fares and will allow them to solicit tips.
Additionally, the company agreed to assist with the creation of a drivers association. Those nonmonetary commitments expire in two years.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Topics Personal Auto
BIG Independent Group Awards Accolades at Annual Southern California Event
Riverside, CA- Rancho Cucamonga, CA, May 10, 2016- The BIG Independent Group, an association of independent insurance agents and brokers, announced the winners of its BIGGIE Awards at the groups annual convention in Riverside. The awards ceremony took place on May 7th, prior to the BIG 80s Party on Saturday night.
These awards reflect a level of admiration the insurance community has for each winner. We surveyed 4,417 insurance professionals in California, 2,960 of whom are independent agency owners, to determine our honorees, explained BIG CEO Jon Spaugy. The BIGGIE Awards presentations are a tradition at our convention and something we all look forward to every year.
The BIGGIE Award winners for 2016 are:
Standard Carrier Representative of the Year Missy Alizadeh
Standard Agency of the Year Hotwire Insurance
Standard Carrier of the year Kemper Specialty California
Preferred Carrier Representative of the Year Nancy Trejo
Preferred Agency of the Year AA Lares Insurance Services
Preferred Carrier of the Year Safeco Insurance
Community Advocate of the Year Progressive Insurance
MGA of the Year Builders & Tradesmens Insurance Services
Vendor of the year Vertafore
Hall of Fame Award Brian F. Weaver
MVP Mary Nell Pattridge
Technology Company of The Year Progressive Insurance
It was great to receive recognition for what we do from people we work with all the time, said two-time BIGGIE Award winner Sumy Bilal, owner of Hot Wire Insurance. Receiving another BIGGIE award is affirmation that a small agency can make a big impact.
BIG feels it is important to recognize the contributions made by insurance professionals statewide, whether that means representatives from companies, vendors, agencies, or any other part of our extended insurance family, said Spaugy. The common ground all these winners share is their work for the betterment of the insurance industry in our great state of California. Thats the spirit BIG wants to recognize.
About BIG Independent Group:BIGs mission is to offer industry related education, create networking opportunities, and to act as a national voice for independent insurance agents and brokers as well as all participants within the insurance industry. The association wishes to create an environment around sharing information, discovering new ideas for streamlining current processes, increasing productivity through new technology, understanding new legislation, and benefiting from experiences as an industry rather than an individual. Its goal is to be an organization that will aid in the prosperity and development of the profession as well as unite the insurance industry and the community as a whole.
Contact:
BIG Independent Group
9267 Haven Avenue Suite 180
Rancho Cucamonga CA 91730
BIGinsUSA.com
Phone- 909 460 8282
Topics California Agencies Market
As they move from theoretical use cases into the testing phase, insurance companies are witnessing the impact unmanned aircraft systems will have on claims and underwriting processes quickly. Allstate, State Farm, USAA and other insurers foresee drones as a means for roof inspection and scene investigation after catastrophic events, such as hailstorms or wildfires. This will result in expedited claims estimates for customers and time saved on manual inspections of damaged property, industry leaders say.
The industrys use of small unmanned aircraft systems is not without restrictions, however. Complying with regulations set by the Federal Aviation Administration is proving to be carriers biggest challenge. Yet, the drone market is booming. According to the FAAs latest forecast, there could be as many as 7 million small drones flying in national airspace by 2020. Total sales of drones will also increase from $2.5 million to $7 million in the same period with commercial purchases accounting for $2.7 million of that total.
Drones are a game-changing technology that we can translate into something usable like an estimate, said Kristina Tomasetti, director of strategic innovation at USAA. The image can deliver data directly into the claims system instead of validating or measuring it through a third party. It also allows us to use manual labor on processes that will remain manual by nature.
Early Testing Results Are In
The drones of choice for insurers are quad-rotors: aircraft with four propellers. USAA began testing with 3DRs Solo Quadcopter north of Dallas and around Tomasettis home in San Antonio before recently adding DJIs Inspire. The insurer now tests both in residential and rural areas and has been particularly busy during hail season, she says.
Testing is about location and the sensors (cameras) on the drone. We test areas where we have losses and are able to fly, adhering to FAA rules, she said. The question for us when we began was, Do we use our own fleet and pilots? We looked internally, but quads are the way to go because they allow us to get closer and get better images.
Echoing Tomasettis sentiment is Erie Insurances VP of property and subrogation claims, Gary Sullivan. Quad-rotors are very safe and reliable, he says. Erie Insurance began loss control inspections in September and has used both the DJI Phantom 2 and DJI Phantom 3 in its testing. DJI, a Chinese tech company that also manufactures the Ronin, controls 75% of the drone market, according to Sullivan.
Both State Farm and Allstate said it is still too early to fully gauge results from pilot programs. However, Allstate finds using drones to evaluate property damage does offer easier access into restricted areas by authorities or debris.
In addition, State Farm commented, We see drone technology as an additional tool to complement our claim associates. Following a catastrophe event, damage to infrastructure can make it difficult to access damaged communities. Therefore, it may be days or weeks before our teams are allowed into the community to begin physical inspections.
While drone data quality is impressive, using the unmanned aircrafts does have its challenges, Sullivan says. Privacy concerns are an issue when dealing with the general public. So, too, are weather and property conditions. Video files pulled from drones have also proven to be too large to process quickly.
Data storage files are huge, he said. We are able to upload images onto our software without a problem. But we find video files take much longer and are working on a way to speed it up.
At the Mercy of the FAA
As insurers venture more into drones, complying with FAA regulations may be even more obstructing, sources said. In February, the FAA proposed final safety measures for small unmanned aircrafts, less than 55 pounds. The proposal submitted for public comment addresses height restrictions, aircraft registration, marking and operator certifications.
According to the agency, pilots have to be at least 17 years of age to fly and are required to pass FAA knowledge tests every 24 months to retain their license. Flights can also only occur in daylight and in visual line of sight, or non-cloudy days.
Carriers are currently allowed to test drones under Section 333 exemptions. Under the rule, drones must fly below 400 feet from the ground and have a tail number. Pilots are also not permitted to fly within five miles of an airport without airline approval, leaving insurers like Erie at a disadvantage.
We cannot fly a drone over our home offices because we are too close to the airport, Sullivan said.
In response, the FAA says insurers have to operate according to the same rules as all Section 333 exemption holders. Their petitions are considered just like any other applicants, the agency says.
The FAA is expected to finalize the new guidelines next month. The decision will offer more clarification for insurers on how to add to current exemptions and better adhere to FAA guidelines.
Going forward, the bright side for insurance companies is customers are willing to take part in drone surveillance.
Ultimately, we want to add to our exemption to deploy drones quicker and easier, said Tomasetti. If we remove some barriers it would be better for customers.
The Asia Tax Awards followed the two-day Asia Tax Forum which also took place on May 4 and 5 at the Goodwood Park Hotel in Singapore.
These coinciding events made for an exciting two days, with premier taxpayers, officials and practitioners from the Asia Pacific region discussing key topics in tax.
KPMG took home 14 awards in total, including the Asia indirect tax firm of the year, the Asia international tax firm of the year, the US corporate tax practice of the year, the Asia global executive mobility practice of the year. The firm also scooped three national tax firm awards for China, Taiwan and Thailand, four transfer pricing awards for China, India, the Philippines, and Singapore, and two tax disputes and litigation awards for China and Thailand.
KPMG China won for its expertise in the variety of transactions and disciplines it covered throughout the year. It also won the tax disputes and litigation award for the diversity of cases it dealt with during the year, which spanned VAT, transfer pricing and withholding tax, showcasing its exceptional understanding of the tax system.
Asia International Tax Firm of the Year - KPMG
Deloitte was honoured with 11 awards, including Asia transfer pricing firm of the year, FATCA/withholding tax team of the year, Asia tax innovator of the year, Asia tax technology firm of the year, as well as Vietnam national tax firm of the year, five transfer pricing awards for Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Asia, and two tax disputes and litigation awards for Singapore and Taiwan.
Deloitte won the tax disputes and litigation award for Singapore for its strength in resolving R&D, transfer pricing and GST disputes, and also earned the same award in Taiwan for its advice in cases that covered topics such as amortisation and related parties.
PwC received seven awards from the ceremony, including the Asia tax policy firm of the year award. Its total also included three national tax firm awards for Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and three transfer pricing awards for Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
PwC Hong Kong was noted as a comprehensive tax practice that serves clients in a range of sectors, particularly financial services. Its transfer pricing department was also recognised, winning for handling a number of big-ticket matters over the past year including APAs and the reorganisation of a Chinese business in Hong Kong.
Six awards were received by Baker & McKenzie, including the transfer pricing practice of the year award and the tax disputes and litigation award for Asia. On top of these it won three other national tax disputes and litigation awards for Hong Kong, Indonesia and Vietnam as well as a national tax firm award for Singapore.
Baker & McKenzie, Wong & Leow, won national tax firm of the year for its capability in a wide breadth of deals, including a key reorganisation and the creation of a commodity trading platform.
EY received two awards for tax compliance and reporting firm of the year and for tax disputes and litigation firm of the year in India.
Yulchon was honored with Asia tax transactions firm of the year as well as tax firm of the year for India.
Other notable winners included the Asia tax commissioner of the year, which was awarded to Dato' Sri Khazali Bin Haji Ahmad, director general of customs at Royal Malaysian Customs and KPMG, which won the Asia tax firm of the year for its strength and depth in its international tax practice throughout Asia.
Asia Tax Disputes and Litigation Practice Leader of the Year - Tarun Gulati of PDS Legal
The Asia Tax Awards winners
Australia
Tax firm of the year - DLA Piper
Transfer pricing firm of the year - Transfer Pricing Solutions
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Herbert Smith Freehills and Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills
China
Tax firm of the year - KPMG
Transfer pricing firm of the year - KPMG
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - KPMG
Hong Kong
Tax firm of the year - PwC
Transfer pricing firm of the year - PwC
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Baker & McKenzie
India
Tax firm of the year - SKP Group
Transfer pricing firm of the year - KPMG
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - EY
Indonesia
Tax firm of the year - PwC
Transfer pricing firm of the year - Deloitte
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Hadiputranto Hadinoto & Partners
Japan
Tax firm of the year - Withers
Transfer pricing firm of the year - Deloitte
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu
Malaysia
Tax firm of the year - PwC
Transfer pricing firm of the year - Deloitte
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Shearn Delamore
Myanmar
Tax firm of the year - VDB LOI
New Zealand
Tax firm of the year - Bell Gully
Transfer pricing firm of the year - Deloitte
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Russell McVeagh
Philippines
Tax firm of the year - BDB Law
Transfer pricing firm of the year - RGM & CO
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Salvador Llanillo & Bernardo, Taxand Philippines
Singapore
Tax firm of the year - Baker & McKenzie. Wong & Leow
Transfer pricing firm of the year - KPMG
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Deloitte
South Korea
Tax firm of the year - Yulchon
Transfer pricing firm of the year - Lee & Ko
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Yoon & Yang
Taiwan
Tax firm of the year - KPMG
Transfer pricing firm of the year - PwC
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Deloitte
Thailand
Tax firm of the year - KPMG
Transfer pricing firm of the year - Quantera Global
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - KPMG
Vietnam
Tax firm of the year - Deloitte
Transfer pricing firm of the year - PwC
Tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Baker & McKenzie
Asia tax policy firm of the year - PwC
Asia tax compliance & reporting firm of the year - EY
Asia tax technology firm of the year - Deloitte
Asia tax innovator of the year - Deloitte
Asia global executive mobility practice of the year - KPMG
US corporate tax practice of the year - KPMG China
Best newcomer awards - Dhruva Advisors
FATCA / Withholding tax team of the year - Deloitte
Asia international tax firm of the year - KPMG
Asia tax transactions firm of the year - Yulchon
Asia indirect tax firm of the year - KPMG
Asia tax disputes and litigation practice leader of the year - Tarun Gulati of PDS Legal
Asia tax disputes and litigation firm of the year - Baker & McKenzie
Asia transfer pricing practice leader of the year - Shanwu Yuan of Baker & McKenzie
Asia transfer pricing firm of the year - Deloitte
Asia tax practice leader of the year - Mark Tamayo of SGV & CO
The International Tax Review would like to thank all those that attended. We hope to see you all again at the next Asia Tax Awards.
Some people consider early retirement to mean leaving the workforce at age 55, but most of us do not take this path. Unless youre lucky enough to have a full pension and benefits that kick in that earlysuch as full military retirement or from work as a police officer or firefighteryoull probably need to work until at least age 67 to accrue enough money for a comfortable retirement.
Of course, you may want to work even longer, just to keep your mind and body active and possibly extend your lifeor because you didn't save as much as you find you'll need. Here are eight reasons why retiring early may not be a good idea.
Key Takeaways Early retirement requires a substantial nest egg that most people do not have.
As life expectancy increases, early retirement means a much longer retirement, and you risk running out of money before you die.
Early retirement means having to pay healthcare costs yourself until Medicare kicks in.
1:45 Want To Retire Early? Think Again
Not Enough Savings
If youre a baby boomer, you might have started your family late, and now that youre nearing retirement age, you may still have kids in college or just getting launched. You could also have elderly parents who need help paying high medical bills or nursing home fees. Maybe you still have a mortgage and credit card debt. If youre planning to stay in your home and maintain your existing standard of living, you need to take a cold, hard look at your expenses and the size of your nest egg before deciding whether to retire early.
Living Longer Than Expected
An estimate of your life expectancy is listed on your Social Security statement, or you can get it by logging on to the Social Security website and entering your gender and birth date. However, your personal life expectancy might differ for a variety of reasons. Lets say your family has a history of longevity, and you look after yourselfeating a healthy diet, getting plenty of exercise, and taking your medications as prescribed. You have to factor that into how long your savings will last.
According to the Social Security Administration, about one in three 65-year-olds today will live past age 90, and one in seven will live past age 95. The average monthly benefit for retirees in 2022 is $1,657, or $19,884 a year. For retirees with no savings and no pension, it may be hard to meet basic living expenses on Social Security income alone. Therefore, you might want to wait till age 70, when you can collect your maximum Social Security benefit.
Increased Mortality
A 2017 paper published in the Journal of Public Economics found a link between early retirement and mortality rates, especially among men. Around one-third of Americans start claiming Social Security benefits in their first month of eligibility when they turn 62.
The research conducted in the study showed that men could see a 20% increase in mortality risk by claiming benefits early and retiring.
Fast Fact One research study has shown that men who claim benefits early and retire, face a 20% mortality risk increase.
Bye-Bye Bucket List
The more you put away, the more you can pamper yourself in your retirement years. Sure, Cape Cod is nice, but what about going on safari in Tanzania, taking a Caribbean cruise, or sailing the Mediterranean? If you stay in the workforce, you could grow your 401(k) savings significantlyand then live out your dreams.
Taking Social Security benefits at 62, the earliest possible time means that you will receive only 70% of your full retirement benefit.
Reduced Social Security
You probably already know that if you start collecting at the earliest opportunity, at age 62, you wont receive your full benefits. In fact, youll only receive about 70% of your benefits.
For those who turned 62 in 2019, full retirement age is 66 and six months. For those who turn 62 in 2020, the full retirement age is 66 and eight months. The full retirement age is slated to increase by two months each year until it hits 67; for anyone born in 1960 or later, the full retirement age will be 67.
However, you dont have to collect benefits at your full retirement age, and waiting means that you will earn a higher monthly benefit. If you delay your benefits until age 68, for instance, your monthly benefits will be 16% higher. If you delay your benefits until age 70, your monthly benefits will be 32% higher.
Your Social Security statement tells you what you can expect to receive at age 62, 67, and 70. If you quit work before 62, those projected amounts may change. Thats because the amount is based on your 35 top-earning years. (And its worth remembering that, generally, your later years will be your highest-earning years.)
If you started late in the workforce or didnt work consistentlysay, you took some years off to raise children, or you came to the United States partway through your careeryou may not have hit the magic number of 35. The years you dont work, or have reduced income, will be factored into your benefits. So be sure to talk to the Social Security Administration to get the details for your particular case.
Of course, if you can afford to and have amassed enough work credits, you don't have to file early for Social Security even if you stop working early. Then, all you will be losing is your contributions for the years between you stop working and when you file. But losing years of higher income earnings, if you've been doing well at your work, could also lower your ultimate benefit. That also requires discussion with Social Security and doing some calculations.
Reduced Spousal Benefits
Lets say youve always earned more than your spouse. If you die first, the Social Security benefits that youre collecting will go to your surviving spouse for the rest of their life. Thats after age 62 unless your spouse is caring for a child who is under the age of 16 or disabled, in which case your spouse will get benefits sooner.
If youve started collecting before your full retirement age, youll be getting a lower amountand thats what your surviving spouse will then collect.
Early claiming results in lower benefits over longer lifetimes: lower benefits for the earner, lower spousal benefits, and lower survivor benefits, says Charlotte A. Dougherty, CFP, of Dougherty & Associates, in Cincinnati.
Unfulfilled Needs
That golden early retirement handshake with your employer could be less lucrative than it looks. Before you sign the offer, examine the details carefully. Is the amount enough to see you through? If youll need to tap into your 401(k) before you reach age 59, be aware that there may be a 10% additional tax for early withdrawals. Is adequate medical coverage included?
If you have to buy COBRA insurance until youre eligible for Medicare, that wont come cheap. Buying Affordable Care Act insurance through the health insurance marketplace may not be inexpensive either, depending on your financial situation. What will happen to health insurance over the next few years is also much in doubt. Youll probably need a financial professional (and maybe a crystal ball) to walk you through the options.
The Point of No Return
If you change your mind after you take early retirement and want to return to the workforce, it wont be easy. Whether you quit your last job or were laid off, finding new employment when youre over 50 can be a struggle. If you do manage to snag a job, chances are, it wont pay as well as the one you left.
The Bottom Line
Clearly, theres a lot to consider as you approach retirement and decide when to stop working. If you have questions (and you should), just keep asking the experts: Social Security Administration agents, tax consultants, and financial professionals.
As president of the United States, Donald Trump was likely the wealthiest individual to inhabit the White House and his net worth remains a topic for debate.
In 2015, Donald Trump claimed in a press release that he was worth more than $10 billion, however, his net worth as of 2022 is estimated at $3 billion.
Key Takeaways Donald Trump is the founder of The Trump Organization, a private entity.
He is required to submit a financial disclosure document each year, although numbers are self-reported and dont provide an accurate estimate of his net worth.
Forbes estimates Donald Trump's net worth at $3 billion although Trump has claimed the value at $10 billion.
The Trump Organization
Since 1976, Donald Trump grew his wealth through global commercial, resort, and residential real estate development under the umbrella of The Trump Organization. As a private entity, The Trump Organization is not required to publish financial statements in the same manner as a publicly-traded company.
Donald Trump famously refused to publish his tax returns, which would show his annual income and taxes paid or owed. Although The New York Times published abbreviated information from Trump's tax returns on Sept. 27, 2020, the disclosure failed to provide details about his actual net worth.
As a former president, Trump completes a required annual financial disclosure to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Government financial disclosures may list assets and investments but in estimates and broad value ranges. In 2021, many of Trump's properties were valued at "over $50 million," however, these estimates are self-reported, unaudited, and also differ from numbers The Trump Organization has reported to state and local tax officials.
71 The number of properties in the portfolio owned and operated by The Trump Organization. This total includes commercial and residential real estate, golf courses, hotels, and personal estates.
Assets
In May 2022, Forbes estimated Trumps net worth at $3 billion, falling short of the $10 billion estimates that Trump suggested while running for office in 2015.
Forbes' numbers marry with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which placed the former presidents net worth at $2.97 billion in August 2020.Forbes has attempted to break down Trump's net worth by assets.
Net Worth The value of all assets minus liabilities.
Much of Trumps wealth is tied to multi-use buildings in Manhattan, including retail real estate in the busy Midtown district. His highest value asset is a 30% stake in the office and retail space at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, valued at $2.2 billion, with a debt value of $950 million on the property.
The Trump Organization owns several exclusive golf properties estimated at $730 million, including clubs in Scotland and Dubai. Trump's private golf club in Palm Beach, Fla, Mar-a-Lago, is valued at $350 million.
Trump holds approximately $275 million in cash and liquid assets. Other personal assets include three Florida homes and his 11,000-square-foot residence in New York City, the Trump Tower penthouse. Residential units throughout the United States and around the globe have an estimated value of $340 million. This includes hotels and residential locations in Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Europe, Asia, and South America.
Donald Trump announced in October 2021 that he was creating his own social media platform. Truth Social, held through Trump Media, garnered Donald Trump $430 million from investors. The Donald Trump brand, including his licensing and management business, is valued at just over $50 million.
Trump holds roughly $275 million in cash and liquid assets. Other personal assets include three Florida homes and his 11,000-square-foot residence in New York Citythe Trump Tower penthouse.
Trumps vast real estate empire includes approximately residential units throughout the United States. This includes hotels and retail locations in Chicago, Las Vegas, and San Francisco.
What Are Donald Trump's Estimated Liablities? Trump has a lengthy financial record which includes corporate bankruptcies and lawsuits. In 2021, Trump Organization owed $590 million in debts due within four years by 2025.
What Prominent Real Estate Locations in New York City Has Donald Trump Owned? Donald Trump has owned and sold many buildings in New York including the Plaza Hotel, the St. Moritz Hotel, now the Ritz Carlton on Central Park South, and the land under the Empire State Building.
What Is Considered One of Trump's Bad Investment Decisions? In 2014, Donald Trump partnered with an Azerbaijani family that U.S. officials called notoriously unethical. The building, a five-star hotel, and residence called the Trump International Hotel & Tower Baku in Azerbaijan has never opened.
The Bottom Line
Donald Trump's net worth has ranged in estimates from $3 billion to $10 billion. With his private firm, The Trump Organization, and its limited public disclosures, it has been difficult to capture the true net worth of his global commercial, resort, and residential real estate as well as his licensing and social media ventures.
What Is the European Union (EU)?
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic alliance of 27 countries. The EU promotes democratic values in its member nations and is one of the world's most powerful trade blocs. Nineteen of the countries share the euro as their official currency.
The EU grew out of a desire to strengthen economic and political cooperation throughout the continent of Europe in the wake of World War II.
The EU's gross domestic product (GDP) totaled $14.45 trillion euros in 2021. That's about $15.49 trillion dollars. The GDP of the U.S. for the same period was about $23 trillion.
Key Takeaways The European Union (EU) is a political and economic grouping of 27 countries committed to shared democratic values.
The euro is the shared official currency of 19 EU members known collectively as the eurozone.
In recent years, the EU has expanded to include many of the countries that had been Soviet Socialist States before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In the 2016 referendum known as Brexit, the U.K. voted to leave the EU. It officially left in 2020.
History of the European Union (EU)
The EU traces its roots to the European Coal and Steel Community, which was founded in 1950 and had just six members: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. It became the European Economic Community in 1957 under the Treaty of Rome and subsequently was renamed the European Community (EC).
This served to deepen the integration of the member nations' foreign, security, and internal affairs policies. The EU established a common market the same year to promote the free movement of goods, services, people, and capital across its internal borders.
The EC initially focused on a common agricultural policy and the elimination of customs barriers. Denmark, Ireland, and the U.K. joined in 1973 in the first wave of expansion. Direct elections to the European Parliament began in 1979.
Creation of a Common Market
In 1986, the Single European Act embarked on a six-year plan to create a common European market by harmonizing national regulations.
The Maastricht Treaty took effect in 1993, replacing the EC with the European Union (EU). The euro debuted as a common single currency for participating EU members on Jan. 1, 1999. Denmark and the U.K. negotiated "opt-out" provisions that permitted countries to retain their own currencies if they chose.
Several newer members of the EU have also either not yet met the criteria for adopting the euro or chosen to opt out.
The European Union Map. Investopedia
The European Debt Crisis
In the wake of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, the EU and the European Central Bank struggled to deal with high sovereign debt and sluggish growth in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece.
Greece and Ireland received financial bailouts from the EU in 2010 conditioned on the implementation of fiscal austerity measures. Portugal followed in 2011. A second Greek bailout was needed in 2012.
The crisis abated after the European Union and the European Central Bank adopted a series of measures to support the sovereign and banking-sector debt of the affected countries.
Long-Term Measures
These included the establishment in October 2012 of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), established to assist EU members experiencing severe financial problems, including an inability to access the bond markets. The ESM supplanted the temporary European Financial Stability Facility backstop in place since 2010.
The European Central Bank conducted a series of "targeted longer-term refinancing operations" in 2014, 2016, and 2019 to provide financing on favorable terms for EU financial institutions.
In 2015, the European Union loosened the provisions of the 2011 Stability and Growth Act requiring member states to target public debt of below 60% of gross domestic product and annual government budget deficits below 3% of GDP over the medium term.
The same year, a new EU agency, the Single Resolution Board, assumed responsibility for resolving bank failures in the euro area.
EU's North-South Issues
While the relief measures addressed the crisis, they haven't tackled one of its principal causesthe wide disparity in wealth and economic growth between the European Union's heavily industrialized north and its poorer southern periphery, which remains less urbanized and more dependent on agriculture.
Because the industrialized north and the more rural south share a common currency, struggling southern economies can't take advantage of currency depreciation to improve their international competitiveness. Without currency depreciation, southern exporters ultimately struggle to compete with their northern rivals, which benefit from faster productivity growth.
How It Works in the U.S.
In the U.S., federal transfer payments help to address similar economic disparities between regions and states.
States with higher average incomes tend to contribute a disproportionately large share of federal revenue, while those with lower incomes tend to account for a higher share of federal outlays.
In the European Union, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted joint spending measures some have called "an incomplete and fragile fiscal union in the making."
The Brexit Bomb
After rejecting earlier calls for a popular referendum on the U.K.'s European Union membership, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron promised a vote in 2013 and scheduled it in 2016. It was a time of growing popularity for the U.K. Independence Party, which opposed European Union membership.
After trailing in late polls, the Leave option won with nearly 52% of the vote on June 23, 2016. Cameron resigned the next day. The U.K. officially left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020.
In July 2020, a report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of the U.K. Parliament noted widespread media reports of Russian efforts on behalf of the Leave option and faulted the government for failing to investigate Russian involvement in British politics.
What Is the Purpose of the European Union? The European Union was created to bind the nations of Europe closer together for the economic, social, and security welfare of all. It is one of several efforts after World War II to bind together the nations of Europe into a single entity.
How Is the European Union Changing in the 21st Century? The original members of the European Union were the nations of Western Europe. In the 21st century, the EU has expand membership to the Eastern European nations that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its current member nations include Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
SAN DIEGO, CA - May 10, 2016 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Gopher Protocol Inc. (OTCQB: GOPH) ("Gopher" and the "Company"), a development-stage Company which specializes in real-time, heuristic-based mobile technology, and its partner, Guardian Patch LLC, announced today that they have completed the Company's mapping program, which traces the Guardian Patch on existing mapping systems. Users of the patch will be able to trace the patch on common mapping services like Google, Yahoo, and Bing in real time.
The Company has already commenced its field tests for transmitting and receiving signals in central North America. After successfully completing stage one of range testing of the Guardian Patch wireless system, the Company will continue to expand its wireless system field testing in both crowded urban and open areas within the United States.
The Company and its partner, Gopher Epsilon Corp. (to be formed), have designated an engineering team in Europe to supervise and develop technical support services as the Company enters a software evaluation license agreement. As previously announced by the Company on March 16, 2016, the Company's Epsilon Mobile Green EDA Software is an internal proprietary platform that has been developed as a tool designated for the mobile industry to accelerate integrated circuit designs with interactive error detection and correction. The software is targeted to assist microchip designers to produce integrated circuits with faster performance, self-heat optimization and longer life spans. The goal of the software is to significantly prolong battery life while reducing microchip heat, which will enable electronic devices to provide longer operation time with overall faster performance time.
Gopher has granted a temporary license to a third party vendor on a non-exclusive, royalty-free basis to use the Epsilon Mobile EDA Software and related materials (the "Licensed Technology") for the purpose of evaluating the Licensed Technology internally. There is no obligation on the part of the third party licensee to buy, lease, or otherwise acquire any ownership interest in, or pay any compensation for a license to use, the Licensed Technology for the evaluation period. Gopher's new European division will provide technical support to the third party licensee for the Licensed Technology during the evaluation period.
The Guardian Patch, potentially arriving in consumer markets in 2017, is a unique location technology that works with or without GPS. The patch is a stick-on device that provides its users with the capability to protect and track objects, a loved-one or even a pet, via a mobile application.
About Guardian Patch
Download the patch app, register your patch, and track anything that you own on your mobile device or on our designated website. Register the patches of your family members and friends to receive alerts in the event of an emergency. Peel the patch off, and the patch acts as a beacon, sending out a signal and notifying anyone who has registered the user's patch.
About Gopher Protocol Inc.
Gopher Protocol Inc. (OTCQB: GOPH) ("Gopher" and the "Company") (http://gopherprotocol.com/) is a development-stage company developing a real-time, heuristic-based mobile technology. Upon development, the technology will consist of a smart microchip, mobile application software and supporting software that will run on a server. The system contemplates the creation of a global network. Gopher believes this will be the first system that is developed using a human, heuristic-based analysis engine. Since the core of the system will be its advanced microchip technology that will be capable of being installed in any mobile device worldwide, Gopher expects that this will result in an internal, private network between all mobile devices utilizing the microchip by providing mobile technology for computing power enhancement, advanced mobile database management/sharing and other additional mobile features.
Corporate Site: http://gopherprotocol.com
Press page/ press kit:: http://gopherprotocol.com/?page_id=228
Consumer and product website for Guardian Patch: http://www.guardianpatch.com/.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission located at their website (http://www.sec.gov). In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.
Contact:
Dr. Dan Rittman, CTO
Gopher Protocol Inc.
888-685-7336
Media: press@gopherprotocol.com
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The World e-Parliament Conference is the biennial forum of the parliamentary community on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). It addresses, from both the policy and technical perspectives, how ICT can help improve representation, law-making and oversight, and increase parliaments openness, accessibility, accountability and effectiveness. The World e-Parliament Conference 2016 is co-organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, in partnership with UNDP and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and with support from partner organizations. The conference shall feature the following components: Presentation of the World e-Parliament Report 2016 and discussion of the key findings. Half-day thematic blocks (broadly aligned with the main chapters of the World e-Parliament Report) to enable in-depth discussions of policy and technical issues. Daily Innovation in parliaments segments in plenary to promote the sharing of innovations. Two workshops on (a) how parliaments engage with citizens via social media, and (b) how parliaments with lesser resources can deploy effective and sustainable ICT solutions. An Unconference providing a space for informal small-group discussions between participants on topics of mutual interest e.g. XML document standards, parliamentarians use of social media, etc. A Hackathon intending to demonstrate how parliaments can effectively develop innovative ICT solutions by engaging and collaborating with civil society. The Hackathon shall deliver applications (Apps) developed over three days. Delegations will include members of parliament, secretaries general and parliamentary ICT staff. Parliaments are encouraged to send gender-balanced delegations. Other participants in the conference will include experts from civil society, academia, the private sector and international organizations etc. The deadline for conference registration is Friday 27 May 2016. Photos of the session on Flickr
At the 2016 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS, UN Member States are expected to adopt a new declaration that will identify commitments and further actions to end AIDS by 2030. Parliamentarians have a key role to play in the implementation of global commitments at the national level insofar as they provide leadership, shape laws and policies, oversee government action and authorize financing for HIV/AIDS. The event will be organized in close cooperation with UNAIDS and will build on UN General Assembly resolution 70/228, which expressly encourages Member States to include parliamentarians in their national delegations to the High Level Meeting. The side event will provide legislators with the latest information on the issues to be discussed during the UN High Level Meeting. It will serve as a forum for the exchange of views and experiences on leadership towards ending AIDS as well as the role of parliamentarians, impact of laws and policies on the AIDS response and access to health commodities and services. The conclusions of the parliamentary meeting will be presented to the plenary of the High Level Meeting as part of the IPU statement. The parliamentary meeting is open to all members of parliament and parliamentary staff who will be attending the High Level Meeting as part of their national delegations. Simultaneous interpreting services will be provided in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic. IMPORTANT NOTE FOR PARTICIPANTS As is customary during meetings at United Nations Headquarters, security arrangements are very strict and no one may enter the United Nations premises without a special badge (for delegates and visitors). In keeping with normal practice, delegations and diplomatic missions in New York will be invited to attend to all matters relating to visas, UN Badges, hotel reservations and transportation. Participants must therefore request their badge from their country's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York .
The side event will provide parliamentarians with an opportunity to contribute to the global health agenda. Parliamentarians will be able to discuss how to make the best use of the wide variety of action that parliaments are taking on womens, childrens and adolescents health in order to achieve health-related SDGs and universal health coverage. Participant will also have the chance to consider potential ways to strengthen cooperation with relevant health actors. Initiated by IPU, the side event will be sponsored by Bangladesh, Italy and Lesotho. Simultaneous interpreting services will be provided in English, French, and Spanish. IMPORTANT NOTE FOR PARTICIPANTS The parliamentary meeting is open to all members of parliament and parliamentary staff who will be attending the 69th World Health Assembly as part of their national delegations. In order to be included in national delegations and attend the parliamentary event, members of parliament should contact their national Ministry of Health, which is the focal point designated by WHO for the composition and submission of national delegations. As is customary during meetings at United Nations Office at Geneva, security arrangements are very strict and no one may enter the United Nations premises without a special badge (for delegates and visitors). In keeping with normal practice, delegations and diplomatic missions in Geneva will be invited to attend to all matters relating to visas, UN Badges, hotel reservations and transportation. Participants must therefore request their badge from their country's permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva.
An international network of luxury travel agencies, Virtuoso, has revealed its list of hottest destinations for the upcoming 2016 summer travel season and Ireland is at number six on the list.
The survey shows that European destinations are top of the bucket list for most upscale American and Canadian jet-setters this summer with Italy, the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands ahead of Ireland in the top ten. According to Virtuoso, data was sourced from its United States and Canadian-based travel agency members whose turnover is $35 billion and reflects future travel for June, July and August 2016.
The Virtuoso top ten comprises the most popular destinations for summer vacations based on future bookings, and include:
1. Italy
2. United Kingdom
3. France
4. Spain
5. Netherlands
6. Ireland
7. Germany
8. South Africa
9. Greece
10. Israel
According to Virtuosos data, Ireland bookings are up 58%, with travelers flocking to Dublin and Galway in particular.
Read IrishCentral's Ireland's Travel Secrets here
Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Irelands Head of North America, said, Virtuoso is one of the travel industrys leading luxury networks, so the inclusion of Ireland at number six in this list is good news indeed. Its another well-deserved accolade, which provides Tourism Ireland with a great hook to continue to promote the island of Ireland as a must visit destination for American and Canadian travelers.
2015 was another record-breaking year for Irish tourism from the United States and Canada; and the outlook for this year is also positive, with the most recent CSO figures for Q1 showing growth of +24.5% in visitors from North America. We are undertaking an extensive program of promotions throughout 2016, to keep the momentum going and build on that growth.
Tourism is the island of Irelands largest indigenous industry; responsible for more than 4% of GNP in the Republic of Ireland and employing approximately 200,000 people. In 2015 Ireland welcomed more than 9.3 million overseas visitors to Ireland, delivering revenue of about 4.7 billion.
Read more: Ireland welcomes 10% of all American visitors to Europe
The scenic town of Moville lies on the banks of Lough Foyle, where the Bredagh River flows into the sea, on the Inishowen Peninsula of County Donegal, near the northern tip of Ireland. Due to its location and proximity of several beaches, the town is a summer favorite for visitors and day-trippers.
The name of the town comes from two possible Gaelic origins, translated from Bun a Phobail, meaning Foot of the Parish or Magh Bhile, meaning Plain of the Ancient Tree. The area largely consisted of undeveloped agricultural land until the mid 18th century. Cooley Cross, a simple stone high cross located in Cooley graveyard, and Skull House, a small stone building at the rear of the graveyard, believed to have been used as an oratory and mortuary, are two remnants of an early Christian monastic settlements on the outskirts of the town.
Samuel Montgomery, a wholesale and retail wine merchant from Killaghtee, County Donegal, was settled in Moville in the late 1700s and built Newpark House, which had a demesne of 60 acres and included Bath Green, in 1774. Montgomery began developing the town. The first houses were built in the 1770s. Generations of the Montgomery family continued to live at New Park house through the years. Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the hero of the WWII battle at El Alamein, was the great-great-grandson of Samuel Montgomery.
By 1820, there were 50 people living in the town and the area developed rapidly. In the early 1830s a grain store and grain market had been established, and Moville became known for its whiskey trade. Goods coming into town were traded for illegally distilled whiskey, and Quay Street, which was used to keep watch for smugglers, became known as Whiskey Lane.
Movilles location made it ideal for the maritime industry, and throughout the 19th century, large trading ships and transatlantic liners dropped anchor here. In the later years of the 1800s, Moville was a major port for embarkation for many travelers, including emigrants to Canada and America.
Read more from IrishCentral's Ireland's Travel Secrets series here
Although today the town receives little maritime traffic, it retains its small fishing harbor.
An annual regatta is held in Moville every August. It has been a tradition since early in the 19th century.
One of the towns most picturesque features is its Bath Green, a large seaside park in a Victorian style, featuring bandstands, walking trails, and sweeping views across the waters of the lough to Northern Ireland. The park was once part of the Montgomery estate, until Bishop Henry Montgomery (1847-1932) donated the shorefront area to the people of Moville as a recreation area. The bishop is also known for publishing the first written history of the town as a series of articles in the Londonberry Sentinel.
Visitors can take a walk along Moville Shore Path, which offers excellent coastal views of Lough Foyle. The route passes beaches, elegant shore-front dwellings and sites of historic interest.
The Shroove Lighthouse, or Inishowen Lighthouse, was one of two lighthouses built at Dunagree Point, and was used to guide vessels into Lough Foyle and steer them clear of the Tuns Bank. The lighthouse still has a caretaker.
Every year, Stuck Inside of Moville, the DylanFest on the Lough, a festival of Bob Dylan music, takes place in Moville as well as BeatlesFest on the Lough, an annual festival of Beatles music which take place on consecutive weekends at the end of August.
Moville was designated a Heritage Town in 2000.
Sources: MovilleInishowen.com, Tripadvisor, Loughs-agency, IrishLights.
Vice President Joe Biden will take a family trip to Ireland towards the end of June, IrishCentral has learned.
Biden has had some short stay-overs in Ireland at Shannon Airport during his time as Vice President but has always stated he would go to Ireland for a proper visit with his family.
It is likely to be a four day visit. He is expected to visit his family roots in County Mayo and meet with Irish leader Enda Kenny, who is also from Mayo.
The famously Irish Biden has received an open invitation from the Irish government to come to research his Louth and Mayo roots. In 2014 he was inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame by Irish America Magazine.
The Bidens are a very close extended family, especially after the tragic death of Bidens son Beau from brain cancer at the age of 46. The death of his son was also the key moment when his father decided not to run for President in 2016.
Biden has had a sometime rocky relationship with President Obama, especially in their first term, but the two have become very close in the second term and Obama eulogized Bidens son at his funeral.
The vice president has stated to our sister publication, Irish America magazine, I see myself as an Irish Catholic. If we have a moral obligation to other parts of the world why dont we have a moral obligation to Ireland? Its part of our blood.
Megan Smolenyak, the genealogist who traced Barack Obamas Irish roots, also researched Bidens when he was inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame.
She wrote: How can you not love a name like Finnegan Biden? I find it charming when family names are given fresh life in ensuing generations, and thats exactly what happened in the lineage bracketing Vice President Joe Biden. His beloved mother Jeans full name was Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden. Subtract Catherine Eugenia and you have the name of one of his granddaughters Finnegan Biden. Whether she knows it or not, theres a lot of history tucked into her first name.
My guess is that shes heard some of it from her grandfather, who likes to tell tales about his own grandfather Ambrose Finnegan, but she probably doesnt know everything Im about to share. As a professional genealogist, Im something of a retro-journalist who delves into peoples family histories, and given my own Irish roots, I have a soft spot for anyone who shares that heritage from Barack Obama to Barry Manilow. So I suppose it was inevitable that Vice President Biden would take a turn under my past-seeking microscope. Before probing more deeply, lets step back and take a look at the big picture well, the Irish part of that picture.
By heritage, Joe Biden is roughly five-eighths Irish. His mothers entire family tree traces to Ireland with ancestors named Arthurs, Blewitt, Boyle, Roche, Scanlon and Stanton accompanying her Finnegan kin. The last one-eighth comes from his fathers side, which contributed the Hanafee name.
Most of the immigrants in the Vice Presidents family were born in the early decades of the 19th century and made the journey to America mid-century, so the Famine was undoubtedly a key factor in their departure. With a couple of exceptions, they converged almost immediately on Scranton, PA. By the time the future Vice President joined the family in 1942, they had been settled there for roughly 70 to 90 years, so its little wonder that Scranton features so prominently in his narrative.
Bidens quintessentially Irish American mother was born in 1917 to Ambrose Finnegan and Geraldine Blewitt, so it seems appropriate to focus on the Finnegan and Blewitt branches that played such a strong role in shaping who he would become.
The Blewitts of County Mayo
In his Blewitt line, it was Bidens great-great-great-grandfather, Edward, who made the decision to immigrate to America in 1851, though he may have been influenced by his son, Patrick (Bidens eventual great-great-grandfather). Joining his parents and seven siblings on the voyage, 18-year-old Pat is recorded as a sailor on the ships manifest, but that was only part of the story. Though still a teenager, he had already worked as a cabin boy and lived in Chile, and there are hints that he may have previously been to the United States.
Ive long believed that families pass more than just physical traits through the generations, and the Blewitts are a classic example. A number of the Blewitt men, for instance, worked as surveyors with a focus on civil and mining engineering. Another common denominator? Wanderlust. Though Patrick centered his life in his adopted hometown of Scranton, his work took him everywhere from Iowa to Brazil at a time when most regarded such trips as once-in-a-lifetime experiences. This explains why his eldest Bidens future great-grandfather, Edward was born in New Orleans in 1859.
Edward inherited these occupational and meandering tendencies, putting in a decade as city engineer for Scranton before venturing to Mexico for a couple of years to oversee the construction of a drainage system and water works 138 miles of sewers and 90 miles of pipes for Guadalajara and the state of Jalisco. In a sign of things to come, Edward also waded into the world of politics, serving as a senator for the 22nd District in the Pennsylvania State Legislature. He was elected in 1907 and is believed to have been the first Irish American senator in the state.
Sadly, tragedy also links Edward with his famous descendant, as both lost their first wives at a young age. In 1972, a few weeks after Biden had been elected to the Senate, his first wife, Neilia, and their one-year-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in an auto accident. His sons also injured, Biden was sworn in at their hospital bedside. Mary Ellen (Stanton) Blewitt died of typhoid fever at age 27, leaving 29-year-old Edward widowed with several children including Bidens future grandmother, Geraldine, and her sister, Gertie, who would also figure in Bidens life in later years.
The Blewitts pride in their heritage can be seen in Edwards prominence in organizations including the Ancient Order of Hibernians (for which he chaired Scrantons 1897 St. Patricks Day Parade), the Irish American Association (founded at his suggestion and now known as The Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick of Lackawanna County), and the Mayo Mens Benevolent, Social, Patriotic and Literary Association.
The name of this latter society provides a fairly conspicuous clue to the origins of the Blewitt family, and they were indeed from County Mayo. Specifically, they were from the Ballina area, which is fitting as Scranton and Ballina happen to be sister cities. Its difficult to pinpoint the precise location because various branches of an extended family tended to recycle the same first names with great regularity, but Patricks obituary mentions Ardagh Parish. An April 1832 baptism for Patt Bluet with parents named Edward and Mary can be found in the neighboring Kilmoremoy Parish, and this fits rather nicely with the 18-year-old who arrived in New York with the rest of his family in 1851.
A number of Blewitts remain in the Ballina region today. One of them, Brendan Blewitt, fondly remembers a visit from Bidens mother in the late 1970s. Records from the critical timeframe are patchy, but it appears that Brendan and the Vice President are likely fourth or fifth cousins.
As it happens, former Irish President Mary Robinson, whose maiden name is Bourke, also hails from Ballina, and given that Brendans sister married a Bourke, its possible that Joe Biden and Mary Robinson are related by marriage. Were they to meet in Ballina, that would undoubtedly be one of the most memorable reunions of The Gathering.
The Finnegans of County Louth
Barack Obamas Kearney forebears came to America from the town of Moneygall, in Co. Offaly, a fact widely known since the Presidents pint-in-a-pub visit to his ancestral hometown, and its interesting to note the similarity to the Vice Presidents family migration. In the case of Bidens Finnegan line, the immigrant was Owen, his great-great-grandfather, and just as with Obamas Kearneys, the patriarch came to America before the rest of his family. In fact, Owen Finnegan arrived in New York on May 31, 1849, just five weeks after Joseph Kearney, Obamas ancestor. Curiously, both men were shoemakers.
Owens wife, Jane, followed with their children (including Bidens great-grandfather, James) almost a year later in May 1850 on a ship called the Marchioness of Bute, meaning that the Finnegans beat the Blewitts to America by about eight months. Unlike the Blewitts, however, the Finnegans did not go directly to Scranton. The 1850 census, conducted mere months after their arrival, finds them in Covert, NY. Before long, they shifted slightly north to the town of Ovid. Parents Owen and Jane stayed put and were eventually buried there, but their children scattered.
They lost one son, Michael, to the Civil War, at Cold Harbor in 1864. Another named Stephen was wounded at Spotsylvania Court House and carried shrapnel souvenirs for the rest of his life. Stephen and two of his brothers went to California, while other siblings settled in Ohio and Missouri.
It was Owen and Janes son James who stayed the closest to home, and census records provide a hint as to why this might have been. Two of the four records that include him state that he was blind. This inconsistency suggests that while he may not have been completely blind, he probably had a severe vision problem of some sort, which would explain why he didnt serve in the Civil War or follow the familys preferred occupation of shoemaker. Instead, he became a musician.
After marrying Catherine Roche in 1866 and living in Rochester, NY for several years, James moved to Olyphant, situated on the outskirts of Scranton. His wifes brother, Peter, also lived there, which would prove fortunate for the couples youngest son, Ambrose, born in 1884.
Ambrose, the future grandfather who would provide both fodder and inspiration for Biden, had a rough start in life, with his mother passing away before his second birthday and his father dying when he was ten. Just two days before his death, James wrote a will leaving his prized violin to Ambrose, a snippet of information that revealed that he had literally been a blind fiddler.
He also instructed that his house be held a year before selling, and that the rent or income of my property . . . be paid . . . to the St. Patricks Orphanage of Scranton, PA until said real estate is legally disposed of or sold. The orphanage in question was opened shortly after the Finnegans arrived in Scranton, and made national news in 1881 when 17 children died in a fire. The local community rallied to rebuild, and the Finnegans were among those who supported the effort, but knowing that James was aware that he would soon be leaving his youngest an orphan makes this final bequest all the more poignant.
Ambrose moved in with the family of his maternal uncle, Peter Roche, and remained close to them, even working for the Roche Company, which manufactured signs and bulletin boards. That they were devout Catholics is hinted at by the fact that Ambroses slightly older cousin, Thomas Roche, went abroad on more than one occasion with the Knights of Columbus.
It was on June 1, 1909 that the Finnegan and Blewitt families finally linked destinies, when Ambrose Joseph Finnegan married Geraldine Catherine Blewitt. Their first born was a honeymoon baby, which may be what motivated the freshly minted husband and father to put in a season as a census enumerator in 1910. As a result, should the Vice President ever wish to see a sample of his grandfathers handwriting, all he has to do is scan the pages of the 1910 federal census for Dunmore Borough in Lackawanna County.
As with the immigrant Finnegans, Ambrose and Geraldine also sacrificed a son to war when Second Lieutenant Ambrose J. Finnegan, Jr. was killed in May 1944. The plane he was flying has never been located, so he is considered MIA/KIA. Having assisted the Army and JPAC (Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command) for 14 years with repatriation efforts to identify soldiers who are still unaccounted for from past conflicts, it was immediately apparent to me that should his uncles plane or remains ever be recovered, Vice President Biden would be eligible to provide a DNA reference sample to help in the process, and given his familys proud military history, I suspect he would.
Little Joey Biden made his entrance the year after Ambrose and Geraldines daughter, Jean, married Joseph Biden, making him a fifth-generation Finnegan in the United States, but just where in Ireland did they come from?
The ships they journeyed on left from Newry, so that provided a clue, and working with Griffiths Valuation I narrowed the search to counties Armagh, Louth, Cavan, Monaghan and Meath. I knew that James Finnegan was born around 1840 with parents named Owen Finnegan and Jane Boyle, who would have probably married in the late 1830s, since James was their eldest. Considerable digging eventually unearthed a James baptized on December 18, 1840 in Lordship Parish in County Louth with parents named Owen Finegan and Jean Bail (likely a distortion of Boyle as Griffiths Valuation shows no Bail families).
Owen and Jane had married on December 8, 1839 in Cooley Parish, County Louth. The records involved are all Roman Catholic and the parishes border each other, indicating an origin in the vicinity of Carlingford, so should Joe Biden decide to pay tribute to his Grandpa Finnegan, County Louth can expect a visit.
Not surprisingly, that visit would be welcomed. Upon learning of the connection, Kevin Woods, a member of the County Louth Gathering Steering Committee, declared, We are going to move heaven and earth to get Vice President Biden here. But even aside from the Blewitt homeland of County Mayo, theres some competition. Bono of U2 is trying to tempt the Vice President to visit his own stomping grounds of Dalkey on the edge of Dublin. Hes a Finnegan, said Bono. His mother was a Finnigan, which is the name of my local pub, so I have to introduce him to my local publican. As persuasive as the famed singer and humanitarian may be, I wouldnt bet on him in this particular instance.
An Unexpected Call
I first began poking into Joe Bidens past before he became Vice President, and have shared bits and pieces of my discoveries online over the years. Even so, it caught me by surprise when I answered the phone one day last summer to hear the caller say, This is Joe Biden. Vice President Joe Biden. That he troubled to explain who he is may well be a reflection of the values he inherited from Grandpa Finnegan and others, including his great-aunt Gertrude, who wound up at the heart of our conversation that day. Gertie, it turns out, gave terrific back rubs, made the best rice pudding you ever tasted, and frequently reminded Joey to be proud of his Irish heritage. Rest assured he is, Aunt Gertie, and I think its safe to say the Irish are proud of Joey, too.
Ireland had a bitter history of the death penalty under the British. Famous rebels like Henry Joy McCracken, Robert Emmet and Padraig Pearse were put to death as a warning to other Irish people considering rebellion against the Crown.
Based on this, its no surprise that when the Irish sat down after independence to write their own laws they initially planned to abolish capital punishmen. The Irish Civil War soon changed minds, however, and the ultimate deterrent was kept on the statute books.
Twenty-nine ordinary Irish people would be hanged for murder before capital punishment was abolished in Ireland in 1964, but an even greater number would be sentenced to death before narrowly escaping the gallows. Here is a list of ten men and women who nearly came face-to-face with the executioner.
1. Hannah Flynn
Flynn was from Killorglin, Co Kerry and in 1922 was working as a domestic servant for the OSullivan family who lived nearby. She was sacked after just two months, however, for theft and disobedience.
On Easter Sunday the following year Margaret OSullivan was found lying on the kitchen floor by her husband when he returned from Mass. She had been butchered with a hatchet. Flynn was immediately under suspicion and was swiftly found guilty of murder and given a date of execution.
She was given a recommendation to mercy on account of her low intellect and received a reprieve after the sentence. She spent eighteen years in prison before being released into a convent.
Aylward was involved in an agricultural feud with his neighbors, the Holdens, in Kilkenny in 1923. He was accused, and found guilty, of taking their eighteen-month-old son William and pushing him into the fire, causing him an agonizing death as revenge.
Aylward came within days of execution for the crime, but was reprieved at the last minute. He served ten years in jail instead. He went to his death insisting that he had been framed for the horrific crime.
3. Jane OBrien
OBrien lived in Killinick, Co. Wexford, with her nephew John Cousins. In 1932 Cousins was engaged to be married and told his aunt that she would have to move out to make way for his new bride. The elderly woman instead took a shotgun from under his bed and shot him as he returned from the pub. She was found guilty but received a reprieve on account of her age and gender.
4. Mary Agnes Daly
Daly was threatened with eviction in 1948 for being unable to pay her rent. She then attacked a stranger in a church in Glasnevin, Co. Dublin, using a hammer she had brought with her (apparently to break open church money boxes.) The stranger was eighty-three year-old Mary Gibbons. Daly was quickly found guilty and scheduled to meet Pierrepoint, the hangman. She was reprieved two weeks before the execution, spending six years in jail instead.
5. Shan Mohangi
Mohangi was a South African medical student who came to Dublin to study in the early sixties. The 23-year-old started seeing a 14-year-old girl named Hazel Mullen shortly afterwards but proved to be insanely jealous. In August 1963 he strangled her after accusing her of kissing another boy and dismembered her body gruesomely.
Mohangi was sentenced to death for the despicable crime, but in a retrial was found guilty of manslaughter only. He served just four years in prison and returned to South Africa on his release. In 2009 he was running for political office in South Africa when his murderous past caught up with him. He was forced to withdraw from the race.
6. Mary Somerville
Mary Somervilles daughter gave birth to a child outside of wedlock in Co. Monaghan in 1938. Instead of living with the huge social shame that came with such an occurrence in 1930s Ireland, however, Mary took the baby girl and threw her into a pond outside her house. The body was discovered some weeks later and the grandmother was given a death sentence for two days before Christmas, 1938. It was commuted on the 9th of the same month.
7. Daniel Duff
Garda James Byrne is amongst the unfortunate number of Irish policeman shot dead while on duty. Incredibly, however, it was a fellow Garda who fired the bullet that killed Byrne. Byrne fought with Garda Daniel Duff in 1945 when they were both stationed on armed night-duty in Co. Limerick. Duff, convinced that his colleague was drawing his gun, pulled out his own firearm and shot Byrne twice through the heart. Duff claimed self-defence but was found guilty and given the death sentence. He was reprieved and served just over five years in Mountjoy Prison.
8. Hannah OLeary
OLeary was jointly charged with murder in 1924 along with her brother Con. The two were found guilty of killing their brother Patrick and dismembering his corpse before scattering it around a field adjoining their farmhouse in Kilkerran, Co. Cork.
Both denied the charges but were sentenced to death nonetheless. Con was duly hanged, claiming still to be an innocent man. Hannah spent seventeen years in jail, where she was described as not quite right by prison authorities. She was released into a convent in 1942.
9. Frances Cox
Cox was a Protestant from Co. Laois who wanted to marry a local Catholic. Her brother Richard did not approve but took ill suddenly in 1949 and died in excruciating pain. The Gardai treated the otherwise healthy young mans death as suspicious and examined his organs. They contained large traces of the deadly household poison strychnine.
Frances was found to have the means and the motive to have administered the lethal substance and was given a date with the hangman. Her sentence was commuted and she spent seven years in prison for the murder.
10. Robert Stevenson
Stevenson was from the Isle of Bute in Scotland and was a sailor. His oil tanker docked in Dublin shortly before Christmas 1953. Incredibly, after just twelve hours on Irish soil, Stevenson was said to have murdered Mary Nolan, a woman he met in a pub on the quays in the city. He maintained his innocence but was found guilty and sentenced to death the following year. He was reprieved, narrowly saving himself from becoming the last man hanged in the state.
The death penalty was last used in Ireland in 1954, just months before Stevenson was reprieved. It was abolished for ordinary murder ten years later.
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Colm Wallace has written a book Sentenced to Death: Saved from the Gallows about thirty Irish men and women who had the death penalty imposed on them between 1922 and 1985. It is being launched on June 17 this year and is available for pre-order on amazon.com
For more information see his Facebook Page or visit the Somerville Press website.
The latest release from the Panama Papers, shows tax evasion on an industrial scale, according to Oxfam Ireland.
The charity is urging governments to stamp out the use of tax havens and offshore companies by the world's super-rich.
Around 100 people have been taking part in an anti-racism protest in South Dublin this evening.
The gathering was in response a racist attack on three Afghan nationals near Marlay Park in Rathfarnham last week.
A fragile and limited ceasefire in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo and its surrounding countryside has been extended for the third time, for another 48 hours starting at 1am this morning, the Syrian military said yesterday.
The extension came a couple of hours before an earlier ceasefire was set to expire at 12:01 this morning.
It is not clear why the one-hour gap was planned between the new ceasefire and the expiring one.
Just hours before the government announced the ceasefire, the United Sates said that a new agreement with Russia would replace localised, piecemeal ceasefires in Syria with a revived, nationwide truce.
It was not clear if other announcements regarding cease-fires in the rest of the country would follow.
A joint US-Russia statement made no explicit reference to ending the practice of pursuing partial truces.
The extremist groups the Nusra Front, al Qaida's branch in Syria, and its more powerful rival the Islamic State group, are not included in the ceasefire agreement.
An intricate landscape where government troops, extremist groups, and Western-backed rebels operate, often side by side, has made an earlier cease-fire reached in late February difficult to sustain and monitor.
But also, elusive political talks have also hardened positions, endangering the ceasefire. World leaders are struggling to get faltering peace talks back on track.
Aleppo has seen the worst violence since an earlier cease-fire reached in late February collapsed. Nearly 300 civilians were killed in several days.
Syria's military said the new ceasefire would expire at midnight on Wednesday.
There were limited breaches of the most recent five-day ceasefire from both sides.
Multiple air raids on Monday struck rebel-held areas while shelling hit government-controlled parts of the northern city of Aleppo, two opposition monitoring groups and Syrian state media reported.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committee said the air strikes hit several areas in Aleppo, including the neighbourhood of Rashideen.
Monday's air strikes came a day after opposition fighters shelled the government-held neighbourhood of Midan, killing a child, state media and activists said.
Opposition activists also reported air raids and shelling on the town of Khan Touman, just south of Aleppo, which was captured Friday by a coalition of insurgent groups including the Nusra Front.
The battle left at least 13 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards force dead as well as troops and pro-government gunmen.
The town was captured by a coalition known as Jaish al-Fatah, or Army of Conquest, an ultraconservative group led by the Nusra Front, and the jihadi militias Jund al-Aqsa and Ahrar al-Sham.
The programme will be published in detail later this week but the Irish Examiner understands that the terms of the agreement will be more far-reaching than many believe.
The document calls on the Central Bank to commission an independent assessment of arrears on the loan books of the lenders with the purpose of reducing once and for all the level of arrears in Irish banks to more normal levels.
The Independent Alliance also has a commitment as has Fianna Fail under its separate accord to support but not join the Fine Gael-minority-led administration to lower the high levels of standard variable mortgage rates charged by lenders.
Yesterday, shares in Permanent TSB fell sharply, by 3.5%, for the second trading day after AIB and KBC announced mortgage rate cuts because PTSB is seen as the least likely easily to afford mortgage rate cuts.
Bank of Ireland fell 2% to 23 cent matching its 52-week low on belief that it may have to cut its standard variable rates too.
The fall in Irish bank shares was particularly marked because the Iseq index of all Dublin shares was up on the day.
The Independent Alliance agreement for a court and debt resolution and mortgage arrears agency aims to create a framework that removes fear and brings predictability to the process, according to a source.
It intends to create an environment to encourage those who have felt unable to engage to seek with their lender and be helped by a process offering empathy and certainty.
The agreement aims to provide more tailored mortgage arrears deals and write-downs of debt that avoid repossessions, if that is possible.
Senior policy analyst Paul Joyce at Flac the Free Legal Advice Centres gave a broad welcome to the Independent Alliance programme.
For a long time we have called for a system outside the courts to deal with mortgage arrears, he said, noting that it already happens in labour disputes.
Any new court or resolution agency may facilitate the provision of legal and financial advisory representation.
Mr Joyce said he was also concerned about agreements which borrowers agree to roll up or capitalise the mortgage debt.
What is disturbing is the ease with which capitalisation of mortgages is being offered to borrowers, he said.
The lender will still decide which of the solutions should apply and there is little evidence of many borrowers being offered a writedown of the mortgage debt.
The most recently available Central Bank figures for the end of 2015 show that 88,292 almost 12% of all mortgage accounts remain in arrears, without a agreement over any new restructuring between lender and borrower. A huge total of 120,739 accounts have been restructured.
Yesterday, Central Bank figures showed that despite significant falls since the depth of the crash that Irish households continued to be the third most indebted in the EU behind Denmark and the Netherlands.
Last month, the Department of Communications announced the latest setback to the plan, which will see the delivery of high-speed broadband to thousands of homes and businesses delayed by six months or so.
Previously, Eir announced plans to provide broadband to 300,000 rural premises that were set to be covered by the National Broadband Plan.
BT Ireland managing director Shay Walsh said: I think the issue really is that the fact that Eir have chopped and changed in terms of what theyre going to roll out themselves and, ultimately the National Broadband Scheme, by its very definition, has to cover literally, building by building, buildings that are not economically viable for the incumbent to deliver to.
When the incumbent starts to chop and change their mind as to whether theyre interested in rolling it out or not, it ultimately impacts the number of sites that are in the two lots and that ultimately has a direct impact on the commercial viability of whos rolling it out.
So for example, Eir are now saying theyre going to go and deliver to 300,000 of those 770,000 homes and premises around the country.
Mr Walsh said Eirs expanded rollout plans would have a massive impact and leave a harder pool of premises that are more expensive to reach for the successful bidder or bidders.
If youve got a bigger pool, some of which has less cost to implement, then youve got more to play with and youre not hitting the taxpayer for all of it, but if all thats left is the largely uneconomical ones then its a bigger leap of faith for any provider to go in and do that, said Mr Walsh.
BT is supporting two bidders involved in the National Broadband Plan, said Mr Walsh.
Eir said Mr Walsh was quite wrong to attribute the delay in the rollout to the company.
The Department of Communications confirmed that the delay measured in months is due to process delays and the department was quite clear in its explanation, said Eir.
The process introduced by the [department] is extremely complex, which is probably to do with the high threshold for getting State aid approval. Without State aid, the project cannot proceed.
We have been very clear in our ambitions for Ireland we want to bring high-speed broadband to as many homes and businesses across Ireland as possible as quickly as possible and we are delivering on that.
An 80-year-old who rose from modest Bedouin roots, al-Naimi headed the ministry for almost 21 years, steering the worlds largest crude exporter through wild price swings, regional wars, technological progress, and the rise of climate change as a key policy concern.
During my seven decades in the industry, Ive seen oil at under $2 a barrel and $147, and much volatility in between, al-Naimi told a gathering of the whos who of the American oil industry in February in Houston.
Ive witnessed gluts and scarcity. Ive seen multiple booms and busts.
The exit of Mr al-Naimi, who for years could move markets with just a few words, is the latest sign of how deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is stamping his authority on oil policy.
Khalid Al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Arabian Oil Co, the state-owned producer, will replace him as minister of energy, industry, and mineral resources.
Mr al-Falih is known to be close to King Salman and Prince Mohammed.
At the April 17 meeting in Doha where oil producers discussed a possible production freeze to shore up prices, Mr al-Naimi lacked authority to complete a deal, according to his Russian and Venezuelan counterparts.
The view of Prince Mohammed, who insisted no accord was possible without Iran, eventually prevailed and the talks collapsed.
Almost 18 months before, it was Mr al-Naimi who pushed the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to leave output unchanged.
Rather than cut back to sustain prices near $100 a barrel, Mr al-Naimis plan squeezed higher-cost producers, particularly US shale-oil drillers.
The strategy has had some success: The number of active US oil drilling rigs has fallen by a record amount, shale production is falling and companies of all sizes, including Exxon Mobil, are cutting investment.
However, Saudi Arabia itself has paid a great price, with foreign-exchange reserves plummeting and economic growth slowing.
The approach has also left Opec in tatters.
Bloomberg
Rumours of a new album or single have been doing the rounds for weeks and with a string of tour dates for 2016 already announced it seems something is afoot in the Mancunian band's camp.
Lemons, the symbol of the Stone Roses with some appearing on the cover of their seminal 1989 debut album, have started to appear on billboards and advertising screens across the UK.
The EU has dropped its target of at least 10% of public transport in EU member states to come from renewable energy sources by 2020.
In an article he wrote for Euractiv.com, he said this shift has created a biofuel zombie industry.
While family and admirers stood in silent contemplation, prayers for the commander of the Galtee Brigade of the Irish Volunteers were read out by Defence Forces chaplain Fr Gerry ONeill and Irish Prison Service chaplain Fr Alan Kelly.
Tributes were made by Junior Defence Minister Paul Kehoe, Defence Forces Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Mark Mellett and Brigader General Philip Brennan.
1: Where Thomas Kent last woke. 2: Where he breathed his last. 3: Where he lay for 99 years. 4: Where he now rests. pic.twitter.com/w8BKETpI2u Niall Murray (@niallmurray1) May 9, 2016
One hundred years on, we are challenged to live up to the ideals and aspirations of Kent and the others who fought, said Mr Kehoe. Thomas Kent longed for a free Irish Republic. Today we live in a free Irish Republic.
At the spot in the prison yard where he was executed, wreaths were placed by Kents niece Kathleen, and his grandniece Nora, accompanied by an honour guard of Cpl Alan Dully and Cpl Peter OFlynn.
Nieces of Thomas Kent, Prudence and Cathleen Kent, in his cell at Cork Prison yesterday. Picture: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision
Kent was one of only two rebels executed outside Dublin, the other being Roger Casement, who was hanged in London.
Later in the afternoon, the sombre ceremony gave way to a lively afternoon as an open day in Kents honour was held at Collins Barracks. It had all the elements of a funfair as hundreds of schoolchildren invaded the parade ground.
It was history in motion as army personnel told those gathered the story of the barracks and how it came to be named after General Michael Collins.
The might of military equipment took the eye but it was the display of space-age food stuffs that excited some children the most. An Army diver explained how he could heat up his chicken korma simply by putting it in his pocket and then showed them a spork, his most useful equipment in the field that combines the elements of a spoon and a fork and makes a Swiss Army knife look positively quaint.
Tadgh Murphy of Kilbonane National School, Aherla, with Barry OCallaghan after the commemoration ceremony. Picture: Clare Keogh
Nearby, an exhausted soldier performed his last of hundreds of high-fives as the children filed by. Thats me done now, he said, looking as if he would rather have faced the enemy than these tireless youngsters.
Through it all, the Band of the Southern Command outgunned the roar of military police motorbikes with everything from Alexanders Ragtime Band to Highland Cathedral, a slow air written for the bagpipes and featuring the lone piper who played movingly at the memorial service in the morning.
Stuart Perry, aged 42, and a female accomplice fled the scene with a bottle of detergent when discovered by staff but were arrested outside and described as off their heads on drugs.
The court heard Perry had tried crystal meth earlier that night for the first and last time.
Perry, of Thomas St, Dublin, but originally from Dun Laoighaire, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to burglary at Richmond Cheshire Home, Monkstown, on September 19, 2014. Judge Patricia Ryan adjourned finalisation of sentencing until July 15 to allow a probation report be prepared.
Garda David Maloney told Gerardine Small, prosecuting, that a staff member at the care home had arrived at work at 7.30am and noticed a do not disturb sign from an office door had been knocked down. She then saw a male on the ground nearby with a female standing over him.
A second staff member heard her screaming and saw the pair in the corridor. Perry woke up and left the area with his female accomplice. Gardai were notified and found the two outside with a bottle of detergent nearby and the keys to the office hanging out of Perrys pocket.
Perry later made full admissions. He told gardai he had taken crystal meth and his memory was not very good. He said he had just wanted to lie down and sleep somewhere.
The only things taken from the home were the keys and the bottle of detergent the female co-accused had believed was alcohol.
Patrick Reynolds, defending, said Perrys father had died from a drug overdose when he was nine years old and Perry himself began abusing heroin and cocaine at 18 years old. He was now on a course of methadone and working with an addiction rehabilitation service.
The report into allegations of malpractice in the gardai in the Cavan-Monaghan area has now been with the minister for justice for more than two weeks with little indication of when it will be published.
The Irish Examiner understands that, following one of yesterdays broadcasts, Lorraine McCabe, who is married to Sergeant Maurice McCabe, phoned the office of the minister for justice to plead with her to publish the report.
It is understood that Mrs McCabe was distressed at what she regarded as the selective reporting of elements of the report.
Separately, the Fianna Fail justice spokesman, Niall Collins, has also called for the malpractice report to be published.
Niall Collins
Its not good enough that the contents of such an important report are leading news bulletins while elected representatives have yet to see it, said Mr Collins.
I would urge the minister to publish the report as soon as possible.
I also believe that the Oireachtas Justice Committee and indeed the Dail in general will need to debate the report at the earliest opportunity.
The report has examined eight criminal cases of which Sgt McCabe complained, the most serious of which is a serious assault case which preceded the murder of Silvia Roche Kelly in 2007.
Mrs Roche Kellys husband Lorcan told RTE yesterday that he had seen sections of the report relating to his case and he was not surprised by the outcome.
Im not satisfied from what I know of the report, but Im not surprised, he told Keelin Shanley on the Today with Sean ORourke programme.
The thing that disappoints me is it looks at what happened, but it didnt look at what happened afterwards.
The obfuscation and that which felt like a cover-up from the gardai.
The gardai have been incredibly unco-operative [in admitting] to any failings.
READ MORE: MICHAEL CLIFFORD: OHiggins report must be promptly published to dispel any opportunistic, misleading spin
The young Corkwomans family founded the Emer Casey Foundation in 2006 to promote awareness of the disease as the symptoms can often be missed.
The foundation, at the weekend, presented two mobile ultrasound scanners to St Jamess Hospital in Dublin.
They will be used by the hospitals outpatient gynaecology department to assist in the early detection of ovarian and uterine cancer in women.
Ovarian cancer is the most fatal gynaecological cancers and early diagnosis is crucial. However, symptoms of the disease are not specific.
It it is said that it is the disease that whispers so you should listen carefully. Know your body and what is normal for you, said Juliette.
GynaeCancerCare at St Jamess saw 346 women with new gynaecological cancers last year there were 112 endometrial cancers and 110 ovarian cancers.
New guidelines have been launched by the national cancer control programme to increase doctors awareness of ovarian cancer and to encourage the earliest referral for ultrasound scans at general hospitals throughout the country.
St Jamess was part of the successful pilot programme to introduce the new guidelines and the national rollout will see more women presenting with earlier stage disease.
Emer was just 28 when she died in 2006. Juliette said she often wondered how her life would have turned out if her daughter had been given a chance.
Would she be in Australia, like most people travelling or would she be in Ireland, married with a family? We can only wonder and imagine, said Juliette.
Emer, born on June 6, 1978, was the youngest of five girls. She studied law and French at University College Cork and, on completing her degree, was offered a traineeship and then a full-time position at Matheson.
Her vibrant and very full life was cut short in on June 10, 2006, four days after her 28th birthday. Just three months previously, she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Sadly, most women like Emer present with advanced stage disease and 70% die within five years. Ireland has one of the highest mortalities in Europe from ovarian cancer.
The Emer Casey Foundation has raised 900,000 to date with the help of Emers family, friends and neighbours from Youghal, Co Cork and also with the help of her employers Matheson.
The cash was concealed in a packet of frozen vegetables, a Kelloggs Corn Flakes box, the legs of a TV stand, and behind kickboards.
Yesterday, the main culprit was jailed for four years.
Jonathan Heaphy, aged 34, pleaded guilty to the greatest number of charges, out of the five family members accused. He was given a seven-year sentence, with the last three years suspended.
At Cork Circuit Criminal Court, Judge Sean O Donnabhain noted the evidence by Sergeant Clodagh OSullivan that Heaphy had control of over 90,000 found in cash and post office savings books during the Garda investigation.
Sgt OSullivan said Heaphy had given various explanations for the cash, including gambling wins, a loan, and that it was the proceeds of a compensation claim. Heaphy had claimed he made over 10,000 from breeding dogs, but the Irish Kennel Club had no record of him.
Judge O Donnabhain said about the accounts: They were untruthful, devious, and given to create as much confusion as possible.
The sentence has to contain a certain deterrent value. He was in control of money and no doubt the money came from criminal sources. He knew that at all stages.
Jonathan Heaphy, of 131 St Colemans Rd, Farranree, Cork, pleaded guilty to a total of nine charges. He admitted having cash sums of 29,500, 2,200, 650, and 3,000 at his home, a post office account with a 10,500 balance, and a post office account in a juveniles name with a 10,010 balance at 131 St Colemans Rd. He also pleaded guilty to having 28,000 and 200 in cash and a post office account with just over 10,000.
His mother Helen, aged 52, and his siblings Nicole, aged 33; Jessica, aged 22; and Daniel, aged 21, got suspended jail sentence for various offences involving lesser amounts.
Helen, Jessica, and Daniel Heaphy were each given a two-year suspended jail sentence. Nicole Heaphy got a one-year suspended term because the judge said she had made truthful admissions.
The wording on all charges is similar, stating that the accused person engaged in concealing the source of funds, namely the particular amount of cash or the particular post office book with certain balance, knowing or being reckless as to whether it represented the proceeds of criminal conduct. The charges were all brought under section 7 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010.
Daniel Heaphy, of 59 Kerryhall Rd, pleaded guilty to having 10,000 in an An Post book located behind a kickboard at 131 St Colemans Rd.
Helen Heaphy, of 59 Kerryhall Rd, admitted having a post office book with about 6,000 in it.
Jessica Heaphy of 59 Kerryhall Rd, pleaded guilty to having 2,000 in cash and 4,000 in a post office book inside a cereal box at 11 Kerryhall Rd.
Nicole Heaphy, of 131 St Colemans Rd, admitted having a 2,000 post office book and cash of 28,000 and 200.
Sgt OSullivan said that, in the course of the search at 131 St Colemans Rd, members of the Garda Divisional Drugs Unit found 28,000 in cash hidden in a packet of frozen vegetables.
In the same house, they found 29,500 in cash concealed in the legs of the television stand. They also found 2,000 in a shirt pocket and 650 in a glass.
The judge noted that, apart from the more than 90,000 referred to in Jonathan Heaphys charges, there were other amounts of cash from others in the family that appeared to be directed towards him.
Judge O Donnabhain said, from Sgt OSullivans evidence, Jonathan Heaphy had no mortgage on his house and had paid for it in cash.
Marjorie Farrelly, defending, said Jonathan Heaphy was still dealing with the Criminal Assets Bureau over his financial affairs.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his son, was identified by an international policing operation against child pornography.
Detectives from the Garda National Paedophile Investigation Unit tracked the man down using an IP address and, during a search of his home in March 2015, they discovered 12,427 images of child pornography. These included images depicting graphic sexual assault by adults of children as young as two weeks old. More than 5,500 of these images related to his son, who was aged 6 to 7 during the time the images were produced.
The man pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to two counts of rape and 10 counts of sexual assault of his son on dates between January 2014 and March 2015. He admitted three counts of sexual exploitation of his son, two counts of production of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography.
Sentencing him yesterday, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said this was the most difficult case he has dealt with and that the fathers breach of trust was magnified because of his sons disability, which had left him unable to speak.
He said the man developed a taste for child pornography and decided it was necessary to generate his own using his son. This was then distributed to others.
The indignity lives on in some part of the world when some pervert somewhere looks at the material, said Mr Justice Hunt.
Philip Sheahan, defending, said his client got involved with this offending because of some kind of thrill of accessing material that other people couldnt access rather than the thrill of the material itself.
Mr Justice Hunt said there seemed to be very enthusiastic participation in the abuse. He asked if the offending was made easier by the fact the victim was incapable of speaking.
Counsel replied that when asked why he chose to abuse his son, the man said: He was there.
Mr Justice Hunt said mitigating factors included the mans early plea of guilty and his remorse, including concern he expressed for his son during Garda interview.
He said these mitigating factors meant he would not impose an indeterminate life sentence, noting that this meant overcoming the revulsion one feels... and not without some misgivings.
He ordered that the man comply with the Probation Services for a post-release supervision period of five years and backdated his sentence to April 2015, when the man went into custody.
Mr Justice Hunt said it was unbearably sad that a disabled child should be treated like this. He said it was perhaps fortunate for him that he did not understand what happened to him.
Garda bosses have assembled a 24-hour security operation in the Crumlin and Drimnagh area of Dublin after headquarters raised the threat level.
Roaming high-visibility and armed checkpoints, backed up by air support, have been put in place since Monday of last week.
Garda sources said this was an intelligence-led decision and followed an assessment by the forces Security and Intelligence Section, based in Garda HQ.
Six people have been murdered in the Kinahan-Hutch feud since last September, five of them at the suspected hands of the Kinahan cartel.
In retaliation for the murder by the cartel of Gary Hutch in Spain last September, the Hutch gang shot dead Kinahan lieutenant David Byrne, from Crumlin, at the Regency Hotel in north Dublin on February 5.
Since then, the Kinahan syndicate has murdered Eddie Hutch, Noel Duggan, innocent bystander Martin ORourke, and Michael Barr.
Gardai yesterday arrested two men in relation to the murder of Eddie Hutch. One suspect in his 30s was picked up in the Dublin area and arrested under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act 2007, which allows for up to seven days detention. He was taken to Mountjoy Garda station. A second man in his late 20s was arrested yesterday evening and was detained at the Bridewell Garda Station.
Investigating gardai are continuing to appeal for anyone with information to contact the incident room at Mountjoy Garda Station on 01-666 8600, the Garda Confidential Line 1 800 666 111 or any Garda Station.
Community groups in the north inner city, where three of the murders have taken place, have held a meeting to vent their fears of further violence in their area.
Garda sources believe that while the Kinahan cartel intend to continue their killing spree, the Hutch gang is planning a major retaliation.
The fear is the Hutchs are planning a spectacular, said a garda source.
It is unclear what impact the murder of Barr, a dissident republican, will have on the feud and whether it will introduce a third warring faction in the New IRA.
Gardai are watching closely, with some sources indicating a reluctance of the grouping to get involved.
Mr Barr had been a major figure in the dissident outfit, which includes the Real IRA, but fell out with the Northern leadership who were unhappy its weapons were provided to the Hutch gang for the Regency attack.
The Kinahan cartel also suspected Mr Barr provided logistical support to one of the killers, a dissident from Co Tyrone, and provided a safe house for him.
It is thought that apart from the Kinahan family members, all the associates of the cartel are still in the south Dublin suburbs.
The associates, mainly centred around families, many of them inter-related, continue to live and travel openly, posing additional security difficulties for gardai.
Gardai have drawn up 24-hour rosters of checkpoints and patrols, conducted under normal rosters and, to a large extent, through overtime.
Many of the checkpoints focus near where known members of the Kinahan cartel live.
Gardai estimated that in the region of 40 members and associates live in the area, many of them clustered around five or so families.
The body of man in his 40s, whos not been named, was found in the basement of a three-storey, three-bedroom townhouse in a North Cork village yesterday.
Gardai sealed off No 10 Manor Mills in Rathcormac, near Fermoy, following the discovery at around 11am.
People living in the quiet estate, which is 10 years old, expressed shock at the unfolding scene as gardai arrived in force to carry out their investigation.
Many residents said they commute to work from the village and knew little of the dead Polish man, who is believed to have lived in the rented property for only a couple of months along with at least two other people.
Its understood the other occupants of the house were being spoken to by gardai.
Gardai cordoned off the house and a red Volkswagen Passat which was parked in the driveway and a silver Peugeot 206, which was parked directly in front of the house.
Ewa Kaczmarek, a young Polish mother who lives in the estate, said she knew the victim to see, but didnt interact with him.
Ms Kaczmarek, who has little English, said that the dead man had some friends in Fermoy and had been living in the property for maybe two months.
Another neighbour, an Englishman, said many people in the estate didnt know each other.
This is a very quiet estate. Its [the mans death] a bit of a concern. This is North Cork, not downtown Chicago, he said.
Young mother Breda Griffin said the cordoned off scene was a shock to everybody living in the estate.
This is a very quiet area. Nearly everybody is commuting to work. Its only those with kids who know each other here because the kids play together. This is a shock, she said.
Deputy State Pathologist Linda Mulligan arrived at the scene shortly before 4pm and went into the basement of the house accompanied by garda crime scene forensic experts from the Cork City and Cork North Garda Divisions to conduct a preliminary post mortem.
She emerged about 15 minutes later and then went in the red main front door entrance of the property to examine the rest of the house.
Senior gardai, including Superintendent Mick McGuire and Detective Inspector Brian Goulding, spoke to her before the mans body was removed by local undertaker, James Ronayne, who took it to the mortuary at Cork University Hospital where the postmortem will be carried out this morning.
County registrar Pat Wallace was dealing with more than 170 civil bills for repossession of houses. He had to abandon the sitting, which descended into chaos after about half the list had been dealt with.
Garda reinforcements had to be called in to remove more than 150 people from the building. One garda on duty in the courtroom has been unable to return to work due to an injury he sustained.
Supt Derek Smart of Henry Street Garda Station said yesterday: A sergeant is now carrying out an investigation into all the circumstance of what occurred. If that investigation finds there has been a breach of the law, we will then proceed with a file for the DPP.
The trouble began when one man approached Mr Wallace on the bench waving a sheet of paper. As he continued to harangue Mr Wallace, gardai removed him.
Others in the public gallery then started to shout abuse at the gardai.
As the situation developed, groups walked up to where solicitors for lending institutions were seated and began to hurl abuse at them.
Within minutes, a group of more than 100 took over the courtroom and Mr Wallace rose and left.
As gardai tried to calm the situation, the level and intensity of abuse worsened and more insults were shouted at gardai. When Mr Wallace returned to say the hearing was not proceeding any further on Friday, the protesters cheered and began to sing Amhran na bhFiann.
Most of those involved in the protest were not defendants in house repossession cases, and had travelled from Mayo, Waterford, and other parts of the country.
At approximately 10.30am yesterday, a lone raider armed with what appeared to be a sawn-off shotgun burst into the post office at Little Island, on the eastern outskirts of Cork City, and demanded cash from a female employee.
He escaped in a green Ford Focus hatchback with what gardai described as a relatively small amount of cash.
The car was found abandoned around 30 minutes later, a few kilometres away at Brooklodge, Glanmire.
It was left outside Brooklodge National School and gardai are looking at CCTV footage taken in the area in an effort to determine where the gunman went after that and if he had any accomplices.
The employee was not physically injured during the raid but she was said to have been shocked by the ordeal.
The post office at Trafford Park was closed as gardai carried out a forensic examination of the scene in an attempt to find clues relating to the raiders identity.
Detectives are looking at the possibility that yesterdays armed raid was connected to a similar incident which occurred in Brooklodge, Glanmire, on April 18.
That evening, a lone gunman entered the Applegreen service station and demanded cash from staff before fleeing in a getaway car which he abandoned a short time later.
The man who raided the post office yesterday is described as being 5ft 8in, of strong, stocky build, and wearing black Addidas tracksuit pants with white stripes on them. He wore a light-purple top with a light-blue hoodie inside, and had a black scarf or balaclava covering his face. He also wore black gloves.
The hubcap was missing from the drivers side front wheel, and the car is a 99 C registration.
Gardai do not yet know if the car travelled to Glanmire via the Dunkettle back road, under the Dry Bridge from Glounthaune, or along the N25.
Anybody with information about the post office robbery in Little Island yesterday or last months robbery at the service station in Glanmire is asked to contact Mayfield Garda Station at 021 4558510.
Karen McCabe, aged 46, of Bewley Drive, Lucan, Co Dublin, underwent a procedure to remove varicose veins at the Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin on August 6, 2014. Her vascular surgeon, Austin Leahy went to his Kerry holiday home two days later. On August 15, Ms McCabe died due to a blood clot in the lung believed to have originated in the lower leg.
An inquest into her death heard she presented at Beaumont Hospital on August 14 and died the next day. She had contacted the Bon Secours three days before her death complaining of pain in her knee and difficulty walking.
A resumed inquest at Dublin Coroners Court heard from Bon Secours senior house officer (SHO) Kingsley Opputeh, who wanted to admit the patient and carry out a scan on August 13, but only Prof Leahy could authorise Ms McCabes admittance to the Bon Secours. Prof Leahy had left instructions that he should be contacted via text if he was needed but network coverage in the area was unreliable, the court heard.
He noticed a missed call from a general Bon Secours number and did not reply because it was not a specific number, the court heard.
Bon Secours hospital manager Mike Tonery confirmed it was procedure that consultants must take responsibility for admitting patients but said never again would an SHO be prevented from admitting a patient because a consultant was not available.
Mr Tonery said that, under measures introduced in the wake of Ms McCabes death, the SHOs first option was to contact the primary consultant, followed by the second consultant and, failing that, could refer patients to a recently opened medical assessment unit within the hospital that operates within office hours.
Out of hours, all other options exhausted, they should refer to accident and emergency at Beaumont, he said.
Coroner Brian Farrell returned a verdict of medical misadventure and endorsed the new arrangements at the Bon Secours.
After the inquest, the family of Mrs McCabes issued a statement:
The family is comforted by the fact that learnings have occurred in the Bon Secours hospital, and that new cover arrangements when consultants are unavailable have been put in place. Unfortunately for Karens family, nothing can bring her back.
John Ahern, regional manager with Indaver for Ireland and the UK, said he believed another incineration facility is likely in his native Limerick at some stage in the future. It was the likelihood of another project there that reaffirmed his conviction that the Ringa-skiddy site was best suited for the waste-to-energy facility in Cork Harbour.
He was speaking at the oral hearing into the proposal, which has prompted huge opposition from local people as well as government ministers, local TDs, the air corps, and the Department of Defence.
One counter-argument put forward by those opposed to the incinerator plan is that the site picked by Indaver is unsuitable and that others should have been considered.
Mr Ahern said that when the incinerator plan was first proposed back in 1999/2000, a number of sites were looked at, including in Charleville and Mallow in North Cork.
John Ahern
He said issues that had ruled out possible alternatives in locations such as Whitegate and Carrigtwohill, such as the presence of pylons or land issues, were still there now, while other possible alternatives did not have sufficient road network.
Regarding the Ringaskiddy site, Mr Ahern said: Unfortunately for all the people there it was a good site, it was always a better site.
He said the incinerator proposed for Ringaskiddy was never outlined as being a national facility but rather would be to meet the waste needs of a part of the county that had the second largest concentration of population outside Dublin, which was already being served by Poolbeg and a facility in Meath.
Mr Ahern said someone else had already made a proposal regarding Limerick by the stage Indaver was looking to make a fresh submission. He said: We believe and I believe myself that there will be a facility in Limerick at some stage.
The site in Ringaskiddy was the most appropriate one and has got better.
We believed it was better to stick with sites that had already been identified in the county development plan.
Dave Coakley of Coakley ONeill Town Planning Ltd, speaking on behalf of Indaver, has already told the hearing that the company felt the county development plan was directing us to the area.
As for a site in Bottlehill, which the hearing was told may also be under consideration as a licensed landfill for bottom ash that might be removed from any incinerator, Mr Ahern said no roads radiated to or from that site whereas they did for Cork City, which allowed access to Ringaskiddy.
He said Ringaskiddy was also unique in terms of being in an area of very high concentration of industry, which would also assist in the provision of district heating.
Sean Cronin of the Zero Waste Alliance group said there was no demonstrable market demand for district heating and the possibility of a hostile market locally which mean Indaver may or may not be able to sell that heat.
Protests toward Indaver
There were claims from some speakers that Indavers proposal for the facility was either incomplete or premature, given the site for destination of bottom ash has not been finalised.
Councillor Marcia DAlton (Ind) rejected claims by Indaver that there was still a need for a facility with capacity to deal with 300,000 tonnes of waste.
She also rejected assertions from Indaver that the proposed facility is reduced in size from those outlined in previous submissions.
The oral hearing is continuing, with the Department of Defence due to respond to Indavers own response to its initial concerns regarding the proposed facility and how it might impinge on its personnel and operations in Cork Harbour.
The Roscommon-Galway TD opted to abstain from Fridays vote for taoiseach over the issue of turfcutting.
Mr Fitzmaurice said he is now considering all options, including starting a new group to focus on rural issues after being contacted by up to 20 individuals in recent days.
I had a lot of approaches over the weekend from people some of whom did very well in the election asking me would I spearhead something new, he said.
Mr Fitzmaurice took negotiations on government formation down to the wire ahead of last weeks vote for taoiseach, but was unable to reach agreement with Fine Gael on the issue of bogs and access for turfcutters.
He and fellow Independent Alliance member Sean Canney were due to continue talks on this subject with Finance Minister Michael Noonan.
However, talks did not resume yesterday as Mr Noonan was out of the country on EU business.
Mr Fitzmaurice hinted that he would not be going back into talks unless a solution can be found.
Its in their hands, he said, adding that Mr Noonan had said the issue could take two or three months to resolve.
I have to see where I am on speaking time, and whether I will stay with the Independent Alliance or I might do something else, said Mr Fitzmaurice.
I had a lot of contact over the weekend from people asking me to spearhead something new. I had around 20 phonecalls from people asking me to start something new for rural Ireland. So I will assess that.
I am not going jumping into something or jumping out of something.
In March, An Bord Pleanala granted Shannon Foynes Port Company a compulsory purchase order (CPO) over 37.5 hectares of Irish Cements property in order to expand the harbours facilities.
In judicial review proceedings against the planning authority, Irish Cement Ltd is seeking an order from the court setting aside the CPO. Shannon Foynes Port Company is a notice party to the proceedings.
A spokesperson for Irish Water confirmed the agreement was reached on February 29, insisting there was no reason to discuss the move with the Department of the Environment because it was an internal company matter.
It was reported yesterday that Irish Water spent 16m on the extension of its lease at Colville House in Dublin City three days after the general election.
The decision, confirmed after internal correspondence was released under the Freedom of Information Act, was made without consultation with the Department of the Environment or then minister Alan Kelly.
Alan Kelly
In a statement last night, an Irish Water spokeswoman said despite concern over the cost of the 10-year lease extension and the timing of the move, nothing untoward has taken place.
Twenty-nine months ago Irish Water took over the remaining term of the lease held by the previous tenant of Colville House, she said.
The lease we took over ended on February 28, 2016. The end date of the lease was therefore predetermined 29 months ago.
The signing of a new lease was simply a case of Irish Water ensuring it held a current lease for the building it occupies, ie Irish Water acting like any other normal business.
Asked whether Mr Kelly who did not return phone calls yesterday was aware of the deal and if he cautioned against or supported it, a spokesperson for the Department of the Environment said: This is a matter for Irish Water and you should contact them to discuss the specific requirements they had with regard to the selection of the offices at Colville House, Talbot St.
It is a matter for the Ervia board who approved the signing of the new lease. The minister had no role in this process.
The 10-year lease extension is one of a series of planning controversies that have emerged in Irish Water since the general election result.
In March, it emerged the company had advertised 46 positions since January, most of which were highly skilled and senior posts.
It also faced questions over still unexplained delays in publishing the latest payment/cancellation figures for water charges. The figures were meant to be published three weeks ago. They are now expected to be released in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Enda Kenny will separately meet with all opposition leaders today to discuss whether a full-blown Moriarty tribunal-style inquiry is needed to uncover the facts behind the IBRC/Siteserv controversy.
Enda Kenny
Mr Kenny sent the request for the meeting to Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, the Social Democrats, Greens, and Independents4Change yesterday afternoon amid delays in the investigation.
The Siteserv and IBRC investigation was set up in June 2015 after public outrage and a brief constitutional crisis over what could be reported in the Dail.
It had been intended to complete its work within seven weeks after examining 37 company sales including the Siteserv deal linked to Irish Water.
Enda Kenny has 11 positions to fill in the Upper House and is expected to announce these as soon as this week.
Mr Kenny is also due to appoint junior ministers, but this may not happen until the Dail resumes next week.
He is delaying the appointment so new and reconfigured departments have time to reorganise the remit and responsibilities of appointed junior ministers.
There is speculation that Meath East TD Helen McEntee, Wicklows Andrew Doyle, Offalys Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, Damien English of Meath West, and Carlow-Kilkenny TD John Paul Phelan could receive positions.
It is understood that John Halligan of the Independent Alliance could be given responsibility for tourism and sport, meaning Michael Ring would change portfolio. Fellow Alliance member Sean Canney has also been promised a junior ministry.
Unlike the last Seanad, where the Taoiseach nominated a number of Independents including Olympian Eamonn Coghlan, Jillian van Turnhout of the Childrens Rights Alliance, and broadcaster Marie Louise ODonnell this time he will be unable to do so because of the numbers.
Fianna Fail has 14 members in the Seanad while Fine Gael has 13, so Mr Kenny will be under pressure to choose as many of his nominees from his party.
Among those tipped for a Seanad position are Mr Reilly, who failed to retain his Dail seat in the general election. His appointment could mean he stays deputy leader of the Fine Gael parliamentary party.
Other Fine Gael members tipped for Seanad seats include Anne Marie Dermody, who ran for the Dail in Dublin South West, as well as Sean Barrett, Paudie Coffey, and Michelle Mulherin.
Also in contention is Tom Hayes, a former junior minister, but he faces competition from fellow Tipperary member Noel Coonan. Both lost seats in the election.
Even with the 11 Taoiseach nominees, the make-up of the Seanad means votes may be tight.
Newly elected Fine Gael senator Jerry Buttimer said the success of the last Seanad was down to cross-party cooperation, adding that this would be even more important in the 24th Seanad.
Its exciting to be part of this Seanad. Because of the numbers it will have a different emphasis, he said.
Senator Maura Hopkins said: Every piece of legislation is going to be scrutinised and in terms of every vote, it will be tight.
The veteran broadcaster, known for his velvety voice on radio and television, died of cancer on January 31 aged 77.
Limerick-born Wogan, one of Britain and Irelands most famous stars, was hailed as a national treasure following his death.
The BBC press office tweeted: A Service of Thanksgiving for Sir Terry Wogan will take place at Westminster Abbey on 27 September. Further details in due course.
Leading figures in showbusiness and politics have paid tribute to the much-loved personality, with British prime minister David Cameron saying he was someone millions came to feel was their own special friend.
He was last on air on BBC Radio 2 on November 8, and days later was forced to pull out of presenting Children In Need at the last minute due to health issues.
Wogan has already been remembered in a special episode of Songs Of Praise.
He had spoken in recent years about not believing in God after the death of his three-week-old daughter Vanessa in 1966.
Meanwhile, a Eurovision boss has said that Wogan totally spoiled Eurovision by mocking the acts during his acerbic commentary.
Wogan was accused of creating a generation who see the show as irrelevant and kitsch by Christer Bjorkman, the Swedish producer of this years contest, who said he would never have given him the job.
The Scandinavian country is known for its earnest Eurovision entries and has won six times with contributions that went on to become smash hits, from Waterloo by Abba in 1974 to Euphoria by Loreen in 2012.
Wogan first fronted the BBCs Eurovision coverage in 1971, and his stinging commentary proved to be one of the many highlights of his career.
In March 2007, Kieran Lynch, aged 49, was sentenced to life in prison by Mr Justice Paul Carney, having been found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury of the murder of his partner, Catherine McEnery.
Lynch, a native of Askeaton in Co Limerick, had pleaded not guilty at a Galway sitting of the Central Criminal Court to the murder in Craughwell, Co Galway, in July 2005.
Lynch and Ms McEnery had been living together for 10 years and moved into a traditional cottage known as Rose Cottage in Craughwell in June 2005. On July 17, Ms McEnery was found dead in a bedroom in the cottage.
Lynch brought an appeal against his conviction in December 2013. Giollaiosa O Lideadha, defending, told the Court of Criminal Appeal the appeal focused on two issues, the first being the issue of the trial judges charge to the jury on provocation, while the other was a motion to introduce fresh evidence in to the case.
Mr O Lideadha said the former was the priority issue and came down to a crucial exchange between the jury foreman and Mr Justice Carney in which the jury were misdirected as to the law on provocation and intent.
In July 2015, Mr Justice Donal ODonnell, presiding at the appeal court, quashed the conviction of Lynch for the murder of his partner.
The Court of Criminal Appeal granted Lynch an appeal against his conviction after finding the trial judges response to questions from the jury concerning provocation, while entirely well meant, was misconceived and confusing.
A retrial was ordered and yesterday Lynch was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Ms McEnery.
This plea was accepted by the DPP and Lynch was remanded in custody on the same conditions.
Today, Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy directed a probation report for when Lynch will be sentenced on July 18.
Judge Sean O Donnabhain imposed the eight-year sentence on 42-year-old Anthony Kelleher on the charge of assault causing serious harm to Siobhan Kelleher, aged 36, at the family home in Curraheen, Raleigh North, Macroom, Co Cork, on June 12, 2014.
The violence stemmed from a row about among other things the pork chops that were served for that days dinner.
The sentence was backdated to February 24, the day the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict against him.
Siobhan Lankford, barrister for the prosecution, said yesterday the Director of Public Prosecutions put the particular serious assault count at the upper end of the scale of such crimes.
Tom Creed defence senior counsel said Anthony Kelleher maintained his innocence.
Judge O Donnabhain said the evidence showed that: The accused came home from work, got into a tizzy, words were exchanged. Knowing and fearing the situation, Siohan Kelleher withdrew to the bedroom and he unwisely followed her up and got into a row.
Siobhan Kelleher who suffered a stroke, brain injury, and broken bones in the attack
He tore her out of bed and pushed her down the stairs kicking her on the way as a result of which she suffered serious life-changing injuries.
Anthony Kelleher chose not to give evidence in his trial. A more unusual feature of the case was that Mrs Kelleher in effect did not testify either but the prosecution went on in the absence of oral testimony.
Mrs Kelleher, who now walks very slowly with the assistance of a walking stick, initially made statements that her husband attacked her that day but later said she was withdrawing the complaint and explained that she was injured when she fell at the clothesline after drinking too much wine.
Following legal argument in the absence of the jury the prosecution was allowed to go ahead by presenting to the jury three statements taken down in writing from Mrs Kelleher following June 12, 2014.
Four days afterwards from a hospital bed at Cork University Hospital, she said: Last Thursday, June 12, 2014, my husband came home from work at about 5.15pm. I had a glass of wine before Anthony came home to calm my nerves. He started ranting and raving and said I was staggering around. I went to bed for an hour.
Anthony dragged me out of bed by the hair and threw me across the corridor and down the stairs. The next thing I knew I woke up in hospital.
She added in a second statement: We were having pork chops that day. I put the dinner on the table. He would never say thanks. He complained that the pork chops were cooked in the oven. He wanted them fried. He is a perfectionist.
[After a brief exchange of words] I went to bed and covered my head with the blankets. He came after me and asked me what did I say. I said, Nothing, Im sorry. I put my hands to my face to save my head. I didnt want bruises.
I had my hair in a ponytail and he pulled me out of bed by the ponytail. There were clumps of hair coming out. He dragged me by the hair and threw me down the stairs.
He kicked me on the way down twice in the ass. I got to the first landing and he kicked me the rest of the way down. I was out cold and I dont remember anything else until I woke in hospital with a tube down my throat.
Anthony came into the hospital with my slippers and pyjamas. He started crying and said, If you had died I would have thrown myself in the river. I couldnt look at him.
In her third statement 10 months later she withdrew the previous two statements against her husband, and said she fell at the clothesline, that her husband never laid a hand on her, and she apologised to him.
Anthony Kelleher also made statements to gardai. He said: I believed she had a drink problem. Siobhan fell down the stairs at our home. She smokes an odd cigarette now and again. She would get very unsteady on her feet if she has a cigarette. [Later] She fell against the wall.
He denied beating his wife within an inch of her life.
Det Sgt Joanne OBrien said Siobhan Kellehers injuries included numerous fractures to her ribs, spine, finger, wrist and arm, a potentially fatal laceration to her liver and bruising to buttocks, thighs, trunk, and abrasions to her face and she went on to suffer a stroke.
Bridget Byrne, aged 26, who works under the name of Ava Van Rose, was ordered by Judge John Cheatle to appear again at Dublin District Court on June 13. He was given a victim impact statement on Monday and adjourned the case to allow for a pre-sentence probation report to be completed.
Byrne had pleaded guilty earlier to assault causing harm to Helen Guinan at a house at Wheatfield Avenue in Clondalkin, in Dublin, on October 20, 2013.
The model, who also starred in the short-lived reality show Infectious, had initially indicated she would contest the case on the grounds that she acted in self-defence. However, in February, defence solicitor Brian Keenan told the court she was pleading guilty.
Garda Gerard Clifford of Ronanstown Station has told Judge Cheatle that Byrne has a daughter with Ms Guinans partner. There had been a row over their arrangements for the child to be collected.
Gda Clifford said that Byrne, a mother of three who has no prior criminal convictions, turned up at Ms Guinnans home. Gda Clifford said that when the door was opened Byrne jumped on Helen Guinan in the front hall and put her fingers in her eyes, she was biting her left had and scratching her face.
The woman suffered cuts to her face and the skin on her hand was broken. A medical report was handed in and Gda Clifford agreed with the defence solicitor that the injuries were superficial and that it was a minor assault.
Gardai received a complaint two days later and interviewed Byrne, who now has an address at An Luasan, Ballybrit, Co Galway, but is from Clondalkin in west Dublin.
Gda Clifford also agreed that Byrne did not have any prior criminal convictions and has not come to Garda attention since. The garda agreed that that the row was over family matters.
A district court conviction for the assault could result in a fine and a possible sentence of up to one years imprisonment.
Mr Keenan said his client has worked as a model and hopes to resume her education to study to become a personal trainer. He asked the court to take into account her guilty plea and the fact that she has no prior convictions.
However, legal experts say there is no constitutional impediment stopping Mrs Higgins from giving her opinion on political matters.
Following a speech to midwifery students at Trinity College Dublin, Ms Higgins described as an outrage against women the possibility of women being made to carry a pregnancy to term when fatal foetal abnormality has been diagnosed.
Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign said it was wholly inappropriate for her to have intervened in this way in the abortion debate and that she has a responsibility to represent the views of more than just the abortion lobby.
Before her husband became President, she was a well-known campaigner for a much more permissive abortion law in Ireland, said Ms Sherlock. It is important that people are made aware of that fact following her calculated intervention into the debate yesterday.
How are the heartbroken families of children who had life-limiting conditions and who only lived for a short while supposed to read her intervention? She certainly didnt acknowledge their anguish and pain and the fact that they have to listen to high-profile people making value judgements about their children and questioning whether their right to life should be given any legal protection at all.
The new Government has decided that, as part of its programme for government, a Citizens Assembly will debate abortion legislation. However, a referendum would be needed if Ireland were to change from its current position. At present, women have to travel to the UK and elsewhere in Europe to access terminations if they do not want to carry a baby with a fatal foetal abnormality to term.
However, senior lecturer in constitutional law at UCC Conor OMahony said there is nothing whatsoever in the Constitution which stops the Presidents wife from airing her opinions.
Some people may not think it is appropriate but the Constitution has little to say about the Presidents spouse, said Dr OMahony, adding that any expectations of the role come from custom and practice rather than law.
Pro-life senator Ronan Mullen described the comments as regrettable.
In her comments, she has failed to speak to the experience of all families who received a tragic diagnosis during a pregnancy and many will have been deeply wounded by her denial of their deceased childrens dignity and rights, said Mr Mullen. Many of those who voted for her husband in the 2011 presidential election would have done so on the understanding that there would be no inappropriate interference from the presidential household in political matters.
Pro-life group the Life Institute said Ms Higgins unprecedented comments were an absolute abuse of power and privilege.
The Presidents wife is unelected but uses the platform of the supposedly non-political office of her husband to amplify her support for abortion, said Niamh Ui Bhriain of the Life Institute.
However, Dr OMahony of UCC said that while Irish presidents try to avoid coming into open conflict with governments and government policy to say that Presidents spouses could not air their opinion was stretching it a bit far.
The long-serving TD resigned from her post after an internal meeting in the Dail this afternoon after a disastrous election campaign cut short her time in charge less than two years after she replaced Eamon Gilmore.
It is widely believed that current deputy leader Alan Kelly will enter the race to succeed the ex-tanaiste, while former junior minister Sean Sherlock is also believed to be in contention.
However, it remains unclear whether ex-public expenditure minister Brendan Howlin who has widespread support among TDs will run as he does not want to take part in another bruising leadership race after losing in 1997 and 2002.
Ms Burton told a recent fractious meeting of Labour election candidates she would make a decision on whether to try and stay on or step down once a government is formed.
The Labour leader's announcement officially starts the leadership race.
The move is required because under Labours party constitution, it must hold a leadership contest within six months of leaving government.
After todays announcement, Ms Burton who will remain on until her successor is found will pass on responsibility for finding a replacement to Labours executive board.
This board will give Labours six other TDs a number of days to decide on who wants to put their name forward a bid which must be seconded by another TD.
If only one consensus candidate is put forward, a new leader could be in place within a fortnight.
However, in the likely event that at least two candidates go forward, a leadership contest and a tied in deputy leadership race will begin with all grass-roots party members given one vote, and must conclude by August 26 at the latest.
It is widely expected current deputy leader Alan Kelly will put his name forward, while rumours persist Sean Sherlock may follow suit.
However, it remains unclear whether ex-public expenditure minister Brendan Howlin will take part as he is believed to only want to run if he will be automatically selected.
Labour TD and chairman Willie Penrose paid tribute to Ms Burton last night, saying she will always remain a strong activist for the party.
However, while saying I would like anyone chosen to be by consensus should a leadership change occur, he declined to say who he wishes to back.
Poll: Who do you feel would be a good choice as the new leader of @labour Party? Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) May 10, 2016
The contenders:
Sean Sherlock
The Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities will give people with intellectual disabilities the right to sexual relationships which is denied them here because of laws designed to protect them from abuse but which over-stepped the mark into prohibition.
Adrian Noonan of Inclusion Ireland's self advocacy committee says the convention, when ratified, will give people like himself a major boost as they strive for independent decision-making and living.
"Self advocacy means, for example, if you are going to the doctor, the doctor speaks to you, not your mother, not your support worker.
"It should be between you and your doctor. You should have support only if you want it. These are rights to make your own choices and to privacy" he said.
"It means people with a disability can have a sexual relationship with each other or with a person without a disability. People are afraid to have a relationship because of the Sexual Offences Act 1993."
Reforming the law on sexual offences is one of several legislative changes required before Ireland can ratify the convention, a document the Government signed in 2007.
UN special rapporteur on the rights of people with disabilities, Catalina Devandas Aguilar was in Ireland yesterday to issue a reminder that ratification is long overdue.
"It seems Ireland will be the only EU country not to have ratified the convention. The process in Finland, the only other country, is far advanced now," she said.
Last October, the Government set out a roadmap to ratification and said it would be completed by the end of this year.
Minister of State for Disability, Finian McGrath gave assurances yesterday that the target would be met.
"I have managed to get it on to the programme for government but, not only that, I have managed to get a commitment from the Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald that it will be ratified within six months," he said.
For Eddie Redmond, chief executive of the Irish Deaf Society, ratification can't come soon enough. One of the convention's features is the prominence it gives to sign language, and the responsibility it imposes on countries to recognise it as an official language and include it in the everyday working of state and society.
"We have campaigned passionately for over 30 years for Irish sign language to be given an equal place in education, employment, health and so on," said Mr Redmond.
The convention contains a requirement that a national monitoring mechanism be put in place to ensure law, policy and service provision complies with it.
A report by the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway has recommended a new national advisory committee comprised of people with disabilities should partner with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) as a watchdog.
Emily Logan, chief commissioner with the IHREC, said whatever monitoring mechanism was chosen, it was essential people with disabilities were at the centre of it.
"For a long time in Ireland the disability model has been very stubbornly grounded in the charitable model where people were seen either as a medical problem or people who need pity. The convention challenges ourselves as a society about our own culture and our own attitudes," she said.
At the unveiling of the Monsignor Hugh OFlaherty memorial plaque at the Teutonic (German) College in the Vatican, the Irish ambassador to the Holy See, Emma Madigan, paid tribute to the Kerry priests contribution to the resistance and courage in very dark times.
The Killarney-born Msgr OFlaherty had been involved in the Rome Escape Line. He was renowned as the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican for his ability to evade Nazi efforts to capture him.
Using fake IDs, disguises, and operating a communications network inside and outside the Vatican, he outfoxed the Gestapo and was able to give refuge to 6,500 Jewish refugees and Allied PoWs. He hid them in houses, convents, and monasteries across Rome and even inside the Vatican itself.
A special moment in Rome... Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty officially recognised #WW2Hero @DeeDubFuzion well done pic.twitter.com/lc1N5ANFBn Greg Canty (@GregCantyFuzion) May 8, 2016
Much of his clandestine operation was conducted from within the Vaticans German College, where Msgr OFlaherty lived for 22 years.
The event of the unveiling was attended by members of the priests family and members of the Hugh OFlaherty Memorial Society, who travelled from Ireland, as well as the ambassadors of Britain, the US, and Canada, and Vatican officials.
In her address, Ms Madigan said Msgr OFlahertys compassion was not bounded by lines of nationality or religious community.
Quoting Pope Francis, she said there are people who do not grow accustomed to evil, who defeat it with good, and she thanked the Irish priest, who died in 1963, on behalf of all he saved.
Jerry OGrady, chairman of the Hugh OFlaherty Memorial Society, told the Irish Examiner that the 60 people who attended the ceremony from Ireland and the UK included the sons of Major Sam Derry, who was the other big player in the Rome Escape Line and the grandchildren of Henrietta Chevalier, the Maltese widow who gave her apartment for use as a safe house.
Amb. Emma Madigan unveils plaque for Msgr. Hugh O'Flaherty the Vatican Pimpernel saved over 6500 during WWI. pic.twitter.com/fLTUijxPQh Ken Hackett (@KenHackett47) May 8, 2016
We feel extremely proud that one of our own is now remembered for what he did to alleviate suffering during the Second World War, said Mr OGrady. It has the same relevance today as it had 70 years ago... he is an inspirational role model.
A memorial to Msgr OFlaherty was unveiled in his home town in October 2013. He died in Cahirciveen in 1963.
In 1996 the version of it made in the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Parma, where it originated, and in Modena and Mantua, was granted its DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) under European Union regulations.
The cheese is cut from majestic 30kg wheels which, whole or cut into, are a thing of intoxicating, appetising beauty.
They are stamped with their own identity mark so we can find out what dairy produced its milk, the month and year of production.
A good Parmesan wheel will have a gold to brown colour, and inside the crumbly cheese will be an appetising ivory colour, sometimes more like straw in colour.
It should be salty, drying out as it ages, always finely grained, and most importantly the flavour should always be rich.
A granular texture comes from the way the curd is cut during production and crystallisation occurs too if it is cut before storing, so you will find little pockets that catch in the teeth and melt in the mouth.
I serve wedges of aged Parmesan with Irish honey and the contrast of the salty and sweet makes a perfect end to a meal.
Shavings of Parmesan on salad leaves are a wonderful portent of summer.
With the scent of rocket and herbs in the air, we can make a feast, so,
I sought today to see if the price equalled quality.
Real Olive stall Parmigiano Reggiano (28/kg)
While this cheese is guaranteed to be two years old, this one currently in stock is in fact three years old (the ideal is 2.5 years).
Milk from one small farm helps to nurture a high standard and it shows in this excellent cheese.
Every one of the tasters appreciated it and preferred it. Creamy, slightly crystalline, full flavoured, delicious!
Score: 9.5
Delitaly Parmigiano Reggiano 200g 5.40 (27/kg)
Quite a dry texture here, it lacks depth of flavour. Better for adding texture in soups rather than for taste. From Marlborough Street, Cork shop.
Score: 6.75
Marks & Spencer Grated Parmigiano Reggiano 100g 5.49 (54.90/kg)
We looked at the cheaper Cook With range of grated parmesan (42.40kg) and compared it to the more expensive Parmigiano Reggiano and found that the additional cost was more than justified by its excellent flavour.
There was a huge price difference between the two solid wedges a whopping 24.68 per kilo.
Tasters gave the more expensive Parmigiano Reggiano a high score, but once told the price difference had some doubts about it being worth it.
Score: 8
Aldi Specially Selected Parmigiano Reggiano 200g
Left to mature for 24 months, this has a good texture, but it is low on flavour. The grated version is too finely grated and lacks flavour.
Score: 6
Iago Parmigiano Reggiano 8.91 (34.80/kg)
At least 24 months maturing delivered a dry texture and just a mild flavour.
Better for cooking with and to finish off hot vegetables. Beautiful full wheels are worth looking at in the shop. From 9, Princes Street, Cork.
Score: 7
Lidl Lovilio Grana Padano grated 150g 2.49 (16.60/kg)
Grana Padano is the generic, colloquial name for Italian hard cheese and is usually aged for six months less than Parmesan, though this one was aged for 16 months.
The wedge delivered good depth of flavour, much better than the grated version, which had a waxy texture.
Add half a point more for the wedge (17.45/kg). Buy the wedge and keep in fridge to grate freshly.
Score: 6.5
On the Pigs Back 210g 6.64 (31.69/kg)
This cheese is not guaranteed to be more than 18 months and with a slightly dry start, gets nicely creamy in the mouth, with a good rich flavour.
Not too salty.
From English Market, Cork and Douglas shops. Good for shavings.
Score: 7.75
Tesco Finest Parmigiano Reggiano DOP 170g 4.89 (28.76/kg)
We compared this luxury label to the basic Tesco Parmigiano Reggiano (17.45/kg) and found a huge difference in these two for the extra 10/kg.
The cheaper Parmigiano Reggiano was over salted and dry (scoring 5.5). The Finest had a much fuller flavour with a dryness that went nicely creamy in the mouth with some crystals.
Score: 7.5
But accepting that our minds can be the cause of more severe physical symptoms is a different matter.
As Irish consultant neurologist Suzanne OSullivan demonstrates in her book, Its All In Your Head, which has just scooped the Wellcome Book Prize 2016, psychosomatic illness which basically means physical symptoms where theres no obvious medical cause, and so its believed that psychological or emotional factors are to blame goes far beyond stomach butterflies and aches and pains that get worse when youre worried.
For some, it can be as devastating and debilitating as the medically diagnosable conditions that symptoms mimic and she hopes the book will get people talking, while highlighting the need for better services and support.
Psychosomatic disorders are really, really common, but for some reason, people dont talk about them; its a hidden problem, says OSullivan.
To think that one in three people in a neurology clinic have this sort of disorder and yet most people have never heard about it is really shocking.
Its easy to dismiss psychosomatic problems as purely imaginary or pretend, but OSullivan points out that its far more complex than that, and should be recognised as a very real condition.
Take Camilla, a successful lawyer and mum-of-two whose life is plagued by seizures, despite the fact tests all come back negative, and Yvonne who goes blind although nothings wrong with her eyes two examples highlighted in OSullivans book, which weaves true stories based on her encounters with patients, and knowledge and insights garnered during her years working at the Royal London Hospital, and now at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Its eventually revealed that Camilla and Yvonnes symptoms are rooted in emotionally traumatic experiences from their past.
How these manifest themselves in such extreme physical ways is an area that remains relatively mysterious but there is a real science to it, and OSullivan notes that researchers are now much closer to understanding the brain processes involved.
Its believed that in psychosomatic illness, the brain has retrained itself to experience symptoms as though they are real.
And its not just public awareness thats lacking OSullivan is frustrated by the lack of knowledge and support within healthcare services, too.
We already know that mental health is stigmatised. I think this is even more so, because it looks physical but actually its psychological.
Lack of acknowledgement from doctors can add to this sense of stigma and isolation and mean that people become trapped in impossible-seeming circumstances, where their symptoms remain a problem but arent being addressed.
If somebody is having seizures everyday, the fact [tests show] they dont have epilepsy is irrelevant to them. Can you imagine how it feels if youre having 10 seizures a day, or youre in a wheelchair, and you perceive that a doctors told you theres nothing wrong with you?
Its All In Your Head by Suzanne OSullivan, Vintage Publishing, 22.50.
Latin America was synonymous with political instability throughout the 20th century. While the spectre of military coups faded in the 1980s, yet political crises like the one now engulfing Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff still plague the region.
If Rousseff loses her looming impeachment battle over claims of illegal accounting, she will be the 18th elected Latin American president since 1985 (excluding Haiti) forced to leave office by means other than the ballot box. And the second Brazilian president since Fernando Collor de Mello resigned under threat of impeachment in 1992.
When the military stays in the barracks and presidential ousters follow the constitutional rules, it is tempting to see this as a good sign for democracy. After all, if corrupt presidents are being impeached for misdeeds, doesnt it show that checks and balances are working?
Consider recent events in Guatemala. When president Otto Perez Molina was caught in the middle of a corruption scandal uncovered in 2015 by the International Commission Against Impunity, political analysts applauded his stunning resignation. They touted his downfall as a sign of a democratic spring in Central America.
Dilma Rousseff
More broadly, one major concern about presidential systems that entail fixed terms is their rigidity and hence their vulnerability to regime breakdown when presidents fail to govern effectively. Presidential crises could instead be viewed as a positive sign that these systems are adopting parliamentary traits.
Yet reasons for skepticism remain. First, the succession process is key. Even if the charges used to remove presidents are valid, how succession is carried out affects a countrys rule of law and the quality of democracy.
Latin American presidents are notorious for decrying the politicisation and corruption of the courts and legislatures only to pack them with their own loyal supporters. Similarly, legislatures often bypass vice presidents and replace ousted leaders with members of the opposition.
Indeed, in Latin America, most presidential ousters look more like partisan affairs. Of the regions 17 ousted leaders, only six successors were the vice presidents and most of those cases were not from the same party as the president.
Replacing Rousseff is likely to be particularly fraught. Brazils entire line of succession is under investigation for corruption, with the nation already seething over a harsh recession.
The Supreme Federal Tribunal recently ruled that Vice President Michel Temer, whom Rousseff alleges has masterminded the conspiracy against her, must face separate impeachment charges.
The next in line, the speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, is implicated in a scandal involving Petrobras, the state-owned oil giant, and was just named in the Panama Papers leak exposing offshore financial deals.
He is charged with taking up to $40m in bribes. The Senate president, who is third in line, is also deeply implicated in the Petrobras scandal, as well as other corruption charges.
Though Rousseff was narrowly re-elected in 2014, the only plausible option seems to be new elections. But which sort of candidate would prosper in this environment? Anti-system, anti-establishment politicians think Alberto Fujimori of Peru and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela are not known for their commitment to democracy or the rule of law.
The second concern hinges on basic checks and balances. As envisioned by The Federalist Papers, this system was designed primarily to slow things down and serve as a deterrent.
So, even if a president is forced out for a valid reason, we should still be concerned that institutions are failing to prevent political corruption in the first place.
Consider, for example, the role of the judiciary: To be an effective deterrent to corruption and other political crimes, the courts must be fully independent from politicians.
Yet before 2012, when the Supreme Federal Tribunal under Chief Justice Jaoquim Barbosa began to assume a more activist role, most Brazilians had a justly cynical view of their judicial system, neatly captured by the maxim: The police arrest; the courts set free.
There is every reason to suspect that the same elites under investigation for corruption also assumed that they could act with impunity. Looking forward, strengthening accountability in Brazil and elsewhere must ultimately be about convincing elites that committing political crimes is too risky. In fully consolidated democracies, checks and balances should work to discourage bad behaviour not sporadically sanction it afterward.
Recent history also suggests that the negative effects of presidential crises in Latin America rarely remain exclusive to the executive branch.
Most end up pulling other important political institutions into their vortex. Polarization and decreasing public trust increases along the way.
This holds true with the current Brazilian crisis, in which more than 50% of all Congress members are facing corruption charges.
Judge Sergio Moro, the celebrated lead prosecutor in the Petrobras scandal, has recently come under scathing attack for his controversial decision to release wiretapped conversations between Rousseff and former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The key question is whether ousting elected presidents increases or decreases the credibility of other institutions. If the former, a virtuous cycle begins. If the latter, a vicious cycle prevails. Unfortunately, the trajectory of other Latin American countries, where presidents were forced from power, does not bode well for Brazil.
Gretchen Helmke is associate professor and chairwoman of the Political Science Department at the University of Rochester. Her new book, Institutions on the Edge: Inter-Branch Crises in Latin America, due out from Cambridge University Press, examines institutional instability in contemporary Latin America.
Donald Trump has become the presumptive Republican nominee in the US presidential elections. But those condemned to agonising suspense and anxiety until November should note that Trumpism, or the politics of hate and fear, also suffered a major defeat last week.
I refer to the election of former human rights lawyer Sadiq Khan as Londons mayor. That the son of a Pakistani bus driver, whose campaign team included gay men and Jewish women, should become the mayor of a great European city would signal hope for our irrevocably mixed societies at any time. Its significance in this era of politically expedient bigotry cannot be overestimated.
For, as Khan said a day after his remarkable victory, his Conservative opponents set out to divide Londons communities in an attempt to win votes, using fear and innuendo to try and turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook.
Donald Trump
Zac Goldsmith, the Tory candidate and son of an Anglo-French billionaire, repeatedly tried to taint Khan by linking him to Muslim extremists and accusing him of endangering the security of London.
British prime minister David Cameron himself accused Khan of sharing a platform with a sympathiser of Islamic State; the supposed sympathiser later turned out to have Tory links. Camerons ministerial colleagues kept up a barrage of allegations about Khans complicity with extremists.
No tactic was deemed too ghastly in what even senior leaders within the Conservative party now call a poisonous and outrageous campaign to persuade white and non-Muslim voters to reject a Muslim mayor.
I was one of the London residents with Hindu-sounding last names who received a letter from the British prime minister exhorting our community to vote for Goldsmith.
The letter mentioned Camerons and Goldsmiths warm relationship with Indias Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi and their joint attendance at Modis mass rally at Wembley Stadium last year.
It went on to warn us, apparently like-minded Hindu devotees of Modi, that we were about to become lab rats in a giant political experiment conducted by the dangerous Khan.
Sadiq Khan
Similar letters from the prime minister referring to your community went out to Sikhs and Tamils (none, as far I know, were addressed to Muslims). A retired biochemist called Barbara Patel, white and Jewish, and married into a Muslim family, also received one, thereby revealing the ham-fistedness as well as malevolence of ethno-religious profiling.
Goldsmith then wrote an article in the tabloid Daily Mail, which has in the past been notorious for, among many other things, its open-mindedness about anti-Semitism and Nazism.
Goldsmiths column alleging that Khan had repeatedly legitimised those with extremist views was accompanied by a picture of a London double-decker bus destroyed in the terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005.
The attempt to conflate extremism and terrorism with Muslim in the voters mind, or to import the sectarian passions of the Indian subcontinent to Britain, was a treacherous move in itself.
But much more dangerous was the message young Muslims (an alienated community, to put it mildly) could have easily drawn: Even their engagement with mainstream democratic politics would not clear the suspicion that they are hostile aliens.
Trumpism, of course, first reared its head in politics with the extraordinary insinuation that the White House occupant with the middle name Hussein was a fifth columnist.
As mainstream politics everywhere go into a tailspin, demagogic practices these days cross-pollinate faster. Thus, Vladimir Putin inspires right-wing parties across Europe.
Vladimir Putin
The anti-Islam organisation Pegida in Germany links up with the Netherlands ultra-rightists. Looking east, Hungarys Viktor Orban cites Turkey under the authoritarian leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an inspiring success.
And, in the most bizarre twist of all, the ruling party in one of the worlds oldest democracies chose to replicate Trumps strategy at the risk of fatally undermining the trust and goodwill of a large section of the British population. There is something unbelievable about the whole sordid episode; it is why relief at its end is great and widespread.
Certainly, the size of Khans mandate the biggest-ever for a politician in British electoral history exposed the recklessness and folly of plagiarising from Trumps playbook in the city that immigrants have made the worlds most cosmopolitan.
One can only hope that, come November, xenophobic Trumpism receives a final and spectacular comeuppance in the country built by immigrants.
It wasnt easy, and it wasnt pretty, but then, establishing a record like that was never going to be a straightforward task.
You know the way you often come across lists of great American Presidents? It can frequently be the case that the one you admire is way down on the list, and those you despise get much higher rankings than youd expect. So I guess it wouldnt be possible to rank great Irish Taoisigh without generating at least some controversy.
But I can remember with reasonable clarity every Taoiseach since Jack Lynch. The list from then on consists of Liam Cosgrave, Charles Haughey, Garret FitzGerald, Albert Reynolds, John Bruton, Bertie Ahern, Brian Cowen and Enda Kenny.
Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen
Its a short enough list, even though it spans almost exactly 50 years, because several of the leaders Ive named held office several times and for long enough periods. Lynch and Ahern account for 20 of those years between them.
Many will argue, of course, that the true greats Lemass, DeValera, WT Cosgrave all held office before my list. But I can only make a judgement about them based on what Ive read, not on what Ive seen and lived through.
I honestly believe that if you look at the 50-year list, and try to rank them objectively (and I have to be objective because I never voted for any of them!), you could only come to the conclusion that Enda Kenny is much closer to the top than the bottom.
I dont think, however, that its ever appropriate to apply the word great to a serving politician as Chou En Lai is alleged to have said about the impact of the French revolution, its too early to tell. Some of the people on that list had an infallible belief in their own greatness, some achieved great things that were overshadowed by failure or scandal. Some were thought great in their time, but their reputations have faded since. Others rose to the job in ways that were never expected of them, but perhaps never got the chance to leave a lasting mark behind. Some just shrank in office.
And of course in the 50-year period there have been other really significant political figures that never got the chance to be Taoiseach but nevertheless exercised considerable influence over the sort of extended period that merits a mention on any historical list. My list of them would include Des OMalley, Mary Harney, Frank Cluskey, Declan Costello, and Dick Spring. You can choose your own list, of course, and no doubt youll include people I wouldnt have thought of (and exclude some I would). But I dont believe there is any doubt that Enda Kenny belongs high on any list.
And yet I cant remember any Taoiseach who has been so derided, so constantly written off. All his predecessors had their critics on the issue of style during their tenure Lynch for perceived indecisiveness, Fitzgerald for a seeming preference for theory over practice, Haughey for delusions of grandeur, Ahern for his famous malapropisms (and a few more substantial things that did him in). But the dismissal of Kenny as a complete lightweight, from the start of his leadership to right now, has been a constant refrain.
For a lightweight, he has done remarkable things. He inherited the leadership of his party when it was at its lowest ebb and its future was being seriously questioned. And he inherited that leadership from a backbench position although he had served in government under John Bruton, he was dismissed from the Fine Gael frontbench by Michael Noonan. Unless Im mistaken that makes him the first leader in modern times in any party to take control of his party from the back benches.
In short order he kept the promise he had made (when he ran for leadership against Noonan) to electrify his party. In every election under his leadership up to the last one local, European and general Fine Gael grew. Despite that, he had to fight off a concerted challenge to his leadership from the so-called intellectual wing of his party.
They too thought they were dealing with a lightweight, and discovered how wrong they were.
You dont have to agree or disagree with the policies he pursued when he did become Taoiseach five years ago, but there is no denying that he inherited the greatest economic crisis imaginable.
Weve been through many periods of austerity before, but never lost our sovereignty as a result of a crash. Weve seen many periods of economic slide, but never a collapsed as sharp as the 2008 one, and never from such great heights.
And although we all remember the disaster of 2008, weve forgotten now how close our entire administration was to collapse. After a period of utter chaos in government, the Taoiseach of the day refused to lead his party into the election and a number of senior ministers refused even to contest it.
Theres never been such disarray as there was when Enda Kenny arrived in government and to make matters worse, there was a genuine possibility that the country wouldnt be able to pay its bills, and its wages, before the end of the year.
It seems a distant memory now. Modern news cycles being what they are, the things a Taoiseach did before breakfast tend to be forgotten by lunchtime. But its worth remembering nevertheless that this Taoiseach inherited a huge mess, and helped to engineer a major recovery.
Along the way he did some other remarkable things the apology to the Magdalene Women, his speech in the Dail after the publication of the Cloyne Report (which changed the relationship between Church and State forever), the equal marriage referendum and the childrens rights referendum, and many others.
Yes, hes never been a great debater. Yes, he doesnt shine in interviews, and hes not a great communicator in public (much better in small groups or one-to-one). But he has displayed incredible resilience, an astonishing capacity for hard work, discipline, humour and an ability to listen and learn. These are all key characteristics of leadership.
Its intriguing that as he now embarks on the next phase of his leadership, hes been written off again, already. Most pundits give him a year or less. It seems to me, however, that the single most destabilising thing that could happen to this fragile government is if Enda Kenny is forced to go. I just dont see Fianna Fail giving some bright young thing a year or two as Taoiseach before the next election.
My own guess is that he probably enjoys being misunderestimated, as George Bush once said. The thing that those who constantly write Enda Kenny off misunderestimate most is his resilience and his toughness.
Those qualities alone mean that Enda Kenny could well have a surprise or two in store for us yet.
This is indisputable, given the industrial nature, diffuse demographic dispersal and ultimate rapidity of the slaughter.
It is reinforced by Nagorskis in-depth research which shows that prior to former Auschwitz guard, Reinhold Hannings, apology at his trial last week, every previous defendant, from the Nuremberg trials, to Adolf Eichmann, denied any guilt for participating in the mass-slaughter of European Jews.
Is it therefore surprising, that contemporary Israeli society across all ideological hues, is united by the single principle of Never Again?
This is evident on Yom Haskir aShoah ve-laGvurah (Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day).
This is known colloquially in Israel as Yom HaShoah.
This years Yom HaShoah took place on April 5, and for anyone who has been in Israel when it took place, it is a profoundly emotional experience.
I remember the shiver down my spine as the whole country came to a standstill at 10am as a two minute siren wailed across the Jewish state.
Cars pulled off the highway, offices, factories, schools and universities became silent as everyone stood to remember the six million, and silently pledged, Never Again.
The unique horror of the Holocaust has sadly been challenged by contemporary anti-Israel polemicists who have attempted to locate it as merely another genocide in historys sad catalog of ethnic slaughters.
It is not. It stands alone as a horrendous paradigm for industrial murder.
This in no way demeans the brutal ethnic cleansing of Armenia, Rwanda or the Balkans.
However, these tragedies, for the most part, organically developed and were not the consequence of a single meeting like the Wannsee Conference where Hitlers thugs developed a blueprint for the industrial solution to the Jewish Question.
As contemporary anti-Semitism continues to exponentially increase, the lessons of how 1930s Germany, one of the most sophisticated cultures of its time, succumbed to Nazi racial hatred should be regarded as a stark warning from history.
Dr Kevin McCarthy
Kinsale
Co Cork
State media reports that the government has made filming seductive eating of the fruit illegal, as well as the streaming of it.
CCTV News said that Chinas burgeoning online live streaming scene is increasingly giving cyber authorities more ethical and regulatory dilemmas as web hosts push the bounds of acceptability to increase their viewership.
Weary of poverty, crime, corruption, and insurgencies in the hinterlands, voters are looking for a radical change at the top, and hope the man to lead it is Rodrigo Duterte, the 71-year-old mayor of the southern city of Davao who has held a lead over rivals in all opinion polls.
An ex-prosecutor, Mr Duterte peppered his campaign speeches with boasts about his Viagra-fueled sexual prowess and jokes about rape.
However, he also successfully tapped into discontent, and voters appear willing to overlook his unashamedly crude language.
All of you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you, Mr Duterte told a huge cheering crowd in his final campaign rally in Manila.
I have no patience, I have no middle ground, either you kill me or I will kill you idiots.
Statements such as these have won him the nickname Duterte Harry, a reference to the Clint Eastwood movie character Dirty Harry.
Yesterday, he arrived at a polling centre in a school in Davao where a throng of journalists and supporters awaited.
Election results are expected today.
Mr Duterte, who has been compared to US Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, has threatened to close down Congress and form a revolutionary government if legislators stonewall his government.
This has alarmed the political establishment, which fears that Mr Duterte will squander the hard-won economic progress under outgoing president Benigno Aquino III.
Mr Aquino has called Mr Duterte a threat to democracy, and likened him to Adolf Hitler.
Besides Mr Duterte, former Interior secretary Mar Roxas, backed by Aquino, and three other candidates are vying to lead one of Asias liveliest democracies.
More than 45,000 candidates are contesting 18,000 national, congressional, and local positions in elections that have traditionally been tainted by violence and accusations of cheating, especially in far-flung areas.
At least 15 people were killed in elections-related violence and more than 4,000 arrested for violating a gun ban, according to police.
Let us show the world that despite our deep passion and support for our candidates, we can hold elections that are peaceful and orderly and reflect the spirit of democracy, said Mr Aquino, who cast his ballot after standing in line for an hour with other voters in a Manila constituency.
About 55m Filipinos registered to vote in 36,000 voting centres spread across the archipelago of more than 7,100 islands.
A majority of Israelis do not want a court-martial to take place, according to an opinion poll taken shortly after Sergeant Elor Azaria was arrested in March.
Palestinian officials have called the soldiers action cold-blooded murder.
The incident, in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, came to light after a video shot by a Palestinian witness showed Sgt Azaria firing once into the head of the assailant, who lay wounded on the ground after he had stabbed and wounded another soldier.
An autopsy, attended by both an Israeli and a Palestinian pathologist, showed it was Sgt Azarias bullet that killed him.
Palestinian leaders have accused Israel of routine extra-judicial killings a charge it denies as it tries to quell months of stabbings, shootings and car rammings.
Sgt Azaria, a conscript medic, is the first active duty Israeli soldier to face criminal proceedings over the alleged illegal use of lethal force since the violence erupted in October.
However, with Israels military chief urging soldiers to use only measured and considered force in dealing with attackers, an opinion poll found that 57 percent of Israelis believe Sgt Azaria should never have been arrested.
According to the military, Sgt Azaria told investigators he believed the Palestinian, though subdued, may have had a suicide explosive belt and that he still posed a danger.
Dubbed the Bathroom Bandit, Columbus police say he enters various local establishments, visits the mens restroom, disconnects the plumbing, and leaves with the stolen parts in his backpack.
A police department spokeswoman says the businesses wont only have to replace the parts, but hire a plumber to repair the mans toilet tinkering. She said that while his crimes may be unusual, they are still felonies.
The thief has struck a Kmart, several restaurants and the Mount Carmel West Hospital, all on the citys west side.
He is described as a white male between 40 and 50 years old, 57 to 511 and 180 to 200 pounds. He drives a black Honda Accord.
Painting on eggshells
USA:
An Ohio home that was pelted with eggs more than 100 times over a year will finally get a fresh finish thanks to a local painting company.
WEWS-TV reports Neubert Painting in Brook Park is planning to paint the Euclid home. Work was scheduled to start May 4 but was postponed because of the weather.
Jason Kozan was charged in March with vandalising the home between May 2014 and June 2015. He tells WEWS-TV he is not responsible for the vandalism.
Neubert Painting had offered to paint the home last summer as part of its Paint it Forward programme. The company was waiting for police approval because the case was under investigation. It was given the go-ahead last autumn.
Good-for-nothing girl
Japan:
A Tokyo court ruled that vagina-shaped objects created by a Japanese artist qualify as art, but found her guilty of obscenity for distributing digital data that could be used to make a three-dimensional recreation of her genitalia.
Tokyo District Court ordered Megumi Igarashi, also known as Rokudenashiko, or good-for-nothing girl, to pay a 400,000 yen fine for distributing the data, her lawyers said.
The court said a set of three plaster figures in the shape of her vagina, decorated and painted in bright colors, did not look like skin or immediately suggest female genitalia and therefore were not obscene, her lawyers said. However, the judges said the data, from a scan of her vagina, could be used with a three-dimensional printer to create a realistic shape that could sexually arouse viewers.
Igarashi welcomed the courts description of her work as pop art, but appealed the ruling, saying its decision on the data was unacceptable.
The vagina figures were on display at a sex shop in Tokyo but were not for sale, according to Mayuko Nakamori, one of Igarashis defense lawyers.
Igarashi, who is also known for creating a vagina-shaped kayak, distributed computer discs containing the data as gifts to people who helped raise funds for the kayak project, her lawyers said.
Despite Japans lucrative pornography industry and tolerance of displays of scantily dressed women in ads and in magazines, its obscenity laws prohibit public displays of genitalia.
Look on my works
Portugal:
A man has been arrested after he destroyed a 126-year-old statue after trying to take a selfie with it.
The sculpture, of a 16th-century Portuguese king, reportedly shattered after a man mounted it.
The man lifted himself onto the statues pedestal, causing it to crumble, and then attempted to flee but was caught by police.
He will be brought before a judge at a later date.
The statue, which outside the Rossio railway station in central Lisbon, is of Dom Sebastiao. He was King of Portugal and the Algarves from June 1557 to August 1578. He disappeared during the battle of Alcacer Quibir in Morocco. His body was never found, but is presumed to have died at the age of 24.
Given he was childless, his death led indirectly to the end of the House of Aziz, which ruled the country from 13851581. However, his legend lived in on and he became known as The Sleeping King destined to return during Portugals darkest hour.
On his knees
USA:
A sculpture of a kneeling Hitler by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has sold for a record $17.2 m at a sale kicking off the weeklong New York auctions of modern, post-war and contemporary art at Christies and Sothebys.
Also selling at Christies Bound to Fail themed auction Sunday night was Jeff Koons One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank. The ball suspended in a water tank has sold for $15.3m, just over its $12m estimate.
Both works came up for auction for the first time. There are 39 works in Christies sale.
Cattelans controversial sculpture Him appears as a small child kneeling in prayer when approached from the rear. But from the front, the unmistakable likeness of Hitler appears.
The previous auction record for a work by Cattelan was $7.9m.
Burma After Burma Protests, China Says Companies Should Respect Laws
China says it has consistently demanded its companies abroad respect local laws after villagers protested against operations at the Letpadaung mine.
China has consistently demanded its companies operating abroad respect local laws, Chinas Foreign Ministry said on Monday after hundreds of villagers in Burma protested against the resumption of operations at a Chinese-backed copper mine.
The protests have gathered momentum since last Wednesday when some people broke through police barriers protecting the mine, operated by Myanmar Wanbao, a unit of a Chinese weapons maker, in one of the first tests for the new governments ability to deal with public anger.
Myanmar Wanbao runs the Letpadaung mine in a joint venture with a conglomerate controlled by the Myanmar military, Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. Villagers say their land has been unlawfully confiscated to expand the mine.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, asked about the protests, said China and Myanmar are traditional friends whose cooperation accords with the interests of both countries.
The Chinese government has consistently demanded that Chinese companies investing abroad respect the laws and rules of the host nation, and fulfil their responsibility and obligation to society, including paying attention to protecting the environment, Lu told a daily news briefing in Beijing.
China is willing to work hard with Myanmar to properly implement these mutually beneficial cooperation projects, to promote local socio-economic development, to better benefit both countries and their peoples, he added.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Burma last month, where he said China was confident it could resolve business disagreements with Burma through friendly talks, amid pressure from China to resume a stalled US$3.6-billion dam project.
Lu said China was confident it could continue to have win-win cooperation with the country.
After big protests in 2012 and 2013 against the mine, when riot police raided a protest camp injuring more than 100 people, then opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi led an inquiry that recommended compensating the residents and minimizing environmental damage.
Suu Kyi led her party to a sweeping election victory last year and now oversees the government.
Work at the mine, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the city of Mandalay, was suspended after the 2012/13 protests. The company has recently tried to show it can reduce the impact of mining and improve livelihoods.
China has made a big push to assert its business and political interests since Suu Kyis party took over in April.
In 2012, police threw white phosphorus grenades at protesters, inflicting serious burns on scores. In 2014, a protester was shot dead.
Burma Nationalists Reluctant to Pressure Govt Over Defamation Case
The Buddhist nationalist group Ma Ba Tha refrains from pressing Burmas government over a lawsuit against one of its supporters, but more protests are planned
RANGOON A prominent nationalist Buddhist monk has said the Ma Ba Tha movement has no plans to pressure Burmas government over the recent arrest of a nationalist provocateur on defamation charges, but he warned that authorities should tread carefully when dealing with the movement.
Thopaka, a monk who is the spokesperson for Ma Ba Thas headquarters in Rangoons Insein Township, said the movement would closely follow the case against Nay Myo Wai, the chairman of the Peace and Diversity Party.
Ma Ba Tha, a Burmese acronym for the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, is a radical Buddhist nationalist group that is actively hostile toward Burmas Muslim minorities.
We support Nay Myo Wais nationalist activities, but will wait and see how his case will be handled, he said when asked whether the movement would help the staunch supporter of their nationalist cause.
Thopaka warned the National League for Democracy (NLD) to deal carefully with the nationalist forces or else there could be dangers, condemnations and protests. This would not be good for the new government, nor for the country.
Nay Myo Wai was apprehended on May 3 after a complaint was filed by a member of the Myanmar Teachers Federation. The complainant alleges that Facebook posts by Nay Myo Wai had defamed President Htin Kyaw, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and Burmas commander-in-chief, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.
Ashin Thaddama, another prominent Ma Ba Tha monk, better known as Myanan Sayadaw, said the reasons for the arrest were not well-founded, and he suggested that someone had created a fake Facebook account in Nay Myo Wais name to cause him trouble.
We will have a meeting about this soon, he said. We want to see this case set right.
Nay Myo Wai, whose party is closely aligned with Ma Ba Tha, is known for his active social media presence, which usually involves attacks and racist slurs aimed at Burmas Muslim minority.
His arrest is a rare case of government action against the nationalist movement, which enjoyed tacit support from President Thein Seins Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) administration, whose term lasted from 2011 to March 2016.
The NLD questioned Ma Ba Thas motives in the run-up to last years election, when the monks publicly backed Thein Sein for another term. But the NLD has been reluctant to directly challenge Ma Ba Tha, as the monks have considerable public support among the Buddhist majority, nor has the party come to defense of the countrys Muslims.
A few days after Ma Ba Tha helped organize a protest on April 28 against the US Embassys use of the term Rohingya, it was reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had advised the embassy to stop using the word.
The NLD government, much like its predecessor, has made clear it will not acknowledge the stateless Muslim minoritys use of the term.
Aye Aye Soe, a spokesperson at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, told Myanmar Now on Monday that Suu Kyi, who is also Burmas foreign minister, had personally relayed the message to the new US Ambassador Scot Marciel when he came to present his credentials on April 27.
The minister just said that [use of] the term would exacerbate the issue and should be avoided, she said, adding that the ministry did not send an official request to the US Embassy on the matter.
Thopaka said Ma Ba Tha was content with the NLDs diplomatic initiative, as the movement opposes the international communitys stance that the Muslim minority in Arakan State should be allowed to self-identify as Rohingya.
We welcome this step, though this is not an official announcement, he said.
Win Ko Ko Latt, leader of Myanmar National Network, which organized the protest in front of the US Embassy, said, however, that his group was preparing to stage demonstrations to demand that the NLD officially reject the term Rohingya.
He said an application had been submitted to authorities for a protest in Mandalay on Friday, adding more events could follow in Irrawaddy, Sagaing and Magwe divisions, as well as Mon State.
Our members in a number of towns are prepared to stage more and more protests if the government does not reveal its position on this issue through state-owned media, Win Ko Ko Latt said.
This story originally appeared on Myanmar Now.
Burma New US Ambassador Flags Many Old Problems for Burma
Recognition of the challenges still facing a democratically emboldened Burma is a focal point of new US Ambassador Scot Marciels first public remarks.
RANGOON Recognition of the daunting challenges still facing a democratically emboldened Burma was a focal point of the first public remarks on Tuesday by new US Ambassador Scot Marciel, whose country counts the Southeast Asian nations political transition among its foreign policy successes.
Ongoing conflict between the Burma Army and ethnic rebel groups, simmering religious tensions and a Constitution that entrenches the militarys role in politics were among the concerns that Washington would continue to expect progress on in the years ahead, said Marciel, speaking to media and civil society groups in Rangoon.
A lot has changed, he said, referring to this years historic transfer of power from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) to the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
But our goal, the United States goal, remains the same: We want to see a peaceful, prosperous, democratic Myanmar. One whose people live in harmony and enjoy full rights.
On those fronts, Washington feels there is room for improvement over the NLDs expectations-laden term, which began last month, though the American ambassador made a point to stress that it was not for the United States to determine internal matters such as how best to end decades of civil war in Burmas frontier regions.
Marciel, who took up his post last month, commended early NLD efforts to release political prisoners and rescind legislation used by the former USDP government and military regime that preceded it to imprison peaceful protestors and dissidents.
They get it, theyre doing it, he said of his confidence in a shared commitment by the United States and NLD government to improve Burmas human rights situation.
For decades at odds over Burmas abysmal human rights record under the former military regime, Washington and Naypyidaw began a thawing of their icy bilateral relationship in 2011, after then President Thein Sein embarked on a series of liberalizing political reforms. The following year saw Marciels predecessor, Derek Mitchell, installed as the first American ambassador to Burma since 1990.
Economic sanctions against Burma were also eased in 2012 and by 2014, the US Commerce Department was actively encouraging American companies to invest in the frontier market of 51 million people.
Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Burma in November 2012, and he returned two years later to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit hosted by Burma.
Successive, bipartisan iterations of US political leadership for years held up Suu Kyi as a cause celebre, the face of Burmas pro-democracy movement over more than a decade under house arrest. In 2008 she was awarded the US Congressional Gold Medal while locked up in her lakeside home in Rangoon, and four years later was finally presented with the American legislatures highest civilian honor during a trip to Washington.
Despite the change of government to a Suu Kyi-led administration, relations between the two countries are still not fully normalized.
More than 100 Burmese nationals and corporate entities remain on a Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) blacklist that prevents US companies from doing business with them. The list was created to target members of the former military regime and so-called cronies accused of close ties to the junta. A US ban on gems imports from Burma remains in place, as does one on American sales of military hardware to the former pariah state.
On Tuesday, Marciel said the United States would again review remaining sanctions, but added that he did not know what the outcome of that review might be. Competing pressures over what to do about the punitive measures has pitted US business interests against some human rights defenders, with two members of the latter issuing a call on Tuesday for a renewal of sanctions by Obama, who must make a decision on the matter by May 20.
While US-Burma ties look likely to deepen over the NLDs five-year term, last month there were also signs that the long-estranged nations are not destined to forever and always see eye to eye.
Hundreds of Buddhist nationalist protestors assembled outside the US Embassy in Rangoon on April 28, indignant over a statement from the American mission less than a week earlier that used the word Rohingya to describe victims of a deadly boat capsizing in Arakan State. The term is highly contentious in Burma, where many do not recognize the right of the persecuted Muslim minority to self-identify and instead label them Bengalis, implying that they are illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.
Burmas Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Suu Kyi, later asked the US Embassy to refrain from using the term, a move criticized in a New York Times editorial on Tuesday as cowardly.
The stateless Rohingya are not among 135 ethnic groups recognized by law as officially indigenous to Burma.
Marciel did not use the word on Tuesday, instead speaking of a need to address existing restrictions on some communities, presumably referring to curbs on travel, education and other basic rights faced by most Rohingya in Arakan State.
However, They get to choose what they want to be called, he said when asked about the embassys position in the aftermath of the Foreign Affairs Ministrys request. Thats a fundamental international practice and we respect that. Thats been our approach and it will continue to be our approach.
There were hints, though, that the US Embassy may be less publically vocal in expressing concerns it has with how things are trending in Burma under the new government.
The question we really ask ourselves is, What can we do thats useful? And if public statements are useful, great. And if private conversations are useful in a particular situation, thats the better approach, he said, noting the great respect he had for the pedigree of many NLD members as long-standing human rights advocates.
I think we can have a different kind of conversation in some ways with those people, and continue to raise issues and concerns where we have them. But exactly how we do that will vary depending on the circumstances.
Marciel was previously the deputy assistant secretary to the US State Departments Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and prior to that served as the American ambassador to Indonesia.
Burma Religion Minister Seeks to Mollify Christians and Buddhists in Karen
Tensions between Buddhists and Christians ease as Minister of Religious Affairs and Culture visits Anglican church where monk built pagoda.
Religious Affairs and Culture Minister Aung Ko on Monday visited a church compound in Kondawgyi village, Karen State where a Buddhist monk built a pagoda in a move that incited tensions between Christians and Buddhists.
The minister also went to a Buddhist ordination hall built by U Thuzana, the monk who has built several pagodas on Christian church grounds.
The Christians in the village said that they did not hate the Buddhists, and felt like they were brothers with their fellow Buddhist villagers, said Min Tin Win, minister for religious affairs in Karen State, who accompanied Aung Ko on his trip. They did not hate the people who built the pagoda.
In an attempt to diffuse the tensions, the Anglican bishop of the local diocese came to the church and donated the land around the pagoda to U Thuzana.
This was an unexpected solution, but it looks like it worked, Min Tin Win added.
U Thuzana has built pagodas throughout Karen State, where he intended to build a strong Buddhist community. He is an influential figure within the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), an ethnic armed organization, made up primarily of Buddhists, that splintered from the predominantly Christian-led Karen National Union (KNU).
Minister Aung Ko attempted to meet U Thuzana according to Min Tin Win, but the monk had gone to Bangkok for medical treatment.
Burma Security Tightened as More Explosions Rattle Hpakant
Two bomb blasts at a police station in Kachin States Hpakant raze a pair of homes located on the compound, according to local sources
RANGOON Two bomb blasts at a police station in Kachin States Hpakant Township razed a pair of homes that were located on the compound on Monday night, according to local sources.
Shwe Thein, a resident of Hpakant and member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the two houses, in the Sai Taung quarter of Hpakant town, burned to the ground following the explosions, which he described as very loud.
Families of police [personnel] were staying at those two longhouses, said Shwe Thein, adding that no one from the families was wounded.
A police officer in the town of Hpakant who did not give his name confirmed that there had been a fire at the police station, but he did not provide a cause for the blaze.
Shwe Thein said police, working with Burma Army personnel, had tightened security in the town, where several explosions were reported over the weekend.
Bomb blasts occurred at two places last night, he said, adding that the other took place at Longkin village, near Hpakant town.
Elsewhere in Hpakant Township, fighting broke out on Saturday, when the Burma Army conquered two hilltop posts that had been held by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), according to the ethnic armed group.
It was not immediately clear whether there was a link between those hostilities and the recent spate of explosions.
According to local sources, members of the KIA set up a blockade on the main road into Hpakant on Monday, only allowing vehicles leaving the town to pass.
On a Facebook page generally regarded as representating the armed group, the KIA said its blockade was not intended to harm or threaten motorists, but was rather to keep travelers out of harms way amid the current instability.
In retaliation for the weekend attack on its hilltop posts, that same Facebook page said a roadside landmine planted by the KIA had killed and wounded government troops in two trucks traveling to reinforce Burma Army positions on Monday.
Burma United States Urged to Renew Burma Sanctions
US President Barack Obama should renew the countrys sanctions on Burma in light of ongoing abuses against minority groups, international human rights groups say
US President Barack Obama should renew the countrys sanctions on Burma in light of ongoing abuses against minority groups, two international human rights groups said on Monday.
While some clamber for normalized US relations with Burma, international crimes against minorities persist and the unreformed military maintains significant political power, Tom Andrews, a former US congressman and president of the Washington-based group United to End Genocide, said in a joint press release with Fortify Rights, which is based in Bangkok.
In a new 34-page reportSupporting Human Rights in Myanmar: Why the US Should Maintain Existing Sanctions Authoritythe two advocacy organizations drew particular attention to Burmas continued persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, saying that more than 140,000 Rohingya and other Muslims [are still confined] to more than 40 squalid internment camps in [Arakan] State, while another one million Muslims in the country face severe restrictions, particularly on freedom of movement.
The report, based on 43 interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors of human rights violations and with officials from the United Nations as well as others in Rangoon Division and Arakan and Kachin states, expressed concern over the Burma Armys continued abuse, torture and killing of civilians in conflicts that continue to flare in the north. It also criticized the often destructive impacts of Burmas lucrative jade trade, centered in Kachin State, which reportedly generated approximately US$31 billion in 2014.
A US ban on jade imports would also be lifted later this month if existing sanctions are not renewed.
Fortify Rights and United to End Genocide want US sanctions to hold fast for at least another year to prevent backsliding on Burmas much-lauded reforms of the last several years.
The current sanctions regime is deliberately limited and creates incentives for human rights abusers to clean up their act, said Matthew Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights. These measures are sensible and should remain in place. Known human rights abusers shouldnt profit from improved bilateral relations.
The United States first imposed sanctions on Burma in 1997, when the former pariah state was still firmly under the militarys thumb. It was not until 2011 that the United States made moves toward restoring diplomatic ties with Burma, after former President Thein Seins quasi-civilian government came to power. While this eased broad economic sanctions affecting many sectors, scores of influential Burmese businesses and individuals remain blacklisted.
The human rights groups appeared largely to be hoping to coax actors within the military to clean up their act in pushing for renewed sanctionssuch as by ending violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law by the Burma Army, and holding its personnel to account, regardless of rankbut the civilian National League for Democracy (NLD) government was also offered recommendations on improving Burmas human rights record.
For instance, the report called for the new government to end all discrimination in law, policy and practice against ethnic and religious minorities, including Rohingya Muslims and Kachin Christian minorities, referring by name to the 1982 Citizenship Law that has effectively withheld citizenship from most of the countrys Rohingya, who were also excluded from Burmas otherwise widely praised November election.
President Obama should renew the sanctions authority without delay and make clear that promoting human rights in [Burma] will remain a priority in US foreign policy, Andrews said in the press statement.
Obama has until May 20 to renew existing sanctions or allow them to expire.
Interview Arakan Army Chief: The Entire Arakan People Support Us
Arakan Army chief Tun Myat Naing claims wide support in Arakan State despite swelling IDP numbers, and slams recent Burma Army calls for their disarmament.
Founded in 2009 in northern Kachin State, far from their homeland, the Arakan Army (AA) were trained and supported by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and joined the KIA and the Myanmar Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), in skirmishes with the Burma Army in the countrys northeast last year.
In March 2015, the first clashes between the AA and the Burma Army were recorded in Arakan State itself. This quickly receded, but clashes resumed in December 2015, acquiring a new intensity and prolonging into the term of the new government. The violence has spread beyond Kyauktaw Township to Buthidaung, Mrauk-U, Rathedaung and Ponnagyun townships of central and northern Arakan State. More than 1,700 local residents have been displaced this year by the fighting.
Although lawmakers of the Arakan National Party (ANP), the dominant ethnic party in the state, have called for the AAs involvement in Burmas peace process, the Arakanese armed group were excluded from signing the so-called Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in October last year and remain outside of formal peace negotiations. The Burma Army publicly vowed to eliminate the AA in January.
Amid escalating clashes, Arakanese lawmakers last week urged the government to take steps to bring the clashes in Arakan State to an end. Burmas defence minister responded by calling on the Arakan Army to disarm and accused them of deliberately compromising the new government.
The Irrawaddy interviewed Brig-Gen Tun Myat Naing, the Arakan Army chief, about the causes of the ongoing clashes and prospects for peace in Arakan State.
What is the current situation of the conflict in Arakan State?
It is quite tense, although clashes are currently few and far between. But with lots of troop movement and activity, clashes could recur at any time.
Is it true that the AA has opened fire to provoke fresh clashes?
Yes, we did fire first. But it was not us who acted provocatively. [The Burma Army] came into areas covered by our outposts with military operations commands 5, 15 and 9, together with all the battalions under the Sittwe Regional Operations Command. So, if we had not run into the [Burma Army] column that we did, we would have run into another column. They came in large numbers and we saw them first, because its our area.
We heard that a federal army backed AA in the fight. Why did they take part and who are the allies of the AA?
We have several allies, among the Kachin, the Taang [also known as Palaung] and the Karen, including the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA). We enjoy cooperation across multiple regions. I dont want to comment on which exact groups are backing us. Mainly, it is the AAs operation [in Arakan State].
Clashes have grown intense recently in Arakan State. What is the military objective of the AA?
Our military objective is to perform the duties of a regular armyto protect the security of Arakan State and the Arakan people. Our military objective is that there must be an Arakan Army in Arakan State. We will fight like other armies. We will rise against slavery.
Do you think the hopes of the Arakan people are the same as those of the AA?
I absolutely believe that. That is why we have gained the support of the Arakan people and are able to join hands with them. For seven years now we have tried to realize [our hopes]. Our ancestors had tried before us. This is our historic duty and it is the path the Arakan people have to walk. Our hopes are the same [as theirs]. We are fulfilling the needs of the [Arakan] people, standing by them. We dont look to our own interests but to those of our people.
Thousands of Arakanese people have been displaced by recent clashes. How are relations between the AA and the people in light of this?
No matter how much they have suffered, the Arakan people embrace, support and welcome the Arakan Army. This is a daily sight. The bad consequences of war are unavoidable. There will be displaced persons and civil society organizations have to take care of them to the best of their ability.
The United League of Arakan [ULA], our political wing, records problems faced by victims of the war, including human rights violations and extrajudicial killings in conflict zones. We will take action in cooperation with international organizations.
You said the Arakan people support the AA. Have the AA actively mobilized people to gain their support?
We dont need to waste our time and effort [in this way]. The entire Arakan people support us because they have been denied their fundamental rights over decades. We work in line with the needs and desires of the entire Arakan people. A roadmap has been adopted for the Arakan people, which we call the Rakhita Roadmap, referring to those who love, value and protect their own race. We will restore our robbed dignity. It is not strange that the Arakan people support the AA while a political solution still cannot be found.
Recently, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has talked about holding a Panglong-style conference. How would the AA attend the conference? What is the political ambition of the AA?
We welcome all good political efforts, although we have to wait and see before taking proper action. We welcome the peoples government. We had pinned our hopes on it before it came to power, and we are willing to solve political problems together with the government. Our political ambition is that we, the Arakan people, must be able to determine our own future through self-determination.
On May 4, Defense Minister Lt-Gen Sein Win said in the Lower House of Parliament that the AA is acting against democracy. The military also rejected the [parliamentary] proposal to halt the clashes and invite the AA to political dialogue. What happened on May 4 has thrown the hope for a federal union into uncertainty.
Regarding the clashes, [the Burma Army] holds a grudge against us and even said that they would annihilate us. We have to defend ourselves as they conduct military operations.
The peoples representatives put forward the wishes of people in the Parliament to find a solution toward achieving peace, but it was rejected. It is now clear who is warlike. Creating war means creating problems for the government. We have no reason to trouble the government, which is seeking a political solution toward building a federal union. Anyone with half a brain can guess which group is creating political trouble.
The defense minister stated that your relatives are now serving in government and urged you to disarm. What do you say to that?
We are fighting because it is necessary for our people. It is nothing to do with who our relatives might be. National concerns and interests are foremost in our beliefs.
[Editors Note: The current speaker of the Arakan State legislature, San Kyaw Hla of the ANP, is the father-in-law of Tun Myat Naing.]
The Burma Army and the news agencies they control have called the AA insurgents and have not recognized them as an ethnic armed group. Any comment?
The word Tatmadaw is found in the Arakanese dictionary. Tat means fence in the Arakanese language. It is our own word and we havent loaned it from anyone. Whatever we are called, we will do what we have to do, in accordance with our political beliefs. We dont want to argue over terminology.
Have you made any preparations for the peace process to be led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi?
I have made preparations, including for the worst outcomes, because I dont think it will succeed easily. All the ethnic groups have negotiated so many times to find a political solution.
What is your message to displaced persons in Arakan State?
We are trying to fulfill the hopes of the people. They must not be downhearted. I feel very sorry that they have to suffer but it is unavoidable in a war. We will work together with international and ethnic friends to assist them. I am happy that civil society organizations are also trying to help. I think it would be better if more systematic teamwork could be established to protect the rights of those victims.
Tuesday, May 10th, 2016 (9:37 am) - Score 456
The Local Government Association, which describes itself as the national voice of councils across the United Kingdom, has launched the Up to Speed campaign that aims to ensure everyone in rural areas gets access to superfast broadband and that nobody is stuck in a digital twilight zone
The new campaign is partly being pushed as a response to the Governments proposed 10Mbps (Megabits per second) Universal Service Obligation (USO), which many have interpreted to mean that nobody in the final 5% of the country (mostly rural areas) will receive superfast speeds of greater than 24Mbps. We explored this confusion in more depth yesterday (here) and so wont repeat ourselves now, but suffice to say that the reality is more complicated and many in the final 5% should have an option to get 24Mbps+.
Never the less there will still be quite a few homes and businesses that might well miss out on fixed line or wireless based superfast speeds, although many of those who cant get it could still expect to receive well above 10Mbps; this is the minimum required speed, but related connections are often able to deliver much faster performance.
However the LGA understandably believes that we should be aiming for universal coverage of superfast broadband and they perhaps rightly claim that 10Mbps will soon become inadequate as new online services become available. According to the LGA, the average household will need 19Mbps by 2023 (we think this has been taken from the BSGs 2013 study).
Mark Hawthorne, Chair of the LGAs People and Places Board, said: Achieving 10 Mbps should just be the start and something to build on because demand for and availability of faster speeds continues to grow. For the farmer applying for funding, the small business processing its invoices or the GP checking the availability of medicines, broadband is communities lifeblood. Councils are best placed to understand the digital needs of local areas. They are at the centre of improving mobile connectivity through helping implement superfast broadband programmes, organising local initiatives to raise residents and businesses digital skills and working with mobile operators to best place infrastructure.
In fairness the USO consultations have already recognised that the speed gauge may need to be lifted again in the future and as such it wont be stuck at 10Mbps, although all of this is still very much subject to debate and until we know the final approach then it remains very difficult to know who will or wont miss out on the best performance.
The LGA also said that the Governments USO should include other elements too, such as to specify a minimum upload speed and this is something that no prior policy has ever managed to achieve. Upload speeds have become increasingly important in the modern world of social media and P2P based video games, although its still less important than download performance.
Mind you nobody has yet found a firm answer to the issue of cost, with BT suggesting that it could cost anything from a few hundred million pounds (via Long Reach VDSL) to a couple of billion (via normal FTTC/FTTP/G.fast) in order to deliver the USO as currently proposed. Various options are being explored, from special joint public / private investment funds to a possible levy (tax) on broadband ISPs. The latter would be complicated, not least since the Conservative Party ruled out a similar Labour idea before the 2010 General Election.
Tuesday, May 10th, 2016 (1:44 pm) - Score 707
A new report from the National Farmers Union, which states that Farming underwrites the food and drink industry and is worth 103m to the UK economy each year, has joined the chorus of groups criticising the Government over fears that rural areas will not benefit from superfast broadband.
Once again the report (Farm Broadband & Mobile Networks) reflects frustrations with the proposed 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO), which many have interpreted to mean that nobody in the final 5% of the United Kingdom (mostly rural areas) will receive superfast speeds of greater than 24Mbps. But as weve already explored, the reality is more complicated and often not as bad as reported (here).
Never the less there are genuine concerns because the Government hasnt been able to develop a plan to ensure universal (100%) coverage of fixed line superfast broadband connectivity, which is something that other EU member states are still aiming to achieve (examples); even if precious few of those will actually hit their target by 2020.
The NFU has now joined the chorus of criticism and warned that at best farmers within this last 5% could be offered far lower speeds of 10 megabits per second by 2020, but as weve already explained (here) many in the final 5% should still get much faster speeds than 10Mbps (some will even get above 24Mbps).
Guy Smith, NFU Vice President, said: If our industry is to meet any of the ambitions of the long awaited Government 25-year Food and Farming Plan, it will be essential for barriers to growth to be removed. Poor access to broadband and mobile networks is one such significant barrier and the current situation is neither sustainable nor acceptable. The Government is asking farmers to run their businesses in conditions that put them at an immediate disadvantage. We have heard of farmers waiting 15 hours to download a Countryside Stewardship guidance booklet, farmers cant comply with increasingly online only regulation and arent able to contact their customers. Farmers cant harness the brilliant range of agri-technology which relies on a reliable internet connection. To increase productivity you need superfast broadband, to get out of the farm office and into the field. Well over half of our members have diversified their farm businesses with the aim of supporting the wider rural economy, but they simply wont be able to support this wider economy if they cant offer high-speed broadband. This is tantamount to failure to provide the infrastructure that our industry desperately needs to flourish and compete in increasingly globalised markets.
Admittedly many of the recent newspaper articles and related reports risk misinterpreting how USOs work and indeed no firm policy even exists yet as the matter is still under early consultation. On the other hand political pressure often drives change and so, rightly or wrongly, all of this criticism may yet nudge the Government into delivering an even more effective strategy.
The 10Mbps USO is a good thing and indeed its stronger than almost every other country with a similar broadband policy, which is something that often gets overlooked, but at the same time we had always hoped that the Government might accompany it with a general commitment to ensure universal coverage of superfast connectivity (were excluding Satellite, which is still not good enough).
However the high cost of delivering in that final 5% (in reality it will probably be more like the final 2-3% once BDUK has completed) appears to have caused the Governments programme to pause. After all, we do still have a rather large pile of debt to pay off.
Embracing the Mobile Development Trends of 2016
The opening of relations with Cuba was thought likely to provide a shot in the arm for American telecom companies. After all, the island lies about 90 miles away and the populations of the two nations have deeply shared roots.
It will, but things rarely roll out simply. The opening of a formerly cloistered nation to U.S. telecom companies is unprecedented, so it is difficult to say whether progress is slow or fast. In any case, progress indeed is being made. This week, T-Mobile said that it has struck an interconnection and roaming agreement with Empresa de Telecommunicaciones de Cuba, SA (ETECSA). CNET says that the agreement stipulates low rates and the ability, beginning in July, for the companys U.S. subscribers to use their phones for voice, text and data roaming services while on the island.
The story says that Sprint and Verizon already have roaming agreements in place. T-Mobile is a major player and this is something of a milestone. The carrier claims more than one-third of Cuban-born cell phone users in the United States.
It is not surprising that there is jockeying going on between the carriers in the United States. Cuba is a big market and the rules that are in place will influence which carriers win and which lose. Law360 outlined the battle last month. AT&T, the site said, is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to change current rules that require all carriers to charge the same rates for services between the two nations. Verizon is arguing to keep the rules as they are. The two carriers took their contradictory positions on filings in early April to a proposal by the FCC to relax the rules. The lines clearly are drawn:
AT&T and Verizon originally responded to the FCCs request on April 4, splitting on whether the agency should remove the nondiscrimination requirements. AT&T said Monday that its competitor has established that U.S. carriers are paying 60 cents per minute three times the benchmark rate to terminate calls in Cuba under the outdated and anticompetitive International Settlements Policy. Verizon has called for the continued application of the TeleCuba Waiver Order Framework, including its nondiscrimination provision.
Of course, scratching the surface of the filing would show that the position of each is in its best business interests. There is another dimension to the question of telecommunications services in Cuba. An Associated Press story posted at the Sarasota Herald Tribune says that only two industries telecom and travel have been given special treatment by the U.S. government in its outreach to Cuba. Others still labor under the provisions of the blockade of the island nation.
The impact likely is twofold: The business traffic that would exist if the gates were fully open is missing and any decision by the administration on how to proceed with thorny telecommunications questions such as the one now before the FCC will be seen through the political context of both an election season in the United States and the fact that the industry has been elevated above all but one other.
There is little question that the wireless industry will do well in Cuba. It just may take a bit longer to be realized than the most optimistic people expected.
Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
The skirmish between Oracle and Google is escalating. Also, it appears that the trial is underway due to JAVA API copyright claim is buzzing with scrutiny.
ZD Net reports that, "The heavyweight legal match-up between Oracle and Google has already had some dramatic results. In 2014, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that copyright law applies to APIs, specifically, the 37 Java API packages Google used to develop the Android mobile operating system."
As both sectors face off in court again, it brings more serious disadvantages for Android, given the fact that 80 percent of the smartphone market is utilizing Android technology.
Oracle and Google return to San Francisco's U.S. District Court on Monday to determine whether Google's use of those copyrighted API packages amounted to "fair use." If not, the court will have to assess the damages, and if all goes Oracle's way, Google could owe the software giant a whopping sum, to the tune of $9 billion that far surpassing any other copyright verdict, as noted by the same post.
The case revolves around how Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, can and cannot be used, and APIs define how different types of code communicate to each other and if owners of those APIs can use copyright law to control how programming is done, there will be a sea change in industry practices and for many developers, especially of open source software, this will be a change for the worse, according to Ars Technica.
Moreover, "That is really going to create a radical shift in how software is developed worldwide," Mitch Stoltz, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who's been following the case, said in an interview. "If it requires permission each time APIs are used and code calls other code, then you've upended the economics of software.
It remains uncertain on how the skirmish between Oracle and Google would end. However, the outcomes would boil down to how the Java API Copyright claim as both sectors face the hurdles of rights and scrutiny.
At times, it is fair to say that a person's choice of style reflects his/her personality. In general, it is presumed that whatever a person chooses, it is his/her stand in life. One particular standpoint is the choice of smart phones. The question here revolves around the main reason what person wants. Does it have to be cool looking? Does it have to rock? Does it have to have the best performance? Well, the answer lies in the hands and choice of the users or owners.
To the Moto X or Motorola Droids advocates out there, here is a new look of the latest 2016 Moto X.
According to an Internet post via Droid Life, the appearance of the next Moto X has both Droid and Verizon's new check mark. The phone also looks thin. It has fingerprint sensors located at the bottom chin. The front has camera with accompanying flashes.
According to The Verge, the next Moto X could have modular add-ons just like LG's G5. These add-ons add new functionality to the core handsets. It will have a modular backplates.
In addition, the patch of small circles on the back of the phone are magnetic pins and serve as the connection between the phone and 'Amps.'
Reports also said that the Amps are in the works, ranging from stereo speakers to an extended battery pack, a camera grip with flash and optical zoom and even a pico projector. Droid Life claims that it will announce the new phones in early June at the company's Tech event.
As per Venture Beat, the phones are all metals. The phone is compatible with an ecosystem modular, swappable backplates that endow with significant additional functionality.
For more information about the phone's specifications, read here. Moto X has really done an exceptional venture toward customer satisfaction and it answers the call of competence. Definitely, this is worth the wait.
acebook recently won a significant trademark lawsuit in China, as the Beijing Higher People's Court issued a ruling in favor of the social media giant and prohibited a local beverage producer from using the words "face book" on its products.
The court ruling is significant in the view that recently, Apple Inc. lost a trademark case in China when the local court granted the trademark 'IPHONE" to leather manufacturer in the country stating that iPhones were not introduced into the country when the leather product maker used the trademark for its items.
As far as the case related to Facebook's trademark is concerned, a Zhongshan-based beverage producer, Zhujiang Pearl River Beverages, had registered the trademark "face book" in 2011 for its milk-flavored drinks and porridge. The Trademark Review and Adjudication Board approved the company's application in 2014, which was objected by Facebook, CNN Money reported.
Recently, a post on the Chinese website Weibo revealed that the Beijing court had revoked the ruling of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board to grant the trademark to the beverage production firm in view of the objections raised by Facebook. Issuing its verdict last month, the court said that the "face book" labeling by the Zhujiang Pearl River Beverages on some of its foods and beverages is an act of trademark infringement and it was in violation of fair market competition.
Arguing on behalf of the company's stand, Zhujiang Pearl River Beverages marketing manager Liu Hongqun said that "face book" ("lian shu" in the local language) portrays something that is intrinsic in Chinese culture. According to Liu, in Chinese operas, the term "lian shu" is used to denote delicately designed masks that are also called "face books," Tech Times reported.
At the same time, Liu pointed that although Facebook is certainly a renowned and popular brand globally, the Chinese regulators have blocked its services in the country since 2009. Since no or very few Chinese can actually access Facebook in mainland China, his company was not violating the fair market competition.
Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in business are already active in many companies. They are received with mixed feelings of hopes and concerns.
According to Gizmoids, for the first time India's Facebook Messenger chatbot provides online consultation with doctors. All communication is confidential and the bot is available free of cost.
The Health Quiz is now also made available on smartphones. The app allows users to choose from over 100,000 specialized doctors in more than 50 different fields.
Microsoft also intends to introduce bots on Skype. In Microsoft Build Developers Conference, a Skype bot was already tested for ordering pizza from a local Domino's outlet.
Both Facebook and Microsoft are focusing their efforts to develop social bots. They are automated programs aimed to help users with some simple routine tasks.
Facebook bots in the Messenger app are aimed to help users directly order flowers, gifts and more, eliminating the large number of processes in between. While chatbots are not something new, now more and more businesses are showing interest in using them.
According to BDlive, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, announced recently that the social media's Messenger will become a platform used to assist programmers in creating "natural-language services." The new apps will allow artificial intelligence to communicate directly with people.
The new Messenger AI app is designed to help customers communicate with businesses without the need to voice-call them. With 900 million people using Messenger and 1.6 billion people using Facebook, developers can also focus to create chatbots that will personalize tasks and follow up.
However, Mr Zuckerberg's announcement was received by some with criticism and concerns. The main reason is the fear that users can see chatbots in the same intrusive way as spam is seen in an e-mail inbox.
It is expected that not all users would respond positively to dealing with a chatbot for business purposes. A secondary concern is that chatbots may misinterpret communications with customers, leading to reputation damage or incorrect messaging.
Deloittes Privacy Index says Australian consumers want more than convenience its now all about trust
We all should heard of, if not know of Deloitte, one of Australias leading professional services firms, and winner of both the Australian Financial Review/CFO Audit Firm of the Year and Accounting Firm of the Year awards in 2013.
Its second annual assessment of the privacy practices of 116 leading consumer brands (operating in Australia) reveals that a more sophisticated Australian consumer has emerged; one that equates privacy with trust around how their data will be kept safe, used and shared.
The report found that 94% of consumers believe trust is more important than convenience; communicating how information is used and shared builds trust; and thinking and acting globally when responding to regulatory change is increasingly necessary.
In deference to the importance and impartiality of the report the remainder is presented verbatim.
The Deloitte Australian Privacy Index 2016 (registration required for a free report) finds that consumers trust organisations that use their information reliably and respectfully. They want adequate security measures when their information is submitted via publicly available means, and that tell them how the information collected by their websites and mobile apps will be used.
Deloitte national lead partner, Cyber Risk Services Tommy Viljoen said: It is quite straightforward. Privacy for todays Australian consumer is inextricably linked with trust. Australians, whether millennials or baby boomers, want to be confident that the organisations with which they entrust their personal data, are reliable, and that they treat their information with respect.
We want to know our information is secure when it is submitted via publicly available means, such as a website or mobile app. And we also want to know how our information will be used.
One of the most telling findings in this years consumer survey is that 94% value trust over convenience, whether using a website or a mobile app..
The most trusted [with personally identifiable information PII] industries in the Deloitte Australia Privacy Index 2016 overall are:
Banking & finance Government Energy Insurance Telecommunications (mobile/internet/home phone) Higher education Technology Travel & transport (airlines/agencies/hotels/taxi) Health & fitness Retail Social media Media (news, television, radio, entertainment) Real estate
Viljoen said: Banking & finance organisations overtook government as leaders in privacy this year as both these heavyweight groups continue to vie for pole position. The energy sector came in third followed by insurance and telecommunications, which jumped from tenth position last year to fifth.
To determine where each of the 13 sectors sits in the overall Index, Deloitte supplemented the survey of the 1000 consumers, with a website analysis, a confidential organisational survey of the 116 brands, and for the first time, analysis of their mobile apps where available.
Key insights
When combining the results of three of the components assessed banking & finance organisations took seven positions in the top ten
A government organisation was the best individual organisation and government bodies took the remaining two places in the top 10
Industries ranked at the top of the index are highly regulated; those in the lower half are less regulated
Both real estate and higher education, new industries introduced in 2016, were ranked in the lower half
Higher education is, nevertheless, perceived to be a top five trusted industry by consumers, but their websites and mobile apps performed less well on the index
The telecommunications industry improved from 10th position last year to the top five in 2016
Social media on the other hand plummeted from third position to 11th overall pulled down by consumer sentiment despite doing well in the website analysis with transparent privacy policies.
Organisations that did well had:
Mobile apps that communicated to the individual user when they took actions on a mobile device
Implemented security protocols on their website when capturing personal information
A brand deemed trusted by consumers
Cookies with a shorter expiry timeframe the average time was 657 days; the worst were persistent cookies stored for three or more years.
Key insights from the Deloitte Australian Privacy Index 2016 consumer survey:
Australian consumers are most concerned about sharing credit card details (71%); identification numbers (65%); medical records (34%)
18 to 25 year olds are more concerned about sharing mobile numbers or browsing history than medical records; 26-39 year olds are more concerned about sharing their address
71% of the 1,000+ consumers surveyed had never had a privacy issue with a brand
29% cited 851 privacy issues with organisations included in the survey over the last 18 months
We complain more about privacy as we get older; more than 38% of 40-64 year olds have made a privacy complaint but less than 8% of 18-25 year olds have.
67% of respondents are concerned when organisations send personal information outside Australia
As the Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim said Privacy is an international conversation, particularly as information flows have become more complex, traversing national borders and established regulatory jurisdictions.
Deloitte Client Manager, Cyber Risk Services Marta Ganko, who co-authored the Privacy Index said: Any organisation which shares data has become a data broker of some sort. As organisations collect and share more of their customers data with external parties, consumer confidence, trust, choice, as well as commercial interests, become important elements to balance in an increasingly digitally borderless world.
This requires organisations to break down their own borders and operate transparently to continue building trust with consumers.
Ganko explained that the combination of emerging privacy regulation and the common practice of sharing data have highlighted new types of borders. National borders are obvious; however, there are subtler borders such as those between organisations and their subsidiaries or third parties, she said.
Until now, the majority of organisations in Australia have only had to consider local privacy laws. However, the need to maximise commercial opportunities, implement efficiencies and reduce costs has led organisations to engage or partner with third parties, which are often located overseas and so are subject to different and sometimes more stringent laws. This means that Australian-based organisations have to now consider global approaches to managing privacy risks associated with trust and reputation.
National Privacy Awareness Week (15-21 May) PRIVACY IN YOUR HANDS
It would appear that the Commissioners call to action in Privacy Week 2015, that organisations and agencies build a culture of privacy, and ensure they become more proactive in meeting their compliance requirements, have been taken on board.
Viljoen said: Compared with 2015, the number of organisations using a layered approach in their privacy policies in 2016 has substantially increased, which is very pleasing.
The Deloitte Australian Privacy Index 2016 highlights that:
More than 90% of organisations internally report all privacy incidents and breaches
Almost 70% of organisations conducted a Privacy Impact Assessment for business changes
Close to 70% of organisations have developed or intend to develop a privacy strategy
More than 80% of organisations have considered how global changes such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation will impact their organisation.
Mobile App Analysis
Ganko said: Given that mobile devices have become the way we connect with the world we thought it important to analyse the top brands mobile apps. This included assessing the privacy policies of the apps, as well as the way they behaved.
Our most surprising finding on behaviour was that after downloading the app and before even logging into most of the 88 apps accessed, the app was reading information from our device, of which 94% was sent overseas. Depending on the app this data could include your contacts and/or your location however individuals were always informed in these cases.
Key insights:
Industry ranking
The industries that performed best against the defined mobile analysis metrics of the Index, with number one ranked the best, were telecommunications; banking & finance; government; media; and retail.
Access to location
14% of the 88 apps tested accessed user location information
The telecommunications industrys apps accounted for the majority of location access events (90%), followed by social media mobile apps (6%) and travel & transport mobile apps (3%)
Apps from banking & finance, energy, government, higher education and insurance do not access location information from a mobile device
Information leaving a mobile device
85% of the apps analysed made a connection to send or receive data from a location (including Australia)
The technology sector sent and received the most data (35%), followed by travel and transport (30%) and retail (7%)
Overall, the government, energy, and insurance sectors sent and received the least data
81% of the apps sent data overseas. Of this, 97% of the apps transferred data to the United States, 14% went to Singapore, 4% went to Hong Kong, 4% to Germany, 6% to Ireland and 1% to Japan.
Privacy policies
99% of brands implemented layered privacy policies in their apps
28% of apps did not have an accessible privacy policy before login. Of these, 45% did not have a privacy policy accessible from Google Play. Yet 96% of the apps transferred user information in or out of the device without logging in
52% of brands provided a detailed list of countries to which they disclose privacy data. The banking and finance industry performed best with 76% of app brands tested providing a detailed list. This was closely followed by government and real estate.
Organisations that did well:
NATOs Head of Cyber Security was very definite In the future Cyber threats will be considered a conventional threat just like terrorism, nuclear war, and more.
Trend Micro, a significant global security provider, hosted its Cybercrime 2016 Threat Defence Summit in Sydney which was attended by over 200 C-level and IT managers - all keen to hear why cybersecurity has become a boardroom imperative.
The speaker line-up was impressive:
Charles Lim, Senior Industry Analyst, Cyber Security from Frost & Sullivan on The State of Threat Landscape
Anil Suleyman, Head, Cyber Defence, Emerging Security Challenges Division (ESCD)NATO HQ, Brussels
Raimund Genes, Global CTO, Trend Micro on Strategy for Enterprises Addressing Cyber Threats
And Zak Khan, Director of Advanced Cyber Defence for Trend Micro Australia and New Zealand was the host of the event.
Following are some of the speakers paraphrased highlights.
Lim
Business needs digital transformation aligned to its end strategy [to survive and thrive] disruptive change is driving business. But cyber criminals threaten to disrupt that digital disruption. Ubers database was hacked and trust in that company declined. The value of business today is all about its trust. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to destroy it.
Australia is highly targeted more than 50% of ransomware is aimed at Australia because we pay! There were 11,073 reported security incidents in 2014 and the loss was conservatively valued at A$17 billion (about 1% of Gross Domestic Product).
The top Australian industries under attack are Energy (29%), Banking, Financial services and insurance (20%), Communications (12%), Defence (10%), Transport (10%) and Water (6%).
In most cases cyber criminals go after the money but increasingly it is about disrupting the economy [State sponsored cyberwarfare or cyberterrorism].
Heavily engineered spear phishing email is still the most used malware delivery vector but block chain [a distributed database that maintains a continuously-growing list of data records hardened against tampering and revision] is also being used to distribute ransomware and more [nasty stuff].
Cybercriminals are now using the best encryption (AES256/1024), the best marketing [social engineering], using untraceable Bitcoin for payment, providing Tech Support to set up a Bitcoin account, and even helping to decrypt data when the ransom is paid they want satisfied clients that validate their business model.
The message from all speakers was loud and clear Do not pay ransomware attackers it encourages them to do more. Instead, use the money to fix your security.
The problem is that many do pay as this means minimum loss of utility for perhaps 24 hours. Any longer to recover backups and clean systems may cost more in lost sales or reputation. This is a clear case where prevention is better than the cure.
Business needs to be prepared for the new better organised, better funded, highly savvy cyber criminals. It needs a comprehensive, achievable cyber security policy in place, an incident response plan, and a communications plan [PR] at the very least.
Resiliency will only be achieved via intensive education and using internal or external resources to send your own spear phishing emails to catch less than vigilant staff. [This was an ongoing theme education is fine but being caught has more impact].
Lim finished by saying that you need 3 Cs of cyber security
Cyber protection the latest layered security in place
Cyber Intelligence know what is happening and chart deviations from good
Cyber resilience have everything in place and keep it up to date
To achieve this business, government and everyone need to collaborate, share data, and start relevant conversations.
Suleyman
He was introduced as the Tom Cruise, Top Gun, of cyber-crime prevention but I suspect it would have been more appropriate to use Men in White (referring to the Men in Black movie and white versus black hat hackers).
He spent much time talking about how NATO protects its own network We have no dependencies on the usual networks and where it touches the internet there are special issues. His life is not boring NATO is a high priority hacking target!
His words were chilling, In the future Cyber threats will be considered a conventional threat just like terrorism, nuclear war and more. He said that cyber defence had been seen as the underdog [compared to the importance of protecting the world against war, terrorism, nuclear attack, etc.) and now it impacts every part of every defence.
His message, however, was about playing catch up to cyber criminals who on the whole appeared better organised and funded than ever before its a profitable business.
First, you need layers of protection there is no such thing as one defence. Next, you need real-time analytics to know what is going on in the network. Then you need trained staff to administer it and NATO helps build this capacity via training at its School in Oberammergau, Germany and Defence College in Rome, Italy.
He said that there is no such thing as an isolated incident they are all related. Organised cybercrime uses similar threat vectors, actors, campaigns and methods and this demands that industry (enterprise, government and threat protection) all collaboratein sharing information. You need to invest in situational awareness, resilience and partnerships [as cyber criminals do] because you cant do it all yourself.
Genes
Genes was perhaps the unsung hero of the day as Chief Technology Officer of Trend Micro he has seen it all. He said Attacks should never happen in enterprise. All you need it basic housekeeping. Keep security up to date, apply patches and be aware. Cyber criminals take advantage of the lack of patching and old vulnerabilities.
Are we losing the battle against cyber criminals [business, government and security companies] YES!
He lamented that too many still see security as it was ten years ago all about perimeter defence a fortress. Well, there are too many ways to breach defences. The old way was like a Mentos hard shell and soft on the inside. When cyber criminals get in Lets accept this they will - they can do lots of harm. In any case, security is now about the internet, cloud, mobility, BYOD and remote workers there is really no such thing as security if you only protect endpoints.
He said that every organisation needed a realistic security strategy in place, published guidelines, Layered protection, and to collaborate.
He spoke of the layered defence model. There is no such thing as a silver bullet throw anyone out that promises you one. The layers of protection can be physical or abstract. In physical terms, defences can be deployed at the gateway, at the server (file server, email, and SharePoint), and on the endpoint itself. The abstract layers are network, endpoint, user, application, and data.
He was definite on ransomware. Do not negotiate with cyber criminals. Do not validate their business model by paying. Backup data and make sure you are resilient. Spend that money on fixing your security.
He gave special mention to access control, Why do you let everyone access everything? Tie it down to what is needed.
Above all if breaches occur be open with your customers, investigate and fix quickly, and report within one month to the board what happened and how you have protected that.
The panel
Q. Do you envisage mandatory reporting of breaches of PII data?
A. It is happening in the US and Europe but many companies/countries are perhaps too scared to make it mandatory. Any PII breaches should be subject to mandatory reporting and fines if necessary.
Q. What trigger point should be used to make reporting mandatory perhaps breaches affecting 5% of revenue or more?
A. A big stick may be necessary for Australia. In some countries it is mandatory to employ a data protection officer if you handle PII.
Q. Would it be easier to establish a dialogue and negotiate with the cyber criminals re: ransomware?
A. It is just confirmation that their business model is working. Better to work with law enforcement to identify and get them jailed. But working with the law in some countries is very hard.
Q. Should organisations and countries take an offensive stance? [referring to Prime Minister Turnbulls statement The Australian Government has the tools to launch a cyber attack and theyre not afraid to use them.]
A. Turnbull answered that himself. The use of such a capability is subject to stringent legal oversight and is consistent with our support for the international rules-based order and our obligations under international law. The panel agreed that reverse hacking was not wise as it could knock out legitimate users.
Comment
Sorry if the report does not do the speakers justice there was too much good content. I urge business to look to their security providers and see if they offer such summits and enter into more dialogue with them. Trend Micro offers a free consultation and analysis and frankly if your existing security company does not do this then head over to Trend.
Since I have been covering security issues, the landscape has certainly changed. The key messages were:
But the nbn has refuted a media report that the suspension on the rollout of services is to remain in place until after the federal election, describing it, instead, as a momentary pause.
An nbn spokesman in Hobart told iTWire on Tuesday that the N-W Tasmanian rollout was paused - and not halted until after the election - as reported by ABC Radio in Hobart earlier in the day.
It would not be the best use of taxpayers money to commit expenditure to a satellite rollout if the rollout was then changed in the future," the nbn spokesman said.
With the nbn never far removed from local, state and national politics, and even more so in the midst of a national election, the suspension of the rollout, for now, comes as local government, businesses and residents in the north-west of Tasmania particularly in the marginal Braddon electorate attempt to influence the decision on satellite versus fixed network.Business groups and residents of the region are continuing their vigorous lobbying campaign to try to effect a change from satellite to a fixed fibre network, saying the satellite services would be inadequate to meet their needs. They want the nbn to abandon satellite and to rollout a fixed fibre network.The nbn had already started the rollout of services via its recently launched Sky Muster satellite until Tuesdays suspension of all work on that rollout.Confirming on Tuesday that no timeframe had been put on the rollout suspension to N-W Tasmania, the nbn spokesman pointed to a statement in a Senate Estimates Committee hearing last week by nbn CEO Bill Morrow, in response to questions from Tasmanian Labor Senator Anne Urquhart herself a resident of the States north-west region - that the nbn rollout of the satellite service in the region had been suspended but he had no idea yet how long the suspension would last. We are hoping sooner rather than later, Morrow said.Morrow also told Senator Urquhart we have suspended the satellite service in that area with the hope that people will be able to come forward with the money so we can build them the network that I think you have been representing and advocating.The nbn chief also said the nbn understood there was a great deal of effort by all government parties to see if a solution cannot be found to overcome the added cost of building fibre out to Queenstown (Tasmania west coast), to give that area a fixed-line solution rather than a satellite solution.The nbn has estimated the extra cost is between $15 million and $20 million to build fibre and also have the reliability necessary to keep the service up and working when faults occur.So, as usual the nbn is mired in politics, with Morrows comments to Senate Estimates seemingly more akin to a cautious, non-committal answer to whether suspension of the Tassie rollout will remain in place until the election is done and dusted.iTWire reckons, however, its a safe bet that the suspension will stand until after the last votes are cast and, in the meantime, as ABC Radio reported, businesses and residents in the marginal seat of Braddon continue their lobbying campaign to be part of nbns fibre network, arguing that the satellite service would not provide adequate connection speeds.As ABC Radio also pointed out, delivery of the NBN is a prominent election issue on the west coast of Tasmania right in the marginal seat of Braddon and the Labor Party has promised to spend around $30 million to deliver NBN to the region.The Shadow Minister for Communications, Jason Clare, announced last month Labor's plans, promising a fibre-optic network not satellite services - would be deployed to deliver the nbn to communities in North-West Tasmania.Clare indicated that funding for the network to Tassies north-west would come from the nbns existing budget allocations, and that he expected the cost of rolling out fibre, as well as the access technology on the ground, would be approximately $29 million.But, the politics of the election were at the forefront again, when Clares announcement sparked a vigorous response from federal Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield, criticising what he said was Labors "unfunded announcement" and that it expected the nbn to provide $29 million to pay for its election promises in north west Tasmania.nbn does not have a spare $29 million available to fund Labors empty election promises. Labor must to come clean on which other towns will be disadvantaged by this intervention in Tasmania.Clare retorted that Labors policy to rollout its proposed fibre network is viable.
Matthew Hunter, national manager, 3D Printing, Konica Minolta Australia said Darlings appointment will help drive the expansion of Minoltas rapidly-growing 3D printing business in the Australian market and help meet the needs of the companys 3D printing customers in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.
Hunter says Hudsons appointment comes as Konica Minolta builds out its 3D printing footprint in Australia, with the company adding more staff and resources to meet growing demand in the local market.
With a background in 3D printing that spans half a decade, Ben brings a wealth of knowledge to Konica Minoltas 3D printing business.
Having Ben on board will help Konica Minolta in its goal to provide Australian businesses with unsurpassed levels of service and an unmatched range of 3D printing technology options. His experience will provide Konica Minolta with the additional know-how to help drive our continued growth in the region, Hunter said.Commenting on the 3D printing market, Darling said that as the Additive Manufacturing industry continues to use 3D printing for production of end use parts, especially in the areas of medical and low volume high value manufacturing, 3D printers are increasingly becoming a mission critical part of organisations that have invested in the technology.This means that service response times have never been more important to the success of our customers. With a national footprint of service technicians Konica Minolta is able to maintain a minimum response to have a technician onsite. There is currently not another 3D Printer supplier in Australia that can match Konica Minolta service.
With an eye to being closer to possible lucrative federal government contracts, Red Hat has opened an office in the Australian capital.
A media release from Red Hat, the biggest open source company, said the Canberra office, its fourth in the country, was opened due to the increasing interest from government organisations and private companies in the area in Red Hat's suite of offerings.
The appetite for open source in Australia's government sector, long a captive to Microsoft, has been growing in recent years.
In 2014, the Boston-based Acquia won a federal government contract to build up to 450 websites using the open-source Drupal software. The resulting CMS will be known as govCMS.
In 2011, the federal government released a policy requiring agencies to consider open source software for all software procurements. Government agencies were also asked to actively participate in open source software communities and contribute back where appropriate.
But in practice, there has been little movement on this on any big scale before the Acquia contract.
Microsoft has traditionally held sway when it comes to government contracts. It has even dictated some of the requirements that are needed for the democratic process in Australia.
Red Hat could well change that. The company achieved a milestone earlier this year when it crossed the US$2 billion in revenue.
The technology space is different these days, given the way Microsoft is falling over backwards to try and spread the message that it is friendly to open source.
It has tied up with many open source companies, Red Hat included, in a bid to have their technology run on its Azure cloud platform.
Business / Economy
by Thobekile Zhou
Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank on Tuesday abandoned plans to automatically convert export proceeds into the Rand and Euro currencies, the second tweak within a week of a major policy intervention, as it battles a crippling cash shortage.On May 4, the central bank announced a raft of measures, including plans to introduce domestic bond notes' to circulate alongside foreign currencies, but a public outcry triggered by fears of a return of a much loathed local currency prompted a clarification' on Friday last week, with governor John Mangudya describing the move as an export incentive.On Tuesday, the central bank said it had scrapped plans, announced just last week, to convert 40 percent of all export proceeds into Rand and 10 percent into Euro. However, exporters would now have half of their earnings held in their banks' accounts with the central bank."Authorised Dealers are advised that 50 percent of all new foreign exchange receipts from the export of goods and services denominated in USD shall be transferred into the Reserve Bank immediately on receipt of funds. The remaining 50 percent shall be credited into the exporter's FCA in USD," said the central bank in a statement released late on Tuesday."On receipt of the 50 percent export proceeds into its Nostro Account, the Reserve Bank shall immediately credit the same amount plus the 5 percent export incentive /bonus in USD into the Authorised Dealer's RTGS Account for the exporter. Accordingly, the requirement for the apportionment of 50 percent of foreign exchange receipts into 40 percent ZAR and 10 percent EUR, has been removed with immediate effect."Exporters receiving proceeds in other currencies will get 100 percent of their earnings credited to their corporate FCA accounts immediately, plus the 5 percent bonus.RBZ's swift shift on policy may be the result of pressure from exporters, who had criticised the conversion of part of their USD earnings into weaker currencies, particularly the volatile rand. Legal experts had also advised that the conversion could have exposed the bank to possible litigation. It is unclear how exporters will receive the new measure announced Tuesday.The RBZ also announced the removal of a 10 percent Nostro account threshold by banks. Also removed is a 15 percent cash holding requirement announced in September 2014.
Global smartphone giant HTC has posted its fourth consecutive quarter of losses to the end of March and is now betting on sales of its newly released HTC10 smartphone to pull it out of the slump, despite worldwide sales of its phones declining steadily over recent months.
The Taiwanese company reported a loss of NT $4.8 billion (Taiwanese dollars) or US$148 million with revenues of NT $14.8 billion (US$455 million) a drop of 64% - for the three months to 31 March.
A big drop in global sales of its smartphones contributed to the HTC loss as the company fights to compete with the likes of Apple with its iPhones and Samsung and its range of phones.
But, despite the poor results, HTC is buoyant about its latest smartphone releases, including the HTC10, and confident of its financial performance for the full year, hoping to break even in the third quarter.
The media and consumer buzz around HTC, including for the keenly-awaited launches of the flagship smartphone and Vive virtual reality system, clearly demonstrate our leadership in innovation and have provided a great boost to the HTC brand, Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC said.We have been working hard to lay the groundwork over the past year, streamlining processes and optimising resources to enable us to develop the best products in the most effective way.Wang notes that over the course of the quarter, HTC gained critical acclaim across its entire portfolio, with over 50 awards earned at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Mobile World Congress(MWC) for the HTC Vive virtual reality system, the UA Healthbox, the HTC One X9 and the new Desire smartphone models.Wang said HTC had seen strong launches in early Q216 for both the new flagship smartphone, the HTC 10, and the HTC Vive virtual reality system, and the company anticipates good momentum over the full year.
Its not a matter of a change in taste from home-grown Apple pie to more Seoul food, but a realisation that flagship phones are but a small part of the market less than 10% - and Apple only does flagship models with corresponding prices yes it makes more money per handset!
According to Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research issues such as brand and the associated prestige are now much lower down as purchasing drivers. It is all about bang for buck, lower cost of ownership, and an acceptance that mid and even some mass-market Android phones do as much as an iPhone does at 30-50% of the price.
Counterpoint does monthly analysis whereas others like IDC and Kantar World Panel are quarterly. Some say the former indicates global sentiment that is likely to pervade the rest of the quarter. In Q1, 2016 it says 344 million smartphones were shipped relatively flat growth over the last year. It warns that key global scale players need to invigorate sales with more exciting products and pricing schemes. It adds that The rise of Chinese brands (e.g. Huawei, OPPO, VIVO) at global scale outside of domestic markets also could help in stimulating demand with beautiful designs at aggressive price points.
But it is more than that. Android developer Google has near 50% of the mobile browser market share (Safari is about half that) and users are finding that the cost of similar apps, music, and videos are significantly cheaper on Google Play. Add to that the increasing awareness that Android V5/6 with a paid Anti-virus/malware program is probably safer that iOS (there is no third-party AV solution), and its easy to see why the shift to Android has been so swift and dramatic in the US.
App developers too are beginning to see the end of Apples iOS dominance. Where iPhone users spent more online and in in-app purchases, and in the fledgling smartphone payment system, that has shifted to Android. Companies like Pandora, eBay, Yelp and more report massive user Android engagement. Over the top, video short-form streaming providers like YouTube are reporting massive Android use and why not when a US$50 Android smartphone will display content just as well. Apples iPhone is increasingly being offered by Telcos at full, unsubsidised price US$649/849 to $749/949 for a 6S and Plus (16GG/128GB).
However, to add insult to bruised Apples, Samsung attributed its top spot to increased sales of the AMOLDED screen, Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, which have generally been acclaimed as the best smartphones yet with water resistance and micro-SD support. But to be fair to Apple at least 90% of the overall Android sales went to lower cost Android handsets.
Samsung is banking on the Galaxy Note 6 to blow any competitors out of the water in 2016 especially as rumours point to the iPhone 7 as being yet another incremental improvement. 2016 should be a tick year in the tick-tock cycle and should have meant the 7 series is all shiny and new evoking this is different! - but it appears to be a tock device that may not drive upgrades.
But it is the social media and forums that reflect the will of the people. Reading a kindred report at 9TO5Mac - a noted Apple site forum commenters are less than complimentary. I suggest you read what Apple aficionados are saying its not pretty for this iconic brand.
Then we have the shock of relatively unknown smartphone makers OPPO and VIVO (both owned by BBK) totally disrupting the market in Q1 by taking fourth and fifth place (combined they are nipping at the heels of Apple in second place). But more interesting is Samsung commanding 24.5% of the global market share and Apple dropping 16.3% to 15.3%.
My opinion In July 2015 I wrote and opinion piece titled The end of the $1000 smartphone should be nigh the conclusion was There has certainly never been so many quality devices available for more modest budgets, which is important as mobile is fast becoming be the primary platform for internet access. Please allow me a few seconds of self-indulgence I told you so."
In the first half of this JavaWorld introduction to Apache Kafka, you developed a couple of small-scale producer/consumer applications using Kafka. From these exercises you should be familiar with the basics of the Apache Kafka messaging system. In this second half, you'll learn how to use partitions to distribute load and scale your application horizontally, handling up to millions of messages per day. You'll also learn how Kafka uses message offsets to track and manage complex message processing, and how to protect your Apache Kafka messaging system against failure should a consumer go down. We'll develop the example application from Part 1 for both publish-subscribe and point-to-point use cases.
Partitions in Apache Kafka
Topics in Kafka can be subdivided into partitions. For example, while creating a topic named Demo, you might configure it to have three partitions. The server would create three log files, one for each of the demo partitions. When a producer published a message to the topic, it would assign a partition ID for that message. The server would then append the message to the log file for that partition only.
If you then started two consumers, the server might assign partitions 1 and 2 to the first consumer, and partition 3 to the second consumer. Each consumer would read only from its assigned partitions. You can see the Demo topic configured for three partitions in Figure 1.
Figure 1. A partitioned topic in Apache Kafka
To expand the scenario, imagine a Kafka cluster with two brokers, housed in two machines. When you partitioned the demo topic, you would configure it to have two partitions and two replicas. For this type of configuration, the Kafka server would assign the two partitions to the two brokers in your cluster. Each broker would be the leader for one of the partitions.
When a producer published a message, it would go to the partition leader. The leader would take the message and append it to the log file on the local machine. The second broker would passively replicate that commit log to its own machine. If the partition leader went down, the second broker would become the new leader and start serving client requests. In the same way, when a consumer sent a request to a partition, that request would go first to the partition leader, which would return the requested messages.
Benefits of partitioning
Consider the benefits of partitioning a Kafka-based messaging system:
Scalability: In a system with just one partition, messages published to a topic are stored in a log file, which exists on a single machine. The number of messages for a topic must fit into a single commit log file, and the size of messages stored can never be more than that machine's disk space. Partitioning a topic lets you scale your system by storing messages on different machines in a cluster. If you wanted to store 30 gigabytes (GB) of messages for the Demo topic, for instance, you could build a Kafka cluster of three machines, each with 10 GB of disk space. Then you would configure the topic to have three partitions. Server-load balancing: Having multiple partitions lets you spread message requests across brokers. For example, If you had a topic that processed 1 million messages per second, you could divide it into 100 partitions and add 100 brokers to your cluster. Each broker would be the leader for single partition, responsible for responding to just 10,000 client requests per second. Consumer-load balancing: Similar to server-load balancing, hosting multiple consumers on different machine lets you spread the consumer load. Let's say you wanted to consume 1 million messages per second from a topic with 100 partitions. You could create 100 consumers and run them in parallel. The Kafka server would assign one partition to each of the consumers, and each consumer would process 10,000 messages in parallel. Since Kafka assigns each partition to only one consumer, within the partition each message would be consumed in order.
Two ways to partition
The producer is responsible for deciding what partition a message will go to. The producer has two options for controlling this assignment:
Custom partitioner : You can create a class implementing the org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.Partitioner interface. This custom Partitioner will implement the business logic to decide where messages are sent.
: You can create a class implementing the interface. This custom will implement the business logic to decide where messages are sent. DefaultPartitioner : If you don't create a custom partitioner class, then by default the org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.internals.DefaultPartitioner class will be used. The default partitioner is good enough for most cases, providing three options: Manual : When you create a ProducerRecord , use the overloaded constructor new ProducerRecord(topicName, partitionId,messageKey,message) to specify a partition ID. Hashing(Locality sensitive) : When you create a ProducerRecord , specify a messageKey , by calling new ProducerRecord(topicName,messageKey,message) . DefaultPartitioner will use the hash of the key to ensure that all messages for the same key go to same producer. This is the easiest and most common approach. Spraying(Random Load Balancing) : If you don't want to control which partition messages go to, simply call new ProducerRecord(topicName, message) to create your ProducerRecord . In this case the partitioner will send messages to all the partitions in round-robin fashion, ensuring a balanced server load.
: If you don't create a custom partitioner class, then by default the class will be used. The default partitioner is good enough for most cases, providing three options:
Partitioning an Apache Kafka application
For the simple producer/consumer example in Part 1, we used a DefaultPartitioner . Now we'll try creating a custom partitioner instead. For this example, let's assume that we have a retail site that consumers can use to order products anywhere in the world. Based on usage, we know that most consumers are in either the United States or India. We want to partition our application to send orders from the US or India to their own respective consumers, while orders from anywhere else will go to a third consumer.
To start, we'll create a CountryPartitioner that implements the org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.Partitioner interface. We must implement the following methods:
Kafka will call configure() when we initialize the Partitioner class, with a Map of configuration properties. This method initializes functions specific to the application's business logic, such as connecting to a database. In this case we want a fairly generic partitioner that takes countryName as a property. We can then use configProperties.put("partitions.0","USA") to map the flow of messages to partitions. In the future we can use this format to change which countries get their own partition. The Producer API calls partition() once for every message. In this case we'll use it to read the message and parse the name of the country from the message. If the name of the country is in the countryToPartitionMap , it will return partitionId stored in the Map . If not, it will hash the value of the country and use it to calculate which partition it should go to. We call close() to shut down the partitioner. Using this method ensures that any resources acquired during initialization are cleaned up during shutdown.
Note that when Kafka calls configure() , the Kafka producer will pass all the properties that we've configured for the producer to the Partitioner class. It is essential that we read only those properties that start with partitions. , parse them to get the partitionId , and store the ID in countryToPartitionMap .
Below is our custom implementation of the Partitioner interface.
Listing 1. CountryPartitioner
public class CountryPartitioner implements Partitioner { private static Map countryToPartitionMap; public void configure(Map configs) { System.out.println("Inside CountryPartitioner.configure " + configs); countryToPartitionMap = new HashMap(); for(Map.Entry entry: configs.entrySet()){ if(entry.getKey().startsWith("partitions.")){ String keyName = entry.getKey(); String value = (String)entry.getValue(); System.out.println( keyName.substring(11)); int paritionId = Integer.parseInt(keyName.substring(11)); countryToPartitionMap.put(value,paritionId); } } } public int partition(String topic, Object key, byte[] keyBytes, Object value, byte[] valueBytes, Cluster cluster) { List partitions = cluster.availablePartitionsForTopic(topic); String valueStr = (String)value; String countryName = ((String) value).split(":")[0]; if(countryToPartitionMap.containsKey(countryName)){ //If the country is mapped to particular partition return it return countryToPartitionMap.get(countryName); }else { //If no country is mapped to particular partition distribute between remaining partitions int noOfPartitions = cluster.topics().size(); return value.hashCode()%noOfPartitions + countryToPartitionMap.size() ; } } public void close() {} }
The Producer class in Listing 2 (below) is very similar to our simple producer from Part 1, with two changes marked in bold:
We set a config property with a key equal to the value of ProducerConfig.PARTITIONER_CLASS_CONFIG , which matches the fully qualified name of our CountryPartitioner class. We also set countryName to partitionId , thus mapping the properties that we want to pass to CountryPartitioner . We pass an instance of a class implementing the org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.Callback interface as a second argument to the producer.send() method. The Kafka client will call its onCompletion() method once a message is successfully published, attaching a RecordMetadata object. We'll be able to use this object to find out which partition a message was sent to, as well as the offset assigned to the published message.
Listing 2. A partitioned producer
public class Producer { private static Scanner in; public static void main(String[] argv)throws Exception { if (argv.length != 1) { System.err.println("Please specify 1 parameters "); System.exit(-1); } String topicName = argv[0]; in = new Scanner(System.in); System.out.println("Enter message(type exit to quit)"); //Configure the Producer Properties configProperties = new Properties(); configProperties.put(ProducerConfig.BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS_CONFIG,"localhost:9092"); configProperties.put(ProducerConfig.KEY_SERIALIZER_CLASS_CONFIG,"org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.ByteArraySerializer"); configProperties.put(ProducerConfig.VALUE_SERIALIZER_CLASS_CONFIG,"org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringSerializer"); configProperties.put(ProducerConfig.PARTITIONER_CLASS_CONFIG,CountryPartitioner.class.getCanonicalName()); configProperties.put("partition.1","USA"); configProperties.put("partition.2","India"); org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.Producer producer = new KafkaProducer(configProperties); String line = in.nextLine(); while(!line.equals("exit")) { ProducerRecord rec = new ProducerRecord(topicName, null, line); producer.send(rec, new Callback() { public void onCompletion(RecordMetadata metadata, Exception exception) { System.out.println("Message sent to topic ->" + metadata.topic()+ " ,parition->" + metadata.partition() +" stored at offset->" + metadata.offset()); ; } }); line = in.nextLine(); } in.close(); producer.close(); } }
Assigning partitions to consumers
The Kafka server guarantees that a partition is assigned to only one consumer, thereby guaranteeing the order of message consumption. You can manually assign a partition or have it assigned automatically.
If your business logic demands more control, then you'll need to manually assign partitions. In this case you would use KafkaConsumer.assign() to pass a list of partitions that each consumer was interested in to the Kakfa server.
Having partitions assigned automatically is the default and most common choice. In this case, the Kafka server will assign a partition to each consumer, and will reassign partitions to scale for new consumers.
Say you're creating a new topic with three partitions. When you start the first consumer for the new topic, Kafka will assign all three partitions to the same consumer. If you then start a second consumer, Kafka will reassign all the partitions, assigning one partition to the first consumer and the remaining two partitions to the second consumer. If you add a third consumer, Kafka will reassign the partitions again, so that each consumer is assigned a single partition. Finally, if you start fourth and fifth consumers, then three of the consumers will have an assigned partition, but the others won't receive any messages. If one of the initial three partitions goes down, Kafka will use the same partitioning logic to reassign that consumer's partition to one of the additional consumers.
novo is putting its own stamp on the newly acquired Moto line of smartphones. A couple of recent leaks show that an upcoming Moto X has an all-metal build, which would be a stark departure from the colorful design choices available in Moto Maker.
The images displayed by French site nowhereelse.fr, which has scored a number of leaks of recent, show an all-metal back a front that includes a squarish home button what looks like two other software keys. The camera is more dominant, with very noticeable Moto bring. This could just be another choice inside of Moto Maker designed to give another level of customization.
As for the Droid line, which is a Verizon-bred exclusive, theres an even more stark departure from the usual blackred styling. A leaked picture offers a phone with a multi-colored lscape on the back.
nowhereelse.fr The newest version of Verizons Droid line may be way more colorful.
This might be part of a goal to give the Droid a broader appeal, as the phone has always had a very particular personality with deep blacks an angry robot speaking Drooooid when you launch the phone.
y this matters: Now that Moto is under the auspices of novo, this will be our first look at how the company will use the classic br. It appears the plan is to keep with the Moto X Droid lines, but make some style hardware tweaks to appeal more broadly to other buyers.
For McClatchy Company IT employees who will lose their jobs once their work is moved to India, there are fury and questions.
As many as 150 IT employees at the chain, which runs some 30 newspapers, will be losing their jobs. (See: "Newspaper chain sending IT jobs overseas.")
A government form, called the Labor Condition Application (LCA), is being posted on bulletin boards at the offices of various newspapers in the chain. This form alerts workers that at least one H-1B worker is being used.
Photographs of some of these notices, posted at the Miami Herald, one of the newspapers owned by McClatchy, were sent to Computerworld.
The top part of a Labor Condition Application posted at the office of the Miami Herald.
"The are basically firing me and hiring a foreign worker to do my job at less than half the rate they were paying me," said one IT employee. "They really couldn't find American workers to do this job? Seriously? I am angry as hell."
"I feel the same way the Disney employees must have felt last year when this exact same thing happened to them," said this IT employee.
On the form an employer must indicate whether they are H-1B dependent. If H-1B workers comprise 15% or more of an employer's workforce, the employer is classified as "H-1B dependent" by the U.S. government and subject to additional requirements.
H-1B dependent firms are required take "good-faith steps to recruit U.S. workers" and not displace workers. But there's a loophole. If these employers pay more than $60,000 to a visa holder, or that person has a master's degree, the nondisplacement provisions do not apply.
A second McClatchy IT employee said it's difficult to understand how an employer can use foreign workers to send their jobs overseas.
"There is something wrong with the system and the laws that allow these kind of things," said the second IT worker. "I understand that cutting costs is important for a company in deep trouble like McClatchy, but bringing underpaid workers from India to replace American workers is just crossing the line."
A McClatchy spokeswoman said the firm would not be commenting.
Microsoft is expanding the global footprint of its cloud platform to South Korea, and it has officially launched its previously announced data center in Canada, the company announced Tuesday.
In South Korea, Microsoft's cloud will be getting two new regions, including one in Seoul. They're aimed at serving both customers of the company's Azure cloud platform, and also its other services, including Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online.
Customers also now have full use of two Microsoft Azure regions in Canada, located in Quebec City and Toronto.
This announcement is part of Microsoft's ongoing plan to expand the geographic reach of its cloud computing platform. The expansion serves a pair of purposes: meeting the data sovereignty needs of customers, and making it faster for people to access Microsoft's cloud.
Expansions like this one are important for Microsoft to remain competitive in the global cloud market, especially with customer organizations increasingly wanting to store their data inside their home country. Amazon, Microsoft's leading competitor in the cloud market, already launched a new region in Seoul earlier this year, with two availability zones.
Canadian customers, in addition to being able to run Azure workloads inside their home country, will also get the benefit of being able to store their Office 365 data inside Canada's borders. During the third quarter of this year, Microsoft will be launching Dynamics CRM Online in Canada, in addition to its availability across the globe through other existing regions.
All told, Microsoft has now announced 32 Azure regions worldwide, with 24 of them currently operational following the launch of Canada.
Business / Local
by Thobekile Zhou
About 70 sacked National Railways of Zimbabwe ( NRZ) former employees who were dismissed on three months notice have stormed the railway firm Headquarters in Bulawayo.They are enquiring "peacefully" on their outstanding 10 month Terminal Benefits."There are many of the agreements in the unilaterally imposed payment plan by Management which they have failed to honour," said one of the affected former worker to Bulawayo24.com.This comes a day after they dismissed the government's claims that they have been paid their outstanding salaries as false, saying they were only given money ranging from $150 to $350 per worker last Thursday, in what their employer said was to "cushion" them against economic hardships."Transport Minister Jorum Gumbo urged workers, who downed tools last March in protest over unpaid salaries dating back 15 months, to return to work, saying $3 million was recently availed for their salaries.
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News / Local
by Staff Reporter
A man from Harare was dragged to the civil court by the first wife who accused him of assaulting her for the sake of pleasing his second wife who who always framed her.Sekai Bokotso dragged Collen Mukandishaya to the court seeking protection order against him.She told the court that the husband was in a habit of assaulting her and was no longer taking care of her and the children because of his second wife. Sh said the abuse has been going on for the past two years.The husband however did not oppose her application . Magistrate Barbra Mateko granted the order in Sekai's favour.
News / National
by Stephen Jakes
Zimbabwe Activists Alliance(ZAA) in collaboration with Zimbabwe Women In Politics Alliance(ZWIPA) has expressed concerns and uttermost disgust in the manner in which the Government of Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Health in particular is treating Cancer patients in the country.In a statement the organisations said as a result of such irresponsible neglect of suffering Cancer patients in the country, ZAA and ZWIPA will tomorrow,May 9, 2016 hold a match in Harare to demand the following among others: Immediate resignation of Dr. David Parirenyatwa as Minister of Health, the Government of Zimbabwe must buy new Radiotherapy machines immediately to save lives."Government must declare Cancer a national disaster to open room for international intervention. All identified cancer cases must be a responsibility of government to ensure that patients are treated free of charge. More nurses are trained in oncology and those interested in joining the march please contact: Warship Dumba 0774 765 454 (WhatsApp), Linda T. Masarira 0772118783(whatsapp), 0717763492 (voicecalls) lindatmasarira@gmail.com Lynnette Mudehwe 0773011262," said the organisations.
A single mother tells a Verizon CEO why she's participating in one of America's largest workforce strike.
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam was faced with a sensitive message on Mother's Day. Amanda Poe, a Verizon maintenance administrator in Wilmington, Delaware sent a message out to CEO McAdam. Her message contains her reasons why she's joining the strike as a local parent and a union member.
Poe is just one out of the 40,000 Verizon employees who are currently on strike but she made sure that her voice was heard on Medium. Poe decided to deviate from the usual dialogue between the company and the union officials. She used Mother's Day as a venue for communication. According to Patch, Poe explains that going on strike was not an easy decision for Poe but she felt that she had to do it because her family was on the line. She writes, "I am a single mother of two gorgeous teenage girls who I adore. They are my life. They are the reason that I am the person I am today, and they are the reason that I need a contract that includes job security, a job in my community, and affordable health benefits."
Poe hoped that her message to CEO McAdam would hit home during the beloved special holiday. She continued to say that raising her daughters are already difficult but what's more difficult is that one of them has a birth defect that she's struggling to take care. "My youngest daughter Halley was born in May of 2001 with a bilateral cleft lip and palate... At the time, she was diagnosed as one of the most extreme cases ever recorded in my state."
She stressed that her reasons for joining the Verizon strike was because of the health coverage that was able to cover her daughter's surgeries and hospital expenses. She was always grateful for Verizon's benefits and to have it taken away from her means she would need to pay out of pocket.
She ends her plea by saying that she's a mom and stresses that... "When making changes and negotiating this contract, please remember that we all have lives and stories. Our stories are what make us human and real."
Is Victoria Beckham too old to do any more Vogue covers? The fashion designer think so.
According to The Sun, Posh Spice joked to Claudia Winkleman during the Vogue 100: A Century of Style last Thursday which was held in the National Portrait Gallery, that "when I hear another Vogue cover has come up, I will always say 'this is the last one, because I'm a bit of an old bag now. Surely this is the last one? I'm 42. I've got four kids.'"
A representative of Beckham also reached out to Mail Online saying that she was "clearly joking" and that there are "plenty of cover shoots under discussion for the future, Vogue and othewise."
Victoria Beckham has graced the cover of several international editions of Vogue. She has been on the cover of British Vogue three times and her most recent one was for Vogue China, Mail Online reported.
The Vogue China shoot was criticized for Photoshopping Beckham's thigh gap. However, a representative of Beckham and also the editor-in-chief of Vogue China, Angelica Cheung, have both denied the accusation.
News / National
by Stephen Jakes
Social and political commentators have claimed that former Vice President Joice Mujuru who now leads the Zimbabwe People First will never pass the test as a mother to lead Zimbabwe because he [participated in Zanu PF government which butchered the people of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 as they sought to remain in power.Marko Thebe said people were not fools and will not rally behind Mujuru."Mujuru was involved in destroying our country and she is running a diamond mining in Marange as well. So we are not fools to vote this cruel woman," he said.Peter Razika said he do not seem to understand the mentality of some sections of the so called opposition who like trained dogs, bark at anything resembling Morgan Tsvangirai."Is it not a fact that Tsvangirai (MDC-T leader) is the only politician who despite the odds stacked against him managed to beat Mugabe in elections, not once but more than two times?" he said."And if the opposition's thrust is to remove Zanu PF from power, why then denigrate other opposition parties and their leaders? On a pedestal of cleanliness, despite some shortcomings, Tsvangirai remains largely untainted by corruption, murder, rape or any other crimes against humanity. Joice will never be cleared by the court of public opinion if her past were to be put under the microscope because she has tacitly been involved in the dark works of Zanu PF."He said to show that she is corrupt, she looted her late husband's estate of billions all in an attempt to deprive the late general's surviving children."All this was motivated by greed other than need because on her own she is a billionaire courtesy of her octopus like behaviour which saw her spreading tentacles wherever there was money," he said."To insult Tsvangirai or any other force fighting zanu.pf is akeen to shooting oneself in the foot. As a reminder wherever Zanu PF misrule is mentioned, Joyce will always feature prominently as an accomplice and this sudden realization that she must form a party was only a reaction to being kicked out of Zanu PF. Hence all that you guys say may be construed as sour grapes."He said as it stands the general public perception is that you guys are an extension of Zanu PF out to destabilize the opposition."So prove to us that indeed you are real and have no links with Zanu PF by starting to behave like people whose goal is to dislodge Zanu PF from power."Obert Ncube said "You don't know how she left Zanu PF and even if I share a link from her mouth why she left. People don't read."They just post like headless chickens, just wondering how they passed G7," he said.Robson Robie Mutimusakwa said honestly speaking Mujuru never left Zanu PF."Her heart is Zanu PF it was unfortunate that they chased her away," he said.Peter Razika said Mujuru will never pass the test as a mother figure judging from her previous association with Zanu PF because as a mother she was supposed to protest while mothers and daughters were raped and brutalized by Zanu PF youths all in the name of power."Was she blind to the young men whose buttocks and backsides were roasted in. Zanu PF torture camps for the sin of supporting MDC? If she had resigned in protest at that point in time, surely the whole country would have rallied behind her including me. How does Zanu PF Mujuru intend to inject fresh ideas to the country when the top hierarchy of the party is composed of dinosaurs such as Didymas Mutasa, Rugare Gumbo etc?" he said.Ryaan Chinyoka said Mujuru was given marching orders by Zanu PF thugs.
News / National
by Staff Reporter
The late Air Zimbabwe public relations executive Shingai Dhliwayo's body was found tied onto a tree with both hands and legs also tied with a rope in a sitting position, it has been learnt.Her mouth was gagged with a cloth, and she was bleeding from the nose.Bulawayo24.com first reported on her death Sunday evening.Today local media reports that the body was found about 5km from Plumtree Border Post in a bushy area and it is suspected that she had been lured by unknown assailants to travel to Botswana in a bid to rob her.It is suspected that there is a syndicate of criminals that is luring Zimbabwean businesspeople after promising them "lucrative deals" and then rob them after crossing into Botswana.The International Police Organisation (Interpol) in Botswana has intensified investigations to ascertain the cause of her death.The deceased's brother, Webster Taruvinga, said Interpol in Botswana was working tirelessly to get to the bottom of the case."Interpol in Botswana is assisting so much in trying to nail the case down' he told the Herald.
News / National
by Thupeyo Muleya
A South African farmer from Limpopo province who is charged with assaulting and kidnapping Zimbabwean workers and firing 300 others in August last year for demanding overtime wages, allegedly owes them about R1,6 million.His case has been moved from Villa Nora to Liphalale Magistrate court for trial on August 25.T J Van der Walt has allegedly been underpaying the workers for over 10 years.He is accused of forcing the Zimbabweans to work for up to 18 hours from 6am to 11pm and paying them R70 instead of the government stipulated R103 for an eight hour daily shift.Police have charged Van der Walt, the proprietor of Johannesburg Farm in Liphalale area and nine top managers with assault and kidnapping of the Zimbabweans.The farmer is also being charged by the Department of Home Affairs for employing illegal immigrants. The department of labour has also filed a charge of labour exploitation.A spokesperson for Limpopo province's Department of Labour, Lerato Makomene, said Van der Walt was taken to court after he refused to pay the money he owes the workers."All the charges including criminal and violating labour and immigration laws have been combined. He'll be tried on August 25 and we'll take further action against him depending on the verdict from the court," said Makomene."We've tried to bring him to the round table without success and hence we had to resort to legal action."The expelled workers' spokesperson who is a former foreman at the farm, Thembani Ndlovu, said the Department of Labour was representing workers in the matter."The Department of Labour is assisting us in ensuring that justice prevails and that Van der Walt pays the money he owes us. We're very grateful for the assistance we're getting from organisations that include the Zimbabwe Consulate here," he said.Ndlovu said most of the victims dispersed from the Water Base Disaster Management centre when 36 others were deported to Zimbabwe after becoming stranded.He said they were still in contact with those who had been sent home and that they will be paid their money through the Zimbabwe Consulate as soon as the matter was finalised."Other members of the group are spread across South Africa and have started seeking employment opportunities in other towns. We're constantly in touch."You'll note that most of the workers have been employed at the farm for over 10 years. Van der Walt is the one who processed their work permits though most of these have expired," said Ndlovu.
Land and Space Journal Sentinel business reporter Tom Daykin talks about commercial real estate and development. SHARE
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The planned conversion of an underused south side office building into a new Milwaukee Public Library branch and apartments will include a $5.3 million loan to the developer, and the sale of a city-owned parking lot, under a new proposal.
Gorman & Co. plans to redevelop the Hills Building, 906-910 W. Historic Mitchell St., with 57 market-rate units on the upper floors, and the library branch on the street level. It would replace an older library branch at 1432 W. Forest Home Ave.
The $10.4 million project was unveiled in 2014. Gorman has since been securing financing, which would include both state and federal historic preservation tax credits, as will as federal New Market Tax Credits, which help finance commercial developments in lower-income neighborhoods.
As part of the New Market Tax Credits financing, Gorman would provide the city $800,000. The city would combine those funds with $4.5 million already budgeted to help pay for the new library construction and make a $5.3 million loan to Gorman, according to a Department of City Development report.
The library would also pay rent to Gorman for 10 years, with the firm using those rent payments to make loan interest payments back to the city. Those payments would be around $36,000 for 2017, and about $54,000 annually, until the city takes ownership of the library portion of the redeveloped building, the report said.
The new library branch is expected to open by late 2017.
Also, the city plans to sell a 46,300-square-foot parking lot, at 1643 S. 9th St., to use in connection with the project. Gorman would buy the lot for $210,000, with 43 spaces reserved for library patrons.
Oregon, Wis.-based Gorman plans to charge rents ranging from $1,100 to $1,300 for the apartments, to be known as the Alexander Apartments.
The Mitchell St. project is the latest in a series of old library branches replaced with new ones that are part of mixed-use developments.
The four-story Hills Building was constructed in 1919. It was the home of Hills Department Store for over 30 years before eventually being converted into offices, with a partial fifth story added.
Psychedelic rock band Black Mountain plays the Cactus Club tonight behind its new album "IV." Credit: Courtesy of Billions
By of the
Twenty-four psychedelic bands, from as far away as Zurich and as close as within our city limits, swarmed the Cactus Club over the weekend for the fourth annual Milwaukee Psych Fest.
Tonight comes a 25th, Black Mountain. Consider it the after-party, and a show well worth seeing, even if you think you got your psychedelic fill over the weekend.
Last month the Canadian quintet released its fourth studio album, aptly titled IV, where even lengthy tracks fascinate via slow-motion shifts rather than face-melting jams, according to Journal Sentinel contributor Jon M. Gilbertsons review. That may not sound terribly exciting for a live show, but listening to IV, theres little doubt of the bands force, which will likely be more intensely realized in the cozy Cactus.
Admission for the 9 p.m. show, with acid-rock band White Hills opening, is $15.
More On Music
Find out about the week's must-see shows, concert tickets and more in the newsletter "Piet Levy's Music Picks." Subscribe at jsonline.com/newsletters.
Piet talks about concerts, local music and more on "TAP'd In" with Jordan Lee, 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9).
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U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Tuesday that he had a "very cordial meeting" with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland but indicated that he hasn't changed his mind about opposing President Barack Obama's pick.
"My advice to President Obama and the rest of my Senate colleagues has not changed. Let the American people have a voice in the composition of the Supreme Court," Johnson said in a statement.
Johnson and most of his fellow Senate Republicans have set up a blockade against Garland, chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They oppose Obama filling the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
"Instead of a lame duck president and Senate nominating and confirming, a new president and Senate elected by the people only a few months from now should make that important decision," Johnson said. "I can't think of a fairer or more democratic process."
Garland has met with 47 senators, including 15 Republicans.
Johnson is in a pivotal race in the fall against Democrat Russ Feingold.
Caterpillar is expected to temporarily move into the county-owned building at 97 E. Congress St. at North Scott Ave. They plan to stay there until a new building is constructed west of downtown Tucson. Credit: A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star
By of the
Caterpillar Inc. employees in South Milwaukee have already been shown a streetcar map of downtown Tucson, and this week they will learn more about the southern Arizona city where some of them could be living as early as this year.
Employees say the mining equipment manufacturer has scheduled webinars for Tuesday and Wednesday on the company's plans to establish its surface mining equipment and technology headquarters in Tucson, Ariz.
The move could have a large impact on Caterpillar's engineering and administrative workforce in South Milwaukee where the company builds some of the world's biggest mining machines. South Milwaukee Mayor Erik Brooks said Caterpillar told him more than 200 high-paying office jobs could be moved to Tucson over the next five to seven years.
Tucson officials say their city is experiencing a major resurgence in cultural attractions and business, and that landing the Caterpillar location was a major coup for the city that's often in the shadow of much larger Phoenix.
"Caterpillar's decision to consolidate its mining division here means the largest investment and economic development project in recent years," said Joe Snell, president of Sun Corridor Inc., a binational economic development agency that promotes southern Arizona and nearby areas in Mexico.
He added: "The economic impact of hundreds of high-paying jobs will change this community and will be felt for many years to come."
Arizona officials said they aggressively pursued the division headquarters and made trips to Milwaukee for a better understanding of the company's mining equipment business and the employees. Much of the nation's mining technology research is already done in Tucson in association with the University of Arizona. But the city doesn't have a significant mining equipment headquarters.
Arizona officials have pledged millions of dollars in incentives for Caterpillar to establish its division offices in downtown Tucson.
The perks include $50 million for an office building that Caterpillar would lease for 25 years. Other incentives include $2 million in relocation money.
"This is the first time we have competed (for a project) with this kind of incentive package," said Fletcher McCusker, chairman of the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District in Tucson.
"We will basically pass on our costs to the company and be paid back over an extended period," he said.
High-paying jobs
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said the new Tucson facility will add 600 jobs to the state's economy over five years, including positions in executive management, engineering and product development.
The average annual wage will be $90,000, and the move will have a $600 million impact on Tucson, according to Arizona officials.
Caterpillar spokeswoman Lisa Miller said employees transferring to Tucson will come from a variety of the company's locations, including Wisconsin and Illinois.
Caterpillar says it has about 900 employees in South Milwaukee, including at its manufacturing plant. The company would not say how many jobs will be moved to Tucson.
"We aren't offering a specific breakdown at this time. We anticipate consolidating much of our engineering and support resources in Tucson over a five-to-seven-year time frame as economic conditions allow," Miller said Monday.
"We will be evaluating various options and working with the employees affected in phases. The announcement will not impact our manufacturing operations in South Milwaukee, and office and production employees supporting those operations will remain," she added.
Caterpillar's existing presence in southern Arizona includes a Tucson equipment proving ground and a product demonstration center that together employ 300 people.
Wisconsin incentives
Caterpillar has received State of Wisconsin tax credits for its operations and jobs here.
In 2011, the company acquired mining equipment-maker Bucyrus International Inc. of South Milwaukee for $8.8 billion. Shortly before that, Bucyrus was awarded up to $20 million in state tax credits for capital investments, job creation and employee training.
The deal, struck with the former Wisconsin Department of Commerce, was transferred to Caterpillar when it acquired Bucyrus.
"Under the agreement, Bucyrus (Caterpillar) can earn credits for capital investment, job creation, or employee training. Between 2010 and 2013 the company earned $9,249,000 in credits for the creation of over 500 jobs, capital investment of $78,392,810, and $5,694,075 in working training," said Steve Michels, spokesman for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the successor to the Department of Commerce.
Caterpillar did not earn any of the tax credits in 2014 and 2015, as the mining industry went into a sharp downturn and the company laid off hundreds of employees. But the contract remains in effect through 2019, Michels said.
Wisconsin officials said they weren't given an opportunity to match Arizona's incentives.
"Caterpillar did not reach out to us for assistance to locate the mining and technology division here," Michels said.
Caterpillar said it considered Wisconsin for the division headquarters.
"However, the Wisconsin analysis did not reach a point where incentive discussions were necessary. In the end, one of the key reasons for Tucson was the proximity it provides to the proving grounds where our machines and technology are validated, and to dealers and customers via the Tinaja Hills (Ariz.) Demonstration Center," Miller said.
Different lifestyle
Quality of life also was one of the factors used to evaluate all of the possible locations, according to Caterpillar.
Tucson says it has 350 days of sunshine a year, and a mild winter, although summer temperatures in the desert city sometimes top 100 degrees.
"The terrain is dramatically different (than Milwaukee). It's like you have gone to Mars...but it's endearing once you learn how lush the desert really is," said McCusker with the Rio Nuevo development district.
Arizona officials say they've developed a "soft landing" strategy to assist Caterpillar employees moving to Tucson, including personal contacts and help in learning the community.
"We're thrilled to welcome Caterpillar to Tucson. This is an ideal location for them with our tech companies, our university, our workforce and our proximity to Mexico. It's a great fit all around, and these are great jobs Caterpillar is bringing to our community," said Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild.
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With fewer big power lines to build inside Wisconsin, Pewaukee-based American Transmission Co. is looking to be more active outside the state from Alaska and California to other parts of the Midwest.
State regulators last week approved a change in ATC's corporate structure that will enhance the ability of it to take on work outside the state.
Under the change, to be implemented if the Illinois Commerce Commission approves, ATC will create a holding company specifically for out-of-state investments.
As a result of the separation, "the reorganization will provide better safeguards for electric ratepayers," said Anne Spaltholz, ATC spokeswoman.
Customer groups agreed some sort of change was necessary but expressed concern that ATC customers in Wisconsin could potentially be harmed if the utility runs into financial troubles because of problems in project work in other regions of the country.
They supported conditions adopted by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, which sought protections to help it retain oversight over the transmission-focused utility.
A decision by the Illinois regulators on the matter is expected later this year, Spaltholz said.
ATC sought the corporate reorganization after communities that own their own utilities and electric cooperatives raised questions about their ability to fund out-of-state investments.
ATC launched in 2001 as a utility focused on building and maintaining the large power lines that crisscross the state. Local utilities like We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. retained ownership of local distribution lines that feed neighborhoods and homes.
Their parent company, WEC Energy Group Inc. of Milwaukee, owns 60% of ATC.
ATC has spent billions of dollars upgrading Wisconsin's power-line network but has broadened its focus to other areas including Alaska, California and Midwest states south of Wisconsin.
Its major Wisconsin projects on the drawing board include a Madison-La Crosse line, known as Badger Coulee, that's set to start construction this year at a cost of $580 million, and a line from Madison to Dubuque that's been delayed.
ATC and its partner, Michigan-based ITC, originally sought to build that line by 2020 but have extended the timeline in part because of lengthy reviews required by the federal government for any power line seeking to cross the Mississippi River, Spaltholz said.
ATC's main owners are the big investor-owned utilities in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Madison, along with Allete Inc. of Duluth, Minn., which operates a utility in Superior. Smaller communities across Wisconsin that sold their power lines to help form ATC retain a roughly 12% stake in American Transmission.
"Some of our owners, particularly the municipal utilities and cooperatives, are not able to or don't want to participate in investments outside our traditional service area," Spaltholz said.
Municipal utilities began to raise concern several years ago, after ATC and its national partner, Duke Energy, spent $56 million to buy a Boston company's stake in a major interstate transmission line in California in 2013. The companies also assumed $137 million in debt.
ATC and Duke, operating as Duke American Transmission Co., have identified a series of Midwestern projects that they may collaborate on, as well as a major power line linking a large proposed wind farm in Wyoming with California.
In Alaska, ATC is working with a consortium of local utilities that are contemplating whether to form transmission-focused utility similar to what already exists here, Spaltholz said.
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Gov. Scott Walker is planning to lead a business development mission to Mexico June 12-17. Credit: TNS
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Gov. Scott Walker is planning to lead a Wisconsin business development mission to Mexico next month.
The trade mission, scheduled for June 12-17 with a first stop in Mexico City, is expected to be announced by Walker in Milwaukee Tuesday at the 52nd Annual International Trade Conference of the Metropolitan Association of Commerce World Trade Association at the Wisconsin Center.
"We will promote Wisconsin's strong business climate, outstanding workforce and key industry sectors as compelling assets for successful business operations in Wisconsin during our trip to Mexico, just as we did during our trips to Europe, Canada, and the United Kingdom last year," Walker said in a statement. "The state of our state is strong, and this is the perfect time for businesses in Mexico to consider investing in Wisconsin."
The trade mission is part of Wisconsin's ongoing effort to increase exports and encourage international companies to invest in the state, Walker's office said.
Mexico is Wisconsin's second-largest export destination, with state companies sending nearly $3 billion in goods to the country in 2015. Canada is first with more than $7 billion.
Walker will join representatives of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) for the trade mission. Together, they will meet with business and agriculture leaders regarding opportunities in new markets or to establish new operations in Wisconsin.
In Mexico City, Walker and the Wisconsin delegation, in partnership with SelectUSA, will host meetings with targeted Mexican companies interested in expanding in the U.S. The delegation will also meet with companies that have existing facilities in Wisconsin to discuss the possibility of increasing their investments in the state.
Walker also is set to participate in the 2016 CIGAL Dairy Trade Show, which focuses on the dairy production sector and draws exhibitors from throughout Mexico and the United States, the governor's office said. The Dairy Trade Show will be held in Guadalajara June 15-17, and Walker will be joined by a delegation that includes Wisconsin businesses, University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW-River Falls and DATCP.
Guadalajara is a major city in Jalisco, Mexico, which has been a Wisconsin sister state since 1990. While in Jalisco, Walker will meet Jalisco Gov. Aristoteles Sandoval to strengthen the relationship.
Wisconsin exports to Mexico increased by 4.6% last year, representing 13% of Wisconsin's total exports. Mexico is also Wisconsin's second-largest agriculture export destination, accounting for $289 million in 2015.
Walker's office said the June business development mission will build on Wisconsin's foreign direct investment strategy, which focuses on attracting foreign companies, operations and investments that best fit into Wisconsin's key industry sectors, such as manufacturing, agriculture, energy, water technology, bioscience, medical devices and food processing.
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By of the
Weinbrenner Shoe Co., of Merrill, has been awarded $14.5 million in additional business from the U.S. Department of Defense to produce hot-weather boots for the Army and Air Force.
The new business is an extension of a defense contract Weinbrenner has, with the boots to be made in Wisconsin over the next 12 months.
Weinbrenner has been a supplier of military footwear for decades.
The company was started in Milwaukee, at 140 W. Water St., in 1892. Its first boots were designed for the growing new trade of telephone-line installation that required workers to shimmy up a pole to hook up the lines. That boot style, still in production today, allowed linemen to wrap their legs around the pole to steady their position while working.
Miriam Silverman and Chris Stack hash things out in The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window. Credit: Liz Lauren
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Chicago "We proved that what the people need, what they want, is alternatives. Give them alternatives and all the dull stupid negative old shibboleths go up in smoke."
Yes, reader, this is a theater review rather than another dispatch filed from the 2016 campaign trail.
But there's a marked similarity between some of what you're hearing from Bernie Sanders and the old-fashioned idealism being expressed by the protagonist in Lorraine Hansberry's rarely performed "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window," a 1964 play now being staged by Goodman Theatre in a production being directed by Anne Kauffman that opened Monday night.
A thirtysomething Jewish intellectual living in Greenwich Village, Sidney (Chris Stack) is indeed immersed in a political campaign, using the two-bit newspaper that's his latest pet project to champion reform candidate Wally O'Hara (Guy Van Swearingen).
Sidney is an initially reluctant warrior, as we see immediately during a conversation with Alton (longtime Wisconsin actor Travis A. Knight), a radical black friend immersed in the O'Hara campaign. "Keep your conscience to yourself," Sidney advises, simultaneously refusing an initial request to post an O'Hara sign in his window.
But post it there he soon will, much as Lena Younger insists upon tending to her plant in Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun." Hope may be old-fashioned. But it springs eternal within Sidney's breast, warring with latent insecurities involving flopped projects, an ever more cynical and selfish world, and his increasingly restive, unsatisfied wife.
That would be Iris, a wannabe actor played by Diane Davis as a cross between the young naif from Oklahoma who once idolized her seemingly more sophisticated husband and the harder, more ambitious 29-year-old she is now. Or, perhaps, a cross between the more traditional 1950s housewife she was once willing to be and the more independent 1960s woman she is becoming.
Sidney doesn't handle that transition well; his Iris, like his idealism, embraces a pastoral ideal involving a simpler past. Will his ideals grow up so they might meet the challenges of a new era? Will he? And yet while Iris may be right when she calls Sidney a child, isn't his childlike refusal to trim his vision part of what allows him to espy new worlds that others miss?
Stack forces one to ask these questions, and not just because Hansberry wrote Sidney some unabashedly sentimental but also inspiring arias suggesting that what the world needs now is love.
Yes: Stack conveys how exasperatingly self-absorbed and mean Sidney can be. But he also captures the underlying pain of a man who feels out of place in a world he never made. Most important, he embodies Sidney's compensating warmth, humor and passion. He's sloppy, flawed and wonderfully human.
That's frequently true of the characters in this sprawling play, which runs nearly three hours because Hansberry does for these characters what she regularly did in "Raisin," presenting them as the messy and uneven selves we all are.
The characters here who also include Iris' two sisters, an existentialist playwright and an artist are prone to speechify and aren't always believable when they do. They also have the temerity to be as interested in ideas about art, theater, politics and philosophy as they are in relationships. Plot is often an awkward afterthought.
But one could say the same of just about anything by Shaw, and this is a very Shavian play. Even when characters resemble talking heads, the talk is usually smart and funny. Most important, that talk almost invariably matters, challenging its characters to live more authentically while reminding us that we still can.
IF YOU GO
"The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" continues through June 5 at Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago. For more information and tickets, visit goodmantheatre.org. Read more about this production at TapMilwaukee.com.
TAKEAWAYS
The Urban Jungle: Kevin Depinet's set cuts away walls from the more naturalistically presented world of the Brusteins' apartment, allowing us to take in a surrounding jungle-gym of scaffolding suggesting city tenements, the cramped cells within which we all live and how connected we all are, despite how isolated we may seem or feel. Much as Sidney or others might sometimes like to, one can't turn one's back on such a world; it's too readily apparent that one is entangled within it prompting the question that each of the characters here urgently asks: How can or should one exist in relation to others?
"The 'why' of why we are here is an intrigue for adolescents," Sidney says at one point, taking a pointed jab at the existentialist playwright living above him (a comically deadpanning Grant James Varjas). "The 'how" is what must command the living," Sidney continues.
Everything is a Commodity: Iris' baby sister (Kristen Magee) is a high-priced call girl. Alton, Sidney's friend, recalls when all African Americans like him were commodities. Iris herself undergoes a radical transformation as she prepares to sell an image of herself while plugging a beauty aid in a TV commercial.
In a manner that's both reminiscent of while cutting deeper than the contemporaneously set "Mad Men," Hansberry pays remarkably close attention in this play to how Americans and American life have been steadily commodified and anesthetized (there's discussion in this play about the proliferation of drugs).
Hansberry and Tennessee Williams: One is reminded of Tennessee Williams' indictment of the same phenomena in "Camino Real," which had debuted on Broadway 11 years earlier, lasting just 60 performances. Hansberry's play lasted on Broadway for all of 101 performances, closing on the night in January 1965 that she died of cancer, at just 34.
Like "Camino," Hansberry's play is focused on ideas rather than plot. While Williams' play is more defiantly expressionistic, Hansberry also includes scenes marking a sharp break with naturalism. Both plays are focused on the titanic struggle between love and art, on the one hand, and cynicism, cruelty and death on the other. Both plays are unapologetically idealistic, concluding with the poetically expressed belief in a new dawn. Both stayed open for as long as they did because other artists from all disciplines rightly saw how important these plays were, thereafter writing letters and running advertisements as part of an active campaign to sell tickets, in the wake of mixed to negative reviews from frequently uncomprehending critics.
Finally, both of these rarely produced plays have now been staged by Goodman under Robert Falls' consistently courageous leadership, itself one of the great stories in the annals of American theater. It's a model worth emulating, as theater companies here in Milwaukee weigh an understandable focus on the bottom line with their indispensable commitment to an art form that often succeeds best when it ventures most.
There Are No Squares: I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the excellent work turned in by Miriam Silverman, as Iris' seemingly conventional older sister, Mavis.
Hansberry gives Mavis some wince-worthy lines that risk reducing her to a caricature of her prejudices. But as is continually true in this play, characters can't be readily pigeonholed. Mavis twice turns the tables on the self-styled bohemians presuming to judge her; she emerges from both encounters as much more aware of who she is and the choices she's made than those like Sidney, who often refuse to choose at all. Silverman quietly conveys the dark-edged disappointment of a woman who has largely resigned herself to those choices, while still wishing she might have felt free and brave enough to choose differently.
"Mavis, I don't know you," Sidney marvels at one point, as the woman he'd disparaged and dismissed expands before his eyes, filling the room in which the two are drinking together. "There are no squares," Mavis tells him shortly thereafter. "Believe me when I tell you, everybody is his own hipster." It's a great line funny, but also aphoristically true to the hard lesson Sidney must learn, involving the need to make room for others' unique dreams and lives, alongside his own.
Iris ... and Lorraine: Like so many within both the old left of the 1930s and the new left of the 1960s, the Sidney we first meet is an abject sexist. When he calls for a beer he expects Iris to bring him one, and when he demands she conform to some idealized pastoral image of American womanhood, he expects her to comply. He doesn't want her to change, into the woman with a mind of her own she's intent on becoming.
Hansberry spent the last months of her life living a variation on this theme; the critics dismissed her play because, in part, it wasn't a repeat of "A Raisin in the Sun." "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" includes just one black character (the Goodman production also includes a second black actor, Philip Edward Van Lear, cast as the artist, Max). It's not focused in the same way on the black experience. Much more so than "Raisin" (itself not as consistently naturalistic as it's often perceived), it experiments with form. In short, Hansberry's second and last Broadway play stakes the same claim she makes within it for her characters: The right to grow. One can only imagine how she might have continued to do so, if she hadn't died so young.
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Two men armed with semi-automatic weapons were arrested after firing shots during a fight outside a nightclub on Milwaukee's north side, police said Monday.
The men, a 22-year-old felon and a 28-year-old, were arrested shortly after 2 a.m., Sunday in the 3100 block of W. Villard Ave. by Milwaukee police officers monitoring traffic, police said.
The fight began inside the club before moving outside, according to police, who recovered an AK47 assault rifle and a Glock 9mm handgun during the incident.
The incident will be reviewed by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office, police said.
News / National
by Staff reporter
Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe top official and Bikita West legislator Munyaradzi Kereke's legal woes continued to mount as he appeared at the High Court yesterday on a $2 million defamation lawsuit while his rape trial is still pending at the Harare Magistrate's Court.The matter failed to be heard after Kereke applied for postponement saying one of his co-defendants, Muswapadare Taruvinga was now deceased.
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Milwaukee School of Engineering announced Tuesday it has selected the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Kentucky as its fifth president following an 18-month national search.
John Y. Walz will succeed Hermann Viets, who retired last June after 24 years as president. Viets was replaced on an interim basis by Matthew Panhans, former chair of MSOE's Mechanical Engineering Department. Panhams will continue as interim president until July 1, when Walz arrives, and then remain at MSOE as a professor and special adviser to the president.
The independent, nonprofit university with about 2,900 students offers bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering, business and nursing.
"Dr. Walz understands the challenges facing higher education and is very well equipped to handle these challenges," said Scott Moon, chairman of the MSOE Board of Regents and chairman and CEO of DLSM Inc. "He has the right character, background and skill set to move MSOE forward."
As dean of the University of Kentucky College of Engineering in Lexington, Walz initiated and led the development of a comprehensive strategic plan for advancing the college, the goals of which were used to define the targets of an ongoing fundraising campaign.
He has also made major investments to improve the retention and success of undergraduate engineering students. Walz is a strong supporter of Project Lead The Way, which is directed from the UK College of Engineering for Kentucky.
Walz has received honors and awards from the universities where he has taught as well as from the National Science Foundation.
"I strongly believe in the MSOE mission preparing students for exceptional careers as leaders and entrepreneurs," Walz said in a statement. "The success of the university in fulfilling this mission is remarkable, and there is no doubt that as our society becomes more advanced, MSOE's importance and global impact will expand."
Rolf Wegenke, president of the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said Walz appeared to be a perfect match for MSOE.
"Dr. Walz has had a distinguished career in business, education, academic leadership and in chemical engineering," Wegenke said. "MSOE is known as an entrepreneurial and innovative university with a profound impact, not only on students, but on the economy and on the broader community."
Walz earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Tulane University. After six years as a process support engineer for Shell Oil Co., Walz left to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. in 1992 and returned to Tulane as an assistant professor.
In 1997, Walz joined Yale University's faculty as an associate professor of chemical engineering and in 2002 he became the department's chairman. In 2005 he became professor and head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Virginia Tech and in 2012 Walz became dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Kentucky.
Walz and his wife, Moira, have three daughters.
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Rebuild roads, bridges
The Journal Sentinel story on the alarming condition of Wisconsin's infrastructure, "Delays cost drivers $2,000," underscores the need for our elected leaders to act now to rebuild our state's roads and bridges (May 6).
Our road conditions here in Wisconsin are simply not acceptable. As the story notes, accidents, repairs and congestion are costing the average Milwaukee-area driver $2,060 per year.
Simple and sustainable investments in Wisconsin's infrastructure will spare drivers extra repair costs and, more important, spur job creation for construction companies as well as the many Wisconsin manufacturers who produce the equipment that help to build and maintain roads and bridges. As the president of a manufacturer of road-building equipment, I can say with certainty that investing in our infrastructure translates to an increase in manufacturing and construction jobs across Wisconsin.
Almost 1.4 million Wisconsinites' jobs depend on our surface transportation infrastructure. To keep Wisconsin thriving and competitive, it's time to reinvest in our economy and our roads and bridges.
Matthew B. Haven
Mequon
Uplifting Stanley column
George Stanley, editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, missed his calling. He should be a religious columnist. I highly commend him for the excellent, spiritually uplifting column, "Finding hope amid the storms," that appeared on May 6 and dealt with a young man devoutly praying as to whether he was "truly called to be a priest."
Stanley's piece was heavily laden with biblical stories that the young man pondered, including the struggles Elijah went through in the Old Testament, a three-pronged promise the young man found in a psalm and, finally, the familiar story of Jesus Christ coming to the rescue of his disciples who feared for their lives after their boat on the Sea of Galilee was being tossed violently by winds.
Stanley accurately pointed out how we are constantly assailed in our lives by many worries, distractions, slights, fights, longings, desires and every imaginable temptation, etc. As Stanley so poignantly put it, "we give up so much of ourselves to the fleeting, so little to the eternal." We humans should be focused on where we want to spend eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ or in hell.
There was a time when both the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel had weekly religious pages. But those days don't exist anymore. That's why Stanley's column was most refreshing, because it dealt with a biblical, Christian subject that most daily newspapers blatantly ignore.
Mike Christopulos
Brown Deer
Don't give power to Trump
A column by Van Mobley on the May 3 Opinions page pointed out the inevitability of Donald Trump's nomination as the presidential candidate of the Republican Party ("Get over it: It's Trump").
With this I have to agree. However, I would not agree that all Republicans should vote for him in the November election. While one's political party is important, it does not negate a citizen's obligation to do what's best for his country. It does not help our country to put in power someone who understands so little about other countries and their relationships, so little about the strengths and weaknesses of other world leaders and so little about world history.
Trump may be good at manipulating business deals, and he is certainly good at insulting people. But does he have the self discipline to control this second trait at international meetings? This insult tendency seems to come second nature to Trump in fact, he seems to enjoy it. This is certainly not the leader we want to have dealing with hostage situations.
In a world with nuclear weapons, we should avoid giving power to anyone who is emotionally immature, no matter how clever he or she seems to be and which party he or she belongs to.
Anne Morrissey
Milwaukee
Seniors lose
The blue collars want more money and benefits and the white collars give it to them.
The white collars then raise their prices to the consumers. The blue and white collars are consumers.
So who wins? Who gets ahead? Certainly not the seniors who are retired and on a fixed income.
Robert Kotlowski
Cudahy
House Speaker Paul Ryan talks to reporters at his Janesville constituent center on Monday. Credit: Mike De Sisti
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Last week, Paul Ryan took control of the Republican wing of the Republican Party.
On Thursday, the Speaker of the House appeared on CNN, telling host Jake Tapper that he couldn't "yet" support presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. But Ryan held out hope that he could one day back Trump. "I hope to, though, and I want to," Ryan told Tapper.
But Ryan's olive branch to Trump was overly magnanimous. He should not hope, nor ever want to back Donald Trump. To do so would be to betray his conscience, his decency, and his principles.
Those believing obeisance to the Republican Party is paramount are holding out hope that Ryan's meeting with Trump this Thursday will bring GOP unity. But Ryan had already downplayed the theatrical powwow, saying he doesn't have "huge expectations" for the meeting. It seems unlikely that an hour of eating a sandwich with Donald Trump will be enough to undo a lifetime of promoting a conservative philosophy.
Further, there's nothing to suggest that a meeting with Ryan will do anything to moderate Trump's outrageous behavior. Trump, who has a historically low thought-to-word ratio, spent the day he clinched the GOP nomination dabbling in a conspiracy theory that posited Ted Cruz' father was complicit in John F. Kennedy's assassination. Later, Trump lied about receiving a congratulatory call from Ryan on the eve of Trump's New York primary win Ryan said no call ever took place. Just weeks ago, Trump held a press conference to sell Americans hypothetical meat products.
These examples don't even speak to the chasm between Trump's positions whatever they may be at the time and conservative tenets. In the past week, Trump renounced his own tax plan, supported raising the minimum wage, and proposed to default on the U.S debt, saying, "I would borrow knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal."
The truly amazing thing isn't that Ryan has kept Trump at a distance, but how many conservative Republicans have vowed to support Trump the Insult Comic Candidate. The history books should forever stain any conservative who has capitulated to this big government vulgarian.
To his credit, Ryan may already be contemplating a long-term split. Earlier this week, he told me he would relinquish his duties as chairman of the Republican National Convention in July if Trump asked him to. It almost seemed like Ryan was offering an invitation for Trump to offer a dis-invitation. As Chicago-based writer Emily Zanotti observed, Ryan was essentially declaring, "Not my circus, not my monkeys."
Instead, Ryan should be giving cover to House members who can't stomach standing on a stage with Trump during their upcoming campaigns. Those in Congress looking to run on a positive, issues-related platform shouldn't be forced to respond every time Trump declares his love of Hispanics by tweeting a picture of him downing a taco bowl. Somewhere, the 60% of Republican voters who rejected Trump during primary season deserve a voice.
And one of those House candidates needing cover is Ryan himself, who is facing a primary challenge from a Sarah Palin-endorsed Trump supporter named Paul Nehlen. So with neck-breaking speed, Ryan's critics went from ripping him for being insufficiently conservative to slamming him for not supporting a presidential candidate who isn't conservative at all. When I asked Ryan what his Trump-infused opponents actually sought to achieve, he merely threw his hands up and said, "you'd have to ask them."
But what they seek is something Ryan can't possibly offer his dignity. And when he finally sits face to face with Trump, he shouldn't negotiate away his conscience. As Neville Chamberlain once told Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky, "If only we could sit down at a table with the Germans and run through all their complaints and claims with a pencil, this would greatly relieve all tensions." Any negotiation with Trump would be equally feckless.
This is why, in order to keep conservatism alive, Ryan should resist all of Trump's overtures. As Winston Churchill said, "When a snake wants to eat his victims he first covers them with saliva." In this instance, it should be the conservatives on the attack.
Christian Schneider is a Journal Sentinel columnist and blogger. Email cschneider@jrn.com.
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Last week, a 40-year-old man with dark, curly hair, olive skin and an exotic foreign accent boarded a plane. It was to make an uneventful hop from Philadelphia to nearby Syracuse.
Or so dozens of unsuspecting passengers thought.
The man kept to himself, intently if inscrutably scribbling on a notepad. His seatmate, a blond-haired, thirty-something woman sporting flip-flops and a red tote bag, looked him over. He was wearing navy Diesel jeans and a red Lacoste sweater a look he would later describe as "simple elegance" but something about him didn't seem right to her.
She decided to try out some small talk.
Is Syracuse home? She asked.
No, he replied curtly.
He deflected further questions. He appeared laser-focused on those strange scribblings.
Rebuffed, the woman began reading her book. Or pretending to read, anyway. Shortly after boarding had finished, she handed the flight attendant a note.
Then the passengers waited. After they'd sat on the tarmac for about half an hour, the flight attendant approached the female passenger again and asked if she now felt OK to fly, or if she was "too sick."
I'm OK to fly, the woman responded.
She must not have sounded convincing, though; American Airlines flight 3950 remained grounded.
Then the plane returned to the gate, and the woman was escorted off the plane.
The wait continued.
Finally the pilot came by, approaching the real culprit behind the delay: that darkly complected foreign man. He was escorted off the plane, too, and taken to meet security personnel.
What do you know about your seatmate? An agent asked the man.
Well, she acted a bit funny, he replied, but she didn't seem visibly ill. Maybe, he thought, they wanted his help in piecing together what was wrong with her.
And then the big reveal: The woman wasn't really sick at all! Instead this quick-thinking traveler had Seen Something, and Said Something.
That Something she'd seen had been her seatmate's notes, scrawled in a script she didn't recognize. Maybe it was code, or a foreign language such as Arabic, possibly the details of a plot to destroy innocent lives aboard Flight 3950. She may have felt it her duty to alert the authorities. The curly-haired man was, the agent informed him politely, suspected of terrorism.
The curly-haired man laughed.
He laughed because those scribbles weren't a foreign language or some special secret terrorist code. They were math.
Yes, math. A differential equation, to be exact.
Had the crew quickly Googled this good-natured, bespectacled passenger, they might have learned that he Guido Menzio is a University of Pennsylvania economist known for his work on search theory.
They might also have discovered that last year he was awarded the prestigious Carlo Alberto Medal, given to the best Italian economist under 40. That's right: He's Italian, not Middle Eastern, or whatever heritage ordinarily gets ethnically profiled on flights these days.
Menzio was on the first leg of a connecting flight to Ontario, where he would give a talk at Queen's University. His nosy neighbor had spied him working out some properties of a price-setting model.
Menzio showed the authorities his calculations and was allowed to return to his seat, he told me by email. He said the pilot seemed embarrassed. Soon, the flight took off, more than two hours late.
The woman never reboarded.
Menzio says he was "treated respectfully throughout," but remains frustrated by a "broken system that does not collect information efficiently." He's troubled by the ignorance of his fellow passenger, as well as "a security protocol that is too rigid in the sense that once the whistle is blown everything stops without checks and relies on the input of people who may be completely clueless."
Rising xenophobia stoked by the presidential campaign, he suggested, may soon make things worse for people who happen to look a little other-ish.
"What might prevent an epidemic of paranoia? It is hard not to recognize in this incident, the ethos of (Donald) Trump's voting base," he wrote.
In this true parable of 2016 I see another worrisome lesson, albeit one also possibly relevant to Trump's appeal: That in America today, the only thing more terrifying than foreigners is...math.
Catherine Rampell is a columnist for The Washington Post. Email crampell@washpost.com. Twitter: @crampell
By of the
Oconomowoc Jim Sensenbrenner's message to Donald Trump: Unite the Republican Party.
And his plea to GOP voters: Don't stay home in the fall.
Sensenbrenner, a Republican and the dean of Wisconsin's congressional delegation, made those points during a Monday night town hall meeting at Oconomowoc City Hall. Unlike other members of Congress, who have taken the town hall format to telephone conference calls, Sensenbrenner is old school, preferring to meet voters face to face.
When he's asked a question and he said he's been asked a lot lately about the presidential race he'll give an unvarnished answer.
One man got up and said he was "frazzled" about the presidential race, and wanted to hear Sensenbrenner's thoughts about the fall contest between presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
"I've been in politics practically my whole adult life and I've never seen a case where the two least-popular candidates ended up winning their respective party nominations," Sensenbrenner said.
Asked how the race would unfold, he said, "If I made a prediction today, I'd probably be wrong next week."
But he plunged on. Sensenbrenner said he didn't see a viable path for a third-party effort that a handful of national conservatives are pursuing because the filing dates to get on state ballots are fast approaching.
Sensenbrenner reminded the audience that he said two things before the Wisconsin presidential primary in April: He would support the Republican nominee "no matter who it was" and he would "not vote for Donald Trump in the primary."
"Yes, I support Donald Trump, he won the nomination fair and square," Sensenbrenner said. "I voted for (Texas U.S. Senator) Ted Cruz in the primary because he was the strongest anti-Trump candidate. I have no regrets on that."
Later, Sensenbrenner noted that in his 5th Congressional District, Cruz beat Trump by 42 points, calling it "Trump's biggest repudiation anywhere in the country."
Sensenbrenner acknowledged "there is going to be great difficulty for anti-Trump Republicans to basically suck it up and end up voting for the nominee of the Republican Party."
He said: "Donald Trump has an obligation to unify the party by appealing to those voters who did not vote for him. If the Republican Party is split, he's not going to win."
He added that "hell would freeze over" before Trump could attract Democratic voters who cast primary ballots for independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Instead, Sensenbrenner said, Trump needed to appeal to "largely conservative voters, or Republican loyalists who have voted Republican all their lives."
"For myself, I can say I'm not sure that Donald Trump is going to do the right thing, but I know that Hillary Clinton will not, particularly because the next president is going to have three Supreme Court nominations," Sensenbrenner said. "That is going to decide which direction the Supreme Court takes for the next generation. I think that is the biggest issue."
Sensenbrenner said a "Republican who decides they're not going to vote because they don't like Trump" is effectively casting a ballot for Clinton and Democrat Russ Feingold, who faces incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in a key race that could determine which party controls the Senate.
"Ron Johnson will not be re-elected to the Senate if the Republican base that likes him doesn't turn out to vote for him because they don't like Donald Trump," Sensenbrenner said.
Sensenbrenner said he hasn't met Trump but suggested the presumptive nominee needs to build a ground game to take on Clinton, especially in Wisconsin.
He said House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Janesville, has "done a masterful job of communicating" and "has kept his roots in Wisconsin."
He said he was "hopeful" that there would be a good meeting Thursday when Ryan sits down with Trump.
"The thing is, Trump and Ryan are in it together because Trump's election as president is dependent upon down-ballot Republicans turning the votes out and the House Republican majority and Ryan's continued tenure as speaker is going to be basically along the same lines," he said.
It's not all presidential politics for Sensenbrenner.
He's pushing for legislation to combat opioid addiction. The House is due to vote on a package of 12 bills this week, including one by Sensenbrenner to create a comprehensive grant program at the U.S. Department of Justice. The bills are expected to be consolidated into one measure, leading to a conference committee to settle differences between the House and the Senate, which passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act.
Sensenbrenner said the opioid epidemic "is nationwide, but is worse in the suburbs and has gotten out of control."
He also continues to push, so far unsuccessfully, for a Voting Rights Amendment Act. The measure is designed to deal with the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 decision striking down a key provision that required nine states, mostly in the south, to pre-clear voting changes with the federal government.
"The southerners complained that the old (1965) Voting Rights Act was not national in application," Sensenbrenner said. "My bill is. It sets up a rolling standard, so in order to be under pre-clearance you have to have five violations within the last 15 years and then the rolling standard shortens it to 10, so if you don't have any violations the pre-clearance disappears."
Kevin Kennedy, shown addressing media members about recall petitions filed against Gov. Scott Walker in 2012, is stepping down as head of the states elections and ethics board. Credit: Associated Press
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Madison The head of the state's embattled ethics and elections board will retire June 29, one day before the agency is set to be replaced by two new commissions.
Kevin Kennedy, 64, has served as the director of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board since it was created in 2007. Before that, he was the longtime director of its predecessor, the state Elections Board. In all, he has worked on elections for the state for 37 years.
In an interview Tuesday, Kennedy said he had wanted to retire in 2017 so he could preside over his 10th presidential election. But with the Legislature's decision to dissolve the accountability board next month, Kennedy said he had decided to step down and told the board that on Sunday.
"I've always lived, particularly with the GAB, with the knowledge that each day I'm auditioning for my job, that there's a sword of Damocles hanging over my head," said Kennedy.
Lawmakers from both parties created the accountability board in response to a scandal in which lawmakers were convicted of campaigning using state resources. Critics said officials didn't crack down on the practice sooner because ethics and campaign finance laws were overseen by separate agencies.
The law creating the accountability board put responsibilities for those areas of the law under the purview on one agency. The board consists of six former judges.
But Republicans came to loathe the accountability board, in large part because it participated in an investigation that looked into whether Republican Gov. Scott Walker's campaign collaborated with conservative groups.
The state Supreme Court halted the investigation last year, finding no illegal activity took place. Prosecutors have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review that decision and Kennedy said Tuesday he hopes the nation's high court will take it up.
Walker and GOP lawmakers last year voted to dissolve the accountability board and replace it with two new entities. The Elections Commission and Ethics Commission will each consist of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats.
"It's not a good change and I don't think people will be better served in the long run," Kennedy said. He said decisions by the new commissions would tend to be more political.
Republicans who backed the changes have said politics is unavoidable and people will have a better sense of where the commissions are coming from if their members are partisans. They have said the commissions will be fair because the parties will have equal representation.
The new commissions will take over on June 30.
Kennedy makes about $132,000 a year. The administrators of the new commissions will make up to $126,000 each.
He said he expects to go into consulting and looks forward to activities such as observing elections in other countries.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (left) and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump (right) are meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C. Credit: Associated Press
By of the
House Speaker Paul Ryan said he doesn't have "huge expectations" about his meeting Thursday with Donald Trump, other than to start the process of unifying the party after a "very bitter presidential primary."
"People are still sort of getting over that," said Ryan, who announced last week he was not yet ready to endorse Trump, now the presumptive GOP nominee.
"I don't go into Thursday with huge expectations other than just to have the kind of conversation that we need to start having so that we are getting ourselves on the same page as a party," Ryan said in an interview Tuesday morning with Janesville radio host Stan Milam of WBEL-AM radio. "I assume that's what Donald wants as well. Again we don't know each other, we talked once a few months go on the phone, a very good conversation."
Ryan said the goal was to "just put the building blocks of party unity together."
Ryan said that "it takes some work."
Trump and Ryan are scheduled to meet Thursday in Washington. Trump also plans to meet with GOP members of Congress.
Ryan told the Journal Sentinel Monday he would step down from his role as convention chair if asked to do so by Trump. Ryan also said he is eager to get to know Trump. Ryan said last week that the bulk of the burden is on Trump to unify the party, but that he wants to help in that process, and is open to supporting him.
"I never said never," Ryan told the Journal Sentinel Monday. "I just said (not) at this point. I wish I had more time to get to know him before this happened. We just didn't."
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (right) said Tuesday that he had a very cordial meeting with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland but indicated that he hasnt changed his mind about opposing President Barack Obamas pick.
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U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Tuesday that he had a "very cordial meeting" with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland but indicated that he hasn't changed his mind about opposing President Barack Obama's pick.
"My advice to President Obama and the rest of my Senate colleagues has not changed. Let the American people have a voice in the composition of the Supreme Court," Johnson said in a statement.
The nearly hourlong meeting was held in Johnson's Senate office.
Johnson and most of his fellow Senate Republicans have set up a blockade against Garland, chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They oppose Obama filling the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
"Instead of a lame duck president and Senate nominating and confirming, a new president and Senate elected by the people only a few months from now should make that important decision," Johnson said. "I can't think of a fairer or more democratic process."
Garland has met with 47 senators, including 15 Republicans.
Johnson is in a pivotal race in the fall against Democrat Russ Feingold.
Harry Hartfield, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said: "Ron Johnson's meeting with Merrick Garland was just a ploy to distract from the fact that he refuses to do his job and consider Garland's nomination. Poll after poll shows Wisconsin voters want the Senate to act, but Johnson is far more interested in the wishes of Donald Trump, than those of voters."
Columnist George F. Will says good Republicans shouldnt merely withhold their votes, but work to make sure Trump loses all 50 states to make sure Trumpism is discredited forever. Credit: Associated Press
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By
Rarely in modern history has a party appeared as divided over its nominee as Republicans are over Donald Trump. But will his GOP critics really keep their backs turned through November, or will they come around?
Some leaders of the conservative movement claim they will never vote for him not only think-tank intellectuals, but also members of Congress, such as Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska. Columnist George F. Will, once a backstairs adviser to Ronald Reagan, says good Republicans shouldn't merely withhold their votes, but work to make sure Trump loses all 50 states to make sure Trumpism is discredited.
And yet, as Trump's nomination becomes more certain, more Republicans are finding nice things to say about the businessman.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Trump had done an impressive job attracting new voters to GOP primaries. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said Trump's centrist positions might have bipartisan appeal. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump was showing promise as a foreign policy thinker. Rep. Duncan Hunter, one of Trump's earliest backers in Congress, offered a more practical assessment: "People like to be with the winner."
And that is what's really going on here. Republicans aren't falling in love with Trump; they just figure that, since the real estate promoter is about to become the leader of their party, it's better to grit their teeth and hope for the best than to fight a losing battle. Even Jeb Bush, whose presidential hopes were demolished by Trump, now says he will support the nominee. He just won't say his name.
But the never-say-#NeverTrump Republicans have a problem: In private, many of them perhaps most of them don't think Trump can win the general election.
"The structural problem of the Trump candidacy is his 'unfavorable' numbers," GOP pollster David Winston told me. "Among women, who did I mention? are the majority of the electorate, his unfavorables are in the 70s. Those aren't easy numbers to turn around when a candidate has had as much exposure as Trump."
That's why even if, in the end, few Republican politicians will actively oppose Trump, many won't actively support him, either.
One bellwether to watch: how many Senate candidates in tough races decide to skip the Republican National Convention, which is likely to be a weeklong celebration of everything Trump.
"You're going to see a lot of Senate candidates staying home and doing their own knitting that week," GOP strategist Scott Reed told me.
Instead of focusing on the presidential campaign, many in the GOP not just candidates, but also activists and donors will focus on congressional races.
Republicans are terrified that a Trump defeat would lose the GOP its majority in the Senate, which they gained only two years ago. Some even worry that a Democratic landslide could endanger the GOP's majority in the House of Representatives.
In some states, candidates "are going to depend on people who are voting for (Democrat Hillary) Clinton to switch sides and vote for the other party" when it comes to Congress, Winston noted. "That's hard to do."
One answer: the program House Speaker Paul Ryan plans to unveil next month, aimed at giving GOP congressional candidates a list of conservative policies they can campaign on, whether they correspond to Trump's positions or not.
Four years after the 1964 election, which Republican candidate Barry Goldwater lost in a landslide, the GOP won the White House. And four years after Democrat George McGovern lost in the landslide of 1972, the Democrats came back, too.
To many Republicans, the prospect of a loss to Clinton's Democrats looks painful, but it also presents a familiar, even comfortable problem: At that point, their mission will be to make Clinton a one-term president.
The greater dilemma the fear they won't acknowledge, at least in public is that Trump might actually win. If that happens, conservatives who don't love their candidate will face four years of having to defend his policies and trying to tame his excesses. That's when their real troubles would begin.
Doyle McManus is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Readers may send him email at doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com
News / National
by Staff reporter
Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere has warned Zanu-PF-administered councils that he will be more ruthless with them if they are found to be corrupt to send a message that his anti-graft crusade is not partisan.Addressing Zanu-PF supporters in Karoi last week, Kasukuwere said he expected local authorities run by the governing party to be exemplary in the way they conducted their business."My wish is that as council leaders, we should shun corruption, let's not be unfair to our people, let us not steal from them. We want transparency from the mayors and Zanu-PF councillors must be exemplary."If I find you as a party member being corrupt, what I am doing with the MDC councillors is nothing. I will come hard on you because that will send a clear message to others that when we do it to them it's not a witch-hunt," Kasukuwere said.Since his appointment as Local Government minister last year, Kasukuwere has engaged in running battles with local authorities, particularly those run by the MDC, firing several elected councillors in what the opposition party has condemned as Zanu-PF's method of destabilising their operations.The Morgan Tsvangirai-led party has also accused Kasukuwere of abusing his government post to shore up support for Zanu-PF ahead of the 2018 elections and violating the Urban Councils Act in the process.But Kasukuwere said he expected discipline from council officials regardless of political party affiliation."Do not play with the people because we are going to need them come 2018. If you had been stealing, stop it now and if you had any such plans, drop them."The big brother is watching you and he will come after you. You must stop that immediately. We are telling the MDC the same message and you are no exception."He directed Karoi Municipality to identify land for residential purposes and promised to distribute the stands to Zanu-PF youths and women ahead of elections."The women's league has asked for stands and we have got the land. The programme that we started for youths is going ahead and it must be extended to the women as well."Karoi must just show us where the land is so that we subdivide it and we share the stands among ourselves."I do not want to hear any woman, widows and even girls who will be lodging come 2018. Everyone must have a roof over their head," Kasukuwere said.
Wisconsin has widest score gap between Black and white students
The 2022 NAEP test scores are the first nationwide results since the pandemic.
Great Lakes officials meet in Chicago on Tuesday to review Waukeshas request for Lake Michigan water. Credit: Don Behm
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Chicago Representatives of Great Lakes states and provinces meeting Tuesday in Chicago reached preliminary agreement to remove additional portions of adjoining communities from Waukesha's planned area to be served with Lake Michigan water.
A straw vote of the officials also found preliminary consensus to further cut the volume of water that would be delivered to Waukesha, as part of the city's request to switch to a Lake Michigan water supply.
The area to be served with lake water stands as the city's existing service area and pieces of the Town of Waukesha, known as islands, that are completely surrounded by the city, following the straw vote.
Gone from an area discussed at a May 2 meeting are border islands of the town on the city's east boundary, a narrow portion of the City of Pewaukee south of I-94, and portions of the town on the south edge of the city that are crossed by municipal water mains.
The volume of water needed to serve the smaller service area was set Tuesday at an average of 8.2 million gallons a day by midcentury, down from 8.4 million gallons a day.
Officials from the eight states and provinces of Ontario and Quebec met Tuesday at the University of Illinois-Chicago campus to complete a regional review of Waukesha's request and reach consensus on whether they will recommend governors of the eight states approve or reject the plan. They will resume their meeting Wednesday morning.
The governors, or their designated representatives, will meet in Chicago June 13 to vote on the city's request. Unanimous approval of the eight states is required for the $207 million project to proceed, under terms of a 2008 federal law known as the Great Lakes protection compact.
Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly was in Chicago Tuesday to observe the discussion. Though his city's planned future water service area has been steadily trimmed during the regional review, Reilly said he accepted the approach of Great Lakes officials.
His primary goal has been "getting a new water supply for the city," Reilly said.
The city requested an average of 10.1 million gallons of lake water a day by midcentury as part of a water diversion application forwarded to Great Lakes officials in January.
In 2015, Waukesha pumped an average of 6.1 million gallons a day from wells for distribution to its existing service area.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources last year determined the application complied with protection compact requirements necessary for diverting water out of the Great Lakes basin.
The DNR said at that time: Waukesha does not have an adequate supply of water that is fit to drink, due to radium contamination of deep groundwater supplies; and all the city's water supply options outside the Great Lakes basin would have adverse effects on wetlands, streams and inland lakes.
Waukesha officials in April lowered the volume to an average of 8.76 million gallons a day after regional officials pushed for removing portions of three neighboring communities from a service area included in the original request. The territory removed at that time included much of the Town of Waukesha, generally south of Lawnsdale Road, and portions of the towns of Delafield and Genesee.
The regional officials on May 2 further cut the volume to an average of 8.4 million gallons a day to ensure Waukesha follows through on a plan to reduce water use through conservation measures.
The volume dropped further Tuesday since the area was trimmed again.
One issue not discussed at Tuesday's meeting was whether the small area recommended by the regional group would conflict with state laws requiring a water service area to be consistent with sewer service areas. Waukesha's sewer service area includes all portions of neighboring communities now cut by the Great Lakes officials with the exception of Genesee.
In a statement, Wisconsin DNR officials said the smaller area recommended Tuesday by the regional group could be consistent with Wisconsin law if the eight states determine that a smaller area is required to comply with the compact. State law will not need to be amended, according to the statement.
Reilly said he remained concerned for neighboring communities that would encounter contamination of their groundwater supplies in the future.
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A federal law protecting driver's license data does not allow Wisconsin police departments to withhold driver information from accident reports, the Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
But whether that law might require such redaction in other kinds of reports would depend on what function police are serving by releasing the records, and whether the information was obtained directly from department of motor vehicle records, or merely verified with that information.
The 30-page ruling will likely trigger continued litigation and confusion over access to routine public records that Wisconsin authorities began to restrict in light of a failed class action 2010 lawsuit in Illinois filed under the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act, or DPPA.
"Interpreting the agency functions exception in the manner advocated by (the New Richmond News) that is, that the exception allows unfettered disclosure of personal information in response to public records requestswould be inconsistent with the manifest purpose of the DPPA and would therefore be unreasonable," the decision reads.
But the court also called "misplaced" the City of New Richmond's argument that the DPPA always pre-empts Wisconsin's public records law.
The newspaper's attorney called the decision an overall win for public access.
"Both sides may disagree with parts, but I think it's a decision both sides can live with," said Robert Dreps. "It substantially reaffirms Wisconsin's commitment to open law enforcement."
Many law enforcement agencies also welcomed the ruling.
"None of us in law enforcement that redacted the information wanted to redact it. We felt it was information that should be released," Wausau Police Chief Jeffrey Hardel told the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.
Despite assurances from Wisconsin's attorney general that the federal law did not require wholesale redacting of information from public records just because it might also be on driver's license records, state municipalities' insurers advised their customers to err on the side of secrecy to avoid being subject to any similar class actions under the federal law.
In 2013, the newspaper sued New Richmond over the issue, and a judge ruled that the DPPA and the Illinois federal case were never meant to overrule the state's public records law.
The city appealed and the Court of Appeals tried to pass the case directly to the Supreme Court, citing its importance. But the death of Justice Patrick Crooks resulted in a 3-3 tie on whether to affirm the trial court decision, which sent it back to the Court of Appeals.
In its ruling Tuesday, the court reversed St. Croix County Circuit Judge Howard Cameron's finding that complying with the public records law was a police function that met an exception under the DPPA.
The Court of Appeals, however, left open the possibility that a different reason might meet the exception, and sent the case back to Cameron for more litigation on that point.
Congress passed the Drivers Privacy Protection Act in 1994 after a stalker got a Hollywood actress' home address through motor vehicle records, then killed her. The DPPA restricts use of personal information obtained from motor vehicle departments but lists several permissible uses, though none specifically for news reporting.
For decades, no one dreamed it was meant to undo states' open records laws, until lawyers and marketers began buying whole state databases of drivers and car owners, and a few successful claims for penalties under the DPPA prompted class-action lawyers to explore new lawsuits.
A resident of Palatine, Ill., sued the village under the DPPA because his personal information was on a parking ticket Palatine police had left on his windshield in 2010. Jason Senne wanted his case declared a class action on behalf of all the drivers who got tickets from Palatine. Theoretically, that exposed the village to $80 million in penalties the statutory $2,500 penalty to every person who got a ticket since the DPPA passed.
The case was thrown out, reinstated and thrown out again by federal courts. But along the way, it set off a panic among lawyers for Wisconsin's League of Wisconsin Municipalities and its self-insurance company. They advised clients to err on the side of censorship. If something as innocuous as a parking ticket could violate the DPPA, they feared, any number of police records could.
Police agencies all over Wisconsin suddenly began blacking out names, addresses and ages of people in even the most routine traffic accident reports and other records if the information was obtained from or confirmed by driver's license and motor vehicle records.
The redactions came even though in 2008, then-Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen expressly said that the DPPA did not require such redactions, and other police agencies in Illinois and Indiana, the other states covered by the 7th Circuit, did not resort to such practices after the Palatine cases
Gov. Scott Walker declared an energy emergency following an ongoing, two-month-long shutdown of the only fuel pipeline between Milwaukee and Green Bay. Credit: Don Behm
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By of the
An ongoing, two-month-long shutdown of the only fuel pipeline between Milwaukee and Green Bay has pushed more fuel tanker trucks onto main highways and prompted Gov. Scott Walker to declare an energy emergency.
Passenger vehicles and tanker trucks will be squeezed into summer construction zones on main highways between Milwaukee and Green Bay and Madison and Green Bay until West Shore Pipe Line Co. of Illinois reopens its regional line.
In March, contractors for West Shore started repairing sections of the regional fuel pipeline within the Jackson Marsh Wildlife Area in the Town of Jackson in Washington County near Cedar Creek.
The line has not reopened since that time, according to Elise Nelson, communications director for the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.
Walker's emergency declaration enables tanker truck drivers to work more hours each week, and complete more fuel runs, officials said. Drivers on fuel runs within the state, however, must abide by regulations limiting them to no more than 12 hours a day of driving, according to Capt. Brian Ausloos of the Wisconsin State Patrol.
The emergency action was taken "to alleviate potential gasoline and diesel shortages" in the Green Bay metropolitan area, Walker said.
"As the demand for fuel rises with the summer season, it's crucial we have a plan in place to ensure Wisconsin travelers have the fuel they need," he said in a statement.
The Wisconsin Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association requested the emergency declaration on behalf of its Green Bay area members, association President Matt Hauser said.
No station that is a member of the group has reported running out of fuel, Hauser said.
But possible shortages were on the minds of business owners earlier this month as truck drivers faced long lines and extended delays for refilling tankers at fuel terminals in Milwaukee and Madison, officials said.
Those delays "and trucking of petroleum products over long distances" make it difficult for transport companies to meet demand and comply with state and federal regulations limiting driving hours in a week, according to the emergency declaration.
West Shore owns a 650-mile fuel distribution system within Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. Fuel pipelines extend from East Chicago, Ind., around Chicago to Milwaukee and Green Bay. A separate fuel line runs from the Chicago area to Janesville and Madison.
West Shore spokesman David Boone said the company has been inspecting additional sections of the pipeline north of Milwaukee. .
Boone acknowledged remaining inspection activities "will take several weeks and will likely have an impact on deliveries to Green Bay."
"The company is continuing to evaluate inspection data and perform necessary maintenance," Boone said in a statement. Welded seams or sections of pipe that have degraded over time are repaired.
"At West Shore Pipe Line Company, the safety of the communities we serve is a top priority," he said. No fuel has leaked from the line this year, according to Boone.
This is the same pipeline that ruptured in July 2010 and spilled 54,600 gallons of gasoline in a farm pasture in the Town of Jackson.
The spill was caused by a rupture of a welded seam along several feet of 10-inch pipe. The regional pipeline was built in 1961.
Gasoline from the spill contaminated groundwater in roughly a 1-square-mile area of the town.
West Shore subsequently paid $5.3 million to build eight miles of water main so that Village of Jackson municipal water could serve the rural area around the spill.
Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau, are under investigation into allegations of child abuse, prisoner neglect, sexual assault and other crimes. Credit: Journal Sentinel files
By of the
Madison A 15-year-old held in Wisconsin's problem-plagued juvenile prison was given the wrong psychotropic medication twice in April despite the incoming head of the facility promising the mistake wouldn't happen again after the first incident, the boy's family says.
"Are they going to call me every other week telling me they gave him the wrong meds?" the boy's mother said in an interview.
Together with other incidents in which another inmate didn't get his prescription medicine at all, the problems raise questions about a system in which ordinary guards, not medical personnel, dispense potent drugs at the Northwoods facility.
Family members of the boy who twice received the wrong pills said they felt left in the dark. No one at Lincoln Hills School for Boys informed them about the first time it occurred, and the grandmother found out about it only because she happened to visit the next day and saw him shaking, the family said.
That first time, the guard who handed out the medication realized the error and immediately gave him the right pills without first checking with a medical professional to find out if it was OK to take the two drugs together, the family said.
The juvenile is supposed to take a drug to help with sleep and anxiety but was in addition given an antidepressant that has a sedative effect.
"He told me he was so high he couldn't even talk right," the mother said.
The incident is the latest sign of trouble at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau.
For the past 16 months, investigators have been looking into allegations of child abuse, prisoner neglect, sexual assault and other crimes.
Residents of the facility and their families have also alleged staff have been slow to respond to suicide attempts. In one incident detailed this month by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a teenage inmate held up his roommate to keep him from dangling from a makeshift noose, struggling to keep him aloft as he waited for guards to intervene.
Federal prosecutors are leading the criminal investigation as well as a review of whether there has been a pattern of civil rights violations at the institution.
Experts in psychiatry and pharmacy said they were alarmed by last month's incidents in which the boy was given the wrong medication, especially because the same mistake happened twice to the same person in as many weeks.
"It's hard to imagine it's just this particular person that it happened to," said Kenneth Robbins, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "If it happened twice to the same person in such a short time, it makes you wonder if there's a significant problem in their system."
Guards dispense drugs
At Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, medication is routinely distributed by guards, not nurses or other health professionals.
"I don't know of any place other than the Department of Corrections where a potentially nontrained and nonclinical person would be administering medication," Robbins said.
The boy's grandmother visited Lincoln Hills on April 9 and noticed his hands were shaking as soon as she saw him. She asked him about it, and he said he had been given the wrong medication.
The boy takes Seroquel to help him sleep and prevent anxiety. But about 9 p.m. on April 8, a Friday, he was instead given two pills of the antidepressant trazodone that were intended for another resident.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. That's not your medicine," a staff member said after the boy swallowed one of the pills, according to the grandmother.
She then gave the boy his Seroquel and he took it.
"He said, 'Granny, the first thing I thought is, I hope I don't die tonight,'" the grandmother said.
Medicine is dispensed around bedtime, but after the pills were mistakenly given that night, the boy was allowed to stay up and given fajitas and Kool-Aid, the grandmother said.
When the grandmother learned what happened the next day, she asked for the boy to be taken to a doctor, filed a written complaint and alerted her daughter, the boy's mother. The grandmother said staff told her they had talked to a psychiatrist, determined the boy was fine and would not allow him to see a doctor outside the facility.
The mother said she spent the weekend calling Lincoln Hills, law enforcement and child services without getting full answers to her questions or an agreement from anyone to look into the matter.
A promise, then a repeat
On the following Monday, April 11, school official Wendy Peterson called the mother to apologize, the mother said. At the time, Peterson was the school's deputy superintendent, but she has since taken over as superintendent, the top position at the facility.
"She said she would make sure it wouldn't happen again," the mother said.
But it did.
Two weeks later, on April 24, school staff called the mother to say her son had again been given trazodone instead of Seroquel. He took the wrong pills and this time the staff did not give him his usual medicine that night.
The staff member who gave him the wrong pills was not the same person who had earlier handed him the wrong ones, the family said.
The grandmother drove up to see him the next day. She said he looked puffy-eyed and hung over and complained of dizziness and blurred vision. She said a nurse who saw him that day said he seemed fine.
The grandmother faxed a complaint to Peterson and three others responsible for the school. She said she has not heard back from anyone about whether they're looking into the matter.
The boy is from Milwaukee County, but officials there were not notified of the situation by the state Department of Corrections, said Melissa Baldauff, a spokeswoman for County Executive Chris Abele. They learned about it when the boy told a Milwaukee County social worker visiting Lincoln Hills, Baldauff said.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is not naming the resident because he is a juvenile and is not naming the family to protect the boy's identity.
Other complaints about the handling of medicine have been lodged. For instance, the parent of another inmate said her child has repeatedly not received his prescribed medication for periods of up to three days. Each time he was told that his unit didn't have it or had run out, the parent said.
After a complaint was made about the missing medicine, the inmate was told that the problem would be corrected. Since then, prison staff have still failed to administer the medicine on some days, the parent said.
Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said the agency works closely with doctors and pharmacists to make sure youths in its care get the medicine they need. He said medical privacy laws kept him from saying whether anyone had missed doses.
He said those privacy laws also prevented him from commenting on the juvenile receiving the wrong medication last month. Because he would not acknowledge the incident, he would not say if any investigation was being conducted, if any staff had been disciplined or if any steps had been taken to prevent future errors.
The department is reviewing and updating staff training for distributing medicine, he said. Nonmedical staff known as youth counselors have long dispensed medicine there, and they are required to report any medication errors, he said.
Mixing Seroquel and trazodone can lead to low blood pressure, particularly when someone goes from lying down to standing up. That can lead to dizziness and a risk of falling down. The combination of drugs can also cause an upset stomach and serious fatigue, those familiar with the drugs said.
Both drugs have heavy sedative effects. The combination would probably "knock him out," said Casey Gallimore, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Pharmacy.
"It is concerning that it happened twice," she said. "It's at least something that should have been looked at to make sure it doesn't happen again."
A doctor who was contacted about such a mistake probably would have told staff to monitor the patient, rather than to immediately bring him or her in for a consultation, Gallimore said.
But the mother and grandmother said they worry about how fast emergency responders could make it to the prison in Irma.
"Do you know how long it takes," the grandmother said, "to get an ambulance to the middle of nowhere?"
Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
News / National
by Staff reporter
With the country's economy in freefall, the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC has set May 28 for another massive demonstration in the former industrial hub of Bulawayo as it seeks to tighten screws on the "clueless" governing Zanu-PF party.Apparently, buoyed by the success of its first demonstration that was held in Harare last month, the opposition party says its planned Bulawayo protest will be a wake- up call to the governing party.Nowhere is the economic malaise more apparent than in Bulawayo where most industries have shut down and the majority of people have since relocated to neighbouring South Africa."The Bulawayo demonstration is going to be bigger than Harare, there is no doubt about that," MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu told the Daily News."Our team is currently mobilising people and judging from the way they are doing their mobilisation across all the constituencies . . . we are looking for not less than 20 000 people," said Gutu.Against a backdrop of a government that is in sixes and sevens and which recently said it was introducing bond notes to deal with a biting cash shortage, Gutu said his party is gearing up for more demonstrations around the country in a bid to force President Robert Mugabe to resign."After Bulawayo, we are going to move to other provinces. We don't have actual dates, for now, but the demonstrations will move on to other cities and towns, Gweru, Masvingo, Mutare and Kwekwe."According to Gutu, the demonstrations will also be held in rural areas, which are supposedly Zanu-PF strongholds."People should know that when you are planning successful demonstrations, it's not only about time. There are logistical issues, you need to liaise with the law enforcement agents, you can't wake up and tell them that tomorrow we are going to have a demonstration, you have to plan," said Gutu.The MDC demonstration in Harare only succeeded after the High Court intervention."We know where to go if the police try to disturb our march . . . Section 59 of the Constitution gives us the right to stage peaceful demonstrations. The Harare demonstration was one of the most peaceful that I have ever witnessed in Harare."If they say that they were skirmishes, those skirmishes were happening in their heads whoever was saying that," added Gutu.The MDC is protesting against a number of issues, including Zanu-PF's failure to fulfil its promise to create 2,2 million jobs as espoused in the party's 2013 election manifesto.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |
The charismatic young mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is calling out Donald Trump for his bigotry toward Muslims. He says he plans to visit the United States this fall before the presidential election, because in case Trump wins, he wont be able to.
He had told Time magazine earlier,
If Donald Trump becomes the president Ill be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I cant engage with American mayors and swap ideas.
Trump responded that he might make an exception for Sadiq Khan: There will always be exceptions, he said.
For those apparently ethically clueless commentators who have averred that Trump isnt really a bigot, Trumps conundrum shows that he really is a bigot. Since he likes giving people nicknames, Ive suggested one for him above. As many have pointed out, the KKK is far more enthusiastic about Trump than the Republican Party Establishment. There is a reason for this difference.
It is always ethically wrong to generalize from an individual or particular group to the larger category of which they form a part. Individuals must be judged as individuals, groups as groups.
The typical form of a bigoted statement is All x are y.
Bigotry or prejudice can then become a basis for discrimination. Discrimination violates the principle of equality before the law:
It is generally agreed that discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin is morally wrong and a violation of the principle of equality. The equality principle requires that those who are equal be treated equally based on similarities, and that race not be a relevant consideration in that assess ment (May and Sharratt 1994: 317). In other words, it is only possible to justify treating people differently if there exists some factual difference between them that justifies such difference in treatment (Rachels 1999: 94). Equality is a nonspecific term that means nothing until applied to a particular context. Thus, in a political context, equality means equal access to public office and equal treatment under the law, and equal treatment extends to equality in terms of job hiring, promotion, and pay.
Trumps proposal to exclude Muslims from coming to the United States violates the 1965 Immigration Act, which does not allow for religious or other quotas. More seriously, it violates the principle that all men are created equal, a central one to American ideals even if it has often been honored in the breach. Trumps premise, that Muslims are unusually violent, is not in fact in evidence.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, for instance, began by forbidding all Chinese from coming to the US for ten years; that temporary exclusion was later made permanent, and it was only finally repealed during World War II (even then the almost Nazi 1924 immigration law, which established ethnic/country quotas based on the white America of the 1870 census, continued to keep all but small numbers of Chinese out).
Here is the sort of thing that Americans of European heritage were saying about Americans of Chinese heritage in the run-up to the Exclusion Act. I apologize to my Chinese-American friends for reprinting it, but alas we historians often have to deal with distasteful texts from the past. It is from testimony before the California senate in 1876. The senators asked a lot of leading question implying that Chinese are less honest than other people; one witness to his credit pushed back on that front, but then went on to aver that they are not a cleanly people.
Q.How does the condition of the Chinese in this city compare with that of the Chinese at home? A.I have been very little in the Chinese quarters here, but I know it is filthy, indeed, and that they are very much overcrowded. They live in a filthy condition here, and in a filthy condition at home, in their own districts. The buildings here are crowded pretty much as they are at home. Buildings once occupied by Chinese are unfit for white occupation, but real estate dealers obtain from them double and treble the rent they receive from the whites. The streets the business streetsare in a passable condition, probably because the Chinese are compelled to keep them clean by the municipal authorities. The alleys are terribly filthy. Ladies would not care to go on those streets or look into those alleys. I think there is a class of outlaws among the Chinese population here, who give us a great deal of trouble. There are also, as in every community, a great many good men who are made to suffer for the doings of the evil. Among our people, if John Brown does wrong, he suffers as an individual, but if a Chinaman does wrong, the whole race suffers for the act of the individual. Q.Are there any Chinese families in this city? A.I think not any to speak of? Q.Are there one hundred Chinese families in this city? A.That would be a large number, I should think. Q.Have you any idea of the number of Chinese women? A.No, sir; I have not. Q.What is the condition of these women? A.I dont know. I imagine it is very bad, indeed. I think that the principal or only remedy to be applied to that evil are stringent municipal regulations, thoroughly enforced. Q.That would be a remedy for those things, but would it be a remedy for the injuries which that race inflicts upon the race with which they compete? A.1 think that would prevent the influx of the vicious class. If we were to make them live as Americans, I think we would very soon have no Chinese here. For instance, make men have fifteen or sixteen-feet rooms to sleep in, each, and compel the observance of sanitary regulations, and they could not afford to work for the wages they now receive. If they are forced to demand more pay, employers will not employ them. Mr. PiersonHave you observed any change in the character of the Chinese for the last ten or fifteen yearshave they become more aggressive, more independent, more apt to assert their rights, as they term it? A.I think that is caused by the fact that a great many misguided Americans put them up to it. Q.Do you think that they have any particular love for our institutions? A.I dont think they have any at all. They come purely as a matter of gainas a matter of dollars and cents.
Trumps discourse is indistinguishable from that of 19th century white racists and religious bigots in the United States, and he wants to have it result in a similar outcome (all Asians were ultimately excluded from the US on grounds of racial and religious bigotry).
Trump, having proposed an exception to equality under the law for a whole category of people, now has to propose exceptions to his own rule because it clearly is a discriminatory one. He said that you lead by example and if Khan does a good job that would be a tremendous thing.
That Trump should even want to make an exception for Sadiq Khan underlines the falsity of his entire premise. If Mr. Khan can lead by example and do a good job as London mayor despite being Muslim, then clearly there are no grounds to exclude people on grounds of religion. If Mr. Khan as an individual is desirable despite being a Muslim, then how can Trump show that the vast majority of Muslims are not like Mr. Khan? And if they are, then his proposed exclusion is a form of bigotry.
Related video:
Wochit News: Trump Says London Mayor Would Be Exception to Muslim Ban
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By Moritz Pieper | (The Conversation) |
The cake is quite big, but everyone wants a slice. Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, visited Iran last month accompanied by business leaders from the energy, transportation and defence sectors. It was a return visit after the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, had made Italy his first destination in Europe on a trip intended to drum up European investments in Iran.
Such investments are now possible thanks to the implementation of the JPCOA nuclear agreement which lifts all UN-mandated nuclear sanctions as well as EU and US economic, financial and banking sanctions over the Iranian nuclear programme. The path is clear for Iran to pursue a new engagement with the world. European businesses are eager to jump in, but it will be no easy trick to challenge the position of Russia and China.
The enthusiasm is obvious. EU high representative, Federica Mogherini, travelled to Tehran last month accompanied by business representatives and seven EU commissioners including those for transport, energy and industry signalling the high-level interest. German industrial giant Siemens, the oil and gas company Shell, and French auto makers Peugeot and Renault have indicated their interest. Airbus secured a contract with Iran for the delivery of 118 aircraft just two weeks after Implementation Day.
Not so fast
The Iran rush is tugged back, however, by the persistence of sanctions not related to the nuclear deal and which can very easily apply to European companies. The US, in particular, will retain secondary sanctions which target dealings with Iranians on their Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN), a collection of individuals the US deems to be a risk on grounds of terrorism, nuclear proliferation or human rights. According to White House guidance, anyone found to have had dealings with those on the SDN list would: put themselves at risk of being cut off from the US financial system. This includes foreign financial institutions, who would risk losing their correspondent account with US banks.
European subsidiaries of US companies can get operating licenses for businesses in Iran, but will need to firewall their US activities from their foreign operations. This may prove to be a challenging requirement given the intertwined nature of companies and of the banking sector. It remains unclear whether even emails going through US servers could be considered as using the US to facilitate transactions.
Complicating matters still further for European companies is the extent to which parts of the Iranian economy will continue to be controlled by entities still subject to sanctions. Examples here are banks on the US SDN list for carrying out terrorism-related transactions; construction, trading and transport companies tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps; or telecoms companies.
Rivals
These obstacles will leave European firms struggling to catch up with China, which has largely benefited from western embargoes. Russia is also well placed in Irans nuclear energy market. Both China and Russia are simply less likely to be as affected by the foreign subsidiary regulation because Chinese or Russian subsidiaries of larger US corporations are far less common.
Chinese companies had been willing to provide goods that Iran could no longer receive from the West. In 2014, the Sino-Iranian trade volume totalled US$52 billion (compared to a Russian-Iranian trade volume of only US$1.6 billion and US$10 billion between Iran and the entire EU-28). During nuclear sanctions, China was Irans most significant foreign trade partner, exporting capital goods and engineering services and investing in infrastructure projects. With nuclear sanctions now lifted, China seems to be aware that whatever the obstacles for European firms it might face increased competition.
Losing no time, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, paid a visit to Iran in January, signing a Sino-Iranian comprehensive strategic partnership and announcing 17 agreements in the energy, trade, and industrial sectors. Iran is important for Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative that would join markets from China to Central Asia and the Middle East.
Moscows interests
Russian commercial interests in Iran concentrate on the restart of arms sales and the nuclear industry. Russia has made it clear that it was planning to capitalise on the eventual lifting of arms embargoes from Iran. While the UN weapons embargo will only be lifted in five years, states can apply for UN authorisation beforehand.
The nuclear industry is more lucrative in the mid-term. Russias state-owned nuclear company Rosatom has held a relative monopoly position on the Iranian nuclear energy market, having built Irans only nuclear power reactor in Bushehr, and is currently closely involved in the implementation of the JCPOA agreement. It is unlikely Russia will face serious competition in this sector of the Iranian economy.
But its not a one-way street with economic sanctions gone the prospect of increased Iranian oil supply to Europe could signal tough competition on the European energy market. This comes after the oil price slump which has strained the Russian state budget. It means that any hindrance to growth in Irans oil infrastructure thanks to continued sanctions might be met with a sigh of relief in Moscow. This does not mean that Russia is desperate to prevent Iran from emerging as an energy competitor. But it does buy time for Russia, and indeed Europe, to prepare for a shift in global oil supply dynamics.
Its a tough call for European businesses. They can only challenge Chinas position in Irans capital goods and construction market in as much as the complex sanctions architecture allows them. Russia also stands in a stronger position as far as its traditional sectors of interest are concerned. The truth is that banks and businesses are risk-averse, and the ambiguities in US financial legislation will feed this concern. It ensures that the lifting of sanctions is no free for all, but a slow, tentative walk through a legal minefield.
Moritz Pieper, Lecturer in International Relations, University of Salford
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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Related video added by Juan Cole:
Euronews from April: EU and Iran turn a new page in diplomatic relations
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Maan News Agency |
BETHLEHEM (Maan) The trial of an Israeli soldier charged with manslaughter for the point-blank shooting of a Palestinian earlier this year began on Monday, amid Palestinian fears that the accused would evade meaningful legal consequences for his actions.
A panel of judges read the indictment to Elor Azarya, who was caught on camera by Israeli rights group BTselem in March killing Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif, 21, with a shot to the head as the young Palestinian was lying wounded on the ground after allegedly stabbing an Israeli soldier, sparking outrage over what Palestinian rights advocates called an extrajudicial execution.
The head of the judicial panel at the Jaffa military court suggested that the case resort to mediation instead of a full-on trial, a proposal which the prosecution seemed inclined to reject on Monday, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
Meanwhile, the president of the court Maya Heller and judges Carmel Wahabi and Yogev Yifrach reportedly urged the defense and the prosecution to seek out a plea bargain in the coming week, Ynet wrote.
An autopsy in April confirmed that al-Sharif was still alive before a bullet fired at his head at point-blank range by Azarya killed him.
Al-Sharifs family announced in April that they would file legal procedures against the Israeli army in front of an Israeli court, not long after Azarya was moved into open detention on a military base.
The international community has reacted in the wake of al-Sharifs killing, expressing worries that it might be part of a broader Israeli shoot to kill policy against Palestinian suspected attackers.
We are concerned this killing may not be a lone incident, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville said in a statement in April, adding that all incidents where security forces have caused death or injury should be fully investigated, and those responsible brought to account.
Despite his initial condemnation of the killing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later backtracked under pressure from Israels prominent right-wing political community, who claim that Azarya should be found innocent of all charges.
Rights groups have repeatedly criticized Israel for offering impunity to Israelis who harm Palestinians, or for handing down very light sentences.
Al-Sharif was among the more than 200 Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since a wave of unrest spread across the occupied Palestinian territory in October.
The unrest has been marked by a surge of small-scale attacks carried out by Palestinian individuals predominantly on Israeli military targets which have left nearly 30 Israelis dead, with the majority of suspected Palestinian attackers shot dead on sight.
Via Maan News Agency
Related video added by Juan Cole:
Euronews: Israeli soldier goes on trial for killing wounded Palestinian attacker
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - Pure Energy Minerals Limited (TSX VENTURE: PE) (FRANKFURT: A111EG) (OTCQB: HMGLF) (the "Company" or "Pure Energy") announces the results of well sampling from the phase 2 drill program at its Clayton Valley South ("CVS") Lithium Brine Project, located near Silver Peak, Nevada (the "Project"). The phase 2 drill program consisted of three wells: CV-4, CV-5, and CV-6, which were major step outs to the south, extending up to 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) beyond the previous limit of drilling. The technical team designed these wells to target lower grade brines of the southern resource area from approximately 150 to 500 metres (500 to 1600 feet) below surface. The results from wells CV-4, 5, and 6 included no significant lithium values, but the data indicate the presence of an active geothermal system that may have a significant impact on fluid compositions in portions of the southern resource area.
Phase 3 drilling continues, as Harris Exploration Drilling has advanced CV-3 to approximately 427 metres (1,400 feet) below surface. The new well was collared approximately 200 metres (660 feet) east-southeast of CV-1; it will serve the dual purpose of a deep exploration well and a monitoring well for future pumping tests. The drillers are using rotary coring techniques to take CV-3 towards a target depth of 490 metres (1,600 feet) below surface, and there are sufficient supplies on site to advance the well deeper if conditions permit. Core recovery has been excellent ( > 95%) so far, recovering multiple representative sections of core from various aquifers for testing of physical and hydrogeological properties at accredited laboratories.
Patrick Highsmith, Pure Energy Minerals CEO commented, "We now have a better understanding of the basin geology, and the geothermal system we encountered with this drilling in the southern resource area is a complexity. Drilling continues in the northern resource area and the results so far are encouraging. Subject to the completion of our ongoing drill program and updated mineral resource, we anticipate the southern resource area to contract, but due to the low-grade assumptions in that area, it should have a positive impact on the average grade of the estimated inferred resource. If that is the case, we believe higher average grades will bode well for the potential processing economics in the future."
Mr. Highsmith continued with regards to the recent favorable sampling results from the northern resource area and the encouraging geology from CV-3, "We remain actively focused on definition and potential extension of the northern resource area, particularly to deeper levels, as it has markedly higher lithium grades than the south. The robust grade and saturated thickness of the brines in CV-1 combined with the progress so far in CV-3 are encouraging developments. We look forward to reporting news from the upcoming deeper holes. We are also proceeding with the mini-pilot plant and pumping tests, which are expected to commence shortly."
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS FROM PHASE 2 SAMPLING
As previously reported (See Company news release dated April 14, 2016), the Pure Energy technical team developed a new sampling methodology for application in the complex geology of Clayton Valley. The phase 2 sampling data supported the viability of these techniques, as field duplicates performed very well and better geological interpretations are possible from the new data. The re-sampling results from CV-1 (northern resource area) and CV-2 (southern resource area) were consistent with previous sampling (within the normal variation of field sampling and analytical methodologies), but the thickness of the aquifers and consistency of the brine is now much better understood. In both cases, the data are consistent with the inferred resource reported in the NI 43-101 report entitled "Inferred Resource Estimate for Lithium, Clayton Valley South Project" dated July 17, 2015 (the "Inferred Resource Report") and filed on the Company's SEDAR profile.
Wells CV-4, CV-5 and CV-6 were drilled and sampled in order to test the possible extent of lower grade brines inferred to be present at shallower levels further south in the basin. The technical team developed this interpretation based on data collected by previous drilling, surface geology, and seismic reflection surveys. The stratigraphic interpretation from the seismic data of relatively flat lying fluvial to lacustrine sediments, punctuated by volcanic ash layers, has been confirmed with this drilling. However, the downhole temperature, conductivity, and chemical data from the phase 2 program reveal some complexities that affect the interpretation of the southern resource area.
The temperature data reveal a significant reservoir of warm groundwater in CV-4, 5, and 6, reaching maximum temperatures of approximately 35 degrees Celsius. In places, there are abrupt changes in temperature that correlate with changes in conductivity (salinity). Such data may indicate intercalated aquifers of differing solid and brine composition. CV-5 includes an upper zone of cooler fluid that contains anomalous (but not significant) lithium content, while the deeper, warmer fluids are nearly barren of lithium. The interpretation of these data is an ongoing process that will guide follow-up drilling in the southern resource area.
Pure Energy geologists conducted limited carbon dioxide ("CO 2 ") sampling of the well bores at Clayton Valley, and the preliminary results indicate that a geothermal system may be active in or near some of the southern wells.
Drill cuttings and core returns from CV-4, CV-5 and CV-6 yielded geological materials that are consistent with brine-bearing aquifers elsewhere beneath Pure Energy's CVS Project. These formations include intervals of volcanic ash, tuff, and laminated reduced silts and clays. It is therefore likely that the southern resource area has a similar depositional history to lithium-rich areas farther north. However, the fluid data strongly suggest that, at shallower levels, this section of the property is being heavily influenced by a source of hotter, lower density water with low lithium contents and a different geochemical signature. The source of this warmer, less-mineralized water is not well understood at present, as the seismic data did not highlight any significant intra-basin faulting or obvious pathway for migration.
The seismic and gravity data at CVS indicate that the basin extends to depths of 1,500 metres (4,900 feet) or more in the southern portion of the property. Nothing in the data from CV-4, CV-5, or CV-6 eliminates the prospectivity of the southern basin at depth. In fact, saline brines are higher density than fresh or brackish water and therefore tend to sink. Since the Company believes that the source of the lithium in the Clayton Valley brines is a large scale geological feature, Pure Energy will likely return to test the deep potential in the southern resource area after better defining the higher-grade northern resource area with the phase 3 drilling now underway.
DISCUSSION OF GEOLOGY AND PRELIMINARY INDICATIONS FROM PHASE 3 DRILLING
By contrast to the southern area, CV-3 has yielded some positive preliminary indications in the northern resource area. The core drilling has penetrated several saturated ash and tuff layers deeper in the basin than previously observed. These alternating sequences of volcanic ash/tuff with sandy and silty units are typical of the aquifers reported to host productive brine zones at the nearby Silver Peak lithium brine mine.
Figure 1 shows some of the ash layers (paler white and buff zones), lacustrine silts (green/grey sections) and steep fractured zones that have been drilled in CV-3 on the Clayton Valley South lithium brine project.
Following the completion of CV-3, the Company is planning two additional wells in the northern resource areas as part of the phase 3 drill program. Drillers will most likely employ mud rotary techniques in these wells targeting depths in excess of 500 metres. The Company will incorporate completed results from the phase 2 and phase 3 drill programs in an updated mineral resource for the Project during summer.
TELECONFERENCE WITH COMPANY MANAGEMENT
Pure Energy Minerals will host a conference call on Wednesday, May 11, 2016, at 3:00pm Eastern Daylight Time to discuss these results and upcoming activities.
The conference call is open to any investor or stakeholder, including shareholders, broker-dealers and other securities professionals. Management will accept questions by e-mail; to submit one or more questions, please email your question to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the words "Investor Question for Conference Call" in the subject line before 9:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Wednesday May 11, 2016. Pure Energy management will endeavour to address as many questions as possible in the thirty-minute time period allocated to the call. A recording of the call will be available for review at the Company's website shortly after the call.
To participate in the call, please use the following login Web link or telephone number:
Join the call via the Web at: http://pureenergyminerals.enterthemeeting.com/m/ZCGTC4BQ
Dial-In Number: (949) 229-4400; Participant Code: 3682314#
Participants are requested to call in at least 10-minutes before the call to ensure timely participation.
Quality Assurance and Quality Control
Analytical data reported in this news release were generated by Western Environmental Testing Laboratory ("WETLAB") of Sparks, Nevada. WETLAB is accredited by the Nevada State Division of Environmental Protection for determination of lithium, magnesium, and other elements in non-potable water by method EPA 200.7. The lab employs its own quality assurance program to ensure accuracy and precision of its data.
ALS Minerals in Vancouver, British Columbia provided systematic blind and independent check analyses on the lithium and other analytes in the phase 2 sampling program at Clayton Valley South. ALS Minerals Vancouver operates an industry leading quality management system and is accredited under ISO 17025 for provision of mineral analysis.
Consistent with industry best practice, Pure Energy inserts additional blind quality control samples with every batch of samples. The data described herein have satisfied the Company's quality criteria for release.
Patrick Highsmith, Certified Professional Geologist (AIPG CPG # 11702), is a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, and has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Highsmith is not independent of the Company as he is an officer and director.
About Pure Energy Minerals Ltd.
Pure Energy is a lithium-brine resource developer that is driven to become the lowest-cost lithium supplier for the burgeoning North American lithium battery industry. Pure Energy is currently focused on the development of our prospective CVS Lithium Brine Project, which has the following key attributes:
A large land position with excellent existing infrastructure in a first-class mining jurisdiction: Approximately 9,324 acres in three main claim groups in the southern half of Clayton Valley, Esmeralda County, Nevada.
Adjacent to the only producing lithium operation in the United States (Albemarle's Silver Peak lithium brine mine).
An inferred mineral resource of 816,000 metric tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE), reported in accordance with NI 43-101.
Metallurgical and process studies underway to better understand the feasibility and economics of using modern environmentally-responsible processing technology to convert the CVS brines into high purity lithium products for new energy storage uses.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
"Patrick Highsmith"
Chief Executive Officer
Forward Looking Statements: The information in this news release contains forward looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated or anticipated future results, achievements or position expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements. Such forward looking statements are based upon the Company's reasonable expectations and business plan at the date hereof, which are subject to change depending on economic, political and competitive circumstances and contingencies. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets and the demand for and price of commodities, particularly lithium, unanticipated expenses in exploration programs, technical difficulties in connection with exploration and development activities, technological challenges with the extraction and processing of lithium brines, the speculative nature of mineral exploration, volatile microcap equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry, including environmental requirements. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding future exploration programs, operation plans, geological interpretations, mineral tenure issues and mineral recovery processes. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release
Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 10, 2016) - Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC) is pleased to announce that its joint venture partner OZ Minerals Limited has initiated an Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical survey over a large area with known copper-gold porphyry mineralization at the Bellas Gate Joint Venture (BGJV) in Jamaica. The ground-based geophysics survey along with the current ongoing diamond drilling program, are part of the BGJV's Phase Five program, which includes all work to the completion of a feasibility study. OZ Minerals will earn an additional 10% interest in the Joint Venture by sole funding Phase Five.
Jeff Ackert, President and CEO of Carube Copper noted: This IP program will enable the Joint Venture to prioritize the plethora of copper and gold rich areas located in the Bellas Gate Joint Venture. The program should also assist in identifying undiscovered, sub-surface mineralized zones. We have seen IP used to great effect in Cretaceous terrain in other Caribbean countries and believe that it will be very successful in locating significant porphyry mineralization in Jamaica.
Figure 1: Bellas Gate Joint Venture IP Geophysical Survey Area
To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:
https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2661/20522_carube1enhanced.jpg
The Dipole-Dipole IP survey will be performed by Zonge International Geophysics of Tucson, Arizona. The survey will consist of 7 parallel lines of an average length of 6.5 kilometres for a total of 46 line kilometres. The lines will be 500m apart and will cover an area of over 30 square kilometres, including the North and South Alteration zones and intervening area (see Figure 1). The first line to be surveyed will traverse across known porphyry copper mineralization and will be a model for evaluating the IP anomalies.
The survey is expected to be completed by the end of June, with new target generation, ground truthing, sampling and drilling of priority targets to follow in the second half of 2016.
As previously announced by Carube Copper on April 27, 2016, OZ Minerals has started a drill program at Bellas Gate in order to evaluate three new prospective areas; Provost, Provost South East and Lucky Valley. To date, OZ Minerals has sole-funded the drilling of forty holes, totalling 11,028 metres, on BGJV targets as part of a 70% interest earn-in on the BGJV; Carube Copper now holds a 30% interest. For further information on the work completed and expenditures to date on the BGJV, please refer to our press release of February 10, 2016.
Contacts
Jeff Ackert, President and CEO 1-613-839-3258 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Vern Rampton, Executive VP of Corporate Development 1-613-839-3258 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Alar Soever, Chairman 1-705-682-9297 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.carubecopper.com
QP Statement: This press release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Vern Rampton, P. Eng., in his capacity as a qualified person as defined under NI 43-101.
END PRESS RELEASE
Carube Copper Corp. (TSXV: CUC) is a Canadian exploration company focused on the exploration and development of copper and gold projects in Jamaica and Canada. In Jamaica, two projects, totalling 188 square kilometres in area, are the subject of separate joint venture agreements with OZ Minerals Limited, an Australian copper-gold producer with a market capitalization of over $1B. Carube Copper holds a 100% interest in two other nearby projects, totalling 80 square kilometres. In Canada, Carube Copper holds a 100% interest in three porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum properties, totalling 593 square kilometres within the Tertiary-aged Cascade Magmatic Arc in southwestern British Columbia. Exploration continues on these properties with the goal of joint-venturing them to larger exploration and mining companies. Carube Copper continues to seek opportunities in Canada and the Caribbean for acquisition and development.
DISCLAIMER & FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, and by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on currently available information, Carube Copper Corp. provides no assurance that actual results will meet managements expectations. Factors that can cause results to differ materially are set out in the Companys documents filed on the SEDAR website. Undue reliance should not be placed on "forward looking statements".
IMPORTANT NOTICE: By reference herewith, Carube Copper incorporates into this release the entire disclaimer set forth on our website at http://carubecopper.com/disclaimer.htm
Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - May 10, 2016) - Excellon Resources Inc. (TSX: EXN) (OTC: EXLLF) ("Excellon" or the "Company"), Mexico's highest grade silver producer, is pleased to report financial results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2016.
Q1 2016 Financial Highlights
Revenue of $4.3 million (Q1 2015 - $5.1 million)
Sales of 329,200 silver equivalent ounces ("AgEq oz") payable (Q1 2015 - 379,279 AgEq oz payable)
Mine operating earnings of $0.4 million (Q1 2015 - loss of $0.4 million)
Adjusted net loss of $0.7 million or $0.01/share (Q1 2015 - adjusted net loss of $0.2 million or $0.00/share)
Production cost per tonne reduced by 28% relative to Q1 2015
All-in sustaining cost ("AISC") per silver ounce payable of $16.98, a reduction of 18% relative to Q1 2015 ($20.69), including AISC of $11.72 in March 2016 following access of high grade mineralization in the Rodilla Manto
Phase II of optimization program underway with primary well drilling
Cash and current account receivables totaled $5.5 million at March 31, 2016 (December 31, 2015 - $4.7 million), not including CAD$3.0 million private placement with Eric Sprott and sale of DeSantis claims to Oban Mining Corporation in April 2016
Net working capital totaled $5.4 million at March 31, 2016 (December 31, 2015 - $5.5 million)
"We continued to make good progress in reducing operating costs during the first quarter," stated Brendan Cahill, President and Chief Executive Officer. "After accessing the Rodilla Manto earlier than planned in late February, we realized an AISC of $11.72 for March, demonstrating the opportunity to dramatically reduce costs per ounce under dry mining conditions at Platosa. We continue to execute our dewatering strategy, with the primary production wells now being drilled. Additionally, subsequent to the end of the quarter, we strengthened our balance sheet with a financing from Eric Sprott and the closing of the transfer of the DeSantis property's mining claims to Oban Mining. Looking ahead, our focus is to continue to improve operating results as the Platosa optimization program is implemented."
Financial results for the three month periods ended March 31, 2016, December 31, 2015 and March 31, 2015 are as follows:
('000s of USD, except amounts per share and per ounce) Q1 2016 Q4 2015 Q1 2015 Revenue (1) 4,261 2,477 5,055 Production costs (3,269 ) (3,318 ) (4,560 ) Depletion and amortization (605 ) (675 ) (847 ) Cost of sales (3,874 ) (3,993 ) (5,407 ) Gross profit (loss) 387 (1,516 ) (352 ) Corporate administration (654 ) (976 ) (792 ) Exploration (137 ) (123 ) (226 ) Other (incl. royalty income and finance cost) (2,347 ) 769 524 Impairment of mineral rights - (662 ) - Income tax recovery (expense) 125 831 609 Net loss (2,626 ) (1,677 ) (237 ) Adjusted net loss (2)(3) (736 ) (676 ) (237 ) Loss per share - basic (0.05 ) (0.03 ) (0.00 ) Loss per share - adjusted (0.01 ) (0.01 ) (0.00 ) Cash flow from (used in) operations (4) 261 (1,492 ) 430 Cash flow from (used in) operations per share - basic 0.00 (0.03 ) 0.01 Cash cost per silver ounce payable ($/Ag oz) 10.38 19.86 14.24 All-in sustaining cost per silver ounce payable ($/Ag oz) 16.98 34.92 20.69
(1) Revenues are net of treatment and refining charges. (2) Q1 2016 adjusted net loss reflects results before $1.9 million fair value adjustment loss on embedded derivatives and warrants related to outstanding convertible debentures. (3) Q4 2015 adjusted net loss reflects results before $0.7 million impairment charge on DeSantis exploration property in Canada and $0.3 million fair value adjustment loss on embedded derivatives and warrants related to outstanding convertible debentures. (4) Cash flow from operations before changes in working capital.
Operations during the first quarter continued to focus on progressing Platosa's optimization program and development into higher grade areas of the mine. Production from Platosa was primarily from the 6A, N1, Guadalupe North and South and, in late February 2016, mine operations began accessing ore from the Rodilla Manto, approximately seven months ahead of schedule and at shallower levels than delineated in the resource block model. Previously this manto was significantly below the water table, but conditions are now almost entirely dry as a result of ongoing dewatering efforts. As delineated in the Platosa resource block model, the upper levels of the Rodilla Manto host mineralization grading approximately 800 g/t Ag, 7% Pb and 10% Zn on an undiluted basis. Much of this "bonus" mineralization encountered was materially higher grade on a diluted basis, with approximately 1,600 tonnes of ore produced from Rodilla grading in excess of 1,000 g/t Ag, 10% Pb and 10% Zn. During the period, water management at Platosa was effective at controlling inflows, though continues to limit productivity and development in the operation, particularly in the 623 and Guadalupe South mantos.
In Q1 2016, silver and lead production of 211,557 ounces and 1.3 million pounds respectively were comparable to Q1 2015 as lower grades were offset by the higher tonnage milled in the quarter. Zinc production of 1.6 million pounds was lower by 29% relative to Q1 2015, primarily a result of lower zinc grades mined, but an improvement from the previous quarter. Overall, the Company produced 363,552 silver equivalent ounces in Q1 2016 compared to 408,095 silver equivalent ounces in Q1 2015 and 259,885 silver equivalent ounces in the previous quarter.
During Q1 2016, the Company generated lower net revenues of $4.2 million compared to $5.1 million in Q1 2015 primarily due to lower zinc production of 1.6 million pounds and realized price of $0.81/lb in Q1 2016 compared to 2.3 million pounds and realized zinc price of $0.93/lb in Q1 2015, along with lower silver prices. Revenues improved from the previous quarter primarily due to accessing the Rodilla Manto where high grades improved production to 329,200 silver equivalent ounces payable in Q1 2016 compared to 230,270 silver equivalent ounces in Q4 2015. Approximately 2,300 tonnes of ore milled during the quarter were extracted from historic stockpiles and settling ponds at Platosa at minimal cost with grades of approximately 150 g/t silver and 1-2% lead and zinc. High-grade ore produced during the quarter was blended with this lower grade material to improve recoveries and concentrate payability.
Production costs decreased to $3.3 million during the quarter from $4.6 million in Q1 2015, a 28% improvement, primarily due to continuous improved maintenance practices on pumps and mobile equipment.
The Company recorded a net loss of $2.6 million in Q1 2016 compared to a net loss of $0.2 million in Q1 2015. The Company's adjusted net loss of $0.7 million in Q1 2016 reflects the currents period's results before recording a $1.9 million fair value adjustment loss on embedded derivatives and warrants related to outstanding convertible debentures in accordance with IFRS, the amount of which is included in finance cost. The fair value adjustment derives primarily from the strong performance of the Company's stock during the period, with the market price increasing from $0.31 as of December 31, 2015 to $0.61 as of March 31, 2016, resulting in significant increases in valuation/cost upon the potential conversion or exercise of the debentures or warrants, respectively. Q4 2015 adjusted net income reflects the period's results before recording a $0.3 million fair value adjustment loss on embedded derivatives and warrants related to the convertible debentures and an impairment of $0.7 million on the DeSantis property in Canada to reflect the estimated fair value of the property for its sale to Oban Mining Corporation. The transfer of the mining claims composing the DeSantis property were completed in early Q2 2016, while the transfer of the mining leases is expected to close by the end of the quarter.
Cash corporate administrative expenses of $0.5 million in Q1 2016 decreased by 18% compared to Q1 2015 ($0.6 million), reflecting continued cost discipline at the corporate head office in Toronto.
Exploration expenses of $0.1 million in Q1 2016 decreased compared to $0.2 million in Q1 2015. Exploration activity continues to be limited in an effort to conserve funds in the current silver price environment. Planning for additional drilling continues as significant potential remains for further new manto discoveries as the deposit area is open to the north, northeast, east and southeast of the known mantos.
The Company invested $0.6 million in capital expenditures during Q1 2016 for mine development compared to $0.4 million in Q1 2015. Mine development continues to be a priority for 2016 as the Company accesses the Rodilla and high-grade 623 mantos, the latter of which hosts mineral resources of 83,000 tonnes at 1,232 g/t Ag (1,777 g/t AgEq).
Cash cost per silver ounce payable was $10.38/oz in Q1 2016 improved by 27% compared to $14.24 for Q1 2015 and 48% compared to the previous quarter due to increased byproduct credits and improved production. AISC of $16.98 during Q1 2016 improved by 18% compared to $20.69 in Q1 2015, despite producing 5% fewer silver payable ounces in the quarter. Notably AISC was $11.72 in March 2016 as operations accessed mineralization in the Rodilla manto under dry mining conditions. AISC is expected to fluctuate from month to month as the Company continues implementation of the Platosa optimization program, but the low cost profile achieved in March is illustrative of the opportunity to materially reduce production costs at Platosa under dry mining conditions.
Excellon defines AISC per silver ounce as the sum of total cash costs (including treatment charges and net of byproduct credits), capital expenditures that are sustaining in nature, corporate general and administrative costs (including non-cash share-based compensation), capitalized and expensed exploration that is sustaining in nature, and (non-cash) environmental reclamation costs, all divided by the total payable silver ounces sold during the period to arrive at a per ounce figure.
All financial information is prepared in accordance with IFRS, and all dollar amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise specified. The information in this news release should be read in conjunction with the Company's unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 and associated management discussion and analysis ("MD&A") which are available from the Company's website at www.excellonresources.com and under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
The discussion of financial results in this press release includes reference to "cash flows from operations before changes in working capital items", "cash cost per payable silver equivalent ounce net of byproducts", "all-in cost per payable silver equivalent ounce", and "adjusted net income" which are non- IFRS performance measures. The Company presents these measures to provide additional information regarding the Company's financial results and performance. Please refer to the Company's MD&A for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, for a reconciliation of these measures to reported IFRS results.
Optimization Plan
As announced on June 2, 2015 and November 2, 2015 and summarized in the National Instrument 43-101 technical report on the Platosa Property dated July 9, 2015, the Company has developed an optimization program to comprehensively manage water at Platosa in the future through an enhanced pumping system.
The Company expects the optimization plan to be fully implemented during the latter half of 2016, but expects to see incremental benefits during the implementation period. The second phase of the program, drilling of the primary dewatering wells, is underway. Further updates on the progress of this program will be provided regularly during the implementation period.
Production Highlights
Mine production for the three month periods ended March 31, 2016, December 31, 2015 and March 31, 2015 are as follows:
Q1 Q4 Q1 2015 2016(1) 2015(1) 2014(1) Tonnes of ore produced 12,778 13,145 13,920 Tonnes of ore processed 14,720 12,999 13,828 Ore grades: Silver (g/t) 483 406 533 Lead (%) 4.80 3.65 5.37 Zinc (%) 6.15 5.33 8.83 Recoveries: Silver (%) 91.6 88.9 91.7 Lead (%) 83.6 79.8 79.2 Zinc (%) 79.3 81.3 83.7 Production: Silver - (oz) 211,557 152,628 217,079 Silver equivalent ounces (oz) (2) 363,552 259,885 408,095 Lead - (lb) 1,318,916 837,903 1,252,796 Zinc - (lb) 1,588,778 1,261,072 2,239,313 Payable: (3) Silver ounces - (oz) 193,514 135,928 204,224 Silver equivalent ounces (oz) (2) 329,200 230,270 379,279 Lead - (lb) 1,251,340 780,634 1,253,665 Zinc - (lb) 1,345,013 1,061,270 1,960,490 Realized prices: (4) Silver - ($US/oz) 15.48 13.95 16.22 Lead - ($US/lb) 0.81 0.75 0.81 Zinc - ($US/lb) 0.81 0.69 0.93
(1) Period deliveries remain subject to assay and price adjustments on final settlement with concentrate purchaser. Data has been adjusted to reflect final assay and price adjustments for prior period deliveries settled during the period. (2) Silver equivalent ounces established using average metal prices during the period indicated applied to the recovered metal content of the concentrates. (3) Payable metal is based on the metals shipped and sold during the period and may differ from production due to these reasons. (4) Average realized silver price is calculated on current period sale deliveries and does not include the impact of prior period provisional adjustments in the period.
About Excellon
Excellon's 100%-owned Platosa Mine in Durango is Mexico's highest grade silver mine, with lead and zinc by-products historically making it one of the lowest cash cost silver mines in the country. The Company is positioning itself to capitalize on undervalued projects by focusing on increasing La Platosa's profitable silver production and near-term mineable resources.
Additional details on the La Platosa Mine and the rest of Excellon's exploration properties are available at www.excellonresources.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this Press Release, which has been prepared by management. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 27E of the Exchange Act. Such statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the future results of operations, performance and achievements of the Company, including potential property acquisitions, the timing, content, cost and results of proposed work programs, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, geological interpretations, proposed production rates, potential mineral recovery processes and rates, business and financing plans, business trends and future operating revenues. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward- looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, significant downward variations in the market price of any minerals produced [particularly silver], the Company's inability to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required for its activities, to produce minerals from its properties successfully or profitably, to continue its projected growth, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies. All of the Company's public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties, and particularly the July 9, 2015 NI 43-101-compliant technical report prepared by Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. with respect to the Platosa Property. This press release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 9, 2016) -
(All amounts expressed in US dollars, unless otherwise stated)
Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE:FSM)(TSX:FVI) today reported net income of $2.6 million and revenue of $42.7 million in the first quarter of 2016.
Jorge A. Ganoza, President and CEO, commented, "We have made a strong start to the year operating well within our production and cost targets and look forward to the commissioning of our key expansion project at the San Jose Mine in July." Mr. Ganoza continued, "At San Jose's new production rate of 3,000 tpd, the company will target total annual consolidated production of approximately nine million ounces of silver and fifty-two thousand ounces of gold, with an AISCC below $9.0 per ounce of silver."
First quarter consolidated financial highlights:
Sales of $42.7 million, compared to $39.8 million in Q1 2015
Net income of $2.6 million and earnings per share of $0.02, compared to $3.9 million and $0.03, respectively, in Q1 2015
Cash flow from operations before changes in non-cash working capital of $9.9 million and adjusted EBITDA of $18.0 million, compared to $5.3 million and $15.2 million, respectively, in Q1 2015
Cash position, including short term investments, and working capital as at March 31, 2016 were $95.9 million and $86.4 million, respectively
Silver and gold production of 1,617,396 and 9,264 ounces, respectively
Cash cost per ounce of payable silver, net of by-product credits was $1.44
AISCC* per ounce of payable silver was $9.39
* All-in sustaining cash cost ("AISCC") is net of by-product credits for gold, lead and zinc
First quarter consolidated financial results
Net income amounted to $2.6 million (Q1 2015: $3.9 million), resulting in basic earnings per share of $0.02 (Q1 2015: $0.03). Compared to Q1 2015, results were impacted by a higher stock based compensation charge of $4.9 million stemming mostly from mark-to-market effects from the performance of our share price. In spite of lower prices across all metals, we achieved 7% higher sales and 24% higher mine operating earnings while operating income was 24% lower due to the aforementioned charge.
Silver ounces sold increased 2% and gold ounces sold decreased 4% while realized prices on provisional sales for silver and gold, decreased 10% to $14.95 per ounce and 1% to $1,199.77 per ounce, respectively.
Cash flow from operations, before changes in working capital increased 86% year-over-year to $9.9 million (Q1 2015: $5.3 million). This is the result of stronger operating results and lower taxes paid. Income taxes paid amounted to $5.7 million (Q1 2015: $9.6 million) out of which $3.1 million corresponds to the prior fiscal year (Q1 2015: $8.9 million)
Summary of financial results
Three months ended March 31, (Expressed in $ millions) 2016 2015 % Chg Sales $ 42.7 $ 39.8 7% Cost of Sales 27.1 27.2 (0% ) Mine operating earnings $ 15.6 $ 12.6 24% as a % of Sales 37% 32% 15% Selling, general and administrative expenses 9.7 5.5 76% Foreign exchange (gain) (0.4 ) (0.9 ) (56% ) Operating income 6.1 8.0 (24% ) as a % of Sales 14% 20% (29% ) Income before tax 5.6 8.2 (32% ) Net income 2.6 3.9 (33% ) as a % of Sales 6% 10% Operating cash flow before changes in working capital * $ 9.9 $ 5.3 87%
Note: Figures may not add due to rounding
Note: * Operating cash flow per share before changes in working capital is a non-GAAP financial measure
Note: ** Refer to non-GAAP Financial Measures
Consolidated operating results
Three months ended March 31, 2016 2015 Consolidated Metal Production Caylloma San Jose Consolidated Caylloma San Jose Consolidated Silver (oz) 337,085 1,280,311 1,617,396 535,959 1,097,210 1,633,169 Gold (oz) 103 9,161 9,264 372 9,367 9,739 Lead (000's lbs) 9,107 - 9,107 4,346 - 4,346 Zinc (000's lbs) 10,390 - 10,390 7,534 - 7,534 Production cash cost (US$/oz Ag)* (2.10) 2.36 1.44 6.59 2.59 3.89 All-in sustaining cash cost (US$/oz Ag)* 5.11 8.71 9.39 10.99 9.37 11.79 * Net of by-product credits from gold, lead and zinc
Silver and gold production totaled 1,617,396 and 9,264 ounces, respectively. Compared year-over-year, silver and gold production decreased 1% and 5%. The company is on schedule to produce 7.0 million ounces of silver and 42.8 thousand ounces of gold or 9.6 million Ag Eq* ounces in 2016.
All-in sustaining cash cost per ounce of payable silver, net of by-product credits, was $9.39 per ounce (Q1 2015: $11.79) which is below our annual guidance of $11.1.
* Ag Eq calculated using silver to gold ratio of 60:1.
San Jose Mine, Mexico
QUARTERLY RESULTS Three months ended March 31, 2016 2015 Mine Production San Jose San Jose Tonnes milled 179,110 178,647 Average tonnes milled per day 2,059 2,053 Silver Grade (g/t) 240 215 Recovery (%) 93 89 Production (oz) 1,280,311 1,097,210 Gold Grade (g/t) 1.73 1.83 Recovery (%) 92 89 Production (oz) 9,161 9,367 Unit Costs Production cash cost (US$/oz Ag)* 2.36 2.59 Production cash cost (US$/tonne) 59.08 59.79 Unit Net Smelter Return (US$/tonne) 146.75 142.53 All-in sustaining cash cost (US$/oz Ag)* 8.71 9.37 * Net of by-product credits from gold
Silver production increased 17% to 1,280,311 and gold production decreased 2% to 9,161 ounces year-over-year. Throughput increased marginally and head grades were 12% higher and 6% lower for silver and gold, respectively. Metallurgical recoveries for silver and gold were 5% and 4% higher, respectively, compared with the same period in the prior year.
Progress on the third expansion of San Jose from 2,000 tpd to 3,000 tpd is moving forward as planned with commissioning expected for July 2016.
Cash cost per tonne of processed ore was $59.08 or 1% below year-over-year and 3% above annual guidance of $57.4/t. All-in sustaining cash cost per payable ounce of silver, net of by-product credits, was $8.71 and below the annual guidance of $9.1 as a result of higher silver head grades and lower execution of sustaining capital expenditures.
Caylloma Mine, Peru
QUARTERLY RESULTS Three months ended March 31, 2016 2015 Mine Production Caylloma Caylloma Tonnes milled 117,192 114,451 Average tonnes milled per day 1,317 1,301 Silver Grade (g/t) 103 171 Recovery (%) 87 85 Production (oz) 337,085 535,959 Gold Grade (g/t) 0.19 0.28 Recovery (%) 15 36 Production (oz) 103 372 Lead Grade (%) 3.73 1.86 Recovery (%) 94 93 Production (000's lbs) 9,107 4,346 Zinc Grade (%) 4.49 3.30 Recovery (%) 90 91 Production (000's lbs) 10,390 7,534 Unit Costs Production cash cost (US$/oz Ag)* (2.10) 6.59 Production cash cost (US$/tonne) 73.80 83.99 Unit Net Smelter Return (US$/tonne) 119.93 128.96 All-in sustaining cash cost (US$/oz Ag)* 5.11 10.99 * Net of by-product credits from gold, lead and zinc
Silver production was 0.34 million ounces compared to 0.54 million ounces in Q1 2015. Zinc and lead production was 38% and 110% higher, respectively, year-over-year.
Cash cost per tonne of processed ore at Caylloma was $73.80, a 12% decrease with respect to the same period in the prior year due to lower mining costs related to the shutdown of narrow veins and lower indirect costs related to headcount reduction. Additionally, lower mining costs are further explained by lower execution in mine preparation and related costs, which we expect to incur in the following quarters. Caylloma's all-in sustaining cash cost per payable ounce of silver, net of by-product credits, was $5.11 and below the annual guidance of $12.5 as a result of lower execution of sustaining capital expenditures and lower cash cost per tonne.
The financial statements and MD&A are available on SEDAR and have also been posted on the company's website at http://www.fortunasilver.com/s/financial_reports.asp.
Conference call to review first quarter financial and operations results
Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Time: 9:00 a.m. Pacific | 12:00 p.m. Eastern
Dial in number (Toll Free): +1.877.407.8035
Dial in number (International): +1.201.689.8035
Replay number (Toll Free): +1.877.660.6853
Replay number (International): +1.201.612.7415
Replay Passcode: 13636321
Playback of the webcast will be available until August 10, 2016. Playback of the conference call will be available until May 24, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. In addition, a transcript of the call will be archived in the company's website: http://www.fortunasilver.com/s/financial_reports.asp.
Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.
Fortuna is a growth oriented, silver and base metal producer focused on mining opportunities in Latin America. Our primary assets are the Caylloma silver mine in southern Peru and the San Jose silver-gold mine in Mexico. The company is selectively pursuing acquisition opportunities throughout the Americas and in select other areas. For more information, please visit our website at www.fortunasilver.com.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Jorge A. Ganoza, President, CEO and Director
Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.
Trading symbols: NYSE: FSM / TSX: FVI
Forward looking Statements
This news release contains forward looking statements which constitute "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "Forward looking Statements"). All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are Forward looking Statements and are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the Forward looking Statements. The Forward looking Statements in this news release may include, without limitation, statements about the Company's plans for its mines and mineral properties; the Company's business strategy, plans and outlook; the merit of the Company's mines and mineral properties; mineral resource and reserve estimates; timelines; the future financial or operating performance of the Company; expenditures; approvals and other matters. Often, but not always, these Forward looking Statements can be identified by the use of words such as "estimate", "estimates", "estimated", "potential", "open", "future", "assumed", "projected", "used", "detailed", "has been", "gain", "upgraded", "offset", "limited", "contained", "reflecting", "containing", "remaining", "to be", "periodically", or statements that events, "could" or "should" occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.
Forward looking Statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward looking Statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; changes in prices for silver and other metals; technological and operational hazards in Fortuna's mining and mine development activities; risks inherent in mineral exploration; uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral reserves, mineral resources, and metal recoveries; governmental and other approvals; political unrest or instability in countries where Fortuna is active; labor relations issues; as well as those factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward looking Statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.
Forward looking Statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to expectations regarding mine production costs; expected trends in mineral prices and currency exchange rates; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral resource and reserve estimates; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained; that there will be no significant disruptions affecting operations and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward looking Statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any Forward looking Statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that Forward looking Statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on Forward looking Statements.
News / National
by Staff reporter
Former Vice President and opposition Zimbabwe People First leader Joice Mujuru yesterday received a global award in recognition of her bravery and courage to stand up against President Robert Mugabe's misrule.The award was presented to Mujuru at an event in Dubai by the International Sherous Forum, a global initiative that gathers leading women in all spheres of life.She was accompanied by two other leading Zimbabwean female opposition politicians Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and MDC-T Thokozani Khupe.
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News / National
by Staff reporter
Miss Zimbabwe Trust chairperson Marry Chiwenga claims an unnamed senior official in the modelling industry was duping models into posing undressed.Chiwenga, who took over from the late Kiki Divaris as chairperson of the Miss Zimbabwe Trust four years ago, told the Daily News that the official was misleading Miss World Zimbabwe hopefuls into believing that indecent pictures were among the requirements of the national pageant."Here we are trying to hold a pageant for the nation and some people are out there to get us. Tiri kuti tirikushanda isu tichishandwa. (We think we are doing work but its vise versa") My dream is to have a scandal-free pageant but when people start operating like that how can we move forward?"We will not reveal the name for legal purposes but the person sits on the modelling industry board," she said.In a separate interview, Miss World Zimbabwe scouting administrator Christine Matambo-Tavengwa revealed how they uncovered the despicable dealings of the unnamed official."We had a very beautiful girl come through and after all the measurements had been taken, it was time for her to sign the contract."When we got to the part of indecent pictures she said she had a professional shoot taken. We then indicated that it was one of things that Miss World Zimbabwe could not be associated with and she was confused."The girl said her agent had specifically told her that it is a prerequisite of the national pageant to have indecent shots in her portfolio. We then decided to call the agent and confront them. The sidekick actually told us that he had been told not to put the indecent photos in the portfolios, instead the agent wanted them for personal use," she said.According to Chiwenga, there are people who are determined to bring down the national pageant."You know them; they have been coming to the media with stories and are constantly attacking us. The agent in question is always the first person to criticise our efforts."They even formed a board that says it is going to monitor all pageants in the country. The questions you should ask is did they approach the Trust and what were they told?"We try our best to have background checks on these girls but when you have people throwing spanners in our way, we will not go anywhere. It is like some people actually make it their job to bring the pageant down," she said.Chiwenga added that the aim of their detractors was to release the indecent pictures when the national queen has been crowned."We will be running their names in the media and they have a chance to come forward and say this girl has such and such skeletons. Why wait for the crowning? It makes the whole pageant appear like a joke, why would we as the Miss Zimbabwe Trust even want it to look like a joke?"If there is anyone who feels that they can do a better job than us they must come forward and we will give them a chance," said Chiwenga.The reigning Miss Zimbabwe Annie-Grace Mutambu ascended the throne after the initial national queen Emily Tatanga Kachote had been booted out over alleged indecent pictures.Mutambu, 19, represented Zimbabwe at the Miss World 2015 held on December 19 at the Crown of Beauty Theatre in Sanya, China.Despite the brickbats coming their way, Chiwenga said the Miss Zimbabwe finals would take place at the end of July."We received communication from Miss World that all pageants should have been held by July 29. This then gives us ample time to plan, have background checks for a smooth flowing pageant," she said.
News / National
by Staff reporter
Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai president Morgan Tsvangirai's wife Elizabeth Macheka recently descended on Gweru, the theatre of her husband's alleged debauchery, and summoned her husband's alleged lovers for a meeting.The meeting, disguised as a gathering of MDC-T women's assembly executives in the Midlands province brought the party leader's wife in contact with the women widely accused of snatching her husband.Tsvangirai was pictured entertaining half a dozen skimpily dressed prostitutes at the Antelope Park game lodge outside the Midlands capital earlier this year. The photograph went viral, triggering a government investigation which revealed that Gweru city council mayor Hamutendi Kombayi had illegally ordered the bankrupt municipality to fork out $1 800 to pay for Tsvangirai's jaunt with his women.Midlands proportional representation senator Lilian Mpofu Timveos, who is accused by fellow party officials of having a romantic affair with the party leader, told Now Daily sources prior to the encounter that she was going to meet Macheka. Details of the meeting between Macheka and Tsvangirai's alleged lovers were not immediately available. However, the sources said Macheka's mission was to see the women who had been photographed partying with her husband in her absence. It was also to try and salvage her husband's reputation and save the party from collapse in the province amid allegations of adultery and divisions blamed on Mpofu Timveos.Tsvangirai mysteriously appointed Mpofu Timveos provincial chairperson after suspending her husband Michael Timveos, a Cypriot businessman from the party. This was after the party leader allegedly started having an affair with her.Tsvangirai recently told Mpofu Timveos to back off after she went on a crusade to have women's assembly provincial chairperson Teti Banda, a witness to the affair, removed.Macheka was also looking for information about the skimpily dressed women pictured having a wild party with Tsvangirai at Antelope Park lodge, according to sources. Bills for the bash were footed by Gweru city council, resulting in the arrest of mayor Kombayi for abuse of office.Mpofu Timveos has denied having an affair with Tsvangirai. The story was leaked by Radio Chokwadi, an MDC-T whistleblower website set up by disgruntled party officials in 2014 to expose Tsvangirai's alleged sex and corruption scandals.Tsvangirai is notorious for sex scandals, which cost him vital support during the 2013 presidential election which he eventually lost to Mugabe. He was forced to pay $400 000 of party funds to silence Lorcadia Karimatsenga Tembo, a notorious cocaine smuggler and Central Intelligence Organization operative he had sex with and falsely promised marriage. Another woman, Mashabane from South Africa was also paid an unknown amount after the former prime minister took her on an Indian Ocean ride at state expense on a yacht called the 'Legend of the Seas. Tsvangirai also has a child, Ethan, with a Bulawayo woman he impregnated while she was still a teenage college student.
News / National
by Staff reporter
The Acting General Manager of the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) Hashmon Matemera has been nabbed for externalising close to US$330 million.Matemera has appeared before Harare Provincial Magistrate Mr Vakai Douglas Chikwekwe.Matemera, who is a former Bank ABC managing director, has been granted US$10 000 bail and has been asked to provide a surety of US$250 000 coupled with stringent reporting conditions.Charges against Matemera dates back to 2011 when he was still the managing director of Bank ABC when Jinan Mining was formed through a joint venture agreement with Marange Resources, a subsidiary company of Zimbabwe Mining Development Company and a Chinese company, Anhui.The two companies opened a transitory account with Bank ABC at Mt Pleasant with a total of US$628.7 million from January 2012 to December 2013.The state alleges that the transitory account was unprocedurally opened as it did not have identification of the account holders.The money was transferred to various accounts in different countries that include Dubai, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Botswana.Investigations indicated that Jinan Mining is not registered in Botswana neither does it have any operations in that country.The Botswana account was allegedly opened using Zimbabwean company documents and transfers were effected from Bank ABC Mt Pleasant branch using e-banking facility.
News / Press Release
by Luke Tamborinyoka
Luke Tamborinyoka
Presidential Spokesperson and Director of Communications
The MDC-T national executive holds an emergency meeting on Thursday following the economically disastrous decision by the Zanu PF government to bring back the Zimbabwe dollar through the back door.The party's shadow cabinet convened today and expressed revulsion at the decision to print bond notes which comes after a similar decision resulted in a meltdown in the country eight years ago. Today's meeting expressed concern at the plight of the ordinary people due to bad policies and noted that the situation was likely to get worse, especially for ordinary Zimbabweans most of whom are now in the informal sector. The shadow cabinet meeting heard detailed presentations of how the cash crisis and the proposed bond notes would impact on all the sectors of the economy and the ordinary citizens.After three-hours of intense deliberations, the MDC Cabinet resolved that the matter had huge national implications, prompting President Morgan Tsvangirai to urgently summon the party's national executive on Thursday to enable the executive political organ of the party to sculpt a comprehensive political response to the economic madness. It is the party's executive political organ, the national executive that will craft the political response to this imminent danger that threatens to plunge the whole country into instant instability and chaos.Government's decision to print the so-called bond-notes, with a value of up to $20, signifies a return to the stressing national times nine years ago. Ordinary Zimbabweans lost their savings; pensioners lost their life-time savings while companies and other institutions were shortchanged as the economy tumbled until the MDC presence in an inclusive government brought stability and unprecedented economic annual growth figures, which peaked at 12percent in 2012.It is the MDC's position that the cash crisis which led to the decision to print bond notes stems from a crisis of confidence. There is no confidence in both the economy and in the banks, largely stemming from policy discord and the crisis of legitimacy arising out of the stolen election of 2013. Unfortunately for Zanu PF, the printing of bond notes cannot be a panacea to what is essentially a political crisis that needs a political solution. This government cannot mask illegitimacy under the veil of bond notes that are essentially sanitized newsprint. Bond coins, bond notes all point to the cluelessness of what has become a "bond" government that is running the affairs of State.The MDC's national executive holds its extra-ordinary meeting on Thursday, well aware that the country is on the brink of serious instability and that the bond notes will be the death knell to the country's economy. Zimbabweans have walked this road before. They have not forgotten the dark days when they were poor "quintillionaires." President Tsvangirai and the party he leads will do all they can to save the country and to return it to logic and common sense.
News / Press Release
by Mkhululi Zulu
At a meeting held at the Zapu Offices in Bulawayo on Saturday the 7th of May the Provincial Executive Council and the Task Team for Mobilisation in the area led by NEC member Comrade A. Nkala members reported that the Bulawayo public expresses its support for Zapu.Comrade G. Sikhosana the newly elected National People's Council Chairman who is in charge of Entumbane Makhandeni, Luveve and Cowdry Park area reported that the team made great in roads in Entumbane during the past 3 weeks. Comrade T. Phiri gave encouraging news about Mpopoma, Njube and Pelandaba areas where the party is growing. There are strong branches now in Mpopoma. She had very good report about the senior leadership in the area especially Zapu stalwart Comrade Winnie Khumalo whose influence is clearly evident in the area of Njube.Comrade J. Ndlovu from Nkulumane reported that there are branches now at Phekiwe, Maqhawe, Mgombane and Hlatshwayo. He farther said that work was going well in the Nketa area. Comrade S. Bafana reported that there are many people who support Zapu around the Pumula area but the party has still to set up branches. Elder Comrade B. Mpofu expressed concern that the leadership in Pumula was not sending one message to the people. He felt that there was need for the leadership to meet and have one message to the people of the area.Comrade K. Nketha representing Makokoba, Mzilikazi Nguboyenja and Bulawayo Central reported that progress was being made in the area of Makokoba under the district chairmanship of Comrade Jija Ncube. He expressed displeasure at the provincial leadership's failure to give effective support to one definite district structure. He called upon the senior leadership, that is the NPC members, NEC in the area and the Province to encourage team work and desist from creating many structures without coordination.Meanwhile the Zapu members expressed solidarity with the people of the city of Bulawayo who are facing economic oblivion, despair and endless threats from Ministers. They committed themselves to work with the people of Bulawayo towards resuscitating the economic and political livelihood of our great city. It is in this view that members expressed disgust at Zanupfs leadership in the city that persistently ignores the real issues affecting the people but is preoccupied by singing praises for their leader even at funerals. It is a desperate attitude.This attitude baffles many such as was evidenced at a funeral service in Nkulumane Hall last week. ZanuPf Politburo member Absalom Sikhosana irritated the mourners at a funeral service when he diverted from the spirit of mourning a departed resident and decided to share his sacrilege of worshipping a human being, claiming that his party leader was sent by God. Naturally the audience reacted angrily especially the youth because the gathering had nothing to do with politics or the imagined greatness or godliness of Sikhosana's political leader. The audience rejected this openly and the shameless always delirious man was rescued by one of his colleagues from farther humiliating disgrace as people were beginning to shout him off the stage. But such is the leadership of a party thriving on politics of patronage and personal benefits. One has to sing for his super at every possible moment.
News / Regional
by Bongani Ndlovu
THE government yesterday donated $1,000 to assist a family from Nketa 6 suburb in Bulawayo that lost five members in a house fire last week.The five family members were burnt to death while three others escaped, one with serious burns, from the fire that is suspected to have been caused by a gas stove and an electrical fault.Musafare Chidembo, 41, is being treated for serious burns at Mpilo Central Hospital while his wife Ester Mazidziwa, 29, his son Brian, 19, daughters Nicollete, 12 and Nicky, 4, and his brother Learnmore 26, were consumed by the intense fire.The Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Bulawayo, Nomthandazo Eunice Moyo, said the government responded to the call to help the family after the Civil Protection Unit sent a request to assist the family last week. "As government we've chipped in to relieve the burden that the family might be facing such as food as they're mourning their loved ones. So we've given them $1,000 for them to help each other. It was allocated in such as manner that each person is granted $200 so that they can buy food for the children," said Minister Moyo.She called on the Bulawayo City Council to come on board and help the surviving members of the family."We're still concerned that the building was burnt down and we don't know what the root cause was. We're hoping that as a client of BCC, the local authority will chip in where they can, even by building them a one roomed house or whatever. As a parent of the people who live in that area, the councillor should take the matter up in the council meeting so that the other councillors can show some human face over this issue," said Minister Moyo.She said this was not the end of donations as the province would continue assisting the family.Last week, Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko and his wife Laurinda visited the family and donated groceries worth $1,500."The government has helped in the way that they could, we're yet to sit down as a province to come up with our own donation. We would like to thank VP Mphoko for assisting the family and the many well-wishers that donated to their plight. We should keep up that spirit of ubuntu," said Minister Moyo.The fire, she said, was the most devastating misfortune she had ever seen as a minister in Bulawayo.The provincial Minister urged Zesa to monitor closely contractors who install wiring in newly built buildings.She also called on parents to monitor their children especially when there are gas stoves in their homes.
Opinion / Columnist
"Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen; there is a good read, especially for our useless opposition parties.Sense and sensibility, the title, means a tendency to be overly emotional and/or romantic, or even to be overly influenced by the inputs from your senses rather than by reason. In the book the character Elinor has sense whilst Marianne exhibited sensibility. In my humble opinion the characters in our opposition political parties are all ruled by their emotions especially their burning desire to join the gravy train of Zimbabwe's ruling elite and they will not listen to reason.Zimbabwe's opposition parties have now become obsessed with the idea of forming the coalition they cannot see the futility of it!Zanu PF has managed to stay in power all these years because it has a very well-funded vote rigging machinery comprising of unfettered access (but undemocratic) and use of the State's institutions, human and material resources include such bounty as the Marange diamonds complemented by the subtle (blatant if the situation demands) use of violence. The failure by Morgain Tsvangirai and his MDC friends to implement even one democratic reform during the five years of the GNU meant Mugabe went into the 2013 elections with a very well-oil vote rigging juggernaut, rigging those elections was a piece of cake.Yes Zanu PF has split down the middle since the 2013 elections but vote rigging juggernaut has not been weakened in any way because most of the members of the Mujuru faction, the half booted out of the party, had played a very little or no role in the vote rigging in the past. They were passengers and the Zanu PF juggernaut will not be stopped because it off loaded some excess baggage!The opposition parties are frantically talking of forming a united front because they know Zanu PF, regardless of the fractious factional fighting and succession wars, still remains the party to beat.As long as no meaningful democratic reforms are implemented before the next elections, set for 2018, Zanu PF should rig and "win" those elections too.But ask anyone familiar Zimbabwe's politics; Will Zanu PF win a free, fair and credible election? And to the men and women the answer will be "NO CHANCE!"The sensible and logical course of action here is clear; implement the democratic reforms to ensure the next elections are free and fair and the opposition will have a fighting chance to win the next elections. But most important of all the new government top emerge, whoever it is, will have the electoral mandate and legitimacy to govern the country. The present Zanu PF regime has lack legitimacy and trust because it rigged its way into power.So why does the opposition not doing the sensible thing and concentrate on implementing the democratic reforms and thus make sure the next elections are free and fair?Some opposition leaders have argued that they will never get Zanu PF to accept implementing the reforms which will result in the party losing power. There is a ring of logic in the argument on face value, scratch a bit deeper and the argument falls apart.During the GNU MDC certainly had the chance to implement the democratic reforms; they had the majority in parliament and cabinet and Mugabe had committed himself to implementing the reforms and free and fair elections by signing the 2008 GPA. SADC, the guarantor of the GPA, would have forced Mugabe to honour the agreements since that was the condition for granting him legitimacy after he rigged the 2008 elections. MDC failed to get even one reform implemented in five years of the GNU because the party leaders are corrupt and incompetent.Whilst it is true that the task of getting the democratic reforms implemented now that the GPA has expired and Mugabe has the majority in parliament is a big challenge, still it is not an impossible one. Yet, since the 2013 rigged elections the opposition parties have done nothing to implement the all-important reforms because most of the opposition parties are still led by the same breathtakingly corrupt and incompetent GNU leaders.Why would any sensible person take part in an election in which the whole electoral process biased in favour of the opponent from start to finish? Zanu PF has been smart enough to know that it must not "win" all the gravy train seats; it has always allowed the opposition to win some crumbs. As long as some opposition parties take part in the elections Zanu PF will claim the elections were free and fair and earn itself some measure of legitimacy.In fact, if the elections were going to be free and fair then the opposition parties would not need to form a coalition as they will be sure of winning the elections in their own individual right. The elections would be contesting against Zanu PF as well as against each other which is good and healthy for a democracy.If the elections are not free and fair then the opposition uniting to make a coalition will improve their chance of winning seats given Zanu PF has such an unfair advantage already. Still going for a coalition on the accepted basis that the opponent will use all manner of ways to rig the elections is defeatist.No sensible person would want to be political abused giving an undemocratic process a veneer of respectability and legitimacy for the sake of a few crummy seats in parliament. Sadly the overwhelming majority our opposition politicians belong to sense side of Jane Austen's divide and only a tiny few are governed by reason on sensibility side!
Opinion / Columnist
Towards the end of this month of May. One of the biggest financial and banking cooperation, Africa Development Bank will host an annual meeting focusing on Energy resources infrastructure. The city of Lusaka, Zambia will be a hive of activity with Energy, science, climate press corps, policy makers, activists and cooperates to discuss and deliberate about the new energy projects for Africa and the way forward. The African Development Bank biggest Annual meeting is embracing interesting themes that are complementing the two crtitical SDGS7 and 13 that ensure the access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all and take urgent action on climate change and its impact.This powerful continental meeting that is expecting 5000 delegates and is going to thoroughly interrogate mostly energy issues which had been topping headlines in few months ago. Subject matters will include Energy and Climate change, the Bank and its new energy priorities and deals.One other priority topic will be one of the Bank High 5 Priority code named Light up and Power Africa. The meeting will also highlight on the resolutions of the last ended UN climate talks in Paris as well as revisiting the Paris Agreement on Climate ( COP21). The AFDB annual meeting will be also attended by Governors of Banks, Institutions of finance, Ministries of economic and trade and other Industry and related policy makers.It is a forum of Cooperate and financial governance interrogating and finding solutions on critical issues of climate and energy at hand.The Bank is complementing United Nations, Climate Tracker /Global Break free from Fossils Writers Fellowship program, International Environmental and Climate projects. The Annual forum is also a build up to COP22 Morocco in 2016 and it seeks to provide awareness and confidence to African civil society and governments on the action needed to deal with Climate Change and its negative impacts as well as thecontribution of dirty energy to Climate change and its effects.Zambia is the best venue for this event for it have also unresolved climate and energy like its neighbors Zimbabwe, Malawi and South Africa. Environmental, Climate and Energy issues are rarely debated in parliaments, cabinets and grassroots levels.
Opinion / Columnist
Former Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti has called on President Robert Mugabe to apologize to all expelled ZANU PF members including himself as he is also one of the victims. He is arguing that the expulsions were unwarranted and therefore it was of no use to ask the victims to appeal after going through a humiliating ordeal. The expulsion has thrown Bhasikiti into political oblivion.Bhasikiti was expelled from ZANU PF alongside 186 others on allegations of plotting President Robert Mugabe's ouster with former Vice President Joice Mujuru. The former vice President has since formed the opposition Zimbabwe People First party, with Bhasikiti as one of the top officials. Bhasikiti is also urging President Mugabe to apologise for the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres, where it is said about 20 000 civilians were killed.It would be an oversimplification for a rather complex issue to say that President Mugabe should apologise to those expelled from ZANU PF. If a person is expelled from the party and he or she forms another party then he should concentrate on his party. Bhasikiti should concentrate on his little known party rather than concentrating on ZANU PF and President Mugabe. His current attempts at slighting President Mugabe's economic policies are a case of sour grapes.The real point is that Bhasikiti once expressed admiration and envy for the leadership qualities of President Mugabe. Bhasikiti is not sincere as the man was fired from the ruling party; that is the reason why he is now saying Mugabe must apologize to all those fired from ZANU PF. Before Bhasikiti was fired unceremoniously, he was an enthusiastic hero worshipper of President Mugabe but now he is singing a different tune. This now becomes a fascinating paradox and it shows that the man cannot be taken seriously.We know that Bhasikiti wants to come back to ZANU PF given the opportunity to do so; of which we doubt very much as we know that President Mugabe is a man of principles.Therefore the man is unlikely to be readmitted. When Bhasikiti was enjoying power and the comfort of ZANU PF he did not mention anything to do with the Gukurahundi era. He is now talking about it after he has been expelled from the party he much cherished in the past.Bhasikiti has been hit where it hurts most; to be expelled from the party where his bread and butter came from. The man is now languishing in the political wilderness; that is why he is hallucinating. We cannot take seriously this buffoon of dubious revolutionary credentials. Woes to you Bhasikiti, for you are like a whitewashed tombstone which is full of extortions and rapacity.
As a tornado touched down in Cass County, Nebraska, on Monday evening, 76-year-old Robin Stoll clung to a tree outside as the twister ripped apart his home.
The storm blew the roof off the home in Nehawka and left the building a mess, but Stoll suffered only minor injuries, according to Sandy Weyers, Cass Countys emergency management director.
Stoll had been outside in a machine shed, keeping an eye on the tornado. As it approached, he tried running to his house but didnt make it inside, Weyers said.
He rode out the tornado hanging on to a tree, she said. He said thats all he had to grab hold of. He was shook up, bruised up, but he was up and walking around after the tornado. Hes a very fortunate man.
A family member of Stolls declined to comment.
A nearby windmill, on another property, also was damaged.
The storm was one of several that caused damage across Nebraska on Monday. Lincoln was deluged by rain and by hail that broke car windows and filled yards.
Ken Dewey, a climatologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, lives in the southeast Lincoln neighborhood where a powerful storm dropped a brief tornado.
It was poetic in some ways, Dewey said, noting that he was writing about the tornado that struck his Chicago neighborhood when he was 10 years old when the latest storm hit. As I sit here writing a memoir of my life, I look out the door and there is another one.
More storms and rain are possible Tuesday evening and Wednesday, but for most of Tuesday, the region should get a break, with skies forecast to be mostly sunny.
Dewey said he wasnt surprised that storms hit Monday the potential had been forecast but the cell that hit Lincoln was unusual for two reasons.
First, it developed on top of the city, providing no warning.
We went from puppy-dog clouds to a tornado in about 30 minutes, he said.
Second, the storm stalled, hammering the eastern side of the city for about an hour. Typically storms travel at about 20 mph to 35 mph at this time of year, Dewey said. This one was doing only 5 to 10 mph.
Thats why yards filled with hail several inches deep and rain flooded basements and pooled in streets.
Radar indicated that some areas of eastern Lancaster, Otoe and Cass Counties received up to 8 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service.
Creeks in Lincoln left their banks. Authorities found themselves hurrying to help people in stranded vehicles and turning away motorists as water flowed over major thoroughfares.
Its kind of freakish weather, Id call it, said Bill Stephenson of Lincoln, who said his work truck was dented by hail that measured about 4 inches in diameter.
A Lincoln rehabilitation center had to move some people into different rooms for the night because of broken windows and roof damage caused by late-afternoon hail.
All residents and staff at South Lake Village Rehabilitation & Care Center, near Nebraska Highway 2 and South 91st Street, were safe, said Jen Wolf-Wubbels, a spokeswoman for the center.
In the same area, hail totaled Jeanne Lillichs Honda Accord. The back window was shattered and the windshield was a web of cracks. She said her neighbors also lost vehicles.
Flash flooding also was reported in the Wilber area, where numerous roads were closed, according to the weather service.
Other storms in the region spun up tornadoes, with at least four reported in Nebraska and western Iowa.
The Lincoln tornado was one of two reported in Lancaster County.
Another twister, in Clay County, damaged the Sandy Creek Elementary School outside of Clay Center. The damage did not appear to be structural, officials said, and no one was reported injured.
A rope tornado was reported in Guthrie County.
Opinion / Columnist
If you can't help them, don't hurt them.It is a culmination of fundamental errors of omission and commission that the workers day has lost significance in Zimbabwe.The government has failed to live up to expectations in all respects and as if it's not enough it has proceeded to wantonly hurt the workers in the wake of the notorious Don Nyamande vs Zuva Petroleum Supreme Court Judgment. As if to add salt to the injury the ruling resulted in massive retrenchments in a nation already burdened with ever spiralling levels of unemployment.To bring some sanity to the labour market Labour Amendment Act No, 5 of 2015 was put in place setting of a minimum retrenchment package. However controversy surrounded the application of the law in retrospect to cater for those retrenched after the Supreme Court ruling and before the the Amendment Act No 5 of 2015.The ZIM-ASSET economic blueprint which seeks "to achieve sustainable development and social equity anchored on indigenisation, empowerment and employment creation has died a natural death and that on its own is tacit affirmation of the abysmal failure of the much touted economic blueprint.The relations among the members of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNT) have been adversarial from time immemorial and its time to close ranks for the sake of alleviating the plight of the workers.Government has multi-faceted responsibilities in employment relations.It can work as a regulator, economic manager, abitrator, legislator and employer and this explains why all eyes will be on the government come workers day, to see how the government has fared in its multifaceted responsibilities. Some are tempted to oxonerate the government on the basis that its not the sole employer in the labour market. However such an argument is out of the kilter since the private sector can only chip in when the government has facilitated an enabling environment.They say high risk high returns but honestly no investor can risk investing in a country without policy clarity and homogeneity if Patrick Zhuwawo and Patric Chinamasa different interpretations of indigenisation are to go by. Such policy discord and lack of consensus at Cabinet level is scaring on the part of investors.In the face of mounting economic woes companies have been pushed to the wall and now resort to "casualisation of labour". Casualisation of labour is always a likely scenario in a country experiencing economic upheaval, its roots in Zimbabwe can be traced back to the turbulent times of ESAP when companies demanded some form of labour-market flexibility. Labour-market flexibility gives employers the carte blanche to hire and fire workers willy-nilly hence it promotes unfair labour practices.Casualisation of the workforce occurs whenever workers are employed in a casual, temporary, or otherwise non- permanent and non-full-time capacity. Workers affected by casualisation of labour are often subject to lower pay, barred from their right to join a union, and denied medical and other benefits.It never rains for the few Zimbabwean workers. Reflecting on Workers day, its also necessary to note that the few employed Zimbabweans are living below the poverty datum line. They seek financial recoarse to micro-finance houses thereby living in perpetual debt. Its a case of living from hand to mouth.The window of vulnerability has widened in the wake of new labour laws which promote unfair labour practices.The Bill of Rights clearly stipulates that all citizens have the freedom of expression, association but instead being rights,they now appear like privileges. As a result of paranoia workers meetings and gatherings have been criminalised by the government.It is a responsibility of every government to protect its people in different facets of life.It is in fact a constitutional mandate to be more precise and by people workers are no exception.Poignantly its now on the wall that our beloved government has chose to betray and neglect its workers.The Zuva- Pretroleum Supreme Court ruling which gave employers the greenlight to dismiss workers within three months of notice was a manifestation of bleak and gloomy future for the Zimbabwean worker.It was a triumph of capitalism over socialism,typical September/11 day on the hopes and aspirations of the Zimbabwean worker.A responsible government must not only create employment but also proceed to create a healthy employment relations and anything else will be gross incompetence if not dereliction of duty .Its disheartening to note that the Zimbabwean worker has been reduced to a sacrificial lamp of government's shortcomings.The Zimbabwean government must discard its nonchalant approach and expedite the alignment of the Labour Act (Chapter 28:01) and other international labour conventions it ratified to the new Constitution.The Tripartite Negotiating Forum Act has to be operationalised.The same zeal and zest they displayed on national pledge is the same they have to apply to foster a healthy employment relations in the labour markert.Wilton Nyasha Machimbira, a Political Scientist. For feedback and comments he can be contacted on wiltonnyash@gmail.com
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LOS ANGELESAward-winning TS performer/director Venus Lux was a featured guest on Sex with Emily, hosted by Dr. Emily Morse.
On the popular sexual wellness show, Lux talked about her career, sexuality and trans issues.
I had a fantastic time on Sex with Emily, said Venus. I love how sex-positive she is, and we touched on many topics about sexuality that are important to both of us.
The interview will be available for download on Friday at SexWithEmily.com.
Fans can follow Venus Lux on Venus-Lux.com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/VenusLux, on Facebook at Facebook.com/TSVenusLux and on Instagram at Instagram.com/VenusLux.
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Monday morning. As I click through the usual beginning of the week barrage, I open an email from my ER chief. My heart drops into my stomach, where it begins to race. Hes forwarded a letter of concern from a specialist from a different hospital. Its about a patient that I failed to help, and failed to diagnose, so she had to seek help elsewhere. As I read the details, I remember the case. I pick up the phone and tell him the story:
Its Friday night. 10 p.m. I have the overnight shift; the one thats supposed to start at eleven, but Ive been called in early. Very early. Its standing room only on my way to the Rapid Assessment Zone (RAZ) and heads look up as I pass parents holding children in blankets, adults hovered over barf-buckets, elderly people leaning on their walkers. The evening doctor is tied up with a car accident, and an hour earlier, hed broken my sleep, asking if Id come as soon as possible. Just as Im about to enter the RAZ, a middle-aged woman yells out: I need something for pain!
The stack of charts is thick. I leaf through dizzy, abdominal pain, chest pain, headache the usual. A nurse emerges from behind a curtain and hands me an ECG: Can you see this one first? Chest pain, shortness of breath, since six oclock. The ECG is fine, but in matters of the heart, time is tissue, and hes been triaged ahead of the others. I talk to him, examine him, and order blood work telling him hes likely fine. Minutes later, Im scanning the next chart when another nurse discreetly points into the hall and lowers her voice: The woman in the wheelchair is in pain. Shes making a scene.
Like everyone else, I can hear her. Her voice is sandpaper: Come on guys, shes calling out. You can do better! I had my appendix out today. The paper said to come back immediately if my pain got worse. I need to be seen right now.
I peer into the hall. The woman is hunched over in the chair, and her husband is cursing. I dont hear his exact words, but I hear bullsh*t, and f*ck.
Ill see her right after this other chest pain, I tell the nurse, who thanks me, and returns to the hall to quell the patient. As I take a history behind a curtain, I can hear the womans voice rising, her words becoming harsher. At 10:15, Im scribbling orders when the man approaches: You need to see my wife, he says. Shes swearing, and I dont want my kids to hear it. I can hear her words, and I think of the elderly patients who are sitting inches away from her.
Just give me a minute, I say. I point to the crowd around them. Im just trying to sort through everyone. I lower my voice. Well get her into a room next, I say, but theres no reason for her to use that language and she should stop.
He doesnt like my last line. He turns away and mutters: F*cking ridiculous.
Im called away to help with the car accident. As the nurses are taking blood, and pushing medication through IV lines, the husband approaches one of them and asks how much longer until his wife will see the doctor. He is in her face, and when she tells him that she cant give an exact time, he studies her name tag and threatens to report her.
When I return to the RAZ, the husband follows me into the assessment area. Each of my steps is followed by his, and if I stop abruptly, he will fall into me. I step out of his way, and ask the nurse to bring his wife into the room. I tell the husband that his behavior is rude and threatening, and ask him to wait in the hall; although the other patients dont deserve to be around him either. He refuses to leave, and stands between his wifes wheelchair and the exam table. The nurse is beside me, and asks the patient to sit on the exam table. The patient stands quickly and easily, and barks at the nurse beside her: Get the wheelchair out.
Her husband yanks on the wheelchair, and then yells at the nurse: Get the wheelchair out.
The nurses face is flushed, and she can barely speak, but she does, calmly and evenly: Just give me a minute, the wheels are still locked.
The patient has already hopped over the foot rest, and Im about to take her history, when the husband barks at nurse again, flecks of saliva spraying both of us: Well why dont you bend down and unlock it?
Queensland Health has produced a video thats made rounds on social media. In it, a family member of a critically ill patient grabs a nurse by the neck. Although full-out physical assault does occur, abuse towards nurses and other hospital staff is often more subtle: raised voices, fingers wagging in faces, abusive and foul language, intimidating gestures, badgering. The husbands last comment is the straw. Its regretful, though, that we didnt call security when he began yelling and swearing in the hall. If hed acted like that at a school, or a bank, hed already be in handcuffs.
The nurse looks at me and shakes her head. I dont know if shes going to cry, or scream back at him. I turn and point to the clerk, my body clenching. Im ready to move if he throws a punch. Im neither big, nor stupid; if he lunges for me, Im not fighting back. Im taking off. Call security, I say. Get this guy out of here.
Within seconds, guards arrive. Everyone points to the exam room nurses, the clerk, even other patients. I point to the husband: He has to leave. Hes rude and threatening.
F*ck this, he says.
His wife protests as well: Like hell hes leaving.
A security guard wraps his fingers around the mans bicep. Come on.
He turns to his wife. This place sucks, he says. Lets get out of here.
His wife jumps down from the stretcher. Im going to another hospital, she says. Before she leaves the room, she yells at the top of her lungs: You are all a bunch of f*cking losers!
Did you actually examine the patient? the chief asks after I recount the tale.
No. They walked out together and went to another hospital.
Where the woman was told shed had a heart attack, he said.
I guess.
A recent study concluded that disruptive behaviors displayed by patients contributed to doctors making diagnostic errors. Although this is a great reason to be courteous to health care staff, this paper studied patients that were actually examined by physicians. Neither I, nor the nurses felt safe enough to get close enough to this patient to examine her.
And what about the triage note: right upper quadrant pain, post-appendectomy. Nothing else. During the registration process, the patient, whose husband had brought her to the hospital, decided that the nurses at triage were wasting her time. To expedite treatment, she walked out the front door, crossed two blocks, and called 9-1-1. Surely those who arrive by ambulance would be assessed immediately, shed figured. And when the triage process began again, she became belligerent, and was sent to the Rapid Assessment Zone in a wheelchair.
The patient survived, but as I said, in matters of the heart, time is tissue. And fortunately, most patients respect their nurses, their fellow patients, and all those they meet in the emergency room. They know that we are here to help.
In Canada and the U.S., National Nurses Week runs until May 12th. Respect your nurse. Your life may depend on it.
Raj Waghmare is an emergency physician who blogs at the Overhead Page.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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Every year around Match Day, medical and pre-med students alike worry about a rumored residency cliff. The theory is that the number of new medical school graduates will soon outstrip the existing inventory of residency positions, and the overflow applicants will be left in professional limbo.
While that picture seems scary, its time for some good news. Ive believed for years that this concern is more phantom than real, but now there is empirical evidence in the form of a data analysis by a respected source in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, a longtime observer of physician workforce trends, published a report in the NEJM examining recent and projected growth of U.S. medical school enrollment, compared to the rate of increase in residency program positions. Mullan concludes that while the number of graduates has begun catching up with the number of available positions, this gap is narrowing very slowly. In 2024, the number of available residency slots will still exceed the number of U.S. medical school graduates by around 4,500. That means an ample supply of postgraduate training positions for new MDs from not only U.S. schools but deserving international medical graduates as well.
Put another way, residency positions are gradually becoming more competitive, but this is no reason to abandon a dream of becoming a physician; especially not when we as a nation face a growing shortage of physicians.
A 2015 study puts this physician shortfall at as many as 90,000 doctors by the year 2025. This number helps put Americas health care problems into perspective. While U.S.-based medical schools are slowly increasing enrollment, they cannot alone make up the gap in the physician workforce. So do we then look to recruit doctors away from Africa, Asia or Latin America, contributing to the brain drain from less affluent countries? Thankfully we dont have to.
Many strong candidates are turned away from U.S. medical schools due to a lack of capacity and the resulting arbitrary cut-offs. International medical schools like mine with a student body made up of mostly of U.S. citizens planning to practice in the U.S. are doing their part to address the physician shortage by making more room for qualified American applicants. Many of my schools graduates go on to become primary care physicians or to care for underserved populations and some do both.
Detractors of Caribbean medical schools have often exploited pre-med students residency anxiety to frighten them away. Mullans important report in NEJM should help lay that to rest.
Heidi Chumley is executive dean and chief academic officer, American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
As a financial planner, I often discuss taxes with clients. Taxes are a critical piece of the financial plan and, more importantly, they are one of the elements we have some control over.
I know tax season is officially behind us, but that doesn't mean you should stop thinking about those pesky compulsory contributions. Now is when you need to shift your focus to 2016 and start identifying opportunities that will set you up nicely for next April.
To get a tax professional's perspective on what you can do to prepare for next year's tax season, I've asked a handful of my favorite experts. Below are their thoughts on what you can be doing (better!) todayand through the rest of the yearto put yourself in the best possible position for success.
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1. Income Tax Incentives
Some tax payers are afraid of taking advantage of certain business incentives because they fear they are too complex or they don't believe their business activities qualify. Or they're simply unaware of what is available to them. A qualified income tax adviser can help identify which incentives may be available to you and help you assess whether or not any are worth looking into.
For example, Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Tax Manager Brian J. Franczak of Gatto, Pope & Walwick, LLP (opens in new tab) recommends taking advantage of income tax incentives such as the credit for increasing research activities (opens in new tab) or the deduction for income attributable to domestic production activities (opens in new tab). Franczak says that if you have a business, there is a good chance some of your activities may qualify for these or other incentives.
If you have a small business in California (or moving to California), Michael C. Lee, CPA of San Diego Tax Pros (opens in new tab), suggests the California Competes Creditan income tax credit with $80 million allocated to it. The credit is available to businesses with revenue up to $2 million and growing over the next five years. The next cycle of applications will start in August of 2016.
2. Marital Status: To Change or Not Change
Summer is around the corner and with it comes wedding season. David C. Dolan, Partner, CPA at Considine & Considine (opens in new tab) recommends newlyweds resist the urge to rush into their human resource manager's office to change their marital status to married on their W-4. As exciting as getting married is, the consequences of changing your W-4 can be taxes owed on the return.
With dual earning spouses, the single withholding tables do a better job of withholding taxes and minimizing any tax surprises on April 15. Luckily for taxpayers, the IRS recently added a box to the W-4, allowing eager newlyweds the option of checking "Married, but withhold at higher Single rate." While this may not be the answer for all couples, it can certainly result in wedding day-like smiles when couples realize their tax refund is big enough to fund their honeymoon.
3. Don't Mix Business with Personal
"Mixing your business and personal expenses will complicate your accounting, resulting in additional time spent reviewing and separating business from personal transactions," says bookkeeper Lydia DeMaria of Lydia's Bookkeeping Services in San Diego. To maintain accurate records, you must stay organized, and keep the transactions separate. In the end, you will save time and money by reducing your bookkeeping costs. DeMaria recommends designating one card for business and a separate card for personal when it comes to credit cards.
4. Know When It's Time to Seek Out a Professional
Linda Rogers, CFP, MSBA, EA at Planning Within Reach (opens in new tab), had a few clients that chose to pay for tax help last year. One of them felt the need when they started a business; another, purchased their first home; and the other, wasn't sure they were entering their stock options correctly. Rogers added that turning to a professional enabled them to see a tax savings and gave them a piece of mind.
5. Charitable Giving: Review Donor-Advised Funds
One of my personal favorite toolsand one that isn't talked about enoughis the donor-advised fund (DAF). Put simply, a DAF is an account that helps givers strategically manage their charitable contributions. Through an agreement with a DAF provider, a donor creates a specially named account (i.e. "Smith Family Fund") to which irrevocable contributions are made. The donor receives an immediate tax deduction, but isn't forced to make any grants. They can work with their adviser to invest and grow the assets and recommend grants to their favorite non-profit, 501(c)(3) organizations at their leisure. In short, a DAF is low in cost, flexible, and it can be beneficial to anyone who is charitably inclined.
Whether using a donor-advised fund or simply making a charitable contribution to your favorite non-profit, giving back is a good way to reduce taxable income while a making a difference.
With a list of great recommendations from tax professionals above, now is a good time to consider your options and take action to put yourself in the optimal financial position for 2016 and beyond.
Taylor Schulte, CFP is founder and CEO of Define Financial (opens in new tab), a San Diego-based fee-only firm. He is passionate about helping clients accumulate wealth and plan for retirement.
(Kitco News) - Congratulations Britain! It is 97g and the size of a small chicken egg.
No, its not another Royal baby. Instead, the country has just found its largest gold nugget, worth roughly 50,000.
According to BBC News, prospector Vincent Thurkettle found this shiny rock near Moelfre, a village in Wales.
"I was absolutely stunned when I first saw the nugget," he told BBC.
Thurkettle allegedly found the nugget in 2012 but only revealed his discovery on Tuesday.
Maybe the higher metals prices had something to do with Thurkettles revelation?
Gold is still holding on to most of its gains after rallying 16% in the first quarter, its best three-month performance in 30 decades. June comex gold futures settled Tuesdays session at $1,264.80 an ounce.
Regardless, Thurkettles nugget is not really his and is now property of the Crown. Media reports explained that since the discovery was made near a shipwreck, the discoverer must notify the Receiver of Wreck.
But Thurkettle isnt leaving empty handed. He expects to receive a finders fee of an undisclosed amount.
"It has broken my heart to part with the nugget, but I think it's important that it ends up in a museum for everyone to see," he said.
By Sarah Benali of Kitco News; sbenali@kitco.com
Follow @SdBenali
(Kitco News) - Although the mining sector is a little late to the crowdfunding party, Canadian investors appear to be slowly embracing the new innovative funding concept as one Quebec junior mining company has been able to raise more than $400,000 in just over a month.
Radisson Mining Resource (TSX.V: RDS) was one of two initial Canadian-based gold mining companies listed on Red Cloud Klondike Strike, described as the first regulated equity crowdfunding platform for the sector. Friday, Radisson Mining announced the closing of the first tranche of its private placement funding through the site, valued at CAD$402,510.30. In total, the company is hoping to raise $1 million and is now launching the second half of its placement, which will close June 6.
The proceeds of the crowdfunding will go towards the development of the companys OBrien project located in Northern Quebec within the Abitibi gold belt.
I think you can say it has been a mixed bag, said Mario Bouchard, chief executive officer for Radisson Mining describing the experience of using technology to tap into new funding potential. We are extremely happy with the results but it has been a lot of work to promote the new platform.
Bouchard, along with members of Red Cloud and the second inaugural company listed on the platform Banyan Gold Corp, (TSX.V: BYN), spent a month touring Canada to promote the new mining-specific crowdfunding site.
We saw a lot of interest in the platform but I think a lot of investors are still in a wait and see mode. It is going to take time for the platform to build traction but we are confident it will continue to growth, said Hubert Parent-Bouchard, director of finance at Radisson. However we can say that this idea works.
Radissons chief agreed that the company was able to raise almost half of its total goal in just over a month, demonstrating just how much potential there is for this new funding concept.
Although investment capital is slowly coming back to the mining sector, Bouchard said that it can still be difficult for junior miners to raise funds and that there is still a void in the marketplace that Klondike Strike is trying to fill.
While Bouchard doesnt see crowdsourcing completely overtaking traditional funding avenues anytime soon, he does see it as a complimentary process, especially for cash-starved small cap companies.
As Klondike Strike continues to fill this niche, I think it is going to get easier for smaller companies to get the funding they need, he said.
Although Radisson still has to find investors for the final tranche of the private placement, they are confident that they will reach their ultimate goal, especially as gold prices continue to push higher.
We have shown that this is a viable funding source for companies and now that we have reached a certain funding level we are expecting to attract other investors, said Parent-Bouchard.
Currently, Klondike Strike is only available to Canadian investors because of regulatory hurdles in other jurisdictions like the U.S. However, Chad Williams, president and chief executive officer of the company, said in an initial interview with Kitco News that he sees potential for a global platform.
The second miner listed on the platform, Banyan Gold, is looking to raise $750,000. GoviEx Uranium Inc., listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (GXU), is the third company to be listed on the platform. The company is looking to develop a Uranium project in Niger and raise $2 million.
By Neils Christensen of Kitco News; nchristensen@kitco.com
Follow @Neils_C
Joey Holmes of the Suquamish Tribe provides the rhythm and song for a cultural exchange between Kingston Middle School and the S'Klallam and Suquamish tribes this spring.
SHARE Tyler Purser, Suquamish, and Nizhoni Price, left, S'Klallam and Ella Hjert, perform for Kingston Middle School Students at a cultural exchange between the school and the S'Klallam and Suquamish tribes. Joe Price provides the rhythm and song for a dance at a cultural exchange between the Kingston Middle School and the S'Klallam and Suquamish tribes. Joey Holmes, a Suquamish, provides the rhythm and song for a dance that invited Kingston Middle School studens to partiicipate at a cultural exchange between the school and the S'Klallam and Suquamish tribes. Related Coverage West Sound Guide 2016
By Terri Gleich
This story is part of the Kitsap Sun's 2016 West Sound Guide. Click here to read this year's entire publication.
Like a fearsome hunter stalking prey, a young man leaps amid a circle of dancers. He is lithe and strong, representing a warrior tradition that dates back thousands of years.
The dance and accompanying song are part of a cultural sharing program for Kingston Middle School students by Kitsap County's two Native American tribes. The students show their gratitude, not with applause, but by raising their hands in a traditional Coast Salish gesture of thanks.
"It's an honor and a gift and a celebration to share our culture with our communities," said Laura Price, skipper for the Port Gamble S'Klallam canoe family and a member of the tribe's song and dance group. "We're representing our ancestors here."
The Suquamish and Port Gamble S'Klallam song and dance groups are well-known ambassadors to the broader community, but they play an even more important role within the tribes, kindling the flame of cultural renewal and passing ancient languages and traditions along to the next generation.
"There is no better way to learn your language and keep your language alive than through song," said Joe Price, Laura's husband and a member of the Port Gamble group.
"When we share songs, we tell the story behind the songs," said Suquamish Song and Dance member Joey Holmes.
Weekly practices are a family affair and in addition to sharing songs and dances, the members learn to make their own regalia, including traditional woven cedar hats and wool tunics and skirts.
"There's a real hunger for it," said Holmes.
That hunger stems from more than a century of cultural suppression by the federal government.
"What we heard from elders is that we had a period when a lot of our language was buried and our songs and traditions were buried because they were illegal or people were punished for doing them or were taught they were not valuable," said Laura Price.
"Since the re-establishment of the modern-day canoe journey, we've had great gains in our cultural strength and vitality. Every year, more songs return to us."
The Paddle to Seattle, hosted by the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes in 1989, signaled the rebirth of the Coast Salish tribes' canoe culture and a time when state and federal governments recognized Native American tribes as sovereign nations. Now, the tribal canoe families take to the water each summer, stopping along the way to feast, exchange gifts and share songs, dances and stories.
Holmes said the canoe journey is the highlight of the year for the song and dance groups. This summer, the Kitsap tribes expect up to 8,000 tribal members from throughout the Pacific Northwest to stop here on the journey to Olympia.
For the tribes, the canoe journey is often seen as a metaphor for life, embodying the need for everyone to work together to achieve a common goal.
"Everything ties into the canoe journey," said Holmes. "The salmon, the water, pulling in common. For us, the water is as important as the land."
For the first modern canoe journey, Laura Price said the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe only had two songs to share. Now, she estimates, it has 30 to 40. Songs have come back to the tribe in various ways, including as gifts in honor of special occasions.
"I've seen a lot of growth, a lot of pride and healing through this cultural enrichment," Price said. "I see us only moving forward and getting stronger."
During the cultural sharing at Kingston Middle School, Price makes a point of inviting the students and staff to the annual canoe journey. "It shows that we're friends, that we're all neighbors. We share this area and it's important that we all find commonalities."
As the Kingston assembly ends, the song and dance groups urge everyone in the bleachers to join two lines on the gym floor. A few students are reluctant, keeping their hands in their pockets, but most match their steps to the thunder of deer-hide drums, laughing and following the lead of tribal members who guide the lines to form a circle within a circle.
At the center, a young Suquamish girl wears a beaded crown that says "renewal."
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By Rachel Seymour of the Kitsap Sun
SILVERDALE Kitsap Great Give donors gave about $1.45 million to 254 local nonprofits, despite a software glitch that forced the online fundraiser to be extended an extra 24 hours.
The annual 24-hour fundraising blitz, one of about 50 such events nationwide, started May 3. Many of the drives, including in Kitsap and Seattle, worked with online fundraising company Kimbia, which experienced problems accepting donations.
The Great Give fell just short of its goal of $1.5 million. But Kol Medina, executive director of the Kitsap Community Foundation, said he thought the event could have exceeded the goal if the technical problems hadn't happened.
"It was phenomenal to see the community rally and come back to the website" May 4, after the deadline had been extended, Medina said.
Donors were patient and supportive, which wasn't the case with all of the fundraising events across the country.
Several donors and organizations lashed out at Kimbia on its Facebook page.
As frustrations rose and negative news spread, some drives ended early, Medina said.
That wasn't the case in Kitsap, where Medina said the community had "a moment of growth," raising 27 percent more than last year's donation total, which was just over $1 million.
Some organizations sent donors directly to their websites during technical problems on the Great Give website. Those funds need to be reported and funneled through the Kitsap Community Foundation to receive additional matching pool funds, Medina said. About 15 to 20 nonprofits have done this already, he added.
The glitch in Kimbia's software, which snarled fundraising efforts across the country, started out as a single hardware failure that caused a cascade of other failures in the system.
"We had this crisis," Medina said. "Our community pulled through and had the biggest day of giving we've ever seen."
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By Josh Farley of the Kitsap Sun
BREMERTON A 32-year-old Bremerton man was charged with third-degree assault after he allegedly scuffled with an officer Sunday night near Naval Avenue and 11th Street.
The suspect grabbed an officer's radio and gun during the fight, according to Bremerton police reports.
The man called police at about 9:45 p.m. When the officer responded, the 32-year-old would not explain why he called 911. The officer knew the man had a warrant for misdemeanor assault and attempted to detain the man, but he resisted, reports said. When the officer went to his radio to ask for help, the man pulled the officer's radio off and eventually also reached for the officer's gun in the fight.
The suspect was charged with assault Monday and remains in the Kitsap County Jail.
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By John Crisp
You may not like President Obama's political philosophy or leadership style, but you have to admit that he is one cool president.
If you're unconvinced, consider his speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 30. His poise and charm were on full display, and his comedic timing was impeccable.
Still, his best joke made me cringe a little: he said that his popularity rating had been rising. In fact, he said, "The last time I was this high, I was trying to decide on my major."
Funny stuff. It would be even funnier if there weren't so many Americans in prison for the crime that the last several presidents have all committed, smoking a little pot.
Of course, we're a nation of laws, and we aspire to the principle that undergirds that condition: before the law everyone is treated equally.
But that noble aspiration is threatened by our inconsistent attitude toward marijuana and by the patchwork of drug laws that follow in its wake.
Thus, a 19-year-old kid in my state (Texas) was threatened with life in prison for trying to make brownies laced with hash-oil, while 900 miles to the north (Colorado) he could legally create a profitable business and be appreciated for his entrepreneurship and for the tax dollars that his business generates.
And thus celebrities (Bill Maher, Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson) have made marijuana a part of their brand, and the President of the United States can joke charmingly about smoking pot in college, while, according to a 2014 New York Times story, as many as 30,000 Americans are in prison solely for possessing or selling marijuana.
Sometimes prison terms for marijuana possession are staggering. The Times cites the case of Jeff Mizanskey, a Missourian who was arrested in 1993 for purchasing a five-pound brick of marijuana. Because of two previous nonviolent marijuana convictions, Mizanskey was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
A more typical case is probably Bernard Noble's, a 45-year-old father of seven, who was stopped in New Orleans in 2010 with the equivalent of two joints in his pocket. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Noble's case is more typical in another way, as well, one that amplifies the ironic contrast between his situation and the president's wry joke: Like Obama, Noble is black.
Not only are our marijuana laws stunningly inconsistent, their application is informed by a striking racial disparity: although blacks and whites use marijuana at about the same rates, according to a study by the American Civil Liberties Union, blacks are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested on suspicion of marijuana offenses than whites.
In some states Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois blacks are arrested at a rate eight times higher than the rate for whites.
I'm not an enthusiastic proponent for the decriminalization of marijuana. I don't smoke it and don't plan to start. But if I did, as a middle class white guy, I suspect I could join the other 30 million Americans who smoked it during the past year without getting in trouble. Not everyone is so lucky, and this discrepancy should make us pause to consider the injustice of our current system.
In addition, we should thoughtfully situate marijuana among the array of intoxicants and addictive and harmful substances that surround us. We could start with alcohol, tobacco and heroin, of course, and, especially lately, prescription opioids.
But an honest calculation would include sugar, salt and fat, as well. It's not much of an overstatement to say that, in the way that Americans eat them, these substances are both extremely harmful and addictive.
In fact, a great deal of American life revolves around activities that are enormously time-consuming, compulsive and addictive. Food and drink. Sports. Video games and electronic screen time of all sorts. There's a reason we call it "binge-watching."
Marijuana should be understood in this context, and we should pay more attention to the disparities associated with it. Some of us should not be able to use it with impunity and even joke about it, while others are going to prison.
Bob Montgomery presses the shift key on an Underwood typewriter as he talks about the various machines Monday in Bremerton Office Machine Co.
SHARE Bob Montgomery sits at his workbench in front of a Royal typewriter Monday at Bremerton Office Machine Co. Bob Montgomery shows the various replacement letter keys he keeps in a drawer Monday at the Bremerton Office Machine Co. Paul Lundy looks over a typewriter that a customer dropped off for repair Monday at the Bremerton Office Machine Co. A typewriter left for the shop to repair awaits the arrival of Bob Montgomery and Paul Lundy on Monday in the hallway outside of the door of Bremerton Office Machine Co. Related Coverage Bremerton celebrates 'Robert "Bob" Montgomery...
By Josh Farley of the Kitsap Sun
BREMERTON Bob Montgomery and Paul Lundy came into the typewriter repair business in considerably different ways.
Montgomery, owner and operator of the Bremerton Office Machine Co. for nearly seven decades, was replacing ribbons in his father's Seattle shop as a young boy.
Lundy, a Kingston resident who has been in biotech as a facilities manager for the past 30 years, discovered the now-rare profession about two years ago.
Together, they've created a future for a company built to repair the objects of the past.
On the fifth floor of an aging Fourth Street office building, the clicks and rings of typewriters emanate down the hall. The now-retired Montgomery, 94, stops by frequently to see Lundy, who has taken over the business.
"I'm glad to find somebody who's actually interested in doing this stuff," said Montgomery, sitting on an orange couch no doubt made at a similar time as some of the typewriters surrounding it. "I can't complain at all."
Repairing typewriters might seem an outdated business, but Lundy believes he's found a slice of work big enough, if marginally profitable, to make it go. After reading about Montgomery's shop in the newspaper in 2014, Lundy came to see it for himself. He quickly was enamored with Montgomery's work and asked to help. Montgomery, who has fielded similar requests, obliged.
"I don't think he took me seriously at first," Lundy said.
Montgomery's steady hand had managed to guide typewriter repair into the 21st century in Bremerton, but the rent and bills piled up. Meanwhile, Lundy's weekend trips to Bremerton to work on typewriters turned into weekday visits, which then became a second full-time job. He closed the deal by officially buying Montgomery's business, paying off his debts and is devoted to it full time.
Though hearty, robust typewriters aren't being manufactured around the globe by dozens of companies anymore, Lundy has seen new interest in vintage typewriters. Sometimes, it's a simple discovery, in an attic perhaps, where a dirty, sluggish typewriter is discovered. At $49 per hour, a clunky machine collecting dust can return to its youthful duties for about $100 at the shop. Customers often "bring it in like a dead fish," Montgomery said with a smile.
"People are starting to appreciate these working, durable machines," Lundy said.
Some have even found a typewriter to be more comforting and productive than today's computers. Lundy mentioned recent customers who've raved about the clicks and clacks of their recently procured machine.
"They found it to be a different way of thinking," Lundy said. "It helped them focus."
The sheer rarity of finding a typewriter repair shop in this day and age is usually enough to put a smile on a customer's face, Lundy said.
"People are so appreciative," Lundy said. "All we see are happy people."
It's a craft that takes patience and persistence. Lundy has been soaking up as much of Montgomery's knowledge as he can. Typewriter repair manuals for brands like Underwood, Royal and IBM line the walls, but just reading them isn't enough. Interpretation is necessary.
"You practically have to psychoanalyze what the writer was thinking," Montgomery said.
Operating under the notion that "practically any typewriter is repairable," as Montgomery likes to say, Lundy has learned another kernel of wisdom from Montgomery. Replacing his former profession's incubators and refrigerators with typewriters, Lundy acknowledges that the hardest jobs come down to problem solving. Within all those levers, push rods and gears is a way to bring a typewriter back to life. Sometimes it takes a few days just to figure out what is the problem.
"Be sure you're fixing what you think you're fixing," Montgomery said, quoting a sign that used to hang on his office wall.
Jonathan Coleman announced:
An extra $39 million will be invested in 2016/17 to enable Pharmac to provide more New Zealanders with access to new medicines, Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says. Pharmacs model for increasing subsidised medicines and treatments for New Zealanders is world class, Dr Coleman says. This funding boost in Budget 2016 an extra $124 million over four years -will mean that Pharmac can further increase access to new medicines, benefiting more New Zealanders. On top of the Governments extra $39 million investment in Pharmac in 2016/17, $11 million will be injected into Pharmacs annual budget by DHBs. Pharmacs budget for 2016/17 will be a record $850 million this means the Government has increased Pharmacs budget by $200 million since 2008.
Also NZ City reports:
Pharmac says the money will allow it to look at seven new drugs, including Bristol Myers Squibbs Opdivo, a treatment for advanced melanoma where New Zealand now has the highest rate in the world. Although Pharmac has only been looking at the drug since March, its clinical data indicated more certain survival data, chief executive Steffan Crausaz says. It costs about $7800 to treat a patient with Opdivo over a fortnight. He would not say whether it was cheaper than rival, Mercks Keytruda, which costs around $200,000 a year for each patient. The government has been under pressure to fund an advanced melanoma treatment and a petition seeking funding for Keytruda drew 54,000 signatures. There will be a consultation period, but the board could make its decisions by July. Mr Crausaz believes that despite vocal support for Keytruda, people will be optimistic about Opdivo. Studies showed 73 per cent of patients were alive after one years treatment, compared to 42 per cent with the current treatment.
Andrew Little wanted to over-ride Pharmacs decision making, and instruct them to fund Keytruda. This shows why politicians should not be involved in such decisions. Little would have forced Pharmac to fund a drug far less effective than the one actually funded basically because the drug company behind Keytruda was running a PR campaign to get funding for their drug.
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A guest post by David Garrett:
Introduction
The murder and that is undoubtedly what it was of three year old Moko Rangitoheriri has dragged the system of state initiated plea bargaining into the light. Over a period of weeks, Tania Shailer and her boyfriend David Haerewa bashed, stomped, strangled and kicked little Moko to death. His injuries were so bad that his mother had trouble recognizing him, and the pathologist had difficulty determining which of his many life threatening injuries had actually killed the little boy.
Shailer and her scumbag boyfriend were quite rightly charged with murder under a section of the Crimes Act which deems intent to kill to be present where life threatening injuries have been inflicted, and the defendants are reckless as to whether death will result. Inexplicably, a sleazy plea bargaining deal was done under which the charges against Mokos killers were reduced from murder to manslaughter. How could that have happened?
History
Although it has never been publicized, plea bargaining has been a reality in New Zealand for at least the last 25 years or so. The major change in recent times is that the initiative for the negotiations aimed at agreeing on a lesser charge a defendant will plead guilty to may now come from the Crown as well as from the defence. Some defence barristers are of the view that the Crown now has, because of funding changes, (see below) an incentive to initiate these kinds of deals, whereas in the past, they resisted them.
Historically, plea bargaining negotiations were initiated by the defence. Lets consider a fact situation from a real case which I am familiar with. Two men hired a taxi, ostensibly to take them from one town in Taranaki to another. Once the cab was out of town, the men demanded that the driver hand over his money, and give them the car. He resisted both demands. One offender then produced a hammer, and while saying Im gunna kill you, you cunt, bashed the driver until the cab ran off the road. The men severely beat the driver, stole the cab, and left the driver for dead. They were quickly apprehended, and charged inter alia with attempted murder.
Once lawyers had been instructed, negotiations were initiated with the police and Crown Solicitor. I am told that attempted murder is a difficult charge to prove (the element of intent being the difficulty) even when, as in this case, clear threats to kill had been made by at least one offender. In the event, the attempted murder charges against the pair were withdrawn, and both pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
It is important and perhaps not easy for lay people to understand that when the defence attempts to get charges reduced, they are simply doing the job which ethics demands of them. Lawyers who do criminal defence work are committed to getting the best possible deal for their clients both in terms of charge and sentence and to testing the police/Crown case thoroughly. Although many may find it distasteful, it is wrong to criticize defence lawyers for initiating these discussions. They are simply doing their job.
Funding of prosecutions
Traditionally, the Crown solicitor in any particular area of the country had complete discretion whether to proceed with a prosecution of the original charge he had laid, or to negotiate with the defence, if they proposed a lesser charge to which the defendant(s) would plead guilty. This system created an incentive for prosecutors to take cases to trial they were paid per day of court time. Perhaps this also partly explains why murder trials which fifty years ago would be completed in a week, now take three or four, or even longer. The Crown didnt care how long the trial took they got paid for every day of the trial.
As a result of the above system, having the Crown Warrant for any particular area was widely seen as a licence to print money crime is always going to be with us, and a hard arse prosecutor could theoretically take every case to trial, even when it was likely that the evidence would not support the charge being prosecuted. Given that most serious offenders are on legal aid, the result of the old system was an ever growing blowout in the legal aid bill.
Changes to the sytem were introduced three years ago. The main change was that rather than the Crown Solicitor and his or her juniors being paid for every day they spent in court, they are now bulk funded. In other words, every Crown Solicitor is given a sum of taxpayers money annually which they spend on the prosecutions in their district. The amount they are paid remains the same, whether 100% of cases go to trial or only 10%, with the other 90% resulting in negotiated guilty pleas to a lesser charge or charges.
This has apparently created a reverse incentive from the old system: it is now very much in the Crowns interest to plead down cases, and save the $1-5 million that a major trial may cost. That means that for those cases which do proceed to trial, the Crown Solicitor is effectively getting a much higher hourly rate than if he or she had taken every case or even most of them to trial.
In addition to bulk funding, the second major change is that plea bargain negotiations may now be initiated either by the defence or the Crown. It appears that in Mokos case, the negotiations were initiated by the Crown Solicitor at Rotorua, although I am unable to confirm that. As we will see, experienced defence barristers cannot understand why this case was plead down.
Reform
It is acknowledged that the old system under which Crown Solicitors could take any and every case to trial created an incentive to try more cases for longer than perhaps justice would demand. It now seems clear however, that we have created the opposite incentive one that rewards Crown Solicitors for disposing of cases by way of plea bargain where they feel so inclined regardless of the legal merits or the justice of the outcome.
I have spoken to two senior defence barristers about this present case. Both are bewildered by the decision to downgrade the charges one said that if the reported facts are correct, he would not even have bothered trying to get the charges reduced for these two killers.
It is clear that the reform of the system which had led to the legal aid budget blowout has created the unintended consequence of giving Crown lawyers an incentive to avoid trials where justice demands that a trial ought to have taken place, and therefore allow a jury to decide whether the facts support a verdict of murder or manslaughter. As with my criminal barrister colleagues, I am very firmly of the view that this case is one where the defendants were properly charged with murder, and where no plea bargain ought to have been made.
That said, it is clearly not an option to simply revert to the old system which reversed the incentive, and gave Crown Solicitors a licence to print money. One simple and effective solution would perhaps be to require Judges to approve plea bargaining deals which involved murder either all murders, or just those where children are victims. That is the arrangement in a number of American jurisdictions if the Judge doesnt like the deal, there is a trial on the originally laid charge.
It is important to understand that cases like this will be happening all over the country every day. It is only due to good fortune and in fairness some good journalism which has led to this particular case, and the system which has allowed it to happen, to be dragged into the light.
Phil Twyford claimed last year:
Nearly 40 percent of the houses sold in that period went to people of Chinese descent, and as your introduction pointed out, the Chinese New Zealander population in Auckland, according to the most recent census data, is about 9 percent. Now, that is a remarkable discrepancy, and, in my view, its simply not plausible to suggest, as many have done in the last couple of years, that the Chinese ethnic Chinese people who are buying houses in Auckland are all Chinese New Zealanders. It points, I think, to only one possible conclusion, and that is that offshore Chinese investors have a very significant presence in the Auckland real estate market when you consider that Auckland house prices are spiralling out of control at the moment. This is an issue about foreign investment, and it doesnt matter in one sense what the surnames of the buyers are, but if this data shows, and I believe it strongly suggests, that offshore Chinese investors have a major presence, possibly as high as 30 percent of the houses sold by this real estate firm over a three-month period, then that is very significant.
Louise Upston has released actual data. It shows that 4% of Auckland buyers were overseas tax residents and 58% of those 4% were from China which is 2.3% of total Auckland sales.
Phil Twyford should be ashamed of himself for his disgraceful and shoddy data where he failed to differentiate between New Zealanders and foreigners on the basis of their surname. You may have a Chinese sounding surname yet be a 4th generation New Zealander.
The LINZ data is not perfect and they go to great lengths to state its limitations. But the gap between the 30% Twyford was claiming and the 2.3% in the LINZ data is so great that is is preposterous to suggest that Twyford was anywhere near correct.
Stats Chats says:
The LINZ report does a good job explaining the real limitations of `tax residence as a criterion, but its a lot better than any previous data weve had.
Im looking forward to a Mt Roskill by-election (if Goff wins) where the Labour candidate has to explain to the many Chinese New Zealanders living in Mt Roskill why Labour whipped up Aucklanders to blame them for high property prices.
The data will continue to be updated every three months, so we will be able to see if the levels of purchases by foreign tax residents increases. But for now there is nothing to suggest they are having a big impact on the market, and hence Labours policy to ban them is basically worthless, as it would have a miniscule impact on house prices at best. Maybe Labour could focus on real solutions such as increasing the amount of land available, instead of deeming people with Chinese sounding surnames as the problem.
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UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE Susan Fancher, simulation director for the University of Tennessee College of Nursing, demonstrates how the simulated electronic fetal monitoring app works.
SHARE Sheila Taylor of the University of Tennessee College of Nursing explains how the fetal monitoring strips show the baby's heartbeat and the mother's contractions. (MELISSA DOS SANTOS/UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE)
By Kristi L. Nelson of the Knoxville News Sentinel
From a need to better prepare future labor and delivery nurses was born a new app.
Now, University of Tennessee College of Nursing students going through simulations monitoring babies and mothers in labor can see on their iPads a continuous line of baby's heartbeat and mother's contractions, up and down at 10-second intervals.
"It gives a more real-world appearance," said Sheila Taylor, an assistant professor in the College of Nursing who develops content. Taylor said Susan Fancher, who directs the college's simulation lab, "wanted something that could simulate what was actually at a person's bedside" in a hospital.
So Taylor and Fancher, along with College of Nursing professor Tami Wyatt and Xueping Li, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering, began developing the Simulated Electronic Fetal Monitor app around four years ago. Last summer, they tested it with a small number of students, and they began using it last fall.
Fancher said she was initially looking for a way to expand the simulation lab's resources. The lab includes an medical mannikin of a pregnant woman in labor, but just one and the price tag for a second would run up to $55,0000.
But with the app, a group of students can simulate labor with a regular medial mannikin, or a live actor, Fancher said.
"The more I can create scenerios to create the realism, the better the students will be able to suspend their disbelief to immerse themselves in the scenerio," she said.
It also provides an opportunity for students to experience rare medical events they wouldn't be likely to see during their training but might encounter with a patient someday, Taylor said.
"Our students train at a high-risk labor and delivery practice, but even so, with that population and volume, they don't always get the extreme outliers," Taylor said. "We can actually simulate those with this app and make a real-world setting for them."
Instructors can set the baby's heart rate, how often contractions are occurring and a variety of other markers that indicate whether the birth is progressing normally or the baby or mother is in distress.
Student reaction to the app has been positive, Taylor said, especially over using paper strips of printed rhythms the college used before the app: "You've got a generation of students who were born with technology. It's not foreign to them."
UT Research Foundation worked with the faculty to license and patent their app, which is available for iPad on iTunes: $25 for the instructor version, and $5 for the student version. The student version already has been downloaded more than 100 times.
Now Fancher and Taylor are working on improving the app. Fancher wants to add the "whoosh-whoosh" sounds the monitors make in real life. Taylor would like to adjust the contraction simulation so that students can learn how contractions occurring naturally differ from those induced by the drug pitocin.
"We're just waiting for the technology to catch up," Taylor said.
This banner welcomed women to the Mad, Bad and Dangerous conference on female entrepreneurship in Knoxville on Saturday, May 7. SUBMITTED PHOTO
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By Mamie Kuykendall of the Knoxville News Sentinel
The first Mad, Bad and Dangerous conference held in Knoxville Saturday drew several hundred entrepreneurial-spirited women and girls together for encouragement, advice and competition.
Three nationally known keynote speakers, hailing from around the country, told their personal stories and shared information on how to become a powerful businesswoman in the modern world.
Hosted by the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, the five-hour conference took place at the Southern Railway Station on Depot Avenue. The goal was to boost women in business by teaching them to leave expectations behind and equip themselves with information and connections to help break into the worlds of business and technology.
"There were two main tracks of the event, how to be a mad entrepreneur and a bad businesswoman," said Emily Skaar, director of entrepreneurship for the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, which hosted the event. "We have had a fantastic response from the people who have been here today. There are a lot of different leadership conferences for women (in Knoxville), but there's not really something specifically for entrepreneurship and encouraging women to follow their dreams in a radical way."
The keynote speakers shared information on everything from the importance of having a great product to the need for networking.
"Women have amazing ideas and amazing abilities to execute, but you can't do it in isolation," said Ita Ekopoudom, CEO of Tigress Ventures, a woman-oriented consulting company. "You can see the underlying similarities that transcend industries. Getting out there and being social, but really leveraging technology to help you spread that."
Conferences like Mad Bad and Dangerous are vital for effective connections, according to Ekopoudom, who flew in from New York for the event.
"The more (that mega-companies) have women in place, they are actually performing better in their stocks and over the long-term," Ekopoudom said. "You're increasing the different perspectives. The more outlooks you have on an issue, the better results you tend to see."
A portion of the event, labeled the 24Hour Generator, was dedicated to local high school girls who were placed in teams and tasked with solving a business issue in one day. This inclusion of young woman is vital for a healthy business world, according to Ekopoudom, who named the challenge as a major factor that led her to the event.
"I really thought it was great, because that's the key," she said. "We really have to get them young, the sooner the better."
Coordinators and speakers agreed that hosting events such as this are vital to a community, especially to places like Knoxville that don't often cater to entrepreneurial women.
"I think they are absolutely essential," Ekopoudom said. "In New York, you get a lot of these kinds of events, and I think it's fantastic. People flock to them in New York, but not everybody has access to get to New York to attend these amazing conferences. Having them be in cities that are up-and-coming and really want to develop and obtain and attract entrepreneurism (is important)."
Knoxville is the second city to hold the event, which was founded by the Girls Preparatory School in Chattanooga last year, and it won't be the last, according to Skaar.
"We will do it again next year, absolutely," she said. "Other cities are definitely interested, but we pushed hard to be first."
Murder defendant Norman Follis, right, stands with defense attorney Mart Cizek during his trial Monday, May 9, 2016, in Clinton. Follis is facing the death penalty for allegedly strangling his uncle, Sammie J. Adams, 79, sometime between Dec. 5, 2011, and Jan. 24, 2012. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL)
SHARE Deputy district attorney Tony Craighead, right, talks with family members during a recess in the death-penalty murder trial of Norman Follis before Judge Donald R. Elledge Monday, May 9, 2016 in Clinton, TN. Follis allegedly strangled his uncle Sammie J. Adams, 79, sometime between Dec. 5, 2011, and Jan. 24, 2012. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) Anderson County Sheriff's Department deputy Shawn Banach testifies about performing a welfare check on the residence of Sammie J. Adams during the death-penalty murder trial of Norman Follis before Judge Donald R. Elledge Monday, May 9, 2016 in Clinton, TN. Follis allegedly strangled Adams, who was his uncle, sometime between Dec. 5, 2011, and Jan. 24, 2012. (AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/NEWS SENTINEL) Related Photos Photos: Death penalty trial of Norman Follis
By Bob Fowler of the Knoxville News Sentinel
CLINTON It's undisputed that Norman Lee Follis Jr. killed his uncle by strangling him with an extension cord, his attorney said.
"We can't whitewash that," Mart Cizek told a jury Monday during opening statements in the first death-penalty trial in Anderson County in more than 30 years.
Cizek, however, is fighting to keep the 52-year-old Follis off death row by convincing jurors it wasn't a planned murder worthy of capital punishment but rather a crime of passion in defense of his longtime girlfriend.
Follis has admitted strangling his uncle and neighbor, 79-year-old Samuel J. "Sammie" Adams, inside Adams' apartment on Patt Lane off Raccoon Valley Road in the Claxton area and putting the body in a closet there.
The decomposing corpse was discovered under a mound of clothes and blankets shortly after Follis' confession on Jan. 24, 2012, and more than a month after the man was killed.
Adams, described as helpful to neighbors, had a habit of flashing the considerable amount of cash he carried with him.
And while testimony revealed Follis sold Adams' 1997 Mercury Marquis to a Knoxville man for $1,000 in early January, money wasn't the motive, according to Follis' confession.
He said he strangled his uncle after he discovered him sexually attacking his girlfriend and now co-defendant, Tammy Sue Chapman.
"I just come around there, and he had, he had her down on the couch" with one hand on her crotch and the other on a breast, Follis said in a rambling, two-hour long statement to Anderson County Sheriff's Department Investigator Donald Scuglia.
"I grabbed the extension cord off the (expletive) heater that was there and just put it around his throat," Follis said.
During the scuffle, Follis told Scuglia that Adams fell off Chapman and onto him. Follis admitted dragging Adams' body into the closet and putting the couch in front of the door.
After Adams was reported missing in December 2011, Follis became a suspect when he seen driving Adams' car.
Initially questioned in January by another detective, Follis said he had taken his uncle to area hospitals and the last he knew, Adams was either being evaluated in the Lakeshore Mental Health Institute or was perhaps in a veterans hospital. A check of medical centers revealed neither Adams nor Follis had been to them, authorities said.
The mystery finally unraveled when Chapman was nabbed at the nearby home of Follis' stepmother, Sandra Follis. Chapman who wasn't welcome there had Adams' keys to her home.
Prosecutor Tony Craighead said he has 13 potential witnesses, while Cizek said Follis will likely testify in his own defense.
Craighead said testimony may wrap up Tuesday afternoon. Should Follis be convicted of murder, a second phase of the trial would involve the jury determining whether he should receive the death penalty.
Chapman, 47, also charged with first-degree murder, will be tried later. Both Follis and Chapman are jailed in lieu of $1 million bonds.
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By News Sentinel Staff
KNOXVILLE A Loudon County woman pleaded guilty Monday to a charge of sales tax evasion, state authorities said.
According to a news release from the Tennessee Department of Revenue, 51-year-old Chinyan "Linda" Ye was order to pay $21,636.99 in restitution and was placed on two years of supervised probation.
Ye is the former partner of the 72 Market and Deli.
The Department of Revenue pursued the criminal case in cooperation with District Attorney General Russell Johnson and his staff.
More details as they develop online and in Tuesday's News Sentinel.
SHARE LaDaniel DeShawn Mitchell
By Jamie Satterfield of the Knoxville News Sentinel
A man who brought a teenage runaway to Knoxville to work as a prostitute pleaded guilty to sex trafficking conspiracy charges Tuesday.
LaDaniel DeShawn Mitchell, 35, pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan to a charge of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. His partner-in-crime, Jodi Marie Robicheaux, 25, earlier this year pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in the case.
The pair were arrested in May 2015 in the parking lot of the Extended Stay America motel on Winston Road after the FBI received a tip they were pimping a 16-year-old girl at the motel.
FBI Agent Kristina Norris wrote in a criminal complaint Robicheaux, a prostitute who allegedly worked for Mitchell, and Mitchell were getting into a car with the teenager when arrested.
The girl, a runaway from Dallas, claimed she was 18 but soon conceded her real age. Norris said she continued to lie out of fear, saying she had been a prostitute since the age of 14 and came to Knoxville on her own "to make a lot of money."
"All (the girl) would say about Robicheaux and Mitchell is that they had smoked pot together and that they promised to help her," Norris wrote.
Mitchell first said he didn't know the girl.
"Mitchell said they had met at the motel, and they were simply sharing a ride to a restaurant," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kolman wrote in a plea agreement.
Mitchell and Robicheaux next insisted they met the teenager on a Greyhound bus and wound up at the same motel by happenstance.
Norris's probe concluded Mitchell bought three bus tickets in Dallas, and the trio boarded the bus together.
The girl had no money. Instead, her purse was filled with condoms, a pregnancy test kit and a book called "Seduction." An ad for her services posted on Backpage.com showed a photograph of a younger Robicheaux similar to one Robicheaux had on her prostitution business cards, which had the name "Lexi Styles" and Robicheaux's phone number and email address printed beneath, according to court records.
Mitchell had $1,300 in cash in his pocket, Norris wrote.
Mitchell's phone showed he had "researched the age of consent in Tennessee" and provided proof he posted the Backpage.com ad, Kolman wrote.
Mitchell and Robicheaux were convicted in Albuquerque, N.M., in 2012 of pimping another teenage runaway. The victim in that case also lied until Mitchell was jailed, records showed. A second runaway later came forward to say she, too, had been a victim of Mitchell and Robicheaux.
SHARE An Amber Alert remains in effect for 9-year-old Carlie Marie Trent of Rogersville, Tenn. (Photo: TBI) Carlie Marie Trent Gary Simpson Items purchased by Gary Simpson at a Rogersville-area Walmart before he picked up 9-year-old Carlie Marie Trent at school. (Photo: TBI)
By News Sentinel Staff
An Amber Alert for a 9-year-old upper East Tennessee girl, who authorities say has been abducted by her noncustodial uncle, has been extended to Missouri.
The Cooper County Sheriff's Office issued the alert Tuesday afternoon after information was obtained that Carlie Marie Trent and Gary Simpson "were possibly sighted" in the Otterville, Mo., area Monday, according to the alert.
Josh Devine, a spokesman with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said they did not request Missouri to activate the alert.
"Based on tips and leads, local authorities in that state have requested an issuance," he said.
Authorities are entering their seventh day of searching for Carlie, who was signed out of school in Rogersville, Tenn., on Wednesday by 57-year-old Simpson.
NEW PICTURES: He often wears a hat, so we want you to see these new images of Gary Simpson. #BringCarlieHome pic.twitter.com/pJVt7gExAy TBI (@TBInvestigation) May 10, 2016
In an earlier news briefing on Tuesday, Devine said that last week Simpson purchased items such as girl's underwear, nail polish and lipstick before he picked her up from school.
Authorities previously shared security video of Simpson taken at a Rogersville-area Walmart shortly before he picked up Carlie from her school, claiming her father had been in an accident.
TBI officials initially described Simpson's purchases as "camping supplies."
On Tuesday, DeVine said those items included a pink and purple "plush throw" blanket, a green men's short-sleeve shirt, men's black pants, girls' khaki pants, two shades of lipstick, two shades of nail polish, a pink folding camp chair, a purple child-sized nightgown, a bikini and a Fruit of the Loom brand girls' multi-pack of underwear.
Photos: Items purchased by Gary Simpson at Rogersville-area Walmart
"Maybe someone would see this wrapping at a campground or a piece of property they might own," DeVine said, holding up a photo of the packaged underwear.
Simpson, who is related to Carlie by marriage, also bought several "nonperishable items" at a Save-A-Lot grocery store Wednesday afternoon, shortly after picking up the girl.
"There's every indication that he intended to go out of sight," DeVine said during the news conference in Rogersville, where the TBI has established a mobile command post. "We believe this girl is in imminent danger."
Asked to elaborate, he said he could not share other specifics gathered by investigators.
"Gary, if you're out there, we would encourage you to do the right thing we would encourage you to bring Carlie home," DeVine said Monday night, making a direct plea to Simpson. "There is nothing that has happened in the past few days that cannot be discussed and can't be worked out."
The two were last seen traveling in a white 2002 Dodge conversion van, with Tennessee tag 173GPS.
"Just keep remembering that the license plate features 'GPS,' " DeVine said. "Should be pretty easy to remember."
NEW PICTURES: Here's the suspect vehicle in our #AmberAlert. TN TAG 173-GPS. See it in front of you? Call 911! pic.twitter.com/9eXtRVibkQ TBI (@TBInvestigation) May 10, 2016
An East and Middle Tennessee Amber Alert remains in effect. Anyone with information on Carlie or Simpson is asked to call the TBI at 1-800-824-3463.
Anyone with immediate information on the pair's location is asked to call E-911.
"It only takes one tip it only takes one person seeing something that does not sit right in their stomach and they pick up the phone and call and it makes all the difference," DeVine said. "And we believe that could happen today."
Authorities suspect the two might be in an isolated area, DeVine said. The TBI has reached out to state park officials, as well as private campgrounds in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky.
DeVine suggested property owners in rural areas take a look around their land for anything suspicious.
Carlie's pediatrician, Dr. Chris Calendine, is offering a $10,000 reward in the case.
The U.S. Marshals Service also is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the girl's recovery and Simpson's capture.
Carlie is 4 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 75 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes. Simpson is balding, about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 157 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Both are white.
DeVine said Tuesday that authorities have received more than 600 tips from across the nation and officials in 11 states are investigating, but there have still been no credible sightings.
More details as they develop online and in Wednesday's News Sentinel.
Buzz Thomas (CAITIE MCMEKIN/NEWS SENTINEL)
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By MJ Slaby of the Knoxville News Sentinel
Knox County Schools' incoming interim superintendent said asking for a lower salary was "the right thing" to do.
In an email to fellow school board members Monday, board Chairman Doug Harris wrote that Buzz Thomas has asked for his salary to "be reduced from $195,000 to $180,000." Harris added the contract begins June 15, so the board has "time to address the contractual mechanics of this change."
The board has two work sessions and a regular meeting before Thomas' start date. However, Harris said it's unclear if the change will require a board vote.
During a discussion of Thomas's contract at the school board's Wednesday meeting, there was some concern about Thomas' total annual compensation of up to $235,200 $195,000 in salary plus $3,350 as a monthly cap for benefits.
Thomas said then that the amount was selected to mimic his pay as president of the Great Schools Partnership, and offered to do the job for less.
Several board members praised Thomas for his offer, but none proposed a motion to lower the salary. The board unanimously approved the contract, just as it had Thomas' selection for the interim position.
Thomas continued to think about the board conversation after the vote and realized the salary amount "was creating a political problem," he said Monday.
He said he asked for his contract to be changed to $180,000 because it was an amount that school board member Mike McMillan suggested as reasonable to his constituents.
Harris, who negotiated the contract with Thomas, said at last week's meeting that he wouldn't support an amendment to lower the salary. But Harris said Monday that Thomas thought the change would be best and a gesture of goodwill.
"I feel like he's worth more," said Harris, who added that he wasn't going to turn down Thomas' salary reduction request.
Thomas said it's more important that the board members are in good standing with the constituents and with taxpayers than the $15,000 for him.
"We want to get off to a good start," he said.
Local sculptor Dale Sumner poses Monday, May 9, 2016 with his sculpture scene of Earl Terrell, homeless man who died earlier this year. Sumner used other people's photos of Terrell and photos he took of Terrell's tent to guide his work. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)
By Kristi L. Nelson of the Knoxville News Sentinel
It's the first time Dale Sumner has sculpted someone who existed outside his imagination.
But he wanted to pay tribute to a man he'd never met.
So Sumner, a self-taught 'concept' artist who took up sculpture four years ago after retiring, put a lot of himself into crafting a heavy, detailed tableau of Earl Terrell and he hopes others see a lot of Terrell in the piece as well.
Waymon Earl Terrell, 65, lived in the woods in Northeast Knox County in a home he built himself digging out a dirt foundation, carving sticks and securing tarps to them. He was well-known, especially to those who regularly traveled along Clinton Highway and often saw him over the past 30 years on his roughly customized bicycle with a homemade trailer carrying dogs and aluminum cans.
Terrell worked odd jobs, fashioned much of what he needed from objects he salvaged and never panhandled, those who knew him said. Only at the end of his life, ill and unable to speak, did he accept help from the community.
Terrell died Dec. 29, most of his life still a mystery even to the few who knew his name and visited his home. More than 100 people attended his funeral and memorial service, many bringing items to donate to Knoxville's homeless although Terrell never considered himself"homeless.
After his death, people who knew Terrell in his younger years in his Kentucky hometown found their way to a Facebook page, Loving Earl, set up by Kristen Gasnow Brown. There they shared stories and pictures of Terrell as a child, a young man and a Marine, and thanked his adopted community.
Sumner visited that page after reading a newspaper story about Terrell. He contacted Brown and arranged to visit Terrell's home, now gone. Then, for four months, he worked to make a visual representation of other people's memories.
The sculpture displays a plaster-and-cloth Earl, head down, kneeling outside his tent home and smoothing down a piece of blue tarp. Sumner crafted the tent, inside and out, as it was when he saw it, using bamboo sticks as the base and draping it with cloth,on which he used a textile hardener called Paverpol. Nearby sits a milk crate of aluminum cans Sumner used a 3-D print of the crate and crafted the cans. The cracked ground is plaster on wood; nearby, a rope secures the tent flap to a tree made of polished driftwood Sumner fished out of the creek behind his house long ago.
Retired after 30 years working for candy companies Nestle and Brach, primarily in marketing and events, Sumner works at home and completed "Loving Earl" in his kitchen. It's "the most complicated piece I've done," he said, and the only one of his sculptures, displayed around his home, based on a real person.
A Texas native, Sumner moved to East Tennessee 10 years ago for his wife's job at ORNL. Twice, he's shown at the Dogwood Arts Regional Juried Exhibition. The first piece, "Only the Lonely," shows a New York City street scene featuring a homeless man remarkably similar to Terrell. The second, "Voices in My Head," shows a young man seated outside a clinic, head bowed, body drawn. It's part of a series of three pieces that shows the man, who has post-traumatic stress disorder, as he ages.
Sumner doesn't sell his art and rarely shows it, except on his Facebook page. But he hopes to display "Loving Earl" publicly, so people can see it.
The East Tennessee Historical Society expressed interest in exhibiting Terrell's tools and bicycle, but curator Michele MacDonald said that project is still in the discussion stage.
A rendering shows a proposed $45.5 million mixed-use complex on Cumberland Avenue. Collegiate Development Group plans to build a 138-unit housing complex with commercial storefronts and a parking garage. The developers said they need a 15-year payment in lieu of taxes deal, or PILOT, which would save the company an estimated $6.95 million. (COLLEGIATE DEVELOPMENT GROUP/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SENTINEL)
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By Megan Boehnke of the Knoxville News Sentinel
A $45 million student housing complex on the Cumberland Avenue Strip got its final approval Monday for a 15-year, $8 million tax incentive.
The Industrial Development Board approved the deal, which had already been OK'd by Knoxville City Council members two weeks ago.
"Even though there's a lot of development going on, this is one actually falling under the form district for Cumberland Avenue," said Dawn Michelle Foster, the city's redevelopment director. "This is the very first one."
The development will have 10,000 feet of retail space along with 138 residential units that will be marketed primarily to University of Tennessee students.
The deal, which saves the developer money by freezing property taxes, will bridge a funding gap created by the sloped landscape on the site and to build 348 parking spaces.
The residential units will have a combined 600 beds marketed to students for $675 to $750 per month per bedroom. First Tennessee Bank, which has a branch on the current site, will be the anchor tenant for the building, while restaurants and a coffee shop would likely fill out the remaining store fronts.
The building will be six stories on the side fronting Cumberland Avenue and eight stories on the side facing Lake Avenue, which sits about 20 feet lower than The Strip.
The ground floor of the building will touch the sidewalk, but will have a 10-foot setback between the second and third stories to avoid a "tunnel effect" along the renovated campus corridor.
The St. Louis-based development firm began looking in the Knoxville area two years ago, after the form-based code was passed and the city committed to an overhaul of Cumberland Avenue. That $17 million investment to move utilities underground, widen the sidewalks and narrow the road began last year and is set to wrap up in August 2017.
The Industrial Development Board on Tuesday also approved a $20,000 training grant for Cirrus Aircraft, which announced last year it would open a facility at McGhee Tyson Airport. Construction is nearing completion on one building and the facility will be operational by June 1, said Stephen Deucker, vice president and general manger of the Knoxville site.
The grant will go toward training 14 technicians.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker
By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel
WASHINGTON Now that Donald Trump has in effect clinched the Republican presidential nomination, the guessing game has begun over whom the New York real-estate mogul will pick as his running mate.
On Tuesday, speculation turned toward Tennessee.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker's name was added to the mix after Politico published a story suggesting GOP insiders believe the Chattanooga Republican would be "an attractive, plausible vice-presidential pick" for Trump.
The article quoted unnamed sources who said Trump might find Corker a viable running mate because he is "an independent guy" who is "not afraid to buck the old guard."
Corker's office immediately brushed aside the speculation.
"Sen. Corker has no reason to believe he is being considered for vice president," said his spokeswoman, Micah Johnson.
But others think putting Corker on the ticket would make sense.
"Corker would bring a lot to the ticket," said John Geer, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. "He's respected on both sides of the aisle. He knows foreign policy pretty well, something people have been worried about in regards to Trump. It would be a big coup, frankly, for Trump if he were to secure someone like Corker."
Tennessee's senior senator, Republican Lamar Alexander, agreed Corker has a lot to offer.
"There's no question that Sen. Corker has tremendous talent and has succeeded at every level and has a bright future," Alexander said. "Any decision about that future is Sen. Corker's to make, but he would be great for our country in whatever capacity he chooses to serve."
The Politico piece appeared to be triggered, at least in part, by comments Corker made last week.
Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told USA TODAY he's offered to help Trump develop a foreign policy platform, making him one of the few senators to publicly embrace Trump as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Corker said he and Trump's campaign have talked and that he stands ready to assist him in the general election.
Some GOP insiders, according to Politico, suggested that Corker's swift move toward Trump could give him a big advantage in the vice presidential lottery.
Geer, however, cautioned that people may be misinterpreting Corker's remarks and his motives.
"He does care deeply about policy he does want government to run as effectively as it possibly can," Geer said. "Yes, it could be interpreted that he wants to be vice president. But it's just as likely that he wants to be of help. He may see that Donald Trump would benefit from that kind of input, and he's prepared to be helpful as opposed to being at arm's length."
While Corker is a conservative Republican, he has an independent streak "that might be appealing to Trump," Geer said.
"He's super ambitious and may like to be secretary of State," Geer said. "That's something that might be more of interest to him if Trump were elected president."
Corker has seen his national stature grow considerably in the year and a half since he took over the reins of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Last year, Time magazine named him to its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people, ranking him alongside world leaders such as President Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"He is a conservative who prizes results over speeches," Alexander wrote in an essay published by the magazine. "If he is not president himself, Corker is an obvious choice for secretary of state or treasurer."
By Georgiana Vines of the Knoxville News Sentinel
State Rep. Martin Daniel's complaints about the civil rights movement as a theme in a Knox County Schools fourth-grade reading exercise have ignited debate on social media and drawn criticism from Democrats and from his Republican opponents in the Aug. 4 state primary.
"It is unbelievable that Rep. Martin Daniel wants to roll back the clock to pre-civil rights era," Knox County Democratic Party Chairman Cameron Brooks said. "The civil rights movement is one of America's greatest triumphs. Our children need to know how people worked together and peacefully fought to fulfill America's promise of justice and equality for all. Saying that we should not teach this historic movement to our children is outrageous. Tennessee Republicans once again want to force their extremist ideas on our youth by erasing our country's rich history."
Brooks' comments came in a statement by the Tennessee Democratic Party after publication of Daniel's complaints in Monday's News Sentinel.
Daniel wrote to the Knox County school board with copies sent to state education officials and Gov. Bill Haslam that the reading exercise in his daughter's class at Sequoyah Elementary School deals with "social injustice." He asked whether it was appropriate for a fourth-grader and said he was "shocked" by the content.
Daniel requested the school board take steps to ensure curriculum and course materials in the future do not contain "plots that seek to indoctrinate our children as to social justice or political ideology."
The exercise describes a student whose textbook is "worn and missing a dozen pages." The student is in a black community where schools receive old, damaged books while those in white areas get new textbooks. Through a court case, the school board agrees to revise the system for providing materials to schools.
In the exercise, the fourth-grade student is asked to explain the cause (why something happens) and effect (what happens).
Former state Rep. Steve Hall, who is running in the GOP primary to regain the 18th District House seat from Daniel, said he thought the class exercise was appropriate.
"Maybe I didn't realize it was in a reading class, but we don't instruct now in just reading. It's not like back when I was a kid. As long as it's a truthful statement or could have been, it probably was a fairly accurate statement. I think our children need to be aware of that kind of stuff," Hall said.
Another opponent, James Corcoran, referenced Daniel's remarks in March during a state House debate on a proposed "Tennessee Student Free Speech Protection Act," in which Daniel said campuses could be used to recruit for any group even ISIS, "so long as it doesn't disrupt the proceedings on that campus." The bill was removed from consideration for the rest of this year.
"So, the incumbent that would have protected ISIS's 'right' to recruit at public universities wants to fight against fourth-graders learning about civil rights," Corcoran wrote on Facebook.
"As Republicans we need to reject the notion that there is a conflict between racial equality and conservative values. Every Tennessean has the right to a quality public education, regardless of race. Mr. Daniel seems to have fallen for the falsehood perpetrated by the so-called 'social justice warriors' that conservative values are at odds with racial equality."
Daniel also has been a critic of the University of Tennessee's Office for Diversity and Inclusion. The Legislature has adopted a bill that would cut $436,000 for the office and put the money into minority student scholarships in engineering. Haslam has not yet taken any action on the measure.
Bryan Dodson, another primary opponent, said he did not know about Martin's comments until asked about them. He said he favors vouchers in the school system, which give parents involvement in their children's education.
Brandi Price, the only Democrat running for the 18th District seat, said she believes the class assignment is appropriate for a fourth-grader. Price is an attorney specializing in juvenile cases, representing infants and children up to age 17.
"I don't think fourth grade is too young for that. Learning is (about) how to right those wrongs that you do," she said.
Daniel said Tuesday he does not object to social justice lessons with historical facts but not in a fourth-grade reading assignment.
"I have no problem whatsoever with historical facts concerning racial discrimination, oppression, civil rights, injustice, genocide, war, etc., being taught factually as a part of a social studies or history course. The proper age for children to be exposed to those kinds of facts is another matter," he said.
Knox County school board member Mike McMillan wrote Daniel that he basically agreed with him but that anytime questions were raised about textbooks before the board, other members felt that was not the proper forum. New legislation gives that responsibility to the school board, McMillan said.
Schools Superintendent Jim McIntyre wrote Daniel that textbooks are adopted at the state and local levels "through a vigorous process that includes teacher recommendations and opportunities for public review and input."
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
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Signed, not signed? That is the question
Reporters scrambled early Friday evening when an updated Tennessee legislative website indicated that Gov. Bill Haslam had signed into law a pair of bills that reporters are watching for possible vetoes: Senate Bill 47, which cuts and eventually repeals the Hall income tax, and House Bill 2248 that cuts $436,000 from the University of Tennessee's Office for Diversity and Inclusion for one year and reallocates the money into scholarships for minority students in engineering.
Media outlets have pre-written stories with blanks and headlines to be filled in depending on whether the governor signs the bills into law, vetoes them or lets them become law without his signature.
When the governor acts on the bills, those blanks will be filled in, reaction will be obtained from supporters and opponents of the bills and the stories will be posted on websites and published in print editions.
Just as state offices were closing for the day late Friday afternoon, the bill history portion of the legislative website, capitol.tn.gov, was updated to say that both SB0047 and HB2248 were "Signed by Governor 05/06/2016," even though the governor's press office had said earlier in the day that the governor who's on an economic development trip to Asia likely would take no action on the bills that day.
But the web posting indicated the governor had signed both bills prompted a mad scramble to reach the legislative clerks and the governor's press office for verification. Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey's communications director, Adam Kleinheider, finally reached the chief clerk of the Senate and reported back that the entry was a clerical error. The "Signed by Governor" entry was quickly changed to "Signed by Senate Speaker."
Stay tuned for the governor's action soon.
Violence is not only Knoxville's issue
A trip to Birmingham, Ala., to meet with leaders from other cities around the country reminded Mayor Madeline Rogero that Knoxville isn't alone when it comes to grappling with gang violence.
Two boys, 15-year-old Zaevion Dobson and 12-year-old JaJuan Latham, have been killed since December in drive-by shootings.
"Unfortunately not unique at all," Rogero said Friday, after returning with a delegation that included City Councilman Daniel Brown and eight others from Knoxville. "I was on the panel with two women and four men and everyone talked about someone they had been working with or had been part of their group who had been killed."
One young man who was supposed to attend the conference with a delegation from Philadelphia had been killed the week before, in fact.
The conference was part of Cities United, a national coalition aimed at eliminating violence-related deaths of black men and boys.
David Hunter
On occasion, I receive an advance copy of a new book from the publisher of four of my books, Oconee Spirit Press.
The one I received most recently, "Hiking for Fun and Pain" by David Curran, immediately caught my attention, but not because I am an outdoor person.
I swore off hiking and sleeping outside during Army basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., during a thunderstorm, inside a leaking tent on June 29, 1965 and I have been true to my promise.
It was Curran's dry wit and clear writing that caught my eye and kept me reading. Both are rare qualities. There is a school of thought that says everyone is capable of producing a bestselling book if they just believe they can. I do not subscribe to that theory. Good writers are rare.
His publisher and editor, Deborah Adams, summed up my feelings: "I don't understand David's excitement about hiking, but he writes so well, I knew we had to publish his book."
Curran was born and spent his early life in Pennsylvania. He was a victim of rheumatic fever, which left him unable to participate in sports, so he took up walking as a means of exercise and found that he enjoyed being outside.
After a move with his parents to Florida, which proved to be a hostile environment for walking, his parents moved to North Carolina, which led to a lifelong love affair with the mountains.
By age 23, with a bachelor's degree from Florida State University in government and a Master's degree from the University of Kentucky in political science, Curran went to work for the Tennessee Valley Authority in the Knoxville area, where he retired after 28 years.
After moving to Knoxville, Curran sought out a local doctor for his health care, and an examination showed that the damage from his rheumatic fever had cleared up on its own, which frequently happens something not known to doctors in the era of his youth.
"I felt like a person reborn," Curran wrote, "like one sentenced to prison for life and then found innocent and set free."
Since then, with 55 trail hikes some hiked several times in 35 states, the result is "Hiking for Fun and Pain," a summary of his passion for the outdoors.
With so little space, I can't do justice to Curran's book, so I'll let him do it with a few words of his own : "The opposites of the high peaks are inverted mountains called canyons my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the greatest of all, the Grand Canyon scanning down the length of the chasm must surely be the greatest visual experience on Earth."
I don't have the experience to understand the author's passion, but I know there are many who do. So let me point you in the direction of a book that will speak to you if the outdoors is your cup of tea.
Curran's website for "Hiking for Fun and Pain" is a visual delight of mountain vistas and information for those who are interested. I would suggest that such people take a look at www.hikingforfunandpain.com.
Curran is now planning book events in the near future and will be available to speak to social groups as time allows. He and his wife Lola currently live in Powell.
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Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III served up a timely reminder last week that public officials cannot skirt open government laws by outsourcing essential governmental functions.
In an advisory opinion issued Friday, Slatery wrote that any records obtained by a third party hired to conduct searches for new schools superintendents must be made available for public inspection and its meetings might be subject to the Open Meetings Act.
The Knox County Board of Education will need to make the requirement a point of emphasis if, as is likely, the panel hires a search firm to find candidates to replace outgoing Superintendent Jim McIntyre.
McIntyre's resignation takes effect July 8. Buzz Thomas, head of the Great Schools Partnership, will take over on an interim basis, but the school board must find a long-term replacement. Board members have said they expect the search to take up to a year or longer.
With nearly 60,000 students attending 89 schools and employing more than 8,000 people, the Knox County system requires a top education administrator at the helm. Using a search firm to identify the best possible candidates would be prudent. A search firm or other organization will have to comply with Tennessee's statutes on open government.
In response to a formal request by state Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, Slatery wrote that state law is unambiguous when it comes to records connected to school superintendent searches.
The Tennessee Public Record Act, Slatery wrote, provides that "all records, employment applications, credentials and similar documents" gathered during an employment search for a director of schools or top public administration officer are subject to inspection. The law specifically notes that the requirement applies to business entities that are involved in the search.
The law applies to any third-party group, whether it be a for-profit search firm or a nonprofit organization such as the Tennessee School Board Association.
Whether the third party would have to comply with the state's Open Meetings Act would depend on the facts and circumstances, Slatery wrote. Factors to be considered would be the organization's structure and its authority to act on behalf of the public body that employs it.
The Open Meetings Act applies to governing bodies that have "the authority to made decisions for or recommendations to a public body on policy or administration."
"Clearly," Slatery wrote, "if the third party is one whose 'origin and authority may be traced to state, city, or county legislative action,' then the meetings of the third party are subject to the Open Meetings Act."
Generally speaking, the courts have held that third parties performing government functions must comply with the state's open government laws. They are the "functional equivalent" of a government agency and must conduct public business in public.
The selection of McIntyre's permanent replacement is one of the most important decisions any public body in Knox County will make in the coming months. School board members should view Slatery's opinion as informed guidance on how to proceed with a transparent search for the right candidate.
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I am neither gay nor transgendered, but I have friends who are and will be deeply offended by the attitude expressed by state Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, in the article written by Erik Schelzig of The Associated Press.
It is hard to believe that a major city like Chattanooga would elect a bigot to our Legislature and that he would become the House majority leader.
McCormick's transgender bathroom bill is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. North Carolina passed a similar bill recently, and a sheriff asked how he could enforce this law. Should he station a deputy in each public bathroom in his county?
To add insult to injury, McCormick has threatened the 60 corporations that have voiced opposition to this legislation. He says he would withhold tax breaks that some of them receive from our state.
I've got news for him. Other states would offer the same tax breaks, since these companies employ hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans.
In addition, the legislation is unconstitutional and would cost our state millions of dollars to defend in court. McCormick has disgraced our state and the city of Chattanooga.
I think the best solution is to find a credible candidate to oppose McCormick when he runs for re-election. I am sure many of the corporations and thousands of citizens like me would be willing to donate campaign funds to oppose his re-election.
Irving Leeds, Knoxville
The bison join the bald eagle as U.S. official symbol
A bison and calf at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado. Photo by Rich Keen, DPRA.
On May 9, 2016, President Obama signed the National Bison Legacy Act into law, officially making the American bison the national mammal of the United States. The bison joins the ranks of the Bald Eagle as the official symbol of our country -- and much like the eagle, its one of the greatest conservation success stories of all time.
In prehistoric times, millions of bison roamed North America -- from the forests of Alaska and the grasslands of Mexico to Nevadas Great Basin and the eastern Appalachian Mountains. But by the late 1800s, there were only a few hundred bison left in the United States after European settlers pushed west, reducing the animals habitat and hunting the bison to near extinction. Had it not been for a few private individuals working with tribes, states and the Interior Department, the bison would be extinct today.
15 facts about the American bison:
1. Bison are the largest mammal in North America. Male bison (called bulls) weigh up to 2,000 pounds and stand 6 feet tall, while females (called cows) weigh up to 1,000 pounds and reach a height of 4-5 feet. Bison calves weigh 30-70 pounds at birth.
2. Since the late 19th century, Interior has been the primary national conservation steward of the bison. Public lands managed by Interior support 17 bison herds -- or approximately 10,000 bison -- in 12 states, including Alaska.
3. Whats the difference between bison and buffalo? While bison and buffalo are used interchangeably, in North America the scientific name is bison.
A bison walking by the Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Photo by Jennifer Michaud (www.sharetheexperience.org).
4. Yellowstone National Park is the only place in the U.S. where bison have continuously lived since prehistoric times. What makes Yellowstones bison so special is that theyre the pure descendants (free of cattle genes) of early bison that roamed our countrys grasslands. As of July 2015, Yellowstones bison population was estimated at 4,900 -- making it the largest bison population on public lands.
5. Whats a red dog? Its a baby bison. Bison calves tend to be born from late March through May and are orange-red in color, earning them the nickname red dogs. After a few months, their hair starts to change to dark brown and their characteristic shoulder hump and horns begin to grow.
6. The history of bison and Native Americans are intertwined. Bison have been integral to tribal culture, providing them with food, clothing, fuel, tools, shelter and spiritual value. Established in 1992, the Inter Tribal Buffalo Council works with the National Park Service to transfer bison from national park lands to tribal lands.
7. You can judge a bisons mood by its tail. When it hangs down and switches naturally, the bison is usually calm. If the tail is standing straight up, watch out! It may be ready to charge. No matter what a bisons tail is doing, remember that they are unpredictable and can charge at any moment. Every year, there are regrettable accidents caused by people getting too close to these massive animals. Its great to love the bison, but love them from a distance.
A bison charging through a river at Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Donald Higgs (www.sharetheexperience.org).
Woman sentenced for role in $200 million credit card fraud conspiracy
TRENTON, N.J. A Philadelphia woman who participated in one of the largest credit card fraud schemes ever charged by the Justice Department was sentenced today to 40 months in prison.
Vernina Adams, 34, previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Adams was originally charged in February 2013 as part of a conspiracy, led by Tahir Lodhi, Babar Qureshi, Ijaz Butt, and others, to fabricate more than 7,000 false identities and obtain tens of thousands of credit cards. Since then, 19 people, including Adams, have pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme.
The scheme involved a three-step process in which the defendants would make up a false identity by creating fraudulent identification documents and a phony credit profile with the major credit bureaus; pump up the credit of the false identity by providing bogus information about that identitys creditworthiness; then borrowed or spent as much as they could without repaying the debts causing more than $200 million in confirmed losses to businesses and financial institutions.
The scope of the criminal enterprise required Adams and others to construct an elaborate network of false identities. Across the country, the conspirators maintained more than 1,800 drop addresses, including houses, apartments and post office boxes, which they used as the mailing addresses of the false identities.
Adams and her conspirators also used sophisticated methods including a network of black-market businesses called tradelines providers to commit fraud. Tradelines come in two varieties: primary tradelines and authorized user tradelines. Primary tradelines are lines of credit in a credit history. If a credit card user has primary tradelines in good standing, it can have a significant impact on the users credit score, enabling the user to borrow more from credit card issuers. A second kind of tradeline is the authorized user tradeline, where a credit card holder adds another individual to a credit card account. This raises the credit score of the authorized user, who inherits some of the primary users credit history.
During her plea proceeding, Adams admitted advertising on Craigslist for individuals willing to add someone onto their credit cards. She also admitted selling other members of the conspiracy fraudulent tradelines, including by working with Acapulco Jewelry, a complicit business in California. Adams would extend a fictitious line of credit to a false identity, backdate the line of credit so it appeared to have existed for a longer period of time, then falsely report the line of credit had been paid.
In addition to the prison term, Adams was sentenced to five years of supervised release. Published May 10, 2016
By Choi Sung-jin
As the government presses public agencies to adopt a performance-related salary system, saying it would freeze wages for those that resist the policy, labor unions are protesting the move, threatening general strikes.
The nation's two umbrella unions the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) are making an all-out attack by seeking to form an allied front with opposition parties and filing complaints against top managers of individual agencies.
This means the Park Geun-hye administration's plan to apply the payment-by-result system to employees at director level or higher - 70 percent of the total - has run into a big stumbling block, officials and unionists said Monday.
Reforming the public sector is one of the four major changes the incumbent administration is pursuing. "We have to raise the public sector's productivity to that of industrial countries and therefore we can't help but differentiate workers' salaries according to their abilities and performances," a government official said.
Although three other reforms labor, finance and pensions have limitations without the parliament's cooperation, the public-sector reform depends largely on the government's will, which explains why President Park is taking the lead in implementing the performance-based pay system for state enterprises and other public institutions.
The labor unions are going all out to stop it, however, staging sit-ins in front of the National Assembly, holding protest rallies and threatening a general strike in August or September, with support from two opposition parties. They are also taking the top managers of public corporations, which have already introduced the merit pay system without consultation with unions, to court.
Neutral experts want the government and unions to meet halfway.
"The government needs to make more efforts to persuade unionists," said Bae Kyu-shik, a fellow at the Korea Labor Institute. "Most low-echelon officials have complaints and distrust in the new system because of what they perceive as the lack of objective criteria to evaluate their performances. The government and public corporations should come up with a fair appraisal system and persuade the employees."
Professor Park Ji-soon of Korea University advised the unionists to drop their unconditionally negative stance on the reform initiative. "Instead, labor should offer a more productive alternative through dialogue and compromise," he said.
Dragging down otherwise praiseworthy government efforts is its outdated personnel management, which sends defeated politicians and retired bureaucrats to key posts of these organizations, political and economic watchers said.
No fewer than 16 such figures have quietly landed executive posts at public organizations this spring while most people's eyes were on the parliamentary election and its aftermath, according to the Public Policy Institute for People. Most of them worked at President Park's campaign headquarters more than three years ago or were in important posts at the ruling Saenuri Party.
"If we include those who were sent to quasi-public agencies and other similar organizations, the number of officials arriving there by parachute' will sharply increase," said Kim Cheol, director of the institute's research department. "Most of such people parachuted into the posts have no expertise in their new tasks."
These unqualified officials at the top of state-run or state-subsidized institutions also explain why the shipping and shipbuilding industries have failed to get out of the troubles they are in. "As an old saying goes, a servant is only as honest as his master," Kim said.
Market forces should determine fate of shippers, shipbuilders
By Kim Jae-kyoung
Korea should allow market forces to determine the fate of the nation's troubled shipbuilding and shipping firms to forestall the growing risks associated with conglomerates, or chaebol, said Sohn Sung-won, an economics professor at California State University.
He said that politically motivated decisions initiated by the government and politicians will neither help debt-ridden firms fix structural problems nor improve the health of Asia's fourth-largest economy, calling for the government to discard the "too big to fail" rule.
"This is done all the time by governments. However, history shows that administrations, including those of Korea, have a very poor track record of picking winners and losers," Sohn told The Korea Times.
"The market does a much better job of allocating scarce resources. Should the government make a political decision to bail out companies and industries, the legislators should vote on it."
His remarks came as the government is moving to recapitalize state-run lenders the Korea Development Bank (KDB) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) to save ill-fated chaebol saddled with snowballing debts, such as Hanjin Group.
In short, the government has again decided to inject taxpayers' money into ill-managed conglomerates, a practice that has been repeated whenever the economy is exposed to financial crises.
"The Korean economy is too dominated by chaebol. As one of the chaebol gets in trouble, the whole economy is in difficulty," he added.
"In the past, chaebol have been successful and helped the country build foreign-exchange reserves, but in the future the risks are greater. Korea not only needs new industries for the future but also must diversify."
Noting that Korea is still heavily swayed by the "too big to fail" rule, Sohn, also director of the Institute for Global Economic Research, said that the government is making the decision politically, not based on market principles.
"My concern is that the government is making that decision, not the market forces. Too big to fail is an issue here. The track record of government decision-making has not been good," he said.
Citing the U.S. government's handling of GM, he said that a bailout is not a panacea for troubled companies.
"U.S. President Barack Obama says that if GM wasn't bailed out, there would have been a lot of jobs lost. I think he is wrong. If GM were sold, like Chrysler, a new owner or owners would have operated them more efficiently, possibly creating more jobs in the long run," he said.
Sohn, who was the chief economist at Wells Fargo, stressed that the best way to handle this, in theory, is to leave them to market forces and let non-viable players go.
"Government bureaucrats and politicians make those decisions, not economists. This is the way it should be in democratic societies," he said.
He pointed out that having central banks recapitalizing state lenders is an underhanded way of untangling a problem easily and in a short-term manner.
"People in power do not like to go through the laborious process of getting the parliament to approve the funding necessary. A helicopter money drop from central banks is easier."
"When Obama first came to the White House, he asked Congress for $700 billion to prevent the economy from falling into a deeper recession. It took some time but he got the money."
The Bank of Korea and the government are split over how to support the troubled firms after the central bank refused to print more money to recapitalize state-run lenders.
The central bank has clung to its position that it will provide the state banks with loans instead of directly investing in them.
By Kim Jae-won
Banks need to set aside almost 8 trillion won in provisions for possible loan losses from troubled shipbuilders and shippers, raising concerns on the financial soundness of lenders, a local credit ratings agency said Monday.
Korea Ratings said that the nation's 13 banks are required to set apart a combined 7.9 trillion won in loan-loss provisions to hedge their risks from five companies in the shipbuilding and shipping industries going through corporate restructuring. They are Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Hanjin Shipping and Changmyung Shipping.
"We estimate that banks need to set apart 7.9 trillion won in provisions special banks for 6.6 trillion won and general banks for 1.3 trillion won by reclassifying their exposures to the five companies," said Kim Jeong-hyeon, a researcher at Korea Ratings.
Kim said that special banks meant the Korea Export-Import Bank (Eximbank), the Korea Development (KDB), NongHyup and Suhyup banks and the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK); while general banks referred to KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, KEB Hana, Kyongnam, Jeonbuk and Busan banks, and Standard Chartered Bank Korea.
In particular, he said that it was urgent to recapitalize the Eximbank through government support because its BIS ratio was estimated to be lower than the minimum of 9.25 percent if it reclassifies its exposure to the ailing companies.
As of December, the bank's BIS ratio reached 10.11 percent, far lower than the average of banks which marked 13.72 percent in the same period, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
The report came amid the government is at odds with the Bank of Korea (BOK) over ways to inject fresh money into the Eximbank. The finance ministry wants the central bank to increase its stake in the lender directly by printing banknotes. But the BOK is reluctant to do so, suggesting that it will give loans to the government-controlled bank with collateral.
Market watchers said that it was time for the Eximbank to take a so-called big bath, an accounting plan that reflects bad loans in financial statements in the same fiscal year, to make a new start.
NongHyup Financial Group Chairman Kim Yong-hwan ignited the big bath discussion last week, saying that he considered applying the plan to the nation's second-largest financial group by assets, as its banking unit had a large amount of bad loans to players in the weak shipbuilding, shipping and steelmaking industries.
But, he declined to elaborate when the group would reflect the bad loans in its financial statements, saying he would decide on the matter after watching carefully how the corporate restructuring process in the sectors unfolds. The financial regulator will lead the restructuring process cooperating with other government agencies and creditors, but no clear road map has been released yet.
South Korean banks lag behind their global rivals in financial health due to lack of adequate risk management that results in higher nonperforming loans and lower margins, a private think tank said Tuesday.
The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio at domestic banks stood at 1.80 percent in 2015, up from 1.55 percent from a year earlier. In contrast, the NPL ratios at banks in the United States, Canada and northern Europe were all less than 1 percent, according to a report released by KB Research.
"Globally, banks are suffering declines in net interest margins due to record-low rates. The western banks have stepped up efforts to maintain bad debts at manageable levels while reducing risky assets and cutting costs," said KB Research researcher Kim Joo-hwan who wrote the report.
In the report titled, "Changes in Profitability of Global Banks in Past 10 Years," Kim compared 37 major banks, including Korean ones, in six countries.
As to the ratio of return on equity (ROE), domestic banks suffered a sharp plunge last year with their ROE ratio standing at 2.08 percent, compared with 18.42 percent in 2010.
But their peers in the U.S., Canada and northern Europe still carried an average of over 10 percent last year even after the 2008 financial crisis, the report said.
ROE is the ratio of net earnings to equity capital.
"Domestic banks need to make stepped-up efforts to reinforce their risk management by reducing the amount of NPLs. But if they sharply reduce loans to low-credit companies to avoid NPLs, the companies may go bankrupt, wreaking havoc on the already struggling economy," Kim warned.
The country's economy grew 2.6 percent last year, down from the previous year's growth of 3.3 percent, according to the Bank of Korea. (Yonhap)
Prosecutors have arrested a lawyer over allegations she illegally took money to lobby public officials on behalf of the chief of the local cosmetics brand Nature Republic, officials said Tuesday.
The judge-turned-lawyer Choi You-jeong is suspected of peddling her influence over the ruling on Jung's overseas gambling charges after receiving some billions of won in legal fees.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said Choi allegedly received 2 billion won ($1.7 million) as a retainer in return for lobbying public officials to release Jung on bail, which ended in failure, in violation of the attorneys-at-law act.
Prosecutors said the 45-year-old lawyer was arrested on Monday in the country's southwestern city of Jeonju. Her office manager, surnamed Kwon, was also arrested for trying to destroy evidence.
The arrest happened a few days after prosecutors launched a series of raids on Choi's office, the headquarters of the cosmetics company and district tax offices.
The entrepreneur was indicted in October on charges of gambling in billiard halls between 2012 and 2014 in several Asian countries, including the Philippines and Macao.
Last month, the Seoul High court handed down an eight-month jail term to Jung, reduced from the original one-year sentence meted out by a lower court. (Yonhap)
President Park Geun-hye plans to meet with the new floor leaders of the three major political parties this week, a ruling party official said Tuesday, in the first face-to-face meeting following last month's parliamentary elections.
The meeting is set to take place at Cheong Wa Dae, South Korea's presidential office, on Friday, Chung Jin-suk, floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, told reporters.
Chung said his counterparts from the main opposition Minjoo Party and the People's Party will attend the meeting along with chief policymakers of the three parties.
He said Park and other participants could discuss how to cooperate on state affairs, including people's livelihoods.
The meeting could set the tone for Park's relations with the rival parties in the new parliament.
Park's ruling Saenuri Party suffered a serious defeat in the April 13 polls.
The Saenuri Party won 122 out of 300 seats up for grabs, while the main opposition Minjoo Party and the People's Party secured 123 and 38 seats, respectively. Seventeen other seats are held by other minor party members and independents. (Yonhap)
Nearly two out of 10 primary and secondary school students were either perpetrators or victims of cyber bullying, carried out often by acquaintances while victims react with passivity, a report showed Tuesday.
Compiled jointly by the Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Internet & Security Agency, the report was written based on responses from 3,000 students from elementary school fourth graders to high school seniors on a survey from Oct. 22-Nov. 13 last year.
The report said 17.2 percent were victims of cyber bullying in the past year while 17.5 percent said they were online attackers. Compared to 2014, the number of victims fell 1.8 percentage points, but the number of perpetrators increased 3.5 percentage points.
Many of the attacks were verbal (15.8 percent), and the target of the attacks were almost evenly divided between acquaintances (47.1 percent) and strangers (48.9 percent).
The older the perpetrators, the weaker the sense of guilt, the report showed. When asked if they thought their behavior was justified, 22.8 percent of elementary school students said so, compared to 43.6 percent of high school students.
On reasons for cyber bullying, 43.9 percent said they were taking revenge for something that was done to them, while 34.8 percent said that they disliked the victims or were angry. Another 22.8 percent said they did it for fun or out of stress.
Victims said they wanted to retaliate against the attacker (31.7 percent) or became depressed (18.4 percent). The report said 5.8 percent of them thought of suicide.
Despite such responses, 39.1 percent of the victims said they stopped at changing their online IDs or deleting e-mails, while 27.5 percent said they did nothing. The number of those who actively reported cyber bullying to authorities was just over 20 percent. (Yonhap)
Choe Ryong-hae Pak Pong-ju
By Jun Ji-hye
Wrapping up a four-day-long congress of the ruling Workers' Party, Monday, North Korea announced through its state media the election of two more members to the standing committee of the party's politburo. They are Premier of the Cabinet Pak Pong-ju and party secretary Choe Ryong-hae.
The appointments raised the number of standing members from three to five.
The existing three members include leader Kim Jong-un, parliamentary head Kim Yong-nam and Hwang Pyong-so, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army (KPA).
The standing members of the politburo occupy core positions that control and manage the North's policies and personnel.
Experts say that Kim Jong-un's decision to raise the number of standing members was apparently aimed at further bolstering the young leader's grip on power as well as delivering a message to other officials that if they are loyal to the leader, they will reap rewards.
"Looking at the newly formed leadership of the party, it is forecast that Kim's leadership style and direction of managing state affairs, which he has shown over the past five years, will not change," Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University, told reporters.
Kim Yong-nam, 88, who has been second in line in the Kim regime, has been called "just a figurehead" as his real power is regarded as comparatively weak. It had been expected that he would resign at the party congress as he was cited as a subject of the generational shift due to his old age.
Now that he has managed to maintain his position as a standing member, Kim Yong-nam has become the North's elder statesman who has aided all of the Kim family's leadership Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and now Kim Jong-un.
By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye criticized North Korea, Tuesday, for its continued pursuit of nuclear weapons without offering sincere changes in improving inter-Korean ties.
Her criticism came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un indicated that his country will not abandon its nuclear ambitions during a speech to the Seventh Workers' Party Congress.
"Without showing sincere changes in its behavior for better relations with South Korea, the country continues its threats and provocations, ignoring warnings from the international community," Park said during a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae.
Park also accused Pyongyang of making farfetched claims that it is a nuclear state.
Kim described North Korea as a "responsible nuclear weapons state" in the speech, released by the Korean Central News Agency, Sunday.
Despite the North's self-declaration as a nuclear weapons state, Seoul and the international community, including the United States and China, refuse to accept this.
Her remarks are also regarded as a rejection of an offer from the North Korean dictator to hold inter-Korean military talks to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
"We see the need to have dialogue and talks between the two Koreas' military officials," Kim said. "If military talks are held, they would help eliminate risks of conflict along the border and ease tension."
Seoul's defense ministry has already turned down the proposal, citing a lack of sincerity, and urged the country to stop its provocative behavior and move toward denuclearization.
On Monday, Park also said in a meeting with visiting Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah that the North's claim declaring itself as a nuclear state is posing a threat to peace and stability in the world as well as on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.
She also said a global environment where the North must give up its nuclear program needs to be created.
Later, Park called for all 120 state-owned companies to introduce a performance-based wage system for employees as part of efforts to improve efficiency in the public sector.
Under the wage system based on capability and performance, employees will be paid differently based on their achievements, with the difference in their annual salary expanding to an average of 3 percent from 2 percent.
"Reform in the public sector needs to lead the ongoing structural reform efforts in four major areas," Park said.
The Park government has sought to reform four major sectors labor, finance, education and public services.
"The normalization of public agencies is a task that cannot be delayed anymore," she said.
The President also reiterated the need for deregulation to help foster new industries, including delivery services using drones.
Since 2014, President Park has emphasized that deregulation is a significant part of her three-year plan to boost the economy, focusing on high-tech convergence and the services industries, which are crucial to underpinning domestic consumption.
/Courtesy of Twitter
By Lee Jin-a
Drivers who cannot control their tempers may end up in jail in Korea.
The Daejeon District Court sentenced two drivers this week to prison terms for revenge driving.
A man, 33, whose name was withheld, was sentenced to six months on Tuesday for damaging a mid-sized SM5 sedan and injuring the driver and passenger.
According to the court, he intentionally backed his Santa Fe SUV into the SM5 because he was enraged when the SM5's driver damaged the SUV and abused his mother, who was driving.
A man surnamed Shin was sentenced to 18 months' prison, suspended for two years, on the same charge Monday.
According to the court, Shin abused two pedestrians who were crossing a crosswalk in April. Because they ignored him, Shin got out of his car, cursed them and then returned to the car.
Even though one of the angry pedestrians held the driver's side door, Shin drove his car for more than 10 meters, injuring the man, who required hospital treatment.
The driver also damaged the man's phone to stop him from taking a picture of his license plate.
By Kim Hyo-jin
Lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties are raising their voices against the anti-graft law even before it is slated to go into effect at the end of September.
The National Assembly passed the law in March 2015, which will take effect on Sept. 28.
Lawmakers argue that the law targets not only public officials but also journalists and private school faculty. They also expressed concerns that its enactment will hurt domestic consumption.
They added that the exclusion of civic groups from the law was also problematic. This argument is gaining weight following the scandal that the Korea Parent Federation, a right-wing civic group, was accused of receiving funds to stage pro-government rallies from the Federation of Korean Industries.
Chung Jin-suk, floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, said he will take issue with concerns about the act during a scheduled meeting on Friday with President Park Geun-hye and the floor leaders of the opposition parties.
"The agricultural and livestock industries are concerned about the aftermath. Cattle ranchers are asking for countermeasures," Chung told reporters. "Amid current economic conditions, it's inevitable to discuss the issue."
Rep. Lee Sang-min, the chairman of the Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, also said the law is "unfair," vowing to push for a revision.
"It's dereliction of duty that we just wait for the Constitutional Court's ruling after passing the bill under public pressure. I will try to revise the content with the remaining days of the 19th Assembly, or will propose a revision bill in the 20th Assembly myself," he said.
Lee argued that the revision bill should focus on containing corruption of high-level public officials, stressing that it was the original intention of the Kim Young-ran Act.
"It's unfair that it doesn't apply to civic groups which hold public responsibility such as the Korea Parent Federation," he said.
Rep. Park Jie-won, floor leader of the second-largest opposition People's Party, also hinted at the possibility of the revision before its enactment. "I am open to all the possible options," he said.
The remarks came after the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced Monday the enactment ordinance of the bill.
The proposed ordinance states that public officials, journalists and private school faculty can be fined if treated to meals which cost more than 30,000 won. It also set the ceiling for the value of gifts at 50,000 won, and money for congratulations and condolences to 100,000 won. Before confirmation, the commission is expected to collect public opinion on the proposal for 40 days until June 22.
The new graft law has long been involved in controversy due to its extended application to people in the private sector while lawmakers and civic activists are not covered.
It is now being reviewed by the Constitutional Court after the Korea Bar Association filed a petition last year, arguing it violates freedom of the press and autonomy in the private sector.
The parties remain cautious, saying any discussions for revision should come after the court's ruling. But the voices of critics are gaining momentum with Cheong Wa Dae questioning the efficacy of the law.
In April, Park expressed concerns about the law, saying it could have a detrimental impact on the government's efforts to revive the economy.
By Kim Da-hee
A body was found in a water tank on the roof of an apartment block in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, local daily Kyunghyang Shinmun reported Tuesday.
Management staff at the apartments in Gongdan-dong found the body of a 38-year-old Chinese at 1:30 p.m. Monday after a resident complained that the tap water had a bad smell.
"The body had no particular injuries," police said. "The Chinese is presumed to have been dead for two weeks."
Police are investigating and an autopsy will be held Wednesday.
Gumi City has provided bottles of mineral water to apartment residents as an emergency measure.
Humidifier disinfectant victims and civic group members dump Oxy Reckitt Benckiser products during a boycott campaign rally at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap
This is the second in a three-part series on the scandal over a humidifier disinfectant which was allegedly responsible for more than 140 deaths. ED
By Kim Se-jeong
Ataur Rashid Safdar, head of Oxy Reckitt Benckiser, apologizes to victims of its humidifier disinfectant during a press conference at the Conrad Seoul Hotel, May 2.
/ Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
On May 2, Ataur Rashid Safdar, Oxy Reckitt Benckiser (RB) director of operations in Korea, apologized to survivors and family members of the deceased who used its humidifier disinfectant which is believed to have caused the deaths of more than 100 people.
"Oxy RB announced today that it accepts responsibility for the role that the Oxy product played and the delay in providing an adequate remedy." Safdar read the statement during a press conference in Seoul, adding that he will personally see that all those affected will receive compensation.
The apology came five years after the scandal first came to light. The victims chose not to accept it because they did not feel it was sincere enough; and instead, demanded an apology from the RB CEO in the United Kingdom.
Another reason for their refusal was that they had no trust in the company, as the ongoing investigation has disclosed its alleged attempts to conceal the truth.
Not only Oxy users but also those who used similar products from other manufacturers were disappointed because the companies showed little regard for their customers' health. The companies only began to make apologies and offer compensation after the investigation was launched.
Oxy Reckitt Benckiser
Among 530 victims recognized by the government, 146 died of which 103 used Oxy's sterilizer.
The product was originally made by a domestic company that Oxy took over in 2000.
After the British company took over Oxy in 2001, the new owner replaced a key chemical in the disinfectant with a cheaper one, PHMG, to save costs. SK Chemicals made the chemical and registered it with the government for use as a carpet cleaner. Neither SK Chemicals nor Oxy RB registered it for use as a humidifier disinfectant.
In August 2011, the government announced that the disinfectants caused lung disease and the deaths of mainly pregnant women and young children, resulting in damage suits against Oxy RB.
In response, Oxy RB commissioned research teams at Seoul National University (SNU) and Hanseo University to show the safety of their product.
The company allegedly paid the professors leading the teams to skew the laboratory studies in its favor, and then submitted these results to the courts. The SNU professor, surnamed Cho, was recently arrested.
The investigation is putting the spotlight on Oxy RB's legal representative, Kim & Chang, the most powerful and highly acclaimed law firm in Korea. Cho maintains that he briefed Oxy RB and Kim & Chang about the toxicity of the product but the law firm cherry-picked the test results to make them appear favorable to the company.
Choi Ye-yong, the director of the Asian Citizen's Center for Environment and Health, urged the prosecution to look deeper into Kim & Chang.
"It's impossible that Oxy RB faked the lab results without Kim & Chang knowing about it. The law firm should also be held equally responsible," he said.
The prosecution summoned former Oxy RB CEO Shin Hyun-woo twice for questioning about whether company officials knew the product was harmful. It also plans to summon former foreign officials.
Other companies
The prosecution is widening its investigation into other companies.
On Tuesday, two SK Chemicals officials were summoned for questioning over whether the company properly warned the manufacturers of the toxicity of PHMG.
Other manufacturers Aekyung, Lotte and Hom plus are the next targets in the investigation.
Following Oxy RB, the Aekyung product is being blamed for the second highest number of deaths. Lotte and Home plus sold various products in their retail stores and manufactured their own brands. The two companies apologized last month.
However, victims doubt that the companies will take full responsibility.
"All along, I had the feeling that SK Chemicals was being protected," said an anonymous victim from Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province. She used the Aekyung product for which SK Chemicals supplied the chemicals.
Former Prime Minister Kang Young-hoon/Yonhap
Former Prime Minister Kang Young-hoon, who met with his North Korean counterpart in 1990 in the first talks between the prime ministers of the two Koreas in nearly a half century, died Tuesday. He was 94.
Kim, who had been hospitalized at Seoul National University Hospital, died at around 3:07 p.m., Red Cross officials said.
Kang served as South Korea's No. 2 official from 1988 to 1990 for then President Roh Tae-woo.
Kang met with his North Korean counterpart in September in 1990, the first such meeting following the division of the Korean Peninsula. Kang also traveled to Pyongyang a month later and met with North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, the late grandfather of the current leader Kim Jong-un.
Kang later headed South Korea's Red Cross, which provided humanitarian aid to North Korea, from 1991 to 1997.
Kang is survived by his wife, son and two daughters. (Yonhap)
This is American photographer Tom Coyner's picture showing Chelsea Votel, an outspoken American proponent of Korea's tattoo community. Coyner started the "Seoul Ink" project last year to capture images of tattooed people in Korea. / Courtesy of Tom Coyner
By Jon Dunbar
The increasing number of tattoos on people in Korea caught pro photographer Tom Coyner's eye. But rather than let it alarm him, Coyner dove in headfirst, documenting inked skin and the people who sport it with his project titled "Seoul Ink."
"Considering that tattoos are generally indelible, I became curious why young people are taking a stand in this conservative society," Coyner told The Korea Times.
"I could guess as to why they were getting tattoos, but I needed to get to know these people. I discovered that there is an amazing variety of people who decide to get tattoos for an extremely wide variety of reasons."
In Korea, tattooing is still illegal unless performed by a medical doctor and tattoos carry a stigma connected with organized crime. But the American photographer has never been given a reason to feel fear from the inked community.
"I have discovered that in spite of their sometimes rebellious appearances, they are some of the nicest and considerate people I've met in Korea," he said of the tattooed people and tattoo artists he's met. "They have all been particularly decent people, coming from a wide variety of backgrounds."
Coyner first came to Korea in 1975 with the Peace Corps, returning full-time in 2000. He developed his photography while working as a corporate consultant with high-tech companies, going full-time into commercial/reportage photography two years ago.
When he started the Seoul Ink project last year, he found himself mostly photographing foreign models. But as he makes more contacts, he's shooting more inked Koreans.
"There are essentially two photographic stories here," he explained. "One consists of the inked foreigners in Korea who often have the more elaborate tattoos. The second story consists of the Koreans who are taking a stronger stand against convention than their foreign counterparts."
He's glad for the opportunity to learn their life stories through the project. Though he doesn't pay his subjects, he provides them with copies of his shots with full rights to use them for whatever purposes they wish.
"Getting out and meeting people, whom I would not otherwise meet, has been an eye-opener," he said. "It is almost impossible to stereotype tattooed people in Korea and I suspect that is true in most parts of the world."
Coyner has had his Seoul Ink photos published in a U.S. tattoo magazine, but he's looking for a more general publication that tracks social trends. In the meantime, he is building his tattoo photo portfolio, hoping to find an interested publisher and psyching himself up to get his first tattoo.
By Bernard Rowan
International relations experts classify South Korea as a "middle power". The country has power to preserve her independence and to ally with nations, be they great powers or not. Middle powers may be status quo or anti-status quo powers, and they may look to use soft and hard power means to carry out national interests.
President Park Geun-hye's recent and successful visit to Iran shows South Korea's cultivation and use of soft power for national interests as a middle power. The visit draws an important lesson for power and any nation, if the goal is comity and security.
South Korea continues to develop a syncretistic basis for her advancement as a nation and society. We should praise her leadership in working with middle powers. The visit to Iran was part of South Korean foreign policy for regional and international stability.
I don't want to overstress the press' trumpeting of the visit as a foil to North Korea's influence and military dealings with Iran. The pronouncements by Iranian leaders President Rouhani and Supreme Ayatollah Khamanei support the notion that Pyongyang can't count on Iran to support all of its dreams of destabilization and mischief. However, solving the nuclear issue won't occur based on what Iran does in any direct way. The crux of the nuclear problem is the North's flawed regime. Pyongyang will pivot to find new takers. Until the people of the North tire of their isolationist fantasy, little will change.
And of course, it's likely the visit wouldn't have happened even until as recently as this year, given easing sanctions on Iran paved by agreement with the United States. This thaw in relations stands as controversial in some corners. Nonetheless, it shouldn't remain controversial. Iran is no "punk nation", and its role and power in the Middle East, in Islam, and in the international community aren't going to end or go away anytime soon. Engagement, practical engagement, is necessary to show the international community's interest in peace and commerce with Iran.
No, the real triumph with this visit is the South continuing its historical practice of building positive bases for trade and commerce with other powers. Under Park, South Korea can boast of positive steps in relations with the United States, Japan, and China. Further, she now grows in trade, commerce, and peaceful relations with a growing circle of other countries, including many Asian partners and others outside the region.
Iran will provide South Korea with oil and construction contracts for airports and rail lines. It will build other commercial ventures in technology, a South Korean strength, and banking. Several hundred Korean business leaders formed the delegation with Park and her ministers, itself an impressive mustering of Korean potential and aims. The visitors succeeded in winning nearly seventy memoranda of understanding associated with tens of billions of dollars in future commerce.
The tendency of major and great powers is to mistake power build-up for centrality. There is no permanent center of international power. In this sense, Hobbes was correct: the search for security and peaceful commerce needs constant vigilance and prudent actions. South Korea has been busy for the last ten or more years cultivating trade, cultivating trade partners, and doing so in an atmosphere of increased international and regional confusion. Other powers, including great powers, should hope to do as well.
Park's foreign policy in cultivating Iran provides increased access to trade. It shores up the status quo's efforts to include Iran for stability. It contains the North's influence with Iran, and shows leadership for Asian powers in the pursuit of peace.
South Korea and South Koreans should regard their middle power position as a basis for continued advancement and greatness. South Korea should partner with more than one global power. This creates room for greater understanding and building of bridges. Where is the "center" to protect at the limit? Nowhere is the truthful answer, other than the South Korean people and their interests. There is room to help the region and the world achieve greater potential and greater peace. I think this aim forms part of the purposes of all recent Korean governments. May it continue to do so far into the future.
Bernard Rowan is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University, where he has served for 22 years. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University. Reach him at browan10@yahoo.com.
Senior defense and foreign policy officials of South Korea and the United States held talks in Washington on Monday as the two allies seek to cope better with growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.
The Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue brought together Deputy Defense Minister Yoo Jeh-seung and Assistant Secretary of Defense David Shear, along with Abraham Denmark, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, and Elaine Bunn, deputy assistant secretary for nuclear and missile defense policy.
Also in attendance for the two days of talks at the Pentagon set to conclude on Tuesday were Amb. Sung Kim, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, and the South Korean foreign ministry's director-general for North America, Yeo Seung-bae.
A Pentagon official confirmed the meeting started, but declined to discuss details.
But officials in Seoul have said that the talks would focus on fleshing out the so-called "4D" capabilities to detect, disrupt, destroy and defend against the North's potential nuclear and missile attacks.
The two sides were also expected to discuss ways to prepare for the conditions-based transfer of the wartime operational control of South Korean forces from Washington to Seoul. The sides agreed in 2014 to postpone the transfer, which had been set for last year, until the South bolsters capabilities to cope with the North on its own.
Officials have also said this week's talks are not expected to take up the issue of the potential deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system as the sides have been discussing it through a joint working group formed to exclusively handle the matter. (Yonhap)
South Korea will host a joint multinational submarine exercise in its southern seas later in the month, involving the United States, Japan and other Asian Pacific countries, the Navy here said Tuesday.
The Pacific Reach 2016 will kick off on May 25 for a 10-day run in the waters off South Korea's naval port city of Jinhae on the southeastern edge of the Korean Peninsula as well as around Jeju Island, the Navy said.
The rescue exercise will bring together submarines and rescue forces from five other countries: the U.S., Japan, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.
Another 12 foreign countries, including China and Russia, will take part as observers, the Navy said.
The focus of the exercise is on increasing the participating countries' interoperability in submarine rescue operations which involve the deployment of deep-submergence rescue vehicles and pressurized rescue modules.
At the end of the exercise, the submarines will enter the Navy's base on Jeju Island for a closing ceremony, the first port call there by any foreign ship since the base opened in February.
The forthcoming exercise is the seventh of its kind since the multilateral event was launched in 2000 in Singapore. This is the second time South Korea is leading the drill after playing host in 2004. (Yonhap)
Kim Jong-un / Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un might have health problems, experts said Tuesday.
Local daily newspaper JoongAng Ilbo analyzed Kim's voice and breathing during his three-hour speech to the Workers' Party of Korea congress. Although Kim is 33, the age of his "voice" is more than 50, the experts said.
"Kim breathed air once in every three seconds, which is shorter than average men, who breathe in every four to six seconds," Professor Bae Myung-jin from the Sound Engineering Lab of Soongsil University told the JoongAng Ilbo.
Bae said breathing hard indicates small lung capacity due to obesity.
"Kim also showed vocal nodules, so his voice age is over 50," he said.
Kim moved his body from side to side during the speech, also a warning sign about his health, it was reported.
"Your legs and knees are pressured for supporting weight," psychiatrist Lee Na-mi told the paper. "Kim shifted his weight in order to stand up for three hours."
By Yi Whan-woo
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is mimicking his late grandfather, Kim Il-sung, to appeal to the older generation with nostalgia for the country's founder, analysts here said Tuesday.
Through the Seventh Workers' Party Congress, which ended Monday, the young leader seemed to be trying to underscore the resemblance between him and his grandfather.
According to the North Korean media, the 1960s during Kim Il-sung's reign were a "golden age" for the country's economy.
Experts said the leader also wants to legitimize the third generation of the Kim family's leadership after his father Kim Jong-il died in December 2011 and he abruptly rose to power in his early 30s.
"The Kim Jong-un age will be all about the revival of Kim Il-sung's reign and that's what he tried to show throughout the congress," said An Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who heads the World Institute for North Korea Studies in Seoul.
Park Young-ho, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, agreed.
"North Korea built its unique political system under Kim Il-sung while Kim Jong-il laid the groundwork for nuclear development. Now it's time to turn attention to the economy and Kim Jong-un is on track."
Kim Jong-un has sought to imitate his grandfather in appearance since he became the country's leader.
In photographs taken between Friday and Saturday, he was seen wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a black suit just like his grandfather did in the past six congresses, which were held under the rule of Kim Il-sung from 1948 to 1994. Kim Jong-il never convened one.
The congress opened Friday to consolidate Kim Jong-un's grip on power. "He evidently wants to build an image as a stable and reliable leader to solidify his rule," said Kim Young-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University.
Choi Hyun-seok, from left, Jang Jin-mo, Yim Jung-sik, Tony Yoo and Kang Min-goo pose during a press conference in Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap
By Yun Suh-young
Five top Korean chefs will be heading to New York next month to host a series of dinners in collaboration with Michelin-starred restaurants.
The chefs who will be promoting Korean food to Americans are Kang Min-goo of Mingles, Tony Yoo of 24 Seasons, Yim Jung-sik of Jungsik, Jang Jin-mo of AND Dining and Choi Hyun-seok of Elbon The Table. They will present three gala dinners from June 9 to 11.
The event is organized by The World's 50 Best Restaurants produced by U.K. magazine Restaurant, together with Korea's food magazine La Main. The event, dubbed "Korea NYC Dinners," includes the gala dinners, a food conference and an after-party that will be held at Jungsik New York on June 13.
"There are many talented Korean chefs who can globalize Korean cuisine but I realized that they didn't have many opportunities to reach out globally," said Jang Eun-sil, editor-in-chief of La Main and the event's organizer, during a press conference in Seoul, Monday.
"I hope this event will be a stepping-stone for Korean chefs to stand on the global stage."
The first gala dinner will be presented on June 9 at Michelin two-star restaurant Blanca. The meal will be prepared by chefs Jang Jin-mo and Choi Hyun-seok in collaboration with Carlo Mirarchi of Blanca.
On June 10, a dinner will be offered at Blue Hill, a Michelin one-star restaurant, and the dishes will be prepared by chefs Kang Min-goo and Tony Yoo, with Dan Barber of Blue Hill.
On June 11, all five Korean chefs will collaborate at owner-chef Yim Jung-sik's restaurant Jungsik. Jungsik received two Michelin stars in 2014, three years after Yim opened the restaurant in Tribeca, New York, in 2011. Yim is the first Korean to receive two Michelin stars.
On June 12, the chefs will discuss Korean fermentation in "50 Best Talks," a food conference.
"This is a very meaningful event, because it's difficult to gather a team of chefs like this even in Korea, but we're doing it in New York," said Kang.
"Whenever I go overseas, the question that I receive the most is 'What is Korean food?' But I had never really been able to answer properly. But while studying Korean food, I discovered its unique characteristics, charm, power and potential. I want to share this with New Yorkers through this event in a presentation that is familiar to them."
Kang's modern Korean dining restaurant Mingles was ranked 15th on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants earlier this year, the top rank given to a Korean restaurant.
"When Korean food is introduced overseas, it's very coherent, but this time we want to show a variety of Korean foods using Korea's different sauces," said Jang of AND Dining.
"I want to show how much potential Korean ingredients have."
Celebrity chef Choi Hyun-seok said he was glad to have an opportunity to promote Korean food.
"I travel overseas a lot and I always realize that Korean chefs cook well," Choi said. "But Korea felt like a wasteland in the gastronomic world.
"I'm going to present Korean food in various ways. Because I'm trained in Italian food, I'm going to incorporate Korean sauces such as ganjang (soy sauce) to Italian food.
"I think Korean food should be approached in diverse ways because we can't really designate what Korean food is. It doesn't consist of one particular type of dish or way of presentation. What is important is to familiarize it to foreigners so that they can search for it on their own."
Fermentation was chosen as the theme of the food conference because it best reflects the characteristics of Korean food, according to the organizing staff.
"I think fermentation is the most traditional element of Korean food," said Tony Yoo. "I could relate to the topic as a chef cooking vegetarian Korean cuisine. I hope chefs from across the world also understand the difficult concept of fermentation and relate to it."
The five chefs, who recently visited Ulleung Island to seek unique ingredients, will be taking their local ingredients to New York to present to global diners.
"Korea has a strong vegetarian food culture of eating a variety of vegetables, either in raw form or in the fermented form of pickles or kimchi," Kang said. "I hope to share this during the fermentation conference."
By Choi Sung-jin
Few South Koreans, either pro- or anti-American, would deny the profound influence U.S. presidents exert on our nation's diplomacy and economy.
We need look no further back than 2000. Had Al Gore, not George W. Bush, occupied the White House and taken up where Bill Clinton left off, North Korea might have become a considerably different country from what it is now.
If another Republican wins the U.S. presidential election a half year from now and puts his foreign policy into action, the global political and economic order will all but flip upside down. South Korea, which has prospered under the U.S. security guarantee and free trade policy, will suffer immeasurable damage.
Provided a majority of political gurus are right, Donald Trump is likely to lose the general election to Democrat Hillary Clinton. But global watchers of U.S. politics, including Americans themselves, concede that nothing is impossible in the spectacle of the 2016 U.S. election. Chances are that many experts are still underestimating U.S. voters' hidden anger while overestimating their rationality.
Donald Trump may not go as far as withdrawing U.S. troops from South Korea but he will likely demand an exorbitant price. That may not just mean doubling the present 1 trillion won ($850 million) half the cost for stationing American soldiers here to 2 trillion won but forcing Seoul to shoulder a considerable portion of the roughly 36 trillion won needed to completely replace the war capability of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), excluding the price for the "nuclear umbrella."
The real estate mogul-turned-politician may not nullify the bilateral free trade agreement, either, as he threatens to do now. However, he will almost certainly try to renegotiate the ROK-U.S. FTA until he can slash Seoul's surplus in trade with Washington to attain a balance, or turn the table around. Realistic or not, Trump has vowed to slap a 45 percent duty on imports from two countries China and Mexico and a 20 percent duty on imports from all other countries. Seoul may have to think itself fortunate not to be included in the former group.
Trump's foreign and economic policies are of course full of misperceptions, downright ignorance and self-contradiction. Or the former reality show host may go back to "real" reality once the two-horse race enters into the homestretch. Even if Trump practices only half of what he preaches, however, he will still make George W. Bush blush as far as the Korean Peninsula is concerned. Despite Trump's contempt of North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-un, Kim may like the seeming neo-isolationist in the White House if Trump really won't care whatever happens on this divided peninsula.
As even his political enemies admit, Trump has the political sense of a genius.
His "America-first" slogan is the combination of military neo-interventionism intervening on a strictly limited basis and making beneficiaries pay the costs and trade protectionism, which correctly caught the undercurrent of white Americans, especially those who are relatively less educated and are barely making it by. They have been declining in the share of population and influence but still constitute a non-negligible political force. Theirs is a voice that most politicians must heed to be elected or reelected. It will be interesting to watch the political duel between the Washington mainstreamers representing the U.S. military-industry complex pursuing global hegemony and ordinary Americans weary of their country playing the role of world police.
That leads us to Trump's archenemy over the next six months. On the economy, Hillary Clinton's opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership will benefit South Korea, as it is not a member of the 12-nation free trade agreement led by Washington. In diplomacy, however, Clinton, the far more hawkish of the two, could pose a genuine challenge to South Korea. While Trump's policy on North Korea is a little too extreme and, at the same time too vague, to sound real, Clinton's is clear and purposeful far tighter sanctions on the recalcitrant regime than what the Obama administration imposed although it will not shut the door completely on dialogue. In short, both sticks and carrots will likely be much bigger than the current administration's do-nothing "strategic patience."
No one offered a better glimpse into what Clinton's North Korea policy will look like than Wendy Sherman, former U.S. deputy secretary of state who may become the top U.S. diplomat if Clinton takes the highest office. During a workshop at the Center for Strategic and International Studies early this month, Sherman said the U.S. should begin discussions with South Korea, China and Japan to prepare for the possible internal collapse or military revolts in North Korea, using the phrases "sudden change" and "coup d'etat" no fewer than five times.
If the example of South Korea is any guide, this means the U.S. could push for the reunification of the two Koreas through the absorption of the North by the South. Mix this with the "nuclear-first" policy the North will pursue under the leadership of "Chairman Kim Jong-un" of the Workers' Party, and the whole peninsula should brace up for a very explosive situation in the next couple of years.
All this means there should also be a very different South Korea to enter into this untrodden diplomatic field.
The U.S. will probably continue to be our most important partner but Seoul can no longer put all its eggs in one basket, not just with the economy but with national security as well. The nation should anticipate worst-case situations and do what it can do to prevent them, conducting more inspired diplomacy in its relationships with North Korea, China and Russia.
The Park Geun-hye administration's track record over the past three years shows it will not be up to such a daunting task in the remaining two, either. I can only hope Koreans will elect a new leader and administration who have sufficient diplomatic imagination and can and will implement their vision next December.
Choi Sung-jin is The Korea Times' senior writer. Contact him at choisj@ktimes.com.
Public sector should be the main target
The sweeping anti-graft law that will go into effect in September is a necessary step toward changing Korea's corruption-friendly culture. However, the so-called Kim Young-ran law, named after the former justice who proposed the legislation, has much room for modification so it can effectively achieve its purpose.
The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced the particulars on Monday of the enforcement ordinances of the Law on the Prevention of Illicit Soliciting and Bribery that was approved by the National Assembly in March 2015. The law stipulates that public officials, journalists and private school faculty who are treated to meals costing more than 30,000 won can be fined. The proposed ordinances limit the amount for gifts to 50,000 won, and money for congratulations and condolences to 100,000 won. It also set the lecture fees for ministers at 400,000 won per hour, while journalists and private school faculty can receive up to 1 million won per hour.
It is true that all organizations that wield significant influence in Korean society need to become more ethical. But there are many flaws with this law, the biggest of which is that professionals in the private sector such as journalists were rashly included by the National Assembly. Disputes remain concerning the infringement of individual freedom because of the comprehensive inclusion of the private sector. The Constitutional Court is reviewing the details of the law after the Korean Bar Association filed a petition arguing that it is unfair and unconstitutional.
Above all, the targeted groups of the law need to be adjusted to better reflect its original intention, which was to eliminate corruption in the public sector. By properly punishing those in the public sector, particularly those who hold high-level positions, an anti-corruption message could spread to other parts of society.
Some critics say that the law does not reflect Korea's long-running culture of gift-giving. Also, there has been a strong backlash against the law from those in the relevant industries who argue that their businesses will suffer when the law goes into effect.
Even President Park Geun-hye, who strongly pushed for an anti-corruption drive since the beginning of her tenure, showed some concerns about the law during a recent meeting with newspaper editors, saying that it could slow spending.
Before the law goes into effect on Sept. 28, the incoming National Assembly should discuss modifications to the law to minimize damage for relevant industries and better serve its original intention to prevent corruption in the public sector.
The widespread corruption in Korea has been a critical hindrance to Korea's progress to become an advanced country. Global indexes have shown that Korea is still one of the most corrupt countries among OECD members. One law will not be enough to eradicate corruption. It is necessary for the government to study what is happening in countries such as Singapore that are implementing benchmark policies for corruption-free public sector.
Richard Jung
By Park Jin-hai
Richard Jung said when he first witnessed an electronic dance music (EDM) festival, he experienced culture shock.
"When I first saw the edited video clip of Tiesto and Diplo performing the same song C'Mon in day time and night during the 2010 Ultras Music Festival (UMF), my adrenaline pumped wildly," said Jung, who is now CEO of UC Korea which organizes the Ultra Korea festival in Seoul.
Started in 1999, the UMF brings the greatest EDM artists to the city of Miami, Florida, every March. Armed with cutting-edge productions and the hottest EDM lineups, it is currently held in 19 cities, including Ibiza, Spain, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
"The DJ was at the center of a spectacular stage, lighting and excited crowds of people. It came as a fresh culture shock to me," he said. "I made up my mind to bring the world's largest EDM festival to Korea."
His wish came to fruition in 2012, when his company brought the UMF to Korea, its first Asian destination.
But the process was not easy at all, he said. "Until then, Ultra Worldwide had hardly known about Korea and the people in the Miami headquarters didn't show any interest. In fact it was really hard even to make contact with them," said Jung.
However, he's continued showing up at festival venues whether they be in the U.S. or Brazil, and after relentless persuasion his company gained the license to host the festival in Seoul.
Started out as a large-scale urban EDM festival with 80,000 participants in 2012, it succeeded in attracting 110,000 people last year, despite the scare of the MERS outbreak.
Now it predicts that the number of participants this year will reach 150,000.
Marking its fifth year, Ultra Korea 2016 has added one more day to become a three-day festival that begins June 10 this year. For this year's event, the 2012 headliner Tiesto is invited again, together with Afrojack, Avicii and deadmau5. More than 100 artists from all over the world will be coming to perform in Seoul.
"We are now delivering our knowhow to other Asian host countries, on production, emergency countermeasures, marketing and exchanges of artists and content," said Jung.
"UMF has been the showcase for the world's best artists' live performances and albums. Full of splendid acts which are rarely seen here, Ultra Korea is Asia's showcase of UMF," said Jung. "I want to make it a place where people can break away from daily lives and have fun in the city."
Former Prime Minister
Kang Young-hoon
By Kim Ji-soo
Former Prime Minister Kang Young-hoon, who served as the nation's prime minister under President Roh Tae-woo, passed away Tuesday. He was 94.
Korean Red Cross officials said that Kang passed away at Seoul National University Hospital.
Born in Changseong County, North Pyeongan Province in present-day North Korea, Kang served as the head of the Korean Red Cross, lawmaker and militaryman throughout his life. He also served as a diplomat, as Korea's ambassador to Britain and the Vatican.
He fought in the 1950-1953 Korean War as a deputy corps commander in the Korean Army. He was imprisoned for rejecting the May 16 military coup by Park Chung-hee.
After his discharge in 1961, he served as a diplomat. In 1988, he entered the National Assembly as a Democratic Justice Party lawmaker. He was appointed prime minister by President Roh Tae-woo in 1988 and served until 1990. In September 1990, he engaged in the first inter-Korean prime ministerial talks held in Seoul. In October that year, he visited Pyongyang, North Korea, along with then Unification Minister Hong Seong-cheol, meeting the North Korean founder Kim Il-sung.
Kang is survived by his wife, and three children.
Visitors to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Asia 2015 pack an Intel booth at Shanghai New International Expo Center last May 25. The show organizer, Consumer Technology Association (CTA), said this year's event has significantly grown in size from some 200 participating companies last year to more than 350 this year. / Courtesy of CTA
By Lee Min-hyung
SHANGHAI, China The world's leading IT giants will start a three-day quest for their next growth areas at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Asia, starting Wednesday in this commercial hub of China.
More than 350 global technology companies from across the world will showcase their latest feats at the upcoming tradeshow, seeking more business opportunities with clients in Asia's economic powerhouse.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) began organizing the annual event last year after realizing the strategic importance of the Asian market.
Despite the relatively small size of the event it is not yet comparable to the CES in Las Vegas the Asian tradeshow is gaining traction each year. The show organizer said the participating companies have grown to 350 from last year's 200 firms, with the number expected to become even greater next year. This year's event is also expanding from two exhibit halls to four, with floor space reaching 16,000 square meters packed by industry-leading tech companies, according to the CTA.
"CES Asia is returning to Shanghai bigger and better with an increase in exhibitors and expanded floor space, which aligns with Asia-Pacific's growing economic influence and importance in the global market," CTA President and CEO Gary Shapiro said in a statement.
"We have secured mutually beneficial relationships with leading organizations as we work together to cross-pollinate Chinese, Asian and western brands and retailers on a global scale to make CES Asia the must-attend destination for Asian market expansion."
One noteworthy feature of this tradeshow is that China's most influential retail and e-commerce giants including Alibaba and JD.com will attend the event. Expectations are that participating firms will spare no efforts to draw the attention of such Chinese firms to expand their foothold in Asia's most profitable marketplace.
In particular, Alibaba played a central role in starting the tradeshow in collaboration with the CTA. Yin Jing, president of Alibaba's retail subsidiary Tmall, plans to deliver a keynote address on Thursday about the firm's diversified business endeavors. Expectations are that the keynote will be in line with group chairman Jack Ma's motto: "Building an ecosystem where buyers and sellers can survive through e-commerce."
Kevin Ho, Huawei's mobile phone division chief, will also give a speech on the first day of the event. Other speeches and official events will include discussions about state-of-the-art technology trends including robotics, wearable devices and the Internet of Things (IoT). The CTA said the participating companies will discuss technologies in 15 product categories including 3D printing, smart homes, wearables and vehicles equipped with IoT features.
On Friday, Chris Goeltner, global marketing manager at German lighting giant OSRAM, will deliver the event's wrap-up speech on Asia's leap forward in mobile technology.
As this year's CES has done in January, global automakers including BMW, Volvo and General Motors will also take part in the event, in their bids to showcase their up-to-date achievements in such areas as connected cars and driverless vehicles.
Top mobile firm says plan to complete CJH deal unchanged
By Kim Yoo-chul, Yoon Sung-won
SK Telecom remains cautious over the possible effects of its ambitious proposed takeover of CJ HelloVision (CJH).
But the company said its plan to acquire a controlling stake in Korea's top cable TV operator remains unchanged despite growing uncertainties surrounding the plan.
"We may fail to complete or integrate our new acquisitions and joint ventures and may fail to realize the anticipated benefits," SK Telecom said in a statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on April 28, a copy of which was obtained by The Korea Times, Tuesday.
The statement by SK said it continues to seek opportunities to develop new businesses that the company believes are complementary to its existing products and services portfolio and expand the company's global business through selective acquisitions.
SK Telecom's public relations office said the filings to the U.S regulator included all materials and information related to company management to give foreign investors a better understanding of the company.
"We put all possible management risks in the filings. Still, our stance to complete the CJH deal was unchanged," said the company spokesman.
Last November 2, SK Telecom struck a share purchase agreement with CJ O Shopping to acquire a 30 percent interest in CJH for an aggregate purchase price of 500 billion won.
Upon the acquisition of CJH, SK Broadband will be merged with and into CJH, giving SK Telecom a 78.3 percent equity stake in the merged company.
The statement said the CJH acquisition plan is subject to certain closing conditions, including obtaining regulatory approval from the relevant authorities.
"We may be delayed in obtaining, or fail to obtain, the necessary regulatory approvals, and in such case we may not be able to complete the acquisition and subsequent merger as planned," said the statement.
The Fair Trade Commission joined with the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and the Ministry Of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) to review the validity of the proposed acquisition plan as SK's two local rivals KT and LG Uplus in addition to terrestrial broadcasters strongly oppose the deal, claiming that it will hurt fair competition and limit consumer choice.
SK Telecom is urging the government agencies to approve the proposal as early as possible as the merger will help it realize an "economies of scale" in the relevant content business, which will eventually benefit both the related industries and consumers.
The mobile carrier stressed its growth strategy calls for "significant investments" in new businesses and regions, including businesses and regions in which that the firm has limited experience.
"We seek growth through investments in new businesses. While we believe that entering into new businesses enables us to diversify our business portfolio, we may be exposed to additional risks," said the company.
Chip business, another headache?
The growing signs of a downturn in the global chip industry were cited as an additional risk factor that may hamper its business expansion, according to the statement.
SK Telecom is the biggest stakeholder in SK hynix, the world's second-biggest memory chipmaker after it acquired a 21.1 percent stake in Hynix Semiconductor in 2012.
"From time to time, the memory semiconductor industry has experienced significant and sometimes prolonged downturns, which often occur in connection with a deterioration of global economic conditions, and is subject to intense competition," said the statement to the U.S. regulator.
SK hynix and its subsidiaries incurred net losses of 158.8 billion won and 56 billion won in 2012 and 2011, each, due to increased supply and weak demand for semiconductor products.
"Although the memory semiconductor industry has recovered since then and SK hynix has been recording net profits since 2013, the industry is subject to cyclical fluctuations and we anticipate future downturns in the industry," according to the filings.
SK Telecom implied it would implement heavy cost-cutting measures to minimize the effects of the expected industry downturn.
"SK hynix's operating results would be adversely affected if it fails to compete or decrease manufacturing costs by an adequate level," it said.
"Entering into new businesses and regions in which we have limited experience may require the company to make substantial investments, and despite such investments, we may still be unsuccessful in these efforts to expand and diversify," the statement said.
/Courtesy of Twitter
By Lee Han-soo
Controversial former prosecutor and recent mayor of Davao, Rodrigo Duterte, appears to have won the Philippines presidential race. Official poll monitor Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting said Duterte has more than 14.8 million votes, about 39 percent of the total, with 90 percent counted as of 7 a.m.
Duterte, nicknamed "The Punisher" for his hard-line stance on crime, pledged to "execute" all criminals within six months of his election.
Many citizens, tired of existing politics and rising crime, support the pledge.
Duterte is well known for making Davao one of the safest cities in the Philippines, using extreme measures such as directly executing violent offenders and drug dealers.
"It's with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people," Duterte said in an interview with AFP. "What I can promise you is that I will do my very best, not just in my waking hours but even in my sleep."
However, Duterte is also known for making controversial statements. In one, he said he should have been first to rape an Australian missionary murdered in a prison riot.
Although he later apologized, the government and human rights groups criticized him, leading to his recent nickname "Philippines Trump."
President Benigno Aquino has been leading attempts to unite other candidates to defeat Duterte. He warned that if Duterte were elected, it could mean a return to dictatorship.
The election campaign focused on crime, reforming the economy, infrastructure and the ongoing dispute with China in the South China Sea.
Earlier today, Senator Grace Poe, who is third in the vote with about 21 percent, admitted defeat.
"I respect the results," she said. "Duterte has a mandate. Let's give him a chance."
State Lawmakers Want To Curtail The Use Of Phone Trackers By Police
By aaroncynic in News on May 9, 2016 7:14PM
A Chicago Police officer films protesters and a journalist at the NATO demonstrations in 2012 (photo courtesy of Kate Harnedy)
Legislation is advancing in Spingfield that would curtail the use of phone trackers by police in Illinois.
Last week, a bill which would set rules for the use of cell-site simulatorswhich are used to locate and track cell phones as well as scoop up large quantities of data from phones in the area where the technology is being usedcleared the House Judiciary's Criminal Committee. The Illinois ACLU called the use of such devices, also known as Stingrays, a virtual patdown of your phone without knowing the patdown occurred. A companion bill passed the Senate last month.
Dubbed the Citizen Privacy Protection Act, the legislation would require law enforcement wishing to employ the technology to get a court order. The court order would need to detail the use and manner of deployment of the device, and specify that data that was not targeted in the court order, and require users to delete any data they collected that they weren't targeting within 24 or 72 hours, depending on the device they collected it from. Police would be prohibited from using data to investigate individuals not included in search warrants.
Stingrays have very serious privacy implications, according to Freddy Martinez, of Lucy Parson Labs, a collaboration of data scientists and transparency activists , who has sued the Chicago Police Department for records related to the use of Stingrays.
Stingrays collect the information of everybody in a region, so a warrant to collect your phone information still collects mine if I'm nearby, Martinez said in a statement to Chicagoist. That's deeply troubling.
State representative Ann Williams, who sponsored the House bill, told the AP that she wants state law enforcement agencies to comply with the constitution when it comes to using technology to monitor citizens.
Neither the Illinois State Police nor the Chicago Police Department have not taken positions on the legislation, though CPD has been fighting several lawsuits to keep their use of the devices under wraps, according to the AP. Activists however, have long accused Chicago police of using Stingrays to monitor people at demonstrations, and oversight has been almost nonexistent.
This technology has been used for a decade with no judicial oversight and without warrants, Martinez said. We know that Chicago Police bought this equipment using money seized as part of the war on drugs, and it is a fact that the War on Drugs disproportionally harms black and brown communities.
At least 12 other states have passed legislation addressing the use of cell-site simulators. Martinez called the Illinois bill a significant step to get judicial oversight into deployments that would help citizens and legislators better understand how the police use stingrays.
Man Dead After Jumping From Loop Parking Garage Monday Afternoon
By Rachel Cromidas in News on May 9, 2016 9:17PM
Photo of the parking garage Monday afternoon. Via Matt Tuteur/Chicagoist
A 34-year-old man died after jumping from a Loop parking garage Monday afternoon, according to authorities.
The man jumped from an above-ground parking garage in the 100 block of North Wells Street, a police spokesman told Chicagoist. He was pronounced dead at the scene by police and fire department first responders. Police have a death investigation ongoing.
The block was closed to through-traffic Monday afternoon, and a white sheet could be seen covering the man's body in the road near the intersection of Wells and Lake streets.
If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide: do not leave the person alone, remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt, and call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional.
Illinois ACLU Defends Transgender Student's Right To Use Girl's Locker Room
By aaroncynic in News on May 10, 2016 6:33PM
We think Illinois could use more gender neutral bathrooms, actually. Via Shutterstock.
The Illinois American Civil Liberties Union says it will step in to defend a transgender student in a lawsuit filed against a school district in suburban Palatine.
Last week, a group of families sued the Department of Education, Department of Justice and District 211 for allowing a transgender student access to the girls locker room. In December, the District agreed to provide access for the student, known as Student A after the Department of Education found that prohibiting access was in violation of Title IX, which bans discrimination based on sex. According to the Daily Herald, The Alliance Defending Freedom and Thomas More Society then filed suit alleging the Department of Ed. is misinterpreting the law.
Every day of the school year a certain number of girls have to share the locker room space with a biological male and it makes them incredibly uncomfortable, stressed and anxious about the things going on in their school day, Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney with the firm opposing the student's access to the girl's locker roomtold the Huffington Post.
Not everyone of course, believes that freedom means the right for bigots to discriminate against people based on their gender identity, however. On Tuesday, the ACLU said it would file a court motion to intervene on behalf of Student A.
A number of parents and students from District 211 have contacted the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois to express their concern and dismay about this development, Communications and Public Policy Director Ed Yohnka said in a statement first reported by Politico. Many have expressed anger at the misstatements and factual inaccuracies advanced by those filing the lawsuit last week. More have voiced concern about any effort to reverse policies that treat all students, including those who are transgender, in a fair and equitable way.
Bathroom access for transgender people has become a national discussion after North Carolina passed its own controversial bathroom bill. CNN reports on Monday the Department of Justice filed a civil rights lawsuit over the bill, known as HB2. The DOJ is threatening to yank federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina if they comply with the law, which bans people from using restrooms that dont correspond with their initial biologically assigned gender.
"It was not so very long ago that states, including North Carolina, had other signs above restrooms, water fountains, and on public accommodations, keeping people out based on a distinction without a difference, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. We've moved beyond those dark days.
Similar transphobic legislation which stems from the case in District 211 was assigned to the Illinois House Human Services Committee in Springfield in March. Since then two more cosponsors have signed on and it has been referred to the Rules Committee. The ACLU said it would oppose that measure as well.
European Commission yesterday (21st April) expands the global fight against illegal fishing by warning Kiribati, Sierra Leone and Trinidad and Tobago, while lifting the red card and associated trade measures off Sri Lanka, as it has significantly improved its national fisheries governance.
European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, said: Today's decisions are yet another sign of the EU's determination to fight illegal fishing globally. It also shows that we can bring important players on board: Sri Lanka has now a robust legal and policy framework to fight illegal fishing activities. As the fight against IUU fishing is part of the EU's commitment towards sustainability and good ocean governance, each third country that comes on board is an asset.
On a more positive note, after a lengthy dialogue process Sri Lanka has now successfully reformed its fisheries governance system. The country was issued with a yellow card in 2012 and been listed by the Council in February 2015. By today it has amended its legal framework, strengthened sanctions and improved its fleet control.
Sri Lanka joins the growing list of countries (Ghana, Papua New Guinea, Korea, the Philippines, Fiji, Belize, Panama, Togo and Vanuatu) that have reformed their systems, following a warning by the EU.
Meanwhile, Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Mahinda Amaraweera addressing media in Tissamaharama yesterday (21st April) said, Sri Lanka would be able to restart the exports to the EU fish market from July, this year.
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary
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Jon Stewart Calls Trump 'A Man-Baby' At UChicago Live Podcast Taping
By Gwendolyn Purdom in News on May 10, 2016 7:23PM
Its been a tense nine months since Jon Stewart left The Daily Show, but the former late night host sick-burned his way back into the political conversation with his signature thoughtful edge during a live podcast taping at the University of Chicago on Monday.
Citing Donald Trumps being a man-baby as one of the presumptive GOP nominee's main disqualifying features, and calling Hillary Clinton a very bright woman without the courage of her convictions, Stewart spoke with former Obama campaign strategist and director of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics David Axelrod in front of a live audience of students for more than an hour. The interview was for Axelrods podcast The Axe Files and also touched on political correctness, globalization, and Stewarts take on his TV successors political pull (Comedy cant have an impact on policy, people can have an impact on policy.)
Jon Stewart, we need you.
A Southern California Gas Co. executive Monday gave a slightly more optimistic view of the summer blackout potential for the Los Angeles area if the utilitys Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility remains closed -- an issue that will come up before a Senate committee Tuesday.
Bret Lane, chief operating officer for Southern California Gas, said the company built its system around use of Aliso Canyon, the largest natural gas storage plant in the state and fourth largest in the country. And although the utility maintains that the facility remains critical for the reliability of the energy system, Lane said the company is reviewing ways to keep the lights on in the event of an extended heatwave.
I think the potential [for blackouts] is very real, Lane said during an interview. Its a question of when the system gets stressed, can it stand up to the load requirements.
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Lanes handicapping the likelihood of blackouts as potential is less dire than that contained in a report by the states energy agencies. The April report portrayed blackouts as probable this summer without the natural gas usually stored at the Aliso Canyon storage facility.
State lawmakers called for a hearing, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Sacramento, after an article in The Times raised doubts about the energy agencies conclusion that Southern Californians could face intermittent blackouts during up to 14 days this summer because of short natural gas supplies in the wake of the Aliso Canyon shutdown.
1 / 7 The Southern California Gas Co. leaking well forced thousands of residents in and near Porter Ranch to temporarily relocate. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 7 Signs and gates on the Porter Ranch hillsides indicate the boundary of Southern California Gas Co., where an ongoing gas leak has prompted hundreds of complaints. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 7 Porter Ranch resident Jaimee Choi prepares for her first day at work as a manager at a restaurant while her father, Francis Choi, hugs the family dog in a Burbank hotel after they were displaced by a gas leak near their Porter Ranch home. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 7 Lori Choi, right, and her daughter, Jaimee Choi, walk their dogs outside the Burbank hotel where they are staying after they were displaced by a gas leak near their Porter Ranch home. Weve come to Burbank for the clean air, Jaimee joked. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 7 Jaimee Choi prepares for her first day at a new job by studying work material in a Burbank hotel where she is staying with her family. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 7 Parents pick up their children at Porter Ranch Community School in the North San Fernando Valley just south of the Southern California Gas Co. Aliso Canyon Storage Facility. Filters are being installed in the schools ventilation system to help with the smell caused by a nearby gas leak. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 7 The entrance to the Southern California Gas Co. Aliso Canyon Storage Facility sits at the intersection of Tampa Avenue and Sesnon Boulevard in Porter Ranch. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Representatives of the three agencies -- the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Independent System Operator -- will discuss the reports conclusions at the hearing before the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee.
Aliso Canyon became the focus of national attention after one of the 115 wells at the facility began to leak in October. It took four months for Southern California Gas to stop the leak and seal the well, but not before forcing thousands of residents in the nearby Porter Ranch community to leave their homes and flee to temporary housing because of complaints of illness.
The leak and related expenses so far have cost Southern California Gas $665 million, virtually all of which has been covered by insurance.
Critics of the state report called the talk of blackouts a threat that the energy agencies and the utility companies, which helped draft the report, were using to help keep Aliso Canyon operating.
They pointed to possible uses of other parts of the energy system, such as Southern California Gas second-largest natural gas storage facility, the Honor Rancho field, about 10 miles north of Aliso Canyon in Los Angeles County.
Bill Powers of Powers Engineering in San Diego reviewed the states Aliso Canyon report for the Food & Water Watch advocacy group and said it seemed that the energy agencies and the utility companies spent more time finding excuses why alternatives to Aliso Canyon would not work rather than viable solutions.
What about Honor Rancho? Powers said. They say, Honor Rancho is hours away. Honor Rancho is not part of the system.
Energy consultant Robert McCullough agreed with Lanes description of the key problem for Southern California Gas: The utility built its system and how it operates around use of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility.
Now, the gas company and the state are reviewing other strategies.
The system was built with the existing storage in place at Aliso Canyon, said McCullough, who heads McCullough Research of Portland, Ore. Everybody depended on it. What we are now seeing is full system testing, where you have to test the whole system to see what works and what doesnt.
Lane acknowledged that the utility companies are reviewing other possibilities, such as making use of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Powers hydroelectric plants; tapping so-called peaking power units, which are called on during periods of high demand, including an 800-megawatt natural gas plant in Palm Springs that can ramp up to full capacity in 15 minutes; and using more circuitous pipeline routes that would enable Honor Rancho to provide some gas to the L.A. basin.
In addition, Lane said the energy agencies and the utilities are working to determine what the energy needs are on an hourly, daily and multiple-day basis to find ways to meet whatever the demand might be as the dog days of summer hit.
Even so, one primary aim is to return Aliso Canyon to service, Lane said.
We are concerned about summer reliability, he said. Were also concerned about winter reliability.
State Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), who is a member of the committee holding the hearing, has said that two-thirds of Porter Ranch residents dont want Aliso Canyon to reopen.
Aliso Canyon still maintains 15 billion cubic feet of natural gas, or roughly 17% of its capacity, which Southern California Gas wants to tap. The utility currently cant touch that supply or inject new gas into the field under an order by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Lane said the company has nearly completed the first of two phases of a review of the 114 remaining wells. About 10 wells have completed the second phase of testing.
By the end of August, Lane said, the company wants to begin injecting gas at Aliso Canyon again.
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ivan.penn@latimes.com
Follow me at @ivanlpenn
A District Court of Appeal panel has revived a constitutional case involving public access to contract mediation proceedings held by the states farm labor watchdog.
A farmworker and business owner now can air their case against the Agricultural Labor Relations Board in a Fresno County Superior Court, which had refused to hear it because a state law limited its jurisdiction, the Fresno-based panel ruled Monday.
That limit, part of a 2002 law governing mandatory mediation of collective bargaining agreements, is unconstitutional, the panel held. The larger issue of public access to ALRB proceedings should be considered by the Fresno Superior Court, the panel ruled.
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The dispute arose from a prolonged struggle between workers at Gerawan Farming, in the eastern San Joaquin Valley, and the United Farm Workers union, which had been seeking a collective bargaining agreement covering about 3,000 fruit pickers -- even as those workers had begun a campaign to oust the union.
Dan Gerawan, president of the company, and one of his workers, Lupe Garcia, sued in Fresno County Superior court over the labor boards decision to bar them from proceedings on the contract, which had been placed before a mediator in 2013.
Gerawan and Garcia never got to make their case for open access because the Fresno court held that their appeal could only be heard in higher state courts. It cited a 2002 mandatory mediation and conciliation law that had limited where those cases could be heard.
The plaintiffs took their case to the 5th District Court of Appeal, where they argued that the mediation law amounted to an unconstitutional limit on the jurisdiction of the lower court. They also pressed their original argument that barring them from the ALRBs contract activities violated their right of access to government proceedings.
Several 1st Amendment groups and a state newspaper association filed briefs on behalf of the plaintiffs.
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The three-judge 5th District Court of Appeal panel ruled that the limits set by the mediation law were unconstitutional, but deferred to the lower court to consider the broader public-access argument.
The secret hearing policy is obviously unconstitutional and the ALRB should stop wasting taxpayer dollars defending it, Gerawan said of the decision.
California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, whose office defended the ALRB, referred questions about the case to the board, which said it does not comment on pending cases.
UFW attorney Mario Martinez said the decision was a minor development that would not affect the unions bargaining agreement, approved by the ALRB in 2013.
Neither issue will have on impact on whether the collective bargaining agreement ordered by the ALRB is valid, Martinez said.
The state Supreme Court is reviewing a decision last year by the 5th District Court of Appeal that declared the entire mandatory mediation law unconstitutional.
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UPDATES:
6:42 p.m.: This post was updated with comments from the Agricultural Labor Relations Board and United Farm Workers Union.
This post was first published at 3:42 p.m.
Its a question that grows in importance with each new report of a data breach: How much responsibility should companies take for protecting peoples privacy?
The most common response when a corporate database gets hacked is for the business to offer a year of free credit monitoring -- a better-than-nothing measure that will alert people to suspicious activity involving their credit files but will do nothing to prevent fraud, identity theft or other mischief.
West Los Angeles resident Jairo Angulo and his wife were among nearly 80 million current and former Anthem health insurance policyholders whose personal information was reported hacked last February.
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Names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, email addresses and employment information, including income data, were accessed by digital thieves in what the company described as a highly sophisticated cyberattack.
Anthem responded by offering two years of free credit monitoring by AllClear ID, a Texas company formerly known as Debix that crops up frequently as the go-to cleanup crew after large-scale security breaches. Its service was offered after hacks at Home Depot, Sony and the UPS Store.
Anthem has patted itself on the back for offering two years of monitoring rather than the customary one. To Angulo, 66, that was nowhere near enough.
If your Social Security number and other information is out in the world, its out there forever, he told me. Anthem should be paying for my credit monitoring for the rest of my life.
If your Social Security number and other information is out in the world, its out there forever. Jairo Angulo
He said as much to the insurer. He received his answer recently: No.
While I get that Anthem doesnt want to be on the hook for covering peoples credit monitoring for the rest of their lives, Angulo raises an interesting point -- and I completely understand his concern.
About a decade ago, my Social Security number was used by an identity thief to run up bills on credit cards and at Indian casinos. After I managed to track the guy down in Connecticut and handed him over to law enforcement, he was found guilty of Social Security fraud and deported to his native Jamaica.
But heres the thing: This guy still knows my Social Security number. Hell know it until the day he dies. I could change my number, but that would create a cascade of hassles and confusion because its my de facto ID number, the core component of every important file in my life, from marriage to mortgage.
Paul Stephens said its right to be worried. Hes director of policy and advocacy for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego and, like Angulo, had his personal information jeopardized by the Anthem hack.
There are so many Social Security numbers involved here, Stephens said, it would be wise for a criminal to just hold on to them for a few years and wait until people are less vigilant. It absolutely makes sense to maintain credit monitoring beyond a couple of years.
Darrel Ng, an Anthem spokesman, said that securing our member, provider and client data is a top priority, but he declined to comment on the question of offering credit monitoring for life.
He did say, though, that many policyholders now can opt in to maintaining their AllClear credit monitoring for as long as they remain Anthem members. If they change insurers, their credit monitoring goes bye-bye.
Thats a step in the right direction, so lets take a closer look at what people are getting. Its not as comprehensive as Anthem might want them to think.
The AllClear monitoring offered by the company only tracks your TransUnion credit file. It pays no attention to your files at rival credit reporting agencies Experian and Equifax. This is significant because not all creditors report information to all agencies.
If youre not simultaneously monitoring all three, its possible youll miss incidents of fraud or ID theft.
This wasnt well publicized, Stephens said. It was buried in the fine print. When I called AllClear, they told me I didnt have to have my credit monitored at all three agencies, which is simply untrue.
Also, a deep dive into AllClears terms and conditions reveals that users of the service must agree to give up their right to sue the company and accept arbitration to settle any disputes. Plus, that arbitration must take place in Austin, Texas.
On top of that, the companys privacy policy says that even after your credit monitoring ends, AllClear ID may retain your personal information indefinitely ... to resolve disputes, to comply with official investigations or proceedings, and/or to enforce AllClear IDs agreements.
I pointed out to an AllClear spokeswoman, Ellie Fanning, that indefinitely is a long time. She said most peoples data will be deleted after six years except in the case of an ongoing dispute or investigation.
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse estimates that nearly 900 million consumer records potentially have been accessed by hackers in almost 5,000 known data breaches since 2005. Many other data breaches, of course, may have been undetected or went unreported.
The upshot here is that the business world has shown itself to be an untrustworthy minder of peoples personal info, either due to negligence or to a lackluster approach to database and network security.
My answer to that: Lawmakers should require that all customer data maintained by companies for any reason be encrypted -- that is, safeguarded by powerful software that renders the data unintelligible to outsiders.
Moreover, companies should be required to go a step beyond credit monitoring for any customer affected by a data breach. Businesses also should provide free credit freezes through all three credit agencies. This would block access to your credit file by anyone lacking a PIN code and is the most effective way of preventing hackers and fraudsters from receiving credit in your name.
Both these moves -- encryption and credit freezes -- would be more expensive for companies and thus would immediately prompt them to step up their game in protecting customers information. As it stands, they clearly lack sufficient incentive to impose adequate security.
In March, Chatsworth-based Lamps Plus discovered that a hacker had accessed the unencrypted W-2 forms of every employee at the company, which included their names, addresses, Social Security numbers, earnings and withholding information.
The hacker subsequently submitted bogus tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service, seeking refunds in other peoples names.
Clark Linstone, Lamps Plus chief financial officer, said the company regrets this incident and is doing everything possible to assist workers.
That includes a year of free credit monitoring.
David Lazarus column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com.
Louis Andriessen is the great argumentative opera composer of our day. He argues with every convention of the lyric stage. He is, moreover, a master of operatic argument, which is the traditional term for plot in not just its narrative sense but also its moral, spiritual, political and temporal implications. He is a clear-eyed Dutch skeptic and humanist who surfs the alarmingly narrow arteries that separate life from death, wisdom from belief, the known from the unknown. He has cannily called himself a friendly guy who doesnt always write friendly music.
We now have Theatre of the World, the fifth and most querulous opera from a guy whose work is not always friendly but is always extraordinary. In a remarkable gesture for even the progressive Los Angeles Philharmonic, the orchestra commissioned the opera and gave its world premiere in a fully staged and fully contentious production in Walt Disney Concert Hall on Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Made into a nightmare theater of a fraught and sinister world by director Pierre Audi, this co-production with Dutch National Opera will be a centerpiece this June of the Holland Festival in Amsterdam.
The two performances were enough for this longtime Andriessen advocate to begin to fathom a dizzying work thats vast in its scope yet unnervingly claustrophobic. Musically, it is brilliant and deep. Operatically, well, there is a lot to take in.
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The subject matter is Athanasius Kircher. The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles has a room devoted to this peculiar and very real 17th century polymaths curiosities. His investigations included, but were hardly limited to, Egyptian hieroglyphics, the civilizations of ancient China and Babylon, the natural elements, music, mathematics and optics. During his life, he was the worlds most sought-after scientist and inventor while being a Catholic spiritualist with a fancy for the ultra-exotic and cockamamie.
It could be said that Kircher had more use for essence than truth, and that might also be said about the novels that mix fact with fiction of the German writer Helmut Krausser, who wrote the problematic Faustian libretto for Theatre of the World. Kraussers Kircher is at the end of his life and the end of his rope. His Herculean attempts to find a unified theory of all natural and unnatural phenomena based on magnetism has given him a kind of psychic mercury poisoning.
He is overwhelmed by it all, and it is not very long before we will be as well. The subtitle of the opera is A Grotesque Stagework in 9 Scenes. Kircher is confronted by a boy who turns out to be the devil in disguise, and off they go, accompanied by Pope Innocenzo XI and Kirchers Amsterdam publisher, transported to ancient Egypt, China and the Tower of Babel. A trio of murderous witches keeps popping up as does an executioner. At one point a pair of young lovers appears out of nowhere, singing a disarmingly lovely duet.
More important, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the Mexican nun and poet, becomes Kirchers real spiritual guide and conscience. She and Kircher corresponded, and several scenes end no longer as grotesqueries but in the thrall of Andriessens unearthly settings of her ethereal lyrics. In an epilogue, Voltaire, Descartes, Goethe and Leibnitz give Kircher a break for flying on the wings of imagination.
1 / 7 Lindsay Kesselman plays a Boy, left, and Leigh Melrose plays Athanasius Kircher in the premiere of Louis Andriessens Theatre of the World. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 7 Leigh Melrose, center, portrays Athanasius Kircher as he is seduced by the witches, played by Charlotte Houberg, Sophie Fetokaki and Ingeborg Brochler, for the premiere of Louis Andriessens Theatre of the World. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 7 From left, Steven van Watermeulen, Marcel Beekman and Leigh Melrose perform in Theatre of the World. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 7 Reinbert de Leeuw conducts the music for Louis Andriessens Theatre of the World. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 7 From left, Steven van Watermeulen, Lindsay Kesselman, Leigh Melrose and Marcel Beekman perform in Theatre of the World. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 7 Leigh Melrose, Lindsay Kesselman and Steven van Watermeulen perform in Theatre of the World. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 7 Marcel Beekman, left, Steven van Watermeulen, Leigh Melrose and Christina Zavalloni in Louis Andriessens Theatre of the World. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
All of this is just the beginning of a confusing production, a musically rich score and a sensational performance. But the production by Audi treats all this as a weirdly oppressive nightmare. Decor and video by the Quay Brothers add further grotesqueries, the avant-garde American animators framing video of inconsequential monochrome stop-motion animatronics with gigantic red brushstrokes. The eye flies from this to the stage action to the projections of a complicated, text-thick libretto in German, Dutch, English, Italian and Spanish and Latin. Florence von Gerkans costumes make everyone unsympathetic.
Andriessens music, however, compels from start to finish. The first among Andriessens musical arguments are with the orchestra. The L.A. Phil is the rare ensemble he has been willing to enter into a long-term relationship with. The band here is chamber-sized, heavily balanced toward winds, brass and percussion, and it includes electric guitars and synthesizer to make sure his trademark bang bang business gets a full workout.
Those first notes are trombone playing a haunting motive that has the aspect of Renaissance brass music and a Minimalist fragment and that can grow later on in the opera into a something almost cosmic. The music changes almost constantly. The lovers might be straight out of sensual 18th century opera. The witches get a big-band jazz treatment. Musical angst galore comes Kirchers way. The boy is a Stravinskian-style devil. The pope is a hysteric tenor.
Reinbert de Leeuw, who has conducted the premieres of all of Andriessens operas, captures the scores ever-changing everything. There are quick successions of six or seven different genres (and three or four centuries worth) of dance music, updated Renaissance era counterpoint, 20th and 21st century Minimalism, hard-hitting clusters of dissonance and ice-cream sweet scopes of consonance. De Leeuw also managed with precise skill the difficult balances between unamplified orchestra and the punchy amplified voices that Andriessen adores.
Leigh Melrose (Kircher), Lindsay Kesselman (the boy/devil), Marcel Beekman (Innocenzo XI), Steven van Watermeulen (Janssonius, Kirchers Amsterdam publisher), Mattijs van de Woerd (Carnifex, the hangman) all seemed possessed of the opera and Andriessens vocal writing, as did the witches and philosophers and lovers.
Still, it was Cristina Zavallonis ravenously ecstatic Sor Juana who is the real vocal soul of the opera as she is of Kircher.
An opera like this is not easy on symphony audiences who arent likely to come early enough to prepare and come early enough to read the program notes, without which they are lost. The opera (110 minutes Friday, a quicker-played and more exciting 105 minutes on Sunday) was performed straight through. An intermission would have allowed audiences to get their balance and made it easier for those who didnt want the balance to leave.
But while patrons may give the orchestra a hard time over this one, history may not. And there will be evidence. The performances were recorded for eventual commercial release.
mark.swed@latimes.com
An annual gathering of cinemas best and brightest (and sometimes just loudest and luckiest), the Cannes Film Festival contains multitudes: studio blockbusters and low-budget discoveries, midnight horror-thrillers and cinephile documentaries, George Clooney and Isabelle Huppert, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Steven Spielberg. This years 69th edition will open with Woody Allens 1930s romance Cafe Society before veering down a rabbit hole of family dysfunction, sexual intrigue and geopolitical turmoil invariably among the festivals favorite subjects and themes.
With 55 features set to screen in the official selection, and more than 30 playing in various adjacent programs (including Directors Fortnight and Critics Week), diligent festival-goers will have their work cut out for them in terms of figuring out what to see. Those who stick with it are sure to get a first look at several of the years most notable movies from around the world. Here are 11 titles that Im hoping will be among them (listed in alphabetical order):
1. Aquarius. This year there are 21 films in competition for the Palme dOr, the festivals top prize and effectively the highest honor in world cinema. Most of these films are from seasoned directors who have been in this derby a few times before. One notable exception is Kleber Mendonca Filho, who made an outstanding debut a few years ago with his ensemble drama Neighboring Sounds, which brilliantly examined the tensions and anxieties of contemporary Brazilian life. With any luck, Aquarius notably, the only Latin American-produced feature in competition will build on that films promise.
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2. The BFG. As a rule, you dont go to Cannes to see movies that will flood your multiplex a month later or in less than a week, as is the case with Jodie Fosters Money Monster (starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts) and Shane Blacks The Nice Guys (with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling). Then again, to simply skip all the Hollywood product would be to neglect a potentially important part of the conversation: Last years Mad Max: Fury Road and Inside Out were rightly hailed as two of the best films playing anywhere in Cannes, in an early harbinger of their eventual Oscar-night glory.
Hence my high hopes for The BFG, an adaptation of a wickedly funny Roald Dahl novel that is both a childhood favorite and a fount of culturally dubious wordplay (He went off to Baghdad to bag dad and mum). We should expect only good things from Steven Spielberg and Mark Rylance (a recent Oscar winner for Bridge of Spies), who plays the Big Friendly Giant of the title. The film also marks the final collaboration between Spielberg and the late screenwriter Melissa Mathison, whose credits include such landmark childrens films as E.T. and The Black Stallion all of which augurs well for The BFG even as it sets a very high bar.
3. Elle. Paul Verhoeven hasnt directed a full-length feature in the decade since his rude and raunchy World War II thriller Black Book, and he hasnt had a film in competition at Cannes in the 24 years since Basic Instinct. Both those streaks will come to an end with this apparently quite violent French-language psychological thriller starring Isabelle Huppert as a woman who begins stalking her rapist. (Sort of like last years Rosamund Pike vehicle Return to Sender, except, you know, better. Hopefully.) Verhoeven has a gift for bringing out the very best which is to say, the very worst in his leading ladies, and Huppert, no stranger to turning self-abasement into art (The Piano Teacher), sounds like just what the mad doctor ordered.
4. Neruda. Four years ago Pablo Larrain scored a big critical hit in the Directors Fortnight program with No, a rousing political dramedy set during the final days of Pinochets reign of terror. The Chilean director is back in the Fortnight this year with Neruda, which stars Luis Gnecco as the famous poet and politician during his fugitive years (and also features No star Gael Garcia Bernal as the policeman on Nerudas tail). Heres hoping Larrain, whose tonally varied work is always predicated on a precise marriage of style and subject matter, can breathe fresh life into the great-artist biopic template.
5. The Red Turtle. This beautiful-looking animated film, about a man stranded on a desert island, arrives in the festivals Un Certain Regard sidebar with a remarkable pedigree. Its the first feature directed by the Dutch animator Michael Dudok de Wit, who is known for his Oscar-winning short, Father and Daughter (2000), and who wrote the reportedly dialogue-free script with the French filmmaker Pascale Ferran (Lady Chatterley, Bird People). Its the first international co-production for the venerable Studio Ghibli, with Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya) serving as artistic producer.
6. Risk. After obtaining such astonishing access to Edward Snowden in her Academy Award-winning documentary, Citizenfour, the fearless Laura Poitras now turns her camera on another highly controversial document revealer, Julian Assange, in this in-depth, five-years-in-the-making look behind the scenes at WikiLeaks. I cant be the only one dying to know what she found out; expect this documentary to be one of the hottest tickets in Directors Fortnight.
7. The Salesman. Not much is yet known about the latest drama from the Iranian master Asghar Farhadi, which was added to the main competition at the last minute. But the mere fact that it centers on a couples troubled relationship is good enough for me: His two previous films, The Past and the Oscar-winning A Separation, spun tales of marital disintegration into spectacular dramatic fireworks. Farhadis meticulously plotted humanist thrillers have suggested an ingenious synthesis of Agatha Christie and Jean Renoir; his new film, per its title, will add a dash of Arthur Miller to the mix.
8. Sieranevada. Romania boasts one of the most vital cinemas on the world stage, and for more than a decade Cannes has been its premiere launchpad. This year will see something of a bumper crop with the competition entry Graduation, from the gifted director Cristian Mungiu (who won the 2007 Palme dOr for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), and Bogdan Miricas Dogs, which is premiering in Un Certain Regard. The Romanian film drawing most of the early buzz, however, is Cristi Puius Sieranevada, a nearly three-hour drama about a family reunion gone awry. Puius films, which include the much-lauded The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Aurora, have established him as a master of the slow burn: long takes, bleak atmosphere and the subtlest of dramatic cues. Remarkably, Sieranevada is his first film in competition; whether it lives up to its predecessors or not, the honor is long overdue.
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FOR THE RECORD
10:02 a.m.: An earlier version of this article stated that Sieranevada is Cristi Puius first film in Cannes. It is his first film in competition.
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9. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade). Not enough people saw this gifted German directors debut feature, Everyone Else, one of the more ruthlessly honest relationship movies of recent vintage. Her long-awaited follow-up Toni Erdmann, sounds like an excursion into lighter, funnier territory as it follows a father who drops in on his daughter abroad and tries to bring back her sense of humor with a rampage of jokes, according to the Austrian Film Commission.
10. The Unknown Girl (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne). Belgiums Dardenne brothers are titans of world cinema and longtime Cannes standard-bearers, having won two Palmes (for 1999s Rosetta and 2005s Lenfant) and a slew of other prizes. Each of their films is a heartrending moral thriller predicated on conscience rather than contrivance, and their latest, starring two-time Cesar-winning actress Adele Haenel as a doctor investigating a patients death, should be no exception. (An early hunch: The title doesnt refer to the person you think it does.)
11. The Wailing (Na Hong-jin). Many eyeballs will be on The Handmaiden, a period drama and Palme dOr contender from the attention-grabbing Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, who remains best known for shaking up the festival in 2004 with his violent revenge thriller Oldboy. (That film won the Grand Prix, the jurys runner-up prize.) But Im a bit more stoked for The Wailing, a detective tale directed by Parks lesser-known countryman Na Hong-jin, which will be making its premiere out of competition. If its anything like Nas two previous efforts, The Chaser and The Yellow Sea, it will be a thriller of such grisly, unrelieved intensity as to put most American action movies to shame.
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CANNES, France The morning of the day before the 69th Cannes Film Festival dawned dark and overcast, as if the skies were prepared to cry over the selection of films on tap. Whether they will be predominantly tears of joy or of sorrow remains, as always, to be seen.
A similar ambivalence can be read into Cannes 2016 poster, just installed above the Palais des Festivals where the red carpet screening for Woody Allens Cafe Society starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell opens the event on Wednesday night.
Designed using stills from Jean-Luc Godards classic Contempt, the image is of a man going up an enormous staircase on the outside of a pyramidal building. Is he ascending to artistic heights, or headed for sacrificial doom? Or both?
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Darker thoughts seem everywhere at the festival this year. Instead of its usual story featuring smiling stars arriving at the airport, the local daily newspaper Nice-Matin ran the words High Security on its front page followed by a two-page spread headlined The 69th edition faces a terrorist menace.
With France remaining under the state of emergency that began after the November Paris attacks, the city of Cannes has hired a top Israeli consultant to beef up security, but people are still worried. Id be happy, Sony Pictures Classics co-president Tom Bernard told the Hollywood Reporter, to see dogs roaming the lobby of the Carlton.
Even the billboards for forthcoming films posted around town have something of an apocalyptic air. Yes, a revolving sculpture created from enormous playing cards that advertised Now You See Me 2 is charming, but then there was the poster for something called Tsunami L.A., complete with an illustration of the worlds biggest wave smashing into Pacific Coast Highway and the head-shaking tagline Traffics Gonna Be A Bitch Today.
Still, the hope for the more than 200,000 cinephile visitors (including a mind-boggling 5,000 journalists) who annually flood this resort town is that the films, starting with Allens record-breaking third opening night (after Hollywood Ending in 2002 and Midnight In Paris in 2011) will lighten the mood.
Cafe Society costar Stewart, who last year became the first American actress to win a Cesar, the French Oscar, for her work in Olivier Assayas Clouds of Sils Maria, is back with another Assayas film, Personal Shopper.
Other American pictures are also here to help, starting with a trio playing, as Allens is, out of competition. These include Steven Spielbergs The BFG, from the beloved Roald Dahl book, Shane Blacks neo-noir The Nice Guys starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, and the Jodie Foster-directed Money Monster, with George Clooney.
American films in actual competition include Jim Jarmuschs Paterson, Sean Penns The Last Face, a love story set in the world of African NGOs starring Javier Bardem and Charlize Theron, and, perhaps most intriguing, Jeff Nichols Loving, starring Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in the based-on-fact story of the Virginia couple whose case led the Supreme Court to legalize interracial marriage.
Nichols, on a roll after Midnight Special, is a Cannes favorite: His Mud was also in competition and an image from his Take Shelter is the poster for this years Critics Week, one of the festivals parallel events.
One of this years most anticipated American films ended up in Cannes other parallel event, Directors Fortnight. That would be Laura Poitras documentary Risk, the follow-up to her Oscar winning Citizenfour. While the earlier film focused on whistle blower Edward Snowden, the new one is a look at another disturber of the peace, Wikileaks Julian Assange.
There are, of course, a lot more than American films at Cannes; in fact, the festival counts works from 28 countries in the main event. These include new competition efforts from venerable auteurs like Spains Pedro Almodovar (Julieta), Belgiums the Dardennes brothers (The Unknown Girl), Britains Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake) and a late addition, Irans Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman). The latest from Japanese master Kore-eda Hirokazu (After The Storm) ended up in the sidebar Un Certain Regard section.
Gaining in stature and interest every year is Cannes Classics, devoted to films on film and new restorations of, well, classics. This years more than 40 programs range from a restoration of the Merchant/Ivory Howards End to Bertrand Taverniers three-hour-plus tribute to his countrys films, Voyage Through French Cinema.
One of Cannes most fascinating elements are the irrepressible things that happen off screen, the sheer energy of so many people from so many parts of the world coming here for so many reasons, a situation reflected in the variety of unexpected emails the event produces.
The Thai film industry, for instance, wanted me to know that a Thai royal princess would be here for a promotional event it describes as Thaiconic. Luxury brands like Tiffany, Kering and Jaeger-LeCoultre, the maker of haute horlogerie watches, all have events here. And the filmmakers behind Direct Descendant, the story of William Patrick Hitler, the Fuhrers putative English-born nephew, were happy to announce it was ready for financing.
Your future is chaos, insists a Carlton Hotel billboard for a film called Future World. For the next 10 days at Cannes, that says it all.
kenneth.turan@latimes.com
On Monday we reported that the romantic partners who make up the L.A. indie band Yacht said a sex tape of theirs had been stolen. As a result, the bandmates said they'd been forced to make the footage available for sale in order to take back some control.
Claire L. Evans and Jona Bechtolt called the theft an exploitative action by a morally abject person and said they hoped to take legal action against the individual. Fan support was overwhelming, with hundreds of supportive messages on the bands Facebook page, where they made the announcement through a sincere open letter.
You have always held such integrity, you didn't lose any of that integrity today. You were violated and victimized, one fan wrote. I am speechless. You two are immeasurably brave, another fan wrote.
But it all turned out to be a phony, concocted stunt from a band looking to either make a statement about the state of music journalism or draw attention to their music.
And it largely worked.
On Tuesday afternoon, Yacht responded to fans and media: "We released [the sex tape] as a slowly-unveiling conspiracy, inspired in equal part by The X-Files, Nathan for You, and The KLF. Its a project that allowed us to play with science fiction, the attention economy, clickbait journalism, and celebrity sex tapes all at once."
The band's seemingly desperate statement appears to be spin after backlash on social media.
Way to exploit [peoples] earnest concern and sympathy (as well as make light of legitimately serious, traumatizing stuff like revenge porn and female sexual agency) for publicity. A Facebook user, writing in response to reports that Yacht misled fans
"This was not designed to make money or sell records, but to explore the intersection of privacy, media, and celebrity," the band's statement said. "We enjoy and have spent a decade creating multi-faceted projects that unfold over time, using the most current tools at our disposal."
In the duo's original open letter, the pair said they had begun taking legal action against the person who supposedly released the footage but felt it was important to explain to fans why it happened.
In the emotional statement, they pleaded with fans to make the right decision and not view their private act made public. Then the musicians issued a second statement saying they made the decision to take some control by putting it up for sale.
Controlling how this video is seen, and who profits from it, is the only form of agency we have left over this exploitative situation, they wrote.
The story caught the attention of dozens of publications, including ours.
Here was this small indie band in our backyard (one weve covered before) that had fallen victim to revenge porn and attempted to steer the narrative back into their favor by opening up to fans with a public letter that doubled as an official statement.
We covered it from the news angle we thought correct, taking their statement for face value, without purchasing the video because buying the video wasnt the story as much as them taking control over the seemingly unfortunate situation.
And as the writer of the post, I felt a great deal of empathy for the couple who wrote in detail about firing up a camera and making love in front of it to spice things up amid a mountain of pressures that put a strain on their relationship and career.
Not to mention the idea of anyone being subjected to revenge porn a serious issue in our social-media-driven world that has led to more lawsuits and suicides than we fathom to imagine was outright deplorable.
Hours after our story went live, a reader emailed to ask if I actually watched the film because there was growing buzz that it was all a stunt.
Had I watched the film? Of course not. Not because Im some prude that would never watch porn, but their impassioned letter was a desperate plea of the opposite: If you feel like you 100% have to see this tape, dont stream it on some tube site, or download a torrent. Instead, we beg of you to download the video, Louis C.K.-style, directly from us, they wrote.
I then did attempt to purchase the film on the quickly cobbled together website they launched to sell the thing one where they require your email address and credit card info.
After making the purchase, I was directed to a 404 message, indicating that the tape had crashed the server. (Five bucks to watch a famous couple shag is a pretty good deal compared to celebrity porns before it).
An authorization charge of $1 by a company named Stripe was posted to my card immediately after the transaction, and then an email from the band with a receipt attached said there was no charge due to an error.
We contacted the band's representatives who told us they were not currently working with them and had no involvement in the stunt:
https://twitter.com/motormouthmedia/status/730076947003232256
https://twitter.com/motormouthmedia/status/730078535197462529
https://twitter.com/motormouthmedia/status/730078846037295104
https://twitter.com/motormouthmedia/status/730079322506027008
By Tuesday morning, Yachts would-be stunt had turned into a firestorm.
Jezebel wrote a follow-up story in which the writer had obtained an email from band cofounder Evans (she contributes to their sister site io9) that she posted; in the email, Evans appears to solicit coverage for the planned stunt:
For the upcoming music video for our song, 'I Wanna [expletive removed] You Til Im Dead,' were faking a sex tape leak.
In the days leading up to the videos release, were going to pretend we were hacked, share and delete confessional social media posts on the subject of our privacy, then try to get out in front of it and sell the sex tape, fake a server crash, etc.
And a video of the two, which has the same night vision still thats posted on the site selling it, was released to Pornhub, a very real adult site.
The video starts off like most amateur celeb porn weve seen: The couple making googly eyes at each other, and bashfully flirting with the camera. And then, in the midst of passion they shed their skin and become aliens.
Stunts and hoaxes can be a brilliant way to drum up hype around an album, if done right.
From surprise drops to social media stunts, theres no shortage of savvy and innovative ways for artists as tiny as Yacht or as big as Beyonce to get you to talk about their music.
But there are ways to not do a stunt. And this is certainly one.
While it's true that music journalism, much like all forms of news, has struggled with finding ways to get clicks and new readers, most, if not all, outlets that covered Yachts story did so with empathy, believing the two were victims of a horrible crime.
An embarrassment to the music industry. A Facebook user in response to Yacht's reportedly fake open letter to fans
A few years ago there was a widespread leakage of nude photos stolen from smartphones and devices of celebrity women and posted to a site called 4Chan.
Though the general reaction was, sadly, to shame the women for taking photos of their own naked body on their own devices, actress Jennifer Lawrence perfectly summed up the hack, which was grossly referred to as a "fappening":
It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It's disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change.
And remember the case of former ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews, whose stalker filmed her naked body through a peephole and uploading the footage to the Internet? She had to relive her victimization in a high-profile trial.
But not every victim gets to tell their story to Vanity Fair, get covered by the L.A. Times or have a jury award them millions of dollars.
Sure, more than half of the states in the U.S. have laws against revenge porn, but its often too late for some victims. Fifteen-year-old Audrie Pott hung herself after being cyberbullied with photos of her own sexual assault by a group of boys; the images were uploaded to social media. Canadian teen Rehtaeh Parsons also took her own life after a similar incident. And there are many more instances like these.
What Yacht did was capitalize off the empathy of fans and use the horrific thought of having our most intimate moments disseminated to the public.
And that public support has turned into outrage. Way to exploit [peoples] earnest concern and sympathy (as well as make light of legitimately serious, traumatizing stuff like revenge porn and female sexual agency) for publicity, one person wrote in response to their statement. Another poster called the band an embarrassment to the music industry.
In their statement, the band responded to claims of revenge porn, noting they would never make light of victims of any form of sexual abuse.
"Frankly, its disturbing to us that press outlets could make the incredibly irresponsible leap from celebrity sex tape, which is the cultural trope this project explicitly references, to revenge porn, which is unfunny, disgusting, morally repugnant, and completely unrelated," the band said in their statement. "Even within the fictional narrative we created, there was no violence or exploitation. It was always about agency and proactive empowerment."
But that statement ignored the band's original claim that they had begun legal action against the person they claimed had leaked their sex tape. (Isn't that the definition of revenge porn?)
In the end it was foolish for us, and other outlets, to take their statement for face value (a sad pitfall of our overworked, under-resourced world) and not think to purchase a sex tape that they so convincingly pleaded with fans not to purchase.
Maybe they sold a few singles or got a few clicks on their YouTube videos. But was it really worth it?
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FOR THE RECORD
May 10, 5:40 p.m.: This article replaces another article originally published May 9 that reported on Yacht's open letter, saying that its members had had a sex tape stolen. The band now says the video's release was orchestrated.
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gerrick.kennedy@latimes.com
Twitter: @gerrickkennedy
Man Found Dead On CTA Red Line Train Tuesday Morning
By Mae Rice in News on May 10, 2016 2:27PM
The 63rd Street Red Line station (via Google Street View)
A man was found dead in a Red Line train car early Tuesday morning, authorities said. Police found the manage and identity unknown so farat 2:18 a.m. at the 63rd Street Red Line station.
The man's body showed "no signs of trauma," a police spokesperson said. He was taken to the University of Chicago Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A non-criminal death investigation is currently underway.
When the man was found, Red Line service was suspended between 63rd and Roosevelt due to a "sick customer," according to the CTA Twitter feed. As of 5 a.m., normal Red Line service had resumed.
Fans of AMCs Revolutionary War drama Turn: Washingtons Spies likely know the destinies of two Patriot generals without consulting Wikipedia.
George Washington (Ian Kahn) will lead the Continental Army to victory over British forces and later serve as Americas first president.
And Benedict Arnold (Owain Yeoman), consumed with rage at perceived mistreatment by the Continental Congress and his comrades in arms, will become one of the most notorious traitors in U.S. history.
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When Episode 303 (Benediction) begins, Arnold is in good spirits. As Philadelphias military governor, he occupies Penn Mansion and eagerly awaits marriage to Peggy Shippen (Ksenia Solo).
This beautiful socialite only feigns affection for Arnold, however. Peggys true love is Major John Andre (JJ Feild), Britains spymaster.
The spoils of war, observes Peggys father, Edward Shippen (Mark Rolston), while touring Arnolds restored residence. Shes quite the prize.
I want nothing but the best for my exoneration, Arnold boasts, referring to a military courts dismissal of baseless charges leveled by Joseph Reed (Alex Miller) of Pennsylvanias Supreme Executive Council.
Reed accused Arnold of stealing property that should have been sold at auction to support the army.
Arnold is also buoyed by the homecoming of Major Edward Neddy Burd (Richard Gallagher), the beau of Peggys older sister Betsy (Bethany Lind). Peggy claims she cant marry Arnold until Betsy is betrothed. Now it seems that impediment will disappear.
Ive always fancied a Christmas wedding, Betsy gushes.
You expect Grandfather to travel through ice and snow? asks Peggy, scheming to delay her nuptials with Arnold. Spring is a grand time for a wedding. Perhaps even summer.
But Betsy, fearing this might be her last chance at happiness, wants to marry as soon as possible.
When Arnold makes a toast to young love renewed and to honor restored, hes interrupted by jarring news. Congress rejected the courts decision, meaning the charges against him still stand.
Im back to where I started, Arnold rants, blaming Washington for a lack of loyalty. Moreover, Arnold still holds a grudge for being assigned a desk job away from the battlefield.
This is Peggys opportunity to start transforming her fiance into a traitor.
She tells him about Andre, an acquaintance who supposedly believes England should make peace with the colonies. If Peggy encounters any Patriot with a similar mindset, she could write Andre and let him know.
I listened politely but never expected to take him up on his offer, Peggy says. Until now!
In other developments, Captain John Graves Simcoe (Samuel Roukin) and his Queens Rangers set out to destroy Washingtons Culper Spy Ring on Long Island.
Lying in ambush are Caleb Brewster (Daniel Henshall) and his rebels, aided by mercenary Robert Rogers (Angus Macfadyen).
Simcoe prevails in the ensuing firefight and captures Rogers.
Youre Culper, Simcoe exclaims, incorrectly concluding that Rogers leads the spy ring. A mercenary through and through, playing both sides against one another. A true American!
Rogers gets away, however, by igniting an explosive.
Anna Strong (Heather Lind), meanwhile, agrees to marry British Major Edmund Hewlett (Burn Gorman) if they relocate to Europe. This would protect Hewlett from being targeted by Patriot spy Abraham Woodhull (Jamie Bell).
Hewlett initially agrees to move, then abruptly changes his mind and refuses to leave New York.
Finally, Washington orders Major Ben Tallmadge (Seth Numrich) to murder the camps treasonous chaplain (Ric Reitz). After Tallmadge accomplishes his mission hes nabbed by a British agent (Adam J. Harrington).
I wont talk, Tallmadge insists. You might as well kill me now!
Tallmadge eventually escapes on horseback, sustaining a gunshot wound in the process. But he lives to fight another day.
With vegetables, sometimes simple is better. In the case of the broccoli dish at Ramen Hood, the vegan ramen stall at Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles, simple means frying broccoli florets, dousing them with a pungent sauce and putting them in a bowl then watching as the dish sells out, again and again, even if you change your restaurant. Let us backtrack. When chef Ilan Halls restaurant the Gorbals was still open, in the nearby Alexandria Hotel, he was looking for a vegetable dish that was outside the box, as Hall put it the other day. So hed been grilling broccoli stems, kind of like shaved asparagus, and had all these extra florets. One day he threw them in the fryer. Then he made a sauce of malt vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and chile flakes, which he spooned over the results, with some scallions. Ta-da.
It was a little bit of a joke, said Hall, describing the initial impulse as a riff on a David Chang recipe. But then it sold out. Hall closed the Gorbals, then opened Ramen Hood with executive chef Rahul Khopkar, where the dish not only returned but is now one of the most popular dishes on the menu there too. Take a bite of the broccoli crisp as tempura, the edges caramelized yet still the essence of the bright vegetable, loaded with the zingy sauce and youll see why people keep ordering it. If youre at the ramen counter, youll probably order another one. If youre at home, you can just double the recipe. Youre welcome.
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RAMEN HOODS FRIED BROCCOLI
20 minutes, plus cooling time. Serves 2 to 4
SAUCE
1/2 cup malt vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon chile flakes, more to taste
In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and chile flakes and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring once or twice. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. This makes about 3/4 cup sauce, more than is needed for the remainder of the recipe; the sauce will keep for up to 2 weeks, refrigerated.
FRIED BROCCOLI
Oil for frying
1 pound broccoli, cut into florets (save the stems for another use)
About 1/4 cup prepared sauce, more if desired
Thinly sliced green onion, for garnish
1. Fill a large pot with enough oil to come up about 4 inches and heat the oil until it reaches 375 degrees. Fry the broccoli, in small batches until the pieces are a light brown color, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Drain the pieces well, and repeat until all of the broccoli is fried.
2. Place the broccoli in a bowl and sprinkle over the sauce, tossing the broccoli to coat. Drain the pieces and place on a platter, garnishing with the green onion. Serve immediately.
Each of 4 servings
Calories 87
Protein 3 grams
Carbohydrates 9 grams
Fiber 3 grams
Fat 5 grams
Saturated fat 0
Cholesterol 0
Sugar 4 grams
Sodium 304 mg
Note: Adapted from a recipe by Ramen Hood in Los Angeles.
Ramen Hood, 317 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, (213) 265-7331, www.ramenhoodla.com.
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A Southern California couple has been sentenced to six months in prison for smuggling more than 900 endangered sea turtle eggs into the United States from Mexico, the U.S. attorneys office said.
Jose and Olga Jimenez pleaded guilty Feb. 19 to charges of conspiracy, smuggling and unlawful trafficking related to wildlife.
At the sentencing Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Janis Sammartino said the case involved the largest seizure ever of sea turtle eggs imported from Mexico. The eggs are considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac in Asia, where they sell for hundreds of dollars.
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Authorities said the couple tried to smuggle the eggs into the U.S. in coolers under layers of ice, fish and shrimp.
Jose Jimenez, 64, drove from their home in Hemet and met his wife in Tijuana on Nov. 24, 2014. Their sons also were in Tijuana to pick up an aunt.
The defendants told their sons the coolers contained only fish and shrimp and asked them to take the coolers through the San Ysidro border crossing in their pickup, while they walked across, according to court documents.
The son driving told border agents about the fish and shrimp, but agents searched and found the contraband sea turtle eggs. Olga Jimenez, 52, did not answer calls and text messages from her sons after they told her the coolers were being searched, according to court documents.
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From 1999 to 2013, Olga Jimenez, who sold seafood in the U.S., tried to bring seafood and protected species into the U.S. She was penalized several times, according to court documents.
A hearing is scheduled in June to set the amount of restitution the couple will have to pay the Mexican government for the loss of its natural resource.
david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com
Hernandez writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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A teachers union-funded report on charter schools concludes that these largely nonunion campuses are costing traditional schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District millions of dollars in tax money.
The report, which is certain to be viewed with skepticism by charter supporters, focused on direct and indirect costs related to enrollment, oversight, services to disabled students and other activities on which the district spends money.
L.A. Unified has the most charters 221 and the highest number of charter students more than 100,000 of any school system in the nation. Charter students make up about 16% of the districts total enrollment.
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The union gave The Times the study in advance of its scheduled presentation at Tuesdays Board of Education meeting, with the stipulation that the report not be distributed to outside parties.
The study calculates that services to charters encroach on tax money the district intended to use for traditional schools, adding up to at least $18.1 million a year and growing.
The biggest financial problem for the district, however, is that money follows students and a huge number of students have enrolled in charters instead of traditional district schools. With more education tax dollars going directly to charters, the result is a decline of more than $500 million a year about 7% in the districts core budget, the researchers say.
The effects of this drop are difficult to quantify because fewer students in traditional schools also means a reduced need for teachers and other personnel.
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But even with reduced staffing, the district faces a net loss of about $4,957 per student, the study says. That amount accounts for fixed costs, such as maintaining buildings.
Whatever the exact amount, the district has less money to spend with the flexibility its leaders would prefer or to offset legacy costs that include aging school buildings and retiree health benefits.
The findings in the report paint a picture of a system that prioritizes the growth opportunities for charter school operators, according to a separate policy brief co-written by the union.
Charter supporters take a different view, seeing the district as the fundamental problem and charters as an important solution.
Like all businesses, the district has to compete for its customers, said Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
The growth of charters is putting pressure on the district. The district cant do what it did in the past and come out ahead, added Hanushek, who hadnt seen the report. They can try to compete for the students or sell off the buildings. But the point is: Charters look attractive to parents, which means that the district is not attractive.
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Prompted in part by concern about the districts judgment in how it spends money, a group of philanthropists and foundations has bet big on charters in Los Angeles, subsidizing their growth over the last two decades. Last year, local philanthropist Eli Broad spearheaded a proposal to more than double the number of charters over the next eight years, hoping to reel in half of district students.
About six months ago, a group formed to develop Broads vision for new, high-quality schools.
Meanwhile, both the district and employee unions have been trying to develop counter-strategies. From the district, the push is to increase enrollment, to compete with charters more aggressively and possibly to limit their growth. Until now, the union has been most visible at the bully pulpit, speaking at gatherings and leading demonstrations.
The new report is from Florida company MGT of America. It builds on the work of an earlier, independent district advisory panel, which concluded that charter growth is one of several factors threatening the solvency of L.A. Unified.
This latest analysis was reviewed by pro-labor Washington group In the Public Interest, which prepared the separate policy brief with the union.
Unmitigated charter school growth limits educational opportunities for the more than 542,000 students who continue to attend schools run by the district, and further imperils the financial stability of LAUSD as an institution, the brief states.
Charters pay 1% of the tax money they receive from the state to the district for oversight through its charter division, but this isnt enough, according to the report. The charter division monitors academic progress at charters and reviews their financial health and management practices.
The division spends about $2.9 million more than the available funding, which is limited by state law.
The report also tallies an additional $13.8 million in annual administrative costs related to charters, and $1.4 million more for work by the districts inspector general and special education division.
The full effect on services to the disabled is actually much higher but difficult to nail down, according to the researchers.
The federal government mandates that every disabled student should receive a free and appropriate education, but does not fully pay for it. The state, in turn, spreads out this funding equally between students, regardless of their disability. L.A. Unified enrolls a much higher percentage of the disabled students who cost more to educate.
A student with a need for speech therapy might need only monthly support/monitoring that might cost the district $3,000 per year, the report states. A student with emotional/behavioral or health impairments with significant needs might need residential placement or daily feeding or medical monitoring and might cost the district upward of $120,000 per year.
Schools and districts pool their resources and share the expense of serving disabled students, but L.A. charters dont have to partner with L.A. Unified. Some have cut costs by affiliating with another district. To keep other charters in the fold, L.A. Unified provides a special deal that essentially shortchanges the district, the report concludes.
Another indirect cost of charters relates to audits and investigations conducted by the districts inspector general. A routine audit takes three to six months and costs about $70,000. More extensive reviews cost at least twice as much.
The California Charter Schools Assn. has challenged the need for much of this work, calling many of these investigations unneeded and intrusive.
Jason Mandell, a spokesman for the association, said in an email that he could not comment on the report because he hadnt seen it. But any focus on charters, he said, was intentional misdirection away from financial problems that are of the districts own making. He noted that the earlier advisory panel study concluded that even if charter schools didnt exist, the district would still face a crippling decline in enrollment due to entirely separate factors.
The MGT report, which cost $82,000, doesnt fault charters, saying that the problems have more to do with state and federal policies as well as district decisions.
But in the policy brief,
the union takes a more aggressive tone, arguing for changes that include full funding from the federal government for disabled students and equitable distribution of these dollars by the state; more money for charter oversight either from the state or from charters; and charging higher district fees, where possible, to charters.
howard.blume@latimes.com
Twitter: @howardblume
Editors note: Education Matters receives funding from a number of foundations, including one or more mentioned in this article. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles administer grants from the Baxter Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the California Endowment and the Wasserman Foundation. Under terms of the grants, The Times retains complete control over editorial content.
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Two winning candidates who were accused of electioneering and nearly booted from the Studio City Neighborhood Council race are now slated to keep their newly won spots on the neighborhood board.
At a Monday meeting packed with dozens of people, a panel reversed its earlier decision to disqualify Eric Preven and Patrice Berlin, who had edged out their rivals in the April election.
The decision marks the latest turn in the saga over the Studio City council, a bitter fight that is all the more remarkable because of the scant power of the neighborhood group. L.A. has dozens of neighborhood councils that weigh in on local issues, affording them a platform for their views, but the groups cannot block city decisions.
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Ejecting the two candidates would have ushered in two other people who got fewer votes including incumbent Lisa Sarkin, who had earlier faced and defeated a recall attempt over a hotly contested development along Ventura Boulevard. Berlin and Preven were both outspoken critics of that project, which Sarkin had supported, and challenged her at the polls when her seat came up for grabs this year.
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The tug-of-war over the neighborhood elections centered on accusations that Berlin and Preven had loudly declared that they were candidates around the polls, repelling would-be voters from casting their ballots. The panel, which was drawn from other neighborhood councils, originally backed the complaint.
But the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, which oversees neighborhood councils, later decided to rehear the challenge after Preven and Berlin raised concerns that they were not specifically told that they could be disqualified, department head Grayce Liu wrote.
At Mondays hearing, Berlin denied the accusations and said the city should never have allowed Stuart Miller to lodge his challenge, which she charged had been filed after the city deadline.
I was elected by the stakeholders of Studio City. Ive done nothing of the things Ive been falsely accused of not one, Berlin said.
Preven, who did not attend Mondays hearing, has also denied the accusations and argued the challenge shouldnt have gone forward.
Miller, in turn, repeated his allegations, insisted his challenge was properly filed and called the new hearing a rogue action unsupported by city rules. He contended that the two candidates were responsible for reviewing city rules and knowing that they could be ousted.
The department should carry out the findings of the panel, not undermine them, Miller argued.
More than a score of Studio City residents, stakeholders and others spoke up at the hearing, several giving sharply conflicting accounts of what had happened at the polls. Jay Handal, citywide elections administrator for the neighborhood council races, urged the panel to dismiss the claims.
After a brief discussion, the panel concluded that only one of the candidates Preven had engaged in electioneering by lingering at the polling place. Instead of ejecting Preven from the race, the panel voted 2 to 1 to give him a letter of reprimand.
Preven, reached for comment after the hearing, said he was dismayed by the finding but pleased he would eventually be able to take his seat. The election results still must be certified.
This is about a group who had been in power for a very long time who were voted out and they grasped for any vestige of hope, he said.
Sarkin, who would have been reelected if either one of the two candidates had been disqualified, said Monday night that she believes the Studio City election should be completely redone because of irregularities. Miller agreed, calling the process deeply flawed.
By holding the new hearing, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment changed the rules, Sarkin said. Either they have rules or they dont have rules.
Handal said Monday that he saw no way for a new election to be held. Other challenges involving the Studio City race have already been dismissed, including one that raised concerns about online voting.
Follow @latimesemily for whats happening at Los Angeles City Hall
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As the search continues for a British citizen who allegedly killed his estranged wife and mother-in-law in Clovis, police along Californias Central Coast have reported several potential sightings of the fugitive in Cambria.
Murder suspect Dave McCann, 49, has been on the run ever since authorities discovered the bodies of Tierney Cooper-McCann, 36, of Fresno, and Judith Cooper, 68, of Paso Robles. The mother and daughter were found stabbed to death inside a home in the 700 block of West Omaha Avenue at about 4 a.m. Saturday, police said.
Ty Wood, a spokesman for the Clovis Police Department, said McCann and Cooper-McCann were married but estranged.
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McCann allegedly kicked in the door to the home before attacking the women. The last sighting of McCann was in Cambria on Monday, where it was reported that he was on foot and may have changed his appearance slightly, police said.
Cooper-McCanns sister, Cortney Cooper Rider, told ABC30 that she had been inside the home, heard a banging on the door and ran to wake everyone before McCann kicked in the door.
I went in and grabbed the phone and was getting ready to call 911 and by the time I walked out he was slitting her throat, she told ABC30. He looked at me and said, Youre next.
Cooper Rider said she ran out the front door to the next-door neighbors.
McCann had gone to the Clovis Police Department on Friday, requesting a civil standby as he went to the residence to retrieve some personal property because he had moved out of the home, Clovis Police Capt. Tom Roberts said at a news conference Sunday.
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Roberts said McCann was cooperative, seeking our help in recovering some property.
Officers went with him to the house, where he picked up personal effects, had a short interaction with someone there and then left, Roberts said.
Early Saturday, a woman called police to report the stabbings. Roberts would not confirm the womans relationship to the victims or suspect but said police were concerned for her safety.
Wood said both of the women lived at the house where their bodies were found.
McCann is believed to have fled Clovis in a 16-foot white Penske moving truck. Authorities in Paso Robles, more than 100 miles from the crime scene, found the truck Saturday night, Roberts said.
On Tuesday, Clovis police said in a statement that McCann abandoned the truck in the same neighborhood of a family member of the victims. He then is believed to have broken into the relatives home and stolen a gray and tan 15-speed mountain bicycle, which he fled on, police said.
He is on the run, he is very dangerous and we really need everyones help, Roberts said, adding that McCann may be armed.
Roberts said that there was some concern that McCann would leave the country. Police, he said, have taken precautions to address that.
McCann is described as 6 foot 2, weighing about 220 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. He has a strong British accent, authorities said.
Anyone with information has been asked to call the Clovis Police Department at (559) 324-2800.
The homicides are the first and second of the year in Clovis, Wood said.
brittny.mejia@latimes.com
hailey.branson@latimes.com
Twitter: @brittny_mejia and @haileybranson
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After initially being barred from wearing Dump Trump T-shirts because of safety concerns, a group of Latino students at Newport Harbor High School was allowed to wear the shirts on campus after the presumptive Republican presidential nominees rally in Costa Mesa.
On April 29, the day after billionaire businessman Donald Trumps campaign appearance at the Orange County fairgrounds led to sometimes violent demonstrations outside the venue, Newport Harbor High prohibited all politically charged attire at the Newport Beach campus in response to the atmosphere in the community, Annette Franco, spokeswoman for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, said in an interview Monday.
Franco said Newport Harbors principal, Sean Boulton, spoke with the students throughout the morning and expressed concern that the shirts were negatively affecting the campus educational environment and that he feared the students might encounter discrimination or harassment.
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Safety was at the forefront of our mind that morning, Franco said.
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The students were allowed to wear the shirts by the afternoon, she added.
Before Trumps appearance in Orange County, graffiti and clothing both for and against him were reported at the campus, Franco said. Newport Harbor has about 2,400 students, 36% of whom are Latino.
Campus policy usually does not ban clothing with political overtones, provided it doesnt contain profanity or libelous or discriminatory language, Franco said. Hats are an exception because no hats of any kind are allowed on campus, she said.
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Some of Trumps comments about Mexican immigrants and others have brought accusations of bigotry from his detractors, hundreds of whom protested outside his Costa Mesa rally.
On Friday, representatives of the Orange County Human Relations Commission met with about 60 Newport Harbor students on how to be politically involved while respecting one anothers differences. The commission is a regular advisor to the schools Bridges Club, which works to build better relations among students.
Zint writes for Times Community News.
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A man accused of carrying drugs and hitting two cars during an hours-long police chase from Compton to Anaheim last week was charged Monday with eight felonies and two misdemeanors, prosecutors said.
John Raymond Lopez, 25, was arrested Thursday after fleeing police who had tried to stop the black Mercedes-Benz he was driving because it was suspected of being involved in a shooting in Compton.
Instead of stopping, Lopez sped off, prosecutors said. He hit at least two cars and injured one driver as he sped toward Anaheim on the 91 Freeway, authorities said.
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For the record, 10:03 a.m., May 10: An earlier version of this post and its headline said Lopez was charged with 10 felonies. He was charged with eight felonies.
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The California Highway Patrol eventually got the car to stop after it drove over a spike strip. The subsequent standoff lasted for hours and ended only when police fired tear gas into the car and pulled Lopez out, officials said.
He was carrying drugs and the car had been rented to someone else, authorities said.
On Monday, Lopez was charged with two counts of transporting a controlled substance for sale, one count each of possession of a cocaine base, possession of a controlled substance, assault with a deadly weapon, fleeing a peace officer while driving recklessly, driving a vehicle without consent, hit and run causing injury, hit and run causing property damage, and driving with a suspended license from a previous DUI.
He was previously convicted of assaulting a peace officer and faces up to seven years in prison on the current charges, prosecutors said.
Lopez is being held in lieu of $110,000 bail. His arraignment is scheduled for May 10.
For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna.
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Brazen thieves stole up to $4-million worth of Dell notebook computers at gunpoint from a warehouse in Los Angeles, and police Monday were trying to track down the bandits.
Five men pulled up about 11:30 a.m. Friday at the warehouse in the 19200 block of South Western Boulevard in Harbor Gateway and ordered a security guard to open a gate, Los Angeles police Officer Mike Lopez said.
The assailants, four of whom wore masks, tied up the security guard and backed two semi tractors into the lot. They hitched to two trailers containing more than 7,000 laptops and drove away.
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One of the trailers was found empty Saturday morning in Commerce, Lopez said.
Police did not release further identifying information about the suspects.
The heist is under investigation by the LAPDs Auto Theft Section. Anyone with information about the theft is asked to contact police at (818) 832-7510.
For breaking news in California, follow @MattHjourno.
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Homicide detectives are investigating the death of woman whose body was pulled from a fiery apartment in Lomita on Tuesday morning.
The womans death was deemed suspicious, so arson and homicide investigators will examine the fire scene to get more details, said Los Angeles County Sheriffs Deputy Kelvin Moody.
A passerby first spotted smoke coming from a rear second-floor apartment window at 5:47 a.m. in the 26000 block of Narbonne Avenue, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
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Firefighters arrived and found the woman inside the burning apartment, which had possible hoarding conditions, fire officials said. Battalion Chief Mark Whaling told KTLA-TV that the victim, a woman in her 40s, had a lot of personal belongings.
The woman was pulled from the apartment and paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene, he said.
Firefighters stopped the flames from spreading into neighboring apartments at about 6:05 a.m.
This post will be updated as new information becomes available.
For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.
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People visit the "Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China's Silk Road" exhibition at Getty Center in Los Angeles, the United States on May 6, 2016. The exhibition "Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China's Silk Road" opened to public on Saturday. The exhibition will last until September, offering visitors the chance to learn about the art and history of the Mogao Grottoes, which thrived as a Buddhist center in China from the 4th to the 14th centuries. [Photo/Xinhua]
A bus operator for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is under investigation Tuesday after cellphone video showed him yelling racial epithets at a woman during a parking dispute.
Video shows the bus operator, who wore a uniform but was driving his own vehicle, squaring off with a woman over a parking spot near a Muni yard Monday in a San Francisco neighborhood.
During the dispute, the man made racist remarks to Mayra Villarreal as she recorded the argument with her cellphone.
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Villarreal shared the video with her boyfriend, who posted it on Facebook, KGO-TV reported.
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The video caught the attention of Muni officials, who have now launched an investigation into the racist rant.
We do not tolerate this type of hateful behavior at our agency, the railways spokesman Paul Rose said. We will conduct an investigation and seek full disciplinary action, which includes termination.
The driver has been placed on leave.
Muni officials have apologized to Villarreal, Rose said.
Villarreal told KGO-TV that she whipped out her cellphone camera because she feared the confrontation would become violent. The bus operator continued to yell at her even after she stopped filming, she said.
Muni officials, she said, have responded swiftly to the incident.
You dont want somebody like that representing you, especially working for the city, Villarreal told the news station.
San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee said the incident was disturbing, especially in a city that celebrates and embraces diversity.
This ugly behavior will never be tolerated, Lee said in a statement. City employees must always represent the values of our city at all times. Our fellow city employees and the public deserve nothing less.
For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.
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Citing the states improved hydrology and impressive regional conservation, officials at Southern Californias massive water wholesaler voted Tuesday to rescind the cuts they imposed on regional water deliveries last year.
Effective immediately, the Southland cities and water districts that make purchases from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will no longer be subjected to so-called allocations or the punitive surcharges that come with exceeding them.
The less stringent conditions adopted by MWDs board call for continued conservation, but also offer the latest signal that Californias multiyear drought is easing.
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We would not be taking this action today were it not for the publics support and diligence, board Chairman Randy Record said in a news release.
Still, he added, Sustaining wise water use remains as essential as ever.
MWD made waves in April 2015 when its board approved a cut in deliveries to member water districts for only the fourth time in the agencys history. The vote came just two weeks after Gov. Jerry Brown issued an unprecedented executive order calling for a statewide 25% reduction in urban water use.
The cutbacks took effect in July.
As a water wholesaler, Metropolitan supplies more than two dozen cities and water agencies including Los Angeles with water from Northern California and the Colorado River. Those customers, in turn, sell the water to residents and businesses in cities and towns across Southern California.
Although the water rationing was intended to reduce MWD deliveries by 15% overall, customers got different allocations that were calculated according to a complex formula. Member agencies that needed more water than they were allocated were hit with financial penalties that made the additional water more expensive.
But those allocations will now come to an end.
All of our member agencies met the water-savings targets we set, which is why we are confident that lower water use will continue into the future, MWD General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger said in the news release.
In a letter to the board, MWD staff members said the agency will probably increase the amount of water stored in reservoirs this year and next, rendering an allocation plan unnecessary. Kightlinger said it would mark the first time in four years that the agency will be able to replenish its reserves.
We might be able to breathe a little easier, Kightlinger said.
Officials also repeatedly cited the relatively robust State Water Project allocation as evidence that the cutbacks could end.
In April, officials announced that contractors served by the project including MWD would get about 60% of the water they requested. By comparison, contractors got only 20% in 2015 and only 5% in 2014.
MWDs action comes one day after Brown issued a new executive order, instructing state water regulators to make several bans on wasteful water practices permanent.
Also, on Monday, the staff of the State Water Resources Control Board recommended changes to the emergency drought rules that would allow communities around the state to relax or even drop their mandatory conservation targets.
Were making a shift that recognizes supply conditions have improved, water board conservation manager Max Gomberg said.
For more on the California drought and water, follow me on Twitter @ByMattStevens
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An Orange County woman who was arrested in Newport Beach is suing the city, alleging that its Police Department violates womens civil rights by putting female arrestees through a more arduous process than men when theyre booked into jail.
Connie Barraclough, 52, was driving through Newport Beach around 4 a.m. April 4 last year when a police officer pulled her over, according to the lawsuit filed last month in federal court in Santa Ana.
Barraclough had been drinking earlier that night at an Angels game in Anaheim and was taken into custody on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to her lawyer, V. James DeSimone. He would not disclose Barracloughs city of residence.
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But instead of booking her at the city jail, police took Barraclough to Orange County Jail in Santa Ana because Newport Beach did not have a female jailer available to process her, the lawsuit claims.
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Barraclough alleges she was held for 12 hours at the county facility before being released, whereas the same process at the Newport Beach jail would have taken about three hours.
While in county jail, sheriffs deputies confiscated her shoes, gave her food she wasnt able to eat and wouldnt let her make an additional phone call so she could tell her children what had happened, according to DeSimone, who called the process dehumanizing.
Youre basically stripped of your dignity when youre sent to Orange County Jail, he said.
According to DeSimone, jails in California are required to have female jailers available whenever theyre needed. By not doing so, and instead shifting responsibility to the Orange County Jail, Newport Beach discriminated against Barraclough and other female inmates, according to the lawsuit.
By holding her in jail for 12 hours, authorities appeared to be trying to punish Barraclough for her actions before she was given a fair trial, DeSimone said.
Newport Beach City Attorney Aaron Harp said Friday that he hadnt had a chance to discuss Barracloughs allegations with the Police Department, and he declined to comment.
NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a judges order barring the Police Department from treating female inmates the way Barraclough alleges she was handled.
Her motivation here really is to make sure that this doesnt happen to anyone again, DeSimone said.
DeSimone is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit. He said he has already started getting calls about people wanting to join the legal action.
Barraclough ultimately was convicted of two misdemeanors related to her arrest. She pleaded guilty in October to driving under the influence and driving with blood-alcohol content above 0.08%.
A judge sentenced her to probation and a three-month alcohol education program, according to court records.
DeSimone said Barraclough understands she made a mistake.
Theres a consequence for her actions, but it should be a fair and balanced consequence, he said.
Dobruck writes for Times Community News.
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Two people have been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a man found dead near a crashed, stolen car earlier this month, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Joseph Perez-Coronel, 22, and Cindy Catalan, 25, were arrested in a San Fernando motel Monday morning, just days after the shooting of 26-year-old Miles Rose, police said.
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Rose was discovered lying in the parking lot of Parc Tarzana Condominiums in the 18600 block of Hatteras Street in Tarzana on May 5. Police allege the killing was part of a drug robbery.
The persons involved all knew each other, and drug use was at the root, said Capt. Paul Vernon, the commanding officer of the West Valley Patrol Division.
Police did not say if Rose was driving the stolen vehicle.
Perez-Coronel and Catalan have been jailed on suspicion of murder and their bail has been set at $2 million each.
Follow @byjsong on Twitter
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A Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department psychologist was charged Monday with multiple felony counts of molesting a young boy and girl, prosecutors said.
Michael Dane Ward, 44, is accused of molesting a 9-year-old boy from August 2014 to March 31, 2016, and a 10-year-old girl from August 2015 to March, 31, 2016.
The allegations are unrelated to his work, where he advised law enforcement and helped train deputies, officials said. He was taken into custody Thursday by the sheriffs Special Victims Unit, sheriffs Capt. Chris Reed said.
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Ward is charged with a total of 10 felonies, including four counts of committing a lewd act on a child, two counts of committing a forcible lewd act on a child under 14, three counts of forcible oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 years old or younger and one count of sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child 10 years or younger.
He was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in a downtown L.A. courtroom. Prosecutors will ask that he be held in lieu of $2.6-million bail.
Ward was relieved of duty when he was arrested, officials said. If convicted of all the charges, Ward could face up to life in state prison.
For SoCal crime & investigations follow me on Twitter: @lacrimes
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Prince saw a Minneapolis-area doctor the day before he died, and that doctor was at Princes Paisley Park compound to deliver test results on the morning the musician was found dead, according to court records obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Michael Todd Schulenberg, who specializes in family medicine, had also seen Prince earlier in the month, on April 7. He told investigators he had prescribed medication to Prince. The singer was supposed to fill the prescription at Walgreens, although it is unclear from the warrant whether he did.
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The search warrant for Princes medical records was filed April 27 and carried out May 5. The warrant, which misspelled the doctors name, was executed at North Memorial Medical Center, where Schulenberg worked.
Schulenberg, whose LinkedIn profile page has been removed from public view, no longer works for the North Memorial Health Care system, where he was a family healthcare provider, said Lesa Bader, a system spokeswoman.
Bader said she couldnt give more details about when and why Schulenberg left his job, citing policies that protect employment information. In addition, she said, federal health privacy law prohibited her from releasing information on patients.
The Times tried, without success, to reach Schulenberg for comment. No one answered the door at an address listed under his name in Chaska, a suburb southwest of Minneapolis, but someone rolled down an open garage door after a Times reporter walked away. A message left at the door drew no response.
NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>
The warrant does not clarify whether Schulenberg was one of the people who found Prince dead at the compound on April 21 or whether Schulenberg arrived when investigators were already at the scene.
It also does not say anything about the prescription painkillers that Prince had reportedly been using, or whether Prince was being treated for opioid dependency.
Six days before his death, Prince fell unconscious in a private plane, which then made an emergency landing in western Illinois. He was reportedly treated there with an opioid overdose antidote.
A friend of Princes, Kirk Johnson, told investigators that Prince had also been hospitalized in either 2014 or 2015 and had to be treated with fluids, according to the warrant.
On Oct. 23, 2013, an unidentified man, described as 53 years old and showing signs of dehydration, was picked up at Paisley Park and taken to a medical center with the same address as the facility listed in the search warrant, according to 911 call logs released by the Carver County Sheriffs Office. Its not clear whether Prince, who was 55 at the time, was the unidentified man.
Johnson has not responded to messages seeking comment.
Princes cause of death remains undetermined. Investigators have declined to discuss details of the investigation or give a timeline for when the cause might be announced.
That shouldnt be a surprise to anybody that these records were examined, Carver County Chief Deputy Jason Kamerud said when contacted for comment about the contents of the warrant, noting investigators had previously said they would be examining Princes medical history.
Kamerud said the investigation was continuing.
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Twitter: @mattdpearce
UPDATES:
6:21 p.m.: This story has been updated with changes including details on The Times attempts to speak with Dr. Schulenberg.
1:34 p.m.: This story has been updated with comment from the Carver County Sheriffs Office, comment from a spokesperson for North Memorial Healthcare system and a link to the search warrant.
This story was originally published at 12:58 p.m.
The federal government dealt a fatal blow on Monday to a proposed coal export facility in Washington state that pitted two Indian tribes against each other one that wanted to export coal to Asia, another that argued the facility would damage its historic fishing grounds.
In the end, the Lummi Nation prevailed based on its 1855 treaty with the federal government, which guaranteed the tribe the rights to its usual and accustomed fishing grounds in the Salish Sea.
The small tribe won at the expense of the Crow tribe of eastern Montana, which has an agreement with a mining company, Cloud Peak Energy, to develop a coal mine on its 2.2-million-acre reservation. The Crow, poor and geographically isolated, contended that the mine and the terminal to export coal overseas were essential to the tribes economic survival.
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The proposed port stood to be the largest coal export facility on the West Coast. Known as Gateway Pacific Terminal, it was to be built at Cherry Point, an area zoned for industrial development just north of Bellingham, Wash. The Lummi, in addition to arguing that its fishing grounds would be hurt, said the area included sacred sites and the remains of tribal members.
The Army Corps of Engineers reviewed thousands of pages of documents and found that the terminals effect on Lummi fishing rights would exceed the relatively low threshold of damage that is allowed under the treaty, according to Col. John Buck, the corps Seattle district commander.
Tim Ballew II, the chairman of the Lummi, called the decision a historic victory for treaty rights and the constitution that protects our sacred site.
Our ancient ones at XwechieXen, Cherry Point, will rest protected, he said.
Environmental groups also hailed the decision. They said the terminal and the trains that would have supplied it would have increased local pollution as well as carbon emissions in Asia that contribute to climate change.
A spokesman for the Crow did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposed terminal became a flashpoint in the debate over coal exports in the West, which have typically involved mining interests inland and more liberal areas on the coast. Environmental groups helped galvanize tribal opposition, prompting the Crow to accuse the Lummi of being manipulated.
The Lummi, however, have become increasingly prosperous with a growing casino and a new hotel that have given them more resources to devote to preserving their culture.
Cloud Peak was very disappointed with the corps decision, its chief executive, Colin Marshall, said. The Cherry Point terminal has been subjected to an unprecedented parallel process imposed by the corps that served to pick winners and losers among Native American tribes with differing interests in the project, he said.
The company, which is based in Gillette, Wyo., still intends to develop the mine on the Crow reservation, but it and the tribe face questions about whether they will receive necessary federal permits. Cloud Peak already holds the rights to export coal from an existing terminal in British Columbia and a proposed one in Longview, Wash., a spokesman said in an email.
Opponents are fighting coal exports at those locations.
The coal industry in general has been struggling, as declining demand in the United States and Asia has driven down prices. The nations largest mining companies, including Arch Coal and Peabody Energy, have declared bankruptcy.
Cloud Peak has seen its stock plunge in the last two years and was trading at less than $2 per share at the close of business on Monday.
Last month, Marshall said in an earnings call that the coal industry had permanently changed because of the rise of cheap natural gas and greater interest in renewable energy.
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william.yardley@latimes.com
After seeing patients and making the rounds at a local hospital recently, Dr. Leah Torres stopped at a cafe, brown curls tied back in a surgical cap, still in scrubs, a fleece covering the name stitched over her heart.
Torres, 36, is ever vigilant since she began spending half a Saturday each month working at one of Utahs two licensed abortion clinics. Now shes taken on more work coping with a new law that critics say is emerging as the latest front in the antiabortion fight.
The law, which takes effect Tuesday, requires doctors to provide anesthesia or painkillers to women seeking an abortion 20 weeks or more into a pregnancy. The pain medication is for the fetus. Though such late-term abortions are rare just 17 in Utah in 2014, according to the local Planned Parenthood chapter the fetal anesthesia law scares doctors like Torres.
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It criminalizes us, said Torres, who is consulting an attorney about how to comply with the law. Other doctors say the law is based on bad science and could put women at risk.
Dr. Leah Torres said the law would force her to lie to patients because theres no medical evidence that a fetus feels pain at 20 weeks. (Christopher Wilde / For The Times )
Utah is the first state in the country to require treatment of fetal pain for abortions. Under the law, doctors are required to provide pain medication to alleviate organic pain to the unborn child.
The law also requires doctors to notify women that medical evidence shows a 20-week fetus may feel pain during an abortion. The law exempts cases of rape, incest, where a woman would die or where two doctors agree the fetus has a uniformly lethal condition.
A spokesman for Utahs Health Department said it was up to doctors to decide what anesthetics to use. Doctors who break the law could face thousands of dollars in fines and lose their licenses.
The law, passed by the largely Republican Legislature, was proposed by Republican state Sen. Curt Bramble, a certified public accountant who wanted to ban abortions but determined an outright ban would be overturned by the courts.
The thought in Utah was if we cant prohibit abortions at 20 weeks, at least we could protect the child from the pain, Bramble said, adding that the law does not specify how doctors should comply, only that they should.
Bramble is president of the National Conference of State Legislatures, and said he had been contacted by lawmakers in other states who want to propose similar laws.
State lawmakers have passed measures requiring doctors to inform women seeking abortions that fetuses feel pain, and they have cited fetal pain in passing restrictions on abortions at 20 weeks or more. Last year, Montanas Republican-dominated Legislature passed a fetal pain law, but it was vetoed by Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat.
Dr. Leah Torres (Molly Hennessy-Fiske / Los Angeles Times)
There is scientific evidence that a fetus feels pain, said Mary Taylor, president of Pro-Life Utah. As compassionate human beings we need to step back and err on the side of caution.
Many doctors disagree. In Utah, about two dozen doctors sent letters to state lawmakers opposing the legislation, arguing it was not based on science and could put womens health at risk.
Opponents of the law cited evidence that a fetus was unlikely to feel pain until about 27 weeks, according to a study published in 2005 and found to be sound three years ago by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
A general rule in medicine is we want to limit risks to the patient, Torres said. She said the law would force her to lie to patients because theres no medical evidence that a fetus feels pain at 20 weeks.
Its also unclear, she said, how doctors are supposed to comply with the law: Is it general anesthesia? A long needle through her abdomen, IV?
When she contacted state officials, Torres said she was told to get a lawyer.
Torres has performed several abortions this year that would have been covered by the law, and said they were already fraught experiences, often planned pregnancies where the 20-week ultrasound reveals serious problems with fetal development.
She has been outspoken against restrictions on abortion access, testifying against the fetal anesthesia law, lobbying congressional leaders and discussing her job with opponents on Twitter. She has not been attacked, but said she had seen fellow abortion doctors censored and threatened.
Last week, a doctor in Washington, D.C., who Torres knows filed a civil rights complaint after hospital officials warned her to stop publicly defending abortion. (She had written a piece in the Washington Post complaining that opponents had used photos of her 15-month-old daughter to threaten her online.)
Also last week, a Wichita, Kan., jury sided with an antiabortion activist, saying she did not intend to intimidate a doctor by sending her a letter warning that her car could be bombed.
The doctor had been training to replace Dr. George Tiller, 67, shot and killed at his church by an antiabortion extremist in 2009.
Torres said that during the debate over the Utah fetal anesthesia law, even her father, who has been supportive, urged her not to speak out, saying she could make herself a target. But Torres said she and other doctors had no plans to stop.
We are fighting back, she said. We will not be bullied into hiding.
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molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com
Twitter: @mollyhf
Good morning. It is Tuesday, May 10. Breweries in Los Angeles and Orange counties were big winners at the World Beer Cup awards. This years competition included 6,000 beers from 2,000 breweries. Cheers! Heres what else is happening in the Golden State:
TOP STORIES
Case dismissed
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A Los Angeles judge dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the mental competency of 92-year-old billionaire Sumner Redstone. The case was brought by the media moguls former companion, Manuela Herzer, who said Redstone was not in his right mind when he dismissed her as healthcare agent and cut her out of his will. Judge David J. Cowan said he was moved by a videotaped deposition of Redstone. He seemed very alert. He was composed and did not appear angry, Cowan said. Los Angeles Times
Green rush
The real estate market in Desert Hot Springs is taking off thanks to the citys decision to allow large-scale medical marijuana cultivation. The move is a financial one for a city with a median household income of $33,500 -- well below the state median. I can only imagine what we can do with the tax revenue. Were in need of parks, our roads are dilapidated. All around our sidewalks, curbs, gutters, said Mayor Scott Matas. Los Angeles Times
Water rules
Thanks to heavy rainfall in parts of the state, communities may soon ease or even drop mandatory water conservation measures. The State Water Resources Control Board will consider the revised rules on May 18. Now we know that drought is becoming a regular occurrence and water conservation must be a part of our everyday life, said Gov. Jerry Brown. Los Angeles Times
DROUGHT AND CLIMATE
Water conditions: A new report finds 90% of the state is in a drought. Its the first time since 2013 that even a small part of the state has not been in a drought. Associated Press
L.A. AT LARGE
No concern: Records obtained by The Times show Palos Verdes Estates officials dismissed allegations of harassment by the Bay Boys as urban legend and discussed ways to avoid further media scrutiny. Members of the group have been accused of harassing and attacking other surfers at Lunada Bay. If blaming victims of perpetuating an urban legend is the official position of Palos Verdes Estates, it is disappointing, said attorney Kurt A. Franklin. Los Angeles Times
Education funding: A report funded by the teachers union finds charter schools, which are non-union, are costing the Los Angeles Unified School District millions of dollars a year in tax money. About 16% of LAUSD students are enrolled in a charter school. With more education tax dollars going directly to charters, the result is a decline of more than $500 million a year about 7% in the districts core budget, the researchers say. Los Angeles Times
Summer blackouts: An executive with the Southern California Gas Co. says the utility is looking at how it can avoid summer blackouts. The situation appears to be less dire than initially portrayed in a report released last month. Gas officials have said that with the Aliso Canyon storage field offline, they may have less ability to move around natural gas this summer. Los Angeles Times
Dangerous conditions: Did the city of Los Angeles ignore warnings that could have prevented a fatal crash in San Pedro? A jury thought so when it awarded Thomas Guilmettes widow and son a $23.7-million judgement. During a civil trial, attorneys presented evidence that city officials had been warned about a dangerous intersection that made it difficult to see oncoming traffic. The city plans to appeal. Daily Breeze
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Feel the Bern: The California Nurses Assn. is throwing its weight behind Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders as he prepares for the states June 7 primary. When Bernie comes to California, the fact that the nurses support him legitimizes his candidacy. Heres a union thats powerful and important in California, said Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at UC Santa Barbara. Los Angeles Times
Future of drugs: Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is talking about drug policy reform now that hes backing a proposal to legalize recreational marijuana use in California. Alcohol is not good for kids either, and tobacco is more devastating in many ways. But we dont incarcerate people for smoking a cigarette. We dont incarcerate people for having a beer, he says. Mother Jones
Partisan fight: Assemblywoman Catharine Baker is the Bay Areas only Republican lawmaker at the state or federal level -- and that makes her a prime target for Democrats in this years election. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) has said turning the seat from red to blue is one of his top priorities. San Francisco Chronicle
CRIME AND COURTS
Out of control: A Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy was placed on leave after he allegedly got drunk and ended up in a car belonging to a tamale vendor, authorities said. Two people tried to disarm the deputy after they noticed he had a weapon on him. He was later arrested by police. The deputy, whose name was not released by authorities, was in town to attend law enforcement memorial events. Los Angeles Times
Beer, guns, vomit: A $15,000 reward is being offered for information on three men who got drunk and fired off guns in Death Valley National Park, officials said. One of the men apparently went skinny-dipping at Devils Hole -- his boxer shorts were found floating in the water -- and may have caused the death of a pupfish. A necropsy is being performed on the pupfish to determine whether the vandals actions may have caused the death of this member of an endangered species, according to park officials. Los Angeles Times
CALIFORNIA CULTURE
Life on the left coast: Writer Joan Didion on California: The place names have the ring of real places to me. I can pronounce the names of the rivers, and recognize the common trees and snakes. I am easy here in a way that I am not easy in other places. New York Review of Books
Diversity in Hollywood: Where are the Asian American actors in Hollywood? Thats the question folks are asking following the news that that actresses Tilda Swinton and Scarlett Johansson are portraying characters Asian American characters in two new movies. Nothing can be more frustrating than the fact that there arent enough roles that [Hollywood] allows us, and then to take a role that is written Asian and turn it into one that you can no longer be considered for is adding insult to complete injury, said actress Maggie Q. Hollywood Reporter
Cheap gas: Why is gas so cheap at Berri Brothers? Tarek Berri and his uncles, who run the company, found that keeping the stations independent of national brands allowed them to secure gas for less because they dont have to pay franchisee fees. Orange County Register
Art walk: Take a walk through the Echo Park craft fair. New York Times
CALIFORNIA ALMANAC
San Diego will have low clouds and a high of 70 degrees. In L.A., there will be clouds as temperatures reach 71. Riverside will start with clouds; temperatures there are expected to reach 77 degrees. Sacramento will be mostly sunny and 86. San Francisco will have low clouds and a high of 69.
AND FINALLY
Todays California Memory comes from Nancy Wyatt:
Visiting San Francisco for the first time in the 60s, my brother, who lived there and was my ambassador to the world, took me to see all the spots. I visited many times thereafter, but that first visit was truly when I Left My Heart in San Francisco. Brother has passed on, but Ill never forget how he loved to show off his city. I left with tears in my eyes. Truly an enchanting city.
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.
Im Davan Maharaj, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines I dont want you to miss today.
TOP STORIES
The Campaigns Canary in a Coal Mine
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Deep in the heart of coal country, the least popular candidate is clear. Donald Trump has vowed to get those miners back to work and called climate change a hoax; Bernie Sanders is expected to do well; and Hillary Clinton famously said, Were going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business. (She says she misspoke.) As West Virginians go to the polls today, heres why political pundits will be watching how the politics of coal could play out in the battleground states of Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Dont Hose Off Your Sidewalk
The drought in California isnt over, but thanks to some El Nino rain, officials are looking to add flexibility to the states rules on using water. For some Northern California communities with nearly full reservoirs, that could mean the end of water rationing. Restrictions in Southern California could ease up too. At the same time, Gov. Jerry Brown made some rules permanent, including hosing off sidewalks
High Times in the Low Desert
Desert Hot Springs has long struggled to draw tourists the way Palm Springs, its neighbor south of Interstate 10, does. Its crime and precarious finances have led some to dub it Desperate Hot Springs. Lately, property values have tripled. The reason: It became the first city in Southern California to legalize the large-scale cultivation of medical marijuana. But amid the high hopes for tax revenue, there are some issues like supplying enough electricity, for starters.
North Koreas Nuclear Puzzle
Kim Jong Un said over the weekend that North Korea wouldnt use its nuclear weapons unless encroached upon by another nuclear power. Of course, thats not doing much to ease concerns in the U.S., Japan and South Korea, as Pyongyang has stepped up tests of its missiles and nukes. So just how far has North Korea come in developing its weaponry? Read on to see how U.S. experts are trying to piece it together.
Loans Drawing Interest From Authorities
Heres the concept: An online marketplace where investors who want to lend money are matched with people looking to borrow say, to consolidate debt or fund a small business. Theyve become wildly popular, but how solid are those loans? Ratings agencies are raising concerns, and tighter government regulation could be coming. Read on to see why the CEO of the biggest marketplace lender just stepped down.
CALIFORNIA
-- Two L.A. County sheriffs deputies were sentenced to federal prison in a jail beating case.
-- In a show of support for transgender people, the Assembly acts to make single-user restrooms gender-neutral.
-- A union-commissioned report says charter schools are bleeding money from traditional schools.
-- Guns, beer and vomit: After a rampage in Death Valley, an endangered fish is dead.
NATION-WORLD
-- The Obama administration clashes with North Carolina over the states bathroom law.
-- A candidate said to be the Philippines version of Donald Trump appears to win the presidential race as his rival concedes.
-- Where Beyonce, Black Lives Matter and global history collide: the Black Power salute at West Point.
-- The resignation of Austrias chancellor reflects the rise of a right-wing party and the migrant crisis.
-- A synthetic second skin uses science to make you look younger.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- A judge dismissed the mental competency case against Sumner Redstone, but the legal wrangling continues.
-- Good thing for Michael Fassbender that playing the video game Assassins Creed wasnt a requirement for making the film adaptation.
-- Avant-garde pop and performance happenings mark the Broads first summer music series.
-- TV review: The (not so) Good Wife finale.
-- Why the daring and difficult opera Theatre of the World will stand the test of time.
BUSINESS
-- Are lead-based squib explosives -- used to simulate the impact of bullets -- a health hazard for film crews?
-- Why Uber and Lyft arent looking to tech to solve their fingerprint problem.
SPORTS
-- The Angels are in desperate times but determined to resist desperate measures, like trading Mike Trout.
-- Javier Chicharito Hernandez is chasing a lot of goals with Mexicos national soccer team.
OPINION
-- North Carolinas transgender bathroom bill is on flimsy legal ground. Scrap it now.
-- L.A.'s middle class is gone. How do we rebuild it?
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- Why white people are more apt to use the Simpsons yellow emoji than the white emoji. (The Atlantic)
-- How to pronounce Los Angeles? Charles Lummis wrote a poem about it. (KCET)
-- Tiger Woods, the Navy SEALs and the twilight of his career. (ESPN)
ONLY IN CALIFORNIA
Marie Ostwalds Facebook post began with the words A Mothers Day Plea. Her request: to save a pepper tree that she planted in 1957 from being cut down as long as she lives. I just need a couple more years, the 91-year-old San Diegan wrote, after city officials determined the tree to be unstable. Her post was shared more than 2,500 times. And for now, the family tree has a temporary reprieve.
Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.
You are here: Home
An unlicensed surgeon was detained for allegedly blinding a patient in her right eye by injecting her with hyaluronic acid during an illegal rhinoplasty procedure, Shanghai's Putuo District People's Procuratorate said yesterday.
The suspect, surnamed Wang, advertised his services as "a South Korea-trained plastic surgeon" after completing a five-day course in Beijing last July.
"I didn't know if he was licensed or not. I just saw pictures of him studying plastic surgery in Korea on Wechat," the unidentified victim told prosecutors, who said the pictures were taken at a "Sino-Korean" plastic surgery center in Beijing.
On September 19 last year, Wang went to the victim's home with his surgical equipment.
Wang allegedly injected hyaluronic acid into the victim's nose and chin after administering a local anesthetic.
The victim soon began to experience extreme pain and began to have difficulty seeing with her right eye, and an hour later she was blind.
Wang fled the scene but police caught him at a Metro station on March 22.
The Rohingya Muslim population in Myanmar has long been deemed one of the worlds most persecuted minorities, its plight called a most urgent matter by President Obama. Episodes of sectarian violence drove the Rohingya from their homes, leaving more than 100,000 in squalid camps for the displaced. Restricted in how they travel and denied educational opportunities, they are the outcasts in majority-Buddhist Myanmar, also known as Burma. Many Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations, yet they are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and West Bengal. And most in effect have been denied citizenship because they cant meet the nearly impossible standard set by law.
Myanmar has made a stunning transition from military rule to the newly elected government led, in effect, by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Human rights advocates have hoped that she and her ruling National League for Democracy party would dismantle the repressive measures against the Rohingya. Suu Kyi, who was disturbingly noncommittal on the issue during the election, has now spoken up but, woefully, only to endorse the previous governments discriminatory practice of refusing to recognize the Rohingya as one of the countrys more than 130 officially sanctioned ethnic groups. Instead, her government has advised foreign embassies to stop using the word Rohingya. Many Buddhists in Myanmar refer to them as Bengalis a designation that casts them as outsiders with no claim to citizenship. Its unconscionable on the part of Suu Kyi to support this and a disappointing start for a new government rooted in democracy.
To be sure, Myanmar is a fragile democracy in which civilian officials must share power with the military. Forging this new government requires Suu Kyi and her party to move the country toward democracy while also maintaining the military leaders cooperation. To the new governments credit, it moved quickly to release almost 200 political prisoners and other detainees.
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But given the new governments refusal to call the Rohingya by their name and Suu Kyis reported advice to the new U.S. ambassador to do the same oppression of the Rohingya seems likely to remain official government policy for the foreseeable future. As such, the U.S. government should keep in place at least some of the rules for investors and the sanctions against Myanmar that are set to expire later this month, particularly the ones that require American companies working in Myanmar to report on their efforts to ensure that human and labor rights are maintained, and to not do business with specially designated nationals with ties to human rights abuses. Myanmars march to democracy shouldnt leave the Rohingya behind.
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Seven decades ago, the United States dropped the first and last atom bombs ever used in war onto two Japanese cities, killing approximately 200,000 people, hastening the end of the Second World War and beginning a difficult and painful moral and historical debate that continues to this day. On Tuesday, President Obama waded in to that troubled discussion when he announced he would visit the first of those cities Hiroshima during a trip to Japan later this month. He would be the first sitting president to do so.
The hand-wringing began immediately. Surely the presidents trip will serve as an unwarranted apology for President Trumans 1945 decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, opponents insisted. Even if he doesnt apologize explicitly, they worried, wont his visit suggest contrition? American weakness? Lack of resolve?
This is silliness. The president is absolutely right to visit Hiroshimas Peace Memorial Park, where aides say he will likely reaffirm Americas strong ties to Japan while reemphasizing his belief in nuclear nonproliferation. And while he will no doubt pay tribute as he should to the people, overwhelmingly civilians, who died in the bombings, thats not the same as apologizing. It is an embrace of history, a recognition of the tragic cost of combat and of the horrors of atomic warfare. That seems entirely appropriate in 2016, when more than two dozen violent conflicts are underway around the globe.
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The devastation wrought by Little Boy and Fat Man, the benign-sounding nicknames given to the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is almost unimaginable. Yet compared with todays nuclear warheads, those two were insignificant. In 1961, the Soviet Union tested a hydrogen bomb in the Arctic with an explosive force of 50 megatons more than 3,000 times the power of the bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima only 16 years earlier. Such a weapon would kill millions. Currently, nine nations own more than 15,000 nuclear weapons, most of them far more powerful than the World War II bombs.
The overwhelming destructive force of nuclear weapons, and the fragility of peace, are what the president and the world should focus on, rather than wrangling over the symbolism of a visit to a memorial. Consider North Korea, Iran, India and Pakistan. Consider the the risk of loose Cold War-era warheads falling into the hands of terrorists. The nuclear threat remains real.
The debate may continue forever over whether the shortening of World War II justified the loss of so many civilian lives. Obama need not answer those questions. The president can instead send this unambiguous message: If the world is searching for peace, expanding its nuclear arsenal is the wrong way to get there. The past is not necessarily prologue. Unless, of course, we refuse to learn from it.
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The U.S. Justice Department did North Carolina a favor when it warned the state that it was violating federal law by limiting the access of transgender people to restrooms in public schools and state buildings. But instead of moving to repeal its discriminatory bathroom bill, the state is doubling down by suing the Obama administration to prevent federal sanctions. A petition filed in federal court Monday by Gov. Pat McCrory accuses the Justice Department of blatant overreach and argues that transgender status isnt a protected class under civil rights laws.
North Carolinas House Bill 2 is an ugly and unnecessary enactment. It requires people in public schools and government buildings to use restrooms and changing facilities consistent with their biological sex, as listed on their birth certificates. The law is rooted in a distaste about transgender individuals and the urban legend that allowing people to use facilities of the gender they identify with will make it possible for males to disguise themselves as women in order to prey on females.
But the law isnt just pointless and cruel. It also puts North Carolina on a collision course with federal civil rights law and threatens federal funding of state programs. Shortly after McCrory went to court, the Justice Department filed its own suit alleging that the state was engaged in a pattern or practice of sex discrimination.
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Its true that in prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, Congress didnt explicitly protect transgender people. But the Department of Justice plausibly construes sex discrimination to encompass discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Far from constituting overreach, that interpretation represents a natural development. As the Supreme Court recognized in 1998, anti-discrimination laws often go beyond the principal evil [they were designed to address] to cover reasonably comparable evils. Discrimination against women and discrimination against gays and lesbians (and transgender people) all are rooted in stereotypes about proper expressions of gender and sexuality.
HB 2 is on shaky legal ground for another reason: It purports to preempt municipalities in the state from adopting their own ordinances to protect the civil rights of gay and transgender people as the city of Charlotte did earlier this year. But in 1996 the Supreme Court struck down a similar ban on local anti-discrimination laws in a landmark case from Colorado.
North Carolina rightly has come in for criticism and boycott threats from all over the country because of this mean-spirited and unnecessary law. Now its governor is embarking on a risky legal battle that will further besmirch the states image. Its not too late for the state to recognize that it made a mistake, and pull back.
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Of all the problems besetting Los Angeles, the most fundamental is this: It doesnt have much of a middle class.
Like the nation as a whole, only more so, L.A.'s economy has morphed over the last half-century from one that featured widespread prosperity to one in which the pay is too damn low and the rent is too damn high. That was the conclusion of the real-estate website Zillow, which determined that L.A. ranked first among the 35 largest American cities last year in the percentage of income that residents with median-income levels had to pay, on average, for rent (49%; the national average was just 30%). Millions of Angelenos can barely afford to be Angelenos.
Just as the hollowing-out of the L.A. economy was partly caused by events beyond local control, so the rebuilding of an Angeleno middle class isnt something that local leaders and residents can accomplish by themselves. But there are some things they can do that can surely help.
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At the root of L.A.'s decline is that fact that, like the cities of the once industrial Midwest, it has de-industrialized indeed, de-industrialized twice. In the 1970s and 80s, the L.A. area, which had been home to a concentration of auto factories second only to Michigan, saw them all close down, taking with them tens of thousands of unionized jobs that had been filled by a racially diverse work force. In the 90s, with the Cold Wars end, the local aerospace industry, which employed hundreds of thousands of unionized production workers and engineers, saw massive cutbacks from which it has never recovered.
In a 1985 survey conducted by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, six of the dozen largest Southern California employers (both public and private) were aerospace manufacturers, ranging from Hughes Aircraft, which ranked second, with 65,704 employees, to Lockheed, which ranked twelfth, with 20,302 workers on its payroll.
The most plausible immediate hope for creating [local middle-class] jobs is a ballot measure being put together ... that would raise the county sales tax by a half-cent.
In 2014, just two of the top 20 L.A. County employers were aerospace manufacturers (or, indeed, manufacturers of any kind): Northrup Grumman, with 17,000 workers, and Boeing, with 10,500. Six of the top 10 were public sector (with L.A. County and the L.A. Unified School District topping the list). Government, hospital companies, universities and retail chains dominated the top 50.
Thus the public sector supports the largest part of what remains of the middle class. The number of such jobs was reduced in the wake of the 2008 crash, however, and has not yet returned to its pre-recession levels.
But the link between public spending and middle-class jobs in Los Angeles is not new. Even the great aerospace companies of the postwar boom, after all, were funded chiefly by taxpayer dollars funneled through the Defense Department.
The chief distinction between public- and private-sector jobs in todays L.A. and todays United States is that public-sector workers are unionized and have retained the power to bargain for wages and benefits, while workers in private-sector industries that were once largely unionized construction and trucking, for instance have lost that power, largely as a consequence of managements hostility to worker power.
Where will the middle-class jobs of L.A.'s future particularly, blue-collar jobs with decent pay and benefits come from? Not likely from manufacturing, in which globalization and the expanding role of technology will suppress the number of jobs created. Hiking the minimum wage to $15 will raise incomes in service and retail jobs, but only to a yearly level of $25,000 to $30,000, assuming near full-time employment.
The most plausible immediate hope for creating such jobs is a ballot measure being put together for Novembers election that would raise the county sales tax by a half-cent, which would generate $120 billion over the next 40 years for an ambitious program of rail and highway projects. Besides building numerous long-overdue rail lines including one to LAX and another through Sepulveda Pass the measure will generate many thousands of middle-income jobs. The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation estimates that Metros union-labor projects will employ 190,000 construction workers, and that when the economic multiplier effects of the project are tallied up, it will create a total of roughly 425,000 new jobs in the County.
Can L.A. rebuild its middle class? In November, voters can do their bit to help.
Harold Meyerson is executive editor of The American Prospect.
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In a criminal jury trial, a conviction requires a unanimous verdict of guilt, whether the crime is a low-level drug possession charge or capital murder.
But in Florida, after all 12 members of a jury have found the accused guilty, only 10 of them have to agree that the defendant should die for the crime. Its absurd to require a lower level of agreement to send someone to death than is required to find the person guilty in the first place.
Florida Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch reached the same conclusion in a decision Monday that declared Floridas latest death penalty law in violation of the states constitution. That decision followed arguments a few days earlier before the states Supreme Court over whether the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hurst v. Florida, which found the states sentencing-decision process unconstitutional, meant that all 390 people on Floridas death row should have their sentences converted to life.
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Yes, it does. If the sentencing process is unconstitutional, then the sentences are, too.
The Florida death-sentence regimen gutted by the Hurst decision was bizarre. It required a jury to reach a unanimous verdict of guilt for the charged offense, but then assigned to the jury only an advisory role in determining whether the defendant deserved the death penalty. The jurors weighed the aggravating factors in the case a lengthy menu that includes whether the defendant was guilty of a previous felony, knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons, committed the murder in the commission of another crime and other such elements. But only seven of the jurors had to find aggravating factors existed, and they didnt have to agree on the same factors. Then the judge who was not told what factors the jurors had deemed to be aggravating would make his or her own findings and issue the sentence.
In the Hurst case, the Supreme Court affirmed that only a jury can make a finding of fact. Florida, in an effort to save its death penalty, rewrote its law to say the jury must decide whether the death penalty was appropriate. But the U.S. Supreme Court didnt say how many jurors must make that call, and the revised state law raised the threshold to 10 of the 12 jurors.
Hirschs decision on Monday said that no, under the states constitution, a super-majority is not enough. His logic is a bit attenuated, but sound. Floridas constitution guarantees trial by jury but doesnt specify that a unanimous verdict must be reached. However, decades of practice, and common law, set unanimity as the standard threshold for a verdict. And since the revised law calls the jurys finding for the death penalty a verdict, then it must be unanimous.
Capital punishment is, at its core, an immoral enterprise. A state having the power to kill the very citizens it exists to protect is the ultimate in government overreach. Beyond that, the country has never developed a foolproof system for finding guilt, and the racism that courses through the nation has meant people of color receive death sentences at disproportionately higher levels than whites. And whether a murderer faces the death penalty has more to do with geography than anything else. Even within states, rates of death penalty sentences vary by county, which means local prosecutors hold significant power.
Yet ultimately, its the jury that decides whether a particular crime meets the states standards for receiving the death penalty. And it reaches that decision after hearing testimony and weighing evidence. As Hirsch wrote:
These three axioms of our law the unanimity rule, the presumption of innocence, and the requirement of proof beyond reasonable doubt are joined, not only in their origin and their development, but also in their purpose. They reflect the common laws admirable epistemological modesty a recognition that a criminal justice system designed and operated by imperfect human beings can never be better than imperfect, and that we ought to act with restraint and discretion when we act upon the imperfect conclusions of that system. We will take no Floridians liberty upon a less-than-unanimous verdict, although the liberty taken today can be restored tomorrow. We dare take no Floridians life upon a less-than-unanimous verdict. The life taken today can never be restored.
Its a fatally flawed system. The least Florida can do is require unanimity by a jury before deciding to kill someone. And it should either grant fresh sentencing trials for those on death row or and this is the preferred, more humane solution commute the death sentences to life sentences.
Follow Scott Martelle on Twitter @smartelle.
A Los Angeles attorney who advocates for the creation of a white ethno-state is on an official list of Donald Trumps Republican convention delegates published Monday night by state election officials.
William Johnson, a self-described white separatist who is the chairman of the American Freedom Party, is among the delegates pledged to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee published by the California Secretary of States office.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Trumps campaign said Johnsons inclusion on the published list of delegates was an error.
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Upon careful review of computer records, the inclusion of a potential delegate that had previously been rejected and removed from the campaigns list in February 2016 was discovered, Tim Clark, Trumps California campaign director, said in the statement. This was immediately corrected and a final list, which does not include this individual, was submitted for certification.
But state officials said the billionaire may not have any way to formally cut him from the list. Sam Mahood, a spokesman for the Secretary of States office, said California election code deals with selection and certification of delegates, but not their removal.
They submitted a delegate list to our office yesterday, which was the deadline, Mahood said. They attempted to submit a revised list today, which we informed them we would not be accepting because its past the deadline.
In practice, Johnson could simply not attend the Republican National Convention, where he would be replaced by an alternate delegate.
A spokeswoman for Trumps campaign did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.
In California, Republican voters seeking to become convention delegates apply directly to their candidates campaigns, which then sort through the submissions and select their slate of delegates. These names are later submitted to the Secretary of States office.
Democrats wasted little time in attacking Trump after Mother Jones broke the news of Johnsons inclusion on the delegate list Tuesday afternoon.
Donald Trump is the candidate that will Make America Hate Again, Mark Paustenbach, national press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. Trumps racist, xenophobic candidacy continues to fuel a resurgence of white nationalism in the United States, and to elevate a man like this shows that Trump has neither the temperament nor judgment to serve as president.
In an interview with The Times, Johnson said he received an email from the Trump campaign on Tuesday afternoon confirming that his name was erroneously listed as a potential delegate.
Johnson said he had advocated for Trump in recent months, setting up robo-calls supporting the candidate in seven different states, but not California. Johnson said he also created a crisis hotline to be able to handle people who have been traumatized or vandalized supporting Trump.
Johnson, who unsuccessfully ran for a judgeship in Los Angeles County in 2008, did not mince words when asked by a reporter to explain his politics.
I would like a separate white ethno-state.... I think diversity and multiculturalism is a failure, and I think its going to destroy civilization, he said.
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the American Freedom Party as an organization founded by racist Southern California skinheads that aims to deport immigrants and return the United States to white rule. Joanna Mendelson, an investigative researcher with the California branch of the Anti-Defamation League, said groups like the American Freedom Party highlight a tonal shift in the white supremacist movement, away from brash displays of violence and toward a subtler approach.
What these individuals do is they kind of use pseudo-intellectual racism to articulate their views, and they attach themselves to national topics, be it immigration or the elections currently, and insert themselves into the conversation, she previously told the Los Angeles Times. Johnson was one of the keynote speakers at Camp Comradery last year, a national gathering of white separatists in Bakersfield, according to Mendelson and the American Freedom Partys website.
Trump, who has often been criticized for his controversial statements about Mexicans and a call to deny Muslims access to the country, ran into trouble earlier in his campaign when he was slow to disavow an endorsement from David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Trumps other California delegates include more established figures like House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and Harmeet K. Dhillon, vice chair of the states Republican Party.
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FOR THE RECORD
4:39 p.m.: An earlier version of this article misspelled the first name of Harmeet K. Dhillon, vice chair of the California Republican Party, as Harmeey.
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With Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dropping out of the race, Californias June 7 primary will serve as little more than a coronation for Trump.
Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardinos Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said Johnson is well-known in extremist circles, and his appearance among Trumps delegates highlights the way this years election cycle has served to legitimize voices that were previously considered fringe.
This white nationalist is someone that any respectable, mainstream candidate should leave skid marks running from, Levin said.
Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in Southern California.
Times staff writers Michael Finnegan in New York and David Lauter in Washington contributed to this report.
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(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, trailing in delegates and running out of time in his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination, has a renewed request for front-runner Hillary Clinton: Lets debate.
Sanders, who won West Virginias primary on Tuesday, has an uphill climb against Clinton but has vowed to remain in the race through Californias June 7 primary.
On Tuesday, Sanders noted that the two candidates had agreed earlier to additional debates that would span into June.
I hope that we can soon settle on a date and place for that debate, Sanders emailed supporters about a possible gathering in California where polls show him trailing Clinton.
But the agreement was never more than lukewarm, and no specifics on a California debate were ever set. In recent weeks, Clinton has called on Sanders to take a page from her 2008 playbook, when she dropped out of the primary after it became clear that then-Sen. Barack Obama would be the Democratic nominee.
I knew then that whatever differences we might have had in the campaign, they were nothing compared to the differences between us and the Republicans, Clinton said while campaigning in Los Angeles recently. Now if that was true in 08, that is true on steroids today.
A request for comment from Clintons campaign about a debate ahead of the California primary was not immediately returned.
An autism treatment center in south China is under investigation following the death last month of a 4-year-old patient who was made to walk 19 kilometers the day before he died, supposedly as part of his therapy.
File photo of Jiajia, the 4-year-old boy with autism. [Photo: dayoo.com]
The child, identified only as "Jiajia" died from pneumonia and encephalitis on April 27 at the Tiandaozhengqi Rehabilitation Institution in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.
The night before he died, the child "became feverish and was up all night urinating," according to records kept by the center.
His mother, Zhang Wei, sent him to the center in March.
"I read the founder Xia Dejun's book on autism and decided to give his treatments a try," she said.
She said she was told long-distance walking was a key part of the treatment program.
"Xia said intense physical exercise helps children discharge toxins and boosts their overall health," she said.
Also, parents are not allowed to stay with their children, said Zhang, who lives in northeast China's Liaoning Province, which is about 3,000km from Guangzhou.
She said she was informed of her son's death over the phone.
"I was told the treatment was designed to replace parents who were too soft, and toughen up the children in mind and body."
'Fundamentally wrong'
Zou Xiaobing, an expert on childhood neurodevelopmental disorders with the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, said there is no evidence to show physical exercise is of any use in the treatment of autism.
"And taking children away from their parents is fundamentally wrong," he said.
Zhang paid more than 15,000 yuan (US$2,300) a month for her son's treatment. At the time of his death, there were about 11 children, aged between 3 and 7, at the center.
The center's operation has been suspended as it is being investigated by a panel of police, business officials and doctors.
There are estimated to be more than 10 million people in China with autism, about a fifth of whom are under 14, according to figures from the China's Disabled Persons' Federation.
Education and treatment of autistic children in China are mainly dependent upon private institutions. In April, about 77,000 autistic children were registered with such institutions nationwide.
Zhang said she had been looking at a treatment program in Beijing, but it had a waiting list of a year.
"I was eager to send Jiajia for treatment, but I couldn't be more regretful of my decision," she said.
Bernie Sanders renewed his commitment to campaign until the last vote is cast in the Democratic presidential race, saying his victory in Tuesdays West Virginia primary showed economically distressed voters want real change.
Sanders, the Vermont senator, appeared headed toward a double-digit win in the nights lone Democratic contest, a result that pointed to the liabilities of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clintons candidacy heading into the general election.
Republican Donald Trump cruised to victory in both Nebraska and West Virginia, contests sapped of any drama after a succession of make-or-break primaries in recent weeks cleared the GOP field. But exit polls in both states indicated some voter concern about Republican unity heading into the fall, underscoring the reservations about Trump expressed by party leaders in Washington.
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Eight years ago, Clinton scored a decisive victory in West Virginias Democratic primary against then-Sen. Barack Obama. But this time, armed with an all-but-insurmountable lead in the delegate race, she campaigned sparingly in the state. Her comments about the coal industry have hurt her with residents and risks her standing in nearby general election bellwethers Ohio and Pennsylvania. Three in 10 Democratic voters in West Virginia said they lived in a household with a coal worker.
She could not get elected dog catcher in this state, said Dave Waldron, an independent who voted Tuesday for Trump. Who in their right mind would vote for that lady?
Election 2016 | Live coverage on Trail Guide | Track the delegate race | Sign up for the newsletter
Trump wore a hard hat at a rally in West Virginia last week and mocked Clinton over saying in March that were going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business with alternative sources of energy.
Thats a tough one to explain, wouldnt you say? he said.
Clinton apologized during one of her few stops in the state, saying she misspoke. But the comments were fresh on the mind of Democrats heading to the polls Tuesday.
Joe Sprouse, a registered Democrat and retired bank branch manager in Burnsville, said he was voting only in down-ticket races Tuesday and planned to vote for Trump in the fall.
Shes against coal, and thats whats kept West Virginia going, he said.
On Tuesday, Clinton nodded toward her ongoing primary battle with Sanders during a stop in Kentucky, which votes next week, even as it is increasingly clear her real focus is on the fight for swing voters in the fall.
She pitched a new proposal to make childcare more affordable in Lexington, indicative of what will be a largely policy-driven campaign in the coming weeks when Democrats in eight more states will go to the polls in primaries.
But at an evening rally at Louisville Slugger Field, she said she was looking forward to debating Trump in the fall.
Weve got to unify America, she said. Enough with the hate rhetoric and the insults. Lets look for ways that we can work together.
Most national polls show Clinton with an early advantage over Trump. But a trio of Quinnipiac University polls in key November battlegrounds showed tighter races. Clinton held narrow leads in Florida and Pennsylvania but trailed in Ohio, which borders both Kentucky and West Virginia.
Campaigning in Stockton, Calif., on Tuesday morning, Sanders highlighted the new polls, which also showed him in a stronger position against Trump than Clinton.
There is no question about which campaign is energizing the American people, Sanders said. If you want the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump, thats us.
Sanders has acknowledged the narrow path he has to claim the nomination but nonetheless insisted he would campaign through the end of the primaries in June, including Californias on June 7, and seek to make his case to delegates at the Democratic convention in July.
We are in this campaign to win, Sanders said in a rally late Tuesday in Salem, Ore. " And we are going to fight for every last vote.
Mo Elleithee, a top spokesman for Clintons campaign in 2008, recalled how the campaign then worked to make the same case then as she won six of the last nine major primaries.
But at a certain point in the campaign, math beats momentum, he said. And it happened in this race far earlier than it did in 08.
Given Clintons own experience in Sanders position, she recognizes the need to treat both Sanders and the remaining Democratic voters with respect, Elleithee said.
However, she owes it to her party to not allow Donald Trump to get a huge head start on her, he added.
Trump faces an uncertain reception this week from key GOP leaders. On Thursday, he will sit down with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who has said he is not ready to support the presumptive nominee, as well as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
More than one-third of Nebraska Republican voters surveyed in exit polls said they would be scared or concerned if Trump were elected president, and nearly half said the GOP was unlikely to unite. Only 1 in 10 West Virginia Republican voters said the party was united now, but 3 in 5 predicted that it would unite by November.
A former Trump rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, returned to the Senate on Tuesday and picked up right where he left off promising to fight the GOP establishment on behalf of the conservative movement.
Cruz said he had no interest in making a third-party run for the White House and cooled talk of restarting his presidential campaign. But he also made no move toward backing Trump, saying there will be plenty of time for voters to make up their minds.
Speaking on CNN, former candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also was reluctant to throw his full support behind Trump.
I intend to live up to the pledge that we made, he said, referring to a document Republican candidates signed vowing to back the eventual nominee. But, that said, these concerns that I have about policy, they remain.
Finnegan reported from Burnsville and Memoli from Washington. Times staff writers Melanie Mason and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Twitter: @finneganLAT, @mikememoli
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UPDATES:
7:24 p.m.: This story was updated with comments from Bernie Sanders.
6:31 p.m.: This story was updated with Bernie Sanders winning the West Virginia Democratic primary.
6:15 p.m.: This story was updated with Donald Trump winning the Nebraska Republican primary.
5:31 p.m.: This story was updated to clarify that MSNBC has called the Democratic primary in West Virginia for Bernie Sanders, while other networks have him leading the race.
4:50 p.m.: The story was updated with Donald Trump being declared the winner of the West Virginia Republican primary.
The story was originally published at 3:33 p.m.
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Harry Lew fell asleep on watch his first night with a new infantry squad.
It was March 2011, and the Santa Clara native was midway through his first deployment in Afghanistan when he was moved to Patrol Base Gowragi, an outpost in a violent area of Helmand province.
Lew, 21, had always been fascinated by the Marines. But his family was still surprised when the lighthearted break dancer dropped out of college to enlist.
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He was found sleeping on watch twice more over the next two weeks. On April 2, the fourth time he was found sleeping, a sergeant told his comrades that peers should correct peers.
What happened over the next several hours has driven Lews aunt, U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), to push repeatedly for changes in how the U.S. military defines, recognizes and prosecutes hazing, including a new amendment in a must-pass military spending bill this year.
For 3 hours that night, Lew did push-ups and crunches in full body armor with a boot on his back, according to a military investigation report obtained by the Marine Corps Times and reported in 2011. He was allegedly kicked, stomped and punched, and was ordered to dig a 6-foot-deep foxhole so he could serve watch standing up. At one point, a bag of sand was poured over his nose and mouth, military juries were later told.
A 3:43 a.m. on April 3 22 minutes after the violent hazing ended Lew crawled into the foxhole his fellow Marines reportedly forced him to dig and scrawled a message on his arm.
May hate me now, but in the long run this was the right choice, it read. Im sorry my mom deserves the truth.
Then he put the muzzle of his machine gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. He was scheduled to return home just a few months later.
Lance Cpl. Harry Lew in a photo provided by his family. (Rep. Judy Chu/handout )
For his aunt and the rest of his family, the event came as a shock.
Never did they dream that he would lose his life as a result of hazing, Chu said in a recent interview in her Capitol Hill office. We have traveled a long road ever since Harry died.
Three Marines were charged. Sgt. Benjamin Johns was charged with hazing and dereliction of duty. Lance Cpl. Carlos Orozco III was charged with assault, cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction and violating a lawful order.
Military juries at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay found Johns and Orozco not guilty. Lance Cpl. Jacob Jacoby, who was initially charged with assault, violating a lawful order and communicating a threat, pleaded guilty to assault. He served a month in confinement and had his rank reduced to private first class.
The Associated Press reported that during Orozcos February 2012 court martial, defense attorney Capt. Aaron Meyer told jurors that the Marines were only trying to keep Lew awake to ensure the bases safety when he was on watch.
Orozco was authorized to order Marines to perform physical activities such as push-ups if the purpose was to maintain good order and discipline, there was no malice involved and the training didnt physically exhaust the Marine, Meyer said.
We dont let Marines slack because we care about each other, Meyer told jurors.
Chu said the Lew family doesnt feel justice was served.
I was there right at the jury trial and I saw the complete lack of seriousness with which the military took this case. I also saw that the attitude of the military was that the perpetrators of the hazing had suffered enough, she said.
Chu grew quiet when asked to describe her nephew, and then a broad smile spread across her face.
Harry was a person who loved to joke. [He] had a big smile, she said.
Lew was passionate about tricking, a combination of break dancing, acrobatics and martial arts, and could spin 360 degrees in the air, she said. While at Santa Clara High School, he helped coach a youth group called That Breaking Club and was described as popular, outgoing and always ready to laugh.
He wanted to be an animation designer, but a year into courses at Mission College, he told his Chinese-immigrant parents he was going to join the military.
He specifically wanted to serve as a Marine and serve his country. His family was shocked when he decided that he wanted to enlist, but enlist he did and off he went, Chu said.
As news of Lews death and the results of the trials gained public attention, people with similar stories began contacting Chu.
Military hazing has had so little attention that the only thing that all these people can do all around the nation is to call me, said Chu, who has represented the Pasadena area for four terms. I have had desperate calls.
One North Carolina mother contacted Chu because her son complained of being hazed at a base in Hawaii and indicated he was going to kill himself.
She didnt know where to turn, he was so reluctant to report on it because he didnt know if anyone would pay attention, Chu said.
Chu made some calls and got the man transferred to another base.
Unsatisfied by the result of the trials and dismayed by the number of people calling her office to report similar incidents, Chu began working on legislation to push the U.S. Department of Defense to change how it tracks and prosecutes hazing.
Chus effort has moved forward in fits and spurts.
She worked an amendment into the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act that required hazing reports from each branch of the military.
Chu said she wasnt satisfied that those reports were complete enough. For fiscal year 2015, she got another amendment included in the defense appropriation that required the Government Accountability Office to study hazing in the military.
The report, released in February, found that while the military has hazing policies, it generally does not know whether the policies have been implemented. It also found that about 12% of those in junior enlisted ranks who responded to a survey felt that hazing occurs in their unit.
The report recommended that the military collect more information on hazing more consistently, issue clear guidance on what is considered hazing and study how widespread it is. The Department of Defense agreed with the recommendations.
Rep. Judy Chu stands in front of a photo of her nephew, Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, and his family. Lew killed himself in Afghanistan after being hazed by his fellow Marines and Chu is trying to pass legislation to stop military hazing. (Rep. Judy Chu/ handout)
Shortly after receiving a draft of the report in late December, the Department of Defense released a policy memo to clarify the definitions of hazing and bullying. It also required each branch of service to collect and report data on the number of hazing and bullying reports to better understand the scope of the problem, Department of Defense spokeswoman Lt. Col. Gabrielle M. Hermes said.
The Department of Defense also has a hazing and bullying working group made up of members of each service branch that meets biweekly and is looking at how well service members understand what is and is not acceptable. The group will make department-wide recommendations, Hermes said.
Like many government agencies, the Department of Defense does not comment on pending legislation and does not have a public stance on Chus efforts.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) added an amendment to the fiscal year 2017 military appropriation bill that includes the text of Chus most recent effort. It would require the Department of Defense to create a national database of hazing incidents and submit an annual report on what it is doing to stop hazing through training and response.
Chu contends that the military tolerates hazing despite officially prohibiting it.
The Department of Defense doesnt want to recognize that hazing is a problem in the military. They have wanted to portray each of these incidents as isolated, she said. They have done some token things, such as including in their policies that hazing will not be done, it shall not be done, but actually there is no enforcement whatsoever.
Physical exertion, such as push-ups or extra work, has long been used to enforce discipline within the military. But Chu says there are many other incidents similar in nature to what happened to Lew when orders go too far.
Chu compared the problem to sexual assault in the military, which wasnt widely acknowledged for decades. Consistent collection of data on sexual assault incidents has brought the issue to the fore in recent years.
They want to portray the military as more or less perfect. Its taken a long time for them to even recognize that sexual assault exists, and yet because of the database we know that there have been many instances of sexual assault, Chu said.
Inclusion of the amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act is a first step, because the military spending bill normally passes even when Congress cant agree on other spending priorities, Chu said.
Its not a done deal, though. Once the Senate passes its version of the military appropriation bill, the House and Senate versions must be reconciled, and there is a chance the hazing language could be watered down, or removed altogether.
You just never know what happens, Chu said.
sarah.wire@latimes.com
Follow @sarahdwire on Twitter
Read more about the 55 members of Californias delegation at latimes.com/politics
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Tonights U.S. Senate debate at San Diego State provides the last televised chance for the five top candidates to win over California voters or rip apart their rivals before the June 7 primary election.
And the candidates will have to be quick about it. The debate, which will be the second of just two held in this largely overlooked contest, lasts just an hour. There will be scant time to deliberate the intricacies of Californias water problems or discuss how to fix the nations immigration system.
The 7 p.m. event is sponsored by KPBS Public Broadcasting and will be aired by public radio and public television stations around the state, including KCET-TV Channel 28 and KPCC-FM (89.3) radio in Los Angeles. The debate will be live-streamed at KPBS.org and the Los Angeles Times will cover it live on the Essential Politics news feed.
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There are 34 candidates seeking the seat. But on stage will be the top two Democrats in the race, state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Orange. The three Republicans appearing are Tom Del Beccaro and George Duf Sundheim -- both former chairmen of the California Republican Party -- and Silicon Valley software millionaire Ron Unz. This group registers best in public opinion polls. The most recent USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found 32% of voters undecided.
The Trump effect
Now that Donald Trump has emerged as the presumptive GOP nominee for president, expect Del Beccaro, Sundheim and Unz to be pressed on whether theyll be supporting their fellow Republican.
Unz says that while hes not a big fan of Trump, and in fact calls some of his ideas nonsense, he is leaning toward voting for the New York billionaire. If Donald Trump simply represents a wrecking ball aimed at the Republican Party establishment, its fine with me, Unz said in an interview.
Del Beccaro said he is withholding judgment until he sees where Trump stands on some critical policy issues, namely, adopting a federal flat tax, one of Del Beccaros top priorities. Del Beccaro wants it to replace what he says is a byzantine tax code that unfairly favors corporations and others with influence in Washington.
Donald Trump (Seth Perlman / Associated Press )
Sundheim makes it clear that he has not endorsed Trump. He said he will see how things play out over the next few months before he decides whether to back him in November.
All three Republicans say that under no circumstances would they support Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Harris also may be pulled into the Trump fray and be asked about the $6,000 in campaign contributions she accepted from him during her 2014 reelection campaign for attorney general.
A worker climbs stairs among pressure vessels that convert seawater into fresh water at the Carlsbad desalination plant. (Gregory Bull / Associated Press )
The dwindling water supply
Water has always been a critical issue in San Diego, so expect to see the debate moderators quiz the candidates on the topic.
Sanchez says the state needs to increase water storage to help alleviate prolonged periods of drought. She supports legislation by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein that could provide some federal funding for the states two largest proposed storage projects -- Sites Reservoir in the Sacramento Valley and Temperance Flat Dam on the San Joaquin River.
Harris told the Sacramento Bee editorial board recently that she was not familiar with the projects -- a response that might lead to a jab from one of her rivals tonight. Harris opposes amending federal endangered species laws in order to increase the states water supply, while Sanchez has said everything must be on the table.
Both Sundheim and Del Beccaro said they support both the storage projects. Sundheim also wants to see an increased focus on desalination, and Del Beccaro wants more infrastructure investment to repair leaking city water pipes, especially in places such as Los Angeles.
Unz generally supports updating Californias water infrastructure, but has not taken a position on the two proposed water projects. He blames Californias water woes on the states increasing population.
Those front-runner blues
Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney, escaped from the first debate relatively unscathed. That was a surprise given she has been the solid front-runner in the Senate campaign, launching her bid in January 2015, a week after Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer announced she was retiring.
With the stakes so high and just four weeks until the primary, Harris will likely face more pointed attacks from her opponents and more biting questions from the moderators.
Del Beccaro and Sundheim went after Harris in the first debate, held last month at University of the Pacific in Stockton, so expect them to try again on the following:
Harris support for San Franciscos status as a sanctuary city, which limits the citys cooperation with federal authorities on immigration investigations. The policy came under harsh criticism after Kate Steinle, 32, was shot and killed on the San Francisco waterfront in 2015, allegedly by a Mexican national who had been deported five times.
The attorney generals investigation of David Daleiden, the anti-abortion activist whose controversial hidden camera videos last summer accused Planned Parenthood doctors of selling fetal tissue. Abortion foes said Harris was biased since Planned Parenthood officials have contributed to her Senate bid and, on her campaign website, she asks voters to sign a petition in support of Planned Parenthood.
The attorney generals investigation into a $4.7-billion settlement reached between the California Public Utilities Commission and Southern California Edison over the San Onofre nuclear power plant. San Diegos KPBS Public Broadcasting reported that Harris office allowed the statute of limitations to lapse for filing charges regarding a secret meeting in Poland between Edison officials and then-PUC President Michael Peevey.
The yin and yang of Sanchezs congressional record
While Harris has won two statewide elections, none of the candidates in tonights debate are exactly household names.
The Sanchez campaign has been especially focused on making voters outside Orange and Los Angeles counties more familiar with the congresswoman and her 20-year record in Washington. For the most part, she has avoided attacking Harris or her Republican rivals, and that will likely be her game plan in the debate.
As she did in the first debate, Sanchez is expected to emphasize her position as second-ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, and her expertise in foreign affairs and national security that the other candidates lack.
Sundheim used those lines to criticize Sanchez for missing 13 of 18 Homeland Security meetings from January through early November, tied for the second-worst attendance on the committee. Sundheim attacked Sanchez on the topic both at the last debate and when addressing the California Republican Party convention on May 1, so the odds of it surfacing again are high.
Immigration and a pathway to citizenship
With the debate being held about 20 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, expect the candidates to be asked about their positions on mending the nations broken immigration policies.
Harris and Sanchez each support comprehensive immigration reform legislation that creates a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, as well as President Obamas executive order shielding many immigrants from deportation.
Unz, who championed a 1998 initiative to end bilingual education in California public schools, will be the most interesting candidate to watch. He believes the most effective way to reduce illegal immigration is to raise the federal minimum wage. That, he says, would make low-wage jobs more appealing to U.S. citizens. He also wants to reduce legal immigration by 60%.
In the last debate, Sundheim called for increasing border security with the use of advanced technology -- not the giant wall suggested by Trump -- and supports a pathway to legal status for qualified immigrants already in the country. Del Beccaro wants U.S. immigration policy to focus on those who overstay their visas, a group that he says accounts for the majority of the people in the country illegally and that poses the greatest national security threat.
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phil.willon@latimes.com
Follow @philwillon on Twitter for the latest on California politics.
The father of a Sacramento-area congressman pleaded guilty Tuesday to illegally funneling more than a quarter of a million dollars to his sons campaigns in 2010 and 2012.
Babual Bera, father of Rep. Ami Bera (D-Elk Grove), entered the plea during a brief appearance in federal court in Sacramento. He will be sentenced in August, and federal prosecutors are recommending up to 30 months in prison.
In court documents, prosecutors said the 83-year-old retired engineer and his wife asked relatives, friends and acquaintances to make the maximum allowable federal campaign contributions in 2009 and again in 2011. Bera ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2010, and later won a razor-thin victory against former Rep. Dan Lungren in 2012.
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Congressman Bera and his campaign staff have been fully cooperative in this investigation, acting U.S. Atty. Phillip A. Talbert said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon. To date, there is no indication from what weve learned in the investigation that either the congressman or his campaign staff knew of, or participated in, the reimbursements of contributions.
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For the Record
May 10, 5:30 p.m.: An earlier version of this article said that Talbert made his remarks at a news conference Wednesday. It was Tuesday.
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Prosecutors said there were more than 130 instances of improper campaign contributions reported from approximately 90 people. Beras father repaid at least portions of those donations, and investigators said that its possible even more money was donated illegally to the congressmans early campaigns.
The elder Bera pleaded guilty Tuesday to funneling $225,326 to back his sons political aspirations in 2009 and an additional $43,000 in 2011. In both election cycles, Beras parents had already made their own contributions of $2,400 and $2,500, the maximum allowed under the law.
Prosecutors said that the investigation began with an anonymous tip to the FBI in the fall of 2014 and that the donations were made and later repaid by people in various parts of the country. Babual Bera was interviewed by agents last October about the campaign contributions. He was arraigned shortly before appearing in U.S. District Court Judge Troy L. Nunleys courtroom and was escorted away without answering questions from reporters.
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In a written statement, Rep. Bera said he was incredibly saddened and disappointed in learning what my dad did. He said that neither he nor any campaign aides were aware of the activities until being contacted by federal prosecutors.
While I deeply love my father, its clear that he has made a grave mistake that will have real consequences for him, Bera said in the statement.
A campaign spokesman said Bera wrote a check from his political account to the U.S. Treasury on Tuesday to cover the entire amount identified by prosecutors.
The two-term Democrat faces a tough reelection battle. Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, a Republican, entered the race last fall. Beras 2014 challenger, former Rep. Doug Ose, watched the fathers guilty plea from the courtroom audience Tuesday.
Bera also finds himself in a tough spot with some traditional Democratic supporters this year, as labor unions have sharply criticized him for supporting President Obamas Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
The congressmans parents emigrated from India in the 1950s and live in La Palma. His father, who leaned on a cane in court, asked for the help of an interpreter during Tuesdays proceedings. He was allowed to return home while awaiting sentencing but agreed to surrender his passport.
When asked by the judge whether he was guilty of helping illegally funnel cash to his sons campaign, Babual Bera said through the interpreter, I have, in fact, done the crime.
Times staff writer Sarah D. Wire contributed to this report.
john.myers@latimes.com
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Political tension ramps up at legislative hearing on Newsoms gun control initiative
Backers of a gun control initiative proposed for the November ballot argued during a legislative forum Tuesday that it is needed to make California safer, while opponents said it will unfairly harm law-abiding gun owners and is primarily aimed at getting Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom elected governor.
Newsom turned in 600,000 signatures last week for an initiative that would require background checks for ammunition purchasers, ban large-capacity magazines, make gun thefts a felony and require those convicted of serious crimes to give up their firearms within 14 days.
The Assembly and Senate Public Safety committees held a joint hearing on the proposal Tuesday in anticipation of the measure qualifying.
Craig DeLuz, head of the Firearms Policy Coalition, told lawmakers that most of the provisions in the initiative have been rejected by the Legislature or the governor as too extreme or unworkable.
He said the real purpose of the initiative is to get Newsom elected as governor in 2018.
Its for one individual to get his name in the paper so he can run for higher office, DeLuz told the lawmakers.
That drew a rubuke from state Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), chair of the Senate panel.
I do take offense at the personal attacks on the proponents of the intiative, Hancock said during the hearing.
Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) responded, saying the initiative is unnecessary.
I am equally offended that the person who came up with this initiative isnt here today to address this body, she said. Thats incredibly disrespectful.
Newsom, who has fueded with legislative leaders who are pursuing their own gun control bills, did not attend the hearing, instead participating in a memorial service held for California Highway Patrol officers, a representative said.
Attorneys for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which co-wrote the initiative, told lawmakers it will plug serious loopholes in Californias tough gun laws.
We believe reasonably that more can and should be done to protect California families and keep lethal weapons out of dangerous hands, added Ari Freilich, a staff attorney at the center.
The initiative was criticized by Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Michele Hanisee, president of the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys of Los Angeles, who predicted many people will not obey the new laws requiring them to get rid of high-capacity magazines.
The initiative places additional burdens on an already overburdened court system, she added.
None of the lawmakers at the hearing commited to endorsing the initiative.
Lawmakers raised questions about the cost of enforcing the initiative, but the Legislative Analysts Office said the bulk of costs may be recovered by fees authorized by the measure.
Hancock said she is interested in alternative approaches to addressing gun violence, including a look at improving mental health services.
As other states restrict the ability of transgender people to choose which bathrooms to use, the California Assembly on Monday voted to make single-user restrooms in public and government buildings all gender, so that anyone can use any restroom.
Lawmakers also took initial action to prohibit taxpayer-funded travel to states whose policies are viewed as discriminatory to the transgender community.
Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) said his measure would make restrooms more convenient for women and for transgender Californians who may identify as a woman and feel uncomfortable using a restroom designated for men, and vice versa.
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While other states are making it tougher and more political to use the bathroom, today we can make it easier for everyone to use the bathroom by simply changing the sign on the door and allowing anyone to use it, Ting said. Today, lets take the politics out of bathrooms and bring back common sense.
The measure passed on a 52-18 vote after some Republicans objected to the change.
Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) said there is no problem with the status quo because people of any gender can currently use single-user restrooms. He said women will not want to use restrooms where men leave behind urine-stained toilet seats.
Were going to inconvenience a lot more people by doing this where right now under the status quo there is no inconvenience, Gallagher said during the floor debate. No woman wants to use the bathroom after many men have been in that same bathroom. As hard as we try, men, you know that your aim is not always that good.
Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), who supported the bill, rejected Gallaghers argument.
I dont think that because your aim is bad that makes you any kind of special category where you must have your own bathroom, Eggman said.
Requested by the Transgender Law Center, the California National Organization for Women and Equality California, Tings bill is part of a national debate about whether restrooms should be gender-neutral, or designated men- or women-only.
Similar measures are being considered in New York and Vermont, and an ordinance was adopted by the city of West Hollywood. Meanwhile, legislation in Indiana would make it a misdemeanor to knowingly enter a single-user restroom designated for people of the opposite sex.
North Carolina is facing possible federal sanctions after enacting a law in March that requires people to use public restrooms that correspond with their gender at birth. The U.S. Department of Justice has determined HB 2 violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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For the Record
8:34 p.m., May 9: An earlier version of this post said North Carolina enacted HB 2 last month. It was signed into law in March.
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In response to what is happening in Indiana and North Carolina, the California Assembly also voted Monday to prohibit state agencies from requiring employees to travel to states that are deemed to be discriminating based on gender identity or sexual orientation, and to prohibit using state funds for such travel.
Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) said he had North Carolina in mind in introducing AB 1887.
California supports inclusiveness, Low told his colleagues. We need to use our powerful voice to say that we do not tolerate discrimination in any form of any kind.
Both bills next go to the Senate for consideration. The restroom bill comes three years after California enacted a law allowing transgender students in California schools to use facilities, including restrooms and locker rooms, based on their gender identity rather than their sex.
California legislators also previously passed laws allowing transgender residents to change government documents to reflect their gender identity.
By making single-user restrooms accessible to all genders, this law will make life easier for everyone and reduce the harassment regularly experienced by transgender people and others who dont match peoples stereotypes of what it looks like to be a man or a woman, said Kris Hayashi, executive director of Transgender Law Center.
The law, if signed by the governor, would take effect March 1, 2017, to give businesses and government building operators time to adjust signage.
The change makes sense given that there is already universal bathroom access on airplanes, said Jerilyn Stapleton, president of California NOW.
When nature calls, women frequently have to wait, Stapleton said. We shouldnt have to wait or postpone having our needs fairly met in public. Everyone should experience equal waiting time.
patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
Follow @mcgreevy99 on Twitter
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After first being told they couldnt because of safety concerns, a group of Latino students at Newport Harbor High School were allowed to wear Dump Trump T-shirts on campus after the presumptive Republican presidential nominees rally in Costa Mesa.
On April 29, the day after billionaire businessman Donald Trumps campaign appearance at the Orange County fairgrounds led to sometimes violent demonstrations outside the venue, Newport Harbor High prohibited all politically charged attire at the Newport Beach campus in response to the atmosphere in the community, Annette Franco, spokeswoman for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, said in an interview Monday.
Franco said Newport Harbors principal, Sean Boulton, spoke with the students throughout the morning and expressed concern that the shirts were negatively affecting the campuss educational environment and that he feared the students might encounter discrimination or harassment.
Safety was at the forefront of our mind that morning, Franco said.
The students were allowed to wear the shirts by the afternoon, she added.
Before Trumps appearance in Orange County, graffiti and clothing both for and against him were reported at the campus, Franco said. Newport Harbor has about 2,400 students, 36% of whom are Latino.
Campus policy usually does not ban clothing with political overtones, provided it doesnt contain profanity or libelous or discriminatory language, Franco said. Hats are an exception because no hats of any kind are allowed on campus, she said.
Some of Trumps comments about Mexican immigrants and others have brought accusations of bigotry from his detractors, hundreds of whom protested outside his Costa Mesa rally.
On May 6, representatives of the Orange County Human Relations Commission met with about 60 Newport Harbor students on how to be politically involved while respecting one anothers differences. The commission is a regular adviser to the schools Bridges Club, which works to build better relations among students.
Tens of thousands of people hike the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain each year. But less known and far less traveled is the Via Francigena in Italy.
Beginning this fall, Berkeley-based Wilderness Travel will offer guided trips on 80 miles of this ancient route, which once ran 1,000 miles from Canterbury, Britain, to Rome.
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The guided hike starts in Siena and ends up at St. Peters Square in Vatican City.
Barbara Banks, director of new trip development for Wilderness Travel, said participants will walk with a native of the region who lives along the route. The guide will take take guests to the best portions of this 7th century trail.
Pilgrimage is becoming a really meaningful thing in peoples lives, Banks said. Whether they are from a particular spiritual tradition or not, its a way to mark a certain beginning or ending to their lives and a way to mark major transitions.
For Catholic travelers, Banks said, the company will help obtain a testimonium from the Vatican certifying they have completed a portion of the trail.
The 10-day trek will wind through the Italian countryside past wheat fields, olive groves, cypress trees and ancient Roman and Etruscan ruins. The trip crosses into historic towns such as Siena, Montefiascone, Capranica, Viterbo and Sutri.
There are currently two departures for the trip: Sept. 16 and Oct. 7. Pricing starts at $4,995 per person, excluding airfare.
Info: Wilderness Travel, (800) 368-2794
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Forget the Brexit vote in June, the most closely watched election in Britain has been the online naming of the countrys polar explorer vessel.
Alas, the ship will not be called Boaty McBoatface, a hands-down favorite among more than 100,000 online voters, but rather the Sir David Attenborough, who turned 90 on Sunday.
The countrys National Environment Research Council says in a statement the name captures the ships scientific mission and celebrates the broadcasters contribution to natural science.
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No one can deny Attenborough embodies the explorer ethic. The naturalist and broadcaster has taken viewers on adventures around the world in such BBC TV series as Life and The Life of Birds.
I have been privileged to explore the worlds deepest oceans alongside amazing teams of researchers, and with this new polar research ship they will be able to go further and discover more than ever before, Attenborough said last week after the name was announced.
Even Boaty McBoatfaces creator James Hand tweeted his congratulations and said he voted to name the ship after Attenborough.
But wait, Boaty McBoatface isnt dead yet.
The science agencys statement says the silly but captivating name will be affixed to a remotely operated sub-sea vehicle.
The Boaty sub-sea vehicle will be dispatched from the RRS [Royal Research Ship] Sir David Attenborough to allow the ships research crew to collect data and samples from the deepest waters of the Arctic and Antarctic.
The research ship, which costs about $288 million, is under construction in Merseyside and is expected to sail in 2019.
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Lei Yang left his Beijing home between 8:30 and 9 p.m. Saturday to pick up a relative from the airport. Shortly afterward, he was detained by police. By 10:09 p.m., he was dead.
The exact circumstances of Leis death remain unknown. Yet the question of what transpired in that short window blazed across the Internet in China on Tuesday, raising suspicions of police brutality and underscoring a widespread lack of faith in the countrys law enforcement.
Lei, 29, a native of central Chinas Hunan province, seemed to be doing well, according to an anonymous online post by Leis university classmate. In 2009, he had earned a masters degree at Renmin University, one of the countrys top schools. Prior to his death, he was celebrating his three-year wedding anniversary; two weeks before that, his wife gave birth to a girl. The relative arriving at the airport was coming into town to see her, according to the online post, which was widely cited by Chinese media.
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Leis university classmate, posting anonymously, said that he or she spoke with Leis family after his death, and that family members had tried calling him at 11:30 p.m. but couldnt get through. The family received a call from police at 1 a.m. and hurried to the station.
What police told them didnt add up: Lei had visited prostitutes, was detained in a bust and died of a heart attack while on his way to the station.
The family arrived at the hospital at 4 a.m. to see Leis body and found his arms and forehead covered in bruises. Police prevented them from taking photos of the body.
The online post has since been deleted.
On Monday night, police in Changping, an exurban Beijing district, posted a divergent narrative on their official Sina Weibo microblog, Chinas version of Twitter. The post said that Lei visited a brothel fronting as a foot massage parlor. Police staged a sting and arrested six people, including Lei.
NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>
When Lei was brought back to the local police station for further investigation, he resisted law enforcement and attempted to flee, the post said. Police took measures to forcefully constrain him. During the investigation, he suddenly fell ill. Police immediately sent him to the hospital, and he died at the hospital.
A doctor at the Changping Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine told CCTV, Chinas state broadcaster, that Lei entered the hospital at 10:09 p.m., dead on arrival.
The Changping police departments post received more than 15,500 comments, many of which expressed skepticism at the official version of events. The police never mentioned the name or location of the foot massage parlor, web users noted. Many questioned why police waited for two hours before informing Leis family of his death.
I just wanted to ask, why didnt you contact his family when you sent him to the hospital? wrote one user. Why did you only contact them when Lei died? Give me an answer!
Police brutality and impunity is a major issue in China, where the Communist party exercises absolute control over not only the police, but also the courts and media.
Officials have given several unlikely explanations for accidental deaths in police custody in recent years. In 2009, police in southwest China arrested a man on suspicion of illegal logging, and he died in jail; police said he died while playing hide and seek. (Later, an investigation found that another prisoner beat him to death; the term playing hide and seek has become a euphemism for police brutality cover-ups).
Also in 2009, police in Jiangxi province said a prisoner died after having a nightmare. Family members later saw his body and noted bruises on his forehead.
Occasionally, public outrage over such incidents yields results. In 2003, police in the southern city of Guangzhou detained Sun Zhigang, a 27-year-old college graduate, for not carrying a residence permit and beat him to death. The incident triggered public outrage, leading the government to abolish a draconian, 21-year-old custody and repatriation system, which allowed police to detain people for not carrying proper residence papers.
Individuals fears of going out will not be assuaged until the death of Lei Yang is thoroughly investigated and clearly explained, said Yin Hong, deputy dean of Tsinghua Universitys School of Journalism and Communication. If officials fail to clarify [what happened], it will be unavoidable that people will question the governments authority.
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Yingzhi Yang and Nicole Liu in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report.
Flash
The next government in the Philippines might change its policy and exercise more restraint over the South China Sea, according to Chinese observers.
A formation of the Nanhai Fleet of China's Navy on Saturday finished a three-day patrol of the Nansha islands in the South China Sea. [Photo/Xinhua]
The observers, who said Manila's current policy had hurt both its own interests and regional security, were commenting as the Philippines presidential election took place on Monday.
The final result is expected on May 25, and the new president will serve a six-year term.
But the observers also warned that meddling by the United States in relations between China and the Philippines will cast a shadow over the newly elected administration's decision-making.
Unlike outgoing Philippine President Benigno Aquino, who adopted a confrontational policy toward China, all three front-runners in the poll have said they are willing to seek diplomatic solutions to solving the country's maritime dispute with Beijing.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said last week that China hopes the new Philippine government can "properly handle the South China Sea dispute" and "improve China-Philippine relations with practical action".
He was commenting after Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte said he would, if elected, hold bilateral talks with China to resolve the dispute if current multilateral discussions don't bear fruit within two years.
Xu Liping, a senior researcher of Southeast Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, "The Philippine government will adjust its policy on the South China Sea issue no matter which candidate is elected, because the policy of the Aquino administration runs counter to the country's interests and threatens regional security."
Xu said Manila could benefit by returning to the negotiating table to solve the maritime dispute.
For example, it could undertake joint sea explorations with China or join the Beijing-led Belt and Road Initiative.
Jia Duqiang, who also researches Southeast Asian studies at the academy, said, "If changes do happen, it is possible that the new president will exercise restraint."
Chen Qinghong, a researcher of South China Sea issues at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said "stirring up" of tensions by the United States in relations between China and the Philippines will limit the new administration's room to maneuver on the South China Sea issue.
Thousands of feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, secrets of North Koreas ambitious nuclear missile program lie scattered over the seafloor.
If the United States or South Korea can find the wreckage of three missiles that failed over the last month, weapons experts say, it could provide insights into the military mysteries of a nation as closed to outside scrutiny as any power in modern history.
The U.S. Strategic Command tracked the missile launches in April, presumably after spotting them on U.S. early warning satellites and radar systems that ring the Pacific. It determined that the missiles were launched from North Korea and posed no threat to North America.
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But that assurance provides scant comfort at a time when North Korea has stepped up the pace of both missile and nuclear weapons testing, fueling growing concern in the U.S., Japan and South Korea.
The latest tests involve missiles that could extend North Koreas range to 2,000 miles, easily encompassing Japan, South Korea and a broad swath of China, and it is working on a missile that could reach more than 3,400 miles enough to strike Alaska.
North Korea has stepped up the pace of both missile and nuclear weapons testing, fueling growing concern in the United States, Japan and South Korea.
The question that confounds U.S. experts is how much progress the North Koreans have made in recent years in developing long-range missiles that are accurate and reliable, along with miniaturizing powerful nuclear weapons that the missiles can carry.
Among the potentially important steps North Korea has taken involves the recent test of a new solid rocket motor, the type that the U.S. has used on its ICBMs since the early 1960s. The motor developed an estimated 15 to 20 tons of thrust and burned for about one minute, marking a threefold advance over North Koreas existing small motors, said John Schilling, an analyst at 38North.org, a website affiliated with Johns Hopkins University that studies North Korea.
The motor would be an important incremental step toward an eventual multistage long-range missile, Schilling wrote recently. That missile is believed to be more than a decade away, he said.
At the site where the rocket was tested, North Koreans had inscribed a message on a wall in black and red paint: To the American empire and the [South Korea President] Park Geun-hye party, a merciless bolt of lightning!
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was photographed before the test in front of the writing, sporting a fur hat, a long double-breasted coat and a broad grin. It was one of several recent appearances Kim has made at military sites and defense plants with modern, computer-controlled equipment in the background.
This year, Kim announced that North Korea had detonated a hydrogen bomb, a claim that alarms U.S. officials even as they question its validity. The detonation was detected by U.S. instruments, but its size was smaller than any analogous nuclear weapon in the U.S. stockpile. Such weapons use small atomic triggers to detonate hydrogen warheads.
It left analysts guessing whether it was just a trigger or a scaled-down two-stage system or a dud.
North Korea has steadily built its own base of missile technology, allowing it to launch a satellite into orbit in 2012. A Defense Department report to Congress last year described nine major North Korean ballistic missiles, including three versions of old Soviet Scuds that represent its largest force. The Scud, used by Iraq to terrorize Israel during the Persian Gulf War, has a range of up to 600 miles, long enough to reach anywhere in South Korea and most of Japan.
The three missile test failures in the last month have involved a North Korean missile known as the Musudan, apparently named after a cape on the northeastern corner of the Korean peninsula. The U.S. Defense Department describes the Musudan as a system capable of a range of 2,000 miles. It can be based on a mobile launcher, making it unpredictable and difficult to attack.
Michael Elleman, a former U.S. missile engineer and now an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, said the missile looks similar to the old Soviet R-27 medium-range missile. If it is an R-27-type missile, it would represent a significant advance, because the propellant tanks are made with an etching process that makes them strong and lightweight.
Their engines will succeed at making an ICBM someday, Elleman said. It depends on how much effort is allowed.
If North Korea can make the Musudan operational, it would have enough range to attack Guam, a U.S. territory about 2,000 miles to the south with more than 100,000 American citizens and a major Pacific operating base, Schilling noted.
Existing North Korean missiles are grossly inaccurate by U.S. standards. About half of their Scud missiles would fall more than a mile from their targets. But they would still be useful for attacking cities, if the country can miniaturize a nuclear bomb. Elleman said North Koreans have made accuracy secondary to longer ranges, consistent with a plan to threaten cities with nuclear weapons.
The country has conducted four nuclear tests since 2006, though U.S. officials remain uncertain about their level of sophistication. Adm. Harry Harris Jr., who heads the U.S. Pacific Command, told the Senate that he is not convinced that North Korea detonated an H-bomb, but that its existing nuclear capability represents a global threat nonetheless.
That statement leaves open the possibility that North Korea has already achieved the ability to mount a nuclear weapon on one of its missiles. No doubt U.S. commanders will take that threat more seriously when the range and accuracy of North Korean nuclear missiles could threaten hard military targets, such as U.S. ICBM silos about 6,000 miles away.
North Korea is developing a three-stage missile, dubbed the Hwasong-13 or KN-08. The system has an estimated range of more than 3,400 miles, roughly the distance from North Korea to Anchorage, making it a legitimate intercontinental ballistic missile, according to the Pentagon report to Congress.
Wreckage of a Taepodong-2 missile, the system used to launch satellites, was retrieved from the Pacific in February, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry. The same type of retrieval is probably being conducted for the Musudan wreckage.
It looked like a pretty bad failure, said Philip Coyle, a former nuclear weapons manager, Obama administration advisor and top Pentagon official. I imagine we have been able to get a hold of some of the hardware from their tests.
Beyond the questions about North Koreas technological achievements, top U.S. military officials acknowledge they dont really know what makes Kim tick and exactly what policies will limit his threatening ambitions.
Asked whether he would suggest using military force to stop a nuclear missile capability, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, chief of U.S. forces in South Korea, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in late February, If military force was necessary yes, sir. Scaparrotti did not elaborate.
The U.S. based tactical nuclear missiles in South Korea for decades until they were removed in the 1970s.
Over the weekend, Kim said in a speech to the Workers Party Congress that he would not order the use of his nuclear weapons unless his nation is encroached upon by another nuclear power, presumably referring to the 25,000 U.S. troops poised near its border in South Korea.
North Koreas ambition to develop a nuclear missile dates in part to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the Soviet Union backed down in a confrontation with the United States, and Kims grandfather decided he could not rely on an outside power to guarantee North Korean security, said James Person, a historian on North Korea at the Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington.
The North Koreans are more accurately described as anticolonial nationalists than true Marxists, Person said, meaning they distrust China and Russia almost as much as they do the U.S. and South Korea. Their goal ultimately is to protect the Kim familys hold on power and the patronage system it provides to senior officials.
The system the Kim family has built relies on a large military industrial complex that dominates the struggling economy, which ranks with Haiti and Rwanda in terms of per capita output, according to the Central Intelligence Agencys rankings. The country has run a shadowy arms trade that accounts for most of its exports, sending artillery and rocket systems to nations in Africa and the Middle East. It is believed to have traded missile technology with Pakistan, Syria, China and Russia, accounting for some of the designs of its existing operational missiles.
The existing North Korean missile threat has prompted deployment of an extensive network of ground- and sea-based radars and defensive missiles by U.S. and Japanese forces around Japan in recent years.
A similar network protects South Korea, and U.S. military officials are discussing the possible deployment of an even more capable high-altitude missile defense network, prompting protests by China.
The Chinese protests illustrate one of the ultimate risks of the North Korean missile program. It is not the probability that North Korea would launch a suicidal nuclear attack, but that its growing power will destabilize East Asia, said John Pike, a defense analyst at GlobalSecurity.org. Pike said Japan could feel so threatened that it develops its own nuclear weapons.
The Chinese will go nuts if Japan develops a nuke, Pike said.
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Albertas premier has declared the wildfire-plagued city of Fort McMurray saved and said a plan will be put together within two weeks so 88,000 residents forced to evacuate can return to their homes.
At least two neighborhoods in the heart of Canadas oil sands region were scenes of utter devastation when toured by officials and reporters late Monday, with incinerated homes leveled to the ground from a wildfire that the citys fire chief called a beast ... a fire like Ive never seen in my life.
But the wider picture was more optimistic as Fire Chief Darby Allen said 85% of the city remains intact, including the downtown district.
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Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said about 2,400 homes and buildings were destroyed, but firefighters managed to save 25,000 others, including the hospital, municipal buildings and every functioning school.
This city was surrounded by an ocean of fire only a few days ago but Fort McMurray and the surrounding communities have been saved and they will be rebuilt, Notley said.
Notley said there will be a meeting Tuesday with energy industry representatives to discuss the state of their facilities and the fires effect on their operations. She got her first direct look at the devastation on Monday after cold temperatures and light rain had stabilized the massive wildfire to a point where officials could begin planning to get thousands of evacuated residents back.
The break in the weather left officials optimistic theyve reached a turning point on getting a handle on the massive wildfire. The temperature dipped to 45 degrees on Monday following a week during which the region had unseasonably warm temperatures.
Notley flew in Monday to meet with local officials and took a ground tour of the town before holding a news conference at the emergency center set up by officials fighting the blaze.
I was very much struck by the devastation of the fire. It was really quite overwhelming in some spots, Notley said. But I will also say that I was struck by the proximity of that devastation to neighborhoods that were untouched.
More than 40 journalists were allowed into Fort McMurray on a bus escorted by police. The forest surrounding the road into town was still smoldering, and there were abandoned cars scattered through the area. Only the sign remained at a Super 8 Motel and Dennys restaurant on the edge of town.
The Beacon Hill neighborhood was a scene of utter devastation, with homes burned to their foundations.
Allen said that at one point the fire jumped across a road in Beacon Hill that is 15 to 20 feet wide.
It jumped that without thinking about it. This was a beast. It was an animal. It was a fire like Ive never seen in my life, he said on the media bus.
In the early stages of the fire, he said, he feared that as much as half the city could burn down.
In the Abasand district, townhouses were completely destroyed, and charred childrens bikes could be seen in backyards. A parking facility was burned to the ground.
I just want everyone to know that there were hundreds of people, emergency services staff, that gave their all, Allen said. I do truly believe we couldnt do any more. This was a horrible fire. Whatever we tried to do, it went a different way and it found some new fuel, so we did our very best.
About 88,000 people have been forced out of Fort McMurray since the fire broke out a week ago. The bulk of the citys evacuees moved south after a mandatory evacuation order, but 25,000 evacuees moved north and were housed in camps normally used for oil sands workers until they also could be evacuated south.
Gas service to area has been turned off, the power grid is damaged and water is undrinkable in Fort McMurray. More than 250 power company workers are trying to restore the grid and assess the gas infrastructure, officials said.
We are now turning our minds more and more to the recovery effort, Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said.
This is going to be a long-term endeavor because at the moment there is no power and gas, no palatable water supply. Theres dangerous hazardous material all over the place. Its going to take a very careful, thoughtful effort to get that community back in a livable condition, Goodale said.
Notley said the fire continues to grow outside the city and now is about 790 square miles in size.
No deaths or injuries have been reported from the fire itself. But the fire has forced as much as a third of Canadas oil output offline and was expected to impact an economy already hurt by the fall in oil prices.
Were just beginning to become aware of the economic impacts, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
Albertas oil sands have the third-largest reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Its workers largely live in Fort McMurray, a former frontier outpost-turned-city whose residents come from all over Canada. Officials said the fire didnt reach the Suncor or Syncrude oil sands facilities north of Fort McMurray, and that the oil mines to the north are not threatened.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimated the wildfire has reduced Canadas oil sands production by 1 million barrels per day, but said in a note to clients that the lack of damage to the oil mines could allow for a fast ramp-up in production. They noted, however, that the complete evacuation of personnel and of the city could point to a more gradual recovery.
Protesters opposing impeachment of Brazils embattled president blocked roads, set fires and slowed traffic in 15 Brazilian states Tuesday, underlining the political divisions a new government will face if Dilma Rousseff is removed from office Wednesday as expected.
Acts attempting to stop what demonstrators call a coup against Rousseff and her center-left Workers Party have erupted in over half of Brazils state capitals, organized by the Frente Brasil Popular group, which brings together labor unions, social movements and left-leaning groups.
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Workers are standing their ground on this National Day of Paralysis, says a note published by the dominant CUT trade union association, which has traditionally supported the Workers Party. All across Brazil, social movements are blocking roads and highways. ... This is the anti-coup struggle.
The demonstrations came after protesters demanding Rousseffs ouster took to the streets in Sao Paulo on Monday night, some carrying posters of Rousseff in striped prison garb.
Brazils Senate is expected to go forward with a vote Wednesday to remove Rousseff from office and subject her to an impeachment trial for misleading accounting maneuvers. Legal experts agree that impeachment is a legitimate instrument in Brazil, but some argue that the case against Rousseff is weak and politically motivated.
NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>
If the deeply unpopular Rousseff is removed, a coalition of Brazils traditionally more conservative parties is poised to immediately enter power and form a new government, which promises to be more market-friendly and to cut spending in an attempt to pull the country out of its worst recession in decades.
Prices on Brazils stock exchange have tended to rise on news that Rousseff will be removed, serving to again pit left-wing movements and unions against the international investors and speculators they had traditionally considered their enemies in the last century, before Brazils now-past economic boom.
In Sao Paulo, Brazils largest city, smoke rose into the sky Tuesday as red-clad protesters blocked its main arteries, and commuters slogged through traffic or found alternate routes.
Some residents said the inconvenience paled in comparison to the economic and political crisis that has wracked the country for months.
The traffic here is always bad, but today it was unreal. People couldnt even get in and out of the airport. They have a right to protest, but I wish theyd do it another way, says Paulo Stross, 45, who took an hour-long bus Tuesday morning from his home to his job in downtown Sao Paulo at a bakery. I personally support impeachment. I have no idea if the new government will be better, but hopefully it wont be worse.
An April poll showed a majority of Brazilians support removing Rousseff, but that a larger percentage favor holding new elections and less than 10% want Vice President Michel Temer to take over, as is likely.
The impeachment process was briefly complicated Monday, as the interim lower house speaker attempted to annul a previous pro-impeachment vote in Congress, then later retracted his efforts.
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U.S. Special Operations forces and Afghan commandos rescued the kidnapped son of a former Pakistani leader Tuesday in a joint counterterrorism operation in eastern Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan officials said.
There were few details of the raid, the latest instance of U.S. troops involved in combat operations in Afghanistan.
Ali Haider Gilani, son of former Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, was rescued from the captivity of an Al Qaeda cell in the eastern province of Paktika, said Tawab Gursang, spokesman for Afghanistans national security council. Unidentified gunmen kidnapped Gilani in May 2013 from Multan, in the southern Punjab province. Gilani said he received word of his sons rescue when he arrived in the Pakistan-controlled portion of the disputed Kashmir territory.
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I cant wait to meet him. My mother is overwhelmed with emotion. I cannot explain in words how traumatic the three years were for our family, Ali Musa Gilani, brother of the former prisoner, told reporters.
Four enemy combatants were killed during the operation, the U.S. military in Afghanistan said in a statement. No U.S. or Afghan personnel were harmed, the statement said.
The operation was launched after evidence of terrorist activity was confirmed, the military said, suggesting that rescuing Gilani was not the objective of the raid. Gilani was handed over to the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, his father said.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani praised Afghan forces increasing capability in conducting successful anti-terror and humanitarian operations.
Approximately 9,800 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, where their mission is focused on training and advising Afghan forces. The mission as defined by the White House allows for limited U.S. combat in counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
See the most-read stories this hour >>
But as the Afghans have struggled in recent months against a determined Taliban-led insurgency, U.S. troops, particularly Special Operations commandos, have increasingly been involved in combat.
In September and October, Army Green Berets and other U.S. personnel were deployed to northern and southern Afghanistan to help Afghan forces retake territory lost to insurgents. In the northern city of Kunduz, which was briefly seized by Taliban fighters, U.S. forces went into the city along with Afghan troops and sustained casualties. U.S. troops also were on the ground when an American air strike mistakenly hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital, killing 42 people inside.
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Jawad is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Bengali reported from Jaipur, India. Special correspondent special Haroon Janjua contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.
UPDATES:
10:25 a.m.: This story was updated with comment from Gilanis family members.
This story was originally published at 9:15 a.m.
All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced. 19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
On the second floor of the Hyatt Regency, swaths of special-interest groups welcome California GOP Convention attendees.
Light glints through the open-air atrium and onto a dozen or so exhibition booths, each vying for the attention of hundreds of delegates, committee sponsors, and special guests in South San Francisco to hear Ted Cruz make his case for the Republican nomination.
Cruz was already mathematically eliminated by his April 30 appearance, and he would bow out of the GOP race just three days later, but the Texas senator is still a favoring among Evangelicals and hardline conservatives wary of Party front-runner Donald Trump's temerity.
Volunteers donning cherry-red "Cruz '16" shirts ask for handwritten support of their candidate, extending similarly colored campaign stickers to anyone with a convention badge. Not everyone bites.
Some pause for a second. Others head straight for the exhibition tables, like one hosted by the Monterey County Republican Party. Their "Hillary (Clinton) for Prison 2016" cornhole set was a hit. The booth's motto is "Delete Hillary 2016," a not-so-subtle jab at the Democratic candidates email scandal, went over well with passers-by.
Guests are here for Cruz, sure, but few openly give their unwavering support. More than anything, they want someone to beat Clinton in a general election. Someone willing to challenge President Obama's abhorred national security and immigration policies.
Someone like Trump.
Why Republican Latinos Like Trump
A day earlier, anti-Trump protesters shut down the hotel's only driveway. They tested San Francisco's finest, inching beyond a police barricade, raising the Mexican flag and signs disavowing Trump's rhetoric.
The amalgam of participants was primarily Hispanic; thought at least a couple of were white, Asian, or African-American, some waving Black Lives Matter signs.
Latinos worry about Trump's plan to fortify the U.S.-Mexico wall and his notion that all Mexicans are criminals. His pledge to repeal the president's executive action on immigration risks deportation for some 11 million undocumented individuals living in the United States illegally.
Scattered amongst the Hyatt crowd are a small, yet confident group of conservative Latinos who support a narrowed path to citizenship.
They don't see Trump and Cruz's anti-immigration speak as derogatory. For them, it is a way of stabilizing the slumping U.S. economy by thoroughly combing over prospective residents to ensure they are asset rather than financial and judicial liabilities.
"We should be thankful we were allowed to come to this country, as foreigners," said undecided Latina voter Silvia Alvarenga. "It's embarrassing that we see (protests) in California because it's been worse than all the other states. If they're not happy with what is going on, this country allows freedom of speech, but burning the U.S. flag is very disrespectful."
Alvarenga initially leaned towards Cruz, if only for his biblical values. She accepted an invitation to hear Cruz speak knowing Trump always appeared like a better candidate in all other areas, ranging from the economy to job security to immigration. She sees the real estate mogul as a symbol of hope; a unifier of parties, misunderstood by Latinos and underestimated by liberal lawmakers.
"Republican leaders need to, not only in Washington but local leaders among the states, they need to embrace the Hispanic community because there are a lot of misconceptions," Alvarenga said. "They think they're racist, they think they're only about rich people. I'm not rich, but I believe we have values that far different from the Democrats."
She added, "The key here is the economy. We have the values, but honestly, God is in charge. If God chooses Trump, He knows why."
An Uphill Road for Votes
Admittedly, Alvarenga is in the minority of Hispanics supporting Trump. The number of Latinos in the GOP conference hall can be listed on a cocktail napkin.
Most feel Trump is a divisive figure. A businessman with praise only for himself. To many Latinos, the subtext of his "Make America Great Again" motto is to revert America to time when immigration reforms wasn't a prevalent issue, and Latinos weren't projected to be the country's predominate ethnicity.
Latinos surveyed in a Washington Post/Univision poll last February gave Trump a 64-point net favorability rating, compared to -5 for Cruz and +37 for both Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Seventy-four percent said Trump's immigration views are offensive while more than 80 percent held a "total unfavorable" view of him in general.
The poll isn't an outliner. NBC and Associated Press surveys throughout the election cycle consistently show Trump struggling with Hispanics, the fastest-growing voter base in the country.
Social Media Support
Facebook group "Latinos Who Support Donald Trump" is one of a fraction defending the presidential candidate's policies. Founding member Carmen Morales says Spanish media discourages potential voters who agree with Trump's views.
Last January, Morales said Latinos who support Trump "need a voice. I know so many who agree with Trump that you would be surprised."
At least five Latino notable activists and politicians endorse Trump. On Wednesday, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval -- Obama's initial pick for the Supreme Court vacancy -- announced he would the same solely because electing a Democrat is "simply not an option."
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Gov. [John] Kasich and believe he would have been a great President," Sandoval wrote in a brief Facebook post. "Now that he has dropped out of the race, I plan to vote for the presumptive nominee although it is no secret that we do not agree on every issue."
Nationalism Among Latinos
Sacramento investor Mike Torres says Trump can win over Latinos, if Latinos from across Central and South America are willing to leave nationalism at the U.S-Mexico border.
"I like my people, but we live in the United States: We leave our traditions, our fundamentals in our countries and embrace this nation," Torres said, likening immigrants who reject American customs to house guests who ignore house rules.
The Mexico-born convention attendee said there is a lack of knowledge in the Hispanic community in regards to laws. Neighboring countries freely let people cross over where the U.S. waits with medical, educational, and financial freebies. This mentality isn't subject to a single country; rather it is integrated into a society with indifference to breaking immigration laws.
"It's all about respect. You want respect, you give respect," Torres said. "Unfortunately, the mentality of a lot of our people is that we don't respect. We just take things for granted, and they believe we're entitled to things because our government will give us that."
Torres said people are angry at government and a biased media painting with a partisan brush. The problem, however, stems from the individual's perception. If they are unwilling to change, always dependent of government solving their problems, then neither they nor country will see progress.
To Torres, Trump's campaign "has nothing to do with racism. It has to do with people," and improving one's self.
"It starts on me to obey and give what this nation has given me: respect, dignity, and the opportunity that my own people never gave me," Torres said.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by a staggering 24 points in the state of Massachusetts.
A new Suffolk University and Boston Globe poll finds the former Secretary of State safely ahead with 55 percent of the overall vote, compared to just 31 percent for Trump, recently officially declared the presumptive Republican nominee.
Majority of Voters Have Positive Image of Clinton
Overall, 47 percent of voters have a favorable view of Clinton, while 43 percent have a negative image of her.
All across Massachusetts, Clinton appears to be building on the momentum she gathered from her defeat of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in March's democratic primary. Back then, she collected 50.1 percent of the vote to Sanders' 48.7 percent.
The last time the state of Massachusetts went for anyone other than a democrat in the general election was 1984, when the state joined most of all the others in granting President Ronald Reagan his landslide reelection win.
"I don't think he focuses on Massachusetts," Suffolk University pollster David Paleologos said of Trump. "He's already way down. Even if you make the argument that her core number is in the 50s, and even if all the undecided go to Trump, her strength among women in the state is amazing."
Meanwhile, more than half of Sanders' Massachusetts supporters indicate they now plan to support Clinton.
Trump handily won Massachusetts, posting what at the time represented his largest vote share in any state. At the time, supporters prophesized his unorthodox style and candidacy could put the state back in play come general election season, a theory many instantly dismissed as unrealistic.
Clinton Seen as More Trustworthy
A recent CNN/ORC national poll also found Trump trailing Clinton 54 percent to 41 percent after he was officially declared the GOP's presumptive nominee.
The poll noted Clinton's 13-point lead was the largest she has held in the poll since last July. Voters indicated they have a much higher level of trust for Clinton over Trump on many of the issues many of them consider to be among the most significant.
As Donald Trump continues to try and unify the Republican Party after becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, the question most hold is: Will he get the Hispanic vote? Trump has been under fire for constantly changing his position on many topics. When he announced his campaign he insulted numerous people with his offensive comments but later retracted saying how much he loved Latinos.
Here is a sample of the diverse rhetoric Trump has used throughout his campaign.
"I will win the Latino Vote"
Last year, Trump had an interview with NBC News where he said he would win the Latino vote. During this interview, he noted that the Mexican government was forcing the bad people into the U.S because they were smart. He also said that these people were criminals and drug addicts.
However, he said that he would win the Latino vote because Latinos love him. He added that he would win the vote because he would create jobs and the Latinos would get those jobs. He also stated that he has many Latinos working for him all over the country.
"Latinos Support Donald Trump"
During a Trump rally, someone handed a sign to Trump that stated that Latinos support him. Trump mocked Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., stating that the sign was actually made by a real person and then invited the Latina woman who made the sign up to the stage. The woman gave Trump a hug and Trump stated that he loved her. Trump accompanied her down the stairs and the crowd cheered.
</p> <h3>"Mexicans are rapists"</h3> <p>When Donald Trump announced his campaign he noted that Mexicans were beating the US economically and that they were not our friends. He also stated that the Mexicans that come to the US were bringing drugs and were rapists. He also stated that it was not just Mexico but also around South America. Here is noted that he would build a big wall that would block illegal immigration.</p> <p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C6QEqoYgQxw" mce_src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C6QEqoYgQxw" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0">
"I Love Hispanics"
After Trump's aggressive comments on Latinos, he recently tweeted out a Cinco de Mayo picture with him eating a taco and stating, "I Love Hispanics." Interestingly enough Trump did not say "I Love Mexicans," especially given that the date is associated with Mexico and not the rest of Latin America.
Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://t.co/ufoTeQd8yA pic.twitter.com/k01Mc6CuDI Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2016
"Did the Mexican government send you?"
During a conference at Freedom Fest, a Mexican told Trump how insulted he was and asked if he would build a wall around the entire U.S. Trump asked the man if Mexico had sent him and said that he did not encourage Mexico sending rapists and criminals to the U.S. The Mexican then asked Trump if he had ever read the Statue of Liberty.
"The Wall"
During a CNN debate, moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Trump how he would make the Mexican government pay for the wall. Trump responded by stating that he would make the wall even taller. He also tried to shame former Mexican president Vicente Fox for using the "F" word on live television. Trump continued his rhetoric on drugs and said he would make the most economic wall.
TheDream.US launched a new scholarship program hailed as "groundbreaking," in the way it seeks to aid immigrants "locked out" of the chance to pursue higher education.
Already celebrated as the nation's largest scholarship fund for DREAMers, The Dream.US Opportunity Scholarship, in partnership with the states of Connecticut and Delaware, will now aid an additional 500 immigrant students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Protective Status (TPS).
Currently all such students are either required to pay out-of-state tuition costs or completely blocked from enrolling at most state colleges or universities.
Program Could Lead to Windfall for Partner Schools
While no state funds are slated to be spent on the new program, partner colleges could see earnings of more than $40 million generated by the program. Eastern Connecticut State University and Delaware State University are the two schools leading the way in terms of accepting students and offering them an affordable education.
The privately funded Dream.US Opportunity Scholarship is designed to pay up to $80,000 to help fund the costs of tuition, fees, on-campus housing and meals.
"Education is an American value," TheDream.U.S. co-founder Donald E. Graham said in a press statement. "We should help every student who has worked hard. TheDream.US Opportunity Scholarship will help immigrant students fulfill their dreams of obtaining a college education so they can better the lives of their families, communities, and our nation."
Hispanic Parents Sill Believe Education key to Success
Indeed, a recent Pew Research Center study found Hispanic and black parents are much more likely than white parents to emphasize a college degree in helping their children get ahead.
Overall, researchers found 86 percent of Hispanic parents with children under 18 admit they still feel education is essential, compared to just 67 percent of white parents. In addition, nearly half of all Hispanics polled indicated they are convinced that having a college degree is needed to move into the middle class.
Along with funding over 500 out-of-state DREAMers, TheDream.US program will provide 100 scholarships of up to $7,250 each to in-state DREAMers that enroll at either Eastern Connecticut State University or Delaware State University.
The Opportunity Scholarship will be made available to DREAMers in 16 targeted locked-out states, including Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The deadline for applications is June 9, and scholarship recipients will be announced at the end of the month. TheDream.US currently provides scholarships to more than 900 DREAMERs at 70 partner colleges that offer in-state tuition costs to DREAMers.
Flash
An annual parade was held in Moscow Monday at the downtown Red Square to celebrate the 71th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, Russia's term for World War II (WWII).
A T-34 tank drives during the Victory Day parade in Moscow, May 9, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]
In an address at the beginning of the parade, Russian President Vladimir Putin said national cohesion and faithfulness are honored as the source of Russian people's strength, confidence and dignity.
Recalling the "age of courage and bravery," Putin paid tribute to the soldiers who fought for their motherland.
The Victory Day celebration has become a symbol of "the sacred kinship of Russia and its people," Putin said.
The president also warned that human civilization today is again confronted with cruelty and violence, while terrorism has become a global threat that all countries need to fight together.
Russia is ready to work with all countries to create a modern, non-bloc system of international security, he added.
In addition to promoting patriotism, the parade was also a chance for Russia to show its military force as 10,000 servicemen, 135 units of military equipment and 71 aircraft were involved.
Starting at 10 a.m. local time (0700 GMT), the parade mainly consisted of the ground column, the mobile column and the flypast.
Several military equipment that made their parade debut at last year's grand parade were featured again this year, including Kurganets-25 infantry fighting vehicles and Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled tracked howitzers.
Moreover, the combat aircraft that took part in Russia's anti-terrorist operation in Syria also participated in the parade.
The highlight of the parade was the traditional release of smoke in the colors of the Russian flag by Su-25 airplanes, cheered by crowds choking the streets around the Kremlin.
Apart from Moscow, military parades were held in other Russian cities, such as St. Petersburg and the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg.
The annual commemoration has become a source of national self-esteem for Russian people as citizens join public processions called "Immortal Regiment," which first took place in 2012 and have become an annual national civil-patriotic movement.
The marches are not only held throughout Russia, but in foreign countries, including the United States, Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
Moscow city authorities said some 800,000 people are expected to participate in the Immortal Regiment march this year.
People joining the march carry photographs of their ancestors who served in WWII, while Putin in 2015 led the Moscow leg carrying his father's portrait.
Through commemorative events, the notions of self-defense and national security are being exalted in Russia as the country is still suffering from an economic downturn amid Western sanctions imposed over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis.
Considering the complex world security situation, it is high time for the United Nations to "serve as the best injection against further wars," Russian WWII veteran Yuri Yasnev told Xinhua.
Yasnev added that all countries and international organizations should also put an end to the global nuclear arms race and solve hot-spot issues using all means possible.
Mexican Federal Judge ruled that drug lord 'El Chapo' Guzman is cleared to extradite to US. The Federal Court of Mexico released the statement on Monday. Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman was recaptured last January by Mexican Marine after escape from maximum security prison in July 2015.
Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is known as the leader for Sinaloa Cartel, a criminal organization in Mexico. The 61-year old escaped from maximum security prison twice and recaptured on January 8, 2015 in a house at the coastal city of Los Mochis after a month surveilllance. He was wanted by both Mexican and US authorites for his crime and US Department of Justice requested extradition for the popular drug lord to the United States.
On Monday, Mexican Federal Court announced in a news release that Mexican federal judge has ruled that 'El Chapo' Guzman can be extradited to United States. A senior Mexican law enforcement source told CNN that Guzman was transferred last week from the maximum-security Altiplano lockup in central Mexico to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, near the border with Texas.
Last month, lawyer for 'El Chapo' Guzman said that his client wanted to be extradited to US as soon as possible. The lawyer said that his client cannot stand to be locked up in Altiplano, citing that conditions in the prison were unbearable and making him seriously ill.
New York Times reported that Guzman's lawyers were notified of the judge's decision on Friday night, while 'El Chapo' Guzman was told on Sunday. The location will ease the extradition to United States due to the close proximity with the border.
"There is nothing, legally speaking that could impede the extradition, from the judicial system point of view," said spokesman for the judiciary in Mexico who could not be identified.
Although the ruling does not immediately result in an extradition, it essentially provides the baseline for Ministry of Foreign Relations in Mexico to grant the final approval for extradition within the next 30 days.
"The ball is now in the Foreign Ministry's court, and they have a month to execute the process or not," said the judiciary a spokesman. "They have been notified and received the file."
While one of Guzman's lawyer Juan Pablo Badillo, told Reuters that his client's legal situation was still being processed and that to extradite him now would be a violation of his human rights. He listed nine pending appeals against Guzman's extradition. Following the extradition, his client will face charges of money laundering, drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder in many cities including Chicago, Miami and New York.
As Federal judge in Mexico ruled that drug lord 'El Chapo' Guzman can be extradited to US, the next step is to obtain approval from Ministry of Foreign Relations. Afterward, the drug lord will have his trial in the United States.
Prosecutors announced another guilty plea in the pay-to-play schemes in Allentown and Reading, this time involving the head of a Lehigh Valley engineering firm.
The U.S. District Attorney's office unsealed the paperwork Tuesday for Matthew McTish's guilty plea from April 28, where he admitted to bribing the mayors of Allentown and Reading with campaign contributions in order to get municipal contracts in the respective cities.
McTish is president of the engineering firm McTish, Kenkel & Associates, which was named in the FBI's subpoena when it raided Allentown City Hall last summer. The firm has offices in Allentown, Pittsburgh and Montoursville, Pennsylvania. McTish was also part of the public works transition team for then-Bethlehem Mayor-elect Robert Donchez.
Prosecutors say the 57-year-old McTish, from Orefield, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. McTish, referred to as Donor #2 in the investigation, faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 2, and remains free on $75,000 unsecured bail in the meantime.
Last month, former Easton city councilman and mayoral candidate Mike Fleck pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion and bribery in connection with the same investigations.
Fleck and his company provided consulting services to Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski and Reading Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer. Neither politician has been charged with a crime, but members of Pawlowski's staff have previously pleaded guilty.
Jack McMahon, Pawlowski's defense attorney, said Tuesday he had not heard of the plea, and would need to read the court records before commenting.
McTish's engineering firm relied heavily on municipal contracts, including Allentown and Reading, federal prosecutors said. Prosecutors allege Pawlowski and Spencer identified certain engineering firms, including McTish's, as promising targets for their respective pay-to-play schemes because of the companies' reliances on municipal contracts.
McTish admitted that under pressure from the mayors and their staffers, he agreed to raise thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in order to be considered for municipal contracts in both cities.
In one instance, investigators say after McTish paid campaign contributions to "reward" Pawlowski and then-city controller Mary Ellen Koval for trying to steer a contract his way, the city cancelled plans for the contract.
When McTish met with Pawlowski to discuss other prospective contracts, Pawlowski allegedly asked for more contributions. Specifically, Pawlowski wanted McTish to raise $21,600 before a federal campaign reporting deadline of June 30, 2015, prosecutors said.
Federal court records do not identify Pawlowski by name, but refer to him as Public Official #3.
"McTish was unhappy with Public Official #3's demand but gave a $2,500 contribution in order to maintain his company's viability for future contracts from the City of Allentown," federal prosecutors said.
Koval pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud in connection with the pay-to-play scheme and is awaiting sentencing.
Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
When Jorge Zamora-Rodriguez was locked up 13 years ago, the prison guards told his wife he drank out of the toilet.
But when Zamora-Rodriguez calmed down, he told his wife Rosa Zamora a different story. According to her, he said, "I thought my daughter was drowning and I was trying to get her out of the toilet."
Jorge Zamora-Rodriguez
Zamora-Rodriguez was diagnosed at that time with paranoid schizophrenia, which is why his wife desperately wants him medicated.
He's been in Northampton County Prison since March 7 after allegedly threatening to "wipe out the whole complex" at the Travel Inn in Plainfield Township.
Zamora-Rodriguez's wife and his sister told lehighvalleylive.com they wish the prison had the authority to medicate the 45-year-old West Palm Beach, Florida, man because he refuses to take medication voluntarily.
Without his medication, "He gets really violent. He starts hallucinating. He gets crazy. He doesn't eat. He doesn't sleep," said his sister, Marlen Zamora.
Rosa Zamora has been involved with Zamora-Rodriguez for 18 years and married to him for 15 years. He's had serious violent outbursts about three to four times during that period. His condition is brought under control through his medication, she said.
She said he got a job as a truck driver the week before his arrest, which is why he wound up in the Lehigh Valley.
Rosa Zamora said he was doing well and decided to take only one of his three prescriptions, a decision she claims was influenced by a quack doctor in Florida. Three days before his arrest a panicked Zamora-Rodriguez called police in Virginia, claiming there were drugs in his truck, his wife said.
When police found no drugs, they held him overnight and released him after he calmed down, she said. He was arrested the day he arrived in Pennsylvania and was charged with disorderly conduct and making terroristic threats.
A psychologist at Northampton County Prison testified Zamora-Rodriguez has attacked guards and is housed alone because he represents a threat to other inmates and to guards. The prison wants to transfer him to a state mental hospital, but that could take months, or even a year.
Rosa Zamora said once Zamora-Rodriguez takes his medication for a few days, he'll calm down and start taking it voluntarily.
But public defender Philip Viglione said that as Zamora-Rodriguez's advocate, he has to respect his client's wishes to stay off his medication. Judge Emil Giordano ruled April 20 that Zamora-Rodriguez has a constitutional right to make that decision himself.
Rosa Zamora disagrees.
"How would the judge or the attorney like to be locked up in one room for a year? That's inhumane," said Rosa Zamora.
Viglione said Wednesday there isn't any update in Zamora-Rodriguez's case. His next scheduled court date is a formal arraignment on June 23.
An attorney for PrimeCare, the prison's health care provider, didn't immediately return an email looking for any updates on Zamora-Rodriguez's case.
Rosa Zamora said she hasn't spoke to her husband since he was locked up. He's called her multiple times but she's either been at work or had trouble with her phone.
They have a 15-year-old daughter. Rosa wants him medicated so he can get better and they can move on with their lives.
"When he's not on his medication he gets violent," she said. "He's a great man when he's medicated. He's a great husband."
Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
Easton police were trying to determine whether drugs or gangs played a role in the city's first homicide of 2016, an investigator said Tuesday.
Easton police were looking to identify this white crossover-SUV-type vehicle seeing fleeing a fatal shooting the night of Monday, May 9, 2016, in the city's West Ward. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)
An unidentified man was shot to death Monday night in the 600 block of Church Street, near the Union Street public housing project.
He suffered multiple gunshot wounds; an autopsy is set for Tuesday.
Police continued to search for a white, crossover-style SUV that authorities believe the shooter fled in, said Lt. Matthew Gerould said.
The victim's car was found stopped in the street with the door open. Police found his body nearby moments after receiving several calls for gunshots, Gerould said.
"At this point, we're still moving forward," he said Tuesday morning. "It's still very young in the investigation. There's a lot of evidence we're analyzing, including the victim's car."
Gerould said police are also combing for witnesses to the shooting or anyone who may have seen the white car leaving. Police believe a woman was behind the wheel and a man was in the passenger seat.
Police believe the shooter's car turned east on Prospect Street, heading toward Bushkill Street moments after the shooting, which was reported at 8:11 p.m.
Gerould said roughly 50 to 100 people were outside in the moments after the shooting.
"We were met with no cooperation from a large amount of people," he said. "Witnesses can remain anonymous and we're looking for any information they can give us."
Tipsters can remain anonymous by calling the Easton Police Department's tip line at 610-250-6635 or detectives at 610-250-6634, 610-250-6796 or 610-250-6656.
The victim's name has yet to be released. Gerould described him as a New York City native who had "moved around and lived in different parts" of Easton.
Gerould said police are still investigating a motive but have not ruled out the possibility of drugs or gangs as factors.
"We're not releasing specifics at this time," he said. "We're still investigating why he (the victim) was in the Church Street projects.
"We have a lot of leads to follow up and a lot of evidence to analyze and follow through with."
The killing was Easton's first homicide of 2016.
Jim Deegan may be reached at jdeegan@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @jim_deegan. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook.
A driver pointed at a gun at another driver as the two traveled on Route 309 Monday afternoon, South Whitehall Township police said.
The victim called police, and officers found the alleged armed driver, 32-year-old Michael Steckel, parked in the Covered Bridge Park off Wehr Mill Road.
Steckel told officers he had a handgun in the glove box of his 2006 Subaru Impreza, and they found a loaded Glock model 17 9mm inside, police said. Steckel does not have a valid license to carry a concealed firearm, police said.
Steckel reportedly admitted to being in a road rage incident with the driver of a green pickup truck on Route 309, and that he brandished the gun to the other driver, according to police.
Steckel, of the 7100 block of Decatur Street in the New Tripoli section of Lynn Township, is charged with simple assault and carrying a firearm without a license. He was sent to Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.
Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Pennsylvania State Police are seeking any information that could lead them to a Pike County teenager missing since April 18.
Leanna Walker, 17, of Milford, has not been located after numerous searches and leads, police said in a Facebook post Monday.
A $10,000 reward for information has been offered by an anonymous donor for information leading to her location, according to a Pocono Record report.
The Record reports Walker had been reported as a runaway with her 24-year-old boyfriend, Sky Michael McDonough, also of Milford. He was arrested April 26 on a burglary charge out of New Jersey and told police he and Walker were living in the woods, the paper reported.
McDonough briefly escaped custody and was located the next day at a campsite in the Milford area, where some of Walker's belongings were also found, the Pocono Record reports.
A candlelight vigil was held Monday, according to the paper. A group dedicated to the search has been started on Facebook.
State police ask anyone with information to call the Blooming Grove barracks at 570-226-5718.
Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Portarlington man who was supplying cannabis to a group of his friends in the local area has been given an opportunity to complete a drug rehabilitation course after being caught with 800 of the drug for sale.
Gerry Davidson (42), 38 The Birches, Kilnacourt Woods, Portarlington, was charged with sale or supply and drug possession, at his home on January 23 this year.
Inspector Aidan Farrelly told the district court that gardai searched the accuseds home and discovered cannabis resin valued at 800.
Davidson admitted that he had been supplying the drug in the Portarlington area for the previous nine months.
Davidson had eight previous convictions.
Defence, Mr Declan Breen said his client had suffered with a cannabis problem over 20 years, before he stopped using in 2011 and then in 2015 fell back into his old ways.
Mr Breen said that Davidson was part of a group of people who supplied each other. The group would nominate one person to get the drugs and that was why the accused had been found with 800's worth, said Mr Breen.
Insp Farrelly confirmed this, telling the court that the arresting garda said Davidson had been supplying the drug to five of his friends, getting the cannabis on tick.
Defence went on to say that Davidson had realised he was getting back into the grips of his cannabis addiction and went back into residential treatment.
Mr Breen concluded by saying that Davidson has been clean of cannabis for four weeks and is now resolved to stay off it.
In ruling, Judge Catherine Staines said: Anybody selling drugs for profit should be going to prison. He was doing it to feed his own habit, nevertheless he was supplying.
Judge Staines put the case back to allow Davidson to get drug free, and also to hear from the prosecuting garda as the judge ruled she wanted evidence that the accused had stopped supplying drugs.
The matter was adjourned to July 14.
Kildare County Council has asked Naas Credit Union to retain the historic facade of McCabes as part of its plans for the new branch.
The Credit Union bought the former pub on Edward Street for 562,938 and submitted plans for its conversion to a Newbridge office.
A number of objections from locals, Newbridge Tidy Towns and Newbridge Local History Group highlighted the fact that the front of the building was one of only two Victorian shop fronts left in Newbridge. They said it would be destroyed if the plans were approved.
The council said that it was not favourably disposed to the demolition of the building, which is largely intact.
It has asked Naas Credit Union to submit revised plans and proposals outlining the retention and repair of the existing original building envelope.
The applicant was also asked to submit revised drawings to reduce the scale, bulk and mass of the rear portion of the proposed building. The planning authority also requested landscaping details for the rear of the property. It pointed out the back of the building will be visible from Dawson Street.
Further details on surface water sewers and drainage were also requested.
Naas Credit Union now has six months to reply to the further information request.
In its submission, Newbridge Tidy Towns said it very much welcomed the proposal to reestablish a member owned Credit Union in Newbridge.
It also welcomed the investment in Edward Street and hoped that footfall would increase in the traditional commercial areas and further down Main Street.
However, it pointed out that, to its knowledge, the former McCabes pub is the only building with a carriage way in Newbridge and had been a protected structure up until 2011.
While we do not oppose the redevelopment of this building, we would ask that the council and the Credit Union reconsider the proposal to demolish the existing facade. We feel it is part of the towns disappearing heritage and to consider incorporating the traditional facade as a feature in the new Credit Union.
It pointed out the developer of Judge Roy Beans incorporated its traditional shop front into the building several years back, while the rear structures were demolished and rebuilt.
Newbridge Local History Group also drew attention to the buildings history and said it was at a loss as to why the protection order was removed.
It said its research indicated this was the first building built on Edward Street, directly opposite the cavalry barracks gate, under a 90-year lease dated November 15 1859, and was the beginning of the development of that part of the town on the Ponsonby Moore estate. The group also emphasised it was not against the redevelopment, but wanted the facade retained.
Brendan and Joan ORourke of Main Street were also concerned about the facade.
They said; while we welcome a Credit Union coming back into our town, this should not be at the expense of obliterating the towns historical built heritage and streetscape.
Donal McCabe of Ballymany Park suggested the shop front be incorporated into the new premises, as was done by Credit Unions in Blackrock, Co. Dublin and Abbeyleix Credit Union in Laois.
Lindi Doyle of Great Connell also questioned why the preservation order was lifted and said the demolishing of the shopfront should not be supported.
Eilish Cramer of Liffey Terrace also asked the planners to preserve the facade of the building.
Cllr Morgan McCabe (Ind) noted; With a little imagination this building could maintain its character completely with the carriage entrance being used as the primary entrance leading into the vaulted space that the architects had designed.
The planning application seeks to demolish the two storey building occupied by the former public house known as McCabes as well as the derelict outhouse fronting onto Foley Street at the rear of the same site and to construct a new, two storey, Credit Union building on the site (floor area 581.8sqm) in addition to all associated and ancillary site and ground works.
The Credit Union had hoped to have the new branch open by the end of 2016 but the planning process could take longer than expected with revised drawings and plans now required.
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We did it!! 3 Lib Dem cllrs elected in Central ward (1 gain from Lab). Aga is Watford's first Polish councillor. pic.twitter.com/QAY1haRSOu Watford Lib Dems (@WatfordLibDems) May 6, 2016
For the first time in quite a few years Lib Dems in many areas have spend the post-election weekend in a good mood. 45 net gains in the English council elections aint bad, the first time weve made gains in local elections since 2008. Coupled with some great results in Scottish constituencies, many Lib Dems have spent the weekend smiling.
The good news is far from universal. I know that colleagues in London and Wales will be devastated by the results and losses. Behind the gains in many areas are colleagues who lost seats or missed out on gains. Many places we didnt win will have moved forwards as a springboard for future gains.
Thursdays success is down to the hard work of Lib Dem activists up and down the country. Small teams working long and hard to win individual wards with an enormous amount of dedication, time and energy given freely to the party. Thank you to everybody who contributed to this success.
45 gains is great, but it must only be the start of a bigger regrowth in the Partys success. Understandably, for a Party that has been fighting in very difficult times, we have retreated into fighting fewer wards than we used to. Activists were urged to pick a ward and win it and mostly you did. We now need to win the next seats, and the next wards.
We have some great opportunities coming up. In 2017 we have local elections throughout Scotland and Wales, and in the county or shire areas in England. We should be aiming for gains in all three. London and areas like the English Mets now have two years to build for their next local elections in 2018 that two-year campaign needs to start today.
At ALDC our only priority is to make sure that there are more Liberal Democrat councillors, at every level, every year. Here are a two ways we can help you win:
bring a team to our Kickstart weekends (2-4 September, 25-27 November) to plan for your 2017 and 2018 elections. Kickstart is the best volunteer campaign training in the Party and a must if you want to be part of the gains to come. Find out more at aldc.org/events
let us know what worked in your area. Well be sharing best practice in our publications and at special sessions at Conferences starting with the Local Government conference in June. Im expecting this years ALDC Campaigner Awards to be hotly contested with so many good results.
45 gains has been a great first election for a Party that only a year ago was reduced to just 8 MPs. It is our job, as activists up and down the country, to make sure it is only the start.
* Tim Pickstone is Chief Executive of ALDC (the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors) and is National Spokesperson on Grassroots Campaigning
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Its like a dream, she gushes.
After gaining an online following of over 1,500 people in just a couple of months with her fashion, travel and beauty blog PinkSars, this is certainly one dream that Sarah doesnt wish to wake up from.
The first-year student has already been recognised by multiple companies due to her
professional yet fun online presence. An ambassador with Glambassador.co and a style assistant on Trendage.com, Sarah describes how collaborating with big names is still something shes getting used to.
Anytime I get email from such established organisations, I have to pinch myself. To think that people firstly notice PinkSars and secondly want to collaborate is crazy to me, she says.
Having recently teamed up with Oxfam Ireland to support their new #vintage range,
experimentation with fashion is something Sarah doesnt shy away from, something that sets her apart from the rest.
Fashion is something that I've only really fallen in love with in recent years as Im much more experimental with what I wear and I enjoy trend watching.
Before fashion blogging, Sarah made her online beauty debut by posting images of various looks she created on websites such as Flickr, with her PinkSars blog coming as the natural next step.
For me, makeup and beauty were my first loves. As a kid I used to do mini photoshoots with my friends and I'd always be the makeup artist on set. It's from there I developed a real love and passion for it, she says.
Her online success with a fast-growing following on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter has had a great response from friends and family who are always on hand for support, both offline and online.
It's really lovely to have an amazing bunch of people around me that accept what I'm putting out into the world! My dad follows all my tweets and gets excited about my posts and my mom is actually my photographer. I couldn't be more grateful for having them all around me and supporting me.
The third element of her youthful and energetic blog is travel, with PinkSars detailing her visits to places such as Croatia, Brussels and Cologne with posts on her future ERASMUS stay in France on the way.
I hope to do a lot of travel around Europe while I'm there. I honestly can't wait to blog all about it and see the style and fashion in other countries, she says.
Sarah, who has recently completed her Grade 8 on piano with the Royal Irish Academy of Music, has keen interest in DJing and frequents clubs around Limerick showcasing her talent and will continue to do so over the summer in Charlie Chaplins Late Bar.
When the 20-year-old is not DJing, jetting off or making her way up the blogosphere ladder, shes studying for her Bachelor of Arts Degree in French and Media at the University of Limerick.
I really struggle with balancing both, as anyone would. It's hard to motivate yourself to do a photoshoot for a blog post after a week of college but it's just about finding balance between the two, she says.
So whats instore for this Irish blogger-on-the-rise? Whatever it is, you can be sure read all about it at www.pinksars.com, or on her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at PinkSars.
I can't wait to see what's next and Im going to keep pushing myself to get my blog out there even more!
*Rebecca Laffan is a journalism student at the University of Limerick
A GOLDMINE of information on history, folklore, people, places and points of fascination has been made available to the people of Lough Gur in the form of the 18th edition of their popular biennial journal.
This years publication is a special edition to acknowledge and remember the Rising as a key event in Irish history. There is also a fine selection of other submissions not related to the events in Dublin 100 years ago.
In 1916 Easter Monday fell on April 24. Because of this a number of events took place throughout the country on the same date this year as part of the ongoing commemoration and celebration of the centenary of the Easter Rising.
One such event took place at midday in the Heritage Centre, Lough Gur when the Lough Gur and District Historical Society launched the 18th edition of its biennial journal, the first edition of which was published in 1985.
While the area around Lough Gur was not directly affected by those events at that time, it is appropriate, said the societys chairperson, Fr Sean Fennelly, that this journal should remember the Rising and those who participated in it.
In this regard a number of articles in this edition relate specifically to this seminal event. These include the reprinting of a letter written by Kilmallock woman Mrs Genevieve Reid, who witnessed the Rising and gives a daily account of what she saw from Thursday, April 27 to Saturday, May 6, an article written by the late Professor Denis Crowley of UCD, who recollects an Irish Volunteer parade by Lough Gur in September 1915 which was addressed by Eoin Mac Neill and a profile by renowned Limerick historian, Liam Irwin, of Ned Daly of Limerick who was the youngest of the 16 men executed after the Rising.
John Sheehy from Hospital profiles his granduncle Eamon Ceannt and Michael OSullivan contributes a brief item on The ORahilly (killed in action in the Rising), who was married to a woman with Hospital connections.
Contributions from others on other aspects of the Rising are also included. The front and back cover of the journal were also inspired by the rebellion and they too are an attempt to pay tribute to the event that created the Irish Republic. The front cover was designed by Fr Fennelly.
But this edition also consists of other contributions on the history, heritage, genealogy and archaeology of the Lough Gur area and beyond, as well as other features of Irelands past. Three poems are also included, as is an article, on the English poet Ted Hughes, who was a well known visitor to Lough Gur where he fished for pike on many occasions.
That article was submitted by Mark Wormald, Professor of English at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
There should be something of interest to all among the 170 pages of this publication, said Sean Gallagher, editor of the Lough Gur and District Historical Society Journal 2015-2016.
In fact, it is the largest of the 18 journals published to date by the society. A number of the articles reveal interesting, though probably little known, aspects of the south-eastern part of the county.
For example, Eddie ODea writes about a Carmelite monastery in Kilteely in medieval times, while Garry Ahern reveals that Caherconlish produced a renowned artist in Norman Garstin (1847 to 1926). Mary Slattery of Pallasgreen gives an account of her distant relative, Fr Nicholas Sheehy who was executed in Clonmel in 1766.
A delightful article that was first published in 1865 tells us of a day trip to Lough Gur. That item was discovered by Michael Quinlan who said that it could just as easily have been written 151 days ago instead of 151 years ago!
The Lough Gur and District Historical Society Journal was launched by Sr Claude Meagher of the Presentation Convent, Hospital, and is available for sale at 10.
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On Thursday, staff and parents of students at Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District received a letter from Jeffrey Holmes, Superintendent about active shooter swatting calls taking place at multiple school districts across the state. Swatting calls are hoax reports of threats made to police which insight panic.
Police say similar types of false threats have occurred at multiple schools across the state Thursday. These threats included 911 calls to police across the state claiming that schools had an active shooter.
EAU CLAIRE Dale Thomas Chambers, 77, of Eau Claire and a former Two Rivers resident died Thursday, May 5, 2016, at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire.
Dale was born in Eau Claire, to Hugh and Wanda (Rooney) Chambers Nov. 26, 1938.
Dale was hard working, compassionate and fun loving. During his life he worked at several occupations. Some of which include, a sailor in the Merchant Marine and served aboard the LE block for Island Steel. While in Eau Claire, he was employed for over 25 years at the Northern Wisconsin Center for the Developmentally Disabled. After retiring he continued to work as a shuttle driver for the Union Pacific Railroad.
Dale is survived by his wife, Marlene (Close-Sands) Chambers; son, Gunnar (Leslye) Chambers; stepson, Christopher Sands; stepdaughter, Christel Sands; grandsons, Dallas, James and Dale Chambers; granddaughters, Miranda Chambers and Angel Sands (Joseph Burns); a sister, Judy Lewis; six great-grandchildren; and several nephews and nieces.
He was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Robert; a sister, Sandra; brother-in-law, Gerald Solfest; sister-in-law, Carol Chambers; nephew, Sean Lewis; and niece, Tammy Solfest.
Memorial services for Dale will be held at noon Saturday, May 14, at the Stokes, Prock and Mundt Funeral Chapel, 535 S. Hillcrest Parkway, Altoona. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. until the time of services Saturday morning. Internment will take place at a later date.
The family would like to thank the emergency medical team that came to the home and the ER and Neuro staff at Mayo Clinic Health Systems for their care and time spent with Dale.
Cremation Society of Wisconsin, Altoona, is assisting the family with arrangements. Online condolences may be shared at www.cremationsociety-wi.com.
Ted Cruz got at least one thing right in naming Carly Fiorina as his running mate in his futile bid to win the Republican nomination: the proper attributes for a vice presidential candidate.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could do worse than to base their choices on the Cruz parameters for prospective running mates: knowledge and experience, judgment and character.
Vice presidential choices are always important; one out of three has become president, including four of the last nine. But the choice has become more important in an age in which candidates must pass intensive media scrutiny and perform before millions in a single vice presidential debate. An added factor this year is that Trump will be 70 next month, and Clinton 69 in October.
Since Jimmy Carter made Walter Mondale the first significant vice presidential partner, most nominees have wisely picked someone qualified to play a significant governmental role, rather than serve primarily as political attack dog, ticket balancer or traveling envoy. That could be especially important for Trump, given his lack of governmental experience.
Trump's unpredictability makes assessing possible GOP choices hard. But it would seem sensible for him to pick someone with the Washington experience he lacks, like Mitt Romney selected Rep. Paul Ryan and George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney.
His top Washington ally has been Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a former federal judge. A small group of GOP lawmakers that met in March with Trump included another prospect, Sen. Tom Cotton, an ambitious young Arkansan and Iraq War veteran.
Another possibility is a former GOP foe like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who enthusiastically endorsed him and could complement his blue-collar appeal. But the blunt Christie may be too similar to Trump and, besides, has very low approval ratings in his home state. Another Trump endorser, Ben Carson, is popular with GOP conservatives but also has no governmental experience.
On paper, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida seems a natural fit. Though Trump denigrated him as "little Marco" and lured him into the political gutter, the young Cuban-American senator and former state legislator would provide generational, ethnic, geographic and experience balance.
Thanks to Tuesday's victory in Indiana, Trump won't need to make a deal to reach the required 1,237 delegates. And his repeated denunciations of Cruz as "lying Ted" and their continuing enmity make the Texas senator an unlikely vice presidential choice. That leaves Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who would bring both state and federal experience, though he has adamantly rejected the idea. He wouldn't be the first to change his mind.
Three women who have been suggested, if Trump wants to counter likely rival Clinton, are Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Gov. Susanna Martinez of New Mexico. All three backed Rubio, and Haley was particularly critical of Trump.
Agreeing to be Trump's vice president might involve a gigantic leap of faith, both in terms of what life would be like and politically. History says being on a losing ticket doesn't benefit future ambitions.
As for Clinton, the Democratic front-runner's campaign did something unusual recently in providing a list of people under consideration that looked very much like a real list, not one leaked for political purposes.
Two names stood out, by virtue of experience and background: Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Kaine, a former mayor and governor, is a Spanish-speaking Roman Catholic designated to speak for Clinton on foreign policy issues. Brown is a populist with positions similar to those of Bernie Sanders, like requiring banks to down size. Both have won several state-wide elections in major swing states.
The other three were former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, an African-American who was assistant attorney general under Bill Clinton; Virginia's other senator, Mark Warner, also a former governor; and Tom Perez, the secretary of labor. Another Hispanic sometimes mentioned is Julian Castro, the secretary of housing and urban development and former San Antonio mayor. So is Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
But given how Trump has disparaged minorities and women, the likely first major party female nominee might prefer a qualified white male like Kaine or Brown, rather than a minority or a woman.
As for Fiorina, her tenure as a vice presidential candidate was one of the shortest in history, though she showed she definitely fit two traditional vice presidential roles, political soul mate and attack dog.
President Barack Obama signed a bill that puts new restrictions on imports of antiquities from Syria in an effort to stem terrorists' trade in looted artifacts. The bill signed yesterday (May 9) was passed by Democrats and Republicans alike, in a rare show of bipartisanship over the gridlock that has been the norm over the past six years.
Syria's archaeological sites have been heavily looted as the groups fighting in Syria's civil war, including the Islamic State group (also called ISIS) and the al- Qaida-allied "al-Nusra Front," have pillaged and sold Syrian artifacts to buy weapons and ammunition, according to news reports. [Photos: See How War Is Damaging Syria's Castles and Landmarks]
Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, more than $26 million worth of artifacts most of which were described as "antiques" from more than 100 years ago have been imported into the United States from Syria, according to documents from the U.S. Census Bureau. Most of them were imported to New York City, a major hub for auction houses, art galleries and antiquity dealers.
"The law imposes new import restrictions on cultural artifacts removed from Syria. Similar restrictions were enacted in 2004 with respect to Iraqi antiquities," Rep. Eliot Engel, the Democratic lawmaker who proposed the bill, said in a press release.
Will the restrictions work?
However, the same U.S. Census Bureau documents that showed that $26 million worth of Syrian artifacts had entered the United States also call into question how effective the new Syrian import restrictions will be.
Engel said the bill imposes restrictions that are similar to those imposed on Iraqi antiquities. However, since 2011 more than $12 million worth of Iraqi artifacts have been imported into the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau documents. Most, again, were simply classified as antiques that are over 100 years old.
One mysterious shipment (described as antiques) from Iraq, with a declared value of $3.5 million, passed through San Juan, Puerto Rico, in August 2013. The contents remain unknown.
The shipment was able to pass through the United States because the restrictions governing Iraq antiquities contain loopholes that allow some antiques, not considered to be of any historic or archaeological value, to still be imported. This forces the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to check individual shipments to see if they comply or not, according to a representative of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The representative also said the agency is able to audit some shipments, but refused to say how often this happens.
In a blog post in January, Rick St. Hilaire, a cultural heritage lawyer, noted that in 2014, the year ISIS overran much of Iraq, that the import of antiques from Iraq to the United States actually spiked.
"Were these imports deliberately misclassified to plausibly conceal illegally dug-up ancient tablets, foundation cones, sculptures and more? Possibly. Or did a legal trade in vintage trays and antique coffee pots actually spike for some reason because of the conflict?" St. Hilaire wrote. "Customs officials should find out for certain."
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, seems an odd place to import $3.5 million worth of Iraq antiques. About 45 percent of the Caribbean island's 3.5 million people live below the poverty line according to the Census Bureau. Additionally the island's government recently went bankrupt.
When Live Science told St. Hilaire of the $3.5 million shipment, he reiterated the need for custom officials to look into these shipments.
Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
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A County Longford couple have witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by the forest fires currently blazing across the Canadian state of Alberta.
Donna Rowley, who is originally from the townland of Crieve, and her husband Aidan Murphy, a native of Edgeworthstown, live and work in Fort McMurray and were among 88,000 residents who were ordered to evacuate the city last week as a wildfire threatened to engulf it.
It felt like a scene from a movie with everyone trying to evacuate the city: vehicles, police everywhere, people travelling the wrong way down the highway, Ms Rowley revealed.
From the pictures you will see how close to the road it was. Coming to the south end of the city a hotel was starting to smoke, heavy equipment on fire, cars on the sides of the roads - ran out of fuel.
It was Aidan's last day on the site as we are heading home to Ireland to spend time with family and friends. It was surreal what was happening.
For more on this story, see this week's Longford Leader.
A technology services company based in rural Co Roscommon has announced its intention to recruit ten new full-time taff as part of its current expansion plan. The new jobs will encompass a range of skill sets including positions in technical and engineering roles as well as finance, digital marketing and sales.
myITdepartment.ie, which has moved to new premises in Athleague, will employ a total of 28 employees at the end of its recruitment drive. Newly-appointed Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources, Denis Naughten TD, will officially open the new premises this afternoon his first outing as a Government Minister.
Founder and Managing Director of myITdepartment.ie, Seamus Quinn said, We are delighted to be in a position to offer these high quality jobs, particularly in rural Ireland. We have built up a very successful, growing company in the midlands despite a number of challenges including a lack of high speed broadband, which is obviously crucial to our business. We have had to invest significantly in a wireless connection to facilitate business growth and the high calibre services we offer. The new government should prioritise investment in services outside of Dublin to enable more SMEs to develop and provide high quality employment.
Thanks to the broadband that we have invested in, we can cater for clients right across Ireland as well as overseas, in the UK and US and we are expanding more this year into those international markets, continued Seamus. It gives us great flexibility and enables us to cater for clients wherever they are located. The widespread availability of high speed broadband across rural Ireland would open up huge opportunities for further development and employment in the region.
Established in 2003, myITdepartment.ie provides full IT service support and managed technology services from its offices in Roscommon and Dublin to more than 200 clients across the country as well as overseas in the UK and the US.
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases
By Don Miller Published: May 10 2016
This Saturday, May 14, 2016, is Stamp Out Hunger, the nations largest single-day food drive.
Hauppauge, NY - May 9, 2016 - This Saturday, May 14, 2016, is Stamp Out Hunger, the nations largest single-day food drive. And to make it easier for Long Islanders to participate, the United States Postal Service has delivered more than 100,000 brown paper bags across Long Island to accommodate donations to this important event. The bags were made possible through the generous support of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 342.
Even if residents didnt receive a bag in the mail, they are still encouraged to help Stamp Out Hunger by leaving donations of nonperishable food by their mailbox before their regularly scheduled mail delivery on Saturday, May 14.
For the past 24 years, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and the United States Postal Service (USPS) have teamed up with food banks across the country on the second Saturday in May to help Stamp Out Hunger. Participation in the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is simple.
Residents are asked to leave nonperishable food items such as canned goods, pasta, rice, boxed juices and shelf-stable milk (please, no glass items) next to their mailboxes before regularly scheduled mail delivery on Saturday, May 14, 2016. The postal carriers will do the rest. Locally, all food donated will help replenish food supplies at Long Islands food pantries, soup kitchens and other feeding programs served by Island Harvest Food Bank, leading hunger-relief organization.
About Hunger on Long Island
Hunger is a state in which people do not get enough food to provide the nutrients for active and healthy lives. It can result from the recurrent and involuntary lack of access to food. More than 316,000 Long Islanders face the risk of hunger every day, according to Island Harvest and Feeding America, a national hunger-relief organization. Those facing hunger include adults (often working two jobs), seniors and veterans. Unable to make ends meet, they (and their children) are often forced to go without food. Approximately 70,000 individuals seek food assistance in Nassau and Suffolk counties each week through soup kitchens, food pantries and other feeding programs served by Island Harvest.
About Island Harvest Food Bank
Island Harvest Food Bank is a leading hunger-relief organization that provides food and other resources to people in need. Always treating those it helps with dignity and respect, its goal is to end hunger and reduce food waste on Long Island through efficient food collection and distribution; enhanced hunger-awareness and nutrition-education programs; job training; and direct services targeted at children, senior citizens, veterans and others at risk. Approximately 94 cents of every dollar donated to Island Harvest goes to programs that support more than 316,000 Long Islanders. Island Harvest is a lead agency in the regions emergency-response preparedness for food and product distribution, and is a member of Feeding America, the nations leading domestic hunger-relief organization. More information can be found at www.islandharvest.org.
Press Releases
By Phil Andrews Published: May 10 2016
On March 12, 2016 New York States Regional Chamber of Commerce President Phil Andrews was featured on WebTV broadcast Conversations with Selwyn (CWSJ).
Brooklyn, NY - May 9, 2016 - On March 12, 2016 New York States Regional Chamber of Commerce President Phil Andrews was featured on WebTV broadcast Conversations with Selwyn (CWSJ).
About: Conversations with Selwyn Journeys (CWSJ) Hosted by Selwyn Collins
CWSJ is a webTV broadcast, which airs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 8:30pm and 10:00pm. It hosts conversations with people about their journeys and how they use their gifts and talents to empower and help others. I invite my guests to imagine someone, a young person perhaps, listening to their story, and not only being impressed by their success, but amazed to learn that they had limitations, and fell, but got up to be where they are today.
Imagine that story inspiring that young person to step beyond their limitations or challenges and one day becoming someone who of note. One who discovers a vaccine that saves millions, perhaps a head of state or cardiologist, or even someone who helps an elderly across a busy street. Indeed, when stories of service to humanity are told, the importance of what we share can positively impact many lives.
This web broadcast has been recently honored by the Young Gifted and Black organization and two years prior, the Guyana Cultural Association in NY in recognition of my innovation in digital media, for bridging culture and ethnic divides, and the show has a wide reach to audiences in the Guyana, Caribbean Diaspora and global audiences.
About: Phil Andrews
Phil Andrews is the current President of the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. and Past President of the 100 Black Men of Long Island, Inc. He is the Founder of P.A. Public Relations Co.; Phil serves as Public Relations Director. Prior to beginning his career in Public Relations, Phil was the Vice President of the Haircut Hut franchise. Phil has received many proclamations from notable political officials including former Nassau County Executive Thomas S. Gullotta, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano and Assembly-woman Earlene Hooper Hill, 18th Assembly District of New York. In 2010, Phil was honored for 50 or So around 50 by Long Island Business News. In 2011, Phil was honored by the Korean American Association of Greater New York (KAAGNY) with the Good Neighbor Award. Phil's work has been featured in multi-platform publications including Black Star News, The New York Beacon, Amsterdam News, Minority Business Review, The Network Journal and more. In 2016 Phil Andrews was awarded the In House Marketing Leadership Award by Long Island Business News. Hes also featured in 15 Years of Minority Business Development a book published by Mr. Robert Adams. Phil is listed in Whos Who in Black America and the International Whos Who. Phil has served on several Board of Directors including the Roosevelt Chamber of Commerce, Roosevelt Kiwanis, Hempstead Chamber of Commerce, Bronx Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Chamber of Commerce, and is currently serving on the board of The INN (Interfaith Nutrition Network).
Dont forget to bookmark Conversations with Selwyn Journeys (CWSJ) here
To view Phil Andrews Interview on Conversations with Selwyn Journeys log on here
For more information regarding the Long Island African American Chamber of Commerce, Inc. visit LIAACC.org. For membership inquires, corporate sponsorship opportunities, or to be placed on the email list email here or visit the website and enter an email to be placed on the list.
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases
By Long Island News & PR Published: May 10 2016
Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano, Acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter and Island Park Mayor Michael McGinty honored members of the Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) and members of the Island Park Fire Department at ...
Mineola, NY - May 6, 2016 - Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano, Acting Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter and Island Park Mayor Michael McGinty honored members of the Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) and members of the Island Park Fire Department at a press event today in Mineola. Thanks to a collaborative effort, these heroic first responders were saved the lives of two individuals that were submerged in six feet of water approximately 50 feet from the bulkhead in the vicinity of Block Lane and Warwick Road in Island Park.
Pictured is County Executive Mangano; Island Park Mayor Michael McGinty; and Island Park Firefighters 1st Assistant Chief James Miotto; 2nd Assistant Chief Michael Whalen, Ex. Captain Donny Cardineau, Firefighter Ronald Nurnberger Jr., Firefighter Louis Quilca and Firefighter Jenna Thilman. Not pictured is Inwood Fire Departments 1st Asst. Chief Anthony Rivelli Jr.
It is a true testament to these first responders that they have devoted their lives to protecting and serving the people of Nassau County, said County Executive Mangano. These first responders are truly deserving of the recognition accorded to them for helping save two of our residents from a tragic ending. Working collaboratively they truly made a difference.
Quick thinking on the part of members of the NCPDs Fourth Precinct enabled first responders to reach the passengers as they utilized a ladder to create a bridge between the top of the submerged vehicle and a floating dock. NCPD Officers, members of the Island Park Fire Department and a member of the Inwood Fire Department, were able to work together to free both the driver of the vehicle and the injured passenger. In addition, members of the NCPDs Communications Bureau and Aviation Unit were instrumental in the overall effort to save these two lives. The two individuals received medical attention once extricated and the passenger was flown by NCPD Aviation to a local hospital for additional care.
Local News, National & World News, Health & Wellness, Press Releases
By Long Island News & PR Published: May 10 2016
On the heels of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing it has full authority to regulate e-cigarettes, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today warned about a serious problem involving exploding e-cigarettes, which have caught ...
Washington, DC - May 8, 2016 - On the heels of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing it has full authority to regulate e-cigarettes, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today warned about a serious problem involving exploding e-cigarettes, which have caught on fire, and have burned and injured scores of individuals, including individuals in New York. Schumer said that over the past few weeks, at least four New Yorkers, including two teens, have been seriously injured by exploding e-cigarettes. Despite these dangers, there have been no product recalls or new defective warnings issued on e-cigarette products. Schumer now wants the FDA to investigate exploding e-cigarettes and determine what, if any, actions might be required to prevent these explosions from occurring.
Its bad enough that e-cigarettes cause nicotine addiction and may be dangerous to a persons health, but now it seems theyre doubling as a ticking time bomb, said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer. Now that the FDA has asserted full regulatory oversight over e-cigarettes, the agency should use this authority to investigate whether these repeated explosions require a recall or more warnings. We cannot turn a blind eye to the dangers of exploding e-cigarette devices, especially when many of the injured are teens. The FDA should determine whether these vaping devices are flawed and require a recall if necessary, to make sure these explosions stop.
Schumer said that because e-cigarettes were not regulated until this past week, potential dangers could have flown under the radar. But with its clear authority now, the FDA has the power to regulate e-cigarettes under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, which Schumer strongly backed. The new rule allows the agency to regulate e-cigarettes, like they do traditional cigarettes. With this new authority, Schumer said that the FDA should finally investigate why e-cigarettes continue to explode and determine whether the devices batteries, tanks or atomizers are flawed. Schumer said that the FDA should require a recall if their investigation concludes a serious pattern that endangers consumers.
More than 2.5 million Americans are using e-cigarettes and that number is growing. E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that are designed to resemble traditional cigarettes. E-cigarettes contain a mechanism inside the device that heats up liquid nicotine and turns it into a vapor that smokers then inhale and exhale.
Reports of exploding e-cigarettes have occurred throughout the country, including in New York. For instance, just this past month, an e-cigarette exploded in the face of a 14-year old Brooklyn boy at a vape shop at Kings Plaza Mall in Mill Basin. According to reports, the boy is now blind in his left eye. Metal shards from the e-cigarettes battery penetrated both of his eyes and left a large gash on his hands. Prior to this incident, a Queens woman was badly burned when a e-cigarettes battery suddenly exploded in her pants pocket while behind the wheel of her car. The accident caused burning to her right leg and knee; she was taken to the hospital for third-degree burns. On Long Island, a Malverne resident was burned when an e-cigarette battery burst into flames in his pocket. And, again, this past month, a 17-year old Ogden resident was hospitalized when his e-cigarette exploded in his face, burning his face, hands, and throat.
In 2014, the U.S. Fire Administration issued a report on electronic cigarette fires and explosions. Data used in this report was collected using media reports so there are likely scores more that were not reported to the media or to local fire departments, according to the senators office. According to this report, there were at several exploding e-cigarette incidents between 2009-2014. Nine injuries were associated with these incidents, including two serious burns. According to the report, when compared to other products with lithium-ion batteries, the shape and construction of e-cigarettes can make them more likely to behave like flaming rockets when the battery fails. Eighty percent of the reported incidents occurred while charging the e-cigarette. Schumer said that this report suggests that the FDA should investigate the safety of these batteries as soon as possible, especially as more and more children and teens begin to pick them up.
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Columnists Press Releases
US Special Operations Forces and Afghan Commandos rescued Ali Haider Gilani, the son of Pakistans former prime minister, in a joint raid earlier today. The operation took place in Afghanistans eastern Paktika province, a known hotbed for the Haqqani Network and al Qaeda. Al Qaeda operated a camp in Paktika as of the summer of 2015, and one of its top leaders was killed in an airstrike there as well.
Four enemy combatants were killed as a result of the operation, NATOs Resolute Support mission said in a statement released to the press. No other injuries or damage was observed or reported.
The statement did not offer any details about the group targeted, but said the counterterror mission was planned and launched after evidence of terrorist activity was confirmed.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter later confirmed that the counterterrorism operation that freed Gilani was directed at Al Qaeda operatives.
The US military typically reserves counterterrorism missions in Afghanistan for al Qaeda and allied groups, and usually does not use special operations forces to target the Taliban.
It was another operation in our continuous efforts against Al Qaeda, Tawab Ghorzang, a spokesman for the National Security Council of Afghanistan, told the press, according to The New York Times.
We did not have specific information that Mr. Gilani was held there, but that there was an al Qaeda cell there, Ghorzang continued.
Dr. Omar Zakhilwal, Afghanistans ambassador to Pakistan, wrote on Facebook that Gilani was recovered after 3 years of captivity from an al Qaeda affiliated group.
Ali Haider Gilani was kidnapped in 2013. His father, Yusuf Raza Gilani, was Pakistans Prime Minister from 2008 to 2012. According to the Associated Press and other outlets, he has said that the hostage-takers wanted several al Qaeda prisoners in exchange for his son.
Paktika is a traditional stronghold of the Haqqani Network, the powerful Taliban subgroup that is backed by Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. The Haqqani Network is based in eastern Afghanistan and Pakistans tribal agency of North Waziristan.
Siraj Haqqani, the groups operational leader, serves as one of the Talibans two deputy emirs and is also a member of al Qaedas executive council. The Taliban and Haqqani Network are known to shelter al Qaedas men and they conduct joint operations with the group inside of Afghanistan.
The US military, under the aegis of the International Security Assistance Force, targeted al Qaedas network in Paktika seven times between November 2008 and September 2012. The US military identified the presence of a sizable camp in one of those raids. In May 2009, the US military killed 29 Haqqani Network fighters while hunting for Mullah Sangeen Zadran at a foreign fighter encampment in the Wor Mamay district. In another raid in the Mata Khan district, the US killed an al Qaeda weapons expert. [See LWJ report, ISAF raids against al Qaeda and allies in Afghanistan 2007-2013.]
Al Qaeda is known to have operated a training camp in Paktika as recently as the summer of 2015. In October 2015, the US targeted and destroyed two al Qaeda camps, including one that covered approximately 30 square miles, in Kandahars Shorabak district. Afterwards, General John Campbell, the commander of the Resolute Support Mission, disclosed that intelligence for that operation was gleaned from information seized at an al Qaeda camp in Paktika.
Campbell explained to the The Washington Post that the Shorabak camps were discovered after a raid this summer [of 2015] on another al Qaeda facility in the Barmal district of eastern Afghanistans Paktika province.
One of al Qaedas top leaders was based in Paktika, indicating that the group felt the area was safe enough to operate there. Abu Khalil al Sudani, one of al Qaedas most senior figures, was killed in an airstrike in the Bermal district in July 2015.
Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal. Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.
Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
The US military killed Abu Wahib, the notorious Islamic State military commander who was responsible for overrunning much of Anbar province in 2014. Abu Wahib waged jihad with al Qaeda during the US occupation and escaped from an Iraqi prison in 2012 to rejoin the fight.
Pentagon Spokesman Peter Cook announced today that the US killed Abu Wahib, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levants military emir for Iraqs Anbar province, in an airstrike on May 6. Three additional ISIL jihadists were killed in the airstrike, which is said to have taken place in Rutbah, a remote desert town located near the Jordanian border.
Abu Wahibs death is another blow to ISILs leadership that will further degrade its ability to operate, especially in Anbar province, Cook said.
The Islamic State has suffered significant losses in Anbar province over the past year, losing the cities of Ramadi and Hit. The Islamic State still controls Fallujah in the east, Rutbah, and a number of towns in the west along the Euphrates River up to the Syrian border.
Abu Wahib, whose full name is Shakir Wahib al Fahdawi al Dulaimi, has been waging jihad in Iraq for more than a decade. He was detained by US forces in Ramadi in 2006 during the height of al Qaeda in Iraqs insurgency. Cook described Abu Wahib as a former member of al Qaeda in Iraq, which morphed into the Islamic State of Iraq and remained part for al Qaedas network. The Islamic State became independent of al Qaeda in the spring of 2014 after Ayman al Zawahiri ejected the group due to a leadership dispute with Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
Wahib was sentenced to death and transferred to Tikrit Central Prison. In November 2012, he escaped along with 110 inmates after the Islamic State of Iraq assaulted the prison. That jailbreak and others like it infused the Islamic State of Iraq with leaders and fighters who were captured during US and Iraqi military operations.
By 2013, Abu Wahib emerged as the Islamic State in Iraqs military commander for Anbar province. He was responsible for executing a series of military operations that ultimately led to the fall of Fallujah in January 2014. A host of towns along the Euphrates River Valley fell to his forces during the Islamic States onslaught in the summer of 2014.
Abu Wahibs crowning achievement was the taking of Ramadi, Anbars provincial capital, in May 2015. He organized his forces to overrun the city and forced Iraqi military units to abandon their posts despite an active US military air campaign in the province. The Islamic State held the capital for seven months until Iraqi forces, backed by US airstrikes, drove them from the city at the end of December 2015.
In addition to his military campaigns, Abu Wahib appeared in Islamic State propaganda videos. He is best known for executing soldiers, policemen, and civilians after capturing. Abu Wahib, unlike most jihadists in the Islamic States snuff films, refused to cover his face.
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.
The US military announced that it launched four separate airstrikes against al Qaedas branch in Yemen in three different provinces over the span of a week at the end of April. The airstrikes coincided with the US-backed United Arab Emirates offensive against al Qaeda in southern Yemen.
US Central Command, or CENTCOM, announced the airstrikes in a press release. According to CENTCOM, 10 al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) fighters were killed and another was wounded in the operations. CENTCOM listed the four airstrikes as follows:
An April 23 strike on April 23 [sic] killed two al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operatives in west-central Yemens Marib governorate. An April 25 strike in the Abyan governorate near Yemens southern coast killed two al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operatives near Yemens southern coast. A second April 25 strike killed two al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operatives near Azzan in central Yemen. An April 28 strike killed four al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operatives and injured one in central Yemens Shabwah province.
CENTCOM said that AQAP remains a significant threat to the region, the United States and beyond and has a destabilizing effect on Yemen.
AQAP is using the unrest in Yemen to provide a haven from which to plan future attacks against our allies as well as the US and its interests, CENTCOM continued. In the past, the US has targeted top AQAP leaders as well as operatives who were plotting attacks on the West. But the US also launched airstrikes in support of conventional Yemeni military operations against the jihadist organization.
The US has now launched 15 airstrikes against AQAP in Yemen this year. Four of those strikes took place in April and six more in March.
The uptick in strikes coincided with AQAPs rapid expansion of control in areas in southern Yemen since the spring of 2015. AQAP seized large areas in the southern Yemeni provinces of Abyan, Hadramout, Lahj, and Shabwah starting with the provincial capital of Mukallah in March 2015. Last month, the Unite Arab Emirates, backed by Yemeni forces and the US military, retook control of Mukallah. AQAP claimed it withdrew without a fight to protect civilians, and promised to return. AQAP is also said to have withdrawn from Lahj and its capital of Houta while putting up minimal resistance. This tactic allows AQAP to preserve its forces for future battles.
In addition to the airstrikes, the US military has committed a small number of ground forces to aid the UAE and local Yemeni forces that are battling AQAP in the south. A small number of troops are said to be aiding the UAE in Mukallah as well as Yemeni forces in Lahj, according to US News and World Report.
While AQAP has lost ground in Hadramout and Lahj, it still controls significant territory in Shabwa and Abyan, and maintains a sizable presence in many other Yemeni provinces. Yemeni forces, backed by the US military, were able to drive AQAP from territory it controlled in southern Yemen from 2011 to 2012, but was unable to hold the ground as it has been preoccupied with a Houthi rebellion that cost the government the capital of Sanaa and much of northern and central Yemen.
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.
After eight months of intense training, the students of the 310th and 309th Fighter Squadron Basic F-16 Fighting Falcon Course were put to their final test as they joined forces with the F-35 and a multitude of other platforms during their capstone Large Force Exercises April 18-29, at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.
Students integrated with different platforms, some from different bases, all fighting in the same air space at once. They faced up to eight simulated enemy aircraft and utilized air-to-air and air-to-surface tactics. These capstone missions ensure students are ready for their future operational tours.
"These LFEs mark the culmination of eight months of training for the B-Course students, said Lt. Col. William McKibban, 309th FS commander. Our weapons officers plan for months to make it as realistic as possible with the resources we have available. Every F-16 instructor pilot realizes that, within months, these students will likely be using their skills in operational environments. There is no other option but for each of them to be ready for those responsibilities."
The students were tasked with creating and then executing dynamic and multifaceted mission plans.
We were presented with very complex problems and with the help of our mission commanders, we were able come up with really good solutions then go out and execute them, said 1st Lt. Robert Kouwe, 310th FS B-Course student. We planned our mission the day prior to flying the LFE. We had to answer questions like; how do we get a C-17 into a drop zone so they can drop off supplies for a simulated special forces team? Learning how to dynamically solve this problem prepares us for what well actually be doing while deployed.
This marks the first time at Luke that the F-35 Lightning II has been fully integrated into the LFEs, allowing students to utilize the fighters unique and extensive capabilities.
Our strength here at Luke is that we have 4th generation and 5th generation assets at the same base, so we can truly train how we fight, said Lt. Col. Aaron Jelinek, 61st FS director of operations. Weve been developing this platform and getting more and more capable as we go on. We were able to contribute to the fight over the past two weeks and allow, not only the students, but also instructors to see what this platform is currently capable of right here, right now.
This exercise also allowed students to see first-hand how the F-35 makes solving these dynamic challenges easier.
The F-35 compliments us with a whole new capability. Kouwe said. It adds so much situational awareness and the low observability is extremely good.
One of the F-35 pilots involved in the exercise spent the first part of his career mastering the F-16. He now gets to fly next to his old jet and share the capabilties of his new fighter.
Were able to know whats going on and then pass that information to the F-16s. We provide a bigger picture, more situational awareness, while also utilizing unprecedented stealth capabilities, said Maj. Joseph Walker, 62nd FS B-Flight commander Were able to go places and take out threats the F-16 traditionally cant or faces a higher risk of failure. Were here to utilize the F-35s strengths while enhancing the F-16s strengths by working together.
Some of the F-16 students had a chance to learn what its like to execute an LFE with and without the F-35.
I flew one day with the F-35s and one day without them and it really showed me the benefits of having them with us, Kouwe said. It gave me confidence knowing that it wasnt just up to us to take care of ourselves, but that we had them watching our backs.
The LFE provided students a realistic training environment that not only showed them what their wingmen in other platforms are capable of but also how to communicate and quickly problem solve when things dont go according to plan.
Putting all these moving pieces together is something you can talk about all day but until you go and do it and see what can go wrong and then follow up with a solution, theres no other way to simulate it but to actually practice it, Kouwe said. All pilots think their platform is the best but when you put all the different communities into a mission planning room it forces you to take a step back and admit your limitations and say where and why we need the other platforms.
The LFE furthered the students development and completed their B-Course training, but it also presented another milestone for the F-35 program at Luke.
Its a big deal for us, Jelinek said. Every time we get to go integrate and show off our capabilities, both air-to-air and air-to-ground, it really opens eyes. Everyone sees it on the ramp and they might think it looks pretty cool but its a whole new story when theyre up in the air experiencing what this capability brings.
The first B-Course F-35 student was announced in March and soon the F-35 program will be expanding its training syllabus.
Weve made leaps and bounds since the beginning of the year, said Capt. Ian Osterrreicher, 61st FS chief of scheduling. Were going to see our syllabus ramp up and well be starting to do our own LFEs and next time, well be asking the F-16s to support us.
Even with all the milestones and advancements this is just the start for the things to come at Luke and the F-35 program.
We only have a squadron and a half training fighter pilots, Jelinek said. Eventually, were going to have 144 F-35s. If you look out on the ramp and multiply what we have right now by four, thats the capability were going to have to train tomorrows fighters.
This fall, Hill AFB, Utah, is going to declare initial operating capability. The extensive training here at Luke, to include integration exercises like LFEs, allows Hill to be ready for this next step.
We fly more sorties in the 61st FS than any other Air Force fighter squadron, Jelinek said. With the number of hours we put on these jets, the number of sorties we turn per week, were able to pass valuable lessons learned to these other bases. Were able to pass any findings we have on how the F-35 performs to operational testers, developmental testers and, most importantly, back to Hill to get them ready for IOC.
Speakers from Meta, Finnegan, Equifax and the LOT Network said it was important to use data, get involved and reach out more to improve diversity and inclusion
GC Rieber Shipping ASA has entered into a time charter agreement with Reach Subsea for the CSV Polar King to support Norwegian University for Science and Technologys (NTNU) scientific operation under the MarMine Project in the mid-Atlantic ridge.
The project will deploy ROV, AUV and grabs for seabed mapping and sampling for geological and biological research related to marine mining.
Estimated duration is three weeks.
Were excited to yet again take part in research and exploration activities in the North Atlantic region, an activity which forms an important part of GC Rieber Shippings heritage., says GC Rieber CEO Irene Waage Basili.
GC Rieber Shipping's business within offshore/shipping includes ownership in specialized vessels, high quality marine ship management and project development within the segments subsea, ice/support and marine seismic.
It currently operates 13 advanced special purpose vessels for defined markets within the subsea, ice/support and marine seismic segments, of which the company owns 11.
Australian icebreaker operated by DMS Maritime to be constructed by Damen
The Australian Government has signed a deal with DMS Maritime, a wholly owned subsidiary of Serco, for the delivery, operation and maintenance of an Antarctic Supply Research Vessel (ASRV) with icebreaking capabilities.
The vessel, to be built by the Damen Shipyards Group, will form an integral part of the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) program in the coming years.
The total investment is over $1.912 billion (AUD), with $529 million being invested in the capital cost of the icebreaker, and $1.38 billion to be spent on operations and maintenance over its 30 year lifespan, according to the Australian Antarctic Division. The April 28 signing ceremony in Hobart Tasmania was attended by Australias Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julia Bishop and Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt.
Explaining the decision to subcontract Damen for the design and building of the vessel, Serco CEO Asia Pacific Mark Irwin said, Damen is a leading international shipyards group with a strong international presence. As well as building a broad portfolio of standardized vessels in series, Damen has produced a range of bespoke vessels including scientific, hydrographic, naval and ice ships. Damen and Serco have a strong partnership and over the last 10 years, Damen has supplied over 40 vessels used by Serco to support naval operations in the U.K. and Australia.
The realization of this vessel will draw upon a number of companies within the Damen Shipyards Group and Damens wider network. Denmark-based KNUD E. HANSEN executed the concept and tender designs, whilst engineering and project management is being delivered by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS) in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. Construction and outfitting of the vessel will be carried out at Damen Shipyards Galati, Romania.
Damen Sales Director Asia Pacific, Roland Briene, said, Drawing on the diverse skills found across our organization, we are able to connect up all the dots in order to deliver a cohesive, full scope project execution. An icebreaking research and supply vessel such as this represents a new market entry for Damen and we are very pleased to be working with AAD and DMS on this exciting project.
The ASRV represents a state-of-the-art solution which will facilitate Australias wider exploration of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. The vessel will be 156 meters in length, with a beam of 25.6 meters. She will be able to break ice up 1.65 meters at speeds of 3 knots and will supply Australias permanent research stations in Antarctica and Macquarie Island with cargo, equipment and personnel. Designed with 500 m2 on board laboratory and office facilities, the vessel will also serve to conduct research activities. The ASRV will host up to 32 DMS Maritime crew and as many as 116 AAD scientific personnel as well as a doctor, in climate controlled accommodation.
After completion at Damens yard in Galati, the ASRV will sail to DSNS in the Netherlands for handover to the client, scheduled for April 2020.
The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, fell on Tuesday weighed down by lower rates for capesize vessels.
The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize shipping vessels, was down 22 points, or 3.57 percent at 594 points.
The capesize index fell 85 points, or 10.16 percent to 752 points.
"Cape rates continue to slip back on thinner volumes following recent pressure on Chinese steel prices," ship brokerage firm Clarksons Platou Securities said in a note.
Chinese rebar steel futures posted their biggest intraday fall in seven years on Tuesday, as worries about demand in the world's second-biggest economy extended a rout that has spilled over into other industrial raw materials.
Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, decreased $667 to $5,946.
The panamax index slid three points to 581 points.
Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes, fell $24 to $4,646.
Among smaller vessels, the handysize index fell three points to 352 points and the supramax index was down eight points at 567 points.
(Reporting by Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru)
China scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday as a U.S. navy ship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, a patrol China denounced as an illegal threat to peace which only went to show its defence installations in the area were necessary.
Guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence travelled within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said.
The so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to "challenge excessive maritime claims" by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam which were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea, Urban said.
"These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise," Urban said in an emailed statement.
China and the United States have traded accusations of militarising the South China Sea as China undertakes large-scale land reclamation and construction on disputed features while the United States has increased its patrols and exercises.
Facilities on Fiery Cross Reef include a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway which the United States worries China will use to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.
China's Defence Ministry said two fighter jets were scrambled and three warships shadowed the U.S. ship, telling it to leave.
The U.S. patrol "again proves that China's construction of defensive facilities on the relevant reefs in the Nansha Islands is completely reasonable and totally necessary", it said, using China's name for the Spratly Islands where much of its reclamation work is taking place.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the U.S. ship illegally entered Chinese waters.
"This action by the U.S. side threatened China's sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability," he told a daily news briefing.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry waved aside a question as to whether the U.S. aim was to send a message ahead of a visit to Asia by President Barack Obama this month.
"This is not a pointed strategy calculated to do anything except keep a regular process of freedom of navigation operations underway," he told reporters in London.
Sensitive Area
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
The Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the Spratly Islands after China used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from Fiery Cross.
"Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be the future hub of Chinese military operations in the South China Sea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including its large and deep port and 3,000-metre runway," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
"The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of U.S. determination ahead of President Obama's trip to Vietnam."
Speaking in Vietnam, Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said freedom of navigation operations were important for smaller nations.
"If the world's most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships of navy of smaller countries?" Russel told reporters before news of the operation was made public.
China has reacted with anger to previous U.S. freedom of navigation operations, including the overflight of fighter planes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month, and when long-range U.S. bombers flew near Chinese facilities under construction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November.
U.S. naval officials believe China has plans to start reclamation and construction activities on Scarborough Shoal, which sits further north of the Spratlys within the Philippines-claimed 200-nautical-mile (370-km) exclusive economic zone.
Tough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who looks set to become president of the Philippines after an election on Monday, has proposed multilateral talks on the South China Sea.
A Chinese diplomat warned last week that criticism of China over the South China Sea would rebound like a coiled spring.
(By Michael Martina, Greg Torode and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Paris and London, and My Pham in Hanoi; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel and James Dalgleish)
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), Indias largest port developer and operator, today accomplished a discharge record of 1,64,914 metric tons of steam coal from vessel MV Marijeannie within 24 hours.
MV Marijeannie carrying 1, 67,152 metric tons of steam coal for Adani Power Limited berthed at Mundra Ports West Basin Port on 4 May 2016 by the ports marine team. The entire vessel discharge was completed within 25 hours 15 minutes through efficient and versatile planning and execution,
On this Milestone Mr. Ennarasu Karunesan CEO APSEZ Mundra & Tuna Ports said I would like to compliment my team for setting this record in India and the stake holders for having the trust in us. This goes in line with the Chairmans vision of supply driven infrastructure through automation thereby emerging again as the best coal import terminal in the world.
The current handling capacity of west port is 60 MMT of coal per annum. This record stands out as the fastest discharge rate in the history of any port in India.
1775 - American forces under Gen. Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen cross Lake Champlain and capture the British fort at Ticonderoga, New York. The US Navy has honored this action by naming five ships after the battle.
1862 - The Norfolk Navy Yard is burned before being evacuated by Confederate forces in a general withdrawal up the peninsula to defend Richmond. Also on this date, Pensacola is re-occupied by Union Army and Navy forces. Confederate forces destroyed the Navy Yard the day before.
1944 - USS Cod (SS 224) attacks a large Japanese convoy and destroyer off the west coast of Luzon. USS Silversides (SS 236) attacks a Japanese convoy about 120 miles south-southwest of Guam.
1945 - During the Okinawa Campaign, Pharmacists Mate Second Class William D. Halyburton aids a fallen Marine, shields his body, and is mortally wounded. He is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. USS Halyburton (FFG-40) is named in his honor.
1952 - During the Korean War, USS Maddox (DD 731) and USS Laffey (DD 724) fire on railroad targets at Wonson.
1960 - USS Triton (SSRN 586), commanded by Capt. Edward L. Beach, completes a submerged circumnavigation of the world in 84 days following many of the routes taken by Magellan.
1993 - USS Lake Erie (CG 70) is commissioned at Bath Iron Works in Maine. Two days later, the Ticonderoga-class cruiser sets sail for her homeport at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
(Source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Communication and Outreach Division)
CMA CGMs new Baltic Levant Express service offers direct connection between Saint Petersburg and the Eastern Mediterranean region
Starting May 9, container shipper CMA CGM has launched the new Baltic Levant Express service, offering a direct connection between Saint Petersburg and the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Dedicated to the Eastern Mediterranean region - Northern Europe trade, the new service links four major Northern European ports Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp and le Havre to the main Eastern Mediterranean ports Alexandria, Beirut, Mersin and Aliaga. Alexandria is now directly linked from le Havre in nine days.
Spanish citruses and vegetables producers will now benefit from new export solutions to Northern Europe thanks to new calls in Valencia and Cartagena. Transit times see Cartagena linked to Tilbury in five days.
Thanks to transshipment connections offered with other Groups services in Valencia and Tangiers, West African, North American and South American markets are connected to the Eastern Mediterranean region with transit times shortened by a week and a single transshipment.
Six 1,750 to 1,850 TEU-capacity vessels will operate the following rotation: Saint Petersburg, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Le Havre, Malta, Alexandria, Beirut, Mersin, Aliaga, Valencia, Cartagena, Tangiers, Tilbury, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Saint Petersburg.
Wartsila is to team up with an international group of shipping industry companies and organisations in a project to develop a concept for equipping future dry bulk carrier vessels with LNG propulsion.
Project Forward is led by Athens-based Arista Shipping. It began officially in May 2015 with the aim of developing a commercially feasible LNG powered dry bulk carrier design capable of complying with the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Energy Efficiency Design Index 2025 standards, as well as with all relevant emission reduction regulations. In addition to Arista Shipping, the other parties involved in the project are Finnish ship designer Deltamarin, the Houston based classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and GTT, the French LNG membrane containment system designer.
The Wartsila 31DF dual-fuel engine is likely to form the basis of the concept's propulsion system. Introduced in June 2015, the Wartsila 31 has been recognised by Guinness World Records as being the world's most efficient 4-stroke diesel engine. The DF version allows the use of either LNG or conventional marine fuel oils. While 2-stroke engines are the conventional choice for vessels of this type, the supreme efficiency of the Wartsila 31 engine makes it a competitive and viable alternative option.
"Wartsila has been selected to participate in this important project because of our depth of experience in LNG propulsion solutions, our strong position in 4-stroke engine technology, and in particular because of the state-of-the-art Wartsila 31 engine. This engine has not only taken efficiency to a new benchmark level, but in gas-mode is IMO Tier III compliant without the need for any exhaust cleaning systems. We are proud to be a part of this future-looking project, which could eventually be applied equally well to other types and sizes of merchant vessel," says Aaron Bresnahan, Vice President, Sales, Wartsila Marine Solutions.
"Project Forward aims to become a milestone for the shipping industry and in particular for owners and operators of cargo ships. Owners must decide within the next 5-10 years whether gas as fuel is a practical means of compliance with lower emissions standards and this project will enable all of us to understand its feasibility. We welcome Wartsila's involvement, as it is a company with great experience in this field," says Arista Shipping Principal, Alexander P. Panagopulos.
The project is to be presented as a topic at the Posidonia 2016 conference and exhibition, to be held in Athens, Greece from June 6 to 10.
Wartsila has long been a marine industry pioneer in the development of gas and dual-fuel engine technologies. The company has also led the way in offering complete fuel gas handling and storage systems, as well as gas propulsion systems for all types of vessels.
The Wartsila 31 engine
The Wartsila 31 is the first of a new generation of medium speed engines, designed to set a new benchmark in efficiency and overall emissions performance. It is available in 8 to 16 cylinder configurations and has a power output ranging from 4.2 to 9.8 MW, at 720 and 750 rpm. This 4-stroke engine has the best fuel economy of any engine in its class. At the same time, it maintains outstanding performance across the complete operating range. Its modular design enables a significant reduction in maintenance time and costs, thereby improving power availability and reducing the need for parts.
Austal officials joined ship sponsor U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen and many distinguished guests in celebrating the christening of the nations 14th littoral combat ship (LCS), the future USS Manchester, here Saturday, May 7, 2016.
Manchester (LCS 14) is the fifth LCS in Austals 11-ship, contract worth over $3.5 billion. With its shallow draft of 14 feet, the Austal-built Independence-variant LCS is an advanced high-speed and agile 419-foot aluminium trimaran combat ship that combines superior seakeeping, endurance and speed with the volume and payload capacity needed to support emerging missions.
On behalf of Austal USAs shipbuilding team, one of the most talented that Ive ever worked with, we are proud to provide our sailors with an amazing warship that will honor the great city of Manchester as she defends our nation, said Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle. Were equally excited to share this celebration with an amazing patriot in Senator Shaheen who has served in her role as both Governor and Senator, and now gives her spirit as the sponsor to this awesome ship.
Shaheen, the only woman in U.S. history to be elected both a Governor and a United States Senator, has served in the Senate since 2009. She has been committed to serving the citizens of New Hampshire for decades and is known for her common-sense leadership, hard work and dedication to improving the lives of the middle class As New Hampshire's Governor, Shaheen helped create nearly 67,000 new jobs while keeping New Hampshire's tax burden the lowest in the country. She and her husband, Bill a New Hampshire native - live in Madbury and have three daughters, Stefany, Stacey and Molly, and seven grandchildren.
Traditionally, the christening of a ship is where the ship's sponsor blesses the ship by breaking the bottle of champagne on the bow of the ship and ceremonially gives the ship its name. The roll of sponsorship represents a lifelong relationship with the ship and her crew.
The future USS Manchester (LCS 14), will launch in mid-May and is scheduled for delivery in 2017. She has a maximum speed of more than 40 knots, a voluminous 28,000 sf mission bay, and a flight deck capable of simultaneously holding two H-60 helicopters.
Austals LCS program is in full swing with three ships delivered and seven ships under construction at this time. Montgomery (LCS 8) conducted acceptance trials earlier this week. Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) and Omaha (LCS 12) are preparing for trials. Final assembly is well underway on Tulsa (LCS 16) and modules for Charleston (LCS 18) and Cincinnati (LCS 20) are under construction in Austals Module Manufacturing Facility.
The company has also been contracted by the U.S. Navy to build 10 Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPF). Of the 10 ships included in the $1.6 billion block-buy contract, six have been delivered.
HMAS RANKIN conducts engagement visit to Japan
The growing Defense relationship between Japan and Australia was given a boost this week when Royal Australian Navy (RAN) submarine HMAS Rankin conducted a port visit to Kobe, Japan from May 6-10, 2016. Highlighting Australias commitment to our long term relationship with Japan, Rankin will participate in a bilateral exercise with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF).
The bilateral training exercise will enable the participating vessels to conduct maritime skills such as maneuvering and communications while enhancing interoperability at sea. Over the past few years, the RAN and JMSDF have conducted a number of national visits and participated in Exercises NICHI GOU TRIDENT, DISTANT SHORES and KAKADU. Most recently, JS Shirase visited Sydney in March 2016.
Before returning to Australia, Rankin is scheduled to participate in Exercise PACIFIC REACH 16, a triennial submarine rescue exercise.
Update on the containership collision off Ningbo, China
Maersk Line said it is working with Chinese authorities to develop a plan to tow its severely damaged containership Safmarine Meru to safety.
On May 7 , the Maersk-owed Safmarine Meru was heavily damaged and caught fire after colliding with the German-owned containership Northen Jasper approximately 120 nautical miles east of Ningbo, China.
According to Maersk, the fire is under control and external firefighting has concluded with fire tugs remaining nearby to observe any developments.
A team of Chinese authority officials and Maersk Line representatives have gone aboard Safmarine Meru to survey the damage and gather information needed to make plans for moving the vessel to shore.
The vessel is without power and has suffered some water ingress, but its condition is stable and it is deemed suitable for towage, Maersk said.
Palle Laursen, Head of Ship Management in Maersk Line, said, We are currently cooperating with the Chinese authorities to develop a plan to safely tow the vessel alongside in the Port of Ningbo. We will not speculate or comment on the circumstances leading to the incident while investigations are ongoing,
The 22 crew members aboard Safmarine Meru at the time of the incident are safe, and arrangements to release the crew for shore leave are underway.
The Hong Kong flagged Safmarine Meru is a 4,650 TEU containership built in 2006. At the time of the collision, Safmarine Meru had less than 400 full containers on board.
South Korea will host a six-nation submarine exercise in its southern seas later in the month, Yonhap quoted the Navy as saying.
The Pacific Reach 2016, involving the United States, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea will kick off on May 25 for a 10-day run in the waters off South Korea's naval port city of Jinhae on the southeastern edge of the Korean Peninsula as well as around Jeju Island, the Navy said.
Another 12 foreign countries, including China and Russia, will join as observers, the Navy said.
The focus of the exercise is on improving the participating countries' interoperability in submarine rescue operations involving the deployment of deep-submergence rescue vehicles and pressurized rescue modules.
The forthcoming exercise is the 7th of its kind since the multilateral event was launched in 2000 in Singapore. This is the second time South Korea is hosting the drill since 2004.
Is it time to jump into Energy stocks? After suffering alongside oil prices since mid-2014, Energy stocks have crushed the S&P 500 since late January, leading many to wonder if Energy's bloodbath is finally over and investors should hop on the bandwagon. If you're among those tempted, stay cool: Frenzies are rarely worth following, and fundamentals aren't on Energy's side. Energy's time will come, but we don't think it's here yet.
Most Energy firms' earnings and revenues depend on oil prices, which are up over 50% since January, fueling the hope and hype. But oil has had false dawns before, and this isn't Energy's first market-beating stretch since mid-2014 (Exhibit 1). Those runs proved to be short-term countertrends, and this one quite likely follows suit.
Exhibit 1: Energy Countertrends Are Normal
Source: FactSet, as of 5/6/2016. MSCI World Energy Sector divided by MSCI World Index, 12/31/2013 - 5/5/2016. Returns include net dividends. Shading indicates periods of Energy outperformance exceeding 8%.
In both crude oil and Energy stocks, investors seem far out over their skis. Both are moving on hopes global oil production will soon fall, rather than any reasonable likelihood that it actually does. Yes, US production began falling in mid-2015, and some OPEC members have jawboned about freezing output. But for now, world output is still at record levels and well above demand.
According to the International Energy Administration, global oil supply totaled 96.1 million barrels/day in March, exceeding demand of 94.8 mb/d. That surplus doesn't appear likely to vanish soon. US producers have shut down the least efficient wells, but technological advancements let firms produce more from many other existing wells. Plus, a sizable backlog (or "fracklog") of shale oil wells have been completed but not yet hydraulically fractured. When prices rise, firms can lock them in via futures contracts, complete the wells and begin pumping.
Elsewhere, oil-reliant countries like Russia and Brazil have boosted output because government revenues rely on oil rents. The lower prices fall, the more they must pump just to maintain revenue and public spending. While Russia and some OPEC nations discussed freezing output at current levels, conflicts of interest thwarted them. Iran wants to rebuild market share after years of Western sanctions, and Russia and Saudi Arabia said they won't freeze unless Iran does. And even if they do, a freeze isn't necessarily an outright cut-production from these countries would remain at very high levels.
Oil cycles often turn much more slowly than many presume-it frequently takes years due to new production's high costs and long lead times. After spending billions to find and tap new supply, firms can't turn off the spigots just because prices have cratered. They must recoup costs. So they pump, while cutting exploration to reduce costs, laying the groundwork for lower output and higher prices in the future. That's about where we are now. Investment in exploration and new wells has already cratered in the US, UK and elsewhere. As more mature wells taper off, output should naturally fall. But it will take time, particularly once you account for Russia and OPEC.
That means other oil-related rallies likely fizzle sooner rather than later-like big bursts in Brazilian and Canadian stocks. Both are highly correlated to commodities, as natural resources stocks account for a huge slice of market capitalization. Both have underperformed the world since mid-2014, yet both have enjoyed brief bursts of outperformance in sympathy with Energy's countertrends.
Exhibit 2: Canada and Energy Are Strongly Correlated
Source: FactSet, as of 5/6/2016. MSCI Canada divided by MSCI World Index and MSCI World Energy Sector divided by MSCI World Index, 12/31/2013 - 5/5/2016. Returns include net dividends.
Exhibit 3: Brazil's Countertrend Rallies Also Track Energy's
Source: FactSet, as of 5/9/2016. MSCI Brazil divided by MSCI Emerging Markets, 12/31/2013 - 5/5/2016.Returns include net dividends.
Other variables matter too, but without a sustained recovery in commodity prices, these countries likely won't be able to maintain outperformance. If the resource rally fails to gain traction, and prices resume sliding, Brazilian and Canadian stocks may falter as well.
Eliminating any major category from your portfolio creates a risky blind spot and reduces diversification, so we don't think it's wise to ignore Energy entirely. But we think it's best to limit exposure to the biggest integrated oil and gas producers. They have stronger balance sheets and are hurt less by low oil prices. Some business units benefit when prices are low, cushioning the more vulnerable units. Also, with deep pockets, these firms can easily acquire assets from small distressed producers. Let them do the bottom-fishing for you as the industry consolidates.
Policy revisions designed to prevent corruption drew mixed reactions from the Martinsville School Board on Monday.
In a unanimous vote, the board approved a revised conflict of interest policy that now includes requirements for "disclosure of economic interests." But the board postponed considering adopting a revised policy on "employment relationships" to be retitled "employment of family members" due to confusion about some of its wording.
The revisions stem from changes in state law "due to all thats gone on in the state in the past year," Pam Heath, superintendent of the Martinsville City Public Schools, told the board. She was alluding to controversies such as the 2014 convictions of former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, on federal corruption charges.
Attorneys have reviewed the policy changes and determined they comply with state law changes, Heath said.
The revised conflict of interest policy declares that school board members and their immediate family members cannot ask for, accept or receive any gift valued at more than $100, or any combination of gifts with a total value of more than $100, from a lobbyist, a representative of a lobbyist or a person, organization or business wanting to enter into a contract with the board. Gifts valued at less than $20 are not countable toward such a combination.
The revised "employment of family members" policy says that board members cannont employ or pay, and the superintendent cannot recommend for employment, any family member of the superintendent or a board member.
The policy does not apply to the employment, promotion or transfer within the school division of a family member who:
n Has been employed pursuant to a written contract with the school board or employed by the board as a substitute teacher or teachers aide prior to the superintendent or the board member taking office.
n Has been employed in such circumstances since before the person became a member of a school board members or the superintendents family.
n Was employed by the board prior to June 10, 1994, and had worked as a teacher or in any other capacity for any school board in Virginia prior to the superintendent or the local school board member taking office.
A family member who is a substitute teacher cannot be employed to any greater extent than he or she was employed in the school year prior to the board member or superintendent taking office or the family relationship started, according to the policy revision.
The revision adds that no family member of any employee can be hired by the board if the family member would be supervising, or subordinate to, the employee.
"The employment and assignment of family members in the same organizational unit is discouraged," the revision mentions.
Board member Lawrence Mitchell said some parts of the policy revision seem confusing.
Heath agreed. She said that "a lot of the wording sounds like it contradicts each other."
Clarification will be obtained from attorneys, and the revision will be considered for approval at a future meeting, officials said.
According to Heath, sometimes policies and revisions must be adopted based on wording that the state mandates, and sometimes there can be leeway in wording, as long as it does not change the policys intent.
More coverage of Mondays school board meeting will appear in the Martinsville Bulletin on Wednesday.
The city will get a new mayor in January when Martinsville City Council gets at least one new member.
Danny Turner, the councilman who currently serves as mayor, said Monday he definitely will not be seeking a third four-year term on the council in the Nov. 8 election.
Whoever wins the election will be administered their oaths of office during a special council meeting in January, probably on the first regular work day after New Years Day.
Turners seat, as well as those now occupied by council members Mark Stroud and Sharon Brooks Hodge, are up for grabs.
"Im going to retire" from public service, Turner said, adding that "a fitting way to leave is to have represented the citizens of Martinsville as mayor for the past two years."
Unlike in many cities where voters elect mayors, Martinsville mayors are elected by council members from among themselves.
Turner recalled that when he was elected to the council in 2008, he said that he would serve no more than two terms.
Public officials start getting too rooted in their own opinions when they are in office for a long time, and the city regularly needs new people on the council to provide fresh perspectives on issues, he said Monday.
The only person who has filed paperwork to officially be a candidate in the council race is Ural Harris of Stuart Street, who announced his candidacy on Friday. During his announcement, Harris, who is retired, indicated that he understands the plights of people who have limited incomes or are struggling financially.
Cindy Barbour, the citys voter registrar, said that Hodge as well as local businessmen Tim Martin and Joey Martin have picked up candidate paperwork packets from her office but have not yet returned them.
The packets include a petition that must be signed by at least 125 registered voters in Martinsville in order for someones candidacy to be official.
Hodge, who is nearing the end of her first four-year term, and Tim Martin, who is chairman of the Martinsville Planning Commission and made an unsuccessful bid for a council seat in 2014, could not be reached on Monday.
Joey Martin, who runs Whats Your Sign? uptown and also is on the planning commission and the Martinsville Transportation Safety Commission, said he is in the process of collecting signatures for his petition.
He said that although he disagrees with council decisions from time to time, he has no major complaints about the council. Rather, he wants to help Martinsville prosper and become a better community in which to live, and he believes that his stints as an appointed member of the commissions have enabled him to learn enough about city government so he can be an effective elected official, he said.
As a small business owner, Joey Martin said he has knowledge of what such firms need to open for business and help boost the local economy. He added that he is open-minded in decision making, and "I try to think outside the box" in trying to find solutions to problems.
The deadline to file paperwork with the registrars office to be an official candidate is 7 p.m. June 14.
Paperwork packets are available at the registrars office in the municipal building on West Church Street uptown, as well as on the citys website, www.martinsville-va.gov, and the Virginia Department of Elections website, elections.virginia.gov.
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I have always had an interest in spoliation of evidence. Spoliation is the negligent or intentional destruction or alteration of evidence or failing to preserve evidence for relevant to future, and sometimes even pending, litigation. This is not an issue we see often in car accident cases but we see it in truck accident and product liability cases and, to a lesser extent, in medical malpractice claims.
The Maryland Court of Appeals looked at this issue in Cumberland Insurance Group v. Delmarva Power. This case involved the treatment of spoliation of evidence when the physical object destroyed is itself the subject of the case. The context is a little boring. This is a battle between an insurance company and a utility company so, in my world, this is a bad guy on bad guy battle. The destruction here was also negligent, which is a lot less sexy than willful destruction.
Facts of Cumberland Insurance Group v. Delmarva Power
Anyway, the claim centered on a house fire of a home insured by Cumberland Insurance Group. After the fire, two of Cumberlands experts inspected the house, and the meter and meter box removed from the scene by the Fire Marshal. Based on its experts inspections, Cumberland believed the meter and meter box were the source of the fire and sought a subrogation claim against Delmarva Power, the electric company for the property. Cumberland received an estimate for the demolition of the property and issued a check to the homeowner that appeared to include the cost of demolition. Although Cumberland sent Delmarva notice that Cumberland intended to file a claim against Delmarva for subrogation, the notification did not include information regarding the schedule for demolition. Subsequently, Delmarva did not send any personnel to inspect the property before demolition occurred, less than sixty days after the fire.
Court of Special Appeals Ruling
Delmarva filed a motion, arguing that Cumberland destroyed the property and irreversibly crippled Delmarvas ability to mount a meaningful defense. The Circuit Court granted the motion for summary judgment and Cumberland appealed. The Court of Special Appeals found that this was a case involving spoliation of evidence. Spoliation of evidence is a discovery violation, establishing that a party should not be allowed to support its claims or defenses with physical evidence that it has destroyed to the detriment of its opponent. Factors to determine whether spoliation of evidence occurs include: (1) An act of destruction; (2) Discoverability of the evidence; (3) An intent to destroy the evidence; and (4) Occurrence of the act at a time after suit has been filed, or, if before, at a time when the filing is fairly perceived as imminent. The Court found all four factors to be satisfied. The house was the key aspect of this case. It was destroyed intentionally when Cumberland knew it would file a subrogation claim against Delmarva.
If spoliation of evidence has occurred, dismissal of the claim is warranted if (1) the spoliators conduct was so egregious as to make forfeiture of its claim an apt remedy; or (2) if losing evidence is so prejudicial that it substantially denies the defendant the ability to defend the claim. The Court held that even a lack of intent can be trumped by a high degree of prejudice and still support dismissal. Here, Cumberland controlled the fire scene and only preserved the evidence relevant to its case, depriving Delmarva of the opportunity to look to other possible causes of the fire. Cumberlands failure to inform Delmarva the property would be demolished prevented Delmarva and its experts from assessing the causes of the fire independently, leaving Delmarva with no evidence to defend against Cumberlands assertions. The Court held that dismissal was an appropriate sanction and affirmed the Circuit Courts ruling.
Take-Home Message from Cumberland v. Delmarva Power
This affirms that, within the jurisdiction of Maryland, tort claims may be dismissed for spoliation of evidence without demonstrable bad faith on the part of the spoliator. The Court found Cumberland to be negligent in failing to notify Delmarva regarding the demolition which unfairly prejudiced Delmarva in its defense. The Court did not assert that Cumberlands behavior was so egregious; that it intentionally demolished the property to deny Delmarva of the opportunity to defend itself. The case underscores that Maryland courts will hold parties feet to the fire for being diligent about preserving evidence that may apply to a claim until notification is sent to an opponent, or even a potential opponent, informing them the evidence may be destroyed.
This is important because, in our world, the line between negligent and intentional destruction is hazy. It is hard to prove intentional destruction unless the defendant is stupid about how they approach the destruction. More commonly, the spoliation is more of an I know you did it but I cant prove it variety. This case is another weapon in getting powerful relief in these kinds of cases.
You can find the courts opinion in Cumberland Insurance Group v. Delmarva Power here.
WILBRAHAM -- As Friendly's restaurants struggled in recent years, strong sales of Friendly's ice cream and ice cream treats at supermarkets earned the company the money to renovate and rehabilitate its locations, to come up with new menus and to advertise the brand on television.
"And really make those restaurants relevant again," Friendly's president and CEO John Maguire said in an interview Tuesday after announcing the sale of the ice cream portion of the business. "Now the restaurants are at a place where they really can grow."
Friendly's 260 restaurants will continue to be owned by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc. Friendly's existing senior restaurant management team will continue to lead the restaurant business.
Maguire, a former Panera Bread executive, and his team will be able to shift their full attention to the to the restaurant operation now that Friendly's has sold its ice cream plant in Wilbraham and its retail ice cream business to Dean Foods of Texas. Dean Foods is the largest manufacturer and distributor of dairy products in the country and plans to maintain manufacturing in Wilbraham.
Dean Foods is paying $155 million in cash for the plant, the business serving supermarkets and for all the Friendly's intellectual properties and trademarks.
Friendly's has system-wide sales of over $500 million a year, according to a news release. Friendly's Ice Cream alone had $166 million in net sales of ice cream to supermarkets in 2015.
That $155 million sale price gives the Friendly's restaurant company a cash infusion to pay down debts and step up investment.
"It's a different capital structure," Maguire said. "The details of it are not known at this point."
The sale of the ice cream business to Dean Foods is expected to take 30 days to close.
Brothers Curtis and S. Prestley Blake founded Friendly in 1935 in Springfield as a way to make money over the summer break from school. They grew slowly, eventually opening locations all over the East Coast.
They sold the company to Hershey Foods in 1979 for $164 million.
Neither brother now has any ownership in the company, although Pres Blake fought a long battle against a previous management regime he felt was destroying the brand and its legacy. It was Pres Blake's activism that resulted in his opponents selling the company in 2007 to Sun Capital for $337.2 million.
Friendly's filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011 and closed 63 restaurants, laying off about 1,000 employees, before emerging about a year later. Five of those locations were in Western Massachusetts.
Maguire was hired in 2012, just a few months after Friendly's emerged from bankruptcy protection.
"This (sale) announcement is the culmination of the Friendly's team's effort over the last four years," he said. "The manufacturing had been supporting the restaurants. Now the restaurants are at a place where they can really take off."
Maguire said he and his team will retrofit 10 more Friendly's locations this year with the new-look decor. The company is adding more drive-thru windows, a feature it had eschewed for decades but added in Westfield and soon will add in Chicopee.
"We are going to roll out more of that," he said.
And Friendly is also actively seeking new restaurant locations for the first time in years.
"We want to grow," Maguire said. "The same way the Dean Foods wants to grow the ice cream business."
Both the restaurant and the ice cream businesses will share the current Friendly's headquarters on Route 20 in Wilbraham despite separate ownership.
WILBRAHAM -- Dean Foods Co., new owners of Friendly's ice cream manufacturing and distribution network, is the country's largest processor and distributor of milk and other dairy products, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
But in recent years the Dallas-based national conglomerate has been forced to adjust to changing tastes and to a changing marketplace where behemoth retailer Wal-Mart will process its own milk for its own stores at a new plant in Indiana.
Wal-Mart's plans alone will cost Dean the sale of roughly 100 million gallons of milk a year starting next year, according to published reports.
Dean foods also announced Tuesday first-quarter profits of $39 million. Its stock, (DF) on the New York Stock Exchange, traded at $18.05 on Tuesday. That's down 15 cents on the day.
A beloved New England brand, Friendly's has an ice cream manufacturing plant in Wilbraham and distribution center in Chicopee. Dean's interest in Friendly's is part of the industry-wide shift toward branded products and away from the white carton labeled simply "milk" or "ice cream," observers said.
"My son, he only likes French vanilla from Friendly's, not the store brand, even though I can't tell the difference," said Bob Parsons, a professor and agricultural economist at the University of Vermont Extension Service. "You've got a regional market where Friendly has a good name. And you are looking to squeeze out a few extra dollars from customers willing to pay for a brand name and not the generic store brand of ice cream."
Parsons likened Dean Foods' purchase of the Friendly's brand to the sale of Ben & Jerry's to conglomerate Unilever back in the year 2000. The stockholders made money and the company founders are still in control -- as long as ice cream sales are strong and Unilever continues to get the return it likes on its investment.
Jim Dunn, a professor of agriculture economics at Penn State, said that while Dean Foods is a giant in the milk business, ice cream makes up only about 4 percent of its sales. Seventy precent of the company's business is fluid milk and the rest is cheese or other products.
"They have gone all over the country buying milk plants. I view this as the logical extension of what they are trying to do in the dairy sector," Dunn said. "And they are only in the dairy sector. But they have not moved out of the diary products side at all."
Friendly's announced Monday night that it had sold its retail ice cream and manufacturing business to Dean Foods for $155 million in cash.
Including franchised and corporate restaurants, Friendly's has 16,000 employees, including 200 in its Wilbraham plant and 150 "support center" jobs in Wilbraham and at a distribution warehouse in Chicopee.
Friendly's will retain ownership of the restaurants and the distribution center in Chicopee, said Friendly's CEO John Maguire. The company have a long-term contract to buy ice cream for those restaurants from the plant and from Dean Foods.
Friendly's plans to use the sale proceeds to grow its restaurant business.
Together with its franchisees, Friendly's has system-wide sales of over $500 million, the company said. Of that, it had $166 million in net sales of ice cream to supermarkets in 2015.
Friendly's ice cream is sold in more than 8,000 retail locations across the U.S., and has seen 105 percent growth in the retail business over the past five years, Friendly's said in its news release.
The company now produces 27 million gallons of ice cream each year for grocery stores. It also manufactures ice cream cakes and ice cream under store-brand labels for a number of retailers including Wal-Mart.
Dean Foods spokesman Jamaison Schuler said he couldn't go into detail on the acquisition yet. The transaction is not expected to be official for another 30 days.
But he said Dean Foods, despite its national footprint and 1997 acquisition of Lynn-based milk producer Garelick Farms, had no New England ice cream brand.
"This is a legacy brand that fits in with our own ice cream brands across the country," he said.
Those brands include Dean's Country Fresh, sold in the upper Midwest, and Mayfield, a legacy brand in the Southeast founded in 1923 that Schuyler likened to Friendly's.
"Mayfield has been around for a long time and it has a devoted following," he said.
Dean bought Mayfield in 1990. Scottie Mayfield, a grandson of the brand's founder, continued as president until 2012 and is now president emeritus of the company.
Brothers Curtis and S. Prestley Blake founded Friendly's in 1935 in Springfield.
Dean's portfolio of brands includes DairyPure, TruMoo, Garelick Farms and others.
Schuyler reiterated Dean Foods' stated plan to keep operating the plant in Wilbraham. Dean has other ice cream factories, but the nearest are in northern Indiana, northern Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee.
"We recognize the asset that the manufacturing plant is," Schuler said. "We have a desire to grow our ice cream business."
Expanding business
Samuel E. Dean Sr. started Dean Foods in 1925 with the purchases the Pecatonica Marketing Co., an evaporated milk processing facility in northwestern Illinois.
Suiza Foods of Dallas bought Dean in 1997 and continued on an expansion roll, buying more than 40 companies across the country in three years to become the largest milk and dairy producer and distributor in the county, according to its website.
The company has 17,000 employees across the county.
"They probably control more of the industry than they probably should," said the University of Vermont's Parsons. "But that's just an opinion."
In 2011, Dean Foods reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that settled federal allegations that Dean controlled too much of the milk market in Wisconsin, to the detriment of farmers and consumers.
Dean agreed to divest a significant milk processing plant in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and related assets that it acquired from the Foremost Farms USA Cooperative, including the Golden Guernsey brand name.
Meanwhile, Dean controls less of the milk market while retaining its No. 1 position. According to the company's most recent earnings report, Dean Foods' share of U.S. fluid milk volumes decreased by 10 basis points from the previous quarter and 70 basis points year-over-year to 34.6 percent of the market in the first quarter 2016. A basis point is one-one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Parsons said the market for milk has shifted from fluid milk meant for the table to milk used to manufacture cheese and other foods.
"That has been the trend since the 1960s. Our families are smaller," Parsons said. "Milk is not a primary beverage anymore."
As for the future of the Wilbraham plant, Parsons warned people not to confuse short-term with long-term plans.
"It'll be here in five years, but will it be here in 10 years?" he said. "That depends on what the company wants to do."
But both Parsons and Dunn, of Penn State, separately said location is one asset the Wilbraham plant has. It is close to the market Dean Foods wants to serve, a market where it wants to grow.
"Dairy products have transportation challenges. It is expensive to ship," Dunn said. "I don't see any reason that they would want to close that plant. It's in a good place. The whole New England market is readily accessible."
Dean Foods closed 13 dairy plants around the country in the last four years, according to published reports. But the company blamed those closures on declining demand for fluid milk.
Dean has kept the legacy plants open in other areas, Dunn said.
"You don't want to have to reinvent the wheel," he said.
WILBRAHAM -- Friendly's Ice Cream announced Monday night that it has sold its retail ice cream and manufacturing business to Dallas, Texas-based Dean Foods Company for $155 million in cash.
Friendly's Ice Cream had $166 million in net sales of ice cream to supermarkets in 2015, Dean Foods said.
Together with its franchisees, Friendly's has system-wide sales of over $500 million, Friendly's said.
Dean Foods is the largest processor and direct-to-store distributor of fresh fluid milk and other dairy and dairy case products in the United States, according to a news release. Dean owns Garelick Farms in Lynn, according to its website.
Dean Foods said in a news release that it will continue to produce Friendly's Ice Cream at the 45-year-old plant in Wilbraham.
Including franchised and corporate restaurants, Friendly's has 16,000 employees, including 200 in the Wilbraham plant and 150 "support center" jobs in Wilbraham and at a distribution warehouse in Chicopee.
Friendly's Ice Cream is sold in more than 8,000 retail locations across the United States, and has seen 105 percent growth in the retail business over the past five years, Friendly's said in its news release.
The company now produces 27 million gallons of ice cream each year for grocery stores. It also manufactures ice cream cakes and ice cream under store-brand labels for a number of retailers including Wal-Mart.
Friendly's 260 restaurants will continue to be owned by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc. Friendly's existing senior restaurant management team will continue to lead the restaurant business, the company said Monday.
Friendly's had always touted its unique vertically integrated structure with the same company owning both the manufacturing business and the restaurants.
Brothers Curtis and S. Prestley Blake founded Friendly in 1935 in Springfield. Neither brother has any ownership in the company any longer, although Pres Blake fought a long battle against a previous management regime he felt was destroying the brand and its legacy.
It was Pres Blake's activism that resulted in his opponents selling the company in 2007 to Sun Capital for $337.2 million.
Friendly's filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011 and closed 63 restaurants, laying off about 1,000 employees, before emerging about a year later. Five of those locations were in Western Massachusetts.
Dean's portfolio of brands includes DairyPure, TruMoo, Garelick Farms and other brands.
Dean CEO Gregg Tanner said:
"We are thrilled at the prospects the Friendly's Ice Cream acquisition brings to Dean Foods. Coupled with the momentum of Dean Foods' current regional brands, the Friendly's brand will be a catalyst in our strategy to grow our existing ice cream business and branded portfolio. Friendly's is an ideal complement to our other heritage brands across the country and fills a manufacturing and retail ice cream void in our nationwide footprint.
"We think the Friendly's culture will be an excellent fit for Dean Foods, and we are delighted to welcome the Friendly's employees into our company. Working together with the senior leadership team of Friendly's Ice Cream, we look forward to continuing to grow the manufacturing and retail ice cream business."
Friendly's President and CEO John Maguire said in a release:
"Today marks a new chapter for Friendly's retail and manufacturing ice cream business Dean Foods Company has recognized the growth momentum that Friendly's retail ice cream has experienced over the last five years and I am thrilled that Dean Foods will be the ongoing steward of the retail ice cream business, led by the current experienced retail and creamery teams."
Dean Foods stock, (NYSE: DF) traded at $18.21 a share Monday night, up 14 cents a share in after-hours trading.
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(Photo courtesy of the Celtics)
BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics will soon have a new practice facility.
The team announced Tuesday that it will partner with New Balance to build a 70,000-square-foot, "world-class" facility in the Allston-Brighton area of Boston. The Celtics building will be in the same complex as the New Balance headquarters and the new Boston Bruins facility.
According to a press release, the current plan calls for construction to begin at 40 Guest Street in the fall of 2016 with hopes to complete the project by the spring of 2018.
The press release said the new building will include the following:
"Two state-of-the-art parquet floor basketball courts where the team will practice"
"Leading edge audio-visual technology throughout the facility"
"Expanded strength and conditioning, training, and recovery facilities"
"Best-in-class locker rooms and players' lounge"
"Physical therapy areas including hydrotherapy pools"
"Sports science and nutrition facilities"
"Expanded media work room, press conference and broadcast facilities"
"A flexible hospitality area for guests and hosting community relations activities"
"Work space for the team's coaching and basketball front office staffs"
More on this story to come.
BOSTON -- It's a rainy weekday in March and Salmagundi, a hatter and men's and women's accessories shop in Boston's North End, isn't even supposed to be open.
But the Pittsburgh couple that stumbled across the Salem Street store wanted in and husband and wife owners Jessen Fitzpatrick and Andria Rapagnola couldn't say no.
Once inside, Emmai Alaquiva, a composer, filmmaker and music producer visiting Boston with his wife, pops on hat after hat. Fitzpatrick keeps them coming -- caps, fedoras, there's a seemingly endless supply. He heads down to the lower level and comes up with more. If you're looking for the right hat, odds are you'll find it. There are about 4,000 in the store and another 12,000 at Salmagundi's main shop in Jamaica Plain.
A few feet away, Rapagnola helps Alaquiva's wife Patrice try on some ladies hats. The Pittsburgh couple glance back at each other, circle about the shop, then stop in front of a mirror. They strike a serious pose, then burst into laughter. Some of the hats work, some don't and then there's that -- "oh, yeah, this is the hat" moment.
"It's like dating. It takes time and you need options," says Fitzpatrick, who first opened Salmagundi in Jamaica Plain with his wife in 2007. In 2014, they opened their North End shop.
Alaquiva and his wife try on hats like they're trying on different personalities. Some are familiar, some are just outside that comfort zone. Fitzpatrick says he sometimes likes to throw in a ringer -- something the customer hasn't even thought of -- to see if it's that look they didn't even know they were looking for.
"Good hats are very hard to find," Alaquiva says. "But the beauty of the hunt is finding that right hat. It's the time that it takes to get it."
For the Pittsburgh couple, this isn't shopping. This is fun. They walk out of the store with a stack of hats. A few minutes later, Fitzpatrick lets in three more customers -- the store is still technically closed. Three young Asian friends come in with a photo of Johnny Depp in a fedora. Fitzpatrick pulls out a gray fur felt fedora, steams and reshapes it into the hat they're looking for.
"If something isn't working, I can always strip it down to the bone, reconfigure it and make it into an entirely different kind of hat," Fitzpatrick says.
In one of Boston's last true neighborhoods, Salmagundi's North End opening in 2014 in many ways bridged old world with new. Hat shops were once in every neighborhood -- right there with the cobbler and tailor. Over time, styles changed, longtime hatters closed and the clothing and accessories business moved to big retailers.
The hat is back -- even if it's more of a stylish accoutrement, rather than a outerwear necessity. Salmagundi moves between 300 and 500 a week, ranging in price from $38 to $500. And when Fitzpatrick and Rapagnola, both 40, looked around for a place to open a second shop, there was only one place they wanted to be: Boston's North End.
"At the beginning everyone said, 'Oh, it's going to be hard because you're outsiders,'" Fitzpatrick said.
The North End, where a close-knit Italian aura hangs over everything, can be like that. But Rapagnola's grandmother used to live a few blocks away on Stillman Street. The couple were married down the street by a justice of the peace at what was then Fun City Travel. Now it's a barber shop. The North End is in their blood.
"Boston neighborhoods change so much now, so frequently," Rapagnola says. "This one still has some of its core feelings that it had from many moons ago. There's a family vibe that still sticks here."
Fitzpatrick can be seen sweeping the sidewalk in front of the shop some days and the couple's love for the neighborhood runs deep.
"I love the authenticity of the people," Fitzpatrick says. "We always toy with the idea of moving down here and staying here forever."
The shop, much like Boston's North End itself, is all about character. It strikes that balance of feeling like a natural part of the neighborhood while also appealing to the tourist foot traffic.
"Come down to either of our stores on a Saturday and you'll see every walk of life. It's fun. Hat stores usually bring characters," Fitzpatrick said. "We're not even open today and I've already let two groups in. You just get a lot of characters. I think that's the cool thing that goes along with who we are."
The Jamaica Plain shop gets customers from all over New England, the couple said. But the North End shop gets them from all over the world. They've had celebrity customers, but Fitzpatrick and Rapagnola won't name drop.
"There was one big, famous couple -- local couple -- and if anyone was to guess who it was they'd probably get it right," Fitzpatrick said. "They were talking about coming to the store and wanted to see if we'd close the store for them to come by and we said no. And everyone thought we were crazy. Why would I change the experience? I think that people want to be treated like normal."
Another time, a friend of Fitzpatrick called with some celebrities on a comedy tour in Boston looking to see if the Jamaica Plain store was open.
"I opened a little early and we had all these comics in the store and everyone was so shocked that we weren't getting autographs," Fitzpatrick said. "But it's not about getting autographs, it's about having a real human moment for a little bit."
The old school business fits well into the neighborhood not just because of what it sells, but how.
"We have an old school service, where we're polite, but it's also very direct," Fitzpatrick said. "So, if you don't look good, I'm just going to let you know. I'm going to let you know why it's not working out. We'll figure it out together. I think up here people are digging that kind of straight, honest, respectful talk."
Investing in hats
There are a lot of theories as to why people stopped wearing hats. Look at a photo of any crowd in the first half of the 20th century and there is hardly a lidless head in sight. John F. Kennedy often gets the blame as being the first president to not wear a top hat at his inauguration. Then there were the changing hairstyles of the 1960s, which demanded to be seen, not covered.
"It was the automobile," Fitzpatrick said.
When people took trains they had the head room for hats. Cars are shorter. People were always taking off their hats, Fitzpatrick said. Eventually, they just stayed off.
"By the turn of the century America had become the most casual place on the planet," Fitzpatrick said. "People were officially hitting the corner store in their pajamas."
The rise of athletic shoes didn't help either.
"The shoes, for me, were setting the mood of the whole outfit," Fitzpatrick said. "Now, guys are wearing nicer shoes. You look down at everyone's feet on a train and everyone has pretty decent shoes on. I see that has an opportunity."
It's an opportunity that Fitzpatrick and Rapagnola are investing in. And it's one of the reason the small company keeps so many hats in stock.
"We just decided that as our way to grow the business we'd just reinvest back into the business and have this giant beast of a hat shop," Fitzpatrick said.
Raw materials are going up. The price of Panama hats are almost twice what they were a few years ago, Fitzpatrick said. With a carefully controlled environment, Salmagundi is able to store the hats indefinitely. It's like buying a stable stock, except in wool, fur felt and straw.
It's an investment for the future -- one that the couple intend to be selling hats in for some time.
"We're not generations old as many people (in the business) are," Rapagnola said. "But it's got to start somewhere."
Westwood bank robbery
Police have released a photo of a man wanted for questioning in connection to a bank robbery. May 9, 2016.
(Courtesy: Westwood Police Dept.)
WESTWOOD - Police have released a photo of a man wanted for questioning in connection to a bank robbery.
The person in the photo is described as a young black male, about 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a thin build.
A robbery was reported Monday morning at the Needham Bank branch on Washington Street. No one was hurt.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Westwood Police Department at (781) 320-1000.
AMHERST - As State Rep. Ellen Story serves her final year in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, she is notching a series of "lasts" and "honors."
Last Friday was the representative's final University of Massachusetts graduation as a representative with a seat on the stage, and on May 13, she is being honored for her commitment to town schools.
Story announced in January she would not seek a 13th term.
The Amherst Education Foundation is celebrating her commitment at a ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Marriott Center at the UMass Campus Center.
"This event will highlight Rep. Story's foresight in helping to establish the foundation in 1994, since which time over $400,000 has been donated to our local schools, thanks to the support of the community," AEF Co-President Diana Spurgin said in a press release.
"Rep. Story has played an integral role in AEF's success by supporting AEF as a board member, a spokesperson, and by taking time out of her busy schedule to emcee our annual Trivia Bee every year in its 21-year history.
"We are honored to salute her on her retirement from politics after 24 years of public service," Spurgin said.
Guest emcees include Katie Zobel, executive director of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, and Tony Maroulis, director of External Relations, UMass Amherst.
State Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and AEF co-founder Jan Klausner-Wise also will speak.
Proceeds will benefit education foundation-funded grants in the schools. Tickets are already sold out.
At the event Friday, the foundation will also announce the recipients of the 2016-2017 Excellence Grants.
Since her announcement, six have announced plans to run for Story's seat.
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Authorities enter Northampton High School on Tuesday to search the building after receiving reports of a bomb threat. The threat was later determined to be non-credible.
(Laura Newberry)
NORTHAMPTON -- A bomb threat reported at Northampton High School Tuesday morning was "non-credible and non-specific," according to police.
Northampton Schools Superintendent John Provost said that administration became aware of the threat at around 11 a.m. and immediately called authorities. The school was placed on lockdown minutes later, and students and faculty were eventually evacuated while authorities searched the building.
No suspicious materials were found inside the school, police said. Classes resumed at about 12:20 p.m.
The Northampton Police Department, The Northampton Fire Department and Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad responded to the incident.
A criminal investigation into the bomb threat is ongoing. No charges had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon.
unhappy crowd.jpg
A largely skeptical crowd turned out for a legislative oversight hearing on the state's plan to introduce a colony of endangered timber rattlesnakes to an island in the Quabbin Reservoir.
(Mary Serreze photo)
ATHOL -- A top Baker administration official apologized Tuesday for the way the state's controversial "Rattlesnake Island" plan was rolled out, and promised greater collaboration with the public moving forward.
"It falls on me; I take full responsibility for lack of proper engagement," Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton told a group of state lawmakers gathered before a large crowd at Athol Town Hall. "I am sincerely sorry, and it was not my intention to implement this plan without engaging the public."
The Division of Fisheries and Wildlife plans to establish a colony of the vulnerable reptiles on an island in the Quabbin Reservoir as a "safety net" for the endangered species. Public reaction was swift and severe when news about the snake protection project broke in January, with residents and local lawmakers upset about the plan and lack of communication from the administration.
Beaton, in addition to apologizing, said he would convene a "working group" of legislators, local officials and the public to provide input and advice to the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife on its snake program.
Beaton defended the division's Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, saying its rattlesnake plan is "grounded in science." He said a "change of course" would be possible if it is found the program does not support the state's biodiversity goals.
Beaton was the first of 19 stakeholders to address the Joint Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture at its oversight hearing. The committee is co-chaired by Sen. Anne Gobi, D-Spencer, and Rep. Paul Schmid, D-Westport.
Speakers included top officials from the Department of Fish and Game, the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. A dozen other stakeholders spoke, ranging from wildlife biologists to local business leaders.
Tom French, the state wildlife biologist who is spearheading the rattlesnake program, fielded questions and presented points made at previous public meetings.
Timber rattlesnakes are "hard-wired" to their hibernation sites via scent; male rattlers travel an average of only two miles from their dens, and would be disinclined to swim or slither away from their homes, he said. Even if they did, they wouldn't make it through the first winter. The snakes would be micro-chipped and radio-tracked for the first four years to make sure they bind to their dens.
French said that the snakes are on the verge of extinction in Massachusetts, and that the plan - where the snakes will be "headstarted" at a zoo in Rhode Island and slowly introduced to their new habitat on Mt. Zion - is the best way to ensure their survival.
"The snakes need one place where they aren't threatened by people," said French. The island of Mt. Zion is state-owned, has perfect habitat for rattlesnakes, and is off-limits to the public, he said.
French said the risk to the public would be "astronomically small," and that in 50 years of record-keeping, nobody has been bitten by a rattlesnake in Massachusetts.
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AMHERST - Jose Dones was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for failing to register as a sex offender.
(AMHERST POLICE DEPARTMENT)
SPRINGFIELD -- Six strikes and Jose Dones is out for failing to register as a previously convicted sex offender.
Dones, a native of Schenectady, New York, was arrested last year in Amherst, where he had been living with a woman and two children in a public housing complex. He initially hid in the closet when U.S. marshals came to arrest him, according to court records.
But Dones told U.S. District Court Judge Mark Mastroianni that he thought he was hiding from the Department of Children and Families, as opposed to the police.
He feared he would imperil his girlfriend's parental rights if state officials confirmed she had allowed a Level 2 convicted sex offender to live with her in subsidized housing, Dones said during his sentencing hearing on Monday.
"I just got one thing to say. As far as the closet was concerned, we both thought (DCF) was coming. Every time (DCF) came she would ask me to go out to the car," he told the judge.
"I'm not sentencing you for hiding in the closet," Mastroianni replied.
Dones was convicted of rape in 1994. He impregnated a 14-year-old when he was 18, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex J. Grant. Dones was also convicted in 2008 of forcible touching, according to court records.
Prior to being charged in federal court, Dones had been convicted of failing to register as a sex offender five times.
Defense lawyer Shawn Allyn told Mastroianni that the reason Dones resisted complying with the law -- which requires certain offenders to make their addresses and workplaces public -- because he was being marginalized.
"His primary problem is nobody wants him," Allyn said. "He's socially isolated; no one wants to hire him; he can't get public housing because he's a sex offender.... I couldn't even get any of his family members to write him a letter of support."
Allyn said Dones met the Amherst woman online and came out to Massachusetts to live with her.
"Often he was sleeping in a car outside. It's really a sad state of affairs," Allyn said.
Mastroianni sentenced Dones to 30 months in prison, followed by seven years of supervised release.
"Obviously, you need the structure. You need a probation officer all over you," Mastroianni said.
"I agree; I agree," Dones said, nodding his head.
Dones was charged under the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.
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A hypodermic needle collection box at Tapestry Health's needle exchange in Northampton.
(Laura Newberry)
As the number of lives lost to opioids in Massachusetts continued to rise in 2015, Hampshire County saw a decrease in such deaths -- the only county in the state that bucked the grim trend.
Seventeen Hampshire County residents died from opioid-related overdoses in 2015, according to data released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health last week. That's down from 25 such deaths in 2014, representing a 32 percent drop.
Statewide, there were 1,379 confirmed deaths from unintentional opioid overdoses in 2015, up from 1,282 confirmed deaths in 2014 and 911 in 2013.
Those on the front lines fighting the epidemic in Hampshire County say that while it's clearly a good thing that fewer people died locally from heroin and other opioid drugs last year, the numbers aren't a reflection of fewer overdoses.
Cherry Sullivan, program coordinator for Northampton-based coalition Hampshire HOPE, said the organization anticipated the decrease.
She said several factors likely contributed to Hampshire's downward trend in opioid-related deaths, such as police and paramedics carrying Narcan -- which reverses the effects of overdose -- and responding to drug-related crimes "in ways that are addiction informed." And Tapestry Health, which runs needle exchanges in Northampton and Holyoke, provides Narcan free of charge and helps connect users to treatment options.
Hampshire HOPE, in partnership with the Northwestern district attorney's office, has also spearheaded a campaign to stamp out stigma attached to heroin addiction. In turn, Sullivan said, family and friends may be more inclined to call 911 when a loved one has overdosed.
Area organizations are also connecting more people with medication-assisted treatment, which combines behavioral therapy and pharmaceuticals to treat addiction, Sullivan said.
But Sullivan said she's not sure why deaths didn't also go down in places like Franklin County, which also has an active opioid task force. Franklin saw fatal opioid overdoses increase from 11 in 2014 to 16 in 2015.
"I know a lot of people have been asking me, out of all the counties, why is Hampshire the only one?" Sullivan said of the downward trend. "I wish I had the perfect answer. I'm still not quite sure."
Liz Whynott, director of Tapestry Health's needle exchange programs, said people should not assume that deaths will continue to decrease in Hampshire County.
"However, I think our needle exchange programs both in Northampton and Holyoke probably have had an effect in the number being lower, just with keeping people alive," Whynott added.
In Northampton alone, Tapestry gave out nearly 76,000 clean syringes and collected more than 90,000 used needles in 2015, the organization's data shows. Tapestry's needle exchange had over 1,100 clients that year.
Whynott noted that needle exchange employees speak with each client about how to prevent and reverse an overdose. Free Narcan is offered to all.
"Part of the reason we're so effective is that some of the people we're reaching, nobody else is," Whynott said.
Between the Northampton and Holyoke exchanges, 177 people reported using Tapestry's Narcan to reversal an overdose in 2015. That number was 111 in 2014.
In March, a Hampden Superior Court judge ruled that Tapestry's needle exchange in Holyoke must close because it was improperly established without a City Council vote.
The exchange, which opened in 2012, will shut down in July unless the council votes to approve the program.
Sullivan said Holyoke's needle exchange closing would be "devastating for our community."
She noted that many Hampshire County residents -- especially those in South Hadley and Easthampton -- opt to visit Holyoke location instead of the Northampton exchange.
And many Hampshire folks travel to Holyoke to buy heroin, Sullivan said, making the city's exchange even more vital.
"In Hampshire County, we haven't seen these huge outbreaks of hepatitis C and HIV, like many places have," Sullivan said. "If the exchange shuts down, we're setting ourselves up for an HIV and hep C epidemic in the region."
Western Massachusetts' biggest spike in opioid-related fatalities was in Hampden County, which had 61 overdose deaths in 2014 and 94 last year. But in Holyoke, those deaths actually dropped to six in 2015 from 10 in 2014, according to state data.
Between 2014 and 2015, the volume of clients at Holyoke's exchange -- as well as the number of syringes collected and given out -- doubled, Tapestry's numbers show.
Narcan would still be available at Tapestry's Holyoke location if the needle exchange closes. But employees would be speaking with far fewer users on a day-to-day basis. And those interactions are essential to combating the heroin crisis, Whynott said.
"If we stop giving out needles in Holyoke, people will stop coming to us," Whynott said. "Less Narcan will be given out, and there will be less education around overdose."
Such education has become even more critical over the past year or so, as more and more doses of heroin are laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin.
The state data includes information about fentanyl for the first time this year in its report. In just over 1,300 cases in 2015 where there was a toxicology screen, around 750 individuals tested positive for fentanyl.
"Getting on their level, providing information about how the drugs are changing and how to be careful -- that's essential," Whynott said.
Otis State Forest Entrance
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was sued by Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. after declining to grant an easement through the Otis State Forest for a natural gas pipeline that would serve utilities in Connecticut.
(Mary Serreze photo)
PITTSFIELD -- A Berkshire Superior Court judge has ruled that Kinder Morgan's Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. may build a natural gas pipeline through the Otis State Forest, despite a provision of the Massachusetts Constitution that mandates legislative approval for the disposition of state conservation land.
The news comes two weeks after Kinder Morgan suspended its federal application for Northeast Energy Direct, a separate, 420-mile interstate pipeline that would carry Marcellus shale gas from Pennsylvania through New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Judge John A. Agostini on Monday granted Tennessee immediate access to the Otis State Forest to conduct surveys for its 13-mile Connecticut Expansion pipeline, but put a stay on the order until July 29, when the Massachusetts Legislature wraps up its session.
Agostini's decision handed a victory to Tennessee Gas, which in March sued the state's Department of Environmental Protection for a two-mile easement through the state forest for the shorter pipeline project. MassDEP had refused to convey the land without first gaining a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, a requirement mandated under Article 97 of the state constitution. The Legislature has so far failed to deliver its approval of the land transfer.
The Berkshire County case has been carefully watched by pipeline friends and foes alike for its potential to set a legal precedent.
Oral arguments were heard before a packed courtroom last month, pitting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Ireland against James Messenger, a lawyer for Tennessee Gas. Ireland had argued in part that Article 97 would pre-empt the federal law.
The U.S. Natural Gas Act grants eminent domain powers to interstate pipeline companies and pre-empts any state provision, Agostini wrote in his 21-page ruling.
"What is particularly troubling about the commonwealth's argument is the ease at which a state has the ability to stop a federal interstate project, be it a pipeline, highway, telecommunications network or electrical transmission lines by simply invoking a state constitutional provision geared to protect the environment," wrote Agostini.
Tennessee Gas won approval for the Connecticut Expansion from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on March 11. The project, consisting of three short sections in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, needed the two-mile path through the forest in Sandisfield to reach gas distribution companies in Connecticut, the company said.
A spokesman for Kinder Morgan hailed the decision.
"Tennessee Gas Pipeline appreciates the care and attention taken by the Massachusetts Superior Court to review this matter. We are pleased that the court applied the ample legal authorities which allow access to and use of property necessary to build an interstate pipeline project approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. We are continuing to review the decision and will consider our options, and we look forward to working cooperatively with stakeholders involved in this project."
A spokeswoman for the office of Attorney General Maura Healey said Agostini's ruling was disappointing.
"We are pleased, however, that the judge stayed his order until July 29, recognizing the critical role of our state Legislature in determining the status of conservation land and allowing it the time to act. We are reviewing today's decision and considering our options moving forward."
The Massachusetts Audubon Society had played a central role in preserving the state forest a decade ago, and had filed a friend-of-the-court brief trying to keep the pipeline away from the land, which includes Lower Spectacle Pond.
"We are very disappointed in the judge's ruling today and will consult with our attorneys and the office of the attorney general on next steps," a Mass Audubon spokesman said. "We also implore the legislature to firmly and in no uncertain terms reject Kinder Morgan's Article 97 legislation. The battle to stop this pipeline is not over."
The battle over the Otis State Forest has been arcane. A legislative committee headed by Rep. Peter Kocot, D-Northampton, last fall held a public hearing on a bill that would have conveyed the land to Tennessee under Article 97, then reported the bill with a "study" recommendation, effectively halting its progress.
Lawyers had argued, though, that the bill could be resurrected and brought up for a floor vote any time before the end of the legislative session.
Agostini in his May 9 ruling said it is up to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to determine if a project advances the public interest. Agostini said Congress passed the U.S. Natural Gas Act and gave gas companies eminent domain powers "to ensure that customers would have access to an adequate supply of natural gas at reasonable prices."
FERC seeks cooperation and consensus, but may ultimately overrule state and local players in the exercise of its authority, he said.
Tennessee Gas still does not have a Section 401 Water Quality Certificate under the U.S. Clean Water Act. State regulators have said the company will need such a certificate in order to cut trees along the pipeline right-of-way.
To celebrate its 60th birthday, the Missoula Federal Credit Union is giving away $20,000 to three nonprofits for a total of $60,000. The challenge is, the organizations board of directors has selected seven local nonprofits, and its asking voters to eliminate four of them.
Thats no easy task given the finalists and the role they play within Missoula, from feeding hungry children to protecting open space.
By Martin Kidston/MISSOULA CURRENT
Full Story: http://www.missoulacurrent.com/business/2016/05/pick-winner-missoula-federal-selects-seven-nonprofits-grant-challenge/
Moment de memoire de laction de tribun qua ete SAJ pendant plus de 60 ans de carriere dans le monde parlementaire depuis la fin des annees 1950 jusqua sa retraite en 2019.
Il est question que son fils, Pravind Jugnauth, actuel Premier Ministre et Leader of the House, prenne la parole, suivi du Leader de lOpposition Xavier-Luc Duval, puis Paul Berenger, Leader du MMM, qui la cotoye pendant des annees comme partenaire ou adversaire, Ivan Collendaveloo, Steven Obeegadoo et Alan Ganoo.
Une seance speciale qui naura que cet hommage selon lagenda, la prochaine aura lieu le 11 juin 2021 et va concerner le budget 2021-2022
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Air Force ROTC recently awarded scholarships to seven Air Force JROTC cadets at Clover High School, South Carolina, a new record for the school.
Thats nearly one-third of my senior class, said retired Maj. Brian Batson during a recent interview with the local newspaper The Herald. You could tell this class was special when they started with us four years ago. They were outstanding students from the very beginning.
Batson is the senior aerospace science instructor at the unit, AFJROTC SC-951.
The cadets receiving the scholarships are Ray Beebe, John Dickey, Sam Gordon, Sahara Ivey, Ariel Lopez, Kristen Morrison and Emily Stefurak. The estimated amount of the scholarships is $1.1 million.
Although AFJROTC is a citizenship program by Title 10 charter, it also helps the Air Force get quality enlistees and cadets for the Air Force Academy and AFROTC.
The depth of talent in this class is extremely special, said retired Senior Master Sgt. Clarence Woodham, the units assistant aerospace science instructor during an interview with The Herald. In my 10 years of teaching JROTC, Ive never encountered anything like it.
The AFJROTC program is a low-cost, high-impact program that not only creates good will toward the Air Force in nearly 900 communities worldwide through an average of 1.6 million community service hours annually, but also gives the Air Force a persistent presence in places that are not near military bases, said the director of Headquarters AFJROTC, Col. Bobby Woods.
We are incredibly proud of these seven cadets on receiving AFROTC scholarships and their desire to serve their nation, said Woods. We are confident they will make positive impacts in the future. They represent many more in JROTC who are inspired to aviation, the Air Force and service to our nation in a wide array of careers through this incredible program.
AFJROTC is a citizen development program with a 58 percent minority and 38 percent female enrollment. With close to 121,000 cadets (greater than one-third the size of the Air Force), the program is a fertile field that provides huge benefits for not only cadets, schools and communities around the world, but also directly benefits the Air Force in many ways, he said.
The A.R. experience is available via Uncovr, an augmented-reality app enabled for iOS and Android mobile and tablet devices.
Once the app is downloaded, readers can hover their mobile devices camera over the A.R.-enabled pagesthe front and back covers of the print edition or Qualcomms ads in the issueand an interactive experience will begin, featuring a winding subway car and vibrant city skyline.
Susan Lansing, vice president of brand at Qualcomm Technologies, stated that the project showcases how mobile and connectivity technologies are accelerating innovation across industries.
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She added: As an advertiser in this issue, we love how mobile technology has come together with The New Yorkers iconic cover art to bring the future forward in this compelling reader experience.
Lisa Hughes, publisher and CRO of The New Yorker, told Publishers Daily that the brand prioritizes finding new ways to tell stories and engage with their audience.
Using this kind of technology reflects just how deeply embedded innovation is in our storytelling process, on both the edit side and on the advertising side, Hughes told PD.
Its enabled us to bring something from the printed page to life through smartphones and tabletsand present a whole new experience for our readers in the process. This AR project felt completely consistent with that mission, she added.
The covers were designed by Christoph Niemann, a longtime New Yorker contributor, who also collaborated with Francoise Mouly, the magazine's art editor, on the project.
Niemann embedded hidden surprises within the cityscape experience, discoverable by moving and tilting ones device. The app also allows readers to interact with full-page Qualcomm advertisements found in the front and back of the issue.
For a visual on how it all works, see the explanatory video.
The app was created for The New Yorker by Nexus Interactive arts, a London-based studio.
by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, May 9, 2016
Twitter has been battling the federal government over its national security policies since at least 2014, when the company sued for the right to disclose information about the "National Security Letters" that it receives from the government.
The authorities send those letters to companies like Twitter in order to obtain information about their users. Twitter contends that it has a free-speech right to disclose information about the letters.
Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Twitter's free speech argument, ruling that companies have no right to disclose "classified national security information."
Rogers gave the company until May 24 to attempt to revise its allegations and try again.
In the meantime, the company appears to be escalating its conflict with intelligence officials: Twitter has told Dataminr to stop providing information to U.S. intelligence agencies, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
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Dataminr examines real-time information on social media sites and then provides analyses to media organizations, government agencies and the financial industry, among others. Twitter, which owns 5% of the company, gives it access to all public tweets via a firehose.
The Journal adds that Dataminr, valued at $700 million, uses "sophisticated algorithms and geolocation tools to unearth relevant patterns."
For its part, Twitter says it never authorized outside companies to sell data to an intelligence agency for surveillance purposes, according to Ars Technica.
The intelligence community hopes Twitter will reconsider, according to the Journal. If Twitter continues to sell this [data] to the private sector, but denies the government, thats hypocritical, John Inglis, a former deputy director of the National Security Agency, reportedly said.
by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, May 10, 2016
Writing an opinion column on the ubiquitous Kars4Kids commercial with the singing children presents several challenges, although having an opinion is not one of them.
That's the easy part. This commercial has got to be one of the most grating 30 seconds of advertising ever seen on television -- and that's saying a lot. In addition, it raises more questions than it answers -- most notably, what in the world is Kars4Kids anyway, and why would I give my car to these people?
But here's the challenge. If you're a TV columnist bent on criticizing the Kars4Kids commercial, then you run the risk of looking like youre coming out against children and, in this case, a children's charity. And that's a no-no because kids are our future.
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Those words -- because kids are our future -- happen to comprise the slogan for Kars4Kids, something I learned when I visited the Kars4Kids Web site. The slogan reminds me of the satirical song a group of schoolchildren once sang on The Simpsons called Children Are Our Future. This song poked fun at slogans such as the one adopted by Kars4Kids.
The hardest part of writing a critique like this is the part where you focus on the talent in the commercial because the talent here are all juveniles. And the last thing a critic wants to do is hurt a childs feelings. Maybe its wishful thinking on my part, but I have a hunch these kids dont read Television News Daily (but who knows?).
In the Kars4Kids spot, five children -- two girls and three boys -- are shown playing instruments in the manner of a rock band. But its evident from the get-go that none of them can play them, and theyre faking it badly. It then becomes doubtful theyre singing the jingle either.
So you watch this commercial and ask yourself: Why couldnt they find a group of kids who could actually play these instruments (guitars, drums, a keyboard and a violin)? There must be plenty of talented children out there who can sing and play. Then you ask: Whose kids are these anyway? The answer that occurs to you is: Maybe theyre the offspring of people closely associated with this Kars4Kids charity. Who else would cast them in this spot?
One of the prevailing mysteries of this commercial is its ubiquity. No other charity group that I can think of maintains a presence on TV like Kars4Kids. The spot seems to run primarily on certain lower-rated cable networks, where the ad rates are presumably cheaper. For example, just the other night, it ran during every single commercial pod that aired during a show I was watching on AHC -- the American Heroes Channel owned by Discovery Networks that airs a lot of World War II documentaries. This one was about Hitler (this channel has a lot of Hitler shows).
A deep dive into the Kars4Kids Web site reveals that its a charity that is supported largely through the funding of Oorah, a national nonprofit organization.
Then you learn by clicking on an Oorah link that Oorah runs programs that include tutoring and homework assistance, Jewish summer camps with a strong component of one-on-one mentoring, food and gift packages for major holidays, enrollment and tuition payment for children in Jewish private schools, one-on-one adult education and/or mentoring for parents, clothing donations, school-family liaison, family retreats, holiday gatherings, as well as financial assistance to meet a wide variety of individual needs.
Some of these seem a little vague, but this list is not much different than the services and interests you would likely find on the Web sites of charitable organizations of all kinds and all faiths.
You wont find any of this out from the commercial, whose aim is to get you to visit the Kars4Kids Web site or call an 877 number, which is repeated over and over in the Kars4Kids jingle. When you search the Web site, you can eventually come upon a page that explains how the car donation works (Kars4Kids also solicits donations of boats and real estate). Lets say you have a car thats in such bad shape no one will buy it. So Kars4Kids will tow it away for free and you can claim a tax deduction for a charitable donation. Kars4Kids then sells it for scrap or parts and makes money off of it.
Sounds good, right? Then why do I find this spot to be so @#$%&! irritating?
by Thom Forbes @tforbes, May 10, 2016
Krispy Kreme, the global hot glazed-doughnut purveyor founded in 1937 in Winston Salem, N.C., on the premise that customers are the center of the doughnut, is being acquired by JAB Beech, a subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based JAB Holding Co., and minority investor BDT Capital Partners, for about $1.35 billion cash the price you pay for a sugar-laden icon.
For nearly 80 years, our iconic brand has been touching and enhancing lives through the joy that is Krispy Kreme, chairman Jim Morgan says in a statement announcing the transaction. This transaction puts us in the best possible position to continue to spread that joy to a growing number of people around the world while delivering significant value to Krispy Kreme shareholders, namely, $21 per share. Headquarters will remain in Winston-Salem.
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We are thrilled to have such an iconic brand as Krispy Kreme joining the JAB portfolio, says Peter Harf, senior partner at JAB. Its lineup includes single-serve coffee and beverage maker Keurig Green Mountain and Jacobs Douwe Egberts, the largest pure-play consumer coffee company in the world. It also has controlling stakes in Peet's Coffee & Tea, Caribou Coffee Company, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, the quick-casual chain based in Denver, and Espresso House, the largest branded coffee shop chain in Scandinavia. It also owns Coty, with brands such as Jimmy Choo, Bally and Belstaff under its umbrella, and has a minority interest in health, hygiene and home products marketer Reckitt Benckiser (Lysol, Scholl, Woolite).
JAB, formerly called Joh. A. Benckiser, manages the money of the Reimann family, one of Germanys wealthiest, write Erik Holm and Maureen Farrell for the Wall Street Journal, in an exploration of its holdings.
Krispy Kreme, which Vernon Rudolph founded in 1937 after buying a secret yeast-raised doughnut recipe from a New Orleans French chef, is most famous for its glazed doughnut, but it also sells a wide assortment of other flavors such as lemon-filled and sour cream. More recently, the company has made coffee a priority with new offerings and promotions, writes Leslie Picker for the New York Times.
Coffee also happens to be the key ingredient in JABs other recent acquisitions, Picker continues. JABs portfolio makes it the near-ideal candidate to control Krispy Kreme, Will Slabaugh, an analyst at Stephens, said in a research note on Monday. JAB would be able to improve Krispy Kremes operations, add food and beverage options, and help it expand nationally and internationally, he said.
Krispy Kreme has been chugging along since going public in 2000, when investors ate up its stock, Sarah Halzack reports for the Washington Post, with some bumps and sell-offs along the way. Its facing some headwinds with 824 of the chains 1,121 stores overseas hurt by the strength of the U.S. dollar.
Back at home, it is trying to steer away from the promotions it has heavily relied on to lure customers in a highly competitive quick-service dining environment, Halzack writes. And, perhaps most important, Krispy Kreme might be bumping up against the limits of a strategy that relies so heavily on its signature pastry.
Krispy Kremes issue is that theyre a one-trick pony, Nations Restaurant News Jonathan Maze tells her. Theyre beholden to peoples demand for doughnuts. But if anybody outside of Seattle can get Krispy Kreme to sell more coffee, its JAB, Maze blogs for NRN after pointing put that its not getting its doughnuts cheap a 25% premium over Krispy Kreme's closing price on Friday and about 19 times trailing earnings before EBITDA.
Krispy Kreme has been trying to bolster its coffee business as a way to attract customers who might not want doughnuts. The company has launched new coffee drinks and what it calls edible coffee treats, such as cappuccino and caramel macchiato-flavored snacks, write Julie Jargon and Mike Esterl for the Wall Street Journal.
Its in a highly competitive market, of course, including not only Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts but also the Canadian-based Tim Hortons, they point out. The latter, acquired by the Brazilian private-equity company 3G Capital Partners last year, is making moves in the U.S. market.
Despite the premium price JAB is willing to pay, Reuters Breakingviews columnist Kevin Allison suggests Krispy Kreme may prove too appetizing for others to pass up without a fight. But look for JAB to battle back, if that happens. It is one of those rare deals where there is real potential to boost revenue both at home and by speeding international expansion under the JAB umbrella. That means the deep-pocketed acquirer should be able to inject more jam into its offer.
by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, May 10, 2016
IPG Media Lab head Chad Stoller is shifting to the newly created role of EVP Global Innovation Director. The Media Lab will now be overseen by Travis Johnson, Global President of IPG mobile unit Ansible.
Stoller will focus on exploring and integrating new and emerging technologies into the firms service and product lineup. He is tasked with generating new revenue streams for both the company and clients.
As head of the Media Lab, Stoller is credited with leading its evolution from a Los Angeles-based research center to a global innovation hub.
He has also led strategic investments for clients including Kiip, ADstruc, Placed and Samba TV.
Chad is a natural at identifying and applying tomorrows technologies and trends that will impact our clients businesses today, stated Henry Tajer, Global CEO, IPG Mediabrands. This role gives him the runway to do what hes done so brilliantly at the Lab, across our global business units.
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Stoller, who previously reported to Chris Loll, COO Mediabrands North America, will now report to John Sintras, President, business development and product innovation, IPG Mediabrands.
A five-year veteran of Mediabrands, Stoller was previously EVP digital strategy at BBDO. Earlier, he served as executive director, emerging patforms at Organic. From 1993 to 2006, Stoller held a variety of positions within Arnell Group developing creative and media programs for clients.
While at Arnell, Stoller co-founded Surge Interactive, a full-service agency acquired by IPG in 2001.
by Gord Hotchkiss , Featured Contributor, May 10, 2016
I love people-watching. I find the passing tableau of human drama endlessly fascinating. Trust me its worth putting the smartphone away and paying attention to whats happening around you. This past weekend, I hit the trifecta of snooping: subways, airports and shops in New York City.
Scene 1: Were on a subway and an elderly Polish lady, dressed all in pink (for Mothers Day, perhaps), going to Penn Station randomly asks a hulking young man of decidedly intimidating appearance for help getting her bag out of the car and onto the platform. You could not have picked a more unlikely duo for this particular dialogue.
He was engrossed in a conversation with his friend and didnt hear her at first. When she asked again, he wasnt sure what she said because of her thick accent. Finally, a young pregnant girl beside them offers to help. The Polish lady refuses and starts pointing at the man and scolding vigorously. The young man shrugs, the Polish intonations still coming a little too thick and fast for him to understand. The young girl translates, She wants you to help because youre big.
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He grins sheepishly and picks up the suitcase. The Polish grandmother toddles off happily.
Scene 2: Were walking through an airport and a young man is coming home from college (again, perhaps for Mothers Day.) Hes meandering his way from the gate, weaving back and forth across the concourse and trying to carry on a somewhat agitated conversation with said mother. My first instinct is to pass him but then I decide to hold back and eavesdrop a little bit. The son obviously has no patience for his mother:
Mom, I told you, I never asked you to come and get me. It was your idea.
Why are you picking me up in departures? Im arriving. You should be in arrivals.
I cant help it if you have to go all the way around again to get there. You should have thought of that before you pulled into the airport.
I can only imagine how the rest of this Mothers Day visit went. Next time, let him catch a cab.
Scene 3: Were in one of those tacky souvenir shops off Times Square (no, it wasnt my idea). Two elderly ladies come in and ask to see a T-shirt that says Help Donald Drumpf make America Great Again
Why is it spelled Drumpf?
The shop owner (in another thick accent Middle Eastern this time), Its wacky spelling.
Why?
Its a joke. Its a jokey T-shirt.
Do you have one spelled correctly?
You want real T-shirts?
Yes.
No, we only have the jokey ones.
Meanwhile, outside a sidewalk prophet is yelling that Jesus is the only true way and that we are headed straight to hell -- all while standing under a 60-foot-high electronic screen advertising The Book of Mormon.
New York you crack me up.
by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, May 10, 2016
Facebook is denying claims that it has an anti-conservative bias in its trending news postings, as alleged yesterday by Gizmodo in a story citing anonymous former Facebook employees.
The former employees, who worked as news curators, told Gizmodo that they were ordered to suppress news of interest to conservative readers by removing it from the trending news feed. According to the same report, the curators removed conservative news despite its popularity as reflected in organic growth.
The employees claimed that the unwritten rule against conservative news was promulgated by the team of young professional journalists (predictably Ivy League-educated liberal types) hired by Facebook to curate the trending news feed.
Gizmodo quoted one former employee: Id come on shift and Id discover that CPAC or Mitt Romney or Glenn Beck or popular conservative topics wouldnt be trending because either the curator didnt recognize the news topic or it was like they had a bias against Ted Cruz.
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On Tuesday Facebook vice president for search Tom Stocky responded to the allegations in a post on the Facebook blog: Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum. There are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality. These guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspectives. Nor do they permit the prioritization of one viewpoint over another or one news outlet over another. These guidelines do not prohibit any news outlet from appearing in Trending Topics.
Nonetheless, these rules would not necessarily preclude a group of managers with an ideological (or other) agenda from enacting an embargo on unacceptable news content by general, possibly unspoken agreement. Sadly, many conservatives of my acquaintance take it for granted that not only mainstream media but also the management of all the Silicon Valley tech giants are indisputably liberal and unafraid to extend that bias to their marketing and products, including news and information.
by Jess Nelson , May 10, 2016
Microsoft email services will be upgraded by the end of June, retiring Windows Live Mail and forcing users to select a new email application or risk losing email access altogether.
Security and infrastructure updates to Outlook.com will soon shutter the old email application, which was originally introduced in 2012. Customers who still use the desktop-based email service will need to change their email habits by resorting to a new email service and routine.
To provide you an email experience with enhanced performance, security and reliability, the new Outlook.com has been built upon our latest Office 365 infrastructure, writes Javier Soltero, corporate vice president for the Outlook team at Microsoft, in a blog post. Because the Windows Live Mail 2012 email application doesnt support the protocols used by this new infrastructure, you will not be able to send or receive Outlook.com email from Windows Live Mail 2012 after your account is upgraded. This means the time has come for you to upgrade to a new email application.
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Microsoft email users, including Outlook and Hotmail accounts, have until June 30 to switch to a different email client. Domain names that will no longer synchronize with Windows Live Mail including outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Hotmail.co.uk, msn.com and live.com.
Microsoft is recommending that users switch to using the Outlook applications pre-installed in either Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, but they could also turn to third-party providers or access their email via browser at Outlook.com.
Microsoft is also offering Windows Live Mail users a free year of Office 365 as an alternative.
Windows Live Mail will no longer synchronize with Outlook or Hotmail email addresses, but perhaps paradoxically, will remain compatible with Gmail.
Millions of people worldwide suffer from chronic lung conditions that require regular, careful monitoring. The severity of these diseases is usually measured using spirometers devices that measure patient lung function. Share on Pinterest According to researchers, SpiroCall allows patients to measure their lung function on any phone.
Image credit: the University of Washington
Traditionally, this was only conducted in clinical settings, but home spirometry is gaining acceptance in the medical community due to its ability to detect pulmonary exacerbations and improve outcomes of chronic lung ailments. However, cost and usability are often significant barriers to its widespread adoption. Now, a new health-sensing tool has been developed by a team of computer science and engineering and electrical engineering researchers from the University of Washington (UW) that can accurately measure lung function over a simple phone call. Most people in the developing world who have asthma, cystic fibrosis, or other chronic lung diseases have no way to measure how well their lungs are functioning outside of a clinic or doctor visit. The new service, called SpiroCall, allows patients to perform spirometry on any phone. The patients take a deep breath in and exhale as hard and fast as they can until they cannot exhale any more. The phones microphone senses sound and pressure from that exhalation and sends the data to a central server, which uses machine learning algorithms to convert the data into standard measurements of lung function. The server computes the lung function measurements and sends the patients a response. We wanted to be able to measure lung function on any type of phone you might encounter around the world smartphones, dumb phones, landlines, pay phones, says Shwetak Patel, Washington research foundation endowed professor of computer science and engineering and electrical Engineering at UW. With SpiroCall, you can call a 1-800 number, blow into the phone and use the telephone network to test your lung function.
Meeting the need for at-home lung-monitoring devices The SpiroCall solution builds upon earlier work by the team that involved developing a smartphone app called SpiroSmart. Introduced in 2012, the original application records the users exhalation and sends the audio data generated to a central server. The server then calculates the expiratory flow rate using a physiological model of the vocal tract and a model of the reverberation of sound around the users head. The development of the SpiroSmart technology was an important step in making spirometry more accessible, and since its introduction, it has been involved in numerous clinical studies and is currently deployed in multiple locations around the world, including Seattle and Tacoma in the United States, Khulna in Bangladesh, and Pune in India. People have to manage chronic lung diseases for their entire lives. So theres a real need to have a device that allows patients to accurately monitor their condition at home without having to constantly visit a medical clinic, which in some places requires hours or days of travel. Mayank Goel, UW doctoral student and lead developer Over the last 4 years, the team has collected data from more than 4,000 patients, where clinicians have measured lung function using both SpiroSmart and a commercial spirometer. That comparative data has improved the performance of the machine learning algorithms and laid the groundwork for teams current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance process.
Much of the recent debate surrounding e-cigarettes has focused on users, with weighty arguments suggesting that, compared with tobacco-burning cigarettes, they are a good thing because they appear less harmful to health and may even help people quit smoking. But that debate overlooks the alarming rise in exposure to e-cigarettes, and nicotine liquid in particular, in very young children. Share on Pinterest It is likely that many people who use e-cigarettes do not realize the hazards of leaving their products such as nicotine liquid refills within reach of small children. Many people who vape may not realize that one swallow of the liquid nicotine they use to refill their e-cigarettes (electronic cigarettes) can kill a child. In December 2014, the first such death was reported in the United States. A 1-year-old child in Fort Plain, NY, died after ingesting liquid nicotine accessed from an open refill container. Neighbors interviewed at the time said they had no idea the substance could have such deadly consequences. This is probably true of most people who might be amazed to learn the e-liquid they can buy in different flavors and colored bottles at the supermarket kiosk contains a toxic chemical that was once used in the U.S. as an insecticide and fumigant. According to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, in the 40 months up to April 2015, the National Poison Data System (NPDS) in the U.S. saw a 1,500 percent rise in the number of monthly calls relating to e-cigarette exposure in young children.
E-cigarette exposure up 1,500 percent in young children From January 2012 through April 2015, the NPDS received 29,141 calls reporting children younger than 6 years exposed to nicotine and tobacco products an average rate of 729 child exposures a month. Exposed to means the substance was ingested, inhaled, or absorbed by the skin or eyes. While tobacco products accounted for the vast majority of the exposures, e-cigarettes were responsible for 14 percent of them. But what is most alarming is the rate at which exposures associated with e-cigarettes in young children are growing, and the severity of the cases relative to tobacco product exposures. Month on month, exposures associated with e-cigarettes in young children increased by 1,493 percent during the study period, with children under the age of 2 accounting for 44 percent of them. Further analysis revealed that children exposed to e-cigarettes had a 5.2 times higher chance of being admitted to hospital and a 2.6 higher chance of having a severe outcome than children exposed to cigarettes. Senior author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, OH, describes the situation as an epidemic by any definition and another example of a highly toxic product being introduced to the market without regard to child safety.
Youth use of e-cigarettes rising rapidly Nicotine is a stimulant that occurs naturally in tobacco plants. It affects the nervous system and the heart. However, exposure to relatively small amounts can rapidly be fatal (resource no longer available at www.cdc.gov) . According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), youth use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) is rising rapidly (resource no longer available at www.cdc.gov) . From 2011-2014, there was a ninefold increase (from 1.5 to 13.4 percent) in e-cigarette use (measured as past 30-day use) among high school students, and a more than sixfold increase (0.6-3.9 percent) among middle school students. In 2014, there were nearly 2.5 million middle and high school students using e-cigarettes, including about 1 in 7 high school students. If awareness of the dangers of nicotine liquid and the importance of keeping it out of reach of little hands is not reaching adults, what hope is there that teens will take heed?
Swaddling is a traditional practice of wrapping babies tightly from the neck downward in a sheet or thin cloth. The custom is intended to promote sleep by making infants feel secure and calm. However, an analysis of published research questions whether this practice might be linked to a raised risk for sudden infant death syndrome.
Share on Pinterest The researchers found that risk of sudden infant death syndrome appears to increase when swaddled infants are placed on their stomachs or sides for sleep.
The researchers found that risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) appears to increase when swaddled infants are placed on their stomachs or sides for sleep.
Writing in the journal Pediatrics, a team led by the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom explains how it analyzed links between SIDS and swaddling in four studies from three different countries: England, Australia and the United States.
The researchers screened 283 articles to find the four studies, which span 20 years. None of the studies were designed to investigate swaddling, but the data they gathered included information about the practice.
The authors note that because of the widely different study designs and the imprecise definitions of swaddling they used, it was not easy to pool the results for analysis and establish whether there is a clear link between SIDS and the practice of swaddling.
However, despite these limitations, first author Dr. Anna Pease, from Bristols School of Social and Community Medicine, says they did find that the risk of SIDS when placing infants on the side or front for sleep increased when infants were swaddled.
The occurrence of multidrug resistant infection is a major concern in Wounded Warriors and military Veterans, especially in combat-related injuries. In addition to Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), other resistant strains have been associated with hospital-acquired infections that are often not responsive to even a broad range of antibiotics. Culture-directed antibiotic treatment is an early treatment regime for these kinds of infections. However, one of the key challenges of using this treatment regime is that laboratory culture analysis, which is central to antibiotic selection, requires at least two days to produce results. The delay in targeted treatment results in greater patient distress, poorer outcomes, higher overall cost, and dilution of antibiotic effectiveness as bacteria continue to adapt.
With funding from a Fiscal Year 2012 Military Infectious Diseases Applied Research Award, Dr. Connie Price and her team at Denver Health are aiming to identify rapid microbiological diagnostics for multidrug resistant organism (MDRO) pathogens that afflict Wounded Warriors and Veterans and, furthermore, would help clinicians more effectively treat patients with serious infections. Dr. Price's approach involves the use of multiplexed automated digital microscopy (MADM), which has the ability to identify and quantify multiple pathogens within 2 hours. In preclinical research, Dr. Price and her team have demonstrated that MADM (Figure 1) is able to characterize multiple major modes of antibiotic resistance, including MRSA, within 6 hours. Furthermore, Dr. Price has used MADM to characterize heterogeneous and inducible resistance and has also performed population analysis profiles of S. aureus.
Dr. Price has acquired remnant blood, respiratory, and infected wound samples and identified the causative pathogen and, most importantly, determined its susceptibility to multiple antibiotics, often 1-2 days faster than conventional lab methods. Since the start of the funding period, Dr. Price and her team have validated and identified (within 1 hour) target bacterial species including S. aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Klebsiella oxytoca, Enterobacter aerogenes, Enterobacter cloacae, Acinetobacter baumanii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa with sensitivity and specificity of at least 97% in blood cultures. Furthermore, she has performed antibiotic susceptibility testing with specific minimum inhibitory concentration within 5 hours for methicillin> versus S. aureus, ciprofloxacin, imipenem, amikacin and minocycline versus A. baumanii, and ciprofloxacin and amikacin versus P. aeruginosa.
Dr. Price and her team are actively collaborating with an industry partner, Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc., to develop a novel pathogen identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests directly from study of clinical samples. The data gathered in this effort has facilitated Accelerate Diagnostics to obtain consensus from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and clearance for the first test that will rapidly identify and determine antibiotic susceptibility of pathogens causing bloodstream infections. Additional information about Dr. Price's research can be found in the Journal of Microbiological Methods (2014; 98:50-58).
Rapid Microbiological Diagnostics for MDRO Quantitative Identification and Resistance Phenotyping To Guide Antibiotic Selection in Wounded Warriors and Veterans . Principal Investigator: PRICE, CONNIE. Journal of Microbiological Methods.
Low birthweight is associated with increased death rates from infancy through adolescence, according to a population study of live births in England and Wales published in PLOS Medicine. The study, conducted by Sailesh Kotecha and colleagues of Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, suggests that focusing on upstream events to prevent low birthweight remains an important health goal.
Death rates are increased in babies born with low birthweight (<2,500 g; LBW) compared to those born with appropriate birth weight. As survival among babies with low birthweight continues to improve, it is important to investigate longer-term survival among these children, especially for those born with very low birthweight (<1,500 g; VLBW).
Using the largest and most recent dataset available, Kotecha and colleagues investigated death rates among over 12 million children born from 1993 through 2011 in England or Wales. Adjusted hazard ratios for infant deaths were 145 (95% confidence intervals: 141, 149) and 9.8 (9.5, 10.1) for VLBW and LBW groups respectively when compared to the 3500g group. The respective hazard ratios for death occurring at age 1-18 years were 6.6 (6.1, 7.1) and 2.9 (2.8, 3.1). Perinatal events and congenital malformations were the common causes of death in infancy. Among children aged 1-18 y, conditions of the nervous system and respiratory system were leading causes of death in the VLBW group while cancers and external conditions (including accidents) were primary causes of death in the 2,500 g groups.
The study is observational and findings may be affected by confounding; notably, data on gestational age and maternal smoking were not available. However, the dataset is population-wide, recent, and includes follow-up to 18 years with cause of death data. The authors state, "By understanding and ameliorating the influences of upstream exposures such maternal smoking and deprivation, later mortality can be decreased by reducing the delivery of vulnerable infants with LBW."
The study was funded by the Welsh Government (All Wales Perinatal Survey) and Cardiff University is the employer of all the authors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Article: All-Cause Mortality of Low Birthweight Infants in Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence: Population Study of England and Wales, Watkins WJ, Kotecha SJ, Kotecha S, PLoS Medicine, doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002018, published 10 May 2016.
The American Journal of Public Health publishes physicians' call for sweeping single-payer reform with detailed proposal signed by over 2,200 doctors nationwide.
Unveiling of proposal coincides with heightened debate on 'Medicare for All' in presidential primarie.
In a dramatic show of physician support for deeper health reform - and for making a decisive break with the private insurance model of financing medical care - 2,231 physicians called today [Thursday, May 5] for the creation of a publicly financed, single-payer national health program that would cover all Americans for all medically necessary care.
Single-payer health reform, often called "Medicare for All," has been a hotly debated topic in the presidential primaries, thanks in part to it being a prominent plank in the platform of Sen. Bernie Sanders. The new physicians' proposal is strictly nonpartisan, however.
The proposal, which was drafted by a blue-ribbon panel of 39 leading physicians, is announced today in an editorial titled "Moving Forward from the Affordable Care Act to a Single-Payer System" published in the American Journal of Public Health. The editorial links to the full proposal titled "Beyond the Affordable Care Act: A Physicians' Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform" and the names of all the signers, and it appeals for additional physicians to add their names as endorsers. The proposal currently has signers from 48 states and the District of Columbia.
"Our nation is at a crossroads," said Dr. Adam Gaffney, a Boston-based pulmonary disease and critical care specialist, lead author of the editorial and co-chair of the Working Group that produced the proposal.
"Despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act six years ago, 30 million Americans remain uninsured, an even greater number are underinsured, financial barriers to care like co-pays and deductibles are rising, bureaucracy is growing, provider networks are narrowing, and medical costs are continuing to climb.
"Caring relationships are increasingly taking a back seat to the financial prerogatives of insurance firms, corporate providers, and Big Pharma," Gaffney said. "Our patients are suffering and our profession is being degraded and disfigured by these mercenary interests."
Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a co-author of the editorial and proposal who is a professor of public health at the City University of New York's Hunter College and lecturer at Harvard Medical School, commented: "We can continue down this harmful path - or even worse, take an alternative, 'free-market' route that would compound our problems - or we can embrace the long-overdue remedy that we know will work: the creation of a publicly financed, nonprofit, single-payer system that covers everybody. Today we're saying we must quickly make that shift. Lives are literally at stake."
Dr. Marcia Angell, a co-author of the editorial and proposal, co-chair of the working group, member of the faculty of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, said: "We can no longer afford to waste the vast resources we do on the administrative costs, executive salaries, and profiteering of the private insurance system. We get too little for our money. It's time to put those resources into real health care for everyone."
Under the national health program (NHP) outlined by the physicians:
Patients could choose to go to any doctor and hospital. Most hospitals and clinics would remain privately owned and operated, receiving a budget from the NHP to cover all operating costs. Physicians could continue to practice on a fee-for-service basis, or receive salaries from group practices, hospitals or clinics.
The program would be paid for by combining current sources of government health spending into a single fund with modest new taxes that would be fully offset by reductions in premiums and out-of-pocket spending. Co-pays and deductibles would be eliminated.
The single-payer program would save about $500 billion annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of insurance firms, and the massive paperwork they inflict on hospitals and doctors.
The administrative savings of the streamlined system would fully offset the costs of covering the uninsured and upgraded coverage for everyone else, e.g. full coverage of prescription drugs, dental care and long-term care. Savings would also be redirected to currently underfunded health priorities, particularly public health.
The "single payer" would be in a strong position to negotiate lower prices for medications and other medical supplies, yielding additional savings and reining in costs.
Surveys show strong, rising support for single-payer national health insurance among physicians. A 2008 survey of physicians found that 59 percent supported "legislation to establish national health insurance," up from 49 percent five years earlier.
Article: Moving Forward From the Affordable Care Act to a Single-Payer System, Adam Gaffney, M.D.; Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H.; David U. Himmelstein, M.D.; Marcia Angell, M.D., American Journal of Public Health, doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.303157, published online 5 May 2016.
Physicians' Proposal: Beyond the Affordable Care Act: A Physicians' Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform
One in seven patients in UK hospitals are given oxygen therapy for their condition on any given day. A new national study by the British Thoracic Society (BTS) has found that over 4 in 10 of these patients (about 6,000 on an average day) are receiving oxygen with no prescription or other written order to help ensure that staff deliver and monitor oxygen use safely and effectively.
Lung specialists are concerned that without a prescription specifying a safe 'target range' of oxygen levels in the body which hospital staff should monitor for and keep within, there is a real danger that patients may be given too little, or too much oxygen which can result in greater illness, and in rare cases, even death.
The BTS is using the results to call on every hospital to prescribe and document all oxygen administered to patients.
Worryingly the national audit also found that:
Over half of hospitals didn't provide sufficient training in oxygen provision and monitoring for doctors or nurses
Even when a written prescription for oxygen was provided, 31% of patients were still getting either too little or too much oxygen. It is common to have some readings that are over and under the 'target range' of desirable levels of oxygen in the blood - a patient who is anxious or breathing deeply at rest can cause a rise for example. But health professionals need to monitor the situation carefully and take action as necessary
It is of special concern that 9% of patients who had been prescribed a 'target range' were more than 2% above it (ie they were getting too much oxygen for their condition). All of these patients had been prescribed a low 'target range' because they had conditions such as chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) where too much oxygen can be harmful and may even increase the risk of death.
Hospitals, however, have shown marked improvements in many aspects of their management and delivery of oxygen to patients since the launch of the British Thoracic Society Guidelines in 2008. Studies in other countries have found similar problems and this was the world's first national guideline for urgent oxygen use.
Encouragingly, the BTS audit reflects this progress in the UK:
85% of hospitals have implemented an oxygen policy
100% used pulse oximeters to measure a patient's oxygen levels on all nursing observation rounds
72% recorded the patient's oxygen levels in a dedicated oxygen section on the monitoring chart that was consistent with the BTS oxygen guidelines
The 2015 BTS Emergency Oxygen Audit analysed data from 55,208 NHS hospital patients and 7,741 (14%) were using oxygen. The study, undertaken by questionnaire between 15 August and 1 November 2015, probed the 'state of play' of oxygen provision in NHS hospitals.
The rationale for giving oxygen treatment in hospital is to treat low blood oxygen levels (hypoxaemia) where the body's cells are starved of oxygen, which can cause damage to vital organs and even lead to death. Oxygen can be used to help treat a number of lung diseases - such as pneumonia or deteriorations in asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Oxygen is also used in other diseases such as heart failure or sepsis, which can cause low blood oxygen levels.
Dr Ronan O'Driscoll, Consultant Respiratory Specialist at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, who has led the British Thoracic Society's work in this area, said:
'Oxygen is an important drug and should always be prescribed and documented in hospital like any other medication. Prescriptions and monitoring documents give us a vital record of which patients are receiving oxygen, how much they are getting and by what method. But crucially they also give a personalised 'target range' for each patient indicating a desirable, safe level of oxygen in the blood for hospital staff to measure for and keep within.
In a modern health service, it is concerning that so many patients in hospital are still being given this drug without any form of prescription. The situation would not be tolerated for any other drug - even a common 'over the counter' treatment such as paracetamol requires a prescription or other written order in hospital. Oxygen is very beneficial to many patients, but it can be harmful if misused. Therefore, it should always be prescribed or clearly documented in hospital.
In the audit, the number of patients whose oxygen levels in the blood were too high after oxygen therapy is concerning. This may be due to oxygen deficiency being seen as a much greater danger than oxygen overload - leading to a possible feeling that 'the more oxygen we give the better.'
However, the audit showed that 44% of patients using oxygen had risk factors such as COPD that placed them at risk from excessive oxygen therapy. This needs to be addressed in staff training and we would like to see far more hospitals delivering education in this area.
We have, however, seen real improvements over the last 8 years in how NHS hospitals manage, deliver and monitor oxygen provision for patients. Nevertheless, we really must keep up the momentum for change - as improvements have largely stalled recently.'
The BTS Emergency Oxygen Audit report 2015, as well as other useful resources for health professionals, can be downloaded here https://www.brit-thoracic.org.uk/guidelines-and-quality-standards/emergency-oxygen-use-in-adult-patients-guideline/
The Society won a National Patient Safety Award in 2011 for its campaigning work in this area, which has included the delivery of Guidelines, educational resources and audit to help hospitals provide oxygen safely and effectively.
About 1.8 million Americans have celiac disease, an immune-based condition brought on by the consumption of gluten in genetically susceptible patients. Among patients diagnosed with celiac disease by small intestinal biopsy in the U.S., those from the Punjab region of India have the highest rates of disease, according to new research published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.
"While celiac disease was previously thought to be a disease predominantly affecting Caucasian Europeans, it is now recognized as one of the most common hereditary disorders worldwide," said study author Benjamin Lebwohl, MD, Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY. "Our findings help shed light on the distribution of celiac disease in the U.S. and will aid gastroenterologists in diagnosing their patients."
This research gives insights into celiac disease found in the U.S. Among patients who underwent testing for celiac disease:
Celiac disease was most common among Americans from the Punjab region of India.
Celiac disease was significantly less common among U.S. residents of South Indian, East Asian and Hispanic ancestry.
The rate of celiac disease among patients of Jewish and Middle Eastern ethnicities was similar to that of other Americans.
Men and women had similar rates of celiac disease when tested, no matter their ethnicity.
"While previous studies have suggested that celiac disease may be more common in female patients, based on our findings we recommend that physicians consider celiac disease in men as often as they consider it in women," added Dr. Lebwohl.
When a patient is having signs of celiac disease, a doctor will do a biopsy in which several small pieces of tissue are sampled from the small intestine for examination with a microscope. The doctor is looking for villous atrophy, or damage to the wall of the small intestine, a finding which most often represents celiac disease.
For this study, Dr. Lebwohl and colleagues looked at more than 400,000 intestinal biopsies from a nationwide database. They identified patients with celiac disease based on the presence of villous atrophy in the small intestine. Using a previously published algorithm based on patient names, the researchers studied celiac disease distribution across these ethnicities: North Indian, South Indian, East Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Jewish and other Americans.
Ethnic Variations in Duodenal Villous Atrophy Consistent with Celiac Disease in the United States. Anna Krigel, MD, Kevin O. Turner, DO, Govind K. Makharia, MD, DM, DNB, Peter HR. Green, MD, Robert M. Genta, MD, Benjamin Lebwohl, MD, MS. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. DOI:10.1016/j.cgh.2016.04.032. Published online April 18, 2016.
A new study has found there is no decline over time in the accuracy of medical staff who analyse mammogram scans for indications of breast cancer.
Research conducted at the University of Warwick investigated whether detection rates dropped towards the end of each batch of mammogram readings.
The study Improving breast cancer screening detection rates through understanding, modelling, and adapting patterns of radiologist performance has been published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research was conducted by Dr Sian Taylor-Phillips who was funded by an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship.
Dr Taylor-Phillips examined whether a phenomenon called 'the vigilance decrement' would apply in which accuracy of repetitive tasks decreases over time.
Breast x-rays or mammograms show lots of overlapping tissue and cancers can be quite difficult to spot. To the research team's surprise they found that the cancer detection rates throughout each batch of approximately 35 readings didn't change. They had expected accuracy to decline towards the end of each batch.
Dr Taylor-Phillips said: "We found no reduction in performance or vigilance decrement at all. In fact, we found the opposite of what we were expecting - breast screening readers seemed to get 'into the zone' and their performance improved with time on task. They recalled fewer women for further tests as they got nearer the end of the batch while cancer detection rates stayed constant."
In the UK National Health Service Breast Screening Programme two readers separately examine each woman's mammograms for signs of cancer. Women have mammograms taken of both breasts and these are examined for signs of cancer by trained staff. Both readers scrutinise batches of around 35 women's mammograms. Current practice is that both readers examine the x-rays in the same order as one another, so if they both experience a vigilance decrement, the vigilance will be low for both readers when examining the same women's mammograms.
To test the vigilance decrement theory the researchers changed the case order for the two readers expecting them to experience low vigilance when examining different women's mammograms. A real-world randomised controlled study in UK clinical practice was conducted incorporating 1.2 million women's x-rays in the trial.
As well as finding no effect on cancer detection rate, in an exploratory post-hoc analysis, they found that their overall performance improved with time on task.
Whilst the readers kept up a constant rate of detecting cancer, the number of women they recalled for further tests to achieve this decreased over time. When readers first sat down and started the task they recalled on average 6.4 women per thousand screened, this decreased to 4.6 per thousand screened after examining 40 women's mammograms in a row.
Dr Taylor-Phillips said: "Psychologists have been investigating a phenomenon of a drop in performance with time on a task called 'the vigilance decrement' since World War 2. In those days radar operators searched for enemy aircraft and submarines which appeared as little dots of light on a radar screen.
"People thought that the ability to spot the dots might go down after too much time spent on the task. Many psychology experiments have found a vigilance decrement, but most of this research has not been in a real world setting, unlike our study."
Dr Taylor-Phillips and her team are going to expand their research in this area. They are currently analysing how performance changes over longer reading sessions, and whether examining mammograms at different times of day affects performance.
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On May 5, 2016, Labour Party candidate Sadiq Khan became the first Muslim to be elected mayor of London. This event sparked a wave of mostly enthusiastic responses worldwide, particularly in the Arab world. The London-based online newspaper Rai Al-Youm dampened the enthusiasm and even hinted at the Arab states' hypocrisy in rejoicing over Khan's election when they themselves deny the very values, such as equality, human rights and the rule of law, that enabled him, as the son of immigrants, to attain this status. The editorial also argued that the Arab states were guilty of racism and of persecuting and repressing minority citizens, and that they denied immigrants like Khan's father many rights - meaning that Khan could never have attained what he did these countries. It should be noted that the Arab press published additional articles in this vein.[1]
Sadiq Khan (Raialyoum.com, May 7, 2016)
Following are excerpts from the editorial:[2]
"The celebrations in the Arab countries of Dr. Sadiq Khan's win in the London mayoral elections, which began Friday night, haven't stopped. Khan is a Muslim, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, and he grew up for the most part in the public housing that the government provides to the needy.
"Many have not grasped the significance of the win of this young man, who climbed from the bottom to the very top, in a journey rife with suffering and with diligent efforts in a capitalist society and a non-Islamic multicultural environment.
"In our view, the secret [of his success] lies in equality, the rule of law, and the absence of racism - and even more so in the fight against it, and its uprooting - and in full respect for human rights, the most prominent of which is social justice. [Also contributing to his success] is the respect for all manner of liberties, chiefly freedom of expression...
"All of these values and fundamental principles are nonexistent in the vast majority of our Arab and Islamic countries. That is why their sons await the first opportunity to emigrate, searching for a good life far from persecution, oppression, and racism, where they can find a welcoming environment that offers them opportunities for success and creativity.
"Let us imagine - had Sadiq Khan's father 'gotten lucky' and immigrated to an Arab country, or, specifically a Gulf state, because these [states] are home to millions of Indian and Pakistani immigrants - what would this Pakistani immigrant's situation have been, and what future would he have?
"First, he would have been subject to the authority of a guardian; this guardian would, immediately upon his arrival [in a Gulf state], have confiscated his passport and locked it away in a safe. He would have had to find a private Indian or Pakistani school for his children, because they are not allowed to attend government schools. Had one of his children fallen ill, he would have had to seek private medical care, because they are also banned from most government hospitals. And if they did go to these hospitals, they would have been insulted and humiliated, and given second-rate medicine - not the top-quality medicine that is reserved solely for the state's children.
"It would have been only natural for Sadiq Khan's father to reside in a Gulf state for 40 years and more without obtaining permanent residency for either himself or his children, let alone citizenship, not to mention political rights and the right to vote in elections. Mr. Khan's [fate] would have been like that of millions of other Arabs, Muslim or Christian, Shi'ite or Sunni, as well as of millions of other immigrants from around the world.
"The Western societies have developed, and have attained the economic, political, and military might that they have attained, because they fought racism in all its forms, and because they gave [all] their citizens equality in the eyes of the law, and equal employment opportunities regardless of religion, origin, or color.
"Those celebrating Mr. Khan's victory - which he earned through his struggle, and through his own achievements, and because he got into [key] political and social institutions thanks to his scholastic excellence - especially [those celebrating it] in the Arab media, should not focus on meaningless [issues]. By reveling in the fact that he is a Muslim - and not in the fact that he came from a poor and humble family, and that he was given this opportunity by equality and by [genuine] communal life, they are expressing racism.
"Sadiq Khan will enter history through the same door as U.S. President Barack Obama... and we must always remember that this is all thanks to equality and the rule of law. We, as Arabs currently undergoing the worst forms of racial and ethnic incitement among members of our same Islamic faith, have a long way to go before we attain the values and fundamental principles that are specifically demanded by our religion.
A cartoon shows Sadiq Khan's probable future had his father immigrated to an Arab country. The Arabic reads: Policeman: "Not a word - [hand over] your driver's license, your passport and your residency permit." (Image: Al-Ghad, Jordan, May 8, 2016)
While attending the Russian military parade marking the 71st anniversary of the World War II victory, former vice-chairman of the Duma and head of the LDPR party Vladimir Zhirinovsky said that the Russian army was the best in the world. He added that the Americans "don't know how to fight" and that the British "never participated in a war." When Zhirinovsky was asked by reporters what he thought about the cancellation of the military parades in post-Soviet republics like Kazakhstan and Belarus, he compared their conduct to that of whores seeking privileges from the West. The video was posted by LifeNews Internet TV on May 9, 2016.
Following are excertps
Vladimir Zhirinovsky: This is the best army in the world. No one has an army like that. The Americans do not know how to fight. They'd better pay someone else to do that. Britain has never participated in a war. The Germans were defeated twice.
Interviewer: What do you think about other countries, such as Belarus and Kazakhstan, who have cancelled their military parades?
Vladimir Zhirinovsky: It's bad. Those countries, which have cancelled [the parades], will restore them. They will restore all the [Soviet] holidays. This is a temporal delusion. They are doing this in order to get rewarded by the West -perhaps to get more privileges. Everything is for sale, like whores...
[...]
15 Ways to Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Cincinnati-Style Chili
Cincinnati-style chili is celebrating its 100th birthday on Oct. 24.
By Danny Cross, Maija Zummo and CityBeat Staff Oct 24, 2022
Certain cities are in part defined by their native cuisines. Although at times stereotypical, one cannot debate the value of partaking in a hot slice of New York-style pizza in the Big Apple, a hunk of deep dish in Chicago or a greasy cheesesteak topped with Cheez Whiz in Philadelphia...
The Alternate Foreign Minister for European Affairs, Nikos Xydakis, met at the Foreign Ministry today with the Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation In Europe (OSCE), Ambassador Lamberto Zannier.
The meeting took place on the margins of a conference on Migration, Refugees and European Security: Enhancing cooperation, building alliances, which was hosted by the OSCE and the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).
During the discussion, Mr. Zannier briefed Mr. Xydakis on the OSCEs activities regarding the Ukraine issue and developments in the region.
The collocutors then focused on the ongoing refugee and migration crisis, highlighting the multidimensional nature of the phenomenon and the complex approach required to deal with it. Mr. Xydakis noted the European Unions lack of continuity on the issue and the need for member states to work with shared understanding to defend Europes common values.
Finally, reference was made to the unstable geopolitical situation prevailing in the wider region of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and to the need for Europe to draw up and immediately implement a plan for exiting the crisis, based on consensus and cooperation of all sides, and aimed at peace and normalcy.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ioannis Amanatidis met at the Foreign Ministry today with a delegation from the American Hellenic Institute (AHI).
During the meeting, which took place in a warm atmosphere, Mr. Amanatidis was briefed on the AHIs current activities, as well as on the delegations meetings during this years visit to Cyprus and Greece.
Having expressed the Greek governments appreciation for the AHIs timely contribution to pointing up Greeces geopolitical importance, Mr. Amanatidis underscored the usefulness of maintaining an open channel of communication and fruitful cooperation with the AHI and the Greek diaspora community in general.
Within the framework of preparations for the upcoming meeting of the Greek-Jordanian Joint Interministerial Committee (JIC), Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Mardas completed a working visit to Jordan today, accompanied by a business mission organized by the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV), in collaboration with the Foreign Ministry. On the margins of the visit, it was agreed, among other things, that the Jordanian delegation that is to be visiting Athens for the September JIC will be accompanied by a business mission.
During his visit to Amman, Mr. Mardas met with a number of Jordanian government officials, including Maha Ali, the Minister for Industry, Trade and Supply; Ibrahim Saif, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources; Tawfiq Al-Habashneh, the Secretary General for Water and Irrigation; Saleh Al-Kharabsheh, the Secretary General for Planning and International Cooperation; and officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Jordanians.
It should be noted that, for the first time, the Deputy Foreign Ministers meetings with Ministers and officials of the Jordanian government were also participated in by representatives of Greek enterprises. This innovation, which was implemented on a trial basis in the case of Jordan, will be incorporated into Foreign Ministry practice and be enriched with other sectoral agencies and chambers of commerce.
Mr. Mardas also addressed a Business Forum co-organized by the Amman Chamber of Commerce and Industry and SEV, with the participation of Greek and Jordanian entrepreneurs.
Subsequent to the announcement from the Pasok tourism section on the matter of the issuing of entry visas to Russian tourists, the Foreign Ministry notifies interested members of the public and entrepreneurs in the tourism sector of the following:
(a) The new VIS system for the issuing of entry visas in any country in the Schengen area requires that interested parties submit their applications in person at a visa application center (VAC) and provide biometric data that is then crosschecked for security reasons against national and European databases. Due to the new procedures, the system is extremely secure, albeit demanding.
(b) While the Schengen countries knew of the deadline for mandatory implementation of the system since at least 2013, it was the current government, with the Foreign Ministry, that drew up a plan for bolstering the consular missions in all countries of implementation, and primarily in Russia, from which a large number of tourists are expected to visit Greece. The plan included bolstering consular missions with equipment and personnel, as well as urgent improvement of the software that is used and that decisively impacts the speedy processing of visa applications. The actions provided for are being carried out without delay, based on a timetable, and more has already been done in the space of 120 days to bolster the visa sections of our consular missions than was done in previous years.
(c) In particular at our three consular missions in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novorossiysk), visas are being issued smoothly, with no cases, to date, of missed trips resulting from delayed issuing of visas at least by fault of the consular missions. Under the current conditions of demand on and staffing of the consular missions, visas are issued within 24 to 48 hours in St. Petersburg and Novorossiysk, while in Moscow, where demand is higher, instructions have been issued for travelers applications to be processed by priority in 3 to 5 days, so that no trips are missed. Moreover, our consular mission in Moscow was bolstered with 10 additional seconded personnel on Friday, 6 May, and 20 additional seasonal personnel will start work within the current week. Through to the end of May, some 30 additional staff will be added, so that the time required to issue a visa can be reduced to close to that required at the other two consulates.
Consequently, the vague statements, repeated in various quarters, as to cancelations of group trips, conferences, etc., that did not receive visas in time are not borne out by the reality of the situation or by the daily reports from the heads of consular missions. What is happening, in fact, is that the personnel at these missions have worked hard, day and night, to avert the loss of single trip and to protect the image of the country and the national economy.
The information provided by the Foreign Ministry is backed by the relevant statement from Dmitry Gorin, a General Director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia: The Greek consulate and the Greek visa centers underwent a serious test before the May holidays, and they stood up under great pressure, which, he noted, proves the popularity of the Greek destination among Russians. It is clear that Greece will be one of the most popular summer destinations among Russians in 2016. [] Given that the Greek embassy and consulate have taken drastic measures to deal with the difficult situation with the visas, people believed even more in this countrys dedication to Russian tourists. I think that Greece will be among the top three destinations this summer.
(d) The Pasok tourism section refers anew to the photographs of tourists waiting in line to submit applications at one of the two private VACs in Moscow. It was explained in a previous Foreign Ministry press release that this phenomenon was seen on only a single day, when the managers of the VACs in question invited the public to submit applications without making appointments. From that day on by order of the Moscow Consulate General the appointment procedure has been followed carefully, while in spot inspections carried out in the intervening time at the two VACs, arrival of applicants has been orderly and by appointment.
(e) Moreover, the Pasok tourism section refers to an inaccurate announcement from the private operators of the VAC, according to which the minimum time for the issuing of a visa is ten days. In fact, in accordance with the regulations in effect for all Schengen countries, the visa is issued by the consular mission provided the application is complete within ten days. The VAC operators posted the incorrect announcement on their website without the approval of our consular mission in Moscow, and the inaccurate announcement was corrected immediately upon request of our consular mission in Moscow.
The Foreign Ministry is working ceaselessly to ensure that potential visitors to our country are served in a timely manner and that our national economy benefits fully from tourism.
Initially, homeland is the village, the town, friends Later, a road remains, a square. When parents and friends die, what remains are childhood memories and the language. I am proud to have held onto Greek after 53 years; to speak without searching for words. This is the homeland. The language. As long as the mother lived, I said, Greece is the mother. Now that she is no more, Greek is the homeland
With these words of Theodor Kallifatides, words of the soul for our adored homeland which, as Elytis reminds us, Tries for a stone gives up, Tries to carve it works miracles I would like to welcome the presentation of his new literary endeavor and thank you warmly for inviting me to be here with you today.
Kallifatides is today among the most important writers in the Swedish language. He is one of the rare cases of literary bilingualism. He writes in Swedish and then translates the books into Greek. Writing, he ponders rather than affirms or judges. Seventeen of his books have been published in Greek. Beyond the 35 books he has published in Sweden, the prizes he has won, his presence in the theater and cinema, Kallifatides is an important figure in Swedish and Greek literature.
The novel I will always return is more timely than ever in a Greece that, while still trying to heal the wounds from the worst economic crisis in recent history, is also facing the thorny and complex refugee issue.
An immigrant himself for many years now, in Sweden, he can have a thorough perspective on what it means to leave your homeland and seek a new life somewhere new and far away. Both Australia and Sweden countries the couple in the novel visits, seeking their fortune a first and a second time are organized, friendly, accommodating to immigrants, with equal opportunities and potential to prosper for anyone who really wants to work.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In a time when everything is changing dramatically, it is more than necessary for politics, society, local government, organizations and citizens to gain the ability to convert into an opportunity an issue that at first glance looks like a problem. So I hope that Theodor Kallifatides new novel provides a spark in this direction.
Thank you.
The Republican of Springfield reports voters at a town meeting in Hadley on Thursday decided not to legalize backyard cottages.
Sarah Hastings has been living in her 190-square-foot home on a parcel owned by another couple for the last year. She built the home while she was an architecture studies student at Mount Holyoke College.
Some residents had objected to the tiny house because Hastings failed to go through the required permitting process.
She was given a day to move out. Hastings says she'll try to find another location for her house.
Hundreds of cows and bulls walked the ramp in a north Indian town Saturday in a bovine beauty pageant aimed at promoting domestic cattle breeds and raising awareness about animal health.
As farmers led their animals, the panel of experts judged the beasts for their size and overall looks, the length of their horns and, for the cows, their milk-yielding capacities.
The judges selected 18 winners in various categories, choosing the healthiest and best-looking cows and bulls from more than 630 animals in the contest, held in the farming town of Rohtak in Haryana state.
On the ramp, the bovines displayed their individuality. Some sashayed with casual grace, while others dug in their heels and had to be pulled and prodded by their owners to walk for the judges.
The winners, representing three different breeds, carried home prizes and a winner's sash.
The farmers led their prize cows with pride at the sprawling grounds of the International Institute of Veterinary Education and Research.
"I have brought my best cow for the show and she has won a prize," Randhir Singh, a farmer from nearby Dwarka village, said as he pointed to a red ribbon tied around the head of his well-groomed cow, which won first place in its category. "I wanted my cow to win and she has done me proud."
Prem Singh, the Haryana official in charge of animal husbandry, said only indigenous breeds were allowed to take part in the contest because the state government was trying to popularize local breeds of cows.
Farmers from all 21 districts of Haryana participated in the cattle show and pageant, the official said.
In recent years, India has emerged as one of the world's largest producers of milk, although yields from Indian cows are low compared to those in Europe or America. The government is trying to improve milk yields of domestic cows by offering better veterinary support and counseling to cattle farmers.
The A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft supplied by the U.S. to the Afghan air force have been used extensively since arriving in January, flying hundreds of sorties including close-air support missions, NATO's Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul said Tuesday.
"Since January, Afghan Air Force A-29 pilots have flown more than 260 sorties, supporting operational and training missions," Resolute Support said in an e-mail statement on the milestone achievement for the turboprop aircraft.
The statement did not specify how many of the sorties were operational but Army Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, the chief spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said last week that the A-29s "are providing close air support." He also did not specify how many close air support missions had been flown or describe their effectiveness.
Cleveland said the first four A-29s arrived in Afghanistan in January and became operational on April 1. Another four A-29s have been delivered to the Afghan Air Force since then, he said in a video briefing to the Pentagon from Kabul.
The second group of A-29s "are now going through their paces and they are going through their training effort right now. We expect to see them become operational and we don't have a hard date for it, but we think probably the June timeframe," he said.
The Afghans have released few details on the operations of the A-29s. Last month, the Afghan army public relations directorate said 42 militants loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, had been killed in a joint air and ground operation by Afghan forces in southeastern Nangarhar province, Reuters reported.
The Afghan army did not specify whether A-29s were involved in the attack. The U.S. has also supplied the Afghan Air Force with MD-530 attack helicopters.
Army Gen. John Nicholson, the new commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, told Reuters last month that the A-29s carried out their first independent strike operation in the northern province of Badakhshan on April 14. He said the Afghan air force was steadily improving its targeting to avoid civilian casualties.
"It's much more than just the pilot being able to fly the plane and release the ordnance -- there's a whole system that surrounds this," Nicholson told Reuters.
A U.S.-funded $427 million contract calls for a total of 20 A-29s to be delivered to Afghanistan by 2018.
Eight Afghan pilots completed training late last year on the A-29s with U.S. pilots from the 81st Fighter Squadron at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia. The aircraft, which were designed for close air support, carry a 20mm cannon below the fuselage, one 12.7mm machine gun under each wing and can also fire 70mm rockets and launch precision-guided bombs.
The A-29s began arriving in Afghanistan nearly five years after the Brazilian firm Embraer, and its U.S. partner Sierra Nevada Corp., won a Light Air Support competition with the A-29 against the Hawker Beechcraft AT-6B Texan II, leading to contract disputes and delays in the program.
-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
Despite Flipping in Surf 4 Times in a Year, Marines Say New ACV Is the Future of Amphibious Warfare
Some Marine veterans familiar with the vehicle and its operations have worried about the reliability of the ACV.
Daniel Torres is finally a citizen of the land he once served as a U.S. Marine while living a lie, and this time he has a chance to make things right. Five years ago, Torres was ready to ship out to Afghanistan for his second tour when his military superiors learned he'd lied about his immigration status in order to enlist. Instead of deploying, he was deported. The 30-year-old has been living in Mexico ever since, with a network of exiled U.S. veterans. But Torres, who told his story of banishment to FoxNews.com earlier this year, recently learned his status has been unexpectedly changed, to naturalized citizen. "It is all still very surreal for me," Torres, who came to America from Mexico with his family as a teen and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2007 using falsified documents, told FoxNews.com. "I haven't seen my family in five years, and now I will be able to spend the summer with them and see my Marines we definitely have to have a reunion for that."
Torres' new standing came courtesy of a special provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows people who serve in the U.S military during a time of conflict and who deploy overseas to be entitled to citizenship regardless of legal status in the country or place of residence. It's exactly the kind of loophole Torres could find himself specializing in as a lawyer, the career he now hopes to fashion. Torres' long nightmare began in 2011, as he was preparing to go to Afghanistan. He lost his wallet, and in the process of trying to re-establish his credentials, his long-held secret unraveled. Born in Tijuana, he had come to the U.S. illegally as a child. When he had enlisted, he had done so with phony identification. "I just didn't want to be another Mexican living in the United States," Torres told FoxNews.com. "I wanted to say I had contributed, that I had done something for the country. He got an honorable discharge, but was no longer welcome in the military or the U.S. He tried to join the French Foreign Legion, but washed out due to an injury suffered in Iraq. Unable to return to the U.S. due to his now red-flagged illegal immigrant status, Torres returned to his city of birth Tijuana. Once there, he relied on a network of former servicemen and women at the Deported Veterans House, a bunker founded in 2013 by deported veteran Hector Barajas. The nonprofit group offers legal and moral support as well as basic food and accommodation to deported veterans of all walks of life including non-citizens who served on the battlefields in Korea and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. In Mexico, Torres tried to stay positive and hold on to the dream of getting back to the U.S. "I knew I had to pay the price for lying, what I did was wrong. But I had just hoped I wouldn't have to pay the price forever," Torres said. "When I wanted to throw the towel in, I remembered that I was a Marine and Marines don't quit," he said. "Once a Marine, always a Marine." Red-flagged as an illegal immigrant and unwilling to sneak across the border, Torres embarked on a law degree at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California. Now in his last year, Torres plans to finish his degree and hopes to enroll in a Master's program in San Diego next year so he can practice law in both countries. And while Torres can now legally move back and forth between the two countries, he said his job is far from complete until the hundreds of other deported veterans also get their citizenship and their VA benefits they are unable to access while banned from entering. "I'm just one person," he said. "I want to get everyone else home -- there are guys here that need medical help and need to see their children." The Pentagon estimates that up to 65,000 non-citizens are currently serving, and a prominent incentive for joining is that fast-track to citizenship although it is not guaranteed. Barajas said many simply weren't made aware of their rights and how to begin the process when they were active or after being discharged, and ran into trouble when it was too late. Former Marine Dominic Certo, author of "Gold in the Coffins," and an adviser to the veterans advocacy organization Operation Homefront, believes people who fight for the U.S. deserve to live here. "Anyone who has served our country and risked their lives or provided service for the citizens of this country as a veteran deserves amnesty -- especially when there are so many who have done nothing to earn citizenship or provide a military service to our country," Certo said.
The U.S. Marine Corps is getting its first female rifleman and machine gunner later this year, service officials confirmed this week.
The two female enlisted Marines who have made lateral move requests to infantry jobs have been approved, Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Philip Kulczewski told Military.com. The news was first reported by Marine Corps Times.
The Marine who applied to be an 0311 rifleman was a lance corporal, an official confirmed. The rank of the Marine approved to be an 0331 machine gunner is not clear. Kulczewski said the Corps is now in the process of meeting staffing requirements at the units that will receive the Marines.
In keeping with a Defense Department mandate and the Corps' own plan for integrating female troops into ground combat jobs, any infantry battalion with female members must also have a leadership cadre of at least two female officers or noncommissioned officers who have been at the unit for at least 90 days. Kulczewski said it's likely the Marines will not join their new units until December of this year.
While the units that will get the first female grunts have been identified by the Marine Corps, Kulczewski said, they have not yet been publicly announced.
The Marines who applied for infantry jobs are part of a small group of 233 women who were granted infantry military occupational specialties earlier this year after passing the Corps' enlisted infantry training at Camp Geiger, North Carolina, in order to participate in the service's research on integrating women into the previously closed units. While all the women are eligible to apply for infantry jobs, only the two enlisted Marines have done so to date.
Kulczewski said a more senior female infantry captain had also applied for a lateral move to a newly opened unit, but the request was denied based on the staffing needs of the Marine Corps.
After the two Marines reach their new units, the service will continue to research their progress. Kulczewski said the Marine Corps had created a 25-year longitudinal study to "assess all aspects and possible impacts throughout implementation."
The Corps' implementation plan requires that the commandant be informed directly of certain developments as women enter all-male infantry units, including indications of decreased combat readiness or effectiveness; increased risk to Marines including incidents of sexual assault or hazing; indications of a lack of career viability for female Marines; indications of command climates or culture that is unreceptive to female Marines, and indications that morale or cohesion is being degraded in integrated units.
Officials are also rolling out new training beginning this month aimed at ensuring all Marines understand the changes taking place. Mobile training teams will spend the next two months visiting bases and offering two-day seminars to majors and lieutenant colonels that include principles of institutional change, discussions of "unconscious bias" and specifics of the Corps' integration plan. These officers are then expected to communicate this information to their units.
"The Corps applauds the time and efforts of those Marines who volunteered. Request like these help the Marine Corps to continue the implementation of gender integration throughout all military occupational specialties," Kulczewski said. "The continued success of the Marine Corps as our nation's preeminent expeditionary force in readiness is based on a simple tenet: placing the best trained and most fully qualified Marine, our most valuable weapon, where they make the strongest contribution to the team."
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
After years of consideration, the Marine Corps is joining the other military services in eliminating vehicle decals used to access bases.
The decals, which identify vehicles with access to military installations, were once used broadly throughout the Defense Department. But amid heightened security protocols, the stickers have become at best irrelevant and at worst a liability for troops and family members.
In an administrative message published Tuesday, Maj. Gen. James Laster, director of Marine Corps Staff, said the issue of vehicle decals would stop immediately. In their place, the message said, base commanders will order vehicle spot checks by law enforcement to ensure cars comply with registration requirements.
In light of 2015 policy updates requiring 100-percent ID card checks at all Marine Corps base gates, Laster said in the message, vehicle decals no longer serve a useful purpose.
The Marine Corps continued its use of vehicle decals years after the other services did away with them. The Air Force eliminated the decal requirement in 2007, and the Army and Navy followed suit in 2011.
In materials released in 2007 with its policy change, Air Force officials explained that the DD Form 2220 military decal system was costly and outdated, providing little information to security officials and potentially endangering Defense Department personnel by identifying them as potential targets of terror attacks.
"We've been putting our own personnel through a process that simply duplicates state and federal mandatory requirements," Col. William Sellers, the Air Force chief of force protection and operations for security forces, said in a news release at the time.
In June 2011, then-commandant Gen. James Amos granted the Marine Corps a waiver to continue using the decals even after the Navy removed the requirement in order to support traffic management/enforcement efforts, vehicle registration requirements, and Clean Air Act mandates, according to the message.
But in late 2014, the Defense Department began to issue warnings to troops and military families about the threat of Islamic State attacks. The Pentagon's Force Protection Agency specifically advised personnel to get rid of decals or identifiers from clothing and vehicles that might indicate military affiliation. In light of these warnings, the prominently displayed decals appeared to constitute a liability.
"I don't like being targeted and my husband is always on me about [operational security]," Marine spouse Kristine Schelhaas told Marine Corps Times in 2014. " And yet we go and stick these symbols on our car."
The paper reported that the Corps was then in the early stages of changing its policy to get rid of the decals, though it wasnt clear how long the process was expected to take.
While Marine officials have not announced the cost savings they expect to realize with the new policy, it could be significant. Navy officials told Navy Times getting rid of the decals saved the service $750,000 per year.
According to Tuesdays message, bases will continue in-depth security practices utilizing a layered approach that includes traffic barriers, armed law enforcement officers, military working dogs, and spot checks of vehicles that appear suspicious.
Additional layers of security inside the perimeter will continue, with a focus on random and fixed security measures and protection of critical assets and facilities, the message added.
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
The Diamondbacks have signed center fielder Michael Bourn to a minor league deal, per a club announcement. Hell be assigned to Double-A to start with Arizona.
Bourn, 33, was cut loose by the Blue Jays over the weekend after previously receiving his release from the Braves. The veteran will only cost his new team a pro-rated portion of the league minimum salary, as the final year of his free agent contract with the Indians remains on Atlantas payroll.
Its been quite some time since Bourn was a productive regular, but the D-Backs will hope theres still a renaissance left. Arizona has struggled to fill in for injured star A.J. Pollock, who left a massive void in center field and isnt expected back any time soon.
At his best, Bourn was a major threat on the bases, excellent defender, and good-enough hitter who conveyed plenty of overall value. But hes mostly been injured and/or ineffective since going to Cleveland after a strong 2012 walk year.
Bourn will still need to earn another major league opportunity, and has to climb the ladder a bit after playing only at the High-A level in the Toronto organization. In his 41 plate appearances there, he put up a solid but hardly exciting .257/.366/.371 batting line and swiped one base in a single attempt.
ANN ARBOR, MI -- No No Thai is no longer a problem for residents on Ann Arbor's south side starting Wednesday.
The fast-casual Asian-inspired restaurant chain opens its fifth location on May 11, its fourth in Ann Arbor.
"There's a need for a quick, casual Asian restaurant in this area," said Jeffery Cho, one of the owners and co-founders of the company.
The newest restaurant is located in the Woodland Plaza at the intersection of Main Street and Ann Arbor-Saline Road at 2276 S. Main St. Other restaurants include one in the Kerrytown district, on Plymouth Road and on South University. There's also an East Lansing location.
Cho said opening in the south side of town has been a goal of the company for some time, it was just a matter of waiting for space to open up.
"We really like this part of town. A lot of people live down here," Cho said. "They work downtown or on north campus or on the campus, but they all live down here, so we thought this would be a great place."
No Thai signed a lease for the 1,700-square-foot space last fall and construction on the restaurant has been ongoing for about four months, Cho said.
Architect Aaron Vermeulen from O|X Studio and general contractor Robert McFate from The McFate Group handled the build out. Cho said he's extremely pleased with their work and how the project came together.
The restaurant staff will have approximately 25 to 30 employees with a mixture of part-time and full-time positions. Delivery service will also begin in the summer, Cho said. The restaurant has seating for 32 customers.
"We've found that's our sweet spot for capacity and in terms of how busy we are," Cho said.
Those familiar with No Thai, won't notice any changes to the menu, but Cho says he and the rest of the ownership group are very happy with how the business has continued to grow.
"Something that we're really proud of is our progression as business owners. We went from a small 600-square-foot place to opening several locations," Cho said. "Each time we do it, we feel like we're getting a little bit better."
Cho and his business partners Brian Kim and Noerung Hang opened No Thai in 2005.
Cho said there haven't been talks about opening another location, but if they were to expand again, they'd probably look for a space outside of Ann Arbor.
"We're starting to prove our concept works somewhere outside of campus and into different parts of the community," Cho said.
Still, he says it's too soon to talk about when or if No Thai will continuing branching out.
For now, the company is focused on the new restaurant and making sure everything is running smoothly at all five locations.
As part of Wednesday's grand opening, the first 100 customers will receive a free No Thai T-shirt courtesy of the company's new neighbor, Underground Printing.
Matt Durr is a business reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Email him at mattdurr@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter.
Ford Motor Company's impact on Dearborn endures with a new $1.2 billion plan to remake its offices into walkable campus areas over the next 10 years.
But some changes are more immediate: In the next year, the global automaker will reshape one of Metro Detroit's largest malls when it moves a product planning center into a long-closed anchor store at Fairlane Town Center.
The move will be one of southeast Michigan's largest office deals this year, affecting at least 2,000 employees. That Ford is also replacing retail space in a super-regional mall puts Fairlane at the forefront of U.S. real estate transformations.
While the deal at Fairlane is unique for Ford, but it's also a sign of new, creative approaches to using space at U.S. malls.
That both are involved makes sense, according to people involved in the deal.
"Ford is planning a transportation campus," said Chuck Bechara of Starwood Retail Partners, an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group, the $7 billion real estate investment company that acquired Fairlane in 2014 in a seven-mall, $1.4 billion deal.
"They're converting their offices and their main facilities, slowly but surely, into a high-tech transportation and development hub," Bechara said. "And Fairlane is in the middle of it all."
Now the conversion of 240,000 square feet of mall space into office space is underway. About half of that is the two-story former Lord & Taylor store, with the rest inline former store spaces.
The renovations will accommodate about 2,100 Ford employees in new product development, Bechera said. That move comes as Ford begins a decade-long effort to consolidate 30,000 employees in 70 offices to two redesigned, high-tech locations in Dearborn, just west of Detroit.
Ford did not comment for this story. Details on the build-out were not available, but Dearborn officials said the mall's zoning did not need to be changed for the office space.
"We're excited that the mall will be given an interjection of energy with Ford's plan," said Mary Laundroche, director of public information for Dearborn.
The 1.5-million square foot mall was built in 1976 by the Taubman Company, which also developed Twelve Oaks in Novi, Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor and Lakeside in Sterling Heights during that era. It has about 160 stores.
Starwood Capital Group reported acquired Fairlane for $102.2 million. Starwood, which owns malls in 16 states and operates them through its realty group, found the Fairlane sales per foot were around $335.
The Lord & Taylor had been closed since 2006. A Saks Fifth Avenue store also closed, and was demolished for restaurant space. Other anchors Macys, JC Penney and Sears still operate, but all three chains have been closing stores as department stores face profit pressures.
Bechera said Taubman did a great job with maintaining occupancy and a tenant mix, including adding a movie theater and additional restaurants. Despite that, Fairlane had reached a state of maturity in what he called "a mature market."
"This was kind of the slow one, the one we took along with it," Bechera said. "It turned out to be one of our shining stars."
One reason is the steady sales increase, putting the average over $400 per foot today.
Another, Bechera said, is the Ford deal.
The lease, he said, "is really a lynchpin in the revitalization and, I think, solidification of our mall in the market."
Now, he said, more investment into the property will follow.
Shoppers won't find the office space obvious while in the mall. It will be integrated into a private setting for Ford, which will require security access to enter.
Meanwhile, one of the new Ford campuses will be to the east of the mall, across the Southfield freeway, near the existing Ford World Headquarters. Its presence is felt in the offices, hotels and restaurants that line the outer perimeter of the mall property.
"They've been our neighbor for many, many years," Bechara said. "We're proud to be partners with them."
Bechara looks back to the Great Recession and Ford's turnaround plan, during which the automaker didn't take government money during the downturn. It moved from $12 billion in losses in 2006 to record pre-tax profit of $10.8 billion in 2015.
"Ford stood tall and came out stronger than ever," Bechara said. "That parallels the mall and the mall's success. We're stronger than we've ever been."
Paula Gardner covers Michigan business for MLive.com. She can be reached by email or follow her on Twitter.
Harold Cronk is part owner and CEO of 10 West Studios in Manistee, which is producing "God Bless the Broken Road," a film set in West Michigan.
LANSING, MI - "God Bless the Broken Road," a faith-based film whose story elements include Berlin Raceway, country music and the widow of soldier killed in Afghanistan, qualifies for almost $2.7 million in state funds.
The film, which will begin production in West Michigan this spring, is eligible to receive an incentive payment of nearly $2.7 million from the Michigan Film & Digital Media Office (MFDMO), according to a news release on Tuesday, May 10.
"The incentive amount is based on an estimated total production, post production and publicity and advertising budget of $7.7 million. The film will also hire 92 Michigan workers equating to 20 full-time employees," the announcement said.
Although legislation was signed last July to eliminate state film and digital media incentives, the agreement for "God Bless the Broken Road" was approved before the legislation took effect.
"God Bless the Broken Road" is being produced and directed by Harold Cronk, whose Manistee-based 10 West Studios also produced faith-based movies such as "God's Not Dead" a word-of-mouth hit that was filmed in Louisiana with a $2 million budget, and grossed $60.7 million during its theatrical run.
"The film tells the story of a young woman, Amber, who loses her husband during combat in Afghanistan and is left alone to raise their young daughter.
"When up-and-coming racecar driver, Cody Jackson, rolls into town, Amber and Bree become wrapped up in his pedal to the metal way of life. Amber struggles with Cody's attention and withdraws to protect herself and Bree from the dangers of loving someone who lives life on the edge every day," according to the film's trailer notes.
"The film combines an exploration of faith with country music and stock car racing while offering a tribute to those who serve," according to the news release.
"The production provides significant private spending and economic boost in the communities where the film will be shot," said MFDMO Commissioner Jenell Leonard.
"Despite no longer having an incentive program, the MFDMO continually engages filmmakers looking for the diverse locations of Michigan, and assists in expediting the filmmaking process," Leonard said.
"This film highlights the striking beauty and geographical diversity of the West Michigan region."
Cronk's studio also produced a pair of kid-friendly adventure films, 2012's "Mickey Matson and the Copperhead Conspiracy" and this year's "Pirate's Code: The Adventures of Mickey Matson," both of which filmed in Michigan.
Jim Harger covers business for Mlive Media Group. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- 7 Monks Taproom, a popular bar in Traverse City, is planning to open here in the 616 Lofts on Michigan development along the "Medical Mile" this fall.
"We are thrilled by the opportunity to join the thriving beer scene in Grand Rapids," said co-owner Matt Cozzens. "From day one we have been honored by great partnerships with some of the city's leading breweries, and we look forward to joining them in Beer City, USA."
Cozzens and co-owner Jim Smolak opened 7 Monks Taproom in Traverse City in 2011. Since then, it was twice named to Draft Magazine's "100 Best Beer Bars in America" list.
The pair are completing a new Boyne City location that will open this summer and plan to open the third location at 740 Michigan St. NE this fall.
"It's exciting," Smolak said in a news release on Tuesday, May 10. "We are big fans of many of the breweries and craft beer providers in Grand Rapids, and are looking forward to joining them and providing our own unique take on craft beer."
The Grand Rapids bar will include 57 taps featuring seasonal craft beers, the announcement said. It will include "an emphasis on Trappist beer; gastro pub food highlighting Michigan products; live music; charitable events; and a taste of Northern Michigan."
The bar will be located on the ground floor of a $15 million mixed-use development built by 616 Development and opened to residents over the winter. 7 Monks is the first retail tenant to be announced.
"7 Monks is a great anchor for the project and we look forward to pulling together a great mix of tenants for the remaining spaces," said real estate broker Chris Muller, owner of MRetail Solutions.
"We are excited to have 7 Monks join us at our 616 Lofts on Michigan location," said Monica Steimle, Director of Community Relations for 616 Lofts.
"We feel that the Michigan Street Corridor provides a great connection from the Midtown neighborhood to downtown conveniently connecting residents to business. We appreciate their interest in Grand Rapids and their commitment to being engaged and committed to our community."
RELATED: 616 Lofts on Michigan ready to show off new apartments
Jim Harger covers business for Mlive Media Group. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+.
51ZlbXdrHfL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
Eastern Michigan University professor Regina Luttrell and colleague Karen McGrath have examined the mindset of one of the most enigmatic generations in decades, millennials, in their book "The Millennial Mindset: Unraveling Fact from Fiction." Photo provided
ANN ARBOR, MI - Regina Luttrell's daily interactions with students in their late teens and early 20s weren't matching up with the stereotypes commonly associated with the millennial generation ... so she wrote a book about it.
Luttrell, an author associate professor of public relations and social media at Eastern Michigan University, and colleague Karen McGrath examined the mindset of one of the most enigmatic generations in decades, millennials, in their book "The Millennial Mindset: Unraveling Fact from Fiction."
Consisting of more than 80 million people born between 1982 and 2000 -- a quarter of the U.S. population -- Luttrell said stereotypes characterizing the generation as lazy, spoiled, entitled, condescending "know-it-alls" are both inaccurate and short-sighted.
While everyone seems to have an opinion on the generation, Luttrell said she wanted to look beyond the stereotypes to understand what makes millennials tick, interviewing a number of students at EMU for the book.
"None of them like to be labeled or to have that label attached to them - even the positive ones," Luttrell said. "They feel like they've been labeled everywhere in the media. Most of them were pretty frank and honest, and feel like even if their counterparts are lazy or entitled, they aren't all like that."
Presented using a fact or fiction format, the book identifies criticisms of the generation, and then frames associated behaviors leveraging historical events to situate millennials in today's world.
In "The Millenial Mindset," Luttrell and McGrath address what they believe to be proper characterizations of the generation in what they refer to as the seven Cs: confident, connected, committed change agents, contradistinctive, cavalier and collaborative.
By examining characteristics of previous generations, Luttrell and McGrath draw comparisons and offer contrasts of Millennials, while also introducing a relatively new metaphor for many parents raising millennials: "snow-plow parenting."
They've been raised by parents who clear the path to success, Luttrell said, much like a snow-plow paves the way for a clean drive.
"There's this notion that the parents of millennials are 'helicopter parents,' being overly-involved, but that's not really the type of parenting they are receiving," Luttrell said. "Snow-plow parenting refers to how parents ensure their children are going to be successful by clearing a path for them. Any job of career they want, their parents make sure they are going to have."
The book includes numerous interviews with millennials that provide insights into their perspectives on other generations, religion, relationships, education, money, sex, and careers.
McGrath, a professor of Communications at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, said she came away from the research hopeful for the future based on her conversations with students.
"I think one of the things that comes out of the research is the questions 'Are you optimistic?' and the answer is absolutely," she said. "We want to nurture the positive attributes of not only the millennial generation, but the other generations we've highlighted.
"They are not only committed change agents, but they are also committed to working with people they believe in," she added. "Millennials believe in service leadership and working in a place because what they do benefits the company."
Luttrell and McGrath will take part in a discussion about millennials followed by a book signing at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 14 at Nicola's Books, Westgate Shopping Center, 2513 Jackson Ave. in Ann Arbor.
"The Millennial Mindset" was published by Rowman & Littlefield and can be purchased via Amazon.com
Martin Slagter covers higher education for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at mslagter@mlive.com or on Twitter.
SUPERIOR TWP, MI - Police are searching for some potentially musically-inclined robbers.
Authorities were called on the afternoon of May 7 to a reported home invasion that occurred between 12 a.m. and 8 a.m. in the 8900 block of Bristol Court in Superior Township, according to the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office.
Police believe a suspect or suspects were able to reach through the slightly lowered window of a vehicle outside of the home and unlock the door.
Several pieces of jewelry and $131 in cash were taken from the vehicle.
Someone also forced their way their way into an attached garage and stole two guitars and other music equipment, police said.
There are currently no suspects in the incident.
Those with information on this incident are asked to contact the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office confidential tip line at 734-973-7711 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK UP.
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.
Harbor House of Ann Arbor
Police are investigating a death at Harbor House of Ann Arbor on May 10, 2016.
( Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News )
ANN ARBOR, MI - A fugitive sought by the U.S. Marshals and the Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team shot and killed himself in Ann Arbor early Tuesday, according to a U.S. Marshals official.
Although authorities previously weren't releasing information about a death investigation at the Harbor House of Ann Arbor apartments, 275 Harbor Way, Deputy U. S. Marshal Justin Efthemiou confirmed the death happened early May 10.
The incident occurred as U.S. Marshals sought a fugitive on a felony warrant, Efthemiou said.
The felony investigation led authorities to believe the fugitive, who has not yet been identified, was in a specific apartment in the complex, he said.
"Upon entry (by authorities), the fugitive used a firearm and self-inflicted a shot, which ultimately caused their death," Efthemiou said. "No law enforcement used force of any kind."
The death occurred between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. May 10, he said.
Efthemiou said the death effectively closes their felony investigation. He expects more information to be released on the investigation at a later point in time.
A property manager was alerted to the situation at about 9 a.m. May 10, but a maintenance team and authorities were already on scene, said Jessica Nix, a spokeswoman for Campus Life & Style. Harbor House of Ann Arbor is a Campus Life & Style property. Apartment residents were then notified of the incident.
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.
BAY CITY, MI -- A pregnant Hampton Township woman who allegedly kidnapped her daughter then smuggled cocaine into jail has accepted a plea offer.
Jussie Y. Craddock, 29, on Tuesday, May 10, appeared before Bay County District Judge Mark E. Janer and tearfully pleaded guilty to one count of possession of less than 25 grams of a narcotic or cocaine. The charge is a four-year felony.
"I'm just embarrassed by my actions," the shackled and crying Craddock told Janer, who acted as a Circuit Court judge for the plea hearing. "It was a little over a gram. It was powder cocaine."
Craddock had the cocaine on April 26, when police arrested her while investigating a domestic violence complaint against her. Officers and Bay County Jail staff asked Craddock if she had any contraband on her before bringing her into the jail. She repeatedly told them she had nothing on her, court records show.
Once inside the jail, Craddock was searched. In Craddock's bra, jail staff found a piece of folded paper containing cocaine -- which Craddock said wasn't hers -- and a pipe. They also found a second pipe and more white powder in her purse, as well as a green, leafy substance in her pants pocket, court records show.
In exchange for her plea, Bay County Assistant Prosecutor Bernard Coppolino agreed to dismiss single counts of bringing contraband into a jail and kidnapping - custodial interference. The latter charge stems from police on the evening of March 30 responding to a Bay City home for a missing child complaint. The complainant, Daniel Skrzypczak, told police he has full legal and physical custody of his 9-year-old daughter, but on March 27, he allowed her mother, Craddock, to take her for the day. Craddock was to return the child by noon March 28, Skrzypczak told police.
By the time Skrzypczak called police, Craddock had not yet returned the child. Skrzypczak added that he texted his daughter's phone telling her to come home, but he received responses saying "no" and "I'm OK," leading him to suspect Craddock was texting on their daughter's phone, court records show.
Skrzypczak's girlfriend, Melissa Kaunitz, told police Craddock's dad lives in Kentucky and she was afraid she'd tried to take the child there, court records show.
Police went to Craddock's home but found only her boyfriend, who told police Craddock was filing a complaint with Department of Human Services and the Bay County Friend of the Court to gain custody of the girl, court records show.
While police were there, the boyfriend and Craddock exchanged text messages. Craddock said she'd bring the girl to an area 7-Eleven at midnight, but officers said that wasn't soon enough and they were going to file a report, court records show.
About 9:20 p.m., police met with Miller again and retrieved the daughter. The girl told police she didn't want to go back to her dad's home, yet they returned her to him, court records show.
At the time of both the alleged kidnapping and cocaine incidents, Craddock was on probation on a conviction of domestic violence, second offense. She pleaded guilty to the charge in May 2015 and was sentenced to probation the following month. She was also ordered to pay $1,489 in court fines and costs, of which she's paid $85 as of May 10.
Before the Tuesday hearing was adjourned, defense attorney Paul F. Beggs asked Janer to release Craddock on a personal recognizance bond. Beggs argued his case by saying his client is three months pregnant and has doctor appointments pending.
Janer reduced Craddock's bond from $25,000 cash-surety to $2,500 cash-surety or 10 percent. If she posts it, she is to submit to two drug tests each week, Janer ordered.
Craddock's sentencing date is pending.
Myanmar's banking sector is set to expand beyond national borders for the first time with Thailands granting of a licence to Kanbawza (KBZ) Bank to open a representative office.
KBZ said in a statement yesterday that the licence marked a major milestone for Myanmars largest private bank as it became the first lender to establish a presence anywhere outside the country.
The announcement was made as Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai visited Nay Pyi Taw for talks with Foreign Minister Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Htin Kyaw.
As the largest bank in Myanmar, we are able to use our extensive knowledge of the countrys financial markets to encourage and promote trade, said KBZ senior managing director U Than Cho.
The representative office, which will need further Thai approval before it can provide banking services, is to be headed by U Zeyar Sein Htut, KBZ Banks newly appointed country head for Thailand. KBZ said the office would focus on market research, liaising with the private sector and serving as a source of information, including regulatory requirements for doing business in Thailand and Myanmar.
KBZ said Thailand is Myanmars second-largest trading partner after China, with trade totalling US$6.8 billion over the past five years.
KBZ Bank sees Myanmars estimated 3 million migrant workers in Thailand as potential customers. It said it would explore opportunities to build relations with and eventually cater to the migrants when they return to their home country.
However many of those migrants are working illegally in Thailand, lacking proper papers and living at the mercy of brokers and unscrupulous employers. When it comes to remittances they usually use informal and unregulated money transfer systems involving brokers.
Reporters at a news conference in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday pressed Thailands foreign minister on the difficulties facing migrant workers. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi took the question and said Thailand was working on these issues.
KBZ Bank said it had also applied to open a representative office in Singapore and was poised to continue expansion in ASEAN.
U Aung Ko Win, chair of the bank and founder of the KBZ group, was previously subject to EU and Australian sanctions for his close ties with the former military junta. He is now recognised for his transparency and as a leading taxpayer.
The Central Bank is hoping to move its daily foreign exchange auctions to an electronic system before the end of the year, according to U Win Thaw, head of the banks Foreign Exchange Management Department.
Myanmars private sector lenders bid to buy or offer to sell dollars in exchange for kyat at daily auctions.
These help the Central Bank set the daily kyat-dollar exchange rate, and theoretically allow the Central Bank to provide foreign exchange when there is a shortage in the market although the demand for dollars is often too high for the Central Bank to accept all bids.
Private sector banks that wish to take part in the auctions have to submit bids or offers manually to the Central Bank in an envelope.
But the Central Bank plans to move the auctions to an electronic system provided by media and information firm Thomson Reuters, U Win Thaw said.
Thomson Reuters signed an agreement with the Central Bank in December 2015 to provide the system, which runs on the Thomson Reuters Eikon platform. This platform also provides the Central Bank with financial data on things like global commodity prices and currency levels.
Every countrys Central Bank uses either a Thomson Reuters or a Bloomberg platform and sometimes both, said U Win Thaw, adding that other Central Bank departments, aside from foreign exchange, should have access to the same international financial information.
Myanmars private sector banks still use telephone calls for inter-bank foreign exchange trades, said U Win Thaw.
But the Thomson Reuters platform also provides an electronic system for interbank foreign exchange, and the firm has signed up many local banks to its FX trading system, Alfred Lee, the firms managing director for Financial and Risk in Southeast Asia, told The Myanmar Times.
Some 40 percent of Myanmars banks have already signed with Thomson Reuters to use the platform, and the Central Bank will start electronic auctions later this year as soon as a majority of the banks are ready, U Win Thaw said.
Almost all the branches of the nine foreign banks operating in Myanmar use the same platform, he added.
The platform will initially only allow the Central Bank to record banks auction bids and offers, but in time the Central Bank will also be able to use the platform to collect data on other financial transactions that the banks make, said U Win Thaw.
Once the system is active, Thomson Reuters will provide the service to the Central Bank free of charge for one year, and the commercial banks will be able to access the platform for free as well for six months, he said.
Securities firms can also make use of the platform, and a spokesperson at the Thomson Reuters office in Yangon said the firm had recently signed CB Securities to its online trading platform.
There are 10 Myanmar securities firms approved to provide stock trading services to investors in Yangons bourse.
The government is launching a review of state-owned economic enterprises to decide which ones should be restructured, a Ministry of Finance official told The Myanmar Times.
The review, which will cover all state-owned enterprises (SOEs), will help the government decide whether an SOE should be corporatised, privatised or remain government-owned, according to U Maung Maung Win, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Finance and director of the Treasury Department.
Analysts have long identified SOE reform as a key task for Myanmar, and one that could prove an important driver for economic growth. In many cases SOEs are struggling they are both unprofitable and overstaffed. Those in extractive industries, meanwhile, receive huge proceeds from their operations, much of which sits in poorly understood other accounts and which cash-strapped government ministries like health and education cannot access, according to a recent Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative report.
Those sectors likely to see corporatisation or privatisation include post and telecommunications, as well as transport specifically airways and inland water transport, U Maung Maung Win said.
Myanmar National Airlines began a corporatisation process in 2014. The national carrier has a loan from the government, and plans to operate as a public company in two or three years, CEO Captain Than Tun told The Myanmar Times earlier this year.
The Inland Water Transport department on the other hand is losing about K400 million a month, according to a report sent to the new government. Deputy general manager U Min Kyawt Nyi Nyi Aung recently told The Myanmar Times that unless something is done to support the struggling department, which has 2840 staff and 4569 pensioners, it will be forced to close within months.
Advice from the Asian Development Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the World Bank suggests that this department is overstaffed, and that its assets, including land and buildings, should be commercialised to fund pension payments.
Myanmars railways will remain nationalised, U Maung Maung Win said, as will the oil and gas sector.
Revenues received by the government from the extractive SOE firms that EITI collected data from totalled K3 trillion (US$2.2 billion), of which 85 percent came from the oil and gas sector.
U Maung Maung Win said the number of jointly operated projects in that sector would make privatisation or corporatisation very difficult.
Authorities have signalled they want to make these large enterprises finances less opaque. The Central Bank announced in March that SOEs are now allowed to open foreign currency accounts with any local bank holding an authorised dealer licence, a move aimed in part at increasing transparency in state enterprises accounts, said U Win Thaw, Central Bank director general and head of the Foreign Exchange Management Department.
There have also been calls from international financial organisations and Myanmar members of parliament under the previous government to reduce the size of the state-owned banks. An official at Myanma Economic Bank (MEB) told The Myanmar Times last year that the World Bank had presented the government with options for reform of state-owned banks, but that restructuring or corporatisation would take not only time but also changes to bank laws and regulations.
The most recent call for reform came from the Myanmar Rice Federation, which made a request to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation in early April that Myanma Agricultural Development Bank (MADB) be privatised.
MADB, which is funded by state-backed giant Myanma Economic Bank, is barely profitable. The agricultural lender offers loans at much lower rates than the private sector and makes just 1pc profit, according to MADB officials.
U Maung Maung Win said that at some point in the future MADB should be corporatised, not privatised, but he did not comment on timing.
Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings (MTSH) has received the green light to list on the Yangon Stock Exchange and has published its disclosure documents, which detail its key shareholders, earnings and the main risks facing the company.
The firm, established in 2013 by a nine-shareholder consortium, will launch its shares on the exchange on May 20, according to a YSX announcement on May 6. MTSH chair U Win Aung had hoped to see the firm list in mid-March, but delays during the approvals process pushed the date back to May, YSX officials said.
The listing price, which MTSH said would be determined by financial adviser and lead securities company CB Securities, will be made public the day before the listing. The highest price the shares hit on the over-the-counter market was K85,000, according to an official at another securities firm who asked to remain anonymous.
U Win Aung said in February that the shares were trading between K60,000 and K80,000, but that this was unlikely to be the real value of the shares, only a measure of supply and demand.
Our valuation should be fair so that our investors dont suffer, he said.
First Myanmar Investments, the first company to list on the exchange, launched its shares at a level well below their over-the-counter market trading price. The securities firm official thought it likely MTSH would pursue a similar strategy.
MTSH, like FMI before it, has published a disclosure document. This legal requirement lays out a companys shareholder structure as well as earnings and risks that potential investors should be aware of when making a decision whether or not to invest.
MTSH will list 3.9 million shares on the YSX and had 16,720 shareholders as of November 2015, according to the document. When FMI listed in March, it offered 23.4 million shares, and had over 6800 shareholders.
The directors and executive officers of MTSH held 46 percent of total shares as of December 31, 2015, according to that firms disclosure report. U Win Aung held or had an interest in 220,750 of the firms shares, more than any other director or executive officer. Several others own between 195,000 and 197,000 shares.
Of the total 16,720 shareholders, the great majority 13,565 held between one and 100 shares as of November 6, 2015, according the document. The top 25 shareholders, of which the top 10 are all directors or executive officers, owned more than one-half of the company.
MTSH was set up to invest in the Thilawa special economic zone project and other real estate ventures across Myanmar. Thilawa SEZs proximity to Yangon, the huge potential for Myanmars manufacturing and export sectors to expand, and the involvement of both the Myanmar and Japanese government are all supportive of the firms prospects, MTSH said.
The company became profitable in 2015-16 with net income after tax of K16.2 billion, following a net loss of K463 million the previous year. In that period the firm was just starting operations, and its income statement did not include revenue from a marketing agreement signed in February 2015, according to the disclosure document. MTSH projects net profit after tax to drop to K7.8 billion this financial year and to K7.3 billion in 2017-18.
The first risk the firm drew attention to in its report was its reliance on shares and investments in other companies that it owns for its cash flow and revenue. Another risk flagged was its engagement in several joint ventures with other entities, because parties to a joint venture might disagree, fall out or have conflicting interests. Potential investors therefore have to consider the outlook for the investments that MTSH makes and the potential actions of its joint venture partners.
The two investments upon which MTSH most relies are its subsidiary Thilawa Property Development and its affiliate Myanmar Japan Thilawa Development. They are responsible for a significant portion of cash flow and revenues into MTSH, according to the disclosure reports.
Myanmar Japan Thilawa Development (MJTD) is a joint venture between MTSH, the Myanmar government-owned Thilawa SEZ Management Committee and the Japanese consortium MMS Thilawa Development. It is MJTD that will develop, construct, market, sell and operate the Zone A industrial park area of Thilawa SEZ.
MTSH owns 41pc of MJTD, the Myanmar government 10pc and the Japanese consortium the remaining 49pc.
MTSHs subsidiary Thilawa Property Development (TPD) is charged with similar responsibilities as MJTD, but for the residential and commercial components of Zone A.
There are 326 hectares of Zone A land that will be leased out to investors, and 76pc of this had been leased out as of December 31, 2015, MTSH said.
The firms business will rely on dividends from TPD and MJTD, as well as on fees and commissions it receives from the latter. Anything that affects these joint venture projects could impact cash flow to MTSH, the firm said.
MTSH has a contract to provide management services for MJTD, which will pay its part-owner US$656,000 for 2014-16 and the same for 2016-18. Management fees from MJTD provided 21pc of MTSH revenue in 2015-16.
Interest income, which is typically from cash held in other accounts or investments, contributed 49pc.
MTSH also signed an agreement with MJTD to provide marketing services for five years, which can be extended until all the Zone A properties have been leased out. The fees and commission from this service accounts for a significant chunk of overall MTSH revenue, the firm said.
However, as properties are leased out this source of revenue will decline.
Another source of revenue, MJTD dividends, will also drop in 2017-18 as that entity starts to reinvest profits into the prospective Zone B project of Thilawa SEZ, according to MTSH. To combat this issue, the firm plans to diversify its investments into other real estate development projects in Thilawa SEZ and elsewhere in Myanmar.
Although it forecasts profits for the coming years, the firm is by nature exposed to swings in the Myanmar real estate market, and movements in the price of and demand for industrial, residential and commercial properties could all present issues, MTSH said.
The company also cautioned potential buyers its shares may not be suitable for short-term investment as investors may not be able to realise returns in a reasonable timeframe.
There is also the fact that some investors in MTSH have their own real estate firms. FMI is a shareholder in MTSH and conducts real estate development projects which might potentially be in competition with MJTD or TDP, the disclosure document said.
The same applies to Dagon International, the firm controlled by MTSH chair U Win Aung, which is engaged in real estate projects in Yangon that could be in competition with MTSH.
Ooredoo Myanmar announced yesterday that it will launch 4G internet services this month making it the first mobile operator in the market to move up from a 3G network.
Yangon and Mandalay will see fourth-generation (4G) services before the rest of the country, as a nationwide rollout would require more spectrum, Ooredoo CEO Rene Meza told The Myanmar Times yesterday.
Mobile operators in the market have said that the countrys migration to 4G hinges upon the availability of spectrum a limited resource divided into different frequency bands used to carry traffic like data and voice.
Ooredoos licence allows the company to buy additional spectrum for a fee, and the telco applied to purchase more a few months ago, Mr Meza said. It has since been granted.
That will give us enough room for the 4G launch, he said. To allow customers to get access to 4G services [across the country], obviously we will need additional spectrum.
The Qatari mobile operator said in a press release yesterday it was ready to invest more in spectrum pending a government auction.
The availability of spectrum has been a hot topic for players in Myanmars telecoms sector.
The government published an updated version of its spectrum roadmap in April, which indicates that the Posts and Telecommunications Department (PTD) could make unassigned portions of the 850/900MHz and 2100MHz frequency bands available, as well as the 700MHz, 1800MHz, 2300MHz and 2600MHz bands.
The document, posted to the telecommunications ministrys web site, includes an illustrated timeline of a proposed spectrum release schedule, which shows the 2600MHz band being released first. This band is scheduled to be made available through auction in the second quarter of 2016, according to the timeline.
Under the same timeline the 1800MHz spectrum could be up for bidding in the first quarter of 2017, or alternatively nine months after the 2600Mhz band is auctioned off.
Mr Meza has argued in the past that the 1800MHz band should be first priority for auction, calling it ideal for next-generation services. It remains unclear which frequency would be made available first, he said yesterday.
We dont have a concrete date as to when additional spectrum will be released for 4G services, but it is expected to be over the next 12 months, he said.
In the meantime, Ooredoo will start to roll out 4G services on two frequencies: 900MHz and 2100MHz.
Higher speeds and better service at the same tariffs can be expected when customers move up from 3G to 4G, according to the company.
The fundamental difference is the throughput and speed [at] which customers can get access to the internet, Mr Meza said.
Ooredoos SIM cards are already 4G-compliant, unlike some other SIMs in the market. Norwegian mobile operator Telenor initiated a SIM card swapping program in January in anticipation of a later launch of 4G services.
But not all mobile devices will be able to access the new services. Mobile shop worker Ma Aye Thuzar said 4G was very handset-selective.
Only certain types of modern phones can operate a 4G internet connection, she said.
Meanwhile, mobile users mulled what a switch to next-generation technology would mean.
I am excited because [4G] means that the internet connection will be better for gaming performance, said 18-year-old gamer Than Lwin Aung.
However, I worry about how expensive 4G can be because it will be the fastest mobile internet connection in Myanmar.
Additional reporting by Naing Lin Tun
The &proud photo competition, aimed at capturing the diversity of Myanmars LGBT+ community, concluded on May 7. Though the pictures remain on the walls at Deitta Gallery through May 15, the judges have spoken: Shwe Wutt Hmon won the first place prize, valued at K300,000, for her series Love Means Love.
She beat entries from 11 other amateur and professional photographers. The whole competition is part of a larger photo exhibition at the Deitta Gallery, organised by &PROUD, which also features professional photographer Vlad Sohkins moving series Being Gay in Papua New Guinea.
Runner-up Hongsar Wadees series Life Backstage depicted the behind-the-scenes life of 19-year-old transgender performer San Lay and won K150,000.
Jan Wai Yan and Phyo Thit Luu shared the K100,000 prize for best selfie from a field of 45 entrants. Ten others were disqualified after heterosexual entrants misunderstood the event.
A number of Yangons embassies donated most of the prize money.
Honestly I wanted to make my series even better, but I am really glad I got the prize, champion Shwe Wutt Hmon, 28, said.
Her victorious photo essay, Love Means Love follows Shwe Yee, 28, and Su Myat, 24, who met and fell in love whilst working at the same creative media company.
Their partnership is captured in the photos, and the exhibition fittingly coincides with their first anniversary. However despite their happiness, they have been met with societal ambivalence.
It is like people neither accept nor deny our relationship. Maybe they dont look at it as a serious relationship, Su Myat was quoted as saying in the series description.
Shwe Wutt Hmon, who works with governance policy issues, said her first job in public health introduced her to many gay men and created a connection to the LGBT+ community that she continues to maintain.
My long-term professional goal is to be a humanitarian photographer, she said when asked if the photo competition victory may spur a career change, but I am quite afraid to lose my current profession. I am trying to balance it.
I am dedicated and passionate not just for the competition but also for this important advocacy. I want to be part of it, using something I really love [photography]. Like my photo essay, for me, love means love, she said
Explaining why Love Means Love had won, the exhibitions organiser, Jeewee van Rooij, told The Myanmar Times that the photos intimacy was a crucial component to their success.
You can see clearly that these two girls are proud and that they want to put themselves out there, he said.
We are very pleased with the crowd and all that is hanging on the wall, he added.
Some of the entrants were professional photographers, while others were super-amateur, according to van Rooij. He said the spectrum enabled a nice snapshot of queer Yangon.
A sizeable audience of roughly 40 visitors perused the collections amid an atmosphere of celebration in spite of the sticky heat.
One attendee, Lucas Oitzl, said, As a gay man, I obviously wanted to come. Its an amazing idea. I was so surprised because I thought Myanmar was much more conservative.
The event opened with a speech by Aung Myo Min, the executive director of Equality Myanmar. He reflected on his experience of fleeing Burma as an LGBT student activist in 1988.
Back then we were discriminated against socially and people didnt even want to talk about it, he said, Now we can proudly celebrate. We are not criminals. We are not mentally diseased. We should be proud.
Our dignity is shown through these pictures, in films and by our contribution to society. By joining hands we can make the world better, he added.
Daddy, please carry me, said the orphan. Others, clustering around a visitor on a recent hot afternoon, clamoured to be played with.
There are more than 600 boys and girls without parents at the Yellow Young Generation Charity Organisations Yadana Alinyaung Orphanage School in Mandalay. They study in four big rooms, roofed with palm leaves.
The monks look after them and educate and feed them. They opened the orphanage school, with only 30 children, in 2012, and there are now eight buildings.
We have 620 orphans in total from many ethnic groups, and we provide all of them with an education, said sayadaw U Dhamma Nanda, one of the teachers.
Some children arrive in infancy, and 28 of the children are toddlers. There is even a pair of twins.
There are 309 orphans aged between four and five years old, and some who are suffering from polio. We feed the infants with milk powder, but have some difficulties because they are so young, said U Dhamma Nanda.
The first problem for the monks who got together to found the orphanage was finding premises large enough.
It will be hard in the coming rainy season. When it rains, one of us has to stay up all night. We have to take care of all the orphans feeding and health as well as their education, he added.
The 27 founding monks are all aged between 22 and 35.
The children rise at 5am and have breakfast at 7am. They are taught martial arts for health and fitness as part of their education. This year, 68 of the children took the matriculation exam.
We provide food and snacks three times a day. We dont give them money. They have to take a nap in afternoon and enjoy playtime in the evening. They also have to study at night, said U Dhamma Nanda.
He said the orphanage wanted to take on more children, and to set up a clinic. The children receive a medical check-up every three months, as well as vaccinations.
The Yadana Alinyaung Orphanage, which is located on 58th Street, from Satmhu 2 Kanaung Minthar Gyi Road, is seeking donations: K100,000 will buy the children breakfast, K200,000 lunch or K100,000 dinner. If they receive the money, the monks can provide the food, the teaching, the medical care and the love.
Translation by Khant Lin Oo
For more than 100 years, Naw Hsergays family lived in the same colonial-style home, passing it down from generation to generation. And then last year they decided to throw open their doors to visitors.
I Wish is one of six properties to be granted a bed and breakfast (B&B) licence in northern Kayin States Thandaunggyi since 2015, with another proposed B&B still under construction.
The licences are being issued under a pilot program being jointly implemented by the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism and state governments, with Thandaunggyi one of two participating regions of the country.
B&Bs differ from hotels in that they must have between four and eight rooms hotels must have a minimum of 10 and be at least part-owned by a member of the community. The rooms have to meet standards for cleanliness and comfort, and must be in a separate building from where the owners are staying.
Since opening in October, I Wish has slowly built up a steady stream of guests but it hasnt been easy.
Naw Hsergay describes her family as novice hoteliers who jumped at the opportunity to enter the sector when the licences were first offered.
We renovated our home into a B&B to serve tourists because Thandaunggyi had no hotels where they could stay overnight, she told The Myanmar Times.
But we have no experience in catering to the needs of tourists. We are still learning, because this is the first time weve done this work. But the tourists understand our situation and seem more than satisfied, she said.
Her property has six rooms and charges K20,000 to K25,000 for locals and US$30 for foreigners. Most guests so far have been locals, who typically come up from Yangon on the weekend. According to the Kayin State tourism department, the area is receiving an average of 50 foreign and 100 local visitors a month.
Just a few tourists are coming to Thandaunggyi at the moment, Naw Hsergay said, adding that travel agents were still considering whether to offer visits to clients.
Another challenge is communication. Internet bookings are out of the question, as the town has no internet coverage, and sometimes even the phone line goes down.
We are using the communications towers operated by the Tatmadaw but sometimes they shut them down when they are doing secret missions. When that happens all [communication] is closed, said Saw Botar, owner of Star from the East B&B.
He said improving phone and internet access would give tourism to the area a major boost.
We have good transportation and electricity but need better communication system. It may happen this year, because MPT, Telenor and Ooredoo are negotiating with the Karen National Union.
Star from the East has five rooms and charges from K8000 to K20,000, with the price the same for tourists and locals.
Saw Botar said locals had set up their B&B businesses with support from the state government and one INGO. We needed them to show the way because we are just starting out, he said.
Since the initial spate of applications when B&B licences were announced, no others have been received, said U Win Kyaw, assistant director of the state hotels and tourism department.
So far, no applications have been received to open B&Bs in other areas of Kayin State. But U Win Kyaw said the state government was excited about the program because it would support the growth of the tourism industry and put more of the profits into the hands of locals.
The more B&Bs that come out, the more tourists will come. This will help the state develop and the income will go to local people, he said.
We will consider asking the state government and Ministry of Hotels and Tourism in Nay Pyi Taw for permission to open B&Bs in other areas if we receive proposals.
But the picture is not all rosy. B&B owners in Thandaunggyi say they have found it tough going financially. After investing in renovations to their properties, the flow of visitors has been more of a trickle than a flood, but they hope for a return over the longer term.
We have invested a lot of money at the start of the business, which has caused some headaches, said Naw Marmu, owner of Peace House B&B. But gradually we started to feel satisfied and happy when we began treating breakfast to tourists, or helping them in other ways.
Those who do visit can go trekking to nearby villages, or visit Kyone Htaw waterfall or Naw Buu Baw mountain.
Thandaunggyi is also home to a famous church and colonial-era buildings, including a military-owned tea processing plant that was once used to make tea for Lipton. Due to its altitude, it is significantly cooler than lowland areas such as Yangon and Mandalay, making it an attractive hot-season destination.
Unlicensed tour guides could end up behind bars for three years, the government has warned as it launches a crackdown against them. The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism says the illegal guides are undercutting trained and licensed guides and depriving them of income. Citing the recent landmine blast at Kyaukme, Shan State, in which two foreign trekkers and a local guide were injured, some experts say the lack of training could be dangerous.
U Myo Win Nyunt, the ministrys director, told The Myanmar Times, Weve received complaints from travel companies and guide associations and on social media. We are taking action under tourism laws, which provide for three years imprisonment or a K50,000 fine, he said. Guides receive a licence from the ministry on completion of a two-month training course followed by an exam. The training is offered in respect of the countrys most popular tourist destinations, he said.
We have issued more than 6000 guide licences, but we dont know if this will be enough as tourist numbers rise. But they are being undercut by the illegal guides, he said.
Ko Kyaw Min Soe, information and communications officer of Kalaw Trekking Guide Association, welcomed the move, saying trained guides were being edged out by all the competition.
We need effective action against illegal regional guides. They dont understand the work and they drive down costs at our expense. We want the same standards to be applied to all guides, so that they must attend training and get the qualification, he said.
Ko Kyaw Min Soe said this was the first time the ministry was taking action under the law.
The law existed, but people didnt respect it because they could afford the fine. Its time the ministry did something about it, he said.
But travel expert Daw Sabei Aung said the issue was one of training. Though she attributed the Kyaukme landmine case to untrained guides, she said punishment was not the only response.
Some local people take up illegal guiding because of industry demand. The ministry should ask why people are not applying for the training. There may be another way to deal with this problem, she said.
At the end of April, two German tourists were trekking around northern Shan States Thibaw/Hsipaw township when a landmine exploded and left them with shrapnel injuries. According to the tourism ministry, the tourists local guide was unlicensed.
The government remains publicly evasive on the need for US sanctions against Myanmar, which are up for renewal this month.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi strongly supported the sanctions as leader of the opposition often going so far as to petition US leaders to maintain them, according to leaked diplomatic cables but has refused to give a straight-forward answer on the issue since assuming office.
Our government welcomes any activities of the US which would support the implementation of the governments priorities, U Zaw Htay, the state counsellors spokesperson, said when asked about the governments position on sanctions.
He listed the administrations priorities as: national reconciliation, the peace process, democratisation, and social and economic development. The latter, some analysts say, is currently impeded by the remaining sanctions.
These measures continue to be a disincentive and barrier not only to US business investment in Myanmar, but also to global investment, by signalling that the US government is not fully supporting re-engagement and by making the mechanics of doing business in Myanmar particularly dollar financial transactions much more difficult. It would be easier for the new government to deliver economic growth if the remaining restrictions were eased or removed, said Richard Horsey, a political analyst.
Priscilla Clapp, a veteran Myanmar analyst and a former head of the US embassy in Yangon, advocated for the gradual lifting of sanctions. The sanctions inhibit US organisations and businesses, she said in a recent report for the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank. Though the country continues to suffer human rights abuses and poor governance, sanctions are not always the best solution, she wrote.
Many restrictions on trade with Myanmar were lifted after U Thein Seins government assumed power in 2012. The remaining sanctions prohibit investing with the Tatmadaw, ban imports of Myanmar jade and rubies, and include a long list of Specially Designated Nationals with whom US companies cannot conduct business.
The sanctions have their base in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1997, which the US president has to renew every year.
Human rights advocacy group Fortify Rights called on the US government to renew sanctions in a report released today. It said sanctions cannot be justified when over 100,000 Muslims most are from a group which self-identifies as Rohingya continue to be interned in squalid IDP camps in northern Rakhine State and face restrictions on movement, marriage and childbirth.
This is hardly the time to ease pressure on Myanmar, the report said.
Fortify Rights said conditions should be set for sanctions against Myanmar to be lifted, including the amendment of the constitution that now contains a provision guaranteeing 25 percent of parliamentary seats and control over the ministries of defence, home affairs and border affairs to the military.
Those pushing for last-remaining US sanctions on Myanmar to be lifted are, in effect, arguing to allow US to import jade from [a] war zone, Fortify Rights director Matthew Smith wrote on social media.
According to Fortifys report, the US can best support further progress and human rights in Myanmar by incentivizing improved diplomatic and economic relations while maintaining sanctions against those responsible for human rights violations.
For a long time, US foreign policy including sanctions was almost entirely based on recommendations from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and she still wields significant influence, political analysts say.
Her opinion on ending [the sanctions], conveyed to the US Congress should she be so inclined, would go a long way to eliminating the remaining sanctions. She essentially determined US policy toward Myanmar until the Obama administration, and congressional views are still shaped by her pronouncements or attitudes, professor David Steinberg, who has written extensively on Myanmar, said in a commentary published in the Nikkei Asian Review.
He said that apart from economic progress, lifting the sanctions could also lead to trust-building with the Tatmadaw. The Tatmadaw would also benefit from US military training, which is impossible under the current restrictions.
But former Australian legislator and long-time Myanmar observer Janelle Saffin sees it the other way around.
The Burmese military could help persuade the lifting of sanctions by agreeing to democratic constitutional reform, with a stated timetable and agreed actions. That is of more interest and concern to the peoples of Burma, she said.
Some have also suggested that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has used, and will continue to use, the sanctions as leverage against the Tatmadaws business interests.
Ms Clapp, the former diplomat, said she is expecting President Barack Obama to announce renewal of the sanctions soon.
Myanmar-US relations have prospered since the former pariah state opened its doors to the West. In 2012, diplomatic relations were strengthened by the appointment of the first US ambassador in over two decades and the return of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Later that year, Mr Obama became the first sitting US president to visit the country.
The Ministry of Health will be streamlining and cutting back on development projects run by international and local agencies.
Health Minister Dr Myint Htwe told The Myanmar Times that reductions will be made with an eye toward eliminating duplication and redundancy in programs that work with the government health sector.
We are going to scrutinise programs based on their disease infection rate, the health situation and health services provided, he said. For example, if the disease infection rate has decreased, we will not continue the program. We will also accept more health programs that work in areas outside Yangon and Mandalay.
Additional projects catering to rural areas will be encouraged, the health minister added.
The scrutinising process has already begun. The health minister said that renegotiations may have to occur before the new government resigns any memorandums of understanding with NGOs, including UN agencies and other international partners.
Most health programs are working with and supporting MoH activity. They report their program activity to the MoH. So we are going to review their activity and will select their project area, he said.
Dr Myint Htwe, who spent over 15 years working with the regional World Health Organization office, said he aims to avoid duplications where multiple organisations are working on the same programs in the same area, and redundancies that lead to unnecessary health initiatives.
Those kinds of programs are not beneficial for the public. We have limited government staffs, so we cannot help unnecessary programs. If health partners want to give us money then we are going to use it to maximise the benefit for the people, Dr Myint Htwe said, adding that he will be working with the Myanmar Health Sector Coordination Committee to streamline the health activities.According to the health department, over 70 donors are working on projects with the Ministry of Health.
A director of an international aid organisation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, supported increased coordination of the sector, but said that the scrutinisation and reduction must be done carefully in order to avoid leaving beneficiaries in the lurch.
I could not deny that there are some duplications and redundancies, but some programs that may appear that way are not. For example, just looking at a map, some organisations cover the same area with seemingly the same program, but on the ground their work and their activities are very different from each other.
Retired medical superintendent and INGO health worker Dr Ba Shwe said the ministers initiative is much-needed.
I totally agree with the idea of reducing some development partners programs because I think some healthcare provided is not matching up with the expenditure of the health development partner, he said. Our countrys health status has not improved much compared to other countries. The government should ensure health projects have effective performance assessments.
The Kachin State government has deployed troops to boost security in the jade-rich township of Hpakant after eight bombing incidents in two days that have spread fear among civilians, police said yesterday.
One person was reported injured in the bombings carried out by unidentified attackers on motorbikes, with the latest blasts occurring on the night of May 8. Police said the incidents could be linked to recent fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) at Nant Yar village.
A police official told The Myanmar Times that police found two bombs yesterday near a bridge across the Uru stream and that security forces disposed of the bombs in the water.
We dont know yet who did these bombing and what kind of bombs they used. We are still investigating. One person was injured. We are also strictly checking people at entry points into the township, said the official.
He said attackers on motorbikes had thrown bombs, but with their identity unknown the police did not want to make accusations against any ethnic armed groups.
U Tin Soe, vice chair of Lone Khin village, said yesterday that the military had prevented people near Nant Yar village from entering Hpakant township because of fighting with the KIA.
The fighting happened on May 8 near Nant Yar village and Lone Khin village. The current situation is quiet. The authorities are just allowing people to return from Hpakant township, he said.
State MP U La Sai from Hpakant township believes the fighting is a result of orders by the Tatmadaw to capture forces of the KIAs sixth brigade near Hpakant.
Fighting will happen in coming days because of the Tatmadaws instruction. We cannot do anything, he said.
Colonel Myat Min Oo of the Tatmadaws true news and information team said he had no information on the matter.
The bombings follow a deadly landslide at Hpakant on May 5 that was believed to have buried up to 10 itinerant miners.
Dangerous conditions in Hpakant, which is plagued by rampant methamphetamine and heroin use, more typically related to the jade mine industry and include health concerns, and tailings collapses. The government has said it will step up supervision of jade mining in Hpakant following a visit to the area by U Ohn Win, the Union minister for natural resources and the environment.
Magwe Region Chief Minister U Aung Moe Nyo has directed police to tackle corruption, bolster regional security, implement the rule of law and curb crime rates, as part of the governments 100-day program.
Speaking to the media on May 6, the chief minister stressed the need to eliminate corruption. We are taking action based on public complaints and all police forces have to especially focus on corruption, he said.
He directed the police to supervise all levels of the force and said the public could lodge complaints of any fraudulent or corrupt acts by the police.
Magwe Region police have also been tasked with focusing on crimes related to political affairs and helping local residents during natural disasters. According to Magwe Region police, 3292 police are commissioned in the regions force and each officer serves 1,188 people.
Myanmars police force has long been distrusted and accused of graft. According to a survey by the World Economic Forum, police and law enforcement services were rated 3 on 7-point scale, where 1 was not reliable at all, and 7 was always trustworthy.
Parliament is taking steps to slash one repressive law used to crack down on activists and will debate heavily revising another later this week.
The junta-era, 1975 State Protection Act was revoked by the Pyithu Hluttaw yesterday after the conclusion that the law was explicitly drafted to detain politicians. Several prominent National League for Democracy members, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, were convicted and imprisoned under the law.
The internationally decried legislation, also known as the Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts, was enacted by the Burma Socialist Programme Party. It allowed for defendants to be detained without charge or trial for up to five years. The law was put into place soon after the military regime was installed and allows the government to declare a state of emergency.
A proposal to revoke the law was submitted by Bill Committee chair U Tun Tun Hein on May 2. He argued that the law was unnecessary, since the 2008 constitution already grants the government and military commander-in-chief the power to declare a state of emergency.
We, politicians, are not criminals as we were regarded before, said U Pe Than, an Arakan National Party MP for Myebon township. Now we can work for the development of the state and for peace. The law must not be there to threaten us. So that is why we revoked it without objections.
The law will be submitted next to the Amyotha Hluttaw, according to Speaker U Win Myint.
Later this week parliament will also debate scaling back the Peaceful Protest and Assembly Law, which is responsible for a heavy proportion of the charges against political prisoners. Changes in the new iteration include imposing a 15-day statute of limitations and requiring 48-hour notification of protests rather than a permit.
International rights groups have called for a full-scale overhaul of the bill however.
The new draft law is unfortunately not that much of an improvement over the previous law, which was used for years to imprison people. Watering down a bad law and reducing punishments are not an improvement, said David Scott Mathieson, Myanmar researcher for Human Rights Watch.
He added that rather than rushing the legislative changes through parliament, the NLD should conduct due diligence in handling the law.
The NLD should slow the process down to permit more detailed debate in the parliament, call for public participation and consultation on amending the law, and be generally more transparent over the legal reform process with the public, the press and the international community, Mr Mathieson said.
additional reporting by Laignee Barron, and translation by Khine Thazin Han
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi says the doors of the peace process will be open, while indicating however that not all ethnic armed groups will take part at once.
The state counsellor yesterday held her first meeting in Nay Pyi Taw with prospective members of the new governments peace negotiating team, as well as senior Tatmadaw officers and prominent advisers appointed by the previous government.
A statement released by her office was short on details but notable for its new use of language. There were no usual references to non-state actors or ethnic armed groups, but instead a mention of stakeholders.
The government will invite appropriate stakeholders at various stages of the national reconciliation and peace process, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was quoted as telling the meeting held in the presidential residence.
The meeting backed her proposal for the formation of a National Reconciliation and Peace Centre to replace the now-defunct Myanmar Peace Centre set up by former president U Thein Sein. The European Union has been involved in talks on a transfer of internationally donated assets from the old institution to the new.
The two processes for the formation of the National Reconciliation and Peace Centre and for holding a 21st Century Panglong conference should be done simultaneously, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said, referring to her parallel proposal to hold a wide-ranging peace conference named after the talks held by father, Bogyoke Aung San, in 1947.
Doors should be open at every stage of national reconciliation and the peace process for the stakeholders that should be included, the state counsellor said.
But the statement shed little light on how the government intended to bring in the powerful ethnic armed groups that refused to sign the 2015 nationwide ceasefire agreement under the previous administration or the three smaller armed groups that were excluded from the process on the orders of the Tatmadaw.
Comments by Tar Pan La, an official of the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), reflected uncertainty among the non-signatory ethnic armed groups still waiting for a clear government initiative.
They have not revealed much about the Panglong conference yet. In such circumstances, we dont know what the conference is about and it is very hard to say something, he told The Myanmar Times.
But he noted that the TNLA, which was shut out of the peace process and is currently fighting the Tatmadaw and a rival ethnic armed group in northern Shan State, had repeatedly expressed its willingness to cooperate with the new government.
Attending yesterdays meeting yesterday were U Tin Myo Win, doctor to Aung San Suu Kyi and in line to be the new chief peace negotiator; U Moe Zaw Oo from the state counsellors office, and senior figures of the former Myanmar Peace Center U Myint Soe, U Khin Zaw Oo and U Min Zaw Oo.
Minister for Border Affairs Lieutenant-General Ye Aung and Union Attorney General U Tun Tun Oo also attended the meeting as government representatives. It was reported that Lt-Gen Yar Pyae, Lt-Gen Tun Tun Naung and Lt-Gen Min Naung attended as Tatmadaw representatives.
Political commentators and ethnic politicians have raised their concerns over how a Panglong-style conference to solve the concerns of the 21st century would be held with all the ethnic armed groups, including the Kachin Independence Army and the United Wa State Army.
At the same time the eight mostly minor ethnic armed groups that signed the nationwide ceasefire pact last October are concerned they will be overshadowed in a future political dialogue by larger non-state groups.
Last week the signatory groups sent a letter through U Tin Myo Win to the state counsellor calling on her to stick to the initiatives of the former president, including preservation of the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee where government representatives are in a small minority.
The Ethnic Nationalities Affairs Centre, an academic group, has called on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as the National League for Democracy leader, to meet soon with those groups outside the ceasefire pact.
Rather than embracing all EAOs [ethnic armed organisations], the NLDs focus seems to be on expediency, as demonstrated by the quick succession of meetings with NCA [ceasefire] signatories, the group said in a statement on May 7.
This is exactly the wrong approach to pursue, as EAOs highest priority throughout the peace process has been the inclusion of all EAOs, said the statement.
Earlier this week, one of the largest ethnic party alliances, the United Nationalities Alliance, jointly decided to bolster efforts for ethnic groups to unite and expressed a lack of faith in the NLD and in Daw Aung San Suu Kyi leading the peace process. Ethnic parties face a growing rift with the administration after it decided to unilaterally appoint state cabinets, even in places where it had failed to secure the majority of local hluttaw seats in last years election.
Myanmar is getting to grips with cancer. Health officials and specialists are preparing the countrys first National Cancer Control Plan, to be launched later this year.
Dr Myo Myint Maw, of Yangon General Hospitals cancer ward, said data compilation was taking some time. There is no nationwide data on cancer, just files kept by each hospital. The national plan will help us protect people better.
We are now discussing the draft national cancer plan with specialists in various fields and other responsible authorities, with a view to issuing the plan within the next six months, he said. The data required includes mortality rates and procedures in use.
We dont know the mortality rate of cancer patients because too many of them dont come to hospital, he said.
According to Yangon General Hospital statistics, more patients are presenting themselves for cancer treatment, with numbers rising from 4958 in 2012 to an estimated 7000 predicted for this year. There is a change in patients attitude. People now accept that cancer can be controlled if they get early treatment, said Dr Myo Myint Maw.
A 49-year-old patient from Pantanaw township, Ayeyarwady Region, encouraged people to seek early treatment. I felt pain, but let five months go by before going to hospital. I had breast cancer, and am now receiving chemotherapy. Anyone who is in the same position should go to hospital, she said.
Read more: Living well in Yangon: Keep fit to reduce cancer risk
The Food and Drug Administration has embarked on a 100-day overhaul, aiming to improve health-related education in schools, crack down on potentially harmful foodstuffs and destroy time-expired medicines in pharmacies.
Dr Tun Linn Aung, deputy director of the FDAs planning department, told The Myanmar Times that each township was responsible for carrying out the plan in its own jurisdiction.
We gave instructions to each township to work on small projects they will be able to complete within 100 days. Their work must fall under the principles to promote health education for food and medicines, he said.
The FDA department as a whole is undergoing a systemic clean-up, he added, with a revamp to bring laboratories into line with international standards, update the library and attempt to draft a bill regulating crackdowns on food and drugs, giving the department more teeth.
FDA officials have also been tasked with conducting public education campaigns.
We will distribute books about dangerous foods that the FDA has discovered, advise businesses about producing healthier food, and conduct checks on the sale of unregistered and expired medicines in pharmacies, he said, adding that some foods had been found to contain vinyl.
He said an increase in the national health budget allowed an expansion in FDA staff and the upgrading to international standards of food and drug testing laboratories in Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw.
Dr Khin Saw Hla, director of the FDAs Yangon branch, said the 100-day efforts spot-checks should help limit the number of unregistered and illegal medicines and cosmetics in circulation.
It will affect the whole countrys black market. Yangon and Mandalay are the main distribution sites of illegal drugs and cosmetics, she said.
Pharmacists found to be selling controlled medicines without the proper licence have been warned they could face penalty under the narcotics laws, and could be arrested.
Dr Phyae Phyo, head of the FDA in Ayeyarwady Region, said, We will deliver messages on food safety to 6881 schools in our region and approach the pharmacies.
Each of Ayeyarwady Regions 26 townships has about 500 pharmacies. The FDA has found that as much as 13 percent of the drugs sold in the region are unlicensed.
Last month our inspectors seized more than 1000 unlicensed and expired medications in Pathein and Myaungmya townships, and we will continue to prevent the sale of such medication, he said.
The 100-day plan, which began on May 1, will extend until August. Visits to schools will start in early July, when the schools reopen, said Dr Tun Linn Aung.
In February in Addis Ababa, African health ministers signed a widely celebrated declaration of their commitment to keeping immunisation at the forefront of efforts to save the continents children from death and disease. Fulfilling that commitment will be no easy feat. Immunisation is not just a health issue; it is also an economic challenge.
The case for vaccination is strong. Globally, an estimated 2-3 million child deaths and 600,000 adult deaths are prevented annually through immunisation. Moreover, immunisation is considered one of the most cost-effective public-health interventions for reducing child morbidity, mortality and disability. A recent study estimates that every US$1 spent on vaccination will save US$16 in costs of illnesses averted. Accounting for the value individuals place on longer and healthier lives, net returns on investments in immunisation soar to some 44 times the cost. And net returns exceed costs for all vaccines.
Significant progress has been made. In 2014, 86 percent of children were immunised against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis, compared to less than 5pc in 1974. And there have been extraordinary advances in the number and kinds of vaccines that are available.
Yet, worldwide, an estimated 18.7 million infants are not being reached by routine immunisation services. The problem, of course, is access.
Detailed analysis of immunisation reveals significant disparities within and across countries. More than 60pc of the non-immunised infants live in just 10 countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Uganda and South Africa.
Routine immunisation coverage remains particularly low in Africa; indeed, it has stagnated over the past three years, against a backdrop of weak and under-resourced health systems. As a result, one in five African children still do not receive lifesaving vaccination. In 2014, an estimated 42pc of all global deaths from measles were in Africa.
Most of Africas under-immunised children live in Nigeria, Ethiopia, the DRC, South Sudan and Guinea. Poor people, those living in rural areas, and families with lower education levels comprise the majority of those who are not reached.
Clearly, money is a leading factor shaping immunisation outcomes. Beyond inadequately financed health systems, which remain weak and inefficient, especially in rural areas, African countries face challenges in affording new, more expensive vaccines.
New vaccines should be enabling us to save more lives. Yet Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) estimates that the introduction of new vaccines made it 68 times more expensive to vaccinate a child in 2014 than in 2001 in most African countries. Another study showed that in 2001, the total cost of the original set of six World Health Organization-recommended vaccines was less than $1. In 2014, the number of WHO-recommended vaccines had risen to 11 and the cost had reached about $21 for boys and $35 for girls. The added costs of delivery, currently estimated at about $25 per child, bring the total cost of fully immunising a child today to $50-60.
That same study found that, in many low- and middle-income countries, immunisation budgets are currently insufficient to sustain vaccination programs, much less incorporate the new costlier vaccines. As several health ministers pointed out in Addis Ababa, high vaccine prices force poor countries governments to make tough choices about which deadly diseases they can afford to prevent.
For some countries, the situation is about to get worse, as Gavi, the international group which has helped to finance the dramatic global expansion of new vaccines, phases out support for countries deemed to have graduated from assistance. Without eligibility for the lower prices obtained by Gavi, many of these countries may not be able to afford newer vaccines.
In order to cope with this challenge, African political leaders have committed to invest in the continents capacity to develop and produce its own vaccines. But this is a long-term strategy that will require coordinated regional investment planning, market development and stronger regulatory capabilities. In the short to medium term, African countries would do well to look into the power of collective bargaining to strike better deals for needed vaccines.
While Africa can and should do more to improve vaccination, the global community also has a responsibility to make a concerted effort to bring down vaccine costs. The recently announced reduction in the price of pneumococcal vaccine is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough. Without collective action, equitable and sustained access to immunisation in Africa will remain a major problem and childrens lives will continue to be lost.
Project Syndicate
Folake Olayinka, an Aspen New Voices Fellow, is a public health specialist with particular interest in immunisation, maternal and child health, and infectious diseases.
President U Htin Kyaws request for a new ministry to allow the state counsellor to perform her duties more effectively came as quite a surprise. It raises some alarming questions.
Article 202 of the 2008 constitution was cited to justify the move, as it allows the president to decide the number of ministries and make changes or additions as necessary with the approval of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, where the National League for Democracy holds a comfortable majority.
The request is expected to be debated in parliament this week. But how effective can a third ministry be when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is already responsible for two others the Presidents Office and foreign affairs?
Everyone welcomed the governments earlier consolidation of 36 ministries into 21, with the aim of creating a system that would be effective and efficient. The move was also in conformity with the National League for Democracys 2015 election manifesto, with chapter 3 titled A system of government that will fairly and justly defend the people.
But creating a new ministry casts doubt on the intentions of the first item in that chapter which set out the goal to reduce the number of government ministries in order to decrease government expenditure and establish a lean and efficient government. What will be the budget of this new ministry, where will its personnel be recruited from, and what will these civil servants actually do?
Instead of rushing into creating a new ministry, if Daw Aung San Suu Kyi after more than 40 days in office is unable to manage two different ministries which were of her own undertaking, what is the justification then in creating another one just for her so that she could perform her duties more effectively? Is this effectively using public funds?
In his message to parliament on May 5, the president said rather vaguely that the responsibilities of the new ministry would include issues like national reconciliation, peace, development, rule of law and other government tasks.
Does this mean the following government entities will all report to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi: the ceasefire Joint Monitoring Committee involved in the peace process, which she leads; the Ministry of National Planning and Finance, whose responsibility includes national development; and the Office of the Attorney General and the Supreme Court, which are the judicial pillars in Myanmar for rule of law? And what does U Htin Kyaw mean by other government tasks?
Going back to the NLD manifesto, items 4 and 5 of chapter 3 read Establish a judicial system that is fair and unbiased and Establish executive and judicial systems that support the rule of law.
So if the NLD-led Pyidaungsu Hluttaw unequivocally agrees to create this new ministry, will the rule of law be interpreted as to Establish executive and judicial systems that support the rule of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi?
It was even more alarming to read what NLD senior official U Win Htein was reported to say. Daw Aung San Suu Kyis status is so high, so we decided a ministry should be created for her so that she can work effectively. It is disappointing to hear such undemocratic remarks that illustrate preferential treatment toward only one person. And how does the NLD measure effectively?
Being effective is not about creating more institutions. To be effective, one cannot use the culture of obedience and force other people to do things or select people who simply kowtow and follow orders in the name of loyalty. For a government institution, or any institution for that matter, to be effective they should have individuals who are conscientious, confident, accountable for their actions and take responsibility for themselves, who take initiative and do not wait to be told what to do, who think independently, who challenge, who question and, most importantly, who understand that they are civil servants responsible to the people, not just their boss.
When the president signed the state counsellor bill into law, it already guaranteed Daw Aung San Suu Kyis right to contact government ministries, departments, organisations, associations and individuals and made her accountable to the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. Lower house MP U Ba Sein of the opposition Arakan National Party had good reason to ask why the new ministry is needed when it appears to duplicate the Ministry of the Presidents Office, which Daw Aung San Suu Kyi already heads.
Perhaps the NLD might like to re-read its own election manifesto, particularly the message from party chair Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who says, This election manifesto lays out, sector by sector, the policies and principles that we will follow if we are able to form a government. We will be able to achieve this only with the support and encouragement of the people of our country. It is the Time for Change and I strongly urge you to vote for NLD.
She is where she is today because she received the overwhelming vote and support of the people. It is indeed Time for Change but I hope that NLD members, MPs and President U Htin Kyaw understand that Time for Change is meant for the entire country, not just one person.
Khaing Tun is an independent consultant and interpreter based in Nay Pyi Taw.
Khartoum (AFP) - Three people were killed and several injured Monday when gunmen travelling by camel and pick-up truck attacked a new camp in Sudan's Darfur for people displaced by the latest escalation in the region's war, sources said.
The assailants used rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns in the attack on the camp in the North Darfur town of Sortoni, where thousands of people had taken refuge from fresh fighting between government troops and the rebel Sudan Liberation Army led by Abdulwahid Nur.
Residents of the camp said the gunmen launched two attacks -- one in the afternoon, followed by a bigger assault in the evening.
The first onslaught took place when the gunmen tried to take back cattle allegedly stolen by people from the camp, an official, who declined to be named, said.
"There was an exchange of fire between the gunmen and people from the camp. Some people have been killed in this attack," he said, without giving details of casualties.
A resident from the camp told AFP by telephone that three people had been killed and 11 wounded in the attack.
"The casualties are from two families residing in the camp," he said.
The second attack came at around 6:30 pm (1530 GMT) and continued into the night, he said, adding: "I can hear the shooting."
Monday's attacks come less than a fortnight after a similar attack on the Kalma camp in South Darfur, where militiamen on camels wounded six people.
The attacks come as international mediators working to resolve the more than decade-long conflict described the situation in Darfur, which voted last month in a referendum on its status, was "stable".
Almost 98 percent of voters in Darfur opted to maintain the region as five separate states instead of uniting it into a single entity, according to results released by the central government in Khartoum.
The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when rebels from ethnic minorities mounted an insurgency against the Arab-dominated government of President Omar al-Bashir, complaining of economic and political marginalisation.
Renewed clashes between government troops and Abdulwahid Nur's forces in the Jebel Marra mountains have forced at least 100,000 people from their homes since mid-January.
About 300,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million people have been displaced since the war began, according to UN figures.
Bashir is wanted for alleged war crimes over the conflict.
Brasilia, ACCRA, MAY 9, (dpa/GNA) - The interim head of Brazil's House of Deputies said Monday that he has overturned last month's vote by the lower chamber to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, citing procedural mistakes.
Waldir Maranhao said he had annulled the April 18 vote and called for a new vote.
His decision could face a legal challenge.
The full Senate had been expected to vote Wednesday to decide whether Rousseff should be subjected to a trial in the upper chamber on allegations that she illicitly hid a surge in Brazil's budget deficit during her 2014 re-election campaign.
It was not immediately clear if the Senate vote would still be held as scheduled.
The Senate was to decide whether Rousseff should be suspended from office for maximum of 180 days, during a detailed legal examination of the charges against her. Vice President Michel Temer would assume presidential duties during her suspension, including opening the Olympics in August.
Rousseff and her supporters have called the impeachment vote an attempted coup, and have pointed out she has not been charged with any crime.
Rousseff's presidency has been battered by a recession brought on by a drop in commodities markets and slowing global economy. Unemployment in Brazil rose to 9.6 million workers in 2015.
GNA
The government has discredited comment made by the Vice Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia that it has transferred 250 million dollars from proceeds of the Eurobond into the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF).
According to the Finance Minister, Seth Tekper, the argument put out by the former deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana is not only factually wrong but also is technically deficient of the reality on the ground.
Dr. Bawumia has made the news for the past days when he disclosed to some students of the Accra Polytechnic on May 05, that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has transferred the sum of $250 million, representing proceeds from government's latest $1 billion Eurobond issued in 2015, to a private bank.
He further revealed the money in the private bank has now been borrowed back by the government through treasury bills.
But reacting to the issue, a statement signed by Mr. Tekper argued the transfer of money to the GIIF by the government breaches no law.
The statement explained A key strategy of GIIF is to use its resources to leverage investor funds for accelerated infrastructure development, adding the governments allocation of the $250 million seed fund for the GIIF in 2014 was to achieve this end.
It, however, warned such "misinformation of Ghanaians and the international community in this manner" may end up creating uncertainty in the minds of investors about the country's economy.
It could also "damage the appetite for Ghana bonds", it added.
Read full Statement below:
PRESS RELEASE REBUTTAL TO DR. BAWUMIAS STATEMENT ON THE EUROBOND AND THE GHANA INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT FUND INTRODUCTION
1. Governments attention has been drawn to a statement by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the running mate to the Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, that Government is diverting US$250 million of the US$1.0 billion Eurobond issued last year to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), which he claims not in operation, to a private account in a private bank, for election campaigns ahead of the November polls.
2. The Government wishes to state unequivocally that, the statement is factually wrong, technically deficient and gives a wrong impression to both Ghanaian and international investors and development partners.
THE GIIF ESTABLISHMENT
3. We note that the passage of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund Act, 2014 (Act 877) established a Fund which is owned by the Republic of Ghana to mobilise, manage, coordinate and provide financial resources for investment in a diversified portfolio of infrastructure projects in Ghana for national development.
4. Section 5 of the Act provides for the sources of money for the Fund, which includes a portion of the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) from of the oil revenue; and moneys borrowed and raised from local and international capital market or from its affiliates. Further, as noted, a portion of the Bond proceeds was given as seed money to GIIF.
5. Furthermore, the Fund is mandated by Section 3 of the law to invest in, purchase, maintain and realize any investment of any kind.
6. Consequently, GIIF is set up as Sovereign Wealth Fund and its a Statutory Fund just like the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and is by law operationally independent.
7. The Funds of GIIF are, therefore, not to be comingled with central government funds.
8. The Board of the GIIF has been inaugurated with the Ag. CEO in place the Fund is in operation. The administrative processes for its full operation has begun and an Ag. CEO has been appointed.
9. Following from the above facts, a key strategy of GIIF is to use its resources to leverage investor funds for accelerated infrastructure development. It is in line with this that the Government allocated an amount of US$ 250.0 million as a seed fund for the GIIF in 2014 and not in 2015 as stated by Dr. Bawumia.
10. Accordingly, the Board which has the powers under Section 3 of the Act to manage and invest contributions made to the fund and to reinvest into the fund to generate returns could put its resources in a commercial bank for the sole purpose of investment.
11. Section 3 of the Act also confirms the provision in Section 21(2) of the Financial Administration Act that makes provision for the investment of public money in securities.
12. Consequently, the funds which goes into GIIFs Account in any Commercial Bank, cannot be misapplied for election purposes. Rather, any idle fund will earn interest to support infrastructure development of the country.
13. It must be noted that Public Funds do not only reside in the Bank of Ghana. There are public funds in Commercial Banks and International Financial Institutions where necessary, acting as agents for the Bank of Ghana. This is all accounted for as part of Public Funds.
USE OF EUROBOND PROCEEDS
14. In a related development, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is mixing operations of the Eurobond funding in both 2014 and 2015.
15. It may be recalled that in 2014, Parliament gave approval for Government to source for a Eurobond to finance infrastructure budget of Government in 2014. Considering that the GIIF is now a special vehicle for the purpose of developing infrastructure budget of Government, the Eurobond financing of the 2014 infrastructure budget was the most appropriate thing to do.
16. The 2015 Eurobond of US$1,000.0 million is for refinancing of domestic debt purposes only. This amount was on the back of a World Bank guarantee (US$400 million).
The guarantee and the amount was solely for refinancing of domestic debt. Nowhere in the prospectus or the policy statements of Government has the issue of budget financing been linked to it. 17. We may recall that as part of the IMF Extended Credit Facility Programme, The Bank of Ghana would no more finance Government budget deficit. This is what we call the zero financing of the budget by the Central Bank.
Consequently, Governments strategy to manage the financing of the budget is to explore alternative financing instruments. One of the strategies is the earning of interests on Governments own idle funds in the Banks. Following from this, a number of Request for Proposals (RFPs) and stakeholder engagements have been held to implement this strategy.
CONCLUSION
18. In conclusion, we wish to assure all Ghanaians that the US$250 million seed money to GIIF lodged by the Board with a Commercial Bank is safe and has already started bearing interest to the idle Fund.
19. It must be noted that Ghana now sources for some of its financing from the international capital market. The market has stringent rules and international law backing these transactions.
20. It should be note that misinformation of Ghanaians and the international community in this manner, creates uncertainty in the minds of investors and could damage the appetite for Ghana bonds and such misinformation should cease.
The Military Operations Coordination Committee (MOCC) for the African Union (AU) peace support operations convened its 18th meeting in Addis Ababa, on 09 May 2016. The meeting, chaired by the AU Commissioner for Peace Security, Ambassador Smail Chergui, was attended by Chiefs of Defense Staff (CDS) of AMISOM Troop Contributing Countries (Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda). Representatives of partner countries and institutions (the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the European Union and the United Nations) also participated in the meeting.
The meeting took place in the wake of the AMISOM Troops and Police Contributing Countries Summit which took place on 28 February in Djibouti. The meeting provided an opportunity to exchange views on the situation in Somalia, as well as to provide an update on progress made on the implementation of the Outcomes of the Djibouti Summit.
The MOCC stressed the need for better and coordinated efforts in support of the upcoming elections in Somalia and further acknowledged the electoral model adopted by Somalia.
The MOCC appreciated the role played by the Troops and Police contributing Countries in support of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) towards the achievement of the political process in Somalia as well as the support provided to AMISOM by the UN and other partners. They stressed the need for concerted effort in mobilizing financial support to address the financing gap faced by AMISOM.
The meeting unanimously agreed to revise the AMISOM Concept of Operations (CONOPs) paving way for the redistribution of AMISOM force and the implementation of the next phase of offensive operations to neutralize Al Shabaab and also called for the full participation and cooperation of the Somali National Army (SNA) and the Somali Police Force (SPF) in the renewed efforts leading to the exit strategy.
The MOCC noted the progress made in generation of Air Assets for AMISOM and reiterated the urgency of finalizing the process.
While expressing appreciation to the international partners for the assistance extended so far to AMISOM and the Somalia, the MOCC called for an enhanced and coordinated support.
The 11th meeting of the Implementation Follow-up Commission (IFC) of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) was held today in Khartoum, Sudan. The Commission discussed the progress made and the challenges faced in the implementation of the DDPD since its last meeting which was held on 8 September 2015, in Doha, Qatar.
The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of the State of Qatar, H.E. Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud and hosted by Mr. Martin Uhomoibhi, the AU-UN Joint Special Representative (JSR) and Joint Chief Mediator (JCM). The Government of Sudan was represented by Mr.Amin Hassan Omer, National Liberation and Justice Party represented by Mr. Tigani Sesi, Liberation and Justice Party represented by Mr. Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, and Justice and Equality Movement- Sudan was represented by Mr. Nahar Osman Nahar. Also present were the representatives of the African Union, the European Union, the League of Arab States, Canada, Chad, China, Egypt, France, Japan, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, Organization of Islamic Conference and the United States of America.
Darfur peace process and development, voluntary return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and reintegration of ex- combatants, among other issues, were discussed in the meeting.
Presenting the IFC Secretariat's report to the meeting, JSR Uhomoibhi reiterated UNAMID's commitment and determination to continue to support and cooperate with DDPD parties and IFC members in implementing the mandated tasks, as stipulated in theDDPD. UNAMID remains committed to the provisions of the DDPD as the comprehensive way forward to establishing sustainable peace across Darfur, said the JSR.
He highlighted the progress made in implementing some provisions of the DDPD, most notably the appointment of several members of the National Liberation and Justice Party (NLJP) and Liberation and Justice Party (LJP) in government positions. He also commended the release of approximately 1 million US dollars by the Government of Sudan for the Darfur Internal Dialogue and Consultation (DIDC) process.
The JSR updated the forum on the ongoing peace process in Darfur and highlighted the significant humanitarian consequences of the ongoing fighting in the Jebel Marra area. He also expressed concern over the recent outbreak of violence in East Darfur. However, he noted that, overall, inter-tribal clashes have shown a marked decrease largely due to timely interventions of the State Governments and the Native Administration.
Furthermore, JSR Uhomoibhi briefed on his activities as Joint Chief Mediator and his meetings with the armed movements in Addis Ababa last month and assured the forum that he will continue the dialogue with the movements. He underlined UNAMID's efforts in support of expediting the implementation of the Final Security Arrangements provisions of the DDPD for ex-combatants of the Justice and Equality Movement-Sudan (JEM-Sudan) and the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM).
Addressing the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Al Mahmoud renewed his country's pledge to continueits steadfast support forthe DDPD and strongly urged other international stakeholders and IFC members to rededicate themselves and demonstrate their continuing support through fulfilling their commitments and pledges in order to facilitate timely andenhanced implementation of the DDPD with a view to enhancing peace and stability in the region. On this occasion, I urge the non-signatory armed movements to join the peace proses as soon as possible for the sake of homeland's interest and the people of Darfur, underlined Mr. Al Mahmoud.
The World Economic Forum on Africa meeting has become an event for top political, business, community leaders to congregate around the African development agenda. It is normally hosted in Cape Town in the second quarter of the year.
This year 2016, Kigali plays host for the first time as Rwanda seeks to welcome some of the important African stakeholders. Around the Fourth Industrial Revolution theme being driven by the World Economic Forum, the theme for WEFAfrica 2016 is Connecting Africa's Resources through Digital Transformation. This 26th edition of the meetings take place at Camp Kigali from May 11-13.
In light of this theme, the Global Shapers Community of the World Economic Forum, which is mostly made up of millennials, is pushing an #internet4all campaign. The campaign is to bring top-of-the-mind awareness around the provision of fast, affordable, current and terrific internet all around Africa to drive the continents transformation. Various Global Shapers, including Ghanaians, have contributed to this campaign, which has already reached millions of people on social media.
3 Ghanaians from the Global Shapers Community in Ghana, Ato Ulzen-Appiah (Accra Hub), Jorge Appiah (Kumasi Hub), and Abdul-Latif Issahaku (Tamale Hub) will be part of 50 Global Shapers attending the World Economic Forum on Africa. Ato, Jorge and Abdul were chosen after the receipt of many high-quality applications and an extremely rigorous selection process. They join 47 other Global Shapers from various African hubs. They are 3 young trailblazers in their respective fields with local impact and global appeal. Professionally, they are neck deep in initiatives which are driving digital transformation in Ghana.
Ato Ulzen-Appiah is a member of the Global Shapers Accra Hub. He's the director at the GhanaThink Foundation which mobilizes and organizes talent for the primary benefit of Ghana. He has led GhanaThinks Barcamp Ghana program (which targets 18-35 year olds) to impact over 8000 youth, building a network of changemakers, doers and entrepreneurs in Ghana and beyond. He co-founded the creation of the Junior Camp Ghana program, providing value to high school students in Ghana primarily through career guidance and mentoring, as well as internships.
Within GhanaThink as well, he co-founded the Ghana Volunteer Program, which through the National Volunteer Day, has seen thousands volunteer their skills, time, resources and effort in making Ghana better. Ato studied at MIT and Stanford in civil engineering and management disciplines, using those world-class experiences to shape his work, relations and growth. While working at Google as a program manager building sustainable tech communities in Africa, he led the creation and activity of several technology groups. Some of the people he engaged online before, during and after his time at Google, are currently Global Shapers. He worked at Rancard Solutions as product manager building new revenue services off its platform. He co-founded Museke.com -an African music website and blogs at mightyafrican.blogspot.com .
Ato Ulzen-Appiah is looking forward to engaging with Global Shapers like him from all over Africa. After attending the World Economic Forum on Africa in 2013 and the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos in 2015, he expects to learn from, share and network with people who are committed to making Africa the best it can be. Im excited to visit Rwanda for the first time to experience some of the great stories Ive heard about it and build a stronger network in Rwanda.
Abdul-Latif Issahaku is the founding curator of the Global Shapers Tamale Hub. He is a passionate marketing executive leading brands to drive products and services innovation. He is fascinated about innovations in the technology space and has consistently launched and applied mobile technology solutions that address everyday problems. Since 2006, Abdul-Latif has worked for two multinational telecom companies; the Chinese giant Huawei Technologies as well as MTN, Africas leading telecom operator. In 2013, he launched the MTN Apps Challenge which provides opportunity for Ghanaian youth to use technology to solve the litany of problems in Ghana. Some 100 young software developers have taken part in the annual competition. Abdul-Latif studied at two prestigious universities in Africa and Europe Ashesi University in Ghana and Nyenrode Business University in The Netherlands where he graduated with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and Masters in Business Administration respectively. He took courses at Kellogg School of Management in the USA, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore in India as well as the European Commission in Brussels. He has interacted with corporate leaders in Europe and the United States from companies such as Microsoft, CISCO, IBM, Vodafone, Bavaria Breweries, Sogeti, and TNT.
Abdul-Latif is described as an inspiring young leader and a member of the World Economic Forums Global Shapers Community. Abdul-Latifs expectations for AF16: "To engage African business and political leaders on the urgent need to speed up with the requisite actions and interventions to bridge the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world. Additionally, to explore with fellow emerging leaders ways to connect effectively and catalyze this change". On his expectations for #AF16, Jorge Appiah said: To connect and dialogue with key decision makers; policy makers, politicians and businessmen, coming from Africa and other part of the world about issues regarding readiness of Africans to partake in the digital economy and the forthcoming 4th industrial revolution.
Jorge Appiah is the current curator of the Global Shapers Kumasi Hub. He is driven by passion for development and empowerment of youth as a techpreneur and innovator, Jorge is creating platforms to help promote local innovations tackling critical challenges in our communities and also to promote youth entrepreneurship. Jorge believes in local innovations and manufacturing as a way forward for developing Africa.
He is the Co-founder/CEO of Kumasi Hive; a multi-space innovation place providing affordable spaces including co-working spaces, Makerspace, Training space and event space to support start-ups and the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Kumasi, the first of its kind. Kumasi Hive also happens to be the only tech hub in the country that provide technical, business and financial support to hardware innovations and startups in addition to the mainstream software and social startups.
Jorge is also the founder/Executive director of Creativity Group (Cg), an interdisciplinary community of student innovators, makers, entrepreneurs and changemakers who are using innovation and technology as a tool, to solve problems in our communities and in Ghana for social interventions and sustainable development. Creativity Group currently have 5 chapters across the major universities in Ghana with over 600 memberships. Cg provide supporting platforms for students who seeks to turn their ideas into prototypes, then assist them further with business development and financial literacy training to help them create business around their skills and innovation.
Other Ghanaians attending the Forum include Enyo Kumahor of Cobalt Partners (a Young Global Leader), Farida Bedwei of Logiciel (a Young Global Leader), Jacob Kholi (Partner of The Abraaj Group), Michael Wilson (Managing Partner of Migson Ghana), Sebastian Ashong-Katai (of Ecobank Transnational) and Kingsley Yeboah Amoako (President of African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET)).
The World Economic Forum on Africa will be co-chaired by Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina (President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dominic Barton (Global Managing Director of McKinsey & Company), Tony O. Elumelu (Founder, The Tony Elumelu Foundation), Graca Machel (Founder of Foundation for Community Development (FDC)) and Tarek Sultan Al Essa (CEO of Agility).
The importance of Africa's agriculture in contributing to food and nutrition security, poverty reduction and overall economic growth is well documented. However, the task of transforming Africa's agriculture into a modern and dynamic sector is a complex one, faced with a number of key challenges. These include limited investment, technologies, knowledge and infrastructure to link input and output markets across the continent.
For agriculture to make a meaningful contribution to attainment of the aspirations enshrined in Agenda 2063, the Africa Union's strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over the next 50 years, increased levels of, and targeted investments are required. A transformed and modern agriculture will be key to achieving inclusive growth and sustainable development on the continent.
The transformation of Africa's agriculture is anchored in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). The Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods, adopted during the 23rd Ordinary Session of the African Unions Heads of State and Government, provides further impetus to the CAADP process and gives the direction for agriculture on the continent for the next 10 years. This essentially constitutes the agricultural component of the first 10 years' implementation plan of Agenda 2063.
The investments, which are required for this transformation process, should come from both the public sector and private sector. Whilst CAADP implementation in the first 10 years focused on mobilizing public sector financing to address the agriculture sector investment requirements, there is evidence that private sector investments will continue to be central to leveraging existing public sector efforts. Under the right conditions, private sector investments have the potential to drive pro-poor development and strengthen food security.
Recognition of the pivotal role of the private sector in the renewed push for agriculture and agribusiness development in Africa, informs efforts to leverage the private sector and other stakeholders. Indeed, one of the commitments in the Malabo Declaration which is on Enhancing Investment Finance in Agriculture, calls for increased involvement of the private sector, in its diversity, both local and international, in African agricultural development, especially targeting strategic agricultural commodities value chains at national, regional and continental level.
So what are the required levels of investment? According to FAO estimates, over the period from 2006 to 2050, the cumulative global investments required in Sub-Saharan Africa in agriculture and downstream support services amount to USD 940 billion [in 2009 USD]. Of this amount, about 66 percent will be required for agribusiness and agro-industries capital outlays, covering items such as cold and dry storage (USD 78 billion), rural and wholesale market facilities (USD 159 billion), first stage processing (USD 207 billion), mechanization (USD 59 billion) and other power sources and equipment (USD 115 billion). These investments will have to be made primarily by the private sector. The public sector will thus be confronted with the need to create and maintain conditions that favour investment in agribusiness and agro-industries by the private sector.
Consequently, The AUC and the NEPAD Agency have been making various efforts aimed at scaling up investments into the agricultural sector. The AUC Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture has organized a series of private sector fora, the outcomes of which have fed into the development of the Continental Agribusiness Strategy. To give further voice to private sector concerns, there are ongoing efforts at strengthening national agribusiness chambers, with a view to establishing a continental agribusiness chamber / platform in the near future. Furthermore, through the facilitation of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, hosted at the AUC, work is ongoing which aligns private sector investment priorities with public sector policy commitments. Similarly, through the Grow Africa Partnership hosted at the NEPAD Agency, efforts are made to increase private sector participation in agriculture and to accelerate the execution and impact of investment commitments.
The engagement of the private sector, within and outside the continent, should complement public sector investments in the agricultural sector, from both domestic and external sources, to deliver the required financing for the bold commitments in the Malabo Declaration in order to realize the transformation that will bring about food security and prosperity for the people of this continent.
The new Serbian Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles, H.E. Mr. Dragan Mraovi?, presented his credentials to President James Michel in a ceremony held at State House today.
President Michel congratulated the new Ambassador and said that the Government of Seychelles is looking forward to promote greater cooperation with Serbia.
The President and Ambassador discussed how Seychelles and Serbia could consolidate their cooperation in the fields of tourism, education, health as well as international peace and security.
During their meeting, Ambassador Mraovi?, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Serbia, H.E Mr. Tomislav Nikoli?, bestowed a decree to honour with one of the highest decorations, the Order of the Republic of Serbia on a Sash, on President James Michel for his contribution to strengthening bilateral relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Seychelles.
Your Excellency, I thank your Government for this award which is testimony to the long-standing ties of friendship and cooperation between our two nations. I accept it with much pleasure and dedicate it to the people of Seychelles, said President Michel.
After the accreditation ceremony, the Ambassador told the national media that during his mandate he intends to develop economic and educational cooperation between the two countries.
"Economic relations are a priority I will do my best to increase relations. Business people should visit each country Air Serbia joined the Etihad partnership and we are looking at more possibilities to bring tourists to Seychelles, not only Serbian but from the whole of Europe. We are helping Seychelles in the educational sector, with many Seychellois that have graduated in the former Yugoslavia and Serbia. Now my country is having four Seychellois students studying [at university]. We will have also one new scholarship to offer, said Ambassador Dragan Mraovi?.
Ambassador Dragan Mraovi? is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Also, present during the meeting were the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Transport, Joel Morgan, the President's Diplomatic Adviser, Ambassador Callixte d'Offay, and the Honorary Consul for Serbia to Seychelles, Dr. Miodrag Todorovi?.
10.05.2016 LISTEN
I am presently in Ghana . I have been here for the past two months and there has never been a day when one turns on the TV and never sees or hears about the coming election in November. it is so sad for me to see how Afrikans have been "white brain washed" about democracy.
These so called educated Afrikan leaders have been promised lots of money to implement their system of democracy in countries where you have nations within countries. If they had said to the leaders to have the USA system, it would have made more sense. They never did because they know politics was invented to divide the peoples. Politics followed the template of religions. How? You will ask. Just three pointers here.
i) Constitution = Bible & Koran
ii) President/Prime Minister = Pope; Archbishop; Ayatollah
iii) Constituents = Congregation
For the enlightened, religion is a business model. Same model that has been adopted by conglomerates such as IBM, Fords, Nissan, Volks Wagon, etc. They have their headquarters based in their home land and have offices all over the world. This is the same way the Roman Catholic Church started, which has been copied by conglomerates.
In politics, you have the Party Headquarters and then have constituencies and their offices all over the country. They create jobs and employment when well organised. To do this as the west has done, the country has to be at a relative stage of development. People never had the votes automatically in the West originally. They went through stages to get to where they are today. But they want the Afrikans to do a quantum leap to get there by magic; impossible. To get there, the electorates must be educated. No one votes in the West with their thump as identification mark!
We are wasting so much money on this system yet you go to many places in Ghana and find communities with no drinking water, no lighting, no school buildings, with the nearest school miles away. People have no jobs and yet the so called educated leaders are spending millions on western style democracy when they should sit down together to formulate how to use that money to better Ghana and then later have a system that is inclusive and not divisive. The western system of democracy is divisive and not intended for a developing country. We must develop the country before we introduce division. Why do we want to divide when I keep hearing we are one people!
Again, that's where some are going wrong. We are not one people. We have the same pigmentation but speak different languages, that have identified us as been different. Therefore, the system we need in Ghana and Afrika is an Autonomous System like the USA, Canada, Australia, etc. Not the one we have right now, which is a continuation of the old colonial system, where the Central Government is now the new colonial master! Yes, we are all Ghanaians but we are different peoples put together by the old colonial masters. Time has come to decolonise ourselves by introducing self government in the form of Autonomy for the Regions. Later, there should be a debate about Federation and Confederation.
I would like to direct the politicians, our so called educated leaders, to go have a read on the Human Rights Declaration. They should read, especially Article 22 to 26 and tell me if they have not been abusing the rights of their citizens, especially children and the unemployed!
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
DO WE HAVE THE ABOVE TWO ( 22 & 25) IN AFRICA?
Yet the West does not shout about abuse of these rights in Afrika. Rights they should have introduced when they were the colonial masters. I suppose black lives means nothing to the white folks. But when it comes to same sex marriages, they shout about abuse of Rights. You politicians and peoples of Afrika, can you see the HYPOCRISY here?
Before some point out about funds/capital etc, may I ask, Do we not have a Central Bank? Why can we not do a Reserve Bank like the USA, where government borrows its money from instead of doing so from the IMF or World Bank. Pays the interest to the Federal Reserve Bank instead of the IMF. Now, tell me why we cannot do that in Afrika! Why should we borrow money from the World Bank and IMF and pay them interest, when we can do same with our Central Bank? We sell our oil, cocoa, gold, bauxites, etc in dollars, therefore we have plenty of $$$! See how much profit our Central Banks can make by the government borrowing money from it instead of doing so from the IMF or World Bank. Our politicians' brains have been white washed to think all things coming from the whites are gospels; you get it, Gospels! That is what the foreign religions have done to us, conditioned our mind to think white peoples like Jesus Christ and Muhammad are our saviours; LIES, LIES and LIES!
We can be our own saviours by using our common sense that the Almighty One has endowed upon some of us. The Almighty One has given us all these natural resources and what do we do with them, concede them to the white folks! If the Almighty wanted us to have long hair, we would have been given it. Now, some are bleaching their skin because they think white skin is better.
Like Bob Marley said, "Only Ourselves Can Free Our Minds" - From Redemption Song!
Gavin Bond, Author (Shine Your Eyes Mama Africa, Memoir of an Enlightened African- Amazon and other bookshops)+233561997983
10.05.2016 LISTEN
Various misconceptions about atheism abound in religious and theistic circles in Africa. In Kenya and Uganda, in Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and South Africa, these mistaken notions have often been deployed to discredit atheism and to delegitimize atheistic positions. Someone captured a ridiculous portrayal of atheists and atheism in a comment on a recent article in a Kenyan newspaper. It reads:
In Florida , an atheist created a case against Easter and Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians and Jews and observances of their holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized days.
The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, "Case dismissed!" The lawyer immediately stood and objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honor, How can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays..." The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do.
Your client, counselor, is woefully ignorant." The lawyer said," Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists." The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day. Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that, if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned...
Apparently, what the commentator is saying is that April Fool's Day is for atheists because they say that there is no God, and the Christmas, Easter and Eid Holidays are for the wise because they believe in the existence of god. Right?
In this piece, I critically examine this erroneous viewpoint. I refer to it as a classical misrepresentation of atheism because it is widely alluded to by theists. That is the designation of atheists as fools.
According to the The online Cambridge English dictionary, a fool is a person who behaves in a silly way, without thinking. The online Merriam Webster dictionary defines it slightly different. It says that a fool is one who lacks good sense or judgment. From both definitions, foolery entails: behaving in a silly way, behaving without thinking, lacking good sense and lacking good judgment.
My main questions here are: How do atheists, by mere fact of not believing in a god behave in a silly manner? How are atheists persons who do not think? How can one justifiably say that persons who see no evidence for the existence of god lack good sense of judgment?
First of all I would like to state that the whole notion that persons who doubt or disbelieve in the existence of a deity or some supernatural power are not sensible is not a Christian or Islamic invention. This impression predates the advent of these foreign religions and their gods. A Nigerian Yoruba adage roughly states that those who are not knowledgeable about the power of charms call them vegetable. This saying is often used to deride skeptics, non believers and those who doubt the efficacy of the Yoruba traditional gods and medicines.
However, centuries of christianization and islamization have turned the arrows of derision towards those who reject the Christian and Islamic gods. The idea that atheists are fools is common among African Christian believers particularly the pentecostal christians who literally interpret the Bible.
One passage in the Christian holy book which informs the idea that atheists are fools is Psalm 14: 1 which states: The fool has said in his heart: There is no God. That verse goes on to state apparently in reference to the atheists, They are corrupt and commit evil and abominable deeds. Personally, I cannot recall how many times Christians friends and associates have referred me this verse out of contempt and in their attempt to respond or challenge my atheistic positions or perspectives.
This biblical verse is often cited along with another provision in the scripture, Proverb 15:33. It states that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord? If one takes a critical look at this verse, it actually means the fear of the unknown is the beginning of wisdom because god personifies the incomprehensible. Thus, out of dreadful ignorance, the theist said in his heart that there is god.
How does that qualify as a mark of wisdom? What makes a confession based on fright and panic thoughtful? How is a ritual in trepidation an act of common sense? How is accepting a claim that lacks evidence a mark of good judgement?
For instance the notion that god exists is often informed by the idea that he is the creative agent responsible for the world. How is this tenable? Did god finish creating the universe and then went into a coma or disappeared?
How is it that the so-called owner of the universe has refused to come forward and take full charge of his property? Where lies the evidence that the world was created by a ghost hovering in a void? What shows that there is somebody who owns the world and how is it a good behavior to be talking to him even when there is no shred of evidence that there is an effective network and communication with the so called Supreme Being? How is it a sound minded behavior to build houses for him, attribute the authorship of several texts with contradictory messages to him? How is it wise of anybody to profess that god is located somewhere in paradise and at the same time omnipresent, and waiting to judge people after they are dead? Those who say in their hearts that there is a god should really pause for a moment and ponder.
I am deeply persuaded that the profession of theists, not that of the atheists is actually one that is informed by lack of thinking and sound judgment. The god claims are literally untenable. Acts in reverence of such creatures are utterly preposterous, though they may be entertaining.
There is no justification in associating the profession of theism, as opposed to atheism, with wisdom or to think that an exercise in fear of an imaginary Lord is a mark of good sense and judgment. The time has come for African theists to begin to understand that it takes thoughtfulness and courage to question and seek evidence and to take a position based on evidence or lack thereof. Yes it takes wisdom to overcome primitive fears and to affirm in one's heart that there is no God.
H.E. Prof. Ibrahim Ahmed Omer, Speaker of the Sudanese National Assembly received at his office in Omdurman this morning H.E. Ambassador Tomas Ulicny, Head of Delegation of the European Union. At the meeting, the European Union Ambassador briefed the Speaker about the progress in the Sudanese European relations and the importance of parliamentary diplomacy in strengthening this progress. Prof. Ibrahim Ahmed Omer informed about the expected parliamentary visits from Germany and the United Kingdom.
At the end of the meeting, the European Union Ambassador informed the press that he explained to the speaker that the European Union development assistance is in line with the Sudanese priorities especially in the areas of education, health, water management and agriculture. The European Union Ambassador added that the European Union is implementing 67 development and humanitarian projects worth 150 million Euros implemented by local and international organizations.
Ambassador Tomas Ulicny noted the efforts by the Sudanese National Assembly to strengthen laws on irregular migration, smuggling, human trafficking, the status of long term migrants, and combating radicalization. Ambassador Tomas said that establishing good neighborly relations with South Sudan is key to peace in Darfur which is key to the stability of Sudan and the region.
10.05.2016 LISTEN
It Is All In The Name Of Aiding The NDC
Ebo Quansah in Accra
On Tuesday, May 3, 2017, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) held a press conference in Accra, and warned of a chaotic state in this country, if the security services failed to curb their tendency to favour the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) against other players in the national election psyche.
Mr. Freddie Blay, Acting National Chairman of the largest opposition party, said the NPP was apprehensive of what could play out when the people of Ghana go to the polls on November 7, 2016, If we can witness such scale of violence and intimidation being master-minded by officials of government and being unleashed in the full glare of the police.
Like most things in society, the warning was not taken seriously. Rather, than taking note of the NPP concern and reform the way things are being done in this society, there is a hint of 'cry baby' derision directed at the appeal.
At the weekend, reports from the Volta Region spoke of an orchestrated assault by a joint patrol team of police and military personnel on the Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party. According to Mr. John Peter Amenu, he was subjected to severe beatings at the hands of uniformed personnel from the Police Service and the army.
It was not as if he had committed any heinous crime. The Regional Chairman received reports that the police-cum military patrol team had moved the registration centre, with all its Electoral Commission officials, from its assigned centre at Mitsrikasa Electoral Area, and were heading towards a destination in the Republic of Togo.
According to the NPP Chair, upon hearing the news, he and his team of registration observers decided to chase the police vehicle which was taking the registration officials and materials. The NPP electoral team travelled for about seven kilometres before catching up with the police-cum military team with the electoral officers on board. They managed to overtake the team and succeeded in bringing it back to Mitsrikasa.
MOTIVE
It was when the NPP Chair questioned the motive of the team that the military and police personnel on board pounced on him and beat him up mercilessly, resulting in him needing medical attention at the Ho Regional Hospital.
To add insult to injury, the Volta Regional Chairman of the Electoral Commission endorsed the action of the security officers, asserting that the NPP Chair was interfering in the activities of the security services. Since when did the law permit officers of security services to physically assault those said to be interfering in their activities.
Do the activities of the security services include moving registration centres to unknown destinations without informing stake-holders? We are heading into a blind and very dangerous alley, en-route to the November polls. One would have thought that the police and the military would have commented on the Volta Regional assault by now. The State of Ghana provides uniforms for the security services to protect the people. Unfortunately, the uniform appears to be giving the license for some soldiers and police personnel to beat up civilians and get away with it.
CREATING AN ENABLING ATMOSPHERE
Everybody knows that is not the right means of creating an enabling atmosphere for peace. In this country though, people deliberately beat the war drums, but when others seek cover from the danger ahead, they are deliberately given names and invite military-cum police brutalities on them. The sheer violence that greeted the limited registration exercise seems to suggest that there are genuine problems ahead of this nation as we inch nearer the elections.
Like ostriches, we have all buried our heads in the sand, pretending not to see the danger signals. For me, the seed for confusion during the polls is being sown. We are slowly acquiring the habit of the Chinua Achebe proverbial man sitting by his doorsteps with the house ablaze behind, and obstinately arguing against the destructive force of fire.
PARTY LINE SECURITY
On Tuesday, May 3, 2016, the New Patriotic Party held a news conference in Accra, at which the National Organiser, John Boadu, who is sitting in for the Suspended General Secretary, warned that the November 7 poll would be chaotic, if the police and other security officers of state continue in their business stance of providing security based on party lines.
The Acting General Secretary told the media that NPP officials were particularly worried about how the next elections would be conducted in peace, with the kind of biased stance of the security apparatus.
If we can witness such scale of violence and intimidation being master-minded by officials of government and being unleashed in the full glare of the police, then we have a problem.
MANIPULATION OF THE SYSTEM
The problem is that we are refusing to speak against the naked abuse of the system in favour of the ruling party, which is abusing its incumbency in its worst form. The violence aside, there is a clear case of manipulation of the system while we all look on.
The Electoral Commission is the worst offender, I am afraid. Under its Chairperson, Mrs. Charlotte Osei, the Electoral Commission is behaving as if the sole aim of the commission is to return the administration of Mr. John Dramani Mahama to power on November 7. The commission appears to be speaking the same language as NDC officials. It looks like the Electoral Commission has appointed NDC officials to speak on its behalf.
FETISH HINT ABOUT LOGO
Only the NDC and its surrogate parties are applauding the commission for throwing away our state emblem, symbolised by the Coat of Arms, in favour of a logo that clearly bears no resemblance to the functions of the commission. The new logo, I dare state, has the hint of a fetish intent about it than representing the hopes and aspirations of this country's Electoral Commission.
Both President John Dramani Mahama and the General Secretary of the political party that props up his presidency have spoken highly of the new logo. At the other end of the political spectrum, the NPP, the Progressive People's Party and the Convention People's Party are not happy with the logo itself, and the timing of its out-dooring.
Whatever the EC and its backers say, the eve of the beginning of the limited voters registration exercise could never be the right time to launch a logo and a so-called five-year development plan. As it is, the launch of the logo completely overshadowed the beginning of the registration exercise. It came to pass that many potential new voters were unaware of the exercise, which explains why there was such a lukewarm attitude to the registration when it began.
It was only towards the end, when there had been much publicity about it, that the registration centres recorded heavy patronage. It is interesting to recall how the commission contrived to undermine its own exercise. As if it is on cue, the EC tried rather very hard to make things difficult for those registering in what is perceived as the opposition NPP's strongholds, while liberalising registration in the Volta Region, for instance.
END TO VIOLENCE
It is interesting to note that up till now, not much has been heard of the outcome of the so-called macho men who raided a registration centre and made away with electoral materials. The police have failed to update society on the outcome of its investigation into the matter, which dampens the spirit of those who would like to see an end to violence in the electoral matters of this country.
One needs not over-emphasise the harm that perpetrators of electoral violence bring to this society. While it is universally acknowledged that dealing with offenders would help sensitise the electoral process, it is equally believed that failing to deal with perpetrators encourages miscreants to visit more violence on the process.
While I fault the police for failing to update society on the outcome of their investigations into the equipment snatching in the Ashanti Region, I am appalled by the cemetery-silence from the Electoral Commission and its Chairperson. One would like to believe that it inures to the benefit of the commission to press for election-related offences to be dealt with swiftly and decisively.
In the interim, it is instructive to learn that the National Peace Council, a creation of the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana to ensure that violence does not disturb the nation-state of Ghana, is struggling to exist. When the National Peace Council appeared unresponsive to the violence that reared its ugly head in the registration exercise, tongues wagged. Has the council lost its script? Many wondered.
Last week, the nation woke up to the rude shock that the National Peace Council is unable to function, because it lacked financial and other logistics. According to Rev. Prof. Seth Opuni Asiamah, Ashanti Regional boss, the council is beset by serious financial and other logistical problems, resulting in its inability to carry out its functions. The few activities undertaken by the council, according to Prof. Asiamah, are funded from members' own pockets.
I don't remember the last time we received funding from the government, complained the Ashanti Regional boss. For the attention of the uninitiated, the National Peace Council is a statutory independent body established under Act 818 of Parliament. The core function of the council is to facilitate and develop a mechanism to prevent, manage, and build sustainable peace in Ghana.
FUNDING BLUES
How an organisation mandated to keep peace in this country could operate without funding, tells everything about the kind of society we are building for ourselves. For me, as a social commentator, I deem it is a deliberate ploy of the government to stifle the National Peace Council of the oxygen of finance, because to suits the agenda of the party in power and its sitting President.
I will proceed to explain why in this piece. In the interim, it is pertinent to recall the fate of the National Identification System, which has been deliberately made to fail, like the fate of the National Peace Council. The National Identification System has failed, because its function is deemed inimical to the performance of the ruling party at national elections, I dare suggest.
Before we get into why the system was made to fail, let us first examine the circumstances leading to the establishment of the authority and its core functions. The idea to set up an organisation to identify and certify all Ghanaians as well as non-nationals living in the country was mooted long ago. But it was the National Economic Dialogue of 2001, which began the actual preparatory work for the establishment of the system.
In 2003, the National Identification Authority was set up under the Office of the President, with the mandate to issue National Identity Cards and manage the National Identity System. The National identification Authority ACT, 2006 (Act707) was passed to give the authority the legal backing to operate.
Two years later, in 2008, Parliament promulgated the National Identity Register Act 2008 (Act 750) giving the authorisation for the collection of personal and biometric data, and to ensure the protection of privacy and personal information of enrollees, according to Wikipedia, the world-wide web.
MANDATE OF THE AUTHORITY
The authority was mandated to establish a national data centre, in order to manage a national data base, to set up a system to collect, process, store, retrieve, and disseminate personal data on the population of Ghana both resident and non-resident as well as foreigners legally and permanently resident in Ghana, and to ensure the accuracy, integrity and security of such data, and to issue and promote the use of national identity cards in the country.
The authority's core function included the creation of a credible voters register, social security, check the application and acquisition of passports, drivers' licenses, and aid with increased revenue collection. In 2008, the authority began issuing the Ghana Card, which was envisaged as proof of identity, citizenship, and residence of the holder.
Unfortunately, the authority began facing serious financial and logistical problems when the NDC took power in January 2009. As you read this piece, the authority has not been able to release the cards to those who registered in 2008. I am not a conspiracy theorist. But it is very difficult to explain the demise of the authority and why it has failed to undertake its core functions, other than a deliberate attempt by this administration to stifle it of cash.
Finance has always been a national problem. But I refuse to buy into the bunkum that this nation is too broke to fund the National Identification Authority and the National Peace Council. Has anybody quantified how much public funds President Mahama has poured down the drain in fulfillment of his Accounting to the People propaganda and party campaign tour?
DELIBERATE CREATION
For me, the situation has deliberately been created so that one particular political party could benefit from continuing to bus people from nearby countries to register and vote for that party in national elections. It is pertinent to read into the meaning of what NDC General Secretary Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah is reported to have told Joy FM, an Accra radio station, the other day.
According to the Daily Guide newspaper, the ubiquitous General Mosquito has owned up to the fact that the NDC brought in nationals of our neighbouring countries to register in the limited registration exercise. That aside, the Volta Regional Youth Organiser of the NDC dropped his pants when he said on Citi FM that the NDC has been registering people he claims were their cousins resident in Togo; openly boasting that given the chance, they would do it again.
I bet if an agent of another party had made this disclosure, he would have been whisked away to be the guest of the Director of the Bureau of National Investigations. In this country, the laws are clearly defined for the NDC, while another is used to whip others in line. For the avoidance of doubt, please take note of this quotable quote from Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah. We are the people who create the problems, and we turn round to blame the Electoral Commission. The NDC Chief Scribe might have generalised his assertion. But the message is loud and clear.
I shall return!
The burial service was almost over. But before the police burial party took over, the family of the deceased was asked to step forward to be prayed for. As the grief-stricken son, daughter, wife and other members of the family walked towards the clergy, the police band was asked to play Horatio Spaffords timeless hymn, It Is Well with My Soul. The police band, in my view, produces some of the best musical tunes one can hear anywhere on planet earth. They filled the late morning air with an impeccable rendition of the comforting hymn.
At that moment the sun suddenly lowered its scorching gaze, as if in reverence to the respectable police officer because of whom hundreds of people had gathered that Saturday morning at the Police Training School in Tesano, Accra. When the sun dimmed, a gentle wind caressed the parade grounds and blew away the black flag covering the casket. A member of the burial party strode briskly to the centre of the gathering, to the lonely canopy that sheltered the casket and battled with the wind to put the cloth back in place. He succeeded in putting the flag back in its place, displaying the logo of the police service with its bold inscription: Ghana Police Service with Integrity.
Seeing Ghana Police so close to the word integrity reminded me of the figure of speech called oxymoron. For those who may not remember much from their senior high school literature notes, oxymoron is a figure of speech in which contradictory terms or words are placed side by side, such as an honest liar. Indeed, the Ghana Police Service and integrity are very contradictory terms.
When the thought of the man whose mortal remains those words were covering crossed my mind, however, I felt the words might not be totally out of place at that moment. The police service may lack integrity but some men and women in the service could be credited with that rare quality in Ghana. The late Deputy Commissioner of Police, Angwubutoge Awuni, was one of the rare breeds of officers who uphold the vestige of integrity left in the police service. Such officers have ensured that there is some modicum of sanity in the institution, which has the unenviable record of always emerging as Ghanas most corrupt institution in corruption perception indices over the years.
Corruption in the police service is not a perception. It is a reality. When you find them demanding their road duty allowance on the highways you will think they are enforcing their constitutional right. This week a family member whose cattle were stolen near Kintampo managed to find the alleged thieves and reported to the police. Before the police agreed to step out of the station, he paid them GHc900. They had charged him GHc1000 and he bargained.
Corruption and the willingness to subvert justice due to political and other pressures have soiled the reputation of the police beyond repairs, but there are still men and women who uphold the nobility of the service. And the police officer whose death on March 14, 2016, shook the nation was one of such people.
The police administration in a tribute said DCOP Awuni, was an officer of exceptional bravery and courage who would not allow his work to be interfered with nor being cowed into submission once he felt he was on the right track in the performance of his duties. In Ghana, tributes to the dead are more imaginary than fiction. Sometimes you wonder whether the beautiful words spoken at burial services are about the same grandson or granddaughter of the devil who is being laid to rest. For those who knew the late DCOP Awuni, however, the description by the police service was a true reflection of his no-nonsense disposition.
His first name, Angwubutoge (pronounced Agmibitoge) in Gurune/Frafra means speaking frankly despite the consequences. He spoke his mind and did what was right irrespective of who was in the firing range of justice, law and order. This earned him many friends as well as enemies. He was not the kind of police officers politicians liked, especially when they were in government.
In the run up the 2012 elections, the Greater Accra Regional Branch of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) was up against him. The party was livid that he ordered the arrest of former Regional Minister and MP for the Klottey-Korle Constituency, Nii Armah Ashietey. The man had interfered with the voters registration process at a centre near the MTTU Headquarters, where DCOP Awuni was. The arrest triggered calls for the removal of Awuni from the Greater Accra Region.
He can be moved anywhere but not in Greater Accra, NDC Regional Chairman, Mr Ade Coker, told Joy FM. We in Greater Accra cannot work with a policeman like him [Awuni].
In Ghana, transfers are ways of punishing people, especially when one is taken to very rural areas. But DCOP Awuni made it clear that he was not afraid of transfers.
Where will they transfer you to? To Burkina Faso? he once asked MTTU officers at the police headquarters while instructing them to deal with anyone who broke the law. If they transfer you to any part of Ghana you will still be a police officer in Ghana. You wont be a police officer in Burkina Faso.
The Ghana Police Service is often seen as a puppet of the government. For this reason, no police officer wants to displease the government of the day. But that was not the style of DCOP Awuni. His last action that displeased the Flagstaff House was when organized labour went on a nationwide protest. In the Eastern Region, DCOP Awuni met leaders of the demonstrators and told them to comport themselves in order to have a peaceful march. He did not care to be politically correct even when journalists were recording him.
I will urge you to impress upon your people to do what will not drag us into confrontation. He told leaders of organized labour in the Eastern Region. I wouldnt like our action to destroy the beauty of what you are doingWe are all workers. Let me be very frank with you, if it goes well it goes well for me, but I cannot go out there and demonstrate. The Eastern Regional Police brass band also provided music for the demonstrators, an action which infuriated the seat of government.
This was the man the police service says was brave and courageous. After 57 years, his life on the planet ended. Fifty-seven years appears too short for such a good man, especially when his mother still is alive. But no one knows the agreement he had with his Maker. Besides, how long one lived does not matter. What matters is how well one lived. After a life of impact and dedication to duty, it was time for DCOP Awuni to go to where all of us would eventually go the grave.
The impressive burial ceremony by the police would make one want to die if only such befitting farewell is assured. It sounds silly but true.
There was a police van towards the exit of the ceremonial grounds. The Police Band moved to the front of the van when the burial party was asked to take over. The burial party was made up of three contingents. The first contingent marched in two rows, stopped near the van and faced each other, leaving space between them. Then came the wreath bearers, a contingent of young and pretty female police officers, beautifully clad in their ceremonial uniforms. They marched and stopped close to the van, in the space created by the first contingent. The pallbearers then followed with the remains amidst the piercing sound of a trumpet. They passed between the wreath bearers and the first contingent and put the casket into the van.
The police band then took over. The Inspector General of Police, John Kudalor, led other senior police officers as they formed a long and beautiful file in a slow march out of the Police Training School. As they passed, the junior offices saluted. At exactly, 11:20 AM, the band was at the entrance of the school, playing God be with You Till We Meet Again.
Life on the busy roads outside the Police Training School had come to a standstill. Traffic from Achimota towards the Kwame Nkrumah Circle had been stopped. And so was traffic from Circle towards Achimota. Dispatch riders from the Motor Traffic and Transport Department had taken over the traffic light area, displaying their skills in honour of the man who served as the first director of the department before being transferred to the Eastern Region as commander. Passengers came out of their vehicles and watched as the convoy of police dispatch riders and vehicles with howling sirens sped off with the mortal remains of DCOP Awuni to the cemetery. It was an end of an era, the end of the man who had added so much weight to Awuni, one of the commonest names in the Upper East Region of Ghana.
The late DCOP Awuni left behind two children, Mrs. Akaaha Ngwibitoge, an employee of Tigo; and Nareyore Ngwibitoge, a young police constable with the Public Relations Unit of the Tema Regional Police Command.
Mr. Awuni Angwubotoge was enlisted into the Ghana Police Service on 15th July 1980 and passed out on 17th July 1981 as General Constable II. He had completed the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ). His son also completed GIJ and just started where his father started in the police service. Apart from the challenge to work hard and rise just like his father did, Constable Nareyore is also expected to live his fathers legacy. But beyond this young man who is yet to overcome the loss of his father, DCOP Angwubutoge Awuni left an important message for the Ghana Police Service with the life he led in the service.
The message he left is this: Dont let your environment define you. Dont get soaked by the system. You can still stand out and stand up to be counted even if the system in which you find yourself is synonymous with rot. In Ghana if you are honest, brave and courageous in upholding the truth, you will be hated and despised. The system is designed to reward crooks and punish men and women of integrity. It is not only in the police service. It is everywhere in Ghana. But as Martin Luther King Jr once said, the arch of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. Good will always have the final and permanent victory over evil.
DCOP Awuni paid dearly for his principles. Those who are close to him know this too well. At a point he faced dismissal, which he fought with the help of his lawyers. But in the end, he died a hero. Those who brave the odds and do what is right will always be distinguished from the lot. We will be judged individually in the end. That is the message DCOP Awuni left. And the best way to remember him is to learn to live those values.
For more pictures of the burial service, click on this link: http://www.manassehazure.com/2016/05/exclusive-photos-dcop-awuni-angwubutoges-last-moments-earth/
The writer, Manasseh Azure Awuni, is a Senior Broadcast journalist with Joy 99.7FM. His email address is [email protected] .
10.05.2016 LISTEN
Teaching and learning has come to a standstill for the past one month at the Tamale School of Hygiene following a boycott by teachers of the school.
Final year students are frustrated as their project works have stalled because the teachers are not ready to supervise their works.
Speaking to Joy News' Martina Bugri, the students said if the situation continues until Friday, April13, they will have no alternative than to vacate the school.
According to the students, since school resumed this semester, no teacher has step foot into any of their lecture halls.
They alleged that the school owes teachers huge sums of money for marking allowance, research allowance and teaching.
Some of the final year students expressed worry this development could affect their final results.
The principal of the School, Alfred Asibi, who declined to go on record, admitted that teaching and learning has come to a stop, but added that all efforts to get the teachers to dialogue have proven futile.
He said currently the matter has been referred to the Health Training Secretariat under the Ministry of Health in Accra to help resolve the issue.
Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim | Email: abubakar.i[email protected]
The Vice Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has called for the resignation of the Finance Minister Seth Terkper for breaching regulations of the Bank of Ghana.
Bawumias call comes after he alleged that about $250 million of the total proceeds from the nations $1 billion Eurobond it issued in 2015 has been diverted to a private account at the United Bank of Africa (UBA).
The Finance Ministry in a statement Monday said the US$250 million seed money to the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) lodged by the Board with a Commercial Bank is safe and has already started bearing interest to the idle Fund.
The ministry described Bawumias claims as factually wrong, technically deficient and gives a wrong impression to both Ghanaian and international investors and development partners.
But in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show Tuesday, Dr. Bawumia called for a parliamentary enquiry into the conduct of the Finance Ministry.
According to him, section 53 of the Bank of Ghana Act states that: The bank shall hold all foreign exchange of the state and be responsible to parliament in the performance of its function in relation to the foreign exchange.
What the Minister has done violates the Bank of Ghana Act and I would ask quite humbly that this transaction be reversed, that there should be a parliamentary enquiry into how this happened and the Minister should re-consider his position.
His position is not tenable, if you are the one supposed to enforce the law and you are violating the laws youshould resign. He is a very good friend of mine, I like him a lot, he is a nice person and all of that but I think there is no minister of finance in the world who can maintain his position when he has violated this law in the manner that he has been done.
Dr. Bawumia added: That is what we have done. Weve gone round the bank of Ghana and given the money to UBA which is now buying treasury bills to pay for the deposits which we have given them. So the Minister in connivance with the Bank of Ghana has violated the Bank of Ghana Act, he insisted.
But in a response, Seth Terkper rejected calls for him to resign saying he has not breached any law.
We are a country of laws, every minister of finance has legal advisors and I take every step after listening to my advisors. So I believe that I did not break any law and I dont have any reason to resign, he added.
10.05.2016 LISTEN
From William Nlanjerbor Jalulah, Bolgatanga
After his abysmal performance in the 2012 general elections as the presidential candidate of the People's National Convention (PNC), and subsequently forming his All People's Congress (APC), Mr. Hassan Ayariga has stated that the PNC has no future in the political governance of Ghana.
Speaking on Bolgatanga-based A1 Radio on Monday, Mr. Ayariga said: I don't think looking at the PNC, there is future for PNC. As we speak now, the PNC doesn't have even up to ten offices, and the PNC cannot contest the 2016 general elections, because they have to get 144 offices.
Claiming that his APC was the only political party in Ghana now qualified to contest in 2016 elections, Mr. Ayariga said even the NDC and NPP were yet to comply with the Electoral Commission's directive for them to furnish it their offices.
That is why I told you that APC is the only political party in Ghana to contest the 2016 as of now. All the political parties are only making noise in campaigning but the EC has given them until 31st of May to submit their offices or audit report or else, they will not be able to contest the elections.
When asked when he (Ayariga) realized the PNC had no future, he said since he was with the party. Look at the party from 7.6%, you have shared power of other political parties, you couldn't do that. You brought the party to zero. Now bringing the party to zero means that the party on daily basis is going down, So if PNC had 7.6%, for God's sake, what happened to the PNC to come down to 0.0%? he quizzed.
According to him, when he assumed the position of presidential candidate, he tried to revive the party but had an opposition from people who did not believe in the PNC and people who had one leg in the PNC and one other leg in other political parties. So the PNC became like a business entity for people.
I invested so much money in the PNC but the party could not even raise one cedi for my campaign, he added. Mr. Ayariga also claimed that no political party will have one-touch victory in the November polls unless it formed an alliance with his APC. He said he was looking for a party that believed in all inclusive governance concept, because Ghanaians were tired of winner takes it all syndrome.
In fact, when I became the flagbearer of the PNC, I faced challenges and those challenges could not have helped me in the PNC to achieve or realize the dream I have for Ghana. As a young man, you want a political party that can either win power or share power. APC stands for wining power or sharing power.
But what I have realized is that the smaller political parties, what they want are just go round, shout their names, make some little money and walk away. That is not what I am looking for. I am looking for a system whereby two political parties or more can manage our country to the extent that we will tap the talents of other politicians from other political parties so that we will be able to build country better.
For us in the ACP, we have not formed ACP to be in opposition. APC is not an opposition political party. APC is either going to win power or share power, he said. Explaining how his concept would work, Mr. Ayariga said: we are going to work hard to ensure that no political party gets one-touch. Not the NDC and not the NPP. None of them will get one-touch. So if we are able to secure a reasonable percentage, let's say 10% or 20% and above, then no political party is going to win power.
Now the only possibility for any political party who wants to win power is to come to us and let's sit down and we will tell them; if you want us to support you to win your elections, first of all you have to look into our policies.
According to him, he would then bargain with such political party to include his members in that party's government including ministers, deputy ministers, coordinators and other appointees. He would also insist on the inclusion of other parties in such a government. So, you will have ministers, ACP will have ministers, NDC or NPP will equally have ministers because we have to share power to build our country. We don't want the political syndrome of one political party mismanaging the economy.
There are numerous allegations that politicians in Ghana are bussing foreigners from Ghana's neighbouring countries to register in the ongoing limited registration exercise. Those allegations if true do not only bring the integrity of the entire electoral process into disrepute, but could affect Ghana's vital national interests. It can particularly pose security danger to the country in future. Holding a Ghanaian voter identity card is a proof that the bearer is a Ghanaian which automatically confers on the individual the right to access several socio-economic services such as education, healthcare, housing, employment, the right to own property in the country and many more. That could place enormous pressure on the socio-economic services in the country making it difficult for genuine Ghanaians to gain access to these services and putting pressure on the country's limited financial resources particularly for the communities where these services will be accessed by genuine Ghanaians and those from neighbouring countries.
However, while the pressure foreigners will exert on the socio-economic services is worrying, it is the short to long term security danger to Ghana that is most troubling. To begin with, Ghana like its neighbours are experiencing high level of terror threats from Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other international brotherhood of terror groups. These terrorists use different tactics and strategies when they want to attack a country. One of such tactics is using recruits with valid residence documents or passports to travel to the country they want to mount their terror operations. The 1998 terror attacks in Kenya and Tanzania by Al Qadea were carried out by this means. Prior to the 9/11 2001 attacks in New York, Washington and Arlington, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda used their vast financial resources to secure valid travelling documents for Mohamed Atta and his co-terrorists to travel to the United States. These documents enabled Mohamed Atta and his group to live, plan and carry out their deadly attacks in the United States without being caught. In recent days, the United States Department of Homeland Security worry that terrorists holding European passports and other valid travelling documents could use their access to these documents to enter the US to carry out terrorism in the country. The US is also worried that terrorists from countries with which the US has visa-exemption agreement with could use the opportunity to travel to the United States for the purposes of causing terrorism.
In Europe it has been established that Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda have relied on radicalised Muslims who hold European passports and who are able to move freely within Europe to plan and carry out attacks in several European cities including Paris and Brussels. IS has even used fake Syrian passports to send its extremists to Germany and other European countries (disguising them as refugees) to carry out attacks.
In an interview with the German television network ZDF in February 2016, Mr. Hans-Georg Maaen, the head of Germanys domestic intelligence agency the BfV or (Bundesamt fur Verfassungsschutz) warned that IS has deployed several of its fighters holding valid European residence documents to Europe. In February 2016, Police in Germany arrested a 49 year old Algerian who was living in Berlin with a fake French identity and who was planning terror attack against some targets. Another Algerian (30 years old) with ties to IS and living in Berlin with valid residence permit was also arrested. In West Africa, it has been shown that some of the terrorists who attacked the Ivorian beach resort of Grand Bassam came from Mali. Thus holding a fake or valid identity document could give would-be terrorists the opportunity enter a country to carry out acts of terrorism.
Issuing voter identity cards to non-Ghanaians carry with it several security repercussions. For example, the ID card entitles the holder to move freely within the country to conduct illegal operations against targets in the country. The card could be used as a proof of nationality by those non-Ghanaians (terrorists and non-terrorists alike) to seek employment or infiltrate the police, the military and other security agencies. It could be used as a proof of identity which will empower the holder to enter security and non-security facilities where the Voter ID is accepted as valid proof of identity to carry out terrorism against targets in the country. The cards could be used by those with criminal intent to buy weapons legitimately from the weapons market. These legitimately bought weapons can then be used for armed robbery and other criminal activities within the country. It can be used as a proof of identity to open bank accounts. These accounts can then be used to launder money or carry out fraud in the country and beyond. Given Ghana's poor record on data-keeping, and the lack of capacity, (human and financial resources) by the security institutions to thoroughly carry out background checks on people, or remove those illegally living in the country, the voter ID cards will make it difficult for the security services to check people illegally entering the country for the purposes of harming the country. Coupled with the recently announced policy of the government to waive visa for Africans travelling to the country, the voter IDs will compound the difficulties security agencies are facing in fighting cross border crime. It will make it harder for the security agencies to protect the country from Al Qaeda, Islamic State, Boko Haram, Ansaru and others who seek the destruction of Ghana and and other countries in the subregion.
The quest for political power shouldn't blindfold politicians to register non-Ghanaians, for while such action is criminal, it can push Ghana into uncharted territory. (For example we may not know how the Voter ID cards will be used by the foreigners after they secure them). In fact it could be used for all kinds of criminal activities. The trouble is that once such cards are issued they become valid till they expire.
Therefore political parties, their leaders, Ghana's Electoral Commission and the people of Ghana must reflect deeply on any decision to allow foreigners to register and vote in the upcoming elections. They must take into consideration the following advice offered by Jean J. Kirkpatrick in her 1979 article titled Dictatorships & Double Standards:
leaders of all major sectors of the society must agree to pursue power only by legal means, must eschew (at least in principle) violence, theft, and fraud, and must accept defeat when necessary. They must also be skilled at finding and creating common ground among diverse points of view and interests, and correlatively willing to compromise on all but the most basic values. In addition to an appropriate political culture, democratic government requires institutions strong enough to channel and contain conflict. Voluntary, non-official institutions are needed to articulate and aggregate diverse interests and opinions present in the society. Otherwise, the formal governmental institutions will not be able to translate popular demands into public policy.
By Lord Aikins Adusei
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lord.adusei
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Politicalthinke
A UK trade mission to Ethiopia arrived in Addis Ababa today for a three day visit from 10-12 May. The trade mission follows on the back of a successful UK-Ethiopia Trade and Investment Forum in London last year. The mission is led by Prime Minister David Cameron's newly appointed Trade Envoy to Ethiopia, Richard Benyon, MP.
The aim of the mission is to boost trade relations between the UK and Ethiopia and for UK businesses to strengthen their knowledge of the many and growing commercial opportunities in Ethiopia.
Over the course of the three day mission, the Trade Envoy and delegates will be meeting Deputy Prime Minister Debretsion Gebremichael, and Ministers from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Water, Irrigation and Electricity.
They will also meet a number of Ethiopian and international businesses with the aim of building the foundations for future commercial activities.
Richard Benyon MP said:
I am delighted to have been appointed UK Trade Envoy to Ethiopia. I am excited to be here and see firsthand the opportunities Ethiopia offers for UK businesses. I look forward to building a lasting trade relationship with Ethiopia that brings benefits to both our countries.
UK Minister for International Development, Nick Hurd, has arrived in Sierra Leone on his first visit to the country. His trip will focus on supporting a positive future for Sierra Leone after Ebola, and looking for opportunities to improve basic services for people across the country, as well as create investment and jobs.
During his stay, Minister Hurd will speak at the Energy Revolution: Off-Grid Renewable Energy Launch at the Bintumani Conference Centre. The event has been organised by Sierra Leone's Ministry of Energy and DFID with support from Adam Smith International, SOBA and Power for All.
Alongside President Koroma and Energy Minister Henry Macauley, he will address over 400 other attendees and discuss the UK's Energy Africa campaign. Sierra Leone has already signed up to the movement which aims to light up the African continent quickly without resorting to technology with high-emissions. Sierra Leone is the first country to sign an Energy Africa compact, which aims to unleash the solar energy market and light up Sierra Leone without resorting to technology with high-emissions.
Minister Hurd will use part of his visit to speak with key Sierra Leonean Cabinet Ministers and international organisations on the continued efforts to keep the country Ebola free. In a ceremony to be held in Hastings, he will also formally hand over UK funded preparedness assets to the UN.
The Minister will partake in further visits which focus on human development, and how to improve access to basic services such as health care, education and clean water and sanitation.
His trip signals the UK's commitment to the recovery of Sierra Leone post Ebola, and is aimed at also looking for ways to increase private sector investment, generate jobs for Sierra Leoneans and create a positive future for the country.
Accra, May 10, GNA - The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), a non-governmental organisation, has joined advocates from Africa, the United Kingdom and Latin America to call on governments to hold the British American Tobacco (BAT) accountable.
The advocates claim that the BAT had made profit from generations of addiction to tobacco around the world and, therefore, their governments should demand accountability from the tobacco industry.
The call comes as BAT convenes its annual general meeting in London.
Mr Labram Musah, the Programmes Director of VALD, in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, said at least it was undoubtedly clear that delays in adopting Tobacco Control laws was largely due to industry interference in public health policies.
The VALD called on Ghana Government and the world over to stand firm and resolute in the midst of tobacco industry interference and formulate lifesaving legislation that would protect present and future generations from the devastating effects of tobacco use and tobacco smoke.
'While BAT's executives toast to deadly profits and generations of addiction, people and governments around the world are organising to hold them accountable for their abuses,' Mr John Stewart, the Deputy Director at the Corporate Accountability International, has said.
GNA
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the National Peace Council have made passionate appeals to the Electoral Commission (EC)to extend the just ended Limited Biometric Voters Registration Exercise.
According to them, most people who turned 18 years and above could not register and the Commission must give such people the second chance to register.
Their call follows the public outcry that most people did not get the opportunity to register especially students at the tertiary institutions.
The Limited Biometric Voters Registration Exercise organized by the Commission ended Sunday, May 8.
The 11-day exercise gave people who have turned 18 years to register to enable them to exercise their voting rights during the November polls.
Speaking Monday on Adom FMs current affairs programme 'Burning Issues', the Executive Director of the Institute, Mrs. Jean Mensah suggested that eligible voters who could not register should be given at least two more weeks to do so.
She, however, cautioned the EC to tighten its system to regain the lost trust and confidence that some Ghanaians have lost in them ahead of the Nov 7 polls.
Contributing to the discussion on the same platform, the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Most Rev Prof Emmanuel Kwaku Asante backed calls for the extension of the exercise.
But the Director of Elections for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, said there is no need for the EC to extend the exercise.
10.05.2016 LISTEN
To Defray Cost Of Fraudulent Deal
From Richard Owusu-Akyaw, Kumasi
Even before the controversy surrounding the big names behind the formation of his second political party, the United People's Party (UPP) will settle, Mr. Akwasi Addai, founder, has landed himself in fresh trouble, after allegedly defrauding a Kumasi-based gold dealer.
A Commercial High Court in Kumasi had already ordered the seizure of properties belonging to the embattled founder of the UPP to defray a whopping four hundred and four thousand Ghana cedis (GH404,000) debt, after he reportedly swindled the Kumasi-based gold dealer, Autel Solomon, over a house.
Mr. Addae, better known as Odike, who stood on the ticket of the United Front Party (UFP) in the 2012 general elections, sold a house at Patase, a suburb of Kumasi, to Mr. Solomon Autelat at the cost of two hundred and three thousand cedis (GHc203,000) sometime in 2011, which the complainant paid for, but never received the documents to the building.
In the pre-trial, it emerged that Odike had used the same Patase house as collateral for a loan he acquired from Ecobank. Autel told the court that he paid the money in installments and after completing payment, when he demanded the documents, Odike was tossing him here and there, until Ecobank revealed to him that the building had been used as collateral to their bank by the Kwabre native.
A few months ago, Justice Obeng Diawuos court ruled in favour of the gold dealer, ordering Odike to honour the debt before his properties are seized and sold to defray the 404,000 Ghana cedis debt, which includes accumulated interest, but the politician failed to do so. The Chronicle gathered that Odike owes the Pan African bank GHc180,000.
In the early hours of yesterday, the court ordered the closure of Odike Ventures, onetime popular fashion shops, which are located along the Prempeh II street, Adum, also a suburb of Kumasi and a host of other properties belonging to the controversial politician. The Adum vibrant shop; which deals with ladies bags, jeans, shoes and others was opened for business before it was closed on the orders of the court, leaving customers disappointed.
10.05.2016 LISTEN
We wish to protest in the strongest possible terms about your gross misrepresentation of our High Commissioner, Jon Benjamin, in the headline on the front page of your newspaper, The Chronicle, yesterday, Monday 9 May, repeated in the opening paragraphs of your fuller report relating to it on page 3.
Regrettably, the British High Commission is too often subjected to woefully inaccurate articles by some Ghanaian media houses and we will always insist on a correction, in as prominent a form as the initial erroneous article.
Your headline British Envoy Blasts Mahama is blatantly inaccurate. Your report of Mr. Benjamin's speech, at the launch of a major DFID agricultural project, to be implemented with the full agreement of the Government of Ghana, is an example of very poor journalism, as is the assertion in your inside pages that Mr. Benjamin allegedly criticised the John Mahama Government for overseeing the importation of rice, tomatoes, poultry and vegetables among others instead of building a vibrant and dynamic agriculture for the production of the products locally. Mr. Benjamin said no such thing:
Discussing the future potential of Ghana, including by suggesting increased agricultural production here so that some currently imported goods can instead be supplied by the domestic market, is in no way a criticism of the current government. Rather, it is simply a statement of what the British Government, through an economic assistance programme, hopes can be achieved in partnership with the Government of Ghana, the farming community, civil society and others.
The Northern Regional Minister as well as the Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture were both present, and both spoke, at the event to officially launch the DFID-funded MADE programme and its first Agribusiness and Investment forum which took place on Thursday 5 May 2016 in Tamale. Neither Minister expressed any objection to Mr. Benjamin's speech, which is now available on the UK in Ghana website.(https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/jon-benjamins-speech-for-the-launch-of-market-development-programme-for-northern-ghana-made).
We can only presume that you did not ask them, or any other part of the Government of Ghana, if they interpreted Mr Benjamin's speech in the way your headline writer chose to. We would like to reiterate that all media houses who wish to publish news stories regarding the British High Commission can contact us at any time to check the facts, including the accuracy of either direct quotations or general views attributed to us.
We sincerely hope that The Chronicle, with whom we are happy to work, will not misrepresent our views again in this way in future.
The British High Commission
Editor's note: this rejoinder has been published unedited as demanded by the Commission. Readers are advised to take note of the portions we have highlighted.
The situations and cry of the marginalized in our country and the world over have always touched the hearts of many, but very few of them have taken bold enough steps in the midst of limited resources to proffer solutions or at least be a part of the solution. In our part of the world, self-actualization has eluded the youths and many live their lives disillusioned of what life has for them. Youth unemployment holds our society by the neck; everyone after school is searching high and low for a white collar job. Theres very little opportunity for growth for the youth.
Since colonial days our educational system has been skewed more towards raw knowledge acquisition over skills development leaving those who are not gifted with the ability of chewing and pouring notes to pass exams but have abilities to creatively use their skills in a vocation to create to swim the stormy sea of self-actualization or drown. The system has a subtle tag of not-intelligent placed on them and thus is not enabling. Some eventually drop out of the educational system entirely due to thisa phenomenon that is more telling on the female students. The end result is the high number of unplanned parenthood with teenage girls. And among their male counterparts, we have seen an increase in social vices like internet fraud which has done its own damage to our countries image.
Youth unemployment has a geographical dimension; the rates are higher in urban areas than in rural areas. This can be attributed to the rural-urban migration of youths to the city centers in search of non-existent jobs. The good and courageous ones engage in menial jobs to make ends meet. In the rural areas, women are engaged in indecent and often times in precarious jobs as farm hands for relatives with very low income levels and less opportunity for economic growth than their male counterparts.
On 25 September 2015, the 193 countries of the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Development Agenda titled Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. These 17 Sustainable Development Goals and its associated 169 targets were contained in a 92 paragraphed document. These goals among others touched on Economy - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
The setting and adoption of these 17 Sustainable Development Goals that replaced the Millennium Development Goal and build on its success to make the world better place for all. Goal eight (8) seeks to get world leaders to work towards creating decent jobs and economic growth opportunities for their citizens. Usually the challenges with such global goals are the complexity in implementation, a lack of clear cut strategy to achieving it and the lack of strong commitment. Many African governments couldnt even achieve the 80% of the previous global goals because of the top-to-bottom approach to implementation.
One organization that has taken SDG 8 on in its own small way through a bottom-up approach is Tongu Youth Agenda Development, a youth-led non-governmental organization that supports the less priviledged to achieve self-actualization through education and entrepreneurship for community development. It has initiated an ambitious project to train and set-up hundred (100) young single mothers in a vocation under their livelihood and entrepreneurship training program by 2019. The program currently on going at the Tongu Youth Skills Academy in Sogakope in the South Tongu district has five (5) beneficiaries under twenty-three (23) years with an average of two (2) children who are not in school undergoing training in fashion design and tailoring. The program will equip these young single mothers with skills and start up kits needed in starting up a decent income generating venture for economic growth and empowerment for community development. The trickle-down effect of this program on the beneficiaries is that they will be able take their children off the lake, the farm and the highways and put them through school to become useful citizens in the future.
We had no sponsorship but it didnt stop us, we self-funded it and learned how to use little to achieve more. Now through this program, Grace Woyome, a beneficiary no would longer be a farm-hand for little or no cash. Shell no longer be trodden upon or abused by her the father of her children. She sees hope in the future, my children will now be able to get an education she said. There are more young women like Grace in the community and we hope to reduce the statistics Selassie Tay, Founder/Executive Director
The Board and Management of the organization calls on all well-meaning Ghanaians and corporate institutions to support this program in any formcash or kind to help build and sustain this program to benefit others. They need sewing machines, scissors, table and chairs, fabrics for training etc.
In this regards the organization has launched a fundraising dubbed One Cedi One Girl in aid of this year-long program to economically empower young single mothers.
Cash donations can be to their corporate account;
Tongu Youth Agenda for Development
UniBank Ghana Limited
3100131022927
Okaishie Accra
MTN Mobile 0546777625
In-kind can be made by contacting [email protected] 0546777625 | 0243209170
Visit www.thetyad.org | https://www.facebook.com/tonguyouthagenda/ |
https://twitter.com/tonguyouth
Authored by Makalor Ackumany, PR and Communication, Tongu Youth Agenda for Development
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One more person has been charged in connection with the murder of the Abuakwa North MP Joseph Boakye Danquah.
Vincent Bosso, a phone repairer, was arraigned before an Accra district court Tuesday for his role in the killing.
He has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Bosso was named as an accomplice by the prime suspect Daniel Asiedu who is also facing charges over the attack.
The case has been adjourned to May 18.
The opposition lawmaker was stabbed multiple times to death at his East Legon residence in February. The police has arrested a prime suspect Daniel Asiedu. Preliminary investigations suggested that the assailants may have used a ladder to enter the MP's room via his window to execute their plan.
Danquah served as a Deputy Minister for Women and Children's Affairs under the erstwhile Kufuor administration. He was the Abuakwa North MP from 2000 until 2008, when he lost the seat.
-starrfmonline
Ghana's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Emmanuel Victor Smith, is lacing his boots to battle for the Abuakwa North parliamentary seat in the Eastern Region on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the upcoming polls, information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates.
Credible sources confirmed that Mr Smith, currently in the UK, is seriously mounting pressure through his special aide, Charles Owusu Danso, on Anthony Gyimah, the elected NDC parliamentary candidate for the constituency, asking to offer him (Gyimah) an amount of GH1 million to vacate the slot for him.
The High Commissioner is said to be shuttling between London and Kukurantumi, the constituency capital, in order to seal the deal with the NDC candidate to enable him to oil his parliamentary ambition.
The diplomat, who is a former Eastern Regional Minister, contested the parliamentary election along with slain JB Danquah-Adu, who was the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP). In spite of using his position as regional minister and so-called projects to woo voters, JB floored him, forcing him to kiss the Abuakwa North seat goodbye.
Realising that he was not a match for Mr JB Danquah-Adu, Mr Victor Smith threw in the towel, refusing to contest in the NDC parliamentary primary on November 21, 2015.
Presidential Ambition
Barely a few months after JB's demise, the envoy is staging a comeback, eyeing the seat in order to use it to shore up his presidential ambition after President John Mahama's exit.
An unknown group calling itself Concerned Youth of Abuakwa North for Development is appealing to Mr Smith to contest the parliamentary seat, even though the NDC has an elected candidate in the person of Anthony Gyimah, a USA-based medical doctor, who won the primary after beating his four other contenders, including the East Akim Municipal Chief Executive, Peter Simeon Asirifi.
By-Election
The seat became vacant when a suspected killer, Daniel Asiedu, 20, aka Sexy Don Don, now facing prosecution, stormed the late Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu's residence at Shiashie, Accra, and stabbed him to death on February 9, 2016.
The NDC boycotted the byelection because Anthony Osei Gyimah was said not to be a registered voter and was having a dual citizenship, hence the party's decision to avoid a possible court case or a disqualification.
Even though the NDC further decided to allow Victor Smith to contest, it later changed its decision.
The NPP retained the seat with the election of Gifty Twum-Ampofo, a tutor at the Akosombo International School.
However, Anthony Gyimah, who hails from Akyem-Anyinasin, last week got registered in the just-ended limited registration exercise and is seriously campaigning for votes for the November polls.
Rejection
The source said, Anthony Gyimah has rejected the offer but some NDC members are still insisting that he should accept the money (GH1 million) and step aside. His aide said Victor wants to contest the 2020 presidential race, but he has to win the Abuakwa North seat first before embarking on that move.
According to the source, Anthony Gyimah started receiving phone calls and held a meeting with Charles Owusu Danso. Even though the parliamentary candidate hasn't received any threat, he doesn't feel comfortable even to sleep in his own house at Anyinasin and doesn't drive his own car. He reportedly takes taxi for his rounds to campaign because he fears for his life.
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Mr Gyimah, who is said to be worried and frustrated about the issue, is yet to inform the party hierarchy.
Victor's Secret Campaign
DAILY GUIDE sources confirmed that Mr Victor Smith last month came to the constituency and met some of the party executives to offer them money and logistics to rally behind him.
According to the sources, his men are seriously working underground against Anthony Gyimah's candidature, dissuading his supporters to lose confidence in him on the basis that the candidate can't win the seat.
Several meetings, DAILY GUIDE gathered, have also been held across the length and breadth of the constituency gingering the youth to rally behind Victor and to ignore Anthony Gyimah.
Victor's Reaction
When DAILY GUIDE contacted Mr Smith via telephone, he debunked reports that he was lobbying through his men to offer Anthony Gyimah GH1 million so that he would step down to allow him (Victor) to be in the race.
It's never true that I want to offer Anthony Gyimah such money. That's interesting. If I had such money I would have used it for investment or to establish a company for the youth. I'm not interested in that seat anymore. I would have come and contested the primary, he underscored.
According to him, he learned the grassroots were calling on him to come and contest since they believed that he would win the parliamentary seat, but he hadn't decided or asked anybody to hold talks with Anthony Gyimah to step aside.
I have been going to the constituency to meet my people and campaign for President John Mahama to win the next election but I have not decided or have any interest to contest the seat; it's not my priority. My vision is to help the youth there and inspect the projects that I left there and nothing else, Victor stated.
Aide
However, his aide, Charles Owusu Danso, a NADMO officer, pleaded with DAILY GUIDE not to publish the story, since he thought it would create confusion between the two party gurus.
He met Anthony Gyimah and spoke to him as a brother to step aside for him if possible, since he (Gyimah) knows clearly that he can't win the seat for the party to achieve its 'Agenda 50/50' in the region come the November elections; but never asked to offer Gyimah GH1 million nor mounted any pressure on him, Victor's aide told DAILY GUIDE.
He added, Almost all the constituency executives have agreed to support Victor Smith but it is left with Anthony Gyimah to agree and step aside. It's not true that Victor Smith wants to bribe Gyimah to step aside.
NDC's Response
Bismark Tawiah Boateng, regional chairman of the NDC, when contacted, said he had no knowledge of the issue.
According to him, the party had not taken any decision of that sort and the parliamentary candidate hadn't reported any matter to him.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Akyem Kukurantumi
A Deputy National Youth Organizer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mustapha Salam, has hinted that the party will reject the November 7 election results if the Electoral Commission fails to compile a credible register.
Although the EC has promised to respect the Supreme Court ruling on the current voters' roll, the Deputy NPP National Youth Organizer, Mustapha Salam, insists the EC must be transparent and neutral in the process.
Mustapha Salam served notice that the NPP will resist any attempt by the EC to skew the upcoming elections in favour of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He was addressing a mammoth rally at Aboabo, one of the NPP's strongholds in the Tamale Central Constituency of the Northern Region.He charged NPP supporters to remain resolute and match the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) boot for boot ahead of the November 7 elections.
Mustapha Salam asserted that the Mahama-Amissah Arthur led NDC administration has nothing new to offer Ghanaians and called for them to be rejected at the polls on November 7.
He appealed to the electorate to massively vote for the Nana Addo/Bawumia ticket and all the party's parliamentary candidates.
Mustapha Salam said a Nana Akufo Addo led NPP administration will revive all the pro-poor programmes including the National Health Insurance Scheme, the School Feeding Programme and the National Youth Employment programme initiated by the erstwhile NPP government.
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He reiterated Nana Akufo Addo's pledge to restore the teacher and nursing trainee allowances when giving the mandate to govern the nation.
The NPP Northern Regional Secretary said the NPP must deploy all its arsenals to win the elections One touch.
This in his estimation will avert returning to the Supreme Court with another election petition. Sule Salifu took a swipe at President John Dramani Mahama and said he does not deserve another term.
The NPP's Parliamentary candidate for Tamale Central, Dr. Barhama Ibrahim Anyass, vowed to unseat the incumbent Member of Parliament, Hon. Inusah Fuseini.
He said the Minister for Roads and Highways has outlived his usefulness and must be replaced at the polls. Dr. Ibrahim Anyass promised to galvanize the Tamale Central constituents for achieve his aim.
He urged the electorate to ignore votes buying strategies and make a wise decision on November 7.
citifmonline
The National Chief Imam Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu in a rare fit of anger last Saturday warned persons whose manouvres are threatening the peace of the Islamic community to desist from such activities.
Such persons he said should wait till I am dead and gone before they engage in these peace-threatening activities. I have a few more years to live.
His last two public speeches were direct hits at those who are suspected of clamouring for the appointment of a Greater Accra Regional Chief Imam, a position which he combines with his national chief imamship.
Many who heard him last Saturday at Sabon Zongo during a religious activity to commemorate the birth of the Senegalese cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Niyass who died in 1975 said they had never seen him so angry.
The Council of Muslim Chiefs has been fingered as being behind the proposal but the Public Relations Officer of the council Chief Imoru Baba Isa who is also the head of the Wangara Community in Maamobi denied the allegation.
Chief Imoru Baba Isa who was present during the cleric's address at Sabon Zongo told the DAILY GUIDE that on Friday morning Chief Abdul Kadir Tahiru, President of the Council of Muslim Chiefs called to tell me that a group of Muslims came to propose the appointment of a Greater Accra Regional Chief Imam for which he was seeking my opinion.
His response, he said was such a subject requires consultation with the various stakeholders. We should deliberate upon it.
Considering the fury in the National Chief Imam last Saturday when he visited the subject he said we decided to hold on with a scheduled meeting for today for a discussion on the subject. That was the first time that I saw the cleric so angry. The issue has generated tension in the Islamic community in Accra.
The National Chief Imam, he said, told the clamourers that let me die before you engage in such activities. Very soon I would leave you.
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The Council of Chiefs as a body is not behind the proposal but some individual chiefs, Chief Imoru Baba Isa said.
On this subject the cleric told DAILY GUIDE I have not thought about such an appointment. I have nothing to do with it.
A group of Muslims in Accra are reported to be clamouring for the appointment of Yahyal Amin, a man who studied under the National Chief Imam.
When DAILY GUIDE called the said cleric, he denied any knowledge of such manouvres. Wallahi, I am unaware of any such manouvres he said.
Yesterday at the funeral of a certain Abdul Karim at East Legon, the Chief Imam once more hit at those behind the proposal when he said I live peacefully with everyone and I intend to maintain the status quo until my last day but if you prefer to create problems for me and the Muslim community, then I pray to Allah to call me.
He advised Muslims to avoid envy, superstition and suspicions all of which are abhorred by Prophet Mohammed adding that all should strive towards unity for in that virtue lies strength.
One of the National Chief Imam's aides has received threatening correspondences via his smart phone. A portion of one of such messages read The evil man Malam Yahaya is the next chief imam of Ghana. Your or Latif can't stop that from happening. Be careful, u will die before Malam (chief imam) goes to Shaytan (satan). God will punish (sic) u and your children. More to come.
Very soon it will be over for u. Malam yahaya is the next chief imam. All ur evil deeds will soon be exposed. Bye for now.
Good morningSatan. How are u and your evil plans for today. U only survive becos of malam. If not like u dead by now. Animal like u. If like Malam is ur real father like u will never use him the way u and latif are doing to the oldman. Very soon the Muslims will force him to step down becos is old enough to take rest. Which he needs so bad.
By A.R. Gomda
10.05.2016 LISTEN
Mummy my true Hero
I have always counted on you from zero to hero
You always take care of me
And prayed for me in times of need
You nursed me, and loved me so deeply
You give me a reason to live
Your love is ever so sweet
Surely on one else can play such a role
That is why I am bold in saying that Mum is a hero.
Mummy is a hero
You have always defended me before people
You are the reason I came into this world
And also the reason why I am well
You dried my sorrowful tears, and helped me free my fears
You always play the loving caring role
And always calm my weary soul
You made me who I am today
And always get me through a hectic day
All I can say is Mummy you are my true hero
Mummy, my true hero
You make me smile everyday
I don't know how to appreciate you in anyway
You taught me the ways of life
And showed me how to be alive
The Bible says honour your mother and father
This might be because you are like no other
Mum, you will forever stay in my heart
For you are my true hero
The women's group of our church decided to hold a special Mother's Day celebration yesterday. We came up with an idea to ask our children to write poems for their mothers. The above is what my 13-year-old daughter wrote for me and it was read by one of my young daughters. And guess what? She wrote two poems in two days. The first one took about less than 30 minutes to write. She wrote the second in a car while we were on our way to a wedding on the Dodowa road. She fine-tuned it when we got home.
I know she is brilliant but I never knew she was good with poetry as well. She loves to design dresses and she is learning how to sew as well. Poetry wasn't one of the things I associated with her. She was not the only one who wrote something good. My sister's children were in my house in the week and I gave them the assignment and my sister and I were both amazed at how well the kids wrote. It was as if they were already prepared for it.
It really taught me some serious useful lessons. It means we should never underestimate the power of the mind and the abilities of our children. Whatever the mind can conceive, it can be achieved and children are very creative. However, we tend to relegate them to the background most of the time.
I guess the reason why the children were able to write so well was because of the experience they all had with their Mums. It is not difficult to write or describe something you know so well and can relate to.
What I found amazing was how she was able to create the stanzas and rhyme. One thing about children is that they learn through fun and they also like to be challenged. As soon as you give them a challenge with a prize they are motivated to do their best. Who would have thought that this child could give me a rhyming poem in less than an hour. In real sense, we already have the next Maya Angelos, Atukwei Okai and the Efua Sutherlands living with us.
Poetry is all about observing the world around you. It should therefore be possible for you to write about anything and everything in this world. All you need is a spark or something that ignites an idea in you. For example someone can write a poem about Mother Nature or some of his or her experiences in boarding school or even about a travelling experience. You just have to be observant and you must also be someone who loves reading.
As a literature student in school I loved poetry and although some were not easy to understand I simply loved the emotions it brings out. Now poetry has even transformed into Spoken word which is a dramatized version of poetry.
I recently met a poet who said he studied Agric science in school. Out of his love for poetry he is now a career poet. All he did was learn how to write through the internet.
He has built an international organization from it and hopes to organize international poetry festivals.
I believe we can all write and must not wait for any special occasions or incidences to happen before we write. We must start and build on it gradually till we get better. I am sure the next time we celebrate Mother's Day, they will be writing a poem for all of you mothers.
Thank you and I wish you all a happy belated Mother's Day.
Accra, May 10, GNA - Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has called for increased co-operation between Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago for the benefit of the two countries.
He said there is a lot the two countries can do together to enhance South-South co-operation as well as share lessons and experiences.
Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur said this at a cocktail reception held in honour of Dr Keith Christopher Rowley, the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister.
The relations between Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago go back to the period before independence, he said, adding that Ghana is committed to working with Trinidad and Tobago in all sectors including the oil and gas sector.
The reception which was attended by government officials, business executives and Trinidad and Tobago citizens in Ghana was hosted by the HFC Bank and Republic Financial Holdings Limited.
Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur said government is currently focused on developing world-class infrastructure to support the sustainable exploitation of the country's substantial natural resources.
He said efforts in that regard includes the revamping of the country's power sector by adding new power generation capacities, modernize transmission and distribution facilities, expand health, educational facilities and the transport network.
Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur said though Trinidad and Tobago is a small country, it has however developed an impressive economy, social harmony and political stability.
'We hope that Ghana can benefit from the expertise you have developed, especially in entrenching local content and creating jobs in the natural gas sector' he said.
Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur said government was committed to provide a business-friendly environment that applies laws and regulates businesses in a transparent manner and ensures fairness.
He called for joint venture arrangements between Ghanaian businesses and foreign counterparts as we continue to promote Public Private Partnerships (PPP) adding that the Republic Bank could serve as the arrowhead and point of contact for investments from Trinidad and Tobago.
Prime Minister Rowley said the role played by Dr Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore and C. R James in the decolonization of Africa and people of African descent facilitated the bond between Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago.
He said three men were brought together by fate, and not for their selfish interests, but for our own future whose time has now come.
Prime Minister Rowley said the presence of the Republic Bank in Ghana was a practical expression of the African Caribbean agenda, actualizing the vision articulated by the founding fathers.
He said the relationship between Republic Bank and HFC have already started yielding dividends adding that this proves that the Atlantic Ocean is not a barrier to the future of the two countries.
He said the presence of Republic Bank has showed that Trinidad and Tobago is trail blazer for investments in Africa with Ghana being the entry point to the West African market.
GNA
Washington (AFP) - US prosecutors said Tuesday they will not seek the death penalty against a Libyan charged over the Benghazi attacks that killed Washington's ambassador and three other Americans in 2012.
Ahmed Abu Khatallah, who was captured by US special forces two years ago and brought to the United States on a US Navy ship, is facing an 18-count indictment over the killings at an American diplomatic and intelligence compound.
His lawyers had unsuccessfully sought to have the case dismissed and have Khatallah returned to Libya. They had pressed hard for the death penalty to be removed as a possibility should Khatallah be convicted of a capital crime.
"The United States of America... hereby gives notice that the government will not seek imposition of the death penalty if the defendant is convicted of any capital crime charged in this case," US Attorney Channing Phillips wrote in a notice filed with the US District Court in Washington.
Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce explained that US Attorney General Loretta Lynch reached the decision to drop the death penalty in this case after consultation with prosecutors.
"The department is committed to ensuring that the defendant is held accountable," Pierce said in a statement.
With the death penalty now off the table, Khatallah faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.
"We believe this was the correct decision and are pleased that the attorney general made the decision on the merits without political considerations," the defendant's lawyer Eric Lewis told AFP.
"It is a very important development, but the case will be fought hard on the merits."
The charges against Khatallah, who has pleaded not guilty, include murder of an international protected person -- late US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens -- providing material support to terrorists and destroying US property by causing death.
Beware the air! If youre wheezing and sneezing, it could be the salon environment. How do you clean a surface you cant see?
It was 2008 when Los Angeles hairdresser Jordana Lorraine decided to increase her knowledge about the air around her. Lorraine had good reason to be concerned about breathing in chemical vapors, sprays and dust. Hairdressing falls fourth on WebMDs list of risky jobs for your lungs, and a study published in Respiratory Care Journal four years ago concluded, Hairdressing work is associated with a high frequency of work-exposure-related respiratory symptoms and, to a lesser extent, allergic symptoms. Hairdressers in this study exhibited lower lung function when compared with the general population, which can be an early sign of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
Clearing the air
One of the biggest challenges facing the professional beauty industry is the lack of ventilation, observes scientist Doug Schoon, president of Schoon Scientific and a regular consultant to the beauty industry. If you build out your salon from a travel agency, youll have different ventilation needs from the previous business, but thats often overlooked. Any irritation of the eyes, nose or throatcalled sensory irritationindicates a ventilation problem.
Schoon cautions owners and technicians from taking a cavalier approach. DO NOT think you can just:
Open a window. Thats circulation, not ventilation, Schoon explains. Although some fresh air does come in, it would take a very strong wind to partly replace the air thats already there.
Thats circulation, not ventilation, Schoon explains. Although some fresh air does come in, it would take a very strong wind to partly replace the air thats already there. Rely on your nose. Dust, as well as many harmful vapors, have no odor, and a fragrant hair spray can do as much damage as a foul-smelling odor. Schoon further cautions against purchasing any ventilation system that touts an ozone solution, which he says covers up the odor but does not eliminate it. Ozone is a powerful lung irritant, Schoon adds. So youre potentially putting harmful ozone into the air just to get rid of odors.
Dust, as well as many harmful vapors, have no odor, and a fragrant hair spray can do as much damage as a foul-smelling odor. Schoon further cautions against purchasing any ventilation system that touts an ozone solution, which he says covers up the odor but does not eliminate it. Ozone is a powerful lung irritant, Schoon adds. So youre potentially putting harmful ozone into the air just to get rid of odors. Get used to it. In the morning, you may notice an odor thats been hovering all night long, but after youve been in the salon for a while you no longer smell it. Schoon says thats called olfactory fatigue. The nose is forgivingyou no longer notice the odor, but its still there.
In the morning, you may notice an odor thats been hovering all night long, but after youve been in the salon for a while you no longer smell it. Schoon says thats called olfactory fatigue. The nose is forgivingyou no longer notice the odor, but its still there. Joke about it. When a client complains about an odor, thats a signal that your ventilation isnt good, Schoon says. Dont respond, Smells like money to me! Take it seriously. You never know when a client might even sue you for causing a respiratory condition.
Jordana Lorraine
Jordana Lorraine didnt joke; she researched. An engineer friend told her to look for chemical source capture ventilation, so the Googling began, leading Lorraine to Aerovex Systems.
I didnt know what I was looking for, but when I saw it I knew thats what I needed, Lorraine says. Aerovex was way ahead of me. Theyd already adapted this concept to the salon environment. The equipment hangs right over the head and absorbs the chemical vapors and fumes.
She persuaded the owner of her salon to purchase one unit that all of the stylists shared. When she left to become an independent contractor, she purchased a newer model on her own, and she markets the clean air as one of the salons benefits.
While OSHA requires salons to provide a safe environment for everyone on the premises, the government does not employ enough inspectors to monitor compliance.
Its up to the owner and stylists to read OSHAs Safety Data Sheets to learn more about the products youre using, says Shoon, who consults with Aerovex in product development. Overall, manufacturers have been responsible, he adds. But responsibility does not end with the manufacturer.
The problem is that stylists fail to follow manufacturers instructions, or they dismiss warnings that are on the label, Schoon says. Those instructions and warnings are there for a reason. Apply sparingly means that you cant predict the consequences if you use more than recommended.
Lorraine is confident that, in addition to protecting herself and her assistant, shes addressing an important customer service issue.
Clients notice that their eyes arent burning, she reports. They tell friends, At this salon, chemical services are a completely different experience! A construction worker wears a hard hat; thats how I feel about this system. Im not messing around. I want a safe environment.
Healthy Air Chemical Source Capture System by Aerovex Systems
Chemical Source Capture System
It used to be that as long as you had enough fresh air coming in, you could open a salon, says Jeff Cardarella, president of Aerovex Systems and a founding member of the Keratin Smoothing Council. But now there are regulations.
After first adapting source capture technology to nail stations, Aerovex expanded six years ago to providing source capture units for hair stations as well. This technology removes potentially harmful chemicals right where theyre applied, before they have a chance to mix with the air and filter throughout the salon.
Its all about protecting the breathing zone, Cardarella says. Its appropriate for all chemical services and for biological pathogens, too. If someone sneezes, that gets pulled away from the stylists space and destroyed.
The companys most advanced source capture systems, called Healthy Air, are quieter and easier to maintain with plug-and-play cartridges than earlier models. Cardarella says that a salon can achieve maximum protection by covering three zonessource capture for the breathing zone, air purification for the rest of the air in the salon and a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system equipped with a filter designed to remove salon vapors and dust. Salons that address all three zones receive a certification seal from Aerovex that they can place in the window.
Jeff Cardarella, president of Aerovex Systems
Protecting yourself also involves work practices and protocol, Cardarella adds. Use a low- to medium-heat blow dryer setting for keratin treatments, dont place the dryer right on the head, apply only as much product as recommended, use a fine-tooth comb to remove excess product and wear nitrile gloves and glasses.
(This is a version of an article published in the Healthy Hairdresser section of the March 2014 issue of MODERN SALON.)
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business Adobe's India bet: banks, retail and media In an interview with CNBC-TV18s Shereen Bhan, Shantanu Narayan, CEO of Adobe talked about his companys growth triggers and Adobes expansion plans in India.
business Treaty with Mauritius provides more clarity: Experts The transition mechanism whereby the tax is slowly raised over three years is a measured one. It is a smooth transition, says Dinesh Kanabar, CEO, Dhruva Advisors.
you are here:
business India gets right to tax capital gains in new Mauritius treaty The government said the new treaty (effect April 1, 2017) would help prevention of fiscal evasion by giving it right to levy taxes on income and capital gains.
business Treaty with Mauritius a plus for market in the long-term:Choksey The treaty provides clarity to international market investors, says Deven Choksey.
COLUMBUS A 35-year-old man who was found asleep behind the wheel of his car with the engine idling across the street from the sheriffs office was sentenced to 30 months to five years in prison.
Platte County District Court Judge Robert Steinke sentenced William Jarecki for his conviction of third-offense refusal of an alcohol test in connection with the Jan. 10 incident outside the Platte County Sheriffs Office after the defendant failed to show up in county court earlier in the week on an unrelated case.
Steinke gave Jarecki credit for two days already served in the drunken driving case and revoked the defendants operators license for 15 years.
Third-offense refusal of a DUI test is a Class IIA felony, punishable by a maximum of 20 years behind bars.
Jarecki remains in the Platte County Detention Facility after showing up two days late for last weeks county court hearing on strangulation and domestic assault charges stemming from an argument with a live-in girlfriend in April.
He is awaiting a Wednesday first appearance hearing in the domestic assault case before being transferred to state prison to begin serving his sentence in the DUI case.
In the recent incident, Jarecki is charged with strangulation, third-degree domestic assault (second offense) and criminal mischief.
The strangulation and domestic assault charges are Class IIIA felonies, each punishable by up to three years imprisonment and 18 months of post-release supervision. Criminal mischief is a Class I misdemeanor and carries a penalty of up to a year in jail.
Court documents describe the April 9 incident as a violent argument that got underway when an angry Jarecki arrived at about 11:30 p.m. at the couples trailer.
Columbus Police Officer Colin Alexander wrote in his probable cause arrest statement that the 33-year-old victim reported the couple argued verbally, then the situation became physical.
During the encounter, Alexander wrote the victim said Jarecki held her on the ground and had his hands around her throat, making it difficult for her to breathe. The victim said when she was able to get up, her boyfriend pushed her out the door of the residence, the officer wrote.
Alexander said the victim also reported that Jarecki damaged her cellphone to keep her from calling police, threw a bottle of alcohol through a two-pane sliding glass door and damaged two flat-screen televisions and a 7-inch tablet device.
The estimated damage to the victims property is $1,545.
In the January DUI case, Jareckis red 2006 Kia Spectra was idling at 3:48 a.m. in a parking lot at the corner of 14th Street and 27th Avenue with the hazard lights flashing. The defendants foot was on the brake pedal.
Detention Center
The inmate count at the Platte County Detention Facility on Monday was 75, with 54 from Platte County and 21 from out of county.
Police
April 28
Unknown time In a parking lot at 3208 23rd St., an unknown vehicle struck a fence at Stack n Steak, 3208 23rd St., and left the scene.
April 29
7:48 a.m. In the 4900 block of 23rd Street, a vehicle driven by Nicholas Gross, 18, Duncan, lost control and struck a power pole.
11:50 a.m. At the intersection of 23rd Street and 30th Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Samia Mohammed, 29, Schuyler, and Russell Freeman, 66, 4725 Country Shadows Place.
4:15 p.m. At the intersection of 13th Street and 27th Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Michele Brandt, 41, 1221 16th St., and Carol Stuart, 70, 2670 E. 13th Ave.
May 1
10 p.m. In the 3000 block of 15th Street, a vehicle driven by Gregory Johnson, 57, 1522 Ninth St., struck a piece of concrete in the roadway.
May 2
7:45 a.m. At the intersection of 23rd Street and 27th Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Shane Crumley, 40, 15454 250th Ave., and Ricky Pitre, 38, 3707 17th St.
May 3
9 p.m. In the 2600 block of 17th Street, a vehicle driven by Keagan Brockhaus, 16, 1671 27th St., struck a parked vehicle owned by Tire Outlet Inc., 1753 17th St.
May 4
7:52 a.m. At the intersection of 11th Street and 25th Avenue, Sandra Alfaro-Corduriet, 38, 1354 27th St., No. 415, was cited for failure to yield right of way and no operators license.
7:15 p.m. In the Columbus High School parking lot, 2200 26th St., a vehicle driven by Nicholas Gross, 18, Duncan, struck a parked vehicle owned by Doug Pauley, 1321 53rd St., and left the scene.
May 6
5:09 p.m. Theft at Four Seasons Apartments, 2571 47th Ave., No. 4, letter and check stolen, no loss amount.
Sheriff
May 5
10:41 a.m. Criminal mischief at 4305 E. Eighth St., $300 loss.
11:17 a.m. Fraud at the Platte County Courthouse, 2610 14th St., $120 loss.
4:55 p.m. Traffic violation at the intersection of 23rd Street and 33rd Avenue, Gwynn Sliva of Platte Center cited for no valid registration.
5:02 p.m. Wanted person at the Platte County Detention Facility, 1125 E. 17th St., Cody Barger of Columbus turned self in on a Platte County warrant.
May 6
7:18 a.m. Traffic violation at the intersection of Eighth Street and 13th Avenue, Yanet Sanchez of Columbus cited for no valid registration.
8:59 a.m. Traffic violation at mile marker 63 on Highway 91, Alan Krupka of Howells cited for speeding.
10:17 a.m. Traffic violation at the intersection of 17th Street and 23rd Avenue, Edgar Alaniz-Garcia of Bellwood jailed for driving under suspension and cited for no proof of insurance and no valid registration.
11:56 a.m. Wanted person at the county jail, Briar Wright of Columbus turned self in a Platte County warrant.
2 p.m. Wanted person at 1823 14th St., Stacey Faulkner of Columbus jailed on a Saunders County warrant.
May 7
12:30 a.m. North of 287th Street on 205th Avenue, Cesar Garcia of Columbus jailed for driving under the influence, refusal of a chemical test, open container of alcohol and possession of drug paraphernalia.
11:58 a.m. Andrew Hardesty was transferred to McLean County, North Dakota, Sheriffs Office custody for a sex offender registry violation.
6:36 p.m. Traffic violation at the intersection of Monastery Road and 310th Street, Michael Shuster cited for speeding.
11:30 p.m. Traffic violation eastbound on U.S. Highway 30 at the Merrick County line, Jorge Bedolla of Columbus cited for speeding.
May 8
3:17 a.m. Traffic violation westbound on 23rd Street, Louie Ystas of Columbus jailed for second-offense driving under the influence, open container of alcohol and no operators license.
Noon Wanted person at 922 Eighth St. in Duncan, David Maneely jailed on Lancaster and Seward county warrants.
12:38 p.m. Traffic violation at the intersection of East 14th Avenue and Highway 30, Charles Cogman of Hastings cited for no valid registration.
7:13 p.m. Criminal mischief at Holy Family Cemetery, two large grave headstones damaged, $4,000 loss.
Fire
May 7
8:11 a.m. In the 5300 block of Southeast 16th Street, medical.
11 a.m. In the 4600 block of Valley View, medical.
3:50 p.m. In the 4700 block of 38th Street, medical.
8:44 p.m. Accident on the Richland Curve on Highway 30.
May 8
4:38 a.m. In the 2800 block of 40th Avenue, medical.
9 a.m.- In the 3700 block of 15th Street, medical.
11:24 a.m. - In the 1700 block of Sixth Street, medical.
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Renovation and Jumbo News; Lender Stocks Getting Slaughtered - Where's Your 401k?
Well, shakin' my moneymaker ain't ever made me a dime! And there ain't no sugar for you in this shaker of mine! So sing Maddie and Tae. Conversely, homebuilders are pretty good at making plenty of dimes (if they can find land and labor), but they arent immune to mounting compliance costs due to the regulatory regime. Of course these rising compliance costs are passed on to consumers. Regulatory fees have increased by nearly 30% since 2011. "It really makes it hard to satisfy the lower end of the market, which is a lot of first-time buyers," said Paul Emrath, vice president for survey and housing policy research at the NAHB, who conducted the survey of about 400 builders across the country.
News continues to hit about Lending Club. Its stock was down 26% yesterday. And CNBC reports Citigroup will soon begin to lay off employees as it seeks to boost performance and continue to streamline. The Lending Club news made me want to look at bank & non-bank stock prices - how are they doing? Not good. In fact, analysts are hard-pressed to find a single publicly held non-bank residential lender that made money in the first quarter of 2016, or that has seen its stock price improve this year. Put another way, practically every lender not part of a bank has not only lost money so far this year, but has seen its stock price worsen & in some cases plummet. And most of them have not had a profitable year in a few years! Let's hope that employees don't have their entire 401(K) held captive in company stock, and that the lessons learned eight years ago aren't forgotten.
Want some examples of stock prices in the last six months? Nationstar (-14%), Ocwen (-69%), PMAC (PFSI -19%), Impac (-25%), Walter/Ditech (-58%), PHH (-15%), Stonegate (-30%). Redwood Trust, after being down 30% at one point, has rebounded to actually be up 1% in the last six months. How about the banks, with their lower cost of funds, other product lines, and core bank earnings? Not much, if at all, better: Bank of America (-21%), Wells Fargo (-12%), Citi (-20%), Chase (-9%), US Bank (-4%).
What is the culprit? Were all of these stocks overvalued six months ago? Their earnings have shown mixed numbers. There are plenty of lesser reasons, but the primary reasons seem to be servicing, or related to it. Whether it was hedged or not, plenty of management teams thought servicing would be on their books much longer. When those loans pay off, and after the early pay-off penalty expires for whoever originated the loan, it is a hit to the asset side of the company's balance sheet. And any company that paid above-market premiums for servicing, well, they took a bigger hit. Industry experts are watching the impact of Basel III on banks' servicing portfolios - is there a natural buyer for those portfolios? Or will the run-off equal the new production coming in?
These results, of course, have plenty of employees of non-publicly traded firms asking senior management about how their company is faring. Certainly smaller lenders who were able to take advantage of larger investors paying up for servicing benefited by selling the product servicing released. And certainly there is concern among any profitable lenders owned by venture capital firms who are arguably quicker to pull the trigger on unprofitable ventures.
Regarding the stock performance of banks & non-bank lenders, industry expert Joe Garrett (of Garrett McAuley) writes, "The short-term fluctuations of a stock or an entire sector can be difficult to understand, and even when there's a consensus as to why a big move occurred, it's often proven wrong six months or more later. Over the longer term, investors have simply not done well investing in mortgage banking companies. Look at the leaders of 1998. Almost all gone. Look at the leaders of 2007. Almost all gone. And for the vast majority, it's not because they sold to a bigger company at some terrific premium. In most cases, the public mortgage companies don't last because they blow up.
"The window opens for mortgage company IPOs every so often, but you'd be hard pressed to find a public mortgage company that's been around for more than 15-20 years. For a variety of reasons, most of them simply blow up. Do you remember BNC, New Century, Novastar, Accredited, Aegis, EMC, Fieldstone, Ameriquest or even Indy Mac? Lots of money was lost on these mortgage lenders that were once the darlings of Wall Street. Let's put it this way. Investing in mortgage company stocks has generally been a money-losing proposition. Investors may occasionally forget the lessons of the past and become excited about some new mortgage company with some new story as to why they're different. But as the French say it so well, La plus ca change, la plus c'est la meme chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same. As for why mortgage stocks & big banks did so poorly the first quarter, let's wait six months and then try to figure out what happened."
Renovation & jumbo program news?
Pacific Union Financial's recent bulletin includes information regarding Ineligible Program Options which have been updated to indicate that Freddie Mac Renovation Mortgages are not permitted. Also, Loan apps dated on or after April 18th will require alignment with recently announced Fannie Mae changes. Some of the requirements include a financed property has been redefined to include only 1-4 unit financed residential properties where the borrower is personally obligated on the mortgage(s). Eligibility restrictions for LTV/(H)CLTV and cash-out refinances have been removed and are aligned with standard eligibility requirements. In addition, its recent bulletin states Pacific Union will now qualify California borrowers and determine escrow impounds and monthly collections using a 1.25% rate or actual rate in the property tax calculation. Review the Purchase Review section of the Correspondent Lending Guide for complete details.
Franklin American Mortgage has expanded the maximum LTV/CLTV/HCLTV limits for High Balance products. These changes are effective with locks on and after May 13. Visit FAMC website for details as well as other updates.
Plaza's Elite Jumbo Fixed and ARM Program Guidelines have been updated to clarify that when a Balance Sheet or Profit and Loss Statement are required, they must be signed and dated on or before the Note date. In addition, HomeStyle Program Guidelines have been updated to identify specific improvements that are ineligible. The customer service contact information has also been updated with a new email address.
Jumbo Core Fixed and Hybrid Products have been added to NewLeaf Wholesale's product line. Some general guidelines include: These Jumbo products are QM and must meet the ATR requirements. The maximum LTV is 80% to $2,000,000 and maximum loan amount is $2,500,000. Investment Properties are not allowed. Purchase, Rate/Term and Cash-out are available.
Citi has modified its LP-Agency Jumbo overlay to maximum LTV/CLTV/HCLTV of 75% for 3-4 unit primary purchase or rate/term refinance and 1-unit investment rate/term refinance. In addition, an overlay has been added to Home Ready & Home Possible. <= 95% LTV - Minimum FICO=620; maximum DTI=43%. For complete product/program guidelines, please refer to the Citi Correspondent Manual.
Mortgage Solutions Financial has reinstated its 701 Non-Conforming products. Guidelines for these products can be found here.
Amidst all of this rates continue to be good - in fact mortgage rates are about as good as they've been in quite some time. As volatility has diminished hedge costs have come down, allowing lenders to price a little more aggressively. Yesterday U.S. Treasuries gained ground along with international sovereign debt as oil and metals prices fell sharply. There were no U.S. economic data releases.
And there isn't much market-moving news today either. We have the March JOLTS - Job Openings numbers at 10AM EDT, along with March Wholesale Inventories, and then a $24 billion 3-year T-note auction. We closed the 10-year Monday at a yield of 1.76% and this morning it is hovering around 1.76% with agency MBS prices unchanged from Monday's close.
Jobs and Announcements
For companies looking for wholesale talent, a seasoned group of Wholesale Mortgage veterans with operations in Southern California and AEs throughout the West is looking to join an established wholesale mortgage banker. The group's footprint covers the Western states as well as Texas and Colorado. Members of the group include Account Executives, regional managers, underwriters, account managers and could include funders and set-up. The mortgage banker should be financially stable, customer servicedriven, and want to expand its presence in the Western US. If you are a mortgage banker who shares a commitment to providing exceptional client service and increase your monthly fundings by $75-100M, contact the Wholesale Group at Team@wholesalemortgageteam.com
On the retail side American Financial Network (AFN) is once again expanding its geographic footprint and is searching for very select, top-tier mortgage professionals capable of rapidly progressing into a multi-branch Regional Management role. Licensed across the country, branch opportunities are available in WA, AZ, CO, VA, NJ and PA. The ideal candidate is currently a mortgage broker or an existing retail branch manager, with monthly production of $3-5+M, and possesses strong recruiting and leadership skills. "As a direct seller to FNMA, FHLMC and GNMA, we offer a comprehensive suite of agency products with virtually no overlays along with non-QM products through our delegated partners. To support your production, our divisional fulfillment center offers dedicated teams (processing thru funding) of experienced professionals that only work for you! To maximize your earnings, managers have direct input into operating margins and MLO compensation. Qualified candidates in search of benefiting from superior pricing, 100% branch credits and multi-branch overrides are encouraged to submit a letter of interest and/or resume to Gary Fioretti."
In ops job news, Sierra Pacific Mortgage is hiring! To keep up with its rapid expansion, the company is looking for highly talented people to fill operations positions throughout its California Regional Operations Centers."If you are an ultimate underwriter, passionate processor, dazzling doc drawer or fabulous funder who's looking to make a move to a company known for its strength, stability, and dedication to both its clients and employees, Sierra Pacific Mortgage may just be the company for you! Take the next step in your career and email retaillending@spmc.com with your resume!
In personnel news "Academy Mortgage has added an A+ member to its Executive Team. The Salt Lake City-based independent mortgage lender has hired Aaron Nemec as EVP of Production and he will be responsible for the management and growth of production throughout the organization. Nemec is well qualified for the position, having spent the past two years managing all of the retail mortgage banking production activities for Guild Mortgage as EVP and National Retail Manager. Prior to this, he served as a Vice President and Regional Manager, and a Vice President and Area Sales Manager for Countrywide Home Loans. Contact Aaron Nemec or National Recruiting Manager John Owens to join Academy, one of the top independent purchase lenders in the country as ranked in the 2015 CoreLogic Marketrac Report."
Sindeo announced its newest executive hire, Deepak Kumar, who will assume the role of COO/CFO. Kumar is an accomplished business executive with over 20 years of experience leading teams to high-growth business success, most recently as Fannie Mae's Senior Executive and VP, Client Management.
"Live from National Mortgage Professional Magazine's Mortgage News Network Studios ... it's Inside the Renovation Studio. Staring Damon Richardson, Renovation Lending Specialist. Also staring Pam Seifert, Managing Director of Training Wholesale and Carl Markman, Director of National Sales for REMN Wholesale. Join Mortgage News Network for the first-time ever, FREE live broadcast from the MNN studios on Thursday, May 12 at 2:00 PM EDT. In this 60 minutes show, the cast will show you how to sell renovation loans, help you define your audience, and target them through renovation loans. They'll also show you how to generate more referrals. And featuring ... Selling reno loans to millennials! You must preregister for this FREE live broadcast here.
Were in the business of selling Midland to others.
Thats how Midland Development Corp. Chairman Brent Hilliard described the type 4A sales tax-funded organizations mission during a phone interview Tuesday.
And although MDC has invested in infrastructure and various businesses, its main focus for diversifying Midlands economy is on the cutting-edge aerospace industry.
It has spent millions to lure upstart sub-orbital spaceplane company XCOR and spacesuit firm Orbital Outfitters, and its vision of turning the Tall City into a place all-things aerospace is growing. That growth, however, requires help.
At the monthly meeting of MDC board members Monday, the organization agreed to negotiate and execute a professional services agreement with spaceport consulting, engineering and design firm RS&H.
According to a statement of qualifications document provided to the Reporter-Telegram, RS&H has worked with NASA, private space companies and communities on spaceport development since the 1960s. MDC hopes the firm can help Midland get its spaceport off the ground.
As the spaceport grows whether its designing rocket engine test stands as we look at vertical launch facilities, as we look at how that all blends in with our airport and what its going to look like down the road we felt like we needed to have someone who has been there and done it, he said.
You read that correctly: vertical-launch facilities. MDC is interested in adding traditional rocket launches to Midlands space industry offerings.
Weve looked at a trajectory that would work over the state of Texas that would get it out over the ocean, Hilliard said.
The idea is in the initial conception stages, and MDC doesnt know where such launches would, or even could, take place, but thats why we're hiring an engineering firm.
Hilliard said MDC is looking at all possibilities for entering the space industry and for good reason: The space industry is a $330 billion business globally. The U.S. government spends $147 billion of that $330 billion.
The high-dollar opportunity is something you cant pass up, he said, adding that now is the time for Midland to investigate all options.
You can't pass up a $330 billion business, Hilliard said. For us, its all there for the taking. A lot of the commercialization has to go somewhere, and theres no reason why we cant have our share of it. Obviously, not all of it will come here, but a small part of it could.
The MDC has no strict timeline for Midland to be a full-fledged player in the space business, but it looks forward to being a participant in the industry and in the FAAs associated regulation-making process as the industry rapidly grows.
The space industry is growing at such a pace that the FAA has recognized that they have to have something in place from an administrative (and) regulatory process for both above the ground and on the ground, Hilliard said. So, what we want to do is get ahead of that (and figure out) what our requirements for a spaceport (will be) and what safety measures will be in place. We have to be proactive instead of reactive.
RS&H, one of the largest players in spaceport development, and Holder Aerospace, a consulting firm MDC currently works with, should help put Midland at the forefront as MDC continues to sell companies on the citys space industry offerings, Hilliard said.
As for the longtime Midland businessmans role in all of it: Im just a local citizen trying to help our city, he said.
Like Trevor on Facebook and follow him on Twitter at @HowdyHawes.
Correction: A previous version of this story erroneously stated MDC was seeking to get ahead of the FAA before it creates new regulations. The FAA is already making new regulations, and MDC wants to be a participant in such regulation-making as required.
This years golden anniversary of the Museum of the Southwest inspired the renovation of the Turner Memorial Art Museum so the institution, members and Midland community could celebrate the occasion in style. This project had two major goals: first, to aesthetically unite an institution comprised of buildings from the 1930s, 70s and 80s, and secondly, to reveal and restore additional details in the historic Turner Mansion that had been covered by previous renovations. Visitors will be wowed by the elegant new design and overall refurbishment of the entire building.
In the Wagner Wing, a new layout of the five galleries will allow guests to move through the spaces and enjoy the exhibitions with new lighting and beautiful continuous flooring. When guests enter the Turner Mansion, they will see details hidden in the past such as crown molding, historic tile and other architectural elements. Paint colors inspired by the originals used in the home bring a fresh sensibility and highlight many of these details in a way they havent been in the past.
All of these changes become the setting of an ambitious new permanent and rotating exhibition schedule.
The addition of the Turner Legacy Galleries will be an exciting way to learn about the history of Midland, the life of Juliette and Fred Turner, Jr. and their daughters Fredda Turner Durham and Dorothy Turner Scharbauer. It tells the story of their truly special home. It also introduces visitors to the familys passion for horses through the two Kentucky Derby trophies won in 1958 by the Turners and in 1987 by their daughter Dorothy and her daughter Pamela.
The other galleries in the Turner Mansion Wing will house the permanent installation of the Museums fine art collection. Visitors will always be able to see many of their favorite works of art by Norman Rockwell, Audubon and the Taos Society of Artists. The galleries in the Wagner Wing will premier with an exhibition titled The Discerning Eye: Selections from Midlands Art Collections and the Midland Arts Association: Texas Artists Today. All of these new installations will inspire the relaunch of favorite programs like Art Social, as well as new programs like Play Date, a learning program for preschoolers, and Teach On!, a continuing education program for area educators.
This renovation project, the new exhibitions and additional programs are wonderful examples of how the Museum of the Southwest has grown and changed during the past five decades. A committee of the Junior League of Midland chaired by Mrs. Mary Griffith determined that a museum was needed for the community and pledged $55k in 1965 to its first three years of operation. After two temporary locations, the Museum moved to its permanent home at the Turner Mansion thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Durham and Mrs. Scharbauer. Since that time, it has continued to grow and add to the opportunities it offers to the community; opening the Marion West and William Blanton Blakemore Planetarium in 1972, which was remodeled and expanded in 2009; enclosing the patio of the Turner Mansion in the early 1970s to create the Thomas Gallery; building the Fredda Turner Durham Childrens Museum in the mid-1980s; and adding the Lissa Noel Wagner Wing onto the Turner Memorial Art Museum in the late 1980s.
Like all of these projects, our current renovation and reopening is an extension of that original dream of the committee. Everything accomplished by this project is built upon the contributions, past successes and determination of the many people who have worked on behalf of the Museum. Our gratitude is offered to the devoted staff, dedicated board members, tireless volunteers and generous donors of the past fifty years. Now, entering the next half-century of service, the Museum of the Southwest will continue inspiring discovery in art, science, culture and history, enriching the lives of people of all ages.
One of the great successes of America and the envy of many allies in Europe is our collective ability to effectively assimilate immigrants, legal and otherwise. Sure, sometimes the transformation takes a generation or two to click, and, yes, xenophobia is a problem, but the overall success has made our culture richer, our people more appreciative of our founding values and our nation more of an example of how to blend differences into vigor and strength.
Which is why the findings of a year-long project by Georgetown University Law Center researchers are so damning, particularly revelations that some schools in Texas are declining to enroll the children of immigrant parents a violation of a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision that slapped down what was then a Democratic-run Texas Legislature that ordered school districts to refuse the enrollment of students not legally in this country.
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) A South Texas community college cannot accept new nursing program students as it seeks to improve lagging passing rates for the state licensing exam.
Texas Southmost College in Brownsville has seen its nursing program passing rate dip as low as 46 percent in the last three years, The Brownsville Herald (http://bit.ly/1TxhVXo ) reported.
The Fort Worth Independent School District superintendent said Tuesday he will not heed Lt. Gov. Dan Patricks request for his resignation over the districts bathroom guidelines for transgender students.
Patrick on Monday called for Superintendent Kent Scribner to resign over a policy the superintendent announced last month that directs district employees to acknowledge the gender identity that each student consistently and uniformly asserts, allowing them to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.
Im proud of these guidelines, Scribner told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial board Tuesday. I think they provide educators with the ability to make all students more comfortable and confident in a learning environment.
Patrick said the policy puts students in danger and Scribner should not have acted without any discussion with parents, board members, principals, and other community leaders.
Campus safety should be of paramount concern for anyone in his position, Patrick said in a statement Monday. Every parent, especially those of young girls, should be outraged.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Fort Worth ISD Board President Jacinto Cinto Ramos Tuesday that he has legal concerns with the policy.
I have strong concern that this policy violates provisions in the Texas Education Code that give parents an unequivocal right to information regarding their children and is motivated by a misguided view of federal law, Paxton told Ramos in a letter. I sincerely hope you will assess these deficiencies in the transgender policy and more as the board deliberates.
When asked about Scribners comments, district spokesman Clint Bond confirmed the superintendents intentions to stay in his post. Bond also provided a statement from Ramos.
Rest assured, the safety of ALL children is our highest priority on the Board, Ramos said in the statement. We are completely capable of handling this in Fort Worth. We are applying the existing policy to make sure ALL children feel safe at school. We are here to look out for ALL children; not some, not most, but ALL children.
Patricks call for Scribners resignation comes during an increasingly tense battle over rights of transgender people across the country. North Carolina and the U.S. Department of Justice sparred over the states House Bill 2, which would prohibit people from using public restrooms that do not align with their biological sex. Patrick and other conservative leaders have pledged to pursue a similar law during next years legislative session in Texas.
Opponents and supporters of the new guidelines are expected to swamp the meeting; conservative groups have sent emails this week urging concerned parents and citizens to attend.
Scribner announced the bathroom policy at the school boards April 19 meeting, where there was no related discussion, according to a Star-Telegram report. The board was not asked to vote on the policy because it is an administrative guideline, which is a policy that superintendents can implement without official board approval.
These new guidelines would threaten the safety and privacy of children in all Fort Worth schools by opening little girls bathrooms and locker rooms to boys, conservative group Texas Values said in a press release Monday urging opponents to attend the board meeting. Further, the guidelines were not debated, discussed or voted on at any board meetings.
Patricks call for Scribners resignation also sparked comment from Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa, who said Patrick should be focusing on more pressing education issues.
Last I checked our children are stuck in overcrowded classrooms, the school finance system is broken, the STAAR test is a mess, pre-k needs to be expanded statewide, and our teachers need a raise, but Tea Party Lt. Gov. Patrick has nothing better to do than police the potties, Hinojosa said in a statement.
The Fort Worth school district the sixth-largest in the state appears to be a pioneer among the states bigger, urban school districts in adopting a transgender bathroom policy.
At least four of the five Texas school districts that enrolled more students than Fort Worth last school year dont have specific rules on the books dictating how to handle bathroom use by transgender students, according to spokespeople in the Dallas, Cy-Fair, Northside and Austin districts. (A spokesman for the Houston Independent School District, the largest in the state, did not immediately respond to a request for information on its rules.)
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) A Fort Worth police officer shot multiple times during a gunbattle received a police escort home after his release from a Fort Worth hospital almost two months after he was wounded.
Officer Matt Pearce was greeted by a large crowd of police officer, family and supporters that included Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price and Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald when he was released from John Peter Smith Hospital on Tuesday. Police say he will rest at home before continuing his rehabilitation in Houston from the March 15 shooting.
Someone should sue the President for ...
WASHINGTON Nebraskas new senator spent his first year as fresh arrivals to Capitol Hill are supposed to: head down, hard at work, zero speeches.
No more.
The rise of Donald Trump to Republican presidential nomination turned the senator, Republican Ben Sasse, into one of Trumps most outspoken opponents in Congress, and Sasses pronouncement that he would not back Trump in his home-state primary brought him an onslaught of attention. But hes been at it since long before House Speaker Paul Ryan and others piled on against Trump last week.
For months, Sasse has sketched out his philosophical underpinnings late at night on social media, and he is seriously floating the need for a third option in the presidential race.
Though many would like Sasse, the former president of a small Lutheran liberal arts college, to lead such a ticket, he prefers instead to sit by the Platte River late into the night after his kids are asleep and tweet questions and comments to, and about, Trump.
Ignored my phone most of today. Voicemail is now overflowing with GOP politicos telling me Sure, Trump is terrible, but ... he wrote after Trump all but clinched the GOP nomination last week. But we have to support him, because the only choice is Trump or Hillary. ummm, WHY? #Neither.
Sasse released an open letter on Facebook last week a follow-up to one he wrote in February explaining out why he would support neither Trump nor Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
This letter is for the majority of Americans who wonder why the nation that put a man on the moon cant find a healthy leader who can take us forward together, he wrote. Our founders didnt want entrenched political parties. So why should we accept this terrible choice?
The senators musings are getting a mixed response. Trump was expected to do well in the state Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts is on board, as are other Republican leaders. Attacking the front-runner has exposed Sasse, who had never held public office until becoming a senator in 2015, to criticism.
Before the Never Trump part, he was a rock star, said Jon Tucker, chairman of the Republican Party in Douglas County, where Omaha is located.
Tucker said Republicans in Nebraska still like Sasse, but he had an eye-opening moment while passing the hat for $1 donations during debate-watch parties and voters wouldnt give to the Republicans because of what Sasse was up to.
I dont see people with Draft Sasse T-shirts walking around Nebraska, he said.
But Mark Fahleson, who nudged Sasse to run for Senate, sees in his friend a thoughtful politician who is just trying to the influence the debate.
Do I think he will run for president this cycle? No, said Fahleson. My guess is hes not done this cycle speaking out.
At 44, the Harvard- and Yale-educated Sasse has had a robust and varied career working initially as a corporate turnaround specialist, but eventually returning to academia and then pursuing government jobs in President George W. Bushs administration. He also worked briefly as the chief of staff to a Nebraska congressman, and was a tutor and proctor for the House page program.
More recently, he was the president of Midland University in his hometown of Fremont, when he launched a 16-month bus tour to win the Republican nomination to replace a retiring senator.
Some say Sasse has talked about running for president since he was young, and they view his third-party musings as simply political positioning for an inevitable candidacy.
His office said he has zero interest, at the moment, in the White House. The very conservative father of young home-schooled children, he is focused on his family and job, his aides said.
The senator declined a request for an interview.
In many ways, those who have watched Sasses short congressional career see an arc. Rather than becoming the next rabble-rouser, as headlines predicted, in the mode of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, he instead became a spokesman for a more elevated civic discourse.
Conservatives will need to find a third option, he wrote in February. Mr. Trumps relentless focus is on dividing Americans, and on tearing down rather than building back up this glorious nation.
Days before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, Sasse stayed up late one night trolling Trump with personal and policy questions on Twitter. In one, he said Trump brags about affairs with married women and asked whether he repented or whether he thinks it matters.
Trump responded a few days later that Sasse looked like a gym rat.
How the hell did he ever get elected? Trump asked.
Sasses Facebook posting last week, though, caught more widespread attention.
Most Americans can still be for limited government again if they were given a winsome candidate who wanted Washington to focus on a small number of really important, urgent things in a way that tried to bring people together instead of driving us apart, he wrote.
I think there is room an appetite for such a candidate.
Washington perked up, envisioning Sasse as a white-knight savior for a Republican Party in turmoil. Breathless commentary ensued; conservative writer William Kristol tweeted over the weekend about his outreach to Sasse as well as to former nominee Mitt Romney.
Back home, though, talk of a President Sasse was met with a pragmatic Midwestern shrug.
Hes very much his own person, and I think Nebraskans respect that, said Phil Young, a former executive director of the Nebraska GOP. It just kind of depends on how far he wants to take this.
Fair Oaks, CA A Valley Springs man was shot and killed when an apparent drug deal went bad in a Sacramento suburb.
The Sacramento County Coroners Office confirms that Calaveras County resident Nicholas Mitchell Jaffray, 25, was killed over the weekend in Fair Oaks. The Sacramento County Sheriffs Office says 25-year-old Kane Thompson has been arrested in connection and charged with murder.
Information obtained from the Sheriffs Office says, Detectives believe the shooting occurred when a drug deal went bad. Detectives are still looking for a second suspect described as a black male adult, late 20s to early 30s, approximately five feet ten inches tall, medium build with short hair.
Witnesses called 911 to report that two vehicles were chasing after each other in the 10500 block of Fair Oaks Blvd. on Saturday evening and a loud bang was heard. Jaffray was transported to a nearby hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The incident happened at around 9pm.
No further information about the details leading up to the incident has been released by Sacramento County officials.
Beechcraft Plane Crashes at Pine Mountain Lake Airport in Groveland View Photos
Update at 2:10 p.m.: Tuolumne County Sheriffs Officials have identified the pilot and passenger involved in a plane crash at the Pine Mountain Lake Airport. The pilot is 83-year-old Samuel Gore from Mississippi and his passenger, 62-year-old Robert Bloom is from Florida. According to Sgt. Andrea Benson the 1976 Beechcraft was just bought today.
Update at 1:55 p.m.: The plane is a 1976 fixed wing single engine Beechcraft. Sgt. Andreas Benson reports there is no leakage from the aircraft or fire reported at the scene. The FAA and NTSB will be investigating the accident.
Original post at 1:45 p.m.: Groveland, CA A small plane crashed at the Pine Mountain Lake Airport just after takeoff.
Tuolumne County Sheriffs deputies and the Watch Commander are headed to the scene. Sheriffs officials report a resident in the area alerted them to the plane that went down around 12:15 p.m. The caller stated she saw a plane take off, and moments later it went down just past the runway into some trees near some power lines. The woman added that she and another person went to the crash site and found the pilot and a passenger walking around the outside of the plane. Both refused medical attention but one complained of a scratch to his hand, according to Sgt. Andrea Benson.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have been notified of the crash. Sgt. Benson adds that the plane was registered out of Groveland but it expired in 2011. The plane is a total loss. We will update this story as soon as more details come into the newsroom.
Two people have been charged after they were found inside the truck of a missing Casselberry man who has since been found dead, deputies said.
James Watrous, 58, found dead in woods in Casselberry
Jose Torres, 29, and Jennifer Smedley, 44, found in Watrous' truck
Torres and Smedley arrested in connection with man's death
James Watrous, 58, was reported missing by the Casselberry Police Department. It was reported that he could be in the company of Jennifer Smedley, 44.
Watrous truck was located Monday in Orange County. Inside the truck were Smedley and Jose Antonio Torres, 29.
Smedley and Torres were arrested on unrelated charges. When Torres was interviewed by deputies, he incriminated the pair in Watrous murder, deputies said.
Torres then led detectives to Watrous body, which was located in the woods near the Seminole County Public Library.
I dont know why he got killed but its a sad situation, and I feel sorry for his family that he was killed, said Tony Reyes, a nearby resident.
Torres has been charged with first-degree murder. Smedley was charged with principal to first-degree murder.
A memorial left by an anonymous person is seen near woods where James Watrous was found dead. The message reads, 'Prayer to this man's family! Sorry for your loss!" (Jeff Allen, staff)
FORT WORTH Springtime hay season is ramping up and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agent Fred Hall, Tarrant County, wants to remind producers that bales are an investment worth protecting.
Hay quality is a key component to animal performance and proper hay storage is a key component to hay quality, Hall said. Hay loss can be expected, even under a barn, so mitigation and risk management are the keys to protecting as much of your investment as possible.
They get a fantastic bale made and by not moving them off-field they endanger the stand and lose quality forage for their livestock, Hall said. Storing bales properly can reduce losses and save producers money.
Once bales have cured they should be taken to a permanent storage area and stacked, he said. The cutting, baling and hauling represents much of the cost of baled hay. Depending on yield, a 1500-pound bale can cost up to $45 to cut, roll and transport.
If the bale is valued at $100, the forage in the bale is worth $55. It makes sense to protect bales and the $45 per-bale investment as much as possible, Hall said.
When bales are stored outside and uncovered, weathering may affect hay quality up to 12 inches deep, he said. The depth will vary based on factors such as regional climate, the bales density, the storage location and methods of protection used to mitigate weathering.
The general expectation, however, is there will be a 4- to 6-inch weathered layer for bales stored outside on the ground. This is important, Hall said, because the outer portions of bales make up a substantial portion of the bales volume.
Bales left in fields are exposed to the elements in all directions, he said. If three inches of the outside surface of a 5-foot by 6-foot bale are spoiled, it represents about 30 percent of the hay in that bale. In a 1,500-pound bale, a 30 percent loss represents 450 pounds of hay.
Producers should remove bales from fields as soon as possible to prevent damage to the hay and to the field, Hall said. Storing bales properly reduces the number of exposed surfaces and can reduce losses, especially if shelter is provided. Storing hay in barns can be a cost-effective method of protecting it for some producers. Barn storage protects the hays nutritional value and aesthetics. Plastic wraps can also be used to reduce losses.
Hall said hay stored outside is subject to wetting and drying cycles that degrade and leach nutrients from bales. Over time, this causes the fiber component of the forage, which is indigestible, to represent a larger percentage of the bales dry weight. The loss of total digestible nutrients can often be as much as 15 to 20 percent in weathered bales.
Bales left in the field often flatten out and soften, which makes loading, handling and hauling those bales difficult because some bales will fall apart and dry matter losses will increase, Hall said. To reduce losses on hay stored outdoors, run rows of hay bales on an upland site away from shade trees. Sunshine speeds up the drying process.
Hall recommends placing bales in a north-south orientation and southern exposure. Set bales in rows so that the flat sides are touching and the round sides are separated. This keeps rain from ponding on top of bales.
Also, Hall said, rows should be at least three feet apart to allow for sunlight and good air circulation. Keeping bales off the ground, either by using pallets, crossties, or rocks, is critical in preventing substantial losses especially in rainy seasons.
Texas A&M AgriLife studies suggest that often 50 percent or more of the storage losses associated with outside storage occur where the bale touches ground. Dry hay touching damp soil draws moisture into the bale.
Some producers store bales in the mushroom style, where bottom bales are on end, Hall said. This style provides less protection than end-to-end, especially if the rows are tight to each other. Its been found that the bottom bales also tend to act as a wick and draw moisture from the ground.
The result of poor storage techniques is a weathered layer that is very low in quality and unpalatable to livestock, he said. Leaving hay in the field for extended times can expose the bale but also inhibit forage growth.
Forage plants smothered by a hay bale will be suppressed until the bale is removed. The longer the bale stays in one spot, the less likely the forage plants will recover. The area then becomes a prime site for weed invasion if the bales sets for over a week. Weed control costs add to the variable cost of the next crop or fixed costs if the field has to be renovated, he said.
Accessing moist fields can also cause damage to forage, especially legumes and forbs. Wheel traffic can hurt regrowth, he said.
AgriLife Extension agricultural economist Dr. Jason Johnson, Stephenville, said protecting hay through proper storage is protecting their time and money invested during production.
It is better to have not made a hay crop at all and lost all of the pre-harvest expenses than to make a crop, spend the money to cut and bale it, and let it waste away losing all its feeding value and negatively affecting regrowth because the bales were not handled, moved and stored properly, he said. In the end you will lose more money with that scenario than if you had never harvested a single bale.
For more information about protecting hay check out the publication Round Bale Hay Storage at: http://agrilife.org/urbantarrantag.
AUSTIN - The Texas Land Commissioner and Chairman of the Texas Veterans Land Board, George P. Bush issued the following statement on the recent death of Texas hero Ken Towery:
"Ken Towery was a heroic figure both in times of war and peace. He served with great honor as a member of the U.S. Army during WWII, where he was wounded and held for over three years in horrific conditions as a prisoner of war at the hands of the Japanese. Upon his return home to Texas he became a first class newspaper reporter and broke the VLB land loan scandal in the 1950s. His efforts not only earned him the Pulitzer Prize, but helped to save an agency which continues to this day serving our Texas veterans. Years later he donated all of his records and notes from that ground breaking story to our extensive archives. All of us here at the General Land Office and Veterans Land Board mourn his passing and extend our sincere condolences to his family and all who knew him well. Texas is a better place because of the life he led."
A woman who was gunned down by her estranged husband on her birthday Monday night in an apparent murder-suicide has been identified as a teacher by school officials.
Sharon Wilbanks, 58, had been an East Central Independent School District employee for 15 years, according to ECISD spokeswoman Stevie Gonzales.
SAN ANTONIO A man was critically wounded Monday night after being shot in the back on the South Side.
According to the San Antonio Police Department, the man was in the passenger seat of a moving car on the Loop 410 access road between Zarzamora and Highway 16 when a gunman opened fire from another car just before midnight.
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A Harlingen mother faces a felony charge after her one-year-old daughter fell out of a two-story window on Sunday, police said Tuesday.
RELATED: Texas sees recent rash of prominent child abuse, child killing cases
The child was medically evaluated and transported to Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen after police responded to the scene just before noon Sunday, the Haringen Police Department said in a news release.
News station KGBT reported that the child suffered head injuries but survived the fall.
RELATED: San Antonio authorities still searching for man in connection to child abuse case
Brook Ashley Wise, the girl's 25-year-old mother, has been charged with injury to a child, a second-degree felony.
Specific details surrounding the incident have not been released by police.
If convicted, Wise could serve up to 20 years in prison.
RELATED: Man accused of sexually assaulting child during supervised visit with Child Protective Services
The 25-year-old is currently being held in Cameron County Jail on a $35,000 bond.
jfechter@mySA.com
Twitter: @JFreports
The series brings leading experts to the Washington, D.C., metro area to share the latest in market research, technology and policies within the fuels and vehicles industry.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. As a fuel retailer whos concerned with planning for the future, theres a new, unique education opportunity created with you in mind. In just two weeks, the Fuels Institute will kick off a six-part Summer Symposium Series that brings leading experts from across the fuels and vehicles industries to share the latest market research, technology and policy hot topics.
The vehicles market is alive and well, but technology is changing the consumer experience. Where will it take us? The first symposium session on May 25, Fuel Demand, Market Dynamics and Vehicle Market Development, offers insight on future fuel demand, how the market is responding to new customer requirements and what type of cars will be available in 10 years. The event will take place at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm.
The May 25 symposium will feature:
Fuels and Vehicles Market Outlook
U.S. Energy Information Administration
Light Duty Vehicle Powertrains Through 2025
Scott Shepard, Navigant Research
A Look at the Oil Markets
Tom Kloza, OPIS
The Refined and Biofuels Products Market
Joanne Shore, AFPM; Mike OBrien, Growth Energy
A Retail View of the Market
Mike Lorenz, Sheetz; Joel Hirschboeck, Kwik Trip
The Fuels Institute Crystal Ball
John Eichberger, Fuels Institute
Participation will be open to Fuels Institute contributors as well as interested individuals on a first-come, first-served basis. We invite you to join one or more of the sessions. Executive summaries will be prepared and distributed in electronic format to the participants post-event. Reserve your seat and let us know if you have any questions.
Im late to a Bloomberg story that ran under the anodyne headline, Wealthy Families Have $4 Trillion Up for Grabs. The Washington Post used the more apt Worlds Rich Families Are Putting Private Equity Firms on Notice.
The message is simple: super rich families are figuring out that private equity firms are charging more that they are worth. The very rich, starting in a serious way in the 1980s, have brought more of their investing in house in the form of family offices. At the small end, they replicate what a private banker would do, as in put them in various investments, without the conflicts of interest or (hopefully) the ego issues (as in a private banker would have incentives to recommend in house products and actively-managed stock and bond funds). They might also oversee direct investments, such as in real estate or angel/venture investments.
The biggest families are getting more serious about doing private equity on their own. Given total annual fees estimated at 7%, they dont have to hit home runs to beat private equity performance. In addition, they dont have the bad incentives of private equity. For instance, the general partners make money irrespective of whether their deals succeed or not, making them too willing to do marginal deals, since a fund can afford a few dogs and still eke out a decent return. Similarly, private equity funds often sell winners earlier than is optimal to show tangible investment results prior to raising a new fund.
From Bloomberg:
In December, a half-dozen of some of the richest families in the U.S., from agriculture to beverages, gathered in a conference room on the 10th floor of an office building in Miami. This was not some cabal to rule the world. Instead, for an hour over coffee and bagels they listened to a dealmaker for billionaire brothers J.B. and Tony Pritzker talk about how to buy companies. Now, following the likes of Buffett, Michael Dell and Bill Gates, many are acting like private equity firms, buying large stakes in companies or acquiring them outright. Families can exert tighter control over their money, give the kids something to do and cut their deal fees. But the trend has meant that private equity shops have been forced to scramble to make sure they dont lose a critical source of money for their buyout funds. Blackstone Group LP assigned an executive to court wealthy families, and Carlyle Group LP and other private equity firms are allowing many to invest alongside them in deals. Saved Millions After a decade of direct investing we found that we actually saved millions, which were reinvested in companies and assets huge, huge savings, said Chad Hagan, whose family built its wealth in private health-care and financial businesses.
And here is the real threat: the family investors are putting the soi disant pros of private equity to shame:
Almost 70 percent of family offices engage in direct investing, according to an April survey of 80 offices by the Family Office Exchange. And in 2015 they outperformed buyout firms. Direct deals returned them 15 percent on average, the survey showed more than double private equity results that year.
Mind you, this family office outperformance is even more striking in light of the fact that general partners are managing down return expectations without cutting fees. From Pensions & Investments last week:
Titans of private equity shared some hard truths at the Milken Institute Global Conference: Returns now will be lower than investors had come to expect from the asset class; capital distributed back to limited partners will decrease; and their firms will be launching funds with lives as long as 20 years. Speaking on a panel titled Private Equity Outlook from Industry Titans, Leon Black, chairman, CEO and director of Apollo Global Management; Jonathan Nelson, founder and CEO of Providence Equity Partners; David Rubenstein, co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group; and Robert Smith, founder, chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners kicked off Monday afternoons discussion with a question from moderator Andrea Kramer, managing director of consulting and money management firm Hamilton Lane, on the asset class biggest risks. Mr. Black said private equity transactions are priced to perfection meaning they are highly priced. The average private equity deal of more than $500 million is selling at an 11 times multiple of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, he said. Before the financial crisis, private equity deals were selling for 10.5 times EBITDA. At the same time, there is less debt available for private equity deals. The more equity invested in deals decreases returns, he said.. Priced to perfection is a nice way of saying overpriced, Mr. Nelson said.
Recall that the chief investment officer of CalSTRS uses the same priced to perfection coded admission in a board meeting last year. In other words, the limited partners, or at least the more observant ones, are aware that private equity is almost certain to underperform, yet continue to plow more money into the strategy.
And what is the general partners response? To make terms even worse by locking up money longer. They recognize this may be the end of the rich pickings for the industry and they want to get their hands on as much capital as they can while the fundraising environment still favors them. And they have a new source of money thats even dumber than their old standby, public pension funds:
Sovereign wealth funds want an enormous amount of co-investment, and are happier with lower returns than other types of investors like public pension funds, Mr. Rubenstein said. Vista Equitys Mr. Smith said there has been a surge in demand from sovereign wealth funds. Not only are they committing capital, but also they want to embed officials from the sovereign wealth fund with private equity firms to learn the business, he said. We would not have seen that a year ago, he added.
Now the desire to have sovereign wealth staff acquire skills points to a desire, as with the rich families, to eventually do private equity deals on their own. But then the article provides a misapprehension of how most private equity transactions work:
Sovereign wealth funds also are asking for investment funds with longer lockups so general partners can hold onto performing assets, Mr. Smith said. Good companies in a lower-interest-environment are hard to replace, Mr. Nelson said.
Contrast this with David Stockmans expose in Newsweek of how Bain achieved superior-looking performance:
In a nutshell, thats the story of Bain Capital during Mitt Romneys tenure. The Wall Street Journal examined 77 significant deals completed during that period based on fundraising documents from Bain, and the results are a perfect illustration of bull-market asymmetry. Overall, Bain generated an impressive $2.5 billion in investor gains on $1.1 billion in investments. But 10 of Bains deals accounted for 75 percent of the investor profits. Accordingly, Bains returns on the overwhelming bulk of the deals67 out of 77were actually lower than what a passive S&P 500 indexer would have earned even without the risk of leverage or paying all the private-equity fees. Investor profits amounted to a prosaic 0.7X the original investment on these deals and, based on its average five-year holding period, the annual return would have computed to about 12 percentwell below the 17 percent average return on the S&P in this period. By contrast, the 10 home runs generated profits of $1.8 billion on investments of only $250 million, yielding a spectacular return of 7X investment. Yet it is this handful of home runs that both make the Romney investment legend and also seal the indictment: they show that Bain Capital was a vehicle for leveraged speculation that was gifted immeasurably by the Greenspan bubble. It was a fortunate place where leverage got lucky, not a higher form of capitalist endeavor or training school for presidential aspirantsThe startling fact is that four of the 10 Bain Capital home runs ended up in bankruptcy.
In other words, private equity returns for the large funds are dependent on leverage and on a finely-tuned sense of when to unload. And for smaller investments (per the work of Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt, deal sizes up to $350 million), where the returns depend on operating improvements, again the pretty returns depend on selling them once the companies have moved to a better level of profits and/or market reach, and the exit market is favorable. They werent bought to be long-term cash flow generators.
Underwhelming performance plus high fees is now leading to it being respectable to pull money out of hedge funds, and more and more investors are questioning the logic of that strategy. With its long time commitments and the generosity of sovereign wealth funds, private equity is a good ten years at a minimum away from having a day of reckoning in light of the ZIRP-driven mania to be in risky assets despite their dubious potential. Readers may recall that last week in Mania in Private Equity as Investors Throw Money at Funds, we pointed out that money was flooding into private equity despite an unfavorable fundamental outlook.
Unfortunately, this froth is all too reminiscent of the late 1980s, where an LBO boom led to a wave of bankruptcies, and the 2006-2007 frenzy, where the downside was dampened by central banks goose risky assets policies, which gave private equity an unintended bailout. As we concluded last week:
Open access infrastructure for a pilot line of nanoparticles and nanocomposites (Nanowerk News) What opportunities does the nanotechnology provide in general, provide nanoparticles for my products and processes? So far, this question cannot be answered easily. Preparation and modification of nanoparticles and the further processing require special technical infrastructure and complex knowledge. For small and medium businesses the construction of this infrastructure just on luck is often not worth it. Even large companies shy away from the risks. As a result many good ideas just stay in the drawer.
A simple and open access to high-class infrastructure for the reliable production of small batches of functionalized nanoparticles and nanocomposites for testing could ease the way towards new nano-based products for chemical and pharmaceutical companies. The European Union has allocated funds for the construction of a number of pilot lines and open-access infrastructure within the framework of the EU project CoPilot.
Molecular vaporizer for laboratory and pilot plant scale to separate and recover high boiling solvents in high vacuum atmosphere. (Image: K. Dobberke for Fraunhofer ISC)
A consortium of 13 partners from research and industry, including nanotechnology specialist TNO from the Netherlands and the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC from Wuerzburg, Germany as well as seven nanomaterial manufacturers, is currently setting up the pilot line in Wuerzburg. First, they establish the particle production, modification and compounding on pilot scale based on four different model systems. The approach enables maximum variability and flexibility for the pilot production of various particle systems and composites. Two further open access lines will be established at TNO in Eindhoven and at the Sueddeutsche Kunststoffzentrum SKZ in Selb.
The nanoparticle kitchen
Essential elements of the pilot line in Wuerzburg are the particle synthesis in batches up to 100 liters, modification and separation methods such as semi-continuous operating centrifuge and in-line analysis and techniques for the uniform and agglomeration free incorporation of nanoparticles into composites. Dr. Karl Mandel, head of Particle Technology of Fraunhofer ISC, compares the pilot line with a high-tech kitchen: We provide the top-notch equipment and the star chefs to synthesize a nano menu a la carte as well as nanoparticles according to individual requests. Thus, companies can test their own receipts or our existing receipts before they practice their own cooking or set up their nano kitchen.
Stirring reactor (100 liter) for upscaling of laboratory syntheses, equipped with in-situ analysis for particle size measurement to monitor and control processes. (Image: K. Dobberke for Fraunhofer ISC)
In the future, the EU project offers companies a contact point if they want to try their nano idea and require enough material for sampling and estimation of future production costs. This can, on the one hand, minimize the development risk, on the other hand, it maximizes the flexibility and production safety. To give lots of companies the opportunity to influence direction and structure/formation/setup of the nanoparticle kitchen, the project partners will offer open meetings on a regular basis.
Spin lifetime anisotropy of graphene is much weaker than previously reported (Nanowerk News) An article published today in Nature Communications presents a new method to determine the spin lifetime anisotropy of spin-polarized carriers in graphene using oblique spin precession. The work, led by ICREA research Prof Sergio O Valenzuela, Group Leader of the ICN2 Physics and Engineering Of Nanodevices Group, demonstrates spin-lifetime anisotropy measurements in graphene and discusses them in light of current theoretical knowledge.
One of the most fascinating puzzles for the graphene and spintronics communities is identifying the main microscopic process for spin relaxation in graphene. Conventional relaxation mechanisms have yielded contradictory results when applied to single-layer graphene. In an article published today in Nature Communications ("Determination of the spin-lifetime anisotropy in graphene using oblique spin precession"), researchers from the Institut Catala de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia (ICN2) determine the spin lifetime anisotropy of spin-polarized carriers in graphene, which is expected to generate valuable information to overcome the above puzzle.
The present work demonstrates spin-lifetime anisotropy measurements in graphene and discusses them in light of current theoretical knowledge. It has been coordinated by the ICREA Research Prof Sergio O. Valenzuela, Group Leader of the ICN2 Physics and Engineering Of Nanodevices Group, in collaboration with the INPAC - Institute for Nanoscale Physics and Chemistry (Leuven, Belgium). The first author of the article is Bart Raes, from ICN2.
The anisotropy is determined using a novel method based on oblique spin precession, a change in the orientation of the rotational axis of a rotating body. In contrast to prior approaches, the method does not require large out-of-plane magnetic fields and thus it is reliable for both low and high carrier densities. The authors first determine the in-plane spin lifetime by conventional spin precession measurements with magnetic fields perpendicular to the graphene plane. Then, in order to evaluate the out-of-plane spin lifetime, they implement spin precession measurements under oblique magnetic fields that generate an out-of-plane spin population.
The results show that the spin lifetime anisotropy of graphene on silicon oxide is independent of carrier density and temperature down to 150 K, and much weaker than previously reported. Indeed, within the experimental uncertainty, the spin relaxation is isotropic. Together with the gate dependence of the spin lifetime, this indicates that the spin relaxation is driven by magnetic impurities or random spin-orbit or gauge fields.
The authors underline that the microscopic properties of the graphene used in devices originating from different laboratories are not necessarily equivalent, owing to the graphite source or the processing steps that have been used. Thus, experimental results might vary among research groups. This underscores the importance of developing advanced spin transport characterization techniques and the systematic implementation using samples of different origin.
Common nanoparticle has subtle effects on oxidative stress genes (Nanowerk News) A nanoparticle commonly used in food, cosmetics, sunscreen and other products can have subtle effects on the activity of genes expressing enzymes that address oxidative stress inside two types of cells. While the titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanoparticles are considered non-toxic because they dont kill cells at low concentrations, these cellular effects could add to concerns about long-term exposure to the nanomaterial.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology used high-throughput screening techniques to study the effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on the expression of 84 genes related to cellular oxidative stress. Their work found that six genes, four of them from a single gene family, were affected by a 24-hour exposure to the nanoparticles.
The effect was seen in two different kinds of cells exposed to the nanoparticles: human HeLa cancer cells commonly used in research, and a line of monkey kidney cells. Polystyrene nanoparticles similar in size and surface electrical charge to the titanium dioxide nanoparticles did not produce a similar effect on gene expression.
This is important because every standard measure of cell health shows that cells are not affected by these titanium dioxide nanoparticles, said Christine Payne, an associate professor in Georgia Techs School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Our results show that there is a more subtle change in oxidative stress that could be damaging to cells or lead to long-term changes. This suggests that other nanoparticles should be screened for similar low-level effects.
The research was reported online May 6 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C ("TiO 2 Nanoparticles Alter the Expression of Peroxiredoxin Anti-Oxidant Genes"). The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the HERCULES Center at Emory University, and by a Vasser Woolley Fellowship.
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles help make powdered donuts white, protect skin from the suns rays and reflect light in painted surfaces. In concentrations commonly used, they are considered non-toxic, though several other studies have raised concern about potential effects on gene expression that may not directly impact the short-term health of cells.
To determine whether the nanoparticles could affect genes involved in managing oxidative stress in cells, Payne and colleague Melissa Kemp an associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University designed a study to broadly evaluate the nanoparticles impact on the two cell lines.
Working with graduate students Sabiha Runa and Dipesh Khanal, they separately incubated HeLa cells and monkey kidney cells with titanium oxide at levels 100 times less than the minimum concentration known to initiate effects on cell health. After incubating the cells for 24 hours with the TiO 2 , the cells were lysed and their contents analyzed using both PCR and Western Blot techniques to study the expression of 84 genes associated with the cells ability to address oxidative processes.
Payne and Kemp were surprised to find changes in the expression of six genes, including four from the peroxiredoxin family of enzymes that helps cells degrade hydrogen peroxide, a byproduct of cellular oxidation processes. Too much hydrogen peroxide can create oxidative stress which can damage DNA and other molecules.
The effect measured was significant changes of about 50 percent in enzyme expression compared to cells that had not been incubated with nanoparticles. The tests were conducted in triplicate and produced similar results each time.
One thing that was really surprising was that this whole family of proteins was affected, though some were up-regulated and some were down-regulated, Kemp said. These were all related proteins, so the question is why they would respond differently to the presence of the nanoparticles.
The researchers arent sure how the nanoparticles bind with the cells, but they suspect it may involve the protein corona that surrounds the particles. The corona is made up of serum proteins that normally serve as food for the cells, but adsorb to the nanoparticles in the culture medium. The corona proteins have a protective effect on the cells, but may also serve as a way for the nanoparticles to bind to cell receptors.
Titanium dioxide is well known for its photo-catalytic effects under ultraviolet light, but the researchers dont think thats in play here because their culturing was done in ambient light or in the dark. The individual nanoparticles had diameters of about 21 nanometers, but in cell culture formed much larger aggregates.
In future work, Payne and Kemp hope to learn more about the interaction, including where the enzyme-producing proteins are located in the cells. For that, they may use HyPer-Tau, a reporter protein they developed to track the location of hydrogen peroxide within cells.
The research suggests a re-evaluation may be necessary for other nanoparticles that could create subtle effects even though theyve been deemed safe.
Earlier work had suggested that nanoparticles can lead to oxidative stress, but nobody had really looked at this level and at so many different proteins at the same time, Payne said. Our research looked at such low concentrations that it does raise questions about what else might be affected. We looked specifically at oxidative stress, but there may be other genes that are affected, too.
Those subtle differences may matter when theyre added to other factors.
Distance wireless charging enhanced by magnetic metamaterials (Nanowerk News) Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona researchers have developed a system which efficiently transfers electrical energy between two separate circuits. The system, made with a shell of metamaterials which concentrates the magnetic field, could transmit energy efficiently enough to charge mobile devices without having to place them close to the charging base. The research was published in the journal Advanced Materials ("Quasistatic Metamaterials: Magnetic Coupling Enhancement by Effective Space Cancellation").
Schematic diagram of the experimental setup used to transfer energy between two circuits, developed by UAB researchers. (Image: Jordi Prat)
Wireless charging of mobile devices is possibly one of the most desired technological milestones. Some devices can already be charged wirelessly by placing the mobile device on top of a charging base. The next step, charging devices without the need of taking them out of ones pocket, might be just around the corner.
A group of researchers from the Department of Physics of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona has developed a system which can efficiently transfer electrical energy between two separated circuits thanks to the use of metamaterials. This system is still in the experimental stage, but once it has been perfected and can be applied to mobile devices, it will be able to charge them wirelessly and at a longer distance than currently possible.
Today's wireless devices make use of induction to charge through a special case adapted to the device and a charging base connected to an electrical socket. When the device is placed on top of the base, this generates a magnetic field which induces an electric current inside the case and, without the need of using any cables, the device is charged. If the device is separated from the base, the energy is not transferred efficiently enough and the battery cannot be charged.
The system created by UAB researchers overcomes these limitations. It is made up of metamaterials which combine layers of ferromagnetic materials, such as iron compounds, and conductor materials such as copper. The metamaterials envelop the emitter and receiver and enable transferring energy between the two, at a distance and with unprecedented efficiency.
With the use of metamaterial crowns researchers were able in the lab to increase the transmission efficiency 35-fold, and there is much more room for improvement, since theoretically the efficiency can be increased even more if conditions and the design of the experiment are perfected explains Alvar Sanchez, director of the research.
Enveloping the two circuits with metamaterial shells has the same effect as bringing them close together; it's as if the space between them literally disappears, states Jordi Prat, lead author of the paper.
Moreover, the materials needed to construct these crowns such as copper and ferrite are easily available. The first experiments conducted with the aim of concentrating static magnetic fields required the use of superconductor metamaterials, unfeasible for everyday uses with mobile devices. In contrast, low frequency electromagnetic waves - the ones used to transfer energy from one circuit to the other - only need conventional conductors and ferromagnets, Carles Navau explains.
The study was conducted by researchers from the Electromagnetism Group of the UAB Department of Physics Alvar Sanchez (also an ICREA Academia researcher) and Carles Navau, and by Jordi Prat, currently researcher at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Innsbruck.
By Laura Layden of the Naples Daily News
A federal grant could help Collier County outfit a new food-focused business accelerator in Immokalee.
The county's interim director of economic development, Jace Kentner, has applied for a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help purchase specialized kitchen equipment for the accelerator.
The accelerator will cater to culinary and agribusiness companies, offering commercial kitchen equipment, food product development and testing equipment, cold food storage and loading docks, meeting all the necessary state and federal requirements for commercial operations.
"We are expecting those companies who are producing a low volume of product to seize the opportunity to have a facility that can exponentially increase production," Kentner said in an email.
The accelerator has faced some setbacks, but it's getting back on track, with state funding reinstated.
Gov. Rick Scott cut back on the money available for the accelerator after the project faced delays and didn't meet the deadlines tied to the state grant Collier County received for the project in 2014. In its last session, the state Legislature appropriated $2 million for the county's accelerator projects in Naples and Immokalee, including $250,000 for programs that will involve Florida Gulf Coast University in south Lee County.
"Yes, having to postpone the Immokalee Accelerator impacted our momentum, but the need and demand still exist for the resources," Kentner said.
The new state grant becomes available July 1, but the details of how it will be administered are still being ironed out. It will be a complex agreement that will allow the county to get reimbursed for its expenses, as long as it meets the requirements of contract, Kentner.
Only about $740,000 of the original state grant was spent on the Immokalee accelerator, primarily paying for engineering and design. The accelerator will go in a now empty, county-owned warehouse at the Immokalee Regional Airport. Construction is expected take anywhere from seven to nine months.
As far as the USDA grant goes, the federal agency approached county staff about applying for a Rural Business Development Grant. The grant application had to be signed and returned to the USDA no later than March 31. Kentner met that deadline and on Tuesday will ask for after-the-fact approval from county commissioners to apply for the grant.
"It will be reimbursement based. We could realistically receive reimbursements in the fall," he said.
Kentner hopes to receive the full amount the project is eligible for from the USDA grant.
"I am confident we will get money," he said. "It is how much money we will receive based on that amount of effort that has gone into the grant that keeps me up at night."
The county had a short timeline about two weeks to apply for the grant after finding out about it from the USDA and that it took a team effort from county staff to get it done, he said.
"There are no awards for speed or teamwork but this effort is a testament to Collier County's commitment to Immokalee. There was a need and an opportunity and from top to bottom from across divisions and departments this grant application was completed. I can't think of another county government anywhere that would have contemplated much less completed a USDA grant in two weeks," Kentner said.
County staff is also working on completing an application for an $800,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, which would pay for the purchase of a high pressure processing machine. That one machine used is expected to cost at least $500,000, said Marshall Goodman, director of the Naples and Immokalee accelerators. The machine, he said, helps keep products fresher longer, without changing the taste.
"Our goal is to make Immokalee a high-tech food processing center. Unfortunately, high tech can be expensive," Goodman said.
On Tuesday, Cissy Proctor, executive director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, is expected to tour the Naples Accelerator and one of her representatives plans to visit the site of the Immokalee one on Wednesday.
At the Immokalee project, the county hopes to attract a lot of home chefs. "A lot of the people I've already talked with have come from farmers' markets. They've come from fairs and they want to stop doing some of those events and sell to retail. That's a giant leap for them," Goodman said.
The University of Florida will be a partner in the Immokalee center, with a 500 square foot food science lab to help companies get their products approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and labeled for sale to retailers. Interested tenants have shown interest in selling everything from salsa to orange juice.
"You are seeing a generation of people that understand you can sell products over the Internet, as long as it's coming from a qualified facility," Goodman said. "You can't sell anything out of your kitchen over the Internet, unless your kitchen is FDA approved."
By Patrick Riley and Maryann Batlle of the Naples Daily News
After seven years leading the Bonita Springs Area Chamber of Commerce, Christine Ross has accepted a new job.
Ross, 54, will take over the role of president and chief executive officer of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. She starts July 11.
Both the Maryland and the Bonita Springs chambers announced Ross' decision Tuesday in separate statements. Her job switch was first reported by The Baltimore Sun.
Ross has ties to Maryland. She earned her MBA and a master's in marketing from the University of Maryland University College, and two of her three children are in graduate school in the Washington, D.C., area, according to the Maryland Chamber announcement.
Ross did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In the Maryland Chamber statement, Ross is quoted as having said she is "very grateful for the opportunity."
After a national search, a committee of Maryland Chamber of Commerce board members felt Ross was "the ideal choice based on her leadership and proven track record," according to a statement from Nate Biel, chairman of the search committee and president of KCI Technologies Inc.
Her departure will leave a void in two south Lee economic development organizations. Ross is president and CEO of the Bonita Springs Area Chamber of Commerce and executive director of the Bonita Springs Estero Economic Development Council.
Bonita Springs' chamber acts as a business incubator for the city and surrounding areas. According to the chamber, it has a roster of more than 1,000 members and holds hundreds of networking events, ribbon cuttings, roundtables and business luncheons each year.
The Bonita Springs chamber has a committee that will conduct a nationwide search for Ross' replacement, said Bob Rosier, the chamber's chairman.
Ross has given enough notice 60 days to ensure the committee can find the right candidate, Rosier said.
"This is a fairly large job to take over," he said.
Whatever Ross touched turned into success, he said.
"She's a very unique individual and has done an awful lot for our community and our region," Rosier said.
Ross joined the Bonita Springs chamber in 2009, when all of Southwest Florida was in the throes of the most recent recession.
Under her leadership, the chamber became the public face of the business community at city workshops and meetings. The chamber lobbied on behalf of what Ross argued were business-friendly local and state policies.
In 2012, Ross opposed a one-year building moratorium in east Bonita Springs, on the density restricted groundwater resource area known as the DRGR.
She called the council's decision to enact the moratorium "disappointing."
"It sends an anti-development message to those that may have been looking at Bonita Springs for expansion," Ross said at the time.
Beginning late last year, when Lee County's public school district was searching for a place to build the city's first high school, Ross often spoke in favor of the project before the Bonita Springs City Council.
She tried to drum up support at chamber gatherings to counter pushback from opponents of proposed high school sites.
Bonita Springs Mayor Peter Simmons said he learned Tuesday of Ross' departure and had yet to speak with her.
Simmons said he looked forward to "work closely" with Ross' replacement.
"It sounds cliche, but where God closes one window, he opens a door," Simmons said.
Simmons' predecessor, Ben Nelson, became Bonita Springs mayor in 2008, a year before Ross started leading the chamber.
"We ended up just having a great professional relationship," Nelson said. "She just had a real passion for economic development and the community."
Nelson said Ross wrote him an email about her departure either Monday or Tuesday.
He knew Ross was interviewing for the position because she had used him as a reference, Nelson said.
"People move on sometimes," he said. "You can only advance so much in one particular organization."
The chamber's "biggest problem," Nelson said, will be sifting through all the applicants wanting to take over for Ross.
"Who wouldn't want to be in this market down here?" he said. "A lot people are going to want to come to Southwest Florida."
Hertz World Headquarters office in Estero, Florida. (Handout photo)
By Laura Layden of the Naples Daily News
Hertz reported wider than expected losses in the first quarter, driven in part by weaker rental car pricing in the U.S.
On Monday, the rental car giant, headquartered in Estero, reported a loss of $51 million, or 12 cents a share. That compared to losses of $70 million, or 15 cents a share, a year ago.
Quarterly results didn't come close to Wall Street's expectations. On average, analysts expected a loss of 1 cent a share, according to Yahoo Finance.
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. reported the results after the market closed on Monday. After closing 24 cents lower, shares trended up in after market trading.
In the quarter, total revenue fell 6 percent year over year to $2.3 billion.
The company's worldwide car rental revenues declined by 6 percent over the year to $1.8 billion. Excluding the negative impact of weaker foreign currency, revenues would have fallen by 5 percent.
Worldwide revenue per available car day declined 2 percent, mostly due to a 3.3 percent drop in the U.S. car rental segment tied to weak industry pricing. U.S. car rental revenues totaled $1.4 billion in the quarter, down 8 percent from a year ago. The results were primarily driven by a 10 percent decline in pricing, partially offset by more business days this year.
"During the first quarter, we followed through on our plans to bring fleet levels in line with expected demand in the U.S. market and saw a significant improvement in our fleet efficiency as a result. Though industry pricing decreased more than we anticipated, we mitigated the impact on our performance by continuing to lower our costs, which resulted in a 5 percent reduction in unit cost in our worldwide rental car business in the quarter," said John Tague, president and CEO, in a statement.
The company, he said, is encouraged by recent pricing trends as it moves into its peak season and by rising customer satisfaction across its Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty brands.
"The improvement was led by the Hertz brand, which reached a record for customer satisfaction on a worldwide basis," he said.
The company continues to trim costs, achieving worldwide cost savings of about $70 million in the first quarter.
Unit costs for the company's worldwide rental car business declined by 5 percent in the quarter over the year, reflecting lower operating and selling, general and administrative expenses per transaction day as a result of its margin improvement plan.
Hertz expects its cost savings to accelerate in the second half of the year and is on track to achieve its previously announced goal of $350 million in savings this year.
In the company's worldwide equipment rental business, revenues declined by 8 percent over the year to $328 million. The drop was attributed to continued weakness in the upstream oil and gas markets and the sale of the company's equipment rental operations in France and Spain late last year. Without those factors, revenues would have increased 12 percent due to new accounts. Hertz remains on track to spin off this part of its business by mid-2016.
In its other operations, including its Donlen leasing operations, Hertz reported a 1 percent increase in revenues for the first quarter.
The company expects adjusted earnings in the range of 95 cents to $1.10 a share this year.
Shares closed at $8.76 on Monday, down 24 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Hertz plans a webcast on its financial results on Tuesday at 8 a.m.
Pan-Florida Challenge Volunteer Kimberly Alvord packs food in to kindergartner Caleb Gaines' backpack at Avalon Elementary School on Friday, May 6, 2016. Pan-Florida Challenge Power Packs program gives food to kids on Friday to last them through the weekend. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff)
Brent Batten Columnist SHARE Pan-Florida Challenge Volunteers prepare power pack food for the coming week at Avalon Elementary School on Friday, May 6, 2016. Pan-Florida Challenge Power Packs program gives food to kids on Friday to last them through the weekend. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) Pan-Florida Challenge Volunteers Kimberly Alvord, right, and Ruediger Seltmann pack food in to the backpacks of first-graders Courtney Beltran, left, and Jesus Barajos at Avalon Elementary School on Friday, May 6, 2016. Pan-Florida Challenge Power Packs program gives food to kids on Friday to last them through the weekend. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) First-grader Alfonso Aguilera receives food in his backpack at Avalon Elementary School on Friday, May 6, 2016. Pan-Florida Challenge Power Packs program gives food to kids on Friday to last them through the weekend. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) Pan-Florida Challenge Volunteers prepare power pack food for the coming week at Avalon Elementary School on Friday, May 6, 2016. Pan-Florida Challenge Power Packs program gives food to kids on Friday to last them through the weekend. (Dorothy Edwards/Staff)
At 1:50 every Friday afternoon a call goes out over the Avalon Elementary School intercom, "Power Pack kids report to the hallway."
Dozens of children, their backpacks open and strapped across their chests, line up for food that will sustain them and their families for the weekend.
The scene is repeated at more than 20 other schools and youth centers stretching from Collier County to Palm Beach.
It is the work of the Pan-Florida Challenge for Hungry Kids, a group of volunteers who raise money through a charity bicycle ride that traverses the state from Naples to the East Coast.
At school, children from homes where food is scarce get free meals through the school lunch program. But on the weekends, those meals aren't available.
Come Monday morning, they rush to the cafeteria for breakfast. "Can you imagine not eating for 68 hours? How do little brains function on no calories?" asks Maura Plante, the executive director and sole paid employee of the Pan-Florida Challenge. "They don't," she said, answering her own question. "So we feed them. It's that simple."
Ed Mullen, a part-time Naples resident with roots in Boston, came up with the idea for the Pan-Florida Challenge a few years ago. "I heard how many elementary school kids had empty refrigerators. I just became obsessed with doing something about that problem," he said.
Feeding America, a network of food banks, annually puts out a map showing the degree of food insecurity in every community in the country. The latest version, released last week, shows some degree of food insecurity in every county nationwide.
Even in prosperous places like Collier and Lee counties, about 12 percent of households are wanting for food, according to the Feeding America research. The need gives rise to multiple efforts, including the Naples Daily News' Satisfy the Hunger campaign, which runs through June 3.
Mullen was familiar with the Pan Massachusetts Challenge, an annual bike ride that raises millions for cancer research. He contacted the organizers and got permission to use their model to tackle hunger here.
This year, the annual ride's second, attracted 110 riders who pledged money themselves and got friends to add to the amount. Sponsors cover the costs of supporting the 177-mile ride and all of the pledges go to the program. Plante expects the 2016 ride to bring in more than $350,000 once all the pledges are collected.
At present, the program is serving about 1,100 kids in five counties. The goal is to expand to 2,500 kids, including an outreach to Haiti, and 1 million meals handed out in the next school year.
Plante purchases food in bulk from a food bank in Tennessee. After it's shipped here, the group Meals of Hope, which has expertise in packing food for distribution to the hungry, creates the Power Packs, an assortment of nutritious items including canned fruit, cereal, peanut butter and entrees such as chili and pasta.
There are four variations of the Power Pack so the kids aren't eating the same thing every week.
When a child is lacking food, others in the house are probably lacking food too, so Meals of Hope volunteers add the packaged dinners the group is known for, macaroni, rice and beans and other staples, to give each child a total of 13 meals to take home on Friday.
Plante counts dozens of other companies and community groups as partners in the Pan Florida Challenge.
Not the least of them is the school system. School administrators recommend families who might benefit from the meals and work out the logistics of distributing the packs on Friday. Volunteers pass it out, minimizing school staff time and disruption.
Natalie Hemmit, a counselor at Avalon Elementary, says there's little stigma attached to being a Power Pack kid. They show up smiling with their backpacks open. "For the majority of students, they don't mind because it's food. They need to eat," she said.
Plante enjoys the trips the younger grades. "The kindergartners and first graders are the best huggers. That's the best feedback," she said.
Geronimo Ortiz is a 35-year-old single father of three daughters, two of them in elementary school in Collier County. He makes about $400 a week working construction and the Power Packs help his family make ends meet. "We pay the bills, power, rent. We don't do any cable TV or things we don't need, and then we buy food. Food is very expensive right now," he said.
"It helps a lot," he said. "And if it's helping me, it's helping a lot of other people."
Kimberly Alvord is a volunteer who rides for the cause and helps with the weekly distribution. A Realtor in Naples, she said she sees expensive homes every day, but knows hunger exists in Collier County. Working for a charity close to home is satisfying, she said. "This is right here where you can see it. It just touches you giving the kids their backpacks," she said.
Plante got involved in feeding children after working with the homeless in Palm Beach County. There, she began to understand that childhood hunger goes largely unrecognized. "The parents don't tell," she said. "You have to be their voice.
"When people find out, they want to know, 'What can I do?' You can volunteer. You can fund a rider. We can solve this problem. This is solvable."
(Connect with Brent Batten at brent.batten@naplesnewscom, on Twitter@NDN_BrentBatten and at facebook.com/ndnbrentbatten)
Chef John Hart, left, gives directions to a server doing the soft opening of his Organically Twisted on April 20 in Marquesa Plaza on the southeast corner of Livingston and Pine Ridge roads. Tim Aten/Staff
Tim Aten In The Know SHARE Organically Twisted restaurant opened May 2, 2016, in Marquesa Plaza on the southeast corner of Livingston and Pine Ridge roads. (Tim Aten/Staff) Organically Twisted restaurant, pictured during its soft opening April 20, opened May 2, 2016, in Marquesa Plaza on the southeast corner of Livingston and Pine Ridge roads. (Tim Aten/Staff) Szechuan spouted tofu and green bean roll from Organically Twisted.
Chef John Hart's personal vision has come to life as he begins the second chapter of his Organically Twisted food business.
After taking his culinary creations and positive energy to the people via his food truck since December 2013, the people can now come to him at his new brick-and-mortar eatery. Hart launched the Organically Twisted restaurant on May 2 in Marquesa Plaza, the retail center on the southeast corner of Livingston and Pine Ridge roads.
"I'm so grateful, so blessed and so lucky," Hart said. "Business is going good. Just working crazy hard right now."
Based on a growing fan base for his mobile business during the last two years at area farmers markets, Hart has put down roots to showcase his culinary masterpieces. Organically Twisted has flipped on a bright spot in the nearly 1,700-square-foot former space of Moravela's Pizza next door to Martin Fierro steakhouse.
"In order to keep up with demand and reach more people, I decided it was a natural progression to expand Organically Twisted to a larger and permanent space," Hart said.
Combining more than 20 years of food experience with a passion for organic farming, Hart creates incredible, edible art with organic produce, seafood, spices, nuts, chocolate and other ingredients. Most of his entrees are "rolled or bowled," served in a wrap or a bowl.
But just like a restaurant on wheels, specifics for Organically Twisted are difficult to pin down. The menu and hours are going to be changing.
"We are changing all the time, depending on what products we have," Hart said.
No matter what Hart is serving, you can bet that his creations will be refreshing feasts for both the eyes and taste buds, and nutritionally healthy, as well. Organically Twisted offers fresh, organic specialty foods for grab-and-go meals to either take home or enjoy in the bright new eatery.
On a super soft opening April 20, OT's menu featured at least 10 different items. Although you may not find these particular menu items or prices offered if you go today, this gives you an idea of what to expect.
Starters and specials included:
Guammus plate, $6, a blend of guacamole and hummus served with assorted fresh vegetables.
Truck Salad, $7, fresh greens with assorted vegetables.
Maria salad, $10, tortilla espanol on a bed of greens with roasted bell peppers, tomato and onion topped with a sweet tea puree and toasted pumpkin seeds.
Zucchini and beet balls, $9, fresh raw zucchini noodles placed on top of mixed greens, topped with beet balls with chopped fresh tomato and herbs, finished with a nut cheese.
Kelp noodle bowl, $9, cucumber, carrot and kelp noodles tossed in a sesame-sweet chili-ginger sauce, topped with shredded purple cabbage, watermelon radish and sprouts.
The OT Pincher Cake Salad, $12, crispy crabcake placed on a bed of greens topped with uncured bacon, avocado, tomato, caramelized onion chutney, finished with roasted lemon-garlic aioli.
Organically Twisted sweets included:
Mama's pumpkin bread, $3.
Gluten-free chocolate cupcake with vanilla bean buttercream, $4.
Lemon blueberry bread, $3.
Raw chocolate cup with honey-chia-cashew butter, $3.
To provide a better idea of what Organically Twisted has to offer, the food truck's menu is available online at organicallytwisted.com/menu.
By the way, the opening of the restaurant doesn't mean the food truck will be put on blocks. The truck will still be "rolling and bowling" for lunch at area farmers markets and other local events, especially on the weekends. For instance, the truck will continue to feed fans Fridays at the Collier County Government Center in East Naples.
"As for the truck when it's out, they can view on the website, organicallytwisted.com under locations, which we'll be changing everything," Hart said. "As time goes forward, things will be changing."
The hours of operation for the first phase of the Organically Twisted restaurant at 13040 Livingston Road are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.
"We have four days right now," Hart said. "We'll get that solved and we'll have more things coming as time goes on."
Know more
For the latest in local restaurants coming and going, see Tim Aten's "In the Know" columns archived at naplesnews.com/intheknow, and on Facebook at facebook.com/timaten.intheknow.
Bonita Springs Fire Control & Rescue District meeting on May 9, 2016. (Patrick RIley/Staff)
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By Patrick Riley of the Naples Daily News
The Bonita Springs Fire Control & Rescue District will soon have a substation on Little Hickory Island.
Fire commissioners on Monday unanimously signed off on a 99-year lease at 26105 Hickory Blvd. The 850 square foot space will house the districts long-desired new fire station on the island, near the citys northwestern edges.
Commissioner Patrick McCourt was absent and did not vote.
The two-unit storefront was previously home to a deli and later a business used it for storage, according to the district.
The new fire station will have three firefighters and a rescue truck or small pumper vehicle. Inside, the rental will have a shower, small kitchen and living quarters for the crew stationed there. A nearby dock makes it possible for the district to launch its boat.
Bonita Beach Holding LLC, owns the property, which is near where Hickory Island Boulevard splits off and Estero Boulevard starts. The district would be leasing the space for $1,800 a month for five years, according to a draft lease agreement. Rent would be $1,200 for the office space and $600 for the boat slip.
For each next five-year period, rent rates would be determined by prevailing market rates for like properties within the Big Hickory Marina, the agreement states.
If the district and its landlord are unable to agree on market rates, the lease would automatically renew with a 10 percent hike in rent for both the office and the boat slip.
The only sticking point between the district and the owner is that the landlord wants to automatically increase the rent by 3 percent every year, said Fire Chief Joseph Daigle.
We have not countered at this point, he said. I believe that we can come to an acceptable agreement.
Daigle said he wants to make sure the lease agreement is fair for both sides.
So, you know, 10 years from now if the other leases in that area (are) remaining stagnant, were not overpaying, he said.
The board on Monday decided to move forward with the lease under the condition that the annual rent increase would not exceed the 3 percent annual hike.
If the owner ever decides to sell the property, the district will have the first shot at buying it, Daigle said.
Money for a proposed station on or near Bonita Beach was included in the districts current budget, but staffing the new station will have to wait until the districts new budget goes into effect in October, Daigle said. The amount earmarked for a new station is $175,281.
Though the district may move some current staff around to man the new station, Daigle said they will have to hire additional personnel.
The district has long looked to build a station closer to Bonitas beach communities, arguing that response times to the island are lacking.
The goal is to reach an emergency in less than 6 minutes, 85 percent of the time, according to district officials.
But with the closest current fire station on Mango Drive, just off Bonita Beach Road, response times to the middle of Little Hickory Island stretch to 7 minutes and surpass 16 minutes to the north end of the island, according to the district.
Finding the right place has taken time.
In February, scores of Little Hickory Island residents urged the district not to build a station on a 1.3-acre site at Hickory and McLaughlin boulevards.
Developer RYD International, based in Estero, had offered the property to the district in exchange for permission that would have allowed it to build on the rest of the land it owns there.
Commissioners decided then to search for other options and declined the developers offer.
Mondays opposition was lighter.
Karen Pobanz, who lives nearby the proposed site, said she feels manning the station is only necessary three months of the year for eight hours a day and urged commissioners to make the station just an in-season operation.
I would not want to see this substation cause you to hire extra personnel, she said. Also, if this station is only manned eight hours in the daylight hours, it would stop sirens and flashing lights from interrupting our sleep patterns.
Chairman of the fireboard Steve Lohan, who lives near a fire station himself, tried to address Pobanzs concerns.
We go into neighborhoods and we are good neighbors, he said.
The station, Lohan said, needs to be manned around the clock.
We are not an 8-hour a day business, he said. Accidents happen at night. Heart attacks happen at night.
After years of struggling to find an appropriate site, Lohan said, the current proposal seems like the best fit.
Weve been trying for 15 years to find a location, he said.
SHARE Lance Shearer/Banner Correspondent (4) Biaggio DelBoccio, 13, plays a Chopin nocturne. The Steinway Piano Society Young Artist Piano Competition was held Friday and Saturday in the Tobe Recital Hall at FGCU's Bower School of Music. Judges Mary Seal, from left, Andrew Focks and Rita Jandrich await the next group of contestants. Teddy Landenfeld, 13 of Cape Coral gets a kiss from Doni, his mother, after his recital. Above: Contestants wait at the side of the stage for their turn and applaud their fellow performers. Below: Judges Mary Seal, left, Andrew Focks and Rita Jandrich.
By Lance Shearer, Banner Correspondent
Of course, "young" was the middle name of the event in the hall, the 2016 FGCU/Steinway Piano Society Young Artist Piano Competition, which gave many aspiring local pianists their first chance to play when it mattered, with students from all over Southwest Florida, ranging in age from 6 to 18, plus one precocious 5-year-old. Each player performed two pieces, one from the baroque or classical periods, and one from the romantic or 20th century repertoire.
If you have a desire to hear some well-played piano pieces performed by aspiring young keyboard artists, you can come to the recital this Saturday at FGCU, when just the finalists will play, before medals, and a cash prize in the neighborhood of $800 to the grand prize winner, will be awarded.
As well as the pressure of performing for a panel of judges, the students in the competition were playing on a "grander" piano than they likely have to practice on at home. They performed on FGCU's Steinway Concert D, the largest of the concert grand pianos, an instrument that Chuck Lussenhop, vice president of the Southwest Florida Steinway Piano Society called the "Rolls-Royce of pianos." With a price starting over $160,000, the cost is somewhat comparable, although a quick Google search shows you can't get a Rolls-Royce for under $200,000, unless you're willing to drive a used car.
For the Juniors competition, with a total of 12 middle school age students, four competitors at a time were brought into the hall, and seated on the side of the stage while the judges sat in a booth off on one side of the house. One by one, the contestants were introduced by number only, not divulging their names or that of their teachers. Of course, two of the three judges were from out of the area, in any event.
Each contestant announced the piece he or she was about to play, sat down, paused for a moment to adjust the piano bench or prepare themselves mentally, and launched into the work. Once the music began, no one was admitted into the hall until all the players had finished. The composers of the pieces the pianists and their teachers chose was a Who's Who of classical music's greatest: Mozart, Chopin, Bartok, Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven, Bach, Debussy, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.
The judges had certain criteria they were looking for to rank the contestants.
"Accuracy it all starts with that," said Mary Seal, former president of the Florida State Music Teachers Association and the one local judge.
"Rhythmic integrity, phrasing, articulation, balance, and individual creativity," said Dr. Andrew Focks, a music educator from Cleveland. "It's similar to an actor memorizing a script then they give it their individual delivery."
"Also, stage presence how they present themselves," added Rita Fandrich of Lakeland, a professor emerita of music. "We've heard some wonderful students, and really good playing from all levels."
While some of the students were first timers, others were veterans of years of the competition, starting in the elementary level, advancing and gaining confidence year after year. Piano teacher Ashley Ball, who had three students in the competition, compared notes with fellow teacher Mingshan Kong, who brought 10 young pianists to the two days of recital.
While the students will be notified to come and participate in the recital on Saturday, May 14 if they are finalists, the rankings and overall winner will not be announced until that day. The recital, back at the Tobe Recital Hall, easily identifiable on the FGCU campus by the musical notes prominent on the outside wall, is set for 3 p.m. and expected to run approximately two hours. The event is free, and open to the public.
This year marks the 14th year for the Young Artists Competition, since the Southwest Florida Steinway Piano Society was founded in 1997.
For more information, go to steinwaynaples.com.
Jeff Koterba cartoon for April28 "Trump VEEP"
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Seeking re-election
I'm running for re-election on a positive platform to bring back a sense of community on Marco Island through a less intrusive, more respectful government.
Here's what I want to accomplish:
1. Get back local control of our community. We need fewer government regulations. We should reduce our use of consultants and lawyers who don't understand our community there are plenty of good people right here in Collier County that we can use. We can streamline government services for example, I'd like to see faster review and approval of permits.
2. Create a parking solution for the island. We should re-think enforcement of overnight parking restrictions. Working families deserve relief from unfriendly rules. As for parking hot spots, we can work with businesses to resolve them it's the perfect place for public-private partnership. And let's hold the city to the same rules citizens have to follow. There are clearly double standards for example the city's "no parking" signs are covered up for some selected events, but not for other special events elsewhere on the Island. If we want to encourage special events, we shouldn't be handing out parking tickets to those who attend.
3. Get the water-sewer utility in better balance. We must implement a plan to reduce utility rates and debt (which go hand in hand). Our utility debt per household is among the highest in Florida, as are our rates. I want to stop using expensive consultants to do endless rate reviews all of which in the past called for increased single-family home rates. We don't need a rate review. We need a professional review of the utility's efficiency. The utility budget dwarfs the rest of the city government budget, but it hasn't been studied by experts for years. And let's look at creative options. Maybe we should sell the utility. Maybe we should buy water from the county. We need to examine alternatives openly, with open minds.
4. Build a strong relationship with Collier County. Right now, the relationship is tense and unproductive. It doesn't have to be that way. The county commissioners can help us immensely. We deserve our share of county funds. We need to get our ambulance certificate and then work hard with the county so that we don't have to use it. The county should continue to provide and fund our ambulance service, including more service if we need it, because we will pay for it through our county taxes anyway. And we ought to turn Goodland Road over to the county. It's a huge headache, we're letting down the citizens of Goodland, and it will cost us a lot of money to fix this road five miles outside the city's boundaries
5. Install a collegial City Council. We need to make it so that people want to run for council. We can start by making sure the community can discuss important matters in a timely, relevant way in city council meetings. We should bring key actions to the forefront for discussion, rather than keeping them buried inside city staff reports. Council needs to toss out its overly complicated rules of procedure that stifle discussion, discourage action, and often silence minority opinion.
6. Support a well-trained, empowered city staff. We could benefit from focusing on priorities such as the cleanliness of our beaches and the protection of our environment. I'd like to see more frequent updates of our progress against the budget. Finally, city staff should be empowered to act within city code. Too many routine items are brought to city council, which wastes time, frustrates citizens and demeans the staff.
I ask your support in helping to restore the Marco Island paradise that led so many of us to move here.
Larry Honig
Marco Island
Food drive
It's that time again to remind residents when they get that Publix bag mailed by the U.S. Postal Service to fill it with nonperishable foods like peanut butter, tuna, canned vegetables and fruits for your community.
The National Association of Letter Carriers and Collier Harvest are partnering again for the 24th year to participate in the nation's largest food drive.
We are one of 1,900 towns that join together to make a difference for the less fortunate. Here in Collier, it's paramount. It historically has filled a gap for the quiet summers when school isn't in session to help with state-funded meals, and it provides multiple distributions through certified agencies that all receive allotments through the summer into the fall.
Recently, hunger awareness has been in the Naples Daily News. It's an ongoing challenge in America and right here in Naples. Please consider donating. It's simple just leave a bag of unopened nonperishables next to your mailbox anytime from now to May 14 or drop them at your local post office branch.
If you would like to help May 14 at the Collier Harvest warehouse to process this food as our mail carriers bring it in, call 239-455FOOD or go to our website collierharvest.org we can always use packers. It's a fun day and hard work but so rewarding. There is a local band, snacks and good fellowship with locals helping their town.
Michelle Paradis
Naples Collier Harvest trustee
SHARE Florida SouthWestern State College
By Thyrie Bland, The News-Press
Florida SouthWestern State College has prepared a criminal case against a student whose alleged post on a social media app caused FSW to shut down its Naples campus April. 5.
Jimmy Saint-Hilaire, 20, is accused of posting a gun, bullets and a threatening message on Snapchat, a mobile app that allows users to post messages, pictures and videos, according to FSW Police Department reports.
FSW has forwarded the case to the state attorney's office for review. The News-Press obtained the reports through a public records request.
"The ball is in their court," FSW spokeswoman Teresa Morgenstern said.
The News-Press contacted the state attorney's office about the status of the case. As of this morning, the office had not returned the News-Press' call.
The FSW Police Department became aware of the Snapchat post after another student walked into the campus public safety office and reported Saint-Hilaire had posted a "disturbing message."
The post read:
"Done with (expletive) people who think they can disrespect me even in the SLIGHTEST"
"Soon BOTH of you (racial epithet) and (expletive) are gonna be VERY AFRAID of me"
"And that's word, Im gonna FEED off your fear"
"This is not a (expletive) game, boy"
The last post included a picture of a handgun and bullets. "These (racial epithet) think im playin too"
The FSW police contacted the Collier County Sheriff' Office after seeing the messages and asked for help in trying to find Saint-Hilaire. Officers checked Saint-Hilaire's home, but he was not there.
About 30 Collier County deputies went to the FSW campus. The school was shut down as officers conducted "a room to room search of campus," according to the FSW police reports.
Saint-Hilaire was found in the school's library. He was taken to a sheriff's office substation for questioning.
Saint-Hilaire had his jaws clenched and was making a growling noise when an officer walked into a room to interview him, according to the reports.
"I asked Jimmy what the intent of his message was, and Jimmy stated that he wanted to be the alpha male," the reports states. "Jimmy stated that he wants to be the big man, and his message did that for him."
An officer asked Saint-Hilaire if he owned the gun that was posted on Snapchat. Saint-Hilaire told the officer that the gun belonged to a friend, and he does not own a firearm, according to the report.
"I asked Jimmy if he understood the fear that he created on campus with his message, and Jimmy stated he did understand and was just going to go with the flow," according to the report. "Jimmy's demeanor was very unconcerning, and he constantly smiled throughout the interview."
Myra Janco Daniels poses for a portrait in her Naples home on Sept. 4, 2014. (Carolina Hidalgo/Staff)
SHARE In this file photo, Myra Janco Daniels poses for a portrait in her Naples home on Sept. 4, 2014. (Carolina Hidalgo/Staff)
By Thyrie Bland, The News-Press
A longtime supporter of the arts in Southwest Florida is giving WGCU Public Media a $3 million gift the largest donation in the station's history.
The donor is Myra Daniels, founder of The Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Naples. The facility now is called ArtisNaples.
The WGCU TV/FM Broadcast Building will be renamed in honor of Daniels. WGCU is planning to have a ceremony June 15 to formally announce the donation and to unveil the building's new name.
"I think this is a very worthwhile project that needs a boost, and I am able to do it," Daniels said. "You see I have one philosophy of life, and that is that every private citizen has a public responsibility to give."
Daniels' gift tops a record-setting gift that the station announced April 13. The amount of that gift has not been revealed at the request of the donors' family. Port Charlotte husband and wife Patrick and Rosalie LaSala, both of whom are deceased, were the donors.
The station also announced at the April 13 news conference a $260,000 gift from the Elizabeth B. McGraw Foundation. It was the second-largest gift in WGCU history when it was announced.
WGCU is a public radio and television broadcaster. The station is located on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus.
The FGCU board voted 10 to 0 Tuesday in favor of changing the name on the WGCU building to honor Daniels. A Florida Board of Governors' regulation requires university boards to sign off before facilities on their campuses are named after people, corporations or other entities.
"Anyone who knows Myra knows that she is just an unwavering supporter of the arts," FGCU President Wilson Bradshaw said. "This is very consistent with what she values, and obviously, she thought we were an appropriate vehicle for her to make that very generous gift."
Daniels' gift is going toward WGCU's Fund Our Future initiative and will be used to support TV programming. The goal of the campaign is to raise $30 million by 2025.
So far, including Daniels' gift, WGCU has raised about $8.5 million, WGCU General Manager Rick Johnson said.
"Yes, it has been quite a couple of months," he said. "I must say. It really is an extraordinary and extraordinarily generous gift that Myra has given us. We are so pleased to be able to honor not only what she is doing for WGCU but what she has done for Southwest Florida in terms of the arts."
Daniels said she hopes as a result of her donation others will consider supporting WGCU.
"It's a heritage that we can leave to our community that nothing else can supply," she said. "Nothing can supply all of this from the news to dance to music from all over the world, from the best plays to the best musicals."
Delegation of powers
The FGCU board also voted 10-0 Tuesday, approving a committee's recommendations concerning the powers delegated to Bradshaw.
The committee was formed after Bradshaw was criticized for giving two administrators contracts that automatically renew if they receive good performance reviews.
The document the FGCU board approved of Tuesday is modeled after the powers that are delegated to the president at the University of Florida.
Here are some of the changes that will take place as a result of the board's vote:
The powers delegated to the president will be reviewed every three years.
The power to decide whether FGCU starts any new Division-I sports programs, such as football, rests with the board now and not the president.
The board must approve before FGCU can give anyone an honorary degree.
"There can be political statements made through honorary degrees that not everybody agrees with," FGCU board member Christian Spilker said. "I think it warrants coming to the board to have that discussion."
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Collier County's utility has been providing fluoride since 1985 in its water system, which now has 156,100 customers, so county commissioners made the right decision Tuesday not to change that.
Commissioners Tim Nance, Penny Taylor and Donna Fiala favored keeping it. Commissioner Tom Henning wanted it removed. Commissioner Georgia Hiller voted in the 4-1 majority because she wants it decided in a November ballot question.
Even without a referendum, it can be an issue in the election. Three or four of the five commission faces could change by November. Voters can hear from candidates this summer where they stand, using it as a factor in casting ballots.
Taylor is two years into her term. The other four commissioners have served four to eight years. To change a system that's been in place this many years, on their way out the door, would have been a mistake.
For starters, a newly constituted commission simply could have reversed them. The Pinellas County Commission (St. Petersburg) voted 4-3 to stop fluoridating water; a year later, it was reversed 6-1.
Pro and con
Tuesday's commission meeting was a point-counterpart on health effects of fluoride.
* Freedom of choice Point: A government shouldn't decide which medications anyone receives, including fluoride in water. Counterpoint: Beneficiaries are children, many from lower-income families, and adults have the means of choosing to ingest tap or fluoride-free water.
* Nature Point: Fluoride is a byproduct of the phosphate industry and is thus toxic and unsafe. Counterpoint: Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral, the 13th most abundant on earth, and is in most everything.
* Science Point: Fluoride leads to maladies from lower IQ and neurological ills to bone weakness. Counterpoint: Fluoride has been recognized as dentally beneficial since 1945, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls it one of the top 10 medical advances of the 20th Century. Speakers on each side of the issue acknowledged anyone can find studies or science to back their point of view.
* Warning label Point: Fluoride is dangerous, as evidenced by the warning label on toothpaste that says if more than what's used for brushing is swallowed, "get medical help or contact a poison control center right away." Counterpoint: Nobody has died from eating toothpaste; it would take a child eating two tubes to create a danger; he or she would regurgitate by then.
Turnout
Healthy debate is a plus and it's admirable so many citizens and experts participated Tuesday. Nearly 80 people registered to speak, an unheard of number when it comes to public participation at government meetings in Collier.
Among them were Dr. Johnny Johnson, a pediatric dentist who was active in reinstating fluoride in Pinellas; Dr. Scott Tomar from the University of Florida College of Dentistry, which operates a vital dental clinic east of Naples; and Dr. Paul Connett of the Fluoride Action Network, which campaigns to eliminate it in public supplies.
Also notable were remarks by Dr. Allen Weiss, CEO of NCH Healthcare System, who pointed out that dentists support fluoridation though they would have every financial incentive to want it eliminated to create a greater need for their services.
Much of the public comment was national in scope, with little focused on experiences in Collier. Tomar, however, related experiences of UF's clinic and dental screening of Collier children by third grade, showing two-thirds have tooth decay.
Henning focused on that, comparing communities that have fluoridated water to statistics on tooth decay problems at individual Collier schools. Nearly 53,000 customers on Naples' system, 15,400 on the one serving Golden Gate and 26,800 in Immokalee also receive fluoride. Systems in Marco Island and Ave Maria don't.
His conclusion, however, ignored variables such as students changing schools; those who may have arrived recently from another region; those residing in 40,000 households on private wells in Collier or who may not even be drinking tap water, or families scrimping on dental hygiene, as other commissioners noted.
In the end, the commission majority got this right.
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Thomas Hayes, Naples
A dud
In June 2011, Kamela Patton was appointed Collier County schools superintendent.
At that time, Collier County had three high schools nationally rated among the top 5 percent performing high schools: Naples High School, Barron Collier High School and Gulf Coast High School. During her tenure as superintendent, Patton has failed to add any other high schools to this level.
Recently, U.S. News & World Report released its 2016 high school rankings; all three schools dropped in the rankings.
Barron Collier dropped from 545 in 2015 to 608 in 2016, Naples High School plunged from 883 in 2015 to an astonishing 1,846 in 2016 and Gulf Coast High School which was ranked 953 in 2015 failed to even make the list.
In July 2015, former executive of the Greater Naples chamber, Mike Reagen, in a guest commentary in this newspaper bragged about the decision to send Patton, their "secret weapon," to a Hertz center to assist employees in deciding whether to relocate to South Florida.
Employees learned that three of our high schools were ranked in the top 1,000 U.S. schools. Reagan commented that "she rocked 'em" and wrote of how Patton impressed the Hertz employees.
It is evident that while working behind closed doors to bring unwanted and unwarranted programs to our schools such as the Blue Zones and engaging in public relations exercises, the superintendent has taken her eye off the most important part of her job; ensuring excellence in education for Collier County children.
Kudos to your headline writers for trying to spin the 2016 rankings story however as John Adams once said facts are stubborn things and the secret weapon has turned out to be a dud.
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Anne Hartley, Naples
Common ground
Keith Flaugh leads the Florida Citizens' Alliance (FLCA), the political group that helped elect Collier School Board members Erika Donalds and Kelly Lichter.
The FLCA sponsors forums for School Board candidates. Only candidates aligned with FLCA attended the first forum. This is because these events are strategically designed to identify candidates who share the FLCA's ideology. Few questions at that forum focused on student education. Most were about the candidates' political and personal opinions.
FLCA members' most frequent public criticism of current senior board members continues to be that they are not qualified to make decisions because they don't have children in public schools.
Interestingly, candidates Louise Penta and John Brunner don't have children in Collier's public schools, yet this doesn't bother FLCA associates.
Flaugh's suggestion that charter schools are superior reflects his political bias, a bias that prevents him from honoring the hard work of teachers district-wide. In our community, we celebrate charter school successes, as we also celebrate the successes of non-charter schools.
Flaugh criticized district leaders for not mentioning the drop in U.S. News rankings. Why didn't he or his representatives on the board congratulate the district on achieving an A school grade?
The district administration hasn't stopped working on the challenges of educating our diverse population. Dozens of community leaders are stepping up to help them achieve this task. Simultaneously, dozens in FLCA are working against educators to secure control of district operations for members of their special interest group.
Flaugh wrote, "blind trust is never a good thing." On that point alone, we agree. We need to vote for candidates on Aug. 30 who will listen to and represent all Collier families.
Dick Batchelor is Co-Chairman of Consumers for Smart Solar
SHARE Jim Kallinger is Co-Chairman of Consumers for Smart Solar
By Jim Kallinger And Dick Batchelor, Co-chairmen Consumers for Smart Solar
Amendment 1 was put on the 2016 ballot with more than a million signatures gathered in just five months, and it enjoys the support of 73 percent of Florida voters with strong support from every demographic, geographic and political subgroup of voters.
The reason for this strong support is clear. Amendment 1 ensures that Floridians will always have the right to own their own solar equipment and generate their own electricity. It also makes sure that solar has to play by the same consumer protection rules as other energy sources. And, because it puts these rights and protections into Florida's constitution, neither policy-makers nor special interest groups will be able to weaken them in the future.
Further, we believe that Amendment 1 will create the economic certainty necessary to encourage Floridians considering solar to proceed with that investment, knowing that their rights are protected in our Constitution, and that the health, safety and welfare of the public will be protected for both solar and non-solar customers. Under Amendment 1, electricity consumers are treated equally regardless of whether or not they choose to use solar energy.
While Florida is first in solar generation among states without mandatory renewable portfolio standards, there is still more that can be done. Florida should continue to encourage both utilities and individual consumers to invest in solar power generation, but we need to do that in a way that protects consumers whether they choose solar or not.
In looking at ways to increase the amount of our energy that comes from the sun, it is essential that we safeguard consumers particularly our seniors with common-sense consumer protection rules that benefit every consumer, which we have all come to expect.
Solar is an exciting opportunity and an emerging industry, and while most people in this business are well-intentioned, like any emerging industry, some are undercapitalized or unscrupulous. In Arizona and other states (including Florida) some solar companies have gone bankrupt and many consumers have been scammed.
That is why it is so important for government to retain its ability to protect consumers.
This is not a hypothetical concern. Recently, there was an article out of Arizona that illustrated the need for Amendment 1. In this case, a third-party solar company from outside the state had come in, sold third-party leases to customers, and is now filing bankruptcy and leaving more than 750 Arizonans trapped in contracts with a company that apparently lacks the financial strength to meet its obligations to its customers and creditors.
When you have a moment, just Google "Arizona Solar Bankruptcy" and read about this case, and Google "Arizona Solar Fraud" for articles about other consumer nightmares. We don't want solar to get a black eye. We want it done right.
To protect Florida energy customers, while also safeguarding those customers that do choose solar, we must ensure everyone is on equal ground, playing by the same consumer protection rules as other energy sources. Read Amendment 1 and you will see that it was not written to benefit any one industry. It is written to benefit consumers.
In fact, Amendment 1 doesn't preclude any other approach to solar energy in Florida.
It merely makes certain that in this ever-changing world of solar, individual citizens will always have the right to generate their own electricity from their own solar equipment. It also allows state and local governments to continue their current role of ensuring safe and reliable energy, while making sure that consumers are dealt with fairly by companies that provide energy services.
The bottom line is Amendment 1 is good for the environment, it is good for consumers and it is good for Florida.
Get the facts today at www.SmartSolarFL.org.
Amitay Tadmor, a freshman at Gulfcoast High School, is the first Boy Scout in Collier County to earn the Dr. Bernard Harris Supernova Award in Scouting. STEM mentor and Scouting volunteer, Josh Maxwell, presented the Supernova award to Amitay at the May 10th Collier County Commission meeting. The presentation is a partnership between the Commission and Southwest Florida Council to honor youth who pursue the STEM based Supernova Award within Scouting.
The Supernova award is an opportunity a scout can pursue in addition to the well known merit badge and advancement programs. To earn the award, Amitay spent 18 months working with his mentor, Mr. Maxwell. He was required to earn the scholarship merit badge and four other STEM based merit badges. He competed in a STEM competition and built a catapult, learning engineering and physics along the way. He even researched a career field in video game design and reported his findings. One project involved building a solar boat and racing it against his peers. When asked why a scout would pursue this award, he stated The Supernova is a great way to lay the groundwork for a career and is fun too!
Mr. Tadmor is well on his way to earning the coveted Eagle Scout rank as well. Senior Patrol Leader of Troop 951, Amitay is the leader of a youth led troop chartered by St. Agnes Catholic Church. He used his new found connections in engineering to enlist the help needed to build custom hexagon park benches for a local United Way partner agency. Mr. Maxwell, an Eagle Scout himself from Naples stated, I was very impressed with Amitays determination and focus in pursuing the Supernova Award.
The Southwest Florida Council serves 20,000 youth in seven counties and is a United Way partner agency. The mission of the council is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law. If you are interested in finding out more about Scouting opportunities, contact James Giles, District Executive at 239-207-5366.
The Partnership for Philanthropic Planning (PPP) of Lee County will present The Family Culture of Philanthropy at the Thursday, May 26 meeting. David Lucas of the Bonita Bay Group, will be the guest speaker. The event is sponsored by The Cape Coral Community Foundation.
In 1984, after the death of his father-in-law, Lucas became Chairman of the Board of Bonita Bay Properties. In the 30 plus years since, the Bonita Bay Group developed more than 13,000 acres of land to accommodate more than 12,000 residences in seven communities throughout Southwest Florida.
Although he has given back to the community for decades, Lucas has more recently focused his attention on philanthropy, estimating he has donated "well into eight figures" for various causes including Florida Gulf Coast University and Canterbury School.
Lucas will share how he got started in philanthropy, personally and professionally, his personal philosophy on giving and his criteria for giving. He will discuss what views and practices have influenced his familys philanthropy and how his family foundation is structured. He will also share tips for incorporating giving into your employee culture.
The meeting will be held at Blue Coyote Business & Social Club, 9854 Caloosa Yacht and Racquet Club Drive, Fort Myers from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m., lunch and program begin at noon. The event is free to members. The cost for non-members is $30.00 and includes lunch. Reservation deadline is Monday, May 23. To RSVP go to www.ppplee.org.
The Partnership for Philanthropic Planning provides programs presented by expert speakers, symposiums, networking and guidance to professionals involved in all aspects of charitable giving. PPP members are committed to better serving their donors and clients by helping them to make charitable gifts that are well planned both financially and philanthropically. The Partnership strives to engage all constituents in the charitable gift planning process: planned giving and major gifts professionals, nonprofit managers and trustees, financial and estate planners, trust managers and administrators. For more information go to www.ppplee.org or call 239- 850-0040.
The Military Committee, NATOs highest Military Authority, will meet in Chiefs of Defence (CHODs) Session on 18 May 2016, at the NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium. General Petr Pavel, Chairman of the Military Committee, will preside over the meeting. The Chiefs of Defence will discuss long term adaptation, NATOs strengthened defence and deterrence posture and the implementation of the Readiness Action Plan. They will also review the way forward for the RESOLUTE SUPPORT Mission in Afghanistan and meet with their Interoperability Platform counterparts as well as with Georgia and Ukraine.
In their first session, the Chiefs of Defence will discuss and provide advice on the deterrence and defence related work ahead of the Foreign and Defence Ministers meetings. During the RESOLUTE SUPPORT session Chiefs of Defence will be briefed on the current status of the Mission and security situation on the ground.
The afternoon sessions will centre on Partnerships. During the meeting with the Interoperability Platform Partner Nations, the Chiefs of Defence will deliberate on ways to further enhance interoperability and the elements required to project stability.
The meeting with Georgia will focus on continued defence reform progress and how to develop the already close cooperation between NATO and Georgia. The session with Ukraine will provide an opportunity for an update on the security situation in and around Ukraine and assess the progress of the security and defence sector reforms.
General Petr Pavel will be supported in each session by General Curtis Scaparrotti (Supreme Allied Commander Europe, SACEUR) and General Denis Mercier (Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, SACT).
The Military Committee meets twice a year at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, at the level of Chiefs of Defence to discuss NATO operations and missions and provide the North Atlantic Council with consensus-based military advice on how the Alliance can best meet global security challenges, and once a year they meet in an Allied member country. On a day-to-day basis, their work is carried out by permanent Military Representatives at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.
Media Opportunities
Wednesday 18 May 2016
07:30-07:45 Media Pool pick up in the NATO Press Area
08:00-08:10 175th Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence Session Public Opening remarks by General Petr Pavel, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
18:30-19:00 Joint Press Conference in the Luns Theatre with General Petr Pavel, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee (CMC), General Curtis Scaparrotti, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR) and General Denis Mercier, Supreme Allied Commander, Transformation (SACT)
Imagery
Photos and video of all opening sessions will be available online at www.nato.int/ims shortly after each meeting. The Joint Press Conference will be made available on the NATO website after the event, on request by broadcasters through EBU and after the event by contacting content@natochannel.tv
Accreditation
Media representatives holding a valid 2016 NATO Media pass will have access as usual to the NATO HQ. Media representatives not in possession of a 2016 NATO Media pass and wishing to attend the media opportunities available are invited to contact the NATO IMS Public Affairs Office via email or fax (steenson.elizabeth@hq.nato.int , fax number + 32 2 707 5713) with a completed accreditation form no later than 1700 on 12 May 2016
Media passes will not be mailed to applicants; they must be collected in person upon presentation of an ID card or passport and a valid national press pass (or accreditation letter from a recognized media organization). Media representatives will be given their accreditation at the Main Entrance of NATO Headquarters. Passes must be worn visibly at all times, and security personnel may ask to see another form of ID at any time. Media representatives are informed that security personnel will examine and may test equipment and personal effects carried onto the site and are advised to arrive with sufficient lead time to clear security checks.
Enquiries
Points of contact for the Chairman of the Military Committee:
Dr Eva Svobodova, Public Affairs and Strategic Communications Advisor to the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee and NATO International Military Staff
Tel: + 32 2 707 59 83
E-Mail: svobodova.eva@hq.nato.int
General press arrangements:
Ms. Elizabeth Steenson, Public Affairs Officer
Tel: +32 2 707 54 22
E-Mail: steenson.elizabeth@hq.nato.int
Dangers of air pollution
How will the "Smog Free Project" help?
(NaturalNews) A fantastic new invention by Dutch engineers might hold the key to reducing air pollution, as reported by AnonHQ.com. Dan Roosegaarde is a Dutch designer who has been working on "The Smog Free Project" which is an attempt at reducing air pollution by building the world's largest smog vacuum cleaner.The Smog Free Tower uses patented technology to produce completely smog-free areas of public space, as stated on the Studio Roosegaarde website. The aim of the project is that it will not only be a great local solution to problems with air quality but also become a more widespread technology if the project gains cooperation and support from governments, NGOs and the clean-tech industry.There is a well-known link between air pollution and respiratory problems like asthma , as reported by NaturalHealthAdvisory.com. Studies have found that children living near a rail yard that produces a lot of air-polluting particles and dust are 41% more likely to have markers of compromised lung function including chronic coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath.Rates of lung cancer and stroke are higher in people who have been exposed to high levels of air pollution and, according to, a new study by scientists at the New York University Langone Medical Center has found that there is even a link between air pollution and heart disease. The findings reveal that the minute chemical particles that most people inhale on a day-to-day basis can actually contribute to a higher risk of early death.Air pollution doesn't just affect the health of smokers or those already suffering with a respiratory condition over time, it can affect healthy adults and children as well, negatively impacting the lungs. But this latest report suggests that even a slight increase in the levels of pollutants in the air can increase the overall risk of death by as much as 10%.The lead scientist in the study, George Thurston, said that the findings "add to a growing body of evidence that particulate matter is really harmful to health, increasing overall mortality, mostly deaths from cardiovascular disease, as well as deaths from respiratory disease in nonsmokers. Our study is particularly notable because all the data used in our analysis comes from government and independently held sources."Meanwhile the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has been criticized for "soft pedaling" on certain industrial chemicals that should actually be of major concern, causing air pollution and many unwanted impacts on public health.According to AnonHQ.com, funding for the project first came from the fundraiser site Kickstarter , and the first purifier was placed in Rotterdam in September 2015. It looks pretty similar to the air purifier that you may have in your home, except that it reaches an impressive seven meters in height and has a contemporary, almost futuristic design.The Smog Free Tower runs on green energy, and smog is sucked into the purifier through the top, with clean air released through its sides cleaning 30,000 cubic meters of air every single hour. The project's patented ion technology traps dust particles, which are then collected as a powder that contains around 42% carbon this powder is then compressed into jewelry for the supporters of the campaign. Current souvenirs include rings, cubes and cufflinks that have been made out of compressed smog particles with each purchase donating 1,000 cubic meters of clean air to the city, according to the Studio Roosegaard website.Roosegaard intends for the purifiers to travel to cities that are renowned for their high levels of smog, such as Beijing, Paris and Los Angeles giving more and more people the opportunity to experience clean air and gaining more support for the Smog Free Project.
Not all weed is created equal
States struggle to regulate pesticide use
The path to long-term regulation
(NaturalNews) State marijuana regulations have recalled 31 batches of medical marijuana produced by Sunrise Solutions due to health concerns over pesticide use . This is Colorado's sixth recall since February. Gov. John Hickenlooper declared in November that marijuana bathed in unapproved pesticides poses a threat to public health, and ought to be destroyed.Colorado has been trying to draw up new regulations ever since a state newspaper discovered that stocked medical marijuana products contained pesticides that were not approved for farming. Last September, the state issued the first of 25 marijuana recalls It's possible that the Federal government could step in due to public health concerns, which would stymie the legalization of cannabis in other states. Not much is known about the long-term health problems attached to eating or smoking marijuana grown with noxious pesticides. Legal experts are concerned that this void in knowledge could put a thorn in the United States' rapidly budding (forgive the pun) marijuana industry.Pesticide regulations were non-existent when marijuana was first legalized in various states. The Justice Department allowed states to set their own guidelines, but warned that they would step in if the state did not stop "the exacerbation of other adverse public health consequences associated with marijuana use," as noted in a 2013 memo.California was the first state to legalize medicinal marijuana in 1996, and it is now legal in 23 states. The way marijuana is allowed to be grown varies by state. In Oregon, Washington and Colorado, for instance, marijuana has to be grown inside.Producers started to use pesticides and insecticides on marijuana crops that were already used on other edible crops. The problem is, no long-term studies have been conducted that examine the health impact of smoking these chemicals . The federal prohibition of marijuana has prevented such research in the past.According to a 2013 study published in the, approximately 69.5 percent of pesticide residue remained behind in smoked cannabis. Filtering the smoke through water did not significantly lower the amount of pesticide residue in the marijuana smoke. The authors of the study explained, "High pesticide exposure through cannabis smoking is a significant possibility, which may lead to further health complications."According to a report by the Cannabis Safety Institute, tests on medical marijuana in Oregon showed that when THC is concentrated, residual pesticide levels increased significantly. The report stated, "The observation that the mean level of pesticides appears to be roughly 10x higher in concentrates versus flowers is somewhat surprising, given that cannabinoids are only about 2-5x more concentrated in extracted products."Colorado didn't put pesticide restrictions in place until the state opened its first marijuana retail stores in January 2014. The state does not allow consumers to test purchased marijuana for pesticides. Pesticide testing is not required for marijuana retailers; however, retailers are allowed to have their products tested.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authorizes pesticide use on crops; however, states are allowed to conduct their own testing, draw up guidelines for producers and suggest pesticides that ought to be tested by the Federal government. The EPA claims that no state has finished an application for pesticides that ought to be used to farm marijuana."The use of unregistered pesticides on marijuana may have unknown health consequences, as no pesticides have undergone complete risk assessments for use on marijuana at this time," the EPA said in a statement.Other states, including Colorado, Washington and Oregon, have drafted lists of pesticides that they deem to be safe. Oregon has approved almost 250 pesticides to grow marijuana with. They permit pesticides used on edible crops without a set limit, and are applying the rules used to grow tobacco to marijuana crops.Washington also provided pesticide guidelines for recreational cannabis in 2014. The state does not have a different set of guidelines for medical marijuana; however, the guidelines for recreational marijuana will be applied to medical marijuana from this July.In December, Washington placed administrative holds on New Leaf Enterprises and BMF Washington, which both grow and sell marijuana products, on the grounds that unapproved pesticides for recreational production were present in the plants. The hold on New Leaf was lifted in January. Company president Boris Gorodnitsky claims that the pesticide traces came from a former medical marijuana batch.New Leaf Enterprises conducted their own investigation into the matter, and have since switched to using legal pesticides. The hold caused New Leaf to lose a lot of business, which in turn, forced the company to lay off nearly all of its staff. "We were using them when we were in medical, of course," said Gorodnitsky, "but those are very, very widely used by everyone."The Department of Health filed emergency rules related to requirements for certain marijuana products on October 5, 2015. The DOH compliant designation gave growers the choice to abide by meticulous safety guidelines, which were issued to ensure medical marijuana patients had access to safe cannabis.Labs should be prepared for DOH testing this spring; however, this testing will only cover a small fraction of marijuana on the market. The problem is that testing cannabis for pesticides increases the cost of production. This can cause medical marijuana patients to purchase cheaper weed, which has neither been tested nor deemed safe for human consumption.More recalls are likely to occur in the months to come. Although recalls can damage a company's reputation, some experts believe that these short-term hurdles are typical on the path to long-term regulation. In other words, don't expect the marijuana industry to go up in smoke anytime soon.
David Gorski employs many of the same corrupt tactics as criminal ex-doctor Farid Fata
(NaturalNews) Federal prosecutors have already dubbed his case one of the most criminally insane exhibitions of ruthless quackery that they've ever witnessed in their careers. But former cancer doctor Farid Fata, who as you may recall bilked American taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars in order to stuff his own pockets , may have had an accomplice science-based medicine "skeptic" David Gorski, a blogger for one of the leading misinformation sites on the web who just so happens to have worked right alongside Fata at one of his Michigan cancer clinics.Fata's lavish career as a criminal oncologist came to an abrupt end last fall when he reluctantly pleaded guilty or no contest to 23 counts of Health Care Fraud, two counts of Money Laundering, and one count of Conspiracy to Pay and Receive Kickbacks. In a nutshell, for years Fata had been prescribing and administering all sorts of expensive and highly dangerous cancer treatments to his patients , many of whom didn't even have cancer, in order to make himself filthy rich. He was eventually caught, charged and convicted, and will hopefully never again practice medicine.But before his reign of terror was finally stopped, Fata operated a vast network of cancer clinics throughout the state of Michigan, where he committed countless crimes against humanity. One of these clinics was the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, which has several locations in the Detroit metropolitan area. Fata was actually theof one of the Karmanos Cancer Center locations where, as it turns out, David Gorski still works as a surgical oncologist.The managing editor of a website devoted to smearing alternative medicine and natural cures , Gorski is still quite proud of his work at the Karmanos Cancer Center, which involves blasting women's breasts with radiation in order to "cure" their cancers and when this doesn't work, slicing their breasts off completely. The same types of cancer treatments that landed Farid Fata on the justice chopping block, in other words, also represent the pinnacle of Gorski's career.If you followed the Fata case, you'll probably recall that this now-convicted criminal lied to patients about their health conditions, intimidated employees into cooperating with his phony treatment regimens, and badmouthed anyone who dared to question his motives. This is the exact same thing David Gorski does on his blog under the pen name "ORAC," regularly publishing lies and slander against truth-tellers like Dr. Andrew Wakefield and others who challenge the status quo."Though Dr. David Gorski is a surgical oncologist, you wouldn't ever believe it if you read his 'rants' in his blogs and in biotech front sites that push agrichemical propaganda and falsified research," explains the TruthWiki.org entry for the Karmanos Cancer Center. "Writing under the pen name 'ORAC,' Gorski works very hard to obscure the vaccine-autism connection, mainly the mercury in vaccines that leads to all different kinds of autism in the 'spectrum,' not to mention central nervous system disorders, immune disorders and heavy metal toxicity."Further indicting himself, Gorski actually came to theof Fata immediately following his being charged for the many crimes which he's now confessed to having committed. After publishing a laundry list of Fata's supposed accomplishments, Gorski muddied the waters by accusing Fata's critics of being "racist," failing to fully acknowledge the severity of the crimes Fata had been accused of committing."ORAC is thought to be a paid shill by the vaccine industry , and his patients do not have nice things to say about him," adds TruthWiki.org. "This all leads to a much deeper controversy that's being exposed by truth media."
Official sought to avoid warning residents
Culture of willful blindness
(NaturalNews) It has been revealed that, as far back as 2008, an official in the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) tried to bury data showing high lead levels in drinking water in order to avoid having to notify homeowners of the danger.In the email, the official openly asks the testers to go back and do more tests, in the hopes of getting enough low numbers to be able to cover up the high result."Oh my gosh, I've never heard [it] more black and white," said Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech professor and lead expert who helped break news of the recent lead poisoning crisis in Flint, Michigan. "[This email] just shows that this culture of corruption and unethical, uncaring behavior predated Flint by at least [eight] years."In April 2014, the city of Flint switched its water supply from the Detroit municipal system to the Flint River, in order to save money. Residents immediately complained about cloudy, foul-smelling water, but government officials reassured them that the water was safe. Even after doctors proved in September 2015 that lead levels in the blood of the city's children had soared, officials kept up the party line.Since the scandal broke, officials at all levels of government have been accused of complicity in the cover up.The recently revealed case took place back in 2008, in Fenton, Michigan. The MDEQ had performed lead tests at the Chateaux Du Lac Condominiums, a homeowners association with a history of high lead levels . The association's water system had triggered mandatory state and federal remediation actions for lead eight times in the past 20 years.One of the five tests performed came back with a lead level of 115 parts per billion (ppb), 10 times the federal action level of 15 ppb. The MDEQ official who received the email about the results Adam Rosenthal of the Drinking Water office asked the technician to go back and take "a minimum of 5 more samples" to hopefully "bump out" the high result.The law states that if 90 percent of samples taken are below the federal action standard, the other 10 percent can be ignored."Otherwise we're back to water quality parameters and lead public notice," Rosenthal wrote.The technician seems to have disregarded Rosenthal's urging, as only the five results were published and a notice was indeed sent to the homeowners' association. The real lesson of the email exchange, critics say, is that it reveals a culture of prioritizing bureaucratic convenience over public health at the MDEQ. They say it is this attitude, in part, that led to the Flint disaster.Rosenthal's old email was revealed less than a week after criminal charges were filed against three MDEQ employees for "misconduct in office, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, tampering with evidence, a treatment violation of the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act and a monitoring violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act" in relation to their actions surrounding the Flint crisis.Two of the defendants, Mike Prysby and Stephen Busch, had been copied on the email Rosenthal sent about the Fenton lead levels back in 2008.Unfortunately, a culture of ignoring "inconvenient" data is not limited to the MDEQ. In 2014, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientist William Thompson admitted that in a 2004 article in the journal, he and his colleagues had deliberately omitted data showing that African American boys who received the MMR vaccine before the age of three years had an elevated risk of autism.Many agencies also have a culture of attempting to suppress data collected by their own scientists. The USDA is facing a scandal over suppressing research showing the deadly effects that neonicotinoid pesticides have on honeybees, and the FDA is notorious for overlooking concerns over the safety of already-approved prescription drugs.To find out how you can help ensure a safe water supply for your family, visit EPAwatch.org
A 'state of necessity'
The imminent economic collapse
(NaturalNews) In what can be considered an omen of the times, an Italian court has ruled that stealing food is not a criminal act if a person would go hungry otherwise The landmark decision involved the overturning of a theft conviction against a homeless man of Ukrainian descent, who stole $4.50 worth of cheese and sausages from an Italian supermarket.The court ruled that the man stole the food "in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment," and that therefore the act could not be considered a crime.In 2011, Roman Ostriakov was arrested after stuffing two pieces of cheese and a packet of sausages in his pocket, and attempting to leave a Genoa supermarket after paying only for some breadsticks.Ostriakov was convicted of theft and given a six-month jail sentence and a 100 Euro fine.From BBC.com:"For the judges, the 'right to survival prevails over property,' said an op-ed innewspaper (in Italian)."In times of economic hardship, the court of cassation's judgement 'reminds everyone that in a civilised country not even the worst of men should starve.'"The 'historic' ruling is 'right and pertinent', said Italiaglobale.it - and derives from a concept that 'informed the Western world for centuries - it is called humanity.'"The court wrote: "The condition of the defendant and the circumstances in which the seizure of merchandise took place prove that he took possession of that small amount of food in the face of an immediate and essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of necessity."Homelessness is on the increase in Europe. In London, for example, the number of "rough sleepers" on the streets has doubled in the past five years.The housing crisis in Europe is worsening, as poor people struggle to meet rising housing costs without a corresponding rise in income.From UnitedAgainstRacism.org:"40% of poor people in the EU experience housing cost overburden, meaning that they spend more than 40% of their income on housing. Depending on the country, poor people are 4 to 20 times more likely to experience this than others."This housing crunch, along with the influx of asylum seekers in Europe, has contributed to the massive increase in homelessness.The situation isn't much better in the United States, where more than 500,000 people are currently homeless one quarter of them children.And where there is homelessness, there is also food insecurity; it's nearly impossible to find a job if you have no place to live, and as a result people are becoming more and more desperate.To make matters worse, many economists are predicting another economic crash one that is likely to be even worse than the 2008 crisis.If this happens and for many experts, it's a matter of "when," not "if" we can expect to see hungry people stealing and looting on a massive scale. And although it may be due to a "state of necessity," as the Italian court ruled, such a scenario will only hasten the collapse of society as we know it Deagel.com, a "military equipment and civil aviation guide" website, has predicted dire consequences for Americans in the next decade:"The collapse of the Western financial system will wipe out the standard of living of its population while ending ponzi schemes such as the stock exchange and the pension funds. The population will be hit so badly by a full array of bubbles and ponzi schemes that the migration engine will start to work in reverse accelerating itself due to ripple effects thus leading to the demise of the States."The Deagel website predicts that 78 percent of the American population will be wiped out by the year 2025. Even if those estimates are wildly exaggerated, we may indeed be facing a crisis of nearly unimaginable proportions. Is your family prepared for such a crisis ? If you haven't begun taking steps to ensure that you will be able to survive what many see as an imminent economic collapse , now is the time to do so.
(NaturalNews) The following is an excerpt fromIt begins with a word from a Dr. Jayne L. M. Donegan, who transitioned from vaccine advocate to vaccine skeptic Dr. Donegan nearly lost her career over the case. An appeals judge called her report "junk science"; subsequently, she was charged with professional misconduct and threatened with losing her license.However, the UK's General Medical Council exonerated her three years later, stating that Donegan was in fact "objective, independent and unbiased" in her court reporting.To learn more about vaccines, click here
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(NaturalNews) Prescription painkiller drugs like OxyContin (oxycodone) and Vicodin (hydrocodone) are now directly responsible for killing 40 Americans every single day. This disturbing fact comes from new data compiled by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of an ongoing investigation into prescription drug abuse.The numbers from the CDC report show that more people are now killed by opioid prescription drugs than they are by overdoses from both heroin and cocaine combined. These numbers match ones released as part of 2009 study conducted by physicians at St. Michael's Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto, Can., which essentially found the same thing ( https://www.naturalnews.com/027794_narcotics_addiction.html ).Since 1999, the number of individuals who take prescription painkillers to get high rather than to legitimately treat pain has tripled. One in 20 US adults also now admits to have abused prescription narcotics, of which the most popularly abused are Vicodin (hydrocodone), OxyContin (oxycodone), Opana (oxymorphone), and methadone, according to the CDC.And how are individuals gaining access to such high amounts of these deadly drugs? It appears that irresponsible doctors, not street dealers, are largely to blame. CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, even stated at a recent news teleconference that "the problem is more from doctors than from drug pushers on street corners."In California, the situation is particularly disturbing as more than 62 percent of painkiller prescriptions were found to have been prescribed by just three percent of doctors. This means that a handful of doctors are freely dispensing these highly-addictive and deadly drugs to patients that most likely are not legitimate candidates for them.Worse, the federal government is doing little, if anything, to put a stop to the madness and protect the public. Sure, it continues to "investigate" the tide of illness and death caused by this escalating prescription drug nightmare. But it is failing to take practical steps to prosecute doctors for malpractice, or hold drug companies responsible for making the dangerous drugs in the first place.In other words, while the federal government is busy wasting millions of taxpayer dollars raiding whole food buying clubs, herb/supplement companies, and raw milk dairies that provide customers with health-promoting foods ( https://www.naturalnews.com/raids.html ), the pharmaceutical industry is literally getting away with government-sanctioned murder as it continues to freely peddle its deadly drugs to the world.
A team of international scientists have unearthed a ton of fossils that are dated back between 71 million and 64 million years ago in the hard to reach region of Antarctica.
In addition to dinosaur fossils, researchers were also able to excavate remains of early ducks. Most of their one ton-haul is fossils belonging to marine reptiles, including fossilized remains of plesiosaurs and mosasaurs.
The discovery of the huge trove of fossils was not an easy task. Researchers needed to overcome extreme weather conditions and icy obstacles just to reach the targeted region.
With his uncanny stubbornness, Dr. Steve Salisbury didn't give up after several failed attempts to research the region due to sea ice blocking the path. Using a huge icebreaker, two helicopters, and Zodiac inflatable boats, Dr. Salisbury, with his team of 11 scientists from Australia, South Africa and United States, has finally reached his destination, the James Ross Island, according to Christian Science Monitor.
Researchers chose the James Ross Island because it is one of the few regions in Antarctica uncovered during summer months.
For their research, Dr. Salisbury and his team camped for almost five weeks on Vega Island between February and March. From the camp, they hiked about 10 kilometers of mountainous terrain every day to reach their main excavation site on Sandwich Bluff.
While on Antarctica, the researchers also conducted geological mapping of the area, recording the thickness of all the different rocks and information on the sorts of environments that they represent. By doing so, researchers can create a picture of the environment down there at the time the excavated animals existed.
According to the report from Daily Mail, the excavated fossils are currently located in Chile, waiting for its shipment to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Penn. Once the fossils reached the museum, it will undergo substantial preparation and analysis. The researchers are hoping to finish their research and publish their findings in tow year time.
Dr Steve Salisbury - Antarctica expedition from The University of Queensland on Vimeo.
The reaction to the first go-round of merit-based raises in Cumberland County would best be described as aggressively mixed.
That is to say that, although every county official who appeared at Mondays commissioners meeting supported the salary adjustments, nearly all of them pressed the commission to make the process a bit less cumbersome.
Im not convinced this is the best way but it is a way to recognize achievement by our employees, said District Attorney David Freed.
The votes were to approve an addendum to the countys Merit-Based Compensation Policy, which the county commissioners had adopted in October. The policy spells out exactly how raises are to be doled out amongst county employees, based on a performance matrix and supervisor reviews.
Theyre basically voting on an addendum that spells out how were going to enact the [merit-based compensation] policy, said Chief Clerk Larry Thomas.
The policy was largely the result of several years of fiscal difficulty in the county, which found itself unable to pay for the usual across-the-board percentage increases given to public employees.
Instead, the county moved toward more selective salary increases using a metric that is more of an individual bonus concept rather than set tenure raises, Commissioner Gary Eichelberger noted.
The new system applies to all non-unionized county employees. Most of these employees pay is decided by the countys Salary Board, a four-person body consisting of the three county commissioners as well as the county controller.
The county also has several so-called row offices, whose heads such as DA Freed are directly elected by the public, but whose staff are on the commissioners payroll. By state law, row officers have the right to control their staffs pay, meaning they must consent to the salary boards decision.
This includes Freeds office as well as the Clerk of Courts, County Coroner, Prothonotary, Register of Wills, and Recorder of Deeds. Certain county courts, while not technically row offices, are in the same situation.
While all of these officers consented to the final salary changes, nearly all also stridently encouraged the commissioners to streamline the process.
Some, in fact, felt that the value of the time spent doing complex evaluations and filling out rubrics exceeded the value of the raises their staff ended up with.
I think this process needs revamped there was a lot of pulling hairs that are not worth the pennies saved, said Register of Wills Lisa Grayson.
District Court Administrator Melissa Calvanelli, on behalf of Judge Albert Masland, described an overly complicated process for the relatively small amount of money these staff members will receive.
That financial cost [of managements time] was far greater than the financial benefit going to the employees, Calvanelli said. This was the first year. We realize it wasnt going to be perfect.
An exact breakdown of what raises were granted to what row office was not yet available as of Monday evening. The countys 2016 budget had increased the line item for staff salaries and benefits by $2.5 million, or 3.3 percent, across all county agencies.
A Chinese company has been denied the chance to release food and drink products under the "face book" brand name.
According to CNET, Menlo Park-based Facebook has emerged victorious after a Beijing court threw out a Chinese company's case to register "face book" as a trademark, and use it to brand items such as canned vegetables, potato chips, candy and coffee.
While the ruling will certainly put a damper on international attempts to profit off of the Facebook name, it might not abate the proliferation of cakes that look like Facebook popping up on the social media site and Instagram.
A San Jose police officer who set off a nationwide firestorm with a series of tweets appearing to target the Black Lives Matter movement is apologizing publicly for the first time.
Officer Philip White was fired last October but quietly reinstated after a closed independent arbitration hearing in February. City leaders are expected to decide Tuesday whether to appeal that decision.
White has kept a low profile since returning to the force and did not openly address the controversy until an exclusive interview Monday with NBC Bay Area. He also released a public apology in the form of a letter.
White said his comments were actually in response to threats he had received.
San Jose police Officer Philip White, who touched off a nationwide firestorm with tweets many said threatened supporters of Black Lives Matter, broke his silence and made a public apology through an exclusive interview with NBC Bay Area. Kris Sanchez reports.
The tweets which some believe took aim at a movement launched after a string of deadly police shootings sparked outrage around the country.
"Threaten me or my family and I will use my God-given and law-appointed right and duty to kill you #COPSLIVESMATTER," one tweet read.
Another said: "By the way if anyone feels they can't breathe or their lives matter I'll be at the movies tonight...off duty..carrying my gun."
In an interview at his home Monday, White said he wants the public to hear what he has to say including that he's sorry.
"There are people out there that think I'm a monster, that I have racial tendencies, that I'm a racist and I'm not," White said, adding that he did not offer an explanation before because of the confidential arbitration process and out of concern for his family's safety.
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He said the tweets, perceived by many as targeting Black Lives Matter supporters, were actually in response to viable threats he received after posting negative comments about anti-police protests.
"I actually received a telephone threat at one of my workplaces, saying that this person would come up and kill me and my family," White explained.
He said the person threatened to attack him when his family went out in public, which is why he tweeted about carrying a gun "at the movies" but never said which theater he had planned to attend.
A police investigation confirmed the threats.
Even though his tweets were actually aimed at the people who threatened him not Black Lives Matter supporters White said he still considers himself in the wrong.
"I never wanted to make excuses for my actions; they were inappropriate. There's no doubt about that," he said. "And if I could take it back, I would. The only thing I can do is apologize for them."
A San Jose police officer who was fired last year after sending what some called racists tweets is back on the force. Damian Trujillo reports.
When asked what he thought when he saw the words he had written, White said: "Made me sick and made my family sick."
White's wife, Maryanne, a Filipino-American, is stunned by the accusations of racism because their family is multi-racial.
"We just said, 'They don't know.' I mean, our family members consist of African American, Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Vietnamese," she said.
White said he apologized immediately to the police chief, the department and community leaders. He also submitted a letter of apology to the city manager, which he said shows he has "been remorseful from the start."
Before the Twitter controversy, White had an untarnished record with the police department and had received numerous accolades throughout his 19-year career.
Police officials have acknowledged White had no prior disciplinary problems and had high marks for his work in various roles, including starting a program in schools to steer children away from gangs.
When asked about the criticism he has received, White acknowledged "that hurts, especially with my 19-year career [and] my track record."
White said he hopes to resume his role of working in the community where he established numerous partnerships.
"I want to set a precedent here," White said. "I want people to know that it's OK to 'own up' to what you do. Own up for a mistake."
It's still unclear how White's public apologies will resonate with city officials and community leaders. But they are certain to make their feelings known more on Tuesday as White's words and actions, past and present, are scrutinized.
The nephew of a San Francisco public defender is expected to be charged on Tuesday with her murder, the District Attorney said.
Angelo Zamora, 20, is expected to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. for the death of his aunt, former public defender Marla Zamora.
She was found stabbed multiple times Friday at her home in the 400 block of Arkansas Street in the city's Potrero Hill neighborhood. Sources have said the suspect is Marla Zamora's nephew, and he had been living with her.
A motive has not been revealed.
Public Defender Jeff Adachi said in a statement that Zamora was a wonderful person with a heart of gold.
"She was a fearless advocate for her clients," Adachi said.
Marla Zamora was the defense attorney for Edwin Ramos, who was convicted
in a highly publicized triple murder trial in 2012.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
San Francisco's district attorney charged two sheriffs deputies with felony assault on Tuesday, more than six months after they were seen on video striking a suspected car thief with batons in the Mission District.
George Gascon said the two Alameda County sheriff's deputies 14-year veteran and training officer Luis Santamaria and 3-year veteran Paul Wieber, who was undergoing field training were charged with assault under the color of authority, assault with a deadly weapon and battery with serious bodily injury.
The alleged assault came at the end of a high-speed pursuit that stretched across the Bay Bridge in November.
San Franciscos district attorney charged two sheriffs deputies with felony assault on Tuesday, more than six months after they were seen on video striking a suspected car thief with batons in the Mission District. Mark Matthews reports.
More charges could be forthcoming, Gascon added at a news conference, describing the entire incident as "disturbing."
Policing that violates our constitutional rights damages the reputation of every person that wears the uniform, and it damages the publics perception of those that are sworn to serve, Gascon said. When officers take the law into their own hands, they undermine the moral authority of the entire criminal justice system.
Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern said the deputies are on paid administrative leave a fact that San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi noted was "a very, very serious situation." It was Adachi who released the video of the beating when it occurred.
Still, Adachi added his was "relieved that charges have finally been filed. This has been a long wait."
The deputies' bail was set at $140,000 each, and they are expected to surrender by Wednesday. An arraignment date has not been set.
Attorney Michael Rains, who represents Santamaria, issued a statement Tuesday, saying the actions of Santamaria while taking into custody 29-year-old Stanislav Petrov were in accordance with the law.
"Since I teach classes throughout the state concerning the analysis of video and audio evidence in police use-of-force cases, I am very much aware that any use of force captured visually and audibly is graphic and ugly, even though it may be lawful in every aspect," Rains said. "I am confident that a careful and objective analysis of available audio and video evidence will demonstrate unlawful and active resistance by Petrov and the use of lawful force by the deputies to take him into custody."
Wieber is being represented by attorney William Rapoport.
Gascon acknowledged that filing charges against officers is rare, although a deputy was charged last year for assault under color of authority at San Francisco General Hospital.
High-Speed Pursuit
The charges against the Alameda County Sheriff's deputies stem from the November video showing two deputies striking Petrov at least 30 times with batons after a pursuit that started in Castro Valley.
That night, Nov. 12, Petrov was involved in a pursuit with deputies that started in the Castro Valley/San Leandro area after authorities spotted a stolen 2015 Mercedes C300 sedan, according to Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly.
When they approached the sedan, Petrov started the car, ignored orders to stop and rammed two deputy cars, Kelly said, injuring one deputy and disabling his patrol vehicle.
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Petrov allegedly led deputies on a chase on Interstate Highway 580 into Oakland and then west toward San Francisco, crossing the Bay Bridge at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.
He exited the freeway in San Francisco, struck a parked car on a city street and ran, according to Kelly.
Santamaria and Wieber chased him, prosecutors said, and Petrov eventually slowed down and put his hands in the air. Wieber tackled him, and then both deputies began to hit Petrov with their batons, prosecutors alleged.
Two separate videos captured Santamaria and Wieber beating Petrov with their batons over the course of 40 seconds, striking him at least 30 times, prosecutors said.
Petrov can be heard crying out and saying, Im sorry, Help me, and Oh my God. The deputies stopped striking Petrov when other officers from multiple law enforcement agencies arrived.
Lengthy Investigation
Gascon said it took until now to file charges because his investigators had to go through all the evidence.
Some of you may be asking, 'Why has it taken so long for this case to be filed?'" Gascon said. "I have to tell you that, as recently as last Friday, we were still getting medical records and we havent gotten all the medical records."
Gascon cited witnesses who emerged recently and whose statements needed to be vetted, along with the need to enhance the video, which was also analyzed by the FBI and an outside expert, as reasons the charges were delayed.
He also noted that officers have a constitutional authority to use force, another reason for the wait before charges were filed: They are looked upon by the law very differently than most of us.
The Mercury News reported that just one of the 11 deputies on the scene had their body camera rolling, and the one was turned on by accident. The body camera video "provides a more complete picture" of the events that night, Gascon said.
Adachi said that his office was told initially by the sheriffs department that the officers did not have body cameras, and to have confirmed that a partial video did exist was surprising. Adachi called on the sheriff's department to release it.
Petrov Allegedly Robbed
Last month, Petrov's mother told NBC Bay Area her son suffered from brain injuries stemming from the beating. He also suffered multiple broken bones in both hands and a concussion.
Also in April, Adachi released more video that appears to show a deputy taking Petrov's gold chain necklace from the scene. A homeless couple in the San Francisco alley told investigators that evening they witnessed the beating and a deputy gave them the necklace as payment for their silence a claim Adachi said the video appears to prove.
Gascon did not charge the deputies with theft. But he did say Tuesday that the San Francisco Public Corruption Task Force is investigating additional allegations including false police statements, theft, bribery, witness tampering and possibly any other wrongdoing related to this case.
Adachi said he understands that prosecutors are still investigating a third deputy, Shawn Osbourne, who was seen on tape with Petrovs chain and is alleged to have used it in an attempt to bribe two witnesses nearby.
Middle District of Pennsylvania Judge John Jones III Monday denied the Federal Trade Commissions and Pennsylvania Attorney Generals request for an injunction to prevent the proposed integration of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and PinnacleHealth, the health systems said in a joint statement.
The two health systems were looking for form a collaborative, called Penn State Health. The FTC and the Attorney Generals office filed for an injunction, citing a potential monopoly and the negative effects on health costs if the two systems joined.
The health systems said the FTC and attorney general could choose to withdraw their legal challenge or continue to oppose integration through various legal channels, which include appealing the judges decision.
In the meantime, the two health care organizations will continue laying the groundwork for their integration under Penn State Health, they said.
Judge Jones decision reinforces our long-stated position that the proposed integration of PinnacleHealth and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is to the benefit of patients, families, employers and our broader community, said Dr. A. Craig Hillemeier, CEO of Penn State Health, dean of Penn State College of Medicine and Penn States senior vice president for health affairs. We remain committed to our integration plans with a focus on the people and communities we serve, as well as the many dedicated people who deliver patient care, educate our next generation of care providers, and work to shape the future of medicine.
We are grateful to the many employers, community physicians, commercial insurance providers, community leaders and others who have recognized the benefits of our integration and demonstrated their broad support for it, said Michael A. Young, president and CEO of PinnacleHealth. We look forward to continuing our work together with these key constituents as we move forward with our plans for integration.
Under the proposed structure, Hillemeier will serve as the CEO of the new organization, and Young will serve as the president and chief operating officer. The new organization will be governed by a 17-member board of directors drawn from Penn State University, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and PinnacleHealth System boards.
Less than two days after people had their say at the polls, the lights at the Lyfts Austin offices are off.
I saw them taking literally everything out of the office. They switched the sign to closed and thats all Ive seen, Austins Cody Herring told our NBC affiliate KXAN.
On Saturday, Austin residents voted to require ride-hailing companies to fingerprint their drivers. Starting Monday, Uber and Lyft decided to leave Austin instead of going along with it.
Chris Nakutis, General Manager of Uber Austin, issued a statement: Disappointment does not begin to describe how we feel about shutting down. For the past two years, drivers and riders made ridesharing work in this great city. Were incredibly grateful. From rallies to phone banking to knocking on doors, they spread the word and their support was humbling and inspiring.
Uber leaders say the ballot language was confusing for voters, some of whom are now challenging it in court.
Though Lyft says it was a difficult decision to halt operations, the San Francisco-based company is playing it a little differently: We are going to continue to fight for ridesharing in Austin. We remain hopeful that we will we will find a way forward that brings Lyft back to the city as we did in San Antonio. However, we will not operate in Austin as long as mandatory fingerprinting is in place.
Last year, Lyft and Uber also left San Antonio, but then returned months later after the city made fingerprinting voluntary.
In the Bay Area, taxis and ride-hailing companies have been at odds for years.
We still do fingerprints. We still do drug and alcohol tests, Shakur Buni, president of the San Jose Airport Taxi Driver Association, said, explaining its a matter of fairness.
Buni thinks Bay Area voters should get to decide too.
Instead of getting pressure from the big corporations, [the City Council] should put the whole issue before the public and let the public speak on the issue, Buni said.
San Jose City Councilmember Ash Kalra says putting the issue on the ballot would be a last resort.
I hope not. When it comes to governance, you usually try to avoid going to the ballot, Kalra said. Were working very hard to try to find a way for our taxi cab industry and our ride share industry to coexist.
Councilmember Kalra says a pilot program doing monthly checks on ride-hailing driers is still in early stages.
Right now, from what our staff is telling us, the spot checks and background checks are working, but when it comes to safety we dont want to just rely on the first couple of months, Kalra said.
He says San Joses background check program will have a mid-year review in August. Thats the same time the taxi drivers plan to ask the City Council to put an initiative on the November ballot.
Meantime, Austin leaders say they are expediting fingerprint background check process and helping drivers who lost their jobs sign up for other ride-hailing companies.
A preliminary hearing was held Monday for two of the three defendants charged with murdering popular tantra therapist Steve Carter on a hiking trail and a 23-year-old Canadian tourist, Audrey Carey, in Golden Gate Park.
The hearing was short and was set up to allow Carter's widow, Lokita Carter, to testify early. In addition to losing her husband, Carter is also being treated for cancer. On Monday she told the court the last time she saw her husband alive, defendant Lila Alligood cried and held her hand to her mouth during the hearing.
Last week, 23-year-old defendant Morrison Lampley agreed to plead guilty to the murders in exchange for a reduced sentence. He will not be testifying against 24-year-old Sean Anglod and the 18-year-old Alligood.
Carter's widow looked at the defendants as she testified, as Alligood continued to cry. Alligood's attorney said her client, who has been in jail for seven months, is now sober and terrified.
The murder charges include special circumstance allegations of committing multiple murders, lying in wait and killing during the commission of a robbery. The District Attorney' Office is not seeking the death penalty.
Carter's Volkswagen Jetta was missing at the open space preserve, and video from a surveillance camera showed the three defendants refueling the vehicle at a Point Reyes gas station.
Investigators tracked the car to Portland via the vehicle's GPS system, and the three defendants were arrested in a dining hall there on Oct. 7, 2015.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
A mother wanted to surprise her college-aged daughter after she traveled to her school to help her move out for the summer, so she snapped a selfie in what she thought was her daughter's bed.
But when Deeana Pilling, who flew from New York City to Utah last week for the surprise, texted her daughter the photo, she realized she had a mistake.
"Look where I am! Where are you?" Deeana texted daughter McKenna Pilling, a Utah State University student, after she sent her the selfie.
"Where's that?? I'm in my dorm. Please tell me you're not in someone else's dorm," McKenna texted back.
Her mom then replied: "I am in the wrong dorm omg."
The dorm and the bed, it turns out, belonged to a friend of McKenna's who lives in the same building, Select/All reported.
She came to surprise me from New York City to help clean out my dorm and apparently walked in the wrong dorm, McKenna Pilling told Buzzfeed News. No one was in there so she laid down for five minutes in the wrong bed and decided to send me a picture as a surprise.
momma pilling at it again. pic.twitter.com/KzPINUYeNR McKenna Larsen (Pilling) (@kennapilling) May 6, 2016
Top Tri-State News Photos
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Deanna Pilling's daughter as McKeena Pilling.
Former congressman Mel Reynolds, in custody and awaiting trial on federal tax charges, has abruptly announced he intends to plead guilty.
"Under the circumstances of my confinement, I have no other chose (sp)," Reynolds said in a handwritten motion, mailed to U.S. District Judge John Darrah. "It is more than clear that I cannot get ready for trial."
His trial was set for June 20.
Reynolds, who is acting as his own attorney, had previously written Darrah from the Kankakee County Jail where he is presently housed, complaining of his accommodations and asking to be moved to a halfway house to better prepare for trial. At the time, he said he had suffered from chest pains, had briefly been hospitalized, and had been placed in a protective custody area for his own protection, because of his public positions against the Gangster Disciples street gang.
"While in federal incarceration in the late '90's, there were two attempts on my life," Reynolds said. "Part of the reason that President William J. Clinton granted my petition for executive clemency and commuted my sentence was to remove me from this dangerous, life threatening situation."
During his most recent brush with the law, Reynolds was placed on electronic monitoring, to prevent him from fleeing the United States for Africa where he had made numerous excursions. When he claimed he could find no place to live which would permit the necessary monitoring equipment, Darrah ordered him taken into custody.
The court had previously appointed law professor Richard Kling to represent Reynolds, but two weeks ago he fired Kling, saying he intended to represent himself. Kling was retained by the court to assist with the legal nuances of that effort.
Reynolds has repeatedly charged that he is the victim of a racist prosecution, so much so, that prosecutors filed a motion yesterday, asking that he be prohibited from making such charges in front of his jury.
The defendant has a track record of issuing inflammatory accusations in the media, the government wrote. As such, the defendant may attempt to embrace these same antics in the courtroom.
That motion would now appear to be moot, with Reynolds sudden decision to plead guilty.
After a two-hour debate Tuesday, the Illinois Senate approved a new school funding bill seen by opponents as a bailout for the financially struggling Chicago Public Schools.
Senate Bill 231 cleared the Democrat-majority Senate by a vote of 31-21.
The proposal now moves to the Illinois House, where insiders believe it likely won't pass. Gov. Bruce Rauner has voiced opposition to the plan.
Sen. Michael Hastings said in a statement the bill would reduce general state aid and require local schools to become more dependent on property taxes.
"We pay an extraordinary amount of property taxes in the suburbs," he said. "SB 231 would cause our area to lose approximately $10 million in education funding and would shift this cost to residents by way of property taxes, Hastings said. As a former school board member, I worked hard to balance our budget and act financially responsible. We should not punish responsible school boards, but we should demand fiscal responsibility of legislators in Springfield."
Chicago Public Schools called the bill's passage "an important step forward to make sure that students in low-income and minority school districts all over the state get the education that they deserve."
"Too many districts including Chicago are struggling under the weight of Illinois last-in-the-nation approach to educating students in poverty," the district said in a statement. "For Chicago students, this moves them toward equality with their peers around the state, since they are 20 percent of the states students, but receive only 15 percent of the states funding. On behalf of students in Chicago and across Illinois, we appreciate Senator Manars leadership and commitment to fix the states broken and racially discriminatory funding formula, and express our thanks to the Senators who voted in favor of this important measure.
Sen. Mark Kirks campaign released a campaign ad Monday previewing Rep. Tammy Duckworths May 12 court hearing related to a civil lawsuit filed against the congresswoman by former employees in the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.
Duckworth beat out former Urban League President and CEO Andrea Zopp and state Sen. Napoleon Harris in Marchs Democratic primary for Kirks Senate seat.
The complaint against Duckworth alleges workplace retaliation. Kirks ad shuffles through a series of news reports detailing Duckworths ethics violations.
Duckworths campaign rebuffed the attack.
This is just another dishonest attack from a desperate campaign, and really cements Mark Kirks status as a Trump-style Republican, Duckworth spokesman Matt McGrath said in a statement. Tammy Duckworth spent 23 years defending this country in the National Guard, and has made working on behalf of Veterans her lifes work, with tangible results.
There is no indication that Duckworth will attend Thursdays hearing. She will instead be in Washington, D.C. that day to attend a fundraiser hosted by Nevada Sen. Harry Reid.
"It is utterly incomprehensible that on the exact same day of a scheduled court hearing in Illinois for charges that Duckworth silenced whistleblowers for exposing poor care to veterans, Duckworth will actually be in D.C. courting lobbyists and special interests at a $1,000 plate breakfast with Harry Reid, Kirk spokesman Kevin Artl said in a statement. Whether it was defending Blagojevich or dining with Harry Reid, one thing is certain for Duckworth--party comes first, Illinois comes second."
According to the lawsuit, Christine Butler claims she was fired for insubordination after filing complaints against her boss, the facility's director. After later meeting with Duckworth, the termination was reversed within days.
Denise Goins claims that her complaints about the same supervisor led to an unfavorable performance review after initially being ignored. Goins claims the performance review prevented her from receiving a raise. In addition to this, she claims Duckworth told her to "do your job and keep your mouth shut" during a meeting.
Butler and Goins are seeking compensatory damages of at least $50,000, as well as other financial penalties.
Duckworth, who lost her legs piloting a helicopter in Iraq, led Illinois VA from 2006 until 2009. She subsequently served as Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs from 2009 to 2011.
McGrath further challenged Kirk's credibility in the wake of the ad, calling into question his military service.
"Mark Kirk, on the other hand, claimed to have served in combat in Iraq when he never did, and has been caught lying about his military record at least 10 times," he said. "Given that record of deceit, it's no surprise he's not telling the truth about Tammy, and Illinois voters know better than to believe these Swift Boat-style attacks."
According to a recent poll, Kirk is trailing Duckworth by three points.
Prosecutors filed a scathing motion in Federal Court Monday, aimed at limiting what former congressman Mel Reynolds can use in his defense on tax charges, when his trial begins next month.
The defendant has publicly and repeatedly, through his Twitter account and press releases he has issued to the media, accused the government of treating him unfairly because of his race, prosecutors wrote. Needless to say, race has nothing to with this case.
Prosecutors noted numerous Reynolds statements, including a March 28 tweet that we live with a heartless federal justice system which doesnt give a damn about BLK people, and a statement two days later where he charged that the real issue is black lives dont matter to Fed prosecutors in Chicago.
Its the story of the BLK man in America, Reynolds tweeted March 31. Three white men in a room dictating the life of a BLK man. One pretending that hes with you.
The latter tweet, was an apparent reference to Reynolds court-appointed attorney, Richard Kling, who he asked to have removed from his case. The former congressman is now representing himself, with Kling kept on by the court to offer what would appear to be badly needed legal guidance. One day later, he declared that what was happening to him, is just one more real example of how the criminal justice system is systematically destroying black families."
The defendant has a track record of issuing inflammatory accusations in the media, the government wrote. As such, the defendant may attempt to embrace these same anctics in the courtroom.
In their filing, the government confirmed that Chicago real estate tycoon Elzie Higginbottom and perennial candidate Willie Wilson are on the potential witness list.
Reynolds has previously tweeted accusations that Elzie Higginbottom bribed Robert Mugabe in NY, and Rev. Jesse Jackson was standing in the room when it happened. If I am lying, then sue me! He accused Wilson of giving an illegal payment to a member of Congress.
This behavior cannot be permitted at trial, prosecutors declared, noting that Reynolds was in business with both Higginbottom and Wilson, and accusing him of trying to intimidate them from testifying.
Reynolds is currently in federal custody. He is being held in the county jail in Kankakee.
The Ford family is desperately searching for a beloved pet that escaped from their Chicago home a little more than a week ago.
Jewell Ford was cleaning her birds cage April 30 when she opened the side door to her home, located near Harlem and Talcott Avenues, and the bird flew outside.
The African Grey, named Johann Sebastian Bird, was given to Ford from her two sons as a 50th birthday gift.
The family said they have been searching their neighborhood for hours every day since his disappearance. Theyre worried the bird, which needs a warmer environment, may not be able to survive the colder temperatures forecast for much of this week.
The family said the most distinguishing part of the pet is its beak, which they say is curled. The bird is grey in color and has a maroon tail.
Anyone with information on the birds whereabouts is asked to call (773) 458-6582 or email jewellford@hotmail.com.
BOILING SPRINGS The Pennsylvania Game Commission is warning hunters, hikers and others to be careful after officials found a "spike strip" on a state game lands trail in south-central Pennsylvania.
The commission says someone put a piece of wood with several large screws protruding from it on the trail in state game lands 305 in South Middleton Township.
Game officials say it appears the strip was placed there intentionally and hidden, apparently so it would puncture the tires or the feet of any hunters, hikers or birdwatchers walking or riding along the trail.
Game officers are trying to determine who put the strip on the trail and plan to prosecute whoever they find.
A fearless hostess chased after two thieves accused of stealing a wallet from a mother and daughter dining at a Chicago restaurant on Mothers Day.
Ruth Nadolny was dining with her daughter at Irazu in the citys Bucktown neighborhood when she said a couple sitting at a nearby table stole her daughters wallet.
Dinner had just been served and was just being put down on the table and thats when, boom, everything happened, she said.
Surveillance video showed two people appearing to move their table and chairs closer to Nadolny, before one person at the table allegedly grabbed a wallet from them and headed for the door.
The victims didnt realize the wallet was missing until a waiter saw a Mothers Day card on the floor that Nadolny said must have fallen out.
Thats when restaurant hostess Alicia Colon gave chase.
She just bolted out that door and started sprinting down the block, Nadolny said.
Nadolny and her daughter followed the hostess, who they say caught up with the couple after they hailed a cab.
I pulled the car handle to get the taxi to stop and he didnt stop for like 10 to 15 feet afterwards, Colon said.
The wallet was found inside the cab, but the cash was missing.
The lady was screaming she didnt have it, she didnt have it, Nadolny said.
Police arrived at the scene shortly after and the pair was arrested.
Carl Hurn, 53, and Darlene Henderson, 51, were both charged with theft and their bond was set at $100,000. It was not immediately clear if either had an attorney.
The cash was later recovered, Nadolny said.
[The hostess] could have been killed by the cab, she could have been gunned down, anything, Nadolny said.
But Colon said just she did what she thought was best.
Honestly, I felt like they probably had a better Mothers Day now that they got their wallet back, she said.
Facebook's photo-tagging feature, which relies on facial recognition technology, has the social media giant facing a class-action lawsuit after a judge ruled users in Illinois could sue the company for gathering their biometric information.
The lawsuit can proceed to trial after a California judge last week denied Facebook's motion to dismiss the case, according to court documents filed May 5 and posted by Arstechnica.com.
Facebook's photo-tagging feature uses facial recognition technology to "extract biometric identifiers" from photographs that have been uploaded to the social media website. The program was launched in 2010 with the objective of encouraging tagging among friends on Facebook.
Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) seeks to regulate the use of biometrics because the information collected is unique to each individual and "once compromised, the individual has no recourse." The statute points out that even social security numbers can be changed, but biometric information is forever tied to an individual.
The three plaintiffs, Nimesh Patel, Adam Pezen and Carlo Licata, are arguing that this technology violates Illinois' BIPA law, which restricts how companies obtain biometric data.
Both parties agreed to transfer the lawsuit from an Illinois court to one in California where the three cases were consolidated into a single action. Facebook had argued that BIPA is not applicable under California law and that tag suggestions are not applicable.
The judge ruled that Illinois law applies because the state "will suffer a negation of its biometric privacy protections for its citizens if California law is applied."
In contrast, California will suffer minimally if BIPA is applied because the state lacks thorough biometric protections, the judge ruled.
Ars Technica first reported on the ruling.
Scrolling around on Facebook one day last December, 85-year old Leota Ball says she saw an ad that caught her eye. What seemed like a good idea that day, ended up costing the Batavia woman hundreds of dollars.
Like a dummy, I clicked it, she told NBC5 Responds. And I knew better.
The hook was for skin products called Infinite Allure and Youthful Radiance that promised to erase years of wrinkles. The bait? A face she knows and trusts.
It was Dr. Oz! Leota said.
That implied endorsement made her feel better about agreeing to a $4.95 risk-free trial for the face cream and serum, she says. So she agreed to the minimal cost.
I thought, I can afford that, Leota said. But much to her shock, she says, her credit card was billed for much more than just shipping. Within a month and a half, she was shipped two boxes of the face cream bottles, and hit for more than $340. Each bottle carried around an $80 charge.
I called them and told them I didnt order two, she explained. And they said, Oh, yes, you did! And I said, Why would I want two?
With her monthly spending money at $70, Leota said she tried to tell the company behind the ad that theyd made a mistake.
When you call and talk to them, they arent nice to you at all, she told NBC5 Responds.
Leota isnt alone. Through a Freedom of Information request, NBC5 Responds learned the Federal Trade Commission recently received two dozen similar complaints. Consumers from across the county told the FTC they, too, agreed to pay $4.95 shipping fees to the South Carolina-based company, only to be gouged for astronomical fees. Many of them reported they also tried to get refunds to no avail.
When we called the company, which bills under the names Try Healthy Now and Clear One Health, representatives first told us they could not speak to NBC5 without Leotas permission. Later, a manager told us the companys ad clearly discloses a 14-day trial period, followed by an auto-pay subscription that ships two bottles at a time to customers, for fees of $81 and $84, respectively. Leota and other customers say they never saw those disclaimers.
When the company offered to refund only one-half of one months fee to Leota, NBC5 Responds went in a different direction. We called her credit card issuer Citi, and after explaining the situationrepresentatives of Citi reached out directly to Leota. She says all the fees connected to this transaction were wiped off her bill, much to her relief.
She also said she wanted more than just her money backshe wants to get the word out about this scheme.
I told the company. I said, you can bank on it that Im going to report you, she told NBC5 Responds. At that point I just didnt know to who!
The company that sells Infinite Allure did not respond to our repeated attempts for comment. As for Dr. Oz, a spokesperson told NBC5 that Dr. Oz does not endorse the face cream, or any other product. Ozs representative says the doctor considers anyone that uses his name or picture to sell products or supplements to consumers reckless and dangerous.
A man who escaped from a prison work camp in Georgia 48 years ago was found Monday, 990 miles away in Sherman, where he has been living under an assumed name and running a boat repair business.
Robert E. Stackowitz escaped on Aug. 22, 1968 from the infirmary at the Carroll County Prison Work Camp in Carrolton, Georgia, where the then-23-year-old was serving a 17-year sentence for "robbery by force," according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Stackowitz was known around Sherman as Bob Gordon and the U.S. Marshals fugitive team learned about the alias around five months ago, which led the marshals and Connecticut State Police to 70 Route 39 in Sherman, where Stackowitz was taken into custody without incident, authorities said.
State police said that when he opened the door for troopers and U.S. Marshals he said "I figured this day was coming."
The 71-year-old escapee was taken to Danbury Superior Court on Monday and is being held on $100,000 bond in Bridgeport while he awaits extradition back to Georgia.
Neighbors described Stackowitz as a good neighbor who would help clear snowy driveways in the winter.
"Everyone has a little backstory I guess," said David Schneiderbeck. "His is a little more elaborate than most."
-- Marc Santia contributed to this story
Four masked men broke into a dorm room at Central Connecticut State University early Monday morning and stole from a female student. Now campus police are notifying students and trying police to find out who is responsible.
Campus officials tell said four men, dressed in black and wearing matching bandanas, forced their way into a dorm room in the Mid-Campus Residence Hall around 1:30 a.m. on Monday and stole something from a students room.
The student reached out to campus at 12:30 p.m. on Monday to report it.
This happened during finals week at CCSU and students are now concerned about the recent robbery, as well as exams.
I think anyone should be pretty scared that anyone can just barge into someones room like that, Sean Aiudi, a sophomore from Bristol, said.
Students said they have to swipe to get into the front doors, swipe again to get into the lobby, a third time to get into the elevators and a fourth time to get into each individual rooms.
Its really scary especially because we live so close to the lobby. Just knowing that our possessions arent safe. Chelsea Buddle, a freshman from New Milford, said.
Some students said the school has enough security.
It was weird for me because theres so much security already, so I dont really know what else they could do at this point, Julia Baldyga, a freshman from Middletown, said.
Others feel more should be done.
It just really makes you question the safety of the campus, whether or not we need to up security or make it less susceptible to get into the dorms, Chelsea Buddle, a freshman from New Milford, said.
Campus police are reviewing security footage and ask that all students immediately report suspicious activity.
Sources have told NBC Connecticut that the car tax put in place last year may be raised slightly, meaning some taxpayers will pay more than initially expected and those funds would go to the state, rather than the city or town.
Were concerned that everything is on the table right now at a very late part of our budget cycle and we really want to be cognizant of the fact that we have to put budgets together and those timelines have passed," said Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, serving as the President of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
Leaders from across Connecticut said Tuesday that if lawmakers follow through on their plan to trim more than $120 million from municipal aid, then the legislature needs to back off of mandates that municipalities have to pay for.
Cities and towns want to see the state ease on its insistence on minimum budget requirements for schools and they want to see more flexibility from union contracts at the local level.
Boughton said raising the car tax would be unacceptable and unfair to cities and towns who were depending on increased sales tax receipts to make up for lost car tax revenue that went to the state instead.
They promised us a certain amount of sales tax money, they promised us money for car taxes and now were seeing moves to sweep those and put them back in the state budget. That is problematic for us.
The Speaker of the House and the Connecticut Senate President Pro Tem weren't available for comment Tuesday. The House and Senate are expected to debate the latest budget plan by the end of the week during a Special Session.
Two senators asked several airlines to stop charging baggage fees for the summer.
We call on airlines to take a smart, common sense step to help thwart this growing problem: stop charging checked bag fees during the coming summer months, the busiest travel season of the year," U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward J. Markey wrote to executives at 12 major airlines.
The senators said baggage fees adds 27 percent more carry-on bags on flights, resulting in longer lines and wait times.
"Without charges for checking their bags, passengers will be far less likely to carry them on, which snarls screening checkpoints and slows the inspection process," the senators wrote.
According to the letter, the senators call the elimination of baggage fees for the summer - the busiest travel time of year - as a "common sense step."
The senators argue that airlines started charging these fees in 2007 because of the peak of fuel prices. However, since that time, fuel prices has plummeted and bag fees have spiked.
The letter went to executives at American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Allegiant, JetBlue, Alaska Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Virgin America, Sun Country, and Island Air Hawaii.
Connecticut Republican delegates picked their candidates for U.S. Senate and Congress Monday night.
State Representative Dan Carter wrapped up the convention with 77 percent of the delegates voting for him to face off with Senator Richard Blumenthal in November.
Carter said his experience means he can handle a race against Blumenthal, but with high voter turnout expected in November, conventional wisdom said Carter faces an uphill battle.
"People have reached a point where they're just fed up with the nonsense. So while it's a traditional presidential year, it's a nontraditional election, and I think my voice and my message is going to resonate with a lot of those supporters, said Carter.
The presidential race also managed to weave itself into Monday night's convention. The question on the minds of many is how Donald Trump will affect the chances for Republicans in Connecticut.
"I would said there are people who vote for or against me, or anybody, based on Trump. There's no question about it," said Carter.
"So much of this election year is going to depend on the race at the top," said Larry Kudlow.
Kudlow is a CNBC commentator and considered a run for U.S. Senate against Blumenthal. He spoke at the convention and said it's time for a change and that Trump can help with that.
"A lot of very smart people in Washington think I'm nuts, that Trump is going to hurt everybody. I don't believe that for a minute. They missed the primary outcome, they're going to miss the general election outcome too," said Kudlow.
For the Congressional seats, U.S. Rep. John Larson will face off against Matthew Corey. U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney will face off against Daria Novak. U.S. Rep. Jim Hines will face off against State Rep. John Shaban. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro will face off against Angel Cadena, Jr. And U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty will face off against Sherman 1st Selectman Clay Cope.
The Connecticut Democratic Party released this statement following the Connecticut Republican convention:
"Despite Donald Trump's promises to tear families apart by deporting 11 million immigrants, ban an entire religion from entering our country, and punish women for exercising their right to choose, Republican Senate nominee Dan Carter has pledged to support Trump and his bombastic policies and rhetoric. I want to be clear, the Trump-Carter agenda is not just out of touch; it's dangerous.
"Dick Blumenthal has spent the past six years fighting for Connecticut's veterans, communities, and middle class families in the Senate. He is Connecticut's champion, and the Connecticut Democratic Party stands ready to defend his stellar record of public service."
City Hall in Hartford is the battleground between officials out to cut spending and employees out to protect what they've earned, including firefighters.
Anywhere from 5 to 6 Hartford firefighters retire a year, according to the IAFF local president, Vincent Fusco.
"Right now, it's 55 to 60 and they make up all the senior staff, 6 of the 8 deputy chiefs as of now have put in their retirement papers," Fusco said.
Chief Reginald Freeman said there could be 80 to 90 retirements, from deputy chiefs down to experienced firefighters. On Monday Freeman had a retirement presentation for his strategic planning officer after 27 years with the HFD.
At his budget presentation last month, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin called for concessions from the firefighters' union and other city unions. With the city government facing a 48.5 million dollar budget gap, Bronin said he would layoff no uniformed personnel, if he gets the cost savings he wants.
"We have a large number of firefighters eligible for retirement, and some of those firefighters were likely to retire in any event. There are others who are, I think, getting some bad advice about retiring early. Obviously, we'd rather not see a huge number of departures all at once. But at a time when the city is facing a full-blown budget crisis, we cant agree to spend money we dont have. There are lots of ways to achieve savings, some of which will have no impact whatsoever on the benefits of retirement-eligible firefighters, but we need the union leadership to acknowledge that we have a real crisis and come to the table with real solutions," Bronin said in a statement to NBC Connecticut.
But Fusco said senior firefighters see draconian measures in those proposals to add hours to the work week and reduce future benefits.
"Their pay would be reduced. There'd be bumping going on so the members that have their time aren't willing to stay the extra time and roll the dice," said Fusco.
He said the retirements are not a negotiating tactic. Even though his union's contract expires in June he said there have been no negotiations on a new one.
There are about 325 firefighters in Hartford, a decline from 403 in 2012.
If many more go Fusco said hes concerned:
"Unsafe, I would characterize it as unsafe, cuz you're gonna have untested deputy chiefs and captains. They're gonna be in roles that they're not experienced to be in," Fusco said.
Freeman would not go so far. "It is a concern," he said, "To lose so much leadership at once but we'll do our best to promote replacements."
A student brought a fake gun made of rolled up paper to a school in Hartford this morning, which led to a lockdown.
Police said a temporary Code Yellow lockdown was issued at McDonough Expeditionary Learning School, a school for students in grades six through eight.
Everyone is safe and the lockdown has been lifted, according to police.
NBC Connecticut reached out to the schools, but there was no immediate response.
When Brenda Landis began her sentence explaining why an officer with the Carlisle Police Department was sitting beside her during the Westside Neighbors monthly meeting, he readily finished the thought for her.
In light of the recent incidents of she began.
Very violent crimes, Patrolman Andrew Van Volkenburg finished for her.
Some neighborhood groups have an officer in attendance at every meeting, but Landis said that the West Side Neighbors usually dont need to exercise that option. Yet in light of the recent string of violence in the borough, the group decided to take advantage of the resource.
This is something it seems like neighbors wanted to discuss anyway, so having an officer there allows them to answer it directly, she said.
Residents began the meeting discussing graffiti that has been appearing on properties in the westside of the borough, yet it didnt take long before one resident steered the conversation toward the recent shootings.
Her biggest worry, she said, was getting hit by a stray bullet.
Residents asked if the majority of assailants were out-of-towners, but according to Van Volkenburg, its not the people who are from out of town, its the guns.
Were not dealing with a lot of burglaries in town where firearms are going missing, he said. Every name weve seen or heard are people weve been dealing with for several years.
The issue for police is a lack of people wanting to talk, Van Volkenburg explained.
The guys who are shot wont even tell us who did it, he said. When they dont want to say who shot them, more than likely its going to be drug-related, and now were dealing with a large heroin epidemic.
Its a battle were way behind in.
War on drugs still raging
In Carlisle, Van Volkenburg believes that many of the addicts are also the dealers.
Before, we would arrest one person for possession, then you get them in and tell them You want to help yourself out youre going to have to help us, then we go up the chain, he said.
Now, police are seeing more and more users personally bringing the drugs in from nearby cities like Harrisburg, York, Baltimore, and if and when they get busted, most of the time not even knowing who sold them the drugs.
We hit a dead end [in those types of cases], van Volkenburg said. The shooting may be fall out from the War on Drugs.
A department in flux
One resident asked about neighborhood cameras and walking beats for police officers to better patrol the street blocks and become more familiar with residents.
But as of now, Carlisle Police do not have patrolmen on foot duty in the neighborhoods, though van Volkenburg believes that may soon change as the weather improves.
He said that with the ongoing search for a new police chief, and alluding to various injuries to officers limiting the roster, things have been somewhat unsteady for the boroughs police force.
Ive talked to some of the people in town, before residents could name half the departmen, thats where were at in our roller coaster of our cycle now, Van Volkenburg said. We go away from community policing and become reactionary. Were trying to get a hold of that and you might see a new chief in here and get a big push for community policing.
Lawmakers overwhelmingly passed legislation that would require insurance companies to cover 3D mammograms as long as a cancer specialist has prescribed one.
The measure now sits on Gov. Dannel Malloy's desk.
Rep. Themis Klarides helped usher the bill to passage. She said it doesn't make sense to her that insurance companies have denied covering the cancer screenings.
Medicaid is covering it. Medicare is covering it, so older people are getting it, poor people are getting it and everybody in between cant get it?"
The sticking point for Malloy could easily be the price tag for the coverage.
According to the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis, 3D mammograms will cost $9 million in 2017 fiscal year and $10 million the following year.
Doctors said, however, that 3D exams are more reliable than 2D screenings and that they decrease the number of false positive and unnecessary follow up visits.
This means we can better tell which legions are cancerous and which legions are not. Therefore, unnecessary biopsies are avoided.
A spokesman for Cigna had said back in December that the insurance carrier had seen no evidence to suggest that 2D screenings were any worse than 3D screenings. A spokesman for the Bloomfield based insurer reiterated that stance Monday.
The statement said, "According to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, there is insufficient evidence to determine that 3D mammography is clinically superior to 2D mammography for routine breast cancer screening. "
However, the statement went on to say the company will comply with any new law mandating coverage.
In a moment seven decades in the making, President Barack Obama this month will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, where the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb during World War II, decimating a city and exploding the world into the Atomic Age.
Obama will visit the site with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a previously scheduled trip to Japan, the White House announced Tuesday.
The president intends to "highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Obama will not apologize for the bombing, the White House made clear. And Abe said none was expected nor necessary, suggesting the visit itself would send a powerful message.
"The prime minister of the world's only nation to have suffered atomic attacks, and the leader of the world's only nation to have used the atomic weapons at war will together pay respects for the victims," Abe told reporters late Tuesday. "I believe that would be a way to respond to the victims of the atomic bombings and the survivors who are still in pain."
The president's visit has been widely anticipated since U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to the Hiroshima memorial in April. Kerry toured the peace museum with other foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and participated in an annual memorial service just steps from the site's ground zero.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui praised Obama's plan to visit as a "bold decision based on conscience and rationality," adding that he hopes Obama will have a chance to hear the survivors' stories. He also expressed hope the visit would be "a historic first step toward an international effort toward abolishing nuclear weapons, which is a wish of all mankind."
The U.S. attack on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, in the final days of World War II, killed 140,000 people. While it scarred a generation of Japanese, many Americans believe the bombing, along with another Aug. 9 on the city of Nagasaki, hastened the end of the war. Japan announced it would surrender on Aug. 15.
Diverging views about an act that forever changed war have made a visit from a sitting U.S. president a delicate and arguably politically risky move. Former President Jimmy Carter did visit, in 1984, three years after he left office.
It took 65 years for a U.S. ambassador to attend the annual memorial service. In the U.S., officials remain wary that a presidential visit could be perceived as an apology for an act believed to have saved American lives.
Sunao Tsuboi, 91, a survivor of the bombing and head of a survivors' group in the western Japanese city, praised Obama for his decision.
"The day has finally come," Tsuboi told Japan's NHK national television."
"We are not asking for an apology," Tsuboi said. "All we want is to see him lay flowers at the peace park and lower his head in silence. This would be a first step toward abolishing nuclear weapons."
Kevin Martin, president of Peace Action, a U.S.-based group, said Obama should use the visit to announce specific steps to "bring the world closer to being free of nuclear weapons," such as reducing the number of nuclear warheads in reserve.
"Obama will look insincere if his words espouse ridding the world of nuclear weapons while at the same time his administration continues its plan to spend a trillion dollars over 30 years to upgrade nuclear weapons," Martin said in a statement.
Early in his presidency, Obama said he would be honored to make the trip, and the White House has said it often considered a visit on previous trips to Asia. It has not explained why a visit there has never come together.
Asked last week whether the president believes an apology is warranted, Earnest was direct: "No, he does not."
In a statement posted as the visit was announced, a senior White House official added that the president does not intend to wade into past debates.
"He will not revisit the decision to use the atomic bomb at the end of World War II. Instead, he will offer a forward-looking vision focused on our shared future," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said. "The United States will be eternally proud of our civilian leaders and the men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II for their sacrifice at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world. Their cause was just, and we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude."
Obama will be in Japan to attend the Group of 7 economic summit, part of a weeklong Asia tour that will also include a stop in Vietnam.
The enforcement of laws banning texting while driving varies greatly across North Texas according to statistics obtained by NBC 5.
Currently, Arlington, Bedford, Denton, Farmers Branch, Grand Prairie, Rowlett and Stephenville are the only cities in North Texas that have an ordinance banning texting while driving. Those seven cities have issued a total of 2090 citations since the first ordinance was adopted in 2010.
Last year there were 103,576 car crashes involving a distracted driver. 463 of those accidents were fatal.
NBC 5 requested citation information from police departments in those cities with an ordinance to see how many tickets have been issued. The data is current as of April 10, 2016 one day after Emma Shaffer and her daughter Emma "Tita" were killed in a head-on collision in Argyle. Denton police said the driver of the other car, a mother also with her daughter, was texting. All four people were killed.
James Shaffer, Emma's husband, struggles to cope with the fact that his wifes violent crash was the result of a text message.
"Someone came clear across a lane of traffic and hit my wife's car head on causing it to kill my wife and daughter? Just because of a text? It's unreal. It's not believable," Shaffer said.
When police arrived on the scene the two cars were still touching. Sergeant Daryn Briggs said neither driver had time to make any kind of reaction or corrective measure.
"There's absolutely no reason to kill somebody over using your phone. (Enforcement) is critically important. We have to stop these crashes," said Sergeant Daryn Briggs of the Denton Police Department, the agency that investigated the crash.
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The number of citations issued for texting while driving violations range from zero tickets written in Rowlett to 865 tickets written in Grand Prairie in 2015.
Enforcement of Denton's ban on texting while driving started in 2015. Officers have written 39 tickets in that time.
"I think we should do better, but I think it points to how difficult it is to make the enforcement," Briggs said. "With our version you almost have to be stopped in traffic, or if the officer is stationary, watching traffic go by."
Denton city council members admit the law is not perfect. They'll soon consider a hands-free ordinance.
"We understand the ambiguity with our policy as it relates to enforcement. We knew that going into this. Our goal is to really push forward more positive behavior," said Councilman Kevin Roden. "When we don't have a full on hands-free policy it makes it hard to enforce because someone can have a phone in their hand to talk, which is legitimate, versus someone who has their phone in their hand to text."
Briggs said officers are more likely to pull a driver who spends a lengthy amount of time on their phone.
"You have to be able to watch the person long enough to determine what are they doing with their hands. Without a witness to it a lot of times we have to rely on the person admitting, 'Yes, I was messing with my phone,'" he said.
Rowlett police point to the inherent challenges of enforcing the city's texting while driving ban as the reason why there have been no citations written since their ban was passed in 2014. The police department and city leaders declined to comment on the effectiveness of the citys enforcement, only providing a list of 64 citations written to drivers for using their phone in a school zone.
Enforcement does not appear to be an issue in Grand Prairie. Sergeant Eric Hanson said the high number of tickets is due to teamwork.
"What we've done in the past is have a two officer detail, sometimes in an unmarked vehicle, specifically watching for texting while driving," he said.
Texting while driving has been banned in Grand Prairie since 2013. Officers wrote 11 tickets that year. 239 tickets were issued the following year, and in 2015 officers wrote 865 tickets. Despite the high numbers, Hansen said driver behavior has not changed much.
"It's pretty common for us to see somebody engaged in a behavior with their phone that is very obviously not in the course of making a phone call," he said. "These officers have become used to the ordinance and have become pretty good about picking out those violators and taking the enforcement action."
Officers who spoke to NBC 5 all agreed that enforcement would greatly improve if a statewide hands-free law was passed.
"If they decide to strengthen it I think our numbers should go up. I think crashes like this serve as a reminder to all officers why we need to follow the enforcement aspect of that very critically," Briggs said.
James Shaffer wonders if a hands-free ban would have saved his wife and daughter, but he's certain that the time for passing more stringent laws on distracted driving is now.
"You operate a vehicle, you text on the phone, youre going to kill someone," he said.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is calling for the resignation of Fort Worth Independent School District superintendent Dr. Kent Paredes Scribner over the district's new "guidelines" regarding gender and bathrooms.
Patrick said Scribner placed his own personal agenda ahead of students by adopting transgender student guidelines.
In a statement released Monday afternoon, Patrick said:
"After less than a year as superintendent, Dr. Scribner has lost his focus and thereby his ability to lead the Fort Worth ISD. He has placed his own personal political agenda ahead of the more than 86,000 students attending 146 schools in the district by unilaterally adopting 'Transgender Student Guidelines.' Without any discussion with parents, board members, principals, and other community leaders, Dr. Scribners unilateral action, underscores this lack of fitness to hold his position as superintendent. Campus safety should be of paramount concern for anyone in his position. Every parent, especially those of young girls, should be outraged. The State of Texas has an affirmative responsibility to provide a safe environment in the schools where attendance is compulsory. While this may be an example of the need for the Legislature to pass a meaningful School Choice Bill, we must not allow the actions of Dr. Scribner to go unnoticed or unanswered. I call upon the parents within the Fort Worth ISD to take immediate steps to repeal this stealthy scheme and remove Dr. Scribner from his post."
Patrick said he will attend Tuesday's school board meeting in Fort Worth.
Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement Tuesday afternoon, directed at Fort Worth ISD school board president Jacinto Ramos, saying he had concern the policy violates the Texas Education Code. Read that letter here.
A district official responded by saying the school board and the district had been working on a more inclusive policy since 2014 and drafted a new set of guidelines last summer. The official said Scribner told the school board he signed those guidelines.
Former Fort Worth city councilman Joel Burns and Steve Rudner from Equality Texas discuss Lt. Gov. Dan Patricks call for Fort Worth Superintendent Kent Scribner over the districts transgender bathroom policy.
"We have enormous confidence in Superintendent Kent P. Scribner, his team and our Board," school board president Jacinto Ramos, Jr. said in a statement. "We are focused on creating a strong, safe, and productive learning environment for ALL students."
The district considers the new rules "guidelines," which do not require a vote by the school board.
"This is all about process, and the fact that this was not put to a vote. We live in a democracy and the citizens that put the board members in place should've had a say," parent Zed Pent said.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick calls for the Fort Worth ISD superintendents resignation due to the districts policy on gender and bathroom.
Pent said he represents several organizations that oppose the guidelines, which require school personnel to acknowledge students by the gender with which they identify rather than the one on their birth certificates.
The guidelines also state the campus counselor will be a "designated ally" for transgender students. They allow the counselor to decide whether parents should be notified about a students' transition out of the "health, well-being and safety of the transitioning student."
The guidelines also require transgender students access to "a single-stall restroom, a gender neutral restroom, or the opportunity to visit the facility when other students are not present."
"We see a problem with those who would exploit the guidelines, absolutely," Pent said.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is calling for the resignation of Dr. Kent Paredes Scribner, Superintendent of the Fort Worth Independent School District.
This all comes in the aftermath of a North Carolina bill requiring a person to use the public restroom corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate.
Patrick told NBC 5 last month that he would support similar legislation in Texas.
Fort Worth ISD Transgender Student Guidelines
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Transgender-Student-Guidelines (PDF)
Transgender-Student-Guidelines (Text)
FWISD Student Welfare Freedom from Discrimination, Harassment & Retaliation
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FFH-LOCAL (PDF)
FFH-LOCAL (Text)
Attorney General Paxton's Letter to the Fort Worth ISD
NBC 5's Meredith Yeomans contributed to this report.
A San Antonio lawyer has been charged with 35 counts of sexual assault and compelling prostitution for allegedly coercing some clients into have sex with him.
Mark H. Benavides was freed late Monday on increased bond -- $250,000 -- following his indictment last month.
The former South Texas judicial candidate was arrested in November on a charge of compelling prostitution, then freed on $15,000 bond.
A Bexar County grand jury in April indicted Benavides on additional counts involving nine alleged victims. Prosecutors said the encounters since 2009 -- including dozens allegedly videotaped by the suspect -- happened in motels, the attorney's office, vehicles and a courthouse.
A judge on Monday upped the attorney's bond and also required Benavides to wear an electronic monitor.
The defendant declined comment.
A chocolate labrador that ran away from a scene of a car crash in Washington state on Sunday, was found hours later at a pet store a mile away, according to NBC affiliate KING 5.
The male dog, Zaley, had been missing since a head-on collision around 7:30 p.m. The wreck happened after the driver of a Hyundai Sonata hit a Subaru Impreza on State Route 522.
Three people in the Impreza were hurt, but a 15-month old baby was unscathed. The driver of the Sonata suffered serious injuries, according to the Washington State Patrol, KING 5 reported.
Zaley, who was in the Impreza, disappeared from the scene. Early on Monday, Breanna Findley, spotted him sitting at the doorstep of Pet Pros in Monroe.
"From 522 a mile away, from all of the stores, to come to a pet store," Findley, who was going to open a store nearby, told KING 5. "I was amazed and shocked. He was a smart boy. He came to a smart place."
She said Zaley was soaking wet and shivering. Findley and her coworker found his owner through the Lost Dogs of Snohomish County Facebook group.
He was eventually reunited with its family.
Tiffany Newby lights up when she talks about her children, but her path to motherhood hasn't been an easy one.
"Waltie was my eighth child, Newby told NBC 7. My other children were taken due to addiction and some legal obligations to the State of California."
Ten years ago, Tiffany Newby was living on the streets with Waltie who was just three months old at the time.
She spent her nights riding the trolley, just so he had somewhere to sleep.
"It was a struggle, just things like cleaning bottles, when you're homeless with a baby, diaper changing, she explained.
It got to a point, Tiffany said, where she couldn't take it anymore, so she enrolled herself in a year-long residential program at the San Diego Rescue Mission.
She sobered up and changed her life.
"It took me four years at the San Diego City College, because I had 103 units before I left there, Newby said. My confidence, my self-esteem was still low, but they encouraged me, and they helped me get signed into a bachelors. Even though I wasn't in the program anymore, they still helped me get into a bachelors."
From there, she pursued her masters and is now planning to get a Ph.D. in criminal justice.
"I had a life. I had family. I had a home. And here I was sleeping on a sidewalk at one point and living in a riverbed at one point, she said. "But my kids, knowing that I really wanted my children, are what got me goingI have some awesome kids."
After she finishes her Ph.D., Tiffany wants to open a sober-living home for mothers, to help other women like her.
Family and friends of a man killed in a crash on Interstate 8 are helping finish a project he started.
Ulises Plascential Roque, 34, was in the middle of a welding job at a home in El Cajon when he died in a crash in the College area.
His car struck the center median and flipped over. It was then hit by two pickup trucks. Roque was ejected and was hit and killed by at least one vehicle.
Roque's mother and father even came in from Central Mexico where they live to help with the project.
"They had to travel from there to the immigration site in Tijuana, and from there they had to go through all the paperwork to get here. And they only had a couple days' access in the States...They have to leave very shortly," friend David Camacho said.
People who worked with Roque said their friend was a perfectionist, always trying to do the best work possible.
"Always had a happy customer, never, not once that I was with him at least did he have an unsatisfied customer, Camacho, who worked with Roque, told NBC 7. "He used to bring all his material onsite, and he'd build everything handmade. Every single little detail for whatever the job was handmade."
Camacho said Roque hadn't slept in a couple of days because he was trying to meet a work deadline, which may have caused the crash.
"I guess you could say his mistake was overworking himself," he explained. "He was always sending money to his family in Mexico...He wanted to help out his family as much as he could. All the money he earned was always going to Mexico."
Friends and family hope to finish the project this week.
"Now as a family, want to finish this and that way, renew that money to send to Mexico and help them with the funeral and everything, his uncle Javier Roque told NBC 7.
"He inspired me to do many things," Camacho added.
A memorial is planned Tuesday at the Azatlan Mortuary in La Mesa. Roque's body will then be taken to Mexico for burial.
For the second time in a week, the California Screamin' ride at Disneyland's sister park was halted and riders were escorted off Monday afternoon.
Suzi Brown, a Disneyland parks spokeswoman, said it was a "routine stop" when the ride at California Adventure was halted before 6 p.m.
She did not say why the ride was stopped beyond that.
Riders were seen being escorted from the ride around 6 p.m., and Brown said it was in the process of being restarted.
A California Adventure guest recorded video of riders being led off the coaster after it was stopped.
The previous Monday, California Screamin' was stopped because a rider pulled out a selfie stick, which is a banned item from both Disneyland and California Adventure.
The park was set to close at 9 p.m. Monday.
The third time was the charm for James Saxton Huston.
In 1880, he purchased the original mill complex that was located along the Conodoguinet Creek just north of the Carlisle Pike and off Route 114 in Silver Spring Township.
That complex burned to the ground a year later, forcing Huston to build a second mill which burned down in 1885 with an even greater loss, according to the 2015 book Water-Powered Mills of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
Determined, Huston built the mill that exists today and the property stayed in the family until the death of his daughter-in-law Annie W. Huston in the late 1920s.
The current building harkens to a time when water-powered mills were the engine on which early industry turned in Cumberland County. Prior to James Huston arriving on the scene, the original mill complex was a manufacturing hub with machinery to grind wheat into flour, saw logs into timber, press seeds into oil and crush limestone into powder for plaster.
First owned by John Walker, the Willow Mill property was passed on to business partners Thomas Fisher and Jacob Haldeman in 1809. They owned it together until 1815 when Haldeman died. Fisher then continued to run the operation until 1835 when it passed to George Bucher who kept it up until 1880.
After the Huston family, Willow Mill passed to Raymond DeWalt, who was savvy enough to realize the days of the water-powered mill as an industry driver were numbered. Having developed a product line of power tools, DeWalt was familiar with manufacturing but chose to repurpose the Willow Mill site.
DeWalt and his family capitalized on the mills natural and historic setting to develop a sort of pastoral retreat promoting simple country life. He maintained the mill as a curiosity using its machinery to supply electricity to an adjoining inn and to grind corn meal that was served to guests. The clientele was a departure from the mainstream.
A special brochure was developed to attract members of a Rosicrucian group called the Architects of Human Development who felt that Willow Mill Farm was an appropriate site for the study of occult laws driving from Lemuria, Atlantis [and] the halls of ancient, mystic Egypt., according to the Mill book.
The book mentioned how the brochure promised group members opportunities to pursue Metaphysics, The Secret Schools and a Girls Camp along with the natural setting and pure foods available at the inn.
The Sentinel reported how the rustic retreat even hosted a Department of Prenatal Care where pregnant women were encouraged to have their babies in the beautiful setting of the park.
This rustic retreat would later become an amusement park developed by Ronald Rohrbaugh in the 1950s, according to the Mill book. The 1972 Agnes flood destroyed the park which was rebuilt and continued to function until 1989.
The Willow Mill property was then used for storage and as a trailer park until 1995 when the land was purchased by Silver Spring Township. The mill along with an acre has passed on to the Friends of Willow Mill who were raising money to restore the property as a community center when the mill book was published.
Hearken back to the close of the 19th century, right around the time the first short films were beginning to flicker and bewitch. Have you hearkened? Then ponder this widely known fact of the time, one that still intrigues today: People of the era rather liked picnicking in cemeteries.
It's a tradition that's far older than the Victorian age, of course, and yet quite contemporary, too. Look to the film series Cinespia, which is about to pull the curtain back on its 15th summer season at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
The dining, and sipping, and socializing happens upon the cemetery's Fairbanks Lawn, and the outdoor films come to life on the side of the iconic mausoleum. Movie lovers arrive early, with picnics in tow, the better to raise a toast or two and watch the sun settle behind the mysterious, super-tall palms that have become towering symbols for the historic spread.
Opening night? It's Saturday, May 14, and the flick is quintessentially of this region: It's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." "Purple Rain" is also on the 2016 schedule, in tender tribute to the memory of Prince, and "Singin' in the Rain," an ideal film for the movie studio-adjacent setting, will unspool.
Yes, true, the studio over Hollywood Forever's southern wall is Paramount, and the 1952 musical was pure MGM, but you get the Tinseltown-y tone we speak of here.
DJs send sound waves out into the assembling crowd ahead of the first swell of film music, just about the time you're setting up your blankets, pillows, and low chairs. (That's low, as in not tall, and as everyone is polite, surely these clear rules will be a snap to stick with.)
Tickets? They're $12 to $16.
Basking in a beautiful bucolic spot, much like the Victorians did, coincidentally just around the dawn of filmmaking? It's now very much a warm-weather, warm-of-heart tradition at Hollywood Forever.
Flicker on, atmospheric Tinseltown tradition. Flicker on.
The lawyer for a coffee house at the center of a racial discrimination legal battle fired back on Monday threatening to sue the women who filed what he calls a "fraudulent" lawsuit against the cafe's owners alleging they were kicked out because they're Muslim.
David Yerushalmi, the lawyer for the owners of Urth Caffe in Laguna Beach, said the seven women who claimed they were kicked out of the coffee shop on April 22, were not kicked out maliciously nor were they singled out for their race. They were asked to leave after a 45-minute time limit to clear the table so other patrons could sit down.
"They know very well that there was no wrongdoing there," Yerushalmi said.
He threatened to countersue Sara Farsakh, her co-plaintiffs and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group for Muslims that has spoken out in support of the women. CAIR does not legally represent the plaintiffs.
Farsakh and the others filed a lawsuit on May 2, claiming cafe employees kicked them out because they were Muslim women wearing hijabs who "stood out visibly stood out tarnishing their image," Farsakh said in a news conference after filing the complaint in Orange County Superior Court.
Jilla Berkman, who co-founded Urth Caffe with her husband, is Muslim, her attorney said. The cafe serves a clientele that is largely Muslims of Middle Eastern descent, Yerushalmi said.
"It's absurd to argue that a Muslim woman running a coffee house will somehow discriminate the same clients that keep their business going," he said.
Mohammad Tajsar, the plaintiffs' attorney, said the owner's race is irrelevant.
"We know it when we see it, and this is a classic case of discrimination," said Tajsar.
Editor's note (5:35 p.m. PST, May 10, 2016): This story was updated to clarify the relationship between the plaintiffs and the Council on American Islamic Relations.
A $15,000 reward is being offered to find three shotgun-toting vandals who broke into a habitat at Death Valley National Park, leaving behind a trail of beer cans, vomit, shotgun shells and a pair of boxer shorts in an ancient, water-filled cavern where officials discovered an endangered fish dead.
On April 30, three men in an off-highway vehicle pulled up to a gate at Devils Hole and opened fire on two locks and several signs, before going swimming in the cavern the only natural habitat of the critically endangered Devils Hole pupfish, Death Valley officials said.
One surveillance camera captured the men bumping into the gate with the vehicle. In another shot, the vandals are inside the gated area, where one of them appears to urinate. An underwater camera shows one of them stepping into the murky waters.
Two days later, park employees found a pupfish dead, and one of the mens boxer shorts in the pool.
"Devil's Hole pupfish have been teetering on the brink of extinction for years. The last thing they need are these idiots running amok in the last place on Earth where they still survive," said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity.
The men had also allegedly tried to disable the security system by shooting at a motion sensor and removing cables from two cameras, but officials said part of the system continued to function and recorded the vandals climbing over the fence and driving away in what appeared to be a heavily customized blue Yahama Rhino.
The men fired at least 10 rounds with a shotgun, park spokeswoman Abby Wines said.
The results of a necropsy to help investigators determine whether the men were responsible for the pupfishs death were pending, Wines said.
A reward is being offered for an arrest and conviction in the case - $5,000 from the National Park Service and a $10,000 increase Monday from the Center for Biological Diversity. Anyone with information was asked to call park investigators at 888-653-0009.
The Devils Hole pupfish has been isolated 10,000 to 20,000 years at the Devils Hole in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, an area of desert uplands on the Nevada side of Death Valley National Park. The population has been in severe decline since the mid-1990s, according to the National Park Service. At last count, 115 pupfish were spotted in the waters.
As he has for more than two decades, Jesus Lopez spent a recent workday tidying up The English Center, a public school near Coconut Grove where he is head custodian.
He realizes some outside the school may not hold his occupation in high esteem, but he can deal with that.
"They think its easy to do, but its not easy. A lot of people coming in and out and we have to make sure all these bathrooms are clean," he said.
But told that some insurance companies will charge custodians like him higher rates simply because of their occupation, Lopez is at a loss.
"To be honest with you, I dont know why, but I think they should change things around so everyone...pays the same," Lopez said.
To put auto insurance companies to the test, the NBC 6 Investigators went online to get quotes for two men of identical age, address, car make and model, driving record, claim history and other factors the insurers required and sought the same levels of coverage for both.
The only difference: one applicant was a surgeon, the other a janitor.
GEICOs online application produced a six-month premium of $623 for the surgeon.
But, with all other factors being equal, the janitor got a quote of $851 37 percent higher.
Same pattern for Progressive Insurance: $1,071 for the surgeon; $1,317 for the janitor 23 percent higher.
We showed the quotes to Lopez.
"Wow," he said. "It's horrendous. I dont understand why, but thats how it is."
To find out why, we were referred by GEICO to the industry trade group, the Insurance Information Institute and Tallahassee-based consultant Lynne McChristian.
She said rates must be set for "an actuarial reason" meaning based on what expected losses will be for a given insurance applicant.
But if you think companies can charge janitors more because they have more crashes, on average, than surgeons think again.
A 2004 study by an insurance services company found medical doctors were 14 percent more likely than manual laborers to crash.
But insurance companies are allowed to charge laborers more because premiums are not based on who crashes more theyre based on who is more likely to file a claim after a crash.
If well-heeled doctors are "in a minor accident and have the lower deductible, they may be more inclined to pay out of pocket than use their insurance," compared to laborer working paycheck to paycheck, McChristian said.
"If the data give an accurate view into the future of what the costs are - so insurance companies have the money to pay those claims - then it is fair, because it reinforces the insurance companies ability to pay what is owed for future losses," she said.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty agrees the companies that use occupation as factor are not violating law.
"Oftentimes the doctor will cover their own deductibles," McCarty said. "So while they may have more frequent accidents...the company actually pays out less."
Still the commissioner and the head custodian agree on one point.
"I think its fundamentally unfair," McCarty said.
Yet, he added, "Its up to the legislature to make the public policy decision whether - even if there is actuarial support for a rate differentiation between a plumber and a physician - whether as a matter of public policy that we should do that."
McCarty and McChristian noted not all companies use occupation as a factor so they advise prospective insurance customers shop around for the best deal.
Allstate is one of the companies that do not consider occupation in setting rates, said Larry Dudkiewicz, head of an Allstate office in Aventura.
"With the assumption all the criteria is the same, the pricing would be exactly the same," he said, adding, one applicant being a custodian and one being a surgeon "would not matter."
Fortunately for Lopez, he is insured by State Farm, which like Allstate does not use occupation in its premium calculation.
But he still feels for his colleagues who may be paying more simply because of their occupation.
"I think it should be fair for everybody," he said. "If I have a good record, why should I be penalized?"
A group of South Florida 5th grade students received an elaborate lesson in Greek Mythology, as part of a district-wide initiative to expose students to the arts.
From ancient Greece to Downtown Miami, thousands of students went to the Adrienne Arsht Center to see "Rock Odyssey."
"This is where we bring every single 5th grader in Miami-Dade. Over 21,000 students to see, to watch a fantastic performance. 'Rock Odyssey,' a comedic take on Homer's Odyssey. It is fun. It is enlightening. It's educational and kids absolutely have a blast," said MDCPS Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
The students left their classrooms and went straight to the heights of Mount Olympus. The original Rock 'n Roll musical transforms the epic work of Homer's Odyssey into a learning experience through live theater and the arts.
"I think it's good for my education because it shows us and we can learn from it and not just by teachers but other people too," said Fraijan Texidor, student.
"It's a cool experience because it has a lot of acting and music, and I really like music and acting," said Sabrina Valdivia, student.
This is the show's 7th season and it's part of the Arsht Center's Learning Through the Arts Education Initiative, which is in partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
"Not only do the students get to come to the Arsht Center for free, which includes free transportation provided by the Arsht Center, but also we do professional development sessions for 5th grade teachers to teach them how to use the production, the show to teach math, geography, mythology, language arts and of course, the arts," said Jairo Ontiveros, Director for Communication and Community Engagement at the center.
The kids had a blast rocking out and learning about Greek Mythology, and they wanted to say one last thing after seeing the show: "Thank you, Arsht Center."
The kids were not only grateful, but they also learned a lot, and best of all, it was all free.
The performances run until May 13.
A man charged in an undercover FBI operation with plotting to bomb a synagogue and Jewish school in South Florida during the recent Passover observance suffers from long-term mental illness and is no terrorist, his attorney said Tuesday.
Lawyer Joaquin Padilla said at a bail hearing that James Medina of Hollywood had been involuntarily committed by his family for psychiatric treatment on at least two occasions and that family members believe his unspecified illness dates to childhood.
"He has had mental health issues for a long time," Padilla said. "This is not a homegrown terrorist."
Still, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton agreed with prosecutors that Medina, 40, should not be released on bail because he is a danger to the community and at risk of fleeing. Medina faces life in prison if convicted of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
According to the FBI, Medina first told an informant he wanted to attack the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center using an AK-47-style weapon. It was the informant who suggested the idea of a bomb, FBI agent David Clancy testified at the hearing.
"We instructed the source to tell Mr. Medina he can get various things including an explosive device," Clancy testified.
Medina was arrested last month after accepting the dummy bomb from the informant. When the investigation began, Clancy added, Medina was living with two other men, one of whom possessed an AK-47 rifle.
Simonton noted that if the FBI had not substituted the bomb idea for the gun, Medina might have carried out his original plan.
"It is certainly a horrific thought," she said.
Padilla said Medina, who also goes by James Muhammad, converted to Islam four or five years ago after getting divorced. Prosecutors noted that he has numerous arrests over the years, including for assault, stalking and armed robbery.
Clancy said that after his arrest, Medina explained to the agents why he wanted to target Jews and the Aventura center in his planned attack.
"Mr. Medina believes the Jews are the cause of the present state of the world and all the wars," the agent said.
On FBI recordings, Medina is quoted as saying he would credit his attack to the Islamic State terror group and even made up leaflets to that effect that he planned to leave at the Jewish center. Clancy, however, testified that it was the FBI informant who first brought up the Islamic State and other terror organizations. None had a link to Medina.
Still, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Anton said Medina rejected numerous opportunities to back out of the plot, even when told he would likely kill women and children at the synagogue.
"This is a defendant who wanted to terrorize a temple," Anton said. "This is a very violent individual with intense hatred for the Jews and intent on causing mass casualties."
Medina is scheduled to enter a formal plea to the charge next week. A trial date has not been set.
Ferguson's new police chief was ready to wrap up a long career with retirement and life as a "beach bum.'' Instead, he felt called to help turn around a department that has come under intense scrutiny since the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in 2014.
Delrish Moss, 51, was sworn in Monday as Ferguson's first permanent black police chief, just weeks after a federal judge approved the St. Louis County town's agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that seeks to resolve racial bias in the criminal justice system.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Moss spent his entire 32-year career in Miami, where he grew up.
"My plan was to retire in September and actually spend a lot of time just hanging out on the beach, be a beach bum, because I've had responsibility all my life,'' Moss said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But there was something about Ferguson that sort of harkened back to the days in Miami when I was a kid living in a riot-torn neighborhood and when I was a young police officer dealing with civil unrest.
"There was something that called to me and said, 'You have to get up. You can't sit on the couch. You've got to get out there and offer your perspective,'' Moss said.
Moss was selected as the new chief in March from among 54 applicants.
Brown's death on Aug. 9, 2014, at the hands of officer Darren Wilson thrust the otherwise non-descript suburb into the spotlight and was a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement. The black 18-year-old was unarmed when the white officer fatally shot him. Wilson told a St. Louis County grand jury that Brown, 6-foot-5 and nearly 300 pounds, was moving menacingly toward him.
The grand jury and the U.S. Department of Justice cleared Wilson of wrongdoing, and he resigned in November 2014. But the shooting prompted months of protests. The unrest shed light on the strained relationship between black residents in Ferguson and the mostly-white police force. About two-thirds of Ferguson's 20,000 residents are black.
In March 2015, the Justice Department released a report critical of Ferguson police for racial bias and profiling, and a municipal court that generated profits off of court fines and legal fees. Within days of the report, Ferguson's city manager, municipal judge and Police Chief Tom Jackson resigned.
Andre Anderson, a black police veteran from Glendale, Arizona, took over as six-month interim chief in July, but left early on Dec. 2.
Moss grew up in Miami's inner-city Overtown neighborhood, where a friend was killed by police. Around the age of 14, Moss was thrown against a wall and frisked by an officer for no apparent reason. About a year later, another officer pulled up and used a racial slur. He was a teenager when rioting broke out in 1980 after white police officers fatally beat a black motorcyclist.
Still, he decided to become a police officer and joined the Miami force in 1984.
"I've been on the receiving end of police officers hurling racial slurs at you.'' Moss said. "I understand how it feels.''
In Miami, Moss rose through the ranks working in different departments, including homicide. He was named public information officer 20 years ago, and was promoted to the position of major in 2011.
Ferguson City Manager De'Carlon Seewood said Moss was a perfect fit for the job.
"He knows how to talk to citizens, talk to the press, and get them informed about changes,'' Seewood said. "We haven't done a good job of talking about the reforms that are being put in place.''
Ferguson officials have already made several changes since the shooting, including municipal court reforms aimed at lessening the financial burden of those accused of mostly minor crimes. Change in leadership was evident at Moss' swearing-in ceremony: The municipal judge who administered the oath is black, as is the new city manager and three members who have joined the city council since April 2015.
Some residents said they were anxious to see what Moss brings.
"I don't think the race matters,'' said David Evans, a 74-year-old black Ferguson resident who attended the swearing-in ceremony. "It's about doing the right thing. Being fair and equal is what it's all about.''
Moss, speaking at the ceremony, made it clear to officers in his department: Those who step out of line will be dealt harshly.
"The police profession has been assailed because people have decided there's no longer nobility in police work,'' Moss said. He said it is the job of police to earn the respect of the community.
A former Broward Sheriff's Office deputy claimed a back injury forced him to use a wheelchair and sometimes a walker, but new video shows that deputy walking just fine.
Nicolas Carreno, 45, is accused of conning his employers out of tens of thousands of dollars.
In the new video, Carreno can be seen walking around, getting in and out of his car, and having a drink with some people outside a gas station.
But the big problem is he shouldn't have been doing any of ths, and that's according to Carreno himself.
Back in 2007, the former deputy said he hurt his back lifting his laptop computer out of his patrol car. The pain was so bad that he could stand only on occasion and for no longer than a minute with the support of a walker.
He claimed an injury and was receiving benefits.
BSO had a hunch something was up and hired a private investigator firm, called Command Investigations, out of Orlando.
"Carreno made some heated comments, statements and declarations that he was unable to drive, unable to walk more than just a few steps," an investigator with the firm said.
While under surveillance he was, in fact, doing the exact opposite while he was supposed to be hurt.
NBC 6 was told when Carreno would have his check-up appointments, he'd put on a show.
"Literally, he took his chair out of his house and wheeled up to the van and was lifted into the van and he was brought to and from the medical treatment," the investigator added.
When asked whether they believe Carreno was acting, Command Investigations responded with: "100 percent. 100 percent."
Carreno was later arrested. The video evidence was so concrete against him, he turned himself in last week. He's been charged with workers' compensation fraud.
Carreno has since posted $1,000 bail and has been terminated from the Broward Sheriff's Office.
NBC 6 reached out to him and his attorney for a comment on this story, but did not hear back.
The fraud charge was investigated by the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud.
While most women don't have to think twice when it comes to their periods, that time of the month presents a unique set of challenges for homeless women who often have limited access to menstrual hygiene products.
An eye-opening United Nations report recently highlighted the humiliation and danger menstruating homeless women face. Few have access to adequate facilities to clean themselves and are often banned from using public bathrooms.
Meanwhile at shelters, tampons and sanitary pads are always among the top needs. Not only are they expensive, they're also among the least donated items by supporters.
In honor of Menstrual Hygiene Day this Saturday, HappyPeriod.org hopes to help fix this problem by creating 300 menstrual hygiene kits and distributing them on the streets of Los Angeles and Miami, two cities with large concentrations of homeless women.
In addition, the organization plans to replenish local shelters with much needed menstrual hygiene product donations. HappyPeriod.org also wants to educate the public and reduce the stigma surrounding menstrual hygiene in general.
Chelsea VonChaz, the founder of HappyPeriod, said in a statement that she started the organization because she felt that if she didn't, nobody would and the issue would continue to be ignored and trivialized.
Fort Lauderdale-based Kali Boxes, an organic tampon subscription company, is also helping out by donating tampons in both Miami and Los Angeles.
HappyPeriod.org is accepting donations of menstrual hygiene products, soap, undergarments and self-care necessities for women.
To help here in South Florida, you can drop off or mail donations to #HappyPeriod c/o Kali at 101 Northeast Third Avenue, Suite 1920, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301.
Authorities say a Florida man accused of threatening to firebomb two mosques last fall has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.
The Justice Department reported 43-year-old Martin Alan Schnitzler's sentencing in a news release Monday. He pleaded guilty in February to obstructing persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs. He had faced up to 20 years in prison.
Schnitzler admitted in his plea that he left voicemails for the Islamic Society of St. Petersburg and the Islamic Society of Pinellas County hours after the November attacks in Paris, threatening to firebomb the center and "shoot whoever is there." FBI investigators deemed the threats not credible.
The Nov. 13 attacks in Paris claimed 130 lives and wounded hundreds more.
HARRISBURG Officials are trying to determine why about two-thirds of Pennsylvanias roughly 1,000 police agencies didnt comply with a mandate to tell the state Health Department how many untested rape kits are in their possession.
The Health Department said a week ago that 332 police agencies reported having just over 1,850 untested rape kits as of the end of last year.
Physician General Rachel Levine said Monday that the state law requiring the reports doesnt penalize police agencies that dont comply.
She says the figures were collected after working with several organizations to alert police about the process and that work on getting accurate numbers is continuing.
A spokesman for the state association of police chiefs says making departments aware of new reporting requirements can be challenging.
Miami-Dade Police are investigating a shooting that left multiple people injured Monday evening, and it's not the first time they've investigated a shooting at the apartment complex.
It happened just before 7:30 p.m. in the 1200 block of Northwest 103rd Lane.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said they transported multiple victims to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Investigators said a man and woman got into an argument with another man and woman, when things escalated and bullets started flying. Witnesses described hearing 10-20 gunshots.
23-year-old Jessica Jean and 27-year-old Calvin Wright were both shot, while a third victim was injured by glass, according to police.
Police said Jean was shot in the head and Wright was shot in the chest and the arm.
Investigators said the other male and female involved were seen fleeing from the scene and they are wanted by police.
MDPD confirmed Monday's shooting happened at the same building where King Carter, 6, used to live. Carter was shot and killed during a drive-by in February while he was playing outside near his home.
His father told NBC 6 after Monday's shooting: "I heard every shot. It reminded me of three months ago."
Three teens have been charged in Carter's shooting death, along with one of the teens' mothers, who's accused of tampering with evidence.
A South Florida plastic surgeon has been ordered to stop doing his signature "Brazilian Butt Lift" and liposuction procedures after a handful of patients came forward claiming he botched their procedures.
Florida's Department of Health, the agency that oversees doctors, has restricted the license of Dr. Osak Omulepu and has taken action to revoke his license altogether.
State officials issued the emergency restriction after four women claimed the doctor "botched" their procedure in 2015, causing them to be admitted to the emergency room for infections and other issues.
Just a few days before the State issued the restriction, Crystal Heath went to Dr. Omulepu for liposuction and a Brazilian butt lift. The work-out fanatic lost more than 100 pounds and wanted to reward herself with a cosmetic procedure.
"I had lost a lot of weight and in the process, I lost my butt as well," Heath said.
Heath went under the knife for a butt lift on Feb. 15, but the doctor ended up giving her a tummy tuck instead.
"I didn't need a tummy tuck, I paid for a Brazilian butt lift," she said. According to Health, the doctor told her she didn't have enough fat on her stomach to be transferred to her backside to do the original procedure.
Heath said the surgery left her with a 7-inch hole in her stomach which resulted in an 11 day hospital stay.
"At the moment when everything went wrong, I felt like I was going to die," Heath said. "I started throwing up instantly, I start throwing up so bad it was like bursting in my stomach."
Two of the clinics were Dr. Omulepu worked told the NBC 6 Investigators he's no longer practicing there; Spectrum Aesthetics, where Heath had her surgery, and Vanity Cosmetic Surgery in Miami.
NBC 6 cameras captured the doctor showing up for work at Encore Plastic Surgery in Hialeah. Employees at the clinic said he's still working at the facility. Dr. Omulepu's license is only partially restricted.
The Florida Department of Health is trying to revoke his license altogether. Doctor Omulepu has filed paperwork denying the allegations and is challenging the revocation. No date has been scheduled yet for a hearing.
The NBC 6 Investigators reached out repeatedly to the doctor and his attorney through phone calls and emails but they have not responded.
We also discovered Dr. Omulepu is not a board certified plastic surgeon. Industry experts recommend plastic surgeons be certified by the American Board of Plastic surgery.
Click on the links below to find out if your surgeon is board certified:
American Board of Plastic Surgery
American Society of Plastic Surgeons
Some drivers who need to replace defective Takata air bags say they are being forced to keep their cars on New York City streets.
Their dealerships say they dont have space to store the vehicles until the recalled airbags are fixed, so drivers who park on the street need to constantly move their cars to meet parking regulations.
If you dont have it in one of these $500-$600 Manhattan monthly spaces, youve got to move your car constantly, you know, for the different street cleaning days, said Marc Rothenberg, a lawyer for people hurt by defective cars.
In one case, a dealership requires customers to sign a document certifying they want to retain possession of their recalled vehicles, the I-Team learned.
Claudia Rabin, who leases a recalled Acura RDX, said she waited about a month for a replacement part. In order to qualify for a loaner SUV, Acura of Brooklyn required her to sign a document with the following language: "I wish to retain the Subject Vehicle in my possession until the parts necessary to complete the Subject Recall Repair become available."
Rabin signed the document, but felt it was underhanded.
If something happens to me in the car, it makes me responsible, Rabin said.
I did not choose to take the car and I was quite adamant about the fact that I didnt want the car, Rabin said. There is no parking for another car where I live.
The Takata air bag recall is the largest safety recall in automobile history, and is already linked to 11 deaths.
As of last week, more than 60 million Takata airbags were recalled because they can launch shrapnel into a cars passenger compartment.
If youre, God forbid. in an accident, and your airbag deploys, you or your occupants are subject to this metal firing at your face, your head, your neck at incredible speeds with incredible strengths that can cause deaths and horrible injuries, Rothenberg said.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is the federal agency that oversees car recalls. The agency has fined Takata a record $70 million for lapses relating to their air bags. The agency sent the I-Team an email insisting it cannot force car companies to store cars, or provide replacement vehiclesonly that they replace the airbags.
We completely sympathize with owners, and the agency is doing everything it can to get manufacturers to replace recalled air bag inflators as quickly as possible, the statement read. NHTSA doesnt have authority to require automakers to provide loaner vehicles to consumers.
When the I-Team reached out to Acura of Brooklyn, a company representative referred the I-Team to Honda, which manufactures Acuras. Honda spokesman Chris Martin said four out of the nine Honda and Acura dealers in New York City are not able to store defective cars until they are fixed, but Honda has not received any direct complaints about the issue from customers in New York City.
While some of our New York dealers have acknowledged some complaints about the lack of vehicle storage, Honda has not yet received any direct complaints about this issue from customers in New York City, Martin wrote in an email.
Rothenberg questions why money from Takatas fines isnt used to pay for vehicle parking while cars wait for recall repairs.
You know they just levied a very high fine on Takata, you know which was paid, and wheres that money going to? Rothenberg said.
Rabins car had its airbags replaced last week and is now safe to drive. But there are still thousands of New York City vehicles in need of repairs.
To find out if yours is one of them, go to http://www.safercar.gov.
Takata said in a statement it's working to supply replacement kits as "efficiently as possible," and that it's produced nearly 14 million replacement kits in the U.S. to date.
"The safety of the driving public is our top priority, and we are committed to being part of the solution to this highly complex matter," the company said.
A man who was shot to death when he answered his door in the Bronx told police it was a stranger who knocked and then fired on him.
Rashaun Ahart, 35, was shot moments after he answered the front door of his apartment in Fordham Heights.
Police said they responded to a call about the shooting around 8:45 p.m.
When officers arrived at Aharts Creston Avenue apartment building, they found he had been shot multiple times in his chest. Fourteen shell casings were discovered nearby, according to police.
Before he died, Ahart told police that it was a stranger who shot him when he answered the door.
Ahart was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital at 9:25 p.m.
The NYPD is investigating the shooting, and no arrests have been made.
Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
Queens residents weren't shy about offering their opinions on the proposed Brooklyn-Queens streetcar system during a meeting hosted by the agencies planning the $2.5 billion project Monday evening.
Officials from New York City Department of Transportation and the Economic Development Corporation convened with neighbors to talk about who would ride the streetcar, what the streetcars would look like and which actual streets it would go on.
And as officials rolled out the maps, Astoria residents rolled out their own visions for the connector -- and the discussion was expectedly colorful.
"It takes a long time from here to here," one attendee said authoritatively, tapping a pen on two points on a map.
"Theoretically, there will be more people on the streetcar, and less people in their cars, and that will help congestion," said another man.
"Come on!" the first man countered, adding sarcastically, "'We're going to put streetcars here and here and here.' Come on, guy!"
Under Mayor de Blasio's vision, the streetcar would run for approximately 16 miles along the waterfront that stretches between Brooklyn and Queens. That area has seen rapid recent growth but has limited subway service.
Councilman Costa Constantinides, who represents Queens' District 22, wanted to know how the streetcar would get integrated into the changing neighborhood.
"That's the question I think many of us have," he said. "How do we stitch this into the fabric of who we are?"
There were also concerns about the $2.5 billion price tag for the project, as longtime residents raised sensitivities to rising rents and costs in the gentrifying neighborhood.
"I'm sure it's going to be beautiful, but can we afford to stay here?" said Mary McClary of Justice for All.
Pete Trilivas, who's lived in Astoria for 60 years said, "Why do all this cost now, when you could provide the buses and you're done?"
Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector
Construction on the new line is estimated to begin in 2019 and it would not be operational until 2024. Planning is still in the very early phases, and the EDC and DOT want more public input.
The next meeting for the public will be in Red Hook, Brooklyn Thursday night.
Police are asking for the public's help identifying an elderly woman found wandering inside a Sephora store in Brooklyn Saturday.
The woman was wandering inside the makeup store at 210 Joralemon St. in Brooklyn Heights at about noon, according to police. She does not speak English, and an interpreter said the woman was incoherent and she couldn't provide a name or contact information for friends or family.
The woman is between 80 and 90 years old, about 5 feet tall and 100 pounds.
She was wearing a green, red and blue sweater, black winter hat, black pants, black shoes, and had a key tied around her neck by a string.
Anyone with information is asked to call 800-577-TIPS.
A New York City man convicted of killing his teacher wife is drawing new outrage for his public quest for romance.
Jonathan Crupi was sentenced to 25 years in prison last September after being convicted in the murder of his wife, Simeonette Mapes, in their Staten Island home in July 2012.
Mapes' mother, Theresa Maples, recently learned of Crupi's profile on dating website convictpenpals.com. The profile states: "I'm not married and I don't have any kids. No baby-mama drama here!"
"He has 'no baby mama drama,'" Theresa Mapes said, quoting Crupi's dating profile. "It was just the way that he wrote that, it was like an attack on us. That's how I felt. It was an attack on this family. Like he hasn't enough."
"He took my world away, he destroyed my world, he destroyed my life, he destroyed my family," Theresa Mapes told NBC 4 New York Monday.
"She was a good, good-hearted soul, person, and that's why I want that these convicts cannot write up these letters, write up these profiles," she said.
Prosecutors said Crupi pushed Mapes, a Brooklyn teacher, down a flight of stairs during an argument before stabbing her 15 times. He then ransacked the home to make it look like his wife had been killed by an intruder.
Prosecutors say Crupi, also a Brooklyn teacher at the time, met up with a prostitute after the killing, then returned home hours later and called 911.
The couple was two days away from their fifth wedding anniversary when Simeonette was killed.
Crupi has maintained he is innocent and told a judge at sentencing that he did not kill his wife. His dating profile also claims he's innocent.
"It's like my daughter meant nothing," Theresa said, who has started an organization called Sissy's Angels in honor of her daughter to help victims of domestic violence. "You know, that's where my anger comes from, is that my daughter did mean something, and she was an asset to this world."
When Crupi's attorney, Mario Gallucci, was asked about the dating profile Monday, he said in a statement, "Although I can see how the victim's family could view such a profile as being disrespectful, I could understand my client's point of view by trying to keep his hope alive."
Crupi's case is now in the appellate process.
For Theresa, the last line of Crupi's dating profile is haunting: "Take a chance and write me soon," it states. "You won't regret it."
"Will they regret it?" questioned Theresa Mapes. "Yes. It will be the sorriest thing they ever did if they wrote this person."
A Connecticut woman whose former boyfriend accused her of leaving fireplace ashes in the mudroom of their Stamford home before a 2011 fire killed her three young children and parents told NBC's "Today" show she feels sorry for him.
Madonna Badger's then-boyfriend, Michael Borcina, for years told investigators he had moved the bag of ashes into the mudroom before the deadly Christmas Day fire. Badger and Borcina escaped, but Badger's 7-year-old twins, 9-year-old daughter and parents were killed.
"It's impossible to describe how it is that you can't go in and save your own children, but I couldn't," Badger told "Today" through tears in 2012.
The blaze prompted a string of legal fights, and in a recent lawsuit deposition, Borcina reversed course and pointed the finger at Badger, saying she had moved the ashes and he had lied to protect her, the Hartford Courant reported.
According to court paperwork obtained by the Courant, Borcina said he had taken responsibility to "spare [Badger] from carrying the burden that maybe she had done something to hurt her family."
Badger responded to Borcina's claims in a statement to the "Today" show Tuesday morning, saying, "I feel sorry for him. I feel incredibly sad for him."
She declined to comment further, citing pending litigation. Both Badger and the father of her children have outstanding lawsuits against the city of Stamford. Borcina previously agreed to pay $5 million to settle a separate suit filed by the children's father.
Badger told "Today" in 2012 she believed the fire was sparked by an electrical problem at the $1.7 million house, which was under renovation. She said she did not blame Borcina, a contractor working on the home.
"I don't believe that his actions cause the fire. So I don't believe that Mike is responsible for starting the fire," Badger said. She later wondered, "How is it that you have a little bit of ashes causing this enormous fire that spreads so quickly?"
Borcina's attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the deposition.
A top adviser from Sen. Ted Cruzs defunct presidential campaign wants supporters to push a conservative agenda, including limits on the bathrooms transgender people can use, a fresh example of the headaches Donald Trump could face at this summers Republican National Convention.
With Trumps last two rivals Texas Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich abandoning their campaigns, theres no remaining talk of snatching the presidential nomination away from Trump with a contested, multiballot convention battle.
Instead, anti-Trump forces are trying to figure out how to use the GOP meeting in July to keep the billionaire from reshaping the party and its guiding principles, perhaps with fights over the platform, the rules or even his vice presidential pick.
Many expect Trump to build momentum as the convention approaches, narrowing his opponents options. Even so, heres what may be in store:
What now?
Trumps foes concede hes likely to arrive in Cleveland exceeding the 1,237 delegates needed to become the nominee. Yet many are still reeling from the contests unexpected finale last week and are just starting to think about what they could do at the convention that would be productive.
Theres going to be a lot of thinking, a lot of praying and a lot talking between all of us, said Kay Godwin, a Cruz delegate from Blackshear, Georgia.
Many Trump opponents see the Republican platform, the partys statement of ideals and policy goals, as a place for a stand in Cleveland. The conventions 2,472 delegates must approve the platform before formally anointing the presidential nominee.
All including those chosen to support Trump can vote however they want on the platform. Many conservatives say they will use that vote to keep Trump from reshaping GOP dogma against abortion, for free trade and on other issues.
Trump has said he would seek to include exceptions for rape and incest to the GOP platforms opposition to abortion a big problem for conservatives. Hes also flouted the party platform by repeatedly criticizing trade deals and calling NATO obsolete.
Party rules
Cruz backers want rules making the GOP a grassroots party rather than a Washington-centric party, Cuccinelli said. He cited existing requirements that make it harder for some presidential candidates to have their names placed in nomination at the convention.
In addition, Trump has said hed like a vice presidential candidate with government experience.
Yet, as with the platform, delegates can vote as they please in choosing Trumps running mate. Some opponents suggest they may challenge his choice, either as a protest or to try forcing him to make a different selection.
If he wants to dictate who the nominee is for vice president, the delegates may not go along, said Roger Stauter, a Cruz delegate from Madison, Wisconsin, who said he would never support Trump.
Whither Ryan?
Anxiety over Trump spread among congressional Republicans Monday, pushing several to follow House Speaker Paul Ryans lead and withhold their support from the divisive billionaire. Ryan himself declared theres no point in trying to fake party unity.
If we go forward pretending that were unified, then we are going to be at half-strength this fall, Ryan told The Journal Times in Racine, Wisconsin.
Still, in interviews with home-state reporters Monday, Ryan denounced the idea of any Republican launching a third-party or independent candidacy to challenge Trump, telling the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel it would be a disaster for our party.
And Ryan said hed step aside from the House speakers traditional role as chairman of the Republican National Convention if Trump wants him to, a scenario that Trump left open over the weekend, underscoring the depths of strife now afflicting a GOP divided against itself.
Hes the nominee. Ill do whatever he wants in respect to the convention, Ryan said.
New Jersey's third-largest school district faces the potential loss of more than 500 teachers and other school staff members because of budget restraints, warns the state appointed superintendent.
Paterson Schools Superintendent Donnie Evans sent an email to nearly 4,000 teachers and other school employees saying 517 jobs are in jeopardy unless their labor union agree to a change in their health insurance as it pertains to prescription drugs.
The union has responded that the current contract is not open to renegotiation.
Another layoff of teachers would be hard to accept, say parents and students. The district laid off more than 300 teachers last year, they said.
"A third of the staff has already been cut. Any more would be devastating," said Rosie Grant, executive director of the Paterson Education Fund, a not-for-profit group that encourages community involvement to improve local schools.
An undisclosed number of secretaries in the school districts central offices were notified last Friday that they are being laid off.
John McEntee, president of the union that represents city teachers and secretaries, said the layoffs are outrageous as the school system continues contracts with what he said were high-priced consultants.
A 26-year-old driver has been accused of driving under the influence of drugs after a crash that killed a bicyclist Monday night in Brooklyn, authorities said.
The driver was charged with operating a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs after the the crash at Avenue P and East 12th Street in Midwood.
Authorities say that the driver blew through a red light on Avenue P and then crashed into a car at East 12th Street. The impact sent both vehicles barreling toward a man on his bike in the crosswalk. The cyclist was then pinned between two parked cars.
The cyclist was taken to Lutheran Hospital, where he died. His identity hasn't been released.
The investigation into the crash is still ongoing, police say.
Police are searching for the man who randomly attacked a woman as she walked into a subway station in Woodside, Queens.
The 74-year-old woman was at the 65th Street station, which serves E, M and R trains, when she was attacked earlier this month.
Police say the woman was walking down into the station just after 5 p.m. when a man walking up the stairs got in her face. He then punched her in the head and ran up the stairs to the street.
The woman was taken to Elmhurst Hospital, where she was treated and released.
Nothing was stolen from the victim.
Police ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS.
An NYPD officer is suing the department after she said she was disciplined for speaking in Spanish to a coworker.
Officer Jessenia Guzman, originally of the Dominican Republic, said in a suit filed Monday that she was reprimanded for violating the departments English-only policy after speaking casually with a coworker at a precinct in 2013.
The suit claims that the department violates her civil and constitutional rights and seeks unspecified damages.
Anthony Miranda, the chairman of the National Latino Officers Association, has been advising Guzman in the case and said that the conversation amounted to little more than a casual how are you conversation.
He disagreed with the NYPDs policy and called it pure racism.
In a statement to the New York Post, the department said that "with over 50 different languages spoken by employees of the Department, our Office of Equal Employment Opportunity has established guidelines for members to speak English when they are conducting business for the department, unless speaking a foreign language is necessary to perform his or her duties."
The Post also reports that a lieutenant at the department said that Guzman "continually" spoke in Spanish with another officer.
On Tuesday, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton defended the policy on Tuesday.
She's wrong, he said. We're gonna win. See you in court."
A contractor who took the blame for accidentally starting a 2011 Christmas Day house fire in Stamford, Connecticut, that killed his girlfriend's three children and her parents now says she's the one who left a bag of fireplace ashes in a mudroom.
The Hartford Courant reports Michael Borcina told attorneys during a lawsuit deposition that he lied to police to protect his girlfriend and the children's mother, Madonna Badger.
"To spare her from carrying the burden that maybe she had done something to hurt her family," Borcina said in the deposition.
Borcina originally told authorities he put the ashes in the room. He later agreed to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the children's father, Matthew Badger.
Matthew Badger's claims against several subcontractors and their insurance carriers remain active, and the deposition was part of those lawsuits.
Madonna Badger, an advertising executive in New York, and Borcina were dating at the time and escaped the fire, which killed 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah Badger, 9-year-old Lily Badger and their maternal grandparents, Lomer and Pauline Johnson.
Authorities said the fire began after Borcina left the bag of fireplace ashes in a bin in the mudroom in the house. Borcina, who was renovating the $1.7 million Victorian home, was accused in the lawsuit of contributing with other defendants to make the house a "firetrap," including failing to install a smoke detection system during the construction.
A lawyer for Borcina didn't return a message seeking comment on Monday. A phone listing for Borcina could not be found. A representative for Madonna Badger declined to comment to NBC 4 New York Monday.
Madonna Badger has said Borcina ran his hands over the ashes to make sure they were out before putting the bag in the bin in the mudroom, just before they went to sleep after wrapping presents early on Christmas morning. She has since said she believes the blaze may have been electrical in origin.
She has alleged city officials intentionally destroyed evidence when they demolished the home without notice shortly after the fire. City officials have denied that.
Borcina also said in a deposition taken by lawyers for an electrical subcontractor that he hasn't talked to Madonna Badger since six months after the fire and that she removed records about the renovation project from his computers without his permission.
UPDATE: Parents Demand Answers in Afterschool Brawl That Hurt 7
A Manhattan high school is holding an emergency meeting for concerned parents after dozens of students got involved in a street brawl, some allegedly wielding bats and knives after school Monday, officials say.
Authorities say the City College Academy for the Arts was letting students out Monday afternoon when dozens of them got involved in a fight near West 196th Street and Broadway. A total of about 50 teens were involved, though it's not clear how many of them were students at that school.
Cellphone video shows the the melee as students assaulted each other -- some with weapons, according to police -- and jumped on cars and ran down the street. Panic could be heard in the voices of some students caught in the chaos.
"Let's go!" one girl is heard screaming to another teen.
"Hold my hand!" another yells.
Seven teens between 16 and 18 years old were hurt in the brawl, according to police. Among the injured was a 17-year-old boy struck in the back of the head and another 17-year-old hit above the eye.
One mother at the school said she knows one of the victims, who's a classmate of her daughter, and that he was set to have surgery on Thursday.
A 16 year old and a 17 year old have been arrested and charged with assault. They attend different schools, and police are now investigating a motive.
There was a strong police presence at the school Tuesday following the fight, but parents were still looking for answers.
"Everybody's scared, we don't know what happened," said another mother who wanted to remain anonymous. She said her son has been having anxiety since the fight and as a result, she also kept him from school Tuesday.
"I don't know if I'm going to be sending him tomorrow to school because I'm really scared," she said.
The mother who knows one of the injured boys said she didn't send her daughter to school on Tuesday, "and I won't send her tomorrow until the school gives us a report of the situation."
Parent Rosa Rojas said she heard there was "a big commotion, a big fight."
"I was very concerned when I drove by and I saw all those cops," she said. "I have my son here."
The concern was widespread enough that administrators decided to hold an emergency meeting Wednesday. A parent coordinator at the school says the meeting will be held in the school auditorium at 4:30 p.m.
In a statement Tuesday, the Department of Education said "the safety and security of students and staff is our top priority... We will continue to work closely with the NYPD to ensure we are providing a safe learning environment in every school building."
The father of an 11-year-old Nebraska girl whose scalp was torn from her head by a carnival ride said his daughter may never see again, NBC News reported.
"They don't even know if the muscles will work," a distraught Timothy Gilreath told reporters during a news conference Sunday evening at Nebraska Medicine hospital. "She was tortured," he added.
The details of what happened at the Cinco De Mayo carnival in Omaha on Saturday remain unclear, but Gilreath's daughter, Elizabeth, was on a spinning ride called the "King's Crown" when she was tossed from her seat onto the floor.
Elizabeth's hair became caught in the ride's spinning mechanism, ripping it from her head and fracturing her skull.
Nebraska Labor Department spokeswoman Grace Johnson said investigators have found no indication that a spinning carnival ride was malfunctioning or that the person operating the ride wasn't paying attention when the incident occurred, The Associated Press reported. Johnson said investigators are looking at the restraints on the ride.
The Pentagon said a top Islamic State leader in Iraq's Anbar province has been killed by a coalition airstrike.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Abu Wahib and three others were killed when their vehicle was struck on May 6 in Rutba. He said Wahib's death is a blow to the group's leadership.
A senior U.S. official said it was an American airstrike. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, so spoke on condition of anonymity.
Cook said Wahib was a former member of al-Qaida in Iraq and has appeared in Islamic State execution videos. There have been unconfirmed reports in the past suggesting Wahib was targeted by strikes, but this is the first time the Pentagon has said he was killed.
After a ruling-party congress in which leader Kim Jong Un enshrined his hold on power and his commitment to developing nuclear weapons, hundreds of thousands of North Koreans celebrated with a massive civilian parade Tuesday featuring floats bearing patriotic slogans and marchers with flags and pompoms.
Kim presided over the parade and waved to the crowd. North Koreans had been practicing roles in the parade and other events for weeks, and participation is mandatory.
"We had been practicing every other day for this event," said Yun Song Hua, a 35-year-old medical student at Kim Il Sung University. "I'm proud to be able to participate in an event like this with our leader here with us."
The two-hour parade started off with a 30-minute speech by Kim Yong Nam, the head of North Korea's parliament and nominal head of state. Foreign journalists in Pyongyang for the congress had to gather hours earlier, at 5:30 a.m., to go through strict security screening. They had to surrender all telephones and communication devices, which is typical whenever Kim Jong Un is at an event with media allowed to see.
The four-day congress completed Monday was the authoritarian country's first since 1980, before Kim was even born. The rubberstamp body of more than 3,400 delegates endorsed his nuclear and economic policies, promoted his favored officials and gave him a new title of party chairman.
Kim told delegates that the North would not use its nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is threatened and hinted that he was willing to work with countries that had previously been hostile toward the North if they are willing to work with him.
By calling a congress something his father, Kim Jong Il, never did Kim demonstrated what may be a leadership style more like that of his charismatic grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung. Kim Il Sung worked through party organs more than Kim Jong Il, who preferred using his own network of trusted individuals to get things done.
Victor Cha, an expert on North Korea at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who served as a top White House official on Asia policy under President George W. Bush, said that a primary goal for the congress was to anoint Kim Jong Un as leader "for the next 50 years" by naming him as party chairman.
"They are doing everything to make him look like this grandfather in every way possible with the glasses and the haircut. I think they are trying to symbolize that when his grandfather was leader, those were better days for North Korea," Cha said. "It's almost like they are trying to equate North Korea's future with North Korea's past."
Evans Revere, an expert on Northeast Asia and a former senior State Department official, said there were two main messages from the congress. The first was for Kim to demonstrate in as prominent a manner possible that "this is my party now."
Secondly, he said, the congress announced to the world that nuclear weapons are a permanent fixture in North Korea's security posture, formalizing what Pyongyang has been saying for several years, despite international demands that it adhere to its 2005 commitment in six-party talks to denuclearize.
"It's hard to take anything positive from this. The overwhelming message is that they have doubled down on the nuclear issue," he said. "I don't think the international community is going to accept that or work with that."
Revere and Cha said that North Korea's announcement it would not use those nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty was threatened appeared to be an attempt to seek legitimacy as a nuclear-armed state. In the past, the North has threatened to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively.
"The number one lesson of nuclear weapons states is that the importance of nuclear weapons is in their non-use, their deterrence, not in their use," Cha said. "Maybe they are trying to show they understand that, but I don't think they really do.
"The difficult thing for (U.S.) policymakers is, where do you go from here?" he said. "If it was ever unclear that they were not going to give up their nuclear weapons, they have made it crystal-clear that they're not going to. Can we still talk about denuclearization, or do we aim for a freeze and a cap? It's a tough situation."
Revere said a big obstacle would be taking an unpredictable regime at its word, given its failure to stick to its past commitments. Also, he said North Korea is developing what could be used as first-strike capabilities, including solid-fuel missiles, that would remove any warning time if the North intended to launch a weapon.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a press briefing Monday that Washington is more focused on North Korea's actions than its words.
"Once North Korea demonstrates a commitment to coming back into compliance with those international obligations, the United States and the rest of the international community would be prepared to enter into negotiations with them and begin to give them access to the international community that they've been denied for some time now," Earnest said.
Cha said North Korea highlighted its sensitivity to criticism and ridicule through its treatment of more than 100 foreign journalists it had invited to cover the congress. Except for about 30 journalists who viewed just 10 minutes of the proceeding Monday, they were completely shut out, confined to official tours of places including a wire factory. Three BBC journalists were detained for three days and expelled because the government was unhappy with their reporting.
"It's kind of like the way they do economic reform," Cha said. "They really want it. They open up a little bit. Then they are afraid of what could go wrong, and then they close it up again. It's the way they deal with the world in general."
The State Department can find no emails to or from a former Hillary Clinton aide who worked for the agency and also managed Clinton's private computer server while she served as secretary of state, the government said in a new court filing on Monday.
The government said as much in U.S. District Court in Washington in answer to a lawsuit by the Republican National Committee. The committee had sued over its public records request for all work-related emails sent to or received by Clinton's former aide, Bryan Pagliano, between 2009 and 2013, the years of Clinton's tenure. The lawsuit also pressed for other State Department records from the Clinton era.
The RNC's filing said lawyers for the agency had informed them in discussions that, "the State Department has represented that no responsive records exist" for any Pagliano emails. Pagliano was hired at the agency after reportedly setting up Clinton's server in 2009, but the lack of any official State Department emails raises the question whether he limited his email traffic using a private account, much like Clinton did during her four years as secretary, or whether his government emails were deleted.
A State Department official said it possesses emails from Pagliano during the period after Clinton's term had ended, when he continued to work as a technology contractor. Agency spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the department searched for Pagliano's email file but "has not located one that covers the time period of Secretary Clinton's tenure." She added that the agency is working with Congress and several public records requesters to provide relevant material.
Trudeau also said "the department disagrees with a number of assertions made in today's filing" and added that agency officials continue to search for "Mr. Pagliano's emails, which the department may have otherwise retained."
State Department officials told Senate investigators last year they could not find any Pagliano work emails from Clinton's tenure, an assertion first reported by Politico.
Raj Shah, spokesman for the RNC, said: "It's hard to believe that an IT staffer who set up Hillary Clinton's reckless email server never sent or received a single work-related email in the four years he worked at the State Department." Clinton's campaign officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.
Pagliano has been offered immunity by the Justice Department in its continuing investigation into Clinton's server and emails and whether the setup violated national security laws. Pagliano's lawyer, Mark MacDougall, declined to comment.
Only one email sent by Pagliano surfaced among 30,000 emails reviewed and released by the State Department since last summer. That email, sent to Clinton by Pagliano in November 2012, wished her "Happy Birthday Madam Secretary. To many more!"
Pagliano's email address was censored, unlike most State Department emails suggesting that he sent the message from a private address.
Clinton did not reply directly to Pagliano, instead sending a copy of an email to an aide with the instruction: "Pls respond."
A teacher has received death threats from his own relatives as he battles to stop the ancient tradition of families giving away virgin daughters to settle disputes.
Khan Wali Adil has been camped out for more than three weeks in front of Afghanistan's parliamentary compound to protest the practice of "baad."
The 24-year-old is urging lawmakers to pass women's rights legislation that would explicitly outlaw baad which the U.N. has called "pervasive" but is most common among ethnic Pashtuns. The proposed law has been blocked by conservatives for years, NBC News reported.
A 22-year-old victim of baad from the country's eastern Parwan province told NBC News how she was given to a man his late 40s who was already married with eight children.
The woman, who is not being named for her own safety, found herself used as a bargaining chip after her brother accidentally shot a man from their village over a land dispute.
Ocean County Prosecutors say a Pittsburgh man traveled to New Jersey to have sex at a hotel with an 11-year-old girl.
Authorities say the girl had met 35-year-old Robert Clayton through social media.
Prosecutors say Clayton drove to New Jersey and picked the girl up at her home on May 1.
The girl was unable to identify the hotel. But she was able to provide details about the suspect's appearance, his vehicle and his social media accounts.
Police located Clayton's vehicle and he was charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, luring and child endangerment.
Clayton is held on $375,000 bail. It's not known if he has a lawyer who can comment on the charges.
A hit-and-run driver left a bicyclist in critical condition after a crash in West Philadelphia Tuesday morning.
The wreck left the unidentified cyclists bike mangled in the middle of 52nd Street near Spruce Street around 2:20 a.m. The force of impact threw the cyclist to the asphalt, said police.
Medics rushed the 46-year-old man to Presbyterian Hospital where he was listed in critical but stable condition with a head injury and possible rib fractures, said Philadelphia Police.
Police hoped surveillance video could help them identify a suspect since no one witnessed the crash. they said the vehicle that struck the man appeared to be white or silver.
Sandy Watters remembers when she first heard of Bernie Sanders last year, and how quickly her excitement about his progressive platform turned into an eagerness to act.
"We started looking up how to be involved in your party and what to do in the primary. I came across how to become a delegate," said Watters, 21, of Willmar, Minnesota.
Watters went through a couple rounds of competition at the local and state levels, and in the end was elected to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention for her 7th Congressional District in south-central Minnesota.
The next, and harder, step, she realized, was getting to Philadelphia for the weeklong convention in July.
For many across America who became hands-on political for the first time in this presidential election energized by an anti-establishment candidate like Sanders the cost of being a delegate isnt an obstacle they foresaw.
"Ive got a few fundraisers in my hometown," said 27-year-old diesel mechanic Dylan Parker, who will represent Illinois 17th Congressional District as a Sanders delegate. "Otherwise, its going to come out of me and my familys pockets."
Roughly 4,800 delegates, representing every congressional district, state, and U.S. territory, will gather July 25-28 in Philadelphia to officially nominate the partys candidate for president. Delegates are expected to arrive by July 24.
Combine a five-night hotel stay in an expensive East Coast city with airfare from places across the country, and many delegates have been told by their state Democratic Party officials that the trip will cost anywhere from $4,000 to $8,000.
"If I went the route the party has set aside for me, Im looking at $4,000 to 5,000," Wisconsin delegate Matthew LaRonge said.
Courtesy Matthew LaRonge
LaRonge, a Sanders delegate from the town of Plover, and Wisconsins other 85 Democratic delegates have been assigned a convenient if pricey hotel by the Democratic National Committee for convention week. Each state and territory was assigned hotels by the national party organization in December. Some states, like Wisconsin, are lucky relatively speaking. LaRonge and his cohort were assigned the Homes2 Suites by Hilton in Center City, across from Reading Terminal Market.
The privilege of staying downtown will cost the 29-year-old Autozone salesman $369 a night.
"We are not required to stay at the Hilton. So if fundraising doesnt work out, there are AirBnBs and other hotels a little further away," LaRonge said.
Others like Watters and her fellow Minnesotans will stay at the Radisson Hotel Valley Forge 21 miles from Center City and 30 miles from the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia, where the convention will take place.
Watter, LaRonge, and more than 260 other delegates have taken to the crowdfunding website GoFundMe, asking for support from anyone willing to help send them to Philadelphia. Most of those spaeeking help through the site are Bernie Sanders supporters, and tend to be younger.
They come from far-flung places like Hana, Hawaii; Sioux County, South Dakota; and Nevada City, California.
One of the more successful, Jason Eno of Maui County, Hawaii, has raised more than $3,800. And that was just to help himself and other Hawaii delegates get to the state convention on the island of Oahu.
"In addition to our time (two days at the convention plus travel), we will be paying for airfare ($200), lodging in Honolulu (500), and the cost of the convention itself ($125). We need every Bernie delegate to be there to support our cause," Eno wrote at his GoFundMe page. "Unfortunately the cost of the trip may be more than some can afford. Please help us get there for Bernie, Hawaii, and the nation. Mahalo."
Watters has raised $1,132 of a $7,000 goal. LaRonge has raised $1,104 of a $3,500 goal, while Parker has raised $1,625 of $5,000.
"You do only live once, and we are the future of American politics, or America in general," said Parker. "And we want to help out. You have to be willing to put your money where your mouth is."
Courtesy Dylan Parker
Despite a perception among some delegates that their state political organizations are not allowed to finance delegates trips to convention, federal election law does not prohibit state political organizations like the Democratic Party of Illinois from paying.
But the financial strain of paying the way for Illinois 182 delegates is a constraint.
"Im not aware of any legal prohibition," said Democratic Party of Illinois spokesman Steve Brown. "You can do the math. Hotel rooms are close to $760 a night with taxes. And with hotels limiting stays to four or more nights, plus airfare, its an expensive commitment."
Elected officials who are delegates can use candidate funds to pay for their trips.
The Federal Election Commission also alluded to sections of federal campaign finance laws that allow presidential candidates to help pay for delegates trips, so far as the delegates spend the contributions only on travel expenses.
"The candidate will want to make sure that the money is used to further the delegates participation in the convention and is not converted to personal use," according to the FEC.
Democratic National Convention officials "understand and appreciate the commitment" the delegates will make this summer to spend thousands on the trip to argue vehemently for Sanders or front-runner Hillary Clinton, a spokesman for the DNC said.
He added that crowdsourcing sites like GoFundMe potentially ease the burden on the delegate themselves.
"Our process encourages state parties to give delegates information and tools to help to put together the resources to participate," DNC spokesman Lee Whack said in an email. "Over the last three cycles, in particular, the Internet has lowered the bar for participation by making it easier for potential delegates to get their message out and to leverage tools for crowdfunding to help them perform this vital role."
In Colorado Springs, south of Denver, writer Jene Jackson followed that 21st century blueprint to a successful bid for delegate in Colorados 5th Congressional District.
Courtesy Jene Jackson
She started by giving an emotional speech in support of Sanders to a group of Colorado Democrats, which she then posted to YouTube. Weeks later, she was told to start planning for Philadelphia.
"I was absolutely shocked," Jackson said. "What I realized is there are different ways of working for a candidate and your beliefs. One is making tons of phone calls and putting fliers out. Another, I realized is standing on a stage and giving a speech."
Jackson has raised $1,205 on GoFundMe, and is planning local fundraisers like her fellow first-time Democratic delegates.
"I sing too, so were planning some performances to help raise money," she said. "Im buying my flight this week."
Shes back! A familiar great white shark has returned to the Jersey Shore.
Mary Lee, a 16-foot, 3456-pound great white shark, surfaced less than 40 miles off the coast of Atlantic City Friday, according to Ocearch.org.
Researchers have been monitoring the sharks movements after tagging her off Cape Cod back on September 17, 2012. Since then shes made several trips to New Jersey but hadnt been seen in the area for six months prior to Friday.
You can track Mary Lees movements by clicking HERE or by downloading the Global Shark Tracker app for your iPhone or Android. You can also follow Mary Lee on Twitter.
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday accused a state senator of using campaign money to bribe a Democratic Party ward committeewoman in Philadelphia by paying for her daughter's college study abroad program.
Sen. Larry Farnese, D-Philadelphia, was charged with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and violations of the Travel Act, prosecutors said. Farnese secured support from the ward official for his successful candidacy inPhiladelphia's eighth ward leadership election by paying $6,000 toward the study program, they said.
The ward committeewoman, Ellen Chapman, was charged with the same crimes.
In a statement from Washington, the Department of Justice said the pair was involved "in a bribery and fraud scheme."
Farnese's lawyer Mark Sheppard said Farnese is "100 percent innocent" of the charges and Farnese simply made a contribution "to a deserving young student's scholarship fund in exchange for the support of the student's mother in a party ward election."
Farnese, Sheppard said, performed "a regular and appropriate part of being a community and political leader that the government would now like to be declared illegal."
Criminalizing such circumstances is dangerous, Sheppard said, accusing prosecutors of extending their reach "well beyond accepted constitutional grounds and into areas of purely local party organizational politics."
Chapman couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday. It was unclear whether she had a lawyer, and she did not appear to have a listed telephone number.
Chapman had originally intended to support a different candidate in the ward leader election, prosecutors said. Farnese made the $6,000 payment using campaign funds and, according to federal prosecutors, "disguised the true purpose of the payment by falsely listing it as a 'donation' on the campaign's finance report."
Farnese's political action committee, Friends of Farnese, reported a $6,000 payment to Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, on July 8, 2011. The ward election was in December of that year.
Sheppard said the donation was properly reported and Chapman did not participate in the ward election. No other committee person has claimed to have been offered anything of value by Farnese, Sheppard said.
Farnese was first elected to the Senate in 2008.
A Rehoboth Beach couple has been accused of stealing almost daily from a local supermarket for nearly three months.
Master Cpl. Gary Fournier says 53-year-old David B. Sankey and 60-year-old Diana Sankey would go into the supermarket and hide items such as meats and hygiene products on themselves, before paying for other items in their shopping cart at the checkout counter.
The two were arrested on Sunday and charged with 83 counts of shoplifting under $1,500 and 83 counts of conspiracy.
Police say an investigation by the store's security officers revealed the pair shoplifted items with a total value over $790 during their numerous visits.
It is unclear whether they have attorneys.
A local energy-efficiency engineer who nearly plunged to his death when he fell almost four stories through a glass floor at Philadelphia's Rodin Museum in 2012 has been awarded a $7.25 million settlement, his lawyers announced Tuesday.
Phani Guthula was inspecting light fixtures at the Rodin Museum, an outpost of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Ben Franklin Parkway, Nov. 26, 2012 when he fell 38 feet through an unsecured glass attic floor, his attorneys said in a statement.
Guthula suffered numerous fractures and trauma from "head to toe," the attorneys said, underwent more than 15 surgeries and spent more than a month and a half in the hospital as a result. He'll require lifelong medical care, the attorneys said.
"One of the Rodin's most famous sculptures is titled Gates of Hell," attorney Larry Bendesky, a member of Guthula's legal team, said. "The chilling picture of Phani Guthula falling nearly to his death could have the same title; his life has been a living hell every day since his fall."
Guthula was represented by the Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett & Bendesky firm. Named as defendants in the suit were the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Allied Barton Security Services, which contracts with the museum.
Lawyers said the Rodin had recently undergone renovations and that railings to keep people off the hazardous glass floor were not in place. Security officers at the museum were "uninformed and inattentive, and there was no signage to warn against a fall hazard to which everyone after the accident agreed existed when he almost met his death," attorney David Kwass said.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, in a written statement released Tuesday afternoon, said the attorneys' claim that there was no signage was inaccurate.
The museum was open for business at the time of Guthula's fall, and the fall was captured on surveillance video.
Lawyers said the settlement came on Friday just before jury selection was set to begin in the case.
"Mr. Guthula hopes that there are lessons learned by those who are responsible for workplace safety," Bendesky said. "The best plans and precautions are meaningless as they were in this case if they are not followed by everyone involved."
The Philadelphia Museum of Art released the following statement Tuesday afternoon:
"The Museum confirms that it has participated in the settlement of a dispute related to the tragic accident in 2012 at the Rodin Museum. Contrary to the press release issued by the lawyers for the plaintiff, the settlement involved several parties in addition to the Museum. Unfortunately, the lawyers' press release contains other inaccurate statements about the accident most notably the incorrect assertion that the Museum had not provided appropriate signage and other safety precautions in the attic spaces of the Rodin Museum."
A bicyclist died late Tuesday morning after being struck by a SEPTA bus, officials confirmed.
SEPTA officials said the 44-year-old man was riding a bicycle near Orthodox Street and Aramingo Avenue in the city's Frankford section when a Route J bus collided with him about 11:45 a.m.
The man died as a result of his injuries, officials said. SEPTA and Philadelphia Police accident-investigation officers are examining the circumstances surrounding the crash.
No passengers were on the bus at the time.
SEPTA services in the area were running normally shortly before 2 p.m.
Another bicyclist was critically injured early Tuesday morning in a hit-run in West Philadelphia.
Globally anti-terrorism campaigns are flourishing.
For some time New York City officials plastered the subways, ferries and public places with the message, If you see something, Say something. They have recently replaced that with, New Yorkers keep New Yorkers safe.
Airline travellers have known for years that we are not to leave our bags unattended and if we see a suspicious package left unattended, report it.
London has rolled out a national 800 number with the slogan, Its probably nothing, but ...
A Seattle campaign goes beyond a simple slogan of Stop a Terrorist. Save Lives by stating you could receive up to $25 million in reward money.
So across the country and around the globe citizens are increasingly aware of their surroundings, wary of people who dont look like us, and skeptical of strange behaviors.
You know the type dark hair, dark skin, foreign looking with a hint of a foreign accent and writing in Arabic.
Guido Menzio, a young Italian Ivy League professor and noted economist, found himself at the center of the See something, Say something campaign last week when he was pulled off an airplane as he prepared to fly from Philadelphia to Syracuse.
A young lady seated next to him reported to the airline staff that he was writing in Arabic, or some foreign language which apparently equates to acting suspiciously. The plane returned to the gate where the woman was removed from the plane and then the professor was also removed and questioned.
He could not help but laugh when questioned. It turns out his Arabic scribbles, were part of a differential equation he was working out for a speech he was to deliver at Queens College on menu costs and price dispersion.
Pictured with this column is an example of a differential equation I found in a google search.
I make no claims to be a math whiz, but even I recognize an infinity symbol and an upper-case sigma symbol (the 18th letter in the Greek alphabet) when I see one.
The person who reported the professor was described as a 30-year-old woman. Did she honestly not recognize the Sigma symbol from the movie Legally Blonde? I thought everyone knew Elle Woods was the sweetheart of the Sigma Epsilon Sorority.
But I am more surprised that a 30-year-old person cold have reached this point in life and not know how to function without the Sum feature in Excel.
And dont get me started on the Infinity symbol, the worlds most famous tattoo and prominently featured in Gattaca and The Vanishing.
I dont mean to make light of an honest attempt to expose a possible terrorist plot, but at what point does common sense figure into the equation ... pun intended.
Speaking of equations suspecting a person writing an equation as a possible terrorist, is equal to reporting a person lighting a cigarette as a possible arsonist ... unless of course they have dark hair, dark skin and an accent.
Police arrested three suspects who they say attacked a student and then were caught on camera attacking two school police officers outside of a Northeast Philadelphia high school.
Edwin Burgos, 23, surrendered to police Monday and was arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, simple assault and other related offenses, police said. Burgos was the third suspect arrested in connection to the fight. On Wednesday, May 4, Roger Millington, 19, turned himself in to detectives and was charged with aggravated assault and other related offenses, police said. On Thursday, May 5, a juvenile was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and other related offenses.
Philadelphia Police
Police say all three suspects were involved in the incident outside of Northeast High School back on May 2 at 3:30 p.m. Two school police officers were escorting students outside Northeast High School on Cottman Avenue after dismissal. Suddenly the officers spotted two men who were assaulting another student, investigators said. The officers separated the student from the two men in order to stop the attack, according to officials. The officers and the two men then began to argue which escalated into a physical confrontation. One of the officers, Lorenzo Tatum, told NBC10 one of the suspects pushed him from behind while the second suspect punched his partner.
Police released enhanced images of the men who they say beat up two school security officers in a caught on cam attack. One of the injured officers spoke to NBC10.
"As I'm on the ground another guy who I didn't even see comes over, starts punching me," Tatum said. "The first suspect, he punches my co-worker again, breaking his jaw."
A third male suspect then joined in and all three began to attack the school officers, according to officials. Philadelphia police officers then arrived at the scene and the suspects fled east on Cottman Avenue.
Tatum suffered a sprained ankle and some bruises while his partner suffered a broken jaw and was taken to Temple University Hospital to undergo surgery.
Police identified two men who they say were caught on surveillance video stealing lottery tickets and jewelry from a home in Upper Pittsgrove Township last month.
The two suspects, identified as Joshua Robinson, 32, of Deptford, New Jersey and Eric Gilch, 28, of Blackwood, New Jersey broke into a home in Upper Pittsgrove back on April 12, according to investigators. The men encountered the familys dogs and started scouring the home until the homeowner noticed the men on surveillance video and began to address the intruders remotely, officials said. Surveillance footage shows the startled burglars fleeing from the home.
The men allegedly stole 10 New Jersey lottery tickets, three of which were $2 winners, as well as a lockbox full of jewelry and personal documents. Police say Robinson redeemed the $6 worth of lottery tickets at a liquor store in Camden about 45 minutes after the burglary, which helped investigators identify him. Police also identified Gilch as an associate of Robinson after analyzing the surveillance video.
As detectives searched for Robinson in Camden they found Gilch walking in the area of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Broadway. After Gilch was arrested for allegedly having outstanding warrants, detectives found numerous pieces of stolen jewelry in his possession, investigators said. The jewelry, which included an inscribed, heirloom wedding band, was stolen during burglaries in Collingswood and Haddon Township, according to investigators.
Gilch is charged with burglary and theft. He was lodged at Salem County Jail in lieu of $75,000 cash bail. Police continue to search for Robinson and say he will be charged with burglary and theft.
The places where Philadelphia city departments can't travel due to controversial laws that limit anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay and transgender people have extended to include three southern states and a southern city.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney announced late Monday a ban on all publicly funded and non-essential travel for city employees to Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and the city of Oxford, Alabama.
The travel ban is in response to recent laws viewed as anti-LGBT.
"I am announcing this ban in response to the enactment of legislation that infringes the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in these jurisdictions," said Kenney. "I will reconsider this ban if the States of North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee and the city of Oxford, Alabama choose to repeal their discriminatory legislation."
Last month, Kenney announced the North Carolina and Mississippi bans, Monday he extended it to the other jurisdictions.
The North Carolina law directs transgender people to use public toilets corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificate. The law also excludes LGBT people from state anti-discrimination protections, blocks local governments from expanding LGBT protections, and bars all types of workplace discrimination lawsuits from state courts. In Mississippi, legislation taking effect this summer will allow certain workers, including some in private businesses, to cite religious beliefs in denying services to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Tennessee recently passed legislation that allows mental health counselors to refuse treatment based on religious or personal beliefs. Opponents say the measure allows discrimination against LGBT individuals.
And, transgender people in Oxford could face jail time for using a restroom that doesn't correspond with their biological sex, reported CNN.com.
They roll through at night, passing highly populated areas of the county, like downtown San Diego: rail tanker cars sometimes carrying potentially hazardous materials.
There is no question that places like Petco Park are directly in harms way, Eric de Place, Policy Director with the Sightline Institute, an environmental policy organization based in Seattle, said.
NBC 7 Investigates asked the owners of the local rail lines, North County Transit and Metropolitan Transit System, what chemicals and other materials are moving through the region. North County Transit owns the rails from Orange County to the Del Mar area and Metropolitan Transit System, owns the rails from Del Mar to San Diego.
The agencies declined to provide the information, citing homeland security issues.
The largest carrier in the region, Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway company, or BNSF, also declined to provide the information.
In an email, BNSF spokesperson Lena Kent said, as a matter of security we do not disclose this type of information. It is only provided to first responders.
With no public information on exact routes detailing when freight trains are on local tracks and what they are carrying when passing through, railroads say the risk is minimal, but, critics say it's a dangerous situation for San Diegans.
I think the community should have a right to know about what's going through their towns, de Place said. The community has a right to know about what's happening in their towns.
San Diego Fire Marshall Doug Perry is involved in first responders planning through the region. According to Perry, his agency is prepared to handle any emergencies arising out of a derailment of hazardous materials. He said his department is told when large amounts or unusual products are moving on the rails, but admits, he isn't aware of everything.
To be honest with you, I don't know that a chemist would know every single one because of the way that they mix 'em and match 'em, he said. You have had large quantities of ammonia nitrate, which is used for blasting, but that is something we dont have come through here very often. We know on a regular basis, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) comes up from Mexico.
In 1996, a train carrying LPG and propane derailed and caught fire in Wisconsin. The fire burned for more than two weeks and caused thousands of residents to be evacuated. A National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) sketch of the accident scene shows how the tankers were scattered across the derailment area.
Perry said, "we do not have daily contact with the railroads about what is coming and going. When asked why not, he responded, "Umm, as far as I know, it's never been required. There's no policy or procedure in place, most of the stuff that is transported through is pretty benign.
According to a website that tracks railcar shipping statistics, Railwayage.com, BNSF carries cement, corn syrup, cars, lumber, aluminum, grain and plastic.
NBC 7 Investigates found the Texas-based company also ships propane and LPG. Those materials are just part of a list of the 25 most hazardous commodities transported by rail in California.
Click here to see the list.
"If you look at the history we haven't had any problems, Perry said. Is there always a potential? Yes."
California Senate Bill 84, also known as the "Railroad Accident Preparedness and Immediate Response Program, includes a provision that would charge freight carriers a fee when hauling any of the 25 hazardous commodities.
Kim Zagaris, Safety and Fire Chief for the California Office of Emergency Services said, "the bill is designed to actually provide funding to prepare, plan and respond to hazmat rail incidents."
In the Wisconsin incident, an NTSB investigation found an "undetected bolt hole crack" was missed by rail workers during inspection process.
NBC 7 Investigates found LPG being transported on track in downtown San Diego several months ago.
Materials inside a rail tanker can be identified by a placard on the outside of the container. Rail cars with placards containing the number 1075 were found passing PETCO stadium and at the border crossing area in San Ysidro. The number 1075 represents different forms of liquefied gas.
Click here to see a complete listing of what the numbers on placards stand for.
The placards are one way first responders can identify what the tanker is carrying. Different chemicals require different responses by hazmat personnel and the fire department.
In a 2014-2015 report to the California State Legislature, the California Public Utilities Commission or CPUC, said, "railroads have been inconsistent in their compliance with federal law, California law." According to that same report, there were 318 freight and passenger derailments in California during that time frame.
The CPUC is the state agency which oversees the rail industry in California.
"California is certainly trying to lead, de Place said. But there's not much any state, even California, can do because most of the rules around the haulage of dangerous materials on the rails are preempted by federal regulations, and the federal regulations are weak and chronically bad.''
Zagaris put it this way: "the railroad reminds us they built this country and they have a lot of protection under federal law." He said he believes transparent discussions between the industry and state agencies will go a long way to "protect life, property and the environment" in California.
In an email, Federal Railroad Administration or FRA, spokesman Matthew Lehner, said, his agency carries out a comprehensive safety inspection and enforcement program that has led to the highest-ever collection rate of civil penalties and fewer railroad accidents. We constantly look for ways to improve our oversight and increase safety for everyone who lives along rail lines and works in the industry.
Less than a year ago, Sarah Feinberg was named as FRAs Administrator. Some say, under her leadership, the agency has improved the agencys responsiveness to safety and other rail issues.
Besides the fee for hauling hazardous commodities, California Senate Bill 84 increased the amount of firefighting equipment and specialized training to respond to rail accidents involving hazardous materials. It also provides for a higher level of coordination among public agency first responders when dealing with hazardous material accidents.
"Some of it frustrates our citizens, frustrates us, frustrates our legislators, Zagaris said. We will continue to work here at the state level.
NBC 7 Investigates is working for you. If you have more information about this or other story tips, contact us: (619) 578-0393, NBC7Investigates@nbcuni.com. To receive the latest NBC 7 Investigates stories subscribe to our newsletter.
The San Diego Zoo is now 100 years old and city leaders celebrated the centennial with a special proclamation Wednesday ahead of a community festival.
At a special ceremony at Plaza de Panama in Balboa Park, Mayor Kevin Faulconer presented a proclamation from the City of San Diego to San Diego Zoo Global officials, marking the landmarks milestone birthday.
The ceremony was also attended by Chairman of the Board of San Diego Zoo Global Robert B. Horsman, San Diego Zoo Global President/CEO Douglas G. Myers and San Diego Zoo Global Ambassador Rick Schwartz -- plus, of course, a few zoo residents.
Rio & I wanted to let you know about the @sandiegozoos 100th b-day celebration Saturday. https://t.co/FgGBxmAstH pic.twitter.com/SUuX5i0DAp Kevin Faulconer (@Kevin_Faulconer) May 11, 2016
The citys proclamation comes just days before the Centennial Community Event the zoos big celebration set for 6 p.m. Saturday at Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park.
According to organizers, the family-friendly party will include crafts, hands-on activities for the kids, live music, dancing and animal presentations by zookeepers. A live orchestra including Tony and Grammy Award winner Heather Headly is set to perform at Spreckels Organ Pavilion at 8 p.m.
During the event, several Balboa Park museums will offer free admission, including the San Diego Museum of Art and the Museum of Photographic Arts.
Attendees can also enjoy food that evening from a long lineup of gourmet food trucks including Seoul Man (Korean cuisine), Salt + Lime (Mexican food) and Totally Tasty (burgers), to name a few.
Organizers say the San Diego Zoo is not open that evening and all centennial events will take place at Balboa Park. Attendees can RSVP to the big bash ahead of time on the zoos centennial website.
San Diego Zoo Global the non-profit that operates the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research was founded on Oct. 2, 1916, by Harry M. Wegeforth.
The award-winning, 100-acre San Diego Zoo sits on Balboa Park north of downtown San Diego and is home to more than 3,500 rare and endangered animals spanning more than 650 species and subspecies. The zoo is renowned for its panda habitat. It also houses more than 700,000 exotic plants.
According to the zoos website, San Diego Zoo Global is the largest zoological membership association in the world, with more than 250,000 adult member households and 130,000 child memberships.
Chin and Jennifer Kim watched the Carl's Jr. go out of business outside their Carmel Mountain Ranch donut shop. Sesame Donuts has been in the same strip mall for 27 years, 17 of those years owned by the Kims.
The old Carl's Jr. has been going through renovations lately. It's only 50 yards away and the Chin wanted to know about their new neighbors. That's why he was shocked when a customer told them that neighbor would be a Krispy Kreme Donut Shop.
"I was surprised, I didn't believe it," said Chin. Since the word has gotten out to their customers, many are mad a large donut chain would set up so close to their favorite shop.
"I can't believe what they're doing to these people," said Monte Montenarano. The Word War II veteran sits with other vets every Monday in the Kim's donut shop.
"We got a beautiful one here," said Vietnam Vet Fred DiCarlo, "why do we need that competition."
Mark Hong helped broker the deal between the property owner and Krispy Kreme. It is not managed by the same landlord that owns the Sesame Donuts building. Hong says he feels for the Kim's but says no matter what they put in the old Carl's Jr., it would conflict with someone.
But Jennifer Kim says the Krispy Kreme location is too close, even sharing the same parking lot. She knows they have loyal customers but will loyalty continue once Krispy Kreme opens its doors? They will have to wait till this Summer to find out.
But customer Walter Bush is confident, "It's going to be difficult but I think they are going to survive."
A dog bit a 3-year-old girl outside a restaurant on San Diego's popular Pacific Beach boardwalk Monday.
The girl, who has not been identified, was bitten in the cheek outside World Famous restaurant on Ocean Boulevard near Pacific Beach Drive shortly after 11 a.m., San Diego County Department of Animal Services Deputy Director Dan DeSousa said.
DeSousa said the young girl asked whether she could pet the dog first, and the owner agreed, but when she reached out to touch the Catahoula Leopard Dog, it bit her. The dog was on a leash, DeSousa said.
She was taken to Rady Children's Hospital with minor injuries.
The dog will be in quarantine for the next 10 days, which is standard procedure.
No other information was immediately available.
Donald Trumps attorney opposes unsealing some of the documents the Washington Post requested to be made public related to the Trump University class-action lawsuit, according to court documents filed Monday.
Rancho Palos Verdes Attorney Jill Martin has filed her opposition on behalf of Trump. According to the filing with the San Diego federal court where the November trial will be heard, Martin opposes unsealing some of the 52 documents filed in support of and in opposition to the class-action lawsuit. The documents consist of 1,200 pages.
According to court documents, the Washington Posts attorneys exchanged emails and phone calls with Trumps team after the newspaper had filed its motion to intervene in the case. Trumps counsel agreed to unseal all the documents with the exception of four, consisting of 153 pages, the record detail.
The four documents are described in the filing as Trump Universitys (Tus) Playbooks. The attorneys argue the documents contain confidential trade secret information.
According to the court documents, although Trump University has stopped enrolling students, the information retains its commercial value in the event TU starts enrolling students again, something it may do.
Calls to Trumps attorney's were not immediately returned Monday. Attorney's for the Washington Post told NBC 7 it did not have a comment on the recent filing.
The Posts motion to intervene was filed related to the older of the two lawsuits moving through San Diego courts, Cohen vs. Trump.
In the court documents, Martin argues the Post should not get to see what is in the documents because Judge Gallo has decided the documents contain confidential trade secret information, which, if made public, would be harmful to TUs competitive standing. The documents detail that the Posts argument completely misses the mark when they argue the public interest in this case somehow outweighs Trumps.
Daniel Petrocelli, another of Trumps attorney, spoke to NBC 7 Friday about deposition taken of Trump. He said it would not be a good idea to release it to the public.
In the class action lawsuits, Trump University is accused of misleading students with unfulfilled promises of teaching them the secret to being successful in the real estate business. The allegations outlined in court documents include Trump University, which took in over $40 million, was fraudulent and deceptive. Students paid up to $35,000 for real estate seminars, according to court documents.
Trump denies the allegations in the lawsuits.
A woman accused of killing a City Heights mother-of-four in a hit-and-run appeared in court for the first time Monday, pleading not guilty.
Jazmine Leigh Ruiz, 29, died April 20 after she was beaten and struck by a vehicle in the west alley of the 4100 block of Wilson Avenue. Detectives believe the car was used as a weapon to kill the victim after a physical assault.
Monday, Christina Daniel stuck out her tongue and rolled her eyes at the judge as she was arraigned for her alleged role in Ruiz's death. The judge ordered the news media not to show Daniel's face.
Prosecutors said Daniel stabbed Ruiz in the neck and jugular, probably inside the same car used to run her over by a second suspect. Daniel and another man were arrested last week and a third suspect is still on the run.
Daniel pleaded not guilty.
In arguing for no bail, Deputy District Attorney David Bost detailed Daniel's violent past. She was wanted for attempted murder for an allegedly stabbing someone in the head in January. She was on parole after serving six years in prison for carjacking in 2007 and before that, she was convicted of auto theft in 2004.
When the judge asked Daniel if she would waive bail review, she said, "I guess, if I have to."
Based on her extensive history, the judge ordered her held without bail.
Following the arraignment, Ruiz's mother, Lydia Morales, broke down.
"I'm outraged, broken," she said. "What she did, what they did in this act is such - it's just evil. Pure evil."
When asked about a possible motive, she said she couldn't imagine why Daniel would want to kill her daughter.
"Who could even imagine," she said. "My question to you, why do you think they targeted her? Because, guess what, normal people like us don't think like that. We don't have that in our hearts and in our minds. It's unbelievable."
Before the arraignment, the family of the victim and the suspect had to be separated by deputies after a heated shouting match.
"I'll be honest. I think it's all an act," Morales said. "It's gonna hit her one day what she did, it's going to hit her. She has to live with that every day in a little tiny cell."
A U.S. sailor died Friday during a SEAL training exercise in Coronado, California, officials confirmed.
Seaman James Derek Lovelace, 21, passed out in a military training pool while undergoing basic underwater demolition/SEAL training (BUD/S), officials said.
Lovelace was withdrawn from the exercise when he began to have difficulty with the drill, Navy officials told NBC News. The sailor lost consciousness and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.
Lovelace enlisted in the Navy boot camp in November and started prep training for BUD/S in January, according to Lt. Trevor Davids, spokesperson for Naval Special Warfare Center.
"Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of Seaman Lovelace. Though Derek was very new to our community, he selflessly answered his nation's call to defend freedom and protect this country. He will be sorely missed. We share his family's grief in this grave loss," said Capt. Jay Hennessey, commanding officer of the Navy Special Warfare Center, in a statement to NBC 7 San Diego.
Navy SEAL trainee dies after passing out in training pool https://t.co/1GuK9cGZpT pic.twitter.com/sM9KihQ8oM NBC News (@NBCNews) May 10, 2016
The Navy had not announced the training death until after officials were contacted Tuesday by NBC News and The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk.
The death is now under investigation, according to the report.
BUD/S is the SEAL's infamous training course with several phases, including one called "Hell Week." The majority of trainees who enter the program end up ringing the bell to quit. The small percentage that complete the entire program earn the SEAL trident on their uniform.
Friday's incident happened during the first week of BUD/S as trainees are being introduced to the water training, Davids said. It involves swimming in a pool, treading water as well as wearing dive masks.
No other information was immediately available.
Check back for updates on this developing news story.
This years county fair will offer more than just tea at the Mad Hatters party.
San Diegos Alice in Wonderland themed county fair will play host to the 10th Annual San Diego International Beer Festival between June 17 and June 19.
As one of the countrys largest beer festivals, beer-lovers can expect brews from 14 countries, 28 states and the District of Columbia.
Judges already deliberated over the nearly 1,400 entries in late April, the Best of Show Beer will be announced at the festival on June 18 at 12:30 p.m.
However, San Diegans do not need to wait to explore the highly ranked local beers and breweries.
In fact, the 2016 Champion Brewery," which beat out 253 other breweries from around the world, was San Diegos AleSmith Brewing Company. In total, 41 medals were awarded to San Diego county breweries including Nickel Beer Company, Ballast Point Brewing and many more.
Angry Orchard Cider Company, from New York, was named the 2016 Champion Meadery/Cidery.
All of the awarded medals and winners can be found here.
This year's festival plans to feature several new elements including an Educational Beer Stage that will offer blind beer tests, food pairing lessons and other sampling opportunities.
Patrons can also find rare brews tapped throughout the festival, a larger VIP lounge and a beer and cheese pavilion where beer and cheese samples will be provided almost every hour for all festival-goers.
For those interested in attending the festival, there are several things to keep in mind.
The beer festival is within the county fair and will take place over five sessions:
Session 1: June 17, 12 p.m.-4 p.m.
Session 2: June 17, 5 p.m.-9 p.m.
Session 3: June 18, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Session 4: June 18, 4 p.m.-8 p.m.
Session 5: June 19, 12 p.m.-4 p.m.
There are also unique ticket options for those hoping to attend the festival in addition to the fair.
Visitors can either buying general admission or VIP tickets.
The VIP level includes early access to the VIP lounge, food and beer pairings, unlimited samples for the first two hours of each session and a six-ounce souvenir glass.
However, general admission patrons will still receive festival and fair admission and walk away with a one-ounce souvenir glass.
Beyond the tiers of tickets, festival-goers can also choose to include a fair tripper ticket in their pass. This provides a round-trip fare on the Coaster and Sprinter trains or Breeze buses as well as a shuttle to and from transit stations and the fair.
With nearly 400 brews and 20 hours of beer related activities, even the Mad Hatter's tea pot can't run dry.
Someone robbed a Thai restaurant in La Jolla at gunpoint Monday night and a witness was put on hold when he tried to alert San Diego Police to the suspicious activity, according to one resident.
Bill Bottin lives right around the corner from the Chedi Thai Bistro restaurant on Pearl Street and Mabel Bell Lane. He said he was returning home from dinner when he stopped and talked with a man who had witnessed someone lurking around the liquor store next to the restaurant.
The next morning, Bottin learned there had been a robbery at the location.
San Diego Police say a suspect went in the back of the Thai restaurant and into the kitchen at 9 p.m. He then showed a handgun and robbed employees at gunpoint.
Bottin said he wonders if something could have been done to prevent the crime.
"The fact that he made a 911 non-emergency call but it was on hold for at least 15 minutes," Bottin said of the man who called for help. "If we could've done something more."
Police say the robbery suspect ran away with an undisclosed amount of cash. No one was hurt.
The suspect is described to be in his 20s, 5-feet, 8-inches tall. He was described as wearing a gray long sleep shirt, brown shorts, and white shoes.
San Diegans can return their mail-in ballots, as voting has begun for the California June primary.
The San Diego County Registrar of Voters mailed out approximately 900,000 ballots to voters across the county.
Registrar Michael Vu wants voters to send in those ballots if they've already decided on the candidates and the issues.
That way, his staff can process and count the votes as quickly as possible.
A report from the National University Institute for Policy Research is predicting high voter turnout, 50 to 53 percent, saying voter registration has soared since the beginning of the year.
Vu said voters could surpass the turnout of 61 percent in the 2008 primary.
"What we've seen is that when a voter receives a mail ballot in their hand their more likely to return it to us," Vu said.
And the report says these voters are younger, more diverse and lean more democrat than the overall San Diego Electorate.
The last day to register to vote is May 23.
To check your voter information for the June 7 primary, click here.
A woman fought off a man who was attempting to assault her as she walked to her car, witnesses told NBC 7.
She is the second victim who has come forward after another woman reported being sexually assaulted by the same suspect at two different locations on Thursday, San Diego Police (SDPD) said.
Ismael Hernandez, 27 of Chula Vista was arrested on Saturday on multiple rape-related charges. He is accused of sexually assaulting a woman twice and attempting to assault another woman at knife point.
Police said one woman was assaulted outside a business near 6th Avenue and Cedar Street Thursday. She saw Hernandezs reflection her car window and was able to fight him off and run away.
According to employees at a nearby restaurant told NBC 7, the victim had been eating at their restaurant and the assault happened as she walked to her car. She ran inside after getting away from the suspect.
Hernandez is also accused of sexually assaulting another woman in Balboa Park that same night.
It happened on 9th Avenue near Cortez Hill.
Police say Hernandez forced the woman to walk to Balboa Park at knife point, threatening to kill her if she didnt listen to him. He allegedly sexually assaulted her, then forced her to walk to another location and sexually assaulted her again.
Hernandez was booked into San Diego County Jail and charged with rape, kidnap for rape, digital penetration by a foreign object, oral copulation by force, using a dangerous weapon during an assault, criminal threats, false imprisonment and three counts of attempted sexual assault.
San Diego Police are also looking whether there are more victims.
White House dreams fading, Bernie Sanders added another state to his tally against Hillary Clinton with a win in West Virginia on Tuesday a victory that will do little to slow the former secretary of state's steady march toward the Democratic presidential nomination.
Meanwhile, Republican Donald Trump also won there and in Nebraska, a week after he cleared the field of his remaining rivals. They were not victories likely to heal the party's wounds, as some GOP leaders continue to hold off offering their endorsement of the party's presumptive nominee.
The result in the West Virginia Democratic primary underscored the awkward position Clinton and the party's establishment face as they attempt to turn their focus to the general election. Sanders has won 19 states to Clinton's 23, but she is 94 percent of the way to winning the nomination just 145 delegates short of the 2,383 required.
That means she could lose all the states left to vote by a landslide and still emerge as the nominee, so long as all her supporters among the party insiders known as superdelegates continue to back her.
Clinton needs to win just 14 percent of the delegates and uncommitted superdelegates at stake in the remaining contests, and she remains on track to capture the nomination in early June.
Still, Sanders is vowing to fight on. He campaigned in California on Tuesday for the state's June 7 primary, and his victory in West Virginia highlighted anew Clinton's struggles to win over white men and independents weaknesses Trump wants to exploit in the fall campaign.
"Let me be as clear as I can be, we are in the campaign to win the Democratic nomination," Sanders said at a campaign event in Salem, Oregon. "We are going to fight for every last vote."
Among those voting in the state's Democratic primary, about a third said they would support Trump over either Clinton or Sanders in November. An additional 2 in 10 said they wouldn't vote for either candidate. But 4 in 10 also said they consider themselves to be independents or Republicans, and not Democrats, according to exit polls.
While Sanders is still attracting thousands to rallies, his campaign has grown harder as Clinton closes in on the nomination. His fundraising has fallen off and so too has his advertising, with only about $525,000 in ads planned for California and $63,000 each in West Virginia and Oregon, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media's CMAG.
That's a significant decline from the wall-to-wall advertising campaign he ran earlier in the primary, during which his $74 million in ads outspent Clinton by $14 million.
Edward Milam, of Cross Lanes, West Virginia, is a self-described socialist who gave money to the Sanders campaign but his vote Tuesday to Clinton.
"After about six-seven months of debating and watching, I think Hillary has a lot more to offer than Bernie internationally," the 68-year-old retiree said. "I think she handles herself well. I've known about her for 30 years, just like everybody else has. I don't think there will be any surprises."
Even as the primaries continue, Clinton has largely shifted her focus to the general election. On Monday, she courted suburban women in Virginia and on Tuesday, in Lexington, Kentucky, she released a proposal to ensure families don't spend more than 10 percent of their income on child care.
"I don't care about what he says about me," she said of Trump in Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday night. "But I do resent what he says about other people, other successful women, women who have worked hard, women who have done their part."
Clinton's campaign hopes suburban women, turned off by Trump's bombastic rhetoric, could be a key source of support for her in the fall.
But she's also trying to stop Sanders from gaining the psychological advantage of a series of wins this month. Her team went up with a $160,000 ad buy in Kentucky on Tuesday, a modest effort aimed at cutting into Sanders' support before the state's primary in a week.
Clinton also won a primary election Tuesday in Nebraska, although the party allocated all of its delegates to the summer nominating convention at a caucus won in March by Sanders.
Congressional Republicans are returning to Capitol Hill to confront an awkward new reality: Donald Trump is their presumptive presidential nominee, but instead of uniting behind him, leading figures like House Speaker Paul Ryan are withholding their support.
That highly unusual state of affairs is creating a tricky situation for Republicans in the House and Senate, some of whom fear Trump could prove a drag on their own re-election chances in a year when the GOP is fighting to hang onto its slim Senate majority.
"He's our nominee and there's no reason for me not to be happy about it," asserted South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who is up for re-election. Asked if he could say he's endorsing Trump, Scott replied: "I can say that that's a ridiculous question. Obviously if I'm endorsing the nominee I'm endorsing the candidate, right?"
Yet the question might not be so ridiculous in an election year where the GOP has been set against itself, perhaps irrevocably, by a divisive billionaire who spent years as a registered Democrat and has managed to insult women, Hispanics, disabled people and others. Many leading Republicans can bring themselves to support Trump only reluctantly, if at all. And that posture is irritating to others in the party who insist that it's time for the GOP to get behind Trump and start preparing for a likely contest against Democrat Hillary Clinton in November.
"They have to just kind of get it through their heads that he's our nominee," Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma said as lawmakers returned to Washington Monday from a weeklong recess that saw Trump effectively clinch the nomination.
Trump will meet Thursday with Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has offered his guarded support, and other GOP leaders in the House and Senate.
Ahead of the meeting, Ryan struck a conciliatory tone in interviews with home-state reporters Monday, while defending his stunning decision to refuse to back Trump.
Ryan denounced the idea of any Republican launching a third-party or independent candidacy to challenge Trump, telling the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel it "would be a disaster for our party."
And Ryan said he'd step aside from the House speaker's traditional role as chairman of the Republican National Convention if Trump wants him to, a scenario that Trump left open over the weekend. "He's the nominee. I'll do whatever he wants in respect to the convention," Ryan said, insisting that the party must strive to unify, and Trump must lead the effort.
Trump himself shrugged off the need for unity.
"I think this is a time for unity. And if there's not going to be unity, I think that's OK, too," Trump said on Fox Business Network. "I mean, I'll go out and I think I'll do very well. I think I'm going to win the race either way."
But Ryan's reluctance seemed to embolden others to withhold their support.
Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, one of the most endangered Senate Republicans, wrote an opinion piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer drawing back from his long-stated intent to back the GOP nominee.
"His vulgarity, particularly toward women, is appalling. His lack of appreciation for constitutional limits on executive powers is deeply concerning. ... In short, I find his candidacy highly problematic," Toomey wrote of Trump. "There could come a point at which the differences are so great as to be irreconcilable."
Sen. Steve Daines of Montana said Monday of Trump: "I want to see him lead and unite the party and the nation," but wouldn't endorse him.
Even in the House, where Republicans command the largest majority in decades and are unlikely to lose control, vulnerable members are visibly nervous. Several newly elected lawmakers who could face difficulty in November, including Martha McSally of Arizona, Will Hurd of Texas and Barbara Comstock of Virginia, have told local publications they are not ready to back Trump.
"Donald Trump has a great deal of work to do to convince many Americans, including myself, that he's prepared and able to lead this great country," said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., another congressman from a closely divided district.
Ever confident, Trump announced that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former foe but now an enthusiastic supporter, would head his transition team as he heads for the White House if he wins the election. Another former opponent, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who's been mentioned by Trump as a potential vice presidential pick, issued a statement saying he wasn't interested because Trump "will be best served by a running mate and by surrogates who fully embrace his campaign."
Ben Carson is another former opponent who's now backing Trump and positioning himself as an emissary; Ryan's office confirmed that Carson has requested to meet with Ryan ahead of the Trump meeting, a move first reported in The Washington Post.
As Seen On
A former special forces soldier who survived being shot in the face in an attempted robbery Monday pinned his attacker, with his brothers' help, until police came, authorities said.
Police said construction workers were on the job near Crispus Attucks Park, renovating a home in Washington D.C.'s Bloomingdale neighborhood. Witnesses said one of the workers, a 40-year-old man, walked out of the house to his van to get some tools when he was assaulted by another man with a gun.
Witnesses said the attempted robber put the gun up to the mans jaw and demanded money. The victim, who was a former special forces soldier in the Guatemalan army, made a combat move in an attempt to disarm the alleged robber, but the man was able to get off one shot, striking the victim in the face.
People nearby said two construction workers came outside and subdued the alleged robber, wrestling the gun away and taking him to the ground. The two men, brothers of the victim, were also working on the job.
Police arrived on the scene and found the brothers sitting on the alleged robber. Investigators have not released the name of the alleged robber or the condition of the shooting victim.
Dora Smith's friends and family had traveled from all over to attend her funeral in February. Smith had been a beloved teacher in the District of Columbia for years, and her niece, Doreen Wright, knew the service would be well-attended.
Then, one day before Smith was to be laid to rest, Wright got a call: There would be no funeral.
"They told me the day before," Wright said.
The cemetery that Smith had paid $200 per month for a prepaid funeral contract, National Harmony Memorial Park in Hyattsville, Maryland, said Smith had become delinquent in her payments, Wright said. Smith's contract had been terminated. And the contract said that the cemetery could keep any money that Smith had already paid.
Wright, beside herself, said she tried to use Smith's insurance money to pay for the funeral. But the cemetery said there was a beneficiary issue that had to be resolved before they allowed her to bury her aunt.
"I just want her in her final resting place, so she can be at peace," Wright said.
Not wanting to wait any longer, Wright said she took out a personal loan to pay for the funeral. But, she said, the cemetery wouldn't accept that and insisted the insurance issue be resolved first.
"That's my aunt, you know," Wright said. "She would have never wanted this."
Wright called NBC4 Responds. "Once you guys got involved, things started happening," Wright said.
SCI Dignity Memorial, the company that owns Harmony, said it would not discuss specific client concerns with the media. As part of our commitment to all of our client families, we guard their privacy and because of this, we do not discuss specific client concerns with the media," Dignity said in a statement. "Instead it is our policy to work to resolve any possible concerns directly with client families.
Shortly after NBC4 Responds received that statement, Wright said Harmony allowed the insurance paperwork to go through.
Days later, on a rainy Tuesday morning in March, surrounded by friends and family, Dora Smith was laid to rest.
"I thank you for the bottom of my heart," Wright said. "My family thanks you."
Need help with a consumer issue? Click here to submit a tip to NBC4 Responds.
A police officer charged in the Freddie Gray case chose Tuesday to stand trial before a judge rather than a jury, eliminating a potential wild card in the divisive and emotionally charged case.
Officer Edward Nero was one of three arresting officers and faces assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office charges. Gray, a 25-year-old black man, made eye contact with one of the officers and took off running in April 2015. The officers arrested him and Gray was placed in the back of a police van, where he was critically injured. He died a week later, sparking protests, rioting and looting and prompting a city-wide curfew as the National Guard rolled in to help restore order.
Nero's trial is scheduled to begin Thursday and it is expected to last about five days. It's seen as a bellwether case for the other two arresting officers who face the same charges. They have all pleaded not guilty.
Nero is the second officer to stand trial. Late last year, the judge declared a mistrial when the jury couldn't reach a unanimous decision in the case against Officer William Porter, who checked on Gray several times after he was put in the police van.
While selecting the jury pool for Porter's trial, all potential jurors acknowledged that they were aware of the case and the $6.4 million settlement the city paid to Gray's family.
Nero's decision means that means Circuit Judge Barry Williams will hear the case. The trial will likely focus more on technical legal arguments than Porter's trial.
Williams ruled on several motions, saying attorneys can't talk about the legality of the knife that was found on Gray after his arrest. Attorneys for the officers say it was illegal and his arrest was justified. Prosecutors say the knife was legal and he should have never been arrested.
The judge also said attorneys can't talk about Gray's troubled past and he put strict limits on how much each side can talk about Gray's injuries.
The officers initially asked Williams for a change of venue, citing the extensive media coverage. Attorneys argued that because of the high-profile nature the case, jurors would likely be inherently biased, having already formed opinions about the case and its players, and might feel pressure to render a guilty verdict in order to quell any future unrest.
Williams denied the requests.
A bench trial has advantages and disadvantages for the defense, according to attorney Warren Alperstein, who is not involved in the case.
"The disadvantage of having a bench trial is that you're putting all your eggs in one basket. In a bench trial there is no hung jury, it's all or nothing for the defense,'' he said.
On the other hand, a judge is uniquely positioned to understand the nuances of the law. The state is likely to argue that the three arresting officers violated Gray's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The defense will presumably argue that the officers acted within a law that allows officers to pursue, detain and pat down suspects who flee unprovoked from law enforcement from a high drug trafficking area.
"It's my belief a judge is better equipped to apply what amounts to be fairly technical and complex law than a jury would be able to do,'' Alperstein said.
Two women were injured during a domestic violence situation where one was struck by a shotgun and the other shot herself Monday night in Woodbridge, Virginia, according to police.
Officers were called to Chaste Tree Place near the Prince William Parkway and Marblestone Drive for reports of a shooting inside a resident. When they arrived, they found a woman on a second-story deck, suffering from an injury.
Police said the woman, 50, fled to the deck after her wife beat her over the head with a shotgun. Neighbors said they heard someone yelling, Dont kill me, during the incident.
Police and tactical teams were able to speak to the woman on the deck, who told them her wife was inside with the shotgun. But they were unsure how to rescue the woman from the deck while dealing with a potentially dangerous situation inside.
We were able to utilize a ladder and safely evacuated her from that residence while helicopter provided aerial support in case the unknown suspect came out, because at that time, we still didn't know what we had, said Sgt. Jonathan Perok, with the Prince William County police.
After rescuing the woman from the deck, a tactical team entered the townhouse and found the woman, 53, suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Both women were expected to recover from their injuries.
Police said the woman with the shotgun was expected to face charges.
Six members of the MS-13 street gang have been convicted for their roles in three murders and an attempted murder in northern Virginia.
The jury convictions Monday in federal court in Alexandria follow a weeks-long trial. All six face mandatory life sentences.
Six other defendants had already pleaded guilty. The gang members ranged in age from 18 to 31, and most were residents of northern Virginia, including Falls Church and Alexandria.
In one of the murders, the defendants lured a fellow gang member to Holmes Run Park in Falls Church in 2013 and killed him with a machete, believing he was a snitch.
In another murder a few months later, a gang recruit who violated MS-13 rules was stabbed, beheaded and buried in a shallow grave in the same Falls Church park.
Police prevented another 2013 murder at a Virginia high school and charged several gang members, prosecutors said.
One MS-13 member warned police of the murder plot and helped police arrest the perpetrators, prosecuters said. That gang member recorded phone calls between several MS-13 members and Pedro Anthony Romero Cruz, who was planning the murder from prison using a contraband cell phone. The informant also wore a wire when the murder was being planned -- and as the gang members drove to Gar-Field High School in Woodbridge, Virginia to commit the murder.
Police had warned the victim to stay away from the school, and police had the gang members car under surveillance the night of the attempted murder, prosecutors said. Three gang members were charged with conspiracy to commit murder and one was charged with attempted murder.
"The defendants terrorized our local communities with senseless, depraved acts of threats, intimidation and violence," said Paul M. Abbate, assistant director in Charge of the FBIs Washington Field Office in a release. "They murdered in the name of MS-13, but as this jurys verdict makes clear, no gang can protect them from facing justice for their crimes."
A Connecticut man was arrested on weapons charges after he was allegedly caught at New York's LaGuardia Airport with a cache of martial arts weapons, the Transportation Security Administration said.
The man was allegedly carrying a dagger, three throwing knives and two throwing stars when TSA agents stopped him at LaGuardia on Saturday, authorities said.
The TSA workers notified Port Authority Police, which confiscated the blades and arrested the man, a resident of New Haven, Connecticut.
The man will face weapons possession charges. His name was not released.
Powerful tornadoes that swept across southern Oklahoma killed at least two people Monday, officials said.
Bud Ramming, the emergency director in Garvin County, said a man believed to be in his late 70s was found dead in a home. NBC affiliate KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City first reported the death.
And Johnston County Sheriff's Sgt. Stacey Pulley said a man died near the town of Connerville.
After a multi-vortex tornado ripped through southern Oklahoma, a helicopter surveys the damage of several homes and other structures.
Video from KFOR showed the storm producing a tornado that touched down near Wynnewood, as forecasters warned the storm and associated tornadoes may inflict "catastrophic damage."
Some of Monday's weather was so bad forecasters declared a "tornado emergency" for the towns of Roff and Hickory, which were in the path of a storm. A radio station in Coal County received major damage, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
Massive Tornado Hits Oklahoma
"You are in a life-threatening situation," forecasters said when they declared a tornado emergency for Roff, population 725, and Hickory, population 71. "Flying debris will be deadly to those caught without shelter."
Television images showed several homes destroyed, multiple overturned vehicles and trees torn limb from limb. A roof lay near a hay barn after the first tornado reports from near Wynnewood along Interstate 35.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol closed five miles of the main roadway between Oklahoma City and Dallas as the storm approached. It opened about 15 minutes later.
A massive tornado is captured on camera as it rips through Wynnewood, Oklahoma Monday afternoon.
The rough weather wasn't limited to Oklahoma. Cindy Fay, with the National Weather Service in Hastings, Nebraska, said there were three confirmed tornadoes that touched down Monday afternoon near the cities of Fairfield and Clay Center.
The Storm Prediction Center had warned that a "substantial tornado risk" could develop Monday in portions of the Southern Plains and the Ozarks. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol closed a five-mile section of Interstate 35 between Oklahoma City and Dallas as the storm approached.
Meteorologists said twisters with wind speeds above 111 mph were possible from eastern Oklahoma to central Arkansas. Hail 2 inches or more in diameter was possible from eastern Texas to southeastern Kansas.
About 41 million people from Houston to Sioux City, Iowa, were at risk for some type of stormy weather.
At least one tornado has touched down in Oklahoma late Monday afternoon.
Video from KFOR showed the twister on the ground. The station reported before 5 p.m. that the tornado on the ground could be up to a half-mile wide. It also received reports of destroyed homes.
Brittany McElhaney Flores captured video of the twister near Wynnewood and posted it to Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFM6lVioW5K/
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Exeter Police are investigating several reports of alleged sexual misconduct at Phillips Exeter Academy, but in the latest case, it turns out the alleged perpetrator could still face criminal charges 43 years after alleged abuse.
The alleged victim, Lawrence Jenkens now lives in North Carolina and spoke with NECN via skype Monday,
"As this was happening to me, all I could think of was, you know, this man is going to kill me," Jenkens said.
Jenkens graduated from PEA in 1977. He says in 1973 when he visited the academy as a 14-year-old prospective student, former admissions officer Arthur Peekel molested him.
"It was dark, he reached under the covers and he fondled me," Jenkens explained.
Jenkens says the next day, he and his parents told the principal what happened. He says police were never involved and Peekel resigned in 1974 and then moved out of the state.
"He took something from me very casually, and yet for me, it was a life changing experience and his life didn't change," Jenkens said.
Jenkens said he contacted school administrators again in the 90s and nothing came of it. After other PEA sex abuse allegations came to light earlier this year, he says he was compelled to tell his story again. So he posted it on Facebook in March. This time, Academy officials reported it to Exeter Police, who confirm there is an ongoing investigation.
School administrators declined an interview Monday, referring us to a letter on their website. It says in part, "We are deeply indebted to the survivors who have stepped forward, and we hope their courage will embolden others to do the same...We are all shocked and angered by the experience described by Mr. Jenkens."
When asked whether he thought the school was at fault, Jenkens replied, "Exeter failed me and it failed itself by not dealing with this in an open way."
Because Peekel left New Hampshire in 1974, the clock on the state's statute of limitations never started.
"That statute does not run during any period of time where the perpetrator, the defendant, is absent from the state," explained attorney Peter Hutchins who does not represent Jenkens. "There is, from what I can see, a clear path to a criminal prosecution."
Peekel could face criminal charges 43 years after the alleged abuse.
Boston Public School officials faced a crowd of parents asking questions about the safety of school water earlier tonight. It comes after several schools found dangerous levels of lead in the water supply.
Parents were pleased to see district officials and other experts answering their questions, but there was still a lot of anger and concern.
"Had I found this info out in December I would not have worried quite so much," parent Anna Ross said.
Tonight Boston Schools' superintendent Tommy Chang answered concerns, along with water experts, and tried calming fears.
Chang said,"They have concerns, because there's a lack of trust with the way we're communicating. But what we heard very clearly is the water in our schools is safe."
Two school officials were put on leave as part of the investigation. But parents say it's just one step towards safety.
Ross said, "My husband thinks we should be sending our kids to school with their own water for the rest of the time at BBS."
Boston school officials will hold another question and answer session tomorrow, for parents to voice their concerns.
A construction worker suffered some minor injuries in a fall at Dunkin Donuts Park in Hartford.
Police said the man was on the third floor when he fell through a roof hatch around 9 a.m. on Tuesday, grabbed a metal object to stop himself from falling and sustained some cuts.
He was taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
The park, where the Hartford Yard Goats will play, is under construction.